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 newest issue of New England Review (44.3) features prose by Samuel Kolawole, Adrie Kusserow, David Moats, and Alice Sparberg Alexiou, poetry by Esther Lin, Brian Blanchfield, John James, Laura Newbern, and Cortney Lamar Charleston, a play by Caridad Svich, translations from the Hungarian, Ukrainian, and Chinese, a novella by Lori Ostlund, artwork by Jing Qin, and much more.
Kaleidoscope: Exploring the Experience of Disability through Literature and the Fine Arts has launched a podcast to lift the words from its pages and present them in a new and meaningful way. In issue 86 episode 4, host Nick deCourville takes the audience on a journey toward discovering unexpected truths. This episode includes a reading of an excerpt from “Rehabbing” by Sharon Hart Addy. This story involves a couple who decides to buy an old farmhouse that is in need of renovations, only to find they are about to go on an unexpected journey of self-discovery and healing. Additional readings include works from authors Carol Zapata-Whelan, Hudson Plumb, Chelsea Brown, Robin Knight, Daylyn Carrigan, Hudson Plumb, Conny Borgelioen, Fay L. Loomis, Kristen Reid, Jess Pulver, Fionn Pulsifer, Courtney B. Cook, Hannah Sward, and Stephanie Harper. Give the episode a listen and see what truths are uncovered.
Christina Sharpe has written an incisive and insightful book about what it means to be Black in America today. Though the 248 notes that make up the book are brief, they dig deeply into the realities of white supremacy as a central tenant of American culture. Sharpe draws on a wide variety of contemporary and historical writers, artists, and thinkers, ranging from some most readers would be familiar with—such as Toni Morrison and Frederick Douglass—to a number who will be new to those same readers. Her 248 notes include 208 footnotes, in fact, as she steps into the long and deep river of Black thought and art. Sharpe structures her book around the various meanings of the word note, whether as a verb meaning to notice or a noun in the musical sense. She’s interested in definitions and words in general, as one of the longest sections of the book is what she refers to as “preliminary entries toward a dictionary of untranslatable blackness.” Given her investment in the tradition of Black thought, she calls on other thinkers to help her provide definitions for “unbuilding,” “spectacle,” “property,” and a number of other terms. All of her notes—like a piece of music—combine to create a composition that is more than its individual parts, one that celebrates Black culture and history, while reminding readers of the White supremacist reality that Black tradition has been and currently is being forged within and against.
Ordinary Notes by Christina Sharpe. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023.
Reviewer bio: Kevin Brown has published three books of poetry: Liturgical Calendar: Poems (Wipf and Stock); A Lexicon of Lost Words (winner of the Violet Reed Haas Prize for Poetry, Snake Nation Press); and Exit Lines (Plain View Press). He also has a memoir, Another Way: Finding Faith, Then Finding It Again, and a book of scholarship, They Love to Tell the Stories: Five Contemporary Novelists Take on the Gospels. Twitter @kevinbrownwrite or kevinbrownwrites.weebly.com/.
“It’s the Journey, Not the Destination” is the theme of Still Point Arts Quarterly Fall 2023, featuring art and photography, fiction and non-fiction, and poetry. Widely praised for its rich and valuable content and splendid presentation, Still Point Arts Quarterly is intended for artists, writers, nature lovers, seekers, and enthusiasts of all types. Visit their website to download and read the full issue online as well as for information on how to order beautiful, full-color print copies.
Strip Mall: Stories by Matthew Thomas Meade Tailwinds Press, November 2024
Matthew Thomas Meade’s stories in Strip Mall are about a surreal future as much as they are about our absurd present. A young lawyer moonlights as an ersatz psychic; a woman struggles with the caregiver burden caused by her boyfriend’s satanic possession; a suburban mother reckons with Kafka’s The Metamorphosis in mass-casualty form. Meade’s craft in this debut collection dissipates with shockingly deadpan ease into sensitive accounts of ordinary human relationships and resilience. With its heartfelt portraits of a magical world where late-stage capitalism has blurred the boundaries between the living and the dead, Strip Mall presents a strangely grace-filled vision of the dystopia already upon us.
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We receive many wonderful book titles each month to share with our readers. Visit New Books Received to discover new authors as well as new works by your favorites. This page is updated monthly, but subscribers to our newsletter have these featured titles and more of ‘what’s new’ at NewPages.com delivered weekly. For publishers or authors looking to be featured on our blog and social media, please visit our FAQ page.
43 Submission Opportunities including calls for submissions, writing contests, and book prizes.
Welcome to the last weekly roundup of submission opportunities for September 2023. Autumn is officially hear. We had cooler weather and light rain most of the week. But Mother Nature is letting us know she’s not ready to let go of summer and we’re supposed to be sunny and near 80 this weekend. If you’ll be experiencing a lovely weather weekend, grab your laptop and head outside to enjoy it while keeping your submission goals strong.
