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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!

Ramifications of War

bellevue-literary-reviewBellevue Literary Review “a journal of humanity and human experience” published by the NYU Longone Medical Center takes on challenging issues with each publication, some specifically themed, as is the most recent issue: “Embattled: The Ramifications of War.”

Fiction Editor Suzanne McConnell writes in the Foreword: “War stories are not only the stories of soldiers and combat, although these are plentiful. Our intention with this issue of the Bellevue Literary Review is to encompass work about a broad spectrum of people affected by war in a myriad of ways, in many places and times. Together, we hope they afford some sense of overview and invite thoughtful considerations of war, and especially – as the title of our theme suggests – its ramifications. … The history of war may be largely written by the victors, but the ramifications of war know no such bounds.”

Read more about the authors and works included here.

Glimmer Train 2015 Very Short Fiction Award Winners

PoissantGlimmer Train has just chosen the winning stories for their Very Short Fiction Award. This competition is held annually and is open to all writers for stories with a word count under 3000. The next Very Short Fiction competition will take place in July. Glimmer Train’s monthly submission calendar may be viewed here.

First place: David James Poissant [pictured], of Oviedo, FL, wins $1500 for “Tornado.” His story will be published in Issue 98 of Glimmer Train Stories.

Second place: Adam O’Fallon Price, of Iowa City, IA, wins $500 for “Our Celebrity.”

Third place: Mary Kuryla, of Topanga, CA, wins $300 for “Not in Nottingham.”

A PDF of the Top 25 winners can be found here.

Deadline coming up! Family Matters: September 30
Glimmer Train hosts this competition twice a year. It’s open to all writers for stories about families of any configuration. Most submissions to this category run 1200-5000 words, but can go up to 12,000. Click here for complete guidelines.

American Life in Poetry :: Michael McFee

American Life in Poetry: Column 548
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

This may be the only poem ever written in which a person claps the mud from a pair of shoes! Michael McFee’s poetry is just that original, in all of his books. His most recent is That Was Oasis (Carnegie Mellon Univ. Press, 2012), and he lives in North Carolina.

Ovation

He stood on his stoop
and clapped her sneakers together
hard, a sharp report,
smacking right sole against left,
trying to shock the mud
from each complicated tread,
spanking those expensive footprints
until clay flakes and plugs
ticked onto the boxwood’s leaves
like a light filthy sleet
from the rubber craters and crannies
where they stuck weeks ago,
until her shoes were banged clean
though that didn’t stop
his stiff-armed slow-motion applause
with her feet’s emptied gloves,
slapping mate against mate
without missing a beat,
half-wishing that hollow sound
echoing off their neighbors’ houses
could call her back.

We do not accept unsolicited submissions. 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 ©2010 by Michael McFee, “Ovation,” (River Styx 83, 2010). Poem reprinted by permission of Michael McFee and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2015 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.

Books :: Philip Levine Prize in Poetry

rough-knowledge-christine-porebaLook forward to Christine Poreba’s Rough Knowledge, winner of the 2014 Philip Levine Prize in Poetry, currently scheduled to be published by Anhinga Press at the beginning of 2016. Rough Knowledge is Poreba’s first book and was chosen from nearly 700 manuscripts by Peter Everwine.

Everwine says of his selection:

[Poreba] has an eye for exact particulars and doesn’t stray from them, but her poems are so transparent, so quiet and intimate with the daily ambiguities and revelations of experience, that if you listen carefully you can almost believe the movement within her poems is like breathing: inward-containment, outward-space. I want such poetry close at hand.

To learn more about Rough Knowledge, check out Fresno State University’s website.

The MacGuffin Poetry Prize Winners

macguffin-v31-n3-summer-2015The MacGuffin has announced the winners of their Poetry Prize, which was sponsored at the Detroit Working Writer’s Conference this spring.

1st place goes to Kim Geralds for “Each In Her Own Time”

2nd place goes to Melissa “Liza” Young for “’Dreamt’ is the only English word that ends in ‘mt”

3rd place goes to Linda Nemec Foster for “Blue”

Foster’s poetry can be found in the Summer 2015 issue of The MacGuffin. To read the winning pieces, stay tuned for the Winter 2016 edition.

