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Celebrating its 35th Anniversary, Alaska Quarterly Review Editor-in-Chief Ronald Spatz, while marking the milestone with gratitude, considers this passage of time and what AQR, like many literary publications, has witnessed. "In the past we counted on artists, scholars, scientists, and journalists as reliable firewalls against ignorance. But increasingly there are powerful efforts to silence or marginalize these agents of understanding and change . . . as writers, poets, editors, and publishers, we must redouble our efforts to seek truth in all of its parts while creating every possible opportunity for compassion and empathy. In our view, the role of the arts has simply never been more crucial."

New England Review Editor Carolyn Kuebler writes in the 38.3 Editor's Note that, while the twenty-three pieces in issue 38.3 (2017) were not chosen for nor do they have a focused message or singular theme, ". . . it surprised me to see how frequently the shadow of war—to take one obvious example of a culture of violence—darkened the edges of these disparate writings. With the world always in the throes of some violence or other, it’s no wonder; whether we’re civilians or soldiers or doctors, we all become part of it. Born during the Vietnam War, finishing college at the start of the Gulf War, and then becoming a parent during the War on Terror, I’ve learned that being in a state of war doesn’t always have a clear beginning and end, and now it’s not even always clear where the war is actually happening and who’s fighting it. It’s not just in this magazine or in this moment in time that writers are contending with such themes; it’s always."

Read the full editorial here and access full-text of several works from this issue, including Louise Aronson's "Necessary Violence."

Cover: Warfare  by Sabra Field

Virga is the name for the cloud streaks that stream hazily down from the sky, snow or rain precipitation that evaporates before having a chance to reach the ground. Virga can often fool radar into recording precipitation while the ground remains dry. Perhaps in this same way, poetic and hybrid forms can be as elusive as nature herself, and why Virga is an appropriate name for new online literary biannual dedicated to poetry and hybrid writing.

September is a busy month for award-winning book releases. Here is just a sampling of small press and university press titles readers can look for this month.

At the beginning of September, Southeast Missouri State University Press published the winner of the 2015 Nilsen Literary Prize for a First Novel: Pie Man by John Surowiecki. The debut novel is told through a series of reminiscences by the titular character’s family, friends, and teachers, and explores the story of a boy, Adam Olszewski, who on his seven birthday tries to leave his family house but can’t. Soon after, the boy believes the house is alive and an inseparable part of him. Pie Man is a vivid exploration of what it means to be normal.

A Brief Alphabet of Torture: Stories by Vi Khi Nao, winner of the FC2 Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Prize, is also out this month. A Brief Alphabet of Torture is made of many modes and genres—poetry, essay fiction, drama—and almost constitutes a novel of a different kind. Each tale is a chapter that captures the concerns that pervade life.

In poetry, readers can pick up a copy of To Whitey & the Crackerjack by May Yang (Hauntie), winner of the 2016 Robert Dana Anhinga Prize, selected by Evie Schockley. Shockley says of her selection: “May Yang’s poetry pierces the silence in which the history of Hmong women has been blanketed, with indecorous wordplay, unruly rhymes, and evocative, unequivocal images. This book begins by naming names (America, global capitalism) and ends by revivifying the poetic epigram.”

Check out the publishers' websites to learn more about these newly-releaed, award-winning titles.

The Fall 2017 issue of Raleigh Review features the 2017 Laux/Miller Poetry Prize winner, finalists and honorable mentions:

Winner
Kristin Robertson - "Poem for My Unborn Daughter"

Honorable Mention
Jenna Bazzell - "All Is Wild, All Is Silent"

Finalists
Emily Paige Wilson - "Reasons to Return Home"
Emily Rose Cole - "How Not to Remember Your Mother"
Jenna Bazzell - "The Speaker's Prayer"
Mario Ariza - "Erratic transcription of notes taken at a refugee camp in Anse-A-Pitre, Haiti"

Several of the works as well as other content from this issue can be read online here.

