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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!

Paterson Literary Review – 2010/2011

More than 360 pages of poetry and prose selected from the 10,000 submissions the journal receives annually. A “spotlight” on Diane de Prima, including a short bio, a number of poems and a story, is followed by poems from more than 70 poets, 8 prose selections, reviews, and this year’s Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award winners and honorable mentions (another 40+ poets). The issue’s highlights include the magazine’s beautiful cover, an original oil painting by Robert Andriulli, “Mill Town Neighborhood.” Continue reading “Paterson Literary Review – 2010/2011”

Salt Hill – 2010

Is Bob Hicok stalking me? His name appears in the TOC of nearly every journal I’ve reviewed for so long now that I no longer remember what is was like to read a magazine without encountering a Hicok poem. Not that I’m complaining. Who would dare complain about an opening like this one to “Perhaps an entry somewhere in a book”: Continue reading “Salt Hill – 2010”

Santa Fe Literary Review – 2010

Photographer Carolee J. Friday’s “El Santuario de Chimayo,” at the center of the issue, a beautiful rustic stone church set against shadows that seem almost surreal they are so “hyper-real,” captures beautifully a true New Mexican sensibility. I find the issue’s artwork (photographs, paintings, a graphic story, illustrations), much of which has a decidedly Southwestern feel, especially appealing. Inspired by the region, too, are a short story from Bibi Deitz (“3rd Person, March”), a poem by Kathryne Lim (“Over the Taos Gorge”), and a poem by Michael G. Smith, who is also interviewed in this issue, “Late Autumn Poem, Winter Coming.” Continue reading “Santa Fe Literary Review – 2010”

The Seattle Review – 2010

With its announced theme “Issues of Death” and its ghoulish cover of skulls, it’s impossible to imagine that inside this issue of Seattle Review, one of the most satisfying features is a graphic story, “Number One,” written by Janice Shapiro and drawn by Jessica Wolk-Stanley, a wonderfully illustrated tale of “the social pyramid of North Hollywood circa 1965.” And, yes, it’s about death. Continue reading “The Seattle Review – 2010”

Yellow Medicine Review – Fall 2010

“The Ancestors We Were Looking for We Have Become: International Queer Indigenous Voices,” is this issue’s special theme, guest edited by Ahimsa Timoteo Bodhrán. An impressive 260+ pages, the issue includes work by writers from numerous tribes and nations, including writers who originate from and/or have lived in the mainland United States, Puerto Rico, Guam, Hawaii, Sweden, Somalia, New Zealand, Palestine, Costa Rica, Croatia, South Australia, Kenya, Tonga, Nicaragua, Lesotho, Nigeria, Tibet, Afghanistan, Guahan, Fiji, and Canada. The majority are “mixed race” (a decidedly problematic term). Most are widely published. Many are activists and/or active in other arts (dance, photography, theater arts, etc.). Some self-identify as queer, others as gay, others as lesbian, others as bisexual, and others as transgender. Continue reading “Yellow Medicine Review – Fall 2010”

New Lit on the Block :: Full Metal Poem

Issuing from Amsterdam and Hamburg, Full Metal Poem is a new print journal of poetry, micro-fiction, art and photography. The production consists of concept and graphic design by Floortje Bouwkamp who is joined by Eliza Newman-Saul for art direction, and content editors Cralan Kelder & Mark Terrill.

The inaugural issue of FMP, which comes neatly wrapped in an archery target, was published in June 2010 and includes poetry by Cid Corman, Joanne Kyger, Simon Cutts, Rolf Dieter Brinkmann, Ron Padgett, Harris Schiff, John Wieners. and drawings by the hand of John Casey.

FMP currently solicits all content, but queries are welcome.

Text Tattoos

Misty Harris’s article “Tattoos become new ‘body’ of literature” explores the growing interest in literature tattoos – including a photo of Tess Adamski’s tat of the final paragraph of On the Road with an image of Kerouac at his typewriter. Artists Thomas Thorspecken also featured a sketch of Adamski and her tattoo on his blog analog artist.

Jane Austen’s Fiction Manuscripts Digital Edition

“The Jane Austen’s Fiction Manuscripts Digital Edition gathers together in the virtual space of the web some 1100 pages of fiction written in Jane Austen’s own hand. Through digital reunification, it is now possible to access, read, and compare high quality images of original manuscripts whose material forms are scattered around the world in libraries and private collections. Unlike the famous printed novels, all published in a short span between 1811 and 1818, these manuscripts trace Jane Austen’s development as a writer from childhood to the year of her death; that is, from 1787 (aged 11 or 12) to 1817 (aged 41). Not only do they provide a unique visual record of her imagination from her teenage experiments to her last unfinished writings, these pages represent one of the earliest collections of creative writings in the author’s hand to survive for a British novelist.”

