Confession: When I first started doing these weekend conversations, I worried I might run out of material. Ask a question about lit mags? Every Saturday? FOREVER?!?!?
But, as it turns out, there is plenty to ask and converse about. Through your continual engagement with this site, your thoughtful and often funny commentary, your tweets, your direct questions to me and to one another, you all have provided me with an abundance of ideas.
I now have so many questions to ask about lit mags I can’t wait until the weekend rolls around so we can have these discussions.
However, my friends, those questions will have to wait.
As you know, this weekend is the last weekend of the month. And the last weekend of the month means we are here for one reason and one reason only: To celebrate your work, your passion, your perseverance and your accomplishments.
It’s time. You know what to do.
If you’ve had a recent lit mag publication, tell us all about it.
Where was it published? Share the link!
How many places did you submit to before this piece found its home?
Why did you choose this particular magazine? How did you hear about it?
Did the editor work with you on revisions?
Did you revise as you submitted? How long did it take you to place the piece?
Don’t be shy now. We want the story behind the story and the lines between the poem.
Step right up, one and all. Come BRAG YOUR LIT MAG!
Lots of rejections for me this year, but a few publications, recent and forthcoming, have eased the sting.
This publication was major for me as I'd wanted to have something published in Gargoyle ever since I heard of it years ago in a poetry workshop and back when it was a print annual. My poem "Why I Play Candy Crush on my Phone Every Morning" is in Gargoyle Online #4 (with thanks to ed Richard Peabody who is great to work with):
May 27, 2023·edited May 27, 2023Liked by Becky Tuch
Persistence is important. I learned that at the beginning of my career when it took two years to get a publisher for my first collection of stories even though they'd almost all been published already.
This month, Spellbinder in the UK took a flash essay where I link my writing and my voice lessons, and did a wonderful light edit. That's due out July 1. And Kelp Journal took a flash family memoir about my father in the kitchen. I believed in both pieces despite some rejections on each.
I'm up to 45 published or accepted flash, travel, and memoir essays in a bit less than two years. The pandemic has been a fruitful time for memories and my writing.
As one who only became widely published in his 8th decade [amazing to me in itself!], I think one of the most pleasing aspects of my late-blooming career as a poet [a largely unpaid career] is its international aspect: I have been published, online/in print, to date in 12 countries; America, England, Canada, Romania, Scotland, China, Sweden, India, Australia, Hungary, Portugal and Turkey. And while most of the overseas lit mags are online, some are in print--Pure Slush just came out with the 'Home' anthology which included my poem 'Ocean City'. And a few weeks ago I got an airmail package from Sweden [!] with a print copy of Two Thirds North, which had published a couple of my poems [that was not only pretty cool, but they comped me the copy!]
Now here's a puzzle some of you may relate to: last winter it seemed I could do no wrong. Almost every week I got an acceptance email, and it was very nice! But this spring has turned into a desert-- a few green lights but most of the new stuff has been shot down. My quandary is that I thought they were some of the most sophisticated poems I've ever written-- the kind I thought the hoity-toity lit mags would eat up. Well, fate is a fickle thing-- nobody would buy poor Vincent Van Gogh's incredible paintings [little wonder he cut his ear off!] And serendipity has always played a big part in my life: I made it to old age despite some very stupid things I did in my youth, and every true poem that comes out of my mind--soul!-- is something of a gift--from where I can't say, but a gift it is as is all beauty--and truth, as Keats would say.
I had a poem published in Boats Against the Current. Maybe I captured some of the New York commute like the Great Gatsby or that sense of loss at the end. I wrote it around the New Year and it was accepted then, but not published until the Wednesday before Mothers Day, which is also fitting.
Naïveté is powerful. I didn't realize when I landed on Brevity blog and Brevity magazine last year that I had found my way to a justifiably lauded site of creative nonfiction writing, I just knew I had found a place I wanted my writing to land. My first-ever craft essay, on the writer-editor relationship, was published in the May issue. https://brevitymag.com/craft-essays/writer-and-editor_collaborators/
I had a story pubbed in Great Lakes Review, last month. It turned out to be the perfect home for my piece set along Ohio's northern shore. The story started out as a chapter in my WIP, a dual-timeline historical novel half set in 1987. But when I cut a POV, the chapter got cut. I still liked it though, and reworked it to serve as a stand-alone story. The MC was inspired by my mom, who was a member of the No Nukes! group in the 80s, protesting nuclear power. (The other elements of the character are absolutely not fashioned on my mom.) It's a little weird, like most of my writing--and the gross pic of a tooth the editor chose to accompany my story is so appropriate. https://greatlakesreview.org/new-nuclear/
I've had over a hundred rejections in the past year, but in the past couple months, I've had some acceptances: 3 poems in The Georgia Review, 2 in 2River View, 1 in Valparaiso Poetry Review, and most recently, 2 in The Southern Review. I had already submitted to The Georgia Review and The Southern Review when Becky interviewed editors Gerald Maa and Sacha Idell, but somehow hearing them interviewed gave me hope and patience. I hadn't really submitted systematically before, though I'd had some lucky breaks. The accepted poems had all been rejected by numerous journals before they were accepted. The ones in TGR and TSR won't come out until next winter, but I was too excited to wait. I'm grateful to Lit Mag News and Becky's interviews with journal editors. Hearing about the submission processes at various journals is really helpful. I think of submitting now as a game I need to play and am much less discouraged by rejections. Thanks, Becky!!
