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New Madrid Anniversary

new-madridHappy 10th Anniversary to New Madrid, the national journal of the low-residency MFA program at Murray State University. In her Editor’s Introduction, Ann Neelon takes a look back, noting that “as milestones go, a decade is not insignificant, especially for a low-residency program like ours that operates, within the university budget, according to a make-or break financial model much like that of a small business.”

In looking to the future, Neelon resolves to “keep getting better,” with plans underway “to start up a literature option in Ireland. April 2016 marks the centenary of the rebellion immortalized by William Butler Yeats in his poem, ‘Easter, 1916.’ and our plan is to take advantage of the many exhibits and events the government of Ireland has planned in commemoration. Our first study-abroad course, to be offered in June of 2016, will use the Easter Rising as a lens through which to examine the entanglement of literature, history, and politics. The course will be open to alumni as well as current students.”

Lee Gutkind on Waiting

creative-nonfictionIssue 59 of Creative Nonfiction is themed Waiting. In his editorial, “What’s the Story?” Lee Gutkind examines many of his own experiences with waiting – as an editor, as a writer, as a coffee consumer. He also considers the role he plays in the lives of others and their waiting to hear about submissions they’ve sent in to CNF, that process, and why there is so much waiting for others to do.
The word waiting appears 35 times in the 1000-word essay, and while I can empathize with the frustrations shared with each recounting, there’s also something oddly humorous about it – most likely because it’s not me doing the waiting. But I certainly know the experience of waiting at Starbucks only to be next in line behind the guy who “asked the barista twenty questions about the breakfast choices and the oatmeal toppings.”

This issue also includes the essay “Any Given Day” by Judith Kitchen, submitted specifically for this issue prior to her passing August 20, 2014, and the essay “A Genre by Any Other Name?: The Story Behind ‘Creative Nonfiction” by Dinty W. Moore. Gutkind’s and Moore’s essays can be read online as well as “Sleepless in Any City: Insomnia in Lorca’s Madrid” by Janine Zeitlin for readers to get a sample of the publication’s content.

Malahat Review on Long Form Poetry

malahat reviewThe Malahat Review issue 191 includes winners of their 2015 Long Poem Prize: Gary Geddes for “The Resumption of Play” and Genevieve Lehr for “The latter half of the third quarter of the waning moon.”

The Malahat Review website features and interview with each author on their winning poems as well as a link to a symposium on the Long Form which was presented at the League of Canadian Poets’ Long Poem panel May 2015 annual general meeting in Winnipeg. Contributing authors and commentaries include: Kate Braid’s “Tending the Garden: The Fruits and Dangers of the Long Poem”; Cornelia Hoogland’s “The Long Poem and the Shape of the Working Mind”; and Sharon Thesen’s “After-Thoughts on the Long Poem.”

Cash Award for Parenting Artists

The 2015 round is now open for the Sustainable Arts Foundation. The foundation offers awards in two major categories: visual arts and writing. Writers working in fiction, nonfiction, playwriting, and poetry are endouraged to apply. Visual artists practicing painting, sculpture, drawing, printmaking, mixed-media and photography are encouraged to apply. At this time they are not accepting applications in the performing arts, film/video, or music.

To be eligible, the applicant must have at least one child under the age of 18. The foundation will award Sustainable Arts Foundation Award: $6,000 and Sustainable Arts Foundation Promise Award: $2,000. They typically offer five of each award in each application round.

There is a $15 application fee, but 100% of the fee goes to the jurors, who are also fellow parent artists themselves. Deadline September 4, 2015.

Willow Springs 2015 Fiction Prize Winner

halstonCarissa Halston’s “Call It a Map” has been awarded the 2015 Willow Springs Fiction Prize of $2000 and publication in issue #76. Halston offers insight on the winning story: the Craigslist ad that inspired the concept, her signing up for a sleep study and researching disabilities. She writes of the piece, “I wanted to push sensory details as far as I could without relying on imagery, which meant I was allowed to choose similes and metaphors that wouldn’t fly in another story. All stories rely on internal logic, but I find the most cohesive narratives are those that use their plot details to inform their diction.” Read the story and more from Halston here.

Glimmer Train Short Story Award for New Writers :: 2015

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

Lauren Green1st place goes to Lauren Green [pictured] of New York, NY. She wins $1500 for “When We Hear Yellow” and her story will be published in Issue 97 of Glimmer Train Stories. This will be her first publication.

2nd place goes to Emory Harkins of Brooklyn, NY. He wins $500 for “We’re Talking to Ourselves.”

3rd place goes to Ellen Graham of Seattle, WA. She wins $300 for “Livingston.”

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

Deadline today for the Very Short Fiction Award: July 31. This competition is held quarterly, and 1st place wins $1500, publication in the journal, and 20 copies of that issue. It’s open to all writers, with no theme restrictions, and the word count must not exceed 3000. Click here for complete guidelines.

Some Literary News Links :: July 2015

Molly Lynch give us 10 books to entertain, inspire and encourage young feminists – agree? disagree?

150 Years of Wonderland is on exhibit at The Morgan Library & Museum, with an online exhibition available for mouse click travelers.

Follow that up with Anarchy in Wonderland: Vivienne Westwood’s anti-capitalist take on Alice’s Adventures on NewStatesman.

Washington Post’s Valerie Strauss examines Common Core and Martin Luther King Jr.: Is this any way to teach his famous letter from jail?

What do Americans look like in Arabic literature? Columnist Marcia Lynx Qualey @arablit explores Portraits of Americans in Arabic literature.

