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Writing Characters in Fiction

glimmer-trainBoth Lillian Li and Cristine Sneed offer advice on writing characters in their Glimmer Train Bulletin #100 craft essays. The GT Bulletin allows writers published in Glimmer Train Stories to offer their advice to other writers in short essays availble free monthly.

Li’s essay “I Want You Bad: Can Nice People Make for Good Characters?” shares advice she’s received – and broken away from – about creating ‘interesting’ characters without navel gazing: “I’ve started creating characters first, without wondering how they’ll benefit the pace of the story. I write the characters I want, and because I want them around, I also want to get to know them.”

Sneed’s essay “What a Character! Incorporating a Living Person into a Work of Fiction” explores that very complicated issue, sharing the one – and only time – she included a real life friend as a character in her writing.

Also included in the May 2015 GT Bulletin is Courtney Sender’s essay “Narrative Arc in the Novel,” rounding out a great installment of craft essays to guide writers in their work.

Books :: New Issues Prize

trouble-sleeping-abdul-aliTrouble Sleeping by Abdul Ali, winner of the 2014 New Issues Prize, was published this past March.

From the foreword, written by Thomas Sayers Ellis: “Like a projection of testimony, like the shadows that run-off from the plan-projector-tation immediately after you’ve lived and left the theater, like the dark figures moving through the haunted noirs of Aaron Douglas, the widescreen stare of Trouble Sleeping is a mighty mise-en-concern.”

Ali’s poems have previously appeared in Gargoyle, A Gathering of Tribes, and New Contrast, among others. To learn more about Trouble Sleeping, check out the New Issues website.

HFR Chapbook Contest Winner

flower-conroy Heavy Feather Review 4.1 includes the winning entry of the publication’s annual chapbook contest, Facts About Snakes & Hearts by Flower Conroy. Judge Kristina Marie Darling, author of The Arctic Circle, had this to say about the winning entry: “Formally dexterous and luminous in its imagery, Flower Conroy’s Facts about Snakes & Hearts skillfully situates the age-old tradition of the love lyric in a postmodern literary landscape. Presenting us with ‘flames,’ ‘a wishing bell,’ and ‘a brass bed made of not,’ Conroy shows us ‘how longing is mapped,’ restoring a sense of wonder to a familiar narrative arc. She offers us poems that are as sure of their singular voice as they are diverse in style and metaphor. This is an accomplished sequence and Flower Conroy is a writer to watch.”

Crazyshorts Contest Winners

Crazyhorse Spring 2015 includes the winner and runners-up of the publication’s Crazy Shorts! Short-Short Fiction Contest:

emily-peaseWinner
Emily Pease [pictured], “Foods of the Bible”

Runners-Up
Landon Houle, “The Exterminator”
Caitlin Scarano, “Sick Day”
Lee Conell, “Matt’s Comics”

The deadline for this annual contest is July 31 and the entry fee includes a subscription to the magazine. In addition to publication, the first-place winner receives $1000.

Books :: May 2015 Book Reviews

In case you missed it yesterday, the May 2015 Book Reviews have been posted! This month, our reviewers tackled The Door by Magda Szabó translated by Len Rix, Fallen Attitudes by Patricia Waters, Fanny Says by Nickole Brown, Gephyromania by TC Tolbert, My Very End of the Universe: Five Novellas-in-Flash and a Study of the Form from Rose Metal Press, The Night We’re Not Sleeping In by Sean Bishop, Pilgrimly by Siobhan Scarry, That That by Ken Mikolowski, and Wolfman Librarian by Filip Marinovich.

What’re you waiting for? Go find your next favorite book.

Getting the Whole Grist

grist-journalGrist: The Journal for Writers published out of the University of Knoxville English Department has a lot to offer readers and writers in support of owning its subtitle to be THE journal for writers.

A visit to its recently revamped website reveals a clean and easy navigation design, leading visitors to one of three areas: Grist Essentials (information about the print publication); The Writing Life; Online Companion.

Grist promotes The Writing Life as “a place to learn about, hone, and discuss your craft as a writer . . . a dynamic discussion of contemporary writing—thoughts on craft, publishing, and the life that both shapes and is shaped by the words we put on the page.” Features include news, craft essays, aspects of living the writing life, and Grist and writing-related events.

Grist Editors write that the Online Companion “allows us to showcase the highest quality writing we receive throughout our reading period while also allowing those less familiar with Grist and Grist’s content to get a feel for the wide variety of work we champion. Grist: The Online Companion is also a way to expand what we’re able to publish because the online arena is more hospitable to a wider formal variety than is often able to fit in the print issue’s 6 x 9 format.” The current issue, #8, features poetry, collaborative poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and collaborative creative nonfiction by Mary Jo Balistreri, Ashley-Elizabeth Best, Matt Cashion, Jacqueline Doyle & Stephen D. Gutierrez, Alex Greenberg, Jennifer Savran Kelly, Joseph Mulholland, Brianna Noll, Nicole Oquendo & Mike Shier.

Lit Mag Covers :: Picks of the Week

iodine-ss-2015

Iodine Poetry Journal Editor and Publisher Jonathan K. Rice is also Poet and Visual Artist as well, and has been designing cover art for his iconic publication for the past 15 years. More of his work can be found here on the back list page for Iodine.

cimarron-review

“Crow and Cloud,” photograph by Carolyn Guinzio, on the front cover of Cimarron Review Winter 2015 is a similar image to what I witness on my walks each morning – the birds coming back after a long winter, filling the tops of trees with their songs, the leaves yet to fill in the sky.

beloit-poetry-journal

And another for the birds, Beloit Poetry Journal Spring 2015 features a lovely, dark, lush oil on linen by Eleanor Spiess-Ferris, “Shoreline” (2006). The cover does not reveal the entire image, so it’s worth a visit to the BPJ website to see what you’re not seeing in this pile of birds.

Iowa Reveiw Veterans Features

iowa-review-spring-2015The Iowa Review 45.1 features winners and runners-up of their second Jeff Sharlet Memorial Award for Veterans writing contest, judged by Anthony Swofford, author of Jarhead and former U.S. Marine. This creative writing contest for U.S. military veterans and active duty personnel is hosted by The Iowa Review and made possible by a gift from the family of Jeff Sharlet (1942–69), a Vietnam veteran and antiwar writer and activist. The contest is open to veterans and active duty personnel writing in any genre and about any subject matter.

