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Baltimore Review – Winter 2022

The Winter 2022 issue of Baltimore Review features creative nonfiction by Lucinda Cummings, Patricia Dwyer, Dan Hodgson, and contest winner Daniel Rousseau; fiction by Ross McCleary, Evan Brooke, Nicholas Otte, Mariah Rigg, and contest winner Robin Tung; and poetry by Francine Witte, Sara Henning, Rose Auslander, Stephanie McCarley Dugger, Lisa Suhair Majaj, and contest winner Aekta Khubchandani.

Head on over to Baltimore Review‘s website to read the Winter 2022 issue.

The Adroit Journal – No. 40

In this issue of The Adroit Journal, find poetry by Chen Chen, Eugenia Leigh, David Ehmcke, Sarah Fatimah Mohammed, Melissa Cundieff, Rose Alcalá, Monica Gomery, Gustav Parker Hibbett, Arielle Kaplan, Patrick Donnelly, Mark Kyungsoo Bias, Rick Barot, and more; prose by Kim Fu, Erin Sherry, Alyssa Asquith, Marcus Ong Kah Ho, Daniel Riddle Rodriguez, and Ann-Marie Blanchard; and art by Kathy Morris, Jack Jacques, Claire Hahn, Scarlett Cai, and others.

Plus five interviews that you can learn more about at The Adroit Journal website.

The MacGuffin – Fall/Winter 2021

Nancy Buffum’s “Girl at Piano” on the cover of vol. 37.3 is a prelude to the trio of musical poetry in the exposition to this issue, composed by poets Frank Jamison, Tobey Hiller, and Vince Gotera. As with any other sonata, the recapitulation comes later—András Schiff through Murray Silverstein’s eyes; guitarists, off-stage (Berlioz anyone?) in Gabriella Graceffo’s “Relics”; extended vocal technique in Eric Rasmussen’s “The Irresistible Gobble”—but not before Lucy Zhang’s multi-part “Trigger” and Lynn Domina’s multi-peninsula “Yooper Love” develop the form a bit. Finally, we reach the coda, this time a scherzo: “The Slapathon,” from J.A. Bernstein.

Read more at The MacGuffin website.

The Massachusetts Review – Winter 2021

This special issue is dedicated to the climate crisis and those being destroyed and changed by it. Work by Shailja Patel, Vanessa Place, Omar El Akkad, Rick Bass, Alex Kuo, CAConrad, Barry Lopez, Laura Dassow Walls, Craig Santos Perez, Salar Abdoh, Brian Turner, Lisa Olstein, Joseph Earl Thomas, Khairani Barokka, Amitav Ghosh, Marta Buchaca, Mercedes Dorame, Rob Nixon, Gina Apostol, and more. See a full list of contributors at The Massachusetts Review website.

Kenyon Review – Jan/Feb 2022

The Jan/Feb 2022 issue of the Kenyon Review features the winners of our 2021 Short Fiction Contest: Ted Mathys, Sam Zafris, Rachel L. Robbins, and Malavika Shetty; stories by Vanessa Chan, Lan Samantha Chang, Drew Johnson, and Joanna Pearson; essays by Melissa Chadburn, Beth Ann Fennelly, and Alice Jones; and poems by Ruth Awad, Cameron Awkward-Rich, Traci Brimhall, Katie Hartsock, Cate Marvin, Maggie Millner, Michael Prior, Natasha Sajé, and Joan Wickersham. Now at the Kenyon Review website.

Kaleidoscope – No. 84

In this issue, we see a common thread of resilience. Humor and an appreciation for the little things are along for the ride. Featured essay by Kavitha Yaga Buggana. Featured art by Sandy Palmer. Fiction by Kelly A. Harmon, Lind McMullen, and Courtney B. Cook; a personal essay by Jackie D. Rust; creative nonfiction by Judy Kronenfeld, Laura Kiesel, Kristin LaFollette, and Tereza Crvenkovic; and a book review by Nanaz Khosrowshahi. Poetry by Alan Balter, Lucia Haase, John Dycus, Linda Fuchs, Diane S. Morelli, Alana Visser, Wren Tuatha, and T.L. Murphy.

