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At the NewPages Blog readers and writers can catch up with their favorite literary and alternative magazines, independent and university presses, creative writing programs, and writing and literary events. Find new books, new issue announcements, contest winners, and so much more!

The Cape Rock – Number 47

cape rock 2019It only takes looking at some of the poem titles in The Cape Rock #47 to get that this slim volume published out of Southeast Missouri State University is poetry by and for the people: “Dad’s Skoal Can” and “Song of the Opossum” by January Pearson; “Toilet Cubicle” by Steve Denehan; “Trimming My Father’s Toenails” by Cecil Sayre; “Long Distance Dating for the Elderly” by Mark Rubin. Not meaning to be dismissive in perhaps attributing these works as common, the craft and skill exhibited in them speaks to the draw of the publication and the selective capabilities of a strong editorial staff.

There are many single stunning contributions: Danielle Hanson’s poem titled “How to Tell This Wilted Dogwood Petal From Starlight” continues “Both have fallen from some level of sky. / Lay down and let’s discuss this rationally.” commanding the reader’s experience of the tangible and intangible; the three lines of “Years Later” by Ryan Pickney will leave readers speechless; Jeff Hardin’s “This Only Place” examines a series of moments under the poet’s microscope, opening, “This easy weightlessness along the earth I owe / to having heard the heron‘s wings the moment / it alighted then decided otherwise and lifted off.”

Offering multiple poems by individual writers is a welcome attribute, and the closing four by Claire Scott exemplify the ability of many of the poets included to manage a range of subject and style. Her poignant “At Eighty” reads at a bit of a romp thanks to line breaks like:

webs stitched
with tar
nished moments
emptied
of light
spun with mum
bled strands
of prayer to
missing gods
shape
less days

At 86 pages, 43 poets, 69 poems: The Cape Rock is a venerable journal of poetry that both makes connections and distinctions.

 

Review by Denise Hill

‘The Wonderling’ by Mira Bartók

wonderling bartok“Have you been unexpectedly burdened by a recently orphaned or unclaimed creature? Worry not! We have just the solution for you!” Welcome to the Home for Wayward and Misbegotten Creatures!

Author/illustrator Mira Bartók’s debut novel follows the story of a one-eared fox groundling (human-animal hybrid) named Thirteen. As if having one ear isn’t bad enough, Thirteen was abandoned in a grim-filled orphanage under the control of a wretched villainess called Miss Carbunkle. But the turn of events led to unexpected paths, both good and bad. Thirteen’s gut-wrenching encounters with brutality, deprivation, and unappetizing Dickensian roads are intertwined with gentle humor, uplifting vibes, and epic journeys.

Music and friendship play essential roles in the story. This explains why, in spite of the rouge-ish undertakings of rouge-ish characters, any reader will surely immerse oneself with the rollercoaster ride of events and keep the pages turning. Bartók’s writing draws rich kaleidoscopes of characters, steampunk setting, and sensational quests. The delightful illustrations brought a new level of charm to this adventure, making the whole experience undeniably jam-packed with surprises to the brim.

Blend in Miss Peregrine’s characters with the woeful mishaps in A Series of Unfortunate Events, then top it off with the legendary tale of King Arthur, and there you have it! The Wonderling! In a nutshell, The Wonderling takes its readers into a world of infinite possibilities.

Don’t let people tell you that this book is just for children, because adventure has NO age limit!

 

Review by Mary Kristine P. Garcia

Cave Wall Poetry Revision Issue

cave wallCave Wall 15 includes a focus on revision. The ‘artwork’ for this issue consists of fifteen early draft images of some of the poems included. The cover art is actually Emma Bolden’s draft of “Easter Sunday.” Other authors whose drafts are included: Matthew Thorburn, Billy Reynolds, Chelsea Wagenaar, Jessica Cuello, Peter Kline, and Molly Spencer.

In addition, Cave Wall interviewed poets from this issue about their revision process and published those as a PDF on their website. Poets interviewed include Kasey Jueds, Matthew Thorburn, Tori Reynolds, Emma Bolden, Christopher Buckley, Molly Spencer, Billy Reynolds, Peter Kline, Carrie Green, Elizabeth Breese, John Sibley Williams, Chelsea Wagenaar, Lola Haskins, and Celisa Steele.

This issue combined with these Q&As would make an excellent teaching resource!

“Dayspring” by Anthony Oliveira

anthony oliveira dayspringIt was the illustration by Ricardo Bessa that originally drew me to Anthony Oliveira’s [pictured] short and poetic “Dayspring.” The image caught my eye as I scrolled down the front page of Hazlitt: browns and tans and reds, one man lying on another’s chest, their beards brushing; the embracing figures exude warmth and intimacy as sunlight filters through leaves above them. The story behind this depiction imagines (an unnamed) John, “the disciple whom he loved,” as Jesus’ lover in the days before the crucifixion.

Writing in short poetic bursts, Oliveira roots the story in two religious parables or folktales, one involving a donkey, the other involving a nun. The conversation shows Jesus’ words in red, the two speaking in modern vernacular, including “dudes” and “what the fucks,” making the characters more relatable. The red is striking on the screen whenever Jesus speaks, and these two stories give us something to come back to—something to be anchored to in the chaos that follows.

I couldn’t help thinking of Madeline Miller’s The Song of Achilles while reading “Dayspring” as both pieces of writing display a mythological queer relationship of love and gentleness with a strong foreshadowing of violence and tragedy. Knowing the story of Jesus and his crucifixion, you can guess where Oliveira ends up taking us: to Gethsemane where everything falls apart, where Jesus is arrested, and the chain of events leading to his death begins, only this time we see it through the eyes of the one he loved.