I had a flash fiction (750 words) published a few weeks ago. And a very brief interview. It's on Milk Candy Review, a wonderful, weekly online journal curated by Cathy Ulrich, who is super supportive and so fast in responding.
I was told about the journal by my friend, writing pal, and former classmate at Rutgers MFA, Amy Kiger Williams. I wrote this piece a while ago and had submitted it nearly twenty times over five or so years to other journals. I edited it to the 750 word limit, (got rid of some sentences I thought I couldn't!) and there were no revisions except a few typos and clarifications after I submitted. I was thrilled to be in this journal since I started reading it and saw the quality of the published stories. It's also the first time I had any flash pieces accepted. The journal is announced on Twitter every Thursday.
It’s been a great week! Rosebud Magazine (https://www.rsbd.net/NEW/) just published my 4500-word essay “James Dean in the Rear View Mirror” in Issue #70. And I got page proofs on a 2500-word essay about Josephine Baker from Catamaran Literary Mag for their forthcoming Summer issue. (https://catamaranliteraryreader.com/) It’s a nice karmic flip from my previous submission experience where I persisted through 37 or so submissions through Duotrope and Submittable for YEARS for an essay (also 4500 words) titled “Unpacking the Cure” which finally got published in the London-based magazine Shooter Literary Mag issue #15 — https://shooterlitmag.com/2022/08/30/issue-15-out-west/
I couldn’t bear the grind of 37 submissions for the “James Dean” essay. So I used a suggestion YOU published awhile back about going to your network and asking someone to make a direct submission, avoiding the slush pile. IT WORKED!!
I had four poems accepted in Cream Scene Carnival, one of the funkier, quirkier journals I've been published in! They match some crazy mad artwork with your poems / prose works which add to the fun. Here are the links:
Becky, I so enjoy this monthly celebration! I always learn about a few new lit mags, and read some lovely writing by others. I'm happy to shine a little light on my most recent publication, "Shadow of a Tall Saguaro" published in the Spring 2023 annual print issue (#29) of Thin Air Magazine, the literary magazine run by graduate students of Northern Arizona University. https://thinairmagazine.org/store/
STORY BACKSTORY: This is a creative nonfiction travel memoir about a desire to know my uncle, who died in extreme heat while hiking in the Sonoran Desert. Nonfiction editor Ravi Shadmehry helped me revise and polish my story from 1995 down to 1747 words (about 12% cut for the better)! Thin Air asked for First North American Rights and online serial rights. They offer a free contributor copy...unfortunately, I'm not sure what is happening with the mail (from US to Canada) -- the first copy never arrived, nor did a replacement copy. So I've not yet seen a copy of my work. I was waiting to promote it on social media when I could take a photo of the cover. If anyone sees it "in the wild" could they let me know? The journal costs $10. I did purchase two copies to be shipped to family members in the US, and they received them promptly. My experience with Thin Air Magazine was very professional, kind, and efficient! I'm very proud of this piece. Highly recommended.
I had 2 publications in May. One was "Fever Pitch" in A Thin Slice of Anxiety, a short piece where I insert "the plague" as a quasi protagonist. First time I do that, I've stayed away from writing about that stuff... it doesn't feel right somehow. But in this case it worked. http://www.athinsliceofanxiety.com/2023/05/fiction-fever-pitch.html?m=1
Then Bristol Noir took my moody "Heartstrings". I like that one, it's murder-adjacent and tender (!) - https://www.bristolnoir.co.uk/short-story-heartstrings-by-m-e-proctor/ . Warning: Bristol Noir charges a reading fee now (7$), they used not to but keeping the press open is difficult. John Bowie at Bristol took other stories of mine, for free, I didn't mind helping him. He's very supportive and his publication is top notch.
May 27, 2023·edited May 27, 2023Liked by Becky Tuch
I published this craft essay on Brevity's Nonfiction Blog in April; the subject will be pretty obvious from the title: https://brevity.wordpress.com/2023/04/03/on-restraint-writing-about-grief-after-suicide/. The blog editors were great to work with--they gave me suggestions for some local revisions, asking helpful questions, and then helped me fine-tune it.
My memoir excerpt “Exit stage left” (2,000 words) was published in the spring issue of the Baltimore Review & will also be included in a print addition in late summer, after being rejected about 14 times. (A slightly different version each time, since I seem to reread & edit every time I send.)
I chose the Baltimore Review from a Chill Subs browse, using “open for submission,” “2,000 words or less,” and “no fee.” I chose 7 journals sort of randomly (by logo, description, twitter count, or whim) from a long list that the browse brought forth.
Baltimore Review responded within days, and I had to withdraw from the other publications I’d submitted to (but at least I hadn’t lost any money!).
BR was wonderful to work with. Editor Barbara Diehl was helpful and quick to answer questions. She asked for an author blurb about the piece itself and a recording of me reading it (recording optional but I managed). There was a back-and-forth of edits—no changes were suggested, it was just to catch any blips.
