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!
Have you been keeping up with EVENT Magazine‘s Fall Reading Series? Each week, they’re introducing one writer, along with a video of each author reading their work from the safety of their homes. So far, they’ve featured John Elizabeth Stintzi, Rose Cullis, and Jane Eaton Hamilton.
Stay safe at your own home and check out the videos on EVENT‘s YouTube channel, or via their blog. A great activity for these rainy, cool fall days we now find ourselves in.
Launched in 2011, online literary magazine Hippocampus was first dreamed about by founder and editor Donna Talarico when she was working on her MFA in creative writing at Wilkes University. Talarico wanted to create not just a literary magazine, but also develop a venue to education and inform those interested in reading and writing creative nonfiction.
Their sea horse logo was created since the hippocampus, the part of the brain dealing with memories, is sea-horse-shaped.
Over the years, they have launched a nonfiction writing contest, an annual nonfiction writing conference, and now a book publishing division. They are open to submissions annually from March through December.
Their September 2020 issue features work by Katie Parry, Kirsten Reneau, Rachel Fleishman, Brad Wetherell, Daniel K. Miller, Gwen Niekamp, and more.
Learn more about this magazine by stopping by their listing on NewPages.
Online and print literary magazine Humana Obscura publishes the best new, emerging, and established writers and artists in the “nature space.” As their name applies (obscured human), they focus on works where the human elements is concealed, but not entirely absent, aiming to revive the genre of nature-centric poetry and art.
They publish two issues a year featuring poetry, short prose under 1,000 words, and artwork in various mediums. Their inaugural issue features poetry by James King, Emily Hermann, Danielle Zipkin, David Baker, Mary Buchinger, and more; prose by Kathleen Deep, Nick O’Brien, Maggie Maize; and Angela Shen; with art by Margaret Dries, Kyra Schmidt, J. T. Bruce, and more.
They are currently open to submissions for their second issue. Learn more here. Don’t forget to stop by NewPages to discover more about this fledgling literary magazine.
Deadline: November 1, 2020
We have so many wonderful sports-themed young adult novels and short stories, but our industry is missing a collection of contemporary poetry for our student-athletes that represents their lives in this current climate. Archer Publishing seeks identity-inclusive/affirming poems for this anthology addressing contemporary sports-themed topics that are of high interest to high school students and relevant to their lives. Editor: Sarah J. Donovan, Oklahoma State University. Email submissions to yasportspoems@gmail.com. Submission deadline is November 1, 2020 with decisions made by January 1, 2021. Anticipated publication date is December 2021 or January 2022. See the website for more information about the project.
Guest Post by S. B. Julian
Is making the shelves of Little Free Libraries more diverse an appropriate role for their stewards? Emblems of diversity already, these little book nooks give pleasure by not being “stewarded” at all. Ideally, you never know what you might find in one. You don’t have the feeling that someone has pre-engineered your discovery. Continue reading “Diversity of Little Libraries Lies in their Non-curated Nature”
Deadline: November 30, 2020
No theme for our winter contest. Subject matter is entirely up to you. Surprise us! But keep it short. Two categories: flash fiction and flash creative nonfiction. We want to be amazed at how you abracadabra 1,000 or less into magic. And maybe be a little jealous of how you do that. One writer in each category will be awarded a $300 prize and published in the winter issue. All entries considered for publication and payment. Final judge: Diana Spechler. See www.baltimorereview.org for complete details. Deadline: November 30, 2020. Fee: $5.
Deadline: Midnight on Halloween 2020
Raleigh Review is currently offering two contests. The RR Flash Fiction Prize is being judged by our esteemed Fiction team ($300 Grand Prize, $13 entry fee). Raleigh Review is also offering the Geri DiGiorno Multi-Genre Prize with Dorianne Laux & Joseph Millar as the judges of the finalists. Think of our DiGiorno Prize as a collage prize that includes at least two of the genres among poetry and/or visual art and/or flash nonfiction ($300 Grand Prize, $13 entry fee). Submissions close by midnight on Halloween. All entrants shall receive the prize print issue for free.
Deadline: December 15, 2020
Founded in 2020, Nobody’s Home: Modern Southern Folklore is an online anthology of creative nonfiction works about the prevailing beliefs, myths, and narratives that have driven Southern culture over the last fifty years, in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The publication collects personal essays, memoirs, short articles, opinion pieces, and contemplative works about the ideas, experiences, and assumptions that have shaped life below the old Mason-Dixon Line since 1970.
Guest Post by Susan Kay Anderson
Bodwell’s Crown of Wild, with its gorgeous cover of an abstract painting (by the poet’s late father), is an exciting reminder of our own moments of wild abandon and others’ wild abandon gone right/gone wrong. In “Summertime” we get to read a list of pleasurable freedoms: “. . . swim the length of every pool . . . / . . . French kissing Matt Matera . . . .” later becoming abandoned to the larger universe as this poem closes. What are the answers, this poem seems to be asking. Can anything be held and kept, or is even capturing memories an act of abandon as this very idea is also in survival mode?
