Aloka Magazine is founded in a globally problematic time, March 2020, by Ellie and Cathy, to articulate the vivid human pulses and safeguard the unspeakable throughout this time.
Aloka is a Sanskrit name of a goddess holding a light who is believed in Vajrayana to guide people to freedom from the painful reincarnation circle in the period of the luminous bardo of dharmata, that is to say, from this ephemeral tip of the soul to the other end of life only the firm trust in the seemingly less remarkable light can ward off the ever-changing spells of the illusional world. We believe the great sensitivity and the crucial choice you will have to make in various (semi-)transformative phrases or daily moments just resemble the way you respond to and navigate the weather of the art of language. With the peace and spiritualism that comes with art, Aloka is just beautiful to us and we hope you will feel the same too.
Aloka magazine is a volunteer-run literary magazine to meet and publish those wonders in non-native English writers’ works. Your submissions will brighten our screens and days in, but not limited to, these ways:
1. Unalloyed Verses (our headquarter for poetry)
We will become sleepless for poems which blow our compass right away, but bring us even closer to what truly guides us. Peaceful meteors and crumbling high-rises stand in the same humorous line, every single bit of which reminds people about the most reasonable life. You have no mercy on any questionable dogmas and fashions, and you don’t dress yourself in the style you instinctively abhor. On top of dealing with a second language flowing in your blood, you can find a parachute in every corner of the world.
2. Numerous Translators (Our main field for translation is poetry)
We are ready, and hold our breath, for a new rhyme rising from both miles apart, and our own palms. Please pamper us with your laughs and worries along the quiet promenade from another language to English. No matter how tiny this earthquake is, you are delivering us the very real human silhouette, a whisper wish being said in another language can now be heard.
We kindly request the translators to take care of the copyright part of the source contexts.
3. Inverted Memories (for poetry, prose and fiction)
We are particularly interested in your occasionally clumsy fingers in a different culture, and how your memories, life experiences, emotions, talents, and performances in other respects, can struggle in the UK (or other parts in the world), or in the English language.
4. Your country in one petal (cross-genres, including visual arts)
We admire those daring works that frankly look at serious political, philosophical, environmental, financial, historical, national and other public problems we have been confronted with either in the old times or today. But we are not expecting a political manifesto or the raw materials for potential anthropological studies, instead, we will passionately read those works whose solid foundation is of individuality, independence, and continuing reflection.
5. Any other literary pieces, art works, or interviews comprising your artistic strength and best intelligent bits.
Please envelop your words and worlds(maybe also a brief bio of yours) nice and warm into word documents and our response can be expected in around 6 weeks once your unique beats have reached our email: alokamagazine@gmail.com
Simultaneous submissions and previously published works are acceptable.
We feel sorry to say that we are not able to pay our excellent contributors at the moment but we strive to do so in the near future.
Aloka 