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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!

World Literature Today Photography Issue

The most recent, special double issue of World Literature Today features some amazing photography. “Why is World Literature Today, a literary magazine, publishing a photography issue?” writes Editor Daniel Simon. “For one thing, 2013 marks the centenary of popular 35mm still photography: the American Tourist Multiple camera was introduced in 1913, and Oskar Barnack began developing the prototype of the ur-Leica that same year. Moreover, 1913 stands out as a watershed modernist moment.” During that same year, Camera Work published a special issue featuring art photography and the movement known as pictorialism. Simon explains, “By juxtaposing photography with other works of modern art and literature, Stieglitz was hoping to promote ‘the camera’s role as the most apt metaphor for the modernist enterprise’ and to defend the use and aims of photography ‘as one of the defining tasks of modernism itself.'”

He goes on to say that “one hundred years later—and in a similar spirit—WLT presents a special double issue devoted to the language of photography and, by extension, literature . . . By the conventional measure, the seventy-plus pictures included in this issue must be worth more than seventy thousand words. And while photographers often prefer to let the images they create stand on their won, without comment, in this instance we’re fortunate to have their words alongside their photos.”

The featured photographers include Yousef Khanfar, David Goldblatt & Nadine Gordimer, Lois Greenfield, Jacko Vassilev, Lisa Kristine, Robert Glenn Ketchum, Lalla A. Essaydi, Kenro Izu, Joyce Tenneson, Misha Gordin, Ken Duncan, Ami Vitale, David Doubilet, Candida Höfer & Umberto Eco, Tim Mantoani, Angela Bacon-Kidwell, Phil Borges, Graciela Iturbide, Jay Dusard, Camille Seaman, and Shahidul Alam.

The issue also contains essays by Kamila Shamsie, Adnan Mahmutović, and Mark Budman, as well as poetry by André Naffis-Sahely.

Chinese Buddhist Encyclopedia Needs Contributors, Editors, Volunteers

From Marju Broder:

The Chinese Buddhist Encyclopedia is a project with a very far reaching vision which needs energy, resources and time to develop. The key function of CBE is the combination of IT& computers, digitized Buddhist materials and software and providing everyone with access to Internet the opportunity to use those applications and materials. The author and main organizer of Chinese Buddhist Encyclopedia is Vello Vaartnou. The CBE project was officially started in December, 2012, when Vaartnou presented the idea of the CBE at the ECAI conference in University of California, Berkeley.

We are looking for volunteer editors for the Chinese Buddhist Encyclopedia project. CBE needs a lot of data research and editing. Usually every editor has their own Buddhism related topic(s) (English and Chinese speakers) on which he/she would gather as much material as possible.

We welcome everyone who could contribute their valuable time by editing and adding materials from different sources all over the internet.

There is much work to do so anyone who would like to give their contribution for the Chinese Buddhist Encyclopedia project are most WELCOME to do so.

Please visit Chinese Buddhist Encyclopedia for more information.

Chicago School of Poetics Scholarships

Chicago School of Poetics scholarships are now available thanks to supports of their scholarship campaign. CSP is now able to offer need-based scholarships for up to four students, attending eight-week courses, or up to six students attending the Master Classes for the 2013 school year. For information, see the CSP website.

New Lit on the Block :: Spry Literary Journal

Check out Spry Literary Journal, a brand new online, biannual publication that features creative nonfiction, fiction, flash prose, and poetry that is brief, “works that rely on each word to be agile, lithe, to carry its own weight—to be spry.” Editors Erin A. Corriveau and Linsey Jayne said that inside the issues, readers will find “works that will move them to tears, works that will make them laugh, and works that will challenge them to see the world through new and imaginative lenses. . . . They will find their reflections in magical realism and the art of the real. Readers can expect to find creative nonfiction, poetry and fiction from seasoned authors and first time published writers as well. Their work is risky, vulnerable, historical, and honest.”

Linsey said that as her and Erin came to the end of their MFA program and their work with Mason’s Road journal, they realized that the next step would be to make a literary journal of their own. “During our time in the MFA program, we had each worked on a critical thesis that lent itself to the study and creation of concise literature.”

Eager to branch out, Linsey said that they hope to eventually become a triannual publication, introduce audio/visual elements to the journal, and explore opportunities for other formats beyond the online model. “We are looking forward to planning our first launch party, building up our site, hosting contests, and much, much more,” she said. “We’re more eager than anything, though, to see each new submission that comes through our manager, and to determining which pieces will make future issues come to life.”

