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

Native American Voices in Art and Literature Online

Issue #4 of the online lit mag Ekleksographia is a special issue: The Emerging Native American Voices, guest Curated by Ann Filemyr and Jamie Figueroa.

In the introduction, Ann Filemyr writes: “Twenty-first century Native American literature is vibrant and evolving. It invites us into the creative lives and ideas of writers whose cultures are demonstrating an incredible capacity for cultural survivance against all odds.”

Art, poetry, and prose contributors include: Ungelbah Daniel-Davila, Anna Nelson, Ruben Santos, Paige Buffington, Nathan Romero, Vernon Begay, Sara Marie Ortiz, Alice M. Azure, Ann Filemyr, Jamie Figueroa, Celeste Adame, Autumn Gomez, Evelina Zuni Lucero, and Marcia Smith.

Cover Image: “Timeless” by Marcia Smith

Art :: Fresco Books

Fresco Fine Art Publications produces unique books and catalogs for artists, galleries and museums throughout the United States. Fresco was founded in response to the need in the Santa Fe art community for “beautifully designed art books and catalogs that could be produced at a cost that was affordable, and within a time frame that kept the project fresh and enjoyable.”

Recently featured publications include:

Tom Kirby Light Passage, with inspiration for his work drawn from extensive travels throughout Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan and North Africa. “Tom’s work is distinctly modern yet deeply influenced by past masters, most importantly, Carravagio. His work is a synthesis of expressionistic and minimalist influences.”

Art alive! A Fresh Approach to Teaching the Basics: The Teaching Techniques of Sally Bartalot

With work by almost 100 artists, Visual Journeys: Art of the 21st Century edited by Nina Mihm and Mary Carroll Nelson is a publication of The Society of Layerists in Multi-Media, an international group of artists sharing a holistic world view. The thought that unites the society is, “We are all connected. There exists a oneness and unity to everything, everyone, and the whole.” This philosophical premise distinguishes it from other art societies that are based on a single medium.

The Ne’er-Do-Well Does Well for Workers

Issue Number 3 of The Ne’er-Do-Well Literary Magazine focuses on Working-Class Stories, with new stories, essays, and comics from Willy Vlautin, Kevin Sampsell, Suzanne Burns, Gigi Little, Chris A. Bolton, Sheila Ashdown, Megan Zabel, Daniel Hall, Christina Mackin, Jill Holtz, and John Gifford.

From the editors: “If the phrase ‘working class’ conjures vintage images of lumberjacks and Rosie the Riveter [R.I.P.], it’s time to reboot your brain for the twenty-first century. This issue of working-class stories casts a fresh light on the absurdity, banality, and redemption of contemporary wage-slavery. Join us for a shift at the circus, the Outback Steakhouse, a Minnesota dairy farm, a Plaid Pantry convenience store, and more.”

Profits from the sale of this issue will be donated to the strike fund of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.

Zahir Anthology

Zahir: A Journal of Speculative Fiction is trying out a creative approach to publishing. The magazine had appeared in print three times a year from 2000-2009, but in 2010, moved to publishing quarterly online. However, the full content of the four online issues is now available in print as an anthology and can be ordered through Creative Space and Amazon.

The anthology (at 302 pages) includes stories by Sarah Cornwell, Jefferson Burson, Trent Hergenrader, Kim Goldberg, Richard Wolkomir, Alexander Weinstein, Jennifer Griffin Graham, Vishwas R. Gaitonde, Susannah Mandel, Andrew Hook, John Brantingham, John Zackel, Thoraiya Dyer, William Alexander, Daniel Brugioni, Dallas Woodburn, Nick Jackson, Kevin Frazier, Joseph R. Quinlan, M.Lamaga de Sanchez, N.D. Segal, Lawrence Buentello, Jeffrey Greene, and Roderick B. Overaa as well each each of the four “cover” images by artists Alyson Lamanes, Dan Ruhmanty, Adam Yeater, and Yael Degany.

