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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!

Magazine Stand :: Club Plum – 4.2

Club Plum online literary magazine logo image

Volume 4, Issue 2 of Club Plum online literary and art journal carries the weight of knowing the ones we love are often out of reach. Sometimes they are our mothers, right beside us, their mental illness having stolen them away. Sometimes they are our fathers, very old and wheelchair-bound, war-demon wrestling blocking us from what could have been. In this issue, characters and family, friends, and ghosts reside in shelters and nursing homes, in laundromats and restaurants, in TVs, trees, and memories, and in all these places, there is longing. Contributors include Anna Laura Falvey, Foster Trecost, Rhiannon Chavez, Jesse Curran, Narisma, Mary Wood, Jeff Bender, Kate LaDew, King Tina, Em Townsend, Sam Moe, Jeff Bender, Elizabeth Horton, Michael Moreth, and Carolyn Schlam.

To find more great reading, visit the NewPages Guide to Literary Magazines, the NewPages Big List of Literary Magazines, the NewPages Big List of Alternative Magazines, and the NewPages Guide to Publications for Young Writers. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

New Book :: Sonnets with Two Torches and One Cliff

Sonnets with Two Torches and One Cliff by Robert Thomas book cover image

Sonnets with Two Torches and One Cliff by Robert Thomas
Carnegie Mellon University Press, February 2023

In Sonnets with Two Torches and One Cliff, Robert Thomas presents eighty nontraditional sonnets that explore love and jealousy—the traditional obsessions of sonnets—from nontraditional angles. Other galaxies are jealous of Earth in these heartbreaking, funny, ecstatic, profound, and never boring poems. “What if creatures in other galaxies / have a vague sense that something is missing, / but don’t know it’s Little Richard, Shakespeare, / and cornbread with plum jam?”

To discover more great books from small, independent, and university presses, visit the NewPages Guide to Publishers as well as the New Books category on our blog. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

Magazine Stand :: Bellevue Literary Review – Issue 44

Bellevue Literary Review Issue 44 cover image

The latest issue of Bellevue Literary Review (Issue 44) features the winners of the annual 2023 BLR Literary Prizes. This year’s winners are Lara Palmqvist (fiction, selected by judge Toni Jensen), Caroline Harper New (poetry, selected by Phillip B. Williams), and Jehanne Dubrow (nonfiction, selected by Rana Awdish). Honorable mentions are Karen K. Ford, Karan Kapoor, and Sabah Parsa. The issue also features many other talented writers, including fiction by Sara Nović, Dan Pope, Joon Ae Haworth-Kaufka, and Tyriek White; nonfiction by Acamea Deadwiler, Rachel Mann, and D. Liebhart; and poetry by Martha Silano, Ellen June Wright, Rage Hezekiah, and Megan Merchant. The issue’s bright, colorful cover is by artist Alexander Gorlizki. Get your copy (or start a subscription!) by visiting the BLR website.

To find more great reading, visit the NewPages Guide to Literary Magazines, the NewPages Big List of Literary Magazines, the NewPages Big List of Alternative Magazines, and the NewPages Guide to Publications for Young Writers. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

New Book :: Hydra Medusa

Hydra Medusa by Brandon Shimoda book cover image

Hydra Medusa by Brandon Shimoda
Nightboat Books, June 2023

Hydra Medusa by Brandon Shimoda is part coping mechanism, part magical act, and was composed while Shimoda was working five jobs and raising a child—during bus commutes, before bed, at sunrise. Encountering the ghosts of Japanese American ancestors, friends, children, and bodies of water, it asks: What is the desert but a site where people have died, are dying; are buried, unburied, memorialized, erased. Where they are trying, against and within the energy of it all, to contend with our inherited present—and to live.

To discover more great books from small, independent, and university presses, visit the NewPages Guide to Publishers as well as the New Books category on our blog. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

New Book :: Crimes of the Tongue

Crimes of the Tongue: Essays and Stories by Alicia Gaspar de Alba book cover image

Crimes of the Tongue: Essays and Stories by Alicia Gaspar de Alba
Arte Público Press, March 2023

In Crimes of the Tongue: Essays and Stories, award-winning writer Alici Gaspar de Alba explores other “crimes of the tongue” in the essays in this volume: pochismo, or the mixing of English and Spanish, as both a family taboo and a politics of identity; the haunting memory of La Llorona, protector of undocumented immigrants and abandoned children, and her blood-curdling cry of loss and revenge; the intersection of the personal and the political in the transgressive work of Chicana/Latina artists; the sexual and linguistic rebellions of La Malinche and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz; and the reverse coyotaje, or border crossing, of Chicana lesbian feminist theory translated into Spanish and visual art as a way of sneaking this counterhegemonic pocha poetic thought into Mexico. These essays and stories are always intellectually rigorous and often achingly personal.

To discover more great books from small, independent, and university presses, visit the NewPages Guide to Publishers as well as the New Books category on our blog. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

New Book :: Bark On

Bark On: A Novel by Mason Boyles book cover image

Bark On: A Novel by Mason Boyles
Driftwood Press, February 2023

In Bark On: A Novel by Mason Boyles, Ezra Fogerty is an aspiring professional triathlete training out of his ma’s trailer in the eroding North Carolina beach town of Kure. When the recently disgraced celebrity coach Benji Newton shows up at his doorstep offering to train him for the Chapel Hill Ironman, Ezra accepts eagerly. Benji’s methods prove brutal and ritualistic, and seem connected to Kure’s abruptly climbing coyote population. As Ezra begins to question the logic behind his preparation, Benji invites the orphaned prodigy Casper Swayze to train with them. The diminutive Casper one-ups Ezra in every workout until suffering a disastrous injury that coincides with Benji’s disappearance, leaving Ezra to choose between caring for Casper and completing preparations for the biggest race of his career.

