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!
New Letters magazine has announced the New Letters Readers Awards Winners for Vol. 75, Issues 1-4, 2008-2009:
Fiction, “Layover” By Matthew Pitt
Poetry, “Poem at Christmas” By Winfield Townley Scott
Essay, “Double Vision” By D.L. Tucker
Runners up and honorable mentions can all be viewed on the New Letters website. Readers are invited each year to nominate their favorites. For 2009-2010, selections can be make from volume 76, issues 1-4.
BOOKISHNESS: The New Fate of Reading in the Digital Age
Michigan Quarterly Review, Fall 2009
“We… live at a double moment: the death of the book and the dearth of reading face off against a proliferation of virtual books, the overabundance of writing. At such a time, everything seems up for grabs in ways both threatening and promising; it’s either a brave new world or Brave New World that confronts us… Without abandoning our sense of what is lost, we mustn’t lose the imagination of what is potentially—and increasingly, actually—to be gained…” — Jonathan Freedman, “Bookishness; A Brief Introduction”
Essays
Leah Price, “Reading As If for Life”
Alan Liu, “The End of the End of the Book: Dead Books, Lively Margins, and Social Computing”
Phil Pochoda, “UP 2.0: Some Theses on the Future of Academic Publishing”
Jessica Pressman “The Aesthetic of Bookishness in Twenty-First-Century Literature”
Paul N. Courant, “New Institutions for the Digital Age”
Zeynep Devrim Gürsel, “The Taste of Mice”
Benjamin Busch, “Growth Rings”
David Kirby, “The Traveling Library”
Michael Wood, “Distraction Theory: How to Read While Thinking of Something Else”
Stephen Burt, “Poems about Superheroes”
[Cover image: Ann Arbor’s Shaman Drum Bookshop “Going Out of Business Sale” signs.]
Always worth the cover/subscription price, so an absolute steal this issue, Salmagundi magazine Fall 2009-Winter 2010 is a special issue devoted to the great German film-maker Margarethe von Trotta, whose film Marianne and Juliane won the Venice Film Festival Award for Best Film and Best Director and whose other films – Rosenstrasse, Sheer Madness, Sisters, Rosa Luxemburg among them – have received numerous international awards. One of von Trotta’s latest feature films, The Other Woman, starring Barbara Sukowa, which has never been released in the United States, will be available as a DVD, sealed inside the special issue of Salmagundi.
You can now read the online literary journal anderbo.com on your iPhone or Blackberry – no app required.
The Association for the Study of Women and Mythology announces the Kore Award for best dissertation in women and mythology, offered annually in even-numbered years for dissertations completed in the previous two calendar years. Applicants can be from any discipline, including but not limited to literature, religious studies, art or art history, classics, anthropology, and communications. Creative dissertations must include significant analysis of mythology in addition to creative work. All dissertations must be in English. Applicants must include letter of recommendation from dissertation advisor or member of dissertation review committee. All materials must be sent electronically. Deadline for applications: January 15, with award to be given at AWM national conference, April 13-15, near Scranton, PA. Submit to: goldcrow47-at-comcast-dot-net
Seton Hill University seeks published genre novelist (priority for popular mystery/crime/suspense writer; will also consider fantasy or romance author) for tenure-track position in our low-residency MFA program in Writing Popular Fiction, starting June 2010. Michael Arnzen, PhD. Feb 3
University of Central Oklahoma seeks a full-time, one-year temporary, non-tenure-track, visiting writer. Feb 15
Arc Poetry Magazine Poet in Residence, October 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011. Application deadline: Jan 31
“And now you have sold us down the river.”
Le Guin’s words to the Authors Guild in her letter of resignation after their decision to “deal with the devil” in the Google settlement.
