Brian Evenson’s latest collection toes the line between genre and so-called literary fiction and between a recognizable world and new dimensions. Those familiar with his previous work won’t be surprised, as Evenson frequently does this; however, this certainly isn’t a run-of-the-mill collection. Continue reading “Windeye”
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!
Windeye
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Killing the Murnion Dogs
I’ve been dipping into Joe Wilkins’ Killing the Murnion Dogs all month like a box of Russell Stover’s candy. Unlike the box of chocolates, I haven’t picked a bad piece. Every poem is a little gem, like your favorite chocolate, not sweet but revelatory and exciting as it delivers moments of loss and gain. Continue reading “Killing the Murnion Dogs”
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Darling Endangered
The old adage, good things come in small packages, rolls off the tongue easily during times when economy is in fashion: smaller cars, tighter budgets, and fuel-efficient homes. Lately, the scarcity I feel regards time. So when a batch of uncorrected proofs of lyrical shorts arrived in the mail, I thrilled at the brevity of their roughly 7 x 5 inch shape, the ample white space on the pages, and the thin way they slid into my purse, at the ready for checkout lines, dentist chairs, and half-hour lunch breaks. This month, I’ve come to understand that good writing comes in small packages, and that a mere few lines can pack a potent narrative punch. Continue reading “Darling Endangered”
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On Subjects of Which We Know Nothing
As its name might suggest, Karen Carcia’s On Subjects of Which We Know Nothing explores the periphery of awareness: objects unseen, things unsaid, and events forgotten. Like a crooked tree, the chapbook depends upon what isn’t there as much as what is, achieving its own wholeness and balance. Continue reading “On Subjects of Which We Know Nothing”
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The Last of the Egyptians
This is a trippy little book. A biographical note in the back describes Macé’s writings as “unclassifiable texts that cross the lines between poem, essay, dream, biography, literary criticism, anthropology, and history.” This is as good a list of summary descriptors for this book that’s to be found; Macé covers all these areas. It’s a unique object of curiosity. Continue reading “The Last of the Egyptians”
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Boneyard
Stephen Beachy’s novel Boneyard is different, even original. Appealing perhaps to a younger readership, the book shows a young man’s revolt against the Amish community he came from, as well as against the outside world. It parts ways with the usual sentimentalized picture of Amish society (like in Beverly Lewis’ novels). It is also different in including the author and his editor battling with each other as part of the story—and that battle in interesting footnotes! Lyrical in parts, Boneyard depicts a young man’s dark fantasies that evolve and transform right up to the end. Clearly Beachy is questioning how much of reality we can know in fiction. Continue reading “Boneyard”
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The Joy of the Nearly Old
There is still so much surprise to be had in “old” age. In the title poem of The Joy of the Nearly Old, Rosalind Brackenbury writes of a dying poet, “poetry / changes nothing in the world, / only poetry. But poetry, he told me, / is everything.” In Brackenbury’s world, the poem is the oasis. Viewing life as an extended poem, one unendingly upbeat though not without its share of obstacles, is one way the poet’s speaker continues to find surprise in “nearly old” age. Death is inevitably sprinkled throughout the pages of a book about aging, waving to us from over the brink, but sadness remains largely buried under the surface of these poems, particularly those about death. Even death is not so daunting; it is always met with optimism, as after all it has only “terrier jaws.” The Joy of the Nearly Old is minimal in structure—short lines compose short poems; syntax and diction are simple and airy—but it is only deceptively minimal in idea. To say it plainly, the poet makes writing poignant poems—the kind that sting like bees and are gone before you know what has happened—look easy. In these poems, small things physically fill big spaces, and the same is figuratively true of Brackenbury’s writing prowess. Continue reading “The Joy of the Nearly Old”
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Writing the Revolution
The idea of completely understanding the processes of any revolutionary change is daunting—to say nothing of making sense of its cultural and historical contexts. In the historic waves of North American feminist theory and practices, the respective paradigms of feminism shift, evolve, and ultimately normalize along lines of particular intellectual circles and politically historic movements. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the first convention for women’s rights and suffrage in 1848, for example, show a completely different, and seemingly unparalleled, cultural milieu than a feminist theorist like twenty-first century philosopher Judith Butler. Both women, however, illustrate a “revolutionary context” for understanding a broader feminist identity, however constructed—both show the powerful effects of change within particular societal circumstances. In Writing the Revolution: The Feminist History Project’s Collected Columns of Michele Landsberg, Canadian writer, social activist, and ardent feminist Michele Landsberg reminds us that beyond any of the historical feminist revolutions are the people of the revolutions—women and their narratives. From Landsberg’s columns, we get the sense that she finds feminism on the ground, in everyday life, to be the centering force that keeps the falcon of feminist theory from circling out in a wider and wider gyre of culture. Continue reading “Writing the Revolution”
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Panic Attack, USA
In Panic Attack, USA, the debut collection of poetry by Nate Slawson, the poems rush full speed with wounded but open hearts into the wild and unpredictable future. “I call my heart Megaphone,” a speaker claims in the poem “July 4,” “because I sometimes feel / epic when I feel / with my complete circulatory / system.” Each poem in the collection seems to have speakers with these megaphone hearts, speakers who feel epic when feeling, who have the volume cranked to eleven 24/7. Continue reading “Panic Attack, USA”
