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!
Tolstoy Killed Anna Karenina Poetry by Dara Barrois/Dixon Wave Books, June 2022
With the same tender honesty found in all of Dara Barrois/Dixon’s (formerly Dara Wier) poetry, the poems in Tolstoy Killed Anna Karenina are curious about the world we inhabit and the worlds we create. Barrois/Dixon brings profound attention to the things we love—be they animals, books, skyscapes, movies, poems, or other human beings—and to the stories that shape our worlds. Here, with emotional exactitude, is a collection of poems that is unafraid to express “love humor despair loving kindness love humor empathy/humor joy sympathy love kindness courage.”
Published by Shanti Arts, the Summer 2022 issue of Still Point Arts Quarterly has been released! The theme of this issue is “Gardening: An Instrument of Grace.” It includes the work of roughly fifty artists and writers from around the world and includes essays, poetry, fiction, art, and more. The digital edition is free for anyone who signs up to receive it via email, and print copies are available by subscription or single-issue purchase. Still Point Arts Quarterly is one of the most beautiful, high-quality production art and literary journals on the market. You can view the current art feature here to see for yourself: Art Exhibit. Readers can also download many past issues as well as other art exhibits.
The Hunger promotes itself as “a journal of visceral writing” published online annually in the spring. The Hunger Press is also home to the Tiny Fork Chapbook Series which holds a yearly chapbook contest in the Summer. The Spring 2022 issue provides a wealth of great content, with Poetry by Nisha Atalie, Kristen Holt-Browning, Byron Xu, Sara Ryan, Anastasia Waid, billy cancel, Allison Blevins & Joshua Davis, Chrissy Martin, Benjamin Bartu, Geula Guerts, Melissa Eleftherion; Fiction by Monica Wang, Sarah Brokamp, Andrew Cusick, Divya Maniar, Sabrina Small, Anastasia Jill; Nonfiction by Abby Hagler, Brittany Ackerman, Stephanie Couey, E.N. Walztoni, Rebekah M. Devine; Hybrid works by Sarah J. Sloat, Sarah Carson, Jennifer K. Sweeney, Gianna Marie Starble, Kylie Gellatly; and Artwork by Bill Wolak, Oormila Vijayakrishnan Prahlad, Janelle Cordero, Sherry Shahan, Arden Hunter, Silas Plum, and Afresh Frankincense.
Established in 1979 as the first magazine to creatively explore the experience of disability through the lens of literature and fine arts, Kaleidoscope is once again breaking new ground to share the experiences of disability through literature and the fine arts.
“TheKaleidoscope podcast,” the editors write, “is meant to expand the outreach of the magazine in a new and modern way and we want to offer more opportunities for writers to present their work. In the first episode, most of the featured writers read their own pieces, making it a more authentic and powerful experience to enjoy. We also hope to make the publication more accessible for those with visual impairments or other disabilities for whom reading can be a challenge. The very nature of the podcast format makes it more accessible to a broader audience whether listening at home, at the office, or while on a commute.”
Kaleidoscope hopes that future podcasts will include interviews with writers and artists to further explore perceptions of disability as well as interviews with individuals who bring fresh insight to issues of interest to those living with a disability or those caring for someone with a disability.
Join us for the Willow Writers Retreat in Hermann, Missouri July 10-14. Sumptuous breakfasts, yoga, wineries. Discussions led by Susan Isaak Lolis, a published and award-winning writer. Topics include Writing Strong Characters; Creating a Sense of Place; Believable Dialogue. Before May 31: $350.00; Before June 15: $400.00; After June 15: $450.00. Accommodations separate, contact the Inn at Hermanhoff for reduced rate: (573) 486-5199. Visit website or call (954) 806-3878.
Dark Matter: Women Witnessing is an online publication of art and writing created in response to this “age of massive species loss and ecological collapse.” But in addition to cataloging these atrocities, the editors seek works “with a message for how we might being to heal our broken relationship to the earth.” Edited by the team of Lise Weil, former editor of the US feminist review Trivia: A Journal of Ideas (1982-1991) and Trivia: Voices of Feminism (through 2011); Kristin Flyntz, whose area of expertise is Literature of Restoration as taught by Deena Metzger; and Metta Sáma, founder of Artists Against Police Brutality/Cultures of Violence and a Senior Fellow of Black Earth Institute. Dark Matter: Women Witnessing accepts all forms and genres of writing as well as artworks in all mediums, in response to the issue’s theme, with special features “Dreams and Visions” and “After•Words” responses to other media. Reading for the newest issue began this month. The current issue (#14) features works by Pam Booker, Suzette Clough, Jojo Donovan, Perdita Finn, Kristin Flyntz, Hilary Giovale, Kathleen Hellen, Chez Liley, and Shante’ Sojourn Zenith. All back issues are available to read online.
