Home » Newpages Blog » blog posts » Page 21

New Lit on the Block :: HOOT

HOOT is a unique monthly traditional-mail delivered postcard print format with additional separate content online.

When asked Why start a literary magazine?, Editors Dorian Geisler and Amanda Vacharat replied: “This is a great question. It does seem counterintuitive, a little bit, to start a literary magazine now, in 2012 – when there are already a bazillion magazines struggling to find readers and subscribers. We started a literary magazine because we thought we saw an unfilled niche, based on what people are looking for right now. It’s not that people don’t want to read new authors anymore, it’s that they don’t want it to take up a lot of time. People want concision. Furthermore, they want things that are shareable and self-defining (think Twitter and Facebook posts). So, we made a magazine that’s short, and affordable, which (hopefully) looks good enough to be hung on a fridge, and is small enough that it can be easily passed along to others.”

I have personally received the HOOT postcards, and as a fan of postcard lit, can attest that these are some of the best quality cards in full color that I have seen.

HOOT editors claim that their publications contain “Zest! We like zest. So readers can expect to find it! By which we mean: surprises – not ‘twist’ endings, but a wide variety in styles and subject matter from issue to issue. HOOT readers can also expect to find art that is visually appealing and also varied in style.”

For the print (postcard) issue, there is only have one author per issue, so to date contributors include J. Bradley, John Steen, William Henderson, and Andrea Uptmor. Online issues, contributors to date are Meagan Wilson, Meghan Slater, Christopher Grosso, Stewart Lindh, William Doonan, Maria Anderson, Justis Mills, Caroline Zarlengo Sposto, Nick Sanford, Stephen Ross, Linda Simoni-Wastila, Thomas Mundt, and Marcy Campbell.

HOOT‘s plans for the future are “all about the idea that literature isn’t just for capital-L Literary types.” Editor Amanda Vacharat explains, “There’s quality work being written that has appeal for a much larger audience, as long as it fits into their schedules. So, we’re playing with the idea of printing literature on a variety of other mediums. We also want to make contemporary writing available to people who might not otherwise have access to it. We’re working towards a model where we can send some subscriptions into prisons and inner city schools and libraries. [Editor’s note: YEAH!] Also, starting in March, we’ll be running free, in-person writing workshops locally (Philadelphia).”

Submissions are year-round and rolling. For print, writers can submit by mail or online. There is a $2 fee for submitting online via Submishmash (which the editors encourage! because this is how they are able pay their authors). But, mail submissions are accepted too, with a SASE. All for-print submissions are automatically considered for online publication. Authors only interested in online publication can submit by email.

In addition to all of this, HOOT editors run free online workshops every Wednesday evening in a chat room – for flash fiction/non-fiction and short poems (<150 words). "Basically," Vacharat says, "we'll read your work right there and give you immediate feedback. You're also welcome to help give feedback on other people's writing. We're very supportive, while still being honest. We try to give very specific things to work on. It's great for all writers - but especially if you're thinking of submitting, you'll also get a great sense of what we tend to like (and not like)." [Pictured: HOOT: ISSUE 2, November 2011, “Poem” by John Steen]

Celebrate National Poetry Month with FREE Poetry

Free copies of the April 2012 issue of Poetry will be given to reading groups that request them by March 23. The Poetry Foundation asks that in return, you send a brief account of your discussion. Issues will be shipped in late March. Requests will be accepted online only here.

2011 Fall Black River Chapbook Competition Winner

Black River Press has announced that Nick McRae has won the Fall 2011 Black River Chapbook Competition for his collection of poems, Mountain Redemption.

Nick McRae’s poems, reviews, and translations have appeared or are forthcoming in Hayden’s Ferry Review, Linebreak, Passages North, The Southern Review, Third Coast, and other journals. Formerly a Fulbright fellow in the Slovak Republic and a finalist for the Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, he now studies poetry and teaches creative and analytical writing at The Ohio State University, where he also serves as Poetry Review Editor for The Journal.

Complete lists of the Fall 2011 Black River Chapbook Competition finalists and semi-finalists can be found on the Black Lawrence Press blog.

Les Figues Press NOS Contest Winner

Judge Sarah Shun-lien Bynum has selected Among the Dead: Ah! and Afterward Yes! by Becca Jensen as the winner of the first annual Les Figues Press NOS Book Contest.

Among the Dead: Ah! and Afterward Yes! takes place inside a family of five: Mrs. G, Mr. G, the daughter, the collector, and the chorus. It is a book about reading, imagination and the possibility of finding solace — or at the very least, meaning — in beauty. Among the Dead: Ah! and Afterward Yes! will be published in Fall 2012.

2011 NOS Contest Finalists:

Alice Boiln
Louis Bury
Roxanne Carter
Tom Comitta
Dot Devota and Brandon Shimoda
Travis Hessman
Brenda Iijima
Michael Joyce
Karla Kelsey
Katie Price
Theresa Sotto

Still Point Arts Gallery Exhibit Online

Still Point Art Gallery Current Exhibition THE ABSTRACTION ATTRACTION! opened on November 16 and will remain a featured exhibition through February 14. Abstract painting, photography, prints, and sculpture. Artists of Distinction for this show are Steven Bogart, Ling Ling Cheng, Nomi Drory, David Kinsey, Keith Parks, and Cat van der Heiden. These artists have also been awarded the opportunity to have their portfolios published in Still Point Arts Quarterly. The exhibit can be viewed in full on the Still Point Art Gallery website.

