In first glancing through Schizophrene by Bhanu Kapil, I hardly felt at ease in reviewing a book that depicts the sentiments of the 1947 Partition of India, the aftermath of violence, the displacement, and mental illness, all in the form of prose poetry. I know little about the topic and the genre. The sheer emotional impact of reading disturbing sections out of context left a pit in my stomach. I was afraid to read the account in its entirety, but also, I was ashamed not to. The tome—not weighty in size, but in content—sat on my desk for weeks, haunting me, finding its way again and again to the top of my teetering stack. I’d glimpse the bright, inviting image on the cover, yet worry. What frightened me? Why was the book still there? Continue reading “Schizophrene”
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!
Schizophrene
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Schoolgirl
A teenager goes about her day. Her activities—taking public transportation, going to school, cattily noticing what other women are wearing, doing chores—are ordinary ones. Equally normal are her feelings regarding the death of her father, the grief she and her mother share but can never comfort each other with, and longing for the close relationship she once shared with her married sister. Continue reading “Schoolgirl”
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Fort Gorgeous
Fort Gorgeous, Angela Vogel’s first full-length collection, populates an original fairytale landscape—one grounded thematically in 19th and 20th century American literature and painting—with a village of anachronistic, pop-cultural misfits who define the contours of the contemporary American identity. Vogel’s poems, so playful and satisfying when read aloud, imply that these American archetypes, figures once representing a type of individualism, have now been commodified, reduced to emblems in our mass-produced, mashed-up and hyper-mediated versions of reality. The reader imagines, while reading the thirty-seven ultra-imaginative poems in this collection, that the characters in Fort Gorgeous have themselves mindlessly purchased the dream of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, neatly packaged and wrapped. Continue reading “Fort Gorgeous”
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Sonics in Warholia
The prose pieces in Megan Volpert’s new collection of poetry, Sonics in Warholia, read more like essays, but defining or discussing the boundaries of different genres serves no purpose and would completely miss the mark of this stunning collection. Comprised of eight pieces, the book offers extended meditations, both far-reaching and deeply personal, surrounding the biography of (and addressed to the ghost of) Andy Warhol. Throughout the book, Volpert masterfully weaves together seemingly disparate images, events, and ideas to brilliantly create complete and coherent essays that can appeal to both those who are familiar and those who are unfamiliar with Warhol’s life and work. Volpert’s vision is clever, touching, and singular. Continue reading “Sonics in Warholia”
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Version 3.0
As explained in Version 3.0, the plays in this new anthology of Asian American drama are rarely produced outside of New York City and California. Yet they ought to be, as they encompass many cultures’ assimilation and conflicts with white culture. The anthology spans the generations from the Japanese internment years up to the multi-racial 2000s. The first wave of plays has common themes of “Asian American history and immigration, generational and familial conflict, cultural identity and nationalism.” The second wave further includes Chinese and Filipino playwrights, and the third those of Indian, Korean and Vietnamese descent. This last group, with l4% identifying themselves as “multiracial” in the 2000 census, says, “No single writer can represent an entire culture; only a community of writers can do that.” Continue reading “Version 3.0”
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The Vanishing Point that Whistles
Any collection of national poetry shows its audience the formed, collective identity of its poets and their artistic milieu. The Vanishing Point That Whistles: An Anthology of Contemporary Romanian Poetry is no exception. In truth, the anthology, brilliantly compiled by editors Paul Doru Mugur, Adam J. Sorkin, and Claudia Serea, sketches a post-Iron Curtain world where Romanian national identity is as fractured as its economy and societal mores are as complex as the centuries of religious strata that seem to overlay every life – or, in the case of the poems, every text. To quote Doru Mugur in his introduction, these texts are what linguist Umberto Eco calls “the authentic fake” and, in the context of The Vanishing Point That Whistles, the texts, the lives, and the poems are the truths, lies, and everything grey in between. The theme of “authentic fake” through a fractured national identity is most clearly seen through the poems and prose that acknowledge the deep and permeating role of religion in Romania’s national identity, rawly juxtaposed against everyday being and everyday living in Romania. Continue reading “The Vanishing Point that Whistles”
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Traffic with Macbeth
Like Shakespeare’s play, Traffic with Macbeth is a fearless journey into the depths of myth, the human psyche, and often violence. There is a density to many of the poems, which at times renders them a bit opaque. Yet, so well-crafted are the lyrics that the hard shells of her images beg to be cracked. Images that are impenetrable are simultaneously beautiful and terrible and remind the reader of the artistry of mystery. However, no matter the difficulty of meaning, Szporluk’s tone always rings clear. At every step, the tongues of Macbeth’s witches and Macbeth’s own tortured soul slouch at the margins of these poems, whispering to them, feeding them the macabre spirit that produced such haunting lyrics as those in “Baba Yaga”: Continue reading “Traffic with Macbeth”
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AROHO’s Orlando Prize Winners
The Spring 2012 issue of The Los Angeles Review (volume 11) includes A Room of Her Own‘s Orlando Prize winners:
Orlando Creative Nonfiction Prize
Doris Ferleger, “Five Full Moons”
Orlando Short Fiction Prize
Branden Boyer-White, “Crossing”
Orlando Flash Fiction Prize
Amy Silverberg, “Write This Down”
Orlando Poetry Prize
Kathleen Savino, “History of Glass”
A full list of winners and runners-up can be found here.
