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At the NewPages Blog readers and writers can catch up with their favorite literary and alternative magazines, independent and university presses, creative writing programs, and writing and literary events. Find new books, new issue announcements, contest winners, and so much more!

Where to Submit Roundup: June 27, 2025

Welcome to our June 27, 2025 writing prompt and submission opportunities roundup—your weekly dose of inspiration and places to share your work.

It’s the final full week of June—hard to believe the year is already half over, isn’t it? If you’re lucky enough to be getting a break from the heat vortex that’s been smothering much of the country in sweaty malaise and creative inertia, maybe now’s the time to hit the pool. Or, if it’s still too hot to think, stay inside and focus on your writing, editing, and submission goals.

This week, I was torn between which writing prompt to include in the newsletter versus our weekly roundup of submission opportunities—but in the end, I went with my gut.

Writing Prompt Gut Instinct: What if your gut had a voice?

Since the end of 2023, I’ve been dealing with a new gut issue: acid reflux. It’s amazing what stress (and the bad eating habits that come with it) can do to your stomach on top of some newly discovered FODMAP issues. That got me thinking…

Writing Prompt: Gut Instinct

When the world is too loud, sometimes the only voice we can trust is the one rumbling in our gut. Whether it’s intuition, indigestion, or something in between, this week we invite you to write about your gut—literally or metaphorically.

  • What if your gut had a voice?
  • What if it was a character, a symbiote, a weather vane for your emotional climate?

As Ebenezer Scrooge once said in The Muppet Christmas Carol, “You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato.”

Sometimes our ghosts—and our stories—start in the stomach.

And in the immortal words of Little Giants:
“I use these for acid indigestion.”
“What are we going to use them for?”
“Intimidation.”

If you know, you know. If you don’t…go watch Little Giants now.

Gut health is a serious topic, but maybe getting creative about our woes and maladies can bring some relief—if not physical, then at least mental or spiritual.

After going with your gut, keep scrolling to find a submission opportunity that speaks to it.

Continue reading “Where to Submit Roundup: June 27, 2025”

Magazine Stand :: Hiram Poetry Review – Spring 2025

Hiram Poetry Review Spring 2025 magazine cover image

In the Editor’s Note for the Spring 2025 issue of Hiram Poetry Review, Willard Greenwood writes, “When the HPR first came into existence, we published poems by Charles Bukowski — see our first couple of issues. Since then, we have been on the lookout for outlaw poets and their various desperado philosophies in poetic form.”

Joining the ranks in the newest issue of Hiram Poetry Review are works by Fred Arroyo, Katie Berta, Neil Carpathios, Lynn Gilbert, Jake Hunter, Jeff McRae, Daniel Morris, J. Alan Nelson, Gloria Parker, Robert L. Penick, Joseph Powell, Beth Brown Preston, Gabriel Ricard, Claire Scott, JR Solonche, Jeff Tigchelaar, and many others.

Discover loads more great lit mags with our Guide to Literary Magazines, Big List of Literary Magazines, and Big List of Alternative Magazines. If you are a publication looking to be listed in our monthly roundup or featured on our blog and social media, please contact us.

Magazine Stand :: New England Review – 46.2

New England Review Issue 46.2 magazine cover image

New England Review 46.2 features stirring prose by Kirk Wilson, Nur Turkmani, and Rebecca Chace; luminous poetry by Bridget Lowe, Inkyoo Lee, and Jon Pineda; the special folio “The Sharpened Will of Us All”: Contemporary Salvadoran Writing in Translation, guest edited by Alexandra Lytton Regalado; and much more. Cover art: Homogenized, 60×36 inches, acrylic and multimedia on canvas, by Josué Rojas.

Additionally, in the Editor’s Note, Carolyn Kuebler contemplates with readers on the shifting threats we are negotiating daily and the role of literature in the fray: “Authoritarianism has always been antithetical to literature, which questions what we’re told and how to think. Even when it’s being ignored, literature works as a tool for freedom: freedom to create, reflect, observe, tell the truth, and imagine; freedom from ‘the tyranny of the present.’ But when the margins no longer offer cover, when you’re no longer invisible but vulnerable at the center, then what? Like in dodgeball, is it preferable to concede? To dodge and continue to play by the rules, or walk away from the game entirely? Maybe the metaphor ends here, because when it comes to writing, publishing, and the work of NER, we plan to stay in the game as long as possible.”

Creative Drift: Finding Meaning in the In-Between

Writing Prompt: Still Astray

Astray. Adverb. Meaning to be away from the correct path or direction, much like being lost.

In our latest newsletter, It’s Looking Like a Lit Wave, we shared literary updates, submission opportunities, book reviews, and new releases to help you stay creatively inspired through the summer heat. One standout feature this week is our inspiration prompt, which invites writers to explore the emotional and creative terrain of being “still astray.”

🌡️ Why This Prompt?

Inspired by the haunting refrain from Stray Kids’ song “Lonely St.”, this prompt taps into the feeling of being unmoored—creatively, emotionally, or existentially. In the thick of a heatwave or a creative dry spell, it’s easy to feel directionless. But what if being “astray” isn’t a failure, but a form of freedom?

Sometimes, others only show support once you’ve nearly arrived at your destination or finally “made it.” But what if you’re still in the in-between? Do you welcome that support—or stand firm in your journey, even if it’s unfinished?

✨ Prompt: Still Astray

Write from the perspective of being “still astray.”

  • What does it mean to be lost in a world that demands direction?
  • Is being astray a failure—or a kind of freedom?
  • What do we discover when we stop trying to arrive?

Whether you’re working on poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction, let this be your invitation to explore the beauty and tension of the in-between.

🎧 Bonus inspiration:
Watch the “Lonely St.” music video by Stray Kids — a visual and lyrical journey through solitude, resilience, and self-direction.

If the idea of being astray doesn’t resonate with you, what does the music video inspire? What story do you see playing out? (Closed caption English subtitles are available if you want to follow the lyrics.) Or maybe this is your chance to learn more about this internationally composed Korean band.

📬 Want more prompts like this?
Subscribe to the NewPages Newsletter to get weekly writing inspiration, submission calls, literary news, and indie publishing highlights—delivered straight to your inbox.
👉 Subscribe here and never miss a lit wave!

Want to dig through past writing prompts? Discover more here.

Sponsored :: New Book :: The Cobbler’s Crusaders

The Cobbler's Crusaders by Rick Steigelman book cover image

The Cobbler’s Crusaders by Rick Steigelman
Author Published, May 2025

Jacquelyn Pajot, a nine-year-old American visiting her sanctimonious grandmother in Paris, falls in with a pair of young French girls whose carefree grasp of ‘right and wrong’ has the wide-eyed American narrowly averting prison, purgatory and, most perilously, her grandmother’s righteous indignation.

“A charmingly whimsical, whip-smart slice of Parisian life wrapped in equal parts heart and humor…Rick Steigelman’s prose is wry, warm, and beautifully descriptive, capturing the magic of Montmartre through the curious, wide eyes of young Jacquelyn Pajot.” — Alex Norton, Likely Story

“Dialogue sparkles with life, especially as Jacquelyn navigates the humorous pitfalls of being an American tween in a French-speaking world.” — Swapna Peri, Book Reviews Cafe

“Beneath all the comedic mishaps, there’s a beautiful sense of intergenerational connection. The dynamic between Jacquelyn and her grandmother, Catherine, is particularly touching as it anchors the story in emotional truth while allowing the young cast to explore their own emerging identities and moral boundaries. I’d easily recommend it to readers who enjoy novels like A Man Called Ove or The Elegance of the Hedgehog, stories that offer laughter, but also invite you to pause and feel something deeper.” — Heena Pardeshi, The Reading Bud

Editor’s Choice :: Arcana: The Lost Heirs

Arcana: The Lost Heirs by Author/Illustrator Sam Prentice-Jones book cover image

Arcana: The Lost Heirs by Author/Illustrator Sam Prentice-Jones
Feiwel & Friends, June 2024

Debut author/illustrator Sam Prentice-Jones explores fighting against destiny and reconciling the actions of ancestors in Arcana: The Lost Heirs, a tarot-inspired fantasy YA graphic novel.

James, Daphne, Koko, and Sonny have all grown up surrounded by magic in the Arcana, an organization of witches that protects the magical world, run by the mysterious and secretive Majors. Eli Jones, however, hadn’t even known other witches existed, until he stumbled into James. As James introduces him to the world of the Arcana, Eli finds the family he never had and a blossoming romance with James.

The five new friends soon realize that sinister influences are afoot, and everything may not be what it seems at the Arcana. When the group delves deeper into the mystery surrounding the deaths of their parents and the Majors’ rise to power, they discover that they’re at the center of a curse — one they’ve just unwittingly set into motion. As the friends search for answers, they’ll have to confront the cursed legacy that links them in hopes of freeing their futures.

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

Magazine Stand :: About Place – May 2025

About Place May 2025 literary journal cover image

“Careful/Care-full Collaboration,” the May 2025 issue of About Place Journal, is now available for readers to enjoy open-access online in addition to the publication’s full archive.

“Creative collaboration,” write the editors, “is an opportunity to summon and practice ways of being in the world that honor multiplicity, reciprocity, reflection, and, foremost, care. Challenging myths of exceptional individualism as constructed within colonial and capitalist contexts, collaboration arises as a method of and commitment to seeding and nurturing webs of knowledge, histories, practices, and relationships with each other and the places that are sacred to us. Guided by these understandings, the most recent issue of About Place Journal contemplates what it means to entangle in co-creative practices and processes that are both careful and full of care.”

