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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!

Easter Rabbit

With their directness and precision, their attention to what Ezra Pound would call “luminous details,” Joseph Young’s microfictions might be mistaken for Imagist poems, but with their shift away from showing “things” as “things” toward “things” as something else, or, rather, toward portraying both the “thingness” of the thing and of some different “thing,” his miniatures suggest something altogether different. But where they fit is less important than what they do, how they make you feel. In Easter Rabbit’s miniatures, its sharp sentences focused on often mundane details, Young offers epics. Seemingly channeling William Blake, he offers further “auguries of innocence,” further testaments to worlds in granules, heavens in flowers, and – well, suffice to say, these are sentences to linger over. Continue reading “Easter Rabbit”

Shot

Christine Hume’s language, “alive and lying,” takes us – shot or shunted – down into night, the imaginal-space of gestation. Mina Loy’s daughter-poet, Hume composes a Baedeker of the body pregnant, mapping a haunted landscape with a language she makes strange, dream wording a dream world: “I hear myself coming from your thoughts . . . Skull pockets that burn without warnings.” Continue reading “Shot”

The River Flows North

The beauty of Graciela Limon’s writing lies in her unadorned, tell-it-like-it-is style. While you’re reading, you don’t get tripped up and mesmerized by crafty phrases and descriptions so original that you have to stop and think in order to actually see them. All you see in The River Flows North is character. People. Their painful pasts, difficult voyages, and hopeful futures. Continue reading “The River Flows North”

Tsim Tsum

Tsim Tsum derives its title from an idea in Kabbalah that a being cannot truly exist unless the creator departs from his creation. This must refer to the fact that the two main characters, Walter B. and Beatrice, seem like abandoned children left to find their way through a fairy-tale landscape of allegorical friends and props. Rather, the spirit must have left them and their world midway through creation, as both characters have just enough intelligence to be confused. This is the central dilemma of Tsim Tsum. Continue reading “Tsim Tsum”

Catch Light

Selected by David Shapiro for the National Poetry Series, Sarah O’Brien’s debut book of poetry appears at first glance to be an extended meditation on photography. The collection is divided into seven sections, with each one made up of lyric poems investigating what it means to see something – to capture a moment, even if it’s blurred. Continue reading “Catch Light”

The Bignessof the World

It seems fitting that this debut short story collection by Lori Ostlund won the Flannery O’Connor award for short fiction, because Ostlund’s writing has a classic, timeless feel to it that would not have been out of place in O’Connor’s time. The title story, the first story in the book, could have been written last week or fifty years ago. Ostlund creates an eccentric nanny, Ilsa Maria Lumpkin, charming enough to rival Mary Poppins, though life for her two charges, Veronica and Martin, is no fairy tale. Ostlund writes with great sensitivity about children, and the inability of adults to understand their point of view. In addition to the title story, “The Day You Were Born” and “All Boy” both deal with a child’s view of their parents’ crises; in the former, a young girl copes with her father’s mental illness and the resulting disintegration of her parents’ marriage, and in the latter, an effeminate eleven year old boy copes with the stigma of being different, at the same time that his father admits that he is gay and moves out of the house. Continue reading “The Bignessof the World”

Dangerous Places

This volume, which won the G.S. Sharat Chandra Prize, features six pieces that bring the realities of human nature into focus. It is the realities, not the dramatics, that Glasser writes about. His stories have familiar surroundings, familiar people, and are written in prose that is a flowing, melodious tune – one you could hum. Continue reading “Dangerous Places”

Death at Solstice

I can honestly say Death at Solstice by Lucha Copri has taught me something. I like mystery novels. I’ve avoided reading them if I could for most of my life because I thought I didn’t like them. Now, this is not the first mystery I’ve read, but it did confirm that I enjoy the genre, something I’d been wondering about recently. It’s likely that having started reading this thinking that I didn’t like the mystery genre may have led me to being more critical of this story than I normally would have been towards a novel. Having said that, there were a great many things about this novel that I did enjoy. Continue reading “Death at Solstice”

The best thing for poetry…

“The best thing that could happen to poetry is to drive it out of the universities with burning pitch forks. Starve the lavish grants. Strangle them all in a barrel of water. Cast them out. The current culture, in which poetry is written for and supported by poets has created a kind of state-sanctioned poetry that resists innovation. When and if poetry is ever made to answer to the broader public, then we may begin to see some great poetry again – the greatness that is the collaboration between audience and artist.” – Patrick Gillespie at PoemShape.

