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!
Literary magazine The Society of Classical Poets Journal features work online on a rolling basis gathered into a stunning print issue. During the month of February 2022, find poems by Cara Valle, Russel Winick, James A. Tweedie, Jack DesBois, Julian Woodruff, Brian Yapko, Phil S. Rogers, Paul Freeman, Gail Kaye Naegele, Jeff Eardley, and many more. Stop by The Society of Classical Poets Journal website to read these pieces and so much more.
The Cedarville Shop and the Wheelbarrow Swap
Young Adult Fiction by Bridget Krone
Catalyst Press, June 2022
ISBN: 9781946395665
Paperback, 172pp; $14.95
A lot of things can feel just out of reach in 12-year-old Boipelo Seku’s small, impoverished village of Cedarville, South Africa. The idea of one day living in a house that’s big enough for his family is just a faraway dream. But when Boi stumbles on a story about a Canadian man who traded his way from a paperclip to a house, Boi hatches his own trading plan starting with a tiny clay cow he molded from river mud. Trade by trade, Boi and his best friend Potso discover that even though Cedarville lacks so many of the things that made the paperclip trade possible, it is fuller than either of them ever imagined.
Far Company
Poetry by Cindy Hunter Morgan
Wayne State University Press, May 2022
ISBN: 9780814349526
Paperback, 72pp; $16.99
In Far Company reveals Cindy Hunter Morgan thinking about the many ways we carry the natural world inside of us as a kind of embedded cartography. Many of these poems commune not only with lost ancestors but also past poets. She offers conversations with Emily Dickinson, James Wright, Walt Whitman, and W. S. Merwin. These poets, who are part of Hunter Morgan’s poetic lineage, are beloved figures in the far company she keeps, but the poems she writes are distinctly hers.
Fly High, Lolo
Young Adult Fiction by Niki Daly
Catalyst Press, May 2022
ISBN: 9781946395658
Paperback, 79pp; $7.99
More fun is on the way for Lolo in Fly High, Lolo, the fourth book in Niki Daly’s Lolo series for beginning readers. Lolo is kind-hearted, creative, full of joy, and— whether it’s making homemade Christmas decorations from recycled plastics, or stepping in when the school play goes awry—she always knows just what to do to save the day! In this collection of easy-to-read stories, we meet Lolo, a girl who lives in South Africa with her mother and grandmother, Gogo. Charmingly illustrated by the author, Fly High, Lolo follows Lolo as she explores her world, and the new adventures each day brings.
buried [a place]
Poetry by Sue Scavo
Anhinga Press, April 2022
ISBN: 978-1-934695-74-6
Paperback, 84pp, $20
Sue Scavo received her BA in English from the University of Cincinnati, her MFA from New England College and studied at Middlebury College’s Breadloaf School of English. She was awarded a writer’s residency at the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, Vermont where she then became a staff artist for several years. She is co-editor/co-founder of deLuge Literary and Arts Journal devoted to the creative expression of dreams or inspired by dreams with Karla Van Vliet. As a teacher, Sue has taught classes on dreams and creativity; dreams and the poetic imagination; dreams, creativity and mythology.
What Cannot Be Undone: True Stories of a Life in Medicine
Nonfiction by Walter M. Robinson
University of New Mexico Press, February 2022
ISBN: 978-0-8263-6371-8
Paperback, 176pp; $19.95
Winner of the River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Prize, What Cannot Be Undone is Walter M. Robinson’s debut essay collection. In it, he shares surprising stories of illness and medicine that do not sacrifice hard truth for easy dramatics. These true stories are filled with details of difficult days and nights in the world of high-tech medical care, and they show the ongoing struggle in making critical decisions with no good answer. This collection presents the raw moments where his expertise in medical ethics and pediatrics are put to the test. He is neither saint, nor hero, nor wizard. Robinson admits that on his best days he was merely ordinary. Yet in writing down the authentic stories of his patients, Robinson discovers what led him to the practice of medicine—and how his idealism was no match for the realities he faced in modern health care.