About Place is a literary journal published by the Black Earth Institute, dedicated to re-forging the links between art and spirit, earth and society.

Book Review :: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn: The Rebel Girl, Democracy, and Revolution by Mary Anne Trasciatti

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn: The Rebel Girl, Democracy, and Revolution by Mary Anne Trasciatti book cover image

Review by Eleanor J. Bader

Mary Anne Trasciatti’s biography of intrepid civil liberties and labor activist Elizabeth Gurley Flynn [1890—1964] is as much an account of Gurley Flynn’s nearly 60-years as an organizer, speaker, tactician, and fundraiser, as it is an account of government crackdowns on dissent during the first two-thirds of the 20th century. The heavily detailed and exhaustively researched volume digs into Flynn’s earliest work with the Industrial Workers of the World (the IWW), where she developed a reputation as a fearless, outspoken firebrand. Dubbed The Rebel Girl, her work in support of exploited laborers took her from her home in the Bronx to cities across the country where she mounted a soapbox and exhorted crowds to support striking workers in Paterson, New Jersey, Missoula, Montana, and Spokane, Washington.

Her humor and ease with people won her approval from everyday folks – and attention from rightwing politicians and police who tried to silence her. But she would not be cowed. Instead, her defense of labor rights and free speech led her to the then-fledgling American Civil Liberties Union and Communist Party. Although she was booted out of the ACLU during the height of the Red Scare, her commitment to working people never faltered.

Nonetheless, there were setbacks. In 1955, for example, Flynn was jailed for violating the Smith Act, legislation that made it a crime to advocate the overthrow of the US government. She used her time in prison to read, write, and agitate from afar. Once released, she fought against repressive legislation that sought to revoke US citizenship from those convicted of rebellion, insurrection, seditious conspiracy, or Smith Act violations.

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn lived a life of resolute political engagement. At the same time, Trasciatti makes Flynn fully human, detailing several failed relationships and the heartbreaking loss of her only son to cancer. The end result is a richly drawn portrait of a bold, principled, and savvy woman who deserves to be remembered and celebrated.

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn: The Rebel Girl, Democracy, and Revolution by Mary Anne Trasciatti. Rutgers University Press, June 2025.

Reviewer bio: Eleanor J. Bader is a Brooklyn, NY-based journalist who writes about books and domestic social issues for Truthout, Rain Taxi, The Progressive, Ms. Magazine, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and The Indypendent.

Birds & Muses September 2025 Residency Now Enrolling

Birds & Muses September 2025 Residency Deadline flyer screenshot
click image to open flyer

Application Deadline: July 15, 2025
Realize your vision with acclaimed novelist, memoirist, editor Kate Moses, as invested in your story & your growth as you are. Taking writers under her wing for 3 decades. Individual mentorships and small group retreats. Now enrolling for September writers’ residency at Hewnoaks in Maine. Substack: The Museletter with Kate Moses. View flyer or visit website to learn more.

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

Interested in advertising in the eLitPak? Learn more here.

Now Out from #Ranger Press: Noetic Variations, v1 and v2

David Bishop Noetic Variations, v1 & v2 screenshot
click image to open flyer

Noetic Variations, v1 and v2 are experiments in extreme poetic abstraction, eschewing the appearance of formal narrative and mainstream convention. The NV project is an exciting postmodern exercise in pure language, stripped of all meaning and impervious to literary interpretation. Download free copies here: V1 V2 or purchase here: V1 V2. View flyer for more information.

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

Interested in advertising in the eLitPak? Learn more here.

Consequence Volume 17.1 Now Available

screenshot of Consequence Volume 17.1 Now Available flyer for the NewPages eLitPak
click image to open flyer

In Consequence Volume 17.1, a theme emerges of how affecting a difference doesn’t only have to happen on a global scale—it can and should include the more local ones. This is maybe most conspicuously expressed in the essay “A Trip to Kosovo” where a doctor returns to the war-torn country to navigate its broken bureaucracy in hopes of getting his nephew immediate cancer treatment and ends on the line: If the world can be saved, it will be by small acts of kindness. View flyer for more information.

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

Interested in advertising in the eLitPak? Learn more here.

Where to Submit Roundup: June 20, 2025

Today marks the first day of summer—the summer solstice. And in honor of both the season’s arrival and the oppressive heat that’s rolled in this week, what better way to get your creative juices flowing than by exploring one of summer’s more dramatic downsides?

We’re also back with a fresh roundup of submission opportunities to help you find a home for your work. So grab your laptop, a cold matcha latte, and head to your local library, bookstore, or that blessedly air-conditioned coffee shop—and dive in.

Writing Prompt: Stormy Weather

a raging thunderstorm with flashing lightning viewed through a window

There comes a time in every life when the air turns thick and stale—when the heat presses down like a weight, and even the hum of a fan feels like a cruel joke. The energy to move, to think, to cook, evaporates. You sit, sweat pooling, praying for something—anything—to break the spell.

Then, it comes. A low rumble. A flicker of light. The sky cracks open and the storm rolls in—thunder shaking the windows, lightning slicing the sky, and finally, finally, a breath of cool air. Relief, wrapped in chaos.

Have you lived through days like these? When your clothes felt like damp rags and your mood was as volatile as the weather? When the phrase “it’s not the heat, it’s the humidity” became a personal mantra—or a punchline?

Or maybe you’ve never known that kind of oppressive summer. But can you imagine it? A world where the very air turns against you, where you long for the violence of a storm just to feel alive again. In our house, it was tradition to throw the curtains wide and marvel at the storm, even as the radio warned us to take shelter in the basement.

This week, we invite you to write about stormy weather—literal or metaphorical. Maybe your character is trapped in a sweltering city, waiting for the sky to break. Maybe the storm is emotional, a long-awaited release after a period of tension. Or maybe you want to explore a sci-fi world where humidity is weaponized and storms are currency. Perhaps you’ll craft a poem where the pacing mirrors that bated breath and sweet release.

Whatever your take, let the pressure build—and then let it pour. Then see below for places to submit your work.

Continue reading “Where to Submit Roundup: June 20, 2025”

Magazine Stand :: Posit – Issue 39

Posit Issue 39 literary magazine cover image

Introducing readers to Posit Issue 39, the editors write, “Four months into the ever-more-alarming New World Disorder seems like as good a time as any to offer something other to contemplate…if not an antidote, then at least a respite, and perhaps a reminder of what else we humans can produce.” The works in this open-access online issue, note the editors, “we believe they can help. Help us see and feel more deeply. Help us confront where we are in these drastic and alarming times. And help us imagine going forward.”

Featured in Poist Issue 39 are poetry and prose by Joan Baranow, Daniel Biegelson, Charles Borkhuis, Julie Carr, Shou Jie Eng, MK Francisco, Shawnan Ge, Julie Hanson, Denise Newman, Randy Prunty, Elizabeth Robinson, and Dan Rosenberg; paintings and sculpture by Steve Greene, Elizabeth Hazan, and Sarah Peters; and text + image by Dale Going and Marie Carbone.

Discover loads more great lit mags with our Guide to Literary Magazines, Big List of Literary Magazines, and Big List of Alternative Magazines. If you are a publication looking to be listed in our monthly roundup or featured on our blog and social media, please contact us.

New Lit on the Block :: Apotheca Journal

Apotheca Journal June 2025

If literary publications are concerned about their future, they might do well to assess what they are doing to fuel the creative interests of the next generation, as evidenced by Apotheca Journal, a monthly online publication showcasing poetry, short stories, novel excerpts, creative non-fiction, photography, artwork, and more by contributors aged 14-22.

Founder and Editor Ann Sproul explains how one experience encouraged her to launch a literary magazine, “When I was in seventh grade, I received my first writing award: publication and a $1,000 scholarship from Bluefire Journal. The whole experience really raised my confidence not only as a writer but as a person. Ever since then, I have wanted to edit for a magazine. The world needs young writers and artists who realize that their voice is valuable. Those are the people who are going to grow up and be unapologetic for what they have to say. It can be difficult for young writers and artists since the majority of magazines are for adults. Through Apotheca, I am hoping to afford other young writers and artists the same confidence I felt when I was first published.”

Continue reading “New Lit on the Block :: Apotheca Journal”

Jury Duty: Fate’s Favorite Pastime?

Writing Prompt: Jury Duty Luck - Fate's Favorite Pastime?

Finding fresh inspiration for our weekly newsletter isn’t always easy but seeing yet another jury duty summons in my mail made me ponder how real life sparks writing. And no, I am not making it up.

Since my first year out of college, I’ve been summoned nearly annually—one year, even twice! What are the odds? No, really—I want to know! This week’s newsletter (Issue 185) turns that ‘wonderful’ luck into writing fodder, plus editor updates, bookstore news, new releases, and book reviews to bulk up your reading list.

Writing Prompt: The Only Things for Certain Are Death, Taxes… and Jury Duty

Some people breeze through life with luck on their side—finding true love, scoring dream jobs, even cracking the perfect lotto numbers. But others? Well, their luck is a bit… different.

Enter jury duty, that unavoidable civic summons, popping up again and again. What are the chances that one person is randomly selected every year—sometimes even more? Statistical bad luck? Or is fate playing an ironic joke?

