New Lit on the Block :: Second Run

Editor Jim Coppoc debuted the new quarterly Second Run at AWP 2009. Second Run was started to address the “problem” of previously published works that have fallen out of public access or were never accessible online. Second Run accepts re-submissions of poems, plays, essays, and short stories along with a one-paragraph provenance to let readers know where the piece came from, where you were in life when you wrote it, where it was first published, etc. Authors retain all rights except the non-exclusive right for Second Run to publish submitted work in perpetuity.

For the first issue, Coppoc says he wanted something “special,” so “instead of posting mass solicitations in all the usual places, I spent a long time thinking about who has influenced me as a writer and as a literate human being. Then, I asked them for their work. Some of these writers are close friends, so I knew I’d get a response. Some I only know in passing, but I wanted to acknowledge the deep influence they’ve had on me by putting their work in this issue. I was pleasantly surprised to see that most of the people I asked for work actually sent it.”

Issue One includes prose by Michael Martone, Sheryl St. Germain, and John Domini, plays by Murray Wolfe and John Fenn, and poetry by Patricia Smith, Ted Kooser, Matt Mason, Heather Knowles, Jim Moore, Deborah Keenan, Ada Limon, and Bryonn Bain.