ISSUE #7
Editors note:
Times they are a-changin'! So this is the last regular BNW issue for the forseeable future. That's it. Things have changed. I don't have much time to devote myself to this mag. It's personal.
But sadly that's not the only reason.
Over the course of last couple of months i started to feel that this magazine despite all my efforts is eerily unremarkable. And that was irritating. No offences to all contributors past and present - but I saw the same kind of stuff all over the place. But i kept going hoping someday things gonna change. Things stayed the same. Sometimes it happens that way. Combined with severe lack of time and overall disillussionment of ambition to make a difference - i thought it would be better to take a pause then multiply the same. My bad.
The other rather significant reason are submissions. Let me give a little bit of stats. Issues 4-5-6 were big on unsolicited submissions. Since May i've received over 300 email submissions. That's a whole lotta stuff to review. And it takes a lot of time that i should've dedicated to something else. Most of those submissions were utter rubbish. And it's OK. The term "experimental writing" is a vague umbrella and every author digs it the other way. But holy smoke - it was wrong. But that's not the the problem.
The problem was that more often than not while declining the submissions i've received lots of bad words regarding editorial politics. Not everyone were cool with declines. Aside from innocent idiotic "Well, just take it to the next issue" there were overreactions like this: "you don't get it! i feel pity for you, dumb fuck. i'm hurt by your narrowminded attitude. i'm the best out there and i'm getting published all over the place - no one says no to me. it doesn't work that way. this is going to have some consequences."
(that is real response). But that's the roughest.
Typical response was - "go fuck yourself _faggot, idiot cunt, dookie squid
(seriously), gnomic bohunk
(in fact i had to look at the dictionary to find out what that word meant), stuffed soilsack_ your blog is nothing but a _dumpster, rathole, pit of worms_ for _sickos, queers, sissies_ to vomit". What kind of insecure dumbo the man has to be to react in a such manner to a decline from a microscopic (all things considered) magazine that is barely indexed by Google and is technically invisible? It is tiring to get such reaction and so i thought "Should I really waste my time on such crap?" and the answer was "I don't so".
Things got very emotional. But let's go back to the issue. This one was half-ready in July. I wanted to use works from two past contributors but ultimately excluded them from the issue due to fast-tracking Special Issue where their work will be represented. Otherwise it is a solid patchwork of texts and images, a little kaleidoscope of various forms of art. I'm really glad the issue is the way it is. There is something cathartic.
***
Table of Contents:
- Patrick Leech - The Concert
- David Kjellin - Visual Poetry
- Wayne Russell - Two Poems
- Eryk Wenziak - Three visual poems
- David Russell - Five Poems
- Letitia Trent & C.R.E. Wells - Four collages from The Body Problem
- Jeff Hansen - Three poems
- Rupert Loydell - Mapping Devices
- Halvard Johnson - Poems
- Ricardo Suave - Three Pieces
- Jonathan May - Heiligenacht
- Alec Finlay - Eleven Visual Poems
