Unaccompanied Minors, winner of the New American Fiction Prize in 2013, is a slim volume of seven short stories about young adults facing teenage pregnancy, homelessness, prostitution, the death of a child on his babysitter’s watch, and so on. “Shelter,” the first story in the book, is an odd choice for an opening, in that the story largely relies on the limited shock value of having homeless teenagers for its protagonists. Reminiscent of Dorothy Allison’s project to represent the lives of young poor women from the South, Jones’s story is less angry, but similarly features young characters who hide their vulnerability behind tough facades and speech that is likewise patina’d with derogatory slang. Continue reading “Unaccompanied Minors”
NewPages Blog
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!
Unaccompanied Minors
Spread the word!
My Feelings
My Feelings, the aptly primal title of poet and memoirist Nick Flynn’s fourth poetry collection, appropriately marks the book as the end product of long winnowing—an unequivocally subjective appraisal of life’s equivocations. In My Feelings, Flynn brings a memoirist’s robust conception of personal history to the page, crafting finely textured poems about what it means to live in the ever-growing aftermath called the present. To underscore the subjective nature of his collection, Flynn even includes a disclaimer telling readers that “[t]he word ‘my’ in the title is meant to signify the author.” Continue reading “My Feelings”
Spread the word!
A Long High Whistle
According to the author, poetry anthologies are “like a museum exhibition.” They certainly suit every imaginable reading need: fulfilling the core curriculum; completing the home, school, or public library; satisfying the rare book collector; providing access to a favorite writer in one place. Now there is an exceptional anthology about poetry that is both quotable and useful. Readers of The Oregonian are already familiar with poet David Biespiel’s monthly column that ran between 2003 and 2013. Now selections from the series (ended by the author, not the newspaper) are available in A Long High Whistle; Selected Columns on Poetry. Continue reading “A Long High Whistle”
Spread the word!
Cannot Stay
In these eleven essays that make up Cannot Stay: Essays on Travel, Kevin Oderman journeys widely: from Latvia to Italy to Turkey; from Indonesia to Cambodia to Vietnam. Oderman does not feign to completely absorb the cultures in which he travels. Who could in a week or a month? No, he does something better; he delves into an aspect or a couple aspects of a culture or its history. These aspects—whether a painting, a dance, a temple, a house, or a puppets show—he describes so intricately that, while I read, his obsessions became my obsessions, and, when I finished, I remembered my own obsessions, and was inspired to explore them with the same kind of passion and precision. Continue reading “Cannot Stay”
Spread the word!
A Portal to Vibrancy
The particulars of a Catholic girlhood have endured through centuries. Friends, enemies, and colleagues never tire of offering unsolicited psychoanalyses of that guilt-laden live, learn, and worship by rote existence. What outsiders will never understand is that abiding by those rules leads—if one is willing—to a freedom they can never appreciate. Continue reading “A Portal to Vibrancy”
Spread the word!
Metamericana
A good poem places pressure on language in an interesting way. This mantra can be peeled from the pages of Seth Abramson’s Metamericana. However, his secret seems to be that a good poem places pressure on ideas in an interesting way—that a good idea places pressure on old ideas in an interesting way. Philosophy places pressure on technology and technology places pressure on philosophy. All of this interacts in a swirling and kaleidoscopic manner. Continue reading “Metamericana”
Spread the word!
a/0
Hemmed in by questions, suspended over days that mete out incremental evidence, with an investigative protagonist alternating between the archive and the street, this little chapbook—a/0—is an exemplar of the detective genre. But it is so much stranger than most. One wants to say Pynchon or Murakami. No usual suspects here, and the universe is not what you think. Continue reading “a/0”
Spread the word!
Short Talks
“Anne Carson was born in Canada and teaches ancient Greek for a living.” So reads the one sentence biographical author note as retained in this new edition of Short Talks, the poet Anne Carson’s first book of poetry originally published by Brick Books in 1992. In the years since its publication Carson has made a considerable name for herself as a poet, essayist, and astutely adept translator of Greek, with her translation of Sappho in particular garnering much well-deserved acclaim. While Carson has always kept her personal details on the relative down low even as she has, at times, courted a fair bit of notoriety, and while concision is a definitive hallmark of her oeuvre, the brevity of this bio note is thus at once both disarming and appealingly elusive, especially for a poet of her stature. Continue reading “Short Talks”
Spread the word!
