It was a great honor and pleasure to guest edit the most recent themed issue of Golden Walkman Magazine. Special thanks to all those who submitted for trusting me with their work. I received some excellent work to choose from in response to a wide variety of art–from visual art and photography to music and poetry.
Congratulations to all the selected contributors! Including: Rikki Santer (“Double Vanitas”), Kate J Wilson (“The Impossibility of Love”), Pat Phillips West (“View of the Universe: Stellar Nebula“), Joyce Hayden (“Deliberate”), Koss (“Colleen Does the DIA – Rivera – Kahlo Show”), Susan Weaver (“Benedicion for Armando Passy”), Mary Elder Jacobsen (“In One Mother’s Voice at Moth-Hour”), Nancy Jorgensen (“A Minor Monster”), and Barbara Tyler (“Miles Davis”).
You can listen to the issue below or via your favorite podcast platform (Apple, Stitcher, and Spotify).
Golden Walkman has a great lineup of guest editors for their 2021 themed issues! Each editor selects a specific theme for their issue and the deadline to submit is the 15th of each corresponding month.
- January // Guest Editor: Anum Sattar // Theme: Survivor
- February // Guest Editor: Kolleen Carney Hoepfner // Theme: 90s Pop Culture Realness
- March // Guest Editor: Darren C. Demaree // Theme: Political Prose Poems
- April // Guest Editor: Camille Wanliss // Theme: Isola
- May // Guest Editor: Benjamin S. Grossberg // Theme: Rehab
- June // Guest Editor: Luisa Caycedo-Kimura // Theme: Poetry
- July // Guest Editor: K.T. Landon // Theme: Siblings
- August // Guest Editor: Joey Gould // Theme: Fruits of the Earth
- September // Guest Editor: Chen Chen // Theme: Why Bother?
- October // Guest Editor: William Fargason // Theme: Elegy
- November // Guest Editor: Alex Charalambides // Theme: Youth Spoken Word Poetry
- December // Guest Editor: Porsha Olayiwola // Theme: Futurism & Dystopia
“A note to any prospective contributors: GWM seeks great creative work of all kind, even if it’s not considered performance. Submit even if your poem or story isn’t going to be pulling down the rafters at the next open mic, we may enjoy powerful subtly even more.”
They accept submissions in the following categories:
- General//Any subject//Year-Round
- Tapes From The Outside//Work in response to current events//Year-Round'
- Themed Issues//Work in response to a specific theme determined by a guest editor//Monthly
- Dialogue Submissions//Work in response to a specific piece of music//Every few months
- (Audio)Chapbook Contest//Chapbook-length writing//June-August
To read more about GWM and what their looking for, continue reading my interview with their founder David Walker below.
HOPKINSON: Tell me a little bit about Golden Walkman Magazine.
WALKER: Golden Walkman Magazine is dedicated to the oral presentation of creative art. While some magazines have a podcast accompanying their written, hard copy issues, GWM is published solely as a podcast. This allows the authors to have much more control over the listeners’ experience of their work as it is in their voice, their intonation. It is our ultimate goal to bring the audience closer to the artist and, as a result, closer to the art.
WALKER: I am a rabid listener of podcasts, and I love the concept of literary magazines. This marriage seemed like a perfect fit, so I dove headfirst into learning how to produce both–GWM is the product of that process.
HOPKINSON: What type of work are you looking for?
WALKER: Aside from work that is in response to recent events, we’re looking for submissions that attempt to slice through the overwhelming bleakness that seems to be constantly hovering. We’re not excluding realistically negative takes on the dark circumstances we find ourselves in, but more than anything, we want these submissions to be part of the healing process. And we also want submissions that are celebrations of historic milestones. There’s so much good in humanity that we don’t want people to lose sight of.
HOPKINSON: What are you hoping will be submitted?
WALKER: Writing that has a clear and urgent voice, that we can’t ignore because it won’t let us, that will sing when read aloud. We want work that plays with sound but doesn’t let it cheapen the writing to bad karaoke. We also want work that whispers because it really needs us to listen.
HOPKINSON: Where can folks send submissions?
WALKER: goldwalkmag@gmail.com–after reading the guidelines, of course.
HOPKINSON: If someone has a question, how can they contact you?
WALKER: Same email as above.
Submission Guidelines
DEADLINE: 15th of every month for themed issues
THEMES: Check out the Themed Submissions page for a list of guest editors, their themes, and theme deadlines.
PAYMENT: None
FORMS: varies by theme but generally poetry and short prose
FORMAT: audio/podcast
DUOTROPE: https://duotrope.com/listing/14501/golden-walkman-magazine
SOCIAL MEDIA: Twitter
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