The Kenyon Review :: Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers

kenyon-review-v37-n5-september-october-2015In the September/October issue of The Kenyon Review, find the winners of the 2015 Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers.

The Poetry Prize is in its 12th year and “recognizes an outstanding single poem by a high school sophomore or junior.”

1st place goes to Caitlin Chan for her poem “Tlingit Farewell: Glacier Bay, 1966.”

The two runners-up are Gavin Murtha for his poem “I Spent a Lot of Time in There” and Emily Zhang for her poem “Story for the Salt.”

These three pieces, as well as past winners, can be read in full on The Kenyon Review website. The contest opens again at the beginning of November 2015.

A New Look for Still Point Arts Quarterly

still-point-arts-quarterly-i19-fall-2015Still Point Arts Quarterly has released its first issue since it absorbed Stone Voices. With the new publication comes a new look (a brighter, more eye-catching cover), and plans to focus on “art, nature, and spirit” while connecting these themes to make a cohesive, enjoyable read. Regular readers will be comforted to know that columnists Peter Azrak, Vincent Louis Carrella, and Leslie Ihde, will continue to write for this version of the Quarterly.

This issue includes samples from Still Point Art Gallery’s current exhibition Rectangles, Triangles, Circles: The Shape of Life and includes more art than ever.

Grab a print copy or a digital subscription at the Still Point website.

Twitter Poetics

francesco levatoLast month, Francesco Levato, a new media artist, poet, and director of The Chicago School of Poetics, started #pxc001 to create a collaborative, long-form poem using Twitter as the interactive platform for writers. Although Levato started the work and appears occassionaly throughout thusfar, the poem is driven by its participants, with some using previous entries to build continuing lines. The Poem Twitter Wrote by Emiko Jazuka on VICE Motherboard explains the project.

Books :: Orison Poetry Prize

requiem-for-used-ignition-cap-j-scott-brownleeHalfway through November, Orison Books will release J. Scott Brownlee’s debut full-length poetry collection Requiem for Used Ignition Cap, winner of the 2015 Orison Poetry Prize.

From the editors: The poems in this collection explore the rural landscape and residents of Brownlee’s native Llano, Texas. Brownlee might be considered a natural mystic, refusing to settle for the simplistic ideological framewo0rk offered by his religious heritage, but rather finding in the particulars of place the vehicles of transcendence.”

Brownlee has been awarded $1,500, along with publication. His poems have appeared in The Kenyon Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, West Branch, and more.

Find out more at Orison Books’s website.

Blue Collar Review – Spring 2015

Blue Collar Review: Journal of Progressive Working Class Literature is a small, targeted magazine filled with voices insisting on being heard. The editorial introduction to this issue states, “Poems in this collection speak of both the pride and the misery of work. They flesh out the real insecurity and resentment of underpaid and tenuous jobs and the seeming hopelessness of unemployment.” Continue reading “Blue Collar Review – Spring 2015”

The Missouri Review – Summer 2015

The theme of this issue of the University of Missouri’s The Missouri Review is “Defy.” Long-time editor Speer Morgan contributes a five-page introduction, which has this sentence: “The best new voices often defy the accepted in the quest for new themes, subjects and possibilities of form.” He then cites Beethoven, Picasso and Jane Austen, all contemporary cultural staples. Likewise, The Missouri Review is mainstream and established. The writers and artists celebrated in this issue—David Mitchell, Michael West and Jacob Riis—are equally so. Continue reading “The Missouri Review – Summer 2015”

Stoneboat – 2015

Jumping into Stoneboat, this issue is kicked off by CL Bledsoe’s poem, “The Squeaky Wheel Has Been Anesthetized.” At the end of the poem the speaker says, “[ . . . ] upsetting. I know we’re all dying at our own pace, / just trying to find a comfortable place to lie down.” The ending of the poem links back to the title’s anesthetization, as well as showcases the poem’s buried rhymes, while working as a good opener for this issue. Continue reading “Stoneboat – 2015”

Ploughshares – Summer 2015

Ploughshares has returned with their much anticipated annual fiction issue, which features work from the likes of Lydia Davis and Daniel Pena, as well as some new writers coming into their own. In the introduction, Guest Editor Lauren Groff says she is “hungry for voices that speak to me with real emotion; because real emotion is always new.” One can see that influence in the latest installment, which includes a wide-range of narratives where the characters are dealing with unexpected and sometimes strange incidents that showcase little slices of humanity. Continue reading “Ploughshares – Summer 2015”