This month I was delighted to receive two acceptances. Allium: A Journal of Poetry and Prose, sponsored by Columbia College Chicago, accepted a flash CNF piece, to be published in a future issue. They asked for the deletion of one paragraph they thought redundant, and I agreed. My second acceptance was by The Smart Set, an online magazine sponsored by Drexel University. To my surprise and delight, this is a paying market. They publish a single piece every four days, and in reviewing I saw a piece from a regular commenter on Lit Mag News. I recommend that writers of CNF and cultural commentary check out their site.
I wrote this story 30 years ago. It’s titled “Catire” and found a home in the 2023 Summer Issue of the Westchester Review.
Growing up, my dad used to take me to visit a historian friend who wrote academic books about Venezuelan history. They would argue about the accuracy of what was being taught in schools and the deification of such historical figures.
That left such an impression on me, that I wanted to incorporate that into a story. But rather than being a historical story, I wanted a mix of a modern landscape, with the historical details of one of one of the battles that defined the war of independence.
In the days of snail mail, I sent this story out with a SASE to about 4 places in three years and got rejected each time. I was proud that one of the rejections was a handwritten note from one of the editors of the New Yorker. About 5 years ago, I decided to revamp the story. And now with the advent of online submission, I sent it out to about 20 places in several years. The literary publication of a well known university became interested in it, but because Covid, they stopped publishing for two years.
Last year I shared it with my Zoom workshop group. They gave me invaluable advice, but the most important thing they provided was they didn’t think the name I had at the time did the story justice. So I changed it to Catire, the nickname of the protagonist. This time around, I sent it to about 6 places, one of them declined but in less than a month was accepted by Westchester Review.
Their copy editor was a delight to work with and went through the story with great detail. We even discussed the use of some of the Spanish cuss words and went through some of the motions so they felt natural. The experience was quite memorable and it added sharpness to the story. They also wanted five minutes of audio, so with my horribly accented voice, I recorded part of the story.
So, this is a 30-year-old story that got rejected maybe 29 times and found a home in a month after the last set of edits. One of the reasons I sent it to the Westchester Review is their impeccable design and the impressive pedigree of their editors. I felt my baby would be in nurturing hands.
This was the third time I submitted this very short piece, which needed no revision. I submitted because it fitted the theme. As others have said, persistence is the key. I set myself a target of one submission a week.
My story "Fallow Ground" was published a few days ago in Defuncted. They only do reprints, a welcome rarity. The story was first published in the print journal Maryland Review in (wait for it) 1988. Not only is the magazine long defunct; it was put out by University off Maryland Eastern Shore and I think that part of UMaryland is defunct too.
A couple of years ago, it appeared online for the first time in Little Death Lit. Which is gone also, after a short run.
I'm so proud to be included in Best American Essays 2023, judged by Vivian Gornick. I Originally submitted this to West Trade Review as well as other places. I chose West Trade Review because they said they wanted to accept the best writing, and I hoped mine was.
From the beginning, Editor Ken Harmon believed in this piece, and promoted it. Editor Kelly Harrison worked with me to sharpen the piece.
I'm so thankful to West Trade Review and its editors for getting me to Best American Essays.
Carla Schwartz here. (@cb99videos on Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube).
Thank you for making this highlight this weekend. I had three poems published in May in Verse-Virtual. Here is a link: Carla Schwartz Verse-Virtual May 2023. I chose this journal since I had heard about it from friends, and had also attended some of their virtual poetry readings. The editors were gracious in their acceptance of my work. I also had a poem taken by Bluepepper (again a poet I admired had been published there recently). Here is a link: https://bluepepper.blogspot.com/2023/05/new-poetry-by-carla-schwartz.html. Again, the editor, Justin Lowe was very gracious in accepting my poem. I had submitted all of these poems previously, some over a matter of years, and was thankful to find a home for these. I also had 3 poems on this year's Poetry Porch. You can search for Carla Schwartz here to find those three poems: https://www.poetryporch.com/toc.html
Thank you everyone here for posting. I have enjoyed reading your work.
Nathan Nicolau, the editor of New Note Poetry is amazing. He promotes the poems in each issue on social media, he curated a video reading of contributors, he talked up my chapbook when it came out months later, and now he's published an anthology of selected poems from the 2021-22 issues. I submitted the poem that was included in the anthology 18 times before it found a home with New Note. There isn't an online version of the anthology, but this link will take you to the Winter 2021 issue that my poem first appeared in (p. 17) https://www.newnotepoetry.com/winter-2021. Nate doesn't charge submission fees, and he got back to me with a decision in a reasonable amount of time.
May 27, 2023·edited May 27, 2023Liked by Becky Tuch
I have a short story (4000-ish words) coming out in the Toronto Journal shortly — this is a story I've been submitting for nearly a year and have revised as I've gone along, with input from trusted friends and critique partners. This is a pretty personal story and the first absolutely non-genre, non-speculative, "literary" story I've sent out, so I'm very proud I didn't give up on it. TJ did a light edit -- really, proofreading errors and typos I hadn't caught -- and that's it. However, I'm still waiting to hear back from them with the contract and the release date, so it's high time to nudge since it was supposed to go out in their May issue. Now it's looking like June, I suppose. But it was lovely to get to notify all the other places where it was currently submitted that it had been accepted elsewhere. You gotta relish all the goodies when they finally come your way.