For those who have experienced jury duty, the process can feel surreal—being scrutinized in selection, locked in a room, cut off from communication, then ushered into a courtroom to make decisions that may alter someone’s life. Some feel the crushing weight of responsibility, while others just want out.

Your Challenge:

Imagine a world where the only luck some people have is jury duty. What does that do to someone? Do they accept their fate? Try to avoid selection at all costs? Or do they lean into the absurdity?

Or, if you’ve served on a jury, share your own experiences! Was it what you expected? What was the strangest, most intense, or oddly hilarious moment?

Need even more inspiration? Not subscribed yet? Don’t miss out—sign up today for weekly inspiration, plus early access to submission opportunities and events! You can also find more writing prompts in our weekly Where to Submit Roundup.

Book Review :: The Persians by Sanam Mahloudji

The Persians by Sanam Mahloudji book cover image

Review by Kevin Brown

Sanam Mahloudji’s debut novel follows three generations of Iranian women: Elizabeth, the grandmother; Seema and Shirin, her daughters; Bita and Niaz, Seema and Shirin’s daughters, respectively. Because of the Iranian revolution, the family becomes split, with Seema, Shirin, and Bita moving to the United States, leaving Elizabeth and Niaz in Iran. They were an important, wealthy family in Iran, mainly due to their tracing their lineage back to an ancestor they refer to as the Great Warrior.

One of the main themes of the novel, though, is the false narratives the family has been telling themselves. They have spent so much time looking to the past, as well as hiding the truth about various parts of their past, that they haven’t developed healthy relationships in the present. Thus, much of the novel is an unraveling of the stories they’ve told themselves, which have prevented them from seeing each other (and their family, in general) as they really are.

The larger conflict in the novel that brings everybody together and into tension is a legal case involving Shirin. She’s the most over-the-top character, flaunting the family’s wealth and believing Persians in the U.S. should still care about their family. An undercover police officer propositions her, believing her to be a prostitute, and she jokingly plays along with him before throwing a drink on him. Bita, who is in law school at the time, tries to help her aunt. Elizabeth and Niaz travel to the U.S. near the end of the novel as the trial approaches, leading to a number of revelations about the family.

The more important conflicts are the interpersonal ones, as each character has to figure out who they want to be and how they want to live the rest of their lives. Elizabeth reflects on her marriage and the man she once loved, but whom she set aside. Shirin has to come to grips with how others perceive her and how she presents herself. Bita and Niaz have the most to decide, as they are young women in very different situations. Bita is in law school because she thinks she needs to live up to some ideal that her mother couldn’t, while Niaz lives under the oppressive Iranian regime, trying to rebel where she can. Ultimately, the novel is about women trying to figure out how to live in relationship with one another, learning how to be mothers and daughters.

The Persians by Sanam Mahloudji. Scribner, March 2025.

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

Sponsored :: Magazine Stand :: Walloon Writers Review – Ninth Edition

Walloon Writers Review Ninth Edition magazine cover image

Walloon Writers Review Ninth Edition is a collection of short stories, poetry, and nature photography inspired by northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula’s natural beauty. More than sixty contributors pack this year’s edition with reflections, adventures, memories, and discoveries. Suitable for general audiences, readers in Michigan can pick up a copy while they’re exploring “up north” (see the list of booksellers and shops the magazine’s website under the “Where to Find Walloon Writers Review” tab) or armchair explore and order a copy online from most independent bookstores in Michigan, BarnesandNoble.com, Bookshop.com, or Amazon.com.

Book Review :: Isabela’s Way by Barbara Stark-Nemon

Isabela’s Way by Barbara Stark-Nemon book cover image

Review by Eleanor J. Bader

During the Spanish Inquisition (1492 and 1834), the Catholic Church targeted Jews, Muslims, female herbalists and healers, and, later, Protestants for expulsion from Spain and Portugal. The goal, writes author Barbara Stark-Nemon in her introduction to Isabela’s Way, was the consolidation of power by King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile.

By all accounts, the Inquisition was brutal, and Stark-Nemon writes that following an expulsion edict issued by Spain in 1492, many Spanish Jews emigrated to Portugal, where for approximately 100 years, “New Christians” — Jewish converts to Catholicism, sometimes called Conversos or Marranos — evaded the Inquisitors. But peace was always tentative.

For 14-year-old Isabela de Castro Nunez, the life she’d known as a Converso ended when, in 1605, the Bubonic Plague hit the small town of Abrantes, Portugal, where she’d grown up. This was because the Church blamed New Christians for the spread of the deadly disease.

It’s a tense setup. Compounding this, Isabela is grappling with her mother’s death and her father’s prolonged absence to promote his business and political interests, leaving her feeling both abandoned and alone. Add in the looming political repression directed at her community, and it is not surprising that Isabela, her friend David, and his sisters listen when advised to flee their homeland for the presumed safety of France.

Stark-Nemon’s recreation of their fictional journey — sometimes traveling together and sometimes traveling separately — is filled with intrigue, violence, love, and the kindness of strangers. Moreover, a beautifully imagined network of clandestine safe houses comes to life, and we see Isabela, already renowned for her intricate embroidery, mature as she embarks on this harrowing journey.

Isabela’s Way is a tale of resilience in which good overcomes evil. All told, the novel is a vivid depiction of resistance and a powerful indictment of racism, anti-Semitism, misogyny, and scapegoating. It’s a damn good story.

Isabela’s Way by Barbara Stark-Nemon. She Writes Press, September 2025.

Reviewer bio: Eleanor J. Bader is a Brooklyn, NY-based journalist who writes about books and domestic social issues for Truthout, Rain Taxi, The Progressive, Ms. Magazine, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and The Indypendent.

Book Review :: With My People: Life, Justice, and Activism Beyond the University by Jonathan Pulphus

With My People: Life, Justice, and Activism Beyond the University by Jonathan Pulphus book cover image

Review by Eleanor J. Bader

When Jonathan Pulphus was a sophomore at St. Louis University (SLU), a private, Jesuit college, 18-year-old Michael Brown was killed by Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson. It was 2014 and Brown’s death led to months of protests against systemic racism and abuse by law enforcement.

Pulphus was galvanized by the movement and, like other Black students at and beyond SLU, he became immersed in fighting racial discrimination both on campus and off. His own campus was active and alongside a group of peers, he began demanding more diverse course offerings and the recruitment of more faculty and students of color at SLU. The resultant 13-point Clock Tower Accords eventually included a commitment by school administrators to increase funding for African American Studies. The university also promised to increase financial aid for Black undergraduates, establish a Diversity Speaker series, and work on building better relationships with the local community. It was a significant victory — one that Pulphus is proud to have been part of.

With My People, his reflection on the Accords and his role as a campus leader-turned-community-organizer, is as much a history of this historical moment as it is an instruction guide for campus organizers. Filled with concrete lessons and wise commentary, the text lays out tactical mistakes made by the SLU students (and the groups they created, including the still-active Tribe X) and offers clear advice about how best to balance academic progress and activism. Moreover, his message to students who are new to progressive movements covers numerous topics, from how to stay on track to graduate to how to negotiate with administrators and forge intergenerational alliances. Throughout, the tone is practical and strategic.

With My People blends inspiration with political savvy. It’s an important how-to guide for student activists and fledgling organizers. What’s more, its straightforward prose makes it a valuable addition to books about social change, social justice, and sustained antiracist efforts.

With My People: Life, Justice, and Activism Beyond the University by Jonathan Pulphus. Broadleaf Books, September 2025.

Reviewer bio: Eleanor J. Bader is a Brooklyn, NY-based journalist who writes about books and domestic social issues for Truthout, Rain Taxi, The Progressive, Ms. Magazine, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and The Indypendent.

Where to Submit Roundup: June 13, 2025

Happy Friday! Whether you’re superstitious or skeptical, NewPages has your creative fuel—offering inspiration to jumpstart your writing along with submission opportunities to keep you busy. If Friday the 13th sends a shiver down your spine, maybe hold off on submitting until tomorrow. But today? Perfect for setting your plans in motion.

Writing Prompt: Demystifying 13

Where to Submit Roundup: June 13, 2025 with the writing prompt Demystifying 13

In honor of Friday the 13, why not embrace this as our prompt? Is thirteen a symbol of fortune or misfortune?

Throughout history, cultures have clashed over the meaning of this number. In Western traditions, it’s often associated with bad luck—especially on a Friday. Some link this superstition to the Last Supper, where Judas became the infamous 13th guest before the crucifixion. Others cite Norse mythology, where Loki disrupted a feast of twelve gods, leading to chaos. The thirteenth card in a Tarot deck is death.

But in many cultures, thirteen marks a positive transformation. Jewish tradition celebrates thirteen as the age of maturity with a bar mitzvah. In Mesoamerican civilizations, thirteen symbolized an important cycle in the sacred calendar, tied to cosmic order and spiritual growth. Even the ancient Egyptians viewed thirteen as a number of ascension in the afterlife.

Are these beliefs simply passed down without question, or do they reflect something deeper? For this prompt, explore how the number thirteen shapes luck, culture, or personal experience. Write about a character who defies superstition, a society built on the sacred power of thirteen, or a twist of fate where thirteen holds unexpected meaning. Write a poem reflecting on the ways thirteen has shaped your fortune—or misfortune. Craft a lyric essay unraveling superstition, questioning beliefs that may crumble under close scrutiny. Or…how about a tongue-in-cheek experiment where you test all things related to 13 and luck that you can and record the results?