I could have used a couple of these when I first began smartphone reading: 5 Tips for Reading Serious Literature on Smartphones.

And Dartmouth College is running a contest to see what artificial intelligence can create the most human-like writing and music entries.

NER Focus on China

Volume 36.2 of New England Review includes a Focus on China, with first English translation of poems by Xiao Kaiyu, Ya Shi, and Yin Lichuan; Wei An’s ruminations on nature just north of Beijing; Wendy Willis on Ai Weiwei’s blockbuster show at Alcatraz; and fiction by Chinese-born American writer Michael X. Wang.

new-england-reviewEditor Speer Morgan writes in his Editor’s Note: “At NER, the door has always been open to translations, from any language, but Chinese literature has been missing from our pages since 1987, when we published David Hinton’s rendition of classical Chinese poet Tu Fu. So for this issue we reached out in order to bring more of it in. We’ve assembled a handful of contemporary works translated from Chinese as well as works pertaining to China written in English. This is not an attempt to present some kind of overview—not at all—but rather we’re doing what NER does best, that is, offering a lively sample of what’s new and good. They’re presented not as a discrete section but are integrated into the issue as a whole, because it turns out that the China-related pieces in this issue speak just as often, and sometimes more clearly, to the other works assembled here as to each other.”

Books :: Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction

better-than-war-siamak-vossoughiSince 1983, the University of Georgia Press has annualy held their Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, which, according to their website, “was established to encourage gifted emerging writers by bringing their work to a national readership.” Siamak Vossoughi’s winning collection Better Than War will be published in September 2015.

From the publisher’s description: “The stories in Better Than War encompass narratives from a diverse set of Iranian immigrants, many searching for a balance between memories of their homeland and their new American culture. [ . . . ] All Iranian immigrants, young or old, carry with them a vivid past in their contemporary life. Vossoughi’s Better Than War is about growing up, coming of age, and raising children in America while still remembering the importance of retaining Iranian pride.”

Preorder your copy of Better Than War at the University of Georgia Press website.

New Editors @ Beloit Poetry Journal

With little fanfare, John Rosenwald and Lee Sharkey have stepped down as The Editors of Beloit Poetry Journal, roles they have held for nearly 25 years.

The publication has a long and romantic history – starting up at Beloit College, declaring its independence to defy the opinions of those who would censor it, and moving from Wisconsin to Maine while keeping its place-based name, establishing an international reputation for contemporary poetry. Writers speak of ‘not being ready yet’ to submit to BPJ, but someday, they will; or of being rejected, they smile – as though accomplishing the attempt was enough (and they always say, “I got the nicest rejection…”). Sigh. There just aren’t many such stories as those nowadays with the revolving door of publication start ups and closures, hundreds of lit mags to submit to, mass submission processes where writers don’t even know the publications they’ve sent work to.

Beloit Poetry Journal’s history is a good read and reminder of the literary journals that paved the way for so many others. And not just publications, but the people involved with them: editors, readers, writers, publishers. All of us.

Having known John and Lee (and Ann Arbor) for well over a decade now, I know this decision to pass on the publication was not an easy one. Please readers, understand, it was within their power to end Beloit Poetry Journal and call it a good run. Stepping away is hard enough, but handing over a publication with such an incredible reputation was not so much a decision as a process that took several years to come through. My appreciation and admiration to John and Lee and Ann for all of their hard work and dedication to writers AND readers. They never separated the importance of those two roles through the years they ran the journal, which is what makes it so well known today within the literary community.

I see John and Lee are still listed in the publication as “Senior Editors,” so I’m sure they will continue on in some advisory capacity. But I have also met the new editors: Melissa Crowe and Rachel Contreni Flynn. I know they will look to their Senior Editors in the years to come to guide them, but I already sense that they will have strength and creativity of their own to take the journal into the next great phase of its existence.

Melissa and Rachel provide a short note about the transition here. I like how in it, and elsewhere on the site, the role of Editor is referred to as handling the day-to-day operations of the journal. But as the literary community had come to know first David and Marion Stocking, then John Rosenwald, Lee Sharkey, and Ann Arbor as the face(s) of Beloit Poetry Journal – there is a great deal more responsibility to being the Editor of a journal than simply running the day-to-day. That day-to-day may actually feel like the work of it all, but much more than that is required to maintain a good literary publication. A great literary publication. One of the best.

The tangible, the day-to-day, that will be the easy part. It’s the other, the expectations, that become the true responsibility. The expectations of writers, of readers, of other editors, other publications, of teachers, of students, of the up-and-coming, of the established, of yourselves – most of all – of yourselves. Continually satisfy these changing expecations of the collective imagination, sustain this, and you will have a publication people know internationally. For decades. It has been done. It can be done.

My best to Melissa and Rachel. No cliches about shoes to fill. You have already done that or you wouldn’t be here already. Ten years from now, let’s look back, talk about where Beloit Poetry Journal has been and imagine where you see it going.

