- Cold Front
O, literary journal editors with day jobs! They alone will face the slushiest slush piles of the world, sifting through them to find the untapped talent responsible for whatever cool thing any indie press you like publishes next. They’re terminally under-appreciated, the good ones overshadowed by the bad ones, and all toiling in anonymity. So it’s nice to see a list like this one by Sarah Seltzer at Flavorwire, that does the legwork for you, identifying journals worthy of your attention in this boundless sea of feelings. If your New Year’s resolutions include adding “Pretentious Discussion” to your bag o’ party tricks (or, more charitably, if you like reading), take a look:
Almost always, literary magazines are run by their editors as a side hustle. Creating consistent content in a unique format is tremendously difficult, so it’s good literary citizenry to applaud boundary-pushing work. In that vein, and to connect readers and submitters with outlets, here’s a short list of particularly funky literary magazines which are doing something unique and cool with their platform. Check them out in 2015.
Five Chapters
This respected online magazine publishes a story in five parts, over the course of the week. With this pace, it’s like watching an internet scandal unfold, swell, and fade except much more emotionally satsifying.
Spartan Lit
Prefer your prose a little spare and less flowery? This magazine focuses on minimalist prose, with a refreshingly clean design.
The Cupboard
Each issue of this Nebraska-based “pamphlet” is its own chapbook, devoted to a single author.
I’m not even sure “side hustle” is the correct term here, since it implies turning any kind of profit, which literary journals arguably don’t. Still, this is a good list of starting points in what’s become a very saturated non-market of some brilliant and, um, less brilliant journals. (In the interest of full disclosure/bragging, I have written for Two Serious Ladies.) The Cupboard, in particular, is a weird little venture that gives me hope for the future of the printed word. Not listed but also worth checking out: Illuminati Girl Gang (I mean seriously, it’s called Illuminati Girl Gang!), Portland’s own Poor Claudia (their latest book release is reviewed here), Alice Blue Review, Cold Front, and the Volta. And now, back to your regularly scheduled toiling in obscurity programming.