Twenty is a bit of a landmark. Two whole tens! If we had been clever, we would have celebrated with ten stories and ten poems. Instead you get nine and eight. Seventeen is good! These seventeen are great, as a matter of fact. A bit of a mish-mash of things we love, per usual. Maybe a little more to the fantasy end of things this time around. Of course, all writing is a bit magic in the way it takes you away. And don’t we all just want to be away right now? We hope you find your time and place here in our digital pages.
Twenty issues and five years of publishing under our belt. Something not all online magazines achieve. It’s been rocky, and sometimes it’s been hard. We’re not stopping, though we are taking a bit of a pause.
When Sarah and I started Devilfish Review, we were just out of grad school and feeling a bit, “What comes next?” Hamilton fans may find themselves humming, “You’ve been freed. Do you know how hard it is to lead?” Spoiler: We did not. Awesome, wow. (Sorry, I’m not trying to make this a Hamilton themed post.)
When we started, our guiding principles were that we would publish things we liked, and that we wouldn’t be jerks. We’ve inadvertently been jerks. Things have languished in our queue as submissions got overwhelming. Issues have been late. It’s not a great feeling for our submitters and contributors, and it’s not a great feeling for us. Also, the nebulous idea of publishing things we like also hasn’t worked out great.
We need a little more focus. To that end, we are currently closed to submissions while we re-group. Submissions will re-open sometime this summer, with our next issue coming in the fall.
