Summertime, and the Lit Maggin' is Easy!
Passing of Lewis Lapham; Massachusetts Review Editor steps down; Guernica Editor has opinions; small presses recovering; plagiarists gonna plagiarize; lots of work opptys; markets & more
Welcome to our bi-weekly news roundup!
Greetings Lit Magadillacs,
News broke last week that Lewis Lapham, “the innovative editor who revived Harper’s…,” passed away. Lapham was responsible for the publication of “Tom Wolfe’s most incendiary work,” and “filled out Harper’s with poetry, fiction, and in-depth reports, often by emerging voices…” Lapham also founded Lapham’s Quarterly at age 72.
In other news, Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, the company responsible for the popular anthology series, has filed for bankruptcy. “Chicken Soup for the Soul owes money to more than 500 creditors...As of March, the company had debts of $970 million and assets of $414, its bankruptcy filing shows.” What this means for the future of the anthology series is not yet clear.
The Editor of Massachusetts Review, Jim Hicks, will be stepping down “after a profound 15 years.” In this piece Bob Flaherty profiles the long-time editor, while also providing an interesting history of the magazine.
When he was first offered the job he gulped. “I had no real understanding of its importance. Small magazines have always been at the cutting edge — the Harlem Renaissance, modernism — I knew that in general.”
Then he dove into 50 years of back issues. “I just kept reading more and more and finding more and more. Oh my god! I taught that essay for years and had no idea it was first published in this magazine! Lucille Clifton’s first poems were published in the MR. People don’t know that,” said Hicks.
“MR was the only literary magazine that completed the Civil Rights trifecta,” said Hicks, “They published RFK, JFK and MLK. My job here has always been don’t screw it up.”
And over at Lit Hub, Guernica co-Founder Michael Archer has posted a head-scratching essay, “on Free Speech and the Retraction of the Israel-Gaza Essay.” The piece is in response to the months-long media storm surrounding Guernica’s retraction of an essay by Israeli writer Joanna Chen.
Writes Archer,
This fight, impassioned if misdirected, over freedom of speech, was about something. Rather, two things. Does freedom to express one’s views implicitly extend to another guarantee, the right to be heard, even listened to? Does the act of speaking automatically entitle the speaker to a forum? To any forum?
Framing the question from the opposite perspective: Is freedom of speech all that much to hold onto if one has no forum in which to put that speech forward, no way to be heard?
Huh?
In more uplifting news, Publishers Weekly reports that small presses are building back after the recent abrupt shutdown of Small Press Distribution about three months ago.
To get a further handle on how presses are faring, CLMP sent out a survey to as many former SPD clients as they could find…Most respondents, 80%, were optimistic that the bankruptcy will not force them to close their businesses.
…On the funding front, the Poetry Foundation reports that it has fulfilled 31 applications for aid…To date, the foundation has distributed about $130,000 in funds…The foundation will accept applications until September 1, or until funds run out. In addition, with support from the New York State Council on the Arts, CLMP has given grants of $500 and $1,000 to 21 presses based in New York State.
Editor Thea Swanson was interviewed about her journal, Club Plum. What does Swanson like to see in submissions?
Works that surprise often find a home in Club Plum. The surprise may be in storyline or language; it may be in the momentum or an unexpected shift or lift — and that unexpected quality is often tied to emotion. Beautiful language. Skilled and careful work, free of arrogance. Works that contain pain. Mature writing; that is, writing from someone who has been through the ringer and is brave enough or free enough at this point in their lives to create and offer it up.
And in the realm of things sad/funny, do you all recall John Kucera? The serial plagiarist who also goes by Anthony Bartolla and Brian Bianchi, among other aliases? Well, if you’ve been wondering what he’s up to these days, poet and editor John Compton has an update:
For those of you seeking gainful employ in the speedy sharp sexy land of lit mags, opportunity abounds!
The Poetry Foundation seeks an Assistant Editor for Poetry.
The Upper New Review seeks a Managing Editor.
The Paris Review seeks CIA assets...Kidding! They’re seeking a Senior Editor.
Foglifter seeks an Events Coordinator and an Assistant Fiction Editor.
A Public Space seeks a Programs Manager.
Philadelphia Stories seeks Poetry and Assistant Art Editors.
Five South seeks a Fiction Editor.
Callaloo seeks a Production Editor.
Oxford American seeks a Digital Editor.
West Trade Review seeks Editors.
