Long Time No Talk

What's happening, what's coming, and how we're approaching AI at Five South

Man reading a newspaper - David Bles (Dutch, 1821 - 1899)

Greetings all -

Many times I’ve tried to write the “what the actual heck is going on with Five South” update for this newsletter and many times I’ve concluded I’m over-explaining. Long story short, life gets in the way. I took the last year to write, attend some classes, move into our new home, deal with some family health issues, get settled, travel, and try on some new hats. Few hats fit as well as Five South and as the world becomes increasingly AI-insane, it’s more important than ever to fill the world with human writing. But because life is complicated and my schedule is still full, I’ve had to reevaluate how Five South is going to work. In the past, we published two issues a year. We then updated weekly, and now… how often we publish, is less important than what we publish.

I launched Five South in 2020, inspired by Typo Magazine, a small poetry journal run by poets Adam Clay and Matt Henriksen. I thought how lovely it would be to publish short fiction a few times a year and helm a cozy journal without too much stress. But within the first year of Five South, it was clear we were touching a nerve. As our popularity grew, so did our inboxes, and more reading meant more readers and more editors and more, more, more. Five South became something I never intended: popular. There are, of course, consequences to being popular and most of them are the internal demands we set for ourselves. I set the demands too high and burnt out.

What remains is the vision I’ve always had: a cozy journal without too much stress. I am working on Five South once a week and I’m publishing work that doesn’t just blow my skirt up, it blows the sucker right off. The criteria is now much higher and Five South is no longer your starter journal. We’re your dream journal. For now, I feel no external pressure to bring in more readers or hit arbitrary reading goals. At least, not right now. Currently, we have several hundred pieces that have been sitting in the slush since last year. Most of them will be declined, but I’ve already selected some pieces I’d like to showcase. Today I published the first piece in over a year, a lovely juxtaposition of real life and memory that blends fire with duty. Go read “A Parisian Affair” by Kevin Wranovix. It’s fifteen minutes well spent.

Things are so uncertain in life, the world, and the future of writing. But I do know how we choose what to publish has to change. Five South has already been testing all high-tier selections for AI since 2022. The technology to assess whether a work is AI-written or AI-assisted has gotten much better, is more affordable, and can now do better than the app I built four years ago. While this is no guarantee, do know we’ll continue checking for AI-written and assisted work using the current technology available to us. And understand, we do not draw a distinction between the two. We want 100% human writing and so this means we do not accept:

1. Pieces that have been edited by AI. The most important things editors care about are decent punctuation and a good story. Let editors edit and don’t trip. No one’s going to decline you for bad punctuation.

2. Written by AI - in total or in part. We want none of your shitty AI writing.

3. Assisted by AI - this is where a writer changes a sentence at the suggestion of AI or improves clarity, moves things around for flow, changes words, etc. Just don’t do this. AI is a tool for the weak, untalented, and lazy.

And finally, writers trying to fool us and get caught will be added to our AI Slop Makers Hall of Shame. We’re not gonna dox you, but Five South has good SEO, so anytime anyone looks up your name, they’ll find you on our list. If it’s not clear, we’re taking a very firm anti-AI / pro-human stance at Five South. I encourage other journals to do the same, state your opinions on AI clearly, and put fakers on notice. I’m not going to school you on the merits of writing and editing work yourself, because you should already know. If you don’t get what the big deal is with using AI to “change a few things” or use it to research, we don’t want your work. Go clog someone else’s toilet. Writing is human.

On that happy note, I feel a sense of gratitude and satisfaction when I bring excellent fiction into the world; like a proud mother. I’m thrilled we’ve broken a year long silence with a new, exciting piece, and I’m glad you’re all here. Life is good.

Couple of other things to note:

✼ We will continue to nominate for all the major awards.

✼ Submissions will open for brief periods to accommodate time and need - so watch this newsletter and X for updates. I’m planning to open again when I clear the current slush, but don’t hold your breath. It could be a few months yet. We’ll also be switching to a new submission platform.

✼ We will continue to publish poetry, flash fiction, and short fiction. We are no longer publishing non-fiction.

That’s all folks. Have a great summer, keep your writing human, and understand the AI is not the answer to writer’s block. Writer’s block is you being up in your own head. Walk the city streets the way Ray Bradbury did, see the colors and the sunlight bouncing off the architecture, and then write about it. And if you still can’t get over your block, it just means you need to walk a little more.

#KeepWritingHuman