Ecotone magazine was founded by the MFA Program in Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington in 2005. Its impact was immediate: the inaugural issue featured an essay by eventual North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame inductee Clyde Edgerton; poetry by and an interview with eventual National Book Award winner Mark Doty (2008); and an essay by David Gessner, current host of the National Geographic show Call of the Wild.
Ecotone’s mission? To “champion innovative and underrepresented work” and explore the ecotones “between landscapes, literary genres, scientific and artistic disciplines, modes of thought.”
It also helps to be a bit prescient, and to publish a National Book Award winner, say, a couple years before he actually wins.
In the years since, contributors have included Pulitzer winners and MacArthur, Guggenheim, and NEA fellows.The most recent issue (Summer, 2016) features an essay by NC State’s Belle Boggs and a short story by Dana Johnson, introduced by Tayari Jones.
But Ecotone publishes plenty of emerging writers as well, and in fact, their open reading period is open now through February 1. They’re reading for their next issue, which will focus on the theme of “Craft.”
To learn more about this theme, click here. To read their complete submission guidelines, click here.
Subscribers to Ecotone will have the Submittable fee waived: a one-year subscription is $16.95, over 30 percent off the cover price; subscribe for two years at $29.95 to receive 40 percent off the cover price. Ecotone subscribers receive the print magazine twice yearly, in spring and fall.
Ecotone also serves as the home for the winning essay in the annual Rose Post Creative Nonfiction Competition, sponsored by the North Carolina Writers’ Network and facilitated by UNCW. The deadline for this contest is January 15.
Their blog is also a must-read. Along with helpful tips on craft, they run a “Seven Questions” series where they interview writers, editors, designers, and others in publishing. Guests so far include Erik Reece, Jamie Poissant, and most recently, Angela Ledgerwood.
For more information about Ecotone, visit their website: http://ecotonemagazine.org.