Teaching a course in The Novel, I took my students to the fiction section of the library and had them pull down books at random and simply read the first several pages, sometimes just the first sentence. I wanted them to sample as many “beginnings” as they could, then comment on the exercise. Some said they liked it as a way to consider a lot of books and see which one might grab their interest; overwhelmingly, they all wanted to go back and keep reading at least one or more of what they had sampled. Now, imagine this experience of sampling first chapters at your fingertips, on the computer, in one publication, and you will have imagined Embark.

Dogwood Issue 16 features the winners of their 2017 Literary Prizes:

Grand Prize Winner
Judge Michele Glazer
Laura Read’s poem “Margaret Corrine, Dunseith, North Dakota, 1932”
$1000 and publication
[Laura pictured]

First Prize in Nonfiction
Judge Sarah Einstein
Natasha Sajé’s essay “Guilt: A Love Story”
$250 and publication

First Prize in Fiction
Judge Karen Osborn
J. Stillwell Powers’ story “Salvage”
$250 and publication

Read full judge's comments here.

"The decision to consider the work in the current issue of Bennington Review through the lens of threat," writes Editor Michael Dumanis, "- be this threat political, global, localized, or existential - was made during an uncharacteriscially emotional editorial meeting on Thursday, November 10, 2016, two days after a certain historical event. We felt completely unprepared to imagine what might come next. Animated by collective anxiety - this sense of abrupt dislocation of expectaions, as well as new actual danger - we gravitated toward poems and stories and essays where paradigms were similarly disrupted, where characters suddenly found themselves destabalized by external forces, where institutions and individuals in which we'd placed our trust failed to hold up their end of the bargain."

See a full table of contents with several sample works from the issue here.

Cover image by Prague-based artist Jakub Geltner: "Cultural Landscape."

Earth Island Journal is an online magazine that "consistently delivers environmental stories that mainstream media often fail to cover." As such, writers who have "distinctive stories that anticipate environmental concerns before they become pressing problems, stories that scan the horizon for the next big issue" will find a place for their work here. Earth Island Journal  is a paying market for articles on the full spectrum of environmental issues and success stories of individuals and communities defending and restoring the Earth. Each issue also includes the feature "1,000 Words," focusing on environmental artists and their works.

“Field Tripping” by Katie Buchan is the eye-catching cover on the concīs Summer 2017. This online and e-pub journal devoted to brevity is available as PDF download.
"The Spaces Between" by Laura Berger is featured on the cover of the online issue of Fugue (52). Managed and edited by graduate students in the English and Creative Writing Programs at University of Idaho, Fugue  features poetry, plays, fiction, essays, visual-text hybrids, and interviews.
Do I pick EVERY Kenyon Review cover? Maybe, but when covers make me laugh or do a double take, that's worth sharing. The artist is Milan, Italy-based Emiliano Ponzi.

Born in the southern reaches of Arizona and New Mexico, Sky Island Journal is a new, open access online quarterly of poetry, flash fiction, and brief creative nonfiction. Just like its unique geographical namesake, Sky Island Journal  promises, “as a writer, no matter who you are, where you're from, or what you write about – if you’ve ever felt a connection to landscapes, art, or people, your writing might very well find a home with us. As a reader, you're in for a real treat.”

In its Spring 2017 issue, Michigan Quarterly Review editor, Jonathan Freedman, offers a wonderful tribute to Managing Editor Vicki Lawrence who stepped down in May after twenty years with the magazine. As managing editor, Freedman writes, "she did just about everything: copyedited, proofread, supervised all the other manifold details of the publishing process, helped select the covers, talked the authors into her judicious recasting of the more infelicitous, erroneous, or just plain aberrational turns of phrase or thought. She schlepped copies of the journal to the Ann Arbor Book Festival and the AWP convention with equal vigor and tenacity."

NewPages enjoyed our professional relationship with Vicki, looking forward to our annual meetings with her at AWP. Along with many others who came to know her as the face of MQR, we will miss her greatly in our literary circle, but look forward to seeing her again soon to fulfill our promise of beers in Ann Arbor!

The Rust Belt extends from the Great Lakes to the Upper Midwest and refers to the deindustrialization the region experienced as needs and supplies changed over the decades. As a Michigander, Detroit and Flint are well-known names from our state representing the Rust Belt sector. But on the tails of any discussion of decline and decay are examples and stories of revitalization and renewal, and these are common literary themes. Rattle takes a uniquely complex approach in issue #57, looking instead to the impact "the shifting political attitude of this region" had on the 2016 election and checks in to "find a first-hand account of what’s going on through the poet’s eye."

