Prairie Margins Magazine

 

Prairie Margins Magazine: Defunct, Non-Response Offender

We suspect that Prairie Margins is defunct, despite having continuous open submissions. It appears they have not published anything since 2018, yet there is no mention of their closure on their website or Submittable. Prairie Margins is the undergraduate literary magazine at Bowling Green University in Bowling Green, Ohio (just south of Toledo). They state that they have been publishing an annual print issue of the magazine since 1963. There is a blog on their website, but the last post is from 2020. This post is titled: OPEN FOR SUBMISSIONS 2020-2021.

However, their Submittable page states that they are receiving submissions for 2023/2024, and one is still able to submit in any of the following categories: creative nonfiction, art, general submissions, poetry and fiction.

They do not qualify for a listing on Duotrope. The reason given is that there are no signs of recent publication on their website.

Their Facebook page was last active in 2018. Their Twitter page has been active more recently, with a post from August 2023 calling for submissions. See below:

Did you submit your work to Prairie Margins Magazine? If so, please share your experience in the comments below, or fill out our contact form. Anything you submit can remain anonymous if you wish, but it helps us share literary magazines, publishers, journals and writing retreats that are suspected of treating writers poorly, whether that be through unethical, rude correspondence, or simply never responding to a writer at all.

Call for information

We are seeking information about the application process for the following literary magazines, journals, residencies or retreats:

These are some lit mags, journals, residencies, retreats and publishers that have been brought to our attention as either having unethical interactions with writers, or being defunct with no notifications (public or private) about the winners, runners-up, or indeed anyone who paid the submission fees. We are searching specifically for people who have dealt with any of these operations in any capacity, and would be willing to so kindly share their experience with us:

• Unruly Retreat, located in Richmond, Virginia - suspected to be defunct, with no updates to applicants or refund of application fees
• Red Noise Collective
• The Bangalore Review
• Writing Knights Press

Please use our Contact form above to let us know if you have any experience with any of the above-listed outfits. You can remain completely anonymous if you wish.

Last Resort Literary Review

Last Resort Literary Review: Defunct, Non-Response Offender

We suspect that Last Resort Literary Review is defunct, but has been taking paid submissions for at least one year past their last known correspondence with a writer (that we could verify). We were made aware of Last Resort through a writer who submitted to their Fiction Contest in 2022, and were notified that they were a finalist along with four other writers. However, they never heard back after thanking them, nor after a follow-up query a few months later. Last Resort Literary Review hasn't updated their website or social media accounts with any news about the winners or finalists from this contest. 

In the picture above, you can see the notification letter that the writer shared with us. They responded to Last Resort Literary Review in November 2022 with a thank you and query about an update. When they received no response, they queried about the status of the contest again in January 2023. Last Resort never got back to them.

As recent as December 2023, Last Resort Literary Review still has a number of open submissions on Submittable, with fees ranging from $3.99 for art, poetry, and fiction, to $9.99 for an expedited response. The expedited response category is particularly worrisome if the operation is indeed defunct and not responding to writers. It is unethical to take submission fees from writers with no intention of responding nor publishing any work.

Last Resort Literary Review's Twitter account last tweeted on October 2022. Their Instagram page hasn't been updated since April 2022. Finally, their Facebook page last shared a post in April 2021. Last Resort Literary Review does not qualify for a listing with Duotrope, reason given below:

This is the information we found about who runs Last Resort Literary Review, which is clearly available on their website:

Kylee Webb is involved with Nathaniel Buckingham, who you might remember from our post about Suburbia Journal. We mention this connection because Kylee Webb also runs Tree House Literary along with Nathaniel Buckingham (you might also remember that Nathaniel Buckingham runs two other operations which are also suspected of being defunct non-responders). Tree House Literary also has open, paid submissions on Submittable (with a very similar set up to Last Resort), with submission fees ranging from $3.99 to $9.99 for an expedited response. It appears that Tree House Literary has not posted since their initial issue released in "Winter 2022."

