The Print Edition is Here

Our first Print Edition is finally here, and we’re thrilled! So far I’ve been the only one to hold it, so that’s why the picture below is just of me. (Eagerly awaiting the chance to give Justin, our Designer, and Kristin, our Managing Editor, their copies!) Subscriber and single-order copies should be arriving through this week and into next. Please let us know what you think and what can be improved, as we want to make this magazine shine!

It’s here! 6 months of planning and hard work has finally paid off.

It’s especially exciting for me to finally hold this issue because it’s the culmination of six months of hard work and the result of a major life change. Six months ago I left my full-time job to devote more time to Carve, a decision that was risky, terrifying, and elating all at once. I was happy in my job, had been there for five years, but I was always wanting to spend more time on Carve. After attending AWP in March, I made the decision to leave and start the Print Edition as a way to build the magazine up and out from its exclusively online presence.

Now with a growing subscriber base and a physical magazine in my hand, it’s very satisfying to say that it was a decision well worth the anxiety it induced. I love being able to work on Carve full time, and more importantly, continue to give more opportunities for the voices we publish to be heard.

The stories in this edition are exceptional. Particularly, Jia Tolentino’s “The Odyssey” is one of those rare, life-altering stories that you’ll never forget. The sense of longing, the alienation, the desire for something you can’t or don’t know how to define is something universal within all of us, and Jia captures the feeling with her flowing language and arresting descriptions of the mountainous Kyrgyzstan.

To me, the most exciting part of the Print Edition is the interviews with each author. Rather than try to better “understand” or “interpret” the story they wrote, we try to better understand them and how they came to write the story. We approach them writer to writer - what’s their technique, their vision, their goals and hopes for the future? Their responses are inspiring, surprising, and create such a sense of community.

I also love Susanne Rubenstein’s essay, “Crossing Into Carver Country” which she updated and extended exclusively for our Print Edition. In it she discuss Raymond Carver’s history and legacy, how his works blend the lines of autobiography and fiction in a distinct and necessary way. She discusses how her students react to Carver and his work, and how in today’s changed economic climate, the “blue collar voice of despair” is more resonant than ever.

There’s also the Reject! feature - which is something different than anything you’ll find in any lit mag. We published an excerpt from an actual submission that we rejected, complete with our notes and comments to the author. The story later went on to become published, without any of our revisions, and we hear from the author on how he responded to our critique.

And lastly, the Something More feature with the Tess Gallagher interview is really a great read, letting us delve even more into Carver and his history.

I want to take a moment and thank all of our subscribers who are supporting the magazine with their generosity. We’re just getting started, and we have more plans for expanding and improving the magazine. We hope this is the year that we finally land in either the PEN/O. Henry Prize or Best American Short Stories Anthologies. Not because we want to be glamorous and famous, but because we want these stories to be read by so many more. They’re just that good.

Get your copy of the first Print Edition of Carve today and help support honest fiction.

The Fall 2012 Cover Touchup

We’re writers, too, so it’s only natural that we treat our artwork like our stories - revising constantly! We’ve touched up our Fall 2012 cover featuring the iconic image of Raymond Carver. Here it is, let us know what you think:

You can subscribe to our Print Edition for $39.95 for a year (4 issues) or order single issues for $12.

The Print Edition features the same stories we publish online plus exclusive features only in print, including author interviews, Reject! stories, Fast Facts about each story’s journey to publication, and Something More.

Cover Unveil: Fall 2012

Today we’re excited to unveil the cover of our forthcoming fall 2012 issue, which will be our first Premium Print Edition. The cover depicts a familiar picture of Raymond Carver, our namesake, with a new twist. 

Based on a photograph by Marion Ettlinger and used by permission of Tess Gallagher and The Wylie Agency LLC.

The cover was designed by Justin Burks, who is also playing a heavy role in the design of the Premium Print Edition. Justin is a graduate of the Art Institute of Dallas and is currently a Graphic Design Coordinator at Neiman Marcus. We’ll have a new blog post shortly that fully introduces Justin as a member of our growing team.

When designing the cover of the first Premium Print Edition, we wanted to create an image that would pay tribute to Raymond Carver, while also acknowledging the electronic nature of our identity as Carve and the expansion we’re making into print. The result is a swirl of new and old - an old photograph with a digital twist, and a familiar image with a new backdrop.

More information detailing the process of creating the cover will be available within the fall 2012 issue’s Premium Print Edition. The fall 2012 issue will feature the winning stories of the 2012 Raymond Carver Short Story Contest.

Subscribe now at our low introductory rate available for a limited time only.

Introducing the Premium Print Edition of Carve

This fall, digital is going print. We’re introducing a new Premium Print Edition of Carve to be published alongside our online stories. The fall 2012 issue will be the premiere issue. The Carve you know and love online isn’t offering any less. The Premium Print Edition is just a companion that offers so much more.

Why? Isn’t print dying?

At Carve, we believe both digital and print are here to stay, but with different purposes. 

Digital is social; print is personal. We want our readers to enjoy sharing and commenting on our stories, but for those of you who are left wanting something more, something personal, we offer our premium print edition.

Features of the Premium Print Edition:

Reader’s Voice
A featured short essay from readers like you on how a previously published Carve story moved or changed you. Dedicated to the small percentage of readers who read Carve purely for pleasure.

The Stories & Fast Facts
Each new issue will feature the same stories we publish online, but subscribers get the bonus of discovering the Fast Facts:

-how long ago the author began writing the story
-how many months the story sat in our reading queue
-how many rejections the author received from other publications
-how many drafts they went through before finally getting published

All of this will appear above the story in an at-a-glance view.

