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

The Iowa Review – Spring 2007

My personal favorite among this issue’s stories, Mary Slowik’s “Teeth,” takes the storyteller’s doctrine (dig where it hurts) to a brilliantly literal level. In her atmospheric, sinister story, the narrator, a dentist’s daughter, watches her father fix an exposed nerve: “The nerve waved blindly on the point of the probe. It reminded me of a single larva separated from its teeming kin, the heaving masses in our compost pile, the rows of soft grubs lined up in our beehives at home. And yet, I knew this tiny thread contained the most quivering pain.” All the pain hiding inside all the teeth (false teeth, hidden teeth…the theme connecting the story’s sections) erupts in a single, intense moment. Wow. Continue reading “The Iowa Review – Spring 2007”

The Missouri Review – Spring 2007

With The Missouri Review now accepting e-mail submissions, who can say what masterpieces will now arrive; although this issue seems to have been assembled without that benefit, it is an intriguing collection. In addition to slaking my thirst for good fiction – stories by Jacob M. Appel, Erica Johnson Debeljak, Rachel Swearingen, and others – the contents include essays, poetry, and an interview with the disarmingly honest David Sedaris: “I’m not apolitical; I just don’t consider myself an original thinker, [. . .] I’m more the kind of person who might read something and then try to pass it off as my own.” Continue reading “The Missouri Review – Spring 2007”

Quarterly West – Fall/Winter 2006/2007

The 30th Anniversary Issue of Quarterly West is, from cover to cover, consistently and astonishingly good. This issue features AWP Intro Award Winners in fiction and poetry, and the Writers@Work Fellowship Award Winners in nonfiction and poetry. It opens with two stories that examine moments of grace: Steve Almond’s short-short “Phoenix” in which a john is redeemed by a thieving hooker, and Quan Berry’s story “Daily at the Gate of the Temple Which is Called Beautiful,” which, with just its title, promises to deliver us to a hallowed place, perhaps even to offer a moment of transcendence. I tried to decide what other of the six remaining stories to mention in this review, and could only come to this: you should read them all. The Writers at Work award-winning nonfiction piece, “16 Doors” by Brenda Sieczkowski, is structured in 16 numbered segments, each a door into the author’s memory and dreams, traveling from ancient China to modern-day Vermont, examining everything from family genealogy to cell structure. Continue reading “Quarterly West – Fall/Winter 2006/2007”

Quay – May/June 2007

A new journal appearing both in print and online, Quay offers a crisp collection of fiction, non-fiction and drama. The print issue’s format (almost square) is unusual without trying too hard, and the same is true for the content. One of my favorites among the fiction pieces was J.P. Briggs’s “American Debut,” in which an agent and a producer discuss a starlet called Eva, “the next big icon of a generation,” while “[t]he snakes darted and skimmed in the swimming pool with their arrow heads flexed above the blue water.” I was also impressed with Myfanwy Collins’s “Cowless, Rainbowless,” a sequence of vignettes revealing the narrator’s hurt in nightmarish slow-motion. The beauty of the writing is an almost perfidious contrast to the narrator’s pain and loneliness. Completely different in style: Scott Humfeld’s “Capt. Spaulding and the Missing Motor,” a tale set in the Peruvian jungle, delivered with the authority and wit of first-hand experience. Continue reading “Quay – May/June 2007”

Smartish Pace – 2007

Smartish Pace is exclusively a journal of free verse poetry. It was a treat to read translations from Hindi – to have, as renowned translator Elliot Weinberger might say, “the news” of a faraway country brought to me through poetry. In Katyayani’s darkly-playful poem, “A Woman Hiding in Language,” a woman seems to disrupt language itself by hiding inside of it, such that, “. . .the dictators / didn’t get a wink of sleep all night. / That day the poets couldn’t play / with words searing as a mass of fire.” Shrikant Verma’s “Hastinapur” reminds me of how anyone might feel about a city or village in times of war or simply rapid change: “Just think / about that person / who comes to Hastinapur / and says: / “No, no this can’t be Hastinapur!” Though the average reader, like myself, probably speaks no Hindi, I thought it would have been illuminating to see the original poems – how they look on the page – as well as a read a translator’s note on the challenges in translating from Hindi to English. I’d have favored fewer poems in the issue to make space for this (several poets have 5-6 poems included). Continue reading “Smartish Pace – 2007”

