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NewPages Blog

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

Crossing Borders

In this collection of sixteen essays, Sergio Troncoso writes about family, fatherhood, education, illness, love, politics, religion, social issues, societal responsibility, and writing. He observes that his clear, direct writing about difficult questions “has sometimes condemned [him] in academic circles” and that his writing is also “overlooked by those who never desire to think beyond the obvious and the popular.” Troncoso chronicles his transformation from “a besieged outsider needing a voice” to “an outsider by choice deploying [his] voice,” creating an intellectual borderland from where he tried to push his mind with the philosophical ideas that form the framework of his writing. Continue reading “Crossing Borders”

Talk Poetry

In my own reading experience, nothing beats the first-person account of the interview, offering as it does an essential glimpse into what’s happening in the mind of the subject. As the instigator of responses in this collection, David Baker takes a rather light hand and offers little fleshiness, certainly no blood, yet presents an easygoing introduction to both the poet-as-person as well as the work. Continue reading “Talk Poetry”

I Take Back the Sponge Cake

I Take Back the Sponge Cake almost looks like a children’s book at first glance. But in reality, this book is a whimsical, lyrical adventure that takes you down a different path with every read. Choose-your-own-adventure books are a rare but surprising delight to come across, and this book is no exception. I especially like how abstract the poetry is; it matches the artwork perfectly. Rather than choosing a direction or making an ethical choice at the turn of each page, the reader is given the privilege of choosing a word to fill in the poems themselves. The words are homonyms (for example, weight and wait, or ring and wring), so although they are pronounced the same, the different meanings lend different import to each choice. The readers’ personal styles and lives have an effect on which word they choose, giving them a unique experience. Continue reading “I Take Back the Sponge Cake”

Sudden Death, Over Time

Age and the academy dominate John Rember’s latest collection, Sudden Death, Over Time. Master of the cynical first person male, Rember repeatedly places readers in the context of professors well past their prime, who know that their best choice left is to smirk at the absurdity surrounding their departments, their students, and their love lives and to plod along. Continue reading “Sudden Death, Over Time”

The Cranes Dance

For an allegedly silent art, ballet has inspired many good words. Essays by poet Edwin Denby and critic Arlene Croce are worthy writing workshop handouts. Choreographer Agnes de Mille’s books are histories of dance and America. Jacques d’Amboise’s memoir I Was A Dancer is not only candid; the charming, legendary dancer wrote it as if he was telling his story over coffee. Continue reading “The Cranes Dance”

Wonderful Investigations

A collection is an interesting thing. Traditionally, we can expect to find a collection in some sort of museum setting—a set of archaeological artifacts or art objects that allows the audience to understand another culture. A collection of writing, however, is particularly interesting as it allows a reader to examine an author’s intellectual and aesthetic commitments. In a collection of writing, the reader has more than simply the Objekt to examine or look at; the surrounding context for the author’s intended themes is available to the reader as well. These themes, in turn, become the real collection on display to the reader. In Wonderful Investigations: Essays, Meditations, Tales, author Dan Beachy-Quick amasses quite a cabinet of written curiosities that serve as the basis for his Investigations—a collection that does not seem to argue for a specifically particular point or theme, but, rather, a collection that allows the reader to examine Beachy-Quick’s intellectual and aesthetic commitments to his own treasured authors. Continue reading “Wonderful Investigations”

Richard Outram

Poet and critic Richard Outram was for me one of those writers who occasionally popped up on the periphery of my poetry explorations. I saw him referenced and quoted until I began to wonder who he was. Outram was like one of those neighbors you never introduced yourself to. You passed him or her once or twice a week and waved without an inkling of who they were or what they did. Continue reading “Richard Outram”

Letters from Robots

After reading the title, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this book. It gave me the strange feeling I’d be reading letters, or advice, from the future. Ironically, Salier focuses tremendously on the current so-called Mayan threat of the end of the world. Since we have already lived through a few apocalyptic threats within the last decade or so, it’s refreshing to contemplate the future through the lens of someone who admits that “every friday at 2pm i feel strongly / that i should’ve been an astronaut.” Continue reading “Letters from Robots”

In the Shade of the Shady Tree

John Kinsella’s In the Shade of the Shady Tree: Stories of Wheatbelt Australia should entice the reader who enjoys unusual fiction in a strange place of extremes, off the tourist map. Kinsella describes his very short short stories as “stories told for the moment, out of experience more than ‘art,’”—similar to Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio. Kinsella’s interests are how the people Continue reading “In the Shade of the Shady Tree”

