Home » NewPages Blog » Blog Items » Page 8

Michael Dowdy MSR Poetry Book Award Winner

michael dowdyThe Winter 2017-2018 issue of The Main Street Rag features an interview with Michael Dowdy, author of URBILLY, winner of the 2017 Main Street Rag Poetry Book Award. In it, Dowdy talks about his lifelong love of books and choice of the “academic route” over his “recessive hillbilly” DNA strain, his shifting majors in college, taking a stab at the family business, how the poetry for URBILLY  came about, and his interests from Appalachian Latino literature to “undocumentary” poetry.

New Orleans Review Online Only

new orleans reviewThe Editor’s Note in New Orleans Review Issue 43 (Themed: “This Hustle Is Not Your Grandpa’s African Lit”) contained the following announcement:

“Since its founding in 1968, New Orleans Review  has had the pleasure of including in its pages the work of hundreds of writers, poets, essayists, critics, celebrities, and artists from around the world. We take particular delight in having published numerous ‘first-time-in-print’ authors as well as offering eclectic volumes on a range of topics and forms – from Alexander Pope’s ‘The Rape of the Lock’ to Post-Structuralism, from Spanish-language film to Czech writing in translation, and from Science Fiction to a set of seven chapbooks enclosed in a slipcase. As the journal enters its 50th year, this special issue on contemporary writing from Africa celebrates our final printed volume. Both honoring its past and embracing its future, New Orleans Review  will continue to publish new work in an expanded digital venue, which will also include free access to all 50 years of print issues.”

Glimmer Train 2017 Family Matters Contest Winners

Glimmer Train has just chosen the winning stories for their Family Matters competition. This competition is held once a year and is open to all writers for stories about family of all configurations. Glimmer Train’s monthly submission calendar may be viewed here.

1st place goes to peter nathaniel malaePeter Nathaniel Malae [pictured] of McMinnville, Oregon, who wins $2500 for “El Camino.” His story will be published in Issue 103 of Glimmer Train Stories.

2nd place goes to Gregory J. Wolos of Millis, Massachusetts, who wins $500 for “Boy Strangling Goose.” His story will also be published in an upcoming issue of Glimmer Train Stories, increasing his prize to $700.

3rd place goes to Chloe Higgins of Wollongong, Australia, who wins $300 for “Things We Cannot Say.”

Here’s a PDF of the Top 25.

New Lit on the Block :: Twyckenham Notes

twyckenham notes smallTwyckenham is a name linked strongly with South Bend and Twyckenham Notes Editor in Chief Austin Veldman, who grew up there at a time when the economic slump felt by many post-automobile industry cities lingered on. “In the early 2000’s,” Veldman says, “the prevalent attitude of the town’s youth was not lost on me: I wanted to leave as soon as I could. The common words among most were there is nothing to do here.” And yet, not even a decade later, Veldman founded Twyckenham Notes  in response to what he saw happening in his city, “a reemergence, the founding of a new identity,” contributing literature to help in this rebirth and renewal.

Continue reading “New Lit on the Block :: Twyckenham Notes”

Books :: 2017 Autumn House Press Contest Winners

darling nova melissa cundieffAutumn House Press annually hosts contests for full-length manuscripts of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Each winner receives publication, and $2,500 ($1,000 advance against royalties and $1,500 for travel and publicity). The 2017 winners will be available for purchase next month.

In fiction, Glori Simmons’s Carry You, selected by Amina Gauthier, is an intense read, a linked collection of intertwined stories. Advance praise calls the collection gorgeous, moving, and deeply empathetic.

Dickson Lam’s memoir Paper Sons was selected by Alison Hawthorne Deming. Paper Sons combines memoir and cultural history, violence marking the story at every turn. Deming calls the book important and “beautifully crafted, rich in poetic image and juxtapositions.”

Alberto Ríos selected Darling Nova by Melissa Cundieff as the poetry 2017 poetry winner. The collection makes “new connections, new sparks, new thoughts as often as line to line,” and covers “grief, love, humanness,” moving readers.

While you’re learning more about the 2017 prize winners, be sure to stop by the contest submission guidelines: entries are now open until the end of June.

Books :: 2017 Lena-Miles Wever Todd Prize Winner Published

bridled amy mengAvailable this month is the winner of the 2017 Lena-Miles Wever Todd Prize for Poetry: Bridled by Amy Meng. Selected by Jaswinder Bolina, Bolina says of his selection:

Bridled is poetry as slow-burn opera. [ . . . ] The poems here offer, in reverse chronology, the story of a crumbling relationship between an unnamed speaker and her nameless ‘lover.’ In this telling, Bridled articulates a politics of self versus other, of body and gender, of loneliness and togetherness. It’s a collection you’re going to want to read from start to finish and then from finish to start.

A Kundiman Fellow and poetry editor at Bodega Magazine, this is Amy Meng’s first collection. Stop by the Pleaides Press website to learn more.

Glimmer Train Nov/Dec 2017 Very Short Fiction Winners

Glimmer Train has just chosen the winning stories for their 2017 November/December Very Short Fiction Award. This competition is held three times a year and is open to all writers for stories with a word count under 3000. The next Very Short Fiction competition will take place in March 2018. Glimmer Train’s monthly submission calendar may be viewed here.

Corey Flintoff1st place goes to Corey Flintoff [pictured] of Cheverly, Maryland, who wins $2000 for “Early Stages.” His story will be published in Issue 103 of Glimmer Train Stories. This will be his first major print publication.