Each of Spry’s issues features a five-question interview with an established writer. Linsey is pleased to announce that the first issue features Porochista Khakpour and encourages readers to read the interview and leave comments. “We’re excited for the future,” she said, “we have some exciting interviewees lined up and more great submissions coming through every day.” She expressed that they are always open to new ideas and to contact her at any time.

The first issue also features creative nonfiction by Elizabeth Hilts, Jenni Nance, Alan Shaw, Amy Sibley, and Barbara Wanamaker; fiction by Kate Alexander-Kirk, Jeni McFarland, Wei He, Paul Pekin, and Ben Sneyd; flash by Allie Marini Batts, Lucas Burris, Adrien Creger, Christine Hale, Matt Lucas, Saeide Mirzaei, Bill Riley, Michael Dwayne Smith, Alexandra Todak, and Janna Vought; and poetry by Sheila Black, Conor Bracken, Jeremy Byars, Elizabeth Cooley, B.D. Fischer, Erin Hoover, Leigh Anne Hornfeldt, Paul Hostovsky, Kevin Miller, and Michael Sarnowski.

Submissions of short creative nonfiction, short fiction, flash (in any genre), and poetry are being accepted now through March 31 for the second issue. Linsey notes that for the flash category, they accept “fiction and nonfiction, as well as anything experimental in that genre.” Spry has a blind submission policy and accepts submissions via Submittable. For more submission guidelines, please view their website.

AGNI – Number 76

You know you should have bought a subscription to a magazine when you learn, one issue too late, that the editors were going to host a retrospective on Robert Lowell (AGNI 75). Or when, casually perusing the issue at hand, you discover apparitions of Ray Bradbury (see David Huddle’s piece), Cynthia Ozick (see Tamas Dobozy channel Harper’s The Bloodline of the Alkanas), and Allegra Goodman (see Wendy Rawlings’s ending channeling La Vita Nuova). The perceptible echo from these influences emerges from talented writers in their own right. And that’s just the fiction. Continue reading “AGNI – Number 76”

Creative Nonfiction – Winter 2013

“Don’t write like a girl. Don’t write like a boy. Write like a mother#^@%*&,” the Rumpus columnist “Sugar” advised young writer Elissa Bassist in 2010. Bassist took the advice to heart, making it into an “anthem and a lifestyle” that is about “quitting your bitching, getting out of your own ego, and getting to work.” Three years later, she and “Sugar”—now revealed as Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild and Tiny Beautiful Things, extend the discussion in an email conversation that appropriately kicks off this powerful collection of work by women writers. Continue reading “Creative Nonfiction – Winter 2013”

Event – Fall 2012

Event is a Canadian literary journal associated with Douglas College in British Columbia. While they primarily publish poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and reviews from Canadian writers, they do accept submissions from all over. Their aesthetic seems broad ranging, with an inclination for stories that have a hint of the mysterious or unconventional. Continue reading “Event – Fall 2012”

Freefall – Winter 2013

Freefall bills itself as “Canada’s Magazine of Exquisite Writing.” Their mission statement commits to publishing 85% Canadian content, ranging from new and emerging to experienced writers. The editor’s opening statement, written by Micheline Maylor, describes an opposition to demolishing Al Purdy’s A-frame house, asking: “If muscle has the ability to remember, then why not a wall, a house, a landscape?” Her preamble continues, “For what is this life without a little magic?” and sets the tone for the creative work that follows. Continue reading “Freefall – Winter 2013”

The Healing Muse – Fall 2012

Illness, arguably the direct or indirect source of human suffering, prostrates us all. Accordingly, theories of illness and healthcare form an uneasy truce for such icons as Karl Marx, Pope John Paul II, and Ayn Rand even though their philosophies would diverge on many other topics. Moreover, one might argue that the management of limited medical resources has become the preoccupation of our age. But when you are sick, philosophies fail; you seek mercy, and sometimes the voice of that mercy comes from literature. The Healing Muse, a journal produced by The Center for Bioethics and Humanities at SUNY Upstate Medical University, offers a platform for such voice. As editor Deirdre Neilen notes in her introduction to the journal, “The land ahead may be unfamiliar territory, but the same humor, resilience and desire propel our poets and essayists and their characters to chance the unknown and to chart the journey for us.” Continue reading “The Healing Muse – Fall 2012”

