ZONA MOTEL MANIFESTO

ZONA MOTEL exists not just as a publication but as a BROTHERHOOD. This is our MANIFESTO!

PREAMBLE

ON THIS DAY of APRIL SEVEN in the Year of Our Lord 2025, we agree to ABIDE BY the following principles, here at ZONA MOTEL. The following Document is Zona Motel’s MANIFESTO!

ZONA MOTEL exists not just as a publication but as a BROTHERHOOD. This Brotherhood has been established as a countermeasure to the current State of writing, publishing, and Existence. We have created this BROTHERHOOD and WEB SPACE, ZONA MOTEL, to envision a literary World where things feel exciting, inspiring, and fun.

WE BELIEVE THE FOLLOWING

• Small presses generally publish better literature than the Big 5.

• Good writing should be able to find readers.

• A publicist and/or agent should not be required for publicity.

• Any author who produces quality work should be entitled to a quality review.

• Quality reviews note weaknesses, in addition to strengths. They are concerned with artistic choices, rather than Morality or Identity. A review should not be an Advertisement.

• Pressure to conform creates bad art.

• Uncertainty, risk, and nuance are good!

• Propaganda and art are Opposing Forces.

• “The art” and “the artist” are inherently two separate Entities.

• Earnestness and Cynicism are both rational responses to the world; we embrace both. However, if forced to choose, we err on the side of Earnestness.

• Thesis statements belong in academic essays, not in art.

• Literature and the literary world should feel exciting sometimes!

• The internet should be fun sometimes!!

• Being dumb is good sometimes.

• A lot of things suck now but not everything sucks now.

• “Art should shock, hurt, offend, intrigue, be a merciless critic of the merciless times we are not only witnessing but whose victims we have become.” —Daša Drndić

• We do not “come to art to be comforted” but to be “reskinned".” —Ali Smith

WE RECOGNIZE THE FOLLOWING AS CHALLENGES AND VOW TO FIGHT THEM!!!!!

• The Big 5 is inherently risk-averse and seemingly on a suicide mission to Destroy Itself.

• Boring, milquetoast, A-student type authors are disproportionately celebrated.

• People look to books as a source of morality and comfort. This is Bad and we DO NOT like it!

• Authors are increasingly tasked with generating their own press. This is condescending and Weird!

• The algorithm thinks we are Stupid and rewards Stupidity.

• Authors are not brands, and brand-consciousness destroys art!!

• Many media outlets have merged, shrunk, or disappeared entirely, thus reducing the opportunity for diverse books to find diverse readers.

• We exist in a Plutocracy.

DESPITE these CHALLENGES, we at ZONA MOTEL operate from a position of OPTIMISM, rather than CYNICISM!!

OUR GOALS ARE THE FOLLOWING

• To celebrate weird writers and small presses.

• To help readers and writers find each other.

• To create and foster a sense of community.

• To make writing and publishing fun again.

• To provide an antidote for everything that pisses us off/makes us frustrated about writing and publishing.

• To provide intelligent but not fussy content.

• To make mistakes out of Bravery but not sloppiness.

• To inspire others to create their own projects, reading series, publications, etc.

WE ACKNOWLEDGE THE FOLLOWING AS INSPIRATION

• HTMLGIANT

• Dennis Cooper’s blog

• Hipster Runoff

• New York Tyrant

• Shabby Doll House

• Alt Lit Gossip

• Andy Hunter & Anna Prushinskaya’s idea for Electric Literature’s Dish

• Samizdat literature

• The Infrarealists

• The Irish Literary Society

• The Prerapheliate Brotherhood

By this manifesto, WE SUBMIT TO YOU, our BELOVED editors, contributors, and readers, as your BROTHERS.

Go forth and multiply with WISDOM and GRACE!!!!!!!