Letters to Kelly Clarkson

Letters to Kelly Clarkson is full of short letters written from the narrator to American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson, beginning with “Dear Kelly.” Although there were certainly thoughts and points that stuck out as interesting to me, the majority of the letters were ungrounded and rambling. A letter at the beginning of the book opens with: “You know, sitting here, eating my microwaved tomatoes on somewhat tough toast, I think I could give myself another chance.” And I started silently cheering, we all deserve a second chance! Good for you! But then the next lines were: “Seriously, can you tell me why I keep dreaming of a chipped white truck? Could it be the swerve of it, the handle? A rush of blood to the hand.” I was so intrigued by the second chance that I wanted to know all the details of how she messed up and with whom and how she was planning to fix it. Yet there was no resolution for me and I felt like the writer had left me high and dry, though perhaps this was her intention. Continue reading “Letters to Kelly Clarkson”

Editorial Position: Mid-American Review

The English Department of Bowling Green State University seeks strong applicants for an instructor to serve as editor of the internationally recognized literary magazine Mid-American Review and instructor in Creative Writing. The initial appointment is for one year, with possibility of renewal. Postmark deadline for application is July 16, 2012.

NewPages Updates :: June 29, 2012

Not even 90-degree weather can slow us down at NewPages, where we’ve been hard at work adding new resources throughout the site:

Added to The NewPages Big List of Literary Magazines:
Ekphrasis Image – poetry
Hart House Review Image – (Canada) poetry, fiction, nonfiction, reviews, art
J & L Illustrated Image – fiction, illustrations
Snail Mail Review Image – poetry, fiction
Watershed Image – poetry, fiction, nonfiction, articles, photography
The Cossack Review [O/E] – poetry, fiction, nonfiction
Essays & Fictions [O/P] – nonfiction, fiction, criticism, analysis, translations
Four and Twenty [O] – poetry
Glass Seed Annual [O] – poetry
The Ilanot Review [O] – poetry, fiction, nonfiction, interviews, translations
Linden Avenue [O] – poetry, fiction
Jenny Magazine [O] – poetry, fiction, nonfiction, art
The New Poet [O] – poetry
About Place [O] – poetry, prose
String Poet [O] – poetry, music
The Examined Life Image – poetry, fiction, nonfiction
Meat for Tea Image – poetry, prose, photography
Paper Nautilus Image – poetry, prose

[app] = publication available as an app for tablets/phones
Image = electronic publication for e-readers
Image = online magazines
[p] = print magazine

Added to Literary Links:
Extract(s) – poetry, fiction, nonfiction, excerpts
The Ofi Press – poetry, fiction, reviews
throughthe3rdeye – reviews, interviews, and poetry by Michigan poets

Added to The NewPages Big List of Alternative Magazines:
Composite [O] – exists somewhere between a literary magazine and an art gallery
Pathfinders Travel Image – travel magazine for people of color
Tathaastu Image – Eastern wisdom for mind, body, soul
Works & Days Quarterly [O]

Added to Writing Conferences, Workshops, Retreats, Centers, Residencies, Book & Literary Festivals:
Celebrating African American Literature, PA [Con]
Writing Short Course, OK [Wkshp]
Prose, Poetry, and Passion: Summer Writing Workshops, MA

Added to Creative Writing Programs:
College of Saint Rose MFA Program, NY

Added to NewPages Guide to Independent Bookstores in the U.S. and Canada:
Bank of Books, Ventura, CA
Big Apple Bookstore, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Book Exchange, Norfolk,VA
Boswell Book Company, Milwaukee, WI
Five Stone Bookstore, Lebanon, PA
Irvin’s Books, York, PA
Mystery Cove Book Shop, Hulls Cove, ME
The Old Books Surfer, Schenectady, NY
One for the Books, Cape Coral, FL
Vintage Books, Hopkinton, MA

Added to Independent Publishers & University Presses
Trio House Press – poetry

Screen Reading: Online Lit Mag Reviews

A few weeks ago, NewPages Literary Magazine Review Editor Kirsten McIlvenna kicked off her new weekly column – Screen Reading. Each week she spotlights online literary magazines, offering a glimpse into some of the best and newest writing on the web. Publications recently reviewed include Jersey Devil Press, The Summerset Review, Anti-, inter|rupture, Stirring, LITnIMAGE, Dragnet Magazine, Spitton, Straight Forward, and Blood Orange Review.

For both readers and writers, just the sheer number of online literary publications can be overwhelming. NewPages uses thoughtful criteria in selecting what we recommend in our guides, and Kirsten’s reviews are a great way to learn more about these publications, discover new authors, and keep up with some of your favorites.

Check back each Monday for a new installment of Screen Reading!

New Lit on the Block :: The Ilanot Review

The Ilanot Review, published online biannually, is affiliated with the creative writing program at Bar-Ilan University. Editor Janice Weizman says that Ilanot also means “young trees” in Hebrew—“which is a nice metaphor for new writing.” Marcela Sulak, Nadia Jacobson, Karen Marron, Jane Medved, and Karen Boxenhorn also serve as editors for the magazine.

