For 50 years, EVENT has published the very best in contemporary new poetry and prose as one of Western Canada’s longest-running literary magazines. EVENT welcomes submissions written in English from around the world and features emerging and established writers side-by-side. EVENT also prints commissioned illustrations alongside the writing, and each cover features the work of a British Columbia photographer. In its newest issue, readers can find Poetry by Marc Perez, Angela Hibbs, Joel Robert Ferguson, Janet Bartier, Gordon Taylor, Robbie Chesick, Sarah Lachmansingh, Matt Rader, Jonathan Focht, Lisa Baird, Gillian Wigmore Fellows, James Scoles, Martin Heavisides, Michaela Morrow; Fiction by MJ Malleck, Jen Currin; Non-Fiction by Sandy Pool, Tricia Dower, Jason Jobin; several reviews, and cover art, “Casa Wabi,” by Douglas Hampton (2022) with illustrations throughout by Nora Kelly.
The November 2022 of Poetry, the publication of the Poetry Foundation, includes numerous works by Will Alexander in the special feature “Will Alexander: Poet-As-Spectrometer” introduced by Johannes Göransson along with an interview of Alexander by Jenna Peng. Also included in this volume are works by Troy Osaki, C. Dale Young, Austin Araujo, Wingston González, Julian Randall, Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon, Raquel Salas Rivera, Carl Phillips, Gabrielle Bates, Adam Wolfond, Liliana Ponce, Tina Chang, Torrin A. Greathouse, Tariq Luthun, and Taneum Bambrick. All content is free to read online in addition to many other poetry resources for readers, writers, and teachers.
The Gay & Lesbian Review / Worldwide (The G&LR) is a bimonthly magazine of history, culture, and politics targeting an educated readership of LGBT people and their allies, publishing essays in a wide range of disciplines as well as reviews of books, movies, and plays. The newest issue celebrates “50 years ago, a mental illness was abolished,” with essays “The Kerouac Century” by Hilary Holladay, “The Curious Case of Gordon Merrick” by Andrew Holleran, “Thom Gunn, A Poet on the Move” by Alfred Corn, “Rise and Fall of the Medical Model” by Vernon Rosario, “”The Vote That ‘Cured’ Millions” by Barbara Gittings, “Inside the APA’s Decision to Delist” by Lawrence Hartmann, and “How Psychiatrists Came Around” by Jack Dresher. The publication also includes a slew of reviews as well as poetry, opinions, correspondence, and cultural calendar info. Visit their site to read limited content as well as for subscription information.
Created by and for LGBTQ+ writers and readers, Foglifter Journal aims to continue the San Francisco Bay Area’s tradition of groundbreaking queer and trans writing, with an emphasis on publishing those multi-marginalized (BIPOC, youth, elders, and people with disabilities). Publishing biannually in print with features published online on a rolling basis, the newest issue (7.2) features works by George Abraham, David Aloi, Andy Bandyopadhyay, Keally Cieslik, Lydia Elias, Elliott Gish, Ira Goga, Rigoberto González, Chinedu Gospel, Edward Gunawan, William Hawkins, Gina Hay, Nora Hikari, Mika Judge, Wenmimareba Klobah Collins, Zoe Adrien Lapa, Angelina Luo, D. Keali’i MacKenzie, Vuyelwa Maluleke, Avra Margariti, Sadie McCarney, Leslie McIntosh, Stephen S. Mills, Mallory Muratore, Chelsie Blair Nunn, Troy Oko, Claire Oleson, Molly M. Pearson, Hernan De La Cruz Ramos, Nnadi Samuel, Danie Shokoohi, Sun Tzu-ping, Alex Vigue, Syd Vinyard, Ashley Wagner, Cassandra Whitaker, Nicholas Wong, and Simone Zapata.
Their website also includes The Queer Syllabus, edited by Wesley O. Cohen and Marisa Siegel. This is a joint project with The Rumpus that allows writers to nominate works for a new canon of queer literature. “When we identify our roots, when we point to the work that shaped us as writers and as people, we demonstrate that our stories are timeless, essential, and important—and so are we.”
In a wide-ranging conversation that headlines the newest issue, World Literature Todaycelebrates Ada Limón being named the 24th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. With this latest passport to great reading, the editors are also excited to launch an ambitious new editorial initiative to offer a greater number of shorter pieces to help further diversify the magazine’s coverage and facilitate reader engagement from a wider variety of cultural angles. Through literature, music, film, food, and art, WLT is finding more ways than ever to connect you to the global cultural landscape of the 21st century. This issue features fiction by Dacia Maraini and Alit Karp, poetry by Lea Nagy, Beth Piatote, Persis Karim, and Beau Beausoleil, essays by PL Henderson and Mónica Lavín, creative nonfiction by Lin Yi-Han and Philip Metres, as well as a Symposium on Octavio Paz and an interview with Xochitl Gonzalez, with lots more “mini” content as promised!
NewPages welcomes Olympe, a new online publication of global writing, visual art, and photography by women ages 16-24 that “describe the female experience and explore what women’s issues are relevant” to each contributor.
