Welcome to our weekly column offering perspectives on lit mag publishing, with contributions from readers, writers and editors around the world. On May 17th Becky Tuch of Lit Mag News conducted one of her best interviews ever. Her guest was Paula Deitz
You are super kind Catherine. Thanks for your comment. I read to see how another writer thinks. I write to let the reader see how I think. I'm glad my thoughts found a home with you.
This reminds me of the book "The Last Intellectuals" by Russell Jacoby. The author asserts younger public intellectuals (this was pubbed in 1987!) now prefer working in universities and writing for academic outlets.
I can't remember now, but I heard from an editor of another magazine that they get more fiction and poetry than nonfiction subs in general. People also prefer to publish timely essays in newspapers or magazines. I imagine these factors and Hudson Review's mail-only and no simsub policy, and long response time all contribute to the lower number of essay subs.
Thoughtful and provocative piece. I don't agree 100% with every assertion, but overall, I really enjoyed reading this piece and thinking about it. Well done! I expect I'll be reading your essays widely before too long. (Also, I can't resist sharing that one of my short stories will be appearing in the Hudson Review, either the next issue or the issue after that. A thrill indeed!!!)
Leslie, thanks so much for your comment. As I said in one of my other comments here, this essay was much longer before Becky and I downsized it to fit this format. In the original piece I made a meticulous statistical analysis of the odds of acceptance of a story by The Hudson Review. Because of the much higher number of stories (versus essays) they receive, you have achieved something really rare by having your story accepted. I am thinking "literary journal jackpot!" I really am very, very happy for you. And want to read your story now. For you though...remember my essay here again. In it I quoted Paula saying that "Agents and Publishers watch us." Yes, this illustrious journal. Congratulations in the biggest sense!
Excellent points I think Andrew. Building on your thoughts, I also wonder if the market for articles and essays by non credentialed "generalist" writers hasn't become more and more diminished over time. Maybe that is part of what is going on. I think this makes it hard for a writer to break through in the submission process. Even a short letter to the op ed editor of a major paper...look how many of them are from experts in some field. Much like the fact that these days everyone is an investor...it seems that everyone is a writer.
Scott, thanks for commenting. I don't think you're missing anything. I also observe the personal essay dominates in journals. In that regard, only Paula could say whether Hudson is different in what they seek. I try to weave a little of my experience into something with a little more pith...with a little more citation and backbone. To answer the question "what is the point?". Unvarnished feelings and memories aren't quite enough for me as a reader not as a writer. By the way, George Bernard Shaw also said he wouldn't pick up a pencil for the sake of art alone. That particular quote got cut in the interest of brevity in this essay. It was much longer. But it is a belief I also ascribe to...not for art alone. As you see, James Agee also believed it.
Great piece, Richard. It's no mystery why The Hudson Review gets only 1,500 fiction submissions a year, and a small amount of essays: they require submission by mail, which is like dropping your piece in a black hole. With Submittable and other online systems, you at least get a thank you note, and can see when your piece has moved from “received” to “in progress.” With The Hudson Review there is no response, and you may not hear back for a year. And excuse me if I take the editor’s comment about their authors getting noticed by publishers with a grain of salt. I can’t imagine why this would be more true of The Hudson Review than any other good lit mag--especially since other lit mags get 50,000 or more submissions per year.
Bruce, I'm going back through and don't think I responded to your thoughtful comment. First many thanks for commenting. I've backed off submitting after realizing it takes a lot of time and diverts me from the real task of writing. At nearly 65, I consider every writing project important because the well is only so deep. Gradually I am building up books. Two full books, story cycles. A book of essays written as an over 60 student of the College of Charleston. A full length play. Whether any of these will ever gain readers, I just don't know. But the idea of being in line for notice by literary journals is not motivating to me. I like all writers want validation that comes from publication. I'm just continuing to build up, trying not to let myself be demoralized by the fact that there are simply more writers than readers, and not enough magazine or journal pages (nor editors' eyes) to go around.
I totally get it, Richard. I’ve been fortunate to be published in a couple of very good lit mags, but the process of submitting is an emotional rollercoaster with very low odds of success—at least at the better mags. On the plus side, there are more lit mags than you may realize. As a regular reader of this newsletter, I’m stunned every month during the Lit Mag Brag to hear about people being published in mags I’ve never heard of. One member of this group has been published dozens of times in the last year, which tells me it’s very possible to be published if you’re targeting the right magazines.
All good! I haven't given up, just backed off. I have always aimed high...probably too high...remaining aloof I suppose after getting a couple of encouraging comments from 2 top journals that I saved and always try not to forget. I suppose for me the object wasn't ever so much to try to publish at any level, as to test whether it is possible to break through where it will matter more. Everyone has their reasons for doing this. For me writing has become a creative outlet that lets me to fashion a one of a kind something after many years of denying that I have this need to create. It has always been trying to break out and manifest in various ways. I particularly like the thought that words are forever. Indelible. That words approach the infinite at the asymptote. After all it was Jesus who said "Heaven and Earth will pass away...but my words will not pass away." If we are fashioned in God's image, my hope is that our words will live on like that also. That said, it sure would be good to have a committed editor help shape up all of this stuff!
