Right Hand Pointing has recently changed their URL to righthandpointing.net. The old site (.com) does redirect, but it currently has a malware warning. To avoid this, please navigate to the new site. The editor, Dale, sent out a newsletter apologizing for the inconvenience and assuring that it will be fixed once there is time.
Amoskeag has released their 30th anniversary issue. Editor Michael J. Brien writes that this issue “represents first time authors along with Puschart Prize nominees, presenting works of survival, nostalgia, hope, hurt, grief, and redemption…,” featuring work by Deborah Brown, Donna Pucciani, SNHU’s MFA Award in prose winner James Seals, the SNHU Undergraduate Prose Winner Amy Fontenot, the SNHU Undergrduate poetry winner Natalie Jones, the New Hampshire High School Poetry Winner Kelsey Jarvis, the New Hampshire High School Prose Winner Emily Bascom, and more.
Along with the issue came an announcement that the next issue, Issue 31 to be released in April, will be the last for Editor Brien. “The University has been blessed with the continuing of this national journal for over thirty years,” he says. “Each editor has contributed to Amoskeag‘s growth and expansion. This year we have had two of our authors, Ainey Greaney and John Debon, selected as Notables in The Best American Essays of 2013. It’s stuff like that that makes me as an editor hopeful in each submission that arrives at my desk.” Benjamin Nugent will be taking over with issue 32.
The press release states that “With the change of editor, the magazine will continue to produce noteworthy and thought-provoking poetry, fiction, nonfiction, photography, etc., but will also take new steps towards better serving the future creative writing majors of the SNHU community. The literary magazine greatly focuses on showcasing their work as well as the work of other aspiring and established regional, national and International writers.”
In World Literature Today‘s March 2014 issue, Myrsini Gana contributes an excellent article on the idea of translating humor, through her experience with translating David Sedaris’s work. “Humor is a big deal,” she writes. “It’s not a question of knowing the words; there’s a whole world behind it. Every country’s—and in consequence every language’s—take on humor reveals its deeper character, is idiosyncratic, and operates well within a “closed circle.” Seen like this, a whole country can be like a group of friends—they have their own codes, their own jokes—and outsiders are just that: they don’t get it.”
“I could fill pages with examples explaining in detail how every instance calls for a different line of thought and a different solution. I wish I could say that every solution I have chosen is the optimal one, but there is no universal rule to dictate a translator’s decisions. That’s why no two translators will ever come up with the exact same translation.”
Also included in this section is a brief interview with David Sedaris: “It’s one thing to translate a joke, and another to translate timing, which is hwere a lot of my laughs come from. It’s especially difficult when the sentence structure is so very different in German, for instance, when the verb comes at the end of the sentence. In my last collection, one of the laughs was based on the way people in Toronto say “about.” The joke didn’t make sense in German, so the translator focused on another word in the sentence—”kiosk”—and moved my Canadian to French-speaking Quebec. It was a brilliant save, but nothing could salvage the ending of another essay. The laugh is based on the phrases ‘your trash’ and ‘you’re trash,’ and I don’t imagine it will work in anything but English.”
Subterrain’s Volume 7 Issue 66 features the winners of the Lush Triumphant Literary Awards Competition 2013.
Fiction Winner
Janet Trull: “Hot Town”
Poetry Winner
Connor Doyle: “Under City Suite”
Nonfiction Winner
Aaron Chan: “A Case of Jeff”
The rest of the issue includes fiction from Brock Peters, Martin West, Dina Lyuber, Gary Barwin, Sandra Alland, and Jordan Turner; poetry from Amber McMillan, Terry Trowbridge, klipschutz, and Jen Currin; and featured artist Brit Bachmann.
I’m loving the brilliant colors of Birmingham Poetry Review‘s Spring 2014 cover: The Alchemy of Invention, 2013 by Nicola Mason, mixed-media on canvas.
Simon says press red. Simon says press blue. Simon says admire the cover of The Literary Review. A fitting cover image for the themed issue “Artificial Intelligence.” And in case you’re wondering what the inscription is underneath, it says, “Nothing that matters is new or fake. Nothing can’t be controlled with a joystick. Buttons are original thought. Peripherals are unpredictable. Synapses are mythic, like the words we live by.”
Initial thought as I looked at this, out loud, “Ooo I really love this cover of BPJ.” A minute later upon closer look, “Oh gross, it’s actually kind of creepy, I thought it was just feathers.” Thirty seconds later: “I still really love it.” Beloit Poetry Journal takes an interesting approach for the cover of the Spring issue: a dead bird’s feet among crunchy, dead leaves. The photograph is titled “Raven Elegy” and is actually by Editor Lee Sharkey. Hauntingly beautiful.
