Emerging Writers Network

Source of Lit - Night Train's Firebox Fiction

On a weekly basis, Rusty Barnes and Night Train supply readers with a single short story, usually flash fiction, in the Firebox Fiction feature.  This week just continues what I believe is a long streak of excellent choices to publish by Rusty.

Steven J. McDermott (yes, you recognize the name, he's also the wonderful editor of Storyglossia, one of the EWN's favorite literary journals around) has written "Apology," a hard-edged story about a phone call and, well, obviously much more than just a phone call.  Head on over and read it, and remember to head over to Night Train's site every Monday for a good read.

Source of Lit - Wag's Revue

Okay, to take the chance of being linked with famous flip-floppers of history, I'm ignoring my last post and I'm going to give some praise to Wag's Revue here.

Once I decided to ignore the manifesto and actually go into the content and read, I was impressed.  There are a trio of interviews with Dave Eggers, Mark Grief, and Wells Tower that I enjoyed.  I'm almost always ready to read another Brian Evenson story, and this one with photos from John Sellekaers, did nothing to make me think Evenson's losing his touch.  The other stories will probably lead to me searching for more writing from their authors - Michael Paul Simons and Raleigh Holliday.  The poetry was varied - one in YouTube form, one a bit of hyperlit, and five other poems.  Three essays, one a 28 pager on the usage of the word douchebag lost me about halfway through, but I enjoyed "The Weeds" by Eve Hamilton and "Recede" by Alison Fairbrother quite a bit.

I'm still not sure there's a single thing revolutionary being done here, but what they did do a nice job putting this first issue together.  It's going to be a quarterly. Wander over and take a read.

Generalize much?

There’s a new online literary journal out and about – Wag’s Revue.  It comes from a trio of soon to graduate students at Brown University.  The debut issue contains something fairly typical, an essay from the editors.  Maybe not so typical is that it’s in the form of a manifesto.  And quite the manifesto too, no?  I’ve linked to it so you can read the whole thing and determine I’m not just cherry picking quotes:

"The countless blogs and Web-based literary reviews are brimming with unexceptional content. With endless gigabytes of storage space, editors of the online corpus sacrifice stringent controls and adopt a shotgun approach, publishing mediocrity en masse, obscuring the rare gem. Readers end up with entire cows' asses on their plates, rather than the succulent, butterflied fillets they were hoping for."

and

"We at Wag's Revue are intent on revolutionizing online literature. We wish to create something entirely of the internet, never printed and never meant to be printed, but with all the editorial and aesthetic controls that entice people to read and trust the finest printed media. We will insist on strong editorial oversight, from first draft to final copy."

Wow, thank goodness they've arrived to save us from having to read journals like elimae, Hobart online, Failbetter, Pindeldyboz, and the litany of excellent online journals discussed here at the EWN,and many other places. What a shame none of those journals utilize editorial oversight - none of them see any differences between submitted story to final version. Just accept all submissions and slap them online thanks to that immense quantity of gigabytes available.

In the manifesto they also point out how those print journals that have also deemed it worthwhile to have online journals with separate content typically hide the lesser content online and just don't get the online publishing world:

“Even the bastardized online cousins of prominent print magazines and literary reviews -- which often keep their best content dead-bolted behind subscription fees – are visually unappealing and cluttered with unwanted content.  That print titans can’t get the Web right either shouldn’t be surprising:  the best carriage makers didn’t make the best cars.”

This leads me to believe they've not read Hobart, nor the Mississippi Review's online versions (to name but two). Long having been a fan of Hobart in specific, it's been apparent from the early days that while the editors running the online version were not, well, Aaron Burch, that they shared similar sensibilities when it came to fiction, AND they had determined that there might be a shorter attention span for those reading online. The main difference seen between the print and online version to me has been average lengths of stories, not quality. Go back and read Glen Porciau's "Belly" and tell me that the online editors aren't using stringent editorial controls over there.

