UNLIKELY STORIES OF THE THIRD KIND

Mission and Submissions
Unlikely Stories of the Third Kind

We are...
Jonathan Penton, Poetry and Essay Editor
Donna Snyder, Story Editor
C. Derick Varn, Art Editor
Gabriel Ricard, Music Editor
Belinda Subraman, Film Editor

We will...
Publish Unlikely Stories of the Third Kind, a physical embodiment of all that is UnlikelyStories.org. It will include a CD (suitable for playing in a computer or traditional player), a DVD (suitable for playing in a computer or traditional player), and 400 pages of poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, essays, reviews, interviews, and visual art, both in color and black-and-white. We will give two complimentary copies to each contributor.

In a time frame, no less...
All submissions are due by March 31, 2010. We will endeavor to answer all mail by May 31. Publication is slated for August, 2010.

General Guidelines:

As we mentioned, Unlikely Stories of the Third Kind is the physical embodiment of Unlikely 2.0 and the original Unlikely Stories. It will not be a regular publication—although Unlikely Books is ramping up production, there won't be another book like this for some time to come. Please familiarize yourself with our regular submission guidelines and magazine before submitting. They're free, don't you know.

About half of the material in Unlikely Stories of the Third Kind will have appeared in one of our web sites. If you'd like to recommend an old piece, either your own or someone else's, for inclusion, please send the relevant editor a link.
Please be patient with the submission process. Please don't query before May 31, but please do query then—we make mistakes, and would hate for you to be excluded by accident.

Previously published submissions are acceptable; simultaneous submissions aren't. The magazine takes ‘em.
Submissions will be selected by "fiefdom." For example, Belinda will be wholly responsible for film selections; she will not normally confer with the rest of the staff. Very few people will have more than one piece in the anthology; no one will have more than two. Thus, if you submit work to more than one editor, please let them all know so that they can confer. Otherwise, you might be accepted to multiple departments, only to have Jonathan take some of your acceptances away. And that's the unsexy kind of awkwardness.

Biographical notes will be very short. Think one sentence and a Web address. We aren't trying to singlehandedly keep would-be "readers" from flipping to the back of anthologies to scan for the names of their friends, but we shan't be actually encouraging it. This particular anthology is going to be fun.
Please let us know if you don't want your work considered for the on-line magazine.
Seriously, though, do read our regular submission guidelines.

On Essays, Reviews, and Interviews:
Please send up to three such pieces of less than 7000 words each to jonathan AT unlikelystories DOT org. Unlikely Stories of the Third Kind is not a periodical, so don't send time-sensitive submissions. If it will seem irrelevant in 2012, send it to the magazine instead.

On Poetry:
Please send up to 500 lines of poetry, however many poems that might be, to jonathan AT unlikelystories DOT org. If you are writing prose poems, or poems with absurdly long lines, please ensure that your total poetry submission does not exceed 7000 words.

On Fiction and Creative Non-Fiction:
Please send up to five stories of less than 7000 words each to donna AT unlikelystories DOT org.

On Visual Art:
We intend to publish 40 color prints and 40 black-and-white prints on good glossy paper. We anticipate receiving many more color submissions than black-and-white submissions. Thus, you might want to send at least some black-and-white art, or give permission for your color work to be rendered in greyscale.
Please send up to nine .jpgs to derick AT unlikelystories DOT org. If you know how to miniaturize the files for screen viewing, be kind to Derick and do so. But the art will finally be printed at 300 dots per inch in an eight inch square book, so make sure you have a version of your submission which will look good at a high resolution.

On Music and Spoken Word:
Please do not place .mp3s directly into our e-mail boxes. Rather, e-mail gabriel AT unlikelystories DOT org with a link to where your music can be found on the Internet. If you wish to submit music which cannot currently be found on the Internet, you can use YouSendIt.com to mail .mp3s to him. Should he select your work for publication, you can send a CD to Jonathan by physical mail at
500 S. Mesa St., #389
El Paso, TX 79901

On Film:
Please do not place movies directly into our e-mail boxes. Rather, e-mail belinda AT unlikelystories DOT org with a link to where your film can be found on the Internet. If you wish to submit a film which cannot currently be found on the Internet, you can use YouSendIt.com to mail films to her.
QuickTime, .mp4, Flash, Shockwave, and Windows Media are all formats in which Belinda can view your film and consider it for publication. Should Belinda select your film for publication, you'll need to send it to Jonathan in a high-quality, low-compression format, suitable for DVD presentation, such as an AVI file 720 pixels wide. You'll find detailed suggestions here.