The concept for Olympe came about as a result of the Kravis Center for Performing Arts‘ “Changemakers: Global Women/Global Issues” workshop at the beginning of 2022. The editors got to know one another during this workshop while exploring women’s issues through lessons from Dr. Susan Gay Wemette where they created projects as a team. After that event, the team put what they had gained from those projects into creating Olympe as a way to bring awareness to women’s issues and amplify women’s voices as they share their stories through writing and art.
Fleas on the Dog is a collective of writers/editors publishing content for “those who are on the avant garde and outside the box,” with the newest issue (12) “dedicated to the Ukrainian saviours and the radical activist freedom loving spirits who have been so unjustly silenced by the monstrous machinery of petty, malevolent governments.” All content can be read for free online, and readers can find over seventy works of fiction, interviews, poetry, plays, and screenplays. The next issue is due in January 2023; no-fee submissions are open.
The Common, the award-winning literary magazine based in Amherst, MA, is opening its ninth annual Author Postcard Auction on November 7, 2022. Authors will write and send postcards in time for the holidays! This unique online auction gives book lovers from around the world the opportunity to bid on handwritten, personalized postcards from their favorite writers. The Common, whose mission is to deepen society’s sense of place through literature and nurture the careers of new and international writers, is directly benefited by proceeds from the auction. They support payment to and mentorship of emerging authors as well as The Common’s post-grad editorial fellowship.
2022 Postcard Auction Authors: Rumaan Alam, Rabih Alameddine, Gina Apostol, Christina Baker Kline, Alison Bechdel, Matt Bell, Alexander Chee, Tara Conklin, Jennifer Croft, Edwidge Danticat, Anthony Doerr, Esi Edugyan, Jennifer Egan, Kali Fajardo-Anstine, Craig Finn, Jonathan Franzen, Neil Gaiman, Andrew Sean Greer, Lauren Groff, Joe Hill, Leslie Jamison, Hari Kunzru, Fran Lebowitz, Min Jin Lee, Megha Majumdar, Elizabeth McCracken, Natalie Merchant, Claire Messud, Christopher Moore, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Tommy Orange, Julie Otsuka, R. J. Palacio, Ann Patchett, Jonathan Safran Foer, George Saunders, David Sedaris, Jim and Karen Shepard, Amanda Shires, Lynn Steger Strong, Elizabeth Strout, Donna Tartt, Jeff Tweedy, Anne Tyler, Claire Vaye Watkins, Chris Ware.
Fictive Dream is an online magazine for short stories (500-2500 words) that give an insight into the human condition. The publication features stories “with a distinctive voice, clarity of thought, and precision of language. They may be on any subject. They may be challenging, unsettling, uplifting, cryptic but, above all, they must be well-crafted and compelling.” The publication accepts submissions on a rolling basis and publishes one story every Friday and Sunday. Recent contributors include Gary Duncan, D.P. Snyder, Mike Fox, Len Kuntz, Douglas A. Wright, Sandra Arnold, A. J. Ashworth, and Jo-Anne Cappeluti. Fictive Dream also hosts the annual Flash Fiction February, featuring new flash throughout the month. Submissions are open to works 200-850 words until December 31, 2022.
Exposition Review is an independent, multi-genre literary journal that publishes narratives by new, emerging, and established writers in the genres of fiction, flash fiction, nonfiction, poetry, scripts for stage & screen, film, experimental narratives, visual art, and comics. The newest issue (Vol. VII) is themed “Flux” which means to “capture moments of change—gradual and sudden, subtle and profound, intensely personal and immensely public.”
Readers can find Fiction by Laura Freudig, Sara Landers, Mandy Shunnarah, Bernard Steeds, Kylee Webb; Flash Fiction by Carolyn Oliver, Cathy Ulrich, Lucy Zhang; Nonfiction by Jodi Scott Elliott, Charles Jensen, Achiro Patricia Olwoch (DREAMing Out Loud Contributor), Tania Perez Osuna; Poetry by Marianne Chan, jason b crawford, Lynda V. E. Crawford, Stephanie Kaylor, Alejandra Medina (WriteGirl Contributor); Stage & Screen by F. J. Hartland, Uma Incrocci, Alec Silberblatt; Experimental Narratives by Zachary Guerra, Kathryn Stam; Visual Art & Comics by ARTARIANICA (the collaborative effort of Jessy Randall and Briget Heidmous), Dmitry Borshch, Roger Camp, Meg Reynolds, Rebekah Scotland, Lorna Simpson, Film by Nate Hapke, Flora Rees-Arredondo; and an interview with Justin Chang,
Published online four times per year from the Department of English at Trevecca Nazarene University, Cumberland River Review has held a prominent name for itself among our great reading recommendations. Accepting submissions from September – April with a response time of three months, now is the time to read up and decide if this is a good venue for your work! This most recent issue features poetry by Garret Keizer, Austin Segrest, Therese Gleason, Grant Clauser, Anna Girgenti, Jane Qwart, John A. Nieves, Kelsey D. Mahaffey, Elisabeth Murawski, and Jeff Hardin, with artwork (Cloud Shadow) by Chuck Thomas.
Publishing nonfiction prose only, bioStories offers submission guidelines that help writers focus their craft on what the editors are looking for, and express the understanding that “real life is messy,” yet acknowledge: “human nature is idiosyncratic and frequently contradictory, and, quite often, when you look close enough, it is downright graceful.” The publication features a weekly essay on its homepage and prints two issues each year. Recent online contributors include Alisa Vereshchagin, Jane Frances Hacking, Elizabeth Bird, Alden S. Blodget, Joseph O’Day, Mary Ittelson, James Seawel, Liza Wieland, and Rhiannon Koehler.
