At the end of June we announced that we were taking the summer off—a little vacation to rest and regroup. We also promised that when we came back in the fall, “sh*t” would “look different around here”—a teaser that we were redesigning our website, among other things. But then we ghosted. Fall has come and gone, and winter is more than well underway. So, obviously, we owe you all an update.
The gist is we’ve decided to take a more extended hiatus to figure out what we want the next chapter of Peach to look like.
When we started this project in 2016, we didn’t have a plan or goal other than wanting to share work we like, bring people together at readings and parties, and meet other writers and artists who both challenge and excite us. All of our publications and programming—the online journal, monthly specials of interviews and columns, in-person and virtual event series, two anthology series, fundraisers, prizes, guest editors, an editorial apprenticeship for teens—have been designed in service to these impulses. They have also come and gone depending on our capacity as a team, which has always been made up of volunteers; budget, which has always been shoestring; and interests, both our own and those of our readers and contributors, which are always evolving.
While we’ve been able to experiment with new ideas, take time when we need it, and plan in pretty unsystematic and irregular ways, our journal has been a source of stability for us. For seven years, we published a new feature of poetry, visual art, short fiction, or creative nonfiction every Tuesday and Friday—that’s 707 individual publications total. But the internet, where we primarily publish and connect with our readers and contributors, has drastically changed in the time since we launched. The rise and fall of certain social media apps, as well as algorithms that increasingly favor controversy, pay-to-play models, and nonstop content production—it all feels pretty bleak. Not to mention the equally drastic ways in which our resources—time as volunteers, sources of funding—have changed.
So, we're going to take more time to think. They say that by the end of seven years all the cells in a human body will have replaced themselves—like okay, same. We do hope to be back. We just don’t know when yet, or how.
That all said, until then, we do have some news and opportunities to share. Keep in touch, etc.
<3,
Rachelle, Jakob, Liz, Aeon, Kelly, Yaz, & Shayna
Indie Lit Interviews
Over the years, we’ve occasionally published conversations with editors of fellow journals and presses in our Indie Lit interview series, including ones with Ashley Obscura of Metatron Press, Lucy K Shaw of Shabby Doll House, Dan “Dooski” McKeon of Pretty Cool Poetry Thing, and many others. We still believe there’s a huge lack of reporting on small press news and initiatives—all of everybody’s great, if often brief, ventures in DIY publishing—so consider us now open for pitches.
Do you know someone who runs a cool journal, press, reading series, public installation, etc.—someone whose efforts deserve to be spotlit, celebrated, or memorialized? Conversations can be between editors of different projects, editors of the same project, editors/publishers and their contributors/authors, etc. For more info, check out our submission guidelines.
Surprise Me
Reading our archive will soon become easier and more fun, thanks to our bud and coding wizard Dan “Dooski” McKeon. In the spirit of Wikipedia’s “Random article” feature, Dooski is working on a “Surprise Me” button which will allow you to browse the full Peach Mag archive—all 707 features—without predetermining who or what you’d like to read. We’ll announce when it’s live—sooner than you think!
Peach Mixes
We plan to continue publishing new Mixes whenever we have the time and funds. If you’re a previous contributor who’s interested in editing a collection, keep an eye out later this spring for a call for proposals, where we’ll ask you to present a theme, briefly riff on your approach to it, and mock up a preliminary table of contents. To start planning, we’ve included some info in our submission guidelines.
This is great timing for the impending launch of our “Surprise Me” button, but in the meantime, get inspired by brilliant ways our previous Mix editors have imagined their themes by reading their editors’ notes, which we’ve republished online:
Writers Against the War on Gaza
In November, we were proud to join the small press coalition of PACBI, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. If you are an editor, publisher, or literary arts director of some kind, we urge you to join us.
Until further notice, we are also donating all sales of Mixes to Palestine Legal, an organization dedicated to protecting the civil and constitutional rights of people in the United States who speak out for Palestinian freedom. Shop our catalog here.
<3