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“An Email to the Rose Creek School Board”

Magazine Review by Katy Haas.

I’ve been watching a lot of comedy movies and TV shows lately, enjoying the much needed escape from reality, so it makes sense that I’d gravitate toward Wesley Korpela’s “An Email to the Rose Creek School Board” in the Fall 2020 issue of Emerald City.

Korpela writes an email to the “Members of the Facilities Committee” from Genevieve Powers-Harrison’s point of view. Genevieve requests the elementary school’s name be changed to honor her still-living ex-husband Carl. Carl’s obsession with getting on the show America’s Funniest Home Videos drives the couple apart, but ultimately Genevieve believes he deserves the award as “a ‘win.'” After all, “he’s a nice enough man.”

I loved the voice Korpela gives to Genevieve and found the obsession with AFV to be a fun and fresh twist on the divorce story. There’s no ill-will between the two, just many failed attempts at five seconds of fame. A good, silly story is just what I needed.

Poetry – March 2021

Contributors to the March 2021 issue of Poetry include Jacqueline Woodson, Luis Daniel Salgado, Cornelius Eady, Marilyn Nelson, Mariana Llanos, Nour Al Ghraowi, Mosab Abu Toha, Nikki Grimes, Renée Watson, Michael Simms, Margarita Engle, Linda Sue Park, Elizabeth Acevedo, Kimberly Blaeser, Chen Chen, Pat Mora, Kim Stafford, Ari Tison, and Heid E. Erdrich.

Jewish Fiction .net – #26

Jewish Fiction .net is thrilled to share something joyful in these challenging times: our beautiful new issue (#26)! 23 marvelous stories originally written in Yiddish, Hebrew, and English, including one about Purim (“The Feast of Esther”), two about Passover (“What Elijah Brought” and “Plagued”), and a story that is intentionally set in between these two holidays (“Serah”). The first two of these four stories also take place during Covid. We hope all of these 23 wonderful works bring you insights, solace, and pleasure.

Allegro Poetry Magazine – March 2021

Allegro Logo

Welcome to the first edition of Allegro for 2021. Enjoy poems by Anthony Lawrence, Marc Woodward, Roger Bloor, Robin Helweg-Larsen, David Harmer, Glenn Hubbard, Jane Blanchard, Craig Coyle, Sophia Agyris, Robert Ford, Ian C Smith, Marius Grose, Phil Vernon, James Dowthwaite, Rebecca Gethin, John Rogers, Judy Clarence, Helen May Williams, Carolyn Oulton, Sean Chapman, Barbara Parchim, and more. See a full contributor list at the Allegro Poetry Magazine website.

THEMA – Spring 2021

Writers and artists follow the theme of “Not of This World” in the Spring 2021 issue of THEMA. Some of the authors’ takes will definitely surprise readers. Contributors include Kayleigh McKee, James Swafford, Lynda Fox, Emily Hanlon, Margo Peterson, James Armstrong, Jennifer Erickson, Linda Berry, John Grey, Tricia Lowther, and more.

River Styx – No. 103

In this issue of River Styx: poetry by Nin Andrews, Gabriella Balza, Talia Bloch, Bruce Bond, Lyn Li Che, Jeff Gundy, David Kirby, Jenna Le, Timothy Liu, Adrian Matejka, Miho Nonaka, Emily Ransdell, Erin Saxon, Troy Varvel, Kiani Yiu, and more; fiction by Winston Bribach, Michael Byers, Jack Driscoll, and Andrea L. Rogers; essays by Maura Lammers, Jennifer Murvin, and Kerry Neville.

Months to Years – Winter 2021

A journal of personal stories exploring mortality, death, and dying related topics. This issue of Months to Years features work by Gaye Brown, Helen Bowie, Patti Santucci, Briana Gervat, Mari-Carmen Marin, Michael Biegner, Bethany Bruno, John Timothy Robinson, Mary Ann Noe, Patricia Miller, Mara Lefebvre, Lee Landau, Sherri Levine, Susan Robison, Jeremy Gadd, and more.

Brobby’s Double Jeopardy

Magazine Review by Katy Haas.

The Winter 2020 issue of The Malahat Review opens with the winner of the 2020 Constance Rooke Prize for Creative Nonfiction: “On Playing Double Jeopardy!” by Christina Brobby. This piece works through the different money categories in a game of Jeopardy all on the theme of photographic terms. Like the show, Brobby is given the answer and she responds with the appropriate question as she connects the term to her life.

I enjoyed the set-up of this piece. It flows seamlessly, Brobby always taking care to weave the photographic terms into the moments of her life. She examines how she presents as her race, in her adoptive family, as a wife, a partner, a mother. When she gives the answer of “What is a filter?” she ends the section turning it back inward: “Be more or less vibrant, act more coolly, like when the man after your husband said you were too emotional and that’ s not what he was signing up for. You donned your neutral-density filter . . . ”

This piece is a great opener for the issue, and well-deserved of taking home the Constance Rooke Prize. It immediately caught my eye and drew me in with its unique format, something greatly appreciated in the these days of shortened attention spans.

