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Everything I Submitted from 2006-2008 & What Happened To It

Blake Butler — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 21:49:43 +0000

[Key: Journal / Title of Work / Date Sent / Date Response Received / Accepted?]

[Strikethrough = withdrawn]

2008

Proximity (solicited) Bath or Mud (reprint) 12/29 1/14 Y

Dewclaw (solicited) New Sick & Sentencens 12/29 12/29 Y

Dalkey Archive 2 nov excerpts 12/29

The Cupboard Sourcebook 12/18 RETRACT

Diagram 100 Children 12/16 1/14 N

Noon Sourcebook 12/12 2/20 N+

Fence I am a Destroyed Person 12/11

~~Crazyhorse List 11, 48 12/11~~

~~Swink 43 12/10~~

Hobart Smoke House 12/8 12/11 Y

Typo Some of RA2 12/7 12/29 N

Absent Some of RA + Footnote 12/7 1/3 N

Chaffey Review 11, 30 12/3 3/3 Y (11)

American Short Fiction Sourcebook 12/1 2/2 N

Pank 38, 48, Egg 11/22 12/3 Y (38)

Rome Review 42 11/16 11/22 Y

New Madrid 48 11/15

Euphony 30, 48 11/15 2/25 N

Packingtown Review 25, 48 11/15 SEND BY MAIL

Upstreet 28, 48 11/15 11/17 N

West Branch 48 11/15 12/9 N

Center 48 11/15 12/12 N

The Normal School 25, 37 11/15 2/17 N

The Pinch 41 11/15 2/20 N

Oxford American 8, 28, 35 11/15 7/15 N

Cincinatti Review 8, 24 11/15 1/16 N

14 Hills 38, 46 11/15

Seneca Review 50 11/15 12/20 N

Quarterly West 30 Nonfic, 8/25 Poetry 11/12 5/9 N+

Lumina 25, 46 11/12 2/2 N

Bat City Review 24 11/12 1/4 N

Saint Ann’s Review 24, 35 11/12

Jubilat 30 11/12

Columbia 35, 37, 41 11/12 5/27 N

Southwest Review 41 11/12 11/16 N

Greatcoat 35 11/12 3/28 N+

AGNI 41 11/12 1/23 N

Third Coast 37 11/12 1/6 N

Conjunctions Eruption Instructions 11/12 1/12 N

Literary Review 28 11/11 2/15 N

NY Quarterly 28 11/11 1/20 N

Baltimore Review 28 11/11

Boston Review 28 11/11 3/23 N

Failbetter Undestructor 10/20

Puerto del Sol Choir(s) 10/20 11/6 Y

St. Petersburg Review Hymnal(s) 10/17 10/1 N

FC2 Sukenick Prize Nightmare 10/10 5/15 N

12 Stories (solicit) Nightmare section 10/8 10/21 N+

Third Coast Choir(s) 10/5 10/31 N

Columbia Choir(s) 10/2 10/4 N+

Tin House Choir(s) 9/20 3/23 N+

Denver Quarterly Hymnal(s) 9/20 1/30 N

Subtropics Hymnal(s) 9/20 9/30 N

Black Clock Choir(s) 9/15

Sonora Review 11, 14, 35 9/14

AGNI Choir(s) 9/10 10/8 N

Keyhole Books Nightmare 9/8

New Orleans Review Choir(s) 8/17 10/5 N

Ecotone Choir(s) 8/17 9/30 N

Noon Choir(s) 8/17 9/15 N

Fence Books NIGHTMARE 8/15

Dalkey Archive NIGHTMARE 8/10 12/10 N+

Barrelhouse Ruined Child 8/6 8/25 Y

Cream City Review Grope Movie 8/3 9/22 N

Sycamore Review 14, 37, 39 8/3 10/20 N+

Third Coast Grope Movie 8/3 10/10 N

Bat City Review Egg 8/3 11/20 N

Ploughshares Egg 8/3 3/23 N+

Conjunctions Copy Family 7/30 8/17 N

Letterbox What Want 7/29

Flatmancrooked NIGHTMARE 10k 7/28

No Record NIGHTMARE 7/28

Florida Review Light Smear 7/27

Open Face Sandwich 3 excerpts 7/27 8/6 Y

Fugue State Press NIGHTMARE 20pp 7/20 7/27 N+

Ellipsis Press NIGHTMARE 7/20 11/2 N+

Turtle Point Press Scorch Atlas 7/18 7/27 N+

Bat City What Want 7/10

Unsaid 2 from Nightmare 6/31 10/5 Y

Dzanc WHERE AM I 6/30 7/11 N+

Low Rent Krissy Taylor 6/26 6/27 N

Epiphany 14, 37 6/17 6/23 N

The Corduroy Mtn. MASSIVE FABRIC 6/5 6.27 Y

IG WHERE AM I full 6/5 7/28 N

Unsaid 4 piece 6/4 8/10 Y(2)

