(vol. 1, no. 9)
Happy to Announce!
The Starlight SciFaiku Review and The Flying Saucer Poetry Review have each been assigned an ISSN!
The Starlight SciFaiku Review (ISSN 2770-9116)
The Flying Saucer Poetry Review (ISSN 2770-9817)
Pushcart Prize XVLII Nominations
The Pushcart Press has established itself as a literary institution and we are pleased to participate in The Pushcart Prize with our nominations. Indie presses are shaping the literary landscape in ways that the big publishers, because of their business models, are not able or willing to. The most meaningful literary voices are being brought to the literary marketplace by the small, independent presses. Some of these presses are nonprofit literary organizations, and some are for-profit publishing corporations, such as ours. Either way, they all provide a valuable and important mechanism for extraordinary literary voices to be heard, brought forth through a traditional publishing model.
Choosing just six of the wonderful poems that we have published this year to nominate for the prize was a very difficult task indeed. I really would have liked to nominate all of them.
Here are our nominations:
The Starlight SciFaiku Review (ISSN 2770-9116)
Wendy Van Camp | “Close Approach”
The Flying Saucer Poetry Review (ISSN 2770-9817)
Matt Schumacher | “Why I Don’t Regret Drawing so Many UFOs”
David Barber | “The Other Crusoe”
Tracy Lyall | “Swan Island”
Joshua St. Claire | “Passport to Magonia”
Joshua Gage | “Ram Scoop Pilot”
The Year in Review
Much has been accomplished here at Starship Sloane Publishing Company, Inc. this year. To begin with, founding and incorporating the company. Building the website. Publishing first issues of two of the four literary journals that we have been working on and receiving excellent reviews and feedback on those projects. Publishing wonderful poetry from some well-known writers and some beautiful artwork. Inclusion in some prominent directories of publishers and a very important accomplishment for us, having Starlight, Flying Saucer and now The Space Cadet Science Fiction Review listed in the Speculative Poetry Markets list of the SFPA. Securing ISSN numbers for the lit mags published thus far. Building the company’s social media following significantly. Creating two imprints. Nominating poets for The Pushcart Prize. Seeing references to our lit mags appearing online, including in Wikipedia.
2021 has been a productive year and it is our objective to make 2022 even more so.
Plans for the New Year
In brief, more of the same. Publish first issues of the next two literary journals: The Space Cadet Science Fiction Review and The Lotus Tree Literary Review. Publish second issues of the previously published lit mags. Publish a children’s book, King of the Condors, under the Wild Man of the Woods imprint and slowly work on publishing T. O’Conor Sloane’s books, using the same imprint, that are in the public domain (something that we see other companies doing and was one of the ideas on the table at the outset of founding this publishing venture). Secure ISSNs for the lit mags and ISBNs for the books. Get Space Cadet listed by the SFPA. Get company listed in Literary Market Place. Develop marketing and distribution channels. Explore a variety of publishing ideas. Continue building a social media presence. Nominate poetry and other writing for the next Pushcart Prize and so on.
In summation, to continue building this publishing company into the world-class endeavor that we envision it to be.
Editor’s SF Contribution to Poetry About Santa Claus
She’s a Spacefaring Santa Claus
by
Justin T. O’Conor Sloane
Atnas Sualc as she is known on her home planet, had upon her great discovery, soon chosen a cyber-camouflaging program for her flying saucer that would render it comprehensible to the inhabitants of this planet.
But absent-mindedly, overlooking the laws of physics here
she decided upon a sleigh drawn by reindeer.
Her ship’s wormhole-sensing prow glowing through in cherry red.
Her spacesuit, disguised as the attire she’d seen the snow-dwellers wear.
Her beard, an elaborate breathing apparatus. A fine Medusa’s head of tubules and capillaric technology, with a secondary purifying chamber belted firmly around her bioluminescent waist.
Lifting off from the North Pole, the replenishing of her ship’s hydrogen stores complete, with the help of the green-suited perma-larvae crew and a male of her kind, whom she mischievously calls Mrs. Sualc, who had agreed to live there in an exobiological pod, nestled within the ice and snow, an enduring redemption for other-world transgressions,
the work begins, hovering just above rooftops, transporting down chimneys in great haste,
a large sack slung over her padded and pinnacular shoulder,
to harvest the one substance most valuable on her distant and sparkling world: soot.
Coal is too bulky, not of the right consistency, not of value, it is left behind, carelessly strewn, sometimes conveniently stuffed into colorful, curved receptacles that hang about the soot-rich environs.
A cylindrical white liquid and circular objects, often found in proximity to the soot, are vaporized in laser-twitching repulsion by Atnas.
Though a gift, a trade, is left by Atnas under the glittering, twinkling conicals endemic to the soot mines, in return for the priceless substance; these are materialized-on-demand replications of items observed on this planet, with coverings that mimic their surroundings — it is the least she can do in exchange for such vast riches, for her spacefaring species is nothing if not honorable and generous.
After every seven cycles of her star system she returns to replenish her wealth, to this planet of limitless soot, discovered long ago on one of her relentless deep-space explorations — and still a secret close and fiercely kept;
but for the inhabitants here, who celebrate her star-flown arrival, in each of their years.
Happy Holidays!
To each of you, Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!