I’ve been reading these poems with the cover in my mind. Its brushstrokes seem to be a visual companion to the pain of grief and anxiety of what now overwhelms: forest fires, death and abuse, a madman at the helm.
What does abstract art do but tell a story in a different way, a way that leads to musings and fresh starts? There are no easy answers.
In “Where Rivers And Mountains Remain,” one of the poems in Crown Of Wild paying homage to Kayla Mueller, the captured American woman who was held and died in Syria, we see wishes for Mueller: ” . . . silvery dreams” and ” . . . a crown woven from stars” as gentle acknowledgements and gifts of praise.
What Bodwell constructs in Crown Of Wild are sculptures and sketches and shapes so each poem can express what was unthinkable. Where will the brush go? What color will it pick up as it merges and is dragged through what is already there? What is soothed? Stirred?
These poems do not need explanation, they seem to be saying. They stand alone on their base, on that which protects and extends and illustrates what is “wild” to what is really wild and beyond our imagining. They say here is beauty and the redemption that moonlit/starlit rivers and mountains bring because they remain after all that has happened, is happening.
Crown Of Wild by Erica Bodwell. Two Sylvias Press, 2020.
Reviewer bio: Susan Kay Anderson has work forthcoming from Loud Coffee Press, Sleet Magazine, and Finishing Line Press.
Buy this book from our affiliate Bookshop.org.
The Sandy Crimmins National Prize for Poetry is an annual national poetry prize featuring a $1,000 cash award for first place. Three runners up will each receive a $250 cash award. The winning and runner up poems are published in the Spring issue with these poems and honorable mentions also appearing online. The Crimmins Prize celebrates risk, innovation, and emotional engagement. We especially encourage poets from underrepresented groups and backgrounds to send their work. Deadline: November 15, 2020.
“Having a safe space to share your art/writing and the power of publication to galvanize aspiring young artists and writers to share their voice” is a motivating factor behind Binsey Poplar Press according to Founder and Editor Sophia Smith. Featuring poetry, fiction, nonfiction, photography, and art by contributors ages 13-26, Binsey Poplar Press publishes an online literary magazine every two months as well as publishing pieces on their website. “Our website will be continuously updated with new art and writing pieces and issues,” said Jessica Gao, Web Designer and Co-Editor for Art. “We hope to make it even more visually appealing and be one of your favorite reading spots.” Continue reading “New Lit on the Block :: Binsey Poplar Press”
Guest Post by Gerty Haas
In my several decades of reading, I have never encountered the likes of Zero Mirrors.
The narrator is a sentient dress worn by the main character, a woman living in a city of boredom. Her companion is a kidult: an adult who had his body modified so he’s the size of a child, because that’s the only time of his life when he was truly happy. The dress is a WAD (Wearable Assistive Data-integrator) worn by Melony, who is a Sashayer in EasyLiving City (not a dancer, because dancing is illegal). Her dearest friend is Robben, the original pilot of the Tree, the area’s greatest building and a grounded spaceship.
Abetted by her companions, Melony’s goal is to sashay through time to save her land from a Plant Plague arriving from the future. Along with being thoughtful and hilarious, this time travel story deals with gender identity, ageism, and family leadership. A key theme is the nature of human movement, from dancing to fleeing to slipping through time.
I’m not going to delineate the story except to say it has three endings: past, present, and future. I’m not able to tell you how often I had to stop reading because the book was making my brain rattle from astonishment or my stomach churn from hilarity or my eyes tear from a poignancy beyond the reality we’re stuck with. A word I hate to see in the description of any artwork is “visionary,” but the word is appropriate here. H. C. Turk has a vision of the future that makes our present seem insubstantial and ignorant, a timeframe that should be left behind. With this book, the reader can abandon that mediocrity for an enthralling experience beyond the norm, exactly equal to the book’s unique, stylish energy.
“You can’t imagine how heartsick you can be when you don’t have a heart.”
Zero Mirrors by H. C. Turk. September 2020.
Reviewer bio: Recently retired from the construction industry, Gerty Haas is an avid reader and art lover living in Florida, which thankfully is not part of The South.
Founded in 1971, EVENT is a literary magazine dedicated to nurturing writers and presenting readers with the best contemporary writing from Canada and abroad. They strive to publish a diversity of voices and literary styles and have published many distinguished writers before and after they gained national or international recognition, i.e. André Alexis, George Bowering, Charles Bukowski, Esi Edugyan, Jack Hodgins, Annabel Lyon, Pablo Neruda, Alden Nowlan, Nino Ricci, Diane Schoemperlen, Carol Shields, Timothy Taylor, and Madeline Thien.
