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!
Managed and edited by MFA student volunteers from the Oregon State University’s School of Writing, Literature, and Film in Corvallis, the Summer 2023 issue of 45th Parallel features the compelling collage work of belle dorcas.
Birds are a favorite subject, especially when captured so candidly in their natural environment, as on this latest issue of Louisiana Literature. Photo credit: Norman German.
Zeniada online magazine publishes “poetry that TALKS HARD and art that CURLS the floorboards like smoke billowing from the mouth of a small god,” which includes this cover art Feast of Eden by Cheo Kojima.
The Shore Issue 18 brings the heat of distance and language and parenthood into haunting haze and burning light of the new season. It features scintillating poetry by Haley Winans, Sara Femenella, Dorsey Craft, Lisa Lewis, William Littlejohn-Oram, Laura Apol, Matthew Gustafson, Tracey Knapp, Sandra Fees, Roman Bobek, Jordan Walker, Emily A Benton, Jeff Newberry, Christopher McCormick, Katie Mora, Ashish Kumar Singh, Allison Thung, Fathia Quadri Eniola, Saba Husain, Matthew McDonald, Austin Segrest, Matthew Murrey, Amy DeBellis, Helena Mesa, Inkyoo Lee, Phoebe Gilmore, Alexander Duringer, Dan Schall, Jamie Tews, Peggy Hammond, Andrew Vogel, Laurel Benjamin, Annette Sisson, Phil Goldstein, Lisa Low, Barbara Daniels, Adam D Weeks, David Eileen Winn and Sarah B Cahalan. It also features art that interrogates ideas of space and distance by Andrew Spitzer.
Just in time for the heat (and smoke?) of summer reading, the July 2023 issue of The Lake online poetry journal is ready for reading. Contributors include Catherine Arra, Ace Boggess, L. J. Carber, Eva Eliav, George Franklyn, Ann Malaspina, Liz McPherson, Debarshi Mitra, Stephen Page, Michael Salcman, Claire Scott, Richard Slottow. Reviews of David Giannini’s Already Long Ago and Matt Mauch’s A Northern Spring. One Poem Reviews, a feature that offers readers a one-poem sample from a new collection, spotlights Pauline Rowe/A. J. Wilkinson. In addition, J. R. Solonche reviews David Giannini’s, Already Long Ago, and Charles Rammelkamp reviews Matt Mauch’s A Northern Spring. All free online!
Radar Poetry is an electronic journal of poetry and artwork from established and emerging writers from around the globe. Radar Poetry is interested in the interplay between poetry and visual media with each issue pairing works of poetry and art selected by the editors. The newest issue feature poetry by Jacqueline Berger, Alecia Beymer, Luke Eldredge, Josh Exoo, Stephen Lackaye, Lisa Lewis, Carlos A. Pittella, Phoebe Reeves, Liz Robbins, Lindsay Rockwell, Molly Tenenbaum, and Theodora Ziolkowski, and artwork by David Boyle, Kiley Brockway, Adam Dahlstrom, Armando Jaramillo Garcia, and Jim Ross.
Issue 26 (Spring 2023) of Glassworks features artwork by E. O. Connors, Catherine Edgerton, Gerberg Garmann, and Carella Keil; fiction by Faith McNaughton and Kathryn Reese; nonfiction by Joanna Acevedo, Chelsea M. Carney, and Ted McLoof; and poetry by Devon Brock, Amber Lee Carpenter, Rachael Inciarte, Karina Jha, Sean Madden, Mary Makofske, Claire Hamner Matturro, Reese Menefee, Kathleen McGookey, Sam Moe, Judith H. Montgomery, Annette Sisson, and Jacob Stratman. Glassworks is a publication of Rowan University’s Master of Arts in Writing program and also publishes Flash Glass – a monthly of flash fiction, prose poetry, and micro-essays, and lookingglass – a space for contributors to share reflections on their work.
Started in 1997, The Barcelona Review is an online multi-lingual review of contemporary international fiction. The newest issue (107) includes their regular quiz feature, this time on “A.I. in Literature.” Readers can test their knowledge of cyberpunk – 21st-century AI that has appeared in literature and compete for an Amazon gift card. The issue also includes “Pandemonium” by Bandi, the pseudonym of an anonymous North Korean dissident, who managed to smuggle seven short stories into South Korea; “Sink Rate” by English writer David Frankel, which begins with a horrific event, then moves inward as the protagonist tries to absorb what has happened. Offering some humor is Diggory Dunn’s “Nosedive on Eagle’s Nest Ridge,” a dispute concerning an incident on the slopes with a deluded “defendant’” brashly attempting to argue his case, and from Scotland comes a debut story by Garry Vass, “The Pig Was Finally Dead,” recounting the time of year for slaughter. Jim Daniel’s personal essay “Drought” collects the random thoughts of an American as he pedals through the countryside of France. The Barcelona Review also includes some “Picks from Back Issues,” a nice way to catch something you might have missed, as well as a book review, this time Cinema Speculation by Quentin Tarantino, reviewed by editor Jill Adams, who notes, “I had the pleasure to see [Tarantino] speak in Barcelona last April where he was welcomed like a rock star.”