Big Muddy 2014 Contest Winners

hannah-gildeaBig Muddy: A Journal of the MIssissippi River Valley issue 15.1 features winning entries from their 2014 contests:

Wilda Hearne Flash Fiction Contest
Jeannine Dorian Vesser, Missouri, “That Summer”

Mighty River Short Story Contest
Hannah Gildea [pictured], Oregon, “Cottonmouth”

2014 contest winners for full-length works to be published by Southeast Missouri State University Press include:

Cowles Poetry Book Prize
Angie Macri, Underwater Panther
Publication Date: September 1, 2015

Nilsen Literary Prize for a First Novel
James Tate Hill, Academy Gothic
Publication Date: October 1, 2015

The Masters Review 2015 Anthology

kevin-brockmeierThe Masters Review volume IV features ten authors whose stories were selected by Kevin Brockmeier [pictured] as “The Best Stories by Emerging Writers.” The Masters Review has two submission periods per year, one for new voices published online, and the print anthology, which in the past was open to just those in graduate-level programs.

This year’s anthology opened to submissions “from emerging writers of all kinds.” Editor Kim Winternheimer writes, “As The Masters Review grows in its literary pursuits, its focus remains on celebrating and promoting new and emerging authors. Yet, by showcasing writers from a single demographic we were limiting our platform. As we mark our fourth year, we are thrilled to embrace a growing range of voices.”

Winternheimer comments that while nonfiction entries were submitted, none were selected for this final colletion, making this anthology an all-fiction issue. Authors and works included can be found here, as well as a link to the shortlist of finalists.

New Lit on the Block :: Crab Fat Literary Magazine

Rounding out its first year of publication, Crab Fat Literary Magazine has four print issues (August, November, February, May) and a ‘best of’ anthology in addition to its online collection from posting new writing every other Sunday of the year.

Founding/Managing Editor Caseyrenée Lopez and Fiction Editor Ella Ann Weaver oversee the publication of fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, flash fiction, interviews, art/photography, and experimental/hybrid work. They will consider audio/video of readings, but it’s not something they’ve published regularly.

The motivation for starting CFLM, Caseyrenée tells me, was “to join the conversation. My educational background is focused on queer writing/publishing, and supporting minority voices was the next step for me. I also wanted to see what was out there; starting Crab Fat has provided me with interactions and experience I wouldn’t have gained otherwise.”

Most intriguing to me is that name – Crab Fat. Where on earth did that come from? Caseyrenée says, “I wanted something memorable and cool, but was struggling to find something that would vibe with my goal of highlighting awkward/experimental/queer prose and poetry. A few days before I committed to buying a domain, my husband and I were at breakfast and started calling out random phrases and obscure words. He suggested ‘crab fat’ because we’d been listening to Crudbump‘s Illuminati Shit. Our favorite line in the song is ‘rock a big gut, that’s my crab fat’ and we’d been making jokes about his chubby belly being ‘crab fat.’ So really, the name Crab Fat is a weird mashup of rap lyrics and body positivity.”

In keeping with the unique name, readers can expect to find “a little bit of this and a little bit of that,” Caseyrenée tells me. “We feature a wide variety of voices and offer an eclectic mix of contemporary content. We are progressive and like to publish work that goes against the grain of mainstream.” To that end, during their first year CFLM has featured writing from Adam Kuta, Edward A. Boyle, D.S. West, Haley Fedor, Alana I. Capria, Philicia Montgomery, and Susannah Betts.

The future for CFLM will include pushing the genre limits and incorporating more experimental work into the magazine. “We want work that breaks conventions and makes us question what we know about genre” says Caseyrenée, “so we are actively reaching out to a wider audience than before. We are also trying to raise money through tip-jar submissions, a GoFundMe campaign, a cool image prompt contest, and sales of our print anthology. We want to pay writers for their work, even if it is just a token payment, to show that we appreciate all of their hard work.” Crab Fat also actively works to recognize writers through nominations for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net.

CFLM’s print anthology is published under the Damaged Goods Press imprint. Caseyrenée is the founder of both, so in a sense, they’re sister sites/publications. The quarterly magazine is available as PDF and print, and the every other Sunday installments on available online. Submissions are accepted a rolling basis using Submittable.

Drunken Boat Book Contest Winner & Finalists

Drunken Boat #21 includes work from each of the finalists for the DB Book Contest. The contest was opened to opened to poetry, translations, and hybrid works. The editors received nearly 300 manuscripts which were narrowed down to 10 finalists. Forrest Gander chose the winner of the contest: Collier Nogue’s The Ground I Stand on is Not My Ground, a book that utilizes QR codes that link up to a website to create a truly immersive multimedia experience.

The finalists contest: Diana Thow translating Amelia Rosselli; Eleanor Goodman; Amaranth Borsuk and Gabriela Jauregui; Amy Pence; Catherine Hammond translating Carmen Boullosa; Collier Nogues; Elisabeth Murawski; Haley Larson; Meredith Stricker; Michael Leong; and Stephanie Anderson.

Samples of their work can be read on Drunken Boat #21 here.

The Fiddlehead Summer Fiction Issue

fiddlehead-summer-2015I couldn’t help but to share this snippet from Mark Jarman’s editorial remarks for the summer fiction issue of The Fiddlehead (n264):

I will be brief: this is an amazing collection, an astounding summer fiction issue. Look at the stories and writers from around the globe, writers new and proven: no one else in Canada can touch what we are doing right now.

There I’ve said it; the gods of the small mags can strike me down.

Rather than being struck down, I hope this encourages readers to take look (a couple can be read full text online) and judge for themselves!

SHR Auburn Witness Poetry Prize

jake-adam-yorkThe newest issue of Southern Humanities Review (v48 n4) includes a special poetry section featuring the winner, runners-up and finalists for the 2014 Auburn Witness Poetry Prize honoring Jake Adam York (pictured; 1972-2012).

