Hey Everyone,
Things are changing. We’re announcing new micro guidelines in this newsletter and altering our publication schedule.
But love is not love which alters when it alteration finds, as Shakespeare wrote in a sonnet.
Speaking of sonnets, the “mom” of our poetry team, associate poetry editor Lisa Cantwell, is asking for your sonnets. We are calling this the “summer of sonnets.”
Submit your sonnets via email before Labor Day—or just send a regular ol’ poem—by visiting our Poetry Submission Guidelines.
The Marriage of True Micros
Micro editor
sent me her new micro submission updates. I am going to cut-and-paste them below. The tl;dr is that we’re only going to be open for micro from August 15-August 31st. Here are her guidelines:THE TIMELINE:
· Submissions will be open from August 15, 2024 – August 31, 2024. Submissions received before or after will not be considered.
· Reading will take place September 1, 2024 – September 29, 2024.
· Decisions will be sent by October 1, 2024. If you have not received a decision by October 2, 2024, please inquire.
· If there are any delays or updates to this timeline, they will be posted on our website and social media.
THE THEME:
The summer solstice has come and gone in the Northern Hemisphere and the days are getting shorter. The flora and fauna have felt this shift, and we’d like to feel it, too. Give us goldenrod, maroon, forest green, and every shade of brown, crunching leaves, spooky vibes, foggy streets lights, that first chill in the air, warm kitchens, dark days, eco-poetry, ghosts in a pumpkin patch, slashers in a corn maze, harvest, holidays, hibernation, love, loss, goodbyes… whatever autumn and winter evoke for you, we want to read it.
THE NITTY GRITTY:
· Send 1-3 pieces of micro prose or poetry to Vic Nogay at micro@identitytheory.com.
· Prose pieces should be no more than 500 words in length.
· Poems should be no more than 9 lines.
· You may paste your submission in the body of the email and/or attach pieces in a single file to your email. Whichever you choose, please ensure it is clear when a new piece begins.
· Simultaneous submissions are accepted. Please inform us promptly if your submission has been accepted elsewhere.
· We do not accept previously published submissions.
· We do not accept AI-generated submissions.
· A brief cover letter is always appreciated. In your cover letter, include a short author biography (50-100 words), and please indicate if the pieces in your submission are poetry, fiction, nonfiction, or something else.
Other Changes
I, for one, am already making pumpkin spice coffee drinks to manifest my way out of these 110-degree southern Nevada temperatures. And I’m drinking extra coffee because I’ve recently started working as a special education teacher and am also going for a new graduate degree in the fall. So, you know, I’m tired, but also excited to be awake.
Because of my newly maxed-out schedule, I’m going to reduce our submission windows to keep our response times and publication turnarounds manageable. But people like Sophie Newman, the aforementioned Vic, Justin Aoba, and others on our amazing editorial team will still be taking good care of you and your work.
We’re probably going to close fiction submissions at the end of August—maybe alternating one month on and one month off—to keep the response times reasonable. We may also go to email-only for poetry submissions just for the fall. I’ll announce our final decisions on these changes later this month, but I wanted to give you notice in case you’re thinking of submitting fiction soon.
New Stuff
Our new Un-Identified section launched, featuring work from Deanna Whitlow and Sophie Hoss.
Read Sophie Hoss’ “You Are the Fever” and Deanna Whitlow’s “A Breath of Life (After Clarice Lispector)”
In poetry, we have:
Jed Myers’ “The Transitive Property of Despair”
Andy Young’s “Boraq on Mohamed Mahmoud Street”
Madeleine Heyworth’s “Projectile”
Charles Springer’s “Storytellers”
Haro Lee’s “An Old Wife’s Tale”
Amy Miller’s two poems
Adrian Sobol’s “psychopomp”
Tamiko Dooley’s “Ki (Tree)”
Lydia Buzzard’s two poems
Jillian Clasky’s “As Is”
And today, john compton’s “you became the holy water”
In prose, Cynthia Pierce contributed her short story “Found Some Nice Pots at the Thrift Store” and Shea West followed her with “Growing Pains.” We also published an essay by Mary Dittrich Orth: “Three Parts Oxygen”
Fiction editor Chuck Augello interviewed Andrew Porter, author of The Disappeared.
Awards
Hey, look at Will Musgrove’s “Demolition”: a micro story that was selected for Best Small Fictions 2024 AND made the longlist for Wigleaf Top 50.
We’ll announce our Best of the Net nominees toward the end of the nomination cycle this year, so look for those in mid-late September.
Sunday Funday?
I will probably start to post our new stuff on Sundays (starting today!) and send weekly newsletters to keep you updated—assuming the pumpkin spice keeps flowing.
Enjoy your August.
But don’t forget to send us your fall vibes.
Love you,
Matt
I just read Will Musgrove’s “Demolition” - I’m experiencing a raw visceral response that is both gritty and gorgeous.