May 28, 2023·edited May 31, 2023Liked by Becky Tuch
I recently had a short story ("The Trouble with Memory") published in 3 Elements Literary Review. I'm thrilled and I really liked the magazine... except for the fact that I can only link to the complete issue as a PDF, instead of directly to my story. You live and you learn, so I'll be double-checking future lit mags for how they publish their pieces. Has anyone else had this experience? I'm afraid people won't take the time to scroll through the PDF to find my story. http://www.3elementsreview.com/journal-issues/3elements-review-spring-journal-issue-38-2023.pdf
Edit: to clarify, when I was reading past issues, it didn't occur to me that none of the stories had direct html links, only the PDF as a whole.
Congrats to all. I know how tough it is to find a home for your work. My story 'Tyger, Tyger' about the Tasmanian Tiger appeared in Havok this month. There was a bit of backward and forward on edits but all worked out in the end. https://gohavok.com/2023/05/10/tyger-tyger-burning-bright/
And 'The History of the Cook', published by Cafe Lit last June, is about to appear in the 'The Best of Cafe Lit' annual anthology.
I had my first published poem in the Spring issue of Gyroscope Review. I just started submitting poems, essays, short stories, flash fiction and memoir) in January 2023 (my New Year's resolution!). I was happy it is both online (downloadable pdf) https://www.gyroscopereview.com/welcome/issue/ and in print via Amazon. My poem is "Old Age." I revised it to be 8 lines as that was particular request for this issue (to celebrate their eighth anniversary). It had been a stand-alone poem with a few more lines and also part of a "September Diptych," with the first part during the pandemic and the second part written September 2022. It was fun to revise it to 8 lines and it's the version I like the best. On my Instagram I posted it with a small watercolor I painted and that was fun too. @mary holscher. I had submitted it the poem in earlier iterations several other places since January and been declined. I had to withdraw from several publications when it was accepted and one editor wrote such a nice personal note, congratulating me for getting my first poem published. Any kind of small personal communication like that makes the process of submitting less intimidating for me.
This was one of my favorite pieces I've written. I sent it out literally over a 100 times. It got a decent number of warm rejections, made some short lists, but never seemed to get over the hill. Last fall I gave it a serious re-write and changed some things--POV from third to first, and different MC.
Sent it out again, and it became a finalist for Phoebe's Fiction Contest and published in their recent issue. So glad it finally found a home!
"Fallow" was May's final message. One thing published, 44 things out, 25 declines this year so far, but two novellas rewritten that I am more confident about, and sending around, a drawing show of work done during the pandemic, framed with a statement that I'm putting out to local galleries and venues, continuing queries on two longer things. Writing every day. The perennial plate spinning of despair and hope and then dropping them all into shards of equanimity.
A late mention is the micro prose string "Ready, Or Not." https://pittcc.edu/academics/academic-programs/arts-sciences-division/english-and-humanities/rbr/. Sometimes I write on a topic in prose and later mine that prose for a poem, which is the case with "Ready, Or Not." A crown of decastich poem of the same title was a runner up at Commuter Lit recently. My daughter says she actually liked the spare and pared poem version better.
Yet at that poetry reading, I presented what I consider a counterbalance to life's traumas, a prose poem "Burs," which will appear in Hot Pot magazine's online May issue. For it, I dug deep into my journal and pulled up an event from 1993 and being the mother of young daughters. The theme for May was motherhood. I submitted on the last day, because I'd composed it with a couple other possible journals that specialize in women's topics but that weren't accepting submissions then. I felt I had a winner and was too impatient to wait. They next day I got one of the nicest acceptance emails in which the editors told me what they especially liked. I knew why it was good, but sometimes others have different reasons. I'll have to wait until next month to provide the link.
Lots of rejections for me this year, but a few publications, recent and forthcoming, have eased the sting.
This publication was major for me as I'd wanted to have something published in Gargoyle ever since I heard of it years ago in a poetry workshop and back when it was a print annual. My poem "Why I Play Candy Crush on my Phone Every Morning" is in Gargoyle Online #4 (with thanks to ed Richard Peabody who is great to work with):
https://gargoylemagazine.com/anne-graue/
More recently is my poem "It's Not Your Fault" that appears in the Money Issue of The Ilanot Review:
http://www.ilanotreview.com/money/its-not-your-fault/
In each case, I had submitted the poems a handful of times to various places until I found the right fit for each.
I have two poems forthcoming in Canary: A Journal of the Environmental Crisis and in Leon Literary Review sometime this summer.
Thank you, Becky, for providing this space for writers to share their lit mag publications!
Persistence is important. I learned that at the beginning of my career when it took two years to get a publisher for my first collection of stories even though they'd almost all been published already.
This month, Spellbinder in the UK took a flash essay where I link my writing and my voice lessons, and did a wonderful light edit. That's due out July 1. And Kelp Journal took a flash family memoir about my father in the kitchen. I believed in both pieces despite some rejections on each.
I'm up to 45 published or accepted flash, travel, and memoir essays in a bit less than two years. The pandemic has been a fruitful time for memories and my writing.
As one who only became widely published in his 8th decade [amazing to me in itself!], I think one of the most pleasing aspects of my late-blooming career as a poet [a largely unpaid career] is its international aspect: I have been published, online/in print, to date in 12 countries; America, England, Canada, Romania, Scotland, China, Sweden, India, Australia, Hungary, Portugal and Turkey. And while most of the overseas lit mags are online, some are in print--Pure Slush just came out with the 'Home' anthology which included my poem 'Ocean City'. And a few weeks ago I got an airmail package from Sweden [!] with a print copy of Two Thirds North, which had published a couple of my poems [that was not only pretty cool, but they comped me the copy!]