WINNER
Amanda Gunn
Gunn was the guest of honor at “Abide”: A Tribute to Jake Adam York and His Work, October 2014.

RUNNERS-UP
Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach
Shara Lessley

FINALISTS
Lauren Camp
Kai Carlson-Wee
Joshua Gage
Jennifer Horne
Jeremy Keenan Jackson
Anna Leahy
Enid Shomer
David Tucker
Seth Brady Tucker
Richard Tyler

New Lit on the Block :: Polychrome Ink

polychrome-inkPolychrome Ink is a new biannual print and e-published journal with the mission to highlight that diversity is not a niche market, but a mass market.

“Polychrome Ink is run by a group of diverse friends,” Executive Editor Em Salgado explained to me. “We met due to a mutual love of literature. During frequent literary discussions, we often noticed a shortage of characters that represented any of our individual diversity points, which only further highlighted what we felt was lacking. The need to see ourselves normalized in the literature being produced and the literature we love became our raison d’être. Eventually we grew tired of simply talking about it and decided to take matters into our own hands.”

At the editorial helm along with Em are Associate Editor Zire Fournier, Copy Editor Kimmia Masterson, and Assistant Associate Editor Zaira Fournier. Additionally, Polychrome Ink currently has eight specialty editors who assist with topics and themes in which they have experience. For example, if Polychrome Ink receives a submission with any of the following themes: gay male, genderqueer, religious, neuroatypical — the editors send that submission to Aaron for review because he, himself, is a gay neuroatypical genderqueer individual who studies theology.

Unique to this publication, writers who submit may choose the editor that they feel best suits their work. Em explained, “The process of selecting an editor with the appropriate diversity points and literary interests helps to assure writers that their submission is being reviewed by someone that their work will resonate with the most — thus making the relationship between writer and editor more personal.”

Even the name Polychrome Ink speaks to the diversity of the publication: “We were looking for a moniker that represented diversity,” Em said, “and by extension, diversity in writing. Polychrome means multicolored, yet does not have the same connotation as rainbow, since our demographic extends beyond LGBTQIA+ themes. And Ink, of course, represents the writing itself.”

Readers of Polychrome Ink can expect to find a collection of short fiction, creative nonfiction, flash fiction, essays, and poetry written by diverse authors and/or with diverse themes. Em explains that “Polychrome Ink seeks to share authentic voices and quality literature, covering an array of genres and topics, with the hopes that the work resonates with readers.”

For their inaugural issue, the featured author was Tessa Gratton, alongside Emma Mauze, Frances Kimpel, D. Michael Warren, Shana Bulhan Haydock, David Perlmutter, Yuan Changming, Anders Scott, Jan Steckel, Robin Wyatt Dunn, Courtney Hamel, Kim Luna, Jaycee Boydgarcia, Alex Franco, Malcolm Friend, and Stephen Mead.

“In terms of the future,” Em told me, “we will continue providing an outlet and resource for writers and readers alike. We would like to be amidst the publications everyone looks to for original diverse literature. We also have plans to expand our staff — thus broadening the diverse spectrum of our editorial team.”

Polychrome Ink accepts submissions via email and is approaching the end of the submission period for Volume II — which releases in October. (Submissions close July 31.) There is no reading fee and the publication is a paying market with hopes that as readership grows, so will the compensation to writers.

Flash Fiction :: Kelly Charlton

As I head into my “summer off” I can honestly say I appreciate this hardcore look at teaching. I’ll use this as my retrospective for the month:

“At age 26, your first teaching assignment shattered your dreams. Your students preferred other forms of entertainment such as talking on their cell phones or discussing who was sleeping with whom to studying Shakespeare and dangling participles. Most had no clue how to express themselves using a complete sentence, and if you’d had a whisky shot for every time you read an essay containing the word ‘cuz,’ you would have become a fine drunk, which in retrospect doesn’t sound so bad.”

From “A Guide for the Burned Out Teacher” by Kelly Charlton published in Crab Fat Literary Magazine online content, July 2, 2015.

MFA Attitude Adjustment

charlotte-morgantiAmidst all the debate about the “value” of higher education and the “overabundance” of MFAs being turned out of programs these days, it was refreshing to read Charlotte Morganti’s Eight Reasons to Considering Pursing an MFA on Fiction Southeast. What a great reminder that it’s okay to want to go to school to LEARN not just to EARN. Morganti writes, “Initially I enrolled in my MFA program for two reasons – to learn the craft and to hang out with some really cool people. By the time I earned the degree, I had benefited in many other ways as well.” She invites readers in or pursuing MFAs to give their own reasons for enrolling in a program, as well as responses to these two questions: Did your MFA give you benefits you dind’t expect when you first enrolled? If you opted no to pursue and MFA, what were your primary reasons?

Graphic Narrative: Emily Steinberg

emily-steinberg“First sort through Emily Steinberg’s A Mid Summer Soirée in quick succession,” writes Tahneer Oksman, Graphic Narratives Reviews Editor of Cleaver Magazine, “Then go back and read it slowly.”

I did just that, and found that as I progressed through the images with accompanying text, I became more and more amused by the story of each whimsical character.

“He thought his Linen Suit was the way to go.”
“She wondered if her new Coif was appropriate for an evening soiree.”
“He’d received the invite only a day before and felt decidedly B-listed.”

There’s no transition to connect the images and stories to one another, other than the overall title. As Oksman writes, “Trying to fill in the narrative gaps is part of the pleasure of the journey, as is, on the contrary, moving past those gaps in favor of experiencing the piece’s seductive rhythm.”

