Friendly Friday: Midwestern Gothic

I have an affinity for geographically-centered fiction. What I mean is, I think the “place” of the writer and the story he writes are very important to the writing, even if the place only serves as background and research for the writer.

On Twitter recently, I stumbled across a relatively new literary magazine called Midwestern Gothic, with a focus on stories, poems, and photography that highlight the midwest.

Midwestern Gothic (ISSN 2159-8827) is a quarterly print literary journal out of Ann Arbor, Michigan, dedicated to featuring work about or inspired by the Midwest, by writers who live or have lived here. Midwestern Gothic aims to collect the very best in Midwestern fiction writing in a way that has never been done before, cataloging the oeuvre of an often-overlooked region of the United States ripe with its own mythologies and tall tales. Don’t be fooled by our name. Gothic fiction is often defined as the inclusion of deeply flawed, often “grotesque” characters in realistic (and, oftentimes unpleasant) settings/situations. At Midwestern Gothic, we take to heart the realistic aspects of Gothic fiction. Not every piece needs to be dark or twisted or full of despair, but we are looking for real life, inspired by the region, good, bad, or ugly. Ultimately, we’re striving to catalog the best of Midwestern writers, and whether it be pieces physically set in the Midwest, or work inspired by your time living here, we want it.

Sounds like my kind of place!!

I’m finishing a story cycle that explores the tension between being where you “belong” and living somewhere you feel out of place. It’s a set of stories about people who aren’t happy where they are, don’t know where they belong, and are unhappy when they get where it was they thought they were going. It’s a story of the midwest and the south. So these issues of place have been on my mind.

MWGothic is soliciting submissions for issue #3. They sell both print and e-reader editions of the magazine. The e-reader subscription is just $10 for four jam-packed issues. (You can get individual issues for $2.99 to see what you think.)

Midwestern Gothic Web Site MWGothic on Twitter MWGothic on Facebook 

Submission guidelines and on-line submission information can be found at the submission page of the website. Be sure to check them out.

#journal #literature #magazine #submission #story #midwesterngothic