Divot Poetry is reading for Issues 5 and 6. We value fresh imagery and startling ways to describe the human condition. See our submission guidelines for full information. We look forward to reading your poetry. Rolling submission deadline. View flyer or visit website to learn more.
All the Rivers Flow Into the Sea and Other Stories Fiction by Khanh Ha EastOver Press, June 2022
From Vietnam to America, Khanh Ha’s All the Rivers Flow Into the Sea is a story collection that brings readers a unique sense of love and passion alongside tragedy and darker themes of peril. The titular story features a love affair between an unlikely duo pushing against barely surmountable cultural barriers. In “The Yin-Yang Market,” magical realism and the beauty of innocence abound in deep dark places, teeming with life and danger. “A Mute Girl’s Yarn” tells a magical coming-of-age story like sketches in a child’s fairy book. Bringing together the damned, the unfit, the brave who succumb to the call of fate, All the Rivers Flow Into the Sea is a great journey where redemption and human goodness arise out of violence and beauty to become part of an essential mercy. All the Rivers Flow into the Sea was selected as a winner of the 2021 EastOver Prize for Fiction.
Madville publishing is pleased to announce our summer reading list! Our authors worry at questions of family, home, and belonging in this amazing quartet of books. All available now for order or preorder:
Pairing writers and artists, each issue of The Light Ekphrastic online creates a space for a new poem, story, photograph, painting or other piece of artwork inspired by work previously submitted by their partner artist. Contributors typically have about six weeks to create their new work. Founded by editor Jenny O’Grady in 2010 as a way of inspiring friends who hadn’t written or made art in a while to get back into practice, the newest issue features works in conversation by Marlayna Demond, TS S. Fulk, Lela Hannah, Mary Huddleston, Layla Lenhardt, Timothy Nohe, Keleigh Norman, and Beth Schabb Williams. What a beautiful, poignant, and playful venue! Submissions are open year-round.
New summer titles from Livingston Press at the University of West Alabama include a novel about GI’s returning from WWII to about-face and enter colleges under the GI Bill. A story collection about nursing, its joys, frustrations, and heartbreak. See flyer for more details or visit website.
Started as a “pandemic passion project,” The Muleskinner Journal is an online publication of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry that publishes “journal entries” (individual pieces) throughout their submission period as well as a quarterly journal.
While The Muleskinner Journal name comes from the nickname of Editor in Chief, Gary Campanella, the mission of the journal is in keeping with the muleskinner – or mule-driver – a profession that requires its animal companion to get the job done. “We look for writing of all kinds that uses skill, wit, and determination to deliver the goods,” which speaks to the clear partnership between writers, readers, and the publisher. “We accept and publish poetry, short fiction, flash fiction, short scripts, excerpts from longer works, memoir, criticism, craft essays, artwork, journalism, and shopping lists.” And for both new and established writers, the guidelines are clearly inviting: “We don’t care who you are, as long as you are the author of what you submit.”
Carve accepts submissions all year round, from anywhere in the world. We pay the writers we publish ($100 for fiction; $50 for nonfiction/poetry) and have generous word count limits: up to 10,000 for fiction/nonfiction and 2,000 for poetry. We publish all three genres in print, and fiction is also published online. Submit your best work today! View flyer for more details.
Winning Writers will award a grand prize of $8,000 in its eighth annual North Street competition, and $16,750 in all. The top eight winners will enjoy additional benefits from our co-sponsors BookBaby and Carolyn Howard-Johnson. Gifts for everyone who enters. Submit books published in any year and on any self-publishing platform. $70 entry fee. Enter online or by mail by June 30. Learn more at our website and view flyer for full details.
If you’re looking for avenues to submit your creative writing and art to, you’ve arrived at the right place. NewPages’ weekly Where to Submit Round-up features calls for submissions and writing contests from literary magazines, indie presses, literary events, creative writing programs, and more.
Don’t forget that NewPages newsletter subscribers get early access to calls for submissions and writing contests before they go live on our site, so subscribe today! Oh, and you’ll also get our monthly eLitPak along with the occasional promotional email from our sponsors.
If you haven’t subscribed yet, check out the June 2022 eLitPak newsletter here for even more opportunities as well as creative writing program info and great books for summer and beyond.
Oxblood Poetry by Nicole Caruso-Garcia Able Muse Press, October 2022
Oxblood, Nicole Caruso Garcia’s debut poetry collection, testifies unflinchingly about the short- and long-term effects of a college student’s rape by her fiancé. As the poet engages with this serious topic, her arsenal includes wit, wordplay, and even humor. The diverse structures of traditional received forms—the sonnet, the sestina, various French repeating forms, the Afghan landay, blues tercets—form interesting contrasts with free verse poems in this collection. Oxblood was a finalist for the 2022 Able Muse Book Award.
