Literary World Floundering?

Major publishers have made cutbacks, literary magazines have changed publishing frequencies.  For as many new magazines and presses that are starting out, many are throwing in the towel and calling it quits.

And why is this?

M-O-N-E-Y!

Well, some of it has to due with personal health and commitment issues (mainly for online, but for some print magazines as well). There are a lot of magazines folding due to the fact that subscriptions are down and they cannot keep publishing if they can’t even break even. Some magazines that have been housed and supported at universities find their funding sources cut off, meaning they have to scramble to find a source of income to keep publishing.

It is really sad. Contests have been suspended, some magazines that paid contributors for publishing their work have had to either cut down the amount or stop paying altogether.

Despite the floundering of literary publishing, the staples are still around, from the Hudson Review to The Hampden-Sydney Poetry Review to Shenandoah. There are also new magazines springing up (many of them online, but some new print magazines such as Paul Revere’s Horse) that hope to challenge the decline that is being seen.

There are also new presses popping up, hoping to succeed where traditional publishing seems to be struggling. Digital media, e-books, POD – they are jumping onto the digital revolution, believing more people will flock to electronic media versus traditional print media.

Give me a musty old book anytime, I hate reading online if I can avoid it, but there are a lot of people taking to the new digital age.

Quote of the Day

"My goal in life is to be an echo."

~Matthew Schmeer, editor of Poetry Midwest

I think the quote is really cool.  To be an echo, to be something that reverberates and lasts beyond the initial saying/moment.  Though, on the downside, to be an echo is to be only a repetition of something else, and usually and incomplete one at that. But still, my cool quote of the day.

Happy New Year

Another year has come and gone.  It seems odd to think that we have started a new decade. It is even odder to know that at the age of 24, I have already seen 4 decades come and go. I was born in the mid 80s (1985) to be exact. Grew up in the 90s. High school and college took up most of the beginning of the new century and 2010 sees me out of school and working hard.

A lot has happened. A lot has changed. And yet many things have stayed perpetually the same.  Even though I have a degree under my belt, I still occupy the same room in my grandparents house that I have lived in for the past 22 years.  Money is still a problem as is health care and insurance.  Bills are numerous and paycheck-to-paycheck living is still going strong.

But there are still many good things.  My sister is happily married and expecting her first baby and has a job that utilizes both her Spanish major and her human services minor.  I have 3 new younger siblings and my dad is permanently stateside for the first time since I was a child. Good things, really.

Here is hoping that 2010 will see more good things, but dark clouds lurk on the horizon. Money woes, health care issues, social security conundrums.  I am not too sure that there are many answers or solutions to these problems, we an only take them in stride and hope for the best, which is hard at times.

I don't make New Year's resolutions, but I have decided this year to keep a promise I have made to myself ages ago.  It's about time and maybe something good will come of it, maybe not.  We shall see what the cards of fate hold in store for us in the future.

Many blessings for a prosperous 2010.