The Crazyhorse Fiction Prize
The Lynda Hull Memorial Poetry Prize
$2000 each and publication in Crazyhorse
Prize Deadline Extended, Jan. 15 2010
Mail in or upload online up to twenty-five pages of fiction or up to three poems (up to 10 pages total of poetry). Reading fee of $16 per manuscript includes a one-year/two-issue print-and-e-book subscription to Crazyhorse starting with the next issue. Upload manuscript and pay reading fee by secure online credit-card payment via Authorize.net, or by check or money order. Full info on Crazyhorse website.
How E-Books Will Change Reading And Writing by Lyn Neary on NPR includes a look at Rick Moody’s Twitter novel attempt and the attitudes toward experimental tech-medium styles of writing.
Andy Hunter on Publishing Perspectives has another take with Lessons from the Rick Moody Twitter Project.
Narrative Fall 2009 Story Contest Winners and Finalists
First Prize: Joe David Bellamy, “East House”
Second Prize: Dave Bausch, “Dim Lighting at the After Party”
Third Prize: Nate Haken, “Leach Pad”
Finalists
David Abrams
Megan Mayhew Bergman
Han-ping Chin and William O’Daly
Abby Frucht
William Litton
Jerry Mathes
Mary Morrisey
Evan James Roskos
Heather Sellers
Olivia Shannon
The Winter 2010 Story Contest, with a $4,000 First Prize, a $1,500 Second Prize, a $500 Third Prize, and five finalists receiving $100 each. Open to fiction and nonfiction. Entry deadline: Wednesday, March 31, midnight, Pacific time.
Dennis Brutus, the prolific poet and impassioned activist who was imprisoned alongside Nelson Mandela in South Africa, died at his home in Cape Town Saturday morning after battling prostate cancer. He was 85. Mr. Brutus was exiled from his native South Africa for more than 20 years, and he successfully lobbied to ban the apartheid regime’s all-white Olympic teams from the games. (Vivian Nereim)
Read more on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Issue 42 (Autumn 2009) of Free Lunch will be the last, according to the Board of Directors of Free Lunch Arts Alliance. Ron Offen, the editor and founder of Free Lunch, has health issues that prevent him from continuing the magazine. Our best to Ron and those who support him in these times.
Plenum: The South Carolina State University Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies is accepting applications for peer reviewers. Areas of particular need are film, Caribbean Studies, American Studies, Education, Educational Technology, Hispanophone literature and culture, feminist literary theory and philosophy, and postcolonial literature and theory. Applicants with backgrounds in other fields are also welcome to apply. Please forward a cv and writing sample (MS Word or RTF, please) to jis at scsu dot edu.
From the staff at Shape of a Box:
After publishing 62 weekly issues, Shape of a Box is looking for a new editor or editors to take over the enterprise.
If you are interested please email current editor, Jessie Carty: shapeofabox-at-gmail-dot-com
Ideally, Jessie would like someone to take over the online journal 100% but she would be willing to stay on and help with the transition.
If we are unable to find someone to take over the journal 100% then we would like to work with individuals who would be interested in 1 – handling the website, including assisting with registering the domain OR 2 – making videos from contributor supplied footage (any software to compile – iMovie, Movie Maker etc).
We will be taking interest on a first come first serve basis but we would like to announce our decision on editorship/ownership of the project by January 15th. You can also stop by the wordpress blog.
In the top ten overall, #1 goes to Snoopy, no surprise there. The American Kennel Club goes on to name 125 pop culture dogs in all, including the top dogs in categories for literature (c’mon guess who – he’s big and red), music, television, art, and more. Check out the story here.
The Concord Museum’s celebrates the holiday with “Family Trees: A Celebration of Children’s Literature,’’ an exhibit that spans 14 years and generations of authors and readers. The museum is filled with trees of all shapes and sizes, each one decorated by a different volunteer and each tree adorned with ornaments inspired by a classic or contemporary children’s book. One tree is adorned with little blue schoolgirl uniforms and French flags in the spirit of “Madeline,’’ a character that has captured the hearts of petites filles since 1939. Another is topped with a safari hat and trimmed with bugs and flowers, a nod to “Fancy Nancy: Explorer Extraordinaire.’’ There are 35 trees in the literary grove.
