Days With My Father by Phillip Toledano is a photo essay of Phillip’s relationship with his aging father. Full photos and text available online, but also available in paper book format. Absolutely beautiful and worth the time to read/view it all – and share with others.
READ International is a UK-based agency that sends used books to poverty-stricken areas of the world where they are used in literacy programs, in schools and in the community. Writers have become essential to the agency’s fundraising efforts through Read for READ International, a short story contest with a difference. Stories from 30 short-listed authors are competing until mid-July to raise the most money for the organization. The ten stories that raise the most money will go to a judging panel and the top three will be included in a fundraising anthology alongside work by established writers. Readers are asked to support their favorite story by donating a minimum of 2 pounds (about $3 US dollars) through a secure donations site via Pay Pal.
Several other charities are asking authors to donate stories. Cross Genres is currently asking authors to post stories to support re-building efforts in Haiti. Oxfam is well-known for its fundraising anthologies and the planned Write for Charity anthology will support the work of Unicef Canada.
Submitted by Kate Baggott
Freelance writer, English teacher
http://www.katebaggott.com
Check out Anis Shivani’s 15 Feisty Small Presses And The Books You’re Going To Want From Them on The Huffington Post.
Bucknell English Department seeks Assistant Professor of English (Creative Writing). Oct 15 deadline.
UNC Pembroke seeks Assistant Professor in English Education and Assistant Professor in English/Interim Editor, Pembroke Magazine.
Penguin has a job opening for an Editor in their Young Readers division (NY).
Penguin also offers ten-week internships in areas such as contracts, editorial, graphic design, managing editorial, marketing, production, publicity, sales, subsidiary rights, and operations. Fall deadline for application is Aug 15 (Spring Jan. 11, Summer Feb. 28).
Kathleen Jesme of Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota has won the 2010 Tupelo PressSnowbound Chapbook Award for her manuscript, Meridian.
Mary Molinary of Memphis, Tennessee has won the 2010 Tupelo Press/Crazyhorse First/Second Book Award for her manuscript, Mary & the Giant Mechanism.
A lists of Finalists and Semi-finalists for both contests are available on the TP website here.
“What Comes” is a of a brand new poem broadside by Carolyn Forch
Seven-year-old Kenyan Bridget Nyambura is making a name for herself writing and reciting her award-winning poetry. She’s performed at political rallies, on television and radio, and for political dignitaries.
“During political functions she has performed ‘Wakenya kwa nini’, a poem that calls for peace. She says she was inspired to write the poem after the post election violence in 2007/2008. ‘I saw how people died during the post-poll chaos just because of politics and I decided to write a poem. I always recite it in the presence of politicians because politics was the cause of the chaos.’” (Daily Nation)
“The Library Hotel New York City is Midtown Manhattan’s most celebrated concept luxury boutique hotel. Fashioned from a landmark 1900 brick and terra cotta structure, this boutique treasure has been beautifully restored into a small luxury New York City hotel of the highest caliber. An oasis of modern elegance, the Library Hotel in New York and its attentive staff provide a thought provoking experience to sophisticated Midtown Manhattan travelers with a passion for culture and individual expression. Each of the ten guestroom floors at the Library Hotel in New York City are dedicated to one of the ten major categories of the Dewey Decimal System*: Social Sciences, Literature, Languages, History, Math & Science, General Knowledge, Technology, Philosophy, The Arts and Religion.”
Creative Nonfiction is currently seeking medical/biological illustrators for #40: Animals. This is an excellent opportunity for illustrators (student or professional) to have their work prominently featured in a literary magazine with an international audience and a circulation of over 7,000.
Artists will work closely with editors and designers and receive a modest honorarium. Creative Nonfiction is seeking all types and interpretations of animal illustration in the field of medical and biological illustration.
Interested artists should email three low-resolution jpeg samples of their best work to information[at]creativenonfiction.org no later than July 15th. Artists will be chosen by August 1st, with work taking place between early August and the middle of October.
From IR Associate Editor Deborah Kim: “Indiana Review is having the Blue Light Trivia Contest in July. Each week, we’ll be posting a different trivia question. First person to answer correctly in the comments will receive our newest issue, 32.1, Summer 2010.”
The latest issue of The Briar Cliff Review (v22, Spring 2010) features the winners of the 14th Annual Briar Cliff Review Contest. Each author received $1000 and publication.
