This looks like a good new addition, if the editorial consultants are anything to go by. I hope it's successful and fills the gap that's been left by Rebel Inc and Cencrastus and all the other Scottish litmags that have gone west over the last few years. It seems the more people write the more restricted the markets are, in magazines and even in book publication, with a lot of the old outlets like Peterloo and Shoestring, for instance, losing their Arts Council Grants and shutting up shop, at least as far as new projects are concerned. It explains the explosion of pamphlets, of course, but the trouble with pamphlets is, notable prizes excepted, no-one (apart from Happenstance) pays any critical attention to them. I certainly sent my recent pamphlets away to all the usual Scottish literay Editors who duly ignored them, and then I overheard one of them in a pub lamenting that he or she "receives so little Scottish poetry to review".
Of course maybe e-zines have filled the gap left by defunct litmags. Have they? It's an area I know nothing about.
8 comments:
Well, I like its name. It has the thing about stuff mustn't have been published anywhere though (self-published, online, bus shelter graffiti etc.)...which I understand but so don't understand at the same time. As if a reader is going to throw their copy of the magazine down in disgust with a 'oh my god but I've seen that before - this is an outrage, I feel used!' I just find it restrictive and kind of old-fashioned really.
But please...no-one give me the lecture on why magazines do this! I do understand (I'm not dense...) I just find it one of those things...that we could possibly live without now. It ties writers up in keeping so many tabs...'x poem has been sent here, y poem has been entered in z competition and so cannot be seen in public until it is out of quarantine'. That can take up a lot of time...good writing and thinking time...taken up with administration. It's the dark ages...and now I'm exaggerating...
x
damn they stole my name and ideas. Damn them all!!!!!!
Interesting masthead. :0
I still think you should start your own: heaven knows you've got plenty of us willing to submit endless reams of work to you. ;)
Now there's an idea ....
a bloggers collective?? sounds good, would read that.
I like the masthead - but is it really vertical like that?
As for what Rachel said, I agree; the conventions literary magazines follow with regard to online posting or physical sending away can be unnecessarily restrictive. I think a fine agreement would be to take the poem down from the blog once it's due to be published. Is this problematic somehow?
The 'usual Scottish literary editors' always ignore pamphlets, despite what they may say in bars.
I've subscribed to Gutter, and I'm looking forward to it.
The business of previous publication is to do with copyright law. Don't want to be boring, but if it's on the net it's published.
Hmmmm.
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