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NewPages Blog

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!

Hayden’s Ferry on Artifacts

To celebrate Hayden’s Ferry Review‘s 25th anniversary, the eidtors put out a call for “artifact” submissions. The current issue, Spring/Summer 2012, explores the “artifacts” the editors discovered in the process – “literally and figuratively.”

Included in the issue is a section of “Writer Artifacts.” This features notebook entries, poem drafts, photographs, and playful writing from Aimee Bender, Susann Cokal, H.E. Francis, Elizabeth Graver, Ilya Kaminsky, Michael Martone, Stanley Plumly, Jim Shepard, and G.C. Waldrep. “They are reminders both of the inspiration behind – and the work of – writing.”

New Lit on the Block :: 3QR: The Three Quarter Review

According to Editor Joanne Cavanaugh Simpson, 3QR: The Three Quarter Review publishes “Poetry & Prose > 75 Percent True” as well as photography, video, and audio “that tells stories with a twist.”

This new literary annual is available online and in the future will be made available in paper copies. 3QR News also offers a literary blog that features their writers’ ongoing work as well as issues related to genre-crossover writing.

Simpson tells me that “3QR: The Three Quarter Review is a unique literary project and online journal featuring the mostly true work of such writers as Stephen Dixon, Jessica Anya Blau, Marilyn L. Taylor, and others. The inaugural issue offers poetry, essays, and prose pieces that are at least three-quarters fact. Our writers stretch out, capturing the essence of realist writing without the censorship of categories (Is it fiction? Is it nonfiction? What is truth?). There’s no betrayal for readers, who are often left wondering about the infallibility of memory or observation; or, in fiction, whether some things ‘really happened.’ 3QR instead creates a Fifth Genre: The Three Quarter True Story. Readers can expect to find compelling essays, stories, memoir, and poetry that capture the essence of truth in storytelling.”

Contributors to the first issues include Stephen Dixon, Jessica Anya Blau, Marilyn L. Taylor, Edward Perlman, Charles Talkoff, B.J. Hollars, Philip Sultz, Dario DiBattista, Ann Eichler Kolakowski, Jennifer Holden Ward, and Brandi Dawn Henderson.

Future plans for 3QR: The Three Quarter Review include adding digital storytelling features, including photo essays, video, and music. Updates on 3QR News will include a listing of readings, panel discussions, and other live events related to the journal and theme.

3QR is now accepting submissions for their Winter issue via traditional mail only (though editors communicate electronically once a piece is accepted). Remember: Submissions must be at least 75 percent true.

RHINO Editors’ Prize Winners

Every year the Editors of RHINO Poetry select works that have had the greatest impact on them and give cash awards for First, Second, and Third Place winners. Beginning in 2013, the First Place winner will be nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

2012 Editors’ Prize Winners
First Prize: Sean Howard – “shadowgraph 44: observation appears as an event”
Second Prize: Kevin Simmonds – “Salt (a suicide meditation)”

Honorable Mentions:
Shadab Zeest Hashimi – “I look out the Mughal window”
Seth Oelbaum – “Female Stockings (Elizabethan Sonnet)”

All of these poems are available in PDF format on the Rhino website.

Native Arts & Cultures Foundation 2013 Artist Fellowships

The NACF Fellowships are open to artists who demonstrate excellence, having made a significant impact in their discipline, earned respect from their colleagues, and achieved recognition in the field. The artists work must be evolving and current. Awards are $20,000 and will be made in six disciplines: Visual Arts; Filmmaking; Music; Dance; Literature; Traditional Arts. Deadline June 21, 2012.

New Lit on the Block :: The Cossack Review

Edited by Christine Gosnay and Ruben Quesada, The Cossack Review is a tri-annual publication of new fiction, poetry, original translations, creative nonfiction, essays, photography, illustrative art, and reviews. The Cossack Review can be read online (PDF, Kindle) or in print as of Issue 2 (due out October 1) with additional online content.

Gosnay explains that the name of the publication is a historical reference: “The appearance of Cossacks – Slavic peoples, often mounted on horseback, militaristic, proud, flawed, and complicated – in Russian literature has always fascinated me. Their appearance as confounding, almost mythic characters who ride in, seize, disturb, take note, and then return to their land was explored by Gogol, Tolstoy, Pushkin, Tsvetaeva and many other writers. Naming the journal The Cossack Review is a nod to the quality of power, troubled mythos, unsettling beauty, and quest for understanding that great writing imparts to its readers.”

With such a strong historical connection to literature, Gosnay says she started The Cossack Review as a way to continue this tradition: “As a reader of literary journals and magazines who has often known the unique joy of discovering a poem or short story that reveals something I never knew about the world, I wanted to build a journal that could focus on just that – showcasing exceptional new writing that delights, and that uncovers truths about our shared experience. Issue 1 showcases beautiful, surprising poetry and fiction that is rich with imagery, pathos, humor, and psychological understanding. Stories that you wouldn’t believe, that make you read twice. Nonfiction that understands you, that can relate and teach, and is enhanced by stunning photography to accompany the writing.”

