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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!

Anisfield-Wolf Book Prize Winners

Winners of the 78th Annual Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards are:

• Laird Hunt, Kind One, Fiction
• Kevin Powers, The Yellow Birds, Fiction
• Eugene Gloria, My Favorite Warlord, Poetry
• Andrew Solomon, Far From the Tree, Nonfiction
• Wole Soyinka, Lifetime Achievement

Past winners include five writers who went on to win Nobel prizes – Nadine Gordimer, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Toni Morrison, Wole Soyinka, and Derek Walcott.

The Anisfield-Wolf winners will be honored in Cleveland Sept. 12 at a ceremony at the Ohio Theatre hosted by the Cleveland Foundation and emceed by Jury Chair Henry Louis Gates Jr. Poet Rita Dove, novelist Joyce Carol Oates, psychologist Steven Pinker, and historian Simon Schama also deliberate on the jury. The Cleveland Foundation has administered the book awards since 1963. They remain the only juried American literary competition devoted to recognizing books that have made an important contribution to society’s understanding of racism and the diversity of cultures. For additional information, including a complete list of winners, visit www.Anisfield-Wolf.org.

Haikus in Space

Looking for a wider audience for your work? Consider the stars. NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission is launching late in 2013, and NASA is running a contest for messages, in haiku form, to be sent onboard the craft. The contest is open to “everyone on planet Earth,” though participants must be 18 to sign up for an account and login (minors are encouraged to have a parent or teacher assist them).

Entries are accepted from May 1 to July 1, and from July 15-29, the public will vote to choose the top three messages. The names of all entrants will be written to a DVD that will be sent on the craft as well.

The goal of the MAVEN mission is to understand Mars’s upper atmosphere. The team also promotes education and outreach about science and space with students and the public.

Academy of Arts and Science New Members

Newly elected for membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in the Humanities and Arts class are novelist Martin Amis; novelist and essayist Wendell Berry; philosopher David Chalmers; director and actor Robert De Niro; Pulitzer Prize-winning poets Annie Dillard and U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey; actor Sally Field; Michael Fishbane, a scholar of Jewish studies; operatic soprano Renée Fleming; jazz musician Herbie Hancock; documentary filmmaker Albert Maysles; French history scholar Sarah Maza; linguist David Perlmutter; artist Judy Pfaff; Stuart Schwartz, a leading historian of colonial slavery; artist Yoshiaki Shimizu; and singer-songwriters Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen.

One of the nation’s most prestigious honorary societies, the Academy is also a leading center for independent policy research. Members contribute to Academy publications and studies of science and technology policy, energy and global security, social policy and American institutions, and the humanities, arts, and education.

“Election to the Academy honors individual accomplishment and calls upon members to serve the public good,” said Academy President Leslie C. Berlowitz. “We look forward to drawing on the knowledge and expertise of these distinguished men and women to advance solutions to the pressing policy challenges of the day.”

Resources for Parents Who Write

“Mother-Writers, Father-Writers and the End of a Literary Stigma” by Tanya Angell Allen, recently published in NewPages, explores the challenges parents who write face in balancing and maintaining both identities. Allen, a parent/writer herself, offers an array of resources for this growing readership who are also writers with their own perspectives to share.

LGBT Writers in Schools Program

Lambda Literary’s LGBT WRITERS IN SCHOOLS connects authors with classrooms via free Skype or in-class visits to discuss the author’s work and LGBT issues. Designed for teachers of high school classes, universities and colleges, and student organizations, the LGBT Writers in Schools program is an opportunity for writers to discuss their work openly with students and to encourage diversity not only in the students’ reading and writing lives, but also in society at large. This initiative will broaden the foundation of experience for students of Literature, Creative Writing, English, and Secondary Education.

GOALS
–To bring LGBT writers into high schools, colleges and universities to share their knowledge and experience in order to promote diversity and encourage understanding of the LGBT community.
–To enrich the high school, college and university English curriculum by incorporating and teaching LGBT texts in the classroom which will acknowledge LGBT writers’ contributions to literature.
–To foster an open environment to discuss LGBT issues and their impact on society and the individual through LGBT texts in a vibrant and moderated classroom atmosphere.
–Giving a voice to those who have long been silenced.

HOW DOES IT WORK?
The teacher will state which type of author she would like in one of four genres: Adult Fiction, YA Fiction, Poetry and Nonfiction/Memoir. Once the information is gathered from the teacher,  LGBT Writers in Schools will contact an author who would be a good fit. If they request a specific author, LGBT Writers in Schools will try to contact that author.