Starting this December event in 2008, Carleen Brice celebrates the second annual Buy a Book by a Black Author and Give It to Somebody Not Black Month. Her effort is intended to focus attention on the works of African American authors outside of the mainstream. Brice also maintains a blog White Readers Meet Black Authors, which she labels as an “official invitation into the African American section of the bookstore.”
Each year Brice recommends a short list of authors, as well as provides plenty more on her blog. For 2009:
The Book of Night Women By Marlon James
Kiss the Sky by Farai Chideya
Before I Forget by Leonard Pitts Jr.
Big Machine by Victor LaValle
Black Water Rising by Attica Locke
The Air Between Us by Deborah Johnson
From CAConrad’s blog: “The Sexiest Poem of the Year Award is given annually to a finely crafted poem demonstrating a fearlessness which confronts injustice. The panel of judges is CAConrad sitting in five different chairs manifesting five different facial expressions. The judges must have a unanimous decision in order for the award to be granted. In the case where a unanimous decision is not decided upon, no award will be granted that year.”
See the winner for 2009 here.
From Art, Games, and Play by Jim Andrews, Magazine
Still looking for a holiday gift for that literary person on your list? A Journey Through Literary America is a collaborative work by writer Thomas R. Hummel and photographer Tamra L. Dempsey. The publisher’s site describes the book: “This 304 page coffee table book takes a look at 26 of America’s great authors and the places that inspired them. Unique to this book of literary biography is the element of the photograph. With over 140 photographs throughout, the images add mood and dimension to the writing – and they are often shockingly close to what the featured authors described in their own words.”
It is indeed a gorgeous book. Neither the text nor photos dominate, but work well in harmony to create a book that can be browsed for its images or curled up with and delved into for its writing. The content on the featured authors provides commentary about their lives in the places where they lived. Even if you already know the background of these authors (click here for the table of contents), seeing them recounted here in context with the photographs adds a new, warmer sense of story to their lives. The information looks both at the authors’ lives past as well as how they continue to be recognized within the community in which they lived, and in some cases, in which their characters lived.
Additionally, the authors are running a writing contest on the theme My Hometown: “We want you to write about your hometown (we leave it up to you how you choose to define the term, whether it be the town your grew up in, the town you have adopted as your own, the place that feels most like ‘home.’) The most important thing is that your entry must strongly evoke place.” Deadline August 1, 2010.
New out from the Fiction Writing Department at Columbia College: The Review Lab with book reviews, interviews, blog, and guest columns, including Reviewing Essentials by Donna Seaman from which the following in an excerpt:
“Many writers are published first as reviewers, and many inquisitive, generous, and devoted writers, among them Margaret Atwood, Joyce Carol Oates, and Jonathan Lethem, continue to write book reviews because reviewing sharpens one’s literary insights and chops. We must read each other respectively, receptively, and critically to keep literature alive, vibrant, and varied. And we must follow the golden rule: review others the way you hope to be reviewed.”
Any writers looking to follow Seaman’s advice can contact me at NewPages, where we continually welcome new readers for lit mag and book reviews (soon to be revamped with a new editor – stay tuned!): [email protected]
The Louisiana Publishing Initiative Grant is designed to assist writers complete for publication book-length manuscripts about the history and culture of Louisiana. Projects with publishing contracts or letters of interest are preferred. Deadline February 15, 2010. Pays up to $4,000. Preliminary application strongly encouraged
at least four weeks prior to the final deadline.
The North Carolina Grants for Writers program operates on a two-year cycle. Writers will be eligible to apply in the fall of every even-numbered year. Artist fellowships are designed to support the achievements of North Carolina artists and to recognize the central contribution they make to the creative environment of the state. Currently grants of $10,000 are awarded to artists to set aside time to work, buy supplies and equipment or pursue other artistic goals. Grant funds can support any expenses related to the proposal. Grant funds cannot support academic research or formal study toward an academic or professional degree.