For those of you seeking homes for your latest and greatest…
Jessica Kusisto has posted Submit to These Lit Mags Before They Close - July 28, 2024
Erica Verrillo has 73 Calls for Submissions in August 2024 - Paying markets and 36 Writing Contests in August 2024 - No entry fees
Erika Dreifus has “dozens of fee-free opportunities that pay for winning/published work.”
Authors Publish has 17 Magazines that Publish Writing by Children and Teens and New Adults and 35 Magazines Accepting Book Reviews.
Sub Club has…everything.
And now my dear friends, it is time for everyone’s new favorite feature…The Buellers!
Ah, Buellers. These lit mags that have us all feeling confused, confounded, conflicted and now and then confined. They are the ones that appear operational. They’re open or were recently open for submissions. But for all intents and purposes, they’re not operating. No recent website updates, no social media commentary, no new publications, editors not replying to queries, and all the rest of it.
What, we wonder, is really going on?
Below are the most recent Buellers, along with notes from writers and myself:
Small Orange Poem, Diet Milk Mag.
Southhampton Review. Anyone heard from The Southampton Review? Socials haven't been updated since 2021... Duotrope pulled their listing for falling behind on publications... Clifford Garstang gives them a (?) in his rankings. But then I've got a submission from September that moved over to "In Progress" back in October of '23. Thoughts?
Suburbia Journal. Website is down, no recent social media updates. Work still pending with writers. Duotrope lists “defunct” as of this month.
Button Eye Review. Website is down, no recent social media updates. Work still pending with writers.
Fairy Tale Review. Several people have asked about this listing. I have reached out to the editor for an update.
If you have any information about any of these magazines, or you have Buellers of your own, please share!
As for us, I will be sending out the August schedule for all the goings-on around here within the next few days. Stay tuned!
And that you courageous competitors passionately representing your nation, you mid-air twisters and balance-beam beauties out there bending like bananas, you slapping powder on your palms and hopefully not salt in your wounds, you augmenting the reality of what is daily possible with all your apparatus-avoiding aerial amplitudes, you whose connective value is worth a zillion times more than the code of points for your careful choreography and you gripping your dismount, or discounting your deductions, or expertly executing your regrasps just like you were taught, you and you, everywhere, training since the day you were born or else tumbling most merrily into the winds of glorious and physical profundity, you on the track, you on the board, you in the pitch, you and you, always, honing a lifetime of all things strange and unsayable into a single moment of carefully perfected and absolutely astounding grace, is the news in literary magazines.
Have a most extraordinary week, pals.
Fondly,
Becky
And now a word from our lovely Lit Mag News sponsors!
Edinburgh Award for Flash Fiction
Deadline 31 August.
£2,000 first prize for stories up to 250 words. ‘We welcome flash stories in all genres: literary, historic, crime, romance, gritty realism, contemporary, and more.’ Additional £300 Write Mango Flash Award for the top story that is ‘fun, amusing, bizarre and as delicious as a mango.’ Also do check out the £300 Edinburgh True Flash Award for stories up to 250 words for memoir, auto-fiction and creative non-fiction. Flash judge is award-winning micro-fiction author Meg Pokrass. Entry fee £10 per story. Managed by the Scottish Arts Trust, a registered charity. All proceeds used to promote innovation and creativity in the arts in Scotland and beyond.
http://www.scottishartstrust.org/flash
Meg Pokrass, Founding and Managing Editor of Best Microfiction teaches ongoing microfiction classes with an emphasis in the tiniest stories. Meg has Writing Workshop Substack Newsletter for upcoming classes with special features such as “Quiet Masters of Flash”. Additionally, she creates a quirky and popular prompt newsletter, Pokrass Prompts, recommended by Etgar Keret, with writing prompts, free 12-word story contests and occasional guest writers such as Etgar Keret, Aimee Bender, and Amber Sparks.
The opinion piece about Joanna Chen’s (brilliant) piece was more than head-scratching. It was double-speak up to Orwellian standards. Joanna’s piece was poetic, thoughtful, and humanizing. It’s the latter that prompted a threatened mass resignation from the Guernica staff. I recommend everyone to read her essay — even if just for its literary value, weaving poetry translations (Joanna is a well known translator) with a well wrought picture of some of the human complications of the war—from the perspective of a life long peace-maker. https://washingtonmonthly.com/2024/03/18/from-the-edges-of-a-broken-world/
Re Buellers:
Becky, I've had a submission out at The Southhampton Review since the beginning of March, which isn't so long these days, I suppose. However, what bothers me is more general: when magazines go Bueller on us, they NEVER refund submission fees. I'm not saying it merits a class action suit against Submittable, but what happens to that money? Does Submittable have a bank account somewhere with unclaimed fees?