sneaker wave is taking a short summer break
by The Editors
The sneaker wave staff is going to take a couple of weeks to refresh and enjoy a couple weeks of summer with family and friends. We will be back with another compelling true story on Sunday, July 20th.
For this issue, we thought we’d share another kind of true story, which is the story of what we have been doing and what we have accomplished since our launch in September 2024. As you will see, we have been busy!
In nine short months, we have:
→published thirty-eight of our signature compelling true stories (and really forty-three weekly issues, if you count issues like the one we’re thankful you’re reading now).
→been featured in Memoir Land’s Memoir Monday Weekly Wrap Up—twenty-one times!
→nominated five essays for a Pushcart Prize and five for Best American Essays!
→assembled a dedicated editorial team consisting of four crackerjack writers across four different states and four different time zones.
→developed a unique, hands-on editing system that uses three editors (Codename: Three-headed Hydra) to bring each story we publish to the highest possible light.
→launched two developmental editing platforms to provide writers with personalized feedback on their essays.
→exhibited at our first conference, AWP!!
→reached readers in forty-one US states and twenty-two countries.
→put in excess of 400 hours of collective editing work (and this is a low-end estimate).
→ helped dismantle one frat house.
→gained seventeen founding members. THANK YOU SO MUCH TO OUR FOUNDING MEMBERS!
→received 501(c)3 nonprofit designation, so now your donations to sneaker wave magazine are tax deductible!!!
PHEW, that’s been a lot over the last nine months!
What the numbers don’t capture is how much love and labor we have poured into sneaker wave magazine. This time last year, sneaker wave was barely a twinkle in Mike Magnuson’s eye, and now we are consistently publishing some of the best true stories on the web, every week, without a paywall.
Please join us in our mission to elevate the work of nonfiction writers and to connect people through the power of storytelling. This week, we’re asking you to donate to support sneaker wave magazine.
While we’re committed to being paywall-free, signing up as a PAID SUBSCRIBER is one of the best ways to support our ongoing work. Consider joining as a Founding Member: for $150, you’re enabling us to pay our writers (and maybe, eventually, ourselves)! All Founding Members also receive a special first-run sneaker wave t-shirt.
Already a subscriber but still compelled to give? We’ve just launched our first FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN on GiveLively!
$100 allows us to pay our contributors for a month’s worth of stories.
$300 covers the submission platform that we use to read submissions and accept new contributors.
$1,000 will pay our writers for an entire year of weekly true stories!
$5,000 would finally allow our hardworking editorial team to receive a small stipend for all this work.
Thank you so much for connecting with us through the power of storytelling.
Now for fun announcements about just a few things what we have in store for the rest of 2025.
Our second submissions window will open on July 15, 2025, so stay tuned for details on our Submissions Page.
We continue to take submissions for developmental editing services here: sneaker wave editing.
And next week we have another very special summer issue on what we’re reading these days, so stay tuned!