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.”
The Malahat Review, established in 1967, is among Canada’s leading literary journals. Published quarterly, it features contemporary Canadian and international works of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction as well as reviews of recently published Canadian poetry, fiction, and literary nonfiction. The latest issue, Spring 2023 #222, features Open Season Awards winners Gloria Blizzard (cnf), Caroline Harper New (poetry), and Deepa Rajagopalan (fiction); cover art by SGidGang.xaal / Shoshannah Greene; poetry by Jenna Lyn Albert, Kayla Czaga, Sue Goyette, Maggie Helwig, Kate Kennedy, D. A. Lockhart, Pauline Peters, Cale Plett, C. Rafuse, and Shane Rhodes; fiction by Katherine Abbass, Mehr-Afarin Kohan, Rebecca Mangra, and Paul Ruban (translated by Neil Smith); creative nonfiction by Paul Dhillon and S. I. Hassan; and reviews of new books by Margaret Atwood, Manahil Bandukwala, Dionne Brand, Kevin Marc Fournier, Susan Glickman, Tomson Highway, Rhona McAdam, Paul Sunga, Délani Valin, and Joshua Whitehead.
The MacGuffin Winter 2023 (38.3) issue features Lynne Thompson’s Poet Hunt 27 commentary and selections: Grand Prize Winner Judy Brackett Crowe and Honorable Mentions Abby Caplin and Sam Ferrante. Leaving Poet Hunt 27 behind, The MacGuffin gives readers a look ahead to 2023’s Poet Hunt 28, guest judged by Barbara Crooker, with a five-poem spread from the judge-to-be. The issue is rounded out with an eclectic collection of prose: from Carolyn Watson’s Hitchcockian “Hag,” to Scott Ragland’s postmodern World War II short “Wings,” to Carolyn Highland’s “Echoes,” and Gigi Cheng’s masterful essay “The difference between Chinese and English.”
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!
AGNI, 97 The American Poetry Review, May/June 2023 ARC Poetry, 100 Brilliant Flash Fiction, March 2023 Camas, Summer 2023 Chestnut Review, Spring 2023 The Cincinnati Review, Spring 2023 Colorado Review, Spring 2023 The Common, 25 Communities, Summer 2023 Concho River Review, Spring/Summer 2023 Conjunctions, 80 CutBank, 98 Cutleaf, 3.8, 3.9
The Spring 2023 issue of The Missouri Review (46.1) is introduced by Speer Morgan’s Foreward, “Seize the Day,” and features winners of the 2022 Jeffrey E. Smith Editors’ Prize: Ann-Marie Blanchard for fiction, Robin Reif for essay, and Heidi Seaborn for poetry. Also included in this issue is new fiction from Rita Ayoshi, Jennafer D’Alvia, Threse Eiben, and Abby Geni; new poetry from Kathryn Bratt-Pfotenhauer and Benjamin Grossberg; and new nonfiction from Anu Kumar and Joe Walpole. There is an arts feature by Kristine Somerville, “Man Ray: Reluctant Celebrity Photographer,” and the Curio Cabinet section houses “Gerda Wegener and the Pleasures of Art Deco.” Rounding out the issue is a review column by Sam Pickering, “Deep Listening and Time Passing: Five Recent Nonfiction Books of Note.” Cover art: Skater by Alex Colville (1964).
Congratulations to Arc Poetry on their 100th issue of publishing emerging and established poets from across Canada and beyond! Editor Emily Stewart says, “I hope you consider the unrecorded, unquantifiable creative efforts that have gone into this issue and the ninety-nine before it. I hope you recognize the talent and labour that make this magazine happen. And I hope you realize, without any uncertainty, that one hundred issues of Arc Poetry would not have been possible without you, without the literary community that has grown alongside Arc.”
