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At the NewPages Blog readers and writers can catch up with their favorite literary and alternative magazines, independent and university presses, creative writing programs, and writing and literary events. Find new books, new issue announcements, contest winners, and so much more!

SHR Auburn Witness Poetry Prize

jake-adam-yorkThe newest issue of Southern Humanities Review (v48 n4) includes a special poetry section featuring the winner, runners-up and finalists for the 2014 Auburn Witness Poetry Prize honoring Jake Adam York (pictured; 1972-2012).

WINNER
Amanda Gunn
Gunn was the guest of honor at “Abide”: A Tribute to Jake Adam York and His Work, October 2014.

RUNNERS-UP
Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach
Shara Lessley

FINALISTS
Lauren Camp
Kai Carlson-Wee
Joshua Gage
Jennifer Horne
Jeremy Keenan Jackson
Anna Leahy
Enid Shomer
David Tucker
Seth Brady Tucker
Richard Tyler

The Fiddlehead Summer Fiction Issue

fiddlehead-summer-2015I couldn’t help but to share this snippet from Mark Jarman’s editorial remarks for the summer fiction issue of The Fiddlehead (n264):

I will be brief: this is an amazing collection, an astounding summer fiction issue. Look at the stories and writers from around the globe, writers new and proven: no one else in Canada can touch what we are doing right now.

There I’ve said it; the gods of the small mags can strike me down.

Rather than being struck down, I hope this encourages readers to take look (a couple can be read full text online) and judge for themselves!

New Lit on the Block :: Polychrome Ink

polychrome-inkPolychrome Ink is a new biannual print and e-published journal with the mission to highlight that diversity is not a niche market, but a mass market.

“Polychrome Ink is run by a group of diverse friends,” Executive Editor Em Salgado explained to me. “We met due to a mutual love of literature. During frequent literary discussions, we often noticed a shortage of characters that represented any of our individual diversity points, which only further highlighted what we felt was lacking. The need to see ourselves normalized in the literature being produced and the literature we love became our raison d’être. Eventually we grew tired of simply talking about it and decided to take matters into our own hands.”

At the editorial helm along with Em are Associate Editor Zire Fournier, Copy Editor Kimmia Masterson, and Assistant Associate Editor Zaira Fournier. Additionally, Polychrome Ink currently has eight specialty editors who assist with topics and themes in which they have experience. For example, if Polychrome Ink receives a submission with any of the following themes: gay male, genderqueer, religious, neuroatypical — the editors send that submission to Aaron for review because he, himself, is a gay neuroatypical genderqueer individual who studies theology.

Unique to this publication, writers who submit may choose the editor that they feel best suits their work. Em explained, “The process of selecting an editor with the appropriate diversity points and literary interests helps to assure writers that their submission is being reviewed by someone that their work will resonate with the most — thus making the relationship between writer and editor more personal.”

Even the name Polychrome Ink speaks to the diversity of the publication: “We were looking for a moniker that represented diversity,” Em said, “and by extension, diversity in writing. Polychrome means multicolored, yet does not have the same connotation as rainbow, since our demographic extends beyond LGBTQIA+ themes. And Ink, of course, represents the writing itself.”

Readers of Polychrome Ink can expect to find a collection of short fiction, creative nonfiction, flash fiction, essays, and poetry written by diverse authors and/or with diverse themes. Em explains that “Polychrome Ink seeks to share authentic voices and quality literature, covering an array of genres and topics, with the hopes that the work resonates with readers.”

For their inaugural issue, the featured author was Tessa Gratton, alongside Emma Mauze, Frances Kimpel, D. Michael Warren, Shana Bulhan Haydock, David Perlmutter, Yuan Changming, Anders Scott, Jan Steckel, Robin Wyatt Dunn, Courtney Hamel, Kim Luna, Jaycee Boydgarcia, Alex Franco, Malcolm Friend, and Stephen Mead.