Teacher Resource :: Collaborative Literature Study

The New York Times blog The Learning Network offers a post of resources to aid in collaborative literature study with readers who are face-to-face or located separately around the world: Reading With Strangers: Ways to Study Literature Collaboratively by Shannon Doyne and Holly Epstein Ojalvo.

5×5 New Status and New Poetry Editor


Congrats to 5×5 Magazine for their new nonprofit status: The 5×5 Nonprofit Organization of Literature & Arts Advocates. 5×5 keeps its self-titled size, accepting submissions from high school students and beyond, and providing subscriptions of its magazine at no cost for high school students. Mishon Wooldridge steps down as poetry editor with the Winter 2011 issue, but Jory Mickelson moves from Nonfiction Editor into the role. The new Nonfiction Editor has yet to be announced, but 5×5 assures its readers, “We’ve got that under control.”

Dissing Disability Poetics

On the heels on the Dove v. Vendler Anthology Controversy, I came across a listserv post by Jennifer Bartlett about the (lack of) representation of poets with disabilities and the (un)recognition of contemporary disability poetics. I invited her to expand on her argument/commentary on the NewPages blog. Bartlett welcomes conversation on the issue, so comments for this post have been opened.

In the past few months, there has been some “controversy” in the poetry world regarding the publication of The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth-Century American Poetry edited by Rita Dove, and Helen Vendler’s scathing review in the New York Review of Books. One of the primary arguments focuses on the idea of inclusion being a factor in poetics to the exclusion of high quality – or what Vendler refers to as “writers . . . included in some cases for their representative themes rather than their style . . . Multicultural inclusiveness prevails . . .”

I have been following the news on Dove/Vedler with a personal interest. What is nagging at me is that a relatively mainstream anthology is causing such a stir. A few months ago Sheila Black, Michael Northen, and I published Beauty is a Verb: The New Disability Poetry (Cinco Puntos Press), and although the book has been well-received, the controversy that seems synonymous with putting together something altogether new has been nonexistent. I would actually like a little more controversy — or at least discussion around the question of inclusiveness as it pertains to writing by and about people with disabilities. My argument isn’t that there aren’t real racial and gender issues in the world of poetry and publication. My point is that the arguments about race and gender are so loud that the inclusion of people with disabilities remains a non-issue in poetics, publishing, academia, and otherwise.

First, looking at the Dove anthology itself, what interests me is the glaring lack of attention paid to poets/people with disabilities as a multicultural group. It is striking that an anthology which appears to pay particular, quite conscious attention to inclusion is void of any mention of “disability” as a category. There is no mention of the Crip Poetics movement, and there are no poets in the anthology who either identify as disabled or even have a disability: Larry Eigner, Vassar Miller, Josephine Miles, Jim Ferris, Paul Guest are all absent. Lucie Perdillo, a Random House poet with a McArthur Fellowship who writes on MS is absent, as are any ASL, Deaf or blind poets, including Steve Cannon, a major figure in the Black Arts Movement which Dove champions. The only poet in the collection who might identify as “disabled” is Robert Duncan, and I’m guessing the Duncan poems included don’t address his vision/vision which was arguably central to his work.

I do think that an anthology, such as ours, which is entirely new, calls for a little attention. Beauty is a Verb discusses how aphasia is a link to experimental language (Norma Cole), addresses “crip poetics” which most people have never heard of (Petra Kuppers), speaks to the linguistically complexity of translating English to ASL (John Lee Clark), and most of all addresses the inhabiting of the disabled body as a worthwhile experience and an experience that can be complicit in forming a poetics. All of such remains largely ignored in both mainstream and experimental writing.

Attention to and debate about disability is still a thing that makes people nervous — as if they feel afraid of giving disability a voice – or more pointedly giving people with disabilities a voice. The silence is noticeable. For example, there is plenty of discussion regarding race from white people, and unlike skin color, most of the able-bodied will have some disability in their lifetime. More importantly, it seems that people still dismiss disability as a category/identity, and one that is privileged to gain the most simple rights, like getting into the store or having a job — not to mention being in the Penguin anthology.

It also seems true that in the poetry world you have to insult someone directly or indirectly to get attention – which I did a few years ago when I called out Paul Guest for allowing John Ashbery to refer to Guest as an invalid on his book blurb. All hell broke loose and, evidently, the right to call a person an invalid is something to which people are very attached. I was mortified but also exhilarated over the debate — I found it exciting that poets with disabilities could be seen as not always agreeing, as debating and negotiating what is meant by a disability or what it means to be a person with a disability. Anything better than the constantly imposed “code of silence.”

One flaw in Vendler’s arguments concerning the Dove anthology is that she is so sure of the standards she is defending. Rather, poetics, writing, and language for that matter are things always in flux and subject to debate. An exciting side to Beauty is a Verb and the poets it includes is that these poets are generally engaged in poetry as a revolutionary activity — one that seeks not merely to reflect or “measure up” to existing standards, but in subtle and not so subtle ways to remake them. And part of that remarking, the first part, but by no means the simplest, is resisting the silencing of disabled voices in poetry and out in the world.

Was it way back in the Sixties when Norman Mailer had a blurb on one of his books — his third novel Deer Park, in fact, that said “Burn this book!”? I know he collected all the worst blurbs about the book — which received generally negative reviews and plastered them on the back cover. But that story has always stuck with me. And when I think about what I’d like to see happen as far as disability poetics, well, one answer would be buy Beauty is a Verb and/or support the strong and beautiful poems being written by a wide range of poets with disabilities. And if not that, then I hope people burn our book – at least that will get the conversation/controversy started that seems necessary in order for us to begin to be seen and heard.