First Place ($1000)
Katherine Schifani, “Pistol Whip” (nonfiction)

Second Place ($750)
Brian Van Reet, “The Chaff” (fiction)

Runners-up ($500)
Terry Hertzler (poetry)
M.E. Hope (poetry)
James Walley (fiction)

The issue also includes two photo essay features, Stacy L. Pearsall Veterans Portrait Project and Mary F. Calvert The Battle Within: Sexual Assault in America’s Military. Both are exceptional contributions to our culture’s understanding of military community and the effects of foreign war and domestic violence.

New Lit on the Block :: The Maine Review

Editor Katherine Mayfield and Intern Bonnie Irwin bring readers and writers The Maine Review, a new print/e/Kindle quarterly publishing short fiction, CNF, poetry, essays on writing, and black-and-white interior art. They also publish annual collections of short fiction (summer) and poetry (winter).

maine-reviewWhile the name, The Maine Review, seems obviously to represent the location of the publication, Mayfield tells me it was inspired “in the tradition of reviews like The Missouri Review and The Iowa Review. We felt that Maine needed a literary review representing the beauty and ruggedness of the Pine Tree State. Though we publish well-known and new and emerging authors from around the world, we feature the work of Maine artists on each issue’s cover. The Maine Review is a proud member of the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance, a nonprofit membership organization that works to enrich the literary life and culture of Maine.”

With such great role models already influencing this new publication, I asked Mayfield what motivated her to start her own journal, “Throughout my many years of writing and editing, I’ve seen so much excellent writing that never finds a home, and I wanted to give more writers the opportunity to be published. I also thoroughly enjoy putting the issues together – it’s like working a jigsaw puzzle, moving pieces around to get a good ‘flow.’ The Maine Review also provides a wonderful opportunity to showcase Maine artists.”

Mayfield also commented on what readers could expect to find in the publication: “Our mission is to publish quality writing that touches readers and engages their hearts, minds, and imaginations, expanding their view of the world and of life as a human being.” While the publication remains fairly “traditional” – not publishing genre horror or fantasy – Mayfield says they do look to feature humor in every issue.

Some recently featured authors include Author’s Guild President Roxanne Robinson, Maine Senior Poet Laureate Roger Finch, award-winning poets Annie Finch, Jason Michael MacLeod, Claire Scott, David Sloan, and Sean Sutherland.

In addition to the annual collections of short fiction and poetry, in the next year Mayfield says she’d like to publish an annual collection of CNF/memoir. Just now nearing the end their first year, The Maine Review looks forward to expanding the size and scope of the publication over the next few years.

The Maine Review holds contests and open reading periods. The next contest, for the Fall 2015 issue, will open in late May with a June 30th deadline. The contest for the annual poetry collection will open in autumn. The publication also has two open reading periods (no fee) each year for the Winter and Summer issues with submissions for those issues only accepted during the reading periods. See the publication’s website for more specific information. Submission is via the website and there is also a form available on the website for mailing submissions via USPS.

Boulevard 30th Anniversary

boulevard-spring-2015With its Spring 2015 issue, Boulevard celebrates 30 years of continuous publication. The editors write, “Since 1985, our aim has been to present the finest contemporary fiction, poetry, and essays on arts and culture in a variegated yet coherent ensemble—as a boulevard, which contains in one place the best a community has to offer.”

To celebrate, Boulevard has two special editions: an e-book anthology and this anniversary issue of the journal, which includes works by Alex Chernow, winner of the 2014 Poetry Contest for Emerging Writers, and a symposium on the artistic merits of contemporary television versus film. A full list of contributors for each volume can be found here.

Happy Anniversary Boulevard!

Chtenia Russian Sci Fi

chtenia-30Chtenia: Readings from Russia issue #30 is themed Science Fiction. “Let’s be honest,” the editors write. “There really is something fundamentally different about Russian literature.”

In her issue introduction, Curator Yvonne Howell writes, “The first remarkable feature of Russian science fiction is the fact that it existed at all,” and goes on to discuss the historical context of 19th century Russia. While science fiction is generally understood to have come as a ‘hope and fear’ response for the “collective fate of humanity” at the turn of the twentieth century when science and technology were burgeoning, Russia, Howell explains, was “in a technologically backward empire at the margins of the Western world.” Yet, like all science fiction, Howell credits Russian writers, who faced with “conditions where practical tehcno-scientific improvements were lagging” were able to take “the scientific imagination . . . in unexpected directions.”

See a full list of the issue’s content here.

Books :: The Green Rose Prize

my-multiverse-kathleen-halmeWinner of The 2014 Green Rose Prize from New Issues, My Multiverse by Kathleen Halme was published last month. The Green Rose Prize is awarded to poets who already have published one or more full-length collections of poetry.

Of the new collection, poet John Brehm says, “In poems that are both intricate and expansive, Kathleen Halme’s My Multiverse takes readers from the City of Roses, with its Shanghai traps and tunnels, to a hummingbird ‘tracing the missing shape of a feed,’ to the neural pathways of the mind itself. These poems do what all great poems do: they make the world seem strange again, shimmering with questions, ‘the mirror ball of meaning strung without a thread.’”

Court Green 12 Final Issue

Founded in 2004 Arielle Greenberg, Tony Trigilio, and David Trinidad, Court Green has announced its newest issue, 12, will be the last.

court-green-12The magazine was named after Court Green, the property in Devon, England, where Sylvia Plath lived and where she wrote her most famous poems, the Ariel poems. The editors say, “We wanted Court Green the magazine to be like Court Green the property in England: a space open and vulnerable to the world, sometimes restlessly so, and a space for intellectual, emotional, and linguistic experimentation.” And so it has, for over a decade. For its final issue, the editors have “decided that the best elegy for the magazine might be to break Court Green’s long-standing rule that the magazine never publish the work of its faculty editors. To celebrate the 12 years of imaginative energy that the editors brought to the magazine, we decided to create a space for the editors’ poems. On the occasion, then, of Court Green‘s final issue, we present a selection of recent work by all of our current and past editors.”

