There’s a scene in Dallas Buyers Club when McConaughey grips his pistol. There’s birdsong in the distance and every rivet on his ruined face is exposed by light and the way his mouth parts—pained and opened by a sprawl of grief so great it animalizes—his vocals are taught and immobilized by a fault he cannot, in this moment, cope with beyond considering suicide.

A translation of pain to film. Pain made visible, even touchable, to the audience at home.

We realize we’re asking a lot with this theme. I personally want a dramatic monologue in the vein of Nash or 1976’s Sybil, or a brief personal essay about the first time you watched Silver Linings Playbook.

How do they hold up? What do those characters do and say and weaponize when put back onto the page? Modernize or pay tribute or critique the devil out of it.

This theme places us in a precarious position, one in which we’re walking the tightrope between trivialization of mental health’s painful inheritance and portrayal and the celebration of film and new media. It’s something we’d like to fight against proactively and rationally.

Mental health on film. Sifting through narratives for the unanswerable static of the mind.

What has film gotten right?

We’ve got a list of what it’s gotten wrong.

Villains & iconography, settings & archetypes: so transcribed they’ve lost half their blood through rewrites, reconfigurations based on the expected in place of the truth. Film as pensive for the troubling and troubled. A marriage of opposites: conjoining of text and image and their silent partner, psyche. 

Issue Three wants to criticize, deconstruct, pay homage to, and place film at the center of the conversation around mental health and media. You’re welcome to pull from character archetypes, but we want to see transformation bloom from the borrowed comparison. History, theory, and gossip are suitable when placed in the correct context. We crave the well-wrought, foot-noted critical essay if you have the time and resources. Odes are fine; rewrites are always a chancy business, but give it a try if you’re feeling up to dueling with the liminality of transposed scene and altered dialogue. 

• Payment: $30 per accepted piece 
• Deadline: April 1st
• Please submit only one .docx file at a time. Please, no PDFs. 
• Title your submission using the following format: LASTNAME_FIRSTNAME_GENRE
• In your cover letter, please include a 100 wordish third-person biography (and relevant social media or website links you would like us to link to.)
• If you are able and willing to submit a brief (up to 500 words) Author/Artist statement about your submission, please include that with your submission. These are helpful when parsing the relevance, continuity, and overarching relation to mental health in your submission. Oftentimes, a transparent account of illness or personal anecdote sways us far more than the submission itself. We like to consider the full package when and if at all possible. 

Thank you, stay well, and please know what an honor it is to read your submissions, always, for however long we are lucky enough to be here.

Thanks for considering submitting your writing and art to Libre.

Libre wants to publish writing about mental health, whether that takes the shape and structure of surrealist short story, true-to-life flash fiction, micro CNF memoir, brief essay, or visual art. 

We’re especially in love with a lyrical turn of phrase & writing that reddens with prophetic wisdom. We’re interested in essays that bravely look beneath the baklavaic nature of genre, that aren’t afraid of light research or the well-placed realist anecdote in mythic context. Write to us about phenomena of the mind, steep her in scene & symbol. 

Tell us about the time your brain went sideways. We’re here to prove the existence of ourselves.

• Please keep longer prose submissions (both fiction and CNF) bearable--our max word limit is 1,500. 

• Poetry submissions have no word count, but we consider 5 poems per submission our sweet spot. 

• If you consider your prose piece "flash", do consider mentioning that in your cover letter. 

• As for formatting, please use Times New Roman, size 12 pt font, a color like black will do. 

• Double-spacing is a friend for our weary eyes, unless otherwise stated. 

• As for art submissions, while we don't require it, we would love to read a paragraph about the inspiration behind your work. If you decide to include this in your submission, include it as part of your cover letter. Please note that it will also be published alongside your art. 

• We highly encourage simultaneous submissions as we are well-versed in the submissions rigamarole. We don't expect you to wait around for us, and we're honored you're considering us in the first place. Writers and artists have to eat, and to eat, they must publish, and to publish they must spread that metaphorical net wide and far. Waiting for word is an excruciating process, and we will do our best to get back to you within two months' time. All we ask for is prompt notification that a piece has been accepted elsewhere.

• Please wait six months after submitting to do so again. If you've recently been published in Libre, please wait one year before submitting again.

• As a humble start-up, we can’t offer much in the way of payment, but we’re proud to offer our writers and artists $5 per story, essay, artwork, and photograph. The payment will be issued through the contributor’s preferred method of payment (PayPal, Venmo, or Zelle). You're lending us a piece of yourselves; the least we can do is pay you the price of a side of fries. Your art is worthy of payment, and we sincerely hope that we'll be able to offer more substantial funding in the future. 