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Spring
The first section of Spring, by British writer David Szalay, has the feel of listening to a clueless college pal heading for another romantic train wreck. An inscrutable, perhaps capricious woman becomes the blank screen on which he paints his own meanings. James, now in his mid-thirties, is no longer a hipster entrepreneur, having already gained and lost a fortune in the volatile economics of the dot-com world. He is bright and wounded and seems to choose cluelessness in a willful way. He ruminates about his downsized life expectations: Continue reading “Spring”
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Gathered Here Together
The title to Garrett Socol’s fiction book, Gathered Here Together, at first may be reminiscent of the phrase shared at the beginning of a wedding ceremony, but as soon as you dive into the first few stories, it is clear that the people are gathered for funerals. In fact, the short story from which the book gets its title is a story about a woman flying home for the funeral of her best friend. The tie that links the collection together is the theme of death; even when you think it is going to be a great love story, death creeps up, just as death creeps up on us in real life. The book explores the different ways that death, the fear of death, or the consequences of death can turn life in new directions. Continue reading “Gathered Here Together”
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Hagar Before the Occupation Hagar After the Occupation
In a series of before-and-after poems, Amal al-Jubouri describes the changes in day-to-day action and mood in Baghdad and greater Iraq after the invasion by American forces and the fall of the Ba’ath Party in 2003. Continue reading “Hagar Before the Occupation Hagar After the Occupation”
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Bin Laden’s Bald Spot & Other Stories
In this collection of twenty-five short stories, Brian Doyle takes his readers on a roller-coaster ride through social issues, politics, war, religion, mortality, and morality and shares his beliefs as an Irish, Catholic, devoted husband and father as openly here as he does in his nonfiction. Readers familiar with Doyle’s work will recognize the playful prose and rhythmic sentences, which the writer has tailored in tone and content to match each character’s persona, while a charming, unnamable oddness chuckles over the entire collection. Doyle doesn’t tell his readers what or how to think; rather, he simply asks us to follow him like the Pied Piper and watch as he drills down to the marrow of something, where he almost invariably finds a shred of hope. Continue reading “Bin Laden’s Bald Spot & Other Stories”
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Piano Rats
In her first book, Piano Rats, Franki Elliot gives the world a glimpse inside her life as she recounts scenes of her past and the other characters inside them. With a writing style that’s blunt, honest, and beautiful, she wins readers over as someone who’s easy to relate to—someone else who’s felt messed up or like they have messed up, or someone who’s been in love or fallen out of it. Continue reading “Piano Rats”
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After the Tsunami
Annam Manthiram’s first novel, After the Tsunami, a finalist in the 2010 Stephen F. Austin State University Press Fiction Contest, is a powerful story of endurance but also a disturbing picture of an orphanage for boys in India. The inspirations for this novel were first, the experiences of the author’s two elder sisters in a boarding school and secondly, the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. In this novel, the boys had either lost their parents in the tsunami or were abandoned by living parents. Since the orphanage’s “Mothers” were so arbitrarily brutal, the boys had to bond to survive, but their shifting alliances also had consequences. Siddhartha, the narrator, a successful teacher in the U.S. with a loving family, is haunted by what happened to his friends and what he did himself to add to the brutality in the “House.” Continue reading “After the Tsunami”
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The Love Lives of the Artists
Daniel Bullen delivers an intimate account of five artist-couples whose relationships stepped outside of the status quo of the times in which they lived. He admits that his interest in the subject is personal. In writing this book he was “looking for the language to reconcile marriage and desire.” Any long-lasting intimate relationship of significance is bound to be a tricky endeavor—prone to be often full of mishaps, some a matter of chance, others deliberately pursued. Bullen’s book is more concerned with the latter; the individuals in these relationships each pursue multiple lovers, leading to hopelessly complicated love lives. Continue reading “The Love Lives of the Artists”
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The Story of Buddha
The Story of Buddha: A Graphic Biography plots the Buddha’s journey from crown prince of the ??kya kingdom to Enlightenment as a reformed ascetic, as told and illustrated by Hisashi Ota. It’s a story not often heard outside the studies of practicing Buddhists or lectures on World Religion, but it is key for even a basic understanding of Buddhism, the religion based on Buddha Sakyamuni’s teachings. Continue reading “The Story of Buddha”
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There But for The
Readers who love word play, such as puns, and prefer a nonlinear structure for the surprises it brings will find prize-winning Scottish novelist Ali Smith’s There But For The amusing and insightful. Continue reading “There But for The”
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Film: Reckoning with Terror – Readers Invited
In Doug Liman’s film Reckoning with Torture: Memos and Testimonies from the “War On Terror” ordinary Americans stand side-by-side with actors, writers, and former military interrogators and intelligence officers in a reading of official documents that reveal the scope and cost of America’s post-9/11 torture program.
