Sunday, October 07, 2007

Almost Island

Almost Island is a new literary magazine edited by Sharmishtha Mohanty, with Vivek Narayanan as Consulting Editor. The first issue of the magazine is now up, so please go read, browse, and submit keep your eyes open for news about submissions!

In her editorial, Sharmishtha Mohanty says:

Almost Island would like to be concerned with writing which does not have a purpose outside itself. In times where information is seen as revelation, Almost Island would like to publish work which is in no way sociological, or a travel guide to a foreign culture, or a substitute for historical or anthropological knowledge. Literature seeks wholeness, not fragmentation, and information is never whole.

Almost Island will seek work which is philosophical, internal, individual. It will seek work which either threatens, confronts or bypasses the marketplace by its depth and seriousness and form. This market is not one where the seller faces the buyer, both having walked miles, a once a week give and take of goods, honour, and guile. This market has a lot to learn.

This first and monsoon issue of Almost Island concentrates on prose and its many possibilities. The word prose here is not as distinct from poetry, but as distinct from verse, which seems to be the only separation possible. I have included work which may have already been published elsewhere but deserves to be more widely read.

6 comments:

Falstaff said...

Ummm...I don't know what you mean by "submit", their site says "We are unable to consider unsolicited manuscripts at this time".

Also, really annoying site design. Some of the pieces are nice though.

Space Bar said...

yikes. you're right. something about the mail i got made me think submissions were open. have changed that, thanks.

Falstaff said...

you're welcome. My well-honed talent for going straight to the submission guidelines of any and every journal I read, no matter how convoluted their website, may as well come in useful somewhere. :).

Alexander Keefe said...

Great set of stories from the Cybermohalla project with an interesting little preface by Vivek Narayanan, but that editorial by Sharmistha Mohanty got my critical juices flowing, and not necessarily in an adulatory way. But then again, I suppose it is supposed to weed out those who insist on the relevance of what is outside. Count me out.

Tommaso Gervasutti said...

I love magazines one can submit to without difficulties, Almost Island has no submission guidelines and there's no email address, so can they be reached only by magic?

Space Bar said...

Tommaso: I'm sorry, but it appears that contributions are by invitation only at the moment. There's another issue up now, and if you keep checking back perhaps one day they'll have open submissions.

Good luck!