Deadline for Issue #3 Submissions: February 15

We’re taking a break from our “This Week in Literature” feature this week — never fear, it’ll be back on Monday — to complete some editorial tasks and read submissions for our March issue. For those of you who haven’t yet submitted, you must send us your poems, essays, or stories by February 15 to be considered for noah #3. We’ve accepted some great pieces already, but there’s certainly room for yours — impress us, make us jealous, make us feel something.

We want to read your best work. Submit, submit, submit! 

Guidelines here.

This Week in Literature: Loving to Hate Yourself

I intended to start this week’s post with a series of quotes about writers, even (especially?) very good ones, being insecure about the quality of their own work, after which I planned to quote Ernest Hemingway and Ira Glass in tandem to suggest that those of us truly insecure about our work are probably the ones doing a better job. An orgy of quotes venting my own writerly self-hatred and, I thought, helping empathize with your own, the reader’s. There are many such quotes, and I could list them out one-by-one and offer some cursory analysis, but I realized that would only make me feel insecure about this writing, which I didn’t intend to be a serious piece of prose in the first place.

No matter what I write, it’ll be this void of content. I’m sure of this.

That’s sort of my point. There are endless quotes out there by the Hemingways and Joyces, Wallaces and Franzens that serve to aggrandize our own tendency to self-loathe. Some are by kindred souls, expressing their own personal distaste; some are authorial peacocking, puffery of an insecure nature. But what is the point of all this self-loathing? Does my insecurity make me a better writer, whether out of pain and suffering or merely the sense to keep hold of my shitty stories instead of sending them out to publishers (or into the blogosphere) like so many others? More likely it stops me from even sending out the good ones.

But I have to rationalize, to justify, to prop myself up by standing behind this common belief that being dissatisfied with my own writing means I have better taste & higher ambitions, that hating my own stories means someday I’ll find a way to write something better; there is this need to believe that the writers who actually like their own work, can reread it after publication and live with it, are somehow lesser beings. Less refined, less driven to make good art.*

And so I’ll leave you with the two quotes I’d originally set aside to fulfill noah’s weekly “having something to say” requirement. First, a spirit-lifter from Ira Glass:

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”

And finally for those who want to wallow, from TS Eliot:

Some editors are failed writers, but so are most writers.

Keep on trucking, writers. There’s gotta be some greater point to it all. (Crossing my fingers.)

_________
*This is all of course totally unfair, and I’m not sure I even think it, but a certain amount of self-delusion becomes necessary to keep yourself going through grad school applications and literary journal rejections. I trust those of you who don’t hate your own work will still understand. Nothing personal.

This Week in Literature: Illinois Literary Journals

A quick point of business. We intend “This Week in Literature” to be an eventual home to author interviews and reviews of new or interesting works, specifically of a shorter-than-full length nature. These (the interviews and reviews) are coming! Promise. In the meantime we’ll keep bringing you other literature related musings and news. 

This week I’m thinking about literary journals. If you’re here, reading this, chances are you know all the arguments over the continued relevance of journals in a world that tends not to buy or read them. You know that the popular opinion is that journals and magazines of literature exist mostly as a future home for the mass-submitted MFA student fiction and poetry. You also probably realize that more people submit to journals than read them — this is not true of noah in a literal sense, though it may be as we continue to grow. All of these criticisms are maybe partially true, but it’s also true that the world of literary journals is full of vibrant, independent magazines and publishers, both digital and print. 

To my surprise, some of these exist in my very own back yard. Ithaca, NY, where I went to school, has a vibrant literary community, what with Cornell and Ithaca College and the writers who’ve been members of these faculties for many years. Chicago’s suburbs? Never figured them for a literary haven. But there are many literary journals, noah included, thriving right here in Illinois. 

Here’s a few you should subscribe to:

1. Fifth Wednesday Journal
A journal of stories, essays, and poems headquartered in Lisle, IL. FWJ is a non-profit dedicated to furthering the literary and photographic arts in order to sustain a vibrant culture. Poets and writers featured in FWJ have been frequently nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and the editors offer their own $100 annual prize in each accepted genre.
www.fifthwednesdayjournal.org

2. Chicago Quarterly Review
CQR was published in 1995 with the goal of encouraging emerging writers and artists to pursue their craft. They publish the finest in short stories, essays, poems, and photography and are currently offering a $2000 prize for their student writing contest. Who wouldn’t want to contribute to a visually stunning journal named after the Midwest’s greatest city?
www.chicagoquarterlyreview.com

3. Rhino Poetry
Another non-profit journal, Rhino is dedicated to the publication of poetry, short shorts, and translations.  Since its 1976 founding, Rhino Poetry has contributed a great deal to the health of Illinois’s poetry scene, publishing emerging and established poets in a handsome print journal. They offer the annual Paladin Award for “extraordinary long-term contribution to the quality and progress of poetry in Illinois,” as well as an internship program. 
www.rhinopoetry.org

Our list is by no means exhaustive. After you read these, do a little research and find out what journals and magazines are keeping the literary community alive near you. You might be surprised. 