Each year they host a Non-Fiction Contest. The contest awards $3,000 in prizes ($1,500 First Place, $1,000 Second Place, $500 Third Place) plus publication in the Spring/Summer issue. This is the longest-running contest of its kind in Canada. The deadline to enter is October 15 annually. Check out Issue 49/1 to view the winning pieces of their 2019 contest: “Judge’s Essay” by Anthony Oliveira, “The Dead Green Man” by Jane Eaton Hamilton, “Things You Think When Your Husband Has a Heart Attack” by Mary Steer, and “My Beautiful Madness” by Rose Cullis.
Besides publishing issues three times a year, EVENT also offers a reading service for writers. Stop by their listing on NewPages to learn more.
Deadline: December 15, 2020
For its 11th print issue, Jelly Bucket will feature a special section—guest-edited by 2009 National Book Award Finalist, Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon—dedicated to the Black Lives Matter movement. Send us poetry, prose, or text-as-art that captures, explores, reflects, reports, ruminates upon, or dialogues with social justice as it relates to the African American experience and BLM. Work from Jelly Bucket has appeared in the Best American anthology series and is annually nominated for the Pushcart Prize anthology. Online submissions only, $2 fee: jellybucket.submittable.com/submit.
Application Deadline: November 15, 2020
At IvyZen, our greatest joy is helping realize the potential of top students looking to get into Ivy League Schools. The scholarship program provides the following services and totals more than $8,000 worth of our premium mentoring services: How to craft a unique and compelling theme to make your application stand out; Overall application strategy and plan; How to write Ivy League admissions essays; Brainstorming Essays; College List Consultation; Free access to our project management platform to keep all your essays and materials organized; and 24/7 online access to the IvyZen Mentorship Team.
Founded in 2019, online quarterly literary magazine The LaHave Review highlights a single poem in each issue with an interview and notes about the poem. The Fall 2020 issue features “As For the Glossy Green Tractor Your Were” by Allison Adair. Past issues include “Flood” by Tara Borin (Summer 2020), “Buttercup” by Emily Tristan Jones (Spring 2020), and “What I Can’t Tell Her” by Ashley Anna McHugh (Winter 2020).
They read poetry submissions year-round and pay $100 CAD per poem for first publication rights.
The journal is named after the LaHave River in Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia where the magazine is based and is edited by Michael Goodfellow. Stop by their listing on NewPages to learn more.
Guest Post by Amber Caron
Like other readers, I had grand plans when the world went on lockdown. I would begin with War and Peace. I went as far as borrowing the book from a friend, left it on my shelf unopened, and instead turned to newly published nonfiction that grappled with the question of what it is to live a good life. The most recent addition to this stack of books is Jennifer Sinor’s Sky Songs. (Disclosure: Sinor and I teach at the same university.)
Both the title and cover image of Sinor’s essay collection are drawn from Alfred Stieglitz’s photographic study Songs of the Sky (later titled Equivalents), nearly four hundred abstract images captured when Stieglitz turned his camera to the clouds. “What is of greatest importance,” Stieglitz said, “is to hold a moment, to record something so completely that those who see it will relive an equivalent of what has been expressed.”
It was an emotional equivalence Stieglitz sought, and the same could be said of Sinor’s fifteen essays. Sky Songs meditates on the defining moments of a life—the tragic death of an uncle, a dissolving marriage, new love, the birth of a child, an encounter with wildlife, the loss of one religion and, years later, the unfolding of another. Read on their own, each essay offers a patient, lyrical examination of these moments. Together, the essays offer a profound reading experience, enriched by a layering of images, a deep sense of place, and the inescapable truth that although we are often haunted by our earliest tragedies, we are equally shaped by the beauty we find in the world around us. Ultimately, Sky Songs delivers what it promises, and what it promises is no small thing: the emotional equivalence of a life well lived.
Sky Songs: Meditations on Loving a Broken World by Jennifer Sinor. University of Nebraska Press, October 2020.
Reviewer bio: Amber Caron’s fiction and non-fiction can be found in The Threepenny Review, PEN America Best Debut Short Stories, Southwest Review, Longreads, and elsewhere.
Buy this book from our affiliate Bookshop.org.
Deadline: October 26, 2020
Announcing the second-ever #SWWIMEveryDay competition: SWWIM For-the-Fun-of-It! Deadline: October 26. $5 per poem. First prize: $250 + letterpress broadside + publication; Second prize: $100 + publication; Third prize $50 + publication. Submit up to 10 times. The incomparable Ashley M. Jones is judging! Full guidelines at www.swwim.org/contest-swwim-forthefunofit.
