Seeking Submissions
There is a great gaping gap in the literary e-zine market and it is aching to be filled. Have you got something hot you’d like to fill it with? Motleys is a new quarterly literary e-zine with an exclusively comic slant. There are innumerable literary e-zines out there, some good, many mediocre and the poor positively proliferate. Many of them seem simply to merge into each other, there being very little difference between them in terms of style or content. This e-zine intends to fill a very particular niche, and one which seems to have been left open for so long that a colony of ants have taken residence in it. Our intention, quite apart from brutally ridding these ants of their smug abode, is to create an opportunity for sophisticated readers and writers of literature to log on and laugh. As such we are seeking submissions - of whatever genre – which pose a risk of inducing a wry smile, a mirthful nod of appreciaton, a giggle, titter or, better still, a voilent spleen shattering explosion of hilarity. Submissions may include poetry, prose, vignettes, scripts, comic reviews or serious reviews of comic literature, serious literature with comic undertones or comic literature with serious overtones, cartoons (of the more sophisticated type), epigrams, aphorisms, regular columns or even just suggestions about the design and content of the e-zine. Please forward contributions to geoffmills999@yahoo.com , preferably as a word attachement. Please put Motleys and the date as the subject heading.
That’s up to you of course. Key adjectives might include satirical, subversive, iconoclastic, absurdist, ironic, parodic or just plain silly. Although by making reference to previous literary figures I may be in danger of pre-empting the style or nature of the content, one might look to some of the following figures for an initial indication of what diversity there can be in comic writing: Kingsley Amis, P.G. Wodehouse, Stephen Fry, Roger McGough, Spike Milligan, A.A. Gill, Roald Dahl, Tom Sharpe, Ned Sherrin, Peter Cooke, Evelyn Waugh and Woody Allan. These are of course just some of the guiding stars in a glittering galaxy of writerly humour. Over time a shape and form will begin to evolve, so that certain sections of the e-zine will come to represent an identifiable comic flora on a variegated literary rockery. We would welcome one-off contributions as well as writers/columnists who would like their own regular spot.
Not with cash, no, but perhaps in all or some of those quixotic and nebulous forms of renumeration other low budget e-zines frequently speak of - gratification, recognition, career development etc. Should you hop on board permanently, this vehicle may well end up somewhere less notoriously impoverished than down-town e-zine land..
The Future of the Website
We are working towards becoming a frequently visited and well regarded e-zine. We will work towards gettings Arts Council funding and will strive for publication in hard form, either as a regular magazine or in occasional anthologies. We can achieve this by longevity of existence (many literary magazines and e-zines close soon after they’ve been launched) and by publishing material of a high standard. A well designed website will also be developed for the first issue.
Would you like to be included on the mailing list?
If you are not interested in contributing just now, or would be interested in reading the final product, just e-mail me with 'Mailing List Request' as the subject. We will contact you with the new web address when the first issue has been published.
bravenet.com