New Lit on the Block :: Sleet Magazine

Edited by Susan Solomon, Nate Thomas, Kathleen McEathron and “Sleet Lady,” Sleet publishes poetry, fiction, and flash fiction, with a new submission category for “irregular”: “a genre-crossing bit of writing – something that overflows borders or maybe never had any. It could be an impression, a vignette, a one-line flash. An irregular must be able to stand on its own. We are still in the process of defining this little mutant, but for now the guidelines are minimal. Send us literary-only work that is between 1 line and 500 words. It may be comprised of a single piece or a combination of work.”

Published online with number one accessible in the archives, number two includes:

Poetry by Jamie Lynn Buehner, Sara Dailey, Alan Elyshevitz, Howie Good, Jim Heynen, Bradley Hoge, Jenny McDougal, Patricia McGoldrick, John N. Miller, M.V. Montgomery, Katherine D. Perry, Floareau Tutuianu, Danny Sklar, and Scott Whitaker.

Flash Fiction by A.T. Cross, John Dutterer, Justin Ekstedt, Michael Onofrey, Michelle Reale, Paul Rogalus, and Brad Rose.

Fiction by Joshua James Wilson Mattern, and an interview with writer Jim Heynen.

Open Letter to New Publishers

Once again, Writer Beware Blogs!, specifically Richard White, has stolen my heart with this latest post, which begins:

Dear New Publisher:

You may have noticed people discussing your company on various web sites. Normally, this would be a good thing, I mean, free publicity, right? But, when you go to these sites, they may be discussing your company in unflattering terms and asking all kinds of questions about your ability to get books into bookstores.

“But, wait. They can’t say that about my baby.”

Actually, yes they can.

Read the rest, including a comprehensive list of questions that ANYONE thinking about starting up a new press should be able to answer FIRST if they really expect a serious venture to result (and anyone thinking of publishing with a “publisher” should ask of them as well!).

Film :: Wide Screen Journal

“Wide Screen is a peer-reviewed, open access journal. It is devoted to the critical study of cinema from historical, theoretical, political, and aesthetic perspectives. With radical changes in the modes of production, distribution, and exhibition, the journal aims to combine the best of academic and journalistic critique of cinema to inform readers about the various critical vantage points from which to understand cinema in this dynamic environment.”

Currently accepting papers on Cinemas of the Arab World.

2010 Best European Authors

Best European Fiction 2010 is the inaugural installment from Dalkey Archive Press of what will become an annual anthology of stories from across Europe. This year’s edition is edited by acclaimed Bosnian novelist and MacArthur “Genius-Award” winner Aleksandar Hemon. The authors featured include: Ornela Vorpsi, Antonio Fian, Peter Terrin, Jean-Philippe Toussaint, Igor Štiks, Georgi Gospodinov, Neven Ušumović, Naja Marie Aidt, Elo Viiding, Juhani Brander, Christine Montalbetti, George Konrád, Steinar Bragi, Julian Gough, Orna Ní Choileáin, Giulio Mozzi (AKA Carlo Dalcielo), Inga Abele, Mathias Ospelt, Giedra Radvilavičiūtė, Goce Smilevski, Stephan Enter, Jon Fosse, Michal Witkowski, Valter Hugo Mãe, Cosmin Manolache, Victor Pelevin, David Albahari, Peter Krištúfek, Andrej Blatnik, Julián Ríos, Josep M. Fonalleras, Peter Stamm, Deborah Levy, Alasdair Gray, and Penny Simpson.

Graduate Poet Readers Wanted

For SAMLA’s conference in 2010, four graduate students in poetry will have the opportunity to read at the Graduate Student Poetry Circle. Since the focus of the 2010 SAMLA Convention is “The Interplay of Text and Image,” poets will read from their work that embraces this sense of interplay. Poets selected will read for fifteen minutes and will also speak for approximately five minutes on how their work or another contemporary poet’s work plays with text and image. The conference will take place in Atlanta, Georgia from November 5th-7th.

Please send a bio, a sample of three poems, and a brief paragraph that describes how your work or how a contemporary poet’s work merges text and image by February 15th to Charlotte Pence: cpence1-AT-utk-DOT-edu). Travel funds are available on a competitive basis through SAMLA.

Glimmer Train Short Story Award for New Writers :: January 2010

Glimmer Train has just chosen the winning stories for their November Short Story Award for New Writers competition. This competition is held quarterly and is open to any writers whose fiction hasn’t appeared in a print publication with a circulation greater than 5000. No theme restrictions. Word count should not exceed 12,000. (All shorter lengths welcome.) The next Short Story Award for New Writers competition will be held in February. Glimmer Train’s monthly submission calendar may be viewed here.