Bellevue Literary Press WHERE AM I 6/4 6/6 N+

Melville House WHERE AM I 6/4 10/20 N+

Gargoyle Egg 6/3

LoFi Books WHERE AM I query 6/3 ASSUMED NO

IG WHERE AM I query 6/3 6/5 SEND FULL

FC2 WHERE AM I query 6/3 ASK IN OCT

Two Dollar Radio WHERE AM I 6/3 3/2 SEND FULL

McSweeney’s Books WHERE AM I 6/3 2/16 N

McSweeney’s Egg 5/28 9/18 N

Bellevue Literary Review Egg 5/28 11/22 N

Pistol Room of Hair, 39 5/27 8/25 Y

Calamari Ever (novella) 5/26 Y

Nano Fiction 13 Dream Dream 5/22 6/8 Y

NYTyrant Books SCORCH 5/18 NOT NOW

Bust Down the door… Friends Apocalypse 5/17 5/18 Y

Redivider What is left from nowhere 5/16

NYTyrant Ever, Exit Method 5/16 5/16 Y

Quick Fiction Slur 5/15 7/25 N

DIAGRAM Other Houses 5/11 5/31 N

Failbetter Exit Method 5/9 6/9 N+

Unsaid Egg 5/9 SEND MORE

Harp & Altar 4 excerpts 5/9 7/12 N+

Canteen iTunes 5/4

5_trope Nov_DOPPELGANGER 5/3

Surreal South Seabed 5/3 4/18 N

Quick Fiction WHAT / HOW SON SICK 4/30 7/1 N+

Smokelong DISEASE RELICS 4/28 6/4 Y

The Lumberyard DISEASE RELICS 4/28

DIAGRAM The Copy Son 4/28

Columbia Ever 4/26

Pequin The Son’s Book 4/23 4/23 Y

21 Stars NOVEL excerpt 4/23

Harp & Altar 3 from NOVEL other 4/23

Fairy Tale Review BATH BATH 4/21 9/22 N

Wigleaf 3 from NOVEL 4/21 4/22 Y

Keyhole Books SCORCH ATLAS 4/13

Knockout 43, 8 4/9 6/10 N

Ghost Road Press SCORCH (4 stories) query 4/9 ASSUME NO

Milkweed Editions SCORCH ATLAS 4/8 8/10 N

BOA Editions SCORCH ATLAS 4/8 5/10 N+

Crazyhorse BATH BATH 4/7

Bellevue Literary Press SCORCH ATLAS 4/7 4/7 N+

Improbable Object ebay, snaredrum 4/4 6/2 Y

A Public Space BATH BATH 4/3 11/11 N

Mustachioed Spungen, Snare, EBAY 4/1

Parthenon West (30, 38, 40, 41) 4/1

Cab/net (43) 4/1

Fou (43) 4/1 7/11 N

Tarpaulin Sky COMB ROOM 4/1 8/1 Y

StorySouth The Ruined Child 4/1

Denver Quarterly BATH BATH 4/1 5/10 N

Another Chicago Mag BATH BATH 4/1

VQR BATH BATH 4/1 4/22 N

McSweeney’s BATH BATH 3/31 4/15 N

Mid-American Review (35) 3/31

Apalachee Review (35) 3/31 7/21 N

Florida Review (35) 3/31

Pindeldyboz Friends Apocalypse 3/27

Fence Books SCORCH ATLAS 3/26

Oranges & Sardines 4 pieces (solicited) 3/25 4/11 Y2

4W8W SCORCH ATLAS query 3/25 ASSUME NO

[sic] The Ruined Child 3/19

Weird Tales The Ruined Child 3/18 6/23 N+

Ploughshares Room Comb 3/18

Practice Room Comb 3/18

Subtropics Room Comb 3/18 3/31 N

AGNI Room Comb 3/18 4/6 N+

Tin House Room Comb 3/18 5/16 N+

Ecotone Room Comb 3/18 4/22 N

DIAGRAM $5 contest Many forms of Rain 3/12 5/18 Y

Conjunctions Light/Smear 3/11 6/9 N+

Keyhole (solicited WW) 14, 39 3/9 10/9 Y

Turntable & Blue Light KAUFMAN / Bloom 3/3

Ocho (solicited) McAULIFFE / Odor is 2/28 2/28 Y

Drunken Boat SHAKUR / Snaredrum 2/27

Typo TATE / Snaredrum 2/27 5/10 N

Word for/Word KAUFMAN 2/27

Dusie TAYLOR 2/27 6/24 N

One Story PRETEND I’M THERE 2/27

New Madrid (14, nonfic) 2/27 6/11 N

Publishing Genius PRETEND I’M THERE 2/25 3/1 Y

Monkeybicycle.net TAYLOR 2/23 2/25 N

Diode (solicited) (12, 14, 16) 2/23 2/24 Y

DIAGRAM KAUFMAN 2/22 2/29 N+

Pindeldyboz FARLEY 2/22

McSweeneys.net KAUFMAN 2/22 2/25 N+

Keyhole SPUNGEN TATE Landlord 2/22 4/9 Y

Knockout Tupac, IP: NC, Bloom, In 2 2/20

Why Vandalism? FARLEY 2/19 2/24 Y

Backwards City Weight Gainer / What is left 2/18

Sleepingfish Landlord, 2 from, 1 & Ano 2/18

Gulf Stream Bath or Mud 2/18

Monkeybicycle Friends Apocalypse 2/16

Diagram PRETEND I’M THERE 2/16

Southeast Review EVER 2/16

Apex Digest Friends Apocalypse 2/16 3/3 N

A Public Space Drowned Neighborhood 2/16

Redivider EVER 2/15

New Madrid Weight Gainer (revise) 2/9

The Normal School EVER 2/9

Opium 6 Weight Gainer (revise) 2/7 2/27 Y

12th Street The Ruined Child 2/6 STUDENT ONLY

Action Yes (solicited) Months 37-x, Gristle 2/5 2/7 Y

Tin House Weight Gainer 1/27

Harpur Palate Drowned Neighborhood 1/27 4/3 Y

Ecotone Drowned Neighborhood 1/27 2/14 N

Noon Try not to think about it 1/22 2/15 N

Memorious Months 37-X, Landlord 1/22 2/24 Y

The Dream People Months 37-X 1/22

Florida Review (30) 1/22 3/20 N+

Blue Earth Review (16, 25) 1/22 2/17 N

CutBank (28) 1/22 5/15 N

Columbia (28, 30) 1/22 9/22 N+

BEAR PARADE Pretend I Am There 1/17 1/27 N+

New Madrid Bath or Mud 1/17 2/5 N

Meridian The Ruined Child 1/13 3/4 N

n+1 (all nonpublished SA stories) 1/5 5/3 N

Avery Bath or Mud 1/5 4/6 Y

Harp & Altar Something About A 1/2

DIAGRAM Something About A 1/2 1/22 N

Word For/Word Something About A 1/2

2007

Cimarron Review Television Milk 12/31 4/6 N

Triquarterly Drowned Neighborhood 12/31 3/9 N

Packingtown Review (12) 12/31 2/7 N

Turnrow (12) 12/31

New Orleans Review Weight Gainer 12/31

Soft Skull SCORCH ATLAS (30 pp) 12/31 6/9 N

Coffee House SCORCH ATLAS (20 pp) 12/31 1/28 N

Melville House SCORCH ATLAS (full) 12/31 4/9 N+

Hawthorne Books SCORCH ATLAS (50pp) 12/31 3/16 N+

FC2 SCORCH ATLAS (5) 12/26 5/30 N+

Alice Blue In 2 Weeks, Inst Poem NC 12/24

See You Next Tuesday There were always other 12/24 12/25 Y

Keyhole Snaredrum, Matlock 12/19 2/22 N+

Borrowed Premise Ant. Twin Peaks 12/17 12/17 Y

West Branch Many Forms of Rain 12/17 3/9 N+

Euphony What is Left from Nowhere 12/17

Crazyhorse Bath or Mud EXT 12/17

Fence Weight Gainer 12/17

Bat City Review What is left from 12/15

cold-drill Want for Wish for 12/14 Y

Fascicle Matlock, Snaredrum 12/13 HIATUS

Sink Review Matlock, INS Poem A 12/13

Dislocate Want for Wish for 12/13 5/11 N+

Carolina Quarterly Want for Wish for 12/13

Sleepingfish Bloom Atlas EXT 12/12

Failbetter.com Bath or Mud EXT 12/12

Chicago Review Want for Wish for 12/10 1/28 N

Zahir Want for Wish for 12/10 1/28 N

Southern Review Want for Wish for 12/10 3/10 N

New England Review Want for Wish for 12/10 4/22 N

Knockout Ruiner, Trance, Snare, Odor 12/8 2/19 N+

McSweeney’s books SCORCH ATLAS 12/8 4/15 N

elimae More Light (wall excerpt) 12/4 12/5 Y

Sidebrow More Light (wall excerpt) 12/4

Alice Blue Review More Light (wall excerpt) 12/4

Cream City Review Drowned Neighborhood 12/3

Faultline Drowned Neighborhood 12/3 Y BUT EDIT, N

Apalachee Review (14) 12/3 1/25 N+

Fairy Tale Review (14) 12/3

Saranac Review (14) 12/3 2/15 N

Tin House (31) 12/3

Lady Churchill’s RW Bloom Atlas 12/3

Conjunctions Drowned Neighborhood 12/3 NO SS, BL

21 Stars Review Trance Index 12/2

Capgun Ruiner, Snaredrum, Odor 12/2

Harp & Altar Snaredrum, Ins Poem A 12/2 12/12 N

Many Mountains Moving Drowned Neighborhood 12/1 1/17 N+

Baltimore Is Reads All I want is 12/1 12/2 Y

Featherproof Books Scorch Atlas (FULL) 11/30 9/7 Y

Small Beer Press SCORCH query 11/30 ASSUME NO

Natural Bridge (33, nonfic) 11/28 5/10 N

