The Spring 2023 issue of Rattle (#79) features a Tribute to Irish Poets. From Yeats to Boland and Heaney, Ireland has a long tradition of producing great poets. Rattle editors take an opportunity with this issue to look at what’s going on there now. The theme includes seventeen poems by Irish poets and their always-interesting contributor notes, and a conversation with Frank Dullaghan, a poet who has lived an interesting life in both Ireland and abroad. The open section features twenty-one poets exploring their perspectives on life. Cover art by Joseph Lynch.
Publishing quarterly online, the San Francisco Youth Anthology offers middle-school, high-school, and college-aged writers and readers of any age a platform for all genres of creative writing. Based in San Francisco, the publication only accepts submissions from San Francisco and the surrounding areas, but they are open to readers from around the globe.
As Editor Ava Rosoff explains, “SFYA began with the desire to start a magazine and initiative for young writers to help them showcase their work in an anthology, captured in the ‘Youth Anthology’ part of the name.” She and her editor peers saw SFYA as “a way to foster a community of youth writers in the San Francisco Bay Area and encourage young writers to share their work with the greater community.”
The Main Street Rag Winter 2023 features an interview with Jim Lundy involving the history of the Poetry Society of South Carolina. Also in this issue, readers can enjoy poetry by L. Ward Abel, Melissa Apperson, Susan Ayers, Carol Barrett, Maria Berardi, Mike Bove, Terri Drake, Sam Capps, Ricks Carson, Robert Cooperman, Steve Cushman, Barbara Daniels, Abigail Dembo, Patrick Dungan, Michael Flanagan, Tony Gloeggler, Earl Carlton Huband, Judith Janoo, Becky Nicole James, Mike James, Garret Keizer, Casey Killingsworth, Jennifer LeBlanc, Justin Lacour, Richard Levine, Mary Makofske, Ronald J. Pelias, Erik Rosen, Janet M. Rives, Bret Roth, Claire Scott, William Snyder, Jr., Shaheen Dil, Tom Whalen, James Washington, Jr., Frederick Wilbur; fiction by Chris Daly, Brett Dixon, Peter Fraser, Paul Juhasz, Eugene Radice, Beate Sigriddaughter, Karen Sleeth; images by Rebeccah Williams Connelly, Karen Pelosi, Michael Woodruff, Lynn Black, Jill L. Rausch; and a slew of book reviews.
The newest issue of Chinese Literature and Thought Today (vol. 53, no. 3–4, 2022) examines Chinese literature and culture in the time of contagion, and offers part two of a special section “Re-Aestheticizing Labor.” The featured scholar is Deng Xiaomang, an important philosopher and public intellectual. Moving to a mostly digital format, this full issue is available to read through Taylor & Francis Online. More developments are in the works for this already outstanding publication of intellectual literary culture – stay tuned!
The March 2023 issue of The Lake online poetry magazine is now available for reading and features works by Jean Atkin, Jimmy R. Coleman, Sandra Hosking, Beth McDonough, Bruce McRea, Jeff Mock, Leah Mueller, Wren Tuatha, and Susan Waters.
In Issue 3.4 of Cutleaf online, Craig Holt barely survives, and may have learned his lesson, in “Drinking the Ocean: Notes on Travel and Drowning.” A young man negotiates family expectations and his relationship with a widow in Maya Kanwal’s “A Shade for the Window.” And Carolyn Oliver says “In another life, I am…” in four poems that expand on the possibilities of what we all are or might be, beginning with the poem “Deep Learning.” This issue features stills from John Frankenheimer’s film “Seconds” (1966).
The newest issue of Cholla Needles (74) features inspiring artwork by Nancy Brizendine and life-affirming words by Dorianne Laux, Joseph Millar, Domonique, Zary Fakete, Miriam Sagan, Roger G. Singer, Ruth Ann Dandrea, Kent Wilson, Jeffrey Alfier, Peter Nash, and Jonathan Ferrini.
Publishing twice year, Action, Spectacle is a new open-access online magazine of just about everything you could want: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, plays, graphic literature, comics, interviews, reviews, and still and video art. A spectacle of options indeed, but actually, the publication draws its name from Marxist theorist, Guy Debord’s well-known book, The Society of the Spectacle, in which he suggests, “All that once was directly lived has become mere representation.” However, ‘mere’ is not the word that comes to mind when viewing contributions to Action, Spectacle.
The publication was begun by Adam Day, as he says, for “the sheer joy of getting to see what’s out there, getting to feature new voices, getting to feature work we love.” Joining him behind the scenes are Prose Editors Kate Tough, novelist and story writer, and Sarah Rose Cadorette, Creative Writing MFA and a Travel and Social Advocacy BA, both from Emerson College. “We also have several guest editors per issue,” Day adds, “Usually up to ten.”
Day himself brings some credentials as author of Left-Handed Wolf (LSU Press), and Model of a City in Civil War (Sarabande Books), and the recipient of a Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship for Badger, Apocrypha, and of a PEN America Literary Award.
For writers looking to submit works, Day explains that “all general submissions are read by the editors. We do not have screeners. There is also work published from creators solicited by our guest editors. We do not provide feedback, and our response time is usually a month.”
