I think this is already pretty well known by people who are interested in knowing, but because I can't remember an "official announcement" from either Gwenda or me, here's some news. Our 'zine, Say... is now an annual, rather than semi-annual, concern. We always tried to be careful to describe our subscriptions as "two-issue" rather than "annual" so hopefully everybody will be cool with the change. We figured out that we wouldn't be able to keep the perfect binding and full color covers and still do two issues per year and decided we'd rather have those things and (hopefully) bigger issues than go back to the saddle stitching.
If you're an interested creative type, you can read some (somewhat outdated) guidelines here. The addresses and info about which editors to send what is still accurate there. The short version for the next issue is that Say...what's the combination? will feature stories and poems (and hopefully comics) that answer, explore, interrogate or refute the theme question. As I said elsewhere, "We're going to tighten our focus down on the theme a little this time. We want to see work about keys and answers, and about unifications and joinings."
Poetry editor Alan DeNiro wrote, of his side of things, that "rather than receive dozens of "Ye Olde Odes to Safecracking", I thought it would be cool to make--for this issue only--a call for poems that are coded in some way... Poems that utilize acrostics, abecedarians, anagrams, syllabics and other cryptographies." Unlike all other types of submissions by the way, Alan prefers that poetry submissions be e-mailed to him here.
Our reading periods will now be July 1st through March 1st (of the following year), and we're actively soliciting material for the upcoming issue. We haven't officially purchased anything yet, and I'm down to just three stories in the slush pile that we're considering right now. Our commitment to publishing the best material we receive remains strong, as does our commitment to having a table or contents with a demographic breakdown that more closely resembles the world at large than it does the membership roster of a rod and gun club in South Carolina. We want to put out a big issue next time, so please spread the word.
Finally, if you're interested in taking out a $10 two-issue subscription to the magazine, please use the PayPal link below. I recently got a few copies of #5 (...have you heard this one?) back in stock, so please indicate whether you want to begin your subscription with that one or with the upcoming #6. (That link is for subscribers in the USA, if you're somewhere else, please e-mail me.)