Participants are now being invited to select a script, video the reading, and upload it to the site.
Doug Linman, director of the The Bourne Identity and Fair Game, teams up with the ACLU and PEN AMERICAN CENTER on a national grassroots film to fight torture.
[Pictured: Actress Lili Taylor reads from the sworn statement of an interpreter at the Kandahar detention facility in Afghanistan.]
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NewPages Magazine Stand – March 2012
Got a bookstore or library near you with dozens of new lit and alt mags on the racks? Yeah, me neither, which is why we created the NewPages Magazine Stand for information about some of the newest issues of literary and alternative magazines. The Magazine Stand entries are not reviews, but are descriptions provided by the sponsor magazine. Sometimes, we’ll have the newest issue and content on our site before the magazine even has it on theirs!
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New Publication: Eventual Aesthetics
Evental Aesthetics is an international, online, peer-reviewed journal dedicated to philosophical perspectives on art. Publishing three times per year, with one themed issue each year, the journal invites experimental and traditional philosophical ideas on all questions pertaining to art, music, and literature, as well as aesthetic issues in the non-artworld, such as everyday aesthetics and environmental aesthetics. The inaugural issue is “Aesthetics After Hegel.”
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New Lit on the Block :: Niche Magazine
Niche Magazine appears biannually online (Issuu) as well as in PDF format for purchase with plans to release a Amazon Kindle edition.
Editors Katya Cummins, Shannon Hewson, Matthew Atkinson, Beth Cohen, Katie Cantwell, Mary Keutelian, Rebecca Kaplan, and Rochelle Liu started Niche Magazine in response to the “many talented artists” looking for a way to break into the literary scene, and even more that merely want to be read, heard, or seen. “The idea in starting Niche Magazine,” says Cummins, “was to provide a place where, not one but multiple genres and tiers of communities and artistic ambitions, are satisfied.”
The first issue of Niche Magazine includes literary short stories, some experimental creative nonfiction, and “beautiful” poetry, some of which is traditional, some of which is experimental, and “thought-provoking” artwork from seasoned and emerging artists. There is also an interview from the science-fiction writer, Neil Gaiman, and music from the jazz band Comfort Food.
Also featured in the first issue: art from Pearl A. Hodges, Jessica Swenson, and Fabio Sassi; fiction by Bill D’Arezzo, Molly Koeneman, Robert Mundy, Sean Jackson, and Susan Land; non-fiction by Stephen Newton, Yinka Reed-Nolan, and Melissa Wiley; poetry by James Dunlap, Martina Reisz Newberry, Mercedes Lawry, Rosebud Ben-Oni, Scott Starbuck, and William Cordeiro.
Niche Magazine editors are currently reading through submissions for their second issue in which they hope will include some flash fiction, short-shorts, journalism, and literary criticism. “Through this,” say Cummins, “we hope to continue breaking down the tensions between genres. More importantly, we hope that readers will continue to find Niche an entertaining and relatable read.”
Niche Magazine accepts all genres (including “genre fiction”, journalism, “spoken word” poetry, and literary criticism.) with submissions year round through Submission Manager. The deadline for the next issue is April 1, 2012. For full guidelines, please visit the Niche Magazine website.
Niche Magazine’s website also includes columns by Natala Orobello, Lauryn Ash, and Christopher Smith. Reviews, author interviews, “MFA Spotlights,” and guest posts can be read on Niche’s blog. Niche is currently looking for reviewers, columnists, and current attendees or graduates of MFA programs to conduct interviews for our monthly MFA Spotlights.
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Dream Flag Project 2012
The Dream Flag Project, inspired by the poetry of Langston Hughes and the tradition of Nepalese Buddhist prayer flags, is an annual poetry/art/community-connection project for k-12 students. Started in 2003, the project has spread to more than one hundred schools from Portland to Palm Beach. To date, more than 40,000 Dream Flags have been created by students in 34 states of the U.S. and by students in Canada, Australia, Honduras, China, Japan, Costa Rica, Nepal, Rwanda, Kenya, and South Africa.
