“Summer Nights” is the them of Blink-Ink #57, apropos for this seasonal quarterly installment of the tiny, independent journal that always packs a big punch for readers. Submitting stories of “approximately 50 words,” writers in this issue help readers capture those beautiful and mysterious moments of summer: the stars, fireflies, sparks from campfires, a thousand points of light against the velvet dark, air as soft and warm as breath – both from long ago memories, recent encounters, or just creations from a writer’s mindscape of impossible dreams, or maybe yet to come to fruition.
Writers featured in this issue include Jennifer Mack, Angela James, Kendra Cardin, Katheryn Kulpa, Eileen M. Hector, Daryl Scroggins, Sarah Shum, Kathryn Silver-Harjo, Susan Israel, Cameron Vanderwerf, E.C. Traganas, Carolyn R. Russel, Emery Caroline Little, and many more, with cover art by Gemma Mathewson.
Note: Blink-Ink has announced that subscriptions rates will be increasing as of December 1, “so now is the time to save a few dollars and sign up or renew.” Who doesn’t love a bargain? And subscriptions are great for holiday gift giving!
Pictura Journal is a new online journal publishing poetry, prose, and visual artwork three times a year (April, August, December), with the editors favoring “concrete images and work grounded in a strong sense of place.” The journal’s name itself, says Founding Editor and Editor-in-Chief Alicia Wright, comes from this same desire for story.
“I’ve always been obsessed with the idea of ‘image as narrative,’ and I wanted a name that made the same statement. I couldn’t tell you the first time I read the Latin phrase ut pictura poesis (and it would take some work for me to recall any more of the specifics of Ars Poetica), but when I was formulating the idea for the journal, ‘as is poetry, so is painting’ pointed directly at what I was aiming for. So: Pictura. I want to publish work that values the concrete image as a storytelling device, and artwork that fits well alongside it.”
Creating Opportunities
From concept to concrete publication, Wright has long held the dream of starting a journal, “I wanted to provide a low barrier, paying venue for writers and artists, and I knew that one way or another I’d be able to scrape together the funds to give it a good shot. I first tossed around the idea just after I finished my MFA, but the idea ended up buried beneath some serious impostor syndrome. Last year, I joined a small group of people rebuilding an adult literacy program from the ground up, and, in a roundabout way, it forced me to reevaluate how I was spending my free time. Working to build the program has been hard, satisfying work, and I wanted to pursue more projects that were fulfilling for me and anyone who might interact with them.”
Similarly, Wright notes, “It’s a lot of work” to start a new journal, “but seeing the first issue come to life made it worth the trouble. The number of people willing to donate funds or otherwise support a very small journal at its earliest stages has been humbling and surprising beyond anything I could’ve hoped for.”
Editorial Experience
Wright’s own background has prepared her well for this venture. She holds a BA in English with a concentration in Creative Writing from Marietta College and an MFA in Creative Writing (poetry) from Bowling Green State University, where she worked for Mid-American Review. “I wanted a group of contributing editors with perspectives that balanced my own,” Wright explains, “so I put a call out when I launched the site, and am grateful to be working with a full team of Contributing Editors.”
Those editors include Andrea Damic, born in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and currently living in Sydney, Australia, a self-taught writer of prose and poetry with a Master’s degree in Economics. Anna Denzel, a multilingual teacher, translator, and writer. She graduated from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität with a Magister Artium in Italian and English Literature and Art History, subsequently studied at the University of Leeds and completed a Diploma in Professional Translation from New York University. Roberto C. Elizondo is a trilingual writer, poet, and translator from Mexico who holds an MFA from Bowling Green State University and a BA from Oklahoma State University. He has also been an Assistant Editor in Mid-American Review. And Rebecca Olson, a poet, writer, and art student who is “reinventing herself after a quarter century career with the space program.” She earned a Master’s Degree in Environmental Management from the University of Denver.
For Writers & Readers
For writers looking to home pieces of their work, Wright explains, “We accept submissions year-round through our Google form or email. It might be a little cumbersome, but using free methods allows us to offer fee-free submissions and token contributor payments. The entire team reads blind, and every piece is reviewed at least twice before a decision is made. We do our best to respond within three weeks, but we also offer an expedited response for a small fee, and we offer paid feedback on submissions.”
Readers coming to Pictura Journal can expect to enjoy a broad range of vivid writing and artwork from emerging and established writers and artists based all over the world. Some recent contributors include Richard Jordan, Leah Mueller, Jane Rosenberg LaForge, Casey Aimer, Tommy Cheis, Safiyya Bintali, JC Alfier, Cassandra Caverhill, and Bill Garvey. “We also have an ‘interviews’ section on the site for contributors who choose to participate,” Wright adds.
Print, Prizes, Payment
Looking to the future, “Growth is the goal,” says Wright. “Currently, online issues will be released on the first of the month. These are available both as content on the site itself, and also as a free PDF download. We have every intention of publishing a print anthology no later than early 2026 and nominating accepted works for prizes when possible. Beyond the planned print anthology, I’d like Pictura Journal to reach the point where adding regular print issues is feasible without cutting contributor payments.”