Now here's a puzzle some of you may relate to: last winter it seemed I could do no wrong. Almost every week I got an acceptance email, and it was very nice! But this spring has turned into a desert-- a few green lights but most of the new stuff has been shot down. My quandary is that I thought they were some of the most sophisticated poems I've ever written-- the kind I thought the hoity-toity lit mags would eat up. Well, fate is a fickle thing-- nobody would buy poor Vincent Van Gogh's incredible paintings [little wonder he cut his ear off!] And serendipity has always played a big part in my life: I made it to old age despite some very stupid things I did in my youth, and every true poem that comes out of my mind--soul!-- is something of a gift--from where I can't say, but a gift it is as is all beauty--and truth, as Keats would say.
I had a poem published in Boats Against the Current. Maybe I captured some of the New York commute like the Great Gatsby or that sense of loss at the end. I wrote it around the New Year and it was accepted then, but not published until the Wednesday before Mothers Day, which is also fitting.
https://boatsagainstthecurrent.org/poetry/i-think-of-you-by-dave-nash
Naïveté is powerful. I didn't realize when I landed on Brevity blog and Brevity magazine last year that I had found my way to a justifiably lauded site of creative nonfiction writing, I just knew I had found a place I wanted my writing to land. My first-ever craft essay, on the writer-editor relationship, was published in the May issue. https://brevitymag.com/craft-essays/writer-and-editor_collaborators/
I had a story pubbed in Great Lakes Review, last month. It turned out to be the perfect home for my piece set along Ohio's northern shore. The story started out as a chapter in my WIP, a dual-timeline historical novel half set in 1987. But when I cut a POV, the chapter got cut. I still liked it though, and reworked it to serve as a stand-alone story. The MC was inspired by my mom, who was a member of the No Nukes! group in the 80s, protesting nuclear power. (The other elements of the character are absolutely not fashioned on my mom.) It's a little weird, like most of my writing--and the gross pic of a tooth the editor chose to accompany my story is so appropriate. https://greatlakesreview.org/new-nuclear/
I've had over a hundred rejections in the past year, but in the past couple months, I've had some acceptances: 3 poems in The Georgia Review, 2 in 2River View, 1 in Valparaiso Poetry Review, and most recently, 2 in The Southern Review. I had already submitted to The Georgia Review and The Southern Review when Becky interviewed editors Gerald Maa and Sacha Idell, but somehow hearing them interviewed gave me hope and patience. I hadn't really submitted systematically before, though I'd had some lucky breaks. The accepted poems had all been rejected by numerous journals before they were accepted. The ones in TGR and TSR won't come out until next winter, but I was too excited to wait. I'm grateful to Lit Mag News and Becky's interviews with journal editors. Hearing about the submission processes at various journals is really helpful. I think of submitting now as a game I need to play and am much less discouraged by rejections. Thanks, Becky!!
I had a flash fiction (750 words) published a few weeks ago. And a very brief interview. It's on Milk Candy Review, a wonderful, weekly online journal curated by Cathy Ulrich, who is super supportive and so fast in responding.
https://milkcandyreview.home.blog/2023/05/11/breathing-quietly-by-mauro-altamura/
Interview:
https://milkcandyreview.home.blog/2023/05/15/two-questions-for-mauro-altamura/
I was told about the journal by my friend, writing pal, and former classmate at Rutgers MFA, Amy Kiger Williams. I wrote this piece a while ago and had submitted it nearly twenty times over five or so years to other journals. I edited it to the 750 word limit, (got rid of some sentences I thought I couldn't!) and there were no revisions except a few typos and clarifications after I submitted. I was thrilled to be in this journal since I started reading it and saw the quality of the published stories. It's also the first time I had any flash pieces accepted. The journal is announced on Twitter every Thursday.
It’s been a great week! Rosebud Magazine (https://www.rsbd.net/NEW/) just published my 4500-word essay “James Dean in the Rear View Mirror” in Issue #70. And I got page proofs on a 2500-word essay about Josephine Baker from Catamaran Literary Mag for their forthcoming Summer issue. (https://catamaranliteraryreader.com/) It’s a nice karmic flip from my previous submission experience where I persisted through 37 or so submissions through Duotrope and Submittable for YEARS for an essay (also 4500 words) titled “Unpacking the Cure” which finally got published in the London-based magazine Shooter Literary Mag issue #15 — https://shooterlitmag.com/2022/08/30/issue-15-out-west/
I couldn’t bear the grind of 37 submissions for the “James Dean” essay. So I used a suggestion YOU published awhile back about going to your network and asking someone to make a direct submission, avoiding the slush pile. IT WORKED!!
I had four poems accepted in Cream Scene Carnival, one of the funkier, quirkier journals I've been published in! They match some crazy mad artwork with your poems / prose works which add to the fun. Here are the links:
https://creamscenecarnival.com/2023/04/08/breakfast-of-champions/
https://creamscenecarnival.com/2023/05/16/death-a-progression/
https://creamscenecarnival.com/2023/05/19/manifesto/
https://creamscenecarnival.com/2023/05/17/the-chiseled-man/
Here's a piece on growing up in the South I've been trying to write for a while. It took two Jesuses to help me finish it. Now in Drunk Monkeys. https://www.drunkmonkeys.us/2017-posts/2023/05/15/film-the-stain-steve-mitchell
I had one publication this month - my poem "How Loud Bones Speak" in Poetica: https://www.poeticamagazine.com/barbara-krasner-2.
