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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!

The Hotel Under the Sand

The Hotel Under the Sand is a sweet, touching and funny story aimed at children from about 8-12 years old. Fans of Eva Ibbotson will love the friendly ghosts, gentle tone and quirky characters. It has a charming old-fashioned feel. Children books nowadays tend to be hectically paced adventures defeating terrifying villains. This quieter, sweeter yet witty book makes a nice change. Continue reading “The Hotel Under the Sand”

Internet Curiosity :: List Magazine

List Magazine does just what it says – publishes lists. Twice a month, nonfiction lists submitted by “guest experts in science, art, and public spectacle, and other serious persons will be posted.” Currently, the first list, from the editor’s desk, is “How to Say a Few Words in 10 Languages That Will Soon Be Extinct.” A footnote reference states: “The Unesco Interactive Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger maps 232 extinct and 2,465 endangered languages. Half of the world’s 6500 to 7000 languages are expected to disappear this century.”

This is not silly or superflorus listmaking, but thoughtful and thought provoking, such as the one word entry that will be going up on my office door, “taturaaiiwaatista: ‘I am going to tell a story.’ Pawnee, a Caddoan language spoken by fewer than ten people in Pawnee County, Oklahoma.” And another, “nee’ééstoonéhk bíi3néhk noh héétniini núhu’ hee3éihi’ ee3eihi’: ‘If you do that, if you eat it, then you will be the way we are.’ Arapaho, a Plains Algonquian language spoken by 200 fluent elders on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, and by students of the language immersion school they founded in 2008,” which incites the reader to suddenly make connections with much deeper roots and greater meaning to the contemporary saying – ‘You are what you eat.’

List Magazine is edited by Josh Wallaert, poet, fiction writer, and documentary filmmaker, who invites submissions with this limitation: “If you are a non-serious person who trades in fictional lists, such as Rap Lyrics of the 17(90)’s or Heavy Metal Board Games, you may want to send your wares to Mr. Timothy McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. Timothy keeps a fine collection of that sort.”

Otherwise, List Magazine invites submissions of “lists, queries, and other species of correspondence. Lists can be funny, sad, curious, personal historical, whatever you like, but they must be true, and they must be your original work. List Magazine particularly enjoys lists that demonstrate significant research. (Footnotes and links are appropriate.)”

Additionally, contributors agree to publish their lists under the magazine’s creative commons license. Nice to see that in use – thanks Josh!

CFS :: Journal of Electronic Publishing – Digital Poetry

Long-time editor, Judith Axel Turner, is retiring from The Journal of Electronic Publishing (JEP), and Aaron McCollough has been asked to curate one of several issues to be published in the interim before a new editor-in-chief is appointed.

McCollough has chosen to put together an issue broadly dedicated to digital poetry publishing and is seeking articles. He hopes this issue will “bring together many distinct but related conversations concerning relationships between poetry and the wide array of digital prostheses that are shaping and have shaped 21st Century poetics,” as well as “bring the pertinent conversations to the attention of new audiences.” Submission deadline is April 15, 2011.

The Journal of Electronic Publishing (JEP) is a forum for research and discussion about contemporary publishing practices, and the impact of those practices upon users. Contributors and readers are publishers, scholars, librarians, journalists, students, technologists, attorneys, retailers, and others with an interest in the methods and means of contemporary publishing. At its inception in January 1995, JEP carved out an important niche by recognizing that print communication was in the throes of significant change, and that digital communication would become an important – and in some cases predominant – means for transmitting published information.

JEP is published by the Scholarly Publishing Office (SPO), a unit of the University of Michigan Library, which is committed to designing affordable and sustainable publishing solutions in the network era (with a serious commitment to open-access publishing).