Like a page ripped from the headlines, the Sunbury Press release of American Roulette takes readers inside a mall where a mass shooting has taken place. It’s a grisly and up-close look at a wholly preventable, if common, occurrence.
The novel was written by eight authors, each of whom introduces readers to someone caught in the rampage. Two of the characters, Will Humphreys and Roger Elliot, are young, disgruntled white men who are eager to retaliate for years of familial and schoolhouse bullying, and provide a window into the minds of people driven to the edge and then given access to assault weapons.
Other characters include a minister struggling with medical debt; a young woman battling a depressive disorder; an elderly gun aficionado; a homeless mall security guard who has been living in her car; a local television personality; and a man hired by the mall’s owners to do damage control.
Two of the authors, Rev. Matthew Best and Pat LaMarche, spoke with Eleanor J. Bader in advance of the book’s October release:
18: Jewish Stories Translated from 18 Languages edited by Nora Gold Academic Studies Press, October 2023
This anthology offers readers the first collection of translated multilingual Jewish fiction in twenty-five years: a collection of eighteen stories, each translated into English from a different language: Albanian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Ladino, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, and Yiddish. These compelling, humorous, and moving stories, written by eminent authors, reflect both the diversities and the commonalities within Jewish culture and are easily accessible and enjoyable not only for Jewish readers but for story-lovers of all backgrounds.
Authors in the order they appear in the book: Elie Wiesel, Varda Fiszbein, S. Y. Agnon, Gábor T. Szántó, Jasminka Domaš, Augusto Segre, Lili Berger, Peter Sichrovsky, Maciej Płaza, Entela Kasi, Norman Manea, Luize Valente, Eliya Karmona, Birte Kont, Michel Fais, Irena Dousková, Mario Levi, and Isaac Babel.
The title of Zadie Smith’s latest novel is misleading, as there is no singular fraud in this novel; instead, everybody seems to be a fraud. Smith bases her novel on the historical account of the “Tichborne Trial,” in which a man claims to be Sir Roger Tichborne, a claim that is so absurd to be laughable, given the evidence. However, people—primarily those of the lower- and growing middle-class—firmly support him, even when they know the claim is baseless. They attend his trial and rallies in support of him, denying any reality he or his trial calls into question. If readers are wondering if there are contemporary echoes, Smith sets them to rest with a song that serves as the epigraph for Volume Eight (her structure mirrors the Victorian novels she is channeling), in which each stanza ends with the word trump. While the trial is the underpinning of the novel, Smith largely follows Eliza Touchet, the housekeeper for William Ainsworth, a novelist who once outsold Dickens, but who is now largely forgotten. Eliza attends their literary gatherings, but even though she sees through the literary elite, she has no standing to critique, given the role of women in the 1800s. When she meets Andrew Bogle, a formerly enslaved Jamaican who serves as the faux Tichborne’s one consistent witness, she asks to hear his life story, wanting to understand a broader view of Britain and humanity. She ultimately has a moral choice to make to try to stay true to her beliefs, to avoid being a fraud herself, and she develops a different kind of voice by the end of the novel. While Smith spends much of the novel showing characters who doubt the very idea of a shared reality, she reminds readers that fiction can still convey truth, even when it rewrites history to do so.
Reviewer bio: Kevin Brown has published three books of poetry: Liturgical Calendar: Poems (Wipf and Stock); A Lexicon of Lost Words (winner of the Violet Reed Haas Prize for Poetry, Snake Nation Press); and Exit Lines (Plain View Press). He also has a memoir, Another Way: Finding Faith, Then Finding It Again, and a book of scholarship, They Love to Tell the Stories: Five Contemporary Novelists Take on the Gospels. Twitter @kevinbrownwrite or kevinbrownwrites.weebly.com/.
The Shore online poetry journal Issue 19 drops a little before the leaves with a longing for shadows and solace. These poems lace their lines across distance to celebrate the shortening days. This issue features new poems by Chelsea Dingman, Noor Shahzad, Jenny Munro-Hunt, MM Porter, Marisa Lainson, Catherine Weiss, Jennifer K Sweeney, Emily Patterson, Melody Wilson, Mary C Sims, Vanessa Ogle, Ruth Williams, Jill Klein, Lila Waterfield, Terin Weinberg, Heather Truett, Bill Hollands, Derek JG Williams, Tiffany Aurelia, Alejandra Cabezas, Conan Tan, Lizzie Hutton, Sam Moe, Elinor Ann Walker, Alyse Knorr, Todd Campbell, Mckendy Fils-Aimé, Jennifer Bullis, SE Street, Eric Steineger, Melanie Branton, Michael Lauchlan, Jared Povanda, Maggie Rue Hess, Jack B Bedell, Donald Pasmore and Ann Weil. It also features haunting art by Rachel Storck.