Going back through it slowly allows time to absorb the artwork, which is fantastic collage/sketch design work. Using newspaper, with lots of crosswords sections, some of Steinberg’s images have almost an exquisite corpse feel to them that makes it both disconcerting and impossible to look away.

Need a Prompt? Try These!

themaLooking for an idea to get your writing started today? Try THEMA literary journal! Each issue of THEMA is based on a different unusual theme. The journal is designed to provide readers with a unique and entertaining collection of artistic theme interpretations, in the form of stories, poetry, black-and-white artwork, and photography. It also provides a stimulating forum for established and emerging literary artists and serves as source material and inspiration for teachers of creative writing.

Upcoming themes and dealines for submission:

The Neat Lady and the Colonel’s Overalls
November 1, 2015

Drop the Zucchini and Run!
March 1, 2016

Second Thoughts
July 1, 2016

“The premise given,” the editors write, “must be an integral part of the plot, not necessarily the central theme but not merely incidental.” For more information, visit THEMA.

Chariton Short Fiction Prize Winners

chariton-reviewThe Spring 2015 issue of Chariton Review features the winner and finalists of their 2015 Short Fiction Prize, judged by Christine Sneed. This winner of this annual award for the best unpublished short fiction on any theme up to 5,000 words in English receives a prize of $500 and two or three finalists will receive $200 each. All U.S. entrants will receive a complimentary copy of the Spring prize issue in which the winners are published.

2015 Winner
“Sugar Bowl” by Jo DeWaal

Finalists
“Delivery in Göteborg” by Mike Lewis-Beck
“Die Laughing” by Kim Norris
“Big Sisters” by Louise Kantro


Books :: Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prize

no-map-of-the-earth-includes-stars-christina-olivaresThe Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prize is awarded annually, with a first prize of $1,000 and publication. During this past May, the 2014 winner was published: No Map of the Earth Includes Stars by Christina Olivares.

Also the winner of YesYes Books’s 2014 Vinyl 45 Chapbook Competition with her chapbook Petition, Olivares has poems published or forthcoming in Five Quarterly, decomP, Vinyl Poetry, and PALABRA, among others.

Check out the Marsh Hawk Press website for more information about No Map of the Earth Includes Stars or pick up a copy.

Ricochet Review

ricochet-reviewStudent poets guided by faculty and editorial editors at Chicago’s Von Steuben Metropolitan Science Center comprise the editorial board of Ricochet Review, an annual poetry magazine that strives to publish both established and emerging writers who work in poetry and/or poetry translations from various languages and various forms of art. The newest issue (#3) features translation from both underrepresented and major languages, as well as through ekphrasis.

Ricochet Review is unique among literary magazines because of its “Apprentice Poet and Master Poet Mentorship Exchange.” This is an opportunity for high school poets to hone their craft through a guided, workshop-style collaboration between experienced, published, and talented master poets, who understand the art of poetry and how to convey it. High school students who wish to be mentored should highlight their interest in their cover letter when submitting their poems. The editorial board will then contact chosen participants.

Ricochet Review is currently accepting national and international submissions from high school students, college students, and non-students. The theme for their next issue: “Macabre and Grotesque.” The editors write, “We are looking for any type of poetry and translation directly or indirectly inspired by the macabre and/or grotesque.” The reading period ends February 1, 2016.

Poetry Resource for Teachers

The Teacher’s Lounge on the League of Canadian Poets website offers some great resource essays and lesson plans:

Encouraging Amazing Writing by Dawna Proudman
Inspiring Writing that Makes You Stand Up and Cheer by Dawna Proudman
Performing your Work: Finding the Actor Inside of You by Penn Kemp
Get Rhythm: teaching students to hear rhythm and metre by Katherine Parrish
Keep it Simple: Concrete Imagery in Poetry by Michael Mirolla
Dispelling the 5-7-5 Myth: A Haiku Lesson for Elementary Students by Naomi Beth Wakan
Canadian Poets Across the Curriculum: Al Purdy and the Dorsets by Kathryn Bjornson
Canadian Poets Across the Curriculum: Fred Wah and Joy Kogawa by Kathryn Bjornson
Digital Spaces, Reading, and Poetics by Aaron Tucker
Identity and Autobiography by Aaron Tucker
Teaching Form Poetry by Yvonne Blomer

Writing Dialogue – Or Not

samsun-knightWriter Samsun Knight explores the role of conversational dialogue in fiction: “…in reality, nobody ever talks to anyone else. What speech actually achieves is a communication between one person and that person’s idea of the other. Most of the time there is no difference, no discernible difference, between such verisimilitude and the truth. But the best dialogue will manifest this disparity in subtle, slender ways. It will show how, in speaking, we fail to speak.”

Read the rest of his commentary in Glimmer Train Bulletin #102 along with other craft essays from authors recently published in Glimmer Train Stories.

It’s Time! August Poetry Postcard Festival!

august-po-poPaul Nelson, poet and lead organizer of the August Poetry Postard Festival has sent the first update for this year’s event!

For you newbies, the August PoPo Fest goes like this: You sign up. You get a list of 31 names/addresses of other people who signed up. Starting late June, you write a poem a day on a postcard and mail it off to the next person on the list, so by the end of the month, you will have (hopefully) written and sent 31 poems and (hopefully) received 31 poems.

The poems are not supposed to be pre-written or something you’ve been working on for months. This is an exercise is the spontaneous, the demanding, the gut-driven, the postcard inspired – whatever it is that gets you to write once a day, each day, and send it off into the world.

