MERGER

I’m writing to you from the deck of the U.S.S. F. Scott Fitzgerald where it’s always sunny and all the soldiers keep journals and read their favorite webzine, Ducts.org. An officer walked by recently wearing a t-shirt with a cartoon drawing of Ducts’ co-founder Philip Shane on it, which led me into a gauzy flashback whereupon I recalled that the entire Ducts.org organization used to be run by two hapless New Yorkers with too much time on their hands and too much gel in their hair. Now, I’m happy to announce, we’ve added an entire organization of dedicated writer-teachers to the already amazing group of editors, designers, administrators and interns that give their energy and time to this plucky enterprise. That is to say, Ducts.org is officially announcing a merger with the fabulous teachers collective, the New York Writers Workshop to form a brand new parent company, the New York Writers Resources. This merger has been a long time in coming, but makes perfect sense. Yours truly is a member of the NYWW and enjoys the privilege of teaching at the JCC in Manhattan on a weekly basis. In addition, two NYWW founders, the esteemed and peripatetic Tim Tomlinson (Fiction), and the silver haired and slap-hitting Charles Salzberg (Memoir), have been staff members of Ducts.org for several years. This merger, we believe, will lead to online writing classes (making us available to writers worldwide), more book publications, overseas classes and a great deal more. We’re happy as a seagull sitting on the flagpole of the U.S.S. Arthur Miller about all this! A special thanks to Ryan LaForce and all the other fabulous lawyers who stuck with us to the end.

As part of our celebration, Greenpoint Press, our publishing wing, is happy to announce that it has another bun in the oven. Long Gone is Richard Willis’s memoir recall of growing up on an Iowa farm between 1933 and 1947. Family-size farms are at best hazy memories, the subjects of politicians’ lies, but Long Gone provides a glimpse of what life was like on an old-time farm and in a small town nearby. Richard’s book will be our third and should be available by the Fall. We’re excited to bring it to you!

Also, you probably noticed an ad for another book, The Portable MFA, on the main page. The Portable MFA gives you all the essential information you would learn in an MFA program, covering fiction, memoir, personal essays, magazine articles, poetry and playwriting. Authors include Tim Tomlinson and Charles Salzberg. We're lucky to have them on our staff! To buy a copy of The Portable MFA, please click here.

Due to the heavy volume of submissions we've been receiving, we have instituted a reading period. Ducts.org editors will read submissions only from January through August of every year. Material received between September 1st and December 31st will be returned, although we'll encourage writers to resubmit their material during the reading period.

Of course, we continue to raise money as part of our effort to bring you the best personal stories on the web. If you enjoy the thought-provoking essays and memoirs, if you are captivated by our fiction, poetry and art, I urge you to donate whatever amount you can. Every little bit helps.

As always, you'll find great essays, fiction, memoirs, poetry, and art within these pages. And as the U.S.S. F. Scott begins its journey into the heart of darkness, I would like to thank you (don’t look around, I mean you) for your support of our ever-expanding webzine. Please return again and again!


Bon Voyage!

--Jonathan Kravetz, Editor-in-Chief, Ducts.org

This issue of Ducts is made possible with a regrant from the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses, supported by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.