And It's All Lit Mags Now, Baby Blue!

Lit spaces under fire, brand new magazines, submission calls, advice and deadlines for editors and more.

Greetings Lit Magitators,

In the world of lit mags, drama abounds.

First, Poets House, the nation’s premier poetry library and home to numerous poetry journals, has announced its closing. Say the Directors, “2020 has without a doubt been the most difficult year for arts organizations in two generations and for Poets House since its founding. We are so grateful to everyone who has been part of our community—staff, board, poets, funders, friends, visitors—for your care for and contributions to the organization.”

Employees at the library, however, tell a different story: “[The press release by Poets House] fails to mention that this unexpected closure follows months of staff-led organizing to hold management and the board accountable in light of frequent complaints of workplace discrimination, sexual harassment, and exploitative labor practices.”

Meanwhile, Fireside Fiction has faced heat for its choice of a white male voice actor for an essay, ““Da Art of Speculatin’,” written by Dr. Regina N. Bradley. The essay, writes Kirsten West Savali, “explores how OutKast and southern Hip-Hop influences renderings of the Black American South after the formally organized Civil Rights Movement.” Savali observes, “[The voice actor’s] interpretation of a southern, Black woman’s accent is plantation porn...”

Fireside Fiction Editor, Pablo Defendini, has offered an apology, stating, “The author deserves better, the editor deserves better, our readers deserve better…I’ve taken down the audio, and will have the essay re-recorded by a Black woman, as I should have done from the start.”

Meanwhile, esteemed lit mag Antioch Review faces an uncertain future. Reports Audrey Hackett, “The current and future status of the Review, which has a national and international reputation for literary excellence, is unclear to the magazine’s longtime editor — furloughed since April — and longtime production staff. Review staff members who among them have nearly 150 years of involvement with the magazine say they’re in the dark about the college’s plans for the Review. And they’re worried that the magazine might be permanently shuttered — a personal loss and a loss to literary culture.”

In brighter news, many Best Ofs dropped this month. This year’s Best American Short Stories features stories from Oxford American, The Sewannee Review, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet and more.

The Best of Brevity: 20 Groundbreaking Years of Flash Nonfiction has received notable accolades. From Publishers Weekly: “In this marvelous, diverse anthology, Brevity editors Moore and Bossiere collect the literary journal’s best nonfiction pieces, none longer than 750 words.” In The New York Times Lori Soderlind writes, “The immersive effect of reading this anthology straight through is the opposite of a flash experience, and is also lovely, like rolling down a sidewalk of lit windows.”

If you’re seeking new magazines to explore, “The Pomegranate London is a biannual printed art and literary magazine featuring short stories, poems and essays on artists. Founded in July 2020, The Pomegranate London seeks to publish and promote innovative, fresh and experimental new work from established and emerging writers and artists from the UK and internationally.”

New from Hong Kong, “Cicada is a literary journal with a focus on writing that is generative, nuanced, experimental, and inclusive. We encourage submissions from anyone, anywhere, and are especially drawn to transnational perspectives, traditionally marginalized voices, and the global narrative.”

From Japan, Monkey is a “[n]ew literary magazine makes contemporary Japanese fiction accessible to English readers.” The magazine “features some of the world's best known writers and translators, publishes contemporary Japanese fiction in English translation.” 

Here in the U.S., Stellium is a new magazine “centering Black queer and trans prose writers.” This journal is also seeking volunteer editors. 

Not new but newly featured, The New Pages blog has a write-up on Persephone’s Daughters, “a print and online literary journal for abuse survivors of all gender identities.” The journal “seeks to uplift the voices of those pursuing peace after trauma…They use the proceeds from their film division Girls Don’t Cry and print copies of their journal to donate money to organizations around the world focused on issues of domestic and sexual violence, the health and well-being of women of color, and LGBTQ+ survivor advocacy.”

If you’d like to start submitting while channeling some luck of the Irish, check out this list of lit mags based in Ireland.

For a general list of places open for submissions, Almond Press has a diverse list of magazines currently accepting.

If writing contests are your thing, Christopher Fielden has compiled a list of UK-based and international story contests. 

And say, did you know that some libraries actually publish literary magazines? At BookRiot, Sarah Nicolas has compiled a list of such mags, noting, “As both an author and library employee, I’m intrigued by libraries that publish literary magazines. Since so many libraries offer services for local writers and writer organizations, it seems like a natural extension.”

Are you an editor who has always struggled with writing a proper rejection letter? At Submittable, Paul Perry advises, “For every step in the submission communication strategy, you want to be thoughtful about how you notify submitters regarding your decision, what information you include or exclude, and any additional resources that you can provide in order to improve the experience in the future.”

Also, Editors, a reminder: The deadline to apply for the 2021 Whiting Literary Magazine Prizes is today! “The Foundation has created these prizes with the desire to acknowledge, reward, and encourage organizations that are actively nurturing the writers who tell us, through their art, what is important.”

Another important deadline is the nomination for Pushcart Prizes: “We welcome up to six nominations (print or online) from little magazine and small book press editors throughout the world...The nominations may be any combination of poetry, short stories, essays, memoirs or stand-alone excerpts from novels…Nominations are accepted between October 1 - December 1 (postmarked) for next year's Pushcart edition.”

And that you moon-walkers and earth-roamers, you desert wanderers and you scrapers of vast and distant skies, you who has taken great pains to travel with tremendous care and you who have stayed very safe and sat very still for a very long time, you who are dazed with doldrums, you who are abuzz with unspent energy from endlessly aborted activity, you who are drifting, you who are coping, you who are swimming and sunburnt and celebrating by way of the caverns of your stubbornly hopeful imagination, you so beautiful you don’t even know it, you so magnificent you can’t even fathom it, you full of secret strength, you with untapped power, you who are needed, you who are brave, you with your swift sword and Viking helmet in preparation for all that lies ahead, you everywhere, writing, reading, and carrying on, is the news in literary magazines.

Stay well, pals.

Fondly,

Becky

P.S. If you’ve signed up for a free trial, it may soon run out! Be sure to click below if you’d like to keep receiving this newsletter.

P.P.S. If there’s a loveable writer or editor in your life, gift subscriptions are available for the holidays!

As ever and always, thank you for reading. And thank you to our sponsors and friends:

Winning Writers will award over $30,000 across our four long-running contests for poetry, prose, and self-published books. Learn more at https://winningwriters.com/our-contests