“In terms of the future,” Em told me, “we will continue providing an outlet and resource for writers and readers alike. We would like to be amidst the publications everyone looks to for original diverse literature. We also have plans to expand our staff — thus broadening the diverse spectrum of our editorial team.”

Polychrome Ink accepts submissions via email and is approaching the end of the submission period for Volume II — which releases in October. (Submissions close July 31.) There is no reading fee and the publication is a paying market with hopes that as readership grows, so will the compensation to writers.

Poem :: Sara Marron and Michael Reich

sara-marronThe Lucy cell
the stock exchange creating a consciousness
the computer, functioning on man-made algorithms
corrects its own mistakes
error-correction is a sign of
(to a computer)
a sign of its own conscious
its own identity…

From [Language] CSS and HTML [/Language] by Sara Marron and Michael Reich
Chagrin River Review, Issue 6 (Spring 2015)

Flash Fiction :: Kelly Charlton

As I head into my “summer off” I can honestly say I appreciate this hardcore look at teaching. I’ll use this as my retrospective for the month:

“At age 26, your first teaching assignment shattered your dreams. Your students preferred other forms of entertainment such as talking on their cell phones or discussing who was sleeping with whom to studying Shakespeare and dangling participles. Most had no clue how to express themselves using a complete sentence, and if you’d had a whisky shot for every time you read an essay containing the word ‘cuz,’ you would have become a fine drunk, which in retrospect doesn’t sound so bad.”

From “A Guide for the Burned Out Teacher” by Kelly Charlton published in Crab Fat Literary Magazine online content, July 2, 2015.

MFA Attitude Adjustment

charlotte-morgantiAmidst all the debate about the “value” of higher education and the “overabundance” of MFAs being turned out of programs these days, it was refreshing to read Charlotte Morganti’s Eight Reasons to Considering Pursing an MFA on Fiction Southeast. What a great reminder that it’s okay to want to go to school to LEARN not just to EARN. Morganti writes, “Initially I enrolled in my MFA program for two reasons – to learn the craft and to hang out with some really cool people. By the time I earned the degree, I had benefited in many other ways as well.” She invites readers in or pursuing MFAs to give their own reasons for enrolling in a program, as well as responses to these two questions: Did your MFA give you benefits you dind’t expect when you first enrolled? If you opted no to pursue and MFA, what were your primary reasons?

World Literature Today – May-August 2015

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

Concho River Review – Spring 2015

Concho River Review is a traditional literary magazine, offering the old-fashioned pleasures of text and comprehensibility under the motto “Literature from Texas and beyond.” Published twice a year in paperback by Angelo State University, and part of the Texas Tech University System, the contents are mostly from Texas, with little from beyond. They are neatly arranged in sections for fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and book reviews, with roughly equal amounts of each, with no graphics or artwork.

Continue reading “Concho River Review – Spring 2015”

The Georgia Review – Spring 2015

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

Border Crossing – Fall 2014

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

A Public Space – Winter 2015

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

Profane – Winter 2014

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

The Iowa Review – Spring 2015

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

Atlanta Review – Spring/Summer 2015

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

Ninth Letter – Spring/Summer 2015

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

Redivider – 2015

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

Moss – Summer 2015

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

The Cossack Review – Spring 2015

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

Graphic Narrative: Emily Steinberg

emily-steinberg“First sort through Emily Steinberg’s A Mid Summer Soirée in quick succession,” writes Tahneer Oksman, Graphic Narratives Reviews Editor of Cleaver Magazine, “Then go back and read it slowly.”

I did just that, and found that as I progressed through the images with accompanying text, I became more and more amused by the story of each whimsical character.

“He thought his Linen Suit was the way to go.”
“She wondered if her new Coif was appropriate for an evening soiree.”
“He’d received the invite only a day before and felt decidedly B-listed.”

There’s no transition to connect the images and stories to one another, other than the overall title. As Oksman writes, “Trying to fill in the narrative gaps is part of the pleasure of the journey, as is, on the contrary, moving past those gaps in favor of experiencing the piece’s seductive rhythm.”