Audio :: Dana Gioia,”Haunted”

The newest issue of The Hudson Review (Autumn 2010) includes a bonus CD audio recording of the magazines Writers on Writing series featuring Dana Gioia. The program was hosted by Josephine Reed and aired July 5, 2010. The three tracks include an introduction to the poem, a reading of “Haunted” and an interview.

New Lit on the Block :: Raft

Raft Magazine is a spoken-word literary journal on the web, showcasing poetry, fiction, essays, and book reviews. Editor Brian Seabolt writes: “What is invaluable is the mere excitement of language as material with which to make things, as much sensation as sense, as much a stuff whereby to construct as a codex whereby to construe….It is this excitement that Raft Magazine means to put first and last.”

The inaugural issue features work by Scott Abels, Niamh Bagnell, Susan Powers Bourne, Ric Carfagna, Jan Carson, Joel Chace, Arkava Das, Mark DuCharme, Iris Jamahl Dunkle, Bonnie Emerick, Michael Farrell, Adam Fieled, Thomas Fink, Vernon Frazer, R. Jess Lavolette, David Mohan, Debrah Morkun, Paul Nelson, Francis Raven, Chad Scheel, Sam Schild, Adam Strauss, Mark Stricker, Samuel Day Wharton, and Karena Youtz.

Books reviewed include new works by Raymond Federman, Leslie Scalapino, and Gilbert Sorrentino.

Raft Magazine seeks new fiction, poetry, literary essays, and book reviews. Each contribution published in Raft is accompanied by a sound file (requested once the work has been accepted), a recording of the author reading the work as he or she wishes it to be heard. Submissions are read year-round; the deadline for issue 2 is December 16, 2010.

The Sketchbook Project

Sponsored yearly by the Art House Co-op (The Brooklyn Art Library), the Sketchbook Project (for a fee) sends out a blank sketchbook to be filled by participating artists. If completed and sent in by the deadline, the book will join others on a tour around the US and then be housed at the Brooklyn Art Library.

Each book will be given a barcode so it can be cataloged into The Brooklyn Art Library system. Once cataloged, artists will be able to track where on the tour their book is viewed and how many times someone pulled it from the shelf.

Anyone – from anywhere in the world – can be a part of the project. Artist must order the book online by first selecting a theme from those listed (for example: Things found on restaurant napkins; Dirigibles and submersibles; Coffee and cigarettes). Once chosen, the theme must be adhered to in the sketchbook, and number of participants in each theme is limited.

To participate, artists must sign up by Oct. 31. Finished sketchbooks must be returned postmark by January 15, and the tour begins March 2011. So far, cities on the tour include: Brooklyn, NY; Austin, TX; San Francisco, CA; Portland, ME; Atlanta, GA; Chicago, IL; Washington, DC; Winter Park, FL.

New Lit on the Block :: Telephone

Editors Sharmila Cohen & Paul Legault have brought about a playfully serious new lit mag: Telephone – “like the children’s game in which phrases change as you whisper them from one person to the next.” The publication features four to five poems from one foreign poet in each issue, which are then translated roughly ten times by multiple different poets and translators. There are no rules about how each poem should be translated and Cohen and Legault solicit a variety of interpretations.

The first issues features orginal poems by Uljana Wolf which are then translated by Mary Jo Bang, Priscilla Becker, Susan Bernofsky, Macgregor Card, Isabel Fargo Cole, Timothy Donnelly, Megan Ewing, Robert Fitterman, John Gallaher, Matthea Harvey, Christian Hawkey, Erín Moure, Eugene Ostashevsky, Nathaniel Otting, Craig Santos Perez, Dr. Ute Schwartz, and Uwe Weiß.

Interested in playing? Sharmila Cohen says, “In general, we select and individually solicit all of the translators. That being said, we have an open door policy to suggestions with regard to interesting translators and foreign poets.”

Edward Albee Foundation Retreat 2011

Known as “The Barn,” the Albee Retreat is an artist’s retreat in Montauk, New York, that accepts up to five guests at a time for stays of 4-6 weeks from May to October. No application fee and no charge to stay at the retreat, but space is limited and admissions are highly competitive. Non-fiction applicants submit three essays or articles, a resume, a one page “artist’s statement”, and two letters of recommendation. Applications are accepted from January 1 to March 1.

