The wait is over! The long anticipated release of Trigger is finally upon us. It was (at times) a lot of seemingly endless tasks that everyone here at Status Hat was working to get done, like formatting and reformatting the short stories and poems, or (my favorite) checking every link on the website to make sure it worked properly. Even so, I thought working to get Trigger ready was fun and wildly exciting, especially as I saw things starting to come together. Thanks to Carli Castellani, Status Hat's Artistic Director, Christopher Lowe, the editor for Trigger, and my fellow summer interns, David Cook and John Marion, Trigger is up and ready and looking great. You can learn more about it and see the works of the 16 artists and writers who contributed to this first edition here.

Along with Trigger, Status Hat's July issue “Games & Puzzles” is also being released this week. This is the first issue with our new summer guest editor, Vicki Baumgartner Schaeffer. She and the fall editor, Liz McCollum, have been working hard and creatively to get ready for the upcoming issues of the 'zine, which brings us through to the end of the year. To see so much happen after just a couple of weeks here is really exciting for me. It is truly inspiring to work with all of these talented artists and writers. I can't wait to see and learn more.

Cheers,
Miriam Hancock, Editorial Intern
June 29, 2011

As announced earlier, Status Hat is pleased to launch a new publication July 1st, 2011:  TRIGGER.  Find out more about it, including the list of 16 artists and writers participating in the inaugural edition, here.  

Also in recent news, for our monthly arts + literary 'zine, we've increased the word limit for fiction to 3000 words, as of May 1st.  Note, we have also revised our submission guidelines slightly in other ways.  Find the new call for works and guidelines for our Fall, 2011 issues (deadline June 30, 2011):  here.

We are also pleased to be welcoming two summer interns to work with us during July and July this year -- Miriam Hancock (Editorial/Research) and David Cook (Media Arts Production), both students at University of Virginia here in Charlottesville, VA!  You'll see their work over the coming months, carrying on the work almost 30 students to date have assisted with in helping cultivate a working arts lab and production/publishing house!  We look forward to working with them.

Last, we are 2/3rds of the way through Mojie Crigler's guest editorship for our Spring, 2011 issues!  Vicki Baumgartner-Schaeffer will be bringing us our summer editions, and Liz McCollum will be reviewing submissions received for the fall issues.  Along with Meagan Dye earlier this year, each have been contributing great energy to Status Hat's monthly 'zine!  Kudos ~~ 

Until later,

Carli Castellani,Artistic Director
Status Hat Productions
May 3, 2011

The first two months of 2011 found a busy Status Hat!    We've expanded our editorial team to 5, with the addition of Christopher Lowe as editor of “Trigger”, a Status Hat biannual publication debuting July 1, 2011. We're quite excited by this new, collaborative project which, at it it's core, explores narrative in the arts. We bring together an intriguing mix of artists and writers for the first edition, some who's work has appeared in previous editions of Status Hat. Participants of the project will be generating new pieces for our inaugural publication, feeding off each other's work as, well, a “trigger”. It will be a good project to dig into, as we examine how these artists got from point A to point B in their process. My gut feeling is I'm going to learn a few things enroute. Read more in our March fund-raising page (Pass The Hat!)

We were also honored to participate in a "Media Arts and Creative Careers" panel at University of Virginia last Friday, February 25, 2011. I was the sole member of the panel that wasn't a UVA alum, but felt welcomed nonetheless! Individuals from The Hook, one of our local alternative weeklies, Redlight Management, a music management company, and local sports-reporting media (online and radio) were among the other panelists. In recommending steps to fulfilling work in media and creative careers, we formed an echo-chamber rather quickly. Students at University of Virginia receive an exceptional liberal arts education, which gives them skills and abilities to do almost anything in their lives; getting out there and obtaining work experience on the ground floor is of vital importance though, to supplement the breadth of one's education. Everyone on the panel seemed to agree small jobs or internships they had worked at early on contributed to their career path in ways they would have never expected -- and where potential opportunities arise can't be calculated. Opportunities arise from being present in one's life and going out and talking to people, making contact, and pitching in. It also helps to stay involved in work and projects you are excited about! I've only spoken at a couple of these in the past, but I am always inspired to see students imagining possibilities!

Cheers ~~
Carli Castellani, Artistic Director
March 1, 2011

We have a potpourri of updates to share:

1. CALLS OPEN, CALLS CLOSE. The deadline for art and writing for our three Spring 2011 issues expires tomorrow, February 17, 2011. We've received a good response to that call; editor Mojie Crigler is finalizing selections for those issues in the next couple of weeks. (If you submitted work to one of those issues, you will hear from Mojie by March 11, 2011 at the latest if your work has been selected).

Next up, on February 18, we'll begin accepting submissions for the Summer, 2011 issues: GAMES & PUZZLES! THE TRAVEL ISSUE! IMAGE!. You can find our updated call and guidelines here.

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2. LINKS! RESOURCES! AN INTERVIEW! We are remiss though in not having a set of links posted on Status Hat, to sites where readers, writers and artists can find more literary and arts online journals, and other resources and inspiration for their creative work! A couple of particularly good resources, if you haven't already found them:

Duotrope's Digest - Large listing of current publications for fiction & poetry, and more resources;
NewPages.com - Reviews, guides & more for independent publications & literary/alternative mags.

You'll not only find Status Hat on Duotrope Digest, here, but they also recently posted an interview with us: Status Hat - Editor Interview. If curiosity strikes, you can quickly jump to answers to the same questions from other editors.

