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MQR 2013 Literary Award Winners

Michigan Quarterly Review has announced this year’s three annual literary prize winners whose works are selected from those published in MQR throughout the year.

Laurence Goldstein Poetry Prize 2013 ($500): Benjamin Busch for his poem “Girls” which appeard in the Winter 2013 issue of MQR. [Photo credit: Richard Mallory Allnut]

Lawrence Foundation Prize 2013 ($1000): Cody Peace Adamns for his story “Victory Chimes” which appeared in the Winter 2013 issue of MQR.

Page Davidson Clayton Prize for Emerging Poets ($500): Anne Barngrover for her poem “Memory, 1999” which appeared in the Fall 2013 issue of MQR.

Read more about the winners and the selection process here.

Alimentum YUM! Menu Poems

Alimentum: The Literature of Food online journal celebrate National Poetry Month each year with MENUPOEMS. This year, poets include Esther Cohen, Oded Halahmy, Dania Rajendra, Miriam Halahmy, Tony Fallon, Dean Lavin, Margaret Waldhelm, Lois Vendon, and Linda Larson.

While you’re there, check out this page of Recipe Poems, where, as a fan of pho, I discovered Kelly Morse’s poem “Phở bò Hà Nội” which she notes was inspired by a pho shop in Hanoi, Vietnam named Phở Thìn 13 Lò Đúc. Morse provides a narrative on her experience, and some great history on this culinary staple. You can’t help but salivate to read it:

Add a spoonful of tiny red chilis, and garlic,
fatly diced in their vinegars.
With spoon and chopsticks together give a heave

to the mass of white noodles and flip like an omelet,
dragging up from below the fresh herbs hidden in the inner curve.

YUM!

Guerrilla Poetry

Ah, spring has (almost) returned to Michigan. The NewPages CEO and second-in-command have enjoyed our first “porch beer” – albeit wearing layered sweatshirts. Still, the sun is shining, the spring rains and the hurricane winds are reduced to intermittent. Time to get back to postering poetry around the city. A staple gun and a backpack filled with a variety of poems, my dog as cover (just a lady out walking her dog…), I staple up poems to utility poles along my route.

Of course, poems can come from any source, but I try to keep them short enough to be read quickly, one page with large font, or if it’s longer, eye-catching helps (like the Broadsided Press monthly vector poems). I also try to maintain some sensibility for the fact that kids may be reading these, so try to make them “safe” as well as appealing. Can’t hit every audience, but when postering near the schools or parks, I tend more for those kid-friendly poems.

One year, on Memorial Day, I noticed youthful handwriting on a posting and saw that some neighborhood kids had written their own poems honoring local troops and tacked them up where I had been posting poems. Pretty darn cool. Guerrilla poetry works. Try it yourself! Staple gun. Poems. Go!

[Pictured: “The Second Fallacy.” Poem by C. Dale Young; Art by Amy Meissner; Design by Debbie Nadolney. Broadsided April 1, 2014.]

Buy This Man a Shirt! Please!

Our buddy M. Scott Douglass at Main Street Rag has an invitational for readers and Harley fans alike. He is a MAJOR collector of Harley-Davidson t-shirts. Apparently, THE t-shirt is a big deal among fans… So, buy Scott a Harley t-shirt from your local Harley shop (around $30), send it to him, and he’ll give you a two-year subscription to Main Street Rag (worth $45).

Specs from Scott: “Must be a short sleeve t-shirt, XL, color… I’m not a brown or pink kinda guy, black is always good, but I have a lot of those already as well as a lot of orange–one of Harley’s other colors. I don’t have any bright yellow or cream–lighter colors like baby blue or light green–but almost any color is cool. Here’s where I get prissy: I prefer only one or two colors on the back. Harley dealerships customize the backs to advertise themselves. A lot of them do a full color display of some unique image–often significant to the region. Full color means a lot of lay down of ink, vinyl screen printing ink, as many as five layers (if you are printing on black). I plan to wear every one of these shirts at some point. Do you know how heavy four layers vinyl color gets when riding in the hot Carolina sun? One color is cooler, easier to read, AND cheaper. And one more thing: My wife would frown on me wearing one with scantily clad women with big boobs, so please avoid those. I’m traditionalist. I like the variety of crests and logos Harley offers, wings and bars and even an occasional skull.”

There you have it: Buy Scott a Harley Davidson dealer t-shirt from your local HD dealership. Mail it to him at Main Street Rag, PO BOX 690100, Charlotte, NC 28227-7001 and earn a 2-year subscription worth $45.