2nd place goes to Irene Doukas Behrman of Portland, Oregon, who wins $500 for “Permission.”

3rd place goes to Itoro Udofia of Oakland, California, who wins $300 for “To the Children Growing Up in the Aftermath of Their Parents’ War.”

Here’s a PDF of the Top 25.

Deadline soon approaching! Short Story Award for New Writers: February 28
This competition is held three times a year 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 1000-4000 words, but can go up to 12,000. First place prize wins $2500 and publication in Glimmer Train Stories. Second/third: $500/$300 and consideration for publication. Click here for complete guidelines.

Lit Mag Covers :: Picks of the Week

 

missouri review

The Missouri Review v40 n4, 2017 features intriguing cover art by Su Blackwell entitled “Heroines of Literature,” a finely crafted paper sculpture. More of Blackwell’s work can be viewed on her website.

booth

According to Editor and Founder Robert Stapleton, Booth 11 is a “stunning collection of contemporary femal writers. The issue includes new fiction, nonfiction, poetry comics, lists, and interviews by such esteemed authors as Emily St. John Mandel, Joyce Carol Oates, Marya Hornbacher, Elizabeth Strout, Krista Christensen, Aubrey Hirsch, Brenda Shaughnessy, and so many more. This full-color literary journal offers a powerful argument for the strength of female authors working in American letters.” Beginning it all: cover art by Tara McPherson.

true storyThe cover image by Lucy Engelman made me open Issue 15 of Creative Nonfiction’s monthly publication, True Story,  the opening paragraph of “This Is My Oldest Story”  by Emily Brisse made me drop everything and just read. It begins: “In May of 1992, a little before the end of fourth grade, my best friend Kristy and I and a few others from our street – Ryan, Tim, Tom, maybe Naomi – hopped on our bikes and started riding. Most of us had younger brothers, and we left them at home. We didn’t tell our parents we were going. They thought we were in the basement of Tim’s house, playing Tetris, and although their anxiousness had relaxed by inches over the past two and a half years, we knew that any request to bike farther than the outlined boundary of our street would receive a firm no. So we just went.”

 

New Lit on the Block :: MORIA Literary Magazine

woodbury universityOlives are a succulent fruit, each containing a seed with which to grow more nourishing deliciousness. What better inspiration, then, for MORIA, the new literary publication from Woodbury University, where an olive grove once stood on the land that now houses this Californian educational institution.

Faculty Editor of MORIA Literary Magazine, Dr. Linda L. Dove, tells me MORIA refers to a special type of olive tree in ancient Greece that is protected by the government. “As a tree sacred to Athena, the goddess of wisdom, the original ‘Moria’ was believed to have been planted by her at the Parthenon and includes the meaning ‘to be part of’ something larger than itself. Here at the literary magazine, we recognize and celebrate that Woodbury University is a part of a tradition of learning that is larger than itself, just as literature and the writers who make it are part of a tradition of creative engagement and cultural production that is larger than any one individual alone.” Beautiful.

Continue reading “New Lit on the Block :: MORIA Literary Magazine”

Question Everything Advises Danielle Lazarin

danielle lazarinIn her craft essay in the February 2018 #133 issue of Glimmer Train’s Bulletin, Danielle Lazarin tells readers to “Question Everything” as she does in her own drafting process. Her essay opens:

“On some days, my writing notebooks look like an inquisition, my pages topped and ended with questions: in all-caps, underlined, circled. Many are small: What do the kids want to be called? What is her work? Handwriting=obsessive or careless? Maybe she cries on the subway home, after dinner? But they’re big, too: What is true, the memory of it, or the moment? Is she lacking? DO WE REQUIRE HOPE?  Though they may appear frantic, a series of scribbled questions aren’t signs of confusion or desperation but of sufficient curiosity on my part to propel a story forward. At every stage of my work, questions are my most essential writing tools. I use them to move through to the other side of murky. It’s only by stepping into that unknown and uncomfortable space repeatedly during my process that I can become more deliberate in the story I’m telling.”

Also included in this month’s GT Bulletin are Thomas Fox Averill’s “Writing Archival Fiction” and Aline Ohanesian “On Rejection.” The Bulletin is free to read online and have delivered monthly to your e-mail.

Lit Mag Covers :: Picks of the Week

willow springs

Willow Springs Issue 81 features this brightly colored image, originally a 13 x 13 silkscreen. The “inside cover” replicates this image, but with “Spokane Garbage Goat” replacing the issue number. I had no idea what this was, so promptly headed to Google, where I learned of the iconic status of said goat. Absolutely delightful, as is artist Chris Bovey’s work, more of which can be found at Vintage Prints.

copper nickel

Rebecca Berlin’s marker on paper “Circles That You Find” brightens the cover of the Spring 2018 (#26) issue of Copper Nickel. See more of her work at Rebecca Berlin Art.

fiddlehead

Keeping with vibrant colors, The Fiddlehead Winter 2018 (# 274) issue features Monika Wright’s “With Powerful Intention” acrylic on canvas. In her artist’s statement, Wright comments, “With organic shapes, fluid light, lines and circles, I am employing universal symbols of unity, wholeness and infinity connected by lines, representing the boundaries which separate us, but which also highlights our shared path.” See more of her work here.

