Watch Me Dance, Dance the Lit Mag Away!

Firings in Stanford's Creative Writing program; Bard to cease publishing Conjunctions; Improving Class Diversity in lit world; submitting in September; learning from Sia; Buellers; markets; & more

Welcome to our bi-weekly news roundup!

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Greetings Lit Maglopedias,

By now you’ve likely already heard the news of the shocking firings at Stanford University. On Lit Hub James Folta reports,

There have been some grim and abrupt firings at Stanford’s creative writing program recently, threatening to upend the writing institution founded in 1946 by Wallace Stegner. The firings are a blow not just to the individuals who have been reshuffled and up-ended, but to Stanford’s writing program overall, where the lecturers are vital members.

…The abrupt change shocked the lecturers, who were also startled at the cold, corporate-sounding jargon they were met with from colleagues and fellow humanities academics. Lecturer Tom Kealey reports that, “When we asked what ‘cycled out’ meant, they clarified that our jobs would be terminated.”

In a public Facebook post, lecturer and poet Kai Carlson-Wee wrote,

I have been teaching in the Creative Writing program at Stanford for the last eleven years, and last week was told (along with the other 22 lecturers in the program) that I would be fired within the next two years. The meeting, now nationally known as “the red wedding,” was held over Zoom and was the most bizarre, undignified thing I have experienced in academia...I know I’ve been lucky to have the position and I’m mature enough to know it was never a guarantee, but the way we were treated bordered on contempt, and it’s hard to understand the ulterior motives for treating the folks who have built the program with such dismissal and lack of respect. It was objectively wrong and speaks to a much larger problem in the hierarchy of academia and Creative Writing, where performance is not met with advancement but rather political infighting, scapegoating, administrative shapeshifting, and the destruction of what serves students.

While this news doesn’t tie directly to lit mags, it certainly points to a trend of programs closing and lit mags shutting down. In April I reported on the closing of Goddard College, which houses two lit mags in its MFA program.

Then, there is this recent news about Conjunctions, based at Bard College: “After thirty-three years of being published by Bard College, the internationally celebrated literary journal Conjunctions will finish its tenure at the college with issue 84 in spring 2025.” The magazine was poised to close a few years ago but was granted a three-year extension after public backlash.

All is not lost, however. Conjunctions is currently fundraising so that it can become independent of the college, and is in search of a new publisher. Donations to sustain the journal can be made through CLMP, their fiscal sponsor. Be sure to put “Conjunctions” in the notes.

Speaking of financial matters, Brandon North has written an outstanding and long-overdue piece, Money, Merit, and the Economy of Favors: Three Proposals to Improve Class Diversity in the Literary Community. He writes, “The simple fact of my experience is that, on the whole, those with power in the literary community are not as invested in the well-being of people as their work, creative or otherwise, might indicate.”

He is therefore “asking the whole literary world to consider three ways to be more inclusive and represent differences of class.”

One proposal is for journals, contests and other application-fee-based literary institutions to “normalize and even institutionalize using sliding scales when requiring fees for submission opportunities, regardless of whether those proceeds help cover an organization’s operating costs…”

Another proposal “is more straightforward: create more fellowships, residencies, grants, and publication opportunities explicitly for working class writers.”

No matter your circumstances or place in the literary community, I hope you won’t be afraid to speak authentically. Tell me something you think would work better so we can (all) collaborate. Tell everyone else who’ll listen, powerful or not, monied or not—even if they might think what you say is as absurd as something I’ve said here. 

At Authors Publish, Emily Harstone has an inspiring post, Why and Where You Should Start Submitting Your Writing This September. Observing that September is the time when the most magazines are open for submissions, she writes,

It’s not just the journals are more likely to reopen in September, more journals over all only have reading periods in September. There are more journals open now than any other point in the calendar year, which makes evaluating and submitting earlier. Some experienced submitters plan their whole schedule around this month.

On his blog, George Franklin has written Ten Things I Learned as Guest Editor. Franklin has great advice here, both about submitting to magazines and about writing poetry. He writes,

Many of the best poems are conflicted. The problem with political/message poetry is that it is predictable, and unless it is very personal, it will often be a fast thumbs down.  It’s no help that you and the editor may be in total agreement about the state of society and what to do about it.  Yeats pretty much nailed this when he wrote: “Out of the quarrel with others we make rhetoric; out of the quarrel with ourselves we make poetry.”