[Jennifer Bartlett is author of Derivative of the Moving Image, (a) lullaby without any music, and co-editor of Beauty is a Verb: The New Poetry of Disability.]

New Lit on the Block :: Prick of the Spindle Print Edition

Edited by Cynthia Reeser, Prick of the Spindle Print Edition comes to readers biannually in October and April of every year and is available in paper copy and eBook (Kindle).

Already having established the well-known and respected online quarterly publication, Prick of the Spindle, Reeser comments: “I started the print edition in part to expand our audience and readership, as well as the scope of what we publish. As a nonprofit, we wish to initiate subscriptions and also to be able to pay our contributors, and the print edition helps us to do both.”

Prick of the Spindle readers can expect to find fiction, drama, nonfiction, poetry, interviews, and essays of a more formal nature, as well as artwork and experimental text/image pieces.

The inagurual print edition includes an interview with Sandy Longhorn, poetry by Jessica Cuello, Nandini Dhar, Claire Stephens (text/image), nonfiction by Juan Daniel Mill

Prairie Schooner Contemporary Irish Writing Issue

Prairie Schooner Winter 2011 is a special issue devoted to contemporary Irish writing. As Interim Senior Editor Stephen C. Behrendt writes: “Unlike many ‘special issues’ of journals, this one has not begun with a predetermined narrow list of contributors from whom we solicited the contributions that now appear here. Instead, we have happily welcomed the work of many writers who responded to our general invitation for submissions, and this present issue samples some of the most compelling and vibrant contributions from among this wealth of splendid material. It represents, then, a cross section of the Irish writing community today, in all its rich diversity. . . The poetry , fiction, and drama in this issue testify to the enduring themes not just of Irish culturebut indeed of the whole human enterprise.”

NewPages Literary Magazine Reviews Posted

Check out the latest great post of NewPages Literary Magazine Reviews, including both new and established publications in print and online:

Alaska Quarterly Review
Bellevue Literary Review
Black Lantern Publishing
Booth
CaKe
The Carolina Quarterly
Faultline
The Helix
Magnolia
The Main Street Rag
New Orleans Review
Off the Coast
Palooka
Paul Revere’s Horse
Phantom Drift
Post Road
River Teeth
Silk Road
Straylight
Tin House

You Had Me at “My Father Stood Loading His Gun”

I love it when I find a story I simply cannot turn away from reading, even when I think I should because I think I know where it’s going, and especially when I’m wrong and it takes me somewhere unexpected. Lucas Dean Fiser’s story in Pif Magazine had me at the title: “My Father Stood Loading His Gun,” and after this opening, I was spellbound:

“My father stood in my doorway holding his .45 caliber handgun. He leaned against the wood framework smoking a cigarette, loading the gun. Smoke circled his head like a halo, and I gently laid the book I was reading into the sheets. Every time he loaded a bullet you could hear the steel snap into the magazine. His mouth moved when he did this…”

Read the rest here. It’s not long to read, but be ready for it to stay with you for a while.

Missouri Review Audio Contest Winners

Winners of the The Missouri Review Fourth Annual Audio Contest include:

Poetry – Greg Brownderville, “Sex and Pentecost”
Prose – Rachel Yoder, “I’m White and I’m Mennonite”
Self-Recorded Documentary – Ken Cormier, “Voices of the Dead”
Professionally Recorded Documentary – Anna Pinkert, “After the Flood”

All recordings, along with past audio entries, can be heard on The Missouri Review Audio Page.

The Moth: Pitch Your True Story Online

The Moth: True Stories Told Live began in 1997 as a venue of storytelling in front of a live audience. The Moth Radio Hour, begun in 2009, is now on over 200 radio stations nationwide. There are a number of stories that can be accessed from the web, and The Moth is currently accepting stories to feature on its website. Storytellers are invited to record their one-minute pitch right on The Moth website, or if you have trouble with the online recording gizmo, there is a phone number to call and pitch your story via phone. All stories must be true – and no cliffhangers. What are your waiting for?

Able Muse Write Prize Winners 2011

The Winter 2011 issue of Able Muse includes winners and finalists for its 2011 Write Prize contest:

Write Prize for Fiction – Final Judge: Alan Cheuse
Winner: Douglas Campbell – “Sunflowers, Rivers”

Write Prize for Poetry – Final Judge: Rachel Hadas
Winner: Jean L. Kreiling – “Waiting for a Helicopter”
Second: Susan McLean – “Teaching to the Test”
Finalists: John Beaton – “Your Voice”; Catherine Chandler – “This Dusky Arc”; T.S. Kerrigan – “Missing the Sunset at Sounion”; Joshua Lavender – “The Guest”; Gabriel Spera – “Bread and Fish”; Richard Wakefield – “Crossing”

An additional list of poetry honorable mentions can be found on the publication website.

2011 Iowa Review Contest Winners

Winners and runners-up of the 2011 Iowa Review Awards Contest are featured in the Winter 2011 publication:

Nonfiction Winner: Helen Phillips, “Life Care Center”
Poetry Winner: Emily Van Kley, 10 poems
Fiction Winner: John Van Kirk, “Landscape with Boys”

Runners-up
Maria Rapoport (nonfiction); Kimberly Burwick (poetry); Suzanne Scanlon (fiction)

Clapboard House 2011 Short Story Contest Winners

Judged by writer Gerald Duff the winner of the 2011 Clapboard House Short Story Contest is “The Bet” by Steven D. Stark. His story, along with those of the nine runner-ups, are available in the newest online issue of Clapboard House. Stark’s winning story will also be included in the planned print edition of THE BEST OF CLAPBOARD HOUSE.