Independent nature-focused literary magazine Humana Obscura’s Fall/Winter 2023 issue features work by 53 new, emerging, and established contributors from around the globe. Contributors include Amy Aiken, Bryan Stewart, Debbie Strange, Mary Catherine Creel, Vian Borchert, Marjorie Hanft, Joyce Meyers, Harry Bauld, Denise Miller, Sarah Garland, petro c. k., Jocelyn Velush, Rose-Marie Keller-Flaig, Janna Knittel, Lucy Flood, Chris Powici, Megan Muthupandiyan, Kerri Bowen, Lissa Watson, Adele Webster, Kimberly Phinney, Rachel Jeffcoat, Maureen Bennett, Rebecca Lacey, Tak Erzinger, Nicholas Olah, Tim Dwyer, Audrey Colasanti, Shane Coppage, Sarah Das Gupta, Kerry McPherson, Anna Freyne, Dustin Marley Hackfeld, Talitha May, Melissa Laussmann, José A. Alcántara, Patricia Rockwood, Jodi Balas, Kerstin Schulz, Ann Howells, Sally Anderson Boström, Jerome Berglund, Joshua St. Claire, Luke Levi, Kimber Devaney, Deron Eckert, Wally Swist, Vanessa Pejovic, Harold Sneide, Jennifer Browne, and Jennifer Steensma Hoag.
41 Submission Opportunities including calls for submissions, writing contests, and book prizes.
Happy Friday. And happy autumn (almost!). Summer in Michigan decided to go out on a high note of 80s and mostly sunshine. If you are able to enjoy some of the last throes of summer, do so. If not, dive into these submission opportunities to keep your submission goals going strong for the last half of 2023.
Tint Journal‘s editors Lisa Schantl, John Salimbene, Matthew Monroy, and Andrea Färber selected 25 texts (from more than 300 submissions) for this 10th issue. This time, the authors’ geographical backgrounds range from Namibia to Belgium, and from India to Mexico, with most texts dealing with an individual’s position on this planet, considering the peculiarities of culture, geography, food, history, and the overall circle of life. Each text contribution is published with a visual artwork by international artists (curated by Vanesa Erjavec) and a short interview with the author. Many of the texts can also be heard as audio clips, read by the writers themselves. All content from this and past issues can be read free of charge.
Sarah Dickenson Snyder’s latest collection, Now These Three Remain, strikes the delicate balance of faith and doubt. Like the master carver in “Industry,” Dickenson Snyder ponders,
Maybe I am practicing for some god’s commandments with chisel and mallet I tap across the smooth surface of slate to unveil letters, carve words I can touch.
Sarah Dickenson Snyder uses the slash like a chisel in her three sections, “Un/Faith,” “Un/Hope,” “Un/Love.” This gives these Biblical words facets, as if carved in stone. The poems exist in these oppositions, these dimensions.
In “Ginger Roots,” the speaker tells us, “Most good things grow in darkness— / seeds, roots, a fetus.” The speaker’s conflict is, at times, rooted in trauma and healing. Coming from a place of religious doubt, the collection is also an account of sexual assault and sexual autonomy. The speaker remembers her assault, “not-breathing, those seconds / falling inside me like a rock in a pond.” In “Without Regret,” the older speaker, “chose my life over what was beginning / to grow.”
Sarah Dickenson Snyder’s whisper “Heal us, heal us,” resonates throughout Now These Three Remain, where “we all just want to make something / close to sacred while we’re here.”
Reviewer Bio: Jennifer Martelli is the author of The Queen of Queens and My Tarantella, both named “Must Reads” by the Massachusetts Center for the Book. Her work has appeared in Poetry, Poem-a-Day, and elsewhere. Martelli has received grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. She is co-poetry editor for MER. www.jennmartelli.com
The newest issue of Jewish Fiction .net just came out – a brilliant, 8-language issue, where, for the first time, more than two-thirds of the stories in it are translations. In Issue 34, you’ll find 11 terrific stories originally written in Polish, Russian, Ladino, French, Hebrew, Yiddish, English, and for the first time… (drum roll)… Dutch! This brings to 20 the number of languages from which Jewish Fiction .net has published translations. And speaking of translations, only one more month till our book of stories from Jewish Fiction .net comes out! 18: Jewish Stories Translated From 18 Languages is the first book of its kind in 25 years, and it has already received glowing advance reviews from Publishers Weekly, Cynthia Ozick, Dara Horn, Josh Henkin, and others. You can pre-order your copy here.
128 LIT is a new publication offering open access to literature, art, audio, and video content posted online on a rolling basis as well as offering readers an annual print and digital download issue. Started by New York-based writer Andrew Felsher and Yehui Zhao, a multi-media artist, 128 LIT’s origin is numerical and “is intended to be liberated from the confines of language. When we decided to launch an international literature and art magazine,” Felsher says, “we were mindful of the history, memory, and violence embedded in language(s) and all that comes with the burden of language and the way art and narratives locate and shape us.”