Connu is the newest app to start reading short stories from great new writers. The app publishes these stories recommended by well-known authors including Lydia Davis, David Sedaris, Ron Carlson, and Joyce Carol Oates. It is also available online. All of it is free. Read the week’s selections, listen to their words, select your favorites, or pick something to read based on how much time you have at the moment.
To view the website, click here. Or if you’d like to download the app, click here.
Iron Horse Literary Review‘s latest review features only one writer: Michael Hemmingson, winner of the 2013 IHLR Single-Author Competition. His novella, Still Life with Iguana, “flies through a journalist’s life and career, uncovering the heart of an appealing protagonist and reuniting him with his one true love,” writes Bill Roorbach. It “is told in fragments and blocks and tesserae, a mosaic beautifully rendered.”
The Emerson Society announces three awards for projects that foster appreciation for Emerson.
Research Grant
Provides up to $500 to support scholarly work on Emerson. Preference given to junior scholars and graduate students. Submit a confidential letter of recommendation, 1-2-page project proposal, including a description of expenses, by April 1, 2014.
Pedagogy or Community Project Award
Provides up to $500 to support projects designed to bring Emerson to a non-academic audience. Submit a confidential letter of recommendation, 1-2-page project proposal, including a description of expenses, by April 1, 2014.
Subvention Award
Provides up to $500 to support costs attending the publication of a scholarly book or article on Emerson and his circle. Submit a confidential letter of recommendation, 1-2-page proposal, including an abstract of the forthcoming work and a description of publication expenses, by April 1, 2014.
Send Research, Pedagogy/Community, and Subvention proposals to:
Noelle Baker ([email protected]) and Kristin Boudreau ([email protected])
Award recipients must become members of the Society; membership applications are available at http://www.emersonsociety.org
Lumina Journal has put forth a special multimedia publication titled Lux. When you receive a copy, you’ll need to download the free app (or any other QR code reading app) to your phone or other mobile device. Then, each page of the book features writing with a QR code; scan it to discover videos, recordings, photographs, and interactive material. Artwork can also be scanned.
“We’re especially excited that we’ll be sharing a radio piece by Rick Moody—and giving you its fantastic prose in print, too, and poetry from Bianca Stone and Ken Cormier that live in the realm of YouTube as much as on the realm of the page.” – Carolyn Silveira, Multimedia Editor
Read more about it and watch a video here.
With the publication of issue 14, Memoir has decided to say goodbye to its years of readers and writers. “Despite the fact that Memoir has continued to grow, that we gain more readers each month and attract scintillating submissions from well known writers as well as new and emerging writers, we will be turning out the lights and locking the office door,” writes Editor Claudia Sternbach . “Our primary source of funding has ended. But we are forever indebted to them for their generosity over these past few years. Not only were we able to publish 14 issues of Memoir, but we were able to offer workshops and publication through our (In)Visible Memoir project. And who knows, miracles do happen. Sometime in the future a Phoenix may rise from these ashes.”
From what I can see, issues are not archived online, and you cannot purchase the issues. However, there is an email address for business inquiries on their new site.
The Winter/Spring 2014 issue of The Southeast Review features the winners of the magazine’s 2013 contests:
World’s Best Short-Short Story Contest
judged by Robert Olen Butler
Winner:
Kat Gonso, “A Pinch of Salt”
Finalists:
Shannon Beamon, “The Skeletons That Make Your Closet”
Kelsie Hahn, “What My Daughter Is Holding”
Alisha Karabinus, “Begin Again With Heat”
Julia LoFaso, “The Envoy”
Heather Michaels, “These External Manners of Lament”
Eliot Wilson, “Costco”, “The Homeowners Association”, “Match.Com: A Lovesong in Two Voices”, and “Uncle Frank Meets Charlton Heston”
SER Poetry Contest
judged by Erin Belieu
Winner:
Elizabyth Hiscox, “Night Being the Consort of Chaos In Milton”
Honorable Mentions Selected by Erin Belieu:
Colette Gill, “Thoughts in a Russian Museum”
Elizabyth Hiscox, “Or What You Will”
Finalists Selected by the Editors of SER:
Rachel Contreni Flynn, “Gratitudes: Detasseling”
Jonathan Greenhause, “All Is Noise & Music”
Elizabyth Hiscox, “Cellular Physic”
Allan Peterson, “Lasting”
Christine Salvatore, “Betrayal”
Vivian Shipley, “No Gold Lamé for Me”
Kathryn Weld, “Seed Bed”
SER Narrative Nonfiction Contest
judged by Diane Roberts
Winner:
Pamela Balluck, “Parts of a Chair”
Finalists:
Elizabeth McConaghy, “Little Gods”
Sam Shaber, “I Am 40”
Stan Lee’s newest creative literary venture has unveiled a line of graphic novels, picture books, digital books and games for kids: Stan Lee’s Kids Universe. His characters include The Fuzz Posse police dogs and Reggie the Veggie Crocodile who becomes an outcast for forsaking his carnivorous family heritage. Yes, for kids, but I’ve got my eye on Monsters vs. Kittens, which explores the similarities and difference between the two. The books are available in hard and soft cover as well as for download on iBook and Kinds. Time to hook a new generation on Stan Lee!
