NewPages Blog :: Magazines

With three issues a year, publishing fiction, Thrice Fiction is up-front and in-your-face, and not just when it comes to what genre it publishes and when. Its content is just as in-your-face with larger-than-life writing, and with full-color art donning almost every page. Continue reading “Thrice Fiction – August 2015”

If there’s one thing I appreciate, it’s a thin journal. Lightweight, no long-term commitment intimidation, something us not-so-fast-readers can truly read in one sitting. Add to that over a dozen names on the table of contents, and there’s no doubt the variety will add some interesting diversity as a return on the short-term time investment. This is an apt descriptor to introduce Fox Cry Review published out of University of Wisconsin – Fox Valley. Continue reading “Fox Cry Review – 2015”

Cactus Heart is one wicked lit mag. With a spiny cactus bursting out of a skeleton ribcage as their logo, don’t go searching these pages for the soft and sentimental. No box of Kleenex needed here. Instead, be ready to steel yourself against hard truths, take a moment’s pause to settle quietly brutal characters into your imagination, and shift world views subtly through the surreal and abruptly through the confessional. Continue reading “Cactus Heart – June 2015”

“Enamored” isn’t a word I have reason to use often, but it’s the only word that properly explains how the Fall 2015 issue of NANO Fiction left me feeling. From the cover, a digital collage by Andrea Trninic, the perfect shade and gory subject matter for October, to the Sehr Flash: Fiction Becomes Music feature, I am completely enamored. Continue reading “NANO Fiction – 2015”

The Malahat Review has published their $1000 Long Poem Contest winners, and boy are they long, and powerful. Gary Geddes’ 18-page persona poem “The Resumption of Play” gives a post-modern kaleidoscope view of a First Nations boy’s brutal kidnapping into one of the residential schools that blights a chapter of Canadian History with shame. With lines such as, “Kill the Indian in the child was Scott’s / ’final solution.’ Remove parents, culture, language, replace them with perverts, / sociopaths,” Geddes pulls no punches. Continue reading “The Malahat Review – Summer 2015”

“Scottie as The Captain covers her head with her dress, flips the table over, jumps in and rows desperately.” You’ve just read stage directions for “Excerpt from Scottie Doesn’t Play,” a one-act play by Da’Shay Portis in the literary magazine Fourteen Hills – proof that this thick volume is packed with diverse experimental, progressive and cross-genre writings and images. Continue reading “Fourteen Hills – 2015”

Pinning down a comprehensive definition of the term creative nonfiction appears to be an imprecise, ongoing pursuit. Creative Nonfiction’s section editor Dinty W. Moore tackles the subject with “A Genre by Any Other Name?” Noting that Creative Nonfiction Editor Lee Gutkind did not invent the term, Moore brings in quotes from essayist Phillip Lopate and author Philip Gerard who pooh-pooh the term, then he picks up more positive opinions of the classification, calling on various other writers, editors, and critics. Continue reading “Creative Nonfiction – Summer 2015”

Now publishing for over 30 years, there is much to behold in Canada’s premier Arc Poetry Magazine: an abundance of poems, plus essays, a conversation, book reviews and dynamic art. Continue reading “Arc Poetry Magazine – 2015”

Blue Collar Review: Journal of Progressive Working Class Literature is a small, targeted magazine filled with voices insisting on being heard. The editorial introduction to this issue states, “Poems in this collection speak of both the pride and the misery of work. They flesh out the real insecurity and resentment of underpaid and tenuous jobs and the seeming hopelessness of unemployment.” Continue reading “Blue Collar Review – Spring 2015”

The American Poetry Review features poetry, of course, and literary essays that are didactic, exhaustive studies on poets and poems, exploring all possible avenues of meaning from every possible angle. And that’s a good thing. Continue reading “The American Poetry Review – Sept 2009”

The Missing Slate, based in Islamabad, Pakistan, is an ambitious gathering of ideas from around the world in the form of poetry, essays, and stories, accented with dazzling artwork. This is the first print anthology from the previously online-only forum. Continue reading “The Missing Slate – 2015”

Beautifully produced, Indiana Review has fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and in this issue, something called “Special Folio: Graphic Memoir.” With seven contributors, the Special Folio has the look of a comic book. Bianca Stone has two watercolors that resemble greeting cards. Continue reading “Indiana Review – Summer 2015”

The theme of this issue of the University of Missouri’s The Missouri Review is “Defy.” Long-time editor Speer Morgan contributes a five-page introduction, which has this sentence: “The best new voices often defy the accepted in the quest for new themes, subjects and possibilities of form.” He then cites Beethoven, Picasso and Jane Austen, all contemporary cultural staples. Likewise, The Missouri Review is mainstream and established. The writers and artists celebrated in this issue—David Mitchell, Michael West and Jacob Riis—are equally so. Continue reading “The Missouri Review – Summer 2015”

