Issue two of The Grand Rapids Literary Review is now available. Do check it out if you have a chance.
Highlights (for me at least):
- I have three poems included in the issue
- There is a short interview the editors did with me
- And I am the featured poet!
Many thanks to those editors for their interest in my work. Enjoy!
Great job, Anthony. Loved your work…until the site disappeared. Any idea what happened?
P.S. I was the featured fiction writer in Issue 1.
Not sure what happened to the site yet. I have emails out trying to get some info. Hopefully, it is just a glitch. At this point, though, who knows.
I’m resigning myself to the fact that the GRLR is gone and not coming back. Although I’ve made a concerted effort, I can’t find any trace of Kyle Flak, the editor, either. It’s all beginning to assume the corrosive quality of a mean-spirited hoax.
Yeah, that seems like a good conclusion to make about the journal. Knowing Kyle from before, I doubt it was a mean spirited hoax. But it is incredibly unprofessional. And sad for those of us who had been publish. A shame really. They had good work on those pages.
Yes, I sent a message to Kyle, but it was bounced back. They had a really good start as far as online literary magazines go, (with the three of us…:) and it is a shame that they ‘folded’ or whatever happened.
It’s strange, because a blog format is easy to maintain.
I wish that Kyle would at least email us to let us know what happened. I’ll keep checking YOUR excellent blog, to see if there’s any more news.
Thanks for the kind words, Eric.
All of my emails have boucned too. They have a myspace page but there is nothing there either (and I have had no response to the email I sent through myspace). I thought it was a pretty good journal too. Howie’s poems, your story, my poems (along with the other’s whose names I don’t remember since the site is now down) were really strong. So sad.
And yeah, I don’t know what possibly could have happened. It is weird though, because my wife and I were tossing around the idea of starting a blog style literary journal but put it on hold when we found out our initial title was already taken. Then I got accepted by the GRLR and then it fell apart and now, I don’t know. It makes me less interested. I don’t want to be the guy who publishes someone’s work only to then fold the site.
I’ve managed to place two of my three poems elsewhere. Still, the GRLR was a bad experience that has left an awfully sour taste. Editors, publishers, critics — none can get along without writers. If it weren’t for us, they’d all have nothing to do, and yet they continually abuse us.
Way to go Howie! Let us know where so we can all go out on buy them.
And I feel the same way about the experience. Stranger, in a way, too since I knew Kyle Flak from about a year ago. I can’t quite understand the whole situation.
“STRAIGHT FROM THE HORSE’S MOUTH”
(FROM THE MAN BEHIND THE GRLR)
Here’s the real deal, folks: Did you know that an entire google account (all emails, all blogs, all addresses) can be accidentally deleted and disappear forever with one foolish click of the mouse?
That is exactly what happened when I left things in the hands of a guest editor while on a backpacking trip out west.
Lesson learned: We cannot ignore the many flaws of online publishing.
We have no back-up, we have no email addresses, we have no writing. We have exactly nothing. What now?
Although I cannot know for sure–I am probably more upset than all of you. I spent an enormous amount of time and money editing and promoting the GRLR and its writers. It was a “labor of love.” Not once did I care about myself. The only thing I cared about was promoting good writing. And now, that is all completely F***ed up.
Do you know the cost of getting listed on New Pages? Not cheap, my friends–not cheap.
Here in GR, I printed posters, met with local educators, and attended countless poetry readings in search of funding and assistance for print editions.
Bottom line: I am heartily sorry for the disappointment and completely disillusioned about online publishing.
–A. Schwartz
Please offer your complaints and suggestions here:
beansandtoastbooks@gmail.com
Allen,
Thanks for letting us know what happened. Mystery solved! I figured it had to have been something like that since, as you noted, the cost at New Pages is pretty high. Plus we had just received notice about Monroe becoming the new editor. Things seemed to be moving along too much for it to have all been just a fake.
Do let us know if you find a way to get the site back up. I can’t speak for everyone, but I’d be happy to send my poems back to you (and I clearly still have the interview as it is on this blog
).
I can do the same, Allen. I have a copy of the interview on my computer. (and my story, obviously) Thanks for letting us know.
And I probably have an old email from the GRLR with all of the email addresses you were using. Let us know and we can probably help out if the project is still of interest to you.