BookMark Books refashions discarded and unwanted vintage books into lovely, sturdy, unique, blank notebooks. Made with upcycled, vintage covers; recycled interior paper; and hand-waxed thread, they are excellent tools for writers, artists, musicians, teachers, or anyone who loves beautiful books and the act of making their mark. A notebook is an essential tool for writers and artists, and having something beautiful, handmade, and environmentally friendly to use when an idea strikes makes creating even more satisfying. Visit me on on Instagram @bookmark_books for pictures of what I’m working on and a link to my Etsy shop.
Explorations of Identity
Guest Post by Natalie Hess.
This was a really weird book, but in a good way. It follows a girl named Jenna Fox who was in a car accident and woke up from a coma with no memories at all. She has to build a new life for herself while also trying to find out about her past.
There are some sci-fi elements in the medical parts of this story as well which made for some really shocking plot twists, and the way that Jenna’s new life is shaped because of those things is so much different than normal people’s lives.
This book also brings up identity and what it means to be yourself and have your own personality and I really enjoyed that part of it. I also liked the whimsical way the story was told. There were parts where I felt like I was reading poetry because the writing is so pretty, but it was really easy to understand, even the more scientific parts.
If you really enjoy stories about medical miracles, or utopian stories, this is a great book to pick up.
The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson. Square Fish. 2009.
Reviewer bio: I’m Natalie Hess and I’m simply a high school student who LOVES reading everything from scifi to romance to nonfiction and everything in between. I also love sharing my thoughts and I hope you enjoy!
Buy this book from our affiliate Bookshop.org.
What It Means to Be an Underdog
Guest Post by Gabrielle Thurman.
Dog Boy by Eva Hornung is the harrowing tale of a young boy raised by wild dogs. Based on a true story, the novel follows Romochka, a four-year-old boy abandoned by his family, as he attempts to survive the Russian winters in the aftermath of perestroika. At its heart, this book is a story about what it means to be an underdog, both literally and metaphorically.
Every scene in this book had me gritting my teeth. I laughed. I cried. I walked away from it in horror and disgust, only to return to it again and again. It’s one of those books that even after you finish reading it, you still think about it. I can’t look at dogs the same way I used to. Hornung does a fantastic job of examining what it means to be a “person.”
The book isn’t perfect. There are parts where the plot gets a bit fuzzy and convenient. She stretched my suspension of disbelief a tad bit too far in places. Overall, though, this is one of my new favorites, and I’ll definitely be recommending it to others. If you love books about dogs, survival, Russia, humanity, violence, family, and hope, then this book is for you.
Dog Boy by Eva Hornung. Viking, March 2010.
Reviewer bio: Gabrielle Thurman is a creative writer, professional editor, queer woman, native Arkansan, and aspiring novelist. Her creative nonfiction can be found in The Elephant Ladder and The Vortex Magazine of Literature and Fine Art.
A Memoir of Two Illnesses
Guest Post by Kylie Smith.
In Every Last Breath: A Memoir of Two Illnesses, scholar and memoirist Joanne Jacobson strings twelve independently stunning essays together to create a lyrically compressed contemplation of the always frail body.
The essays detail Jacobson’s heart-wrenching experience of discovering her own chronic illness even as she was writing about her mother’s. Both memoir and biography, the book rejects the linear trajectory of conventional narrative to call the reader “out of time” and into the lives of two Jewish-American women as their diseases, one of blood and one of breath, force them to confront “end of life” together.
With the precision of a poet, Jacobson gracefully and honestly explores the ephemerality of time and breath and speaks deeply to the shared human experience of incremental loss. Every Last Breath is a hopeful and hurting reminder that the body is both singly inhabited and commonly shared.
Every Last Breath: A Memoir of Two Illnesses by Joanne Jacobson. The University of Utah Press, 2020.
Reviewer bio: Kylie Smith is a writer based out of Logan, Utah.
Buy this book from our affiliate Bookshop.org.
Get Happy with Lawson
Guest Post by Natalie Hess.
This book was absolutely phenomenal and it was a 5-star read! It dealt with mental health, specifically anxiety and depression, in such a fun way. I burst out laughing so many times that people would actually give me weird looks or ask what was happening. Jenny Lawson is just so funny and she somehow combines this humor with her terrible experiences to create the intriguing, hilarious, inspiring masterpiece that is Furiously Happy. There are lighthearted parts, and there are parts that are really serious and it all balances out perfectly.