I love that quote from the Bible. I think you and I are looking for the same kind of satisfaction from our writing: to make a contribution, to leave a mark, even if a modest one, and to be part of a literary community we respect. But yes, even if we’re not getting published, we still keep writing, because that always has rewards of its own.
I hear you, Nolo, but personally I would rather pay the fee than let my essay sit in a dark hole. ZYZZYVA and Conjunctions also require submission by mail, which I find unbearable. But maybe that’s just me.
Catherine, I just read your bio by the way and your next writing project about the Acadian expulsion sounds great. I lived in Lafourche Parish, LA back in the early 80's in deep Cajun country. The experience marked me with a deep affection for the people of that region. We've also visited Grand Pre in Nova Scotia, the site of the expulsion and the whole saga is so tragic. I am of Huguenot lineage and relate to that much earlier expulsion of French people, at the time of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Good luck on your book!
Fabulous essay Mr. Mullin. You should submit an essay to the The Hudson Review. You might be chosen and I'm not being facetious. Your writing is thoughtful and well well-researched and impactful. A good essay changes the reader, and makes the reader think. This did that for me. Thank you!
Catherine, I'm not sure I responded. First, thanks for commenting. Who wouldn't like to be read in the Hudson Review. I have a number of longer essays and maybe I will send Paula one! All best in your writing.
it's not like I have a choice. I have no talent or interest for fiction. My crazy life provides enough drama, intrigue and hilarity on a regular basis LOL> but I'm also done with the whole lit mag thing. after 5 years a complete waste of this writer's time actually.
Frustration understood. It seems sometimes like some of the journals are declaring love for iconoclasm while pushing a program. Makes the medium confusing. And inaccessible for some of us. It's hard to read back in some of these journals historically and see the authors they launched. Makes you wonder which of those authors would die in the current slush pile. Would make a superb essay for somebody. I like Shannon Ravenel's old anthologies that contain the best of the best Southern writers. Give me a lit mag that publishes the next Rick Bass. I'm not honestly sure it exists anymore.
O it doesn't exist. Find me a lit mag that gives you its readership numbers. ZERO on that and yet you have to pay them a fee to read and they get completely free content because they don't pay anyone. I am toying with starting my own lit mag to totally dismantle the current version of it. I can tell you it can be done for less than $500 bucks if you do it right. So exactly where is this big overhead they have that they can collect all that fee money and not pay the writers. I've. been published 30 times in the past 4 years, I've made exactly 55 Canadian dollars. And many of them will inevitabley try to sell you one of their, ' let me teach you how to write' courses. Nope I am only going to work on now getting a real agent or submitting only to big time magazines. They at least will reject you for free.
I agree with much of what you say, but there are many. many lit mags that don't charge fees--in 6 years I've had poems and the odd [in both senses of the word] essay published in 163 of them-- and then too, many of the so called 'prestige' mags charge fees-- because they can't resist it., I suppose, when so many wanna get picked sooo bad!
An eloquent call to CNF arms. Thanks for the thoughtful essay. It gives me hope that my preferred genre has room for my writing. Once more unto the breach!
Thanks Amanda. I don't think I commented before on your post. I'm taking a course in CNF now and see how memoir and personal essay writing has so many things to recommend it. Good luck in your writing too.
Excellent piece of writing. Thank you. I need to read it again, thoroughly, when I am not scrolling through the content on my cell phone. Could this be part of the equation: There is less demand for the long form essay when many readers prefer to inhale screen-sized flash CNF instead?
Thanks again Andi. I responded to your later post. In the ENGL 367 course I've just started our Prof. Bret Lott has made a clear distinction between the formal essay and the personal essay. I did not have the benefit of that distinction when I wrote this piece for LitMag News. We read the intro to Phillip Lopate's book, "The Art of the Personal Essay," and it is eye opening. I'm loving the freedom afforded by this form of writing already. Digression. Storytelling. Citation. Speculation. Questioning. Opening one's heart (and mind). All of these writing moves are allowed...expected. As far as what people want to read, and who is actually reading, I am afraid the "demand" is spiraling down in the general public. But let's face it...the general public has never been a reading public in any age, including our own. Reading is something of a luxury. See my response to your later post below where I cite Eric and Marshall McLuhan and mention Montaigne. All best.
@Mark I once worked for a trade school as Dean of Faculty & Students (yes, both). The medical assistant students would take their breaks between classes and head straight for their phones and cigarettes. I asked an MA student as she scrolled furiously on her phone, "Would you like a book to read, instead?"--She said, "No, thank you, Miss. I am reading a book--Facebook!"
