On Gaia Literary Magazine
Shoving the most decadent poems we can find down your throat. Consensually, of course.
Est. 2023
Masthead
These are your lovely editors, readers, and designers. Be sure to give them some sugar, too.
Founder, Editor-in-Chief
Ariadne Alexis Macquarie
Ariadne Alexis Macquarie (she/they) is a self-described “Appalachian expat” from Western North Carolina living in Lexington, Kentucky. While not writing, you can find her backpacking, bouldering, or drinking frightening amounts of espresso. They are a 2023 graduate of Roanoke College and a member of the 2026 MFA Poetry cohort at the University of Kentucky, where she teaches. She is the founder and editor-in-chief of On Gaia Literary Magazine. Her poetry can be found in Black Fox Literary Magazine, The Bitchin’ Kitsch, The Engine Idling, and elsewhere.
Editor
Sydney Wagner
Sydney Wagner (she/her) grew up in the suburbs of Connecticut, and spent most of her life trying to escape them. She looks forward to graduating with a Creative Writing and Sociology double major from Roanoke College, but for now she is content to spend her time playing board games with friends, reading, writing, and digital scrapbooking. While her poetry cannot be found anywhere on the internet, she does have published research in the Journal of Organizational Psychology. She is also the Assistant Editor of Roanoke Review literary magazine.
About Us
The famed Orion, while hunting alongside Artemis and her mother Leto, once made the claim that he would kill every animal on Earth. Our earthly mother, Gaia, did not take kindly to him. Orion was slain by a giant scorpion on Gaia's orders, and later was placed alongside the scorpion in the stars by Zeus (Hesiod's Astronomia). Gaia lives on today as the spiritual embodiment of the earth we are destroying. Your life, darling, can be categorized into two simple attributes: how you serve your mother, and how your mother serves you.
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On Gaia is a space for the most feral, wicked parts of you. O poet, you are of this earth, aren't you? Let this earth devour you. Give us your raw. Your graceless. Your primal.
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We hunger for work that is simultaneously narrative and experimental. Show us what this earth has done for you. Show us what this earth has done to you. Show us the animal you truly are. Show us the kind of beast that Orion could never kill.
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Our magazine was founded in October 2023 as a passion project by our Editor-in-Chief, Ariadne. We are currently based in the bluegrass region of Lexington, Kentucky, on the stolen lands of the Cherokee, Shawnee, and Osage. We honor the indigenous people who were robbed of their homeland. As we grow in our relationship with our earthly mother, Gaia, we recognize and revere the deeply intimate relationship indigenous peoples have with the land we illegally occupy. We stand proudly in solidarity with the Land Back Movement.
Submission Guidelines
Poems only.
Our magazine is dedicated entirely to the poetic form. Fiction, art, photography, non-fiction, etc. will not be considered. Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but please respond to your original email thread to let us know as soon as possible if one of your poems has been accepted elsewhere and will need to be withdrawn. We are preferential to narrative poems with experimental elements. Poets whose work we've enjoyed recently include Ocean Vuong, Wanda Coleman, Hanif Abdurraqib, Franny Choi, Melanie Almeder, and sam sax. You can also peruse our social media pages to see which poems we tend to connect or resonate with.
Email us.
We process all submissions through our email. The email title should be formatted as follows: "Submission: [X number] Poems "[Title]". You may submit up to 5 poems per submission, and one submission per submission period.
Please include a cover letter with at least a list of content warnings, your name as you'd like it to appear in the magazine, and your pronouns. Also include a short author bio of 150 words or less along with any social media handles you'd like associated with your poem(s). Poems must be attached as a PDF (see more in our formatting guidelines). Our email is ongaialit[at]gmail[dot]com.
Format properly.
Submissions should be single-spaced in 12-point Times New Roman font. Please do not include your name in the title of the document or anywhere within the submission. Submit all poems in one document with page breaks separating each. As referenced above, your poems must be attached to your submission email as a PDF file. Please do not paste your poems into the body of the email. Additionally, please do not submit any file that isn't a PDF (DOCX, GDOC, TXT, etc.) as we may not be able to open or read it. Improper formatting may or may not result in a rejection of your work, but it most definitely will result in a disgruntled Editor-in-Chief, who will be sad you didn't properly follow the guidelines she spent hours drafting.
Respect triggers.
Our editors come from varied walks of life and as a result have lived through many nuanced experiences. We ask that you include in the body of your submission email any possible triggers we may encounter in your work. Additionally, please review what content is prohibited. Not sure whether something is triggering? It's always best to be on the safe side and list it as a potential trigger anyway. While we do tend to accept and publish work with more graphic content, we will always include trigger warnings in our magazine. Before publication, we may (and likely will) reach out with a list of trigger warnings we plan to attach to your work. More detailed information on this will come if // when your work is accepted for publication.
Don't submit these.
Prohibited content is listed below. We have the right to expand upon this list at any time. Submitting prohibited content will result in immediate rejection of all work and a blacklist from submitting in the future.
DO NOT SUBMIT:
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Content that glorifies sexual assault
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Sexually explicit content featuring a minor
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Content that glorifies discrimination against protected or marginalized identities
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AI-generated content
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Plagiarized content (we're looking at you, John Kucera)
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Content that has been previously published anywhere, including in print, online, on video, etc.
Patience is key.
Please do not send a follow-up email regarding your submission until at least one month following the end of the submission period you responded to. As of currently, we are a one-woman team. I just realized I've been using collective phrasing to refer to myself for the entire duration of this website and I'm not about to fix it now. Howdy. I'm Ariadne and website formatting is a pain in the ass. Anyway, I'm a one-woman team and I currently work a full-time job within several remote locations. I do my best to respond to all submissions within two weeks of the end of each submission period, but I can and will fall behind. Gentle reminders after a one-month period are greatly appreciated. A paid expedited feedback option is coming shortly.
CONTACT
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Please direct all questions, submissions, applications, and inquiries to: ongaialit[at]gmail[dot]com
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For submissions, please make sure you review our submission guidelines before submitting. Please give us a response time of 7-10 business days to respond to any emails that are not submissions. We will try our best to get back to you within or before this timeframe.
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