Announcing Our New Masthead

Our first year as a literary journal (lit mag?), I had the opportunity to publish amazing authors. When we continued this year, I wasn’t at all prepared for the expanded and wonderful reception we received from our readers and contributors. We made some changes early on, like transitioning into a small press. We put out our first ebook, a short literary series called The Fancy Arm Hole, for which I’m grateful to the authors for allowing us to publish. It’s only our second year, and we are still learning a lot.

One thing I did learn was that we needed to expand our team. Today, I’m proud to share the news of who we’ve brought on to help continue bringing you Likely Red. – Eric Shay Howard – Editor-In-Chief.

Welcome To Likely Red Press!

Ariana D. Den Bleyker – Editor – A Pittsburgh native currently residing in New York’s Hudson Valley where she is a wife and mother of two. When she’s not writing, she’s spending time with her family and every once in a while sleeps. She is the author of three collections, including Wayward Lines (RawArt Press, 2015), the chapbooks Forgetting Aesop (Bandini Books, 2011), Naked Animal (Flutter Press, 2012), My Father Had a Daughter (Alabaster Leaves Publishing, 2013), Hatched from Bone (Flutter Press, 2014), On Coming of Age and Stitches (Origami Poems Project, 2014), On This and That (Bitterzoet Press, 2015), Strangest Sea (Porkbelly Press, 2015), Beautiful Wreckage (Flutter Press, 2015), Unsent (Origami Poems Project, 2015), The Peace of Wild Things (Porkbelly Press, 2015), Knee Deep in Bone (Hermeneutic Chaos Press, 2015), Birds Never Sing in Caves (Dancing Girl Press, 2016), Cutting Eyes from Ghosts (Blood Pudding Press, 2017), Even the Statue Weeps (Dancing Girl Press, forthcoming 2019), and Scars are Memories Bleeding Through (Yavanika Press, forthcoming 2019). Her prose includes the novelette Finger : Knuckle : Palm (LucidPlay Publishing, 2014), an experimental memoir, prosthesis (Lummox Press, 2014), and the crime novellas, Dark Water (Fahrenheit 13, 2015) and Red Hands (Fahrenheit 13, forthcoming 2018). She hopes you’ll fall in love with her words.

Marissa Woble – Submissions Reader – An Audiobook Proofreader, and spends her days listening to fiction and non-fiction across all genres. She holds a BA degree in English Literature and Linguistics from the University of Iceland. In her free time she‘s drinking coffee, writing, reading (there‘s never enough reading!), and playing with her dog, Pickles.

Damon McKinney – Submissions Reader – A graduate of The University of Arkansas at Little Rock. He has a B.A. in English with a minor in Creative Writing. His work has appeared in JMWW, Equinox, and Likely Red Press’s own Fancy Arm Hole Series. He currently resides in Jonesboro Arkansas where he spends his time working on a short story collection and working for the Postal Service.

Ben Tucker – Submissions Reader – A writer and reader currently wandering the South. He earned his BA from the University of Mississippi, but he hopes you won’t hold that against him.

A few words from our new team members:

Anytime a fledgling journal takes hold, grows, seemingly suckles on the nectar of the moving work it publishes, it is nearly unavoidable for that journal to avoid the momentum of becoming a small press. This birth, while sometimes messy, is an intimate experience that asks us to let go completely, forcing us to surrender so fully, and requiring us to lose control inside its content just to stay afloat. What drew me to Likely Red was recognizing the potential of a young journal deeply loved and cultivated by its creator and seeing words mount up and issues take shape like a “Welcome” sign looming out of a wet, dark night when you’ve been on the road for six hours straight and you’re just dying to pull over and nourish yourself.

While working with founder and publisher, Eric Shay Howard, I’ve been touched by his passion, hard work, and effort to ensure Likely Red becomes one of our community’s up-and-coming innovative markets. I believe small presses and literary journals like Likely Red fulfill the need to publish what may otherwise never see the light of day—work that is experimental or controversial—all with promise to corner niches. I know Likely Red will grow its roots into that soil and take hold for years to come.

As an editor I’m interested in any fiction or poetry that engages my five senses or pulls me in psychologically. I love haunting and surreal; I crave tight, well-crafted work that hinges on beauty and lyricism. Some of the small literary journals/chapbook presses I admire and feel are killing it in our community include Glass Poetry Press, Porkbelly Press, and dancing girl press. When considering what you might submit to Likely Red, my treatise to you is write like the page is on fire and bring Likely Red your ashes, trusting we will gather them, till them into our soil and watch you grow with us. – Ariana D. Den Bleyker

I‘m looking for characters I can resonate with. I want to share in their most memorable moments, no matter how challenging those may be. I like a story that takes place in a scene full of dialogue and heavy with unspoken emotions. I like to see characters exposed and vulnerable on the page so I can sympathize with them better. The plot can be simple or extravagant as long as there is a lot of heart in the piece.

I‘ll read any genre of fiction and non-fiction. My personal reading is usually an even split between literary fiction and speculative fiction. I‘m especially open to “out there” kind of stuff. Try something weird out and let me at it!

I‘m especially excited to read work by newer and up-and-coming authors. I like to see what new twist they can impress upon an idea. Younger voices are great, too. I want to see how they make sense of the world they were brought up in. – Marissa Woble

I have an eclectic taste in books, authors, and genres. I can read just about anything and anyone. I favor the Science Fiction genre with a splash of Horror. Stephen King, Frank Herbert, and Flannery O’Conner are among my favorite authors. I prefer short stories, long novels, and everything in between. I’m excited about reading new authors and seeing where they can take me. So bring it and show me what you’ve got. – Damon McKinney

I’m looking to be inspired. Period. I want to find someone in this slush pile that I’ve never heard of before and be swept away with the idea of emerging writers and new voices. I want this to inform my own writing, but most importantly I just want to be a part of something literary because that’s where my passions lie. – Ben Tucker

And I’m looking for anything and everything that gets past these folks. – Eric Shay Howard

In the coming weeks, we’ll have even more announcements about upcoming special Guest Editors and more! Stay tuned!