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Forward motion has not been as fast as any of us would like, but it has been happening. Here is an update on what is going on behind the scenes:
1. All rejection notices on pieces that have been decided so far have gone out as of this afternoon. 2. We are continuing to read and discuss the submissions that remain in the queue--if you have not received a rejection notice, then you are still under consideration. 3. As we continue to make decisions, notifications will go out at the time the final decision is made. 4. What seemed like a simple diagnosis with an effective treatment turned out to be wrong, and my health issues are continuing, but with Jaimie and Kiel's assistance, we are managing to get through the backlog of submissions and hope to begin announcing some actual new releases by the beginning of summer. Thank you to everyone who has been incredibly patient through this time. If we were a larger press, one person's illness would be a mild inconvenience. When you're a three person operation, it has a much more significant impact. Together, the three of us are doing everything that we can to get the press back on track toward its continuing mission of publishing the best poetry that we can find. As we move past this next step of our development, please also watch this space for new calls for submissions, special projects, and potentially even a broadening of the genres that we work in.
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It's been a long, difficult time over the past few years, and many people have been extremely patient with us while we have been stalled due to my illness. But things are looking up!
To begin with, after almost six years of seeing specialists, I finally received a relatively simple diagnosis, and am getting treatment which seems to have alleviated the bulk of the symptoms I was dealing with that were making it almost impossible to do anything but the bare minimum with my life. As a result, I'm able to finally turn more of my attention to the press and to the business of getting it back to full speed again. More importantly, two new people have joined the team. Beginning this past summer, Jaimie Braden and Kiel Gregory came on as interns for the press starting this past May, and have been working diligently to assist in some of the behind-the-scenes operations. Now that we are moving forward, they are being promoted to editor status and becoming full-fledged members of the press staff. Moving forward, our first priority for release is to finally issue Ishka Bibble. We are also completing the backlog of submissions we have received, and announcements should begin going out within the next week. We thank everyone who has been so graciously patient with us over the past few years while I have been sick. We look forward to continuing to work with everyone as we take Jane's Boy into the future. The press has been moving slowly, and for that, as an executive editor, I apologize. There are many, many wonderful things about small presses, but the one major drawback is that the strength of the press is predicated on the strength of the extremely small (occasionally one person) staff in charge of it. I have been dealing with some serious health complications for close to a year now, and much of my energy has been focused on trying to rectify whatever it is that ails me (since the answer still hasn't become apparent) and making sure I can keep the day job that pays the bills and keeps a roof over my head (and my health insurance).
We are not dead. In the coming weeks, I plan to reach out to some associates who might be able to come on board to provide some of the additional help that will allow us to work through our backlog of submissions. Here is the update on current projects: 1: Ishka Bibble is going to happen. I'm not going to attach a definite date to it, but it will be released. Progress on that front will depend on the help I can gather in the coming weeks and my own well being, but we will finally get the first issue out to the public. The second issue will determine whether the magazine continues or not, as I don't want us to be putting resources into the magazine if it means that we're losing focus on the main mission of our press, which is our individual authors and getting new books out to the public. 2: Submissions are backlogged, but not forgotten. I know some people have been waiting very patiently, and I am sorry to have to ask for a bit more patience. 3. The Anthology project being headed up by Dustin Brookshire and Beth Gylys is still in progress. I will be reaching out to them this week to find out how we can continue to gather more submissions for this book, which is a very important project for us, and more news will be forthcoming. 4. Email communication is also backlogged. If you have reached out to us in the past six months regarding any issues, I hope to be able to work through the backlog of messages this week. If you have not heard something by August first, please feel free to contact us again via email. I realize the details within this notice are scant, but I don't really want to get into the gory details of my health, both out of a sense of privacy and because there aren't that many details to report except that testing is ongoing and it doesn't seem to be anything life threatening, just exhausting and inconvenient. Jane's Boy Press is still very much alive, just very quiet at the moment. By the end of the year, I hope that we'll be much noisier and raising some ructions (as my grandmother used to say). CJ Southworth Owner and Executive Editor In response to requests from potential submitters, we have clarified the original language of of our call for submissions for the anthology that is scheduled to be published this fall. The collection is open to submissions from anyone having been subjected to or closely affected by conversion therapy as well as anyone who stands in opposition to the practice. To allow time for new submissions, we have additionally extended the deadline for the call to April 15th. The full, revised call is detailed below.
