Home » NewPages Blog » Page 241

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!

Smories: Kid’s Reading for Kids

Ralph Lazar & Lisa Swerling are the creators of Smories, a free website for kids to watch little films of new stories being read by other kids. Inspired by their daughter, Smories “is a place for unpublished children’s story writers worldwide to get their work published free online, whilst retaining all rights. The stories will be text only (not illustrated), which will remove a common obstacle to publication for many aspiring writers.” The FAQs on the site provide complete information about rights, content, and submissions.

In order to attract great stories, Lazar and Swerling have created a US$1,500 (

Glimmer Train Very Short Fiction Winners :: March 2010

Glimmer Train has just chosen the winning stories for their January 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 July.  Glimmer Train’s monthly submission calendar may be viewed here.

First place:  Mike Schiavone, of Gloucester, MA, wins $1200 for “Wackers.”  His story will be published in the Summer 2011 issue of Glimmer Train Stories.  [Photo attached.  Photo credit:  Sarah Tew Photography.

Second place:  Jake Wrenn, of Downers Grove, IL, wins $500 for “The Accidental Marathon.”

Third place:  David Abady, of Brooklyn, NY, wins $300 for “Big Girl.”

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

Deadline soon approaching!

March Fiction Open: March 31

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.

New Lit on the Block :: Wrong Tree Review

Wrong Tree Review has hit print, thanks to Founding Editors Jarrid Deaton and Sheldon Lee Compton. The first issue of this independent literary magazine features an interview with Joey Goebel, author of Commonwealth and Torture the Artist, as well as fiction from Rusty Barnes, Matt Bell, Mel Bosworth, K.L. Cook, David Erlewine, Foust, Roxane Gay, John Oliver Hodges, Stephen Graham Jones, Kilean Kennedy, Sean Lovelace, Cami Park, Ethel Rohan, J.A. Tyler, Charles Dodd White and xTx, with cover art by Dalibor Pehar.

Unfortunately, WTR suffered a major web-tastrophy, and are in the process of rebuilding their site. The main page is up, as well as the purchase page, but others, such as the submissions page, will be forthcoming.

Green Prints Celebrates 20 Years

Green Prints “The Weeder’s Digest” celebrates 20 years of publishing with their Spring 2010 issue. With no greater fanfare than the cover, the contents are the same carefully selected and earnestly illustrated gardening “sharing” stories as always. Editor Pat Stone says he did add two different features to this issue: 1) he briefly introduces each piece to explain why it was selected – some great editorial insight, and 2) he adds his own writing to this issue by way of a 20-year retrospective – again, brief. Congrats Green Prints, may you keep on digging for another 20, at least!

New Lit on the Block :: Poetry Is Dead

Hailing from Canada, the masthead for the biannual Poetry Is Dead starts with Editor Daniel Zomparelli, Art Director & Designer Easton West, Assistant Editor Leah Rea, and goes on to include a long list of hearts and souls supporting the work of this newly established non-profit (Poetry Is Dead Magazine Society).

This first issue includes:

Essays “Poetry Is Dead: The Autopsy: What does this mean for Canadian poetry?” by Editor; “The Shrinking Space of Poetry” by Betsy Warland; “The Living Language of Spoken Word” by Chris Gilpin.

Poems by Chris Gilpin, Sean Horlor, David Brock, Rachel Rose, Jill Mandrake, Elee Kraljii Gardiner, Ahmed El-Hindy, Leah Rae, Sandra Bigras, Ryan Longoz, Leni Goggins, Yi-Mei Tsiang, Mirak Jamal, Natalie Gray, and Kat Friedman.

Interview with James Deahl.

Issues are currently themed, and submissions are being accepted for the next issue: TV, Beer and Video Games. Deadline May 31.

Shenandoah Shifts to Online Only

“This spring, Shenandoah: The Washington and Lee University Review, celebrates one milestone and prepares for another. First comes the 60th anniversary issue of the journal, a tribute to writer Flannery O’Connor. And then comes a change, when Shenandoah shifts from print to Web.” Shenandoah’s attitude is upbeat, seeing the shift as one that will help them better meet their publishing needs (the last issue having hit 300 pages). Established writers will continue with the publication, but the first online issue to launch in 2011 will also allow Shenandoah to introduce new content: “Other facets of this ongoing Web conversation will be such features as songs, artwork and photography, as well as videos of poets reading their verse and authors discussing their stories.”