The inaugural issue of The Cossack Review features poetry by Paul David Adkins, Maureen Alsop, Jacob Cribbs, Adam Crittenden, Oliver de la Paz, William Doreski, Teneice Durrant Delgado, Brian Gatz, Anne Haines, T.R. Hummer, Russell Jaffe, Lindsey Lewis Smithson, Linda Martin, Charles McCrory, Kristina Moriconi, John Palen, John Phillips, Tim Suermondt, José-Flore Tappy, and Eric M.R. Webb; fiction by Soren Gauger, Kimberly Hatfield, Bryan Jones, Olive Mullet, Patty Somlo, and David Swykert; and nonfiction by Robert Boucheron, Valery Petrovskiy, Phillip Polefrone, and Apryl Sniffen.

Gosnay and Quesada have great plans for the journal, which will go into print on October 1, 2012 with the launch of Issue 2. It will be featured in bookstores around the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. On off-months, they will be featuring an online supplement. The Cossack Review staff is also looking forward to attending the AWP 2013 Conference in Boston and starting a reading series as well in the new year.

Submissions are accepted year-round for print editions of the journal as well as the online supplements. The editors encourage you to send in your best unpublished poetry, fiction, and nonfiction via Submittable. Simultaneous submissions are welcome.

The Cossack Review is also looking to bring on a fiction editor soon and welcomes inquiries if you are interested in becoming a submissions reader for their journal.

Fiddlehead Contest Winners

Fiddlehead #251 (Spring 2012) includes the winning entries of their 21st Annual Contest:

Ralph Gustafson Poetry Prize
Jim Johnstone, “Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte”

Poetry Honorable Mention: Michael Londry, “Before my Nephew Hiked” and Micahel Quilty, “Leaving the Gym”

Short Ficiton First Prize
Cody Klippenstein, “We’ve Gotta Get out of Here”

Fiction Honorable Mention: Valerie Spencer, “The Amaretto” and Kevin A. Couture, “How to Rescue a Bear Cub”

Books :: Children’s Picturebooks

In Children’s Picturebooks: The Art of Visual Storytelling, Martin Salisbury and Morag Styles introduce readers to the world of children’s picturebooks, providing a solid background to the industry while exploring the key concepts and practices that have gone into the creation of successful picturebooks.

In seven chapters, this book covers the key stages of conceiving a narrative, creating a visual language and developing storyboards and design of a picturebook. The book includes interviews with leading children’s picturebook illustrators, as well as case studies of their work. The picturebooks and artists featured hail from Australia, Belgium, Cuba, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, the UK and the USA. The authors close the book by considering e-publication and the future of children’s picturebooks.

Published by Laurence King Publishing, this gorgeous paperback is 192 pages and packed with 300 full-color illustrations throughout. Readers who remembers their own childhood picturebook favorites will not be able to put this book down. See the book website for a full table of contents and ordering information.

Natasha Trethewey Named Poet Laureate 2012-2013

On June 7, 2012, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington today announced the appointment of Natasha Trethewey as the Library’s Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry for 2012-2013. Natasha Trethewey was born in Gulfport, Mississippi on April 26, 1966. She is the author of four poetry collections and a book of creative non-fiction. Her honors include the Pulitzer Prize and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2012, she was appointed the State Poet Laureate of Mississippi.

Poetry: Jennifer K. Sweeney

Call and Response
by Jennifer K. Sweeney

There are mnemonics for remembering bird calls.
Listen to my evening sing-ing-ing-ing croons the vesper sparrow,
But-I-DO-love you pleads the Eastern meadowlark
or the Inca dove’s bleak no-hope.
That fall, an American goldfinch frequented our trumpet tree
with its airy Po-ta-to chip! and I thought
how our bodies exude their own churling mantras:
in the past, I-am-no-good
then, please-just-breathe just-breathe.
. . .
[Read the rest here in Sweet: A Literary Confection.]

Jeffrey E. Smith Editors’ Prize Winners

The newest issue of Missouri Review features the winners of the 2011 Jeffrey E. Smith Editors’ Prize Contest:

Fiction: Yuko Sakata of Madison, WI, for “Unintended”

Poetry: David Kirby of Tallahassee, FL

Essay: Peter Selgin of Winter Park, FL, for “The Kuhreihen Melody”

A full list of finalists (some of whom were also included in this issue) is available on the Missouri Review website.

The Future of Light Quarterly

Press release from Lisa Markwart, Executive Director, Foundation for Light Verse, which publishes Light Quarterly:

John Mella

A doubly-sad note has sounded this spring in the world of light verse. The founding editor of the humorous verse journal Light Quarterly died this past spring at the age of seventy. For twenty years John Mella, a quirky, brilliant, prescient and uniquely inspired man, toiled almost singlehandedly to publish the only print magazine exclusively devoted to light verse. An accomplished writer himself, having published the luminous and philosophical meta-fiction novel Transformations in 1976, he had a genius for memorizing and reciting poetry, and could rattle off a 25-page poem without a mistake at the drop of a hat.

Amusing poetry, both free-form and metrical, has undergone a diminution in publishing outlets since the 1950’s, (though it remains popular with audiences and even turns a profit in Britain and other countries outside the U.S.). Says X. J. Kennedy, one of the master stylists of light verse: “…he saved a whole genre of poetry that was wilting and drying up for lack of any outlet for it.”

