Rhetorical Analysis of Publication Venue

The Brooklyner

"We're Mediatelling."

You guessed it!  The Brooklyner Literary Magazine is obviously a local Los Angeles publication.  Or, obviously not. Clearly this is a publication straight from Brooklyn, New York.  As the cover so generously points out, it is primarily a publication for Fiction, Non-Fiction and Poetry.  "The Brooklyner Group was established to publish emerging and established artists in communicating good stories." Or, in their words, they practice "mediatelling." I was a bit concerned with the percentage of Non-Fiction that I found in this literary magazine.  However, I decided not to switch publications for two reasons: 

1) It's just a baby.  The first issue was published in the summer of 2011.

2) I do believe that there is still hope for any of us to be published in this magazine. (I will tell you why.)

The editors seem to publish authors who share a similar voice/tone to their own.  All of the published essays I read had a reflective or humorous tone (sometimes both).  For instance, in They Don't Make These, the author begins with:  "Nostalgia is a cheap whore, available always."   In this personal narrative/memoir, the author, Dan Siegler, reflects upon the process of letting go through his father's obsession with a specific kind of pen.  It's nostalgic, witty and lovely.  I guess I should expect nothing less from a magazine that states under submissions, "We do not want your recipe for flan."  I sincerely hope they've never actually received a recipe for flan.  

Most of the published submissions were personal narratives, memoirs, or cultural criticisms.  ALL (except one) of the essays I read were related to family in some way. The personal narrative forms in The Brooklyner were not as varied as I would have assumed by their artistic self-proclamation.  There were a few instances of segmentation (as in A Week with My Father ), but most essays were written in standard prose with varying forms of dialogue.  In Jim Krosschell's, A Week with My Father, he reflects on the days after his father's death and all of the things that he and his family did together and discovered about his father.  Though it is mostly a serious reflection, the reader can see some humor in it.  His father, a man who otherwise was a self-proclaimed simpleton (in fact, the author repeats frequently that his parents had no extravagance), had high morals in regards to the way he dressed and wore brand-name clothing from L.L. Bean, Nike and Arrow.  

What I liked about this magazine (or at least it's online version), was that they paired each piece with a photograph or a picture of artwork done by one of their contributors.  In other words, they also accept art submissions.  What I didn't like so much, was that some of the art pieces didn't seem to fit at all with the subject of the written piece.  I'd find the pairing of two pieces to be more effective if they shared some sort of similarity in regards to subject or feeling. The painting used to accompany A Week With My Father is a perfect example of my discontent.

The website separates their Non-Fiction essays into the following categories: True Romance, Family, and Dispatches.  I assume that, although they clearly state that they accept "true romance" essays, they either have not received any "true romance" submissions, or the ones they've received weren't what they'd deem as worthy of being published. (There weren't any essays in this section.)  

I had never heard the word "dispatch" used in a literary regard, but after some minor research, I came to the conclusion that the Dispatches of The Brooklyner are what we'd call "short essays" based on their length.  Good Times Down South, by Antonia Murphy, is what The Brooklyner categorizes as a "dispatch."  It is a short Non-Fiction essay in which a woman compares her boring (and sometimes miserable) life as a mother to the lives of women in New Zealand who apparently spend their days trying to remember their sexual partners from the night before.  This dispatch opens with:

"It has come to my attention that everyone in New Zealand is having more fun than me.  This is not hard to do, since I have two children at home under the age of four.  The elder of the two is potty training, so I spend an uncomfortable portion of my time wiping pee off the floor.  Add to this the fact that he’ll only use the toilet if I kneel at his side, crooning “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Miserables, and you’ll begin to glimpse the fun-free misery that is my life. The rest of New Zealand, it turns out, is having sex.  Lots of it."  

Again. Family, reflection and humor.  The editors, although they separate their "Dispatches" into its own category, are primarily interested in essays in the True Romance and Family categories ("dispatch" is merely a categorization of length). 

According to the submissions page, The Brooklyner accepts three forms of Non-Fiction essays:

-  Non-Fiction Memoir: Limit 3,000 words, primary categories of interest: true romance and family, "will read other themes if specified, but will only consider previously unpublished submissions (including blog posts) fewer than 3000 words."

- Non-Fiction Essay: Limit 6,000 words,  will accept a broad range of nonfiction essays, including previously unpublished interpretive essays and cultural criticisms up to 6000 words.

- Non-Fiction Dispatch: Fewer than 2,500 words.  No specifications, other than "be creative."

Acceptable file types are: .doc | .docx | .rtf
Submit via Submittable.
*Unfortunately, I read nothing about any form of payment (which leads me to believe that they don't do that sort of thing).

How often do they publish?  Quarterly

How do I get published in The Brooklyner?

-          Work must be previously UNPUBLISHED.

-          Submit through online manager: “Submittable” (Will not take paper submissions.)

-          Will read your submission within 3-6 months (No specific reading dates.)

-          Non-Fiction manuscripts must be 12pt font, double-spaced (No fancy fonts or colors.)

-          No specific information on how many submissions they take per issue, but it seems to be 10-15 written works/issue.

-          Pay is not discussed anywhere, so I assume they don’t pay.

"AUTHOR RIGHTS: If accepted, The Brooklyner is granted first North American serial, promotional, archival, and non-exclusive anthology (web and/or print) rights. Copyright reverts to the author upon publication. If the selected work is subsequently published in another venue, we ask that The Brooklyner be sourced as first publication."  (Copied from www.brooklyner.org)




POINTS OF INTEREST:

-  What I found particularly promising about this magazine, was that they seemed to be dedicated to publishing emerging writers and focused on the art of each piece versus a focus on the commercially established.

-  Also, an interesting feature of this magazine, is the option to submit an audio version of yourself reading your Non-Fiction essay to accompany the print on their website.

-  Concern:  The editors will not accept any work that has been previously published.  According to their website, this also includes blogs.  Would our class blog hinder any chance of being published in this magazine? If we deleted our blog posts, would that allow us to submit to The Brooklyner?