The current issue of Gardner-Webb University’s annual The Broad River Review features a number of award winners.

In 2010, The Broad River Review began The Rash Awards, named in honor of Ron Rash, a 1976 graduate of Gardner-Webb University. Sarah Gordon was the selected winner in poetry for “Apertures: Andalusia” and Christine Bates the winner in fiction for “The Night I Killed the Devil.”

Each year, The Broad River Review recognizes certain undergraduate students for outstanding achievement and publishes their works. The J. Calvin Koonts Poetry Award is awarded to a senior English major at Gardner-Webb University whose group of poems is judged most outstanding by a committee of department members. This year’s winner is Nikki Raye Rice, and two of her poems “Transformation” and “Stranded” appear in this year’s issue.

Finally, The Broad River Review Editors’ Prizes in Poetry and Fiction are selected from among all Gardner-Webb student submissions for a given issue. J. Lauren Fletcher’s “Woman” was selected for poetry and Amy Snyder’s “Fire” for fiction.

The Broad River Review welcomes submissions of original poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction, and we also encourage visual artists to submit samples for possible cover art.

The newest issue of The Kenyon Review features “A Symposium on John Keats” which includes:

David Baker, “Re: Keats” (Introduction)
David Baker, “Corresponding Keats”
Stanley Plumly, “The Odes for Their Own Sake”
Ann Townsend, “Myopic Keats”

Earth Song Books & Gifts, which has been part of the Del Mar community for more than 40 years, will close its doors in November.

“For a long time, we’ve been competing with Amazon and Kindle, and our customers haven’t been supporting us in this economy,” said owner Annette Palmer. “We have to close because the funding just isn’t there. The numbers just don’t add up.”

Read the rest by staff writer Claire Harlin on Del Mar Times.

The Florida Review has announced the first annual Jeanne Leiby Memorial Chapbook Award in Fiction or Graphic Narrative to be judged by David Huddle. See the website for full guidelines. Deadline: December 1, 2011

Fred Valentine‘s paintings are featured in the literary section of the newest issue of Bomb. The website features an exclusive video interview of Valentine in his studio where he discusses his process, working with individuals under psychiatric care, and his own consideration of ‘psyche’ in his work.

Sampsonia Way is an online magazine that provides global leadership in support of the value of freedom of speech and creative expression, and provides a forum for the work and support the careers of writers in exile. The newest issue features “Persecuted Cartoonists” with interviews with Tony Namate (Zimbabwe), Alfredo Pong (Cuba), Pedro Le

The Kenyon Review Editor David H. Lynn writes: “In our enduring effort to support authors in the early stages of promising careers, I am delighted to announce a new model for the Kenyon Review Fellowships. Beginning in the autumn of 2012, two outstanding writers, one poet and one prose author, will be invited to join us in Gambier, Ohio, in each two-year cycle. Our expectation is that candidates will have completed an MFA or PhD. Selected in a rigorous process that will evaluate their gifts as writers as well as teachers, KR Fellows will pursue a significant creative project in consultation with a mentor. They will also each teach one course in creative writing per year, also mentored by faculty of the Kenyon College English Department. In addition, they will work closely with the staff of The Kenyon Review, gaining editorial and production experience, from letterpress to Internet.”

The Fellowship is open for application October 1 – December 1, 2011.

Fred Valentine‘s paintings are featured in the literary section of the newest issue of Bomb. The website features an exclusive video interview of Valentine in his studio where he discusses his process, working with individuals under psychiatric care, and his own consideration of ‘psyche’ in his work.

An unique photo series of the Greenboathouse Press shop (and cat). Photos by Annie Lawrence.

Brevity: A Journal of Concise Literary Nonfiction online features two new craft essays for September:

“Silence and Not-Knowing: An Introduction, and Silence Is My Playlist (On Being Asked for One to Go with My Work)” by Lia Purpura

“Ignorance, Lies, Imagination and Subversion in the Writing of Memoir and the Personal Essay” by Lee Martin

Brevity has also announced that it will begin paying its writers: “For years, we have struggled as a volunteer effort with no revenue through advertising or subscriptions. So with great pride we announce that we will be able to pay our writers starting with the January 2011 issue, and, with luck and hard work, every issue forward.”

Of course, it takes money to pay money, so Brevity is also asking readers to consider making a “self-determined subscription fee.” All donations to this fund are promised to go directly to the writers whose works are selected for publication.

A limited-edition broadside of “Finding Beauty In A Broken World” by Terry Tempest Williams with artwork by Nancy Stein is available for $20 as a fundraiser for West Marin Review. I’m a sucker for a beautiful broadside, and this one most certainly satisfies. It’s letterpress printed on a 9×14 ivory linen and signed by both author and artist. The poem can be read on the website, and is a most appropriate expression for our times.

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Our reviewers come from all walks of life: published writers, undergraduate & graduate students, teachers, stay-at-home moms & dads, retirees, and people who just love to read and add some literary enhancement to their day. If you are new to review writing, we’re happy to work with you and will offer feedback to help you develop your review writing skills.