I only sent this to Poetica. No revisions. I've been published here many times before.
Becky, I so enjoy this monthly celebration! I always learn about a few new lit mags, and read some lovely writing by others. I'm happy to shine a little light on my most recent publication, "Shadow of a Tall Saguaro" published in the Spring 2023 annual print issue (#29) of Thin Air Magazine, the literary magazine run by graduate students of Northern Arizona University. https://thinairmagazine.org/store/
STORY BACKSTORY: This is a creative nonfiction travel memoir about a desire to know my uncle, who died in extreme heat while hiking in the Sonoran Desert. Nonfiction editor Ravi Shadmehry helped me revise and polish my story from 1995 down to 1747 words (about 12% cut for the better)! Thin Air asked for First North American Rights and online serial rights. They offer a free contributor copy...unfortunately, I'm not sure what is happening with the mail (from US to Canada) -- the first copy never arrived, nor did a replacement copy. So I've not yet seen a copy of my work. I was waiting to promote it on social media when I could take a photo of the cover. If anyone sees it "in the wild" could they let me know? The journal costs $10. I did purchase two copies to be shipped to family members in the US, and they received them promptly. My experience with Thin Air Magazine was very professional, kind, and efficient! I'm very proud of this piece. Highly recommended.
I had 2 publications in May. One was "Fever Pitch" in A Thin Slice of Anxiety, a short piece where I insert "the plague" as a quasi protagonist. First time I do that, I've stayed away from writing about that stuff... it doesn't feel right somehow. But in this case it worked. http://www.athinsliceofanxiety.com/2023/05/fiction-fever-pitch.html?m=1
Then Bristol Noir took my moody "Heartstrings". I like that one, it's murder-adjacent and tender (!) - https://www.bristolnoir.co.uk/short-story-heartstrings-by-m-e-proctor/ . Warning: Bristol Noir charges a reading fee now (7$), they used not to but keeping the press open is difficult. John Bowie at Bristol took other stories of mine, for free, I didn't mind helping him. He's very supportive and his publication is top notch.
I published this craft essay on Brevity's Nonfiction Blog in April; the subject will be pretty obvious from the title: https://brevity.wordpress.com/2023/04/03/on-restraint-writing-about-grief-after-suicide/. The blog editors were great to work with--they gave me suggestions for some local revisions, asking helpful questions, and then helped me fine-tune it.
My memoir excerpt “Exit stage left” (2,000 words) was published in the spring issue of the Baltimore Review & will also be included in a print addition in late summer, after being rejected about 14 times. (A slightly different version each time, since I seem to reread & edit every time I send.)
I chose the Baltimore Review from a Chill Subs browse, using “open for submission,” “2,000 words or less,” and “no fee.” I chose 7 journals sort of randomly (by logo, description, twitter count, or whim) from a long list that the browse brought forth.
Baltimore Review responded within days, and I had to withdraw from the other publications I’d submitted to (but at least I hadn’t lost any money!).
BR was wonderful to work with. Editor Barbara Diehl was helpful and quick to answer questions. She asked for an author blurb about the piece itself and a recording of me reading it (recording optional but I managed). There was a back-and-forth of edits—no changes were suggested, it was just to catch any blips.
All in all, it was a quite a rush!
The link, which I don't know how to insert: https://www.baltimorereview.org/spring_2023/contributor/meg-robson-mahoney#Exit%20Stage%20Left
I had a publication this week at The Journal of Radical Wonder. Here's the link: https://medium.com/the-journal-of-radical-wonder/dear-mom-d05e9000b21a
They actually published three poems, at various times this month. This is the most recent.
A couple of weeks ago, my poem "The Inheritance," also coincidentally a poem about my mother, was published by One Art. https://oneartpoetry.com/2023/04/23/the-inheritance-by-robbi-nester/
These are both places where I've published before. I recommend submitting to them.
This month I was delighted to receive two acceptances. Allium: A Journal of Poetry and Prose, sponsored by Columbia College Chicago, accepted a flash CNF piece, to be published in a future issue. They asked for the deletion of one paragraph they thought redundant, and I agreed. My second acceptance was by The Smart Set, an online magazine sponsored by Drexel University. To my surprise and delight, this is a paying market. They publish a single piece every four days, and in reviewing I saw a piece from a regular commenter on Lit Mag News. I recommend that writers of CNF and cultural commentary check out their site.
Love reading about all your publications! Congrats to everyone! And thanks again, Becky, for this monthly forum.
I had two CNF flashes and a poem accepted for forthcoming anthologies this month: "MidSouth Sonnets" forthcoming from Belle Point Press https://bellepointpress.substack.com/ and "Women Speak," forthcoming from Sheila-Na-Gig Editions. (That call, by the way, is still open: https://www.womenofappalachia.com/submit-to-women-speak)
I wrote this story 30 years ago. It’s titled “Catire” and found a home in the 2023 Summer Issue of the Westchester Review.
Growing up, my dad used to take me to visit a historian friend who wrote academic books about Venezuelan history. They would argue about the accuracy of what was being taught in schools and the deification of such historical figures.
