Send My Lit Mags to Your New Lover!
Bathtub scandal at The Believer, new leadership at The Poetry Foundation, O'Henry prize announcements, a home for your novella, and editorial opportunities galore.
Greetings Lit Maganthropes,
Amidst a minor scandal involving a bath during a staff meeting, a mesh shirt, and an on-camera flashing, Joshua Wolf Shenk has resigned as Editor-in-Chief of The Believer Magazine. According to Vulture, “Reportedly wearing a mesh shirt and using a virtual background, [Shenk] stood up — without grabbing a towel or turning his camera off. Was there no way to reschedule the meeting or the bath?”
LA Times reports, “In a farewell letter shared with the staff, Shenk said his resignation followed ‘a dumb, reckless choice to disregard appropriate setting and attire for a Zoom meeting. I crossed a line that I can’t walk back over.’”
DrinkedIn writes that “Following Shenk's departure, [The Believer’s] future direction is an open question.”
In other news, Michelle T. Boone has been named the new President of the Poetry Foundation. Reports the New York Times, Boone “will take the helm after tumult over racial justice at the foundation, one of the country’s wealthiest literary organizations.” Said tumult includes the resignation of Don Share, Editor of Poetry Magazine, who stepped down “after a 30-page experimental poem by Michael Dickman was criticized for what some saw as racist language and imagery…The poem was removed from the magazine’s website, and the magazine announced that — for the first time in its 108-year history — it would be skipping a month of publication, as part of the reckoning with ‘the deep-seated white supremacy of our organization.’”
Meanwhile, congrats are in order to the writers selected for this year’s O’Henry Prize anthology. Writes Series Editor Jenny Minton Quigley, “We’ve made some big changes to O. Henry. The two most important are these: We are now, for the first time, considering works in translation and we have added a guest editor so that each edition can reflect one brilliant artist’s unique vision…We are thrilled that Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is our very first guest editor.” Stories featured in this year’s anthology come from The Kenyon Review, Story, The New Yorker, Tin House, Harvard Review and others.
Say, did you know The Alaska Quarterly Review publishes novellas? For more on this, check out this recent interview with Ronald Spatz, Editor and Founder of the magazine. Says Spatz, “Alaska Quarterly Review publishes works in a wide range of styles and lengths, including very short pieces and also those that are novella-length…Other than the practical consideration that we do not have unlimited space on our pages, the length of a work is not what primarily drives our decision-making. We simply feel it is important to give writers the space to develop the necessary scope, complexity, and depth of their pieces where it’s necessary and possible.”
If you’re looking for a way to work behind the scenes at a lit mag, opportunities abound. Pangyrus is seeking a Fiction Editor who “will be responsible for soliciting literary-quality fiction, evaluating fiction submissions, and setting the direction for special projects, author interviews, and features on craft and career” and an Associate Nonfiction Editor “to work alongside the nonfiction editor in shaping our online and print publication of essays, memoir, reviews, and all varieties of nonfiction narrative.”
The Asian American Writers’ Workshop (AAWW) seeks a Managing Editor who “will be responsible for ensuring the consistent publication of excellent writing in the magazine, managing a team of editors, and working closely with the EIC on evaluating submissions.” This is a paid position.
Minerva Rising seeks a Fiction Editor and a Poetry Editor. “Both editors will work to provide the opportunity for women writers and poets to share their diverse experiences and talents. The ideal candidate has an educational and professional background in either poetry or fiction and creative writing and editing. The ideal applicant needs to be an attentive and critical reader, self motivated and capable of meeting deadlines. Both are volunteer positions with a yearly honorarium that requires approximately 5 or so hours per week. The editors will work remotely using Submittable, Slack and Zoom. Interested parties should contact Kim Brown at kim@minervarising.com.”
Afro Literary Magazine seeks two Prose Editors and two Art Editors.
And Barren Magazine is seeking volunteers:
If it’s lists of places to submit you need, here are a few: S. Kalekar has posted 22 Markets Open for Book Reviews in April 2021. Erica Verrillo has found 80 Calls for Submissions in May 2021 - Paying markets. And icymi, here is a list of lit mags for writers over 50.
Finally, some interviews! I had a great time chatting with Marcela Sulak last week, Editor of Israel-based Ilanot Review. That interview is now available for subscribers.
My next Editor interview will be…tomorrow! On Tuesday, May 4th, at 12pm est, I’ll be speaking with Kristen Simental, Editor of Five South. All subscribers are welcome to join the discussion and get to know Kristen and her super cool new journal.
And that you soul-searchers and forever seekers of new ways to set the rain on fire, you who is only you, because there is no someone like you, which explains the turning up of others out of the blue, often uninvited, you who wade in the slippery prosaic shallows and you who roll in the roiling review-worthy deep, you who could have had it all, and might still, if you just keep submitting work and, also, perhaps passive-aggressively, sending love to your ex-lover’s new lovers, you who are busy making others feel your love and you who shall be photographed in this light, because you look almost exactly like a movie, no wait, like a song, no wait, like youth itself!, you and you, everywhere, don’t you remember, don’t you remember, no, seriously, why don’t you remember? is the news in literary magazines.
Have a love-struck week, pals.
Fondly,
Becky
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