In addition to offering readers a hefty volume of contemporary poetry from accomplished writers, the Spring 2015 issue of the Birmingham Poetry Review also includes an interview with featured poet Allison Joseph, a couple of useful poetry-focused essays, and a lengthy review section. Continue reading “Birmingham Poetry Review – Spring 2015”

Jumping into Stoneboat, this issue is kicked off by CL Bledsoe’s poem, “The Squeaky Wheel Has Been Anesthetized.” At the end of the poem the speaker says, “[ . . . ] upsetting. I know we’re all dying at our own pace, / just trying to find a comfortable place to lie down.” The ending of the poem links back to the title’s anesthetization, as well as showcases the poem’s buried rhymes, while working as a good opener for this issue. Continue reading “Stoneboat – 2015”

West Branch is back with another issue and deserves the attention generally reserved for a select few. Editor G.C. Waldrep and his staff consistently serve up some great writing, and their latest installment is no different. Continue reading “West Branch – Spring/Summer 2015”

Ploughshares has returned with their much anticipated annual fiction issue, which features work from the likes of Lydia Davis and Daniel Pena, as well as some new writers coming into their own. In the introduction, Guest Editor Lauren Groff says she is “hungry for voices that speak to me with real emotion; because real emotion is always new.” One can see that influence in the latest installment, which includes a wide-range of narratives where the characters are dealing with unexpected and sometimes strange incidents that showcase little slices of humanity. Continue reading “Ploughshares – Summer 2015”

Time Magazine once labeled The Southern Review as “superior to any other journal in the English language.” The latest edition published on the campus of the Louisiana State University lives up to the high standards that their readers love and have come to expect since the magazine’s inception in 1935. You will not regret reading this cover to cover. Continue reading “The Southern Review – Summer 2015”

The year was 1964 and Leonid Brezhnev had just taken control of the Soviet Union. Nikita Khrushchev had recently been expelled as First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union as well as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, thoroughly ending another era of autocracy in Soviet Russia and ushering in a collective leadership. Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin took the stage to powerhouse Russian politics, and henceforth brought about the Era of Stagnation in the USSR, creating hardship and creative inspiration for citizens of the massive state. Continue reading “Chtenia – Summer 2015”

This issue of Mudfish opens with the winner of the 11^th Mudfish Poetry Prize Chosen by Charles Simic: “Waking Alone on Sunday Morning” by Elisabeth Murawski. Continue reading “Mudfish – 2015”

Delving into the latest issue of Hippocampus Magazine, I was reminded of You’ve Got Mail  and the moment Meg Ryan’s character is told “I remember when your mother gave me Anne of Green Gables. ‘Read it with a box of Kleenex,’ she told me.” So, readers, let me pass on the same warning before checking out the September 2015 issue of Hippocampus: grab some tissues, or at the very least, be prepared to have a lump in your throat for longer than comfortable. Continue reading “Hippocampus – September 2015”

Brick is a biannual magazine based in Toronto, Canada, with many of the contributors living in Toronto or elsewhere in Canada. Undeniably, then, Brick has a Canadian slant. Continue reading “Brick – Summer 2015”

The Chattahoochee Review is published quarterly in paperback by Georgia Perimeter College, located in Decatur, near Atlanta. According to their website, “our roots are in the South,” but the review publishes work from all over the world, in all genres. Continue reading “The Chattahoochee Review – Spring 2015”

6X6 #32 begins with Lyn Hejinian’s “Illogically; Grievous,” a lengthy prose poem that ventures to ask “Where rest the increments of a human being’s life that’s not now soot in a circle?” It’s an apt place to begin the Summer 2015 issue, which reminds readers that we are small. Our lives are short. Our memories are mortal. And while the editors likely didn’t set out with the purpose of making readers feel inconsequential, there is a common (and often comforting) vein of self-awareness running through the issue. Continue reading “6×6 – Summer 2015”

In 2005, Ecotone was created at UNC-Wilmington with the vision of “reimagining place.” Now in its nineteenth edition, the magazine has successfully navigated the literary landscape for a decade and continues to build on that original motive. In honor of the journal’s tenth anniversary, the Editorial team wanted to further explore its obsession with the “literal interpretations of place and explorations of the transition zones that defines us,” and investigate this in their art. The result of this lasting curiosity is a special issue that celebrates this natural human experience, and brings readers closer to the words on the page. Continue reading “Ecotone – Spring 2015”

