Introducing Finding the Birds Literary Journal

I'm excited to have author Sarah J. King on today to tell us about her new online literary journal called Finding the Birds.

Tell us about your new online literary journal!

We are an online journal featuring flash fiction, poetry, and fiction up to 8,000 words.  We hope to offer our readers quality storytelling in easily digestible sizes.  Our hope is to publish six issues yearly, each with a specific theme in mind.  This issue, The Gemini Issue, focuses on two-sidedness, duality in nature or character, abrupt personality change, and surprise shifts or twists.  The next issue, Vox Tacet,  will center around the voices and stories of the otherwise marginalized.  We hope to receive fiction and poetry about animal rights, poverty, mental illness, and other forms of oppression.

Additionally, we have added a blog to our site, Writer’s Blo[g]ck.  This blog should be a place where writers, and readers alike, can come to find articles and posts that give writing tips, publishing advice, and highlight authors and new books. 

What made you want to start a lit journal?

I have been an English Teacher since 2009, and I’ve been a writer and prolific reader my entire life.  I truly enjoy reading fiction, and I enjoy giving writing guidance as well.  Also, every time I have something published, or I win a writing contest, I am absolutely thrilled.  I supposed I started this journal for two reasons: first, to put together a solid collection for readers to enjoy, and second, to help give more authors a place to showcase their work.

What types of submissions are you looking for from writers?

First and foremost, we look for quality writing. We want the fiction and poetry that we select to connect with our readers.  We want to provoke thought and elicit strong feelings and emotions.  Also, it is very important that the work we publish not promote hate, violence, or discrimination.  We want our readers to feel included, and never intimidated.  

Who are some of your favorite writers?

As for more contemporary writers,  I love Kazuo Ishiguro, Wally Lamb, John Green, & John Krakauer.  Of course, and an English teacher, I love classic and contemporary classics as well.  Among my favorite authors are J.D. Salinger, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Shakespeare, and John Steinbeck. 

What is your favorite book from childhood?

From early childhood, I was both plagued by and enamored with, The Giving Tree.  It made me terribly sad. Even in adulthood, I can’t get all the way through it without crying, and motherhood has only deepened its effect on me.  In my middle grades, I loved Tuck Everlasting and Flowers for Algernon.  Again, the tears shed while reading those books as a young girl are uncountable. 

If you could have coffee with any writer (living or deceased), who would you pick? 

Wow, what a nearly unanswerable question.  Now if it were a drink, I’s say Hemingway without hesitation.  His propensity for excitement and competition at bars among friends would be such an amazing thing to witness.  As for a cup of coffee, I would have to say Salinger.  He was such an unknowable creature, and Catcher in the Rye has had such a lasting impact on my life.  If you and I had coffee, I could tell you a story or two about all the silly things I have done, and that have happened to me due to my intense love for that book.

Some other facts about Sarah:

My novel, The Ways of After, was published by Willowbird Press in 2015.  Since then I have been published by a few Literary Journals and Magazines.  Most recently, my work was featured in the March Issue of La Piccioletta Barca, and in April I won a fiction writing competition held by Retreat West, and was featured in their magazine. 

I also am married with two beautiful daughters (Summer and Keira)

Check out Finding the Birds online here:
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Website: https://www.findingthebirds.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/findingthebirds/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Finding-the-Birds-104554261228561
Twitter: https://twitter.com/FindingtheBirds