“Originally, we wanted to give a platform for English writing coming out of Israel,” Weizman says. “Today, we accept writing from anywhere in the world.” She explains that readers can expect to find “fresh and striking prose and poetry, English translations of literature from other languages—particularly Hebrew but other languages as well—interviews with published poets and writers, and thought provoking themed issues.”

The Ilanot Review’s first publication includes well known names such as Mark Mirsky, Joan Leegant, Michael Collier, E. Ethlebert Miller, and Gerald Stern as well as several emerging poets and writers. “We launch every issue with a public reading by contributors in fun and memorable venues,” Weizman says.

Writers can submit to The Ilanot Review through Submittable through October 30, 2012 for the next themed issue: “Foreign Bodies.”

Welcome TRON! Tampa Review Online

The University of Tampa has just launched its online counterpart to the award-winning literary magazine The Tampa Review.

TRON, or Tampa Review Online is an online literary magazine dedicated to the blending of contemporary literature and visual arts in traditional and innovative ways. TRON feature new art and writing from Florida and around the world. The journal is edited and run by the students of the University of Tampa’s MFA program in Creative Writing. TRON will publish bi-monthly throughout the year and will consider online submissions of prose, poetry, and the visual arts.

Currently featured on TRON: An essay by Dean Bartoli Smith (“The Online Literary Magazine as Triggering Device”); fiction by Robert Clark Young and Ric Hoeben; poetry by Sean Patrick Hill and Angela Masterson Jones; visual art by Martha Marshall and Candace Knapp; and an excerpt from Taylor Branch’s Byliner Original The Cartel (Chapter Two: Founding Myths).

New Lit on the Block :: The Drunken Odyssey with John King Podcast

The Drunken Odyssey with John King: A Podcast About the Writing Life is a new weekly podcast that features interviews with established writers about the writing life. Editor John King explains that each episode will also have a memoir essay about a writer’s relationship to a beloved book. “Each episode,” he says, “will close with me responding to listener mail. All aspects of the writing life—including any possible genre—will be discussed.”

King says that the name of the podcast “invokes both the mythos of the writer as drinker, and also the mythos of the writer as heroic misadventurer. Both identities can overlap. But liquor is not the only path to drunkenness. As the late ray Bradbury said, ‘You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.’”

King says, “Writing is an isolating activity, and discussion of writing in the media prioritizes the finished product of writing. This podcast, then, is an opportunity to build a sense of community among writers, and to offer some catharsis in discussing the struggle of writing, and all aspects of this business of writing, rather than merely the accomplishments of writing.”

The first podcast includes an interview with Nathan Holic, an editor, and Ryan Rivas, a publisher, who are behind the 15 Views of Orlando project and a memoir essay from Olivia Kate Cerrone which discusses her relationship to Yann Martel’s Life of Pi. King says that future episodes will have interviews with Lisa Claire Roney, the Shakespearean actor Kevin Crawford, and novelist Darin Strauss.

King is looking for content, especially memoir essays about beloved books. He is also looking forward to responding to listener mail and encourages listeners to write to him through the contact information on the site.

Petition to Save U of Missouri Press

From Chris Wiewiora:

As you might know, lots of university presses are underfunded. It’s even worse when a university unplugs from their press. [Read about SMU Press’ recent loss of funding here.] As writers, many times our first publications and books are with literary magazines and presses. I believe we need to support them, always.

I actually have read a couple of books from University of Missouri Press. One of them, Talk Thai, was a favorite memoir of mine from a good buddy Ira Sukrangruang. I would like to read more books from more folks like Ira from university presses like Missouri.

With that, I hope you’ll consider signing on to the petition. They need 4,000 signatures and are currently just a nudge under that. Also, please pass along this message to other friends and writers and readers.

Here’s the link for the petition: http://bit.ly/LjlemX

Glimmer Train April Family Matters Winners – 2012

Glimmer Train has just chosen the winning stories for their April Family Matters competition. This competition is held twice a year and is open to all writers for stories about family of all configurations. The next Family Matters competition will take place in October. Glimmer Train’s monthly submission calendar may be viewed here.

First place: Danielle Lazarin [pictured] of New York, NY wins $1500 for “Spider Legs.” Her story will be published in the Fall 2013 issue of Glimmer Train Stories.

Second place: Pam Durban, of Chapel Hill, NC, wins $500 for “The Tree of Knowledge.”

Third place: Tom Paine of Portsmouth, NH, wins $300 for “Oppenheimer Beach.”

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

Deadline soon approaching for the Fiction Open Contest: June 30.

Glimmer Train hosts this competition quarterly, and first place is $2500 plus publication in the journal. It’s open to all writers and there are no theme restrictions. The word count generally ranges from 3000 – 8000, though up to 20,000 is fine. Click here for complete guidelines.

