Manzano Mountain Review Issue No. 3 is now
live.
Here is my editor note for the issue:
I wake to wild winds spitting yellow leaves against the stucco. Wind chimes scat with abandon. The garden is dry husk. The kingbirds are gone.
It is October Country in Albuquerque, and on the mind is Ray Bradbury, who grew up in the same neck of the woods as I did. I should read some Bradbury, I think, but then I remember that Manzano Mountain Review requires my full attention.
Kristian and I have been reading submissions since August. We have been reading for longer than that, but the official open date was August 1, and we have been racing ever since, making sure each piece gets our full consideration while also pushing for a quick turnaround.
And here we are, Issue No. 3.
This is our second November issue, and our first to feature assistant editor Cathy Cook, who has been a great help to us, and who recently won the 2018 Albuquerque City Poet Slam Championship, which is pretty cool.
The theme for this issue is "elemental." We provided a definition, but our want was to keep it loose. We have poems that reference mountain origami and Northern Harriers, flash floods and undersea biology, lithography and depression. We have stories about siblings and det cord and New Spain spirits. We have art that captures the raw color and movement of a wildly thriving and insatiable earth.
We planned to spotlight flash fiction written by New Mexicans, but we did not get enough flash. This led us to make some decisions about our next issue.
One is that we are taking a hiatus in Spring 2019 to make some adjustments.
Two is that our fiction submission window, like your favorite coffee shop, will be opening early and closing late. As of February 1, please send us your funniest, scariest, wittiest, wildest flash. I want to publish flash fiction that is as effective at gaining my attention as autumn's leaf-spitting winds.
Thanks to the talented writers and artists who shared their work with us this season. We hope we've done it justice.
- Justin