First place: D.M. Gordon of Leeds, MA, wins $1200 for “The Work of Hunters Is Another Thing.” Her story will be published in the Spring 2011 issue of Glimmer Train Stories, out in February 2011. [Photo credit: Ellen Augarten.]

Second place: Amanda Korman of Williamstown, MA, wins $500 for “From the Needle of Gwen.”

Third place: Tara Stillions of La Mesa, CA, wins $300 for “General, After the Tornado.”

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

Also: Very Short Fiction competition (deadline soon approaching! January 31)

Glimmer Train hosts this competition twice a year, and first place is $1200 plus publication in the journal. It’s open to all writers, no theme restrictions, and the word count must not exceed 3000. Click here for complete guidelines.

Jobs & Fellowships

The Brown International Writers Project is currently seeking nominations and applications for its one-year fellowship with residency. Deadline: Feb 15

The English Department at Quinnipiac University accepting applications for Assistant Professor beginning in Fall 2010. Feb 28

St. Lawrence University invites Fiction or creative non-fiction writers with significant publications and teaching experience to apply for the position of Viebranz Visiting Professor of Creative Writing for the academic year 2010-2011. Dr. Sidney Sondergard, English

Monmouth University Assistant Professor, Creative Writing (Fiction) and Literature. Feb 28

New Lit on the Block :: Bananafish

Bananafish Magazine is “an online venue for exceptional, short-form literature with a focus on wit, originality, and innovation,” with Founding Editor Daniel McDermott and Assistant Editor Elaine Strome.

The inaugural issue, January 2010, features works by Teri Carter, Nathan Leslie, Kenneth Pobo, Anne Wagener, William Farrant, Eirik Gumeny, Nick Chambers, and Lindsay Champion.

Bananafish is open for submissions of fiction and memoir.

Writers: Stop Navel Gazing

The Death of Fiction: Lit mags were once launching pads for great writers and big ideas. Is it time to write them off?

“Stop being so damned dainty and polite. Treat writing like your lifeblood instead of your livelihood. And for Christ’s sake, write something we might want to read.”

By Ted Genoways in Mother Jones, Jan/Feb 2010.

[via Gerry Canavan]

Updates :: January 2010

Added to NewPages Guide to Literary Magazines
The Basilica Review – poetry
Palimpsest Journal
Bananfish – fiction, memoir
Dark Lady Poetry
Miracle Monocle – fiction, poetry, microfiction
Scarab – iPhone poetry and prose
The Tower Journal – poetry, fiction, essays, book reviews

Added to NewPages Guide to Independent Publishers and University Presses
Luminis Books
Canarium Books

New Lit on the Block :: Eclectic Flash

Eclectic Flash editors Brad Nelson, Sheila Smith, Grandpa Fitz, Jason Smith, and Deborah Dalcin, have released the first issue, available online as PDF and also in print format. EF is pen to all styles and genre of poetry, prose, fiction, nonfiction, short script, essay, experimental, literary, horror, sci fi, etc. – as long as it’s fewer than 1000 words. The first issue is packed with works from fifty writers, and submissions are being accepted for the next issue.

Eclectic Flash is currently running a flash fiction and poetry contest. To enter, write a FF story or poem based on some element in a video posted on their site (and make a $1 donation).

[Re-posted with corrections.]

New Lit on the Block :: Atonal Poetry Review

“There is new voice for avant-garde and experimental poetry that can now be heard. An electronic journal that showcases unconventional writers and subject matter far from the main stream featuring beat, postmodern, jazz, and free verse poetry from all over the world.” Published by J.P. Farrell and edited by Michelle Garvey, Dominick Montalto, Atonal Poetry Review has launched its inaugural issue.

Contributors come from Canada, Ireland, The United States, India, Norway, England and Germany. Featuring poet Dr. Lorne Foster, other authors include Ben Velazquez, J.R. Slonche, Joe Wetteroth, Rebecca Singh, Jason Joyce, Daniel Klawitter, Devika Menon, Catherine Frazer – and many more for a total of 30 poets.

Atonal Poetry Review is currently accepting submissions of poetry and certain essays, reviews and interviews – see their website for specific information.

eBooks Required by Law

A new state law, effective January 1, 2020, will require that all textbooks used in public and private postsecondary institutions be made available in electronic form “to the extent practicable” either “in whole or in part.” Senate Bill 48 states that “the electronic version of any textbook shall contain the same content as the printed version and may be copy-protected.” [The Chronicle of Higher Ed]

New Lit on the Block :: Fractions

Founded in Wichita, KS in the summer of 2009, Fractions is are a bimonthly independent arts publication that features visual artists, writers, musicians, film makers, craftspeople, culinary artists and other individuals engaging in creative pursuits. It presents work from individuals, local to international, amateur to professional. Fractions is available via Issu on their website as well as in print. It is supported by contributions from the community.