And finally...
If there is anything you'd like us to see which is not covered in the above guidelines just query us at jonathan AT unlikelystories DOT org.

GAS Poetry and Music Variety Show 3

GAS Poetry and Music Variety Show 3

Featuring


“Love in the City of Statues” by Randolf Walker, “Lest the Lonesome
Bird” by Jim Clark, “Winter” by David Seddon, “Nurse Dearest’ by
Ginetta Correli, “Café Village” by Hugh Wade, “Burn Your TV” by Kirk
Ramdath, “Visual Echoes” by Iain D. Kemp, “Faraway Clinic” by Heavy
Me...tal Vampires and “An Earthworm Singing” by Garner Higgins. Cover Art
by Alvis.

Belinda James and the Art of Transforming Trash

"I started working with found objects ten years ago. It was an inexpensive way to obtain materials, but the discarded objects soon became sacred and a source of inspiration. My work comes from a constant and conscious watchfulness of the world around me. On my journey, on any given day, I pick up things that catch my eye. I collect urban detritus and natural objects which I incorporate into a collage, a sculpture, or jewelry. One of the reasons that I enjoy creating art from recycled and found objects is that it allows me to use anything and everything, old or new. The process of making my art is total play and intuitive.

My work can be found at the Old State House as part of a permanent exhibit called "History All Around Us". My work is also being shown at the Trash Museum, where you can tour 6,500 square feet of educational exhibits beginning at the Temple of Trash. I currently work as a Teaching Artist, inspiring middle school students to make art from recycled objects. Transforming trash is my way of playing a small role in becoming more aware of environmental issues."

Check out Belinda's FACEBOOK page for more info.

A Visual Poetry Collaboration: GAZE

A visual poetry collaboration with photography by Aad de Gids, Alvis and Garner Higgins with music by Dee Sunshine and words by Dee Sunshine, Iain D. Kemp, Belinda Subraman, Linda Benninghoff, Dianne Borsenik, Catfish McDaris and Kyle Hemmings. Special thanks to Pamala Gaard for the portrait at the end. A Vergin Production.

THE FUTURE IS HAPPY by Sarah Sarai

The Future Is Happy, by Sarah Sarai, BlazeVOX, ISBN: 9781935402350, 83 pages, 2009

About the book:
"While I write this, / a lucky few grow into new humanness." The Future Is Happy is about that humanness. The discovery is personal, global and of the spirit. Every poem is a presentation of the business and process of the now, how to be one of the "fleshy ladies, joyous despite / bellies, bulges, striations life makes." ("Six, Seven Strawberries") References are spun from mythology, philosophy, literature and "Miss Piggy Bubblebath."

About the author:
Sarah Sarai is an unsymmetrical woman with a symmetrical she. Poems from this collection were first published in reviews including Threepenny Review, Minnesota Review, Mississippi Review, Eleven Eleven and Fifth Wednesday. She lives in New York City, though also claims L.A. and Seattle as home.


Remorse

When he lumbered in the way of men
who use their hands to till earth,
he knocked a rough doorway
and sobbed for unfairness and
the slaying. Dull, trembling,
he threw on three pelts against
a desert night, and feared heaven’s
white stars. We’ve all killed our brother.

The dead roam through us.
We toss beneath old gods’ blazing navigation.
Cain? It’s morning. He bites a sweet seedy fig



Outside the Ritz-Carlton

Pine bowers and electric stars
strung on the canopy over-top
three blonde bouffants of scrappy
imperfection with locks straying
like deft housecats into heated
territory familiar and claimed.
Three high-heeled pair of black
boots and as a yellow cab glides
to a perfect stop, three cigarettes
smashed until their fanned glow
is hypothetical as any after-life,
including reincarnation which
aligns with a felt logic of follies
we blindly interpret as suffering.

THE BOOK OF HOPE AND DREAMS edited by Dee Sunshine

THE BOOK OF HOPES AND DREAMS is a charity poetry anthology to raise money for Spirit Aid. It was originally published as a book, but there were huge problems with the publisher and I had to withdraw it from circulation. It has now been re-launched as an e-book. More info about the project, the poets and the charity at BOOK OF HOPE AND DREAMS.

From the book:

Interlunar

Darkness waits apart from any occasion for it;
like sorrow it is always available.
This is only one kind,

the kind in which there are stars
above the leaves, brilliant as steel nails
and countless and without regard.