Ka Mate Ka Ora & The North Down South


Published by the New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre (*nzepc*), the ninth issue of Ka Mate Ka Ora: A New Zealand Journal of Poetry and Poetics offers a special focus on North American legacies in the southern hemisphere:

Murray Edmond, Trade and True: Anthologies Fifty Years After Donald Allen’s The New American Poetry
Virginia Gow, The Activity of Evidence: Robert Creeley’s New Zealand
Jeffrey Paparoa Holman, Hello, America: Christchurch’s 1970s Pacific Moment
Scott Hamilton, Before Erebus: Five Footnotes to Kendrick Smithyman’s ‘Aircrash in Antarctica’
Ian Wedde, Does Poetry Matter?
Roger Horrocks, Leigh Davis (1955-2009)
Paul Millar, Jacquie Baxter / JC Sturm (1927-2009)
Murray Edmond, ‘Landed Poem Upwards’: Martyn Sanderson (1938-2009)
Robert Sullivan, Cape Return: for Alistair Te Ariki Campbell (1925-2009)

* *
*kmko* is edited by Murray Edmond with assistance from Hilary Chung, Michele Leggott, and Lisa Samuels at the University of Auckland, and with the support of a team of consulting and contributing editors. It publishes research essays and readings of New Zealand-related material and welcomes contributions from poets, academics, essayists, teachers and students from within New Zealand and overseas. Submission guidelines and further information at www.nzepc.auckland.ac.nz/kmko/about.asp

New at Redivider

Emerson College’s Redivider Magazine welcomes Amber Lee as Editor-in-Chief for 2010-2011. Amber will be joined by Managing Editor Nick Sansone, Production Editor Rebecca Demarest, Fiction Editor Brooks Sterritt, Poetry Editor Emily Thomas, Nonfiction Editor Lindsay Milgroom, Web Editor Anna Pollock-Nelson and Art Editor Merry Stuber.

Also new at Redivider is their Fiction Contest with cash prizes and publication – open for submissions until March 1, 2011.

Emerson Society Awards 2011

The Ralph Waldo Emerson Society announces three awards for projects that foster appreciation for Emerson.

Research Grant
Provides up to $500 to support scholarly work on Emerson. Preference given to junior scholars and graduate students. Submit a 1-2-page project proposal, including a description of expenses, by March 1, 2011.

Pedagogy or Community Project Award
Provides up to $500 to support projects designed to bring Emerson to a non-academic audience. Submit a 1-2-page project proposal, including a description of expenses, by March 1, 2011.

Subvention Award
Provides up to $500 to support costs attending the publication of a scholarly book or article on Emerson and his circle. Submit a 1-2-page proposal, including an abstract of the forthcoming work and a description of publication expenses, by March 1, 2011.

Send Research, Pedagogy/Community, and Subvention proposals to:

Jessie Bray
brayjn[at]etsu[dot]edu

and

Daniel Malachuk
ds-malachuk[at]wiu[dot]edu

Award recipients must become members of the Society

New Lit on the Block :: The Common

Editor Jennifer Acker and Poetry Editor John Hennessy head The Common, a biannual print publication from Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts. Inspired by this mission and the role of the town common, a public gathering place for the display and exchange of ideas, The Common seeks to recapture an old idea. The Common publishes “fiction, essays, poetry, documentary vignettes, and images that embody particular times and places both real and imagined.”

The first issue (00), much of which is available online via PDF, features works by Ted Conover, Yehudit Ben-Zvi Heller, Michael Kelly, Honor Moore, Sabina Murray, Mary Jo Salter, Don Share, Jim Shepard, and Marina Tsvetaeva.

The Common is currently accepting submissions for Issue 01. The submission period is September 15-December 1.

Glimmer Train Very Short Fiction Winners :: September 2010

Glimmer Train has just chosen the winning stories for their July Very Short Fiction competition. This competition is held twice a year and is open to all writers for stories with a word count not exceeding 3000. No theme restrictions. The next Very Short Fiction competition will take place in January. Glimmer Train’s monthly submission calendar may be viewed here.

First place: J. Kevin Shushtari, of Farmington, CT, wins $1200 for “The Vast Garden of Strangers.” His story will be published in the Winter 2012 issue of Glimmer Train Stories, published in November 2011.

Second place: Graham Arnold, of Downers Grove, IL, wins $500 for “The Story Is in the Reflection.”

Third place: Nahal Suzanne Jamir, of Tallahassee, FL, wins $300 for “In Perfect English.”

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

Deadline soon approaching for the September Fiction Open: September 30

This competition is held quarterly and is open to all writers. Word count range: 2000-20,000. No theme restrictions. Click here for complete guidelines.