This issue features the 2022 Diana Brebner Prize winner and honorable mention; new work from Arc’s 2021-22 Poet in Residence Annick MacAskill, and a selection of work by her mentees; new poems from Billy-Ray Belcourt, Lorna Crozier, Selina Boan, and more; work from Parliamentary Poet Laureate Louise Bernice Halfe; a translation feature curated by Katia Grubisic, including new translations of Nicole Brossard by Erin Moure; new essays, including by Lakshmi Gill, one of the first women members of the League of Canadian Poets; feature reviews that bring books previously reviewed in Arc into new conversations; and two “How Poems Work” columns by Bardia Sinaee on Sarah Venart and Eric Folsom on John Barton.
Chestnut Review 4.4 (Spring 2023) rounds out the publication’s fourth year as a literary journal and is the final installment of Volume 4. This issue features poetry, prose, and art that reckon with desire, time, and illness, amongst other themes. The cover art, which aligns with parts of the publication’s ethos and aesthetic, is a digital piece titled “Inhibition” by Grace Zhou. The issue opens with a celebration of the release of Dacia Price’s This is for the Naming with an excerpt from the 2022 Prose Chapbook Contest winner and an interview with the author. The poetry portion of the issue opens with a piece by Noor Hindi, titled “I’m Bored I’m Lonely I’m Throwing a Party,” which contends with beauty, mortality, and divinity. A graphic comic is featured, called “tanggal,” inspired by the penanggalan folklore of Malaysia, which explores the nature of change through its hybrid-format. Chestnut Review welcomes readers to enjoy the experience of their newest issue online.
The Spring 2023 issue of The Baltimore Review features poems, short stories, and creative nonfiction by Jared Beloff, Allisa Cherry, Sarah Elkins, Adam Forrester, Kimberly Glanzman, Pete Mackey, Meg Robson Mahoney, Michael Minassian, Donna Obeid, Abigail Oswald, Emmy Ritchey, Cressida Blake Roe, Adrie Rose, Huina Zheng, and Jane Zwart. Many contributors also provide notes about their work, as well as audio recordings. All issues of The Baltimore Review back to Winter 2012 can be read online at no cost, and content from the online issues is also published in annual print compilations. Founded in 1996, The Baltimore Review showcases writers from Baltimore, across the U.S., and beyond.
The Midwest Quarterly: A Journal of Contemporary Thought is published quarterly in print by Pittsburg State University and accepts submissions of poetry and essays on contemporary subjects “interesting and readable by a non-specialist reader.” The objective of the publication is “to discover and publish scholarly articles dealing with a broad range of subjects of current interest.” A sampling of articles in the newest issue includes: “Human Cargo: The Zombie as Metaphor for Aboriginal Restoration” by Liza Harville; “Understanding Individual Differences in the Dimensions of ‘Vestedness’ within Midwestern Populations toward the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) during Early-Stage Pandemic Onset” by A. M. Mason, Josh Compton, and Elizabeth Spencer; “The BaFa’ BaFa’ Cultural Simulation: A High-Leverage Teaching Practice to Increase Cultural Awareness” by Grant Moss and Harriet Bachner; and “Sustaining our Academic Careers amidst COVID-19: A Collaborative Autoethnography of Women Academicians” by Judy Smetana, Krissy Lewis, and Tatiana Goris. And for poetry, an interview with and a substantial portfolio of poems by Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg.
The newest issue of the print quarterly The Main Street Rag (Spring 2023) features Patti Frye Meredith author of the novel South of Heaven in conversation with MSR Editor M. Scott Douglass; fiction by Tony Hozeny, Roger Hart, Ann Levin, Scott Pedersen, and Steve Putnam; poetry by Rachel Barton, Joyce Compton Brown, Frank X. Christmas, Gayle Compton, Lana Hechtman Ayers, Ginny Lowe Connors, Brenda Edgar, Alissa Sammarco, Alfred Fournier, Monique Gagnon German, Mark Grinyer, Bill Griffin, Jana Harris, Randall Martoccia, Lloyd Jacobs, Hank Kalet, Gary Lechliter, D.C. Leonhardt, George Longenecker, Robert Lunday, Michelle Matz, Randy Minnich, Karen Whittington Nelson, David E. Poston, Philip Raisor, Diane Pohl, James W. Reynolds, Livingston Rossmoor, Mark Rubin, David Sapp, Karen Elizabeth Sharpe, Richard Allen Taylor, Judith Terzi, Mitchell Untch, Mid Walsh, Cynthia Ventresca, Randy Lee White, Richard Widerkehr, Christy Wise, and Samantha Woodruff; and several reviews of new publications.