Poetry – Jude Nutter, Edina, MN for “The Alchemists”
Fiction – Daryl Murphy, Chicago, IL for “Philly”
Creative Nonfiction – Joe Wilkins, Forest City, IA for “My Mother’s Story, Retold an Annotated”
The deadline for the 15th annual contest is November 1, 2010. Full guidelines are available on the BCR website.
After fourteen years of editing Pleiades, Kevin Prufer is stepping down to make the move to join the creative writing faculty at University of Houston. “Others, notably Wayne Miller, Phong Nguyen, and Matthew Eck, will handle the day-to-day editing of Pleiades. From afar, I’ll join Joy Katz as Editor-at-Large and continue my work co-direting the Unsung Masters Series.”
Quiddity literary journal (Benedictine University at Springfield) and public-radio program (Illinois Public Radio) is holding a Trailer Contest for Writers and Small Presses. Two prizes of $350 as well as broadcast, Web, and print promotion by Quiddity will be awarded — one prize each in the categories Manuscripts and Books. Runners-up and/or honorable mentions may also be selected. The contest closes October 20, 2010 (postmark deadline). Full guidelines can be accessed here.
“The July 2010 issue of World Literature Today pays tribute to Sherman Alexie, the featured writer of the 2010 Puterbaugh Festival of International Literature & Culture. As part of a special section devoted to his life and work, in a new interview he talks about the pragmatics of Indian politics, the commercialization of art, his engagement with his critics, Sarah Palin, and much more with characteristic humor, acumen, and abandon. Rounding out the section are two of Alexie’s recent poems; essays on Alexie’s work by Joshua B. Nelson, Scott Andrews, and Susan Bernardin; and an assessment of Native language revitalization by anthropologist Mary S. Linn.”
The newest issues of The Antigonish Review, EVENT, and The New Quarterly each published two of the the winners of the After Al Purdy Poetry Contest, one from each category of Emerging Poets and Established Poets.
Emerging Poets winners: David Huebert (EVENT), Angela Waldie (TAR), Carolyn Sadowska (TNQ).
Established Poet winners: Clea Roberts (EVENT), Susan Stenson (TAR), Antony Di Nardo (TNQ).
The contest was a fundraiser for the Al Purdy A-frame Trust – established to save Purdy’s famous home from demolition. Purdy was a significant Canadian poet, also called “the ‘most’, the ‘first’ and the ‘last Canadian poet’.” For more information about his legacy and the efforts to save his self-built home, visit www.alpurdy.ca
Modern Haiku has include the winners and finalists for the Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards in their newest issue as well as on their website:
First Prize: Carolyn Hall
Second Prize: James Chessing
Third Prize: Kirsty Karkow
Honorable Mentions: John Barlow, Jennifer Corpe, Carolyn Hall, Origa, John Soules.
The deadline for the 2011 contest is March 13, 2011.
The Newly Redesigned Literary Magazine Reaches Out to MFA Students
PITTSBURGH, PA, JUNE 23, 2010: The Creative Nonfiction Foundation (CNF) has received a grant from the BNY Mellon Audience Development Fund to reach writing students in creative nonfiction Master of Fine Arts programs. The campaign aims to develop CNF’s relationships with MFA students across the country, engaging them as not only readers but as potential contributors.
“Creative Nonfiction is an essential resource for anyone studying the genre, and in forming early relationships with MFA students–as both readers and writers–the magazine will continue to reach and publish today’s most promising new voices,” CNF Editor Lee Gutkind said.
55 organizations applied for BNY Mellon Audience Development Fund grants, but only 21 received funding. The grant will enable CNF to offer complimentary departmental subscriptions to Creative Nonfiction to schools with MFA programs in creative nonfiction; to provide complimentary copies of its Summer 2010 issue (#39) for graduate-level classroom use; to make an editor available for an in-class discussion, in person or via telephone or Skype; and to provide subsidized Creative Nonfiction subscriptions for all active students in these programs (a 4-issue subscription will be available for $12, reduced from $32.).
Edited by Lee Gutkind, Creative Nonfiction has been devoted exclusively to vividly written literary nonfiction since its first issue, published in 1994. In March, with the publication of issue #38, the tri-quarterly journal re-launched as a quarterly magazine with an updated look and larger size. Expanded content combines long-form essays and true stories with columns on craft, reflections on the current state of literary publishing, encounters with editors and writers, regular columns by Phillip Lopate, Richard Rodriguez and Heidi Julavits, and more.