A well-run publication with experienced writers and editors on the team, Day comments that “it’s been super rewarding starting and publishing Action, Spectacle. Thankfully we have yet to run into any major challenges in keeping the publication going, other than some glitches with our old website.”
For readers, Action, Spetacle has much to offer. Day says, “The magazine exists at the intersection of the socio-political, the cultural, and the arts. We put a spectrum of voices online, seeking both debut and established writers and thinkers creating intriguing and original work, whether relatively conventional or extremely experimental, and we don’t shy away from the idea of a text that might be ‘difficult.’ We employ the broadest possible aesthetic when considering submissions, including translations and hybrid and collaborative work.”
Some recent contributors include Anne Carson, Douglas Kearney, Ron Padgett, Shelley Wong, Rodrigo Toscano, Denise Duhamel, Lidija Dimkovska, and Anna Badkhen.
The future for Action, Spectacle includes “building readership and continuing to publish fresh and exciting work,” as well as an annual chapbook contest judged by Dara Wier. A good look forward for both readers and writers.
In addition to featuring winners of the 2022 Perkoff Prize, The Missouri Review Winter 2022 is themed “The Body” and includes new fiction from Dina Guidubaldi, Shala Erlich, Malerie Willens, Peter Grimes, and Robynne Graffam; new poetry from Bridget O’Bernstein, Anna V. Q. Ross, and Jeff Whitney; and new essays from Faith Shearin, Adam Boggon, and Joshua Doležal. Also included are features on dressing Greta Garbo and the influence of anime on contemporary art, and an omnibus review of contemporary memoirs about coming to terms with illness and affliction.
Issue 34.2 of The Gettysburg Review features paintings by Tidawhitney Lek, fiction by Kate Jayroe, Marina Petrova, Rachel Klein, and Caitlin Boston Ingham; essays by James Whorton Jr., Samuel Ligon, Nicole Graev Lipson, and Catherine Niu; poetry by Will Brewbaker, Pablo Piñero Stillmann, James Davis, Sara Borjas, Jill McDonough, Tina Barr, Susan Rich, Jill Osier, Margaret Gibson, Colin Cheney, Philip Schultz, J. P. Grasser, Jim Daniels, Mihaela Moscaliuc, Brianna Noll, Fleda Brown, Joy Manesiotis, Mary Leauna Christensen, Anushka Shah, Laura Read, and Albert Goldbarth.
Under the Madness Magazine began in the summer of 2021, the pandemic looming large, among so much other chaos, but imagine being a teenager during this time, trying to make sense of it all. Created by and for young writers 13-19 years old under the guidance of Alexandria Peary, New Hampshire Poet Laureate, Under the Madness Magazine got its name from the staff who felt it spoke to the confusing whirlwind teenagers face—political polarization, global warming, and inequity. “The whole phrase that came to mind,” Peary says, “was ‘under the madness lies literature,’ but it was too long for a magazine name. It was refined to retain the spirit of the name: how writing and creative expression help teens stay grounded when the adult-made sky seems to be spinning.”
NewPages receives many wonderful literary magazine and alternative magazine titles each month to share with our readers. You can read more about some of these titles by clicking on the “New Mag Issues” under NewPages Blog or Mags. Find out more about many of these titles with our Guide to Literary Magazines and our Big List of Literary Magazines and Big List of Alternative Magazines. If you are a publication looking to be listed here or featured on our blog and social media, please contact us. You can also subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay the most up-to-date on all things literary!
Alaska Quarterly Review, Winter/Spring 2023 All My Relations, Volume 3 Barrow Street, Winter 2022-23 Big Muddy, 22/23 Black Warrior Review, Fall/Winter 2022 Carve, Winter 2023 Cream City Review, Fall/Winter 2022 Cutleaf, 3.3 Dreamers Magazine, Issue 13
After a brief hiatus, the Terrain.org podcast curated by Miranda Perrone, Soundscapes, is back. Their seventh new episode is “Wildness: Life, or Death?” This 36-minute podcast features Janisse Ray reading her essay “I Have Seen the Warrior: Crossing the Okefenokee,” in which she shares her three-day experience “crossing the largest swamp east of the Mississippi.” This is enhanced by a conversation between Janisse and Miranda. The episode opens with a poem by Robert Morgan, “Portal,” and ends with a poem by Kim Parko, “Our Woman.” Terrain.org also offers a full transcript of the program with time cues.
“The Russophone Literature of Resistance” headlines the March 2023 issue of World Literature Today. The eight writers included in the cover feature all oppose the Russian Federation’s current regime, whether from inside the country or beyond its borders. Additional writers highlighted inside include Alexandra Lytton Regalado (El Salvador), Siphiwe Ndlovu (Zimbabwe), and Bridget Pitt (South Africa), along with essays on “The New Cadre of Latin American Women Writers,” a postcard tour of unique bookstores along the US–Mexico border, and three dispatches from literary Istanbul. Be sure to check out the latest must-read titles in WLT’s book review section, three recommended Indigenous horror novels, and much more!