Versal – 2007

Amsterdam – city of hashish, soccer riots, bicycles – city of canals, tall people, and even taller people – continues now to bring us this international literary journal. The word versal means rare or universal as defined on the inside of the superbly designed cover. In this Versal 5 are indeed rare words that will cut edges in your mind. If you seek Versal for the atmospheres of Amsterdam, though, you will be disappointed. Versal is perhaps not the best of international literature, but holds a sure-shot at becoming just that. Continue reading “Versal – 2007”

Poems-For-All

“They’re scattered around town — on buses, trains, cabs, in restrooms, bars, left along with the tip; stuffed into a stranger’s back pocket. Whatever. Wherever. Small poems in small booklets half the size of a business card. A project of the 24th street irregular press, which cranks them out to be taken by the handful and scattered like seeds by those who want to see poetry grow in a barren cultural landscape.” Visit Poems-For-All to see samples, get a hold of a few, and submission guidelines.

Language Links from Verbatim

Verbatim Magazine
“The Language Quarterly Language and linguistics for the layperson since 1974”
Their “large list of language links” is a great resource including: Print Dictionary Links; Wordplay Sites; Online Fun Dictionaries; Language-Related Sites and Blogs; Word-A-Day Sites and Other Mailing Lists; Grammar, Spelling, and Usage Sites; Language and Dictionary Societies; Names Sites; and more. It’s a word-person’s resource heaven on the internet!

Contest :: CBC Literary Award

The CBC Literary Awards competition is the only literary competition that celebrates original, unpublished works, in Canada’s two official languages. There are three categories—short story, poetry, and creative nonfiction—and $60,000 of prize money courtesy of the Canada Council for the Arts. In addition, winning entries are published in Air Canada’s enRoute magazine and visibility is offered to the winners and their winning entries by CBC. Deadline: November 1, 2007

Film :: China

Manufacturing Art
By Noy Thrupkaew
“Manufactured Landscapes is a new film about an artist who documents Chinese factories explores the toxic interdependence between developed and developing nations. Rendered in exquisite calligraphic brushwork and soaring white space, many later-era Chinese landscape paintings depict both the artist’s interior terrain and the visible world. Artist Edward Burtynsky’s photographs of industrial wastelands work the same way, even though their disturbing beauty inverts the pristine ideal by drawing on mountains of rubble and polluted rivers…” Read the rest: The American Prospect

Feature Mag :: American Forests Magazine

“For more than a century American Forests has been the magazine of trees and forests for people who know and appreciate the many benefits of trees. Stories are written to entice a general audience to care about tree planing and include profiles, indepth looks at current controversies, practical stories on current research, and how-to’s.

“The mission of our publication is to foster appreciation for trees and forests and to offer a responsible, science-based discussion of the trends, issues, policies, and management of America’s forest resources. We seek to educate, entertain, and enlighten our audiences with compelling writing, eye-catching photography, beautiful illustrations, and exciting design.”

Issue available online as PDF download.

Award Winners :: Tupelo Press

Tupelo Press is delighted to announce the results of the 8th Annual First Book Award, in conjunction with the journal Crazyhorse. This year the First Book Award goes to Jennifer Militello, of Goffstown, New Hampshire, for History of the Always Pain.

