literary magazines – Andrew Careaga

Friday Five: ‘Mythic Picnic’ editor Nathan Pettigrew

‘I’ve spent most of my life writing stories in memo pads, notebooks, and endless Word docs.’

There are a lot of reasons a lot of users have abandoned Twitter (aka X) over the past few years. But one reason for staying connected to that platform–hellscape that it is–is to read some great micro fiction published by a literary magazine you can only find there.

I’m talking about Mythic Picnic, the Twitter/X micro-fiction magazine created by Mark Finnemore and now managed by author and editor Nathan Pettigrew (@NathanBorn2010 on Twitter, which is his primary online address). For the Picnic, Nathan is looking for the brief stories (up to 350 words, including the title and writer’s bio) in a wide variety of fiction. MythicPicnic is also a paying market, which is a rare occurrence these days.

Natham Pettigrew with his beloved dog Brody, who recently passed.

A native of Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, Nathan now calls Florida home and when he isn’t writing crime fiction or editing his literary magazine, he works in the healthcare sector. His stories have appeared in Rock and a Hard Place, Thuglit, Bristol Noir, and Switchblade, along with some anthologies, including the phenomenal Bad Intentions: Crime Fiction Inspired by Warren Zevon, which came out July 7 and which I’ve flogged mercilessly on this blog and elsewhere. This fall, his collection of short stories, Tales from Terrebonne, will be published by Rock and a Hard Place Press.

Read on to learn more about Nathan’s writing, his forthcoming story collection, Mythic Picnic, and more.

Friday Five: Ukrainian writer and ‘Sunday Morning’ creator Iryna Somkina

‘The single most valuable asset you possess is your own unique view and your unrepeatable experience’

As I was preparing to send a draft of this post to this week’s featured writer/editor, Iryna Somkina, Iryna herself was enduring the horrors of the latest drone and missile attacks by Russia on the Ukrainian capitol of Kyiv, where Iryna now lives and–somehow, in the midst of everything–writes some incredible creative nonfiction in English as well as a bit of poetry. “Honestly, my life has been so intense and packed with reality that there’s absolutely no point in even trying to write fiction,” she writes.

Originally from Donbas, which has been a focal point in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, she is also preparing to launch a new literary magazine, Sunday Morning, which will make its official debut Sunday, July 26. She also serves as fiction editor for Michigan City Review of Books.

I have such great respect for Iryna’s commitment to writing even in the midst of a horrific and senseless war, and even greater respect for her decision to create a new forum on which writers may publish their work.

Read on to learn more about Iryna’s writing, her new lit mag, and how she generates ideas for her writing.

A four-point play

Three short stories and one short creative non-fiction piece published this week–and it’s only Thursday

The stars must be aligning for me this week, as I’ve had four pieces published.

It began with Tuesday’s publication of a short nonfiction piece called “Killing Machine” in The Itch Lit. This piece was inspired by a sign outside my town’s lone pawn shop and some of the shop’s stock in trade. A reader on Threads wrote, “That first paragraph was a masterclass of clever misdirection, hooked me from the first line.”

Then came three short stories today:

“The Sixth Pallbearer,” a dark story published by a place that specializes in the darker stuff, DarkWinter Literary Magazine.
“Driving Grandma to Bingo,” one of several micro-fiction pieces published today by the Twitter lit mag Mythic Picnic. Each author in this issue is also a contributor to the forthcoming anthology of Warren Zevon-inspired crime stories, Bad Intentions. “Driving Grandma to Bingo” is the fifth story in this issue. To find it, scroll down this post. But be sure to read some other great stories posted there while you’re at it.
“An Earthquake in China,” a short story I started some 20 years ago or more that I’ve been tweaking and revising over the past couple of years. This was published by The Leafline Magazine. Leafline‘s editors called it “a powerful, quiet story about what happens when a leader loses touch with his people. Through simple conversations and the memorable story of the ‘“’feed box,’”’ the author shows how easily a good person can let an obsession ruin a community. It is a relatable look at how fear can drive people apart rather than bring them together.”

I hope you enjoy reading these as much as I enjoyed writing them.

Photo by Abbas Zaidi on Pexels.com.

Friday Five: Stanchion founder/editor Jeff Bogle on publishing, lit mag fees, and street cats

‘I just want to keep doing, and creating, and moving forward. I’m also never really satisfied.’

For Jeff Bogle, restlessness is the muse that keeps his creative juices flowing. A man of many interests–from music and travel writing to photography, cats, cooking, parenting, and more–he channels his passions into a slew of creative projects. Perhaps best known among literary folks as the founder and editor of the beautiful print-only literary magazine Stanchion and its companion book publishing arm, Stanchion Books, he’s also the author of Street Cats & Where to Find Them, published in 2025. In Street Cats, he combines his skillful photography with his travel writing expertise and love of felines to create a captivating travel book.

Stanchion was not his first entrepreneurial endeavor. As a teenager, he launched his own indie record label as a way to become involved in the music scene. When the global COVID-19 pandemic hit and his work as a travel writer came to a halt, he launched Stanchion. Although the magazine is print-only, recently Jeff reopened an online branch, called Elegant Variations, as a venue for other excellent writings that don’t find space in the print publication.

Read on to learn more about Jeff, his literary magazine and book publishing operation, his views on lit mags that charge for submissions (Stanchion does not, and also pays contributors), and why street cats make great tour guides.

Friday Five: talking trash with Benjamin Drevlow

A Q&A with the author of ‘Trash Poems for Trash People’ and editor of BULL.

Content warning: strong language.

Reading Benjamin Drevlow‘s new collection of poems/pomes, Trash Poems for Trash People, put me in remembrance of my grandfather who, on walks home from his job at the shoe factory, had a habit of picking up items others left on the curb and bringing them home, thinking he might somehow find a use for them. The idiom “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” also sprang to mind as I read through this collection. That phrase aligns with the opening words of this volume’s epitaph:

Trash only becomes trash if you throw it away

Let it grow and clutter and climb and spread wings and fly.

Suddenly it becomes the hot new home decor.

Like some weird sort of alchemist, Drevlow, who is also the editor-in-chief of a great literary magazine called BULL and the author of several other books, turns trash into treasure with the poems in this collection. At least I think it’s treasure. Does that make me one of the trash people? If the old, discarded boot someone tossed at a dumpster and missed fits this misfit…

Read on to learn more about his reasons for writing this book, his work at BULL, his influences, his teaching gig at Georgia Southern University, and more.