Launched in 2019, Auroras & Blossoms is dedicated to promoting positive, uplifting, and inspirational art; and giving artists of all levels a platform where they can showcase their work and build their publishing credits. We publish short stories, six-word stories, paintings, and drawings. We are also looking for work that tells beautiful stories and articles that are helpful to photographers at every level of their career for publication in our sister journal FPoint Collective Photography Magazine. We are interested in photography, along with articles, tips, stories, and essays relating to photography. International submissions welcome. Submission Guidelines and apply here. Submissions are accepted year-round.
Deadline: October 30, 2020
F(r)iction’s Fall 2020 Writing Contests are now open! We are accepting short stories, flash fiction, and poetry and will be awarding $1,600 in prizes. Entries will be judged by our amazing guest judges Lev Grossman, Benjamin Woodard, and Rachel Mennies. The winner in each category will receive free edits from one of our stellar senior editors as well as publication of their piece either online or in our print journal. For more information and to submit your work, please go to frictionlit.org/contests.
Guest Post by Courtney B. Jenkins
As I read Samantha Kolber’s poetry debut, I thought of all the mothers I know and hold dear—close friends, my sister, my own mother; I want to give them this book, share with them this gift of understanding.
I paused as I read to absorb moments of “Whoa,” as Kolber’s words reveal what it meant to her to become Mother. I re-read to assimilate every nuance before passing on to the next vignette. Each feeling evoked felt important. Kolber’s words are powerful draws into her world and, somehow, although I am not a mother—a birth-mother, anyhow—I know these feelings. I suddenly understand the patience I see in the mothers around me—browbeaten and screamed at by tiny versions of themselves—who are somehow able to smile in response and reply with patience and logic to the demands of their offspring. And, I realize, through this breadth of written, recorded emotion: this is love. My eyes teared with the fullness of it. And although I have no literal means of comparison in my own life, I understand. Continue reading “This is Love”
John Updike once said, “Creativity is merely a plus name for regular activity. Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or better.” At Driftwood Press, they actively search for artists who care about doing it right, or better. They are excited to receive your submissions and will diligently work to bring you the best in full poetry collections, novellas, graphic novels, short fiction, poetry, graphic narrative, photography, art, interviews, and contests. They also offer their submitters a premium option to receive an acceptance or rejection letter within one week of submission; many authors are offered editorships and interviews. To polish your fiction, note they have editing services and seminars, too. Read Issue 7.2 featuring Jessica Holbert, Seth Brady Tucker, Janiru Liyanage, Katherine Fallon, Yi-Hui Huang, and more, for a taste of what they like. Submissions accepted year-round.
Deadline: October 15, 2020
RHINO is open September 1 to October 15 for submissions for its annual Founders’ Prize Poetry Contest. Guest judge will be Ed Roberson, author of numerous poetry collections and recipient of prizes including the Jackson Poetry Prize and the Stephen Henderson Critics Award for Achievement in Literature. Roberson is currently Artist-in-Residence at Northwestern University. Entry fee is $15 for up to 5 poems; first prize $500, two runners-up prizes $100 each. All submissions considered for publication in RHINO’s 2021 issue, and for $500 Editors’ Prize. For 40+ years, RHINO’s award-winning annual print journal has featured stunning, eclectic work. Complete guidelines: rhinopoetry.org.
Deadline: October 16, 2020
Rathalla Review is accepting submissions for our Fall Issue until October 16th. We’re looking for fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and artwork. We are especially interested in flash-length pieces that represent a diversity in voices and experiences. Our Fall issue is published online in December; however, all work is also considered for our yearly print anthology, published Spring 2021.
Girls Right the World is a literary journal inviting young, female-identified writers and artists, ages 14 to 21, to submit work for consideration for the fifth annual issue. They believe girls’ voices transform the world for the better. They accept poetry, prose, and visual art of any style or theme. They ask to be the first to publish your work in North America; after publication, the rights return to you. Send your best work, in English or English translation, to girlsrighttheworld@gmail.com by December 31, 2020. Please include a note mentioning your age, where you’re from, and a bit about your submission.
Guest Post by Judith Pratt
Susanna Clarke’s new novel is much shorter than her wonderful Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, but even more challenging to read. It’s completely worth the trouble. Some novels I give away, but some are keepers. This is a keeper.
The man writing the story lives in a huge House of Halls, Vestibules, and Staircases. The House provides him with everything he needs—fish from the Tides that sweep the House, seaweed for food and fuel, and the Kindness of the many Statues that fill the House.
He writes daily journals in these capital letters, and creates directories of the entries. He feels blessed by the beauty of the House. The man knows only one human, whom he calls The Other. The Other has named him Piranesi, but the man knows that is not his name.
Once you have these basics, things begin to seem strange. Piranesi lives like an early tribal person, but analyzes things like a scholar. How would this Piranesi know that some statues are minotaurs? Why does he know what a crisp packet is? The book wasn’t making sense. For a chapter or two, I found that intriguing, but frustrating.