Work by Past and Present Editors: CM Burroughs, Two Untitled Poems; Lisa Fishman, “July-August, 2013”; Arielle Greenberg, “A Little Bit Lonely. (Money.)”; Tony Trigilio, “from Book 2. The Complete Dark Shadows (of my childhood)”; David Trinidad, “Anaïs.” Each of these can be read full-text on on Court Green’s website here.

Teaching Resource :: Map Literary

map-literaryBased out of The William Paterson University of New Jersey Department of English, Map Literary aspires “to pro­mote the finest provoca­tive writ­ing of our time, pub­lish­ing semi­an­nual issues of orig­i­nal fic­tion, poetry, and non­fic­tion in online for­mat.” As part of this promotion, the website features a page under Pedagogy called Map Literary for the Classroom. Here, teachers can find examples of poetic themes and techniques from among contemporary authors published in Map Literary. Examples such as Alliteration/Consonance/Sound: Aaron Anstett, “Actionable” and Genevieve Kaplan, “(I’m) seated, or imagining”; End-stopped vs. Enjambed Line Breaks: Joe Lennon, “Part I” and Christopher Liebow, Excerpts from Riparia Suite. In all, there are 16 techniques with 24 examples linked to the full text. A great teaching resource!

Prairie Schooner Creative Nonfiction Essay Winner

aurvi-sharma“Eleven Stories of Water and Stone” by Aurvi Sharma is the winner of the 2014 Prairie Schooner Summer Creative Nonfiction Essay Contest, selected by judge Judith Ortiz Cofer.

Sharma’s essay is featured in the Spring 2015 issue of Prairie Schooner print edition and can also be read full-text online here.

Each year from May 1 to August 1, Prairie Schooner accepts submissions to the Summer Creative Nonfiction Contest, open to all types of creative nonfiction essays, up to 5,000 words. The entry fee is $18 and gets entrants a one-year subscription to the publication. Winner receives $250 and publication in the following Spring issue. See more specific guidelines here.

Lit Mag Covers :: Picks of the Week

literary-review-winter-2015The Literary Review: An International Journal of Contemporary Writing Winter 2015 is “The John le Carré Issue” and features this striking image of a Philippine Eagle. Photo by Klaus Nigge for National Geographic Creative (2008). Editor’s introduction and full list of content can be found here.

storm-cellar-spring-2015Storm Cellar tackles “substantive topics,” the editors write, “directly or indirectly. But Storm Cellar is not wholly serious; whimsy and humor are recurring features in its pages.” If covers are any indicator, Storm Cellar persists with issue 4.2, themed “As Body is to Fetish,” featuring “Mrs. Miller Believed She Was Allergic to Everything But She Hadn’t Always Been This Way” by Andrea Joyce Heimer.
heavy-feather-reviewHeavy Feather Review 4.1 features “Little Bear – Honey Eater” by Michael McConnell, with equally intriguing “Little Zebra – Balanced Individual” on the back cover. Some of us here at NewPages have a thing for bears, so this one could not escape selection.

Banipal Modern Arab Literature New Fiction Issue

Banipal Magazine of Modern Arab Literature 52 celebrates “New Fiction” and includes excerpts from the 2015 Shortlist of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction:

banipal-52Ahmed el-Madini: Willow Alley, trans. Paul Starkey
Jana Elhassan: Floor 99, trans. Robin Moger
Atef Abu Saif: A Suspended Life, trans. William M Hutchins
Lina Hawyan Elhassan: Diamonds And Women, trans. Sophia Vasalou
Hammour Ziada: The Longing Of The Dervish, trans. Jonathan Wright
Shukri al-Mabkhout: The Italian, trans. Raphael Cohen

The winning entry will be announced May 6, 2015 in Abu Dhabi.

In addition to this and other great content, Banipal continues to include “Prison Writing,” which first started with the self-themed issue #50. The editors continue the feature with two “new and powerful testimonies in, and will remain open indefinitely for more contributions.”

Glimmer Train Award for New Writers Winners

Glimmer Train has just chosen the winning stories for their February 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 May. Glimmer Train’s monthly submission calendar may be viewed here.

Lillian Li ChristopherWang1st place goes to Lillian Li of Ann Arbor, MI [Photo credit: Christopher Wang]. She wins $1500 for “Parts of Summer” and her story will be published in Issue 96 of Glimmer Train Stories. This will be her first print publication.

2nd place goes to Alex Wilson of Cardiff, CA. He wins $500 for “I Come from Killers.”

3rd place goes to Camille Baptista of New York, NY. She wins $300 for “Hide and Seek and Hide.”

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

Deadline soon approaching for the Very Short Fiction Award: April 30

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.

The Breathe Book

breathe-bookThe Breathe Book is a simple but powerful concept. The creators, a collective of healers, artists, athletes, programmers, designers, and friends, say, “It was made by us, but it belongs to everyone.” The online version is available here.

When you visit the site and click the play button on the homepage, the word BREATHE enlarges then vanishes on the page while natural birdsong plays on the soundtrack. The word vanishes and appears four times, then the media loops and begins again automatically.

While the idea is simple: breathe in, breathe out, the creators write, “Because we know how difficult that can be sometimes, we created a place online that understands that. It is a place on the internet where there is only one word and only one thing to do: breathe.”

The Breathe Book can be used on any computer or personal device, as a daily meditation itself or with other meditation practices, or just run in the background.

There is also a print version of our site — a tangible Breathe Book that consists of 50 pages, each page with just one word: BREATHE. The book is $11 with discounts available for bundles.

Books :: 2015 Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry

blood-work-matthew-siegelIn his debut collection, Matthew Siegel explores his body’s fight with Crohn’s Disease and the struggle to remain one’s self in the face of illness. Winner of the University of Wisconsin Press’s 2015 Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry, Blood Work was selected by Lucia Perillo. About her selection, Perillo states, “These poems resist the dualities of lyric versus narrative, confessional versus impersonal, real against surreal, formal/improvisational, comic/sad. Matthew Siegel manages to tick off all the boxes at once, while remaining compulsively readable. The trick that he’s pulled off is to make a book that simultaneously tickles you and shakes you by the scruff of your neck.”