• Libre holds serial rights for six months after publication. Authors and artists agree not to publish or reprint for those six months. After the allotted time is up, all rights revert back to the author/artist. 

Other important things to understand:

• Submissions are published on a rolling basis unless otherwise stated. 

• We do publish issues of our previously published works every 3-6 months. We'll give ample warning of that, don't worry.

• It may take us up to 2 months to respond to your submission. 

Thank you, sincerely, for entrusting your work to us. Our main hope is to provide a safe space for the marginalized, the forgotten, and the overlooked. Libre's worth is made up entirely of the work we receive. 

Thanks for considering submitting your writing and art to Libre.

Libre wants to publish writing about mental health, whether that takes the shape and structure of surrealist short story, true-to-life flash fiction, micro CNF memoir, brief essay, or visual art. 

We’re especially in love with a lyrical turn of phrase & writing that reddens with prophetic wisdom. We’re interested in essays that bravely look beneath the baklavaic nature of genre, that aren’t afraid of light research or the well-placed realist anecdote in mythic context. Write to us about phenomena of the mind, steep her in scene & symbol. 

Tell us about the time your brain went sideways. We’re here to prove the existence of ourselves.

• Please keep longer prose submissions (both fiction and CNF) bearable--our max word limit is 1,500. 

• Poetry submissions have no word count, but we consider 5 poems per submission our sweet spot. 

• If you consider your prose piece "flash", do consider mentioning that in your cover letter. 

• As for formatting, please use Times New Roman, size 12 pt font, a color like black will do. 

• Double-spacing is a friend for our weary eyes, unless otherwise stated. 

• As for art submissions, while we don't require it, we would love to read a paragraph about the inspiration behind your work. If you decide to include this in your submission, include it as part of your cover letter. Please note that it will also be published alongside your art. 

• We highly encourage simultaneous submissions as we are well-versed in the submissions rigamarole. We don't expect you to wait around for us, and we're honored you're considering us in the first place. Writers and artists have to eat, and to eat, they must publish, and to publish they must spread that metaphorical net wide and far. Waiting for word is an excruciating process, and we will do our best to get back to you within two months' time. All we ask for is prompt notification that a piece has been accepted elsewhere.

• Please wait six months after submitting to do so again. If you've recently been published in Libre, please wait one year before submitting again.

• As a humble start-up, we can’t offer much in the way of payment, but we’re proud to offer our writers and artists $5 per story, essay, artwork, and photograph. The payment will be issued through the contributor’s preferred method of payment (PayPal, Venmo, or Zelle). You're lending us a piece of yourselves; the least we can do is pay you the price of a side of fries. Your art is worthy of payment, and we sincerely hope that we'll be able to offer more substantial funding in the future. 

• Libre holds serial rights for six months after publication. Authors and artists agree not to publish or reprint for those six months. After the allotted time is up, all rights revert back to the author/artist. 

Other important things to understand:

• Submissions are published on a rolling basis unless otherwise stated. 

• We do publish issues of our previously published works every 3-6 months. We'll give ample warning of that, don't worry.

• It may take us up to 2 months to respond to your submission. 

Thank you, sincerely, for entrusting your work to us. Our main hope is to provide a safe space for the marginalized, the forgotten, and the overlooked. Libre's worth is made up entirely of the work we receive. 

Thanks for considering submitting your writing and art to Libre.

Libre wants to publish writing about mental health, whether that takes the shape and structure of surrealist short story, true-to-life flash fiction, micro CNF memoir, brief essay, or visual art. 

We’re especially in love with a lyrical turn of phrase & writing that reddens with prophetic wisdom. We’re interested in essays that bravely look beneath the baklavaic nature of genre, that aren’t afraid of light research or the well-placed realist anecdote in mythic context. Write to us about phenomena of the mind, steep her in scene & symbol. 

Tell us about the time your brain went sideways. We’re here to prove the existence of ourselves.

• Please keep longer prose submissions (both fiction and CNF) bearable--our max word limit is 1,500. 

• Poetry submissions have no word count, but we consider 5 poems per submission our sweet spot. 

• If you consider your prose piece "flash", do consider mentioning that in your cover letter. 

• As for formatting, please use Times New Roman, size 12 pt font, a color like black will do. 

