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Poet, teacher and visual artist Truong Tran's works are featured in the Spring 2018 issue of The Georgia Review. In addition to a full color portfolio inside, "Lost Poem #3" is featured on the cover.
The Colorado Review cover photo by Brian Holland is luscious, and even more so when viewed full spread with the entire night-lit bridge in the background.
And a final splash of red and summer with "Picnic, Long Island, New York" by Ralph Gibson on the cover of the Summer 2018 issue of Michigan Quarterly Review.
Readers, do you find yourself wanting to support small presses, while not wanting to break your bank? Look no further than Press 53. Each month, they’ll now offer up a selection of their titles at a discounted price. Visit their website to see the current titles in poetry and fiction, including Mary Akers linked story collection Bones of an Inland Sea, and Stacy R. Nigliazzo’s award-winning poetry collection Scissored Moon.
Death. Dying. Terminal illness. Words – and experiences – we tend to avoid, not want to talk about and, most certainly, not want to experience. Yet, as Founding Editor Renata Khoshroo Louwers says, these are topics that touch everyone’s life at some point. Which is why she and her husband began Months To Years, the online quarterly of creative nonfiction, poetry, photography, and art, as a response to their own experiences with loss as well as a way to support others. That’s what writers do: we start over. For a writer, every day is a new day with a new beginning. Even if we are writing an essay or a book chapter we have been working on for days or months—or years!—we face our notebook or keyboard not really knowing what is going to happen to our work next. We may think and hope that we know, but we really don’t—at least until we are deep into the story. Even then, we are invariably surprised.
Lee Gutkind from his What's the Story introduction to the 4th Annual Readers' Choice Theme issue of Creative Nonfiction - Starting Over: Hitting the Reset Button
Perfect for the start of the new school year - whether or not you're a student! The Southeast Review is offering its second Writer's Regimen for poets, essayists, and fiction writers who would benefit from incorporating structure into their daily writing practice - or perhaps get a daily practice started! Editor Dorothy Chan explains:
This October, The Southeast Review 30-Day Writer's Regimen returns with daily prompts, daily exercises, and daily quotes to cure your writer's block and give you an endless source of creative inspiration! We've added daily themes, so get ready to immerse yourself into different worlds every day! We're also proud to announce craft talks by esteemed writers Ching-In Chen, Kao Kalia Yang [pictured], Sam Herschel Wein, and Timothy Liu. Registration is open now. This October, write lots of short stories and poems you'll be proud of. We hope you enjoy our regimen!
In addition to all the daily features, Writer's Regimen offer flashback craft talks from previous WRs for "more writing heavyweights" as well as a free copy of The Southeast Review.
For a PDF sample of the first regimen day, click here. Chan says, "This summer we've decided to innovate the regimen by including themes, and you'll notice the theme of Day 1 is 'secrets.' These themes will carry on for a few days and each day, subscribers will experience a variation of that theme. Other themes include translation, the body, Hollywood, and seduction."
The Spring 2018 issue of The Georgia Review features "Lesson" by Elly Bookman, the 2017 Loraine Williams Poetry Prize Winner selected by Naomi Shihab Nye. In addition to publication, Bookman will receive $1000. The Loraine Williams Poetry Prize is open annually from April 1-May 15. 
Regular readers of The American Poetry Review will be exicted to see the new cover design starting with the July/August 2018 issue. We love it here at NewPages World Headquaters! Nicely done APR!
Diversity and the Arts is the theme of the Spring/Summer 2018 issue of Nimrod International Journal, featuring "Tree of Life," a gorgeous canvas, acrylic paint, composition leaf and embroidery piece by the Tulsa Girls Art School: "an afterschool, social service program that uses art as a vehicle to reach girls."
"Cedar Waxwing," a photo by AJ Reinhart, draws readers to this Spring 2018 issue of The Louisville Review. Check out more of his nature photography and artwork here.
A while back, NewPages introduced Under a Warm Green Linden online poetry journal which had expanded its publication efforts to include environmental activism under its "Green Mission." This mission promises to donate a portion of its proceeds to reforestation efforts (through the Arbor Day Foundation and the National Forest Foundation).
To date, Under a Warm Green Linden has funded the planting of 170 trees, and with the help of poetry lovers, hopes to continue this effort. One easy way to participate is by purchasing their limited edition broadsides which accompany each new journal issue. These are bea-u-ti-ful prints - I know because I have purchased every one of them! They are reproduced on high quality paper, full color, carefully packaged for safe shipping and, best of all, SIGNED by the authors. Pictured: "Song of Extinction" by David Axelrod.