Established in cooperation with the University of Chicago Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation in 2000, The Awakenings Review is one of the nation’s leading literary reviews entirely committed to publishing the works of artists, writers, and poets with mental illness. The Awakenings Review looks for submissions from writers and poets who have a distinct relationship to mental illness-either self, family member, or friend. The hard-copy journal publishes original poetry, short stories, dramatic scenes, essays, creative nonfiction, photographs, interviews, excerpts from larger works, and black-and-white cover art.
The Fall 2022 issue features works by Bibhu Padhi, Zac Walsh, Liza Potvin, Pauline Milner, Arya F. Jenkins, Zan Bockes, Eileen Coughlin, Sandy Olson Hill, Louis Girόn, Lloyd Jacobs, Gerard Sarnat, Raymond Abbott, Skye Gill, Eoin Begley, Alan Sugar, Murray Alfredson, Aileen Shaw, Jennifer Cimmerian Urbanek, Benjamin Robinson, Julia Morris Paul, Christine Andersen, Janice O’Mahony, Kate Marshall, Marie Marchand, Elizabeth Kerlikowske, Tricia Himmel, A.L. Gordon, Joshua Gage, George Drew, Joyce Cote, Cierra Corbin, and Mohineet Kaur Boparai in a free, online reading format.
Beginning in 2023, The Awakenings Review will be published twice a year – once in the spring and once in the fall. Submissions are free and open year-round via email as well as USPS.
Enjoying the final long days of sunshine here in the midwest, Spoon River Poetry Review Summer 2022 issue is just out. Each year, SRPR selects an Illinois-featured poet pairing to include as an extended feature of new poetry by one poet from the pair, while the other poet conducts an interview with the poet on their writing, matters of craft, and contemporary poetics. This year, the pairing is poetry by Tara Betts with an interview of the poet by Bryanna Lee. Also in this issue is new poetry by Rodrigo Flores Sánchez translated by Robin Myers, Ryan Clark, Michael Boccardo, Cynthia J. Patton, Emad Bashar translated by Bryar Bajalan and Shook, and many more. The SRPR Review Essay is “Redefining Our Futures: Recent Abolitionist Poetic Practice” by Allison Serraes, who reviews books by DaMaris B. Hill (A Bound Woman Is a Dangerous Thing: The Incarceration of African American Women from Harriet Tubman to Sandra Bland), Mahogany L. Brown (I Remember Death by Its Proximity to What I Love), and Shayla Lawz (speculation, n.). Cover art by Alondra Cervantes.
“I started to narrate my choking to myself, as if transforming it into a story would keep me connected to a future in which I might tell it.”
Ben Lerner’s New Yorker short story, “Café Loup,” describes, in an almost comedic manner, the narrator’s fear of dying, his skepticism regarding the circumstances surrounding death, (how his family would react if he passed, the manner in which it happened, et cetera), life regrets, and the concept of mentally postponing his own demise. The piece opens, “When I became a father, I began to worry not only that I would die and not be able to care for my daughter but that I would die in an embarrassing way. . . ” In the story, the narrator chokes on a piece of steak at a restaurant, and in the first few moments, he looks back on his life. Readers get glimpses of his past, his values, his inner turmoil, and his regrets through Lerner’s use of exemplary imagery with each of his rambling – though always connected – thought loops. One of the more important elements highlighted in this piece was his relationship with his daughter, and how he felt that he deserved to die in the cafe because he wasn’t adequate enough or somehow deserved it. It truly highlights that we cannot afford to take any moment for granted, for we do not choose our time.
“Café Loup” by Ben Lerner. The New Yorker, 29 Aug. 2002.
Reviewer bio: Sade Frame is a Hawaii resident who is an aspiring recording artist and avid book reader.
Many literary ventures begin in response to some need, and in doing so, become a vital component in building a literary community. Rivanna Review is just such a venture. Founder and Editor Robert Boucheron took a look around him and comments on what he observed, “Charlottesville is a university town, a hotbed of readers, and home to many writers, yet it lacked a publication for books, book reviews and literary news. Rivanna Review is here to fill the gap. It exists ‘for your reading pleasure.’ At the same time, it promotes small presses, American writers, and Virginia.”
Indeed, the name itself is reflective of its community, as Charlottesville is located on the Rivanna River, a tributary of the James. But writers and readers, know that contributors to the magazine come from around the globe and write about “places far and wide.” The most recent issue invites readers “to visit small town New England, downtown Atlanta, rural Highland County, Virginia, the Silk Road in Kazakhstan, a high school in suburban New Jersey, and the shadow world of hoaxes, malls, and Bigfoot.” Some recent contributors include Lynne Barrett, Jonathan Russell Clark, Maxim Matusevich, Ed Meek, Lisa Johnson Mitchell, Karl Plank, Christine Sneed, and Lucy Zhang.
