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Literary Mixtape Vol. 3


Side A:

Side B:



November 5, 2023


Hi pals,


Changing up the format of M7 as of this mixtape. Turns out – and this is probably not a shock to anyone but me – running a weekly with daily shares by yourself is fucking hard!


So going forward, M7 will be a bi-weekly publication with social shares on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays of each week.


Before and after launching, I received most excellent advice to keep the project as fun as possible, for as long as possible. Running the magazine so far has been joyful, and I want to keep it that way. Giving it room to grow slow and steady (while avoiding my old friend burnout) feels like the right choice.


Thank you to those who are showing up with work – whether I've accepted or rejected your piece, please know I've enjoyed the hell out of reading all of them. I'm especially impressed by how folks haven't once yet submitted the same song. And holy shit I am impressed with the broad spectrum of musical taste! Hats off, kids.


Subs are still open, and I'd love to see more folks in the inbox. If you're reading this, consider it your invitation.


We gained an extra hour today, so I hope you spend a little of that time with our Vol. 3 authors.


Rachel M. Beavers tells that age-old tale about a tortured love you can't quite leave in "Grand Paradise". Rachel's birthday is tomorrow, so be sure to wish her a happy birthday and mash the like, retweet, follow, all that good stuff.


Was not expecting to publish work about shovelling shit so early into the mag's tenure, but Mitchell Nobis made it a no-brainer with "I Go To Work". If you're thinking of getting into the lit mag game to platform work about rapping to cows, too late—M7 scooped ya, suckers.


I think most of us are always dreaming of a call, or a letter, or a text that may never come. Thad DeVassie taps into that ache for connection with his twinned phone booths in "Calling Cards"—by the end of reading it, I bet you'll have one person in mind you wish would pick up if you were the one dialling.


Khalid Mitchell makes a hell of a debut with "Ditto", cycling us through seasons of growth from the perspective of lovers who meet in a surging concert crowd. "We jump and the floor shakes only for us" had my heart the moment I read it, and I'm so proud and thrilled Khalid gifted his stunning first publication to M7.


I started M7 with a deep curiosity about all the ways music shades the corners of your lives. The moments that change the way you hear a song forever. I'm willing to bet T. Swift never imagined she'd soundtrack someone's colonoscopy, but for better or worse, she's Will McMillan's company when things go from from humorous to horrified on a hospital bed in "Anti-Hero".


Music has a way of suspending moments while also stretching experience beyond temporal limits. Melissa Flores Anderson does the math on a May-December romance to the tune of "Time Flies"by Lykke Li.


Enjoy Volume 3, and see ya in the subs. And if you need to hear it, like I did: Keep things as fun as possible, for as long as possible.


xo,

Kirsti


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