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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.

Under the Sun online creative non-fiction annual offers teachers "Ten reasons why our online journal would be a good choice in your writing courses," including the fact that the editors are teachers and writers themselves. They've tested Under the Sun  in their own classrooms to positive feedback from students. And students - you have a voice! Let your teachers know about Under the Sun  and other great, free access, literary and alternative magazines at NewPages!

While this may sound 'easy' enough at first thought, it's a far more grueling commitment than most can imagine - just like running a marathon or half marathon. I mean, how many of us can run? Run a mile? Run five or ten? It's when the miles - and poems and hours - start adding one on top of another that the breakdown enters in. In marathon running, they call it "hitting the wall." Even though running - or writing poetry - is something you love to do, the constraints of time and goal of a numerical accomplishment push that relationship to its limits.

Started by Caitlin Jans (Thompson) and Jacob Jans in 2011, there have since been six marathons. Every year, hundreds enter their names to compete, and every year, only a fraction of those actually do. This year, 95 poets successfully completed 24 poems in 24 hours and 123 poets successfully completed 12 poems in 12 hours. Congratulations to all on this accomplishment! See a full list of the 'winners' here, where the poems are posted via a WordPress site, and the organizers just closed submissions for the second annual anthology of winners' submissions.

If you missed the marathon this year - and the five other times it's been held - you may or may not still have a chance to enter. Caitlin and Jacob have announced that the future of the marathon is up in the air. They are looking for someone who might be interested in helping run it, or other options for keeping it going. It's clearly no 'easy' task on their end either, but their efforts to date have been immensely appreciated. I'm sure every one of us who has successfully completed this challenge will forever hold a sense of pride in that accomplishment. As well we should!

The winners of The Malahat Review Long Poem Prize appear in the Summer 2017 issue and interviews with each poet are available to read on the publication's website. Winners receive $1000 and publication. Contest judges: Louise Bernice Halfe, George Elliott Clarke, and Patricia Young.

John Wall Barger, "Smog Mother"
Read the interview with John Wall Barger here.

Délani Valin [pictured], "No Buffalos"
Read the interview with Délani Valin here.

The Malahat Review  is available for single issue purchase in the NewPages Magazine Webstore.

Arkana is a new biannual online journal published by the Arkansas Writers MFA Program at the University of Central Arkansas. While the name may seem obviously connected to the place, “arcana” can also mean a secret or a mystery, or a powerful and secret remedy, some “great secret of nature that the alchemists sought to discover.” This definition, the editors explain, is what they want Arkana  to be all about: “discovering powerful voices that haven’t previously been heard, but speak to human nature and the human experience. Publishing every genre possible, and with the welcoming flexibility online offers, the editors want to “be the literary journal of mysteries and marginalized voices—to champion the arcane.”

The newest issue of The Florida Review (40.1, 2017) features winners of the 2016 Editor's Awards. This annual award accepts submissions in fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. Winners receive $1000 upon publication in TFR  with finalists also being considered for publication.

Nonfiction
Winner: Rebekah Taussig, "I Called Mine Beautiful"
Finalist: Robert Stothart, "Nighthawks"

Poetry
Winner: Paige Lewis, "Angel, Overworked"
Finalist: Donna Coffey, "Sunset Cruise at Key West"
Finalist: Christina Hammerton, "Old Pricks"

Fiction
Winner: Derek Palacio, "Kisses"
Finalist: Nicholas Lepre, "Pretend You’re Really Here"
Finalist: Terrance Manning, Jr., "Vision House"

The Florida Review is avaiable for single issue purchase on the NewPages Magazine Webstore.

Happy 40th Anniversary to Willow Springs magazine of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and interviews published out of Spokane, Washington. Issue 80 features approriate celebratory cover art by Marta Berens ("Crystal Structure") of a small girl seeming to be caught in mid-dance, and inside this issue, the poem "Anniversary," by Elizabeth Austen includes these closing lines: "I twist as if I, like the jellyfishdress, / am suspended, still / thick with possibility, still buoyant."

May Willow Springs continue on another forty years - buoyant and thick with possibility!

Each year, PEN America grants one winner of the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction a $25,000 cash prize, given in memory of Robert W. Bingham. The 2017 winner, judged by Jami Attenberg, Tanwi Nandini Islam, Randall Kenan, Hanna Pylväinen, and Akhil Sharma, is Rion Amilcar Scott with Insurrections (University of Kentucky Press, August 2017).

In the debut collection, Rion Amilcar Scott gives life to residents of the fictional town of Cross River, Maryland, a largely black settlement founded in 1807. Written in lyrical prose, Scott presents characters who dare to make their own choices in the depths of darkness and hopelessness.

Stop by the University of Kentucky Press website to listen to interviews with the author, learn more about the award-winning collection, and order digital or print copies.

Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts introduces The Toni Beauchamp Prize in Critical Art Writing to provide a venue and support for young and mid-career U.S. writers. "Grounded in both scholarship and journalism, critical art writing occupies a specific niche. The best examples appeal to a diverse readership through an accessible approach and maintain a unique voice and literary excellence. The Prize will consider submissions of work that has been written (or published) within the last year. A variety of creative approaches and formats to writing on the visual arts are encouraged, and can include thematic essays, exhibition reviews and scholarly essays."

There is no fee to enter this contest, prizes will be awarded for first ($3000) and two runners up ($1000) as well as print/online publication. Deadline: September 1, 2017.

Toni Beauchamp [pictured] was the president of Art Lies Board from 2002-2004. See the Gulf Coast website for more details.