DIAGRAM Snaredrum 11/28 12/10 N+

Gulf Coast Bath or Mud EXT 11/28

Horseless Review Snaredrum 11/28 12/31 N

Word For/Word Snaredrum 11/28 12/18 N

West Branch The Disappeared 11/28

Upstreet (33, 25, nonfic) 11/28 1/12 N+

/nor The Disappeared 11/28 12/17 Y

Ellipsis (33) 11/28 3/10 N

Diode Snaredrum, Ruiner, Odor is 11/28 1/12 N

Sycamore Review Many Forms of Rain 11/28 3/9 N

Fugue Bath or Mud EXT 11/28

Ecotone Bath or Mud EXT 11/28 12/18 N

Alligator Juniper (6) 11/26 2/22 Y

Conduit Bloom Atlas EXT 11/26 2/9 N

Meridian Bath or Mud EXT 11/26 1/13 N+

Mcsweeney’s.net (12) 11/26 11/29 N

AGNI (31, nonfic) 11/26

Featherproof Books 50 pp SCORCH ATLAS 11/25 11/30 FULL

DZANC BOOKS 2 from SCORCH ATLAS 11/25 NEW POLICY

Gulf Stream Bloom Atlas 11/25

Bat City Review (11, 31, poetry), Ruiner 11/19

Third Coast Many Forms of Rain 11/19

Open City Many Forms of Rain 11/19

Orchid Many Forms of Rain 11/19

Crazyhorse The Disappeared 11/17

Florida Review The Ruined Child 11/16 1/22 N

H_NGM_N Odor / Trance / Ruiner 11/14 1/27 N

StorySouth Odor / Trance / Ruiner 11/14 3/16 N

BOMB Many Forms of Rain 11/12 2/29 N

Santa Monica Review Many Forms of Rain 11/12 3/20 N

Sou’wester What is left 11/12 2/22 N+

Flyway TV Milk 11/8

St. Petersburg Review (30, 32 nonfic) 11/8 5/29 N

Capgun Ruiner, Rep Err, All I want 11/7

Iowa Review (30) 11/5 12/14 N

Faultline (30) 11/5 12/1 N

14 Hills (6, 20 nonfic) 11/5

New Orleans Review The Disappeared 11/5

11:11 (20, nonfic) 11/5 2/23 Y

The Hat Ruiner, Rep Err, All I want 11/3 11/9 N

Packingtown Review (31) 11/3

Stirring Ruiner 11/1

Juked Ruiner 11/1 2/17 Y

Mid-American Review Friends Apocalypse 11/1 3/24 N+

Sentence Landlord, Trance Index 11/1

CutBank (31, nonfic) 11/1

Passages North (31, nonfic) 11/1

Salt Hill Journal (31, nonfic) 11/1 12/14 Y

Jubilat Trance Index 11/1 12/19 N

Diagram Odor is 10/30 11/15 N

Front Porch Rep Error 10/30 11/14 Y

Backwards City Review What is left…/ Bloom EXT 10/23 RESUBBED

Salt Hill Journal What is left… 10/23 11/1 N

Sonora Review What is left… 10/23 4/13 N

Harp & Altar All I want is… 10/22

The Pinch (28) 10/20 1/17 N

H_NGM_N Odor is, Rep Error 10/20

Front Porch Odor is 10/19 10/30 N+

Sink Review Rep Error 10/17

Fence The Disappeared 10/17

Spinning Jenny Rep Error, Odor is 10/17

Quarter After 8 Rep Error, UTICA DR 10/17

Noon Landlord 10/16 11/10 N

Orchid Exponential 10/16

Unsaid 13 Plastic Doors 10/16 10/16 Y

storySouth Replication Er, Odor is 10/16

Water-Stone Review The Disappeared 10/16

Bateau Contest INSOMNIA MANUAL 10/16 4/4 N+

Subtropics (28) 10/15

Adbusters The Disappeared 10/15

Ontario Review The Disappeared 10/15 11/6 N

Missouri Review The Disappeared 10/15 11/6 N

Euphony The Disappeared 10/15

Florida Review The Disappeared 10/15 11/16 N+

Sycamore Review The Disappeared 10/15 11/22 N

Ecotone The Disappeared 10/15 11/22 N

Orchid 13 Plastic Doors 10/14

Onion Union IP U, Insomnia 10/14

Cab/net IP A, Odor is, Trance Index 10/14 11/9 N

Unicorn Mountain Landlord 10/14 ASSUMED REJ

Mustachioed Odor is, Insomnia, IP U 10/14 2/22 N

Parthenon West Trance Index, Landlord 10/13 3/8 N+

No Trance Index, IP: NC, NOE 10/13 11/12 N+

Softblow What to do with nowhere 10/11 10/12 Y

Noon 13 Plastic Doors 10/11

Satellite Telephone Instructional Poem NC 10/10

Bear Parade MANUAL FOR INSOMNIA 10/10 10/12 N+

VQR Instructional Poem AD 10/7 10/20 N

A Public Space The Ruined Child 10/7 1/29 N

Canteen Landlord 10/7

The Normal School (28) 10/7 2/7 N

Parthenon West IP for NOE, AD, Coma O 10/5 10/9 N+

Jubilat Instructional Poem NOE 10/5 10/17 N

Diode Instructional Poem A 10/4 11/2 N

Southeast Review The Ruined Child 10/3 12/13 N

Vestal Review One & Another & the last 10/2

[sic] Instructional Poem A 10/2

Sou’wester The Ruined Child 10/2 11/10 N+

Triquarterly The Ruined Child 10/2 12/16 N

Alaska Quarterly Review The Ruined Child 10/2 3/16 N

Fairy Tale Review The Ruined Child 10/2 12/1 N

McSweeney’s Tour of the Drowned 10/2

Ploughshares The Ruined Child 10/2 2/24 N

Oxford American Instructional Poem NOE,AD 10/1 3/12 N+

AGNI (12, nonfic) 10/1 11/26 N+

Hayden’s Ferry Review (28, nonfic) 10/1 9/22 N+

/nor Coma Ocean, Ins P NOE 10/1

Versal Instructional Poem A 9/28 12/19 N+

Past Simple Instructional Poem A 9/28 1/14 N

Unpleasant Event Schedule Instructional Poem A 9/28

Mustachioed Instructional Poem A 9/28 10/13 N

Sidebrow Instructional Poem A 9/28 10/27 N

La Petite Zine Instructional Poem AD 9/27

The Tiny Instructional Poem AD 9/27

5_trope Instructional Poem AD 9/27

21 Stars Review Instructional Poem AD 9/27 12/2 N

Pineapple War Instructional Poem GE 9/26 9/26 Y

No Landlord 9/25 10/5 N

Ellipsis Coma Ocean 9/24

Gulf Stream Coma Ocean 9/24

Jubilat Coma Ocean 9/24 10/5 N

Southern Review (28, nonfic) 9/24 12/8 N

New South Exponential 9/24

Packingtown Review (19, 25) 9/24 11/3 N+

Murdaland UTICA DR 9/23 2/18 N

VQR (6, 16) 9/21 9/30 N

Hobart TV Milk 9/20 10/29 N

Diode Instructional Poem NT 9/17 10/4 N

H_NGM_N Instructional Poem NT 9/17

Typo Instructional Poem NT 9/17 1/4 N

Blue Earth Review Contest Landlord, Gristle, Bath 9/17 2/15 N

Bust Down the Door… Landlord 9/16 9/26 N

Absent Chinese Dinner Div. 9/16 4/22 N

No Gristle 9/16 9/26 N

Zahir Television Milk 9/16 10/27 N

LIT Water Damaged 9/16 11/8 Y

Phoebe Seabed (full) 9/16 10/1 Y

Denver Quarterly Damage Claim 9/16

Clockwork Phoenix Television Milk 9/13 – N

Ontario Review (28) 9/13 10/5 N

Santa Monica Review (28) 9/13 10/18 N

VQR (28) 9/13 9/21 N

Salt Flats Annual Television Milk 9/13

Southwest Review (28) 9/13 10/22 N

AGNI (28) 9/13 10/1 N+

Open City Exponential 9/13

Willow Springs Exponential 9/13 11/15 Y

Connecticut Review (6 nonfic) 9/11

Cimarron Review (6 nonfic) 9/11 11/16 N

Lake Effect Damage Claim 9/11 10/23 Y

Fence (6) 9/11

Barrelhouse (12) 9/11 12/26 N

Backwards City Review Months 37, Damage Claim 9/10

One Story Seabed (Full version) 9/5

St. Petersburg Review Water Damaged 9/5

Western Humanities Rev Television Milk 9/2 12/3 N

Tin House Tour of the Drowned 9/2 12/1 N

Iowa Review Tour of the Drowned 9/2 10/9 N

Tampa Review Television Milk / Water D 9/2

Southern Review Television Milk 9/2 9/20 N

Shenandoah Water Damaged 9/2 10/22 N

Phoebe Water Damaged 9/2 9/14 N+

Pearl Gristle, Bath or Mud 9/2 9/18 N

Columbia (11, 25) 9/2 12/21 N+

New England Review Tour of the Drowned 9/2 12/8 N+

Seneca Review (26) 9/2 12/10 N+

Flyway Water Damaged 9/2

5 Points Tour of the Drowned 9/2 11/2 N

Ninth Letter Ruined Child / Gown 9/1 10/1 Y!

