The eleventh issue of Four Minutes to Midnight will represent a dramatic change in format, an hors-série as it were, featuring the work of American poet F.A. Nettelbeck and Montréal visual artist Sophie Jodoin. I’m very excited and honoured to be working with such talented artists on this issue, and am happy to say we actually have a real editor/production manager on board this time around too. It’s going to be beautiful…

The issue itself will be split into two booklets. The main booklet will feature F.A. and Sophie in all their glory, and the other booklet will consist of the Fugue (XI) that we’re starting here. For those that are unfamiliar, the typographic fugue is a collaboratively written “poem” loosely inspired by the exquisite corpse surrealist technique. It’s our goal to use this approach to find/create a resonant/dissonant collective voice, marked in time, and through type.

So, to start it off:

“a stranger’s borrowed words…”

Submissions for issue ten are all in and we’ve begun the long, but very exciting process of selecting, editing and designing. We’ve received a wide range of amazing submissions from over 40 people for the next issue, and its going to be a challenging task to weave it all together.

In order to do this we need some glue to hold things together, and I’m hoping you (whoever you may be) can help. So, a small request to tell us something beautiful. It could be a few words, a line a paragraph, a simple testimonial of an experience, person, object, etc. that you found beautiful. We’re not looking for anything overwrought, philosophical or “poetic”, just an honest description.

You can leave your response(s) in the comments below or send it to me by email. Looking forward to hearing from you…

PS. The fugue is still going too… sort of.

Due to technical difficulties and our inherent generous nature, we’ve decided to extend the submission deadline for issue 10 by one week. The deadline is now Thursday, May 22nd. Which also happens to be my birthday. yay!Please click here to see the original call.

Four Minutes to Midnight is now accepting poetry, prose and visual art submissions for its tenth issue, due out this fall. The zine has come a long way since its humble photocopied beginnings and to mark this journey we’ll be pulling out all the stops for Issue 10. We’re aiming to double the page count, increase the print run and even include a full-colour section. It’s going to be one beautiful little brick of a book.

The theme this time around revolves around the concept of RADICAL BEAUTY/SUBVERSIVE BEAUTY, interpreted however you please. We want to move away from the criticism, cynicism and self-effacing irony towards something more celebratory and empowering. The time feels ripe for it.

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The typographic fugue has been a central part of Four Minutes to Midnight since the start. Loosely based on the exquisite corpse surrealist technique, the idea is to collaboratively generate a body of text that acts as an abstract poetic dialogue/narrative that is featured in the issue while also determining its overall “texture” and structure. 

Please don’t be shy, inspire yourself from others, and add to the comments thread below. We’ll start from the last line from issue nine’s fugue:

“In the shape of a kiss, the agitation continues…”