To discover more great books from small, independent, and university presses, visit the NewPages Guide to Publishers as well as the New Books category on our blog. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

April 2023 eLitPak :: Extended deadline for Richard Snyder Prize

Screenshot of Ashland Poetry Press flyer for the 2023 Richard Snyder Prize deadline extension
click image to open full-size flyer

$1000 and publication with Ashland Poetry Press for an unpublished manuscript of original poetry. No aesthetic preference or requirements; we’re happy to publish someone’s first book or their tenth. We just want books we love. 2023 Judge: Mark Doty. Full guidelines and submission at our website.

Want early access to our eLitPak flyers? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter! You can also support NewPages with a paid subscription and get early access to the majority submission opportunities, upcoming events, and more before they are posted to our site.

Interested in advertising in the eLitPak? Learn more here.

April 2023 eLitPak :: Signed, Sealed, Delivered: The Motown Poetry Revue, Call for Submissions

Screenshot of Madville Publishing's call for submissions flyer for the Motown Poetry Revue anthology
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Deadline: June 1, 2023
We’re dancing in the street, celebrating our new poetry anthology! Help us celebrate the Motown legacy, both past and present. The crossover label made rhythm and blues the soul of American popular culture. Honor the artists connected to Hitsville, USA, and 30 years’ worth of “The Sound of Young America.” View full guidelines.

Want early access to our eLitPak flyers? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter! You can also support NewPages with a paid subscription and get early access to the majority submission opportunities, upcoming events, and more before they are posted to our site.

Interested in advertising in the eLitPak? Learn more here.

April 2023 eLitPak :: Immerse yourself in Irish Poetry with a trip to Ireland

Screenshot of Find My Ireland's Away with Words Poetry trip
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Inspire your writing with our Irish Poetry trip to Ireland. Our immersive writing program includes classes and guided tours on the literary history of Ireland, visits to the local landscapes of famous Irish writers, workshops and one-to-one sessions to help you with your own creative work, and readings by Ireland’s top poets – including Paula Meehan, Theo Dorgan, Annemarie Ní Churreáin. Visit website to learn more.

Want early access to our eLitPak flyers? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter! You can also support NewPages with a paid subscription and get early access to the majority submission opportunities, upcoming events, and more before they are posted to our site.

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April 2023 eLitPak :: Apply Today to Belmont University’s MFA in Creative Writing

Screenshot of Belmont University MFA in Creative Writing flyer for 2023 application deadline
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Deadline: August 1, 2023
Hone your craft and pursue writing with your Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at Belmont University. To learn more, visit the program’s website, view our flyer, or email [email protected].

Want early access to our eLitPak flyers? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter! You can also support NewPages with a paid subscription and get early access to the majority submission opportunities, upcoming events, and more before they are posted to our site.

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April 2023 eLitPak :: Our Emily Dickinson Retreat 2023

Screenshot of Poet Camp's 2023 Our Emily DIckinson Retreat flyer
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Registration Deadline: April 30, 2023
Sure, you know the world’s Emily… But do you know our Emily? Find inspiration and delight by immersing yourself in Emily Dickinson’s life, poems and obsessions. In this “active retreat,” we’ll explore her surroundings and her obsessions, and write work acknowledging that shared poetic DNA. This retreat includes time to think, explore, and enjoy the company of kindred spirits. Visit website or view flyer to learn more.

Want early access to our eLitPak flyers? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter! You can also support NewPages with a paid subscription and get early access to the majority submission opportunities, upcoming events, and more before they are posted to our site.

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April 2023 eLitPak :: Exile Editions 2023 Submission Opportunities

Screenshot of Exile Editions' flyer for the NewPages April eLitPak newsletter
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Exile Editions, an eclectic and engaging small press, publishes literary and speculative fiction, indigenous fiction, nonfiction, poetry – and our annual fiction and poetry competitions have awarded over $125K the past decade. Visit website and view flyer to learn more about upcoming submission opportunities.

Want early access to our eLitPak flyers? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter! You can also support NewPages with a paid subscription and get early access to the majority submission opportunities, upcoming events, and more before they are posted to our site.

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April 2023 eLitPak :: Story Catalyst Online Classes

Screenshot of the Story Catalyst Flyer for the April 2023 eLitPak newsletter
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Sign up for the next virtual story catalyst classes! Lyric Essays taking place at 6 PM Mountain Time on Tuesday, April 2. Available live, virtual, and on demand. Sign up here. The lyric essay is one of literature’s most elegant forms, but what is it, and how can you write one? It may resemble poetry more than prose, and it may experiment with forms, such as the braided essay or the hermit crab essay. But its guiding force is the emotional truth. View flyer for more information.

Want early access to our eLitPak flyers? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter! You can also support NewPages with a paid subscription and get early access to the majority submission opportunities, upcoming events, and more before they are posted to our site.

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New Book :: So Much for Life

So Much for Life by Mark Hyatt book cover image

So Much For Life by Mark Hyatt
Nightboat Books, June 2023

Scarcely published in his lifetime, Hyatt’s work survives thanks to the intervention of poets and friends who saved his manuscripts and kept his poems in circulation. Queer in the decades before Gay Liberation; Romani; incarcerated in prisons and asylums; illiterate into adulthood: it’s tempting to read Hyatt according to the familiar script of the doomed poet, resounding with loneliness and isolation. But his poetry—“hot and tender,” funny and sad—tells another story: of love, liberatory commitment, and desire.