When I turned to Peter Sipe’s Some Material May Not Be Suitable for Children in this month’s Glimmer Train Bulletin, I appreciated his awareness of the fact that not all young readers “enjoy” reading: “The best way to become a good reader is to read, but if you have trouble understanding the words, reading for pleasure may make as much sense to you as recreational dentistry.”
But the last thing I expected this 6th grade teacher to then advise me was not to tell students to use a dictionary when they encounter words in reading they do not know: “‘You go to war with the army you have,’ Donald Rumsfeld once told his troops. Children open books with the vocabularies they have. They can strengthen them on their own—just as in Iraq soldiers scavenged for armor to protect their vehicles—or we can help them get the vocabularies they need.”
He doesn’t shun the use of the dictionary, but his sense of instilling vocabulary power through play is one that can make the difference for struggling readers.
Glimmer Train has just chosen the winning stories for their December Fiction Open competition. This competition is held twice a year. Stories generally range from 2000-6000 words, though up to 20,000 is fine. The next Fiction Open will take place in June. Glimmer Train’s monthly submission calendar may be viewed here.
First place: Courtney Sender, of Baltimore, MD, wins $2500 for “Even Angels Are Astonished.” Her story will be published in Issue 93 of Glimmer Train Stories. This will be her first major print publication. [Photo credit: Summer Greer.]
Second place: Celeste Ng, of Cambridge, MA, wins $1000 for “Every Little Thing.”
Third place: Andrew Robinson, of Singapore, wins $600 for “Greater Love.”
A PDF of the Top 25 winners can be found here.
Deadline soon approaching! Short Story Award for New Writers: February 28. This competition is held quarterly and is open to all writers whose fiction has not appeared in a print publication with a circulation over 5000. No theme restrictions. Most submissions to this category run 1500-5000 words, but can go up to 12,000. First place prize is $1500. Second/third: $500/$300. Click here for complete guidelines.
Stephen Donadio, editor of New England Review, says in the editor’s note that this special 2014 double issue will be his last as editor. Beginning with the next issue, the editor will be Carolyn Kuebler. Donadio says that some may wonder how his last issue came to be a double issue with a special section titled “The Russian Presence.” The section, “centered on recurring themes and patterns in Russian history and culture, contains an exceptionally wide range of writings, many of which appear here in English for the first time. . . Representing the work of more than twenty different authors, the selections gathered here span nearly two hundred years, from poetry by Alexander Puskin (1799-1837) to an excerpt from a contemporary novel by journalist and fiction writer Oleg Kashin (born in 1980). . .”
The Green Mountains Review Fall/Winter issue is in, featuring the winners from the Brattleboro Literary Festival Flash Fiction Contest and the Neil Shepard Prize.
Neil Shephard Prize Winners 2013
Poetry
Doug Ramspeck: “Sacred Music”
Fiction
Erin Somers: “The Melt”
Brattleboro Literary Festival Flash Fiction Contest Winners
Winner
Kathryn Nuernberger
2nd Place Winner
Karen Stefano
3rd Place Winner
Dorothy Bendel
In celebration of the Lego Movie, Lego has taken to recreating famous scenes from literature in (of course) Legos! They are also having a competition and accepting entries from Lego fans. You can see some of their fan “favorites” so far here. [Pictured: The Red Wedding, from A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire book 3) by George R.R. Martin]
American Life in Poetry: Column 464
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE
We human beings think we’re pretty special when compared to the “lower” forms of life, but now and then nature puts us in our place. Here’s an untitled short poem by Jonathan Greene, who lives in the outer Bluegrass region of Kentucky.
Untitled
Honored when
the butterfly lights
on my shoulder.
Next stop:
a rotting log.
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 ©2001 by Jonathan Greene, whose most recent book of poems is Distillations and Siphonings, Broadstone Books, 2010. Poem reprinted from blink, September-October 2001, vol. 1, no. 2, by permission of Jonathan Greene 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.
Look quickly or from far away, and you’ll imagine that this cover of The Southern Review features one of those energy-saving light bulb, but this is what you thought, I encourage you to look closer. The art is done with polyester resin and Philips circular fluorescent tube lighting by Bernardi Roig, titled Pierrot le fou.
