A Journal You Might Like: Pedestal Magazine

Image source: http://http://www.thepedestalmagazine.com/index.php

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Pedestal Magazine, as it says on their front page banner, has been in print for ten years. Frankly, I consider this to be an amazing achievement! Having been here for all of the necessary start-up of this literary journal, I think it’s so amazing that Pedestal has been around for ten years while we’re just beginning. I applaud them and congratulate them on their ten years as a successful literary journal!

So, the thing about Pedestal Magazine that caught my attention is how they are able to remain in print. The magazine is partially funded by North Carolina Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, but they also have a place along the right-hand side of their website that offers the opportunity to donate to the magazine. I think this is a great way to reach out to the magazine’s readers and make a connection with the people who are reading the work.

As I read the overview and mission statement of Pedestal Magazine, I felt inspired. To see how much the magazine has grown throughout their ten years in the business is admirable. I can see from this page that they added an art gallery, a bookstore, and a forum as their magazine grew. Pedestal is also exclusively online, a feature that it shares with our literary journal. I like the system of distribution for the journal — a sign-up form to receive the journal through your email.

Pedestal showcases poetry, fiction, reviews, and spoken word in their latest issue. Each issue is search-able through their archive page, but you can also get updates to your inbox, as I mentioned before, by visiting their sign-up page. Check out Pedestal Magazine!

— Jet Fuel Editor, Mary Egan

A Journal You Might Like: Wordeater

Image source: http://www3.jjc.edu

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An important component of the Jet Fuel Review is that it’s run by students at Lewis University. Students do all of the main work for the literary journal and faculty advisers oversee everything. But the work is done by students, and I think this makes the journal unique. There are several journals like this, affiliated with universities, and run by students there. One such journal is Wordeater, which is based in Joliet Junior College, a college in the area.

The design of Wordeater jumps out at me instantly when I click onto their webpage.  I love the squiggly writing of their name at the top of the site and the lime green color in the background catches my eye easily. Wordeater also has a lot of exciting and interesting art on their webpage.

Personally, I’m very impressed with the title “Wordeater,” I think it’s a snappy and creative title for a literary journal. Wordeater has been around for quite a while. When I talked to the faculty adviser, Adam Heidenrich, he said that Wordeater has a lengthy history at JJC and has only recently gone online. Though their website has a lot of information and they do have an e-zine, the main portion of Wordeater is a printed booklet.

Wordeater also displays a lot of great artwork from students, including some work featured by our own blogger Lucas Sifuentes! As I said last week in the journal post, I’d love to get more artists involved in the creation of Jet Fuel Review. Wordeater also offers a writing group, which I think is a great supplement to the literary journal.

Yesterday I posted a poem from Wordeater that I thought was very thought-provoking and they have a multitude of other great student work displayed at their site. I think Wordeater is very similar to what I wish for the Jet Fuel Review in the future. Check it out and see what they have to offer!

— Jet Fuel Editor, Mary Egan

A Journal You Might Like: Mule Magazine

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Back when I was doing the research for this literary journal, I found an interesting collaborative magazine called Mule Magazine. Though it took a while to load on my computer because of all the content involved on the page, Mule Magazine was just so fascinating and intriguing to me.

Mule Magazine, according to their “about page,” is “a collaborative publication created to record these projects that are occurring on a grassroots, national, and international level. The publication hopes to document and celebrate the world of people who continue making, thinking, and generating. It addresses both the usual and the unusual with a thoroughness perhaps overlooked by traditional media by mixing creative theory with contemporary culture.”

The interesting thing about Mule Magazine is that they encompass so many different aspects of the creative life within their publication. They publish music reviews, interviews, features for emerging and established musicians and visual artists. There is also poetry and writing and fashion spreads. Mule Magazine is like an assault on the senses, bombarding you with a wide array of information and art.

I chose Mule Magazine to recommend this afternoon because I want to emphasize the art aspect of our own journal. So far, the focus has been mainly on the writing part of our new journal, but I also want to feature exciting and new art from students, faculty, and artists at large. I think it’s important for a journal to have eye-catching visuals and meaningful art to supplement the writing that’s being featured.

So, artists, please send in your work for publication!

— Jet Fuel Editor, Mary Egan

A Journal That You Might Like: #7

Image source: http://blog.spottedsparrow.com

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Last week, I talked about the design of online literary journals. This week, the journal I’ll be talking about has two important qualities: interactivity and the journal fills a niche in the pantheon of online literary journals. The journal this week — shadowbox — fulfills both of those criteria.