I can't resist. Thanks for your comment Andi. Here's my two cents worth. Maybe a couple of years ago now, Jordan Peterson interviewed fellow Canadian Eric McLuhan. At a point McLuhan made the point "In our time, illiteracy is the norm." His father was Marshall McLuhan the famous communications theorist... famous for saying "the medium is the message," which in fact was the title of Chapter One in his 1960 book. I'll say what I think now: illiteracy has always been the norm. And always will be. I don't mean stupidity. I mean humanistic, broad, non occupationally specific learning. The "many" don't have time for it. Yes, reading, study, and reflection are the province of the privileged "few" who find a way. Or make a way. Montaigne had something to say about this too. In his essay "Solitude" he recommends that the individual, as he or she enters the last chapter of life, intentionally withdraw from the hullabaloo of the working world. There's more. Martin Heidegger reminds us that the Greeks considered the "bios theoretikos" the highest lifestyle. Above the "bios praktikos." The literature is full of tangential truths like this. Even I have encountered these overwhelmingly consistent truths. And I am not anywhere near what I consider a "learned" man. But...It is why I've went back to college three years ago. Filling my humanities sized hole. Doing what Montaigne recommends for someone my age. I sign up for Medicare this October. REM
Thank you, Richard. So many ways to approach our "beingness" in the world and how we choose to spend our days. I hope you have a fruitful semester. You're about two months ahead of me in the Medicare sign-up line. Years ago, I shoveled dirt and all sorts of organic matter into the lit-sized hole in my education with an MA and then a PhD in English. It's been composting ever since, and some good things have grown as a result.
I think it's because essays are less in need of institutionalized stamps of approval than fiction. Substack is filled with essays galore, but not as much with fiction. Essays are more "useful" in that compared to fiction, it's relatively easy to tell if an essay sheds any meaningful insight or knowledge to its reader. In contrast, it's harder to tell if a given work of fiction is even any good, with many readers reading a fictional work merely because a prestigious author wrote it. Those readers may even pretend to like it when they were either indifferent to it or even hated it.
In short, anybody who writes fiction knows how hard it is to get attention for it without the backing of something like The New Yorker, The Hudson Review, or other literary journals. In contrast, a good essay has a better chance of standing out and being recognized on its own, even if it's by just some internet guy/gal, so there's less of a drive to get it published by prestigious magazines. Why not just put it on Substack where you don't have to hope for acceptance and deal with edits?
My answer is this. Because every writer desires validity. Affirmation. And affirmation at the highest level attainable. It is the reason self publication is akin to giving up.
Yeah, sure, but 'affirmation' is much more than an editor digging your work-- the real deal you will hardly ever know of, as it is when your words penetrate the conscious mind of a stranger. and then their unconscious mind, and I believe even deeper...their soul.
No doubt this is true. And some writers have to wait a long time (even die) before that happens. I guess that writing is about as pure an example we can find of an "act of faith"...as James described, "The substance of things hoped for...the evidence of things unseen." Even the written word left behind by a dead writer is physical evidence of their hope...and their faith.
Ooph. Interesting. I've been working on my first "essay" since freshman English, and I'm writing on "Man's Search For Meaning" by Viktor Frankl, for at least three weeks now...hoping to finish "one of these days".
Intriguing post that inspires me to go in search of the interview (which I missed)! On the matter of essays: I'm curious for additional insights about both Paula Deitz's and this post's author's thoughts about how many "essays" (taught/written in classes, and received at journals such as Hudson Review) tend to be memoiristic. The question of the range of "creative nonfiction," as perceived/taught/read/written seems important here, too. It seems, to me, to be somewhat embedded within this post, but perhaps something that could be further discussed.