Failbetter Novella Winner Online

Los Angeles writer Lou Mathews was the winner of Failbetter‘s Tenth Anniversary Novella Contest for his work The Irish Sextet: “the heartrending, ultimately redemptive story of a dedicated LA priest whose life is nearly wrecked when he stands up to the Church’s efforts to sweep its pedophilia scandal under the rug.”

Failbetter is running Sextet in serial form on their site — the first two installments, “An Education” and “Corporal Punishment,” are live now, with the other five coming, about one a month, over the course of the winter.

Roanoke Review Fiction Contest Winners

The 2010 issue of Roanoke Review (v35) includes the winners of their 2009 Fiction Contest: First Place – Leslie Haynsworth, “Two Left Feet”; Second Place – Josie Sigler, “El Camino”; Third Place – Alice Stern, “I Hear You Talking.”

Based out of Roanoke College in Salem, Virgina, the Roanoke Review annual fiction contest for 2010 is open for submissions until November 8 (postmark or online). Winners receive a cash prize as well as publication.

Lopate In Defense of the Essay Collection

In issue 12.1 of River Teeth: A Journal of Nonfiction Narrative, Phillip Lopate’s essay “In Defense of the Essay Collection” begins: “In these uncertain times for the book trade,when the very future of the printed word seems in question, the one thing certain is that no one wants to publish a collection of essays. Your agent would prefer not to have to sell it, your old publishers don’t want to touch it, and even those pretty young editors who smile enticingly around the buffet table and give midlist authors such as yourself their cards don’t want anything to do with it. Perhaps – perhaps – an essay collection with a focus, a hot topic that will get an author on talk shows, yes, that’s conceivable. But a mere compendium of random essays previously published in magazines, forget it.”

Despite the humorously dismal beginning, Lopate does indeed go on to defend the essay collection (with further poignant humor) and our true – though often publicly inhibited – desire for the form. Lopate is editor of The Art of the Personal Essay: An Anthology from the Classical Era to the Present.

MSR Online Price Reduction – The New Sales Model

M. Scott Douglas, publisher and editor of The Main Street Rag, writes in the Fall 2010 issue editorial: “…a massive price reduction has occurred for ALL Main Street Rag books bought from the MSR Online Bookstore. The idea is to cut the price in such a way that our books will cost less from the MSR Online Bookstore than they would if bought at a bookstore – even with the shipping.” Douglass recognizes the “fierce competition for shelf space in bookstores” and that even when obtained, “shelf life is fleeting…it’s smarter and more cost-effective to sell at a discount directly to readers than it is to give an even larger discount to bookstores and distributors and never know if you will get paid.”

Frances Locke Memorial Poetry Award Winner

The winning poem of the Frances Locke Memorial Poetry Award for 2010, “Two Ghosts” by Patty Dickson Pieczka, appears in the newest issue of The Bitter Oleander (v16 n2).

The 15th annual competition, for which there is a $1,000 cash award, publication in the Fall-2011 Award issue and 5 complimentary copies of that issue, has a postmark deadline of June 15, 2011.

Georgia Review on Raymond Andrews

The Fall 2010 issue of The Georgia Review
includes a special feature on Raymond Andrews: “Dreams, Ifs, and Alls.” This is the first of a multi-part feature on the Georgia-born author (1934 – 91), and is “the most extended focus on an individual writer in the Georgia Review’s Sixty-four-year history.” Included: previously unpublished prose and letters by Raymond Andrews, essay about his life and work, photographs from his family and professional life, and art by his brother Benny Andrews (1930 – 2006).

New Lit on the Block :: TRACHODON

Editor and Founder John Carr Walker opens the inaugural issue of TRACHODON with this note: “Since January of 2010, when I founded TRACHODON, a print magazine of lit, art, and artisan culture, I’ve heard three questions over and over: 1) Are you out of your mind? 2) Is there a nice, quiet place I can take you until the trip wears off? 3) What is a Trachodon, and why are you naming your lit mag after one?” Walker goes on to address each of these, the third one first – which besides being the easiest one to answer, becomes the basis and connecting point for answering the others.

