The Tide is High but I'm LitMaggin' on!
Open letter to Poetry Foundation; Resignations at Frontier Poetry & Palette Poetry; Writers4Palestine doc; judge dismissed from Best of the Net; top 1,000 lit mags; closings; jobs; markets; & more
Welcome to our bi-weekly news roundup!
Greetings Lit Magademia,
The Poetry Foundation and the Editors of Poetry have come under fire for suspending publication of a book review “because [the review] discusses anti-zionism.” The review’s writer, Joshua Tranen, stated on X, “The decision came from the leadership team of the foundation. I was told Poetry didn't want to be seen as ‘picking’ a side.”
In a public letter, over 2,000 writers and editors have signed on to tell The Poetry Foundation that “censoring an American Jewish anti-Zionist is indeed taking a side.”
The letter continues:
In related news, Sarah Ghazal Ali has resigned as Editor-in-Chief of Palette Poetry, citing “censorship, neutrality, & painful conversations around the occupation of Palestine.” Ali’s resignation letter states:
At Frontier Poetry, Megan Kim has also resigned as Editor-in-Chief, citing “conflicting values with the company.”
Additional staff members have stepped down from roles at these magazines. Former Frontier Associate Editor Sarah Cavar’s resignation letter states:
A Writers4Palestine Resource Doc has been created, listing “Zionist Literary Institutions.” This includes Best American Poetry (whose staff member tweeted a few weeks ago “I Stand with Israel”), PEN America, The Atlantic, and Discover New Art, LLC (the umbrella company of Frontier, Palette Poetry, CRAFT, Fractured Lit, Masters Review, Unchartered and Voyage Journal).
Author Howard Lovy has written an article called Antisemitism in the Literary Community. Lovy writes, “There are many people who have disappointed me since the October 7 massacre, but none have hit me so personally as the literary community.”
Lovy shared the Instagram page of writer Leslie Contreras Schwartz, who was invited to be a judge for Best of the Net entries. Schwartz was dismissed from her position, due to her “support of the Jewish people and Israel.” On her Instagram page, Schwartz wrote, “Because of my support of the Jewish people and Israel, this is conflated with my inability to feel compassion or empathy for Palestinians.”
She shared the dismissal letter from Best of the Net, which said, in part:
Note to readers: I provide these links as an overview of what’s happening in the lit mag world. Take them, leave them, discuss them as you see fit. Comments and debate are always welcome. However, as these are delicate and painful issues for many, I urge you to be please be thoughtful and respectful in your commentary (as you always are).
In other news, Brecht de Poortere has released his ranking of the top 1,000 literary magazines. Brecht says, “The database includes more than 1000 literary magazines publishing fiction and/or creative non-fiction…Along with the rankings, the full database also information on: cost of submission, pay, word limits, reading times, location of journal.” Someone, buy this man a coffee!
Speaking of rankings, submissions are now open for the Best Microfiction of 2023. This is for works 500 words or fewer. Editors “are welcome to nominate up to five microfiction stories that were published by your publication in 2023.”
In still other news, Hobart ran an interesting interview recently. In this discussion, Editor Uzodinma Okehi chatted with Kevin Walker, a writer who had choice words for the magazine after its mass-resignation and re-vamp last year. Walker wrote to the editors: “Personally, not a huge fan of the direction your magazine has gone in.” In this interview Walker and Okehi chat about the history of Hobart, its recent decisions, and the literary scene at large. Walker says, “No group of people can ruin literature. For hundreds of years, the literary market has had priorities different from those of independent writers. And for hundreds of years, independent writers have produced meaningful literature.”
Over at the Chill Subs ‘Stack, Ben Davis has a funny (maybe not meant to be funny?) (but definitely funny!) article addressing some of the hassle writers face when submitting work to lit mags. He writes,
Okay, so that magazine takes submissions through Submittable, you'll need an account there. That one through Duosuma—another account. Email those two, but attach the document for that one, copy paste into the body for that one. And this last one, you'll need to create an account through their custom platform, pay their fee through PayPal, wait for the email, come back, attach the receipt, there you go. But wait!
