The Foredge Review

foredgereview.com // Open for submissions! // literary magazine for young writers // student run

[anais-ninja-bitch]

how write book?

[cargopantsman]

like that but more

[anais-ninja-bitch]

oh noooooo

[one-time-i-dreamt]

[fischotterkunst]

yall look at this shit ad*be is tryna pull now on ppl who have outdated software:

(note for context: i’m all for piracy, but in this case my copy of CS6 was downloaded years ago when they were giving it away to students. i got it totally legally.)

[fischotterkunst]

so here is what NOT to do if you’re a loyal fan of adobe who has the cash to shell out for a newer and shittier version of the product you already paid for.

1) DON’T use your search bar to find and open the Run app

2) DON’T type in services.msc

3) DON’T find Adobe Genuine Software Integrity Services and right-click to get a dropdown menu, and don’t select ‘properties’

4) if you happen to click properties, DON’T use the startup type dropdown to locate the option to disable the program. be sure you DON’T click apply to finalize that change. 

5) DO NOT do the same thing in order to also disable Adobe Genuine Software Monitor 

if you do all of these things, this WILL disable adobe’s ability to monitor the software, and you will be forced to continue using the same older software that you already paid for instead of having to sign up for a newer, shittier version and pay more for it. so if you have lots of cash to spare and are cool with putting it the pockets of racketeering capitalists, definitely don’t do any of these things. 

however, you SHOULD reblog this to spread the word, as we certainly want to make sure lots of people know what NOT to do :)

[hideousgourd]

I’M SORRY MA'AM. I KNOW YOU’RE UPSET.

Pretend to be upset.

[june-egbert-official]

OP how could you

I hope none of my friends who use Adobe programs find this, follow your detailed instructions, and spread the word. That would be devastating!

[fanonical]

hey do you think you could expand a bit on separating the art from the artist? clearly you’ve done it with jk rowling but what are your thoughts on it as a general idea?

okay, but you’re not going to like the answer.

here’s the truth: you can’t separate the art from the artist. not entirely. HP Lovecraft was an incredibly talented, but much more incredibly racist man. It would nice to say you don’t agree with his views but you can enjoy his works without that leaking in but…. well, I’m afraid that would be misunderstanding his books entirely.

Consider, for a second, that Lovecraft’s works were horror stories about extradimensional alien monsters having mutant children with humans, they were about invasions from distant monsters, they were about the purity of quaint European towns being tainted. Consider how this may have all been inflicted by the fact that he just simply despised anybody who wasn’t white. Consider how is opinions on “mixing the races” might fight into this; consider why being unable to maintain the “purity” of white Europe was the scariest thing of all to him.

This extends to Rowling too.

I would love to say we can just acknowledge that she is an awful, racist, antisemitic, transphobic person and then say “but at least her books are good,” because, well, they are, aren’t they? I would say so, for sure. But to suggest that one can separate her from them is…. ridiculous.

Consider why an antisemitic woman wrote about a species of goblins who live among us, but who for the most part keep to themselvesand are maybe a little bit oppressed by the institution, but also hold all the cards, all the money, run the banks.

Consider why a racist woman would write about a species of slaves who loved being enslaved, who enjoyed working for no pay, and cleaning up after humans, with the only small caveat of that they didn’t want to be beaten. Imagine that only the most radical of their species wanted to be free, and he still spent the rest of his life working for no pay and helping out a little white boy and his friends wherever he could. Consider why the only person in the story who thought they should be free, that they should have rights, was treated as an overzealous joke, who was acting against the wishes of those slaves who really LOVE being enslaved. Consider that Rowling went on to say that she kind of considers that girl to be black, now.

Consider why JK Rowling, an open and proud transphobe, wrote Rita Skeeter as having a large square jaw, thick “manly” hands, and dressing incredibly gaudily with the most obvious fake nails and fake teeth and fake hair and fake everything. Consider why a woman who tweets about how trans women are “foxes pretending to be hens to get in the hen house” might write this Rita Skeeter to then illegally transform her body in order to spy on children.

Harry Potter is full of Rowling’s bigotry, start to finish. Not even tangentially, like, “oh the goblins are bad, Rita Skeeter is bad, the house elves are bad, but most of it’s good!” because the deeper you dig and the longer you think the more you realise the entire story is based on her prejudices.

