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!
The Summer 2021 issue of The Malahat Review features poetry by Elena Bentley, Patricia Caspers, Leah Callen, Christina Shah, Jamella Hagen, and Saeed Tavanee Marvi. See what else you can find in this issue at The Malahat Review website.
A new issue of The Dillydoun Review is only a couple days away, but don’t miss Issue 7 with poetry by Julie Benesh, Robert Beveridge, Eve Chilali, Robin Gow, Lily Mayo, Anita Nahal, and more; prose poetry by Cecilia M. Gigliotti; nonfiction by Jeff Lawenda; and more. See what else you can find at The Dillydoun Review website.
The Baltimore Review is pleased to present their Summer 2021 issue with poems, short stories, and creative nonfiction by: Jeffrey Bean, David Bergman, Stephen Cramer, Vishnas R. Gaitonde, Robin Gow, Claire Kortyna, Kelley J. P. Lindberg, Jarid McCarthy, and more. See a full list of contributors at The Baltimore Review website.
Issue 38 of The Adroit Journal is out! Poetry by David Hernandez, Mark Doty, Patricia Liu, Margaret Ray, Chris Santiago, Maja Lukic, Rachel Long, Mai Der Vang, Rebecca Morton, Rita Dove, and more; prose by Tucker Leighty-Phillips, Raye Hendrix, Krystle DiCristofalo, and Perry Lopez; and interviews with Rachel Yoder, Forrest Gander, Brandon Taylor, and Shangyang Fang. Read more info at The Androit Journal website.
I was surprised by the change of scenery when visiting 2River View’s website. The online literary journal just had a small makeover. Like before, the new design spotlights the four latest publications but they’re now at the center of the homepage with larger thumbnails of their always stunning featured art. The rest of the layout is mostly the same, but there is less text on the homepage, bringing the focus to those issues. So what are you waiting for? Go check out them out at their newly designed home!
Book Review by Katy Haas.
I’ve had Mary Biddinger’s Partial Genius on my “to-read” shelf of my bookcase for two years now. While participating in this year’s Sealy Challenge—reading 31 books of poetry in 31 days—I finally was able to sit down and read it (and reread it).
In these prose poems, Biddinger’s voice is both cynical and whimsical. I found humor throughout in lines like “I’d have to move back to Northern Michigan in order to be beautiful,” and “Your favorite part of the Bible was that story about the flood, but it was mostly the thought of luxuriating on a ship between camels and zebras and cranes and their vast, auspicious futures.”
But then suddenly there are lines that sober like these from “Untamed Thickets”:
I did a lot of really dumb things, like jumping out of cars and allowing my feelings to seep into the pad under the carpet. [ . . . ] Certain nights were so hot I just loomed on stairways waiting for someone to push me aside, which isn’t a punishment like making out with a man who hurt you, in a closet filled with electrified metal hangers, and then missing it.
It’s impossible to guess where Biddinger will take us. In “Voir Dire,” the paragraphs jump back and forth between scenes—one a thread linking religion to a diamond ring to the idea of ownership and freedom, and the other thread carrying us through a story of a robbery and being in court. In most other poems, we read one sentence and are immediately whisked off to another thought, and this unpredictability is what I love about this collection. Every poem is fresh, exciting, and beautifully crafted.
Biddinger has another book, Department of Elegy, forthcoming from Black Lawrence Press next year. I promise it won’t have any time to collect dust on my to-read shelf.
Partial Genius by Mary Biddinger. Black Lawrence Press, August 2019.
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On August 17 literary magazine The Common featured a conversation between Ilan Stavans and Haoran Tong on poetry and the use of multiple languages. Besides talking on how language is used and how they consider it in their own work, you also get to learn how they grew up and learned their languages from it being completely natural with no dominance of one language over the other to acquiring a new language as being an invasion.
My English education, in contrast, focused more on practical dialogues than on literature. English was taught to me as a useful tool to acquire more knowledge, but Chinese was me. This probably explains my initial reluctance to use English elements in Chinese poems, or vice versa. Moreover, I seriously scrutinized my poems, out of guilt, for any “latinized” syntax that sounded “unChinese.”
Stavans and Tong also talk on “decidophobia” and how common it is now when in societies today choices are constantly demanded and their is always the underlying fear that you may make the wrong one.
