Isotropic Fiction

IF magazine is a purveyor of the finest speculative fiction. We seek the strongest writing in any genre that falls under the catch-all term of speculative fiction, especially works that push genre boundaries or plunge them into a grey area. Well-developed characters and scenes are more important than clever gimmicks, though a good execution of one never hurts. Your words have to transport readers out of the reality they know into the one you’ve created. Your work can be broody or breezy, literary or experimental, even philosophical. But it must not be predictable. Putting it simply: we want great writing regardless of genre that asks, “What IF?”

When said aloud, the term speculative poetry sounds not only niched but also very strange. The fact of the matter is, it’s awfully strange we need the term at all. Only a couple centuries ago, the fantastic, the speculative, and the weird were all parts of ballads, poems, and song. The otherworldly used to be an active part of our world. Now, we have this insubstantial, insufficient term to just say we’re interested in poetry that doesn’t adhere to rules of realism.