Whether thirteen is a blessing or a curse is up to you—so grab your pen and explore! And don’t wait too long—June 15 is right around the corner, and plenty of submission opportunities are ending soon.

Continue reading “Where to Submit Roundup: June 13, 2025”

Book Review :: Universality by Natasha Brown

Universality by Natasha Brown book cover image

Review by Kevin Brown

Natasha Brown’s second novel, Universality, begins with a news story detailing a party at a farm during Covid that goes terribly wrong. The police raid the celebration because it’s violating restrictions put in place because of the pandemic, though they don’t notice that a young man has bludgeoned somebody with a solid gold bar, then run away with it. The writer of the story traces the important people to see their involvement and their motivations. The rest of the novel follows several of those characters — Hannah, the reporter; Richard, the owner of the farm and the gold; and Lenny, the mother of the young man and a writer who specializes in shocking readers with right-wing ideology — from their points of view.

Given the multiple points of view, it quickly becomes clear that each character has a quite different view of the events of that day, as well as their lives and themselves. They each present themselves in a much better light, not surprisingly, but they also present different facts and motivations. By beginning with a news story, a seemingly objective account, Brown upends the readers’ expectations of objectivity, especially in terms of narrative. It’s not only that the characters tell the readers different stories, they’re telling themselves different stories about their lives and the world itself.

Given Brown’s historical context — she references the 2008 financial crisis, as Richard is in that industry, as well as Covid — she’s also exploring the larger narratives countries and cultures tell. The connection of that background with the personal stories ties into her title, as each character seems motivated not only by justifying their view of the world, which serves only to further separate people, moving them away from unity, but also by greed. That desire manifests itself differently for each character — with Richard, it’s more obvious, but Hannah wants to move up in social class, while Lenny has a disdain for everybody, it seems, so she seeks power above all else — but that seems to be the universal trait they share. Brown encourages readers to question her characters’ narratives, but also their own, as they tell themselves — we tell ourselves — that we’re different.

Universality by Natasha Brown. Random House, 2025.

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

Magazine Stand :: Red Tree Review

Red Tree Review logo image

Red Tree Review Issue Five online is a stellar collection of fine poetry from many talented voices, some seasoned and some emerging: Ron Riekki, Martha Zweig, Robert S. King, Glen Armstrong, Dan Sicoli, Jane Rosenberg LaForge, Kenton K. Yee, Kimberly White, Jason Fraley, Dan Raphael, Lynn Domina, Austin Allen James, Peter Mladinic, Jacqueline H. Harris, and Elizabeth Girdharry. As always, the selected works deliver moments of surprise, harrowing urgency, and sheer awe that brings us, if only for a second, outside of our small selves.

Discover loads more great lit mags with our Guide to Literary Magazines, Big List of Literary Magazines, and Big List of Alternative Magazines. If you are a publication looking to be listed in our monthly roundup or featured on our blog and social media, please contact us.

Unlock the Secrets of the Flower Language

close up of miniature pinkish white lilac blooms

Happy Tuesday! Our latest newsletter went out yesterday, packed with literary discoveries—new magazines, books, reviews, bookstore updates, and a fresh writing prompt to spark your creativity.

This week’s newsletter (Issue 184) digs into the rarely used language of flowers—an ancient form of communication hidden in petals and stems.

✍️ Writing Prompt: Flower Language

Once upon a time, flowers weren’t just decorations—they carried messages, secrets, and spells. A red rose whispered love, lavender offered calm, and marigolds warned of grief or jealousy.

But as time passed, the language of flowers faded into myth. What if someone rediscovered it? What if a florist’s arrangements could influence emotions—or fate?

Your Creative Challenge:

💐 Fiction Prompt: Write a story where the language of flowers resurfaces in a powerful way. Who still knows it? Who needs to learn it? What happens when the flowers begin to speak again?

🌼 Poetry Prompt: Use flowers to express emotions too hard to say aloud. What truths bloom in silence?

🌍 Cross-Cultural Essay Prompt: Explore how different cultures have used flowers to communicate—from Chinese plum blossoms to Victorian bouquets.

🎨 Mixed Media Prompt: Create a visual piece that captures the symbolic power of flowers. Use real petals, digital art, or photography to tell a story beyond words.

Want more inspiration like this? Subscribe to the NewPages Newsletter for weekly writing prompts, book reviews, literary news, and more—straight to your inbox! Paying subscribers get early access to submission opportunities before they go live on our site, too!

Book Review :: The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami

The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami book cover image

Review by Kevin Brown

In Laila Lalami’s latest novel, The Dream Hotel, Sara Hussein is living in a near-future version of the United States that seems both entirely predictable and terrifying. The novel opens as authorities detain Sara, a Moroccan-American, at the airport because her risk score has risen too high. The company that produces the risk scores draws on a wealth of information to determine people’s potential risk, including their dreams, thanks to Dreamsaver Inc.’s implant that helps people have enough rest to function the next day, even on only a few hours’ sleep. Of course, the user agreement that people sign enables DI to sell their data to companies, such as the one producing the risk scores. The algorithm behind the risk scores is intellectual property, so Sara and her lawyer are unable to use it in trying to free her from the retention center the government sends her to because of the interaction at the airport.

While much of the novel centers around this dystopic premise, Lalami goes beyond exploring the ways tech corporations have monetized users’ data, as she explores issues of race and gender, as well. Though the other female residents’ races aren’t clear in most of the descriptions, the ones that are usually match the races that dominate the U.S.’s current prison system. Similarly, Sara realizes that the observation at the retention center is little more than an amplification of the observations women encounter every day of their lives.

There are also wildfires raging, as the retention center is in California, though it is far from the only place in the U.S. experiencing the severe effects of climate change. In one scene, the residents (nobody refers to them as prisoners, though they are not free to leave) joke about having their release hearings rescheduled due to another wildfire or hurricane or earthquake. Any of those seems as likely as the other.

What holds the entire novel together is Lalami’s critique of the role of money in each of these areas. The companies that run the retention centers use those who are there for cheap labor through their contracts with various outside companies. The technology companies benefit from the data they gather through the wide array of devices each character used when they were free, but they also collect data on the residents, even sending one of their employees in under cover to perform an experiment around product placement in dreams. In fact, Sara ultimately realizes that it’s in corporations’ best interests to keep extending their stay, fabricating infractions to prevent their release, which helps her begin to rebel against such systems. She also realizes that she needs help to fight back against corporations with much more power and money than she has, a message that becomes more and more relevant every day.

The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami. Pantheon Books, March 2025.

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

Magazine Stand :: The Common – Issue 29

The Common Issue 29 magazine cover image

This newest issue of The Common features a special portfolio highlighting photography and translated prose from Amman, Jordan; short stories from Hawai‘i, Kenya, Baton Rouge, and an Austin boxing gym; an essay on ritual and clothmaking in Cameroon; and poems by Erica Dawson, Rick Barot, Mary Jo Salter, John Kinsella, Julia Kolchinsky, and more. The Common is available for purchase in print as well as in Kindle, PDF, or e-book format.

TEACHERS: see Teach the Common. The editors will help with selecting the best issues for your curriculum, scheduling a classroom visit with Editor-in-Chief Jennifer Acker who answers students’ questions and provides a look into the publishing process, and providing resources, like sample lesson plans, complementary readings, audio, and interviews tailored to your chosen issues to enhance student engagement.

Discover loads more great lit mags with our Guide to Literary Magazines, Big List of Literary Magazines, and Big List of Alternative Magazines. If you are a publication looking to be listed in our monthly roundup or featured on our blog and social media, please contact us.

Magazine Stand :: The Lake – June 2025

The Lake online magazine of poetry and reviews logo image

The June 2025 issue of The Lake online journal of poetry and poetics is now available and features works by Ian Clarke, Barbara Daniels, Lyudmyla Diadchenko, PM Flynn, Gabrielle Meadows, Sreeja Naskar, Tony Press, Hannah Stone, Jeanine Walker, and Louise Worthington. Book reviews include Greg Rappleye’s Barley Child and John Gilham’s Footprints in the Mud. The Lake’s unique feature of One Poem Reviews spotlight one poem from a recently published collection, with June shining a light on works by Whitney Coy, Dagne Forrest, John Savoie, and Elaine Sexton.

Readers can also find Editor John Murphy’s new book, Notes, on The Lake‘s SHOP page.
The subject for these poems are artists and producers in the music industry, covering all major genres: rock, jazz and blues, and some of the artists included are Joni Mitchell, John Mayall, Cleo Laine, Chuck Berry, Brian Wilson , Buddy Holly, and Jimi Hendrix.

Discover loads more great lit mags with our Guide to Literary Magazines, Big List of Literary Magazines, and Big List of Alternative Magazines. If you are a publication looking to be listed in our monthly roundup or featured on our blog and social media, please contact us.

Book Review :: DisElderly Conduct: The Flawed Business of Assisted Living and Hospice by Judy Karofsky

DisElderly Conduct: The Flawed Business of Assisted Living and Hospice by Judy Karofsky book cover image

Review by Eleanor J. Bader

When Lillian Deutsch was 87, she was hospitalized with pneumonia. Although she’d previously been active — she’d been a corporate executive, done stand-up comedy, and led numerous organizations in her Florida community — the respiratory illness led to other maladies, and she ultimately agreed to move to Wisconsin to be closer to her daughter, Judy Karofsky.

