Update on Conclave Journal

Exciting things in the works for October!

Conclave Journal should be ready for purchase online at Amazon.com and on the Conclave Journal website by the middle of October! You can already pre-order if you like.

We received nearly 1000 submissions of writing and photography, and they have been narrowed down to the writings of 36 contributors and the photographs of 15 photographers for our premier issue.

In addition to the Chicago Launch Party on October 18th (see the website for more information), Conclave is going to be a part of the AROUND THE COYOTE Fall Arts Festival.

ATC Festival is a multi-media arts festival featuring visual art, theater, dance, film, music, video and poetry.

This from the Literary Curator: “For this year’s festival, the literary curation will feature recordings of readings / performances that will be played between theatre / music acts — everyone in the hall will be able to hear them, though they will function as a series of disembodied voices: of characters without a play, if you will. They will be both foreground and background in terms of sound — so it’s a way of introducing the readings to the audience as something they are surrounded by but maybe can’t quite identify. It won’t be as though there’s a seated audience, though there is a small-seated section, but on the other hand: instead of an audience of 20-30, everyone touring the visual art (usually 200+) will hear what is being played.”

They are allowing us roughly 1 and 1/2 hour of recorded poetry and prose from our inaugural issue of Conclave to be read by writers and by performers! They are also looking at a way to have a place where the journal can be sold at the festival!

There’s another exciting development in the works, Chicago is getting a “Lit Lounge” at the Chicago Cultural Center.

Wolfsword Press and Conclave Journal are also going to a part of the newly-created Chicago Lit Lounge.  It will be in the Randolph ground-floor lobby, on either side of the marble staircase, and it will contain books and periodicals by Chicago-area publishers and authors.

They tell me that the lounge will be a place where visitors can learn about publishing ventures that are happening in Chicago–and explore some of the publications that are being produced in the city.  Each publisher will have its own space, so browsers can get a sense of its identity.   Visitors won’t be able to remove books or periodicals from the area; they will be allowed to browse or to read them there.  They also plan to highlight six Chicago publishers per month in the Cultural Center store.  Also, a computer will be built into the Lounge, so people can look at Chicago’s literary websites and blogs, and order books that are displayed from publishers’ websites or Amazon.

I hope to see some of you in October!

Published by Valya

Valya Dudycz Lupescu has been making magic with food and words for more than 20 years, incorporating folklore from her Ukrainian heritage with practices that honor the Earth. She’s a writer, content developer, instructor, and mother of three teenagers. Valya is the author of MOTHER CHRISTMAS, THE SILENCE OF TREES, and the founding editor of CONCLAVE: A Journal of Character. Along with Stephen H. Segal, she is the co-author of FORKING GOOD: An Unofficial Cookbook for Fans of The Good Place and GEEK PARENTING: What Joffrey, Jor-El, Maleficent, and the McFlys Teach Us about Raising a Family (Quirk Books), and co-founder of the Wyrd Words storytelling laboratory. Valya earned her MFA in Writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and her poetry and prose have been published in anthologies and magazines that include, The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, Kenyon Review, Culture, Gargoyle Magazine, Gone Lawn, Strange Horizons, Mythic Delirium. You can find her on Twitter @valya and on Mastodon.social @valya

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