The Stirling Review is a new online quarterly of poetry, creative nonfiction, short fiction, opinion pieces, artwork, and photography. It was founded by a group of participants from the 2022 Sewanee Young Writers’ Workshop at the University of the South who started hanging out together, sharing their writing at a local breakfast hub called Stirling’s Coffee House. They enjoyed their time together so much, they “wanted to create a space like Stirling’s, where young writers and artists could exchange their ideas, and thus this magazine along with its name was born.”
The Stirling Review showcases creative work from writers aged 14-22. The editors’ mission is “to spread creativity that we believe shines effortlessly, and writing in which marginalized groups, or just everyday people, can find some sort of solace.” Together, the editorial team says, “we believe in the unique power of young writers to speak words that spark change and to craft pieces that shine like stars. We aim to amplify their light.”
The editorial team is solidly built with writers and artists whose experience and publication credits have both breadth and depth. Currently on staff are Michael Liu and Tane Kim – Co-founders; Ellie Tiwari, Adelia Crawford, Hayden Oh, Max Boyang, Ethan Park, Evy Muller, Mia Grace Davis, Haley Timmermann, and Holland Tait. “Every issue is a collective effort of our editorial team and the creative young minds across the world that make such wonderful writing possible.”
For writers seeking a home for their work, the editors say, “Our preferences are shorter pieces with resonating language” that highlight the publication’s mission. Once contributions have been received, “all the editors read a set of pieces and rank them on a rubric similar to Scholastic Art and Writing Awards’ rubric. Every piece is ranked on a scale of 1-10 on skill, theme, and originality and moves on to our second round of submissions if they average a number greater than or equal to 7 (our co-founders also read every piece in round 1 to make sure rankings are consistent). After round 2, our entire team votes on every piece to decide if we publish it or not.”
For readers stopping by The Stirling Review, the editors say, “expect to find the poetry, prose, and art written by young people with powerful voices.” Contributors to the first issue include Sam Luo, Blanka Pillár, Naomi Ling, Amber Zou, Willow Kang, Margaret Donovan, Winston Verdult, Michelle Zhou, and Luke Tan.
The editors also offer some insight on starting a new publication: “Some challenges have been working around each member’s schedule because we are all busy high schoolers, but positives include being able to read amazing work from young writers like us. Seeing our first issue completed was definitely a huge accomplishment every member of our team feels incredibly proud of.”
For those considering starting a publication, the editors encourage, “Just do it. Just start it. Even if you don’t know the exact specifics of what you are going to do or how it is going to get done, take that first step and figure things out along the way. That way, you don’t put it off forever.”
Moving forward, The Stirling Review hopes to host contests (“with sweet rewards”) later this year as well as publish an anthology by year’s end. Writers and readers alike are encouraged to visit The Stirling Review and see for themselves what this great new addition has to offer!
The Spoon River Poetry Review (SRPR) Winter 2022 has much to offer readers to see them through the spring, starting with the brightly colored cover art by Desire for / desire (oil on gesso-bard) by Madelyn Turner. The SRPR Illinois Poet Feature in this issue is Rebecca Morgan Frank, with an interview of the poet by Jenna Goldsmith, and the Editors’ Prize winning poem “We Moved Out of the Projects and Into a Home” by Meghan Malachi, selected by Ashley M. Jones, is included as well as runners-up poems by Judith Mary Gee and Scudder H. Parker, honorable mention poems by Caroline Parkman Barr, Phillip West, Brittany Mishra, and Ana Lucila Cagnoni. There is new poetry by Jenna Le, Carrie Shipers, Clayton Adam Clark, Beth Weinstock, J. R. Forman, Rodrigo Toscano, Elizabeth Sylvia, and more, and the SRPR Review Essay “Dreams of Growing to Rock a Rhyme”: Tradition and Experiment in Recent American Sonnets” by Brian Brodeur, who reviews books by Caki Wilkinson (The Survival Expo: Poems), Rowan Ricardo Phillips (Living Weapon: Poems), Matthew Buckley Smith (Midlife: Poems), Alexis Sears (Out of Order: Poems), and John Murillo (Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry: Poems).