The newest issue of The Apple Valley Review online literary magazine has been released. Readers can enjoy short fiction by Emmanuel Nwafor, K. A. Polzin, Conor Barnes, and Magda Bartkowska; creative nonfiction by Yuko Iida Frost; and poetry by Eric Braude, Tina Blade, Miriam Levine, Paul Dickey, Devon Brock, Hedy Habra, and Matthew Johnson. Cover artwork by Japanese woodblock printmaker Hasui Kawase. Founded in 2005 by its current editor, Leah Browning, The Apple Valley Review is published in the spring and fall, and submissions are open on a rolling basis with no fee for short stories, flash fiction, personal essays/creative nonfiction, poetry, and prose poetry.
Dreams of relationships past and romances dead are a bittersweet experience; a haunting reminder of what almost was and a bubble of joy amidst otherwise bleak times. In Sydney Vogl’s “In January, My Body Becomes a Graveyard of Want,” the willful delusions of our dreamer manifest in the form of a lost lover.
Vogl delivers a hauntingly charming image of a willfully ignorant romance, which sneaks by the problems present in their bond rather than addressing them. “i don’t want to / talk too loud. i’m worried one of us will wake up. / we walk by a field of tulips & i almost notice / each one is shaped like an open wound, but i don’t.” They happily ignore the disturbances of their flower field, choosing to not address things in fear of waking the other up to the problems present.
It’s a gripping narrative that almost inspires a yearning to experience love and loss so strongly it haunts my dreams. “i wake up / alone. it’s february.” is a line piercing in its finality but perfectly embodies the loneliness and sense of grief that causes her dreamscape to feel like a graveyard.
The Fall issue (27.1) of The 2River View online poetry magazine is now available, with new works by Sara Ries Dziekonski, Anon Baisch, Blair Benjamin, Daniel Bourne, Brian Builta, Andrew Cox, Nicelle Davis, Michael Hettich, Sharon Venezio, Patricia Whiting, and Jane Zwart. Published online quarterly, The 2River View accepts submissions on a year-long rolling deadline calendar. The magazine is available to read free online and can also be downloaded as a PDF or in a “Make the Mag” format that can be reproduced for traditional print reading – great for classroom use, teachers! 2River also publishes eChapbooks that can also be read online or downloaded (“Chap the Book”) in a book-layout format. Recent chaps include The Lingering Would by Simon Anton Niño Diego Baena (October 2022) and One Hundred Moving Parts of Love by Lenny Dellarocca (September 2022). There is also a short video of each author reading from their collection. Visit 2River View today and dig in!
I feel as though I know Chestnut Review almost better than any other literary magazine out there because of how much they are constantly doing both in the larger literary community and in creating a community of “stubborn artists” of their own. In addition to their quarterly, online publication and print annual, they are currently planning a January retreat in Mexico (one spot left at the time of this writing) and another in North Wales in June. They also offer affordably-priced (because I’ve seen the gamut) workshops for drop-in writing, NaNo, chapbook editing and publishing, submissions and editorial processes, flash fiction, professional series topics, and more. And right now, they’re holding a raffle (free to enter) to win an exclusive call with editor Maria S. Picone along with their Free Feedback Friday Twitter drawings. So much going on! But let’s not forget the reason for this post – the Fall 2022 issue! It opens with a conversation with Seif-Eldeine Och, Poetry Chapbook Winner, and Mark Blackford, Chapbook Editor, and includes prose, poetry, and art by Mike Yunxuan Li, Noel Cheruto, Eileen Tomarchio, Lana Hall, Rachel Lastra, Maya Hersh, Abduljalal Musa Aliyu, Isibeal Owens, Njoku Nonso, Jessie Zechnowitz Lim, Claire Scott, Guy D’Annolfo, Biswadarshan Mohanty, Joan Kwon Glass, Taylor Yingshi, Denny Marshall, Lindsey Grant, Matina Vossou, and Kelly Sargent.
The newest issue of the online quarterly Radar Poetry is a celebration of the winner and finalists of their annual Coniston Prize, an annual award that recognizes an exceptional group of poems by any poet who identifies as a woman writing in English. This year’s judge was Dorianne Laux, and she selected the following:
Winner: Amy Miller
Finalists: Kenzie Allen, Jessamyn Duckwall, Jenny Grassl, Abi Pollokoff
Radar Poetry 34 features several works from each poet, rounding out the entire issue. Submissions for the next Coniston Prize are open from June 1 – August 1, 2023. The 2022 winner received $1000 and each finalist received $175. In 2022, during the first seven days of contest submissions, Radar Poetry waived fees for BIPOC poets. For more information about the upcoming contest as well as general submissions, visit the Radar Poetry website.
NewPages receives many wonderful literary magazine and alternative magazine titles each month to share with our readers. You can read more about some of these titles by clicking on the “New Mag Issues” tag under “Popular Topics.” Find out more about many of these titles with our Guide to Literary Magazines. If you are a publication looking to be listed here or featured on our blog and social media, please contact us!
