Save the Last Lit Mag for Me!
New Yorker editor reckons with racism; Whiting Foundation winners; fellowship for humor writers; editorial openings at Oxford American, FIYAH, and RHINO Poetry; new markets; advice and more
Greetings Lit Magtometrists,
The archive editor for The New Yorker has written a Twitter thread detailing the renowned literary magazine’s long history of exclusion:
Laura Hazard Owen reports that Overbey’s work to cull “the data was a painstaking process that took months...”
The stats offered about the print magazine were stunning: In the last 15 years, less than 0.01% of print features and critical pieces were edited by a Black editor. More women were able to publish profiles in the magazine between 1925 and 1935 than between 1990 and 2000. And over the last 30 years, spanning 1990 to 2020, few to no reviews of cinema, fine arts or classical music were published by either women or writers of color.
In other news, if you would like to get to know the new President of the Poetry Foundation, Michelle Boone was recently interviewed here. On the current search for the next editor of Poetry Magazine, Boone says,
We know, because of the legacy of the magazine, there’s a lot of prestige, whether real, perceived, or legit, of getting your work published in the magazine. Okay, but who decides that? Who’s the decider? What is the best? Those kinds of adjectives, I think, have really crippled the ability of the magazine and the foundation to really expand what contemporary poetry is. And to showcase the wide range of poetry by being so narrowly focused to a very privileged view of what the best represents.
So, yes, the new editor, we absolutely want somebody who is going to push and change and expand the work that has historically been presented in the magazine. I don’t think you have to compromise the integrity of the work by saying you’re making room for new forms.
And many magazines were honored with awards from the Whiting Foundation recently. Reports Publishers Weekly, “The prizes, which are administered by the Whiting Foundation, have been awarded since 2018 to a total of 18 literary magazines to honor their ‘excellence in publishing, advocacy for writers, and a unique contribution to the strength of the overall literary community.’” This year’s winners include Bellevue Literary Review, Arkansas International, Massachusetts Review and others.
Applications are now open for the 2022 cycle. Deadline is December 1, 2021.
Meanwhile, several opportunities caught my eye this week.
If you are a writer of funny things, “The University of Dayton’s Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop is once again offering two emerging humor writers the opportunity to compete for an all-expenses-paid trip to Dayton, Ohio…[T]he winners will be ‘robed’ in plush, custom-embroidered bathrobes and given free registration to the spring workshop, slated for March 24-26, 2022.” Winners will also “spend two blissful weeks at the University of Dayton Marriott, the workshop’s official hotel and an in-kind sponsor, to work on their humor projects.”
If you’ve got some crafty wisdom to share, Barrelhouse Magazine is seeking instructors for its upcoming Conversations & Connections writing conference. “Our primary determination about whether to run a particular workshop is whether this session will be useful to our participants. We like to say that people should leave each session with information they can use immediately.”
And if you are an editor looking for ways to promote your magazine, Sabotage Reviews is running an interview series that will be compiled in a book. “Broken into categories including poetry, flash fiction and short stories, with submissions welcome on an international scale, this book aims to help authors in finding the right home for their works.”
For those of you on the job hunt, Oxford American is seeking a Digital Editor. “Successful candidates should be comfortable brainstorming, leading, and executing new ideas and projects from start to finish. The digital editor will have the option to report to the magazine’s main offices in Conway, Arkansas or work remotely. This is a full-time salaried position reporting to the magazine’s Editor.”
FIYAH is seeking a Managing Editor. “The Managing Editor assigns incoming submissions to FIYAH Magazine to the acquiring editor staff as well as managing them to complete their work. Additionally, the Managing Editor supports the Executive, Poetry and Non-fiction Editors as needed…The Managing Editor will be paid $300 per submission period.”
And RHINO Poetry is seeking an Associate Editor:
For those of you with stories to tell and poems to share, Winning Writers has curated a list of “over two dozen excellent free poetry and prose contests with deadlines between September 15-October 31.” (You’ll need to create an account to receive the newsletter, but it’s free.)
And if your writing is a bit on the surreal side, Erica Verrillo has posted 10 Speculative Fiction Magazines Open for Submissions NOW - Paying Markets.
Sometimes, though, what you really want is advice. And that’s a-okay! For those wanting to know why it’s a good thing to submit to magazines this fall, Emily Harstone advises, “Many literary journals are run by academic institutions, which means that the bulk of literary journals reopen during the month of September…Not only does this mean that there are hundreds of journals that are now open to submissions, it also means that the editors have had a break or the staff has turned over. This means that your work is more likely to be read by fresh eyes.”
For editing your short stories, Editor of Domesticated Magazine and former Editor of Tahoma Literary Review Yi Shun Lai observes, “Short stories go through trends, just like anything else. But these are the litmus tests by which I’ve found myself measuring short fiction for years, even as my understanding of literature from around the world continues to grow and as my own skill set as a writer grows.”
Finally, in case you missed it (because for some strange reason you don’t sit around waiting for Lit Mag News to arrive!), I had a great chat with Tim Green, Editor of Rattle Magazine last week.
This Friday, I will be speaking to Richard Peabody, the Editor of Gargoyle. And next week I will be doing another Submissions Q & A session, and also interviewing Ralph Pennel, Editor of Midway Journal. Learn all about these events and register here.
And that you magnificent mandarins with your rough skin surrounding the bright orange center of all your true inner sweetness, you sour-scrumptious grapefruits plucked from the most gargantuan and gorgeous trees, you oranges, so very much the thing itself, you who are lime-green but bursting not with bitterness, you who glow with your aura of gorgeous lemon light, you peeling open, you who always land exactly in the spot of the last paper cut and who sting so sharp, yet so astute, you with your ruby red beauty and you with your health benefits bursting forth, you, everywhere, my dear and darling clementines, gone but not lost forever, no, oh my darlings, is the news in literary magazines.
Have a turbo-charged and glorious week, pals.
Fondly,
Becky
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