Going back through it slowly allows time to absorb the artwork, which is fantastic collage/sketch design work. Using newspaper, with lots of crosswords sections, some of Steinberg’s images have almost an exquisite corpse feel to them that makes it both disconcerting and impossible to look away.

Need a Prompt? Try These!

themaLooking for an idea to get your writing started today? Try THEMA literary journal! Each issue of THEMA is based on a different unusual theme. The journal is designed to provide readers with a unique and entertaining collection of artistic theme interpretations, in the form of stories, poetry, black-and-white artwork, and photography. It also provides a stimulating forum for established and emerging literary artists and serves as source material and inspiration for teachers of creative writing.

Upcoming themes and dealines for submission:

The Neat Lady and the Colonel’s Overalls
November 1, 2015

Drop the Zucchini and Run!
March 1, 2016

Second Thoughts
July 1, 2016

“The premise given,” the editors write, “must be an integral part of the plot, not necessarily the central theme but not merely incidental.” For more information, visit THEMA.

Chariton Short Fiction Prize Winners

chariton-reviewThe Spring 2015 issue of Chariton Review features the winner and finalists of their 2015 Short Fiction Prize, judged by Christine Sneed. This winner of this annual award for the best unpublished short fiction on any theme up to 5,000 words in English receives a prize of $500 and two or three finalists will receive $200 each. All U.S. entrants will receive a complimentary copy of the Spring prize issue in which the winners are published.

2015 Winner
“Sugar Bowl” by Jo DeWaal

Finalists
“Delivery in Göteborg” by Mike Lewis-Beck
“Die Laughing” by Kim Norris
“Big Sisters” by Louise Kantro


Books :: Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prize

no-map-of-the-earth-includes-stars-christina-olivaresThe Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prize is awarded annually, with a first prize of $1,000 and publication. During this past May, the 2014 winner was published: No Map of the Earth Includes Stars by Christina Olivares.

Also the winner of YesYes Books’s 2014 Vinyl 45 Chapbook Competition with her chapbook Petition, Olivares has poems published or forthcoming in Five Quarterly, decomP, Vinyl Poetry, and PALABRA, among others.

Check out the Marsh Hawk Press website for more information about No Map of the Earth Includes Stars or pick up a copy.

Ricochet Review

ricochet-reviewStudent poets guided by faculty and editorial editors at Chicago’s Von Steuben Metropolitan Science Center comprise the editorial board of Ricochet Review, an annual poetry magazine that strives to publish both established and emerging writers who work in poetry and/or poetry translations from various languages and various forms of art. The newest issue (#3) features translation from both underrepresented and major languages, as well as through ekphrasis.

Ricochet Review is unique among literary magazines because of its “Apprentice Poet and Master Poet Mentorship Exchange.” This is an opportunity for high school poets to hone their craft through a guided, workshop-style collaboration between experienced, published, and talented master poets, who understand the art of poetry and how to convey it. High school students who wish to be mentored should highlight their interest in their cover letter when submitting their poems. The editorial board will then contact chosen participants.

Ricochet Review is currently accepting national and international submissions from high school students, college students, and non-students. The theme for their next issue: “Macabre and Grotesque.” The editors write, “We are looking for any type of poetry and translation directly or indirectly inspired by the macabre and/or grotesque.” The reading period ends February 1, 2016.

Poetry Resource for Teachers

The Teacher’s Lounge on the League of Canadian Poets website offers some great resource essays and lesson plans:

Encouraging Amazing Writing by Dawna Proudman
Inspiring Writing that Makes You Stand Up and Cheer by Dawna Proudman
Performing your Work: Finding the Actor Inside of You by Penn Kemp
Get Rhythm: teaching students to hear rhythm and metre by Katherine Parrish
Keep it Simple: Concrete Imagery in Poetry by Michael Mirolla
Dispelling the 5-7-5 Myth: A Haiku Lesson for Elementary Students by Naomi Beth Wakan
Canadian Poets Across the Curriculum: Al Purdy and the Dorsets by Kathryn Bjornson
Canadian Poets Across the Curriculum: Fred Wah and Joy Kogawa by Kathryn Bjornson
Digital Spaces, Reading, and Poetics by Aaron Tucker
Identity and Autobiography by Aaron Tucker
Teaching Form Poetry by Yvonne Blomer

