If you’d like to submit for our April issue, get your work in by March 1st!! Otherwise, it will be considered for the August issue.
Creative nonfiction and art
That’s what we need. Submit today!
Jody Brooks’ “Complete Conversations” blogged at New Pages!
. . . and linked back to SUB-LIT!
Check it out!
http://newpagesblog.blogspot.com/2008/01/one-short-of-two-by-jody-brooks-on-sub.html
Two things
1. We’re back up!
2. Join SUB-LIT’s editors at the Seventh Annual Creative Loafing Fiction Contest party this Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Eyedrum cafe in Atlanta. Fiction editor Laurah Raines placed first in this year’s contest, and she will be reading, along with the other winners, between 7 and 9 p.m. Coffee and desserts are provided!
Sam Miller, a friend of SUB-LIT, placed second in the contest–make sure to catch Sam’s reading!
Eyedrum Atlanta
http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/fiction/party.html
Don’t Panic!
We haven’t disappeared– our hosting company’s server has gone haywire. The site will be back up very soon.
Check it out—
Our fancy New Pages ad is up!
http://newpages.com/npguides/litmags_online.htm
And here if you want the complete info:
http://newpages.com/npguides/litmags_online_complete.htm
Yay!
A Word on the Art
Dear SUB-LIT readers,
A few words on the art in issue three:
Kimy Martinez’s paintings from her Seizing Me collection are images created for an independent film: Seizing Me, a psychological thriller. The “Seizing Me, Razor,” “Seizing Me, Buckle,” and “Seizing Me, Key” are realistic images with a distinct style: extreme lights and extreme darks are juxtaposed in a way to make the realistic subject matter almost more real, more present, more startling. The images command a presence, demand attention, creating a feeling of edginess, an edginess mirrored in the actions and gestures of the female figure.
Amy Johnson’s images may at first appear deceptively simple, but her paintings are jarring in their outward expression; “Been there done that” is a subversive, comic gesture toward a archetypal image and theme. Johnson has a knack for reworking traditional motifs into something engaging. Her work is deceptively playful; the play is doing directive work on the viewer, if you look closely.
H.L. Groen’s “Kinnari” is striking in its implications, the blending of woman and bird; Groen’s painting, with its bold colors and strong profile, stands confident. The image of the Kinnari, though solitary, points forward and backward to a large body of religious and mythological writings. Groen’s representation of woman sums up the selections I’ve made for this issue, representations of the world as painted by women.
Although I in no way sought out the theme of women and painting, the selections I was left mulling over at the end of the reading period happened to all be works of the same medium, and the artists happened to all be women. A theme, not preconceived, emerged for this issue. I hope you enjoy the selections.
And don’t forget to send me your art. I’d love to see more photography. Spread the word.
Sincerely,
Amber Nicole Brooks
Art Editor
Reflections, news, and looking to the future
Issue Three:
We’re very excited to go live with SUB-LIT issue three. It’s amazing that, in a year’s time, an idea that Casey and I tossed around over shots of liquor has become a reality, and we have you to thank. This issue is our best yet, due largely to the amazing contributions of our submitters, and of our new editors, Cris and Amber. Amber tirelessly pursued subversive art, and Cris’ skills as a proofreader have been incredibly helpful. As always, I appreciate the contributions of our readers (Addison, Cris, Scott, and now Chelsea) and their willingness to tackle the slush pile. Casey did a fabulous job with the layout, Kat patiently read through a hundred submissions, and Michael managed to select poetry while studying several continents away. Not bad, right?
Submissions:
Don’t forget . . .we’re taking submissions for issue four! I may have mentioned this 405932 times already, but persistence is key, right? Check out our submission guidelines for more info.
The Future’s so Bright:
What will 2008 bring for SUB-LIT? We now have a sponsored ad with New Pages (it should be up any day) and a print ad coming out in Five Points, both of which should help us get our name out there. We have plans to create contests for fiction and poetry, work toward funding a print anthology, and have begun discussing multimedia additions for the site. I’d love to feature music and podcasts of authors reading their work; Mikey and I soon hope to make this a reality. We’re hoping to hold a reading in the Atlanta area, too – look for that in the summer.
Fiction and Creative Nonfiction, Issue Three:
So, on to the authors. I’ll leave Amber and Mikey to comment on the art and poetry, but I certainly want to say something about the fiction and nonfiction pieces chosen for this issue.
The measured, minimalist nature of Peter Fontaine’s “Moving” is what initially attracted me to the piece. I appreciated simplicity and quick pacing, and how the restrained POV forces the reader to reach further into the dialogue for answers.
I loved the pairing of Jody Brooks’ “Shooting Hummingbirds in the Mimosa Tree” and “Complete Conversations with My Father Unprovoked and about which I Am Still Confused.” I’ll admit that I’m a sucker for short-shorts. I love writing flash, and I love reading flash, but it’s rare that I find submitters who really capture the spirit of the genre. I enjoyed the range shown in Jody’s pieces, and how she was able to form complete (and completely different) effects within such short spans. The meditative, lovely language of “Hummingbirds” manages to create a vivid image in nearly no time at all, and the dialogue-only “Complete Conversations” characterizes its speakers and constructs a relationship in fewer than 300 words.
Jamie Lin’s “Desperately” presents the florid, dramatic narration of its not-a-child, not-yet-an-adult protagonist in such a way that the reader is made aware of vulnerability the narrator doesn’t realize she’s showing. The teenage-poetry voice of the protagonist, when paired with the author’s sophisticated descriptions, create a story that is much more complex than its narrator realizes. What she doesn’t tell us becomes much more important than what she does.
Roland Goity’s “Author Intrusion” is a wonderful read. I read a lot of metafiction, but rarely am I offered a piece that plays with genre and aesthetic without taking itself dreadfully seriously. “Postmodern” often signifies “about as light and enjoyable as a wet blanket loaded with rocks,” but Goity’s piece is fun, entertaining, and satisfying. I was able to follow the shifts with ease, and by the end of “Author Intrusion,” I was struck by the author’s storytelling capabilities.
JA Tyler’s “Trembling Through It,” danced in the gray area between prose and prose-poem. The language is loaded, rolling, and ultimately hypnotic, and it’s rare to discover a piece that is able to bring rhythm and punctuation-play to the forefront while still presenting an affecting, complete story.
Sonya Huber’s creative nonfiction piece, “Lakeview Café,” manages to do what so many creative nonfiction submissions cannot: create a complete and unique effect built on images and narration that don’t forget the craft while bringing forth the “true.”
I hope you enjoy the issue!
We’re now live!
Check out the new issue!
Issue three will be up by midday on 1/1/08!
For reals.
