Blind.

The completely anonymous literary journal.

We're doing a bit of a literary experiment here, because we like having fun, and we like the idea of letting work stand on it's own, without pressure to publish established authors to improve our own credentials or tick off any particular boxes. We have worked on a number of literary journals and most editors can't help checking out the writers' bios to see where else they have been published. We have also seen editors scrutinize writers' social media content, including down to posts liked, before deciding if they are going to accept a piece or not. We've sat on grant boards where social media was examined in the same way, and even home addresses were looked up to investigate applicants' potential income or levels of privilege before deciding who gets the grant, even though board members were not supposed to do that.

Although we have always loved discovering a new writer and being the first to publish them, we actually don't care about that here at Blind. We also don't care if you are J.K. Rowling, or Colson Whitehead, or Jo Ann Beard, or Celeste Ng, or a unit secretary in Wichita who writes on the side but has never taken a creative writing course. If it's good work that stands alone, that's good enough for us.

We won't know who we're publishing. We don't to increase out bone fides by publishing the most established writers on the planet. We actually care about the work. And in November, we will have a Year-End read, where readers are invited to revisit the work and select the pieces that stay with them. Names will be then be revealed, with authors' permission, with the intention of allowing readers to explore more of a particular writer's work, or support and follow writers they like and perhaps watch a burgeoning writing career unfold, or perhaps discover an established writer who is new to them, but already established.

Why would an established writer choose to publish anonymously? You can have the opportunity to publish experimental or second- or third-genre work without career risk. Besides, it's a cool ego check. Would this piece stand without your name on it? Let's find out.

And why would an emerging writer want to publish anonymously, especially when you're trying so hard to establish a publication list and build your bona fides? It gives you a shot at being read without bias. We don't ask for your MFA, your bio, your list of publications, all of which may shape how your work is received.

Why would a reader read work that is anonymous? Well, half the social media you read is written by someone who barely exists, whom you'll never connect with other than in 30-second visual bites, bot replies aren't even real, and reading literature doesn't have to be a political or social act. It can just be reading because you like it. Because it's an engrossing story. Or an otherworldly poem. Or an essay that makes you wonder.

Blind. The anonymous literary journal. Submissions opening in Fall of 2026. Stay tuned.