The 2016 Rainbow List, a project of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Round Table (GLBTRT) of the American Library Association (ALA), is a bibliography of books with significant gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or queer/questioning content, and which are aimed at youth, birth through age 18. The list is intended to aid youth in selecting high-quality books that were published between July 2014 and December 2015. The list also is intended to aid as a collection development or readers’ advisory tool for librarians serving children and young adults. Read more here about the list as well as comments from the committee about their continuing concerns with LGBTQ representations in literature.

Love. I love craft essays. Love. Northwestern University’s TriQuarterly online lit mag has “The Latest Word” which features a slew of craft essays and a few interviews published on a continuous basis per issue. A sample of these from the past issue – which are all available to read online – include a five-part series on “Writing into the World: Memoir, History and Private Life” with parts authored by Carolyn Forché, Garth Greenwell, Alysia Abbott, Catina Bacote, and Honor Moore. Other essays: “TV Room at the Children’s Hospice” by Michael Ryan; “Fashioning a Text: Finding the Right Fit” by Michael Steinberg; “Me, Myself, I: Idiosyncrasy and Structure in Nonfiction” by Michael Downs; “Synchronicity and Structure” by Robert Root; “Around the Candy Bowl” by Elyssa East; and “Finding a Form Before a Form Finds You by Patrick Madden” [pictured].

Jamey T. Gallagher, a former reviewer for NewPages, is currently raising funds by selling his novella online to help a friend who is having health issues. The novella, Midwinter, was inspired by his friend’s heart condition: “It is midwinter and Hank Caldwell returns to his hometown in Maine because his old friend is dying. While there, he makes discoveries about his father and begins to rethink his own life. Midwinter is a novella about coming to terms and moving on.” Andre Dubus III writes: “Jamey T. Gallagher is a major talent, with a deeply empathetic eye and a natural-born writer’s ear.” The novella can be purchased here; read an excerpt here.

I’m a sucker for a good first line. From Under the Sun, an online journal of creative non-fiction, Alison Townsend’s opener to “My Thoreau Summer” drew me in: “If, on an afternoon in midsummer, I happen to find myself near a small lake or pond, opening like earth’s blue eye before me, and then catch a whiff of the water’s clean mineral scent, overlaid with algae and mixed with the head-clearing resin of white pine, all of it intensified, cooked by sunlight, I am instantly transported to South Pond, in Marlboro, Vermont.” Wow.

But it’s a serious let down if the writer can’t uphold the promise of such a great opener. No worries here: Townsend delivers. Her essay takes readers through her summer spent at this pond, and it is almost utterly painful when she must separate herself from the place (c’mon – no spoiler here – summers do come to an end).

How many of us know this very experience: “I was homesick for the pond for months after leaving it. I missed the silence and the stillness, nothing but the sound of owls calling at night and wind in the pines. I missed my meditative forays, alone in the canoe. I missed the sight of Grace, reading across the room. But more than anything else, I missed who I was at the pond. Or rather, I missed the way that I forgot myself in its presence. Returning to the normal world and resuming my studies was a letdown after living as elementally as I had. As time passed, I would slowly understand that, without intending to, we had in fact lived more deliberately at the pond than I realized.” Double wow.

Read it. All of it.

What do you get when you mashup the mythos of Frankenstein with steampunk robotics? Toss in “True Grit” meets “Three Men and a Baby” anti-heroes and some strong, clever, resourceful, female characters “just as likely to jump into bar fights as their male counterparts,” and you’ve got Monstrous. No doubt about it.

Comic scriptwriter Greg Wright and artist Ken Lamug are the creators of Monstrous, a four-comic series that “tells the tales of everyday monsters, robots, and townspeople caught up in the changes sweeping Europe in the wake of Dr. Frankenstein’s mad science. But even in this twisted landscape, our unconventional heroes—giant rabbit monsters, steam-powered cyborgs, and babysitting bank robbers—all try to live by their own code of honor.”

Source Point Press has optioned the series and will be releasing them as a book in addition to readers being able to get the series delivered one issue per month starting in February. Source Point Press says they are using Kickstarter as a way to better interact with their readers and offer up some great incentives – like SIGNED COPIES! My favorite!

In Greek mythology, Persephone is the daughter of Zeus and the harvest goddess Demeter. As a young girl, while alone picking flowers in a field, Persephone is abducted by Hades, ruler of the underworld and brother of Zeus. As this version of the story goes, Hades makes Persephone queen of the underworld where she spends half the year; the other half, she returns to be with her mother above ground. Among her many symbols, Persephone is considered the protector of young girls.

