Archive for the Announcements Category

NEWSFLASH IN WHICH THE NEWS BECOMES US

Posted in Announcements, Contributor News with tags , on January 27, 2013 by mohawko

!!! NEWSFLASH !!!!

Starting approximately next week, the SPR will attempt to feature a bi-weekly (i.e., occasional, between issues) round-up of news from its former contributors and operatives, including recent publications, announcements, awards, events, etc. This column will be called “________” (title to come). So, if you’re a previous contributor or wearer and have some recentish news about you or someone else from the SPR that you’d like to share, and that you think missed the eagle eye of our curator (rare), then please email us at safetypinreview [at] gmail [dot] com with the info and we’ll be sure to include it. Hit us up and LET’S PUBLICIZE THE PEOPLE WE LOVE.

So come on. Let’s do it. PUSH THE WHEEL OF LOVE. (This will probably be the title now.)

We are doing this because we are a huge enormous family. DISPATCH FROM A HUGE ENORMOUS FAMILY. (This could also be the title.)

LASSO OF LOVE (round-up, get it?).

In all likelihood, this will change titles every time.

xoxo
Simon

2012 Best of the Net Nominations!!

Posted in Announcements with tags , , , , , on September 15, 2012 by mohawko

GREETINGS.

Welcome, at last, to the Safety Pin Review’s 2012 Best of the Net nominations. It’s hard to believe that we’ve been in existence for over a year.

This was an incredibly difficult and stressful decision to make, and we were unable to select all of the stories we wanted to nominate (which would be all of them, duh, and, the window of eligibility doesn’t cover the entirety of the SPR’s storied [ha!] first year.) But we are in love with what we’ve chosen, as we expect you will be too, or already are. Read them all again, for the fortieth time.

The nominees are…

*opens envelope*

“STORIES”:

  • Tucker Cummings, “Hic thalamum invasit natae vetitosque hymenaeos.Issue Nine.
  • David Sklar, “The Fisherman’s Widow.” Issue Twenty-Eight.

“POEMS”:

  • Doug Paul Case, “On My Spaceship.” Issue Seven.
  • Laura Hallman. “The Science of Your Intimacy Phobia.” Issue Twenty.
  • Casey Hannan, “Where to Put Your Hand.” Issue Nineteen.
  • Brian Hurley, “High Five.” Issue Five.
  • Sonja Vitow, “After the Punch, Before the Swell.” Issue Twenty-Four.
  • xTx, “When You Take Things That Aren’t Yours.” Issue One.

The quotation marks signify ARBITRARY GENRE DIVISIONS. Word.

Congratulations to all of the nominees, and enormous thanks to all the operatives for taking these stories to such exciting places. Here’s to hoping the SPR fucking storms the competition. With THUNDER-HOOVES.

I am still using the same paintbrush as I was a year ago.

Thank you all, readers and writers, for meaning the world to me.

<3

The SPR International

Posted in Announcements on May 7, 2012 by mohawko

We have been erratic as of late. There are exciting things to come, though, heralded by this tweet:

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

Me My We the World: Issue 24 Action Shots and Announcements

Posted in Action Photos!, Announcements, Issue Twenty-Four with tags , , , , , on April 8, 2012 by mohawko

Oh my. We have so many things to show and tell you. First, on Thursday we were written about in the Los Angeles Times book blog “Jacket Copy” by Carolyn Kellogg, and it has been a surreal deluge of social media ever since. So many Facebook likes, so many retweets, so many new submissions and new friends. Our traffic has spiked to levels unheard of.

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:

Look What Happened: What’s Going on at the SPR

Posted in Announcements on March 21, 2012 by mohawko

If you’re a regular visitor to the Safety Pin Review site, you’ve no doubt noticed that it’s been a few weeks since we’ve posted a new issue. Here’s what’s up:

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

SPR Gets Pinned: In Times of Love & Lust

Posted in Announcements with tags , , , on March 6, 2012 by mohawko

THE SURPRISE IS BUTTONS. The SPR is proudly merching out with these wonderful one-inch pins, freshly pressed by Nathaniel Wolos of Decaying Youth Buttons, who is a proper treasure. Pin them to your favorite leather jacket/hat/body part and then dance around where everyone can see:

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.

SPR PSA

Posted in Announcements with tags on December 27, 2011 by mohawko

Hello, all. The Safety Pin Review is taking a week-long holiday break, so there isn’t a new story this week, but we’ll be back soon and submissions are still wide, wide open. Why don’t you write something about Paul Robeson (2), shoplifting, steampunk, or David Bowie? It could be fun.

In the meantime, write a story, submit a story, and/0r familiarize yourself with the City of Brotherly Love, because that’s where we’re going next.

We Have Left Only Crumbs: Issue Eleven Update

Posted in Announcements with tags , on November 28, 2011 by mohawko

The radio show featuring this week’s story by Harper Hull and Issue Ten’s “POW*MIA” by Ben Nadler is now available for download under “SPR on the Radio!” To tide you over until the issue proper appears. Savor the auditory flavor of Harper and Ben amidst all kinds of radio shenanigans, failed and otherwise.

1994 & the Art of the Pop Single (Action Shots! 1-3 of Issue Three)

Posted in Action Photos!, Announcements, Issue Three with tags , , on October 5, 2011 by mohawko

Three fair action photos of this week’s story by the wonderful and peerless Len Kuntz. And you can now listen to this week’s installment of “Centerpiece” (featuring Len’s story, thrice) via download.

Discovering that he is just not that into you

I am aware that these photos are probably beginning to seem somewhat repetitive; understand that this is the cost of living on a very, very small college campus, and that we are working on spreading our live message to a more geographically diverse audience. We have already acquired the services of several out-of-state operatives who will be wearing stories next month, and will gradually move out from there. Pardon as us we gain momentum.

Walking Billboard

In the meantime, please enjoy these lovely, nostalgically blurred photos, courtesy of T. Pry, once again (thanks for putting up with me, man).

Blur vs. Oasis

And lastly, a thank you, from the few of us here to the many of you out here. The subs, the tweets, the likes, the comments. We love you all.

SUBMIT!

Posted in Announcements with tags on September 4, 2011 by mohawko

“We want to wear your fiction on our bodies.”

Welcome, visitor, to the SAFETY PIN REVIEW, a brand-new online/cloth-print D.I.Y. literary magazine. We publish >30 word stories online, hand-paint them onto back patches, and wear them around for a week at a time. You should read about what we do, and then get involved straightaway.

Bear with us and be kind as we fumble around and try to get everything to look right. And in the meantime, why don’t you read about us take a quick look at Issue Zero?

Help us find our footing on Twitter and Facebook.

Love to all,

Simon Jacobs

Editor

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