Forget I Told You This by Hilary Zaid is the winner of the Barbara DiBernard Prize in Fiction in which Amy Black, a queer single mother and an aspiring artist in love with calligraphy, dreams of a coveted artist’s residency at the world’s largest social media company, Q. One ink-black October night, when the power is out in the hills of Oakland, California, a stranger asks Amy to transcribe a love letter for him. When the stranger suddenly disappears, Amy’s search for the letter’s recipient leads her straight to Q and the most beautiful illuminated manuscript she has ever seen, the Codex Argentus, hidden away in Q’s Library of Books That Don’t Exist—and to a group of data privacy vigilantes who want her to burn Q to the ground.
To discover more great books from small, independent, and university presses, visit the NewPages Guide to Publishers as well as the New Books category on our blog. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!
The Fall 2023 issue of The Kenyon Review includes the winner and runners-up for the Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers, selected by Ruth Awad, and a Food-themed folio, with poetry by sam sax, Inga Lea Schmidt, and Holy Zhou; fiction by Rebecca Ackermann, Elvis Bego, and Douglas Silver; nonfiction by Katie Culligan and Erica N. Cardwell; and much more. Luminous Gender Vessel, a folio guest-edited by Gabrielle Calvocoressi and Melissa Faliveno, features work by Krys Malcolm Belc, KB Brookins, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Catherine Kim, and many others. The cover art is by Joanna Anos.
Alice Winn’s debut novel follows two British teenagers—Henry Gaunt and Sidney Ellwood—during their time at an elite boarding school and into their time as soldiers during World War I. Their time at school sounds idyllic, but there are conflicts that come from Ellwood’s openness about his sexuality. It quickly becomes clear that Gaunt is also gay, but he is unwilling to admit that to himself or to others, and he is in love with Ellwood. The war significantly changes them both and forces them to confront their love, but also reminds them of the reality of the world they live in. Winn clearly conveys the horrors of the war and the loss of almost an entire generation of men, both through Gaunt and Ellwood’s experiences, but also through those of their classmates and Gaunt’s sister, Maud. She is part of a generation of young women whom adults encourage to go to the colonies, given how few men are left for them to marry. Winn creates a world where the war devastates all, leaving a world full of broken people who will have to spend the rest of their lives putting that world and their lives back together. Building their lives back is even more complicated for those on the margins, given society’s lack of acceptance of who they are. Winn reminds readers that so many did, in fact, sacrifice so much for the peace that followed, but some had to sacrifice even more.
In Memoriam by Alice Winn. Alfred A. Knopf, March 2023.
Reviewer bio: Kevin Brown has published three books of poetry: Liturgical Calendar: Poems (Wipf and Stock); A Lexicon of Lost Words (winner of the Violet Reed Haas Prize for Poetry, Snake Nation Press); and Exit Lines (Plain View Press). He also has a memoir, Another Way: Finding Faith, Then Finding It Again, and a book of scholarship, They Love to Tell the Stories: Five Contemporary Novelists Take on the Gospels. Twitter @kevinbrownwrite or kevinbrownwrites.weebly.com/.
Lit Mag Covers: Picks of the Week recognizes cover art and designs for literary magazines, whether in print or online. These are chosen solely at the discretion of the Editor. Enjoy!
Celebrating fifty years of publication this year, the newest issue of CutBank Literary Magazine (99) is their “First Ever Indigenous Writers’ Issue,” and features Red-Winged Blackbird Council by John Pepion on the cover.
Dawn Zinz’s work on the cover of Mid-American Review (42.1) is just so danged adorable with its mixture of digital collage using dried and pressed flowers – with more characters on the back that can’t help but make readers smile.
It’s wonderful to see another literary magazine reach its 50th year of publication, and to celebrate, the colorful work of artist Claire Desjardins greets readers on the cover of this special 2023 issue of Grain Magazine.
The Essential Worker by Australian author Jane Turner Goldsmith is the newest Wordrunner eChapbooks in which an excerpt of seven linked stories from a composite novel in progress recall that eerie and uncertain time, the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic, when no one really knew what was happening on our planet. Compelling and still timely, these short stories from down under are told in the voices of workers who kept Australians fed, well, and alive in Autumn 2020: supermarket workers, bicycle food couriers, and truck drivers, as well as overworked teachers and health care providers. By turns frightening, hilarious, and tender, each essential worker’s story is one of a survivor with a distinctive voice. This issue can be read online along with all the previous Wordrunner eChapbooks publications: 26 fiction, 5 CNF/memoir, and 5 poetry collections, each featuring one author — and 13 anthologies by multiple authors.
