Luna Digest, 8/10

For the past year we have been asking readers, writers, and editors to chime in about Race, Class, Gender and Sexuality in the independent presses. This week, Dorothee Lang—editor of BluePrintReview and Daily s-Press—talks about “The Complexities and Effects of Categorization“:

Going through the different viewpoints again, I felt that there are two currents: on the one side, there is more awareness of the racial/ethnic/minority theme, while on the other side the internet tends to move those personal characteristics to the background. Online literary magazine are accessible from all places of the world, and in return, are frequented by writers from different nations—and looking through magazines, if you wanted to “group” or “classify” authors, it would be easier to approach this from the formats they work in.

Seems FictionDaily editor David Backer is a KGB addict. Read his reports of recent readings at KGB Bar hosted by lit mags Anderbo and InDigest. (I’m curious: Is KGB the most literary bar in NYC?)

Vaughan Simons, editor of Writers’ Bloc, says they will cease publishing new content:

After eight­een months online and some seventy-four art­icles, stor­ies, inter­views, flash fic­tions, poems and mis­cel­laneous other forms, I’ve decided to close Writers’ Bloc. I feel that it’s run its course and, to be bru­tally hon­est, I no longer pos­sess the enthu­si­asm required to keep it run­ning, read­ing sub­mis­sions and put­ting up new material…

Sue Apfelbaum interviews Stack America editor Andrew Losowsky, one of our biggest proponents and promoters of great indie mags. For those new to Stack, here’s Losowsky’s description of the project:

Think of it like a curated magazine club: in each mailing Stack America sends out at least one piece of remarkable, independent publishing, along with other unusual magazine-related ephemera. The hope is that, if you love one of the magazines, you’ll subscribe, spread the word and help keep great independent magazines alive. Each envelope is a surprise, containing fresh perspectives and new ways of storytelling.

Finally, on the topic of indie mags, Zine-Scene is slated to be a new website covering them, with three main sections:

1. Zine-Profiles – A space where zines (online publications) will be reviewed. But these won’t be standard reviews. Instead we will do an in-depth analysis of the recent past and present issues of the spotlighted zine. Additionally, an interview with the zine editor will be conducted and posted.

2. Author-Profiles – A space where authors who have published prolifically in zines will be spotlighted. This will include a review/analysis of the available works of the author as well as an interview with said author.

3. The Reprint – This is a quarterly zine devoted to reprinting content from print literary magazines.

Zine-Scene is set to go live October 4, 2010—until then, you can read a lengthy discussion about it at Artifice magazine’s Facebook page, with Zine-Scene founder Richard Mocarski responding to questions.

Every Tuesday, Travis Kurowski presents Luna Digest, a selection of news from the world of literary magazines. Travis is the editor of Luna Park, a magazine founded on the idea that journals are as deserving of critical attention as other artistic works.