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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!

Planet Drum Bioregional Poetry Issue

Planet Drum Foundation is “a voice for bioregional sustainability, education and culture. The organization’s website features educational resources, resources, informative essays on current issues related to sustainability culture, and a unique “Eco-Eye on the Olympics” – supporting the foundation’s opposition to the environmental impacts caused by the Winter Olympics.

Members of Planet Drum receive the foundations newsletter, the most recent issue of which features a selection of bioregional poetry selected by Gary Lawless, founder of Gulf of Main Books.

Lawless writes: “I first heard the word ‘bioregion’ spoken by a poet, in the early 1970s. Since then, a lot of my news, a lot of my understanding of the idea of bioregionalism, has come from poets. We talk to each other about the places we love. We learn to listen, to hear the languages of plant, animals, stone, wind and sky, to hear the human languages  developed from living in a particular place over a long period of time. We are seeing many of these languages disappear, as the species and places they speak about disappear.”

This special poetry issues means preserve those relationships, those languages, with works by Jerry Martien, Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, Marcela Delpastre (translated from the Occitan by Nicole Peyrafitte and Pierre Joris), Richard Hamasaki, Lisa Panepinto, Destiny Kinal, Kauraka Kauraka, Jess, Housty, Gary Lawless, Joanne Kyger, Peter Berg, James Koller, Dale Pendell, and Art Goodtimes.

Three Poems from Laura Lee Beasley

The Fall 2014 issue of Apple Valley Review has much to recommend it, but three poems by Laura Lee Beaseley featured in the online magazine took a stronghold in me. Each a short punch of a read hit hard to issues of illness and dying, but shared, not alone. “Our Dying” begins in its title alone to speak of the shared nature we feel in losing and loss of another. “Chemotherapy” brings the patient’s support person into the treatment: “And I felt it too, that sudden spark, / that familiar nervous thump.” The last, “St. Jude,” begins “I asked why you wore him / around your neck. / We’re not even Catholic.” By the close of the poem, the answer is clear. A sorrow-sweet trilogy of work, especially for those having been there, done this.

Nimrod Awards Issue

nimrod-v58-n1-fall-winter-2014Every year, Nimrod puts out a special issue dedicated to that year’s awards: The Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction and The Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry. This fall, Nimrod honors the selections made by fiction judge Chris Abani and poetry judge W. S. Di Piero. “The winning stories and poems display a breadth of style and creativity, each one unique in its approach to its subject.”

The Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction
First Prize
Shobha Rao’s “Kavitha and Mustafa”

Second Prize
Jill Logan’s “Little House”

The Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry
First Prize
Mary-Alice Daniel

Second Prize
Christopher Buckley

Interview with Cheryl Strayed in Booth

cheryl-strayedBecause of her large success with her creative nonfiction title Wild, Cheryl Strayed is greatly known in the writing world, and in the latest print issue of Booth, Ashley Petry talks with her “about telling hard truths, making pacts with your readers, and of course writing like a motherfucker.”

In the interview, Strayed talks a lot about how it is to share truth in writing and the challenges that come along with it: “I always say, if you’re going to show anyone’s ass, it had better be your own. Memoir writing is about the journey of the self. It’s about saying, this is my subjective view of this experience, and that gives you an enormous amount of power. You get to say what’s true; you’re the god of that world. So I belive in searching my soul to tell the necessary truths, and sometimes that involves other people, but I always try to do it with a sense of compassion.”

In response to a question about what she gains from writing about difficult experiences, Strayed conveys that writing is her own kind of therapy: “I’ve been able to forgive and understand and accept many of the hardest things in my life via my writing. The fictional character in Torch who is the stepfather, Bruce, is based loosely on my own stepfather. There was no way I could get inside the consciousness of Bruce without loving Bruce, forgiving Bruce, and understanding why he did what he did. Once I did that, I understood why my stepfather did what he did, and it wasn’t about not loving me; it was about his own survival. Being able to step back from my own life by going deep into the life of literature has been healing over and over again. There’s this strange dichotomy where you have to go deeper into your life while also stepping back from it so that you can craft it into a book or an essay.”

The conversation wraps up with a thought from Strayed about the debate on if you need to live in NYC or have an MFA in order to be a writer: “I think that whole thing is so unbelievably ridiculous . . . What I say is, do the same thing as a writer that you do as a human, to seek out the people who inspire you, who comfort you, who challenge you, who enlighten you, who will offer you shelter when you need it and a push out the door when you need it. I root for real life.”

AQR & Genre Defiant Work

Flipping through the newest issue of Alaska Quarterly Review, from back to front, it only took a page in before I was stopped by the image on the page. I won’t explain it – has to be seen – “STRETCH IT OUT!” by Vis-à-Vis Society (Rachel Kessler and Sierra Nelson). Guest edited with an introduction by Elizabeth Bradfield, “Out of Bounds: A Celebration of Genre-Defiant Work” is pretty dang delightful. While AQR tries to bring it onto the page, the one piece connected directly from their website is really better in the e-version than in print. It’s worth having it preserved in the issue, though both forms seem transient to their own degree, but “The Christmas When You Were Nine” is best experienced in its originally paced “code poem” form. But this is the challenge of works that defy genre, and is nothing new, Bradfield tells us: “Work that defies genre and authorship is not, of course, new. Japanese renga of the 8th century were written collaboratively. One might consider Homer a mashup artist, making his poem from the many tellings and retellings of an oral epic. French Surrealists mixed visual art into their experiments. The ‘happenings’ of the 1950s and 1960s were even more multi-disciplinary and worked to break the fourth wall between performer and audience.” And what was once strange and new became mainstream. Strange and new, fun and playful, definitely worth checking out – with kudos to Alaska Quarterly Review for making efforts to harness that defiance for us to see – or have they harnessed the readers and brought them to this experience? Defiance indeed.

