Well She's My Best Friend's Lit Mag!
The Accomplices retract a writer's essay; Anti-Heroin Chic Editor discusses deplatforming of poems; CLMP announces winners of Lit Mag Fund; Sky Island turns 5; Arkansas lit mags; 150+ opportunities...
Greetings Lit Magliotropes,
What is the responsibility of editors to stand behind their contributors? Is that responsibility especially great when editors call for writing on sensitive topics?
These questions were on my mind this week as I came upon this tweet:
To clarify, The Accomplices, publisher of (now defunct) lit mag Entropy, recently announced that they were removing DiFrancesco’s essay from publication.
The reason for the retraction appears to be a lawsuit filed against the magazine by someone claiming to be the subject of the essay.
Now, no one likes lawsuits. And lit mags are notoriously deficient of resources, financial, legal and otherwise.
However, was pulling the essay from publication absolutely necessary? Was it necessary to make the announcement of the retraction on Twitter and to phrase the announcement in just this way?
And how does this incident become more complicated given that the magazine’s submissions call was specifically dedicated to survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence, and that the editors had promised to create a “safe space” for contributors?
What do you think?
Is it just business for editors to look out for themselves and their magazines when trouble hits? Or do editors have a strong responsibility to fight for their contributors? Is the bond between editor and contributor too fragile nowadays?
Should editors of special theme issues like this make sure they have the necessary legal knowledge and resources before accepting this sort of work?
Relatedly, poet and Anti-Heroin Chic Editor James Diaz recently wrote this testimonial, naming several magazines and editors involved in the deplatforming of Diaz’s own work:
This knee-jerk deplatforming of poets’ works needs to end. All too often, publishers don’t even take the time to consider the surrounding circumstances of a given dispute. Instead, in their haste to be on the right side of something they end up being on the wrong side. And, that appears to be the case with Moonchild Magazine, Blanket Sea Magazine, and Sundress Publications. All operate in accordance with- or are influenced by #SaferLit standards. Yet, their failure to recognize I was libeled, misgendered, racially mislabeled, and had my mental health status mocked, suggests they all need to do far more thorough inquiries before making snap decisions which reflect badly not just on those they deplatform, but also on themselves.
Now for some good news. CLMP has announced 2022 Grant Recipients of the Literary Magazine Fund. Congratulations to One Story, Paris Review, The Common, Oxford American and the other fine magazines on this list.
And congrats to Sky Island Magazine for hitting a five-year milestone. As Volume One reports, “Over the past five years and more than 20 isues, Sky Island has published nearly 700 writers from across the globe and has garnered 115,000 readers in 145 countries…Pausing or scaling back is not an option for the [editors]…as they believe the power of the written word can truly change lives, and the world, for the better.”
If you’re looking for additional reading this summer, the NewPages blog has a tidy roundup of a handful of journals:
The Gay & Lesbian Review’s July/August 2022 issue is focused on “The Lure of the Sea” while World Literature Today’s July/August 2022 is the latest in their city issues, this one focusing on Kharkiv and Odessa. The Spring 2022 issue of Blue Collar Review features poems focusing on poverty, labor struggles, and on the devaluing of, and impact on, children on our corrupt corporate oligarchy. Reckoning Number 6 addresses the intersection between social upheaval and environmental change while New England Review 43.2 is a thoughtful reflection on the place of domesticity, travel, and tourism.
If you’re looking for lit mags unique to Arkansas, Masters Review wants to take you on a road trip. Say they, “Welcome to Arkansas, the state that brought you Walmart, Bill Clinton, and cheese dip. Literary offerings are small but mighty in The Natural State, attracting authors from the Southern region and across the globe.” Learn all about The Arkansas Review, Hide Avenue, and others.
As for opportunities, here we go:
In jobs, Northwest Review is seeking.
For contests:
Frontier Poetry has posted 10 CONTESTS AND MAGAZINES WITH DEADLINES THIS MONTH.
Canadian Authors has a list of contests (not exclusive to Canadian authors).
The Masters Review blog has 12 Deadlines This Month.
Erica Verrillo has posted 39 Writing Contests in August 2022 - No entry fees.
For general submissions:
Authors Publish has 35 Themed Submissions Calls for August 2022.
Erica Verrillo has 81 Calls for Submissions in August 2022 - Paying Markets.
Erika Dreifus’s newsletter has a bounty of fellowships, contests and calls for submissions.
And, while I generally do not list individual calls for subs from magazines, I cannot resist sharing this one: Salt Hill is now accepting work for the theme of “Ropes and Roses.” They “are interested in kink, erotica, and love.” Have fun with this one, everyone!
And that you roller derby roughians on the roundabout of this irreverent and irrational world, you skaters through the scrim of your most scrutinized and unscrupulous understanding, you all stocked up on scrapbooks, you in the midst of managing your marbles, you with your elbows out and knee joints bent while the wheels beneath you whirl you through the wonderment of ooh-baby-wild-worlds, you who dance all night in a radiant rink of brightly lit neon and you with your heart’s high beams always on, you and you, everywhere, in a dizzying maze of amazing lazy haze, winding and wild, joyous and gleeful, confused stark raving naked mad and generationally of a fabulously destroyed mind, is the news in literary magazines.
Have an absolutely wonderful week, pals.
Fondly,
Becky
P.S. I’ll be skipping the next newsletter installment as I head off on vacation this weekend. Your next lit mag news roundup will arrive at the end of August. (But don’t worry, the weekend conversations shall continue throughout the month!)
Got a question, comment, thought experiment, isolated event, hypothetical situation or bonfire of vanities?
Do you know in your heart, as I know in mine, that everyone on the planet needs to read this newsletter, and read it right now?
Deplatforming is a complex issue and an explosive one. I'm a poet, and my poems about my rape strip me naked. I have published a couple, which were treated with respect, and my only quibble is that at least one was received with an exaggerated respect, as if the crime defined me, the poet, not the quality of the poem. But the issues of sexual abuse, drugs, mental health, and what-have-you challenged by trolls aren't the deeper problem. We write about what moves us, not just pretty things like skylarks, or even existential questions. Things that threaten us or the world. This means writers write about political issues as well as personal issues that could potentially bring on attack. What would happen if the Supreme Court made a wonky decision about freedom of speech and the press that enabled attacks from every individual or group or government bureau feeling threatened by some writer's view? Maybe an unpopular view? A person perhaps having had an anaphaleptic shock that nearly killed them after a vaccine, and wrote a poem about it-and who knows what response--a pharmaceutical company, or the NIH-- attacked with both barrels? An essay or poem is not a law court, it is an expression of opinion and emotion and nuance. We appear to be on our way to having to put our anguish in code in order, like the ancient Chinese in imperial times, to dodge the Imperial Censor. Or, short of this, editors need to immediately form a protective group with liability insurance, or an agreement with the ACLU. Lit mags should then close ranks. This is the question: is freedom of speech worth fighting for?
My answer to your question 'Should editors of special theme issues like this make sure they have the necessary legal knowledge and resources before accepting this sort of work?' is a clear 'Yes'.
I know nothing of the details of this particular case and I strongly endorse the principle of believing victims but publishing material that makes untested allegations against a clearly recognisable individual and/or contains potentially slanderous or libelous content is not the role of lit mags or any other publishers.
I believe verifiable truth should be the only defence needed against being sued for defamation. How a small lit mag could believe that they have the knowledge or the resources to mount such a case doesn't say a lot about their intelligence or their willingness to take responsibility for what they publish.