For the next seven years, Deutsch was relatively independent. Then, in 2013, she began having frequent ischemic attacks (mini strokes). That same year, a massive stroke impaired her mobility and speech. This was followed by a broken hip.

Independent living quickly segued into assisted living, and DisElderly Conduct traces Deutsch’s experiences at six different facilities over the next five years. She was sexually assaulted in one, and was handled so roughly in another that her arm was badly bruised. At still another, she was left on the floor for hours following a middle-of-the-night fall. In addition, her dietary preferences were ignored, and both she and Karofsky were deemed pests for asserting themselves.

Karofsky blames several factors for this mistreatment. Unlike skilled nursing facilities, neither assisted living nor memory care units — 70 percent of them owned by for-profit entities – are federally regulated and most receive minimal state oversight. Despite high monthly fees ($5000 to $20,000), Karofsky writes that shoddy care, often from barely-trained and badly-paid Certified Nursing Assistants, is common.

Then there’s hospice, which, like assisted living, is also run for profit. Gone are the days of palliative care volunteers helping the dying cross over. Instead, unregulated and unscrupulous providers have cashed in and Karofsky charges that “fraud and exploitation” are endemic.

DisElderly Conduct provides a disturbing and enraging glimpse into these elder-care industries. And while the book offers only bare-bones policy recommendations for federal and state monitoring, it is nonetheless essential reading for aging adults and their loved ones. Indeed, it’s a clear and impassioned call to action.

DisElderly Conduct: The Flawed Business of Assisted Living and Hospice by Judy Karofsky. New Village Press, May 2025.

Reviewer bio: Eleanor J. Bader is a Brooklyn, NY-based journalist who writes about books and domestic social issues for Truthout, Rain Taxi, The Progressive, Ms. Magazine, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and The Indypendent.

Book Review :: Ginseng Roots by Craig Thompson

Ginseng Roots by Craig Thompson book cover image

Review by Kevin Brown

Ginseng Roots, Craig Thompson’s latest work, has come out in the midst of a bit of controversy. Some readers have criticized Thompson for telling a story they don’t believe was his to tell. Part of that stems from ginseng’s history with and connection to China, but much of it also comes from Thompson’s telling the story of Chua, a Hmong boy he met when he worked in ginseng fields, whom he interviews as an adult. In both cases, though, Thompson relies on others to tell those stories, using experts, many of whom are Chinese, to talk about ginseng’s history and importance. He also allows Chua to tell his story himself, as Thompson is merely the interviewer in that part of the book.

In fact, this book feels like at least two, if not three, rather separate books put together. One part is devoted to the history of ginseng in Wisconsin, where Thompson grew up, and the world (he travels to Korea, as well as China, for example). Not only does Thompson allow others to provide that background, those sections of the book have a tendency to feel like more of an information dump than anything else. The book hits its stride when Thompson explores his childhood, as well as his current relationship with his family. That part connects to Thompson’s struggles as an artist, though not as completely as it could.

Thompson is best known for Blankets — which received a number of awards — a memoir exploring his departure from the conservative Christianity of his childhood. Since then, though, his work hasn’t received the same response, either critically or in terms of sales. Thus, he questions his vocation, an artistic crisis that’s exacerbated by a pain in his drawing hand that nobody seems to be able to help heal. As with his interactions with his family, those struggles help push the book into more interesting territory. Similarly, when he brings in class and race in talking about his childhood, the book becomes more interesting.

I’m glad that Thompson worked through the paralysis he felt stuck in as he came to write this book; I just wish he would have written more about his roots as a person and an artist and less about the historical background of ginseng.

Ginseng Roots by Craig Thompson. Pantheon, April 2025.

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

Magazine Stand :: New Letters – Winter/Spring 2025

New Letters Winter/Spring 2025 issue magazine cover image

The Winter/Spring issue of New Letters features winners of their 2024 Award Series. Congratulations to Sébastien Luc Butler, winner of the Patricia Cleary Miller Award for Poetry; Tanya Pengelly, winner of the Robert Day Award for Fiction; Elisabetta La Cava, winner of the Conger Beasley Jr. Award for Nonfiction; and Laura Newbern, winner of the Editor’s Choice Award, Essay.

Readers will also find plenty of new fiction by Amy Day Wilkinson, Andrew Bertaina, Joe De Quattro; essays by Fox Rinne, Jacob Aiello, Courtney Kersten, Adam O. Davis, Amy Rowland, Heather Sellers; poetry by Leonore Hildebrandt, Lance Larsen, Lisa Lewis, Kara Lewis, Mary B. Moore, Katie Erbs, Betsy Mitchell Martinez, and Daniel Donaghy.

The hauntingly compelling artwork of Nicholas Erker is featured on the cover as well as with a full-color portfolio and introduction inside the issue. Grab your copy today!

Where to Submit Roundup: June 6, 2025

Where to Submit Roundup: June 6, 2025

Welcome, June! After weeks of Mother Nature flip-flopping between chilly mornings and surprise heatwaves, it seems she’s finally made up her mind. Summer is here in full force. A gentle, much-needed rain gave the gardens a break—thankfully, no wild weather this time.

But this week brought a personal challenge: on Sunday, my grandfather took a fall and fractured his left shoulder. Fortunately, it happened after his birthday—and after our big Memorial Day celebration, when we were all together.

It’s a strange kind of gratitude, but it made me pause and think—sometimes, finding a silver lining in a tough situation is the only way to stay grounded. It reminded me of a line from A Smoky Mountain Christmas, where Dolly Parton’s character comforts a wary orphan, “It could’ve been better, but it could’ve been a whole lot worse.” That line stuck with me.

Writing Prompt: Finding A Ray of Silver Lining

Write about a time you had to find the bright side of a bad situation—what helped you shift your perspective, and what did you learn?

Whether it’s a small inconvenience or a major life event, we all have moments where optimism feels like a stretch—but those are often the stories that stick with us the most.

Not ready to get too personal? That’s totally fine. Try reflecting on a recent news story—can you find a silver lining? Or write about a time when optimism felt impossible. What helped you cope?

Ready to keep writing? Scroll down to explore different submission opportunities where your voice and story might find a home.

Continue reading “Where to Submit Roundup: June 6, 2025”

New Lit on the Block :: KUDU

KUDU literary magazine volume 1 cover image

Despite what can feel like global doom and gloom on the daily, the literary world still finds much to inspire its community to create, share, and engage. While seemingly small, KUDU: A Journal Of South African Writing is a free, professionally designed online publication of poetry, short fiction, nonfiction, and visual art by both new and well-known names with a growing reputation. Twice a year, readers can enjoy reading online or downloading a printable PDF.

While the name may seem unique to those of us on this continent, KUDU is a Khoikhoi term chosen to honor the Khoisan peoples, the first indigenous peoples of South Africa. “It goes back to thousands of years ago,” Founder and Editor Claudio Perinot explains, “to the first recorded inhabitants of South Africa, the Khoisans.”

Continue reading “New Lit on the Block :: KUDU”

Magazine Stand :: Consequence – 17.1

Consequence Issue 17.1 literary magazine cover image

Consequence Volume 17.1 is full of prose, poetry, and visual art addressing the consequences of war and geopolitical violence. In this issue, a theme emerged of how affecting a difference doesn’t only have to happen on a global scale — it can and should include the more local ones.

This is expressed in “A Trip to Kosovo” where a doctor returns to the war-torn country to navigate its broken bureaucracy in hopes of getting his nephew immediate cancer treatment (a piece that pointedly ends with: If the world can be saved, it will be by small acts of kindness). It appears in “Withdrawal” with the narrator always answering his phone in case it’s a fellow soldier or a refugee in dire need. It’s there in “The Lucky Ones” as a director for an adoption agency in Korea reveals to women the tricks necessary to help their babies find safe homes.

Maybe the most conspicuous example of this theme, though, is in the Translations Feature, which consists of works written in Arabic and centering on the Palestinian experience. Translations Editors Parisa Saranj and Fathima M. frame all ten pieces of the feature by stating, What else can we do but bear witness to the pain of our fellow human beings? Literature has been the first recordkeeper of what humans are capable of doing to and for each other.

Writing Through the Blur: Exploring Warped Perceptions of Time

a man going through a twisting tunnel of misshapen clocks

Every Monday, our newsletter subscribers receive a curated dose of literary goodness—new issue announcements, book reviews, upcoming releases, literary news, and a fresh writing prompt to spark creativity. If you’ve ever felt stuck staring at a blank page, our weekly prompts are here to help reignite that creative spark.

This week’s newsletter (Issue 183!) took a playful turn with a nod to The Time Warp—but instead of dancing through dimensions, we’re diving into the strange elasticity of time itself.

✍️ Writing Prompt: Warped Relativity

Einstein once explained relativity like this: sit on a hot stove for a minute and it feels like an hour; sit with someone you love for an hour and it feels like a minute. But what about the moments that defy even that logic?

Write about a time when the clock ticked forward, but your experience of it didn’t match. Maybe it was a season of grief that passed in a blur, or a long recovery that dragged on despite no dramatic events. Explore how time can feel warped not just by joy or boredom, but by numbness, uncertainty, or quiet endurance. How does time behave when life is neither thrilling nor tragic—just quietly, stubbornly hard?

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Subscribe to our newsletter and never miss a beat.