A Solemn Pleasure
A Solemn Pleasure: To Imagine, Witness, and Write opens with “A Room in London,” a rumination on the physical space Melissa Pritchard occupied while temporarily living and writing in a borrowed London flat. This particularly brief piece (four pages) introduces the collection by touching on topics more thoroughly explored later in the book: Pritchard describes herself at work, presents her belief in writing as a spiritual—often religious—act, and embraces the essay’s ability to successfully grow around an ill-defined plot. Continue reading “A Solemn Pleasure”
Spread the word!
Natural History Rape Museum (TRIGGER WARNING)
It’s taken me a long time to write this review, at least six months according to the file creation date, and longer than that based on the date on my notes and the date on the book. But Natural History Rape Museum has been in my thoughts all this time, plaiting its Plath-sharp shrieks into my mind. Continue reading “Natural History Rape Museum (TRIGGER WARNING)”
Spread the word!
Vine Leaves Seeks Prose Editor
Vine Leaves Literary Journal is looking for “a dedicated and vignette-loving editor to help us navigate our impressive prose submissions.” They are hoping for someone wanting to stick around for a while who will make a 10-15 hour monthly volunteer commitment. For a full job description, click here. Deadline June 15, 2015.
Spread the word!
GT March Family Matters Winners
Glimmer Train has just chosen the winning stories for their March Family Matters competition. This competition is held twice a year and is open to all writers for stories about family of all configurations. The next Family Matters competition will take place in September. Glimmer Train’s monthly submission calendar may be viewed here.
First place: Clare Thompson-Ostrander [pictured], of Amesbury, MA, wins $1500 for “The Manual for Waitresses Everywhere.” Her story will be published in Issue 97 of Glimmer Train Stories. This is her first national publication.
Second place: Wendy Rasmussen, of Seattle, WA, wins $500 for “Mesopotamian Nights.” Her story will also be published in an upcoming issue of Glimmer Train, increasing her prize to $700.
Third place: Paula Tang, of Riverside, CA, wins $300 for “Little China House.”
A PDF of the Top 25 winners can be found here.
Deadline extended! Short Story Award for New Writers: June 10
This competition is held quarterly and is open to all writers whose fiction has not appeared in a print publication with a circulation over 5000. No theme restrictions. Most submissions to this category run 1500-5000 words, but can go up to 12,000. First place prize is $1500. Second/third: $500/$300. Click here for complete guidelines.
Spread the word!
The Children’s Corner
NewPages loves to encourage young readers and writers, evidenced by our Guide for Young Authors which lists publications with content by and for young readers as well as carefully vetted contests for young writers. Listed on our resources is the The Louisville Review, which features “The Children’s Corner” in every issue, publishing poetry from students in grades K-12. Their newest issue (spring 2015) features works by Kristin Chang, Diamond Woods, Diamond Hoffman, Ella Lombard, Mary Moore, Shirley Lu, and Shakthi Shrima. If you know young readers and writers, please encourage them! [Cover Photo: Manikin by Jack Daily]
Spread the word!
Sin Fronteras Expands Its Borders
Sin Fronteras / Writers Without Borders print journal has been around for 19 years, but as Co-editor Ellen Roberts Young tells us, “We have only in the last two years begun using the web to tell the wider world that we exist.” Publishing fiction, poetry, nonfiction, aesthetic reviews, as well as short plays, submissions are currently open until June 30. “Writers from around the U.S. and beyond are included issue #19,” Young says. “We’d like to hear from more.”
Though Sin Fronteras is based out of Las Cruces, New Mexico, Young warns the biggest mistake writers make in their submissions: “Sending something because it is about New Mexico instead of sending fully polished work. In deciding what to submit, remember that the border between the U.S. and Mexico is not the only border that raises issues. We are interested in work that describes or challenges borders of all kinds: physical, social, intellectual.”
Spread the word!
Tribute to Larry Levis
The Southern Review spring 2015 begins with a twenty-some page tribute entitled, “Larry Levis: Unpublished Poems and the Cast of His Nest.”
In her Editor’s Note, Jessica Faust explains how she was first asked about publishing some of Levis’s unpublished poems which were being compiled for a book edited by David St. John. “In subsequent conversations with other contributors, I came across many poets who had been either mentored by Levis or influenced by his work. I was not surprised: my own admiration for Levis’s work draws me to writing that echoes his style and subjects. What began as a suite of Levis poems grew into a tribute that would also include works by writers he taught or inspired or who were his friends.”
The selection includes an introduction by David St. John, five poems by Levis, and poetry by Philip Levine, David St. John, Ryan Teitman, Peter Everwine, Anna Journey, John Estes, and Joshua Poteat.