This book did leave me with more questions than answers, but it definitely made me think about how “normal” my life seems compared to hers. I also learned that both of those lives are perfectly acceptable.
To anyone who is struggling with mental health, this could definitely help you, and even if it doesn’t you will probably still enjoy it nonetheless. I know I did.
Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things by Jenny Lawson. Flatiron Books, February 2017.
Reviewer bio: I’m Natalie Hess and I’m simply a high school student who LOVES reading everything from scifi to romance to nonfiction and everything in between. I also love sharing my thoughts and I hope you enjoy!
Buy this book from our affiliate Bookshop.org.
“The Wide, Wide Sea” by Patrick Ness
Guest Post by Natalie Hess.
Patrick Ness’s “The Wide, Wide Sea” is a short story from the Chaos Walking series that takes place before the start of the first book, but is meant to be read between the second and third.
I am a sucker for a good forbidden love story and this one did not disappoint. The main character is a human who has fallen in love with a spackle, and they have such a wholesome story in such a gruesome place. Realistically, I don’t think any of the plot twists were super unpredictable, but I personally did not see any of them coming and that was such a roller coaster of events coming out of nowhere. Not to mention how loveable the characters were despite the fact that the story was less than 40 pages long.
This was an extremely enjoyable story and I gave it 4.75 out of 5 stars.
“The Wide, Wide Sea” by Patrick Ness. Walker Books, 2018.
Reviewer bio: I’m Natalie Hess and I’m simply a high school student who LOVES reading everything from scifi to romance to nonfiction and everything in between. I also love sharing my thoughts and I hope you enjoy!
Able Muse YouTube Channel: Readings & Book Trailers
If you weren’t able to attend the virtual reading and Q&A with Able Muse Press authors Carrie Green, Hailey Leithauser, and Sally Thomas on January 27, they have uploaded a recording of the event to their official YouTube Channel.
Don’t forget to subscribe for more content…like their recently released book trailer for William Baer’s New Jersey Noir: Cape May. This is the second book of the Jack Colt Murder Mystery Novels Series. It was released on January 15 of this year. They are hoping to bring even more book trailers in the new future.
Plus! Don’t forget their 2021 contests are open to submissions! You can submit fiction and poetry to their Write Prize for publication in their literary magazine Able Muse through March 15. You can submit full-length poetry collections to their Book Award through March 31.
Shanti Arts :: Spring Leaves Chapbook Series
I love a good chapbook—something slim and short and perfect for my pandemic-shortened attention span. With this in mind, I was excited to find out Shanti Arts, publisher of literary and art journal Still Point Arts Quarterly, has begun to publish the Spring Leaves Chapbook Series.
The first chapbook in this series was released back in August. The Vermeer Tales by Gail Tyson is “[i]nspired by A. S. Byatt’s The Matisse Stories and Johannes Vermeer’s exquisite paintings of women,” and was written “during a transition from a demanding career to full-time writing in 2017, and finished the last after [Tyson’s] beloved’s brief, terrifying illness and death.”
The chapbook is available now at the Shanti Arts website. There, readers can also have a sneak peek at the contents before purchasing.
Driftwood Press :: New Poetry Title & Launch Party
Do you need something good to look forward to? Driftwood Press has you covered.
Their first full-length poetry collection is forthcoming on December 15: Magnolia Canopy Otherworld by Erin Carlyle. The collection has received advance praise: Rebecca Morgan Frank, author of Little Murders Everywhere calls it a “riveting, smart, and unforgettable debut,” and F. Daniel Rzicznek, author of Settlers warns readers: “Be ready for her to interrupt your life with poem after stunning poem in this haunting and arresting debut.” You can preorder your copy now.
To celebrate the release of Magnolia Canopy Otherworld, tune in on December 18 for a free digital launch party held on Zoom. In addition to Erin Carlyle, Wren Hanks, Ben Kline, Helli Fang, Kimberly Povloski, Charles Malone, and Annie Christain will also be reading. Find more information about the launch party at Driftwood Press‘s Facebook.
Are You Somebody I Should Know? Mudfish Individual Poet Series #14
Mudfish has released the 14th installment in their Individual Poet Series. Are You Somebody I Should Know? by Dell Lemmon. Art critic and poet John Yau says that Lemmon’s “memoir poems, as she calls them, are strong rivers pulling you into their currents. Her poems are pared down and direct and move at a rapid clip without ever tripping over themselves.” Jason Koo, Founder and Executive Director of Brooklyn Poets, says Lemmon’s book will convince you that you have missed so “much of your life, haven’t truly seen it, haven’t treasured nearly enough of all your friends, your loves, your family, let alone all the people you thought were not important enough to know.”