2017 Able Muse Write Prize Winners

Winners and finalists for the 2017 Able Muse Write Prize for Poetry and Fiction are featured in the Winter 2017 issue of Able Muse: A Review of Poetry, Prose & Art.

d r goodmanWrite Prize for Fiction
Final Judge: Jill Alexander Essbaum
Winner: “Target” by Leslie Jill Patterson

Write Prize for Poetry
Final Judge: Annie Finch
Winner: “Fall Rewinding” by D. R. Goodman [pictured]
Finalists: Ann M. Thompson; Scott Ruescher; Rob Wright

For a full list of honorable mentions and short list selections, visit the Able Muse 2017 Write Prize announcement page.

The Florida Review Prison Focus

lisa roney

The Florida Review Editor and Director Lisa Roney in the 41.2/2017 issue Editor’s Note writes in a recurring thread about the U.S. prison culture, her early experiences knowing young people who went in and out of jail, and – of all things – changing the publication’s submission policy to accept traditional postal submissions from those without Internet access, “whatever the circumstances might be.” This, of course, would open submissions to our nation’s incarcerated population who are not allowed access to the Internet.

About the Special Section on Prison, Roney writes, “we include writing by prisoners, as well as their family members and friends. It is the presence of this Triumvirate (victims, prisoners, family and loved ones) that testifies to the widespread tragedy that violence, addiction, and poverty and their results have become in this country – and our constant sense that there must be some better way. Writing, of course, is one of those better ways.”

2017 Gulf Coast Prize Winners

The Winter/Spring 2018 issue of Gulf Coast features the winners of their 2017 Gulf Coast Prizes contest:

spencer wisePoetry
Judged by Cate Marvin
“The Weather Underground” by sam sax

Nonfiction
Judged by Diane Roberts
“The Peacock and the Bell Captain” by Spencer Wise

Fiction
Judged by Chinelo Okparanta
“That Boy Could Run” by Rudy Ruiz [pictured]

For a full list of honorable mentions and biographical information on each writer and judge, visit the Gulf Coast Prize page.

ALA Intellectual Freedom Blog

JohnsonIntellectual Freedom Blog hosted by the Office for Intellectual Freedom, a unit of the American Library Association, provides “a venue for coverage of time-sensitive news in intellectual freedom and librarianship.” The topics, however, are of interest to a much wider audience, including writers, readers, and academics – teachers, students, and administrators. Recent post titles include: “Is There a Connection Between Mental Health and Intellectual Freedom?” by Allyson Mower; “‘The Post,’ the Pentagon Papers, and the Era of Fake News” by Robert Sarwark; “Xicanas/Latinas and Intellectual Freedom in College: When Reading is Political” by Eva Rios-Alvarado; “Reading as a Mirror: Banning the New Jim Crow in New Jersey Prisons” by Jane’a Johnson [pictured]; and weekly roundups of Intellectual Freedom News.

The Massachusetts Review: More than a Lit Mag

table for one yun ko eun massachusetts reviewReaders may already be familiar with The Massachusetts Review, the quarterly print journal founded in 1959, but did you know they also have digital projects available?

Working Titles are e-publications of prose which are too long to be printed in the quarterly. Published bimonthly, there are three ways to purchase and download Working Titles. Recent publications include Table for One by Yun Ko Eun translated by Lizzie Buehler, The Keepers of the Ghost Bird by Jenn Dean, The Leader by Nouri Zarrugh, and more.

Readers can also find Digital Chapbooks, showcasing art and poetry from past special sections and art inserts throughout the years of the journal. These features are free to read and easy to access, a good way to spend some time.

While you’re checking out the current “Truth” issue of The Massachusetts Review, be sure to see what digital offerings are up for grabs.

American Life in Poetry :: Connie Wanek

American Life in Poetry: Column 670
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

I’m writing this column on a very cold day, and it’s nice to be inside with a board game to play, but better yet, for me at least, to be inside with a poem about a board game. This Monopoly game by Connie Wanek is from her book Rival Gardens: New and Selected Poems  from the University of Nebraska Press.

Monopoly

Connie WanekWe used to play, long before we bought real houses.
A roll of the dice could send a girl to jail.
The money was pink, blue, gold, as well as green,
and we could own a whole railroad
or speculate in hotels where others dreaded staying:
the cost was extortionary.

At last one person would own everything,
every teaspoon in the dining car, every spike
driven into the planks by immigrants,
every crooked mayor.
But then, with only the clothes on our backs,
we ran outside, laughing.

We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts. 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 ©2016 by Connie Wanek, “Monopoly,” from Rival Gardens: New and Selected Poems  (Univ. of Nebraska Press, 2016). Poem reprinted by permission of Connie Wanek and the publisher. Introduction copyright ©2017 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.

Bennington Review is Staying Alive

bennington review coverI was relieved to see it wasn’t just me who heard the Bee Gees in my head when I saw the cover of Bennington Review Issue Four themed “Staying Alive.” Editor Michael Dumanis opens the “Note from the Editor” with these two lines from the 1977’s classic, “Life goin’ nowhere, somebody help me / Somebody help me, yeah, I’m stayin’ alive.”

Dumanis explains, “As we were reading the poems, stories, and essays submitted to Bennington Review  in 2017 for this, our fourth issue, we noticed a word that come up with remarkable regularity – the verb ‘survive’ in all its various permutations. In Issue Four, it occurs – frequently as a directive, occasionally as the noun ‘survivor’ – twenty-eight times. The word ‘living’ can be found twenty-one times, an the word ‘alive’ shows up an additional twelve.”