This means that Kylee Webb is involved in two potentially defunct, non-responsive literary magazines, both of which have open, paid submission fees with no deadline. Nathaniel Buckingham is allegedly involved in at least four defunct, non-responsive literary magazines, one of which he shares with Kylee Webb.

Did you submit your work to Last Resort Literary Review, or any of the other magazines mentioned in this post? If so, please share your experience in the comments below, or fill out our contact form. Anything you submit can remain anonymous if you wish, but it helps us share literary magazines, publishers, journals and writing retreats that are suspected of treating writers poorly, whether that be through unethical, rude correspondence, or simply never responding to a writer at all.

White Pine Press

 White Pine Press: Defunct, Non-Response Offender

White Pine Press is a non-profit publisher that has been around since 1973, and seems to have a good reputation for publishing quality poetry.

However, they have one feature that appears highly problematic or suspicious: their poetry contest. Submissions for this contest have been open since at least 2021, and as far as one can tell from browsing their website, they have never released the winner nor announced any shortlist. Furthermore, the page of information for the poetry prize has remain unchanged during this time, seeking paid submissions for at least two years, without the website being updated or the contest being closed.

On their website, White Pine Press displays the following information for the White Pine Press Poetry Prize:

• Open for submissions on July 1 - no year given.
• Award is $1,000 cash and publication - no mention of when this would be announced.
• Soliciting manuscripts which must be postmarked by November 30th - again, no year mentioned.
• $20 "entry, reading and processing fee."
• Manuscripts are screened by the editorial staff, and winners are chosen by "a poet of national reputation" - apparently, this would be announced at the end of the competition. We found no information about who this final judge is anywhere on the website or Facebook page.

The Duotrope listing for White Pine Press contains very little information, and when one clicks through to the White Pine Press Poetry Prize, Duotrope says the following:

(Overall, the project does not qualify for a listing with Duotrope.)

While it's clear they have definitely published books of poetry in the past, it is unethical to leave a contest open in perpetuity with no announcements of results, and not only hurts writers but other presses and journals that operate with integrity.

Have you submitted your work to White Pine Press? If so, please share your experience below, or submit a response through our contact form.

Suburbia Journal

 Suburbia Journal: Defunct, Non-Response Offender

Another journal that we suspect is running a non-response scam is Suburbia Journal, which used to called Ember Chasm Review. It seems like the classic non-response scam, which is when a journal or magazine will leave paid submissions open, often for an indefinite amount of time, with the goal of  receiving continuous submission fees while never bothering to respond to applicants. In Suburbia Journal's case, they have the following contests advertised on their website:

• Summer Writing Contest, offering a $500 prize, trophy, and print publication. Entry fee: $15.  On the information page for this contest, it states: "Contest closes September 30th, results released in November" - they did not specify the year.
• Avant-Garde Short Film Contest, offering a $500 prize, trophy, and "Arizona/Zoom Screening". Entry fee: $17 (or free for high school students). There is mention of a 2022 awards ceremony: "Submissions for this contest will be accepted from June 2022, until December 31st, 2022. The ceremony will take place in January/February." Again, there is no mention of the year.
• Atomic Bomb Flash Contest, offering $150 & $50 prizes, trophy, and print publication. Entry fee: $9.99. "Results released: October 2022."

All of these contests mention general dates when results should have been announced; however, there is no evidence of results from these contests anywhere on their website or various social media profiles.

On their Open Projects page, there is a Contest Results button; however, it is not linked to anything. Further down there is also mention of artist payment, but again there is no further information.

Here's a reddit thread pertaining to Suburbia Journal's non-response to writers, shared by a user in the subreddit r/Writing. This was first posted in May 2023, with the most recent response from the last commenter in October 2023. This means these users were claiming that they had seen at least one of Suburbia Journal's contests was open and still receiving submissions up until October 2023. Read the discussion below:

Duotrope members can see more information about Suburbia Journal's response statistics on their Duotrope listing. They do have an automatic, same-day generic response that gets sent to writers once they have submitted their work, which thanks them for their submission and says they look forward to reading it. It also encourages applicants to record their submission on Duotrope, which is ironic given that they don't actually respond to writers. At the time of writing this blog post, Duotrope lists them at an acceptance rate of 0%, rejections at 52%, non-response rate of 47.22%, and withdrawals at 27.78%. The percentage of Never Responded is 19.44%; however, there are 10 applicants still waiting for a response who have not been counted in this percentage, and their waiting time has all been over at least 158 days.

