Hello everyone,
I've been really excited with the quality of submissions I've received so far. The first issue is approximately half full. Keep the good stuff coming! :)
I just wanted to mention that I think I've decided to include a few reviews in the first issue. I had been going back and forth on that.
I won't be able to review more than a few books, but if you're interested in having me review your poetry chapbook or collection, novel or short story collection, or work of nonfiction published after January 2007, please send me a query at sub2melusine@gmail.com
I am also open to reviewing other genres of art such as music, film, or whatever it is you do, provided it is relevant to the spirit of Melusine. That, along with quality, would definitely be the primary criteria I would use in deciding what to review.
Thanks, and look forward to hearing from you!
Friday, July 11, 2008
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Open Call for Submissions: March 15 - December 15, 2008
I was going to wait until April 1 to open the submission call, but, A) the whole April Fool's Day thing; and, B) I like the idea of a nine-month reading period for my labor of love here. OK, either way, it was going to sound cheesy, but, oh, well... I'm just glad to get this thing off the ground already.
Here is the official call for submissions that is appearing in Poets & Writers:
MELUSINE, OR WOMAN IN THE 21ST CENTURY is a new online journal that explores the good, bad, and ugly of the contemporary female experience, especially that of the female artist/thinker, through art, poetry, short fiction, and essay. We want only ambitious, thought-provoking work that is carefully crafted and pushes boundaries. Artists please query. Writers, feel free to query or send 1-4 poems, 1 piece of short fiction, or 1-2 essays and a short bio in the body of an e-mail to sub2melusine@gmail.com. If there are formatting concerns, especially with poems, please attach a Word document version as well. More details at melusineblog.blogspot.com.
And that would be here. Glad you dropped by. Welcome!
Those additional details you're seeking can probably be found in either the next two paragraphs or my two introductory posts below.
Regarding simultaneous submissions, they are fine as long as you notify me in your e-mail that they are such, and then, if they are accepted elsewhere, you notify me immediately so that I can remove them from consideration.
Previously published work is not acceptable, however.
I have no plans to do theme issues. However, as you might guess from the title, I have a fondness for mermaid/siren/selkie/Melusine imagery, and such images and themes are bound to appear in the journal as recurring motifs, when I come across them in well-written work or original art.
If you have any additional questions, please feel free to either query to sub2melusine@gmail.com or, if you wish, and you have a Blogger account, respond to this post.
I look forward to hearing from you and seeing your work!
Friday, December 28, 2007
Updated Timeline
Season's Greetings!At this point, I don't think anyone besides me is reading this (if someone is, apologies for the unintended slight; no, you're not chopped liver ;) but, hey, for posterity (and as a reminder to myself) I'm laying out the timeline for launching this journal here.
An open call for submissions will go out at the beginning of April, and, hopefully, an ad will appear in the P&W classifieds on April 9.
Because Melusine is a brand-new endeavor and I want the call for the first issue to reach as many talented ears as possible, I will probably be accepting submissions for most of '08. But all submissions will receive an answer within 6 months of receipt (I know from being on the other end of things that 6 months is pretty much the breaking point for waiting on an answer :)
Production will begin at the end of '08/beginning of '09, and I plan to release the first issue in early Spring '09 (ideally, on the date of the equinox, for a seasonal vibe. I'm all about the seasons.)
That's the plan for now. Check back for more details in April. Happy New Year!
Monday, October 22, 2007
Hello, and welcome...
... to the blog-side of my new literary project, Melusine, or Woman in the 21st Century. The idea here (and I'll admit it's still very much in the idea stage) is a quarterly online journal that features art, essays, poetry, fiction, and possibly book, film, and music reviews as well. I want the project to include multiple genres because each of them can get at the problem from a different angle.
The problem in question is broad in scope, but it's one that's been so personal to me for so long that I just can't keep it to myself any longer.