While the piece is short and a sparsely written, the language is strong and beautifully built up. Oliveira writes with a poetic voice that eases readers in and creates the warmth that Ricardo Bessa’s illustrations kindle.

‘Too Many Questions About Strawberries’ by Jen Hirt

too many questions about strawberries hirtBrandi Pischke’s cover art of sparkly strawberries invites us into Jen Hirt’s book of poems, Too Many Questions About Strawberries. Can we expect a romp through a garden or farmer’s market? Not necessarily, though Hirt’s book takes us through fun, rowdy poems, as well as challenging ones that do, in some cases, concern plant life.

Let’s start with “Why not malachite for resurrection.”  In this poem, an apartment’s appeal is heightened because its back steps are perfect for a container garden.

Continue reading “‘Too Many Questions About Strawberries’ by Jen Hirt”

Free Audiobooks for Teens

kerry kletterThere’s still a lot of summer left and many books titles to enjoy from Sync Audiobooks for Teens free summer program.

Each week, Sync provides two paired titles for free download using Overdrive. The titles include both non-fiction and a wide genre range of fiction. Once the week is over, the titles can no longer be downloaded, but the site has the previous books listed with descriptions so listeners can find the titles via their local library or other audio venue. [Pictured: The First Time She Drowned by Kerry Kletter, one of the titles this week.]

A great way to encourage summer reading for teens, for reluctant readers, and for adults who aren’t afraid to cross over! 

Rattle Tribute to Instagram Poets

rattleThe Summer 2019 issue of Rattle includes a “Tribute to Instagram Poets.” The editor’s preface explains that the poems were originally published on Instagram, which uses captions that are included along with the poems. The editors assert that the poems were selected based “on their own merits and not the popularity of their authors.”

Some works include long poetic commentary, such as Benjamin Aleshire’s “Good Manners,” while others, such as Luigi Coppola’s and Jeni D La O’s only include a user name and series of hashtags. When applied, the hashtags range from simply labeling the obvious (#poetry #poem) to adding to the poetic image/text in the Instagram, as in Vini Emery’s: “All of the things that have been done to me have been done with out me.” hashtagged: #disassociation #trauma #power. Because the image is of handwritten text, it’s actually difficult to decipher if there is a space or not between “with” and “out,” which seems fitting for the work that this should be ambiguous.

Still other poems, such as Raquel Franco’s, add comment text without hashtags: “You are more than paper thin. / You are more than sad girl. / You are ink + paragraphs, / an anthology of purpose.” with “You are more than your circumstance.” as added comment.

A unique feature to include in this issue of Rattle, and one that opens whole new dialogues for poetry writing, reading, and analysis.

Review by Denise Hill

‘Country House’ by Sarah Barber

country house barberKnowing you can no longer build
with it or kill, a needle-point-covered brick
hugs itself.

          —from “Doorstop”

At eighty-nine pages, plus extensive notes, Sarah Barber‘s Country House—winner of the Pleiades Press Editors Prize for Poetry—offers a plethora of material for a reader to draw out shared experience, contemplate history, raise questions, engage thoughtful research, and marvel at linguistic nuances. My own way into the text is undoubtedly as personal as it is unique, and I believe another reader would see something slightly, or maybe completely, different than I do in the poetry.

Continue reading “‘Country House’ by Sarah Barber”

Malahat Review Contest Winners

The Spring 2019 issue of The Malahat Review features winning entries from two of their annual contests:

rowanmccandless2018 Constance Rooke Creative Nonfiction Prize
Judge Lynne Van Luven
“Found Objects” by Rowan McCandless [pictured]

2019 Open Season Awards

Poetry
Judge Shane Book
“Timepiece” by Rami Schandall

Fiction
Judge Carmelinda Scian
“Exile” by Janika Oza

Creative Nonfiction
Judge Kyo Maclear
“Letters To My Mother” by Lishai Peel

‘The Patron Saint of Lost Girls’ by Maureen Aitken

patron saint of lost girls aitkenMaureen Aitken’s linked short stories, The Patron Saint of Lost Girls, is the winner of the 2018 Nilsen Prize, awarded to American writers who have not yet published a novel. The fourteen stories follow Mary, a sometimes artist, struggling through the economic recession in Detroit in the 1970s and 1980s. Told in the first-person point of view, Aitken’s stories are intimately close to Mary’s life and relationships all the while reflecting more broadly on the Midwest. Aitken’s stories are small and intimate but backed by the weight of broader themes: urban decay and what it means to survive as a woman.

Continue reading “‘The Patron Saint of Lost Girls’ by Maureen Aitken”

Looking for a Lit Mag to Run?

scott douglassIn his Spring 2019 “Welcome Readers” section, founder and editor M. Scott Douglass explains his plan to “retire from editing” Main Street Rag.

In making such a proclamation, Douglass comments, “the assumption is that you (I) are/am going out of business. That’s not the plan.” Having already sold off the production equipment for the publishing arm of MSR, Douglass is moving to the next step: “find a suitable replacement to edit the journal (and possibly books). I’d like to be able to bring this person along slowly, train them in the use of software, deadlines, scheduling, etc., but as soon as you hang a sign that says, ‘Looking for new leadership,’ again, everyone thinks you’re on your deathbed and avoids you.”

“We’re not dying. I’m not dying. We have no debt, so we’re not in financial difficulty.” Instead, Douglass notes, after nearly twenty-five years, it’s just time for him to focus on his own “muse” and get out from behind the desk to travel more.

“So, if you know someone looking to take over a literary house who’s willing to put in some training time, send them my way. There may be a place for them here.”

 

‘Something Like the End’ by Ashley Morrow Hermsmeier

something like end morrow hermsmeierAshley Morrow Hermsmeier dedicates Something Like the End—winner of the Fall 2017 Black River Chapbook Competition—to “the strange and lonely,” appropriate when the characters of her six-story chapbook are living lives that are just that: a bit strange and a bit lonely.