Fugue Television Milk 9/1 10/17 N

Passages North Water Damaged / Gristle 9/1 10/22 N

Fairy Tale Review The Gown 9/1

Willow Springs Damage Claim Q / Gristle 8/30 9/10 N

Ploughshares The Gown 8/24

Unruly Months 37-X 8/23

Call: Review Damage Claim Q 8/23 9/24 N

New American Writing Damage Claim / TV Milk 8/23 9/10 N

Florida Review Damage Claim Q 8/23 10/9 N

Sentence Damage Claim Q 8/22

Sojourn Months 37-X 8/21

Aquapolis Months 37-X 8/21

Shampoo A Healthy Communication 8/21 1/4 N

Octopus Search Engine 8/20 1/22 N

Sonora Review (12, 27) 8/16 10/11 N

Alaska Quarterly Review The Gown 8/16 WITHDRAWN

Subtropics Drowned Neighborhood 8/16 9/26 N

Folio Gristle, Bath or Mud 8/16 10/13 N+

West Branch Exponential 8/16 9/17 N

Sou’wester Electricity 8/16 WITHDRAWN

Georgia Review Drowned Neighborhood 8/16

Ecotone Electricity 8/16 WITHDRAWN

New Madrid Electricity 8/16 WITHDRAWN

Zoetrope Contest Drowned Neighborhood 8/15 12/1 N

Chicago Review Drowned Neighborhood 8/15 12/1 N

Conduit Bath or Mud 8/15

Southeast Review Electricity 8/15 WITHDRAWN

Fourth Genre (26, 27) 8/15 10/18 N

Threepenny Review Gristle 8/12 8/20 N

Post Road Electricity 8/8 WITHDRAWN

Mississippi Review One&Another&theLast 8/8

Pebble Lake Review (27) 8/7 9/5 Y

McSweeney’s The Gown 8/7

Conjunctions Exponential 8/6 9/13 N

Maisonneuve (21, 27) 8/5 ASSUMED

Salt Hill (27) 8/5

Snow Books PUPILS 8/5 ASSUMED

Columbia Poetry Review (26, 27) 8/2 WITHDRAWN

Sycamore Review Electricity 8/2 WITHDRAWN

Sentence review of R Lopez 8/2 WITHDRAWN

Third Coast Bloom Atlas, Bath or Mud 8/2

Blue Earth Review Burnsong, Months 37-X 8/2 12/9 N

Cream City Review (20) 8/1 11/4 N

Cab/net Months 37-X 7/31 9/29 N

Cabinet (16) 7/30 ASSUMED

Wandering Army What I’ve Been… 7/30 8/23 Y

Quick Fiction Gravel 7/29 8/19 Y

Story Quarterly Gristle 7/28 ASSUMED

Radical Society (14) 7/25 CLOSED MARKET

The Journal (14, 16) 7/25 11/29 N+

Smokelong Search Engine 7/24 7/30 N

Pleiades Gristle, Bloom Atlas 7/24 8/13 N

Madison Review Gristle, Months 37-X 7/24 10/5 N

New Orleans Review Gristle 7/24 10/26 N+

Juked (print) Burnsong 7/24 1/20 N

GUD Gristle 7/21 7/24 N

Many Mountains Moving (11, 13, 14, 25) 7/17 10/17 N

Canteen (13) 7/17 10/2 N

River Styx (11) 7/17 9/29 N

Blue Mesa Review (11, 26) 7/17 9/10 N

Cutthroat (11, 14, 21) 7/17 10/28/09 N

Harpur Palate Bloom Atlas, Bath or Mud 7/17

Black Clock Bloom Atlas, Bath or Mud 7/15 ASSUMED

Dislocate Bloom Atlas, Bath or Mud 7/15

Hunger Mountain Months 37-X 7/13 8/16 N

cold-drill Months 37-X 7/13

Lake Effect (11, 14) 7/13 9/11 N

Harvard Review (11, 25) 7/13

River Teeth (11, 16) 7/13 3/12 N

14 Hills (14, 26) 7/11

Opium Contest Discipline of No Want 7/11 8/21 Y.com

Shimmer Heir 7/10 7/21 N

Narrative Magazine Burnsong 7/10 10/8 N

Zahir Heir 7/8 8/27 N

Cimarron Review (25, 26) 7/8 8/24 N

Oxford American (12, 16, 25, 26) 7/8 8/24 N+

New American Writing (16, 25, 26) 7/8 8/1 N

Mid-American Review (25, 26) 7/8

Fence (12, 25, 26) 7/8 10/30 Y

Nimrod (25, 26) 7/8 9/11 N

Night Train (5, 18) 7/5 9/28 Y (18)

/nor (13, 18, 21) 7/3 WITHDRAWN

Conjunctions Months 36-X 6/29 7/26 N

Caffeine Destiny (5, 6) 6/28 8/12 N

Small Spiral Notebook What I’ve Been… 6/27 7/14 N

Unpleasant Event Sched. What I’ve Been… 6/27 Withdrawn

Evergreen What I’ve Been… 6/27 Withdrawn

Aquapolis What I’ve Been… 6/27 7/30 N

Bellevue Lit Review One&Another 6/27 1/2 N+

Rattle (12, 20) 6/27 8/8 N

Short Fiction (UK) Burnsong 6/26 ASSUMED

GUD Heir 6/26 6/27 N

Capgun (5, 18, 22) 6/25 WITHDRAWN

Barn Owl Review (6, 14, 18) 6/25 9/16 N

failbetter (14) 6/24

Willow Springs One & Another 6/24 10/4 N

Santa Monica Review One & Another 6/24 9/4 N

RHINO (12, 14, 16) 6/24 9/10 N

Pebble Lake Review One & Another 6/24 8/6 N

Ontario Review Weight Gainer 6/24 8/8 N

Omnidawn Heir 6/24

Chautauqua (14, 22) 6/24 8/27 N

Call: Review One & Another, Gown 6/24 7/26 N

Bateau One & Another & the Last 6/24 3/29 Y

Bat City (12, 22) 6/24 11/19 N+

580 Split (12, 16) 6/24 10/30 N

Atlantic Monthly (12, 16) 6/24 8/20 N

Redivider Weight Gainer 6/24 2/15 N

Night Train The Gown 6/24 7/5 N+

Crazyhorse One&Another, Burnsong 6/24 11/16 N

NANOfiction The Way the Ruin Came 6/22 6/24 Y

Unsplendid (5, 11) 6/4 6/20 N

Controlled Burn Burnsong 5/30 6/2 N

Gargoyle Weight Gainer 5/30 9/10 N+

American Short Fiction Weight Gainer 5/22 11/7 N

Hobart Weight Gainer 5/16 6/4 N

SHALLA Fake Fire & R (reprint) 5/11 5/20 Y

Apocryhpal Text OVERHEARD 5/11 6/17 Y

cabnet (5, 11) OVERHEARD 5/10 5/18 N

Mississippi Review Burnsong 5/7 5/10 N

Practice Journal Weight Gainer 5/7 Withdrawn 8/26

Euphony One&Ano&Last & Gown 5/6

Lillies&CB Review One&Ano&Last & Gown 5/5 8/22 N

Fantasy Magazine Heir 5/5 6/7 N

Controlled Burn More Light 5/5 5/6 N

Trampoline House Burnsong 5/5 ASSUMED

Aquapolis More Light / Last XMAS 5/4 6/22 N

NOON One&Ano&Last 5/1 5/23 N

Unicorn Mountain (5, 23) 4/30

Smokelong The Gown 4/30 5/3 N

Glimmer Train The Gown 4/30 5/27 N

Juked (NEW MAN excerpt) 4/29 7/1 N

Another Sky Press (horror) More Light 4/29 ASSUMED

Southern Fried Weirdness Heir 4/28 4/30 N+

Ugly Accent The Sentence 4/26 Withdrawn 5/4

Fugue Burnsong 4/26 6/15 N

Good Foot (5, 11, 22) 4/26

Jubilat (20) 4/26 8/19 N+

South Dakota Review More Light 4/26 7/3 N

Night Train Burnsong 4/26 5/4 N

Evergreen Review The Sentence 4/26 Withdrawn 5/4

Harvard Review More Light 4/23 6/19 N

Broken Pencil Weight Gainer 4/22 Withdrawn 8/26

Mississippi Review Weight Gainer 4/18 4/21 N+

Best New Poets (1, 3) 4/18 8/21 N

New Genre More Light 4/18 8/19 N+

Cranky Chap Contest INSTRUCTIONS 1-10 4/13 11/3 DNP

Bateau Anniversary 4/13 Withdrawn 4/17

Swink Weight Gainer 4/12 LIKED, WAITED

Florida Review Weight Gainer 4/12 8/22 N

Subtropics More Light 4/10 4/18 N

Summerset Review The Sentence 4/10 Withdrawn 5/4

The MacGuffin More Light 4/10 ASSUMED

Apalachee Review Burnsong 4/10 5/31 N

Opium Print Weight Gainer 4/7 8/2 REWRITE

Avery Weight Gainer 4/7 Withdrawn 8/26

Bust Down the Door… Heir 4/2 7/7 N

Caketrain HIVE,OVERHE,Ann,Xmas 3/26 4/16 Y (A&H)

