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Magazine Stand :: Spoon River Poetry Review – Winter 2023

Sppon River Poetry Review Winter 2023 cover image

Spoon River Poetry Review (SRPR) is a volunteer-based, nonprofit poetry journal housed at Illinois State University in Normal, IL, and operated by the Spoon River Poetry Association. With cover art by Kitty F. Davies, the SRPR Illinois Poet Feature includes poetry by Edgar Garcia and an interview of the poet by Jose-Luis Moctezuma. Readers can also enjoy the Editors’ Prize winning poem, “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Dead Fish” by Marissa Davis, selected by Jonah Mixon-Webster, as well as a runner-up poem by Ricardo de la Cruz II, and honorable mention poems by Linda Stern Zisquit, Bruce Bond, and Veronica Schorr. There is also new poetry by Sarah A. Etlinger, Jonah Bornstein, Artur Grabowski translated by Charles S. Kraszewski, Sandra S. McRae, Ivy Schweitzer, and more!

Find out more about many of these titles with our Guide to Literary Magazines and our Big List of Literary Magazines and Big List of Alternative Magazines. If you are a publication looking to be listed in our monthly roundup or featured on our blog and social media, please contact us.

Magazine Stand :: Spoon River Poetry Review – Summer 2023

Spoon River Poetry Review Summer 2023 cover image

The Spoon River Poetry Review Summer 2023 issue is the perfect way to transition from one season to the next. In this issue, readers can enjoy the SRPR Illinois Poet Feature with poetry by Jose-Luis Moctezuma and an interview of the poet by Edgar Garcia; new poetry by Joanne Diaz and Jason Reblando, Romana Iorga, Brandon Krieg, Olivia Cronk, Oriette D’Angelo translated by Lupita Eyde-Tucker, and more; and the SRPR Review Essay “Exposure, Confinement, Haunting: Visual Poetry in the Twenty-First Century” by Joanne Diaz, who reviews books by Katy Didden (Ore Choir: The Lava on Iceland), Sarah J. Sloat (Hotel Almighty), and Mai Der Vang (Yellow Rain). Cover art by Jade Nguyen.

Find out more about many of these titles with our Guide to Literary Magazines and our Big List of Literary Magazines and Big List of Alternative Magazines. If you are a publication looking to be listed in our monthly roundup or featured on our blog and social media, please contact us.

Magazine Stand :: Spoon River Poetry Review – Winter 2022

Spoon River Poetry Review Winter 2022 issue cover image

The Spoon River Poetry Review (SRPR) Winter 2022 has much to offer readers to see them through the spring, starting with the brightly colored cover art by Desire for / desire (oil on gesso-bard) by Madelyn Turner. The SRPR Illinois Poet Feature in this issue is Rebecca Morgan Frank, with an interview of the poet by Jenna Goldsmith, and the Editors’ Prize winning poem “We Moved Out of the Projects and Into a Home” by Meghan Malachi, selected by Ashley M. Jones, is included as well as runners-up poems by Judith Mary Gee and Scudder H. Parker, honorable mention poems by Caroline Parkman Barr, Phillip West, Brittany Mishra, and Ana Lucila Cagnoni. There is new poetry by Jenna Le, Carrie Shipers, Clayton Adam Clark, Beth Weinstock, J. R. Forman, Rodrigo Toscano, Elizabeth Sylvia, and more, and the SRPR Review Essay “Dreams of Growing to Rock a Rhyme”: Tradition and Experiment in Recent American Sonnets” by Brian Brodeur, who reviews books by Caki Wilkinson (The Survival Expo: Poems), Rowan Ricardo Phillips (Living Weapon: Poems), Matthew Buckley Smith (Midlife: Poems), Alexis Sears (Out of Order: Poems), and John Murillo (Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry: Poems).

Magazine Stand :: Spoon River Poetry Review – Summer 2022

Spoon River Poetry Review print literary magazine Summer 2022 issue cover image

Enjoying the final long days of sunshine here in the midwest, Spoon River Poetry Review Summer 2022 issue is just out. Each year, SRPR selects an Illinois-featured poet pairing to include as an extended feature of new poetry by one poet from the pair, while the other poet conducts an interview with the poet on their writing, matters of craft, and contemporary poetics. This year, the pairing is poetry by Tara Betts with an interview of the poet by Bryanna Lee. Also in this issue is new poetry by Rodrigo Flores Sánchez translated by Robin Myers, Ryan Clark, Michael Boccardo, Cynthia J. Patton, Emad Bashar translated by Bryar Bajalan and Shook, and many more. The SRPR Review Essay is “Redefining Our Futures: Recent Abolitionist Poetic Practice” by Allison Serraes, who reviews books by DaMaris B. Hill (A Bound Woman Is a Dangerous Thing: The Incarceration of African American Women from Harriet Tubman to Sandra Bland), Mahogany L. Brown (I Remember Death by Its Proximity to What I Love), and Shayla Lawz (speculation, n.). Cover art by Alondra Cervantes.