A woman prepares for an oncoming plague-like wave of bees, and, alone, faces that there are other things to be cautious of in the end of days; a city experiences an unending earthquake; a woman drawn to a mysterious stray cat can’t help thinking about her ex; a woman buries and reburies zombified past versions of herself that keep showing up at her door, versions that died so she could keep living; a futuristic assisted suicide is advertised, its five simple steps outlined for interested parties; and a beauty and beast couple can’t stop dancing as the world ends around them.

While short, each piece manages to push the boundaries of what’s expected. Love stories are surrounded by ruin, break-up stories are haunted by feral animals and zombies, and in each piece, we see the complex ways in which we interact with other humans, or how we interact with the earth that is rapidly changing around us.

Morrow Hermsmeier’s work in this chapbook is imaginative and arresting as it offers solidarity to the strange, lonely reader.

Review by Katy Haas

Gulf Coast 2018 Prize Winners

The newest issue of Gulf Coast (31.2) is chock-full of award winning writing!

2018 Barthelme Prize
Judge Laura van den Berg

sarah minorWinner
“Something Clear” by Sarah Minor [pictured]

Honorable Mentions
“Hunger” by Yi Jiang
“Some Weather” by Aliceanna Stopher

2018 Translation Prize in Poetry
Judge Ilya Kaminsky

Co-Winners
“Air Raid” by Polina Barskova, Transl. by Valzhyna Mort
“Colonies of Paradise” by Matthias Göritz, Transl. by Mary Jo Bang

Honorable Mention
“Nobility” by Álvaro Lasso Transl. by Kelsi Vanada

2018 Beauchamp Prize in Critical Art Writing
Judge Wendy Vogel

Winner
“A Long, Dull Shadow: Georg Baselitz’s Legacy of Misogyny” by Maura Callahan, originally published on Momus

Honorable Mentions
“Playing in the Institute: On Tag at the ICA Philadelphia” by C. Klockner
“Intimate Structures: Dorothea Rockburne at Dia: Beacon” Chloe Wyma

For a full list of entries, finalists, links to work, and information about these annual contests, visit Gulf Coast.

Fundraising Raffle for Nina Riggs Poetry Award

nina riggsAs previously announced, Cave Wall is fundraising to establish the Nina Riggs Poetry Award. They are sooooo  close to their target amount and are now offering a sweet GIANT RAFFLE to help them reach their goal.

Check out the HUGE list of prizes here. Everyone who donates any amount will be entered in the raffle. A win no matter what!

In discussing the award with me, Cave Wall Editor Rhett Trull offered this beautiful reminiscence:

When Nina got pregnant, she was told by a poetry colleague, “Oh no, here come the motherhood poems.” Years later, when I got pregnant, a different colleague told me, “Whatever you do, just don’t start writing motherhood poems.” We knew they were teasing, but it bothered us. And of course, we ignored it and wrote whatever we wanted to write, whatever we were moved to write. Because that’s what we do as poets, all of us: we write toward the heart. I used to hear, all the time, “Don’t write poems about grandmothers and dead pets.” Well, that’s ridiculous. You can write about ANYTHING. Just write it well, write beyond subject and self, toward the greater truths to which all subjects lead us if we let them. At Cave Wall, we’ve published some beautiful poems about grandmothers and dead pets, once in the same poem and wow, is it a knockout. Anyway, Nina believed all subjects worthy of poetry. And I hope with this award, we can encourage and celebrate writing that mines the everyday for its beauty and truth, as well as writing about relationships and family and, yes, motherhood, too. All of it. All the small and big and wondrous things that connect us, that shine a light on the ordinary revealing that everything is extraordinary if we take a moment to see it.

American Life in Poetry :: Peter Schneider

American Life in Poetry: Column 739
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

I don’t suppose there are many of our younger readers who have started to worry about the possibility of memory loss, but I’d guess almost everybody over fifty does. Peter Schneider lives in Massachusetts and this is from his book Line Fence, from Amherst Writers and Artists Press.

Lost in Plain Sight

Somewhere recently
I lost my short-term memory.
It was there and then it moved
like the flash of a red fox
along a line fence.

My short-term memory
has no address but here
no time but now.
It is a straight-man, waiting to speak
to fill in empty space
with name, date, trivia, punch line.
And then it fails to show.

It is lost, hiding somewhere out back
a dried ragweed stalk on the Kansas Prairie
holding the shadow of its life
against a January wind.

How am I to go on?
I wake up a hundred times a day.
Who am I waiting for
what am I looking for
why do I have this empty cup
on the porch or in the yard?
I greet my neighbor, who smiles.
I turn a slow, lazy Susan
in my mind, looking for
some clue, anything to break the spell
of being lost in plain sight.

We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts. American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry  magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2006 by Peter Schneider, “Lost in Plain Sight,” from Line Fence (Amherst Writers and Artists Press, 2006). Poem reprinted by permission of Peter Schneider and the publisher. Introduction copyright ©2019 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006.

April 2019 Award Winners

bully love colleen murphy blogNational Poetry Month may have ended in April, but you can keep the festivities kicking by checking out poetry contest winners published last month.

BOA Editions, LTD published the winner of the James Laughlin Award, Night Angler by Geffrey Davis, and the winner of the A. Poulin Jr. Poetry Prize, Documents by Jan-Henry Gray.

The A. Poulin Jr. Poetry Prize is annually award to honor a poet’s first book. Jan-Henry Gray’s Documents is rooted in the experience of living in America as a queer undocumented Filipino. The poems repurpose the forms and procedures central to an immigrant’s experience: birth certificates, ID cards, letters, and interviews. An excerpt, “Across the Pacific Ocean,” can be found at the publisher’s website.

