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!