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ARTICLES
Although Abraxas has
a Colin Wilson angle, essays and commentaries on his work are not what we
are looking for, simply because he has explained himself clearly through
several books and Paupers Press brings out an excellent critical series to
serve this end. We like fresh angles on psychology, existentialism and
ideas and articles on little-known writers with interesting lives and
minds. Examples might be Pablo Palacio (No.8) or Harold Visiak (No.3) or
Laura Del Rivo (No.7). If there is to be criticism, we prefer it to be
fresh, relevant, contemporary and arresting, not the upshot of a few days
library browsing or the re-working of lecture notes. We do not really want
articles about those who have already received a great deal of attention
such as DH Lawrence, Ernest Hemingway or Charles Dickens, except perhaps
when a new biography is being reviewed.
REVIEWS
Concise, informative
reviews of fiction and non-fiction are welcome. As Abraxas is not
mainstream, we are interested in small press publications, or unusual
fringe material that is often overlooked. Reviews showing bite and
intellectual rigidity are preferred to those that merely paraphrase or
summarise, although the latter is important, if only so the reader should
get a general picture of the work under consideration.
POETRY
We tend to use short
poems as ‘filler’ material – to stopper the cracks between articles
(apologise if this sounds insulting) – but are delighted to receive
poems of depth and quality. We favour modern over traditional forms but do
not wish to be over prescriptive in this complex area. No objections to
rhyme so long as it does not saturate sense. Jeffrey Lee’s prom Time
Travellers (No.11) is the type of thing that attracts our
attention and I quite enjoy symbolist or surreal material. For all that it
matters, my favourite poets are Rilke, Auden, Eliot, Trakl, Larkin and
Baudelaire.
FICTION
Short, intense,
non-genre fictions of less than two thousand words are welcome – as
exemplars think of Borges, Kafka, Borchert, Palacio and Calvino. We look
for enigmatic stories with emotional radiations and an unexpected
perceptual angle: an example might be Tamorna by Phillip Caine in
No.5, a funny, sympathetic fable about a female dominatrix who descends
from the sky in a balloon. A recent, exciting discovery is the work of
Roger Morris (see The Symptons of His Madness and Not Love)
featuring in Nos. 15 and 16.
ARTWORK
Black and white line
drawings preferred to shading or half tones. Cover designs welcome and
illustration of ideas or philosophical concepts particularly in demand –
see cover of No.11, in which Matthew Kerr illustrates Gurdjieff’s
Kundabuffer fable.