They also claim in the manifesto that they plan to find and develop the great writers of the online generation.

“We will find and foster the new and great writers of the online generation.”

Good thing too because nobody had heard of, or read, Dave Eggers or Brian Evenson anywhere else.

From a recent article in The Brown Daily Herold comes this from one of the three editors (Will Litton):

"So much is getting published, there's no journal with stringent editorial controls."

Again, no journal? Not one? This trio has read all of the 300 plus journals listed in the appendix of Dzanc's Best of the Web, or even every single online journal listed at NewPages.com or Laura Hird's list? And none of them utilize stringent editorial controls?

This article also refers to the manifesto as a “’hyperbolized scathing manifesto declaring the death of print,’ in which the three co-founders emphasize their belief that online literature doesn't have to exist in its current state.”

Unfortunately, nearly every statement these editors make is a massive generalization.  Nowhere do they acknowledge that there is an incredible amount of fantastic writing online.  That journals like Cella’s Round Trip utilize similar (and in my opinion, nicer looking) technology to create a print visual effect.  There certainly is poorly written, poorly presented, and poorly edited material online.  But to claim that all of it is such is just ridiculous.  And it’s too bad that it’s thrown out there in such a manner because the journal itself, Wag’s Revue, if you can force yourself past the ridiculousness of the manifesto, is actually pretty good.

Congrats to Jeremy Chamberlin

I had the pleasure of bumping into Jeremy twice two weeks ago, at readings by Donald Ray Pollock and Keith Taylor.  Beyond his own writing, Jeremy is one of the main editors of Fiction Writers Review, a nice multi-author blog that is establishing itself as a daily read around here.

Congrats go out to him as he just found out that he's won Glimmer Train's Family Matters Fiction Prize!

Source of Lit - J.A. Tyler

Talk about busy - not only has J.A. Tyler been publishing like mad lately, but he's also been on a tear of editing, as the new issue of mudluscious hits the web with great work from Jennifer Pieroni (where the word "our" has had me thinking about this flash fiction since late last night), Molly Gaudry, Sean Lovelace, Barry Graham and many more, including a story from Liz Hall, an author I don't recall having read before, that I enjoyed.

Add to all of this his recent efforts with ML Press, a trio of wonderful little chaps every month, mailed out on the 15th to anxiously waiting subscribers - with authors like Brian Evenson, Peter Markus, Elizabeth Ellen, Michael Kimball, Kevin Wilson, Amy Guth, Aaron Burch and many more, is it any wonder it's a project we're excited about here?

The latest ML Press venture is stamp stories, which you can get by ordering a book direct from the participating publishers (Shane Jones via Dzanc Books, Peter Markus via ML Press, and Jimmy Chen via Greying Ghost Press).

Source of Lit - The Postman!

A couple of really good days in a row courtesy of the fine USPS.

Yesterday - bigger packaging.  I Am Not Sidney Poitier by Percival Everett, who I believe I've made my excitement of his work fairly well known in the past, from Graywolf Press - a galley for the novel due in June.

Today - smaller packaging, but just as exciting.  The March MLP trio arrived - "the fish & the not fish" by Peter Markus (excellent - seemingly fits somewhere in between the brothers stories and Bob, or Man on Boat), "they" by Brian Evenson (have I written about him and his work before?), and "bluebeard" by Michael Stewart, a writer I'm not wholely familiar with, but plan to rectify that fact this evening.

Also from Black Lawrence Press, the debut full poetry collection, the brother swimming beneath me, from Brent Goodman.  Another stunning cover from Steven Seighman and Colleen Ryor.

Source of Lit - Jeanne Leiby

What?  Another individual source of lit?  Well, this time around, this very easily could also have been Source of Lit - The Southern Review.  The last couple of major conferences (BEA 2008 and AWP 2009) I have had the pleasure of having had time to sit and talk to Jeanne Leiby at the Southern Review table for extended periods of time (especially at BEA where they may have had the all-time worst table location ever for a literary journal - if I recall, the bulk of the large room was comic book related, nothing wrong with that, unless you're a literary journal that doesn't do graphic work, and next to a table that had a lot of UFO related titles). 