New Lit on the Block :: Enizagam

What do celeb’ author Lemony Snicket (AKA Daniel Handler), luminary poet Nikki Giovanni, Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Olen Butler, Sister Spit founder Michelle Tea, MacArthur Genius Award winner Yiyun Li, literary legend Walter Mosley, Pushcart nominee Soma Mei Sheng Frazier, and thirty young writers at an urban public high school have in common?

Rewind back exactly one year, to January 2011: in a renovated Art Deco theater complex in Downtown Oakland, CA, a seminar-sized group of young writers put their noses to the grindstone. That day marked the first day of the Enizagam course at Oakland School for the Arts (OSA), a public charter school that admits students grade-blind on the basis of artistic auditions.

OSA was founded in 2002 by CA Governor Jerry Brown—then Mayor of Oakland. It serves over 600 talented middle and high school students. Soma Mei Sheng Frazier, Chair of Literary Arts, explains: “These kids competed for acceptance into the program. They want to be here, and I want to give them a private-school-caliber experience, tuition free. To do that, I completely overhauled our literary journal, which was once a typical publication featuring student work.” It hasn’t been easy. While the school has stacked up accolades for its arts-based methodology, and for closing the achievement gap between student subgroups, its arts programs receive zero public funding.

The students, and Frazier, run the journal as a labor of love. Frazier describes the young staff as “sophisticated readers, poised to apply razor-sharp focus.” The students gain the nuts-and-bolts experience of running a serious literary journal, and Enizagam’s readers gain access to stunning new writing selected by fresh editorial eyes.

Enizagam’s goal? To become the first secondary-student-run literary publication with serious national acclaim. It may already have achieved that. While run by urban high school kids, it is written by and for adults. Last year, it received submissions from award-winning authors working across—and beyond—the U.S. Contributors included Jendi Reiter, Laura Shearer, Nick Kriefall and Rae Gouirand, who has just come out with a new book of poetry: Open Winter, winner of the 2011 Bellday Poetry Prize. Bookstores have begun shelving Enizagam, and the 2012 issue’s literary contest judges will be Lemony Snicket and Nikki Giovanni. Robert Olen Butler and Michelle Tea judged last year’s competition.

Yiyun Li and Walter Mosley will soon be interviewed by the journal’s student staff for the 2012 issue. Kerby Lynch, Student Co-Editor in Chief, interviewed Farm City phenom’ Novella Carpenter for the 2011 issue. Says Lynch: “Among other questions about her urban farm, I asked Novella how often the goats’ breath smelled delicious. Her answer? ‘Always.’” The student staff is “juiced” to see the new next issue on bookstore shelves in 2012.

Writers: “We can’t wait to dig into this year’s submissions!” Check out the 2012 Enizagam Literary Awards in Poetry and Fiction at: http://enizagam.org

[Press release provided by the editors of Enizagam; Cover Art: Zooey Yi]

Spoon River Poetry Review Contest Winners

The Summer/Fall 2011 issue of Spoon River Poetry Review features the 2011 Editors’ Prize Winners selected by final judge Cecil S. Giscombe:

First Place ($1,000): Jennie Ray
First Runner Up ($100): Craig Blais
Second Runner Up ($100): Ben Purkert

Honorable Mentions: Miles Waggener, Molly Tustison, Neal Shipley, Suzume, Laura Sherwood Rudish.

One winning poem will be awarded $1000 and two runners-up awarded $100 each in this annual contest. Winning poem, runners-up, and honorable mentions are published in the fall issue.

New Lit on the Block :: Kudzu Review

Kudzu Review is a biannual online ecojournal. Editor-in-Chief M.P. Jones IV writes that the title is from his grandfather’s, Madison Jones, house “which we lovingly called ‘Kudzu’ for the plant which proliferated along the property line. He was a farmer, writer, literary critic, and professor in Auburn, Alabama.”

The biannual publication is available in PDF and on Issuu, and looks to publish “savvy, sharp, well polished literature that captures life in a post-natural world” and works that “cast new light on rapid species extinction, climate change, food production, technology, sustainability and community.”

The first issue of Kudzu Review features fiction, poetry, and artwork by
Aaron Poller, André Babyn, Ann Cavlovic, Anthony Rintala, Ashleigh Rajala, Becky Garrison, Cassie Premo Steele, Dominic James, Donal Mahoney, Donna Emerson, Drew Jennings, Dwain Wilder, Ed Zahniser, Jack Foster, Jeanpaul Ferro, Joan Colby, John Bohannon, Joseph Rhea, Karla Linn Merrifield, Kenneth Pobo, Lakshmi Eassey, Laurie A Skelton, Maggie Koger, Mercedes Lawry, Sue Blaustein, Susi Lovell, Thomas Fussey, Trent Laubscher, and Tiffany Morris.

Kudzu Review is also offering a “fundraiser” for their publication: woodcut carving t-shirts, each individually hand pressed with a unique front design and back logo. T-shirt buyers have their names listed on a page “forever” in recognition of their support.

Kudzu Review is open on a rolling basis for e-mail submissions of short stories, flash fiction and poetry, and Submishmash submissions of art and photography.

Kudzu Review is staffed by Senior Editors: M.P. Jones IV, Editor-in-Chief; Arthur Wilke, Field Editor; Robin Ward, Web-Design Editor; and Associate Editors: Powell Burke, Fiction & Revisions Editor; Jane Alford, Nonfiction & Revisions Editor; Rivers Langley, 20-Year-Man Assistant Editor; and Ashley Sams, Visual Art Editor.

