A toast to the XenoHive!
Cotton Xenomorph, the literary magazine I read fiction submissions for, turned five years old this week.
I’ve been on staff since August, so not a long time. But joining CX has contributed to some of the most productive and fun writing months of my life. I’ve been lucky to count Chloe, Teo, and Hannah as friends for a few years now, and they’ve been (unwittingly) a huge part of getting me back into the writing life and the literary world. Part of the reason I wanted to start The Line Break with Bob was to make more writer friends, whether through listener connections and just by virtue of Bob and I introducing each other to new authors.
In undergrad, I was super prolific at writing. I was in poetry and fiction workshops from sophomore year on, and even did some schedule trickery so I could take extra workshops my senior year. Afterwards, I got hit with that post-grad malaise Kicking and Screaming was about. I wasn’t writing for a long time. There were a lot of reasons and it’s a column for another day, but bottom line, I wasn’t writing. Starting The Line Break, getting to know the CX folks, not to mention plenty of therapy and very supportive wife—I’m in a much better spot now. The homies at CX have been a big part of that, and I’m grateful that space and those writers exist.
On top of all that, the job rules! Getting to know Emily, Erin, and Kanika the last few months as been great. Every submission I’ve read so far has been great, and I actually mean that. Go read some CX!
Some (certainly not all) of the pieces that have stuck with me over the years listed below. Don’t worry, they’re all short:
“Halfway House for Runaway Dads” by Rae Stringfield
“Poem in which I Fail to Teach Homer” by Laura Passin
“An American Werewolf in London (1981)” by Justin Phillip Reed
“Mapmakers” by Andy Lopez (Art by Edward Lee)
“The Skull is a Woman” by Michele Finn Johnson
“Black Girl’s Magic” by DeMisty D. Bellinger
“Grogu Doesn’t Need A Sippy Cup” by Melissa Llanes Brownlee
And, before I started reading fiction subs for CX, they were the site of my first fiction publication. Also the proem of my WIP:
“The Wolfman” by The Jagoff Who Writes This Newsletter
And don’t miss some Line Break episodes we did. The audio of our interview with Teo got lost, but we’re trying to make it up at some point:
Hannah Cohen on manuscript length, wrestling with abstractions, Tommy Wiseau, and Waffle House: Apple Podcasts | Soundcloud
Chloe N. Clark on monsters in poetry, monsters we wouldn’t mind turning into, and Rasheed Wallace Apple Podcasts | Soundcloud
So that’s my little celebration of CX—like I said, not every piece I’ve loved in the magazine is here, because this blog does not need to be Moby Dick-length. Go check out the mag, our website interface is super user friendly. Here’s to another 5×50 years of Cotton Xenomorph!
Sorry you got an email,
Chris