Harry Potter pretends to be an aracial story about found family, but if that were true, why are Harry’s distant ancestors important to who he is today even in the seventh book? Why does Harry have to live with his cousin and aunt and uncle? Because magic inherently prefers blood ties. Whilst Rowling was writing a story that seemed to say, “your heritage is not that important and doesn’t make you better than others” she was still writing a story about a boy who got all of his money through his bloodline, who was protected by living with his bloodline, no matter how evil, who was uniquely able to stop Voldemort because his bloodline passed down the invisibility cloak for generations and generations. Any step Harry takes he is compared to his perfect parents who were exactly like him — he looks just like his father, but he has his mother’s eyes, you know! — consider WHY a woman who is racist might’ve written a story like this. A story that on its surface, condemns a blood caste, but still in every step it takes, validates the idea that blood is thicker than water, and your geneological origin is what makes you special.

You can enjoy Harry Pottwr, of course you can. There are fantastic parts. I love a small group of teenagers deciding to become anarchies rebels and train to fight against fascism in secret. I love the murder mystery plots, I love how the series tells kids that it’s a good thing to be brave, and a good thing to fight injustice, and a good thing to challenge the government. But I cannot separate it from its author because it is such a product of its author. All of the structures of the world, the way things work in the universe, and drenched in Rowling’s beliefs, her bigotries. Of course they are: she made them.

Again. This doesn’t mean you cannot enjoy it. But I think we are past the day where we can pretend that disavowing a bigoted author is enough, and that that somehow separates the text from its bigotry. I think we are past the day where we can pretend that Harry Potter isn’t a deeply, inherently bigoted piece of media. Even the bits we love. I think we are beyond the day where we can truthfully pretend to separate it from her, because she is present through all of it. We MUST recognise its flaws. We MUST admit that she is in every part of it.

[banrions]

#this is a brilliant post that sets up an answer the anon’s question#which is that separating art from the artist isn’t about ignoring who the author was#but rather ignoring what the author tells you their work means#rowling will never say her work contains the things rightful pointed out here#but she doesn’t get to make that call#we all have eyes and can look for ourselves#and who she is is part of what we must look at (via @ratherembarrassing)

[linguisticparadox]

I’ve had similar realizations and struggles as an avowed fan of Tolkien, and I think this is a good description of the approach I take.

[foredgereview]

writing in covid-19 times

okay so with the coronavirus just... absolutely demolishing our social lives, surely we’ll have more time to do art right? rIGhT???? 

all the people i’ve talked to have about two different situations. either they have just been churning out work after work, or they have nothing. Like me. every time i sit to write poetry, i just stare at a blank screen for an hour. or, worse i start rereading my poetry from three years ago (and i am scarred for life). 

i’ve been thinking about this a lot. and i have no advice on this. 

I don’t know how to pull inspiration from nothing. I guess its finally time for me to go back and edit some of my older works. god knows they need the editing.

its also nice that i have the time to read again (although my dumb brain is telling me i only have the brain power to invest emotional energy in flash fiction and poetry). 

So i guess, for those of us who want to write but are stuck, it might be time to recoup and do some recon on other people’s works. 

[foredgereview]

Foredge Review Issue Two Available for Reading

[image description: faces with varying expressions are drawn on large coloured squares of paper. The squares of paper are attached to white sticks and stick out from a dark foam block. A light behind the papers illuminates the art. Text reading “The Foredge Review” in the upper left hand corner and “Issue Two, Spring 2020″ in the lower left corner.]

We are proud to publish works by Amanda Kay, Ariel Kim, Avalon Felice Lee, Ayesha Asad, Celine Choi, Emily Peng, Esther Sun, Mary Zhang, Michelle Huang, Quinn Christensen, Sara Cao, Yejin Suh, and Zoya Yan. 

Thank you all for your patience, especially in the uncertain time that is the COVID-19 epidemic. We hope you enjoy this issue. Peruse it here or read the Editors' Note here. 

Stay safe and happy reading!

[foredgereview]

The Foredge Review | Issues

Find the first issue of The Foredge Review here. "self-portrait as domestic fowl" by Nicole Li "Back Where They’ve Passed and Run" by Claire Hong "Those that Remain" by Claire Hong "A Letter to a Pilot"

FIRST ISSUE IS OUT!!!

we’ve got 8 poems, 3 pieces of flash fic, and 3 artworks.

Thanks so much to Iris Chen, Claire Hong, Jessica Hsu, Carly Kiang, Nicole Li, Carlos Lao, and Annie Qiu, for their beautiful works!!