Decidophobia is a common social trait, especially in capitalist societies: we are constantly demanding ourselves to make a choice. This, obviously, comes with the fear of making the wrong one. Is it possible to have too many choices before us? Should one try to avoid such a situation? Probably not.
And if you are interested in translation versus translingualism, Stavans and Tong have a lot to bring to the table on the subject as well: “Whereas translation tells, explains, or instructs, translingual writing shows, infuses and liberates.” Check out the interview in it’s entirety.
Walter M. Robinson was selected by guest judge Megan Stielstra as the winner of River Teeth‘s 2020 Literary Nonfiction Book Prize. His book, What Cannot Be Undone, will be published by the University of New Mexico Press in Spring 2022. Stielstra writes that Dr. Robinson’s book gave her was “the deep humanity of the people called to save our lives.” Dr. Robinson also received a cash prize of $1,000.
The 2021 Literary Nonfiction Book Prize officially opened on August 1 with a deadline of October 31. The guest judge is award-winning author Rigoberto González. The winner receives $1,000 and book publication by The University of New Mexico Press.
Runner Up
Souvenirs from Paradise by Erin Langner
Three Finalists
Afterlight by Joshua Bernstein
How to Live by Kelle Groom
Swampitude by Quitman Marshall
Five Semi-Finalists
The Mothers by Rebe Huntman
Homemaker by Jessica Johnson
From Your Friend Carey Dean by Lisa Knopp
Poisons of War by Sabrina Veroczi
The Mary Years by Julie Marie Wade
Summer activities seem to be wrapping up, which is great news—now there is more time for reading! At this month’s Book Stand, we have more books to add to your “to-read” list, including five featured titles.
In Daughters by Brittney Corrigan, the poet reimagines characters from mythology, folklore, fairy tales, and pop culture from the perspective of their daughters—daughters we don’t expect such individuals to have, as we don’t usually think of Bigfoot, the Mad Hatter, or Medusa as parents.
Mortality, With Friends is a collection of lyrical essays from Fleda Brown, a writer and caretaker who lives with the nagging uneasiness that her cancer could return.
New Moons: Contemporary Writing by North American Muslims was edited by Kazim Ali who says: “This collection of voices ought to be symphony and cacophony at once, like the body of Muslims as they are today.”
L.E. Bowman delves into the intricate relationship between humans and nature, and how these often overlooked in What I Learned from the Trees.
Francine Rodriguez’s A Woman’s Story tells the stories of Latina women’s lives, stories that resonate on a deeply emotional level.
You can learn more about each of these New & Noteworthy books at our website. Click here to see how to place your book in our New & Noteworthy section.
On July 27, it was officially announced that Lynne Nugent will be officially taking over the editorship of literary magazine The Iowa Review. Nugent is the seventh editor in the journal’s half-century history and is the first nonwhite person to hold this position.
Nugent was the acting editor for the past year before being officially moved into the position. Katie Berta will now be taking Nugent’s vacated managing editor position.
The Iowa Review produces issues three times a year and has been in continuous publication since1970. Don’t forget to support the journal by subscribing or purchasing single issues.
Guest Post by Lauren Mead.
Survive the Night by Riley Sager is a twisted psychological thriller that will leave readers biting their nails right up until the end. It’s your classic girl-meets-boy story, but with serial killers and revenge. Awesome. When Charlie accepts a ride home from Josh Baxter, she is nervous, but no way could he be anything other than a nice guy. But as they journey farther towards their final destination, Charlie begins to discover that Josh isn’t who he says he is. She starts to think that he is the serial killer who murdered her roommate two months ago. Now she’s trapped in a car, in the middle of nowhere with a murderer and she’s got a suspicion that she’s next. In Riley Sager’s new page turner, no one is who they appear to be and, certainly, no one is safe.
Riley Sager’s books are all gripping, but Survive the Night turns up the heat as the reader tries to guess who the serial killer might be. It’s an insightful look into the idea of safety. Who can we trust? What does a “safe person” look like? This is a particularly resonant discussion given the current #metoo reveals. As a reader, inhabiting the mind of a terrified girl trapped in the car with a maybe serial killer made me think hard about the ways that women learn not to trust their instincts even when they feel like a situation is bad. At every turn, Charlie was terrified, but second guessed herself. In Survive the Night, Sager asks the question: If not yourself, who can you trust?
Survive the Night by Riley Sager. Dutton Books, June 2021.