The James Laughlin Award is presented by the Academy of American Poets, and judges selected Night Angler by Geffrey Davis as the 2018 winner. Night Angler “Reads as an evolving love letter and meditation on what it means to raise an American family.” Readers can find Davis’s second collection at the BOA Editions LTD website.

From Press 53, find the winner of the Press 53 Award for Poetry: Bully Love by Patricia Colleen Murphy. The poems in this collection examine the long-term effects of displacement, and how we form relationships with landscapes and lovers. Learn more about what Bully Love has to offer.

Bauhan Publishing released the winner of the 2018 May Sarton New Hampshire Poetry Prize. The Double Zero by Marilee Richards, according to Judge David Blair, “reminds us of what the country has gained in consciousness and freedom, . . . what sorrows and suicides we have left necessarily behind, as the bus pulls up at the curb in the don’t-you-get-it-yet years we have been motoring through lately.” Find out more here.

Keep your support of poetry going throughout the year, starting with these award winners.

“Lady-Ghost Roles” by Laura Roque

glimmer trainIn the Spring/Summer 2019 issue of Glimmer Train, find “Lady-Ghost Roles” by Laura Roque. The short story explores the oncoming end of a crumbling relationship while casting the familiar break-up story in a new light: the narrator and her boyfriend, Javi, are both dead and are now stuck haunting their old home together.

Tensions still palpable between them, the two watch as loved ones come and go, a realtor enters the picture, and a moving crew starts carrying away their belongings in the days after their deaths. Together, they reflect on moments of their relationship and what brought them to where they currently stand.

Early on, the narrator thinks about Javi: “[ . . . ] I need the universe to transport him somewhere I’m not, maybe hell, or the gym. In life, he’d spent more time touching dumbbells than me anyway.” As time passes, her views soften, though they never settle on a resolution.

Roque gives her narrator a tough exterior, her attitude remaining wry, never too sappy or sentimental. However, that doesn’t mean I didn’t read the last two pages with a lump growing in my throat, Roque’s world and character building too strong to resist.

With just enough gentleness and intimacy, Roque’s “Lady-Ghost Roles” is an inventive, enjoyable read.

Review by Katy Haas.

A Gettysburg Tribute to Peter Stitt

peter stittIn 2016, Peter Stitt, founding editor of The Gettysburg Review, retired as editor-in-chief and Mark Drew stepped into the role. In May 2018, Stitt passed away at age 77.

The Winter 2018 issue features a tribute to Stitt, with contributions from Floyd Collins, Sidney Wade, Philip Schultz, Linda Pastan, Albert Goldbarth, Christopher Howell, Hope Maxwell Snyder, Michael Waters, Rebecca McClanahan, and a closing poem by Peter Stitt, “Winter Search.”

‘The Southern Review’ – Summer 2018

southern review v54 n3 summer 2018Sitting on the shelf of my university library, the Summer 2018 issue of The Southern Review intrigued me with its curious cover art by Gina Phillips, a New Orleans–based artist. Upon close inspection of the issue, I found quite a generous collection of portraits created by using mixed media and titled Friends and Neighbors. Gina Phillips shares her process of creating these portraits:

I begin by photographing the subject multiple times. Then I sketch from the photos, sometimes combining elements of several photos into one sketch. After the sketch is complete, I trace the drawing onto a transparency and enlarge the figure using an overhead projector; then I redraw it on a piece of plain muslin. At this point, I use acrylic washes to complete an underpainting. After the underpainting is dry, I load the piece onto a long-arm quilting machine and begin the process of appliqueing various combinations of fabric, thread, yarn, and hair. After rendering the figure with fabric and thread, I cut it out of its background and pin to the wall.

The results of this unique process are strikingly vibrant. As the artist notes, these portraits reflect the essence of the people and animals depicted in them.

Continue reading “‘The Southern Review’ – Summer 2018”

Kenyon Review Nature’s Nature

kenyon reviewKenyon Review Editor David Baker opens the May/June 2019 issue with his commentary on the annual “Nature’s Nature” theme. In response to our having witnessed “the Trump administration take further steps to release two hundred thousand more acres of public land—this time in Utah along the Canyonlands and the Green River—to ‘development,'” Baker notes that “Greed, stupidity, and fever for power are not new to our country or even our species—read Shakespeare, Dante, Homer—but the velocity of unfixable damages and the extent of losses are without precedent.”

Baker asks, “Are we one or two generations away from the point of no return for environmental stability? Is ours the last generation with hope of preventing or slowing a massive disaster? Is it too late? The calculations come every week, with variables, but the constant alarm is the same.”

This is what compelled him, he recounts, “to curate a special feature on ecology and poetry . . . I wanted to showcase new poems that resisted such forms of power and that named one by one the spectacular, beautiful, and often endangered citizens of the natural world.”

Now an annual issue, the writers featured each year are purposefully diverse in that the publication does not choose the same authors to appear more than once. The compilation features twenty-seven new poems, one essay, and two portfolios of artwork. For a full list of content with some selections available to read online, visit the Kenyon Review.

Alan Ginsberg Poetry Prize Winners

Winning entries for the 2018 Ginsberg Poetry Award are featured in the 2019 issue of Patterson Literary Review.

jim reeseFirst Prize $1000
“Dancing Room Only”
Jim Reese [pictured], Yankton, SD

Second Prize $200
“Cu Tantu Si Cala ‘U Culu Si Para”
Maria Fama, Philadelphia, PA

Third Prize $100
“New Suit”
Lorraine Conlin, Wantagh, NY

A full list of Honorable Mention and Editor’s Choice recipients can be seen here.

