The "Buzz" on Cicada

For those of us who have read Cricket for years and have sadly outgrown it, you should be familiar with the next magazine "up" that Cricket Publishing Group puts out, Cicada. You have probably seen the ads for it in Cricket, Ladybug, or whatever other magazines of theirs that you subscribe to. You may be wondering whether Cicada could possibly ever be as good as the high-quality mags they publish. Wonder no more: the answer is that Cicada, especially for the 15-and-up set, is surely be a gift from heaven.

Let's get something straight here: Seventeen this ain't. You will find no make-up ads, no perfume samples, no grotesquely mutated Steve Madden models with huge heads and tiny hips. In fact, outside of a couple of books for sale by the Cricket Publishing Group on the inside of the back cover, there is nary an advertisement to be seen. This is all very well and good for those of us who detest flipping through twenty pages of ads in order to get to the table of contents, let alone the good stuff. (By the way, the table of contents for Cicada is located very conveniently on the back cover.)

Cicada is a literary magazine, pure and simple. It caters to those of us who enjoy thinking about things and deciding things for ourselves, as opposed to being force-fed the latest trends and styles we simply "must have." Every (sadly) two months, you will receive in the mail a stocky issue, usually about 140 pages long, sometimes wrapped in a plastic baggy, sometimes swathed in paper bag-like material, giving it a delightful, "secretive" appeal. One just cannot wait to dive into the plethora of goodies waiting inside. Every issue is much smaller than a normal magazine -- about the size of a novel. This makes for handy grab-it-and-go reading, and since the stories, articles, and poems inside are sometimes so much like what you would be reading in a novel, it's very appropriate.

Every two months there's something new, and every two months, there's something to think about. You start off with a page-long note from the editor, usually a humorous endeavor which serves to "introduce" a piece or two inside. Next is the two pages of letters to the editor, which are usually stuffed to the gills with praise for the magazine. Occasionally someone writes a letter in that says something stupid or critical, and four months later they are being blasted all over the place. From the letters section, it's on to the goods! Poetry, microfiction, short stories, book reviews, cartoons, art, and reflections await! There's a smorgasbord to choose from every issue, and there's always something for everyone. Fiction ranges from realistic, to tragic, to historic, to science fictionistic, to fantastic. (As in, related to fantasy, although it is fantastic in the really marvelous sense, too.) Poetry ranges from hilarious to downright befuddling. Cartoons provide a breather between the really "heavy" stuff -- sort of like a cool, refreshing juice popsicle right in the middle of a really weighty dinner (such as lasagna with mashed potatoes).

Perhaps one of the coolest features of Cicada is that not only do they publish readers' submissions in the middle of the magazine -- like it's a real feature, not just a contest winner or something like in Cricket -- but, if the piece is chosen, the author gets paid for it. How freakin' cool is that?! It's great for breaking into the world of publications, that is, learning to get rejected. (Which would be good for me too, considering my very first submission to any publication [Cricket] got published on my first try! Check August 1997's issue for my poem, yeehaw!)

The two-and-only downsides to Cicada are: the fact that it is bi-monthly, and if you're like me, you'll have cleaned through it cover-to-cover inside of a day and are left dying for more; and its price. This mag isn't cheap. The cover price is $7.95, and a year's subscription is something like $35. But the $7.95 to buy an issue off the newsstand, or the full-year's subscription are always, in my opinion, well worth it for the thought-provoking literature it provides. I never finish an issue without looking at the world a little differently than I did before.

If you're a teenager (and older, my mom likes to read my issues sometimes) that is looking for a magazine that's better than all the crap fluff rags out there, stop here first. If you're younger than Cicada's target audience, or if you find the reading a little too steep, then Cricket is another excellent choice. But please, in the name of all that which does not suck, read an issue for yourself. You'll see what I mean.