Review Board is now open! Submit your Short Prose, Poetry, and Book today!

Day(s)

:

Hour(s)

:

Minute(s)

:

Second(s)

Deadline: Thursday, February 22nd

Lit Mag Spotlight: Moonshot Magazine

If you were looking for a brand-new tote bag to carry around all of the fabulous literary journals and books you have, look no further! Meet Moonshot Magazine, the independent print magazine that celebrates all forms of storytelling!

CONTEST! Leave a comment by June 14 to enter to win a free Moonshot Magazine subscription and tote bag! Keep reading to find out how to get Moonshot‘s special offer for Writer’s Relief readers! This contest is now closed. Congratulations to Amy, our winner. Thank you to all who participated!

 

1.        Give us the lowdown on your journal’s mission.

Moonshot publishes diverse, powerful voices across traditional and digital platforms. We create an equal opportunity space by championing our bold writers and adventurous readers. We are an independent magazine with no allegiance to any single aesthetic or group. Our biggest goal is to celebrate all forms of storytelling—from more traditional stories and poems to experimental graphic narratives and new media. We want our readers to rethink what they know about narrative and use the literary magazine as a way to tell a larger story. As we say in our mission: “We want work that astounds. We want work that levitates. We want luminaries brighter than the moon.”

2.       Describe your ideal submission in 15 words or less.

Pays attention to the craft of language; is unfamiliar; reverberates.

3.       Tell us about a piece you recently published that got the staff really excited. Why did you love it? Why did it strike a chord? Can readers find it online?

In our latest print issue, we have new poems from Nicole Steinberg, some of which appear as audio recordings on our website. These poems are part of a series that directly use copy from past issues of Lucky, the self-proclaimed “magazine about shopping & style.” Steinberg took text meant to sell skirts and rompers and rearranged it into well-crafted poetry, providing a cheeky perspective on how the magazine’s use of language—almost absurdist at times—affects its female reader base. The work was so deft that it caught the attention of editors over at Lucky as well. The poems can be enjoyed and read as satire even if you don’t know the background, but we love how they work on multiple levels once you know the place they came from. Read it here!

Submit to Review Board

4.       Regarding submissions: What’s the most common turn-off that you encounter (in terms of craft)?

For fiction: Unsurprising openings with too much emphasis on dialogue, character description, or weather. Immediately feeling like we have read the piece before—or worse—watched it on television. For poetry: What we would call a trend to create overly glib works. Poems that are careless, display a cavalier lack of effort, and pay no attention to the power of language and how it can startle.

For online: Long, unfocused pieces that frequently underestimate the importance of the highly engaging writer community. We like to feature multimedia work on our website that connects with our readers and gives them a reason to share this work with others. It’s a slow climb, but we would love if we could get more work that celebrates audio, video, animation, and new media! The Internet is so limitless, why recreate the static objects that already exist on the printed page?

5.       What’s the most common oversight (in terms of submission guidelines)?

We are huge fans of Submittable at Moonshot, but unfortunately one of the side effects to online submissions is that poets can submit work to dozens of journals in one day. We ask that poets email us if they need to withdraw a poem, but more often that not, poets end up withdrawing their entire submission of four or five poems when they only intend to withdraw one. Our editors see in Submittable that a submission has been withdrawn and archive it without a second thought, while the poet is still thinking their work is being considered.

Also, as we’re called Moonshot we tend to receive a lot (a lot) of poems about the moon. We’ve had to ask people to stop because we get so many! The name actually comes from “shooting the moon” in the game of Hearts. We’d much prefer that you send us poems about playing cards.

6.       Where can readers find your submission guidelines?

You can find them here.

7.         Why is your journal awesome?

We’re very proud that we have created an independent print magazine that does not rely on institutional funding. We want to form a personal relationship with emerging writers; we want them to keep in touch and share their successes with us. Even with the established writers we’re so grateful to work with—we hope to introduce their work to readers they might not have reached already. We’ve been working with independent curatorial groups in New York to provide a gallery of emerging artists in each issue and also have gone out of our way to find new sequential art talent. We are continuously growing and experimenting—you will never receive an issue and feel like it’s the same issue you read last time.

Special offer: Any purchase made on Moonshot‘s online store during the month of June that mentions Writer’s Relief in the comment box during check-out will be emailed a free e-book of their newest issue! Use this link:

Also, check out Moonshot Mag on Facebook and Twitter (@moonshotmag)!

Writer QuestionsLeave a comment by June 14 and enter to win a free one-year subscription and tote bag from Moonshot Magazine. This contest is now closed.