The next issue of Light Quarterly, which may be the last, will be a memorial issue dedicated to the memory of John Mella and the legacy of light verse he has left. It features some of his own work, and shows how wide his boundaries within the genre extended. He believed “light” verse could be applied to dark topics as well as frivolous, it could be about anything, even the death of a child, as he once remarked.

There will be tribute to John Mella at the West Chester Poetry Conference, at West Chester University in PA. On Saturday, June 9th at 8:15 a.m. a panel of three, led by Melissa Balmain will speak about his life and the legacy of Light Quarterly; it is free and open to the public.

Light Quarterly itself is now threatened with extinction due to the diminished size of its following and lack of funding. The Foundation for Light Verse (the parent organization behind the magazine) is sending out signals into the literary universe, seeking help in the form of either a generous donor(s), or an offer from a university to take over the publishing of Light Quarterly.

We hope, through some miracle of literary/interplanetary convergence, to continue to publish the best light verse writers, not only X. J. Kennedy, but also Edmund Conti, J. Patrick Lewis, Charles Ghigna, Joyce LaMers, Alicia Stallings and many other new, emerging writers.

The goals of The Foundation for Light Verse and its publication, Light Quarterly, are to bring clarity, wit, readability, and enjoyment in the reading of poems through the use of cadence, rhythm, and rhyme, and to promote the learning of such poems by heart.

Lisa Marwart can be reached via e-mail: lisa.markwart(at)lightquarterly(dot)org

Able Muse Contest Winners Printed

Able Muse: A Review of Poetry, Prose, & Art Summer 2012 (#13) features works by winners of the Able Muse 30-Day Workshop: Janice D. Soderling in fiction and Rob Wright in poetry. The magazine also includes works by honorable mentions for the 2011 Write Prize for Poetry: Carolyn Moore, John Beaton, Kevin Corbett, Richard Wakefield, Anna M. Evans, Julie Bruck, and T.S. Kerrigan.

2012 String Poet Prize Winners

The winners of the 2012 String Poet Prize, as chosen by final judge Kim Bridgford, are available in the newest online issue, String Poet Volume II Issue I.

First Prize: “Upkeep” – J.D. Smith

Second Place: “The Strauses Return to Broadway” – Patricia Brody

Third Place: “Palimpsest: Fez” – Maxine Silverman

Honorable Mentions: “Mourning at the Kaldi Café” – Carol Louise Munn and “The Taste of Tea” – Muriel Harris Weinstein

The 2012 String Poet Prize Award Ceremony is available in an online video.

High Desert Music

The newest issue of High Desert Journal – which always keeps its focus on ‘witnessing and celebrating the world through the work of writers and artists from across the West and across the country’ – includes a couple of great features that caught my eye as I skimmed the issue. One is a look at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering by Linda Hussa, which includes an online HDJ Extra of Hussa reading her poem “Homesteaders, Poor and Dry” and an interview she gave to Lisa M. Hamilton from Real Rural. The other – and I really have to thank HDJ for introducing me to this musician – is an interview by Charles Finn with singer and songwriter Martha Scanlan. The photo image of Scanlan and her accompanist recording out in the field of her ranch in Montana is what first drew me in. In addition to the interview, there is also an HDJ Extra of Martha Scanlan’s Tongue River Stories online.

NEW! Screen Reading: Online Literary Magazine Reviews

Check out Screen Reading a new column of reviews of online literary magazines by the NewPages Literary Magazine Review Editor Kirsten McIlvenna. “In an effort to ‘give more love’ to online magazines – which are fabulous but often don’t get as much attention,” McIlvenna says, “this weekly column will introduce readers to some good writing and places to submit work. This week’s column features writers that know how to create snapshots and reveal stories, emotions, and inspiration in a ‘limited’ amount of space, showing that even something small can have great impact. As the editor of Shot Glass says: ‘It is far more difficult to capture a message in fewer words and still have an effect on a reader.’” Online magazines reviewed include Shot Glass Journal, The Molotov Cocktail, and Short, Fast, and Deadly. Check out the reviews on Screen Reading, and keep an eye out for more to come!

Law Enforcement Poets

Just out, Rattle #37 features a selection of poems by fourteen law enforcement officers. “One might not expect any similarity between policing and poetry,” the editors write, “but with reams of paperwork, plenty of drama, and a need for attention to fine detail, poets and cops do have much in common.” And as retired police officer James Fleming explains in his introduction, “a sparse, carefully-written police report can evoke tears.”

Included in Law Enforcement Poets:

James Fleming “Cops on the Beat” (essay)
Madeline Artenberg “Guardians of the Good”
Barbara Ann Carle “Shots Fired”
Sarah Cortez “The Secret”
Betty Davis “Fred Astaire and Betty Davis”
James Fleming “Working Homocide”
Jesse S. Fourmy “Duluth”
Hans Jewinski “Blue Funk”
Suzanne Kessler “Mercy”
Dean Olson “Yellow Sailboat”
David S. Pointer “Hooverites and Jarhead MPs”
John J. Powers “Proof of Service”
G. Emil Reutter “Shoulders”
Vance Voyles “After”
William Walsh “The Old Me”
Sarah Cortez “More Cops on the Beat” (essay)

New Lit on the Block :: Educe Journal

Educe Journal is an online quarterly of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and hybrid/visual artist showcase. Edited by Matthew R. K. Haynes, Eudice Journal is available in print, PDF, ePub, and iPad reading formats.