Are You Somebody I Should Know is available via SPD, Amazon, and Mudfish‘s website.
Into The Void Releases We Are Antifa Anthology
At the beginning of the month, literary magazine Into the Void released it’s We Are Antifa: Expressions Against Fascism, Racism and Police Violence in the United States and Beyond. The anthology features creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry from diverse writers all over the world, i.e. the US, Canada, Ireland, the UK, Greece, Nigeria, and more.
Into the Void will be donating 100% of proceeds from the anthology’s sales to Black Lives Matter Canada. In order to maximize profits, the book will only be available via Amazon in ebook and paperback formats.
We Are Antifa was edited by Heath Brougher, Jay C. Mims, Amanda Gaines, Andrew Rihn, and Philip Elliot. It features “breathtaking writing condemning fascism, racism and state-sanctioned brutality through powerful expressions of grief, rage, hope and love.”
The title is a response to Donald Trump’s declaration that the US will be designating Antifa as a terrorist organization. The editors encourage readers to check out “A Brief History of Anti-Fascism” in Smithsonian Magazine to better understand why they published this anthology and “how anti-fascism and anti-racism are inextricably linked in the fight against oppression and supremacy.”
Diversity of Little Libraries Lies in their Non-curated Nature
Guest Post by S. B. Julian
Is making the shelves of Little Free Libraries more diverse an appropriate role for their stewards? Emblems of diversity already, these little book nooks give pleasure by not being “stewarded” at all. Ideally, you never know what you might find in one. You don’t have the feeling that someone has pre-engineered your discovery. Continue reading “Diversity of Little Libraries Lies in their Non-curated Nature”
PoArtMo Anthology: 2020 Artists
We could all use a little positivity and Auroras & Blossoms agrees. This is why the literary magazine has established PoArtMo which stands for “Positive Art Month and Positive Art Moves.”
In the month of June, the PoArtMo creators urged writers and artists to “celebrate positive art for 30 days.” A collection of this positivity is to be memorialized in the PoArtMo Anthology. The anthology will feature drawings, paintings, photography, fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and six-word stories by the writers and artists who participated in the challenge. The magazine has announced the featured artists readers can expect to see in the anthology.
Congrats to the selected writers, and thank you for spreading your positive outlook!
Tolsun Books Seeks Volunteers
Tolsun Books is looking to expand our small, collaborative, remote team of volunteers. If you are passionate about energetic works of literature, and have experience in aspects of literary publishing, especially copy-editing and/or proofreading, please send us an email at [email protected].
Best American Essays 2020 Sponsor Spotlights
Congratulations to two of NewPages sponsored magazines for having selections included in the Best American Essays 2020 due out on November 3, 2020. This year’s anthology was curated by guest editor André Aciman and series editor Robert Atwan.
“My Pink Lake and Other Digressions” by Alison Townsend was originally published in an issue of Cimarron Review. Jerald Walker’s “Breathe” was featured in New England Review 40.3.
Tupelo Press Recent Releases and BOGO Sale
Tupelo Press presents two recent releases, Shahr-e-jaanaan: The City of the Beloved by Adeeba Shahid Talukder, and our latest printing of Maggie Smith’s “Good Bones” onto broadsides. Also be sure to check out the Tupelo Press BOGO sale going on at tupelopress.org. View the entire April eLitPak Newsletter here.
Green Mountains Review Launches Social Distance Reading Series
Literary magazine Green Mountains Review has partnered with the Vermont School to highlight writers whose book launches have been “snuffed out” by the COVID-19 pandemic.
They post new videos to their Social Distance Reading Series twice a week on Wednesday and Sunday so that authors can read from their newly released collections of poetry. Right now the focus is on writers whose book events were cancelled in the months of January through May.
You can currently find readings by Chard deNiord, Kathryn Nuernberger, Felicia Zamora, Philip Metres, Tommye Blount, Penelope Crazy, and Matthew Lipman.
Internet Archive Launches National Emergency Library
Last week Internet Archive launched the National Emergency Library which contains 1.4 million digitized books to serve the needs of students, educators, and learners. This means that they have suspended the waitlists, at least through June 30. This allows students to have the access they need to assigned readings and other library materials.