A “tonal shift” from their previous issue, themed “Threat,” Dumanis notes that “something has shifted in the cultural landscape. An acceptance of threat has bred a series of reactions – resistance, perseverance, even a measure of optimism . . . there’s now a restored sense of agency.”

Readers can find works by Patrick Williams, Erin L. McCoy, Marco Wilkinson, Ian Stansel, A. Molotkov and many more, with several contributors’ works available to read online.

Stayin’ alive? I’m all for it.

Brevity Craft Essays

FeliciaRoseChavezIn addition to its regular content of ‘extremely brief’ (under 750 words) nonfiction, Brevity‘s regular feature of Craft Essays in its first issue of 2018 features Chelsey Dyrsdale’s “Transforming an Essay Collection into a Memoir,” Annelise Jolley’s “Capturing the Numinous: Mary Karr’s Sacred Carnality,” and Felicia Rose Chavez’s [pictured] “The Mental Load: Honoring Your Story Over Your To-Do List.” All of Brevity‘s content is available online for free. No reason not to stop on by.

Interview :: The Godfather – of Nonfiction – Speaks

lee gutkindIn “The Godfather Speaks,” 3QR: The Three Quarter Review interviewed Lee Gutkind on the two-decade anniversary of the controversial Vanity Fair article, in which critic James Wolcott “accused creative nonfiction writers, of memoir in particular, of ‘navel gazing’ . . . lambast[ing] the form itself as: a ‘sickly transfusion, whereby the weakling personal voice of sensitive fiction is inserted into the beery carcass of nonfiction.‘” Wolcott labeled Gutkind as “The Godfather behind creative nonfiction.”

Gutkind reflects on what could have been devastating to some in their careers: “The Godfather label—the positive aspects of it—stuck. From that point on, emboldened, I was much more in an offensive rather than a defensive mode when it came to creative nonfiction.” And for this, we are all grateful to The Godfather.

Bearing Arms Broadside Collection

BearingArms WoodwardPerrine BroadsidedPress“Bearing Arms: Responding to Guns in American Culture” is the new special “Responses” collection from Broadsided Press. The editors put out a call for visual art and then words in response to those images. All six collaborations – by Maureen Seaton and Jonathan Clyde Frey; Jonathan Baxter and Dixie Salazar; Daniel Aristi and Sandra Cohen; Melissa Fite Johnson and David Kamm; Jennifer Perrine and Kristen Woodward; and Gregory Stapp and Osceola Refetoff – are available for free, full-color download to print, post, and share in your communities. Please do so!

2017 Kenyon Review Short Fiction Prize Winners

The January/February 2018 issue of Kenyon Review features winners of their 2017 Short Fiction Prize:

david greendonnerFirst Prize
“Lionel, For Worse” by David Greendonner [pictured]

Runners Up
“When Do We Worry” by Kimberly King Parsons
“Canto” by Lorain Urban

Each of these works can also be read full-text online here along with commentary on the selections by Judge Lee K. Abbot.

Lit Mag Covers :: Picks of the Week

southern humanities reviewSouthern Humanities Review continues celebrating its fifty years in print with issue 51.2, lush cover art by Victoria Marie Bee, & the buzzards came & undressed her  (pigment print, 2016).

crazyhorsePublished by the Department of English and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the College of Charleston, the cover image of Crazyhorse Fall 2017 is “Blue Hole,” a digital photograph by Shane Brown.

writing disorderAnnelisa Leinbach’s vibrant art is featured on the home screen as well as in a portfolio for the Winter 2017 issue of The Writing Disorder online literary magazine.

 

American Life in Poetry :: Kim Addonizio

American Life in Poetry: Column 668
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

I’ve had a couple of aquariums (or is the plural aquaria?), but I didn’t take very good care of either one. The glass clouded over with algae, and the fish had to live on whatever they could scrounge because I’d forget to feed them. Some liked eating each other. But here’s a poem (a sonnet!) about an aquarium you can actually see into. The poet, Kim Addonizio, lives in California, and her most recent book is Mortal Trash  (W. W. Norton, 2016).

Aquarium

kim addonizio picThe fish are drifting calmly in their tank
between the green reeds, lit by a white glow
that passes for the sun. Blindly, the blank
glass that holds them in displays their slow
progress from end to end, familiar rocks
set into the gravel, murmuring rows
of filters, a universe the flying fox
and glass cats, Congo tetras, bristle-nose
pleocostemus all take for granted. Yet
the platys, gold and red, persist in leaping
occasionally, as if they can’t quite let
alone a possibility—of wings,
maybe, once they reach the air? They die
on the rug. We find them there, eyes open in surprise.

We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts. 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 ©1994 by Kim Addonizio, “Aquarium,” from The Philosopher’s Club , (BOA Editions, Ltd., 1994). Poem reprinted by permission of Kim Addonizio and the publisher. Introduction copyright ©2017 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.

Schuylkill Valley Journal Features Prisoners Poetry

schuylkill valley journal 2018The fall 2017 print issue of Schuylkill Valley Journal includes a special section of poetry written by men imprisoned at Graterford Prison in Philadelphia. Fran B. provides an introduction to the section entitled, “A Poetry Workshop at Graterford Prison,” which begins, “In January, 2017, I started a poetry workshop at Graterford Prison. I had wanted to do this for a long time, several years, and my semi-retirement enabled me to think that I finally had the time to devote to the project.” Fran explains how he worked with the Prison Literacy Project of Pennsylvania and a group called Lifers, Inc. in Graterford Prison to get the workshop started, building a rapport with the inmates, and developing guidelines for their sessions. Fran shares some of the prompts he developed and the responses these elicited from participants.

