The Hypocrite Reader is a biannual magazine of reportage, criticism, history, sociology, theory, translations, manifestos, analysis, popular science, synthesis, verse, comics, wedding announcements, and Viking-themed erotica. Just because something doesn’t fit into any of those categories doesn’t mean we won’t publish it.
Each issue is built around a theme.
How to write for us
We do not currently have an active call for submissions, but if you have something we just have to see, send it anyway. (If you have never read the magazine, this exception does not apply to you.) To get our pitch calls in your inbox, join our mailing list for contributors.
Send pitches to hypocriterdr@gmail.com in the body of an email (i.e., not as an attachment). Pitches must be relevant to the theme of the upcoming issue. We like working with writers on their piece from start to finish, so our preferred submission for nonfiction is a pitch explaining what your article will be about, but we do occasionally take pieces written on spec. If we don’t know you, it can help to include examples of prior work. Writers without prior work are also welcome (and encouraged!) to submit.
We do not take poetry from pitches; we would need to see a draft. We do not normally publish fiction, but we do publish cross-genre experimentation that may be fiction-adjacent. If your hybrid form approaches fiction or poetry, you should submit a draft or an extended excerpt rather than just a pitch.
What we want
We are a leftist magazine of useful, unexpected writing. Such writing is rare and valuable. It often requires research and always demands careful thought.
We prefer discussions of history, theory, art, or the outside world to personal narratives, though we get more of the latter than the former; on the rare occasion we do accept a personal narrative, it will illuminate a broader theme than just the author’s own life, or “report back” from an unusual or underdiscussed experience. We love pieces that help us identify or analyze a phenomenon we couldn’t previously speak to, and smart, humanistic writing on science and math. We also like humor, unassimilated weirdness, translations, and transcriptions of dreams.
We occasionally do take graphic memoir, comics, or other works that are not simply traditionally-formatted text. Here is an example.
Nonfiction should be accessible and engaging for a well-educated general audience; it can(!) insert itself into a specialist debate but only if it makes that debate engaging for non-specialists.
We don’t reprint, but we do take adaptations of unpublished or narrowly published academic writing and, sometimes, excerpts of upcoming publications.
Money
The Hypocrite is a paying publication! Currently, our policy is to pay $125 for an article or for featuring an artist. We hope someday to be able to pay more.
There are two main ways you can help the magazine financially:
- Become a recurring supporter on our Patreon. Patreon subscribers get our delightful monthly newsletter, and higher-tier supporters also receive a discount in our store (coming soon!) and a number of other perks. You'll also be underwriting the long-term financial sustainability of the magazine. If you can only contribute one way, make it this one!
- Give a one-time donation on our Ko-fi. One-time donations help us pay our writers. They always cheer us up and we are very grateful to receive them! You will not need a Ko-fi account to contribute, and payments will be processed through Paypal. Even just a few dollars will go to good use.
In the past, we have sold various merch through Indiegogo campaigns for individual issues. We're not doing that right now, but hope to have a store up and running sometime soon-ish.
You can also donate through Venmo, check, or otherwise (just ask). Note that we are not registered as a nonprofit and donations are, unfortunately, not tax-deductible.
Positions
We are looking for the right (paid) web designer to redesign our site completely. We are also looking for graphic designers/artists/illustrators to help us with event promotion and merch. You should apply if you find your intellectual or aesthetic sensibilities share something important with ours.
If you are interested in being part of the work we do in any other way, you should probably just be bold and email us about it.