Literary Journal

Cease, Cows

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About the magazine

Cease, Cows is an online literary magazine founded in 2012 by H. L. Nelson and later edited by Chris Tarry. It publishes speculative, surreal, and literary fiction that often blurs genre boundaries, with a particular interest in work that is strange, beautiful, and emotionally resonant. The magazine's name, taken from a line in a Richard Brautigan poem, signals its commitment to the unexpected and the quietly subversive. Over its decade-long run, Cease, Cows has been a home for short stories that defy easy categorization, favoring voice-driven narratives and formal experimentation over conventional plot. Though the magazine officially closed to submissions in 2022, its archive remains a vital resource for readers and writers interested in the outer edges of contemporary short fiction.

Editorial focus

At Cease, Cows , the editors want to explore the contemporary, the strange, the big questions. They want to feel cultural pulses, expose mental arteries, bathe in both the sanguine and sanguinary. They want to publish prose with fire and truth. Humans may be animals, but the power of words can allow them to revel in or transcend the physical. The best literature achieves both—or something profound like that.

PoetryFiction

Submitting your work

Reading periodJan 1 to Jan 21

Reading feeNo

PaymentNo payment

Response timeLess than 3 months

Simultaneous submissionsYes

Unsolicited submissionsYes

As Cease, Cows is no longer actively acquiring new work, writers should not submit unsolicited manuscripts. However, the magazine's archive offers a valuable study in how to balance strangeness with accessibility—lessons applicable to other venues. For those seeking similar outlets, focus on journals that champion speculative literary fiction, such as Shimmer, The Dark, or Uncharted. When preparing a submission for any magazine, read several issues to understand its aesthetic, and ensure your cover letter is brief and professional. Cease, Cows favored stories under 5,000 words that prioritized voice and image over traditional arc, so let your prose be vivid and your risks be deliberate.

We want: strange literary, magical realism, speculative, slipstream, utopian and dystopian, bizarro, apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic, and just plain weird fictions. We do NOT want: racist, sexist, homophobic, or otherwise offensive work containing gratuitous violence, gore, misogyny, rape, molestation, etc. We reserve the right to not respond to such submissions. We are also not seeking work that is written, cowritten, or assisted by AI.

Read official guidelines