Nightlight Magazine

Hey, gang.

So my co-editor and I have been talking, and we both feel like it’s time to take a break. He’s having a busy semester at grad school, I’m waiting to hear back if I got accepted into grad school and will be making life plans accordingly--it’s just a busy time right now.

Hey, all!

It was a busy holiday season and has been a trying beginning to the year, so we are extending the submission period for this issue. See below for updated dates and a refresher on the theme.

Hand in Hand (November 15 - January 15 January 25)

For this issue, we want to include pieces about community. The goal of this magazine has always been to be inclusive of people with mental illnesses, and key to surviving those is to find a community of people who are supportive and loving. No community is perfect, however; if you have a piece about the less-than-supportive side of community, we want that, too. Community goes by many other names, and can be made up of many different things–we want to explore it all this issue. We accept art as well as writing! Check our blog for submission guidelines.

Here we go, folks, time to submit for Nightlight’s premiere issue for 2019! We, your humble editors, are so excited to present this opportunity to all of you, and we think y’all will have a lot of fun with the theme.

Hand in Hand (November 15 - January 15)

For this issue, we want to include pieces about community. The goal of this magazine has always been to be inclusive of people with mental illnesses, and key to surviving those is to find a community of people who are supportive and loving. No community is perfect, however; if you have a piece about the less-than-supportive side of community, we want that, too. Community goes by many other names, and can be made up of many different things--we want to explore it all this issue. We accept art as well as writing! Check our blog for submission guidelines.

The position for the cover artist is open, so if you’re interested, send us an email or a PM.

Alright, folks, it is technically still November 10th where I am, so here’s the final verdict:

I’ve thought long and hard about this, and about my motivations for starting and upkeeping Nightlight. I got a couple of really impactful comments in favor of keeping it running, and after talking things over a bit with my co-editor, we’ve decided to keep Nightlight running for as long as we can.

Nightlight Magazine Volume 3 Issue 4: It Came From Beyond is live!

As always, HUGE thanks to the submitters, and if you notice an error, please let us know asap so we can fix it! Thank you!

So the final issue of 2018 will be up by October 30, just before Halloween, so keep an eye out for that! Should be great!

Also, for those of you who haven’t seen it, we are collecting feedback about whether or not we should keep Nightlight going into 2019; you can see the discussion here.

It’s about that time again: time when the last issue of the year is wrapping up, and time to think about whether or not I have the resources and motivation to continue the magazine.

I have loved doing Nightlight. I still love it. I will continue to love it, for everything it gave me, and for everything it gave all of you. It’s an important part of my life.

However...my wonderful co-editor is neck-deep in graduate school, and if all goes well, next year I might be, too. Even without grad school, there are many draws on my time and my attention, and with my latest laptop being a very generous Mac hand-me-down, I can’t even use the same program to make the magazine that I have been for years (no Microsoft Publisher for Macs, unfortunately). I started Nightlight because I was in a dark place after the first time I applied to a grad school and got rejected, because I’d been in a dark place for a long time. My current emotional state is...questionable. But what isn’t questionable is that I want to give all of you a good and finished product for every issue, no matter how small, and I’m afraid I might not be able to do that anymore. I don’t have the time or energy or resources to really grow Nightlight the way I want it to grow, to invest in its social media presence and interact more with the community it aims to serve. I want so much for this little rag of mine. But I might not be able to give it what it deserves.

So, here are my options:

1. Bow out after three wonderful years and close Nightlight for good. It had a great run, and I love what experiences it gave, but it was going to end sometime, and it seems now is the time.

2. Go on hiatus for a year or two, until my workload and the workload of my co-editor is more manageable. It wouldn’t be over, but it would be inert for a long time.

3. Try to keep going as we have been.

Heya, folks! It’s been a pretty good year, so let’s close it out with the following theme:

It Came From Beyond (Aug 1 - October 15)

For the final issue of the year, let’s blast off and really dig in deep to those horrors from beyond the stars. Existential dread? Sure. Sci-fi horror opera? Okay. Lovecraftian Space Romance? Absolutely. If it has a futuristic-science fiction element and a smidgeon of the supernatural, we’ll take it! We accept artwork as well as writing, although gory and sexually explicit works will not be accepted. Body horror within reason will be considered.

We are looking for a cover artist, so if you’re interested, please PM us or email us!