The History of Man
Fiction by Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu
Catalyst Press, January 2022
ISBN: 9781946395566
Paperback, 301pp; $17.99
Set in a southern African country that is never named, this powerful tale of human fallibility—told with empathy, generosity, and a light touch—is an excursion into the interiority of the colonizer. Emil Coetzee, a civil servant in his fifties, is washing blood off his hands when the ceasefire is announced. Like everyone else, he feels unmoored by the end of the conflict. War had given him his sense of purpose, his identity. But why has Emil’s life turned out so different from his parents’, who spent cheery Friday evenings flapping and flailing the Charleston or dancing the foxtrot? What happened to the Emil who used to wade through the singing elephant grass of the savannah, losing himself in it?
February was Flash Fiction month for online literary magazine Fictive Dream. Every day they featured one piece of flash fiction. You’ll find stories by Fiona J. Mackintosh, Thaddeus Rutkowski, Sandra Arnold, Cath Holland, Jude Higgins, and more. Stop by Fictive Dream‘s website to catch up and to start reading their March pieces.
The Distortions
Stories by Christopher Linforth
Orison Books, March 2022
ISBN: 978-1-949039-31-3
Paperback: 194pp; $18
Winner of the 2020 Orison Fiction Prize, selected by Samrat Upadhyay, The Distortions offers a glimpse of a pageant of characters struggling to understand their lives after the dissolution of Yugoslavia. Scarred by the last major war fought on European soil, the women and men of these stories question what such a violent past can mean in comfortable, capitalistic modern Europe. From London and Brooklyn and Norway, to the Blue Grotto of Biševo and the war-torn fields of Slavonia, this collection blends Yugoslavian and American stories of great emotional and geographical amplitude.
Have I Said Too Much
Stories by Carmen Delzell
Paycock Press, December 2021
ISBN: 978-0-931181-94-8
Paperback, 180pp; $14.95
Carmen Delzell lives somewhere between Mexico City and Austin, Texas. She has lived in Saltillo, Coahuilla, and San Miguel de Allende since 1993 when she won a National Endowment grant and hit the road running. Her stories have aired on All Things Considered, Hearing Voices, PRX, Savvy Traveler, and This American Life. Most of the work in this first collection dates from 1980-2010.
Fiction by John Weir
Red Hen Press, April 2022
ISBN-13: 978-1-636280301
Paperback: 224pp; $16.95
In eleven linked stories, prize-winning novelist John Weir brings his wit and compassion to the question of how a gay white guy from New Jersey lived through fifty years of the twin crises of global AIDS and toxic masculinity in America.
Poetry by Stella Vinitchi Radulescu
Orison Books, December 2021
ISBN-13: 978-1-949039-25-2
Paperback: 108pp; $16.00
In her latest collection of English-language poems, trilingual poet Stella Vinitchi Radulescu continues to explore the capabilities and limits of language itself as the nexus where thought and physicality meet. Gathering fragments of idea and image from a vast constellation of influences, Radulescu’s nimble, ever-surprising poems weave a tapestry that embodies what it feels like to be both intensely alive and knowingly transient.
Fiction by Shahriar Mandanipour
Bellevue Literary Press, January 2022
ISBN: 978-1-942658955
Paperback: 208pp; $16.99
In Seasons of Purgatory, the fantastical and the visceral merge in tales of tender desire and collective violence, the boredom and brutality of war, and the clash of modern urban life and rural traditions. Mandanipour, banned from publication in his native Iran, vividly renders the individual consciousness in extremis from a variety of perspectives: young and old, man and woman, conscript and prisoner. While delivering a ferocious social critique, these stories are steeped in the poetry and stark beauty of an ancient land and culture.