Radio Silence :: New Digital Editions

Radio Silence, the somewhat new, print “magazine of literature and rock & roll” (which by the way also raises money to buy books and musical instruments for kids), has released a new monthly digital edition, which started in February. You can read the first issue for free here. And from there you can decide to subscribe for a yearly cost of $29.99 or purchase individual issues for $2.99 each. The issues are available to read on phones, tablets, and desktops.

2014 Dartmouth Poet in Residence

In March, The Frost Place (a nonprofit arts organization and museum established to honor the legacy of Robert Forst and encourage the creation and appreciate of poems) announced the 2014 Dartmouth Poet in Residence at the Frost Place: Rebecca Foust.

Here’s a description from the press release: “Every year, a poet is selected from a group of applicants based on the quality of her/his work to live and work in the historic house where Robert Frost lived from 1915 – 1920. In 2011, The Frost Place and Dartmouth College honored their shared connections with Robert Frost by renaming the residency program The Dartmouth Poet in Residence at The Frost Place.”

This from Rebecca Foust: “My goal is deep work, the kind a writer can do only in an atmosphere both free of distraction and full with inspiration and hope. The ability to spend such a substantial block of time immersed in reading and writing is, by itself, of great practical value. In the privacy, beauty and inspiration of this unique setting, I plan to re-read Frost’s poems and essays while writing new ones of my own. I also hope to make progress on my next book manuscript. Finally, I am happy for the chance to live, work, and do readings in New England.”

Read more about it here.

MFA at University of Massachusetts-Amherst Celebrates 50 Years :: Special Issue of MR

To celebrate the 50th year anniversary of the MFA program for Poets & Writers at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, The Massachusetts Review released a special issue featuring some of the “remarkable writers who have graduated from the program,” which include Mira Bartok, Valerie Martin, Domenic Stansberry, Gillian Conoley, Matthew Zaprunder, James Haug, Ellen Dore Watson, and more.

In an introduction to the issue Editor John Emil Vincent writes, “We ourselves have attempted a little revisiting of our usual format—we actively sought and happily found longer poems, two lovelies from Gillian Conoley and Brian Baldi in particular—but also generally solicited works in clusters. The hope is to create a novel texture for our special issue, one up to exploring the pleasures and peculiarities of duration.

Youth & Poetry & Activism

Featured on the PBS NewsHour program The Poetry Series, three poets in Richmond, California teamed up with the Off/Page Project to bring a spotlight to deplorable public housing conditions in a video report “This is Home.” Off/Page Project combines efforts with The Center for Investigative Reporting and the literary non-profit Youth Speaks. Their collaborative work actively engages youth in civic issues through the use of a multi-media platform.

Other issues investigated by Off/Page Project include “Whispers from the Field,” about sexual abuse suffered by migrant women field laborers (written and performed by Monica Mendoza and available in English and Spanish); “Broken City Poets” focusing on Stockton, California – and what happens to the youth in a town declaring bankruptcy (“Poetry is a way to express myself without violence,” one young woman comments).

Glimmer Train January Very Short Fiction Winners :: 2014

Glimmer Train has just chosen the winning stories for their January Very Short Fiction competition. This quarterly competition is open to all writers for stories with a word count not exceeding 3000. No theme restrictions. The next Very Short Fiction competition will take place in April. Glimmer Train’s monthly submission calendar may be viewed here.

First place: Lee Montgomery [pictured], of Portland, OR, wins $1500 for “Window.” Her story will be published in Issue 93 of Glimmer Train Stories.

Second place: Calvin Haul, of Salt Lake City, UT, wins $500 for “The World Within Reach.”

Third place: Auguste Budhram, of Austin, TX, wins $300 for “My Father’s Vacation.”

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

What is Story?

Story magazine, like a story passed on over time, has evolved. It started in 1931, lasting until 1964, as “the most important literary short fiction publication, founding editors Martha Foley and Whit Burnett discovering and publishing … storytelling greats,” write Vito Grippi and Travis Kurowski. Then it was revived by Lois Rosenthal, running from 1989 to 2000. Now, it’s in the hands of Kurowski and Grippi: “As great as the original Story was, we don’t want to recreate that magazine; though short fiction holds a singular place in contemporary letters, our net is wider. We hope for a diversity of narrative mirroring our contemporary, transnational lives: memoirs, interviews, superhero poetry, sci-fi, case studies, maps, machines.”