Louisiana State University
Postdoctoral Researcher/Resident Scholar
The Southern Review
This is a two-year non-renewable twelve-month appointment & carries a salary of $32,000 & benefits (Pending final administrative approval). Preferred start date is August 1, 2010.
The Scholar will commit 20 hours per week to editorial duties at The Southern Review & teach one class per regular semester in the English Department (courses assigned by departmental need and/or Fellow’s expertise).
Required Qualifications: Terminal degree (MFA, PhD or equivalent); one year editorial experience on the staff of an established literary journal.
Additional Qualifications Desired: Ability to demonstrate the following: editorial expertise with fiction, nonfiction, & poetry; a broad knowledge of literature, especially contemporary; basic computer skills; a solid understanding of publishing, especially small presses & literary magazines.
Special Requirements: All candidates must be eligible to work in the United States; ability & willingness to work some holidays. Flexible scheduling of hours may be available.
Responsibilities: handles manuscript review & selection, proofreading, circulation development, fundraising support & conference participation; teaches one class per regular semester for the English Department; produces new works of prose or poetry culminating in a public presentation the final semester of the residency.
An offer of employment is contingent on a satisfactory pre-employment background check.
Application deadline is January 4, 2010 or until a candidate is selected.
Apply online at: www.lsusystemcareers.lsu.edu Position #034688. AA/EOE
Glimmer Train has just chosen the winning stories of their October Family Matters competition. This competition is held twice a year and is open to all writers for stories about family. Word count should not exceed 12,000. (All shorter lengths welcome.) The next Family Matters competition will be held in April. Glimmer Train’s monthly submission calendar may be viewed here.
First place: Cary Holladay [pictured] of Memphis, TN, wins $1200 for “The Flood.” Her story will be published in the Spring 2011 issue of Glimmer Train Stories, out in February 2010.
Second place: Scott Tucker of Seattle, WA, wins $500 for “Where the Boys Went Swimming.”
Third place: Megan Mayhew Bergman of Raleigh, NC, wins $300 for “The Two Thousand Dollar Sock.”
A PDF of the Top 25 winners can be found here.
Also: Fiction Open competition (deadline soon approaching! January 2)
Glimmer Train hosts this competition quarterly, and first place is $2000 plus publication in the journal. It’s open to all writers, no theme restrictions, and the word count range is 2000-20,000. Click here for complete guidelines.
The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) and Let’s Save Michigan have issued an open call to artists, illustrators, and graphic designers for original posters to inspire Michiganders to revive their state. The new posters should be a call to action, and serve as part of a campaign to rally citizens to do the hard work that’s necessary to position Michigan as a state that will thrive in the future. Ultimately, the posters should aim to be forward-looking, inspirational, and must include the phrase “Let’s Save Michigan” in the design.
The hope is to highlight the actions and assets that are critical to moving the cities forward, whether that is renovating historic homes, planting community gardens, extensive public transportation and bike lines, public art, or whatever the artist believes will carry Michigan through the 21st century—and beyond.
Ideally, the new posters will be in the fashion of Works Progress Administration artwork of the 1930s, which is the subject of DIA exhibition, and depict regional, recognizable subjects—ranging from portraits to cityscapes and images of city life that remind the public of quintessential American values such as hard work, community and optimism.
Open for Entry: December 15 to February 15
The winner will be awarded $1,000 and the runner-up will receive $250.
A new batch of literary magazines reviews has been posted, including reviews of Bartleby Snopes, Bellevue Literary Review, Bloodroot, Evergreen Review, Fifth Wednesday Journal, Gander Press Review, Gigantic Sequins, Hanging Loose, inscape, Iowa Review, Long Story, MAKE, make/shift, Malahat Review, The Meadow, Moon City Review, Paul Revere’s Horse, and Shenandoah
The International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP) has created a music library to provide music scores free of charge to anyone with internet access, with several other projects in planning. IMSLP is also entirely collaborative, and all contributions are greatly welcome.