Literature Rewards Patience

New Letters Editor Robert Stewart comments on the role of “slow” literature in our fast-paced world:

“From the audience recently, where I sat at the downtown public library in Kansas City, a man asked the visiting speaker, Joyce Carol Oates, how she managed to write her many books all in longhand,as she just had revealed. ‘My mind thinks faster than my hand can write,’ said the man. ‘I need a computer keyboard to keep up with my thoughts.’ A general assent seemed to puff across the audience.

“The question highlighted a feature — call it a value — of literary art, not always or easily acknowledged: Literature slows us down. Here was an author, Ms. Oates, emblematic in our culture for productivity, who had just baffled the crowd by her adherence to a human-scale, physical scratching out of one sentence after another, although she happens to do so, as she pointed out, hour after hour, day after day. Of her slow method, she made a joke, citing Shakespeare, who worked in longhand, of course, and, yes, it might be said that his mind was pretty quick.

“Shakespeare, let’s admit, might have worked by computer or Tweets if he could have, but the point has been made by the work, itself. It holds up. It rewards patience.”

The full Fall 2010 issue editorial is available online.

Barra-Barracuda

Descant Arts & Letters Foundation’s NOW HEAR THIS! literacy program sends professional writers into schools to conduct writing workshops with students. These workshops help develop literacy skills, cultivate talent and creativity, encourage self-expression and foster analytical skills and critical thought.

After a “smashingly successful” third year, Descant presents The BARRACUDA, their latest anthology of student-written stories, poems, and personal essays documenting the success of Toronto’s first-ever ongoing writers-in-schools program.

West Branch Wired

West Branch Wired is a distinct quarterly extension of the West Branch semiannual print magazine. Issues are released on the solstice or equinox in March, June, September, and December and feature poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction that are exclusive to WBW. Book reviews and columns run in both WBW and the print magazine.

Guest edited by Deb Olin Unferth, the first issue, Fall 2010, includes an interview with Orlando Menes, poetry by Brian Barker and Doug Ramspeck, and fiction by Patrick Dacey. Also featured are reviews by Matthew Ladd, “To a Green Thought,” an annual column from Garth Greenwell, and Marginalia – recommendations from contributing and advisory editors.

CT Review Vetrans of War Special Section

In addition to its usual general content (poems, essays, and fiction) the Fall 2010 issue of Connecticut Review features a special section entitled “Veterans of War” guest edited by Lisa Siedlarz, who writes, “…the creative works of warriors are such an important part of our history. these poems, stories, and photographs preserves a significant part of our freedom, and make as real as possible to noncombantants the things that are not discussed,” and as contributor Horace Coleman notes about the subject of his photo: “The young soldier…is mourning a soldier from his outfit killed in a war that’s fought by few and ignored by most.” The section contains stories and poems by vets from the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as Vietnam and World War II.

Henry F. Tonn, a reviewer for NewPages, has a piece featured in this section in which he recounts the story of WWII veteran Richard Daughtry’s visit to the Buchenwald concentration camp after the US occupation. Tonn clearly and specifically details Daughtry’s harrowing encounter with “freed” prisoners whose bodies and minds were so ravaged by their ill-treatment that they would not live to enjoy their freedom.

Also included are works by Donald Anderson, Christopher Lee Miles, Terry P. Rizzuti, William Childress, Joseph Giannini, Rick Christman, David Abrams, Tim Skeen, Jason Poudrier, Dario BiBattista, Benjamin Simon, Allan Garry, H. Palmer Hall, Greg McBride, Jason Armagost, Adam King, John Balaban, Sonja Pasquantonio, Brian Turner, Benjamin Busch, Kevin Siedlarz, Troy Walker, Horace Coleman, and Pit Menousek Pinegar.

The cover image for the issue is most stunning: “Blood Trail” a digital photograph taken by Benjamin Bush in Ar Ramadi, Al Anbar Province, Iraq (2009). “This is an insurgent’s footprint on a sidewalk, left in blood, as he fled from a failed attack on a U.S. Marine position in Ar Ramadi. He died 27 steps from this one. The photographer took this photograph on the morning afterward.”