Featured poets include: Joseph A. Chelius, Edward Derby, Heather Finnegan, Jim Hanlen, Zachary Hester, Donna Hilbert, Ananda Lima, Bob Lucky, Herbert Woodward Martin, Andrew Miller, Behzad Molavi, Al Ortolani, Li Qingzhao, Lee Rossi, Michael Sears, Matthew Buckley Smith, and Dennis Trudell, with a conversation with Detroit-based psychotherapist and poet Ken Meisel.

Glimmer Train has just chosen the winning stories for their May/June Short Story Award for New Writers. This competition is held three times a year and is open to all writers whose fiction has not appeared in a print publication with a circulation greater than 5000. The next Short Story Award competition will start on September 1: Short Story Award for New Writers. Glimmer Train’s monthly submission calendar may be viewed here.

1st place goes to Dan Murphy [pictured] of Brooklyn, NY, who wins $2500 for “In Miniature.” His story will be published in Issue 101 of Glimmer Train Stories. This will be his first fiction publication.

2nd place goes to David Ye of Irvine, CA, who wins $500 for “Blue Water.”

3rd place goes to Jen Wellington of Buffalo, NY, who wins $300 for “Red Stick.”

A PDF of the Top 25 winners can be found here.

Deadlines soon approaching:

Fiction Open: August 31 (grace period extends through September 10)
Glimmer Train hosts this competition twice a year, and first place has just been increased to $3000 plus publication in the journal, and 10 copies of that issue. Second/third: $1000/$600 and consideration for publication. This category has been won by both beginning and veteran writers - all are welcome! There are no theme restrictions. Word count generally ranges from 3000 – 6000, though up to 20,000 is fine. Stories may have previously appeared online but not in print. Click here for complete guidelines.

Very Short Fiction Award: August 31 (grace period extends through September 10)
This competition is also held twice a year, with first place winning $2000 plus publication in the journal, and 10 copies of that issue. Second/third: $500/$300 and consideration for publication. It’s open to all writers, with no theme restrictions, and the word count must not exceed 3000. Stories may have previously appeared online but not in print. Click here for complete guidelines.

Dissent, the online magazine of independent minds and strong opinions, features a reivew of Raoul Peck's documentary I Am Not Your Negro, based on James Baldwin's unfinished manuscript Remember This House. In "The Apocalyptic Baldwin," reviewer Dan Sinykin writes:
"I Am Not Your Negro  shows how the later Baldwin, as he negotiated the politics of the mid-to-late 1960s and lived through the murders of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, Jr., became disillusioned about the possibility of any peaceful resolution to racism. Though the film hints at Baldwin’s emergent anti-capitalism, attention to the texts Peck draws from reveal the force with which Baldwin began to see American capitalism, nationalism, normative sexuality, and whiteness as inextricably bound. To address racism, then, he came to believe, would require a fundamental transformation of society. More likely, though, America would burn itself to the ground."

Read the full article here.

Emma Lazarus’ sonnet “The New Colossus” has gained new popular attention of late, thanks in part to White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller’s comments dismissing the value of its message to immigrants. But, before Miller, this poem engraved on The Statue of Liberty was the inspiration for Breathe Free Press, a magazine the Editor Deborah Di Bari says was “founded in great part to resist the Trump administration’s oppressive policies.”

An exerpt from "Darling America" by Kelli Russell Agodon from the ongoing series of Letter to America published on Terrain.org:
...
Listen, the dolls in my dollhouse

are being deported and the landlord is typing
in all caps. How do we recognize humanity

when we’re just a name on a screen? An avatar
of a flag or resist, a red cap or a pink hat?

We’re holding the door for people, until we know
how they voted then we’re tripping each other

into the future, getting high off how fast they fall.
...
Read the full poem and hear it read by the author here.

