Cagibi, qu’est ce que c’est? What is a cagibi?

American phonetic transcription: /kä’jēbē/

French phonetic transcription: /kaʒibi/

A cagibi, from the spoken French, is versatile in its purpose: it may be a shed, a cubbyhole, a cupboard. It is a space to store tools or personal items for safekeeping: shovels, love letters, suitcases, pails, heirlooms, tchotchkes. It is a space too low for grown-ups but perfect for children to hide and play. It is that snug space under the stairs just large enough to fit a small writing desk. It is a space that isn’t quite a room, usually windowless, but also door-less, a space that is at once intimate and yet open to the world.

It is any shelter, no matter how tiny, that allows for big imaginings to take shape.

Cagibi is invested in sharing the universal human experiences to be found in works of prose and poetry set within places unfamiliar to readers; thus, our expressed interest in international—or world—literature, and works in translation. Cagibi is versatile in its purpose and mission to readers and writers. The journal concerns literature in which character conflict, ultimately story, is tied to place. The retreats provide unique and stimulating place experience. In one interpretation, le cagibi is the place at which a writer’s inspiration is rendered into story, or shaped into poem.

“We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment.” —Hilaire Belloc

Journal in Print and Online

Cagibi’s journal is bundled online in quarterly issues, with one print issue each year.

In print, Cagibi publishes an annual print issue. This print issue is an anthology, called the Omnibus!, of works from the previous year’s online issues. It includes the Macaron Prize winners, new works of poetry and prose. And other special features. There are two ways to be included in our annual print issue: win the Macaron Prize, or be selected by our Omnibus! guest editor. Learn more and purchase our print issue.

The inaugural print issue arrived June 2019 and is available for purchase online and in select bookstores.

Online, the quarterly online issues are published in January, April, July, and October. Each issue publishes stories, essays, poems, and art, as well as extra features such as author interviews, writers in conversation, and essays on the writing craft. We welcome non-traditional and emerging writers, as well as minority and marginalized viewpoints. Occasionally, there are editorial themes, such as the “Recovery” section in Issue 3.

In awards and nominations, Cagibi editors nominate published works for award and prize opportunities such as Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and others. See the Lists of Nominations page, and browse all the nominated works from the Nominated Poetry & Prose page.

Publishing Between Issues

Cagibi Express is a separate online section: a space between issues. Our express delivers the real-time pulse of all that Cagibi represents in contemporary literature. What you will find in Cagibi Express are dispatches from abroad, postcards of literary perspectives, cultural reports from far afield, notes from closer to home, and interviews with authors and artists.

Retreats

Cagibi’s retreats are held in the US and abroad. The first retreat took place in the Hudson Valley in October 2018.

Et cetera

Cagibi was co-founded in 2017 by NYC literary collaborators Sylvie Bertrand and Christopher X. Shade.

Read the latest issue of Cagibi’s online literary journal. Sign up for the newsletter to hear about each issue as it comes out, and be the first to hear about upcoming retreats.

To submit your work, visit the Submission Guidelines.

Cagibi is a member publisher of the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses.

The copyright to all contents of this site is held either by Cagibi or by the individual authors-artists, unless otherwise or obviously stated, and none of the material may be used elsewhere without written permission. For reprint enquiries, contact us.

Browse Cagibi Issues