Lit Mag Covers :: Picks of the Week

whiskey-island-64

If you wonder how we pick Lit Mag Covers of the Week, it really is just looking at the issue and catching ourselves saying, “Oh, that’s a cool!” Exactly what I said when I picked up Whiskey Island issue 64. St. Paul, Minnesota painter Aniela Sobieski, also an MFA candidate at Syracuse University, has her work “Young Buck,” oil on canvas, featured on the cover. While still gorgeous, it’s not quite in full. Visit her website for the whole picture.

ragzine

This September/October 2014 cover of Ragzine had been showing up on our slider feature, and each time, I am absolutely drawn to this image. “Ida & Disa” is a photo by Mia Hanson whose interview is included in this issue online.

red-earth-review
Number 2 Summer 2014 of Red Earth Review struck me because I recognize that precarious-looking train trestel trusted to hold up a ton of freight through wooded swamp. We have a few of those near where I live, in addition to reminding me of the film scene from Stand By Me. “People Get Ready” is the photograph by Wilma Whittaker.

two-fates

“Two Fates” oil on masonite panel by Alex Hall featured on the online literary magazine decomP is from his latest series “Relativity,” which depicts individuals floating in time and space. Hall says of this series, “I chose to paint the figures with no distinct faces so they would relate to every man and every woman.”

 

2013 Newman Prize for Chinese Literature

yang-mu“The Newman Prize for Chinese Literature is awarded biennially in recognition of outstanding achievement in prose or poetry that best captures the human condition, and is conferred solely on the basis of literary merit.” The winner for 2013 is Yang Mu, and the recent issue of Chinese Literature Today includes a special feature on the writer, including poetry by Yang Mu and an interview.

Here is a short bio from Chinese Literature Today, and you can read a few of his poems on their website: Yang Mu was born in 1940 in the small coastal city of Huilan in east Taiwan as Ching-hsien Wang 珙씀獻. He received his BA in English from Tunghai University in Taiwan, his MFA from the University of Iowa, and his PhD in comparative literature from the University of California at Berkeley. He has taught at many universities in North America, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, but he spent most of his academic career at the University of Washington, Seattle. He has also served in important administrative positions, including the founding dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the National Dong Hwa University in his hometown of Hualian and the founding director of the Institute of Literature and Philosophy at Academia Sinica, the premiere national research institution in Taiwan. He currently holds an endowed chair at Dong Hwa.

Yang Mu has been writing poetry continuously for sixty years. The longevity of his career is matched by his extraordinary creativity, which has exerted a transformative influence on Taiwanese poetry in general from the 1950s to the present. His poetry assimilates the best that the Chinese and the Western traditions have to offer, deftly blending classicism and surrealism, romanticism and modernism. His poetry may be lyrical or dramatic, contemplative or defiant, elegiac or erotic. In an age when poetry is indisputably considered to be minority literature, Yang Mu enjoys enduring popularity among readers of several generations. His accomplishments beyond the realm of poetry are demonstrable in prose, literary criticism, scholarship on classical Chinese poetry, comparative literature, and editing, as well as the translation of poetry.

Yang Mu has been married to Ying-ying Hsia for thirty-five years; they have a son, Bruce. The couple now lives in Taiwan most of the year, dividing their time between Hualian and Taipei.

Word Trucks Feed the Mind

I appreciate Robert S. Fogarty’s humorous but hard-hitting editorial in the newest issue of The Antioch Review, “Word Trucks: I and You; Here and There; This and That.” In this “nation of fads,” he writes, one is hard pressed to keep up with all of them.” Fogarty goes on to discuss the food truck phenomenon – how in his foreign travels he had been warned against eating from street vendors, and now, here in the US, those curbside eateries are all the rage. He muses, “Literary magazines have been in the food truck business for a long time, serving up a variety of dishes that were intended to stimulate the intellectural palate with ‘the best words in the best order.'” [Qtd Coleridge] While Nicholas Carr looks at “What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains” in his book The Shallows, quoting a Duke University instructor who says she can’t get students to read “whole books anymore,” Fogarty seems unshaken – his stronghold in the “word truck” realm has long been feeding hungry minds to satisfaction. “A heady meal,” he claims – “and it’s gluten free.”

A Resource for Young Writers & Their Teachers!

Know some young readers & writers? Are you a K-12 teacher? Check out the Young Authors Guide on NewPages.com.

This is guide where young authors (as defined by each publication – sometimes it includes college-age) can find places to publish their writing. It is not meant to be an exhaustive list, but rather a select list of publications in print as well as online that have open submissions with guidelines, an editorial selection process, and a regular print cycle. Some publish only young authors, some publish all ages for young audiences. For more specific submission guidelines, visit the publication’s website.

Also included in this guide are contests for young writers. These are carefully selected for quality and sensitivity to not wanting young writers to be taken advantage of (with promises of publication and high entry fees). Almost all are no-cost entry with some awarding scholarship money.

This is not a paid-for page or an advertising page in any way. It is a page I have put together as a resource to encourage young writers in their interest.

If you know of other publications or contests that could be added to this list, please e-mail me with information: denisehill-at-newpageswork.com

Books :: Killing Trayvons

KillingTrayvonsPublished by CounterPunch, Killing Trayvons: An Anthology of American Violence tracks the case and explores why Trayvon’s name and George Zimmerman’s not guilty verdict symbolized all the grieving, the injustice, the profiling and free passes based on white privilege and police power: the long list of Trayvons known and unknown. With contributions from Robin D.G. Kelley, Rita Dove, Cornel West and Amy Goodman, Thandisizwe Chimurenga, Alexander Cockburn, Etan Thomas, Tara Skurtu, bell hooks and Quassan Castro, June Jordan, Jesse Jackson, Tim Wise, Patricia Williams, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Vijay Prashad, Jesmyn Ward, Jordan Flaherty and more, Killing Trayvons is an essential addition to the literature on race, violence and resistance. [Description from the publisher.]

