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MISSION STATEMENT:

Citric Acid: An Online Orange County Literary Arts Quarterly of Imagination and Reimagination, is an online literary quarterly started in January 2022.  The editors, advisory board and friends of the journal strive to provide a thoughtfully curated site featuring the best writing from and about Orange County, California, with a commitment to advancing the work of both established and emerging regional talent, including that of historically underrepresented writers and artists, as well as promoting books and arts projects from and about the region consistent with a social justice agenda. The journal features original prose, poetry, memoir, history, art, comics, and long-form journalism as well as photography, reviews, interviews, and more. 

Oranges

Citric Acid supports and promotes the work of existing literary magazines and community and institutional arts projects in Orange County, directing readers to authors and artists, institutions and initiatives often overlooked, serving as a platform for original writing as well as a clearinghouse and go-to community site of discourse and appreciation. It encourages the work of a vibrant community toward celebrating creativity. It means to alter and widen perceptions of the region through storytelling and cultural criticism, and to encourage a vigorous collective revisionist history practice promoting social justice, anti-racist, feminist and otherwise emancipatory politics. Citric Acid will booster the work of writers committed to a heartfelt and sincere, honest, and constructive assessment of both contemporary life in Orange County and the region’s past. Our masthead logo, created by writer and artist Garrett Saleen, celebrates this joyful struggle, in its both ironic and stubbornly exuberant reimagining of the mythic tale of Sisyphus laboring to push an orange, our totemic namesake, up a mountain.  

Thanks to those currently serving on our Advisory Board, for their encouragement, direction and support:  Lisa Alvarez, Stephanie Brown, Mary Camarillo, Amy DePaul, Kurt Eggert, Felicity Figueroa, Grant Hier, Michelle Latiolais, Elaine Lewinnek, Nicholas Schou, Virginia Shank, Bethia Sheean-Wallace, Mitsuye Yamada, and Audra Eagle Yun. 

CONTACT

Founding Editor: Andrew Tonkovich

Managing Editor: Jaime Campbell

 

Thanks for your comment or query.  Please note that Citric Acid is currently closed to submissions. Any submissions, or queries about submissions, sent to the above emails will go unread. To be updated on future calls for work, and announcements regarding our reading schedule, please subscribe to our free newsletter, and look for our Spring 2023 issue. Donations to support our work are tax-deductible.

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