BETHESDA, MD (Oct 14) — Poet Lore, the nation’s oldest continuously published poetry journal, marks its 120th anniversary this year.
At a time when many literary journals (and the publishing industry of which they are part) are struggling, Poet Lore, with its distinctive historic look, has remained true to its core value — bringing great poetry to light — and created a proven and lasting nationwide identity. E. Ethelbert Miller and Jody Bolz carefully read every submission they receive, and their work reaffirms the value of poetry in a landscape that often devalues the written word. “Poetry may not be regarded as culturally central,” Jody Bolz explains, “but it’s still what people turn to at the most important moments in their lives. At every life-cycle ritual—from naming ceremonies to funerals—the language of poetry speaks to us and speaks for us. As editors, our role is to connect poets and readers, building upon Poet Lore‘s 120-year-long record of literary discovery.”
That 120-year-long record is what Poet Lore and its publisher, The Writer’s Center, honor. It’s a rich and varied story, and as you’ll see below, the journal has played an active and important role in bringing literary talent to light.
Founded in 1889 by two brilliant, iconoclastic scholars, Helen Clarke and Charlotte Porter, as a journal “devoted to Shakespeare, Browning, and the Comparative Study of Literature,” Poet Lore developed an early following among literary societies and later expanded its influence by offering unique features, such as its “Play Series” — which in 1913 was the first to print a complete, English-language edition of Anton Chekhov’s play “The Seagull.” And Walt Whitman, in the final year of his life, ran three paid advertisements in Poet Lore for Leaves of Grass.
During the course of its illustrious history, Poet Lore has played an active role in introducing American readers to the likes of some of the finest international poets. In its early years, in fact, very few American authors were published in Poet Lore. For the majority of its content, Poet Lore set its sights abroad. Among the many authors who were discovered or whose careers on the international stage were advanced by Poet Lore include Maxim Gorky, Henrik Ibsen, Frederic Mistral, and August Strindberg. And it was among the first publications to introduce the work of Bengali poet and Nobel Prize winner Rabindranath Tagore to American readers. In the late 20th Century, Poet Lore published the early work of such remarkable American poets as Mary Oliver, Colette Inez, Cornelius Eady, Carl Phillips, Carolyn Forché, Sharon Olds, Dana Gioia, Pablo Medina, and Alice Fulton, among many others. In recent years, the editors were the first to publish the poetry of Dwayne Betts, who sent his submission from prison.
SURPRISING FACTS ABOUT POET LORE:
Founders Charlotte E. Porter and Helen A. Clarke were writers, editors, Shakespeare and Browning scholars, and literary critics at a time when women in these roles were few and far between. Porter composed poetry, Clarke wrote musical compositions, and both wrote essays and reviews that appeared in early editions of Poet Lore and elsewhere.
Porter and Clarke were both named “Helen” at birth. Charlotte later changed her name from Helen Charlotte Porter to Charlotte Endymion Porter, borrowing her middle name from the Keats poem. The two women exchanged rings in a commitment ceremony and lived together until Helen A. Clarke died at age 65. Charlotte Porter scattered Helen’s ashes by their summer home in Penobscot Bay, Maine.
Whitman advertised his finally completed Leaves of Grass in three 1892 editions of Poet Lore.
Poet Lore was famous in the early 20th century for translations, publishing, for example, an early edition of Chekhov’s “The Seagull” in its folios and presenting literary luminaries like Ibsen, Strindberg, Gorky, D’Annunzio, Mistral, and Tagore to readers early on.
The first piece of writing F. Scott Fitzgerald ever placed (outside of school publications) was the poem “The Way of Purgation.” He sold it to Poet Lore in September of 1917, but for reasons unknown to the current publishers, it didn’t appear in the next issue, or any subsequent. It was finally printed in our Winter 1989-1990 issue (Vol. 84, No. 4) with the note: “Poet Lore apologizes for any inconvenience this delay may have caused.”
