New South

New South–another Lit Mag that does not suck.

Run out of the graduate program at Georgia State University. Editor-in-chief is James May. James May went to University of Houston with a certain Novice/Apprentice. James knows good bourbon when he comes across it. James knows that Gardettos make a helluva poker snack, much better than mini-carrots. He knows good Literature too.

The magazine hasn’t been around that long as New South, but it gets widely good work. It is New (ish) and resides in the South; however this isn’t a niche Mag. There is no shtick, no specialty work going on here–just good writing by good writers.

NANO Fiction

Yet another Lit Mag that doesn’t suck, NANO Fiction is a biannual–based out of that art mecca Houston TX (w/ or w/out  a shake of irony, you decide)–that publishes “flash fiction, prose poems, micro essays, and comics of 300 words or less.” Basically a place for all that underrepresented & genre bending stuff.

They’re not the only ones doing it but they are doing it well for a Mag that is still a young whipper-snapper (founded 2006). They run a contest, they run a reading series, and they are co-hosting this year’s Houston Indie Book Festival with The Menil Collection and Gulf Coast (University of Houston Creative Writing Program’s fine journal).

Well done and worth checking out. Fo Sho.

Lit Mags that Don’t Suck

Don’t get me wrong, I like Lit Mags, especially the ones that take my work. And there are a lot of Lit Mags that don’t suck. Some, however, are much better at not sucking than others. Those are the ones I am interested in talking about. I’ll do just that right here, in completely irregular installments. This is the first.

THE OFFENDING ADAM

An unabashed online journal, The Offending Adam boasts a uniqueness among Lit Mags. Now most Lit Mags boast that; it’s the standard calling card. Now I won’t pretend to pin a “uniqueness” quotient on them, but their claims seem to hold water. The Eds. state via editorial statement, “What makes The Offending Adam unique, beyond our embrace of the online medium, is an emphasis on the relationship between contributor, journal, and reader . . . a dynamic process between contributor and editor resulting in a publication accompanied by an editorial statement.”

The concept of editorial statement, that at once brings together the work itself, a championing by the editors (I really like how they seem to be standing behind what they are publishing), and a critical component is a nice touch, as is the weekly format–between the weekly and the web, you can envision quite a lot of “foot” traffic after awhile.

It’s brand new–they hit the ground last week w/daily updates for their launch week–which means growing pains, but the content is excellent as is the concept–which can be dangerously hit or miss when dealing with online journals.

These fellas didn’t miss.