Since its inception in 1963, South Dakota Review has maintained a tradition of supporting work by contemporary writers writing from or about the American West. The newest issue, South Dakota Review 57.2, continues this tradition, featuring poetry by Mercedes Lawry, Jane Zwart, Jessica Goodfellow, Josh Mahler, Elizabeth Tracey, Emma Aylor, Jey Ley, Carol Everett Adams, Brooke Harries, Michelle Otero, Dianna Vega, Nathan Whiting, E.B. Schnepp, and Jonathan Louis Duckworth; short stories by Elizabeth Tracey, Emily García, Vinh Hoang, and Jarrett Kaufman; as well as essays by Sihle Ntuli, Dannielle Shorr, and Joe Sacksteder.
The Cloudscent Journal is a new online publication of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and art from contributors ages 12-25. With the mission “to provide the space of artistic freedom and safety for youth creatives,” The Cloudscent Journal is aptly named after “the seemingly limitless yet youthful nature of the sky,” which Founder and Editor-in-Chief Vivan Huang says has inspired their desire “to provide artistic freedom and expression of young artists in hopes to publish work that is imaginative, explorative, and transcendent of all boundaries.”
The February 2023 issue of Poetry includes the special feature I Hope You LIke Being Here With Me: The Works of William J. Harris with an introduction by Howard Rambsy II and a collection of twenty poems by Harris, an interview, and additional commentaries by Lauri Scheyer and Cornelius Eady. The issue also includes new works from over a dozen contemporary poets. Poetry can be read in full online for free or delivered to your doorstep by subscription.
A new year is upon us. But, as usual, what has really changed? Fear not, however – if something truly different is what you’re looking for, perhaps The Opiate, Vol. 32 can assist. For it contains audacious fiction from Camille Boulay, Ben Rosenstock, Megan Bowyer, and Ryder LeVieux, as well as piercing poetry from Susie Gharib, Steve Denehan, Rochelle Jewel Shapiro, E Kidd, Cathy Allman, Colleen Surprise Jones, Mike Wilson, Barbara Tramonte, Chiara Maxia, Mark Simpson, Ron Kolm, and Lorelei Bacht. Maybe the new year is off to a promising start after all… So what are you waiting for? Get dosed!
Salamander 55 features their 2022 Fiction Contest Winners – Hassaan Mirza and Mark Doyle – as well as fiction by Josie Tolin and Evelyn Maguire, nonfiction by Brad Wetherell, and reviews of work by Artress Bethany White, Chloe Caldwell, Derrick Austin, C.T. Salazar, and Cyrus Cassells. With an art portfolio and cover work by Ruth Marie, this new issue also features the work of over fifty poets, including Keetje Kuipers, Ana María Caballero, Chim Sher Ting, Despy Boutris, William Snyder, Brandel France de Bravo, Xochiquetzal Candelaria, Iris Jamahl Dunkle, S.D. Horvath, Daniel Meltz, Ugochukwu Damian Okpara, Jennifer Saunders, and many more.
Chinchillas are amazing little creatures that have grown in popularity as household pets over the years. Touted as quiet, clean, and attractive, even I have been tempted to bring one into the family. But the added responsibility of supporting another life form stops me short, which is why I was all on board for the new young writer’s publication, Chinchilla Lit. Publishing poetry, prose, plays/scripts, and visual art by contributors ages 11-25, the site greets visitors with cuddly chinchilla portraits and an equally soothing graphic layout and design.
“The chinchilla perfectly represents the welcoming, cozy atmosphere we hope to foster in this community,” the Chinchilla Lit Editorial Team says. “When writers submit to Chinchilla Lit, they know they can trust us with their work. As young writers ourselves, we understand how intimidating the publication world can seem, especially for those who are just entering it. In creating our magazine, we aimed to become a friendly, accessible face that encouraged writers instead of scaring them.”
Throughout the Winter/Spring 2023 issue of Kaleidoscope: Exploring the Experience of Disability through Literature and the Fine Arts, unexpected truths are discovered through all genres. Sometimes the truth can be hard to swallow and in other cases, revelations are surprisingly sweet. The featured essay, “Awakening” by Jane Gabriel, recounts the events of a beautiful, sunny, summer day when she picks up her teenager’s phone only to discover her daughter is plotting a murder and has enlisted the help of someone online. Without warning, a fast-moving, dark storm erupts within the home, and what transpires is sure to leave readers stunned. Kaleidoscope hopes readers will enjoy the well-crafted stories, moving poetry, poignant essays, animal portraiture by Katherine Klimitas, much-needed humor, and a review of the book Being Heumann. Other contributors include Matt Flick, Fay L. Loomis, Stephanie Harper, Alpheus Williams, Sharon Hart Addy, Evelyn Arvey, Carol Zapata-Whelan, Judy Lunsford, Vesper North, Courtney B. Cook, Eric Witchey, Judith Krum, Daylyn Carrigan, Jess Pulver, Kristen Reid, Chelsea Malia Brown, Robin Knight, Hudson Plumb, Conny Borgelioen, Dawn Rachel Carrington, Hannah Sward, Kelley A Pasmanick, and Fionn Pulsifer.