Lessons on the Craft of Writing Fiction
Nonfiction by Clint McCown
Press 53, December 2021
ISBN: 978-1-950413-39-3
Paperback: 162pp; $17.95
“As its title should suggest, it’s impossible to read Clint McCown’s Mr. Potato Head vs. Freud without laughing. McCown’s wit makes this the rarest of books on the craft of fiction: one that is as entertaining as it is instructive. And boy, is it instructive. It’s quite simply the wisest, most succinct, and most comprehensive overview of the ins and outs of writing fiction that I’ve ever read. How I wish it had existed when I first started writing; it could have saved me years of trial and (mostly) error.” —David Jauss
Poetry by Marwa Helal
Nightboat Books, May 2022
ISBN: 978-1-643621425
Paperback: 80pp; $16.95
Ante body is a poetics of [un]rest. A project that started as an exploration of how the psychological impacts of migration and complex traumas manifest as autoimmune disease and grew into a critique of the ongoing unjust conditions that brought on the global pandemic. Continuing her use of the invented poetic form, the Arabic, and integrating Fred Moten’s concept of “the ANTE,” Helal creates an elliptical reading experience in which content and form interrogate the inner workings of patriarchy, capitalism, nationalism, and globalism.
Issue 71 of online literary magazine The Penn Review features poetry by Anne Kwok, Grace Gilbert, Tom Hunley, Grug Muse, Sheree La Puma, and more; fiction by Merridawn Duckler, Scott Karambis, Christina Irmen, Thea Goodman, and K.C. Mead-Brewer; nonfiction by Siamak Vossoughi, Caitlin McDermott-Murphy, and Denise Tolan; plus art by Sijia Ma, Jay Mitra, Michael Hower, Susan Slocum Dyer, and Nicole Fang.
Stop by The Penn Review website to read the current issue.
In online literary magazine Persimmon Tree‘s Winter 2022 issue find seemingly simple things that are so much more than what they seem. Enjoy work by Mary Beth O’Connor, Leslie Clark, Opal Palmer Adisas, and more.
Stop by the Persimmon Tree website to read the issue.
This month online literary magazine Terrain.org published the winners of their 12th Annual Contests. Find “The Frontier” by Sean Sam, “The Snake and the Sanctuary” by Melina Walling,” and two poems by Jennifer K. Sweeney. Plus, find work by John Washington, Rob Carney, Molly Lanzarotta, Laurel Anderson, Sharon Hashimoto, Cassandra Cleghorn, Cheryl Merrill, Ian Capelli, Amy Dryansky, D.S. Walsman, and more.
The March 2022 issue of World Literature Today foregrounds New African Voices in a cover feature guest-edited and introduced by Mahtem Shiferraw; poetry, fiction, and essays from Australia, Denmark, Greece, and Mexico; reviews of 30 outstanding new books from all over the world; recommended reading; and much more.
Shot Glass Journal Issue #36 has been posted to the Muse-Pie Press site. This issue represents talented poets from Australia, Canada, China, Germany, India, Ireland, Malaysia, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Wales, the UK and the US. Stop by the Muse-Pie Press website to read this issue of Shot Glass Journal.
The Missouri Review Winter 2021 (“Take Heart”) issue features the winners of our 2021 Perkoff Prize for writing that engages evocatively with health/medicine. A stunning art feature on contemporary photography, debut fiction by Mason Kiser, translated work of Tomaž Šalamun, and a probing essay on the poetry of mourning round out the issue. More info at The Missouri Review website.
In this special double issue of Western American Literature, the contributors write about the literature of California, cli-fi, and climate crisis. Contributors include: Jennifer K. Ladino, Daniel D. Clausen, Ryan Hediger, Cory Willard, Ashley E. Reis, Matt Burkhart, and Kevin Maier. You can find more information at the WAL website.
The newest issue of online literary magazine River Heron Review includes poems written by 17 new and returning contributors. Their words are sure to inspire and perhaps broaden your take on the world. We hope that you are as moved by the images, themes, and topics so thoughtfully covered in these poems as we are.
Stop by the River Heron Review website to read the full issue.
The Hollins Critic features a central essay on a contemporary writer, reviews, and poetry. In this issue, Cathryn Hankla examines Jeanette Winterson’s early novels; poetry by Angela Ball, Max Roland Ekstrom, Will Cordeiro, and a translation of Louis Miguel Nava by Alexis Levitin and Ricardo Vasconcelos. More info at The Hollins Critic website.
The Winter 2021-22 issue of Barrow Street features Denise Duhamel, Vievee Francis, Dorianne Laux, Pablo Medina, Mihaela Moscaliuc, D. Nurkse, Matthew Olzmann, Simon Perchik, JJ Peña, Simone Savannah, Judith Vollmer, Michael Waters, and many others.
