Folly Journal

Folly Journal Folly is an independent literary and arts journal established in 2022. We aren't looking for high-brow literature. Life is full of follies. Let’s celebrate them.

Folly is an independent literary and arts journal established in 2022 by two creative women who felt called to provide a platform for the type of stories they wanted to read: unfiltered accounts of life, eclectic takes on the mundane, and deep dives into love and sexuality. Founded in Wellington, New Zealand, Folly gives genre-bending and emerging writers from all over the world a place to experim

ent with words. We are looking for truth, satire and writing that makes us laugh at the foibles of modern life - those interludes where the surreal meets the eccentric, otherworldly clashes with reality and where our moral compasses are stretched to the extreme. We are open to considering previously published works.

Divorcees and heartbroken defacto survivors, this is your moment. Divorce Diet is looking for the final pieces for this ...
09/06/2026

Divorcees and heartbroken defacto survivors, this is your moment. Divorce Diet is looking for the final pieces for this very special edition about chaos and rebirth.

Prose, poetry, emails, essays, text messages welcome - via Submittable.

Our first book is a confessional memoir that’s funnier than anyone expects. Folly’s debut author is Charlotte Bell, a Ne...
08/06/2026

Our first book is a confessional memoir that’s funnier than anyone expects.

Folly’s debut author is Charlotte Bell, a New Zealand writer who submitted a bracingly funny series of confessional essays about her year recovering from drug addiction. ‘Playing fast and loose with my medication was like sticking a butchers knife into a toaster and expecting an orgasm.’

Her collection, One Year Out, launches on 1 August in Christchurch.

If you want to come to the launch, comment below. If you want to order a copy in presale, head over to our website or your favourite indie bookstore.

With thanks to artist Sophie Greig, whose wonderful original art illustrates the cover of Charlotte’s collection.
j.bell



The editors of our special edition Divorce Diet, welcome terrified and heartbroken men who may wish to put pen to paper....
06/06/2026

The editors of our special edition Divorce Diet, welcome terrified and heartbroken men who may wish to put pen to paper. For once, men are under represented in our submission pile.

Ladies, you are delivering. The reading team has never before had such fun curating this chaos.

Submissions open via Submittable.

Turn the trauma into art. At Folly we publish new and emerging writers alongside authors and, well writer writers. We wr...
04/06/2026

Turn the trauma into art. At Folly we publish new and emerging writers alongside authors and, well writer writers. We wrap editors around you to bring your stories - stories that deserve to be told - to readers. And we do so with beauty, humour and love.

Submissions open now to our Divorce Diet edition, via Submittable.

Submissions open for Divorce Diet, a special Folly edition chronicling the chaos and rebirth of marital breakdowns. Essa...
03/06/2026

Submissions open for Divorce Diet, a special Folly edition chronicling the chaos and rebirth of marital breakdowns. Essays, stories, poetry, text messages, emails. All chaos accepted via Submittable now.

Folly presents Divorce Diet, a special issue curated by art director .Submission open now via Submittable. Open only to ...
23/05/2026

Folly presents Divorce Diet, a special issue curated by art director .

Submission open now via Submittable.

Open only to divorcee’s, and heartbroken defacto survivors.

What’s in a first line? Comms people refer to it as the hook. We refer to it as the magic. Surprise us, confront us, gra...
20/05/2026

What’s in a first line? Comms people refer to it as the hook. We refer to it as the magic. Surprise us, confront us, grab us because in your first line we see ourselves, a different viewpoint, the world, humanity in all its chaos. Whatever it is, your first line is about your reader. Know your reader, and draw them in to your story by tailoring that first line to them.

Here are a few favourite first lines from previous issues of Folly.

How to get published? Vibe with us. In previous years we’ve accepted less than 1% of Submissions. This year is different...
06/05/2026

How to get published? Vibe with us.
In previous years we’ve accepted less than 1% of Submissions. This year is different. We are scaling our operations, publishing collections, erotica and looking for the right novellas. The Folly mission is to publish more voices- and this year we are doing just that.

Over the next month we are editing those who have submitted for the journal and erotica, before moving on to manuscripts and novellas. We love working with our contributors - and the banter with those who didn’t quite make it this time.

Congratulations to all of those authors whose work is set to appear in Folly, Folly X, or one of our forthcoming imprint titles.

Personality is the hottest commodity on the internet, according to Zoe Guttenplan. But is it enough?Increasingly, most o...
02/05/2026

Personality is the hottest commodity on the internet, according to Zoe Guttenplan. But is it enough?
Increasingly, most of the content on Substack labelled as “essay” is, functionally, a newsletter or a digital blog.

At Folly, we’re seeing the same thing in our submissions inbox for nonfiction and essay categories.

We went back to Issue One — where Professor Harry Ricketts told us the essay had been resurrected. His point still stands. But it’s also a reminder that a good essay isn’t fast. It isn’t confessional. It isn’t published the hour after you finish writing it. It’s art, just like fiction and poetry.

It’s crafted. There’s a difference — and print is where that difference lives. Print media requires the literary effort of a well written essay. Congrats on yours for

Do you channel your despair into your art? For emotions create material and that material can create art. Here are some ...
02/05/2026

Do you channel your despair into your art? For emotions create material and that material can create art. Here are some fine examples of poets who did so.

Ever heard the term ‘trauma porn’ - a lot of writing based on despair needs time to breathe. So you can move beyond what it meant then, to what it tells us now.

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