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What do celeb’ author Lemony Snicket (AKA Daniel Handler), luminary poet Nikki Giovanni, Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Olen Butler, Sister Spit founder Michelle Tea, MacArthur Genius Award winner Yiyun Li, literary legend Walter Mosley, Pushcart nominee Soma Mei Sheng Frazier, and thirty young writers at an urban public high school have in common?

Rewind back exactly one year, to January 2011: in a renovated Art Deco theater complex in Downtown Oakland, CA, a seminar-sized group of young writers put their noses to the grindstone. That day marked the first day of the Enizagam course at Oakland School for the Arts (OSA), a public charter school that admits students grade-blind on the basis of artistic auditions.

OSA was founded in 2002 by CA Governor Jerry Brown—then Mayor of Oakland. It serves over 600 talented middle and high school students. Soma Mei Sheng Frazier, Chair of Literary Arts, explains: “These kids competed for acceptance into the program. They want to be here, and I want to give them a private-school-caliber experience, tuition free. To do that, I completely overhauled our literary journal, which was once a typical publication featuring student work.” It hasn’t been easy. While the school has stacked up accolades for its arts-based methodology, and for closing the achievement gap between student subgroups, its arts programs receive zero public funding.

The students, and Frazier, run the journal as a labor of love. Frazier describes the young staff as “sophisticated readers, poised to apply razor-sharp focus.” The students gain the nuts-and-bolts experience of running a serious literary journal, and Enizagam’s readers gain access to stunning new writing selected by fresh editorial eyes.

Enizagam’s goal? To become the first secondary-student-run literary publication with serious national acclaim. It may already have achieved that. While run by urban high school kids, it is written by and for adults. Last year, it received submissions from award-winning authors working across—and beyond—the U.S. Contributors included Jendi Reiter, Laura Shearer, Nick Kriefall and Rae Gouirand, who has just come out with a new book of poetry: Open Winter, winner of the 2011 Bellday Poetry Prize. Bookstores have begun shelving Enizagam, and the 2012 issue’s literary contest judges will be Lemony Snicket and Nikki Giovanni. Robert Olen Butler and Michelle Tea judged last year’s competition.

Yiyun Li and Walter Mosley will soon be interviewed by the journal’s student staff for the 2012 issue. Kerby Lynch, Student Co-Editor in Chief, interviewed Farm City phenom’ Novella Carpenter for the 2011 issue. Says Lynch: “Among other questions about her urban farm, I asked Novella how often the goats’ breath smelled delicious. Her answer? ‘Always.’” The student staff is “juiced” to see the new next issue on bookstore shelves in 2012.

Writers: “We can’t wait to dig into this year’s submissions!” Check out the 2012 Enizagam Literary Awards in Poetry and Fiction at: http://enizagam.org

[Press release provided by the editors of Enizagam; Cover Art: Zooey Yi]

Kudzu Review is a biannual online ecojournal. Editor-in-Chief M.P. Jones IV writes that the title is from his grandfather’s, Madison Jones, house “which we lovingly called ‘Kudzu’ for the plant which proliferated along the property line. He was a farmer, writer, literary critic, and professor in Auburn, Alabama.”

The biannual publication is available in PDF and on Issuu, and looks to publish “savvy, sharp, well polished literature that captures life in a post-natural world” and works that “cast new light on rapid species extinction, climate change, food production, technology, sustainability and community.”

The first issue of Kudzu Review features fiction, poetry, and artwork by
Aaron Poller, André Babyn, Ann Cavlovic, Anthony Rintala, Ashleigh Rajala, Becky Garrison, Cassie Premo Steele, Dominic James, Donal Mahoney, Donna Emerson, Drew Jennings, Dwain Wilder, Ed Zahniser, Jack Foster, Jeanpaul Ferro, Joan Colby, John Bohannon, Joseph Rhea, Karla Linn Merrifield, Kenneth Pobo, Lakshmi Eassey, Laurie A Skelton, Maggie Koger, Mercedes Lawry, Sue Blaustein, Susi Lovell, Thomas Fussey, Trent Laubscher, and Tiffany Morris.

Kudzu Review is also offering a “fundraiser” for their publication: woodcut carving t-shirts, each individually hand pressed with a unique front design and back logo. T-shirt buyers have their names listed on a page “forever” in recognition of their support.

Kudzu Review is open on a rolling basis for e-mail submissions of short stories, flash fiction and poetry, and Submishmash submissions of art and photography.

Kudzu Review is staffed by Senior Editors: M.P. Jones IV, Editor-in-Chief; Arthur Wilke, Field Editor; Robin Ward, Web-Design Editor; and Associate Editors: Powell Burke, Fiction & Revisions Editor; Jane Alford, Nonfiction & Revisions Editor; Rivers Langley, 20-Year-Man Assistant Editor; and Ashley Sams, Visual Art Editor.