Broadsided Press Anthology Fifteen Years of Poetic and Artistic Collaboration, 2005-2020 Provincetown Arts Press, April 2022
Broadsided Press: Fifteen Years of Poetic and Artistic Collaborations, 2005-2020 is an anthology that celebrates Broadsided Press’s mission of “putting literature and art on the streets.” I have always loved the work of this organization, and since its founding, Broadsided has released one beautifully designed, original, letter-sized collaboration of poetry and art (a broadside) each month: a unique collaboration between a visual artist and a writer that is a work of art in itself. These were available for free download each month so that “vectors” could print them and post them with many taking pictures and sharing these on the site. Now, for the first time, more than fifty broadsides selected from over 300 published the past 15 years are presented in a first-ever book form alongside the interviews with artists and poets who collaborated to create them and photographs of the work in public spaces.
That’s right! If you missed the June 15 deadline for the 2022 New American Fiction Prize, you’re in luck! New American Press has announced they have extended the deadline to July 1. This year’s final judge is WEIKE WANG. Winner receives $1,500, publication, and 25 copies. Swing by their ad in the NewPages Classifieds for more information.
The Mantle Poetry online literary magazine welcomes poetry for its quarterly publication, with the next deadline coming up July 7, 2022. The editors encourage writers to “Send your odd, poignant, beautiful poems. Send poems you’re proud of, whether raw, refined, or jagged.” Up to three previously unpublished poems any style or length per submission period. Check out the current issue with works by Suhrith Bellamkonda, Kyle Seamus Brosnihan, Lori Lamothe, Rebecca Macijeski, Juanita Rey, Maryfrances Wagner, and Elana Wolff.
That’s right. You now have until July 15 to enter poetry manuscripts of at least 48 pages to the 2022 Blue Lynx Prize for Poetry from Lynx House Press. $28 fee to enter. Winner receives $2,000 and book publication. Stop by the NewPages Classifieds for more information.
Creative Nonfiction magazine is accepting submissions for their Sunday Short Reads email—previously unpublished work up to 1,000 words, with a deadline of August 1. Managing Editor Hattie Fletcher offers this editorial tip: “We’re open to stories on any subject, any style, but one of the questions we ask ourselves before accepting a story is, ‘Would we feel good about emailing this out to 8,500+ readers first thing on a Sunday morning?'” There is a $3 submission fee, waived for subscribers; pays $50 on publication, and all submissions are also considered for publication in CNF magazine.
How have you healed lately? According to Ijeoma Oluo, writing reminds her that she is “a person worthy of healing.” To discover, dialogue, and define how we might bring writing and other creative mediums, such as poetry and art, from the public back into public health for our collective healing and transformation, come join us at the LIGHT Festival on Friday, June 17, 2022, from 8AM-6PM CDT. View flyer or visit website to learn more.
The stories in My Haunted Home by Victoria Hood delve in startling ways into the lives of the obsessed, the grieving, and the truly haunted. Winner of FC2’s Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Prize, Hood conjures a shifting range of narrators through an unstable range of worlds where mothers might be dead, girls compulsively shove peanuts inside their ears, agoraphobia traps people inside their houses, and cats won’t eat your soup. In “The Teeth, the Way I Smile,” a daughter who looks like her dead mother manifests grief both in her house and her body. In “Smelly Smelly,” a woman slowly comes to realize her boyfriend has been dead for weeks. In “You, Your Fault,” Hood explores the unfolding love of two women who love every part of each other—including the parts that fixate on arson and murder. In this debut story collection, Hood probes the worlds of what can be haunted, unpacking the ways in which hauntings can be manifested in physical forms, mentally harvested and lived through, and even a change in what is haunting.
Hailing from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, The Mercurian publishes translations of plays and performance pieces from any language into English, theoretical pieces about theatrical translation, rants, manifestos, and position papers pertaining to translation for the theatre, as well as production histories of theatrical translations. The most recent issue includes “1948” by Mara Parkhomovsky, translated from Hebrew by Atar Hadari; “atlas” by Thomas Köck, translated by Marc Silberman; “CyranA” adapted from Edmond Rostand, by Doug Zschiegner; and “The Girl Who Was Cyrano” by Guillermo Baldo, translated by LuisDa Molina Rueda. This issues as well as back issues can be fully accessed online.