That left such an impression on me, that I wanted to incorporate that into a story. But rather than being a historical story, I wanted a mix of a modern landscape, with the historical details of one of one of the battles that defined the war of independence.
In the days of snail mail, I sent this story out with a SASE to about 4 places in three years and got rejected each time. I was proud that one of the rejections was a handwritten note from one of the editors of the New Yorker. About 5 years ago, I decided to revamp the story. And now with the advent of online submission, I sent it out to about 20 places in several years. The literary publication of a well known university became interested in it, but because Covid, they stopped publishing for two years.
Last year I shared it with my Zoom workshop group. They gave me invaluable advice, but the most important thing they provided was they didn’t think the name I had at the time did the story justice. So I changed it to Catire, the nickname of the protagonist. This time around, I sent it to about 6 places, one of them declined but in less than a month was accepted by Westchester Review.
Their copy editor was a delight to work with and went through the story with great detail. We even discussed the use of some of the Spanish cuss words and went through some of the motions so they felt natural. The experience was quite memorable and it added sharpness to the story. They also wanted five minutes of audio, so with my horribly accented voice, I recorded part of the story.
So, this is a 30-year-old story that got rejected maybe 29 times and found a home in a month after the last set of edits. One of the reasons I sent it to the Westchester Review is their impeccable design and the impressive pedigree of their editors. I felt my baby would be in nurturing hands.
The story will drop in mid-June, so check it out at https://www.westchesterreview.com/
And whatever you do, don’t ever give up on what feels like a good story.
I was delighted when Wordrunner echapbooks accepted my flash fiction The Letter for its anthology on the theme Salvaged. https://echapbook.com/anthology/2023/index.html
They charge a $3 fee but pay $15.
This was the third time I submitted this very short piece, which needed no revision. I submitted because it fitted the theme. As others have said, persistence is the key. I set myself a target of one submission a week.
My story "Fallow Ground" was published a few days ago in Defuncted. They only do reprints, a welcome rarity. The story was first published in the print journal Maryland Review in (wait for it) 1988. Not only is the magazine long defunct; it was put out by University off Maryland Eastern Shore and I think that part of UMaryland is defunct too.
A couple of years ago, it appeared online for the first time in Little Death Lit. Which is gone also, after a short run.
Here it is in its latest version:
https://medium.com/defuncted/fallow-ground-by-jon-fain-d0748a37da0f
I'm so proud to be included in Best American Essays 2023, judged by Vivian Gornick. I Originally submitted this to West Trade Review as well as other places. I chose West Trade Review because they said they wanted to accept the best writing, and I hoped mine was.
From the beginning, Editor Ken Harmon believed in this piece, and promoted it. Editor Kelly Harrison worked with me to sharpen the piece.
I'm so thankful to West Trade Review and its editors for getting me to Best American Essays.
HI Becky et al,
Carla Schwartz here. (@cb99videos on Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube).
Thank you for making this highlight this weekend. I had three poems published in May in Verse-Virtual. Here is a link: Carla Schwartz Verse-Virtual May 2023. I chose this journal since I had heard about it from friends, and had also attended some of their virtual poetry readings. The editors were gracious in their acceptance of my work. I also had a poem taken by Bluepepper (again a poet I admired had been published there recently). Here is a link: https://bluepepper.blogspot.com/2023/05/new-poetry-by-carla-schwartz.html. Again, the editor, Justin Lowe was very gracious in accepting my poem. I had submitted all of these poems previously, some over a matter of years, and was thankful to find a home for these. I also had 3 poems on this year's Poetry Porch. You can search for Carla Schwartz here to find those three poems: https://www.poetryporch.com/toc.html
Thank you everyone here for posting. I have enjoyed reading your work.
Nathan Nicolau, the editor of New Note Poetry is amazing. He promotes the poems in each issue on social media, he curated a video reading of contributors, he talked up my chapbook when it came out months later, and now he's published an anthology of selected poems from the 2021-22 issues. I submitted the poem that was included in the anthology 18 times before it found a home with New Note. There isn't an online version of the anthology, but this link will take you to the Winter 2021 issue that my poem first appeared in (p. 17) https://www.newnotepoetry.com/winter-2021. Nate doesn't charge submission fees, and he got back to me with a decision in a reasonable amount of time.
I have a short story (4000-ish words) coming out in the Toronto Journal shortly — this is a story I've been submitting for nearly a year and have revised as I've gone along, with input from trusted friends and critique partners. This is a pretty personal story and the first absolutely non-genre, non-speculative, "literary" story I've sent out, so I'm very proud I didn't give up on it. TJ did a light edit -- really, proofreading errors and typos I hadn't caught -- and that's it. However, I'm still waiting to hear back from them with the contract and the release date, so it's high time to nudge since it was supposed to go out in their May issue. Now it's looking like June, I suppose. But it was lovely to get to notify all the other places where it was currently submitted that it had been accepted elsewhere. You gotta relish all the goodies when they finally come your way.
Thanks for this space to share, Becky, and congrats to everyone with new work out in the world! I had two poems in translation published this month: one from Spanish, by the Bolivian poet Adela Zamudio, in the annual edition of Presence: A Journal of Catholic Poetry (print only, https://www.catholicpoetryjournal.com/current-issue/presence-a-journal-of-catholic-poetry-2023), and one from French, by the Swiss poet Alice de Chambrier, in Volume poetry (online at https://volumepoetry.com/Fleeting-Alice-de-Chambrier-trans-Laura-Nagle).