Call for Readers

From War, Literature & the Arts Journal Fiction Editor Jesse Goolsby:

“The 2010 War, Literature & the Arts Conference (Sept 16-18, Colorado Springs, CO) seeks authors and poets to read their work (fiction, non-fiction, poetry) at this distinguished, international conference. The theme of the conference is the “Representation and Reporting of America’s Wars: 1990-Present”. Mark Boal, screenwriter and producer of The Hurt Locker, heads our keynote speakers.” Deadline May 1, 2010.

The conference is also open for submissions for conference sessions until May 1, 2010.

Hunger Mountain YA & Children’s Lit

Vermont College of Fine Arts’ Hunger Mountain (n14, 2009) features a section on Young Adult and Children’s Literature that includes Katherine Paterson’s keynote speech at VCFA, October 2008 (“Fellow Travelers”), Liz Cook’s winning entry for the 2009 Katherine Paterson Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Writing (Crazy Cat), and Janet S. Wong’s discussion with examples of the Poet’s Process.

The Hunger Mountain web site includes a full-content section on Young Adult and Chilren’s Literature, including a tribute to Norma Fox Mazer, essays on controversial issues (writing about sex and whether or not children’s poetry “matters”), discussions of female fairy tale characters, a tool box, fiction, poetry, and more.

Question on “Multiple Submissions”

A note from Yelizaveta P. Renfro: “Thank you for your recent post on ‘Bruce Guernsey and Multiple Submissions.’ I am wondering, however, about the term ‘multiple submissions.’ In my understanding, the term ‘simultaneous submission’ means that a piece has been submitted to more than one magazine or journal at the same time — which is what is being described in the post. The term ‘multiple submission,’ I believe, means submitting more than one work to the same magazine or journal at the same time, though it seems to me that this term is often misused. There are a number of markets that do make a distinction between the two, including Third Coast and Rattle. Other journals, however, seem to confuse the terms or use them interchangeably.”

Thanks for your question/comment Yelizaveta. I’ll open this one up for comments/conversation.

Tin House Plays Exquisite Corpse

Issue 43 of Tin House, themed “Play,” includes a poetry section titled, “Exquisite Corpse: Sure it’s a little game. You, me, our minds.” The game, as is explained, has its beginnings in 1925 at 54 rue du Chateau in Paris with Andre Breton and his friends: “one player writes down a phrase and passes it to another player, who writes her own phrase below the first, then folds the paper to hide the first phrase from the next person, who herself then writes, folds and passes, only the previous addition visible to the next person in line. The result is an accordioned piece of paper printed with a bewildering narrative that often has its own strange sense.” Others have emulated and adapted this game, and Tin House now throws in their own version with players Mary Jo Bang, Nick Flynn, Alex Lemon, Matthea Harvey, Eileen Myles, and D.A. Powell each writing their own section and the next player picking up the last line as their first.

Allegheny Review Award Winners

The Allegheny Review, publishing undergraduate poetry, artwork and prose since 1983, established the Allegheny Review awards in poetry and prose eight years ago. Mark Doty selected Jacques Rancourt (University of Maine) to receive this year’s poetry award, and Paul Lisicky selected prose winner Marilyn Miller (University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown). Both winning authors’ works can be found in the newest edition of The Allegheny Review (v27) along with honorable mention poet Jes Gearing (Emory University).

Animated Netbook of Letters

AlphaAlpha, an animated netbook of letters: “The concept of this netbook is the proper “history of writing, which is, in a way, the history of the human race, since in it are bound up, severally and together, the development of thought, of expression, of art, of intercommunication, and of mechanical invention.”

AlphaAlpha is composed of 365 instances of the letter “A” plus one more for the leap year. The letters are collected in groups of about ten. “AlphaAlpha” is a collaborative work and includes participants artists & poets from several places around the world. AlphaAlpha is a good example of the possibilities of net art.

It is better visualized with Firefox and 1200 X 800 screen resolution.

[via Regina Pinto]

Book Club Med

From the Morning Sentinel: Book clubs for health professionals and humanities requirements in med school as a way to help those in the medical profession “connect” with the whole human: “If you want to understand what someone who is dying is going through, the highs and lows, the emotions, read Tolstoy’s `The Death of Ivan Ilych,'” said Dr. Robin Blake. “One hundred years before Kubler-Ross identified the stages of dying, Tolstoy had it.”