Jelly Bucket, the print annual of Bluegrass Writer Studio, the low-res MFA program at Eastern Kentucky University publishes creative nonfiction, fiction, poetry, art, and 10-minute plays. They are committed to publishing writers from, and writing about, marginalized and under-represented communities. This special section comprises roughly 50% of the issue and is guest-edited by an established writer who is connected in some way to the community being featured. The Summer 2023 issue’s special section is Indigenous Voices and their upcoming issue will feature Nonbinary/Trans Voices. Work from Jelly Bucket has been shortlisted in the Best American anthology series, and they nominate for The Pushcart Prize and PEN America Literary Awards. First-time and emerging authors have appeared alongside Eileen Casey, Ted Kooser, Stuart Dybek, Rigoberto Gonzalez, Sonja Livingston, Frank X. Walker, and Kevin Wilson.
In Dreamers Magazine Issue 13, readers will find the feature story, Rosalind Forster’s nonfiction, “Counselling in the Time of Covid: Healing from the Veranda”; the winning story of the 2023 Pen Parentis Fellowship, “After the Storm”; and the winners of the 2022 Dreamers Flash Fiction Contest: “There is Something in the Mirror,” “Your Every Breath,” and “The Last Shift.” Readers can purchase both the digital and print versions, as well as back issues on the publication’s website. Dreamers is “a heartfelt literary organization and writers retreat” near Sauble Beach, Ontario, Canada. Their magazine is published tri-annually and sent to hundreds of subscribers across North America and Europe.
River Heron Review‘s double release, Issue 6.1 and River Heron Editors’ Prize, are now live and feature their twice-yearly issue with sixteen talented poets, whose work the editors hope amaze readers, and the winner and three finalists of their recent contest. Included in issue 6.1 are Avery Gregurich, Alison Hurwitz, Lake Angela, Gary Thomas, Ann Michael, Steve Banchko, Frances Klein, Jeremy Griffin, Jane Edna Mohler, Kerstin Schulz, Lindsay Rockwell, Sharon Venezio, Gwen Hart, Violets Garcia-Mendoza, Christine Morro, and Abby Murray. River Heron is also excited to release their recent contest issue and publish the award-winning work of winner Nnadi Samuel and finalists Rebecca Brock, Christine Dengenaars, and Jen Stewart.
The February 2023 issue of The Lake poetry journal is now online and features works by Michele Bombardier, William Ogden Haynes, Mary Beth Hines, Julie Allyn Johnson, Haro Lee, Juan Pablo Mobili, J. R. Solonche, Sarah White, Rodney Wood. The One Poem Review – which helps authors with new publications reach a wider audience of readers by publishing one of their poems on The Lake – features work from Clare Shaw’s Towards a General Theory of Love and Stephen Massimilla’s Frank Dark. The Lake is free and accessible to read online.
Walloon Writers Review is an annual collection of short stories, poetry, and other forms of creative writing, along with nature photography inspired by the natural beauty and uniqueness of northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula. Michigan authors and photographers and those who live here seasonally, have ties to the region, or have visited celebrate the incredible experience of being here.
A Call For Submissions is posted annually, and in 2023, the Eighth Edition of the magazine will be released. Walloon Writers Review print journal is designed to share on the reading table at the cottage, on the bookshelf of the cabin, on hand at camp, and can be found on the Michigan shelves of independent bookstores throughout the state. Writers and photographers are welcome to submit their best “up north” materials; editors welcome contributors “where they are” in their craft. The publication attracts both nationally recognized contributors alongside those just getting underway. The passion for the region is clear in each accepted selection.
Publishing open access online in cycles of eight to ten weeks with short breaks between, the newly established Intrepidus Ink lives up to its name. From the Latin, intrepidus characterizes resolute fearlessness, fortitude, and endurance. Editor-in-Chief Rhonda Schlumpberger wanted to showcase “alarmingly individual characters through a distinct lens of intrepid culture, not subordinate to other themes, with words that are gutsy and characters who overcome in big and small ways. Our stories tell our tale.” To that end, the publication focuses on flash fiction 300–1,000 words and short stories of 1,500–2,500 words.
Schlumpberger’s background is its own intrepidus tale, as she shares, “I’m a Midwest farmer’s daughter who liked climbing silos to watch the sunset and later joined the Air Force and watched setting suns around the world. I completed my career in the military and worked in molecular diagnostics sales and sales leadership for eight years before abandoning my traveling ways to pursue writing.” She earned an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University (emphasis: speculative fiction, romance) and an MA in English and Creative Writing from Southern New Hampshire University, where she also studied professional editing. She was an Editor at Orion’s Belt Magazine, a Priority Editor at Flash Fiction Magazine, and an intern at Entangled Publishing. She currently reads for Space and Time Magazine.
Steam Ticket: A Third Coast Review Spring 2022 is the newest issue of the annual, nationally-distributed journal from the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse. Founded by the English Department in 1996, a dedicated staff of student editors and readers publish the best poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction they can get their hands on. Volume 25 features a craft talk from Joy Harjo, as well as excerpts from craft talks given by numerous writers who have visited U. Wisconsin LaCrosse over the years, such as Brian Turner, Jaki Shelton Green, John McNally, Jesse Lee Kercheval, Robert Lopez, Sam Ligon, and Max Garland. This issue also features new work by authors from six countries, including work from Ukrainian poet Dmitry Bilzniuk, and 22 U.S. States. Award-winning authors and first-time writers are published side by side.