Ecotone Heir 3/26 4/30 N

Cadillac Cicatrix (6, 21) 3/20 ASSUMED

Southern Gothic Burnsong 3/20 Withdrawn 4/10

New Madrid (8, 20, 21) 3/19

Postcards from Hell Postcard 3/14 4/12 N

Eleventh Muse (6, 8, 11) 3/14 CLOSED

Hobart Print Burnsong 3/10 4/5 N

NANOfiction Anniversary & OVERHE 3/9 Withdrawn

Euphony (6, 8, 22) 3/9 4/22 N+

Cranky Burnsong 3/9 ASSUMED

Backwards City Burnsong 3/9 6/2 N

Thieves Jargon Paula 3/9 4/3 Y

Black Warrior Review (8, 14, 22) 3/8 6/28 Y (22)

The Rambler (8, 13) 3/8 4/20 Y (8)

Nerve.com (18) 3/8

GA Review (8, 19, 22) 3/8 4/20 N

Passages North (8, 14, 22) 3/8 6/1 N

Lake Effect Burnsong 3/7 7/9 N

Land Grant CR (20) 3/7 10/24 N

Bellevue Literary Review (14, 22) 3/7 4/16 N

Sycamore Review (14, 20, 21) 3/7 7/11 N

Rattle (14) 3/6 4/13 N

Smartish Pace (14, 20) 3/6

Harpur Palate The Gown 3/6 4/30 N

FriGG The Sentence 2/28 3/12 N

Alice Blue The Sentence 2/28 4/5 Y

Sidebrow The Sentence 2/28 4/15 N

Smokelong Paula 2/27 3/1 N

Quick Fiction Search Engine 2/22 7/24 N+

NOON Anniversary 2/21 3/24 N

Redivider (10, 19) &

Cream City (10, 19) &

Caketrain (10, 19) & If You Put 2/21 3/18 N

Burnside Review (10, 17) 2/21 4/21 Y (17)

Magma Poetry (19) 2/21

The Believer (16) 2/21

Magma Poetry

Literary Review (4, 5, 11) 2/16 2/27 N

turnrow (4, 5, 11) 2/16 9/18 N

21 Stars Paula 2/15 Withdrawn 4/3

Unsaid Burnsong 2/15

Adbusters (16) 2/15

Barrelhouse Print (5) 2/15 4/2 N+

Pebble Lake Review (16) 2/12 6/3 N

Renovation (4) 2/12 Withdrawn 3/6

Esopus (4, 13) 2/9 ASSUMED REJ

Murdaland More Light 2/7 4/17 N+

Ecotone (20) 2/1 3/26 N+

Sycamore Review (20) 2/1 4/1 N

Memoir (and) (20) 2/1 9/13 N

Backwards City (20) 2/1 6/3 N

Storyquarterly Heir 1/29 4/1 N

Pebble Lake Review (4) 1/28 2/12 N

Pindeldyboz (print) (12) 1/28

Parthenon West (17, 19) & Flag Day

Quick Fiction Anniversary 1/27 2/4 N

VOX (12, 17) 1/27

Quarter After Eight (13, 17) 1/26 6/27 N

Other Poetry (UK) (15) 1/25

GUD (12) 1/23 6/24 N

Bust Down the Door… Piercing Rodney’s 1/23 1/30 N

Quick Fiction If You Put… 1/22 2/4 N

cold-drill More Light 1/22 4/23 N

Creative Nonfiction (16) 1/22 4/20 N

No (17) 1/22 Withdrawn 4/21

Ninth Letter (8, 18) 1/22 3/8 N

Pleiades (16) 1/21 4/1 N

Bust Down the Door… (12) 1/21 1/23 N+, Other

Hayden’s Ferry Review (16, 17) 1/21 5/28 N

400 Words On My Way Home… 1/20 6/17 Y

Brick (17) 1/18

Copper Nickel (14, 10, 12) 1/18 3/1 Y (4,10)

Upstreet (5) 1/18 3/12 N

GUD (10, 14, Yes I Am) 1/15 1/22 N

Cabinet (4, 12) 1/15 ASSUMED REJ

Cimarron Review (14) 1/9 2/6 N

Crazyhorse (16) 1/9 2/22 N

A Public Space (16) 1/9 7/14 N

Mcsweeneys (6, 13) 1/9 7/25 N

Oxford American Burnsong 1/9 6/27 N

MiPOesias (15) 1/7 1/9 Y

Harpur Palate (2) 1/8 Withdrawn 1/20

Other Magazine (8) 1/4 Withdrawn 1/18

New American Writing (14) 1/4 1/15 N

Jubilat (5) 1/4 3/21 N

Southeast Review (4) 1/4 Withdrawn 3/3

Avery Heir 1/3 4/1 N

Fugue (13) 1/2 4/4 N

Flint Hills Review (13) 1/2 4/1 N

McSweeneys (2, 10, 13) 1/2 Withdrawn 1/9

2006

A Public Space List of 50 (2) 12/28 Withdrawn 1/9

Land Grant CR List of 50 (6) 12/28 Withdrawn 3/3

Bellevue Lit Review List of 50 (10) 12/28 Withdrawn

Magma Poetry List of 50 (10) 12/28 1/21 N

Painted Bride List of 50 (9) 12/28 10/22 N

Frostproof Review List of 50 (10) 12/27 Withdrawn 1/21

Tarpaulin Sky Print List of 50 (12) 12/27 3/1 N

Parthenon West List of 50 (7) 12/27 Withdrawn 1/28

Pebble Lake Review List of 50 (7) 12/26 Withdrawn 1/28

Conduit List of 50 (11) 12/23 4/15 N

Dislocate Contest List of 50 (11) 12/23 2/16 N

Black Warrior Review List of 50 (11) 12/23 2/27 N

Mcsweeneys.net List of 50 (9) 12/22 12/27 N

Esopus List of 50 (8) 12/21 1/3 N

Opium – 7 Line contest Baptism Chord 12/20 2/1 N

Pindeldyboz Print List of 50 (7) 12/19 Withdrawn 1/28

NOON List of 50 (4) 12/17 1/4 N

NOO Journal List of 50 (7) 12/14 1/26 Y

Caketrain List of 50 (5) & Burnsong 12/14 2/14 N

Smokelong Quarterly If You Put It That Way 12/14 Withdrawn 1/23

Spork List of 50 (7) 12/14 Withdrawn 1/28

Murdaland Another 12/12 Withdrawn 2/7

Sleepingfish List of 50 (6) & Thrust 12/9 3/1 Y (Thrust)

Barrelhouse Ryan’s 12/9 12/14 N

Storysouth List of 50 (5) 12/7 2/15 N

Blackbird List of 50 (5) 12/7 9/17 N

Ploughshares Heir 12/7 5/1 N

Opium Print List of 50 (4) 12/6 1/24 N,online?

Nerve.com If You Put It That Way 11/23 ASSUMED REJECT

Salon.com Ryan’s 11/23 Withdrawn 1/07

Sonora Review SS List of 50 (2&3) 11/21 FF FINALIST

Knock Burnsong 11/21 7/14 N

Hobart Web List of 50 (3) 11/21 12/5 Y

Opium Web List of 50 (3) 11/21 Withdrawn 12/5

Punk Planet Ryan’s 11/17 11/23 N

La Petite Zine List of 50 (2) 11/10 1/4 N

DIAGRAM List of 50 (2) 11/10 1/9 Y

GA Review Heir 11/8 12/1 N

Other Voices Burnsong 11/8

Call: Review Burnsong 11/8 1/9 N

Opium Print Heir 11/8 1/20 N

Upstreet Burnsong 10/27 11/3 N

Renovation The Sentence 10/27 Withdrawn 5/4

Pine Ryan’s 10/27

Monday Night Lit Another 10/27 1/16 Y

Knock The Sentence 10/27 Withdrawn 5/4

Echolocation Burnsong 10/27 ASSUMED

Bear Deluxe Heir 10/27

Meridian Burnsong 10/27 8/29 N

Kenyon Review Burnsong 10/27 3/9 N

Glimmer Train Heir 10/27 1/2 N

Grendelsong Heir 10/27 10/27 N

Masionneuve Heir 10/26 ASSUMED

Quick Fiction Morning Logic Loop 10/25 2/22 N

Elimae Fuckdoll (‘Gift’) 10/15 10/16 Y

Juked List of 50 (1) 10/15 11/6 Y

Sleepingfish Another 10/15 12/9 N

Pindeldyboz Print Another 10/10 Withdrawn 1/16/07

Opium Print Yes I Am Aware 9/30 1/31 N

One Story Yes I Am Aware 9/30 3/12 N

McSweeneys Yes I Am Aware 9/30 10/19 N

The New Yorker Heir 9/30

Elimae Lana 9/30 9/30 N

Sentence The Sentence 9/28 Withdrawn 5/4

Diagram Remainder (TRIM) 9/28 10/26 N

Gastronomica Ryan’s 9/28 11/3 N,TS

Hobart Ryan’s 9/20 12/? Y,online

Sonora Review Contest Fake Fire, If You, Thrust 9/18 FF FINALIST

A Public Space Heir 9/6 10/23 N

Quick Fiction Upon Returning Home 9/5 10/25 N

Ninth Letter Heir 9/5 10/2 N

Yalobusha (BH contest) Burnsong 9/5 N

Pindeldyboz print The Sentence 9/1 10/10 N+

Post Road Heir 8/21

Barrelhouse Fake Fire 8/19 8/29 Y

West Branch Burnsong 8/16 9/12 N

DIAGRAM The Sentence 8/9 8/16 REVISE?