To participate in the project, teachers register on this web site. There is no fee. Students first read poetry of Langston Hughes, particularly his dream poems. Then they create their own dream poems and transfer them onto pieces of 8
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New Lit on the Block :: burntdistrict
burntdistrict is a semi-annual (Winter/Summer) journal of contemporary poetry published in print and e-book (Kindle) by editors Liz Kay and Jen Lambert.
When asked what motivated the start of this new venture, Kay responded, “When I think of the best venue for new and exciting poetry, I think of literary magazines. I can easily get absorbed in my favorite collections, but when I want diversity, when I want to see what new work is being created, I look to lit mags. When we decided to start a magazine, like many other editors, we were looking to create something that was magnetic from cover to cover. Naturally, aesthetic is involved, and not all magazines appeal to all audiences, but that is what is so fantastic about them. There is something out there for everyone.”
Kay believes burntdistrict fulfills this expectation: “I have read and reread Issue 1, and I am amazed at how every poem in there speaks to me, how when I finish, I am breathless and swooning, and how some of that is caused by the fact that the poets represented in its pages range from successful, widely published poets to students, desperately carving out their craft, from those who work full-time in academia to those who make their livings far outside of it, all of whom come back to the page time and again because something beautiful, something important, happens there.”
Readers of burntdistrict are promised “Beauty and diversity.” Kay expands on this: “Every poem we choose takes our breath away in some way or another. burntdistrict poets craft heartbreakingly lovely lines and are so intentional in what they want to pull out of their readers. They are smart with punctuation, enjambment, endings, imagery. They are generous with their talents, and in turn we try to be generous with space. We are happy to take long poems and work in series. We are drawn to poems that speak to one another. Often this represents the work of a single poet over a succession of pages, but at other times, it’s the juxtaposition of different voices that sparks the conversation.”
Contributors in the first issue include Lindsey Baker, Becca Barniskis, Francesca Bell, Candace Black, Sheila Black, Lori Brack, Allison Campbell, Nancy Devine, Gary Dop, Kelly Fordon, Meg Gannon, Teri Grimm, Amy Hassinger, Paul Hostovsky, Michael Hurley, Natasha Kessler, James Henry Knippen, Steve Langan, Christopher Leibow, Alex Lemon, Matt Mason, Vikas Menon, Joanna Pearson, Jim Peterson, Adrian Potter, Nate Pritts, Rick Robbins, Jane Rosenberg LaForge, Marge Saiser, Erika Sanchez, Joseph Somoza, John Stanizzi, Alex Stolis, Ira Sukrungruang, Benjamin Sutton, Carine Topal, Natalia Trevino, William Trowbridge, Benjamin Walker, and Natalie Young
The future of burntdistrict looks good given the positive energy of its editors, who hope to “keep producing fantastic issues, full of quality writing and a diverse population of writers.”
“We are not in this to create a venue to promote our friends,” Kay emphasizes, “or to develop a magazine based on swollen bios. Instead, the thing we love most about this endeavor is getting excited by a poem. I hope we continue to maintain our goals of publishing the best poems we can find, and making sure that page after page retains that goal. In terms of future plans, we would love to offer special edition issues (we already have some in mind) and maybe pulling in some guest editors. We are so passionate about this magazine; we can’t wait to watch it grow up.”
burntdistrict is always open to submissions of original, unpublished poems via Submittable.
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Host a CALYX House Party
CALYX has a unique approach to fundraising and raising awareness and support for women’s literature through community action: Hosting a Calyx House Party.
The house party can be of any design: intimate reading, dance parties with live music and silent auction, a dinner party for friends who are asked to donate what they would have paid to eat out in a restaurant, etc.
CALYX offers what they can in making the event special. Once a time and place for an event his set, CALYX will help by connecting the host with CALYX authors in the area, and send materials to make the party a success: “Each new friend of CALYX means possible future support.”
For more information, click here.
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New Lit on the Block :: Ithica Lit
Ithaca Lit: Lit with Art is an end-of-summer print annual with quarterly online issues. Editors include Michele Lesko, founding editor; Sherry O’Keefe, poetry editor; and Madeleine Beckman, nonfiction editor.
Lesko comments on the start-up and focus of the magazine: “Living in Ithaca, I noticed a void in the lit/arts journal world for writers & artists from around the world and in Ithaca. The journals already in place are connected with the colleges. We also intended to represent visual art more vividly within the field of poetry and non-fiction essays that deal with writing and art process. The visual and poetic join together to bring a more stimulating experience to our readers.”
