Save the Dates! August Interviews & Info sessions!
hot, sticky and so super lit maggy!
Hey pals,
As promised, here are all the events happening at Lit Mag News in August. Be sure to bookmark this page, tattoo these dates on your ankles, write them with shaving cream across your bathroom mirror, freeze this page and make popsicles out of it, and otherwise do whatever you must do to keep these dates and registration links handy.
I look forward to seeing you!
Wednesday, August 6th at 1:30 pm est: Workshop Your Opening with Erik Harper Klass!
Many of you already know Erik from Submitit, the editing and submitting service he founded in 2020, or from the sessions he’s previously done with Lit Mag News, or the columns he’s published here. If you don’t know him—you should! Erik is not only super savvy about lit mag submissions, he is also a phenomenal editor.
In this session, Erik will workshop the opening few paragraphs of the stories of ten participants.
How it will work:
Interested participants email me stories. I will choose ten at random to pass along to Erik.
During the session, the writer will read the opening 3-4 paragraphs (so others can hear them).
Erik and other participants will provide on-the-spot feedback. The feedback will be constructive and encouraging. It will focus on ways to really nail that opening to hook an editor and emphasize the story’s focus.
Who should attend:
Any writer who has been struggling to land a story and doesn’t know why; any writer who wants to learn more about story openings; all writers who want to improve their craft!
Though we will only have time for ten stories to be workshopped, the process should be educational for all. And have no fear—we will certainly do this another time!
This session is for paying subscribers only.
If you would like to toss your story into the ring, go on and email it to becky.tuch@gmail.com. Please put “Erik workshop” in your subject line.
To participate you must be a paying subscriber.
The session will run for two hours. It will be recorded, and the video will be made available to paying subscribers.
Registration link is at the bottom of this email.
Tuesday, August 12th at 12:00 pm est: Q & A with J.B. Stone, Editor of Variety Pack
Variety Pack is a literary Journal based out of the Buffalo, NY. We aim to showcase a variety pack of voices from around the globe. When you step inside our journal, be prepared for a diverse melting pot of emerging writers with established. Sci-Fi? Horror? Magic Realism? Fabulism? Literary Fiction? Prose and poetry bridging the personal and political? Formal Poetry? Free-verse? Criticisms? Memoirs? Down-right weird? Somewhat normal (whatever that is supposed to be in this day and age)? This is a journal for all kinds of readers to enjoy.
We now publish bi-annually, with a paying market, and with a masthead of editors across the globe. Some who’ve had their work here, have also gone on to feature in other high-profile venues, from the Slowdown Podcast to the Best Microfiction Anthology. Since 2019 we have prided ourselves in being a space for every genre under the sun. So go ahead, peruse and sift through the embers of this Variety Pack, we have our own aesthetic, but it surely isn’t one small town, it’s a broad atlas.
This session is open to all. The recording will be made available to everyone.
Wednesday, August 13th at 10:30 am est: Q & A with Steven Lee Beeber, Associate Editor of Conduit
Conduit is a biannual literary journal that is at once direct, playful, inventive, irreverent, and darkly beautiful. Despite common sense and the laws of economics, Conduit has been thwarting good taste, progress, and consensus for over twenty years. Conduit publishes distinctive voices of literary merit—experimental to accessible, established to emerging—in snazzy volumes, featuring work that demonstrates originality, intelligence, courage, and humanity. Conduit champions a fresh mix of writers. If that isn't enough, Conduit reaches beyond the literary by interviewing astronomers, ethno-botanists, artists, graphic artists, and historians, et cetera, believing a vigorous imagination is one that is cross-pollinated by diverse areas of human inquiry.
This session is open to all. The recording will be made available to everyone.
Sunday, August 24th at 5:00 pm est: Lit Mag Chat with Becky
Will these animal puns ever get old? Hardly! I’m just getting started!
Anyway, most of you know the dealie by now. This is our monthly lit mag chat! It’s a place for us to speak candidly about all things lit mag. We will trade resources, brainstorm markets for hard-to-place pieces, share news of recent successes, vent about recent frustrations, ask questions, get answers, laugh until we cry, cry until we laugh, and leave with our minds on fire and our hearts full.
Do we like meeting on Sundays? We shall see how it goes!
Lit Mag Chats are open to all writers, in all genres, at any stage of writing, submitting and publishing.
This session will not be recorded. What happens in LMCs stays in LMCs!
Lit Mag Chats are for paying subscribers only. Registration link is below.
Tuesday, August 26th at 2:00 pm est: Lit Mag Reading Club Discussion of CALYX
Our reading club selection this month is CALYX!
CALYX exists to nurture creativity by publishing fine literature and art by women and nonbinary creators. While CALYX has long existed to provide a platform for women’s work, it is an intersectional platform that serves to spotlight the voices of underrepresented communities in the literary world. We are dedicated to keeping that space open to cisgender women, transgender women, and nonbinary and genderfluid authors.
To get your free digital download of this issue, please click here and scroll to the bottom of the page.
In this conversation we will talk about what we learned from the March issue of CALYX. What surprised us, what intrigued us, what baffled us, what bored us, what excited, delighted and inspired us.
This is meant to be a candid space for us to chat about our responses to this journal. It will not be recorded.
This discussion is for members of our Lit Mag Reading Club, i.e. paying subscribers.
Registration link is at the bottom of this email.
Wednesday, August 27th: Q & A with Brenna Crotty, Senior Editor of CALYX
In this interview we will hear all about CALYX’s history, the magazine’s mission, what these editors seek in submissions, and what makes this magazine unique. As it is part of our reading club, we will get to ask specific questions about the issue we read and how pieces were selected.
This session will be recorded, and the video will be made available to paying subscribers.
Registration link is at the bottom of this email.
And that’s it!
I hope to see you soon.