<![CDATA[Vine Leaves Literary Journal - Vine Leaves Blog]]>

<![CDATA[Vine Leaves Literary Journal - Vine Leaves Blog]]>Thu, 24 May 2012 17:14:47 -0800Weebly<![CDATA[A snapshot in time]]>Fri, 06 Apr 2012 03:38:19 -0800http://www.vineleavesliteraryjournal.com/1/post/2012/04/a-snapshot-in-time.htmlIn our premiere issue of Vine Leaves, we asked our readers for more art – photographs, illustrations, graphic interpretations of text – and boy, did you deliver.

From J.R. McRae’s striking cover image, to Jamie Provencal’s beautiful photographic slices of life, to the amazing sketches and doodles of true artists like Frank Allen and talented storytellers such as Tamim Sadikali our April issue of Vine Leaves is a thing of visual beauty.

That art carries through to the text.

Because your words are beautiful. From the haunting prose of Theresa Milstein and Carrie Mumford (The Blemish Collector will give you shivers) to the controversial and quirky work of H. Edgar Hix and Greg Belliveau, each vignette merges to create a vivid snapshot in time and place.

And there’s no other place we’d rather be.

We’ve pared down our page count for this issue, not because we lacked in talent or submission volume, but to better give each published piece its deserved time in the public eye. Your eye.

We invite you to join us with a glass of wine for this spectacular journey of visual inspiration.

And to each of you – our readers and contributors – we salute and thank you.

~Jessica & Dawn

XOXO

]]><![CDATA[Vignette Competition over at Emergent Publishing's "Write Anything"]]>Mon, 02 Apr 2012 06:05:34 -0800http://www.vineleavesliteraryjournal.com/1/post/2012/04/vignette-competition-over-at-emergent-publishings-write-anything.htmlNext weekend I'll be judging a vignette competition over at WRITE ANYTHING and I'd love you to check out the guidelines and enter. Submissions are open for a 24 hour period on Sunday starting 00:01GMT (UCT). So you have this week to write it. Plenty of time! :o)

Here are a few tips on how to write a vignette:

“Vignette” is a word that originally meant “something that may be written on a vine-leaf.” This image makes me think: small, special, delicate, and perhaps not for everyone to see.

How apt is this image?

Nowadays, a vignette is what you call a snapshot in words. It differs from flash fiction or a short story in that its aim doesn’t lie within the traditional realms of structure or plot. Instead, the vignette focuses on one element, mood, character, setting, object, or if you’re clever, a unique and smooth blend of them all. It is the perfect form of writing for poetic descriptions, excellent for character or theme exploration and wordplay.

The language can be simple and minimalistic, or extravagantly crafted literary prose. It’s your choice. Write in the style and genre you are comfortable with and in the genre you love. There are no limits regarding style and genre. In fact, the vignette only has one rule: create an atmosphere, not a story.

If you’d like to read some wonderful vignettes, you can find an abundance of them at Vine Leaves Literary Journal, which is run by me and Dawn Ius. But to be honest, I’d give writing one a go before you allow yourself to become influenced by too much other work.

Set your mind on a moment. Use all the senses to describe it. Especially the neglected ones like touch and taste and sound. Try not to go over 800 words. Anything longer than that will want to become a story. 100-word vignettes are also acceptable. And if you can manage to do it in even less than that, we applaud you. But it has to be good—really good, to get away with something so short.

That being said, one of my favourite vignettes in Vine Leaves Literary Journal Issue #01, called “Flashback”, is two lines long. It was written by a poet named Patricia Ranzoni:

the softness from dialing the phone

is like lifting the lid to my music box

This was a very brave submission. But totally worthy. Can you see why? Read it out loud. Slowly.

Let me tell you why I love this piece:

I can absolutely feel myself in the moment. Silence surrounding me, either really early in the morning or late at night. Alone. That soft click and then purr when I lift the receiver of the hook, and then the dancing notes as I dial. I can see the flashback—a blurry image of a pastel pink ballerina spinning, the tune twinkling, and the box vibrating in my hands. I can hear a child laughing in my head. It’s me when I was a kid. The first time I ever saw a ballerina in a box. Magic.

A successful vignette must evoke emotion. If you can make us feel, you’re on the right track.

]]><![CDATA[Music, literature, violence, and the nature of the confessional.]]>Mon, 12 Mar 2012 02:46:16 -0800http://www.vineleavesliteraryjournal.com/1/post/2012/03/music-literature-violence-and-the-nature-of-the-confessional.htmlToday, one of our editors, Jessica Bell, is being interviewed over at Eight Cuts Gallery. She discusses the difference between honest and factual writing, her novel, String Bridge, her poetry, Twisted Velvet Chains, and her new project, Muted, all in relation to music, literature, violence, and the nature of the confessional. Definitely worth the read!
]]><![CDATA[Just TEN days left to submit for Issue #02]]>Mon, 20 Feb 2012 06:00:09 -0800http://www.vineleavesliteraryjournal.com/1/post/2012/02/just-ten-days-left-to-submit-for-issue-02.htmlThere are ten days left before we close submissions to Issue #02, so get your stuff in before it's too late.

