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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!

Striking Surface

Striking Surface by Jason Schneiderman focuses on death, religion, and the violence and exile of war. Though writing on such serious topics, Schneiderman still manages to weave in pop culture references, referencing several leading ladies such as Grace Kelly in his poem “Billboard Reading,” Sandra Dee and Lana Turner in “Susan Kohner (Douglas Sirk’s Imitation of Life),” and Audrey Hepburn in “Elegy VII (Last Moment).” Continue reading “Striking Surface”

Metrophilias

A geographical whirlwind, Connell’s debut collection presents 36 cities in alphabetical order (some letters get more than one hit … why eschew Moscow for Madrid? Xi’an, on the other hand, has no X peer). Each destination offers a story, a scene, or a vignette – as I read I came to think of them as little windows – into the city. A moment, a place, a person. Each encounter is an intense mixture of location and love. Continue reading “Metrophilias”

Answer to an Inquiry

Swiss writer Robert Walser opens Answer to an Inquiry, originally published in 1907, by stating his purpose for writing it: “You ask me if I have an idea for you, sir, you ask me to draft a sketch, a play, a dance, a pantomime, or some other thing you could use, that you could depend on.” From there, Walser lists the materials needed for costumes, set, and lighting, and gives step-by-step instructions with commentary on how to convey true suffering to an audience: Continue reading “Answer to an Inquiry”

Drain

Davis Schneiderman vividly creates a desolate and backward futuristic word in his novel Drain – a world that is made all the more terrifying for its uncanny resemblance to our own. Part sci-fi/fantasy (though certainly not the kind you want your kids to read), part psychological thriller, and part commentary on contemporary religion and politics, Drain follows numerous paths and occasionally fights the urge to draw extraneous ideas into its already-teeming domain. Continue reading “Drain”

The Quickening

In a brief, illuminating YouTube interview on the publisher’s website, Michelle Hoover discusses the genesis of The Quickening. She discovered a typewritten memoir, composed in 1950, by her great grandmother about her experiences as a farmer and farm wife. The memoir of twenty or more pages covers much of this strong woman’s life in the first half of the Twentieth Century. Hoover used this story and further research on family history and U.S. farm life as a springboard to create the imaginative world of this novel. Continue reading “The Quickening”

The Space Between Trees

Katie Williams’s debut YA novel, The Space Between Trees, is a lyrical journey into the lonely world of 16-year-old Evie, a friendless teen whose life changes forever after a childhood friend, Elizabeth “Zabet” McCabe, is murdered. Evie was friends with Zabet in middle school, but they hadn’t been close for ages. Adept at small, usually innocuous stretches of the truth, Evie finds herself telling Mr. McCabe at Zabet’s funeral that she was his daughter’s best friend. Evie’s lie initially repels Hadley Smith, a troubled, unstable teen who was Zabet’s real best friend, but Hadley soon draws Evie into her dangerous obsession to find Zabet’s killer. Continue reading “The Space Between Trees”

Time of Sky & Castles in the Air

Sawako Nakayasu’s translation of Ayane Kawata’s Time of Sky & Castles in the Air proves that translating Japanese to English can result in a beautiful rebirth. The first half of the book, Time of Sky, is full of number-titled poems usually no longer than three or four lines in length, but these poems pack so much imagery and beautiful sounds that the reader often has no choice but to reread immediately. I found myself pausing to soak in all of the wonderful, unique images and ideas. Even simple things resound with beauty, like the description of a pigeon in 12: Continue reading “Time of Sky & Castles in the Air”

The Lesser Fields

Rob Schlegel’s debut collection of poems, The Lesser Fields, winner of the 2009 Colorado Poetry Prize, creates a kind of rarefaction through decay. As Schlegel states, “I breathe away the parts of myself I no longer require.” The titles of the three sequences which comprise the book, “The Lesser Fields,” “November Deaths,” and “Lives,” seem to underscore this theme. Indeed, the collection itself feels rarified, taking up a miserly fifty-four pages, including notes and acknowledgements. Continue reading “The Lesser Fields”

Seriously Funny

I was drawn to this collection for two – make that three reasons: I enjoy versifying power-couple Barbara Hamby and David Kirby’s individual work, and I believe good, ‘funny’ poetry is, if not quite as uncommon as some might argue it to be, at least worthy of omnibus analysis and appraisal. I suspected that these two editors, no strangers to humorous writing, would take a broad enough approach to compiling what they deem “seriously funny” poems, and the book’s introduction – a fine read in its own right – bears that out. Continue reading “Seriously Funny”

