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Falling Star Magazine is a print quarterly featuring short fiction, poetry and art of all mediums. Founded in Winter 2000, Falling Star presents the work of the world's emerging writers; recent contributors hail from Michigan and Poland, L.A. and the U.K.
Falling Star has appeared annually at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books since 2006. However, a recent event has changed our plans. I received an unusual letter from Stanley Baldwin in Montague, Michigan. Inside was a short note, his business card, and a check for $10 I had sent his wife in August 2001 as payment for publishing her poem 'Where Have All the Heroes Gone?' in the very first issue of Falling Star. The note read: Dear Matt, I found your check while going over some of Jean's things. Jean passed away on August 17, 2006. - Stan Baldwin When I was an early writer, I held on to checks quite a while, often propping them up on my desk and staring at them, placing them in a strategic location where I'd see them as I walked around the house, eventually cashing them when I needed the money. Those checks meant much more than the money; they were a symbol that I was succeeding. I suspect Jean was doing the same thing. She held on to my check five years until the day she died. Here at Falling Star we've been wrestling with the idea of going to the 2009 LA Times Festival of Books. We've attended the last three, but for some reason, we just couldn't bring ourselves to shell out $1000+ for a booth. Now, in light of Jean's letter, we know why. We'll be paying our writers more this time around. Each will receive a check for their work. It's theirs to do with as they please. Call it the Baldwin Act, a stimulus package for writers. We'll also be organizing a West Coast book tour, visiting independent bookstores in the San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle areas. After all, writing isn't just about where we go in our minds, it's the places we get to go and spread the word that good work goes on. Our issues regularly circulate in the bookstores and art havens of Los Angeles, the San Fernando Valley, Ventura, and other national markets. Click here for our Submission Guidelines. To obtain a free copy of Falling Star in the 50 United States, e-mail the editor at McGee4468@aol.com. |
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