Erika, first, thanks for your comment. I'd love to have Paula add her thoughts too. Meanwhile...If you haven't yet read Scott Hurd's post and my misplaced response in this discussion, please do! Those two posts relate to your expressed insight and open questions. In Brett Lott's ENGL 367 class this semester we've only met once and read half a dozen pieces, but already I'm out of my depth. The "personal essay" is going to be the focus of this class. Very heavily influenced by Montaigne. For example, in the last 24 hours the two assigned essays I've just read for the class are: "A Raccoon of My Own" by Lauren Slater (Aeon, 10-31-2012, about 5000 words) and "Seventeen" by Steve Edwards (Longreads, 12-3-2018, also about 5000 words). Listen to those titles alone. Both of these are clearly "personal" essays. Lott first had us read Phillip Lopate's introduction to his book "The Art of the Personal Essay." Eye opening. Must read if you want to write nonfiction in our day. Now I see I've been writing what Lopate calls "formal essays." Things with titles like "Did Charleston's Maritime Soul Sail Off With the Mosquito Fleet?" And "Protestant Black Sheep of the Irish American Diaspora." And having them rejected. Way too much content. Way too much pith. Way too much research. Yes, they have lots of my personal feeling, and experience, but they are odd ducks when it seems (read Hurd) that the "market" for the non-expert essayist now is writing that strives for the "personal." To wit... For a while I was paying to have some of my work edited. Black Lawrence Press. One memorable critique said, "you write like a David Foster Wallace wanna-be with all these footnotes...we've got to get rid of all of these." It killed me hearing that. In that piece the footnotes were "of a piece" with the work. It wouldn't work for the layman without them. It was about the offshore oil world in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana. And it was not an essay. It was a bloody story! Maybe this is why I unashamedly attest to reading backward. Not reading today's journal essays. Instead, reading older things. I find these older works stimulate MY thinking. Not just my emotions. I love John McPhee. He provides living proof that someone with a generalist's education can dive into deep water and live a subject, then sit and write about it...deeply. Go find yourself the archive of his article about the Atchafalaya River. 80 pages in the New Yorker. Yes, they ran all of it in one issue. Read his book "Basin and Range." McPhee was not a trained geologist but you wouldn't know it. I just like high content in what I read and subsequently, in what I write. Locate says that in Montaigne, Lamb, Hazlitt, Lu Hsun, Gore Vidal, we hear what he calls a melancholy tone he calls "the voice of middle age." He says the personal essay is the "fruit of ripened experience." That's good. I've made it to middle age. I have lived experiences. Everyone does. So what? In the intro to his collection of stories, I think it was the 1930 collection, Hemingway said the writer has to be concerned about the "places you have to go, the things you have to see," to equip you as a writer. As I read that even the use of "you" reminds me of Hemingway. The second person. His voice. Now go read "Death in the Afternoon." Pith. Content. Blood. Sol y sombra. Muleta. Tercios. Novilleros. Technical bullfight terms. Research. As Wallace Stegner said, "first you have to live it." Those are the writers I worship. And unfortunately many of them are dead.
Well done! This essay beautifully models what you describe. Your argument (via the Stanford interview) for reading complex texts resonated with me. This reminds me of a post I published on Monday recommending literature classes for Gen Z. One person Restacked it with the correction: good for any generation. True! I wonder how many literary journals would welcome essays about ideas. If there are many, then a whole genre (without the timeliness of a Huff Post or Conversation essay) may be waiting for a rebirth. Inspiring!
About ideas...I am one who turns to the editorial page of a newspaper first. I think a person can self-diagnose the way their mind works based on where they first turn in a paper, whether they read it on paper or online. I read the Wall Street Journal for domestic news. I read the Irish Times for an international perspective. In both cases my first stop is op/Ed. And both of these papers have excellent editorial writers. I've just begun my ENGL 367 "Creative Nonfiction" class this semester at the College of Charleston. It is my 9th class as an over 60 student. What a blessing this focus on reflection and study has been for me for three years now. All humanities, trying to overcome my previously narrow engineering and business education. I have felt like a hummingbird sipping nectar. From philosophy, classics, literature, even our wonderful dance and theater department where last semester I wrote a full length play. Yes! Literature classes for Gen Z. And for anyone else. I agree wholeheartedly with you.
Tara, adding to what I already said to you, I've re-read your comment and your use of the word "models." You are a perceptive reader. I did try to make the essay itself an example of the kind of writing I'm advocating.
Teacher and former editor here. :-) But the clarity of purpose was on your side, a pleasure to follow. Your humanities program sounds wonderful! We have an over-50 program on my campus with dedicated, short-term classes and lectures. There are no grades; just reading and discussion and fieldwork when that’s appropriate. I love these programs.
@Tara Penry: I misread your last line, but enjoyed the result: "...reading and discussion and *fireworks" when that's appropriate." I imagined fireworks exploding when an essay like Mullin's or yours is published!
I'm pleased to read that the Hudson Review is seeking excellent essays that make a point - as distinct from a merely personal essay. But how many other literary journals are looking for such content? When I think of "point-making essays," what comes to my mind are The Atlantic, The New York Review, etc. Not literary journals. Many essays I encounter today in literary journals are, broadly considered, memoir of some sort. Which is great. But they don't necessarily make a "point" beyond "this is what I experienced and what I've learned." Am I missing something?
Well Scott, some essays can do both-- like Montaigne, and my favorite Marcus Aurelius. The trick is to relate the particular, one's personal experience, to the universal--the human condition.
Again to cite Lopate, "it all comes down to taste." His introduction is comprehensive and this is his final point, made when he apologizes for all the essays he could not print and defends the ones he selected for his anthology.
You are super kind Catherine. Thanks for your comment. I read to see how another writer thinks. I write to let the reader see how I think. I'm glad my thoughts found a home with you.
This reminds me of the book "The Last Intellectuals" by Russell Jacoby. The author asserts younger public intellectuals (this was pubbed in 1987!) now prefer working in universities and writing for academic outlets.