View a full list of contributors and purchase a copy at Barrow Street‘s website.
The Louisville Review, Number 90, features poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and children’s poetry. This is the special 45th Anniversary Issue. Contributors include Patricia Foster, Sarah Gorham, Sarah McCartt-Jackson, Greg Pape, Jonathan Weinert, Jason Tandon, and Nadeem Zaman. Available at www.louisvillereview.org/issues/ as well as Amazon and Carmichael’s Bookstores in Louisville, KY.
The Malahat Review Issue 217 features Constance Rooke Creative Nonfiction Prize winner Justina Elias, fiction by Carousel Calvo and Ayaz Pirani, poetry by Kai Conradi and Patrick Grace, creative nonfiction by Jaime Sugiyama and Laura Vukson, and more.
Read the full table of contents, interviews, and excerpts on The Malahat Review website.
Carve Magazine Winter 2022 features new fiction, interviews, poetry, nonfiction, Decline/Accept, One-to-Watch, and more. Contributors include Emily Lu Wang, Na Zhong, Bailey Cunningham, and Nicole Hebdon.
You can read some of the Winter 2022 stories online and subscribe at the Carve Magazine website.
A Public Space No. 30. “The past will reveal to us the nature of the present.”—Joan Perucho. Contributors include Matt Miller, Sara Majka, Mi Jin Kim, Matthew Zapruder, Rosemarie Ho.
Read some work from the issue at the A Public Space website.
Special Issue: Feminism and Capitalism. “Why is feminism so good at understanding capitalism? Because gender, like capital, is never separate or pure in its expressions. Feminism has theorized gender as an intersecting system that configures and distributes power not just between female-identified and male-identified persons and within households, but also between classes and between producers and reproducers. It does so within and across these boundaries, and it questions the boundaries themselves.”
Read more about this issue at the Feminist Studies website.
Jewish Fiction .net features contemporary Jewish fiction, in English, from across the globe. On February 18 they celebrated reaching 18 languages in which a story published in their journal was originally written in. The 18th language is Portuguese.
In honor of this happy occasion and milestone, they have released a preview of three novel excerpts that will be featured in their next issue, including the translation from Portuguese. Enjoy these tidbits while you await the release of the full issue.
EVENT Vol. 50 No. 3 is the Notes on Writing Issue. “Event publishes fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction and literary reviews. In every issue we aim to present a compelling selection of work by established and newer writers, both from Canada and abroad.”
You’ll find subscription information at the EVENT website.
subTerrain No. 90, from East Vancouver, BC, features new work from TJ Beitelman, Clint Burnham, Louise Dumayne, Erika Dyck, Yosef Wosk, and more. Commentary, opinion, fiction, poetry, art, and book reviews.
You will find more information at the subTerrain website.
Hamilton Arts & Letters celebrates its 13th anniversary with the release of The Science Issue guest edited by Sima Rabinowitz. Contributors for Issue 14.2 include Remi Recchia, Sneha Madhavan-Reese, Mark McKain, Anne Baldo, Grace Sanchez MacCall, Brittany Friesen, Paul Elia, Rachael Carnes, Jill K. Gregory, Mark Cembrowski, J.S. Porter, William F. Pinar, George Grant, Kim Morgan, Susan Gibson Garvey, Richard van Holst, Anna van Valkenburg, JB Stone, Charlie C. Petch, Jenn Carson, David Huebert, Gary Fordham, Alexis Moline, Brooke Pratt, Nicholas Bradley, Al Purdy, Bernadette Rule, Jeffery Donaldson, Leo Dragtoe, Michael Mitchell, Charles James, Camille Nivera, Tor Lukasik-Foss, and Treasa Levasseur.
Read the full issue 14.2 at Hamilton Arts & Letters website.
Online literary magazine has officially released the results of its 13th annual Flash Fiction Contest. First place is “Thirteen Tips for Photographing Your Nephew’s Bar Mitzvah When You Still Can’t Forgive Your Brother-in-Law” by Nancy Ludmerer.