Creative Nonfiction has now been publishing “true stories, well told” for twenty years, marking their 50th issue with a very special edition. Here’s the press release:
Twenty years ago, it was a joke, an apparent oxymoron, an idea roasted in Vanity Fair and savaged in Harper’s. It was lambasted by journalists and critics and vehemently rejected by academics. Only outcasts and self-indulgent writers supported it at the outset. Today everybody’s doing it—whether you call it narrative nonfiction, longform, or simply creative nonfiction.
The dramatic, unlikely, surprising—and sometimes amusing—story of the battle that led to the acceptance of the creative nonfiction genre and the establishment of the literary magazine of the same name is told for the first time in the landmark 50th issue of Creative Nonfiction.
In “The Fine Art of Literary Fist-Fighting,” a 12,000-word excerpt of a new memoir-in-progress, founder and editor Lee Gutkind reflects on the unlikely path, starting in the late 1960s, that led him to start Creative Nonfiction, which is published quarterly and has an international circulation of 6,000.
Gutkind recalls his roots in the working-class Greenfield neighborhood of Pittsburgh and the professor at the University of Pittsburgh who, after reading Gutkind’s stories of working at a beer distributor, suggested the unconventional college student might become a writer. Gutkind went on to teach at Pitt; in his memoir, he recalls the battles that took place in the English Department there before the establishment of a Master’s program in creative nonfiction writing.
By the early 1990s, Gutkind had begun to explore the possibility of starting a nonfiction-only literary journal. Denied support by the University of Pittsburgh, he set up shop on his dining room table, where he hand-addressed and stamped copies of the first issue for 176 customers.
Every month Beloit Poetry Journal posts a reflection by a poet on a poem of hers or his from the current issue and invites readers into a conversation with other readers and the poet. BPJ hopes the ensuing discussion enriches readers’ appreciation of the poem and of poetry. For the month of February, Michael Bazzett offers commentary on “The Field Beyond the Wall” and “The Differences.” He comments, “I write because of weird symmetries [ . . . ] Odd little moments that flicker like sparrows through the undergrowth.” Check out his poems available online and join in the conversation.
Ruminate‘s website is currently down. Because it will take them a while to rebuild the site, they are directing readers/writers to their Facebook page. Submissions are still open, so see the Facebook page for more details and updates.
I always seem to love Ecotone‘s covers, but this one blew me away. I can’t stop admiring it. The colors are brilliant, and it’s perfect for the cover of their migration issue: a young woman carries a suitcase, her head in the clouds. The photograph is titled Head in the Clouds by Alicia Savage.
This cover of Image features James Mellick’s Poseidon’s Phantom: laminated and carved ebonized poplar, bleached ash and maple, copper, 30 x 22 x 12 inches.
Sugared Water‘s inaugural issue cover may not look all that impressive on the screen, but hold in your hands and you’ll see that it is. Every issue is printed and handbound, the cover hand screened and stenciled on recycled card stock.
The Fall 2013 issue of The Antigonish Review features the winners of the Great Blue Heron Poetry Contest and the Sheldon Currie Fiction Contest Winners:
Great Blue Heron Poetry Contest
First Prize: Patricia Young
Second Prize: B.L. Gentry
Third Prize: Sean Howard
Sheldon Currie Fiction Contest
First Prize: Michelle Berry
Second Prize: Heather Debling
Third Prize: Joan M. Baril
The Fall 2013 issue of Ecotone explores the idea of migration with a special themed issue. “No matter the rate of travel, every migration has an end point,” writes Editor Anna Lena Phillips, “whether it’s the boughs of an eastern hemlock or the arms of one’s family.” The issue features Clarisse Hart on diminishing hemlocks, Jan Martijn Burger’s point of origin, Chiori Miya after the tsunami, Andreas Franke’s sinking world, Tim Stallmann’s maps of where people stay, plus new fiction from Elliot Ackerman, Molly Antopol, Juan Martinez, Matthew Schultz, and Andrew Tonkovich and new poetry from Lilah Hegnauer, Hailey Leithauser, Sandra Meek, Dough Rampseck, Martha Silano, Heidi Lynn Staples, Molly Tenenbaum, Lesley Wheelr, and Carolyn Beard Whitlow.