Download the new issue PDF at the Kaleidoscope website.

The Georgia Review – Winter 2021

The Georgia Review’s Winter 2021 issue with new writing from Morgan Talty, Victoria Chang, Cheryl Clarke, Ira Sukrungruang, Garrett Hongo, Edward Hirsch, and many more, as well a story by Maya Alexandrovna Kucherskaya translated from the Russian, two iconic speeches from the early years of the OutWrite literary conference, and the winner of this year’s Loraine Williams Poetry Prize.

More info at The Georgia Review website.

Ruminate – Issue 60

The writers and artists whose work makes up Ruminate Issue 60 probe the imagery and metaphor of being at sea. Included are Devon Miller-Duggan’s poem, “Perhaps a Prayer for Surviving the Night” and Peggy Shumaker’s “Gifts We Cannot Keep.” George Choundas’s engrossing story, “Katingo Carried 15,980 Tons and Gentleman,” transports us to the world of those who live and work on cargo ships. And O-Jeremiah Agbaakin’s poem, “landscape with broken ekphrasis,” muses on the image of the last ship that brought enslaved people to the United States. This issue features the winning story from our 2021 William Van Dyke Short Story Prize.

More info at the Ruminate website.

The Writing Disorder – Winter 2021/22

Winter is upon us and so is the new issue of The Writing Disorder. Find “Aesthetic Transmissions,” an interview with Robert Hass by George Guida; fiction by Robert Boucheron, Inez Hollander, Justin Reamer, Jeff Underwood, and more; poetry by Holly Day, Ash Ellison, Jonah Meyer, Bruce Parker, Frederick Pollack, and Kate Porter; nonfiction by Joan Frank, Donna Talarico, and Emilio Williams; and art by Nick Bryant.

World Literature Today – Jan 2022

Muscogee writer Cynthia Leitich Smith headlines the January 2022 issue with a reflective essay on “Decolonizing Neverland” in YA lit. Also inside, Fowzia Karimi finds a “small flame” of hope in Afghanistan, while other essays survey Vanuatu women writers, China’s minority fiction, and the new Van Gogh exhibition at the Dalí Museum. Additional highlights include interviews with African writers Masiyaleti Mbewe and Henrietta Rose-Innes, fiction from Iran and Japan, and poetry from Colombia, Ivory Coast, and Siberia. As always, more than twenty book reviews.

More info at World Literature Today website.

Cleaver Magazine – No. 36

Our Wintry Mix. Creative nonfiction by Bree Smith, Dhaea Kang, Christine Muller, Benedicte Grima, and Virginia Petrucci; flash by Eliot Li, Gabriella Souza, Cassie Burkhardt, and others; fiction by Amy Savage, Kim Magowan, and Maggie Hill; and poetry by Peter Grandbois, Kelley White, Brenda Taulbee, and more. Learn about this issue’s visual work at the Cleaver Magazine website.

Big Muddy – No. 21

This issue of Big Muddy includes work by Brian Baumgart, August B. Clark, Charlotte Covey, Mark Fabiano, Doris Ferleger, Spencer Fleury, Jennifer Gravely, Ian T. Hall, D.E. Kern, Bronson Lemer, Paul Luikart, Leah Mccormack, Matt Mcgowan, Luke Rolfes, Rosalia Scalia, Christine Stewart-Nuñez, Katie Strine, Rachel Tramonte, Carol Tyx, Christian Vazquez, Daniel Webre, Adam D. Weeks, Holden Tyler Wright, and Kirby Michael Wright.

Find more info at the Big Muddy website.

Valley Voices – 21.2

This issue’s Special Feature is “Beyond Illusory Space” by Albert Wong, who is also interviewed by John Zheng. Lauri Scheyer interviews Lenard D. Moore. In Haibun & Tanka Prose: Rich Youmans, Keith Polette, Ce Rosenow, and Terri L. French. Poetry by Elizabeth Burk, Ambrielle Butler, Andrea DEeken, Theodore Haddin, Charlene Langfur, Ann Lauinger, George Looney, Ted McCormack, Adam Moore, Steve Myers, Dan Pettee, Margo Taft Stever, and Jason Visconti. Find prose contributors at the Valley Voices website.