The Kenyon Review’s Winter 2023 issue marks their return to a quarterly publication schedule and the debut of their new magazine design [Gorgeous!], with cover and logo by Janet Hansen and interior design by Sebit Min. It includes a folio of fiction guest edited by Laura van den Berg and Paul Yoon, who selected stories by Tom Comitta, Anna Hartford, Amina Kayani, hurmat kazmi, Danny Lang-Perez, and Sarp Sozdinler. Readers will also find nonfiction by Robert Finch and Diane Mehta; poetry by Megan Fernandes, William Logan, and Maria Zoccola; plus the winner of the 2022 Nonfiction Contest judged by Maggie Nelson, and so much more. The vibrant cover art is a detail of Justify by Krista Franklin, and inside the issue is a ten-page, full-color portfolio of art by Jordan Seaberry.
Posit: A Journal of Literature and Art issue 32 offers readers much to cozy into as the winter months settle in around us: new poetry and prose by Michael Brosnan, C Culbertson, Elisabeth Adwin Edwards, Sean Ennis, Peter Gurnis, Dennis Hinrichsen, Andrew Levy, Rahana K. Ismail, Jean Kane, and Julie Marie Wade; text + image by Francesco Levato and Laura Moriarty; and painting, collage, and ceramic sculpture by Ron Baron, Sue Havens, and Jill Moser.
The Winter 2023 issue of Months To Years marks its five-year publishing anniversary! The editors express, “We are so grateful to you and the community that has grown around Months To Years. When we began, we sought to create both a literary community and a resource for those facing grief. We hope you have found some comfort in what we’ve created.”
This issue brings readers the work of twenty-six creators, consisting of ten pieces of nonfiction, twelve poems, and four visual works. All explore both the universality and unique-to-each-person aspects of death, grief, and loss. Months To Years can be accessed in a variety of digital versions—which include an online flip book, a downloadable PDF, and a web-based experience of each creative work—all available for free. Glossy magazine hard copies can be purchased on the publication’s website via third-party vendor Blurb. A small portion of each hard copy sale helps support the magazine’s work as a nonprofit.
As new publications cross our screens daily here at NewPages, we are always on the lookout for what makes this newest venture noteworthy. Turns out, New Note Poetry leaps the bar for being a publication readers and writers will want to explore. Publishing seasonal quarterly issues online, New Note Poetry is free for readers as well as writers.
Founding Editor Nathan Nicolau shares the dual inspiration behind the publication and the name. “’New Note’ is a riff on Blue Note Records, the popular jazz record label that was my biggest inspiration, and I wanted to make a publication that added a ‘new note’ to poetry, reflecting the experimental, avant-garde nature of the magazine.”
NewPages receives many wonderful literary magazine and alternative magazine titles each month to share with our readers. You can read more about some of these titles by clicking on the “New Mag Issues” under NewPages Blog or Mags. Find out more about many of these titles with our Guide to Literary Magazines and our Big List of Literary Magazines and Big List of Alternative Magazines. If you are a publication looking to be listed here or featured on our blog and social media, please contact us. You can also subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay the most up to date on all things literary!
Able Muse, Winter 2022/2923 American Poetry Review, January/February 2023 Anomaly, 35 Arkansas Review, August 2022 Blue Collar Review, Fall 2022 Brevity, January 2023 Catamaran, Winter 2022 Chestnut Review, Winter 2023 Cleaver, 40 Concho River Review, Fall/Winter 2022 december, Fall/Winter 2022 Five Points, v21 n3 Camas, Winter 2022 Cholla Needles, 74 Communities, Winter 2022 Corvus Review, 19 Driftwood 2023 Anthology
Palooka is an international literary magazine of unique fiction, poetry, nonfiction, artwork, photography, and graphic narratives. They’ve featured writers, artists, and photographers from United States, Canada, Australia, India, United Kingdom, Japan, Spain, Pakistan, China, France, Ireland, South Korea, Israel, Finland, Croatia, Brazil, Italy, and Austria. This newest issue features fiction by Jack Harrell, Shome Dasgupta, Michael Loyd Gray; poetry by Rachel R. Baum, Joel Peckham, Pamela Manasco, Sage Ravenwood; a graphic essay by Naomi Rhema Edwards; artwork by Avery Bursey, and cover art by Tomislav Silipetar. Palooka is available for purchase in print or digital format. Visit their website for more information.
Taking the reins of their previous bi-annual literary magazine, Driftwood 2023 Anthology is the first of a new annual, double-the-punch publication! This inaugural release brings readers over 150 pages of fiction, over 50 pages of poetry, and around 80 pages of comics. The anthology is also filled with dozens of thoughtful, craft-focused interviews that take a dive deep into these well-curated pieces of writing and art. The 2023 anthology features the work of Michael Hugh Stewart, Johanna Povirk-Znoy, Vincent Panella, Izzy Buck, Rebecca Starks, Victor McConnell, Jenna Abrams, Marcie Roman, Mason Boyles, Bazeed, Luke Burton, Kimberly Sailor, Margaret Yapp, Bader Al Awadhi, Shaoni White, Anthony Immergluck, Rebert Laidler, Derek Annis, Caroline Harper New, Sarah Levine, Robin Walter, Ana Prundaru, Qiyue Zhang, Kimball Anderson, Yaronn Regev, Dave Youkovich, Stefanie Jordan, Ben Montague, and Olivia Sullivan. Due out at the beginning of March, readers can hop up and pre-order their copy today!
