Identity Theory Editors' Blog

The end of the small print journal. Please.

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Whitacre) — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 20:34:00 +0000

I recently came across an old professor's list of literary journals from 2002 while searching for publications to add to Readsfeed (my project to assemble and track every new story, poem, and review posted online by respected literary outlets and send them automatically to readers via Twitter @readsfeed and RSS).

Here's the list:

Many of those publications, though, I couldn't include in Readsfeed because they don't actually publish content online.

These technologically stingy websites made me wonder: what exactly is the mission and use of literary journals in the digital era?

90% of the journals on that list are ones with perfunctory web presences, with pixelated logos, PDF samplers that could easily have been posted as HTML, and a mailing address instead of an email address or a form for submissions. These are sites created around 1999 when editors thought "Maybe we should have a website?", then made one, and still oddly maintain them within their ten-year-old frames.

It's a failure of attention, care, or caring that makes their content irrelevant or literally unreadable online.

This failure is especially true of smaller journals, most of which don't post stories and poems online. They post excerpts at most, a table of contents on average, and a mere physical mailing address for requesting copies at worst. And they do this because they don't want to cannibalize their hardcopy sales.

Except what they're actually cannibalizing is their readership.

These publications put their stories above their readers. But without readers, the best story is as good as a blank page. Readers, it turns out, want different things than they did fifty or even ten years ago.

The necessities of print submission and distribution created, over decades, an entrenched sense of hierarchy, that good stories logically move from writer up to editor and back down to reader. But readers, with new online practices introduced by other media and applied to everyday life, expect a conversation with the people whose work they read. They expect a feedback loop. They expect access to literature.

These publications, then, are in trouble, because they don't communicate with their readers when they easily could. They don't seem to care that a generation is coming of age that loves books, loves talking about books, but which does it all with electronic mediation: ordering books on Amazon, posting a review on their blog, recommending a poem on Facebook, forwarding a bookstore's email saying a favorite writer is coming to town, finding like-minded readers on Meetup.com to get drinks with.

This should be a golden age of literary journals. And it is, for some larger forward-looking publications. McSweeney's, the New Yorker, Tin House, and others have found compatibility between financial sustainability and what my old boss Henry Jenkins calls "spreadability", removing barriers to sharing content so that fans can build communities around that content.

Successful literary publications know that obscurity is the shortest path to failure.

To ask the question again, what is the mission and use of literary journals in the digital era? It can't be publishing for publishing's sake, because anyone can publish now. It's not as much to act as gatekeepers, because huge communities exist using easy technologies to find and elevate good writing.

The mission of journals, as I now see it, is to contribute to and nurture conversation around good writing. To be experts without excluding. To offer literary context without condescension. To carve out space for literature. At heart that mission isn't any different than it was eighty years ago. But in the digital era, that means making good writing easily, more freely available.

To do that, small journals don't need to--and shouldn't--print a bound volume four times a year.

Smaller print journals served a great purpose when sharing a short story or poem was restricted by geography. Print and voice were the only media. But things have changed. All traditional purposes of small journals--including teaching students to evaluate fiction, bringing attention to great new writers, creating a literary community--are now better served by posting writing online or using other forums in combination, such as public readings, fan groups, podcasts, and almost everything else besides print.

The small print-only journal now, for its small audience, is inefficient, maybe even a waste of money. The only thing it's really good at? Keeping people from reading good writing.

The risks of re-reading

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Whitacre) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 17:29:00 +0000

I'm a few hours away from getting on a long cross-country flight, and naturally I've brought a book to read.

It's not a new book. In fact it's probably the oldest, most beat-up book I own: my high school U.S. History textbook, Nation of Nations.

I love the book for two reasons. It's unusually well-written for a high school text, but more, Dr. Ochs' history class was a demanding right of passage for every student at my high school, so the book and its curled pages is a kind of prize. No other teacher dared to cover a 1,070-page textbook in nine months, to give quizzes every class on the previous night's reading, and then, partway through the year, to tack on Saturday morning classes for his A.P. students.