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
Jane's Boy Press seeks poetry and nonfiction submissions for an anthology to share the stories of LGBTIQ people who have experienced or been closely affected by conversion therapy. In addition, Jane's Boy Press seeks prose and poetry from any person who stands in opposition to the practice of conversion therapy. The anthology, scheduled for publication in the fall of 2017, will be edited by Dustin Brookshire and Beth Gylys. Submit up to two previously unpublished poems (max of two pages per poem) or one essay of no more than 5000 words via email to standagainstconversion@gmail.com. All submissions should be received by 11:59pm on Saturday, April 15th, 2017. Contributors should identify as someone who has experienced conversion therapy, been closely affected by it, or who stands in opposition to the practice. Poems / essays must explore the effects of conversion therapy. Payment will be in the form of a contributor’s copy. Upon publication, all rights revert back to the author. Direct questions to standagainstconversion@gmail.com. Read more about conversion therapy here:
ABOUT THE EDITORS Dustin Brookshire is the author of To The One Who Raped Me (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2012), a chapbook that explores taboo truths that are too-often unspoken and which chronicles a journey from victim to survivor. Dustin is a Pushcart Prize nominated poet whose work has appeared in Assaracus, Whiskey Island, OCHO, Oranges & Sardines, SubtleTea, Ouroboros, and Qarrtsiluni as well as the anthologies The Queer South: LGBTQ Writers on the American South (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2014) and Divining Divas: 100 Gay Men on Their Muses (Lethe Press, 2012). Beth Gylys A professor of English and Creative Writing at Georgia State University, Beth has published three award-winning books of poetry, Sky Blue Enough to Drink, (Grayson Books, 2015), Spot in the Dark (Ohio State UP, 2004) and Bodies that Hum (Silverfish Review Press, 1999) and two chapbooks Matchbook (La Vita Poetica Press, 2007) and Balloon Heart (Wind Press, 1998). Awarded fellowships and residencies at the MacDowell Colony, La Muse and La Centre D'art i Natura de Farrera, she has work published or forthcoming in many anthologies and journals including Rattle, Barrow Street, Paris Review, Kenyon Review, and Ploughshares. ABOUT THE PRESS Founded in 2014, Jane's Boy Press is dedicated to publishing the best of new, emerging, and established poets. We seek to do this through a series of full-length collections as well as chapbooks. We understand the importance of the chapbook in helping new writers make an impression on a reading market, so we apply the same focus to our chapbook releases that we do to our full-length collections.
The Jane's Boy Press website now has a dedicated online store which sells all of our titles. To celebrate the opening of the store, we are offering Christie Grime's latest full-length collection, Finding Fruit Among Thorns, at an exclusive sale price of $10.00. Christie's book will not be available anywhere else until mid-July, and the list price when it is released will be $17.00, so this is an excellent opportunity to not only get her book early, but to save money in the process.
This sale price is only temporary while we celebrate the opening of the store, so log in to buy your copy now. While you're at it, browse our other titles and see what else we have to offer. Things are finally coming together for the debut issue of Ishka Bibble. The first issue is always the most painful, I've heard, and we're learning the ropes as we go along. Future issues will be released annually in the summer, rather than the originally intended fall release schedule. We will still continue the accept submissions year-round, but the cut-off date for consideration for the 2017 issue will be December 31st, 2016. This allows us more time to review submissions, make decisions, and design the journal with the appropriate amount of attention that it deserves.
The final submissions for this year's issue are being reviewed this week. All outstanding submissions for The Book of Desire special supplement will be notified by Friday. Proofs will be arriving in author emails within the coming weeks. We think this is going to be a strong debut issue, and we look forward to finally being able to share it with the world. It's been a labor of love, with a bit more labor than originally anticipated. And keep an eye on this space for the announcement for the 2017 special supplemental topic and the dates for submissions for that category. This year was "desire." What might next year be?
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