The 2013 River Styx International Poetry Contest winners, judged by Terrance Hayes, are featured in River Styx‘s latest issue:
First Place
Molly Bashaw: “A Talk With Chagall”
Second Place
Lois Marie Harrod: “Woman Finds Her Face”
Third Place
Robert Campbell: “Arrhythmia’
Honorable Mentions
Jennifer Perrine: “Confidence Game”
Robert Heald: “Twelve Dreams About You”
Hayes wrote that the winning poem “stood out because of its scale and range of tone. It is propelled by wonderful imagination, tone and imagery. Lines like this one stayed with me: ‘You would think someone watched over these scenes with a whip made of wheat.'”
The editors of The Baltimore Review are pleased to announce the winners of their winter contest:
Brett Foster, 1st place, for “On the Numbness That Will Be Our Future”
Clay Matthews 2nd place, for “An Angel Gets Her Wings”
Roy Bentley, 3rd place, for “O, Kindergarten”
The final judge for the contest was Reginald Harris.
The poems are included in the online issue launched January 31. The issue also features poems, short stories, creative nonfiction, and a video by Kilby Allen, Janette Ayachi, Gaylord Brewer, Daniel Butterworth, Michael Capel, Valerie Cumming, Anne Goodwin, Peter Goodwin, John Goulet, Piotr Gwiazda, Matt Hobson, Michael Derrick Hudson, Amorak Huey, Brian Maxwell, Sheila O’Connor, Rebecca Orchard, and Margaret Stout.
The next submission period for The Baltimore Review is February 1 – May 31.
American Life in Poetry: Column 464
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE
We human beings think we’re pretty special when compared to the “lower” forms of life, but now and then nature puts us in our place. Here’s an untitled short poem by Jonathan Greene, who lives in the outer Bluegrass region of Kentucky.
Untitled
Honored when
the butterfly lights
on my shoulder.
Next stop:
a rotting log.
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 ©2001 by Jonathan Greene, whose most recent book of poems is Distillations and Siphonings, Broadstone Books, 2010. Poem reprinted from blink, September-October 2001, vol. 1, no. 2, by permission of Jonathan Greene 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.
At Ball State University, Cathy Day is teaching a special class in creative writing called Literary Citizenship. The advice she teaches is something all writers can listen to. Engage in the community, and see what you can do for the literary world, not what it can do for you. “I’ve started thinking that maybe the reason I teach creative writing isn’t just to create writers,” Day writes, “but also to create a populace that cares about reading. There are many ways to lead a literary life, and I try to show my students simple ways that they can practice what I call “literary citizenship.” I wish more aspiring writers would contribute to, not just expect things from, that world they want so much to be a part of.”
Here’s some excerpts from the main blog post on her page:
1.) Write “charming notes” to writers. (I got this phrase from Carolyn See.) Anytime you read something you like, tell the author.
2.) Interview writers. Take charming notes a step farther and ask the writer if you can do an interview.
3.) Talk up (informally) or review (formally) books you like. Start with your personal network. Then say something on Goodreads. Then Amazon.com or B&N. Then try starting a book review blog.
4.) If you want to be published in journals, you must read and support them. Period.
5.) If you want to publish books, buy books
6.) Be passionate about books and writing, because passion is infectious.
She then goes into more detail about these challenges. Follow what the class is doing on the site, literarycitizenship.com, and join in on their challenges.
The Winter 2013 issue of SRPR (Spoon River Poetry Review) features the winners of the 2013 Editors’ Prize Contest:
First Place ($1000): Jesse Nissim, “Fire”
First Runner Up ($100): Dante Di Stefano, “Praying to Ares After Listening to My Father’s Voice Message”
Second Runner Up ($100): Carol Matos, “Goodbye Charlie”
Honorable Mentions:
Leland James, “A Brief History of the Electric Chair”
Susan Charkes, “Conveyance”
Michael Sukach, “Poetry Critic: a Found Pastoral”‘
Arne Weingart, “Parenthetical”
American Life in Poetry: Column 463
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE
This touching poem by Dan Gerber, who lives in California, captures the memory of a father’s advice, but beneath the practical surface of that advice we can sense a great deal of emotion, which shows through a little crack at the moment the father clears his voice before continuing.
Advice
You know how, after it rains,
my father told me one August afternoon
when I struggled with something
hurtful my best friend had said,
how worms come out and
crawl all over the sidewalk
and it stays a big mess
a long time after it’s over
if you step on them?
Leave them alone,
he went on to say,
after clearing his throat,
and when the rain stops,
they crawl back into the ground.
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 ©2012 by Dan Gerber, from his most recent book of poems, Sailing through Cassiopeia, Copper Canyon Press, 2012. Poem reprinted by permission of Copper Canyon Press. 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.