Jeanne took over as Editor of The Southern Review halfway through 2008, with ther Summer 2008 issue being the first one under her helm.  Following Bret Lott couldn't have been an easy job as I thought he opened up The Southern Review to maybe more voices than his predecessors;  it had become a bit looser around the edges.  I think Jeanne may be letting things loosen up just a bit more, and in a good way.

The first issue.  Fiction ranged from newcomer (first publication) Jeni Bonaldo, with a devastating story about a war widow on up to Bonnie Jo Campbell and Cary Holladay, both of whom have multiple books and have appeared in The Southern Review in the past.  I also really enjoyed the story by Caitlin Horrocks as well.  Poetry from names that even this reader recognized - David Kirby, Floyd Skloot, Jesse Lee Kercheval, Philip Levine, as well as Claudia Emerson, a poet whose work I've noticed online this past year.  Skimming the authors notes, it seems a fair number of the poets within have been plucked from the LSU Press catalog - which is a good thing to me, as it's a publisher whose poetry collections I feel comfortable picking up, having a good feeling I'm going to enjoy the work within.  There is also a nicely done review, looking at a trio of first books, and story collections from smaller publishers at that (BkMk Press, University of Pittsburgh Press, and OV Books).

Autumn 2008.  Fiction from seven authors and while they'd all published before, only Ron Rash had seen his fiction published in book form (though Michael Czyzniejewski's story was the title story from his recently published debut collection).  Besides those two EWN stalwarts, I really enjoyed the Andrew Malan Milward story, "Skywriting."  Poetry included Thomas Lynch, Jim Daniels (a couple of SE Michigan men, not all that far from growing up where Leiby did in downriver SE Michigan), amaud Jamaul Johnson, and EWN favorite, David Huddle.  As to reviews, another long-time EWN favorite, Philip F. Deaver, takes a look at David Huddle's career in writing, the dual sides to nearly all of his work, and does so with excellent examples and descriptions - a truly great review/essay.  There's even some artwork in this issue, eight photographs best described as southern gothic, by Frank Relle that manage to be both sad and gorgeous.

The first issue of 2009 finds some great stories - both Steve Davenport and Andy Mozina write stories whose protagonists deal with grief, and do so in some pretty unhealthy ways, and the final story in the issue is just classic George Singleton - you'll laugh, you'll think, you'll marvel at the rhythm of the dialogue.  There are poems from David Bottoms, Rita Dove, Bob Hicock, Mary Oliver, Charles Simic, as well as Alex Lemon - a perfect example of an editor knowing what she wants (yes, there's a story behind that comment).

Leiby has also created the position of Resident Scholar - one that both works on the journal for 20 hours per week, reading, editing, etc., and also teaches an English class for the university each semester.  It's a two year position, and not only did she create it, but she hired the excellent Andrew Ervin for the first Scholar. 

Add to that the fine collection of stories, Downriver, that Leiby published in the fall of 2007, and you see where my source of lit has come from.  If you'd not done so in a long while, I'd give The Southern Review another try, and if you can find a copy of Downriver, pick it up - the stories are great, as is the cover.

Source of Lit - Granta (online)

Granta 104 (physical, not online) had as a theme, Fathers.  Authors wrote essays about about their fathers, or father-figures.  There were also pieces that were based upon a photograph of the author's photo.  In the online-only section of Granta, they've continued this aspect, the Portrait of My Father, offering the venue to other writers.  Some highlights to date have been Jim Shepard, Maud Newton, Daniel Woodrell and most recently, Christopher Sorrentino, who does an excellent job wrapping up his dad's lifetime in an amazingly small amount of space.