Finalists:
Megan Gannon, Omaha, NE, White Nightgown
Cyan James, Ann Arbor, MI, The Good Boy’s Payne
Marc McKee, Columbia, MO, Fuse
Kathy Nilsson, Cambridge, MA, Hawk Weather
Jamie Ross, Carson, NM, Postcards from Mexico
Susan Settlemyre Williams, Richmond, VA, Ashes in Midair
Theresa Sotto, Santa Monica, CA, punctum

Call for Proposals: AALCS/ALA

October 25-27, 2007
African American Literature and Culture Society Symposium
Theme: “Traditions and Revisions: New Directions in African American Literature and Scholarship”
St. Louis University, St. Louis, MO
E-mail queries or 400-500 word proposals by July 30, 2007, to:
Loretta G. Woodard, Conference Director
English and Modern Languages Department
Marygrove College
8425 West McNichols Road
Detroit, MI 48221-2599
(313) 927-1452
lwoodard@marygrove.edu

i-outlaw: Poetry from the Wild Wild E-West

i-outlaw is a poetry show hosted by Bob Marcacci and produced by Josh Hinck. Their mission: To bring you the best poetic audio and video entertainment from the internet. Each show highlights ten poets from the blogsphere as well as one featured poet. Submission of audio or video accepted year-round.

Some recently featured poets include: Annie Finch, Charles Bernstein, Ren Powell, Luis H. Valadez, Amy Bernier, K. Silem Mohammad, Amber Nelson, Steven Schroeder, Emmy P

Submissions :: Interactive Drama

The Journal of Interactive Drama is an online peer-reviewed journal on scenario-based interactive drama freeform live action roleplaying games which provides a forum for serious discussion of live roleplaying game theory, design, and practice. Two to three issues per volume are published annually. The journal provides a forum for the discussion of any of the various scenario-based theatre-style live action roleplaying games, freeforms, and interactive dramas and invites contributions in all areas of literature, theory, design, and practice for educational, entertainment, and recreational roleplay. Formal and informal essays, articles, papers, and critical reviews are also welcome.

Film :: Disability and Sibs

“Keri Bowers, co-director of the hit film, Normal People Scare Me [see YouTube short below], a film about autism, has teamed up with her son Jace to share the story of brothers and sisters functioning in their daily lives with a sibling having a variety of disabilities, including cerebral palsy, mental retardation, Downs syndrome, autism, and others. The Sandwich Kid is the vehicle to bring this underreported issue to light. ‘With no laws such as (ADA) American with Disabilities Act, or IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act), or other uniform or legislative supports in existence to support this vulnerable population, we are overlooking an important segment of our society. Brothers and sisters most often give away their services (often life-long) for free to siblings affected by disability…'” Read the rest on Ability Magazine.

Contest :: New York Times

“College as America used to understand it is coming to an end.”
In the turbulent late ’60s and early ’70s, college campuses played a major role in the culture and politics of the era. Today, according to author and historian Rick Perlstein, colleges have lost their central place in the broader society and in the lives of undergraduates. The NYT invites all college students to read “What’s the Matter with College,” Perlstein’s full article on the subject, and submit an essay of no more than 1,200 words in response. Is the college experience less critical to the nation than it was a generation ago? Join the debate. For more info: NYT College Essay Contest

New ALA President and Indian Literacy

“The American Library Association is the oldest and largest library organization in the world. Recently, Loriene Roy of the White Earth Ojibwe Reservation in Minnesota was elected as President of the ALA. This marks the first time that an American Indian will hold this prestigious position. But what kind of impact can this unprecedented move have on tribal library systems? Can a Native president of the ‘voice of America ’s libraries’ help to raise the literacy rates among Native people?” Listen to the program on Native America Calling: The National Electronic Talking Circle.

Most Detested Bar Songs

Here’s one to get your weekend started…from See Sharp Press: “We’re surveying musicians who’ve played in bars, and here’s the list of the songs we/they loathe the most. If you’re a musician and would like to add to the list, please e-mail us. Comments on the songs you detest are, of course, welcome. (For our purposes here, we’re only listing blues, rock, and funk songs. Rap, country, and standard jazz tunes exist in nightmare separate realities all their own.)” Visit the See Sharp Press List of Most Detested Bar Songs.