To discover more great books from small, independent, and university presses, visit the NewPages Guide to Publishers as well as the New Books category on our blog. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

April 2023 eLitPak :: Inaugural Changing Light Prize

Screenshot of the inaugural Changing Light Prize for a Novel-in-Verse flyer for the NewPages eLitPak Newsletter
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Deadline: May 25, 2023
Livingston Press is pleased to announce its new annual writing contest: the Changing Light Prize for a Novel-in-Verse. There is no fee to enter. $500, publication, and 20 copies awarded to winner. View our flyer for more information.

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April 2023 eLitPak :: Tremont Writers Conference in Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Screenshot of the Tremont Writers Conference flyer for the NewPages eLitPak Newsletter
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Application Deadline: April 30, 2023
Applications are open for the Tremont Writers Workshop, a five-day experience for a select group inside Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Join renowned author workshop leaders Frank X Walker (poetry), Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle (fiction), Janet McCue (nonfiction), and guest novelist Richard Powers for a writers conference like no other. Apply at writers.gsmit.org. View full flyer.

Want early access to our eLitPak flyers? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter! You can also support NewPages with a paid subscription and get early access to the majority submission opportunities, upcoming events, and more before they are posted to our site.

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Where to Submit Roundup: April 14, 2023

57 Submission Opportunities including calls for submissions, writing contests, and book prizes.

Where to Submit Roundup 2023

Spring in Michigan…or the Midwest in general. You go from Winter to Summer and back again. Hopefully you were able to enjoy any good weather this week. If you’re like us and due for cold weather, rain, and snow, stay inside and work on your submission goals. NewPages is here to help with our weekly roundup of calls and writing contests for the second week of April 2023.

Don’t forget that NewPages Newsletter subscribers with a paid subscription get early and first access to our submission opportunities and events, the majority before they go live on our site. Consider subscribing today.

Continue reading “Where to Submit Roundup: April 14, 2023”

April 2023 eLitPak :: 31st Annual Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest

Screenshot of Winning Writers 2023 Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest flyer
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Last call for the Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction and Essay Contest. Winning Writers’ 31st annual Fiction & Essay Contest has an April 30 deadline. Submit published or unpublished work. Max 6,000 words. Prizes: 2 X $3,000, 10 X $300. Top 12 entries published online. Entry fee: $22. Final judge: Mina Manchester. Co-sponsored by Duotrope and recommended by Reedsy. See guidelines and enter online on our website.

Want early access to our eLitPak flyers? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter! You can also support NewPages with a paid subscription and get early access to the majority submission opportunities, upcoming events, and more before they are posted to our site.

Interested in advertising in the eLitPak? Learn more here.

April 2023 eLitPak :: Our Lady of the Lake University Online MFA & MA Programs

screenshot of Our Lady of the Lake University Online MFA & MA Program flyer for the June 2022 eLitPak
click image to open PDF

Our Lady of the Lake University’s 100% online Master of Arts-Master of Fine Arts (MA-MFA) and Master of Arts (MA) in Literature, Creative Writing, and Social Justice prepare critically engaged and socially aware scholars, writers, educators, and professionals. This nationally unique, virtual program combines creativity with practical skills and critical knowledge, while keeping in mind the pursuit of social justice. View flier or visit website to learn more.

Want early access to our eLitPak flyers? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter! You can also support NewPages with a paid subscription and get early access to the majority submission opportunities, upcoming events, and more before they are posted to our site.

Interested in advertising in the eLitPak? Learn more here.

New Book :: Recalibrating and Other Poems

Recalibrating and Other Poems by Christopher Norris book cover image

Recalibrating and Other Poems by Christopher Norris
Parlor Press, February 2023

These poems in Recalibrating continue Christopher Norris’s spirited exploration of the paths by which contemporary poetry might find its way out of the self-enclosed sphere of lyric subjectivity into the larger air of philosophical, ethical, political, scientific, and environmental debate. They do so through a range of formal resources, among them rhyme and meter, which Norris regards as portals of creative-intellectual discovery. Norris also deploys a great range of stanza forms and verse structures to demonstrate the variety of ways in which technique and prosody can serve not only to emphasize, deepen or qualify a point but to express thoughts and feelings beyond the communicative reach of prose discourse. These aspects of his work are subject to commentary in a concluding essay where Norris talks about his passage from literary theory to philosophy and thence to poetry, although—as the reader will soon discover—without having left those earlier interests behind.

To discover more great books from small, independent, and university presses, visit the NewPages Guide to Publishers as well as the New Books category on our blog. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

Book Review :: Diving at the Lip of the Water by Karen Poppy

Diving at the Lip of the Water by Karen Poppy book cover image

Guest Post by Jen Knox

Diving at the Lip of the Water, Karen Poppy’s debut full-length collection of poetry, explores the mystery and beauty of nature alongside the human potential that lives somewhere beyond our imposed boundaries. While the collection shows the author’s ability to move from precise individual worlds to political critique and macro ideas about human nature, each poem offers something of a contemplative nudge. Poppy’s gentle call to action is summarized as she writes, “The poetic voice has / Invisible instructions: / Crack open in case / Of emergency.”

Perhaps we are all living that emergency and in need of the voices that stand up for the magic of existence and refuse to over-define and confine. These poems offer philosophy, relational stories, and appreciation for the natural world. They invite readers to look to the wisdom around us, in all that nourishes, urging, “Growth will come Don’t let / This slowness burden you.” Anyone looking to remember the beauty of life or hear the sweet song of voices that do not shout will find a journey and a gift in Karen Poppy’s collection.

Diving at the Lip of the Water by Karen Poppy. Beltway Editions, May 2023.

