An Arrow Meets Its Mark

Dearest & Sweetest Archers:


Please note that as the condition of Super Arrow is in a current state of flux, we will not be accepting submissions and will be shelving the journal publications for the foreseeable future. The last five issues will still be available online at superarrow.org.


We're in talks to twist the project into something else -- something more personally and economically sustainable -- since the size of our staff (2) precludes much we'd like to do and be as a publication.  


We thank you for your interest in our publication and hope that you'll accompany us into the future, as the Super Arrow project evolves into something new. The presence of the work that we've been so lucky to publish, and that of the writers and artists we've worked with along the way, has been a series of overwhelming pleasures. 

Best wishes for an extravagantly productive and productively extravagant summer's end, with hearts beating fast and ice melting slowly,
Super Arrow

Survey Says: Phase 2 of Folio 6

Dear Interrogatives of the Order Aesthetic:


The survey is officially released unto the pressing hordes. We got so excited, we made this whole paragraph its link. It is a sleek mix of serious and fun, and numbers 19 questions, if you include the name/email/address business. Some are multiple choice (no scantrons, sorry); some are yes/no; some are of the unbridled essay variety. You have one month to fill out the survey as best you can, then we’ll beep-bop-boop the results into an easy-on-the-eyes inforgraphic for Issue No. 6’s Folio. We were really impressed and happy with the participation we got during the first phase, and we want to thank the following people for helping to craft the survey you see today:

William J., Iain Mulder, Mary Rothlisberger, Shawn Sebastian, Kit Kennedy, Jordan Hicks, JoAnna Novak, Jeremy Allan Hawkins, Philip Matthews, Sean Thibodeau, Benjamin Nardolilli, Jay, Joe Milazzo, Adam Peterson, Tamiko Beyer, Sage, Emily, Alec Hershman, Kim Rogers, me2, Sharky, [Anonymous]

And speaking of Issue No. 6, after many tete-a-tetes, we’ve decided to shift the summer issue publication date to July 1, rather than June 1. This means that an issue will emerge every 6 months, (rather than the current 5 and 7), and everything will be even-steven, symmetrical, a balanced seesaw, etcetera. This will give us more time to present a quality periodical. And we’ll keep accepting submissions on a rolling basis, so head to our online submissions manager at your earliest convenience.

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter, and like us on Facebook: whatever flavor you prefer.

Asked & Answered 4VR, Yours,
Super Arrow

The Survey Will Say

Dear Brave Wonders,

Recently, for many reasons -- some of which will be explained in the No. 6 editorial letter -- we have been thinking about how the idea of a question-and-answer can be converted into a consciously creative process. We ask and answer questions all day, yet out of context the process can seem weird, demanding even. So how can we take this weirdness and make some art out of it?

The assignment for Folio No. 6 will go a bit differently, and this is the process by which this strange new art-weapon will be forged:

ONE Arrow constituents will be invited to submit questions. See the submission form, below.

TWO Some of these questions, along with those from our editorial team and past contributors, will go into a survey, available for public completion. The survey will be a combination of multiple choice and essay, exploring the nature of interrogation and query in the realm of the creative process. We expect, too, some silliness, and some room to move around, interpretatively speaking. 

THREE The results of the survey answers will be curated and expressed graphically, an entablature of survey-as-collaborative-art, presented as the FOLIO for our summer issue.

You can submit a question here, or head to the site to do so. 

PHASE ONE: QUESTION SUBMISSIONS ends April 14 2012 

Submit, below, any question you'd like: anything you'd like to know about a fellow artist, writer or private citizen. It need not be about the creative process; this is a venture to use the survey AS a creative process. Submit as many questions as you like, but only one at a time, please. They may be essay, multiple choice, or yes/no; please let us know in the question box which is which. 

After pressing "Go." you will be asked to fill out a security prompt.

Questions marked by * are required.
1.	Name or Pseudonym, if you so desire.
2.	Email: *
3.	The Question in Question: *
4.	What kind of creature is your question? Essay Multiple Choice Yes/No
5.	If multiple choice, include possible answers, separated by semicolons.
6.	Mailing Address, if you'd like to enter in a super special prize drawing.

Can an Online Periodical Have Seasonal Affective Disorder? Or, Are We Just Secretly Bears?

Dear Archers in Short Pants and Hats to Shield What the Clouds Once Hid:

We hibernate in winter, we blossom in spring. There’s no getting around it. Here at Arrow HQ, the cold season fell upon us as a frigid axe. We shuddered and huddled and pushed back sorrowful complications. Then we went to AWP. Now, hello! It’s warm enough to bring back memories of past summer wonders, our pits damp for the excitement of all the future may bring.