The first issue under their reign is double-sided, with two different covers and two different sets of writing. Side A features work from Andrew Malan Milward, Mary Miller, K. Silem Mohammad, Tao Lin, and Marinaomi, and Side B’s cover boasts “Hand Models Run Amok!” and “Family Caught Hiding Dreamers!” and “New Gadgets to Hook up? Jim Shepard Tells All!” It’s hard to believe it’s only 8 bucks. And if you scan the QR code inside, you’ll be taken to a page where you can download a digital copy for free.

Switcheroo! Writing Wanted

Broadsided Press is asking writers to celebrate National Poetry Month with The Switcheroo! Usually, Broadsided has artists respond to poems to create their monthly posters. For The Switcheroo! writers are asked to respond to a visual piece with poetry or prose. This art is Maura Cunningham’s “Another Portal,” and winning entries (one for each piece of art for each time they run the event) will be published on May 1, 2014 as one of the many wonderful Broadsided collaborations. The deadline is April 15, so get switchin’ – er, I mean, writing!

Online Class :: Writing translation / translating writing

Chicago School of Poetics is offering a one-day online class with with Pierre Joris. “Writing translation / translating writing” inverts the traditional relationship of original text and translated copy and reinscribes the activity of translation as core process of the act of writing. Students will be simultaneously involved with writing and with translation from a language of their choice into English in a range of forms proposed by their own practice and culture. The class runs for three hours and will be held  online, in a video-conferenced classroom, so you can attend from your own home, from anywhere in the world. Class size is limited to 10 students.

Date: April 26th, 2014
Time: 1-4 p.m. Central Time
Tuition: $250

It’s Here! National Poetry Month!

“Inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996, National Poetry Month is now held every April, when schools, publishers, libraries, booksellers, and poets throughout the United States band together to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture. Thousands of organizations participate through readings, festivals, book displays, workshops, and other events.”

Visit POETS.ORG for posters, poems, ideas on how to celebrate, poem-a-day, and – my personal favorite – POEM IN YOUR POCKET DAY! April 24 is Poem in Your Pocket Day – carry a poem with you, as you meet with friends, sit next to a stranger on the tram, hanging out in the grocery store line, simply pull the poem out and read it to others – Happy Poetry Month! (Seriously, I haven’t been arrested for it yet.) Poets.org provides a variety of pocket-sized poems to share.

Lit Mag Covers :: Picks of the Week

The Spring/Summer issue of Alaska Quarterly Review features an appropriate image for the weeks to come (at least I’m hoping for more rain and less snow): Yellow umbrellas, 2014 by Clark James Mishler.

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This cover of Room is a pastel on vellum by Cathy Daley. “Since the mid-1990s when I began the current body of work known as the dress series or dancing legs,” she writes, “my drawings have been untitled. Because I was so depicting the body and gestures of the body I wanted the work to speak through the body and a title seemed limiting. The postures and gestures in the work create meaning for the viewer through cultural associations and subjectivities.”

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The cover of Hunger Mountain‘s Winter 2013/2014 issue is by Lucinda Bliss with details from Atlas of American War Book 4: Hearts and Octopus with graphite and colored pencil on found paper.

Museum of Haiku Literature Award

The Museum of Haiku Literature Award is award to the best previously unpublished work appearing in the previous issue of Frogpond, selected by the HSA Executive Committee. In Volume 37 Number 1, Tom Tico from San Fransisco, CA is announced of the winner of the $100 for this haiku (originally published in Volume 36 Number 3):

her letter . . .
I’d forgotten
paper can cut

Poet-in-Residence Tim Bowling Contributes

In 2009, Arc Poetry Magazine started a poet-in-residence program in which the poet in question guides a number of poets through refining their craft. “This is a response to our mission to support Canadian poetry,” write Rhonda Douglas and Chris Jennings, “but also partly in response to the many submissions we receive each month that are so close, but just not yet quite ready for publication.” Tim Bowling was the poet-in-residence for 2012-2013, working with approximately 25 poets, and the latest issue of Arc (73) showcase some of Bowling’s work alongside a selection from eight of the poets he worked with: Vincent Colistro, Rod Pederson, Michelle Brown, Jordan Mounteer, Heather Davidson, Helen Marshall, Ann Graham Walker, and Jordan Tannahill.

As an introduction to the special section in the magazine, Russell Thornton writes, “Bowling’s poetry conjures a world. That world includes one of the grand rivers of Canada and the greatest salmon river on the plant, and the town of Ladner with its fishing community underlife… His rapt awareness of the concrete particulars of his actual place allows Bowling to execute poetry that is, at its most striking, complete in its interconnections, and visionary. His passion for his locale and its inhabitants lifts that locale onto the mythic level.”