Broadsided “2011 Haiku Year-in-Review”

Poems by Peter Kline, Steve Brightman and Jennifer Jabaily-Blackburn were selected via reader vote for the 2011 Haiku Year-in-Review Broadside, combined with art by Kara Searcy, Caleb Brown, Jennifer Moses and Kevin Morrow. The Broadsided website features writers’ and artists’ responses to this collaborative, innovative project in which four artists were asked to choose a subject that rang out from a season of 2011 as significant. Then, writers were invited to submit haiku on the same subject. Haiku finalists were chosen by the Broadsided editors, then posted online for readers to view alongside the art and vote for which poem/art combinations should represent each season. The full-color broadside includes all four haiku with art and is available for free download and distribution.

MQR Tribute to Jeanne Leiby

Editor Jonathan Freeman shares a sweet memory and kind words in memoriam of Jeanne Leiby in the Fall 2011 of Michigan Quarterly Review. While not available for online reading, friends of Jeanne will appreciate getting a hold of a copy of the magazine for our own personal collections.

2011 River Styx Poetry Contest Winners

Winners of the 2011 River Styx International Poetry Contest are included in the newest issue of River Styx.

1st Place: Stephen Kampa, “Small Change”
2nd Place: Tara Taylor, “Sea Glass”
3rd Place: Julie Hall, “Octopus”

This annual contest awards $1500 First Prize plus one case of micro-brewed Schlafly Beer as well as publication of top selections. A complete list of winners and honorable mentions are available on the publication’s website.

New Lit on the Block :: The Bacon Review

The Bacon Review, edited by the writer/designer Eric Westerlind and philosophy acquisitions editor Jason Barry, was founded in 2011 as a review of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and intellectual life. After only two issues, Westerlind and Barry have just announced that they would like to shift from a bi-monthly to a monthly publication, but will continue to limit content to four pieces per issue.

The Bacon Review also includes a featured called “Hot Seat” where authors whose works are selected for publication will be asked to participate in a half hour online chat regarding their “piece/writing/bovines/whatever else comes up” in the site’s chatroom (open to members who sign in). As Westerlind and Barry write, “We are interested in our authors as people; we want to know what inspires and motivates our contributors to write their stories, poems, and non-fiction.” The chats will be live with discussions archived on the site. Members will receive advance notice of scheduled chats.

The Bacon Review ontributors to date include Parker Finn, Melanie Braverman, William Doreski, Howie Good, Keith Batter, James Collector, Pablo Armando Fern

Anderbo Contest Winners

Open City 2011 RRofihe Trophy Short Story Contest
Winning Story “A Pair of Soup” by JL SCHNEIDER

Anderbo 2011 No-Fee Novel Contest / The Mercer Street Books Fiction Prize Winner
DORETTE SNOVER for “THE CITY OF LADIES”
Read the First Chapter here

2011 Anderbo Creative Nonfiction Prize FINALISTS
Judged by Elizabeth Wurtzel (PROZAC NATION)
Winner to be announced soon…

In Memoriam :: Carol Novack

Editor and publisher of Mad Hatter’s Review – and so much more – Carol Novack passed away December 29. Acting Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Marc Vincenz has posted a piece on Mad Hatter’s Blog and has indicated they will be featuring tributes to Carol from many of her contemporaries, collaborators and closest friends in the weeks to come. An e-mail address is provided for those who wish to contribute.

New Lit on the Block :: analogpress.net

analogpress.net is a new online biannual literary journal “focused on featuring the vision of today’s writers, poets and artists dedicated to the idea that literature should make universal themes relevant to the generation that the writer belongs to . . . cutting edge, on the fringe, anchored in classic intuitions: poetry, fiction, non-fiction topics, art & photography.”

Contributors to the first two issues include Laurits Haaning, Robert Lietz, Danielle Altic, Jonathan Steffen, J.T. Andrews, Robert Dicarlo, Peter Fernbach, D H Sutherland, Nicholas Petrone, Dylan T. Price, Lee D. Rorman, Richard Stolorow, Hanny Castano, Kellee Rich, Santiago Dominique, Susanna Douglas, Petra Gabriele Dannehl, Jeremy Mayer, Kate Zaliznock, Edward Harsen, Mark Goad, Ryan Palmer, Hanny Castro, Gretchen Meixner, Tom Rowley-Conwy, Mar Trujillo, M.Y. Lermontov translated by Teimuraz Chanturishvili, and Madeleine Swann.

analogpress.net accepts e-mail submissions of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, art and photography. Submissions for 2011 are currently closed but will open again January 31, 2012.

2011 Kenyon Review Short Fiction Contest Winners

The Winter 2012 issue of The Kenyon Review includes the winners of the 2011 Kenyon Review Short Fiction Contest, previously for writers under the age of thirty. Final judge for the contest was Ron Carlson.

First Prize: Fan Li “Chiasmus”
Runner up: Anna Kovatcheva “September”
Runner up: Nichols Malick “The Boy in the Lake”

In a change from previous years of the contest, submissions will no longer be limited to writers under thirty. Starting in 2012, entries for the Kenyon Review Short Fiction Contest will be limited to writers who have not yet published a book of fiction.

New Lit on the Block :: Tongue

Tongue: A Journal of Writing & Art is a new biannual literary magazine “devoted to all species of translation and border-crossing”: original poetry, essays and images that “aspires to challenge comfortable gestures and distinctions.” Tongue is an autonomous project of the Pirogue Collective — the arts and culture expression of the Gorée Institute. Editors are Adam Wiedewitsch, Colin Cheney, R.A. Villanueva, and Janine Joseph.