Sweet Fancy Moses More Light 8/9 ASSUMED REJ

Greensboro Review Burnsong 8/8 12/24 N+

Southeast Review Burnsong 8/8 9/27 N

Black Warrior Review More Light 8/8 10/10 N

Terminus More Light 8/8 5/2 N

Post Road Burnsong 8/7 8/21 N

Caketrain If You Put It That Way 7/26 10/16 N

Avery Burnsong 7/25 10/8 N+

Fence More Light 7/24 4/13 N

Minima That Dirt 7/24

NOO Journal Thrust Manual 7/17 8/7 N+

Quick Fiction Some…, Remain. & This Is 7/6 8/1 N

Me Three.net Fake Fire & Rescue 7/5 Withdrawn 8/29

NOON Burnsong 7/5 8/3 N

New York Tyrant Burnsong 6/29 ASSUMED

Practice Journal Burnsong 6/20 10/30 N

Dirt Press Rather Than That & This Is 6/20

American Drivel Review Piercing Rodney’s Fore. 6/20 9/19 N

Opium Print Fake Fire & Rescue 6/20 Withdrawn 8/29

Quick Fiction Thrust Manual 6/20 7/15 ALMOST

Land Grant College Review Burnsong 6/20 12/17 N

Adbusters Heir 6/20 HOLD

Maisonneuve More Light 6/20 10/26 N

Caketrain Burnsong 6/20 7/26 N

Copper Nickel More Light 6/20 11/13 N

Bathhouse The Sentence 6/20 Withdrawn 5/4

Quick Fiction Fake Fire & Rescue 6/2 6/20 N+

Conduit Burnsong 5/30 8/2 N

Juked Web Rather Than That 5/28 7/10 N

Juked Print Piercing Rodney’s Fore. 5/28 8/16 N+

Elimae Rather Than That 5/27 5/28 N+

Unsaid Another 5/25 Withdrawn 1/16/07

Cincinnati Review More Light 5/19 6/3 N

Punk Planet Customer Feedback 5/19 ASSUMED REJECT

McSweeneys Heir 5/13 10/19 N

McSweeneys online Thrust Manual 5/10 5/13 N

failbetter Another 5/5 9/23 N

Opium Fiction Prize If You Put It That Way 4/16 6/9 N

Opium Online Two Accounts of the… 4/12 8/1 Y

Swink Burnsong 4/11 6/19 N

Crazyhorse More Light 4/11 6/26 N

Zembla The Sentence 4/10 Withdrawn 5/4

VQR The Bus Driver & No Land 4/10 7/21 N

West Branch More Light 4/7 8/16 N

Hobart The Sentence 4/7 5/12 N

A Public Space Burnsong 4/7 7/12 N

Fence Burnsong 4/7 6/1 N

Land Grant College Review More Light 3/31 5/22 N

Elimae A Parable of… 3/31 3/31 Y

Black Clock Heir 2/21 ASSUMED REJECT

One Story Heir 2/19 7/10 N

Monkeybicycle Print Thrust Manual 2/17

Post Road If You Put It That Way 2/12 5/27 N

Swink online Letter to Chevy 2/10

McSweeneys online Alternative Answers…rev 1/21 1/26 Y

The Morning News.org Letter to Chevrolet 1/21 1/21 N

Syntax A Parable of… 1/18 Withdrawn 3/31 Y

Exquisite Corpse A Parable of… 1/18 Withdrawn 3/31

The Dream People A Parable of… 1/18 2/4 N+

5_trope A Parable of… 1/18 Withdrawn 3/31

Dicey Brown A Parable of… 1/18 1/26 N+

McSweeneys online Letter to Chevrolet 1/17 1/21 N

Gulf Coast Burnsong 1/16 4/3 N

Indiana Review Burnsong 1/16 6/19 N

Georgia Review Burnsong 1/16 2/27 N

Post Road No Land 1/16 2/12 N

The New Yorker More Light 1/16 3/21 N

Dicey Brown Sunburn in 4 Stages 1/3 1/26 N

I Like What The Hell Is Going On Over Here And Send Me Some Stuff

Reynard Seifert — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 19:31:28 +0000

Open letter from Kenneth Goldsmith on UbuWeb about UbuWeb and why the wrong way is the right way to run a file archive of unprofitable products.

Fall is because Spring is colder than winter.

Forgot to say something about Thirty days as a Cuban in Harper’s. In to it. If you’re not a subscriber, go to the library or steal it from your doctor’s office. If they ask you why you’re hanging around the lobby, tell them you’re just making sure they’re here for you.

Taking submissions for hahaclever, including and especially ebooks ~10,000 words (like the highlander, there can be only one, what I’m saying is please try to be the highlander). Rebuilding the website, new comics editor coming on board, maybe a text editor, might have a board to come on, shit like that going on. If you’ve sent something in the past and haven’t heard from me, we’re sorry. They will get back to you soon.

At Titular, we could use a Halloween piece because I like when people send holiday pieces like Christmas’s Cocoon by Amber Sparks.

The Cardini Brothers’ Catch-Up has a new website for to look at with your eyes and a new print issue for to buy with your fingertips. The print issue is slick. It’s all comics and poems done in fun and done in love with making and thinking on the future and being ready for it to be happening or to be made to happen. This is a thing they did to promote the last, first issue.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfLpnXQpjvw

Enough is Enough: The Slushpile is Not the Enemy

Roxane Gay — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 23:39:20 +0000

First I read this and then I read this, and then as we know there is the Tin House thing and Brevity is considering a reading fee to help fund honorariums and, perhaps, dissuade inappropriate submissions, which is certainly their right and I do understand where they are coming from, and finally, I read this. I’m frustrated. I can’t speak for the big fancy magazines, but for the smaller magazines such as PANK, we live and die by the slushpile. With no slushpile we would have no magazine and frankly, it would take way more time and effort to solicit writers for twelve monthly issues and a 240 page annual than it does to read submissions. Save for a handful of writers, literally, a handful, we have published the magazine exclusively via work from the slushpile or as we simply call it, the submission queue. Let me go on record as stating that even on the most frustrating days, I love reading submissions. It is what I get to do to relax and step out of my “real” life. I actually feel fucking lucky to be able to co-edit a magazine. Even when I’m reading something terrible I think, “well this is just awesomely bad,” and I feel a little thrill. I literally feel a thrill. When I stop feeling that thrill, I will take a break.

The slushpile fatigue being lamented here and there and everywhere tires me. It bores me. Please, let’s just shut up about it already. If you don’t want to deal with the slushpile, don’t have open reading periods. It really is that simple. Listening to your dissatisfaction with having to deal with the bad writers and new writers and mediocre writers who dare to submit to your magazine that is willfully accepting unsolicited submissions is about as interesting as listening to someone talk about their diet. I don’t care what you had for breakfast.

It could be said, some days, that to edit is to complain. There are days when it feels like every last thing has been expressly designed to get on your editorial nerves. I get it. I complain. I love to complain. I have practically made a hobby out of complaining. I can own that. You don’t care what I had for breakfast either, but I’ll probably tell you. It was cherry youghurt, fruit on the bottom, Dannon, for the record. The slushpile, some days, is quite deserving of complaint because it is ever present. It will never go away. It will only get bigger and bigger, especially if you, as an editor, are doing your job well. The slushpile is a force and a presence that must be reckoned with. Some days, that reckoning feels like a battle. Sometimes that battle is bloody.