In this debut novel, Melinda Moustakis creates a couple who agree to marry each other a day after they first meet, based mainly on Lawrence’s claim to 150 acres. He and Marie have reasons for wanting land, a home, and a family, though she is more forthcoming about those reasons. On the one hand, then, this novel explores the challenges of clearing land and building a house in Alaska in the 1950s. It touches on the development of Alaska as a state and the land the federal government took away from the indigenous tribes who lived there for centuries. Moustakis, though, is more concerned about what it means to make a life with another person, as opposed to in a particular place; the isolation of the homestead simply heightens the conflicts Lawrence and Marie have. The idea of statehood echoes the trades one must make in a relationship, as some people oppose statehood because of the taxes the federal government will impose in exchange for services and the right to vote, while the takeover of native lands shows what happens when a relationship is one-sided. There are threats hanging over Marie and Lawrence’s relationship throughout the novel, whether that’s a grizzly bear attack or the secrets Lawrence keeps, leaving the reader wondering if what they have built can survive in the wild.
Homestead by Melinda Moustakis. Flatiron Books, February 2023.
Reviewer bio: Kevin Brown has published three books of poetry: Liturgical Calendar: Poems (Wipf and Stock); A Lexicon of Lost Words (winner of the Violet Reed Haas Prize for Poetry, Snake Nation Press); and Exit Lines (Plain View Press). He also has a memoir, Another Way: Finding Faith, Then Finding It Again, and a book of scholarship, They Love to Tell the Stories: Five Contemporary Novelists Take on the Gospels. Twitter @kevinbrownwrite or kevinbrownwrites.weebly.com/.
Deadline: November 1, 2023 Submit individual poems ($10 for up to two poems of 40 lines or fewer; multiple submissions okay). Winner and two runners-up will have broadsides designed and printed ($250 and 50 copies to winner; 25 copies for runners-up). No particular aesthetic; we just want great poems. Winning broadsides designed by poet/artist Lindsay Lusby.
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Deadline: December 1, 2023 After 40 years of singing, songwriting, and touring, Alt-Country/Americana artist Robert Earl Keen is retiring from the road. Long-time fans Sandra Johnson Cooper and Ron Cooper believe the time is right for a book that illustrates how Keen has inspired not only a generation of younger songwriters but also has influenced writers of poetry and fiction. Keen is as much a storyteller as he is a songwriter, and this anthology will be a monument of sorts to his literary talents. View our flyer and visit our website for more information.
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Deadline: December 1, 2023 Dorianne Laux will judge. Prizes: $1,500 & publication (winner); $500 & publication (honorable mention). All finalists will be published in the 2024 Spring/Summer Awards issue. Submit up to 3 poems per entry. $20 entry fee includes a copy of the awards issue. Submit October 1 to December 1, 2023. For complete guidelines please visit our website and view our flyer.
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Deadline: October 1, 2023 Housed amidst Tennessee’s rich literary landscape at Cumberland University, Novus is an international journal seeking vibrant writing and art. Our name means “new and novel”; we value a fresh approach and work that moves us through unique language. We also love a timeless story well told. No genre. Submit via Submittable for our Fall 2023 Print Edition, December publication. Visit website and view flyer for more information.
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Walloon Writers Review 2023 Eighth Edition is a collection of poetry, short stories and nature photography celebrating the unique experiences, adventure and natural beauty of northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula. This edition offers a theme of “Exploration” and includes both well known and awarded talent alongside those emerging in writing and nature photography. This 196 page edition is available at independent booksellers and online at Bookshop.org, BarnesandNoble.com, and Amazon.com.
Fauxmoir‘s reading period for Issue 11 is open! We are looking for compelling first-person narrative poetry, flash, short stories, and essays. Visual art is welcome, as well. Our Fall Chapbook contest is open along with submissions for our first print anthology; check Submittable for details. View full flyer.
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Discover our latest titles including Joshua Shaw’s All We Could Have Been, winner of the Tartt First Fiction Award. Releasing this fall: Kelly Ann Jacobson’s Weaver, Trish MacEnulty’s Cinnamon Girl, Robert McKean’s Mending What is Broken, and The Book of Merlin translated by Larry Beckett. Visit our website and view our flyer to learn more about these titles.
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The Missouri Review invites entries for the 2023 Jeffrey E. Smith Editors’ Prize. Winners receive $5000, publication, and promotion. Guidelines here. Each entrant receives a one-year digital subscription to the Missouri Review and a digital copy of the latest title from our imprint, Missouri Review Books. All entries considered for publication. Deadline: October 1.
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Join us for the 25th Annual Taos Storytelling Festival on October 13-14, 2023, in Taos, NM. Featured tellers include Kim Delfina Gleason of Two Worlds: A Native Theater and Performing Arts Troupe presenting “Spider Woman Stories” and regional tellers. A curated community storytelling evening, a workshop, and a Storyswap round out the weekend. View flyer, go to the SOMOS website, or call 575-758-0081 for more information.
