Sunday, October 28, 2007

A Slice of Life for Writers

There is a new literary magazine called "Slice" out now which is the brainchild of two book editors, Maria Gagliano and Celia Johnson. They know how hard it is for new authors to break into the world of publishing so their mission is to "pave a space for these writers who may not have a platform but show the kind of talent that could be the substance of great works in the future. We are equally dedicated to celebrating established writers, whose work moves beyond the boundaries of writing to not only redefine literature, but to inspire new voices to grow." They came up with the idea for this magazine while they were both editors working together at Random House.

On their website, they proclaim that "Slice is a new literary magazine created to provide a forum for dynamic conversations between emerging and established authors." Their first issue was made available this past September. When putting together their first issue, they decided that established writers would help draw attention to the newer talents. So the inaugural issue spotlights Junot Díaz who's first novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Riverhead Books), has been garnering praise from all of the major critics. Check out their very cool website.

The magazine is currently accepting material for their March, 2008 issue. The theme for article submissions is "Heroes." Slice magazine welcomes short fiction, nonfiction, and novellas for serialization. They are looking for anyone with a fresh voice and a compelling story to share but are not currently looking at experimental or "heavy-handed" genre fiction. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable as long as they are notified immediately if the work is selected for publication elsewhere. All submissions should be previously unpublished. All submissions must be submitted electronically, in the body of an email. Be sure to include detailed contact information. Please allow two to three months for them to reply to your submission. They are currently unable to pay for published material, but hope to reward writers by creating a wide audience of readers. Please send submissions to submissions@slicemagazine.org.

Because they are a brand new magazine, it looks like they are cautiously testing the waters. Their publishing schedule is only twice a year in March and September. So submissions will probably be very high. But to anyone out there with short stories, please check them out. As they grow, hopefully they can expand their publishing schedule and eventually pay their writers.

14 comments:

Robin S. said...

Thanks, ello.

There's anpther good one I really like that's been around a while - Carve - electronic only. Have you seen it?

Karissa Chen said...

yep.. i heard abt this one too (i think she left me a msg on my blog). anyway, i think i'll try to submit to them at some point :)

Sherry said...

Very enterprising..and very promising!

pacatrue said...

Nice tip, ello.

SzélsőFa said...

are you sending in something, too?

Bernita said...

Thank you.
Worth checking out.

Melissa Amateis said...

Good to know. Thanks for sharing!

Precie said...

Cool! Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the heads-up. I'll have to check it out.

Ello - Ellen Oh said...

I haven't seen Carve - don't know about it. But this one sounded real good, what with the impressive line up of established writers they are going to use to lure readers to the new writers they will showcase. Nice system. I don't think I have anything that suits their "hero" issue right now, but I will definitely keep my eye on them.

moonrat said...

a lot of upstart lit magazines cave under various pressures, but hopefully this one stays alive because even at its inception is has a lot of truck in the industry (the founders being who they are).

so, you submitting...?

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the link. I'll check it out.

Ello - Ellen Oh said...

I don't think I'm submitting this time around but will keep an eye on it for next time.

Travis Erwin said...

Thanks for the link. I'm off to check them out now.