J Bloglandia, The Journal of Bloglandia: Blogging in the Form of a Literary Journal

Turning online blogs into paperback collections of essays because "some blogs are just too cool to stay in cyberspace" is one of Ginger Mayerson's more innovative ideas. Her online venture Wapshott Press has been publishing The Journal of Bloglandia, a non-fiction literary journal, since 2008. Also known as J Bloglandia or simply Bloglandia, it allows creative literature that began life online to make the transition to print, including two works by this journalist. 

According to the Wapshott Press site, "The Journal of Bloglandia is a print compilation of non-fiction blog posts on a variety of subjects, including left leaning politics. These could include essays, reviews, interviews, histories, analysis, original comics and illustrations, some poetry (maybe), or whatnot. "

Although bloggers may make submissions to the Wapshott Press site at any time, becoming familiar with the first four issues, published 2008-2009, will help provide an overview of what gets published here.

J Bloglandia, The Journal of Bloglandia, Vol. 1, Issue 1 (May '08) featured fourteen blogs on subjects ranging from Hillary Clinton to Barbarella. Authors included erotic comic artist Molly Kiely, and essayist Paul M. Rodriguez, whose work appears on the Blogger site The Ruricolist.  

Vol. 1, Issue 2 (Sept. '08) featured this writer's own #metoo story, "One Woman's Story:  I Sued Rumsfeld for Sexual Harassment," years before any #metoo movement. After I was unable to find a print outlet for it, I posted it as an online article on deviantart.com (I've also posted it on Daily Kos and a few other sites) and Mayerson kindly allowed it to see print. Some other stories included Molly Kiely's "18 Months into Motherhood When Plan A Was to Get Spayed ASAP" and a legal presentation by Ray Beckerman on "How the RIAA Litigation Process Works."

J Bloglandia, Vol. 2, Issue 1 (April 2009) led with a lengthy and topical analysis from the website Daily Kos of how the LGBT movement failed to stop a California ballot proposition (Proposition 8) that took same-sex marriage away. Bruce Hahne, a senior volunteer who worked on the No on 8 campaign, ticked off a series of fatal errors. Opponents of the proposition failed to counter the right's favorite ploy--gays are after children. The opponents' arguments in the state's Voter Information Guide resembled the ranting of a crackpot, there was little effort at online messaging, and most importantly, time-honored methods to GOTV were sporadic at best. The damage Hahne describes has been largely mitigated by the Supreme Court allowing same-sex marriage but his advice for how political campaigns can counter the right is evergreen.

Vol. 2, Issue 2 (Oct. '09) included this blogger's article on suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, "The Politics of CFS:  What Does it Mean?" which, as was the case with my sexual harassment experience, I posted on sites including deviantart.com and Daily Kos when I was unable to find a print outlet.

You won't find superstars of blogging here because Mayerson prefers to focus on more obscure or academic sites. She publishes an issue when she's able to get together a sufficient amount of material, but the journal has been on a long hiatus since publishing its first four issues in 2008 and 2009. At long last a fifth issue is scheduled for later this year, and for the first time will have a theme--blogs from fans of the Gothic cult-classic Dark Shadows, which has found life as a TV series, a comic, and a 2012 Johnny Depp film.