Later, Sucker

Or, rather, now, Sucker! SUCKER LITERARY MAGAZINE is the name of a new YA literary ‘zine, and it’s full of writers – undiscovered writers – unagented, published or no – doing their best work under the skillful guidance of Hannah Goodman, who does a lot of things, including write and teach writing, win awards and parent and all that good stuff. She also dreams big, and has launched this project on the strength of an idea she had whilst getting her MFA …and the rock-bottom slump that comes after you get that MFA, and the Real World does not hold you close and support you with warmth and kindness and beams of light, but rather, with, you know, reality. And rejection notices.

I’ve read and read until I realized I was down to the last story, so I paused to save and savor it — and write this post. Truly mesmerizing reading, the sort of addictive, read-right-on-to-the-next, the feeling you get from the most tightly written professional literary mags. There’s well-edited and brilliant stuff here – plus, lovely use of white space, artistic input, and a great recurring placement of suckers. A welcome place to rest the eyes and engage the brain when you’re in need of Really Good Story. An unpretentious but highly readable, quality lit ‘zine, the likes of which we haven’t seen since… Tallboy. Yeah. It’s good like that, except online only.

Consider getting involved, because young adult aficionados, writers and readers, ought not be on the receiving end all the time of industry information. We ought to be creating the industry information, harnessing our own collective enthusiasm and interest and making news, instead of reacting to it or being dragged along in its wake. We know who YA lit bloggers, readers, and writers are, and it’s when I see stuff like this that I think, “Yay! we can be both fans and creators, and producers and make our own mark in this world.”

Now, all I have to do is find a few grantwriters to fund and resurrect The Edge of the Forest again, and remind us further that we don’t just review and shout into a vacuum, but that what we read and think matters…

Get involved with SUCKER. Check it out. Maybe you’ll have the next bright idea for changing the world.

(Also, the why behind “sucker” title – whoa. Who–a. There’s a whole novel in that there little piece of history. Whew.)