If I was on a desert island and could only have ONE literary journal, I would choose the Rattle Young Poets Anthology. This publication always gets my jaw to drop with the first poem and the rest just compound my being impressed, humbled, and motivated to read works by writers all under the age of fifteen. “As always,” the editors write, “this is not a book of poems for children, but the other way around—these are poems written by children for us all, revealing the startling insights that are possible when looking at the world through fresh eyes.” The anthology comes bundled with the companion issue of Rattle for subscribers but can also be ordered separately online. Submissions for the next anthology are open until November 15 annually. The 2022 edition includes poems from Melody Maxfield Cortez (10), Alenka Doyle (15), Lyla Foster (6), Daphne Frank (13), Sloane Flaherty Getz (15), Holly Haeck (15), Lucille Healy (4), Elizabeth Kerr (9), Sophia Liu (15), Anna Meister (15), Vitek Mencl (8), Evie Pugh (6), Reagan Rafferty (13), Kashvi Ramani (15), Skyler Rockmael (14), Syazwani Saifudin (14), Lily Blue Simmons (15), Mazzy Sleep (9), Alisha N. Wright (15), Avery Yoder-Wells (15), and Cynthia Zhang (14). Cover photo by M-A Murphy.
Don’t forget that July 15 is the deadline to submit fiction and poetry to Nimrod‘s Francine Ringold Awards for New Writers. This contest is open internationally to writers with no more than two publication credits in their chosen genre. The winners in each genre receive $500 and publication. See their ad in the NewPages Classifieds to learn more.
Wings & Other Things Fiction by Chauna Craig Press 53, September 2022
Wings & Other Things by Chauna Craig is a book of migrations. Its characters flutter and flap, take off and land, then take off again as they seek the places they belong. These are characters caught in transition: a widow searching for a past self on an “Impossible Blue” coast, lovers explaining to the police and themselves why they’re hiding in a Nebraska cornfield. a teacher struggling to be understood on a flight from Chengdu, a stranded artist riding with a stranger on a highway haunted y the ghost of a woman who never made it home. Each story is a transformation as Craig turns railroad tracks into an “infinite number line” and a lightning bolt into a “tentacle of the unseen.” A plastic fork becomes a parable of fragility, and a “scrap moon” is an image of what is lost and what yet remains.
The Freadom Festival: Portland’s First Annual Black Book Festival takes place this Saturday, June 18, 2022 from 12:00 – 6:00pm at Peninsula Park in Portland, Oregon.
The organizers write: “A core tenet of The Freadom Festival is our belief that reading and books should be inclusive and accessible. Which is why we are hosting this free event in a local Portland park, open to all to come and learn the importance of Juneteenth, fellowship with a community of fellow book lovers, support Black businesses, receive reading resources, and celebrate literacy and liberation!”
The Freadom Festival includes a community book swap, a book drive for PDX Books to Prisoners, Multnomah County Library card sign-ups, children’s reading hour, author talks with local black authors Kim Johnson and Kesha Ajose Fisher with Q&A and book signings, zine book-making craft station, literary information booths, raffles, giveaways and more!
Mistake House Magazine is an annual online literary journal of fiction, poetry, and photography by currently enrolled graduate and undergraduate students. It is designed and edited by undergraduate students at Principia College. Each issue also includes the “Soap Bubble Set,” which features two professionals – a practicing visual artist and a writer whose work is highlighted alongside the magazine’s selection of student poetry, fiction, and photography. Mistake House seeks literary fiction and poetry that “provides a sense of insight, compassionate justice, a space of rest, and a sense of coming home, including poetry and fiction expressive of documentary poetics.” The current issue includes Fiction by R. Jade Sperr, Jia-An Lee, Max Hunt; Poetry by Sophia Alise, Madison Folsom, Nicole Knorr, Faith Earl, Tijana Zderic, Caitlin Huntly, Kirsten Meehan, Kristen Grace, R. Jade Sperr, Sarah Iqbal, Olivia Skinner, Jeniya Dabish, Jessie Taylor, Elisabeth Graham, Logan Funderburg, Danielle Horn, Emma Maxfield, Andi Moritz, Nate Zipp, Brianna Drahms, Kelly C. Flanagan, Kiersten Wright, Atlas Chambers, Timothy Batchelder, Katie Mihalek, and Kyrstyn Cieply; and Photography by Joselyn Flores, Isabella Guerrero, Camille Abadie, Jack Connors, Sakar Shrestha, Christopher Ajuoga, and Grace Pécheck. The Soap Bubble Set pairs visual artist Samira Yamin and poet Benjamin Garcia for an in-depth look at their work and processes.
I previously commented on Jane Friedman as one of the best resources for writers looking to publish—most especially for book publishing. Her book The Business of Being a Writer should be the most required textbook for MFA programs across the country. A recent blog post on her site explored the question, “Is Hybrid Publishing Ethical?” Following her blog and/or signing up for her newsletters will continue to provide authors with helpful advice like this.