That one wants a blind submission. What's that? Ah, that is an outdated term for "concealed" submission. It means no identifying information. OK, back to the drawing board. Make two documents.
Shit, that magazine wants Ariel font for some reason. OK, three documents. We've got this, hang in there.
In the realm of lit mags closing, after my article over the weekend that discussed Green Mountains Review’s lack of website updates, I was told that the magazine is indeed closing. Hannah Feuer reports,
Vermont State University’s literary magazine, Green Mountains Review, is ceasing publication after the university slashed its funding as part of a broad cost-cutting initiative.
The 36-year-old annual literary magazine published poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, literary essays, interviews and book reviews. It was a prestigious journal with an acceptance rate of about 3 percent. Now, VTSU is completely cutting the magazine’s annual budget of around $30,000, according to editor-in-chief Elizabeth Powell.
No Contact has also announced its closing. Say the editors,
Thank you to all of you in this community who made such a warm space for us; thank you to those of you for whom No Contact also means something. However much. Publications are a product of their readers and submitters — their constituents. It’s been an honor to serve you fine people.
For those of you looking for gainful employ in lit-mag-opia, here is what’s out there:
Fantastic Other seeks readers and editors.
The Cloudscent Journal has several staff openings.
Foglifter is hiring a Managing Editor.
For those of you seeking markets for your all your most amazing things:
Sub Club has 60+ Lit Mags Closing for Submissions Soon (13 That Pay)
Erika Dreifus has posted “dozens of carefully curated, fee-free opportunities that pay for fiction, poetry, & creative nonfiction.”
The NewPages Newsletter has 47 calls for submissions & contests.
Authors Publish has Opportunities for Historically Underrepresented Writers This November and 39 Themed Submission Calls and Contests for November 2023.
You can find more November listings in my last newsletter.
As for us, friends, I did a stupid. Last Friday I emailed the registration links for November’s upcoming events. Two of those links, however, do not work. I have corrected the problem on the Lit Mag News site. If you would like to attend events later this month, you must register directly on the site and not through the links in that email.
Register here:
Registration links for November!
Hi all. Below you will find the links for the subscriber-only events coming up later this month. You can learn more about all of these events here: Registration links below:
As a reminder, we will have our Lit Mag Chat featuring Erik Klass this Friday, November 17th. There has been a request for the session to be recorded and shared with subscribers, so I will do that.
Also, all our events for the Lit Mag Reading Club are coming up. There is still time to order your 50% discounted copy of Missouri Review! The issue is great fun, and I can’t wait to chat about it with those of you in the Lit Mag Reading Club.
And that you big-hearted heroes, hunched daily in the midst of all your harried hogbobbles, you and you, machinating to make sense of all this mundo’s madness and mayhem, you dearly devoteds, doubling down on the doubtless efforts to do what can you do, nothing more and nothings less, you with flutters in your fingers and you with worry lines zig-zagged across your mind, you with the world weighty on your weary shoulders and you who write, anyway, even if the words are only a wander through a wild and whimpering wilderness of wacked-out wigzaphistry, you with your screaming sonnets, you with your stanzas shredded by all the small somethings you don’t at all understand, you all lumped in the throat and you choked up in the chest, and you, everywhere, no matter, struggling always, climb-wobbling skyward, manifestacularly miraculous, making every word count and making up the words you need as you go, you and you, thinking hard, wondering always, planting seeds of sentences in the sweet promise of this strange and surreal soil of our salvation, is the news in literary magazines.
Have a most wonderful week, pals.
Fondly,
Becky
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So what comes next? A requirement that all writers and editors declare in full their position on every major political and social issue, as well as any inherent biases they may have against certain types of writing, writers etc? And would that be any better than the current trend to 'disappear' writers who have failed to leap onto the correct bandwagons? Madness lies both ways.
Personal political passions have been riling up the American workplace well before the latest conflict. Everything from the McCarthy anti-communist crusade, the Vietnam War, all the way to BLM, and, now, Israel vs. Palestine. Think about it: all this violent rhetoric is just mirroring the dehumanizing of the "other". It would really benefit the literary combatants to calm down and take a time out before acting precipitously.