Writing Dialogue – Or Not

samsun-knightWriter Samsun Knight explores the role of conversational dialogue in fiction: “…in reality, nobody ever talks to anyone else. What speech actually achieves is a communication between one person and that person’s idea of the other. Most of the time there is no difference, no discernible difference, between such verisimilitude and the truth. But the best dialogue will manifest this disparity in subtle, slender ways. It will show how, in speaking, we fail to speak.”

Read the rest of his commentary in Glimmer Train Bulletin #102 along with other craft essays from authors recently published in Glimmer Train Stories.

It’s Time! August Poetry Postcard Festival!

august-po-poPaul Nelson, poet and lead organizer of the August Poetry Postard Festival has sent the first update for this year’s event!

For you newbies, the August PoPo Fest goes like this: You sign up. You get a list of 31 names/addresses of other people who signed up. Starting late June, you write a poem a day on a postcard and mail it off to the next person on the list, so by the end of the month, you will have (hopefully) written and sent 31 poems and (hopefully) received 31 poems.

The poems are not supposed to be pre-written or something you’ve been working on for months. This is an exercise is the spontaneous, the demanding, the gut-driven, the postcard inspired – whatever it is that gets you to write once a day, each day, and send it off into the world.

I’ve done this event since it began, and it is now in its ninth year! I don’t always keep to a poem a day; sometimes I get ahead one day, or catch up another, with several poems in one day. But I try my best. The event does get me thinking of poetry in my every day, when I rarely have time for it, and writing it down – something I have time for even more rarely.

I’ve received poems from across the state, the country and around the globe. I’ve gotten postcards made from cereal boxes, some with gorgeous original artwork, and lots of the lovely tacky tourist cards from travel destinations. I have cards from “famous” poets, and some who have since become more famous, and some never signed, so I’ll never know, and it hardly matters. I’ve gotten poetry. Sent to me directly. From strangers. Lovely, strange, absurd, and funny. Poetry.

It’s an amazing event, and I hope you will take the challenge and join in this year. For the first time EVER, the organizers have decided to charge a nominal fee for the event ($10). I can only imagine the amount of work it is to run this (with up to 300 people participating), and keeping up virtual space to promote it. I’m not dissuaded by the fee, knowing the extraordinary event that it is, and knowing I’ve spent 100 times that on conferences from which I’ve gotten a great deal less inspiration…

So, please writers, wanna-bes and needs-a-kick-in-the-arsers, poetry lovers, postcard lovers – this event is for you. Join us!

Gulf Coast 2014 Barthelme Prize Winners

gulf-coast-summer-fall-2015The winner and honorable mentions of the 2014 Barthelme Prize are featured in the Summer/Fall 2015 issue of Gulf Coast:

2014 Barthelme Prize
Amy Hempel, Judge

Winner
Emma Bolden, “Gifted”

Honorable Mentions
Patty Yumi Cottrell, “No One Makes Plans”
Susan Lilley, “Delmonicos”

The Barthelme Prize for Short Prose is open to pieces of prose poetry, flash fiction, and micro-essays of 500 words or fewer. The contest awards its winner $1,000 and publication in the journal. Two honorable mentions will receive $250, and all entries will be considered for paid publication on the Gulf Coast website as Online Exclusives.


Lamar York Prize Winners

amy-clarkThe Chattahoochee Review Spring 2015 includes the winners of the Lamar York Prizes for story, judged by David James Poissant, and essay, judged by Marcia Aldrich. Each winner receives $1000 and publication. This year’s recipients are Joel Wayne for “Brother’s Keeper” (fiction) and Amy Clark (pictured) for “The Rocks” (nonfiction). A complete list of finalists can be found here.