Chtenia – Summer 2015

The year was 1964 and Leonid Brezhnev had just taken control of the Soviet Union. Nikita Khrushchev had recently been expelled as First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union as well as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, thoroughly ending another era of autocracy in Soviet Russia and ushering in a collective leadership. Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin took the stage to powerhouse Russian politics, and henceforth brought about the Era of Stagnation in the USSR, creating hardship and creative inspiration for citizens of the massive state. Continue reading “Chtenia – Summer 2015”

Hippocampus – September 2015

Delving into the latest issue of Hippocampus Magazine, I was reminded of You’ve Got Mail  and the moment Meg Ryan’s character is told “I remember when your mother gave me Anne of Green Gables. ‘Read it with a box of Kleenex,’ she told me.” So, readers, let me pass on the same warning before checking out the September 2015 issue of Hippocampus: grab some tissues, or at the very least, be prepared to have a lump in your throat for longer than comfortable. Continue reading “Hippocampus – September 2015”

World Literature Today :: Bodies in Literature

world-literature-today-september-october-2015World Literature Today features “Bodies in Literature” for their September-October 2015 issue. The cover art is aptly chosen, and here’s what the editors have to say about their choice:

In a year marked by protracted conflicts over bodies—women’s bodies, black bodies, immigrant/refugee bodies, and even the body politic—we hoped to capture that zeitgeist in this issue’s marquee section “Bodies in Literature,” by featuring an original cover illustration from tattoo artist Rawb Carter, modeled by Synthia Haddad, and photographed by Shevaun Williams.

The 15-page “Bodies in Literature” features work by Laura Ruiz Montes, Yin Lichuan, Najwa Ali, Zsuzsa Takács, Joshua Bennett, Nausheen Eusuf, Jim Pascual Agustin, Zsolt Láng, and Lorenza Ronzano and has been curated by Sara Wilson who also pens an introduction to the section.

2015 Poetry Magazine Prizes Announced

Poetry magazine awards eight annual prizes for the best work published in Poetry during the past 12 months.

THE LEVINSON PRIZE $500 awarded to Rae Armantrout for her poems “The Difficulty,” “The Ether,” “Followers,” and “Taking Place” from the January 2015 issue.

THE BESS HOKIN PRIZE $1,000 awarded to Terrance Hayes for “How to Draw a Perfect Circle,” published in the December 2014 issue.

THE FREDERICK BOCK PRIZE $500 awarded to Tarfia Faizullah for “100 Bells” in the January 2015 issue.

THE J. HOWARD AND BARBARA M.J. WOOD PRIZE $5,000 awarded to Jillian Weise for her poems “Future Biometrics” and “Biohack Manifesto” in the March 2015 issue.

THE JOHN FREDERICK NIMS MEMORIAL PRIZE FOR TRANSLATION $500 awarded to Ming Di and Jennifer Stern for their translations of Liu Xia’s poems “Empty Chairs” and “Transformed Creatures” in the November 2014 issue.

THE FRIENDS OF LITERATURE PRIZE $500 awarded to Amy Newman for her poem “Howl” in the July/August 2015 issue.

THE EDITORS PRIZE FOR FEATURE ARTICLE $1,000 awarded to Jenny Zhang for her essay “How It Feels” in the July/August 2015 issue.

THE EDITORS PRIZE FOR REVIEWING $1,000 awarded to Maya Catherine Popa for “Forever Writing from Ireland,” her review of The Architect’s Dream of Winter by Billy Ramsell, This Is Yarrow by Tara Bergin, Scapegoat by Alan Gillis, and Clasp by Doireann Ní Ghríofa in the September 2015 issue.

The prizes are organized and administered by the Poetry Foundation in Chicago, publisher of Poetry magazine. Read these winning entries and browse all past issues of Poetry magazine since 1912 online.

American Life in Poetry :: Robert King

American Life in Poetry: Column 546
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

They say that when undergoing cancer treatment, the patient’s attitude is all-important. Here Robert King, a poet now living in Colorado, looks with wit and bemusement at his chemotherapy. His most recent book is Some of These Days, (Conundrum Press, 2013).