Poet Lore’s executive editors read all submissions, without regard to the reputation of the poet, year-round. They meet in Washington, D.C., to read aloud their selections and winnow the stacks of poems.
About The Writer’s Center: Since 1987, Poet Lore has been published by The Writer’s Center in Bethesda, MD. The Writer’s Center cultivates the creation, publication, presentation, and dissemination of literary work. We are an independent literary organization with a global reach, rooted in a dynamic community of writers. As one of the premier centers of our kind in the country, we believe the craft of writing is open to people of all backgrounds and ages. Writing is interdisciplinary and unique among the arts for its ability to touch on all aspects of the human experience. It enriches our lives and open doors to knowledge and understanding. The Writer’s Center is a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization. We are supported in part by The Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, and by a grant from the Maryland State Arts Council, an agency funded by the State of Maryland and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Quinnipiac University (CT) invites applications for an Assistant Professor position beginning in Fall 2010. Applications must be received by February 28, 2010.
Kent State University (OH) tenure-track Assistant Professor position in poetry writing. January 15, 2010
Seton Hill University seeks published genre novelist (priority for popular mystery/crime/suspense writer; will also consider fantasy or romance author) for tenure-track position in our low-residency MFA program in Writing Popular Fiction, starting June 2010. February 3, 2010
The Pearl Hogrefe Creative Writing Fellowship offers a talented writer one academic year to study creative writing full time at Iowa State University and focus on his/her creative work without distraction. January 5, 2010
Bath Spa University seeks Lecturer/Senior Lecturer: Creative Writing and Lecturer/Senior Lecturer: Creative Writing (Nature Writing. Closing Date: 12 noon, 11 January 2010
Emerson College Department of Writing, Literature, and Publishing seeks a full-time, tenure-track Assistant Professor in the area of Creative Nonfiction writing. Review begins December 15 until filled.
Minnesota State Universit Mankato English/Creative Writing – Fiction, Assistant Professor. January 15, 2010. Additional information on Minnesota State University, Mankato can be found here.
Stephen F. Austin State University (Nacogdoches, TX) Faculty – Liberal Arts – English and Literature. Posted December 4, 2009 until filled.
For Better for Verse is “an interactive on-line tutorial that can train you to scan traditionally metered English poetry. Here you can get practice and instant feedback in one important way of analyzing, and developing an ear and a feel for, accentual-syllabic verse.”
What NewPages is listening to: Laura Veirs. As one YouTube user comments: “I am angry at the world that she isn’t extravagantly famous. This song is amazing.” (DrGrabow) Her range of style is what’s amazing, and her videos a fun venture into alt-indie media – more artistic than flashy.
The Pongo Teen Writing Project has just launched a new web site that features 34 online writing activities for youth who have led difficult lives. These activities are geared to teens who may never have written before. The activities may also be downloaded for use in the classroom, etc.
As examples of writing exercises, the web site has an activity “I Just Thought You Should Know,” which could be a letter to a missing parent, or “Letter After a Time,” which is a letter to someone important who died. There are activities called “You Don’t Know Me” and “Anger” and “Love, Sometimes” and “Addicted.”
When teens finish their poems online they have the option of printing and emailing their poems to themselves and their friends, and also of submitting their poems to Pongo. In addition, the site contains information for teachers, 100 teen poems, and a project journal.
This web site brings together some of Pongo’s best work from the last 15 years. Pongo’s writing program has served over 4,000 teens in juvenile detention, the state psychiatric hospital, homeless shelters, and other agencies.
Still: Literature of the Mountain South is an on-line literary journal featuring literature of the Southern Appalachian region with fiction editor – Silas House, poetry editor – Marianne Worthington, and nonfiction editor – Jason Howard.
Still is published three times a year, in October, February and June, with submissions accepted from December 1 – 31.