WHAT HAPPENS ONCE AN AUTHOR IS CHOSEN FOR THE TEACHER’S CLASS?
Once the author has agreed to do the visit, then an introduction is made between the author and the teacher via LGBT Writers in Schools. After the introduction is made, it is the responsibility of the teacher to work out the specifics of the visit (ie: date of visit, length of visit, in person or via Skype, etc).

WHAT HAPPENS DURING THE VISIT?
Teachers would assign the work of the author and once the class has read it, the author would do a twenty minute (or longer) Skype session with the class. Depending upon what the teacher and author discussed, the session can be as general or as specific as each would like. It is supposed to be fun, lively and educational.

WHY SHOULD I PARTICIPATE?
This is a really exciting venture for Lambda Literary Foundation and for the Gay Straight Educators Alliance. LGBT literature should be represented as one voice among the many in any contemporary curriculum. The way to help counter prejudice and bullying is through educating others and it is vital to support any efforts that would help achieve this goal. Opening up channels of communication definitely begins with understanding and what better way to understand the LGBT community than through literature.

HOW DO I SIGN UP?
Contact Monica Carter, Program Coordinator, LGBT Writers in Schools Program: mcarter[at]lambdaliterary[dot]org

WHAT STUDENTS ARE SAYING
“The lessons learned in the class are universal; they can easily be applied to any setting. The theme of communal acceptance affects everybody.”
“This is a great program. It is beneficial to students.”
“I learned empathy towards LGBT issues and the author exceeded my expectations.”

SOME OF OUR AUTHORS
Nancy Garden, author of Annie on My Mind
Charles Rice-Gonzalez, author of Chulito
Julie Anne Peters, author of several Young Adult books including Luna and By the Time You Read This, I’ll Be Dead
Nina Revoyr, author of four novels including Necessary Hunger and The Age of Dreaming
Nick Burd, author of Vast Fields of the Ordinary
Catherine Ryan Hyde, author of Pay It Forward (novel for the basis of movie of same title), Let Me Go, Jumpstart the World, and many other young adult novels
Noel Alumit, author of Talk to the Moon and Letters to Montgomery Cliff

Major Jackson Guest Edits

The Spring 2013 issue is guest edited by Major Jackson who said work with the collection was “restorative and personally nurturing.” The issue features work from Martín Espada, Tony Hoagland, Sharon Olds, Carl Phillips, Tracy K. Smith, Laura Kasischke, and many more.”

In his introduction, Jackson writes, “The authors in this issue entertain, bring the news, and elegantly sing the underlying complexities of our existence. However, maybe even more notably, as Spicer suggests: against all that alienates us from each other, these authors, with their counterpunching visions and imaginative uses of language, render us more a community—flawed beyond belief, yet whose humanity is all the more striking because of our joyous nature to find redemption, to grasp and render all that is sublime, beautiful, and truthful.”

For the rest of the introduction and to see and read snippets from the issue, visit www.pshares.org.

2012 Alice Hoffman Prize Winner

Ploughshares has announced Karl Taro Greenfeld as the recipient of the first annual Alice Hoffman Prize for Fiction for his short story, “Strawberries,” which appeared in the Winter 2012 issue of Ploughshares, guest edited by Ladette Randolph and John Skoyles. The $1,000 award, given by acclaimed writer and Ploughshares advisory editor Alice Hoffman, honors the best piece of fiction published in the journal during the previous year.

New Lit on the Block :: A NARROW FELLOW

A NARROW FELLOW is a new biannual, print, poetry magazine that takes its name from an Emily Dickinson poem, later named by publishers “The Snake.” This poem is about “…a narrow fellow in the grass…” After coming up with a list of 40 possible names, Editors Mark Lee Webb and Molly McCormack (husband and wife) sat down to make a final decision: “The name we settled on at the end of the candle and the bottom of the bottle of wine (a Pinot Noir) was A NARROW FELLOW,” says Webb.

“We wanted to connect more with ‘The Tribe,’ make contacts with established voices,” he says. “We also recognized the difficulty new voices have getting published . . . It’s often a very closed clique . . .” Knowing this frustration, they wanted to make a place for these new voices to shine.

The magazine features mostly poems that fit on one page and that “tell engaging stories, that use vivid images, and that sing melodies that beg you to come back for more.” Web says that they don’t publish experiment, but they also don’t publish traditional forms with measured meter and end-rhymes. “We publish innovators (which is different than experimenters, to a degree). Webb really knows the kinds of poetry they want, and the kind they don’t want: “We publish lots of metaphor. We publish poems that tell a unique story in a unique way. We don’t publish poems about writing poetry. We don’t publish poems about the meaning of the universe. We publish mysterious poems that are not confusing. They don’t tie a bow around their endings, and they make the reader work a bit. But they are not un-solvable puzzles.”