2River View, Fall 2022 The Apple Valley Review, Fall 2022 Awakened Voices, Issue 14 The Awakenings Review, Fall 2022 Baltimore Review, 2022 Bellevue Literary Review, Fall/Winter 2023 bioStories, October 2022 Blue Collar Review, Summer2022 Bomb, Fall 2022 BoomLitMag, VII.1, 2022 Brilliant Flash Fiction, September 2022 Catamaran, Fall 2022 Chestnut Review, Fall 2022 Cholla Needles, 71 Cholla Needles, 70 Cleaver, Issue 39, Fall 2022 Club Plum, 3.4 Copper Nickel, Fall 2022
In “The Hill,” poet Lena Moses-Schmitt offers readers a short, beautiful experience into pure unadulterated emotion of what it feels like to love something or someone so much, but to then lose it, and in the process of dealing with that loss, find yourself once again. The poem begins:
I remember I used to receive love letters from him and found them so pleasurable I could only read in quick gulps, trying not to get brain freeze, skipping whole phrases so that they slid straight down the back of my throat.
“The Hill ” spoke out loud in a way to say to the reader that it is okay to feel like you are on top of the world, or in this case top of the hill, as Moses-Schmitt continues,
I reached the top and cried with no warning. I used to be very new to myself and now I was accustomed to everything. How embarrassing.
But, as the work concludes, sometimes you have to come back down and make sure to not lose yourself in that process.
“The Hill” by Lena Moses-Schmitt. 32 Poems, No. 39, Summer 2022.
Reviewer Bio: Kekoa is a student of the literary arts looking to further his knowledge and understanding of the abundance of forms.
Founder and Editor of Club Plum Literary Journal, Thea Swanson, opens the fall 2022 issue on a somber note, “I wish I could introduce this year’s Literary Horror issue, Volume 3, Issue 4 of Club Plum, with something light, paying homage to breath-stopping make-believe horrors that entertain or instruct, or nodding to wondrous non-horror works, bringing it full circle to this issue. But we are in the midst of real horror that I must speak to instead: Schoolgirls are being murdered for refusing to wear cloth over their heads. There is so much to say here–volumes and millennia to say here–but I will only say a breath’s worth, a hijab’s worth, just one layer of the many heavy truths one piece of material contains, and it is this: the head-covering is a lie. A trick. To make one think a certain way [. . . ] I speak from experience. In a previous life, I wore a head-covering at a church for all the reasons women do this, for all those reasons imposed on us as we are brainwashed, as women are plugged into categories.” Read the full introductory remarks here.
While we do create our own horrors to entertain this time of year, there is a poignancy to many of the pieces within, perhaps reflections of the real-life horrors others cannot escape. Readers are invited to access Club Plum online and delve into works by Paige Swan, Marina Giacosa Esnal, Lalini Shanela Ranaraja, J. M. Bédard, Archangel Belletti, Salena Casha, Jacob Kamp, Noah Cohen-Greenberg, Macy Lu, Wilson Taylor, Julie Bolt, Sarah DiSilvestro, and Irina Tall Novikova.
Publishing in an open access online quarterly format, The Writing Disorder welcomes readers to their Fall 2022 issue featuring fiction by Don Donato, Richard Evanoff, Stephanie Greene, Christina Phillips, Em Platt, Richard Risemberg, Robert Sachs, and Dvora Wolff Rabino, poetry by Gale Acuff, C.L. Bledsoe, billy cancel, DeWitt Clinton, Mark DeCarteret, Megan Denese Mealor, and Stephanie Russell, nonfiction by Stephen Abney, and Greg Sendi, Risa Denenberg’s review of The Land of Stone and River by Claudia Putnam, and the art of R.S. Connett. Submissions of fiction, poetry, nonfiction, art, reviews, interviews comic art, and experimental work are welcome year-round, and the editors add that they would like to see more poetry, long fiction, nonfiction, artwork, and interviews. So – step up writers and contribute to the disorder!
Although the online Red Rover Magazine is fairly new and has only produced one annual issue in Winter 2021, what they have holds deep messages for those who need them. I was particularly drawn to the poem “valleys to the heart” by Marciel Laquindanum, which speaks of how there are those who have gone through similar situations before:
there i saw in the reflection of the river people who found their emotions and cried because they saw them for the first time . . .
But also, how they were (and now the speaker is) able to find their way through the hardships that filled their short lives:
and at that moment i knew
those before me needed to cross the valley to see what was in their heart so now i walk through this valley with their flowers in my hand ready to see what is in mine
Red Rover is a publication focused on mental health but does not limit itself to works of “well-being as a product.” Rather, the editors “are more interested in works that inspired well-being as a process.”
As a resource for those who are dealing with mental issues, magazines like Red Rover show that they are not alone, what they are going through is normal, and there are people out there who have gone through similar situations. Having magazines with a mental health and well-being focus allows people to have creative outlets to share their stories through poetry, photos, and fiction. It gives them a sense that they are not alone and perhaps gives them the strength to move forward in their life so they can also assist someone else who is lost.
Red Rover is currently accepting submissions through October 31, 2022, for its second issue.
The editors of Waterwheel Review online literary magazine open the October 2022 issue with these words: “We’re exploring beauty and loss in Issue 20. Anne Myles pushes hard in ‘An Origin Story’ on the relationship between truth and beauty; when is truth forever ugly, she asks, in a story about loss. ‘Bloom’ is a master class by Elana Wolff on how to weave beauty from a meditation on the details of ordinary life—’We’re all just passing through here,’ she says, so let’s not grow weary of gazing at trees. The portrait of ‘Sarah’ from Christina Rauh Fishburne is beautiful, too, and a paean to the loss of what might have been. Each of these three pieces makes loveliness from something broken. Beauty as defiance.” The publication along with full archives is free and open access online. Submissions are open year-round with a response time of three months. “No labels” all genres accepted and encouraged by the editors’ comment, “We hope authors will take advantage of our refusal to define what we publish, and send us un-name-able bits and pieces.”