For more information, please contact Creative Nonfiction at (412) 688-0304 or email: fletcher-at-creativenonfiction-dot-org
[Press Release from CNF]
The winners of Meridian’s 2010 Editors’ Prize Contest are included in the latest issue (25, May 2010):
Poetry Winner: Josephine Yu, “Why the Lepidopterist Lives Alone”
Fiction Winner: Allis Hammond, “The Faces”
Both winners received a $1,000 prize and publication. The contest will be open again this fall.
Third Mind Books is self-proclaimed as “Your Primary Source for Beat Literature.” It’s the result of Arthur S. Nusbaum’s lifetime of involvement in beat literature, including having met many of the orginal artists of the time: “I am a long-time collector & enthusiast of the Beat Generation & its legacy, with particular emphasis on the life & work of William S. Burroughs.” Nusbaum has developed “a resource by & for the collector-enthusiast that offers desirable, significant rarities for sale. A description of the condition & content of each item is written or extensively edited by myself.” Beat-related writing (essays, interviews, etc.) are posted regularly on the NewsBeat blog (contributions welcomed), and there’s also an area to post “My Wants” and “Your Wants” for Beat materials. Future plans for Third Mind Books include a curated museum with tours (Ann Arbor, MI).
Read more about Nusbaum in this Ann Arbor Chronicle article.
Poet Peter Seaton passed away last month, but news of his death has only recently been making its way through the community. Read more here on fait accompli (Nick Piombino’s blog) and here on PennSound.
Knock #13 is an All-Play issue – and means literally that play scripts make up this issue. The issue was built on the KNOCK International Play Contest, judged by Dickey Nesenger, Maria Semple, and John Longenbaugh, and includes the winners (1st John Minigan, 2nd J. Stephen Brantley, 3rd Nick Stokes), finalists (Robert White, Patrick Cole, Karen M. Kinch, John Hayes, Barbara Lindsay, Lillian Mooney, and Judith Glass Collins) and semifinalists (Mark LaPierre, Renee Rankin, Deb Margolin, Lynda Crawford, Erica Slutsky, Stanley Toledo, Richard Goodman, Rey Dabalsa, Theodore D. Kemper, Kate McLeod, Brian Walker, and Joel Allegretti).
The newest issue of San Jose State University’s Reed Magazine (v63) features finalists and winners of the 2009 John Steinbeck Award for fiction as selected by Aimee Bender and the Edwin Markham Award for poetry winner and finalists as selected by Lisa Russ Spaar:
Steinbeck Prize Winner: Michelle Dove, “The Frost Queen of Louisa County”
Stenibeck Finalists: Paul Martone and Sam Wilson
Markham Award Winner: Scott Marengo
Markham Finalists: B.A. Goodjohn and D.E. Kern
The deadline for the 2010 awards is November 1.
You may remember Scrappy [right] the mail dog – who faithfully travels to the post office daily to help retrieve mail. Scrappy is now joined in his efforts by Copper [left] – a collie, shepherd, husky mix (+/-/?). The two have known each other for many years, but Scrappy finally lured Copper to join the NewPages staff on a permanent basis (some negotiations about a weekly rawhide bonus and health care, including dental).
On a practical note for dog owners: NewPages would like to recognize PoopBags.com for providing a great product that we wholly endorse. We’ve worked with another not-so-great online company, and have found PoopBags.com to be the kind of product and business we are happy to support. Please check them out for your green-dog needs.
The newest issue of Naropa University’s Bombay Gin offers a special focus on “Twenty Years of Eco-Lit” and more specifically on Jack Collom, who back in 1989, “taught his first Eco-Lit course at Naropa University’s Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics.”
