Melted Wing is a collaborative online journal that discusses despair, depression, suicide, and other dark paths many of us tread in this life. We will neither enable nor glorify nor display suicide and self-harm; instead, we want to light a candle and explore some dark corners of those rooms many of us, or family, or friends, retreat to from time to time. Most importantly, we want you. We want you to contribute your writing and art to this venture.
While Melted Wing will surely evolve as it makes its way from the water to the dry land, what we envision is a multi-hued journal divided – perhaps not so neatly – into the following categories: first person, fiction, journalism, and visual art.
Briefly, an explanation of Melted Wing:
☞ First person: your accounts, accounts of your loved ones, stuff you feel is both interesting to your readers and, maybe, makes you feel a little better by putting your stuff out there. In regards to this subject and this project, we look to the first line of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina: “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” What is your story? What story do you wish to tell? (And, although we don’t accept anonymous submissions, we are happy to honor any requests for anonymity of posted content.)
☞ Fiction: we believe short fiction, poems, and humor – yes, humor! – can be, dare we say it, beneficial for both writers and readers. About the humor, a blessing of being human is being able to find humor in any situation, even suicide. We would love to read Donald Trump’s suicide note, wouldn’t you? Perhaps Kim Kardashian’s butt has had those moments where the world was bleaker than bleak and wishes to explain itself to an interviewer? Here, perhaps, we’re thinking of the sensibility of The Onion and other purveyors of satire. (And, again, although we don’t accept anonymous submissions, we are happy to honor any requests for anonymity of posted content.)
☞ Journalism: what are the questions, dilemmas, and policies surrounding suicide and depression at various universities? Places of work? Militaries? Countries? Cultures? Who is turning to suicide and why? Are people getting help? So, so, so much more. We have a space for articles and for shorter “Little Bits.” We will also post “reviews.” The literature of suicide did not start and end with The Bell Jar. Might you want to turn on readers to works they might not be aware of? Might you want to write a piece how to enter the music of Elliot Smith, the comedy of Robin Williams, the photography of Diane Arbus and . . . on, and on, and on. We also look forward to submissions of listicles, Spotify playlists, and wherever your imagination leads you. (And, yet again, although we don’t accept anonymous submissions, we are happy to honor any requests for anonymity of posted content.)
☞ Visual Art: do you have art you’d like to share with our readers? Please do! While we are at a loss to define words like “glorify” and “enable,” we caution that, to repeat ourselves, Melted Wing will neither glorify nor enable suicide and other forms of bodily and psychological harm. Please, nothing gratuitously gory. (By now you know that although we don’t accept anonymous submissions, we are happy to honor any requests for anonymity of posted content.)
Please visit, please contribute, please smile. For submission policies and guidelines:
https://meltedwing.submittable.com/submit
For our newsletter (easy to subscribe and unsubscribe to):
https://tinyletter.com/marcmurdock
Twitter:
@melted_wing
Questions?
meltedwing@meltedwing.com
