Forthcoming in Opossum!

It was a good move to attend the AWP conference a few weeks ago. (Can it already be a month ago? Shocking but true!) The benefits were many--getting back up to speed on the literary world after quite a few years of focus on art history; learning some new tips that will help me promote Magnetic Woman when it appears; buying and being given various journals, novels, and story collections; meeting and chatting with the staff of a long list of journals and presses. (Actually, I am still sorting the materials I brought home, which take up half the dining room table.)
AWP re-energized me about sending out my fiction. Long ago, I was extremely diligent about sending out my work, and always had at least ten stories out in the mail. It was important to be that diligent, because the sort of thing I wrote wasn't much in fashion then and it usually took a long time for any given piece to find a home. Friends suggested that I might have better luck if I adopted a Spanish pseudonym, as magic realism did get published in English translation. I did not, however, think it fitting to pretend I hailed from a completely different culture. Like Günter Grass, I have Germans from Poland in my family tree.
Anyhow, the first good news has come in on a story submitted after AWP! A relatively new journal called Opossum likes what I sent and hopes to publish the tale in either the spring or fall issue. I can't tell you the title of the piece, as it sounds as though the title is the main thing the editors want to change, so I'll have to think about that. But this is pretty exciting news.
Opossum describes itself as "a Literary Marsupial" and "a biannual literary magazine featuring work animated by music." There are two print issues per year, with fabulously beautiful covers. Plus, each issue includes a 7-inch vinyl record of author readings. (Color vinyl, at that! Very snazzy.) After each printing, all contributors’ work trickles onto the website where it is freely available to see and hear. What's more, Opossum pays its contributors! (Yes, it would be nice if all literary journals did, but often that's just not possible.)
What a fine way to start the day!