Checking in

Lazy Sunday Substack Update

Dear Identity Theory Readers,

Every decision is a portal, and I’ve decided to write another Substack message. Not sure where this is going.

Here’s one thing: We announced our Best of the Net nominations last month. Congratulations to the nominees:

• “Δ Means Change”: CNF by Corinne Cordasco-Pak

• “I’m Sorry, I Know My Well-Being Is Bad for the Planet”: CNF by Francesca Leader

• “Ganache Girl”: Fiction by Aimee Campos

• “Parking Lots”: Fiction by John Newman

• “Meteorite”: A Poem by D.W. Baker

• “In Honor of the Man Who Denied Bill Nye”: A Poem by Alexa Doran

• “The Second Scientific Revolution”: A Poem by Taylor Franson-Thiel

• “Luck”: A Poem by Stefanie Kirby

• “Call Me Baby”: A Poem by Joseph Lezza

• “Why Don’t We Paint the Town”: A Poem by Jess Smith

• Ampydoo Cartoon #122 and two other cartoons (#81, #109) from Alan Michael Parker

About Today

New poems that made their way onto the site today: “Tell Me Everything” by Terri Linn Davis and Aubri Kaufman (pictured above), “Leap (for Barbara)” by Elizabeth Loudon, “heliotropic travelers” by lae astra

Also, flash CNF from Molly Wadzeck Kraus: “Nothing’s Free in Waterworld”

And Chuck Augello interviewed Sean Murphy on his book This Kind of Man.

Previously on Identity Theory

Surely, you’ve kept up with the fall season of Micro Monday.

Did you also see Chuck Augello’s interview with Kim Addonizio?

What about Brenna Camping’s short story “Bonsai Tree”?

What Comes Next?

The summer of sonnets will be harvested into publication form, hopefully within a week or two. Acceptances have been sent. Thank you to everyone who participated.

We are running out of reasons to stay on (Twitter) because so many contributors, readers, and fellow journals have left the platform. Any engagement is better than no engagement, but…it’s getting close to a tipping point of not being worth the misery.

When Identity Theory first started in 2000, we benefitted from healthy Google rankings. Now, when you google something, you get an AI summary, a bunch of sponsored results, and maybe 1-2 real results. It’s a wasteland.

When Identity Theory joined Facebook, we had an active Facebook group, and you could see our posts and the posts of your friends. Now, Facebook is a disconnected experience that is essentially worthless, and they usually only show our posts to less than 1% of our followers.

Instagram is okay sometimes, maybe, but like Facebook, I don’t feel like it creates a strong connection.

There’s no unified way to interact with our readers anymore, beyond this Substack.

I’ll try to write these more often, but as I mentioned a few months ago, I’m deep in the world of teaching students with disabilities, leaving almost no time to write Substacks.

Most likely, our publication schedule will continue to involve bursts of new stories, interviews, and poems on Sundays. Hopefully this works for you. I know our submission response and publication turnaround times have not been great this year.

Ranting/whining aside, the rest of the year will be fun. Micro! Sonnets! Literal tons of poems! Fiction and CNF catchup! Also, Pushcart nominations are coming soon!

And anyway, the kids (animals) are alright.

Choose wisely,

Matt Borondy
Editor of the 447th best lit mag in the world according to someone on the internet