Haynes says the motivation for publishing Educe Journal is a commitment to “showcasing visual artists and publishing innovative literary fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction by established and emerging writers from the queer community.” With “Queer = Other,” he adds.

In each issue, readers can expect to find up to 100 pages of quality fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, as well as one visual artist who dons the covers with a mid-issue spread.

Contributors to the first issue include Richard Atwood, Steven Matthew Brown, Charles Casey, Ezra Dan Feldman, Reed Hearne, TT Jax, Thomas Kearnes, Sarah Merkle, John Pluecker, Heather Stewart, Vicente Viraym, and Visual Artist Eleanor Leonne Bennett.

Haynes hopes that Educe Journal will make its mark as a continuing quarterly queer literary journal. And while he hopes Educe Journal will have more of a presence in the print community, the publication is “committed to the efficiency and environmental advantages of being an e-publication viewable on any computer and specifically slated for the Apple iPad.”

Educe Journal is looking for LITERARY fiction/nonfiction/poetry submissions from queer folk across the Globe with multicultural submissions encouraged. Educe Journal is also interested in submissions from visual artists as each issue will feature one artist, whose work will be used for the cover. The deadline for submissions is ongoing; see the publication website for more details.

All We Are Saying, Is Give Alts a Look

Writers looking for unique venues for your work? Readers looking to broaden your repertoire? If you haven’t ever been to the NewPages Guide to Alternative Magazines, then I would strongly recommend you give it a look.

In working with the publications, I am often taken in by a story I see on their site or in the print magazine. This is writing on contemporary issues in our culture and around the globe, often times including personal essay as a way to convey experience and meaning to the reader. Many alternative magazines also include more “literary” genres of writing: fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, as well as art. There is a wealth of opportunity here for writers that all too often may be overlooked since these magazines are not usually classed under literary genre markets.

I am also amazed at how many of the print alternative publications offer so much content online, some of them offering full content once the next issue of the publication is available. Of course, the fully online publications offer full content as well as archives. Time and again, I have encouraged my teaching colleagues in all disciplines to check out these guides. At a time of skyrocketing costs for our students to attend college, finding “free” resources such as these is a boon. The magazines, in turn, will gain new readers, perhaps new subscribers, but more importantly, an audience that becomes more informed on social, cultural, and political issues of concern. And isn’t that what alts are all about?

Swing by today and click a couple links. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. And as always, if you know of a publication that fits the scope of our work here that is not listed, drop me a line (denisehill-at-newpages-dot-com) and I’ll look into it!

New Lit on the Block :: Thrush Poetry Journal

Thrush Poetry Journal is published by Thrush Press electronically bi-monthly (Jan, Mar, May, Jul, Sep & Nov) with a print annual “Best of.” Thrush Press also offers select poetry chapbooks and other poetry ephemera that the editors find of interest.

Founder and  Editor in Chief Helen Vitoria started Thrush Poetry Journal “to provide a place where great poets and amazing poetry are featured in an elegant, simple design, without any distractions.” She is joined in this mission by Associate Editor and Web Designer Walter Bjorkman in providing readers with “the best poetry available to us.”

Some contributors to Thrush Poetry Journal include Maureen Alsop, Hélène Cardona, Cindy Goff, Nathalie Handal, Anna Journey, Ada Limón, Rachel McKibbens, Sheila Nickerson, Amber Tamblyn, and Ocean Vuong.

NewPages Updates :: June 01, 2012

Check out these great new additions to NewPages

Added to The NewPages Big List of Literary Magazines:
1110 Image – (UK) poetry, fiction, photography
Artichoke Haircut Image – poetry, fiction, art
Cactus Heart [O] – poetry, fiction, nonfiction, reviews, art, photography
Cigale Literary Magazine [O] – fiction
Digital Americana [O/P/APP] – poetry, fiction, nonfiction
Educe [O] – poetry, fiction, nonfiction
Flare: The Flagler Review Image – poetry, fiction, nonfiction, drama, art
Fox Cry Review Image – poetry, fiction, nonfiction, drama, art
Inch Image – poetry, fiction
phren-Z [O] – poetry, fiction, nonfiction, drama, interviews
The Prompt [O] – poetry, fiction, nonfiction, multimedia, spoken word, performance art, artwork
Spilling Ink Review [O] – fiction, nonfiction, reviews, comics, art, photography
Spillway Image – poetry
Steel Toe Review [O] – poetry, fiction, nonfiction, multimedia
The Three Quarter Review [O] – poetry, prose

Added to Literary Links:
Beguile – poetry, fiction, nonfiction, lyrics, novel excerpts
Poetry Breakfast – poetry

Added to The NewPages Big List of Alternative Magazines:
S/tick [O] – feminists on guard
Elegant Atheist [O] – positive atheism with humanist nuances

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

Erik Satie Watusies His Way Into Sound

Jeff Alessandrelli’s debut book of poems, Erik Satie Watusies His Way Into Sound, is an homage of sorts to Satie, the 19th- and 20th-century avant-garde composer. Throughout the collection, a portrait of Satie emerges ghostlike through bits of autobiography, both real and imagined. However, through the insistent refrain of “tells us nothing,” the reader is reminded of how little access or insight one can really be given into another life—how little understanding one can glean from facts and details, and even from the composer’s own writing. Even so, the fragments assembled portray Satie as an eccentric genius who was both admired and reviled during his lifetime. Continue reading “Erik Satie Watusies His Way Into Sound”

