The magazine is intended, principally, as
a forging tool, a place where anyone may have the chance to to temper
their wordsmithery or hone their art making... hammer out their ideas
communally.
As a communal project, the core tenet of The Anvil
is inclusion - i.e., a completely level playing field, devoid of
politics, nepotism, or any other special treatment or favors.
Contributors are welcome no matter what their level of experience,
and need not be "established" in any way.
Composed
entirely of volunteered works, all content within the magazine is
creator owned. No one is paid, all work remains the original property
of its creator or creators, and any money made in sales will be used
purely to recoup the cost of printing the current issue, or used to
print the next Anvil.
Submissions can be as ambitious or
modest as desired, as long as it can be printed on the page of a
paper magazine. Prose, poetry, art, short stories, comics, stories
either with or without illustrations, essays, photography and more
will all be considered, and collaborations are encouraged. The Anvil
welcomes all genres, included but not limited to fiction,
non-fiction, sci-fi, horror, memoir, slice-of-life, romance, and
mystery. All mixed media is accepted as well, and no single style or
subject matter will be outright rejected.
Please keep in mind,
however, that only finished works will be accepted, and the magazine
itself will be printed in black and white.
Naturally, and
unfortunately, not everything we receive can be printed. But just
because your work wasn't accepted for the current issue doesn't
necessarily mean we didn't like it or it wasn't good enough. Our
current goal is to print The Anvil two times a year, meaning there
is always the next issue.
Of course, that all depends on the
community, and its drive to create and submit. And that community is
not limited to local artists! The Charleston Anvil views Charleston
as centrality- the midpoint of everywhere in WV, a pit stop or
drive-thru for anywhere else you may be going. The intended meaning is
centrality, not geographical elitism. We welcome submissions from
everyone.