The tone for AGNI97 is set by the opulent colors and imperiled undertones of cover (detail from Cemetary with Dog) and portfolio artist Salman Toor. Stories by Garielle Lutz, Via Bleidner, and Anna Badkhen put the seismograph to relationships and track the needle as it jumps. Essayist Kai Maristed assesses the loss and legacy of her enigmatic father, while Ishion Hutchinson shows how the close reading of a poem can open into a close reading of the complexities of history. Poems by Kwame Dawes, Nicole W. Lee, Danez Smith, and Tyler Mills construct tales, mythographies, and fabulisms that gesture toward another world: one that can and must be made from ours. All this and much more in the print edition, available for purchase by single copy or subscription. Readers can also find unique content at AGNI online as well as featured content from past issues.
The theme of the 2023 spring issue of Valley Voices is “Goodbye,” which may mean departure, detachment, death, divorce, breakup, change for a new life, promising career, or bright future. There are different ways to say goodbye, such as farewell, adieu, bon voyage, or zaijian. Sometimes the word carries nuances of meaning. Pretty much the opposite of the word is badbye or sadbye, so bye can be awful, beautiful, fearful, joyful, mournful, mirthful, painful, peaceful, sorrowful, tearful, or wistful. Goodbye has been a charming theme that attracts writers to explore from different viewpoints. This special issue includes 7 fiction/nonfiction, a photo essay about the South, poetry by 24 poets, 10 book reviews, and a featured interview with DC Berry.
The May 2023 issue of The Lake online poetry magazine is now live and features work by Kevin Carey, Mike Dillon, Ted Jean, James King, Norman Minnick, A. N. Other, Jane Pearn, Fiona Sinclair, J. R. Solonche as well as reviews of Jo Clement’s Outlandish and Claudia Serea’s In Those Years. “One Poem Reviews,” in which one poem is featured from a poet’s newly published collection, this month spotlights Catherine Esposito Prescott, Etheridge Knight, and Caridad Moro-Gronlier.
Editor-in-Chief Daniel Lawless writes, “Perhaps it’s best, as Plume nears its 12th year, to describe the current issue (#141) with reference to our initial mission statement: [We hope to present] a magazine dedicated to publishing the very best of contemporary poetry. To that end, we will be highly selective, offering twelve poems per monthly issue. A provisional indication of our tastes might include a sense of the uncanny, and of the fineness of language, the huge absences to which it points and partakes of, and the urgency and permanence of its state of departure — the coattails forever –just now—disappearing around the corner. But also a certain reserve, or humility, even when addressing the most humorous or trying circumstances.”
Only, now, those twelve poems are accompanied by essays, reviews, and longer featured selections. In the May issue, Plume includes, for example, a portfolio of poems from Mariella Nigro’s Memory Rewritten and an interview by Mihaela Moscaliuc with translators Jesse Lee Kercheval and Jeannine Marie Pitas; and Chard DeNiord’s essay “The Poetic “Engine” in Flannery O’Connor’s Fiction.” These, together with new work by Julie Bruck, Nicole Cooley, Volodymyr Tymchuk Denise Duhamel, Angela Ball, and Amit Majmudar, among others, make for a typical issue. Plume‘s cover art this month is Jacob Lawrence’s “The Photographer.” Readers are invited to enjoy the full content open-access online.