New Lit on the Block :: 5×5

5×5 is radio terminology used to signify that the signal has excellent strength and perfect clarity. And 5×5 is also a “nascent, printed literary magazine” publishing poetry, fiction, nonfiction, comics & visual arts in a palm-sized (5″x5″), saddle-stiched format. The most recent issue includes works by James Hannibal, Jory M. Mickelson, Ian Denning, Jonathan W. Sodt, Ryler Dustin, R.M. Hanson, Nathan Burgoine, and Jenni B. Baker. Each issue is themed, but as the editors point out, “themes are meant to be suggestions only…play with our themes…tell us your leaps of imagination and wordplay…we don’t want to box you in.”

Submission are open to high school and beyond, with free subscriptions offered to high school students.

The Antigonish Review Contest Winners

The newest issue (159) of The Antigonish Review includes the winners of the 2009 Great Blue Heron Poetry Contest – First, Jennifer Houle; Second, Eve Joseph; Third, Eleonre Schomaier – and the Sheldon Currie Fiction Prize – First, Sheila McClarty; Second, Laura Rock; Third, Ian Bullock.

TMR William Peden Prize

Each fall, The Missouri Review selects the best fiction published in TMR during the previous volume year as the William Peden Prize in fiction. This year, James A. McLaughlin was named for his story, “Bearskin,” which appeared in volume 31 number 2. This year’s judge was Greg Michalson, co-publisher of Unbridled Books.

New LIt on the Block :: Spilt Milk

Ben Spivey, Kyle Whitley and Jennifer Whitley, editors of Warm Milk Printing Press, have begun a new venture in publishing Spilt Milk, an online literary magazine. The first issues, Fall 2009, includes authors Eric Beeny, J.A. Tyler, Kenneth Radu, Howie Good, Greg Santos, and Donal Mahoney. Spilt Milk is open for submissions of works between 500-5000 words.

New Lit on the Block :: Leveler

Edited by Jennifer H. Fortin, P.J. Gallo, Evan Glasson, and Yotam Hadass, Leveler offers a new approach to publishing poetry online. Each week, the editors publish one poem, alongside which they offer their comments about the work: “To assure our readers we are being responsible editors and to increase the transparency of our editorial process as a whole, each poem published by LEVELER will be accompanied by a brief note on our selection entitled ‘levelheaded.’ Here we will look at what a poem conveys and how. In no way do we claim ‘levelheaded’ is a final, authoritative take on any corresponding poem. Instead, we hope to provide readers with another way into the poem, thereby encouraging closer readings, and ultimately, challenges to our findings.”

The editors also offer their readers an opportunity to respond to each poem as well: “we encourage thoughtful responses to individual poems and challenges to our own observations and interpretations.”

While Leveler has the next month of poems planned, they are open for submissions.

Currently published or waiting in the wings are poems by Priyadarshi Patnaik, Karen Neuberg, Gerald Yelle, Nate Pritts, Jay Snodgrass, Mark Jackley, Heather McNaugher, Stephen Danos, Ron Green, Chris Caldemeyer, Nancy Devine, Tom McCauley, and Rob Schlegel.

Frederick Douglass on Haiti

From his Lecture on Haiti by Frederick Douglass, delivered in Chicago at the Dedication Ceremonies at the World’s Fair, in Jackson Park, January 2, 1893:

“Haiti is a rich country. She has many things which we need and we have many things which she needs. Intercourse between us is easy. Measuring distance by time and improved steam navigation, Haiti will one day be only three days from New York and thirty-six hours from Florida; in fact our next door neighbor. On this account, as well as others equally important, friendly and helpful relations should subsist between the two countries. Though we have a thousand years of civilization behind us, and Haiti only a century behind her; though we are large and Haiti is small; though we are strong and Haiti is weak; though we are a continent and Haiti is bounded on all sides by the sea, there may come a time when even in the weakness of Haiti there may be strength to the United States.”

[Thanks to Gabriel Gudding for the link.]

Yale Open Courses

Open Yale Courses provides free and open access to a selection of introductory courses taught by distinguished teachers and scholars at Yale University. The aim of the project is to expand access to educational materials for all who wish to learn.

Under English: Milton with John Rogers; The American Novel Since 1945 with Amy Hungerford; Introduction to Theory of Literature with Paul H. Fry; and Modern Poetry with Langdon Hammer (pictured).

These are full-semester courses with separate video segments for each session and a syllabus with reading list.