Reviewer bio: Lauren Mead has been published in The Danforth Review, The MacGuffin, Soliloquies and Forest for the Trees. She also writes for her blog, www.novelshrink.com.
Buy this book from our affiliate Bookshop.org.
Able Muse has just released the announcement of their 2021 Write Prize for Poetry and Fiction winners. The submissions were judged anonymously by the Able Muse Contest Committee and the final judges, William Baer (fiction) and Jehanne Dubrow (poetry).
Amina Gautier’s “We Ask Why” wins the Write Prize for fiction. Baer said the piece is “a deeply moving story that raises serious questions about personal identity and parentage.” The winning story will be published in the Winter 2021/22 edition of Able Muse.
FICTION HONORABLE MENTION:
FICTION SHORTLIST:
E. D. Watson’s “Twelfth of May” wins the Write Prize for Poetry. Dubrow states “What I so appreciate abut this poem is the wryness, its gift for evoking landscape…and the speaker’s sudden hunger in the early aftermath of trauma.” The winning poem and the finalists will be also be published in the Winter 2021/22 issue.
POETRY FINALISTS:
POETRY HONORABLE MENTION:
Stay tuned for the 2021 Able Muse Book Award announcement.
Endings & Beginnings. Fiction by Sruthi Narayanan, Titus Chalk, Michael Nye, and others; creative nonfiction by Katie Culligan and Kirsten L. Parkinson; and poetry by Chelsea Wagenaar, Richard K. Kent, Grant Clauser, John A. Nieves, Chelsea Bayouth, Emma Aylor, Suzie Eckl, Magpie Miller, Christen Noel Kauffman, Carol Guess & Rochelle Hurt, and more. See more contributors at the Nimrod website.
Deadline: Rolling
Have fun with your writing practice with our free classes: Free Your Writing Flow and Start with Sparks! Play on the Page is teaching writers how to tweak their writing attitudes and strategies to create joyful, ongoing, productive writing lives. Thanks to an Individual Artists Program Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, our summer classes are free to all through September 30, 2021! Learn more and register at www.playonthepage.com. Let’s play!
In this issue: fiction by Kristi Humphrey Davis, Brett Dixon, Ankur Razdan, Babak Movahed, Douglas K. Currier, and David Sapp; poetry by Michael S. Glaser, Buffy Aakaash, Ellen Austin-Li, Rachel Barton, Anthony Butts, Ted Clausen, Richard Cole, John Cullen, Holly Day, John Philip Drury, Susan Entsminger, Craig Evenson, Ken Fifer, Kasha Martin Gauthier, Carol Hamilton, Ken Holland, William Snyder, Jr., William R. Stoddart, Maryfrances Wagner, Kari Wergeland, Nicole Walker, Richard Widerkehr, Beth Oast Williams, and more. See who else you can find in this issue at The Main Street Rag website.
See what Grand Little Things has published in the past month: poetry by Jane Kennedy Mitchell, Steve Mentz, Sean Patrick, David Russell Mosley, Evan Vandermeer, Ken Gosse, Tonya Walter, Amanda Ryan, Martin Potter, and Bob McAfee. Get more info at the Grand Little Things website.
In this issue, Vanessa Nirode deciphers the vague alteration notes left for the often-over-looked, behind-the-scenes tailors for television shows. Benjamin Woodard gives a breath-taking account of Barry, a man in his mid-50s, who acts impulsively while out for an evening stroll with his wife. Ohio Poet Laureate Kari Gunter-Seymour writes about what happens when you try to love someone who thinks he doesn’t deserve to be loved. Learn more about this issue’s images at the Cutleaf website.
Phew, August has found The Masters Review making a lot of announcements.
First, they announced that Dean Jamieson is the winner of their Winter 2020-21 Short Story Award for New Writers. His winning story, “Straight to My Heart” can be read online. Plus, they also have an interview with Dean.
Corey Flintoff’s “Collection Of The Artist” took home second place. The story and an interview with Corey is also available.
Then they announced the ten finalists selected by guest judge Diane Cook for publication in The Masters Review Anthology X.
The Bird Rattle by Chelsy Diaz Amaya
Atlas, Bayonet, (War) Correspondence: An Abecedarian by Tanya Bellehumeur-Allatt
Limbs by Megan Callahan
Do Not Duplicate by John Darcy
Resurrection by Hilary Dean
Comfort Animals by Travis Eisenbise
Persimmon by Elissa C. Huang
All That Is or Ever Was or Ever Will Be by Eliana Ramage
A String of Lapis Beads by Greg Schutz
Sugar by Francis Walsh
And finally, they have announced that Nick Almeida’s Masterplans has won their inaugural chapbook contest. The book is forthcoming in Fall 2021 and you can read the titular story right now as a preview of what’s to come.