Following the rhythm of the planet, Plant-Human Quarterly publishes four issues each year: one on each solstice and equinox. Plant-Human Quarterly Issue 9 explores the myriad ways writers manifest their relationship to the botanical world, attempting to communicate across boundaries and possibly approach a plant’s-eye-view of the world. Poems and essays are paired with botanical images, merging verbal and visual mediums. In this issue, Candela Murillo’s artwork is paired with writing from Robert Bensen, Margaret Chula, Deborah Doolittle, Camille Dungy, Leonore Hildebrandt, Andrea Hollander, Susan Jefts, Kelly Madigan, Davis McCombs, Mark McKain, Bertha Rogers, Jean Ryan, Eleni Sikelianos, and Barry Wallenstein. Plant-Human Quarterly is produced in collaboration with the Otherwise Collective, based in Amsterdam, NL.
For its July/August 2023 issue, World Literature Today’s editors took to the road to explore “The Bookstores of Middle America” and chose favorite destinations in nine states. Other highlights include Veronica Esposito’s new “Untranslatable” column, Andrew Lam’s moving homage to his mother, Shahd Alshammari’s favorite books on disability and illness, and a visit to literary Los Angeles with Ming Di and Dana Gioia. The book review section rounds up the best new books from around the world, while additional interviews, poetry, essays—and a recipe for peach galette—make the July issue your latest passport to great reading, whether in “flyover country” or some far-flung literary destination.
Good River Review is the literary journal of the School of Creative and Professional Writing at Spalding University publishing two issues per year. Between issues, readers can enjoy book reviews, interviews, essays on the practice of writing, and other literary news on the publication’s website. Issue 5 features poetry and prose by Adeleke Adeyemi, makalani bandele, DeMisty Bellinger, Kris Bigalk, Bea Bolongaita, Terri Brown-Davidson, Ndidi Chiazor-Enenmor, Cindy Corpier, Tony Crunk, Debra Kang Dean, Jane Donohue, Mitchell L. H. Douglas, Monic Ductan, Devin Kelly, Iris A. Law, Jeremy Paden, Claudia Putnam, Jack Ridl, Mervyn Seivwright, Jason Tandon, and Melanie Weldon-Soiset.
Tiferet Journal online publishes poetry, essays, interviews, and reviews in keeping with their mission “to help reveal Spirits, in all its manifestations, through the Written Word [. . . ] from authors of many faiths, even non-traditional ones” to “foster cultural pluralism and be a stable center within our modern lives, a place where the flames of creativity burn brightly.” The Spring/Summer 2023 issue offers readers over 80 pages of works to enjoy and features cover art by Richard Stocker.
trampset online literary journal publishes fiction, nonfiction, and poetry on a rolling basis, welcoming “all tramps” and their diverse voices to participate. Some recent contributors include Brett Biebel, Sean Ennis, Sumitra Singam, Erik Kennedy, Dan Alter, Fred Johnson, Claire Scott, Frances Gapper, S A Greene, Beth Hahn, Jeffrey Hermann, Mandira Pattnaik, and Michael Scott Neuffer.
Issue 18 of Aji Magazine is themed “The Moon.” As Editor-in-Chief Erin O’Neill Armendarez writes, “The tide goes in; the tide goes out. And the mysterious moon has her influence, only part of which we actually understand…” Attempting and understanding are the contributors to this issue, which has over 100 pages of content that can be read online, downloaded, or ordered in a print copy. This issue includes an interview with Oisín Breen by Erin O’Neill Armendarez and an interview with Jamie Nakagawa Boley by Erin Schalk, and works by Joe Bisicchia, Robert Boucheron, John Brantingham, Stephen Campiglio, William Crawford, Elizabeth Crowell, James Fowler, D. Dina Friedman, Trina Gaynon, Sergey Gerasimov, Carmen Germain, Elise Glassman, Joel Glickman, Cynthia Good, Robin Greene, Michael Hettich, Natalie Jill, Susan Johnson, LindaAnn LoSchiavo, Katharyn Howd Machan, Gwendolyn Joyce Mintz, Michael Moreth, William Nesbitt, Irina Novikova, Toti O’Brien, Robert L. Penick, Jocelyn Quevedo, D.M. Richardson, Richard Robbins, Sandip Saha, David Anthony Sam, Lauren Scharhag, Jacquelyn Shah, Steven M. Smith, Wally Swist, J. Tarwood, Sharon Tracey, Reed Venrick, James Von Hendy, Bill Wolak, and Ellen June Wright.
Issue 11 of the online annual Waxing and Waning is themed “As Water We Rise” with a foreword by C.I. Aki, and contributions of poetry, fiction, and art from David Bradley, Tomislav Silipeter, R. Nikolas Macioci, Nathan Shipley, Catherine DiMercurio, Monica “Mono” Campbell, Joseph Byrd, Mikayla Meyers, George Yatchisin, Jim Gish, Ronald Walker, Amy Murre, Emma Bolden, j niko, Roberta Clipper, Jonathan Yungkans, Andrey Gritsman, Kirsten Meehan, Donald Patten, Erin Rohan, Ray Zimmerman, Janelle Cordero, Walter Weinschenk, Cynthia Good, allison anne, Ery Caswell, Nichole Davies, Emily MacGriff, Jeff Rivers, Joanna Acevedo, and Maya Bernstein-Schalet.