Filmpoem Collection by Alastair Cook

“Filmpoem is a project by artist Alastair Cook, dedicated to the filming of poetry. The combination of film and poetry is an attractive one. For the poet, perhaps a hope that the filmmaker will bring something to the poem: a new audience, a visual attraction, the laying of way markers; for the filmmaker, a fixed parameter to respond to, the power of a text sparking the imagination with visual connections and metaphor.” Cook’s collection includes poetry by Andrew Phillip, Mairi Sharratt, Juliet Wilson, G

Books :: Poet Cookery

The Sound of Poets Cooking edited by Richard Krawiec is a collection of poetry, poetry-recipes, recipe-poems, and just outright recipes. Five dozen poets are featured in the anthology, and the recipes range from spicy hard-boiled eggs to balsamic mangoes to Malaika’s crockpot Irish stew to Aunt Wilma’s coconut cake – 54 recipes in all. The impetus for the book – to feed readers as well as writers while doing a good turn for the community. Proceeds from the sale of the book will be used to pay writers a stipend to teach poetry workshops to underserved community groups. Included in the book is an application for writers interested in offering workshops – though published by Jacar Press in North Carolina, there’s no specifics on where the workshops will/must take place. For further information and/or to purchase a copy of the book, visit the Jacar Press website.

Flyway Hazel Lipa Chapbook Winner

Volume 13.1 of Flyway: Journal of Writing and Environment includes several poems from Hazel Lipa Chapbook finalist Corrie Williamson as part of the regular content, with winner Lois Marie Harrod’s Cosmology receiving the final pages of the magazine to feature her 28 poems in full chapbook form with cover image, table of contents, acknowledgments, author biography and author’s note.

Talk is Cheap Haiku Contest

Alright, now here’s a fun one. Off the Coast is having a “Times Are Tough; Talk is Cheap” Haiku Competition. The impetus: “At a recent poetry reading, a poet gave a five-minute introduction to a haiku. Absurdities not being lost on us, we began generating our own haiku responses.” Writers are asked to complete one of the following two haiku prompts: “Five minute intro” or “Times are tough, talk cheap.” The entry fee is 25

The Hampden-Sydney Broadside Series

The Hampden-Sydney Poetry Review Broadside Series offers a limited edition of artist-designed illustrations of poems which have been published in the Hampden-Sydney Poetry Review. Each broadside is numbered and signed by the author. Currently available is “The Persimmon Tree” by Maurice Manning, letterpress in two colors on handmade paper with deckle edge, 7×7 inches, signed and numbered edition of 50 ($15) and “Loved & Lost” by John Burnside, giclee on watercolor paper with deckle edge, 7×10 inches, signed and numbered edition of 50 ($15). Broadsides can be ordered directly from the Review.

Journal of Ordinary Thought Seeks Director/Editor

The Neighborhood Writing Alliance (NWA) of Chicago, IL, is a small literary arts and community building organization with a large agenda. With three full-time staff members, and a handful of volunteers, NWA conducts ten weekly writing workshops with over 270 adult participants, publishes quarterly issues of the Journal of Ordinary Thought, and hosts or participates in 35 public events and readings each year.

The Neighborhood Writing Alliance has launched a search for a new Program Director/Associate Editor of the Journal of Ordinary Thought. Applications will be accepted through January 17, 2011 for an experienced and enthusiastic candidate with a strong commitment to community-based writing and publishing.

NewPages Updates :: May 01, 2011

NewPages works to keep its links fresh! The following are new listings in our guides – while some you may be looking for have been removed. Listings are removed when magazines don’t update their websites, don’t appear to have kept up with their publishing cycle, and don’t respond to inquiry e-mails from us about what is going on with their magazine. If we can’t recommend the publication – which includes all of the above and more – we won’t list it. If you know something we don’t about a listing for any of our guides – be it new or no longer in existence or a bad link – please drop us a line and let us know: denisehill-at-newpages.com