J Journal Adds Photography

With its fourth issue, J Journal, published by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice at The City University of New York, introduces photography as a regular feature. Though, they are hoping to “stay away from shots of generic justice – police, inmates, judges, balancing scales,” and instead hope that the images, like the poetry and prose included, “speak to the justice issue from unusual, subtle, evocative angles.” Readers, you’ll be the judge of that.

New Lit on the Block :: Nowhere

Not your standard fare in travel writing, Nowhere is travel writing about “a place between places, an imagined depot for stories from the road. We collect found experiences through writing, art, video and sound then illustrate them with objects brought back from the field.” It is not travel that has been “confused with tourism” nor lists of “ten awesome things to do,” but that remainder of honest field writing that once used to so fascinate us before we thought we had discovered the whole planet. We haven’t, and Nowhere proves that the written word still has a great deal left to explore.

Editor: Porter Fox
Designer: Manda Yakiwchuck
Interactive Producer: A’yen Tran
Liberal Copy Editor: Kim Stravers
Contributing Artists: Kara Blossom, Tony Bones, Antonin Kratochvil, Orien McNeil, Swoon
Contributing Writers: Bill Berkson, Alan Bernheimer, Arthur Bradford, Larry Fagin, Heidi Julavits, Josip Novakovich, David Quammen

Nowhere does not accept unsolicited writing, but welcomes letters to their online forum.

Naked Girls Reading

“Despite the beauty of the five naked women, the titillation part of the evening ended fairly quickly. There was no dancing, twirling, or bending over backward; legs remained primly crossed or tucked together. Unless you’re a 13-year-old boy (with remarkable facial hair and a really good fake ID), you’re not going to be aroused by the mere proximity of naked women sitting in front of a coffee table covered with Star Wars paraphernalia. Which means that the reading itself has to be good, or else you’re going to get pretty fucking bored pretty fucking quickly. Luckily, the reading was very good.” Read more on Fleshing Out the Narrative by Paul Constant for The Stranger.

Sycamore Review Welcomes Anthony Cook

Anthony Cook has taken over as Editor-in-Chief of the Sycamore Review, trying, as he says, to “build on the legacy” of Mehdi Okasi. “Not easy,” he comments, “at a journal where, by design, editorships roll over every year or two. I sometimes envy journals that are able to develop a focused and consistent aesthetic. Such focus makes a journal easier to market; you can find your readership and generate a following.” But, after six months at the helm preparing this newest issue, he’s convinced that “while such a set-up might seem ideal, it would greatly diminish the value of what, I believe, our journal can offer…In short, dissonance and diversity are our strengths, and they make for the kind of stimulating reading experience for which I long.” And for which Sycamore Review is known to deliver!

Take the Film Noir Poetry Challenge

Poetry Noir, sponsored by the Montgomery County Poet Laureate Program, invites you to view a black and white film available on their site and “use the feelings, memories, reflections, landscapes, characters or behaviors of the film imagery and sounds (selected by PoetryNoir) as a source of inspiration for poetry writing.” Currently on tap: Buster Keaton’s 1928 film The Cameraman.

Trees I Have Known and Anne Frank

In the latest issue of Drash, Pam Grossman’s poem “Kaddish” – a Hebrew prayer for the dead – is offered to a tree. It begins: “Our tree is dying / hunks of splintered bark peel away / branches creak ominously / then litter the yard with brittle bones // The tree surgeon arrives, surveys the damage / proffers a prognosis / two years at most.”

It reminded me of trees I have known, and the willingness of some people to care for them rather than just tear them down when they are ill or diseased. It also brought to mind the chestnut tree at the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam, that years ago was very ill and many feared would need to be removed. The tree had been mentioned numerous times in Anne’s diary – being one of the few images of nature she could see during the day through the uncovered attic window. The tree was not only saved and remains under care, but seedlings from its chestnuts were sprouted and shared. You can read more about it on the Anne Frank Museum Amsterdam website, including an interactive monument to the Anne Frank Tree where you can “Leave a Leaf.”

Bruce Guernsey on Multiple Submissions

The Spoon River Poetry Review Editor Bruce Guernsey adds his two cents in the Summer/Fall 2009 issue on the misuse of multiple submissions. Though he completely understands their use given the “exasperating expectation of waiting,” only to receive a rejection letter, he recounts his having read several cover letters for contest poems also submitted to other contests, with checks written out to those other contests – and others not signed or bounced – and of going through the time-consuming process on his end, only to have the poems rescinded because they were accepted elsewhere. It’s also general submissions as well that he is more often receiving at SRPR, but with another publication’s name on the letter.