NewPages welcomes Pictura Journal and hopes writers and readers will enjoy getting to know this new publication.
The Lake September 2024 issue is now available online if you are looking for the best in contemporary poetry from new and established poets. This newest monthly installment features works by Ian Badcoe, Mark Belair, David Capps, Charlotte Cosgrove, Clive Donovan, Arvilla Fee, Lesley Caroline Friedman, Ann Heath, Chris Kinsey, Claire Scott, J. R. Solonche, and Jeffery Allen Tobin. Readers will also enjoy book reviews of Sarah Wimbush’s Strike and Ian Clarke’s Staying On. One Poem Reviews, which share a poem from a recently published collection, include works by Smitha Sehgal, Leslie Tate, and Angela Topping.
The online literary and art magazine 805August 2024 offers readers one final glimpse of summer, on the cusp of fall, just as Margaret Lynch writes about cancer, “teetering between the joy of life and fear of death,” and debut poet Anna Han “pens the boundless possibilities that bloom in a child’s heart.” Readers can enjoy more poetry by Logan Foster, Lisa Loop, Alicia Rebecca Myers, Charlene Pierce, Ivy Raff, Ahrend Torrey; fiction by A.C. Langlois , Sherri Moshman-Paganos, Zach Keali’i Murphy; creative nonfiction by Angela Abbott, Paul Grussendorf, Kira Rosemarie, Olivia Wieland; and art by Jake Huang (cover art), Janina Karpinska, Lauren McGovern, Marsha Solomon, and Sabahat Ali Wani.
Chestnut Review’s Summer 2024 Issue ushers in a new season at the magazine, Volume Six, Year Six (6:1). Editor-in-Chief James Rawlings’ interview with Chestnut Review Chapbooks author, Javeria Hasnain (SIN), opens this issue with cover art by Jules Ostara whose wild and unpredictable, “Ink Flowers,” sets the scene for stubborn artists and writers.
Contributors also include writers Esther Ra, Beth Anstandig, Em Townsend, Elane Kim, Chiwenite Onyekwelu, Alvin Kathembe, Nikki Ummel, Iyanuoluwa Adenle, Adamu Yahuza Abdullahi, Audrey Gamache, Andrew Nickerson, Caroline Beuley, Chidera Solomon Anikpe, J. L. Bermúdez, and art by David Sheskin, Roger Camp, Anselmo Alliegro, and Charles Byrne.
Readers are immersed in work that examines tensions with family, forgiveness, queerness, religion, astronomy, grief, childhood, animals, gothic, natural spaces, city streets, girlhood, and—as always—humanity. Like the chestnut trees that persist, this summer issue values the stubborn belief in each individual’s own worth, in the art of their hands, eyes, and mind.
Literary magazines offer readers the newest in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, artwork, and hybrid forms both in print and online. Keep your reading fresh by checking out the New & Noted Literary & Alternative Magazine titles received here at NewPages.com!
Each month, we offer readers a round-up of new issues with content information for our featured publications. The newest in poetry, fiction, nonfiction, comics, artwork, photography, media, contest winners, and so much more!
The Spring/Summer 2024 issue of Salamander (58) features fiction by Laton Carter, Jules Fitz Gerald, Amber Silverman, Casey Wiley, Lindsey Godfrey Eccles; creative nonfiction by Marin Sardy, Jannie Edwards, Kristin Ginger; an art portfolio by Stephanie Juanillo; and poetry by CD Eskilson, Amy Smith, Andrew Hemmert, Sonja Vitow, Michael Quattrone, Michael Beard, D. Dina Friedman, Luiza Flynn-Goodlett, Bernadette Geyer, Cathlin Noonan, Sean Cho A., Caroline Kanner, Stephanie Yue Duhem, José A. Alcántara, Maria Surricchio, Nancy Lynée Woo, Aliyah Cotton, Sara Backer, Jennifer Stewart Miller, Veronica Kornberg, Sheree La Puma, Caylee Gardner, Ella Flores, Kathleen Winter, Ruth Hoberman, Lizzy Beck, Ann Keniston, Rob Macaisa Colgate, Christa Fairbrother, and Vera Kroms.
In the symbolic language of flowers, the zinnia represents friendship, remembrance, and lasting affection, which is what inspired the name of a new online annual, The Zinnia Anthology. Here, readers can find short stories, poems, memoirs, and art focusing on human connections and relationships with each other outside of the romantic lens. “Specifically,” the editors note, “friendships and familial relationships that we often take for granted or easily overlook.” Indeed, the first issue, themed “Platonic Relationships” sets the tone of bringing marginalized issues to light and offers inspiration for readers to see their platonic relationships in a different light.