CounterPunch Magazine is a political newsletter of independent investigative journalism, published 10 times per year in print and digital. The CounterPunch website offers content free of charge. This, along with many other alternative magazines on a variety of topics, can be found on the NewPages Big List of Alternative Magazines.

Some Literary News Links :: October 2014

As if being selected isn’t reason enough to read them, Mashable Social Media Assistant MJ Franklin gives us 7 Reasons You Should Read This Year’s PEN Literary Award Winners – matching each reason with an award-winning book. With #1 being “They empower children” it seems enough said, but do read the rest.

Columnist Fanfic writer Elizabeth Minkel weighs in on (whether or not) adults (should be) reading YA literature on the New Statesmen: Read whatever the hell you want: why we need a new way of talking about young adult literature.

Princeton University now houses 180 linear feet of materials documenting Toni Morrison’s life, work, and writing methods – with more to continue being added.

I guess it’s time to re-read Moby Dick and Nathaniel Philbrick’s book that shares its title with the Ron Howard film In the Heart of the Sea so I can keep up with the coming onslaught of comparative news stories and blog posts.

Grad School’s Mental Health Problem and When Education Brings Depression are two insightful articles that might just be what someone needs to read or have shared from a friend, and don’t discount comics for their reach in portraying psychological illness. [Thanks Gerry Canavan for this trio of links.]

2014 Raymond Carver Contest Winners

carve-n9-fall-2014The latest issue of Carve features the winners of the 15th annual Raymond Carver Contest. This year, author Aimee Bender was the guest judge. “Bender’s inspiring stories showed me how exciting and powerful the short story form can be if you just play with the words andi mages and rhythms the right way,” writes Editor-in-Chief Matthew Limpede. “It is truly an honor that she accepted our invitation to guest judge.”

First Place
“Safe, Somewhere” by Baird Harper
From Aimee Bender: “Loved how this story was weird in such a quiet way… That lurking sense of menace that people connect to Carver is very real here. Well-written and distinct unto itself.”

Second Place
“The Snow Children” by Wendy Oleson
From Aimee Bender: “An open and lively child’s voice and a fluid feel to the prose—taking on big issues through the bewilderment and sensitivity of a kid’s point of view.”

Third Place
“Martha and Other Anomalies” by Kerrin Piché Serna
From Aimee Bender: “Captures well Martha’s feelings of returning new and different into a world that is not sure about what to do with her.”

Editor’s Choice (Kristin S. Vannamen)
“Cantaloupe” by Karen Loeb
From the editors: “Karen’s story, ‘Cantaloupe,’ takes a simple piece of fruit and infuses it with rich meaning against the backdrop of Japanese culture.”

Editor’s Choice (Matthew Limpede)
“Entra’acte” by Mark Connelly

American Life in Poetry :: Kooser Celebrates 75

American Life in Poetry: Column 499
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

To celebrate my 75th year, I’ve published a new book of poems, and many of them are about the way in which we come together to help each other through the world. Here’s just one:

Two

KooserOn a parking lot staircase
I met two fine-looking men
descending, both in slacks
and dress shirts, neckties
much alike, one of the men
in his sixties, the other
a good twenty years older,
unsteady on his polished shoes,
a son and his father, I knew
from their looks, the son with his
right hand on the handrail,
the father, left hand on the left,
and in the middle they were
holding hands, and when I neared,
they opened the simple gate
of their interwoven fingers
to let me pass, then reached out
for each other and continued on.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2012 by Ted Kooser from his most recent book of poems, Splitting an Order, Copper Canyon Press, 2014. Poem reprinted by permission of Ted Kooser and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2014 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

Best Bookstores in Chicago

bookstores-in-chicago“You know what you can’t buy on Amazon? A cozy nook to hang out and skim the new or used book you’re about to buy. Knowledgeable staffers (not algorithms) to recommend favorite novels. Some of our favorite bookstores even offer coffee, wine or beer. So the next time you’re on the hunt for a page-turner, browse the stacks inside these wonderful, well-read shops.” Check out the stores in TimeOut Chicago. And you’ll find even more bookstores in Chicago and around the country in the NewPages Guide to Independent Bookstores.

DHQ Explores Shakespeare in a Digital Environment

The newest issue of Digital Humanities Quartely is now available online and features an editorial by Martin Mueller, “Shakespeare His Contemporaries: collaborative curation and exploration of Early Modern drama in a digital environment,” as well as articles on a range of digital issues: “Social Networks and Archival Context Project: A Case Study of Emerging Cyberinfrastructure” by Tom J. Lynch, “Digital Caricature” by Sean Strum, “J. M. Coetzee’s Work in Stylostatistics” by Peter Johnston, and “Computers, Comics and Cult Status” by Jaime Lee Kirtz. DHQ accepts a wide variety of submissions: articles, editorials, reviews, and interactive media.

Lit Mag Covers :: Picks of the Week

arcadia-v9-n1-fall-2014

Arcadia‘s cover issue, as well as a selection included art within the issue, comes from Tammy Brummel, a freelance graphic designer in Oklahoma City. “My process involves compiling a library of photos and layering them on backgrounds,” she writes. “I then add graphics along with other elements until they begin to react with one another and built a story.”

thrice-fiction-n11-august-2014

Katelin Kinney contributes the cover art for the latest print edition of Thrice Fiction. She uses the methods learned from her BFAs in fine art painting and fine art photography to “create digital paintings where photos begin to morph into surreal worlds of fantasy and conceptual dramatizations.

normal-school-v7-n1-spring-2014

Morgan Schweitzer created this cover art especially for The Normal School. “We stumbled on his work for another magazine and flattered him relentlessly until he agreed to do our cover,” write the editors. “A longtime pro in animation and commercial illustration, he has a ton of range, so when we cut him loose on the cover we didn’t really know what style would emerge, only that we were going to be excited about it.”