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Southern Poetry Review Celebrate Ten+
Southern Poetry Review celebrates “ten years at home in Savannah.” Having traveled from Florida to North Carolina and then finally to Georgia where it has been the past ten years, the publication has ‘traveled the world by staying local.’ Issue 49.2 offers a retrospective of those ten years (though not including poems already selected for their fifty-year anthology).
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New Lit on the Block :: Flycatcher
Flycatcher: A Journal of Native Imagination of literature and art published online twice a year (winter and summer).
Editors Christopher Martin, Kathleen Brewin Lewis, Karen Pickell, Precious Williams, Jennifer Martin, Laurence Stacey, Jordan Thrasher, and Megan Gehring created Flycatcher to help bring together a place-based literary conversation in suburban Atlanta. Flycatcher does not necessarily aim to be a regional publication, though the editors “do think of the southeastern United States as our literary ground.” Readers of Flycatcher can expect to find “good, lyrical, sometimes gritty pieces of writing and art that are expressions of belonging to a place – or sometimes a lack of belonging.”
The first issue features poetry from Janisse Ray, John Lane, Thomas Rain Crowe, Marianne Worthington, Erik Reece, J. Drew Lanham, Rosemary Royston; fiction from Sharanya Manivannan, Raymond L. Atkins, and Beverly James; nonfiction from Susan Cerulean, Bobbi Buchanan, Casey Clabough, Linda Niemann, Holly Haworth; visual art from Brian Brown, Sarah McFalls, and an interview with Barbara Brown Taylor.
While Flycatcher is planning for two issues a year, Martin says they hope to put out three or maybe four issues a year as they gain experience. Additionally, he says, “down the road, we’d like to explore the possibility of putting out one or two print issues a year. And right now we’re figuring out ways to get Flycatcher out into the community through readings, workshops, and other events.”
Flycatcher editors will consider all genres via e-mail. Deadline to be considered for summer issue is May 1, though submissions are accepted year-round and on a rolling basis.
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New Lit on the Block :: The Barefoot Review
The Barefoot Review is an online/PDF publication of poetry and short prose (non-fiction) meant to “provide a venue for people who have dealt with hardship to express themselves and read other about others who have faced hardship.”
Specifically, this biannual edited by Amy King, Nicholas Gordon, Mel Glenn, and Jason Teeple “welcomes submissions of poetry or short prose from people who have or have had physical difficulties in their lives, from cancer to seizures, Alzheimer’s to Lupus. It is also a place for caretakers, families, significant others and friends to write about their experiences and relationships to the person. They are a vital part to being able to live with an illness.”
Why Barefoot? The editors give several meanings: “Baring your soul and expressing naked feelings. Bare feet ground you, give you balance, and connect you to the earth. The review is here from a desire to help others.”
The editors understand that “writing can be a tremendous source of healing and allow difficult feelings and ideas to be expressed.” And while they understand the unfortunate reality that they cannot publish every piece they receive, they note: “Writing, verbalizing feelings that may be subconscious or unexpressed is more important than the acknowledgment of being published here.”
Contributors to the first issue include Sonnet Alyse, Karen Alkalay-Gut, Michele Battiste, Ruth Bavetta, Laura D. Bellmay, Linda Benninghoff, Mike Berger, Rose Mary Boehm, Harry Calhoun, Joan Colby, Carol Dorf, Iris Jamahl Dunkle, Elizabeth Dunphey, J. Míchel Fleury, Meg Harris, Anne Higgins, Val Morehouse, David Mullen, B.Z. Niditch, Darlene M. Pagán, Natalie Parker-Lawrence, Jason Parsley, Amber Peckham, Lisa V. Proulx, Michael Rowe, Willa Schneberg, Doug Schroeder, Aftab Yusuf Shaikh, Anne Shigley, Shelby Stephenson, Marc Thompson, and Judith Williams.
The editors hope that each edition will continue to print pieces from target individuals and provide a venue for talk and expression of these difficult issues. In doing so, and in continued promotion of the publication, The Barefoot Review will increase awareness of the subjects it publishes.
The Barefoot Review is looking for e-mail submissions from two categories of people: 1) those who currently have or have survived a serious health issue and 2) those in their lives — caregivers, families, significant others, friends, doctors, nurses, social workers, therapists, anyone who has experiences to share. See the website for more specific details.