Despite a couple brief hiatuses throughout its long history to stabilize the journal’s financial situation, The Kenyon Review remains a staple in the literary world and consistently publishes first-rate material. Many prominent writers have been featured over the years, from Flannery O’Connor to Robert Lowell. In this issue, there is fiction from Laura van den Berg, poems from Natalie Eilbert, and an essay by Floyd Collins, among others. The pieces go in many directions, but they tend to share the theme of the characters discovering more about themselves and the surrounding world. Continue reading “The Kenyon Review – July/August 2015”

How do you define chaos? Perhaps as a series of simultaneously occurring events tossing ripples into reality’s pond? Trying to love someone who wants to change every aspect of your existence? Finding purpose in a traveling circus, performing death-defying stunts? Continue reading “Hayden’s Ferry Review – Spring/Summer 2015”

On the outside, Carve appears to be another waiting room read. Typically, literary reviews are thick and novel-esque. Not Carve. It’s thin (only 50 pages) and non-threatening. Cutesy, but attention-grabbing, vector art garnishes its glossy cover, embodying the literal definition of “magazine.” A rarity in form, I grabbed Carve before any other magazine in the pile. Continue reading “Carve Magazine – Spring 2015”

There are voices that are almost always overshadowed despite that their histories are embedded in our nation’s roots. Centered on the glossy cover of Valley Voices is Margaret Bowland’s painting of a young, black girl—her brown skin thinly painted white. Her attire consists of a white dress, blood spattered against a garden of white roses and cotton blooms. Ahead of her, beyond the splashes of red, a turquoise blue land, perhaps a more promising place. With her face turned almost completely towards me, and hopeful, she leads me there into that place to listen to the voices that I so rarely get to hear. Continue reading “Valley Voices – Spring 2015”

This issue of Arcadia starts off with the fiction piece “All the Women, Disappear” by Jonathan Durbin. In this short piece, the narrator describes his or her past relationships with different women. Without bogging down the reader with a multitude of details, the narrator creates vivid images of each character using each woman’s particular quirks, from Molly who “called the office so much my assistant rated her anxiety by the tone of her voice,” to Morgan who “read the front section of New York Times every day, cover to cover, while her parents were splitting up.” The ambiguity of the narrator also adds depth as the reader is unsure of the narrator’s gender, learning less about the main character of the story, than the past girlfriends. Continue reading “Arcadia – Spring 2015”

This issue of Gulf Coast opens with the 2014 winner of the Gulf Coast Prize in Translation. The winning translation is a series of poems by Marcelo Morales, translated from Spanish to English by Kristin Dykstra. The first poem “36” explores the ways in which “presence” is felt within us: “[ . . . ] a river of the unemployed. The way in which terror functions, the constant stippling of fear within you.” Continue reading “Gulf Coast – Summer/Fall 2015”

The Spring/Summer issue of EVENT is a particularly exciting read because it is the “Notes on Writing” issue. Not only does the journal provide a spectrum of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and reviews, but it also provides reflective commentary on the creative writing process that is valuable for all but the most experienced writers. Continue reading “Event – Spring/Summer 2015”

I’m not sure what I was expecting when I began reading Chagrin River Review. Perhaps the multicolored cover featuring a light dangling above a spray-painted wall convinced me I was getting into something a little brighter than what I found in this issue’s fiction. While not the sunniest magazine I could’ve chosen, I was left feeling anything but disappointed. Continue reading “Chagrin River Review – Spring 2015”

If you are looking for consistency in content, do not look to The Gold Man. This is clearly a group of editors who have not settled into deciding that “this one” is only what their journal will publish when it comes to genre style. And readers looking for a variety of what’s new in contemporary writing—all in one neat package—should appreciate that. Continue reading “The Gold Man Review – 2015”

Doesn’t everybody just love a winner? Especially when it comes to reading the winning entries of a writing contest published in a journal’s newest issue. Chariton Review’s Spring 2015 issue starts off with the winner and finalists of their short fiction prize, judged by Christine Sneed. And, let’s be honest: the reason we love these as readers (and maybe writers ourselves) is because we want to see if we agree with the judge! Continue reading “Chariton Review – Spring 2015”

The current issue of World Literature Today is a double issue that assures us a broader variety than usual. The expected material is itself several evenings of very enjoyable reading, but the content of this issue does literally have something for everyone. And there’s far more than a short review can hope to do justice, even without examples and quotes. Continue reading “World Literature Today – May-August 2015”

The Georgia Review is a venerable fixture on the American literary scene, and a magazine entrenched in the academic world. Founded in 1947 at the University of Georgia in Athens, Editor Stephen Corey is equally venerable, having joined the magazine in 1983. According to their website, “The Georgia Review seeks a broad audience of intellectually open and curious readers—and strives to give those readers rich content that invites and sustains repeated attention and consideration.” Continue reading “The Georgia Review – Spring 2015”