Bill Moyers :: Poet Martin Espada

***This is *supposedly* now scheduled for this weekend. Check your local listings. Swear to god, I’m not blogging it again if they change it.***

This week (Fri/Sat/Sun – check local listings), PBS’ Bill Moyers Journal welcomes renowned poet Martin Espada. In this revealing interview, Espada talks with Moyers about the inspriations. PBS will host poems from his latest book “The Republic of Poetry,” post the entire interview after broadcast, as well as open up discussion on the interview with and works of Martin Espada on The Moyers Blog. Previous shows are also available via podcast, including an interview with Maxine Hong Kingston.

Contest :: 3-Day Novel Contest

The International 3-Day Novel Contest – the “marathon” of writing, the rite of passage for “I’ll-write-a-novel-someday” yakkers, and the scourge of “that’s-not-real-writing” critics world wide – is back. To highlight the basic rules: Outlines are permitted prior to the contest; however, the actual writing must begin no earlier than 12:01 a.m., Saturday, September 1st and stop by midnight on Monday, September 3rd. Novels must be postmarked on or before Sept. 7, 2007 to qualify and include a statement, signed by a witness, confirming the novel’s completion over the 2007 Labor Day Weekend. Deadline for preregistration: August 31, 2007

Alt Mag Mailbag :: July 19

To read more about these publications and others, visit the NewPages Guide to Alternative Magazines.

American Book Review
Volume 28 Number 5, July/August 2007

Free Inquiry
Volume 27 Number 5, August/September 2007

fRoots
Numbers 290/291, Aug/Sept 2007

Geist
Volume 16 Number 65, Summer 2007

Korean Quarterly
Volume 10 Number 4, Summer 2007

Labour / Le Travail
Number 59, Spring 2007

Lilipoh
Issue 48 Volume 12, Summer 2007

Our Times
Volume 26 umber 2, April/May 2007

Photoicon
Volume 2 Issue 2, 2007

Shambhala Sun
Volume 15 Number 7, August 2007

Science & Society
Volume 71 Number 3, July 2007

Turning the Tide
Volume 20 Number 4, July-Aug 2007

Whispering Winds
Volume 36 Number 6 Issue 256, 2007

Lit Mag Mailbag :: July 18

Absinthe
Number 6, 2006
Number 7, 2007

The American Poetry Review
Volume 36 Number 4, July/August 2007

Borderlands Texas Poetry Review
Number 28, Spring/Summer 2007

College Literature
Volume 34 Issue 3, Summer 2007
Special Focus: Popular Textualities

The Distillery
A Literary/Creative Arts Journal published by Motlow State CC
Volume 14 Number 1, July 2007

Event
Volume 36 Number 1, 2007

Frogpond
The Journal of the Haiku Society of America
Volume 30 Number 2, Spring/Summer 2007

Habitus
Number 2, Spring/Summer 2007
Focus: Sarajevo

Main Street Rag
Volume 12 Number 2, Summer 2007

The Malahat Review
Number 159, Summer 2007

New England Review
Volume 28 Number 2, 2007

Paterson Literary Review
Issue 35, 2006

Salt Hill
19, Winter 2007
Biannual

South Dakota Review
Volume 45 Number 1, Spring 2007

Upstreet
Number 3, 2007

Yale Review, The
Volume 95 Number 3, July 2007

Educational Kids Comics

Not quite the way I remember comic books from my childhood, but then, I didn’t grow up with these issues. Maybe reading them as adults couldn’t hurt…
Teddi Toys, Inc.
“Team GK is a group of homeless children who are brought together by a rogue government agency for an evil experiment. They escaped and are now living at the Great Kids Children’s Home in Chicago, IL. They develop their new powers and abilities through special mental preparation. Their training is funded by CONSCIENCE, a secret organization. The children make it their personal mission to protect their city, our nation and our world from villanous plots of the evil CONSORTIUM society. Available online in full-color page links: Team GK and the Monster Plan features the story of GK heroes battling a monster created from an HIV infected cell, and Team GK and the Merchants of Death finds them battling the tobacco industry.”

