Coach takes a minute to recap the greatest moments from 2008.
Ok gang, as we approach this year's ending and another beginning, I thought we should celebrate some great things that the Good Lord has done over the last year (or maybe two)! There's been some major milestones, and we just want to give some thanks to God for the successes He's given to us.
Relief Highlights, 2008:
TWO, count 'em TWO Pushcart Special Mentions for works published in our FIRST YEAR of publication! Props to Chris Fisher and Lisa Ohlen Harris!
ONE Notable Mention in The Best American Spiritual Writing 2008 for Lisa Ohlen Harris! (Yowza, is that girl on fire or what?!!!)
Our first big official showing at Calvin's Festival of Faith and Writing. It was awesome to meet authors and readers at our booth--Man was that a great conference!
Our first shout-out from an author in his thanks section. Thanks Michael Snyder for remembering us little people as you hit the big time!
Being called "the best literary mag in Christendom" by an editor at a Christian publishing house (I can't tell you who because I don't want him to get into trouble with any of the other journals!).
A fairly consistent blog schedule (yes, I know we're kind of sporadic with the holidays but we'll be back in the new year!).
Completing our second full volume of Relief!
A nifty new look to our web site!
A CPA to help us finish out our 501c3 paperwork! A massive thanks to Angie Poole for her huge help!
Surviving a server apocaplypse without losing any orders!
And we could go on and on about all of our Relief and Diner authors who have gone on to get book deals and other great stuff. J. Mark Bertrand, Kevin Lucia, Stacy Barton, Mike Delloso, Jeanne Damoff, Jeff Newberry, Michael Snyder, Elrena Evans, Margot Starbuck, and I know there's a bunch more! Drop us a line in the comments if we left you out of the list :D
We just give thanks to God as He gives us the ability to publish excellent work.
Gang, seriously, thank you to all of you who come by the blog, buy the books, submit great work, and I'm still kind of shellshocked by all of the support you've provided even in this strange economic time we're in. We're a small outfit, run by volunteers. We work hard to build great books for you, and we hope we've been a blessing along the way, because all of you--our readers, our bloggers, our subscribers, and our Relief and Diner staff--you've been a huge blessing to us. Thanks for making 2008 an awesome year, and we look forward to an exciting 2009!
Your immensely grateful neighborhood tech guy, Coach
Editor-In-Chief Kimberly Culbertson shares some news.
Relief S.O.S.
Relief's support raising campaign is scheduled to end December 31. If you check out the ChipIn widget to your right, you'll see that we've raised $580.00 towards the $2000.00 goal. You can also see that we've reduced the goal from $2000.00 to $1801.00 to reflect two donations that came to us via mail. That means that we are still short a little over $1200.00 with only 14 days left in the year. The good news is that Relief won't be closing its doors if we don't meet the goal by the deadline; we'll have to reevaluate some of the projects and continue to raise funds into the new year, but we've raised enough to head into 2009.
Please consider donating even $5.00. If only ten percent of those who come to our website every month donated just $5, we'd easily surpass our goal.
Thanks for the prayers and kind words that we've received via email. We hope to be around for many years to come, and we're thrilled to know that many of you have the same hope. And of course, thanks to those who have subscribed or donated to the journal :D
Coach's Midnight Diner
Coach's Midnight Diner, Volume 2 is now in layout. The second volume is shaping up to be even more hard-hitting than the first. For those of you who are fans of speculative fiction, this genre anthology won't disappoint. You'll be able to purchase a copy early in the new year.
Editor-In-Chief Kimberly Culbertson congratulates two Relief authors.
Congratulations to Christopher Fisher and Lisa Ohlen Harris!
The Pushcart Prize XXXIII, edited by Bill Henderson, was just released. We're happy to announce that two Relief authors have received a Pushcart Prize Special Mention: Chris Fisher for his story, "Priest of Exit 53" (Relief Volume 1, Issue 2) and Lisa Ohlen Harris for her essay, "Torn Veil" (Relief Volume 1, Issue 4).
This yearly anthology honors the best poetry, fiction, and essays published by small presses in the previous year. The Pushcart Prize is the “most honored literary award in America” and has singled out some of the greatest literary work in print for the past three decades. Here at Relief, we are thrilled that these two nominations, from our very first volume of work, have received this honor. Thanks, Chris and Lisa, for the privilege of publishing your work!
Editor-In-Chief Kimberly Culbertson is honored to announce this year's nominations for the Pushcart Prize.
It's that time again! Pushcart judges began judging work on December 1st! For the 2008 prize, we've nominated the following work from Volume Two of Relief:
Poetry
“Longing for Eve” by Mary M. Dixon, Volume 2, Issue 4
Short Story
“Biology” by Helen W. Mallon, Volume 2, Issue 1 “Arbor” by John Keats, Volume 2, Issue 1 “The Last Thing before Dirt” by Melanie Haney, Volume 2, Issue 3
Essay
“The World I Breathe” by Karen Miedrich-Luo, Volume 2, Issue 2 “Dead End” by Jessica Belt, Volume 2, Issue 4
We want to congratulate the nominees and to thank all our 2008 authors for the privilege of publishing your work.
Editor-In-Chief Kimberly Culbertson brings you some exciting news.
Issue 2.4 on It's Way!
We've been notified that Volume 2, Issue 4 is being shipped. In just a few days, we'll be mailing them to your doorsteps! I must say, this is my favorite part of the process :-}
Christmas Sale Coming Tomorrow
Know someone who would love to receive a subscription to Relief for Christmas? We've got a holiday sale coming tomorrow! Stay tuned, because for one week we'll be offering great deals just in time for Christmas. Order a subscription for yourself or someone else, and we'll make sure we ship the first issue in time for Christmas! AND, for this week only, anyone who orders a subscription will also receive a free copy of Coach's Midnight Diner! We'll also have single issues of 2.4 on sale for $12.95 and Coach's Midnight Diner on sale for only $8.00!
Relief SOS Campaign
In September, we posted a Relief SOS, explaining Relief's financial needs for the coming year.
So far, we've received 12 donations totalling $774.00. (The ChipIn to the right says that we've received $575, which reflects the amount donated through the ChipIn. We've also received two donations via mail, totaling $199. Since we aren't able to edit the amount that has been donated on the ChipIn, we've reduced the amount needed from $2000 to $1801 to reflect the additional donations.) We still need to raise $1226 to ensure that we'll be able to meet our needs for 2009.
Please consider donating even a small amount or subscribing to the journal. For those of you who have already donated or subscribed, THANK YOU! Your contribution has already helped to keep Relief up and running!
Coach takes a minute to recap the greatest moments from 2008.
Editor-In-Chief Kimberly Culbertson shares some news.