RCC MUSE Literary Journal is open to submissions of poems about a child or childhood for their 2023 Holden Vaughn Spangler Award. Winner receives $200 and publication in the Spring 2023 issue.
Many creatives lament not having time to “create” and the nagging feeling of void it wedges into our daily lives. No longer willing to suffer the absence, Melissa Martini founded Moss Puppy Magazine, an open-access online and print-on-demand biannual of poetry, prose, and artwork.
The name is unique, but indicative of Martini’s joyful approach, “The Moss Puppy is a creature I imagined many moons ago with the intention of creating my own vivid world of critters similar to Neopets or Pokemon. Moss Puppy has stuck with me through the years, and when I decided I wanted to start my own literary magazine, it only seemed fitting to name the magazine after her. She has a few other friends who may make appearances within the magazine’s lore in the future, too!” If it’s difficult to imagine what a Moss Puppy might look like, the publication ran a fanart contest this year asking readers to spark their imaginations. The resulting gallery is a fun stop on the site to visit.
Martini’s own commitment to the literary community started early, as she recounts, “I was the co-editor-in-chief of my high school’s literary magazine, and it was the highlight of my high school career. From reading submissions to designing issues, I couldn’t get enough. When I graduated high school and started college, one of the first things I did was find out if there was a literary magazine – and I joined the team as soon as I could. I eventually became co-editor-in-chief of that magazine, too, taking publishing courses as I learned the ropes of running a more serious publication.”
Martini continued her education to earn a bachelor’s in creative writing and a master’s in English, and that’s when the void began. “After graduate school, I started a full-time job and no longer found myself shuffling through stacks of submissions. After two years of having that hole in my heart, I quit my job and decided to start Moss Puppy Magazine. Editing a literary magazine is an incredibly fulfilling job; I feel as though I was meant to be an editor, consistently seeking out the role in each chapter of my life.”
For writers, this means they can expect professional and respectful treatment of their submissions, as Martini explains, “Throughout the week, submissions are made available to our team of readers. Over the following week, we read and discuss submissions from the previous week, finalizing our decisions within two weeks of receiving submissions. I then send out responses each Sunday.”
Martini asked the Moss Puppy Magazine submissions readers what they look for. Veronica Jarboe, one of the Poetry Readers, stated: “I, personally, look for authenticity and that one unique thing that makes the work stand out from all the rest. I look for work that stays with me long after I’ve read it, which means I know it had an effect on me in some way.” Prose Reader Shelby Petkus echoed this, adding: “I also feel like we’re all very similar in our judgment of writing quality, so I think we have really well-written works we select.” Laura Bibby, who serves as both a Poetry Reader and a Prose Reader, also agreed, noting that she enjoys “written pieces that work in the theme in unique and inventive ways.”
Knowing what Moss Puppy wants for its readers adds further insight, as Martini comments, “I initially advertised Moss Puppy as housing the ‘weird, muddy, and messy.’ I still think that’s pretty accurate. Between myself and my team, we tend to lean towards pieces that get us talking to each other – pieces that rustle our emotions. Readers can expect pieces that flirt with darkness, have comedic undertones on occasion, dabble in sadness while appreciating the sunshine, and aren’t afraid to get lost in the woods.” Some recent contributors who satisfied this expectation include Beth Mulcahy, Bex Hainsworth, Charlie D’Aniello, Rachael Crosbie, Matthew McGuirk, Arden Hunter, Linda Hawkins, Rick Hollon, Melissa Flores Anderson, Anna Lindwasser, and Catie Wiley.
It’s hard to imagine leaving one path in life to pursue another, and Martini offers a balanced reflection on this: “The greatest joy I have experienced with Moss Puppy so far is the release of Issue 1: Swampland. I was absolutely blown away by the response. Each tweet and retweet put a smile on my face, and I watched as so many writers shared that their work was featured in the issue. People were complimenting each other’s writing, having engaging conversations, and I put that issue together all on my own – that was before I had a team. I was struggling with feeling like a failure for quitting my full-time job and pursuing a passion project that made me no money – but when I saw the response to the first issue’s release? I knew I’d made the right choice.”
Forging ahead to continue making it the best decision, Martini is positive about the future of Moss Puppy, “I would love to expand on Moss Puppy’s lore, explore her world a bit more, and incorporate additional characters into her story. This may be through pop-up issues, chapbooks, contests, workshops, and more. I have a lot of ideas I want to look into, but nothing is set in stone just yet.”
For future submissions, each issue of Moss Puppy has its own theme. Issue 1 was Swampland, Issue 2 was Puppy Love, and Issue 3 is Blades. Martini will be announcing Issue 4’s theme on Twitter once they reach 4,000 followers. At the time of publication, Moss Puppy had 3867 Followers, so c’mon people! @mosspuppymag
The Common, the award-winning literary journal based at Amherst College, is announcing an open call for writing submissions from the farmworker and farm laborer community—the migrant, seasonal, and often immigrant laborers who make up much of the US agricultural workforce—to be published as a special portfolio in the fall of 2023.