At the end of last year, we introduced a Canadian independent bookstores mailing list to help writers reach our neighbors to the north. Right now, you can get the digital Canadian bookstore list for free when you buy the digital United States bookstore list. Reach nearly 1,800 bookstores with both lists.
More interested in reaching libraries? You can still buy our public library list and receive the academic library list for free.
Learn more about all our mailing lists at our website.
Jeffrey Levine and Kristina Marie Darling invite you to join Tupelo Press’ expertly-designed online poetry manuscript conference. We will meet in small, intimate groups. You will be guided through the craft of transforming your manuscript into a book that coheres and sings! At the end, you’ll have a readied manuscript, a publication plan, and a community of fellow poets. Rolling registration.
View the full NewPages August 2021 eLitPak newsletter.
All authors want to get their books into the hands of as many readers as possible. Though it is a publisher’s role to aid and assist authors in marketing and publicity for every book, the role of any publisher necessarily takes a back seat to your all-important efforts. Nobody else can do this essential work as effectively as you can.
View the full NewPages August 2021 eLitPak newsletter.
UNC Greensboro’s MFA is a two-year residency program offering fully funded assistantships with stipends. Students work closely with faculty in one-on-one tutorials and develop their craft in a lifelong community of writers. UNCG offers courses in poetry, fiction, publishing, and creative nonfiction, plus opportunities in college teaching and editorial work for The Greensboro Review. More at mfagreensboro.org. Application deadline: January 1.
View the full NewPages August 2021 eLitPak newsletter.
This collection of craft essays offers thoughtful insights from some of the highest-rated speakers from HippoCamp: A Conference for Creative Nonfiction Writers, who also happen to be some of the brightest minds in CNF we know. Get your copy today.
View the full NewPages August 2021 eLitPak newsletter.
New summer titles from Livingston Press by James Braziel (a Tartt First Fiction Award winner due out this month!), Mark Budman, Daren Dean, William Gay, and Terence Gallagher. We will announce the Tartt winner soon and then will resume open reading for fiction titles. Plus, stay tuned for new fall and winter releases by Christy Alexander Hallberg, Kurt Leviant, James Findlay Sleigh, and M. Kaat Toy.
View the full NewPages August 2021 eLitPak newsletter.
We have started shipping Francine Rodriguez’ new collection of short stories on August 19! Be among the first to read this important and profound collection of stories of primarily Latina women who live in and around downtown Los Angeles.
View the full NewPages August 2021 eLitPak newsletter.
Our intensive two-year studio/hybrid MFA program helps you find your way in an atmosphere of cooperation and encouragement. We support college graduates who want to concentrate on craft and on reading the way writers do. Visit our website for more information. Application deadline: January 6.
View the full NewPages August 2021 eLitPak newsletter.
Guest Post by Stephanie Renee dos Santos.
Eleonora and Joseph by Julieta Ameida Rodrigues elucidates the fascinating connections between eighteenth century Portugal, Italy, and the United States, exploring revolutionary voices, supporters, and contributors to the European Enlightenment movement. The characters, former United States President Thomas Jefferson, Portuguese priest and scientist Joseph Correia da Serra, and Portugal descendant aristocratic poet and royal librarian Eleonora Fonseca Pimentel, bring to life this tumultuous and radical time of conflict and change. Each of these plays a different and distinct role in this Revolutionary era on both sides of the Atlantic.
Through these three characters, Rodrigues fleshes out a unique story, revealing the international complexities and connections in Europe and in the United States. This book allows the reader into the inner workings of this radical time where many opposing ideals were fought and died for. This is an original historical novel highlighting Eleonora, whose life story connects all three protagonists in surprising ways. Courageous Eleonora, who risked her life for the ideals of equality and freedom for all. In addition, the author recreates the historically celebrated and controversial male characters, President Thomas Jefferson and botanist Joseph Correia da Serra, whom she skillfully shows their inner motives and drives that propel the novel forward in complicated and tragic ways.
It is refreshing as a lover of historical fiction to read an original story like Eleonora and Joseph that brings to life important historical characters and events from a fresh new angle and lens.
