SHALLA Magazine - we love Shalla

SHALLA Magazine
Winter Blooms Issue & Blank Canvas Issue

contents

home

chats

THE ART OF SHORT FICTION What is it? Author Charles Blackstone tells.

WRITING GREAT SHORT STORIES Elizabeth Kadetsky who teaches at Sarah Lawrence College and at Columbia University’s School of Journalism serves up some advice.

continue...

CRAFTING CHARACTERS THAT JUMP OFF THE PAGE Punching up your fiction? Where there's a tipster, there's a way. Discover Robert Gregory Browne's secrets to getting multiple book deals.

continue...

BIOFICTION INTRODUCED Even as she receives 5 stars on Amazon for Trine Erotic while editing/publishing Entelechy: Mind & Culture, Alice Andrews takes time to chat about the esoteric world of this mind-bending read.

continue...

features

editors

about

submissions

mailroom

Here's our winner of TOP PICK!

“Duotrope Digest ”

"...think of Duotrope’s Digest as a matchmaker of sorts. If you write fiction or poetry, we can help you find appropriate markets for your work."
--Shannon Wendt, Duotrope creator

continue...

SHALLA CHATS with Matt DiGangi

“Editing for Thieves Jargon”

by Shalla DeGuzman

First of all, who ’s Matt?

Matt DiGangi lives in Boston, archetype of the American city: unfriendly people, lousy weather, punishing commutes, beautiful accents, beguiling lesbians and one terrific baseball team. As an editor of weekly fiction, he carries a top-five world ranking.

Shalla: Hello Matt, thanks for joining us. I like Thieves Jargon’s “manifesto” which really sets it apart from other literary journals.

Matt: Oh, I’m glad you like it. I was actually thinking it was about time to rewrite that thing, since it’s near three years old. But I do get a lot of submissions that are prefaced with the thought that they’re submitting to the Jargon because of the manifesto.

But what I’m trying to get at here is the idea that I do hope there are a lot that setting Thieves Jargon apart from other online rags aside from the manifesto. I think there’s something in the Bible about how if you’re proud some loser artist will covet your ex-girlfriend, but F it, I maintain pride at having published weekly for almost 150 issues.

Shalla: For those who aren’t familiar with Thieves Jargon, will you explain its manifesto? What was the inspiration for this?

Matt: The gas station around the corner from where I grew up used to sell crappy cigars that were called Manifestos. I’ve always been a fan of the word, since well before I was old enough to smoke cigars. I knew that if I started a literary journal, it would have to have one.

And I guess what the manifesto says, is that Thieves Jargon is pretty much to place to go if you’re a reader or writer that smokes gas station cigars.

Shalla: What kind of story submissions would you like to see more of? What kind of submissions do you usually receive?

Matt: I’d like to see more submissions from Denis Johnson. Short of that, I’ll be content to deal with promising authors who are in the process of figuring out what it takes to succeed as writers.

Shalla: What makes you reject a story? Any big no-no’s writers usually make?

Matt: The biggest problem is when I receive a story that I’ve already seen before. I’ve been doing this for a few years, and it seems like every new writer has either a half-assed crime story in them or a “crazy-guy-who’s-not-crazy-for-any-given-reason-who-dies-alone” story.

Shalla: How do you prefer submissions to be formatted? For novels, editors usually like manuscripts double spaced, 12 point, Courier New, how about for short stories? Poetry? Or do you even care how submissions are formatted?

Matt: Fiction should be under 5000 words, anything longer than that I feel is hard to read on a computer screen. Poetry should be justified to the left hand side of the page. If it rhymes, I groan. Other than that, we’re quite flexible.

Shalla: Will you ever consider nominating your stories for the Pushcart Prize (or other literary awards)? Why/why not?

Matt: I heard the Pushcart is a club for insiders. I tried calling the guy when the Jargon first got started, but I never heard back from the dude, which didn’t exactly do a lot to help change my perceptions.

I’m guessing they have yet to accept the Internet as a viable place to publish writing. More people read Thieves Jargon in a year than read the Pushcart Prize, so whatever.

My goal right now is to publish a story that wins the Million Writers Award, which happens every year, and honors the best writing that’s been run online. Once I can crack that, maybe I’ll take a shot at Pushcart, but one thing at a time.

Shalla: Please tell us about Thieves Jargon Press. How do you choose which writer to publish? Do you publish an anthology of stories collected from Thieves Jargon? Or do you approach a writer you’ve discovered through Thieves Jargon and publish a collection of that one writer’s fiction?

Matt: Our first book was written by a Belgian ex-hooker named Delphine Lecompte. Delphine was the face of Thieves Jargon through our first year of existence, and brought a lot of people to the journal when we were just getting started. She also produced a ridiculous amount of work in that time, about 500 stories. It didn’t hurt that she was a tremendous writer. I knew if I didn’t get her in print, somebody else would reap all the financial rewards, so I jumped on it.
The second book from TJ Press was a compilation of the best writing from the first 75 issues of Thieves Jargon. Nobody really bought it though, so I’m not sure if I’ll do another compilation.

We have a third book coming out soon by a guy named Mike Boyle, who has been around the small press and the indie rock scene since before I was born. Yet, he’s still kicking like a mule. Paying tribute to somebody old enough to be my father, in a literary sort of sense, feels like the right thing to do.

A lot of it depends on who has a book, and when. I have a few other authors in mind for TJ Press books. With luck, I’ll get the Press onto a quarterly schedule soon. If that happens, I’d rather release mostly author novels, instead of compilations.

Shalla: Finally, any writing tips and/or editing tips for writers? Books and reading materials you’d recommend? Conferences? Workshops?

Matt: Writers need to write, then read, read, read, and then write some more. There’s nothing more sad than some bozo pimping a poem to you that’s already been published two or three other places, several years ago, and yet they haven’t written anything new since then, so they’re still trying to coast on that old glory. If you’re going to take it seriously, write something new once a week instead of once a year.

Shalla: Thanks Matt, very helpful answers! For more on Matt DiGangi and Thieves Jargon, please visit: http://www.thievesjargon.com

Shalla DeGuzman's short stories have appeared in Poetic Diversity, the Mosaic Literary Journal, the Mad Hatters Review; her articles in The Scriptorium and L.A. Freepress; her skits at the Stella Adler Theatre.

Shalla, a former writer and producer of a health and fitness cable show, is currently writing a new novel. She is President of The ShallaDeGuzman Writers Group; the Senior Editor of SHALLA Magazine where she interviews literary agents, publishers, editors, and authors; and the Publisher for SHALLA Publishing.

News!

Shalla has been nominated for the prestigious Pushcart Prize.

SHALLA Magazine, which features short stories and excerpts from top, award-winning writers, now sold at www.amazon.com!

For more on Shalla: www.shalladeguzman.com