The Common invites work from current and former farmworkers of all ages, as well as those raised in farmworker families who experienced the stories and effects of this work through their parents or other relations. This portfolio offers space to work that voices the diversity of farmwork and farmworkers and their wide range of experiences: the physical, emotional, and financial struggles, the dangers and injustices, but also the rituals and celebrations, and the profound strength, skill, ingenuity, and resilience that are essential to this life.
This portfolio will be edited in collaboration with guest co-editor Miguel M. Morales, a Lambda Literary Fellow and an alum of VONA/Voices and of the Macondo Writers Workshop who grew up in Texas working as a migrant and seasonal farmworker.
Submissions close February 1, 2023. Payment for accepted work is $200 for prose pieces and $40 per poem.
Though the leaves are turning their fall colors, there is still plenty of summer left to enjoy in the latest issue of The Courtship of Winds online literary journal publishing fiction, nonfiction, poetry, art, and drama twice each year. Featured contributors to the newest issue include Duane Anderson, Cynthia Baker, Amita Basu, Ralph Bland, Holly Day, Nickolas Duarte, S.C. Ferguson, Joan Gelfand, Carol Graser, Michael Green, John Grey, Cordelia Hanemann, Paul Ilechko, Rimah Jabr, Mark Jacobs, Alec Calder Johnsson, Tiffany Jolowicz, Judy Klass, Sandra Kolankiewicz, Christopher Kuhl, Stephan Lang, Tracy A. Lightsey, Naomi Ruth Lowinsky, Richard Luftig, R. Nikolas Macioci, Rex McGregor, Güliz Mutlu, Yvette Naden, Stephen Policoff, Paige E. Reecer, John Repp, Daniel Sundahl, Robert Wexelblatt, Anne Whitehouse, and Arnie Yasinski. Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis for each of the two yearly issues.
Always free to all readers with no paywall, the newest issue of Cleaver: Philadelphia’s International Literary Magazine is waiting for you! This issue features Stories by Madeleine Gavaler, Amy Savage, Suphil Lee Park, Andrew Vincenzo Lorenzen, Hannah Garner, Candice Morrow, and Kim Magowan; Poems by John Schneider, Alison Lubar, Lydia Downey, Varun Shetty, and Michelle Bitting; Flash by Josh Krigman, Emma Brankin, Dan Shields, Jeff Friedman, Alison Sanders, and Devon Raymond; Creative Nonfiction by Phil Keeling, Emily Parzybok, and Beth Kephart. Among these contributors are those Cleaver recognizes as “Emerging Artists” who are under 30 and “still in the early stages of their careers.” Cleaver also regularly offers online generative workshops for writers to find community and grow their craft, in both synchronous and asynchronous formats. Visit their website for more information.
The literary magazine from Riverside Community College MUSE Literary Journal is currently accepting submissions for its 2022 open reading period. They especially looking to publish work from under- or misrepresented groups. Submissions open through December 15.
If you are in the mood to read anything strange and out-of-the-box, Bending Genres is the magazine for you! Issue 28 of Bending Genres has plenty of short genre-mixing (and breaking) pieces of prose, poetry, and everything in between. In “The Grease Ant” by William Musgrove, a man goes about trying to rid his house of grease ants. Only the ants don’t go away, and bit by bit they steal pieces of the man’s life. In “Statue Thinks of Nothing but Murder All Day” by Chelsea Stickle, part short story, part ekphrastic prose, James Pradier’s “Sapho” comes to live in the Musée d’Orsay hell-bent on achieving vengeance. “Kindling” by Keith Powell sees its narrator attempting to live in a house that’s constantly on fire; but the narrator comes to realize that they are steadily being consumed by a “Sisyphean rhythm.” And finally, Lindsey Pharr’s “Circe at the Strip Club” sees its eponymous witch still up to her old tricks in a modern setting.
At times heartbreaking, and heartfelt, Bending Genres’ short works are utterly memorable. For those who wish to find examples of how to mix genres, craft, and form, Bending Genres is the perfect venue to display such experimentations.
Nonprofit Third Street Writers has announced they are launching their very own literary magazine – Third Street Review. They are currently accepting submissions for the inaugural issue. They are a paying market and welcome work from writers and artists from all cultural backgrounds and experience levels.
A print annual of “international writings for liberation,” Ganga Review, named for the River Ganga that is an expression of Divine Mother, was inspired by a pilgrimage through India in 2004 wherein the editors “traveled from village to village, seeking to alleviate the sorrows that come with poverty, illness, and plain loss of hope.” In simply flipping through the pages, I was struck by a number of works, and this one in particular resonated with my own locus of need. Perhaps it will serve others as well:
SAY IT by N. Mimmick
The Hopi word is sipala, which requires little articulation and no teeth. It is almost a whisper as is the Hindu shantih, the Persian sula, the English peace.