The Iowa Review’s new double issue, 52.2/52.3, includes poetry, nonfiction, fiction, and translations by emerging and established writers such as Mark Chiusano, Kwame Dawes, April Freely, Annelyse Gelman, Kimiko Hahn, David Hernandez, Tom Lutz, Leslie Pietrzyk, Craig Thomas, Teresa Veiga (translated by Jeremy Klemin), and more, including the winners of the 2022 Iowa Review Awards: Amanda Barrett, Ruby Hansen Murray, Stephanie Ramlogan, Avia Tadmor, Bret Yamanaka, and Melissa Yancy. In this issue, readers will find pieces that feature a home for girls, the bardo, weddings, a mountain lion, pending Amazon orders, zero, hurricanes, Ree Drummond, and Juan Felipe Herrera.
The Louisville Review Editor Sena Jeter Naslund says of issue 92: “I don’t think TLR has ever received more compliments on our front-and-back cover image-and-layout (that’s since our #1 issue in 1976).” The issue’s cover design is by Jonathan Weinert and the featured artwork is by Ying Kit Chan. TLR 92 also has a moving tribute to Kentucky Poet Laureate and Bellarmine professor Frederick Smock, who passed away unexpectedly last year, in addition to a wonderful variety of poetry, short fiction, creative non-fiction, and children’s poetry.
Contributions include Cornerstone Poetry (from K-12 contributors) by Kate Rowberry, Faye Zhang, Emma Catherine Hoff, Jiayi Shao, Yunzhong Mao, Helena Wu, Mary Virginia Vietor, Cloris Shi; Nonfiction by Chris Reitz, Dianne Aprile; Fiction by Patricia Foster, Jody Lisberger, Mrinal Rajaram, Lynn Gordon, Elizabeth Schoettle, Catherine Uroff, Sarah Martin, David Wilde, Bob Chikos; and Poetry by Frederick Smock, Tony O’Keeffe, Congxia Ma, Daisy Bassen, Kristin Camitta Zimet, Karen McAferty Morris, Elya Braden, Juan Pablo Mobili, Angie Macri, Joe Schmidt, Josh Mahler, Wendy Taylor Carlisle, Michelle Glans, Michelle Bonczek Evory, Michael J. Galko, Mary Buchinger, Rebecca Thrush, Mark Smith-Soto, Ciara Shuttleworth, John Repp, John A. Nieves, Jeff Hardin, Renee Gilmore, Matt Dennison, Lana Spendl, Gaylord Brewer, Diane Scholl, Marianne Kunkel, Melissa Madenski, Jeremy Paden, Rosanne Osborne, Robert Eric Shoemaker, Marcia L. Hurlow, Chelsie Taylor, Joseph Anthony, Luke Wallin, V. Joshua Adams, Denise Duhamel, Pat Owen, Donald Illich, James B. Nicola, Hollie Dugas, and Millard Dunn.
In the Spring 2023 issue of Colorado Review comes this ominous bit of advice, “Whatever plans you think you got, you better get some others.” Given in Brendan McKennedy’s “Deep River” to a young woman struggling to make a meaningful life as a millhand in 1920s North Carolina. In Joanna Pearson’s “The Favor,” a couple become the hosts to an unexpected houseguest at a time when they are questioning the boundaries of what makes a family. The narrator of Deepa Varadarajan’s “How to Give a Best Man Toast” wrestles with the shifting of attachments as his beloved older brother gets married. And in Naihobe Gonzalez’s “Southern Cemetery,” a young woman spontaneously spends an evening with a new friend, exploring the risky space between safety and uncertainty, confronting her relationship to fear. The essays are concerned with the spaces we inhabit—and how they shape us. “First you live in a house, and then it lives in you,” writes Emily Winakur in “Who Lives in That House,” an essay that explores the relationship of place to memory. Jonathan Gleason’s braided essay “Proxemics” is a meditation on architecture, spatial relationships, family, penitence, and forgiveness. In “The Other Erica,” Erica Goss contemplates the multigenerational impact of her grandmother’s death, leading her to search for the house in Germany where her mother and grandmother endured WWII, seeking clues about her mother’s, grandmother’s, and her own identity.
New to the scene, RockPaperPoem publishes three times a year online (April, August, December) in an open-access format. The editors seek “today’s finest poetry from established, emerging, and new poets residing anywhere in the world.” Their mission is to include a diversity of voices while highlighting work “that expands the boundaries of contemporary poetry, without sacrificing accessibility for experimentation.”