You will be able to read Nancy’s story and five additional finalists in Gemini‘s next issue due out later this month, including second place “The Tea Taster” by William Torphy.
Honorable Mentions:
Oxford American is celebrating 30 years in 2022. They are kicking off this milestone and year-long celebration with the release of Issue 116 (Spring 2022). Across a range of genres and subjects, their writers meditate on memory, identity, and artmaking via illuminating insights on Southern music, literature, politics, and more.
Issue 116 is now available for pre-order on the Oxford American website and will hit mailboxes in March 2022.
Literary magazine Ambit has announced its latest issue 246 will be hitting their printer soon, so don’t forget to subscribe today to enjoy 96 pages of poems, stories, and art. This is also the final issue where Kate Pemberton serves as fiction editor.
Enjoy poetry by Florence Ladd, Jehane Markham, Jay Barnett, Regi Claire, Michael Pedersen, Anthony Anaxagorou, and more; stories by Liz McSkeane, Emily Devane, Fannah Palmer, Meara Sharma, Ruth Rosengarten, Moz, and Regi Claire; and art by Jason McGlade, Laura Copsey, Sean McLusky, Chenyue Yuan, and Bert Gilbert.
Stop by Ambit‘s website to pre-order Issue 246 today or subscribe.
The first issue of year went live last month, but don’t forget Hippocampus Magazine refreshes each bimonthly issue with new columns, reviews, and interviews. This month, find Laura Sturza sharing how a writing community rocked her writing world in the WRITING LIFE column, plus find two Q&As with Suzanne Roberts and Galit Atlas. New to the reviews section: Emily Maloney reviewed by Sandra Hager Eliason, Victoria Chang reviewed by Ashley Supinski, Odyssey of Ashes: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Letting Go reviewed by Rachael J. Hughes, and Alexis Paige reviewed by Daphnee McMaster. Don’t forget in January Hippocampus featured nonfiction by Sara Tatyana Bernstein, Michelle DeLiso, Katharine M. Emlen, Melanie Figg, Farah Habib, Mark O. Hodgson, Ali Kojak, Veena K. Siddarth, Shell St. James, Tatyana M. Sussex, and Karen Winn.
Stop by the Hippocampus Magazine website to read the refreshed January-February 2022 issue.
In this issue of Cutleaf, the inimitable Rolli tells us of the time he wrote lewd fruit puns for pay in “Dirty Work.” Cynthia Young celebrates her powers as a young, Black girl in two poems beginning with “But My Sister Said All Poets Are Liars…” And Lucy Zhang takes us on a comic and cosmic ride with the Grim Reaper in “Bonchon Chats.” The images in this issue show Jupiter in three different types of light—infrared, visible, and ultraviolet.
Stop by Cutleaf‘s listing on NewPages to learn more about them and don’t forget to head on over to their website to read Issue 2.4.
In 2022 The Capilano Review is celebrating its 50th anniversary. To celebrate, they asked over a hundred past contributors to a submit a term, resonant with their practice, to their experimental glossary.
They are kicking this special event off with the release of the Spring 2022 issue (3.46: A-H), the first in their three-part glossary series where you can see the contributors’ creative practice in their literary and arts community.
These feature new work alongside notable selections from their archive, from many long-time contributors: Sonny Assu, Marian Penner Bancroft, Robin Blaser, Rebecca Brewer, Clint Burnham, listen chen, Wayde Compton, CAConrad, Jen Currin, Christos Dikeakos, Maxine Gadd, David Geary, Liz Howard, Carole Itter & Al Neil, Aisha Sasha John, Bhanu Kapil, Robert Keziere, Jónína Kirton, Sonnet L’Abbé, Danielle LaFrance, Laiwan, Nicole Markotić, Daphne Marlatt, Gailan Ngan, bpNichol, Shazia Hafiz Ramji, Lisa Robertson, Rhoda Rosenfeld, annie ross & Catriona Strang, Jordan Scott, Michelle Sylliboy, Fred Wah, Rita Wong, and Jin-me Yoon.
The Spring 2022 issue is available for pre-order or you can subscribe today and receive all three anniversary issues for $25 plus shipping.
