From the Editor’s Desk
Ducts.org was originally the work of two mad scientists who molded her out of pixels, electricity and too many late-night cheese and bacon omelets. Over nines years the staff has expanded, while one of our mad scientists, yours truly, stayed on board to protect the ship from literary pirates and rough waters. Now we’re expanding once again. I’m happy to announce that Kat Rodies, who has helped us in countless ways over the last few years, is coming on board as our first Managing Editor. We are pleased to welcome her on board and look forward to seeing her bring her own special vision to the webzine.
In other news:
Greenpoint Press, our publishing wing, is happy to announce the publication of its fourth book, Between Heaven and Earth, a skydiving memoir by Doug Garr. Publication date is January 12th, but the book is available now on Greenpointpress.org for pre-ordering.
New York writer Doug Garr spent his college and early adult years as a “skydiving slut,” – he’d do almost anything for a free jump – leaping from perfectly good airplanes with some of the sport’s most notorious and eccentric practitioners – from the Army’s elite Golden Knights to the outlaw jumpers who flew off the World Trade Center and into Shea Stadium during the World Series and the El Capitan peak in Yosemite National Park. The anecdotes are searing and scary, funny and poignant. His memoir delves into an intriguing analysis of the risk personality, but it goes beyond the intrinsic thrills of this often misunderstood sport. His book is also about love and kinship, egos and existentialism, loyalty and trust. As the reader will discover, there is a lot of hugging but few tears among the cult of the extreme.
Greenpoint Press’ last book recently entered its second printing! Long Gone is Richard Willis’s memoir recall of growing up on an Iowa farm between 1933 and 1947. Richard’s book is available right now! In addition, Greenpoint Press, is proud to announce that we are publishing our fourth book,
Please go to Greenpointpress.org to order these wonderful books.
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.
And as always, you’ll find great essays, fiction, memoirs, poetry, and art within these pages. Please return again and again!
–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.