Over the next month or so we are going to such exciting places. But first look where we’ve already been: Here we are in a really great article in Finzioni, an Italian literary/cultural magazine. If you don’t know Italian, run it through Google Translate. It will probably make your day a lot better. Thanks to Viviana Lisanti, who took the SPR to a whole new level.

Up until recently, I’ve tried to maintain the Safety Pin Review as a weekly magazine. But lately, it’s become impossible. Because all of our operatives are volunteers with crazy life-schedules of their own to deal with, it isn’t always possible to post issues and Action Shots as consistently as we’d like.

A lot of factors need to line up together in order to put together a great SPR issue, and, understandably, sometimes one falls out of place and things just don’t work out. Operatives have been known to disappear. Bearing this in mind, let’s go ahead and consider the Safety Pin Review a weekly, biweekly, and monthly magazine all at once. Rest assured we are always working, and will always strive to put out a quality issue, whenever it goes up. Word.

Our next issue should go up this week or next week, and then we should be on a steady stream for a while.

While you wait, why not peruse our newly updated and comprehensive as heck “Mentions / Press” page? It will probably be a good time. There are different languages there.

See you soon.

Love,
Simon

"Graduating Students Can Get Cash!"

In scenic Watertown, MA.

"Jaywalking on Comm Ave (Not for the Faint of Heart"

Sonja Vitow breaks the law (and don’t get caught.)

"Legalized Walking in Downtown Boston"

Excellent has already happened.

"Rooting Through Used Records (The Death of Rawk)"

Sonja scored some sweet albums that day.

"Enjoying Spring in Boston on the Charles River"

Sonja says: “The murky life-source of our fair city.”

"A Flyers Fan in Bruins Country"

Nothing more badass.

"ON THIS HOCKIEST OF DAYS, RAIN DOES NOT KEEP US FROM TAKING THE STREETS"

Sonja says: “The juxtaposition between Ann’s story-wearing and mine is even more layered when you factor in the weather discrepancy…this is not a city for people who enjoy ‘clear skies’ or whatever.”

"CITGTFO"

Citgo – known headquarters of the Illuminati.

ISSUE TWENTY-FIVE (4/16/12):

featuring

“Missing Childhood”

by A.K. Mayhew

Operative: Sonja Vitow (Boston, MA)

About the author: A.K. Mayhew is working on her undergraduate degree in the suburbs of Los Angeles. She writes about literature at readingthroughcollege.com and for The Specter Collective.

About the operative: Sonja Vitow (Boston, MA) calls herself a writer when she’s drunk. She is the central focus for Stephen King’s highly anticipated coming-of-age novel, “Little House on the Landfill.”

From the bottom of our collective hearts, we thank you all so much for your support. It means the world to us. Obviously this feels like a very, very big step.

Yet we have such places to go.

Because You Know that Path Leads Somewhere Special

Places like here, like California, now, this week, our heart of hearts, with our Operative A.K. Mayhew, whose back is now featured so prominently in the LA Times, wearing Sonja Vitow’s brutal little story. Fresh from this week’s operative, we present these gloriously high-defined Action Shots.

The Land of Grass that Is Green

Speaking of which, Sonja has a story in the latest Gulf Coast, and we’ll be damned if it didn’t give us chills. It’s called “Master Bedroom,” and you must read it. You simply must. (The bio says it’s her first publication, but, oh, we know.)

I Just Want Somewhere to Rest My Tired Feet

It’s an exquisite little juxtaposition, we think, the stabbing beauty of Sonja’s SPR story so harmoniously matched with its environs.

A Coffee Is A Coffee Is A Coffee Is A PUNCHINTHEFACE

In the past day the Los Angeles Times article has been tweeted by some of our very favorites, among them: The Lit Pub; “The Book Bench,” The New Yorker’s literary blog; NAP Magazine; J. Bradley; xTx; oh my, there are too many. We thank them all.

AK AKA

And this is to all of you, to each and every one who ever needs a boost: we will always give you a shout-out.

* * *

PS. Some anonymous internet commentators have made snarky remarks about our ‘about’ page and how we pledge that our operatives are a collective network of “punks, thieves, and anarchists.” We tweeted this yesterday, and it should be obvious by now in any case:

ISSUE TWENTY-FOUR (4/2/12):

featuring

“After the Punch, Before the Swell”

by Sonja Vitow

Operative: A.K. Mayhew (Los Angeles, CA)

About the author: Sonja Vitow is an MFA student in fiction at Emerson College. Her work will be published in upcoming issues of Gulf Coast and Words Apart Magazine.