Another great resource is Writer Beware, a literary watchdog group that “shines a bright light into the dark corners of the shadow-world of literary scams, schemes, and pitfalls.” Co-founder and published author Victoria Strauss and other guest writers provide in-depth posts that are truly educational for writers, not the click-bait “# of Things Writers Need to Watch Out For” that fills the internet. A recent article that offers a good example is “Publishing Contracts 101: Beware Internal Contradictions,” in which Strauss provides contract language from a variety of “publishers” that reveal either their sloppiness or downright intentional evil – publishers whom Writer Beware never shies away from publicly naming. Using Writer Beware as continuing education as well as a resource to background-check your literary partners could go a long way in helping writers avoid the dark side of publishing.
The Illusion of Simple by Charles Forrest Jones begins in a dry Kansas riverbed where a troop of young girls finds a human hand. This discovery leads Billy Spire, the tough and broken sheriff of Ewing County, to investigate and confront the depths of his community and of himself: the racism, the dying economy, the lies and truths of friendship, grievances of the past and present, and even his own injured marriage. But like any town where people still breathe, there is also love and hope and the possibility of redemption. To flyover folks, Ewing County appears nothing more than a handful of empty streets amid crop circles and the meandering, depleted Arkansas River. But the truth of this place—the interwoven lives and stories—is anything but simple. Charles Forrest Jones is former director of the Kansas University Public Management Center and believes that “public policy is rooted in the human condition, there is a place for the articulate, compelling, even beautiful.”
PANKwas originally founded in 2006 by M. Bartley Seigel and Roxane Gay as a venue “fostering access to innovative poetry and prose, publishing the brightest and most promising writers for the most adventurous readers.” Fulfilling that charge, PANK publishes quarterly online and annually in print. The editors are interested in “sharp, honest, beautiful writing. Strangeness is a small god.” Check out the most recent online issues for a sampling of small gods, with contributions from Clea Bierman, Ricardo Wilson, Kyle Carrero Lopez, Stephanie Choi, Josey Rose Duncan, Ry Book Suraski, Kyle Carrero Lopez, Nicole Mccarthy, Kate Crosby, Lisa Ahn, Julia Barclay-Morton, and Valerie San Filippo.
Refugee Poetry by Pamela Uschuck Red Hen Press, Spring 2022
Refugee deals with political refugees, refugees from racism, from domestic violence, from environmental destruction and cancer—and their stories of cruelty and courage, hardship, and hope to overcome the most daunting of circumstances. This collection confronts and explores xenophobia, sexism, gun violence, domestic violence, corporate greed, environmental destruction and political tyranny. An ovarian cancer survivor, Pamela also writes about her own courageous confrontation with death.
“With tenderness, expansive compassion, and profound gifts of radiant description, Pamela Uschuk considers so many ways people may be estranged and lost in this precious, difficult world. With brave ferocity, her poems in Refugee navigate new vision and reconnection, so desperately longed for right now and always.”
Broadsided Press started Broadsided Responds to show support and solidarity in response to global crises. Dear Queer: Letters in Solidarity with LGBTIQ+ Youth seeks to “stand with the LGBTIQ+ community and all those who call them/us family.” Writers are invited to share “short works that reach out toward any – past or present, self or other – who has needed support, solace, or a sense of being seen and known . . . writing from voices who might wish to speak to their own younger selves (and, by extension, the younger selves of today).” Poems of 30 lines or less or flash prose under 300 words with the title “Letter to my __________” that provide hope, solace, pathways, and a sense of solidarity are welcome through July 4, 2022. There is a $3 VOLUNTARY entry fee, but please see the incredible work this all-volunteer organization has done over the years and support financially if you can.
Is Your Favorite Bookstore Listed? As you are hitting up your favorite local indie bookstores this summer or if you are traveling and looking to visit some new indie shops, check out the NewPages Guide to Bookstores in the U.S. and Canada. We list the best independent bookstores (selling both new and used books) by location with website, social media, contact information, and a brief description of each. If you know a bookstore or come across one in your travels that we don’t have listed on our site, please let us know! Bookstores can sign up here: Indie Bookstore Listing; or patrons can let us know about a shop here: Contact Us. These listings are FREE for bookstores because WE LOVE INDIE BOOKSTORES and want to help promote them to our readers. [Pictured: Midland Street Books in Bay City, Michigan.]
Benefit Street by Adria Bernardi is set in an unnamed provincial capital of an unnamed country and tells of a wide circle of friends—teachers, lawyers, missionaries, doctors, artisans—in a time of gathering and dispersal. It tells the story of mothers, daughters, sisters, wives, colleagues, and neighbors, as war to the East threatens and constitutional rights are daily eroded by an increasingly authoritarian regime. The ideals of youth, freedom, and coexistence are severely tested with the shocking revelation that the charismatic leader of their group has sexually abused the women under his care. The limits of reconciliation are tested as Şiva makes an arduous journey into the mountains to meet an estranged mother with a genius for weaving complex rugs.