Poems included from Bowling are “Christmas Near Vancouver,” “Dread,” On the Morning of New Life,” High Summer,” “High Water,” and more.

Wilkes University New Playwriting and Screenwriting MFA Degree

Wilkes University has launched a new option for an MFA program, in screenwriting and playwriting, located in Meza, Arizona. It will be a hybrid program involving both online classes and weekend classes, and the first program starts in August 2014.

“We believe there is sufficient interest in these two areas to open this new way of delivering the program on the ground in Arizona,” says Bonnie Culver, co-founder and director of the Wilkes graduate creative writing program. “We have several Los Angeles-based faculty and producers who are eager to work with us to deliver these degrees in Mesa.”

Read more about the program and upcoming workshops here.

2013 Flash Fiction Open Results

In 2013, Unstuck magazine held a Flash Fiction Open Contest, judged by Amelia Gray. The winning results are featured in issue 4 (2014) of the magazine: Emily Kiernan’s “Palinopsia” and Dennis James Sweeney’s “When He Comes Home from the War.”

Gray writes this about Kiernan’s piece: “There are a few tricks here that might grow dull employed with a bigger word count … but which sparkle nicely in a piece of this length. This is bold and surprising short work, it is arresting, and proves to me that our subject can be well known, even a little quaintly known as a piece of culture … and fine work prevails to create a thing which is wholly new. Here also lies the first footnote I’ve liked outside of Infinite Jest, which frankly deserves its own sub-prize.”

And about Sweeney’s piece, she writes, “This is a lovely, efficient piece and perfectly presents outright danger in the post-trauma mundane. This is a story that I could spend hours going through with students were I not legally barred from interacting with young people.”

High School Lit Mag Awards

The 2013 results are in for the Program to Recognize Excellence in Student Literary Magazines through the National Council of Teachers of English. Organized by state, you can see the awards of these high school literary magazines. There were a total of 373 entries with 26 Highest Award recipients.

New Lit on the Block :: The Austin Review

The Austin Review, a neatly-bound, fit-in-the-palm-of-your-hand journal, is now being produced in Austin, Texas, three times a year. Editor-in-Chief Michael Barrett says that Austin “is home to an incredibly talented group of writers and publishers, and we thought the city deserved a journal bearing its name.” Publishing four short stories, four pieces of flash nonfiction, and on essay or work by a notable author in each issue, The Austin Review is also available as a Kindle version.

But with so many literary magazines already out there, the question is always, why start another? Well, along with the common mission to discover new work from emerging authors, Barrett, to some extent, wants to “highlight the talented authors coming from Austin and help expand the literary community in the city.”

As the magazines grows, Barrett—along with Managing Editor Tatiana Ryckman and Associate Editor Wendy Walker—plans to keep to the nine works per issue but to eventually share a limited number of additional works on their website. “We also intend to expand our nonprofit and outreach efforts and help promote the love of literature in our community,” he states.

The first issue features short stories by John Jodzio, T Kira Madden, Derrick Brown, and Boomer Pinches; flash nonfiction by David Olimpio, Lisa Wells, Caitlyn Paley, and Patrick Madden; and an essay by Sheila Heti. “Readers can expect to find contemporary works of the highest quality, curated with great care and attention to detail,” says Barrett.

The magazine accepts submissions year-round through Submittable, and you can purchase a print copy from their website or a digital version from Amazon.

Hamilton Arts & Letters First Chapbook

The online Hamilton Arts & Letters magazine has just started a new chapbook series in which over the next two years they hope to publish one chapbook a year, expanding to more after that. Just released is their first chapbook: Nelson Ball’s A Rattle of Spring Frogs.

Here’s the description from HA&L: “Noted for poems described as ‘compressed meditations,’ Nelson is also admired here as a leader in the small press revolution that took place during the 1960s.” Accompanied with the chapbook is a contextualized essay and a reading. See more and read here.

Black Warrior Review Annual Contest Winners

Congrats to the winners of the Ninth Annual Contest for Black Warrior Review, which are featured in the latest issue:

Fiction
Mari Christmas: “Baby”

Nonfiction
Meredith Clark: “Lyrebird”

Poetry
Hannah Aizenman: “History, or Umbilicus”

Finalists
Chad Brandon Anderson
Diana Arterian
Colin Bassett
Kelly Connor
Matthew Fee
Yanara Friedland
Maggie Glover and Isaac Pressnell
Lauren Hilger
Kristen Iskandrian
Sara Jaffe
Dong Li
Jacqueline Lyons
Cate Lycurgus
Emily Moore
Bruno Nelson
Leah Poole Osowski
Anne Ray
Allie Rowbottom
Jayme Russell
Brittney Scott
T.D. Storm
Shawn Wen

Lit Mag Covers :: Picks of the Week

I picked this cover of Witness not after having looked at it but after having read about it: “One of thousands of copper canisters preserving the cremated remains of patients who died at a state-run psychiatric hospital in Salem, Oregon, between the 1880s and the 1970s and whose ashes remain unclaimed by their families.”