The Hollins Critic – December 2012

Spare, elegant, and graceful, The Hollins Critic descends like a belle of the upper South on bibliophiles starved for beauty. Fittingly, this publication emanates from the first women’s college in Virginia, an institution with a proud tradition dedicated to creativity and “effective self-expression.” The accomplished artist Susan Avishai, after decades devoted to the international study and practice of art, entered Hollins University in 2001 to pursue a degree in creative writing. Between writing seminars, she painted in Hollins’s studios, and since 2004 has contributed a striking pen-and-ink cover portrait to each issue of The Hollins Critic. Avishai’s art perfectly launches the reader into the fierce economy of its unique format, its passion for literature, and its flair. Continue reading “The Hollins Critic – December 2012”

Iron Horse Literary Review – 2012

Strong fiction does not have an expiration date. You can leave it on a shelf for centuries, but it will never lose its potency or the sense of joy it instills in new readers. The 2012 thematic issue from Iron Horse Literary Review celebrates the strong fiction of American author Nathaniel Hawthorne by showcasing three of his most popular stories: “The Minister’s Black Veil,” “Young Goodman Brown,” and “The Gentle Boy.” The issue celebrates his fiction, but it also reexamines his work through the eyes of three prominent women authors. There is a heavy dose of irony here because Hawthorne dismissed women writers of his time as “scribblers” of market fiction. The result is a terrific issue juxtaposition of Hawthorne’s voice and voices of contemporary women writers. Continue reading “Iron Horse Literary Review – 2012”

The Literary Review – Fall 2012

The 2012 Late Fall issue of The Literary Review is out of control. No, really, the issue is dedicated to loss of control. “Control is an abstraction and a grail,” says Editor Minna Proctor. “Humans are driven to maddening distraction, dangerous and untenable lengths, in pursuit of control. We don’t ever get control, yet we hunt it.” The writers in this issue contribute a great selection of fiction and poetry that examines this hunt and shows how easy it is to lose control. Continue reading “The Literary Review – Fall 2012”

Paterson Literary Review – 2012/2013

The Paterson Literary Review only arrives once a year, but leaves a lasting impression. This Passaic County Community College-based journal boasts 400 pages of poems, stories and essays and could easily keep you occupied during several intercontinental flights. In her editor’s note, Maria Mazziotti Gillan declares one of her primary motivations for selecting work from the 10,000 submissions the PLR receives each year: “I attempt to be inclusive of the work of writers from many races and ethnicities, choosing what I believe to be the best works.” She certainly achieved her goal; the journal balances the experimental and the traditional, the personal and the universal. Continue reading “Paterson Literary Review – 2012/2013”

St. Petersburg Review – 2010/2011

The body of great literature being created outside of the English-speaking world is vast; St. Petersburg Review is taking great strides to bridge the gap between cultures and languages that sometimes keep writers and readers apart. The thick volume is jam-packed with fiction, poetry, plays, and creative nonfiction plucked from everywhere in the world. A great deal of the work has been reflected through the prism of translation: a double-edged sword. Reading work in translation is, in some ways, like seeing a great painting through a pair of cracked eyeglasses. You can see the whole of the work and take it to heart, but there will always be some measure of intellectual distance between you and the artist. On the other hand, translations such as these are wonderful because you get a taste of the different music made by phrases that emerge from minds trained to think in unfamiliar languages. Continue reading “St. Petersburg Review – 2010/2011”

South Loop Review – 2012

The editors of South Loop Review invite “essays and memoir, lyric and experimental forms, non-linear narratives, blended genre, photography and art . . . personal essays and memoir with fresh voices and new takes on presentation and form.” I reprint the description for emphasis. The magazine is not feigning interest in the experimental. Rather, essays appear (in Micah McCrary’s case) as meditations on color through a list format, toy with a redline feature as a method of managing conflicting emotions (as in Adriana Páramo’s case), and explore what one might term the “meta-essay” through the careful tides of stating and redacting comments about what illness can signify (see Vicki Weiqi Yang’s essay). Continue reading “South Loop Review – 2012”

The Blue Route – January 2013

The Blue Route is a national online journal for undergraduate students. This issue offers writers from Carnegie Mellon University, Notre Dame of Maryland University, Stephen F. Austin State University, Susquehanna University, University of Colorado Denver, University of Houston, and University of South Florida. The writing is of high quality and is enjoyable to read. Continue reading “The Blue Route – January 2013”