Call for Submissions :: Responses to Ebola

pdjdwkteFrom Broadsided Press:

The impact of the Ebola virus is devastating. People around the world are mustering to offer aid. In addition to physical and monetary assistance, we can offer solidarity, hope, and art. These things matter, too.

At Broadsided Press, we believe art and literature are as necessary as the news to understanding the world. They demonstrate the vitality of our interconnectedness.

Broadsided Press artists Ira Joel Haber, Amy Meissner, and Maura Cunningham (see below) have offered artwork in response to the ongoing Ebola outbreak.

We now invite you to respond with words.

Send us stories or poems inspired by the images we’ve posted (along with guidelines) at Broadsided Responses: Ebola

Deadline: November 20, 2014

No fee for entry.

Please share this announcement widely. We’d like to welcome as many people as we can to participate.

Leslie Scalapino Award for Innovative Women Performance Writers

QueenNon-Sequitur by Khadijah Queen is the winner of the second Leslie Scalapino Award for Innovative Women Performance Writers. The award will presented, with a reading of the winning play directed by Fiona Templeton, on Monday, November 17th, 8:00pm  at the New Ohio Theatre, 154 Christopher Street, New York NY 10014.

In addition to the reading, the winner will receive a $2,500 cash prize and print publication of winning play by Litmus Press. And from this round on, the award will be biennial, with the winning play also receiving full production in the following year. The next call for entries will be in 2016.

In memory of Leslie Scalapino, her extraordinary body of work, and her commitment to the community of experimental writing and performance, the Leslie Scalapino Award recognizes the importance of exploratory approaches and an innovative spirit in writing for performance.  It wishes to encourage women writers who are taking risks with the playwriting form by offering the opportunity to gain wider exposure through readings and productions. The award also seeks to increase public awareness for this vibrant contemporary field.

Joyelle McSweeney was the winner of the inaugural award for her play Dead Youth, or, the Leaks.

Glimmer Train Award for New Writers Winners

Glimmer Train has just chosen the winning stories for their August Short Story Award for New Writers. This competition is held quarterly and is open to all writers whose fiction has not appeared in a print publication with a circulation greater than 5000. The next Short Story Award competition will take place in August. Glimmer Train’s monthly submission calendar may be viewed here.

JohnThorntonWilliams1st place goes to John Thornton Williams [pictured] of Laramie, WY. He wins $1500 for “Darling, Keith, The Subway Girl, and Jumping Joe Henry” and his story will be published in Issue 95 of Glimmer Train Stories. This will be his first print publication. 

2nd place goes to Stefan De La Garza of Fayetteville, AR. He wins $500 for “Chiaroscuro.”

3rd place goes to Laura Jok of Houston, TX. She wins $300 for “As It Were.”

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

Deadline soon approaching! Very Short Fiction Award: October 31. This competition is held quarterly, and 1st place has been increased to $1500 plus publication in the journal. It’s open to all writers, with no theme restrictions, and the word count must not exceed 3000. Click here for complete guidelines.

Getting the BANG!

RogerBonairAgardTNGThe independent print literary review, The New Guard, has a unique monthly featured entitled BANG! Run as a kind of contest, BANG! showcases individual authors for one month. Each author installment is made up of three pieces in any combination: poetry shorts (20 lines) or fiction or nonfiction (500 words each) for thirty days. Bang! pieces are not published in The New Guard; the work is meant to be very short—flash-short—so that the pieces on Bang! serve as a kind of calling card for the author. Bang! installments run from the first to the first of every month. Writers are invited to submit their previously unpublished works for this feature year round.

The October BANG! author is native of Trinidad & Tobago, Cave Canem fellow, and author of three full length collections of poetry, Roger Bonair-Agard. He is an invited contributor. Former BANG! authors include Alexandra Oliver, Mike Heppner, Marc Mewshaw, Timothy Dyke, Marcia Popp, Quenton Baker and Lissa Kiernan.

American Life in Poetry :: Robert Haight

American Life in Poetry: Column 498
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

Here’s a lovely poem for this lovely month, by Robert Haight, who lives in Michigan.

Early October Snow

It will not stay.
But this morning we wake to pale muslin
stretched across the grass.
The pumpkins, still in the fields, are planets
shrouded by clouds.
The Weber wears a dunce cap
and sits in the corner by the garage
where asters wrap scarves
around their necks to warm their blooms.
The leaves, still soldered to their branches
by a frozen drop of dew, splash
apple and pear paint along the roadsides.
It seems we have glanced out a window
into the near future, mid-December, say,
the black and white photo of winter
carefully laid over the present autumn,
like a morning we pause at the mirror
inspecting the single strand of hair
that overnight has turned to snow.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2013 by Robert Haight from his most recent book of poems, Feeding Wild Birds, Mayapple Press, 2013. (Lines two and six are variations of lines by Herb Scott and John Woods.) Poem reprinted by permission of Robert Haight and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2014 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

Winners of The Enizagam Literary Contest

enizagamThe latest volume of Enizagam, a literary journal edited, designed, and published by the high school students of the School of Literary Arts at Oakland School for the Arts, features the winners of their annual Literary Awards in Poetry and Fiction.

Poetry
Winner: Kat Harville
Finalists: Laura Jo Hess, Michael Mlekoday

Fiction
Winner: Mirene Arsanios
Finalists: Alma Garcia, Mary Kuryla

Of Arsanios’s short story, Daniel Alarcon writes: “Mirene Arsanios has written a dreamy, sultry gem of a story. “B” is about love and desire and growing up; about the power dynamic between two girls on the cusp of being young women. I was drawn in by the careful, supple language, and the poetic rendering of a scene that is both mesmeric and utterly real. Bravo!”