Each author that they feature has at least two poems, “so the reader can get a better sense of their voice.” Webb says that they event rejected some excellent poets because they only sent one poem, or only one remarkable poem in the set.

The first issue features well-known poets Jeffrey Skinner, Mark Brazaitis, Fred Smock, James Harms, and Lynnell Edwards. The issue also includes Karen Schubert, who recently won an Ohio Arts Council grant and teaches at Youngstown State. Webb says, “Her poem ‘Toby Tyler’ is remarkable.” Webb says they are excited to be one of the first magazines to publish the work of Jerriod Avant, an MFA student “that you’ll be hearing a lot about in the next few years.” The issue also features the work of emerging voice such as Caitlin Thomson and Valentina Cano. Webb says that the next issue will feature double the amount of poets that were published in the inaugural issue, which was seventeen.

In the future, A NARROW FELLOW plans to publish a theme issue that will pair pieces of artwork with poems written about the art. Webb says that in addition to publishing the issue, they will hang the art and poems for a show at a gallery.

For information on submitting or subscribing to the magazine, please visit their website.

Beard of Bees Offers Chandler Lewis Chapbook

Beard of Bees offers a free download of their newest publication Pixel’s Minutiae by Chandler Lewis.

Beard of Bees is an independent, free press based in Oak Park, Illinois and Paris, France, that makes all of its publications available for free download and free redistribution, “since the alleged ownership of language and thought is a revolting legal fiction.”

Beard of Bees is “committed to publishing quality chapbooks by liberated poets from Anywhere.” They “do not discriminate against non-human or post-human artists,” and feature works of Gnoetry: “an on-going experiment in human/computer collaborative poetry composition.”

New Fandom and Neomedia Studies Journal

The Phoenix Papers is a free, online, peer-reviewed, open-access journal of fandom and neomedia studies from Fandom and Neomedia Studies (FANS) Association.

The editors welcome articles on fandom and media topics as well as reviews of anime, manga, books, movies, video games, TV series, web series, musical albums, performances, and other pop culture media products. They encourage scholars at all levels of achievement, whether affiliated with an institution or independent, to contribute to our journal. Submissions are accepted throughout the year with quarterly publication (January, April, July which also includes their conference proceedings, and October).

The FANS Conference is hosted and sponsored by A-Kon, the longest continually running anime and manga convention in North America.

The Phoenix Papers
Vol 1 No 1
Table of Contents

“Film Review The Runaways” by Penny Spirou

“Game Review DrawSomething” by Amanda Murphyao

“Book Review Fandom at the Crossroads” by Margo Collins

“Distinctive Language of Animation” by Hiren Solanki

“The Evolution of Gaming and How It Affected Society” by Donovan Cape

“The Evolution of Massively Multiplayer Online Gaming” by Gregory Dugger

“Are Pokemon Slaves or Willing Companions” by Andrew Tague

“Collaboration beyond the Game” by Diana Hubbard

“Gender, Sexuality, and Cosplay” by Rachel Leng

“Transnational Television, International Anxieties” by Jessica Julia McGill Peters

“Bringing Smexy Back” by Elizabeth Birmingham

Snail Mail Review includes a Review

With the Spring 2013 issue of Snail Mail Review, the editors are happy to announce a new section of their magazine: reviews. This issue features a review of John F. Buckley’s first solo collection of poetry, Sky Sandwiches.

This issue also announces that they now have an official website (instead of just their Facebook page): http://snailmailreview.com

May 3 World Press Freedom Day

World Press Freedom Day (WPFD) celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2013. It was first officially proclaimed during the United Nations General Assembly in 1993. Ever since then, UNESCO as the UN agency with the mandate to promote freedom of expression and its corollary, freedom of the press, has been promoting these fundamental rights in every region of the world.

New Lit on the Block :: Radio Silence

Radio Silence is a new print magazine that focuses on literature and rock & roll. Two to three issues come out a year, including essays, interviews, fiction, poetry, and illustrations. Run as a nonprofit, the publication raises money to help buy books and musical instruments for kids.

The editors include Dan Stone, editor-in-chief; Kim Gooden, copy editor; Casey Burns, art director; and Brandon Herring, design director.

The first issue runs about 150 pages and includes fiction by Daniel Handler and F. Scott Fitzgerald; poetry by David Mason and Edna St. Vincent Millay; essays by Kim Addonizio, Geoff Dyer, Ted Gioia, Adam Haslett, Blake Hazard, Sam Lipsyte, Adrian McKinty, Jon Mooallem, Kyle Morton, Zach Rogue, A. E. Stallings, Jim White, and Tobias Wolff; and an interview between Rick Moody and Tanya Donelly.