Waxing & Waning is currently taking submissions for The Subversive Edition (in support of The Tennessee Three): “As a Tennessee publisher, we are ashamed and embarrassed by the actions of our state government in the expulsion of the two Black members of The Tennessee Three. [. . . ] It is time for a new era. The ways of the old are no longer relevant or working for the people. [. . . ] We are calling for submissions with the theme(s) of gun control/violence, abortion rights, and LGBTQIA+ rights. We are calling for these three themes in support of The Tennessee Three, whose actions were fueled by recent legislature against legal abortions, drag shows, transgender surgeries, book bans, etc., all of which came to a breaking point once the people’s voices were taken from them.” See the publication website for full details.
We are reviving an old favorite blog feature that originally ran from 2013-2019. This post recognizes cover art and designs for literary magazines, whether in print or online. These are chosen solely at the discretion of the Editor. Enjoy!
Native Northwest sculptor Preston Singletary has created an entire exhibit of glasswork featuring the trickster-hero in Raven and the Box of Daylight, and this issue of Image(116) spotlights Singletary’s work on the cover as well as with Mischa Willett’s article, “Shape-Shifter: The Native American Iconography of Preston Singletary.”
Hailing from Mississippi State University, this cover image of the Winter/Spring 2023 Jabberwock Review makes the seventh for artist Katie Starplier and her graphic designer accomplice Sam LeVan.
Harley Elliott is the cover artist for the most recent issue as well as having a full-color art portfolio inside the newest issue of Hanging Loose (113).
Foglifter Journal continues the San Francisco Bay Area’s tradition of groundbreaking queer and trans writing and emphasizes publishing multi-marginalized voices. The 2023 annual issue features work by Ash Alpert, Sarah Aziz, Lorelei Bacht, Acie Clark, Summer Farah, Laurel Ophelia Faye, Dina Folgia, Aerik Francis, Katie Gene Friedman, Stefania Gomez, Claire Heinzerling, Alannah Hensley, S.K. Hisega, Erik(a) Jonah, Noam Keim, Nicole Kershner, Jerry Lieblich, Alison Lubar, Griffin Jing Martin, Sahil Mehta, Jennifer V. Nguyen, Clara Otto, Tasha Raella, Tyler Raso, Nadine Rodriguez, Sarah Roth, Lauren Russell, Katie Jean Shinkle, Ashish Kumar Singh, and A.A. Vincent.
Issue 13 (February 2023) of the online journal Fleas on the Dog, the editors write, “is dedicated to the Ukrainian saviours and the radical activist freedom loving spirits who have been so unjustly silenced by the monstrous machinery of petty, malevolent governments.” Featuring fiction, interviews, poetry, plays and screenplays, all content is available for free download from the publication’s main website. The editors also provide genre labels for the work to help readers looking for specific types or to entice us into trying something new and different. Styles include satire, postmodernist, emerging writer, urban realism, microfixion, monologue, flash, dirty realism, surrealist, farce, literary, metafiction, mainstream, future epitaphs, novel excerpt, experimental, absurdist, ESL fiction, and existentialist – and this is just one issue!
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!
805 Lit+Art, v9 n2 Aji Magazine, 18 Arkana, 14 Arkansas Review, April 2023 Atlanta Review, Spring/Summer 2023 Bear Review, June 2023 bioStories, June 2023 Black Warrior Review, Spring/Summer 2023 Blink-Ink, 52 Bomb, Summer 2023 Brick, 111 Broadsided Press, June 2023 Catamaran, Summer 2023 Cholla Needles, 78 Cutleaf, 3.11 The Common, 25 Concho River Review, Spring/Summer 2023 Consequence, Spring 2023 The Courtship of Winds, Winter 2023
The Summer 2023 issue (56.2) of Southern Humanities Review features poetry from Malawi, Africa, by Robert Chiwamba, Benedicto Wokomaatani Malunga, Tikumbuke H. Harare, Martin Chrispine Juwa, William Khalipwina Mpina, Raymundo Chifundo Magangani, Ndongolera C. Mwangupili, Nyirongo Patricia Anuwality, and Grace Athauye Sharra. This issue also includes poetry by Mary Leauna Christensen, Melissa Crowe, Stephanie Yue Duhem, Athena Kildegaard, Jefferson Navicky, and Jennifer Polson Peterson. Nonfiction contributors include Amanda Gaines and L.I. Henley, and fiction by Kim Samek, Caroline Schmidt, Cameron Vanderwerf, and Tara Isabel Zambrano. The lush cover, Lemons and Prickly Pears, 2013, is from photographer Paulette Tavormina, sourced from the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art at Auburn University. Some content can be read online, and individual copies, as well as subscriptions, are available on the Southern Humanities Review website.
The 2023 annual issue of Exposition Review online is themed “Lines” and explores connection from a variety of interpretations: between parents and children, artists and fans, friends and lovers, robots and humans; to one’s city and across borders; via humor and through grief. Lines that writers interpreted as both physical and metaphorical, and illustrate the moments when art intersects reality, scrawling over the way the world appears and redesigning what is into what could be. Readers can enjoy fiction, flash fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, experimental narratives, visual art and comics, and film. Cover design by Kwasi Boyd-Bouldin along with an interview with the artist.
