Lit Mag Me Up Before You Go-Go!
Thoughts on rejection; submission processes explained; job openings at Electric Literature, Orion, LitHub and more; grants for Black speculative fiction writers; over 60 markets for your work, and mor
Greetings Lit Magvericks,
Rejection is on the brain this week. At Lit Hub, Emily Temple has gathered thoughts from 20 Famous Writers on Being Rejected. Said novelist Jennifer Egan,
“[When I was a reader for The Paris Review,] I learned how many writers there were out there, and it was terrifying! But I also learned not to take the process too seriously. I figured that if I, a nobody in an un-airconditioned East Village apartment (batches of manuscripts were sent to me there), had the power to reject the slush pile, I couldn’t worry too much when my own stuff was rejected. It may have made me more resilient . . . and it definitely spurred me to submit to lots and lots of places at once, and not be so precious about it.”
Meanwhile, the Twitterverse helped me out with a submission question of my own. What are writers to make of submissions that remain in a lit mag’s queue for two years or longer? (Click on the tweet to see what people had to say.)
Got your own question about some aspect of lit mags? Send it along to me and I will do my best to ask the community!
In other news, a new lit mag has hit the scene, focusing on the Appalachian region. Says Dave Hurst in a review of the latest issue,
“Well, what do you know: There are literary voices in Northern Appalachia that aren’t dark and self-loathing!…Northern Appalachia Review is a collaborative product of writers and editors who want to see the region recognized on the national literary landscape. Its founder and editor-in-chief is PJ Piccirillo, a St. Marys writer who for decades has been campaigning for recognition of the literature that has been produced or inspired by this place.”
Those of you who followed Entropy Magazine’s Where to Submit resource might enjoy this interview of Justin Greene, who maintained the list. Entropy has recently announced its closing. Advises Greene,
“Now that the list is coming to an end, there are other places you can go to find opportunities. Look on Twitter—maybe someone that you follow is publishing in a great magazine that you’ve never heard of. Obviously…don’t just pick a random publication. Don’t submit somewhere just to submit somewhere; that’s a waste of everyone’s time. Read the guidelines! Format your pages correctly. Submit the right number of poems, don’t list every publication you’ve ever had in your cover letter, and be curious.”
If you’re interested in weekly mentoring on the process of publishing, writer Diane Zinna is hosting a 28-Day Publishing Circle. “Come learn about the many, many places you might submit your work and imagine doing so in a way that feels right for your soul…We’ll also hear from a different journal editor every day who can let us know what the process is like from their perspective.”
If you’d like to work for a lit mag, CutBank is seeking volunteer readers. “The work is flexible and, of course, voluntary, but we ask for about 2-3 hours of your time each week to read and evaluate either fiction, nonfiction, or poetry.”
LitHub is seeking an Assistant Editor. “This editor will have an integral role in the continued growth and development of the site, working closely with the managing editor, deputy editor, and editor in chief.”
Electric Literature is seeking a Social Media Editor. “You’ll be actively engaged with our 225,000 Facebook, 270,000 Twitter, and 36,000 Instagram followers: scheduling posts, interacting, and establishing a consistent, informed, and appealing social media voice.”
Peatsmoke is looking for an Art Editor. “The art editor will be responsible for managing art submissions to the journal, and finding appropriate and evocative pairings for the writing in each issue.”
Orion is seeking a Digital Strategist. “This position will oversee the management and maintenance of Orion’s website, adapting text and visual assets for web publishing and creating new page templates to expand our storytelling capacity.”
If it’s grant funding you seek, FIYAH is now open for applications. “The FIYAH Literary Magazine Grant Series is intended to assist Black writers of speculative fiction in defraying costs associated with honing their craft. The series includes three $1,000 grants to be distributed annually based on a set of submission requirements.”
For other opportunities, Writer Magazine has a list of February 2022 calls for submissions. And Erica Verrillo has posted 62 Calls for Submissions in February 2022 - Paying markets.
Also, at Authors Publish, Trish Hopkinson has some advice on how to choose the best publications for your poetry. “Don’t worry about how prolific other poets are or if your peers are getting published more frequently than you are. Your success as a poet is based on your own expectations and goals.”
In case you missed it, Trish also contributed this piece to Lit Mag News Roundup recently.
Finally, the new line-up of interviews for February is now live! Don’t miss out on upcoming conversations with the folks behind Scoundrel Time, Pine Hills Review, failbetter and West Branch.
And that you beautiful burners of murky midnight oil, you cunning crafters of plots so thick you could cut them with a butcher knife, you in your study, you in your kitchen, you in your basement-cum-spare-bedroom-cum-study-cum-repository-of-cardboard-boxes-cum-whatever-cum-is-this-even-a-room?, you coffee slurpers and waiters for ideas to roll in, and you who are the roll, or at least on it, skidding down a snow-soaked hill full speed ahead, you with highways of writing time that stretch out before you and you who cram it all into the boxed boxyness of tight-packed life, you on the edge of a cliff with your doubting heart in your hand and you full of gusto, bravado, machismo and heck-no, you, dear craftfolk everywhere, working and unworking, weaving and unraveling, finding and losing, committed, no matter, always, in darkness and in light, is the news in literary magazines.
Have the most magical week, pals.
Fondly,
Becky
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A poet waxing prosaically on a writer’s blog says she never has more than three poems at a time waiting in the audition rooms of literary journals. I admire her restraint, and am chastised by it.
At all times I seem to have dozens of irons in what mostly turn out to be cold fires. She sends out scouts, I send out infantry. She is like a fly fisherwoman, while I throw dynamite into the pond. She treats her poems like jewels; my essays are stones in a catapult.
“Maybe you’re too forward,” cautions the hermit crab. “I always back in.”
“Good advice,” I say. “Besides, I would rather be spanked than slapped.”