In their automatic, same-day generic acknowledgement of submissions, they also provide links to their Instagram and Facebook profiles, urging people to keep up to date with them. The Instagram link that they provide is broken, but they do have an Instagram  here: https://www.instagram.com/suburbiajournal/

The Facebook link that they provide navigates to Ember Chasm Review's page, and as recently as August 2022, they had updated their profile photo to reflect that the page was operating as Suburbia Journal. In July 2022, they had posted about their latest issue:

Their most recent publication appears to be from 2022. It is titled "Absurdity Anthology" and lists the following staff members:

Miranda Williams - Editor-in-Chief

Nathaniel Buckingham - Editor-in-Chief

Camden Beal - Poetry Editor

It also lists nine individuals as readers. Suburbia Journal, unlike other magazines and journals, makes no effort to obscure who their staff members are, and their About page clearly states that Miranda Williams and Nathan Buckingham take full ownership of the journal. Both Miranda and Nathan have various social media profiles and websites. Here is an article from Arizona State University's Student Life column about Miranda and Nathan founding Ember Chasm Review: https://studentlife.asu.edu/content/ember-chasm-review-safe-haven-art-desert.

We found the following contact information for Suburbia Journal:

suburbiajournal@gmail.com

mlwilliamsbusiness@gmail.com

It is also important to point out that Miranda Williams and Nathan Buckingham are both linked to other magazines and journals. We share this information only to help you make informed decisions about submitting to those journals or magazines, given the poor treatment of writers by Suburbia Journal.

Tatterhood Review, which is now Landing Zone Magazine, is run by Miranda Williams, Nathan Buckingham, and Claire Marie Anderson (Managing Editor). Landing Zone Magazine took submissions with an entry fee of $15. It in unclear whether this outfit is still in operation or not.

Button Eye Review is run by Miranda Williams, Nathan Buckingham, and two fiction readers. On Duotrope, there is a 0% acceptance rate for Button Eye Review, and the average applicant reported paying $9.99 for entry. On Button Eye Review's Instagram page, there is a thread of comments asking for updates about a contest from 2021:

It seems as though their reputation for not responding to writers, and not releasing contest winners, appears again and again across their multiple literary magazines and journals. If you have submitted to any one of their outfits, please use the Contact page to send us your experience, or feel free to leave a comment below (you are welcome to remain anonymous). Your story might help other writers looking for information about Ember Chasm Review, Suburbia Journal, Tatterhood Review, Landing Zone Magazine, or Button Eye Review.

Sterling Clack Clack

Sterling Clack Clack: Defunct and potential theft of work

We suspect that Sterling Clack Clack is defunct, and that their associated publisher, J.New Books, engaged in unethical practices such as theft of work. J.New Books still seems to be running, and you can see their website here: https://www.jnewbooks.com/ and their Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/j.newbooks/.

J.New Books' website no longer mentions Sterling Clack Clack, but their Facebook page does. Sterling Clack Clack was running contests as recently as 2022, seeking submissions with an entry fee of $15 for their "Summer Flash Fiction Contest" which supposedly offered a cash prize of $1,000. On 7 July 2022, J.New Books' Facebook page published a photo post promoting their contest:

One of the commenters on this post asked for results of the contest, and received no response:

And here is a negative review on their Facebook page accusing J.New Books of art theft:

There is no verifiable proof of response to writers from Sterling Clack Clack, nor is there a current website or Submittable opportunity page. However, there is at least one accusation of theft of work, and numerous complaints online about non-response. 

