Bluestem contributor Corey Farrenkopf!

Love this! And of course, feel free to add Bluestem to your list. We close on August 15!

So Bluestem (Easter Illinois University) is still open for FREE submissions until 16 August. 5000 words. They have previously featured in the @wigleaf Top 50, Best American Essays, and Best Microfiction.

We've had a huge response already this summer ... but there's still time!

Reading submissions is often a process of reading story after story after story after story, most being “good” but not *magic*, until you start to doubt you own tastes, and just then is when you’ll find one that lights up your brain and reminds you how fun & exciting it can be.

In case you're wondering what Bluestem's aesthetic is, it's this. Submit now until August 15, fee-free.

for #smallpoemsunday, my poem "Contrivance," a blackout/collage using The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin."

What helps me deal with litmag rejections is imagining that I'm a shoulder-padded woman in the eighties returning from a long day at the office. I slam my briefcase down on the davenport and kick off my kitten heels. Get me a pink squirrel, I say, and make it double!

And today is our fiction editor's birthday! The best present for Dr. Mike McClelland 🌈 would be for you to send your very best short stories. We actually close tomorrow—so get those subs in!

I’ve got a short, fun, weirdest, wonder-filled fiction coming in the next issue! Maybe you should send them something today and we could maybe be issuemates!

We love love love this poem.

Hey! Here are some literary journals opening for submissions in September! Some are also open now & some will close soon. Genres, themes, & guidelines vary, & dates are tentative. I think these are all no-fee submissions. There are more resources & journals out there! Good luck!

I’m such a Castle Jackal fan and I’m so excited to have a dark and weird story in this issue!!!

💔

All of us just be writing our poems and then reading eachother’s poems and it’s just so fun that we get to do that forever

We're kicking off a year of amazing readings with Brenda Cardenas on September 11! Illinois, western Indiana, northeast Missouri—come on over! Doudna EIU

PAPERBACK DAY!

After 33 years of being published by Bard College, Conjunctions will finish its tenure in spring 2025. With Bard's support, Conjunctions is beginning to fundraise for an independent future! Read the joint announcement here: buff.ly/3AGo4Df

Many thanks to Moist Poetry Journal is on Bluesky 🏳️‍⚧️ for taking three of my visual erasure poems for their Deep Summer issue. rb.gy/wycyn6