Of Harville’s poems Eileen Myles writes: “Kat Harville #1 for me. I love the intense verbiness. It’s wild stuff full of sprung energy, shrinking and pouncing, full of animals and animalism, full of pronouncements: I am the terrible vanilla and you….It’s brave, passionate, fun dark work that is running on its own honor, its own steam and it does not let up and I am never once disappointed in this work. She plays it to the end, a real poet.”

Poet Bruce Bond Wins 2014 Tampa Review Prize

Bruce TFRBruce Bond, of Denton, Texas, has been named winner of the 2014 Tampa Review Prize for Poetry. Bond receives the thirteenth annual prize for his new manuscript, Black Anthem. In addition to a $2,000 check, the award includes hardback and paperback book publication in 2015 by the University of Tampa Press. A sampling of poems from Black Anthem will appear as a “sneak preview” in a forthcoming issue of Tampa Review, the award-winning hardback literary journal published by the University of Tampa Press. Bond’s book will be released in the fall of 2015.

The judges also announced ten finalists this year:

Brian Brodeur of Cincinnati, Ohio, for “Persons of Interest”;
Polly Buckingham of Medical Lake, Washington, for “A Day Like This”;
Mark Cox of Wilmington, North Carolina, for “No Picnic in the Afterlife”;
Tom Hansen of Custer, South Dakota, for “Body of Water, Body of Fire”;
Judy Jordan of Anna, Illinois, for “Children of Salt”;
Tim Mayo of Brattleboro, Vermont, for “The Body’s Pain”;
Robert McNally of Concord, California, for “Simply to Know Its Name”;
Joel Peckham of Huntington, West Virginia, for “Body Memory”;
Brittney Scott of Richmond, Virginia, for “The Derelict Daughter”; and
Carol Westberg of Hanover, New Hampshire, for “Terra Infirma.”

The Tampa Review Prize for Poetry is given annually for a previously unpublished booklength manuscript. Judging is by the editors of Tampa Review, who are members of the faculty at the University of Tampa. Submissions are now being accepted for 2015. Entries must follow published guidelines and must be postmarked by December 31, 2014.

Screen Reading Archive

Screen Reading, mini reviews by Kirsten McIlvenna of online and digital literary magazines, was originally published the first Monday of every month. However, in an attempt to gain more readership, they were then published on the 15th of the month along with the regular literary magazine reviews. Here are the archives:

October 2014
The Boiler :: Medical Literary Messenger :: Neutrons Protons

September 2014
Cleaver Magazine :: Drunken Boat :: Out of Print

August 2014
decomP :: Wicked Banshee Press :: Your Impossible Voice

July 2014
Avatar Review :: Devil’s Lake :: Pretty Owl Poetry :: Southern Women’s Review :: Under the Gum Tree

June 2014
Clare :: Communion :: New Purlieu Review :: rawboned :: Red Booth Review

May 2014
Anak Sastra :: Glass :: Olentangy Review :: One Throne Magazine :: 1966

April 2014
Apple Valley Review :: Flyway :: Hamilton Stone Review :: Origami Journal :: Sixth Finch

March 2014
Breakwater Review :: Cider Press Review :: Dragnet :: The Oklahoma Review :: The Ostrich Review

February 2014
Brevity :: East Coast Ink :: Ghost House Review :: Jersey Devil Press :: Really System

January 2014
Agave Magazine :: Alimentum :: Apogee :: FictionNow :: The Monongahela Review

December 2013
Ascent :: Blue Lyra Review :: Chagrin River Review :: Compose :: Lines + Stars

November 2013
Chantarelle’s Notebook :: Fogged Clarity :: foam:e :: Psychopomp Magazine :: Sixfold

October 2013
Gulf Stream :: NAP :: Sassafras Literary Journal :: SpringGun :: Toasted Cheese

September 2013
Crack the Spine :: Gone Lawn :: The Meadowland Review :: Middle Gray Magazine :: Unsplendid

August 2013
Bodega :: The Citron Review :: drafthorse :: Four Ties Lit Review :: Hot Metal Bridge

July 2013
Clarkesworld :: Driftless Review :: The Fiddleback :: Looseleaf Tea :: Niche

June 2013
Apeiron Review :: Bent Ear Review :: Gris-Gris :: ONandOnScreen :: Split Lip

May 2013
Ascent :: Cliterature :: The Drum :: Fiddleblack :: Literal Latte :: Mezzo Cammin

April 2013
Brevity Poetry Review :: Ghost Ocean Magazine :: Spry :: Star 82 Review :: Swamp :: Tongue

March 2013
The Blue Route :: Cactus Heart :: Danse Macabre :: Flycatcher :: Four and Twenty :: The New River :: Shadowbox :: Temenos

February 2013
Cellar Roots :: Cleaver Magazine :: Damazine :: Lingerpost :: SpringGun :: Terrain.org

January 2013
ARDOR Literary Magazine :: Imitation Fruit :: Literary Juice :: Miracle Monocle :: Ontologica :: Redheaded Stepchild :: Rufous City Review :: Scapegoat Review :: The Sim Review :: storySouth :: Thrush :: Valparaiso Fiction Review

December 2012
Atticus Review :: Birdfeast :: Cerise Press :: The Golden Key :: Jellyfish Magazine :: Map Literary :: Mead :: Otis Nebula :: Right Hand Pointing

November 2012
The Bacon Review :: Digital Americana :: The Fib Review :: Five Quarterly :: Fogged Clarity :: Goblin Fruit :: Halfway Down the Stairs :: The Medulla Review :: On the Premises :: Per Contra :: Printer’s Devil Review :: The Writing Disorder