Guernsey recalls Donald Hall’s labeling of this multiple submissions batching as “McPoem” and the movement of “poe-biz.” Guernsey writes: “In addition, the letters themselves have taken on a generic sameness: an opening paragraph asking that the poems be considered…then an indented section in bold face listing the poems, and last by a longer paragraph listing the poet’s publications and mandatory M.F.A. I have also heard (with horror) that there are actual services out there that will handle all of one’s submissions and rejections, getting poems constantly in the mail and frantically keeping them there.

“‘Multiple submissions’ is conducive to mass production, and acquiring a long list of publishing credits has become, for some, their goal. But poetry is not some kind of commodity like pork bellies. We should care where our poems go and who reads them. Anne Bradstreet even thought of her poems as her children – a sentimental notions perhaps, but one that kept her from sending them carelessly into the street.”

BPJ Barks Interview

In addition to the beautiful cover (Ding Jitang “Picking Persimmons,” Xi’an, China, 2000) and the carefully selected poetry to fill its pages, this issue (v60 n3) of Beliot Poetry Journal includes a conversation with Coleman Barks by John Rosenwald and Ann Arbor. In it, they talk about “the relationship between music and poetry, isolation and community, judgment and acceptance.”

For anyone who has seen Barks read along with musicians (visit YouTube if you have not), this interview adds another layer of depth to the idea of poetry and music combined, as well as to the complexity of Barks. As Barks says of joining his reading with musicians, “I work regularly with cello; I mean any instrument. The poem feels just so bare or something; I think the music puts it out of the mind, puts it in that layer below, back down in the water table. Somewhere the music lets the personality maybe dissolve a little more, or the ego. A lot of people think that the poem should stand on its own, but it feels good; it feels like I’m giving up some of my proudness, pride in the language of selection, when I let the music carry it along.”

Fresh Lit Mag Reviews March 15

NewPages Literary Magazine Reviews

The Antigonish Review
The Barcelona Review
Black Warrior Review
Cadences
Carpe Articulum
The Gettysburg Review
Iron Horse Literary Review
The Kenyon Review
The Laurel Review
The Literary Review
The Massachusetts Review
New Letters
Ninth Letter
North Dakota Quarterly
Poetry
Southern Humanities Review
THEMA
The Threepenny Review
West Branch
World Literature Today

Ruth Lilly as She Should be Remembered

Poetry’s Christian Wiman comments on the passing of Ruth Lilly, others’ responses to her life (“Willy Nilly Lilly” NYT and Slate), and his own, more gracious and informed reflection. Should you have any misgivings at all, or just an empty space of knowledge, in regards to the life and legacy of Ruth Lilly, you owe it to yourself to read this one-page memorial.

Sou’wester Welcomes Adrian Matejka

With the newest issue of Sou’wester, Adrian Matejka steps in as the new Poetry Editor, taking the place of Allison Funk, a job Matejka recognizes as “daunting.” Still, Matejka hopes to “perpetuate the precedent set forth by Allison, who was dedicated to publishing thoughtful, provocative poetry, while also working to cultivate a dialogue between the diverse aesthetics in contemporary American poetry.” Welcome Adrian – may this be the first of many more issues of Sou’wester for you!

Are Lesbians Going Extinct?

Trivia: Voices of Feminism, Issue 10 focuses on the conversation “Are Lesbians Going Extinct?” Edited by Lise Weil and Betsy Warland, Trivia proclaims this the “longest and possibly most thought-provoking issue we’ve published to date,” featuring seventeen writers responding to the question “Are Lesbians Going Extinct?”. Trivia 11: “Are Lesbians Going Extinct” #2, also edited by Weil and Warland, will appear in September 2010 and is open for submissions.

[via Ruthann Robson, “Before and after Sappho: Logos“]

New Lit on the Block :: Umbrella Factory

In his Editor’s Note, Anthony ILacqua says that a recent call-to-jury-duty experience made him want to “campaign the world – everyone needs to read. And what a better place this world can be if everyone did.” Umbrella Factory is his effort, combined with fellow “workers” Oren Silverman, Mark Dragotta, and Jana Bloomquist at jumping into this very campaign. And, they are joined in good company with the writers featured in this first issue: Fiction by John Mcmanus, T.M. De Vos, T.L. Crum, Elinor Abbott; Nonfiction by Samantha L. Robinson, Charles Malone, Elizabeth Bernays; Poetry by John Mcmanus, Samantha L. Robinson, Mathias Svalina, Erin Costello, Justin Runge, Serena Chopra, Seth Landman.