Tongue can be read online using the Issuu format or downloaded in several versions of PDF (suitable for mobile viewing – 1.35MB; high-resolution – 33.6MB; suitable for high-quality CMYK printing – 65.5MB).

Issue One launched in December and features new work from Geoffrey Nutter, Darren Morris, Claudia Rankine, Alfonso D’Aquino & Forrest Gander, Kiwao Nomura & Forrest Gander & Kyoko Yoshida, Cecily Parks, Idra Novey, Sally Wen Mao, Adam Small & Mike Dickman, Venús Khoury-Ghata & Marilyn Hacker, Brian Oliu, Birgitta Trotzig & Rika Lesser, Nathalie Handal, Ewa Chrusciel, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, and photographer Zhang Xiao.

Glimmer Train Family Matters Winners :: 2011

Glimmer Train has just chosen the winning stories for their October Family Matters competition. This competition is held twice a year and is open to all writers for stories about family. The next Family Matters competition will take place in April. Glimmer Train’s monthly submission calendar may be viewed here.

First place: Joseph Vastano [pictured], of Austin, TX, wins $1500 for “Twinning.” His story will be published in the Spring 2013 issue of Glimmer Train Stories.

Second place: Aisha Gawad, of Ithaca, NY, wins $500 for “My Cousin Luna Sleeps on Super 8 Motel Beds.”

Third place: Nahal Suzanne Jamir of Tallahassee, FL, wins $300 for “My Mother’s Hands in My Mouth.”

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

Deadline soon approaching: Fiction Open, January 2.

Glimmer Train hosts this competition quarterly, and first place is $2000 plus publication in the journal. It’s open to all writers and there are no theme restrictions. The word count generally ranges from 3000 – 8000, though up to 20,000 is fine. Click here for complete guidelines.

New Lit on the Block :: Thrice Fiction

Still in its first year of publication, Thrice Fiction Magazine is published – yes – three times a year and is filled with stories, art, and “a few surprises from a variety of talented contributors.” Readers can download a free PDF or eBook of Thrice Fiction at no charge, or opt to purchase a full-color printed copy from MagCloud.

First-year contributors include Marty Mankins, Jack Foley, Vahid Jimenez, David Simmer II, Michael W. Harkins, John M. Bennett, Ann Bogle, Brandon Rogers, Chris Mansel, Adam Heath Avitable, Matthew Hill, RW Spryszak, Jeff Swanson, Aleathia Drehmer, Robert Kroese, Lisa Vihos, C. Brannon Watts, Echo Chernik, Nathan Garvison, and Kyra Wilson.

Thrice Fiction Editor RW Spryszak accepts e-mail submissions of “standard short stories as well as flash fiction but also various forms that kind-of sort-of look like fiction but may also be poetry. The stated mission of this magazine is to combine standard, more traditional fiction that we like alongside our fearless commitment to the new, unusual and unique.”

Art Director David Simmer II accepts submission queries from artists.

New Lit on the Block :: Ilk

Editor Caroline Crew and Assistant Editor Chris Emslie bring readers Ilk, an online publication of poetry “of any description…hybrid forms…visual forms…concept & concrete.”

The first issue features works by Amanda Earl, Amy Herschleb, Deirdre Knowles, Michael Koh, Madison Langston, Thomas Patrick Levy, Rob MacDonald, Dearman McKay, M.G. Martin, Molly Prentiss, David Raymond, Daniel Romo, Mathias Svalina & Julia Cohen, Parker Tettleton, and Wendy Xu.

Ilk is open for submissions via Submishmash until January 15.

Spalding University MFA Celebrates a Decade

Issue 70 (Fall 2011) of The Louisville Review celebrates the tenth annviverary of the Spalding University brief-residency MFA in Writing Program. MFA Program Director and Editor of TLR, Sena Jeter Naslund, and MFA Administrative Director and managing Editor of TLR, Karen Mann, were instrumental in moving The Louisville Review and Fleur-de-Lis Press to Spalding University and undertook to create the first Master of Fine Arts in Writing Program in Kentucky. Congratulations to their great success, and good wishes for a solid future for all endeavors!

Memoir (and) Prose/Poetry Prize Winners

Chosen from its regular pool of submissions, Memoir (and) has selected the following winners for their biannual prize in prose or poetry:

Grand Prize
Colette Inez for “Mother Country” (prose)

Second Prize
Arthur Bull for “End of the Rope march, February 1996” (poetry)

Third Prize
Jean LeBlanc for “Some Flemish Painters Walk Around My Grandmother’s Yard” (poetry)

In addition to publication, each winner receives a cash prize. Memoir (and) also considers outstanding submissions for Graphic Memoir and Photography.

Ploughshares Emerging Writer’s Contest Winner

The Winter 2011/12 issue of Ploughshares, guest edited by Alice Hoffman, includes the winner of the 2011 Emerging Writer’s Contest: “The Gospel of Blackbird,” fiction by Thomas Lee, selected by DeWitt Henry. The 2012 Emerging Writer’s Contest will be expanding to include fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.

PennSound Streaming Radio

PennSound Radio, a 24-hour stream of readings and conversations from the PennSound poetry archive, launched last week. The daily schedule includes rebroadcasts of such series as Live at the Writers House, Charles Bernstein’s Close Listening, and Leonard Schwartz’s Cross-Cultural Poetics, as well as a curated selection of PennSound’s favorite performances. You can play PennSound Radio through iTunes on your computer, or by installing the free TuneIn app on your iPhone, BlackBerry, or Android device.

