November lit mag brag!
come celebrate all the wins!
Welcome to our weekend conversation!
My dear friends, it seems we have once again stumbled, fumbled, tumbled, cut, carved, chewed, clawed and catapulted our way into the end of yet another month.
If you are a longtime Lit Mag News reader, you know what that means.
If you’re brand new, welcome! The end of each month is all about celebrating you. It’s a space for you to share the work you’ve gotten published this past month, to take us through your process and let us read what you’ve done. It’s a space to celebrate all the hard work, the perseverance, the growth and passion that goes into getting those pieces into print.
I had a nice win of my own, with a personal essay that came out in Philadelphia Stories. This essay was written in response to a prompt from Tablet Magazine. Tablet recently hosted its first personal-essay contest, with the theme of Place. I took the occasion to try to formulate my thoughts around a place that is special to me.
I did not win the contest. But it was a great push to get some ideas down and give them shape. I knew of Philadelphia Stories because Editor Trish Rodriguez was one of the first people I interviewed when I moved to this city. I revised the essay, then sent it off to them.
They accepted the piece within about two months. They were wonderful to work with—responsive, friendly, enthusiastic. The print version is gorgeous and all issues are also online. You can read “If All We Did Was Sweat” right here.
And that’s enough about me.
Your turn!
Tell us: Where did you have work accepted this past month?
How did you learn about the market?
How many places did you submit to before your work found its happy little home? How long was it out in circulation?
Did you revise it as you submitted or was it done and done?
Did editors work with you on editorial changes?
Are you pleased with the result?
Don’t be shy! Come on out and step right up! Share your links! Tell your stories!
It’s time to brag your lit mag!
Two big pub wins this month for me: a short story of mine, "In the Style of Miriam Ackerman," about art, family and AI, comes out in the print edition of the Cincinnati Review! https://www.cincinnatireview.com/issue/21-2/ I had a great experience with the editors there (and had gotten many rejections in the past!)
And - my short story collection, The Man in the Banana Trees, came out this month! It won the Iowa Short Fiction Award (which is a FREE contest I totally recommend to all fiction writers). You can find more about the book here (https://uipress.uiowa.edu/books/man-banana-trees) and buy it wherever you buy your books. It was also named one of Debutiful's best debut books of the year. So I'm celebrating!
Not a bad month...
Accepted this month:
Jewish Writing Project, “In His Hands” and “Repairing the World with Chicken Soup”
The Ekphrastic Review, “Gertrude’s of South Orange,” after a Manet painting
The Ekphrastic Review Writing Challenge, “Studio Swan Song” and “Doors Swing Open at the Old Hall, a Pantoum”
The Main Street Rag, “Chasing Windmills” and “Taxidermy”
Moss Piglet, “I Bequeath to You”
Paterson Literary Review, “What the River Knows”
Nominated for Best Microfiction 2025 by The Ekphrastic Review, “Interior Design”
No revisions. First time in the Main Street Rag.
Appearing this month:
Poetry:
Vita Poetica, “In the Shtetl, G-d Does Not Only”
https://www.vitapoetica.org/autumn-2024/in-the-shtetl-g-d-does-not-only
Here: A Poetry Journal, “My Father’s Shop-Rite as Family Portrait, 1968.” Here: A Poetry Journal.
Heimat Review, “Kinesthetics”
https://www.heimatreview.com/kinesthetics.html
Heimat Review, “Chagall Dreams”
https://www.heimatreview.com/chagall-dreams.html
Essay:
Bewildering Stories, “Two Sisters”
http://mail.bewilderingstories.com/issue1068/two_sisters.html