Contributing Writer Eric Greinke provides an editorial comment on the works selected: “Although all of the poems that were submitted have merit, this particular group of five poets display special talent and affinity for poetry. Poetic talent can appear anywhere, under any circumstances, because it is the result of the inner human drive to evolve and connect. These five poets transcend situational concerns and rise to a universal level that communicates to our shared humanity. Their poems have in common an emotional intensity but each poet sings with his own unique voice.”

Included are ten poems by five poets: Reginald L., Terrell C., Ben C., Aaron F., and Eduardo R.

Glimmer Train 2017 Sept/Oct Short Story Award for New Writers Winners

Glimmer Train has just chosen the winning stories for their September/October Short Story Award for New Writers. This competition is held three times a year and is open to all writers whose fiction has not appeared in a print publication with a circulation greater than 5000. The January/February Short Story Award competition has just opened: Short Story Award for New Writers. Glimmer Train’s monthly submission calendar may be viewed here.

Maxime Kawawa BeaudanPW revph cr Scott McCrae1st place goes to Maxime Kawawa-Beaudan [Photo credit: Scott McCrae] of Berkeley, California, who wins $2500 for “Waiting for Fireworks.” His story will be published in Issue 102 of Glimmer Train Stories. This will be his first major print publication.

2nd place goes to Kristen Hamelin Tracey of New York, New York, who wins $500 for “A New World.” Her story will also be published in an upcoming issue, increasing her prize to $700. This will be her first major print publication, as well.

3rd place goes to Oliver Kammeyer of Boston, Massachusetts, who wins $300 for “They’ll Fix That in Turkey.”

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

Deadline soon approaching! Family Matters: January 12
Glimmer Train hosts this competition once a year, and first place has been increased to $2500 plus publication in the journal, and 10 copies of that issue. It’s open to all writers for stories about family of any configuration. Most submissions to this category run 1000-5000 words, but can go up to 12,000. Click here for complete guidelines.

World Literature Today Inspires Writing as Resistance

world literature todayIn these turbulent times, we can’t help but wonder just exactly how words do matter, in the sense of “for good” instead of what we see so much of bandied about in terms of knee-jerk thoughtlessness. World Literature Today provides the perspective “Words Matter: Writing as Inspired Resistance” in their January-February 2018 issue. In addition to its regular content is “Treasuring the Tradition of Inspired Resistance”: A Conversation with Maureen Freely by Michelle Johnson, poetry by Iossif Ventura and Anna Maria Carpi, an essay by Liliana Ancalao, three audio poems (online) in Mapuzungun, Spanish, and English, by Liliana Ancalao, a web exclusive interview “Breaking Open Gates: A Conversation with Emmy Pérez,” by Norma Cantú and Chelsea Rodríguez.

Readers can access five articles per month without a subscription; WLT is a paying market for writers and encourages subscriptions.

Ecotone :: The Craft Issue

ecotone craft issueEcotone‘s mission is to publish place-based work exploring “the ecotones between landscapes, literary genres, scientific and artistic disciplines, modes of thought.” The Fall/Winter 2017 issue is themed on “Craft” and opens with Editor Anna Lena Phillips Bell’s “From the Editor: The Craft of Editing,” which includes the insightful list of eight “Guiding Principles for Ecotone Editors.”

Content includes fiction by Jill McCorckle, Alexis Schaitkin, and Farah Alie, nonfiction by Ellie A. Rogers, Andrea Mummert Puccini, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Ben Miller, and poetry by Cortney Lamar Charleston, Nina Sudhakar, George David Clark, Jessica Guzman Alderman, Dawn Manning, Lauren Camp, Cate Lycurgus, Lynne Thompson, David Macey, Athena Kildegaard, and Molly Tenenbaum. Each contributor also offers one sentence on craft, “what hopes and concerns about craft, writerly and/or otherwise, the writers and artists who are part of the issue might have.”

The gorgeous cover and bookmark insert for this issue deserves recognition: designed and printed by Rory Sparks at Working Library in Portland, Oregon, with text hand-set in Lining Gothic, Franklin Gothic, And Garamond Italic, and printed on Mohawk Superfine Eggshell 100lb on a Vandercook Universal I AB P.

Still Point Art Online Gallery

Founded in 2011 by Christine Brooks Cote, Shanti Arts celebrates and promotes Art, Nature, and Spirit. Along with publishing a wide array of books, Shanti Arts also produces Still Point Art Gallery and  Still Point Arts Quarterly. The print publication features full-color art throughout, and the website includes the full exhibition of artwork. Nature’s Textures is the current exhibit, running through January 31, 2018.

still point exhibitArtists’ works honored in this exhibit:

Best in Show
Tricia Hoye

Award for Uniqueness of Concept and Originality
Jane Gottlieb

Award for Exceptional Composition and Design
Stefynie Rosenfeld

Award for Distinctive Interpretation of Theme
MJ Edwards

The Chattahoochee Review Examines “Neighbors”

anna schachnerIn a double issue (Fall 2017/Winter 2018), The Chattahoochee Review focuses on “Neighbors.”

Editor Anna Schachner writes, ” Some of our special-focus topics are more wistful than others. This one – Neighbors – certainly is. When our editorial staff chose the topic, I don’t think any of us were specifically thinking of borrowed cups of sugar or Christmas carolers at our front door, but, given current national and global events, it’s hard not to yearn for that simplicity and purity. Still, most of the work in this issue fluctuates between a kind of yearning for proximity, for connections, and a kind of wry suspicion of it.”