Visit the NewPages Reviewer Guidelines to get started. We are especially interested in lit mag reviewers – both for print and online literary publications.

Editor Laura Cogan is making a big splash with this newest issues of ZYZZYVA. Cogan says the publication has worked on a redesign with Three Steps Ahead, the same California firm behind ZYZZYVA’s new website. “ZYZZYVA’s original print design, created with care by Thomas Ingalls & Associates in 1985, was elegant and restrained,” Cogan writes in her editor’s note. “We kept in mind the clarity and the spare beauty of their vision as we sought to add other elements speaking to the pleasures of print, to the craft of bookmaking, and to the stimulating quietude of reading. We considered paper weight and tone, typesetting and titles, mingled serifs with sans-serifs, discussed the old-fashioned whimsy of endpapers — always with a view toward presenting stories, poetry, and art in the best way possible.”

Additionally – and probably most stunning for regular readers of ZYZZYVA is the cover design, which is reflective of the addition of the journal’s first-ever full-color art feature: photographic portraits by Katy Grannan and paintings by Julio Cesar Morales.

The Asian American Literary Review, Fall 2011 is a special issue commemorating the tenth anniversary of Sept. 11. It includes a DVD: “Ten Years Later: Asian American Performers Reflect on 9/11.” A full table of contents is available on the magazine’s website.

The Fall 2011 issue of Prairie Schooner welcomes Kwame Dawes as the new editor in chief. Dawes joins the University of Nebraska as Glenna Luschei Editor of Prairie Schooner and Chancellor’s Professor of English.

A few new literary postcard ventures have started up recently – not a new concept, and one The Alternative Press from the 70’s used effectively as part of their literary activism. I’m a big fan of ‘ephemera’ lit – that “publication” that doesn’t fit as neatly into the standards of print-cycle magazine, but has unique print qualities that make it attractive. For me, postcards definitely qualify.

Of the couple I’ve seen come in so far, I have to say I haven’t been overly-impressed with the print quality. This is tough, since it seems in recent years, the post office has taken to stamping, inking, and stickering more and more space on the already size-limited real estate available to the sender. This creates problems when the text meant to be that card’s installment of the journal ends up inked over and unreadable. While the stickers can usually be peeled off, not all post offices use these, so there may be ink at the top and the bottom of the card, making fairly good-sized chunks of the text unreadable.

As if this wasn’t enough, there also seems to be a growing trend in postcards getting a layer of the cardstock ripped off as they go through some sort of roller system. This is usually on the text side of the card and so may also end up ripping off the layer with text on it or causing damage to the art front of the card. Non-glossy cards (the better environmental choice) often come through looking as though a Matchbox car did a peel out on the art side, with black smudges and wear spots, and the text side with ink stamps and tears across the text. I’m certainly not expecting these cards to come through the post in a pristine state; if fact, these markings can become a part of the art and text itself, adding to the character of these publications.

In all, I love the idea of literary postcards. I participate each year in the August Poetry Postcard Festival, and just hope that other participants are aware of how the poems are coming through at their final destination (I’ve received blank postcards, where it looks like someone put their poem on with tape or a sticker, and the postal sorting machines have ripped it off completely). While I have a great sense appreciation for the concept, the execution is sometimes a disappointment. [Pictured: Abe’s Penny Volume 3.2 – can’t tell who the artist is or title because that information was inked over by the post office stamp on the reverse side, whereas the art side got black and orange ink stamps and a brown smudge. To their credit, Abe’s Penny does post photo images of the content online, often inked and torn as well, but when I tried to find this particular card, the image online was different than the one I received.]

An alternative to actually receiving the individual cards sent in the mail is something like Tuesday: An Art Project, whose set of postcards come wrapped in a paper package with even more poems and information about the publication itself. This is a fun way to get the cards, read them, and then share them with others. Since only one poem or artwork featured on the picture side of the card, they are less likely to be damaged. They are also then each a piece suitable for framing vs. postcards that are art on one side and an author’s writing on the other. The quality of the paper and the letterpress printing and photo printing (rather than simple photocopies) also assure that these will be more likely to survive the postal gamut unscathed.

I’m all for postcard literature. With all our digital access, there’s still something fun and special about getting “real mail.” Each time I receive postcard lit, I read it – usually immediately, and then again later. It’s not the longer, sustained reading I most enjoy, but I do appreciate getting jolts of lit in my day. Just enough to remind me to take a deep breath and savor the moment.

Some postcard journals that I’m aware of:

Abe’s Penny
Hoot Review (forthcoming)
The Postcard Press
Ripples

If you know of or are a part of others, please let me know.

Note: If you don’t read all of this, read this much – Please buy a copy of this book and donate it to your local library and/or public school library. Kids need access to books like this to know they are not alone. (This is how I’d planned to end this post, but since not all readers will make it that far, I felt the need to start with it.)