New Lit on the Block :: Sawmill Magazine

Sawmill Magazine, a new online magazine, offers up six issues a year, two for each of the genres: fiction, poetry, and comics. Sawmill was created as a “digital sister” to Typecast Publishing’s print magazine, The Lumberyard. Fiction Editor Wesley Fairman, says, “We felt it was only fitting that we develop a name for our web-based magazine that recalled The Lumberyard and evoked similar feelings of creation, industry, and precision. We wanted a place to play, to test ideas, and to begin building relationships with writers and visual artists that, hopefully, lead to bigger projects down the road. Much in the way the sawmill is the first step for building materials before they reach the lumberyard, Sawmill the magazine is the birthplace for the future of Typecast.”

The rest of the editorial team includes Comics Editor Jake Snider and Poetry Editor Jen Woods. Fiction will be published each January and July, comics each March and September, and poetry each May and November. “With each issue,” says Fairman, “the editors will seek to forge partnerships with authors, illustrators, and graphic designers in order to present digital packaging as gorgeous and important as the literature housed within.

“When you open Sawmill, expect to see something unusual and engaging. Be it a short story wrapped in an experimental graphic design scheme, a poem that makes you choke on your breath, or a hand-drawn, one-of-a-kind comic. Never ordinary, and always pushing the boundaries of what has come before, Sawmill seeks only to find a way to delight you, and fill you with as much joy as any book you’ve ever held in your hands.”

Fairman says that Typecast Publishing enjoys working with magazines because it allows them to “work with a multitude of creative forces at one time.” She says that offering an online magazine allowed the publishing company to continue to work with magazines but in a new way. “We wanted to pose the same challenges we face in our print objects to the digital format—mainly how to bring intimacy and depth to the reading experience in a way that honors the text. And digital was exciting because it allowed us to create something we could offer for free.”

The first issue include comics from Ken Henson, Maureen Fellinger, and Megan Stanton and fiction from Kirby Gann, David James Poissant, Mark Jacobs, Kristin Matly Dennis, and Matt Dobson (Publication Design).

As the magazine develops, the editors hope to add a behind the scenes feature “where the reader can pull back the proverbial curtain and see the trials and triumphs of developing a literary magazine. Additionally,” Fairman says, “we also hope to develop a print on demand feature for readers who prefer physical copies of the literary magazines they love.”

Because there are six issues a year, submissions are accepted via email throughout most of the year.

Bellingham Review 2011 Contest Winners Printed

The Bellingham Review features its 2011 Contest winners in its current (Spring 2012) print issue:

49th Parallel Poetry Award
Final Judge: Lia Purpura
First Place: Jennifer Militello
“A Dictionary of Mechanics, Memory, and Skin in the Voice of Marian Parker”

Annie Dillard Award for Creative Nonfiction
Final Judge: Ira Sukrungruang
First Place: Jay Torrence
“Buckshot”

Tobias Wolff Award for Fiction
Final Judge: Adrianne Harun
First Place: Lauri Anderson
“Hand, Mouth, Ring”

Specter Magazine’s First Themed Issue

Specter Literary Magazine, a monthly online magazine, just put out its first themed issue—“Hip-Hop Issue: Side A & Side B”—guest edited by Rion Amilcar Scott. The issue features poetry, prose, and art focused on hip-hop and even includes an accompanying playlist for both sides A and B.

Amilcar Scott says, “Rap as a musical form shares with literature an intense focus on words. All the authors here delight in the obsessive wordplay of your local emcee . . . The playlists for Side A and Side B are how the issue sounds to me. These are the songs suggested to me by the rhythms of the words and by them themes explored in the issue. Pump these playlists as you read. Shit, make your own playlist based on how the words in this issue hit you.

“So, here it is, Specter Magazine’s Hip-Hop Issue: Side A & Side B, pure heat, pure funk. I hope you enjoy the pieces as much as I enjoyed assembling them. I hope you throw your hands in the air and wave them as if you no longer care. At least many will echo with you like your saddest hip-hop memory or your favorite rap song.”

New Scholarly Journal :: The Hare

Edited by Jeremy Lopez and Paul Menzer, The Hare is a peer-reviewed, on-line academic journal published three times yearly. The journal publishes short essays on the dramatic, poetic, and prose works of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. The journal also publishes academic book reviews, and provides a public forum for open exchange between scholars in the field. The Hare seeks short essays on all topics related to early modern literature – poetry, prose, and drama as well as reviews of “old” – classic, foundational, seminal, unjustly forgotten, etc. – books.

New M.F.A. at The College of Saint Rose

The College of Saint Rose in Albany, New York presents a new M.F.A. in Creative Writing. This new program “provides serious writers with the opportunity to develop their craft within a supportive and challenging academic community of creative writers and literary scholars. This full-residency MFA program allows students to work rigorously within their chosen genres in workshops and to complete a full-length creative work as a thesis. Students study literature as they deepen and broaden their writing skills, adding a strong component of literary analysis and criticism to their range of knowledge and skills.”