The call for Issue 2 of the online publication Decolonial Passage was themed “Food, Power, and Powerlessness,” with submissions on a wide range of topics: food and cultural heritage, food preparation and gender, the industrialization of food production, food production and imperialism, food sovereignty, food insecurity, and food deserts. The issue includes nonfiction by Kathy Watson, Bret Anne Serbin, Tracy Youngblom; fiction by Mungai Mwangi, Favour Iruoma Chukwuemeka, Davina Kawuma, Rosanna Rios-Spicer, Fatima Abdullahi; poetry by Matthew Johnson, Nancy L. Meyer, Paul Smith, Robyn Perros, Patrice Wilson, Toti O’Brien, Jane Ward, Catherine Harnett, Leslie B. Neustadt, Steven Ray Smith, Lola Labinjo, Juley Harvey, David Agyei-Yeboah, Sean Murphy, Salimah Valiani, Oliver Sopulu Odo. Decolonial Passage also publishes online content on a rolling basis, with recent contributions from Cheryl Atim Alexander (“The Butterfly Harvesters”) and Gemini Wahhaj (“Netherland: A Prequel to Joseph O’Neill’s Tale”). All content is free and accessible to read online.
The Courtship of Winds offers readers many new voices with “thoughtful perspectives on our shared experience.” Fully accessible to read online, the only thing this issue is ‘missing’ is drama – and the drama editors say they’d love to receive some well-crafted plays for upcoming issues. What readers will find in this issue is poetry, Paul Rabinowitz, Caroline Maun, Gale Acuff, Brenda Yates, Rebecca Ressl, Danley Romero, Sharon Kennedy-Nolle, Yvonne Pearson, Michael Ansara, Richard Matta, Richard Dinges, Jr., David Reuter, Gordon Kippola, Nathan Thomas, Bobby Parrott, Murray Silverstein, Alison Hicks, Sandra Newton, Anne Marie Wells, Bob Meszaros, Erren Kelly, Rhys Lee, Leila Farjami, Gordon Kippola, Frederick Pollack, and Will Walker; art & photography by Paul Rabinowitz and Jim Zola; essays by Yvonne Pearson, and Neil Mathison; and fiction by Gavin Kayner, Gregory T. Janetka, Regina Thomas, Teresa Burns Gunther, and Marco Etheridge.
I came across Jac Dellaria’s work thanks to the Chicago Zine Fest where he was tabling. He has an Instagram where he posts his most recent work, and I zine reviewed several of his indie publications. Dellaria also has an incredible series he created in collaboration with University of Wisconsin – Madison Sociology Professor Sarah E. Frank (“Frankie”) based on interview research conducted in 2018-19 with trans and nonbinary emerging adults (18-29). Frank writes that Dellaria “translated the findings and quotes into stunning comic panels, presenting . . . a visual narrative of menstruation for trans and genderqueer people.” The comics include “The Bathroom,” “Product Problems,” “At the Doctor’s,” and “On Identity.” These four comics are worth visiting and sharing, especially in light of continued basic bathroom rights for all and to understand what it is like for others whose experiences are real and valid yet not justly recognized. As one character in “On Identity” comments, “I feel kinda stuck because periods are such ‘a woman’s thing’ that if I speak up, then I’ll be seen as invalidating my identity. But If I don’t, then no one will ever learn.” Here’s hoping more people will care enough to learn.
Trans and Non-Binary Menstruation by Jac Dellaria. Teaching Frankly, 2020.
We are reviving an old favorite blog feature that originally ran from 2013-2019. This post recognizes cover art and designs for literary magazines, whether in print or online. These are chosen solely at the discretion of the Editor. Enjoy!
Publishing new material online on the first Friday of every month, Booth also releases two print issues a year. Issue 18 cover art is “Bald Eagle” by Kelcey Parker Ervick.
Kudos to Indiana Review for their redesign – both inside and out – the Winter 2023 issue featuring cover art by Corey Pemberton entitled “TT, I’m so done with you.”
Issue 32 of New Ohio Review features Jesse Lee Kercheval’s playful, colorful, and highly textured “The Kiss” watercolor on paper.
Publishing nonfiction prose only, bioStories offers readers writing that focuses on the skilled craft of storytelling, with biographies that express the understanding that “real life is messy,” yet acknowledge: “human nature is idiosyncratic and frequently contradictory, and, quite often, when you look close enough, it is downright graceful.” The publication features a weekly essay on its homepage. Recent contributors include Julie Lockhart, Yoon Chung, Cathy Fiorello, Joshua David Laine, Pamela Kaye, Michelle Cacho-Negrete, Sally Carton, and Sydney Lea.
The Spring 2023 issue of Consequence (15.1) spotlights not only the consequences of war and geopolitical violence but also the diversity of such experiences—both external and internal. In this volume, for example, there are eighteen different countries represented, all of which portray any number of place-specific repercussions. In the art feature, the photos of Alfred Yaghobzadeh, relay the varied physical and cultural effects on Afghanistan and its people after decades of war. Likewise, Sandra Kolankiewicz’s poem, “Dear Famous Poet,” is a potent example of internal consequences as we witness the personal experiences of both a wounded vet as he’s teaching a class while being belittled and that of the young narrator, who is angered by this ridicule. There are fifty-six beautiful and highly-crafted pieces in this issue, and each is an example of just how far-reaching and singular the consequences of war and geopolitical violence can be.