World Literature Today September/October 2024 features Japanese Women Writers in the 21st Century. Such writers as Mieko Kawakami, Hitomi Kanehara, Hiroko Oyamada, and Coreco Hibino are profiled in the cover feature guest-edited by Rea Amit. Additional highlights include numerous interviews, including a Q&A with Turkish writer Elif Shafak; poetry from China, Ukraine, and the US; fiction from Kenya; and Alejandro Puyana on six “classic” and “upstart” literary debuts. Be sure to check out the latest must-read titles in WLT’s book review section—including new releases by Conceição Lima, Yoko Ogawa, and Salman Rushdie—and much more!
The Summer 2024 issue of Allium is available for readers to enjoy online, opening with works by Featured Artist Jeanne Marie Beaumont, who works ‘principally in collage and assembly. Readers can take these final days of summer to savor fiction by De’Andre Holmes, Lily Swanson, Hayden Casey, Daniel Steinmetz, Tom Roth, Elise Swanson Ochoa, Odin Weller, Lori Cidylo, Alex Rawitz, Brad Dress, Louise Wilford, Steve Ives, J. D. Strunk, George Tyler, Maura Stanton, Eve Rayve, Amelia Dellos; nonfiction by Scott Hurd, Gail Tyson, Deja A. Smith, Chelsey Clammer, David Tippetts; and poetry by Grant Chemidlin, Amy Miller, William Orem, Arden Stockdell Geisler, Riane Bayne, Eric Ellis, Yana Kane, Aurora Bones, Banah Ghadbian, Alexandra Riseman, Justine Mercado, Sarah Brockhaus, Alex Schmidt, Jeremy Radin, Caroline Patterson, Monet Lewis, Kelly DuMar, Rosanne Singer, Frances Klein, Brendan Bense, Vanessa Ogle, Nathan Santiago, Jane Costain, and Alanna Shaikh.
The Meadow is the annual literary journal of Truckee Meadows Community College. In this 2024 issue, readers will discover fiction, nonfiction, and poetry selected from the best student work alongside national contributors such as Meghan Sterling, Mark Sanders, Katheryn Levy, George Perrault, Kathy Nelson, Richard Robbins, Janelle Cordero, Daniel Edward Moore, Max Stone, January Santoso, Lenny DellaRocca, Natalie Solmer, Deidre Sullivan, as well as many others wrapped in the mesmerizing, mythical cover art, Icarus, by Kateryna Bortsova.
The Lake poetry journal August 2024 issue is now online featuring works byJude Brigley, Douglas Cole, Bhaswati Ghosh, Jenny Hockey, Norton Hodges, Rustin Larson, Al Maginnes, Beth McDonough, Estill Pollock, Joshua St. Claire. This issue also includes reviews of Niki Herd’s The Stuff of Hollywood, Fleur Adcock’s Collected Poems, Kathleen Strafford’s Girl in the Woods, and Martin Figura’s The Remaining Men. “One Poem Reviews” is a unique feature that invites writers to share a poem from a recently published collection. This month spotlights Mike Dillon and Scott Elder.
The Main Street Rag Summer 2024 issue opens with an interview with Dave Essinger, whose novel, This World and the Next, is forthcoming from Main Street Rag in October 2024 (discounted pre-order available here). Readers can also enjoy “Stories & Such” by Steve Putnam, Carlos Ramet, E. G. Silverman, Jessi Waugh, and Michael Woodruff, as well as lots of great new poetry from Joan Barasovska, Jacqueline Berger, Robert Cooperman, Mary Alice Dixon, R. E. Ericson, Greg Friedman, Bill Griffin, Alan Harawitz, PMF Johnson, Dianne Mason, John Minczeski, G.H. Mosson, Cal Nordt, Robert Perchan, Laura Ann Reed, John J. Ronan, Richard Allen Taylor, Miles Waggener, and Ronald Zack among many more.
The Missouri Review Summer 2024 is themed, “In the Altogether” and features debut fiction by Sara Beth Greene and Ina Lipkowitz, as well as new fiction from Mark Barlex and Hana Choi, new poems from Chaun Ballard, Amorak Huey, and Tina Schumann, and new essays from Jennifer Anderson, Nancy Jainchill, and Allen M. Price. Also included is an art feature on contemporary dada and an interview with classics scholar and acclaimed translator of The Odyssey and The Iliad, Emily Wilson. Cover art by Thomas Lerooy, Disclosure (2019).
The MacGuffin Spring 2024 (volume 39) features Barbara Crooker’s selections from POET HUNT 28, including Dawn Dupler’s grand prize–winning “Scars” and honorable mention selections by Johnny Cate and MacGuffin regular Rebecca Foust. There is also a four-poem spread by POET HUNT 29 guest judge Michael Meyerhofer. New prose selected for this issue invites readers to enjoy the unfolding postmodernism of Max Blue’s “Preservation”; the satirical “Taylor Kills a Unicorn” by Laton Carter; and the madcap reporter’s narrative of Nicholas Litchfield’s “Superstars of Today.” This issue features artwork by Metro Detroit painter and designer Linda Pelowski.