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Screenshot of Winning Writers’ last call flyer for the 2023 Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest
Submit published or unpublished poems to the 21st annual Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest sponsored by Winning Writers and co-sponsored by Duotrope. We will award $3,000 for the best poem in any style and $3,000 for the best poem that rhymes or has a traditional style. The top 12 poems will be published online. Final judge: Michal ‘MJ’ Jones. Deadline: September 30. Fee: $22 for 1-3 poems. View flyer for more information.
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36 Submission Opportunities including calls for submissions, writing contests, and book prizes.
September is half over with. Contests love to have deadlines on the first, fifteenth, and end of the month, so don’t forget to check out our Big List of Writing Contests so you don’t miss out on any additional opportunities today. And, as always, enjoy our weekly roundup of submission opportunities below.
If you are looking for even more opportunities along with some great books to read, our September 2023 eLitPak was released to our newsletter subscribers Wednesday afternoon. Don’t forget paid newsletter subscribers can get early access to the majority of submission opportunities and upcoming events before they go live on our site, so do consider subscribing or upgrading your subscription today.
Theresa Runstedtler digs deep into the NBA of the 1970s to show how a group of African American basketball players brought a new style of play to the sport, honed on playgrounds rather than high school and college gyms, where white players trained. More importantly, though, she shows how these same athletes stood up to the white owners and coaches, bringing lawsuits against them when necessary, to carve out more freedom and agency for the players. Those owners had almost full control of players in the 1960s, dictating who could play for which team when and limiting player salaries and the almost non-existent benefits. One player after another, though, began to push back against that control, winning one court battle after another, while also bringing a different style of play to the courts. Near the end of the book, Runstedtler shows how these changes reinvented the NBA and led to the strong performances of the 1990s and early 2000s, but also to the more politically outspoken players of more recent years. Runstedtler brings her experience as a Toronto Raptors dancer and scholar and professor of African American history to create a readable, insightful look at an important decade of development in Black activism and labor history.
Reviewer bio: Kevin Brown has published three books of poetry: Liturgical Calendar: Poems (Wipf and Stock); A Lexicon of Lost Words (winner of the Violet Reed Haas Prize for Poetry, Snake Nation Press); and Exit Lines (Plain View Press). He also has a memoir, Another Way: Finding Faith, Then Finding It Again, and a book of scholarship, They Love to Tell the Stories: Five Contemporary Novelists Take on the Gospels. Twitter @kevinbrownwrite or kevinbrownwrites.weebly.com/.
This nineteenth issue of Smoky Blue Literary and Arts Magazine (Fall/Winter 2023) contains seven works of short fiction available to read online. In “Ana,” Gregory Jeffers spins a tale of mystery involving Russian aristocracy and small-town American values. Elizabeth Hansen tells of a couple’s struggles with their backyard and with each other in “Yardwork.” There are seven non-fiction pieces (essay, memoir, and creative non-fiction). “Desire” sets forth taut emotions and traces the path of a rocky relationship using the creative typography of Victoria Wiswell. Paul Rabinowitz relates an encounter in a Brooklyn cafe that has more to do with creativity than wine in “Clockwork.” The issue contains twenty-six poems, including Milagros Vilaplana’s “At Battersea Park” which paints a restful lyrical outdoor scene, while KB Ballentine’s lyric depicts nature as untamed. Willie Edward Taylor Carver Jr opens the magazine with a poem about the confrontation between traditional religious values and LGBTQ individuals. SBLAAM includes artwork, with four images in this issue, including one of crafted jewelry, a picture of a mixed-media sculpture, and two outdoor photographs. SBLAAM has also just announced a writing contest for those 50 and older.
The Dawn Review online journal is precisely the kind of effort we need right now. “We are called The Dawn Review because we are committed to renewal, in every sense of the word,” says Founding Editor Ziyi Yan (闫梓祎). All literary writing is accepted: poetry, prose, hybrid forms, etc. Visual art and pieces that combine art with writing are also welcome, and the editors post interviews, articles, and book reviews on their blog, in addition to the publication’s three issues per year.
“Through our issues,” Yan explains, “we champion forward-looking pieces that fight against the restraints of language and form. Our issues are not separated by genre, and our editors read with an eye for inventiveness rather than conformity. We are also committed to renewal in our editorial process – in order to uplift developing voices, we read blindly and provide feedback on all submissions.”
Let Our Bodies Change the Subject by Jared Harél is a poetry collection that dives headlong into the terrifying, wondrous, sleep-deprived existence of being a parent in twenty-first-century America. In clear, dynamic verses that disarm then strike, Harél investigates our days through the keyhole of domesticity, through personal lyrics and cultural reckonings. Whether taking a family trip to Coney Island or simply showing his son snowflakes on Inauguration morning, Harél guides us toward moments of intimacy and understanding, humor and grief. Winner of the Raz/Shumaker Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry, Let Our Bodies Change the Subject is a secular prayer. “I will try,” he admits, “to be better than myself, which is all / I’ve ever wanted and everything I need.” Hoping against hope, Harél works to reconcile feelings of luck and loss, of living for joy while fearing the worst.