Brewster Kahle, founder of Internet Archive, says, “Think of this as a huge experiment. In one big push, we can improve online learning and its infrastructure in a way that may otherwise have taken years. This crisis encourages universities to be bold, to make investments that ultimately may mean many more students can benefit. Perhaps 500 undergraduates can fill a hall at MIT, but how many millions can take an online MIT course, once the books, materials and lessons are online?”
The library brings together all the books from Phillips Academy Andover and Marygrove College with much of Trent University’s collections. There is also over a million other books donated by other libraries to readers worldwide. Yes, worldwide. The timeline for the waitlist is timed to the crisis in the U.S., but readers all over the world are able to utilize this collection.
This launch has met with much criticism from the publishing community and writers. In a recent NPR article, it has been revealed that many writers and publishers say that the Internet Archive has been sharing full digital copies of books without permission before the establishment of this new library. The Authors Guild, which provides legal assistance to writers, stated the Internet Archive “tramples on authors’ rights by giving away their books to the world” without permission.
They recommend utilizing your own local libraries and their own e-book lending platforms instead.
Fates Intertwine in Leigh Bardugo’s Ninth House
Book Review by Ken Brosky
Galaxy “Alex” Stern has been given a free ride to Yale, despite a shady past and nonexistent high school grades. Why? Because she can see ghosts, and one of Yale’s secret societies has use of her unique gift. If that’s not enough to get you interested, how about this: in the first 20 pages, the society Skull and Bones has already opened up a living man’s body to perform a ritual designed to pick winning stocks. That’s just a taste of the incredible creativity that awaits readers as Alex investigates the strange goings-on of the secret societies, searching for answers to a suspicious murder.
Leigh Bardugo’s writing style shifts perspective with ease, moving between two main characters whose fates are intertwined. But what sets this book apart is the incredible creativity. Each secret society in Yale practices a form of magic, with consequences that go beyond the campus. It’s difficult to come up with something new in the fantasy genre, but Bardugo’s twisted imagination succeeds so well that this book is impossible to put down.
The Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo. Flatiron Books, October 2019.
About the reviewer: Ken Brosky teaches English, plays guitar, and works in his woodshop when he’s not busy writing. He is short stories have been published in The Portland Review, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, among others. He’s currently represented by agent Sandra Sawicka, and they’re working on a mystery novel.
That’s Some (Weird) Pig!
Southeast Missouri State University Press may have their orders closed at the moment, but you can still learn about their forthcoming titles. In October 2020, they’ll publish Weird Pig by Robert Long Foreman, winner of the 2018 Nilsen Prize for a First Novel.
Although it’s his first novel, Foreman has made his mark by winning Pleiades Press’s Robert C. Jones Prize for Short Prize with his collection of essays Among Other Things and by winning a Pushcart Prize for fiction.
Find out more about the 2018 competition at SEMO Press’s website. And if you’re interested at trying your own luck at entering the Nilsen Prize for a First Novel, you have plenty of time—submissions close in November.
Sheila-Na-Gig Editions Announce New Titles
Sheila-Na-Gig Editions, publisher of online lit mag Sheila-Na-Gig online, is not just celebrating the release of two new titles Robert DeMott’s collection of prose poems, Up Late Reading Birds of America, and Barbara Sabol’s Imagine a Town) but also two new titles in the hopper.
First they have their first-ever fiction title. This will be a re-release of John Bullock’s novel Mark Small: This is Your Life. It was previously titled Making Faces. This is a coming-of-age story set at the British seaside.
The winner of their Spring Poetry Contest, Kari Gunter-Seymour, has agreed to let them publish her forthcoming chapbook A Place So Deep Inside America It Can’t Be Seen. Stay tuned for more information on these titles and grab a copy of their current releases.
Oh, and don’t forget their Poetry Manuscript Contest is open through July 1 annually.
Best Microfiction 2020
Mark your calendars! The Best Microfiction 2020 anthology is slated for release this April from Pelekinesis Press. The series is edited by Meg Pokrass and Gary Fincke. The guest editor this year was Michael Martone.