Issue 02 runs 224 pages and features Bruce Springsteen, Robert Pinsky, Ray Bradbury, Edith Wharton, Dana Gioia, Don Carpenter, Andrew Beaujon, Jennie Fields, Adrian McKinty, Myla Goldberg, Zach Rogue, Benjamin Hedin, Tift Merritt, Rick Moody, Thao Nguyen, David Remnick, Tim Riley, Siegfried Sassoon, and Jim White.

They also put on live events with writers and musicians including a new live series in San Francisco. Issue 3 will appear in Fall 2013.

Radio Silence does not accept unsolicited submissions. For more information about subscribing or purchasing an issue, please visit their website.

2013 Tusculum Review Prizes

The most recent issue of The Tusculum Review features the winners of the 2013 Fiction and Poetry Prizes. Fiction was judged by Kate Bernheimer, and poetry was judged by Nate Pritts.

Fiction
Winner
Lynn Stegner: “Rogue”
Finalists
Jessica Alexander: “Psychopathia Sexualis: A Coming of Age Story”
Judith E. Johnson: “The Horse on the Skyscraper”

Poetry
Winner
Caroline Crew: “I Am Not Against Ambience”
Finalists
Ashley Seitz Kramer: “The Better to See You My Dear”
Erin L. Miller: “Aubade”
Nate Pillman: “Physics”
Leslie Williams: “Safe in the Ground”

Read more about the contest and the winners by clicking here.

Rustbelt Moves to Woodstock

What happens when the director of a writer’s workshop moves to a new state and takes the workshop with her? A simple name change, but the same great workshop! Formerly the Rustbelt Roethke Writers’ Retreat in Michigan, Judy Kerman, owner/publisher of Mayapple Press, has made the move to upstate New York and renamed the event The Woodstock Mayapple Writers’ Retreat. Promoted as a workshop “designed for the ‘mid-career’ literary writer,” the retreat took place at Saginaw Valley State University in Michigan from 2003 to 2011. Now located in Byrdcliffe Guild in Woodstock, NY, a historic arts colony and former home of Edna St. Vincent Millay, in the beautiful Catskill Mountains, the format remains the same: “a professional-level writers’ retreat and peer workshop with a comfortable, egalitarian atmosphere at a modest cost.” The workshop runs from June 30 – August 5, 2013. For more information, visit the Mayapple Press website.

Let Me Clear My Throat

“Once the Voyager was loaded with its telemetry modulation units and spectrometers and radioisotope thermoelectric generators,” writes Elena Passarello in Let Me Clear My Throat, “we then made the decision to affix human voices to the contraption’s flanks.” This image of singing voices rocketed beyond the edges of our solar system vivifies Passarello’s major concerns in her debut essay collection. Here, she examines the human voice, what it represents and communicates, and the global cultures and historical periods that have highly valued it. In these lively, memorable essays, Passarello describes the voice in different settings, explains what the voice communicates, and awakens her readers to the voices surrounding them. Continue reading “Let Me Clear My Throat”

So Recently Rent a World

Andrei Codrescu is a grown-up punk kid who cherishes the pleasures of life. Reading his poems is to enter into the mind of a brilliant classroom prankster (and at least part-time sex junkie). There’s a lot going on, and he has a lot to say about all of it. Zany, off-the-wall goofiness finds its place alongside serious astute reflection. This New and Selected is all the more cherished for exhibiting the range of the poet’s self-transformation over the course of his lifetime. This remarkable range is significantly reflected by way of the mini-introductions Codrescu offers before each book selection presented here, ranging from bibliographic comments to personal memoir of the particular time and place of the original composition-specific poems. As a result, this volume comes to represent Codrescu’s shot at a tour-de-force performance. Continue reading “So Recently Rent a World”

Ex-Boyfriend on Aisle 6

In the nineteen stories from Ex-Boyfriend on Aisle 6, Susan Jackson Rodgers creates strategically placed portals for readers to enter the private world of her characters as they embark on the difficult work of being human. This may sound like the ordinary job of short fiction, but often Rodgers imposes intriguing acts of karmic justice to waken her characters out of any chance of going about business as usual. Continue reading “Ex-Boyfriend on Aisle 6”

Beat Poetry

Any collection of poetry and prose tells a particular story. It speaks to the influences, the narrative threads, and the aesthetic focus of the collector. The collection—the set of prosaic curios—provides the reader with the story the collector (the anthologizer) has pulled together to display. Beat Poetry is a particularly interesting collection of poetry—one part encyclopedia, one part timeline, one part showcase for the poetry itself, and one part literary critique. Beat Poetry is an assortment of moments from the Beat movement, carefully arranged by poet and songwriter Larry Beckett. Beckett’s collection celebrates the classic (from “Howl” to Jack Kerouac) and then moves on to Gregory Corso’s “BOMB,” John Wieners, and others. Although it is difficult to follow a single or specific narrative thread of the anthology, what is unambiguously clear from the collection is the diversity and freedom in poetic form that Beckett highlights. Continue reading “Beat Poetry”