Eleonora and Joseph by Julieta Almeida Rodrigues. New Academia Publishing, July 2020.
Reviewer bio: Stephanie Renee dos Santos is author of Cut From The Earth, a Semi-Finalist for the Chanticleer International Book Reviews Chaucer Book Awards. To learn more: www.stephaniereneedossantos.com.
Buy this book from our affiliate Bookshop.org.
Check out the titles slated for release this fall from Main Street Rag. These will be release in September, October, and November. You can order an advanced copy at a discounted price, too!
Which titles are you adding to your fall and winter reading lists?
Guest Post by Susan Kay Anderson.
The newly published novel by Clarence Major is a straightforward narrative from the point of view of its protagonist, James Eric Lowell, a studious young poet of the 1960s. As I read this plain spoken and gentle portrait of the Love Era and how Beats and Bohemians morphed into the hippy movement with its profound activism for civil rights, I noticed how I felt right at home with the sensibilities and customs of that world. Why? Because The Lurking Place portrays exactly the lifestyle of many iconic writers and artists. While cultural eras cannot be broken up into neat decades, at the same time I find that The Lurking Place shows us the early beginnings of academic programs in a way that is organic and appealing.
Now here we were, the bohemians, the artists, and the poets—the new tenants—taking up residence in these dilapidated apartments.
Many “whys” get attention in The Lurking Place:
Why? Because we were not rich, and they were affordable. Being here together also gave us a community, one held together by the idea of creativity and intellectual pursuit.
In mid-June, I was invited up to Harlem to read my poems to a group that turned out to be composed mostly of young militant black 17 men and women who were, like me, aspiring poets.
What is stark in this is how poets and artists run around with their good intentions and before the world of digital instantaneousness, running around was physical and included a lot of exploration of the world in a physical way and of course interaction with other people. This, the world of writing via pen, paper, envelopes, typewriters, is represented by objects of solid weight instead of being “typed by thumbs, ugh” and we can read about that world here.
The Lurking Place by Clarence Major. Manic D Press, 2021.
Reviewer bio: Susan Kay Anderson is the author of Please Plant This Book Coast To Coast, Virginia Brautigan Aste’s memoir, and Mezzanine (poems) both by Finishing Line Press. She has poems forthcoming in Barrow Street Journal, Heron Tree, and Wild Roof Journal.
Buy this book from our affiliate Bookshop.org.
Literary magazine CARVE offers the Raymond Carver Short Story Contest annually in the spring with winners appearing in their fall issue. The contest awards $3,000 across five prizes and is open to stories written in English from around the world.
The 2021 contest was judged by Leesa Cross-Smith who chose the top three prizewinners.
First – $2000: “Habits” by Morgan Green in Abington, PA
Second – $500: “The Pit” by Chris Blexrud in New Orleans, LA
Third – $250: “Field Dressing” by Mariah Rigg in Eugene, OR
Editors’ Choice – $125: “What Happened with the Librarian?” by Haley Hach in Rhinebeck, NY
Editors’ Choice – $125: “The Kingdom of the Shades” by Nina Ellis in London, UK
Finalists
“Disappear” by Patricia King
“Eyrie Hours” by Stephanie Pushaw
“Mapping the New Hell” by Shana Hartmann
“Those People” by Melissa Gardea
“St. Felix Dance & Bowl” by Joshua Wales
Guest Post by Joyce Bou Charaa.
Robert J. Harris reintroduces the famous detective fictional character, Sherlock Holmes, in a new murder mystery story that takes place in 20th century London. In this novel, Sherlock Holmes is facing a murder case that takes him back to the shadows of the Victorian period of England.
A Study In Crimson narrates the murder of two young women found by the Scotland Yard police in the streets of London. Near their dead bodies, the killer leaves his name: “Crimson Jack.” Both Holmes and his close friend, Dr. Watson, are in search of the killer’s identity. The two believe he is impersonating the infamous serial killer Jack the Ripper, who marked the year 1888 with his terrible deeds by attacking young women in the most savage way and strangling them to death. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, along with Inspector Lestrade and other inspectors from Scotland Yard, go through a wide range of investigations filled with suspense, hidden secrets, and new discoveries. Continue reading “Return to 221B Baker Street”
Find Willow Springs Fall 2021 is out. New poetry by Roy Bentley, John Blair, Bruce Bond, Kathryn Hunt, Melissa Kwasny, Sandra McPherson, Melanie Tafejian, Lyuba Yakimchuk, and more; fiction by Robert Long Foreman, Amanda Marbais, and Wendy Elizabeth Wallace; and nonfiction by Andrew Farkas, Jeremy Alves da Silva Klemin, and Holly Spencer. Plus closing the issue: an interview with Kevin McIlvoy. Read more at the Willow Springs website.