Reviewer bio: Jen Knox is a writer based in Ohio. Her work appears in Chicago Tribune, Chicago Quarterly Review, Room Magazine, and The Saturday Evening Post. She was the recipient of the Montana Prize for Nonfiction from CutBank. Jen’s first novel, We Arrive Uninvited, was released in March 2023. Jenknox.com

Books Received April 2023

NewPages receives many wonderful book titles each month to share with our readers. You can read more about some of these by clicking on “New Books” under the NewPages Blog or Books tab on the menu. If you are a publisher or author looking to be listed here or featured on our blog and social media, please contact us!

Poetry
The Boxer of Quirinal, John Barr, Red Hen Press
Brother Poem, Will Harris, Wesleyan University Press
Chariot, Timothy Donnelly, Wave Books
Dear Outsiders, Jenny Sadre-Orafai, University of Akron Press
A Duration, Richard Meier, Wave Books
The Flowers of Buffoonery, Osamu Dazai, New Directions Publishing
Fulgurite, Catherine Kyle, Cornerstone Press
Hydra Medusa, Brandon Shimoda, Nightboat Books
Iggy Horse, Michael Earl Craig, Wave Books
Imaginary Sonnets, Daniel Galef, Word Galaxy Press
In Deep, Judith Sanders, Kelsay Books
Lucky Breaks, Yevgenia Belorusets, New Directions Publishing

Continue reading “Books Received April 2023”

New Book :: Joy Ride

Joy Ride by Ron Slate book cover image

Joy Ride by Ron Slate
Carnegie Mellon University Press, February 2023

The poems of Ron Slate’s Joy Ride look for the connections and listen for the echoes between world events, family lore, work, mortality, and art. Slate examines the intangibility of the past by exploring the notion of storytelling itself—the stories we tell ourselves, our families, and our communities about the events that have shaped our experience.

To discover more great books from small, independent, and university presses, visit the NewPages Guide to Publishers as well as the New Books category on our blog. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

Magazine Stand :: 805 – Issue 9.1

805 online literary magazine cover image

805 online literary magazine welcomes readers to their first issue of 2023 (9.1), just in time for spring to unfurl itself in front of our eyes, much like the gorgeous flowers on our cover art by Annalee Parker. Inside this petal-graced issue you’ll find art, prose, and poetry by seasoned writers as well as several debut creators we are excited to celebrate. Anthony Alegrete’s debut poem, “家族 (Kazoku),” beautifully shows how our cultural heritage acts as a creative force guiding us forward. “Our Guide to Girlhood, for the Curious Boys,” Alyson McVan’s debut nonfiction essay, cheekily summarizes the impossible double standards girls are taught. Sierra Tufts’ debut flash fiction, “I Won’t Say It’s Okay,” touchingly describes the last moments with a loved one, and Kirby Michael Wright’s debut art “Dog Art” closes out this issue with a colorful burst of canine love.

To find more great reading, visit the NewPages Guide to Literary Magazines, the NewPages Big List of Literary Magazines, the NewPages Big List of Alternative Magazines, and the NewPages Guide to Publications for Young Writers. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

Contest :: 2023 Quills and Keyboard

Nikhita Thakuria headshot

Newly added to our Contests for Young Writers is the ambitious 2023 Quills and Keyboard contest for high school writers ages 14 and older. Contest organizer Nikhita Thakuria [pictured] recognized the many hurdles teen writers face, exacerbated by the pandemic and the rise of Chat GDP. Setting the standard of encouragement, Quills and Keyboard is open to sixteen different categories of writing with four winners selected in each category. And, eliminating barriers, there is no fee to participate in the contest. The deadline is May 20, 2023, so please help spread the word and encourage young writers in your life to submit their best work.

NewPages Contest for Young Writers and Publications for Young Writers are carefully curated, ad-free resources for young readers (K to college undergrad) to find great content as well as for young writers to find places to submit their work without being preyed upon. Please check out these wonderful resources and share them with young readers and writers in your life, parents, teachers, librarians – anyone who can help encourage the continuation of the arts for the next generation!

New Book :: Fulgurite

Fulgurite by Catherine Kyle book cover image

Fulgurite by Catherine Kyle
Cornerstone Press, May 2023

Named for the glassy, mazelike structures that can form underground when lightning strikes sand, Fulgurite weaves together reality and myth. Informed by fairy tales, domestic fabulism, and environmental concerns, Catherine Kyle examines gender on large and small scales. Patriarchal influences in domestic spaces are compared to patriarchal influences on national and global levels, and identity is made complex by the fusion of survival, dissociation, and promise. The collection bears witness to the grief of the everyday while simultaneously pursuing hope.

To discover more great books from small, independent, and university presses, visit the NewPages Guide to Publishers as well as the New Books category on our blog. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

Magazine Stand :: Superpresent – Spring 2023

Superpresent Spring 2023 cover image

Superpresent’s submission theme for the Spring 2023 Issue was Speculation and Spectacle. Contributors were up for the challenge of speculating, in all its splendors. Thinkers and artists have understood the value of speculation. “When I express my opinions it is so as to reveal the measure of my sight not the measure of the thing,” says Montaigne. Sometimes we need to consider and sometimes we need to know. “Questions for Titian,” by Duncan Forbes, like several other entries, revels in the questions. Sometimes the speculation is darker. What happens when a family member … disappears? Robert Lunday’s “Disequilibria: Meditations on Missingness” provides one person’s clues. What thoughts are in a man’s head who has lived decades on the street? Miao Jiaxin answers with selections from his ongoing monumental series Albert Bushwick. The ‘Spectacle’ reduces reality to an endless supply of commodifiable fragments, while encouraging us to focus on appearances. In this issue, works like “Perception: A Curse,” by Lindsey-Ann Chilcott, offers a reminder of Debord’s idea that “[t]he reigning economic system is a vicious circle of isolation.” Similarly, Daniel Bauer’s photographs of brutalist architecture, with their undulating curves and dramatic light, may reveal “the nightmare of imprisoned modern society…” Visit Superpresent‘s website to download a free PDF of the issue as well as order a print copy.