Siegel’s writing has appeared in Indiana Review, The Rumpus, Tusculum Review, and Southern Humanities Review. Blood Work was released March 12, 2015.

Teaching Resource :: Poetry Now

Poetry Now Program is a free online resource for educators from Trio House Press. “In order to promote the understanding and appreciation of poetry, our Poetry Now program provides educational materials and resources for use within classrooms, book clubs, or for individual usage. Utilize our poetry lesson plans or poetry prompts.”

There’s only a few contributions to this page, but it’s a nice addition to lession plans and discussion points. “Discussion Links” provide lesson plans that encourage analysis, reflection and discussion about poems published by Trio House Press as well as influential public domain works and the “Write It” section encourages the writing process by providing prompts and writing exercises developed in conjunction with our Trio House Press poetry and other influential public domain works.

MQR Seeks Blog Writers

Each spring, Michigan Quarterly Review welcomes applications for new blog contributors. They are looking for writers with backgrounds in various disciplines to create unique, thought-provoking posts of interest to MQR’s online readership. Love to interview authors? Review books? Talk about the craft of writing or storytelling as it relates to some other discipline? Maybe you’ve got a great idea for a regular comic about the writing life—MQR is open to your pitches. Deadline for application is Wednesday, April 22. (Yes, now. Don’t you work better under short deadline?) See full guidelines here.

Call for Lit Mag Reviewers

NewPages is looking to take on a few more literary magazine reviewers for both online and print journals. If interested, please follow this link to review the guidelines.

Those interested in reviewing magazines should contact Review Editor Katy Haas at katyhaas[at]newpageswork[dot]com.

2014 Loraine Williams Poetry Prize Winner

Erin-Adair-HodgesEditor Stephen Corey opens the Spring 2015 issue of The Georgia Review commenting on Erin Adair-Hodges, whose work “Of Yalta” won the 2014 Loraine Williams / Georgia Review Poetry Prize:

“The pleasant kicker for us here in the Review office came after we contacted Adair-Hodges last August to apprise her of the good news, and she wrote back to say we had just given her the first poetry acceptance of her writing career. (Three resulting side notes: newer writers, take heart in the democracy of our evaluation process; veteran writers, take the same; . . . )” The third note: The third annual contest is open to submisisons until May 15. See full guidelines here.

Tuesday Returns (With Your Help!)

tuesdayI was thrilled to see Tuesday; An Art Project at the AWP Minnesota Book Fair. Tuesday is THE most gorgeous poetry postcard publication I had ever seen, each issue a neatly wrapped treasure of letterpress postcards featuring poetry on some and art on others (the flipsides are blank for writing/mailing). However, the publication ceased with issue 11 in 2013. Okay, well, not “ceased,” but perhaps worse, the H-word: Hiatus. This conjures up all kinds of wonderings of what went wrong, will the publication come back, if it does – for how long this time? From my view at NewPages over the past decade, I’ve seen a lot of hiatuses (hiati?) – some with reason, some not – but very few ever return. While “hiatus” to some might mean hope, I know it better as a long, drawn out death, usually finalized because someone stops paying the web site domain name bill.

Not so says Tuesday Founding Editor Jennifer S. Flescher, who has a Kickstarter campaign going to sell advance subscriptions to fund the publication (along with other premium goodies). [NOTE: Until 4/21 a donor will match all contributions!] When I met up with her at AWP, I was happy to talk with her, but also concerned about the whole hiatus thing. She was glad to offer me some clarity on her perspective, especially when I wouldn’t stop hammering her with questions.

NP: Why did you go on hiatus? No need to get personal, but for some, it is very personal (health issues, family issues, etc.), which I think is important for others to understand, since so many literary publications are small (very small) businesses. If one person can’t function for whatever reason, that can put the whole publication in jeopardy. You did allude to some reasons in your farewell note to readers, but nothing terribly specific. So, spill. Why hiatus?

JF: Of course, this is a very difficult question. It makes me go a little white and cold, though I know you are right, to hear you say that hiatus is often just a hasbeen rockstars comeback tour… I didn’t want to come back for a year; I don’t want to come back for a year.

In terms of why I stepped away, there are two answers.

The first was actually entirely personal. I’m not sure if this is of any interest to your readers, but I had a sick child and I really needed to be home with him. That had been taking a toll for a few years, and finally I simply needed to put absolutely everything aside and be home. There. For him. I am grateful every day this was an option for me, and I send love and compassion to all the mothers and children who do not have that luxury. That remains a decision I am very proud of, even if it cost me the journal.

The second is really the more on-point answer, I suppose. Yes, that darn domain bill. I had been paying for the magazine largely by myself for many years. This is my dirty little secret. I remember hearing a very young publisher years ago at AWP confess she had sold her car to pay for her press – I thought she was crazy! But I did too, truly; I still have my car, but I didn’t take my kids on vacation, I didn’t do a lot of things. In the beginning I felt like it was a lot like graduate school, and that it was money I spent to create something I believe in. Tuesday has a ridiculous business model simply because of the price of its physical parts. It simply didn’t feel sustainable anymore. I needed to take a few years to really decide where I wanted to go next.

I want to find a sustainable model now. I needed to decide to be a publisher. We start these things – in MFA programs, in the middle of the night – we don’t really know what we are getting into, and that’s a good thing: we dive. Diving is so important for creation. But then comes the moment when you have to look around – is this water clean? do I like swimming?

I think there are real issues to be addressed in publishing. About diversity, about voice. Beauty. Access. Funding. Tangibility. I don’t pretend Tuesday is big enough to tackle any of this, or the press I have a vision of will be, but I feel like that is the work I would like to address as an editor. Tuesday either needed to bigger or smaller. It’s time to go bigger.

NP: Your Kickstarter campaign is asking people to pre-subscribe for two issues. What about after that? I mean, I’m sure you hope to have enough subscribers to continue the support – but…

JF: This is the $15,000 question. I feel like this is just what it was created to be – a kickstart. To get us back on our feet. Re-establish our base. Get us going for the next year. After that I want to pursue both traditional and non-traditional funding. Non-profit status and grants. Fundraising. Some sort of advertising. My real dream is to find corporate sponsorship. I don’t like the model we have going now where poor poets pay more and more for the publishing of poetry. First off, they can’t afford it. Secondly it exacerbates the money/publication gap. It prevents us from making the types of shifts in publishing that will open up publication to reflect the diversity of the important poetry in this country.

