Since you asked: Courier is indeed out of favor for long-form writing. It’s a monospace font, an anachronism but also the most liberal-democratic of all typefaces because each letter is the same width, both lowercase and upper: W and i and e and Z and all the rest. The fixed width was a mechanical necessity of typewriters, each key taking up the same horizontal space, the carriage marching in lockstep as letters get laid onto page.
Monospace fonts are readable but fatiguing. Proportional fonts (Times, Palatino, so many more) are more readable so have become the standard. Now, the machines that lay down letters are digital computers that can set type almost as well as the master typesetters of the late days of moveable lead type. I note with some irony that computer scripts and other programs are still often displayed in monospace, because the columnar alignment makes it easier to spot errors.
If you’d like to get your hands, literally, on some of this history, Baker Library has a letterpress studio where you can tinker with lead type; it’s a place where I have, on occasion, happily whiled time.
I believe every writer should work at letterpress typesetting once in their lives, or at the least ask a librarian to finger out for them a range of old, hand-set books to admire. I'm both writer and artist/designer, and my experience with lead typesetting helped make literature manifest, visceral, tactile, and gave me an even deeper appreciation of the supreme effort of creating a beautiful, readable book.
Public libraries might have subscriptions to lit mags, and academic libraries definitely have at least a few if they have a creative writing program. And even as an alumni, you still probably have some borrowing privileges for print material, so worth checking institutions you've attended in the past.
Yes! Sharing how I navigate mine because it’s not super easy to find, but on the Chicago Public Library website, which I believe is similar to others, you log in with your library account, go to Browse, then Online Resources, A-Z resources, then J for JSTOR, then you can search for journals, authors, etc…
I'm mostly mentioning it for the people who approach us with "sorry to bother you" when that's what we're here for, and the many more people who don't ask us. As you highlighted, finding your way in the catalogues and databases maze can be so not intuitive. We want people to bother us! :)
Yes, of course! The librarians at my branch tend to seem a bit harried, not by questions about databases but other issues of the modern library. But I'm an avid user of the "Ask a Librarian" feature on the CPL website.
I highly recommend Wasifiri which always has incredibly interesting essays, stories, poetry and visual art from all over the world https://www.wasafiri.org/
Just got here through Nana's piece. Really loved this. I was talking with some of improv buddies recently, and just wrote about how important it is to "crack yourself up/delight yourself" when it comes to making a good onstage comedic performance. When you enjoy yourself, it ends up being better for the audience, too. And it's cool to see you use similar framing for writing. Anyway, I love love the submission party idea--I feel inspired to wrangle up some peers and get something similar going outside the classroom setting.
Thanks for this great piece. I love "World Literature Today." I get to learn about and read translated works that I never would have a chance to otherwise.
The timing of this couldn't be more perfect—thank you! I've been working on a novel for several years and have decided to try to publish some of my shorter work as a change of pace. Maybe I'll try to put together a submission party myself.
I'd also like to shout out Brink Literary, a print journal based in Iowa City that publishes hybrid, cross-genre work that can have a hard time finding a home. I may be biased because I'm an editor there, but the issues are gorgeous. Our next open submission period is in January and we don't have a reading fee. We have some public access pieces on our website so writers can familiarize themselves with our aesthetic before submitting.
I will say that reading submissions has helped me understand how rejections often have more to do with editors' taste, balancing the pieces in current and previous issues, and a whole host of other factors that don't have anything to do with the quality of the work itself. If you ever have the chance to join a lit mag as a reader, I highly recommend it—it really helps demystify the other side of the submissions process!
Someone has already recommended A Public Space, a longtime favorite for its international flavor. Fairy Tale Review is another (pardon my bias as I am guest co-editing the next issue). Story also has a wonderful variety of stories.
I wrote an essay for Fairy Tale Review many years ago, I agree. And won a typewriter in an early Story contest, that I used for years. Thanks for mentioning them and good luck with your issue!
What do you say to students who favour self-publishing on, say, this website? It must be a temptation, and increasingly so, I'd guess? Does it scupper the chance of publishing elsewhere?