In issue 4.1 of Club Plum online literary journal, an array of characters and narrators try to find their way in rooms and spaces–orange rooms and roughed-up houses, bathroom stalls and bath drains, bedroom mirrors and dating sites and freezers. The places are sometimes ominous or unsure, but they are familiar. And we need that: the familiar and the familiar in the uncanny because then we will understand that we are not alone. Contributions to this issue include flash fiction by Lynn Bey and Sophie Panzer; flash nonfiction by Kayla Pica Williams; prose poetry by Ken Anderson, Kathleen Hellen, D.M. Richardson; and art by Richard Baldasty, Joseph A. Miller, and Doren Robbins.
Unexpected truths are discovered throughout this issue, in all genres. Sometimes the truth can be hard to swallow and in other cases, revelations are surprisingly sweet. Kaleidoscope magazine publishes literature and artwork that creatively explore the experience of disability. Submit your best work to us today! Visit our website and view our flyer for more information.
Sky Island Journal’s stunning 23rd issue features poetry, flash fiction, and creative nonfiction from contributors around the globe. Accomplished, well-established authors are published—side by side—with fresh, emerging voices. Readers are provided with a powerful, focused literary experience that transports them: one that challenges them intellectually and moves them emotionally. Always free to access, and always free from advertising, discover what over 125,000 readers in 145 countries and over 700 contributors already know; the finest new writing can be found where the desert meets the mountains.
This annual Able Muse Review(Print Edition) Winter 2022/2023 issue continues the tradition of selecting masterfully crafted poetry, fiction, essays, art and photography, and book reviews that have become synonymous with the Able Muse online and in print. Readers can enjoy stories and poems from the 2022 Able Muse contest (Able Muse Write Prize) winners and finalists as well as an editorial by Alexander Pepple, art on the theme “Height,” featured poet Mary Jo Salter, fiction by L. M. Brown, Terese Coe, Silvia DiPierdomenico, Thomas Mampalam, R. S. Powers; essays by Evan Fiscella, Michael Hettich, N.S. Thompson; and poetry by John Wall Barger, Daniel Bourne, Brian Brodeur, Blake Campbell, Dan Campion, Mike Chasar, Tadeusz Dziewanowski, Aaron Fischer, Amy Glynn, Timothy Kleiser, Jenna Le, Burt Myers, Jay Rogoff, Natalie Staples, Donald Wheelock, and Gail White.
The newest issue of Boulevard (Summer 2022) includes the winning poems from the 2021 Poetry Contest by Jennifer Conlon, a Boulevard Craft Interview with Joyce Carol Oates, new fiction from Michael Czyzniejewski, Willie Fitzgerald, Kelly Ann Jacobson, Stephanie Mullings, Elizabeth Stix, and Julian Zabalbeascoa, new poetry from Linette Marie Allen, Diedrick Brackens, Shutta Crum, Nicelle Davis, Jessica Dionne, Benjamin S. Grossberg, Bill Hollands, Betsy Johnson, Alicia Byrne Keane, Jayson Keery, James Lineberger, Alicia Ostriker, Alpay Ulku, Tianru Wang, and Joan Wickersham, and essays by Marianne Abel-Lipschutz, Adrian Acu, Heather Donovan, Barbara Haas, Brandi Nicole Martin, K. B. Merritt, and Marcus Spiegel. Plus, a captivating digital collage by Julia Terbrock on the cover.
The Fall 2022 issue of Consequence continues its mission of addressing the human consequences and realities of war and geopolitical violence using literature and visual art to offer emotional as well as intellectual access to the experiences of victims, combatants, and witnesses of these conflicts. This newest issue features poetry by Tara Ballard, Milton Bates, Denise Bergman, Martine von Bijlert, Robert Bohm, Carl Boon, Laura Da’, Ejiro Edward, Ukata Edwardson, Alan Elyshevitz, Chinua Ezenwa-Ohaeto, Kennedy Amenya Gisege, D.A. Gray, Brian Patrick Heston, Preston H. Hood III, Charles Kesler, Molly Wadzeck Kraus, Jennifer LeBlanc, Connor McDonald, Eugene O’Hare, Aman Rahman, Ron Riekki, Thom Schramm, Leah Schwartz, Svetlana Sterlin, Ojo Taiye, and Jarred Thompson; fiction by Matt Burgess, Michael Conn, and Gillon Crichton; nonfiction by Kelly C. Flanagan, Bashir Sakhawarz, Victoria Elizabeth Ruwi, Tim Hildebrandt, D.C. Lambert, and Kim Clarke; translations by Salma Harland, Ali Kinsella, Dzvinia Orlowsky, Arno Bohlmeijer, and Anne Fischer; and art by Lindsey Harald-Wong.
Publishing online monthly, The Lake January 2023 issue features works by Zoe Burkett, Cara Losier Chanoine, Julian Dobson, George Franklin, D. R. James, Maren O. Mitchell, Ronald Moran, Toti O’Brien, Jennie E. Owen, and Marjory Woodfield. The Lake also posts up single poems from recent collections for its “One Poem Review” section, this month spotlighting Will Alexander’s Divine Blue Light. The current issue as well as the full archive of The Lake is available to read in a free and open access online. Readers can also find Editor John Murphy’s newly released collection of poems, Home, for purchase on the site.