New England Review – 42.4

Last year at this time we released our first issue dedicated to emerging writers, and now with 42.4 we’ve done it again. While this issue offers up the range of voices, genres, and styles New England Review promises every quarter, this time that mission is accomplished by writers who won’t be recognizable to most readers, that is, they’ve not yet published a book or full-length collection. Find a selection of this year’s contributors at the New England Review website.

Glass Mountain – Fall 2021

Volume 27 is out with art by Isabella Celentano, David Dodd Lee, Weining Wang, Emily Fannin, Nicole Choi, and more; poetry by Jose Wilson, Tom War, Tobias Tegrotenhuis, David Romanda, Riley Morrison, Annie Martin, Delaney Kelly, Ambrose Day, and Lorelei Bacht; and prose by Amber Barney, Nicole Collingwood, Devan Hawkins, Haley Herzberg, Hannah Lindsay, Khalid McCalla, Adia Muhammad, Elena Negrón, and Beatrix Zwolfer. Plus the winners of the Robertson Prize. More info at the Glass Mountain website.

Cutleaf – 1.23

Cutleaf celebrates the end of our first year with this all-nonfiction issue featuring three must-read essays. Elise Lasko speculates on the potential for relapse into old habits while imagining her mother’s death and funeral, in “Relapse Fantasy.” Carter Sickels realizes that “the universe keeps moving, surprising you with what it drops in your path,” in “Rescued.” Greg Bottoms recounts how his father and grandfather expressed—or didn’t express—emotion, in “One Summer Morning.” Learn about this issue’s images at the Cutleaf website.

The Malahat Review – Autumn 2021

The Autumn 2021 issue is here featuring the winner of our 2021 Far Horizons Award for Short Fiction. Poetry by Y. S. Lee, Laurie D. Graham, Yuan Changming, Sebastien Wen, Allison LaSorda, Danielle Hubbard, Elisabeth Gill, Rozina Jessa, Sue J. Levon, and morej, as well as fiction by Jenny Ferguson, Sara Mang, and Cassidy McFadzean. Find more contributors at The Malahat Review website.

Creative Nonfiction – No. 76

In this newly redesigned issue of Creative Nonfiction we explore the roots of the genre and celebrate the spirit of rebellion that’s always infused it. And we consider where we are now at this moment that feels pivotal for so many. Plus, new essays about the limitations of identity labels; what we can (and can’t) learn from dinosaur tracks; how to reintegrate after two military tours overseas; the challenges of translation; and how to approach a sibling who’s taken a deep dive into conspiracy theories. Essays by Valerie Boyd, Margaret Kimball, Bret Lott, Marisa Manuel, Brenda Miller, Clinton Crockett Peters, and others.

More info at the Creative Nonfiction website.

Crazyhorse – Fall 2021

Featuring the 2021 Crazyhorse prize winners in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, Mary Clark, Jung Hae Chae, and Mark Wagenaar; a debut story from Nancy Nguyen; fiction from Nicole VanderLinden, Weston Cutter, and Timothy Mullaney; an essay from A.C. Zhang; and poems from Lisa Low, Michael Prior, Mary Kaiser, Jose Hernandez Diaz, and Mehrnoosh Torbatnejad, among others. Now on Crazyhorse website.

Plume – No. 124

This month’s featured selection: “Jewish American Women Poets” by Sally Bliumis-Dunn featuring Jennifer Barber, Jessica Greenbaum, Judy Katz and Nomi Stone. In nonfiction: “All These Red and Yellow Things: Short Papers on Art by Lesle Lewis.” Jeri Theriault reviews Devon Walker-Figueroa’s Philomath. See a selection of this month’s poets at the Plume website.

Taking Stock of America’s Two Decades in Afghanistan

Guest Post by Marc Martorell Junyent.

The border between current events and history is a blurry one. David Kilcullen and Greg Mills tread on both sides of this imaginary boundary in The Ledger: Accounting for Failure in Afghanistan. The co-authors have a long experience in Afghanistan working for the international military coalition in the country.

