Barnard gets backlash; call for censorship-themed works; contest entries to train AI; un-Buellers; Buellers; work opportunities; new database for Medium submissions; markets & more
Hi Becky! In the previous Bueller issue, you mentioned that you would be reaching out to the Editor of the Fairy Tale Review. I wonder whether you received a response (but am guessing that you probably didn’t.) I emailed the Journals Manager at Wayne State U. Press to ask whether there would be an issue this year, but have received no response there either.
Oh, Propertius... They told me a few years ago a work was under serious consideration for an anthology, the subject of which I have forgotten. After two inquiries (1 a year, I guess?) and no responses, I withdrew the poem just to clear my mind!
Regarding The Fabel World Short Story Competition https://zealous.co/fabel/opportunity/The-Fabel-World-Short-Story-Competition/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email , I followed up my curiosity by speaking with one of its founders, Simon Harding, over a very unreliable phone connection. It appears that the technology to drive the back end of the operation is still in development and the competition is designed to build a customer and content base. I was assured that authors retain their copyright at all times. The prize money pool of around US$18,000 has been committed upfront by Fabel's investors. Interesting strategy.
While writers of short stories will be able to develop a readership of people looking for their kind of work (Simon was a little nonplussed when I suggested this had parallels with a dating site), the main game seems to be to provide a publishing platform for novel writers that bypasses mainstream publishing, using blockchain and an AI-generated search capacity.
I remain unclear as to how that will provide a long-term income stream for writers or Fabel.
Thanks for looking into this, Doug. Despite the (hopefully) good intentions of the contest founders, too many things about this make me want to run in the opposite direction: reader-judged entries, the inclusion of AI, even the monstrously large prize!
Re the AI thing: on the one hand, they are being up front about it, and I bet you dollars to donuts that there are other places doing this and not disclosing it, so props to them on transparency. On the other hand, I don't want my stuff training AI. On the third hand (which ai probably added) if its public and online, its literally impossible to keep it out of AI training pools; also AI's are black boxes. You literally *cannot* train AI to do something and not have it added to its brain, so if you have that AI produce content at any point after the thing has been added, your content has been used to train that AI to produce content.
No. I will not be arguing with AI bro's on this who want to pretend that LLM's are but simple machine drones that everyone is freaking out about for no reason.
I forgot to comment on the Buellers. I have had a propertius press submission hanging around in my submittable for well over a year (possibly approaching two, but I don't want to go look to get the exact date)
Possible Bueller: I sent a short story to The New Yorker, like, a week ago. Nothing but crickets since. I mean, how long does it take to read one little story? The story is really good. Something's up. :)
Yowza that is a lot! To be clear, a magazine that has made a formal announcement of closing is not a Bueller. This would include Briar Cliff Review. Not sure about the others. Will investigate. Thanks for this!
Very upset to hear about the problems at Cimarron Review, to whom I submitted 3 poems. Will likely withdraw. Wish I'd known about the change of leadership problems at The Southampton Review as well. I'm kind of a nerd about record-keeping, so I compile a list for my own info about lit mags who've suspended submissions, even though their websites appear to be functional. Among those lit mags are: Apogee Press, Astrophil Press, Deerbrook Editions, Pski's Porch Publishing, Solid Objects Press, Split Rock Press, Tarpaulin Sky, Trail to Table Press, and Whiskey Tit. The following places haven't had updates since 2019-2023: Alien Buddha Press, Bloof Books, Codhill Press, Cornerstone Press, Disorder Press, Holy Cow! Press, Hyacinth Girl Press, Kore Press Institute (Univ of AZ), Nervous Ghost Poetry Prize, Sheep Meadow Press, Sibling Rivalry Press, Smartish Place, Turtle Point Press, Zone 3 Press Book Awards.
Buellers: I sent poems to Quartz Literary nearly a year ago, and their website now seems to have shut down. But Ecotone, which seems to still be publishing, has had my work just as long. They specifically say not to query about the status of submissions. I wonder if anyone has had recent communication with them?
My AQR came in the mail today - getting a new lit mag always feels like a little Christmas.
Mine arrived yesterday!
Hi Becky! In the previous Bueller issue, you mentioned that you would be reaching out to the Editor of the Fairy Tale Review. I wonder whether you received a response (but am guessing that you probably didn’t.) I emailed the Journals Manager at Wayne State U. Press to ask whether there would be an issue this year, but have received no response there either.