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Lizzie Davis’ translation of Juan Cárdenas’ The Devil of the Provinces is a middle finger to literary categorization; mixing elements of both horror and thriller, Cárdenas’ novel plays with conventions of both classifications, while further blurring the lines between genre and literary fiction.
The story follows a failed biologist returning to his hometown. There are some deceptively lighthearted moments early on, mostly musings about the emotional repercussions attached to going back home. A clinical fatalism is always leaking under the surface though, pulling the masks off the comforts a small town and a quiet life seem to bring: “do nothing but wander from end to end, go up and come down, out and in, open and close the fridge door, sometimes lie in front of the TV. Pure actions… completely devoid of intention.”
Boulevard Spring 2023 is a double issue (38.112 & 38.113) that includes winning entries from all three of the publication’s emerging writers contests: 2022 Poetry Contest winner Danielle Lemay, 2021 Fiction Contest winner Lacy Arnett Mayberry, and 2021 Nonfiction Contest winner Lee Anne Gallaway-Mitchell. It also features a Boulevard Craft Interview with Danielle Dutton, a symposium on appropriation in art, new fiction from Joyce Carol Oates, David Nikki Crouse, Brad Eddy, Kristen-Paige Madonia, and Alexandra Munck, new poetry from Emma DePanise, Auden Eagerton, Bob Hicok, Abbie Kiefer, Weijia Pan, Doug Ramspeck, JC Talamantez, and Yun Wei, and essays by Amy Mevorach, Rebecca Owen, and Jess Smith. Cover art: Self-Portrait (2020), oil on canvas by Isabelle Roig.
Lit Mag Covers: Picks of the Week recognizes cover art and designs for literary magazines, whether in print or online. These are chosen solely at the discretion of the Editor. Enjoy!
This long-running Canadian publication of ideas and culture, Geist #123 holds an array of content that readers will be drawn to thanks to the cover digital collage, It’s a Different Kind of Cold, 2021, by Nicole Holloway.
Virginia Quarterly Review is a force to be reckoned with every issue, and this Spring/Summer 2023 is no exception, featuring “The Queens of Queen City,” a longform photo documentary by Michael Snyder accompanied by an essay by Rae Garringer.
This photograph by Jessamyn Violet made me look more than twice and is just a sample of the full portfolio of her work, Venice Beach Double Exposures, which readers can enjoy in the 2023 issue of Breakwater Literary Magazine.
The newest issue of Blink-Ink is themed “Secrets” and features twenty-five stories of “approximately 50 words” each. This ‘mini’ print quarterly (with occasional “goodies and surprises” thrown in for subscribers) includes stories like “A Puppy to Call My Own” by Lita Weekley, “Two Teachers” by Paul Germano, “Cosmic Dissonance” by Ada W. Vowell, “Risk of Expsure” by Kathy Lynn Carroll, “The Burial Plot” by Anna Mintz Brooks, ” Graffitti” by Ken Ross, and “The Barbie Motel” and “Checkpoint Barbie” by Nancy Stohlman. Cover art by Sarah Hussin.
Jeff Boyd’s debut novel, The Weight, follows Julian as his life slowly begins to fall apart. The woman he’s been sleeping with is now engaged to somebody else; he’s working a job at a call center where the best way to advance in the company is to lead the morning prayer; he’s a drummer in a band that doesn’t seem to have much of a future; he’s one of a very few Black people in Portland. As the novel progresses, though, he slowly begins to learn how to put his life together, partly driven by a late-night encounter with a woman who reads him the entirety of The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy, a novella she believes he needs to hear then and there. The only complaint I have with the novel is that, like many first novels, Boyd wraps the ending up too neatly: people remain friends when perhaps they shouldn’t, and they reconcile every problem, at least superficially. Despite that complaint, Julian and his friends are an enjoyable group to spend time with, even when they’re making decisions the reader (and everybody else in the novel) knows are choices that will lead them in the wrong direction, at least until the end.
The Weight by Jeff Boyd. Simon and Schuster, April 2023.
Reviewer bio: Kevin Brown has published three books of poetry: Liturgical Calendar: Poems (Wipf and Stock); A Lexicon of Lost Words (winner of the Violet Reed Haas Prize for Poetry, Snake Nation Press); and Exit Lines (Plain View Press). He also has a memoir, Another Way: Finding Faith, Then Finding It Again, and a book of scholarship, They Love to Tell the Stories: Five Contemporary Novelists Take on the Gospels. Twitter @kevinbrownwrite or kevinbrownwrites.weebly.com/.