New Book :: The Middle Daughter

The Middle Daughter by Chika Unigwe book cover image

The Middle Daughter by Chika Unigwe
Dzanc Books, April 2023

When seventeen-year-old Nani loses her older sister and then her father in quick succession, her world spins off its axis. Isolated and misunderstood by her grieving mother and sister, she’s drawn to an itinerant preacher, a handsome self-proclaimed man of God who offers her a new place to belong. All too soon, Nani finds herself estranged from her family, tethered to her abusive husband by children she loves but cannot fully comprehend. She must find the courage to break free and wrestle her life back—without losing what she loves most.

To discover more great books from small, independent, and university presses, visit the NewPages Guide to Publishers as well as the New Books category on our blog. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

Book Review :: Down to the Bone by Catherine Pioli

Down to the Bone by Catherine Pioli book cover image

Catherine Pioli’s medical graphic memoir Down to the Bone: A Leukemia Story will make you cry. Much like Tolstoy’s “The Death of Ivan Illych,” you already know how the story ends before even turning the first page. Pioli, an illustrator and graphic designer, chronicles her journey from the diagnosis of acute leukemia to her metaphorical last breath – a touching scene where her partner leans over her in bed with a worried look but is relieved, when Catherine snores loudly, to realize she is still alive. The next two pages are blank except for the text: “Catherine drew her last breath on July 31, 2017.” Niagara Falls – because readers cannot help but follow her hope with each new diagnosis, each technical nuance explained, and drawings of cute plump little characters: red and white blood cells, platelets, stem cells, and those blasted blasts. Her self-characterizations express her range of attitudes and emotions through various stages: stubbornness, physical illness, exhaustion, not-telling-the-whole-truths to protect other’s (as well as her own) sense of hope. The lack of frames captures the lost sense of time throughout, one event melding into another. Backgrounds are simple line sketches with color on main characters and objects, the overwhelming white space a constant presence of the sterile medical environment. There is humor but far more humanity in Pioli’s story about a ‘rare’ cancer, but one that takes away a beautiful life and leaves sorrow in its wake. Pioli’s book helps touch this sweet spot in us all while educating readers about cancer and how they can help.

Down to the Bone by Catherine Piolini. graphic mundi, December 2022.

Reviewer bio: Denise Hill is Editor of NewPages.com and reviews books she chooses based on her own personal interests.

New Book :: Lifeline to a Soul

Lifeline to a Soul by John K. McLaughlin book cover image

Lifeline to a Soul by John McLauglin
Lifeline Education Connection, April 2023

Lifeline to a Soul: The Life-Changing Perspective I Gained While Teaching Entrepreneurship to Prisoners by John McLaughlin was released this month in celebration of Second Chance Month: “On March 31, 2023, President Joseph R. Biden proclaimed April 2023 as Second Chance Month and called for observance of the month with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities.” For John McLaughlin, this was the perfect time to share his experiences with others. After devoting half of his lifetime transforming his start-up business into a multi-million dollar industry leader, McLaughlin set out in a new direction: to teach what he had learned to others. Due to a lack of teaching experience, his only job offer was to teach entrepreneurship to prisoners at a minimum-security camp in North Carolina. McLaughlin gradually built an effective program until a scandal involving prison officials blindsides his progress and threatens to bring his teaching career to an unceremonious end. Lifeline to a Soul takes readers inside the fence and chronicles the victories and challenges one man faced as a first-time teacher in the strange world of prison life. McLaughlin also works with Lifeline Education Connection, which offers low-cost classes to the public, allowing individuals “who have faced obstacles in their life achieve their aspirations in the areas of personal finance and entrepreneurship,” hosted by Founder Tavares James.

New Book :: Queering the Border

Queering the Border: Essays by Emma Pérez book cover image

Queering the Border: Essays by Emma Pérez
Arte Público Press, November 2022

The essays in Queering the Border by Emma Pérez reveal the influence of Gloria Anzaldúa’s scholarship; recount the controversy surrounding artist Alma López’s digital print, “Our Lady,” in which the Virgin of Guadalupe appears in a provocative bikini; and evaluate interviews with 25 LGBTQ people in the El Paso/Ciudad Juárez area to expose life on the border as a queer of color. This collection also includes short fiction and an epistolary love poem to the first feminist of the Americas, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, or in this case, Sor Juanx. Bringing together the work of a noted Chicanx writer and academic, this volume reinforces the body of work by LGBTQ people of color dealing with racism and sexism, conquest and colonization, power and privilege, all with a particular emphasis on the Southwest borderlands.

To discover more great books from small, independent, and university presses, visit the NewPages Guide to Publishers as well as the New Books category on our blog. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

New Book :: A Suit of Paper Feathers

A Suit of Paper Feathers by Nate Duke book cover image

A Suit of Paper Feathers by Nate Duke
Parlor Press, January 2023

In A Suit of Paper Feathers, Nate Duke writes about Americana singers like Lucinda Williams and Tom T. Hall. Several poems interrogate his experiences working on farms in rural Oregon with WWOOF. The ‘farm’ poems in the manuscript are complemented by some poems about working for his mother’s environmental mitigation company in Arkansas. Duke engages these experiences through an ecocritical lens, which he also turns to broader cultural referents such as installation artist Christo.

