Never Seen Submissions
Pick a word and say it 100 times. Does it feel like the same word you started with?
We are seeking contributions for a new publication responding to the idea of ‘Jamais Vu’ directly translated from French as never seen.
Jamais vu is a psychological phenomenon in which something familiar suddenly becomes strange, unreal or unfamiliar. A place you know intimately becomes alien. A routine reveals itself as choreography. A sentence collapses under repetition. The ordinary remakes itself into something uncanny.
We are interested in writing that engages with this sensation: the weirding of reality, the moment the everyday slips into fiction.
This can take many forms. We are open to fiction, essays, criticism, poetry, fragmented writing, hybrid forms, confessions, horror, theory, science fiction, diaries, lists, encounters, dead ends and experiments. We are interested both in jamais vu as a psychological phenomenon and as a literary device: a tool for estrangement, paranoia, boredom, revelation and transformation.
Many works circle this territory in different ways: Anna Kavan’s Ice, Jon Fosse’s Septology, Clarice Lispector’s The Hour of the Star, Ed Atkins’ Flower, Katrina Palmer’s The Touch Report, Philip K. Dick’s Time Out of Joint, Toby Christian’s Commuters, Adolfo Bioy Casares’ The Invention of Morel, and Jorge Luis Borges’ Fictions.
We are drawn to moments when the familiar suddenly appears artificial, haunted or newly alive, where banality becomes destabilising; when repetition turns hypnotic.
Stage 1
To apply, please send a proposal of no more than 500 words via the form on this page.
Proposals should outline:
- the main idea,
- its relationship to the theme,
- the intended form or genre,
- and the estimated word count.
If you have a completed piece of writing that you think fits the project, please email us at [email protected].
The submission deadline is 3 June. All applicants will receive a response by 18 June.
Stage 2
Selected contributors will develop their text and submit a final edited version by 18 July.
Stage 3
Never Seen will be released in 2026.
To submit, please fill in the form on this page.