We are walking together
on dead wet leaves in the intermoon
among the looming nocturnal rocks
which would be pinkish grey
in daylight, gnawed and softened
by moss and ferns, which would be green,
in the musty fresh yeast smell
of trees rotting, earth returning
itself to itself

and I take your hand, which is the shape a hand
would be if you existed truly.
I wish to show you the darkness
you are so afraid of.

Trust me. This darkness
is a place you can enter and be
as safe in as you are anywhere;
you can put one foot in front of the other
and believe the sides of your eyes.
Memorize it. You will know it
again in your own time.
When the appearances of things have left you,
you will still have this darkness.
Something of your own you can carry with you.

We have come to the edge:
the lake gives off its hush;
in the outer night there is a barred owl
calling, like a moth
against the ear, from the far shore
which is invisible.
The lake, vast and dimensionless,
doubles everything, the stars,
the boulders, itself, even the darkness
that you can walk so long in
it becomes light.

Margaret Atwood

For more information about Dee's writing, art and music projects visit his website.

MARY JANE GO ROUND by Ginnetta Correli

"Mary Jane Go Round is based on a character from the novel called: The Lost Episodes of Beatie Scareli. The book is about the emotional victims and perpetrators of life. Most of my writing I feel can become anybody’s fictional life told in reverse. As the tragedy of any persons life becomes more clear in my mind I want others to see it through photography, video and music.

For me art is a daily process. I want my work to connect to whatever my goal is at the time. The goal for now is for the movie to never end. Bad or good."

Bio: Some of Ginnetta Correli's work can be found in print and online. She's been published in Ink Sweat and Tears, Diet Soap, The Bannister Review, Sein Und Werden, Poesy Planet, Insolent Rudder, Bicycle Review and Omega 7. Ginnetta Correli is also the author of a the depressing novel called: The Lost Episodes of Beatie Scareli and just released an album about the novel called: Nurse Lucy. Presently, Ginnetta is making films.

GAS Original Poetry and Music Variety Show

Original poetry and music from around the world this time featuring Jim Clark, Dee Sunshine, Tom Bradley, Tree Riesener, David Seddon, City of Statues, Linda Benninghoff, Swapan Basu, Shanti Perez and Casey Mensing. Photo by Aad de Gids.

The show is located here

I will review 3-5 minute mp3 submissions or original poetry, music or songs on an ongoing basis. Please announce the name of your poem/piece and YOUR Name at he beginning of your submission. If you have collaborators, announce them too. Send high quality mp3s to gypsysubmissions@yahoo.com

Milspeak: Warriors, Veterans, Family and Friends Writing the Military Experience

Editor Sally Drumm, a retired Marine and president of Milspeak Foundation, developed Milspeak Seminars because she recognized the value of narrative as a stress management tool for military people. She is a former editor of Apostrophe: USCB Journal of the Arts. Her memoir, essay, fiction and drama have been well received within the U.S. publishing community.

Order book from Press53

Each of MILSPEAK’s selections is a carefully crafted reminiscence, the telling of a particularly eventful moment in a military life and created by military people who learned to share their stories through Milspeak Creative Writing Seminars. Also included are poetry, essay, and memoir by Michael Kobre, Dinty W. Moore, Richard Peabody, Rebecca McClanahan and others who assisted in developing the seminars or mentoring Milspeak Writers. This anthology is designed to resonate with military people seeking to heal from wounds of war and to help civilians understand military life. Visit MILSPEAK for more information.

BETTER WITH FRIENDS by Helen Losse

Helen Losse is the author of Better With Friends (Rank Stranger Press, 2009) and two poetry chapbooks, Gathering the Broken Pieces, available from FootHills Publishing, and Paper Snowflakes, published by Southern Hum Press, and the Poetry Editor of The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature.

Better With Friends is a book of poetry that explores the intersections of memory (factual and embellished), dreams (daydreams and night dreams), reverie, and prayer, so that all of one’s thoughts can be envisioned as prayer. Although the book has strong spiritual overtones, it is not a religious book nor a book of poetic devotions.

Better With Friends is also available from AMAZON.


To Be

A house is visible behind the right of way.
I hate that house, and sometimes, when it
disappears in the fog, pretend it isn’t there.

I sit in my chair and look into the yard.
I imagine I belong. But this morning
after the yard was white with snow—

later when the brown grass emerged from its
hiding like a flag newly un-furled—
the house snickered. “Over here,” it called,

waving and fluttering its shutters,
hoping for eye contact like our patulous neighbor
with her other seasonal and too-tight pants.