Rathalla Review, the literary magazine of Rosemont College MFA in Creative Writing and Graduate Publishing programs, publishes two online and one print annual each year with the mission to give emerging and established writers and artists an outlet for their creative vision. Submissions open August 14 for their Fall 2022 issue, so take a look now to get a sense of their aesthetic. The Spring 2022 online volume features Art by Roger Camp, Phyllis Green, Weining Wang; Fiction by Robert McGuill, Daniel Goulden, Greg Probst; Flash Fiction by Salvatore Difalco, David A. Summers, Carolyn Oliver; and Poetry by Malisa Garlieb, Jennifer Judge, and Jessica Whipple.
Eli Cranor’s debut novel, Don’t Know Tough, published by Soho Crime, an imprint of Soho Press, is not your typical football novel. Rather, it depicts a brutal slice of life in rural Arkansas, where high school football is king and is all that matters. The protagonist, Billy Lowe, is the archetypal angry young man. An ignorant high school senior and star of the football team, Billy’s anger is compounded by his mother’s abusive boyfriend, who lives with them in their trailer in rural Arkansas. After being beaten by the boyfriend and hitting him back, Billy takes his anger out on a teammate during practice, injuring him. Then, his Mom’s abusive boyfriend is found murdered, and Billy becomes a suspect. From that point, the novel hurtles at breakneck speed to its surprising conclusion. I could not stop reading Don’t Cry Tough. Cranor’s writing is riveting, and his characterizations are perfect. Despite my initial impression of Billy as simple and stupid, as the book goes on, the author skillfully transforms him into a complex human being I actually cared for. As for the setting in rural Arkansas, I could picture the trailers, the woods, and the poverty-stricken homes where some of the characters live. The football scenes were quite well done, and rightly so as the author did play professional football. Despite the twists and turns, all the plot lines were brilliantly resolved. This is Eli Cranor’s first novel, and I already can’t wait for his follow-up.
Don’t Know Tough by Eli Cranor. Soho Crime, March 2022.
Reviewer bio: Ira Smith is a retired physician for whom reading has been a lifelong passion. Favorite genres are science fiction, noir, and history.
The Driftwood Press editors just released this news: “We’re so excited to announce that Driftwood Press is transforming from a bi-annual literary magazine to an annual anthology. This change has been in the works for a long time, and we can’t wait to bring our readers over 200 pages in full color on a yearly basis, with our first anthology due out March 7, 2023!” The editors promise status quo on great content, just more of it, including stories, poetry, comics, interviews, and more. Subscription options will also reflect this change, and there is still one more biannual issue due out on July 1, which can be preordered here.
The June 2022 issue of Poetry Magazine is guest-edited by Esther Belin, who offers a “Dear Reader,” introduction that is as beautiful and compelling to read as any poem she has selected for this month’s collection. Uniquely offering two different writing prompts in her note, she closes by commenting on writing from “a mountain desert region in the American Southwest”: “Once again, reader, I think of you as I write from a hardback chair at my dining table placed near a south-facing window. This window is comforting to me, as is this table and chair. I have labored from this place, I have experienced joy from this place, and now I experience grief from it. The familiarity and safety of this space help me to propel toward the essential and recalibrate my center. That is my offering to you. May you align with a poem (or many) in this volume that propels you back to your center.” Guiding the readers in their alignment with poems in this issue are Esther Belin, Jill Zheng, Ae Hee Lee, Fatemeh Shams, Armen Davoudian, Max Schleicher, Cindy Juyoung Ok, Rajiv Mohabir, Patricia Jabbeh Wesley, Monica Sok, Tarik Dobbs, Sarina Romero, Romeo Oriogun, Madeleine Wattenberg, Qiang Meng, Heather Nagami, Orlando White, Courtney Faye Taylor, Shook, and Chad Bennett, Shelby Handler. All of Poetry Magazine‘s content is free to read online.
We Were Angry: A Novella & Stories Fiction by Jennifer S. Davis Press 53, August 2022
We Were Angry by Jennifer S. Davis, introduces readers to a group of friends in small-town Alabama whose lives are haunted by tragedies that reverberate across generations. In Davis’s world, Alabaman is more than a fictional setting. It’s a scene for interrogating power, pain, and what it means to live in – and to leave – the American South. In a linked collection of stories shot through with dark humor, Davis offers glimpses of a land of contradictions: dollar stores and golf courses, dive bars and country clubs, and long-forgotten communities flooded to make way for mansions where missing women are rumored to be buried. Transversing these red dirt roads are mothers and mourners, rebels and addicts, lovers, liars, prisoners, politicians, theme park enthusiasts, and collectors of rejected housepets. Winner of the 2021 Press 53 Award for Short Fiction.