Umbrella Factory is open for submissions. Their site also includes a feedback forum and information about workshops held in the Denver, CO area.

NewPages Updates :: March 14, 2010

NewPages Big List of Literary Magazines
Scapegoat – poetry, flash fiction, book reviews
The Pennsylvania Literary Journal – poetry, book reviews, non-fiction essays
Puritan Magazine – poetry, fiction, interviews, reviews

Independent Publishers and University Presses
RockSaw Press – poetry, chapbooks

Writing Conferences, Workshops, Retreats, Centers, Residencies &
Book & Literary Festivals
Lake Forest Literary Festival

The Antigonish Review – Fall 2009

This volume features the first-, second-, and third-place winners of the Great Blue Heron Poetry Contest and the Sheldon Currie Fiction Contest, as well as poems, fiction, and book reviews from other writers. The first line of Jennifer Houle’s first poem – “I don’t listen much for birds” – sets the tone of the issue by inviting the reader to look for birds and every manifestation of the flighty or strange, both in this poem and throughout the rest of the issue. Continue reading “The Antigonish Review – Fall 2009”

The Barcelona Review – December 2009

I read a selection of stories from three different online publications and was bored with the same old same old (I find it hard to believe that editors think anyone is going to read this banal stuff), and then I stumbled on to The Barcelona Review. Thanks goodness! The editors really live in Barcelona and say, “We like good, powerful, potent stuff that immediately commands attention, shows stylistic and imaginative distinction, and is literarily sound.” Well, who doesn’t? But these people really publish it. Continue reading “The Barcelona Review – December 2009”

Black Warrior Review – Fall/Winter 2009

The selections in this issue reflect the goal of the editors who claimed they sought to “embody different methods of collection and obsession.” The magazine is rich in literary diversity from Jesse Jacob’s comic, “Oh, What a Cruel God we’ve Got” to K.A. Hays’s chapbook, Some Monolith. Continue reading “Black Warrior Review – Fall/Winter 2009”

Cadences – Fall 2009

I opened Cadences, a Journal of Literature and the Arts in Cyprus wondering whose story would be honestly told and how well. Having lived in Turkey for a couple of years in the 1990s, I knew Cyprus – a pretty island in the Mediterranean and “shared” by both Turkey and Greece – to be caught in a political tug of war between the two countries. Published by the European University of Cyprus, Cadences presents itself as a bridge between the Greeks, Turks and other peoples on the island and lets the reader know its advisory board is made up of writers from the Greek Cypriot, Turkish Cypriot, Armenian Cypriot, Palestinian-American, American and London Cypriot communities. Once the “Editorial Statement” covers all these bases, the editors get down to business, stating: “Writers inevitably see things differently from politicians.” Continue reading “Cadences – Fall 2009”

Carpe Articulum – October 2009-January 2010

Carpe Articulum defines itself “the original magazine of its kind,” its kind being a “cross-genre international literary review that embraces all of the peripheral literary arts, including non-fiction, interviews with accomplished writers, novellas, short fiction, scientific papers, and even photography, understanding that a great photo is in fact, worth a thousand words.” The journal is not “barred from timely issues” or to “hundreds of pages of colourless excavations.” It’s also as heavy as a globe. Printed on glossy stock with a thick perfect binding, oversized (probably 9 x13 or so), photos that bleed across the page with poems printed in the foreground, and ads that look like feature pages and feature pages that look like ads, the journal is, indeed, one of a kind. Continue reading “Carpe Articulum – October 2009-January 2010”

The Gettysburg Review – Winter 2009

The winter issue of The Gettysburg Review features the captivating and bizarre artwork of Mark Greenwold. In her insightful essay on his work, Shannon Egan writes, “The paintings consider the societal boundaries and concerns of sexuality and physical decorum and, as such, pictorially catalog certain Freudian anxieties, corporeal urges, and dreamlike situations.” So, too, do the essays, short stories and poems in this issue. From Aaron Gwyn’s “Drive,” a short story depicting a couple’s highly sexual flirtations with death, to Kim Adrian’s “Questionnaire for My grandfather,” an essay in the form of questions through which the narrator explores the physiological motivations for her dead grandfather’s molestation of her mother, and how this abuse continues to shape her, this issue is all about the fascinatingly twisted psyche. Continue reading “The Gettysburg Review – Winter 2009”

