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The Vol. 3 Collector’s Edition Cover

We’ve completed the next step in creating the collector’s edition. The boxes are finished.

They have been hand-stamped with archival grade, acid-free ink on the front, spine, and back.  The box’s exterior has also been lightly conditioned with linseed oil, mineral oil, and orange oil for more luster and a longer shelf-life. We had some fun experiments with darker wood treatments before realizing that simpler was better.

The Collector’s Edition is currently available for pre-sale, along with the standard paperback. We’ll be printing and assembling the contents over the next couple weeks (and posting previews of each piece from within the Collector’s Edition box).

An early peak at the Collector’s Edition

Earlier this year, we announced some changes at The Conium Review. One major item is the shift from biannual to annual publication. However, we’re putting out two versions of the annual.  We’re doing a standard paperback, but we’re also doing a fancier, pricier, badassier collector’s edition.

The collector’s edition will be a box set that includes broadsides, little chaps, etcetera. It’ll contain all the stories from the standard issue, but presented in a unique, handmade, format. This is a book lover’s book. All the handmade artifacts will be housed inside a wooden box, shaped like a book, (yeah, the wooden box even has a faux spine!), perfectly sized to fit on your bookshelf.

We still can’t show a mock-up, because this isn’t a standard book. But this post provides your first taste. The first shipment of collector’s edition boxes arrived today.  Here’s the giddy first look into the first box:

Box full of boxes

And in case you’re not impressed with bubble wrap and crinkly brown paper, here are two of ’em out of the box:

Close-up of wooden boxes

Cool, eh?  These look naked now, but we’ll get the journal’s title across the front and spine, and we can’t wait to fill the boxes with stories.  Pre-orders go on sale in mid-October.  We’ll still offer a paperback edition.  But if you dig The Conium Review, you might want to get a snazzy collector’s edition. More pics and ordering details later as these things come together.

Contributor Update: Margarita Meklina’s recent publications

Margarita Meklina’s flash “Waiting for Warhol,” originally written in English, was just published in Star 82 Review. Her short story “Ai Weiwei’s Owls,” translated from Russian by Krystyna A. Steiger, appeared in the newly released Reunion: The Dallas Review #3. Finally, her novella, “Death in the Air,” whose title refers to a Mexican neo-expressionist Julio Galán’s death on the plane from brain hemorrhaging, was picked up by the Japanese magazine Shuei-Sha, and is slated to be published, in Japanese translation, this year.

Margarita was a contributor to The Conium Review‘s Spring 2013 issue.

Call for guest reviewers and bloggers

Hey, bloggers and book reviewers. From November 1st to December 1st, we’re seeking new blog posts. Send us interviews, writing strategies, reading habits, and anything else related to writing and reading.

Be a part of The Conium Review‘s growing online presence. Our print publication has been called “spectacular” by Small Press Reviews, and Prick of the Spindle says we’re “raising a unique voice.  And it’s one worth listening to.”

We’re looking for polished writing; make sure your language is crisp and creative. Every blog submission is considered by at least two staff readers before we decide to accept or reject it, so make sure your prose is engaging; you need to impress both staff readers.

See the blog post guidelines here, and check out the book review guidelines here.

Or go submit your posts through our Submittable page.

If you have an idea for a regular column or feature? E-mail us here: editors@coniumreview.com

Thanks for submitting!