unsolicited advice!

Woo! The release of our issue #3 is nigh–! Right now, we’re getting the last of the contracts signed, and gathering biographies from writers whose pieces have been accepted for the upcoming issue.

Issue #3 holds a special spot in my heart, because it’s my first issue as fiction editor with Kartika. I’ve experienced what it feels like to find a gem in the slushpile (my heart goes, “Wow!”)…and also finding the pieces that have been near misses (I urge those writers to PLEASE submit other pieces to us). It’s been a pretty amazing time.

I’ve gotten some insight as a writer from being on the other side of the process–being an editor, the person who is the arbiter of writing…and I’d like to share some advice with you on submissions and cover letters.

If you’re interested in submitting to Kartika…

1. Please realize that we are an “Asian American Literary Journal.” We publish Asian American literature.
And we’re fairly liberal with that definition–Asia, to us, includes the Middle East. Asian American Literature doesn’t mean you have to be an Asian American writer–but in that case, the characters or subject matter should be Asian American. But some aspect of you and/or your piece should fall under the banner of “Asian America.” Even if your piece is fantastic, if your piece doesn’t pertain to Asian America whatsoever, that piece is a definite NO, at least at Kartika Review.

2. Check out our masthead. Address your email to the appropriate editor. Fiction for fiction, Poetry for poetry, Essay for essays. You get the idea. It’s just nice. Some of us like it.

3. Your cover letter: short and sweet. I personally would like to know if you have an MFA (if so, where?). Or if you have prior publishing credits (if so, where?). But that’s basically it. You don’t need to tell me what your story is about, or how great you are. Please please please don’t boast. Your manuscript will speak for itself.

4. I’m not a stickler for punctuation or anything…but do check your cover letter for misspellings.

It’s a fairly short list. But I hope it’s helpful.

And keep writing!

Lessons from a Blog about Blogging about Blogging

Finally! I just finished my final final of Sophomore year a few days ago, and I’m still bouncing off the walls! Well, not really because I was so exhausted after our two weeks of “Reading” period followed by two weeks of Finals period that after my last test/paper/presentation I walked around Cambridge with my newfound freedom and promptly fell down on my bed fast asleep. If you are also going through college, or if you remember your college years, I’m sure you remember what a drag finals period is, and how much free time you have afterwards. I haven’t been doing much but eat and sleep, and I feel like such a slob.

If that first paragraph doesn’t interest you, please bear with me; I’m trying to apply what I’ve learned from the article “Exposed“, written by Emily Gould, which I read this morning on the New York Times magazine website. I can’t believe she wrote ten pages on blogging. Basically, if one can summarize a ten page article (and I think this particular one can be summarized with only a few words), then the article reads: Sometimes when people blog, they don’t share their thoughts so much as seek gratification from strangers at the expense of their personal lives and the feelings of the people around them, some of whom they might care about and love.

I think that’s an interesting lesson, but it was still a ten page blog about blogging published in the New York Times and I sucked up every word. Later, I realized that I wasn’t upset that I had read so much about presumably nothing really important, but I learned a lot about differentiating between egoistic blogging and meaningful blogging. If nothing else, it reaffirms the lesson that it’s better to be concise. Grammar, syntax, and prose, I have to admit, were excellent!

Then I got to thinking about why I was drawn to every word in that article that she wrote. It’s because I consider myself a blogger as well and on a very basic level, I identified with her and I feel that I project some of her identity and vice versa through our common activity: blogging.

In any case, how does this apply to an Asian American literary publication? All I have to do is write something and click “publish” to have it show here, right? Presumably there will be bloggers like me who, when they encounter a blog (we can call it an “article”) about blogging, will read the blog regardless of its value. Even if it’s ten friggin pages long.

I think that there’s a lesson there that also applies to Asian American literature and meaningful Asian American cultural representations in American society, of which we all recognize there is a huge shortage. People will read it and find significance in it. It’s a way of coming together and/or learning from each other’s lessons.

One thing that I wish I had, in high school, was a way to be comfortable in my art. I was very comfortable with mock trial (some of our coaches were Asian American), politics (some of the politicians that I worked with were Asian American), community service, etc. etc. The hardest thing for me to be comfortable with myself with, was art. Here I was in an arts school theater department advanced class, playing Judge Hawthorne in The Crucible, and I wasn’t sure about myself in a way that I never was unsure of in any other field. I think it was because you don’t really see any Asian Americans in really any productions playing major roles in classic American plays. If there are, most of the populace out there isn’t aware of them, especially the population out there that would most benefit from their experience.

