Friday Five!

We do a lot of rounding up on the PANK blog. It has its uses. But my favorite posts are the “writer’s life” ones. Our contributor interviews and ask-the-editor Q&As, the moms and dads and identity exploration posts, these I have really enjoyed. And if I am to believe the number of responses these posts have received, not to mention the creepy Google Analytics reports on these posts (big brother, big scary numbers, oh my!), I am most certainly not alone.

So this Friday, I’m using my five to sketch out some submission guidelines for a new PANK column, This Modern Writer. Yes, I am ripping off the New York Times and maybe This I Believe. And, please, spare me your grief over my use of “modern”.

As  follows:

1. Send PANK 1,000 words on what its like to be writer today.

2. I’m brainstorming here… In an age when we’re told that everybody writes, but nobody reads, what are the ups, downs, pros and cons of the business at a personal level. How do you manage? How don’t you? How do you work? How don’t you? Worst rejections? Most surprising successes? Biggest misconceptions? Editing and working with “writers”? What’s it like to be a working, divorced mother of twenty who still finds the time to be a novelist? What’s it like to be a single, childless trustfunder worrying over those line breaks? What’s it like explaining to your dad that you want to be a poet when you grow up? Bad MFA program? Good one? Who doesn’t have a good workshop story? Who did you blow or do blow with at that writer’s retreat? What’s the worst thing you’ve ever written? I’m guessing you get the point.

3. Remember to tell us a good, evocative story. Don’t just rant about your undergrad creative writing class, etc.

4. Any form or formlessness, 1,000-words max, but keep in mind this is PANK and we appreciate some style.

5. Send submissions and a very brief biography in the body of your email to editor@pankmagazine.com, subject line “This Modern Writer.”