The Tiger Moth Review is an eco-conscious journal based in Singapore that publishes art and literature engaging with the themes of nature, culture, the environment, and ecology. The cover image of Issue 12 by Ethan Leong pays homage to interspecies kinships and relational ways of being on earth, themes that contributors continue to discover and explore in each new publication. Some contributors to this issue include Ilika Montani, Lizzie Ferguson, Adam Anders, Anna Molenaar, Devon Neal, Meenakshi Palaniappan, Alka Balain, Jennifer S. Lange, Johnny Kovatch, and others.
Cimarron Review’s double issue (219/220) is out and features poetry by Donald Illich, Kate Peterson, Christopher Ankney, D.S. Butterworth, Mitchell Untch, Cindy Xin, Nancy Eimers, Mac McClaran, Nicholas Samaras, Lesley Wheeler, Mark Belair, Nick Norwood, Liz Robbins, Ted Kooser, Babette Cieskowski, Quinn Carver Johnson & Todd Fuller, Lex Orgera, Elisabeth Murawski, Carrie Shipers, Bruce CohenCloe Watson, Mary Vogt Myers, and many more; fiction by Sue Brennan, Will Ejzak, Raymond Fleischmann, James Sullivan; and nonfiction by Lise Funderburg, Nicholas Stevens, Michael Topp, and Rebecca Edgren.
Lit Mag Covers: Picks of the Week recognizes cover art and designs for literary magazines, whether in print or online. These are chosen solely at the discretion of the Editor. Enjoy!
Shō Poetry Journal Summer 2024 issue features work, Lucy, by Harim Choi on the cover. Choi had been asked by the editors to provide a creative interpretation of The Star tarot card. Fittingly, the publication also includes a postcard with the image in each issue.
The Louisville Review Winter/Spring 2024 front cover features Trumpets, a painting by Laurie Fader along with a “Cover Artist’s Statement” inside which narrates the creation of the work and “the biological precarity and the gamut of stylistic influences” that inform it.
Publishing flash fiction online, the Ghost Parachute August 2024 cover art by Genevieve Anna Tyrrell is in keeping with its mission to publish works that are “unapologetically bold.”
Founded in 1979 by Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Paterson Literary Review began as a mimeographed publication and, as a testament to the power of the perseverance of the small press, it has become one of the most well-respected resources for poetry in the country. Number 52 of this annual is a hefty tome of just over 400 pages of fresh poetry, memoir, prose, and essays by Marge Piercy, Martín Espada, Joe Weil, Dante Di Stefano, José Antonio Rodríguez, Jan Beatty, Daniel Donaghy, John Bargowski, Tony Gloeggler, Penny Perry, and others. Also included are winning entries, honorable mentions, and editor’s choice selections of the 2023 Allen Ginsberg Poetry Awards.
Cover art by Torkwase Dyson invites readers into the newest issue of The Malahat Review (227), which opens with the 2024 Novella Prize Winner Ryan Cannon’s “A Hunting Story” (readers can find an interview with Ryan Cannon on the magazine’s website). Also featured in this issue is poetry by Isha Camara, Morgan Cross, Daniela Elza with Brian Brett, Nathan Erwin, Wess Mongo Jolley, Diane Louie, Raymond Luczak, Eli Mushumanski, Lauren Peat, Aaron Rabinowitz, Kyeren Regehr, Vivek Sharma, and Saadi Youssef (translated by Khaled Mattawa); fiction by Courtney Baird-Lew and Kaitlin Ruether; creative nonfiction by Kevin MacDonell; and reviews of new publications of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction.
Bear Paw Arts Journal is a new open access online journal of flash fiction, micro memoir, poetry, and featured artists publishing one issue each year in the fall. “It’s free to submit, free to read. This is a labor of love, and we’re proud of that,” say the editors.
Bear Paw Arts Journal takes its name from the Bears Paw Mountains in north central Montana. The editors explain, “The range is known locally as ‘The Bear Paws.’ These mountains were originally named by the native Cree and Blackfeet people as ‘The Mountains of the Bear.’ Bear Paw Arts Journal seeks to publish works that, like the Bears Paw Mountains, surprise and delight with each new turn.”
Inside Consequence Volume 16.1, readers will find a concentration of beautiful and compelling work that wrestles with the consequences of war and geopolitical violence. From “The Philosophy of Escape’’ where the speaker struggles with the guilt of fleeing his war-torn home to “Nora’s Wedding,” which follows a Jewish woman as she unexpectedly finds family and love in Germany, to “Gertie’s Labyrinth” with its children who use make-believe to parse reality, each piece of prose, poetry, and visual art in this issue engages with the entangled consequences of conflict in an artful and memorable way.
In this double issue of The Iowa Review – Winter 2023/Spring 2024 – readers will be entranced by the Night Witches, aging backward, cardiologists, Freddie Mercury, family secrets, FreakFest, coyotes, VHS tapes, and more with poetry by Janice N. Harrington, John A. Nieves, Robert Wood Lynn, John Hodgen, Claire Denson , Eliza Gilbert, Rae Gouirand, Kate Gaskin, Richard Haney-Jardine León, Matthew Minicucci, Michelle Acker , Amanda Smeltz, Stella Wong; nonfiction by Sai Pradhan, Jennifer S. Cheng, Ryan Van Meter, Shannon Huffman Polson, Rochelle Goldstein Bay; fiction by Lucas Southworth, Tom Howard, Gracie Newman, Geri Modell, Chelsea Tokuno-Lynk, Jennifer Genest, Brynne Jones, Alex Burchfield; and cover art by Carlos Maldonado.