NP: Well, I’m a huge fan of Tuesday, so I’m giddy to see it come back (and, yes, have kicked in on the Kickstarter!). Thank you for all you’ve said here; I think you make some important statements about poetry and publishing that could benefit others.

JF: Thank you so much for all the support.

American Life in Poetry :: Pauletta Hansel

American Life in Poetry: Column 525
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

Here’s a fine poem about two generations of husbands, by Pauletta Hansel of Ohio.

Husbands

My mother likes a man who works. She likes
my husband’s muddy knees, grass stains on the cuffs.
She loved my father, though when weekends came
he’d sleep till nine and would not lift
his eyes up from the page to move the feet
she’d vacuum under. On Saturdays my husband
digs the holes for her new roses,
softening the clay with peat and compost.
He changes bulbs she can no longer reach
and understands the inside of her toaster.
My father’s feet would carry him from chair
to bookshelf, back again till Monday came.
My mother likes to tell my husband
sit down in this chair and put your feet up.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2011 by Pauletta Hansel from her most recent book of poems, The Lives We Live in Houses, (Wind Publications, 2011). Poem reprinted by permission of Pauletta Hansel and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2015 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

Craft Essays :: On Writing Series

rob-mclennanOn Writing: An Occassional Series curated by rob mclennan [pictured] on the Ottawa Poetry Newsletter blog celebrates two years of publishing craft essays by writers. Some recent posts include:

Sarah Burgoyne : a series of permissions-givings
Anne Fleming : Funny
Julie Joosten : On Haptic Pleasures: an Avalanche, the Internet, and Handwriting
David Dowker : Micropoetics, or the Decoherence of Connectionism
Renée Sarojini Saklikar : No language exists on the outside. Finders must venture inside.
Ian Roy : On Writing, Slowly
Monica Kidd : On writing and saving lives
Robert Swereda : Why Bother?

mclennan is planning forthcoming new essays by Catherine Owen, Peter Richardson, Sky Gilbert, Priscila Uppal, Carolyn Marie Souaid, Angie Abdou, Arjun Basu, Laisha Rosnau, Gail Scott and George Fetherling.

Books :: Press 53 Award for Poetry

paradise-drive-rebecca-foustPress 53 has awarded Rebecca Foust the winner of the 2015 Press 53 Award for Poetry with her collection Paradise Drive, chosen by Tom Lombardo. Of his selection, he says, “Rebecca Foust has created a Pilgrim who leads us from the hardscrabble existence and despair of Altoona, Pennsylvania, where she was raised, to the ultra-wealth and despair of Marin County, California, where she lived in the first decade of this century. The poems of Paradise Drive are powerful and figurative, with a very strong voice. Though the judging was close for this contest, Foust clearly stood out among the excellent finalists.”

Foust was also the recipient of the 2008 Many Mountain Press Poetry Book Prize for All that Gorgeous Pitiless Song, the winner of the 2010 Foreword Book of the Year Award with God, Seed: Poetry & Art About the Natural World, and the winner of Robert Phillips Poetry Chapbook prizes in 2007 and 2008 with her two chapbooks Mom’s Canoe and Dark Card.

Paradise Drive will be released at the end of the month. For more information or to order a copy, check out the Press 53 website.

Witness Trans/lation Issue

witnessBlack Mountain Institute’s print issue of Witness, Spring 2015, begins with the Editor’s Comment on the theme of translation: “We always expect our themes to expand and change and present themselves in unexpected ways as we read submissions, but the theme for this issue – ‘Trans/lation’ – made itself felt everywhere. Seen broadly and metaphorically enough, any written work can be considered a translation, from a thought or an experience into a piece of writing, and so, a few times, we had to stop and refocus our intentions. We began with the roots of the word itself, which draw from actions like ‘to carry across’ or ‘to bring across,’ as well as the knowledge that translations are really transformations, new versions that are faithful to the original in many different ways.”

Along with other content, specific works of translation (or about translation) in this issue include:

Poetry
Dario Bellezza, from Nothingness, Glamour, Farewell; from Notes for a Novel in Verse. Translated from the Italian by Peter Covino.
Arthur Rimbaud, “Seven-Year-Old Poets.” Translated from the French by Donald Revell.
Maia Circe, “The Unfinished Spell”; “The Smallest Predictions”; “TV.” Translated from the Spanish by Jesse Lee Kercheval.

Fiction
Hossein M. Abkenar, “Classmates.” Translated from the Persian by Sara Khalili
Christos Chartomatsidis, “Alicia the Fat Witch.” Translated from the Bulgarian by Velina Minkoff, Rayna Rossenova, and Borislava Velkova.

Nonfiction
Douglas Unger, “Strange Voices, Subversions, Killer Tomatoes: Literature in Translation.”
Karl Ove Knausgaard, from My Struggle: Book Four. Translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett.

Witness makes some works available in full text on their website.

New Lit on the Block :: Bear Review

bear-reviewBased out of Kansas City and Seattle, Bear Review is a new independent online biannual of poetry and micro-prose (under 500 words) as well as visual art. Between issues, Editors Marcus Myers and Brian Clifton also post Bear Review authors reading their work on Soundcloud and Tumblr.

In starting a literary magazine, Myers and Clifton say they like the juxtaposition inherent in those publications. “When reading one, you never know what will be on the next page–your new favorite poem? your best friend from childhood? a plot that destroys everything you though about storytelling? The possibilities are endless. We wanted to create a space in which this excitement could live and grow. Part of the fun for us is putting each issue in order and seeing how the text and images converse with one another. In a phrase, our mission is to keep our readers guessing.”

And while the name Bear Review might seem to invite eco- or nature-themed writing, the inspiration expresses a more complex metaphor. When Myers was a teenager, he went hiking and came across a bear face-to-face. The experience was full of beauty that turned into danger and fear. Myers writes, “As readers, we crave that specific sort of encounter from each poem or flash piece we happen upon. Our favorite pieces, like literary bears, have a mix of beauty and danger that leaves us with a greater respect for what’s real. And we want to share this vital wonder with our readers. “

Reader of Bear Review can expect to find this mix of beauty and danger throughout, though since the editors are both poets, the publication is bias to that genre. (“But we do love micro-prose,” says Myers.) In both prose and poetry, Myers assure me that readers can expect to find a wide breadth of styles and contemporary modes as well as visual art from critically acclaimed photographers, illustrators, and painters.