Throughout the book, they manifest their frustration for the chaotic evacuation of US citizens and Afghans that unfolded in August 2021. In their own words, “it would not have taken a rocket scientist to devise a better, more orderly, system.”

Their criticism extends to a much longer time period, however. According to the authors, the West never had a clear strategy in Afghanistan. By focusing on short-term goals, the troops and economic aid deployed to the country did not help build solid structures, but only delayed the collapse of a system based on clientelism, corruption, and the inclusion of former warlords.

Kilcullen and Mills argue that not inviting the Taliban to sit at the negotiation table in the 2001 Bonn Conference, convened right after their overthrow from power, was a key missed opportunity. The US ended up negotiating with the Taliban in the 2020 Doha Agreement from a much weaker position.

The Ledger is particularly strong in the anecdotical evidence it presents, based on the authors’ wide range of contacts among Afghan elites and Western officials. On the contrary, the reader would probably have welcomed a more consistent book structure. The continuous chronological and thematical shifts are often confusing and lead to redundancies.

When it comes to the immediate future of Afghanistan, Kilcullen and Mills defend the idea that the restoration of aid flows to the country is needed for both humanitarian reasons and maintaining a certain influence with the Taliban.


The Ledger: Accounting for Failure in Afghanistan by David Kilcullen and Greg Mills. Hurst, January 2022.

Reviewer bio: Marc Martorell Junyent graduated in International Relations and currently studies a joint Master in Comparative Middle East Politics and Society at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen and the American University in Cairo. His main interests are the politics and history of the Middle East (particularly Iran, Turkey and Yemen). He has studied and worked in Ankara, Istanbul and Tunis. He tweets at @MarcMartorell3.

Hippocampus Magazine November/December 2021

Let’s take a peek inside the newest issue of Hippocampus Magazine; inside, you’ll find essays and flash CNF such as: “Up” by Michelle Bailat-Jones, “Seeing Bone” by Emma Bruce, “Teeth” by Gavin Paul Colton, “How to Preserve a Body” by Lauren Cross, “What I Took After She Died in the Memory Care Wing” by Irene Fick, “Rewind” by Jennifer Fliss, “German Lessons” by Sue Mell, and more. See what else to expect in this issue at the Mag Stand.

Baltimore Review – Fall 2021

New issue of Baltimore Review with new poetry by Iqra Khan, Gerry LaFemina, Caroline Pittman, Dannye Romine Powell, Emily Franklin, Merna Dyer Skinner, John Glowney, and Janet Jennings; fiction by J.T. Robertson, Madison Jozefiak, Nicholas Maistros, and Justine Chan; and creative nonfiction by Brandon Hansen, Morgan Florsheim, and Kerry Folan.

More info at the Baltimore Review website.

Alaska Quarterly Review – Summer & Fall 2021

In this issue, find the novella “Like a Bomb Went Off” by Kristopher Jansma. Stories by Mackenzie McGee, Nathan Curtis Roberts, Jonathan Starke, Ada Zhang, Matt Greene, Heather Monley, and Laurie Baker. Essays by Jehanne Dubrow, Dawn Davies, Jane McCafferty, Alex Chertok, Kirsten Reneau, Jai Dulani, and Sara Eliza Johnson. One long poem by Bruce Bond, and other poems by Felicia Zamora, Lara Egger, and more. Find more poetry contributors at the Alaska Quarterly Review website.

Weber – Fall 2021

The Fall 2021 issue of Weber features a Bernard DeVoto Subfocus which includes an interview with Mark DeVoto, as well as work by Mark Harvey, Nate Schweber, David Rich Lewis, Russell Burrows, and Val Holley. Also in this issue: poetry by Christian Woodard, Eric Paul Shaffer, Stephen Lefebure, Taylor Graham, Joseph Powell, Angelica Alain, and more; and essays by Adam M. Sowards and Ralph Hardy. Find fiction contributors at the Weber website.

wildness – November 2021

Featuring some wonderful poetry, fiction, and narrative nonfiction from: Geoff Anderson, Shuang Ang, Claudia Delfina Cardona, Aaron Caycedo-Kimura, Stephanie Chang, Bryce Emley, Miguel Barretto García, Janalyn Guo, Bill Hollands, Ricardo Frasso Jaramillo, Karishma Jobanputra, Ravi Mangla, Shannan Mann, Sham-e-Ali Nayeem, Robert Okaji, D. A. Powell, Monica Prince, and AM Ringwalt. Find this issue at the wildness website.