Poland at the Door

Evelyn Posamentier’s Poland at the Door is a remarkable book. It is a collection of very short poems, the longest being ten lines while most of poems oscillate between four to six lines. The collection’s poetic “I” remains in a room, behind a closed door. She half-expects, half-dreads some visitors. Her short statements help to visualize her surroundings—walls, door, monitors in the hall outside, a broken phone, the weather in- and outdoors, and the luring but never really appearing guests. Longer poems are intertwined with single lines that laconically state “the days of awe” and “the days between” (or either of the two). This gives the impression of the passage of time in an unfamiliar place, reflecting perhaps Posamentier’s time spent in Poland. Occasionally, the “days of awe/days between” are replaced by the exclamation “holy, holy, holy,” which refers either to Poland’s Catholic culture or to the subject’s sense of the world’s sacredness. Continue reading “Poland at the Door”

Woolgathering

Metaphysical, haunting and meditative, Woolgathering’s lyrical musings very much mimic Patti Smith’s song lyrics in that they are constantly in structural flux, seamlessly flitting from personal narratives to abstract wanderings to slim lines of poetry. The result is reminiscent of an intimate journal, scattered with childhood photographs, reaching for truth, beauty and transformation. Continue reading “Woolgathering”

Cures for Hunger

“Memory holds us until we are ready to see,” Deni Y. Béchard writes in his memoir, Cures for Hunger. The passage of time has given him a panorama from which to piece together the missing links of his life. Béchard’s book is his tale of the sometimes hardscrabble childhood he endured in British Columbia with a mother from Pittsburgh and a father of very vague origins. The existence was sometimes hand-to-mouth, with a father who sold fish during the summer and Christmas trees during the winter, ways of life that seemed to have as many ups and downs as the stock market. Continue reading “Cures for Hunger”

All the Roads Are Open

Travel literature and memoir is a jumble of familiar tropes and themes, and All the Roads Are Open: the Afghan Journey certainly contains all of those recognizable elements and more. All the Roads Are Open is Annemarie Schwarzenbach’s collection of essays, stories, notes, and thoughts about her overland travels from Geneva to Afghanistan through Afghanistan’s Northern Road with herself, fellow writer Ella Maillart, and their third companion—a Ford with a mind and temperament of its own. Continue reading “All the Roads Are Open”

Crusoe’s Daughter

Jane Gardam’s magnificent novel Crusoe’s Daughter, first published in 1985 in England and only now published in the U.S., was Gardam’s favorite of her novels: “Take it or leave it, Crusoe’s Daughter says everything I have to say.” Those familiar with the books of this largely unknown, very British novelist will recognize aspects of Gardam’s writing later echoed in Old Filth, The Man With the Wooden Hat and the more recently published God on the Rocks: the wonderfully odd characters sometimes reminiscent of Dickens; the humor; an era’s precise, tiny details of place and people; and indirectly given information, often about past forbidden romances. Continue reading “Crusoe’s Daughter”

Into This World

Into This World is a novel that spans time, point of view, and geography to tell the story of a family’s search for identity and relationship. Mina is a child brought home from the Korean War by Wayne to join his American family that consists of his wife Bonnie, who longs for a second child, and his daughter Allison, who is not so pleased by the family’s new addition. The story opens when Allison and Mina are adults. Mina has moved to Korea in search of her birth mother and to reclaim her heritage. Allison discovers she has unfinished business with Mina and travels to Seoul in hopes of unraveling their complex past. Continue reading “Into This World”

Love, An Index

Rebecca Lindenberg’s first book of poems is concerned with loss. She takes up composing an extended elegy with little unnecessary adornment of sentiment. Lindenberg deserves credit for not making this book a clear-cut narrative of her years-long serious romance with the poet Craig Arnold, who vanished in 2009 while on a hiking visit to an active volcano—an apparent passion of his. In place of that, these are poems built of necessity; some happen to be soundings of specific moments of Lindenberg’s life with Arnold, but such concern remains secondary. Continue reading “Love, An Index”

Nothing Can Make Me Do This

Nothing Can Make Me Do This, a novel in linked stories by David Huddle, excavates the geography of loneliness and relationships. Each story looks at a sedimentary layer in the history of the Houseman family circle, not necessarily in chronological order. These characters, revealed in close third person narration or first person, do not wander geographically far from the home nest for very long. Journeys are internal and sometimes deeply buried. The through-thread in this family history is the voice of the secret sexual self, somehow unshared even in intimacy. Continue reading “Nothing Can Make Me Do This”

Swimming the Eel

Zara Raab’s collection centers around place and people, the Eel of the title a river in California where generations of Raab’s family settled. Raab lets the reader know early on that place will serve as an important theme throughout the collection, as each of the three section titles relate to place: “A Land of Wonders,” “Coming to Branscomb,” and “Hills above the Eel.” The collection shows a place changing, moving from a place that is not even a town, where a family’s house can serve as the one-room schoolhouse, to a contemporary city, though still small, with contemporary troubles. Continue reading “Swimming the Eel”

Snowflake/Different Streets

Eileen Myles hides the trout. She’s at it again. This new double collection of poems from Wave Books in Seattle has everything readers of Myles adore in her work. All the wit, charm, honesty, sexiness, and surprises are here for another go-round. Yes, Myles has gotten older: Continue reading “Snowflake/Different Streets”

Wolff Translator’s Prize Winner 2012

Dalkey Archive Press has announced that translator Burton Pike has been awarded the Goethe-Institut’s prestigious Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize for his translation of Gerhard Meier’s Isle of the Dead, the first title in Dalkey Archive’s ongoing Swiss Literature Series. Video of Dr. Pike reading from his translation at New York’s Center for Fiction is available online at the Dalkey Archive website.

