13 November 2011

What I'm reading...


After Bradley and I met last for coffee and a little 5x5 chat, we headed to Garrison Keillor's WORLD FAMOUS (maybe?) bookstore, Common Good Books. I love this place - it's underneath a coffee shop in a beautiful old building, so there's lots of exposed stone and crazy architectural features. It's also just big enough to house a very interesting collection of cookbooks, Minnesota themed books, and children's books... along with all the regular good stuff you expect to get at a book store.

But let's go back to that children's books part. I thoroughly LOVE fiction for all ages of children. Picture books with wonderful illustrators can stop me dead in my tracks, and I will be honest when I say that I enjoyed every single Harry Potter (although I promise I have not read Twilight and have only thought about reading it a solid three times).

I was absolutely thrilled on our little stop at Common Goods, then, to see Wildwood, by Colin Meloy (yes, of the Decemberists) with illustrations by his wife/my favorite illustrator Carson Ellis. Carson has a charming style that is chock full of tiny minute details that give me the shivers. An entire book with spot illustrations from her is a dream come true!



It was an added bonus that the book is actually smart and adorable. The little foxes in their soldier's uniforms are so cute, and the main character Prue is believable and the kind of pre-teen that I'd actually enjoy the presence of.

Wanna know more? Watch this cute video and GET THE BOOK. If you are embarrassed to be seen reading a book for 12 year olds when you are a grown person, you can claim you got it for your cool niece for Christmas or something. I don't think you should be embarrassed about it, though.

09 November 2011

Nonprofit Status!

Hello readers.  I'm very excited to inform you that 5x5 is officially a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization recognized by the IRS.  This is very exciting news, because it's a major step forward for the magazine, and because it means I know how to fill out complicated IRS forms.  That's right, we keep the overhead low by doing everything we possibly can on our own, and sometimes we cross our fingers and hope that we've done it correctly.

Alright, I did get some help with the financial side of it from an accountant friend, but I paid him only with wine and my pleasant company.  Thanks, David.

And, of course, thank you for reading, contributing and donating.  While 5x5 started out as my own personal project, it quickly turned into a collaborative project between hundreds of people.

What else is going?  Here it is.  We've pushed our deadline back one month for the winter issue because we simply haven't had as many submissions as we'd like to see.  This is somewhat of an anomaly.  As you know, our fall issue was our biggest issue yet.  We're hoping that our winter issue will be just as big or bigger, but we need more submissions to make that happen.

Please, if you've been thinking about submitting, now is the time.  If you've been thinking about telling your friends about us, do it today.  We want to see your work, because, as I mentioned above, 5x5 would be nothing without its contributors and readers.

Thanks.  Sincerely.  Thank you all for your help so far, and we look forward to doing great things for literature and the arts together.