December lit mag brag!
Bring on the good news!
Welcome to our weekend conversation!
My friends, I’m in Brooklyn visiting my mom. When we arrived last night I discovered to my absolute horror that we were…WITHOUT INTERNET.
You have no idea the panic I have been in all morning trying to reset routers, test passwords, tighten widgets around wires and whatnot.
Ordinarily, I might consider a few days of internet-less-ness a blessing in disguise, a reprieve I didn’t even know I needed.
But no! Not today! There must be no reprieve! No disguised blessings! We need connection and we need it now!
Mercifully, I found the new router, contorted myself into the necessary awkward in-the-corner hunched-pretzel position, located the 3-mile-long password printed in the world’s teeniest font…and here we are! Whew!
As you know, my dear pals, it is the last weekend of the month. If you are a longtime reader of Lit Mag News, then you know exactly what this weekend is for.
If you are brand new here, big welcome!
The last weekend of each month is a space to celebrate your publication wins. This is the place to honor all your efforts, your hard work, your commitment, your perseverance, your dedication and your incredible accomplishments.
Tell us: Where did you have work published this past month?
Also, because it is a very special end-of-year brag, if there is a publication you published any time in 2024 that you are particularly proud of, feel free to share that too.
Don’t be shy! I’m hearing more and more how fellow writers are reading these monthly brags and finding places to publish their own work. So step right up, as the brag you share today may very well be a stone laid along someone else’s path forward.
Go on.
Tell us where the work was published. Share the link!
How did you learn about this journal?
How many places did you submit to before the piece found its happy little home?
Did the editors work with you on revisions?
Did you revise as you submitted or was it done and out the door?
Are you pleased with the final product?
Now is the time. Come on out and brag your lit mag!
Oh, and Very Happy New Year to you all.
I could not be happier to be connected to each and every one of you.
My flash story “Forever Red” has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize by the lovely editor of Club Plum, which published the piece in October. I’m stunned and grateful. May the New Year bring us all joy! Here is the story: https://clubplumliteraryjournal.com/donna-shanley/
I have my first piece in Ekphrastic Review appear this month: https://www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrastic-review/the-foot-at-the-art-institute-of-chicago-by-polly-hansen?fbclid=IwY2xjawHEaANleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHWpZhpVBLlQfxxkYhw_IByvfolhc0ExyBtRUzLBsmpBM7ELAqkYFe9W0lw_aem_c8uUY0b1qvcZU9manIRVoQ
I was also supposed to have a quirky little holiday story come out this month in Call Me [Brackets], put out by the U of Alabama, but the issue has apparently been delayed. Is this story of mine jinxed? The last time it was accepted a year ago in a different journal, the editor promised me it would appear in their December issue. The issue never got published and hence neither did the story. Is this a repeat of that situation? I hope not. They have three days left to make good on their word.
I love this little story published in November that didn't get read widely: https://brightflash1000.com/2024/09/05/the-green-monster/
I wrote a tough personal essay for Newsweek: https://www.newsweek.com/i-hated-myself-what-i-did-then-realized-i-was-victim-1933281
And I get to say I have words in The Sun (first story under Readers Write: https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/583-shaving
And this month I received a personal rejection letter from Shenandoah, asking me to submit again: "It really stood out among the submissions this semester! Ultimately, we are passing on the opportunity to publish it in Shenandoah, but please know it was quite accomplished. Journey to the Center felt so solid, the backstory you invented so complete, and music 'insider'-y, affirmed by one of our readers who felt so drawn in by the resonance of the 'one note'. (Out of curiosity, I had to google Journey to the Center to see if it was a phenomenon I had somehow missed and was so delighted to see it was your invention!)
Sorry for being so wordy here, but I am proud of my accomplishments!
Happy New Year, friends.