Lit Mags
Jellyfish Magazine – poetry
Tapestry – poetry
Raft – spoken-word poetry, fiction, essays, and book reviews
Barely South Review – poetry, fiction, nonfiction
Thysia – poetry, creative nonfiction, fiction, art
Psychic Meatloaf – poetry
The Susquehanna Review – undergraduate poetry, fiction, nonfiction
Polari Journal – LGBTIQ short stories, poetry, essays, one act plays/scripts, reviews
Soundzine – poetry, fiction, music, art, photography, readings
Otis – poetry, prose, music, visual art, video
Under the Sun – national print nonfiction mag based out of Tennessee Tech
The New Guard – new print lit mag
Another Chicago Magazine – poetry, fiction, nonfiction
North American Review – poetry, fiction, nonfiction

Independent Publishers & University Presses
Argos Books – poetry, translations, hybrid, collaborations
Magic Helicopter Press
Spooky Girlfriend Press
Mindmade Books – poetry chapbooks
ExquisiteDisarray – mainly poetry from North Western (particularly WA) writers

Writing Conferences, Workshops, Retreats, Centers, Residencies & Book & Literary Festivals
Susquehanna University’s Undergraduate Literature & Creative Writing Conference
Summer Advanced Writers Workshops – Sponsored by Susquehanna University’s Writers Instituted and it is for High School students in grades 11 & 12

Podcasts, Video, Audio
Center for the Art of Translation – Audio

It’s True: Anyone Can Publish a Book

“You know who’s got a brand new book in the bookstores right now? Snooki. Snooki is a published author. I’m blaming Sarah Palin; she lowered the bar.” David Letterman

And from Sarah Crow: Read Excerpts From Snooki’s Book, Prepare to Have Mind Blown

“Faulkner, Hemingway and Fitzgerald may be widely acknowledged as America’s preeminent literary talents, but none of them have gotten down with The Situation in a hot tub. This is where Nicole ‘Snooki’ Polizzi enters the equation.

“The Jersey Shore star’s first novel, A Shore Thing, is scheduled for release this week and early buzz has contenders for the National Book Award shaking in their boots.”

And then Crow goes on to compare lines from Polizzi’s book with writing by Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Steinbeck, Didion, and Faulkner.

At least it’s been worth the laugh.

Poetry :: The View From Here

“The View From Here” is a occasional feature in the Poetry Foundation’s Poetry in which people from various fields comment on their experience of poetry. The January 2011 issue features the eighth installment of the series and includes comments from Daniel Handler, Madeleine Avirov, Helen Fisher, Jolie Holland, Stephen T. Ziliak, and Tracey Johnstone.

Gary Finke Creative Writing Prize Winners – 2011

The 2010 annual issue of The Susquehanna Review of undergraduate writing features the winners of the Gary Finke Creative Writing Prize: Caitlin Moran, winner in prose for “All Her Numbered Bones” and Sky Shirley, winner in poetry for “The Paper Called them Black-Fish.” Both winners were selected by Gary Finke for the prize in his name which was established this year in his hone. Finke has directed the Susquehann University Writers Institute since he founded it in 1993. Through the contest, TSR hopes to pay tribute to extraordinary student writers outside the Susquehanna community in both poetry and prose.

New Lit on the Block :: Women Arts Quarterly Journal

WomenArts Quarterly Journal (WAQ), an initiative of Women in the Arts, “aspires to nurture, provide support, and challenge women of all cultures, ethnicities, backgrounds, and abilities in their role in the arts and seeks to heighten the awareness and understanding of the achievements of women creators, providing audiences with historical and contemporary examples of the work of women writers, composers, and artists.”

With some content available online, this inaugural print issue includes a review of Isabelle O’Connell’s new album Resevoir, a conversation with violist Kim Kaskashian, poetry by Julia Gordon-Bramer and Kelli Allen, an excerpt from the novel Saint Monkey by Jacinda Townsend, silk screen prints on paper (reproduced in full color) by Ellen Baird, non-fiction by Beth McConaghy, and B&W photograms by Vanessa Woods.

Submissions are open for fiction, personal essay, poetry, visual art, and reviews (books, articles, biographies, catalogues, profiles, DVDs, CDs) with full guidelines available on the WAQ website.

