Lazuli Literary Group is a platform for the cultivation and advocacy of the imaginative faculty. All writers tend to develop a scrap heap of brilliant writing - sharp dialogue that has been cut in service of a plot, a philosophical tirade that can't quite be couched in a narrative, a stunning imagistic landscape of linguistic pyrotechnics that deserves an audience... Literary beauty exists in more than the conventional narrative, we believe, and the most cerebral moments cannot necessarily be expressed in more than bursts and fragments. Alongside our celebration of the more classical forms, we would love to provide a space for those portions of works that have been cut away through no fault of their own. [Editor: Sakina B. Fakhri / Illustrator: Evgenia Barsheva]
We publish lyrical philosophy, experimental fiction/poetry/non-fiction, dark humor, classical forms, and innovations in craft. We do not publish contemporary realist fiction. If you think your work is a good fit, please read on for more details.
We love work that is linguistically, intellectually, and emotionally demanding of the reader. We want literary fiction that grows in complexity upon each visitation. Writers we admire are Zadie Smith, Virginia Woolf, Tom Wolfe, Charles Dickens, Thomas Mann, Robert Musil, Tom Stoppard, Vladimir Nabokov and James Baldwin. We are not concerned with genre distinctions—send us the best you have; we want only for it to be thoughtful, intelligent, and beautiful.
We accept fiction, creative non-fiction, excerpts, screenplays, stageplays, fragments, meanderings, philosophy and poetry. Your submission should not exceed 50 pages.
If your submission is part of a novel-length work or feature-length screenplay, there exists the possibility of publishing it in installments in future issues. In this case, please indicate your intentions in your cover letter.
If your submission is accepted, we will digest the writing and create in its honor a unified artistic product: That is to say, every piece published in AZURE appears alongside a customized black & white sketch that is devised and executed by our contributing illustrator.
A cover letter is not required and will not affect the success of your submission. We assess solely based on the quality of the writing and its suitability of style/purpose for AZURE; this is to say, we don't look at the cover letter until after the fact, when we become curious as to what sort of mind has wrought the compelling piece that appears before us.
We do not charge a reading fee for submissions; we believe that valuable literature should be free to read and write, and thus all of our content is also available for free online. We are a humble, independent business who takes this labor of love very seriously and would very much appreciate your support in the form of purchasing one of our annual print anthologies (optional fee below). Each journal you buy means a great deal to us, and please accept our personal appreciation for your contribution!
*If you can receive shipments at a U.S. address, we offer DISCOUNTED print copies of "AZURE: A Journal of Literary Thought" as an added fee with your submission. Please include your full shipping address in your contact form if you are purchasing a copy from us.
*If you live outside the U.S. and would like to order a copy of AZURE, please visit the Library Shop page on our website or our listings on Amazon:
Purchase AZURE, Volume One; AZURE, Volume Two; or AZURE, Volume Three.
Written feedback on 5 pages + 45-minute Zoom call with AZURE Editor & Novelist Sakina B. Fakhri.
Are you working on a piece and in need of a fellow writer's insights? Are you looking for advice on how a chapter of your novel fits into a structural whole? Do you need a pair of fresh eyes on your work?
This is a private, one-on-one writing workshop in which we will discuss your piece. It is a meeting between artists and peers, intended to provide the type of substantive writerly feedback that can sometimes be hard to come by; it is NOT an assessment of the quality or the marketability of your work. After all, I'm not sure (to put it lightly) that the latter is conducive to the creation of good literature!
I'm happy to workshop any genre, but if you are curious about my own proclivities, you can find some links to my work here: https://www.lazuliliterarygroup.com/writings-by-sakina-b-fakhri.html
I truly enjoy working through yet-inchoate literature with dedicated writers, and--if you decide to take on the workshop--I look forward to discussing your piece with you.
Happy writing!