Joined by Associate Editor Katey Schultz, TRACHODON publishes poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and art. The first issue features poetry by Chris Dombrowski and Taylor Altman, fiction by Tom Weller and Jo Ann Heydron, a memoir and images by jewelry-maker Amy Tavern, and an article on Brooklyn’s Urban Glass by Wesley Middleton.

Reading periods are May-July and November-January; no unsolicited poetry or memoirs are being accepted at this time.

Harpur Palate Contest Winner and Format Change

Harpur Palate 10.1 features Jen Bergmark’s story, “You First,” the winning selection in the John Gardner Memorial Prize for Fiction.

Harpur Palate also introduces a new format with this issue – moving from 9×6 to 8×6 with a slightly smaller font. Cover art for this issue by Bill Plympton.

Consequence Invites Discourse on War, Society and the Arts

The Spring 2010 issue of Consequence : A Literary Magazine Addressing War in the 21st Century includes a new section titled Discourse – “intended to stimulate discussions of war, society and the arts.” Consequence invites readers “to rethink these subjects in the context of our young but wounded century, and we invite you to write to the address on our masthead, or send email responses…We will post on our website letters selected for their engagement with the work appearing in Discourse, and the author will respond to them on line.” Readers can follow the exchange of ideas on the magazine’s website.

Stunning Covers :: A capella Zoo

A capella Zoo: A Web & Pring Journal of Magic Realism & Slipstream gets my Stunning Cover notice for both the front and back covers of their Fall 2010 issue (#5). The front piece is “Acrobats” by Martha Brouwer, and the back is an untitled work by Feng Sun Chen. Both pieces can be viewed on A capella Zoo‘s website, along with much of print publication’s content online.

Fiction :: Sarah Sorensen

An excerpt from The Bailing Out of Aunt P by Sarah Sorensen:

“Then she stayed at our house for a while. She slept in my Strawberry Shortcake canopy bed. Things were too tough at home, I guess. So there she was. And I liked being there “helping” her. I wanted to ask her things. I wanted to know where you had to go and what you had to do to be a big punk lesbo. I used to think about boy names and try to pick out ones I liked enough to date. I liked girl names better. Aunt P. had figured out a system where it was cool and rebellious to like girls. Who’d she learn that from?”

Read the rest in the Fall/Winter issue of Dark Sky Magazine.

Narrative’s Snowball Challenge

Every week, Narrative runs a Literary Puzzler and invites readers to participate. This week, the Literary Puzzler is Narrative‘s second Snowball challenge.

A Snowball is a poem in which each line consists of a single word, and each successive line contains a word exactly one letter longer than the word above it. You may make a poem of as many lines as you wish, provided each one-word line succeeds the previous line by a single letter.

Here is an example from one of last year’s winners, Maryann Younger:

He
Ran
Away
Until
Sunset
Efforts
Escaping
Discovery
Successful

Send your Snowball to Puzzler by Sunday noon, Pacific daylight time. You may enter as many Snowballs as you wish.

Appalachian Heritage – Summer 2010

A simple, rustic cover – white, the title of the magazine in black, bold font, and a picture of a tilled field, wild tiger lilies framing the pastoral scene. The opening photograph, by Ann W. Olson, like the front cover, is of dilapidated stone steps running up a hill, framed by buttercups. The juxtaposition of decay with new life can be seen in many of Olson’s photographs, throughout the issue. Continue reading “Appalachian Heritage – Summer 2010”

Blue Collar Review – Spring 2010

After bracing myself for reviewing journals whose explorations of daily life tended to the abstract, it was high time to read prose and poetry from writers who didn’t emulate Kafka when writing about work, bureaucracy, and class. Blue Collar Review‘s Spring edition serves it up straight – no-nonsense formatting, clear print, solid storytelling over pyrotechnics. Continue reading “Blue Collar Review – Spring 2010”

Center – 2010

I was considering giving up this reviewing gig, finding myself a bit weary having written several hundred mag reviews over the last few years. But then this issue of Center landed in my lap and I shudder to think at what I would miss! With its “Symposium: Place in Nonfiction,” this is one terrific issue. One personal essay on a place of sorts (gardens) and 10 short essays for the Symposium, are accompanied by the work of 20 poets (in which, unannounced as part of the place focus, place figures largely in nearly every one), three stories (place again in every one!), and a very, very good “conversation” with Croatian poet Tomaz Salamun, an interview of greater depth than many I’ve encountered that focus narrowly on writing techniques and related topics of limited interest. Continue reading “Center – 2010”

