The blog was down for a couple of weeks due to computer maintenance. Apologies for that–we’re back now! BUT, The Externalist is going to be coming down for a few days later this week for site maintenance and a full redesign. This might or might not affect the blog while the site is down, but will definitely affect the blog once the site comes back up. The new site will have closer alignment with this general blog as well as blogs by both editors. This is part of a significant change in the direction of The Externalist; however, our vision and mission remains the same: to publish and promote the most socially significant literature possible. Thanks so much for your continued support!
Archive for the ‘Editor Notes’ Category
We’re Back, but…
Wednesday, July 8th, 2009Site Maintenance & Redesign in July
Sunday, June 21st, 2009The Externalist will be down for at least one weekend during the first week of July for site maintenance and redesign. While we hate to bring the site down, we’re confident that our readers will appreciate our new format and some new features. Beginning in August, we will no longer be publishing formal issues. Instead, we’ll be posting new content over time and including only selected pieces in a .pdf edition that will carry the best of the most recent three months. One annual .pdf will include content that hasn’t appeared on our web site as well. We’re also looking at more blogs, a new web forum, and a directory of anyone that has ever appeared in The Externalist. Do you have ideas for making The Externalist even better? Is there something you want to see that you haven’t yet? Tell us about it with an email to editor@theexternalist.com or just post a comment here.
Note: Due to excessive comment spam, all comments must be approved before appearing on the site. This can take up to 48 hours, though I try to get to them much sooner than that. Thanks for your patience!
Join us on Twitter
Thursday, June 11th, 2009The Externalist is now on Twitter! Join us there. We’ll be tweeting contributor announcements, news from The Externalist, and maybe some news-based writing prompts.
If you’re interested, you can also follow my personal Twitter account. I tweet about writing opportunities, readings and events, and so on and so forth.
See you there!
Where Have We Been?
Sunday, March 29th, 2009I know it has been several weeks since I updated the blog and I wanted to give a brief explanation to our readers. My son had surgery on March 9th and has been in and out of the hospital since then. He is home now and recovering, but a few more interruptions in blog service wouldn’t come as a big surprise to me at this point. I will be updating as able until life returns to normal.
The latest issue of The Externalist is live, but I haven’t had an opportunity to finish the .pdf version. The contributor links are also not up-to-date on the main site. I am planning to fix that within the next two weeks.
Submissions in all genres are currently backlogged. If you are waiting to hear from us, please accept our apologies and bear with us. I anticipate catching up with prose submissions by the end of April. Poets who haven’t heard regarding submissions sent more than 3 months ago should send a status inquiry email to the appropriate editor.
Thanks so much for your patience and understanding.
Larina
Inauguration Day Reflections
Tuesday, January 20th, 2009I keep thinking that today is the day I can breathe a long sigh of relief, as though the past 8 years are behind us now and we can start moving toward a better future. Yet, I read in the news that President-Elect Obama has said that he won’t make an investigation into the actions of the current administration a top priority of his administration. I am beyond disappointed in this statement. It takes away my hope and replaces it with fear. Can our country live with this gaping wound? Should our country live with this gaping wound?
The Externalist in 2008: How’d We Do?
Thursday, January 8th, 2009I’ve just finished reviewing the data for The Externalist in 2008, comparing it to 2007, and deciding how I feel about it all. Briefly (in case you don’t want to read my ramblings), in 2008The Externalist had:
- About 7,000 unique visitors
- More than 100,000 hits
- A 43% Add-to-Favorites Rate
- A very popular Election Feature
- The most read issue in our history–our election issue in November
Weekly Book Recommendation: December 31, 2008
Wednesday, December 31st, 2008As I pondered my approach to the last book recommendation of the year, I looked over my bookshelf and through the several boxes of books that sit in my bedroom because I didn’t have a shelf to put them on (our house is small and already fits seven people). Many of the books there would have worked, but I wasn’t struck by them so much as I was struck by the books that were missing. Then I remembered when I had gotten rid of them, and I couldn’t help but feel a little sad and a little happy at the same time.
I was thinking of my collection of Studs Terkel books–selections of paperback editions that had been highlighted and underlined here and there, but that for the most part, were surprisingly clean copies for college editions. It isn’t that I didn’t use these books as much as my other texts, but that I chose to use notecards instead of in-copy marks because I wanted to share the books with friends and family.
As most activist readers know, Studs Terkel passed away in 2008. The world won’t be quite the same with this loss, but I have no doubt that his work will live on for many, many years to come. Terkel had a way of getting to the heart of things as he interviewed average, everyday Americans and transcribed their words into his books.
In 2006, my family and I made a difficult decision. After living on less than minimum wage for a year and having to use credit to purchase food and pay our electric bill (which was often as much as our rent in a substandard home), after health problems that unqualified health professionals couldn’t help, after seeing our kids attend schools where the staff was absolutely unequipped to meet their educational needs, we decided to sell pretty much everything and move in search of a better life. Among the things we sold was my collection of more than 3,000 books–my Studs Terkel collection included. It was the kind of thing he would have written about, and I believe he would have approved.
So as we face 2009, I recommend heading to the official Studs Terkel web site, looking over his books, and picking one to read. Hard Times seems particularly appropriate for the current state of America. Let this be a time for remembering, and through remembering, let this be a time for looking forward.
Happy New Year,
L.
Best of the Externalist 2007-2008: Reader’s Choice Opportunity!
Friday, December 19th, 2008We’re getting started on our first ever Best of the Externalist issue! As I reread all the terrific work we’ve published these last two years, I’m finding out just how hard it’s going to be to decide what goes into the anthology.
So I decided to give our readers an opportunity to nominate work. At least three of the pieces in the anthology will be Reader’s Choices (one poem, one story, and one essay). To nominate a piece, post your selection here or send me an email with your choice(s) at editor@theexternalist.com and be sure to put “Reader’s Choice Nomination” into the subject line.
Thanks for giving us two wonderful years of publishing!
Larina Warnock, Editor
Weekly Book Recommendation: December 7-13
Thursday, December 11th, 2008Because we receive so few genre fiction submissions at The Externalist even though we like genre fiction, I’m starting our book recommendations with a science fiction novel I recently reread. Isaac Asimov’s Foundation was first published as short stories (in Astounding, if I remember correctly) and was later published not as a short story collection, but as the first book in the Foundation series (a Hugo winner that beat out Lord of the Rings for best series). While the characters change from story to story, it is a cohesive story that moves through a period of time between empires.
Fiction Note: What Are You Looking For?
Friday, November 21st, 2008From a writer’s point-of-view, it can be difficult to determine where to send which short story, and when to send it. When I’m chatting with other writers and they discover that I edit an online journal, I always hear the same question, “What kind of stories do you publish?” On a broad level, everything we publish in The Externalist needs to be socially significant–that is, the central theme of the story needs to relate somehow to cultural, regional, political, or environmental thought or ideology. Admittedly, the work in The Externalist leans left, but we aren’t at all opposed to publishing quality work from the other side of the political spectrum. Even this explanation leaves a lot up to the writer, so here are a few other tips for those considering a fiction submission to The Externalist: