A Little of This. A Bit of That.

Here's an interesting essay in Slate magazine about taking ten years to write one novel.

Honoree Jeffers writes about the problems of contemporary black hip hop poetry in The Kenyon Review.

The winner of the Passion Project Contest on SheWrites will give an emerging writer all the tools she needs to put together a winning nonfiction book proposal.

The Idlewild Writers and Poets Conference will happen August 12-14 in Idlewild, Michigan. The focus of the conference is "the rich literary legacy associated with this historic African-American community known as one of the premier entertainment and performance venues during the 50s and early 60s."

An article in The Guardian chronicles how abandoned property in Detroit is being converted into farmland. I've been hearing stories about an increase in wildlife in once strictly urban areas. A friend who grew up in Southfield, Michigan with me says that her parents have a family of deer that visit their backyard regularly.

Grants, Fellowships & Residencies...Oh My!

I wanted to share this great resource, Mira's List, that I learned about. A description of Mira's List from the site:

Grants. Fellowships. Residencies. Resources. Mira's List is a free blog for artists, writers, composers and others in the arts. Here you will find up-to-date information, resources and deadlines for grants, fellowships and international residencies. Money, time and a place to create.

I've added it to my list. Thanks to Ruth for this tip!

Read Any Good Blog Posts Lately?

Creative Nonfiction magazine is looking for narrative blog posts from 2009 to publish in an upcoming issue. From CNF's Facebook page: "Must tell a story and be able to stand alone. 2,000 words max, from 2009. To nominate your own blog, a friend's blog, a stranger's blog [go to] http://www.creativenonfiction.org/blog_nomination_open.html". Deadline is August 31.

New Journal for Short Stories

Electric Literature is a new journal for short stories. The first issue released in June 2009. EL will publish five stories bi-monthly and copies are available for $5 on Kindle, eBook, or iPhone/iPod Touch. For $10 they will print paperback copies on demand. And get this: they pay writers $1,000 for stories.

According to the website, EL's staff believes that "by publishing gripping narratives from America's best contemporary writers and embracing new forms of distribution, we hope to facilitate a renaissance of the short story."

The current issue features stories by T. Cooper, Michael Cunningham, Lydia Millet, Jim Shepard, and Diana Wagman.

No poetry or essays, just stories.

Toward 21st Century Rules for Short Story Submissions

I met with a group of fiction writers this weekend and the topic of conversation eventually turned to the task of submitting short stories for publication. No one I know either a) still does this or b) does it and likes it. And it has nothing to do with the fear of rejection. The problem is that the system is woefully outdated. Who in the world has time to fill out a SASE? Who wants to buy postage stamps for godssake? There have been articles written about the death of the SASE and how all literary journals will eventually be online or at least take online submissions. Still, progress in this area is moving slowly.

So here are my lists, based on recent personal experience, of who takes online submissions and who doesn't. I did not include journals that require a mandatory fee. And these lists are for short story subs only:

Journals that have an Online Submission Manager:
42 Opus
AGNI
Blatimore Review
Boston Review
Columbia: A Journal of Literature & Arts
Fence
Glimmertrain
One Story
The Kenyon Review
Ninth Letter
Our Stories
The Virginia Quarterly Review
Witness
Quarterly West
Tin House

Journals that take Email Submissions:
Blackbird
Columbia Review
Colorado Review
Denver Syntax
Literary Mama
Monkeybicycle
Pindeldyboz
The Summerset Review
The New Yorker
Oklahoma Review
Oregon Literary Review
The St. Ann's Review
McSweeny's Quarterly
Fantasy Magazine
Superstition Review
Storyglossia

Journals that Only Do Snail Mail (Boo!):
Alaska Quarterly Review
Antioch Review
Arts & Letters
Atlantic Monthly
Brooklyn Review
The Gettysburg Review
Granta
Harper's
Hawai'i Review
The Ledge
Louisiana Review
Nimrod
Southwestern American Literature
Wisconsin review
North American Review
The Sun
Indiana Review
Cimarron Review

Please correct me where I'm wrong and feel free to add to the list. For a more comprehensive list of publications that take electronic submissions go to www.duotrope.com