Spread the word!
High School Writing Contest Winners
The newest issue of Sierra Nevada Review features select winners of their 5th annual High School Writing Contest, a national competition for high school juniors and seniors. Chosen from a record 525 entries from students across the United States, the winners in each category receive a cash prize of $500 for first place, $250 for second and $100 for third, and the $100 Local’s Prize honors student writers from Nevada and California. The winners also receive a $20,000 scholarship offer from SNC and consideration for publication. For a full list of winners, visit SNR’s website here. Included in the issue:
Fiction
First Place: Emily Zhang (Boyds MA), “Midwestern Myth”
Non-Fiction
Lindsay Emi (Westlake Village, CA), “Latin Class in Seven (VII) Parts”
Gabriel Braunstein (Arlington MA), “Family on the Commuter Rail”
Poetry
Oriana Tang (Livingston NJ), “Bildungsroman”
Spread the word!
Books :: Open Book Poetry Competition
The Cleveland State University Poetry Center Open Book Poetry Competition’s 2014 winner has been released at the beginning of the month. Lee Upton’s Bottle the Bottles the Bottles the Bottles was selected by Erin Belieu. Of her selection, Belieu says, “This is without a doubt my new favorite book. Upton has long been a well-respected poet, prose writer, and literary critic, but she deserves much more popular attention, including yours.”
You can start by checking out Bottle the Bottles the Bottles the Bottles on the CSU website.
Spread the word!
New Lit on the Block :: Julep Journal
Based out of Nashville, Tennessee, Julep Journal has just issued its third print volume to complete its first year of publication. Named, as you might well have guessed, after the delightful southern cocktail, the editors comment, “We identify with it. It’s Southern by origin and in spirit. It’s refreshing, clean. It’s simple but has innumerable variations.”
In keeping with that refreshing spirit of variation, Julep publishes all genres – fiction, poetry, creative essays, academic treatises – and, according to the editors, “we especially love pieces that exist between or beyond those boundaries. In other words, if it doesn’t fit in with more rigid, binary journals, there is a home in Julep.”
Giving this new writing a home are founding editors Joseph Storey, Kevin Foster and Greg Frank, and editors Brittney McKenna and Theron Spiegl, who “like good Southerners, believe in the power and beauty of a fine physical object.”
When asked the motivation for starting up a literary magazine, the editors go back: “Years ago, we would sit around coffee shops and complain about the state of cultural journals. So many do little more than spin the wheels of their chosen genre, advance a binary political position with an inherently limited type of nuance, or represent only a corner of a region. We dreamt of a journal that advances art, represents the spectrum of the creative work of a region, and pushes beyond political binaries. The narrative of the Southern Renaissance, Nashville and the surplus of its creative economy, was rolling at the time. So we decided to start a journal as a platform for the work that was happening.”
As such, readers of Julep can expect to find anything and everything that fundamentally excellent writing and visual art. “A distinctly Southern, non-binary artistic and cultural perspective,” the editors promise readers. “The best work of upcoming Southern intellectuals and artists.” The most recent issue features works by Eileen Fickes, Stephen Mage, Daniel Pujol, Cameron Smith, Matthew Truslow, Jessica Kennedy, and featured artist Robert Scobey.
While publishing as a triannual the first year, the editors are planning to extend the length and cultural commitment of each journal and move to biannual printing. “We want every issue to eclipse the last in cohesiveness of theme, quality of work, and physical beauty. In order to accomplish this, we’re planning to publish twice yearly rather than thrice, with a greater range of art. We also want to build and grow our partnerships with artistic and cultural institutions across the South, including cohosting events of all types. Why create if it’s not ambitious?”
For writers, the editors are always accepting new pieces. The next issue will be available in mid-June, with plans to select pieces for Issue Five by the end of July. Visit the Julep website for more specific information about genres.
The most unique quality of Julep’s model is editorial. We reject the notion that ideas – and the attempts of writers and artists to express those ideas – exist in a vacuum. Julep’s team of editors support writers as they hone – and even sometimes create – their pieces. It’s a messier process, but the pieces turn out better and the final product is more thematically cohesive.
Spread the word!