Featured in this edition is work originally published in Cherry Tree, E. Kristin Anderson’s “Ted Cruz Attends a Goldfish Funeral” and Catherine Edmunds’ “Her Wing”; Apple Valley Review, “Teeth” by Tim Fitts; Kenyon Review Online, “Thaddeus Gunn’s “An inventory of the possessions of William Kevin Thompson, Jr., age 19, upon his expulsion from the family residence on October 20, 1971”; Anomaly, “This Is A Comb” by Leila Ortiz; Into the Void, JJ Peña’s “the summer heat feels just like love”; The Sonder Review, CC Russell’s “Caught”; and much more.
Pre-order yourcopy today and support the awesome journals these pieces were originally published in.
“Social Poetics” Uncovers the Poetry of Everyday Workers
“Social Poetics” Uncovers the Poetry of Everyday Workers. By Harris Feinsod. In These Time.
Goldman and Antonio both participated in the Worker Writers School (WWS), founded by poet and activist Mark Nowak, who has offered creative writing workshops with trade unions and social movements since 2005. In Nowak’s stirring new book, Social Poetics, he documents how writing workshops can embolden workers who, to paraphrase Trinidadian historian and writer C.L.R. James, seek to chronicle their own struggles “to regain control over their own conditions of life.”
…Nowak’s work follows in the tradition of Langston Hughes, whose 1947 essay, “My Adventures as a Social Poet,” turned away from lyric poems of individual experience to the poetry of social commitment, poems that “stop talking about the moon and begin to mention poverty, trade unions, color lines and colonies.” Social Poetics relates the history of this tradition: Young English Professor Celes Tisdale and the Abenaki author Joseph Bruchac, for example, created poetry classes in prisons (which included participants in the 1971 Attica uprising).
Zizzle Literary Branches Out in 2020
Zizzle Literary launched as a flash fiction literary magazine for families in 2018. Since its inception, it has morphed into a short story anthology series for readers young and old.
Zizzle is now evolving into a small press and hopes to begin to offer novels, graphic novels, and short story collections in the near future. The first of their new offerings, Zizzle Selects, will be released in June 2020. This anthology for teens features flash fiction stories from previous issues of Zizzle Literary and includes a discussion guide.
Jessica Lind Peterson 2020 Deborah Tall Lyric Essay Book Prize Winner
In December of 2019, Seneca Review announced the winner of its annual Deborah Tall Lyric Essay Book Prize.
Final judge Jenny Boully selected Living Room Horses by Minnesota-based essayist and playwright Jessica Lind Peterson. The book will be published in November 2020.
Finalists:
Vanessa Saunders, The Flat Woman
Dennis James Sweeney, You’re the Woods Too
Nance Van Winckel, Sister Zero
Vote for Your Favorite Lake Covington Couple
The people behind literary magazine Gold Man Review started SMOLDR back in 2018 with the launch of a writing contest for romance stories based around fictional characters living in Lake Covington.
They released Lake Covington on Valentine’s Day this year and are now accepting votes through March 14 for readers to choose their favorite couple. The top three writers whose couples are chosen will receive cash prizes. Grab your copy of the anthology today and vote for your couple.
Oh, and don’t forget that Gold Man Review is currently open to submissions from West Coast writers for their annual issue through May 1.
New Titles :: Diode Editions
Diode Editions will be releasing five new books in March 2020 by Allison Joseph, Julia Cohen, Gregory Donovan, Michele Poulos, Nancy Chen Long, and Zeeshan Khan Pathan. They will also be at AWP 2020 and hosting a few events. Learn more…
Award-Winning Books Published December 2019 – February 2020
Check out new and forthcoming award-winning books we’ve received recently. Continue reading “Award-Winning Books Published December 2019 – February 2020”
Women of a Certain Rage
Women of a Certain Rage. Two New Books Tackle Getting Older—and More Pissed Off. Bitchmedia.
…I can’t say whether the despair I regularly feel is statistical or situational—the world is both literally and figuratively on fire, after all; I don’t trust anyone who isn’t despairing on some level. But as a woman, I also know that there can’t be any discussion of unhappiness at any numerical point of what we call “midlife” without acknowledging the powerful cultural narratives of gender and aging.
Those narratives, and the economic, political, sexual, and pop cultural impact of them, are at the center of two new books. Ada Calhoun’s Why We Can’t Sleep: Women’s New Midlife Crisis and Susan J. Douglas’s In Our Prime: How Older Women are Reinventing the Road Ahead both approach their subject matter from generational perspectives, each starting from a place of unsettled personal clarity: Well, shit, I got old. Now what?