Given the intent of the publication, readers can expect to “enjoy discovering a new visual artist featured in each issue with a gallery of images, an interview and a biographic/personal page that gives readers a real sense of the artist in his/her studio. With the same treatment, we feature a well-established poet: a writer with two or more books published and a career in place. The poet contributes new poems, an interview, and a bio page. We publish new poetry from emerging and established poets in each issue and feature interviews with writers and/or artists as well as craft/process non-fiction pieces.” [Pictured: Featured Artist Colleen McCall]
Contributors in the first issue include Poets: Renee Ashley, Alex Grant, Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingde, Uchi Ogbuji, Diane Lockward, Susan Johnson, Rose Hunter, Kathryn Howd Machan, Kathleen Kirk, Risa Denenberg, and Artist: Lin Price.
As for the future of Ithaca Lit, Lesko says, “We want to nurture the journal’s longevity by expanding slowly. The important aspect for us is presenting good writing and visual art to readers. We will eventually establish a poetry contest, where the winner will be featured in the annual print edition. We plan to extend to the local community poetry & short fiction writing workshops along with local readings. We will highlight ‘best of’ images from the artists in the annual print edition and may include artist interviews.” Future formats for the publication may also include Kindle/Nook.
Ithaca Lit accepts poetry and non-fiction re: craft process of writing and visual art as well as interviews with writers or artists. Submission is through Submittable.
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Glimmer Train December Fiction Open Winners :: 2012
Glimmer Train has just chosen the winning stories for their December Fiction Open competition. This competition is held quarterly. Stories generally range from 3000-6000 words, though up to 20,000 is fine. The next Fiction Open will take place in March. Glimmer Train’s monthly submission calendar may be viewed here.
First place: Jonathan Freiberger [pictured], of Fort Lee, NJ, wins $2500 for “Pinsky Gets It Right.” His story will be published in the Spring 2013 issue of Glimmer Train Stories. This is Jonathan’s first print publication.
Second place: J. A. Howard, of Pittsburgh, PA, wins $1000 for “The Way It Is Around Here.” Her story will also appear in an upcoming issue of Glimmer Train Stories, and this will be her first major print publication.
Third place: Matthew Ducker, of Brooklyn, NY, wins $600 for “Middleweight.” His story will also be published in Glimmer Train Stories, increasing his prize to $700.
A PDF of the Top 25 winners can be found here.
Short Story Award for New Writers: February 29
This competition is held quarterly and is open to all writers whose fiction has not appeared in a print publication with a circulation over 5000. No theme restrictions. Most submissions to this category run 2000-6000 words, but can go up to 12,000. First place prize has been increased to $1500. Click here for complete guidelines.
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Audio Podcast: The Weekly Reader
The Weekly Reader is a twenty-minute interview show in which hosts Benjamin Allocco and Amy Fladeboe discuss the craft of writing with their guests and gives them a forum to highlight their work. Any genre of writing is open for discussion – fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, journalism, screenwriting, songwriting, comedy writing, etc.
The Weekly Reader enjoys interviewing lesser known authors from small presses and welcomes review copies of published books in fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. The program airs on 89.7 KMSU-FM, based in Mankato, MN and is also available via streaming and an iTunes podcast.
Authors featured on the program include: Tony D’Souza, Dennis Nau, Kim Heikkila, Wayne Miller, Thad Nodine, Mary Jane Nealon, Jessica Lee Anderson, David Gessner, and many, many more.
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TFR Tribute to Jeanne Leiby (Repost)
The newest issue of The Florida Review features a thoughtful and heartfelt editor’s note: “In Memory of Jeanne M. Leiby, 1964-2011” written by friend and colleague Jocelyn Bartkevicius. Volume 36 is a double issue dedicated in memory of Jeanne.
This blog has been updated. Since posting it, I have gotten the url for the tribute from Chris Weiwiora, so that will now take readers directly to the text. Chris also shared a link to a site that he organized back in the fall with some other UCF students of Jeanne’s: “For You They Call” (from Whitman’s “O Captain, My Captain” poem). Thank you Chris.
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Free Calls for Submissions Advertising
NewPages accepts calls for submissions to the NewPages Classifieds. All calls for submissions which fit our guidelines and which have no fee for writers are free ads.
Writers: Please visit the NewPages Classifieds for the most up-to-date listings of calls for submissions, contests, new publications, and more!
