Founded in 1993, Creative Nonfiction was the first and largest literary journal to focus on nonfiction prose exclusively. They publish “simply great essays by talented writers,” according to the Library Journal, including work by Annie Dillard, Diane Ackerman, Andre Codrescu, Terry Tempest Williams, and Floyd Skloot, among others.

The creative nonfiction genre was the center of attention earlier this year when James Frey revealed that parts of his memoir, “A Million Little Pieces,” were fabricated. As the public appetite for true stories grows, so does the writer’s temptation to embellish. But even when the veracity of a writer’s work is not in question, the relevance of it often is. In her interview with us, managing editor Hattie Fletcher emphasized the importance of writers moving beyond their own personal memories into a broader realm. Good essays have an eye to the wider issues and are backed up by research. As its website says:

Writers should employ the diligence of a reporter, the shifting voices and viewpoints of a novelist, the refined wordplay of a poet and the analytical modes of the essayist.

As part of our series on literary journals, Word Pirates interviewed Ellen Parker, gutsy dame and editor of FRiGG. Named for a goddess in Norse Mythology, the online magazine of fiction and poetry has produced 13 issues.

While many online literary journals fold after only a few issues, Parker says she plans to make sure FRiGG isn’t one of them.

“Really, I am very dogged. Years from now people will be going, Why doesn’t that FRiGG bitch fold up her tent? This is one way to come out on top: Outlast ’em. Writers should take note of this. Just keep doing it,” she said an interview in The New Review, Issue 14.

Parker wants writers to send her stories that they “wouldn’t dare send anywhere else” and values an original writing style more than a list of impressive credentials. FRiGG pairs its stories and poetry with striking artwork. The illustrations in issue 13 are by artist EnoraF.

In addition to editing FRiGG, Parker is a writer whose work has appeared in SmokeLong Quarterly, Pindeldyboz, Opium, Doorknobs and BodyPaint, insolent rudder, and Outsider Ink. Two of her stories appear in the print anthology Women Behaving Badly.

Parker co-edits the magazine with poetry editor and writer Sean Farragher.

Click here to read our interview with Ellen Parker

We’re starting a new feature around here at Word Pirates. We’re going to deeper analyze that beast called the literary journal.

Literary journals publish everything from short stories to essays to poetry to author interviews. While they can sometimes be a little elitist and dull, the good ones showcase some of the best cutting-edge writing around. According to Wikipedia: Literary magazines function as a sort of literary nursery for writers by publishing new works by authors who are not yet established or well known.

But where, we wonder, does that leave writers who are hoping to publish in these things? How do we sift through the hundreds of journals out there? More to the point, who are the people editing these things, and what do they want from writers like us?

So we decided to ask them. We’re starting a series of interviews with literary journals, big and small, to understand a little more about them and our own writing in the process.

Our first interview is with Dave Housley, one of five editors from Barrelhouse. This new literary journal focuses on humor and pop culture, and wants to “bridge the gap between high and low culture.”

Barrelhouse’s print journal comes out twice a year, and the website is updated regularly. Instead of being affiliated with a university or writing program, it is produced by “writers for readers who are looking for quality writing with an edge and a sense of humor,” according to the website.

A very special Swayze section, where contributors praise the mulleted icon from Dirty Dancing all the way to Donnie Darko. An action figure portrait gallery featuring Spiderman in repose, the Lone Ranger and Silver facing down the camera. A punk rock interview with iconoclast Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat and five-dollar Fugazi. … Issue Two of Barrelhouse is fun. Though it tends to the silly side of kitsch, the comic eccentricities of some of the prose belies the quality and craft of the storytelling…

This sounds right up our alley!

Click Here To Read Our Interview With Dave Housley