Autumn Lady

Goblin Fruit Closing to Submissions until June 1

Dear readers,

Our first issue of the year is soon to launch, and with it, some news that we will share with you here first:

- As of our next issue (due to arrive in the next week), Goblin Fruit will be paying $10 a poem.
- Instead of re-opening to submissions April 9 as usual, we will remain closed to submissions until June 1.

The struggle against the backlog continues; everything in this post remains relevant to our current situation, the only changes being that after moving across the Atlantic and settling into a very demanding work/grad school schedule, there's been an utter absence of hours in the day which I could devote to more than getting the next issue up.

Caitlyn and I have many exciting things planned for Goblin Fruit this year, but we don't want to move forward with any of them until we can provide fair turnaround on submissions again. We know -- too well, as writers ourselves! -- how frustrating it is to wait for months on a reply, and don't want to put any more poets in the position of having to wait so long.

Thank you all so much for your continuing patience as we set our orchard in order,

Best,

Amal
Autumn Lady

New Goblin Fruit: SUMMER IS DEAD

Oyez! A new issue of Goblin Fruit has landed!
Art by Grant Jeffery

It contains poems by Lindsey Walker, Steffi Lang, Shweta Narayan, Lynette Mejía, Sara Norja, Lizzy Huitson, Mari Ness, Andrea Lam, Helen Marshall, CSE Cooney, Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam, Canese Jarboe, and Neile Graham, as well as art by Grant Jeffery.

Enjoy! And if you like it, do consider supporting us with a Paypal donation or by contributing through Patreon!

There will be one more issue of Goblin Fruit this year, imminently, landing in mid-December. Then, next year, hopefully the climate change that's been wreaking havoc with our poemic seasons will have settled into regularity again. 
Autumn Lady

October Submission Period Closing

Dear readers,

This is a note to say that in order to deal definitively with our growing submissions backlog, we are regretfully closing to submissions from October 20 to January 9.

Our goal is to have replied to all outstanding submissions by then, and start 2015 with a bang instead of this ever-softening whimper.

We have further -- exciting! -- changes in store for Goblin Fruit, but cannot in good conscience implement any of them while our backlog remains this egregious. We hope, therefore, that you will forgive us this unexpected closing, and continue to send us your works fine and coarse come January.

Wishing you all the best,

Amal and Caitlyn
Autumn Lady

Spring 2014 Issue of Goblin Fruit + Staff and Slush Reading Updates


Closing out the season but partaking of it nevertheless, the Spring 2014 issue of Goblin Fruit is live! In it you'll find poems by Sara Norja, Alexandra Seidel, Jennifer Schomburg Kanke, Claire Suzanne Elizabeth Cooney, Mary A. Turzillo, Laura Madeline Wiseman, Jennifer Givhan, Emily Wagner, Megan Arkenberg, and Rose Lemberg, as well as beautiful art by Paula Friedlander of Arwen Designs. Enjoy! And if you feel so moved, consider supporting us through Patreon or a direct PayPal donation.

I'd also like to draw your attention to the updated Staff page.

Response times at Goblin Fruit have been abysmal for the last two years, and I've not done much to address or explain it. It's a difficult subject to discuss and the particulars aren't mine (Amal) to go into, but suffice it to say that
Goblin Fruit lost 2/3s of its staff within 3 months of 2012, with no notice or explanation, at a time when our submissions were at an all-time high and my own ability to cope with such a loss was at an all-time low. As a consequence we've accrued a mighty backlog that we're dealing with the only way we can: one submission at a time. Please believe that we are as frustrated by this as you no doubt are, as well as apologetic, embarrassed, and determined to improve.

Ollie's last layout for us was this magnificent one for Fall 2011, and he's vaulted beyond Goblin Fruit in seven-league leaps since then; I don't expect him to return to producing work for us, though I'd be overwhelmed with delight if he did. Jess hasn't been directly involved with Goblin Fruit since April of 2012, but I held off marking it in any public way for several reasons, chief among them the fact that she'd had a hand in selecting poems that would be appearing over the next year and a half, and also the fact that I thought she might return by the time those poems were all published.