Don’t give up. The answers are more fantastical than the questions. And the answers create more questions. Would you rather be along in a world of mysterious beauty, or live an ordinary life with family and friends? How can we learn to see the beauty and magic in the world? What does it mean to be lost?
In retrospect, I’m glad that I knew nothing about this novel when I began to read it. I suggest you ignore the reviews—some of which are beautifully written—and go on the adventure as alone as Piranesi.
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. Bloomsbury Publishing, September 2020.
Reviewer bio: Judith Pratt has acted, directed, and taught theatre. Her plays have been produced internationally. Her novel, Siljeea Magic, was published in 2019. She lives in Ithaca, NY with a husband and three cockatiels.
Buy this book at our affiliate Bookshop.org.
Guest Post by Brooke Carpenter
I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard or cried so much as in the book Wonder by R. J. Palacio. That’s saying something; I am one of the editors of the poetry section of the online journal Route 7 Review, which features the creativity of worldwide authors and artists. And Wonder is a stunning work of art. It is beautifully woven with introspect and paradigm-shifting opportunities. Palacio masterfully creates a soothing undertone of love and acceptance in a cruel world, while at the same time maintaining a lighthearted, hilarious overtone that digs at the very human essence. Palacio carefully crafts the perfect tones and perspectives for each character she delves into, creating a quick-paced, engaging read.
Wonder discusses the topics of kindness, forgiveness, and acceptance as it plunges headfirst into the world of August, a 5th grader going to public school for the first time. With 27 surgeries to his name and a severe facial deformity, August is highly aware that he attracts unwanted attention. Needless to say, he is terrified to become a public display as he starts school. The book not only follows August through the school year, through the ups and downs and fears and successes, but Palacio also cleverly weaves in the voices of the surrounding characters, adding a deeper level of interest to the novel.
As August’s story unfolds, it is impossible not to love the marvelous characters pushing and pulling against each other. Palacio’s beautiful writing delves into the far reaches of the soul to expose the hidden pieces. There is probably nothing more accurate to say than that Wonder is simply wonderful.
Wonder by R. J. Palacio. Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2012.
Reviewer bio: I am a Senior at Dixie State University and am an editor for the poetry section of DSU’s online journal, Route 7 Review. Submissions are open now until November 6.
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The Fall 2020 issue of Valley Voices features poetry by Paul Mariani, Gary Fincke, Janet McCann, Luci Shaw, Marge Piercy, Ted Kooser, D. S. Martin, Walter Bargen, Virginia Sullivan, Ed Madden, Le Hinton, Joseph Pearce, Jean-Mark Sens, John J. Han, and more; memoirs by Billy Middleton, Frederick W. Bassett, and Carol Coffee Reposa; and articles & interviews by Bruce Boyd Raeburn, Adam Gussow, Joseph Millichap, Janet Greenlees, Dominic Reisig, John J. Han, Gab D. Smith and Thomas H. Sayre, and David Tisdale.
The autumn issue of The Shore features gorgeous and dynamic poetry by Melissa Crowe, Lisa Ampleman, Susan Rich, Taylor Byas, Joely Byron Fitch, Emma Aylor, Jill Mceldowney, Samuel Adeyemi, Taylor Fedorchak, Susan Moon, Owne McLeod, Oluwadare Popoola, Isaac George Lauristen, Duncan Mwangi, Adam Day, Natalie Young, Dan Wiencek, Andy Keys, Vincent Poturica, Katherine Fallon, and more. The issue also features digital art by Joe Lugara.
Deadline: October 9, 2020
We are seeking visual art, performance art, short films, spoken-audio pieces, creative fiction and nonfiction, poetry, hybrid work, photo essays, graphic novels, and more by women of ALL ages and ALL walks of life. OyeDrum is committed to presenting diverse and inclusive work. Our current theme is sex! Women’s ability to talk about sex and our own sexual desires are still largely influenced by our patriarchal-based society. We want to emphasize that we are accepting all types of work connected to the subject, and want to know how the writer/artist individually interprets sex. See our website for submission guidelines.
The Missouri Review “Facing It” issue is out. In this issue: first fiction from Tim Erwin and Tim Loc. Featuring Kay Cosgrove, Allison Pitinii Davis, Bruce McKay, Sahar Mustafa, Katey Schultz, Daniel Stolar, and Nicholas Yingling. Plus: J.D. Ho and Richard Terrill on the nature of sound.
Take the time to enjoy and be nourished by the art and writing in this new issue of Leaping Clear. There is humor, poignancy, power, ecstasy, calm, and beauty to be found in essays by Elizabeth Fletcher, Liz Woz, Ranjani Rao, and more; fiction by Taffeta Chime; and poetry by Alan Cohen, Carla Sarett, Fran Markover, J. P. White, Linda Parsons, Sandra Fees, Wayne Lee, and more.