Issue four of the online poetry journalRed Tree Reviewis now live. As always, readers will find poems that surprise, harrow, and awe, this time featuring work by Cortney Bledsoe, Halee Kirkwood, Mirande Bissell, Scott Davidson, James Croal Jackson, Alex Sarrigeorgiou, Eva Skrande, Alison Heron Hruby, Clara Burghelea, C. B. Stuckey, Matthew Burns, and Jacob Schepers.
Whenever I hear someone kvetch, “Just how many literary magazines does the world really need?” a publication like LIBRE comes along to respond that there is room for this much-needed resource for the literary community.
LIBRE is a new online journal of prose, poetry, and art with three main goals: to uplift the marginalized voices of the mentally ill and those whose lives are affected by mental health; to celebrate the excruciatingly nuanced boundaries and expressionistic approaches that magical realist literature and artwork bring to our otherwise mundane realities; and to explore the oftentimes overlooked intersection that quietly, but stubbornly blooms between fabulist and health-oriented writing.
The Summer 2024 Colorado Review takes a unique perspective on the season. “While summer is not the season we generally associate with loss, it does offer pause: time to reflect on what has been taken from us, what we might let go of, what we hope to hold on to, what we may yet reap.” This issue includes short fiction by Erika Krouse, Amanda Rea, Afsheen Farhadi, and Amy Silverberg. Also featured are essays by Elizabeth Kadetsky, Lilly Nguyen, and Jean McDonough.
“So much loss, yes, in this issue,” says editor-in-chief Stephanie G’Schwind of the prose. “Yet there is much to be gained in the exploration of what we no longer have. Of her pain, Nguyen writes: ‘I had become so accustomed to it over the years that its absence was remarkable…. With this came new knowledge.’ And an absence, suggests McDonough, can hold great value: ‘I remember this—the nothingness—and it will not be taken from me.’”
Poetry editor Camille T. Dungy has selected poems by Xochiquetzal Candelaria, Alyse Knorr, Max Seifert, Nasser Alsinan, Caroline O’Connor Thomas, and many others. “These poems vibrate,” writes Dungy. “They are sensitive. They are afraid but still insistent. Alert but also calming. They move from harrowing to hopeful, and they show what it means to live in-between.”
The Blue Collar Review: Journal of Progressive Working Class Literature Spring 2024 issue opens with these words from the editor’s note, “This Spring is marked by escalating tensions'” to which much of the work included bear witness. The editors conclude, “change must come from the bottom, from the working, exploited and oppressed – from us. Promoting and presenting examples of the consciousness of class connection necessary for that change remains our primary goal. We continue to struggle against the odds of increasing expenses and censorship pressures to get your words out. Your continuing support and unique writing keep this effort alive and we are grateful.” Sample works are available on the publication’s website.
On Spec (onspec.ca) is an award-winning Canadian journal of short genre fiction and poetry. Since 1989, On Spec has featured original works of science fiction and fantasy from writers around the world, with a mandate to showcase the best in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic. Now’s the time to try an issue, and you may win a subscription! View flyer to learn more.
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Kaleidoscope magazine publishes work that creatively explores the experience of disability through literature and the fine arts. The Summer/Fall 2024 issue (#89) explores the ebbs and flows of life. Just like shells along a beach, readers will find some treasures in the selected works.
The featured essay, “Portrait with a Seagull,” is the sweet story of a family’s visit to the Jersey Shore and one child’s preoccupation with seagulls. Mom and author, Natalie Haney Tilghman, sees her son interacting with a gull and is a bit envious of the effortless, immediate connection they have. Despite her aversion to the creatures that swoop through the sky snatching snacks and squealing, they end up saving the day in an unexpected way, and she is grateful.
Digital artist Diana de Avila is featured in this issue along with various other established and emerging writers: Emma Baker, Jax Bidmead, Marjorie E. Brody, Emma Burnett, Douglas G. Campbell, Deb DeBates, Alexander Etheridge, Joanne Feenstra, Janet Engle Frase, Ben Gooley, Lori Hahnel, Mattie-Bretton Hughes, Shelly Jones, Suzanne Kamata, Grace Kully, Karen McKenzie, Betsy Miller, PMF, Trystan Popish, Ivy Raff, Tara K. Ross, Sheersty Stanton, M.S., Cynthia Stock and Angela Townsend.
