Bringing Joy to Fiction
Hub: a point from which spokes radiate outward; a center of activity.
Joyland calls itself “a hub for short fiction.” Indeed this online journal radiates across the US and Canada uniting writers and stories into a well-oiled literary machine. Joyland is curated regionally. Editors in eight locations read work from writers “with some connection to their area.” The connection can be loose or cinched tight: a brief stay or a lifetime rooted in the land.
Joyland states that city-as-setting is in no way mandatory, but all the stories published in February share a strong sense of place.
I chose “Fershtupt on Dog Watch” first; the title conjured a bizarre and compelling image. The story is written by Gary Barwin, published in the Toronto spoke of Joyland, and narrated by a parrot. No ordinary parrot, of course, but an articulate African grey, the captain’s parrot aboard a merchant ship – and the one “who has lived to tell the tale.”
In naval terminology, “dog watch” is thought to derive from Sirius, the dog star, possibly the first star seen from deck during the watch period. Certainly, “Fershtupt on Dog Watch” shines brilliantly in Joyland. Like the title, the story is salted with Yiddish words; the main character, a “boychick” called Moishe, is cabin boy and the single Jew aboard The Sea’s Pride. Yiddish phrases combined with a rich, exotic lexicon and sprig of humor bring this tale to life:
To be new to the sea is to have your kishkas—your guts—become the waves themselves. For days, it was high tide inside of Moishe, and a team of pugilists bailed out his insides with their convulsions. He’d be a new man, kaynaynahorah, for nu, what could be left of the old one after such puking?
Barwin has full command of this story, the plot, characters, setting and dialogue. It’s the kind of fiction you want to re-read, the kind that deserves publication in Joyland’s biannual print edition.
I ventured next to Joyland South and Erin Brooks Worley’s story, “Day Trip.” Like Barwin, Worley is a seasoned writer and her experience shows. “Day Trip” centers around an excursion to Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Orlando and an ill-fated ride on the Tower of Terror. Both locations, Disney and the tower, aptly describe dynamics among the story’s characters: Frances, a binge-drinking teenager prone to running from home; Angie, her protective younger sister and our narrator; their mother, all pink fingernails and peach pajamas; and Tom, one in a series of mother’s boyfriends.
Worley gets the tone just right. We feel impending disaster and welcome resolution but also sense that, like a roundabout ride on the Tower of Terror, the cycle of dysfunctional family drama will never really change.
The final three stories in February’s Joyland Fiction, while penned by less-published writers, provide an enjoyable read. Claire Matthews marks her debut with “Safeway” from Vancouver. “The deli is the equivalent to the engineering faculty at most universities: we work the hardest, we play the hardest.” With a breezy, informal writing style, Matthews describes an instore (mostly in-freezer) affair between the deli girl and the bakery manager. I wanted a few more twists of plot and a closer edit here, but nonetheless appreciated this glimpse into Safeway’s nether regions.
In “The State of American Letters,” Chris Leslie-Hynan depicts an unnamed midwest writer’s colony (what could it be?) populated by earnest next-Richard Fords and “the two John Cheevers.” From the Montreal Atlantic region, Sarah Steinberg writes “My Last Summer in Washington” and in a few brushstrokes invokes the cloying, ominous humidity of DC summer.
San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles form the remaining spokes in Joyland Fiction. Perhaps luckless writers in the pacific northwest or Canada’s prairies might sojourn to these centers before submitting. Regional predilections aside, Joyland seems a welcome venue for both established and emerging writers. “We encourage simultaneous submissions,” they say. How often do you read that?
In addition to standard submission guidelines, Joyland offers comforting Rejection Guidelines. Yes, be angry when you don’t hear back from the editors, but keep sending out your work, keep writing – and keep reading Joyland.
Katherine Barrett has also reviewed The Montreal Review. See more reviews by Katherine.