[Pictured: The Blessed Imelda silk screen prints on paper by Ellen Baird]

Able Muse Inaugural Print Issue

Reversing the print-to-online trend in literary magazines, biannual online lit mag Able Muse has come out with its inaugural print issue of poetry, prose and art with its Winter 2010 publication (different from its print ‘best of’ anthology). Some online content from the issue is open (including some audio), the majority of it is accessible to subscribers only.

The Antigonish Review Contest Winners

Celebrating 40 years in print (1970 – 2010), the fall 2010 issue of The Antigonish Review features works by the winner of the ‘TAR 40’ open-genre contest, Jennifer Kirkpatrick Brown, and honorable mentions Steve Lautermilch and Royston Tester. Also included in this issue are winners of the Great Blue Heron Poetry Contest: First Prize Moez Surani, Second Prize Margaret Slavin Dyment, and Third Prize Patricia Young; and winners of the Sheldon Currie Fiction Contest: First Prize Amber Hayward, Second Prize Ben Hart, and Third Prize Peter S. Lee.

Langston Hughes Tribute Issue

Volume 12.1: Winter 2011 of Beltway Poetry Quarterly is a Langston Hughes Tribute Issue co-edited by Katy Richey and Kim Roberts. The publication contains 34 poems inspired by Hughes’s legacy, commemorating his residence in DC in the early days of his career. Featured authors include Luis Alberto Ambroggio, Holly Bass, Remica L. Bingham, Derrick Weston Brown, Sarah Browning, Regie Cabico, Kyle Dargan, Hayes Davis, Thomas Sayers Ellis, Brian Gilmore, Reginald Harris, Randall Horton, E. Ethelbert Miller, Gregory Pardlo, Joseph Ross, Dan Vera, and many others. This issue also includes an essay by Kim Roberts on the places in Washington, DC where Hughes lived and worked, with a map by Emery Pajer.

Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction Winner

The fall/winter print issue of Colorado Review features the winner of the 2010 Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction: Katherine Hill, “Waste Management.” Hill’s story is also available full-text online. The prize was established in memory of Liza Nelligan – a classmate, student, teacher, colleague, and friend of many in the English Department at Colorado State. This year’s final judge for the prize was Andrea Barrett.

The 2011 Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction is now open March 11, 2011 (postmark)

Afghan Women Writers Featured

The 2010 annual issue of PMS poemmemoirstory features Masha Hamilton and her authors from the Afghan Women’s Writing Project. Editor Carry Madden writes: “Hamilton traveled to Afghanistan several times to listen to the stories of Afghan women. It was from these trips and meeting the women of Afghanistan that she came to establish the ‘Afghan Women’s Writing Project,’ giving Afghan women a place to tell their stories, publishing only under their first names for reasons of safety. From Seeta’s ‘Under Burqa’ to Shogofa’s ‘Kill Silence’ to Meena’s ‘My First Namaz,’ we catch a glimpse of what it means to grow up in a world where women’s silence is not only mandatory, it is celebrated. But Hamilton’s own determination to ‘kill silence’ has sparked and underground movement of change. She not only found teachers and established secure on-line classrooms for Afghan women to study and write, she conceived perhaps the rarest freedome of all in Afghanistan – a place for women to unlock their words to share with the world.”

In addition to its regular content, issue 10 of PMS features the work of Hamilton and six of the Afghan women – Roya, Seeta, Shogofa, Meena Y, Freshta, and Tabasom.

New Lit on the Block :: The Village Pariah

The Village Pariah, a bi-annual literary journal sponsored by the Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum, launched its inaugural issue in Spring/Summer 2010. TVP is interested in publishing poetry, short fiction, and creative non-fiction inspired by the writings and life of Mark Twain, his hometown of Hannibal, Missouri, the Mississippi River, the Midwest, and small town or rural life in America.

Each issue will also include an introductory essay by an established author, poet, artist, songwriter, etc. who speaks of Twain’s influence on his or her art or life.

The magazine is available as PDF download as well as in print.