So it’s been a while since I posted about magazine covers, but don’t worry–I’m not stopping now! The holidays and AWP have put me a little behind with these posts, but there are plenty in store. If only you could see the boxes and boxes of litmags I have to go through! And one of the delights is discovering some amazing artwork and photography and design on the covers:
Room‘s cover features a house with one side removed so that you can see the, what do you know, rooms. The Dollhouse: Blue Night #2 was constructed in 2007 by Heather Benning with wood, plaster, paint, mixed media, and an existing abandoned house.
Salmagundi Magazine‘s cover just looks like fun. It features Untitled (Hunterdon County, NJ) by Meredith Moody from about 1984.
This month, Editor Kirsten McIlvenna brings a fresh round of online literary magazine reviews to Screen Reading. This unique monthly review column explores great reading online, this month featuring a critical look at Brevity, East Coast Ink, Ghost House Review, Jersey Devil Press, and Really System. Engaged Readers. Creative Writers. Start Here.
The Museum of Haiku Literature Award is given to the author of the best previously unpublished work in the latest Frogpond issue, voted on by the Haiku Society of America Executive Committee. The winner featured in the Autumn 2013 issue is John Parsons from Norfolk, England for:
silence of snow
we listen to the house
grow smaller
Liz Windhorst Harmer was awarded with the Constance Rooke Creative Nonfiction Prize for her piece “Blip” which is featured in the latest issue of The Malahat Review. It was chosen by the final judge John Vaillant from among 160 entries. Valliant writes, ” The author’s confidence in her story and her craft was evident throughout, revealing itself in the clarity and cadence of the sentences and by a notable (and refreshing) absence of simile and metaphor. The words and what they conveyed were strong enough on their own that there was no need for amping them up with adjectives or outside associations. There is also a lyrical quality in this piece that made me want to hear it read aloud, in other words ‘told’ to me, as opposed to written.”
Finalists:
Robert Colman, “The Word Is Man”
Abigail Gascho Landis, “Inside a River”
Madeline Sonik, “Dead Ewes”
Dale Scott Waters, “The Light, The Light, The Horror, The Horror”
Terence Young, “Almost Home Again”
In issue number 4 of Kugelmass, Editor David Holub writes that this is the last edition in association with Firewheel Editions and Kugelmass co-founder Brian Clements. “The support and guidance Brian and Firewheel have provided Kugelmass from its inception has been beyond invaluable and Kugelmass wouldn’t exist without it,” he writes.
On the website itself, it announces that Kugelmass is on hold and is not currently publishing issues. The blog post reads, “there’s a bit of a transition ahead and an uncertain future for Kugelmass.” Let’s hope it’s not done for good.
Here’s some highlights from the current issue, still available through the website as either print or digital copies: essays by Charlie Geer, Tracy Golden, and Daniel Asa Rose; stories by Jenny Allen, Daniel Brauer, John Henry Fleming, Josh Logue, Andrew Nicholls, Joe Plicka, Ryan Shoemaker, George Singleton, and Lisa Wilde; poetry by Laura Ramos and David Galef; comics by Pat McKay; and photos by Pete Duval.
As a reader, writer, teacher, student, publisher, editor, etc. – How do you use NewPages?
I am in the process of having my work with NewPages recognized by my college, and any notes of support from people using NewPages would help!
Teachers/Students – If NewPages is included on your class website or in the class syllabus, please send me a link or a copy.
Send comments and relevant materials to [email protected]
Thank you!
december magazine, around since 1958 who published Raymond Carver’s very first published story along with writing from future U.S. Poets Laureate, state Poets Laureate, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award writers, and more, is making its comeback. And while it lay dormant for a little bit, Gianna Jacobson has purchased the magazine and has big plans for its return.
The revival issue has been published with a variety of work from past contributors as well as new writers. Jacobson writes, “As I sifted through boxes and books and journals, taking stock of all that december had been and meant to the literary world, I felt a circus-performer-like surge of adrenaline and committed myself to upholding december‘s legacy . . . As I settle into my role as ringmaster, I invite you to experience and enjoy a rich array of literary and artistic performances.”
This issue features the work of Jack Anderson, Annette Basalyga, Amy Beeder, Marvin Bell, Stephen Berg, Douglas Blazek, Grace Cavalieri, Kelly Cherry, Jaydn Dewald, Albert Goldbarth, H. L. Hix, Karen Holman, Lawson Fusao Inada, Jesse Lee Kercheval, Michael Lally, Michael Fedo, Gary Gildner, Marge Piercy, Faye Reddecliff, Jay Duret, Gary Fincke, Sherri Hoffman, and more.
Glimmer Train has just chosen the winning stories for their November 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 February. Glimmer Train’s monthly submission calendar may be viewed here.
1st place goes to Natasha Tamate Weiss [Pictured. No photo credit.] of San Francisco, CA. She wins $1500 for “What It Means to Rush” and her story will be published in Issue 93 of Glimmer Train Stories. This is Natasha’s first published fiction.