The Cancer Port

It’s called a port, a harbor, haven, home,
a city on the coast of my chest opened
for a passage into my heart—which we say
is where emotions live—and it’s embedded,

slipped into a shallow nest of flesh, a bump,
a lump under the skin on the right so
the narrow street can reach the marketplace
of the aorta, receptive to any

incoming ship, needle, boat, barge, unloading
its spices, crates of dates, barrels of poisons,
Etoposide phosphate, amethyst, amaranth,
Cisplatin, amphorae of wine and olives.

I carry it secretly under my skin
because it is easier. I carry
everything under my skin, so lightly
I barely notice, watching from the ramparts

the dangerous rocky anchorage below
where goods and evils, bundled together
and tied, arrive, waiting to be unloaded
and poured out into a welcoming country.

We do not accept unsolicited submissions. 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 ©2015 by Robert W. King, “Embedding the Cancer Port,” from Nimrod International Journal, (58.2, 2015). Poem reprinted by permission of Robert W. King and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2015 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.

Young Irish Poets in Poetry

poetry-v206-n5-september-october-2015Poetry’s September 2015 issue celebrates Young Irish Poets, the first Irish-themed issue in twenty years. Editor Patrick Cotter reveals a note about the last Irish issue:

One notable difference between this issue and the Contemporary Irish Poetry issue of 1995 is how evenly women are represented. In 1995, out of forty poets and translators presented, only six were women.

Yikes. But it’s great to see a change throughout the years and have a more evenly represented section of young Irish poets in this issue.

And with the new Playlist feature on the Poetry Foundation blog, I’m hoping this issue has accompanying music available soon.

Tampa Book Arts Kickstarter

richard-mathews-letterpressThe Tampa Book Arts Studio has launched its first-ever Kickstarter campaign for a project that brings an unpublished story of notable American woodcut artist J. J. Lankes into print in a limited letterpress edition.

“In 1950, nearing the end of his career as an illustrator and woodcut artist, Lankes wrote an allegorical fable that takes place in the lives of two mice, a story that emphasizes the snares of materialism versus the redeeming strength of love and forgiveness. Lankes also completed two illustrations to accompany it, but both the story and the cuts were set aside. They were never published or even publicly known, and they were nearly lost.” (TBAS blog)

The TBAS is home to Lankes’s c. 1845 Hoe Washington hand press, No. 3126, on which he proofed and printed his blocks for Robert Frost and others. Now, Director Dr. Richard Mathews is overseeing theprint production of Lankes’s story, The Rich Mouse, with illustrations. The book will be set in a special casting “Village” private press typeface in celebration of the 150th anniversary of its creator, Frederic W. Goudy.

Clearly, there is much to celebrate here! And donors can get in on the celebration by contributing to the Kickstarter campaign and receiving some excellent premiums – including a limited letterpress edition of the book itself, broadsides, and a companion paperback copy The Rich Mouse.

Glimmer Train June Fiction Open Winners :: 2015

Glimmer Train has just chosen the winning stories for their June Fiction Open competition. This competition is held twice a year. Stories generally range from 2000-6000 words, though up to 20,000 is fine. The next Fiction Open will take place in December. Glimmer Train’s monthly submission calendar may be viewed here.

Caleb-LeisureFirst place: Caleb Leisure [pictured], of Martinez, CA, wins $2500 for “Atlantic on Sunday.” His story will be published in Issue 97 of Glimmer Train Stories.

Second place: Steven Polansky, of Appleton, WI, wins $1000 for “Obsequies” and publication in a future issue of Glimmer Train Stories.

Third place: Andrew Robinson, of Singapore, wins $600 for “Greater Love.” His story will also be published in a future issue of Glimmer Train Stories, increasing his prize to $700.

A PDF of the Top 25 winners can be found here.

Changes at Arroyo

arroyo-v7-spring-2015Arroyo presents their first drama piece in their Spring 2015 issue: “Creation of Myself” written by the Costa Rican epic poet, Eunice Odio, and translated by Keith Ekiss. From The Fire’s Journey, a four-part epic poem, the selection follows poet-hero Ion as he prepares to enter the world.

