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| Literary - Fiction Weekly |
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| 10/06/2008 |
by: Erica McCreedy |
Jason Reynolds has had an exceptionally full plate as of late. Not only is he a husband, a graduate student in his last year for a Masters of English and a Masters of Fine Arts in Fiction, and an instructor at McNeese State University but he also is tackling what he feels is a void in online publishing. With the creation of Fiction Weekly, an online journal that publishes a piece of fiction a week, Reynolds is doing his best to create "something [readers] look forward to each week" and to "be the source for new and noteworthy stories, the place readers turn when they need a fiction fix," he said in a recent interview.
When asked by his wife, Carame, what he wanted for his birthday, Reynolds, a Pennsylvania native, simply replied, "a literary journal." Instead, she bought him a website and the conception of Fiction Weekly quickly evolved into a substantial online journal. Reynolds, with his vast crew composing of McNeese faculty, students, and alumni, seek to bring the best new fiction to a wide spectrum of readers.
"While there are a plethora of journals available online, most update quarterly or irregularly. Others lack focus; they publish a dozen poems in one issue, two essays and a short story in the next, etc. And there are a lot of journals that launch one month and cease to exist the next. In short, we grew tired of waiting for new stories from our favorite journals and decide to go get them ourselves," said Reynolds.
The impact that Fiction Weekly has had over the past few months is more than astounding. So far, Fiction Weekly has published eight authors, each from different states, in the past eight weeks. Their readership has grown even further; recent submissions to Fiction Weekly have come from Greece and the United Kingdom. While the members of Fiction Weekly are surprised at the rapid growth of their journal, they are more than excited to know that Fiction Weekly is quickly becoming a familiar face to readers and has already become an asset to the literary scene of Lake Charles.
Even with the approach of graduation and the completion of his Masters thesis, Reynolds is not backing down and continues to be a leading figure behind the journal. Reynolds notes that it has been a great advantage to be a graduate student while working on Fiction Weekly, especially since Reynolds works closely with McNeese. Reynolds also adds that the continued development of Fiction Weekly would not have excelled to its current state without the aid of his peers.
"As an MFA candidate at McNeese, I talk with dozens of people about fiction and publishing each day, and all of these people are experts in their fields. We have any exceptionally large staff for an online journal, and most of our staff members are graduate students. I can’t imagine finding a better group of readers and writers anywhere."
The press for Fiction Weekly is growing, and the word is spreading among students and staff at other universities as well. Reynolds hopes that others are following the example that Fiction Weekly has set for those wishing to also jump into journal publishing, whether online or not. "There’s nothing wrong with a little friendly competition," Reynolds jokes.
There is still more to do on the horizon, so Reynolds and the editorial board of Fiction Weekly are eager to keep Fiction Weekly up and running for a long time, and the enthusiasm for the journal doesn’t seem to dim anytime soon. "It’s go time," said Matt Dye, a recent graduate from McNeese’s Masters Program and a member of Fiction Weekly.
While the number of submissions is strong, Reynolds encourages anyone to submit to Fiction Weekly. "It takes courage to send submit a story, so we treat every submission with the same respect we’d want our own work to be treated with. In the process, we’ve discovered some great new voices."
Over the past several weeks, some contributors to Fiction Weekly include Ellen Herbert, Lauren Yaffe, Suzanne Samples, Jen Gann, Chris Kammerud, and Alex Meyers. Their contributors are as varied as they are talented and come from all over the country, including Montana, Seattle, Brooklyn, and Washington D.C. Fiction Weekly has published unpublished authors as well as authors who have achieved awards and fellowships and have been featured on National Public Radio. "The only common bond they share is the ability to write great stories," said Reynolds.
As mentioned before, the staff of Fiction Weekly consists of many of McNeese’s graduate students and alumni in Creative Writing, including Dan Webre, Matt Dye, Caver Waters, Elizabeth Genovise, Max Fisher-Cohen, Brendan Egan, Janice Repka, Chris Lowe, Ann Coleman, Jonathan Pillow, and Charlie Silvo who serve on Fiction Weekly’s editorial board.
For more information regarding Fiction Weekly or submissions, or to read Fiction Weekly’s latest contributors’ works, we encourage you to visit www.FictionWeekly.com.
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