And in “Jumping the Line” over at Brevity, Allison Williams has written the first-ever blog about submitting to lit mags that, while reading, honestly made me want to dance. Writes Williams,

Right now, [Sia’s “Cheap Thrills”] is my favorite song. It’s also a number-one hit, Sia’s first, on her first number-one album. But it didn’t start out as “her” song. Sure, she wrote it, but she wrote it in her day job–songwriter–and pitched it to Rihanna. If you listen to the island-ish backbeat, you can probably hear what it might have sounded like if Rihanna hadn’t said no. Another track on the same album, Alive, was meant for Adele. Who said no. Shakira turned down Move Your Body. Katy Perry said no to another track. So did Beyoncé…

Sia didn’t wait for someone else to pick up her songs. She wanted them in the world, so she sang them herself.

And by golly, did she! (Read the rest of the piece to see how it relates to submitting your work.)

In other news, I received word that a lit mag I announced as closing in the last newsletter may, in fact, still be open. In May, Idle Ink posted on X about their “final issue arriving” soon. What I missed is that earlier that month, they had posted about “submissions…closing for a little while.” (Emphasis mine.) They assured readers, “Don't worry…stay tuned and there'll be more news over the coming months. It's gonna be pretty damn cool!” Let’s hope so.

An interesting new lit mag crossed my path today. As reported here, Eleventh Hour, “a new journal at Binghamton University, aims to highlight perseverance and confidence by only featuring pieces that have been rejected, revised and revisited at least 10 times.” Editor Rhonda Branca explained, “‘We want to focus on work that has already gone through the gauntlet…We want to focus on work that the writer believes so strongly in that they’re willing to submit it over and over and over again until it finds the home it deserves.’”

And Electric Literature is celebrating its 15th anniversary next month. They will be hosting a party in Brooklyn to celebrate on October 18th.

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For those of you looking for gainful employ in the luxurious lit mag landscape:

RockPaperPoem seeks a Digital Media Editor.

Five South has several positions open.

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For those of you seeking homes for your latest & greatest, here are some resources. (I now only list these in the first newsletter of each month, so take note!)

Jessica Kusisto posted 74 Lit Mags Open for Submissions This Week – September 8, 2024 List.”

Erika Dreifus has 55+ fee-free opportunities that pay for winning/published work.

Erica Verillo has 67 Calls for Submissions in September 2024 - Paying markets and 41 Writing Contests in September 2024 - No entry fees.

Also, do you subscribe to Funds for Writers? The newsletter is full of offerings each week.

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And now, it’s Bueller time! This is the section of the newsletter where we shine a spotlight on those lit mags that were supposed to show up for class but have not. They might say they’re still running but maybe haven’t put out an issue in a while, or their site is out of date. Perhaps they’ve disappeared from social media. One thing is for sure: No formal closing announcement has been made, leaving us all to wonder…

Up this week, with reader comments:

The Red Lemon Review. “Last published a year ago and have not updated their social media since.”

My note: Duotrope lists as “temp closed.”

Olney Magazine. “looks like their sub guidelines haven't been updated in a while and haven't published anything in a year (and I think they were supposed to do weekly features?). It does look like they have been a little more active on social media, though not with updates about the magazine (that I can find).”

My note: This mag does not qualify for a listing on Duotrope.

Arboreal Lit Mag. Active on social media; submissions closed; site is partially down as of today.

Got some information about these lit mags? Got some other Buellers you’re wondering about? Let us know!

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As for us, there is lots happening this month, and it all starts soon!

You can check out all the upcoming events and info sessions by clicking below. Please note one small change, which is the chat with Jenn, Erik & Ben. This was switched from 1:30 to 2pm.

Otherwise, I hope to see you somewhere!

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And that you trainers, toners, lifters and flexers, you making miracles happen in order to multiply your muscle mass and you bench-pressing nothing more than ideas, often heavy indeed, you crunching your way to six hard packs and you packing your briefcase full of fifty hard projects, you on your mat, you on the treadmill, you jogging in place atop the stationary bike that either goes nowhere fast or maybe everywhere slow, you whose class of choice is only ever Zumba, you with your eyes a-tingle with chlorine, you on your way to, or on your way from, or maybe possibly on your way never, you and you, everywhere, always, on an eternal quest for something so perfect, and yet so unattainable and fleeting, forever in your hands already, forever slipping from your grasp just as soon, you entangled mightily in a wondrous and complex dance with this thing called self, this thing called body, this incandescent and magical and absolutely singular thing called you, so go on and kiss those biceps baby because you did it, you’re doing it, you crushed it and you, yes, you, truly slay all day, is the news in literary magazines.

Have a most inspired week, pals.

Fondly,

Becky

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And now a word from one of our lovely sponsors:

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