The issue with this “first” for Arroyo also brings around a “last.” Editor Christopher Morgan says good-bye in his Editor’s Note, and Lenae Souza will be stepping in as Editor for Issue 8, set to come out in Spring 2016.

Committing Theft with Tin House Issue 65

tinhouse-v17-n1-fall-2015The newest issue of Tin House focuses on the theme of Theft. Kevin Young “looks at how thievery is done well (Bob Dylan) and not so well (Jonah Lehrer).” Mary Ruefle and Erika Metiner take and take apart writing in their erasure poetry and Sarah Dohrmann revisits the 1982 kidnapping of John David Gosch.

From the editor’s note:

We sent out a call for short essays about memorable thefts, and it is an honor to have the call answered by the doyen of crime writers, Mary Higgins Clark, alongside Alissa Nutting, George Singleton, and Laura Lippman.

And it’s only appropriate that Martin Wittfooth’s “Loot Bag” dons the cover of this issue: a pelican with its bill filled with the stolen treasures of trash and childhood toys.

Prayers for the Living

Prayers for the Living is a sprawling novel, a family epic. Written by the late Alan Cheuse, who was a commentator for NPR, his vast conversational experience is apparent throughout the book, which is told through conversation, narrated by a woman named Minnie Bloch, who chronicles the life of her grandson, Manny, and his joys, his struggles, and his demons. Continue reading “Prayers for the Living”

Illocality

Joseph Massey mentions in the refreshingly spare notes of his fourth collection Illocality that he first encountered his title word in the Emily Dickinson poem “A nearness to Tremendousness.” Dickinson is an apt predecessor for a poet of such deliberate cerebralness. Yet, for his fine command of image, so is William Carlos Williams, or any number of Asian short-form poets. Indeed it is the relationship between logic and image, mind and world, that drives these poems so evenly through their inquiries, that most characterizes their productive tensions. “We think / ourselves here,” Massey writes to close the opening poem “Parse.” Continue reading “Illocality”

The Guilty

The Guilty by Juan Villoro is the only book of fiction translated into English by this Mexican writer of short stories, novels, plays, essays, and screen scripts. He has been given the Herralde Award in Spain, the Anton Artaud award in France and short-listed for the Reezzori Prize in Italy. In this book of short stories, the individual is in the new global world order, navigating the culture of signs, copies, media, and signifiers of commercial production. Each story is told from a first person point of view, but the “I” does not belong to a specific character with a name, the “I” a transient “I” living in the world through image-manufactured phenomena. Continue reading “The Guilty”

Love, Sex, and 4-H

I hate sewing. My mother loves it. To save money during my elementary and middle school years, I wore several of her handmade outfits enduring the shaming glances of classmates who, by the mid-80s, were sporting Guess jeans and Ralph Lauren t-shirts. Unlike Oomen’s adolescent experience, 4-H was less cool during mine, nevertheless, my mother enrolled me in a local club at age eleven so I could learn to make my own skirts and, to this day, I can sew a wicked tunnel stitch (though I seldom find good reason to exercise this skill). Continue reading “Love, Sex, and 4-H”

1001 Facts of Prehistoric Life

You might want to bone up on the Arabian Nights stories, particularly Scheherazade and her sister Dinarzade’s tale, before delving into Jo Ann Clark’s poetic take on the siblings. In 1001 Facts of Prehistoric Life, Clark’s first book, she mixes the fable with some prehistoric fellows and a dash of mythology to present a really interesting set of works. Confession: I had to look up some words, such as viviparity, monotreme, Hypohippus, Merychippus, and mokoro. But once that was in order, a second reading of Clark’s book brought it to life. Continue reading “1001 Facts of Prehistoric Life”

One Morning—

Wolff’s One Morning— sat in my possession in a very raw state. The captivating parts of the poems were laid out and exposed. It was easy to see the mechanics and the utility of every phoneme and word. This is a highly refined piece of work from a woman very much in control of her craft. The level of Rebecca Wolff’s control shines through in the entire piece. There is juxtaposition in each sentence and stanza. “Traveller, / Your journey has been long // and sectional.” Those introductory lines in “Arcadia (et in . . . est)” bear the weight of repetition. They are full of heart and compassion, yet still quite cerebral. There are always dualities to be explored and explained. Wolff demonstrates the relation between the two as often as she can locate it: “By night everything seems impossible // By day, by extension, everything: possible.” Continue reading “One Morning—”

