STATEMENT OF POETICS AND AESTHETICS

diaphanous micro features cutting-edge, contemporary literary and visual artists via our free, online literary journal. We are unique: each issue focuses on one writer/artist or collaboration of writers/artists.

We believe that talented artists and writers should have a free, online venue to showcase and promote their work and that those who appreciate and value contemporary literature can have access to the finest contemporary writers and artists that we can find. We are interested in featuring non-traditional, language-centered vs. I-centered, experimental poetry, prose poetry, flash fiction, hybrid, micro-fiction, and collaborative works—and postmodern/experimental/non-representational paintings, photography, digital art, visual poetry, collage poems, text-based art, asemic writing, architecture, and sculpture.

As “diaphanous” implies–we are looking for work that is finely crafted and not completely transparent or “accessible,” if you will. Not that the work is purposely abstruse but that the work demands the interaction of the reader or viewer, who experiences the work directly and determines possible meanings—since the work of literary and visual art has a life of its own, independent of the author or artist. This kind of literary/visual art is not disposable–it demands to be read and viewed repeatedly because of its power to arrest, engage, and “haunt” the reader/viewer. We seek experimental and postmodern original literary/visual art—but in the end, we are looking for the finest work out there that shows an understanding of the visual and literary traditions and attempts to do something new, as difficult as that is.

For poetry, we are interested in unpublished poems that are not traditional lyrics or narrative poems but that push the boundaries of poetic composition somehow—for unique work basically that pays attention to the poetics (questions poetics implicitly), language, visual imagery, poetic “density” or “logic,” rhythm, cadences, musicality, meaning—all the “brushstrokes” of poetry. That being said, we love excellent poetry.

For fiction, we seek unpublished short pieces of literary fiction, specifically flash fiction (under 750 words), hybrid (under 750 words), micro-fiction (less than 50 words). Again, we lean towards the experimental and postmodern but appreciate excellent writing that pays close attention to language, style, tone, POV, and unconventional narrative strategies. We love fiction that blurs and/or widens the boundaries of genre.

For art, we are interested in paintings (digital included), mixed media, text-based art, visual poetry, photography (analog and digital), asemic writing, collage, architecture, and sculpture. As aforementioned, our desired aesthetics is experimental/postmodern.

banner art:
Benediction
Paulette Claire Turcotte
mixed media print on archival paper 14 x 16.43 inches
©2017
[featured in Diaphanous Fall 2017]