The Bacon Review, edited by the writer/designer Eric Westerlind and philosophy acquisitions editor Jason Barry, was founded in 2011 as a review of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and intellectual life. After only two issues, Westerlind and Barry have just announced that they would like to shift from a bi-monthly to a monthly publication, but will continue to limit content to four pieces per issue.

The Bacon Review also includes a featured called “Hot Seat” where authors whose works are selected for publication will be asked to participate in a half hour online chat regarding their “piece/writing/bovines/whatever else comes up” in the site’s chatroom (open to members who sign in). As Westerlind and Barry write, “We are interested in our authors as people; we want to know what inspires and motivates our contributors to write their stories, poems, and non-fiction.” The chats will be live with discussions archived on the site. Members will receive advance notice of scheduled chats.

The Bacon Review ontributors to date include Parker Finn, Melanie Braverman, William Doreski, Howie Good, Keith Batter, James Collector, Pablo Armando Fern

analogpress.net is a new online biannual literary journal “focused on featuring the vision of today’s writers, poets and artists dedicated to the idea that literature should make universal themes relevant to the generation that the writer belongs to . . . cutting edge, on the fringe, anchored in classic intuitions: poetry, fiction, non-fiction topics, art & photography.”

Contributors to the first two issues include Laurits Haaning, Robert Lietz, Danielle Altic, Jonathan Steffen, J.T. Andrews, Robert Dicarlo, Peter Fernbach, D H Sutherland, Nicholas Petrone, Dylan T. Price, Lee D. Rorman, Richard Stolorow, Hanny Castano, Kellee Rich, Santiago Dominique, Susanna Douglas, Petra Gabriele Dannehl, Jeremy Mayer, Kate Zaliznock, Edward Harsen, Mark Goad, Ryan Palmer, Hanny Castro, Gretchen Meixner, Tom Rowley-Conwy, Mar Trujillo, M.Y. Lermontov translated by Teimuraz Chanturishvili, and Madeleine Swann.

analogpress.net accepts e-mail submissions of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, art and photography. Submissions for 2011 are currently closed but will open again January 31, 2012.

Tongue: A Journal of Writing & Art is a new biannual literary magazine “devoted to all species of translation and border-crossing”: original poetry, essays and images that “aspires to challenge comfortable gestures and distinctions.” Tongue is an autonomous project of the Pirogue Collective — the arts and culture expression of the Gorée Institute. Editors are Adam Wiedewitsch, Colin Cheney, R.A. Villanueva, and Janine Joseph.

Tongue can be read online using the Issuu format or downloaded in several versions of PDF (suitable for mobile viewing – 1.35MB; high-resolution – 33.6MB; suitable for high-quality CMYK printing – 65.5MB).

Issue One launched in December and features new work from Geoffrey Nutter, Darren Morris, Claudia Rankine, Alfonso D’Aquino & Forrest Gander, Kiwao Nomura & Forrest Gander & Kyoko Yoshida, Cecily Parks, Idra Novey, Sally Wen Mao, Adam Small & Mike Dickman, Venús Khoury-Ghata & Marilyn Hacker, Brian Oliu, Birgitta Trotzig & Rika Lesser, Nathalie Handal, Ewa Chrusciel, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, and photographer Zhang Xiao.

Still in its first year of publication, Thrice Fiction Magazine is published – yes – three times a year and is filled with stories, art, and “a few surprises from a variety of talented contributors.” Readers can download a free PDF or eBook of Thrice Fiction at no charge, or opt to purchase a full-color printed copy from MagCloud.

First-year contributors include Marty Mankins, Jack Foley, Vahid Jimenez, David Simmer II, Michael W. Harkins, John M. Bennett, Ann Bogle, Brandon Rogers, Chris Mansel, Adam Heath Avitable, Matthew Hill, RW Spryszak, Jeff Swanson, Aleathia Drehmer, Robert Kroese, Lisa Vihos, C. Brannon Watts, Echo Chernik, Nathan Garvison, and Kyra Wilson.

Thrice Fiction Editor RW Spryszak accepts e-mail submissions of “standard short stories as well as flash fiction but also various forms that kind-of sort-of look like fiction but may also be poetry. The stated mission of this magazine is to combine standard, more traditional fiction that we like alongside our fearless commitment to the new, unusual and unique.”

Art Director David Simmer II accepts submission queries from artists.

Under the Gum Tree is a new online (via MagCloud) publication of photography and creative nonfiction published out of ThinkHouse Collective in Sacramento, California.

The editors write: “Under the Gum Tree is a storytelling project, publishing creative nonfiction in the form of a micro-magazine. We believe in the power of sharing a story without shame. Too much of the human experience gets hidden behind constructed facades based on what we perceive the world expects from us…the authors and contributors featured in our pages own their story, even the ugly parts, and share it with pure, unadulterated, raw, candid vulnerability.”

The first issue of Under the Gum Tree features stories from Peter Grandbois, Kate Washington and Alexa Mergen, and photography from Mazzarello Media & Arts and Jeannine Mengel.

Under the Gum Tree accepts online submissions via Submishmash.