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Glimmer Train January Very Short Fiction Winners :: 2012
Glimmer Train has just chosen the winning stories for their January Very Short Fiction competition. This competition is held twice a year and is open to all writers for stories with a word count not exceeding 3000. No theme restrictions. The next Very Short Fiction competition will take place in July. Glimmer Train’s monthly submission calendar may be viewed here.
First place: Brad Beauregard, of Skowhegan, ME, wins $1500 for “What’s Kept.” His story will be published in the Summer 2013 issue of Glimmer Train Stories. This is his first story accepted for publication. [Pictured. Photo credit: Margit Studio]
Second place: Kim Brooks, of Chicago, IL, wins $500 for “A Year’s Time.” Her story will also be published in a future issue of Glimmer Train Stories, increasing her prize to $700.
Third place: Weike Wang of Cambridge, MA, wins $300 for “A Flock of Geese Heading East.”
A PDF of the Top 25 winners can be found here.
Deadline soon approaching for the March Fiction Open: March 31
First place prize has been increased to $2500 for this competition. It is held quarterly and is open to all writers. No theme restrictions. Most submissions to this category are running 2,000-6,000 words, but up to 20,000 are welcome. Click here for complete guidelines.
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March Literary Magazine Reviews
Check out the latest great post of NewPages Literary Magazine Reviews, including both new and established publications:
Armchair/Shotgun
Basalt
The Bitter Oleander
Cimarron Review
The Dirty Goat
Gargoyle
Inkwell
Inscape
Memoir (and)
New Madrid
Notre Dame Review
Permafrost
Poetry International
Toad Suck Review
World Literature Today
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Amazon’s Assault on Intellectual Freedom
“To do business with Amazon would mean reducing the profit margin to the point of often losing money on every book or ebook sold. . . Amazon is the Walmart of online bookselling. The dispute between Amazon and IPG [Independent Publishers Group] will affect every literate person in America. It is a matter that goes to the heart of what librarians have termed ‘intellectual freedom.’ In other words, the resolution of this dispute, one way or the other, will affect every individual American’s access to certain books. It will affect your ability to choose what you read.” Read more Amazon’s Assault on Intellectual Freedom by Bryce Milligan on Monthly Review.
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New Lit on the Block :: Crossed Out Magazine
Crossed Out Magazine is an online bi-annual (summer/winter) edited by John Joseph Hill and Ana Zurawski, with the first issue is focused on fiction.
Motivating their efforts to start up a new publication, Hill and Zurawski were driven by a desire “to publish short fiction that is fast paced and socially aware to some degree. We also believe that independent, free, online magazines allow writers a flexible and accessible platform to show their work.” Which is what readers can expect to find in each issue.
The inaugural issue of Crossed Out features short fiction by Sam Pink, Melissa Reddish, Benjamin Willems, James Hritz, Chris Castle, James Ford, Thomas Sullivan, and Robert Gerleman, as well as photography by Justin Purnell.
Hill says their future plans for Crossed Out include creating a downloadable and printable version of the magazine for upcoming issues. He also notes expanding consideration for content: “We also accept other types of submissions (photography, art, poetry, CNF, etc) for Issue 2 if queried first.”
Crossed Out is currently accepting short fiction and other content for Issue #2. Deadline: July 1, 2012; pay $20 USD per story.
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New Lit on the Block :: drafthorse
drafthorse is a biannual (Feb/July) online publication of fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, visual narrative, and other media art.
Editor Denton Loving, an emerging writer from East Tennessee, co-edits drafthorse along with Darnell Arnoult, prize-winning author of What Travels With Us: Poems (LSU Press) and the novel Sufficient Grace (Free Press). Liz Murphy Thomas is an artist, photographer and educator who serves as art editor.
Published by Lincoln Memorial University, located in the heart of the Appalachians, the theme of the drafthorse is “work and no work.” Denton Loving explains, “Lincoln Memorial University (LMU) was established as a work school in the heart of Appalachia, and work continues to be a driving force in our contemporary lives. Work has defined our region beginning with indigenous peoples, and later with settlers of European and African descent who extracted a living on steep hillsides amid a stunning but often treacherous landscape. Today, alongside a liberal arts education, LMU offers professional education in the areas of osteopathic medicine, law, education and business. The editors of drafthorse are interested in work, or the absence of work, as an avenue to explore how people both manifest and transcend their nature as physical and spiritual beings.”
drafthorse publishes content where “work, occupation, labor,” explains Loving, “or lack of the same, is in some way intrinsic to a narrative’s potential for epiphany. While we at drafthorse are just as eager to publish stories or poems about a grape grower from the Napa Valley or photographs of lobster fishermen in Maine, we originate from the mountain South, and we will most definitely look to publish a healthy dose of storytelling that reflects our own history in relationship to labor.”
