Read the post, and all will be explained.

I met the good people of Canteen Magazine during the last NYC LitCrawl, and they were swell. At the time, they had just put out issue #3, which featured words by Porochista Khakpour, Ben Kunkel, Dana Goodyear, Shellie Zacharia, and Lee Klein, just to name a few. You can see thumbnails of the covers on the Canteen website, but they don’t really convey the full story. Canteen is a 9 x 9 full-color magazine printed on heavy-stock paper. It’s filled with art and photography as well as literature. (My favorite thing in #3 was “Returning Thing,” a portfolio of photographs by Martin van de Griendt, from his book Smokin’ Boys Smokin’ Girls, which anyone who wants to should feel free to buy for me.)

Anyway, I just got an email from the Canteen folks, which mentioned among other things, the imminent release of issue #4 (which I have a story in- so full disclosure, or whatever), that they’re going to have a booth at the Armory Show (an NYC art gathering that runs from 3/4-3/7), and this thing about the contest, which is what I thought YOU PEOPLE might want to know about- 

CANTEEN’S INAUGURAL FICTION AND POETRY CONTESTS
Judged by award-winning novelist Porochista Khakpour 

Contest Rules

Deadline: May 31, 2009

Fiction: Submissions up to 4,000 words.

Poetry: Submissions of any length (though ideally shorter than Beowolf).

Fiction winners will be chosen by Porochista Khakpour, author of Sons and Other Flammable Objects, a New York Times–acclaimed novel and winner of the 2007 California Book Award.

Poetry winners will be chosen by Canteen‘s editors.

Neither contest is open to the staff, family, and close friends of Canteen.

Prizes

Fiction first-prize winner receives $1,000 and publication in issue five of Canteen.

Poetry first-prize winner receives $500 and publication in issue five of Canteen.

 Fiction and poetry second-prize winners will also be published in issue five.

 

Now, I know that entry- & reading- fees have been a recent point of contention on this here blog, so I think it’s worth focusing a minute on the interesting approach that the Canteen folks have taken. Many literary magazines offer a “free subscription with your entry fee,” but Canteen seems to have reversed the formula. They set the “cost of entry” as “a four issue Canteen subscription, at our new reduced price of $30.” Basically, they seem to be saying, entry is free, but open to subscribers only. 

It’s a novel approach, I think, or at least a nifty spin on an old idea. In any case, general submissions don’t require a fee or subscription (though, as always, it probably helps to have some idea of who you’re dealing with before you start pelting them with your work). So, uh, you know- go forth, or stay put. 

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