💡 Psst… Paid subscribers get early access to submission opportunities, upcoming events, and more behind-the-scenes perks. Just saying.

Sponsored :: New Book :: If I Had Said Beauty

If I Had Said Beauty by Tami Haaland book cover image

If I had Said Beauty, Poetry by Tami Haaland
Lost Horse Press, March 2025

If I Had Said Beauty, Tami Haaland’s fourth collection of poetry, is dedicated to known and unknown ancestors. It explores the possible narratives and distant origins of what lies behind a sense of self — including recent and ancient DNA, recessive and dominant traits, mitochondrial underpinnings, and an intricate microbiome. Luminous and spare, the poems seek to unravel and speculate, document and lament what happens in a life and what might have been. While probing for definition in the mysteries of deep time, the poems are nevertheless grounded in encounters with wild and domestic life, intimate moments of loss and family connection, all of which intertwine to expand the meaning of “autobiography.” According to poet Connie Voisine, “In these poems, all the spirits are welcome members of [Haaland’s] community, an atom, a spruce, a fly, and the ghosts of her ancestors who are suddenly near, and alive. These poems show me how to remain open to the influx of beings, and how we might allow their various beauties to aid in our survival.”

Magazine Stand :: Southern Humanities Review – 58.1

Southern Humanities Review 58.1 magazine cover image

The newest issue of Southern Humanities Review is introduced by Guest Poetry Editor Jeremy Paden, “On Appalachian Roots,” which opens:

“Who gets to speak for a region? What voices, stories, and accents get to represent a place? And when the place is as vast as Appalachia, one that spans thirteen states and is divided into five subregions? [. . . ] Once J.D. Vance was picked as the vice presidential running mate for the Republican ticket in the summer of 2024, his 2016 book, Hillbilly Elegy, returned to bestseller lists and the national conversation. As a result, I was asked to curate a selection of poems on Appalachia by Appalachians. After all, whatever people think of his memoir, it is not about Appalachia.”

Those poets featured here include Willie Carver, Bernard Clay, Dorian Hairston, Pauletta Hansel, Marc Harshman, Jane Hicks, Silas House, Lisa J. Parker, Randi Ward, William Woolfitt, and Marianne Worthington. The issue also includes nonfiction by Joanna Acevedo and Madeline Jones, and fiction by Sara Levine, Sumita Mukherji, Enyinna Nnabuihe, and Cotton O’Connell. Cover art by Frederic Edwin Church, Storm in the Mountains, 1847, oil on canvas.

Discover loads more great lit mags with our Guide to Literary Magazines, Big List of Literary Magazines, and Big List of Alternative Magazines. If you are a publication looking to be listed in our monthly roundup or featured on our blog and social media, please contact us.

Book Review :: The Girl in the Walls by Meg Eden Kuyatt

The Girl in the Walls by Meg Eden Kuyatt book cover image

Review by Elizabeth S. Wolf

Meg Eden Kuyatt is a master of the novel in verse form. Her writing in The Girl in the Walls is elegant, but not finicky; dramatic, but not maudlin. You could teach a workshop on her use of titles alone. Like her protagonist V, Kuyatt is a real artist. She has created a true voice for V, an autistic girl on the cusp of high school, learning her way around her strong feelings and out in the wonderland of the world. V introduces herself in vibrant socks that say, “I am strange and wonderful.” And with that, we are off.

After a rough year, V has been sent to Grandma Jojo’s for the summer. Jojo lives in a clean white house that has been in the family for generations, with plenty of secrets and sludge hidden within the walls. There are supernatural elements here but also some history, stories of how people who act differently have been treated over the years. These are complicated characters. What shines through, though, is empathy. When V has a breakthrough in her perspective of Jojo and the ghost girl, readers are brought to a satisfying resolution.

Of course, as a book of poems, there are metaphors. The pristine parlor displays a collection of perfect porcelain dolls, while Jojo’s granddaughters struggle with masking who they are in social situations. V’s cousin, Cat, creates assemblages, a kind of collage sculpture she describes as taking discarded, broken stuff and turning it into something beautiful.

There are many levels to this book, making it perfect for the target age audience (juvenile fiction, grades 3-7), teachers, and families with neurodivergence. Highly recommend.

The Girl in the Walls by Meg Eden Kuyatt. Scholastic Press, May 2025.

Elizabeth S. Wolf has published five books of poetry, most recently I Am From: Voices from the Mako House in Ghana (2023). Her chapbook Did You Know? was a 2018 Rattle prizewinner. Elizabeth’s poetry appears in multiple journals and anthologies and has received several Pushcart nominations.

Book Review :: Hesitation Waltz by Amie Whittemore

Hesitation Waltz by Amie Whittemore book cover image

Review by Jami Macarty

In Hesitation Waltz, the 2023 selection in the Foster-Stahl Chapbook Series, Amie Whittemore crafts multimorphic poems that reflect our “ruined and beautiful” world. Through a blend of pastorals, odes, elegies, and epistles, which take form alongside meditations, lullabies, and personae poems, she gives voice to the “vulnerable … narratives” of life; its “riches” and “promise,” “precarity” and “shadow.”

To explore what “is miraculous” and interrogate “Who’s complicit,” Whittemore speaks from “mouths [that] cannot be tamed / and thankfully so.” The various poetic forms mirror her contortionist-like struggle to articulate essential truths and forge connections with her audience, establishing a powerful bond between the poem, the speaker, and the listener.

A hallmark of Whittemore’s poems is their distinct address. Whether the poet is speaking to a student in a science fiction course who complained on an evaluation about being “uncomfortable” with “women befriending / robot spiders,” to a goldfinch adapting to “human activity, / deforestation,” to “a woman who likes dishing about nuns,” to “the half-male, half-female cardinal,” or to her one-year-old nephew, she skillfully balances narrative directness with lyric tenderness.

The chapbook’s title references “The Hesitation Waltz,” a 1950 oil painting by Surrealist René Magritte. This reference suggests the surreal struggles inherent in finding a romantic connection with a hesitant lesbian and comprehending our dependence on fossil fuels. In Hesitation Waltz, Amie Whittemore advocates for “strange thinking” as we seek solutions to the “world’s problems” and celebrates our “myriad existence” in an uncertain yet hopeful dance.

Hesitation Waltz by Amie Whittemore. Midwest Writing Center Press, March 2025.

Reviewer bio: Jami Macarty is the author of The Long Now Conditions Permit, winner of the 2023 Test Site Poetry Series Prize (forthcoming University of Nevada Press), and The Minuses (Center for Literary Publishing, 2020), winner of the 2020 New Mexico/Arizona Book Award – Poetry Arizona. Jami’s four chapbooks include The Whole Catastrophe (Vallum Chapbook Series, 2024) and Mind of Spring (Vallum Chapbook Series, 2017), winner of the 2017 Vallum Chapbook Award. To learn more about Jami’s writing, editing, and teaching practices, visit her author website.

Magazine Stand :: Valley Voices – Spring 2025

Valley Voices Spring 2025 literary magazine cover image

The Spring 2025 issue of Valley Voices is a special issue themed “River and Land: The Mississippi Delta” and is dedicated to Dr. Jerry W. Ward, Jr. (July 31, 1943 — February 8, 2025) “respectful board member, scholar, and friend.”

In celebration of Dr. Jerry W. Ward’s legacy is an interview with Dr. Ward, poetry, literary theorist, editor, professor, and cultural activist, conducted by C Liegh McInnis on July 18, 2007, Charlie Braxton’s poem, “Doc,” and the essay “This is Not a Poem #1 (For Doc Ward)” by McInnis.

Opening the themed content “River and Land: The Mississippi Delta” are “Prim Notes” and “Hurricane Isabel 2003: True Story” by Hermine Pinson and “The Geography of Self: An Interview with Hermine Pinson” by Editor John Zheng. Also featured are poems by Claude Wilkinson, Sterling D. Plumpp, Larry D. Thomas, George Drew, Philip C. Kolin, CT Salazar, C Liegh McInnis, and Michelle McMillan-Holifield; art/photography by Claude Wilkinson (including cover art) and J. Guaner; fiction/nonfiction by Jack Crocker and Dick Daniels.

Criticism pieces include “From Trauma to Triumph: Endesha Ida Mae Holland’s From the Mississippi Delta: A Memoir” by John J. Han, and “Mississippi Masochism: Agentic Pain in Jesmyn Ward’s Where the Line Bleeds and Claude Wilkinson’s World Without End” by Allison Wiltshire.

Where to Submit Roundup: May 30, 2025

Where to Submit Roundup for May 30, 2025

May is winding down, and the garden is in full swing—along with the critters who think your hard work is their personal salad bar. While NewPages can’t help you fend off deer, rabbits, or rogue field mice, we can supply a fresh dose of writing inspiration and a bounty of submission opportunities to keep your creative goals thriving.

✨ Heads up! June is just around the corner, and that means new deadlines are blooming. Be sure to check out our freshly updated Big List of Writing Contests—to help you plan your next round of submissions.

Writing Prompt: Deerstruction!

It never fails, does it? You sweat and toil—planting, fertilizing, watering, pruning—only to have your efforts thwarted by a gang of majestic, yet maddening, garden invaders: DEER. Or maybe it’s rabbits. Or field mice. Any adorable pest that turns your hard work into a buffet, razing carefully tended flowers, herbs, shrubs, and veggies to the ground… or yanking up plants with what feels like spite, only to spit them out.