The first issue includes an opening essay by Pulitzer Prize-winner Ron Powers. Other contributors include: Alec Binyon, Salita S. Bryant, Rachelle L. Escamilla, Richard Garey, Judy Lee Green, Cindy Lovell, Marsha Mentzer, Rosanna Osborne, Dawn Potter, Karen Schubert, Julia Meylor Simpson, Patty Somlo, A.D. Wiegert, Earl J. Wilcox, Melissa Scholes Young, Elizabeth Schumacher, and Dusty Zima.

The Usefulness of Poetry

To start our new year with a strong literary framework, I offer an excerpt of Nathan Perry’s comments from his Editor’s Note to the Winter 2010 issue of The Hampden-Sydney Poetry Review:

“We so easily doubt the things we love. While it is often those who don’t read poetry who distrust its motives or dismiss any notion of its utility, many writers and serious readers of poems . . . also wonder what good poems can really amount to, if they really can be enough. Poets are accused of not being political enough. Poets are accused of being too political and not timeless enough. Poets are accused of hiding in their stanzas and not being civic enough. Poems are accused of being too plain and poems are accused of being too cloudy and unclear, of deliberately hiding their meanings. I’d argue that all such fussing at least belies that we acknowledge some underlying importance, and thus usefulness, in poetry. Others agree: Hayden Carruth chides, ‘Why speak of the use of poetry? Poetry is what uses us,’ and Frost famously has it that any ‘little form’ (and we can read here, poetry) should be ‘considered for how much more it is than nothing.’

“But still, why should we care about a poem about an owl, or the drift of pollen, or chickens in the street, or ageing drywall, or tinnitus? Well, for the same reasons we care about a poem about the recent oil spill, or a poem about perfidy in Washington DC, or a poem about war and the television’s witness. William Carlos Williams asserted, in his oft-repeated maxim, that we come to poems not for the usual news, but for something less tangible, with mortal stakes. I think what he did not say is that we come to poems for the world itself, not just the human headlines, and that ignoring the world around us always has mortal stakes.”

The full text of Perry’s editorial is only available in print.

Facebook In & As Literature

Volume 12 Issue 4 of Iron Horse Literary Review (published six times a year) is “The Facebook Issue” (which, by the way, you can “like” on their website). Editor Leslie Jill Patterson writes: “When we opened our call for submissions to the Iron Horse Facebook issue, most of the manuscripts we received focused upon the ironies of Facebook – a social networking Web site that so many writers both love and hate. One of the reasons I like FB is that it somehow encourages all of my friends, not just the writers I know, to tell stories and pay attention to language. I like the way we narrate on FB, the way our words surprise and entertain, as if we’re at a huge dinner party and each of us is vying to be the most interesting guest.”

Patterson goes on with comments such as “Do ‘friends’ honestly care…” and “But maybe we’re not supposed to stay in touch with our pasts.” and “But the truth is, no one is honest on FB. Not that we lie outright.” and discusses the contributions to this collection that explore each of these and more issues related to this form of hyper-social networking.

Contributors include (poetry) Robert Fanning, Laura McCullough, Juliana Gray, Steve Langan, Tamiko Beyer, Jennifer A. Luebbers, Randall BrowN; (fiction) Mike Land AND Shane Castle; (nonfiction) Mike Hampton, Katie Schneider, and Dinty W. Moore.

Paper Planner for Writers

Still using paper planners? Then Small Beer Press has something you writers might be interested in for yourself or a writer you know – A Working Writer’s Daily Planner includes “information writers need to organize their work schedules, track upcoming deadlines, and learn about grant opportunities, contests, and workshop programs….You’ll also find information on How to Find a Writing Group – Or Start Your Own, writing conferences, advice on formatting manuscripts, suggested readings, and the dos and don’ts of submitting your work to journals, magazines, and literary agents.”

Full table of contents and an excerpt link available on the Small Beer Press website, with a discount offered for multiple copies.

Gulliver’s Travels Gets Gutted

“The movie industry has a long history of raiding literature, great or otherwise, for inspiration and then discarding whatever parts of the original don’t fit into a preestablished mold; readers of L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz would be hard-pressed to recognize large chunks of the 1939 film. But in the case of Gulliver’s Travels, the gulf between page and screen is vast, yawning — abysmal, even.” Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland and Disney’s Tangled do not escape being made further example of in How Hollywood Guts Children’s Classics by Sam Adams on Salon.com.

