Erin McIntosh is the featured artist in this 70th anniversary issue of The Georgia Review, with one of her works from Geometric Series on the cover and several more inside along with an introduction about the artist and her work.
“Forgetten” by Jane Zwinger on the Spring/Summer 2017 issue of Glimmer Train is a welcome symbol of spring that reflects the blossoming trees lining our city streets this April.
The cover of Ruminate Spring 2017 features an untitled piece from the 2017 Kalos Visual Art Prize Winner Lucas Moneypenny. More of his work as well as that from Second Place winner Chakila L. Hoskins and Honorable Mention Carolyn Mount is included in the issue.

The cover photograph for the Spring 2017 issue of Thema by VHoward fits this issue’s theme perfectly: “Take the zucchini and run.” And also gave me a jolt of hope for summer’s soon arrival!
The Spring 2017 cover photo of Willow Springs is by Polish-born photographer Marta Berens from her ongoing series Suiti – documenting the culture of the people of Alsunga, Latvia.
While the ship in the bottle is the focal point of Justin Burks’s image on the Winter 2017 issue of Carve, it was actually the Kit-Cat Clock that drew me in. Burks is a graduate of the Art Institute of Dallas and founder of Birdhouse Branding, a creative agency that helps develop and design brands, websites and illustrations for individuals and organizations.

“Calmly on Fire,” a found photograph and collage on paper by Lorna Simpson, makes it difficult for readers to look away from Hotel Amerika Winter 2017.
Published in Ireland, this spring 2017 issue of Into the Void cover features “Two Boys in the Woods” by Refael Salem.
Unusual beauty seems to be my theme this week, finishing off with “Red Heart Boat” by Andy Levine on the cover of the online Animal: A Beast of a Literary Magazine.

“This iteration of the Sewanee Review [Winter 2017], designed by Peter Mendelsund and Oliver Munday, signifies the first substantial redesign this magazine has undergone since Allen Tate’s commissioning of legendary printer P.J. Conkwright in autumn, 1944,” writes Managing Editor Robert Walker. He thanks the designers “for their beautiful, idiosyncratic vision, which so seamlessly incorporates the old into the new.” NewPages agrees.
The Gettysburg Review Spring 2017 whimsical cover is a detail of “The Young Owl” by Kevin Sloan.
“Stress Test” by Eugenia Loli is the eye-catching cover art on The Missouri Review v39 n4 (2016)

The Boiler winter 2017 online quarterly of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction features this stunning scene “Horses in Winter” photograph by Ellumyne.
Chagrin River Review online journal of fiction and poetry is edited by faculty at Lakeland Community College, outside of Cleveland, Ohio. The cover photo for their December 2016 issue, with its unique road reflections, is by Michael Kinkopf.
I’m pretty sure that’s a cockroach orchestra portrayed on the cover of Cleaver online lit mag #16: “The Maestro” by Orlando Saverino-Loeb.

Aimee Bungard is the featured artist in the Winter 2017 issue of The Carolina Quarterly, with “Eyeris” on the cover and a portfolio of her work inside, in a style which she describes as “ecological expressionist.”
Mud Season Review publishes one story, one portfolio of poems, one essay or piece of narrative nonfiction, and visual art online monthly. The newest issue features artwork by Talal Alyan, who “renders loss into concise and vivid images that feel like an assault on the soul.”
Posit online publishes “finely crafted, innovative, contemporary literature and visual art. Our tastes are broad, but we lean towards the experimental.” And the cover art of issue #12 is proof positive, featuring Steve DeFrank’s “Big Hairy Mess.”

Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun ‘s “Christy Clark and the Kinder Morgan Go-Go Girls” draws readers to the Winter 2016 cover of The Malahat Review, with guest editors Philip Kevin Paul (poetry), Richard Van Camp (fiction), Leanne Betasamosake Simpson (CNF) making selections for the theme “Indigenous Perspectives.”
I was mesmerized by Ann Manuel’s “Blur I” on the Winter 2017 cover of The Fiddlehead, Atlantic Canada’s International Literary Journal.
And just one more splash of color to brighten a winter’s day: “Gouache on Newspaper” by Elizabeth Doran on the cover of Suffolk University’s Salamander #43.