Books :: John Simmons Short Fiction Award

excommunicados-charles-havertyThe John Simmons Short Fiction Award is open to any writer who hasn’t previously published a volume of prose fiction. Charles Haverty is the 2015 winner with his forthcoming collection Excommunicados.

From the University of Iowa Press’s website: “By turns haunting, hilarious, and heartbreaking, Charles Haverty’s debut collection charts the journeys of men, women, and children cast out of familiar territory into emotional terra incognita where people and things are rarely what they seem. . . . There are secrets at the center of each of these daring and original stories—secrets that separate these characters from one another but grow in the mind and the heart, connecting them with all of us.”

To be available in October 2015, copies of Excommunicados can be preordered from the University of Iowa Press website.

Quiddity: Some Changes

quiddity 8 1Quiddity, the international journal and public radio program enters into its eighth year with a couple notable changes. Managing Editor Jim Warner will be handing over the role to John McCarthy, and the partnership with Benedictine University at Springfield has come to close. Quiddity will continue with a new relationship with NPR member/PRI affiliate WUIS, Illinois Public Radio’s hub-station. As Warner writes, “Sharing our contributors’ work with the public-radio audience is a crucial element to our mission at Quiddity and we look forward to sharing more work with you.”

 

Sea Level Rising

I read half of the poetry in John Philip Drury’s newest book of poems Sea Level Rising while situated on a large towel on St. Augustine Beach along the Atlantic in Northern Florida. It was the ideal setting for contemplating as Drury expressed his love for the sights and sounds of the ocean. “I miss the rising tides,” he reminisces in the book’s title poem, “that bash the docks / and spatter brackish water in my face.” Continue reading “Sea Level Rising”

Overwinter

Overwinter, Jeremy Pataky’s debut poetry collection, examines the speaker’s isolation and solace in the vast, untamed nature of the Alaskan wilderness. Throughout the collection, the speaker spends his time between a developed city, with its electricity and human companionship, and the natural Alaskan landscape filled with its braided streams, unpredictable wildlife, and endless illusions of light and depth. Continue reading “Overwinter”

Travels in Vermeer

A little bit travelogue, a little bit art history, and a little bit heartbreaking memoir, Michael White’s Travels in Vermeer explores the author’s fascination with the paintings of Johannes Vermeer, a fascination that takes him around Europe and America. Traveling to Amsterdam, The Hague, Delft, Washington D.C., New York, and London in the course of a year—while at the same time dealing with a painful divorce and custody battle, remembering the difficulties of his childhood and the alcoholism of his early adulthood, trying to get back into the dating scene, and remembering the brief, passionate romance with his first wife, who died of cancer—White gives long meditations on Vermeer’s paintings in lyric detail, becoming an intense eye through which we the readers also get to see them. Continue reading “Travels in Vermeer”

Bottle the Bottles the Bottles the Bottles

Lee Upton’s Bottle the Bottles the Bottles the Bottles is a dense work wrapped in a short body. Originally from Michigan, the Midwest comes through Upton’s poetry in a similar way to a classic James Wright poem. It is there when she wants it to be, but she has the control to stray from it when necessary. Many of these poems are closer in scope to Charles Wright, the current Poet Laureate, and readers of her 2005 publication Defensive Measures: The Poetry of Niedecker, Bishop, Gluck, and Carson will see how they’ve influenced her writing throughout this collection. Continue reading “Bottle the Bottles the Bottles the Bottles”

Dear Herculine

“This letter is about our lives simultaneously, and the mess of memories and body parts that emerges from our selves.” Thus writes the contemporary narrator to Herculine Barbin, an intersexed person born 1838, given a surgical sex reassignment which led to his/her suicide at twenty-nine in 1868. There are about fifteen ways to have an intersexed body, from not XX (female) and not XY (male) to complete gonadal dysgenesis. An intersexed body automatically makes one an intersexed person. The intersexed person does not fall within the guidelines of the social organization based on the clear-cut sexes, male and female, which, in turn, is amenable to the prescribed roles of gender. Continue reading “Dear Herculine”