Persephone’s Daughters is a quarterly print and digital publication of poetry, prose, and art that embraces and creates a space for this next generation of powerful protectors of women. Founder and Editor in Chief Meggie Royer says, “Our mission for creating this magazine is to empower female survivors of abuse who often do not get to see themselves, or other women who have endured similar experiences, represented in literary magazines. Having already been stripped of their voices through assault and abuse, we cannot and will not allow these women’s voices to be stripped away a second time within the literary community.”

As such, Royer says readers coming to the publication can expect to find “poetry, prose, and art about survival, about the aftermath of all kinds of abuse and degradation, including (especially) the healing. Each issue of Persephone’s Daughters is centered around survivors of abuse and the various ways they cope through their art.”

The first issue packs in over 80 contributors’ works, including art by Haele Wolfe, Kathie Rogers, and Emily Iannarilli, prose by Mitzi Luna, Olivia Sanders, Milly Hill, and Shirin Choudhary, and poetry by Hannah Hamilton, Schuyler Peck, and Jane Werntz. Interviews with Amanda Oaks, Yasmin Belkhyr, and Clementine von Radics are also featured.

Persephone’s Daughters has an incredible staff, including dozens of readers and art evaluators, tech and social media assistants, managing editors and submissions managers. Among them are Senior Editor of Prose Jessica Therese, Senior Editor of Poetry Ashe Vernon, and Senior Manager of Art Lora Mathis.

Writers and artists can expect that their works will be given much attention. According to Royer, all written submissions are read through and voted on by the publication’s large body of readers. Artworks are evaluated and voted on by the art evaluators. Writing submissions that pass the reading stage are next given suggested edits and revisions by the poetry and prose editors, who work closely with their authors “to ensure that the final product is something that makes everyone happy.”

Moving forward, Royer hopes that Persephone’s Daughters will expand its reach, “continuing to collect remarkable works of art from people all around the world with stories of their survival.”

Sprout Magazine is an online literary journal publishing social commentary, poetry, fiction, non-fiction, art, and media works by contributors 13-22 years old. While the temptation with such a name as “Sprout” is to clichéd metaphors about tender young growth, such commentary would not be reflective of this publication’s focus on real world social issues that demonstrate an awareness of the world from a variety of youth perspectives – bold, raw, and unafraid.

But indeed, the editors themselves choose the word “sprout” as a direct reference to the people they are trying to inspire: young creative minds who have taken root, but have not yet blossomed. As it says in their mission statement: “We are simply a plot of land for seeds to grow.” Also, the editors add “we like the color green.” Clearly, some humor is welcome as well.

The editors also belong to this community of young creative minds, each with their own already impressive backgrounds of achievement, perspective, and expertise. Founder and Editor-in-Chief Victoria Hou [pictured] is also the Editor-in-Chief of her high school’s print magazine and last year won Silver Key for Scholastic’s Art & Writing Competition, West Region. Co-managing Editor Sophie Govert is a recent graduate of the Iowa Young Writer’s Studio. Her work has been published in her high school’s literary magazine, she is secretary of her school’s Gender and Sexuality Alliance and a vocal part of the LGBTQ+ community. Co-managing Editor Joonho Jo is an alumnus of the Iowa Young Writer’s Studio. Outside of Sprout, he is a staff writer for the oldest preparatory school newspaper in the United States, The Exonian, and writing editor for Pendulum. He won a first place in the Letters About Literature contest in NH, sponsored by The Library of Congress.

It was their combined vision which inspired this literary start-up “to have a space where young minds can share their thoughts and opinions about society through creative expression. As Sprout’s mission is to broadcast social commentary, it was fitting to use an online literary platform – a site anyone can access – to showcase the raw art from our contributors.” As such, readers can expect to find “all kinds of meaningful and creative works, each addressing a social or political topic.”

Some recent published works include “On Christianity” (Avery B); “How to Avoid Getting Bullied in Middle School” (Joonho Jo); “The Political Science of Politics and Science” (Nina Tate); “Why You Shouldn’t Make Friends with Monsters” (Fenn De Bont); “Piedmont Needs Feminism”; poetry by Victoria Hou, Allie McGinnis, Mar C., Sophie Govert, Dylan Escobar, Michelle Wang, Kelsey K., Clara Eugene; and art by Catherine Zhao.

Sprout accepts “pretty much any form of creative media” year round, currently publishing a new piece once every two weeks. “Once a submission is received,” Sprout explained to NewPages, “all editors on the editorial board assess the work, seeing if it contains a message that is socially or politically driven. When deemed appropriate and relevant to our mission, the piece is reviewed under a critical lens for grammatical errors, inconsistencies in content, and strength of message.” Authors are then sent a url to their published work, which remains on the site.

Sprout editors hope to increase both their editorial staff and their submissions as they move forward. And, the editors note, they are also looking to compile pieces into an electronic issue for their readership.