I just came across an interesting call for stories from editor and designer David Barringer, who’s putting together a lit mag featuring up-to-the-minute writing that has been influenced by events/moods/trends over the course of the Bush years. “Your story/poem/essay/interview does not have to literally address Bush/Cheney/Rice/Rummy. It does not have to be about 9/11 or Afghanistan, Iraq or Abu Ghraib, Gitmo or Jon Stewart, Scooter Libby or Anna Nicole Smith. But it could be, and it must at least be influenced by the past six years. It can’t be a piece of writing with its head in the proverbial sand. The work must have opened itself up to the world. The more directly your piece defines some mood or state of mind or tension set off by events of the Bush years, the more likely it will be accepted.”

He’s taking: stories, essays, interviews, poems, email exchanges, blog entries, diary entries, letters to editors or cousins in the Green Zone. Says Barringer: “Make it personal. Make it painful. Make it funny. Make it real.”

More info/submissions: dlbarringer [at] gmail [dotcom].

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