NiftyLit publishes exceptional, thought-provoking work that investigates humanity.

Our History

Founded in January 2022, NiftyLit publishes short form literary content in the genres of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and flash. Since our beginning, we have sought to present exceptional, thought provoking work, with an emphasis on publishing emerging writers and artists from underrepresented, underserved, and marginalized communities.

To read our general Submissions guidelines, please visit our Submissions page.

From our start and through the summer of 2023, NiftyLit utilized a unique publishing model that incorporated blockchain technology as a mechanism for commodifying art and writing such that our contributors could potentially earn from the sale of unique digital editions of their work (more commonly known as “Literary NFTs,” however, even as promising as the technology is, the term “NFT” has garnered a negative connotation due to scams and bad actors).

While we are still working on incorporating blockchain technology into publishing, by way of other projects we are involved in, after nearly two years in operation we firmly believe that blockchain technology is best incorporated “under the hood” and that web3 technology is not ready for adoption by mass audiences (literary or otherwise). It is therefore in the best interest of our contributors and the magazine to operate with a more traditional approach.

As of October, 2023, we shut down our digital marketplace but are continuing to publish works accepted for publication in online print at NiftyLit.io only (akin to other online literary magazines). While we are sad our unique publishing model didn’t take off as we hoped in would (in an effort to make a positive impact on the publishing industry), we hope you find our model easier to follow and that you continue to enjoy reading from our pages. If you feel like contributing to NiftyLit monetarily so that we can continue to operate and publish great art and writing without a subscription model, we set up a donations page here. Anything you can give is greatly appreciated and helps cover the costs of business; we are currently operating in an all-volunteer capacity.

Thank you for your support!

Who We Are

A group of literary enthusiasts who believe in the power of technology to put creative control back in the hands of artists. Swing on over to our Discord channel to get to know us.

Jo Unruh

Cofounder and Director

As a writer with a professional background in business and technology, Jo started NiftyLit to investigate the intersections between art and technology, and the ways in which the traditional publishing ecosystem falls short in supporting creators.

Violet Piper

Editorial Intern — Nonfiction

Violet Piper is a writer and musician from Brooklyn pursuing an MA in Creative Publishing and Critical Journalism.

Sophie Dufresne

Editorial Intern — Poetry & Other Genres

Sophie Dufresne studies creative writing at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. They fell in love with poetry after reading "Hope" by Emily Dickinson in sixth grade and are now interested in the way form informs content (or is it the other way around?). They have bylines in remote corners of the internet so their family can’t find their writings.

Han Wu

Editorial Intern - Fiction & Flash

Han Wu is a writer and software engineer from Edmonton, Alberta. He currently lives in Sunnyvale, California as a software engineer at Google.

Finn Mott

Editorial Intern - Poetry & Other Genres

Finn Mott, 21 years old, from Vail, Colorado, who recently graduated from Colorado College with honors. They are a student of multiple disciplines including Poetry, Business, Economics, and Society. Finn is young in his career, actively seeking an MFA or Phd program in poetry, Thus far, Finn has published three poetry collections (“Call Me Disturbing”, “his salt and her flower” was recently published by Lethe press, “Viral” is a multimedia collection published with High Access Media) in addition to countless individual poems, been a three time featured poet, and won many poetry contests. Some of his other work can be found published with Poetry Foundation, Wingless Dreamer Literary Magazine, the Leviathan, Jives Lounge. Finn was the first undergraduate student to receive support in publication from Colorado College. They are currently in the process of publishing his fourth poetry collection “dumb blond boy” after traveling and documenting how the Native people of the Southwest United States have been oppressed and dispossessed, and how the Māori people in New Zealand have been influenced by religions and colonialism. He is a rising young, imaginative and experimental poet whose poetry addresses social issues and diverse identity types to inspire societal progress.

Olivia Oswald

Editorial Intern - Fiction and Flash

Oswald is a Writing and Classical studies major at the University of Evansville. She enjoys reading, languages, and pottery. Her work has been published in Mania Magazine.

Nick Tantillo

Web Development & Technology Lead

Nick Tantillo is a full-stack developer with over 15 years of experience working for start-ups and equipment manufacturers. In 2016, he created his own IT services company. As a writer and early crypto enthusiast, Nick saw an opportunity to apply blockchain technology to remove some of the hurdles aspiring authors face without relying on cumbersome tokenomics. Nick has a BS from Lehigh University in Computer Science Engineering and is a Flow Blockchain 2023 Hackathon winner.

Alex Burtness

Cofounder and CTO

Alex used to travel the world disarming bombs with Jo. Now he builds robots and does improvisational comedy. Alex is passionate about artificial intelligence and blockchain, but he’s most fascinated by the intersection of art and technology. He’s never been published, but he thinks writers are the greatest people in the world.

Katie M. Zeigler

Founding Editor

Katie M. Zeigler is a writer and professor of creative writing who has published both fiction and nonfiction in a variety of outlets. She lives in Northern California with her husband and two teenage sons. Unlike Jo and Alex, Katie has never done anything with a bomb, but was awarded the Junior Cowgirl belt buckle in 1985 at the Mariposa Rodeo which should count for something. www.katiemzeigler.com

Katie is NiftyLit's Founding Editor and served as NiftyLit's first Editor in Chief until Summer 2023.