[foredgereview]

[image description: artwork of a large, blue comet falling through a dark sky. There is a trail of stylised dust behind it. text in the upper left corner reads, “The Foredge Review”. text in the bottom left corner reads “Issue One, Summer 2019.”]

look out, the first issue of The Foredge Review is almost here! 

[lena221bee]

how do I find a fic that’s exactly like the one I’ve just read but also different

[miss-ingno]

^^^reasons why writers shouldn’t be worried about using the same tropes/concept/plot that’s been done before

[artisticcmr-deactivated20201124]

Mind blown

[rohie-deactivated20191102]

“Years ago a friend of mine had a dream about a strange invention; a staircase you could descend deep underground, in which you heard recordings of all the things anyone had ever said about you, both good and bad. The catch was, you had to pass through all the worst things people had said before you could get to the highest compliments at the very bottom. There is no way I would ever make it more than two and a half steps down such a staircase, but I understand its terrible logic: if we want the rewards of being loved we have to submit to the mortifying ordeal of being known.”

— I Know What You Think of Me, Tim Kreider for the New York Times

[owlmylove]

after YEARS of seeing this quote online and finding it to be the most deeply and resoundingly profound writing i finally found the source article and absolutely nothing could prepare me for this opening paragraph

[princesshamlet-deactivated20210]

im a published poet

[panicwiththefandomsblr-deactiva]

As an aspiring poet this is really real

[foredgereview]

enjambment (an essay on craft)

(aka fancy line breaks) (aka, the use of line break before the end of a phrase, contrast with end-stopping)

This one is mostly a poetry thing, but that doesn’t mean you can’t employ it in other writing. N. K. Jemisin uses it in her sci-fi/fantasy series The Broken Earth, and it, gosh, is it a fantastic series (hint hint nudge nudge). 

but for the purposes of this, let’s focus on the poetry side of things (bc there’s more of it, and also I want to talk about Ocean Vuong). 

in these lines, god-awful is split into two

                         until every leaf shook silver                                                                    with that god -awful scream

Ocean Vuong, “Essay on Craft”

It’s a small detail, but it adds sooo much to the poem. it adds a layer of ambiguity. did the leaves shake silver with that god? something holy and blessed? beautiful and sacred? or with a god-awful scream? something ungodly and terrible? bone-chilling and horrific?

with enjambment, it is both. 

the poem exists in a state of superposition and only solidifies into a single understanding when the reader observes. and decides. Vuong here leads us to an answer, sure. but the ultimate power lies in our hands. 

honestly, though, Vuong’s enjambment is the most consistently heart-wrenching i’ve seen. (see also: “Axiom” by Margaret Atwood and “Of Thee I Sing”, also Ocean Vuong) 

there’s also enjambment for the sake of shape, for the sake of rhythm, for the sake of flow. the rest, though, i’ll leave you to figure out on your own!

Submit to the Foredge Review!!

[foredgereview]

okay but like haikus are underrated

do you know how hard writing seven syllables about nature is?

hard. it’s hard.

writing nature poetry is a talent that I, the editor of the foredge review (come check us out btw), do not have. all these ancient chinese (seriously, just look at 山水 writing,  stuff from Meng Haoran or Li Bai) and Japanese (I’m not as familiar with these, but would love to learn more) and contemporaries like Ezra Pound (petals on a wet black bough).

needless to say, its something I love reading, and really, we all know haikus are 5-7-5, but I think a lot of us have forgotten what they were first about

[foredgereview]

surrealism in writing

surrealism is embracing the absurd, embracing the nonsense, the imagery. done well, it's the epitome of lateral thinking.

as writers, creative writers, it is not our job to tell the whole story or the full truth. we are only burdened with telling just enough for the story to fall into place and the truth to show itself, whatever those may be. surrealism is the collection disparate images into one story and one truth.

but you look at dali and his lobster phone, magritte and his apples, even frida kahlo and, well, frida kahlo. and then you think, okay, this is art, this is sculpture, this is paint on canvas and board, but there are no words here, there is no language, no cadence.

and maybe there aren't words, but the brush is a pen in the hands of an artist. the language is not words, it's the colour and the image, the technique and the emotion. tell me these aren't the things that make up writing.

now look at Christina davis' "forth a raven", where nothing is real, but everything is guttural. look at Andre breton's "the spectral attitudes", where every line is a picture. look at alyssa Wong's "a fist of permutations in lightning and wildflowers". look at Kafka.

and now tell me that these are not art.