Craft Essays :: Tishman Review
In addition to publishing short fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction and book reviews year-round, The Tishman Review keeps a regularly updated Craft Talk Blog that features interviews, commentary, reviews, and craft essays. These essays come in many styles: analyzing other’s work, “On Writing Towards Both the In-group and the Outliers” by Linda Michel-Cassidy; soul-bearing commiseration, “The Rejection Blues” by Jennifer Porter; confessional, “On Writer’s Block” by Maura Snell; writing practice, “Breaking Lines” by Barrett Warner; an editor’s perspective, “An Authentic Voice” by Jennifer Porter; writer-to-writer extensive focused discussion, “Objects in First-Person Fiction, or The Unreliable Narrator’s Stuff” by Linda Michel-Cassidy; and a thumping substantial analysis turned conversation between works by Calvino, Woolf, and Agee, “Lightness in Childhood” by Jennifer Porter.
Spread the word!
PWs LGBTQ Feature
Publishers Weekly’s May 25 LGBTQ feature kicks off a month-long look—in print, online, and elsewhere—at various corners of LGBTQ publishing. Below are topics already covered (each are linked to their full article on the PW site), with more issues planned for June, such as finding, publishing, and marketing LGBTQ titles, romance, comics and manga.
What authors, editors, and others would like to see next from LGBTQ publishing
How some key LGBTQ publishers are pushing boundaries in the category
How official classifications of LGBTQ books have evolved over the decades, and what that’s meant for readers
How religion houses are adapting to shifting public opinion around LGBTQ issues
How transgender characters are being depicted in books for children and young adults
Why one transgender author writes about all sorts of experiences, not just her own
How a Philadelphia AIDS charity stepped in to keep the historic Giovanni’s Room bookstore thriving
In addition, PW is running a “Queering the Title” contest, #queerabook. “We want to hear your boldest ideas for titles of LGBTQ books that don’t exist—yet. Yes, it’s a fun game, but it’s also a way of getting people to think about how much space there is in the ‘canon’ for queer and trans stories.” Twittering begins June 1.
Spread the word!
Lit Mag Covers :: Picks of the Week
The Spring 2015 issue of Stoneboat Literary Journal features “Creation” by Gordon Gohr, a stunning image which will draw interested readers to the photo essay within by Mariko Nagai, “Hiroshima: The Occupation Period.”
Main Street Rag Editor and publisher M. Scott Douglass also contributes to this issue’s cover. A dog will always make my pick for the week, and this one, with animals stacked lazily about just looked too comfortable to pass up.
I guess the theme for this week’s covers could be “things that are stacked” or something like that. Mamalode makes it for its special edition “Better Together.” Jessica Shyba’s photo models are two of her four children and her dog, Theo.
Spread the word!
Open Season Award Winners 2015
The Malahat Review #190 features the winners of the 2015 Open Season Awards:
Poetry
Rebecca Salazar, “synaesthesia”
Fiction
Wanda Hurren, “Rain Barrel”
Creative Nonfiction/Memoir
Michael Carson, “The Neanderthal and the Cave”
The publication includes an interview with each winning author which are also available on the publication’s website here.
[Cover Art: Étant donné: the Loris perched on his neoclassical plinth, 2008. Polystyrene, concrete adhesive, paper, paint / 68 in. × 24 in. × 21 in. / Collection of the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art / Photo: Richard-Max Tremblay]
Spread the word!
Owl of Minerva Award 2015
Minerva Rising literary journal “Celebrating the creativity and wisdom in every woman” offers a $500 scholarship to provide one woman with financial support to further her writing endeavors, awarded during Women’s History Month. The Owl of Minerva Award application requires women writers to answer the questions provided on the award page here. The judges will read for clarity as well as creativity. Writers may answer the questions in the genre they feel best represents each applicant. The application period ends June 1, 2015. Winner will be announced Fall 2015. [Pictured: 2014 Owl Award Recipient Chelsey Clammer]
Spread the word!
Books :: Miller Williams Poetry Prize
The Miller Williams Poetry Prize is annually held by the University of Arkansas Press. Each year, three finalists are announced with one winner of $5000 and publication.
George David Clark, with his first collection of poems Reveille, is the 2015 winner. Editor-in-Chief of 32 Poems Magazine, Clark has also earned the Olive B. O’Connor Fellowship in Poetry and a Lily Postdoctoral Fellowship, among other honors.
Published this past February, Reveille, the publisher’s website says, “is rooted in awe and driven by the impulse to praise. At heart, these are love poems, though their loves are varied and complicated by terrible threats: that we will cry out and not be answered, fall asleep and never wake. Against such jeopardy Reveille fixes our attention on a lightening horizon.”
Readers can pick up a copy of this prize winner from the University of Arkansas Press website.