The Heroin Chronicles

If President Obama created a cabinet position for a Department of Heroin, he would no doubt appoint Jerry Stahl to run it. Chances of this happening are slim, so instead we have Stahl editing this wide-ranging anthology of pieces that, as the title suggests, chronicles the joys, pitfalls, and harrowing nature of the American narcotic experience. Continue reading “The Heroin Chronicles”

Last Friends

If you have not read Jane Gardam, you’re in for a treat. Her fans will be delighted that this British writer—the only two-time Whitbread Award winner—has a third novel in her Old Filth trilogy, Last Friend. Old Filth is Sir Edward Feathers’s nickname, an acronym for “Failed in London, Try Hong Kong.” Feathers is a judge for engineering and industrial suits in said city. His by-gone era, the Empire’s end, is represented by old people, his friends, and his memories, which are unsentimental although nostalgic. The characters are Dickensian quirky, some even with actual Dickens names. Readers will get more out of Last Friends having first read Old Filth and Man in the Wooden Hat, though all are companion pieces rather than sequels. The center of the trilogy is Old Filth and his marriage to Betty; the first book is told from his point of view, the second from Betty’s, and this new book from that of Veneering, Old Filth’s professional and romantic rival. Continue reading “Last Friends”

Elizabeth Bishop in Brazil and After

George Monteiro’s series of critical essays investigating Elizabeth Bishop’s work during and outside of her time living in Brazil is geared toward readers already familiar with Bishop. Divided into two sections, “Brazil” and “Elsewhere,” Monteiro’s essays range from a few pages that briefly analyze a single poem or event to larger works that encompass multiple poems, collected letters and correspondence, and Bishop’s biography. Astonishingly comprehensive, Elizabeth Bishop in Brazil and After manages a thorough undertaking of situating Bishop’s life to her work through careful close readings and archival research in order for the already well-equipped Bishop reader to better understand her work. Continue reading “Elizabeth Bishop in Brazil and After”

The Dervish

Turkey is in turmoil. World War I has just ended and the mighty Ottoman Empire is on the brink of collapse. The empire is being carved up as Allied protectorates. In a world of foggy truths, mistrust, deceit, and the weariness of war enters a young American widow, who is fleeing from memories of a distant past and wounds still raw from the death of a loved one. Continue reading “The Dervish”

Bite

In the editor’s note, Katey Schultz points out that to her, the best flash fiction “mark[s] a moment in the story with such vivid texture, the reader has no choice but to feel it right between the eyes.” And that is a great description of all of the pieces included in this collection. In each one, you can pinpoint the exact moment where it twists, revealing a deeper meaning, a hidden truth, or a surprising plot change. Continue reading “Bite”

The Sultan of Byzantium

“What are you, some kind of aristocratic character escaped from a romantic novel?” asks the comely professor of the narrator/protagonist, who fits this description so perfectly. He also may or may not be The Sultan of Byzantium of Selçuk Altun’s absorbing novel. The longest-lasting and most satisfying intrigue is that readers never learn the name of the narrator, a dashing economics professor, until the book’s conclusion. How it is revealed, resolving many a loose end, is well worth the journey getting there. Continue reading “The Sultan of Byzantium”

Poems

I’ve found more often than not among poetry fans the myth of Villon the “criminal poet” usually exists far in advance of any experience reading the actual work. Much of this is a result of the general lackadaisical attention given in our day and age to searching out older texts on our own to enlarge our reading. We tend to hear from others more than discover for ourselves, taking what we hear as valid evidence rather than looking for ourselves. Books such as this one are needed opportunities to rectify this behavior. Continue reading “Poems”

Safe as Houses

In her debut short story collection, Safe as Houses, Marie-Helene Bertino fills the pages with wit and warmth in her nine stories. Bertino, who served as the associate editor of One Story for six years, shows good mastery of the short story in her unique storylines—such as dating the idea of your significant other, or a lonely alien coming to Earth to learn more about humans. Continue reading “Safe as Houses”

Understanding Poetry Through Translation

From scholarly publisher, Brill, Between the Lines: Yang Lian’s Poetry through Translation by Cosima Bruno “illustrates how the study of translation can enhance our experience of reading poetry. By inquiring into the mutual dependence of the source text and its translation, the study offers both theoretical insights and methodological tools that bring in-depth stylistic analysis to bear on the translations as against the originals. Through such a process of discovery, Cosima Bruno elaborates a textual exegesis of the work by Yang Lian, one of the most translated, and critically acclaimed contemporary Chinese poets. This book thus reconciles the theory-practice divide in translation studies, as well as helps to dismantle the lingering Eurocentrism still present in the discipline.”