The Writing Disorder online quarterly literary journal continues to publish some of the most provocative artwork from emerging artists. Paintings by Cameron Bliss are featured on the Winter 2016-17 cover as well as within the issue.
“My Beating Heart” by Rossitza Todorova welcomes readers to Superstition Review‘s issue 18, a fully accessible online literary magazine produced by creative writing and web design students at Arizona State University.

This week’s theme for covers seems to be ‘the fantastical from the literal.’ Philippe Pirrip‘s “Curved Plan” is featured on the cover of Zone 3 Fall 2016. Pripp describes his artistic approach as “a visual play of identities” and “a resistance to conform to literal figurations of what is and what has been depicted as being queer.”
Of the cover of Winter/Spring 2017 The Southampton Revi Editor-in-Chief Lou Ann Walker comments: “Because this issue’s theme is the muse, all of the art in this issue was chosen for its emphasis on story and the fantastical places imagination can go. Take, for example, the cover, ‘Stopping by Woods,’ created by Corinne Geertsen. How did that ballerina in her tutu come to be juxtaposed with that extraterrestrial spaceship?” Indeed.
The Chattahoochee Review Fall2016/Winter2017 cover art “War Bonnets: Never Out of Style for Long” by Lucy Julia Hale is representative of her artistic approach, which she describes: “I am drawn to see deeply into paper artifacts / mass-produced photographic images of our interiors and exteriors – / where we have lived.”

The most recent issue of Concho River Review: Literature from Texas and Beyond features a photograph by Tim L. Vasquez, Ziva-Gato Impressions, that provides me with a ray of warmth during just the start of our coldest months of winter here in the north.
With cover art by Ric Best, the color scheme of issue 19 of Skidrow Penthouse is another kind of warming image – one that invites readers into what Editors Stephanie Dickinson and Rob Cook consider “our best issue yet.”
The reproduction can’t quite seem to do justice to the vibrancy of the blue, red, and orange hues on the Fall 2016 cover art of Crazyhorse. “City” by W. Case Jernigan provides a unique perspective, as does the content of this publication. A full list of contents for the current issue can be found here.

Issue #9 of the monthly online journal The Woven Tale Press features the steel scupture “Facing the Elements Blindfolded” by Ruud Schrijvershof, with addtional images of his works included inside the publication. The Woven Tale Press is a fine arts and literary magazine with the mission to grow Web traffic to noteworthy writers, photographers, and artists.
“Lion” by Cesar Valtierra draws readers in to Issue 6 of The Sounder Review, an online and print jounral of art, short fiction, and creative nonfiction. Based in Upstate New York, TSR “strives to question, redefine, and challenge conventional viewpoints; to usurp the definition of reality and truth.”

“to pursue the unattainable” (2011; mixed media on paper; 22″ x 30″) from Carol Collicut’s  Marcus Aurelius Series is featured on the autumn 2016 cover of The Fiddlehead: Atlantic Canada’s International Literary Journal and looks similar to a form of asemic writing.
Published out of Dublin, Ireland, this second issue of Into the Void Arts and Literature features “In the Dream I’m Falling” by Zach Moroney on its cover.
NewPages will always favor any lit mag cover that features the Detroit Tigers “D” on its cover. Though the black and white rendition of “An Ode to Farad #1” by Jamea Richmond-Edwards doesn’t quite do it justice, readers can find the full-color image inside The Southeast Review v.34 n.2, as well as and interview with the artist by Jessica Reidy.