Featuring some wonderful poetry, fiction, and narrative nonfiction from: Katie Berta, Krysta Lee Frost, Huan He, Laetitia Keok, Alyse Knorr, Kyle Liang, Zefyr Lisowski, lisa luxx, Livia Meneghin, Meghana Mysore, and more. See additional contributors at the wildness website.
The Summer 2021 issue of Snapdragon is out. This issue is filled with poetry, creative nonfiction, and photography from around the globe. This year, we’re focused on the stages of grief and using art to explore the various complexities of grief. This is our second issue of the series, and the theme is “anger.” But, rest assured, though the issue explores the raw pain of anger, it explores it beautifully and artistically. Read more info at the Snapdragon website.
The latest issue of Hole in the Head Review features work by Sheleen McElhinney, Cindy Buchanan,, David Dixon, Miriam N. Kotzin, Jocelyn Ulevicus, Kenneth Rosen, Cal Freeman, Jefferson Navicky, Julio Maran, Jill DeGroff, Lisa Bellamy, Tania Runyan, Jacklyn Hogan, JC Reilly, Cynthia Good, Christopher Rubio-Goldsmith, Dan McLeod, Jean Kane, and more. Find a full list of contributors at the Hole in the Head Review website.
The Louisville Review, Volume 89, Spring 2021, includes poetry, fiction, art essays, and book reviews from the following authors: Julie Beals, D. A. Becher, Carl Boon, Christopher Buckley, K. J. Bundy, Roger Camp, Peter Cooley, Todd Davis, Anastasia Dreval, Halina Duraj, Lynn Gordon, Lily Greenberg, Kathleen Gregg, Samina Hadi-Tabassum, Ken Holland, Elizabeth Hughey, Marcia L. Hurlow, Emily Jennings, Bonnie Omer Johnson, Hallie Johnston, Brandon Krieg, Peter Leight, Gabrielle LeJeune, Robin Lippincott, Elmo Lum, Sofia Machado, Melissa Madenski, and more. See what else you can find in this issue at The Louisville Review website.
Magazine Review by Katy Haas.
128 words. That’s what Cathy Ulrich gives us in “I Do Not Want to Live Without You.” Just 128 words. And somehow that’s exactly enough.
We’re introduced to characters in a motel and the motel’s swimming pool, a quick snapshot but a vivid one. The narrator says, “maybe later there will be consequences and police cars, maybe later it will be like our parents said,” and this is the perfect amount of information to allow readers to put together a backstory for this snapshot.
Is it the backstory Ulrich imagined when writing this piece of flash? Is the backstory you assign it the same as mine? Maybe or maybe not. And that’s what I love about it. There’s beauty in the language used and beauty in what’s kept from us.
“I Do Not Want to Live Without You” by Cathy Ulrich. Flash Frog, June 2021.
What if there existed a span in your memory that wasn’t really your memory at all?
Jeff Ewing goes through this in “Impermanence,” his account of experiencing Transient Global Amnesia (TGA), “a temporary condition marked by the sudden onset of anterograde amnesia, a disquieting inability for a period of 5-12 hours to make any new memories.” During this time, “the brain resets every 30 seconds or so, the slate is wiped clean, [ . . . ].”
Due to TGA, Ewing loses eight hours of his life. While his body moved around an ER and underwent tests, he doesn’t really remember it. And the faint memories he does have may not even be his. Ewing goes on to talk about the ways our memories fail us. We perform “memory thefts,” sometimes subconsciously taking someone else’s memory and believing it’s our own. What he remembers could actually just be what has been told to him. Suddenly intimately aware of this fallibility of memory, he tries to savor moments in his life post-TGA, to “fasten it all down for good.”
This piece of nonfiction is an interesting look at memory and TGA, something I had never heard of before. Ewing’s writing style is inviting, and he casually yet carefully explains TGA and memory, making sure the reader is following along. He doesn’t bask too long in the emotional, but leads us there gently, wrapping up this piece with a reminder to take stock of what it is we’d want to “fasten down” in our own memories.