Quartetis an online poetry journal featuring work by women fifty and over and is enjoyed by readers around the globe – twenty countries, including Ukraine and Malta. Originally publishing four issues a year, the editors will be cutting back to three. All is well, they assure readers, but the editors are hoping to regain some writing time for themselves and use the opportunity to increase the number of poems per issue for the triannual publication. “This makes us very happy,” says Editor Linda Blaskey, “because there was so much good work we were turning away each submission period.”
The name Quartet was not based on the number of issues, but rather for the four founding members, a close group of friends. The editors select poems together and each also have their own specific jobs to do behind the scenes but all communication is signed “The Editors” because “we truly feel we are working as a collective. We stand shoulder to shoulder in our pride of what we’ve accomplished with Quartet.”
Readers to the newest issue of Quartet can find works by Anne Barney, Maria Berardi, Anne Wessel Dwyer, Christine Jones, Jayne Marek, Kate Maxwell, Gloria Monaghan, Miriam O’Neal, Michele Parker Randall, Claudia M. Reder, Caroline Reid, Maggie Rosen, Deborah Straw, Dawn Terpstra, Marjorie Thomsen, and Susan Zimmerman with cover art by Franetta McMillian.
There is also and “Editor’s Choice” section with poems that are automatically entered in Quartert‘s single-poem contest with the winner announced Winter 2024.
Graphic novels, comics, comic arts, graphic narrative, visual literature – there are many old and new forms of art and writing continually merging and morphing among communities of creatives, and likewise, more publications opening their submissions to such works or based in them entirely. In addition to the content, there are growing conversations around the forms. Enter SOLRAD: The Online Literary Magazine for Comics publishing daily Monday through Friday.
SOLRAD is a nonprofit online literary magazine dedicated to the comics arts. Run completely by a volunteer staff, SOLRAD publishes original content ranging from comics criticism, original comics, essays, interviews, and the promotion of small-press events and releases. The site is a platform for new, underrepresented, and otherwise marginalized creative voices, in addition to commissioning work from well-established cartoonists, critics, journalists, and authors.
SOLRAD’s name comes from the noun meaning a wavy line in illustration (especially comics) that represents light and/or warmth emanating from the sun or other light sources, and it fits perfectly with the mission of the publication. As Editor in Chief Daniel Elkin (he/him) shares the motivation for starting SOLRAD, “We believe that criticism of the comics arts is equally essential for the betterment of the form, education of the public, and to give the comics arts a place for reflection, discernment, and connection with the larger world. As more and more people are introduced to comics as an art form, the stronger our community becomes.”
“Even more than just this, though,” Elkin adds, “we wanted to provide a legitimate, transparent, and honorable platform that allows for the diversity of creators and critical voices that makes the comics community so rich. While there are certainly places within the comics ecosystem that provide safe spaces, we wanted to take it to the next level and raise awareness of the comics arts outside its own bubble of support and into the larger public sphere to the benefit of everyone involved.”
Elkin brings a wealth of experience with him, having spent over a decade in comics criticism with bylines at Comics Bulletin, The Comics Journal, Comicon.com, and more. Before SOLRAD, he ran the comics website Your Chicken Enemy. Using this expertise, Elkins reads each pitch and, if it seems a good fit for SOLRAD, asks the writer to send a complete draft. From there, Elkin works with the writer, suggesting edits and/or additions. Response time is usually a week to two weeks.
Elkin has found the work with SOLRAD rewarding: “Being embraced from the start by the comics community and moving into the greater arts world, becoming a champion for comics as a medium that deserves as much attention and discernment as any other artform.” And this likewise creates a rewarding experience for readers as well. “At SOLRAD, readers can find a vital place for quality criticism that engages with a given work fully and offers insight into the interpretive process a reader undertakes. Divining an artist’s intention is one thing, but whether or not it connects in the way they’re hoping it will, analyzing where it succeeds and/or where it falls short, is vital stuff for creator and consumer alike. SOLRAD has developed a reputation as an outlet for artists to count on for fair-minded analysis of their work.”
He encourages writers to take a look at SOLRAD and get a sense of our personality and standards before submitting. Some recent contributors to the site include Hagai Palevsky, Kawai Shen, Kim Jooha, Lane Yates, Rob Kirby, Tom Shapira, Tony Wei Ling, and Rob Clough.
Looking ahead, Elkin explains, “Besides continuing to publish top notch criticism from a diverse set of writers, we hope our grant writing activity will allow us to increase the honorarium we pay our contributors as well as move into new media and educational opportunities.”
