reviewed by Isaac Fox
In late October, Unstamatic magazine announced a submissions call that, to my knowledge, is the first of its kind: they promised to accept every submission they received (unless it was hateful—hence the asterisk). The result is an unfiltered collection of over 400 pieces of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, visual art, hybrid work, and goodness knows what else.
In the interest of full disclosure, I should note that I co-wrote a piece published in the Unconditional* Acceptance Issue. Because of the unique nature and enormous size of the issue, however, I’ve decided to write about it anyway.
Without submission guidelines as a limiting factor, a diverse array of artists created a diverse array of work. Some people submitted pieces that would fit in with more traditional issues of literary magazines: many of the poems (including Dylan Mabe’s ambiguous, sonorous “Mountain Food”) share a style and mood with some of the big-name poetry journals.
Other writers innovated outside the bounds of the literary world’s usual selectivity and gatekeeping. A few of their pieces are hybrid works that wouldn’t fit within most magazines’ genre-based submission categories: for example, Sylvia Santiago’s arresting “XXIX” toys with old printing practices and an Emily Dickinson poem to blur the line between poetry and visual art. Other pieces (like Eleanor Dickenson’s joyful, humorous “The Amateur’s Guide to Extreme Baking” and Wes Viola’s warm, tranquil celebration of poetry, “Wood Have”) overflow with the unabashed positive emotions that contemporary literature often shies away from. There are also a few works mixed in that are frankly a little baffling. (Sorry; you’ll have to find those on your own.)
Many of the finest pieces in the Unconditional* Acceptance Issue stand out for their tonal daring. Haley Byer’s “A Post-Grad Shark Tries to Find Her Way to the Ocean” combines gorgeous prose and weighty emotions with some deeply ridiculous imagery. In Matthew Dunko’s “Maury,” an unreliable narrator’s breezy, often comical voice makes the story’s psychological nuance and social satire all the more disturbing. Graham Bishop’s “To All the Humans” juxtaposes a stylistically understated free-verse poem with a brightly colored, abstract crayon-and-pen drawing, both of which share a frantic, overwhelmed tone.
“Why?” Unstamatic’s editors write, referring to their reasons for putting this issue together. “We don’t know. Because we’d never seen it done before (though it may well have been), because it felt like something of a statement (about what, we’re not sure), because it was funny (it was).” The issue that came out of their experiment is stunningly successful, both as an answer to “What would happen if…” and as a work of art. Its “Random Post” button provides an unguided tour of over 400 wildly varied works—a diverse, vibrant display of creativity.
Isaac Fox is a student at Lebanon Valley College, where he majors in English and creative writing. When he’s not reading or writing something assigned, he’s probably reading or writing something unassigned. His work has also appeared in Tiny Molecules, Rune Bear, Heart of Flesh, and Rejection Letters. You can find him on Twitter at @isaac_k_fox.