The Wolff Prize is awarded annually by the Goethe-Institut Chicago to honor an outstanding translation from German to English; each year’s winning translator receives $10,000. This is the second year in a row that the Wolff Prize has gone to a Dalkey Archive translator; Jean M. Snook’s translation of The Distant Sound, by Gert Jonke, received the award in 2011.

Burton Pike is among the leading translators of German literature into English, known for his translations of, among others, Goethe and Robert Musil. His translation of Rainer Maria Rilke’s Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge was published by Dalkey Archive in 2008.

Brevity Facelift – Same Great Content

Brevity has a slick new web design and solid content to back it up! This month features sixteen new flash essays, including work from Ander Monson, Patrick Rosal, Sean Prentiss, Jennifer Sinor, Gary Percesepe, with artwork by Marc Snyder. Brevity also features a writer’s best friend: craft essays. This month’s column explores the difference between an MFA thesis and a book (by Tabitha Blankenbiller), the pitfalls of writing about family (by Tarn Wilson), and an interview by Christin Geall with Kim Dana Kupperman.

Documentary :: Waterwalk

Waterwalk: A Journey of 1,000 Miles Might Bring Them Together

After Blue Lake, Michigan, newspaper editor Steve Faulkner is laid off, his 17 year-old son Justin could have easily stepped aside and watched his dad frantically search for another job. Instead he persuades his workaholic dad to join him on the trip of a lifetime, a 1,000 mile canoe journey retracing the Marquette/Joliet discovery route of the Mississippi. Together they travel along Lake Michigan’s northern shore, through Green Bay, up the Fox, down the WIsconsin and finally the mighty Mississippi.

Braving rough water, big storms, flood stage rivers and portaging larger sections of the heavily dammed Fox, the Faulkners nearly run out of money, become minor celebrities and confront the ultimate challenge presented to fathers who leave their jobs to spend more time with their children, boredom. Paddling hour after hour they discover that they don’t read the same books, watch the same movies and television shows or even know the same songs. Trying to kill time they end up singing the only music they both know, Christmas carols in July. A journey through middle America, Waterwalk is a memorable look at an archetypal journey that defines our nation and informs the heart.

[PR text from Waterwalk website]

New Lit on the Block :: Cactus Heart

Cactus Heart is a new PDF quarterly of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, photography, and art edited by Sara Rauch.

Rauch comments on starting Cactus Heart: “After being in publishing for six years, and a writer for at least double that time, I was inspired to create Cactus Heart as a new forum for engaging work. There are lots of great publications out there, and always more great writers looking to share their work. I wanted to create a literary magazine that felt like a community and a conversation. With all the changes going on in the publishing world, it finally felt possible for me to put together an e-literary magazine – a quality online publication filled with amazing work.”

Cactus Heart readers will be treated to “Spiny, succulent writing! They will find plenty of plot-driven, language-focused fiction, poems that blend images and thoughts seamlessly, deeply felt nonfiction, and full-color photography.”

Contributors in the first issue include Alysia Angel, Glen Armstrong, Eleanor Leonne Bennett, Christine Brandel, Stephanie Callas, Flower Conroy, Sian Cummins, erin feldman, Merlin Flower, Janet Freeman, Diana Gallagher, Christine Gosnay, William Henderson, Courtney Hill Wulsin, Jesse Kuiken, Anthony Lawrence, D Lep, Stewart Lewis, Nico Mara-McKay, Ben Nardolilli, Katrina Pallop, Carol Piva, Jules A Riley, Holly Ringland, Meegan Schreiber, Jenna Whittaker, Theresa Williams, and Christopher Woods.

Rauch hopes to add a print publication to the roster, and possibly move into book publishing as she continues her work with Cactus Heart.

Cactus Heart is currently accepting submissions for the second issue until August 1 – full guidelines are available on the publication website.

New Lit on the Block :: The Manila Envelope

Published quarterly in PDF format, The Manila Envelope features poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, and art. While the full version is available only by subscription, selected works can be viewed online.

Literary Editor Cristina Querrer and Art Editor Tiana Madison started The Manila Envelope out of a desire “to present another avenue, another platform for writers and artists to publish their exquisite work.” The editors stress, “We want to offer a nurturing environment for everyone, from established or just-starting-out writers and artists. But we also adhere to our own aesthetic guidelines which can be eclectic. As we go along, read our issues, like us on Facebook, get to know us. The editors of The Manila Envelope are writers and artists too.”