I can't remember now, but I heard from an editor of another magazine that they get more fiction and poetry than nonfiction subs in general. People also prefer to publish timely essays in newspapers or magazines. I imagine these factors and Hudson Review's mail-only and no simsub policy, and long response time all contribute to the lower number of essay subs.
Thoughtful and provocative piece. I don't agree 100% with every assertion, but overall, I really enjoyed reading this piece and thinking about it. Well done! I expect I'll be reading your essays widely before too long. (Also, I can't resist sharing that one of my short stories will be appearing in the Hudson Review, either the next issue or the issue after that. A thrill indeed!!!)
Leslie, thanks so much for your comment. As I said in one of my other comments here, this essay was much longer before Becky and I downsized it to fit this format. In the original piece I made a meticulous statistical analysis of the odds of acceptance of a story by The Hudson Review. Because of the much higher number of stories (versus essays) they receive, you have achieved something really rare by having your story accepted. I am thinking "literary journal jackpot!" I really am very, very happy for you. And want to read your story now. For you though...remember my essay here again. In it I quoted Paula saying that "Agents and Publishers watch us." Yes, this illustrious journal. Congratulations in the biggest sense!
Congratulations on your forthcoming story. That’s exciting!
Excellent points I think Andrew. Building on your thoughts, I also wonder if the market for articles and essays by non credentialed "generalist" writers hasn't become more and more diminished over time. Maybe that is part of what is going on. I think this makes it hard for a writer to break through in the submission process. Even a short letter to the op ed editor of a major paper...look how many of them are from experts in some field. Much like the fact that these days everyone is an investor...it seems that everyone is a writer.
Scott, thanks for commenting. I don't think you're missing anything. I also observe the personal essay dominates in journals. In that regard, only Paula could say whether Hudson is different in what they seek. I try to weave a little of my experience into something with a little more pith...with a little more citation and backbone. To answer the question "what is the point?". Unvarnished feelings and memories aren't quite enough for me as a reader not as a writer. By the way, George Bernard Shaw also said he wouldn't pick up a pencil for the sake of art alone. That particular quote got cut in the interest of brevity in this essay. It was much longer. But it is a belief I also ascribe to...not for art alone. As you see, James Agee also believed it.
Great piece, Richard. It's no mystery why The Hudson Review gets only 1,500 fiction submissions a year, and a small amount of essays: they require submission by mail, which is like dropping your piece in a black hole. With Submittable and other online systems, you at least get a thank you note, and can see when your piece has moved from “received” to “in progress.” With The Hudson Review there is no response, and you may not hear back for a year. And excuse me if I take the editor’s comment about their authors getting noticed by publishers with a grain of salt. I can’t imagine why this would be more true of The Hudson Review than any other good lit mag--especially since other lit mags get 50,000 or more submissions per year.
Bruce, I'm going back through and don't think I responded to your thoughtful comment. First many thanks for commenting. I've backed off submitting after realizing it takes a lot of time and diverts me from the real task of writing. At nearly 65, I consider every writing project important because the well is only so deep. Gradually I am building up books. Two full books, story cycles. A book of essays written as an over 60 student of the College of Charleston. A full length play. Whether any of these will ever gain readers, I just don't know. But the idea of being in line for notice by literary journals is not motivating to me. I like all writers want validation that comes from publication. I'm just continuing to build up, trying not to let myself be demoralized by the fact that there are simply more writers than readers, and not enough magazine or journal pages (nor editors' eyes) to go around.
I totally get it, Richard. I’ve been fortunate to be published in a couple of very good lit mags, but the process of submitting is an emotional rollercoaster with very low odds of success—at least at the better mags. On the plus side, there are more lit mags than you may realize. As a regular reader of this newsletter, I’m stunned every month during the Lit Mag Brag to hear about people being published in mags I’ve never heard of. One member of this group has been published dozens of times in the last year, which tells me it’s very possible to be published if you’re targeting the right magazines.
All good! I haven't given up, just backed off. I have always aimed high...probably too high...remaining aloof I suppose after getting a couple of encouraging comments from 2 top journals that I saved and always try not to forget. I suppose for me the object wasn't ever so much to try to publish at any level, as to test whether it is possible to break through where it will matter more. Everyone has their reasons for doing this. For me writing has become a creative outlet that lets me to fashion a one of a kind something after many years of denying that I have this need to create. It has always been trying to break out and manifest in various ways. I particularly like the thought that words are forever. Indelible. That words approach the infinite at the asymptote. After all it was Jesus who said "Heaven and Earth will pass away...but my words will not pass away." If we are fashioned in God's image, my hope is that our words will live on like that also. That said, it sure would be good to have a committed editor help shape up all of this stuff!
I love that quote from the Bible. I think you and I are looking for the same kind of satisfaction from our writing: to make a contribution, to leave a mark, even if a modest one, and to be part of a literary community we respect. But yes, even if we’re not getting published, we still keep writing, because that always has rewards of its own.
