New Lit on the Block :: drafthorse
drafthorse is a biannual (Feb/July) online publication of fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, visual narrative, and other media art.
Editor Denton Loving, an emerging writer from East Tennessee, co-edits drafthorse along with Darnell Arnoult, prize-winning author of What Travels With Us: Poems (LSU Press) and the novel Sufficient Grace (Free Press). Liz Murphy Thomas is an artist, photographer and educator who serves as art editor.
Published by Lincoln Memorial University, located in the heart of the Appalachians, the theme of the drafthorse is “work and no work.” Denton Loving explains, “Lincoln Memorial University (LMU) was established as a work school in the heart of Appalachia, and work continues to be a driving force in our contemporary lives. Work has defined our region beginning with indigenous peoples, and later with settlers of European and African descent who extracted a living on steep hillsides amid a stunning but often treacherous landscape. Today, alongside a liberal arts education, LMU offers professional education in the areas of osteopathic medicine, law, education and business. The editors of drafthorse are interested in work, or the absence of work, as an avenue to explore how people both manifest and transcend their nature as physical and spiritual beings.”
drafthorse publishes content where “work, occupation, labor,” explains Loving, “or lack of the same, is in some way intrinsic to a narrative’s potential for epiphany. While we at drafthorse are just as eager to publish stories or poems about a grape grower from the Napa Valley or photographs of lobster fishermen in Maine, we originate from the mountain South, and we will most definitely look to publish a healthy dose of storytelling that reflects our own history in relationship to labor.”
Contributors in the first issue include Lisa Alther, Gloria Ballard, Joseph Bathanti, Gabriel Morley and Stephanie Whetstone with fiction; Matt Berman, Judy Goldman and Matt Martin with creative non-fiction; Michael Chitwood, Janet Kirchheimer, Maurice Manning, Chris Martin, Rosemary Royston, and Iris Tillman with poetry. Artwork by Jeff Whetstone and Robert Gipe.
Loving says the editors at drafthorse look forward to incorporating more music and film in the near future, and eventually hope to publish more than twice a year.
Submissions to drafthorse are accepted through email and on a rolling basis. The editors are particularly seeking original fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry and visual art.