New England Review – 41.4

The Winter 2020 issue of New England Review is by turns bracing, inspiring, surprising, and devastating. Like every issue of NER, it gives readers a chance to expand their sense of the known world through language, image, and narrative. But what’s different is that emerging writers almost entirely populate this issue, and for many this is among their first publications.

The Massachusetts Review – Winter 2020

We are honored to present the very first Massachusetts Review issue focused on Native American writing. The issue’s poetry and prose show the depth and range of Native writing in our current moment. We put forward work by both new and established Indigenous writers that is diverse in its aesthetics and comes from tribal people who live all over the country. Essays by Tiffany Midge, Shaina A. Nez, Chandre Szafran, and more; stories by Stephen Graham Jones, Chip Livingston, Erika Wurth, and more; and poetry by Lemanuel Loley, Stephanie Lenox, Bojan Louis, Jessica Mehta, and more. Plus novel excerpts and hybrid texts. Read more at The Massachusetts Review website.

The Main Street Rag – Winter 2021

In this issue of The Main Street Rag, find a featured interview with Ellen Birkett Morris by Beth Browne. Fiction by Ellen Birkett Morris, Lawrence F. Farrar, Michael Graves, Kathie Giorgio, and Steve Cushman. Poetry by Carrie Albert, Diana Anhalt, Rose Auslander, Joan Barasovska, Brenton Booth, Raymond Byrnes, Robert Cooperman, Rachel Dixon, Richelle Buccilli, Angela Gaito-Lagnese, Martha Golensky, Kari Gunter-Seymour, Ted Jonathan, Elda Lepak, Anne Hall Levine, Vikram Masson, Ken Meisel, David Mills, Randy Minnich, Harry Moore, Gail Peck, Ann Pedone, Gary V. Powell, Charles Rammelkamp, David Rock, Seth Rosenbloom, Russell Rowland, Tom Wayman, and more.

EVENT Winter 2020 2021

This issue features Notes on Writing from Maria Reva, Souvankham Thammavongsa, and Joshua Whitehead. Also in this issue: nonfiction by Darlene McLeod; fiction by Dian Parker, Stephen Guppy, and Dennis McFadden; and poetry by Ashley Hynd, Shazia Hafiz Ramji, Rose Hunter, Natasha Zarin, Peter Richardson, Thomas Mixon, Nate Logan, Jean Van Loon, D.S. Martin, and more. Read more at the EVENT website.

“Comfort Poems” in Cimarron Review

Magazine Review by Katy Haas.

Issue 212 of Cimarron Review includes what feel like the comfort food of poetry. After a long week, it felt good to sit wrapped up in a blanket with this issue in my lap.

Victoria Hudson offers warmth to readers of “11th & Quaker.” Inside the apartment, the speaker and another person complete a crossword and watch well-known The Office. There’s comfort in the familiarity of both tasks, a quiet intimacy surrounding them.

Kim Kent’s “At the YMCA” shows us a different scene of intimacy as YMCA lifeguards practice CPR on one another “just to be sure,” all of them “generous with our drowned / and undrowned lips.” Kent kindles the heat of summer and the closeness of the two bodies with expertise.

David Ruekberg offers a “Cure for Thought” with a list of instructions that both calm and inspire the reader. He quietly guides us to observe and imagine until we reach the final, always useful step: “Listen.”

Make time to stop and listen to the words of the writers in this issue of Cimarron Review and find your own comfort poems.

Ruminate – Issue 57

Runimate Issue 57: Mend investigates what needs to be mended, who does the mending, and how we might mend. As Megan Merchant writes in her poem “Mammography,” “Not all things heal when left alone.” Featuring the Janet B. McCabe prizewinning poems by Laura Budofsky Wisniewski, Yvette Siegert, Hajjar Baban, and Betsy Sholl.

Into the Void

Issue #18 is Into the Void‘s most packed issue ever, 10% bigger than previous issues. The eye-catching cover image “Sub Seb 2” by Chalice Mitchell would really spice up your bookshelf. Inside the cover: fiction by Anne Baldo, Nim Folb, Eloise Lindblom, Karl Plank, Ash Winters, and more; creative nonfiction by Grace Camille and Bill Capossere; and poetry by Annie Cigic, Daun Daemon, Roy Duffield, Rebecca Faulkner, Molly Fuller, Beth Gordon, Chana G. Miller, and others.