Deadline: November 20, 2020
Waymark Literary Magazine is an online and physical literary magazine dedicated to publishing the works of an individual’s waymark; their footpath in life. Anyone can submit as long as they have a story to tell. We are looking for nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and art submissions to be published in our biannual publication.
Guest Post by James Gering
Here is a born creative writing teacher generously imparting dollops of warmth, humor, and wisdom in three sections that combine to resemble no other book in this crowded genre.
“The Shapes of Fiction” is the first section, where Stern vividly demonstrates his ideas in original and artful little storylines often featuring engaging dialogues. The first three shapes “show (you) how to handle thoughts, dialogue and action—techniques you’ll use over and over.” In “Iceberg,” a writer focuses on what characters choose to express or choose to keep in mind:
Brian thought, Oh God, here it comes. My Principal. The Pig That Walks Like a Man. “Hello, sir. What a fine day.”
Eiswold nodded. “What’s that on your tie, boy? Your lunch?”
“Oh, goodness,” Brian said, “I hadn’t noticed. Thank you, sir.”
A dynamic interplay between thought and speech unfolds, and it should be noted that fulsome conveyance of thought is where fiction triumphs over film.
Other shapes include “Bear at the Door,” “Onion,” “Visitation,” “Aha!,” and “Explosion,” the last of which advises you to blow the rest of the advice to smithereens and exclusively celebrate your own brilliance. The point: these are Stern’s insights (culled from decades of teaching at tertiary level), not cumbersome rules.
In the second section, “A Cautionary Interlude,” Stern points out common pitfalls on narrative journeys. Find out how to avoid “Population Explosions,” “The Banging-Shutter Story,” “The Hobos-in-Space Story,” and more.
The final section, is a comprehensive alphabetical rendering of writing terms, some universally known, others, like ‘intrigant,’ less so. The terms are deftly cross-referenced, making it a pleasure to follow related strands.
Befriend Jerome Stern! His wisdom and generosity will enrich your writing.
Making Shapely Fiction by Jerome Stern. W.W. Norton & Company, November 1991.
Reviewer bio: James Gering is a poet and short story writer from the Blue Mountains in Australia. He welcomes visitors at jamesgering.com.
Buy this book at our affiliate Bookshop.org.
Magazine Review by Katy Haas
Now more than ever it’s important to find the beauty in whatever is around us. As writers, as artists, and as humans struggling through a traumatic period of time, it’s necessary to find bright spots. The Fall 2020 issue of Still Point Arts Quarterly puts this into practice, the theme of the issue being “The Secret Life of Objects.”
Throughout the pages, writers and artists look at what’s around them and capture their beauty. Adrienne Stevenson writes an ode to a “Kitchen Timer,” an appliance one doesn’t have to think much about until it’s gone. Kathleen Miller draws pared-down sketches of telephones, boats, pitchers, eliminating the details to follow Georgia O’Keeffe’s sentiment of “get[ting] at the real meaning of things.” Most of MJ Edwards’s compelling photography focuses on treasures of trash found on the beach, as they wonder about the “untold stories” the objects carry with them.
Art can be found in the everyday items around us, the objects easily overlooked. Don’t forget to look around you and find the beauty and inspiration they can hold.
Magazine Review by Katy Haas
Since March, we’ve been relying heavily on service workers, those operating the essentials while the rest of the country slows or stops. The second half of the Fall 2020 issue of Rattle features work by poets who have served long periods of time as service workers.
In this section, readers can find Marylisa DeDomenicis’s “Excuse Me” and Jackleen Holton’s “The Hunter,” both of which discuss working in a restaurant. DeDomenicis writes of the prevalent racism in the kitchen where the speaker works, and Holton focuses on the sexism and harassment the women face at the restaurant where her speaker works. In both of these, the other workers advocate for each other when the higher-ups either do nothing or contribute to the problem. The speaker in DeDomenicis’s piece sticks up for the bullied Mexican bus boy, and the waitresses in Holton’s piece work the buddy system together so they’re never alone, lessening the severity of their harassment.
Laurie Uttich’s “To My Student with the Dime-Sized Bruises on the Back of Her Arms Who’s Still on Her Cellphone” stuck out to me most starkly. In this poem, the speaker notices her student’s bruises and implores that she put down her phone, her abusive boyfriend on the other end, so she can trade it for a pen and “Take a piece of the dark and put it on a page.” Sylvia Plath and Virginia Woolf stand by as supporting characters, offering comfort and a room of one’s own. Uttich’s use of language as the poem addresses the student is clever and flows quickly, familiar images flashing through the lines.
