Occasionally you see the reference in a review of a work of fiction, a novel, perhaps, or a short story in an anthology: a powerful piece of magic realism. And as its popularity increases, it is blurring the line between the ‘mainstream’ and ‘fantasy’ genres.

So…what is it?

Magical Realism has, for a long time, been the label instantly applied to any piece of Latin American literature. In fact, Magical Realism began as a politicized term with which Latin American authors described their personal and political relationships to both their nations and the writing process and industry. In North America, the genre has been exemplified by authors such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Alejo Carpentier, Borges, and others. Well, that’s the history. What does it mean now?

In the modern fiction market, Magic Realism has grown to mean a story that goes beyond the limits of the real world, but does not fall easily into the category of ‘fantasy’. Although there are no rules graven into stone tablets, What most editors are looking for here, are events that grow out of the real world, but go beyond what we accept as everyday reality. A girl who still lives with her dead mother, who sees her, shops for her, and accepts her as real might be part of a magic realism story. On the one hand, of course, she might be hallucinating. But if Mom really is part of her world, even though the rest of the people around her don’t notice her, we have Magic Realism. Think Harvy, the invisible, giant white rabbit of old movie fame.

Stories such as Harry Potter or houses full of elves and fairies are fantasy. They don’t grow out of the real world, they are their own alternate universe. We have a world with its own rules, not our everyday rules, or a society, such as in Harry Potter’s case, that exists in secret outside the everyday world.

The stories that I have sold as Magic Realism stories, were often rejected by traditional fantasy editors for ‘not enough fantasy element’. They are for the most part mainstream stories about a main character, but one in which some sort of fantasy element intrudes. In one case, a gardener begins to hear the plants she works with. They sing. In another case, a wandering carny man who bills himself as a rain maker, really is.

So you want to write a Magic Realism piece for one of the mainstream magazines. Where do you start? How do you know if it’s magic realism? Start with a real story. We have Annie, who lived with her mother, never got married, took care of the cranky old gal until she died, and now lives in the same dusty, cluttered, old Victorian where she was born and lived her life. She is overweight, and sort of mired in the daily routines that she has developed in her forty years of life. Mom and her cronies, a raucous crowd, including Bertie, who grew up in WW II London and never lets anyone forget it, Miriam, a stereotypical Jewish Mother, and Sylvia, a distant cousin of a famous Mafia don, all dead, play mah jong and criticize Annie at the dining room table.

Or we have old Mr. Schultz, the tailor, who looks over the edge of the roof because he thought he say an eagle, falls off, and discovers that he can fly. So he tours the neighborhood, seeing it and his years there from this new perspective. The neighbors are mildly surprised at his airborne abilities but not terribly so, just as the boy who brings Annie’s grocery order nods and says hello to the four cronies. I

In both these cases, our fantastical element – the four dead women and Mr. Schultz’s ability to fly, make few ripples in the real world around them. They are not apart, they are not other. They simply…are.

So now that you’re written this story, where do you sell it? Watch your online market lists or print market list books for magazines that accept magic realism. Some literary and mainstream markets do, such as Argosy, whose guidelines are posted on the website.

Watch for anthologies asking for magic realism, or even experimental fiction. One editor’s Magic Realism is another editor’s Experimental Fiction. Send your story to a mainstream market even if it doesn’t specify Magic Realism. In that case, if I were you, I wouldn’t tell the editor that it was Magic Realism in your cover letter. That particular person may equate ‘Magic Realism’ with submissions of badly written fantasy! Just send it as fiction. It is!

It is a lovely crossover between the realm of Fantasy and Mainstream, and a lot of fun to play with. It’s also increasing in popularity, so give it a try! Why not?