Publishing fiction, poetry, and essays from the Department of English at Auburn University, Alabama, Southern Humanities Review celebrates 50 year in print with volume 51.1. The issue features an essay by Greg Varner; fiction by Craig Bernardini, Megan Fahey, Beck Hagenston, Ted Morrissey, and Hannah Pittard; and poetry by Jessica Rae Bergamino, Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello, Tarfia Faizullah, Joe Jiménez, Elizabeth Langemak, Kamilah Aisha Moon, Melissa Mylchreest, Sam Ross, sam sax, Derek Sheffield.

Southern Humanities Review  is available for single issue purchase on the NewPages Magazine Webstore.

Subscribers to Rattle magazine will find a nice surprise with their Fall 2017 issue: a copy of the 2017 Rattle Chapbook Prize Winner, The Whetting Stone by Taylor Mali. In The Whetting Stone, Mali explores his wife’s suicide, her life, their love, and Mali’s guilt and resilience, with poetry that is stark and accessible.

If you’re not already a subscriber to Rattle, you can still order individual copies of The Whetting Stone (which features cover art by the talented Bianca Stone) from the magazine’s website. While there, consider subscribing to Rattle to be sure you receive the Rattle Chapbook Prize winner directly in your mailbox next year.

Able Muse Press annually holds the Able Muse Book Award, which offers a $1,000 prize, plus publication of the winning manuscript. The 2016 winner was recently published: Aaron Poochigian with Manhattanite.

A. E. Stallings, 2016 Able Muse Book Award judge and author of Olives, writes in the Manhattanite foreword: “This collection is a celebration of exuberant melancholy, or melancholy exuberance, slick lyric cum urbane pastoral. [ . . . ] Poochigian’s verse is never taciturn: like a Broadway musical, it is always bursting into song [ . . . ].”

Readers can check out four poems from the collection on the Able Muse website, where copies of Manhattanite can also be purchased.

Winners of the annual Mary C. Mohr Awards in fiction and poetry appear in the Spring 2017 issue of Southern Indiana Review. Each winner receives $2000 and publication. Entries for the 2017 award are open until October 2.

2016 Mary C. Mohr Poetry Award Winner
Selected by Jericho Brown
"manhood" by Richard Thompson

2016 Mary C. Mohr Fiction Award Winner
Selected by Adam Johnson
"The One Good Thing About Las Vegas, Nevada" by Bradford Kammin [pictured]

"Decompose #4" by Taylor Torres is featured on the cover of The Boiler, an online quaterly of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction from emerging and established authors, as well as artwork.
Thread is an online "intersectional feminist arts collective" publishing visual art, poetry, prose and creative nonfiction bimonthly.
The work of artist and activist John Sproul is featured on the cover of Superstition Review #19.

Entre Rios Press offers readers several new titles that will come with free audio download.Publisher Knox Gardner has been working closely with the book designer and audio producer. He tells me, "When I get the audio back from the studio, I am always startled to hear something new about the poems. I love it." Gardner says they will have audio on all of their books and these first three will be available for free download for all listeners (not password protected). Samples are currently available on their website or here on their SoundCloud station. Entre Rios is also working to include an interview/discussion with Maya Zeller and Carrie DeBacker as part of their audio download.

Flowers & Sky: Two Talks by Aaron Shurin
Mary's Dust poems by Melinda Mueller with music by Lori Goldston
Alchemy for Cells & Other Beasts poetry and art by Maya Jewell Zeller and Carrie DeBacker

After the first few months of getting their online feet wet, Aquifer: The Florida Reviw Online is now open for general submissions. Writers are encouraged [as always] to review the publication content to make sure their writing is a good fit before submitting. "We are seeking top-quality digital stories, graphic narrative, creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry" the editors say. TFR  is also introducing a January annual $50 "staff picks" award from among all the authors published in the print TFR  and Aquifer.

Fiddlehead Fiction Editor Mark Anthony Jarman introduces this issue's contents as a showcase of "great, sensuous stories from the east coast and west coast and around the world," and adds that the issue also features a nonfiction work, "The Foxes of Prince Edward Island," by Matthew Ferrence. ". . . it is our desire," Jarman explains, "to include more creative nonfiction in future issues of The Fiddlehead." Readers can find Jarman's introduction and Eden Robinson's story "Nanas I Have Loved" available to read online.