Submission Guidelines

The Apologist is, first and foremost, a place to share art and joy. Though there is no word limit or minimum, usually pieces that are from 3,500 to 7,000 words are easier to place. My biggest interest are in things you would have called a “guilty pleasure”— I don’t believe there should be guilt in pleasure, and I’d like to unite you with other people who love the same things you do. This is a chance to really lean into joy.

Submissions are rolling until they become overwhelming, then I’ll set up monthly caps. As of now, I imagine there will only be one or two essays/interviews/videos posted a month, more if warranted.

In an essay by Erin Keane (linked below), she addresses the way society deals with art, now:

There's a video called "Everything Wrong with E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," made by the people who make those videos that count a movie's sins, which is to say, story quirks we once accepted on faith. It has more than 1.3 million plays and counting. It's fast and entertaining, but it's also a model for how we can lose the distinction between criticizing and criticism, between the first and second definitions, walking into one and coming out the other.

I love the distinction and the balance here, and I encourage you to read her whole essay: there can be criticism in these essays, but the tone should be questioning and insightful, not mean-spirited.

If you want to be a part of this, please email me at theapologistzine@gmail.com. If you have any further questions, I can be reached there with those as well!

Essays In The Spirit of The Apologist:

Hanif Abdurraqib, “Fall Out Boy Forever” (from They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us; includes defense of the band and a personal story that links with the band)

James Tate Hill, “My First VHS: Rain Man” (became part of his memoir Blind Man’s Bluff: shows how personal narrative can be used in a discussion of art)

Erin Keane, Notes on E.T. Now that We Are in Our Forties (from Salon; does an incredible job using a retrospective to both see the film now and to show how magic it was then)

E. Kristin Anderson’s poems about Prince (from Barrelhouse; shows how you can use forms other than essays)

Aaron Burch’s “American Lake” (from X-R-A-Y) (*this is a love story about nostalgia and summer: while not about a specific piece of art, it feels like a communal understanding of “America” and “summer” in a way that unites us)

— Katie Darby Mullins, Editor-in-Chief