Magazine Stand :: Spoon River Poetry Review – 46.2

Spoon River Poetry Review Winter 2021 literary magazine cover image

The Winter 2021 Issue of Spoon River Poetry Review (46.2) is filled with so much wonderful content, including the SRPR Illinois Poet Feature with poetry by Daniel Borzutzky, and an interview of the poet by Carlos Soto-Román; Editors’ Prize winning poem “diary of a dead eel boy” by Dean Gessie, selected by Aimee Nezhukumatathil, as well as runners-up poems by Shannon Pulusan and donia salem harhoor, honorable mention poems by Matthew Brailas, Patricia Gao, and Ani Tuzman, Allie Hoback, and Gabriel Jesiolowski; New poetry by Isaac Willis, Emma DePanise, Nathan Manley, Frank Jameson, Kristin Fogdall, Ann E. Michael, Frank Jamison, Antonia Pozzit translated by Amy Newman, and more; the SRPR Review Essay “Seriousness, Humorously” by Andrew Dorkin, who reviews books by Joan Retallack (BOSCH’D), Morgan Parker (Magical Negro), and Fred Moten (all that beauty); and poignantly beautiful cover art by Jessi Reid-Swiech.

Carlos Soto-Román in SRPR

Each issue, Spoon River Poetry Review features one SRPR Illinois Poet. The Summer 2021 issue features Carlos Soto-Román. His work, translated by Daniel Borzutzky, spans 16 pages and is followed by an interview conducted by Borzutzky.

The two discuss Soto-Román’s forthcoming book 11, the interview beginning with the question, “How was the book written?” Soto-Román answers:

First, I wouldn’t say the book was written, at least, in the traditional sense. Maybe just a couple of “poems” included in the book were actually written by me. The whole process was more about compiling different fragments, quotes, and excerpts from multiple documents related to the Chilean dictatorship period and combining them within a new context in order to configure an alternate narrative of events, one that is intentionally veiled, which forces the reader to confront the past in a different way, encouraging the exercise of personal and collective memory to therefore complete the gaps.

You can learn more about Carlos Soto-Román and his work in the current issue of SRPR.

Spoon River Poetry Review – Fall 2021

In this issue: work by Kim Hyesoon translated by Don Mee Choi, Aaron Lopatin, Linnea Nelson, Jacob Stratman, James McKee, Leslie Ann Minot, John C. Morrison, Andrea L. Fry, Andrew Hemmert, María Negroni translated by Michelle Gil-Montero, Enzo Silon Surin, Carlos Soto-Román translated by Daniel Borzutzky, Lara Dopazo Ruibal translated by Laura Cesarco Eglin, and more. See a full list of contributors at the SRPR website.

SRPR 2020 Editors’ Prize Winners

Opening the latest issue of Spoon River Poetry Review are the winners of the 2020 SRPR Editors’ Prize. The placing poems are introduced by the final judge, Austin Smith.

First Place
“Disbelieving These Deaths, I Go to Sit by Lake Huron” by David Groff

Runners-up
“Wonders of the World” by Todd Copeland
“Field Notes: To Excavate Beyond Despair” by Erica Sofer Bodwell

Honorable Mentions
“You can have it all” by Kelsey Taylor
“In the Exhaust of an Outboard  Motor, I Talk to Myself and to Grandpa” by Cody Smith
“Dear Crossed, Did You Know That You’re Not Your Body?” by Gabriel Dozal

Find a copy of this issue at SRPR‘s website.

Spoon River Poetry Review – Winter 2020

The Winter 2020 Issue of SRPR is now available. You will find cover art by Jessi Simpson; The SRPR Illinois Poet Feature with new poetry by Carlo Matos and Amy Sayre Batista, with an interview of the poets by Simone Muench and Jackie K. White; The Editors’ Prize-winning poem by David Groff, as well as runners-up poems by Todd Copeland and Erica Bodwell, honorable mention poems by Kelsey Taylor, Cody Smith, and Gabriel Dozal.

Spoon River Poetry Review – Summer 2020

The Summer 2020 Issue of SRPR is out. In this issue, you’ll find cover art by Brittany Schloderback; the SRPR Illinois Poet Feature with new poetry by Simone Muench and Jackie K. White, with an interview of the poets by Carlo Matos and Amy Sayre Batista; and new poetry by Jose-Luis Moctezuma, Paul Martinez-Pompa, Julia Wong Kcomt translated by Jennifer Shyue, Michael Leong, Emily Carr, and more.

2019 SRPR Editor’s Prize Winners

Spoon River Poetry Review - Winter 2019Spoon River Poetry Review’s Winter 2019 issue features the 2019 SRPR Editors’ Prize winner and runners-up.

Winner
“The Mammoth Steppe” by Mirande Bissell

Runners-Up
“I Thought I Was the Scream that Woke Me” by Abigail McFee
“After  weeks apart” by Alex Chertok
“Burning the Field” by Mitchell Untch
“Evolution” by Andrea Deeken
“Hoodoos” by Robin Rosen Chang
“Arizona” by Harry Bauld

Final Judge Rachel Webster introduces Bissell’s work and explains her choice, stating, “And maybe what I appreciate most about this poem is the fact that it introduces me to a speaker, a family and a landscape that are new to me, and piercingly vivid.” This year’s contest is currently open until April 15.

2019 SRPR Editors’ Prize Winner

Spoon River Poetry Review - Winter 2019Spoon River Poetry Review’s Winter 2019 issue features the 2019 SRPR Editors’ Prize winner and runners-up.

Winner
“The Mammoth Steppe” by Mirande Bissell

 

Runners-Up
“I Thought I Was the Scream that Woke Me” by Abigail McFee
“After  weeks apart” by Alex Chertok
“Burning the Field” by Mitchell Untch
“Evolution” by Andrea Deeken
“Hoodoos” by Robin Rosen Chang
“Arizona” by Harry Bauld

Final Judge Rachel Webster introduces Bissell’s work and explains her choice, stating, “And maybe what I appreciate most about this poem is the fact that it introduces me to a speaker, a family and a landscape that are new to me, and piercingly vivid.” This year’s contest is currently open until April 15.