The editors welcome readers to the Winter 2023 issue of Superpresent: “In the spirit of all who hunger, we welcome you to the seventh issue and third year of Superpresent magazine, assembled in this third year of a global pandemic and the first year of war in Ukraine. In this issue contributors explore food, drink, feeding, hunger, appetite, and many related and peripheral matters. We received over 400 submissions from 18 states, 17 countries, 80 poets, 53 writers, and 120 artists. In addition to self-styled artists and writers, contributors include a fireman, a doctor, a biologist, a librarian, an urban planner, a bartender, two journalists, a tarot reader, a designer, and a neuroscientist. The work selected ranges from the literal (a feast, actual family recipes, voluptuous images of fruit, vegetables, meat, eggs, and snack packs) to the metaphorical (food as fashion, food as sex, sex as food) to the tangential (critiques of the chemical industry, alternative uses for kitchen tools, precise measurements of the sodium, fat and carbs found in common foods) and includes memory pieces (jello and ball pits, rotting bananas) and humor (a gorilla fights a fly for a frozen treat?) and a little irony (the makings of Molotov cocktails delicately arranged as a still life – or should this be filed under metaphor?).” Decide for yourself by visiting Superpresent‘s website where the publication can be read online, downloaded as a PDF, or is available in print for purchase and subscription.
The Society of Classical Poets Journal publishes a print annual of poetry, translations, and essays selected from those published on the SCP website between February and January as well as artwork for inclusion in the print copy. Throughout the year, readers can find these works on a rolling basis, making each visit to the website a new reading discovery. Recent works include “Calendar Poems,” an essay by Margaret Coats, two different views on New Year’s Resolutions in poems by David Whippman and Evan Mantyk, two New Year’s Eve poems by Susan Jarvis Bryant, poems against birth control by Joshua C. Frank, “Where Ever-present Joy Knows Naught of Time” by Cynthia Erlandson, “Crimes Against My Sanity” and other poems on parenting by Anna J. Arredondo, “Addiction” by Paul Buchheit, “Freedom in Forgiveness,” a villanelle by Dan Tuton, “On Attending a Holiday Ensemble with My Wife” by Jeremiah Johnson, “The Fall of Babylon” by William Harrison, “Wisdom” by Russel Winick, “How Troubling to Know Mrs. Pain” by Norma Pain, and so many more great reads. Visit their website today!
The Winter 2022/23 issue of The Writing Disorder online literary magazine is now available for reading and enjoyment. To close out 2022, there are 22 contributors in this issue offering all new works: fiction by Vicki Addesso, Don Donato, Jenny Falloon, Lyle Hopwood, Doug Jacquier, Ellie May Mandell, Ed Peaco, Andrew Plattner, Judy Stanigar; poetry by Phoebe Cragon, Richard Dinges, Jr., Kristen Hoggatt-Abader, Arezou Mokhtarian, Jim Murdoch, Christina E. Petrides, Brent Short; nonfiction by Margaret King, Yolanda Wysocki, and the art of Natalie Shou. The Writing Disorder is published quarterly online with the mission to “showcase new and emerging writers – particularly those in writing programs — as well as established ones.”
“To the Quick” by Karen McPherson is a brief poem made up of three tercets. It’s a poem of wizened recognitions that can truly only come with age, which the narrator acknowledges in her skin, “Hardening. // Softening. Veined and rugose.” where she wears her weariness for “hoarding my personal past while coveting others’ futures – ” (How does McPherson know my mind so well?) The speaker goes on to forgive and make plans, trim a kitten’s claws and compare those clever little mechanisms to her own nails, exposed and absurd as a result of tearing “away soft crescents with my teeth.” “To the Quick” delivers readers as promised, to that pit inside that yearns for understanding and connection while at the same time being fully grounded in the concrete non-attachment to time, which moves steadily forward. We eventually figure some things out, “forgive the lapses,” and remain mystified all the same. McPherson succinctly finds that sweet spot in “To the Quick.”
Reviewer bio: Denise Hill is the Editor of NewPages.com, which welcomes reviews of books as well as individual poems, stories, and essays. If you are interested in contributing a Guest Post to “What I’m Reading,” please click this link: NewPages.com Reviewer Guidelines.
Issue 22 of the print literary magazine Minerva Rising: Then and Now is a celebration of all the writers who have been published by Minerva Rising over the last ten years. The writers and poets published in this issue wrestle with what it means to be women in the world with all the complexity of life – trauma, domestic violence, aging, societal norms, mindfulness, well-being, reconciling with our past, depression, and grief. These beautiful stories, essays, and poems testify to the wisdom and creativity in every woman. They remind us that as women, we are all connected, and at Minerva Rising, our voices are not only heard but amplified. Visit the publication’s website for ordering information.
Issue 14 of Under a Warm Green Linden online poetry magazine is a double issue on Indigenous Ecopoetics, guest-edited by Beatrice Szymkowiak. Readers can explore thirty-eight poets whose new work expands the possibilities of ecopoetics—illustrating and reimagining relationships between culture, land, history, and nature: Kimberly Blaeser, Abigail Chabitnoy, Laura Da’, Diane Glancy, Joan Naviyuk Kane, Chip Livingston, dg nanouk okpik, Elise Paschen, Vivian Faith Prescott, Jake Skeets, James Thomas Stevens, Margo Tamez, among others. Under a Warm Green Linden offers recordings of many contributors reading their works, including featured poet Margaret Noodin, author of Bawaajimo: A Dialect of Dreams in Anishinaabe Language and Literature and two collections of poetry in Anishinaabemowin and English, Weweni and What the Chickadee Knows; Noodin has also translated over thirty books for children into Ojibwe. Visitors to the publication can enjoy hearing her singing her poem “Binawan / Dew Falls.”