A portfolio section provides a tribute to Collom’s influence: “It opens with an interview of him by two Bombay Gin editors, Jennifer Aglio and Suzanne DuLany. Collom discusses how he introduces his students to a pantheon of writers that includes Rachel Carson, Aldo Leopold, Stephen Jay Gould, and how his writing projects take radical shapes, investigating the ways old forms evolve into new. The haiku morphs into the lune, or the fourteen-line sonnet’s tight formalism restructures itself as the acrostic or mesostic. At the end of each year’s course, Collom’s group compiles a photocopy anthology of its writings. We’ve reproduced some of this twenty-odd-years of poems, polemics, word-forms, & collages. There are also new poems in the eco-lit vein by Jack Collom, and by Naropa University colleagues Joanne Kyger, Hoa Nguyen, Elizabeth Robinson, & Andrew Schelling. And finally, there is an archival talk on ecology & poetry, given by Eleni Sikelianos at a Naropa Summer Writing Program panel in June 2009.” [from the Editor’s Note]
The Spring issue of Open Minds Quarterly includes the winners of the Brainstorm Poetry Contest.
First Prize – Joan Mazza of Mineral, Virginia
Second Prize – Linda Fuchs of Columbus, Ohio
Third Prize – Carma Graber of Bloomington, Minnesota
And honorable mentions: Zan Bockes, Eufemia Fantetti, Eufemia Fantetti, Kate Flaherty, Catherine L. Martell
In the most recent (Winter/Spring 2010) issue of The Spoon River Poetry Review, Bruce Guernsey announced his stepping down as editor: “When the former and iconic editor Lucia Getsi asked me four years ago if I would consider the position, it was understood that at some point someone from Illinois State University would eventually take over. After all, the magazine is located at ISU, and I came on board as an independent. So let me introduce you to the new boss, the wonderfully bright, articulate, and energetic Kirstin Hotelling Zona. An associate professor in the English department at Illinois State, Dr. Zona is also a fine poet and a sharp-eyed critic. Please give your your heartiest welcome and send her your very best work. She will continue the fine traditions of the magazine.”
The newest issue of Mississippi Review is made up entirely of the winners of the 2010 Mississippi Review Prize for Fiction and Poetry.
The 2010 Fiction Prize winners judged by Frederick Barthelme: Cheryl Alu, David Driscoll, Chelsea Lemon Fetzer, Cary Groner, Kristen Iskandrian, Rich Ives, Lee Johnson, Kate Kraukramer, Jim Ruland, Melissa Swantkowski.
The 2010 Poetry Prize winners judeged by Angela Ball: Susan Thomas, Victoria Anderson, Kaveh Bassiri, Deborah Brown, Andrea Carter Brown, Laurie Capps, Joseph Michael Farr, Jeff Hoffman, Rich Ives, Vandana Khanna, Martin Lammon, David Dodd Lee, Matt McBride, Joe Sacksteder, Wallis Wilde-Menozzi, Cecilia Woloch.
The Mississippi Review annual contest awards prizes of $1,000 in fiction and in poetry. Winners and finalists will make up the winter print issue of the national literary magazine Mississippi Review. The 2011 contest deadline is October 1, 2010.
PEN American Center Announces the launch of PEN Reads, an online reading group to go live on July 6:
PEN American Center, the largest branch of the world’s oldest literary and human rights organization, announced today the creation of PEN Reads, an online reading group that will bring readers and writers together to discuss works of literature relevant to PEN’s mission. The inaugural title will be The Hour of the Star (New Directions) by the legendary Brazilian author Clarice Lispector.
Each book will be discussed for five weeks on the PEN web site, which will feature a series of posts by writers, translators, scholars, and other prominent literary figures. They will discuss the novel and its author and how the book speaks to PEN’s mission to foster support for basic human rights and promote mutual understanding through the shared experience of literature.
Readers will be able to comment on each post, participating in a larger dialogue with the discussion’s contributors and with each other.
The initiative was created by PEN’s Membership Committee under the leadership of former Chair Jaime Manrique. He says, “PEN Reads’ choice of The Hour of the Star by the great, and incomparable, Clarice Lispector as its inaugural author reaffirms PEN’s commitment to honor, and help preserve, the literary legacy of the writers of the world whose works matter in a major way.”
The inaugural post, by award-winning novelist Colm Tóibín, will appear at www.pen.org/penreads at noon on Tuesday, July 6.
NewPages encourages group participants to check with local, independent booksellers to purchase The Hour of the Star – and to purchase an extra copy to donate to your local library if they don’t already have one.
Based in Seattle, WA, the Pongo Teen Writing opportunity will train you to help victims of trauma (abuse, violent loss, etc.) to heal through poetry writing. The skills will benefit you in current and future careers in counseling and teaching. Pongo poetry writing is uniquely helpful for distressed individuals, and uniquely nurturing for caregivers. Participation in Pongo requires serious commitment to be on a Pongo team in a site such as juvenilte detention, where volunteers will work one weekday afternoon per week from mid-Sept to mid-April. (Currently, the state psychiatric hospital site meets on Mondays in Tacoma, and the juvenile detention site meets on Tuesdays in Seattle.)
