For three years I published and co-edited (as fiction editor) an online journal of literature. Lately I’ve been feeling uninvolved in the literary community, and I’m searching for ways to connect. I’m considering relaunching the journal. In the past we published fiction and poetry. If I did decide to relaunch it, I would publish only fiction.
My question is this: would you be interested in reading such a journal? Would you submit to such a journal (on the understanding that I couldn’t pay you)? Would you be willing to post about such a journal on your blog? If yes to any of these, would you be willing to donate money (I’m thinking about micro-donations, a dollar here or there), with the understanding that any donations would go exclusively to the hosting bill? Why (or why not—this last question being an addendum to any and all of the above)? Please leave a comment below (and if you wish your answers to be more private, feel free to email me).
Thanks in advance for your time.
Yes to all your questions — though the micro-contribution will have to wait until I’m settled in-country again … and that may be a while.
By the way, can you give more information about your previous mag? Any examples of it still online?
The journal was called Wooden Fish, and so far as I know there are no traces of it left online (or if there are, I don’t know about them). I was the publisher, but not the editor in chief, so my control was fairly limited. I think the poetry was probably more exciting than the fiction we published, but I think that was mostly the result of the circles that Jon (editor in chief and co-founder) and I traveled in at the time and submissions we were receiving. Though I’m proud of everything we published, even my own section was never quite what I hoped it would be. We published high-quality work, but seemed unable to attract work with the flavour we were hoping for. I move in different circles now, and the whole scene is different, so I’m curious about what’s out there and what sort of work it would attract.
One thing that never made it up (we shut down before we could finish it) that I was really pleased about and looking forward to, was an interview with Sheila Heti. I managed to speak to her on the day she finished Ticknor. I was quite disappointed that the interview never came off.
As for the micro-donations, please don’t feel like I’m asking for any sort of commitment. I’m more interesting in learning how people feel about the concept in general. I don’t accept advertising or donations for this site (the whole idea makes me rather uncomfortable), but I found Wooden Fish to be so time and work intensive that I feel like I would have to do something to offset that, and I’d mostly just like to know if that would turn people off to the project.
Thanks for the feedback!
Sign me up.