So when I picked up Nation of Nations two weeks ago to start rereading it, I was immersed again in the feeling of accomplishment that came the first time. And because so many years had passed and I've seen so much more of this country in person, stories from Lexington and Croatoan were even more meaningful.

But re-reading other texts, even ones that provided the same feeling of accomplishment, can be a totally different, even crushing, experience.

I once tried to re-read John Steinbeck's East of Eden, the book that first got me to love literature. And I couldn't get through the first chapter. I could hardly believe it. I thought the writing was awful, the characters flat, the premise almost silly.

And it hurt. From the first time I read East of Eden to the second, I had read nearly everything Steinbeck wrote. I had made a pilgrimage to his hometown in California, seen Monterrey Bay, seen Big Sur, seen everything that had to do with Steinbeck. And then, because of ten minutes of re-reading, the foundations of my adoration, of my love of writing, were ripped up.

I haven't read a word by Steinbeck since.

Finishing a book is like breaking up. And re-reading a book, it turns out, holds the same risk as getting back together. One the one hand, you could rediscover what you think you're missing in life, fill a gap, be reminded of happy times or of losing yourself in something else. On the other hand, you could realize how much you've changed over the years--or worse, doubt the very continuity of your own life story.

We think and talk about our lives as if they're represented by a straight thread connecting past and present. But when we're able (or forced) to look back with clear eyes or through a prism like a book, we can't explain how we got here.

How could that person who loved Steinbeck's writing now be this person who hates it? How can that person account for his or herself now?

Or really, what does a book know that he doesn't?

Don't mistake blogging for journaling

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Whitacre) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 18:56:00 +0000

A version of this post also appears at FungibleConvictions.com.

I recently rediscovered the virtues of journaling, something slower, more reflective, and of course more private than blogging.

For about five years---from the end of high school through my first year or so in Boston---I wrote in a journal nearly every day. Since then---another five years---I've thought a blog would fill the same function. But it doesn't. There's a gulf between the drawing of frustratingly slow curves on a page, forcing your thinking to remain coherent as it flows in ink, and typing the deletable characters between divs, plunks on a keyboard that all-too-easily outpace your own ideas.

Put another way, I spent my late teens and early 20's learning how to talk candidly to myself, only to mistake blogging for the same action. It's not. Blogging is public. I know it's public as I write each post. I think of family and friends reading and reacting. Blogging has its place, and I still expect myself to do more blogging than journaling, but blogging simply doesn't do as good a job for helping a writer organize his or her own personal thoughts.

Above all, organizing those thoughts feels more and more like a precondition for being a good friend, family member, and husband. Like some say of prayer, you need your own thoughts in order before you can be fully available to other people.

Meet Our Newest Editor: Jeannie Vanasco

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Borondy) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:20:00 +0000

We have added another member to the Identity Theory team: Jeannie Vanasco. A graduate of Northwestern University and a resident of Brooklyn, Jeannie will be helping to edit poetry about money and more.

Here is her "official" bio:

Jeannie Vanasco is an assistant editor at Lapham's Quarterly and a regular contributor to The Times Literary Supplement. Her poems and reviews have appeared or are forthcoming in AGNI, The Cortland Review, The Harvard Review, The Georgetown Review, and elsewhere. The Poetry Foundation named her a finalist for a Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship and she is the recipient of an Academy of American Poets prize.

"Interpellation Made Simple" Wins August Facebook Contest

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Borondy) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 01:42:00 +0000

Members of the Identity Theory Facebook Group were recently asked to name their favorite Identity Theory story of all time.

Several stories received strong endorsements, but Rone Shavers' 2007 fiction piece "Interpellation Made Simple" won the most votes from our readers by virtue of a strong showing in the Midwest.

Everyone who entered the contest was entered into a drawing to win a $25 Borders.com gift card, and the winner of the drawing was...wait, let me go find a hat.

Okay, the winner of the drawing was...Michael Moreci. (Moreci reviewed Free Burning for Identity Theory several years ago.)

View all the nominations over on our Facebook Wall.

Three Lit Picks from the Wayback Machine

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Borondy) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 21:32:00 +0000

We have been publishing for nine years now, and the sands of time--along with several redesigns--have eroded the presence of many older Identity Theory articles.

