we've moved!

The blog has moved over to our website.  Please find us at http://translitmag.com/blog.  Gracias!

new fiction from Anna North

Up today: "The Machine" by Anna North. 

Anna North got her MFA from the Iowa Writers Workshop in 2009. Her first novel, America Pacifica, will be published by Reagan Arthur Books/Little, Brown in May 2011. She is also a staff writer for Jezebel.com.

Also, our first reading will be Sunday, February 13 at 6pm at Txikito, a Basque restaurant in the heart of Chelsea - 240 Ninth Ave, New York, NY.  Hope to see you there!

new art and fiction

Up on translitmag.com: art from Jim Fuess - two pieces: "Yell" and "Neptune X" - and some short fiction from Andrew McLinden called "The Sad Sentence." 

We're also making plans for a trans lit mag reading in February, so keep your eyes, ears, and minds open.  To get the most up to date info, like us on Facebook (and in the real world). 

Issue #2 is shaping up in a very exciting way, and there is plenty of room for more wonderfulness, so if you have any you want to share, send it on over.  Cheers,

Xtina

Issue #1 - transmission

If you missed Issue #1 - transmission - here is what you missed:

Fiction – “My Late-Middle Period” by Eric Sasson

Poetry – “Maps” by Elana Seplow

Fiction – “Intangible Objects” by Douglas Silver

Poetry – “Awaker” by Elana Seplow

Haiku – “On Reading Douglas Silver’s ‘Intangible Objects’” by Christina Phelps

Art – “Look of A Planet” by Denny E. Marshall

Fiction – “It Wasn’t Just a Dream &” by Jaime Karnes

Fiction – “Programmed Self-destruction” by Shannon Anthony

Issue #1 is taking a little break at the moment but will be back soon.

--Xtina 

Biutiful

A review by Christina Phelps


I went to see Alejandro González Iñárritu's lastest, Biutiful, last night at the Landmark Sunshine Cinema on Houston, not sure what to expect really (I don't even think I had seen a trailer), but in hindsight, I should have known what to expect.  I've seen 21 Grams and Babel (Amores Perros is on the list, I promise) - bleakness and narrative complexity were sure to be forthcoming.


That being said, there was no way to be prepared for the bleakness and narrative complexity of Biutiful.  There is very little respite.  There is very little levity.  There is some, in the small quiet moments, a look between the characters, in the eyes of the children, in beautiful shots of the sea or the city, but tragedy doesn't so much lurk as permeate.  It inflates the characters lungs. 


21 Grams was bleaker than Babel, it was also less complicated because there were really only the three main characters and the story revolved around them in a very close-fitting way.  It was a braid.  (However chopped up temporally.)  Babel, on the other hand, had essentially four different storylines that only slightly overlapped one another (if in complicated ways that were more evident to the audience than the characters themselves).  


Biutiful was bleaker than 21 Grams (seems impossible, I know) and far more complicated than Babel.  The storylines are stacked on top of one another.  The story revolves entirely around this one man, but there are so many storylines that it's as if he is a maypole.  


Javier Bardem was absolutely amazing as Uxbal.  When I saw The Fighter last week, one of the things we (and everyone else) talked about were the performances, which are amazing, but they are only so amazing that they draw attention to themselves as performances.  As Anthony Lane wrote in the New Yorker, "So much acting." You don't get that here.  What you get here are the characters, which is the point, right?


I would love to write more about the character of Uxbal.  He's interesting because he's the central character of course, but what struck me most about him was his role as a father in the literal sense (to his children) and his role as a sort of father-figure to the various groups of people in his life (his ex-wife, the immigrants, the parents of the dead child).  Even when he's paying off the cop, the cop keeps saying how he has to put food on the table for his kids, so it becomes this thing where the cop's kids are unwittingly dependent on Uxbal and even though he seems to think he shouldn't keep giving the cop money he does because he can't let his kids starve, or he knows the cop will just get money a different (potentially more dangerous) way, and Uxbal is constantly caught between being the exploiter and the protector, between getting his cut and being benevolent.  And all this when he didn't have a father.  Or, he did, but he never knew him, could never know him.  He just knew him as an escapee, as heroic in some way.  All these things about death and remembrance.     


I have to say though, I was glad when it became clear that most of the film was in chronological order.  A few minutes in, I was already anticipating exhaustion.  


And it was exhausting, but in a really satisfying way.  It was a beautiful film, a relevant story, a very human and compassionate piece, despite the bleakness, despite the tragedy.  But really because of it.  

the first few pieces in Issue #2, transience

Last week we began Issue #2 with Stephen Batiz's cover piece, "The Path," and today we've added poetry from Sergio Antonio Ortiz and Parker Tettleton and fiction by Mitchell Waldman.  


More fiction, poetry, and artwork set for next week, and we are still accepting submissions for transience, as fleeting as the issue might be.  Like the flicker of candlelight, the first snow flurries, the seasons, each of us and our whims.  The moments we find ourselves caught up in like swirling leaves.  But what is temporary when we create records of everything, in our imaginations and memories, in our art and in ourselves?  Happy New Year. 