Yeah, Bruce, but at least they don't charge you those damnable submission fees!
I hear you, Nolo, but personally I would rather pay the fee than let my essay sit in a dark hole. ZYZZYVA and Conjunctions also require submission by mail, which I find unbearable. But maybe that’s just me.
Catherine, I just read your bio by the way and your next writing project about the Acadian expulsion sounds great. I lived in Lafourche Parish, LA back in the early 80's in deep Cajun country. The experience marked me with a deep affection for the people of that region. We've also visited Grand Pre in Nova Scotia, the site of the expulsion and the whole saga is so tragic. I am of Huguenot lineage and relate to that much earlier expulsion of French people, at the time of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Good luck on your book!
Fabulous essay Mr. Mullin. You should submit an essay to the The Hudson Review. You might be chosen and I'm not being facetious. Your writing is thoughtful and well well-researched and impactful. A good essay changes the reader, and makes the reader think. This did that for me. Thank you!
Catherine, I'm not sure I responded. First, thanks for commenting. Who wouldn't like to be read in the Hudson Review. I have a number of longer essays and maybe I will send Paula one! All best in your writing.
I only write essays, don't know how to write anything else, nor do I want to
There is something to be said for specialization. Especially in our time. I think there is a case to be made that specialization is in fact rewarded.
it's not like I have a choice. I have no talent or interest for fiction. My crazy life provides enough drama, intrigue and hilarity on a regular basis LOL> but I'm also done with the whole lit mag thing. after 5 years a complete waste of this writer's time actually.
Frustration understood. It seems sometimes like some of the journals are declaring love for iconoclasm while pushing a program. Makes the medium confusing. And inaccessible for some of us. It's hard to read back in some of these journals historically and see the authors they launched. Makes you wonder which of those authors would die in the current slush pile. Would make a superb essay for somebody. I like Shannon Ravenel's old anthologies that contain the best of the best Southern writers. Give me a lit mag that publishes the next Rick Bass. I'm not honestly sure it exists anymore.
O it doesn't exist. Find me a lit mag that gives you its readership numbers. ZERO on that and yet you have to pay them a fee to read and they get completely free content because they don't pay anyone. I am toying with starting my own lit mag to totally dismantle the current version of it. I can tell you it can be done for less than $500 bucks if you do it right. So exactly where is this big overhead they have that they can collect all that fee money and not pay the writers. I've. been published 30 times in the past 4 years, I've made exactly 55 Canadian dollars. And many of them will inevitabley try to sell you one of their, ' let me teach you how to write' courses. Nope I am only going to work on now getting a real agent or submitting only to big time magazines. They at least will reject you for free.
I agree with much of what you say, but there are many. many lit mags that don't charge fees--in 6 years I've had poems and the odd [in both senses of the word] essay published in 163 of them-- and then too, many of the so called 'prestige' mags charge fees-- because they can't resist it., I suppose, when so many wanna get picked sooo bad!
An eloquent call to CNF arms. Thanks for the thoughtful essay. It gives me hope that my preferred genre has room for my writing. Once more unto the breach!
Thanks Amanda. I don't think I commented before on your post. I'm taking a course in CNF now and see how memoir and personal essay writing has so many things to recommend it. Good luck in your writing too.
Excellent piece of writing. Thank you. I need to read it again, thoroughly, when I am not scrolling through the content on my cell phone. Could this be part of the equation: There is less demand for the long form essay when many readers prefer to inhale screen-sized flash CNF instead?
Thanks again Andi. I responded to your later post. In the ENGL 367 course I've just started our Prof. Bret Lott has made a clear distinction between the formal essay and the personal essay. I did not have the benefit of that distinction when I wrote this piece for LitMag News. We read the intro to Phillip Lopate's book, "The Art of the Personal Essay," and it is eye opening. I'm loving the freedom afforded by this form of writing already. Digression. Storytelling. Citation. Speculation. Questioning. Opening one's heart (and mind). All of these writing moves are allowed...expected. As far as what people want to read, and who is actually reading, I am afraid the "demand" is spiraling down in the general public. But let's face it...the general public has never been a reading public in any age, including our own. Reading is something of a luxury. See my response to your later post below where I cite Eric and Marshall McLuhan and mention Montaigne. All best.
Or just to watch mindless videos. Why read at all?
@Mark I once worked for a trade school as Dean of Faculty & Students (yes, both). The medical assistant students would take their breaks between classes and head straight for their phones and cigarettes. I asked an MA student as she scrolled furiously on her phone, "Would you like a book to read, instead?"--She said, "No, thank you, Miss. I am reading a book--Facebook!"