Recently, I have been digging through the archives and discovering old gems, including:

Trash and Serious Literature in America: Aristotle Blows the Whistle on Us by Tom Bradley

Road Rage by Frederick Zackel

Denarration and the Persistence of Memory by Annmarie O'Connor

P.S. Over on our Facebook page, you can vote for your favorite Identity Theory article of all time.

Welcoming Two New Assistant Editors: Hilarie Ashton and John Madera

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Borondy) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:44:00 +0000

We are pleased to announce the addition of two bright young editors to the Identity Theory staff: John Madera and Hilarie Ashton.

John Madera will be serving as an assistant fiction editor, replacing Sumanth Prabhaker, who moved on to launch Madras Press, a publisher of short fictions.

Hilarie Ashton will be serving as an assistant editor, helping with social justice, nonfiction, copyediting and more.

More on the newest Identity Theoreticians:

John Madera is a member of the National Book Critics Circle. You may find him at elimae, ArtVoice, Underground Voices, Little White Poetry Journal #7, hitherandthithering waters and My Pet Earworm, reviewing for Bookslut, The Collagist, The Diagram, The Quarterly Conversation, 3:AM Magazine, New Pages, Open Letters Monthly, The Rumpus, Tarpaulin Sky, and Word Riot, forthcoming at Opium Magazine, Corduroy Mountain, The Prairie Journal: A Magazine of Canadian Literature, and Publishing Genius Press, and editing the online journal The Chapbook Review. He sings and plays guitar for Mother Flux.

Hilarie Ashton is a second-year student in the John W. Draper Interdisciplinary Master's Program in Humanities and Social Thought at New York University; her focus is on critical and cultural theory. She is also a research associate with NYU's Office for University Development and Alumni Relations. From 2006 to 2008, she was a member of the editorial board of Eyes on the ICC, a publication of the Council for American Students in International Negotiations at Harvard University. She also worked as a writing tutor for the Williams College Writing Workshop from 2004 to 2005. She received her BA in English and philosophy from Williams College.

Want to join our staff? View our current editorial openings.

Behind the Scenes at Identity Theory

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Borondy) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 13:49:00 +0000

The alt-weekly newspaper in Vermont, where Identity Theory is headquartered, recently featured us in its "State of the Arts" section:

Burlington Resident Explores Identity Theory in His High-Profile E-Journal

The article gives an excellent background on our site's history, people and philosophy and concludes:

"Identity Theory may sound like something in a sociology paper. But the point, says Borondy, is to give writers a chance 'to put their own identity out there.' With content ranging from John Cusack’s views of torture to a wickedly satirical short story about a marketing consultant, IT defies demographic niches, and proves that you can do serious reading on a screen."

Long Live Photojournalism: Call for Submissions from the Visuals Section

noreply@blogger.com (Alexandra) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 15:49:00 +0000

The New York Times recently proclaimed the death of photojournalism.

While we have a high regard and respect for the Times, we’d like to prove them wrong and show that photojournalism is in fact alive and well. But we need your help! Alexandra and Amanda, editors of the Visuals Page, want to find the best new photojournalism out there. Do you walk around armed with a camera capturing scenes the world must see? Send us your submissions! Do you have a friend or acquaintance with talent? Send us names and contact info! Have you seen some fantastic work and want to tell someone all about it? Tell us!

We’ll select 4-6 photographers to feature, along with interviews and images.

You can send all submissions or suggestions to Alexandra at tursita@identitytheory.com. Please send 1-3 images of work. Include contact info and a brief blurb about yourself. Deadline is November 1, 2009. Thank you!

Give Us All Your (Poems About) Money!

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Borondy) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 11:57:00 +0000

Hello. As you might be aware, our poetry submissions have been closed for some time, and we still haven't added a new poetry editor. (You should apply.) However, I have decided to re-open poetry submissions temporarily, with one condition: they have to be about money.

Identity Theory will accept poetry submissions about money, via email, for a while. I don't know, maybe until the end of September? Yeah, the end of September sounds good. Then we will publish them all at once, presumably in October. Well, not all of the poems. Just the ones that are either funny or deep or otherwise worth putting out into the world.