This whimsical “Dinosaur Feeding Frenzy” by Robert C. Jackson on the cover of Vol. V of The New Guard is an oil on linen, three panels sized 48″ x 36″ or 48″ x 108″. The issue itself is a contest winners frenzy, featuring winners, finalists and semifinalists of the The New Guard Vol. V Knightville Poetry Contest and the Machigonne Fiction Contest.
I couldn’t look away from this child’s searching expression on the fall 2016 cover of Catamaran. “Via Mal Contenti” by Bo Bartlett is an oil on linen (82 x 56; 2006) is as haunting as Founder and Editor in Chief Catherine Segurson’s closing words in her editor’s letter: “. . . please remember to vote this November, because we are responsible for the world our children will inherit.”

Jorge Mayet’s De Mis Vivos y Mis Muertos (2008, electrical wire, paper, acrylics, fabric) is featured on the cover of the poetry journal Field‘s fall 2016 issue. Inside, readers can find a symposium on the work of C.D. Wright, with essays by Jenny Goodman, Laura Kasischke, Pamela Alexander, Sharon Olds, Kazim Ali, and Stephen Burt.
This fall 2016 cover of River Teeth: A Journal of Nonfiction Narrative features the photography of David FitzSimmons, “Sweet Gum and Moon, Ashland, Ohio.”
In keeping with what seems to be a ‘tree’ theme, this acrylic on panel by Eric Green, entitled “Pole,” is just sample of the kinds of stark yet lush images included in his full-color portfolio inside The Gettysburg Review, winter 2016.

I think Black Warrior Review covers make the pick every issue, with Luanne Redeye’s (Self)Image on the Fall/Winter 2016 cover just another example of why. More from her “Genre Paintings 2011 – ” series can be found inside the publication, as well as here on her website.
The cover of The Massachusetts Review (v57 n3) features Nina Chanel Abney’s What, 2015 (unique ultrachrome pigmented print, acrylic, spray paint on canvas). More of her work is also featured in the publication and can be viewed in her online portfolio here.
The cover of the seventh issue of Subprimal Poetry Art features Three Shadows by Kate Viola, who says the painting was “inspired by the haunting arias often found in operas.” Subprimal Poetry Art is a open access online publication of words with music, words alone, and artwork.

The Raleigh Review Fall 2016 issue features “Red Madonna” by Geri Digiorno on its cover, an appropriate welcome to its contents, which Editor Rob Greene comments: “Many of us enter the arts as a way to heal . . [the arts] is about real people trying to make a better world. We hope the work in this volume guides you a better understanding of humankind.”
“Jenna’s First” by William Paul Thomas adorns the cover of The Carolina Quarterly Fall 2016, with a full-color portfolio of his work within. “I paint representations of disembodied heads of people in my social circle and sometimes scrawl text directly over their likenesses,” Thomas writes in his Artist’s Statement. “As it relates to my portraits, whatever the viewer derives from looking is the correct interpretation. I embrace symbolic ambiguity while clinging to observational specificity.”
“My work explores narratives that recognize the urgency and conflict in our continuing attempts to connect to the world around us,” writes Hanna Dansie in her Artist’s Statement. Her work is featured both on the cover of the Spring/Summer 2016 Hayden’s Ferry Review and with several internal pages as well.

Lalitamba, which means Divine Mother, calls itself a “journal of international writings for liberation” and was inspired by a pilgrimage through India. Each issue, the cover is meditaion on the publication’s focus and inspiraiton. [No photo credit.]
Michigan Quarterly Review Summer 2016 cover photo is a rich perspective on the beauty of summer. “A Patch of Green” photo by MIchael Owen, 2014.
Cynthia Low’s artwork appears both on the cover and is featured inside Subprimal Poetry Art, an online journal. See the full print and Low’s commentary here.

Still Life with Apple by David Harrison is a rich oil on canvas acquired for the Spring 2016 issue of Crazyhorse, which also includes the winners of their Crazy-shorts! Short-Short Fiction Contest.
I liked this slightly dizzying photo on the cover of Big Muddy: A Journal of the Mississippi River Valley. Credit goes to German photographer Sarah Katharina Kayß, whose work provides unique perspectives on architecture.
I want to believe it is the Blue Bird of Happiness that adorns the Spring 2016 cover of Colorado Review [no photo credit given].

