The IAF tries to keep an eye out for announcements of markets & venues that seem friendly to interstitial work. (See our Archive of Artists’ Resources for more – and feel free to write us with your hot tips at info [the at thing] interstitialarts [the dot thing] org.)

Editor Mike Allen is currently reading for the second volume of Clockwork Phoenix: Tales of Beauty & Strangeness.

His description of the ideal story for Clockwork Phoenix 2 sounds pretty darned interstitial to us:

The stories should contain elements of the fantastic, [but] bring something new and genuine to the equation, whether it’s a touch of literary erudition, playful whimsy, extravagant style, or mind-blowing philosophical speculation and insight… I hope to see stories that will lead the reader into unfamiliar territory, there to find shock and delight.

And, indeed, several of the authors in his first volume (Michael DeLuca, Vandana Singh & Catherynne Valente) also appeared in Interfictions.

Allen adds:

[A]s a reader, I enjoy stories that experiment, that push the envelope, that dazzle with their daring, but I’m often personally frustrated when an experimental story ends without feeling complete, without leaving an emotional crater for me to remember it by. At the same time, I find myself increasingly bored with the traditional, conventionally-plotted and plainly-written Good Story Competently Told. For better or for worse, I envision the CLOCKWORK PHOENIX books as places where these two schools of story telling can mingle and achieve Happy Medium; where there is significance to both the tale that’s told and the style of the telling.

Allen is reading submissions through Nov. 16, 2008. Here are detailed submission guidelines for Clockwork Phoenix 2.