Cactus Heart – Winter 2013

In her editor’s note, Sara Rauch hopes that this issue will “bring the bright and wild and unusual into your spirit this winter.” Certainly, there are images such as these throughout the issue that bring a little warmth to my room: “there lies me and you sitting on the floor / with a bucket of strawberries, whipped cream . . .” (Shannon Shuster’s “alright  .”); “standing at the water’s edge / leaning against the night breeze / taut as harp strings for balance” (Ned Randle’s “Lake Song”); “When I was younger I would wait / for the first bloom of the blackberry / thickets and collect berries in a mason jar” (Matthew Wimberley’s “Indian Summer, Reading Lorca”); and “The heat pins my shirt to my skin like a silver star” (Arah McManamna’s “Cactus Flower”). Continue reading “Cactus Heart – Winter 2013”

Danse Macabre – March 2013

For something truly original and definitely a break from the normal online journal, take a look at Danse Macabre. Not only is the writing a break from the straight literary, but the images and the layout are as well. The style, as described by Editor Adam Henry Carrière, is “noir coloratura.” Enter this issue, “Terra,” and be greeted by a skeleton who is about to cut down a tree with an ax, be greeted with a type of march song played on the organ. Continue reading “Danse Macabre – March 2013”

Four and Twenty – January 2013

I’ve always loved flash fiction for its brevity, its ability to, as they say, “pack a punch” in such a short space. Each sentence bears weight. Well the poems in this magazine close that circle a little tighter; here, each word, nay, each syllable bears tremendous weight. Each poem must be four lines or fewer and cannot contain more than twenty words. Similar to the idea of the six-word story, these poems must convey imagery, idea, insight within a small space. For the most part, all of these pieces accomplish that goal. Continue reading “Four and Twenty – January 2013”

Shadowbox – Spring 2013

Enter Shadowbox’s site and you’ll see a shadowbox filled will several objects. Clicking on the image of the flowers will bring up this issue’s featured writing. It brings up a spice rack, each bottle containing a spice of life, if you will. Dedicated entirely to all forms of creative nonfiction, Shadowbox presents a collection worth reading. Some pieces are in the traditional essay form, while others stray quite a bit, opening up new ways to see creative nonfiction. Continue reading “Shadowbox – Spring 2013”

Temenos – Winter 2013

Temenos, the journal of Central Michigan University, is a Greek word that “refers both to the ancient Greek concept of sacred space and the Jungian ‘safe spot’ where one may bring the unconscious into the light of consciousness.” The editors say that their mission is to “bring to light works that are engaging, memorable, and fearless.” Continue reading “Temenos – Winter 2013”

We’re Back!

Some of us from NewPages spent last week at the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) Conference in Boston, MA. It was fantastic, and we want to say a huge thanks to everyone who stopped by our bookfair tables to say hello. We spend 99.9% of our work time here at the computer, so being able to meet people face-to-face is a great opportunity for us. We appreciated hearing your comments about the site – what you like and how we can make it better. Ten years ago, when NewPages attended our first AWP, we spent hours walking the bookfair floor, introducing ourselves, explaining our site, our concept, our vision. Now, people recognize our name and shout out: “I love NewPages!” and “You guys do great work!” Thanks to all of you who shouted, stopped, said hello, and chatted it up with us. We do love meeting you and hearing from you. Please excuse our absence from the blog while we caught our breath, but get ready, because we’ve got tons of great stuff to share from AWP and will be spilling that out over the next few weeks.

[That blue book you see on our table is The NewPages Lit Pak for AWP Boston 2013 and is available for free on our site here.]

Snowflakes Fall: Tribute to Sandy Hook

Newbery Medalist Patricia MacLachlan and acclaimed picture book creator Steven Kellogg will collaborate to create the children’s book Snowflakes Fall as a tribute to the community of Sandy Hook, Connecticut. The book is slated for release this November from Random House and can be pre-ordered directly from their website. The publisher notes: “Random House Children’s Books together with Random House, Inc. will make a significant monetary donation to child-focused organizations that will be chosen by the collaborators.”

Matthew Quick Keynote Speech

“When you say you want to write a novel when you’re 17, people think it’s cute,” Mr. Quick said. “When you’re 32 years old and you’re living with your in-laws, especially if you are a man in America and you’re not making any money, people make you feel like you’re committing a crime.” Matthew Quick, author of The Silver Linings Playbook, from his keynote speech at the 23rd Annual Betty Curtis Worcester County Young Writers’ Conference on Saturday at St. John’s High School. Read the rest on Telegram.com.

