I've always understood the struggles of the writing life—the driving artist, aspiring toward publication. To get your work out there, really looked at, truly noticed, takes so much heart and effort and patience and resilience. I decided twelve years ago to create a space for people taking on the struggle, a venue to give those writers and artists a truly fair shot at publication and the chance to be seen, read, and recognized—no connections, no solicitations, only blind reading. A literary magazine where the quality of work is all that matters.

​A fair chance for everyone—the underdogs, the in-betweeners, and the already established.

And, in 2010, Palooka was born.