To begin the process for selection as a Pongo volunteer, please email your resume and a writing sample (preferably poetry) to richard-at-pongoteenwriting.org. In your resume or email message, please include all of your experience working with youth. Also, please state your availability to volunteer on a weekday afternoon during the coming school year. Finally, please review the Pongo web site, including the expectations on this page.
http://www.pongoteenwriting.org/volunteering.html
McSweeney’s is currently running their summer sale this week with mark downs on their entire stock. For even better deals, check out their Garage Sale: “Not long ago, we found a secret storage space of our old books. They were hurt—some bruised, others a little scratched—but then again some were in perfect condition. So, we thought, why not offer these to you, dear customer? Why not let you have a $5 Maps and Legends? Or a $10 Everything That Rises? Hurt books need homes too. And once these slightly damaged books are gone, they are gone forever.”
From Narrative Magazine:
Until the final showdown on July 11, thirty-two soccer teams will compete in South Africa to steal Italy’s crown as World Cup champions.
For the players, the games are the ultimate moment of competition. For the countries they represent, it’s a time for national pride. For South Africa, the World Cup is a chance to grow, pumping more than 50 billion dollars into the economy and turning the world’s eye to their spot on the map.
The face of the World Cup is Zakumi, a golden leopard with flowing green hair. He’s fifteen, called “Za” for short, and lives by the official motto, “Zakumi’s game is fair play.”
The designers assigned to create Zakumi set out to integrate the many aspects of the World Cup into a single marketing image: a mascot. What would you have come up with?
This week, Literary Puzzler challenges you to create your own World Cup mascot. In just three or four sentences, provide a portrait of the character you’d craft as the image of the summer’s competition.
Send your mascot to Puzzler by Sunday noon, Pacific daylight time.
2012 Sandburg-Auden-Stein Residency: Intensive Learning Term poet-in-residence program, from 30 April to 18 May 2012. An award of $3,100 (plus room and board) will be given to the 2012 poet. The Humanities Department faculty will evaluate the submissions and choose the winner. Poets who have published at least one book of poetry are eligible. Submissions are due on Sept. 10, 2010, and should include the following: five poems from your most recent book, a single page personal statement regarding your poetics and teaching, a current r
Starting with its previous issue (#4), Marginalia began to include letterpress works with their publication. The letterpress works are produced on a Chandler & Price Platen Press, with chapbooks designed and printed at Now It’s Up to You (157 S. Logan, Denver CO 80209) with the assistance of expert printer Tom Parson. The newest issue (v5) – the Eksphrasis Issue – includes three letterpress postcards, showcasing the work of Sasha Chavchavadze, Rachel Burgess, and William Gillespie.
Every spring, The George Washington University’s national/international literary review, G.W. Review, holds a contest for outgoing seniors; one senior artist, poet and fiction writer have their work featured in the Review, along with a short bio and photograph. This year’s contest winners are Carrie Wilkens for fiction, Anya Firestone for poetry, and Nida Jafrani for art. Their work is featured in the Spring 2010 issue.
Glimmer Train has just chosen the winning stories for their April Family Matters competition. This competition is held quarterly and is open to all writers for stories about family. Word count should not exceed 12,000. (All shorter lengths welcome.) The next Family Matters competition will take place in October. Glimmer Train’s monthly submission calendar may be viewed here.
First plac
e: Jenny Zhang (pictured), of Iowa City, IA, wins $1200 for “We Love You Crispina.” Her story will be published in the Fall 2011 issue of Glimmer Train Stories.
Second place: Joy Wood, of West Bloomfield, MI, wins $500 for “The Man in the Elevator.” Her story will also be published in an upcoming issue of Glimmer Train Stories, increasing her prize to $700.
Third place: Linda Legters of Newtown, CT, wins $300 for “When We’re Lying.” Her story will also be published in an upcoming issue of Glimmer Train Stories, increasing her prize to $700.
A PDF of the Top 25 winners can be found here.
Deadline soon approaching!