Smaller journals are vulnerable to becoming just another magazine in the ever-expanding literary world. It is up to the individual journals themselves to find a way to separate their art from the countless others in circulation. Border Crossing, now four issues old (founded in 2011), appears to embrace this challenge and continues to deliver high-quality work while experimenting with unique features such as their “Michigan and Ontario” section. Continue reading “Border Crossing – Fall 2014”

A Public Space fits neatly into my hands with its fine matte finish and folded flaps for bookmarks (in case there are no café receipts handy). The shade of magenta coordinates warmly with Lee Satkowski’s photograph—a writer in his studio, mosquito net surrounding his workspace, 50s checkered tile below his feet—providing a vibe that one would find in a coffee shop in Williamsburg. Its cream-colored pages are easy on the eyes, making it an ideal read under the sun or florescent lighting. Although designed with an aesthetic I am partial to, A Public Space provides content that fits neatly into your palms, but untidily in memory. Continue reading “A Public Space – Winter 2015”

Weirdness attracts weirdness, unless of course, you are the kind of reader that is repulsed by the idea of dinosaur pornography written by an elementary-aged girl. (More on Benjamin Drevlow’s story later.) I am not that kind of reader, and neither are the editors of Profane. This journal aims to unsettle minds and bring to the page tales that are, “sacred, profound, heartfelt, raw, quirky, and, at times, a little weird.” Aside from its peculiar content, Profane also includes a raw soundtrack of the authors reading their work on its website. Not all writers are professional recording artists which makes listening to the text all that more interesting as the “authors’ very lives have bled into these tracks.” Continue reading “Profane – Winter 2014”

The Iowa Review encompasses texts of the America we assume we know—strong and prideful. Yet, I read about an America whose citizens felt a series of words not synonymous with “strong” or “prideful,” but with “confused” and “defeated.” These American writers (or are they? as some questioned) trudged through turmoil on both native and foreign soil, both within themselves and with the world to compose these words that form a nation of misidentification. Continue reading “The Iowa Review – Spring 2015”

In autocratic regimes, it is not uncommon for freedoms of speech and expression to be suppressed. Social media, newspapers, the arts, and other forms of creative expression threaten the authority of governments which work by subduing the voices of many in order to amplify the voice of one. But as recent history has shown—from the Twitter Revolution and Arab Spring in the Middle East to the Euromaidan Revolution in Ukraine—the people’s voices cannot be silenced, their art cannot be forgotten, and their words cannot be erased. Artists and writers, the forces of social change, still manage to exist in places that would rather they didn’t. Continue reading “Atlanta Review – Spring/Summer 2015”

When I first received this issue of Ninth Letter, I was curious to why it came with a box cover. Upon removing it from its sheath, I found that it came with three card inserts, each one a prose piece dedicated either to the waning Dewey decimal system, an immature book defacer, or a “Library of Water.” After reading the prose inserts, I was excited to read further. Once I opened the issue I was greeted by a myriad of art pieces of different sizes, styles, meanings; a smorgasbord of colors and patterns that would take their own review to cover in any detail, which, as a previous art student, I was tempted to write. Continue reading “Ninth Letter – Spring/Summer 2015”

When I first picked up this issue of Redivider, I found myself engrossed in the cover art by Patricia Mera. I spent what felt like hours tracing the lines and curves of a red tendril, trying to imagine if it was an arm or an artery, or if the stacked red pyramids resembled anything in particular. In an interview with the artist, printed at the back of the issue, Mera said that she titled the piece “Natural Thoughts” because “of how natural the shapes and order of images came to me.” I felt the title suited the piece perfectly, as my thoughts were repeatedly drawn to nature. Continue reading “Redivider – 2015”

The triannual, online Moss is “dedicated to bringing Northwest literature to new audiences and exposing the emerging voices of the region to discerning readers, critics, and publishers.” What better way to do this than by opening the Spring 2015 issue with an interview with Rebecca Brown, a Seattle-based writer? Continue reading “Moss – Summer 2015”

The Cossack Review is a publication that demands readers enter with a mind truly open to the unexpected and nonconformist. “Transit” is the theme of this issue, and Editor Christine Gosnay says they have selected works from writers “who create strange, overgrown worlds in clean and controlled ways, making transit through those worlds a rich and realized journey.” Well, okay, let’s see then. Continue reading “The Cossack Review – Spring 2015”

Grist is an annual magazine published in paperback by the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. Subtitled “the journal for writers,” the masthead says that Grist is “devoted to contemporary literary art and essays that present and represent the writer’s occupation.” The operation is run by students, so the accent is on “contemporary.” Continue reading “Grist – 2015”