New Lit on the Block :: Glass Seed Annual

Glass Seed Annual is a new annual poetry magazine published each fall that specializes in pantoums. Editor Mary Alexander Agner says that readers should expect to find poetry that uses “repetition, refrain, anaphora, alliteration, rhyme, meter, and other sonic devices to convey interesting and unexpected stories.”

The magazine started as a way to “showcase poetry which emphasizes the musical aspects of language without neglecting meaning,” explains Agner. “Also, I wanted to promote writing and reading of pantoums.”

Contributors in the first issue include Elsa Louise von Schreiber, Francesca Forrest, Joshua Davis, Sherry Chandler, and Louise Wakeling.

Agner said that the magazine will continue to solicit and publish poetry which emphasizes the music of language with a new topic for publication each year. Submissions are accepted through email, and writers whose works are selected will receive payment for publication.

The Ledge Magazine 2011 Awards Competition Results

The newest issue (#34) of The Ledge Poetry & Fiction Magazine features the winners of the 2011 Poetry and Fiction Awards Competition:

Poetry Awards Competition Results:
First Prize ($1,000): “Camille Pissarro: The Bather” by Elisavietta Ritchie of Broomes Island, MD
Second Prize ($250): “Last Pharaoh” by Joyce Meyers of Wallingford, PA
Third Prize ($100): “The History of Bitumen” by Don Schofield of Thessaloniki, Greece

Fiction Awards Competition Results:
First prize ($1000): “When Ah Was Very Young ” by Enid Baron of Evanston, IL.
Second prize ($250): “Amazing Things Are Happening Here ” by Jacob M. Appel of NY, NY.
Third prize ($100): “The Barberini Princess ” by Lisa Gornick of NY, NY

New Lit on the Block :: Linden Avenue Literary Journal

Edited by founder Athena Dixon, Linden Avenue Literary Journal is a monthly online journal that accepts poetry (up to 50 lines), flash fiction (up to 1,000 words), and fiction (up to 2,500 words). Dixon says that readers can expect to find the best work, regardless of any affiliation or prior publication and “poetry and fiction that is as beautiful in construction as it is in content. I wanted to create a place where writers would feel comfortable in sharing their words and, in turn, themselves.”

The journal was named after the street that Dixon grew up on. It was where she “first wrote her stories and poems and was encouraged to continue writing by the teachers in her local elementary school and junior high school.” Dixon explains that that she has created this journal as a space for stories that are both simple and stunning. “I found myself a little disheartened by work that seemed ‘alternative’ for the sake of being alternative, not because the content supported it,” she says.

The first issue features poetry and fiction by Elizabeth Akin Stelling, Leesa Cross-Smith, Ariana D. Den Bleyker, Daniel Casey, Andrea Blythe, Melanie Faith, Fiona Pearse, Marissa Hyde, Anthony Frame, Alisha Sommer, Gwen Henderson, C.L. McFadyen, William Henderson, Laura Hallman, Neal Kitterlin, and Val Dering Rojas.

The journal will continue to publish each month with a goal of being able to accept art and photography by the end of 2012. Within the next year, Dixon hopes to move the journal to a print publication.

Currently, submissions are accepted through Submittable on a rolling basis for issues published on the first of every month. Simultaneous submissions are welcome.

Indiana Review Prize Winners

In addition to having a stunning cover – “Ragnarok’n’Roll” by Jen Mundy – the newest issue of Indiana Review (34.1) features the winner of the 2011 Indiana Review Fiction Prize: “Mud Child” by Becky Adnot-Haynes; and the winner of the 2011 Indiana Review 1/2 K Prize (entrants limited to 500 words): “When You Look Away, the World” by Corey Van Landingham.

Books :: Tiny Homes

Ever since I read a news article about a woman who lived in a 200-square-foot home, I have been fascinated – and not doubt romanticizing – the idea of living (not just ‘vacationing’) in such a small space. What a great way to ‘de-clutter’ and ‘live simply’ as growing movements suggest we are better off doing so that others may ‘simply live.’ (The woman in the news article had a helpful rule we could all live better by: She only allowed herself a certain number of objects in her home. If she brought something new in, something old had to go.)

At NewPages, we get a lot of incoming, and one book I was thrilled to see was Tiny Homes: Simple Shelter, Scaling Back in the 21st Century by Lloyd Kahn, published by Shelter Publications.

This book features 150 builders who have created tiny homes (under 500 sq. ft.) on land, on wheels, on the road, on water, even in the trees. There are also studios, saunas, garden sheds, and greenhouses.