The Alan Ginsberg Poetry Award for 2019 has closed, but submissions are open for the 2020 award.

“Mixed Drinks” by Brenda Miller & Julie Marie Wade

zone 3“Mixed Drinks” in Zone 3 Spring 2019 is one of many collaborative works by Brenda Miller and Julie Marie Wade, erasing their cross country divide to create a memoir which blends (no pun intended) a list of drinks with associated memories from childhood (Shirley Temple) through adolescence (Bloody Mary), college years (Old Fashioned) to adulthood (Cosmopolitan). Recipes included.

Told in the second person, each vignette contains vivid pop culture details of the time, relatable to many, as well as a conflicting set of feelings the speaker must overcome – between what is expected by others, what is expected of ourselves, and what we are able to finally experience and deliver. “You know that the beer and the hamburger will provide you at least five minutes of purpose in this bar where you don’t belong, and that you’ll walk home afterward in the dwindling light of autumn, along the river, to your sparsely furnished studio apartment, where you’ll feel both lonely and relieved.”

The end of the piece didn’t feel finished, but rather the start of something larger, yet unattached. This might seem a fault if it didn’t at the same time feel so polished. An interview with the two writers cleared this up. Wade comments on their collaborative style, “We don’t really know what’s going to happen or emerge, in terms of the content or the final form, until we reach an ending – and even these endings feel more like stopping points or plateaus in our momentum rather than definitive conclusions.”

For more on collaborative writing, including another by Miller and Wade, Jet Fuel Review #17 (Spring 2019) features a Collaborative Works Special Section: “These selections embody the magic that arises out of collaboration and the bringing together of separate voices and identities to craft a singular, resonant body of work.”

Review by Denise Hill

Gabe Montesanti Nonfiction Emerging Writer Winner

gabe montesantiWinner of Boulevard’s 2018 Nonfiction Contest for Emerging Writers, Gabe Montesanti’s essay “The Worldwide Roller Derby Convention” is featured in the Spring 2019 issue (#101/102). Montesanti lives in St. Louis where she skates for the local team, Arch Rival, under the name Joan of Spark.

In a commentary about her work, she says, “‘The Worldwide Roller Derby Convention’ became the final chapter of my MFA thesis at Washington University in St. Louis, and is now the final chapter of my full-length memoir about derby. This essay unlocked the whole project for me, in a way. Recognizing the themes of physicality and queerness led me to draw new parallels between roller derby and my unconventional and often violent upbringing. Having a vision of the end also gave me direction—a place I could write toward.”

The 2019 Nonfiction Contest for Emerging Writers opens June 2, 2019. The winner receives $1000 and publication.

‘Valley Voices’ – Rivers & Waters Issue

valley voices v18 n2 fall 2018As John Zheng shares in his introduction to the Fall 2018 “Rivers and Waters” issue of Valley Voices: A Literary Review: “Rivers are lifelines of all things in this world, and river plains are cradles of ancient civilizations. [ . . . ] We need the river to live; we need the river to enrich our spiritual life and inspire our creative writing as well.” This beautiful introduction about the importance of rivers and waters in all our lives—in fact, in the very evolution of humankind itself—sets the mood to all of the beautiful poems and images about the rivers and waters that follow.

Continue reading “‘Valley Voices’ – Rivers & Waters Issue”

The Common Stories from Syria

commonIssue No. 17 of The Common includes a special portfolio of stories from Syria, with works by Luqman Derki (Trans. Jonathan Wright), Shahla Al-Ujayli (Trans. Alice Guthrie), Mohammad Ibrahim Nawaya (Trans. Robin Moger), Raw’a Sunbul (Trans. Alice Guthrie), Haidar Haidar (Trans. Jonathan Wright), Odai Al Zoubi (Trans. Robin Moger), Colette Bahna (Trans. Robin Moger), and Ibrahim Samuel (Trans. Maia Tabet), as well as artwork from Syria, courtesy of the Hindiyeh Museum of Art.

The Common website features full content online as well as a supercool interactive map [pictured] of the issue – click on the geographical marker and get a photo and link to the content.

For teachers: The Common offers supplementary teaching materials for each issue. A classroom subscription includes two issues for every student and an in-person or Skype visit from Editor in Chief Jennifer Acker or a participating author.

Celebrate 200 Reading Walt Whitman

waltA great idea to celebrate the 200th birthday of Walt Whitman,The Poetry Motel Foundation and the Hudson Valley Writers Guild will hold a public reading of “Song of Myself” on May 31 at the Robert Burns Statue, Washington Park, Albany, NY. 

If you’re in the area, they are looking for readers to help manage some of the 1300 lines in 52 sections. For those not nearby – perhaps arranging a public reading in your own town would be a wonderful commemoration of the poet in keeping with “most of Whitman’s work . . . [a] celebration of the individual, of the nation, and of the spiritual possibility within us all.”

Register NOW for 2019 August Poetry Postcard Festival

poetry postcards 2019Now in its 13th LUCKY year, the August Poetry Postcard Festival is opening registration earlier than usual, starting May 1!

Teachers, students, writers, readers, traditional postal mail lovers – this is YOUR kind of festival! Super easy and fun to participate in! Once you sign up, you’ll get a list of 32 names (yours included), and starting in mid-July (so they start arriving in August), you write an original poem on a postcard and mail it to the name after yours on the list. Then, each day, new postcard, new poem, next name on the list, and so on, until you have written 31 poems and sent them away to their eagerly awaiting recipients (write 32 poems if you want to send yourself one!).

I LOVE this event and have been doing it from its inception. Every year brings new challenges and new delights. Writing a poem a day seems easy enough, but some days, the inspiration is more difficult than others. Still, every year, getting postcards (nearly) daily in the mailbox is such a joy! And there are a few brave souls who continue writing throughout the year – I’m still getting the occasional postcard with numbers in the hundreds or two-hundreds. Wow! 