Ghetto Kids
“This site provides educational comic strips for kids by grade levels from 1st to 4th grade. Choose the character your child wants to read about and choose a grade level. These stories have open endings to facilitate discussion of how the stories will end and the repercussions of the character’s actions.”

Reading Ecoregions

A feature on Milkweed Editions allows you to click on an ecoregion within North Amercia to find related books, organizations, and writings from their section World as Home: “dedicated to literary writing about the natural world. Designed as a comprehensive resource for writers, educators, and activists, this site includes nonfiction, fiction, and poetry from Milkweed and other publishers, in addition to related organizations and writings.”

Books :: Senior Citizens Writing

Senior Citizens Writing
A Workshop and Anthology, with an Introduction and Guide for Workshop Leaders
By W. Ross Winterowd
Published by Palor Press
From the publisher: “The number of seniors in our population is burgeoning and will continue to grow. Seniors are eager to tell their stories, explain their philosophies, create fictions, and vent their anger at the injustices they perceive in the nation and the world. In Senior Citizens Writing, renowned teacher and writer W. Ross Winterowd describes in his introduction how writing workshops for seniors not only provide an audience but also give them opportunities for the intellectual growth and engagement that everyone wants and needs.”

Kent Rogowski :: Inside Out


The Wild Animals
Interview by Nicole Pasulka
“Think of your favorite teddy bear. Now imagine it’s been ripped open, gutted, and turned inside-out. That’s what Kent Rogowski’s Bears series has done to the iconic stuffed animals of our childhoods. In his recently published book and show at Foley Gallery, Rogowski mangles our memories and, at the same time, makes them all the more real.”
Read the interview and see the images: The Morning News

Submissions :: Little Red Leaves

Open Call for Responses to the Work of John Taggart: Little Red Leaves is announcing a call for responses to the work of John Taggart. These will be collected for one of the next few issues, and can include anything you consider “responsive”: essays, reviews, poems, visual work, video/audio work, etc. For more information, visit the blog at Little Red Leaves

Film :: Ian Wood

An cool short worth checking out: “Tsunami Escape” directed by Ian Wood, featured in Wheelhouse Magazine, Volume 3, Summer 2007. Click on “Film and Video” section. Be patient and take in all the images; don’t work hard to figure it out as it goes along. It really does all come together in the end: a climax, revelation and resolution all at once that left me feeling just as disconcerted as satisfied.

Poetry Anthology PDF :: Babylon Burning

Babylon Burning: 9/11 five years on
“Nearly 90 poets from around the world have contributed to Babylon Burning: 9/11 five years on, an anthology of poems on the Twin Towers atrocity and its consequences. But we are aiming for more than pious hand-wringing: the anthology will be free, but there is a request to donate to the Red Cross, which works tirelessly to help people caught up in disasters and conflicts, wherever and whoever they are.”

Read more and access the PDF: nthposition online

Call for Papers / Call for Proposals

For more information, visit website or contact person listed:

New Approaches to Mark Twain
for Conference
Jason Haslam (Jason.Haslam-at-dal.ca)
Deadline: September 15, 2007

The New Orthodoxy: Religion in Contemporary Jewish American Literature
for Conference
Amanda R. Toronto (aqt8334-at-nyu.edu)
Deadline: September 15, 2007

American “New Criticism”
for Book
Dr. Alfred J. Drake (ajdrake-at-ajdrake.com)
Deadline: August 31, 2007

The Americas: Drawing the Lines
for Conference
Christopher Lockett (clockett-at-mun.ca)
Deadline: August 1, 2007