Bennington Review – Issue 9

“The Health of the Sick.” Many of the pieces in this issue of Bennington Review display a keen awareness of the vulnerability of the human body, physically, emotionally, and psychologically. Poetry by Michael Bazzett, Kelly Moore, John Sibley Williams, Eryn Green, Rebecca Zweig, Chris Dahl, Elisa Gabbert, Sandra Simonds, Holly Amos, Sarah Barber, Benjamin Landry, Tom Paine, Suphil Lee Park, K.A. Hays, John Blair, Anna Leahy, Stella Wong, Toby Altman, Cynthia Cruz, Joshua Marie Wilkinson, Angela Ball, Mary Biddinger, Leah Umansky, and more. See what you’ll find in prose at the Bennington Review website.

A Historical Love Story

Guest Post by Joyce Bou Charaa.

Usually, reading a biographical book is not as enjoyable and exciting as this impressive one by Andrew D. Kaufman. The Gambler Wife is the life story of a brilliant woman who played a huge role in her husband’s writing career, their love story marking the Russian literary history of the 19th century. The interesting life of Anna Snitkina, a successful Russian feminist, and her husband Fyodor Dostoyevsky, the famous writer of all time, will be remembered for many decades.

In this book, Kaufman traces the life of Anna Snitkina, from her childhood as an educated and ambitious young girl who likes reading and storytelling, until she met her most favorite writer, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and worked with him as a stenographer. Continue reading “A Historical Love Story”

Southern Humanities Review

In the current issue: nonfiction by Barbara Liles and JJ Peña; fiction by Barbara Barrow, Erin Comerford, Judith Dancoff, Erica Jasmin Dixon, and Lee Rozelle; and poetry by Elizabeth Aoki, Mary Leauna Christensen, Noah Davis, Armen Davoudian, Marlanda Dekine, Andrew Hemmert, Maurya Kerr, Cate Lycurgus, Athena Nassar, Khalisa Rae, Darius Simpson, and Ariana Francesca Thomas.

More info at the Southern Humanities Review website.

A Journey through Food & Culture

Guest Post by Kristina Pudlewski.

Stanley Tucci’s latest book, Taste: My Life Through Food, is wonderful. It takes readers on a journey through food and culture in the early 60’s to present day, 2021.

In the early chapters it talks about Tucci’s family life and what he grew up eating and experiencing in New York. Growing up in an Italian household means fun stories and delicious meals daily. Tucci describes both of these gracefully. His details about the food he grew up eating leaves your mouth watering and it’s extremely helpful that he also includes recipes so you can make the meals he grew up loving, at home with your own families.

I love to eat, but my pockets don’t enjoy the price that some meals cost these days. Taste: My Life Through Food gives insights into ways you can cook amazing meals on a budget and where to go in the United States and abroad to get a good, cheap, filling meal.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a love for cooking and travel. This book talks about both and it shows just how great life can be when surrounded by good food and good company.


Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci. Gallery Books, October 2021.

Reviewer bio: I am a Freelance Writer from Illinois. I love to write fiction novels, short stories and poetry. I am currently writing my first novel.

Buy this book from our affiliate Bookshop.org.

Consequence – Vol 13

Volume 13 of Consequence journal is now available! We’ve undergone a number of major changes since our founder, George Kovach, passed away last year, but what hasn’t changed in the least is our commitment to bringing you astounding prose, poetry, visual art, and translations that address the human consequences and realities of war and geopolitical violence. See what you can find in this issue at the Consequence website.

Board the Bus with Van Horn

Book Review by Katy Haas.

Sometimes it’s important to slow down and not only enjoy the ride, but take in the details and really sit with them. Erica Van Horn does this in her collection of short essays, By Bus.