Really, of all the events I’ve attended over my years, none have been as inexpensive nor as rewarding as this one. In 2018 there were 293 participants from 7 countries and 31 states/provinces, so a huge thanks to poet Paul Nelson, one of the APPF founders as well as Director of Seattle Poetry LAB.

What are you waiting for? Sign up TODAY!

Books :: 2018 Orison Poetry Prize Winner Published

as one fire consumes the other williamsThe Winner of the 2018 Orison Poetry Prize was published earlier this month, and readers can now find As One Fire Consumes Another by John Sibley Williams at the publisher’s website. A meeting of metaphysics and social critique, the poems in this collection examine American history and violence.

Judge Vandana Khanna says of her selection: “John Sibley Williams’ collection As One Fire Consumes Another transcends beyond the boundaries of family and history and country, beyond the body’s tragedies, [ . . . ]. These poems rise as invocation, as testimonial to life’s unfiltered beauty, violence, and faith, to the ‘light . . . already in us.’”

While you’re checking out advance praise for As One Fire Consumes Another, learn more about Orison Books’s prizes, including their new chapbook prize which is currently open.

Lit Mag Covers :: Picks of the Week

 benning review

“White Cosmonaut” by Jeremy Geddes is featured on the cover of the newest issue of Bennington Review (#6), themed “Kissing the Future.” While in print, they offer selections that can be read online here.

thema spring 2019

“New Neighbors” was the call for the Spring 2019 issue of Thema, appropriately enough, since spring brings the squirrels out of their winter hidey holes. Cover photo by Kathleen Gunton.

american literary review

Portraits of “lonely people, people with questions that cannot be answered, those who make terrible mistakes, people who do not love themselves and will not survive within their own stories” by poet and artist Melissa Cundieff are featured in the Spring 2019 American Literary Review online.

Cream City Review – Spring/Summer 2018

cream city review v42 n1 spring summer 2018Cream City Review, named for the cream-colored bricks that made Milwaukee famous, is anything but brick-like. The Spring/Summer 2018 issue is slim and elegantly designed, decorated front and back with intriguing teardrops, a blue glow, the earth, and what look like gravestones. In a letter to their readers, editors Mollie Boutell and Caleb Nelson write, “The daily news cycle is a swirl of darkness and absurdity, so it should not surprise us that the landscape of contemporary literature reflects a similar mood.” The current issue plays with darkness and light, sometimes descending deeply into the former, but always doing so for the sake of art, illuminating through darkness, showing both the path and the ways that we humans are led astray. Continue reading “Cream City Review – Spring/Summer 2018”

Staunch Book Prize :: Thriller Sans Misogyny?

Taking genre bending in a direction for the greater good, Staunch Books holds an annual book prize which recognizes “well-written, exciting thrillers that offer an alternative narrative to stories based around violence to women.”

The criteria for the award asks for “a novel in the thriller genre in which no woman is beaten, stalked, sexually exploited, raped or murdered.”

DomWillmottA novel idea indeed, but also one that is deeply appreciated as a model approach to genre storytelling. The editors comment on the larger issue behind creating this prize: “While women in the real world are fighting sexual abuse and violence, being harassed, assaulted and raped, or being murdered because they’re women, the casual and endless depiction of females as victims or prey sits uneasily alongside their fight. Real rape survivors struggle to be heard, counted and believed, under-reporting is rife, partly because victims fear being torn apart in court, and prosecutions continually fail. Meanwhile, in popular culture, women are endlessly cast as victims of stalking, abduction, rape and murder, for entertainment.”

The editors at Staunch Books add that taking such a stand in our culture’s literature does matter, commenting on research by psychologist (and Staunch Book Prize Judge) Dr. Dominic Wilmott [pictured] that “finds ‘rape myth’ beliefs feed into bias which results in jurors being reluctant to convict ‘ordinary’ men accused of rape as they don’t fit the idea of a rapist they’ve internalised through the stories and images they’ve received through popular culture.”

Writers who believe that their writing matters in the larger cultural context as it feeds and shapes our ideologies must take responsibility for this genre and others; this effort by Staunch Books is a commendable step in that direction.

The Staunch Book Prize is open until July 14, 2019. Their 2018 shortlist is available here.

Books with strong female characters are encouraged, as the editors note they aren’t “just looking for thrillers that feature men in jeopardy instead, but stories in which female characters don’t have to be raped before they can be empowered, or become casual collateral to pump up the plot.”

 

River Styx International Poetry Contest Winners

River Styx 101 features the winners and honorable mentions of their 2018 International Poetry Contest, selected by Maggie Smith.

andrew hemmertFirst Place
“Broken Season” by Andrew Hemmert [pictured]

Second Place
“Self-Portrait on the Beloved’s Body” by Michael Dhyne

Third Place
“Parting with Saddles” by Skyler LaLone

Honorable Mentions
“Oranges in Michigan” by Andrew Hemmert
“Street Vendor” by Mariano Zaro

The 2019 International Poetry Contest is open until May 31, 2019 with a $1500 first prize, judged by Oliver de Paz.

 

Books :: 2018 Iowa Poetry Prize Winner Published

year of femme donishFounded in 1990, the Iowa Poetry Prize is awarded for a book-length collection of poems each year.

This month, the 2018 winner was published: The Year of the Femme by Cassie Donish.

From the publisher’s website: “These are poems that assess and dwell in a sensual, fantastically queer mode. Here is a voice slowed by an erotics suffused with pain, quickened by discovery. In masterful long poems and refracted lyrics, Donish flips the coin of subjectivity; different and potentially dangerous faces are revealed in turn. With lyricism as generous as it is exact, Donish tunes her writing as much to the colors, textures, and rhythms of daily life as to what violates daily life—what changes it from within and without.”