She hasn't, and having now published all the work she was partly responsible for editing, it feels misleading to have a Staff Page where she appears to be an active editor. When you submit work to Goblin Fruit, it's read by a combination of Caitlyn Paxson and myself.

Caitlyn's been a godsend throughout this behind-the-scenes restructuring; she began reading slush around the time that Jess went on break, and has been gradually taking on more responsibility where reading submissions is concerned. I tremble to think what response times would be like without her. She's fantastic to work with and I'm sometimes a bit devastated with gratitude for the fact of her.

So I've listed Jess and Ollie as Founding Editors, which they are and will forever be no matter what they're doing presently. I miss them more than I can say, and would love for them to return to collaborating actively on Goblin Fruit with me, but so far as I can see that isn't in the cards.

That's the state of things just now. We appreciate your understanding and patience more than you can possibly know.

Sincerely,

Amal

GF spoil dinner

Fall 2013 Issue of Goblin Fruit is Live!

Oyez, oyez!

The Fall 2013 issue of Goblin Fruit is live! Enter at your own risk.









In addition to a Feature on Mike Allen, this issue contains poems by Lynette Mejia, Samantha Henderson, Megan Arkenberg, Jason McCall, Beth Langford, Liz Bourke, Sonya Taaffe, J. P. Wickwire, Brianna Sulzener, and Leah Bobet. Their poems were very much the subject of this post on creating the order of a Table of Contents.

The above photograph is graciously provided Raven Edgewalker, while the issue's artwork is courtesy of the amazing Orion Zangara.

Enjoy! And if you find yourselves wondering how to ensure that there will always be such poems in the future, do feel free to support us with a donation.
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GF spoil dinner

Summer 2013 Issue of Goblin Fruit is Live!

Oyez! The Summer 2013 Issue of Goblin Fruit is live!




Featuring art by Betsie Withey and poems by Dan Campbell, CSE Cooney, Rose Lemberg, Cheryl W Ruggiero, Sara Saab, Michelle Yost, Rachael Bundock, and L. C. Ricardo, it is an issue of birds and bones and desert heat, of colourful thread and cutting coins. Handle it with care.

I'm also very grateful to Stu West for providing us with the long longed-for "NEXT" link at the bottom of each poem, such that you can enjoy the genius of my editorial vision in a seamless forward-click sort of way!

I love this issue very much. Do make sure to devastate yourselves by listening to Rose Lemberg perform her poem, and then shiver while CSE Cooney murmurs the seduction of hers like a seashell speaks the sea. I am undone.
GF spoil dinner

Spring 2013 Issue of Goblin Fruit is Live!

It's been a whirlwind few days weeks months sort of season, but here, after the cold and the heat and the mud and the dry, at last, finally, presently, the Spring 2013 issue is here.

Behold its moist magnificence.

spring13splash


Featuring poems by Nita Sembrowich, Shweta Narayan, Kristin Gulotta, C.S.E. Cooney, Kate Chadbourne, Penny Stirling, Adriana Tosun, Jane Yolen, Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam, Yumi Dineen Shiroma, and Michele Bannister, as well as art by the inimitable Galen Dara, this issue is full of stars and snakes and slipperyness, rivers and witches and hooligans, feathers and ferrymen.

It is a wild and a wondrous drowning to which you are invited.

Enjoy.
Autumn Lady

Winter 2013 issue of Goblin Fruit is Live!

O most fortunate folk wot fancy fruit, feast your eyes upon this flavishness! (That's lavishness but with an EFF for FLAVOUR)







This is a frosty issue fraught with blackbirds, husbands, and weariness, and containing poems by Shweta Narayan, Rose Lemberg, Sally Rosen Kindred, Mathew Joiner, Andy Humphrey, Jennifer Jerome, Charlotte Bhaskar, Ada Hoffmann, Alicia Cole, Laura Lee Washburn, and Phyllis Holiday. The gorgeous art is courtesy of the inimitable Betsie Withey, who also provided the art for last year's Summer issue.

I love it very much, and hope you do also.