Most amazing, in the 224 pages are included 1,300 full-color photos, showing a rich variety of small homemade shelters, and there are stories (and thoughts and inspirations) of the owner-builders who are on the forefront of this new trend in downsizing and self-sufficiency.

This particular book does not include any intricate building plans – these are included in other publications put out by Shelter. Rather, the intent of this book is to showcase, inspire, and motivate people to consider this alternative way of taking up less space on the planet.

There’s a two-minute book trailer on the publisher’s website featuring Lloyd Kahn discussing the book, the concept of tiny shelters, and numerous images from the book as well. Certainly well worth a look.

Stone Voices Special Feature

The newest issue (Summer 2012) of Stone Voices features a new section called Art Exhibition and Literary Showcase. For this exhibition’s theme, “Inspired by Joy,” Editor Christine Brooks Cote says: “Artists and writers were encouraged to submit works that were inspired by joy or were intended to inspire joy in others, and, of course, were also related in some way to art or creative expression.” While only the top submissions are featured in the print issue, the complete selection of the exhibition can be see online at Stone Voice‘s webpage.

New Lit on the Block :: Glassworks

Glassworks is an ecclectic biannual of writing: poetry, fiction, nonfiction, interviews, craft essays, and new media: photography, paintings, photo essays, graphic fiction, video, audio (spoken; no music), and animations. Is that all? “Surprise us!” say the editors.

Available in print, with a digital new-media issue, and eZine, the December issue of Glassworks is a “regular” issue with May offering themed content.

Managing Editor Manda Frederick and Editor in Chief Ron Block started Glassworks as part of Rowan University’s Master in Writing Arts Graduate Program. “For a graduate program,” Frederick says, “it is important to have a literary journal to provide professional development for students and to supplement the purpose and quality of a program.”

In support of this mission, readers of Glassworks can expect to find variety of “current and interesting new-media content rarely published in other online journals, smart writing about craft, and a variety of poetry and prose from writers all over the globe. Moreover,” Frederick tells me, “our magazine’s aesthetic is built on the tenor and metaphor of the glass working industry (we are located in Glassboro, NJ, which was established as a glass working town). We value an attention to craft and aesthetic beauty.“

Glassworks first full issue, Spring 2012, features works by Robert Wrigley, Oliver de la Paz, Suzanne Paola, James Grabill, Andrew Lam, and more.

As for the future of the publication, the editors comment: “Next year is an exciting year for us. We will publish a general print issue, a digital new-media issue, and a themed issue (next year’s theme: utility and beauty). We are also going to publish an ‘apprentice’ issue that will be created out of community outreach, getting writing from our immediate community. You’ll also see us debut our magazine at AWP in Boston 2013. Moreover, Glassworks will, for the first time, be a graduate class. So the graduate students will be hard at work creating additional content for the magazine including interviews, blogs, and more.”

Glassworks is currently open for submissions with full information found on the publication’s website.

Stunning Covers :: J&L Illustrated

While I see many beautiful publications that come through NewPages, occasionally there is still a lit mag or book cover that I find ‘stunning’ enough to post on the blog. This time around, the stunning visual appeal is one that extends beyond the cover. J&L Illustrated introduced itself to us with issue #3 – which comes not only with a florescent orange and black cover, but florescent orange on the page edges all the way around (thankfully NOT on the text pages themselves throughout, which are instead a high quality black and white offset).

From the looks of the previous issues of J&L Illustrated, this colored edge is a signature of their publication, and one I find highly unique and eye-catching. Add to that the 5×7 format with 256 pages, and this mag has a nice, light ‘chunky’ feel that’s easy to tote, grab, and – thanks to the coloration – find in any bag or stack.

As for the content itself, this issue, edited by Paul Maliszewski, features drawings by Shoboshobo and 13 short stories by authors Amie Barrodale, Scott Bradfield, Stephen Dixon, Steve Featherstone, William H. Gass, Michael Martone, Joseph McElroy, Elizabeth Miller, Robert Nedelkoff, Hasanthikia Sirisena, Steve Stern, Mike Topp and Xiaoda Xiao.

Welcome to NewPages J&L Illustrated – nice to meet you!

The Pinch Literary Award Winners

Sponsored by The Hohenberg Foundation, The Pinch Literary Awards in Fiction and Poetry Winners 2011 appear in the newest issue of The Pinch (Spring 2012):

Fiction – Judged by Rick Bass

1st Place: Judith Edelman – “A Skiff of Snow”

2nd Place: James O’Brien – “Bing Red”

3rd Place: Stuart Dearnley – “Not Sleeping with the New Girl”

Poetry – Judged by Jeffrey McDaniel

1st Place: Claudine R. Moreau – ”Father-in-Law in His Tighty-Whities.”

2nd Place: John Sibley Williams – “Description of the Sky.”