Under a Warm Green Linden has also begun publishing chapbooks and has two available for purchase: Tempo Rubato by Boyer Rickel, A Place Where One by Barbara Cully, and bonehouse by Erika Brumett (forthcoming).
Broadsided Press art and poetry collaboration posters are available for free download and postering all about town as well as in PDF to share electronically.
August's Broadsided collaboration with words by Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello and art by Elizabeth Terhune resulted in "Ghost Mantis."
In addition to their ongoing CFS, Broadsided is looking for "multilingual writing" for a special edition: "Many writers grow up in or become part of families and communities that speak more than one language, and at Broadsided Press, we think that’s worth celebrating. In this special 'Broadsided Responds' feature, we will offer a folio of work that speaks between and with multiple languages."
IKEA CHOICES
by Ryan Thorpe
The family of three examines
the dining table for four,
calculating out their marriage
prospect. They are unsure
of the wood’s soft shine,
doubting it will survive past
two winters. . .
[Love the way this poem ends. Read the rest in the Apple Valley Review online Spring 2018 issue.]
Following the suspension of the 2018 Nobel Prize for Literature, The New Academy was created "to warrant that an international literary prize will be awarded in 2018, but also as a reminder that literature should be associated with democracy, openness, empathy and respect."
Librarians from across Sweden were invited to submit nominations of authors for the prize; voting opened to the global public on July 10 and will close on August 14.
The top four nominations from this long list will receive final assessment for the award by an "expert jury" comprised of: Jury President Ann Pålsson, editor and independent publisher; and Jury Members Lisbeth Larsson, Professor of Literature, Gothenburg University; Peter Stenson, editor and critic; and Gunilla Sandin, librarian director.
The winner will be announced October 14.
After nearly 30 years of continuous publication, Glimmer Train has announced that they will be closing shop after this next year of publication. Submissions are still being accepted to finish out with issue #106, but after that, sisters Linda Swanson-Davies and Susan Burmeister-Brown – or as we call them, The Glimmer Train Sisters – plan to retire the publication entirely.
While they have received many offers and inquiries to let others take over the renowned journal, The Sisters had already decided against this option. In a form letter response to such inquiries, The Sisters. . .
American Life in Poetry: Column 695BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE
In one of my recent columns I wrote about the importance to the overall effect of a poem of having a strong ending, and here's a fine example of that. It's by Terri Kirby Erickson, a North Carolinian, from her book, Becoming the Blue Heron, published by Press 53. Others of Erickson's poems are available in the column's archives at www.americanlifeinpoetry.org.
My Cousin, Milton
My cousin, Milton, worked for a cable company.
The boy I knew when we were children
had fists that were often clenched, his face set like
an old man whose life had been so hard,
it hardened him. But the man's hands opened to let
more of the world in. He sent the funniest
cards to family and friends at Christmas, laid down
cable so others could connect. Yet, he lived
alone, kept to himself much of the time, so when
his sister found his body, he'd been gone
a good while. He died young at fifty-seven, without
fuss or bother. No sitting by the bedside
or feeding him soup. He just laid himself down like
a trunk line and let the signal pass through.
We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts. American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2017 by Terri Kirby Erickson from Becoming the Blue Heron (Press 53, 2017). Poem reprinted by permission of Terri Kirby Erickson and the publisher. Introduction copyright ©2018 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006.
Frustrated with the current policital administration? You protest, rally, write letters, get yourself and others ready to vote...what more can you do? For poet and musician Ken Waldman (aka Alaska's Fiddling Poet), there's poetry. Sonnets to be exact, and a lot of them. With two volumes already completed and one more (at least) on the way, Waldman is taking this administration to task - and perhaps salvaging his own sanity as well as that of his readers - responding to the daily fodder by turning it to his muse for poetry.
Like many of us, in a stunned stupor the day after the election, Wednesday, November 9, 2016, Waldman writes that he was "processing Donald Trump's surprise victory in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and wrote, 'You make George W. seem a statesman--your opening trick,' which I turned into the first line and a half of a sonnet. A week later I wrote two more Donald Trump-inspired sonnets. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, another 68. That's 71 sonnets, a full-length collection. 41 were written in the voice of Donald Trump. The rest were addressed to him." The book's subtitle - The First 50 Days - speaks to the process many of us went through at the start.