In the Editor’s Note to Runestone Journal Volume 8 (2022), Halee Kirkwood writes, “We take our title this year, ‘The Shape of Your Daydreams,’ from Annie Przypyszny’s poem ‘Feeding The Birds.’ We felt that this line captured the mood of this year’s Runestone. Readers will find that many of the pieces within have an ephemeral nature with an obsession with the intangibility of the divine, while at the same time finding pieces that play with structure and form, pieces that give a daydream shape.” The works that inspired this issue include Poetry by Geoffrey Ayers, Greer McAllister, Jack Mitchell, J. Nehemiah, Annie Przypyszny, Madeline Ragsdale; Creative Nonfiction by Saitharn Im-Iam, Grace Ramos, Camille Whisenant; Fiction by Ellery Beck, Kile Zomar Lowery, Beatrice Ogeh, Hailey Thielen; and an Author Interview with Kawai Strong-Washburn by Cal MacFarland. Current and past issues are free to read online. Submissions are open through October 1 to any current undergraduate at a two- or four-year institution or ages 18-22.
Able Muse Sunday, June 19, 2022 Author Reading is “International Themed” with Michael Cantor, author of Life in the Second Circle – Poems (Able Muse Press, 2012); William Conelly, author of Uncontested Grounds – Poems (Able Muse Press, 2015); and Deirdre O’Connor: Winner, Able Muse Book Award 2019 with The Cupped Field: Poems (Able Muse Press, 2019). Hosted by: James Pollock: Finalist for the Griffin Poetry Prize and the Governor General’s Literary Award in Poetry, runner-up for the Posner Poetry Book Award, and winner of an Outstanding Achievement Award in Poetry from the Wisconsin Library Association with Sailing to Babylon: Poems (Able Muse Press, 2012). Free admission. Registration required – sign up now! Also, see a complete list of previous readings available on YouTube as well as upcoming readings here.
The June 2022 issue of The Lake poetry and reviews is now online and features Edward Alport, Sara Backer, Phil Dunkerley, Pat Edwards, David Henson, Judith O’Connell Hoyer, Ronald Moran, Sarah Dickenson Snyder, J. R. Solonche, and Jeffrey Thompson with reviews of Amina Alyal and Oz Hardwick’s The Still and Fleeting Fire, and Daniel Skyle’s On the other side of the beach, light. The new feature called “One Poem Review” continues this month, in which one poem from a new book/pamphlet is featured along with a cover JPG and a link to the publisher’s website: “as a way to help poets’ works reach a wider audience.” Authors featured in this month’s “One Poem Review” are Dominic James, Sarah James, and Gordon Meade.
Voices from the Other Side of Death Poetry by Ariel Dorfman Arte Público Press, June 2022
Voices from the Other Side of Death by Ariel Dorfman offers readers a series of poems written from the perspective of deceased historical figures to contemporary politicians and soldiers, warning about the need for reckoning and atonement. In one, Pablo Picasso speaks to Colin Powell, asking why his famous painting depicting the horror of war, Guernica, was covered when the secretary of state spoke about the invasion of Iraq at the United Nations. Others explore connections to loved ones, including “the love of my life, Angélica, the woman who helped me survive exile and tribulations and peopled my world with hope.” Dorfman writes about the passionate love the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan felt for his wife, which led to the construction of the Taj Mahal, and imagines conversations between William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes, who died within hours of each other. These poems share the most human of emotions and expose Dorfman’s vulnerability as he embarks on the last leg of his journey.
If you’re looking for venues to submit your creative writing and art to, you’ve arrived at the right place. Our weekly Where to Submit Round-up features calls for submissions and writing contests from literary magazines, indie presses, literary events, and more. There’s a lot with mid-June deadlines (aka next week!), so don’t let these opportunities pass you by.
Don’t forget that NewPages newsletter subscribers get early access to calls for submissions and writing contests before they go live on our site, so subscribe today! Oh, and you’ll also get our monthly eLitPak along with the occasional promotional email from our sponsors. Speaking of the eLitPak, it will be hitting inboxes on June 15! Stay tuned.
