Literary MagNet

by
Staff
From the January/February 2011 issue of
Poets & Writers Magazine

After twenty-six years of editing ZYZZYVA (www.zyzzyva.org), the San Francisco–based periodical featuring poetry, fiction, and nonfiction by writers from Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington, Howard Junker will finally step down. (Junker had already retired once in 2009, but then rescinded his resignation due to the economy and lack of “the perfect successor.”) With the spring issue he’ll hand over the reigns to the current managing editor, Laura Cogan, who, according to Junker, is “committed to carrying on [ZYZZYVA’s] great tradition” of publishing undiscovered writers along with established ones such as Sherman Alexie, Aimee Bender, Justin Chin, Daniel Handler, Adam Hochschild, Michael Palmer, Adrienne Rich, and Gary Snyder.

Cave Wall (www.cavewallpress.com), a simple yet elegantly designed poetry journal published twice yearly in Greensboro, North Carolina, is celebrating five years in print. The current issue features work by poets such as Robert Bly, Kelly Cherry, and Erika Meitner, as well as the art of John Broadley, who makes books in London. Editor Rhett Iseman Trull reads unsolicited poems twice a year; the next reading period will open in the spring. Visit the Web site for updates and complete guidelines.

A portion of the proceeds from Issue 7 of Annalemma (annalemma.net), which includes the photo essay “ZORA!” by Ted Hollins—an artist who for the past twenty-one years has been documenting the annual Zora Neale Hurston Festival in Eatonville, Florida—will go to the Hurston museum, which is dedicated to showcasing work from artists of African descent. While the reading period for the print issue of the biannual Brooklyn, New York–based journal is currently closed, editor Chris Heavener is accepting fiction and creative nonfiction, via Submishmash, for the Web site, which is updated weekly.

H.O.W. Journal (www.howjournal.com), a biannual founded in New York City in 2006 that raises “money and awareness for the approximately 163 million children throughout the world who have been orphaned,” has launched Wearable Literature—a new line of T-shirts designed by artist Marcos Chin and based on work by Jonathan Ames, Dave Eggers, Amy Hempel, Rick Moody, and Honor Moore. Readers who buy a shirt for forty-five dollars or submit poetry, fiction, or nonfiction, along with the requested five-dollar donation, will help founding editors Natasha Radojcic and Alison Weaver raise funds for their current cause: an art, music, and filmmaking program for young adults in New York City.

Assembly (www.assemblyjournal.com), a new Brooklyn, New York–based biannual magazine founded by Toronto native Marek Denisiuk, “explores a wide array of subjects in the social, political, and cultural realms…and believes in the earnest voice, the motivated reader, and the long way of doing things.” But Denisiuk clearly believes in the short way of submitting one’s work: Writers may send poems, stories, essays, and interviews to submissions@assemblyjournal.com. Visit the Web site for complete guidelines.

The Whitefish Review (www.whitefishreview.org), a four-year-old biannual journal based in Whitefish, Montana, that publishes poetry, fiction, and nonfiction with a “slant toward mountain culture” by Western writers such as Terry Tempest Williams, David James Duncan, Pete Fromm, and William Kittredge, is accepting submissions from January 1 to March 15 via e-mail only. According to the editors, “Writing style isn’t as necessary as thoughtfulness or consideration.” Visit the Web site for complete guidelines.