October 2012
Arsenic Lobster :: Fiction Fix :: failbetter.com :: Gemini Magazine :: Lowestoft Chronicle :: Menacing Hedge :: Persimmon Tree :: Pithead Chapel :: Poemeleon :: Quickly :: Revolution House :: The Rusty Toque :: Sleet Magazine :: Sundog Lit :: Umbrella Factory

September 2012
Amarillo Bay :: The Bacon Review :: The Boiler :: Brevity :: DMQ Review :: FRiGG :: Penduline :: Poecology :: Steel Toe Review :: StepAway Magazine :: Swamp Biscuits and Tea :: Sweet

August 2012
The Baltimore Review :: Blue Lake Review :: Contrary :: Fox Chase Review :: La Petite Zine :: New Delta Review :: Plume :: The Puritan :: r.kv.r.y :: Ragazine.cc :: Tampa Review Online :: Wag’s Revue

July 2012
Carve Magazine :: Cigale Literary :: Defunct :: Eclectica Magazine :: elimae :: Hippocampus Magazine :: Memorious :: Mixed Fruit :: pif Magazine :: Sixth Finch :: SmokeLong Quarterly :: SNReview :: Treehouse :: Vine Leaves Literary Journal :: The 2River View

June 2012
Anti- :: Blood Orange Review :: Dragnet Magazine :: inter|rupture :: Jersey Devil Press :: LITnIMAGE :: The Molotov Cocktail :: Short, Fast, and Deadly :: Shot Glass Journal :: Spittoon :: Stirring :: Straight Forward :: The Summerset Review

Tar River Poetry – Spring 2014

Tar River Poetry, published by East Carolina University, has featured work of established and emerging poets since 1978. This issue follows tradition and includes a substantial number of engaging poems. These predominantly brief, free verse poems are intellectually challenging yet accessible to a wide variety of readers. While these pieces vary in subject and stylistic mode, imagery remains strong throughout the collection. The best poems convey striking images, the kind that stay with a reader long after the last page of the journal is turned. Continue reading “Tar River Poetry – Spring 2014”

Booth – Issue 2014

Playing parts both online and in print, Booth chose this year to put out a special short fiction issue, packed with many of the best pieces from the online edition as well as the winners of the 2013 Booth Story Prize. All the stories included in this issue are imaginative and well worth the read. Continue reading “Booth – Issue 2014”

The Boiler – Fall 2014

Fall in the Midwest is a time for snuggles, blankets, reading, and a new issue of The Boiler. While the fiction and nonfiction were enjoyable, it was the poetry that warmed me up inside. In “Things I Know,” Megan Collins reminisces about part of her family she never knew—her grandfather. Continue reading “The Boiler – Fall 2014”

Image – Summer 2014

There’s much to be grateful for in this issue of Image. Always intellectual, visual, and spiritually beautiful, now in its twenty-fifth year, Image has a well-deserved reputation for hopeful, but realistic, attention to the intersection of “the larger questions of existence. . . [and] what the poet Albert Goldbarth calls the ‘greasy doorknobs and salty tearducts’ of our everyday lives.” Image is more than a journal—it’s also a set of programs to further the cause of such attention. The theme for this silver anniversary is “Making It New.” This issue fulfills this mission with grace; gratitude, as a response, is entirely appropriate. Continue reading “Image – Summer 2014”

Broad Street – Summer/Fall 2014

Broad Street has created a viable option for literary end table collections. In this issue, several mediums of storytelling are combined, allowing readers both a visual and multifaceted verbal display. Hunt/Gather was the proposed theme, and I do feel it is somewhat of a challenge to the reader. Loose definitions of the terms seem to have been used by the editors in compiling the pieces presented. By getting a little too hung up on wanting traditional definitions, I feel like I missed some of the simple beauty available in the pages that I can easier see in reflection. Continue reading “Broad Street – Summer/Fall 2014”

Medical Literary Messenger – Spring 2014

Medical Literary Messenger is an online/PDF journal aimed to “promote humanism and the healing arts through prose, poetry, and photography.” All work relates in some way to medicine, illness, or the body, and this issue includes reflections from doctors, patients, and family members of those who are sick. But the journal isn’t simply a platform for those to express themselves and heal through words; it’s also an intriguing read and delicate look into the lives of others. Continue reading “Medical Literary Messenger – Spring 2014”

Neutrons Protons – September 2014

The first thing that caught my eye in this issue of Neutrons Protons was the titling of the included pieces, and I was intrigued to read more, as you will be when you see titles such as “A Social Media Marketer’s Guide to Chronic Illness” and “The House with No Doorknobs” and “It Was All So Pinteresting” and “The Tin Man Addresses the Parole Board.” I urge you to read past the titles that invite you in; you’ll be glad you did. Continue reading “Neutrons Protons – September 2014”

Poetry East – Spring 2014

This issue of Poetry East is absolutely a pleasure to physically handle. Every page is of glossy finish, it is roughly the dimension of a medium-size paperback, and it is lightweight enough to pack anywhere without being in the way. No page numbers in this issue make it difficult to reference where to locate some of the poems I found most enjoyable. Linear structure seems to have lent itself to the editor’s preference in selecting which works to include. Most of the poems included follow a very reasonable, almost philosophic arc toward endings that do not surprise so much as fulfill the reader. In response, since it feels good to go against the grain sometimes, I am going to employ reverse linear structure in presenting this review. Continue reading “Poetry East – Spring 2014”

Letters About Literature: Way Cool Contest for Grades 4-12

From the Library of Congress, Letters About Literature is a reading and writing contest for students in grades 4-12. Students are asked to read a book, poem or speech and write to that author (living or dead) about how the book affected them personally. Letters are judged on state and national levels. Tens of thousands of students from across the country enter Letters About Literature each year. Young authors in grades 4-12 can enter, with levels set at 4-6, 7 & 8, and 9 – 12. Different deadlines apply, so see the guidelines.

