Last Wednesday, just as soon as my last newsletter went out, I read about Gettysburg College’s decision to shut down the vaunted Gettysburg Review, which will publish its last issue in December. In a statement, President Bob Iuliano and Provost Jamila Bookwala blamed “changing demographic and enrollment realities across higher education,” continuing:
I love this newsletter of yours. I didn't know about the end of those magazines. Most were too high a bar for me. I hate that the Alaska Quarterly Review is gone, what a great place that was. Back in the day being published in a magazine made of paper used to be a thrill., still is. But nowadays, being published online has taken its place, being available to anyone with a computer or a phone, and it feels pretty nice too. And a place like Air/Light not only publishes interesting stuff, but it is also quite beautiful, and the illustrations would be prohibitively expensive to do in an actual hold in your hands magazine.
I'm so deeply gratified by your continuing support, Abby. Thank you. In terms of the Alaska Quarterly Review -- I've clarified above that it still actually exists, though I don't think its funding comes from the university anymore. And how did I not know about Air/Light? It's fantastic! At any rate, I found it partly depressing to report out this essay -- I love the experience of reading print, always will. But Jane Friedman's ideas about unbounding the stories etc from a print issue, about creating community, and about rethinking the gatekeeping function of journals hit home.
The whole submission process has changed too! Instead of photocopying (or typing out!) a piece, finding an envelope, stamp, and then another envelope and stamp to serve as a SASE and then walking the whole thing to the post office and waiting for an acceptance or more likely rejection by mail we have. . Submittable, a platform I have not yet mastered. Not to mention the submission FEE that is no doubt necessary to online survival.
Submittable is a very easy thing to master if you have an account. Simply click on the button or link they provide in the submission guidelines, fill out your particulars, and click on the portal that matches the genre of your piece - fiction, nonfiction or poetry, whether general or themed. Most will ask for the title of the submission, a simple cover letter and an attachment of your piece (usually in doc or docx format.) Some will ask for your name and title of your piece, where you can be reached on social media ad a simple author biography, but it's still worth a try.
As for the submission fees - speaking as a low and fixed income writer, I hear you, especially since I have a monthly transaction limit with my charge card that prevents me from throwing submission fees everywhere. Usually, I email them asking for a waiver of the fee. Some magazines ask that you subscribe to the magazine in order to have this granted to you, but most others will be happy to give them to you if you approach them in a business-like manner. Unfortunately, Canada Post no longer provides American stamps if you mail submissions to American magazines from Canada, you need to purchase them yourself. This is why I usually stick to online submissions unless absolutely necessary.
I love this newsletter of yours. I didn't know about the end of those magazines. Most were too high a bar for me. I hate that the Alaska Quarterly Review is gone, what a great place that was. Back in the day being published in a magazine made of paper used to be a thrill., still is. But nowadays, being published online has taken its place, being available to anyone with a computer or a phone, and it feels pretty nice too. And a place like Air/Light not only publishes interesting stuff, but it is also quite beautiful, and the illustrations would be prohibitively expensive to do in an actual hold in your hands magazine.
I'm so deeply gratified by your continuing support, Abby. Thank you. In terms of the Alaska Quarterly Review -- I've clarified above that it still actually exists, though I don't think its funding comes from the university anymore. And how did I not know about Air/Light? It's fantastic! At any rate, I found it partly depressing to report out this essay -- I love the experience of reading print, always will. But Jane Friedman's ideas about unbounding the stories etc from a print issue, about creating community, and about rethinking the gatekeeping function of journals hit home.
The whole submission process has changed too! Instead of photocopying (or typing out!) a piece, finding an envelope, stamp, and then another envelope and stamp to serve as a SASE and then walking the whole thing to the post office and waiting for an acceptance or more likely rejection by mail we have. . Submittable, a platform I have not yet mastered. Not to mention the submission FEE that is no doubt necessary to online survival.
Submittable is a very easy thing to master if you have an account. Simply click on the button or link they provide in the submission guidelines, fill out your particulars, and click on the portal that matches the genre of your piece - fiction, nonfiction or poetry, whether general or themed. Most will ask for the title of the submission, a simple cover letter and an attachment of your piece (usually in doc or docx format.) Some will ask for your name and title of your piece, where you can be reached on social media ad a simple author biography, but it's still worth a try.
As for the submission fees - speaking as a low and fixed income writer, I hear you, especially since I have a monthly transaction limit with my charge card that prevents me from throwing submission fees everywhere. Usually, I email them asking for a waiver of the fee. Some magazines ask that you subscribe to the magazine in order to have this granted to you, but most others will be happy to give them to you if you approach them in a business-like manner. Unfortunately, Canada Post no longer provides American stamps if you mail submissions to American magazines from Canada, you need to purchase them yourself. This is why I usually stick to online submissions unless absolutely necessary.