Magazine Review by Katy Haas
“Impermanence” by Jeff Ewing. Zone 3, Spring 2021.
Guest Post by Betsy Boyd.
I teach writing in an MFA program and have recently begun using Kathy Flann’s book WRITE ON: Secrets to Crafting Better Stories in the classroom. I appreciate the readable humor, relatability, and stealthy brilliance of her advice. Flann’s creative observations and essential recommendations make writing a strong, authentic narrative more achievable—sooner.
One grad student told me that her instruction helps him to ask the big story questions earlier than he might otherwise. I use the book in my own writing life as well. It’s a smart, comforting how-to for anyone drafting a new work, which all writers, at every career stage, must do.
WRITE ON: Secrets to Crafting Better Stories by Kathy Flann. Stay Thirsty Publishing, August 2020.
Reveiwer bio: Betsy Boyd directs the Creative Writing and Publishing Arts MFA program at the University of Baltimore. Her fiction has been published in Kenyon Review, StoryQuarterly, Shenandoah, Eclectica, Del Sol Review, the Pushcart Prize Anthology, and elsewhere.
Buy this book from our affiliate Bookshop.org.
Reviewer’s Note: I know Kathy Flann as a Baltimore-based colleague and friend. We are in a longstanding writing group together. Because I admire her work and her critique methods so much, I feel comfortable both using them in my teaching realm and writing a review—totally unbiased. I am especially picky about the craft books I’ll bring into a workshop.
Last night Club Plum Literary Journal announced their 2021 Best of the Net nominees!
Fiction:
“U. Vulgaris” by Mary Alice Long
“The Swing” by t.m. thomson
Prose Poetry
“Natures Mortes” by Katherine Cart
“escape” by L. Kardon
“Downpour” by Lorette C. Luzajic
“How to Make a Shroud” by Kristen Roach
“If This Is the Truth” by Sean Rys
Art
“Plums” by Ann-Marie Brown
“The Jellyfish Invasion of Asbury Park” by Joe Lugara
“Blithe #2” by Oormila Vijayakrishnan Prahlad
You can check out these nominated pieces at the journal’s website.
Guest Post by Cindy Dale.
First, a confession. I had to look Namibia up on the map. That’s where Katie Crouch’s fourth novel, Embassy Wife, is set. This funny, insightful, thought-provoking romp will entertain you, inform you, and get you thinking about things you might not normally think about.
The novel follows three women—newly arrived former Silicon Valley COO Amanda Evans; Persephone, the tipsy former southern belle queen bee of the Expat crowd; and Mila, the statuesque, ebony skinned wife of the Minister of Transportation. All are what’s called “trailing spouses.” Add to the mix their respective husbands, children, and household staffs, and you’ve got quite a cast of characters. Not surprisingly, their lives intersect in surprising ways both in the present and the past.
There’s a lot of commentary on everything from the legacy of Colonialism to marriage to genocide and gem smuggling embedded in the story. One key driver of the plot: animal poaching, one rhino and one stake-out in particular. The story is told from the third person omniscient point of view, allowing the author to deftly dance between the characters.
Part satire. Part Expat story. Always surprising. You will laugh out loud at some of the references (“the Great Orange Oompa Loompa”) and find yourself quoting many of the lines, including the acronym FIGJAM (read the book to find out).
Embassy Wife by Katie Crouch. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, July 2021.
Reviewer bio: Cindy Dale has published over twenty short stories in literary journals and anthologies. She lives on a barrier beach off the coast of Long Island.
Buy this book from our affiliate Bookshop.org.
This month’s feature includes a selection of Veronica Golos’s work. The poet is also interviewed by Amy Beeder. Sonia Greenfield reviews Finding Token Creek by Robert Alexander. In nonfiction: “The Only Critic” by J.T. Barbarese. Check out some of this issue’s poets at the Plume website.
River Heron Review Issue 4.2 has launched and is ready for you to read and enjoy. Issue 4.2 includes the work of 20 poets: J.I. Kleinberg, Tresha Faye Haefner, Dean Schabner, Wendy Steginsky, John Sibley Williams, Maliká Duff, Hannah Larrabee, Julie Cooper-Fratrik, and more. See a full contributor list at the River Heron Review website.