Visit the press’s website to order your copy (currently on sale for the frugal reader) and visit the prize page, entries accepted throughout the month of April.

Monmouth Offers Students More

monmouth university logoMonmouth University has announced a new way for students to earn a degree. The MA/MFA dual degree program in Creative Writing prepares writers for their future by offering publishing experience, an award-winning faculty, and flexible course offerings.

Once completing an MA in English with a Creative Writing concentration, MFA students then have 18 additional credits of creative writing study which includes the completion of a book-length Creative Thesis.

Learn more about the dual degree and find out what else the program has to offer at the Monmouth University website.

Introducing the Nina Riggs Poetry Award

nina riggsThe editors of Cave Wall poetry magazine have put in great effort to create The Nina Riggs Poetry Award to honor their late friend and poet, author of The Bright Hour  and Lucky Lucky.

This crowd-funded award will be given annually to at least one poet for “the finest writing that examines relationships, family, or domestic life” in honor of Nina’s own “beautiful work on many subjects, including relationships and domestic life. She knew how to savor every moment of her too-short life, and in her poetry and her memoir, she explores the poignancy and love that resonate in the details of every day.”

Nominations are made by individuals who read poems that honor family or relationships in some way that have been published within the last three years. There is no application process; readers simply send in a copy of the poem. Readers can nominate up to six poems (no self-nominations). Each winner will receive $500 with the possibility of attending a reading in Greensboro, NC. See complete guidelines here.

The Nina Riggs Poetry Foundation is a nonprofit 501(c)3, so all donations are tax-deductible. Donations are currently being accepted with donors at certain levels being recognized by Cave Wall online and in print.

To read more about Nina Riggs and make a donation, go to FundRazr: Nina Riggs Poetry Foundation.

13th Mudfish Poetry Prize Winners

Published by Box Turtle Press, issue 20 of Mudfish features the winning entry and honorable mentions of their 13th Mudfish Poetry Prize judged by Philip Schultz.

rafaella del bourgoWinner
“Barking, Pt. Reyes” by Rafaella Del Bourgo [pictured]

Honorable Mentions
1st – “We are Already at War” by John Sibley Williams
2nd – “Ode to My Body” by Tim Nolan
3rd – “Late Summer Sky” by Tony Gloeggler

See a full list of finalists here. The 14th Mudfish Poetry Prize with a $1200 first prize to be judged by John Yau is open until April 30, 2019.

Happy Anniversary Raleigh Review!

raleigh reviewWith its Spring 2019 issue, Raleigh Review celebrates nine years of continuous publication. As they head into their tenth year, Editor and Publisher Rob Greene notes, “we realized it was time to reward our staff members who do the work on the magazine, so in addition to increasing the amount we’re paying to our poets, writers, and visual artists by a third, we are finally beginning to take small strides to help reward our telecommuting and highly skilled editorial staff who are based throughout the country and at times the world.”

Congratulations to Raleigh Review for providing a venue for writers, artists, and readers – and sharing how important financial support and subscriptions are to our community!

Lit Mag Covers :: Picks of the Week

pembroke

Chicken God  by Alexander Grigoriev – you simply can’t look away from this cover of Pembroke Magazine (#51).

southern humanities review

Who doesn’t love a technicolor embroidered bat? Little Werewolves with Wings  by Danielle Clough captures our attention for Southern Humanities Review (52.1). 

massachusetts review 60 1

The artwork of Toyin Ojih Odutola (What Her Daughter Sees ) is featured on the cover and with a full-color portfolio inside of the Spring 2019 issue of The Massachusetts Review.

American Life in Poetry :: Thomas Reiter

American Life in Poetry: Column 732
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE 

Ezra Pound commanded America’s poets to “Make it new.” And here’s a good example. Has there ever been another poem written, and written beautifully, about children playing among laundry drying on a line? Thomas Reiter, who lives in New Jersey, is a poet whose work I’ve followed for many years. His most recent book is Catchment. This poem appeared in the Tampa Review.

Pinned in Place

A bed sheet hung out to dry
became a screen for shadow animals.
But of all laundry days in the neighborhood
the windy ones were best,
the clothespins like little men riding
lines that tried to buck them off.
One at a time we ran down the aisles
between snapping sheets
that wanted to put us in our place.
Timing them, you faked and cut
like famous halfbacks. But if a sheet
tagged you it put you down, pinned
by the whiteness floating
against a sky washed by the bluing
our mothers added to the wash water.
Could anyone make it through those days
untouched? You waited for
your chance, then jumped up and finished
the course, rising if you fell again.
Later, let the sky darken suddenly
and we’d be sent out to empty the lines.
All up and down the block, kids
running with bed sheets in their arms,
running like firemen rescuing children.
All night those sheets lay draped
over furniture, as though we were leaving
and would not return for a long time.

We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts. American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry  magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2018 by Thomas Reiter, “Pinned in Place,” from Tampa Review (No. 55/56, 2018). Poem reprinted by permission of Thomas Reiter and the publisher. Introduction copyright ©2019 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006.

What Makes Sky Island Journal Unique

sky islandJason Splichal, Founder and Co-Editor-in-Chief of Sky Island Journal writes in his opening letter to Issue 7: “We are different from other literary journals in so many ways. While we appreciate and respect the paths that other publications have taken, it has been clear from the beginning that the path less taken will always be our path. The rugged independence and relentless tenacity required to stay on that path helps us to be mindful; every step we take should be made with kindness and humility. Reading and responding to every submission, then having the ability to share the work of writers from around the world with readers from around the world, are privileges beyond the telling. We’re so grateful for our contributors and our readers.”

