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This week at Luna Park, Maryanne Hannan interviews Cerise Press editor Fiona Sze-Lorrain:

Sze-Lorrain: With online journals (or publications of any sort), the word risks presenting itself as an image, rather than a word, as Nadine Gordimer mentioned at the Guardian Hay Festival this year. You see the text on the screen. It presses back as an image. It is almost like a means of consummation. The reader ends up just continuously wanting to consume—more and more images, and not engage in serious reflections, interrogation, or imagination.

Also, the second installment by Greg Weiss on poetry and the literary magazine: “Conflict of Interest Part II: The Print Journals.

mag-newAt zine-scene, frequent LP contributor David Backer looks closely at Metazen:

The fiction and poetry there are playful, like the metaphysical quality a tween evolves when he/she becomes a teen. I’m not saying Metazen is puerile. I’m saying it’s youth embodied digitally. It’s an electronic monument to the new human power of the digital. At Metazen you toe the line that separates ignorance from awareness. It’s free of analog hangups like adult heaviness and structured apathy but at the same time it’s rich in sarcasm, excitement, and insight. It’s free. It’s kidding. It knows and doesn’t know. It’s a wise fool. It’s e-youth.

Nice redesign at Dark Sky Magazine—and a first issue for them, available in print and online, with writing from Gabe Durham, Jensen Beach, Molly Gaudry, Rusty Barnes, and others. Plus, there’s a bear on the cover.

New lit mag from Canada: Eighteen Bridges. Read the entire first issue online, with writing by Lisa Moore, Timothy Taylor, Lee Henderson, and, yes, Richard Ford.

Fantastic new issue of Zoetrope: All-Story designed by shadow artist Kara Walker, with stories from Anthony Doerr, Philip K. Dick, and prodigious new talent Téa Obreht. Here’s the beginning of Obreht’s story, “The Space Elephant“:

There is a very old man who lives on Ampurdan Beach in a house made entirely of knotted driftwood, and he has a space elephant. This is a matter of fact, and everything about it is as matter-of-fact as the old man himself, as matter-of-fact as something you might read in a newspaper. The old man has had the space elephant since he was twenty or twenty-one, which is a long time. The house is more recent, and most people want to hear about it, about its beachcombed doorways and the way the sea has smoothed the chimney.

54Finally, Keyhole Press announces their new “pay by tweet” policy for a few titles. Matt Bell—author of the new collection from Keyhole, How They Were Found—offers up an explanation of the program:

If you ordered a copy, but can’t wait for the physical version of the book to reach you–or if you’d just like a reward for helping to announce the book’s release–we’ve set up a program called Pay By Tweet, where you can click a link to send a Facebook or Twitter message about How They Were Found to your friends and followers. In return you’ll receive a free PDF download of the entire book instantly, to let you start reading while you’re waiting for your physical book to arrive, or to sample the goods before you decide to buy.

Is this a new direction for small presses?

Every Tuesday, Travis Kurowski presents Luna Digesta selection of news from the world of literary magazines. Travis is the editor of Luna Park, a magazine founded on the idea that journals are as deserving of critical attention as other artistic works.


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