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.