Baring the Device: Ethics in Publishing

The Gravity of the Thing’s editors have compiled a brief list of resources that relate to ethical practices in publishing. Here are a few ways writers, editors, and publishers are critically analyzing literary craft and publishing processes.

Heart-Foal | Lily Holloway

"Today a self that burns to look at ditched roadside / [not sure abandonment is self-flagellation or survival] / broke open and spiraled out / another junked failure-self..."

Postapocalypto | Charles Byrne

"Call it a letter to the soil and sea and air, / A love letter to the Earth we once knew, / Its once-warm embrace— / We say, in fondest adumbration, / Don’t hold tight..."

Selected Poems | Makayla Gay

"Have I told you how badly I wanted to lift the shroud of Saint Basil of Ostrog / to see if the smell of basil lingered in his bones? / I didn’t— / not because I’m scared of the dead or the sacred..."

Book Your Injectables | Jennifer Robinson

"Side effects may include: conflating appearance with self-worth, emotional regression, decreased compassion, and debilitating perfectionism..." A micro essay by Jennifer Robinson.

Willing | Michael Levan

"She has given / over to the probability of loss, which is enough / to make one ask, How shall the heart be / reconciled from this feast? How shall it / remain intact to keep her going wherever she needs to go?"

Perceptions Shift | Wendy BooydeGraaff and Susan Wider

"I tell my friend something she wrote shifted my thinking. She tells me back she wants to know more about this. What is the more?" A collaborative flash piece by Wendy BooydeGraaff and Susan Wider.