I Remember You Well in the Lit Mag Hotel!
PANK drops the ball; interviews with editors of Threepenny Review, Poetry Magazine, and HEAT; exciting updates at ChillSubs; jobs at Adroit Journal and Southern Humanities Review; 100+ markets...
Greetings Lit Magliophiles,
This past weekend, yours truly got a bit saucy on Twitter. It’s just, guys, nothing irks me like gatekeepers who do not respect the efforts of writers knocking at the gate. Surely editors must realize that without the sweat and toil of we nobody peasants, their entire kingdom would not exist!
Thusly I spoke:
The magazine in question here is PANK. In response to my tweet, many writers came forward to say they have had the same experience.
And this, regarding people who ordered from PANK Books:
There is more, but I think you get the idea. Something is going on at PANK. I’d like to give them the benefit of the doubt. They did respond to my tweet, citing “an unprecedented reading period.” To which I say, well, people, get it together. It is unacceptable for lit mags to charge submission fees from writers while the submissions flounder in the queue, not to mention money for book orders that don’t get delivered.
As the saying goes, if you don’t have the time, don’t take the money! Or something like that.
In other news, a bevy of journal editors chatted with the press of late. In this interview, Editor Wendy Lesser discusses how at Threepenny Review, “she’s mostly hands-off; there is no house style, and she doesn’t insist on standardized spelling or punctuation.” What matters most to Lesser is voice. “‘It begins and ends with that…The minute I open up somebody’s manuscript, I can tell from the first sentence if the voice has authority and originality: it’s not quite like anything I’ve heard, or like the 10,000 manuscripts I just read before it. You can hear it very, very early on in any piece of writing.’”
In this interview, Poetry Magazine’s new Editor, Adrian Matejka, shares insights. “One of the things I decided we were going to do as a magazine is instead of trying to figure out how to rectify all the omissions and erasures that have happened over the long history of the 110 years of this magazine, we’re going to focus on figuring out how to highlight the people that should have been there to start with.”
Here is a profile of Alexandra Christie, the new Editor of HEAT, a leading Australian lit mag and “a trailblazer from the day it was launched.” Says Christie, “‘It takes a long time to become a good writer, to really hone your craft…I want to bring [emerging writers] into the mix and elevate them next to established voices. That’s really important to me.’”
Meanwhile, the amazing site ChillSubs continues to become ever more amazing. Last week they expanded the site to include bookmarks for individual markets writers are interested in, profile pages, spaces for writers to share their own published work and more. Founder Karina Kupp has been taking feedback from users and appears committed to transparency every step of the way. (You can see my interview with her here.)
For those of you on the job hunt:
The Adroit Journal is seeking a Senior Editor and a Staff Engagement Coordinator.
The English Department at Auburn University is seeking a Communications Editor/Managing Editor for Southern Humanities Review.
And for those of you with stories to tell and poems to sell, the markets are waiting!
CLMP has posted calls for submissions and contests coming up.
Authors Publish has listed 25 Magazines Accepting Creative Nonfiction; 24 Journals Open to Publishing Reprints; and 57 Opportunities Open to Submissions From Historically Underrepresented Voices this June.
Literary Mama has posted a roundup of opportunities.
Winning Writers has a round-up of free writing contests.
As for us, if you missed my interview with A Void Editor Lev Parker, you can check it out here. And tomorrow, 6/21, I’ll be chatting with Submitit Founder Erik Harper Klass. Erik knows the lit mag landscape in and out, and I can’t wait to grill him for all his wisdom! Learn more and register here.
And that you protectors and providers, you molders of young minds and shapers of sharp thought, you who father art and foster the invisible world to be made manifest, you who routinely take your characters to the park for a game of catch, you who work ceaselessly to capture the indescribable creations of your own cunning, you who will never forget the day you learned how to properly swaddle a newborn chapter, you who can’t believe how the time flies!—one day they’re mere letters in an alphabet and the next day you’re sending them off to literary magazines!, you sweet nurturers, you hardworking beasts, you out there, everyday astounded by this indescribable act of formation, remarkable in all the ways it makes you humble and humane, you who care, who care so very much, always, no matter what, even when the words neglect you, forget to call, go on holiday with their friends and keep you up half the night in a state of strange panicked longing, you everywhere, parents of the sentence, progenitors of the poetic line, gods working tirelessly to make the word good, is the news in literary magazines.
Have a fabulous week, pals.
Fondly,
Becky
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PANK took 614 days to reject my submission. Guess I'll submit again in 2025 when their 2020 backlog is cleared out.
Becky, if you ever want to start a new religion, I'll apply for apostle.