Can you channel that frustration into a poem, story, essay, or hybrid piece? Or maybe it’s a metaphor for the writing process itself: you labor over your words, only to have readers or editors tear through your work in unexpected—and sometimes painful—ways, deconstructing your carefully crafted creation.

Use this prompt to spark something new—and then scroll down to explore this week’s submission opportunities.

Continue reading “Where to Submit Roundup: May 30, 2025”

Book Review :: Twist by Colum McCann

Twist by Colum McCann book cover image

Review by Kevin Brown

Anthony Fennell, the narrator of Twist, should remind the reader of Nick Carraway from The Great Gatsby. He’s lost his way in life, unable to write a new novel or play, even unwilling to admit the existence of the son he’s become estranged from since he and his wife went separate ways. He receives an opportunity to write a story about people who work on breaks in underwater cables — which actually carry most of the data from one country to another, a fact most people don’t know — which leads him to meet John Conway.

Like Carraway’s Gatsby, Conway is a mysterious figure who seems to have made himself into somebody else, perhaps for the love of a woman who seems beyond his station in life. Zanele is a South African actress whom Conway lives with when he’s not on the boat repairing cables. Throughout the novel, she becomes more famous while Conway and Fennell are on the ocean, Conway to repair a significant break, Fennell to write about Conway and his crew.

The imagery of breaks in communication runs throughout the novel, as Fennell never understands Conway, and Conway and Zanele seem unable to communicate about what matters in their relationship. However, since the reader only sees that relationship through Fennell’s lens, it’s unclear if that is the case or if there is some other reason for the breakdown in their relationship.

McCann also explores the idea of repair, what one can and can’t mend, in a world that has become more and more digitally connected, but more and more emotionally fractured. Conway seems to reinvent himself, but Fennell also needs to mend himself in some important ways. Twist asks the reader to consider who they are and how they present that self to the world, but also if repair is possible in a world that seems so broken.

Twist by Colum McCann. Random House, March 2025.

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

Magazine Stand :: South Dakota Review – 59.2

South Dakota Review 59.2 magazine cover image

Published quarterly at the University of South Dakota through the Department of English and under the sponsorship of the College of Arts and Sciences, this newest issue of South Dakota Review has much to offer readers, beginning with the captivating cover photo by Editor-in-Chief Lee Ann Roripaugh, expressing the disjointedness so many of us are feeling as of late.

In response, the content holds a salve for our weary selves: poetry by Mrityunjay Mohan, Tami Haaland, Grace Bauer, Francine Witte, Ellen June Wright, Isabelle Ylo, Josephine Gawtry, William Trowbridge, Brandon Krieg, Amorak Huey, Kalpita Pathak, Sarah Barber, Carl Watts, Judith Harris, Remi Recchia, and Jim Peterson; short stories by Tina Tocco, Michael Caleb Tasker, Alexandria Peary, Luke Rolfes, nat čermák, and Reuben Sanchez; essays by Gary Finke and Ellie Gomero, with a hybrid excerpt from Sutured Memorī, by Michelle Naka Pierce.

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Editor’s Choice :: Remember Us to Life

Remember Us to Life: A Graphic Memoir by Joanna Rubin Dranger book cover image

Remember Us to Life: A Graphic Memoir by Joanna Rubin Dranger
Ten Speed Graphic, April 2025

Told through a genre-defying blend of illustrations, photography, and found objects, Remember Us to Life chronicles Joanna Rubin Dranger’s investigation into her Jewish family’s history, spanning time, space, and three continents in search of her lost relatives. As discolored photos are retrieved from half-forgotten moth-eaten boxes, Joanna discovers the startling modernity and vibrancy of the lives her family never spoke about — and the devastating violence that led to their senseless murders.

Winner of the Nordic Council Literature Prize, Remember Us to Life recounts Joanna’s family’s immigration from Poland and Russia to Sweden and Israel, where her relatives found work, marriage, and community, blissfully unaware of the horrors to come. Interweaving these anecdotes and stories are historical accounts of the persecution of Jewish people in Germany, Poland, Lithuania, and Russia prior to and during World War II, as well as the antisemitic policies and actions of the supposedly neutral government of Sweden, Joanna’s home country. Joanna’s unflinchingly brave and intimate portrayal of one of history’s greatest tragedies will capture and break readers’ hearts.

[Editor’s Choice posts are not paid promotions. These are selected by NewPages to spotlight titles we want to share with our readers.]

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

Book Review :: Antillia by Henrietta Goodman

Antillia by Henrietta Goodman book cover image

Review by Jami Macarty

Henrietta Goodman’s Antillia explores innocence, guilt, and the haunting specters of the past. The collection’s title references a mythical island, symbolizing both “the inaccessible” and the elusive nature of truth and self. Goodman’s lyric-narrative poems examine aspects of female identity and maternal grief.

Haunted by her son and various romantic partners, Goodman shares the complexities of these relationships, offering a candid examination of love and regret. She examines the “boys who get stuck, / who die or sleep in a chair in their mother’s / basement” and dissects “all the slapping and deception /…keeping score,” with a voice that is both lamenting and liberating. The collection’s strength lies in the air-clearing confrontations between past and present selves.

Through these portraits of “another me,” Goodman tells us of the loss of her son and allows readers to witness the intertwining of innocence and guilt in her exploration of maternal grief. In the opening poem, “The Puppy and Kitten Channel,” the poet uses a proxy to ask, “Do you ever feel completely ruined?” Through rhetorical inquiry, free association, and tracing the origins of the words “we use / to defend, or forgive” Goodman reveals their capacity for pain and solace.

At the heart of Antillia lies a lake that reflects “Delight,” “Death,” “Time,” and “Hope,” suggesting a dynamic relationship between self-portraiture and memory. Goodman reflects on the impossibility of reclaiming the past while acknowledging the potential for understanding within our memories: “So many years / I’ve wondered what it said, why it seems / so easy and so impossible to put back.”

In Antillia, Henrietta Goodman reminds us of the malleability of memory and how it shapes our present, emphasizing that “there’s no one / back there controlling any of this.” This collection is an eloquent testament to female resilience, maternal love, and grief’s burden — haunting and ultimately liberating.

Antillia by Henrietta Goodman. The Backwaters Press, March 2024.

Reviewer bio: Jami Macarty is the author of The Long Now Conditions Permit, winner of the 2023 Test Site Poetry Series Prize (forthcoming University of Nevada Press), and The Minuses (Center for Literary Publishing, 2020), winner of the 2020 New Mexico/Arizona Book Award – Poetry Arizona. Jami’s four chapbooks include The Whole Catastrophe (Vallum Chapbook Series, 2024) and Mind of Spring (Vallum Chapbook Series, 2017), winner of the 2017 Vallum Chapbook Award. To learn more about Jami’s writing, editing, and teaching practices, visit her author website.

New Book :: Poppy and Mary Ellen All Fed Up

Poppy and Mary Ellen All Fed Up: Book Two of the Frankenmuth Murder Mysteries by Roz Weedman and Susan Todd, Illustrations by Lane Trabalka book cover image

Poppy and Mary Ellen All Fed Up: Book Two of the Frankenmuth Murder Mysteries by Roz Weedman and Susan Todd, Illustrations by Lane Trabalka
Mission Point Press, October 2024

In Poppy and Mary Ellen All Fed Up, the punchy writer duo of Roz Weedman and Susan Todd welcome readers back to Frankenmuth, one of Michigan’s most famous and popular tourist towns. With a year-round population of only 5,000 residents, this Bavarian-themed town with its famous chicken dinners and year-round Christmas village draws more than three million visitors each year, making it the perfect setting to slink in and out unnoticed.

Poppy and Mary Ellen earned a reputation for themselves in the first book in the series when they (and a few canine friends) helped the police solve a double homicide, even beating the police to the capture. This time, though, Poppy finds herself topping the suspect list of the murder of a Mah Jongg-playing tourist.

Some familiar characters are back, both canine and human, there’s a titch of romance in the air with its own mystique, and Lane Trabalka’s chapter heading line drawings add to the intrigue and charm. Those who play Mah Jongg and follow conversations about “friendly games” will find themselves laughing out loud as the story centers around planning an upcoming Mah Jongg tournament. Weedman and Todd weave the elements of the game through the story with enough explanation that even non-players may be encouraged to pick up the game.

Although most of the story takes place in the popular and quirky confines of Frankenmuth, readers get to travel all the way to Nairobi in Book Two, but with Weedman and Todd crafting the twists and turns, everyone will need their seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.

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

Book Review :: The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley book cover image

Review by Kevin Brown

The unnamed narrator of Bradley’s debut novel, The Ministry of Time, has recently received a promotion within The Ministry, moving from the Languages department to serve as a bridge for a new expat. However, her newly arrived charge is not new to the country, as he was born in England, but new to the time period. The Ministry has discovered a time door, and they’ve used it to bring a handful of people — who were about to die in their lifetimes — into the present to see how they assimilate.

Thus, she spends most of her time with Graham Gore, who should have died in an Arctic expedition in the nineteenth century that went terribly wrong, helping him to adapt to twenty-first century life. They meet up with other bridges and expats at various times, some of whom adjust better than others. The narrator makes it clear early on that readers shouldn’t bother trying to understand the logic of time travel, advice that is always worthwhile when reading any book that involves it.

