Editor Interview: The Rebis

Tarot art & writing

I'm inspired by publishers who treat the book as an art object rather than just a vessel for content. TASCHEN's commitment to beautiful, archival-quality design has influenced The Rebis, as well as Graywolf Press's commitment to publishing work that feels artistically adventurous.

The Rebis publishes both artwork and writing. Xaviera Lopez, our creative director, creates all of the artwork for our cover as well as many original pieces for every publication, and has created the visual language that ties the issues together. She’s built a gorgeous universe that helped define the spirit of the magazine. So much of our identity exists because of her artistic care and imagination, so she's one of our favorite artists! We also are inspired by artwork from folks like Ana Mendieta, Leonora Carrington, Kim Krans, Nicolas Bruno, and many others. Our favorite writers are folks who sit at the intersection of spirituality, psychology, and literature. Jessica Dore, Sophie Strand, Francis Weller, Bayo Akomolafe, adrienne maree brown are just some of our favorites that we're inspired by.

What sets The Rebis apart is our commitment to depth, social justice, and the print format. Every issue centers on a single tarot archetype, inviting dozens of contributors to illuminate the same symbolic terrain from radically different perspectives through fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and art. We also redistribute all profits to social justice organizations - we are grounded in anticapitalist principles of art-making during times of crisis! Finally, in an era of endless digital content, The Rebis is intentionally print-only.

Lean into complexity. Tarot resists easy interpretation, and so do we. We gravitate toward work that embraces ambiguity, contradiction, and curiosity over certainty. Read all of our submission guidelines and send us your work that feels most intimate and alive.

The ideal submission should surprise us, in the best way possible. It should feel rooted in the writer/artist's own obsessions while remaining in conversation with the tarot card. Rather than illustrating an archetype or relying on established symbolism, the work should reveal something unexpected. We're drawn to work that takes creative risks, resists cliché & feels alive with curiosity. Whether it's a poem, essay, story, or artwork, we love submissions that are sensually embodied.

People sometimes assume we're looking for work that simply references tarot or faithfully reflects traditional card meanings - that could not be further from the truth. Some of our favorite submissions come from artists who let the card challenge their assumptions and lead them somewhere unexpected.

We're comfortable with just a simple bio. We love emerging voices and have often been the first print byline for many writers and artists.

We look at the first page of a submission and can generally tell right away if a piece is not for us.

We have a team of readers who upvote and downvote pieces; we narrow it down to our top 50-60 pieces and then we meet to discuss and narrow it down further to ~30-40 pieces.

Reading submissions for The Rebis is time consuming but one of my favorite parts of the process! As the editor-in-chief, I set aside dedicated time to slowly read through every submission, often returning to a piece more than once. My first question is always did this move me? If yes, I sit with it for longer. I also zoom out and think about listening for conversations between the pieces we are getting. I love fresh and surprising takes on the archetype we are exploring symbolically. I love contradiction and tension. It's like weaving a tapestry. Every piece has to stand on its own, but it also has to deepen the meaning of the collection as a whole.

Every piece requires something different, so there isn't a one-size-fits-all editing process at The Rebis. We see editing as a creative collaboration. Our first round of feedback is often developmental, offering questions, reflections, and prompts that invite the writer to deepen or clarify the work. We want to help each piece become more fully itself! Once we've received a revised draft, we typically move into line editing, focusing on language, rhythm, structure, and clarity. Throughout the process, the author remains an active collaborator. We discuss edits together, and no substantive changes are made without the writer's approval.

Yes, we nominate for Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize.

Self-funded through sales.

Substack and social media