To discover more great books from small, independent, and university presses, visit the NewPages Guide to Publishers as well as the New Books category on our blog. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

Magazine Stand :: The Writing Disorder – Spring 2023

The Writing Disorder Spring 2023 cover image

Flowers are blooming and so is the Spring 2023 issue of The Writing Disorder, budding new fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and art for all to enjoy! This newest online issue includes FICTION: “A Letter from the Batcave” by Charles Joseph Albert, “The Best Detective There Was” by Leila Alliu, “A Cat in a Box for Mom” by Joe Cappello, “The Best We Can” by William Cass, “Selling Out the Nation” by Stephanie Daich, “The Sad Princess” by Cara Diaconoff, “Dream On” by CL Glanzing, and “The Scarecrow Cross” by Erik Priedkalns; POETRY by Lorelei Bacht, John Cullen, Shae Krispinsky, James McKee, Sloan Porter, and David Sapp; and NONFICTION: “Zone Valves” by Graeme Hunter, “Father’s Day” by Kate E. Lore, and “What the F*ck is Going on?” by Arlene Rosales; and the art of Courtney Parsons.

To find more great reading, visit the NewPages Guide to Literary Magazines, the NewPages Big List of Literary Magazines, the NewPages Big List of Alternative Magazines, and the NewPages Guide to Publications for Young Writers. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

Where to Submit Roundup: April 7, 2023

55 Submission Opportunities including calls for submissions, writing contests, and book prizes.

Where to Submit Roundup 2023

The first week of April is officially behind us… and also the first quarter of 2023 is done. So hard to believe. Don’t let your submission goals pass you by this year. Take a look at our Where to Submit Roundup for the first week of April 2023 to help keep your goals going strong. And take note that several contests extended their March 31 and April 1 deadlines!

Don’t forget that NewPages Newsletter subscribers with a paid subscription get early and first access to our submission opportunities and events, the majority before they go live on our site. Consider subscribing today.

Continue reading “Where to Submit Roundup: April 7, 2023”

Poem :: Rosa Parks by Nikki Giovanni

Rosa Parks
BY NIKKI GIOVANNI
Poetry Magazine

This is for the Pullman Porters who organized when people said
they couldn’t. And carried the Pittsburgh Courier and the Chicago
Defender to the Black Americans in the South so they would
know they were not alone. This is for the Pullman Porters who
helped Thurgood Marshall go south and come back north to fight
the fight that resulted in Brown v. Board of Education because
even though Kansas is west and even though Topeka is the birth-
place of Gwendolyn Brooks, who wrote the powerful “The
Chicago Defender Sends a Man to Little Rock,” it was the
Pullman Porters who whispered to the traveling men both
the Blues Men and the “Race” Men so that they both would
know what was going on. . . [Read the rest at Poetry Magazine.]

New Book :: Ephemera

Ephemera by Sierra DeMulder book cover image

Ephemera by Sierra DeMulder
Button Poetry, June 2023

In Sierra DeMulder’s melancholic yet beautifully hopeful poetry collection, Ephemera, she writes with the wisdom of someone who has learned to love and lose. Each poem reads delicately and elegantly, just fleeting memories on the page. Split into four sections detailing intimate experiences from the painful deaths of family members who clung to life, to passionate love she feels for her own mortal wife, DeMulder plays a sweet song by pulling on her own well-worn heartstrings. DeMulder ruminates on what will come and what will fade. Despite this impermanent nature, you can feel the tender warmth DeMulder holds for her family in every line, even the moments she wishes she could forget.

To discover more great books from small, independent, and university presses, visit the NewPages Guide to Publishers as well as the New Books category on our blog. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

New Book :: The Orchestra of Wind Chimes

The Orchestra of Wind Chimes by Geoffrey Jacques book cover image

The Orchestra of Wind Chimes by Geoffrey Jacques
Wayne State University Press, March 2023

This powerful collection of poems draws on American and African-American experimental lyric traditions, pushing language and form to their limits. Geoffrey Jacques’s poetry inspires deep thought, taking up themes of music, psychology, and literature. This work embodies the potential of poetry to forge new connections between aesthetic expression and the often onerous facts of human existence. Poems such as “Still Life” and “Detour Ahead” produce a juxtaposition of inspired poetic form and rich, complex realities of life, addressing topics of joy and love, race, class, politics, and the aesthetics of the everyday. With a contemporary and sophisticated tenor, Jacques lends his uniquely moving and provocative perspective to advancing discourse in these critical topics.

To discover more great books from small, independent, and university presses, visit the NewPages Guide to Publishers as well as the New Books category on our blog. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

Magazine Stand :: The Lake – April 2023

The Lake online magazine of poetry and reviews logo image

The April 2023 issue of The Lake online poetry magazine is now live and features work by Angela Arnold, John Bartlett, Clive Donovan, Tim Dwyer, Tom Kelly, Phil Kirby, Mercedes Lawry, Elizabeth McMunn-Tetangco, Charles Rammelkamp, and Shane Schick. Charles Rammelkamp reviews Deborah Landau’s Skeletons, and Dorothy Wall reviews Stewart Florsheim’s Amusing the Angels. “One Poem Reviews,” in which one poem is featured from a poet’s newly published collection, this month spotlights Angela Arnold, John Bartlett, and Karen Poppy.

To find more great reading, visit the NewPages Guide to Literary Magazines, the NewPages Big List of Literary Magazines, the NewPages Big List of Alternative Magazines, and the NewPages Guide to Publications for Young Writers. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

New Book :: Her Scant State

Her Scant State by Barbara Tomash book cover image

Her Scant State by Barbara Tomash
Apogee Press, March 2023

In Her Scant State, Barbara Tomash’s brilliant reworking of Henry James’s The Portrait of a Lady, the continuity and causality of the nineteenth-century novel are transformed into the isolate flecks of twenty-first-century poetry. Through excision and refashioning, Tomash has uncovered the troubling, luminous strands within the text, and provided a revelatory and radical new experience of her protagonist, Isabel. If the novelist built a world that is stable, the poet unveils a world that is fluid or broken or shifting and shimmering, in which the language has its own story to tell. When that language is set free in the poem, placed in dialogue with silence, what do we find in Her Scant State? America, men, marriage, money: the familiar detritus of our capitalism. And also a breathtaking lyricism, alive inside every word of this powerful poem.