New Lit on the Block :: The Boiler Journal

The Boiler Journal is a new online quarterly of poetry, fiction and nonfiction edited by Sebastian Paramo, William Derks, Carly Susser, Sarah Levine, and Caitlin Bahrey whose goal in starting a new literary magazine is “to promote unheard voices.” They hope to provide their readers with “quality literature of stuff you’ve never heard of before.”

The first issue of The Boiler Journal features works by Jessica Ankeny, G. Taylor Davis, Adam Chambers, Kevin Pilkington, Sophia Starmack, Justine Haus, and Jean Kim.

Editors say future plans for The Boiler Journal are to publish an annual best-of chapbook each year and continue growing from there.

Workers Write! Tales from the Combat Zone

The newest issue of Workers Write! is “Tales from the Combat Zone” featuring stories and poems from the soldier’s point of view. In his forward, Jim LaBounty, Colonel, U.S. Army (Retired) writes:

“We all have our stories. Many are hard to tell. Many are difficult to fathom – even when you are directly involved in them. Most are virtually impossible to explain to those who have never been there. War is not a mystery to mankind. We’ve been doing it forever. We write and sing of glories and leaders. These authors do the hard part. They write about the down and dirty of war. They write of the mundane. They write of the boredom. They write of the intensity. They write of the rules and regulations, the regimentation, the decision to follow orders, or not. They write of the craziness of it all…These stories are from many of our wars, but they really are not about war. This is about combat and the things it does to men and women faced with daily decisions that will allow them or their buddies to live or die.”

A full list of contents can be found here, as well as ordering information for this issue.

The next issue of Workers Write! is “Road Warriors: Tales from the Concrete Highway,” stories and poems from the driver’s point of view. Workers Write! is currently looking for fiction from “taxi cab drivers and chauffeurs, truck drivers, delivery drivers and couriers, forklift operators . . . anyone who uses a wheeled vehicle for work (even pit crews and stunt drivers).” The deadline for submissions is Dec. 21, 2012 (until the end of the world or the issue is full).

Hart House Review Poetry Contest Winners

The Hart House Review annual 2012 issue features winners from their 2011 Hart House Poetry Contest:

First Prize
Marlena Millikin, “Miner’s Hands”

Second Place
Michael Labate, “Domesticity”

Third Place
Jenn Gardener, “Clusters”

First Place, 2011 Contest Winner
Liza Kobrinsky, “Mother Courage”

[Cover Artwork: “Lettermess” by Jp King]

Undiscovered Voices Scholarship

Call For Applications for the 2013 Undiscovered Voices Scholarship. The Writer’s Center seeks promising writers earning less than $25,000 annually to apply. This scholarship program will provide complimentary writing workshops to the selected applicant for a period of one year, but not to exceed 8 workshops in that year. The recipient is expected to use the year to make progress toward a completed manuscript of publishable work. Previous winners include Gimbiya Kettering (2012), Lee Kaplan (2011), and Susan Bucci Mockler (2010). Deadline: June 30, 2012.

5×5 – Spring 2012

For such a tiny ephemeral-seeming publication, 5×5 delivers the goods with style. Not only is the publication itself small, but the literary pieces within are short, making 5×5 the ideal magazine to carry around with you everywhere you go. It fits nicely in your back pocket, and you can pull it out and read one or two pieces at a time whenever you have a spare few minutes. Continue reading “5×5 – Spring 2012”

American Short Fiction – Spring 2012

American Short Fiction differs from a lot of other literary journals in that, as its name implies, it only publishes short fiction. The Editor’s Note for this issue says that the stories explore “the voice of the collective—in particular, the women’s collective,” and while that description is not one-hundred percent applicable to all five stories in this issue, it pertains to more of them than not. The Editor’s Note also claims that these stories contain an above average share of violence and that “all this first-person plural and womanliness (womynliness?) and crime and violence may not sound like a blast to read. And yet it is.” That description, too, is a pleasingly accurate one. Many of the stories explore the edges of darkness but then allow light to resurface through reflection and humor. Continue reading “American Short Fiction – Spring 2012”

Barn Owl Review – 2012

You know that cousin you have who is really weird but whom you would defend to the death if anyone badmouthed him? He may be a little different, but you mean that in the best sense. He’s eclectic and creative and bound to do something amazing with his nontraditional life. That’s kind of how I feel about Barn Owl Review (BOR). There were times I was reading and shaking my head in wonder at the same time. BOR is definitely not bor-ing. Continue reading “Barn Owl Review – 2012”

Catch Up – 2012

Catch Up’s cover art bucks the usual trend of staid literary journal cover art. This issue features a lurid red, blue, and purple drawing by contributor Max Bode of a menacing figure with its head ringed with dynamite and its gloved hands holding detonators. So, the cover made me think more underground “litzine” or comics anthology than literary journal. However, I found, on the pages within, the work of some very widely published writers. Mixed in with this literary work are a few comics, including a nice series from Box Brown on Andre the Giant’s interactions with various cast members on the set of The Princess Bride, presumably from the comic biography of Andre that Brown is currently working on. Continue reading “Catch Up – 2012”