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The photograph on the cover of Big Muddy‘s latest issue makes you wonder why this kid has abandoned his (her?) bike, and where exactly is that ladder leading to? Bradley Phillips is the photographer.

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It was like love at first site with this cover of The Georgia Review. From the staff of music at the top, to the illustrations, to the text, measurements, and symbols sketched throughout, this design by MF Cardamone (Elvis with Sweetgum, 2010) is capturing. More work from this artist is inside, too.

Naugatuck River Review Contest Issue

Naugatuck River Review‘s Winter 2014 issue features the winners of the 5th Annual Narrative Poetry Contest, judged by Susan Deer Cloud.

First Prize ($1000):
“Woodland Refuge” Margaret Bobalek King

Second Prize ($250):
“Christmas Eve 2011 After Taking Yu Troung to Radiation, Christmas Eve 2012 After Learning He Passed”
Lindsay Wilson

Third Prize ($100):
BLISS IN CAPETOWN, 1921 M.J. Oliver

Finalists
“Married but Separated: Prayer” Catherine Arra
“Digging Grave” Jerry Brunoe
“Last Chorus” Joanne Clarkson
“What Fernando Saw” Ben Gunsberg
“Fisherman’s Knot” Ross Howerton
“The Journey” Hayley Hughes
“Another Episode in the Annals of Shame” Lynne Knight
“Blue Balls” Raul Palma
“June First Matt Pasca
“Beets” Linda Neal Reising
“Hoarder” Val Dering Rojas
“Heartbroken Gorilla” Scott Ruescher
“Two Approaches to Gardening” David Sloan
“Bones” Dina Stander
“Uncle” Will Stockton
“UC Berkeley, Sproul Plaza, May 1969″ Joanna White
“In the Checkout Line at the Health Food Market” Claire Zoghb

To see a list of semi-finalists, click here.

NewPages Mailing Lists Sale

In case you haven’t heard, NewPages is having a sale on our digital bookstore mailing lists and library mailing lists–save 50%. This is a one-time fee, with up-to-date lists and a delivery guarantee to postal addresses. Learn more and purchase here.

Sylvan Dell Publishing Changes to Arbordale

Educational children’s publisher Sylvan Dell Publishing has officially changed its name to Arbordale Publishing.

Arbordale, based in South Carolina, produces nature, science, geography, and Spanish-language picture books for children. Its titles support the Common Core science and math standards, and factual content is vetted by experts. The company also offers a subscription e-reader application for children to use, and additional educational material is included at the end of each book.

The publisher has 99 books in its catalog.

Kenyon Review New Podcast

The Kenyon Review has just released a new podcast series with new content every couple of weeks. You can listen on the website, download the files, or use the free SoundCloud app (Apple users). “Looking for something to listen to at the gym?” the site reads. “Need a 20-30 minute fix of literature in the car on the way to work? You’ve found the right place!”

2013 Pinch Literary Award Winners

Sponsored by the Hohenberg Foundation, the 2013 Pinch Literary Award Winners are featured in the Spring 2014 issue of The Pinch. Fiction was judged by Roxane Gay, poetry by Mark Jarman, and literary nonfiction by Abigal Thomas.

Winner in Literary Nonfiction
Molly Beer: “The Lifecycle of Butterflies”

Winner in Fiction
John Haggerty: “A Slight Chance of War”

Winner in Poetry
Ann Vermel: “Ripening”

Lit Mag Covers :: Picks of the Week

Cover art for this issue of Salt Hill comes from Martin Klimas: Untitled (Miles Davis, “Pharaoh’s Dance”). What can I say? The bright colors capture my attention.

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Alongside the QR code on this cover of North Dakota Quarterly is a quote from Marshall McLuhan: “We shape our tools and aftewards our tools shape us.” This is the cover for the special issue “What is Digital Art?” guest edited by Timothy J. Pasch and Sharon Carson.

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There isn’t a single part of this cover of The Stinging Fly that I don’t love. The colors, the shapes, the photograph in the back. It’s designed by Fergal Condon.