I’ve done this event since it began, and it is now in its ninth year! I don’t always keep to a poem a day; sometimes I get ahead one day, or catch up another, with several poems in one day. But I try my best. The event does get me thinking of poetry in my every day, when I rarely have time for it, and writing it down – something I have time for even more rarely.

I’ve received poems from across the state, the country and around the globe. I’ve gotten postcards made from cereal boxes, some with gorgeous original artwork, and lots of the lovely tacky tourist cards from travel destinations. I have cards from “famous” poets, and some who have since become more famous, and some never signed, so I’ll never know, and it hardly matters. I’ve gotten poetry. Sent to me directly. From strangers. Lovely, strange, absurd, and funny. Poetry.

It’s an amazing event, and I hope you will take the challenge and join in this year. For the first time EVER, the organizers have decided to charge a nominal fee for the event ($10). I can only imagine the amount of work it is to run this (with up to 300 people participating), and keeping up virtual space to promote it. I’m not dissuaded by the fee, knowing the extraordinary event that it is, and knowing I’ve spent 100 times that on conferences from which I’ve gotten a great deal less inspiration…

So, please writers, wanna-bes and needs-a-kick-in-the-arsers, poetry lovers, postcard lovers – this event is for you. Join us!

Gulf Coast 2014 Barthelme Prize Winners

gulf-coast-summer-fall-2015The winner and honorable mentions of the 2014 Barthelme Prize are featured in the Summer/Fall 2015 issue of Gulf Coast:

2014 Barthelme Prize
Amy Hempel, Judge

Winner
Emma Bolden, “Gifted”

Honorable Mentions
Patty Yumi Cottrell, “No One Makes Plans”
Susan Lilley, “Delmonicos”

The Barthelme Prize for Short Prose is open to pieces of prose poetry, flash fiction, and micro-essays of 500 words or fewer. The contest awards its winner $1,000 and publication in the journal. Two honorable mentions will receive $250, and all entries will be considered for paid publication on the Gulf Coast website as Online Exclusives.


Quiddity: Some Changes

quiddity 8 1Quiddity, the international journal and public radio program enters into its eighth year with a couple notable changes. Managing Editor Jim Warner will be handing over the role to John McCarthy, and the partnership with Benedictine University at Springfield has come to close. Quiddity will continue with a new relationship with NPR member/PRI affiliate WUIS, Illinois Public Radio’s hub-station. As Warner writes, “Sharing our contributors’ work with the public-radio audience is a crucial element to our mission at Quiddity and we look forward to sharing more work with you.”

 

Books :: John Simmons Short Fiction Award

excommunicados-charles-havertyThe John Simmons Short Fiction Award is open to any writer who hasn’t previously published a volume of prose fiction. Charles Haverty is the 2015 winner with his forthcoming collection Excommunicados.

From the University of Iowa Press’s website: “By turns haunting, hilarious, and heartbreaking, Charles Haverty’s debut collection charts the journeys of men, women, and children cast out of familiar territory into emotional terra incognita where people and things are rarely what they seem. . . . There are secrets at the center of each of these daring and original stories—secrets that separate these characters from one another but grow in the mind and the heart, connecting them with all of us.”

To be available in October 2015, copies of Excommunicados can be preordered from the University of Iowa Press website.

New Lit on the Block :: Tishman Review

tishman-reviewThe Tishman Review gets its name from Tishman Hall, located on the campus of Bennington College where co-founding editors Maura Snell and Jennifer Porter gave their graduate lectures and readings as students in the Bennington Writing Seminars. They are joined by Joanne Nelson, editor for creative nonfiction.

Publishing quarterly fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and art, including cartoons, the current issue of The Tishman Review is available for free online. All issues are available to purchase as an e-book and in print-on-demand.

Porter tells me they started a magazine “to be DIFFERENT. We wanted to pay our contributors, we wanted to be hands-on editors—not only reading everything that comes in (and often providing feedback) but also editing accepted pieces, we wanted to be open to what authors are creating rather than having pre-determined ideas of what they should be writing.”

As a result of their up-to-elbows approach, readers can expect to find a selection of poetry, prose and art that “speaks to the human condition” and “hopefully elicits a response, whether it be emotional or intellectual.”

There have been no preset themes for submissions, though themes have appeared from among the works once they have been selected for publication. The editors shared, “We do like to publish work that challenges the ‘isms of sex, race, age, etc.”

Among those writers whose works have been selected, in poetry: Lauren Davis, Ace Boggess, Barrett Warner, Karla Van Vliet and Jennifer Martelli; in fiction: Tamas Dobozy, Amanda Pauley, Laura Jean Schneider, Lee L. Krecklow, James English, and Mercedes Lawry; in creative nonfiction: Robert Vivian, Jayne Guertin, and Kerrin O’Sullivan.

For the July issue, The Tishman Review will begin mini-contests in which readers (on our website) and the staff vote for their favorite piece in each genre and contributors will win prize monies. The editors hope to continue working on the publication’s financial standing so as to increase contributor payments.

All poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction submissions can be made through Submittable. There is a fee to submit works, which the editors felt a need to comment on: “There is a lot of controversy surrounding submission fees. On our website we’ve posted a Code of Ethics for our journal as we do charge a submission fee. We want each submitter to see what they are paying for. We also host regular no fee submission days that we announce through social media. We do not charge a submission fee for art or craft blog posts.”