Benjamin Duke’s Home Again, Home Again fills the front and back covers of the Spring 2016 (#10) issue of 3 Elements Literary Review, an online publication that challenges writers and readers alike with issues themed with three elements. Spring’s elements are Measure, Cleave, and Sliver.
Taking the old and making it new again is this spring issue of the online Apple Valley Review, which features cover artwork: “Cabin in the Woods, North Conway, New Hampshire,” 1848, oil on canvas by Thomas Cole.
Six Million is the photograph by Conor MacNeill on the cover of Winter 2016 Michigan Quarterly Review. It was taken in Berlin at the Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas – the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, and is companion to the opening essay by Philip Beidler, “This Way to the Führerbunker: Gertrud-Kolmar-Straße, Berlin, Mitte.”

G. Davis Cathcart is the artist behind this sugar-crazed untitled work of a young man/boy enjoying his morning dose of Sugar Pops on the Winter 2016 cover of The MacGuffin.
Another comic cover on Green Mountains Review (v29 n1) is an illustration by Tim Mayer from OldGuy: Superhero. Selections of both poetry and images from the illustrated chapbook by William Trowbridge are featured within the issue.

“Ill Met by Moonlight” is the theme of Hamilton Arts & Letters Magazine issue 8.2, which features a collage of works from artists featured in the issue, including “Steve” by Lisa Wöhrle from the portfolio “Then and Now: The (Young) Contemporaries.”
“Crow Chief” by Geri Digiorno is also a collage which invites readers in to the spring 2016 issue of Raleigh Review Literary & Arts Magazine. The publication’s new, larger format provides a spacious canvas for this work.
It helps to see the full spread on this cover art for the spring issue of Arroyo Literary Magazine: “Fiori Bacio (Lovers)” by ALE + ALE.

Field: Contemporary Poetry and Poetics Spring 2016 issue features a strking image – no photo credit given – which shows I’m not always drawn to splashy color covers. You can read some sample poems from the issue here.

Literary Juice is an online bi-monthly of all genres of prose, poetry, and art. As the editors note: “Lately, we’ve done away with all artistrict boundaries.” This issue’s cover photo is “We Almost Rejected the Barn But No One Wants To Be Trolled by Cows” by A. Riding.

“Sad Cactus” by Netherlands photo artist Stanislaw Lewkowicz is featured on the cover of the online Hermeneutic Chaos March 2016 issue. Lewkowicz’s mezmerizing image is the perfect match for Hermeneutic Chaos, which editors consider a collection of “beautifully crafted narrative mindscapes that move us with their linguistic, emotional expanse and powerful imagery.”

The Writing Disorder Spring 2016 WAXenVINE Photography
The Beautiful Images of Scott Irvine & Kim Meinelt
WAXENVINE is the collective vision of husband and wife team Scott Irvine and Kim Meinelt. Their work centers around themes of light, shadow, texture and beauty. They are drawn to finding the unusual within the mundane and beauty in unexpected places. Their process often involves blending multiple images together – resulting in a haunting dreamscape that transcends reality and the singular image.

Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built + Natural Environment features some stunning photography on its site that accompanies each written work. Header photo of goshawk in flight by Vladimir Hodac, courtesy Shutterstock.

I’m a sucker for rich, gorgeous, thick layers of color, and this cover image on Weber 32.1 absolutely satisfies. This “Untitled #1” is a mixed media by Ginger Wallace, whose work is also featured on a ten-page spread inside.
Kenyon Review Editor David H. Lynn tells readers, “Don’t be fooled by the playful beauty of our covers . . . the changes that have come to Kenyon Review over the past year are more than skin deep.” Indeed, while now managing their own electronic versions, writers will be pleased to know the publication has equalized its pay scale between online and print contributors. The cover by artist and illustrator Jon McNaught drew me in to read the rest.
Still Points Arts Quarterly is the beautiful, lavish, journal of arts and literature published by Shanti Arts, which was founded in 2011 by Christine Brooks Cote to celebrate art, nature, and spirit. “Night Flight” by Charlotte Lees is featured on the front cover, while a portfolio of her sculptures is featured inside.