So, send your ORIGINAL poems about money to me personally at editor@identitytheory.com with the words "Poetry Submission" in the subject line. I will probably send you a nice rejection, but that doesn't mean I am a better poet than you or that you are not a good person. It just means I am really freaking picky. (You should see me at the dinner table.)

Anyway, there's one other thing: the author of the "best" poem will receive a copy of The Heaven-Sent Leaf (a collection of poems about money) autographed by its author, Katy Lederer.

That's right. A free book of poetry. Signed. By Katy Lederer. Just for sending us. Your poem. About money. And you might get published!

What are you waiting for?

Position open: Assistant Fiction Editor

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Whitacre) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 01:17:00 +0000

Just a quick note to, first, thank Sumanth Prabhaker, one of our assistant fiction editors for the last year and a half, who leaves us to spend full time building on his new publishing company. Sumanth came to our attention back in 2006, when he laid hard into our inbox with the spectacular story "A Hard Truth About Waste Management". That piece was soon published in Best American Fantasy. We wish Sumanth all the best in his new venture.

His leaving, of course, opens up an Assistant Fiction Editor position at Identity Theory. If you or someone you know is interested, please email me (Andrew Whitacre) at fiction@identitytheory.com with a short bio, and the other editors and I will get back to you promptly with some basic questions.

Deadline for submitting your name is Friday, August 7.

Edit: Today is August 10th, so applications are now closed. (Sumanth still rules, though.) Visit our staff openings page to see other opportunities.

Volunteer Poetry Editing Positions Available

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Borondy) — Fri, 08 May 2009 13:33:00 +0000

Do you love reading (sometimes very bad) poetry from random internet strangers?

Does the thought of writing tactful rejection letters instead of crafting your own verse make you jump for joy?

Do you have editorial experience and/or an unhealthy obsession with poetry?

Do you have (at least) a few hours a week to spare?

If you answered "yes" to all of those questions...or at least some of them...then you might be happy to learn that we are looking for a few good poetry editors here at Identity Theory.

Interested?

Please send an email to Matt Borondy at editor@identitytheory.com with a summary of your background (some would call this a resume) as well as an overview of your poetic tastes and some of your own published (or really good unpublished) poetry.

We are hoping to add a few editors by the end of June, so hurry up, you crazy poets.

Win a copy of Darling Jim

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Borondy) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 19:23:00 +0000

We have several copies of Christian Moerk's Darling Jim to give away. If you'd like a free copy, send an email to editor@identitytheory.com with the subject line "Darling Jim" by the end of Wednesday, April 29th. We will announce the three winners Thursday, April 30th.

For more on Darling Jim, "A modern gothic novel of suspense that reveals, through their diaries, the story of sisters who fall in love with a beguiling stranger, and of the town that turns a blind eye to his murderous ways," visit the publisher's site.

Notes on Emily Meg Weinstein's "Noise" Essay

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Borondy) — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 19:13:00 +0000

We have recently undergone a change in our nonfiction section, adding new editors such as Amy Lee Scott and Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich to the roster.

"Noise" by Emily Meg Weinstein was the first essay we've posted since the change, and I think it's an excellent start.

This essay was selected because of the author's writing style and voice, which our editors found "robust," "energetic," "thoughtful," and "sprawling (in a good way)." Alexandria was especially impressed by the essay's tone, which she said "balanced the essayistic/reflective and the very au courant." She also noted that she "would read anything that had that first line."

"Noise" was actually Emily's second published piece on Identity Theory; in 2005, she wrote an essay called "Apprehension, or size 6 knee-length empire-waist strapless in burnt sienna silk shantung with pomegranate bow band."

What do you think of "Noise"?

On the Launch of this Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Borondy) — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 17:27:00 +0000

I created this blog as a forum for announcing site-related news (such as calls for submissions, contests, new blogs...) as well as commenting on stories we are publishing.

I expect we'll also use it to some degree like a general-interest blog with links to eclectic miscellany that is in some way related to our site.

If you're looking to keep up with us and make your thoughts known, you can grab our RSS feed here:

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