Source of Lit - Five Chapters

A constant weekly source of good fiction, Five Chapters is featuring a new short story by Steve Amick this week - short tease from FC, "Guys, if you ever got frustrated because your girlfriend didn't laugh at your jokes -- even though you're really funny, and the problem is that she just doesn't get them -- this one's for you."

The first section is up and has me anxiously awaiting tomorrow and section 2.  Steve Amick's new novel, Nothing But a Smile, was just published, and can be purchased from any good store near your home.

Dzanc Creative Writing Sessions

From Dzanc Books:

Dzanc Books - the award winning, trend setting, culturally cutting-edge nonprofit press, yes 'that'  Dzanc – is pleased to announce the opening of our newest inspiration:  the Dzanc Creative Writing Sessions.   This letter is designed to introduce you to our program and invite you to sign up for what we believe is one of the most innovative online writing workshops being offered today.

The DCWS is founded on the principle that many authors’ lifestyles do not afford them the opportunity to obtain feedback on their writing – be it where they live, their work schedule, or finances.  We feel that all authors deserve the opportunity to have their work reviewed.  Unlike most of the current workshop opportunities – MFA programs, Low-Residency programs, colonies, online classes, etc. - the DCWS is unique in that it allows the writer to determine the parameters for their own review sessions.  With the DCWS, you sign up for what you want and need, not some pre-determined program. 

The DCWS is set up to provide a one-to-one working relationship with a published author, allowing you the benefits of their experience, in many cases both writing and teaching.  Nearly 100 great authors have already agreed to volunteer their services as mentors in our DCWS program.  The names you’ll find in our database include award winning authors and teachers such as:  George Singleton, Myfanwy Collins, Dawn Raffel, Peter Markus, Leora Skolkin-Smith, Katrina Denza, Laura van den Berg, Kevin Wilson, Nancy Cherry, Jeff Parker and Mike Czyzniejewski. From this list, writers paying to participate in the DCWS may select an available author to work with. Participating writers will then have their work critiqued and can discuss in detail their writing and any other areas of writing in general they wish to explore with their DCWS author. 

The DCWS will utilize email to reduce the difficulties writers such as yourself have when looking to find feedback on your work.  Our workshops  remove the limitations of both time and distance as you’ll send your work and questions to your mentor when and where you have access to the internet.  Each participant will determine how many hours of mentoring they need, as well as how to progress – you asking specific questions about your work, or you asking for your manuscript to be edited (10 pages per hour), or simply looking for a back and forth conversation about your work after the mentor you select has read the work. 

The program is being offered at an extremely low rate – many of the instructing authors volunteering their time to Dzanc do similar work as freelancers and charge much greater rates than are being offered here through the DCWS.  Other workshops and writing programs charge a lump sum of several hundred dollars up front.  Not only does the DCWS allow you to control and target your expenses, but 100% of the money brought in by Dzanc by our DCWS goes to supporting the writing programs we run for students grades 4-12.  These additional programs – currently being run nationally by Dzanc - are offered free of charge to students who would not otherwise be able to afford and experience these sort of writing programs.

The DCWS sessions are set up in hourly blocks and can be ordered as follows:

1 hour   - $20
2 hours - $30
4 hours - $50

The DCWS eliminates your need to travel to a university.  It also eliminates your need to lay out a few hundred dollars up front for an 8 or 10 week online course.  It allows you to jump in and out when you are available, and also allows you to select from the list of authors that have generously volunteered their time to this project.  A full list is available at our website.  This list includes published novelists, short story writers, flash fiction writers, poets and non-fiction writers. If you don't feel the need to select a specific author, we'll simply assign a writer to you.   

For more information on our Creative Writing Sessions program, please send an email to info@dzancbooks.org.

In order to sign up now, head over to visiting the DCWS page at our website and select your author.  After deciding how many hours to work with your mentor, click on the Paypal button that corresponds to that number, and fill in the mentor name in the appropriate field and we’ll get you started.  

Sincerely,

Steven Gillis
Dan Wickett
Dzanc Books
www.dzancbooks.org