The lovely Dawn Ius and I will have the pleasure this month to read through submissions face-to-face, while enjoying a nice bottle of red, as I'm heading to Canada for some much deserved "me time".

And congratulations to Tamim Sadikali for winning the Amazon gift card!

Have a great week, folks, and see you in our submissions inbox, yes?

~Jessica ]]><![CDATA[Congratulations!]]>Tue, 17 Jan 2012 22:04:20 -0800http://www.vineleavesliteraryjournal.com/1/post/2012/01/congratulations.html

Thank you! Your response to our first issue of Vine Leaves Literary Journal garnered more than 1,500 unique views and compliments from around the globe. Congratulations to all of our contributors—that's some mean exposure!

Of course, the magazine did not launch without a few hitches. Last-minute design hiccups pushed publication right to deadline, leaving us with less time to proof than we'd have liked. The consequence was an unfortunate error to Linda Cassidy Lewis' brilliant piece, Meditation. We accidentally chopped the last line off!

But Linda proved how awesome our contributors are by noting the mistake on her personal blog and challenging her fans to guess the last line. Thank you, Linda for your understanding. We're pleased to re-publish her vignette in the April 2012 issue of Vine Leaves—with the last line. Up for a contest? Check out her piece on page 34, and tell us what you think the last line might be. The best (or right) answer will win a $40 gift card from an online book store of your choice. Email your answer through our contact form on the website. We’ll announce the winner in a couple of weeks when we next post.

So, who’s ready to submit for Issue #02? We’re ready and waiting for your amazing work. In addition to all that beautiful prose, we’re looking for more photographs and artwork this time. In fact, we're crying for it.

Send us your art! PLEASE! If you know any photographers, illustrators, painters, graphic designers, anyone who lives to express themselves through art, please send them our way. We’d love to hear from them.

Of course, we want your written vignettes, too! We were absolutely wowed by the standard of work submitted to us for the inaugural issue, and we are excited to see what else hits our submissions inbox.

]]><![CDATA[Your talent is inspiring! Thank you for being a part of this wonderful venture.]]>Wed, 14 Dec 2011 00:13:01 -0800http://www.vineleavesliteraryjournal.com/1/post/2011/12/your-talent-is-inspiring-thank-you-for-being-a-part-of-this-wonderful-venture.html

Wow! We truly didn’t know what to expect when we opened the call for submissions for the first issue of Vine Leaves Literary Journal.

But you like us, you really, really like us.

And guess what? We like you, too.

In fact, our mouths are still gaping at some of the submissions we’ve received – superior talent from all around the world, from unpublished writers, to well-seasoned best-sellers. We are thrilled—and honored you’ve chosen us.

Submissions for the January issue are now closed, but the work is just beginning for us. In the next two weeks, we’ll be going through the remaining 60+ submissions, and selecting a handful of your vignettes for inclusion in the inaugural issue of Vine Leaves Literary Journal.

For those of you awaiting a response, we appreciate your patience. We could not have predicted the heartwarming support for this new venture and we thank each of you for your well wishes—and your hard work. Vine Leaves will indeed showcase some of the greatest literary talent in the world.

Please note, submissions will re-open January 1, 2012, but any new work submitted between now and then will be deleted, unopened. To ensure your work has the best chance for publication, we encourage you to review our submission guidelines on the website.

The first issue of the magazine is scheduled to launch January 6, 2012. We think that’s a wonderful way to kick off the New Year, don’t you?

- Dawn & Jessica

]]><![CDATA[Word vomit? Or a nice mature wine?]]>Wed, 30 Nov 2011 00:05:07 -0800http://www.vineleavesliteraryjournal.com/1/post/2011/11/word-vomit-or-a-nice-mature-wine.htmlThe passion behind this literary journal comes from a rebellious place in our souls, a place that wants to thrash the hard rules of literature. It also comes from a place of frustration. As writers, we know all too well what it feels like to be rejected and misunderstood. We understand what it feels like to pigeon-hole our work for it to fit into today’s publishing environment, and we also know what it feels like to butcher our darlings until they are darlings no more.

Yes, sometimes we do have to brand our writing, sometimes we do have to target our work to a particular audience. Sometimes we just have to follow the rules to get exposure. And as professional editors as well, we also know that there is a time and a place to do things by the book.

At Vine Leaves is not one of them.

Where can you submit a piece of prose that doesn’t have a clear-cut beginning, middle, and end? Something that manipulates words to create a work of art; that lacks structure, and is something between prose and poetry? Something that could be classed as a flavored breeze of written word? What do you call that? A short story? Flash fiction? Prose poem? … Word vomit???

“No-one’s gunna publish that, love …”

Yes, they are. We are. And it’s called a vignette.

Send us all your word vomit. Because our carpet is huge and full of it … and somehow, it doesn’t stink. In fact, our carpet smells like a nice velvety merlot …

~Jessica & Dawn ]]>