Contributors in the first issue include Lisa Alther, Gloria Ballard, Joseph Bathanti, Gabriel Morley and Stephanie Whetstone with fiction; Matt Berman, Judy Goldman and Matt Martin with creative non-fiction; Michael Chitwood, Janet Kirchheimer, Maurice Manning, Chris Martin, Rosemary Royston, and Iris Tillman with poetry. Artwork by Jeff Whetstone and Robert Gipe.
Loving says the editors at drafthorse look forward to incorporating more music and film in the near future, and eventually hope to publish more than twice a year.
Submissions to drafthorse are accepted through email and on a rolling basis. The editors are particularly seeking original fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry and visual art.
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New Lit on the Block :: Northwind
Northwind is a literary quarterly published by Chain Bridge Press available online and via Kindle and edited by Tom Howard (Managing Editor) and Abbe Steel (Editor).
Tom Howard commented on the motivation to start a new literary magazine: “I guess because a world full of stories is a richer kind of world. And there’s something exhilarating about not only finding stories and poems that deserve an audience, but finding that audience as well. It’s a challenge and a responsibility. We also happen to think that there’s still a great demand for affecting and provocative stories and poetry, maybe a greater demand than ever. With the advent of mobile devices and e-readers, literature is so much easier to discover, and somewhere out there, there is a vast untapped audience of casual, intelligent readers who wouldn’t have known how or where to buy a literary magazine even ten years ago. So we’re in the business of discovery, in every way.”
Readers who discover Northwind, as Howard says, can expect to find “A blend of realism, surrealism, humor, melancholy, the future and the past, great characters, sharp dialogue, unguarded and unsentimental poetry, and sustained, lyrical writing. And an occasional ghost or talking chimp.”
The first issue of Northwind includes fiction by Christie VanLaningham, Malcolm Dixon, Miles Klee, L.E. Sullivan, Tom Johns, Amanda Bales, Michael Trudeau, Stephen Baily, and Robert Cormack; poetry by Carl James Grindley, Kenneth Pobo, Marydale Stewart, Mark Jackley, Steve Klepetar, Laura Kathryn McRae, June Sylvester Saraceno, Andr
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New Lit on the Block :: Monarch Review
Hailing from the west coast, The Monarch Review is available online (publish 3 times a week, or so) and in print (publish every six months, available to purchase online and in Seattle bookstores).
The editorial staff includes an eclectic mix of background and expertise with Jacob Uitti (Managing Editor, Poetry and Fiction Editor), Caleb Thompson (Nonfiction, Music and Poetry Editor), Andrew Bartels (Visual Art and Poetry Editor), Nick Koveshnikov (Technical Editor), and Evan Flory-Barnes (Music Editor).
Jacob Uitti provided some background information on the publication: “The Monarch Review was started in the spirit of the Monarch Apartments in Seattle, home to a myriad of writers, musicians, visual artists, thinkers, pranksters, cranks and the curious. We wanted to create a community, a forum, for upcoming and established writers and to continue the vagabond culture of the Monarch Apartments.”
Both online and in print, readers can find “work that displays the inherent human conflict. Poetry and faith and doubt. Fiction that knows death but is not dead. Essays that illuminate the difficulty and yet the humor of life. Art and music a person can both lose and find oneself in.”
The first print issue features works by Rebecca Hoogs, Rebecca Bridge, Jason Whitmarsh, Jim Brantingham, Amy Gerstler, Jed Myers, Ed Ochester, Abigail Warren, Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingde (poetry); Chris Engman, Jesse Sugarmann (visual art); Jim Brantingham, Zac Hill, Valery Petrovsky, Caleb Powell (prose); and Julie Larios (interview).
Uitti says hopes the publication continues to put out high quality work, to maintain a community under the umbrella of the publication, and to reach more people in the coming months and years.
The editors encourage submissions of all work: “If it’s good, it’s good,” Uitti says. The Monarch Review accepts submissions year-round via Submishmash. Currently, there are no thematic issues planned.
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Help Save Charles Olson’s Neighborhood
Peter Anastas, author of the Charles Olson memoir, From Gloucester Out is asking supporters to sign a petition and forward it to friends, poets, Olson and Gloucester lovers, who live outside of the city: “We are fighting hard to save Olson’s neighborhood from the development of a luxury resort hotel at the Birdseye site, proposed by billionaire Jim Davis, owner of New Balance shoes. If the Fort goes, so will the rest of the waterfront. Can you imagine a high-end hotel in this iconic working class, ethnic neighborhood? Olson would be turning over in his grave.”
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Slate Launches Book Reviews
Slate has just launched a new, monthly feature called the Slate Book Review. The first Saturday of every month, the Slate Book Review will take over the Slate homepage with reviews of new fiction and nonfiction; essays on reading, writing, and books of years gone by; author interviews; videos and podcasts, and much more.
