Today, April 3rd 2013, marks the release of the sixth issue of Literary Orphans. As a bi-monthly publication, that means a lot–this is our anniversary issue. In this past year, longstanding magazines like >kill author and elimae have folded. And with those closures, editors and authors have been doomsaying, warning that the death of the online literary magazine world is nigh. There are rumors in town that readership is declining, that technology has outpaced us and people just don’t want to go online to read.
This year, the orphan magazine of the literary world has to disagree.
This year has been one success after another for us. We’ve clocked in well over a million hits since our inception, and our last issue nearly doubled all previous traffic records from the issues before. This past year, we’ve published over 135 stories and poems.
And next year, around this time, I can promise you that you will be reading the Letter from the Editor for the 12th issue of Literary Orphans. To paraphrase the musician Pat Schneeweis, “a literary magazine will never change the world, but I can tell you about a couple that have changed me.” We’ve been changed by those that came before us, and we will do everything in our power to change you.
We’ve got some big announcements we’d like to make. Literary Orphans has a new Poetry Editor on board, Katie Perttunen, out of Naropa University’s Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics. She will be in charge of poetry from here on out, and I’m very glad to cede my seat to her! I’m thrilled that we have someone who knows their jazz regarding poetry, and you can expect the medium to become increasingly important to us as we progress.
We’re still looking for a third Fiction Editor, so please apply if you are interested and have time.
Also, we’re going to launch a type of “news” blog, called “The Tavern Lantern.” It will feature interviews, book reviews, and various other items. This is going to be run by my number one, Managing Editor Scott Waldyn. Please check out his introductory note to this new section of the website!
And finally for news, TO,Ink is making a big splash in the UK. This is a journal we’ve been sending around the world, for writers to handwrite their work in. Gill Hoffs kicked it off, Emma Briant took it from there, Kenny Mooney followed, and now Alex Cox has it in Glasgow. After Alex, Krishan Coupland of Neon will receive the journal. Please take a look at this very, dare I say, unique project we’ve got going on.
Norma Jeane Mortenson–also known as Marilyn Monroe, was born on June 1st in 1926. She grew up tough. Her birth mother was mentally unfit to take care of her, and Marilyn jumped around from an orphanage to foster parents. That all faded when she got her big break, however, while working in the Radioplane Munitions Factory during WWII. She was noticed and joined a modeling agency, and the rest was history.
Marilyn Monroe is the perfect embodiment of this anniversary edition–this issue is packed full of fun stories, sexy stories, and dark stories.
A writer who I’ve admired since the very first online lit mag is featured in this magazine, the estimable Robert Vaughan–be sure to read his haunting flash piece “The Bagpipe Refrain.” Also featured in this issue is LO favorite, Anna March, who smashes preconceptions with her stellar poem “Maybe I’m Dying.” The funny Chris Rhatigan makes us a bit sad and a bit happy as he talks of “Other People” in his flash. “Girls on Film” by the skilled Kathryn Kulpa will leave you looking at everything with a subtle intensity. The editor of the Camroc Press Review, Barry Basden, makes a very memorable appearance here with his micro “Herr Erben, 40 Jahre nach dem Krieg.” Molly Dektar writes to us from an unearthly northern place, where her machinegun surrealism hits home for me and maybe for you, be sure to check out “Creep.”
There are so many great authors featured in this issue, and unfortunately I can’t list them all here–but I guess that’s what content pages are for! Take your time–you’ve got two months to read them all before the next issue. And believe you me, they’re all worth reading.
Thank you to everyone who submitted to us, I can’t stress how amazing this issue was to edit!
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