As long as there are human beings on the planet there will be writers who want to be published and many of those writers will not understand what it means to be a conscientious submitter so they will send you poorly formatted work and inappropriate work and crazy work and sad work, not sad in terms of content, but sad as in wilted and pathetic work so sad that you feel the need to hold a cold compress to your forehead. You need to accept the following: you will never dissuade these writers from submitting to your magazine. You can charge $2 or $20 or $40 or make them take pictures of themselves in a rainforest holding pencils in their noses and they will jump through those hoops to send you their writing because, god bless them, they don’t know any better. They will do whatever you ask them to so they can reach, in some small way, for some measure of greatness, so they can be seen, heard, read, understood, acknowledged. Trying to fight this need, this desperate desire, is like trying to fight the rise and fall of the sun. It cannot be done.

Writers will forget to include a cover letter or otherwise ignore your guidelines. They will purge their life story in a cover letter or they will try to be funny and fail or they will be unintentionally funny. They might write an angry response or fifteen to a rejection. They might blog about your rejection and include a “Fuck you,” (true story). They might ask you to elaborate on why you rejected their story or insinuate that perhaps you didn’t carefully read their magnum opus (true story). They will send you angry notes about your lack of monetary compensation. They will withdraw a submission five times because they are still working on it. They will revise and resubmit rejected work even though you didn’t ask them to. Writers will tell you about the 111 publications where their work has appeared or they’ll mention a bunch of tiny magazines you’ve never heard of or they’ll just say, “My work has appeared in more than one hundred journals internationally,” and leave it up to you to figure out which journals they are referring to (true story). They will tell you they know their vampire story is a great fit for your 20 year old magazine when you’ve only been publishing five years and in that time have never taken up the mighty vampire. They will send a 70,000 word manuscript or a five word poem or a one word poem (true story) or ten different stories or something about Roman gladiators in space (true story). You will have to read these submissions for free, oh poor baby, having to do something you love without being monetarily compensated for it (like nearly every other editor of a literary magazine throughout the history of literary magazines) and it will take more of your time than you ever imagined and some more time on top of that. Life is rough. Some of the writing will give you chills it is so bad. Some of the writing won’t be bad but it won’t be good. It will be unremarkable and that will probably piss you off more than anything because it’s nothing. It is entirely lacking in character or soul. It’s just there, bland and inconsequential.

Once in a while, or if you’re lucky (and I feel pretty lucky) your slushpile won’t be that bad at all. It will be filled with a surprising amount of great writing and your biggest problem will be that you can only accept a fraction of that writing so your tough decisions won’t be about how to deal with the incessant and overwhelming volume of submissions. No, the difficult decisions will be about which brilliant stories and poems and other kinds of writing you will be able to take and which brilliant pieces you will have to say no to and then you’ll think about those pieces over and over again and wonder if you made the right choice and then you’ll see that story in another magazine and you’ll think, goddamn, I let that get away.

Here’s the thing though–whatever your experience with the slushpile, it is not the enemy. Writers are not the enemy. They can be frustrating but we should not be fighting them or trying to keep them away like some kind of contagion. I think we all have to stop being so goddamned condescending about the slushpile and inexperienced writers and bad writers who won’t just stay away, leaving us surrounded only by the “good” writers who do as we say. Even with all its baggage, the slushpile is awesome. Writers think so highly of your publication that they send their words to you and nine times out of ten, they will let you publish that work for FREE. And of course, there will be the lazy writers who just pick your magazine out of Duotrope or the Writer’s Market and don’t know or don’t care about your magazine as much as they care about seeing their name in print but as most editors will admit, it’s pretty easy to spot those writers and dismiss them, so really, what are we bitching about?

This is not to say writers should be elevated on a pedestal. Don’t be ridiculous. This is not to diminish the very real challenges bigger magazines are facing with overwhelming submission queues. This is just to say that maybe we’re wasting too much energy bitching about submissions. Most of our magazines would not exist without the slushpile. Have we really forgotten this? If you don’t think the slushpile is awesome, you need a sabbatical. You need to walk away. If you cannot handle the slushpile, if you are burnt out, if your complaints outweigh the pleasures of reading unpublished work, you need to have a come to Jesus moment with yourself and come up with a better solution. The slushpile is what it is. This is what it will always be.

To summarize: the slushpile is not the enemy.

This and That

Roxane Gay — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 17:30:50 +0000

1. If you like zombies, and really, who doesn’t, check out Zombie Summer at xTx’s blog, where you will find zombie tales from many familiar writers.

2. Dark Sky Magazine is holding a chapbook contest. Each entry is only $5 which seems quite reasonable.

3. Necessary Fiction has launched a Writer in Residence program. This month, it is William Walsh who is posting these amazing fictions. Last month, was my month, and you can find writing from Giant contributors like Ryan Call, Amy McDaniel and Ken Baumann among others.

4. Janet Fitch offers Ten Rules for Writers.

5. Brevity Magazine asks if they should charge for submissions.

6. Our Island of Epidemics by Matthew Salesses is available for pre-order with gorgeous cover art by Luca DiPierro to be unveiled very soon.

7. Forthcoming from me, here, once I finish unpacking: two posts on sex, one on learning to love submissions, and a love letter to depressing literary fiction.

Persisting to Be Published.

Roxane Gay — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 21:09:00 +0000

There are very prolific writers in this world. I’ve learned this because these writers seem to have a bottomless queue of writing they can submit–I’m talking arsenals of hundreds of stories or poems. I don’t mind that many writers will submit every seven days like clockwork. I’m generally excited to see what they’re going to send next and a week is usually enough time for my reading palate to be properly cleansed.

What I do mind is how oftentimes, a new submission from a writer is very similar in tone, subject matter, aesthetic, or form to a previous submission(s). I am fascinated by why a writer would send a story/other creative work that’s exactly like the story rejected a week earlier. To me, a rejection implies that something about a given submission isn’t working so probably, we’re looking for different, rather than more of the same.

I will never be that person who says you need to have a sacred, emotional bond with a magazine before you submit. As an editor, I would appreciate your reading a few issues of the magazine to get a sense of what we like, what we publish, who we are. As a human being I recognize you may not always do your full due diligence and I won’t get too riled up about it. Still. I am increasingly curious as to why writers treat magazines like conquests not because they love the magazine so much they want to be published there but because they see rejection as a challenge, or a gauntlet that has been thrown, and are, as such, inspired to respond to that challenge, exhaustively. (I have done this too. I apologize, editors.) I can’t tell you how many cover letters say things like, “I will crack this code,” or “I will break your defenses,” or “I will conquer you.” Really? How about you just send me something awesome and unexpected? How about you try to understand why we’re not clicking? Think about it, maybe, just a little.

Writers also say things like, “I don’t have much more left in my Writing folder” or “I’m running out of things to send you.” These are actual statements writers have made. Why would your sending me your writerly dregs, and telling me you are sending me your dregs, make me want to read your submission, let alone accept it? Why not wait until you have something new, something you feel in your bones is right for a magazine instead of throwing a bunch of words at a wall, hoping something will stick?

Writers will also say, “I know you’re going to reject this but I’m going to send it anyway,” or “I know you’re going to reject this but I want it to be read.” Again, why? Why are you a. shooting yourself in the foot with self-deprecation and b. deliberately wasting your time and mine by submitting something you know is wrong? If you want your writing to be read, join a writing group. If you want your writing to be legitimately considered for publication, submit it to a magazine.

If I’ve learned anything editing, it’s that there’s no pleasing anyone, there’s probably no pleasing me, and anything can blossom into a frustration on any given day but golly, some writer behaviors are more grating than others. Let us all, as writers, help ourselves by avoiding these types of practices.

Just how many stories/poems/other word things do you have lying in wait? (30 or so in various stages of readiness.)

How often are you willing to submit to a magazine before you take a break or accept that acceptance might not happen? (5?)

When does persistence become something other than virtuous?

Regarding the Cover Letter Summary

Matt Bell — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 18:56:16 +0000

As I remember it, it was once common to write cover letters for magazine submissions that started out like this:

Please consider my 3,444 word story “The Reinvigoration of Ronaldo” for publication in Fine Literary Journal Produced Either Independently or By the Grace of University Support. In “The Reinvigoration of Ronaldo,” the title character is running late for the most important meeting of his career, until he learns that life has more to offer for those willing to forsake punctuality.