I simply couldn’t look away from Copper Nickel #22, even though I found it somewhat disconcerting. “Samy” by Christine Stormberg is an oil on canvas.
“Borderlands” is the theme of Hayden’s Ferry Review Fall/Winter. Issue 57. “Borderlands are complex spaces filled with treacherous enthymemes, conflicting traditions, and a certain loneliness and search for identity,” writes Editor Chelsea Hickok in her introductory letter. The cover art (which extends to the back cover as well) by Bobby Neel Adams seems a fitting entryway to the borderlands within.
Now that Antioch Review has your attention… “Funny Bird Sex” by John R. Nelson is the opening essay that the issue takes as its subtitle as well as influencing the cover photo by Dennie Eagleson.

“Lubbock Woman” by Dirk Fowler takes the cover of Southern Humanities Review 49.2. Visually based on a waitress from Furr’s Cafeteria in Lubbuck, Texas, Fowler writes, “This image began its life in 2003 as a pretty crudely executed letterpress concert poster for the band Sugarpuss. I only made a few of them, but I liked the illustration and knew I wanted to explore it again at some point.”

It’s a dog. Enough said. Margaret Darling is the artist for CutBank 84.

Definitely an eye-catching slight of hand, Cimarron Review Winter 2016 features photography by Bradley Phillips, “Feather,” from the series Abolition of Man.

This week’s theme seems to be the color – something of a burnt umber – that draws my eye. Main Street Rag 21.1 features the photography and an accompanying interview with Tammy Ruggles. “Afternoon Leisure” is the cover photo.

Saranac Review 11 features cover and full color internal art by Canadian artists, Michael Dumontier and Neil Farber, formerly known as The Royal Art Lodge.

The Rag online monthly “focuses on grittier forms of contemporary short fiction,” with this issue featuring Alan Shapiro’s “Has and Have” with cover art by Matthew Laznicka.

This week’s cover picks’ theme could be whimsy, as there was something in each of these covers that made me laugh, with a blend of curiosity to want to look inside. This cover image of Mississippi Review (43.3) by Allison Campbell is a throwback to the Brady Bunch, with writers included in the issue on featured on both the front an back cover.

The Spring 2016 issue of The Gettysburg Review features a full color section of the paintings and collages of Jacqui Larsen, as well as this cover work (oil and collage), Trotting a Fenced Field.

The most literal of the ‘making me want to look inside’ covers this week is The Missouri Review, themed “Behind the Curtian.” This cover image, “Matter,” by Logan Zillmer reveals summer behind the curtain of winter – appropriate considering the below zero winchill outside.

I’m only selecting one cover this week because it is so profound. This cover image for The Georgia Review Winter 2015 is Mavis in the Back Seat by Cynthia Henebry, one of the photographers featured in The Do Good Fund: Southern Poverty Initiative. The Do Good Fund, a public charity based in Columbus, Georgia, is focused on building a museum-quality collection of contemporary Southern photography. Do Good’s mission is to make its collection broadly accessible through regional museums, nonprofit galleries and nontraditional venues, and to encourage complimentary, community-based programming to accompany each exhibition. (Text excerpted from Do Good’s website.)

If I had my druthers, Still Point Arts Quarterly would be featured here for every issue, along with just about every page of their publication. Each issue is a true meditation of art an literature. The Winter 2015 issue #20 features Square (XIII) by Susan Breen.

Lalitamba “is a journal of international writings for liberation.” This 2015 cover gets my pick because, in the dead of winter, this says SUMMER to me and definitely liberates my mind from the cold and ice. [No credit given for the photo/model.]

“Equal,” acrylic on canvas by Amy Guidry, graces the cover of Fourteen Hills (22.1: 2016), keeping with the publication’s tradition for catchy, sometimes bordering on (good) bizarre images.