Video Web Series of Touring Poets in New York

Monday, September 27, Coldfront Magazine debuts a new feature: TOURIST TRAP, NYC – a video web series that follows touring poets to some of New York’s top tourist destinations, as well as lesser known bars, reading venues and unheralded back streets. Each episode will feature one or two poets as they explore the city, discuss their work, how urban landscapes influence their writing, the history or importance of landmark they’ve chosen to visit, as well as any art/literature related conversations they might deem relevant along the way. Each episode will culminate with a short, 1-2 poem reading at their destination of choice. Episode 1 features the poet Julie Doxsee.

Banned Books Week Sept 25 – Oct 2

Visit Banned Books Week online for information about book challenges, events, and a Google map marking locations where books were challenged 2007-2009 – see how your state ranks.

The 10 most challenged titles for 2009:

ttyl; ttfn; l8r, g8r (series), by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: nudity, sexually explicit, offensive language, drugs, and unsuited to age group

And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
Reasons: homosexuality

The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons: drugs, homosexuality, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit, suicide, and unsuited to age group

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
Reasons: racism, offensive language, unsuited to age group

Twilight (series), by Stephanie Meyer
Reasons: sexually explicit, religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group

Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
Reasons: sexually explicit, religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group

My Sister’s Keeper, by Jodi Picoult
Reasons: sexism, homosexuality, sexually explicit, offensive language, unsuited to age group, drugs, suicide, violence

The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things, by Carolyn Mackler
Reasons: sexually explicit, offensive language, unsuited to age group

The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
Reasons: sexually explicit, offensive language, unsuited to age group

The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier
Reasons: nudity, sexually explicit, offensive language, unsuited to age group

CNF Wants Narrative Blog Posts to Reprint

From Stephen Knezovich, Associate Editor / Mentoring Director, Creative Nonfiction:

Creative Nonfiction is seeking narrative blog posts to reprint in an upcoming issue. We’re looking to get input from folks, like yourself, who are plugged into the online literary community, and we hope you’ll send us your suggestions (or, you know, if you wanted to post this call on your Twitter/Blog/Facebook pages, we’d like that a whole lot, too).

We’re looking for: Vibrant new voices with interesting, true stories to tell. Narrative, narrative, narrative. Posts that can stand alone, 2000 words max, from 2010. Something from your own blog, from a friend’s blog, from a stranger’s blog.

Deadline for nominations: Monday, September 27, 11:59 PM EST.

For more details and to nominate a blog post go here.

Free Spirit Publishing Seeks Teen Advisors

Free Spirit Publishing, the leading publisher of books that support young people’s social and emotional health, seeks young people, grades 6 and up, to join its teen advisory council. In order to keep the publisher’s books and other products current and relevant, the advisory council provides valuable feedback on things like design, art, and content. More information and applications are available on this flyer: Free Spirit Publishing. Application review is ongoing.

Franz Wright and Eugene O’Neill on Drunken Boat

In addition to its regular offering of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, photo essays, and readings, Drunken Boat #12 online has new and unpublished poems, prose, and 14 images of hand-written drafts by Pulitzer Prize winning poet Franz Wright as well as a tribute to 20th century dramatist Eugene O’Neill entitled Celtic Twilight, with essays by over two dozen Irish-American authors and artists.

Brevity Essays on Craft

Check out these craft essays in the September issue of Brevity – online:

Exploring Intersections: An Exercise in Dismembering and Remembering Selves by Lockie Hunter
A writing exercise that has generated a great deal of excitement in my nonfiction classes is one I call the “self-adjectives” exercise. Its intent – to locate your interests and passions by listing self-descriptors – is similar to Sherry Simpson’s “tiny masters” exercise (Brevity craft essay, Issue 28) and rarely failed to spawn enthusiastic responses…until I began teaching at Warren Wilson College.

The Wonder of Geese by Bryan Furuness
One of the worst teachers I ever had was a man named Sam, who led my first writing workshop in graduate school. He used to stop class whenever geese flew past the window. “Geese!” he’d say, interrupting whoever was speaking, even if it was himself. The class would look dutifully at the geese, and some ass-kisser would say, “Wow,” or, “That’s really something, how they V up.” By the time we’d get back to the discussion, Sam would have forgotten what we’d been talking about, and everyone else would pretend to have forgotten, too. But not me.