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Reginald Shepherd Poetry Prize Winners
The Spring 2012 issue of Knockout Literary Magazine includes the winners and runners-up of the 2009 The International Reginald Shepherd Memorial Poetry Prize as selected by Carl Phillips:
First place winner: “Occupation” by Kelly Madigan Erlandson
Second place winner: “Archaic Bronze” by Christian Gullette
Third place winner: “Wood” by Larry Bradley
First runner-up: “Modern Ripple” by Rickey Laurentiis
Second runner-up: “August, near Arles” by Richard Foerster
Third runner-up: “Faggot” by Rickey Laurentiis
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Thank You Ilya
Special thanks to Ilya Kaminsky for his reading at Saginaw Valley State University in Saginaw, Michigan last night. What a treat to see him and hear him read in our own back yard. For the time, we forgot about the cold dreary damp of winter, rapt in his lyrical recitations. Still not familiar with Kaminsky? Check out his book Dancing in Odessa from Tupelo Press, and hear him read “Author’s Prayer.” That’s how I got hooked. See you in Chicago, Ilya!
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Harvard Review Contributor Data
Harvard Review Editors Christina Thompson & Laura Healy take a playful but serious look at who gets published in HR in their editorial for issue 41 – beginning with how pieces find their way to the publication (via referrals, conferences, previous contributors, and slush). And, as the editors note, because they had so much fun looking at those numbers and creating a corresponding pie chart, they went on to review other data for which they also create pictorial representations: Contributors by Gender & Genre; geographic distribution of current contributors; and age & gender of contributors (topping 200 is Alfred de Vigny, French Romatic poet b. 1797). Take a look at the editorial here.
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Tiny Lights Personal Narrative Essay Winners
Tiny Lights: A Journal of Personal Narrative includes the winners of their annual essay contest, which includes a “standard” category (under 2000 words) and a “flashpoint” category (under 1000 words):
Standard Essay Winners
First Prize: “O, Engineer!” by Anna Belle Kaufman
Second Prize: “Floating” by Tim Bascom
Third Prize: “Nisqually Fish Fling” by Adrienne Ross Scanlan
Honorable Mentions: “Submarine Dreams” by Ed Miracle and “Lost. Found” by Christine Watson
Flashpoint Essay Winners
“Forgiveness” by Mary Zelinka
“I Tell You Something” by Jessica McCaughey
“Rock Bottom” by Marcelle Soviero
A full list of finalists in available on the Tiny Lights website.
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Motionpoems: Poetry + Short Film
Motionpoems broadens the audience for poetry by turning great contemporary poems into short films for big-screen and online distribution.
In 2008, animator/producer Angella Kassube animated one of Todd Boss’s poems. The results were so compelling that Boss and Kassube began introducing other poets to other video artists. A year later, a public screening at Open Book in Minneapolis drew a standing-room-only crowd of 150+ to see 12 pieces they dubbed Motionpoems… and a new hybrid form was born. Since then, motionpoems have appeared in mainstream media, blogs, YouTube, international film festivals, art galleries, and on Vimeo.
Past poetry contributions include the works of Thomas Lux, Deb Kirkeeide, David Mason, Robert Bly, Jane Hirshfield, Angella Kassube, K. A. Hays, and many more.
All motionpoems are available for online viewing with the option to subscribe for monthly update notice when new videos become available.
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New Lit on the Block :: The Ocean State Review
The Ocean State Review is a new annual print publication from the University of Rhode Island English Department.
Editors include Peter Covino (advisory), Mary Cappello (advisory), Ryan Trimm (advisory), Jay Peters (managing), Don Rodrigues (managing), Nicki Toler (senior), Max Winter (senior), Jacob Nelson (associate), and David O’Connell (associate).
Managing Editor Jay Peters writes that “by producing a high-quality publication of contemporary literature, The Ocean State Review provides an annual record of URI’s continued engagement with regional, national and international literary communities. Central to this engagement is the journal’s affiliation with URI’s annual Ocean State Summer Writing Conference.”
Readers of The Ocean State Review can expect to find “two hundred eclectic pages by well-established and newly emerging writers and artists.” OSR publishes poetry, fiction, nonfiction, interviews, and artwork.
The inaugural issue features works by Tomaz Salamun, Denise Duhamel, Richard Hoffman, Louise DeSalvo, Robin Hemley, Julia Glass, and many others. The second volume will be released in June with plans for the journal to develop the capacity to accept online submissions.
Submissions of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, our currently being accepted until February 15; submission by post only at this time.
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1,001 Awesome Words Contest Winners
Issue 6 of PANK Magazine includes the winners of the 1,001 Awesome Words Contest, 2011:
Tyler Gobble, “To Toss is to Life”
Erin Fitzgerald, “No One Cares About Your Problems”
Naomi Day, “A List of My Shortcomings”
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Lit Mag News & Bits
Chris Hildebrand is the new Managing Editor for New Madrid, the national journal of the low-residency MFA program at Murray State University.
The First Line has gone “Lorax Friendly” and can now be read on Kindle.
Winter 2012 will be the final print issue of Alimentum Journal: The Literature of Food as they move to online only.