Some recent contributors include Moikom Zeqo, Mathias Svalina, Jordan Stempleman, Lisa Russ Spaar, DA Powell, Rusty Morrison, Wayne Miller, Emily Koehn, Megan Kaminiski, Miriam Gamble, John Gallaher, Drew Cook, and Hadara Bar-Nadav.

Myers tells me that future plans for Bear Review are to continue making the journal “a beautiful place for the poems and prose we love; we want to continue to bring an audience there. We want to provide a place where established and soon-to-be established writers can share the same stage.” A chapbook contest, website expansion for close readings, and book reviews and interviews are all in the works.

Bear Review takes submissions year round via submittable, and Myers and Clifton say they read each submission out loud. All work done as a labor of love, Bear Review is a welcome addition to the literary arts community.

[Cover: “Victim of Explosion” by August Sander, 1930]

Room “In Translation” Issue

roomRachel Thompson’s Editor’s Note for the newest issue of Room Magazine (38.1) comments on the publication’s theme of In Translation: “In this issue of Room we explore literature from languages other than English, and the act of translation in all its senses. . . submerging ourselves into another language can give us a greater understanding of the world. When we try new tongues, our own becomes richer with infusions and transfusions of new elements, and foreign turns of phrase.

“But just reading a good translation in English—and we also have some of those in the issue—gives us a lens to look through and understand (if only briefly) how writers from other times and places may think and feel. Because we know the impact literature has on our humanity, we see the potential for reading to dissolve preconceptions or misconceptions we have about another culture. More than ever before, readers understand how crucial it is to expand our repertoires, to find stories and ideas outside of narratives that dominate prescribed reading lists and literary review pages.”

To read more from Thompson’s introduction and see a full list of contributors, visit Room‘s issue web page here.

2014 NANO Fiction Winner

NANO Fiction 8.2 features this year’s winner of the 2014 NANO Prize selected by Kim Chinquee.

jasmine-sawersJasmine Sawers piece “The Weight of the Moon” was chosen, as Chinquee notes, beecause “This piece represents, to me, what it means to be in love. So in love that one wants to capture the being one’s in love with and keep it to one’s self. Not realizing, at first, that this may produce harm. Ultimately this piece renders, to me, one’s growth, the grief in letting go, and what a love that is in itself.”

This is an annual contest which awards $1,000 for a previously unpublished work of fiction 300 words or fewer. This year’s contest will be judged by Amber Sparks. All entrants will receive a one-year subscription to NANO Fiction. Deadline: September 1, 2015. See full guidelines here.

Black Warrior Review 2014 Contest Winners

Black Warrior Review issue 40.2 featurs the winners and runners-up of their 10th Annual Contest in Prose, Poetry, and Nonfiction. Each winner received $1,000 and publication, and for the first time, each runner-up received $100.

black-warrior-reviewFiction Contest judged by Judge Lily Hoang
First Place: Michael Mau, “Little Bird”
Runner Up: Elise Winn, “Brother and Sister”

Poetry Contet judged by Richard Siken
First Place: Curtis Rogers, “Of Plenty”
Runner Up: Emily Skaja, “Self-Portrait with Hawk & Armada”

Nonfiction Contest judged by Kiese Laymon
First Place: Landon Houle, “Bigfoot, Bum Foot, Barbie: Strange But True at the Yahoo Freak Show”
Runner Up: Chelsey Clammer Kiese, “Mother Tongue”

Click here for judges’ comments and a full list of finalists.

Interview with Calogero’s Translator

calogeroThe Bitter Oleander journal of contemporary international poetry and short story regularly features poetry translated into English published alongside the originals. The newest issue (21.1) includes the works of 20th century Italian poet Lorenzo Calogero (1910-1961) and an interview with his translator, John Taylor. An excerpt from the interview and one of Calogero’s poems can be read on the publication’s website here.

River Styx 2014 International Poetry Contest Winners

Issue 93 of River Styx features the winners of their 2014 International Poetry Contest. Their editorial panel selected a number of poems to send to this year’s final judge, poet Joan Murray [pictured], who selected the winners:

joan-murray1st Place
Adam Scheffler, “Contemporaries”
Murray’s comment: “It’s a very accomplished accretive poem that pays off our anticipation with specifics and surprises, and lets us chuckle right through the inevitable.”

2nd Place
Brian Patrick Heston, “Overtime”
Murray’s commen: “It’s a jewel-like yet gritty poem that lifts a dark moment to the light and pulls us inside with curiosity, reluctance, and empathy.”

3rd Place
Suzanne Cleary, “Making Love While Watching a Documentary on Lewis and Clark”
Murray’s commen: “It’s an appealingly drowsy meditation on expectation, imagination, and disappointment—in history, on TV, and in bed.”

Honorable Mention
Myra Shapiro, “Put the Kettle On”

BreakBeat Poets in Poetry

Editor Don Share says of the April 2015 issue of Poetry Magazine:

breakbeat-poets. . . this issue of Poetry, timed for National Poetry Month, features a selection of BreakBeat poets: in the pages that follow, readers will experience a “new American poetry in the age of hip-hop,” a resounding allusion to the resonant and groundbreaking 1960 anthology edited by Donald M. Allen, The New American Poetry 1945–1960. In fact, our feature is an excerpt from the book The BreakBeat Poets, published this month by Haymarket Books, and edited by Coval with Quraysh Ali Lansana and Nate Marshall. . . the work of the BreakBeat poets is crucially alive to our present moment. As the anthology’s editors say, this is work “for people who love Hip-Hop, for fans of the culture, for people who’ve never read a poem, for people who thought poems were only something done by dead white dudes who got lost in a forest, and for poetry heads.” In other words, it is for everyone.

Poetry’s full contents can be read online and in celebration of National Poetry Month can be downloaded for free – including audio and video content – on any iOS device.