Q&A: Using Tension and the Narrative Arc by Brendan O’Meara
An interview with Thomas French, Pulitzer prize-winning journalist and author of the New York Times bestseller Zoo Story: Life in the Garden of Captives, on the challenges of long-form journalism and how the writer uses tension in the story to create a dramatic narrative.

Narrative Poetry Prize Winners

Winners of the 2010 Narrative Magazine Poetry Contest have been announced:

First Prize
Kate Waldman

Second Prize
Lillian-Yvonne Bertram

Third Prize
Ezra Dan Feldman

Finalists
Mermer Blakeslee
Laton Carter
Katharine Coles
Maria Hummel
Gray Jacobik
Jenifer Browne Lawrence
Lynn Melnick
Steve Price
Marsha Rabe
Christie Towers

Upcoming Narrative Magazine contest deadlines:

The Fall 2010 Story Contest, with $6,500 in prizes. Open to fiction and nonfiction. All entries will be considered for publication. Deadline: November 30, 2010.

The 30 Below Story Contest 2010, with $3,550 in prizes. All entries will be considered for publication. Open to all submissions from writers and artists age thirty and below. Deadline: October 29, 2010.

Submissions :: Women Arts Journal

Women of Note Quarterly is coming back from hiatus (website working but under construction) as Women Arts Journal, a peer-reviewed online journal now at the University of Missouri-Saint Louis, Women of Note Quarterly is accepting submissions of scholarly essays, fiction, poetry, visual art, and interviews by women or about women in the fields of music, fiction writing, poetry, and visual art. Please send submissions of up to 8,000 words in Microsoft Word format or TIF files of original artwork to wia[at]umsl.edu for consideration in the fall 2010 issue.

What Does Fiction Promise Us?

Spurred by a reader’s letter, Senior Fiction Editor Ronna Wineberg takes on this question in her forward to the Fall 2010 issue of Bellevue Literary Review:

Recently, a reader wrote us a letter and objected to a story we had published. She felt on of the characters in the story was unfairly dismissive of nurses. Her letter caused us to think about the BLR‘s goals. What can a reader expect from creative work about health, healing, and illness published in a literary journal?

Literary work about these themes differs from scholarly work, of course. Articles in medical journals must be fair, based on fact or rigorous research. A personal essay that appears in the BLR is grounded in fact as well, although the writer often expresses an opinion. But a short story and sometimes a poem create a fictional world. What does fiction promise us? How does the world of a story differ from a creative essay or scholarly article?

All readers bring their own experience to a work of literature. The reader who wrote to us understood the objective reality of the medical world and the importance of a strong partnership between doctors and nurses. But fiction does not always reflect reality. A character can think what he or she wants. A short story allows a reader to enter another person’s mind, to be privy to thoughts that might not otherwise be expressed.

Fiction doesn’t promise us a measured view of life or even a fair view, and it doesn’t always present a flattering portrait of people or a profession. A short story provides the reader with the vision of one author and the perceptions of the characters in that story. Readers, like our letter writer, may be offended by a story or feel that a character is insensitive. However, this is the beauty of fiction: it allows the reader to live another life, experience a new perspective, journey into unfamiliar worlds.

New Directions Releases First e-Book

New Directions Publishing has released a new edition of Henry Miller’s The Colossus of Maroussi available from Amazon as their first official e-book title. It features everything that can be found in the paper edition: an introduction by Will Self, the new cover by Rodrigo Corral Design, and an Afterword by James Laughlin biographer Ian S. MacNiven (also the editor of the Lawrence Durrell/Henry Miller correspondence published by ND, as well as Lawrence Durrell’s authorized biographer).

Upcoming e-book editions will include: Nathanael West’s Miss Lonelyhearts & The Day of the Locust, Nathaniel Mackey’s Bass Cathedral, and Muriel Spark’s Memento Mori.

Cara Wants Your Creative Community Projects

From Poet Educator Activist Cara Benson:

Looking for creative works/projects in community. Creating a line of study, here. Please send all suggestions my way (cbenson67[at]yahoo[dot]com). Examples include: Kaia Sand’s Portland poetry walks, Claudia Rankine’s Provenance of Beauty, Tree Museum in the Bronx. Also, artmaking/writing with community.

Interventions.
Re-inventions.
Decorations.
Instigations.
And just plain old creation, in situ. Of situ.