Grain Magazine Contest Winners

The new, Winter 2014 issue of Grain Magazine features the winners in the poetry and fiction contests.

Fiction
judged by Stan Rogal

Winner
Dylan Levi King: “The 33 Transformation Bodies of the Bodhisattva Guanyin”

2nd Place Winner
Scott Bartlett: “The Proletarian”

3rd Place Winner
Seyward Goodhand: “We Harboured the Scholar”

Poetry
judged by M

Serendipity Began with a Toilet Paper Roll

On her blog, Rogue Embryo,  artist and poet Camille Martin features a multi-part posting on Hungarian -Canadian avante garde writer and artist, Robert Zend (1929-1985). Never heard of him, but was drawn by the final installment: “Gaskets, Thumbtacks, Toilet Paper Rolls . . and Doodles.” The reason being, I’ve have recently discovered what a perfect form toilet paper rolls provide for writing! I’ve seized the opportunity whenever finding these lovely tubes left behind in the stall to provide a bit of literary enjoyment for whomever steps in next. Of course, I couldn’t be the only one, and upon finding Martin’s article on Zend, am all the more inspired by his work in visual art: “Zend used technologies that were available to him, including typewriter and computer. He also used whatever materials were at hand, including automotive gaskets, thumbtacks, and toilet paper rolls. Zend was also a prolific doodler, drawing his casual sketches (some quite intricate) on everything from Post-It notes to cocktail napkins.” Martin goes into greater exploration in her post, including images and video (of the toilet paper roll on a turntable!). After this, I went all the way back to the beginning and started reading more about Zend; Martin’s biographical work on him spans his entire life, includes a great deal of historical context and examples with commentary of his work. Martin’s personal website provides her own poetry and artwork, which simply adds to the exploration. I’m still on this serendipitous journey and am enjoying learning more about both fabulous poets and artists.

MA Student Day of Poetry Friday

Aimee Nezhukumatathil and Adam Gottlieb are among the poets featured in the Student Day of Poetry this Friday, March 21, at UMass Boston. The Student Day of Poetry is a day-long “poetry field trip” for teens, featuring creative writing workshops, performances, and a student open mike session.

For more information, including info for teachers and a full line-up of poets and workshop leaders, visit the Student Day of Poetry page. The Student Day of Poetry is a program of the Mass Poetry organization, which also brings elements of the statewide day to individual schools.

American Life in Poetry :: Amy Fleury

American Life in Poetry: Column 468
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

Here’s another lovely poem to honor the caregivers among us. Amy Fleury lives and teaches in Louisiana.

Ablution

Because one must be naked to get clean,
my dad shrugs out of his pajama shirt,
steps from his boxers and into the tub
as I brace him, whose long illness
has made him shed modesty too.
Seated on the plastic bench, he holds
the soap like a caught fish in his lap,
waiting for me to test the water’s heat
on my wrist before turning the nozzle
toward his pale skin. He leans over
to be doused, then hands me the soap
so I might scrub his shoulders and neck,
suds sluicing from spine to buttock cleft.
Like a child he wants a washcloth
to cover his eyes while I lather
a palmful of pearlescent shampoo
into his craniotomy-scarred scalp
and then rinse clear whatever soft hair
is left. Our voices echo in the spray
and steam of this room where once,
long ago, he knelt at the tub’s edge
to pour cups of bathwater over my head.
He reminds me to wash behind his ears,
and when he judges himself to be clean,
I turn off the tap. He grips the safety bar,
steadies himself, and stands. Turning to me,
his body is dripping and frail and pink.
And although I am nearly forty,
he has this one last thing to teach me.
I hold open the towel to receive him.

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 ©2013 by Amy Fleury from her most recent book of poems, Sympathetic Magic, Southern Illinois Univ. Press, 2013. Poem reprinted by permission of Amy Fleury and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2014 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.

Book Covers :: Picks of the Week :: March 14, 2014

Book covers are skewed to poetry this time, by sheer chance. Enjoy!

The Dustbowl, poetry by Jim Goar, Shearsman Books

The dustbowl loomed. A book that
could not be opened. The bastard
son remembered a sword. This is my
body. All those angry lambs. Crows
go round and round. Ain’t got no
home. A barn beneath the sand.
Here today. Gone tomorrow….

Dutiful Heart, poetry by Joy Gaines-Friedler, Broadkill River Press

from “Assisted Living/Caring for the Irreducible”:

Sunlight breaks through the heart here.
It can barely raise its head,
its neck weak as an after-harvest stalk.
………………………………………………….
There are two sides to this life:
The side you nurture, and the side you fail.
The child you inspire, and the one you reduce.
Sacrifice. And the women you turn hard against.

