Lit Mags are the Champions, My Friends!

Redivider gone missing; AGNI celebrates 50 years; Northwest Review revived; George Saunders encourages lit-mag reading; jobs at Michigan Quarterly Review, Kenyon Review; 100+ markets for your work...

Greetings Lit Magnificents,

What’s going on at Redivider? The esteemed Boston-based lit mag tweeted on March 5th that their site was down.

Redivider @redividermag

Our website is currently down. We are sorry for any inconvenience this has caused.

Nearly two months later and the site is still down. No explanation or response to inquiries on Twitter. Has this great magazine been another victim of university budget cuts? Have they quietly closed up shop? Have the editors fallen into the abyss? If you’ve got information about this long-standing and important journal, please share!

Meanwhile, new lit mags spring up and older journals continue to grow. FIYAH Literary Magazine (FIYAH), has just announced the shortlist for its Igynte Awards to celebrate ‘incredible feats in storytelling and outstanding efforts towards inclusivity within’ speculative fiction.”

AGNI is celebrating half a century in print. “To celebrate its 50 years, AGNI is running a series of six virtual conversations over the coming months in collaboration with Brookline Booksmith. The series begins this Monday, April 25, at 8 p.m., with a conversation between [Editor Sven] Birkerts and Joan Wickersham.”

The Northwest Review is making “a glorious comeback.” The magazine folded in 2011. However, S. Tremaine Nelson, who “was captivated by the journal’s legacy…relaunched [the magazine] in the fall of 2020.”

“When we’re not beholden to shareholders and universities, we can publish what we believe is the future of American literature,” Nelson says. “Universities have become unwittingly inflexible and slow in the face of social revolution … There’s no one telling us who we should or should not publish. We are not reckless; neither are we cautious. We want to publish the voices crying most urgently for change.”

If you’ve ever wondered at the usefulness of reading lit mags, much-beloved author George Saunders recently offered a lit-mag-based writing/revising prompt for his newsletter readers. He advises: “Go online, or in-person to your local indie bookstore or library and, identify a good literary journal...Count the number of short stories in there…Don’t read them yet…”

If you’d like to get inside the minds of some journal editors, here is a Q & A with Alysia Li Ying Sawchyn, new Editor of The Rumpus. Says Sawchyn, “The Rumpus is a place for stories that may not have had a home elsewhere, and we really try to prioritize marginalized voices. Having a diverse masthead is important if you want to publish these voices.”

Lucia LoTempio, poetry reader at The Offing, has shared what she thinks about when reviewing submissions. “A question I ask myself when I read for journals or presses—is this poem transformative? Does it undo my expectations of craft?…As I read, I consider how language is sometimes used as a shield.”

For those of you on the job hunt, opportunities abound!

Michigan Quarterly Review is seeking a Managing Editor.

The Puritan is hiring a Proofreader.

The Kenyon Review seeks a Managing Editor.

The Adroit Journal is looking for a Nonprofit Manager.

Grande Dame Literary is seeking applicants for Volunteer Editor positions.

Pidgeonholes wants readers.

As for those of you looking for new homes for your latest and greatest, these resources might be of use:

Writers’ HQ provides “[a] comprehensive list of writing competitions and other opportunities in the UK and worldwide.”

Authors Publish has posted 50 Literary Journals and Magazines Open to Genre Work; and 40 Literary Magazines Accepting Poetry Submissions; and Opportunities Open to Submissions From Historically Underrepresented Voices this April.

And Erica Verrillo has shared 12 Literary Journals Open NOW - Paying Markets; and 10 Literary Journals Accepting Poetry NOW - Paying markets.

And that you wanderers into the wild woods of waiting unknown wonders, you snorklers way down through the soggy soul’s sodden depths, you spelunkers, you with flashlights strapped to the faraway vision of your fearless third eye and you whose mind is a fractal of forever flying unanswerables, you who never stop asking because don’t you just want to know, well, gosh, really, don’t you? just want to? know?, and you with your awe, yes, you who know it’s there, maybe buried deep after the long sloggy day at the office, but really it’s there, all-powerful awe, writerly awe, searcherly awe, endless awe, the awe of all great explorers dropping briefcases at the door and hitting the writing desk, full of nothing more and nothing less than awe, every single day of our lives, is the news in literary magazines.

Have an inspired week, pals.

Fondly,

Becky

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