See a full list of contributors here.

Prime Number Magazine Monthly Contests

hannah ambrosePrime Number is a quarterly online publication of “distinctive poetry and short fiction that takes readers to new places, introducing them to interesting characters, situations, and observations.” A publication of Press 53, the editors enjoy engaging writers in two monthly contests: the Prime Number Magazine Flash Fiction Contest, which is a low-cost ($7 – a prime number) reading fee with a prime number first prize of $251, and the 53-Word Story Contest, which is free (is 0 a prime number?) and comes with a prompt.

Both winners are published in future issues of the publication.

Winners currently featured are Flash Fiction “Interrogation” by Michael Chin and 53-Word Story “Dance on my Grave” by Hannah Ambrose [pictured].

Terrain.org 8th Annual Contest Winners

Winners of the Terrain.org 8th Annual Contest in Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry each receive $500 in addition to publication. Finalists are awarded $100 and publication.

jennie goodePoetry Winner
Judge Robert Wrigley
“Tying a Tie” and “Airborne”, two poems by Edward Harkness
Finalists: Poems by Ellery Akers, Deborah Fass, and John Pass.

Nonfiction Winner
Judge Nicole Walker
“Ghost Trees” by Jennie Goode [pictured]
Finalists: “What Remained” by Kristina Moriconi and “Northern Wardens” by Alisa Slaughter

Fiction Winner
Judge Padma Viswanathan
“N-Place Exiting” by Thomas Ausa
Finalist: “The Stilled Ring” by Luther Allen

Read more about the winning works here. The contest re-opens in January 2018.

Lit Mag Covers :: Picks of the Week

into the void“The Cowards” by French photographer Iva Iova on the cover of Into the Void #6 is from her series, The Remains , of which she writes, “The last decade held a concentration of questionable political and social events. [. . . ] A population raised and educated to be Deaf, Cowards and Heartless.”

salamanderKikki Ghezzi‘s oil on linen entitled “Snow Flake” is featured on the cover of Salamander #45 with a full-color portfolio of more of her works inside the issue. She writes, “My paintings are increments of time and increments of marks and strokes in a meditative moment. They are the time of a walk, the time of process. The kind of ‘glow”’ time in my paintings is infinite in both directions, outward in accumulated, immeasurable brush strokes and inward towards a glow point.”

oneOil on canvas “21 August 2017” by Lynn Boggess invites readers into the December issue One  online poetry magazine, which features a “Second Look” section in which writers discuss poems they admire. This issue’s Second Look is Patrick Kavanagh discussing The Great Hunger.

 

CFS: “Bearing Arms: Responding to Guns in American Culture”

The Editors at Broadsided Press write:

Broadsided

We have, according to the constitution, the right “to keep and bear arms” in the United States. But how, in the wake of Las Vegas, Pulse, Sandy Hook, Trayvon Martin, and other abuses of firearms—by citizens and in some cases by those trained to protect and serve—do we bear that right? How do we bear it?

At Broadsided, we believe that art and literature belong in our daily lives. They inspire and demonstrate the vitality and depth of our connection with the world. We had to speak out—we had to make a space for you to speak out—on this issue as part of our ongoing “Broadsided Responds” feature.

We put out a call to visual artists asking for submissions. Work came from all over the country, in all media. Powerful, provocative, dynamic work. Guest Arts Editor Stacy Isenbarger selected six pieces that offer a range of attitudes, aesthetics, and opportunities. Of her decision, Stacy has this to say:

How do we confront that of which we already hold tightly? Collectively, these chosen works offer a dimensional conversation of this weighted issue. Some may suggest a boundary of societal judgement, but they don’t necessarily reveal what side they are one. Instead these pieces offer evolving space. They welcome an opportunity for viewers to discuss how we bear that which touches our lives.

We now ask you to respond with words to six works of visual art by Sandra Cohen, Jonathan Frey, David Kamm, Osceola Refetoff, Dixie Salazar, and Kristen Woodward.

See full images and guidelines here.

When you submit your writing, be sure to be clear as to which piece you are responding.

DEADLINE: December 27, 2017.

 

Glimmer Train Craft Essays December 2017

sophie chen kellerThe December 2017 Glimmer Train Bulletin is a fun read this time around, with an eclectic mix of craft essay written from teachers and authors, some of whose works have recently been published in Glimmer Train Stories.

Author of the novel The Luster of Lost Things , Sophie Chen Keller’s [pictured] essay, “On Writing from a Child’s Perspective for Adults,” is a topic I have often tried to better understand as a reviewer assessing others’ writing;. This was an instructive perspective to read, as Keller asks, “But how to manage that voice while keeping the novel from becoming a book for younger readers – especially when my inspiration for plot and tone was  those books for younger readers?”

For essays on writing and revision, University of Chicago Professor Will Boast offers his advice on “Cutting Out the Bad Bits,” while Andrew Porter, Associate Professor of Creative Writing  at Trinity University in San Antonio writes on “The Long First Draft.”

And, in these volatile times, Iranian-American writer Siamak Vossoughi comments on “The Political Lives of Characters,” noting the decision writers face: “Political beliefs can matter a lot, in stories and in life, and they can not matter at all. [. . . ] A writer only runs the risk of being preachy or dogmatic if he or she makes a character of one political belief less three-dimensional and human than that of another.”