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subTerrian Lush Triumphant Literary Award Winners
Winners of the subTerrian 2011 Lush Triumphant Literary Awards can be found in the newest issue (Winter 2011/#60):
Fiction:
Michael Kissinger (Vancouver, BC) for “The Phantom”
Creative Non-fiction:
Mark Anthony Jarman (Fredericton, NB) for “The Troubled English Bride”
Poetry:
Kevin Spenst (Vancouver, BC) for “Five Poems from Ignite”
Runners-up will be featured in the Spring 2012 (#61) issue. A full list of winners is avaialbe on the magazine’s website.
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The Dreams of William Golding
Airing March 17 on BBC’s Arena, The Dreams of William Golding reveals the extraordinary life of one of the greatest English writers of the twentieth century. With unprecedented access to the unpublished diaries in which Golding recorded his dreams, the film penetrates deep into his private obsessions and insecurities.
See preview clips and read commentary on New Statesman.
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Naugatuck River Review Contest Winners
Winners of the Naugatuck River Review 3rd Annual Narrative Poetry Contest are included in the Winter 2012 issue (#7) of the journal:
First Prize of $1000 plus publication: John Victor Anderson of Lafayette, LA for his poem, “Alligator Kisses”
Second Prize of $250 plus publication: Lisa Drnec Kerr of Ashfield, MA for her poem, “Walking Horses”
Third Prize of $100 plus publication: Monica Barron of Kirksville, MO for her poem, “Hunting Song”
Also included is the poem “Second Hand” by contest judge Patrick S. Donnelly.
A full list of finalists and semi-finalists is available on the magazine’s website.
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Armchair/Shotgun – 2011
Armchair/Shotgun is certainly one of the most intriguingly named new literary journals around. The name is a reference to a Bob Dylan lyric, but the journal is more straightforward and less twisted in its mission than the average Dylan song. Their mission statement, which claims that they read all submissions completely anonymously, lays it out succinctly: “At Armchair/Shotgun we do not care about your bio . . . Good writing knows only story.” And story would seem to be a focus for this journal: tight, compact, highly inventive stories. Even the layout of the prose on the page, with its slightly wide margins, adds to the compact excellence of this edition; the wide margins seem to squeeze the prose to the middle of the page, up front and center, where it belongs. Continue reading “Armchair/Shotgun – 2011”
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Basalt- 2011
Although Basalt is based in and linked to the state of Oregon—taking its name from the igneous rock prevalent in the northwestern U.S.—a number of the pieces in this latest issue seem interested in crossing or expanding borders. While the front and back covers feature photographs of Oregon’s geography, the roughly thirty pages in between discuss the idea of place, both literally and figuratively. Continue reading “Basalt- 2011”
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The Bitter Oleander – Autumn 2011
It would be a greater justice to write an eight-word review of this volume of Bitter Oleander. Stating simply: “Read the volume! It’s worth your time!” would spare having to select a few pieces from a collection in which each and every piece offers something insightful, interesting, or beautiful. The volume contains sixty-nine poems (free verse or prose), four pieces of short fiction, and an interview. It features writers representing many cultures: American, Azorean, Canadian, Chinese, Estonian, Faroese, French, and Korean (which doesn’t even begin to recognize the complex multicultural heritage/experiences of many of the writers). Continue reading “The Bitter Oleander – Autumn 2011”
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Cimarron Review – Fall 2011
“No easy answers” is the watchword for this issue. Continue reading “Cimarron Review – Fall 2011”
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The Dirty Goat – 2011
Opening any collection of international literature and art always generates a bit of apprehension on my part. So much depends on the credibility of the editors (whom I don’t know), the quality of the translators (whose skill I’m being asked to trust), and the value of the selections (read on) and their creators (whom I probably don’t know—“unsolicited manuscripts are encouraged”). Continue reading “The Dirty Goat – 2011”
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Gargoyle – 2011
Before receiving my copy of Gargoyle 57, I had heard a lot about the magazine. I’d even ventured to their website a few times. When I actually received my copy, I had mixed feelings. Gargoyle 57 is gargantuan. It reaches nearly six-hundred pages. Unfortunately, due to its girth, I found it hard to invest myself into reading it cover-to-cover. The level of work inside also seems a bit unbalanced. Some pieces are great, while others don’t stand out. But putting aside my reservations about this issue, I did find some lovely work inside: “Dear Jimmy Connoll” by Patricia Smith, “Ye Ol’Fashioned Olfactory” by Alexander V. Bach, “Perfect, for You” by Susann Cokal, and “Jasper Owen Interview, 1957, Excerpt No. 6” by Benjamin C. Krause to name a few. Continue reading “Gargoyle – 2011”
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Inkwell – Fall 2011
For Inkwell’s Fall 2011 issue, the editors chose a super-charged theme: “Ripped from the Headlines.” Its poetry and prose takes subjects that range from crooked high school wrestling teams to private acts of heroism in the WWII Philippines. Because this material is “newsworthy” already, all of the writing has a pleasing urgency—none is here to play. Continue reading “Inkwell – Fall 2011”
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Inscape – 2011
The haunting cover art, an oil painting by Clint Carney titled “Humanity,” belies the diversity of content within this annual volume of Inscape. Inside, more full-color artwork and photography break up clean, airy pages of prose and poetry. One of the first observations I made was of the graphic design elements. It may be subtle, but the pages are laid out in a way that makes it easy to flip through the issue to find a particular writer. The writers’ names are underlined and aligned with the left margin, while the page numbers are set halfway up the page, close to the edge. This allows you to quickly find both writers’ names and page numbers. I’m not sure why this jumped out at me, but it did. Multiple-page stories also include a running title in the footer, which I thought was a nice touch. Continue reading “Inscape – 2011”
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Memoir – 2011
I’ve taught creative nonfiction writing many semesters, but I had never seen Memoir before this issue. Had never heard of Jacqueline May, whose “But All Can Be Endured Because . . .” is so perfectly satisfying a story about ordinary family and miraculous marriage, I think it must be fiction. Or Cindy Clem, who writes the flip side of May’s coin in words so beautifully measured—“My Husband Clive” is the title, but the first line is “Clive is not my husband”—I’m actually grateful not everyone’s relationship is terrific. Or poet Dianne Bilyak (“Reparation,” and “How He Described Her”), whose tone drops over youthful wounds a lightness that makes me smile. How could I have taught creative nonfiction (CNF) and not known these?
