Go! Find the Walrus

Creating a quarterly journal for the past five years has been a labor of love, devotion and richly UNrewarding in terms of finding the time to publish my own bits. 

In the last five years, I’ve only had four pieces of serious work published in journals/zines/books/anthologies beyond The Hiss Quarterly, and it’s time to focus on “getting out there” again.  My work schedule, combined with other duties (both on and off line) insists that I prioritize carefully.  Something had to give.

With the help of MagCloud, we’re going to print twice a year, yet we’re still going to call ourselves a “quarterly” because we’re just that unique.

Besides, when you own your own successful zine, you can do anything you want to do.  That’s one of the reasons we’re so hissy.

In a recent letter from a past contributor and a devoted reader, we were told this:

“I do read whatever you send me. I think it’s possible that your
ratio of sends to reads is quite good. This is because with a few
exceptions, you are the only ones who put out the stuff that is truly edgy–truly socially inappropriate from a strict bourgeois POV. There are lots of us poets who never played
well with others who read you! There is a fine and difficult line
between what is printed in serious journals, with academic overtones
(MFA dominated) and that which will only occur in a rave in some NY bar . . .
Meanwhile, I get a lift when I get an email from HISS because this lets me know you aren’t
bankrupt or in jail. Please keep up what you’re doing.”

He was responding to the quarterly “heads up” we send our subscribers.  I’d placed a “does anyone really read these things?” somewhere in that mailer.  When we began receiving both HATE mail and Well Done! mail, I knew that we’d finally “made it.”  I think, we’ve broken the mold (not to be confused with “old & moldy”) and it’s going to be exciting to watch the new changes unfold.  

We’ll still be free to read online, but our print version is gonna cost ya a few nickels.  We’re proud to say it too, because we have people with Letters Behind Their Names to edit us now, and a few more in the wings who are ready and willing to assist.

Finally.

The Hiss Quarterly Journal is going to be a keeper and a contender in the market place for serious (but hissy) writers with vision. 

In the meantime, go read our last quarterly issue. (See that link Up There?)
And find the Walrus.  Coo Coo Ka-choo.