Deadline: October 13, 2021
Event Dates: October 15 – 17, 2021
Event Location: Virtual
Join us for the 32nd Annual Emerald City Writers’ Conference. We will be holding the conference completely online this year! Whether you’ve been published many times over or are just starting out, there’s something at ECWC for everyone.The 2021 ECWC will include three 3-hour master classes, pre-recorded workshops with live Q&A’s, pitch appointments with agents and editors, our popular Pitchfest, sprints, and a happy hour social.
In this issue, John Davis, Jr. shares four poems beginning with a praise to the coast in “Inland: A Breakup Letter.” Matt Cashion relishes in the complexities of human nature that emerge when a mysterious light source appears in the sky in “See You Soon?” And Meredith McCarroll extols the virtues of packing lightly while always having precisely what you need in “Bags.” See what images are in store for you at the Cutleaf website.
In this issue: short stories by and interviews with Matt Jones, Vanessa Bernice De La Cruz, Jose Diego Medina, and Amanda Hartzell. New poetry by Eric Bodwell, Despy Boutris, Katherine Riegel, and Eric Wang. New nonfiction by Ashley Memory and Craig Coray. See what else is in this issue at the Carve website.
Next month, Snapdragon will resume hosting their Art & Healing Popups. The donation-based online events feature a different artist and artistic practice each month. The series was on pause for the summer, but will return on Sunday, September 12 with “Introduction to Zentangle” with Vanesa Simon.
You can RSVP for this event to receive a reminder when it gets a little closer at Snapdragon‘s website. While you’re there, you can see what materials you’ll need, as well as a list of past events.
If you aren’t subscribed to Ruminate‘s newsletter (you probably should be), they announced in their July 31 edition that Jess Jelsma Masterton is joining their team as Editor. She was unanimously elected to the position due to her “compelling vision for the magazine” and care for the staff, readers, and their mission.
Masterton has previously worked on the Cincinnati Review where she served as an Assistant and Associate Editor. She has also recently completed her PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Cincinnati. Her own fiction, nonfiction, and audio works can be found in recent issues of The Arkansas International, The Southern Review, and The Normal School.
Interim Editor Jen Stewart Fueston will work with Masterton to ensure a smooth transition before returning to her board position later this fall.
The team at Ruminate are committed to being an independent magazine with the freedom to cultivate their authentic selves through nourishing conversations, actions, and art that spiritually sustains and are excited to continue their united journey with Masterton at the helm.
That’s right! On September 1, The Ohio State University will begin accepting applications for their MFA program in creative writing. The deadline to submit applications is December 6 for domestic applicants and November 29 for international applicants.
All admitted students are fully-funded for the entire length of the three-year program and they also receive a graduate teaching associateship, a graduate school fellowship, or a combination of the two. The program also allows students focusing on fiction, nonfiction, or poetry to cross over into other genres.
Besides the workshops and tutorials, there are some other amazing opportunities for students. The program offers an Editors Panel, a public performance showcasing creative work by third-year MFA students called Epilog, two student-faculty readings each semester, Mother Tongue evenings where MFA students get to read their work to their peers, and a Native Craft Reading Series.
Check out all the program has to offer and start getting your application materials ready.
Guest Post by Megan Riann.
The Scorpio Races pulls the reader into an immersive, sharp-edged world where our main characters have everything at stake. Puck and Sean, both teens on a fictional island off the American west coast, are competing on unlikely steeds in a deadly race across an unforgiving beach.
The premise and the ensuing story are original and gripping. Keltic-inspired water horses, red sea cliffs, and a deadly race to change your life? A perfect mix of familiar and fresh.
Additionally, the language in this book is phenomenal. Maggie Stiefvater’s prose is incredible and indulgent. Similarly, all the dialogue was purposeful, in-character, and clever. Not a single line was wasted.
This author absolutely nails character and development. All the motivations are clear and intense. The dual first-person perspectives allow the reader to get lost in the mind of the characters. As we root for Puck and Sean, the supporting casts’ contrasting goals add to the tension and stakes.
I would recommend this book to those who appreciate strong prose and powerful stories. With light magical realism, this story includes characters to root for, antagonists to hate, and stakes that will have you holding your breath.
The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater. Scholastic Inc., 2013.
Reviewer bio: Megan Riann is a Creative Writing major from West Michigan. When not writing, she’s watching superhero movies with her cat and hanging out on #writestagram.
Buy this book from our affiliate Bookshop.org.