Sentences and Rain

Elaine Equi’s latest book, Sentences and Rain, feels like a confident drift. There is so much control and purpose in the playful word ideas. She must be listed among many of the greats. The insights into humanity that are contained in each and every poem remind the reader of the wonder tucked in every corner of life. The words and format are gentle and full of utility. This is the way of those who hold the passage. Equi has pushed her pen for many years. The development is original and organic. One need not read Equi’s previous writing to get the impression that this is a writer and an observer of life in the peak of their critique. Continue reading “Sentences and Rain”

Story’s Monsters

storyStory’s second print issue is themed “The Monsters.” The double-sided issue feels like a literary preparation for Halloween, from Lincoln Michel’s horror-ified authors and Dorothy Tse’s “Woman Fish” on Side A, to the Tastoane masks of Corinne Lee’s essay “Kissing the Monster” on Side B.

Allison Campbell edits the Hybrid Poetry portfolio on Side B and says, “Inside are works of art with two minds but, essentially one body. They create a new space between image and word, and ask to be experience with slight divisions of mind but unity of sense,” the mythological two-headed snake Amphisbaena brought to life and wrapping up the issue. Pick up a copy and get a little creeped out, or head over to the Story website for online content.

Everywhere Stories

The world seems bigger than what it is. The twenty pieces of short fiction in Everywhere Stories reminds us of this as it closes the gap between countries and cultures, successfully condensing 24,901 miles into a 234 page book. Forget language barriers, plane tickets for the price of a new car, or time constraints—it’s possible to travel the world without ever leaving the comfort of your favorite reading nook. Continue reading “Everywhere Stories”

Books :: Able Muse Book Award

cause-for-concern-carrie-shipersWinner of the 2014 Able Muse Book Award, Cause for Concern by Carrie Shipers is now available. From the publisher’s website: “Full of incisive meditations on frailties and fortitude often delivered with visceral honesty, Cause for Concern is spellbinding from start to finish.”

Order a print or digital copy of Cause for Concern from Able Muse’s website.

The Modern Dickens Project

The Modern Dickens Project starts by posting an opening chapter online then invites other writers to continue the story by submitting the next chapter in the developing story month-by-month for the next twelve months, resulting in a thirteen chapter book. The curators behind this project are Chris Draper, Executive Director; Rachel Vogel, Managing Editor; Kali Van Baale, Editorial Advisor; Tracey Kelley and Murl Pace, Editorial Board.

Starting in 2011, the project posts a starting chapter by an established guest author, wetting the “tone and style of the following chapters.” While supported by the Iowa Arts Council, submissions are open to all writers; however, the overall story “must be distinctively Iowan.”

Submissions are due by the 21 of each month with the winning chapter selected and published online by the first of the next month to keep the story contributions going.

Previous Modern Dickens Project books are The Devil is Done Sinning, Defining Darrell, and Woman, Regardless. Each is available in paperback and kindle formats.

Able Muse 2015 Winners

Able Muse is pleased to announce the winners of the Write Prize for poetry & fiction. The winning writer and the winning poet will each receive a $500 prize.

Write Prize for Fiction
Final Judge: Eugenia Kim
Winner: Andrea Witzke Slot – “After Reading the News Story of a Woman Who Attempted to Carry Her Dead Baby onto an Airplane”

Here is what Eugenia Kim has to say about Andrea Witzke Slot’s winning story: The first line of this story presents a character, setting and situation with a rare and satisfying command of storytelling. Using perfect details balanced against rapid pacing, the voice of this writing has an air of stern and simple elegance, and reveals how the narrator’s experience of a newspaper story becomes a parallel challenge to her own ambivalence about motherhood and love. In the way that great stories open larger questions, within its brief timeframe this story questions culture and society, and how we are so quick and sure to judge the tragedies of others, yet with less capacity to examine the perils in our own judgments.