Dear Bully, edited by Megan Kelley Hall and Carrie Jones, is a collection of seventy stories from young adult authors recalling their own childhood experiences with bullying. The perspectives vary, from being an observer who does nothing to stop the incidents, to being the victim – most often feeling helpless, hopeless, but also angry and acting out – to being the perpetrator, a point of view least often explored, and, though with no means to excuse it, often revealing as much hopelessness and helplessness as the victims themselves.

With school gearing up, this book would make a incredible addition to any classroom – from middle school right on through college. This kind of text provides an extremely accessible approach to starting discussions about bullying. Without being preachy or mandating step-by-steps, these stories open the door to talking about what it’s like to be bullied and why it matters to have these conversations now. Who better to provide this to young adults but the young adult authors themselves, many of whose works may already be on the bookshelves in the classroom.

The book is divided into sections: Dear Bully; Just Kidding; Survival; Regret; Thank You Friends; Insight; Speak; Write It; and It Gets Better. The most heart wrenching for me was the Dear Bully section, in which authors write letters to the bullies of their pasts. All are from the perspective of the adult looking back, and these stories in particular seem to hit the strongest chord of showing just how long-lasting negative memories of bullying can be. For anyone who says, “It’s just kids being kids” and “They’ll get over it” – this section is for you.

There are also some fun and uplifting works – where friends stand by one another and stop their hurtful behavior, where the victim finds resolve and perseveres – and not just in adulthood, but then, there, in that moment of childhood. And of course, many, many of the stories show that, despite the bullying, despite feeling as a child that the world was going to end, all of these adults either say directly in their stories or show simply by their being included in this volume, that life does go on and there is more to life than just surviving. Of course, the best stories are the ones where the victims do see their bullies in adulthood and find that those ogres are just regular people – no longer larger than life, no longer commanding control of their universe. And the victims see that they themselves may actually have come out for the better in their lives. Maybe a bit of “vindication” – self-satisfying, but not without its truth.

This collection offers a delightful variety of writing styles – from the epistolary to the narrative – including diary entries, loads of character sketches (of course) and effective dialogue – both external and internal. There are song lyrics by Jessica Brody (with a link to hear the song online), an A-Z narrative (not quite an acrostic) by Laura Kasischke, a comic with story by Cecil Castellucci and illustrated by Lise Bernier, and another of my favorites, Sara Bennett Wealer writing to herself as a young girl with “stuff I wish someone would have told me when I was sixteen.” This should be required reading of ALL young girls (not to mention some adults).

The book includes two helpful sections: “Resources for Teens” and “Resources for Educators and Parents.” Dear Bully has a website that at the moment doesn’t have a whole lot to offer, mostly just media PR on the book, and a Facebook page where users post insightful, supportive, and helpful comments on bullying – what states and schools are doing, as well as personal commentary. A lot more going on here with 800+ likes.

With incidents of bullying – and the most insidious of all: cyberbullying – on the rise, this book comes into and can help start the conversation at the most opportune time. Dear Bully is for everyone who has grown up in this culture where bullying takes place every day, not just in the schools, but in our streets, in our homes, our place of work (and globally). Dear Bully unveils the truth of who we are as a community of people, and it’s not pretty. But until we recognize this, stop keeping it silent, and address it head-on, we’re doomed to continue forcing young people to have to “survive” their childhoods. It’s time to be the grown-ups we wish had stepped in to help us when we were young.

The Creative Resistance Fund is intended for activists and culture workers in situations of distress as a result of their professional work. Distress situations may include verbal threats, imprisonment or legal persecution, violent attack, professional or social exclusion, or harassment.

The Creative Resistance Fund provides small distress grants to people in danger due to their use of creativity to fight injustice. The fund may be used to evacuate a dangerous situation; to cover living expenses while weighing long-term options for safety; or to act on a strategic opportunity to affect social change.

Now celebrating its 31st year in print, The Chattahoochee Review is under all new editorship: Editor Anna Schachner, Managing Editor Lydia Ship, Fiction Editor Andy Rogers, Nonfiction Editor Louise McKinney, Poetry Editor Michael Diebert; Art Editor Claire Paul, and Social Media Editor Michael Rowley.

Managing Editor Lydia Ship writes: “Although our roots are in the South and we publish important writers such as William Gay, George Singleton, and Natasha Trethewey, we also publish writers from other regions of the U.S. and other countries such as Denmark, Mexico, Romania, and England. We are committed to exploring literature in translation and to writers who transgress borders, cultural and otherwise. While the Review features poetry, fiction, nonfiction, interviews, reviews, and occasional graphic work, we are also open to nontraditional forms. We value established writers but take great pride in discovering new voices. Work from The Chattahoochee Review is regularly featured in nationally published anthologies and books.”

The Chattahoochee Review is currently seeking poetry, fiction, and nonfiction for a special issue on Southern Literature to be published in late 2011, with a particular interested in writing that:

1. Challenges the traditional definition of “Southern”
2. Addresses the concerns of ethnicity in the South
3. Uses humor with originality and intelligence
4. Blends the gothic with other literary modes
5. Defies geography and the use of the vernacular as the only conditions of Southern identity