I have met with students who have newsletters and who want to self publish, and that’s maybe a whole other newsletter. Yes it poses challenges to them with specific works published online, but I also think the current economy favors the entrepreneurial spirit so to speak and before we had newsletters we had a long tradition of literary collectives and founding a literary magazine to publish yourself and your friends, so I describe that for them as well. A former student of mine was a founding editor at n+1 and I talk about advising her about that, and I even had a publishing conversation with Matthew Rohrer on campus this fall and had him talk about founding Fence with Rebecca Wolff for example, both of them former classmates of mine from Iowa. This was a part of a series I created on campus at our new creative writing center. I’m going to bring Kelly Link also, to read and to talk about founding her own press with her husband to publish her first story collections.
I also learned so much by being edited in my first publications. So I do tell them about that also. And I’m bringing speakers to campus to teach about newsletters and blogs, as well. Anyway I’m not against them doing it but it’s also hard to edit and promote and design yourself, as I know. But it’s all hard, so you just go for what makes sense to you.
Thanks Alexander, that's really interesting. I am – not for the first time – intensely jealous of your students! (I did the creative writing MA at Sussex University, and I can't remember a single mention of how to get work published.)
I love hearing about how you teach—your students are lucky! You seem like such a disarming and generous teacher. How lovely to create a communal submitting gathering, too!
Thanks. I liked Reginald’s approach of making it impersonal. I decided to make it festive. We’re also going to introduce buttons with a custom logo for first submission, 10th, 20th, etc.
Thank you for this, and for the reminder that submitting work is important! I haven't done any of that in years...I've been working on longer projects, but I like the idea of diversifying and staying in the game, so to speak.
Since you asked: Courier is indeed out of favor for long-form writing. It’s a monospace font, an anachronism but also the most liberal-democratic of all typefaces because each letter is the same width, both lowercase and upper: W and i and e and Z and all the rest. The fixed width was a mechanical necessity of typewriters, each key taking up the same horizontal space, the carriage marching in lockstep as letters get laid onto page.
Monospace fonts are readable but fatiguing. Proportional fonts (Times, Palatino, so many more) are more readable so have become the standard. Now, the machines that lay down letters are digital computers that can set type almost as well as the master typesetters of the late days of moveable lead type. I note with some irony that computer scripts and other programs are still often displayed in monospace, because the columnar alignment makes it easier to spot errors.
If you’d like to get your hands, literally, on some of this history, Baker Library has a letterpress studio where you can tinker with lead type; it’s a place where I have, on occasion, happily whiled time.
Fascinating. Thanks! And good to know about Baker!
I believe every writer should work at letterpress typesetting once in their lives, or at the least ask a librarian to finger out for them a range of old, hand-set books to admire. I'm both writer and artist/designer, and my experience with lead typesetting helped make literature manifest, visceral, tactile, and gave me an even deeper appreciation of the supreme effort of creating a beautiful, readable book.
Love this as an exercise. That’s beautiful.
Public libraries might have subscriptions to lit mags, and academic libraries definitely have at least a few if they have a creative writing program. And even as an alumni, you still probably have some borrowing privileges for print material, so worth checking institutions you've attended in the past.
Yes indeed. And that helps libraries.
Yes! Sharing how I navigate mine because it’s not super easy to find, but on the Chicago Public Library website, which I believe is similar to others, you log in with your library account, go to Browse, then Online Resources, A-Z resources, then J for JSTOR, then you can search for journals, authors, etc…
It’s going to vary, Jstor is just one database. When in doubt, librarians are literally there to help.
Of course!
I'm mostly mentioning it for the people who approach us with "sorry to bother you" when that's what we're here for, and the many more people who don't ask us. As you highlighted, finding your way in the catalogues and databases maze can be so not intuitive. We want people to bother us! :)
Yes, of course! The librarians at my branch tend to seem a bit harried, not by questions about databases but other issues of the modern library. But I'm an avid user of the "Ask a Librarian" feature on the CPL website.
>>How does your main character like to mess with people?<<
What a great prompt! Thank you!
The Brick (out of Toronto) and A Public Space are two of my favorites!
APS does a fun "read together" thing - a kind of virtual book club - https://apstogether.substack.com/
Yes, APS is fantastic. I’ll check out The Brick!
Love APS!