The Parish

“This is not the story of Katrina, of flood waters rising and then receding,” the prologue of The Parish: An AmeriCorps Story lets readers know. One could argue that it’s not even “An AmeriCorps Story” either. The Parish is a story of finding purpose and direction in a place that feels devoid of nearly everything—a story of finding purpose and direction in one’s self. Continue reading “The Parish”

Mississippi Review Contest Winners

mr 43Mississippi Review Summer 2015 is their “Prize Issue,” so includes the “The Parents” by Charles Ramsay McCrory, winner of the fiction prize, and “Just Talking to Myself” by Sarah New, winner of the poetry prize. The remainder of the issue includes finalists for each of the prizes. A full list of authors can be found here.

New Lit on the Block :: Tishman Review

tishman-reviewThe Tishman Review gets its name from Tishman Hall, located on the campus of Bennington College where co-founding editors Maura Snell and Jennifer Porter gave their graduate lectures and readings as students in the Bennington Writing Seminars. They are joined by Joanne Nelson, editor for creative nonfiction.

Publishing quarterly fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and art, including cartoons, the current issue of The Tishman Review is available for free online. All issues are available to purchase as an e-book and in print-on-demand.

Porter tells me they started a magazine “to be DIFFERENT. We wanted to pay our contributors, we wanted to be hands-on editors—not only reading everything that comes in (and often providing feedback) but also editing accepted pieces, we wanted to be open to what authors are creating rather than having pre-determined ideas of what they should be writing.”

As a result of their up-to-elbows approach, readers can expect to find a selection of poetry, prose and art that “speaks to the human condition” and “hopefully elicits a response, whether it be emotional or intellectual.”

There have been no preset themes for submissions, though themes have appeared from among the works once they have been selected for publication. The editors shared, “We do like to publish work that challenges the ‘isms of sex, race, age, etc.”

Among those writers whose works have been selected, in poetry: Lauren Davis, Ace Boggess, Barrett Warner, Karla Van Vliet and Jennifer Martelli; in fiction: Tamas Dobozy, Amanda Pauley, Laura Jean Schneider, Lee L. Krecklow, James English, and Mercedes Lawry; in creative nonfiction: Robert Vivian, Jayne Guertin, and Kerrin O’Sullivan.

For the July issue, The Tishman Review will begin mini-contests in which readers (on our website) and the staff vote for their favorite piece in each genre and contributors will win prize monies. The editors hope to continue working on the publication’s financial standing so as to increase contributor payments.

All poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction submissions can be made through Submittable. There is a fee to submit works, which the editors felt a need to comment on: “There is a lot of controversy surrounding submission fees. On our website we’ve posted a Code of Ethics for our journal as we do charge a submission fee. We want each submitter to see what they are paying for. We also host regular no fee submission days that we announce through social media. We do not charge a submission fee for art or craft blog posts.”

The Tishman Review also accepts submissions of book reviews and craft essays for the Craft Talk Blog (there is no pay for these contributors, but the byline is worth it – the blog already has some excellent content that has been featured on NewPages), as well as cover art, interior black and white art, and cartoons.

2014 Ginsberg Poetry Award Winners

The 2015-2016 annual issue of Paterson Literary Review generously features all the winners and honorable mentions of their 2014 Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award:

paterson 43FIRST PRIZE (shared)
Linda A. Cronin, Cedar Grove, NJ, “Because It’s Mine”
and
Linda Hillringhouse, Englewood, NJ, “The Bristol Plaza Hotel, Wildwood”

SECOND PRIZE (shared)
Dante Di Stefano, Endwell, NY, “A Morning Prayer While Pumping Gas at the Gulf Gas Station”
and
Abby E. Murray, Endicott, NY, “A Poem for Ugly People”

THIRD PRIZE (shared)
Jason Allen, Binghamton, NY, “Pop”
and
Kenneth Ronkowitz, Cedar Grove, NJ, “That Summer Between”

A complete list with honorable mentions can be found here.