In By Bus, we’re transported to the bus transporting Van Horn as she describes what she sees from where she sits. “Horse” is just one paragraph long and explains an interaction between two passengers. In “Stuck in Inchicore,” we’re privy to one half of a phone conversation, the caller’s dialogue making up a majority of the essay. “A Never-Married” describes a “Ring-A-Link” bus, basically a phone-ordered bus ride which can take you “fairly straight into town” or “you ride along in the bus as it meanders through the countryside [ . . . ]. It can take as long as one hour to get to town.” We hear about it through Van Horn’s friend of a friend, Carmel, who sometimes takes this bus to meet a man—a man who is stuck on a bus for an hour with nowhere else to go. There is a variety in what the essays cover that keeps the short collection fresh throughout.

By Bus is a book for those of us who take out an earbud at the coffeeshop to eavesdrop on the gossip unfolding at a nearby table of strangers. Every interaction is a tiny glimpse into the window of a stranger’s life. Van Horn’s observations are clear and simple. She sits, she watches, she shares, and then moves onto the next one, never pausing to criticize or question. This is the perfect Sunday read, a reminder to slow down and sit with the changing landscapes and passengers of our own lives with the same gentleness Van Horn does.


By Bus by Erica Van Horn. Ugly Duckling Presse, March 2021.

Buy this book from our affiliate Bookshop.org.

The Dillydoun Review – September 2021

dillydoun review issue 8

The September 2021 issue of The Dillydoun Review is here! Short stories by Chaya Kahanovitch, Amelia Kleiber, Liam Strong, and A. Whittenberg; flash fiction by Catherine Chang, Sarah Enamorado, Bob McNeil, Marcelo Medone, Mark Putzi, Gary Reddin, and Sky Sprayberry; flash nonfiction by Wendy BooydeGraaff, Marco Etheridge, Melanie Kallai, and Maggie Walcott. Find this issue’s poetry contributors at The Dillydoun Review website.

Write Like a Human and Other Pithy Advice from Kurt Vonnegut

Guest Post by Lisa Graham-Peterson.

“Write like a human” has been my advice to university students for years; imagine my delight to see those same words from Kurt Vonnegut to his pupils in Pity the Reader: On Writing with Style. For any writer, novice or not, advice on the craft from someone like Vonnegut is well worth your time. Fans of his will wince a bit at my purposeful use of a semicolon in my opening sentence.

The book’s cover lists Kurt Vonnegut and Suzanne McConnell as authors, though he’d been dead for 12 years by the time this book was published. The attribution is appropriate. McConnell includes so much of his work and words, it’s only fair he gets top billing.

McConnell was a student of Vonnegut’s at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and went on to a lifelong friendship with the storied writer and his family. Not meant to be a biography but so much of his life and personality inspired or surfaced within Vonnegut’s writing, this book wouldn’t be complete without those details. With her close connection to the family, McConnell includes rare photos and reproductions of letters, marked-up drafts and—my favorite—assignments and notes to students. I now need to up my game with my university course materials.

McConnell gives us bite-sized reading, with attention to page layout that would bring a sly smile to Vonnegut. It’s an organized primer—inspiration, mechanics—up to and including how to build community and take care of oneself in this solitary business we call writing.


Pity the Reader: On Writing with Style by Kurt Vonnegut & Suzanne McConnell. Seven Stories Press, 2019.

Reviewer bio: Lisa Graham-Peterson is a freelance writer and adjunct professor at the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota. More about Lisa at lisagrahampeterson.com.

Buy this book from our affiliate Bookshop.org.

2020 CRAFT Creative Nonfiction Award Winners

craft logo on dark blue backgroundYesterday CRAFT announced the winners of their inaugural CRAFT Creative Nonfiction Award. This year’s contest was judged by Joy Castro.

Winners
“The Ties That Bind” by Tammy Delatorre
“What You Don’t Know” by Claire Fielder
“Catalogue for a Coming of Age” by Liz Harmer

Editors’ Choice Selections
“The Untimely Collaborators” by Sara Davis
“Face, Velvet, Church, Daisy, Red” by Marilyn Hope

These placing pieces can be read on CRAFT‘s website. There, you’ll also find a list of finalists, the rest of the longlist, and honorable mentions, as well as information about this year’s judge.