Still Points Arts Quarterly Summer 2024 is themed “The House of My Dreams” and features contemporary works of art, fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. Produced by Shanti Arts, this luxuriously printed journal is intended for artists, nature lovers, seekers, and enthusiast of all types. This issue features works by Judith Sornberger, Patty Somlo, Charlene Logan, Susan Eaton Mendenhall, B. D. Ramsey, James Lowell Hall, Cathy Fiorello, Michael Riedell, Lily Ione MacKenzie, Ann Cwiklinski, Christopher Woods, Ellen Pliskin, Rosalyn Kliot, Chris Hero, Theresa M. Pisani, and many more!
I-70 Review announces the winner of the Bill Hickok Humor Award for Poetry for 2024. Alice Friman chose Al Ortolani’s poem “Feeling Blue” to receive the prize of $1,000. Submissions for 2025 start on Jan 1st through Feb 28th.
Most of us are likely at an age when we can recall how quickly carefree younger days seem to have slipped through our fingers as we entered irrevocably into adulthood. Fortunately, for today’s youth, there is Fleeting Daze Magazine, a youth-run literary online quarterly publishing all forms of literary arts and writing from contributors ages 13-24. New issues are available every 2-3 months in open access online forms.
Co-founder and Editor-in-Chief Caroline Zhang explains the intentionality behind the name: “When creating the name, we wanted our magazine to highlight the coming-of-age process and the works we published to be unique to a new generation of creators and thinkers. We recognized that as a youth-run magazine, our knowledge and understanding growing up today was an advantage and a perspective that often is not found elsewhere in today’s media. ‘Fleeting Daze’ had a double meaning – first, symbolizing the glowing haze/dreamlike nature of childhood, having fun, believing in the possibilities of the world. On the other hand, ‘Fleeting Daze’ can also be read as ‘Fleeting Days,’ symbolizing how the best moments of our youthful childhoods can go by in the blink of an eye, and how every second must be grasped onto and enjoyed for as long as possible.”
Each issue of THEMA centers on a premise with the Summer 2024 prompt being “The magic of light and shadow.” The theme can be integral to plot, not necessarily central but also not merely incidental. A great challenge for writers, a wonderful resource for teachers, and an enjoyable experience for readers!
This issue’s stories, short-shorts, poems, and photographs were contributed by Victoria Ilemobayo, SPIN, Virginia McGee Butler, Anne Dalziel Patton, Erika Hoffman, R. David Bowlus, Stuart J. Silverman, Sean E. Britten, Nikky Mohandas, Robert Scott Mason, Daniel Crow, Gary Sterling, Madonna Dries Christensen, Ted Burrowes, Tom Gengler, Susan Duke, Beverly Boyd, Hûw Steer, Matthew J. Spireng, Ruth Holzer, R.G. Halstead, Linda Berry, Yvonne Ventresca, Orsolya Karàcsony, Margo Peterson, and Stephen Page.
Lit Mag Covers: Picks of the Week recognizes cover art and designs for literary magazines, whether in print or online. These are chosen solely at the discretion of the Editor. Enjoy!
The newest issue of Ecotone: Reimagining Place literary magazine is themed “The Labor Issue,” and features Retablos de Imágenes y Memorias, 2022 by Perla Segovia on the cover as well as including a portfolio of his work inside the publication.
Ian Alam Sukarso’s artwork adorns the cover of Inch, a quarterly “focused on the miracles of compression” – a micro-chapbook featuring the work of a single author. Issue #56 spotlights Jarret Moseley’s Gratitude List.
Leanne E. Smith’s photo on the Spring 2024 cover of East Carolina University’s Tar River Poetry makes me wish I could be taking a meander down that road on a cool summer’s day.
“Addicted to Love” is the theme of Blink Ink #56, “The gold standard for microfiction” featuring stories of approximately 50 words. Not platonic, familial, or devotional, this is the rascal love where your heart sweats and you lose your mind. The world well lost for lust. Dreaming days followed by sleepless nights. A special someone, or just playing with the idea, the feeling.
Southern Humanities Review issue 57.2 features radioactive animals in “Wild Wild Wolves” and “Radiation Bestiary”; a photo-less photo essay of the George Floyd protests in “June 1, 2020: A Photo Essay”; shiny sharp new lives in “Alternative Lives with Teeth”; and a sense of peace, finally, in “Love Song in Someone Else’s Loblolly Stand” and “I Put Life on Hold.”
This issue also features poetry by Carson Colenbaugh, Patricia Davis, Elizabeth C. Garcia, Elisa A. Garza, Hua Qing, Liang Yujing, Heather Jessen, Thomas Kneeland, James Davis May, Matthew Nienow, Susan Rich, Angela Sorby, Lindsay Stewart, Laura Van Prooyen, and Ellen June Wright. Nonfiction contributors include Debra Dean and Maggie Nye. Fiction by Taylor De La Peña, Emily Greenberg, Svetlana Satchkova, and Gabriel Welsch. The cover, Holiday on the Hudson, 1912, is from George Luks (American, 1866-1933); The Cleveland Museum of Art; Hinman B. Hurlbut Collection. Some content can be read online, and individual copies, as well as subscriptions, are available on the Southern Humanities Reviewwebsite.
