Stone Telling 11 is here!

We are very pleased to announce that a new issue of Stone Telling, Reverberations, has gone live – with fabulous poetry by voices all new to us, and a review of Lisa M. Bradley’s collection The Haunted Girl, by Alex Dally MacFarlane. We hope you give these treasures a read!

We also have many announcements to make. First is the rate increase – thanks to our Patreon supporters, we are increasing our pay from 5$ to 10$ a poem starting immediately, so that our new poets are paid at the new rate! The rates for nonfiction and epic length poetry remain unchanged, but we are hoping to raise our rates yet more with Patreon support, down the road.

Second, we have announced two reading periods, for ST 12 (Hope-themed), and ST13 (the Joke issue). For more information, please see the updated guidelines.

Third, we have added a new team member – Bogi Takács, whose work has appeared in ST previously, has joined the team as an assistant editor.

Last but not least, we still have a few outstanding blog post interviews with ST10 poets, and will be publishing these, as well as blog post interviews with ST11 poets.

Happy reading – and thank you, as always, for being here.

We are happy to announce the cover and lineup for the 11th issue of Stone Telling magazine, featuring all new-to-us voices. The issue is scheduled to go live in the next 2 weeks.

ST 11 cover

Poetry:

Isabel Yap, The Monkey Climbs the Tree, as the Turtle Watches
Valeria Rodríguez , Vertigo and Annihilation
Gillian Daniels, To the Creature
Shruti Iyer, Confluence (Triveni Sangam)
Michael Matheson, No Fixed Points In Space
Peg Duthie, Ballad Breath
Nelly Geraldine García-Rosas, Coyolxauhqui
Kythryne Aisling, Nothing Writes To Disk
Sara Norja, Kuura (extract from a Finnish-English dictionary)
Saira Ali, I do not know your ἀλφάβητος
Margarita Tenser, Labyrinth Soup
Ruth Jenkins, Scales
M Sereno, The Exile, i.

Review: Alex Dally MacFarlane reviews The Haunted Girl, by Lisa M. Bradley (Aqueduct Press, 2014).

In case you haven’t seen this elsewhere, Stone Bird Press is running a Kickstarter to fundraise for An Alphabet of Embers, an anthology of unclassifiable pieces edited by Rose Lemberg.

We are already past our initial target of $6000, but one of our stretch goals is a bonus issue of Stone Telling. And it’s not just any issue – it’s editor Rose Lemberg’s worst nightmare: an joke issue full of RHYMED MERMAID POETRY! We’ll also accept limericks, nonsense verse, and assorted ridiculousness, all to be lushly illustrated with sepia-toned photos of the Mermippo:

At the moment, we need only $541 more to be able to inflict this marvel of marvels upon the world of extremely serious speculative poetry. Friends of Stone Telling, please take a look – we also have many wonderful rewards like songs, jewelry by Kythryne Aisling, gift boxes, cheerful drawings, posters, printed broadsides and Letters of Embers. It truly is a project where art begets art.

Our third interview features J.C. Runolfson, who contributed to the Body issue with her poem “Trance for Insomniacs.” J.C. has contributed two other poems to Stone Telling: “Robert Cornelius Speaks a Dead Tongue” in our inaugural issue, and “The Exposure of William H. Mumler” in ST6. She also guest-edited our fourth issue with Shweta Narayan.

J. C. Runolfson’s work has appeared in Stone Telling previously, as well as Strange Horizons, Mythic Delirium, Goblin Fruit, and many others. She is also a freelance editor and critic. She is disabled due to chronic illness; one of her symptoms is severe insomnia.

We are an army unarmed
with anything but the nightmare
of unsleeping,
the way time
e
l
o
n
g
a
t
e
s
and us with it

J.C. Runolfson, “Trance for Insomniacs.”

ST: What inspired this particular poem? What would you like readers to know about your context, and how it relates to your poem?

JCR: I have severe insomnia which is less well-controlled than is optimal, due to my tolerance of only so much in the way of side effects. I have frequent periods of sleeplessness despite medication, and I had one just after reading the announcement of the “Body” theme for the next issue of Stone Telling. So I decided to use the experience to my advantage. I actually write a lot of poetry in that state, provided I’m functional enough to use a keyboard.

ST: Is the Body a central theme in your work? If so, what other works of yours deal with it? If not, what called you to it this time?

JCR: I write a series of poems based on old, well-known photographs, several of which deal with the Body. The latest of these to be published is “Zora Neale Hurston Meets Felicia Felix-Mentor on the Road,” which appears in Mythic Delirium 0.3 and concerns a legendary photograph of a Haitian woman believed to have been turned into a zombie. A lot of my poetry deals with transformations and the impact of the Othered body on the mind. I had never really explicitly addressed one of my own symptoms and how it affects me until this poem, though. I actually have a hard time re-reading it, though I don’t regret writing it.

ST: What else would you like to tell our readers about your poem?

JCR: If this is a poem to which any reader can relate, they have my condolences.

ST: Thank you very much, J.C.!

Heartfelt congratulations to ST contributors nominated for the Nebula award.

Sofia Samatar (ST 5, ST6, ST8, and ST10) has been nominated in the Novel category with A Stranger in Olondria (Small Beer Press, 2013) and in the Short Story category with “Selkie Stories are for Losers” (Strange Horizons).

Karen Joy Fowler (ST4) has been nominated in the Novel category with We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves (Marian Wood).

Catherynne M. Valente (ST2, ST3) has been nominated in the Novella category with Six-Gun Snow White (Subterranean).

Best of luck!!

Dear Stone Telling readers,

We are excited to unveil a new feature of Stone Telling magazine: a blog in which we hope to highlight our poets, tell you about submissions status, and share other insights and information (with perhaps an occasional bit of goofiness).

The blog layout has been implemented by Bogi Takács to mesh seamlessly with our existing website design. Bogi has previously contributed three poems: “The Handcrafted Motions of Flight” (ST7), The Tiny English-Hungarian Phrasebook for Visiting Extraterrestrials (ST9), and Outside-In/Catalytic Exteriorization (ST10). Since Bogi has now worked for us and may be engaged in Secret Projects in the future, e will no longer be submitting to Stone Telling. We wish em many new and wonderful adventures.

We will shortly begin posting interviews with Stone Telling 10 contributors – stay tuned!

A friendly reminder that we are now reading for our 11th issue, which will feature poets we have not previously published. If you fall under this category, please check out the guidelines and send us your work.

Finally, we now have a Patreon page! This is very exciting for us, as with your help we are hoping to be able to raise our pay rates. Please check it out! Rewards include cookies, sketches, and pictures of plush hippopotamoi striking reasonably poetic poses. Like this:

Dashing Mippo surveys a non-alcoholic beverage