Writers Reread Childhood Favorites

brick-95Now this is cool: Brick 95 has a special feature “On Childhood Books” in which 17 writers reread and comment on books of their youth. Featured authors include Marina Endicott, Pico Iyer, Colum McCann, Kilby Smith-McGregor, Melora Wolff, Eugene McCabe, George Murray, William Kowalski, Frank Macdonald, Aga Maksimowska, Sarah Faber, John Goldbach, Eliza Robertson, Yasuko Thanh, Madeleine Thien, Lisa Moore, and Johanna Skibsrud. Some books you may recognize: Black Beauty, The Little Mermaid, Crime and Punishment, Stuart Little, The Hardy Boys, Peter Pan, and many more. Great concept. Great read. Brick includes some samples on their website here.

Books :: Iowa Short Fiction Award

night-in-erg-chebbi-and-other-stories-edward-hamlinThe 2015 Iowa Short Fiction Award from the University of Iowa Press has been awarded to Edward Hamlin for his debut collection Night in Erg Chebbi and Other Stories.

Judge Karen Russell says of her selection, “The stories in Night in Erg Chebbi are sweeping and intimate and awesomely confident of their own effects. They document staggering, cataclysmic changes—forest fire, flash flood, revolution, murder—as well as the slow violence of grief and degenerative disease. [ . . . ] This is a collection with both depth and breadth, a book dedicated to revealing ‘the universal concealed in the weft of the particular.’ Hamlin spins the globe, jumping nimbly from a treetop lodge on a Brazilian riverbank to the lawn of a governor’s mansion on the eve of an execution to Merzouga, Morocco, ‘gateway to the dune sea of Erg Chebbi.’ [ . . . ] Each story here is a world in miniature, illuminated by the flashbulb bursts of Hamlin’s luminous, controlled prose.”

Available in August, readers can preorder a copy of Night in Erg Chebbi and Other Stories on the University of Iowa Press website.

Glimmer Train Very Short Fiction Award Winners :: June 2015

Glimmer Train has just chosen the winning stories for their Very Short Fiction Award. This competition is held quarterly and is open to all writers for stories with a word count under 3000. The next Very Short Fiction competition will take place in July. Glimmer Train’s monthly submission calendar may be viewed here.

SpencerHydeFirst place: Spencer Hyde [pictured], of Franktown, CO, wins $1500 for “Light as Wings.” His story will be published in Issue 97 of Glimmer Train Stories. This will be his first major fiction publication.

Second place: John Patrick Sheridan, of Schenectady, NY, wins $500 for “The Narrators.”

Third place: Steve Lambert, of St. Augustine, FL, wins $300 for “Fishing with Max Hardy.”

A PDF of the Top 25 winners can be found here.

Deadline coming up for the Fiction Open: June 30
Glimmer Train hosts this competition quarterly, and first place is $2500 plus publication in the journal. This category has been won by both beginning and veteran writers – all are welcome! There are no theme restrictions. Word count generally ranges from 2000 – 6000, though up to 20,000 is fine. Click here for complete guidelines.

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

pilgrimage-sleepPilgrimage magazine (v38 n3) features black and white photography from the organization Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep (NILMDTS). From the organization’s website: “NILMDTS trains, educates, and mobilizes professional quality photographers to provide beautiful heirloom portraits to families facing the untimely death of an infant. We believe these images serve as an important step in the family’s healing process by honoring the child’s legacy.”

Pilgramage editors write, “The organization has a valuable mission and takes powerful photos that are haunting and tender. The photography intersects with the issue’s words by encouraging us to look closer and take no detail for granted. It risks sentimentality and makes us look closer at an intimate moment for families. At the core of it, NILMDTS offers a uniquely valuable service to parents in need and navigates the tough terrain of grieving and celebrating life simultaneously. We encourage you to learn more and support NILMDTS at https://www.nowilaymedowntosleep.org.”