• Double-spacing is a friend for our weary eyes, unless otherwise stated. 

• As for art submissions, while we don't require it, we would love to read a paragraph about the inspiration behind your work. If you decide to include this in your submission, include it as part of your cover letter. Please note that it will also be published alongside your art. 

• We highly encourage simultaneous submissions as we are well-versed in the submissions rigamarole. We don't expect you to wait around for us, and we're honored you're considering us in the first place. Writers and artists have to eat, and to eat, they must publish, and to publish they must spread that metaphorical net wide and far. Waiting for word is an excruciating process, and we will do our best to get back to you within two months' time. All we ask for is prompt notification that a piece has been accepted elsewhere.

• Please wait six months after submitting to do so again. If you've recently been published in Libre, please wait one year before submitting again.

• As a humble start-up, we can’t offer much in the way of payment, but we’re proud to offer our writers and artists $5 per story, essay, artwork, and photograph. The payment will be issued through the contributor’s preferred method of payment (PayPal, Venmo, or Zelle). You're lending us a piece of yourselves; the least we can do is pay you the price of a side of fries. Your art is worthy of payment, and we sincerely hope that we'll be able to offer more substantial funding in the future. 

• Libre holds serial rights for six months after publication. Authors and artists agree not to publish or reprint for those six months. After the allotted time is up, all rights revert back to the author/artist. 

Other important things to understand:

• Submissions are published on a rolling basis unless otherwise stated. 

• We do publish issues of our previously published works every 3-6 months. We'll give ample warning of that, don't worry.

• It may take us up to 2 months to respond to your submission. 

Thank you, sincerely, for entrusting your work to us. Our main hope is to provide a safe space for the marginalized, the forgotten, and the overlooked. Libre's worth is made up entirely of the work we receive. 

Thanks for considering submitting your writing and art to Libre.

Libre wants to publish writing about mental health, whether that takes the shape and structure of surrealist short story, true-to-life flash fiction, micro CNF memoir, brief essay, or visual art. 

We’re especially in love with a lyrical turn of phrase & writing that reddens with prophetic wisdom. We’re interested in essays that bravely look beneath the baklavaic nature of genre, that aren’t afraid of light research or the well-placed realist anecdote in mythic context. Write to us about phenomena of the mind, steep her in scene & symbol. 

Tell us about the time your brain went sideways. We’re here to prove the existence of ourselves.

• Please keep longer prose submissions (both fiction and CNF) bearable--our max word limit is 1,500. 

• Poetry submissions have no word count, but we consider 5 poems per submission our sweet spot. 

• If you consider your prose piece "flash", do consider mentioning that in your cover letter. 

• As for formatting, please use Times New Roman, size 12 pt font, a color like black will do. 

• Double-spacing is a friend for our weary eyes, unless otherwise stated. 

• As for art submissions, while we don't require it, we would love to read a paragraph about the inspiration behind your work. If you decide to include this in your submission, include it as part of your cover letter. Please note that it will also be published alongside your art. 

• We highly encourage simultaneous submissions as we are well-versed in the submissions rigamarole. We don't expect you to wait around for us, and we're honored you're considering us in the first place. Writers and artists have to eat, and to eat, they must publish, and to publish they must spread that metaphorical net wide and far. Waiting for word is an excruciating process, and we will do our best to get back to you within two months' time. All we ask for is prompt notification that a piece has been accepted elsewhere.

• Please wait six months after submitting to do so again. If you've recently been published in Libre, please wait one year before submitting again.

• As a humble start-up, we can’t offer much in the way of payment, but we’re proud to offer our writers and artists $5 per story, essay, artwork, and photograph. The payment will be issued through the contributor’s preferred method of payment (PayPal, Venmo, or Zelle). You're lending us a piece of yourselves; the least we can do is pay you the price of a side of fries. Your art is worthy of payment, and we sincerely hope that we'll be able to offer more substantial funding in the future. 

• Libre holds serial rights for six months after publication. Authors and artists agree not to publish or reprint for those six months. After the allotted time is up, all rights revert back to the author/artist. 

Other important things to understand:

• Submissions are published on a rolling basis unless otherwise stated. 

• We do publish issues of our previously published works every 3-6 months. We'll give ample warning of that, don't worry.

• It may take us up to 2 months to respond to your submission. 

Thank you, sincerely, for entrusting your work to us. Our main hope is to provide a safe space for the marginalized, the forgotten, and the overlooked. Libre's worth is made up entirely of the work we receive.