The Summer 2024 issue of Cool Beans Lit is themed “Deep Dive.” It showcases the work of both new and established authors and artists delving far into their past perspectives and comparing them to new views on what the future may hold in this realm or the next. The pieces in this issue are impactful and will long resonate with readers by triggering a wide range of emotions from deep pain and despair to humor in childhood reflections to honest takes on love and anguish.
Featured authors include Ace Boggess, Sara Eddy, James Roderick Burns, Kenneth Cupp and Jason Clemmons. Stunning photography and visual art by featured artists, like Katie Hughbanks, David A. Goodrum, Robb Kunz, Edward Lee, Amalia Costaldi and Victoria Mullen, is sure to awe and inspire readers. This issue rounds out the first full annual volume for Cool Beans Lit with more unique issues and themes to come.
The July 2024 issue of The Lake is now online featuring fresh new poetry by N. S. Boone, Chris Bullard, Mike Dillon, Philip Dunkerley, Bridgette James, Ted Jean, Bridget Khursheed, Annie Kissack, Faith Paulsen, Amanda L. Rioux. The Lake also features reviews of new poetry collections, with July spotlighting Karen An-hwei Lee’s The Beautiful Immunity, Stephen Cramer’s City Full of Fireworks & Blues, and Mark Vernon Thomas’s Dancing with Shadows and Stones. Unique to The Lake is “One Poem Review,” in which an author of a recently published book of poems shares a sample work with readers. Deirdre Hines is the featured poet for July.
The Shore Issue 22 sparks with sizzling poetry shimmering just in time for summer. Find new hot poetry by: John Gallaher, Ben Cooper, Susan Muth, Julia Kooi Talen, Kate Welsh, Brett Griffiths, Sarah Burke, Peter Herring, Ahana Chakraborty, Colleen Salisbury, CC Russell, Mary Morris, Sarah Fawn Montgomery, Olivia Jacobson, Zeke Shomler, Alyssa Jewell, Liz Robbins, Emilee Kinney, Meghan Sterling, Lauren Mallett, Mark Majcher, Kelly Erin Gray, Naomi Madlock, Rachael Lyon, Elya Braden, Julia Lisella, Christopher Faunce, Amy Thatcher, Jeremy Rock, Meredith MacLeod Davidson, Ana Prundaru, Nathan Erwin, Jacob Schepers, Kathryn Merwin, Calista Malone, Carson Colenbaugh, Bryan D Price, Amanda Russell, Jo Snow, Rachel White, Rebekah M Rykiel and JB Kalf. This issue also features unforgettable art by Madeline Hernstrom-Hill.
In word association, if I say “bus,” I’m sure “Greyhound” would be among the top responses, and it would be spot-on for introducing this new, history-oriented journal of text and audiovisual poetry and prose. Publishing biannually online with a regularly updated “Featured” column, The Greyhound Journal was originally created to open more spaces for literary dialogue revolving around history and to increase the accessibility of history through narrative. “Our founding mission,” the editors assert, “is to promote the exploration of history through creative work and literature.”
With eight bonus pages, the July 2024 issue of World Literature Today presents International Horror Fiction in Translation, guest-edited by Rachel Cordasco. The cover feature gathers stories by Junko Mase (Japan), C. E. Feiling (Argentina), Mahmoud Fikry (Egypt), and John Ajvide Lindqvist (Sweden), plus a reading list by Jess Nevins and online interview with Megan McDowell. Additional highlights include a conversation with 2024 Dublin Literary Award winner Mircea Cărtărescu; an essay on storytelling, sacrifice, and acts of love by Anna Badkhen; Gloria Blizzard’s “History of Canada” booklist; and Kim Stafford’s “Proclamation for Peace” poem in eight languages. The book review section rounds up the best new books from around the world, and additional interviews, poetry, and essays offer indispensable summer reading.
New England Review issue 45.2 includes the special feature “Where On Earth Did You Come From?’ — Seven South Korean Poets & Their Translators,” guest edited by Soje. Readers will also enjoy stirring prose by Lauren Acampora, Ben Miller, Iheoma Nwachukwu, and Cynthia R. Wallace; piercing poetry by David Joez Villaverde, Fay Dillof, Emily Pittinos, and Ayokunle Falomo; cover art by Fi Jae Lee, and so much more!
Sheila-Na-Gig Volume 8.4, Summer 2024 offers readers breadth and depth in well-crafted free verse poetry (and some forms!) with a spotlight on Editor’s Choice Award winner Shannon K. Winston. The volume includes lots of Sheila-Na-Gig’s frequent contributors in addition to a host of newcomers, including, Stefan Balan, Roderick Bates, Thomas Bolo, Sarah Browning, Rachel Aviva Burns, Zelda Cahill-Patten, Jim Daniels, DeWitt Henry, Linda Laderman, Isabel Cristina Legarda, Grace Massey, Richard Matta, Eric Nelson, JC Reilly, Claire Scott, Richard Allen Taylor, Gail Thomas, William Welch, and Kenton K. Yee.