Thinking social justice and sustainability. Yes, art and politics. Praxis, please.
I’m very much interested in theory and essays. Even numbers (statistics) on things like poetry reducing recidivism. Creative projects fostering neighborhood ties. Fostering concern for care of community, ecology. Cultural influence on politics. Oh, the Humanities…

[Stay tuned for results – to be shared with NewPages.]

Cate Marvin & Carol Muske-Dukes Apologize for Women’s Lit

An Apology for Women’s Literature: “Yes, some of us write books. Well, a lot of us have done so, and for that we’re sorry. We’re sorry for all that time we spent writing our books (which aren’t any good, we admit), when we could have been beautifying gardens, cooking exquisite dinners, and raising our offspring.”

NCTE Promising Young Writers Program

The school-based Promising Young Writers Program was established in 1985 to stimulate and recognize student’s writing talents and to emphasize the importance of writing skills among eighth-grade students. Students who are eighth graders in the present academic school year are eligible to be nominated for the Promising Young Writers program. Students must be nominated by their teachers. Home-schooled students may submit through a cooperating school. 2011 Promising Young Writers Brochure will be available in October. Send request for brochures to pyw[at]ncte.org. (Note: only mailed to school addresses.) Entry Deadline is February 1, 2011.

New Lit on the Block :: Mason’s Road

Mason’s Road is an online literary magazine sponsored by Fairfield University’s MFA in Creative Writing and run by the graduate students of the program. Mason’s Road publishes fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, drama, visual art, craft essays, writing exercises, and audio works, and will focus each issue on an aspect of the writing craft. Issues are published twice a year, in July and December, during residencies at Enders Island.

Each genre section opens with a letter from the editors of that genre, each addressing some aspect of their work in the selection process – for fiction, a discussion of voice; for creative nonfiction, touching on elusive qualities; for poetry, a litany of poetic voices – raw, fresh, metaphysical, familiar; and for drama, an interest in screenplay writing with an exclusive interview with Pulitzer-Prize-winning novelist and screenwriter William Kennedy exploring “the hybrid and challenging form of the screenplay.”

Mason’s Road also includes a Radio Drama Cliff Hanger challenge in their drama section: “Your challenge – to pick up the story from this opening episode of our radio drama, or write the opening of a new radio drama. Whether the continuation of this script or a new one, it must be of true literary quality, entertaining, and provide another cliff-hanger ending…The Mason’s Road Players will produce the winning submission.”

This inaugural issue features fiction by Sandra Derrick, Laura Maylene Walter, Emily Davis Watson, Monet Moutrie, Mark Powell, Joel Kopplin; creative nonfiction by Brianna L. McPherson, Lia Purpura, Mary-Kathryn Bywaters, Michael Kortlander, Brandi Dawn Henderson; poetry by Lucas A. Gerber, Jeremy Francis Morris, Gladys L. Henderson, Jonathan Austin Peacock, Meredith Noseworthy, George Wallace, Robert Atwan, Julie E. Bloemeke, Shawnte Orion, Jason Michael MacLeod, Rhina P. Espaillat, J. Angelique LePetit, Paul Freidinger, Charlene Langfur, and Tim Hunt; artwork by Tinnetta Bell; and a conversation with Michael White on Voice/Persona.

Mason’s Road is accepting fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction, drama (stage or screen), art, craft essays, and audio drama from both emerging and established writers and artists for Issue #2 until Nov. 1, 2010. The issue will focus on strong settings – pieces that evoke a particular place or time.

Mason’s Road will award a $500 prize to the best piece of creative writing published in the first two issues of the journal.

Books :: A Story of Hope

A Child’s Garden: A Story of Hope by Michael Foreman (Candlewick Press, 2009) is a beautifully written and illustrated children’s book about a young boy who nurtures a new green shoot he finds amid a garbage heap in a war-ravaged land. The vine grows to cover a fence that separates two communities – how they became that way is never told, nor is exactly where the story takes place. From the images – the landscape, the building structures (whole and crumbled), and military uniforms of the guards – it looks to be desert area – and the children are all portrayed as light-skinned.

The vine grows to cover the fence, inviting birds and butterflies and children all to play together on either side of the fence, but the military guards from the “other side” of the fence come and tear it down. It regrows from seeds spread and shoots in the ground – first on the militarized side, where a young girl nurtures it, and the guards allow her to do so. Soon, new sprouts come up on the young boy’s side of the fence, and the vines from both sides intertwine. “Let the soldiers return,” thought the boy. “Roots are deep, and seeds spread… One day the fence will disappear forever, and we will be able to walk again into the hills.”

