Grandma Got Run Over by a Lit Mag!
Statements from Yetzirah & Jews4Humanity; controversy over HTML Giant Editor's new book; new lit mags; Best Lit Mags of 2023; writing workshops; jobs & opportunities; hundreds of markets, & more
Welcome to our bi-weekly news roundup!
Greetings Lit Magstronauts,
The Executive Director of Yetzirah, “a nonprofit literary organization dedicated to fostering and supporting a community space for Jewish poets,” has put out a statement. Jessica Jacobs writes,
[A]s journal after journal, press after press, began to share statements of support for Palestine, with no mention of the massacre of Israelis or the hostages who remain captive in Gaza…we realized we needed to address this issue more directly.
…I created a list of over fifty literary organizations who have issued such statements and reached out to them, explaining how these messages…are instilling in Jewish writers feelings of isolation and exclusion from the larger literary community, along with the implied sense that our work will not be fairly considered at these venues. I included a brief affirmation of welcome, asking they post and/or include some version of it along with their submission guidelines.
At best, I hope we'll hear from the majority, affirming they welcome the work of all writers and then hoping they go out into the world with a little more awareness of how their public pronouncements are affecting our community, as well as perhaps opening channels for more thoughtful dialogue….
A similar statement was put out by a group called Jews4Humanity in response to an open letter published in the Australian literary journal Overland. Stop the genocide in Gaza, published in October, was directed toward Australia’s Minster for the Arts and Prime Minister and states,
As artists and cultural producers, our work has the power to shape public opinion. Today, as the media wages a war against truth and strips this colonial project of its historical context, we have a unique responsibility to use our voice and artistic practices to say NO MORE!
In response, Jews4Humanity is “…calling on our fellow creatives and academics to show empathy for the suffering of innocents on both sides of this hideously complex conflict.”
In other news, here in the U.S. a newly published book was the subject of controversy last week. The book, Molly, is a memoir written by Blake Butler, reflecting on his wife’s suicide and what he learned about her in the aftermath. Butler is the Founding Editor of the lit mag HTML Giant. The subject of the book, Molly Brodak, was a widely published poet and memoirist.
In the LA Times, Jessica Ferri writes, “Butler is not afraid to explore this truth — nor the hard truths about Molly’s lies and manipulations — and any reader hoping to be protected from the realities of his experience should be warned there is no such safety.”
But some critics were not pleased with Butler’s handling of the subject. As Elle Nash writes in The Spectator,
A recent controversy rocked the literary world when coverage of author Blake Butler’s memoir, Molly, about his late wife, notable poet Molly Brodak, hit tabloids and spun for the worst. The coverage sparked debate over the ethics of writing about relationships, as online attackers made accusations that the widower weaponized Brodak’s private life and exploited her death for fame or revenge.
Claims gained ground that it was a “shameless cash grab,” “literary revenge porn,” or that it shouldn’t have been published due to privacy concerns, since the memoir reveals Butler’s discovery of his late wife’s affairs after her passing.
Says Butler, “It’s silencing to say I shouldn’t write from Molly’s journals and her work…They think they’re doing liberation by bringing me to justice. The goal of this book is to repudiate the life she spent in shadows feeling unheard…”
In honor of his late wife, Butler has created Glass Orchid,
a nonprofit arts organization committed to supporting independent artists and writers….The Molly Brodak Award for Bravery in Poetics is a no-strings-attached $10,000 grant annually to an artist of distinctively independent vision and approach. Recipients are selected by the Glass Orchid advisory board based on body of work and financial need.
Many lit mags got press this week.
A fresh literary magazine, The Miami Native, launched this month with an online edition and a collectible-quality print version. [Editor Ginerva Lily Davis told Axios], “There's been a huge revival of print magazines in New York, particularly started by young women,” …citing The Drift, The Drunken Canal, Forever Magazine and Heavy Traffic….The editors are seeking submissions from writers and artists for upcoming issues and are keen to publish diverse voices, including writers who have never been published before.
Wilson Wyatt, Editor of Delmarva Review, was interviewed by Dave Wheelan for the Chestertown Spy. Wheelan writes,
16 years and counting. That’s how long The Delmarva Review, the national literary magazine based on the Mid-Shore, has been at the challenging job of finding some of the best writers in America and giving them a dignified portal to present their work to academics, critics, and general readers annually….Influenced by such notable publications as the Sewanee Review…and other standouts as Gargoyle, Wilson had high expectations for the Delmarva Review. After its 16th volume, he clarifies in his recent Spy interview that he’s more than satisfied that this labor of love has met those high marks.