The Tishman Review also accepts submissions of book reviews and craft essays for the Craft Talk Blog (there is no pay for these contributors, but the byline is worth it – the blog already has some excellent content that has been featured on NewPages), as well as cover art, interior black and white art, and cartoons.

2014 Ginsberg Poetry Award Winners

The 2015-2016 annual issue of Paterson Literary Review generously features all the winners and honorable mentions of their 2014 Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award:

paterson 43FIRST PRIZE (shared)
Linda A. Cronin, Cedar Grove, NJ, “Because It’s Mine”
and
Linda Hillringhouse, Englewood, NJ, “The Bristol Plaza Hotel, Wildwood”

SECOND PRIZE (shared)
Dante Di Stefano, Endwell, NY, “A Morning Prayer While Pumping Gas at the Gulf Gas Station”
and
Abby E. Murray, Endicott, NY, “A Poem for Ugly People”

THIRD PRIZE (shared)
Jason Allen, Binghamton, NY, “Pop”
and
Kenneth Ronkowitz, Cedar Grove, NJ, “That Summer Between”

A complete list with honorable mentions can be found here.

Writers Reread Childhood Favorites

brick-95Now this is cool: Brick 95 has a special feature “On Childhood Books” in which 17 writers reread and comment on books of their youth. Featured authors include Marina Endicott, Pico Iyer, Colum McCann, Kilby Smith-McGregor, Melora Wolff, Eugene McCabe, George Murray, William Kowalski, Frank Macdonald, Aga Maksimowska, Sarah Faber, John Goldbach, Eliza Robertson, Yasuko Thanh, Madeleine Thien, Lisa Moore, and Johanna Skibsrud. Some books you may recognize: Black Beauty, The Little Mermaid, Crime and Punishment, Stuart Little, The Hardy Boys, Peter Pan, and many more. Great concept. Great read. Brick includes some samples on their website here.

Books :: Iowa Short Fiction Award

night-in-erg-chebbi-and-other-stories-edward-hamlinThe 2015 Iowa Short Fiction Award from the University of Iowa Press has been awarded to Edward Hamlin for his debut collection Night in Erg Chebbi and Other Stories.

Judge Karen Russell says of her selection, “The stories in Night in Erg Chebbi are sweeping and intimate and awesomely confident of their own effects. They document staggering, cataclysmic changes—forest fire, flash flood, revolution, murder—as well as the slow violence of grief and degenerative disease. [ . . . ] This is a collection with both depth and breadth, a book dedicated to revealing ‘the universal concealed in the weft of the particular.’ Hamlin spins the globe, jumping nimbly from a treetop lodge on a Brazilian riverbank to the lawn of a governor’s mansion on the eve of an execution to Merzouga, Morocco, ‘gateway to the dune sea of Erg Chebbi.’ [ . . . ] Each story here is a world in miniature, illuminated by the flashbulb bursts of Hamlin’s luminous, controlled prose.”

Available in August, readers can preorder a copy of Night in Erg Chebbi and Other Stories on the University of Iowa Press website.

Glimmer Train Very Short Fiction Award Winners :: June 2015

Glimmer Train has just chosen the winning stories for their Very Short Fiction Award. This competition is held quarterly and is open to all writers for stories with a word count under 3000. The next Very Short Fiction competition will take place in July. Glimmer Train’s monthly submission calendar may be viewed here.

SpencerHydeFirst place: Spencer Hyde [pictured], of Franktown, CO, wins $1500 for “Light as Wings.” His story will be published in Issue 97 of Glimmer Train Stories. This will be his first major fiction publication.

Second place: John Patrick Sheridan, of Schenectady, NY, wins $500 for “The Narrators.”

Third place: Steve Lambert, of St. Augustine, FL, wins $300 for “Fishing with Max Hardy.”

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

Deadline coming up for the Fiction Open: June 30
Glimmer Train hosts this competition quarterly, and first place is $2500 plus publication in the journal. This category has been won by both beginning and veteran writers – all are welcome! There are no theme restrictions. Word count generally ranges from 2000 – 6000, though up to 20,000 is fine. Click here for complete guidelines.

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

pilgrimage-sleepPilgrimage magazine (v38 n3) features black and white photography from the organization Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep (NILMDTS). From the organization’s website: “NILMDTS trains, educates, and mobilizes professional quality photographers to provide beautiful heirloom portraits to families facing the untimely death of an infant. We believe these images serve as an important step in the family’s healing process by honoring the child’s legacy.”

Pilgramage editors write, “The organization has a valuable mission and takes powerful photos that are haunting and tender. The photography intersects with the issue’s words by encouraging us to look closer and take no detail for granted. It risks sentimentality and makes us look closer at an intimate moment for families. At the core of it, NILMDTS offers a uniquely valuable service to parents in need and navigates the tough terrain of grieving and celebrating life simultaneously. We encourage you to learn more and support NILMDTS at https://www.nowilaymedowntosleep.org.”

Books :: Gival Press Poetry Award

we-deserve-the-gods-we-ask-for-seth-brady-tuckerThe Gival Press Poetry Award is held annually. Open to national and international poets, winners receive $1,000 and publication. The 2013 winner, We Deserve the Gods We Ask For by Seth Brady Tucker was published this past fall.

Judge Lisa Graley, winner of the previous year’s poetry award, says of her selection, “This is sinewy writing at its most sturdy and tenacious. His—tangle of silk and muscle—is sure to stagger and transfix.”

More information about the Gival Press Poetry Award and We Deserve the Gods We Ask For can be found at the Gival Press website.

