Why?
Why?
Why Fuck The New Yorker? Because I'm disappointed. And I decided to take that disappointment and turn it into a project. Constructive energy some might call it. I'll readily admit this project contains foul language, is polarizing, might damage my writing career, and the list goes on. It's not PC, that's for fucking sure. What I'm attempting to do is write open ended letters to TNY about every story they publish (I’d prefer they not be open ended, but alas). I used to send these letters to them directly and then, in despair, search Google for "Fuck The New Yorker" for commiseration, always finding nothing. This search usually left me feeling alone, wandering in the dark, wondering where in Christ is the button that I lost off my shirt, if I could only see, God, Christ give me sight....
I digress. I'm posting these letters here with the hope that there are others out there, readers and/or writers, who are consistently disappointed by a magazine with 1) an incredible past publication resume that 2) purports to publish "the best writing anywhere, everywhere" that 3) publishes a substantial amount of garbage.
Conditions?
I'm only looking at short fiction. The definition of short fiction is such that the piece needs to stand on its own. So much so that if there was a sanitized PDF copy of the story on the street, a stranger would pick it up and be unable to stop reading it. Because short fiction should not be about who wrote it, how many awards that person has received, and it definitely should not require the reader to look elsewhere to understand the story. It’s “The Best Writing Anywhere. Everywhere.” Not “Mediocre Chapter Segments by Previous Nobel Prize Winners Who Can’t Write for Shit Anymore.”
I'm am trying very hard not to attack the writer. As a fellow writer, I know we all fuck up. Fucking up is part of this experiment. What I'm not willing to do is let TNY off the hook. They shouldn't be publishing sub-par work if it is indeed sub-par.
I'm drawing all the art. Please criticize heavily.
All will be addressed directly to TNY in a letter. And that letter, beginning 2019, will be sent to the editor each week.
So, thanks for stopping in and I hope that you find solace here. Either way, would love to hear your opinion of the stories or my letters. Community is created by voices and voices are produced by throats and throats are the product of billions of years of evolution which has led us to the point where an asshat with some spending cash and very slight internet savvy can post his opinion to the world.
Mazel tov!
Nick