2019 Kalos Art Prize Winners

The 50th Anniversary Spring 2019 issue of Ruminate features the winning entries of their 2019 Kalos Visual Art Prize, as selected by Final Juror Betty Spackman:

jen croninFirst Place
“Seen and Unseen” by Jennifer Cronin [pictured]

Second Place
“If I Were a King” by Margie Criner

Honorable Mentions
“The Lilies How they Grow” by Emily McIlroy
“EBB” by Hanna Vogel

For a full list of finalists as well as juror’s comments on the winners, click here.

Writers on Music, Food, Booze, Tattoos, Kittens, etc.

suzanne highland wsProduced within the MFA at Eastern Washington University, Willow Springs literary magazine features writers from their current print issue online.

Featured from Willow Springs 83 are four poems by Maggie Smith (an interview with her is included in the print publication), “The Collector” by Suzanne Highland, “The Year We Lived” by Breanna Lemieux, and “Bless the Feral Hog” by Laura Van Prooyen.

With each feature, the author offers notes on the work as well as whatever random musings they might want to include under the fun title “Music, Food, Booze, Tattoos, Kittens. etc..”

In her responses, Suzanne Highland [pictured] shares, “I have two tattoos: one says ‘in medias res and the other says ‘(write it!).’ I’m wildly attached to both, but one would have to be to get tattoos like those in the first place, I think.”

2018 Loraine Williams Poetry Prize Winner

ama codjoe“Etymology of a Mood” by Ama Codjoe won The Georgia Review’s 2018 Lorain Willams Poetry Prize, chosen by Natasha Trethewey.

The prize was started in 2013 with a gift from Lorain Williams and continued with the support of her estate after her passing in April 2016.

This year’s contest, which runs from April 1 – May 15, will be judged by Stephen Dunn. The prize has also been increased from $1000 to $1500.

See full details here.

Ruminate on 50

Reflecting on Ruminate’s 50th Anniversary issue, Editor Brianna VanDyke writes that when Thích Nhất Hạnh was asked, “Is there a purpose for wearing the robe other than to clothe your body?” He replied, “To remind yourself that you are a monk.”

brianna van dyke

“I wonder,” VanDyke goes on, “if one day you or I might also be asked a question about reminding ourselves of who we are.” 

She goes on to explore what those ‘reminders of self’ might be, adding, “something about this dream I hold, that these pages continue to be a reminder for fifty more good issues, how the very best stories and art and poems remind us of who we are, why we matter, our longings, our deepest work this day.”

Hear, hear!

Books :: 2017 Philip Levine Prize in Poetry Winner Published

known by salt brazielIn January, Anhinga Press released the winner of their 2017 Philip Levine Prize for Poetry: Known by Salt by Tina Mozelle Braziel.

The annual prize awards $2000 to the winner, as well as publication and distribution of their winning manuscript. Submissions open in July.

Known by Salt was selected by C.G. Hanzlicek who says the collection: “is very much a book of celebrations. One arc of the book is the move from a life in a trailer park to a house that Tina and her husband build with their own hands, [ . . . ]. It also is a celebration of Alabama, [ . . . ]. Her observations are so keen [ . . . ] that they make me laugh out loud in my own celebration.”

Learn more at the publisher’s website, where you can also find a sample poem from the collection, “House Warming.”

BWR 2018 Contest Winners

The newest issue of Black Warrior Review (Spring/Summer 2019) features winners of their 2018 contest:

ndinda kiokoFlash Prose
Judged by Jennifer S. Cheng
Winner: “from Okazaki Fragments” by Kanika Agrawal
Runner-up: “Let’s eat baby the steak is getting cold” by Alice Maglio

Nonfiction
Judged by Kate Zambreno
Winner: “Social Body” by Amanda Kallis
Runner-up: “Dark Grove, Shinng” by J’Lyn Chapman

Fiction
Judged by Laura van den Berg
Winner: “Little Jamaica” by Ndinda Kioko [pictured]
Runner-up: “On Weather” by RE Katz

Poetry
Judged by Vanessa Angélica Villarreal 
Winner: “La Piedra de los Doce Ángulos” by David Joez Villaverde
Runner-up: “from Okazaki Fragments” by Kanika Agrawal

See judges’ commentary on their selections and a complete list of finalists here.

Colorado Review Editor’s Blog

Editorial insights abound at the Colorado State University Center for Literary Publishing Editor’s Blog. Home of the Colorado Review as well as several esteemed annual literary prizes, Center Director Stephanie G’Schwind has both breadth and depth in her staff contributors.

colorado reviewRecent posts include:

“Looking toward Spring with Place-Based Writing” by Editorial Assistant Jennifer Anderson

“Revisiting the Holocaust Metaphors of Sylvia Plath” by Editorial Assistant Leila Einhorn

“Procedures for the Slowpoke Poet” by Associate Editor Susannah Lodge-Rigal

“On Love Poetry” by Associate Editor Daniel Schonning

The blog also features links to monthly podcasts: February 2019 Podcast: Writing on Mental Health with Margaret Browne; January 2019 Podcast: Horror Poetry with Emma Hyche; and more.

Check it out here. 

The Boardman Review – Issue 6

boardman review i6If your interest is in the outdoors as well as the arts, something fresh and new, The Boardman Review is an excellent choice. Subtitled “the creative culture & outdoor lifestyle journal of northern Michigan,” this print and digital journal includes literature, music, lifestyle profiles, and documentaries that focus on the work and lives of creative people who express their love of the outdoors without trying to promote their talent. This last issue of 2018 provides a promise of even more fascinating work during the coming year.

Continue reading “The Boardman Review – Issue 6”