Iron Horse Literary Review – December 2009

Shannon Canning’s bold, yet intricate painting of a revolver, “Balance of Power,” sets the tone for this “Open Issue” of the magazine – works with bullet-like precision that are also foreboding or dark or solemn. Like Canning’s close-up of the gun handle, they reference danger, without being dangerous, and they intrigue us because they dazzle (the gun is quite beautiful), but their beauty is derived from their darkness. Continue reading “Iron Horse Literary Review – December 2009”

The Kenyon Review – Winter 2010

This issue is dedicated to work by North American indigenous authors. With work from emerging voices like Sara Marie Ortiz, Eddie Chuculate, and Eric Gansworth as well as the acclaimed writers like Leslie Marmon Silko, LeAnne Howe, and Joy Harjo, the writing in this issue is as vibrant and dynamic as the indigenous literary tradition it represents. Compiled here is a stimulating survey of indigenous poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Continue reading “The Kenyon Review – Winter 2010”

The Laurel Review – Summer 2009

In this issue, an essay by Lisa Ohlen Harris most stirs my mind, encouraging me to return for a second and third look. I like her outlook on life as much as the writing itself. In the piece entitled “Exiles,” the author ponders the death of her father-in-law. She lives in Jordan with her husband and two children, one a newborn. When her husband returns to the U.S. for her father-in-law’s funeral, leaving her alone, she becomes contemplative about her father-in-law’s anger toward religion that alienated him from his three sons, who chose to become Protestants. She also mourns the hope, now lost, that the relationships may be mended. The piece explores challenging family relationships, feelings of being cut off by distance and religion, and then expands to discuss broken ties between nations and with the land. I loved the history, as research abounds in the piece. Continue reading “The Laurel Review – Summer 2009”

The Massachusetts Review – Winter 2009

Hayan Charara’s poem, “What Is Mine,” begins this issue and sets the tone for remaining selections of exemplary fiction, non-fiction, poetry and artwork. Charara writes, “It’s like that – / to know something / is for it to become / something else.” Multiple pieces in this volume seem to explore the idea of knowing, of seeing something more clearly through experience and knowledge. One example is Melinda Moustakis’s mother character in “This One Isn’t Going to Be Afraid,” who is known in body parts: nails, biceps, calves, shoulders, hands, feet, skin, teeth, eyes, stomach, and cheekbones. Each part tells a different story of a life, told through the daughter, as she seeks to understand the mother and herself. Or in Sara Majka’s “White Heart Bar,” where the disappearance of a young woman is explored from multiple perspectives. Continue reading “The Massachusetts Review – Winter 2009”

New Letters – 2009/2010

This issue of the magazine seems particularly serious (in the sense of “of consequence”), which I find entirely appropriate for the present moment (historically, politically, socially) and in keeping with my expectations for New Letters. Steve Paul interviews poet Edward Sanders and in his introduction quotes him as having said, “Poets should again assume the responsibility for the description of history.” And as it happens, this issue’s special feature section, guest edited by Mia Leonin, is titled “This Side of War,” with work by 15 poets who, for the most part, explore both recent and current wars, accompanied by the black and white photographs of soldiers by Stephen Grote. The poems offer a range of perspectives on “being at war,” from deployment abroad to the civilians who remain at home to the experience of civilian victims of military violence. Continue reading “New Letters – 2009/2010”

Ninth Letter – Fall/Winter 2010

Art Director Jennifer Gunji-Ballsrud introduces the latest edition by saying, “We struggled with the line between elegant restraint and dullness, between expressiveness and eye-candy.” These are tensions exclusive to the talented, and they are made possible by the equipped and impressive staff of artists, alumni from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Indeed the issue is visually striking, but it is also careful and deliberate. Add to it new fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry from Sherman Alexie, Ander Monson, Benjamin Percy, Matt Donovan, Stephan Clark, John Warner, Robert Campbell, Marianne Boruch, Cathy Day, among others, and the result is a sexy literary journal, filled with substance. Continue reading “Ninth Letter – Fall/Winter 2010”

North Dakota Quarterly – Spring 2009

Higher education is the topic of this edition of North Dakota Quarterly, featuring the trends, idiosyncrasies, problems, joys, and goals of the college and the university examined in poetry, memoir, and prose that both engages and challenges, providing a wide variety of views on academia. Continue reading “North Dakota Quarterly – Spring 2009”