This is a birth announcement for Volutes, a new French literary magazine dedicated to short writing with a long reach (Because a few words can go a long way.)
What does Volutes mean?: une volute (pronounced voh-lyute), a volute in English, is a spiral or a swirl, picture a nautilus, an Ionic capital or a coil of smoke
Volutes is a new multi-disciplinary forum for writing in French—originally or translated (more about this in a minute). In its pages, you’ll find not only fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, but visual art, comix, cartoons. Our aim is to mix it up, talk across genres. Not only short prose, but fragments, poems, gizmos, odds bits arranged to make you follow them inward or outward. We’re open to style and structure, but limited to 20,000 characters with spaces, about 3,500 words. (Some submissions categories call for micro-texts.)
We anticipate two issues a year, online at www.volutes.fr and in print, The first is expected by the end of this year will be available on line and in French Book shops. Submission categories for the first issue include short stories on any theme (20,000 characters) and three categories inspired by prompts: Wine (Vins), a photo, and a micro on the theme of Volutes.
Deadline: August 31, 2025 (midnight Paris time, EDT plus 6 hours)

Volutes was conceived after a January/February 2025 workshop at Editions Gallimard in Paris with novelist Sylvain Prudhomme (Par Les Routes, Coyotes), which inspired its members to continue writing together and to invest—intellectually, financially, and emotionally—in a structure, led by:
Loïc Le Gac, writer, serial entrepreneur, consultant, specialist in digital learning, economics professor who has decided to give his heart to his real love, literature, with Volutes.
Christophe Angot, multi-disciplinary artist/photographer and author of two novels, many short stories, and experimental and hybrid texts, aside from which, he has a real job and a normal life.
Charlotte Milandri is the editorial director of the creative writing school Les Mots, author, and founder of the organization 68 First Times (68 première fois). She leads writing workshops in prisons, among other places, listens to Marguerite Duras at night. She has read more than 1,000 first novels and many more manuscripts.
Principles
Volutes is a magazine of joyful artisan-ship—we believe in the humble process of honing and polishing more than transcendent thunderbolts—though they’re nice to have.
Joy has a way of hiding in plain sight, including in the sad/happy, mad/serious, profound/ silly process of writing.
There’s no smoke without fire. For each issue of Volutes, we will invite well-known writers and artists to stoke our pages. (We can’t reveal the names yet, but promise you’ll love them.)