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Allison Wall

Month: December 2024
  • 2024 in Review: Publications

    Here we are, back again at the close of another year. Another revolution around the sun. Another strange period to be a human in society. Another whirlwind of hours that felt like weeks and weeks that felt like seconds.

    This year, my publishing journey has been both slow and fast, more of the same and very unexpected.

    No luck on novel-length work yet, though I did receive several highly complimentary rejections (“fan letters”) from fantastic indie presses I really admire. This was simultaneously amazing and soul crushing. Drama within indie and trad publishing continues to daunt. And, of course, the state of the arts in a post-capitalist content-consumer society is bleak, as always, with the added horrors of generative AI. I can only imagine what Our Lady Ursula K. LeGuin would have to say if she was still with us.

    I did have luck with short (and less short) fiction! Several stories I was struggling to place last year were accepted, and late in the year, I got an acceptance on my first novelette, Unbound, which is my longest publication to date. (Check out this blog post to learn more about Unbound, what a novelette is, what it’s about, etc.) This feels like an important milestone, and (fingers’ crossed) a harbinger of longer work to come. My laptop knows there’s more where that came from.

    The unexpected: I started submitting poetry for the first time, which opened a whole new world of journal titles, submission requirements, and possibilities. I burned myself out on submitting, actually, and moving into poetry probably contributed to that. I did have to take some breaks, and I slowed down a lot after the middle of the year.

    BUT, I have *seven* sparkly published poems to show for it! No one is more shocked by my foray into poetry than me, but I’m really loving it.

    And, honestly, I’m shocked at how much work I managed to write, submit, and place, given how little time I felt like I devoted to writing. A good reminder, maybe, that our perceptions of productivity, time, value, etc., are not to be trusted–or at least, being tainted by capitalism and shame, are highly suspect.

    Here is a list of the work I published in 2024. I may update this list if/as things drop and I can link to them. I update the Publications page of this website regularly, but a tidy blog with all of the links for this year in one place is nice.

    Poetry

    Novelette

    Unbound, Last Syllable, Issue III

    Short Fiction

    The Sky Here is Different, Exposed Bone, *COMING SOON*

    After She Makes a Pact with the Dark Goddess, All Existing, *COMING SOON*

    Grotesque, Tales of Sley House 2024

    These Small Apocalypses, Overtly Lit, Issue 4

    How Now, Ophelia? A Coup of Owls

    Baba Yaga Goes North, Crow & Cross Keys

    Crow & Cross Keys Baba Yaga Goes North Allison Wall
    I said goodbye to the people around me, the ones who thought they knew me, who were shocked. They didn't understand what I was doing. They tried to talk me out of it, told me I was confused, that no one was Baba Yaga, that she's just an old fairy tale. --Allison Wall, "Baba Yaga Goes North"
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  • Publication Announcement: UNBOUND

    I am so excited to announce the publication of my first novelette, Unbound!

    This is the longest work I’ve ever had published, and I am so thrilled it is now live at the amazing Last Syllable.

    What’s a ‘novelette’?

    For those blessed enough to be unaware of industry slang, a novelette is generally defined as a work of fiction between 7,500 and 17,500 words. Unbound clocks in at about 17,300. It’s on the long end, but not quite long enough to be a novella, which is 17,500 to 40,000 words. Anything 40,000 and up is considered a novel.

    So, Unbound is just less than half of a pretty short novel. It’s also divided up into mini chapters, so reading it all in one sitting is not required!

    What’s it about?

    Unbound follows Nerissa, the granddaughter and heir of Maia, a powerful coven leader. The day Nerissa finally ascends to the coven’s governing Inner Circle, Maia informs them they must travel beyond their forest’s borders to defeat a rogue wizard who endangers the entire world by the way he practices magic: unbound.

    Unbound is about family, memory, loss, trauma, and identity. It’s about enmeshment, and the ways power can be stolen through fear. Really, it’s a story about deconstruction. About what happens when you realize the way you were taught to think about the world is actually…wrong.

    Having pulled apart and reconstructed my own worldviews several times, I’m fascinated by the psychological processes of deconstruction. In Unbound, two characters undergo the deconstruction process, taking very different paths to get there, for very different reasons.

    Trigger warnings?

    Trigger warnings do apply. Religion isn’t discussed directly, but it was a huge inspiration, so those with religious trauma or who find the social dynamics present in high-control groups triggering may want to skip this one. Trigger warnings also apply for abuse in general, though most of it is referred to or takes place off page.

    Warm fuzzies

    One last thing. Last Syllable is a literary journal that specifically publishes long-form works, and it’s run by students getting their M.A.s in Writing. I feel lots of warm happy feelings about this, thinking about my own time in grad school studying writing. It was so formative for me, and I love that I (very indirectly) participated in someone else’s education experience. I’m so grateful to the student editor team that picked Unbound for publication!

    I am incredibly proud of this story. I hope you take the time to check it out.

    And, hey, if it isn’t your thing, maybe the next one will be.

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