Identity Theory

11/11/2024

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The lit mag with the corgi. Just getting started here. Read us at identitytheory.com.

11/11/2024

"Penelope only met her grandfather once when she was four years old and she barely recognized him twelve years later at the open casket funeral, but still in his will he left her (and yes it was written out): twenty-five dollars and sixty-two cents; a yellow pillow stained with something purple..."

Penelope only met her grandfather once when she was four years old and she barely recognized him twelve years later at the open casket funeral.

11/11/2024

Which breed do you prefer?
[ ] Chihuahua mix
[ ] The only non-Chihuahua mix, with polar-bear paws and a smile that's half sweet, half salty

You want a furry friend who will… (Check all that apply)

10/11/2024

"She’d entered a world where dreams went to die. The baby latched to her breast like a permanent fixture. She was a milk machine. She was a repository of want. A reservoir of tears until she wasn’t. Until, like all sources, she dried up. Work receded to distant memory. The magazine shuttered. She was not going anywhere. She was going to her baby. Her husband had no patience for this nonsense. He had to get up in the morning and function like a real person. What else did she have to do? She was a mother."

Before she could do anything, the camera clicked.

10/11/2024

This week's cartoon from Alan Michael Parker.

09/11/2024

RIP Dorothy Allison

An interview with Dorothy Allison, author of the National Book Award finalist "Bastard Out of Carolina."

27/10/2024

"I think any male writer whining that we 'can’t' write 'masculine' fiction is pretty much conceding that he’s unable to effectively connect with contemporary sensibilities. This does not mean writers need to kowtow to current tendencies (indeed, I’d argue any artist with integrity fastidiously avoids trends and whatever the marketplace ostensibly demands). Put another way, if you desperately want to write about tough guys brawling and boozing, understand that it’s entirely your right to do so—just don’t have any illusions."

Published by Unsolicited Press, Sean Murphy's 'This Kind of Man' is challenging and compelling fiction.

21/10/2024

This week's Ampydoo.

15/10/2024

Micro Monday returns with "Heat-seekers" by Meg Pokrass.

In the back of the man’s car on the way to the service station I say for the third or fourth time, Hey this is super nice of you! and Mom says, Shhh!

02/10/2024

Congratulations to our 2025 Best of the Net nominees!

29/09/2024

Kim Addonizio: I don't know about finding one's voice. It changes over time. And has more to do with the voice of the poem—at least, the way I've experienced it. I think my later poems are freer than the earlier ones, more able to shift tonal registers, less tied to earnest narrative. Then again, when I'm not writing poems, I seem to have no idea how to write a decent one. You'd think a voice would be more reliable, but it isn't! It's often fugitive and has to be coaxed. Sometimes it takes a cattle prod.

When you enter a Kim Addonizio poem, you never know where you’ll end up.

29/09/2024

How polite. This week's cartoon from Alan Michael Parker.

07/09/2024

This week's Ampydoo cartoon.

19/08/2024

Micro submissions are open.

Forms: Prose (500 max words) and poetry (9 max lines)

Theme: Fall/winter vibes

Deadline: End of August

Thank you for your interest in publishing your micro in Identity Theory. We thoughtfully read, consider, and discuss all submissions. Qualifying micros

17/08/2024

Peek-a-boo! It's your Friday cartoon from Ampydoo.

10/08/2024

Your Friday cartoon from Alan Michael Parker.

02/08/2024

Rothko Burger