Like everyone here, I love the American classics. I love The Great Gatsby, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Grapes of Wrath, The Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, etc. etc. I love how we’re all working toward supporting our own Toni Morrison, Jack Kerouac, and what have you.

I am definitely making the same mistake Ms. Gould made. This is becoming a long winded way of me blogging about how much I really appreciate the topics which I blog about. Hey, at least I had a model with which to follow. At the very least, some college student out there with too much time in his (or her) hands might be moved enough to write a blog about it.

it’s ON!

I mentioned VQR’s insult critique of its slushpile in a recent post. Which was followed by a post filled with compliments on the slushpile. Only to be followed by a redaction and their apology. I have mixed feelings about the whole thing–their “slushpile diss” wasn’t great but I think their redaction is worse. The back and forth to me (read: indecision?) belies a lack of conviction about how they really do feel about their slushpile.  And the apology a bit unconvincing–what could have been a great and honest communication has now been withdrawn and closed (as neatly as possible) with an apology.

Back to the world of being polite.

But aha! Howard Junker offered his words on the subject, and that’s opened a new dialogue! He calls the VQR dialogue as “pious, pompous, cliched ranting.” (SMACK!) The gloves are off! It’s ON!

The VQR then responded with posts entitled Howard Junker has your back and further thoughts on Junker.

The editors are being honest with each other in a way that editors can’t be honest with writers (my guess). And the argument has turned a bit personal.

Editor wars: a spectator sport?

The uncanny commonalities

When I was an MFA student, I took my fair share of workshop courses. There were a few variables in the workshop format: we could be assigned the week for workshop, or we could sign up for workshop week…sometimes we workshopped one piece, other times two or three. Sometimes we were all instructed to say something positive before we launched into the guts of the critique. Other semesters, we launched in, head first as the writer in question gripped the arms of her chair. These guidelines all depended on the professor.

What did not vary was a bit uncanny: every week there was some sort of incredible link between the pieces being workshopped. Maybe one week both pieces featured elderly characters. Or they were both written in second person. Or they exhibit the same themes (maybe both are immigration-themed stories or both are bildungsroman stories). Like I said, it was delightful and predictable how often the pieces would be, in some way, linked despite the random pairing.

And so it goes with litmag issues. Verbsap’s Editor has mentioned sex and recreational drug use in submissions…and Howard Junker of ZYZZYVA has noted coincidental themes of Action/Adventure and Sex in recent litmag issues.

Other literary journals embrace the coincidental and make it purposeful. Ploughshares has regular, themed issues. So does Tin House, which just highlighted the theme of “Evil.” Glimmertrain courts submissions about “Family Matters” and Narrative/StoryQuarterly searched for Love Stories and is looking for first person narratives.

What am I looking at this week? Quite a few courtship stories–though unlike reports from the litmags mentioned above, it seems Asian Americans aren’t getting around to third base, let alone first (Hey!). There’s a lot of yearning but not a lot of “scoring” (pardon me). Is it Spring that brings about such desire?

Sex isn’t the only thing on writer’s minds–there are also pieces exhibiting the theme of ancestral connections.

And me? I’m yearning to spot the gems in the slushpile, whether sparkling, or in the rough needing just a bit of polish.

sharing the slush pile?

On the heels of the VQR’s blog post detailing editorial reactions to rejected submissions, here comes BookFox’s sharing of the slushpile.

The VQR apologized and later redacted the editorial commentary on the submissions (they’d also had a list of positive reactions to submissions, also later redacted). I am not so sure they should have apologized–part of me thinks that albeit at times brutal, the post was a very honest communication with readers.

The whole litblog atmosphere is going to open a lot more dialogue channels on submissions and editorial relationships. Before the advent of litblogs, you didn’t have any communication with the editor prior to publication–now you’re reading his/her thoughts and wondering, “Did he/she read my manuscript today?” You’re wondering if that particular post might be a reaction to your submission! You’re reading into their sense of aesthetics, you’re getting to know them, you’re building a relationship, even if you’re a lurker and don’t pipe up.

And in the case of the VQR blog post on rejections–you’re getting the feedback straight on.