Readers can expect the writing to follow a theme that runs through each issue in a variety of styles with the inaugural issue featuring poetry by Tobi Cogswell, Mark Harris, Andrew Mancuso and Mark Wisniewski; essays by S.C. Barrus, Julio Espin, Bennett Zamoff; and fiction by Stephanie Becerra, Larry Kostroff, Amy Meyerson, and Jeffrey Rubinstein.

Querrer and Madison say future plan for the publication are “to stay awhile and to perhaps be able to offer contest prizes or even a possible print anthology to even quite possibly different platforms and digital versions of our magazine.”

Submissions are accepted through Submittable on a rolling basis with accepted works published in the next available issue.

New Lit on the Block :: phren-Z

phren-Z is a quarterly online literary magazine published by Santa Cruz Writes. phren-Z promotes the work of writers with a connection to Santa Cruz County, California, publishing fiction, non-fiction, poetry, plays, monologues, essays, and interviews.

Editors Karen Ackland (fiction), Julia Chiapella (poetry), and Jory Post (non-fiction, plays, and monologues) started phren-Z “ to develop and sustain a vibrant literary community dedicated to the craft of writing and its ability to inform, reveal, and enchant.” As such, readers can find writing in all genres from both established and emerging writers with a connection to Santa Cruz County, California. The Floodlight section provides in depth coverage on a given topic – a specific writer, event, or other issue of significance to the local literary community.

“phren-Z is community oriented,” say the editors, “so each issue will feature a public reading of contributors work, read by the authors themselves. We also will continue to seek opportunities for writers to get their work in front of the public including, but not limited to, radio performances, community TV performances, and an annual printed edition.”

Works available for online reading include essays by Wallace Baine, Don Rothman, Karen Ackland, Sarah Albertson, Vinnie Hansen, Neal Hellman, and Stephen Kessler; poetry by Carolyn Burke, Farnaz Fatemi, Gary Young, Buzz Anderson, Anna Citrino, Arthur Streshly, and Amber Coverdale Sumral; fiction by Clifford Henderson, Micah Perks, Paul Skenazy, Elizabeth McKenzie and Paula Mahoney, an interview with Karen Tei Yamashita, a monologue by Wilma Marcus Chandler, and “Love Letters Project,” in which nine Santa Cruz authors participated in The Love Letters Project held at The Museum of Art and History (MAH), Bookshop Santa Cruz, and Felix Kulpa Gallery. Each writer was asked to contribute a poem or letter they had written for someone or something they love. Contributors include Wallace Baine, Lauren Crux, Stephanie Golino, Neal Hellman, Cheyenne Street Houck, Erin Johnson, Wincy Lui, Elizabeth McKenzie, and Alyssa Young.

Those wishing to submit can go to phren-Z’s Submit page. A link to Submittable will guide writers through the process.

Additionally, phren-Z is interested in exploring where and how writing intersects with other creative disciplines. The editors seek out events, performances, exhibitions, etc., that offer opportunities for writing within a creative context.

Mad Hatter Tribute to Carol Novack

Mad Hatters’ Review 13 is a tribute issue to founder and editor Carol Novack (1948-2011). The issue includes a number of her works as well as works by others in tribute to Carol. Editor Marc Vincenz (Reykjavik, Iceland) in his editor’s stateme writes of working with Carol, those final months which came too quickly, and the continuation of Mad Hatter ventures:

“I have heard whispers that a few of you of little faith believed that MadHat in all of its incarnations would never survive Carol—some, I understand, have questioned the viability of Mad Hatters’ Review without its revolutionary leader at the helm. Well, I hope with the advent of this tribute issue, that your doubts will have been swayed. MadHat will continue, and we shall strive to bring you more exuberant content than ever before. Long live MadHat! ¡Viva la Revolución!“

Big Bridge Celebrates 15

For 15 years Big Bridge has published a wide and varied selection of poetry, fiction, art, essays, and more. “And through this work,” comment the editors, “we hope we have conveyed our respect and love for all the great creative efforts of poets and artists we have known.” The 15th Anniversary Edition is a fine continuation of this work, including the Feature Chapbook “bridge work” by Andrei Codrescu with illustrations by Nancy Victoria Davis.

Also included are several edited sections:

30 POETS, a poetry anthology dedicated to Akilah Oliver

Big Tree Poems: An exploratory anthology of contemporary tree poems

Cuyahoga Burning, a feature on current Ohio literature, dedicated to Nobius Black

15th Anniversary Fiction Feature, multifaceted stories orchestrated around four themes

Translations:

Poetry from Japan, A Contemporary Anthology of Japanese Poetry

Voices for Change: A Contemporary Anthology of Moroccan Poets

A Tribute to Andrey Voznesensky (1933-2010)

Poetry Slam Guatemala

And a whole lot more! Visit Big Bridge to see full contents.

The New Flare

The Flagler Review, the journal of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, screenplays/plays, and artwork published by the students of Flagler University has undergone a slight name change, and will now be known as FLARE: The Flagler Review. “FLARE,” the editors write, will be “a new light in the literary world. We want our journal to engage the mind and be visited over and over. This is our journal’s chance to shine, to catch our readers’ attention with creative and original works that kindle the imagination.” FLARE is available in print in the fall and spring along with online features. [Pictured: cropped cover art “Artemis on the Hunt” by Brianna Angelakis]

YES! Magazine Student Essay Contest Winners

The YES! National Student Writing Competition gives students the chance to write for a real audience and be published by an award-winning magazine. Each quarter, students have the opportunity to read and respond to a selected YES! Magazine article.