Hole in the Head Review – Feb 2021

Hole in The Head Review begins their second year with this new issue. Visit for new work by Tim Benjamin, Richard Jones, S. Stephanie, Connor Doyle, Ashley Mallick, Larkin Warren, Eva Goetz, Ron Riekki, Beth Copeland, Roger Camp, Heather Newman, Tom Barlow, Dennis Herrell, Lily Anna Erb, Dick Altman, Glen Armstrong, Erin Wilson, Yoni Hammer-Kossov, Matthew Moment, Cynthia Galaher, Lisa Zimmerman, Christy Sheffield, Tilly Woodward, and more.

Bennington Review – No. 8

The “Fame and Obscurity” issue with poetry by Emily Pettit, Maia Seigel, Elizabeth Hughey, Jacob Montgomery, Oni Buchanan, Kathleen Ossip, Anne Marie Rooney, Jose Hernandez Diaz, jayy dodd, Catherine Pierce, Rob Schlegel, Ed Skoog, TR Brady, Ryo Yamaguchi, and more; fiction by Cynthia Cruz, Stuart Nadler, Lucy Corin, Bonnie Chau, and others; and nonfiction by Elisa Albert, Kelle Groom, Craig Morgan Teicher, Kirsten Kaschock, and more. More info at the Bennington Review website.

Ekphrastic Poetry in Concho River Review

In the Fall/Winter 2020 issue of Concho River Review, two ekphrastic poems can be found one after the other. First is “Abraham Preparing to Sacrifice His Son” by David Denny about Marc Chagall’s “Abraham Preparing to Sacrifice his Son, According to God’s Command,” and the second is “Telephone in a Dish with Three Grilled Sardines at the end of September” by Paul Dickey about Salvador Dali’s painting which the poem is titled after.

Denny’s poem describes Chagall’s piece and then slides the focus out of frame, to those not pictured. The speaker states, “[ . . . ] while the men / play out their little dramas of heaven and earth, / it’s those left out of the official portrait that make / the real sacrifices.” Denny then paints a picture of Sarah, Abraham’s wife, imaging the heartbreaking grief one would feel seeing her husband “tie her beloved boy to the saddle, / tuck his best knife into his belt.” I enjoyed this focus on the emotion the portrait fails to include.

Dickey’s poem questions the meaning of Dali’s painting again and again, walking us through the detail as his attention slips from one to the next. While Denny focuses on what’s not in the portrait, Dickey becomes focused on discovering what is presented to us and what it means.

These two poems work as great companion pieces for one another, well-placed within the pages of this issue.

Review by Katy Haas

The Lake – February 2021

The February issue of The Lake features Edward Alport, Holly Day, Mike Dillon, William Ogden Haynes, Katherine Hoerth, Paul McDonald, Gordon Meade, Jill Sharp, J. R. Solonche, John L. Stanizzi, J. S. Watts, Emma Wells, Sarah White. Reviews of Colin Carberry’s Ghost Homeland, Paul Summers’ the dreamer’s ark, and Jennifer McGowan’s Still Lives with Apocalypse.

The Adroit Journal – January 2021

Adroit 36 is a brilliant collection of work—elegiac in its nature—both hopeful and loud in its grief. Poetry by Angelo Nikolopoulos, Ocean Vuong, Martha Collins, D. A. Powell, Ellen Bass, Alex Dimitrov, Tariq Thompson, Aurielle Marie, Nomi Stone, and more; prose by Ghinwa Jawhari, Blake Bell, Robert Long Foreman, Ethan Chatagnier, Steffi Sin, and Ben Reed; and art by Gyuri Kim, L.I. Henley, Connie Gong, and Tianran Song.

Formal Poetry with The MacGuffin

Magazine Review by Katy Haas.

The Fall 2020 issue of The MacGuffin is the Formal Poetry Issue featuring 43 formal poems. The issue is introduced by retiring Poetry Editor Carol Was. Sonnets, pantoums, villanelles, quatrains, and more make up the poetry portion of the issue.

Among these is “Coyote in Town,” a sestina by Marla Kay Houghteling. The speaker wakes one night to see a coyote through their window in the city, their new home not as removed from the “wild / watchers” as they once thought. This poem reads easily, both the reader and the speaker stalked by wildness and shadows throughout the piece.

In Terry Blackhawk’s villanelle “No Callous Shell,” the poetry speaks to Conrad Hilberry and wonders if she can even write a villanelle. This is a fun, good-humored poem that felt relatable thinking back to my own questionable attempts at penning a form poem.

The poets in this issue, however, have all done a great job of taking on form poems, introducing me to forms I was unfamiliar with and serving inspiration to maybe try my own hand at writing one again.

More to Enjoy from the Kenyon Review – A New Issue of KROnline + Poetry Today

Screenshot of KROnline Jan/Feb 2021 IssueDon’t forget that besides having its six print issues a year, literary magazine The Kenyon Review has a separate online component called KROnline which is published every two weeks and features innovative fiction, poetry, and essays.