Crow Arts Manor Seeks Book Donations

From Crow Arts Manor Director Sid Miller:

Crow Arts Manor, located in a Northeast Portland, is a 501c3 non-profits writing center, that provides lost costs classes and workshop. Over the last 9 months we’ve been hard at work assembling a literary library.

Through donations we’ve been able to obtain a large amount of current literary journals, magazines, books of poetry, short fiction and criticism. But it’s been difficult to obtain the classics, from writers going back to Whitman reaching to the end of last century. So now we’re asking the public for help. We’re looking for folks willing to donate a title or more from their own personal library. Our library will be open to the public and will be a tool for local writers, as well as local schools and non-profit organizations. It will be a place to read, write, and engage with other writers. We will never charge a fee for use of the library. If you are willing to donate, we are happy to send you a present, a past copy of Burnside Review (our partner). Please e-mail me if you are interested in helping: sid-at-crowmanor-dot-org.

Vote Now: Broadsided Haiku Year-In-Review

Broadsided Press is honoring the year with a Haiku Year-In-Review (henceforth referred to as HYIR). To celebrate, examine, and honor the coming of 2012, Broadsided Press wants to publish haiku addressing the events of 2011 alongside visual work by Broadsided artists. Participants have sent haiku, and Broadsided has selected finalists, now YOU can see the art and choose the winners! The final result will be a published on January 4, 2012. To see the art and vote, visit the 2011 HYIR page at Broadsided Press – and feel free to share this with others.

[Pictured: “Tile Drainage” with writing by Christopher Lee Miles and art by Kara Searcy. Broadsided December 1, 2011.]

New Lit on the Block :: Under the Gum Tree

Under the Gum Tree is a new online (via MagCloud) publication of photography and creative nonfiction published out of ThinkHouse Collective in Sacramento, California.

The editors write: “Under the Gum Tree is a storytelling project, publishing creative nonfiction in the form of a micro-magazine. We believe in the power of sharing a story without shame. Too much of the human experience gets hidden behind constructed facades based on what we perceive the world expects from us…the authors and contributors featured in our pages own their story, even the ugly parts, and share it with pure, unadulterated, raw, candid vulnerability.”

The first issue of Under the Gum Tree features stories from Peter Grandbois, Kate Washington and Alexa Mergen, and photography from Mazzarello Media & Arts and Jeannine Mengel.

Under the Gum Tree accepts online submissions via Submishmash.

Editorial Changes at Jersey Devil Press

Eirik Gumeny, Founding Editor/Publisher, is stepping down from the editorial helm at Jersey Devil Press. Mike Sweeney will assume the role and all its responsibilities; Gumney writes of Sweeney: “He has always been one of my favorite writers, and he embraces everything Jersey Devil Press is about. He’s jumped into his new position feet first and guns blazing.”

Iron Horse Review Single Author Issue

It would be impossible to know from the cover that Control Burn, a collection of poems by Hastings Hensel, is the latest issue of the Iron Horse Literary Review. A few years ago, IHR changed its publication cycle to six “slim” volumes a year. While other publications were ‘downsizing’ to less print/more online, IHR shifted to less print/more often. There’s no doubt the idea of ‘slim volumes’ of fiction, poetry, nonfiction and photography fits neatly into our busy lives, and IHR added yet another unique feature to their line-up: an entire volume dedicated to one author. Every year, IHR publishes a chapbook of poetry, fiction, or essays. These issues look like a regular, single-author book, and “help to promote the work of writers in the early stages of their careers.”

New Lit on the Block :: Revolution House

Revolution House is a new online publication of poetry, flash fiction, short storis, creative nonfiction, graphic stories, and art. A magazine run by writers Revolution House aims to publish both emerging and experienced authors.

Revolution House staff includes Executive Editor Alisha Karabinus, Managing Editors Fati Z. Ahmed, Elaina Smith, Creative Nonfiction Editors Jaime Herndon and Jami Nakamura Linwas, Fiction & Graphic Stories Editors Karen Britten, Carol H. Hood, Sarah Kamlet, Koty Neelis, and Katie Oldaker, and Poetry Editors Jonathan Dubow, Henry W. Leung, Karissa Morton, Susannah Nevison and Staci R. Schoenfeld.

The first two issue feature new work by Brooke Bailey, Myfanwy Collins, Patrick Thomas Henry, Amorak Huey, Deanna Larsen, Jen Marquardt, Thomas Michael McDade, Andrew Payton, Jessica Plante, Jessica Poli, Valerie Rubinaccio, Karin Rosman, Michael Simon, Courtney Thomas Vance, Ashley Wakefield, Tory Adkisson, Matthew Burnside, Alicia Catt, Caroline Crew, Sarah Crossland, Chanel Earl, William Henderson, Kea Marie, Michael Mlekoday, Francis Raven, Chad Redden, Sarah V. Schweig, Claire Shefchik, Caroline Swicegood, and James Valvis.

Submissions are open unless otherwise announced and accepted via Submishmash.

Anniversary :: Tin House 50th

With the newest Tin House (Winter 2012), the magazine quietly celebrates its 50th issue with a the theme of Beauty. In addition to a full volume of featured writing, novelist and critic Marilynne Robinson explores the notion of beauty and its role in our changing society in her essay, poet Crystal Williams views the subject through the kaleidoscopic lens of race, while Aimee Bender talks with the artist Amy Cutler.