The Spring 2023 issue of Bear Review (9.2) is live – and this is one bear you’ll want to run toward! This online issue offers readers poetry by Lisa Allen, Claressinka Anderson, Rebecca Baggett, Alyse Bensel, Sarah Carey, Robin Rosen Chang, Genevieve DeGuzman, Lawrence Di Stefano, Sean Thomas Dougherty, Loisa Fenichell, Jason Gray, Justin Groppuso-Cook, Brian Henry, Whitney Hudak, Skye Jackson, Padraig O’ Tuama, Jenny Maaketo, Martha McCullough, Peter Mason, Julia Anna Morrison, Mitchell Nobis, Meghan Sterling, and Liane Tyrrel.
Arkana, the graduate-run online literary journal of the University of Central Arkansas is staffed and edited by students in the Arkansas Writers’ MFA Program and accepts submissions from artists worldwide. The editors write, “As part of an overlooked and often misunderstood region of the US, we’re drawn to an inclusive literary tradition that extends beyond our rich southern landscape. We strive to create a space that brings together diverse voices and champions stories that embody our mission.” Issue 14 features interviews with Michael X. Wang and Matthew Salesses, as well as works by Sherri-Anne Forde, Nikki Ummel, Lucy Zhang, Sean Madden, Josephine Whittock, C. H. Weihmann, Sekhar Banerjee, Donna Steiner, Mario Duarte, Gregg Williard, and Debasish, Mishra.
Happy 50th Anniversary to CutBank Literary Magazine, founded in 1973 by the Creative Writing Program at the University of Montana, and publishing new and emerging writers in its biannual print publication as well as unique online content: “We’re global in scope, but with a regional bias.” Issue 98 features poetry by Tyler Kline, James Henry Knippen, Melissa Kwasny, David Moolten, Pádraig Ó Tuama, and Mary Sesso; fiction by Michael Caleb Tasker; nonfiction by Rachel Attias, Charisse Baldoria, Rose McLarney, and Kathleen Walker; an author Interview with Pádraig Ó Tuama by Kalani Padilla & Erin O’Regan White; interior landscape photography by David Murphy, and cover art by Tino Rodríguez.
Deadline: June 18, 2023 Submit your fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction to Black Fox Literary Magazine’s Secrets Unraveled Writing Contest! Deadline: June 18, 2023! And be sure to check out our upcoming writing class with Catherine Adel West on June 25, 2023! View flyer and visit Submittable for more information!
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Founded in 2005, the mission of Broadsided Press was “putting literature and art on the streets” by publishing monthly visual-literary collaborations as free posters for anyone to download, print, and post. This grassroots distribution was thus managed by “Vectors” who share the broadsides in their neighborhoods. June 2023 will be their final monthly installment as they moved instead to biannual portfolios of work. In addition, Broadsided Press offers free lesson plans for using broadsides to teach visual arts, reviews, and summer workshops at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA. We’ve always been great fans here of the work of Broadsided Press and hope you’ll take a moment to check out their site.
The Fiddlehead No. 295 (Spring 2023) features poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and reviews written by some of the best new and established writers. Contributors include Moni Brar—winner of The Fiddlehead 32nd annual Ralph Gustafson Prize For Best Poem, Adrienne Gruber, Chelsea Peters, Lis Sanchez, Kwai Shen, Kathleen Winter, and many more. Visit The Fiddlehead website to see a full list of contributors, read excerpts from selected works, listen to Moni Brar read her award-winning poem, and order a copy of No. 295 or subscribe for home delivery. Cover art, Peonies, by Stephen May.
The online triannual MockingHeart Review publishes twenty poems per issue as well as a featured poet. The editors look for works “that express the complexities of the human heart in clear, precise, lyrical language.” The publication also features up to ten pieces of art per issue, as well as an occasional featured artist, for all kinds of artwork. “Our taste is diverse and ever-expanding,” the editors say. Jo Taylor is the featured poet in this newest issue and is joined by contributions by Al Maginnes, Arvilla Fee, Barbara Brooks, Cecil Morris, Christian Ward, Christine Perry, Dianna MacKinnon Henning, Emily Eads, Jean Podralski, John Tustin, Ken Hines, Laurel Benjamin, Mark J. Mitchell, Mike Lewis-Beck, Rachel Dacus, Richard Dinges, Jr., Robert L. Dean, Jr., Steve Brisendine, and Suzanne E. Wiltz.
Each issue of Arc Poetry Magazine includes “How Poems Work,” which offers readers a “case-study appreciation” of a single poem. The poem is reprinted in the issue along with the analysis, focusing on style, subject matter, influences, context, and the use of poetic elements. The spring 2023 issue featured Bardia Sinaee’s appreciation for “Epiphany” by Sara Venart. The poem opens with a series of visualized situations from everyday life, starting with the prompt “Here I am…” and coursing over a selection of events and feelings and questioning ‘what ifs.’ The closing line was a dagger to my heart in the most loving way and left me sobbing. “That’s a good poem,” I could have been satisfied to say, but then I read Sinaee’s commentary, which helped make connections I would not have, and offered a more authoritative assessment in ways I might not have felt confident making, but which made complete sense, such as, “This poem addresses us urgently and intimately.” While I felt that in reading the poem, seeing it said helped ground my feeling in shared reason. It helped me make sense, not of the poem, but of the effect the words had on me. It offered me a conversation partner in an otherwise solitary experience. It’s a wonderful feature for those of us who enjoy education but lack access to teachers—something to look forward to in each issue.
