ISSUE 17

Brave New Word ISSUE 17 

AKA Taking Care of Business

Editor's note:
If there is an appropriate time to say "Things have changed" - that's it. The last time I was doing a Brave New Word issue - it was at one of the lowest points of my life. My employment for the previous two years, more or less, went down with a whimper due to politics, professional jealousy, greed, and backstabbing. The emotional toll of November and December left me creatively spent and without many career prospects. Ain't going to lie - I felt screwed, but in the end - it is over. That's not my problem anymore. I'm over it - going towards new frontiers. I don't have time to fight the specters of the past.

The downside is that since last September and up until the very end of December, I more or less put aside much of my creative output to focus on the job. As a result - I did a whole lot of what ultimately amassed to nil and not much else of worth.

I snapped out of it in early December because the bullshit got too ridiculous, but the damage was done. Brave New Word Issue 16 was the first step of my rehabilitation, but it wasn't enough to reinvigorate my creative senses. I've spent much of December and January picking up the pieces and slowly getting back to form.

The work on Issue 17 began in earnest around early February. In fact, I've spent a month working on it - the project started on February 5th and is over by March 2nd. The fastest turnaround since 2017.

One thing that I've noticed while analyzing the performance of Issue 16 is that 20 pieces sequence results in some posts getting significantly less attention when the issue is viewed as a whole. The numbers don't lie. Because of that, Issue 17 features only 14 spots - similar to the early issues.

Without further ado - Brave New Word Issue 17.

***

Issue Line-up:

1. Jeremy Stewart - bugs groucho 1-5
2. J.I. Kleinberg - Five collage poems
3. Eddie Watkins - from Leap Frogs
4. Janis Butler Holm - queen dregs hand yam
5. James Sanders - Chyrons and Plants
6. Kristine Snodgrass - Six asemic pieces
7. Nils Geylen - Stress Bot Crash Test Subroutine
8. Heller Levinson - excerpts from from here goes 
9. Olchar Lindsann - Five poems 
10. Luc Fierens - Baby Doc / Fatale / Fotomodella / Gold
11. Mary Kasimor - Three Poems
12. hiromi suzuki - au bord de la mer
13. Jeremy Hight - Donnie Darko retold as self-help book section
14. Tom Prime / Gary Barwin - collaborative mayhem

J.I. Kleinberg - Five collage poems

Artist, poet, and freelance writer, J.I. Kleinberg is a Best of the Net and Pushcart nominee and winner of the 2016 Ken Warfel Fellowship. Her found poems have appeared in Diagram, Heavy Feather Review, Rise Up Review, The Tishman Review, Hedgerow, Otoliths, and elsewhere. She lives in Bellingham, Washington, USA, and blogs most days at thepoetrydepartment.wordpress.com. 

These visual poems are from an ongoing series (1,700+) of collages built from phrases created unintentionally through the accident of magazine page design. Each chunk of text (roughly the equivalent of a poetic line) is entirely removed from its original sense and syntax. The text is not altered and includes no attributable phrases. The lines of each collage are sourced from different magazines.​

ISSUE 11

Issue 11

Editor's Note:

Of all BNW issues i've been working on - this one was the hardest to make. Not only because i'm experiencing extreme oversaturation with all things literary, but also because i don't want to spin the wheels and make just another issue of just another mag. This is not what Brave New Word is about. 

I needed focus and i needed dedication. That's why it took so long to make this issue work. 

To be honest, it's been a while since i really worked on Brave New Word in earnest. The thing is - there is no shortage of submissions coming in and i had an opportunity to make a couple of issues out of loads of submissions that were not fitting for some other issues. 

While somewhat lazy it was ultimately beneficial for the magazine - it helped to make some really diverse line-ups with many different styles mashed together in a dazzling kaleidoscope. However, there is nothing to be proud of for me as an editor.

  

Here's a couple of things i've learned since the last issue:

• Issue announcements don't really work. You get a traffic spike and everyone forgets about it until you start the bombardment.
• Double issues are bad for business. The last one had experienced a traffic nosedive the week after going live. Overexposure is a thing even for a small-time niche online mags. I guess it means i need to come with the other model. Those two issues will be retroactively rearranged into one special somewhere down the line.
• This issue is slightly bigger than the previous. It struck me that pretending that there is no space beyond 12 or 13 authors is plain stupid.
• BNW is moving to its own domain,

And here are some funny stats:  

• Some writers seriously think that it is my obligation to publish their work no matter what, just because it can't be the other way. Nine authors who thought this way were sacked.
• Some writers disregard the submission guidelines and think that this disregard will get them a spot in the issue because their stuff is so dope. Over the course of last three months there were six such authors.
• Some writers think that adding insults and threats to the follow-ups in cases of declines is a good idea. Trio of bright minds tested this out. Gotta tell you - send more. I like it. Sometimes i feel lonely when i look at my inbox. You make my day a little brighter. Especially those who fight for justice. Keep on keeping on! I will start another blog and add every single bit of your spite for all to see. Names included. 

And about an issue itself. Unlike a couple of previous issues which tended either to textual or visual - this one is pretty balanced. There is something for everybody. BNW is at its best when it goes for maximum diversity of material. 

Also - I'm really proud that this is the first issue to include my fellow compatriots - Andriy Antonovskiy, Michael Zarichnyi and Roman Pyrih. 

Without further ado - enjoy

ISSUE LINE-UP:

• jim leftwich - Assisted Living Drone-Poem Rehearsal
• Laura Ortiz - Four Asemic Pieces
• Igor Satanovsky - Nine Swype Poems
• Frank Xarate - Four Visual pieces
• Michael O’Brien - Ten Pieces
• J.I. Kleinberg - Seven Word Collages
• Michael Zarichnyi - Four Visual Poems 
• Darren C. Demaree - with an empathy so fatal #115-117
• Piotr Szreniawski - Seven Poemics
• Roman Pyrih - Five visual palindromes
• Maria Rovito - One Piece
• David Felix - Three Visual Poems
• Fin Sorrel - Em 17
• Anneke Baeten - Asemic Study
• Andriy Antonovskiy - Seven Poems in Catalan

J.I. Kleinberg - Seven Word Collages

Artist, poet, and freelance writer, J.I. Kleinberg is a Best of the Net and Pushcart nominee and winner of the 2016 Ken Warfel Fellowship. Her found poems have appeared in Diagram, Heavy Feather Review, Rise Up Review, The Tishman Review, Hedgerow, Otoliths, and elsewhere. She lives in Bellingham, Washington, USA, and blogs most days at thepoetrydepartment.wordpress.com. 

These visual poems are from an ongoing series (1,700+) of collages built from phrases created unintentionally through the accident of magazine page design. Each chunk of text (roughly the equivalent of a poetic line) is entirely removed from its original sense and syntax. The text is not altered and includes no attributable phrases. The lines of each collage are sourced from different magazines.​