2nd place goes to Amy Evans Brown of Kalamazoo, MI. She wins $500 for “The Hudson.”
3rd place goes to Gabe Herron of Scappoose, OR. He wins $300 for “Uriah.”
A PDF of the Top 25 winners can be found here.
The latest issue of Pleiades puts forth a special Symposium on Poetic “Risk” in which poets and critics have been invited to select a recent poem that is “risky” and write a short essay about why. In the introduction to the section, the editors say that 10 or 15 years ago, risk in poetry was a big topic, but now there has been less discussion of it. “We found ourselves wondering: Has the idea of ‘risk’ in poetry been somehow rendered obsolete? Is it now considered a less important poetic value than it once was? Are there new and exciting ways that poets are currently taking risks in their works? Are the risks of poetry actually quite constant and old?”
Contributors to this section include Robert Archambeau, Rae Armantrout, Jaswinder Bolina, Victoria Chang, Heather Christle, martha Collins, Carl Dennis, John Gallaher, Tony Hoagland, Cathy Park Hong, Joan Houlihan, Joy Katz, John Koethe, Randall Mann, Adrian Matejka, and Rusty Morrison.
FreeFall‘s latest issue features the poetry of Angela Simmons, winner of the Sharon Drummond Chapbook Prize. This prize was established in 2013 in memory of the Calgary poet Sharon Drummond and honors Alberta-based writers who have never before published a collection of poetry. Angela Simmons received a contract with Rubicon Press to publish her work in an edited chapbook. The issue includes several selections from this chapbook.
Able Muse‘s Winter 2013 issue announces and includes the winners of the 2013 Write Prize for Poetry:
Winner
D.R. Goodman: “The Face of Things”
Second Place
Jeanne Wagner: “The Unfaithful Shepherd”
Third Place
Richard Wakefield: “Keepaway”
Finalists
D.R. Goodman: “Our Late in Summer”
Tara Tatum: “The Nut House”
D.R. Goodman: “A Red-Tailed Hawk Patrols”
Anna M. Evans: “Prague Spring”
Melissa Balmain: “Two Julys”
Fractured West, which announced some time ago that it would be ceasing publication, has come out with their fifth and final issue. Here’s all about it:
“Issue 5 is about endings and beginnings, the world after the world is over. In futuristic stories debris cascades back to earth from outer space while humans and animals run wild together; in personal stories relationships self-destruct and are reborn. Whatever else happens, people slip from life to death with freedom and hope for something more.
A theme of ending and renewal is appropriate for what will be our final issue. It has been a wonderful five years, full of unexpected stories and characters that will stay with us for years to come. As we both move on to new stages in our lives we hope the writing that we’ve published in Fractured West will stay with you too, reminding you to catch those glimpses of magic whenever and however they flash by.”
SRPR (Spoon River Poetry Review)‘s Editors’ Prize 2013 Contest winners are announced and published in the latest issue:
First Place ($1000)
Jesse Nissim, “Fire”
First Runner Up ($100)
Dante Di Stefano, “Praying to Ares After Listening to My Father’s Voice Message”
Second Runner Up ($100)
Carol Matos, “Goodbye Charlie”
Honorable Mentions
Leland James, “A Brief History of the Electric Chair”
Susan Charkes, “Conveyance”
Michael Sukach, “Poetry Critic: a Found Pastoral”
Arne Weingart, “Parenthetical”
The Colorado Review‘s latest issue features the winner of the 2013 Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction, the prize’s 10th anniversary. Judge Jim Shepard selected Edward Hamlin’s “Night in Erg Chebbi” as the winning piece. Editor Stephanie G’Schwind writes that it is a “hauntingly beautiful story.” And Shepard writes that it “deftly deploys the kind of flyblow and faintly absurd exoticism shot through with menace that was Paul Bowles’s specialty, but the observational intelligence of its portrait of a loving but exhausted couple at the end of their tether is all its own, and both its sense of place and its pained compassion are arresting.” To read more about the prize, click here.
Also featured in this issue are Miki Arndt, Corey Campbell, Molly Patterson, Jen Hirt, Keane Shum, Sarah K. Lenz, Karen Leona Anderson, Mario Chard, Mark Conway, Robert Dannenberg, K.A. Hays, Michael Heller, Nabil Kashyap, and more.
“The Re-Making Moby-Dick project is an international multimodal storytelling performance instigated and enacted during 2013 to 2018. Poets, writers, artists, schoolchildren, scholars, dancers, curators, and sailors are invited to engage the project and participate via the means most natural to their expressive practice. The 135 chapters, along with the extracts, inscription, epigraph, and epilogue, of Herman Melville’s 1851 novel serve as prompts for responsive work created in multiple forms, recorded in digital video and exhibited online.”