Reviewer bio: Denise Hill is Editor of NewPages.com and reviews books she chooses based on her own personal interests.
Utopia Science Fiction Magazine publishes a new issue on the 30th of every other month with a free story and poem released online every three weeks. Publishing quality science fiction short stories, science articles, and poetry, the most recent issue includes short stories by J.S. Johnston, Nadine Aurora Tabing, Ray Daley, Sam W. Pisciotta; poetry, Kim Whysall-Hammond, Greg Schwartz, Yuliia Vereta, Lauren McBride; science essays by Yuliia Vereta, Jean-Paul L. Garnier; and an interview with Joe Haldeman.
The June 2023 issue of 805 Lit+Art (9.2) gets readers ready to plunge into summer with their vibrant water cover art “At the Beach” by Michael Noonan, then explore the depths of the color blue in Christine Vartoughian’s flash fiction, “The Color of Forgotten Dreams,” hunt for water in Nicholas Wright’s short story, “Millennial Elysium,” and feel the lapping waves in Melissa Fitzpatrick’s flash, “Beach People.” This issue also offers work by debut authors, including Samantha Joslin’s debut flash “Fantasy” and Lizzie Bellinger’s debut creative nonfiction “The Secret Stories of Shoes.” Visit 805 Lit+Art to access the full content online.
“Viewless Wings” is from the poem “Ode to a Nightingale” by John Keats: “Away! away! for I will fly to thee, // Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards, // But on the viewless wings of Poesy” – and thus the inspiration for a unique platform that provides emerging poets the opportunity to publish their works online as well as have them included on the Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast.
Publishing in an open online and podcast format ten times per year, with interviews with poets published weekly-ish, Viewless Wings “was founded to celebrate the art of poetry through interviews with prestigious poets, opportunities for emerging poets to have their voices heard on submitted poetry episodes, and articles on the craft of poetry and publishing.”
Promoting poetry and poetics is first nature for Morehead, who is also Poet Laureate of Dublin, California, and author of canvas: poems; portraits of red and gray: memoir poems; and The Plague Doctor. Morehead is also the primary reader for Viewless Wings with volunteer readers enlisted as needed. “The contributions from followers of Viewless Wings and interviews with prestigious poets has been inspiring. I personally learn more about the art of poetry from each interview and submitted poem and am fulfilled by providing a platform for poets’ voices to be heard.”
“It’s rewarding hearing poetry read by the poet,” Morehead says, and visitors to Viewless Wings can likewise share in this experience. “Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast listeners (and readers of the accompanying articles on the website) can expect to be inspired and educated about the craft of poetry. We welcome diverse voices and love providing a platform for poets.” The Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast has included interviews with Safia Elhillo, Olivia Gatwood, A.E. Stallings, Dana Gioia, Yanyi, and many more, in addition to poems submitted (and read by) emerging poets.
Morehead advises, “For those considering starting a literary magazine or podcast, focus on publishing quality content and be patient. It takes time to build an audience.” And for contributors, while they can expect that Morehead will read their work, due to the number of submissions received, personalized feedback is not possible; turnaround time is 1-3 months.
Viewless Wings has a future already in the works with plans to expand into more livestream events as part of the Viewless Wings Live series, and participate in community events, having successfully attended the Bay Area Book Festival for the first time in 2023.
Each issue of THEMA Literary Journal is based on a different theme, often derived from unique thoughts. It is meant to inspire imagination. The editors depend on the creativity of the writers to interpret the themes. The Crumpled Yellow Paper, our current issue (35:2, Spring 2023), was born when one editor opened an envelope and pulled out a crumpled piece of yellow paper containing an author’s scrawled inquiry. It made us wonder what stories and poems might evolve from such a piece of crumpled paper. The writings that emerged are diverse, ranging from humorous to magical to harrowing. The cover photograph by Lynda Fox, featuring yellow origami horses, is especially prized for its humor. What were some of the various “crumpled yellow papers” and where were they found in these stories and poems? To name just a few, consider a yellow candy wrapper blowing in the wind, drifting yellow leaves, a mysterious paper found on a walk in the park, notes discarded either accidentally or on purpose, an enigmatic message inscribed on a crumpled yellow paper. Was it really a piece of paper, or something else?
The Summer 2023 issue of The Kenyon Review includes a Women’s Health-themed folio, with poetry by Lynne Thompson, Felicia Zamora, and Cindy Juyoung Ok; fiction by Emma Binder and Kabi Hartman; nonfiction by Susannah Nevison and Sophie Strohmeier; and much more. The annual Nature’s Nature feature, edited by David Baker, showcases poems by Victoria Chang, Terrance Hayes, Joanna Klink, Joyelle McSweeney, Arthur Sze, and Brian Teare, who each also introduce emerging poets. The cover art is by Tawny Chatmon.
