WELCOME TO
DEFUNKT MAGAZINE
A magazine which showcases compelling, accessible, and culturally relevant work--anything the mainstream is ignoring or marginalizing. This magazine seeks to feature the voiceless in a fascinating and honest way-bring us your pain, your strength, your passions.
NOW OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK!
STAFF
TAMARA AL-QAISI-COLEMAN
MANAGING EDITOR
Creator and former Editor of Shards through the University of Houston, Tamara Al-Qaisi-Coleman is a bi-racial Muslim writer and artist. She holds dual Bachelor’s degrees in Creative Writing and History. She is the Administrative Coordinator at Writers in the Schools, the Marketing and Development Director of Defunkt Magazine. Her interests are Middle Eastern History, culture, linguistics, and biracial identity. She primarily writes from the Arab-American perspective. She as a featured performer at The Museum of Fine Arts and Houston Grand Opera’s event “The Art of Intimacy” January 2020.Her fiction, poetry, essays, and translation publications can be found or are forthcoming in: Crack the Spine Literary magazine, Scintilla Magazine, Paper Trains Journal, The Bayou Review: The Women's Issue, and Glass Mountain, Volume 21, Dead Eyes Literary Magazine. Her visual Artistry can be found in Cosumnes River Journal, Sonder Midwest Review, and Wordpeace Magazine.
CHRISTOPHER MIGUEL FLAKUS
Founder/C0-EDITOR
Christopher Miguel Flakus is a poet and writer living in Houston, Texas. He has published work in The Huffington Post, Akashic Books: Mondays are Murder Noir Series, Indietronica, Outlaw Poetry, In Recovery Magazine, Glass Poetry, Black Heart Magazine, and elsewhere. In 2017, he was awarded the Fabian Worsham Prize for fiction. In addition, he was one of the editors responsible for The University of Houston-Downtown’s literary magazine, The Bayou Review during their special prison issue which focused on the writings of authors serving sentences in Texas prisons. He is the author of the chapbooks Bear Down Into Hell With Me (As Only a True Friend Would), and Thirst, and Other Poems through Iron Lung Press, and the chapbook Christiana, from Analog Submission Press. He grew up in Mexico City and writes in both English and Spanish. He is currently working on his first novel.
JONATHON HINOJOSA
CHIEF OF DESIGN.
Jonathon Hinojosa is a multidisciplinary artist. He was born in Edinburg, TX, but spent most of his childhood and adolescence in Latin America. He earned his bachelor's degree in drama from Trinity University. He has had poems published in the San Antonio Express News and an anthology. Jonathon has focused on a wide range of arts through the years, but lately has been concentrating on printmaking techniques, alternative photographic processes, and some woodworking. He draws most of his inspiration from nature, emotion, and the blending of cultures he grew up in. He currently lives in San Antonio, TX with his wife and children. Photo credit @sarahbrookelyons
VINH HOANG
PROSE EDITOR.
Vinh Hoang lives in Houston, where he pursues writing, film-making, and acting. He graduated with a B.A. in English from the University of Houston. Forthcoming is a short film he directed, Continuing (2019). In 2018, the University of Houston Office of Undergraduate Research awarded him a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship, in which he pursued research regarding MFA programs and their effect on American fiction. He was a twice honorable mention for the University of Houston Provost's Prize for Creative Writing. He has work published in Glass Mountain. He is a member of MAX, the house troupe for BETA Theater Improv.
SAMANTHA FOWLER
ART DIRECTOR.
Samantha Fowler is a visual artist, photographer, and creative sequential storyteller from Houston, Texas. She has pursued the arts her entire life; earning an Art Associates from Galveston college, as well as a BFA in Graphic Design and a minor in Art History from the University of Houston at Clear Lake. From a young age, she sought out ways to enhance her talents, such as participating in the Galveston art walk, managing community organizations, and creating commissions for hire.
Through her work, Samantha strives to convey struggles with mental illness and stories of womanhood. Through these mediums, she seeks to build connections with others with similar experiences.
ELAINE NAONG
MARKETING DIRECTOR.
Elaine Caalim Naong is a poet and creative nonfiction writer from the greater Houston area. She is the PR Director for Defunkt Magazine, where she has also served as Social Media Coordinator. She has poems published in Variant Literature Journal and In Parentheses Literary Magazine, and her work in creative nonfiction is forthcoming in pacificREVIEW. She has a BA in English Literature from the University of Houston, where she served as PR Manager and Associate Editor for Glass Mountain and Shards.
MIRANDA RAMIREZ
FOUNDER/C0-EDITOR.