The Last Lie

Tony Gloeggler’s latest poetry book, The Last Lie, celebrates imperfection in all its ubiquitous manifestations – in people, relationships, memories, and dreams. It is about the lies we tell ourselves when we discover that the truth is insufficient, and the tools we use to renounce those fabrications that distract us from recognizing beauty in imperfection and experiencing fulfillment from that which seems lacking at first glance. Continue reading “The Last Lie”

Bob Edwards Series on The Library

Bob Edwards (“The Bob Edwards Show” on Sirius XM Radio and “Bob Edwards Weekend,” distributed to public radio stations by Public Radio International) is wrapping up a four-part series this week on libraries: SHHHH… LIBRARIES AT WORK! This week’s segment explores the library’s role in society, and will be available for download on the site after airing. The first three segments are available via download and iTunes.

Part Three focuses on the school library.

Part Two focuses on how libraries and reading can enact change in the lives of patrons and readers, even when change is difficult.

Part One examines the successes and failures of our national library system.

Thema’s Lack of Correspondence the Canary in the Coal Mine

In every issue of Thema, editors include correspondence from readers. However, in the most recent issue of the publication (Autumn 2010), the editors note that “for the first time in 22 years, no one communicated with us!” I don’t believe this lack of communication is due to any absence of readers, but rather the method of receiving the missives: traditional post. No doubt if Thema were to accept e-mail and text messages (and publish tweets and FB wall scrawls), there would be no lapse in this feedback loop. It seems reflective of the times that the days of letter writing, envelopes and stamps – even for a publications whose readers appreciate the print format – are quickly coming to an end for many.

Chinese Literature Today – Summer 2010

It is a privilege to review this premiere issue of a premier publication from the publishers of the time-honored and highly regarded World Literature Today at the University of Oklahoma. Chinese Literature Today is a gorgeous magazine – even the ads are spectacular – and an important one on multiple levels. Continue reading “Chinese Literature Today – Summer 2010”

Crazyhorse – Spring 2010

One of the things I have always appreciated most about Crazyhorse is Crazyhorse’s appreciation of the capacity of language’s glorious limitations, the way in which what we cannot say, must say, do not say, and end up saying anyway comes to life in the hands of a gifted writer. Here is Jennifer Militello reassuring me that this issue won’t let me down in her poem, “A Dictionary at the Turn of the Millennium”: Continue reading “Crazyhorse – Spring 2010”

Fourteen Hills – 2010

Fourteen Hills spans the spectrum of creative writing, producing an exciting and vivid cross-section of contemporary writing. Alison Doernberg’s rich and textured poem “(Save)” kicks off the issue, with “everything / suspended in ink, and everything that is not” an apt description of the content that follows. Continue reading “Fourteen Hills – 2010”

The Meadow – 2010

The Meadow is an annual published at Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno, Nevada with an editorial staff of faculty, an awards program, and a predilection for personal story and narrative-driven writing. The work of two veteran and gifted writers, Adrian C. Louis and Mark Terrill, and accomplished photographer Dana Oldfather, is accompanied by much student writing, including poems, personal essays, and artwork. Continue reading “The Meadow – 2010”

Minnetonka Review – Fall 2010

This issue features 7 short stories, four works of nonfiction, and poems by a dozen and a half poets. Best-known writers in the TOC are poets Philip Dacey, Simon Perchik, and Mary Crow. Art Director Keith Demanche contributes a number of captivating black and white photographs of Minnesota nature scenes. They capture with uncanny accuracy the grandeur and drama of the landscape with its massive skies and showy weather. Continue reading “Minnetonka Review – Fall 2010”

Natural Bridge – 2010

Guest editor Nanora Sweet defines this issue’s special section on Writing/Politics/Status/Gender as “driven by gender in a political year…a body politic(s) knit tenuously together by that most gendered set of relationships, of family.” Her selection of family-themed poetry, fiction, and essays is largely of work I would describe as affable without being cloying, sometimes deceptively casual while possessing deeper implications, and eminently readable. Continue reading “Natural Bridge – 2010”

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.