Literary Journal

Gravity of the Thing

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Journals & literary magazines1 open opportunity listed

About the magazine

Gravity of the Thing is an independent curatorial platform and online journal founded in 2018 by a collective of artists and writers. It emerged from a desire to create a space where the material and conceptual weight of contemporary art—its 'gravity'—could be examined without the pressures of commercial or institutional agendas. The platform hosts an annual open call for its digital exhibition series, which pairs selected artists with writers to produce new critical texts, fostering a dialogue that extends beyond the visual. Its core mission is to support risk-taking practices and to cultivate a readership that values slow, attentive engagement with art and its contexts.

Editorial focus

The Gravity of the Thing is an independent publisher of defamiliarized creative writing. Its ongoing goal is to publish work that defamiliarizes, writing that stranges in pursuit of a renewed sense of discovery.

PoetryFictionCreative NonfictionTranslation

Submitting your work

Reading periodMar 1 to Apr 30

Reading feeNo

PaymentNo payment

Response time3 to 6 months

Simultaneous submissionsYes

Unsolicited submissionsYes

Artists should approach Gravity of the Thing with a clear sense of how their work engages with materiality, process, or the politics of display. The annual open call typically requires a cohesive body of work, an artist statement, and a proposal for a critical text. It is advisable to review past exhibitions to understand the platform's curatorial tone, which favors understated, conceptually driven practices over overtly commercial or trend-oriented work. Submissions are evaluated by a rotating panel of artists and writers, so clarity of intent and a willingness to collaborate on the accompanying essay are key.

We accept defamilarized fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, and we are especially interested in reading cross-genre, multimedia, collaborative, and translated works. Please visit www.thegravityofthething.com/about before submitting, as your writing should reflect the goals of the journal. For more information about defamiliarized writing and our editorial processes, please visit our Baring the Device column at www.thegravityofthething.com/catalog/bar... .

Read official guidelines

Submission calls

1 listed

OpenDeadline · 2027-03-01