We Found Lit Mags in a Hopeless Place!
April Fools! Plus Bear Creek Gazette Editor acting out; former staff of Creative Nonfiction launch new mag; new Granta Editor; petition for "curation;" submissions guidelines advice; jobs & more...
Welcome to our bi-weekly news roundup!
Greetings Lit Magristocrats,
It is April 3rd and time for me to come clean, though many of you guessed it all already (and pretty darn fast!). The truth is, there was no acquisition by Christopher McMathews, there is no merger with the fun and brilliant people at ChillSubs. There is no LitFeed Corp. Nor is there a LitCoin (yet!). Your comments, observations, giggles and delightfully funny tweets absolutely made my weekend. Happy April, you lovelies!
To those of you who were dismayed, fear not! Lit Mag News has not been bought by anyone. We are not changing a thing!
Though some good ideas were certainly put forward…
Onward we go.
In more sobering news, some disturbing information came to light over the weekend regarding the situation at Bear Creek Gazette. In February I reported on Editor/Publisher Stuart Buck’s announcement to shutter the press. Here was his statement:
Well, it turns out that Buck, who “has always been honest and transparent” and who feels, “since COVID [that] something fundamental has broken inside of me” and who has “never, ever been this depressed in my entire life,” was, just months before this announcement, touting the excellent condition of his mental health. In fact, he said, it “has never been better.”
That’s not all.
In Buck’s Twitter announcement of the press’s shuttering, Buck stated that if “I don’t work on my health right now I feel like I am going to lose the things dear to me.”
Working on one’s mental health can certainly look different to different people. But we will likely all agree that it does not include posting Islamaphobic content and repeated vile statements openly mocking the suffering and disabilities of children on Reddit.
More content can be found here:
Throughout all this, Buck has had no contact with the writers whose books he abruptly abandoned (via tweet), and has continued to accept donations to his press, donations largely made with the notion of supporting a troubled but honest and well-intentioned publisher in a time of crisis.
As it turns out, Miss Unity might have pegged the situation from the beginning:
In more uplifting news, several of the former staff of Creative Nonfiction, who spoke about their decision to leave the magazine in January, are bouncing back bigly. Hattie Fletcher, Stephen Knezovich, Anna Hall and Chad Vogler have launched a new venture, Short Reads. This is “a free service that features flash nonfiction—nuanced work in just a few words.” They’re not yet open for submissions but will be soon.
England’s premier lit mag Granta has announced its new editor, after the recent departure of Sigrid Rausing from the role. The Bookseller reports,
The Granta Trust has appointed Thomas Meaney to be the new editor of Granta Magazine from mid-April…He said: “I am thrilled to be joining the team at Granta and look forward to working with some of the best writers around. Granta’s mission to find new writers has never been more important.”
For those of you who were excited by Rattle Editor Tim Green’s proposal about “curation” as a new term of art, you can now find a petition to get the word into wider usage. “By considering ‘previously uncurated’ rather than ‘previously unpublished’ work, authors will be able to share their poems and stories on social media, streaming video, and other online forums without fear of spoiling first publication.”
Speaking of submission guidelines, those charmingly clever rascals over at Chill Subs have some great information for editors who might be looking to improve theirs. In We've Read over 4,000 Submission Guidelines. Here's Some Feedback, Benjamin Davis writes,
My partner, who is not a writer, helps us with our social media. While researching themed calls for a post the other day, she asked, "If these magazines want people to submit to them, why do they make it so fucking hard to figure out how?"
See, submitting to some literary magazines is like showing up on a date to meet someone who says, "OK, if you want a chance with me you need to shower three times a day, eat only fish, drive a nice car, call your family regularly, wear clean socks, give back massages, love cats, hate ferrets, drink 2% milk, and be a goddamn pro at hopscotch. Also, here is a portfolio of all of my exes. I want you to be like them but not exactly like them. K? I'll let you know in three to six months if you made the cut."
Lastly, The Windsor Review has announced a hiatus.
If you’re looking for a job in the land of lit mags, here’s what’s around:
Consequence seeks a Guest Editor for its Fall 2024 issue.
One Story seeks a Marketing Coordinator.
The Tomahawk Creek Review seeks an Illustrator.
The Common seeks readers.
Passengers Press seeks prose readers. (No info on their site, just drop them a line if you’re interested.)
Pangyrus seeks a fiction reader. (No info on site, just email them.)
For those of you seeking shelters for all your fiery fabulousness:
Erika Dreifus has posted a long list of fee-free and paying opportunities.
Erica Verrillo has posted 85 Calls for Submissions in April 2023 - Paying markets and 51 Writing Contests in April 2023 - No entry fees.
Authors Publish has 35 Themed Submission Calls and Contests for April 2023;
As for us, our April Lit Mag Reading Club is off and running! But don’t worry, there is still time to order your discounted copy of Iowa Review and participate. Not sure what this club is all about? Here is the information. It’s fun!
I’ll be speaking with Editor Lynne Nugent at the end of the month.
I’ll also be posting the line-up for this month’s interviews & information sessions soon, so stay tuned.
Also! If you have suggestions for a type of session you’d like to see here, please let me know. I’ve been contemplating a first-paragraph workshop for fiction writers. If this sounds interesting or if you have ideas of your own, do reach out! You can post in the comments or email me, anytime.
And that you twirling tricksters and prank-loving party animals, you cunning clown-arounders and sweet swirlers of silky slippery silly strings, you springtime sages and you who are never fooled, nope, not ever, not you, not even once (not counting that one time, or, right, good point, that other time, and oh yes…), you frisky foxes, you sneaky city-slickers slicing through the pizza sauce with something sharper than all the world’s skinniest ambitions, you who will never cease to be impossibly adventurous, you who will never fail to be freewheelingly fun, you who conjure with your creative coyness and your curiously charismatic charms, you who enchant with all the wonder of this chaotic and certainly not-always enchanting world, you who never stop laughing, you who never stop searching, you and you, everywhere, darting past the messy illusions with your own unshakable, if quite marvelously amusing and even at times untrue, truths, the deep-seated and eternal kind, is the news in literary magazines.
Have a most joyous week, pals.
Fondly,
Becky
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As you know, Becky, I have always supported you in calling out bad actors in the litmag space and it appears on the surface that there's not a lot to like about Stuart Buck. What gives me pause for thought is that many of the behaviours you describe are those of a person who is severely depressed, as he has disclosed. Perhaps you might want to do the same in this instance.
Amen to this --- For those of you who were excited by Rattle Editor Tim Green’s proposal about “curation” as a new term of art, you can now find a petition to get the word into wider usage. “By considering ‘previously uncurated’ rather than ‘previously unpublished’ work, authors will be able to share their poems and stories on social media, streaming video, and other online forums without fear of spoiling first publication.