The Weekly Reader Welcomes New Hosts

Started in 2010, the KMSU Weekly Reader is an author interview radio program currently hosted by newcomers Kyle Jaeger, Alec Cizak, and Beth Mouw. It airs on KMSU 89.7 FM in Mankato Minnesota, and is available as a podcast through iTunes. The Weekly Reader airs in-depth discussions with authors from all around the country. Authors, publishers, and agents are welcome to contact the hosts and send books to the hosts.

A sample of archived archived programs:

Adams, S. J., Sparks
Bugan, Carmen, Burying the Typewriter
Cohen, Joshua, Four New Messages
D’Souza, Tony, Mule
Fell, Adam, I Am Not A Pioneer
Gabbert, Elisa, The French Exit
Hagy, Alyson, Boleto
Karrow, David and Joseph Butts, The Alpha League
LeBoutillier, Nate, Horse Camp
Memmer, Philip, The Storehouses of the Snow
Nau, Dennis, The Year God Forgot Us
Pinda, Jon, Sleep In Me
Ryan, Matt, Read This Or You’re Dead To Me
Sanders, Ted, No Animals We Could Name
Terrill, Richard, Music and poetry, China twenty years later
Vizenor, Gerald, Chair of Tears
Wells, Will, Unsettled Accounts

To Copyright or Not To Copyright

If you’re not already reading Writer Beware! (“the public face of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America’s Committee on Writing Scams”) on a regular basis, then now the time to start. A recent post by regular blogger and published writer Victoria Strauss examines why and when writers should copyright their work. The post calls out the practice of vanity publishers trolling copyright registration lists for fresh meat new customers.

Poster Your Own Broadsided

Edited by Elizabeth Bradfield, Gabrielle Calvocoressi, Sean Hill, Alexandra Teague, and Mark Temelko, Broadsided has been putting literature in the streets since 2005. Each month, a new broadside is posted both on the website and around the nation.

Writing is chosen through submissions sent to Broadsided. Artists allied with Broadsided are emailed the selected writing. They then “dibs” on what resonates for them and respond visually – sometimes more than one artist will respond offering a selection of broadsides.

The resulting letter-sized pdf is designed to be downloaded and printed by anyone with a computer and printer. The goal is to create something both gorgeous and cheap, to put words and art on the streets.

The site contains a gallery of past broadsides, a map of cities/state/countries that have been broadsided (and where you can add yours), and links to other broadside sites.

Staple guns and duct tape to the ready – time to get your city on the map!

[Pictured: Broadsided March 1, 2013: “Landing Under Water I See Roots” Poem by Annie Finch; Art by Jennifer Moses]

Craft Essays: Glimmertrain Bulletin :: March 2013

The March issue of Glimmer Train’s eBulletin features craft essays by writers whose works have recently appeared in Glimmer Train Stories:

In “Literary Fabric,” Vi Khi Nao begins, “Writing should be a cinematic moment. The function of a writer is to convert word in such a fashion that its etymological beauty moves from frame to frame. In this state, anything is possible. Including the possibility of levitating, descending, dancing—a cinematic place filled with balletic gestures of human pain, sorrow, and bliss.”

William Luvaas in “ON REVISION / REVISION” writes: “Revision can be tedious. Can seem like pathological nit-picking. It can feel like we are endlessly redigesting our own words. But, incredibly, rather than making a story seem labored and lifeless—as intuition suggests it would—revision liberates it and makes it appear effortless.”

“Being Open to Opportunities” for Matthew Salesses is two-sided, “Whenever I am asked to do anything, in the literary world, I agree if at all possible. I hate to turn down anyone genuinely interested in me or my work. How rare and amazing that attention is. This kind of philosophy can backfire, of course.”

Joyce Thomson learned, as she expresses in “The Fan Letter”: “I had wanted to be able to make readers laugh, cry, and think. Now I amended my wish list: I want to make people identify beyond the furthest outposts of their prejudices.”

The bulletin is a free, monthly publication.

Court Green Gets Steamy

Court Green, published in association with Columbia College Chicago, publishes a new dossier of poems each year. This year, the theme is sex.

Poems include titles such as “Where the Mood Struck Me” (Jeffery Conway), “Quiet, I come Alive” (Phillip B. Williams), “The Fury of Cocks” (Anne Sexton), “Blowjobs” (Sarah Crossland), “How Did Dinosaurs Have Sex?” (Lois Marie Harrod), “A Psalm Praising the Hair of a Man’s Body” (Denise Levertov), “Fertility” (Christopher Davis), and many more.