We apologize, with every sweetness in our fibrous pixels, for our long absence. We again mount the submissions pile. You’ll hear from us soon, brave submitters. Thank you for your generosity and patience!

And soon, we will be unveiling the exact proportions and tones of Issue No. 6’s Folio, which will be a horse of a different color, something new to try while your toenail polish dries and while the ice in your drink melts elegantly. We won’t say much yet, except, the catchphrase of Family Feud just may turn out to be our prime creative directive…Does that give away too much?

We’ll need your help with that, and we’ll need you to continue to send submissions, to continue telling your friends, if you would be so wonderfully kind. We continue to want to run through the fields of your experiment and craft, prose and poetry whose facets are sheer or foamy, edges sharp or giving...and certainly, and always, to confront and grovel before the visual and sonic business, be it paintings or installation or video or sound or ?. As always, trundle over to the Super Arrow archive if you want to know what sorts of things have made us blush in issues past. 

And now, with full throats let us welcome the spring! More forthcoming, and soon!

With the Hope & Love of a Thousand Suns Exploding,

Super Arrow

Issue No. 5 Has Arrived with the New Year's Baby

...and baby, is it a humdinger!


Look, we know we say this a lot, but only because it's true: THIS ISSUE IS AN ANIMAL WITH THE LAND SPEED OF A CHEETAH AND THE MUSCLE OF JACK LALANNE CIRCA 1947 (RIP). AND THE SWEETNESS OF A BEE'S HIVE, AND THE BUZZING OF IT TOO. 


So maybe we don't use those words, but they've certainly got some familiar vibes, yes? Happily we may now offer you the gorgeous words and art of Sara Deniz Akant, Travis Brown, Laura E. Davis, Jaydn DeWald, Katy Gunn, Alec Hershman, Sarah Jennings, Shane Jones, David Laskowski, Philip Matthews, Joe Milazzo, Dawn Pendergast, Jess Stoner, Laura Vena, BJ Vogt, Kevin Weidner, Joseph P. Wood, and Jane Wong. Peruse them as you sit beside the fire, as cozy as is possible and/or desired.


Submissions are open, as are our editorial minds. 


We wish you the best of everything, in this, our year of 2012. 


With hearts that beat as fast as a dog's foot when it's getting a good scratch,
Super Arrow

Pushing Carts Like It's Our Job

Dear Arrowists,

It is with incredible pride and joy -- Yes, incredible! We almost cannot believe ourselves that the amount of glowing, pulsing, gold-dipped pride and joy we feel is credible! -- that we descend from the mount of editorial labors for Issue No. 5 -- out 1/1/12! -- to announce our nominations for the Pushcart.

They are as follows, in no particular order (not even alphabetical):

“Hi” by Steven Karl and Angela Veronica Wong

“Little Ornaments” by Kerri Webster

“The Jaundiced Deer” by Joseph P. Wood

“Accessible” by Joe Milazzo

“Walrus Disgrace” by Kellie Wells

“Sweeping Elegy for Native Grass” by Caroline Berry Klocksiem

Thank you to these and all of our contributors, this year and in all years. Super Arrow continues to be the thing we hoped it would be: a place for exciting, rigorous artmarkers to show their stuff, to be digitally linked, to extend creative welcomes.

On Birthdays & on Holidays, We Think of All of You So Happily & Sigh...

Super Arrow

A Map's End Is Just the Edge of the Next Map

Dearest Arrows,

We are coming to the end of the submissions cycle for Issue 5. BUT, and this is an important exception, we will continue to keep submissions open, year-round. We will take a bit longer to get to the submissions made nearer to publication dates (midwinter and midsummer) but will get to them as possible. There has been a lovely embrace of submissions this time ‘round and we will offer you a small post-holiday packet of wonder right around New Year’s, wrapped in brown paper and tied with a glittering length of digital twine.

You have just a few more days to be considered for Issue 5, whose cycle ends on November 15, at midnight, your time. Submit, and spread the word. We would like to include more visual art this year, and also maps. Do consider spreading the word, like wildfire, as possible, please, sirs and madams.

It snowed here today for the second day in a row. We’ve been ill and busy and lofted only by the magic in our Submishmash – we mean Submittable – box. Well, lofted by this, and also by various autumnal squash dishes.

Thank you all for your open arms of beckonings and look-heres.

We’ll be with you shortly, again, and for a long time.

Yours in the Northerly Midwestern Region of Industrial Ruin and Drying Fields,

Super Arrow