Literary Films

Jacket Copy list of literary films for your holiday down time: “adaptations from novels, short stories, a comic series, biopics, one documentary and fictional renderings of the writing life. And when we got started, it turned out there were just too many, so we imposed rules: no miniseries or film trilogies — so no Lord of the Rings (sorry). Most important, we picked only one movie per year…going back to 1982.”

USD Visiting Creative Writer

The University of South Dakota invites applications for a Visiting Creative Writer for the 2011- 12 academic year. Teaching experience and book publication are required, as is an MFA in Creative Writing or a PhD in English (or equivalent). Additional publications, readings, and presentations are desirable. Appointment runs August 22, 2011 to May 21, 2012. Screening begins January 31.

Narrative Fall Story Contest Winners

Ther Narrative Fall Story Contest Winners and Finalists have been announced:

FIRST PRIZE
Heather Brittain Bergstrom, “Reading Henry James in the Suburbs”

SECOND PRIZE
Alexander Maksik, “The Barbarians”

THIRD PRIZE
Russell Working, “The Vanishing”

FINALISTS
Greg Brown
Julie Dearborn
Rachel Ewing
Abby Frucht
Ann Harleman
Marc Kaufman
Jerry D. Mathes II
Marsha Rabe
Greta Schuler
Lauren Taylor

The Winter 2011 Story Contest, with a $3,250 First Prize, a $1,500 Second Prize, a $750 Third Prize, and ten finalists receiving $100 each. Open to fiction and nonfiction. All entries will be considered for publication. Contest deadline: March 31, 2011.

Representation in Literature for Young Adults

Minnesota educators struggle to find books, especially fiction, depicting Muslim young people in America: “It is extremely important for young people to read stories reflecting their ethnicity and/or religion in order to feel like worthwhile human beings,” said Freda Shamma, director of curriculum development for the Foundation for the Advancement and Development of Education and Learning, based in Cincinnati. “The absence of such stories leads to poor grades in school, feelings of loneliness and alienation, and low self-esteem,” said Shamma, who is working on an anthology of Muslim literature directed at middle-school-age students.

Read more on The Star Tribune: Missing character in kids’ literature: Muslims by Norman Draper.

Holocaust Memoir as Literature and History

“Literature is supplementary, not antithetical, to history: it allows, and in the best instances demands readers to universalize, empathize, to visualize and imagine, not merely to be informed…Literature, though, affects us in ways that even the most brutal history cannot. It vivifies and propels an event, however geographically and temporally and psychologically removed, towards the personal and immediate. If history teaches and (harshly) informs, then literature rouses and intimately disturbs. Literature is an emotional chronicle, a history of the intangible, a quest to impart sentiment, not information. Conveyance of the Holocaust is an impossible but necessary appeal to our imagination; and literature is the pathos to history’s logos. Not merely learning about, but identifying with.” Read the rest on The Atlantic: The Holocaust’s Uneasy Relationship With Literature by Menachem Kaiser, Fulbright Fellow in Lithuania.

Passings :: Janine Pommy Vega

Janine Pommy Vega author of eighteen books and chapbooks since 1968, including The Green Piano (2005), her first CD, Across the Table, recorded in Woodstock, and from live performances in Italy and Bosnia (2007), and an Italian translation of her travel book Tracking the Serpent (Sulle tracce del serpente, Nutrimenti, Rome – 20007) died peacefully at home on December 23, 2010.

Vega performed with music and solo, in English and Spanish, in international poetry festivals, museums, prisons, universities, cafes, nightclubs, and migrant workers’ camps in South America, North America and Europe. She was the Director of Incisions/Arts, an organization of writers working with people behind bars; she taught inside prisons for more than twenty-five years, and taught a course in poetics for Bard Prison Initiative. She worked as well in creative writing programs in public schools, elementary through high school-all grades for over twenty years.

