qarrtsiluni

This is an experiment in online literary and artistic collaboration. The title comes from an Iñupiaq word that means “sitting together in the darkness, waiting for something to burst.”

Qarrtsiluni began publishing on September 20, 2005. Originally conceived of as a group blog with editors, to which contributors would send only their best work, it gradually took on a few more trappings of a regular literary and artistic e-zine, such as permanent managing editors and open submissions. However, we continue to strive for the freshness and regular publication pattern of a blog. All contributions must fit within the guidelines of the current theme, and if accepted, may appear within a few days to a few weeks of submission.

Themes last for two months, beginning in January, March, May, July, September and November, and are chosen by the guest editors. We publish an editors’ note at the beginning of each theme-period laying out the guidelines, and also send email notices to past contributors and other readers and supporters of qarrtsiluni. If you would like to receive bi-monthly notices from us, please send an email to qarrtsiluni (at) gmail (dot) com, or use the contact form. You can keep abreast of the latest developments with our Twitter news feed.

Who are we, and what are we doing here?

As Managing Editors, Beth and Dave (see bios below) choose the theme editors (or step forward to edit a theme ourselves), handle day-to-day correspondence, send out email updates, and manage the site. Neither of us has published our own work here since we formalized our role in July 2006. Though we may not have agreed 100 percent with every decision made by every theme editor, we believe that encouraging a diversity of styles and tastes is more important than conformity to a single artistic vision.

Our primary mission is to build an online literary community that remains open to inspired amateurs as well as to seasoned, full-time writers. We are proud to have published a number of original works by well-established artists and writers, but we are equally pleased to showcase the works of beginners and of part-time writers for whom the demands of work or family have precluded a single-minded focus on creative work. Many of our contributors are active bloggers, and we conceive it as part of our mission to help foster the appreciation of blogs as a medium for literary expression. We feel that personal weblogs constitute a new literary genre in their own right (albeit one with ties to traditional forms of hupomnemata), and we think their authors should be encouraged to challenge blogging’s ephemeral reputation and write as if every word counted. We link prominently to the blogs or websites of all contributors who have them, both in the index and in the signature lines of posts.

We encourage contributors to submit work to every issue, if they want, and to take advantage of the rapid turn-around between submission and publication to create works in response to other contributors. We’re especially interested in the dialogue between artists and writers (see the Ekphrasis issue for some explicit examples). The multiple opportunites for interaction among authors and between author and audience are really what distinguish literary publication on the web from all previous genres. The name of the magazine is no joke. Ideas might come to individuals, but they are born of communion.

Managing Editors

Beth Adams, writer, graphic designer, and social activist, started The Cassandra Pages to save her sanity after years of sadly correct political prophecy. A longtime resident of central New York State and Vermont, she and her husband recently moved to the peaceable kingdom of Montréal. Her prose and poetry have appeared in venues from The Witness to Tikkun, and in June 2006 her book Going to Heaven: The Life and Election of Bishop Gene Robinson, was published by indie NY publisher Soft Skull Press. She’s a member of the Québec Writer’s Federation.

In an essay at her personal blog, Beth defended the blog form for the way it can reflect “the sense of myself as a moving, mutable being who exists in inner and outer worlds that are also in states of constant change.”

Dave Bonta is official poet-in-residence, personal chef and general dogsbody at the Plummer’s Hollow Nature Reserve in Central Pennsylvania. He began writing poetry at the age of seven, and has had poems published in such diverse places as Art Times, Birdwatchers’ Digest, Frogpond, Pivot, Studies in Contemporary Satire, The Sun, and Wind.

Dave wrote a guest post for Blogging Blog on Blogs as a medium for online literary magazines: lessons from qarrtsiluni.

Circulation Manager

Lori Witzel is a writer and artist based in Austin, Texas whose day job is in marketing. Her writing has appeared in qarrtsiluni and in the fever-dreams of an elderly Huaorani shaman. She had a brief but glorious career as an actress, playing a deranged woman in the cult classic Slacker.

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What a great delight to find a blogzine which is very fine in every aspect: editorial mission and vision, literary quality, artistic quality, technological currency, ease of use, and longevity. —EKPHRASIS

This is a really fresh and lively ezine in blog format, with a high quality of contributions and a sense of a collective life in it. —Great Works

Dave and Beth - I just wanted to pass on a thanks for the fact that Qaartsiluni and both of you have opened up for me a whole network of reflective and earnest bloggers, inquirers, writers, and photographers who value and are as entranced by the natural world as I am. I just didn’t know they were there. —Allan Peterson (via email)