I have to admit to being slightly creeped out by The Malahat Review cover art "Fly Face" by Aurel Schmidt - but at the same time, I can't bring myself to look away from the fine detail of this pencil and acrylic on paper.
Sandy Skoglund's "Fox Games" is the perfect image for The Missouri Review  Summer 2017 theme "Mischief Makers."
I'm not sure if the cover images "Remote Lighthouse" by David Mark / "Delta Flyers" by Barry Jones was intentional - with the black and white lighthouse - given the special art feature in this Summer 2017 issue of Able Muse: A Zebra Theme - a photographic exhibit of zebra imagery from artists worldwide.

Glimmer Train Bulletins are produced monthly with essays written by writers (published in GT) and creative writing teachers on topics related to craft and the industry.

In the most recent issue, #157 August 2017, Rowena Macdonald offers 10 tips for writing dialogue, offering this advice: ". . . remember, when it comes to writing dialogue in prose you need to convey the impression of reality rather than verbatim speech." Silas Dent Zobal [pictured] offers a meaningful exploration of finding the heart of the story and the difficulty of writing about what can't be written: "That's what I want to tell you. Here, right here, is where you can find the heart of the heart of your story. Not in a place but in no place. Not in clarity but in ambiguity." And Joshua Henkin provides commentary on developing character background: when Mia comes from Montreal instead of Maryland, it changes how her family got there and the impact of their choices on her character in story - and the writer's responsibility to the "seeds of a narrative."

Three excellent essays that would be great semester kick-off reading for any creative writing class, and some great basic craft conversation for all writers to consider. Signing up for the bulletins is free.

Second Look is a section in One online poetry journal in which various writers are asked "to take a second look at poems they admire and discuss informally what they admire about the work." Some of the poems include "Woman Falling" by Franz Wright, “homage to my hips” by Lucille Clifton, "A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London" by Dylan Thomas, "Looking for Songs of Papusza" by Bronisława Wajs, "Celebrating Childhood" by Adonis, "Looking for my Killer" by Thylias Moss, and "Requiem" by Anna Akhmatova.

The Mom Egg Review print literary journal about motherhood also has an online quarterly component called the Mer Vox, featuring writing, artwork, craft essays, hybrid works, and interviews. Recent craft essays include: "Women Writers, Mothers And Friendships: How We Sustain Each Other," an Interview by J.P. Howard, MER VOX Editor-at-Large, of Mireya Perez-Bustillo and Patsie Alicia Ifill; several essays on "Poetry as a Reflection of Self on the Page" curated by J.P. Howard  – "Release the Dam: A Poem is a River" by Keisha-Gaye Anderson, "Writing the Narrative Poem" by Heather Archibald, "Poetry as a Reflection of Self on the Page!" by J.P. Howard, and "Poets and Performance" by Jacqueline Johnson; and a number of writing prompts from the editors as well as other writers (Janet Hamill, Cynthia Kraman, Tsaurah Litzky).

NewPages Guide to Alternative Magazines features publications not typically found in local chain bookstores on topics including the arts, nature and ecology, health, human rights, LGBT, and more. Among these publications is American Forests, which invites writers to submit works on the topics of outdoor recreation, environmental issues and tree-related science, adventures, forest policy, community forest programs, benefits to trees, unique ecosystems, and "Earthkeepers" - "a person or group of people, current or historic, that has worked to protect or responsibly manage a forest." See complete writers guidelines here.

Ever stuck your foot or hand into ice cold water and held it there, feeling the numbness of the aftershock? How about the whacky idea of a polar plunge – your whole body into an icy lake – can you imagine what that must feel like? Believe it or not, that’s the exact sensation the editors of Cold Creek Review were going for when they named their online publication. “We wanted to focus on literature and art that makes you feel paralyzed,” Editor-in-Chief for Poetry and Nonfiction Amber D. Tran tells me. “We imagine reading and reviewing our featured pieces leaves you with a sense of frozen time, like you were being submerged in a body of ice-cold water.”

From The Florida Review interview with Denise Duhamel, focusing on her newest collection Blowout:

TFR:
Given the times we suddenly find ourselves living in, is there even more pressure to write in the moment?

Duhamel:
Yes, absolutely. I was thinking so much about how my next book, which is not out yet, is going to be called Scald. [The book came out in February 2017, after this interview.] It’s about feminism and it’s dedicated to three different great feminists. I was so in the zeitgeist of a Hillary Clinton presidency and women, and now I feel so unmoored. But I’m so glad I wrote it when I wrote it because, while I wasn’t thinking of Hillary necessarily when I was writing it, I felt this movement towards women and the feminization of power and saving the planet. Now, we really have to stay in the moment and not stick our heads in the sand. I mean you may have to stick your head in the sand for a week to survive, but then we have to come out strong.

TFR:
I felt like I often heard people say, “We are having more conversations about race during Barak Obama’s presidency and we will talk more about gender with a female president.” Do you feel like we will talk more or less about gender given the president we ended up with?

Duhamel:
He’ll talk a lot less about gender and even his wife will say less. I was reading something just this morning about how she wants to be more like Jackie O. It’s so retro and cultural regression to the max, right? She really wants to go back to the 1960s pillbox hat and not even say anything. We are in big trouble, but I also think because this election is so egregious and Clinton didn’t lose to a man who was moderate or even a Mitt Romney or John McCain, she lost to a misogynist who calls women the worst possible names, I think women are not going to give him a pass. We are going to come back strong, especially since we had a taste of what could have been. I can’t imagine women going, Oh well, we’ll let it go.

TFR:
No.

Duhamel:
I think we’ve been letting it go for decades and centuries and I don’t think we can let it go anymore.

TFR:
I think that’s also what I admired about your book. You didn’t let it go. You talked about it.

Read the full interview on Aquifer: The Florida Review Online.