The vernal equinox is past, but this spring continues to be a time of awakening and renewal here at The Offing. Longer days are coming – growth and change is all round us, and we’d like to take this opportunity to express deep gratitude for our readers, contributors, and editors, whose inspiring work and continued support is essential for our magazine to offer a rich array of diverse literary voices.
As spring turns over into summer, we’re proud to share these offsite updates from our community.
The Offing’s Poetry Department got a shout out in Flavorwire’s Why Queer Poetry Still Matters.
The Offing contributor Sarah Hagi explores the best cup of coffee in Norway – and, supposedly, the world. Check out her piece on Eater here.
And speaking of cafes, our new art editor and L.A.-native S. Zainab Williams has compiled a fantastic list of places to write in Los Angeles, complete with ratings and reviews.
Meanwhile, art editor Katrina Mohn has been hard at work on a gallery show, “All Right,” which features sixteen female sculptors working in clay. The show was recently reviewed as a Critics Pick in the LA Times here.
Jax NTP’s queer epistolary poem from the POV of Salvador Dali to Garcia Lorca was recently published by The Copperfield Review here. Also check out Jax’s poem about queering personhood / identity exploration, published by Visual Verse here.
We are delighted to share that our senior managing editor Casandra Hernández Ríos has won the Santa Ana River Review Spring 2016 Fiction Contest with her story “Té de Canela.” Also keep an eye out for her piece in the upcoming May 2016 issue of The Acentos Review, which will be out this Sunday, May 15th.
Our associate poetry editor Christine Larusso has a piece in in the Feminist Press’s WSQ: Survival. Survival is a weighted and layered term, able to conjure up phrases as distant as the scientific “survival of the fittest” and the popular “I will survive.” It is both a metaphor and a biological urge, extending through worlds of meaning. WSQ: Survival explores these worlds, focusing on the politics and ethics of survival in both contemporary and classic feminist texts.
Contributing editor Meron Hadero helped launched new travel publication Off Assignment today with Harar, Ethiopia in the “Letter to a Stranger” section.
Contributor Josh Mak’s story “How Asia Faked Her Princeton Admission: A Love Story” appears in Joyland.
Executive Editor Michael D. Snediker delivered the keynote speech at a recent queer poetics symposium at UT Austin. It was followed by a keynote reading by The Offing contributor and punk hero to us all, the incomparably wonderful Eileen Myles.
& Crush The Skull, a film staffed by The Offing supporters Chris Dinh and Helen Kim, opened on the big screen this week with a strong review in the Los Angeles Times and a limited run through May 19 at the Laemlle Theater in North Hollywood.
Last but by no means least, The Offing’s very own poetry editor Luther Hughes is graduating from Columbia College in Chicago this week with a BA in poetry. In addition to contributing to The Offing and managing its Twitter account, Luther was the Student Body President, and sat on committees that focused on diversity, sexual assault awareness, and student life. We at The Offing salute budding poet, activist, and member of our family, Luther Hughes.