Oh, Propertius... They told me a few years ago a work was under serious consideration for an anthology, the subject of which I have forgotten. After two inquiries (1 a year, I guess?) and no responses, I withdrew the poem just to clear my mind!
Regarding The Fabel World Short Story Competition https://zealous.co/fabel/opportunity/The-Fabel-World-Short-Story-Competition/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email , I followed up my curiosity by speaking with one of its founders, Simon Harding, over a very unreliable phone connection. It appears that the technology to drive the back end of the operation is still in development and the competition is designed to build a customer and content base. I was assured that authors retain their copyright at all times. The prize money pool of around US$18,000 has been committed upfront by Fabel's investors. Interesting strategy.
While writers of short stories will be able to develop a readership of people looking for their kind of work (Simon was a little nonplussed when I suggested this had parallels with a dating site), the main game seems to be to provide a publishing platform for novel writers that bypasses mainstream publishing, using blockchain and an AI-generated search capacity.
I remain unclear as to how that will provide a long-term income stream for writers or Fabel.
Thanks for looking into this, Doug. Despite the (hopefully) good intentions of the contest founders, too many things about this make me want to run in the opposite direction: reader-judged entries, the inclusion of AI, even the monstrously large prize!
This is helpful, thank you Doug!
Re the AI thing: on the one hand, they are being up front about it, and I bet you dollars to donuts that there are other places doing this and not disclosing it, so props to them on transparency. On the other hand, I don't want my stuff training AI. On the third hand (which ai probably added) if its public and online, its literally impossible to keep it out of AI training pools; also AI's are black boxes. You literally *cannot* train AI to do something and not have it added to its brain, so if you have that AI produce content at any point after the thing has been added, your content has been used to train that AI to produce content.
No. I will not be arguing with AI bro's on this who want to pretend that LLM's are but simple machine drones that everyone is freaking out about for no reason.
I forgot to comment on the Buellers. I have had a propertius press submission hanging around in my submittable for well over a year (possibly approaching two, but I don't want to go look to get the exact date)
Possible Bueller: I sent a short story to The New Yorker, like, a week ago. Nothing but crickets since. I mean, how long does it take to read one little story? The story is really good. Something's up. :)
Someone needs to check Duotrope to see if they've gone defunct.
More Buellers: Arroyo Literary Review, Asheville Poetry Review, Blue Unicorn, Boomer Lit Mag, Briar Cliff Review, Burrow Press Review, Carbon Copy Magazine, Clockhouse, Digging Press Poetry Anthology, Ekphrasis, Gertrude Press, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, Here: A Poetry Journal, Hotel Amerika, House Organ, James Dickey Review, Kinfolks Quarterly, Lemon Hound, Maggy Literary Magazine, Maryland Literary Review, Matter Monthly, Muzzle Magazine, New South, Omniverse, Paperbag, Pigeon Papers, Powder Keg, Roadrunner Review, Springhouse, Swing, Sycamore Review, The Adirondack Review, The Normal School, Tipton Poetry Journal, Tule Review, Vinyl Poetry, Wordfarm, and Zoland Poetry.
Yowza that is a lot! To be clear, a magazine that has made a formal announcement of closing is not a Bueller. This would include Briar Cliff Review. Not sure about the others. Will investigate. Thanks for this!
Hi Becky, I just checked and (The) Briar Cliff Review still has an active website. Don't know what's going on with them. ;-) Alexandra
Very upset to hear about the problems at Cimarron Review, to whom I submitted 3 poems. Will likely withdraw. Wish I'd known about the change of leadership problems at The Southampton Review as well. I'm kind of a nerd about record-keeping, so I compile a list for my own info about lit mags who've suspended submissions, even though their websites appear to be functional. Among those lit mags are: Apogee Press, Astrophil Press, Deerbrook Editions, Pski's Porch Publishing, Solid Objects Press, Split Rock Press, Tarpaulin Sky, Trail to Table Press, and Whiskey Tit. The following places haven't had updates since 2019-2023: Alien Buddha Press, Bloof Books, Codhill Press, Cornerstone Press, Disorder Press, Holy Cow! Press, Hyacinth Girl Press, Kore Press Institute (Univ of AZ), Nervous Ghost Poetry Prize, Sheep Meadow Press, Sibling Rivalry Press, Smartish Place, Turtle Point Press, Zone 3 Press Book Awards.
Buellers: I sent poems to Quartz Literary nearly a year ago, and their website now seems to have shut down. But Ecotone, which seems to still be publishing, has had my work just as long. They specifically say not to query about the status of submissions. I wonder if anyone has had recent communication with them?