Blink-Ink is the definition of “small but mighty” – at 5 1/2 X 4 1/4 print format, each issue is packed with stories of “approximately” 50 words. The newest issue features 26 stories on the theme “Waiting on a Friend.” Each issue is themed, and the editors provide guidelines and deadlines on their website. Subscribers receive four issues per year, and it’s a real delight to see these arrive in the mail. Easy to carry along anywhere, a subscription is the perfect gift idea for those readers and writers in your life (including yourself!).
Going to The Lake sounds like the perfect way to spend a summer’s day, and the June 2023 issue of this online poetry magazine is now available featuring Philip Dunkerley, Gerry Grubbs, Jenny Hockey, Sharon Kennedy-Nolle, Michael Lauchlan, Patrick Lodge, DS Maolalai, Paul McDonald, Shamiksa Ransom, Sam Szanto, Hannah Jane Weber. Dig into reviews of Magdalena Ball’s Bobish and Baron Wormser’s The History Hotel, and get a sampling from recently published collections with “One Poem Reviews” featuring LindaAnn LoSchiavo and Elizabeth McCarthy.
Issue 33 of Posit online journal of literature and art features new poetry and prose by Carrie Bennett, Zoe Darsee, Jasper Glen, Kylie Hough, Kevin McLellan, David James Miller, Pat Nolan, Elizabeth Robinson, Grace Smith, Jeneva Burroughs Stone, and Myles Taylor; text + image by Nam Hoang Tran; and painting, collage, and ceramic sculpture by Jane Kent, Jeanne Silverthorne, and David Storey.
Issue 78 of Cholla Needles is edited by Juan Delgado. Thomas McGovern photographed the cover and is featured throughout the issue. The twelve writers who appear in this issue are Dana Burton, Paul Marion, Craig Svonkin, Ellsworth Scott, Danny Romero, André Katkov, Micah Tasaka, Christopher Buckley, Ernesto Trejo, Shawn Levy, C. Mikal Oness, and Gina Hanson. Juan Delgado joins a distinguished group of guest editors who are helping to keep Cholla Needles vital and fresh: David Chorlton, Cynthia Anderson, John Brantingham, and Gabriel Hart. Juan Delgado and Thomas McGovern previously collaborated on the beautiful poetry/photography collection entitled Vital Signs.
In honor of KidSpirit‘s 15th Anniversary, readers can enjoy 15 Years of KidSpirit, a 250-page full-color print anthology of the most insightful and inspirational work from the last decade and a half. KidSpirit is a nonprofit online magazine and community by and for youth to engage each other about life’s big questions in an open and inclusive spirit. Its mission is to promote mutual understanding among 11- to-17-year-olds of diverse backgrounds and support their development into world citizens with strong inner grounding.
This celebration volume begins with 32 award-winning pieces from the 2022 KidSpirit Awards, which were selected by KidSpirit’s network of editors around the world. From articles and artwork to poetry, 15 Years of KidSpirit features extraordinary work from across the United States, as well as Australia, Pakistan, India, Taiwan, Puerto Rico, China, Haiti, Ukraine, Paraguay, and elsewhere. The book also includes award-winning articles from renowned adult writers and thinkers featured in KidSpirit’s PerSpectives column, including Nobel Peace Laureate, Leymah Gbowee, Buddhist meditation teacher, Lama Surya Das, and computational neuroscientist, Dr. Anil Seth.
Issue 25 of The Common features a special portfolio of Arabic fiction from Kuwait, stories set in the USSR during perestroika and on the Texas-Mexico border, essays about romance during Ramadan, and the legacy of artist Marcel Duchamp, and poems by Ricardo Pau-Llosa, Karen Chase, Robert Cording, Tina Cane, and Felice Bell. The Common is an award-winning print and online literary magazine publishing literature and images with a strong sense of place, inspired by the mission of the town common—a gathering place for the display and exchange of ideas.
When the Rattle Young Poets Anthology arrives in the mail, I can’t wait to dig into it! The 2023 RYPA returns for another year of delightful and insightful poetry written by young people. This is not a book of poems for children, but rather poems written by children for all readers, revealing the startling insights that are possible when looking at the world through fresh eyes. This 36-page chapbook is mailed to all Rattle subscribers along with their Summer 2023 issue. Twenty poets aged 15 or younger contributed to this volume, offering their perspectives on the first crushes, childhood toys, climate change, nature, and more. Contributors include Janelle Adamson, Damaris Caballeros, Roselyn Chen, Radha Gamble, Kakul Gupta, Vy Hong, Wimberly Horan, Lily Karpman, Lindsay Lin, Jaylee Marchese, Fae Merritt, Elizabeth D. Moshman, Hyunsoo Nam, Ziqr Peehu, Rose Pone, Stephanie Qin, Isabella Slattery-Shannon, Divya Venkat Sridhar, Pella Winkopp. Cover Art by Kaitlyn Terrey.
In the Editor’s Note for The Greensboro Review’s Spring 2023 issue, Terry L. Kennedy describes the importance of community and our shared literary future: “It is a testament to the gift of literature that words put down on a blank page can actually change our experience of the world, and can carry us back to a time, place, or significant moment in our lives [. . . ] It’s a conversation carried on in many places and many times, past and present. One that should never stop—how can we afford to let it?”