About the operative: A.K. Mayhew is a Twin Cities native working on her undergraduate degree in the suburbs of Los Angeles. You can find her at http://readingthroughcollege.com and @akmayhew.

ISSUE TWENTY-THREE (3/26/12):

featuring

“Wishing on Stars”

by Sharanya Manivannan

Operative: Rosa Ostrom

About the author: Sharanya Manivannan’s writing has appeared on Drunken Boat, Killing the Buddha, The Nervous Breakdown, Monkeybicycle and elsewhere. She can be found online at www.sharanyamanivannan.com and on Twitter as @ranyamanivannan.

About the operative: Rosa Ostrom (Seattle, WA) is a one-woman island.

—

P.S. Check out our interview at Duotrope, where we are currently rated as one of the 25 “swiftest” and “most personable” markets. Thanks, guys.

Back at the end of February, I mailed a patch with Sharanya Manivannan’s story to an operative in Seattle, but it didn’t arrive on time. I’d been planning to take a week off in early March anyway, so I pushed the date for Sharanya’s story back a week, hoping the story would arrive. It didn’t. After three weeks, I decided the story had been lost somewhere in the mail and went about painting another patch to mail as a replacement.

Meanwhile, last week, I sent a patch to DC—featuring a story by B.J. Jones—and right now, we’re waiting on the photos that were taken of it. This should be posted as a new issue within the next few weeks.

As for Sharanya’s story, “Wishing on Stars,” today I was prepared to mail the second copy when I heard that the original had finally arrived, after a month in transit. God bless the USPS, they do get the job done eventually.

So: Sharanya’s story will be worn next week; this is the plan. The posting of the DC-story will be delayed until I get the photos and can give it a solid week’s worth of publicity on the site.

I’m sorry for the inconsistency, but this tends to be the case when you’ve got stories darting every which way across the country, occasionally at the cost of a totally reliable publishing schedule. In the next month, we’re visiting both coasts, and then, at the end of April, South Korea. In May: Turkey. July: Norway. So yes, exciting times ahead.

This post may be a little too process-heavy to be of much interest, but I just wanted to keep everyone on the up-and-up and make sure you know we’re still alive and kicking quite hard. We want you to know everything that we do.

In the meantime, submissions of course remain open, and we’re waiting on a second shipment of 100 SPR pins so you can wear the SPR wherever you go (check out at least two happy pinners, here and here).

Love,
Simon

If you want to lay hands on one or more of these beauties, you have many options to do so. If you see me in real life, I’ll give you one. If you feel you’ve been denied, email me and I’ll hook it up. If you donate a dollar or more, I’ll send you one. Or you could just ask nicely, and I’ll mail one to you anyway. Handing out buttons is probably one of the most fun things to do ever.

I think all little literary magazines would benefit from buttons, and I think they should direct their attentions to Decaying Youth to make it happen. It’s a wonderful thing, these buttons, we think.

In keeping with openness, our new ‘Support !’ page has a monetary breakdown of what keeps the SPR going. Because I, for one, was curious about what it took to run an online lit mag, and I guess I know now (and you should too).

Our submission guidelines have also undergone marginal changes, if you’re in need of inspiration.

And an update on our schedule: we’re still a weekly, of course, but last week’s story appears to have been waylaid on its way to Seattle. All digits crossed that it arrives this week. We’ll press on nonetheless next week.

And hey, we surpassed 100 likes on Facebook! Join the fun.

Playlist:

1. “When the Day Met the Night” – Panic! at the Disco
2. “Within You Without You” – the Beatles
3. “Scarborough Fair/Canticle” – Simon & Garfunkel
4. “The Moon Looked Down & Laughed” – Billie Holiday (centerpiece)
5. “You Hung the Moon” – Elvis Costello
6. “Candle in the Wind” – Elton John
7. “Don’t Stop Me Now” – Queen

Our Operative

Natural skin tone, of course.

Classy Broads

Look at those locks.

Here's Looking at Yu, Kid

The most effective pill.

Lawyers Will Be the First Victims of the Disease That Sweeps This Nation

So many incidental readers on these streets, so much guerilla fiction going around.

Casting Off

*Insert Confederacy of Dunces reference here*