Where to submit metafiction?

I'm currently editing a ~2000-word story that I've been sitting on for a while and preparing to submit it seriously. Unfortunately, though, I have less idea than usual of where I ought to submit it. It's ultra-metafictional--the premise is that the author of the story is visited by her own characters from flash pieces she wrote and must interact with them, and it self-consciously, carefully plays with perspective and offers ambiguous symbolic commentary on different forms of literature and the writing process itself. It has irreal elements, like most of my short stories, and I suppose I'll submit it to "surreal" "new absurdist" and "new fabulist" markets, but the main thrust of the story is metafiction.

It's a bit more on the 'intellectual'/'literary' side of things in tone, language, and style than most of the stories I've read in those aforementioned markets that focus on surrealism, and it would probably qualify as slipstream to some, but most slipstreamish markets that I've seen seem to lean heavily towards genre elements, which this doesn't really have (unless the reader flagrantly misinterprets it as being a ghost story or some such, which happened in my intro-level workshop ).

I'm fully aware of the different market lists and various ways to find markets, so please don't reply with some variation of "use Duotrope". I was just curious if anyone here knows of publications that specifically seek or are amenable to metafiction with a surreal/irreal bent. Thanks so much!

P.S. I didn't post this in the "where to submit this?" thread as it isn't only about this individual story of mine--I'm also generally interested to see if anyone can recommend metafiction markets.

MJNL said:

This sounds like something that might be a fit for Interfictions: http://thegrinder.diabolicalplots.com/Market.aspx?mid=1088

But you'd have to hurry to catch this submissions window.

Click to expand...

Hmm...possibly. It doesn't bridge any of the genres that they list in their submission guidelines, and it isn't a hybrid form piece, but from quickly skimming around some of the stories on there it seems vaguely similar in tone/style/language if nothing else. That looks like an awesome market in general, one I'll definitely be adding to my personal list. Definitely worth a shot, thanks. I'll hustle to try and make that submissions window.

Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Thanks for replying, CaesarNaples, but I'm afraid the type of metafiction that I was describing here and that I'm seeking a market for has almost no relevance to Buddhism or "new sincerity" as described, though "new sincerity" sounds like an interesting concept that I could imagine some bizarro works fitting into nicely. The metafiction I write seeks to invoke a sense of existential anxiety and, if it has any philosophical bearings, is related to postmodernism, existentialism and even nihilism. It has nearly zero "spiritual" implications as such and is, to my understanding, completely unrelated to "metta" as a concept. I fear this may derail the thread by giving the wrong impression of what I'm referring to.

I also fail to see how your being "obsessed with metafiction" is ironic in any sense of the word, given that this is a thread about where to submit it.