Mary Hood Special Feature

The new issue of The Georgia Review contains a special issue about Mary Hood (“How She Went Further”). The feature contains a piece of her fiction titled “Some Stranger’s Bed” alongside a lengthy interview conducted by William Walsh and titled “The Woman Who Almost Bolted.” This is followed by Hood’s “I Seem to Write You Everything: Selected Letters to Stanley W. Lindberg, 1982-89,” with an introduction by Douglas Carlson and commentary by Stephen Corey, and Hood’s “Breaking It” essay.

The issue also features an essay by Nancy Geyer; fiction by Lynn Schmeidler and Ginger Eager; poetry by David Clewell, Andrea Hollander, Lola Haskins, Alice Friman, Albert Goldbarth, and Anna Silver; art by Amze Emmons; and reviews by Kevin Clark, Matthew Bryant Cheney, and Gary Kerley.

Concrete Highway Deal

Blue Cubicle Press announced the release of their new issue of Workers Write! Tales from the Concrete Highway, stories and poems from the driver’s point of view.

Unfortunately, the editors note that a number of copies they received from the printer have a “small but annoying mark on two of the pages. Nothing major, doesn’t take away from the readability of the page, just kind of looks like a skid mark, which, I guess, is wholly appropriate for this issue.”

Replacements have been ordered, and “clean” copies can be purchased for $10 (also available in PDF and Kindle versions). But, for $4.50, the cost of postage and envelope, readers can order a “slightly marked” copy.

Blue Cubicle Press is collecting stories and poems for their tenth issue of Workers Write! More Tales from the Cubicle.

Memoirs: Is Enough, Enough?

“Are there too many memoirs out there? Are too many being written? Is enough, enough?” writes Joe Mackall, editor at River Teeth in the most recent issue. “After all, for the last twenty-five years we’ve read memoirs on every conceivable subject. Some great, some good, some fair, some poor . . . I’m treating my question rhetorically, of course.” He suggests that nobody ever questions if people should stop writing poems, plays, or movies, so the same question should not be asked of memoirs. Yet, critics do. “Those of us who love memoir know how some critics appear to delight in deriding them,” he says.

What probably doesn’t come as a surprise, Mackall answers his question with a resounding no. “I need more than family stories. I need them all. I need the lives of others. And yes, all great art gives us these lives all the time. But it seems to be the special province of memoir, its simplest and purest objective.”

This Spring 2013 issue features the work of Amy A. Whitcomb, Kirk Wilson, Sonja Livingston, Glenn Moomau, Philip Gerard, Marilyn Bousquin, Kathryn Wilder, Richard Goodman, Jackson Connor, and A. Sandosharaj.

Glimmer Train New Writers Winners :: 2013

Glimmer Train has just chosen the winning stories for their February Short Story Award for New Writers. This competition is held quarterly and is open to all writers whose fiction has not appeared in a print publication with a circulation greater than 5000. The next Short Story Award competition will take place in May. Glimmer Train’s monthly submission calendar may be viewed here.

1st place goes to Robert Powers of Shenzhen, China. [Photo credit: Susan Barker] He wins $1500 for “Maghreb and the Sea” and his story will be published in the Spring/Summer 2014 issue of Glimmer Train Stories, out next March. This is Robert’s first fiction publication.

2nd place goes to Christopher Lukas of Sparkill, NY. He wins $500 for “Fifty-nine Approaches to the Novel.”

3rd place goes to Val Emmich of Jersey City, NJ. He wins $300 for “Remember with Me.”

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

Deadline soon approaching! Family Matters: April 30

Glimmer Train hosts this competition twice a year, and first place has been increased to $1500 plus publication in the journal. It’s open to all writers for stories about families of all configurations. Most submissions to this category run 1200-6000 words, but can go up to 12,000. Click here for complete guidelines.

Lake Journal Closing its Doors

Issue 8 of Lake will be the last print issue published by the Lake Publishing Society. All of the issues will be digitized and made available in the UBCO cIRcle database. Anyone who has paid for subscriptions past issue 8 will be issued a refund or sent a back issue. Simply contact Lake at lake.journal@ubc.ca.

“We at Lake have enjoyed working with contributors and readers alike,” write the editors, “and it was with heavy hearts that we decided to cease publication. . . Lake Publishing Society will continue to exist and we look forward to publishing some limited edition works on the theme of art and environment. It is possible that we may continue with some kind of online presence with our website, as well, including publishing reviews and some artwork.”