For Winter 2012, participants read and responded to the YES! Magazine article, “What’s the Harm in Hunting?” by Alyssa Johnson. All of the winning essays are available full-text online.

Winter 2012 Writing Competition Winners

Middle School: Stro Hastings

High School: Johnny Bobo

College: Jenny Courtney

Powerful Voice: Lisa Schwartz

Conclave News

Conclave: A Journal of Character has announced several recent changes, including publishing the magazine on a bi-annual cycle as well making it available in e-format and including interviews. Conclave also wants to place literary journals in inner-city schools and libraries with help from supporters. Visit their website for more information on how you can help in their effort.

Glimmer Train :: March Fiction Open 2012

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

First place: Silas Dent Zobal [pictured], of Freeburg, PA, wins $2500 for “The Hospital.” His story will be published in the Summer 2013 issue of Glimmer Train Stories.

Second place: Devin Murphy, of Buffalo Grove, IL, wins $1000 for “Levi’s Recession.” His story will also appear in an upcoming issue of Glimmer Train Stories.

Third place: Amina Gautier, of Chicago, IL, wins $600 for “Aguanilé.” Her story will also be published in Glimmer Train Stories, increasing her prize to $700.

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

Deadline soon approaching for the Short Story Award for New Writers: May 31
This competition is held quarterly and is open to all writers whose fiction has not appeared in a print publication with a circulation over 5000. No theme restrictions. Most submissions to this category run 1500-6000 words, but can go up to 12,000. First place prize has been increased to $1500.

Sentence New Editor

Sentence: A Jounral of Prose Poetics (published by Firewheel Editions) welcomes Brian Johnson as its new editor with this year’s annual issue (#9). “I am naturally curious,” Johnson writes, “how the issue before you, Sentence 9, will relate to the eight that came before it. It will be different, of course, but whether that difference is subtle or radical I will leave to the judgment of those of you who have written for, read, and admired the journal since its debut in 2003.

Poetry: Comfort in Form

In the editor’s introduction to issue 17 of Spillway, themed “Crossing Boarders,” Susan Terris comments on the number of poetry submissions received “in exacting poetic forms.” She explains, “In these pages, you’ll find five sonnets. A sonnet, historically, is a little song; and you’ll see this volume is threaded with them, many more small songs of 10-16 lines. We also have a villanelle, a pantoum, several invented forms unique to particular poets. In addition, we have Asian forms of haiku, tanka, and haibun. Why all these poetic forms? I have a facile answer: the greater the danger (and all borders are fraught with danger), the more form works to add control and comfort to an out-of-control and uncomfortable world.”

Alligator Juniper Contest Winners – 2012

The newest issue of Alligator Juniper from Prescott College (AZ) features the winners from the publication’s annual writing and photography contest, as well as the winners of the Suzanne Tito Prize (a full list of finalists can be found on the website):

 
National Poetry Contest Winner
Elton Glaser, “Coupling on the Edge of Entropy”
Finalists: Christopher Buckley, Iris Marble Cushing, Marta Ferguson, Lexa Hillyer, Althea Rose Schelling
Suzanne Tito Prize Winner: Laura Hitt

 
National Creative Nonfiction Winner
Eli Connaughton, “Burial”
Finalists: Chris Guppy, Debra Marquart, Natalie Vestin
Suzanne Tito Prize Winner: Laura Hitt
 
National Fiction Winner
Janet Hilliard-Osborn, “Mycology”
Finalists: Veronica Castro, Julie Hensley, Michael Pearce, Josh Peterson, Sarah Elizabeth Schantz
Suzanne Tito Prize Winner: Molly Kiff

National Photography Winners
First Place Prizewinner: Morgan Neuharth
 
Second Place Prizewinner: Christine Weller
 
Third Place Prizewinner: Don Fike
 
Finalists: Morgan Neuharth, Christine Weller, Don Fike, Barbara Burghart-Perreault, Cloe Cox, Elektra Fike-Data, George Lewis, Dan Meylor, Arlene Minuskin, Seth Quigg, Amy Siqveland
 

Audio Interview with YA Author J.L. Powers

I had the opportunity to interview J.L. (Jessica) Powers about her latest young adult novel, This Thing Called the Future (Cinco Puntos, 2011) set in a South African Zulu community. We discussed issues of appropriate content for YA novels, the responsibility of the writer in representing cultures other than her own, and the importance of literature as a voice for controversial issues. Listen to the full interview here.

This Thing Called the Future, J.L. Powers second novel, was listed as one of the Best Teen Books of 2011 by Kirkus Magazine. It made the American Library Association’s Best Fiction for Young Adults 2012 list and was listed with “Outstanding Merit” by Bank Street as one of the Best Books for 2012 (fourteen and up category). It also won the Best Young Adult Book literary prize awarded annually by the Texas Institute of Letters and was recently awarded the 2012 Paterson Prize for Books for Young People. J.L. Powers is the editor of That Mad Game: Growing Up in a Warzone, An Anthology of Essays from Around the Globe, which will be released in June 2012. She teaches at Skyline College in San Bruno, California.