Chill Subs has announced winners ranking 11th through 25th in the community favorites for Best Lit Mags of 2023.
You can get more information about all these lit mags and learn why they were nominated in the Sub Club newsletter.
And last week saw big trouble in little Malta! According to Malta Today,
A book review blog that caused waves in the literary scene over the weekend has been pulled down mere weeks after its launch. When the Malta Literary Review came to the scene, people were taken aback by its no-holds-barred approach to its literary criticism. Its first article was a critique on Praspar Press, a micro-publisher that promotes contemporary Maltese literature…The article discussed Praspar Press’s editorial standards, ‘or lack thereof’…
Finally, this year’s Best Small Fictions is out in print. The book features over 100 authors nominated by lit mags. The series was guest-edited in 2023 by Catherine McNamara, Editor of Litro Magazine, whom I interviewed last March. Submissions for the 2024 edition are open until December 15th.
A handful of workshops caught my eye today.
This Writers Workout Conference looks like it’s geared more toward books than lit mags, but there is plenty on the craft and business of writing. Plus it’s free!
Rachel Thompson, of the Write, Publish & Shine podcast, is teaching a Lit Mag Love course in January. This is a five-week course. “Learn how to submit writing more effectively and to kick-start your writing career, while you find and connect with your readers.”
Chelsea Clammer, contributor to Lit Mag News (and someone who goes waaaaay back with me to my Review Review days) will be teaching a class on flash fiction. Learn more about it at the Brevity blog.
For those of you looking for work opportunities in the fast-paced industry of lit mag publishing, opportunities abound.
Chestnut Review seeks a staff writer.
Oyster River Pages is open for internship applications.
Paris Review is seeking prose readers.
Four Way Review seeks fiction readers.
Split/Lip Press seeks manuscript readers.
For those of you seeking homes for your latest & greatest:
Erica Verrillo has 96 Calls for Submissions in December 2023 - No submission fees and 57 Writing Contests in December 2023 - No entry fees.
Erika Dreifus has “dozens of carefully curated, fee-free opportunities that pay for fiction, poetry, & creative nonfiction.”
Authors Publish has 17 Magazines that Publish Writing for Children and Teens (aww…so cute!); 5 Paying Literary Magazines to Submit to in December 2023; and 45 Themed Submissions Calls and Contests for December 2023.
As for us, those of us in the Lit Mag Reading Club are busy reading (and hopefully enjoying!) the latest issue of Black Warrior Review. If you are interested in joining the Club, it’s not too late to order your copy! We will be meeting later this month to talk about the issue amongst ourselves and once again to meet with the editors and hear about their process.
I’ll also be interviewing the editors of J Journal tomorrow (Tuesday).
You can learn all about these events here:
Save the Dates! December interviews & info sessions!
Yes, I know, we are all racing around, scrambling for stocking suffers and little widgets to scrape off the wax still stuck to the menorah, and yes, we tied up the lights all tidily last year but somehow they still got tangled and it will still take hours to untwist them and yes, good gracious, what on Earth does Cousin Scannelford want for a gift and a…
I will be taking a short break from the news round-up through the holidays. We will still have our weekend conversations and Thursday columns. The next news round-up will be on January 9th. Try not to do anything newsworthy until then, friends!
And that you holiday experimentalists heading the store in need of last-minute butter-cookie ingredients, you hearing in your head all the sleigh bells ring-a-linging and the cash registers ching-aling-ing, you with candles burning through all the rainy sundowns and you with stockings dangling from the strangest of downtown upside-downs, you whose hands are greased with butter, you whose clothes are spotted with flour, you cutting out shapes in batter that faintly resemble stars, or candy canes, or giant globs of something or other but at least there’s sugar inside it, you with your brain all wrapped up in glistening tinsel and you with your mind dreaming merrily of little silent nights, you who is coming to town, you who is so cold outside, baby, you, everywhere, decking the halls, wrecking the walls, trekking through the mall, and stretching your inner giving muscles until they’re a million feet tall, you, each one of you, a gift, truly, with your shiny wrapper and soul shining bright from the top of every tree, is the news in literary magazines.
Have a most holly jolly week, pals.
Fondly,
Becky
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Very grateful for your clarity and generosity, Becky. And the compassion, gentleness, and advocacy you describe here is so heartening. Having started the day with a deeply informative (and also depressing) Hartmann report, I’m also appreciating your sharing the work Yetzirah and Jews4Humanity are doing in this really hard time. Many thanks for all you do!
Thank you for highlighting Best Small Fictions 2023 (which includes a piece of mine!)!