New Lit on the Block :: Palimpsest

Palimpsest is edited and published by the CU Humanities Club and the CU Literaria Society, and though the majority of the contributors to this first issue have Colorado connections, the publication also includes and welcomes non-Colorado contributors.

More inclusive in terms of content, Palimpsest seeks “engaging work in all genres of the Humanities, including literary fiction and poetry, film and theater scripts, creative nonfiction, visual art (including painting, drawing, segments of graphic novels, photography, film stills, and documentation of installation or performance work), audiovisual submissions including film, music, and electronic text (for publication on Palimpsest website), librettos and musical scores, handwritten work and text-art, artistic and philosophical manifestos, literary theory, scholarly essays, and new translations into English of work in all applicable genres.”

Distribution of the print publication seem limited, but complimentary copies will be sent to those who inquire.

New Lit on the Block :: Dark Lady Poetry

Founding Editor Amber Victoria Tudor and Web Designer Kevin Jobe bring Dark Lady Poetry to the web on a monthly basis. Already in its forth issue since late 2009, Dark Lady Poetry has featured such writers as A.P. Chambers, Louie Crew , Joseph Fonseca, Jennifer A. Hudson, Lola Nation, Benjamin Neal, Michael Padilla, Ivy Peterson, Judith Skillman, Yermiyahu Ahron Taub, Broadie Thornton, Ivy Torres, Clifford K. Watkins, Jr., and Brandon Whitehead.

Dark Lady Poetry accepts all forms of poetry, and is open for submissions.

New Lit on the Block :: Jelly Bucket

Jelly Bucket – once the term used for a coal miner’s lunch pail – has become something quite different at the hands of the Eastern Kentucky University Creative Writing Program. An annual of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction and artwork, the publication is unique in providing an eight-page color insert in each issue dedicated to visual art that incorporates text and/or features an aspect of the book arts. This first issue highlights the poetry and handmade journals of poet/artist Hank Lazer. Also included in this issue are works by Mary Molinary, Dan Sociu as translated by Adam Sorkin, Roger Pincus, Tony Crunk, Gaylord Brewer, Heather van Deest, and many more.

Jelly Bucket is open for submission from February 1 through June 1, accepting only original, unpublished works.

Pacific University Reviewers

In response to a call for reviewers, I heard from two university professors who offered to have their students write literary magazine reviews for NewPages. The first group of reviews this month come from Kathlene Postma at Pacific University in Oregon. Postma is editor of Silk Road literary magazine, and explain that “the students are regularly asked to assess other journals in order to strengthen their own work on Silk Road. These are avid readers – of every submission we receive and of literature in general,” she says. “They approached these journals from NewPages with an open mind and a desire to get a grasp on what’s happening in the world of small press publishing. They are excited to share what they found with other passionate readers and writers.”

The student reviews are noted by the addition of “Pacific University” after the reviewer’s name. Check out what these avid readers, current editors, and up-and-coming writers have to say about the publications. The Pacific University reviewers welcome your feedback.

New Lit on the Block :: Scarab iMag

Editors Brian Wilson and Ian Terrell are touting Scarab as the first literary magazine for your iPhone. The publication promises to deliver eleven new works of poetry and prose and one interview per issue – only for your iPhone and iPod touch. There is a fee for per use of the app, but Wilson and Terrell note that “22% of the purchase price for each issue goes directly to the artists involved.”

The first issue includes authors Isris Goodwin, Dan Rosenberg, Bryan Parys, Sarah Stickney, Major Jackson, Hannah Larrabee, Sean Bishop, Leah Williams, Alicia Ostriker, and Michael Venditozzi.

Asheville Poetry Review – 2009

Keith Flynn, the editor, proudly states that this is the only poetry journal in the United States that subsists entirely on retail sales and subscriptions. It boasts a circulation of 3000 and has fourteen staff members. The latest production is 223 pages and contains a wide variety of poetry, interviews, essays, and book reviews. It was founded in 1994, and my only regret here is that I lack sufficient space to give this subject proper justice. Continue reading “Asheville Poetry Review – 2009”

Aufgabe – 2009

It’s a good thing Aufgabe only comes out once a year because it takes nearly that long to read the whole issue – and the whole issue is worth reading. The 2009 special feature is a huge section on Russian poetry and poetics guest edited by Matvel Yankelevich, who teaches Russian literature and language at Hunter College in New York and is a founding member of Ugly Duckling Presse. Poems, essays, and manifestos by fifteen contemporary Russian poets appear in translation (no originals are included), along with Yankelvich’s introductory essay. The poets’ essays are of particular interest, offering insights both about the nature of poetry in general and of contemporary Russian poetics in particular. Continue reading “Aufgabe – 2009”