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New Madrid – Summer 2011
Coming from the low-residency Master of Fine Arts program at Murray State University in Kentucky, this issue of New Madrid includes several stories that show how powerfully style can be used to concentrate narrative force. Continue reading “New Madrid – Summer 2011”
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Notre Dame Review – Summer/Fall 2011
Notre Dame Review is a sophisticated, erudite lit mag, not always an easy read, certainly not a quick one. “Our goal,” says the website, “is to present a panoramic view of contemporary art and literature—no one style is advocated over another. We are especially interested in work that takes on big issues by making the invisible seen.” This is an apt goal given the theme of the issue—The Gone Show—and how its contents reveal subject matter that seems to have disappeared, making it visible again. Continue reading “Notre Dame Review – Summer/Fall 2011”
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Permafrost – Summer 2011
Even the cover of Permafrost looks cold. And this issue of the “farthest north literary journal in the world” is solid as a hulking glacier. It’s rare that I come across a journal where I am almost equally enamored of both its poetry and its fiction. But I could not stop turning the pages of this issue.
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Poetry International – 2011
What most distinguishes Poetry International from among other similarly sized (600 page) brick, behemoth literary annuals is the emphasis placed upon poetry alone. Unlike many others, there’s no fiction here, no interviews, and barely any critical commentary or other prose. This uniqueness is undeniably detrimental. There aren’t even any contributor bios! But there is good poetry, even if little of it manages to be surprising or challenging. Continue reading “Poetry International – 2011”
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Toad Suck Review – 2012
Toad Suck Review has exploded with success since its debut issue in 2011. Volume 2 is titled “Obey” and follows well on the heels of a remarkable first issue. The table of contents is enough to lure you into a very different and fun structure. Included are: Nonfixion, High-Octane Poetix, Artist-in-Residence Features, Fixion, Translation, Eco-Edge, Critical Intel, and much more. This magazine features not only current writers, but honors great past writers as well. Everything is woven into an incredibly enjoyable read that leaves breadcrumbs along the way to find more where that came from. Continue reading “Toad Suck Review – 2012”
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World Literature Today – January/February 2012
In her acceptance speech for the 2011 NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature, Virginia Euwer Wolff emphasized an enduring dialectic of human existence. She juxtaposed Homo sapiens and Homo ludens—what she described as “man the thoughtful and man the playful.” Daniel Simon picks up this pairing, in his editorial introduction to the January/February issue of World Literature Today, and uses it to frame to the experience of literature, play, identity, and thought—themes central to the work in this issue of WLT. Somewhere within Zapotec poetry, Burmese poetry, notes about post-Fukushima Japanese literature, interviews and book reviews, the reader is reminded that the shared experience of poetry and literature between and across culture ought to be beautiful and mindful. Continue reading “World Literature Today – January/February 2012”
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Poetry Hunt Contest Winners
The newest issue of Schoolcraft College’s national literary magazine The MacGuffin (Winter 2012) features the winners of the issue of the 16th National Poet Hunt Contest, judged by Terry Blackhawk:
First place:
Barbara Saunier, “My Body, This Aging Cheese”
Honorable mention:
Sharron Singleton, “Hunger Moon”
Liza Young, “The Color of Pleasure”
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NewPages Book Reviews :: March 2012
Check out the NewPages Book Reviews for March and read the thoughtful commentary and analysis of the following titles:
The Hermit
Fiction by Ali Smith
Windeye
Fiction by Brian Evenson
Killing the Murnion Dogs
Poetry by Joe Wilkins
Darling Endangered
Fiction by Carol Guess
Going to Seed
Poetry by Charles Goodrich
On Subjects of Which we Know Nothing
Poetry by Karen Carcia