Other poets in this issue include Jan Beatty, Anselm Berrigan, Denise Duhamel, Kimiko Hahn, George Kalamaras, Ron Koertge, R. Zamora Linmark, Gillian McCain, Karyna McGlynn, Randall Mann, Gordon Massman, Richard Meier, Harryette Mullen, Kathleen Ossip, Mary Ruefle, Jerome Sala, Jason Schneiderman, Maureen Seaton, Terence Winch, and many more.

Call for Undergrad/Grad Comparative Lit Papers

The Department of Comparative Literature at the University of Georgia is launching a new journal of comparative literature, Xenophile. This journal will feature the works of undergraduate and graduate students from around the world. They are currently seeking submissions for the premiere issue. This is a perfect opportunity for undergraduate students seeking their first (or second, or third) scholarly publication, as well as for graduate students hoping to reach a new audience.

Papers will be evaluated on a rolling basis, but the final deadline is March 15th, 2013. The editors seek literary scholarship with a global scope, keeping in mind the comparative aspect that distinguishes the literary discipline from others. For more information, please refer to the publication website.

Literary Audio for Your Road Trip

Be sure to check out the NewPages Literary Multimedia Guide – podcasts, videos, and audio programs of interest from literary magazines, book publishers, alternative magazines, universities and bloggers. Includes poetry readings, lectures, author interviews, academic forums and news casts. Great for downloading and listening during the upcoming winter months – while traveling, walking, shoveling the sidewalks – you name it. If you have a site you’d like us to consider for listing, send a link with a description and contact information to  denisehill at newpages dot com. Good reading starts here! (And listening, too!)

The McGinnis Ritchie Award

Southwest Review announces the winners of The McGinnis Ritchie Award for 2012. Robert F. Ritchie was a huge supporter of the magazine. After he died in 1997, the magazine was able to give an award each year to the best works of fiction and nonfiction published in that year. Each award is worth $500.

J. F. Glubka
2012 McGinnis-Ritchie Award for Fiction
“Heat Lightning”
(Volume 97, number 4)

Jacob Newberry
2012 McGinnis-Ritchie Award for Fiction
“The Long Bright World”
(Volume 97, number 4)

Gorman Beauchamp
2012 McGinnis-Ritchie Award for Nonfiction, Essay
“‘But Tiepolo is My Painter’: Twain on Art in A Tramp Abroad”
(Volume 97, number 4)

Ann Peters
2012 McGinnis-Ritchie Award for Nonfiction, Essay
“The House on the Ledge”
(Volume 97, number 1)

AWP Tips on Visiting Boston

A friend and colleague who is familiar with the Boston area shared the following with me when I asked her: “What should I do/see while I’m in Boston? If you could tell me one really great/cool/fantastic/don’t-miss-this ‘thing’ about Boston what would it be? And then, add all the runner-ups to that one best thing.” She couldn’t contain herself – obviously, she’s a fan of the area – so here’s what she sent me and agreed to allow me to share. So, thank you Lauren!

Sights/things to do very near the conference

1. The Prudential (the Pru) Building and Top of the Hub: Wonderful view of the city from the top of a landmark building. The food and drinks are way overpriced, but you could splurge on maybe one drink.

2. The Hancock Tower: Another cool building. It’s not as tourist-friendly as the Pru, but people enjoy the view.

3. Trinity Church: Beautiful old church and set for many movies.

4. The Trident Booksellers and Cafe: A MARVELOUS independent bookstore on Newbury Street (one street over from Boylston). A staple of progressivism, too.

5. If the weather is bearable, and you like looking at old architecture, you could spend a few hours walking around the Back Bay neighborhood. Boylston, Newbury, Commonwealth, Marlborough, and Beacon Streets are the major thoroughfares. Boylston is probably the least interesting, but it’s home to lots of lunch and coffee places (mostly chains from what I remember). Newbury Street is for art and fashion – this is where the rich and au courant live. You might find more adventurous lunch places along Newbury. Commonwealth, Marlborough, and Beacon are residential and lined with beautiful brownstones. Commonwealth is a wide street with little spots of green in it.

6. The Public Garden: You get to this historic, European-style garden from the end of Boylston or Newbury Street. Serene and dignified.

