Matia Press
Independent, non-profit publisher of fiction and creative nonfiction in English, Arabic, and Romanian
ناشر مستقل وغير ربحي بالعربية والإنكليزية والرومانية
About (submission)
On our multilingual blog, we regularly publish short fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction pieces. We also publish POD and electronic books. The authors retain 100% of the profits (if any) and control their own print-on-demand accounts. We do not charge anything for proofreading, copyediting, or cover design. All we ask for is recognition (our logo on the book). All the books we publish must be available for free on our website in PDF format. Authors are free to sell paperback and electronic copies and keep the money for themselves.
Since we are new and lightly staffed, book production may take up to four months, while responding to blog post submissions may take up to three months.
In case you are interested in publishing your book with us, please feel free to contact us. We will get back to you in a month or less.
We accept previously published texts if the author still has the right to them. The author must state the name of the previous publisher so we’d give proper credit.
Please email us your submission at matiapress@hotmail.com. You will hear back from us within three months. Sadly, we can’t provide feedback if we reject the submission.
Books
- Creative fiction, nonfiction, or poetry
- Language: English, Arabic, or Romanian
- Preferable word count is 30000 or less
- Longer manuscripts may be considered
- Our response time is 3 months (but we try our best to respond earlier)
- We provide free proofreading, copyediting, and cover design
- Book production may take up to 4 months
Short Stories and creative nonfiction
- 3000 words or less
- Manuscripts may be submitted in English, Arabic, or Romanian
- Simultaneous submission is accepted
- Multiple submissions up to 3 max.
- Our response time is 3 months (but we try our best to respond earlier)
Poetry
- 3000 words or less
- Language: English, Arabic, or Romanian
- Simultaneous submission is accepted
- Multiple submissions up to 3 max.
- Our response time is 3 months (but we try our best to respond earlier)
We are an equal opportunity publisher and do not discriminate based on ethnicity, religion (or lack thereof), gender, sexual orientation, nationality, or anything else.
Our Team
Zaher Alajlani
Managing Director
Zaher Alajlani is a Syrian short-story author, researcher, and translator living between Romania and Greece. For more information about him, you can visit his website, zaheralajlani.com.
Amjad Barbour
Creative Director
Amjad Barbour is a Toronto-based digital designer, graphic design mentor, and tech tutor. He has extensive experience in visual arts and has been working professionally in the field since 2008.
Constantin Tonu
Romanian Section EIC
Constantin Tonu is a Ph.D. candidate at the Faculty of Letters, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. He has a BA in Comparative Literature and an MA in History of Images–History of Ideas from the same faculty. He is the author of Deșertul în literatură (The Desert in Literature).
Beshr Shbib
Arabic Section EIC
Beshr Shbib is a Syrian poet and journalist based in Turkey. His poems and articles in Arabic have been featured in several notable periodicals. His debut poetry collection (in Arabic) was recently published by Matia Press.
Multilingual Blog
Short stories, poetry, and creative nonfiction
Of Wings and Dirt: A Bloodied Saint’s Testimony (Book Review)
Of Wings and Dirt: A Bloodied Saint’s Testimony (Book Review) It is next to impossible to read Kimberly Phinney’s Of Wings and Dirt without dwelling on existential questions. A raw passion behind her words overwhelms the reader, forcing them to journey into a remarkably talented poet’s soul and their own.
Tânăr la 21 ani - caut ţară — Andrei Andreescu
Identificarea unei nuanţe responsabile pentru micile frânturi crepusculare ale echilibrului condiţiei umane raportate la un spaţiu geografic nu reprezintă un subiect de analiză în sine, identitatea acestui text neavând fundamentul într-un exerciţiu zadarnic (datorită complexităţii sale) de imortalizare a siajului, având în vedere apartenența sa la efemeritate, prin definiţie.
Viziuni, vedenii, reverii - Constantin Tonu
În 2019, Casa Cărții de Știință publică un volum pe cât de frumos și atractiv, pe atât de straniu, intitulat Mici fabule – o culegere de poeme (lirice sau în proză) scrise de Étienne Ruhaud (în 2009) și traduse în română de Alina Pelea, în care fiecare reverie a autorului francez e însoțită de o ilustrație sugestivă (vedenie, viziune) a Laurei Poantă.
Obsesii animaliere în opera lui José Saramago - Constantin Tonu
În Cuvânt înainte la cartea sa intitulată Animalele și istoria lor (Meridiane, Buc., 1993, p. 5), Robert Delort afirmă că acest volum de studii constituie în primul rând un mod de a atrage atenția asupra faptului, puțin cunoscut în acele vremuri (1984), dacă nu chiar ignorat, că și animalele au o istorie.
Untitled I - Andrei F. Andreescu
I wanted to write a poem But I had heard the words before It started with 'I', But so does the whole world I had wanted to change it into 'me'
Phantom Limb - Andrei F. Andreescu
The letters were cold with a metallic gloss The gloss spread on bones, bringing out the marrow They shine, as gloss turns to glass and light into transparency They are almost see-through, damned be the flesh that covers them!
Untitled II - Andrei F. Andreescu
I've made her of clay And given her life. The silhouette stretched on for days I've made her of clay And given her life
Portuguese Children - Andrei Andreescu
And it keeps following me Demon from demon's cloth Pleasure from sapphire chalices of purple blood and ancient ashes Death is the ending but also the thrill of the thorns that bring redness to blood
الهجوم نحو الرّيح — حسين خضّور
"القراءة،" قالها عندما زاره الخوف. وبالفعل أمسك روايةً كانت في الماضي قد احتلّت مكاناً ثانوياً في مكتبته. كان رجلاً أضنته الشيخوخة. أغمض عينَيه، مُدركاً على الفور أنّه غيرُ قادر على إكمال القراءة، ليس بسبب شعوره بالارتباك أمام الجملة الأولى في الرواية، وإنما لِعجز دماغه عن الانتقال إلى الجملة التالية. مردُّ ذلك هو سبب ونتيجة في الوقت ذاته—هجمةٌ نفسيَّةٌ فصاميّة تعرَّضَ لها، تمزَّقَت على أثرها أنسجة دماغه.
اغتصاب - مروان العياش
في المدينة المَقعورة السماءُ أرض الغيمُ دمٌ تبخر والمطرُ رصاصي التحتاني فوق الجميع الكرسي مقلوبٌ يجثم عليه يحفر على كتفيه رُتبَ المَخنوع يضحك لعورةٍ تدلتْ على وجهه ويَميعُ... يَميعُ القناع
إلى غائبة - بشر شبيب
لو تسمحينَ بأن أقولَ بأنني من ربعِ قرنٍ واقعٌ في حُبكِ وبأنني أحيا أموتُ وفي يدي صوتٌ رقيقٌ قادمٌ من كعبكِ
عامل بلا أجر - حسين خضّور
كل منا لديه اهتمامات مختلفة عند أول لحظة استيقاظ من النوم، وغالباً أول شيء ننظر له هو الجوال، وهذا ما قام به فارس. فحدّقَ بالشاشة ولم يجد أي إشعار، ففتح سريعاً تطبيق البنك على الرغم من إدراكه أنه لن يجد ما كان قد انتظره بترقب منذ البارحة.
Our Books
Contact
Email us your story, poem, creative nonfiction, or book inquiry at matiapress@hotmail.com. Accepted submissions will be featured on our multilingual blog. The only accepted format is MS Word. Please read the submission guidelines in the About (Submission) section before sending us anything.