Nimrod International Journal Spring/Summer 2024 issue is themed “Refuge.” What is refuge? How do we pursue or find it? The concept is rather abstract and wildly different for many people, and the authors within represent that very conundrum. Readers can explore fiction by Emily Giangiulio, Divya Maniar, Zen Ren, Catalina Infante Beovic, G.W. Currier, Mackenzie Majewski, Sarah Gerkensmeyer, and Conor Flannery, and poetry by Kelly Rowe, Bex Hainsworth, Rana Tahir, Lauren Tess, Nancy Eimers, Jody Winer, Hannah Baker Saltmarsh, Hannah Dierdorff, Kyo Lee, Sandra Crouch, Elizabeth Galoozis, M.K. Foster, Halee Kirkwood, Amara Tiebout, Geoffrey Babbitt, Eben Bein, Chelsea Dingman, Tiffany Mi, Zen Ren, Connie Braun, Eleanor Goodman, Maria Provenzano, Phillip Watts Brown, Mary Francesca Fontana, Jake Phillips, Caits Meissner, Angela Kirby, and many more.
Hailing from Eastern Washington University, Willow Springs 2024 Spring print journal features Surrealist Prize Winner Meg Kelleher, whose poem is available to read online along with an audio recording. Readers can enjoy more poetry by Mark Anderson, B. J. Buckley, Todd Davis, Richard Gallagher, Mark Halliday, John Hodgen, Carol Potter, Georgia San Li, Liana Roux, John Schneider, John Spaulding, and Josh Tvdry; fiction by Matthew Baker, Andrew Furman; nonfiction by Jenny Catlin, Courtney Kersten; and an interview with Nance Van Winckel.
Looking for a bookstore stocked with dozens of the most recent titles of contemporary lit mags to browse? Look no further! Check out the New & Noted Literary & Alternative Magazine titles received here at NewPages.com!
Each month, we offer readers a round-up of new issues with content information for our featured publications. The newest in poetry, fiction, nonfiction, comics, artwork, photography, media, contest winners, and so much more!
In the Spring 2024 (226) issue of The Malahat Review, readers can enjoy Open Season Awards winning works by Jocy Chan (poetry), Aldyn Chwelow (creative nonfiction), and Dominique Bernier-Cormier (fiction) as well as poetry by Nicole Boyce, Weyman Chan, Laurie D. Graham, Iqra Khan, S. A. Leger, Shane Neilson, Teresa Ott, Meredith Quartermain, Meghan Reyda-Molnar, Tazi Rodrigues, Anya Smith, and Misha Solomon, fiction by Corinna Chong, Dylan Clark, and Bill Gaston, and creative nonfiction by Daniel Allen Cox, as well as several book reviews. Cover art, Head Space, by Ibrahim Abusitta.
The Summer 2024 issue of The Kenyon Review includes a folio centered on the theme of Extinction, with poetry by Jessica Abughattas, Saddiq Dzukogi, Martín Espada, and Farah Kader, fiction by Lee Conell, Vida James, and Jimin Kang, and nonfiction by Taneum Bambrick and noam keim. The tenth-anniversary edition of “Nature’s Nature,” guest edited by David Baker, also appears in this issue. “Nature’s Nature” has been an annual feature, and the past nine years brought together 158 contributors, mostly poets but also prose writers and visual artists. This year’s edition spotlights established poets Philip Metres, Evie Shockley, and Mary Szybist introducing emerging poets including Ariana Benson, Jasmine Reid, and Paige Webb. Complimenting these two folios both on the cover and in a special color feature is landscape photography by Camille Seaman.
Boulevard Winter 2024 – a double issue – spotlights 2022 Fiction Contest winner Trent Lewin, and 2022 Nonfiction Contest winner Gabriel Rogers. It also features a Boulevard Craft Interview with Gus Moreno, a novel excerpt from Joyce Carol Oates, new fiction from Roy Parvin, Nick Otte, Mathew Goldberg, and Joshua Allen Griffith, new poetry from Nandini Dhar, Ellara Chumashkaeva, Tai Wei Guo, James Allen Hall, Otter Jung-Allen, Bryan D. Price, Michael Romary, Ellen Doré Watson, Caroline White, and translations of Saadi Youssef by Khaled Mattawa, as well as essays by John Dalton, Michael Bishop, Demetrius Buckley, Madeline Jones and Susan Sugai. Cover art is Current Mood, oil on canvas by Song Watkins Park.
The June 2024 issue of About Place explores the concept of “west.” West has always been more than mere direction, a setting sun, evening. The term invokes a fraught mythology of wilderness and conquest, of destiny and riches, of jackrabbit homesteads and romantic distances, of cowboys and bears. These symbols have long dominated our histories of these lands, centering whiteness and masculinity in rugged, difficult terrain. But the West has always been strange, full of contradictions, queer. “Strange Wests” conceives of the West beyond its conventional, colonialized framework. What happens when the dam breaks, when waters flow along their pre-colonial course and stewardship is returned to the original caretakers of the land?
[Cover artwork Dreams Collage by Irina Tall Novikova.]