To discover more great books from small, independent, and university presses, visit the NewPages Guide to Publishers as well as the New Books category on our blog. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

NewPages Guide to Indie Bookstores Updated

NewPages has been hard at work contacting bookstores and collecting updates last month. We have also been hard at work discovering new stores to recommend to you. So this is a great chance to check out our Guide to Indie Bookstores for your state to find an indie bookseller near you!

And if we’re missing your favorite store, do let us know!

We have also added a new search bar to help aid in your search of a bookstore to feed your reading addiction alongside our City filter.

If you are an author looking to promote your book, NewPages does offer mailing lists for indie bookstores (US & Canada), Barnes & Noble bookstores (a new edition!), and public and academic libraries. Learn more about our mailing lists here.

Book Review :: I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai

I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai book cover image

Guest Post by Kevin Brown

On the surface, I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai looks like another addition to the true crime genre, an appearance reinforced by the fact that Bodie Kane runs a podcast devoted to true crime. She returns to the boarding school she attended as a student to teach classes on podcasting and film studies, only for one of her students to work on a podcast investigating the death of one of Bodie’s classmates. However, Makkai goes well beyond this genre—subverting it at times, in fact—to explore the patriarchal structures women have to navigate on a daily basis and the real risks to their safety that come up again and again. Makkai has written a novel that raises questions about masculinity, internet culture, true crime, feminism, privilege, and justice, but she doesn’t provide any answers, as good novels are wont to do. The impressive part is that she has done all of that while telling a compelling story with characters readers care about. Readers will want to turn the page, not to find out about one more murder or microaggression, but to see what happens to Bodie and her classmates and students. Hopefully, they’ll see the world differently by the time they find out what has happened, as well.

I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai. Viking, February 2023.

Reviewer bio: Kevin Brown has published three books of poetry: Liturgical Calendar: Poems (Wipf and Stock); A Lexicon of Lost Words (winner of the Violet Reed Haas Prize for Poetry, Snake Nation Press); and Exit Lines (Plain View Press). He also has a memoir, Another Way: Finding Faith, Then Finding It Again, and a book of scholarship, They Love to Tell the Stories: Five Contemporary Novelists Take on the Gospels. Twitter @kevinbrownwrite or kevinbrownwrites.weebly.com/.

Magazine Stand :: Jewish Fiction .net – Issue 33

Jewish Fiction .net issue 33 logo image

The newest issue of Jewish Fiction .net just came out – a brilliant, 7-language issue, where, for the first time, more than half the stories in it are translations. In Issue 33, you’ll find 12 terrific stories originally written in Danish, Polish, Russian, Yiddish, Hebrew, English, and – for the first time – Albanian! This brings to 20 the number of languages from which Jewish Fiction .net has published translations. The Albanian story, along with the Polish one in this issue, will appear in the anthology of stories from Jewish Fiction .net that is coming out this fall, entitled 18: Jewish Stories Translated from 18 Languages. This exciting book is only months away! Issue 33 also includes an Agnon story that has never before been published in English, and, in honor of the upcoming holiday, a Passover story. All this is available to read for free and online!

New Book :: A Short History of Anger

A Short History of Anger by Joy Manesiotis book cover image

A Short History of Anger by Joy Manesiotis
Parlor Press, February 2023

Both a book-length poetic hybrid and a live performance, A Short History of Anger takes as its source material the Destruction of Smyrna, the Turkish army’s genocide of Smyrna’s Greek citizens in 1922, and the resulting population exchange. Used as a blueprint for state-sponsored ethnic cleansing and forced migration, The Destruction of Smyrna is an event about which the world has remained strangely silent. Governed by its musical, ritualistic construction and lament structure, A Short History of Anger attempts to excavate the legacy of genocide and displacement that has resonated from The Destruction. It is meant to be deeply affective, rather than narrative, and move in the way historical occurrences pass into the present and live through subsequent generations. A Short History of Anger combines prose and poetry, essay and verse, persona and chorus; built with many voices, layers and fractures, it employs a modern-day Greek Chorus.

To discover more great books from small, independent, and university presses, visit the NewPages Guide to Publishers as well as the New Books category on our blog. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

New Lit on the Block :: Copihue Poetry

Copihue Poetry volume 1 cover image

Copihue Poetry is a new, open-access online journal of poetry and poetry in translation published twice each year in the winter and summer. “One of our main goals,” Poetry and Translation Editor David M. Brunson says, “is to be accessible to poets and translators at all stages of their careers. In our first issue, we published some very established names alongside those who had their first publication in our pages.”

This is in keeping with the publication’s mission statement, “We seek to publish exciting new work that moves beyond the imaginary borders of language, state, and culture. As a multilingual journal, we present poetry written in English, poetry written in Spanish, and poetry translated into English alongside the original language. It is our goal to highlight a mixture of poets and translators, both emerging and established. We are especially interested in writers who have been underrecognized or previously unrecognized in English translation, as well as writers of identities historically marginalized by the literary world.”

“While the poetry we publish doesn’t have to be explicitly international in its focus,” Brunson says, “we are interested in work that examines place, language, and culture, especially work that exists in between structures both real and imaginary.”