The Glimmer Train Bulletin  is free to read online each month here, or have it delivered monthly to your inbox.

 

 

2017 Janet B. McCabe Poetry Prize

Ruminate Winter 2017 features the 2018 Janet B. McCabe Poetry Prize recipients awarded by judge Shane McCrae:

maggie blake baileyFirst Place
“Elizabeth Asks” by Maggie Blake Bailey
[pictured]

Second Place
“Bookend Quote from Bro. Yao” by Amanda Hawkins

Honorable Mention
‘”All These Months Since Your Diagnosis” by Emily Ransdell

Finalists whose works are also included in the issue: Jen Stewart Fueston, Dante Di Stefano, Janine Certo, Mason Henderson, Jake Crist, Jehanne Dubrow, Kerri Vinson Snell, Charity Gingerich, John Sibley Williams, Berwyn Moore, and Mark Wagenaar.

Lit Mag Covers :: Picks of the Week

leaping clearOne of the cover images, “Lotus Buddha” by Christine DeCamp, for the online publication Leaping Clear is reflective of its mission, to promote “accomplished artists whose work is informed by dedicated meditative and contemplative practices.” There is more from DeCamp and other visual artists and writers in the Fall 2017 issue.

river teethThe cover image of the fall 2017 issue of River Teeth: A Journal of Nonfiction Narrative is a gorgeous waterfall photo from White Mountains, N.H. by David FitzSimmons.

concho river reviewTim L. Vasquez of Untamed Photography offers a seemingly surreal image for the cover of the fall/winter 2017 Concho River Review.

Speculative Fiction in Translation by Women

rachel s cordascoSpeculative Fiction in Translation (SFT) “often flies under the radar, despite the fact that it is an important part of the speculative fiction universe,” writes author and editor Rachel Cordasco in her introduction to a special section of “Speculative Fiction in Translation By Women” in Anomaly 25. While “SFT has been growing in popularity over the last few years,” Cordasco notes that, “like the publishing world as a whole, the world of SFT is often dominated by male authors.”

Her selection of included works highlights some of what she feels are the best female authors writing speculative fiction in languages other than English, offering readers a variety of stories and styles. In addition to this, Cordasco started SFinTranslation.com, a site on which she indexes SFT, reviews works, and posts news and interviews relative to SFT. Cordasco herself is working on translating Italian SF.

Poetry Celebrating The Prompt

st louis poetry centerThe December 2017 issue of Allegro Poetry Magazine online features poems that “celebrate that perennial feature of poetry workshops and courses: The prompt.” Editor Sally Long writes, “Poets were invited to describe the prompts that gave rise to their poems. The result is an issue that not only includes some amazing poetry but also a selection of ideas that will hopefully inspire new poems.” Contributors include Sarah Law, Bill Brown, Kersten Christianson, Rick Blum, Cathryn Shea, Lisa Stice, Charles Rammelkamp, Cat Campbell, Andrew Turner, Helen May Williams, Harry Youtt and more.

Lit Mag Covers :: Picks of the Week

georgia reviewIt’s hard to get the full effect of the Fall 2017 The Georgia Review cover art, which features work by poet and photographer Rachel Eliza Griffiths printed on mirror metallic stock.  A portfolio of her work and essay, “What Has Changed,” is included in the issue, with an introduction by Jenny Gropp.

field

An untitled enamel on plywood by Mose ” Mose T” Tolliver attracts readers to the Fall 2017 issue of Field: Contemporary Poetry and Poetics.

cincinnati reviewLove love love Mary Jo Karimnia‘s work, which she describes in her Artist’s Statement, “I draw in the backgrounds and enhance certain areas with glass beads. Cropped purposefully to omit faces, the images – such as teenagers in costumes at cosplay conventions, dancers in Bolivia, and Catrina icons at a Day of the Dead festival – emphasize how costumes can allow us to explore alternative personae in an anonymous way, which helps us to learn about our past or to imagine a future in which the acceptance of eccentricities is the norm.” The Cincinnati Review Winter 2018 includes her work on the cover as well as a portfolio inside.

Tribute to Alden Nowlan

alden nowlanThe Autumn 2017 issue of The Fiddlehead features “Remembering Alden Nowlan.” Poet, novelist, and playwright Nowlan passed away in 1983, and this past fall, Goose Lane published the Collected Poems of Alden Nowlan. Fiddlehead  Editor Ross Leckie writes, “It is an occasion for a celebration of Nowlan’s remarkable achievement. In this issue of The Fiddlehead  readers will find a brief appreciation by David Adams Richards and a previously unpublished interview with Nowlan conducted just before his death by two intrepid high school students [Corinne Schriver and Carmen McKell].”

2017 Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction Winner

Katie FlynnKatie M. Flynn’s “Island Rule” is the winner of the 2017 Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction selected by Richard Bausch. Her work appears in the Fall/Winter 2017 issue of Colorado Review.

In her Editor’s Note, Stephanie G’Schwind writes, “Every fall, we have the true pleasure of publishing the winning story of the Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction. This year, it’s Katie M. Flynn’s ‘Island Rule,’ in which an environmental biology professor is haunted by memories of the surreally accelerated evolution and ensuing political violence that expelled her, as a child, from her island home. Final judge Richard Bausch calls it ‘a very strange, audaciously original and convincing story that arrives at metaphor; it partakes of Kafka, being so matter-of-factly realistic .’ It’s a wonderful, daring story, richly deserving of the prize.”