Southwest Review 100th Anniversary

southwest-reviewEstablished in 1915, frist as The Texas Review at the University ot Texas at Austin, Southwest Review, now of Southern Methodist University, celebrates 100 years of publishing. As critic Edmund Grosse said in the inagural issue of the publication, the magazine has proven his prediction that it would “uphold the banner of scholarly elegance” and “stoop to no word unworthy of the Muses.”

Under the editorial guidance of Willard Spiegelman since 1984 (when the editorial responsibility was returned to a faculty member for the first time in forty years), Southwest Review has emerged as “one of the best literary quarterlies in the United Sates,” according to PEN American Center. Having won the PEN Nora Magid Award for Literary Editing in 2005, Spiegelman and his editorial staff have shown a true lifetime commitment to publishing “luminous and unfamiliar names, so long as the writing is genuine.”

Also featured in this anniversary issue are the 2014 Morton Marr Poetry Prize Winners. This year’s judge was Elizabeth Spires.

First Place Kyle Norwood “Landscape with Fountain and Language”
Second Place Lisa Rosenberg “To the Makers”
Second Place David Landon “Ash Wednesday: Coffee At Starbucks”

State of Flash in the Classroom

nano-fictionNANO Fiction has put out the call to continue their State of Flash series with short essays about flash fiction in and out of the classroom. Do you have thoughts about flash fiction being published today? Which stories or authors have moved you or worked particularly well to generate classroom discussions? Which stories have inspired students? Which stories have inspired you? How has flash fiction changed the way you or your students view writing or the writing process? See full guidelines here.

Books :: Saturnalia Books Poetry Prize

neighbors-jay-nebelThe Saturnalia Books Poetry Prize is awarded to one poetry author a year, with a $2,000 prize and publication. 2014’s prize winner is Jay Nebel whose work has appeared in American Poetry Review, Narrative, Ploughshares, and Tin House, among other journals.

Neighbors, his winning collection, is a book of lyric narratives about the men and women who live and work next to us the people standing in line at the DMV or buying milk and bread at the grocery store. Jay Nebel gives voice to an America lost in the graffiti of park benches and 24-hour diner parking lots, where men attempt CPR on gorillas and beat each other in back alleys with baseball bats, as well as revere their mothers. These are poems that look through the windows at the secret lives of our neighbors, their affairs and addictions, their curses and loves.

Published by Saturnalia Books this month, Neighbors can be purchased through the University Press of New England website.

Structo: Faber New Poets

structoStructo Editor Euan Monaghan starts the newest issue commenting on the work of editing a literary magazine, “. . . not always fun and games. Sometimes, when I’ve had enough of chasing invoices or wrestling software, I pull up on screen something that we are about to publish: a piece of writing so new that it’s not yet been committed to paper. Something only a few people have seen. And the excitement returns. I remember why I’m doing this – it’s because I want to share this feeling of excitement with the whole world. The writing we publish is really good.”

In addition to their own “really good” selections, the UK-based Structo has been invited by Faber & Faber and Arts Council English to publish one poem from each of the 2013-2014 Faber New Poet Award Winners. The Faber Poets receive mentoring, financial support, and a debut pamphlet published by Faber & Faber. The poets are Declan Ryan, Zaffar Kunial, Rachael Allen, and Structo‘s own Will Burns. Burns also talks with Kunial and includes the interview in this issue.

New Lit on the Block :: The Birds We Pile Loosely

BPLThe Birds We Piled Loosely (or BPL for short) is an online quarterly interested in publishing “anything we can fit into our magazine,” according to Editors Johnathan McClintick and Nicole Letson. For that reason, readers coming to BPL can expect to find just about any kind of writing: from villanelles, to essays, etc. And art can range from photography, painting, illustrations, graphic design etc. BPL is published as a pdf (free to download) because the editors found using InDesign allows them to more easily format non-conventional pieces. Also, McClintick notes, “we can curate the magazine so that the pieces inside read together in a complementary order, and the magazine can readily be shared and circulated.”

McClintick says BPL “started on a whim, but as we’ve gotten more engaged with the work, we really see it as a chance to help writers and artists get more visibility online.” Like many start-up publications, there’s no paycheck for those involved, but nor does the publication ask for payment. “All our work is voluntary and we see it as community service,” comment McClintick, “We love having the chance to share the work of others and give readers the chance to find more work like it. This is why our contributor’s bios contain links to other work they’ve done or are doing. We want readers to read more and discover more; our magazine is just a starting point for them.”

Some featured contributors to the first two issues include Emma DeMilta, Glen Armstrong, Karen J. Weyant, Luke Thurogood, Rob Cook, Robin Wyatt Dunn, Patty Somlo, John Colasacco, who has a book coming out this May through CCM Press, and Howie Good, whose Fugitive Pieces proceeds will be donated to charity.

And the name – why The Birds We Piled Loosely? The answer reveals a whimsical side: “We liked birds! And besides, the great danes piled loosely would just sound silly,” McClintick jokes. “In reality,” he says, “we came up with a shortlist of several different names and passed them around to friends and settled on the name people liked the most.” The result is indeed intriguing and unique.

In the future for BPL, the editors want to look for ways to incorporate video and audio, consider print options and different website designs, and feature a sample of an author’s newly released book. Already, issue three will feature poems from Rob Cook’s new book Asking My Liver for Forgiveness.

For submissions, the editors tell writers to submit “text pieces” instead of any one genre because they don’t want to discourage people from submitting in any medium or style of writing. As for art, they’re really open to anything there as well. Letson’s background and career is in visual design, while McClintick’s is in writing and editing, so they complement each other in the type of work they’re looking for.

McClintick stresses to writers: “Understand that we won’t know your name or publication history when we review the piece. We’ve rejected writers claiming they had over a 100 publications and accepted writers who have never been published. We’ll take a look at any type of writing and judge it on its merit alone. Name dropping publications when you submit your piece doesn’t impress us.”

McClintick and Letson offer this final word: “We really believe in the work we’re doing and in our contributors! We want to thank them again. This magazine is really for our contributors and readers, and we can only hope that when someone opens the magazine that they can see all of this in our work.”