Above and Beyond:
PMS poemmemoirstory last year at their publication party held a collection drive of new children’s books to give to the Aid to Inmate Mothers Story Book Project at the Tutwiler Women’s Prison in Alabama. They collected over 30 books for moms and kids to read together and hope to continue supporting this program.
Thanks to their supporters, CALYX: A Journal of Art and Literature by Women donated 300 copies of their newest book Who in This Room: The Realities of Cancer, Fish, and Demolition by Katherine Malmo to oncology departments, hospitals, women’s centers, and support groups in Oregon, Washington, and nationwide.
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New Lit on the Block :: The Golden Triangle
The Golden Triangle is published three times per year and is available online, and via iPad and iPhone Apps. Readers can expect to find “fresh, risk-taking, original poetry, fiction, and non-fiction coupled with intelligent design.”
Editors Jessica Schulte and Sasha VanHoven tell me that “The Golden Triangle was created by struggling writers and literary nerds trying to make it in ‘the real world’ of writing. With the decrease in printed publications, competition to get in became harder, and yet while digital journals were taking off, they severely lacked legitimate design. We decided to become the solution ourselves, offering a digital space for the under-exposed voices of our peers that cared for aesthetics as well as the community behind it.”
Contributors in the first issue include Howie Good, Corinna Ricard-Farzan, Jon Gingerich, Brittany Shutts, Lauren Chimento, William VanDenBerg, Corina Bardoff, Justin Mantell, Joanna C. Valente, Devan Boyle, Ansley Moon, and Taylor Saldarriaga.
With ambitious plans for the future, Schulte and VanHoven are looking to become a fully functioning small press within the next five years, in both digital and print media.
The Golden Triangle is open to all genre forms within poetry, fiction, and non-fiction; work that “blurs genre lines and takes risks,” is welcome, but editors “warn against ‘post-post-post modernism’ type work.” Only previously unpublished works considered; simultaneous submissions are “a-okay,” as long as editors are notified immediately. The next deadline is March 3rd, 2012.
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Lois Cranston Prize Winner
The poem of the 2011 Lois Cranston Memorial Prize Winner is featured in the newest issue of CALYX (27.1): “The Apple Orchard” by Bethany Reid. Honorable mentions by Beth Ford, J. Angelique Johnson, and Amy Schutzer (as well as the winning poem) are available on the CALYX website.
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New Lit on the Block :: Beecher’s Magazine
Beecher’s Magazine is the graduate student-run literary journal at the University of Kansas (KU) MFA program. The print annual has an editorial board, which for 2011-2012 includes Iris Moulton and Ben Pfeiffer (co-editors); Mark Petterson (fiction); Amy Ash (poetry); and Stefanie Torres (nonfiction).
The impetus for Beecher‘s served to expand the options and offerings in the KU MFA program. Pfeiffer writes, “Our program was geared almost exclusively to teaching, not to publishing or to editing; in order to give the students a chance to try out this vocation, we thought having some kind of graduate student-run literary journal was important. So a bunch of students rolled up their sleeves and set to work. The administration supported us with money, but all the heavy lifting was done by students. Beecher’s One is the result.”
The publication features stories, poems, essays, and interviews. The inaugural issue includes works by Alec Niedenthal, Rebecca Wadlinger, Joshua Cohen, Rhoads Stevens, John Dermot Woods, Phil Estes, Creed J. Shepard, Lincoln Michel, Adam Robinson, Stephen Elliott, Yelena Akhtiorskaya, John Coletti, Colin Winnette, Dana Ward & Stephanie Young, James Yeh, Alexis Orgera, Rozalia Jovanovic, Ricky Garni, and Justin Runge.
Beecher’s Magazine has just selected the winners of their first contest, and editors and staff are preparing for AWP 2012 in Chicago. Issue #1 of Beecher’s Magazine was a limited run and has sold out, but the second issue is underway.
Beecher‘s accepts poetry, fiction, and nonfiction via Submishmash for both print and online (forthcoming) consideration.
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Dos and Don’ts for AWP Newbies
From LA Times Books Blog Jacket Copy, I saved this post by Carolyn Kellogg from last year, and it’s time to revisit it: 21 dos and don’ts for an AWP newbie. My favorite is lucky #13 “DO: Give yourself plenty of time to walk around the conference exhibit floor.” Of course, this is where you’ll find NewPages! At tables M8 & M9.