Honorable Mention
James Cooper – “Strangers on a Cliff”
Albert Liau – “With the Clarity of Hindsight”

Shortlist
Scott Sharpe – “Dance Among the Dogwoods”

* * * *

Write Prize for Poetry
Final Judge: H.L. Hix
Winner: Elise Hempel – “Cathedral Peppersauce”

Here is what H.L. Hix has to say about Elise Hempel’s winning poem: The formal qualities of “Cathedral Peppersauce” are elegant: slant rhymes throughout, until the final couplet clicks the poem closed with a perfect rhyme. Even more elegant, though, is the poem’s way of grasping the beauty of its subject, by looking simultaneously at the bottle and through it into history, from which it recuperates, through sympathy and particularity, a life lost long ago.

Finalists
Elise Hempel – “Jockey”
Jeanne Wagner – “On Watching a Cascade Commercial”

Shortlist
Jim Bartruff – “Meditation on the Wake of the Winslow Ferry”
Midge Goldberg – “On Learning the Harvest Moon Is an Optical Illusion”
Trish Lindsey Jaggers – “Jaybirds Feeding on Robins”
Miriam O’Neal – “Bottle Journal ? Meditation on Transformation”
Gabriel Spera – “Blessed”
Marty Steyer – “The King of Lightning”
M.K. Sukach – “About an Alligator”

Some Literary News Links :: August 2015

David Ulin and Carolyn Kellogg offer readers 10 ways to explore the complicated legacy of Watts through literature on the LA Times Jacket Copy.

Philip N. Meyer, professor at Vermont Law School and author of Storytelling for Lawyers, on How trials are more like plot-driven movies than character-driven novels.

Writer and activist Omer Aziz takes a look at What novels teacher us about life on the Huffington Post.

And several lists to support the need to read:

Top ten most chosen ‘must-reads’ by teachers

8 classic novels that will make you a better leader

President Obama’s Summer Reading List

2016 Centenary Ireland’s Easter Rising

william-butler-yeatsIt’s a great time for fans of Yeats to plan a visit to Ireland as 2016 marks the centenary of Ireland’s 1916 Easter Rising, a key moment on Ireland’s path to independence. Programs are planned throughout the year in seven areas: State Ceremonial; Historical Reflection; An Teanga Bheo (The Living Language(; Youth and Imagination; Cultural Expression; Community Participation; and Global and Diaspora. In addition, the government is “providing enhanced visitor experiences and access to important locations related to the Rising or to events and people of that time,” such as the GPO Interpretative Center, Richmond Barracks,  National Concert Hall, Military Archives and more. The website has a PDF download of the events planned as well as regular updates online.

The Poetry Foundation has a full entry on William Butler Yeats’ “Easter, 1916” in which Ange Mlinko explores “how the conflict of a nation was camptuerd by a plitically reluctant poet.”

6×6 – Summer 2015

6X6 #32 begins with Lyn Hejinian’s “Illogically; Grievous,” a lengthy prose poem that ventures to ask “Where rest the increments of a human being’s life that’s not now soot in a circle?” It’s an apt place to begin the Summer 2015 issue, which reminds readers that we are small. Our lives are short. Our memories are mortal. And while the editors likely didn’t set out with the purpose of making readers feel inconsequential, there is a common (and often comforting) vein of self-awareness running through the issue. Continue reading “6×6 – Summer 2015”

Ecotone – Spring 2015

In 2005, Ecotone was created at UNC-Wilmington with the vision of “reimagining place.” Now in its nineteenth edition, the magazine has successfully navigated the literary landscape for a decade and continues to build on that original motive. In honor of the journal’s tenth anniversary, the Editorial team wanted to further explore its obsession with the “literal interpretations of place and explorations of the transition zones that defines us,” and investigate this in their art. The result of this lasting curiosity is a special issue that celebrates this natural human experience, and brings readers closer to the words on the page. Continue reading “Ecotone – Spring 2015”

The Kenyon Review – July/August 2015

Despite a couple brief hiatuses throughout its long history to stabilize the journal’s financial situation, The Kenyon Review remains a staple in the literary world and consistently publishes first-rate material. Many prominent writers have been featured over the years, from Flannery O’Connor to Robert Lowell. In this issue, there is fiction from Laura van den Berg, poems from Natalie Eilbert, and an essay by Floyd Collins, among others. The pieces go in many directions, but they tend to share the theme of the characters discovering more about themselves and the surrounding world. Continue reading “The Kenyon Review – July/August 2015”