This Week in Literature: Five Novellas You Might Enjoy

We’re constantly told how short our attention spans are, how fast-paced our daily lives, how we choose not to read largely due its high level of commitment in our already busy schedules. And yet the book length of choice among those who do read, pushed by publishers and bought by readers, is the novel: a demarcation with many gray areas as far as length is concerned, sure, but longer by definition than its less popular little brother, the novella. Depending who you ask, a novella is a short novel (long story?), usually between 50-150 pages in length. Because the form fills too many pages to get accepted by most literary periodicals, most end up published as books — thin volumes that usually get less publicity and sales than their doorstop-sized cousins. Just as we believe short stories serve a valuable purpose in our hectic daily lives, we think the novella is criminally underappreciated. A quick glance through the canon shows that writers as vaunted as Hemingway, Tolstoy, Melville, James, Conrad, and Nabokov have dabbled in the shorter form, producing some of their best-loved works, and we’re planning to review some recently released novellas soon. In the meantime, here are five (somewhat more recent) novellas you might enjoy:

1. On Chesil Beach — Ian McEwan
This 2007 offering from McEwan — author of Atonement, among others — explores Britain’s 1960s sexual awakening through the single evening reflections of a recently married couple. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize and on many critcis’ top 10 lists for the year, On Chesil Beach has the distinction of including one of the most deftly written (yet intensely awkward) sex scenes in contemporary literature. Great for fans of McEwan’s other work. Or for anyone, really.

2. Train Dreams — Denis Johnson
Published as a standalone novel in 2011, Train Dreams was one of last year’s Pulitzer Prize finalists for fiction — you know, the year the committee decided not to award the prize to anyone. Despite their strange oversight, Train Dreams is Johnson at his best, following fictional orphan Robert Grainer through life and love, the result of which Anthony Doerr called “a small masterpiece” in a New York Times review. Recommended for lovers of the outdoors and the West.

3. We Are the Animals — Justin Torres
A slim novel written mostly in the first person plural (from the POV of the eponymous brothers), this semi-autobiographical tale follows its brothers (and their mother) through the coming night of a small town in upstate New York. An affecting family tale recommended to readers of contemporary literature looking something quick, emotionally resonant, but nonetheless dazzling.

Even if you’re no fan of horror, you’ll find much to love about King’s 1982 collection of novellas.

4. Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption — Stephen King
Before the literary purists start cringing, let the great secret be stated: the best work in King’s hit-or-miss bibliography is his shorter stuff, and his early novellas are the cream of the crop. Of the four novellas collected in 1982’s Different Seasons, three have been remade into feature films: The Shawshank Redemption and Stand By Me (adapted from King’s “The Body”) are modern classics, and the third — Apt Pupil — stars a menacing Sir Ian McKellan as a former Nazi. Buy the book and read them all, but if you’re like me you’ll be most interested in the source material for what’s arguably one of the best movies of the past twenty years. Recommended for fans of King, of film, and of truly gripping stories.

5. The Body Artist — Don DeLillo
DeLillo’s better known for his older (and thicker) volumes, such as Underworld and White Noise, but he’s written multiple novellas in more recent years. The unusual story of a female performance artist’s abnormal grieving process, The Body Artist succeeds where some of his other more recent books don’t — and so comes highly recommended for anyone not ready to tackle something quite so long as Underworld. One of contemporary American literature’s best prose stylists and sharpest (if most cynical) wits, DeLillo’s works are a must read for fans of his contemporaries — Thomas Pynchon, especially — and those for whom he’s been a major influence (see one David Foster Wallace).

This Week in Literature: November’s Big Books of Shorter Works

Both Flesh and Not: Essays by David Foster Wallace
Little, Brown, $26.99, 336 pages

 DFW’s third essay collection, the first to be published posthumously, comes out tomorrow, November 6.. Though more famous for his fiction, particularly 1996’s critically-acclaimed behemoth Infinite Jest, Wallace’s non-fiction remains among his most accessible and popular work—well-loved for its biting insight, hyper-smart but nonetheless informal narrative voice, and unique brand of Midwestern moralism tempered by East Coast intellectual fireworks. Given Wallace’s ever-increasing post-death popularity, as well as the publicity surrounding his posthumously released novel The Pale King and DT Max’s recently released DFW bio Every Love Story is a Ghost Story, this third essay collection will prove  a popular winter read for fans of the author’s previous work, as well as those made curious by all the hype. Just remember that, as a posthumous collection, Both Flesh and Not contains not only pieces written in the three years following the publication of 2005’s Consider the Lobster, but also work that Wallace and his editor passed over for inclusion in either of his first two essay collections. As the Publisher’s Weekly review puts it, the publication of such posthumous collections “will inevitably yield both dingers and duds.” Still, they claim the title essay—“Federer Both Flesh and Not”—is alone worth the “price of admission,” and Wallace fans will undoubtedly enjoy exploring the enigmatic author’s earlier and more obscure non-fiction work.

