The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
but I have promises to keep,
and miles to go before I sleep.— excerpt of Robert Frost’s poem
“Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening”
I blew it when linking to the work of those who’ve submitted to ‘Archived Collections’
Updating the new publication’s list of early adopters
Mea culpa!
I’m writing to apologize to Oliver Shiny and Gloria DiFulvio. I neglected to link to their story archives when I published a story earlier this week about early adopters submitting their work to Archived Collections, a new publication started by alto almost three weeks ago.
The point of that story was to call attention to the writers who’ve had work published at Archived Collections. I did at least mention Oliver and Gloria as being among the new publication’s first writers, but when I linked to each one’s archives, I failed to include Oliver Shiny’s and Gloria DiFulvio’s. For that, I’m truly sorry, and I hope you will forgive me my oversight.
I’m writing today not only to apologize for my error, but also to provide the links that were missing from my original post. So, without further adieu, I present the works of Oliver and Gloria, two of the best writers you’ll find here at Medium:
Oliver Shiny:
Gloria DiFulvio:
We’ve also added a new contributor to the fold since I published my story three days ago, a fabulous writer named Thom Garrett. And alto, the publication’s owner and chief editor, has published a new archive of his social justice writing, so I’m providing links to Thom’s work and alto’s new archive, too:
Thom Garrett:
alto’s Social Justice Writing:
And since I’m in update mode today, I’d like to include this as well: The submission guidelines for Archived Collections have changed. Your archived stories may now, under certain circumstances, include responses, not just stand-alone articles. Read the new guidelines in this post published by alto earlier today.
I’ve also decided to republish my original post from three days ago in its entirety, below this one. I’ve added links to the work of Oliver Shiny, Gloria DiFulvio, and Thom Garrett into it, as well as to alto’s new Social Justice archive.
And so, here it is once more, with links to the work of every writer whose work appears in Archived Collections as of this moment:
In Only Two Weeks, ‘Archived Collections’ Are So Deep You May Just Get Lost In Them
The new publication is already home to 20 writers’ collections
If you’re reading these words, then there’s hope that I’m still on the editing staff of alto’s new Archived Collections publication despite busting deadline on my first assignment. I really hope I’m still working for alto. But if I have been fired, you guys are to blame — some of you anyway. That doesn’t mean you did anything bad. In fact, you did something good. You wrote a bunch of really interesting, funny, and heartbreaking stories, and I kept reading them, delving deeper and deeper into the archives of your work, and then into the responses, those branching roots that spread underground in every direction, and to tell you the truth, I got lost a few times and had a little trouble finding my way back here. But I made it, and thank goodness, too, because I’ve got this story to write and I’m already two days late.
For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Sonny Bohanan, and alto (aka Allan G Rae) has invited me to help him edit the publication he introduced two weeks ago called Archived Collections. I’m a relative newcomer at Medium. I slipped over the exterior wall last fall and have been making a pig of myself ever since, gorging on this crazy feast of writing and writers, sampling everything I’ve been able to get my grubby little mitts on, careering from one end of Medium to the other in an altogether undisciplined frenzy of reading and responding. In the six or eight months I’ve been here, I haven’t written that many “stories,” per se. The thing I love most about Medium is the interaction with other writers, the responses at the end of each story. To me, this sets Medium apart from any other place I’ve been on the web. I see a tangible difference in the level of public discourse between the writers of Medium and the public discourse I see practiced elsewhere online. Some of these places are real cesspools. Not so here, or most of the time anyway.
Until alto started Archived Collections, however, I didn’t realize just how few stand-alone stories I’ve actually posted at Medium. When alto listed the guidelines for getting your archives published in his new publication, I took a look at my own output and thought for a moment that I didn’t even meet the minimum of 10 stand-alone stories, as opposed to responses to other writers’ stories. (Update: See new guidelines for submitting your story archive here. alto announced earlier today that responses, under some circumstances, can be included in you archive.)
I do have 10 stand-alone pieces, but just barely. In part that’s because I have a more-than-full-time job, and until a few weeks ago, was also attending grad school. But I recently graduated with a master’s degree in creative writing (fiction), and so when alto asked me to join his new publication, I jumped at the chance.
And it’s obvious, even after only two weeks, that there was tremendous pent-up demand for this sort of a publication. Since Medium wouldn’t build a way for the writers publishing on the platform to collect their stories in an archive, alto and other writers discovered their own way of doing it: By creating a single post with links to all of their favorite work. Before discovering this archive-hack, writers had no way of making their long-form “important” stories stand apart from the crowd of responses that clog every writer’s list of published work on Medium.
A number of writers had already discovered how to create such an archive by linking to their best work from a single post. But alto had the genius idea of creating a publication made up exclusively of such archived collections. Now, instead of relying on a story feed that is eccentric at best, or flitting here and there across Medium, hoping to find the most interesting stories, I can simply make a daily visit to Archived Collections, and find every piece of fiction written by Tom Farr, Lizella Prescott, Jeff Elkins, Hana Leshner and alto. I could get lost for days in the fiction alone (and did). Maybe you’d prefer the poetry of Anna Present, Ernio Hernandez and alto. Then you’d be in luck, because it’s all there. You’ll also find writing from a mixture of genres by Mirah Curzer, Lon Shapiro, Oliver Shiny, Sherry Caris, Jennifer Brown, Thom Garrett, Jules, Gloria DiFulvio, Sean Howard, JoJo Magno, Jeffrey Field, and Graham Anderson.
Yes, in only two weeks, Archived Collections has already amassed days and days’ worth of reading gold. You’ll never have a problem finding something great or interesting to read on Medium. No, now your problem will be similar to mine — there’s so much great writing here that you’ll find yourself immersed for days. I suggest leaving some bread crumbs to find your way back home.
And for those of you who haven’t yet compiled your work into an archive and submitted it to Archived Collections, what are you waiting for? You’ve probably wondered, like I have, what it was like to be there during the first days of Crossing Genres and The Coffeelicious and other big-name publications on Medium. I know I have. Well, wonder no more. Get in on the ground floor of Archived Collections. Your stories will thank you for it.
When you’re ready to be added as a writer to the publication, send an email to archivedcollections@outlook.com and alto will add you right away. Then you can submit your archive piece via the “ … ” button at the top right of your story. Choose Add to Publication, then Add to Archived Collections, and press Send. It’s that easy.
But wait! There’s more . . . Here are our detailed submission guidelines (also read this update that we now allow responses, in some cases, to be included in your archive). Good luck . . . finding your way home once you’ve entered the archives, that is.
Finally, here’s what we’ve all been waiting for: Below are links to the work of each writer who has her or his archive published in Archived Collections.
Enjoy!
Fiction
Tom Farr:
Lizella Prescott:
Jeff Elkins:
Hana Leshner:
alto:
Creative Nonfiction
Ernio Hernandez:
Mirah Curzer:
Poetry
alto I of IV:
alto II of IV:
alto III of IV:
Anna Present:
Ernio Hernandez:
Mixed Genre
Oliver Shiny:
Gloria DiFulvio:
Thom Garrett:
Sherry Caris:
Anna Present:
Lon Shapiro:
alto’s Starting Point:
alto’s archive of published work:
alto’s Social Justice Writing:
Jennifer Brown:
Jules:
Sean Howard:
JoJo Magno:
JoJo Magno’s The Reader:
The Reader
A collection of my reading notes turned into blog posts turned into meditations.
medium.com