The first issue of Still features fiction by Mark Powell, Kathi Whitley, Tiffany and Williams, poetry by Steve Holt, Ron Houchin, Irene Latham, Lisa Parker, and Joshua Robbins, nonfiction by Donna McClanahan, Karen McElmurray, and Beth Newberry, an interview with Jack Wright (filmmaker, musician, writer, scholar, activist, veteran, and Appalachian “cultural worker” – Jack’s label for himself), and a video/audio of the song, “Who Owns Appalacia” performed by Sue Massek on banjo with vocals.
Rain Taxi: Review of Books, a nonprofit literary organization, is running their annual online fundraising auction this week. There are first editions, gorgeous broadsides, rare chapbooks, quirky used books, as well as original art, an article of clothing, a decorative bag, a crazy quilt, and more. Many items are SIGNED by the authors and/or artists. This is a great way to support a valued publication in the literary culture and get some cool stuff (think holiday gifts!). Bidding is conducted on eBay.
Lambda Rising, known for 35 years as Washington’s “bookstore that celebrates the gay and lesbian experience,” has announced the imminent closing of their two stores in Washington DC and Rehoboth Beach DE.
The Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry at Emory University is accepting applications for one Junior/Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Poetics for an academic year of study, teaching, and residence in the Center. The deadline for submissions of completed applications is February 18, 2010; awards will be announced in mid-April 2010.
Black Lawrence Press has announced Brad Ricca the winner for the 2009 St. Lawrence Book Award for his poetry manuscript American Mastodon. Ricca receives $1,000 and publication. American Mastodon will be available from Black Lawrence Press in late 2011.
In addition to naming the winner of the 2009 St. Lawrence Book Award, Black Lawrence Press editors have chosen Finalist Eric Gamalinda’s short story collection People Are Strange for publication from Black Lawrence Press in late 2011.
Semi-Finalists:
Sean Bernard
Seth Borgen
Valerie Finn
Amy Havel
Tyrone Jaeger
Marylee MacDonald
Marjorie Manwaring
Andrew McIntyre
Edward Mullany
Mike Schiavone
Ira Sukrungruang
Steven Tarlow
Finalists:
Joshua Butts
Carrie Conners
Tracy DeBrincat
Christine DeSimone
Sarah Wetzel Fishman
Jeremy Griffin
Tina May Hall
Karen Holman
Steve Kistulentz
Mary McCray
Jennifer Moses
Carrie Oeding
This literary journal presents eight stories a month to the reading public and then has viewers vote on their favorite. That story becomes the featured story of the month, to be included in a downloadable biannual collection produced in July and January. Two new stories are featured each week, encouraging frequent visitations to the website by interested readers. This is strictly a fiction website, and there is a range from microfiction up to 4000 words. Continue reading “Bartleby Snopes – November 2009”
I admire Bellevue Literary Review for its consistency and the polish, confidence, and competence of its contents. Produced at NYU’s Langone Medical Center, with a focus on “illness, health, and healing,” it is easy to conceive of a journal that might compromise on or sacrifice literary quality in its quest to adequately represent these themes, yet Bellevue pays as much attention to composition as to subject matter. Featuring fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and book reviews, the journal presents the work of accomplished writers with impressive credentials from the world of medicine, literature, the social sciences, education, and the MFA poetry scene. Continue reading “Bellevue Literary Review – Fall 2009”
This second edition of Bloodroot, “dedicated to publishing diverse voices through the adventure of poetry, short fiction and creative nonfiction,” features the work of 27 poets, five fiction writers, and one essayist. Poems tend to fall into one of three categories, personal narratives, nature scenes, or personal encounters with nature, with a few exceptions (including a few more metaphysically oriented pieces). David Strait’s “Christmas Day” is characteristic of the personal narrative. The poem begins: Continue reading “Bloodroot – 2009”
This magazine was founded in 1957 in print form and none other than Jean Paul Sartre and Samuel Beckett contributed to its pages. In the years to come, it continued to feature such luminaries as William Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Terry Southern, and Allen Ginsberg until the final issue in 1973. The Review was revived as an online edition in 1998. The present edition, issue number 120, has a pleasant mix of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, reviews, and several reprints from the past. Continue reading “Evergreen Review – October 2009”
