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.

The Emperor’s Mirror | Alex Zhao

"The seeds of my prison were sown in the third century when a drunk calligrapher scrawled an impromptu poem. On a spring afternoon beside a stream, the calligrapher Xizhi composed the Orchid Pavilion Preface, an ode to life’s brevity..."

For Your Self-Defense | Shanti Chandrasekhar

"Within a nanosecond, we are alert, guarded, equipped. We multiply into a huge army, ready for action. Not for nothing, we’re called your first line of defense. We charge with one goal. To protect you..."

Mourning and Highways | Amy Allison

"when you were tucked in your grave, / neat as a napkin in a lap, / all words soared off to / some shining tree, / bereaving me / now they’re transforming / into things that hurl by..."

Selected Poems | Noah Anthony Mezzacappa

"Says once she tripped that she was her own mother giving birth to herself. She was in labor for forty-eight hours and remembers every second of it: the bed of ice they laid her on as they tried to bring her fever down, the surgical lights spinning like saucers..."

Paper Trail | Jason Fraley

"I’m different than other babies. Their gemstone eyes, chubby everythings, innate ability to wiggle. Me? I’m one legal-sized sheet of paper, blue lines barely visible..."

Ocean Haiku | Joshua St. Claire

Joshua St. Claire's poetry has been recognized with the Touchstone Award for Individual Haiku, the British Haiku Society Award for Haiku, the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival Haiku Invitational, and other awards.