LETTER FROM THE EDITOR / November 2023 / Kolleen Carney-Hoepfner
Photo by Mockup Graphics on Unsplash
Hello, friends.
Thanksgiving has famously never been my favorite holiday. I was anorexic for fourteen years, and holidays centered around excessive food consumption didn't really vibe with me. It's hard to be thankful when you're high key miserable. Also, I just don't like turkey. People get so bent out of shape if you say you don't like turkey! "You've never had good turkey I guess." My brother in Christ, my very own husband is from Texas. You think he doesn't know how to cook a turkey? And yet my dislike of the bird remains.
I've softened my stance on Thanksgiving over the years, though. For one thing, I'm happy(ish) now. I recovered from my eating disorder, and I love to cook now, so we opt to do something that isn't turkey. It's easier for me to see my blessings now.: a family, the ability to watch Always Sunny whenever I want, Showgirls available on 4k. Life can be good.
One thing I'm particularly grateful for this season is how gracious (most of) our contributors have been about our hiatus. It's hard to take a break, because it feels like you're letting everyone down, and it's especially disheartening when people don't notice you're on hiatus and get upset with you about the lack of communication when you're just trying not to drown or whatever. The contributors in this issue all had nice, encouraging responses to my email informing them of their features going live, and I love each of them for it. I know we won't be 100% up and running smoothly until January or so, but their kindness has helped tremendously in my feeling more settled about it.
Another thing I'm thankful for? We appeared on Brecht De Poortere's Top 1000 Literary Magazines list, somehow breaking the top 200 . . . I'm not sure how as we're obviously sort of a mess, but we were so psyched as a team to see it.
We're open for subs through December 15, and we're running a December issue (we usually take December off) to make up for some of the time we were away. Cherry Dress manuscripts are also open, and Cat Conway's Nocturnes should be available in the next week or two. From there we'll be publishing Andrew Ketcham's CAPTIVA in February. Keep an eye out!
We also are so happy to welcome our new intern, Nina Fillari. She has acclimated well to our group chat, and she'll be assisting in reading submissions as well as building issues. Welcome to the family, Nina!
One other bit of fun before I sign off: our founder, Matt Guerrero, got married to his lovely wife Diana on the 18th of this month. We were so thrilled to celebrate their marriage in the Dorit room at Buca Di Beppo—incredibly on brand for us as a team. Congrats to the Guerrero family!
Overall, happy holidays, fam. We appreciate you and are thankful for you. I hope that you are healthy, happy, and enjoy this late November issue. See you next month!
KCH