Founded in 2020 during the COVID-19 lockdowns, PermeableBarrier is a platform that explores the in-between spaces of writing, art, and media. We are interested in work which is innovative, unusual, and idiosyncratic; work that ignores boundaries and settles in the wildernesses between forms, genres, styles, and mediums. 

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Our online magazine is published 1-2 times a year, recently with the help of a different guest editor for each issue. We aim to feature work which has not otherwise found a home in magazines or journals. Being web-based, we aim to highlight work which would not otherwise be printable, such a film poetry, video art, sound works, photography, and other visuals. We purposefully keep a wide remit for submissions and encourage you to be as inventive as possible with your contributions.

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PermeableBarrier is now also a micropress that publishes genre-pushing poetry and visual art. Our attitude towards these publications aims to put our marxist ideals into practice within the cash-poor book publishing system. Books are typeset and designed by JD Howse to ensure we don't have any start-up costs for publication, and we print our books through print on demand services to minimise lump-sum publication costs. As a result, we are able to offer our authors 100% of all profits from online sales of their books, with PB taking no share of the profits from any sales. 

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Permeable Barrier is run by JD Howse, with the assistance of Contributing Editors Al Anderson and Cat Chong. Prior guest editors of the online journal have been Al Anderson, Briony Hughes, Cat Chong, and Josh Wirz. 

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JD Howse, Curator and Publisher 

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JD Howse was raised in London where he still lives and works. His creative work moves across fiction, poetry, essay, film, and collage, and explores queer histories, neurodivergence, hauntology, and ekphrasis. He has an MA in Creative Writing from Royal Holloway, University of London and works in print production for a major trade publisher. He started PermeableBarrier during the pandemic, after it caused him to cease organising Theatre of Failure, the LGBT+ performance night he ran with Sarah Dawson. His publications include Just Meat Not God, Noises Again, and This is a Dagger, and his work has appeared in a number of magazines, anthologies, journals, and pamphlets. 

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Al Anderson, Editorial Advisor

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Al Anderson is a poet and essayist. He has a PhD from the University of East Anglia, and is the Events Director at Housmans Radical Booksellers. His pamphlets include Tenderloin, from Blush Lit, Custodian, from Earthbound, and The Tired Angel, from Slub Press. His debut collection is due to be published in 2026. Al advises on submissions to Permeable Barrier and will be providing editorial content in forthcoming print publications. 

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Cat Chong, Editorial Advisor

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Cat Chong is a poet, editor, essayist, and cheesemonger. Their publications include Plain Air: An Apology in Transit, 712 stanza homes for the sun, and Dear Lettera 32. They are a co-founder of the Crested Tit Collective, the Digital Editor at Osmosis Press, and Editorial Assistant at Pamenar Press. Cat advises on submissions to Permeable Barrier, provided editorial content to Briony Hughes' publication Speculative Frequencies, and was the author of our first print publication, Dear Lettera 32. 

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