While we continue to rely on service workers to keep the world running, make sure to take time to hear their voices and their stories in their own words.
We could all use a little positivity and Auroras & Blossoms agrees. This is why the literary magazine has established PoArtMo which stands for “Positive Art Month and Positive Art Moves.”
In the month of June, the PoArtMo creators urged writers and artists to “celebrate positive art for 30 days.” A collection of this positivity is to be memorialized in the PoArtMo Anthology. The anthology will feature drawings, paintings, photography, fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and six-word stories by the writers and artists who participated in the challenge. The magazine has announced the featured artists readers can expect to see in the anthology.
Congrats to the selected writers, and thank you for spreading your positive outlook!
The Blue Mountain Review launched from Athens, Georgia in 2015 with the mantra, “We’re all south of somewhere.” As a journal of culture the BMR strives to represent life through its stories. Stories are vital to our survival. Songs save the soul. Our goal is to preserve and promote lives told well through prose, poetry, music, and the visual arts. Our editors read year-round with an eye out for work with homespun and international appeal. Check out the August 2020 Issue featuring the Roots of Michael Flhor, Growing Pains of an Adolescent American with DL Yancy II, James Ricks of the Quill Theater, Ilya Kaminsky’s road to poetry, and more.
The CHILLFILTR Review strives to bring the best new art to a worldwide audience by leveraging best-in-class technology to create a seamless and immersive web experience. We welcome submissions from all walks of life, and all perspectives. We are committed to inclusivity and kindly welcome work from marginalized voices. All featured works will receive an honorarium of $20 per 1000 words and will be published online at The CHILLFILTR Review as well as on our Apple News Channel. Readers can vote for their favorites, and year-end “Best Of” winners will receive an additional $100 cash prize. Recent works include short stories by Charlotte A Wynn and Steven R. Southard’ an essay by Lisa del Rosso, and poetry by Ava Lansley.
Submissions for the Spring/Summer 2021 issue of Humana Obscura are open! We are an independent online and print literary magazine publishing nature-themed work from around the world. For complete submission guidelines and more info on what we’re looking for, visit www.humanaobscura.com.
Guest Post by James Penha
Summer is the fourth and final novel in Ali Smith’s seasonal quartet. I loved Autumn, Winter, and Spring. Summer is my favorite. It has what one expects from Smith: wonderfully idiosyncratic characters, interlocking story lines, humor, social and political themes. But the special shock of Summer is its timeliness—not just Summer; Summer 2020! Its present tense is our pandemic present. Ali Smith had planned for this novel from the time (2016) she published Autumn if not long before. How did Smith manage to integrate COVID-19 and lockdown so seamlessly into a novel already envisioned? I call it a miracle . . . and a great book.
Summer by Ali Smith. Pantheon, August 2020.
A native New Yorker, James Penha has lived for the past quarter-century in Indonesia. He edits The New Verse News, an online journal of current-events poetry.
17th Annual Palm Beach Poetry Festival in Delray Beach, Florida, January 18-23, 2021. Focus on your work with America’s most engaging and award-winning poets. Workshops with David Baker, Laure-Anne Bosselaar, Traci Brimhall, Vievee Francis, Kevin Prufer, Martha Rhodes, and Tim Seibles. Six days of workshops, readings, craft talks, panel discussion, social events, and so much more. One-on-one conference Faculty: Lorna Blake, Sally Bliumis-Dunn, Nickole Brown, Jessica Jacobs, and Angela Narciso-Torres. Special Guest: Gregory Orr and the Parkington Sisters. Poet At Large: Brian Turner. To find out more, visit www.palmbeachpoetryfestival.org. Apply to attend a workshop! The application deadline has been extended to December 1 from November 10.
Guest Post by Claudia Gollini
The Shunned House falls into the supernatural and folk genres. It is a horror fiction novelette by American author H. P. Lovecraft, written in October 1924 and first published in the October 1937 issue of Weird Tales.
Lovecraft links, at the story’s beginning, the tale to his idol Edgar Allan Poe. The unnamed narrator finds it ironic that during Edgar Allan Poe’s Providence sojourn, the master of the macabre many times passed a certain house on Benefit Street without recognizing the site of real horrors.
The Shunned House is a house on Benefit Street where a large number of people passed away. With the amount of fungus present in the house, it was declared to simply have “unhealthy” conditions. At worst, the house was deemed “unlucky.” No one suspected anything supernatural was going on.
However, the narrator’s uncle, physician and antiquarian Elihu Whipple, has a shivery fascination for the house. The house was built in 1763 by William Harris. Shortly after the Harrises moved in, his wife Rhoby delivered a stillborn son. For the next 150 years, no child would be born alive in the house. Once the narrator learns of his uncle’s suspicions, they decide to investigate the house.