Curator Trish Harris and Project Director Lissa Holloway-Attaway have completed the compilation and a participatory video screening that took place at the the Blekinge Museum in Karlskrona, Sweden during the Mixing Realities Digital Performance Festival in May 2013: “The festival foregrounded mixed reality works presented by scholars, curators, and International artists working across media (in sound, video, augmented reality, digital and live performance, dance).” The YouTube channel for the videos is still available, as well as this compilation of the 24 hour MobyReading Marathon.
Trish and Lissa have also repurposed and re-contextualized the project artifacts, offering yet another “text” published online and in print form that can be shared with a wider audience, along with the original work from the festival, as a further extension of the project. The online version includes QR codes for audio/video content.
It doesn’t stop there – Trish and Lissa are collecting and curating new video so to screen a more-complete Remaking Moby in both Europe and the U.S. in 2014.
Although submissions are now closed, you can still participate by responding to “specific to separate chapters or passages in Moby-Dick or critically interpret some aspect of the novel, extending the meaning and significance of Moby-Dick and reflecting on its continued relevance. The full text of Moby-Dick is available at Project Gutenberg. Chapter synopses are available at Novel Guide.”
For more information, visit Re-Making Moby-Dick.
In the latest issue of New Letters, they announce the readers favorites for Volume 19 Issues 1-4, 2012-2013:
Readers Award for Fiction
Douglas Trevor: “Slugger and the Fat Man”
Readers Award for Poetry
Claudia Serea: “My Father’s Quiet Friends in Prison, 1958-1962”
Readers Award for the Essay
Walter Cummins: “Roth’s Complaint”
Green Briar Review held its first annual Federico Garcia Lorca Poetry Prize judged by Sean Thomas Dougherty, who notes, “In judging the poems submitted for this contest, I looked foremost at language on the level of the line. This was the difference in deciding which poems were most successful. Then at meaning, then at guts. It was this last one that showed some poems were just braver emotionally than others.”
Dougherty selected the top three poems and then ten Honorable Mentions. Each of the three Green Briar Review editors then selected one poem from those ten for publication.
First Prize
What the Other Eye Sees
Christina Clark
Second Prize
Whiteness
Cary Waterman
Third Prize
Tattoos and Birthmarks
Patrice Melnick
Honorable Mention Editors’ Pick
Spiders and Big Gear Talk
Harlow Crandall
Tearing Down the Horseshoe & Star
Gentris L. Jointe
O Dochartaig, Ar nDutcas
Kevin Dougherty
Honorable Mentions
April Aubade
Richard Foerster
Soledad
Monica Teresa Ortiz
Cake
Trish Harris
Tarke al Yayeb Mohamed Bouazizi
Josh Gage
Lilacs
Mary Golias
Break On Through
Jeanne Sirotkin Haynes
State Park
Abigail Chiaramonte
The only thing not surprising about Ninth Letter is that it is always surprising. The latest issue comes with a pair of disposable 3D glasses. But careful where you put them, you’ll want them to view the cover, design, and artwork throughout (though I’d recommend taking them off for reading purposes). The issue also holds large, foldout portfolios of artwork.
Included is the winners of the 2013 Literary Awards:
Poetry winner
R. A. Villanueva, for his poems “Aftermaths” and “Sacrum”
Fiction winner
Caitlin O’Neill, for her story “The Change Over Day”
Creative Nonfiction winner
Jessica Wilbanks, for her essay “On the Far Side of the Fire”
Literature in Translation
Eleanor Goodman, for her translation of excerpts from Shen Wei’s A Dictionary of Xinjiang
Other honors accorded by the judges include:
G. C. Waldrep selected “Three Expressions of El Tio” and “Five Characteristics of the Genus Tragelaphus” by Zoey Farber as the Runner Up entry in poetry
Alexis Levitin selected Olga Nikolova’s translations of “A Birthday Between Two Seas,” “A Formula for Infinity,” and “Toast” by Krasimira Zafirova’s as the Runner Up entry up in translation
Margot Livesey named “Pinprick” by Christie Heinrichs, “Charcoal” by Rachel Unkefer, and “Here Where the World Is Greening” by Rachel May as Honorable Mentions in fiction.
Exclusive to NewPages, Screen Reading is a regular column of reviews of current online literary magazines. This month, Reviewer Kirstin McIlvenna takes a look at Agave Magazine, Alimentum, Apogee, FictionNow, and The Monogahela Review. Brief but critical, these reviews shine the light on great online reading. NewPages: Good Reading Starts Here!