Teaching Wallace Stevens

wallace stevens journalThe Fall 2017 The Wallace Stevens Journal is a special issue focused on “Teaching Stevens.”

The volume includes “Reflections by Poets” from Rachel Hadas, James Longenbach, and Lisa M. Steinman as well as poetry by Josepth Duemer, William Virgil Davis, Sharon Portnoff, Navlika Ramjee and more. Several of the essays focus on global contexts, such as teaching Stevens in Israel, Belgium, China, Sweden, and Portugal. Other essays include:

“Valuing Stevens’s Acts of Imagination” by Charles Altieri
“Stevens and Race: ‘Like Decorations in a Nigger Cemetery’ Revisited” by Marvin Campbell
“Stevens’s Poetics of Variation as a Guide for Teaching” by Lisa Goldfarb
“Casting for Keener Sounds: How to Make Difficult Poetry Fun Again” by Alex Streim, Zachary Tavlin
“As if Blackbirds Could Shape Scientists: Wallace Stevens Takes a Seat in the Classroom of Interdisciplinary Science” by David J. Waters
“Mountain Climbing in the Poetry Classroom in Malta: Teaching a Stevens Metapoem” by Daniel Xerri

The Wallace Stevens Project Muse website includes a full table of contents as well as previews of each article and full access for subscribers.

 

Lit Mag Covers :: Picks of the Week

the boiler“Dying of the Already Dead” by Gloria Ceren is featured on the cover of the online fall 2017 issue of The Boiler along with additional works within the publication.

zone threeBilly Renkl’s “Watching the Sky #2” collage of antique British chromoolithographs is the cover art for v32 n2 of Zone 3 literary journal. Renkl says of his work, “Vintage and antique paper can be surprisingly beautiful, and I find the way that it carries its history with it moving.”

poet loreThe front cover of Fall/Winter 2017 Poet Lore features a photograph of Coyote Bluffs, Arizona by Ariel Body of Live Laugh Design.

Rattle 2017 Poetry Prize Winner

rayon lennonThe Winter 2017 issue of Rattle features the $10,000 winner of their 2017 Poetry Prize, “Heard” by Rayon Lennon [pictured]. The ten contest finalists also appear in this issue with the chance to be selected by subscribers for the $2,000 Readers’ Choice Award. Ballots, along with subscription information, are available in the publication itself. This year’s finalist poets are Barbara Lydecker Crane, Kayla Czaga, Emari DiGiorgio, Rhina P. Espaillat, Troy Jollimore, Nancy Kangas, Ron Koertge, Jimmy Pappas, Kirk Schlueter, and Alison Townsend.

2017 Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers Winners

kenyon reviewThe Kenyon Review Nov/Dec 2017 issue features winners of the 2017 Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers. This award “recognizes outstanding young poets and is open to high school sophomores and juniors throughout the world. The contest winner receives a full scholarship to the Kenyon Review Young Writers workshop.” Winning entries can also be read online here.

First Prize
Eileen Huang: “Movie Scene on a Highway Shoulder”

Runners Up
Daniel Blokh: “Family Portrait with Lost Map”
Isabella Victoria: “Clemente Curls”

The Malahat Review 50th Anniversary

the malahat reviewPublishing since 1967 from the University of Victoria, The Malahat Review is one of Canada’s leading literary journals. Editors since its inception have included Robin Skelton, John Peter, Constance Rooke, Derk Wynand, Marlene Cookshaw, and currently John Barton (since 2004).

Originally subtitled “An International Magazine of Life and Letters,” The Malahat Review  now focuses on Canadian and international poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. The publication’s website also features book reviews, interviews, contests, podcasts, and publishing tips – a bimontly guest column in which authors share how to improve professionals skills: “from the writing of cover letters, to what house style means, to choosing a rhyming dictionary, to having an author photo (as opposed to a selfie) shot.”

Happy Anniversary Malahat! Here’s hoping for another great half-century to come!

New Lit on the Block :: The Indianapolis Review

the indianapolis review fall2017The Indianapolis Review is a new online quarterly of poetry and visual art supporting the growth of new voices in the literary scene in Indianapolis and beyond. Founder and Editor in Chief Natalie Solmer and Associate Editor Rachel Sahaidachny started the publication “to give back to the poetry and art world by curating a platform to showcase poets and artists. We desire to create connections among writers and artists in our community and around the globe. In our own publishing experiences, we’ve seen there is always a need for venues to publish new work.”

Continue reading “New Lit on the Block :: The Indianapolis Review”

Books :: 2017 University of Iowa Press Fiction Award Winners

university of iowa press 2017 fiction winnersThe University of Iowa Press published the winners of the 2017 Iowa Short Fiction Award and the 2017 John Simmons Short Fiction Award last month.

Matthew Lansburgh’s Outside is the Ocean, winner of the Iowa Short Fiction Award, was chosen by Andre Dubus III, who calls the linked collection “mesmerizing” as it “explores, among other things, the tenuous tie between mother and son, between the Old World and the New, between what was and what is.”

Winner of the John Simons Short Fiction Award, What Counts as Love by Marian Crotty, is “sensual, brave, and wonderfully evocative” as Crotty  examines“the seemingly tattered nature of love, taking us deeply into the varied lives of her characters and making us care for them all.” The nine stories follow people—most often young women—searching for human connection, their stories touching on themes of addiction, class, sexuality, and gender.

Stop by the University of Iowa Press website to learn more about the awards and winning titles.