The Letters About Literature also provides a Teaching Guide with activities teachers can use to guide their students through the book discussion and letter-writing process. The guide addresses the LAL teaching strategies and ways in which the program can dovetail with national standards for teaching reading and writing as well as Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Also included are worksheets for duplication and assessment checklists.

2014 Ekphrasis Prize Winner

Joseph StantonThe Fall/Winter 2014 issue of Ekphrasis features the winner of the 2014 Ekphrasis Prize for Poetry, winning $500 and publication. Editors Laverne and Carol Frith announce that it was selected among “a very strong field of contenders.” The winner is Joseph Stanton for his “outstanding” poem “Thomas Dewing’s Lady with a Lute.” Here is a few stanzas from the beginning:

Dewing has a passion for the Lady with the lute
we cannot avoid
knowing that.

Though her almost classic face lifts to light
in full profile, her torso twists
ever so slightly

To show her décolleté,
her bosom surprisingly exposed
above her slender waist.

Men linger in front of this picture
in its corner of the National Gallery
till their wives pull them past.

“Geek Girls” issue of Room

room-v37-n3-fall-2014Paying full notice to the current phenomenon of women pretending to be geeks to attract males and “the insidious ‘Idiot Nerd Girl’ meme,” Meghan Bell introduces this special “Geek Girls” issue of Room to be in despite of all of “that noise.” She writes, “‘Geek Girls’ includes Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Torchwood fandom, poetry inspired by comic books and fairy tales, as well as new work by acclaimed speculative fiction author Larissa Lai, an interview with horror writer and illustrator Emily Caroll, and comic book-inspired artwork by Sandraw Chevrier. Hockey nerds slip ‘lightly homoerotic’ fan fiction into the hands of a Canucks player, biochemists attempt to fit in with mathematicians and physicists, experimentalists and theoreticians, skeletons come to life , and zombies fall in love.”

The cover, by Sandra Chevrier, is a perfect selection for this issue. The artist writes, “The cage series is about women trying to find freedom from society’s twisted preconceptions of what a woman should or shouldn’t be. The women encased in cages of brash, imposing paint or comic books that mask their very person symbolizes the struggle that women have with false expectations of beauty and perfection as well as the limitations society places on women, corrupting what truly is beautiful by placing women in prisons of identity. By doing so, society is asking them to become superheroes. I use collage or loose and heavy textures of paint that make the woman seem to be emerging from the surreal world within the canvas. A dance between reality and imagination, truth and deception.”

In an interview with Emily Carroll, the issue of women interested in “geek culture” being called fake is brought up. However, Carroll says she has never seemed to have a problem with the issue: “I don’t think I’ve ever really experienced being called a fake geek . . I have friends who have experienced it because I do have a lot of friends who are involved with video games. I hear reports of them being spoken down to or treated like they don’t actually play the game. It’s definitely a huge thing. I feel like I’m too much of a recluse to get the full brunt of it. Maybe it’s because I draw Dune fan art that nobody has ever questioned my Dune cred.

American Life in Poetry :: Jennifer Maier

American Life in Poetry: Column 497
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

I’d guess everybody reading this has felt the guilt of getting rid of belongings that meant more to somebody else than they did to you. Here’s a poem by Jennifer Maier, who lives in Seattle. Don’t call her up. All her stuff is gone.

Rummage Sale

Forgive me, Aunt Phyllis, for rejecting the cut
glass dishes—the odd set you gathered piece
by piece from thirteen boxes of Lux laundry soap.

Pardon me, eggbeater, for preferring the whisk;
and you, small ship in a bottle, for the diminutive
size of your ocean. Please don’t tell my mother,

hideous lamp, that the light you provided
was never enough. Domestic deities, do not be angry
that my counters are not white with flour;

no one is sorrier than I, iron skillet, for the heavy
longing for lightness directing my mortal hand.
And my apologies, to you, above all,

forsaken dresses, that sway from a rod between
ladders behind me, clicking your plastic tongues
at the girl you once made beautiful,

and the woman, with a hard heart and
softening body, who stands in the driveway
making change.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2013 by Jennifer Maier from her most recent book of poems, Now, Now, University of Pittsburgh Press, 2013. Poem reprinted by permission of Jennifer Maier and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2014 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

The Kenyon Review Transitions to Bimonthly

kenyon-review-v36-n4-fall-2014The most recent issue of The Kenyon Review will be the last one printed on the quarterly publication schedule as, after 75 years, the magazine transitions to a bimonthly schedule with six issues out each year instead of four. In addition, the issues will be slightly smaller so that they are easier to browse; “the format of the Review has come to feel rather unwieldy, even intimidating. It’s a lot of heft arriving everything three months,” writes Editor David H. Lynn. He writes that these plans have been in place for a while, and that they spent the last year working on an innovative design.

“The new Kenyon Review will be fresh and inviting,” promises Lynn. “…This reading is about pleasure, about relishing. But it will surely be easier to pick up one of these attractive, slender issues before bedtime or as you’re heading out the door. We’re surely not backing away from great writing, not relaxing our standards or our commitment one iota. Going forward, The Kenyon Review will faithfully publish literature that matters and to the standards we’ve proudly held all these years. Our future is brighter than ever.”

The current issue itself features the winners of the 2014 Kenyon Review Short Fiction Contests, a credo from Joyce Carol Oates, and a selection of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and reviews.