The illustrations begin with stark grey-brown “colorless” images and progress with the growth of the vine to vividly rendered watercolor scenes. The color is not overbearing – but as the story starts from bleak, peaks, then returns to bleak – the introduction of color is a stunning in appearance, and equally stunning in its loss as the vine is ripped from the ground. Of course, just as the vine shoots reappear through the earth’s surface, so too does the color seep back onto the page, ending in a joyful burst of color: the boy’s hopeful challenge of unification.

A Child’s Garden is a poignant story for both children and adults in a world where we are inundated with messages of cultural division and derision. This book provides a central concept – a simple vine – as a way to explore this very difficult topic with young adults.

Salt Hill Journal Blinded by the Light of Carlo Van de Roer

“Blinded by the Light” is a portfolio of photographs by Carlo Van de Roer and featured in Issue 25 of Salt Hill Journal. Each image is a photograph of a museum display and captures the reflection of the camera flash on the glass barrier. The image creates the illusion that the beings within the display are aware of the light as a result of its placement: wolves running through the snow-coveredforest appear to be chasing the light, a pair of bongos cautiously entering a thicket seem to be stopped, inspecting the light before progressing. A brilliant (no pun intended) concept deftly executed and worth picking up a copy of Salt Hill Journal to have your own well-produced copies of these photographs.

Word Literature Today International Short Fiction

The September 2010 issue of World Literature Today includes a first-ever marquee section devoted to International Short Fiction, introduced by guest editor Alan Cheuse, who is best known for his frequent book reviews on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered. Authors contributing short stories include Ana Menéndez (Cuba/US), Raija Siekkinen (Finland), Nicole Lee (Malaysia), Andrei Cornea (Romania), Fatou Diome (Senegal/France), Cyrille Fleischman (France), Simon Fruelund (Denmark), Benjamin Percy (US), Amanda Michalopoulou (Greece), Alix Ohlin (Canada), and Ru Freeman (Sri Lanka), with original artwork by Edel Rodriguez on the cover and Danica Novgorodoff inside.

Prairie Schooner Honors Hilda Raz

The fall 2010 issue of Prarie Schooner features a A Celebration of Hilda Raz, who has retired from UNL and from the editorship of Prairie Schooner as of August.

Raz was editor of Prairie Schooner since 1987 and the founding director of the Prairie Schooner Book Prizes in poetry and short fiction published by the University of Nebraska Press. In 1993 she was named the first Luschei Professor and Editor in the Department of English at the University of Nebraska where she has worked intensively with graduate students in the Ph.D. program. Raz, also received the 2010 Stanley W. Lindberg Award for Literary Editing. This award is presented to someone who has labored to uphold the highest literary standards in a magazine or small press.

Honoring her work and contributions to the literary community are submissions from James Engelhardt, Carole Simmons Oles, Ladette Randolph, Janet Burroway, Glenna Luschei, Mari L’Esperance, Sarah Kennedy, Biljana D. Obradovic, Kelly Grey Carlisle, Erin Flanagan, Pam Weiner, Tim Skeen, Lee Martin, Karma Larsen, Robert Pack, Nancy Welch, Floyd Skloot, R.T. Smith, Kara Candito, Kate Flaherty, Alicia Ostriker, Aaron Raz Link, Peggy Shumaker, and Maxine Kumin.

Absinthe – 2010

Absinthe 13, “Spotlight on Romania,” opens with an essay by Carmen Musat, editor-in-chief of the Romanian cultural weekly Observator Cultural, as translated by Jean Harris. Musat offers a brief overview of Romanian literature in recent decades, reminding us that until fairly recently Romanian writers had little freedom to write what they needed or wanted and expressing optimism about the future of Romanian literature. Continue reading “Absinthe – 2010”

American Letters & Commentary – 2010

“Not works that simply transport the reader/viewer to another place, but ones that become places in and of themselves – unknown regions of poetic exploration, visual mappings of the unconscious, uncharted terrains of language,” say the editors of this issue’s theme “terra incognita.” Unknown, however, is not the case for many of the issue’s contributors, who include Jim Daniels, Anna Rabinowitz, Tony Trigilio, and Dan Beachy-Quick. And unknown is not the case for the inspiration for Rikki Ducornet’s exquisite, intricate illustrations – the fiction of Jorge Luis Borges. Continue reading “American Letters & Commentary – 2010”