I can't resist. Thanks for your comment Andi. Here's my two cents worth. Maybe a couple of years ago now, Jordan Peterson interviewed fellow Canadian Eric McLuhan. At a point McLuhan made the point "In our time, illiteracy is the norm." His father was Marshall McLuhan the famous communications theorist... famous for saying "the medium is the message," which in fact was the title of Chapter One in his 1960 book. I'll say what I think now: illiteracy has always been the norm. And always will be. I don't mean stupidity. I mean humanistic, broad, non occupationally specific learning. The "many" don't have time for it. Yes, reading, study, and reflection are the province of the privileged "few" who find a way. Or make a way. Montaigne had something to say about this too. In his essay "Solitude" he recommends that the individual, as he or she enters the last chapter of life, intentionally withdraw from the hullabaloo of the working world. There's more. Martin Heidegger reminds us that the Greeks considered the "bios theoretikos" the highest lifestyle. Above the "bios praktikos." The literature is full of tangential truths like this. Even I have encountered these overwhelmingly consistent truths. And I am not anywhere near what I consider a "learned" man. But...It is why I've went back to college three years ago. Filling my humanities sized hole. Doing what Montaigne recommends for someone my age. I sign up for Medicare this October. REM
Thank you, Richard. So many ways to approach our "beingness" in the world and how we choose to spend our days. I hope you have a fruitful semester. You're about two months ahead of me in the Medicare sign-up line. Years ago, I shoveled dirt and all sorts of organic matter into the lit-sized hole in my education with an MA and then a PhD in English. It's been composting ever since, and some good things have grown as a result.
You hit that on the nail-- the attention span of folks today seems less than that of a gnat!
I think it's because essays are less in need of institutionalized stamps of approval than fiction. Substack is filled with essays galore, but not as much with fiction. Essays are more "useful" in that compared to fiction, it's relatively easy to tell if an essay sheds any meaningful insight or knowledge to its reader. In contrast, it's harder to tell if a given work of fiction is even any good, with many readers reading a fictional work merely because a prestigious author wrote it. Those readers may even pretend to like it when they were either indifferent to it or even hated it.
In short, anybody who writes fiction knows how hard it is to get attention for it without the backing of something like The New Yorker, The Hudson Review, or other literary journals. In contrast, a good essay has a better chance of standing out and being recognized on its own, even if it's by just some internet guy/gal, so there's less of a drive to get it published by prestigious magazines. Why not just put it on Substack where you don't have to hope for acceptance and deal with edits?
My answer is this. Because every writer desires validity. Affirmation. And affirmation at the highest level attainable. It is the reason self publication is akin to giving up.
Yeah, sure, but 'affirmation' is much more than an editor digging your work-- the real deal you will hardly ever know of, as it is when your words penetrate the conscious mind of a stranger. and then their unconscious mind, and I believe even deeper...their soul.
No doubt this is true. And some writers have to wait a long time (even die) before that happens. I guess that writing is about as pure an example we can find of an "act of faith"...as James described, "The substance of things hoped for...the evidence of things unseen." Even the written word left behind by a dead writer is physical evidence of their hope...and their faith.
Ooph. Interesting. I've been working on my first "essay" since freshman English, and I'm writing on "Man's Search For Meaning" by Viktor Frankl, for at least three weeks now...hoping to finish "one of these days".
Stay with it, Joaquin, he's a great writer.
Intriguing post that inspires me to go in search of the interview (which I missed)! On the matter of essays: I'm curious for additional insights about both Paula Deitz's and this post's author's thoughts about how many "essays" (taught/written in classes, and received at journals such as Hudson Review) tend to be memoiristic. The question of the range of "creative nonfiction," as perceived/taught/read/written seems important here, too. It seems, to me, to be somewhat embedded within this post, but perhaps something that could be further discussed.