—

(submit to foredge review! we like writing and we want to see yours)

[ironinkpen]

tips for writing bilingual characters

there are different types of bilinguals

the All Around: speaks, reads, and writes both languages pretty well

the Conversational: one language is stronger than the other; can speak the other language a lot better than they read/write it (a lot of kids of immigrants are this type)

the High Schooler: understands what’s being said to them in the other language, can’t really speak it

don’t have your characters randomly drop words from their other language mid-sentence around people who don’t speak it lol

languages are a mindset thing. like personally if i’m around english-speakers, i’m speaking english and i don’t really switch to my other language (which is portuguese)

so like if you’re writing a bilingual character who speaks spanish and have them say something like “hey chad let’s go to the biblioteca” to an english speaker i’ll probably spend 5 minutes laughing and then close your story lmao

exception: the character is speaking in their weaker language and forgot a word (”where are the…? uh… llaves…. keys! keys, where are they?”)

otherwise really the only time your character should be randomly switching languages mid-sentence is if they’re talking to another bilingual

like i don’t speak spanish but i’ve legit never heard a spanish speaker say “ay dios mio” to gringos lmao

conversations between two bilingual people can take a few different forms:

Pick One: they pick one language and kinda stick with it for the whole conversation (a conversation i might have with my portuguese-speaking mom: ”you okay?” “yeah, i’m good. how’re you?” “i’m fine, but your dad-”)

Back-and-Forth: someone says something in one language, the other person replies in the other (”tudo bem?” “yeah, i’m good. how’re you?” “tou bem, mas o seu pai-”)

Combo: they speak a combo of the two languages, a popular example being spanglish, though basically every bilingual has their own combo language (”tudo bem?” “sim, tou bem. how’re you?” “i’m fine, mas o seu pai-”)

when in doubt: just ask a bilingual to look at your stuff and tell you if anything sounds weird

[ironinkpen]

combo languages can look different depending on the bilingual

me and my cousin (native english speakers) speaking our portuguese/english combo sounds a lot different than my mom and my godmother (native portguese speakers) doing the same thing

the kids of immigrants usually come up with their own unique way of saying things that are different than native speakers

if you’re writing a bilingual family the older kids’ll probably be more bilingual than the younger ones

also, to clarify: bilingual characters might say words in another language on purpose in front of non-speakers

either to fuck with them or just ‘cause the word captures what they’re feeling more (i use “caralho” a lot)– basically the point is that accidental switching is relatively uncommon

i know earlier i said that people will forget words if they’re speaking their weaker language but tbh i do it with my stronger language too so really it works both ways

filler words are weirdly universal

so like while bilingual people don’t usually switch languages around people who aren’t bilingual we’ll throw filler words in

“ele me olhou e, like, eu juro que eu quase deu um soco nele-”

a lot of languages borrow words from english so it’s not too weird to have a random english word in an otherwise non-english conversation (my aunt @ my mom: “lilian você viu meu post no Facebook?”)

also sounds in general are just kind of a language transcending thing

you wanna find out what someone’s first language was?? break one of their bones lol

legit me when i cracked my rib: “AIIIIIII JESUS CHRIST TAKE ME TO THE HOSPITAL”

so if your character gets hurt they might make a sound of pain associated with their native language but will probably still speak in the language of the people they’re surrounded by. probably. it depends on just how much pain they’re in

if two people start speaking another language in public there’s a 40% chance they’re talking shit and a 60% chance they’re having a conversation like: “where’s the bathroom” “i don’t know, ask the waitress she’s right here” “i can’t just ask-”

[khattikeri]

this is the most accurate bi/multilingual reference post on here y’all should take notes 👀

[fatemareads]

You owe reality nothing and the truth about your feelings everything.

Richard Hugo in The Triggering Town: Lectures and Essays on Poetry and Writing (via fatemareads)

[foredgereview]

The Foredge Review is a pan-Asian literary magazine for youth between ages 13 and 18. Writers may submit works of poetry, prose, creative non-fiction, or flash fiction under any theme for consideration. Published biannually.

^^this is for all the writers out there! 

The Foredge Review is a new literary magazine for teens. we’re open for submissions from now until March 1. 

also, we’re no risk: there’s no entry fee to submit, so this is another chance to get your work seen. (we accept poetry, creative non-fiction, prose, flash fiction, and art!!)