The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Lit Mags!

Little lit mags getting big buzz; hilarious rejection poetry; jobs at Oxford American, Ploughshares, Guernica, Words Without Borders; grant opportunity; 60 markets for speculative writing, and more

Greetings Lit Magquistadors,

A new lit mag got some big buzz this week. The New York Times profiled The Drift, a “journal of politics, culture and literature,” founded recently by Rebecca Panovka and Kiara Barrow.

In founding a journal of ideas, they had joined a long tradition in which young, ambitious, argumentative writers decide that, in order to be heard, they must start a publication. The Drift’s predecessors include, among many others, Partisan Review, The Paris Review, Commentary and Dissent, whose co-founder Irving Howe once said, “When intellectuals can do nothing else, they start a magazine.”

Meanwhile, Mississippi Review got some press upon celebrating 50 years in print.

“Fifty years is a long time, but it’s especially impressive for a literary journal to publish consistently for so many years. We’ve been able to publish debut selections from some impressive writers who have gone on to great things, and we’ve long been a place for established writers to publish their work. We’ve featured traditional work and wildly experimental pieces, too,” said [Editor Adam] Clay.

And, while no longer running, an old lit mag based in Philadelphia got interesting coverage. Black Opals, which ran in the late 1920’s,

is a milestone in a long history of Black Philadelphia writers. It’s also a portal to understanding not only more about Philly’s connections to the Harlem Renaissance, but also how renaissances were happening in other cities...This small magazine is now among the top 20 most requested items in the Free Library of Philadelphia’s rare book department…

Regarding the important role of lit mags, writer Lincoln Michel has written “an ode to lit mags and some suggestions for fixing them.” In What We Lose When We Lose Literary Magazines, Michel writes about his early love for lit mags and his experiences as an editor and submitting writer. He says,

My editorial experiences aside, it’s hard to overstate the role that magazines play for emerging writers. I published my first work in literary magazines in 2004. My debut book came out in 2015. Would I have been able to sustain a writing practice for a decade plus if I had nowhere to publish? I’d of course like to think so, but I can’t deny the validation that comes with having your submissions accepted by strangers and published for even more strangers to read. Lit mag publications help sustain writers during the years it takes to finish books.

In other news, if you’re in need of a laugh (aren’t we all), then what you need are R.L. Maizes’s Rejection Erasure Poems, which just came to my attention this week.

For those of you interested in where lit mags are located, The Masters Review has been keeping track. This month their roadmap covers lit mags in Oregon. “Oregon’s literary scene is as rich and lush as its forests; the state is home to established national journals, regional publications, and innovative online magazines.” The list features an interesting mix of well- and lesser-known lit mags.

And a heads up to editors: “The Amazon Literary Partnership is accepting requests from literary nonprofits for 2022 grants, now through April 15.” The program “…seeks to fund organizations working to champion diverse, marginalized, and underrepresented authors and storytellers. Our previous grant recipients…include nonprofit writing centers, residencies, fellowships, after-school classes, literary magazines… and internationally acclaimed publishers of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.”

If you are on the job (or volunteer work) hunt, wowie zowie check out these opportunities:

Oxford American is seeking an Assistant Editor and a Junior Account Executive.

Words Without Borders is seeking a Digital Engagement & Communications Manager.

Guernica is seeking a Senior Fiction Editor and a Senior Poetry Editor.

Ploughshares is seeking an Assistant Director of Business & Development.

The Borderline is seeking a Poetry Editor, a Prose Editor, a Staff Writer and an Issue Director.

If it’s markets for your speculative writing you seek, then check out Authors Publish’s new list of 44 Magazines & Anthologies Publishing Speculative Fiction.

Erica Verrillo has also posted 16 Speculative Fiction Magazines Open for Submissions NOW - Paying markets.

While you’re there, check out Verrillo’s other lists of 84 Calls for Submissions in March 2022 - Paying markets and 63 Writing Contests in March 2022 - No entry fees.

As for us, a whole new month of interviews awaits. If you haven’t already, please take note of these upcoming interviews and info sessions with editors and lit mag lovers from all over the world.

And that you dreamers and drifters, you dillydallyers and daisy-picking dilettantes, you who dabble in dandelions and you who doodle your days away in a love-drunk daze of duty and discombobulation, you at your desk, you on your divan, you hunched over a notebook on the cold bathroom floor of a hotel in some faraway town, you and you, writing for history, for destiny, for posterity, writing for world peace cuz yes you know we need it!, and you writing just to cure the doldrums and that’s okay too, you finding a way, dizzy and dazzling, dopey and daring, daily doing what feels like the impossible, which is, simply, cleanly, foreverly, devoting your one true self wholly and goodly to words, delicious delirious words, is the news in literary magazines.

Have a wonderful week, pals.

Fondly,

Becky