Dear Life by Alice Munro
Knopf, $26.99, 336 pages

A perennial favorite of literary readers, reviewers, and writing programs, Munro isn’t considered one of the English language’s premier short story writers for nothing. Dear Life—slated for release next Tuesday, November 13—is her 13^th published collection of short stories since her 1968 debut Dance of the Happy Shades.  She’s been included in the annual Best American Short Stories series some 19 times, twice won the O. Henry Award for short fiction, and was the 2009 recipient of the Man Booker International Award recognizing lifetime literary achievement. If there’s one living author who embodies all the potential and vitality of the short story—a pursuit of particular importance to those of us at noah—it’s Alice Munro. As always Dear Life is a balanced, well-rounded collection of short stories—this time including four pieces about Munro’s childhood, something she’s written little about. Publisher’s Weekly says the stories, “read together…accrete, deepen, and speak to each other.” Our best guess?—Dear Life will be another can’t miss collection. 

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook!

We’ve been getting some new visitors recently thanks to our having been added to the Poets & Writers literary magazine and journal database. If you’re a new visitor (from there or anywhere else), we’d like to encourage you to follow us on Twitter @noahmagazine and to like us on Facebook. Keeping tabs on our social media sites is the best way to get the latest news, calls for submission, and other information about noah.

Thanks for your interest, and please start submitting your work soon for our Spring issue!

noah #2

You can conviently read, print, or download noah #2 through Issuu by clicking here. Or for a reliable, high-quality pdf download, click here. Please pass it along and share with your friends!

We’ll give you some time to digest the great work by our contributors before letting you in on some upcoming plans. Until then leave a comment below or on Facebook and tell us what you think. Thanks for reading!

Issue #2 Release Date: 10/10/12

It’s official! noah #2 drops Wednesday in multiple digital formats. We’re thrilled to be putting out a new issue and hope you’ll pass on the news to your friends, family, and anyone else who might be interested in a selection of the best prose & poetry we received over the past few months.

noah #2 features work by Eleanor Leonne Bennett, Amelia Blevins, Kate R Canter, Dustin Michael-Edward Davenport, Jesse James Dillon, Melinda Dubbs, Amy Ekins, MX Golebiowski, Arthur S. Halsey, Jr., Mark Harwood, and s l wallace.

We have a few plans for interviews and editorial content that will come out following our release, and we’d also like to encourage everyone to start submitting now for noah #3, which is scheduled for next March.

Thanks for reading (and writing)!

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter @noahmagazine. Send submissions and other correspondence to noahmagazine@gmail.com. 

Contributors, Contents, and Other October News

We’re pleased to finally bring you a little sneak peak of what’s coming in October! Sticking by our founding mission, we’re not telling you what type of writing each piece is — prose, poetry, etc. — you’ll just have to wait and see. What we can promise is a journal full of dynamic new writing from some talented young writers, listed alphabetically by last name as follows: 

“Blond(e)” — Amelia Blevins
“Yoga in Mysore” — Kate R Canter
“Shook Ones” — Dustin Michael-Edward Davenport
“Turning Blue” — Jesse James Dillon
“Zenith” and “Distilled” — Melinda Dubbs
“Egg” — Amy Ekins
“Quarter Century Turn” — MX Golebiowski
“The Cabin Into Time” — Arthur S. Halsey, Jr. 
“Portland April” — Mark Harwood
“A Poetic History of Glass as Bottles” — s l wallace
and selected photos by Eleanor Leonne Bennett

Some brief news — first, October’s issue will arrive in the first week or two of the month. A more concrete date will be set as we near publication. Additionally, we’re pleased to pass on news that the second issue of noah will be free; our free blog hosting on WordPress.com prohibits us from selling anything, even a literary magazine, on our website. As we move forward with future issue, we do plan to professionalize somewhat — future noah ebooks may indeed come with a marginal cost.

We’re proud of our grassroots publishing approach — in fact, we think this approach (writers publishing other writers) is part of our appeal — but in order to bring readers what they want, such as more ebook formats, print editions, and story (or even book) contests, we’ll eventually have to charge. For now, our budget remains mostly non-existent and our staff small, so your favorite reading material will come free. We just wanted to pass along our expectations for this coming issue and our plans for the future. If and when our distribution does change, it’ll only be to bring you a better, more professional journal of the best writing we can; that we can promise.

Until then, keep checking back for news about our October issue. It’s coming soon!

Issue #2 Cover and News

Check out a sneak preview of Issue 2’s cover: 

We’ll post the back cover and list of contributors later in the month, after our submission deadline is up, so keep checking in. Until then, don’t forget the Header Photo Contest — photographers interested in some exposure should check out the entry details in our last post. 

In other news, we’ve decided to publish twice annually after we reintroduce our publication with Issue 2. Although we’d originally hoped to publish quarterly, our small staff size and limited resources make a slower publication schedule more feasible. We hope this will help us continue publishing a journal of the highest possible quality, with the best work from writers and artists around the world. 

Thanks for your interest! Let us know what you think of the cover — and don’t forget to submit your poetry and prose to noahmagazine@gmail.com.