What We Talk About
Interviews with the contributors for that issue, with insight into their writing process, the origin of the story, and who influences them and their writing. Every conversation will be unique, and we won’t ask everyone the same questions. It’s a great way for writers and readers to learn more from those whose writing they admire.

REJECT!
Every writer gets rejected, but nobody wants to brag about it. We’re changing that. This feature will highlight a story that was rejected by Carve Magazine, but went on to get published elsewhere. Why did we reject it? What changes did the author make, if any? All is revealed and discussed in-depth, including snippets of the rejected draft compared alongside the published one. (You can submit your Reject! piece now.)

Something More
Each issue will feature a special section that’s something more, and it will be different in every issue. Maybe an additional story, a piece of flash fiction, poetry, or even an essay. Like the other features, it’ll be exclusive and available only to our premium print edition subscribers.

The premiere issue this fall will also feature the winning stories of the 2012 Raymond Carver Short Story contest and will be a celebration of Raymond Carver. Look for the special, exclusive content, including:

• A look at Raymond Carver and his legacy and influence on the short story form.

• Excerpts from an interview with Tess Gallagher conducted by our founding editor, Melvin Sterne.

• Comments from the guest judge of the Raymond Carver Short Story Contest on what made the winners stand out and earn the prize. 

When Can I Subscribe?

Right now. Subscribe today for our low first-year charter subscriber rate of $29.95 for four (4) issues delivered to your door. The regular subscription rate will be $39.95 (+$5 for Canada and +$15 for international) so lock in your low rate and 25% savings for the first year now - it’s for a limited time only. 

We’re using Paypal for Subscription services so you have more control. No annoying renewal notices with the auto-renew feature. Update your address or cancel anytime by logging into your Paypal account. 

Jump to our updated Subscriber page now to get started.

We hope you’re as excited as we are about our forthcoming Premium Print Edition of Carve. For more information and forthcoming previews, check back on the blog or follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

UPDATE: We’ve unveiled the cover of our premiere issue. Check out the illustration of a familiar face with a new twist.

The Editor's Favorite Raymond Carver Story

My favorite Carver story is “Kindling,” published posthumously in Call If You Need Me, a collection of stories, essays, reviews, and other prose penned by Carver. The story received a much-deserved O. Henry Prize in 1999.

“Kindling” tells the story of Myers, a man who has recently completed a 28 day stint at a drying-out facility. His wife has left him and placed a restraining order against him to ensure they don’t have contact. Myers decides to head for the coast and rents a room from a couple, Sol and Bonnie. They’re curious about their new housemate, but Myers keeps to himself, that is until he offers to chop wood for Sol.

What appeals to me most about the story is its restraint and simplicity. There’s clearly a lot going on in Myers’ mind, but Carver doesn’t indulge in it much. Instead, he sticks to the details of Myers’ daily habits and the tentative relationship he develops with Sol and Bonnie. In true Carver style, it’s the minimalist (or as Carver preferred, “precisionist”) approach that carries the story, letting us observe a snapshot of Myers’ life that is brief but rich and significant.

Carver also captures the locale of the story as if with a painter’s touch, illustrating the Pacific northwest region in a way that makes the scenery jump off the page like a pop-up book:

Through his window at the rear of the house he could see up the valley to a series of steep mountain peaks whose tops were covered with snow, even though it was August. Lower down on the mountains, timber covered the slopes and the side of the valley. The river coursed down the valley, frothing and boiling over rocks and under granite embankments until it burst out of its confines at the mouth of the valley, slowed a little, as if it had spent itself, then picked up strength again and plunged into the ocean.

Carver recognizes what many writers fail to grasp - if you’re going to describe scenery it must be compelling, not a throwaway detail. In the paragraph above, Carver doesn’t just invoke sight and sound, he gives life to the river and location. By the end of the story, having experienced the location seems to have had a profound effect on Myers.

But the heart of the story - and what makes it my favorite - is Myers. The story opens with “It was the middle of August and Myers was between lives.” Immediately we know that Myers is stranded, at a point in his life where the certainty of the past is matched only by the uncertainty of his future. The story unfolds and is told in a way that reflects Myers’ experience - slow, but purposeful. We watch as Myers spends time alone in his room. He jots down a few thoughts in his journal. He interacts a bit with Sol and then Bonnie, but mostly he just spends time alone, thinking, reflecting. We don’t always know about what, though we’re given just enough information to make a guess. And then he takes on the task of chopping the wood. A simple task, requiring some labor, sure, but not impossible. But it’s important. It matters to Myers. And when something matters, it becomes a part of us, changes us. And through that, Myers finds a way forward.

There is no intense display of emotion in “Kindling.” There is no breakdown or outpour of epiphanies from Myers. In fact, there is really nothing remarkable that happens in the story. And yet, every time I read it, I’m left in awe, and I want nothing more than to sit in a lawn chair and stare up at the moon, as Myers does on one occasion. When I read this story, I’m reminded to slow down, to appreciate the scenery around me, and to remember the things that matter.

Carver has so many terrific short stories. But for me, this one feels particularly, painfully, honest. It’s my favorite because like Carver’s earlier stories, there is so much happening beneath the surface. But like his later works, he’s not afraid to be poetic with his prose, to draw out the details in a way that’s textured and full. “Kindling” is a simple tale about a simple man, but nested deep within it, there’s a glimpse into the beauty of solace.

What’s your favorite Raymond Carver story? Tell us which one and why in the comments!