Ooops. Yup, it's a thinko.

I was actually shorthanding MFA for networking. If an editor only publishes poets s/he knows through the poetry network (including people who overlap in workshops and MFA programs and such), then there's not much point in submitting to that editor. Same as if an editor doesn't like limericks, don't bother sending them there. (Can you publish a limerick? Do you want to?)

SWAYla, I don't know if you got an answer elsewhere, but your piece sounds like it qualifies as fiction to me. But it's of a problematic length, unfortunately--over 5000 words is a tough sale in many markets. If there's any way you can trim it down, it would only help.

As far as specific markets, perhaps there are climbing magazines that publish fiction? That might be a good place to start.

But it's of a problematic length, unfortunately--over 5000 words is a tough sale in many markets

I'm sure I could trim it down, that's not really a problem. I just don't know who'd be interested in it.

And I dunno -- climbing magazines tend to publish Exciting!Reports! of mountaineering adventures and such things. Not fairly simple and undramatic stories about a day at the local crag. It'd be like MotorSports magazine running an article about driving to the mall, you know?

I'm thinking there should be some general-interest women's magazine that might get a kick out of it... ::sigh::

Consuela, seconding what David said. And what in hell is the magazine Jon Krakauer was writing for, when they sent him to Everest on the disaster climb in '96?

That's Outside magazine, Deb. They publish people like Jon Krakauer and Sebastian Junger and E. Annie Proulx and Tim Cahill. And they don't publish fiction. Like, ever.

Signed, Outside subscriber since 1994.

Heh. A lot of "Into Thin Air" was fiction, if you believe the Texan guy who survived the climb. (I adored the book, BTW)

But what I was thinking is, I wonder if they could recommend publications that would be interested, especially to a 9-year subscriber?

I have nothing, Suela. Again. Bitch doesn't publish fiction. Ever. I don't think there are general-interest women's magazines any more; just fashion, motherhood, and crafts. (Three separate genres that blur.)

Ever. I don't think there are general-interest women's magazines any more; just fashion, motherhood, and crafts.

Well, there are a few sports-related magazines, like "Shape" and SI: Women (are they still around?), but again, not covering fiction.

SI: Women is no more.

Suela, I can't name names at the moment, since I'm at work and my Writer's Market is at home, but I know there are magazines out there that do, for lack of a better word, literary personal experience pieces. And fictionalized or no, that's what it sounds like you have to me.

Uh, anyway, though, I'd say that from what I've always heard people say, MFA degrees don't really do anything to advance your career, per se. They're more about getting better as a writer through that practice, and networking. And one from the University of Smalltown is much different from one from, la, Columbia. ITO reputation-boosting. I really wouldn't weight them very much.

In poetry, an MFA is almost-strictly for getting a job teaching poetry, and worth little if it's not from Iowa University or UC Irvine. Indeed, in today's poetry climate, they get dismissed even easier than they probably should be. The winds of the art form are railing a bit against it's self-appointed hierarchy. A lot of poets blame academia for nearly killing the art form in the 70s and 80s, and indeed, the stranglehold a few small groups have held on the art form has led to a lot of stagnation.