The story’s narrator suspects that the family is connected to Jacques Roulet of Caude, who was condemned to death for lycanthropy in 1598 before being confined to an asylum.
Jacques Roulet was a real person, whom Lovecraft had read about in John Fiske’s Myths and Myth-Makers. “The family of Roulet had possessed an abnormal affinity for outer circles of entity—dark spheres which for normal folk hold only repulsion and terror.”
The Shunned House of the title is based on an actual house in Providence, Rhode Island, still standing at 135 Benefit Street and the novelette carries the perfect Halloween mood.
The Shunned House by H.P. Lovecraft.
Reviewer bio: Claudia Gollini is a makeup artist, fashion/beauty blogger and journalist, editor and writer, and body painter of events and TV shows.
Deadline: November 15, 2020
Sou’wester is now reading fiction and creative nonfiction for our annual print issue, forthcoming in spring 2021. We are committed to investing in and encouraging the words/stories/voices of all writers, prioritizing those belonging to marginalized communities. We want to read stories from writers belonging to the black diaspora, indigenous communities, Asian communities, Latin(x) communities, neurodivergent communities, those with disabilities, and LGBTQIA+. We seek fiction that allows us to transcend the everyday, haunts our dreams, and feels fresh. We’re looking for work that will move, stun, and awe our readers. Submission is free through Submittable.
Deadline: November 20, 2020
Sand Hills, in print since 1973, is opening up submissions for our very first online exclusive! We are accepting flash fiction and essays up to 1000 words, poetry up to 32 lines, photography, and, for the first time ever, short animation and comics. We are open for submissions until November 20th. sandhillslitmag.com/submit/. We look forward to hearing from you.
Deadline: Rolling
Every year, the University of Arkansas Press accepts submissions for the Miller Williams Poetry Series and from the books selected awards the $5,000 Miller Williams Poetry Prize in the following summer. For almost a quarter century the press has made this series the cornerstone of its work as a publisher of some of the country’s best poetry. The series is edited by Patricia Smith. The deadline for the 2022 Prize is September 30, 2020. For more information visit uapress.com. Michael McGriff was named 2021 Miller Williams Poetry Prize Winner.
It’s that time of month again: a new Book Stand is now up on the website. With the September update, you can find five featured titles, as well as a selection of new and forthcoming books to check out.
In the forthcoming I’ll Fly Away, Rudy Francisco’s poems savor the day-to-day, treating it as worship, turning it into an opportunity to plant new seeds of growth.
The essays in Sky Songs: Meditations on Loving a Broken World by Jennifer Sinor offer a lyric exploration of language, love, and the promise inherent in the stories we tell: to remember.
Some Girls Walk into the Country They Are From is Sawako Nakayasu’s first poetry collection in seven years. The book radicalizes notions of “translation” as both process and product.
Hafizah Geter’s debut collection, Un-American, moves readers through the fraught internal and external landscapes—linguistic, cultural, racial, familial—of those whose lives are shaped and transformed by immigration.
Joseph Harris’s interconnected narrative You’re in the Wrong Place presents characters reaching for transcendence from a place they cannot escape in a landscape suddenly devoid of work, faith, and love.
You can learn more about each of these New & Noteworthy books at our website and find them at our our affiliate Bookshop.org. You can see how to place your book in our New & Noteworthy section here: https://npofficespace.com/classified-advertising/new-title-issue-ad-reservation/.
Deadline: October 12, 2020
The Garfield Lake Review prides itself on accepting a wide selection of fiction, poetry, and visual arts from the Olivet College community and beyond. No fee, payment in copies. This year’s Garf is looking for submissions that follow the theme of duality. Send us your unexpected endings, your highs and lows. Send us anything juxtaposed between light and darkness. Living is a thrill—show us how it is for you. Visit us at www.garfieldlakereview.com/submit.
Deadline: December 15, 2020
Submit your manuscript to Interim’s 3rd annual Test Site Poetry Contest! As our series title suggests, we’re looking for manuscripts that engage the perilous conditions of life in the 21st century, as they pertain to issues of social justice and the earth. The winning book will demonstrate an ethos that considers the human condition in inclusive love and sympathy, while offering the same in consideration of the earth. Because we believe the truth is always experimental, we’ll especially appreciate books with innovative approaches. The winning book will be chosen by the series editor and advisory board, which includes poets Sherwin Bitsui, Donald Revell, Sasha Steensen and Ronaldo Wilson. The winner will receive $1,000 and their book will be published by University of Nevada Press in 2021.
Palooka is an international literary magazine. For a decade we’ve featured up-and-coming, established, and brand-new writers, artists, and photographers from all around the world. We’re open to diverse forms and styles and are always seeking unique chapbooks, fiction, poetry, nonfiction, artwork, photography, graphic narratives, and comic strips. Give us your best shot! Submissions open year-round. palookamag.com