Now in our second year of Trump's reign, Waldman continues to see us through with Trump Sonnets Volume 2: 33 Commentaries, 33 Dreams. "Half of this sequel's 66 poems is incisive commentary," writes Waldman,. "Half, dreams that I imagine Donald Trump might have, and those are in Trump's voice."
Both volumes, as well as Waldman's other books, are available through SPD Distribution or directly from Waldman. Visitors to his website can also view YouTube videos of Waldman reading the poems with a little bit of his iconic fiddling style thrown in.
In addition to celebrating its tenth anniversay of publication, the newest issue of Canada's Hamilton Arts & Letters (11.1) is also a celebration of Bertrand Russell and the 50th Anniversary of the Russell Archives.
Guest Editor Rick Stapleton [pictured] writes in his introduction, "In 1968 McMaster University purchased the first instalment of the archives of Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), a vast collection of letters, manuscripts, photographs, books and other personal material of one of the 20th century’s greatest philosophers, writers, and peace activists. At the time, the 96-year-old Russell was in need of funds to support his peace work, and McMaster’s university librarian, William Ready—renowned for his ‘buccaneering’ style of acquiring collections—was able to bid successfully for the archives. Now, 50 years later, we celebrate that event with this special issue of Hamilton Arts & Letters magazine, devoted to Bertrand Russell."
The issue is packed with poetry, artwork, and articles, including an Interview with Kenneth Blackwell, the original Bertrand Russell archivist by Wade Hemsworth; “'I Have Never Been a Complete Pacifist': Bertrand Russell on Peace and War in the Twentieth Century" by Andrew Bone; "Bertrand Russell and The Revolution in Twentieth Century Philosophy" by Nicholas Griffin; "A Rivalry? – Russell’s Lovers, Lady Ottoline Morrell and Lady Constance Malleson" by Sheila Turcon; "Hanging out with Bertrand Russell" by Terry Fallis; and "Bertrand Russell: Remembering a Public Intellectual for Our Time" by Henry A. Giroux.
Hamilton Arts & Letters is an online publication; the full issue can be accessed here.
New out this month is the first chapbook from literary magazine The Esthetic Apostle: Absences: A Sequence by John A. Griffin. Accompanied by collages by artist Martine Mooijenkind, the chapbook explores forms of loss. In “Relic,” the speaker notes: “It is November and a concussed fog hangs above the lake,” and this fog seems to settle over the rest of the pieces within the collection, somber and haunted by absences.
From the publisher: "Absences addresses the themes of loss of youth, loss of innocence, isolation, separation, exile, death, the absence of familiarity, affection, and above all the loss or absence of love. The sequence meditates on the natural world but finds little comfort there. There are no idyllic, romantic refuges from the self, and pathetic fallacies remain just that: instead of providing a balm to the sick heart, the dales of Arcady merely accentuate its angst. The poems find fitting motifs in poetic echoes and these are channeled into the poems' movement to harmonize their rhythms and oscillations and to achieve a kind of unsettling but restorative equipoise. The sequence resonates with allusions to classical mythology, Virginia Woolf, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Julio Cortazar, Franz Kafka, Johann Georg Hamann, Paul Celan, and Bruno Schulz, and tries to weave its patchwork aesthetic by drawing on their disparate but unified themes. Ultimately, the sequence is a celebration of life, even if life's great peroration is death, and even if we all die the same death over and over again."
Visit the publisher’s website to pick up your copy.
The Aquifer, the online journal of The Florida Review, is now accepting film and video work as they expand their visual arts and new media offerings for readers.
"We are looking for experimental works of film or video that are 15 minutes or less and utilize moving images as a means to poetic expression, formal exploration, or abstract and open-ended narratives. Compelling, personal works that push the boundaries of cinematic convention will also be considered for publication."
For more information, see the Aquifer announcement.
[The Florida Review 42.1 2018 cover art: Dengke Chen, "Tank Man," digital illustration]
The Florida Review is seeking submissions from Latinx / Latina / Latino writers for a special feature. Work submitted to this category will be considered for both the digital and print editions of this feature. Fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, graphic narrative (color or black-and-white), hybrid writing, visual art, and digital media are all welcome. Edited by Nicole Oquendo [pictured]. Submissions accepted through September 1, 2018. For more information, click here. 
If you're traveling anywhere near Montgomery, Alabama, consider spending the night in the former home of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald which now houses the Fitzgerald Museum and a two-bedroom apartment. "This historic home houses the only dedicated museum to F. Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald in the world. The family lived here from 1931 until 1932, writing portions of their respective novels, Save Me The Waltz and Tender Is The Night, during their time here."