Conduit – Summer 2010

They won’t sell you this issue unless you promise to perform jumping jacks while you’re reading it! This issue’s theme is “Bodies in Motion. Dance, Sport Momentum.” And, wow, does it have momentum. From its tall skinny profile (maybe all that exercise helps the mag keep its shape), to the movement metaphor page numbering system (“ace,” “alley-oop,” “balance,” etc.), to the baseball diamond staff list, to the illustrated contributors’ notes for the issue’s “schematics” (a rollerblader, a juggler, etc.), this is one issue on the go. Continue reading “Conduit – Summer 2010”

Fogged Clarity – 2010

My thinking wasn’t foggy – it was just wrong! At first glance, I didn’t expect to like Fogged Clarity, the first print publication from online journal producer Benjamin Evans (despite my pleasure at seeing a publication expand to print from electronic production, instead of the other way around). I didn’t care for the title or the burnt orange cover and its image of a cosmonaut. Even the name of one of my favorite writers, Terese Svoboda, on the cover couldn’t sway me. But, did I have water on the brain? I loved the magazine, beginning with Howie Good’s poem, “Gifts for the End of the Decade.” An excerpt: Continue reading “Fogged Clarity – 2010”

Indiana Review – Summer 2010

The quality, skill, and star power you expect from Indiana Review – it’s all here. The range of voices and approaches (Denise Duhamel, Fady Joudah, Joy Katz) – that, too. And Bob Hicok, who is these days (or was it always?), it seems, everywhere. The issue’s special feature is “Blue,” which opens with wonderful paintings by Armando Meriño, one blue in obvious ways, the other less so, which is true as well of the literary works included in the feature. Continue reading “Indiana Review – Summer 2010”

The Los Angeles Review – Spring 2010

Though death – “the leavings of stories,” say the editors – is the theme of this issue of The Los Angeles Review, the work is quite lively, nevertheless. The relationship to the general theme is expansively considered, beginning with the reprinting of a poem by Judy Grahn (also the subject of a special feature essay) on the infamously dead Marilyn Monroe. Continue reading “The Los Angeles Review – Spring 2010”

Louisiana Literature – 2010

Louisiana Literature’s latest publication features two short stories and poems by two dozen poets who all, in one way or another, want to be clearly, directly, and immediately understood. Here, for example, are excerpts from Marguerite Bouvard’s “Human Landscape,” translating a tender painting of a moment: Continue reading “Louisiana Literature – 2010”

Marginalia – 2010

Three beautiful postcard inserts on quality uncoated cardstock of artworks by Rachel Burgess, William Gilespie, and Sasha Chavehavadze that appear in the issue extend Marginalia’s theme – ekphrasis – and impact. Ekphrasis is, essentially any work of art based on another. The most cited example, though by no means the earliest, is Auden’s poem on Bruegel’s painting “Musée des Beaux Arts.” Continue reading “Marginalia – 2010”

North Carolina Literary Review – 2010

North Carolina Literary Review is a joint production of East Carolina University and the North Carolina Literary & Historical Society and is quite an elaborate creation. The journal has yearly themes and this year’s theme concerns the Appalachian region of the state. There are numerous book reviews, along with poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, interviews, literary criticism, plus many illustrating photographs and paintings – 240 pages altogether. Continue reading “North Carolina Literary Review – 2010”

OVS – December 2009

Kerplooey! Brand spanking new, Organs of Vision and Speech’s first issue bangs its way into the literary magazine world with an impressive array of poets and artists. Launched by Stephen and Ivy Page in December 2009 and based out of the White Mountains of New Hampshire, OVS publishes new and established poets. Their only criteria? Great writing. This issue begins with an interview with and re-printed poem by the acclaimed poet Maxine Kumin. Um, fireworks anyone? You can’t help but be impressed with a new lit mag whose very first issue boasts the work of such an important contemporary poet. But there’s more. Known and unknown poets alike, the pages of OVS will blind you with fresh new work. Continue reading “OVS – December 2009”