Fiction Open: June 30
Glimmer Train hosts this competition quarterly, and first place is $2000 plus publication in the journal. It’s open to all writers, no theme restrictions, and the word count range is 2000-20,000. Click here for complete guidelines.
English Department and Creative Writing Program of Bowling Green State University seek applicants for a tenure-track assistant professor in Poetry Writing and Literature. Deadline November 15, 2010.
The Department of English and the BFA program at Stephen F. Austin State University seek applications for a tenure-track assistant professor of creative writing, with a specialization in literary non-fiction and a possible strong secondary area in poetry or fiction.
Oklahoma City University seeks applications for part-time faculty to teach in a new low-residency MFA in Creative Writing program, scheduled to begin in Summer 2011. Submit materials by June 31, 2010.
Crab Creek Review has named the first recipient of their new annual Editors’ Prize, a $100 award given to a writer or poet whose work appeared in one of the previous year’s issues. Their 2009 Editors’ Prize was awarded to Shannon Robinson, who wrote the short story, “Everyone Has a Tell,” which appeared in the Summer 2009 issue.
Seems I’m not alone in my addiction.
The Summer-Fall 2010 issue of The Ledge includes works by the winners of The Ledge 2008 Poetry Awards: First Prize, Jennifer Perrine for the poem “A Transparent Man is Hard to Find”; Seond Prize, Elizabeth Harrington for the poem “Witness”; Third Prize, J. Kates for the “Learning to Shoot.”
The Ledge 2009 Poetry Awards Competition winners and finalists have been announced and will have their poems published in The Ledge #33, to be published in 2011:
First Prize ($1,000)Philip Dacey of New York, NY
Second Prize ($250) Jennifer Perrine of Des Mones, IA
Third Prize ($100) by Kate Hovey of Northridge, CA
Finalists: Samantha Barrow of New York, NY; Francis Klein of Glen Ridge, NJ; Joyce Meyers of Wallingford, PA; Debra Marquart of Ames, IA; Tiffanie Desmangles of West Lafayette, IN; and Marsh Muirhead of Bemidji, MN.
Also to be published in The Ledge #33 are the winners of The Ledge 2009 Fiction Awards Competition:
First prize ($1000) Michael Thompson of Indianapolis, IN
Second prize ($250) Kate Reuther of New York City, NY
Third prize ($100) Paullette Gaudet of Seattle, WA
Honorable Mention: Clare Beams of Norwell, MA; Sean Lanigan of Somerville, MA; Anne Trooper Holbrook of Tunbridge, VT; and Kelly Luce of Woodside, CA.
Politics and Prose (Washington, D.C.) bookstore owners Carla Cohen and Barbara Meade planning their retirements, have announced the sale of their independent bookstore.
The Writer’s Center, metropolitan Washington, DC’s community gathering place for writers and readers, is currently accepting submissions for several competitive Emerging Writer Fellowships for Spring 2011. We welcome submissions from writers of all genres, backgrounds, and experiences in the following genres: fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. The deadline to submit is September 30, 2010.
New additions to the The NewPages Big List of Literary Magazines:
Motherhood Muse – poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, essay, photography
Visions – poetry, fiction, art
Ezra: An Online Journal of Translations poetry, short prose, excerpts, and play scenes from any era
SpringGun – poetry, flash fiction, book reviews, essays, interviews, and any form of intermedia art (video art, screen literature, electronic writing, digital poetry)
The Broken City – poetry, fiction, non-fiction, comics, art and photography
Bull Men’s Fiction
Dante’s Heart – fiction, drama, poetry, art, mixed media
ScissorTALE Review – poetry, short fiction, flash fiction
Shadowbox – creative nonfiction, interviews, reviews, art
New additions to the NewPages Guide to Independent Publishers & University Presses:
New additions to the NewPages Guide to Writing Conferences, Workshops, Retreats, Centers, Residencies & Book & Literary Festivals:
Words and Music Festival, New Jersey
Write to Publish (Oolicon) Conference
This month on the Indiana Review blog, Under the Blue Light, IR is having a back issue sale: “We’ll be highlighting some past issues, tracking down a few authors, seeing what they have been up to recently, and marking down the prices of journals past so that we can all enjoy the good work done by writers of the years before.”
Harrison Candelaria Fletcher, editor, has announced the publication of the first issue of of Shadowbox, an online magazine exclusively devoted to contemporary creative nonfiction “of every shape, style, and incarnation. Each issue will include new writing, interviews with masters of the form, reviews of provocative published work, a gallery of visual and literary collaborations, an archive of resurrected writings, interactive links with like-minded types, and much more.”