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3. ARCHIVE GALLERY! We'll post a more comprehensive set of links & resources soon; meanwhile, we've been working on getting more of our archives back online -- you can find all the issues currently available at this link: Gallery of Back Issues.

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4. DOWNLOADS! We've also just returned a download section to our site, to make more media, publications and resources available -- from music and other media, to creative resource kits. Currently, it features some music from the Status Hat archives, a band Tim Castellani (our executive producer) played with in Syracuse, NY, Yosemite Quick. Look to the media and downloads section for more offerings soon!

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And, last, we are excited to be moving forward on some new publications! Stay tuned...

- Carli Castellani, Artistic Director
February 16, 2011

Our last call for work closed on October 31st -- and our Guest Editor Meagan Dye had her work cut out for her, as we received an enormous amount of submissions for the first three issues of 2011! We'll be ringing in the new year at Status Hat with the publication of the HATS! issue, January 5th (followed in February and March with SPICE and CITIES).  Meagan had some interesting themes to work with, and has done an inspiring job of sifting through so many good submissions to select and feature a spectrum of works in each of those issues.  

We've also opened up the new call for works for the 2nd quarter of 2011, featuring these new themes:

TOOLS (April, 2011);

NATURE (May, 2011); and

MUSEUMS (June, 2011).

Guest Editor Mojie Crigler will be joining Status Hat to compile those issues.  

Her fiction appeared in an issue of Status Hat from earlier this year.  You can learn more about Mojie here.

Find the complete submission guidelines for our current call for work (with the deadline of Feb. 17, 2011) here.

And we are happy to have more of our back issues returning online, with many more are returning soon -- you can find links to our back issues here. As many know, there were attempts to compromise Status Hat's website over the summer; we reconfigured the basic site and publication, but have taken our time to see what direction our collaborative develops next, so the return of back issues and other content has been delayed until now. 

So look for the Status Hat Reader 2011, and our New Works series, along with a new downloads section, on this site in the coming months! 

Carli Castellani, Artistic Director

Status Hat Productions, December 19, 2010

After a busy summer working with a team of graphic/illustration and editorial interns, we are just now shifting into looking at future projects and publications here at Status Hat!

With the growth of our monthly artszine (Status Hat!), we are pleased to announce new editorial help! Meagan Dye, an artist originally from upstate, New York, who now lives in Charlottesville, VA, has taken on primary editorial duties for our Winter/Spring 2011 issues!  Meagan has been working with Status Hat for the last several years, as a studio artist working on projects, as well as creating graphics, and more!  She contributes much creative energy and talent to any project she is involved with, and we are looking forward to her help with our publications.  She is currently going through submissions we have been receiving for those issues (Hats! Spice! Cities!). Note -- the deadline for those issues is approaching, October 30, 2010.  If you haven't already sent in writing (fiction & creative non-fiction), poetry and/or links to your art, now is the time!  If you have previously submitted work to us that was not previously accepted for publication on Status Hat, , consider submitting again for this open call.  We get a tremendous response to some themes, and unfortunately have not been able to include as much as we would have liked in the past!  Our submission guidelines can be found here!

Last, we are still working on visual stories for our Storyhouse collection, specifically two vignettes about Raymond Arthur Tailman (R.A.T. on a Monorail).  Look for those later this fall, and for new calls for the expanding Storyhouse.  Look also for our upcoming October issue of Status Hat to go live October 5th.  

Carli Castellani, Artistic Director
October, 1, 2010

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MEAGAN DYE, STATUS HAT EDITORIAL

Meagan is originally from upstate New York, where the winters are long and cold. She is grateful for those winters, as they helped develop her interest in arts and crafts. She started sewing at the age of six, and continued her interest in fabric arts later in life.  She attended Rhode Island School of Design, earning a BFA in Textile Design. She has worked on theater sets, puppets, recycled fashion, and has a great appreciation for anyone who has the gumption to go out into the world and share their creativity with others.

Meagan has worked with Status Hat for the last three years, and loves and supports the creative team and their mission. 

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Status Hat's artszine has grown over the last year, and we are pleased to be publishing  issues filled with a spectrum of works through the end of the year.  They feature more poetry, articles and art then ever before, and the contributors circle the globe.  

We have been able to put these coming issues together because we had a tremendously successful response to the calls for work we posted.  We also had skilled assistance from our editorial interns this summer, Chelsea Henderson and Allison Geller.  We had to turn down many submissions that we would have liked to also include, but due to time and space, we were working with some constrictions.

We have now opened up a new call for works for the first three issues of 2011, which you can find here.  

Our themes for the first quarter of the new year will hopefully provoke some interesting responses and submissions. Hats, anyone?  Thoughts about the Spice route?  And when you conceptualize Cities, what comes to mind for you - one in particular, or do you have other connotations?

We are also excited to be doing a changing of the guard on our editorial rounds.  Meagan Dye, a project artist Status Hat has worked with for several years, will be curating the art for the first three issues, and participating in review of literary submissions as well.  Look for some bios for our new editorial team in the coming weeks, and updates on the other projects and activities we have growing at Status Hat!  

We much appreciate your support throughout the digital world.  If you haven't already, like us or follow us out there.  For those of you that have, and that have subscribed to our monthly artszine, your support is felt!

Best --

Carli Castellani, Artistic Director

August 19, 2010

PS - As many of you already know, our site is still undergoing a reconfiguration.  Our back issues and archives are due to be back online soon!