Bellevue Literary Review 2015 Prize Winners

The spring issue of Bellevue Literary Review features the winners of the 2015 BLR prizes:

bellevue-literary-reviewThe winner of the Goldenberg Prize for Fiction, “Autobiography” by Carla Hartenberger—chosen by judge Chang-rae Lee—follows a set of Canadian conjoined twins who must wrestle with the physiology and psychology that both keep them together and wrench them apart.

The winner of the Felice Buckvar Prize for Nonfiction, “I Must Have Been That Man” by Adina Talve-Goodman, was selected by judge Anne Fadiman. In her winning essay, Talve-Goodman navigates college-age independence, her recent heart transplant, and the challenges of compassion when she comes upon a man lying on the side of the road on a rain-drenched night.

The winner of the Marica and Jan Vilcek Prize for Poetry—”Dysesthesia” by Hannah Baggott, selected by judge Major Jackson—is a vivid look at the sensory mayhem of dysesthesia: “I want to know why I am always wanting,” Baggott writes, “why my body is never quiet…”

The winner of the inaugural Daniel Liebowitz Prize for Student Writing is Philip Cawkwell’s haunting poem “The Dinosaur Exhibit.” This award recognizes one outstanding literary submission from the Medicine Clerkship at the NYU School of Medicine.

Honorable mentions (also published in the issue):
Fiction: “Bystander” by Jen Bergmark
Nonfiction: “Torso” by Leslie Absher
Poetry: “Damaged” by Colby Cedar Smith

Lit Mag Covers :: Picks of the Week

blue-route

The Blue Route is an online national literary journal for undergraduate writers, with each author’s school affiliation noted in the table of contents. I like the feel of this cover photo by Taylor Blume, with its intense colors and grainy texture.

tahoma-literary-review

This Spring 2015 cover of Tahoma Liteary Review is from a series by southern California artista Wendy Smith called “Inside the Brain.” Inspired by the the work of neuroscientist Camillo Golgi who dyed samples of brain tissue so the neurons could be observed, Smith’s images mimic the technique: color washes to illustrate brain cells.

arc-poetry-76

Arc Poetry Magazine #76 features acrylic on canvas artwork of Christi Belcourt both on the cover and inside the publication in full color. Gorgeous. Gorgeous. Gorgeous.

Michigan Quarterly Review Prize Winners Announced

courtney-sender2kwonmorgenstern-clarren

Courtney Sender has won the $1000 Lawrence Foundation Prize for 2014. The prize is awarded annually by the Editorial Board of MQR to the author of the best short story published that year in the journal. Sender’s story “We Can Practice Starts” appeared in the Spring 2014 issue.

Haesong Kwon has won the 2014 Laurence Goldstein Poetry Prize, which is awarded annually to the author of the best poem or group of poems appearing that year in the Michigan Quarterly Review. His poem “Epistle,” appeared in the Fall 2014 issue.

Rachel Morgenstern-Clarren has won the 2014 Page Davidson Clayton Prize for Emerging Poets, which is awarded annually to the best poet appearing in MQR who has not yet published a book. The award, which is determined by the MQR editors, is in the amount of $500.

For more information about the prizes and judges comments, click on the individual prize links above.

A Month of Visual Poetry

john-m-bennettAngelHousePress presents NationalPoetryMonth.ca 2015, 30 days of visual poetry, asemic writing, concrete poetry, collage, and hybrid visual pieces from Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Finland, India, Ireland, Japan, Portugal, Russia, Ukraine, USA. Visit the site each day in April to see work that blurs genres and transcends boundaries. Poets featured include John M. Bennett; Volodymyr Bilyk, writer, translator from Ukraine; Shloka Shankar, freelance writer residing in India; hiromi suzuki, illustrator, poet and collage artist living inTokyo, Japan; and S Cearley.

PoMoSco Project for NPM

PoMoScoPoMoSco — short for Poetry Month Scouts — is the Found Poetry Review‘s 2015 National Poetry Month project. This April, 213 poets representing 43 states and 12 countries are joining together as a troop to earn digital merit badges for completing experimental and found poetry prompts.

Poetry prompts are divided into five categories: remixing, erasure, out and about, conceptual and chance operation corresponding to their generation method. Each category offers six distinct badges that can be earned. Badges vary in level of difficulty — some may be completed in less than an hour and within one’s home, while others require additional time, interacting with the public and learning to use new software. Poets choose their own source texts from which to craft their poems.

Poets participating in PoMoSco demonstrate a willingness to experiment and write outside of their comfort zone. While not every poem they produced this month will be publication-worthy, the poets end the month with some strong starts and a new set of tools to which they can turn to as they continue their career as a writer.

The poems are available to read throughout the month and the site includes a Scout Roster and Scout Interviews.

[Main text from the About PoMoSco page.]

Buffalo Almanack Inkslinger Award

buffalo-almanackBuffalo Almanack online quarterly of fiction, visual arts, and literary criticism has established the Inkslinger Award for Creative Excellence. The award is made to the best short story and art piece in each issue as selected by the editors. There are no entry fees – all submissions to Buffalo Almanack are considered. Winners currently receive $50 and publication. With the most recent issue of Buffalo Almanack, the editors have added the feature of Woodshop Talk in which the Inkslinger winners are interviewed about their published artwork and stories.

The March 2015 Inkslinger Award winners are Michael Deagler for his story “Fishtown, Down,” and photography by Justin Hamm. Previous winners can be found here with links to their winning works.

Buffalo Almanack has announced they are open for submissions for their first themed issue: “Where Thou Art.” The editors are expanding submissions to include creative non-fiction in addition to short stories and visual art. “Everybody on the planet is eligible,” say the editors, “no entry cost is required, and you have plenty of time to prepare – subs will remain open from March to November of 2015.” Specific guidelines can be found on the Buffalo Almanack website as well as in the newest issue (pages 61-62).

Brevity Special Issue: Race, Racism, and Racialization

claudia-rankine-2ira-sukBrevity, the online journal of “concise literary nonfiction,” has announced an upcoming special issue on Race, Racism, and Racialization guest-edited by Ira Sukrungruang and featuring new work by Claudia Rankine. Using progressive fundrasing “stretch goals” on Kickstarter, Brevity has raised funding to publish a special issue on experiences of gender (with new work by Kate Bornstein), and having surpassed that goal, is now stretching the effort for this next special issue. Submissions will open in Fall 2015, depending on funding.