[Cover image by Elissa Schappell.]

The Louisiana Poetry Project Online Resource

The Louisiana Poetry Project offers a biographical directory of Louisiana poets, sample poems from each, and a poem a day calendar with selected poems from LA poets. Also included on the site is a Lesson Plans area with poems and lesson plans for a variety of subject areas: English, science, math, history, geography, social studies, art, journalism, government, and more. The newly added Poetical Terms Glossary is still under development, but provides additional resources for teachers and readers alike. A calendar of events includes recurring meetings as well as scheduled events. A great resource site and an inspiration for other states to do the same.

New Lit on the Block :: Vlak Magazine

Vlak Magazine, edited by Louis Armand, Edmund Berrigan, Ali Alizadeh, Stephan Delbos, Jane Lewty & David Vichnar is an international curatorial project with a broad focus on contemporary poetics, art, film, philosophy, music, design, science, politics, performance, ecology, and new media. Vlak is published by Litteraria Pragensia in Prague, London, New York, Paris, Melbourne & Amsterdam.

Issue 2 contributors include David Hayman, Vincent Katz, Philippe Sollers, Niall Lucy, Alice Notley, Emmanuelle Pireyre, Jeroen Nieuwland, Holly Tavel, John Kinsella, Rs Jaeggi, Louis Armand, Adam Trachtman, Leila Sebbar, Dorra Chammam, Moncef Gachem, Jane Lewty, Stephan Delbos, Ali Daghman, Mehdi Mahfoudh, Dawn Fowler, Ken Edwards, Vadim Erent, Carla Harryman, Andre Jahn, Travis Jeppesen, Karel Jerie, Steve McCaffery, Hank Lazer, Phil Coates, Ann Hamilton, Petra Ganglbauer, Marjorie Perloff, David Vichnar, Michal Ajvaz, Lucie Skrivankova, Pavel Novotny, Ondrej Buddeus, Jonas Hajek, Adam Borzic, Mark Melnicove, Adrian Clarke, j/j hastain, Ali Alizadeh, Ania Walwicz, Claire Potter, Felicity Plunkett, Gig Ryan, jeltje, Justin Clemens, Matt Hetherington, Michael Farrell, Nicole Tomlinson, PiO, Pam Brown, Sebastian Gurciullo, Chris Edwards, Matt Hall, Tereza Stejskalova, Charles Bernstein, Steve Benson, Katarzyna Bazarnik, Zenon Fajfer, Michal Sanda, Andrew Nightingale, Amaranth Borsuk, Kate Durbin, Zach Kleyn, Redell Olson, Clody Clevidence, Eleza Jaeger, Megan M. Garr, Sara Nicholson, Amy De’Ath, Larry Sawyer, Amy King, Brendan Lorber, Chris Martin, Corrine Fitzpatrick, Jason Morris, Macgregor Card, Nina Zivancevic, Noah Eli Gordon, Johan De Wit, Damien Ober, Joshua Mensch, Kamil Bouska, Cralan Kelder, Robert Sheppard, Francesco Levato, and Vincent Dachy.

The magazine is published in a square format (8.5 in) with full bleed and page insert photography and graphics in black and white throughout.

Vlak invites contributions that extend our understanding about what is possible; which pose questions about the prevailing attitude of norms; which explore the ramifications of contemporary culture and attempt new critical and creative methods. Annual deadline: January 15

[Cover image by Adam Trachtman.]

RATTLE Tribute to Buddhist Poets

RATTLE Winter 2011 highlights the work of 30 contemporary Buddhist poets. As Dick Allen writes in his introduction, Buddhism “is not a glimpse or gaze but an immersion. There’s no glass, no other side.” Informed by years of studying human experience from their unique perspectives, these poets have much to offer Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike. Additionally, in the conversations section, Alan Fox speaks with M.L. Liebler and Buddhist poet Chase Twichell.

Authors featured in the tribute include Dick Allen, Li Bai, Pam Herbert Barger, Karen Benke, John Brehm, Toni Cameron, Louisa Diodato, Teresa Chuc Dowell, Jeffrey Franklin, Robert Funge, Gary Gach, Dan Gerber, Sam Hamill, Gail Hanlon, Lola Haskins, Donna Henderson, Yang Jian, Bo Juyi, Alison Luterman, Paul Pedroza, Peg Quinn, Diana M. Raab, Richard Schiffman, Jinen Jason Shulman, Sarah Pemberton Strong, Anne Swannell, Robert Tremmel, Tony Trigilio, Chase Twichell, and Jack Vian.

[Cover art by Toni Cameron.]

New Lit on the Block :: Valparaiso Fiction Review

Founded in summer of 2011 as a sister publication the Valparaiso Poetry Review (VPR), Valparaiso Fiction Review (VFR) is one of the newest publications of Valparaiso University and its Department of English. VFR publishes two editions a year, usually around the first of December and the first of May, and features fiction from established and emerging authors. Co-Editors are Jonathan Bull and Edward Byrne, both of Valparaiso University, and Assistant Editors Emily Bahr, Ethan Grant, R. James Onofrey, Ellen Orner, and Jeremy Reed.

The first issue includes works by Andrea Dupree, Meg Tuite, Norman Waksler, W.F. Lantry, Dallas Woodburn, and Clifford Garstang. The magazine is available to read online or download in individual PDF format for each story.

VFR accepts submissions of original, unpublished fiction, 1,000 to 9,000 words with possible exceptions. No novels – though stand-alone excepts are acceptble, poetry (see VPR), or children’s fiction unless otherwise noted.