Ephemera Newsletter Iss Jan.2

(Creativity and Motivation Weekly)

Welcome to the Ephemera Newsletter, E na hoa! (Hawaiian for “friends”)

Thank you to all who submitted to poetry in December and especially to our finalist, Sam Stokley, who will be the poet for the month! You can review his poems altogether once they publish as well as his artist statement and bio on this dedicated post on our substack page. We thank you for checking out Sam’s work.

On to our standard content matters: Won’t you please check out last week’s issue if you missed it.

And here are some reminders:

• Call For Submissions: Submissions are in for the February issues. We look forward to reading! We are open for March now. January 31 is the deadline. If you are a paid subscriber to Ephemera, you can submit to poetry @ Ephemera for free as a membership perk! (We email you a secret link at the end of the month). Free subscribers and anyone else can submit, too, with the reading fee and can submit up to 10 poems. Paying the reading fee will grant you 1-month paid access to Ephemera’s full letter. Learn more or:

---

In Brief…this week’s features:

• Thoughts on Erma Franklin and her voicey rendition of “Light My Fire.”

• Thoughts on drezzdon and their “ctrl-core wallhack” art.

• December’s poet, Sam Stokley and his first of four poems, “my body will never spring”

• Our weekly lists:

  • 3 magazines with open calls

  • 3 awards/prizes

  • 3 recent job listings for editors and writers.

• **No sponsor this issue: Sponsor our letter! Reach out to info@Litbreaker.com to advertise with us.**

• More ephemera: check out an Interesante selection, a brief clip of Ray Bradbury discussing being creative in the now and more; Book Recs, bonus content, and our mini-essays to start!

• Support us on Bookshop - See our past book recs and others. A highly curated list.

---

Merci. Danke. Kiitos. 고마워 Go-ma-wo. Cảm ơn. Xiè xiè.

---

Ephemera

Dear Readers,

The world is changing, the terrain of writing with it. That’s easy enough to say, but maybe more difficult to see how, or in what ways might be best. We have a say in how the changes go. At least, it’s important to believe that. If we don’t, we’re just passersby, occasional friends. Writers are by default thinkers, and yet it’s very tempting to keep our noses exclusively in books, in our pages, in our characters, experiences, perceptions, and emotions. For sure, this tendency must be cultivated. But we ignore at our peril the technological changes around us, the movements of people from, between, and to new communication media. We might want to consider the decentralization of art and commerce, watch our sisters in music, our brothers in the art world. It’s said that the publishing industry is 20 years behind. And that might be a good thing for physical books, for the old world of poetry and literature that we still aim to be a part of, want to promote and enrich. However, look at this week’s artist, a character by the pseudonym drezzdon, who launched only a few months ago and has amassed tens of thousands of followers, and has sold merchandise based on his art by communicating directly to people, by sharing outside the confines of an intermediary. It’s a new year, and we’re exploring new ideas, new ways of considering how we might bring poems and prose to all sorts of readers. Maybe we want to straddle publishing, print and digital, and the technological world (frighteningly) of social media, e-commerce, and faster versions of our art (poetry is already well-oriented).

“Every time you state what you want or believe, you’re the first to hear it. It’s a message to both you and others about what you think is possible. Don’t put a ceiling on yourself.”
—Oprah

We’re brainstorming instead of brainwashing. Maybe pull apart our long pieces into quippy bits for flash publications. Maybe reserve some poems for the gram, for a newsletter. Maybe we pilfer our own work, black out and white out our own self-pubbed broadsides. Can compete in this space in meaningful ways that don’t disrupt our old-world ideas and projects, using new techniques that lead more eyes to our perhaps more stodgy offerings, e.g. books? Why can’t a follower-base who likes our self-pastiche’d work translate into a loyal long-form readership? We don’t have answers. Nor do we have theses. This is pure thought, pure ideation. We’re asking as well as thinking. Time and resources are limiting factors, but can we orient ourselves to be in the tech-present, at least partially, while keeping a firm, steadfast, and beloved grip on our history, the tradition and discipline of long-form writing? We hope. We believe yes, with maybe effort. Writers are an intelligent bunch, on the whole. If you’re already trying. If you’ve got a good beat that you wouldn’t mind sharing, please do. Leave a comment and we’ll strike up a conversation. We’ll share ideas and know-how. Cooperation is not anathema to writing. We’re keen on it. There’s honor and ingenuity in the literary D.I.Y space. Let’s be open-minded and supportive. New credos.

Ka mahalo!
(Gratitude)

---

Jan 31 Deadline for the March Issues

---

Poetry by Sam Stokley

my body will never spring

wings and my proboscis
refuses to unfurl. i’ll never
rest on a ferrari
until a benevolent billionaire
brings me sugar water
for sponsored IG content.
no mason jar carries me
into a neon classroom
to die a deity, first
of her name. i’ll never
number in the thousands
to swallow a forest
in synchronized flutter.
my body will never
molt to final stage
and the chrysalis only
exists in my mind, but—

the windshield’s glare,
a prayer

---

---

Music: Erma Franklin