One of the reasons the narrator has her job is because her mother was a refugee from Cambodia, so leaders in The Ministry think she will work well in such a situation. However, she reveals herself to be rather naïve about the realities of her job. There are other people who are interested in the expats, leading to the narrator’s not knowing whom to trust, as she doesn’t truly understand the situation she has found herself in. She also struggles to understand Graham, and he can’t comprehend her, either, as their class and race divisions complicate their relationship beyond the obvious time differences.

Bradley uses time travel to ask questions about history, but more about history as a narrative that people construct to help provide them with purpose and meaning, as well as to control others or their world. The narrator comes to understand that she has defined others without understanding them, shaping narratives about them and herself that lead her to make a number of poor decisions. The ending leaves the future open, though, as the narrator is learning how to revise the narratives she’s crafted.

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley. Avid Reader Press, April 2025.

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

Book Review :: Black in Blues: How Color Tells the Story of My People by Imani Perry

Black in Blues: How Color Tells the Story of My People by Imani Perry book cover image

Review by Kevin Brown

As the title conveys, Imani Perry’s latest book uses the color blue to explore the history of Black Americans. Many of the historical figures and events in the collection of essays are well-known, such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Booker T. Washington, Toni Morrison, Louis Armstrong, George Washington Carver, Zora Neale Hurston, Ralph Ellison, and Nina Simone. However, Perry also draws from the lives and stories of lesser-known artists, musicians, and historical figures to give a fuller view of the story of African Americans.

It’s the use of the color blue, though, that helps her reshape and refashion the histories she tells, digging deeper than the traditional stories even a well-educated reader might know about the famous and less so. For example, she draws on the ninth chapter of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man to explore the history of architectural blueprints, which then leads to a meditation on improvisation for when ideas don’t go according to plan, moving to a concluding paragraph on Thelonious Monk’s “In Walked Bud,” which Irving Berlin’s “Blue Skies” inspired. She ends the brief essay by writing, “[Monk] dismantled every blueprint. He showed how it felt to be rescued. The exercise is clear in retrospect: act and build with love — when faced with the prospect of death. That’s how we live.” It is this associative style of writing that gives each essay its power, as Perry ties together seemingly disparate ideas to convey undercurrents throughout Black history.

The culminating effect of the essays is not one of a linear history where one can trace a supposed progress toward more rights or freedom. Instead, Black in Blues reveals how African Americans have moved through and around the dominant white culture, creating their own stories and art and history, a culture that most white people remain ignorant of beyond the names of a select few. She celebrates the life that has thrived within that world, as she writes in the final essay: “Death comes fast, frequent, and unfair. And we’re still here. We know how to breathe underwater. Living after death. It is a universe in blue.” Perry reminds readers of ways in which that universe is simultaneously awful and beautiful.

Black in Blues: How Color Tells the Story of My People by Imani Perry. Ecco, January 2025.

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

Magazine Stand :: The Midwest Quarterly – Spring 2025

The Midwest Quarterly Spring 2025 cover image

The Midwest Quarterly: A Journal of Contemporary Thought Spring 2025 theme is “Library Issue(s)” with Guest Editor Sara DeCaro and includes the articles “The Options when DEI Initiatives in Libraries are Not Working or Nonexistent” by Casey Phillips, “Digital Commons and Accessibility” by Madison Price, “Mathematical Marvels in a Midwestern Library” by Cynthia Huffman, “The Rise and Fall of Wine Gardens in Kansas City 1880-1920” by Sara DeCaro, “From TV Screen to Family Scene: Bluey and the Art of Invitational Rhetoric” by Blayne Thorton, and “Unreconciled Visions of War: Japan and America in World War II (A Literature Review)” by David F. DiMeo, as well as a selection of new poems.

Discover loads more great lit mags with our Guide to Literary Magazines, Big List of Literary Magazines, and Big List of Alternative Magazines. If you are a publication looking to be listed in our monthly roundup or featured on our blog and social media, please contact us.

Where to Submit Roundup: May 23, 2025

It’s that time of the week again—Fri-yay! 🎉

NewPages is back with our weekly roundup of submission opportunities, plus a dose of creative inspiration to help get your ideas flowing. Kick off the long weekend with fresh prompts and venues to help you hit your writing and publishing goals.

Inspiration: Just Like ABC

Abecedarian poems can be tricky—finding the right rhythm and words for those tough letters like Q, X, and Z is no small feat. But what if you turned that challenge into a song?

Back in elementary school, we learned songs that celebrated Michigan’s history—from voyageurs and logging camps to sailing the Great Lakes. One song stood out: it listed reasons why Michigan was a great place to live, from A to Z.

That got me thinking: what if you created your own alphabetical ode to where you live? Try listing reasons—serious or silly—why your state, city, township, or province is wonderful. Or flip the script and list reasons you don’t love it. Maybe even do both for a fun contrast.

You don’t have to stick to song lyrics or poetry. This could become a children’s story, a young adult piece, a lyric essay, or even an adult picture book. Explore how the quirks and flaws of a place might actually be what makes it feel like home.

Stretch those creative muscles. And if you have kids, get them involved! It’s a great long weekend activity that might just spark something worth submitting.

Speaking of the long weekend—NewPages wishes you a wonderful and safe Memorial Day.

Continue reading “Where to Submit Roundup: May 23, 2025”

Book Review :: Upstage by Bruce Andrews & Sally Silvers

Upstage by Bruce Andrews & Sally Silvers book cover image

Review by Jami Macarty

In Upstage, poet Bruce Andrews and photographer Sally Silvers create a vibrant and disorienting urban experience of New Jersey’s Asbury Park. This collaborative work stands out not just for its atmospheric visuals and “boombox” text but also for the way it invites readers to reconsider their relationship with the world around them, especially in the context of the chaotic pandemic era.

As viewers and readers traverse the haunted streets of the pandemic, Silvers’s keen eye for detail provides anatomical structure, while Andrews’s lively text serves as a rhythmic pulse, creating a hypnotic effect that draws us into their shared vision. Through close-ups of patterns within a pattern, Silvers’s photographs orient us, even as they dislocate. Each image evokes a landscape that feels both familiar and alien, urging viewers to look closer and question their perceptions.

Andrews complements this visual storytelling with polyphonic word blocks that invite us to experience the “verbal showdowns” within polymodal signage. Information campaigns, medical incentives, motivational speeches, food advertisements, graffiti tags, and “1-800” numbers “mulch” together in a sort of “handbook of capitalism.” Whether decontextualizing the whole by fragmentation, as Silvers does, or recontextualizing fragments into a new whole, as Andrews does, each artist queries what it means to witness our surroundings.

By playing with abstraction and emphasis, presenting seemingly random configurations that reveal a method within madness, the artists capture the absurd seriousness of our times. In Upstage, Sally Silvers and Bruce Andrews have created a cultural portrait of modern life — a candid reflection on existence during tumultuous times. Their collaboration testifies to the resilience of art and creativity, showing us that even in isolation, meaningful connections can flourish as we navigate the strange beauty of our world together.

Upstage by Bruce Andrews & Sally Silvers. Ugly Duckling Presse, May 2024.

Reviewer bio: Jami Macarty is the author of The Long Now Conditions Permit, winner of the 2023 Test Site Poetry Series Prize (forthcoming University of Nevada Press), and The Minuses (Center for Literary Publishing, 2020), winner of the 2020 New Mexico/Arizona Book Award – Poetry Arizona. Jami’s four chapbooks include The Whole Catastrophe (Vallum Chapbook Series, 2024) and Mind of Spring (Vallum Chapbook Series, 2017), winner of the 2017 Vallum Chapbook Award. To learn more about Jami’s writing, editing, and teaching practices, visit her author website.

Magazine Stand :: The Main Street Rag – Spring 2025

The Main Street Rag - Spring 2025 literary magazine cover image

The Main Street Rag Spring 2025 issue opens with an interview with Anna Pauscher Morawitz by Jessica K. Hylton, who recently moved Salina, Kansas, and ventured out to a showcase of the arts at a local theatre where the two met. Morawitz is a “triple threat,” a visual artist who works with the Salina Arts and Humanities Department and also plays with the band Enna and the Snapdragons.

This issue also includes ‘Stories & Such’ by David Bradley, Robert Earle, Tim Keppel, Mary Lewis, Robert Page, Joe Taylor, and R. Craig Sautter, as well as loads of new poetry by Bonnie Bishop, Jane Blanchard, Cameron Bushnell, Jim Carpenter, Ricks Carson, Alan Harawitz, Jim Daniels, Rupert Fike, Pamela Brothers Denyes, Alfred Fournier, Rachel Greenberg, Cleo Griffith, Leonore Hildebrandt, PMF Johnson, Jasmine Kumalah, Elizabeth Libbey, Joseph McGreevy, Michael Milburn, Frank C. Modica, Baruch November, Madeline Cohen Oakley, Marjorie Power, Phyllis Price, Patrick T. Reardon, David Sapp, Hannah Ringler, Mary Rohrer-Dun, Cecil Sayre, Susan Shea, Carol Shillibeer, Beate Sigriddaughter, Phillip Sterling, Diane Stone, L. Sweeney, Moira Walsh, Michael Demetria Tsouris, Richard Weaver, Warren Woessner, and Robert Wooten.

Discover loads more great lit mags with our Guide to Literary Magazines, Big List of Literary Magazines, and Big List of Alternative Magazines. If you are a publication looking to be listed in our monthly roundup or featured on our blog and social media, please contact us.