Had an acceptance for May publication that is on hold due to "website technical issues." Not sure how to handle that.
A short story, "Commencement," will be coming out in June at CommuterLit.com. It's about a rather unorthodox college graduation day.
I recently had a short story ("The Trouble with Memory") published in 3 Elements Literary Review. I'm thrilled and I really liked the magazine... except for the fact that I can only link to the complete issue as a PDF, instead of directly to my story. You live and you learn, so I'll be double-checking future lit mags for how they publish their pieces. Has anyone else had this experience? I'm afraid people won't take the time to scroll through the PDF to find my story. http://www.3elementsreview.com/journal-issues/3elements-review-spring-journal-issue-38-2023.pdf
Edit: to clarify, when I was reading past issues, it didn't occur to me that none of the stories had direct html links, only the PDF as a whole.
My novella-in-flash “Summer 1969” is available for preorder at AdHoc Fiction, official release June 2023. ❤️
https://www.adhocfiction.com/2023/05/summer-1969-sheree-shatsky/
Congrats to all. I know how tough it is to find a home for your work. My story 'Tyger, Tyger' about the Tasmanian Tiger appeared in Havok this month. There was a bit of backward and forward on edits but all worked out in the end. https://gohavok.com/2023/05/10/tyger-tyger-burning-bright/
And 'The History of the Cook', published by Cafe Lit last June, is about to appear in the 'The Best of Cafe Lit' annual anthology.
I had my first published poem in the Spring issue of Gyroscope Review. I just started submitting poems, essays, short stories, flash fiction and memoir) in January 2023 (my New Year's resolution!). I was happy it is both online (downloadable pdf) https://www.gyroscopereview.com/welcome/issue/ and in print via Amazon. My poem is "Old Age." I revised it to be 8 lines as that was particular request for this issue (to celebrate their eighth anniversary). It had been a stand-alone poem with a few more lines and also part of a "September Diptych," with the first part during the pandemic and the second part written September 2022. It was fun to revise it to 8 lines and it's the version I like the best. On my Instagram I posted it with a small watercolor I painted and that was fun too. @mary holscher. I had submitted it the poem in earlier iterations several other places since January and been declined. I had to withdraw from several publications when it was accepted and one editor wrote such a nice personal note, congratulating me for getting my first poem published. Any kind of small personal communication like that makes the process of submitting less intimidating for me.
This was one of my favorite pieces I've written. I sent it out literally over a 100 times. It got a decent number of warm rejections, made some short lists, but never seemed to get over the hill. Last fall I gave it a serious re-write and changed some things--POV from third to first, and different MC.
Sent it out again, and it became a finalist for Phoebe's Fiction Contest and published in their recent issue. So glad it finally found a home!
https://phoebejournal.com/all-bleeding-eventually-stops/
The latest issue of Evening Street Review contains three of my poems. Hard copies are available but you can read the issue online too: https://eveningstreetpress.com/product/evening-street-review-number-37-spring-2023/
Oh, my. I'm loving all these new poems to read!! Congratulations to everyone!!
"Fallow" was May's final message. One thing published, 44 things out, 25 declines this year so far, but two novellas rewritten that I am more confident about, and sending around, a drawing show of work done during the pandemic, framed with a statement that I'm putting out to local galleries and venues, continuing queries on two longer things. Writing every day. The perennial plate spinning of despair and hope and then dropping them all into shards of equanimity.
A late mention is the micro prose string "Ready, Or Not." https://pittcc.edu/academics/academic-programs/arts-sciences-division/english-and-humanities/rbr/. Sometimes I write on a topic in prose and later mine that prose for a poem, which is the case with "Ready, Or Not." A crown of decastich poem of the same title was a runner up at Commuter Lit recently. My daughter says she actually liked the spare and pared poem version better.
Because of the subject matter, I was anxious to see the prose poem Remote Teams published this month: https://rockvalereview.com/issues/issue-ten-may-2023/remote-teams-by-jeanne-blum-lesinski/. I was recently at a poetry reading at a coffee shop where 90% of the poems were prefaced by the poet with a trigger warning. Tough stuff.
Yet at that poetry reading, I presented what I consider a counterbalance to life's traumas, a prose poem "Burs," which will appear in Hot Pot magazine's online May issue. For it, I dug deep into my journal and pulled up an event from 1993 and being the mother of young daughters. The theme for May was motherhood. I submitted on the last day, because I'd composed it with a couple other possible journals that specialize in women's topics but that weren't accepting submissions then. I felt I had a winner and was too impatient to wait. They next day I got one of the nicest acceptance emails in which the editors told me what they especially liked. I knew why it was good, but sometimes others have different reasons. I'll have to wait until next month to provide the link.
I'm a little late on this but always happy to brag. (We were traveling). This little journal, Moss Piglet, is very fun to work with. Not particularly prestigious, but they do a lovely job of setting up their little magazine. https://www.flipsnack.com/5AF6ABFF8D6/moss-piglet-may-2023-the-transportation-issue/full-view.html
Ah, Marilyn, from my window, being 50 something is like being a kid-- enjoy and create!