Spread the word!
Drunken Boat Open Positions
Drunken Boat Looking For a Director of Development, Publicity & Marketing Director and Executive Assistant
Director of Development Position
The Director of Development is responsible for long-term financial planning for the organization in collaboration with the Founding and Managing Editors, including developing fundraising initiatives and campaigns; soliciting donations; writing grant statements and narratives; creating an annual grant application schedule; and working with senior editorial staff and advisory board to develop funding opportunities. This is a senior-level position, requiring a time commitment of approximately 5-7 hours a week.
Publicity & Marketing Director
The Publicity & Marketing Director is responsible for implementing our publicity and marketing strategy through traditional and new media outlets. This is a senior-level position, requiring a time commitment of approximately 5-7 hours a week. Responsible for overseeing promotion and social media staff in collaboration with the Assistant Managing Editor; selling and exchanging online ads; scheduling issue-launch publicity; maintaining Drunken Boat’s Twitter and Facebook accounts according to best practices; and developing and maintaining ongoing social media campaigns.
How to apply
Applicants with familiarity with working online and working in publishing are preferred. This is a great opportunity to be involved with an independent publisher that publishes books and a highly-acclaimed journal and that reaches over a hundred thousand unique visitors annually worldwide. If you’re interested, please send a CV and cover letter describing your interest to Managing Editor T.M. De Vos at [email protected]
Executive Assistant Position
The Executive Assistant will work directly with the Executive Director on a number of projects, including preparing books for publication, coordinating our reading series and partnering with other arts organizations. If you’re interested, please send a CV and cover letter describing your interest to Executive Director, Ravi Shankar at [email protected]
Spread the word!
Happy 5th Raleigh Review!
Happy 5th Anniversary to Raleigh Review Literary & Arts Magazine! Started by Rob Greene in 2010 while completing his MFA in poetry from North Carolina State University, Raleigh Review has evolved into a non-profit organization that publishes an award-winning literary magazine and offers literary programs to a broad audience. The premier anniversary issue features poetry by Mark Smith-Soto, Joseph Bathanti, and Ellen Bass, among others, and fiction by Carrie Knowles, Randall Brown, and Petrina Crockford. Cover art is by Geri Digiorno with full-color interior art by Laurence Holden. Congratulations Raleigh Review – here’s to many more great years of publishing!
Spread the word!
New Interview Series on NewPages!
We are excited to announce the inaugural interview in our new series: NewPages Interviews with Creative Writing Teachers.
Our first interivew features Robert Fanning, author of Our Sudden Museum (forthcoming, Salmon Press), American Prophet (Marick Press), The Seed Thieves (Marick Press) and Old Bright Wheel (Ledge Press Poetry Award). His poems have appeared in Poetry, Ploughshares, Shenandoah, The Atlanta Review, and other journals.
In these interviews, writers who also teach discuss publishing, teaching, the business of editing and managing literary journals, and, of course, their own work and process. They offer advice and hard-won wisdom for burgeoning writers and their teachers. We also ask them about their favorite music, and who knows, maybe a favorite writer or two, and a great coffeeshop or beer to add to your “must try” list.
The interviews will be conducted by teacher/writer and editor of Pea River Journal, Trish Harris.
Please help spread the word!
Spread the word!
Freefall – Winter 2015
The 25th Anniversary Issue of Freefall includes only a little over 100 pages of refreshing entertainment. “Only” is an apt inclusion because it would be commendable if we could have even more as soon as possible. Continue reading “Freefall – Winter 2015”
Spread the word!
Salt Hill – 2015
Syracuse, New York was the center of a major salt-mining industry in the 18th and 19th centuries, such that it acquired the nickname “Salt City.” This fact may explain the name of the literary magazine Salt Hill, which bears the logo of a little glass salt shaker. The magazine itself only says: “Salt Hill is published by a group of writers affiliated with the Creative Writing Program at Syracuse University.” Continue reading “Salt Hill – 2015”
Spread the word!
New England Review – 2015
New England Review is a giant among literary magazines, published quarterly by Middlebury College, a small liberal arts college in Vermont. The current issue shows why New England Review deserves its sterling reputation. At 200 pages, it is filled with quality poetry, fiction, essays, and translations. There is no artwork, but as for literature, there is something for everybody: avant-garde free verse, stories set in slums and in high-rent New York, an academic piece on Herman Melville, and a reprint from an 1871 book on the old New England courtship rite called “bundling.” Continue reading “New England Review – 2015”
Spread the word!
