{Who We Are}
BULL is dedicated to rewriting modern masculinity from the voices that most often get drowned out amongst the shouting and posturing—voices that often struggle in silence and shame.
Our mission is to make BULL be a place where non-assholes can come to the table and share their complicated stories about masculinity and not be shamed or shouted at.
That does not mean that every story is going to appeal to every reader; to be able to bring everybody (who’s not a complete dick) to the table means that we have to be a place for trigger-warning stories that challenge readers and make some readers uncomfortable with uncomfortable truths about the realities of modern masculinity.
Because the expectations of masculinity must inherently come with a trigger warning. BULL is not for the faint of heart. BULL is not for glorifying, peacocking, posturing, or nostalgizing of masculinity, but BULL is for stories that explore the nuances and contradictions of masculinity’s expectations to glorify, peacock, posturize, and nostalgize every other shitty thing our culture associates with being “manly.”
(*Note that we are no longer “Bull: Men’s Fiction” because we don’t like the insinuation that our fiction “belongs to men only.” Our original intention was that we would be a magazine to get more men to read fiction, and our goal is still to get more men to read fiction (not just write it), we also want more men to read fiction about masculinity that is from not just men, and really just want anybody we can possibly get to read stuff about masculinity written by any non-asshole we can possibly publish).
*
{Who We Publish}
To repeat: Anybody with a story to tell.
Whoever you are, whatever you identify as, and wherever you come from, we want to hear from you. If you’re hurting, if you’ve got things you need to let go of, things you need to let out, if you don’t quite know how you fit into all this we’ve been told we should fit into, if you think you’re the only one with such a weird, ugly, messed up, complicated story, we’re here to help you be heard.
For us, masculinity does not require your characters to have a dick and balls. Masculinity, for us, is to act and/or present as “masculine” in some way (or to intentionally act and/or present feminine or androgynous in response to “masculine” expectations of everybody else).
Trans, cis, hetero, gay, lesbian, bi, ace, poly, nonbinary, gender-queer, post-op, pre-op, masc, fem, bear, otter, intersex, question mark, exclamation point, plus symbol, et al, we’re here for it all.
White, Black, Hispanic, Native American, Indian, Asian, Middle Eastern, Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Mormon, Atheist, Wiccan, Satanist, Pastafarian, et al, we’re here for it.
Honestly, we believe that the whole idea of what it is to be considered “masculine” these days is a silly, absurd, farcical, weird, fucked-up, lunk-headed, ugly, heart-breaking, traumatizing, morally-fubar, existentially depressing, confusing, complicated, nonbinary, paradoxical, hypocritical, and nonsensical endeavor.
And we want stories that convey this.
Oh, and also sentences. Not “pretty” sentences. We love weird fucked up sentences. Loopy ADHD sentences. Rough and ready sentences, backasswards sentences. Grammatically incorrect sentences…. We just love sentences and we want authors who share our love of sentences. We really don’t care what kind of genre you’re writing as long as it has weird fucked up, loopy, no-bullshit, ugly, backassward, grammatically incorrect sentences.
*
{What We Publish}
Longer prose up to 3500 words per piece.
Flash prose up to 3 pieces or 999 words per submission.
Sorry, poets, we do not publish poems, but we do like poetry in our prose, especially with lyric essays and microfiction (and sometimes you can trick us into thinking your prose poem is actually lyric microfiction).
Please, only one submission at a time (in any category) and wait at least 3 months to submit after you have been accepted or rejected.
*
{When We Publish}
We publish daily online and usually publish one print issue a year, usually in the winter/early spring.
Most stories published in the print issue were originally published online (unless we solicit work or have a specific call for submissions).
Generally, your work will be read within a month.
Accepted work is usually published within 4’ish months.
*
{Who You’re Talking To}
The drevlow is editor-in-chief of all BULL shit, big & small.
Note that all submissions get at least some personalized feedback. There are no “tiered rejections.” If you’re close the drevlow will say you’re close. If the drevlow wants to see a revision, he’ll say, I’d be interested in seeing a revision. If he loves it, he’ll say he fuckin’ loves it. If you make him laugh he’ll say he fucking laughed. If you make him cry, he’ll say you made him fucking cry.
The drevlow does not purport to have any expertise as an editor other than the shit he likes versus the shit that doesn’t quite do it for him.
Contact the drevlow at editor[at]bullitmag[at]gmail.com.
*
{Who’s Editing Your Stuff to Make it Look Nice}
madeline o’neill, editor
grace bell, editor
