On this continuous occasion of our expansion, herewith a cautionary note to prospective submitters and a reassurance to the growing ranks of our readers: nothing delights us as much as splashing about in a slush pile or having the daylights knocked out of us by anything wonderworthy missiled over our transom. Things we're less keen about include dumbed-down postmodernism, stupor-realism, hobby-hour slipslop, flashcard fiction, workshop outtakes, scissored-and-mucilaged scraps from daybooks, lawless lengths of kaffee-klatsch verse, bed-lamped jottings, writing-programmese, playtime speech-stunts, words filliped randomwise onto the screeny page, or "creative writing" (the very phrase puts us in a foul mood). Before submitting work to 5_Trope, have a look at the work on exhibit in our current and previous issues. Then come to us with the unnerving, the uncompromised, the unexampled, the unpredictable, and the spankingly unprecedented.

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A note on poetry submissions—we currently have a large stack of poetry to get through; we are always pleased and plotting to read more, but buyer beware, our poetry response time [and time between acceptance and publication] may be a bit sluggish.

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5_Trope Rules for Submission:

1. Don't bluff your way out of your heart, but deliver the thing itself on the page.

2. Don't just speak the language—make the language speak you.

3. Choose topics, people, situations, etc. not usually examined by the literary lens; or else depict the commonplace using uncommon means—a unique style, angle, or approach.

Present your submission within the body of an email. Copyright symbols, statements regarding reservation of rights, and photos attached to submissions not required.

Poetry subs to Joel E. Chace: joel.chace@gmail.com

Prose, Fiction, Reviews, New Media (Flash/hypertext/image/video) subs to: editor.5trope@gmail.com