SUBMISSIONS OPEN

AUGUST 1 - OCTOBER 24, 2025
SUBMIT TO GELEE@CURRANTJAM.ORG

About Gelée

Gelée is the digital pop culture zine from Los Angeles literary magazine Currant Jam. The first edition, Gelée Batch 01, was published via Currant Jam in November 2024. 

Gelée is a subversive publication for armchair culture commentators who are tired of the likes of “film Twitter'' and “BookTok.” Featuring experimental written works, cultural commentary and visual art, the zine serves as a capsule of the year’s best and worst in pop culture. Gelée is focused on culture writing with a distinctly political and/or theoretical point of view from emerging journalists, writers, artists and tastemakers. Bring your fanfiction drafts and your group chat transcripts.

What We’re Looking For

For Batch 02, Gelée wants to get weirder. 

We’re looking to embrace a more experimental zine style for the next issue – we want your pop culture junk-drawer submissions. Have a weird culture-oriented piece you’re racking up rejections on? Try us.

  • Focuses on or incorporates a piece of pop culture released within the 2025 calendar year

  • Is not original fiction or highlighting work of one’s own

  • Coherently and convincingly links non-fiction pop culture writing with broader cultural commentary, media trends, political movements, identity, etc.

  • Can be achieved in max 1,000 words (**exact word count is flexible, especially for more experimental or visual pieces; works will be formatted for digital consumption)

General Submission Guidelines

  • Collage, comics, devotional visual art

  • Epistolary exchanges on pop culture of the day

  • Diary entries and fanfiction

  • Impassioned manifestos about your medium of choice

  • Parody or satirical pieces

  • Takes on traditional gossip magazine features – quizzes, paparazzi spreads, blind items, “exclusives”

  • Experimental pop culture-focused fiction – scene rewrites, “celebrity” profiles, autofiction

  • More traditional cultural commentary, if it’s short, snappy and has a compelling angle

Stuff We’d Love to Publish

Submission Guidelines

SUBMISSIONS OPEN: August 1 to October 24, 2025

Submissions will be accepted on a rolling basis; we are looking to cover relevant pop culture happenings throughout the entirety of 2025 for publication in December 2025. 

Full drafts are not required to submit to Gelée, but we welcome drafts for consideration if you so choose. We accept work on pitch alone and work closely with writers/artists to craft their zine piece.  

To submit a piece for consideration for Gelée Batch 02, please email gelee@currantjam.org with the following: 

  • The subject line as “Gelée Batch 02 Pitch – Your Name”

  • Your name, pronouns, location, a one- to two-sentence artist bio & any relevant social media handles or portfolio/website links

  • A brief description of your proposed piece and the form it will take, in the body of your email

    • If submitting visual work, a work sample as an attachment to the email

We consider all submissions during our application period, and will respond directly to your initial email within three weeks of your submission. At this time, Gelée is not able to offer compensation for work accepted to the zine.