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New to NewPages
New additions to The NewPages Big List of Literary Magazines:
971 Menu [O] -fiction, nonfiction
and/or 
– poetry, fiction, comics, visual art
Under the Gum Tree [O]
Peripheral Surveys – poetry, fiction, nonfiction, photography
Mangrove [O/P] – undergraduate poetry, fiction, nonfiction, art
Peripheral Surveys [O] – poetry, fiction, nonfiction, photography
Thrice Fiction [O] – fiction
Valparaiso Fiction Review [O] – fiction
Ink Tank 
– poetry, prose, editorials, essays, multimedia
Carbon Copy Magazine – poetry, fiction, nonfiction, drama, visual art
Heavy Feather Review [O] – poetry, fiction, nonfiction
IthacaLit [O] – poetry, nonfiction, art
Penduline [O] – poetry, fiction, nonfiction, artwork
HOOT [O] – a postcard and online review of poetry and prose
[O] = mainly online = mainly print
New additions to Literary Links – hybrid and experimental online and print literary endeavors that do not adhere to traditional models (magazines, publishers, booksellers), but still meet criteria for recommendation.
The Danforth Review – fiction
Every Day Fiction – Short fiction in your inbox, Daily!
Every Day Poets – poetry
Kindling – poetry, prose, black & white art
mixer – literary genre
OccuPoetry – poets supporting economic justice
Pigeon Town – nonfiction, photography
Safety Pin Review – A weekly of short fiction
Third Space | Soapnotes – stories from the bedside
Truck – monthly blog of guest edited poetry
Newly added to the NewPages Guide to Alternative Magazines:
Multicultural Review – dedicated to reviews of a better understanding of diversity
Newly added to NewPages Guide to Independent Publishers & University Presses:
Trembling Pillow Press – poetry, translations, critical/historical essays, chapbooks
Parthian Books – (UK) poetry, fiction, nonfiction
Pond Road Press – poetry, chapbooks
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AGNI – Number 74
This stellar, solemn issue of Agni begins with Sven Birkerts’s “The Golden Book,” a lament about certain things that have been lost in time, and certain things that can be rediscovered through writing, photography, and books. At the forefront of what has been lost, he implies, is the bookstore—in this case, a Borders that provided him with his first post-college job in Michigan. What can be gained from reading and looking at books is a sense of immersion, that each time one returns to an image, line, or story, there is more to be sensed, more meaning to be wrung out of it. Continue reading “AGNI – Number 74”
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The Antioch Review – Fall 2011
The 70th anniversary issue of The Antioch Review is mammoth. This 385-page issue serves up the best of the past ten years of The Antioch Review. Some of the luminaries chosen for this issue are Stephen Jay Gould, Daniel Bell, Clifford Geertz, Aimee Bender, Gordon Lish, Benjamin Percy, Eavan Boland, and Federico García Lorca. This best-of celebration is a wonderful place to turn for any who are looking for interesting pieces by established writers.
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Bateau – 2011
Tomatoes, children, cats, drinks, and boats. Reading a poetry journal in one sitting can be problematic. You notice odd, inconsequential connections between poems, like those listed above. An excellent categorization of this issue of Bateau is that which the editors put forth: transformation and morphology. Themes aside, the charm of Bateau is in its understatement and uniqueness. Including the work of thirty well-accredited poets, this issue is a mish-mash of inventive, quirky poems that play with form and content, impressively pinpointing elusive emotions and giving artistic value to the most banal moments. Continue reading “Bateau – 2011”
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Beloit Fiction Journal – Spring 2011
If I hear writers talking about literary magazines, I often hear them getting excited about some new magazine on the scene. They talk about the experimental aesthetic or the unique formatting or the promise of aggressive marketing. They talk about what they’ve submitted and what it might mean to get something accepted. They talk as though the magazine might just be the next Paris Review—or the next Beloit Fiction Journal, for that matter.
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Big Lucks – 2011
Big Lucks, much like its name, has a quirky but earnest mission statement. “We at Big Lucks feel as if the most exciting and noteworthy writing lurks in the unlit depths of the ocean, amid the lifeforms and creatures humanity was never meant to see. It’s our goal to be the vessel—the nuclear submarine—that helps these new life forms breach the repetitive ebb-and-tide of this metaphorical ocean’s surface.” Continue reading “Big Lucks – 2011”
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Border Crossing – Spring 2011
Published by Lake Superior State University, Border Crossing shows just how vibrant a small journal can be. Many of the poems stand out, but it’s the first two lines of George Bishop’s “Watching Dolphins In the Harbor With the Homeless” that really stand out in my mind: “I found myself / carving silence into a shelter.” Continue reading “Border Crossing – Spring 2011”
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The Briar Cliff Review – 2011
The worst part about The Briar Cliff Review is that it only comes out once a year. The journal, published by Briar Cliff University (Sioux City, IA), is packed with uniformly excellent work. Editor Tricia Currans-Sheehan managed to find poetry, prose, and artwork that are technically sound and satisfying to a wide range of readers. Continue reading “The Briar Cliff Review – 2011”