17 Comments

  1. lisa

    This mag sounds great. I went over and read the “Lucky” poems. Really cool–I think part of what’s interesting those poems was knowing how they were made. I would actually have loved to have seen links to the original articles too!

    Oh–and that tote is awesome!

    Reply
  2. Carly Rae

    I definitely want that totebag – hooray for going green!

    Reply
  3. craftygreenpoet

    Interesting to read where the name of the journal came from! And useful to know this wouldn’t be a good place to send one of my many poems about the moon!

    Reply
  4. Julia

    That’s really cool that Moonshot Magazine doesn’t have to rely on institutional funding; that says a lot about them. I think I know where I’m going to be sending my next batch of poems. 🙂

    Reply
  5. Candace

    I’m intrigued by the emphasis on uniqueness. It is true that so many magazines and journals tend to sameness after reading for a few months. I’ll be submitting! And, I
    love the name!

    Reply
  6. Tammy Sanchez

    It is exciting to know there is a place where unpublished writers can find a home for their work. Count me in!

    Reply
  7. Amy Henry

    Good to know that too many of us withdraw too many poems; I just had that happen last week with another journal. I can’t wait to put together a submission, and I’d love to carry my chapbooks in that awesome tote bag!

    Reply
  8. Nancy Scott Hanway

    Lovely to find a place that really wants multi media work — I love work that that takes advantage of the internet’s expansiveness.

    Reply
  9. Margaret Fieland

    Is there a good way to withdraw just one poem, one that makes the whole thing clear?

    Reply
    • Writers Relief Staff

      Dear Margaret, when looking to withdraw work, always follow the individual journal’s guidelines. For example, Moonshot Magazine prefers that submitters send an email to withdraw individual pieces (#5 above states, “We ask that poets email us if they need to withdraw a poem”). This method is usually a safe bet unless the journal’s guidelines say otherwise.

      Reply
  10. Debra Ripp

    I love your magazine and plan to submit when I get my stuff more polished! It looks like a great opportunity and resource for new and quirky work, just what is needed!

    Reply
  11. Kath hubbard

    Another Lit Mag to add to my collection! I love the multimedia aspect –

    Reply
  12. Cassie B (@CassieopiaB)

    This sounds pretty cool. This would be a great resource to add to my graduate CV. OH, the possibilities.

    Reply
  13. Lisa Snider

    This is a clever and refreshing new lit mag!

    Reply
  14. Tammy Lee Morris

    Definitely will look at submitting here — thanks for the info as I’m always on the lookout for new and interesting markets.

    Reply
  15. Chelsea Jack

    Looking forward to reading more from Moonshot!

    Reply
  16. Kathryn Johnson

    I went to your website and am impressed by the quality of the work you choose to publish. What a wonderful magazine to support, and as an aspiring writer, I can only hope to create a work suitable to submit. I tweeted the site so my followers could check it out.

    Reply

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Review Board is now open! Submit your Short Prose, Poetry, and Book today!

Day(s)

:

Hour(s)

:

Minute(s)

:

Second(s)

 

 

See ALL the services we offer, from
FREE to Full Service!

Click here for a Writer’s Relief
Full Service Overview

Search

Reviews

“Getting that first poem published was the hardest threshold to cross. My team at Writer’s Relief kept encouraging me…then came the acceptance! We celebrated…then I continued writing, and Writer’s Relief continued doing the wonderful work they do!”

—King Grossman, Writer
(Watch King’s video testimonial here!)

“Every piece I have sent out with their help has been accepted for publication! I am looking forward to working with the team on getting my new novel out into the world.”

Services Catalog

Free Publishing Leads
and Tips!

Featured Articles



Featured Video

Follow us!



YES, IT'S MY LUCKY DAY!
Sign me up for
FREE Publishing Leads & Tips
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

WHY? Because our insider
know-how has helped
writers get over 18,000 acceptances.

FREE Publishing Leads and Tips! Our e-publication, Submit Write Now!, delivered weekly to your inbox.
  • BEST (and proven) submission tips
  • Hot publishing leads
  • Calls to submit
  • Contest alerts
  • Notification of industry changes
  • And much more!
close-link


STOP! BEFORE YOU GO...
Sign me up for
FREE Publishing Leads & Tips
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

WHY? Because our insider
know-how has helped
writers get over 18,000 acceptances.

FREE Publishing Leads and Tips! Our e-publication, Submit Write Now!, delivered weekly to your inbox.
  • BEST (and proven) submission tips
  • Hot publishing leads
  • Calls to submit
  • Contest alerts
  • Notification of industry changes
  • And much more!
close-link

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This