Issue Number 60 of online literary magazine Mud Season Review features poetry by Tara Mesalik MacMahon, fiction by Amy Cipolla Barnes, nonfiction by Kayann Short, art by Paul Rabinowitz, with additional imagery by Deborah Ajilore, Kristin Fouquet, and Karen Boissonnealut-Gauthier.
Head on over to Mud Season Review‘s website to read the issue.
Poet Lore Volume 16 is guest edited by Tarfia Faizullah and features her Folio: Surrealism and Strangeness. “In what I am calling a ‘surreal’ or ‘strange’ poem, it’s not that the moon might be the eye of God, or could be, for example—it is that it is.”
Find more info at the Poet Lore website.
Harvard Review No. 58 includes new fiction from Laura van den Berg and Mark Chiusano, plus new poetry from Andrea Cohen, Kelli Russell Agodon, Kwame Dawes, and more.
Find more info at the Harvard Review website.
Pulp Literature No. 32 features new work from David Perlmutter, Leslie Wibberley, Zandra Renwick, Mel Anastasiou, Kelsey Hutton, Sarina Bosco, and more.
Find more info at the Pulp Literature website.
Southern Indiana Review’s Fall 2021 issue features artwork by Ann R. Fischer. Poetry from Dan Albergotti, Michael Bazzett, Carina Finn, Idris Goodwin, and more. Fiction from Tyler Barton, Tom Franklin, Tessa Yang, and more. Also, Nonfiction from Philip Metres, Kathryn Nuernberger, and more.
Find more info on this issue at the Southern Indiana Review website.
With “Puppy Bin” cover artwork by Emma Gerigscott, the new issue of Poetry Northwest includes poetry by Eric Wang, Michael Waters, and Nita Jade, and many more; essays by Erika Meitner and Nkosi Nkululeko; and features by Rajiv Mohabir, Karla Maravilla, Jane Wong, and Jaidyanna Podsobinski. You can find the new issue on the Poetry Northwest website.
The Main Street Rag Winter 2022 issue features editor M. Scott Douglas’s interview with Craig Johnson, author and creator of Longmire. New poetry from Margaret Benbow, Paul Colby, Pablo Patiño, and Rachel Mauro. New fiction from Burt Beckman, Valerie Gilbraeth, George Looney, Shoshauna Shy, and more. Includes a new batch of book reviews.
Find and buy the Winter 2002 issue at The Main Street Rag website.
Poetry magazine’s February 2022 issue includes new work from Suzi F. Garcia, Muna Abdulahi, Ada Limon, Keith Donnell Jr., Jeremy Michael Clark and more. “Grief in Three Bodies: A Conversation” is Khaty Xiong’s “intimate discussion that formed in the early months of COVID-19 lockdown, when I talked with poets and writers Victoria Chang and Prageeta Sharma about our personal experiences living with profound grief.“
Read more about the current issue at the Poetry website.
EVENT celebrates 50 years of publication with a Notes on Writing anthology, featuring more than 70 personal essays with insights into the joys and struggles of the writer’s life and process, written by notable Canadian writers, including Jane Urquhart, David Bergen, André Alexis, Madeleine Thien, Eden Robinson, Jen Sookfong Lee, Zoe Whittall, Joy Kogawa, Souvankham Thammavongsa, Joshua Whitehead, and many others.
Find more info and order your copy at the EVENT website.
Gargoyle 74 features nonfiction by Linda Blaskey, Ruth Boggs, Dylan Emmons, Darlene Fife, Jesse Lee Kercheval, CD Nickols, Randon Billings Noble, Darius Stewart, and M. Kaat Toy; poetry by Fran Abrams, John Kinsella, Elisabeth Murawski, Todd Swift, Paul Jaskunas, Rosemary Winslow, Beth Baruch Joselow, RC deWinter, Lyudmyla Diadchenko, to name a few; and fiction by Kelli Allen, Jeff Bagato, Christina Kapp, Jordan Redd, Esther Iverem, Che Parker, Meg Pokrass, Tom Whalen, Kathy Wiilson, and more.
View the full list of contributors and grab a copy of Gargoyle 74 here.