MENUPOEMS

Alimentum: The Literature of Food online journal celebrate National Poetry Month each year with MENUPOEMS. This year they have selected poems related to a favorite restaurant (and have included links to those establishments). In addition to the 17 poets in the MENUPOEM feature, there is an additional sidebar of “Featurettes,” which includes videos, viseopoems, and a page of “secret foods” (what readers eat on the sly…).

A few of my favs include “In the Most Unlikely Places” the first part of a video by Jason Bell (Editor-in-Chief of The Columbia Review) as he explores ‘why he likes southern food,’ a video from a series created by Dutch artists Lernert & Sander of Arno Coenen explaining the “nature of his beer-centric multimedia project to his dad” while the two sit drinking homebrews, and the concrete poem “Bebe Coca-Cola” by Brazilian writer D

William H. Gass Interview: Sentenced to Depth

The Rain Taxi Review of Books Online Spring 2013 Edition offers readers a great special feature:  “Sentenced to Depth: An Interview with Willam H. Gass” interviewed by John Madera. The comprehensive (25,000 words!) interview is offered as a PDF chapbook, so it can be printed or read as an e-book. An excerpt of the interview appeared in the Rain Taxi Spring 2013 print edition, so this is a real treat to have access to the full text here. Thanks Rain Taxi!

Workshops, Conferences, Retreats – Oh my!

Looking for some writerly activities this summer? Check out NewPages Guide to Writing Conferences, Workshops, Retreats & Book & Literary Festivals – listed by state and date with hotlink and description. Sponsored listings include a page of easy-to-access essential info about the event. This page is regularly updated. If you know of an event we could list, please send an e-mail to: nicolefoor-at-newpages.com

Feature on James Dickey

The newest issue of Five Points contains a special feature dedicated to writer James Dickey. Darren Wang contributes an interview with him, conducted in November 1996, just two months before he passed. In an introduction to the interview, Wang writes, “Even now, listening to the tape makes me cringe. A man of his stature would have been justified in sending me packing, and that’s where the generosity really showed. Time and time again, he latched on to anything in my questions which would allow him to ignore my ignorance.” The interview discusses writing of the South and the writers that had come before him.

Following the interview are reflections on James Dickey by Christopher Dickey, Ward Briggs, and Ernest Suarez. These reflections also carry photographs of Dickey at different stages of his life.

The table of contents announces that Kevin Cantwell is the winner of the Five Points James Dickey Prize for Poetry, and Cantwell contributes 3 poems to the issue.

Celebrate National Nurses Week with CNF

National Nurses Week is celebrated annually from May 6, also known as National Nurses Day, through May 12, the birthday of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing.

Celebrate the nurses in your life with this new collection for Creative Nonfiction: I Wasn’t Strong Like This When I Started Out: True Stories of Becoming a Nurse, Edited by Lee Gutkind.

From the CNF website: This collection of true narratives reflects the dynamism and diversity of nurses, who provide the first vital line of patient care. Here, nurses remember their first “sticks,” first births, and first deaths, and reflect on what gets them through long, demanding shifts, and keeps them in the profession.

The stories reveal many voices from nurses at different stages of their careers: One nurse-in-training longs to be trusted with more “important” procedures, while another questions her ability to care for nursing home residents. An efficient young emergency room nurse finds his life and career irrevocably changed by a car accident. A nurse practitioner wonders whether she has violated professional boundaries in her care for a homeless man with AIDS, and a home care case manager is the sole attendee at a funeral for one of her patients.

What connects these stories is the passion and strength of the writers, who struggle against burnout and bureaucracy to serve their patients with skill, empathy, and strength.

One-Year CWF Appointment OK State U

Oklahoma State University one-year appointment beginning August 2013. MFA or PhD in Creative Writing, or related area. 3-2 teaching load. Appropriate terminal degree, appropriate credentials, significant national publication, and demonstrated teaching excellence required. Additional publication and teaching expertise in creative non-fiction desirable. Salary competitive and commensurate with experience. OSU offers the BA, MA, and the PhD in English with emphasis in creative writing. For further information on the department see our webpage at http://english.okstate.edu. To ensure full consideration, applications should be received by May 1, 2013.

NewPages Updates :: Lit Mags Galore!