The January/February 2021 KROnline is now available. The issue features three poems by Jenn Blair; “Hello, Walt Whitman” by Siamak Vossoughi; “A River Passes By Here” by Caroline Tracey; “Elation” by January Gill O’Neil; “Man Goes to Check” by Libby Flores; and “The Pupil” by Lesley Jenike.

Need more from Kenyon Review? How about checking out “Poetry Today: Emma Hine and Ignacio Carvajal” by Ruben Quesada. The Poetry Today series features living poets answering questions about poetry and poetics. You’ll get a short bio, an introduction, their thoughts on poetry’s potential, and information about their latest releases.

The Kenyon Review has so much to offer readers and writers! Don’t forget to subscribe to their journal and stop by their website for their frequent digital content.

Kaleidoscope – Winter Spring 2021

“We Are Worthy” is the theme of this issue of Kaleidoscope. Our featured essay is “Wrap Me Up and Tie It with a Bow” by Shawna Borman. Author Marilyn Slominski Shapiro writes with vivid imagery in her story, “Rejoice the Archangel Raphael!” Judi Fleischman shares creative nonfiction, “My Man George.” This issue contains our first lyric essay, and our first publication of a drabble. In poetry, anxious thoughts are “Intruders” in the mind of Mari-Carmen Marin. You’ll find many other stories, personal essays, and thought-provoking poems that reflect the experience of disability and life in the midst of a pandemic. Cover art by Philadelphia street artist Blur.

Carve Magazine – Winter 2021

This issue of Carve features eleven stellar writers. In the short fiction and accompanying interviews: Vincent Anioke, Toby Lloyd, Stephanie Macias Gibson, and James A. Jordan. Also in this issue, we celebrate Stacy Trautwein Burns’s publication of “Shelter Break” in Ruminate. In Gustavo Hernandez’s poem, we reach toward the future. In Rose Auslander’s, we consider tactility and embodiedness. We also sit with Kerry James Evans’s meditation on I, and Robert Carr’s billowing loss. Emily Breese writes on familial bonds. And finally, in a conversation with Anita Felicelli: illuminating thoughts about reality and identity, song and story, social norms, societal relationships, and simultaneous conflicting truths. Read more at the Carve website.

Two Poems by Holly Day

Magazine Review by Katy Haas.

Holly Day has two pieces of work in the Fall 2020 issue of Tipton Poetry Journal. “The Last Days of the Flu” are rich with imagery as Day describes that feeling of breathlessness when sick: “gears almost catching but slipping again and again.”

“The Day the Leaves Start to Change” builds a church up around the reader and we’re suddenly sitting in a pew, watching a preacher react to a bird flying overhead.

Each poem ends with a stark finality. While they each cover separate subjects, the endings draw them together, unmistakably written by the same poet with the ability to craft a strong poetic ending. Both are lovely reads.

Tiger Moth Review

Visit Tiger Moth Review for art and literature that engages with nature, culture, the environment, and ecology. In this issue: Cheryl Julia Lee, Neeti Singh, Anna Morris, Anne Yeoh, Pooja Ugrani, Sekhar Banerjee, Ian Goh, Marie Scarles, Rea Maac, Lorraine Caputo, Guna Moran, Ernest Goh, Joe Balaz, Turner Wilson, Peggy Landsman, Chris Johnson, Ashwani Kumar, Crispin Rodrigues, Tammy Lai-Ming Ho, Jaxton Su, Gail Anderson, Lucas Zulu, and more.

Sky Island Journal – Winter 2021

Sky Island Journal’s stunning 15th issue features poetry, flash fiction, and creative nonfiction from contributors around the globe. Accomplished, well-established authors are published—side by side—with fresh, emerging voices. Readers are provided with a powerful, focused literary experience that transports them: one that challenges them intellectually and moves them emotionally.

Brevity – No. 66

Issue 66 of Brevity is here! Find nonfiction by Jesse Lee Kercheval, Elena Passarello, Sonja Livingston, Ira Sukrungruang, Kate Hopper, Melissa Stephenson, Anne Panning, Hiram Perez, Noah Davis, Laurie Klein, Lizz Huerta, Francis Walsh, Tyler Orion, Dorian Fox, and Michael McAllister.

Zone 3 – Fall 2020

In the issue of Zone 3 (Fall 2020): nonfiction by Hadil Ghoneimj, Steven Harvey, Kathryn Nuernberger, and more; fiction by Scott Brennan, Mary Louise Hill, Sarah Layden, Nathan Moseley, and others; and poetry by Ellery Beck, Jennifer Brown, Jesse DeLong, Jose Hernandez Diaz, Andrew Johnson, Arden Levine, Matt McBride, Leah Osowski, Charlie Peck, Marlo Starr, Dan Veach, and more. Cover art by Jiha Moon.