Passages North -Winter 2014
Quite notable in the 35th issue of Passages North is a section called Hybrid Essays that pushes creative nonfiction to daring forms of inventiveness and complexity. Nicole Stellon O’Donnell’s hyper-short, personal pieces are exercises in compression, gleaming with economy and calculation; each less than a page long, one might mistake them for flash-fiction pieces, such as “In Gratitude to the Dream Sequence,” which meditates on power in the confines of the bedroom against power in the confines of the boardroom: “Afterward, be glad because she will not turn into your boss and tell you you’re fired.” Continue reading “Passages North -Winter 2014”
Spread the word!
The Austin Review – December 2014
What initially drew me to The Austin Review was the delivery. A sucker for small-sized publications, the compact journal called out to me as soon as I saw it. Even putting biases aside, the beautiful cover art, “Iron Age” by John Mulvany, which features a serene night scene with a ghost lighting up the sky, would’ve been enough to draw me in.
Spread the word!
Midwestern Gothic – Spring 2015
Midwestern Gothic is “dedicated to featuring work about or inspired by the Midwest, by writers who live or have lived here.” On their About page, the editors say, “we take to heart the realistic aspects of Gothic fiction. Not every piece needs to be dark or twisted or full of despair, but we are looking for real life, inspired by the region, good, bad, or ugly.”
Spread the word!
Boston Review – March/April 2015
Boston Review: A Political and Literary Forum, which publishes six issues per year, recentlycelebrated its fortieth anniversary, and that level of time and experience is evidenced by the high quality of the writing and the magazine’s simple yet elegant design. Aesthetically, I enjoyed how the poems were contained within thinly outlined boxes, the dimensions of which changed to best suit the need of each individual piece. Continue reading “Boston Review – March/April 2015”
Spread the word!
Books :: Robert Dana-Anhinga Prize for Poetry
The Robert Dana-Anhinga Prize for Poetry began in 1983 and is open to poets for a manuscript of original poetry in English. Held annually, winners receive $2000 and a reading tour of Florida colleges and universities.
Robin Beth Schaer is the 2014 prize winner with her first book of poetry Shipbreaking. Her work has also appeared in Tin House, Bomb Magazine, Paris Review, Denver Quarterly, Washington Square, and Guernica, among others.
From Schaer’s website: “Shipbreaking charts a beautiful and dangerous journey. It is an intimate and interstellar odyssey where seas rise, mastodons roam, aeronauts float overhead, bodies electrify, and a child is born as a ship wrecks in a hurricane. The speaker here is curious and fierce, consulting scientists, philosophers, ancient maps, fossil bones, and lovers in order to survive and understand the strange majesty of living. With empathy and exaltation, the poems collapse the distance between natural disasters and human struggles, interweaving relationships between the upheavals and renewals that both the heart and Earth undergo.”
Shipbreaking will be published this August.
Spread the word!
Happy 20th Aurorean!
The Aurorean poetry journal celebrates 20th year of continuous publication as an independent, poetry-only New England journal with its Spring/Summer 2015 issue. In the spirit of “publishing the finest poetry possible,” the issues features works from Ellariane Lockie, winner of The Aurorean 2014 Chapbook Contest, Steve Ausherman, John T. Hitchner, and Gus Person, who each have also had chapbooks released as of March 2015. The Aurorean, while enjoying its notoriety, does well to recognize the acheivements of others, with an Editors’ Poem Pick from each previous issue, a Seasonal Poetic Quote published in each issue for which they take submissions from readers, and an Editors’ Chap/Book Choice which mentions a chap/book of note from those submitted to the publication. With all that work in addition to their publishing others, it’s a well-deserved Happy Anniversary Aurorean!
Spread the word!
Essays & Recipes from Bombay/Mumbai
Published from Amherst College, Massachusetts, The Common #9 includes a unique section Bombay/Mumbai: India from Inside and Out—Essays & Recipes, which I thought was just a catchy metaphor. But, sure enough, Nonita Kalra, Suketu Mehta and Amit Chaudhuri each contribute essays, but “Mom’s Dal” is a recipe from the kitchen of Nirmala Swamidoss McConigley handed down to her daughter Nina McConigley; “Pomfret Chutney Masala” is from the kitchen of Bijoya Chaudhuri handed down to her son Amit Chaudhuri; and “Bhel Puri” is from the kitchen of Jehangir Mehta, executive chef and owner of New York City restaurants Graffiti, Me and You and Mehtaphor. As a fan of the essay and Indian cuisine, you can’t go wrong with this issue!
