Dear Fellow Wrong Turners,
This will be a long one. So, you may want to strap in (and maybe open in your app or desktop because it won’t all fit in an email).
First, we’d like to take a moment to congratulate and celebrate our nominees for Best Microfiction & Best of the Small Fictions!
Best Microfiction
“Screaming in a French Bistro is a Faux Pas” by Phyllis Rittner
“Dear Old Dad” by Steve Loiaconi
“Pop Songs” by Wolfgang Wright
“Genie” by Kip Knott
Best of the Small Fictions
“That Summer” by Helen Sheehy
“Corner Man” by Marc Eichen
“The Shell” by Jezebel Harper
“Death by Jimmy Buffett” by Angela James
“Runaway Bunny” by Kit Carlson
Congratulations to all of our nominees! And thank you to all of our contributors this past year! If we could nominate all of you, we certainly would. Without y’all, we do not exist.
On that note of existence, we’d like to also mention some changes to our submissions guidelines and publishing schedule (effective immediately).
For submissions
we’re increasing our word limit to 1,500 words.
if you’ve published by us before, we now ask that you wait at least a month after publication before sending us any new work.
On our publishing schedule
Starting in January, we’re moving to a bi-weekly model, which means roughly 2-3 stories a month.
Based on the submissions numbers we receive and our own increasingly busy schedules, we think this will be more manageable. It will also allow us to spend more time on extras, like interviews and recommendations and other promises we still have to keep.
Lastly, we’d like to send a very special thank you to our paid subscribers, especially those of you who have signed up at our yearly rate.
Running this publication is neither easy nor free. In fact, we’ve operated at a loss for most of the year. Any and all help goes a very long way. We, as editors, pour everything into the publication in order to make it a self-sustaining enterprise.
But your support really does make this entire publication business possible. We believe the current literary establishment is in crisis. Everything reads the exact same as everything else, and everybody is too scared of being “canceled,” or viewed the wrong way, or smeared to death, to take any real risks - emotionally, linguistically, artistically, bisexually - yet art cannot reach anyone without such risks.
Yes, we are small, and no, we don’t have any money. But from the beginning, our mission has been based on encouraging artists to abandon caution and get risky. We intend to continue full steam ahead in 2024.
If you believe the same (and undoubtedly you at least somewhat do, or you wouldn’t be receiving this email), we hope you’ll consider becoming one of our yearly paid subscribers.
From now until the end of the year, all new yearly paid subscribers will receive one of these very sexy free Wrong Turn mugs. They come in blue, pink, black, red, yellow, and orange. But whichever one you desire, we’ll ship to you totally free.
Check them out here at our Merch Shop
Yeah, we want to add more merch in the new year, too - maybe some crop tops or thongs, I don’t know. Lukas is currently trying them all on and will get back to us with recommendations (and blackmail photos).
Again, thank you to all of our subscribers, paid or nah, for a great first year of taking wrong turns. If you can help us out by becoming a yearly paid sub, we’ll send you a mug. But if not, we still love you and hope to bring you more and more stories and extras in what is sure to be a tumultous 2024.
We’ve got one more story, our first Christmas story, for you next week. Afterwards, we’re going to take a couple of weeks off to prep for next year. Until then, we remain . . .
yours,
xoxoxoxoxo,
Lukas Tallent, Anna Andersen, and Victor Morrison
Editors
Mhmm . . . sipping from a beautiful warm mug as I read this post that I may or may not have had a hand in writing (but only a small hand, probably, just a finger or two, really, it's not a problem) is the best feeling ever: https://wrongturnlit.square.site/product/wrong-turn-logo-mug/3?cp=true&sa=true&sbp=false&q=false