“Metaphors and Allegories of the Body and Disease”
International Congress on Medieval Studies
for Conference
Jennifer Vaught (jvaught-at-louisiana.edu)
Deadline: September 1, 2007

First Impressions in Victorian Literature
for Conference
Christy Rieger (crieger-at-mercyhurst.edu)
Deadline: September 15, 2007

Preparing for the Academic Job Search

Kristina Mesaros is looking for personal accounts of graduate students preparing to enter into the academic job market for the forward to the second edition of Dawn M. Formo and Cheryl Reed’s book Job Search in Academe (Stylus Press, 2007). The forward to the second edition will focus on graduate students’ perceptions of the approaching academic job search and the pursuit of the tenure-track faculty position. You can be anonymous or named and titled. You may contribute a good quote or a case study. Your only time commitment is your email correspondence with me. Topics of particular interest include, but are not limited to:
-Preparation you received for the job search
-Advice your mentors gave you about an academic career
-Impressions of academic positions (teaching, research, publishing, serving on committees, mentoring students)
-Preparation and advice you received for the teaching and service expectations of your first tenure-track position
-Advice your mentors gave you about teaching and publishing while in a tenure-track position

Please make informal queries to mesar001@csusm.edu

Books :: Food Pets Die For


Description from the publisher: In this new and updated edition of Food Pets Die For, first published by NewSage Press in 1997, Ann Martin once again goes behind the scenes of the commercial pet food industry. She uncovers the unsavory ingredients that can legally be used by commercial pet food companies, including euthanized cats and dogs, diseased and contaminated meat, moldy grains, and rancid fat. She also documents the ongoing animal experimentation funded by many major pet food companies in the name of nutritious pet food.

Martin arms consumers with crucial information on how to read labels on pet food, and discern for themselves whether or not they want to feed their pets commercial food. Martin offers healthy alternatives for feeding animal companions with nutritious and easy-to-prepare recipes. For people who don’t have the time to cook, Martin provides information on several pet food companies that produce healthy, human-grade pet food. Martin builds a strong case for why our pets will live longer, healthier lives without commercial pet food.

Online Lit Journals and R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Bloggasm is a blog run by Simon Owens that focuses on the media, with an emphasis on online media and journalism. It often features interviews with prominent bloggers, authors and journalists. Simon recently interviewed both the Million Writers Award creator, Jason Sanford, and the winner of the award, Catherynne M. Valente, for an article on how it raises the profile of online literary journals. Read the post: The Million Writers Award: Raising the profile of online literary journals

Teaching Clothes, Class, Consumption through Writing

Linda Christensen gets students to read and write critically about clothes, class, and consumption in Can’t Buy Me Love: Teaching about clothes, class, and consumption:

“I realized when I first stumbled on this writing assignment that I touched a place of pain and shame that needed to be explored more fully. Students knew they hurt, but they didn’t have a social critique to help them understand their humiliation. They internalized the shame of poverty and blamed themselves or their families instead of criticizing a society that places more value on what we own than on our capacity for compassion or good work. In every lesson I construct, I want to puncture holes in the myths that make my students feel shame and doubt about themselves and their families.”

Read the rest: Rethinking Schools, Summer 2007

Alt Mag Mailbag :: July 12

Against the Current
Bolivia’s Transition in the Balance
Volume 22 Number 3, July/August 2007
Bimonthly

Conscience
Published by Catholics for a Free Choice
Volume 28 Number 2, Summer 2007
Quarterly

Grassroots Economic Organizing
Stories from the front lines of economic solidarity & cooperation
Issue 75, Summer 2007
Bimonthly

Greater Good
The Science of a Meaningful Life
Volume 4 Issue 1, Summer 2007
Quarterly

Labor Notes
Number 340, July 2007
Monthly

Space and Culture
International Journal of Social Spaces
Volume 10 Number 2, May 2007
Quarterly

To read more about these publications and others, visit the NewPages Guide to Alternative Magazines.