The way we encounter words is changing daily. To call this shift in our literary landscape “tectonic” understates the situation. It feels more like a collision with an asteroid. Clouds of ash have darkened the sky. Mass extinctions will follow. And, of course, new life will arise even in the midst of the destruction. We have witnessed the panic as newspapers fold (har, har) and electronic news agencies rush in to replace them. We have witnessed the scurrying as book publishers try to develop new business models before their competitors outperform them in the rising ebook market. The same holds true for literary journals. Institutions like the aptly named Brick remain resolutely print-based while a proliferation of online upstarts snatch away the attention of potential readers. There is nothing sacred in the fact of print itself that requires our loyalty. This explosion has created space for fresh voices and new ways of experiencing the written/typed/tapped/punched/keyed/screened/tweeted word. So why not explore? Here is a sampling of new journals and outlets that can deliver your literary fix online (and free):
The Collagist appears on the 15th of each month and is edited by Matt Bell. (I previously enthused about Bell’s book, How They Were Found.) The Collagist is a smart, general interest literary journal with fiction, excerpts, poetry, non-fiction and reviews. For the purposes of my survey, it’s worth reading “Doing Without” by Brian Evenson in the May/11 issue. Evenson offers a meditation on the shift in format that has gripped our literary lives. In particular, he considers how we should think about what we lose in the process, concluding, ironically, that we have much to gain by encountering a pared-down etext.
As the journal takes pains to point out, it doesn’t endorse the killing of authors. Instead, it takes its name from Roland Barthes who declared the death of the author as a way to eliminate the dependence upon authors as a way to ground meaning in the text. Each issue is named for a dead author. >Kill Author publishes both fiction and poetry. What I like about this publication is that it produces DRM-free versions in multiple formats so you can download it to your favourite ereading device.
3. Dragnet
Dragnet is a Toronto-based startup. (In the world of online lit, I’m not sure it matters where a journal is based, but there you go.) You can read it on issuu.com or download it in your favourite eformat. In the inaugural issue, the editors declare a leaning towards the avant-garde which “suggests a deep optimism: we are heading inevitably towards an as-of-now obscure future, and the avant-garde is excited about getting there. The avant-garde is kicking the back of the driver’s seat, and torquing its neck around to see out the windshield, and asking constantly if we’re there yet, while knowing that no matter what, we’re moving forward, and every moment has more possibility than the moment before it.” In a sense, everything we encounter online is avant-garde because it has about it that sense of rushing into an indeterminate future.
In a way Branch runs counter to the Brian Evenson’s call to do without. Branch seeks to do with everything. Layout, design, and typography are paramount. You can view it in flash or html. The html version is jpg screen captures to preserve the design features which would otherwise be lost in html. The result is gorgeous. If there is anything Branch does without, it’s SEO (which flash makes almost impossible). To compensate, Branch needs your links to make it discoverable. Blog about it. Tweet about it. It’s the brainchild of Gillian Sze and Roberutsu.
Another Toronto-based lit journal, the magazine is an offspring of the Paperplates imprint. What’s cool about the imprint is that it also offers a series of free chapbooks. Like the magazine, the chapbooks are available in pdf format.
6. Capsule
A fledgling forum in wordpress that curates extremely short fiction (under 250 words). Although it’s too soon to tell, I have great hopes for this one.
I added this one just because. Kilodney was a fixture on the street corners of Toronto in the 70′s and 80′s, selling chapbooks with titles like Sex Slaves of the Astromutants and Lightning Struck My Dick, variously described as brilliant, insane and sophomoric. Kilodney disappeared for more than a decade, but has reappeared online with his chapbook-length blog posts featuring Shakespeare for White Trash.
Maybe I should have called this post: 6 Online Literary Journals You Should Follow and 1 You Should Approach Only After You’ve Had A Few Drinks.
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Mon, Jun 6, 2011
Half-filtered