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 contributors include Paul A. Freeman, Leland James, Cheryl Corey, C.B. Anderson, Susan Jarvis Bryant, Andrew Benson Brown, James Sales, Paul Martin Freeman, Isabella Bethe, Russel Winick, Mark Stellinga, Brian Yapko, Jeffrey Essmann, Mary Gardner, Roy E. Peterson, James A. Tweedie, Tod Benjamin, Janice Canerdy, Margaret Coats, Joshua C. Frank, Monika Cooper, Evan Mantyk, D.T. Holt, Damian Robin, Stephen Binns, and Warren Bonham,
In the Editor’s Note introducing the May 2023 issue of Poetry, Guest Editor Charif Shanahan writes, “In this issue, I have endeavored to include a range of voices, aesthetics, geographies, languages, identities, and subjects. We have poems from first-time contributors and long-time ones; folks with one book and folks with a dozen; and poems from six different countries, in as many languages. The unifying thread—at times subtle, at times demonstrative—is how we shape one another, for better or for worse; how we induce change and growth in those around us, intergenerationally or laterally; and how this influence shapes, or even dictates, the ways in which we live our lives.”
Contributors to this issue include Marie Howe, Robert Wood Lynn, Brian Tierney, Danusha Laméris, Álvaro De Campos, Margaret Jull Costa and Patricio Ferrari, Mona Kareem, Sara Elkamel, Cynthia Cruz, Kathryn Nuernberger, Lucia Cherciu, Rodney Gómez, Kim Hyesoon, Rachel Linn, Diana Marie Delgado, D. Nurkse, Randall Mann, Toi Derricotte, Rodrigo Toscano, Tomaž Šalamun, Brian Henry, and J. Mae Barizo. There is also a folio of work by Assotto Saint introduced by Pamela Sneed.
Fictive Dream is an online magazine for short stories (500-2500 words) that give an insight into the human condition. The publication features stories “with a distinctive voice, clarity of thought, and precision of language. They may be on any subject. They may be challenging, unsettling, uplifting, cryptic but, above all, they must be well-crafted and compelling.” The publication accepts submissions on a rolling basis and publishes one story every Friday and Sunday. Recent contributors include Claudia Monpere, Brian Sutton, Heather Haigh, Catherine McNamara, Gay Degani, Robert Sachs, Robert Pope, Sandra Arnold, Louis Gallo, Chrissie Gittins, Jennifer Fliss, Jo0Anne Cappeluti, Gary Finke, Susan Elsley, Joan Leotta, Sarah Turner, Linda Briskin, Shelley Trower, Lisa Johnson, Mitchell, and Mike Fox.
Topical Poetry contributors share poems based on a recent public news/event, preferably from the previous or current week. Editors select the best ones and publish them on the website twice a month, on every other Sunday. “Poetry on current events can be transformational, thought-provoking, and everlasting.” Recent works include “DEMAND DEMAND DEMAND” by Veronica Caporuscio, “Quantum Physics Proves There is No Such Thing as Nothing” by Gabby Gilliam, “Baker’s Farm” by Dale Hensarling, “10,000%” by William Aarnes, “Wokeness” by Garry Unmey, “Another End of the World Type Scenario” by Chris Bullard, “Full Circle” by Rick Blum, “Marjorie Taylor Greene” by David Blumenfeld, “It’s My Birthday!” by Meghan Martin, “A Week Of Shootings” by Jefferey L. Taylor, “On Lies Many Shapes” by Jen Schneider, “R.U.D” by J.B. Hogan, and “Careless Consequences” by Keziah Simms.
ANMLY #36 is loaded with poetry, creative nonfiction, fiction, comics, translations, and two feature folios — it’s a good day to be trans!, on trans joy, edited by SG Huerta and Queering the Nigerian Divine, edited by Logan February. Readers can access the publication for free online.
