§00. Editor’s note: links affixed to author/publisher’s name will redirect to author/publisher social media, links affixed to story/article titles will redirect to the site whereupon the named piece is archived. The ‘authors’ section focuses on lone individuals who publish their own literary work, ‘organizations’ section focuses upon independent presses, lit-mags, e-zines and other literary organizations who publish fictive work of multiple authors and ‘literary ephemera’ focuses on non-prose non-fiction literature, such as certain poems, news and art theory articles, reviews, interviews and critiques. All author/publication names arranged by alphabetical order (including ‘the’).
§01. Editor’s note on criteria for inclusion: a publication is considered ‘independent’ if it is self-contained and sustaining, that is to say, if it does not rely upon the staff, organizational prowess or financial backing of large corporations, academies, governments or other large entrenched organizations. For example, Sink Hollow Litmag will not be included on the list, not due to the quality or lack thereof of their work, but rather, because they are supported by Utah State University (and thus, are not independent). All works which are included are those which were read by the editor during the week of publication; their inclusion does not mean that they were published the same week as the circular containing them.
§.AUTHORS
From Circular regular, The Dark Netizen, the microfiction, Studying Fishes, a darkly humorous tale of deep sea exploration and a diver who gets far more than he bargained for. Netizen has a true Shyamalanian talent for twist-endings, one skillfully deployed in Studying.
All I wanted to do was to get closer to the school of undiscovered fish I saw before me.
I was already at maximum safe distance from the vessel.
I had swum out quite far away from the other divers, who were trying to hail me on my communicator.
Ignoring the garbled message I was receiving, I held my arms out in full extension hoping the fishes would come towards me.
My idea worked and all the fishes started swimming towards me, just as I received the message clearly.
“Red alert. Red alert. Return to vessel. Fishes confirmed as man-eaters…” (Netizen, Studying Fishes)
§.ORGANIZATIONS
From Literally Stories, A Major Error in Judgment by Harrison Kim, the tale of a troubled man living in a town which rejects him. One of the more eccentric pieces I’ve read this month.
“Princetown will not escape my wrath.” (Kim, A Major Error In Judgment)
From Reflex Fiction, the flash-fiction Hidden House by Patrick Flanary, a exposition on the vacuousness of a fickle and passionless affair.
‘I leave Beijing after New Year’s Eve,’ she’d texted. No punctuation, but an emoji stifling its own giddiness with one hand. Maybe Jessica wanted a fling. Yes, maybe tonight, with no tomorrows in store, they would beat the holiday intrusion of solitude together. (Flanary, Hidden House)
From Spelk, the mournful microfiction Urn by Ernest Gordon Taulbee.
When their baby died, the corpse was cremated. They split the ashes and separated. (Taulbee, Urn)
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