Miranda Ramirez is a writer and artist residing in Houston, Texas. You may find her publications in Ripples in Space: Science Fiction Short Stories for Fall 2018, Glass Mountain, Shards, The Bayou Review: The Women's Issue, Coffin Bell, Cutthroat--A Journal of the Arts a collaborative project with Black Earth Institute: Puro Chicanx Writers of the 21st Century. Her visual works have exhibited at Williams Tower Gallery, Tea+Art Gallery, and Insomnia Gallery.
Keagan Wheat
POETRY EDITOR.
Keagan began his love of writing as a musician, but as he moved through the UH Creative Writing Department, he became more interested in poetry. His poetry often focuses on transgender identity and how others, especially family, interact with that identity, though his more recent poetry starts thinking through how congenital heart disease impacts his identity.
AT UH, he worked on Volumes 20, 21, and 22 of Glass Mountain. He has been published by Z Publishing in Texas’s Best Emerging Poets, the Fall 2018 issue of The Tulane Review, and Shards Issue 4. .
VOLUME THREE
VIDEO CONTENT
ANTI-VALENTINE BASH
2.8.2020 at Rudyard's British Pub
Take a peek at one of our most recent events. A recap of Defunkt Magazine's Anti-Valentine's Bash on February 8, 2020 hosted at Rudyard's British Pub
Poetry readings from Justin Jannise and Paige Quiñones, fiction reading from Obi Umeozor, and music from Blue Lacy!
Meet-N-Greet with Tweed Smith and the Internationals
Chris Flakus
Defunkt Magazine pops in on Tweed Smith and the Internationals. Houston's representative group at the 2020 annual Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tennesee. This band represents both Houston's legacy as a center for blues music and arts.
Interview with Leslie Contreras Schwartz
Tamara Al-Qaisi-Coleman
Our managing editor sat down with Houston Poet Laureate Leslie Contreras Schwartz to discuss craft, her latest book, and life in Houston.
Performance cONTENT
Text to Resurrect Revolution
Bob McNeil is the author of Verses of Realness. Hal Sirowitz, Queens Poet Laureate, described the book as “A fantastic trip through the mind of a poet who doesn’t flinch at the truth.” Bob was published in The Shout It Out Anthology, Brine Rights: Stanzas and Clauses for the Causes (Volume 1), San Francisco Peace and Hope, and The Self-Portrait Poetry Collection, etc. Furthermore, his work as a professional illustrator, spoken word artist, and writer is dedicated to one cause—justice.
DONATIONS & ARCHIVES
Do you share our passion for the arts? Do you want to hear and see the works of more marginalized voices? Do you want to see Defunkt doing more cool stuff in the community? If you answered yes to any of these questions please consider donating to our cause.
WANT TO SEE AN OLD VOLUME?
You can check out all of our previous publications here via PDF.
ARCHIVED VIDEO CONTENT
VOLUME TWO
LATINX SHOWCASE
11.9.2019 at Transart Foundation
Take a peek at one of our most recent events. This evening featured three amazing readers and an excellent musical artist--good times were had by all!
"An Interview with Transmedia Artist, Reema Farra"
Miranda Ramirez
A brief interview with local artist and writer Reema Farra discussing her book, her inspirations, method, and experience.
ARCHIVED AUDIO CONTENT
VOLUME TWO
CREATURES
an album
Who'd a Thunk is moreso a non-traditional experiment in the creation of music and sound and the expansion of 'The Funk'. Focusing more on ideas made from passion of sound, rhythm, and feeling, rather than following modern music formula and producing for-profit works, Who'd a Thunk? creates soundscapes aimed to inspire further thought and creation based on an amalgamation of everything listened to, enjoyed, studied, or experienced. Feel 'The Funk'. Who'd a Thunk?
SUBMIT TO US AT:
defunktmag.editors@gmail.com
MEDIUMS WE ARE LOOKING TO PUBLISH & PROMOTE
Poetry & Prose
Music,Visual, & Performance Art
We are currently accepting submissions for all sections of the magazine, as well as considerations for events and requests for reviews. Requests for reviews, interviews, and event collaborations as well as any questions regarding the guidelines should be sent via email.
ALL SUBMISSIONS MUST CONTAIN THE SECTION IN THE SUBJECT LINE WITH AN ARTIST BIO
SEPERATE EMAILS ARE REQUIRED FOR SEPERATE SECTIONS
ALL VIDEO SUBMISSIONS MUST BE VIA YOUTUBE LINK
Please note that Defunkt Magazine requires First Serial Rights on all submissions /all mediums and that all published works may be considered for our annually printed anthology.