Spread the word!
Books :: Serena McDonald Kennedy Prize
The Magic Laundry, by Jacob M. Appel won last year’s Serena McDonald Kennedy Prize from Snake~Nation~Press.
From the editors: “Jacob Appel’s fiction book, The Magic Laundry, is superbly written with that quirky quality that lets the reader know that somehow Mr. Appel has experienced something close to what he’s written about. Love of children and spouses and acquaintances in all their beauty and irrationality is depicted with an eye to what makes them lovable and yet hard to understand.”
To get your own copy of The Magic Laundry, check out the press’s website.
Spread the word!
Santa Clara Features Gerald Stern
Gerald Stern is the featured poet in the latest issue of Santa Clara Review (102.1), contributing several new poems for the publication. The student-edited publication includes poetry, fiction, nonfiction and full-color artwork, and is available to view in full online via Issuu.
Spread the word!
Cathy Park Hong Against Witness
Poetry Magazine May 2015 features Cathy Park Hong’s essay Against Witness, in which she explores the role of witness in the visual artwork of Doris Salcedo, who was inspired by the poetry of Paul Celan.
To make art representing another victim’s pain can be ethically thorny. Susan Sontag wrote, “The appetite for pictures showing bodies in pain is as keen, almost, as the desire for ones that show bodies naked.” Images of suffering can arouse our horror, simulating an illusive identification between us and the victim or “a fantasy of witness” before we are conveniently deposited back into our lives so that someone else’s trauma becomes our personalized catharsis.
A note following the essay eplains that it was commissioned on the occasion of Doris Salcedo, curated by Madeleine Grynsztejn and Julie Rodrigues Widholm, at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. It is the first retrospective of the work of sculptor Doris Salcedo. The essay is available in full online and includes numerous full color photos from the exhibit.
Spread the word!
2014 Robert Watson Prize Winners
The Greensboro Review Spring 2015 issue (97) includes the winners of their annual Robert Watson Literary Prize:
Fiction
Leigh Camacho Rourks [pictured], “Pinched Magnolias”
Poetry
Juliana Daugherty, “Aubade”
Each winner receives $1000 plus publication. The deadline for this year’s contest is September 15, 2015. The entry fee includes a one-year subscription to the publication. See the publication’s website for more details.
Spread the word!
Ploughshares Transatlantic Poetry
Publisher and editor Neil Astley, founder of Bloodaxe Books, guest-edits Ploughshares special transatlantic all-poetry issue, featuring poets from North America, Great Britain, and Ireland. The issue contains a stirring diversity of work, with writers who have roots everywhere from Guyana to Pakistan to Zambia, and also features poetry in Welsh, Irish, and Scottish Gaelic. Much of the work is from accomplished British and Irish poets who are still little-known in the States. As Astley writes in his introduction, the issue aims to break down “the illogical divide between readerships on either side of the Atlantic,” and spark a conversation that will enliven and invigorate both poetic traditions. (Text from the Ploughshares website.)
Spread the word!
Interview with Robert Fanning
Robert Fanning, professor of creative writing at Central Michigan University, shares his manuscripts in process as well as the methods and sources of inspiration he used to draft them. His advice for burgeoning writers, poets in particular, is not the standard cookie-cutter words of wisdom you’ve heard elsewhere, and his refreshing approach to publishing will help you rethink Submission Sundays. And if you need a new playlist for writing, we have it.
Spread the word!
Iron Horse NaPoMo Issue
Two aspects of the annual Crazy Horse NaPoMo issue (17.2) caught my attention. The first was the editor’s note in which Carrie Jerrell comments on the annual Association of Writers and Writing Programs conference and compares attending this event to writing poetry. Really. Read her comments in full here.
The second was just the titles of some of the poems in the table of contents. These would grab the attention of even the most reluctant poetry reader: “For Sale: Positive Pregnancy Test, Used”; “The Morning Police Found You in a Green Recycling Bin”; “Encounter in East Coker”; “Looking for God in a Panel of Stained Glass”; “Your Presence Was the Question”; “A Kite Addresses Benjamin Franklin”; “Eighteen Photos of Me Holding Up a Boulder”; “[If You are Squeamish]”; “We Were Warned” – and many more.
The poems behind these titles do not disappoint, though the Crazy Horse NaPoMo issue never has!
Spread the word!
