There is no denying that times change. Every decade or two some major event will occur that ‘changes everything’ and usually many things are very different in the domino fall of reaction and time. When the pandemic was just ramping up last May, with most of the world in lockdown and looking for things to do in the house, I was already months into what would be, in its own small way, a monumental choice to provide feedback on submissions to my new literary journal. I had no idea that literally thousands of pieces of writing would be rolling in in just those next few weeks.
Over the ensuing year of providing hundreds and hundreds of hours’ worth of personalized feedback from a mostly-one-man-operation, a team slowly, organically began to grow from writers I’d given feedback to or interacted with in the course of journal operations. Now the Coastal Shelf Crew including myself is 6 people strong, all of whom are volunteering their time for the love of the literary arts. And I’m going right back to writing more 2020 ‘Pay it Forward’ submission feedback as soon as this issue goes live—but, we’ve finished all May submissions which is enormous.
I also want to say that there has been so, so much good writing coming through. I could publish three times as much as we currently do and not feel one iota bad about the quality of work in the journal. As the ‘slushpile’ (from which we receive 99.9% of our submissions) narrowed through the rounds of consideration, I found myself often having little constructive feedback to offer and was stuck explaining that the piece was solid but dadgummit, we only have so much space—and meaning it.
By paying our authors and often reading submissions for no fee, we put something of a cap on the number of pieces we’re able to publish. Initially 15 seemed like a high number that was more of a limit than a standard—but now we’re already scheduling pieces for future issues and still saying no to good stuff. It’s made the ‘journal aesthetic’ come a lot more sharply into focus. I’ve been learning a lot about myself as a reader, and I’m mostly learning that yes, I do like it all. I love celebrating the quotidian in a unique fashion, I love rich interior landscapes, lush actual landscapes, the surreal, the eloquent and the plainspoken, the quirky, the jittery, the calm, the gorgeous and the dank. It is often very hard to explain why one piece over another will be chosen, when all of the pieces that make it to our final round of consideration are very well crafted, but I think Dickinson’s edict is as good as any description. I want writers to “Tell all the truth but tell it slant.” The difference between ‘slice of life’ and ‘vignette’ is sometimes nebulous and other times very sharp—it almost always boils down to that big word I’ve been using a lot in feedback: Takeaway. I need more to the piece than the surface level of meaning. Pretty much across the board, so there’s that.
As our submission volume keeps growing, we’re going to have to be even more decisive and ‘choosy’, but in a way the process feels very organic, as JS Asher put it in his fine poem, the pieces start lining up from the huge group like “David crying naked out of Carrara marble”—issues begin to take shape as pieces subtly pair up and throughlines become apparent not only just within this issue but for the journal in general. In Despy Boutris’ quirky love poem “BARE” I definitely see hints of Jefferson Carter’s “SOUTHERN FRIED” and the all-caps titles is only the start of it. I’m also really excited to share our first graphic narrative in Samantha Steiner’s wonderful piece “Two Boxes” which we have available as a slider, but is best seen as one long strip in the pdf version.
This issue, with its dreamy surrealness, fell into a clear order even more than the first one. I do hope that some folks take the time to read this issue in one sitting—all told it’s only around 8000 words, and you’ve read an 8000 word story in one sitting, right?
Additionally, I’ve launched a Patreon where you can support Coastal Shelf and my other free literary projects Notebooking Daily and Sparked Literary Magazine. The first goal of the Patreon is to raise an extra $600 a year so that we can expand Coastal Shelf from 15 pieces to 20 pieces in each issue for 2022. That’s $60 a month give or take when you factor in fees, and I have tiers starting at just $2, so I’m hopeful that we can do it. I’m offering very good rewards for writers ranging from literary magazine recommendations through my service The Submission Wizard, feedback on Sparked submissions, a monthly newsletter (with submission opportunities, writing prompts and a curated list of pieces published in lit mags that I think everyone should check out), all the way up to a monthly Zoom generative writing workshop and personal writing mentorships/consultation at the higher tiers. I’ve begun the process to get fully 501c3 registered so all donations will be tax-deductible, and hopefully by the next issue we’ll have that all in order. So many things, you guys, so many things!
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Also, I really appreciate the positive feedback that my… feedback, has generated. Often when I’m on the third read of a piece and make my notes for the writer I wonder if the it’s even going to be read, or just ignored, or worse—taken offensively. While it’s only happened a handful of times, it’s really refreshing to receive one of these notes that reassure me all the hours writing feedback notes are worth it. But I’ve yammered on long enough. Go on and check out the journal!