Continue reading “New Lit on the Block :: Copihue Poetry”

New Book :: Staying Right Here

Staying Right Here by Usman Hameedi book cover image

Staying Right Here by Usman Hameedi
Button Poetry, April 2023

Usman Hameedi’s debut collection, Staying Right Here, is a journey in finding home. Hameedi invites readers to bear witness to vignettes of joy and hardship as he navigates finding his place in America. From an ode to Bodegas, an autobiography of his eyebrows, and elegies for lost friends, Hameedi’s thematic metaphors for family, wellness, and American biases weave a literary tapestry. Reading Usman’s work is like drinking a warm chai while watching the sunset in Brooklyn, or coming home to an aromatic Biryani. Hameedi writes with an unmistakably unique voice that is not afraid of who he is.

To discover more great books from small, independent, and university presses, visit the NewPages Guide to Publishers as well as the New Books category on our blog. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

Magazine Stand :: Southern Humanities Review – 56.1

Southern Humanities Review 56.1 cover image

This bright, new Spring 2023 issue (56.1) of Southern Humanities Review features nonfiction by W.P. Osborn and Marian Ryan; fiction by Coda Canepa, Elizabeth Gonzalez James, Mehdi M. Kashani, and Helena Olufsen; poetry by Sharon Ackerman, Hussain Ahmed, Celia Bland, Tara Shea Burke, Brittany Cavallaro, Lawrence Di Stefano, Timothy Donnelly, Kristina Erny, Jade Hidle, Haesong Kwon, Alafia Nicole Sessions, and Maria Zoccola. Cover art is a video still from “Inorganic Plains,” 2021 by Auburn University professor Sara Gevurtz. Some content can be read online and individual copies, as well as subscriptions, are available on the Southern Humanities Review website.

To find more great reading, visit the NewPages Guide to Literary Magazines, the NewPages Big List of Literary Magazines, the NewPages Big List of Alternative Magazines, and the NewPages Guide to Publications for Young Writers. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

New Book :: The Pearl Diver of Irunmani

The Pearl Diver of Irunmani by Marc Vincenz book cover image

The Pearl Diver of Irunmani by Marc Vincenz
White Pine Press,

Marc Vincenz’s The Pearl Diver of Irunmani charts the paths of consciousness on an aquatic journey into the heart of mind and matter. What does it mean to be alive? What does it mean to be alive preparing for death? What animates the soul moments before death? In this collection, Marc Vincenz trans-navigates the oceans of consciousness that contain all the elements of life and death. . . and rebirth. In a language that is spare and ghostly, the narrator embarks upon finding that pearl of knowledge embedded in the heart of meaning.

To discover more great books from small, independent, and university presses, visit the NewPages Guide to Publishers as well as the New Books category on our blog. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

New Book :: Between Twilight

Between Twilight by Connie Post book cover image

Between Twilight by Connie Post
NYQ Books, February 2023

In Between Twilight, Post delves deep into the difficult journeys of everyday life and intersects those with the difficult maps of the past. There are “atrocities in the body” and many ways a person can falter, fall or rise from “the hue of an unseen self.” Post explores the necessary truths, the ones we can no longer hide, the ones we’ve held on to, for too long. In these poems, the reader will more fully understand Faulkner’s “the past is never the past in never past, it’s not even dead.” The poet infuses elements of evolution, illness, astronomy, humanity, internal travels inside our bodies, and travels back in time “before shadows understood their first for light.” Post’s poems will seep into our subconscious and help us see how a room can be “dark and iridescent all at once.”

To discover more great books from small, independent, and university presses, visit the NewPages Guide to Publishers as well as the New Books category on our blog. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

Book Review :: The Longest Race by Kara Goucher

The Longest Race by Kara Goucher book cover image

Guest Post by Kevin Brown

In this memoir, The Longest Race, Kara Goucher, with Mary Pilson, tells the story of how she became a world-class runner, focusing on her time at the Nike Oregon Project. Goucher talks about the mental abuse she endured as a woman, especially the intense scrutiny of her weight and appearance, but also her pregnancy. She was in the program during the doping scandals of the early part of the century, which later led her to testify against her former coach and teammates. She endured sexual harassment and assault on several occasions. Throughout all of this mental and sexual abuse, she was trying to be one of the best runners in America and the world. Goucher’s memoir reveals the realities of what has happened at the top of various sports throughout the past few decades, especially the ways people in power have abused and ignored women. As Pilson writes in the introduction, “If you’ve ever bought a shirt or pair of shoes with a swoosh, you need to know this story. If you’ve ever tuned in to watch an Olympic final, a World Series, a Super Bowl, or any other professional sporting event, you need to know this story.” Even non-runners need to know this story.

The Longest Race by Kara Goucher. Gallery Books, March 2023.

Reviewer bio: Kevin Brown has published three books of poetry: Liturgical Calendar: Poems (Wipf and Stock); A Lexicon of Lost Words (winner of the Violet Reed Haas Prize for Poetry, Snake Nation Press); and Exit Lines (Plain View Press). He also has a memoir, Another Way: Finding Faith, Then Finding It Again, and a book of scholarship, They Love to Tell the Stories: Five Contemporary Novelists Take on the Gospels. Twitter @kevinbrownwrite or kevinbrownwrites.weebly.com/.

Magazine Stand :: New England Review – 44.1

New England Review 44.1 cover image

The newest print edition of New England Review (44.1) is on its way to subscribers with prose by Shaan Sachdev, Rebecca van Laer, Herb Harris, Gurmeet Singh, and Suzanne Jackson & Nathaniel Nesmith, and poetry by C. Dale Young, Megan J. Arlett, and El Williams III, translations from Italian, German, Spanish, and Hungarian, artwork by Suzanne Jackson, and much more. To get your own delivered to your door, visit the NER website for subscription information.

To find more great reading, visit the NewPages Guide to Literary Magazines, the NewPages Big List of Literary Magazines, the NewPages Big List of Alternative Magazines, and the NewPages Guide to Publications for Young Writers. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!