American Short Fiction is another great place to submit! (I was a fan of the magazine long before joining the team.)
Ah yes, thanks for the reminder!
I highly recommend Wasifiri which always has incredibly interesting essays, stories, poetry and visual art from all over the world https://www.wasafiri.org/
Granta and Gulf Coast also consistently feature work I love!
I would love to hear more about “the limits of post-apocalyptic frameworks as an inheritance from the religious colonists.”
Just got here through Nana's piece. Really loved this. I was talking with some of improv buddies recently, and just wrote about how important it is to "crack yourself up/delight yourself" when it comes to making a good onstage comedic performance. When you enjoy yourself, it ends up being better for the audience, too. And it's cool to see you use similar framing for writing. Anyway, I love love the submission party idea--I feel inspired to wrangle up some peers and get something similar going outside the classroom setting.
I love it. Yes, I think making it less agonized as possible is only a good thing.
Thanks for this great piece. I love "World Literature Today." I get to learn about and read translated works that I never would have a chance to otherwise.
The timing of this couldn't be more perfect—thank you! I've been working on a novel for several years and have decided to try to publish some of my shorter work as a change of pace. Maybe I'll try to put together a submission party myself.
I'd also like to shout out Brink Literary, a print journal based in Iowa City that publishes hybrid, cross-genre work that can have a hard time finding a home. I may be biased because I'm an editor there, but the issues are gorgeous. Our next open submission period is in January and we don't have a reading fee. We have some public access pieces on our website so writers can familiarize themselves with our aesthetic before submitting.
I will say that reading submissions has helped me understand how rejections often have more to do with editors' taste, balancing the pieces in current and previous issues, and a whole host of other factors that don't have anything to do with the quality of the work itself. If you ever have the chance to join a lit mag as a reader, I highly recommend it—it really helps demystify the other side of the submissions process!
Someone has already recommended A Public Space, a longtime favorite for its international flavor. Fairy Tale Review is another (pardon my bias as I am guest co-editing the next issue). Story also has a wonderful variety of stories.
I wrote an essay for Fairy Tale Review many years ago, I agree. And won a typewriter in an early Story contest, that I used for years. Thanks for mentioning them and good luck with your issue!
Ooh, I will go look for it! Thanks for the wishes--we are excited for how the issue has shaped up.
What do you say to students who favour self-publishing on, say, this website? It must be a temptation, and increasingly so, I'd guess? Does it scupper the chance of publishing elsewhere?
I have met with students who have newsletters and who want to self publish, and that’s maybe a whole other newsletter. Yes it poses challenges to them with specific works published online, but I also think the current economy favors the entrepreneurial spirit so to speak and before we had newsletters we had a long tradition of literary collectives and founding a literary magazine to publish yourself and your friends, so I describe that for them as well. A former student of mine was a founding editor at n+1 and I talk about advising her about that, and I even had a publishing conversation with Matthew Rohrer on campus this fall and had him talk about founding Fence with Rebecca Wolff for example, both of them former classmates of mine from Iowa. This was a part of a series I created on campus at our new creative writing center. I’m going to bring Kelly Link also, to read and to talk about founding her own press with her husband to publish her first story collections.
I also learned so much by being edited in my first publications. So I do tell them about that also. And I’m bringing speakers to campus to teach about newsletters and blogs, as well. Anyway I’m not against them doing it but it’s also hard to edit and promote and design yourself, as I know. But it’s all hard, so you just go for what makes sense to you.
Thanks Alexander, that's really interesting. I am – not for the first time – intensely jealous of your students! (I did the creative writing MA at Sussex University, and I can't remember a single mention of how to get work published.)
Bill Knott required his students to regularly send out work.
Oh I love that.
I love hearing about how you teach—your students are lucky! You seem like such a disarming and generous teacher. How lovely to create a communal submitting gathering, too!
Thanks. I liked Reginald’s approach of making it impersonal. I decided to make it festive. We’re also going to introduce buttons with a custom logo for first submission, 10th, 20th, etc.
Super inspiring in a very tactile and actionable way — appreciate this!
Thank you for this, and for the reminder that submitting work is important! I haven't done any of that in years...I've been working on longer projects, but I like the idea of diversifying and staying in the game, so to speak.