Rocking Around the Lit Mag Tree!

Literary institutions failing workers, gatekeeping at lit mags, job and volunteer opportunities, submission opportunities, and more.

Greetings Lit Magi,

Seems like every other week news breaks of a literary institution treating its workers poorly.

In our last newsletter, we looked at complaints that Poets House had fired its staff after they tried to unionize. In response to these abrupt layoffs, protests have been taking place and over 200 literary figures have signed an open letter to the library. The letter states, “Without pretending to be versed in the full specifics of institutional culture at Poets House, the grievances we are reading about are familiar to us: a personality-driven system of management; exploitative wage labor structures that use the poverty of poetry to take advantage of committed workers, who are often young; desired donors actively being protected from having to reckon with or curb their racist and transmisogynist habits.”

Meanwhile, Small Press Distribution, which services many literary magazines, is now under fire. An anonymous former employee has come forward to say, “My two years at Small Press Distribution were defined by a pattern of financial abuse, gaslighting, hostility, exploitation, and retaliation from directors and management…I present the following overview with urgency, at a time when workers are more vulnerable to the whims and demands of their employers than ever before, and as arts organizations siphon support from the public while privately abusing their staff — as low-wage workers face down the barrel of the pandemic every day for bosses that they now know, without question, do not care whether they live or die.”

In response to these claims, SPD posted a statement on their website (which was down at the time of this writing). Subsequently, many writers, publishers, booksellers and editors have written an open letter to the company, stating, “The success of many literary nonprofits rests not only on the authors, editors, and publishers they work with, or the managers, directors, and board members leading the organizations, but also the hourly workers that facilitate the running of the organizations by working in the front offices, unloading boxes in the warehouses, and shipping books to their final destinations. We expect that all of our small press community employees, both in leadership positions and hourly workers, will be respected, paid fairly, and treated well.”

In other news, Joyce Chen has written a thoughtful piece about The Politics of Gatekeeping. She writes, “Blind submissions no longer serve the communities the literary industry claims to be built for—readers and writers from all walks of life. The practice instead denies writers the humanity and context that are so crucial to the texture of a piece, regardless of its final form and genre.”

If you would like to learn more about various magazines, Trish Hopkinson interviews the Editor of Gyroscope Review here and the Editor of Lucky Jefferson here. And Judy Weinryb interviews Nora Gold, Founder of Jewish Fiction.Net here.

If you’re seeking work in the world of lit mags, Hopkinson has also posted a list of 9 Literary Magazines Seeking Volunteer Readers. She writes, “By volunteering, you learn how the organization operates, learn how to use submission tools, and how their issues are crafted to support their mission.”

A new lit mag, The Giving Room Review, is also looking for “BIPOC writers, readers, artists of all kinds to join [the] editorial board.”

FIYAH Magazine is hiring for two positions: “FIYAH Literary Magazine is currently seeking a Technical Assistant to join our team. You will be working with the Webmaster/Art Director L.D. Lewis in maintaining the magazine website and responding to customer support inquiries.” And, “FIYAH Literary Magazine is seeking a non-fiction editor to join our award-winning staff!”

If you’re looking for some artsy literary gifts, Epiphany is currently holding an auction. Packages include a lit mag subscription bundle, a free subscription to Epiphany, writing workshops and more.

And if you’re looking for places to submit your work (because you’re not being shy about submitting your work, friends, right?!), S. Kalekar has posted 10 Markets for Literary Fiction in December 2020. Bamidele Onibalusi has posted a list of 33 Literature Magazines That Pay Writers. And Anita Trimbur has posted a list of 10 Free Literary Magazines Publishing Outstanding Fiction, Poetry, and Nonfiction.

Lastly, if you’re feeling overwhelmed by all this lit magginess, Creative Nonfiction Editor and Pittsburgh’s own Hattie Fletcher will be teaching a webinar this Wednesday, December 16th, on How to Navigate the Lit Mag Landscape. “This webinar is for anyone who’s interested in publishing work (especially but not only nonfiction) in literary magazines but is overwhelmed by the possibilities. Also useful for writers seeking insight into the editorial process.”

And that you tinsel-strewn teddy bears, you toy-buying tacklers of holiday theatrics, you who are endlessly tidying up while the tiny tots who truly rule your house are ceaselessly tearing down, you thinking thoughts (or wanting to), you thumbing through things (or planning to, later), you taking a little bit of time to tell a long and thoughtful tale, you twisting your mental strings into knots tied tight with tension, or love, or something thick and thorny and in-between, you for whom the everyday feelings are so every day complicated and yet so every day there, and you, still, always, trying and trying and trying, through the night and into the twisting turning tangerine and timeless day, you, still and always true, is the news in literary magazines.

Have a wonderful holiday, pals.

Fondly,

Becky

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As always, thank you and be well.