How Main Stream Media Killed the Small Press

During a recent Critical Issues lecture, the professor asked me if I thought the growing popularity of web communities was evidence that the public had lost faith in mainstream media. I believe I sputtered something at the mic, but the question got me thinking and I would like to respond to it more fully [...]

Jump at the Sun: A Review by Jillian D’Urso

This is the tenth of a many-part series written by the staff and editors of Fringe Magazine, who will be reviewing books from the Pool as part of the 25 Books Project.
There’s something about reading a book by someone you see on a regular basis—something that makes the book somehow more personal, more [...]

One Year Later: Wendy Taylor Carlisle

We’re happy to present the first results from our One Year Later survey. We’ve been asking writers whose work appeared in Fringe a year ago or more to revisit that work and respond to some questions. Fittingly, our first writer’s work appeared in our first issue, back in February 2006. Here she is:
Wendy Taylor Carlisle, [...]

A Great Loss – Author Grace Paley Dies

It saddened me greatly to hear that Grace Paley, a talented writer and social activist who championed women and anti-war movements among other things, died yesterday at her home in Vermont at the age of 84.
Ms. Paley’s short stories, for which she won much acclaim, focused on women’s lives – not glamorous portrayals of the [...]

Mary Gordon and Speaking One’s Mind

Deborah Solomon’s interviewee in her August 5th weekly New York Times Magazine column was the writer Mary Gordon. When asked, “Are you a Hillary Clinton supporter?” Gordon replied, “I think no woman is electable in America.” She kept going, but reading that line, I remember thinking, “Wow, this woman has guts. Thank goodness someone [...]

Fringe’s Ethnos Issue: A Comment on Racism

I’m pleased to announce that submissions for Fringe’s second anniversary theme issue, Ethnos, writing about race and ethnicity, are open from now until December 15, 2007. You can read more about the theme on our submission guidelines page.
We had some hot debate about this theme. At first we couched it as “Racism,” but [...]

One Year Later

Coming up in just a few days, right here in this space, a fabulous new feature: our One Year Later questionnaire.
This little survey is designed to wring all the juicy information there is to get out of our unwitting authors—ehr—I mean, this survey will allow writers revisit the work they published with Fringe a year [...]

Feminism Obsolete, Says Journalist

In his Herald Blog today, Teddy Jamieson announced that feminism is dead:
“How often, after all, do you hear the word feminism these days outside the Guardian women’s page? We have, it seems, moved on. Indeed, according to a press release for cultural commentator Laura Kipnis’s new book, The Female Thing, these days we are living [...]

The Kite Runner: A Review by Janell Sims

This is the ninth of a many-part series written by the staff and editors of Fringe Magazine, who will be reviewing books from the Pool as part of the 25 Books Project.

I know what you’re thinking: Please oh please, not another schmaltzy review of this over-popular book. I know, I hate popular books. Instant bestsellers [...]

The Two-Bride Bachelorette – A Success!

In May, I wrote about my sister’s Two-Bride Bachelorette party. Was it wrong for me to bring both brides to the same party? Would I be depriving one or the other of the naughtiness they deserved on their bachelorette party day?
Well, here’s my update.
Both women (and all of their friends) had a BLAST.
I had T-Shirts [...]