Interactivity in a journal is important because it engages the readers with what you’re doing. If you have links that pop or an eye-catching design, that helps attract more readers and more visitors to your site. Poetry and writing in general can be a very communal experience. In that vein, literary journals should endeavor to be communal, inclusive spaces.

shadowbox is an online literary journal that employs a very interesting menu. Off to the left side of the screen is a drawing of an actual shadowbox, a small wooden box filled with knick-knacks and curios. Each little knick-knack leads to a link within the journal as you rest on with your cursor. I love sites like this because this interactive menu feels like you’re searching for the links, you’re unearthing links on their site.

Another important component of an online literary journal is that you are, in some way, unique. It’s important to either fill a niche that doesn’t yet exist in the online literary journal community or create a unique and creative website design.

In the case of shadowbox, they bill themselves as “the magazine we always wanted to read but could never find.” In this case, the creators of shadowbox desired to see something in the literary journal community and set out to create it themselves. shadowbox is published bi-annually and features creative non-fiction. I haven’t found any other online journals that feature online creative non-fiction, so shadowbox is unique among its peers.

Of course, there are many other wonderful things about shadowbox. I like the dictionary definitions of their title, the morphing header at the top of the site, and the charming design  overall. Definitely check out shadowbox and see what they have to offer in terms of creative non-fiction.

— Jet Fuel Editor, Mary Egan

A Journal That You Might Like: #6

Image source: http://thediagram.com/

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One of the qualities that you want a literary journal to have is the ability to stand out, to catch people’s eye while they’re surfing the web. In this day and age, many literary journals have converted to a completely online format. In that kind of environment, it’s important to stand out and be interesting so that people want to delve further into your site than just the front page.

One such site, that grabs you and hooks you with an interesting layout and front page images is DIAGRAM. For starters, as soon as you click on their site, you see that there’s a connection between the title of the journal and the opening image on their site. The image is of a highly complicated graph and I immediately connected that with the name “diagram.” I think it’s important to have that title-image connection because it helps visitors remember the site.

DIAGRAM also has a an bare bones layout, simply what you need to know organized very neatly on their site. I like the juxtaposition of red text links with the black text of all the other information. DIAGRAM also provides a convenient way to search what they’ve published in their archives. You can find a piece based on author through their index, or by searching through each individual past issue. I can also attest to the fact that DIAGRAM employs an ever-changing layout for their website. At the beginning of September, they had a different layout on this front page. That’s a good idea because it keeps things fresh for people visiting the site.

If you’re interested in reading what’s out there in terms of online literary journals, please do check out DIAGRAM and all other journals I’ve blogged about here in the past few weeks.

— Jet Fuel Editor, Mary Egan

A Journal that You Might Like: #5

Image source: http://rhinopoetry.org

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Today is Friday and I think you might enjoy the literary journal, RHINO. RHINO is a literary journal that grew out of The Poetry Forum, Inc. in 1976. RHINO is not just a journal, though. They offer many outlets and opportunities for emerging writers in Illinois. The Poetry Forum is a non-profit organization supported by the Illinois Arts Council that offers readings, workshops, and prizes for authors.

RHINO offers both an Editor’s Prize and a Founder’s Prize with cash awards and special recognition. There is also a  program called RHINO Reads, which is an open mic reading in Evanston each month. This would be a great opportunity for authors who wish to read their works aloud and gain some exposure in the literary world in and around Chicago.

RHINO’s publication is offered through their site for purchase. There are a few poems available in PDF format when you view their current issue, but most of the work is unavailable to you unless you buy the printed journal. This might not be ideal for some of you, but if you preview the work that RHINO showcases and you enjoy it, you might consider purchasing their journal for $12.00 with shipping & handling. If you want to save on shipping, RHINO is also offered in many Chicagoland area bookstores, a list of which you can find on their website.

— Jet Fuel Editor, Mary Egan

A Journal That You Might Like: #4

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Today’s recommended journal is Toasted Cheese, a site that intrigued me as soon as I began researching it for our own journal development. Toasted Cheese is really more of a writing community than a simple literary journal. The site offers many communal areas such as a ‘chat‘ feature as well as forums built into the site. This communal aspect of the site is what made like it so much. All of the most enjoyable writing experiences I’ve had in my life have included some kind of writing community. Whether it was a classroom or a group of online friends, I’ve always had that extra boost of encouragement and feedback when pursuing new writing endeavors.