The Last of the Egyptians
Cross-Genre Work by Gérard Macé
Boneyard
Fiction by Stephen Beachy
The Joy of the Nearly Old
Poetry by Rosalind Brackenbury
Writing the Revolution
The Feminist History Project’s Collected Columns of Michele Landsberg
Collection by Michele Landsberg
Panic Attack, USA
Poetry by Nate Slawson
Spring
Fiction by David Szalay
Gathered Here Together
Fiction by Garrett Socol
Hagar Before the Occupation / Hagar After the Occupation
Poetry by Amal al-Jubouri
Translated from the Arabic by Rebecca Gayle Howell, Husam Qaisi
Bin Laden’s Bald Spot
Fiction by Brian Doyle
Piano Rats
Poetry by Franki Elliot
After the Tsunami
Fiction by Annam Manthiram
The Love Lives of the Artists
Five Stories of Creative Intimacy
Nonfiction by Daniel Bullen
The Story of Buddha
A Graphic Biography
Graphic Novel by Hisashi Ota
There But for The
Fiction by Ali Smith
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NewPages Updates :: March 12, 2012
Added to the NewPages Big List of Literary Magazines:
Box of Jars [O]
Burntdistrict 
Featherlit [O]
Flashquake
Flycatcher [O]
The Golden Triangle [O/APP]
Hoot [O]
Marco Polo Arts Mag [O]
Mascara Review [O]
Red Booth Review [O]
Sprung Formal
Tiny Lights
Writer’s Ink [O]
= mainly a print publication
[O] = mainly an online publication = publication identifies as both print and online
[APP} = publication is available as an app for e-readers
Added to the NewPages Guide to Literary Links:
Motionpoems
Fortunates
Added to the NewPages Guide to Independent Publishers & University Presses:
seraphemera books
The Lit Pub
Able Muse Press
Added to the NewPages Big List of Alternative Magazines:
The Sovereign
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Southeast Review Contest Winners Issue
You can read the winners and finalists from The Southeast Review 2011 contests, listed below, in the newest issue (winter/spring, Volume 30.1):
World’s Best Short-Short Story Contest judged by Robert Olen Butler
Winner: Kim Henderson, “A Burnside Park Sunburn”
Finalists:
Jen Fawkes, “Chrysalis” and “Hobbled”
Thomas Israel Hopkins, “The Coat My Mother Gave Me”
Elizabeth Long, “Trip Talk”
Nancy Ludmerer, “Ecosystem”
Steve Mitchell, “Flare” and “Watching the Door”
Niloo Sarabi, “Abba”
Jeannine Dorian Vesser, “Summer Vacation”
SER Poetry Contest judged by David Kirby
Winner: Francine Witte, “Wolf Logic”
Finalists:
Samuel Amadon, “Evergreen Avenue”
Kevin Coll, “Buddhist”
Deborah Flanagan, “Casanova: On Flight”
Melanie Graham, “Blood Words”
Kiki Vera Johnson, “The Excavation”
Rebecca Lauren, “The Year of Fires”
Greg Weiss, “The May or May Not Blues” and “The Mississippi Scheme”
Kathleen Winter, “Jellyfish Elvis”
SER Narrative Nonfiction Contest judged by Mark Winegardner
Winner: Jacob M. Appel, “Livery”
Finalists:
Carol J. Clouse, “The Luck We Spent”
Barbara W. Sands, “Safe in the Arms of Elvis”
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Mississippi Review: A Barthleme Retrospective
The Mississippi Review celebrates 30 years with its newest issue (volume 39, numbers 1-3). “Thirty-three and a half, to be exact,” Editor Julie Johnson begins her introduction. She’s not speaking so much of the magazine itself as she is of Frederick Barthleme’s long and distinguished history with the magazine before his ‘impolite jettison’ – “as part of a putsch at the university.” Johnson took over and then subsequently received an offer from the U of Kentucky. Her final act as editor of the MR: “to highlight the thirty years the magazine had been Barthleme’s.”
Johnson and Associate Editor Elizabeth Wagner have trolled the sixty-five archive issues of Mississippi Review, attempting to select only two pieces per issue (arduous!). The result is this massive collection, this tome (800+ pages), certainly colljavascript:void(0)ectible for ardent readers, and no doubt teachable as an anthology of contemporary literature as much as it is a study of the editorial mark of Barthleme.
Nicely played Julie.
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Weave Poetry & FF Winners
Winners of the Weave 2011 contests are featured in the newest issue (7). The winner of the poetry contest, selected by Lisa Marie Basile, is “Dream” by Caleb Curtiss. Honorable mentions are “Peach Pull” by Jada Ach, “Fig Eaters” by Megan Cowen, and “Caroline Fox Considers Jeremy Bentham’s Proposal (1805)” by Noel Sloboda. The winner of the flash fiction contest, selected by Bridgette Shade, is “White Bread” by Kelly Brice Baron. Honorable mention is “Blighted” by Andra Hibbert.
