Animals Are Not Your Friends Submissions

[Whip-ette]

Dear WeMakeZines,

Whip #3 'Animals Are Not Your Friends' is looking for submissions!

In case you just don't know yet Whip is a little, new, creative writing anthology of people who want to write, who write, who take photographs, who make nice art. It is quarter-sized, black and white and especially open to writing that is not just standard couplets or elegies.

Whip wants anything from limericks to epic, from found writing to short short stories (no more than 750 words), from creative non-fiction to experimental poetry. We are however predominantly poetry-based but other writing seriously interests us.

For this theme we are not particularly interested in writing about naughty dogs but rather ants ants ants, spiderwebs, dead sheep, crying seagulls, the whale from free willy... c'mon, surprise us. please.

Please send all submissions to whipmagazine at yahoo dot co dot uk by the very beginning of July. Also, please let us know if you would like us to include your email address, and/or a blog, and/or a little list of your other publications.

Thank you in advance,
Yours,
Whip

[Kate]

I'm not submitting anything -- and I mean that in the nicest way-- for obvious lack of poetic ability on my part, but you did pique my interest. Staunchly guarding the line between naughty dogs and crying seagulls, I understand that, as it's mainly a cosmetic difference and must be spelled out clearly (and please do elaborate, as the difference is mainly cosmetic and must be spelled out clearly). But Keiko (the whale from Free Willy) is on a totally different plane.

Ants ants ants vs. Keiko: Obvious. Three ants, one dead whale. Ants can't eat frozen herring, Keiko was all over it.
Spiderwebs vs. Keiko: One's a home, and one was homeless. A sad comparison highlighting Keiko as a class warrior.
Dead sheep vs. Keiko: Does a dead sheep have a foundation named after it? Does a dead sheep have a 1-800 number?
Crying seagulls vs. Keiko: Keiko was not a whiner.

So the whale from Free Willy doesn't quite fit.

In other words, what do you mean by, "... we are not particularly interested in writing about naughty dogs but rather ants ants ants, spiderwebs, dead sheep, crying seagulls, the whale from free willy... c'mon, surprise us. please." What's the theme? I guess I don't get it.

Are you familiar with "Sad Animals"?

[rogerSIMIAN]

Oh, I've had a story, "About A Bug", sitting forlornly in a folder for ages cause I never knew where to send it. Now I do: the "Animals Are Not Your Friends" issue of Whip...

[W. Alan Fare]

How could anyone hate any animals? People I can understand, but animals?

Zacery Nova said:

Can I just write a poem about the animals I hate?

[Whip-ette]

Oops! Kate, we sincerely didn't mean at all to upset or confuse.
It IS a purely cosmetic difference, you're right, and perhaps we should have outlined this clearly. We just wanted people to be a bit more expansive in their understanding of our 'theme' as it could be quite easy, I think, to just take the idea at face value. We're still finding our feet and are trying to include and encourage people to be more expansive and experimental in their writing. We're trying to tell people that poetry is good, that writing is good, that people are interested in your writing and that poetry doesn't just have to be the poetry that you wrote in school or the poetry that you studied in school.

The theme, to clarify, is certainly NOT about disliking animals, or thinking that they're bad, or anything. Everyone who helps out with Whip has a pet, likes animals and doesn't want to harm them. There is a difference between thinking that animals are not your friends and disliking them. I don't expect to be friends with eagles and giant squids because for me, they're kind of terrifying, but my, I do think they're excellent animals.

Perhaps we should have outlined this a bit better, we do love animals, but for this issue we weren't thinking about pet cats but more the wild and less tameable aspect of animals.

And no, I'm not familiar with Sad Animals.

Zacary - if you think it's any good, then send it in. We'd seriously love to see anything anyone writes.