The Shadowbox site is designed to be interactive (click the objects), and will be published biannually. The first issue features interviews with Brenda Miller, a book review of David Shield’s Reality Hunger: A Manifesto, an art gallery featuring words and images of Margo Klass and Frank Soos, and new writing by Bev Aliff, Julie Carr, Noah Eli Gordon, Daniel Hales, Jena Huisken, Stephen Graham Jones, J. Michael Martinez, Kerry Muir, Megan Nix, Linda Norton, Karen Michelle Otero, Robert Vivian, and Jake Adam York.
Shadowbox reads submissions May 15 – October 15 and December 15 – April 15.
The latest issue of Memoir (and) includes the winners for the 2009 Prizes for Memoir in Prose or Poetry:
Grand Prize to Joe Wilkins
Second Prize to Cynthia Helen Beecher
Third Prize to Melanie Drane
The Memoir (and) Prizes for Memoir in Prose or Poetry are awarded to the most outstanding prose or poetry memoirs—traditional, nontraditional or experimental—drawn from the publication’s open reading period (May 1 – August 16). There is no contest entry fee.
It may be summer, but NewPages is still cranking! We’ve got a smash lineup of new Lit Mag reviews, including reviews of Avery, Bateau, Big Muddy, Briar Cliff Review, Camera Obscura (premier issue), Cold Mountain, Court Green, Dark Sky Magazine (online), Elder Mountain (premier issue), F Magazine, Hampden-Sydney Poetry Review, Jelly Bucket (premier issue), The Journal, the minnesota review, Paul Revere’s Horse, Rhino, River Styx, Shenandoah, Sou’wester, Spinning Jenny, Tampa Review, and Whitefish Review.
We’re also trying out a new format for our reviews – if you love it or hate it, let us know.
The NewPages Magazine Stand is frequently updated, including short blurbs and cover images of new lit mags. It’s a virtual newsstand, better than any bookstore or library selection I know! Stop by and check it out to get an inside (and outside) look at some latest issues.
With its latest issue (v3 n1), Memoir (and) welcomes Claudia Sternbach as the new Editorial Board Chair. Sternbach wastes no time in tackling the identity of the memoir genre in her introductory note, in which she recounts a “well-known” author’s comment that “unless you have lived an extraordinary life, there is no point in writing about it.” Sternbach’s response? “Balderdash.” Recounting extraordinary exploits can be interesting, she goes on, as long as they are well written, “But no more interesting than an exquisitely told story of aging, or of spending years in pursuit of a perfect smile. It is all in the writing.”
The Frost Place in Franconia, New Hampshire, invites applications for a six- to eight-week residency in poet Robert Frost’s former farmhouse, which sits on a quiet north-country lane with a spectacular view of the White Mountains, and which serves as a museum and conference center.
The residency begins July 1st and ends August 31st, and includes an award of $1,000. The Resident Poet will have an opportunity to give a series of public readings across the region, including at Dartmouth College, for which the Resident Poet will receive a $1,000 honorarium, and at the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum. There are no other specific obligations.
To be eligible, applicants will have published at least one book of poems. Applications will be judged by members of The Frost Place Board of Trustees.
BatCat Press summer reading period runs until July 31. They take all genres in any length, and ultimately aim to publish 2-3 full books a year, with 1-2 smaller projects (chapbooks, broadsides, etc).
BatCat Press is staffed by high school students who attend Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter High School (Midland, PA). All staff members “major” in literary arts and are upperclassmen who have taken at least two semesters of bookbinding (both of which are taught by Deanna Mulye, who also runs the press). The students read submissions, discuss what should be published, and then physically print and make all of the books in-house, by hand. Their run numbers vary depending on the project – they averaged about 200 copies per title this year.
Jeff Hoffman has won the 2010 New Issues Poetry Prize for his manuscript Journal of American Foreign Policy. Linda Gregerson, author of Magnetic North, judged.
Jeff wins a $2,000 award and publication of his manuscript in the spring of 2011.
Lizzie Hutton’s manuscript She’d Waited Mellennia was named runner-up and will be published in the fall of 2011.
Guidelines for the 2011 prize are available on the New Issues Poetry website.