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Anniversary :: Barrelhouse 10th
Barrelhouse, the independent non-profit literary organization, has successfully published their biannual print journal of fiction, poetry, interviews and essays about music, art and the “detritus of popular culture” now for ten years. Barrelhouse continues to host a monthly reading series in DC, showcasing the work of other lit mags and small presses, and offer online workshops for writers to “get the straight dope” on their writing. Barrelhouse also has a website chuck full of literary goodness, including Barrelhouse Online, which currently features “the poetry issue” edited by Justing Marks. Happy Anniversary Barrelhouse – here’s to many more!
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Books :: Modern Haiku Anthology
New from Modern Haiku Press: Haiku 21: An Anthology of Contemporary English-Language Haiku edited by Lee Gurga and Scott Metz with an introduction by the editors. Over 600 haiku by more than 200 poets, perfect bound, 205 pages.
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Midwest Short Fiction Contest Winners
The newest issues of Laurel Review (Fall 2011) features the winners of the first annual Midwest Short Fiction Contest for 2011. The winning story is “The Lost Episodes” by Bryan Furuness, and the runner-up is “Our Time in Norrmalmstorgh” by Christopher Merkner.
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New Lit on the Block :: Sucker
Sucker Literary Magazine is an annual PDF and Kindle publication for young adults produced by Senior Editor/Founder Hannah Goodman, Art, Layout, and Design Executive Editor Alyssa Gaudreau, and Copy Editor Bouvier Servillas.
Goodman’s initial searches for exclusively young adult lit mags did not yield the kind of literature she was looking for, so she started Sucker to fill this void. In Sucker, she tells us, readers can find “edgy, compelling, new YA literature that both teens and adults can enjoy.” Goodman expands on their concept of edgy: “This means we do not avoid sex, drugs, complicated friendships and relationships with parents. It also means that we don’t want to preach to teens about those subjects. That being said, it’s not just about the subject. It’s also about language and voice: authentic sounding characters and a narrative voice that reflects the tone of the story.”
Sucker editors also hope that writers will see the publication as “something different” from other YA venues: “Not just ‘please no more vampires.’ If you love writing about vampires, then put him on a skateboard and have him crash into a human teenage guy. Maybe they fight and maybe the vampire loses. Maybe they become great friends. Maybe they fall in love.”
Sucker is also a different venue for writers in that the editors will be on the lookout for “raw talent that just needs a smidge of guidance.” Goodman explains: “Our staff readers fill out detailed feedback sheets to decide if the pieces should be accepted or rejected. Pieces that readers feel are close to being ‘there’ are critiqued and sent back to our senior editor.” From there, they will “invite the writer to be mentored for a draft or two.”
Contributors to the first issue of Sucker include: R F Brown, Claudia Classon, Shelli Cornelison, Candy Fite, Sarah Hannah Gómez, Hannah R. Goodman, Paul Heinz, Natalia Jaster, Josh Prokopy, James Silberstein, Mima Tipper, and Aida Zilelian.
Like so many new publications, Goodman’s plans for the future of the publication is simply to continue producing quality issues. She hopes to see the publication available as a print-on-demand version as well.
Sucker is currently open for submissions until May 1 via e-mail. Full guidelines on listed on the site.
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Missouri Review Online Anthology: textBox
textBox is an online anthology of exceptional fiction, essays and poetry published in The Missouri Review since 1978. It is available free online. Still new, the future of textBox will include more stories, essays, and poems, audio files, author interviews, and more. Teachers & Students – TMR would like your feedback on how to continue improving the site for academic use. Readers can be notified when new content is added or changes are made to the site.
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The Hermit
The Hermit shows us Laura Solomon’s self-reflexive speaker, a poet who has lived much of her life sending more love letters to the world than she has received from it. In poem after poem of her third book, the poet-speaker illustrates the loneliness, anxiety, and doubt she has endured while living through words, whose meanings have weathered time. The problem she has had, we imagine, is with written language itself—“in the dream you are becoming / don’t become just words / one more person for whom love prefers / words to other people” (“Dream Ear III”). It seems the words she inks from memory cannot stay fixed. Even though remembered experience does not yellow like paper, it undergoes significant alterations—people change into shadows of their former selves, cities decay and get restored and decay again, and places once important to us drift into our peripheries. We imagine that another problem she has must be with the slipperiness of written language, its phenomenological deficiencies. Particular experience falls through the gaps left between the sentences she writes. As with infatuation, the good feeling that surges through us while in the flow of writing is short-lived. We each know something about how this goes, but most of us shrug when we ask ourselves how a poet might express such frustration. Solomon does so by writing poems that get at how her romantic relationship with the world—its people, places, things and valences—has matured and, as a result, taken up a more realistic position regarding written language and its possibilities. Continue reading “The Hermit”