Information from Janine Pommy Vega’s official website. Photo by John Sarsgard, 2009.

We Love Librarians!

Patti Updikem, the Webb Street School (NY) media specialist, is one of 10 librarians nationwide recognized with the 2010 I Love My Librarian Award for her work in adapting literery classics for students with cognitive disabilities.

Other winners include:

Paul “The Library Guy” Clark
Clay County Library System
Fleming Island, FL

Ellen M. Dolan
Shrewsbury Public Library
Shrewsbury, MA

Melissa McCollum
County of Los Angeles Public Library
Lawndale Library
Lawndale, CA

Christine Wagner
Goodman South Madison Branch Library
Madison, WI

Kelly McDaniel
Helen King Middle School
Portland, Maine

Doug Valentine
McKillop Elementary School
Melissa, TX

Laura Blake
Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA

Jeff Dowdy
Bainbridge College Library
Bainbridge, GA

Stephanie Wittenbach
Texas A&M University-San Antonio
San Antonio, TX

Writer Beware Blogs on Contests

Writer Beware Blogs! offers a post on Some Tips on Evaluating Literary Contests. As a reminder to our readers, NewPages has a list of what we consider to be “quality” contests run by publications and publishers. These are not paid advertisements. Readers using sources from our list who run into any problems or concerns with the contests should contact us immediately and we will work to resolve the issue or remove the listing.

Young Authors – The Blue Pencil Online

The editors of The Blue Pencil Online —all artists-in-training in the Writing & Publishing Program at Walnut Hill School for the Arts — publish “the freshest, most imaginative examples of literary craft by young writers (12-18 years) around the world.” In addition to poems, stories, and plays, they consider single-sentence experiments on selected topics (“Pencil Shavings”), audio readings of compelling literary works (“Out Loud!”), writers’ discoveries of the elements of good writing (“A Good Read”), and reflections on the revision process (“The Draft Board”). To learn about submitting work, visit the Writers’ Guidelines.

Currently, the editors of The Blue Pencil Online invite young writers to submit poetry, fiction, and playwriting to the annual Elizabeth Bishop Prizes. Offering $45,000 in scholarships, the Prizes honor Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Elizabeth Bishop, who was a student at Walnut Hill from 1927 to 1930. Since 2004, the members of the Writing & Publishing Program, who constitute the panel of judges for the Prizes, have considered “thousands of submissions by young wordsmiths around the globe.” Submissions are accepted online only, and the deadline is February 1 at noon.

Visit the NewPages Young Authors Guide for more publications for writers and readers alike as well as contests specifically for K-12 and early college students.

Glimmer Train Family Matters Contest Winners

Glimmer Train has just chosen the winning stories for their October Family Matters competition. This competition is held quarterly and is open to all writers for stories about family. Word count should not exceed 12,000. (All shorter lengths welcome.)

The next Family Matters competition will take place in April. Glimmer Train’s monthly submission calendar may be viewed here.

First place: Lee Montgomery [pictured], of Portland, OR, wins $1200 for “Torture Techniques of North Americans.” Her story will be published in the Spring 2012 issue of Glimmer Train Stories.

Second place: Graham Arnold, of Toronto, Ontario, wins $500 for “A Difference of Nothing.” His story will also be published in an upcoming issue of Glimmer Train Stories, increasing his prize to $700.

Third place: Maggie Shipstead of Atherton, CA, wins $300 for “The Sadness that Radiates from God.”

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

Deadline soon approaching: Fiction Open: Jan 2

Glimmer Train hosts this competition quarterly, and first place is $2000 plus publication in the journal. It’s open to all writers, no theme restrictions, and the word count range is 2000-20,000.

Click here for complete guidelines.

Play Writing & Play Reading Series

The Hudson Valley Writers’ Center has begun a new play writing and play reading series, a venture Executive Assistant Ryan Conatti considers a response to a “lack of outlets for new plays and playwrights.” The series begins with an open contest from which three plays will be selected and read at the Hudson Vally Writers’ Center in June through December 2011. For more information, visit the HVWC website. Deadline for submissions is February 15, 2011.