Threatened Languages Dialogue

YMR Spring 2015Yellow Medicine Review Spring 2015 features “Entering Language from Two Directions” a roundtable conversation with poets who work directly with/in threatened languages. Participants include LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs, Jacqueline Osherow, James Thomas Stevens, and Karenne Wood. Megan Snyder-Camp moderates the conversation and begins: “This is a conversation between poets who enter language form two directions: in addition to engaging language on the page in a variety of innovative ways, these poets also work as linguists, translators, and/or language activists…Grounded in our craft, our conversation covered both what these poets bring to the page and also what happens on the page, while also exploring historical and contemporary context.”

IR Contest Winners & Graphic Memoirs

IR 37n1Indiana Review v37 n1 features 2014 Fiction Prize winner (“The Passeur” by E.E. Lyons) and finalist (“Come Go With Me” by Nora Bonner), 2014 1/2K Prize Winner (“The Girl Next Door to the Girl Next Door” by Amy Woolard), and, while not a contest winner, a cool “Special Folio: Graphic Memoir” featuring work by Bianca Stone, Douglas Karney, Diane Sorensen, Arewen Donahue, and Rowan Hisayo Buchanan.

MAR 2014-15 Poetry & Fiction Award Winners

The newest Mid-American Review (v35 n2) features winners and runners-up of the magazine’s 2014-2015 Poetry and Fiction Awards:

James Wright Poetry Award
Oliver de la Paz, Judge
Winner: “Mapping the Tongue” by Geetha Iyer
Runner-Up: “Iki Dugno,” by Keith Kopka

Sherwood Anderson Fiction Award
Alissa Nutting, Judge
Winner: “Postcard from a Funeral, Cumberland, Maryland, October 16, 1975” by Miles Harvey
Runner-Up: “The Turnip Girl,” by Laura I. Miller

See the full list of finalists as well as judges’ comments on the winning works here.

Essays on The Alchemy of Print

BirkertsThe Sewanee Review Spring 2015 issue takes a close look at the print world with its theme “The Alchemy of Print.” Essays include Sven Birkerts [pictured] on “The Little Magazine in the World of Big Data”; A. Banerjee on T. S. Eliot’s editing career, “T.S. Eliot and the Criterion“; Robert Buffington on Allen Tate’s time at the Sewanee Review; Stephen Miller on the life of the Partisan Review, “Memoirs of a New York Intellectual Manque”; David Heddendorf on “Reading that Isn’t Reading”; John Maxwell Hamilton’s “The Gospel on Book Theft”; “Price Control and the Publisher” by James L. W. West III; “Everything an Anchor” by Fred Chappell; “The Man Booker Prize for 2014” by Merritt Moseley; “Remembering Winston Churchill: The making of a Book” by Mel Livatino; and “The Cheever Misadventure Revisted” by Scott Donaldson.

Writing Maps

writing-mapFrom the mastermind of Shaun Levin come a couple of fantastic creations. The first is Writing Maps. Simply designed and beautifully executed, these illustrated maps are printed on sturdy 11×16 paper and folded into eight, making the closed map about postcard size. Each map contains writing prompts related to the subject of the map. For example: Write Around the House: Writing Prompts to Explore the Rooms We Inhabit; Writing Art: Writing in Galleries and Museums; The Café Writing Map: Writing Prompts for Cafes, Bars, Bistros, and Pubs; Writing Things: Writing About Objects and the Things We Carry; How to Write a Story Writing Map; Write Around the Bookshop.

Shaun explains: “Writing Maps are created to suit writers of all genres and levels. Writing Maps are devised to inspire stories, spice up your writing routine, expand your work, develop work-in progress, and make sure you have writerly fun in ways that’ll surprise you.” There are currently 16 maps available with more planned, such as Writing School Map and Write Around the Garden.

In addition to the Writing Maps, Shaun is editor of The A3 Review, a publication folded in the same style as the maps, featuring poetry and prose with a 150 word limit. With room for a cover and back cover, 14 writer’s works can be featured in each publication. The contributors come from a monthly writing contest in response to changing prompts. Current and upcoming prompts: Green Things; Journeys; Hands. Contest winners receive a cash prize, with two works selected each month for publication in The A3 Review.

Subprimal Poetry Art Announces Suggest a Theme Contest

subprimalOnline literary magazine Subprimal Poetry Art is having a contest to select the theme for their next issue. They are looking for submissions of a theme title and description of approximately 100 words. There is no entry fee to submit to this contest and you can enter up to three times. The winner will receive $50 USD.

The deadline to enter is July 28th. Subprimal Poetry Art suggests taking a look at past issues and themes before submitting. You can find full guidelines and details here: subprimal.com/contests.

Books :: Sanger-Stewart Chapbook Competition

owl-invites-your-silence-richard-parisioThe Slapering Hol Press Sanger-Stewart Chapbook Competition is open to writers who haven’t yet published a chapbook collection. Richard Parisio is the 2014 winner with his collection The Owl Invites Your Silence, released this year.

From the editors: “Parisio’s wise and moving words emerge from his training as a naturalist, teacher, journalist, and conservationist. This is a book of poems written by a poet who pays keen attention to the natural world that is quickly being destroyed. It is an important book for our time.”

Parisio has worked as an interpretive naturalist for 40 years and is a nature columnist for the local paper in New Paltz, NY. His work can be found in three regional anthologies, as well as The Kerf, Spillway, and Common Ground Review, among other journals.