Conduit – Spring 2012

Who doesn’t dig the moon? This issue of Conduit is all about that orb out there beyond our atmosphere spinning around our planet while our planet, in turn, spins about the sun. For any lunar fanatic, this issue is a must have item. While non-poetry readers may puzzle over some of the poems in here, everybody is going to be down for the Buzz Aldrin interview—yes, the very same one-time astronaut Buzz Aldrin who touched down on that astro-hunk of lunar wonder. His perspective is counterbalanced by an interview with scholar Evans Lansing Smith titled “The Myth in the Moon.” In addition, a plentiful supply of attractive artwork featuring the moon is scattered throughout these pages, ranging from Warhol’s Moonwalk (1987) (here reclaimed from being used as an infamous ad for MTV) to Caspar David Friedrich’s Two Men Contemplating the Moon (ca. 1830) along with plenty of other art in between, everything from photography to sculpture. Continue reading “Conduit – Spring 2012”

The Conium Review – Spring 2012

The Conium Review takes its name from a small but significant genus in the plant kingdom. Their delicately detailed leaves and small white flowers give little indication of their danger. Why, one wonders, would the editors name their journal after hemlock? The leaves of the plant contain chemicals that disrupt the victim’s central nervous system. The lethal dose Socrates consumed caused progressive paralysis that eventually prevented him from breathing, depriving his heart and that powerful brain of the oxygen they needed. The fiction and poetry in The Conium Review inspire the same feeling as a mild dose of the drug. No worries; this kind of conium is not deadly. The stories in the journal do not draw the reader in with whiz-bang narratives and cliffhanger plots. Rather, the pieces draw you in with character work that is compelling in a calm manner. Continue reading “The Conium Review – Spring 2012”

Denver Quarterly – 2012

Most magazines will tell you they’re not concerned about subject matter or esthetic or stylistic approach—only about good writing. This one means it. There are poems here as rewardingly difficult as Leora Fridman’s “A Fattening,” and as direct as marc t wise’s “new jersey”: Continue reading “Denver Quarterly – 2012”

Field – Spring 2012

In Dana Gioia’s essay, “Can Poetry Matter?” published in May 1991 in The Atlantic Monthly, Gioia offers a prescription for poetry that includes writing prose about poetry more often. He observed that poetry as an art form had been partitioned within the wider culture. I quote his essay’s final paragraph here: Continue reading “Field – Spring 2012”

Fourteen Hills – 2012

Fourteen Hills, staffed by graduate students of San Francisco State University, publishes “a diversity of experimental and progressive work by emerging and cross-genre writers, as well as by award-winning and established authors.” The journal claims that because it is independent, “its aesthetic is dynamic and fluid, ever changing to meet the needs of the culture and the historical moment as the staff perceive them.” It is a well-bound book, a nicely-edited artifact with a fabulous cover by John Masterson (is it a “real” photograph or a digitally enhanced one? I think the latter but I can’t be sure; it’s of a nine-point buck standing among the detritus of an overturned garbage can in a blue and silver winterscape), but I found the writing in it uneven, and not always to my taste. As the website makes clear, 14H does not aspire to extend the tradition of canonical literature in English or to demonstrate a high-minded cultural or theoretically-grounded aesthetic. Reviewers before me have lauded it for its diversity and spontaneity. Continue reading “Fourteen Hills – 2012”

The Greensboro Review – Spring 2012

The Greensboro Review, part of The University of North Carolina Greensboro’s creative writing program, is simply clad in thick paper which has a natural-pressed feel, with the title and names of the contributors on the front. The magazine opts for a simple cover, choosing instead to spend its efforts on the contents within. It is no surprise that the collection of pieces provided by MFA students is superb. The review features fiction and poetry, all of which feels effortless in its precise crafting. It’s handmade literature at its best. Continue reading “The Greensboro Review – Spring 2012”

The Hudson Review – Spring 2012

The Hudson Review is more thoroughly an academic/cultural review journal than many of the magazines reviewed at NewPages. Its essays, “Chronicles,” “Comments,” and the six pieces actually categorized as “Reviews,” are all provocative, erudite reviews of literature and the arts, aimed at an audience of well-educated, well-informed critics equal in measure to the authors themselves. This is a serious, high-minded journal well worth your time if your interests include analysis of the dramatic verse of Ben Jonson, the music of Philip Glass, or the autobiographical fiction of Gregor von Rezzori. Flawlessly edited and professionally impeccable, the writing here is secular, humanistic, and strong. Continue reading “The Hudson Review – Spring 2012”