SECTION GUIDELINES
PROSE
Fiction. Non-Fiction, Blogs
Please utilize Word or PDF via attachment. No minimum. 20 page Maximum. Blogs are limited to 3000 words per entry.
ART
Visual, Performance, & Music
Please utilize a high quality JPEG, with a minimum resolution of 300 PSI via attachment. 5 piece maximum per entry. Different mediums should be submitted separately: i.e. visual submissions should not be submitted alongside a musical or video submission--but in their own email. Non-poetic performance or short film videos should be 10 minutes or less. Music submisions accepted via soundcloud, spotify, or video.
POETRY
Written or Performance Videos
Please utilize Word or PDF via attachment. No minimum. 5 poem maximum per entry, not to exceed 20 pages. Performance videos should be 10 minutes or less.
FAILURE TO FOLLOW THE ABOVE GUIDELINES WILL RESULT IN IMMEDIATE REJECTION
ROLLING SUBMISSION
However, to be considered for publication in Volume Five you must submit by:
MIDNIGHT on July 31, 2020
OFFERING ONE ON ONE CONSULTATIONS IN
Poetry & Prose
We know that sometimes all you need is someone to read it and tell you what's missing and we're here to help! Defunkt is proud to offer our site as a platform for you to connect with a professional in your medium. We want this to be a very thorough and intimate experience for everyone so there are a few ground rules for manuscript evaluations:
PROSE
20 page limit, Double-Spaced, 12 pt. font, if an excerpt, please include an outline of the work and a letter of intention.
POETRY
5 poem limit per Consulting Session, not to exceed 10 pages.
ALL CONSULTANTS MAY CHOOSE TO REVIEW LONGER WORKS AT THEIR DISCRETION. PLEASE EMAIL DEFUNKTMAG.EDITORS@GMAIL.COM FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO CHECK AVAILABILITY. STANDARD SESSION RATE IS $55 PER MANUSCRIPT.
Things to include in this email: Author/Consultant you want to work with if specific, manuscript details: genre & page count, also please let us know if there is a timetable you are trying to maintain.
CONSULTANTS
Offering Consultations for:
Poetry, Micro Memoir, Flash Non Fiction and the Personal Essay.
CAIT WEISS ORCUTT’s work has appeared in Boston Review, Chautauqua, FIELD, The Academy of American Poets and more. Her poems have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Best New Poets and Best of the Net, and her manuscript VALLEYSPEAK (Zone 3, 2017) won Zone 3 Press’ First Book Award, judged by Douglas Kearney, and an Independent Publisher's Book Award for Poetry. Her CNF has appeared in The Pinch, Bust Magazine, and The Fem. Cait has an MFA from The Ohio State and is currently getting her Ph.D. in Poetry from the University of Houston while working on a Creative Non Fiction side project. She teaches creative writing at UH, Grackle and Grackle, Inprint, WITS, the Salvation Army, the Menil Collection, and the Jewish Community Center. She is the recipient of an Inprint C. Glenn Cambor/MD Anderson Foundation Fellowship.
Offering Consultations for:
Any genre of creative writing.
Justin Jannise studied creative writing at Yale and the Iowa Writers' Workshop and is currently a Ph.D. student at the University of Houston. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Copper Nickel, New Ohio Review, Columbia Journal, Yale Review, The Awl and Zócalo Public Square. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Gulf Coast and the recipient of an Inprint Marion Barthelme Prize.
Offering Consultations for:
Fiction, Flash Fiction, Mixed Genre, Nonfiction, Poetry, & Graphic Narrative.
Brendan Stephens is a writer and musician from Maryland. His work has appeared in Epoch, Southeast Review, Notre Dame Review, Carolina Quarterly, SmokeLong Quarterly, and elsewhere. He has won an Inprint Donald Barthelme Prize and Backbone Mountain Review Prize and was second place in the Into the Void Fiction Prize. He has received an MFA from the University of Central Florida and an MAT from Frostburg State University. Currently, he is in the PhD program at the University of Houston where he is the assistant online fiction editor for Gulf Coast.
Offering Consultations for:
Literary Fiction, Genre Fiction, and Nonfiction.
Obi Umeozor received his B.A. in English from the University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria and taught English Literature before moving to the States in 2015, where he obtained an MFA in Creative Writing from Florida State University. His work has appeared and is forthcoming in the New Orleans Review, Shift, adda and others. He has been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize and nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and is currently a PhD (Fiction) candidate at the University of Houston’s Creative Writing Program.