Here is their Twitter profile, which was last updated on 1 November 2022:

On their Twitter feed, there are posts from 2022 promoting the same "Summer Flash Fiction" contest mentioned above. Here is one of the comments asking for results from the contest, again with no response:

Here is their Instagram profile, which was last updated on 21 March 2021:

Sterling Clack Clack does not qualify for a listing on Duotrope.

We found the following contact information for J.New Books:

info@j.newbooks.com

submit@j.newbooks.com

We found the following people are currently, or have been in the past, associated with Sterling Clack Clack:

Joshua Lorenzo Newett

If you submitted your work to Sterling Clack Clack, please share your experience by either contacting us through the Contact page, or commenting below (you are welcome to comment anonymously). Your story could help another writer by letting them know they're not alone if they too have experienced poor treatment at the hands of Sterling Clack Clack, or help Sterling Clack Clack take accountability for their actions.

JuxtaProse Literary Magazine

JuxtaProse Literary Magazine: Non-Response Offender

We suspect that JuxtaProse Literary Magazine is running the classic non-response scam. This is where a literary magazine will leave paid submissions open, often for an indefinite amount of time, with the goal of  receiving continuous submission fees while never bothering to respond to applicants.

Becky Tuch wrote about their unethical behaviour on Lit Mag News, which you can read here: https://litmagnews.substack.com/p/lit-mags-to-the-left-of-me-jokers. She outlined how they are seemingly still open for submissions on Submittable, and still receiving submission fees from writers for their work. At first glance, it appears there are no fees for some of their prize submissions, but once you attempt to enter your submission, you're prompted with a $25 "non-member" fee. (And if anyone reading this happens to be a member of JuxtaProse in some way, shape or form, please leave a comment below.)

Please read the entire article if you wish, as it is well-researched and asked some very important questions about the unethical practices of JuxtaProse. Another interesting discussion takes place in the comment section, and a relevant screenshot is shared below:

Aside from this extremely unethical action of collecting paid submissions without ever responding to writers, there is also evidence of the magazine making an effort to obscure this habitual non-response, by requesting removal of their listing on Duotrope as recently as April 2023. Duotrope is a commonly-used tool for writers to gauge the response rate of literary magazines, which helps them make informed decisions about whether to submit their pieces or not. If you remove your listing from Duotrope, but still take part in the literary world as a magazine that accepts submissions, you are flagrantly disregarding the general etiquette and rights of writers that are thankfully upheld by most other magazines and journals.

Here is the information we compiled for JuxtaProse Literary Magazine as of November 2023:

• General open submissions on Submittable with no deadline, and a fee of $3. From our research, we can estimate that JuxtaProse Literary Magazine has been open for general submissions since at least 2018.
• Other specific, contest-related opportunities on Submittable, with deadlines, for fees of up to $25. (For perspective, highly-regarded journals such as American Short Fiction charge between $18 and $20 for their contests; The Kenyon Review charges $24 for their contests.)
• No verifiable track record of responding to applicants. They mention responding within eight to ten weeks; we would like to see proof of this claim.
• Proof of non-response through online forums and complaints. Screenshots below.
• No listing on Duotrope, due to a request from JuxtaProse for removal.

Here we have a Twitter thread discussing JuxtaProse's lack of response or notification to applicants for their 2021 fiction and poetry contests:

See their open opportunities on Submittable here (note, you will need to log in or sign up for an account):

https://manager.submittable.com/opportunities/organization/12651.

We found the following contact information for JuxtaProse Literary Magazine:

submissions@juxtaprosemagazine.org

contact@juxtaprosemagazine.org

We found the following information about their staff from their website:

Spring 2020

Editor-in-Chief
Seth Luke

Managing Editor
Julie Erickson

Art Editor
Jennifer Luke

Editorial Assistants
Ann Brandon

Web Design
Avery Baker

However, we found no other emails or contact information for individual staff members.

If you ever submitted your work to JuxtaProse Literary Magazine, please share your experience by either contacting us through the Contact page, or leaving a comment below (you are welcome to comment anonymously). Your story could help another writer make an informed decision about whether or not to submit to this magazine, or help JuxtaProse Literary Magazine take accountability for their non-response reputation.