7. Across from the Garden is the Boston Common, a larger and less refined park. It is the oldest public park in America, though, and it offers the starting point for the Freedom Trail. If you like colonial history, it’s cool to walk the Freedom Trail. Sometimes, you end up on it accidentally – it’s marked with a big red line. I recommend a stroll through the Common if you want to see normal Bostonians in action.

8. The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: A quirky, gorgeous museum with a great restaurant. You can take a cab or the T (Get on at the Pru station and take an E train to the “Museum of Fine Arts” stop).

Food and drink near the conference

1. The Cactus Club: Decent Mexican food and margaritas.

2. Bukowski Tavern: One of my favorite bars of all time!!! Large selection of beers in a cozy environment. I suggest bringing a book, a tablet, your lovely spouse, etc., and settling in for a few hours. It will likely be packed the whole time we’re there – it’s a hipster mecca already, and with this hipster conference in town…still, worth it!

3. Legal Seafoods: A favorite with seafood fans. Very corporate but also very good. Inside the Pru.

Food and drink somewhat near the conference

1. Beer Works: For your microbrew needs! It might be easier to take the T there (Green Line to Kenmore or Yawkey), but it really wouldn’t be that far of a walk. It’s nothing special in terms of food and decor, but the beers are tasty. It’s next to the famous Fenway Park.

2. Addis Red Sea: Amazing Ethiopian food. Likely to be crowded, and worth the small cab fare it will take to get there.

3. The Green Dragon Tavern: Charming, friendly old bar dating back to the Revolutionary War. Take the Green Line to Government Center.

4. The Union Oyster House: I’ve never eaten there, but it’s a Boston institution. For chowder and lobster. Take the Green Line to Government Center.

5. Brown Sugar Café: Excellent Thai food! Somewhat T –accessible, but it’s probably easier to take a cab.

CAMBRIDGE INFO

If you have the time, I definitely suggest a side trip to Cambridge, an intensified, bigger version of Ann Arbor [a Michigander reference]. Harvard Square is easy to get to by T (the Red Line to “Harvard Square”), and it’ll offer you no shortage of cool places to visit.

You can get great, great beer at John Harvard’s. It’s a little stuffy for a brewery, but I like it better than Beer Works. I’m also fond of Shay’s – although their website makes it look more upscale than I remember.

For a more working-class, grubbier part of Cambridge, go to Central Square (Red Line to “Central Square”). You can get a feel for it walking up and down Massachusetts Avenue (the main street in Cambridge). Western Avenue and Prospect Street are also fun to explore. The best Indian and Middle Eastern food and markets are found here.

Go to either location of the 1369 Coffee House if you want to hear people planning the revolution.

My favorite Central Square Irish pubs:
The Field
The People’s Republik

The Cantab Lounge hosts a fantastic poetry slam on Wednesday nights. Lots of slam greats got their start there. And only in Cambridge does a poetry slam occasionally get SOLD OUT.

While I don’t especially love the MIT bar The Miracle of Science, it’s unique and extraordinarily popular.

The Moon & Other Inventions

American artist Joseph Cornell (1903-1972) has long been a favorite among poets and writers. His work first appeared in art shows and galleries advertised as surrealist, frequently accompanied by and/or incorporating text. In his own lifetime, he directly courted the friendship and patronage of poets such as Marianne Moore and Elizabeth Bishop. In addition, poets ranging in diversity from John Ashbery to Charles Simic have also written about the attraction his work holds for them and/or composed poems in his honor. Cornell also completed a number of various homages to poet Emily Dickinson. In short, there’s poems-a-plenty in existence that interact one way or another with Cornell and his work. By joining in such company, Kristina Marie Darling is taking the risk that her work be held to a similarly high standard. Or rather, in composing a book so directly addressing Cornell’s work, the assumption is that Darling herself is aware she’s aiming high and must be willing to hold her own work to these standards. Continue reading “The Moon & Other Inventions”

Bibliodeath

If you are reading this review, chances are good that books, those things with lots of words crammed between two covers, are probably an integral part of your life. You live with them, thumb through their pages, pass them on to friends, and—if you have enough—make furniture with them (as do I). If this describes you in any way, you will doubtless do yourself a favor by reading Andrei Codrescu’s take on the printed word both past and present, how it lives, where it goes, and the very nature of archives. Bibliodeath is also a portrait of a life lived with books and words. At the end of his tome, Codrescu states: “It is still possible, for as long it took you to read this book, to distinguish the quickly vanishing border between the real and the virtual. This essay is a history of how I got to that border, and how I moved to one or another side of it.” Indeed, Codrescu surveys with depth and humor this very transition we are living through, the digitization of our words. Continue reading “Bibliodeath”