It’s the second sentence I’m most curious about here, the summary of the story being submitted, modeled here after dozens of similar cover letters I’ve received at various magazines (but with all of the details being made up). When I first started submitting to literary magazines, this is exactly what books like the yearly Novel & Short Story Writer’s Market suggested you do (although I have to say that I thankfully never followed their suggestion). I haven’t bought a copy of that book in years, but recently had a chance to look through someone else’s, where I saw that they’ve moved to a cover letter that leaves out the summary, a move I certainly appreciate and that I think is generally agreed on. As an editor, I know the summary almost never endears me to read the story in question, partly because any summary of a short story tends to be incredibly (and negatively) reductive.

My question here isn’t whether or not submitters should leave off the summary–I think they most definitely should–but whether or not the summarizing itself is harmful to the writers who practice it.

I think of the short stories I’ve recently loved, and I can’t imagine reducing them into this form while still doing them justice. For instance, I suppose it’s technically possible to reduce a great short like Amelia Gray’s “Go For It and Raise Hell” to something like the following:

Carl loves spinning J-turns in his Chevy Camaro Iroc-Z, never realizing that on other side of the world is a woman who knows how to grow fifteen different kinds of peppers, until one day he imagines himself in a movie and learns that the road of excess leads toward the palace of wisdom.

That is, more or less, the plot of that story, or at least as much as I could jam into a single sentence. To be fair, it doesn’t sound that bad, or at least not as bad as my example above. Now, this is probably partly because Amelia Gray can’t write a bad story, but my my one-sentence summary still leaves out an awful lot, much of which can be experienced only by reading the story in it’s intended form, and that can’t be talked about this directly, in this concise of a format. Reducing Amelia’s story makes it dramatically blander and less interesting, and telling you this right before sending you to read the story is practically a crime. (Sorry, Amelia!)

It’s bad enough coming from me, but it’d be even worse coming from Amelia herself: If she thought the story was this simple, then maybe it really would be, despite my claims that there’s a lot more to it. Which brings me back to my original example, and to one of the dangers of these kind of cover letters.

First: To me, the writer capable of reducing their work in this way is asking the editor to believe in a very limited way of seeing that work. For instance, my “The Reinvigoration of Ronaldo” might be brilliant, but if I really think it’s about “learning that life has more to offer,” then I’m telling the person reading it that my story has a very simple moral, and that this is what I believe it is. Is the editor really likely to expect to find more, or believe that what he or she finds really exists, if even I think the story is only about this bit of triteness?

Second: Isn’t it just as likely that asking writers to do this kind of reduction, which was once common in cover letters to magazines (and persists often enough today), and which a version of exists still (in book submissions, in the form of the synopsis, for example) dangerous to the writing of the work itself? If you know that you have to be able to compress your story or essay or novel into a reduced and summarized version, doesn’t that lead to producing the kind of work that can be reduced and summarized? And for books, doesn’t that mean that editors/agents end up being interested primarily in the books that can be most easily reduced, leaving more complex or indescribable books out of the running, no matter how good they might actually be?

Sean Lovelace — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:53:35 +0000

The Millions drops a handy guide to online fiction.

Sean Lovelace — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 19:45:16 +0000

Gigantic American Biography Call For Submissions So Get Writing Now Freak-O.

Thoughts on Submission (SFW)

Justin Taylor — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 16:48:51 +0000

These are some thoughts in response to Sean Lovelace’s post the other day, which asked “You do send your Very Best work Every time when submitting to a literary magazine, right?”It started out in the comment thread, but then I decided that his question deserved more of a commitment than that. Here goes.

I think this idea of “best” vs “not-best” is based on a fundamental, and mistaken notion that *every*thing one writes ought to be published. One-offs, exercises, middling poems and pieces of “flash”–well I already wrote it, the logic goes, so why not place it *some*where?

I wrote about this, a little bit, in a post that was really about problems of definition w/r/t the avant-garde, but I think the basic logic holds. People love to quote Beckett’s admonition to always “fail better” (I personally prefer Barthelme’s vision of “great glittering failures like a reason for our lives” that “try as we may, we cannot do other than fail and fail absolutely and that the task will remain always before us, like a meaning for our lives”) but I think that they are less eager to admit that part of the experience of failing is its utterness. [UPDATE: and which the correct version of the Barthelme quote makes totally clear.] If you find even some modest salvage of your effort–ie publishing in a shitty journal, but “at least getting published”–you haven’t truly failed, and therefore have failed to take the full measure of value from either your failure-as-a-learning-experience OR your getting-published-as-a-”success.”

I think that one of the great flaws in our scene is that even as we have recreated what “publishing” means, we haven’t re-thought what it means to “be published” or to “submit work,” and the result is a kind of hyper-inflation of publishing credentials. When everyone is getting “published” in 40 “journals” a month, what do these terms even mean, and what is their value qua the individual, or that individual’s body of work qua literature?

And I don’t mean to excuse myself from this critique. As I wrote in that old post, I am–or was, before my thinking changed–as guilty of this as anyone else. (And certainly, for a writer who doesn’t view this model as a problem, there would be nothing to feel “guilty” of.) But my own experience of the urge to “be everywhere” or publish as much material as widely as possible was that it often resulted in one of two things, either (1) “gaming the system” by sending out work that I knew wasn’t my best, but which I knew was good enough for the venue I was targeting (I think this is what Sean was getting at in his post) or else (2) sending out work that was still so fresh I didn’t have enough perspective on it to know whether it was something I would be proud of, or even want to have out there in the world, over the long term–longer, that is, than it takes to attach the word .doc and click submit. This was work that I felt strongly about at the time, because it was the freshest and most vivid in my own writerly-mind, and time proved me either right or wrong, but even w/r/t pieces that turned out satisfying, it must be admitted that in the instant of decision, I was absolutely firing blind.

I think this model–the online/indie-lit model–values output over either production OR consumption (because really, who is going to read all this stuff?) and I think that this is a function of digital culture–accelerated by the natural tendencies of American culture–which tends to value the fact of presence over the particulars of what’s presented. As we remake the world from the bottom up (top down? inside out? outside in? nobody really knows where we all exist relative to the idea of a “center” that itself may be little more than a fiction) it’s up to us to identify the flaws in our behaviors and assumptions, and to figure out how to overcome them. As Marilynne Robinson pointed out in a Harper’s essay I don’t have in front of me right now to cite (but am pretty sure I’ve cited on this site before), when someone quotes Pound’s injunction to “make it new,” they tend to put all the emphasis on the “new,” or, if they are being contrarian, on the fact that emphasizing “new” comes at the expense of emphasizing “make.” But nobody, it seems, ever puts the emphasis on “it”–the object of creation, the thing itself.

Save for a handful of book reviews–and, obviously, this blog, which is no small part of my writing-life–I have spent the entire past year or so of my life putting all of my creative energy into a novel. I haven’t written more than a few poems (certainly nothing that would ever be “submitted”) and not a single short story. I haven’t sent any of the novel excerpts out (which isn’t to say I won’t–only that I haven’t). Having literally nothing to send out on submission has afforded me a lot of perspective on the way that whole process works–it has forced a slowing-down, not unlike how a cold forces you to take the bed rest your healthy self needed at least as badly, but which healthy-you would not make the time to take. I feel better moving slower, with more deliberation and intent, and what work I do send out now–reviews, blog posts, whatever–tends to be stronger, to my own eye at least. I also find that I have a more developed sense of my work as really being mine, not a means to the end of getting published, but the end in itself. The result of this is that even when I have something to send out, odds are decent that I’m still not going to. In a culture that demands constant participation and production, standing-apart, or even just slowing down, puts you against the common grain, which is usually the right place to be.

All hail Saint Bartleby!

The question to an editor–whether they’ve solicited you, you’re submitting through the slush pile, or anything in between–should not be “can I be in your magazine?” The proper question is “are you interested in my work?” If the answer is yes, then wonderful, if not, then so be it, but it’s the way in which you choose to ask the question–rather than the question’s answer–that is what’s truly telling. I think.

Sean Lovelace — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 13:04:29 +0000

My pal Tommy Z once sent out the same story 54 times. (It was published by Carolina Q.) Your record?