One thing the VQR did NOT do was post the actual submissions. (Thank goodness). Bookfox didn’t post the actual submission either, but a cover letter from a rejected writer–in particular, a prison inmate (the actual subject of his post is that the litmag does not accept submissions from inmates–he explains why). Though I do worry about the ramifications he might face for publicly posting that letter!

Howard Junker of ZYZZYVA likes to post excerpts from cover letters on the litmag’s back cover. I have savored them for years. Some of them are funny some of them are charming! Sometimes I wonder if writers write oddities just to get on to that back cover. Those excerpts have encouraged me to keep my own cover letters short and unembellished.

Now–I wonder what kind of relationship we’re building here–who’s reading? Have you submitted work to Kartika? What opinions do you have on litblogs, and the sharing of the slushpile on litblogs?

New Work

With issue #2 in final stages and publication imminent, it’s time to start work on issue #3!

I’ve started my duties as fiction editor recently–begging querying Famous Asian American Writers to either donate pieces or do an interview for Kartika (you’ll see some of their words soon!). We’ve put out calls for submissions to various mailing lists (to CRWROPPS, for starters…and we were happy to see that the KSW mailing list included our call for submissions as well). Additionally The NewPages blog featured us last week!

And of course, I’ve begun reading the slushpile.

We’re a fledgling litmag with great aspirations and the slushpile is still small, even though it is growing. So, submit your work–you’re not up against 10,000 submissions, or even 1,000, or even, quite honestly, 100 just yet. I’d love to hear from you. You, the writers, are what can make Kartika great.

I love reading the work and hearing all the voices. I find great joy in finding the pieces that take confident risks, that tell a unique story, that have rich characters, the pieces that really sing.

I would like to hear your voice.

Note from the EIC

I couldn’t believe the dearth of forums for APA creative writers before starting Kartika Review. Through the collaborative efforts of contributors to our journal and the editors, I hope Kartika will be a beacon of what’s to come from APAs in the publishing world. In the future when I click into the “Asian American” category for Literature & Fiction at Amazon.com, I hope to find that the authors listed there are the ones who once contributed their work to Kartika not long ago.

You won’t be hearing a lot from me. The fiction, poetry, and essay editors will be the ones forging Kartika’s path. My role should be no more than to keep things from falling apart.

I encourage our readers to offer their feedback, whether to particular pieces in our issues that have had an impact on you or questions, comments, and concerns for the editors. Send all your messages to editor@kartikareview.com and I will make sure the appropriate individual receives it.

My deepest gratitude to those who have helped Kartika Review grow.

*tap tap* Is This Thing On?

Hi! I just wanted to drop a note and give everyone a big welcome and hello! I’m the essays editor of The Kartika Review, and the youngest of the bunch. College is… interesting, and nearly halfway over! To give you an idea of what I’ll probably be writing about, I’m interested in theater, public education policy, poker, and an eclectic mix of things. My latest phase has been to explore the ideas and conceptions of compassion in society, and how these conceptions relate to other ideas of racism, prejudice, and even modern political events- such as American attitudes towards China (in the context of our own problems with the prison system, social welfare, interrogation techniques, and what have you.) I’m also working on developing my sense of irony to prepare myself for the world beyond academia.

In any case! I feel really fortunate to be here. The Asian American community, naturally, is a big part of my identity. I grew up reading authors such as Lawrence Yep, although I wish there were more established AA authors out there. I am learning a lot just by being here, reading your work, and talking to you. Our cultures and our diverse backgrounds are not as well expressed right now as they should be. The work that we do will not only affect us, as AAs, but also the larger global community that surrounds us as well.

Getting acquainted

We’re getting this blog up and ready, joining the ranks of other literary magazines with blogs out there! As the fiction editor of Kartika, I’m excited about how we’ll be using this space. I’m hoping it will be a great dialogue with our readers and our writers, and I’m hoping to share insights and experiences from the editorial side of the fence. I say “I” because I don’t want to speak for the entire editorial staff of Kartika–we each have our own accounts here and have the chance to pipe up and open communication here.

But what will I write about? Maybe I’ll write about a trip to the grocery store, sighting a bunch of plums and bursting into a William Carlos Williams reverie which will then segue into thoughts about Japanese ume. Or maybe I’ll share some of my experiences as an editor with Kartika. Or comment on the litmag scene. Or update you on how the new issue is coming along.

We’ll see. Join us on the ride.