Chicago Review – Spring 2010

This is a terrific issue of the Chicago Review featuring new translations of work by Stephane Mallarmé by Peter Manson, a long poem by British poet Simon Jarvis, a wonderful essay by poet and critic Stephen Burt on the usefulness and uses (read: need) for non-academic literary criticism and reviews (like this one!), three fine pieces of nonfiction writing (not a personal essay among them), a number of worthwhile poems, book reviews, and three solid short stories. Continue reading “Chicago Review – Spring 2010”

Denver Quarterly – 2010

“For a long time we looked at the world and thought not,” begins Suzanne Buffam’s (nonfiction?) story “Trying.” This exceptionally good issue of Denver Quarterly is not merely trying, it succeeds, as does Buffam’s highly original piece on trying to conceive a child, part personal story – part musing on history and biology. Perhaps it does not matter that I do not know if the three prose pieces included among the work of nearly three-dozen poets and an interview with Dawn Lundy Martin, whose newest poetry collection will soon be released, are fiction or nonfiction. Continue reading “Denver Quarterly – 2010”

Hiram Poetry Review – Spring 2010

Issue number 71 is a slender volume of poems that act as a slice of American life, with a focus on entertainment. Since entertainment is such a heavy influence in American culture, it seemed fitting, though sometimes oddly juxtaposed to the poems that focus more on rural life in America and to the cover image, the letter and photograph of a Civil War Soldier. Continue reading “Hiram Poetry Review – Spring 2010”

The Missouri Review – Summer 2010

One of the most unusual aspects of The Missouri Review is the treatment of poetry, the presentation of a group of poems (6-7) by a small number of poets, rather than a single poem by dozens of writers. This issue features the work of John W. Evans, Benjamin S. Grossberg, and Jonathan Johnson. Their selections are preceded by a personal statement, a photo, and longer-than-typical-for-literary-mag bios. Continue reading “The Missouri Review – Summer 2010”

Shenandoah – Spring/Fall 2010

This issue is a tribute to Flannery O’Connor. Eleven essays are accompanied by the work of 11 short story writers, more than a dozen poets, 7 visual artists, a book review, and a series of O’Connor’s letters in their original forms. Photographs by Kathleen Gerard of O’Connor’s residence, Andalusia, are marvelous with their intricate shadows and acute sense of place. I had never really wanted to visit this site until I saw these photos.

Continue reading “Shenandoah – Spring/Fall 2010”

Tin House – Fall 2010

Tin House Editor Rob Spillman’s announcement that until 2011 unsolicited submissions will not be considered unless they are accompanied by a receipt for the recent purchase of a new book or literary magazine seems both in keeping with – and in some ways contrary to – the needs, concerns, issues, perspectives, realities, and experiences that surface in the poems, stories, essays, and interview that extrapolate on this issue’s theme, “Class in America.” Continue reading “Tin House – Fall 2010”

Western American Literature – Summer 2010

Published quarterly by the Western Literature Association at Utah State University, Western American Literature is a small scholarly journal with critical articles on “any aspect of literature of the American West,” book reviews, and artwork (reproduced in black and white) related to the region. This issue is comprised of three essays, Katie O. Arosteguy’s deconstruction of the myth of the cowboy in Annie Proulx’s Wyoming Stories; Kirsten Mollegaard’s analysis of Louis Sachar’s Holes; “Down the Santa Fe Trail to the City Upon a Hill,” by Andrew Menard, a consideration of the city of Santa Fe in American literature; 18 short reviews of works of criticism, fiction, and creative nonfiction; and paintings, photographs, and drawings by 9 artists. Continue reading “Western American Literature – Summer 2010”

Consequence Prize in Poetry Winner

In 2009 Consequence began the Prize in Poetry, an annual award given for an outstanding poem on the subject of war. Kevin Bowen selected Andreas Morgner’s winning poem, “N’Djamena Chad,” and those of seven finalists published in the Spring 2010 issue: Chris Agee, David Eye, Joseph Hutchinson, Jen Karetnick, Barbara Leon, Marian Kaplun Shapiro, and Danny Wilson.

Morgner’s poem is also available full-text on the magazines homepage.

Poets Discuss First Book Process

The Fall 2010 issue of Boxcar Poetry Review includes a conversation with two poets on the process of publishing their first books – from start to finish: Traci Brimhall, author of Rookery (Southern Illinois University Press), winner of the 2009 Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book Award, and Gary L. McDowell, author of American Amen (Dream Horse Press, 2010), winner of the 2009 Orphic Prize for Poetry.