It’s almost as though there are two Toasted Cheese sites. If you type in toasted-cheese.com, you are taken to a site that seems formatted like a blog with updates and links at the top of the webpage. If you click this link, though, you are taken to the “actual” literary journal site. The journal has been in operation since 2001 and is, therefore, very established. The site and the journal hold frequent contests and there seems to be a very inclusive, encouraging vibe around the journal.

In addition to the journal aspect of the site and the community exercises that take place there, Toasted Cheese offers a blog of sorts called Absolute Blank, where writers are offered the opportunity to post articles. Past articles on their blog have discussed writing advice for specific genres and writing instruction for specific kinds of documents.

I like Toasted Cheese because of the variety of writing opportunities it offers to authors, from poetry to blog articles. I would encourage you to visit the site, browse around, and see what they have to offer.

— Jet Fuel Editor, Mary Egan

A Journal That You Might Like: #3

Image source: http://www.blossombones.com/index.html

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Today’s recommended journal is blossombones, a journal run by Susan Slaviero, an alumnus of Lewis University. blossombones is another completely online journal, just like ours. One of their selling points is that they publish work by women almost exclusively. blossombones boasts new and fresh poetry for their readers and publishes very interesting, engaging poetry.

The online journal’s design is very dark and has almost an aura of mystery. Its poetry matches the design of the journal, which brings up the concept of connecting a journal’s subject matter to its appearance. To some degree, I think the style should reflect what kind of poetry is being published in the journal. The title, also, should reflect the work that the journal accepts. For instance, blossombones published mainly female-oriented poetry and the name calls up the image of flowers, which are usually feminine. But the added “bones” on the end of the journal’s title suggests something more interesting, more modern than just stereotypical feminine poetry.

I’d absolutely recommend blossombones, and not just because I know the editor! They publish unique, fresh poetry that’s sure to surprise you and make you think.

— Editor, Mary Egan

A Journal That You Might Like: #2

Image source: http://tsky-news.blogspot.com

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Today’s recommended online journal is Trickhouse, features an innovative and interactive design that I haven’t seen in any other journal. Its name recalls trick-or-treating, making it the perfect journal to check out as Halloween draws near!

Trickhouse is the most unique journal I found as I surfed around to see what kind of sites existed already. The front page consists of doors with a wallpaper-like backdrop, giving the whole site the feel of a house. When you put your cursor on each door, the door opens a crack and a different section of the journal floats out. With each new issue, the wallpaper background changes to signal a new edition of the journal.

This journal is the best example of how much you can customize your online journal’s site. The possibilities are literally endless and you can customize the site as much as you’d like to match the title of your journal. Online publishing gives literary journals more of an opportunity to reach people, but it also makes professional design accessible even to the penniless college student, such as my self.

Trickhouse is worth a look because of its gorgeous interplay with readers and exciting new poetry, such as Cynthia Hogue’s poem, which was featured in yesterday’s post. They also showcase visual art, correspondent reports, interviews, videos, and more. Each of their pages and site sections call back to their “house” theme, such as Back Room and The Parlour. Be sure to check it out and read some of what Trickhouse has to offer.

Reminder: The title contest for the new Lewis Lit Journal ends on Monday, October 11th. Make sure you get your suggestions in before the deadline! Send title ideas to lewislitjournal [at] gmail [dot] com!

— Honeycomb Editor, Mary Egan

A Journal That You Might Like: #1

Source image: http://ameritagebistro.com

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So, the feature for Fridays that we’re going to be posting is basically a journal recommendation. If you’re new to the idea of online literary journals or just literary journals in general, you might find these Friday posts helpful. We hope that you’ll check these recommended journals out and one day begin recommending journals of your own.

For now, we’re simply going to scroll through the list of literary journals sitting in our sidebar. In the future, we’ll be branching out and letting you know about journals in every corner of the web and every corner of the globe.

Today’s recommended journal is Arsenic Lobster! Not only does it have a very catchy and clever title, Arsenic Lobster is creative and clever all throughout the work they produce and the information on their easily navigated site. One thing that I really love about Arsenic Lobster is that their name is not merely symbolic or weird for the sake of weirdness, they actually have a picture of a lobster on their front page! Arsenic Lobster was one of my favorite journals as I was researching for The Honeycomb Review (tentative name, just a reminder: you can still send title suggestions to lewislitblog [at] gmail [dot] com). We encourage you to check out Arsenic Lobster, browse their site, and read what they publish. There’s some great stuff over there.

Stay tuned for the weekend feature, Editor’s Notes, and much more!

— Honeycomb Editor, Mary Egan