Poetry :: Cynthia Pelayo
Afterglow
by Cynthia Pelayo
As soon as I wake the sun is dying
No matter what you believe that orb is the ultimate trickster
Making you promises that its brilliance will give you solace
It moves from you, slipping away and falling behind
. . .
Read the rest and several others by Pelayo on Danse Macabre #90 online.
Spread the word!
Pulp Lit Raven Cover Story Winner
Pulp Literature Spring 2015 features the winner of the 2014 Raven Short Story Contest, “The Inner Light” by Krista Wallace. The editors comment that this story is “a chilling tale of the theatre, and the sacrifices made for art.” The story is followed by an interview with the author in which Wallace comments on places to find humor in writing, how her winning story came to be, current works in process, and advice for writers.
Spread the word!
Writing Characters in Fiction
Both Lillian Li and Cristine Sneed offer advice on writing characters in their Glimmer Train Bulletin #100 craft essays. The GT Bulletin allows writers published in Glimmer Train Stories to offer their advice to other writers in short essays availble free monthly.
Li’s essay “I Want You Bad: Can Nice People Make for Good Characters?” shares advice she’s received – and broken away from – about creating ‘interesting’ characters without navel gazing: “I’ve started creating characters first, without wondering how they’ll benefit the pace of the story. I write the characters I want, and because I want them around, I also want to get to know them.”
Sneed’s essay “What a Character! Incorporating a Living Person into a Work of Fiction” explores that very complicated issue, sharing the one – and only time – she included a real life friend as a character in her writing.
Also included in the May 2015 GT Bulletin is Courtney Sender’s essay “Narrative Arc in the Novel,” rounding out a great installment of craft essays to guide writers in their work.
Spread the word!
Books :: New Issues Prize
Trouble Sleeping by Abdul Ali, winner of the 2014 New Issues Prize, was published this past March.
From the foreword, written by Thomas Sayers Ellis: “Like a projection of testimony, like the shadows that run-off from the plan-projector-tation immediately after you’ve lived and left the theater, like the dark figures moving through the haunted noirs of Aaron Douglas, the widescreen stare of Trouble Sleeping is a mighty mise-en-concern.”
Ali’s poems have previously appeared in Gargoyle, A Gathering of Tribes, and New Contrast, among others. To learn more about Trouble Sleeping, check out the New Issues website.
Spread the word!
HFR Chapbook Contest Winner
Heavy Feather Review 4.1 includes the winning entry of the publication’s annual chapbook contest, Facts About Snakes & Hearts by Flower Conroy. Judge Kristina Marie Darling, author of The Arctic Circle, had this to say about the winning entry: “Formally dexterous and luminous in its imagery, Flower Conroy’s Facts about Snakes & Hearts skillfully situates the age-old tradition of the love lyric in a postmodern literary landscape. Presenting us with ‘flames,’ ‘a wishing bell,’ and ‘a brass bed made of not,’ Conroy shows us ‘how longing is mapped,’ restoring a sense of wonder to a familiar narrative arc. She offers us poems that are as sure of their singular voice as they are diverse in style and metaphor. This is an accomplished sequence and Flower Conroy is a writer to watch.”
Spread the word!
Getting the Whole Grist
Grist: The Journal for Writers published out of the University of Knoxville English Department has a lot to offer readers and writers in support of owning its subtitle to be THE journal for writers.
A visit to its recently revamped website reveals a clean and easy navigation design, leading visitors to one of three areas: Grist Essentials (information about the print publication); The Writing Life; Online Companion.
Grist promotes The Writing Life as “a place to learn about, hone, and discuss your craft as a writer . . . a dynamic discussion of contemporary writing—thoughts on craft, publishing, and the life that both shapes and is shaped by the words we put on the page.” Features include news, craft essays, aspects of living the writing life, and Grist and writing-related events.
Grist Editors write that the Online Companion “allows us to showcase the highest quality writing we receive throughout our reading period while also allowing those less familiar with Grist and Grist’s content to get a feel for the wide variety of work we champion. Grist: The Online Companion is also a way to expand what we’re able to publish because the online arena is more hospitable to a wider formal variety than is often able to fit in the print issue’s 6 x 9 format.” The current issue, #8, features poetry, collaborative poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and collaborative creative nonfiction by Mary Jo Balistreri, Ashley-Elizabeth Best, Matt Cashion, Jacqueline Doyle & Stephen D. Gutierrez, Alex Greenberg, Jennifer Savran Kelly, Joseph Mulholland, Brianna Noll, Nicole Oquendo & Mike Shier.