Founded by Grant Garland in the fall of 2012, Middle Literate existed first as an online literary community for writers in the Champaign-Urbana area. We hosted readings, and acted as an Internet collective for our contributors—posting their bios, accomplishments, and publications on our website. Most notably, Middle Literate was the spearhead for the “They Hardly Knew Us” reading series, a series
dedicated to showcasing the work of prospective MFA students from the University of Illinois. Now in its second incarnation, Middle Literate hopes to expand its audience with an innovative approach to producing a literary journal. Inspired by radio shows and podcasts, like This American Life, Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me, and You Wrote The Book, we recognize the value of the World Wide Web as a vehicle for expression and cultural understanding. Middle Literate believes in the importance of performance within the literary sphere. It is our goal to give writers the opportunity to present their work to audiences in spoken-word form. We travel to our contributors and record performances of their stories, poems, or essays. We release an episode each month, and a collection at the end of the year. We accept submissions online by way of our submissions manager via Submittable. Our reading period begins December 1st and ends September 1st. Work from writers at any point in their literary careers is welcomed. We encourage simultaneous submissions, as well as previously published work.
