New Online Publication: Referential Magazine

Referential Magazine celebrates literary citizenry. As a place of “creative connectedness,” the magazine asks its authors to refer to other pieces in its archives when submitting. In this way, one piece sparks another, which may spark another, which may refer back to the first while also pulling in something from outside, a phrase or book or poem, which then sparks a new piece altogether. Referential’s archives, therefore, are not static. It’s really, really cool.

I’m delighted to be included in the Winter 2013 Issue. I read Referential’s archives, both on its former site and in its new location with new editors. Daniel Romo’s “The Men Who Chase Storms” got under my skin. It spoke to a story I’d been working on about something that happened at the holidays, something with children and candy and music and what should be all good things, but something that ultimately made me feel a range of aches and pains in my heart. So I got back into the story, and worked with the insightful editors on it. The finished narrative, “Crash,” is online now.

Sean Finucane Toner, Referential’s Editor-in-Chief, wrote what’s now one of my Anchor pieces, “A Graveside Nuptial” in Hippocampus Magazine. AND, when I first got serious about writing years ago, I attended the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop with Rebecca McClanahan, who had and continues to have a huge influence on my writing and literary life. One of her essays, “Gingko Song,” is reprinted in the current Referential issue. So for many reasons, this publication means a great deal to me!