The first quarter of 2013, NewPages welcomed a robust selection of new publications to The NewPages Big List of Literary Magazines:

Abmush Review Image – poetry, fiction, reviews, essays, art
Apeiron Review [O] – poetry, fiction, nonfiction, photography
ARDOR Literary Magazine [O] – fiction, nonfiction, short-shorts, poetry, artwork, photography
Berkeley Poetry Review Image
Brevity Poetry Review [O]
Brooklyner Literary [O] – fiction, nonfiction, poetry, art, reviews, interviews, sketches, translations, audio, video
Canyon Voices [O] – poetry, fiction, nonfiction, art
Catamaran Literary Reader Image – poetry, fiction, nonfiction, art
Cleaver Magazine [O] – poetry, short stories, essays, dramatic monologues, flash prose, and visual art
Connecticut River Review Image – poetry, reviews
Dead Flowers [O] – poetry
DIALOGIST [O] – poetry, photography, artwork
Embodied Effigies [O] – nonfiction
Eye to the Telescope [O] – poetry
Four Ties Lit Review [O] – poetry, fiction, nonfiction
Four Way Review [O] – poetry, fiction
The Hoot & Hare Review [O] – fiction, poetry, essays, art, interviews
Ishaan Literary Review – poetry, fiction
Josephine Quarterly [O] – poetry, art
Kalyani Image – poetry, fiction, nonfiction, drama, cross-genre
The Manhattan Review Image – poetry, reviews, essays
Manor House Quarterly Image – fiction, nonfiction, poetry, interviews, visual art
Minerva Rising Image – prose, poetry, and art by women artists
A Narrow Fellow Image – poetry
Noah [O] – fiction, nonfiction, poetry, multi-genre
O-Dark-Thirty Image – poetry, fiction, nonfiction, veterans
Outside In Literary & Travel Magazine [O] – nonfiction, fiction, poetry, photostories
Pinball [O] – fiction, nonfiction
Plenitude [O] – fiction, nonfiction, poetry, graphic narrative, film
The Rampallian Image – poetry, fiction, art, photography
Randomly Accessed Poetics Image – poetry, flash fiction, fiction, essays, photography, artwork
Red Savina Review [O] – fiction, poetry, nonfiction
San Pedro River Review Image – poetry, prose poetry, art
shuf [O] – poetry
Smoking Glue Gun [O] – poetry, art
South 85 [O] – poetry, fiction, nonfiction, reviews
Spry [O] – nonfiction, fiction, flash fiction, poetry, interviews
Squalorly [O] – fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, illustration, photography
The Squawk Back [O] – fiction, poetry
Star 82 Review [*82 Review] [O] – fiction, nonfiction, poetry, art
Wilde Magazine Image – GLBTQ poetry, prose, artwork
Windhover Image – poetry, short fiction, nonfiction
Zymbol Image – poetry, fiction, art, nonfiction, graphic art

[app] = publication available as an app for tablets/phones
[e] = electronic publication for e-readers
Image = online magazines
[p] = print magazine

2013 Bellevue Literary Review Prizes

The Spring 2013 issue of Bellevue Literary Review features the winners of the 2013 Prizes:

Goldenberg Prize for Fiction, selected by Jane Smiley
Winner: “The No-Tell Hotel” by Kathryn Trueblood
Honorable Mention: “You Will Make Several Relaxing Cuts” by Ashley Chambers
Honorable Mention: “Bus” by Joan Leegant

Burns Archive Prize for Nonfiction, selected by Mary Roach
Winner: “Dust, Light, Life” by Jacqueline Kolosov
Honorable Mention: “Omphalos” by Maura Smith

Marica and Jan Vilcek Prize for Poetry, selected by Mark Doty
Winner: “The Learn’d Astronomer on the Radio” by Laura Passin
Honorable Mention: “Reading Sexton in Phuket” by Patricia Murphy

Job: Poetry Archivist UBuffalo Libraries

The University at Buffalo Libraries seek an energetic professional to serve as Processing Archivist to appraise, arrange, and describe literary and manuscript collections in the Poetry Collection.”

For a full job description visit: https://www.ubjobs.buffalo.edu

Enter job posting: 1300255

Application deadline: May 31, 2013

Raymond Carver Festival

In honor of the 75th Anniversary of Carver’s birth on May 25, events are planned throughout the month of May in Port Angeles, Washington. Full schedule of the Carver Festival.

The Festival begins May 9 and ends May 25 and will feature films, dance, reader’s theater, readings, artwork, and guest writers, scholars, artists, and filmmakers.

Special guests will include:

  • Writers in Residence Jane Mead and Lucia Perillo
  • Poet Henry Carlile, a close friend to Raymond Carver who taught his work for many years at Portland State
  • Artists Alfredo Arreguin and Susan Lytle
  • Guest filmmakers Mike Kaplan and Jean Walkinshaw
  • Tess Gallagher, Alice Derry, and other local writers
  • Jim Guthrie and the PA Readers Theater
  • The Walla Walla Dance group led by choreographer Vicki Lloid

The celebration is organized by Tess Gallagher and Peninsula College, with support from the Peninsula College Foundation, the Peninsula College Associated Student Council, and the Peninsula College Office of Instruction.