Notes from the Trauma Party: A Novel by Michael Keen Tailwinds Press, November 2023
In Notes from the Trauma Party, Michael Keen creates a post-Knausgaard fictional reality that is as devastating as it is hilarious. An idealistic social worker—with the same name as the author—counsels the mentally ill, tries to be scrupulously honest (too honest?) with his girlfriends, and earnestly lectures his fellow writers in the MFA hothouse—all while navigating the complicated administrative aspects of being, and remaining, extraordinarily high. Appropriating the time-worn tropes of an addiction memoir, Keen’s kaleidoscopic debut novel recounts a string of harrowingly awkward encounters with oversexed coworkers, narcissistic writers, self-absorbed drug dealers, estranged parents, schizophrenics, and pedophiles—each causing and reflecting one man’s pathological confusion about the workings of his inner world. In its transgressively exhilarating depiction of millennial anomie, Notes from the Trauma Party is a no-holds-barred examination of a quest for total transparency that is as awful as it is sublime.
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The newest issue of Plume online features poems by Bruce Bond and Dan Beachy-Quick, Sandy Solomon, Troy Jollimore, Steven Cramer, Lee Upton, John Hoppenthaler, Dmitry Blizniuk, Carol Frost, Bruce Beasley, Beatriu Delaveda, Ani Gjika, and Andrea Cohen. The issue includes the feature “The Poets and Translators Speak, Remedios: Tommy Archuleta in Conversation with Amy Beeder (and five poems),” as well as the essay “Conjuring the Last Gleeman” by Steve Kuusisto. Readers can also enjoy “Translations Portfolio, From Records of Explosion,” poems by Nianxi Chen, translated from Chinese by Melisa Cahnmann-Taylor and Kuo Zhang, with an interview by Mihaela Moscaliuc.
NewPages Guide to Independent Bookstores in the U.S. and Canada is a great resource for finding local independent bookstores both in your own area and as you travel. There is no better way to get to know a city than to check in with their local indie bookstore(s). For authors and publishers, our list is a great resource for finding sales outlets and reading venues to promote your books.
NewPages.com currently lists only brick-and-mortar stores (no online-only, pop-up, mobile, comics-only shops, or shops with books as a side business). We offer free enhanced listings in our Guide to Independent Bookstores to help booksellers connect with book lovers, so you can find a lot of info for many of the stores.
35 Submission Opportunities including calls for submissions, writing contests, and book prizes.
The first full week of September in Michigan has been dreary and rainy, hot and chilly. A great smorgasbord of weird weather that seems like it will keep going for awhile at least. If you’re weather is just as dismal, NewPages has the perfect excuse for you to stay indoors writing and editing with our first submission roundup for the first full week of September 2023.
In The Way Land Breaks, award-winning poet Rebecca Brock uses time—human and geological—as both anchor and engine. These poems are revelation and love song to a faltering world. The Way Land Breaks travels the Idaho foothills of Brock’s childhood, the sky she takes to as a flight attendant, her relationship with her mother and her sons, and the distances between. From diabetes to earthquakes, mushrooms to Mars Rovers, Robin Hood to Vera Bradley—Brock asks questions about the landscape of home, the landscapes we seek within one other. Using tangible imagery and honest language, Brock shows us how love takes hold in the modern blur of disorder and constant change.
To discover more great books from small, independent, and university presses, visit the NewPages Guide to Publishers as well as the New Books category on our blog. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!
The Fiddlehead No. 296 (Summer Poetry 2023) is the publication’s triennial summer poetry extravaganza! This issue features poetry from over 50 contributors, including Kim Addonizio, Derek Austin, Ali Blythe, John Barton, Sadiqa de Meijer, Boris Dralyuk, Leontia Flynn, Jim Johnstone, Meghan Kemp-Gee, Dan O’Brien, Douglas Walbourne-Gough, Lisa Russ Spaar, Karen Solie, and many more. A special feature of this issue is a folio of Acadian poetry in translation. Visit The Fiddlehead website to see a full list of contributors, read excerpts from selected works, and order your copy of No. 296 or subscribe for home delivery. Cover art is by Ben von Jagow.
Floriography Child: A Memoir in Poems by Lisa C. Krueger Red Hen Press, October 2023
Lisa C. Krueger’s Floriography Child is a book about salvation: what gives people strength in the face of adversity, not just to endure, but to move through and beyond our myriad human sufferings. Through poems, micro-essays, and visual art, Floriography Child addresses fundamental questions about purpose, connection, and resilience. Written in memoir form, this book examines the mother-daughter relationship and its intimacies in the context of a daughter’s developing chronic illness. How to bear another’s suffering—how to find sustenance in a world fraught with uncertainty and pain—is addressed through the language of flowers and the natural world. Ultimately, this book asks us to consider how each of us, whatever our path, is connected.
To discover more great books from small, independent, and university presses, visit the NewPages Guide to Publishers as well as the New Books category on our blog. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!
