* Online lit mags are publishing some of the most intriguing writing available today. Every Monday, I post a pointer to a site that offers fiction and/or poetry either as free content or as samples from subscriber issues.
Today’s pointer is to PANK:
To the end of the road, the edge of things, a north shore, up country, a place of amalgamation and unplumbed depths, where things are made and unmade, and unimagined futures are born. To a kind of ultima Thule. Inhabit your contradictions. Squeeze your quirk and anomaly. No soft pink hands.
From their listing on Duotrope:
We are extremely committed to our writers and promote their work both in PANK and in other magazines, whenever we can.We also try to send personal feedback with as many submissions as we can.
—Roxane Gay, Co-Editor on 24 May 2010
PANK publishes Poetry, Flash Fiction, and Short Stories. “In 2009, across print and digital platforms, PANK had more than 80,000 readers in 138 countries.”
Poetry excerpt from Johnsie Noel’s, TO UNDERSTAND STRING THEORY:
At the ages of six and nine
we understood simply
the ‘theory of everything.’
The 11th dimension was
condensed down
to – a ball of twine
unwound, vibrating secrets
Fiction excerpt from Robb Todd’s, GRACIAS, PERO SI
There is a heat here, a different heat, and there is a sweat here, a permanent sheen on the forehead that everyone wears because air conditioning is for the weak. A fan and a breeze is enough and you get used to the slick skin. A handkerchief or bandanna is suddenly in style. People only linger in shade.
Akopos 