Post thundersnow in NYC,


Xtina

submission guidelines

trans lit mag is now accepting submissions for our second issue, “transience.”  Content will include but will not be limited to the following:

- literary fiction
- poems
- short shorts
- comics
- sketches (character or charcoal)
- scenes
- ten-minute plays
- novel excerpts
- a novel in its entirety, serialized
- photos
- drawings
- original translations
- open letters
- responses to any of the above
- reviews and criticism of such things as:

- new novels

- old novels

- Shakespearean sonnets

- short stories appearing in the current issue

- responses to reviews or criticism

- readings

- writing conferences

- mfa programs

- films

- theatre productions

- society

Each issue of trans lit mag has its own title that should be thought of as a guiding principle but by no means as a limitation.  “transience” will be our second transmission, a momentary broadcast, a sending across of our perceptions and strengths in words and pictures.  
trans lit mag retains the right to publish your work, and each issue is copyrighted, but you retain all rights to your work.  Please include a short bio with your submission - a new bio with each submission if you so choose.  Payment will be in the form of a downloadable copy of the issue containing your work as soon as one is available.  
Submissions are accepted and published on a rolling basis.  translitmag@gmail.com is the way to get in touch with us.  We look forward to reading your work.

wrapping up issue #1

I'm about to publish the last piece for Issue #1, Shannon Anthony's short short fiction piece, "Programmed Self-destruction," and I wanted to say that it's been a super exciting fall here at trans lit mag.  Thanks to everyone who submitted and to everyone who read.  I'm inspired by all of you.  Issue #2 will begin Dec 21, and we already have a few pieces scheduled for the first few weeks.  Plans are also in the works for a trans lit mag reading sometime soon.  If you would like to be on our mailing list, email me at translitmag@gmail.com or like us on Facebook (as well as in the real world). 


Since Shannon's piece will only be on the website for a few days, she has graciously agreed to let us share it with you here on the blog as well.  (Electronic copies of Issue #1 will be available shortly.)  So without further ado:  

Programmed Self-destruction

by Shannon Anthony

Family?  History?

Bravo.  USA.  E!

What?  My family had more sets than members.  Nothing special about what went on after school.  Good times (happy days, wonder years).  Did I jump, or was I written off the family tree?  No lifelines left, but who wants to take this cliff

hanger seriously?  Respond to jeopardy in the form of questions?  Not in the home version.  Paraphrase a parachute, cable stitch a safety net, quilt some scraps into a blanket statement.  Daytime talk and nighttime talk in-between these messages.  That oughta hold me.  It's been a very special episode, with enough Learning and Discovery to last a Lifetime.  Naturally it looks bad from this angle, at this velocity, through this faux hand-me-down shroud.  Dead air looms.  Don't touch that dial!  And don't point that thing at me.  Or are you just happy to see me?  Oh, the wacky misunderstandings we get ourselves into, week in, week ou—

 Shannon Anthony just makes this stuff up.  The accompanying piece is pure fiction; she's never watched TV in her life.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.  You may remember her from such links as http://shannonanthony.wordpress.com/ and http://twitter.com/shannon_anthony. We'll be right back.  


So much fun.  Thank you and good night.  See you on the flip side.  Cheers,


-Xtina

Poetry!

How exciting is publishing two days in a row??  Evidently, a rainy and chilly New York City is great for productivity.

So, I'm very pleased to present two poems from Elana Seplow: "Maps" and "Awaker."  Her bio:

Elana Seplow is a native New Yorker and a poet.  A Columbia and Oxford graduate, she is the recipient of the 2009 Burns Society Prize and the Helene Searcy Puls Poetry Prize.  She has a firm handshake with a too-quick release.  She is, after all, a young professional.  

And in other news: the Table of Contents now links to the pieces, which makes the site much more navigable (especially as it continues to grow) and makes me very very happy.  Happy Tuesday,

Xtins

Story #2

Up today!  "Intangible Objects" by Douglas Silver.  Doug's fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Hobart, Berkeley Fiction Review, Our Stories, and Word Riot. He has been a finalist in competitions by Narrative Magazine and Glimmer Train. He lives in New York and fancies himself the World's Greatest Uncle. 

I have no doubt.  

Expect some poetry by Elana Seplow any day now.  Happy reading!

Xtins

Up and Running

I'm completely thrilled to announce that we just published our first piece of fiction!  Check out Eric Sasson's "My Late-Middle Period" on translitmag.com. 

So what do you think?  I'd love to read your feedback in the comments.  Or write a review.  Or throw a little literary criticism my way.  Or write a poem about it.  Do a drawing.  As I hope is clear from our submission guidelines, the sky's the limit.  This is a call for submissions and also a call for celebration.  Happy reading.

Xtina

We have our first submission!

And the first letter from the editor is up on the website.  I think it begins to express what the mission of trans lit mag is: seriously smart silliness.  We should deal with important things, but often in a very playful way.  Perhaps we want to explore how a certain theme is played out in the author's response to a critique of the review of the piece of poetry or fiction that was published the week before, and perhaps we want to present that exploration in the form of a Shakespearean sonnet.  That would be amazing.  Expect movie reviews for films that don't exist yet.  Write some yourself.  Anything goes. 

And have a happy Labor Day, wherever you are.  We have work to do.

--Xtina