Y

I’ve been thinking a lot about masculinity lately, more specifically the particularly violent attitudes that have been swirled into recent discussions about mental illness, gun laws, sexual violence, and football. In this miasma, masculinity is presented as problem, as a relation of actions based on constructed ideals. But of course, a person is not a problem, or not only a problem, and especially not to his mother. Continue reading “Y”

The Lighthouse Road

With its depiction of wintry weather along the shores of Lake Superior and even a view of Isle Royale, Michiganders (and Wisconsinites) will relate to Peter Geye’s novel The Lighthouse Road even though its setting is Northern Minnesota. Geye is a native of Duluth, and some of the novel’s action takes place there, but mostly it alternates between 1895-96 and 1910-37 in the lakeside town of Gunflint, near a logging camp called Burnt Wood Camp. Continue reading “The Lighthouse Road”

The Memoirs of JonBenet by Kathy Acker

This book of thirteen short essay-stories, The Memoirs of JonBenet by Kathy Acker by Michael du Plessis, is dense with conflated cultural images that construct an alternate unreal-real reality of consumer America. The story’s location is Boulder, Colorado, in a a snowglobe, the kind bought at a “cheap airport gift store and stuck at the foot of the Rocky Mountains.” Boulder is also the place where JonBenet, a six-year-old beauty pageant queen and possibly one of the narrators, was murdered on Christmas Eve in 1996. The other possible narrator of this “fiction inside a fiction” is the dead writer Kathy Acker. Then, there is another narrator, as JonBenet and Kathy Acker discuss: “Somewhere a narrator still worries, almost like a grown-up.” These narrators “out” each other and often call attention to the narrative as a narrative. Continue reading “The Memoirs of JonBenet by Kathy Acker”

Purple Daze

Hey Mr. Tambourine Man, pick up a copy of Sherry Shahan’s book Purple Daze and smell the incense and peppermints. Equally appealing to readers who lived through the 1960s and to those who didn’t but want to know what it was really like, Shahan has created a compelling chronicle of a single tumultuous year: 1965. This particular window to the past is unusual for a couple of reasons. First, Purple Daze features not one main character, but six. Ziggy, Mickey, Cheryl, Nancy, Don and Phil are a group of friends growing up in Los Angeles. The second thing that sets this book apart is the fact that Shahan has chosen to write much of the novel in verse. Our protagonists share their stories through poems, notes, letters, journal entries, and song lyrics. While this format might seem an odd choice from the outside, Shahan’s skill and range engenders a level of intimacy with each character that is surprising given the brief snatches of information shared in a given moment. The reader feels the drama as the paths of these six friends diverge and darken with the weight of the year’s events. Ziggy writes: Continue reading “Purple Daze”

The Glimmering Room

Have you listened to those early songs by Cat Power where the speaker lists the names of friends from her youth who grew up abused, turning to sex and drugs way too early in life? These poems by Cynthia Cruz are just like those songs. I’ve discovered that Chan Marshall (aka Cat Power) never quite had friends with those exact experiences or went through all that miserable hell herself. It doesn’t bother me too much either. The songs are still damn good. Powerful, moving, and quite evocative, the poems of Cynthia Cruz equally match all the grime and dark foreboding of Cat Power’s best licks. The Glimmering Room hits the same raw nerve, again and again: Continue reading “The Glimmering Room”

Ten Little Suffergets

Published c. 1910-1915: “As in Ten Little Indians, the group loses a member in each sequence, here for typical transgressions of little girls: gobbling cakes, crying over a dead doll, kissing a boy, – the usual sins of the contemporary sub-Sweet Sixteen set, suffragettes as self-destructive children…” Read the rest of Stephen J. Gertz’s commentary considering possible authorship of the booklet in the context of opposition to the woman’s vote and see all ten images (plus cover) on Booktryst. The booklet is actually for sale via The Literary Lion.

Looking for New Reviewers

We are looking to add on a few more regular book and/or magazine reviewers for NewPages. If you are interested, please stop by the NewPages table at AWP (J1 & J2) and talk to Kirsten. If you are interested but will not be at AWP, feel free to send an email to Kirsten at [email protected] for magazine reviews and to Holly at [email protected] for book reviews.Check out this info before emailing.

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