Florida Review 2013 Editors’ Awards

florida-review-v38-n1-2-2014The current issue of Florida Review features the winners of the 2013 Editors’ Awards, which were awarded in essay, fiction, and poetry categories. As a new feature to this section, the editors invited the winners to contribute about “the creative genesis and evolution of their winning work.” Editor Jocelyn Bartkevicius writes, “Dan Reiter, whose story of Holocaust survivors, ‘All Your First Born,’ won the fiction award, tells of viewing a videotaped interview with his grandparents, who, unlike other family members of their generation did survive the Holocaust, and how their testimony inspired his writing. Lisa Lanser-Rose, whose braided essay, ‘Turnpike Psycho,’ revolves around a friend’s murder and her own harrowing encounter with a stalker, writes about transitioning from a simple retelling of a particular situation to an exploration of its deeper ramifications as a ‘story.’ John Blair, winner of the poetry award, writes of the links between his poems and history, autobiography, and memory, an eclectic continuum with such varied topics as atrocities in Somalia and Chechnya, the Roman Inquisition, leukemia, and hands-on labor in the garden.

Essay Winner

Lisa Lanser-Rose: “Turnpike Psycho”

Essay Finalist

Tanya Bomsta: “Traditions”

Fiction Winner

Dan Reiter: “All Your Firstborn”

Fiction Finalist

Rachel Borup: “Crash”

Poetry Winner

John Blair: “The Lesser Poet,” “And Yet It Moves,” & “Dirt”

Poetry Finalist

Tanya Grae: “Like Darwin’s Finches,” “Verbal Abuse,” & “Cage Sonnet”

American Life in Poetry :: Grant Wood

American Life in Poetry: Column 496
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

One of Grant Wood’s earliest paintings is of a pair of old shoes, and it hangs in the art museum in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where Wood grew up. Here’s a different kind of still life, in words, from Jim Daniels, who lives in Pittsburgh. The shoes we put on our feet gradually become like the person wearing them.

Work Boots: Still Life

Next to the screen door
work boots dry in the sun.
Salt lines map the leather
and laces droop
like the arms of a new-hire
waiting to punch out.
The shoe hangs open like the sigh
of someone too tired to speak
a mouth that can almost breathe.
A tear in the leather reveals
a shiny steel toe
a glimpse of the promise of safety
the promise of steel and the years to come.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem reprinted from Show and Tell, Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 2003, courtesy of the University of Wisconsin Press. Copyright ©2003 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System. Jim Daniels’ most recent book of poems is Birth Marks, BOA Editions, Ltd., 2013. Introduction copyright © 2014 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

Creative NonFiction Craft Essays

The fall issue of Brevity: A Concise Journal of Literary Nonfiction features three new craft essays: “Consider the Prompt” by Dinah Lenney; “When Writing Will Not Make You Free: Resistance Training for Writers” by Judith Pulman; and “On Riding and Writing Boldy” by Monica McFawn. Whle Brevity’s nonfiction submissions are capped at 750 “brief” words, these craft essays go well beyond, allowing writers to freely share their advice and give us readers a great deal from which to glean.

Lake of Two Mountains

What is this life all about? That type of philosophical query may seem an unlikely undercurrent to a book of poems ostensibly focused on a writer’s experience of a specific place. Yet, when read as a whole, the direct, lyrical poems in Arleen Paré’s Lake of Two Mountains, weave a wide web of overlapping stories and impressions that casts a deep sense of wonder on the nature of particularity. Continue reading “Lake of Two Mountains”

Things To Do With Your Mouth

The reader has a lot of work to do after entering Divya Victor’s piece of expression, Things To Do With Your Mouth. The writing is a hybrid of text, speech, and performance. The body, the vocal cords, the mouth. This is about who can speak and be heard and who cannot, about who has power in the system and who does not, and we experience this from the side of those who are not heard and who do not have power in the system. Continue reading “Things To Do With Your Mouth”

Nonfiction

Shane McCrae in Nonfiction, a collection of poems, urgently requires readers to face both the visible and invisible truths of our American culture and society, present and past. Throughout these poems, the lyric voice of our culture and its various speakers emit a language that insistently stammers and stutters, resulting in poems that stun readers with pure lyrical beauty. The rhythm of the line, the stutter and repetition, so closely mimics the messy, rarely perfect, inner dialogues of the soul. Continue reading “Nonfiction”

Heart of the Order

For fans, baseball is poetry in motion. One team that continues to demonstrate grace is the Los Angeles Dodgers. Love or hate them, the team of Jackie Robinson and Sandy Koufax who has Magic Johnson among its co-ownership are still captivating, starting with manager Don Mattingly. As a Yankee in the 1980’s, “Donnie Baseball” and Keith Hernandez, his equal, opposite number on the New York Mets, gave daily clinics on the art of playing first base. No line drive or off-balance throw was too impossible for either of them. Continue reading “Heart of the Order”

Ecodeviance

I usually start a book review with some information on the author, including past publications, academic affiliations and other markers of importance that might help the reader slot the work into whatever framework he or she has for deciding what books are worth reading. While CAConrad definitely has the required pedigree, detailing it seems counter to the ethos of the book’s rejection of received knowledge in favor of lived experience.

Continue reading “Ecodeviance”

Elise Cowen

Elise Cowen is a name unlikely to ring a bell for any readers unfamiliar with the now rather legendary American literary phenomenon of the Beat Generation. Yet her writing will likely intrigue and warrant interest to a readership well beyond that demographic. Cowen’s brief life (1933-1962) proves rather remarkable for a young, unmarried woman of the era: she freely and openly explored her sexuality with multiple lovers of both sexes, including Allen Ginsberg, with whom she appears to have formed a deeper attachment, likely unreturned in kind; spent time living in both New York City and San Francisco, establishing relationships and friendships with artist communities in both cities; experimented habitually with drugs and alcohol; and dedicated herself to the pursuit of a poetic, intellectual life as much as possible all the while. Continue reading “Elise Cowen”

Broken Cage

Joseph P. Wood’s most recent poetry collection, Broken Cage, is a short book that takes ideas of symmetry and formal constraint to the extreme. Broken into three sections, the poems grow longer as the book progresses, and then shorter again in the third section. Wood focuses most of his energy on the triolet, an eight-line French form that includes rhyming as well as repeated lines.

Continue reading “Broken Cage”