Tag: Fiction
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Revelations, Renovations, and Cold Hard Cash
Hello, Dear Chum, As you may have noticed, we’ve had a submissions makeover. Eyes up here, please. Yes, we’ve been changing some things. For one thing, we’re now accepting submissions through Submittable. For another, we’re now a paying market. Actually, 2025 marks our third year awarding the Dead Herring Prize to writing that slays real…
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Announcing Our Nominations for The Pushcart Prize
Hello, Dear Chum, Thanks for stopping by! It’s good to see you. It’s been a busy year—but the year isn’t over yet! We’re roughly a month away from the release of Issue 4, a whopping triple-issue print anthology featuring the best of the year, the winner of our annual Dead Herring Prize, and a whole…
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That Which
Dear Writer, Today I am reminded why we write and that the how of it is irrelevant when it comes to doing the deed. Sure, there are a great many qualities effective works do and do not possess (most of which we all tend to agree on), but it’s worth remembering first and foremost that…
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“The Sky is Falling” by Morganne Howell
2006 “What are you worried about?” my mother asks me across the patio table. She looks at my father for reassurance, who studies his stein. Charred fragments of the forest float down from the overcast sky and land in the crisp foam of his beer. He picks them out with a finger and wipes his…
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“Passing Whimsy” by Angela Townsend
Mullet has passed. Mullet was the color of a circus peanut and too shy to enjoy being enjoyed. Mullet’s heart misfired. Mullet’s death made eighteen people cry. Mullet’s name was a housewarming gift from the whimsy people. Animal shelter staff gnaw comedy like a protein bar. They name cats for ill-advised haircuts. They blow cool,…
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#amwriting #reachingintothevoid
I’m going to let you in on a little secret: Most of the time, good writing is a total accident. Don’t get me wrong, if you show up and put in the work, no matter what you’re working toward, good things are going to happen. And, yes, as George Saunders suggests, the more we write…
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“The Japanese Beetle War” by Karen W. Burton
Japanese beetles hummed about my head, their iridescent thoraxes reflecting the summer sun. I closed my eyes and decided they were humming in the key of C sharp. I stood in their chorus and the sweltering heat while I considered my problem from different perspectives: Poetically: Rainbows were feasting on my blossoms Scientifically: popillia japonica…
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“Dear Bruce Springsteen,” by Lee Busby
Remember that time you came overand ate all of the corn and tomatoeswe had set out for dinnerbefore we could even offerit to you, and, smiling at me,one golden kernel stuck overan incisor, you said it wasn’t hardto be a rock star, but it makes youhungry all the time, and the little gardenyou keep on…
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“Ode on a Trilobite” – Paulette Guerin
Antennae curving like scythes,they once moved like excited pupswaiting for their owner to arrive.This Cambrian creaturepatrolled the darkest seas,growing up to six feet long.But this one fits in my hand.Mid-curl, forever in chase,its eyeless carbon ghost lives on.Oh, ancestor of today’s cockroach,once the height of the food chain,teach me about impermanence! Paulette Guerin lives in…
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Laura McHugh: An Interview with the author of “What’s Done in Darkness”
Anybody who’s ever called the Ozarks home shares a particular heritage with the land itself in a way that is unique from the rest of the world. Almost a stereotype, we Ozarkians grew up catching lightning bugs, climbing trees, and tearing through the hills barefoot. We are born of honeysuckle and dogwood and baptized in…
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#amwriting #exorcisms
It occurred to me during a recent bout of creative drought that I’m most involved and even prolific when I’m writing about things that are difficult to talk about or for which I lack the right audience. Morbid as it may be, the more whatever I’m working on seems capable of making somebody else squirm…
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#amwriting
When you don’t know what to write, write. Right? Well—that’s kind of like somebody saying, “Cheer up,” when you’re down in the dumps. Down there, usually we’re not asking for help. Writing can be like that. We understand intellectually that we should just cheer up (or just write), it’s what we want, in fact. Or…
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Five Journals to Submit Nature Writing
Reckoning This stellar publisher has an other-worldly love of the natural world, showcasing both literary and genre work. Like Skipjack Review, Reckoning does not limit themselves to literary phenomenon and seeks to publish “cli-fi” and other sorts of slippery, slipstream writing in addition to traditional narrative styles. https://reckoning.press/ Split Rock Review SRR is creating quite…
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The Pouting Trout Life Jacket
Good morning and good day, you pretty, shiny fishes and creatures. This is the Pouting Trout. Feel the sun’s healing and know it is a new and better day. I just wanted to let you know I am out here. I am listening. I know what you’re going through, and I know it isn’t easy,…
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5 Places Writing Comes to Life in Springfield, Missouri
You don’t necessarily have to travel anywhere to write, but sometimes a change of scenery can break up the mental monotony. Even a desk with a view can lose its artistic edge after a while; getting some fresh air makes a big difference too. So, if you’re like us and enjoy a little adventure or…
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Five Journals to Submit Speculative Fiction
Three-Lobed Burning Eye What a name. They say to name is to know—whoever they are, whatever they know. One thing’s for sure: the folks at 3LBE know what they’re doing. If you’ve written a gripping, writhing head-scratcher of a speculative story, you should send that puppy to 3LBE! Even if you haven’t, you should swim…
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No Joke: We’re Ope’n!
Ope here, The day has finally come: April Fool’s day and the first day of Skipjack Review’s inaugural reading period. Pardon my pun, but the editors and I await your submissions with baited breath. Finish up your final polishing and send us your work! We here at Skipjack Review love reading, as writers and…
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#amwriting #endings #beginnings
I keep a running list titled Things I Want to Write About, which is an insanity in itself because the list gets longer and longer and my free time less and less, and the more I think about it, the crazier I get. So, I don’t think about it. In fact, it helps not to…
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Writing Practices and Prewriting Rituals
It’s fair to wonder how much our writing practices and prewriting rituals are bullshit—just like it’s safe practice to chickety check ourselves before we keep making the same bad choices into habits in life. I recently attended a writing workshop where a lecture was given on a writer’s life outside of writing—a topic I had…
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#amwriting
Failures, rejections, and efforts that don’t take flight are our best teachers—though rarely do we learn anything in the moment from such lessons. We just feel the sting. If we’re lucky, criticism is punctuated with admiration and we receive some kind of insight about how to improve a manuscript, for example, but the days of…
the water and the gills 