Vallum 2014 Poetry Contest Winners

vallum-surrenderThe Vallum Award for Poetry 2014 Contest Winners are featured in the newest issue.

1st place
“The Long Study” by Alexei Perry Cox

2nd place
“Last evening I stumbled” by Carla Barkman

Honorable mentions
“Apple to Apple” by Susan Hughson
“pass this note” by Domenico Capilongo

Books :: Gival Press Poetry Award

we-deserve-the-gods-we-ask-for-seth-brady-tuckerThe Gival Press Poetry Award is held annually. Open to national and international poets, winners receive $1,000 and publication. The 2013 winner, We Deserve the Gods We Ask For by Seth Brady Tucker was published this past fall.

Judge Lisa Graley, winner of the previous year’s poetry award, says of her selection, “This is sinewy writing at its most sturdy and tenacious. His—tangle of silk and muscle—is sure to stagger and transfix.”

More information about the Gival Press Poetry Award and We Deserve the Gods We Ask For can be found at the Gival Press website.

Threatened Languages Dialogue

YMR Spring 2015Yellow Medicine Review Spring 2015 features “Entering Language from Two Directions” a roundtable conversation with poets who work directly with/in threatened languages. Participants include LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs, Jacqueline Osherow, James Thomas Stevens, and Karenne Wood. Megan Snyder-Camp moderates the conversation and begins: “This is a conversation between poets who enter language form two directions: in addition to engaging language on the page in a variety of innovative ways, these poets also work as linguists, translators, and/or language activists…Grounded in our craft, our conversation covered both what these poets bring to the page and also what happens on the page, while also exploring historical and contemporary context.”

IR Contest Winners & Graphic Memoirs

IR 37n1Indiana Review v37 n1 features 2014 Fiction Prize winner (“The Passeur” by E.E. Lyons) and finalist (“Come Go With Me” by Nora Bonner), 2014 1/2K Prize Winner (“The Girl Next Door to the Girl Next Door” by Amy Woolard), and, while not a contest winner, a cool “Special Folio: Graphic Memoir” featuring work by Bianca Stone, Douglas Karney, Diane Sorensen, Arewen Donahue, and Rowan Hisayo Buchanan.

MAR 2014-15 Poetry & Fiction Award Winners

The newest Mid-American Review (v35 n2) features winners and runners-up of the magazine’s 2014-2015 Poetry and Fiction Awards:

James Wright Poetry Award
Oliver de la Paz, Judge
Winner: “Mapping the Tongue” by Geetha Iyer
Runner-Up: “Iki Dugno,” by Keith Kopka

Sherwood Anderson Fiction Award
Alissa Nutting, Judge
Winner: “Postcard from a Funeral, Cumberland, Maryland, October 16, 1975” by Miles Harvey
Runner-Up: “The Turnip Girl,” by Laura I. Miller

See the full list of finalists as well as judges’ comments on the winning works here.

Essays on The Alchemy of Print

BirkertsThe Sewanee Review Spring 2015 issue takes a close look at the print world with its theme “The Alchemy of Print.” Essays include Sven Birkerts [pictured] on “The Little Magazine in the World of Big Data”; A. Banerjee on T. S. Eliot’s editing career, “T.S. Eliot and the Criterion“; Robert Buffington on Allen Tate’s time at the Sewanee Review; Stephen Miller on the life of the Partisan Review, “Memoirs of a New York Intellectual Manque”; David Heddendorf on “Reading that Isn’t Reading”; John Maxwell Hamilton’s “The Gospel on Book Theft”; “Price Control and the Publisher” by James L. W. West III; “Everything an Anchor” by Fred Chappell; “The Man Booker Prize for 2014” by Merritt Moseley; “Remembering Winston Churchill: The making of a Book” by Mel Livatino; and “The Cheever Misadventure Revisted” by Scott Donaldson.