“Defining literature. In real context.” is how Fifth Wednesday describes itself, making smart use of the multiple layers of meaning these terms evoke (I especially like “defining,” which works grammatical overtime). That said, I’m not sure what this actually does mean. What I do know, thanks to publisher Vern Miller’s Editor’s Notes, is that each issue is guest edited (fiction editor this issue is J.C. Hallman and poetry editor is Nina Corwin); in this fourth issue the journal has now added a section of book reviews; and the magazine feels “obligated” to bring readers some new voices in literature. Alongside these emerging voices, Issue 4 also includes a poem by the incredibly prolific and popular novelist and poet Marge Piercy and award-winning poet Arielle Greenberg. An interview with Greenberg opens the issue. Continue reading “Fifth Wednesday Journal – Spring 2009”
I recognized only two names in the Table of Contents, Nahid Rachlin and Simon Perchik. Yet, even a quick glance at the Contributors’ Notes lets me know that most of the 16 fiction writers, three nonfiction writers, and more than two-dozen poets whose work appears here have substantial publishing credits. Despite the popular notion that people don’t read and the literary world is suffering, languishing, or on the decline, there are so many journals of all kinds, and so many people writing and publishing, it is difficult to keep up with them all. Gander Press Review, published by Loosey Goosey Press in Bowling Green, Kentucky, is doing its part to keep small press publishing thriving. Continue reading “Gander Press Review – Spring/Summer 2009”
Editor-in-Chief Kimberly Ann Southwick kicks off her new mag with a warm welcome to potential contributors: Continue reading “Gigantic Sequins – 2009”
Hanging Loose always does a good job of mixing it up: a combination of established poets and newer voices, along with the fresh work of “writers of high school age.” The youthful poems are particularly appealing this issue, more mature in their insights than one has a right to expect from such young writers. Continue reading “Hanging Loose – 2009”
This edition of inscape finds loss of every sort within its pages. Each piece is different, naturally, but the element of emptiness seems to touch each poem, each story, in this journal. The first I’ll give a glimpse of is Brian Brown’s “History of Time”: Continue reading “Inscape – 2009”
In May and June of 2008, The Cedar River, after days of torrential rain, broke through its restraints, and the city of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was suddenly plunged into a flood, destroying the city and displacing most of its inhabitants. The memory of this event permeates the pages of this edition of the Iowa review, and the journal cannot be read without feeling the loss that these people, and these writers, felt. So deep was their loss, and their shock, that stories and poems about the river fill each and every page, with nostalgia, sadness and anger. All manner of emotion can be found within The Iowa Review’s pages. Continue reading “The Iowa Review – Fall 2009”
This journal is, not the least surprisingly, composed almost entirely by long, short stories. It was a joy to read, and it is my sincere hope that, at the end of this review, I will have convinced you to purchase a copy. Continue reading “The Long Story – 2009”
One appreciates a literary magazine with a central theme, and this is precisely what MAKE: A Chicago Literary Magazine delivers. It trains it sights on the underdogs of society, with stories and poem focused on character and a sense of place, depicting individuals who have been brushed aside or overlooked by society. Continue reading “MAKE – Summer/Fall 2009”
I didn’t even realize publications like make/shift still existed. What a relief! Reading this radical magazine-style (not journal, magazine!) publication made me nostalgic for Off Our Backs (maybe even for On Our Backs) and Lesbian Connections and the let’s-turn-the-world-upside-down rags I looked forward to every month in the 70’s and 80’s when women’s bookstores were (sometimes) dangerous and (always) exhilarating, and I could rely on feminist writing to inspire and sustain me. Continue reading “make/shift – Fall/Winter 2009/2010”