Raise a pint for the Tinker's Dam!

We had a wonderful send-off for Daniel Gabriel's collection of pub stories, Tales from The Tinker's Dam, at (where else) Kieran's Irish pub. Dan also did an interesting interview about the book for MPR: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/07/11/gabriel/

Book release

We had a nice book release last Friday for Jarda Cervenka and Norita Dittberner-Jax. Roughly 100 people came to Intermedia Arts to hear Norita read from her new book of poetry, The Watch, and Jarda read from his new collection of stories, Fausto's Afternoon. Both are published by Whistling Shade Press - for purchase info see www.whistlingshade.com/purchase.html.

Something to post about

Hey, all. I finally remembered we have a blog here. Thought you might be interested in what a local blowhard was up to this Memorial Day. Garrison Keillor doesn't like motorcycles, or implies motorcyclists are patriotic in an improper way, and that making them look at paintings will save the country. Or something. He's just a grumpy old git, apparently.

Spring issue hits the streets

The spring 2008 Whistling Shade is now in stock at most of the usual locations. Thanks to all who showed up for our issue release at Merlins Rest! I think the photo below by Kris Johnson captures the true spirit of an issue release.

Spring issue release April 19

Our spring issue should be arriving at my door any day now. This number has a little bit of everything—a ghost story, an essay of Goethe, Jane Austen's letters about the art of novel writing, poems about drunk parents and burning bodies, a little sci-fi, a little irony, two Graces (Metalious and Flandrau) and a Shady Dealings on the new MN poet laureate.

This three ring circus will have its premier at our issue release Saturday, April 19 at Merlin's Rest, a pub in South Mpls (3601 E. Lake St). 7pm. Come on down and raise a glass with us!
- Joel Van Valin

Submissions numbers

For the statistically-minded, here are a few hard numbers from Whistling Shade's submissions queue.

The last time our poetry editors met, I did an informal count of the submissions received and accepted. We accepted 5 poems out of 35 poets submitting. So, 1 in 7 odds are still pretty good. I don't have hard numbers for fiction, but the odds are more like 1 in 20. We get about an even volume of poetry vs. fiction submissions, but remember we publish 7 or 8 poems per issue, versus 3 or 4 stories.

Of course (as publishers are fond of saying) if your story or poem is a masterpiece, the odds of it being selected are nearing 100%.

Themes for 2008

The Whistling Shade staff met recently and decided on two themes for 2008. If you have work that fits these themes, we'd love to see it! Or, perhaps we will inspire you to write something new.

Myth and Legends (Summer issue). Goat-faced gods, hook-handed pirates, fairies and flying horses - over the years humanity has built up quite a stock of legend and myth. Uncork something old, mix it with something new, bottle & ship to the Shade. Stories, poems and essays all welcome. Deadline June 10.

Government (Winter issue). With regime change in the air, we're interested in all things political, as long as it's not propaganda. Bad memories of the Bush Administration? The true life story of how you met Hillary? Or the tawdry saga of your career on the school board? This is your number, baby. We may pick a few poems and perhaps a little fiction for this issue, but it will mostly focus on memoir and articles. Deadline September 1.

- Joel

Welcome

You've reached the Whistling Shade forum, a web journal containing informal and improvisational updates, musings, announcements and scribblings from the editors of Whistling Shade literary journal (www.whistlingshade.com). View it as a thought experiment, a peek behind the scenes of a small lit mag, the diary of madmen (& madwomen), or even a sort of underground publication in its own right.

I think we will mainly be using this venue for missives betwix & between me (Joel Van Valin, aka the Whistler, quixotic publisher) and our brave band of editors. But other readers will be free to comment on the topics.

So, anyway, I hereby cut the tape and open this forum to citizens of the world & literary devotees everywhere. Let the games begin!