The Greensboro Review invites readers into that conversation with this 113th issue, featuring the Robert Watson Literary Prize winners: Luciana Arbus-Scandiffio’s “Have You Been to the Palisades” for poetry and Jordan Brown’s “Jenny Lynn & Buddy” for fiction. This GR issue also includes new work from Ian Cappelli, Justin Jude Carroll, Camille Carter, Mark Cox, Hannah Craig, Emma DePanise, David Dixon, Gregory Fraser, Mike Good, Bill Hollands, James Jabar, Mimi Manyin, Rose McLarney, Nicholas Molbert, J.S. Nunn, Phoebe Peter Oathout, Dan O’Brien, Lucas Daniel Peters, Ian Power-Luetscher, Dustin Lee Rutledge, Cameron Sanders, M.E. Silverman, Gabriel Spera, and Candace Walsh.
Presence: A Journal of Catholic Poetry is an independent annual publication, affiliated with the Department of English at Caldwell University, Caldwell, NJ. The newest 2023 issue contains over ninety pages of new poetry and twenty-five book reviews. The featured poet is Robert Cording, highlighting a brief portfolio of his work. The issue also includes interviews with Rhina P. Espaillat and James Matthew Wilson, and essays on the life’s work of Marie Howe and Czeslaw Milosz. Cover art: “Awaken” by Ben Fernandez (Artist’s Statement included in issue). Print copies are available for single purchase or by subscription.
Red Tree Review Issue 3 is now online for readers to enjoy and filled with poems that promise to surprise, harrow, and awe. In “Oyster Thorn,” Sam Moe oscillates deftly between soft and hard, pushing the litany into the new with surprising twists and contrast. Red Tree Review is once again delights readers with a Carolyn Guinzio feature of three poems from a sequence that bend the conversational tone in careful pivots and interruption, returning again and again to place and landscape. Anna Laura Reeve asks readers to consider what lifts us and what burdens us in poems aimed with a sniper’s precision at the reader’s heart. Readers can find these and many more poems to enjoy and share with others. For writers, a reminder that Red Tree Review does not charge a submission fee, nor is there any cost to read issues online.
Theodore Enslin’s book-length poem Ranger is the inspiration behind #Ranger, an online quarterly of text, audio/visual, and video founded by David A. Bishop whose goal with this new venture is to provide a home for works that may not fit in elsewhere. “I felt there was a real need for experimental poetry and art,” he explains. “I mean, REAL experimentation. Everyone seems to play it safe nowadays, and that’s pretty boring, in my opinion. How will art evolve if we don’t experiment?”
Bishop’s background (or lack thereof), he says, is helpful for this ability to allow for more variations, “I don’t have an MFA, so there’s no dogma to follow.” But this doesn’t me he lacks experience for this start-up. “I’m mostly an editor,” he says, “but I also dabble in poetry (both visual and textual) on occasion. I’ve been published in Word/For Word, Otoliths, and other magazines. Under the pseudonym Drew B. David, I edited the now-defunct Angry Old Man Magazine.”
“I love publishing work that no one else will handle,” Bishop shares. “It gives me a lot of satisfaction to see it out there, however small my audience may be, and it’s small, I won’t lie. The challenge, of course, is finding the time to put out a good product. That’s always been the challenge. But someone has to do it. There aren’t many people out there who are willing to push the envelope. We live in a very, very conformist, commercial culture in America – at least, where art is concerned. Money dictates everything, and that’s sad. Art is for the ages! Art is for life!”
For writers looking to push that envelope with Bishop, submissions are open with no fees for “Stuff you think no one else will publish,” the submission page encourages. “So-called ‘market forces’ do not matter here.” #Ranger is currently a one-person endeavor, “I read everything that comes in, so expect response time to be 1-2 months. I wish it were shorter,” adds Bishop, “but I have a full-time job, which also means I can seldom give feedback.”
For readers, Bishop says to expect to be surprised by the content. “It certainly isn’t vanilla, so, be prepared for a wild ride. Art should be controversial if it’s good art.”
Contributors to the first issue include Luc Fierens, Daniele Virgilio, Daniel Y. Harris, Mark Young, Howie Good, Tommy Gunn, PokaPoka!, Anthony Janas, Irene Koronas, Sheila Murphy, Joshua Martin, Alexander Limarev, Richard Baldasty, Nico Vassilakis, Daniel de Culla, Robert Jacka, The Page Collective, Cecelia Chapman and Jeff Crouch, Gerard Sarnat, Grant Guy, Jim Leftwich, Harrison Fisher, Robert Beveridge, Paul Smith, Jason Ryberg, Erkin Gören, Bill Wolak, John Bennett, Michael Prihoda, Colin James, Texas Fontanella, Noisebuam, Casey Synesael, Doren Robbins, Nathan Anderson, Dale Jensen, Daniel F. Bradley, John Grey, Dan Sicoli, Les Bernstein, Gerry Fabian, Sanjeev Sethi, Shannon King, Michael Basinski, and Joel Chace,
Looking ahead, Bishop says, “I am trying to lure musicians into the fold. Experimental music, yes! I want #Ranger to explore all different art forms. It’s not just a lit/poetry mag. It’s a place where artists with a capital A are welcome.” He adds, “Make your work as weird and eccentric as possible. Don’t worry about the corporate gatekeepers harshing on your mellow. This project is definitely anti-commercial.”