The apartment is listed on Airbnb and can be rented for $150 a night. Guests can also visit the museum during its open hours, maybe helping make Montgomery your destination!
Gyroscope Review: Fine Poetry to Turn Your World Around has announced a call for submissions for The Crone Issue to feature contemporary poetry from poets who identify as women and are over the age of 50.
"Women over 50 are often underrepresented in poetry publications, so we are choosing to offer a space and a voice to the wise women out there. We want work that celebrates the ideas of crone, wise woman, matriarch, post-menopause, grandmother, elder, strength, experience," the editors write in their CFS. They challenge: "Shake up our ideas of the female over-50 demographic. Show us something fierce, something powerful, something that cannot be ignored. Cast off the restrictions around what you have been told you can talk about. Break your silence."
Submissions are open until September 15 or until the editors have accepted enough content to fill the issue - whichever comes first. So - don't delay! Send your best work today!
Volume 17 of Dogwood: A Journal of Poetry and Prose features the winning entries of their 2018 Literary Awards. In addition to publication, Dogwood doubled their cash prizes to $1000 for each winning author. Each author's name is linked to a page with more information about them.
Fiction Prize
Judge Nicholas Montemarano
“There You Are” by Landon Houle
Poetry Prize
Judge Gillian Conoley
“Early Marriage, 1982, Endless Rain” by Kim Garcia
Nonfiction Prize
Judge Patrick Phillips
“To Learn About Smoke One Must First Light a Fire” by Misha Rai [pictured[
The 2019 Dogwood Literary Awards are open for submission until September 5, 2018.
Each issue of 3Elements publishes works that respond to three words for that issue. The Summer 2018 issue words were Jazz, Cradle, Recluse. Gregg Chadwick's artwork "Jazz Life (Central Avenue)" is the featured cover image.
The cover image of River Teeth: A Journal of Nonfiction Narrative is, appropriately, a sunset photo by David FitzSimmons, ushering out nineteen years of publishing as the journal heads into their twentieth anniversary!
"Lotus III" by Colette Brésilla is the unique oil on canvas art for the cover of the Spring/Summer 2018 issue of Salamander (#46).
The Summer 2018 issue of Sheila-Na-Gig online includes a special section of works by poets who are also editors (or is that vice versa?). Featured poets and their publications:
Glen Armstrong / Cruel Garters
Sarah Diamond Burroway / Jelly Bucket
Alan Catlin / Misfit Magazine
Rita Chapman / december magazine
Kersten Christianson / Alaska Women Speak
Sandy Coomer / Rockvale Review
AR Dugan / Ploughshares
Catherine Fahey / Soundings East
Lynne Marie Houston / Five Oaks Press
James Croal Jackson / The Mantle
Jen Karetnick / SWWIM Every Day
Sergio Ortiz / Undertow Tanka Review
Joseph Shields / Nerve Cowboy Magazine
Dan Sicoli / Slipstream Magazine and Press
Martin Willitts Jr / The Comstock Review
Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas [pictured] / The Orchards Poetry Journal
As a kid (and adult for that matter) who was forever unable to remember her numerical lock combinations, what3words is the most brilliant invention of all time. And who among us readers/writers can't absolutely fall in love with this concept: The entire planet mapped out in three meter squares with each one assigned a unique three-word sequence.
Download the app to your phone, and no matter where you go, you can find you three-word location. Give your three-word location to someone, and they can find you!
I can only imagine that some poets have already gotten a hold of this and are integrating it into their writing - right? How about engaging young students in both geography and writing. Come up with three words, put them in, and see where that location is - the possibilities are endless and exciting! Check it out for yourself!
In keeping with Memoir Magazine's mission, "to be a witness to both factual and emotional truths that resonate with the human heart by supporting writers and artists in sharing their stories—whether personal, social or political– through publication, education, and advocacy," the publication offers Memoir Magazine University, "a safe space dedicated entirely to the development of writers and stories that need to be heard."
Two summer classes coming up are Anonymous Memoir Writing Workshop for Sexual Assault Survivors with Memoir Magazine Founder and Editor-in-Chief Mary McBeth (July 9 - August 20; open times) and Writing To Heal with Jerry Waxler [pictured] (July 10 – August 21, Tuesdays 7:30-9pm EST; July 12 – August 23, Thursdays 12 noon-1:30 EST).
Future classes will include Intro to Memoir and Memoir 101. For more information, visit Memoir Magazine's website.