The MacGuffin Spring 2022 (Vol. 38, No. 1) comes with a double-shot of Poet Hunts past and present. Beginning with Guest Judge Indigo Moor’s selections from Poet Hunt 26: Grand Prize Winner Patrick Wilcox and Honorable Mentions Camille Carter and Karen Hones. Following is a five-poem feature of 2022’s Poet Hunt 27 Guest Judge Lynne Thompson. All of these writers were recently featured in a YouTube reading. In addition, this volume features Poetry by David Brehmer, Sarah C. Brockhaus, Anthony DiMatteo, Kevin Grauke, Eloise Klein Healy, Mary Beth Hines, Ken Holland, Margaret B. Ingraham, Marci Rae Johnson, Susan L. Leary, Alison Luterman, James Macmillen, Marjorie Maddox, Chrissy Martin, James McKee, James McKee, Karl Meade, Kathleen Meadows, Teresa Milbrodt, Derek Mong, Hanna Pachman, J. Scott Price, J. Stephen Rhodes, M.A. Schaffner, Deborah Bachels Schmidt, Carla Schwartz, John Zedolik; Nonfiction by Angela Bean, Jessie Carson, Bruce Cohen, David James, Judith Saunders; Fiction by Michael Garcia Bertrand, Felicia Cameron, Tom Eubanks, Bill Kitcher, Randy F. Nelson, Emanuele Pettener, John Picard, Daniel Webre; along with the postcard views Cuba as portrayed through Bruce Katz’s evocative watercolors.
The newest issue of AGNI (95) opens with Editor’s Note, “Interiors,” by Sven Birkerts, in which he reflects upon a recent period of confinement and offers readers this thought, “Our particular period – where we are right now – feels too vast and unresolved to be called a phase. It is changing everyone, creating a new zeitgeist, and insuring that the fantasy of a return to former ways is just that. When it recedes from us, the scars will be visible.” I have personally always been a fan of scars, knowing they have stories to tell, and always hoping for a good one. In keeping with good stories to tell, this issue of AGNI is full to the brim, with Fiction by Linda Mannheim, David Moloney, Iheoma Nwachukwu, Lindsay Starck, Mariana Villas-Boas; Essays by Nin Andrews, Charley Burlock, Carrie Cogan, J. Martin Daughtry, Sarah Gorham, Kelle Groom, Alex Marzano-Lesnevich, Andrew Zubiri; Hybrid Form by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa translated from the Japanese Ryan Choi, Khairani Barokka; Poetry by Ernest O. Ògúnyẹmí, Jacques J. Rancourt, Vasiliki Albedo, Emma Aylor, Emma Aylor, Jan Beatty, Don Bogen, Bruce Bond and Dan Beachy-Quick, Fleda Brown, Victoria Chang, Charlie Clark, Leslie Contreras Schwartz, Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach, Mariela Dreyfus translated from the Spanish Carmen Giménez and zachary payne, Liza Flum, Kimiko Hahn, K. A. Hays, Nâzim Hikmet adapted Steve Kronen, Saba Keramati, Hailey Leithauser, Alejandro Lemus-Gomez, Chloe Martinez, Jenny Molberg, Yuliya Musakovska translated from the Ukrainian Olena Jennings and the author, Lynette Ng, D. Nurkse, Jacqueline Osherow, Catherine Pierce, Robert Pinsky, Ellen Rogers, Bruce Snider, Becky Thompson, Issam Zineh; and an Art Feature by Andrea Chung with commentary Shuchi Saraswat.
Creative Nonfiction magazine seeks submissions for a special expanded anniversary edition of I Wasn’t Strong Like This When I Started Out: True Stories of Becoming a Nurse. They are looking for pandemic-era stories dramatically and vividly written by and about nurses which examine the complex and essential role nurses of all kinds have played in providing care and guidance for patients and families, as well as the ways in which the pandemic has affected both individuals and the healthcare system. Previously unpublished, narrative form, with scenes, description, vivid characters, and a distinctive voice, 1000-4000 words. This is a paying market. All submissions will be considered for the book and might also be considered for other CNF projects. There is no submission fee for this category. Deadline: Monday, June 27, 2022.
In their introduction to the Spring 2022 Speckled Trout (4.1) online poetry magazine, Kevin J. McDaniel, Founder, and Nancy Dillingham, Associate Poetry Editor, share that the issue includes “poets from wide-ranging backgrounds and locales share their unique takes on life’s trials, its foibles, and the diverse paths that connect us all in this human experiment,” with works from Anjail Ahmad, Ann Chinnis, Christine Cock, Joe Cottonwood, Chris Ellery, David Ford, Robert Gibb, Babo Kamel, Erren Kelly, Bruce McRae, Marda Messick, Jesse Millner, W. Barrett Munn, Charles Rammelkamp, John Reed, and Jan Schmidt. The Fall 2022 (4.2) publication will be a print issue with “freedom: as the guiding theme.” Specific submission guidelines will be announced on September 1, 2022, so check them out now to see if you might have a good fit for submission!