I want to start a dialogue with other women -- and men, too, if they're similarly intrigued by these riddles, and let's hope they are -- in the hope that others have come up with a much richer picture than I have. The problem is that of the woman artist/thinker living in a world that doesn't know what to make of such a creature. The subtitle makes reference to my sense that not as much has changed on this score since the 19th century, the era of "the woman question," back when Margaret Fuller wrote her treatise, than one might think. Women have basic rights now, in most of the world, at least on paper, and in most modern industrialized nations (and a few brave non-industrialized ones) they even arguably have equality, in a material sense.
However, the idea of what a woman is and what her role should be, what her options are and the qualities she should possess -- these less tangible things are still being worked out in the everyday lives of women everywhere, and argued in the public sphere. It is still tough to be a woman and an artist, a woman and an intellectual, when so much more is expected on the "woman" side of that equation than what is expected of a male artist or a male intellectual.
No longer cloistered in an abbey or needing to choose between home and work in places like the U.S., the 21st century female artist and intellectual still has plenty to grapple with from a society that has, in some ways, only paid lip service to her equal opportunity for self-realization.
I'm also very interested in the experiences of women, especially women artists of any genre, who are struggling to create within societies who don't offer even that lip service to her right to self-expression.
So there's your topic. Think, write, paint, craft, photograph, and multimedia amongst yourselves. More details coming soon on a call for submissions, but (given, frankly, that I just missed a classified deadline for Poets & Writers), I expect the call to go out by early next year.
If anyone is reading this blog, however, and wants to express an early interest, I'd be thrilled to look at your stuff, and can probably get back to you within a 6-8 month window, although it may be a while before I can project a precise launch date when your work will be seeing the light of day. It will probably be sometime in early '09, which will mean beginning production at the time I finish my M.A. program and can devote my full energies to the first issue.
You can send submissions or inquiries within the body of an e-mail to sub2melusine@gmail.com
Thanks for reading, and look forward to seeing your work!
The problem in question is broad in scope, but it's one that's been so personal to me for so long that I just can't keep it to myself any longer.
I want to start a dialogue with other women -- and men, too, if they're similarly intrigued by these riddles, and let's hope they are -- in the hope that others have come up with a much richer picture than I have. The problem is that of the woman artist/thinker living in a world that doesn't know what to make of such a creature. The subtitle makes reference to my sense that not as much has changed on this score since the 19th century, the era of "the woman question," back when Margaret Fuller wrote her treatise, than one might think. Women have basic rights now, in most of the world, at least on paper, and in most modern industrialized nations (and a few brave non-industrialized ones) they even arguably have equality, in a material sense.
However, the idea of what a woman is and what her role should be, what her options are and the qualities she should possess -- these less tangible things are still being worked out in the everyday lives of women everywhere, and argued in the public sphere. It is still tough to be a woman and an artist, a woman and an intellectual, when so much more is expected on the "woman" side of that equation than what is expected of a male artist or a male intellectual.
No longer cloistered in an abbey or needing to choose between home and work in places like the U.S., the 21st century female artist and intellectual still has plenty to grapple with from a society that has, in some ways, only paid lip service to her equal opportunity for self-realization.
I'm also very interested in the experiences of women, especially women artists of any genre, who are struggling to create within societies who don't offer even that lip service to her right to self-expression.
So there's your topic. Think, write, paint, craft, photograph, and multimedia amongst yourselves. More details coming soon on a call for submissions, but (given, frankly, that I just missed a classified deadline for Poets & Writers), I expect the call to go out by early next year.
If anyone is reading this blog, however, and wants to express an early interest, I'd be thrilled to look at your stuff, and can probably get back to you within a 6-8 month window, although it may be a while before I can project a precise launch date when your work will be seeing the light of day. It will probably be sometime in early '09, which will mean beginning production at the time I finish my M.A. program and can devote my full energies to the first issue.
You can send submissions or inquiries within the body of an e-mail to sub2melusine@gmail.com
Thanks for reading, and look forward to seeing your work!
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