Salvaged is the Spring 2023 Wordrunner eChapbook anthology exploring what can be salvaged from lost or damaged relationships, troubled times, or long lives well lived. Twelve authors write about retrieved memories, industrial waste, car wrecks, lives rescued from despair or death, and what the dying leave behind that may or may not be salvaged. This 48th issue explores emotional residue ranging over time and space from pre-industrial Europe to 1930s Taiwan to an Afghani war zone. New to this issue is Prose Editors’ Choice: “Imperfect Machines” by Joyce Hinnefeld, a meditation on her mother’s life (and the history of the sewing machine). This issue can be read online or downloaded as a pdf along with all the previous Wordrunner eChapbook publications: 26 fiction, 5 memoir, and 5 poetry collections, each featuring one author — and 13 anthologies by multiple authors.
The most recent quarterly issue of Brilliant Flash Fiction (March 2023) is an eclectic mix of stories. In “A Bottle Cap” by Sean Burke, a dysfunctional family party illustrates how badly we can hurt the ones we love. “Yasmin” by Lucy Hooft hauntingly describes a Damascus emigrant’s yearning for her native land. “Across the Bay” by Bayveen O’Connell is the story of a daughter‘s struggle for independence. “Where the Light Killed the Stars” by Aston Lester is the depiction of a boy’s love/hate relationship; “the writer’s voice is phenomenal,” remark the editors. “On Hold” by Jennifer Lai is a witty and melancholy snapshot of life as a single divorced mother. “They Will Feel Lucky” by Slawka G. Scarso is a tale with a twist, clever and moving. Leah Mueller’s “To the Sword-Swallowing Woman in Uranus, Missouri,” is a great fun piece of flash, well-summarized in the last line: “… I never cared much for normal folks.” “Constant Vigilance” by Matt Goldberg is a tongue-in-cheek look at violence in America and our tragic lack of viable solutions. “Four Square and Ray-Ban” by Rashmi Agrawal is a first-person account of a ‘have and have-not’ friendship. Brilliant Flash Fiction is a nonprofit organization celebrating minimalism at its finest.
NImrod International Journal‘s Spring/Summer 2023 issue, Body Language, explores any and all ideas about the body. Indeed, this issue’s title may say “the body,” but the editors especially wished to acknowledge and embrace that there is no one body, that our bodies, the way we use them, and the way they feel, span an astonishing range of experience. Each of us lives in and as a particular body, and each of our bodies has its own stories to tell, and the stories told in these pages, whether as poems, creative nonfiction, or short fiction, demonstrate this idea with grace, wit, insight, honesty, and tenderness. Also in this issue, readers will find the winners and honorable mentions of the sixth Francine Ringold Awards for New Writers, which honor the work of talented emerging writers.
Readers can now enjoy the Spring 2023 issue of Months to Years, a beautifully curated online space to share compelling and original works that explore mortality and terminal illness. The newest issue includes work by twenty-two creators, including ten pieces of nonfiction, nine poems, and three visual works. Blair Hurley’s piece, “When Is a Pair of Shoes More Than a Pair of Shoes?” explores the conflicting emotions objects can sometimes trigger when we are in grief. In “Midnight Cowboy,” Erica Driggers delves into the recklessness to which grief drove her. Craig Jackson Schuler’s “Leiomyosarcoma Haiku Sequence” juxtaposes existential horror with the quotidian in reflections on life as a terminal cancer patient.
Readers can access Months To Years in multiple formats. Digital versions—which include an online flip book, a downloadable PDF, and a web-based experience of each creative work—are all available for free. Glossy magazine hard copies can be purchased via third-party vendor Blurb. A small portion of each hard copy sale helps support the publication’s work as a nonprofit.
Hot Pot Magazine is a new open-access online monthly lit mag of prose, poetry, and visual art as well as experimental work like comics, audio spoken word, or music files. Founder and Editor-in-Chief Emily Pedroza says she started Hot Pot Magazine because “I just wanted to create a hub for literature and art that makes people feel less alone. To amplify the stories and voices that lie within literature and art.”
Sky Island Journal’s stunning 24th issue (Spring 2023) 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.