Albedo, poetry by Kathleen Jesme, Ahsahta Press

from “Hard Believing Time”:

Went hungry. For a long day longer than reasons, went out
to the garden and the garden was bare. Even the crows
stayed away. At first, a long sign of summer,
then second late frost dropping the buds to their knees.
I’ve been dropped to mine, too. Used to be
I’d pray when my knees kissed the dirt of my garden. But
now the ground says I’m the scourge of God, so I come
crashing down. When the end comes: even if

it’s true, the end has a way of returning every favor, a way
of washing its hands of you.

Pilgrimage Welcomes New Parternships

In Pilgrimage‘s “Grace” issue, Editor Juan Morales announces two new partnerships the magazine will take on. The first is with CantoMundo, “an organization that cultivates a community of Latina/o poets. Through workshops, symposia, and public readings, CanotMundo provides a space for the creation, documentation, and critical analysis of Latina/o poetry.” The second partnership is with the SoCo Reading Series, “which brings poets and writers to the CSU-Pueblo campus for featured readings and classroom visits.”

Additionally, Pilgrimage is now accepting submissions through Submittable but will still continue to check the mail for any postal submissions.

Sinister Wisdom :: “Living as a Lesbian” by Cheryl Clarke

Sinister Wisdom‘s issue 91 features the work of one author, Cheryl Clarke. In an introduction, Nancy K. Bereanowrites, “It is absolutely clear to me that Cheryl Clarke was then, and remains now, a singular, powerful voice articulating the truths of fierce, independent women of color: lesbians who often live lives made triply invisible by their sexuality, their race, and their working-class realities. And she writes with the kind of precision and attention to linguistic detail that might have impressed those Republican ladies if they had had the emotional and political wherewithal to take on her work.”

Co-published by A Midsummer Night’s Press and Sinister Wisdom, the Sapphic Classics Series publishes reprint editions of iconic works of lesbian poetry. The third Sapphic Classics will be issued in early 2015.

Cream City Review 2014 Contest Winners

Cream City Review‘s Poetry Prize was judged by Rebecca Hazelton and was awarded to Lisa Gluskin Stonestreet, and the Fiction Prize was judged by Tom Williams and awarded to Lenore Myka. You can read them in Issue 37.1.

Hazelton writes, “In Lisa Gluskin Stonestreet’s poems, motherhood is a transformative and even at times frightening event, one that redefines the self and one that threatens to subsume it. Her lines, ranging from long and loping to brief, almost frantic reports, mimetically capture the infatuation and the exhaustion the mother in these poems feels for her child, and most poignantly, the difficulties of remaining a writer in those circumstances.”

Wiliams writes, “[Myka] seemed to never under write or over write or play coy. It maintains a magical combination of plot moves that unsettle and affirm. It answers questions just before the reader is prepared to ask them. And, to me, most importantly, its elements accrete in a way that establish this unassailable reality: the story is presented in the only way it could be told.

The Necessity of Trans* Literature :: Jos Charles

“Fancy men in fancy clothes will tell you writing isn’t safe or to face our ugliness one must risk or any number of fancy things. I don’t know if writing can ever be safe but I do know there is nothing risky in telling the old stories about gender. The old stories I read and read that denied me access and made jokes at my expense. If I was lucky I would see a trans person (almost always a trans woman) be inspirational, Wow so uplifting, they say, but, more often, I saw them dead. Trans* folks’ narrative legacy is almost always, at best, a warning sign.

“Therefore as a writer I’ve come to know that submitting a work means either outing myself and writing the inspirational trans* story or dead trans* story or lying about my gender. Betray what it means to exist or betray myself. THEM, a trans* literary journal I founded and edit, is an attempt to facilitate as safe a space as possible for trans* folks to write what they want, to avoid the pressure of how they ought to display or not display their gender.”

Read the rest by Jos Charles, “Not In A Vacuum: On The Necessity Of Trans* Literature” published on The Quietus.

Raleigh Review Becomes Biannual

In Volume 4 of Raleigh Review, Editor Rob Greene announces the plan to switch the magazine over to a biannual publication cycle. “Our mission is to foster the creation and availability of accessible yet provocative contemporary literature. Raleigh Review speaks best through the works we publish. We believe fine art should challenge as well as entertain.” The next issue this year is scheduled to come out in September.