The Adroit Journal – Issue 38

Issue 38 of The Adroit Journal is out! Poetry by David Hernandez, Mark Doty, Patricia Liu, Margaret Ray, Chris Santiago, Maja Lukic, Rachel Long, Mai Der Vang, Rebecca Morton, Rita Dove, and more; prose by Tucker Leighty-Phillips, Raye Hendrix, Krystle DiCristofalo, and Perry Lopez; and interviews with Rachel Yoder, Forrest Gander, Brandon Taylor, and Shangyang Fang. Read more info at The Androit Journal website.

Nimrod – Spring Summer 2021

Endings & Beginnings. Fiction by Sruthi Narayanan, Titus Chalk, Michael Nye, and others; creative nonfiction by Katie Culligan and Kirsten L. Parkinson; and poetry by Chelsea Wagenaar, Richard K. Kent, Grant Clauser, John A. Nieves, Chelsea Bayouth, Emma Aylor, Suzie Eckl, Magpie Miller, Christen Noel Kauffman, Carol Guess & Rochelle Hurt, and more. See more contributors at the Nimrod website.

August 2021 eLitPak :: Getting to the Truth Now Available

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The Craft and Practice of Creative Nonfiction

This collection of craft essays offers thoughtful insights from some of the highest-rated speakers from HippoCamp: A Conference for Creative Nonfiction Writers, who also happen to be some of the brightest minds in CNF we know. Get your copy today.

View the full NewPages August 2021 eLitPak newsletter.

August 2021 eLitPak :: Terrain.org 12th Annual Contests in Poetry, Nonfiction, and Fiction

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More than $3,500 in prizes, with a $1,000 grand prize in each genre and $100 to the finalists. Judges: Poetry: Ellen Bass; Nonfiction: Aimee Nezhukumatathil; Fiction: Maurice Carlos Ruffin. Deadline: Labor Day, September 6, 2021. $20 entry fee per set of 3-5 poems (or a single long poem), story, essay or article. See full guidelines and submit online.

View the full NewPages August 2021 eLitPak newsletter.

Willow Springs – Fall 2021

Find Willow Springs Fall 2021 is out. New poetry by Roy Bentley, John Blair, Bruce Bond, Kathryn Hunt, Melissa Kwasny, Sandra McPherson, Melanie Tafejian, Lyuba Yakimchuk, and more; fiction by Robert Long Foreman, Amanda Marbais, and Wendy Elizabeth Wallace; and nonfiction by Andrew Farkas, Jeremy Alves da Silva Klemin, and Holly Spencer. Plus closing the issue: an interview with Kevin McIlvoy. Read more at the Willow Springs website.

A Smart, Comforting How-To

Guest Post by Betsy Boyd.

I teach writing in an MFA program and have recently begun using Kathy Flann’s book WRITE ON: Secrets to Crafting Better Stories in the classroom. I appreciate the readable humor, relatability, and stealthy brilliance of her advice. Flann’s creative observations and essential recommendations make writing a strong, authentic narrative more achievable—sooner.

One grad student told me that her instruction helps him to ask the big story questions earlier than he might otherwise. I use the book in my own writing life as well. It’s a smart, comforting how-to for anyone drafting a new work, which all writers, at every career stage, must do.


WRITE ON: Secrets to Crafting Better Stories by Kathy Flann. Stay Thirsty Publishing, August 2020.

Reveiwer bio: Betsy Boyd directs the Creative Writing and Publishing Arts MFA program at the University of Baltimore. Her fiction has been published in Kenyon Review, StoryQuarterly, Shenandoah, Eclectica, Del Sol Review, the Pushcart Prize Anthology, and elsewhere.

Buy this book from our affiliate Bookshop.org.

Reviewer’s Note: I know Kathy Flann as a Baltimore-based colleague and friend. We are in a longstanding writing group together. Because I admire her work and her critique methods so much, I feel comfortable both using them in my teaching realm and writing a review—totally unbiased. I am especially picky about the craft books I’ll bring into a workshop.