Erika, first, thanks for your comment. I'd love to have Paula add her thoughts too. Meanwhile...If you haven't yet read Scott Hurd's post and my misplaced response in this discussion, please do! Those two posts relate to your expressed insight and open questions. In Brett Lott's ENGL 367 class this semester we've only met once and read half a dozen pieces, but already I'm out of my depth. The "personal essay" is going to be the focus of this class. Very heavily influenced by Montaigne. For example, in the last 24 hours the two assigned essays I've just read for the class are: "A Raccoon of My Own" by Lauren Slater (Aeon, 10-31-2012, about 5000 words) and "Seventeen" by Steve Edwards (Longreads, 12-3-2018, also about 5000 words). Listen to those titles alone. Both of these are clearly "personal" essays. Lott first had us read Phillip Lopate's introduction to his book "The Art of the Personal Essay." Eye opening. Must read if you want to write nonfiction in our day. Now I see I've been writing what Lopate calls "formal essays." Things with titles like "Did Charleston's Maritime Soul Sail Off With the Mosquito Fleet?" And "Protestant Black Sheep of the Irish American Diaspora." And having them rejected. Way too much content. Way too much pith. Way too much research. Yes, they have lots of my personal feeling, and experience, but they are odd ducks when it seems (read Hurd) that the "market" for the non-expert essayist now is writing that strives for the "personal." To wit... For a while I was paying to have some of my work edited. Black Lawrence Press. One memorable critique said, "you write like a David Foster Wallace wanna-be with all these footnotes...we've got to get rid of all of these." It killed me hearing that. In that piece the footnotes were "of a piece" with the work. It wouldn't work for the layman without them. It was about the offshore oil world in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana. And it was not an essay. It was a bloody story! Maybe this is why I unashamedly attest to reading backward. Not reading today's journal essays. Instead, reading older things. I find these older works stimulate MY thinking. Not just my emotions. I love John McPhee. He provides living proof that someone with a generalist's education can dive into deep water and live a subject, then sit and write about it...deeply. Go find yourself the archive of his article about the Atchafalaya River. 80 pages in the New Yorker. Yes, they ran all of it in one issue. Read his book "Basin and Range." McPhee was not a trained geologist but you wouldn't know it. I just like high content in what I read and subsequently, in what I write. Locate says that in Montaigne, Lamb, Hazlitt, Lu Hsun, Gore Vidal, we hear what he calls a melancholy tone he calls "the voice of middle age." He says the personal essay is the "fruit of ripened experience." That's good. I've made it to middle age. I have lived experiences. Everyone does. So what? In the intro to his collection of stories, I think it was the 1930 collection, Hemingway said the writer has to be concerned about the "places you have to go, the things you have to see," to equip you as a writer. As I read that even the use of "you" reminds me of Hemingway. The second person. His voice. Now go read "Death in the Afternoon." Pith. Content. Blood. Sol y sombra. Muleta. Tercios. Novilleros. Technical bullfight terms. Research. As Wallace Stegner said, "first you have to live it." Those are the writers I worship. And unfortunately many of them are dead.
Well done! This essay beautifully models what you describe. Your argument (via the Stanford interview) for reading complex texts resonated with me. This reminds me of a post I published on Monday recommending literature classes for Gen Z. One person Restacked it with the correction: good for any generation. True! I wonder how many literary journals would welcome essays about ideas. If there are many, then a whole genre (without the timeliness of a Huff Post or Conversation essay) may be waiting for a rebirth. Inspiring!
About ideas...I am one who turns to the editorial page of a newspaper first. I think a person can self-diagnose the way their mind works based on where they first turn in a paper, whether they read it on paper or online. I read the Wall Street Journal for domestic news. I read the Irish Times for an international perspective. In both cases my first stop is op/Ed. And both of these papers have excellent editorial writers. I've just begun my ENGL 367 "Creative Nonfiction" class this semester at the College of Charleston. It is my 9th class as an over 60 student. What a blessing this focus on reflection and study has been for me for three years now. All humanities, trying to overcome my previously narrow engineering and business education. I have felt like a hummingbird sipping nectar. From philosophy, classics, literature, even our wonderful dance and theater department where last semester I wrote a full length play. Yes! Literature classes for Gen Z. And for anyone else. I agree wholeheartedly with you.
Tara, adding to what I already said to you, I've re-read your comment and your use of the word "models." You are a perceptive reader. I did try to make the essay itself an example of the kind of writing I'm advocating.
Teacher and former editor here. :-) But the clarity of purpose was on your side, a pleasure to follow. Your humanities program sounds wonderful! We have an over-50 program on my campus with dedicated, short-term classes and lectures. There are no grades; just reading and discussion and fieldwork when that’s appropriate. I love these programs.
I take everything for a grade. The pressure is essential.
@Tara Penry: I misread your last line, but enjoyed the result: "...reading and discussion and *fireworks" when that's appropriate." I imagined fireworks exploding when an essay like Mullin's or yours is published!
😂 I definitely approve of reading books that sparkle, dazzle, and pop. Fireworks, yes! 😂😂
I'm pleased to read that the Hudson Review is seeking excellent essays that make a point - as distinct from a merely personal essay. But how many other literary journals are looking for such content? When I think of "point-making essays," what comes to my mind are The Atlantic, The New York Review, etc. Not literary journals. Many essays I encounter today in literary journals are, broadly considered, memoir of some sort. Which is great. But they don't necessarily make a "point" beyond "this is what I experienced and what I've learned." Am I missing something?
Well Scott, some essays can do both-- like Montaigne, and my favorite Marcus Aurelius. The trick is to relate the particular, one's personal experience, to the universal--the human condition.
For what it’s worth, a well-written piece of memoir can stir the heart and mind even more than an essay trying to “prove a point.”
Again to cite Lopate, "it all comes down to taste." His introduction is comprehensive and this is his final point, made when he apologizes for all the essays he could not print and defends the ones he selected for his anthology.
Gettysburg Review is one that comes to mind.
Thanks. I just read their current issue. I thought that the opening essay- by the mountain climber- was especially compelling.