The current issue, however, features C. Wade Bentley, Elizabeth Breen, John F. Buckley, Jill Coyle, Geri Digiorno, Panagiota Doukas, Jacqueline Doyle, Susan Frith, Karen Harryman, Gregory Josselyn, Alisha Karabinus, and more.

Split this Rock

Poetry‘s March 2014 issue features 16 poets who will be attending and featured at Split This Rock Poetry Festival: Poems of Provocation & Witness in Washington D.C. In an introduction to the portfolio, Sarah Browning writes, “poetry can remind us of the true stories of our lives, rescuing those stories from the forces bent on shaping us to their purposes: that we become silent, fearful, distracted by mass entertainment and celebrity culture. Split This Rock celebrates and promotes poets doing this important work.”

The poets are Sheila Black, Yusef Komunyakaa, Eduardo C. Corral, Natalie Diaz, Franny Choi, Gayle Danley, Joy Harjo, Maria Melendez Kelson, Dunya Mikhail, Shailja Patel, Danez Smith, Anne Waldman, Wang Ping, Myra Sklarew, Claudia Rankine, and Tim Seibles.

Finding Light in the Dark :: Courtney Sender

“In my first year of graduate school, I humiliated myself. A hip young male professor had us reading Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman, a play that prominently features jail-cell torture, patricide, and countless other forms of violence. My professor said that this is what good writing does: uncovers the darkness in us all. I raised my hand and told him that I don’t think I have that kind of darkness in me…”

Read the rest by Courtney Sender in her essay “The Ability to Desire a Thousand” available on this month’s Glimmer Train Bulletin.

American Life in Poetry :: Li-Young Lee

American Life in Poetry: Column 466
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

Li-Young Lee is an important American poet of Chinese parentage who lives in Chicago. Much of his poetry is marked by unabashed tenderness, and this poem is a good example of that.

I Ask My Mother to Sing

She begins, and my grandmother joins her.
Mother and daughter sing like young girls.
If my father were alive, he would play
his accordion and sway like a boat.

I’ve never been in Peking, or the Summer Palace,
nor stood on the great Stone Boat to watch
the rain begin on Kuen Ming Lake, the picnickers
running away in the grass.

But I love to hear it sung;
how the waterlilies fill with rain until
they overturn, spilling water into water,
then rock back, and fill with more.

Both women have begun to cry.
But neither stops her song.

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 ©1986 by Li-Young Lee, whose most recent book of poems is Behind My Eyes, BOA Editions, Ltd., 2009. Poem reprinted by permission of Li-Young Lee and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2014 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.

Feminist Scholars Digital Workshop

The Feminist Scholars Digital Workshop will take place Monday, June 16th through Sunday, June 22nd, 2014. Sign-up Deadline: Monday, May 5th. The Feminist Scholars Digital Workshop is an online, asynchronous, interdisciplinary, participant-driven workshop for scholars and individuals working on feminist-oriented research projects. The goal of the workshop is to create an online space where participants can exchange scholarship and ideas. The Feminist Scholars Digital Workshop is a group affiliated with the Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory (HASTAC).

Free State Review New Editor

The staff of Free State Review will welcome a new member to their team: Robert Timberg, who will work as an associate editor specializing in nonfiction. Editor-in-Chief H.N. Burdett writes, “There is no one I respect more as a reporter, as an editor, as a patriot, and as a friend, and there is no way I could exaggerate my job in having our editorial staff augmented by his wisdom and judgement.”

Prism Review 2014 Contest Winners

Prism Review has announced the winners for their 2014 Contests in poetry (judged by Nathan Hoks) and fiction (judged by Scott Nadelson):

Poetry Winner
Anna Soteria Morrison: “[Flight Fable]”

Fiction Winner
Rob Schultz: “The Evaluation of Echoes”

“The eroticism of ‘[Flight Fable]’ enacts a series of birds that hunt, feed, dance, and flaunt their necks,” writes Hoks. “Amid all this avian fluttering and flight, the poem dwells in the charged, conflicted space between desire and action. It is a lovely, strange poem by a poet whose imaginative ears and eyes transform language into an ornithological and amorous event.”

Nadelson writes that “’The Evaluation of Echoes’ stands out for the way it captures both a specific cultural moment and a character’s internal landscape, showing us an AM radio man’s world on the cusp of change—collapsing or blooming into something new we don’t yet know. DJ Noland is a fascinating figure, both jaded and full of wonder, and that the unpredicted snowstorm can be at once comic and magical is testament to the writer’s skill. What I admire above all, though, is the dazzling language…”

Both pieces will appear in issue 16, due out in June.