With over 200 pages of fiction, essays, poetry, interviews, translation, and fine art that represents diverse faiths and cultures from around the world, contributors include Emily Adair, Faiz Ahmad, Essam M. Al-Jassim, Paul Bamberger, Sacha Bissonnette, Richard Alan Bunch, Steve Carr, Jeffrey S. Chapman, Holly Day, Joe De Quattro, Tejan Green, Marlon Hacla, Ghaliya Hasan, Claudia Hinz, Lidia Kosk, Danuta E. Kosk-Kosicka, Andrew Lafleche, Linda Lamenza, Edward Lee, Xiaoly Li, Catherine Lieuwen, Diego Luis, Charles J. March III, Megan McGibney, Jack Brendan Miller, N. Minnick, Kristine Ong Muslim, Ayaz Daryl Nielsen, Sarah Odishoo, Scott Pedersen, Christina Petrides, Patrick Pfister, Fabrice Poussin, Richard Risemberg, Andrew Ross, Michael Salcman, Rema Sayers, Mary Shanley, Paul Smith, Don Stoll, Bradley R. Strahan, and Mercury Marvin Sunderland.
Applause is an international undergraduate literary journal. They are currently seeking submissions of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, art, and cross-genre work for Issue 33: (In)Evitable Ending. $3 fee. They are a paying market.
Trick or Treat? The Halloween issue of Southwest Review is all literary treats with fiction by Edmudo Paz Soldán (tr. Jenna Tang), Angela Sylvaine, Marina Perezagua (tr. Miriam Tobin), Noelle De La Paz, Cristhiano Aguiar (tr. Zoë Perry), Adrian Van Young, Carolina Rodriguez Mayo, Gabriel Carle (tr. Heather Houde), José Natividad Ic Xec (tr. Nicole Genaille), Makenzy Orcel (tr. Nathan H. Dize), Susan L. Lin, Natalia García Freire (tr. Victor Meadowcroft), Antonio Díaz Oliva (tr. Lisa Dillman), Óscar Molina V. (tr. Julia Sanches), Jesse Bullington, Gabriela Damián Miravete (tr. Robin Myers), Gabino Iglesias, Victoria Buitron (tr. Sarah Blanton), Alexis Dubon, Jac Jemc, and Alex Luceli Jiménez, and poetry by Leira Araüjo (tr. Katherine M. Hedeen and Olivia Lott), Lillian Hochwender, Susan Cronin, and Carlos Cortés (tr. Pili Cuairán).
Carve Magazine has announced they are accepting submissions of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for their 2022 Prose & Poetry Contest. Online submissions only ($17 fee). This year’s guest judges are Maurice Ruffin, Thirii My Kyaw Myint, and David J. Daniels.
The newly launched ISSUED: Stories of Servicesis accepting submissions of stories by active-duty military, veterans, and family members in the form of poetry and flash prose. Appropriately, the deadline is Veteran’s Day, November 11, 2022. Editors hope for works that express the “spectrum of experiences within military life, including gender and sexuality, BIPOC voices, physical and mental health combat, enlisting and separating, family and relationships, and reintegration into society.” The publication also welcomes visual art in any genre. ISSUED is supported by the Office for Veteran and Military Academic Engagement at Arizona State University. For more information and submission guidelines, visit the publication’s website.
Publishing quarterly online on the last day of January, March, June, and September, there’s still plenty of time to enjoy the newest Brilliant Flash Fiction, featuring works by CJ Erick, Emma Louise Gill, Karthik G. Nambiar, Abha Iyengar, John Salter, Mary Sloat, Barbara Kurzak, Danny Riordan, Joe Baumann, and Michael Harper. Brilliant Flash Fiction welcomes submissions of stories of1000 words or less and pays $20 per piece accepted.
A “Journal of Progressive Working Class Literature,”Blue Collar Review Editors never shy away from work that addresses some of our society’s most pressing concerns. This newest issue is no exception: “The contributors in this summer issue understand the growing threat of competitive corporate dominance, of fascism and war, especially in this time of climate emergency. Close to 80% of working people support universal healthcare, climate action, voting rights, and women’s reproductive freedom. These priorities are subverted by corporate media and politicians funded by big business interests whose priorities are legislated at the expense of our freedoms, our health, and the future of life on earth. Democracy, unlike fascism, is defined by authentic public participation. Getting there from here is a continuing struggle upon which our rights and existence depend. [. . . ] This issue [of Blue Collar Review] completes twenty-five years of publication. We are grateful to be able to continue doing our part to demonstrate and encourage a mindset of social and class solidarity necessary to our struggle for a livable world and for authentic democracy.” Sample works from the most recent issues can be read online at Blue Collar Review.
As the newly established editor of this long-standing publication, Poetry Magazine, Adrian Matejka welcomes readers with an ethusiastic Editor’s Introduction, expounding on all the ways she had intended to drive the content to “showcase the beautiful confluence of voices in contemporary poetry” and “to offer an idea of what Poetry might look like in the future.” Instead, Matejka admits, she “began this job in a convergence of ignorant and well-meaning ambition,” and she has no reservations in sharing this, as “one of the things you’ll get from me while I’m an editor here is transparency of process and editorial proclivity.” Tempering the ambitions, Matejka assures, “Instead of trying to curate a single issue celebrating the 110th year of Poetry, we are using this historic issue to begin a multi-year, long-form interrogation of the magazine’s complicated archive in hopes of illuminating some of the brilliant poets who weren’t given access in the previous decades. You get to see the beginning of that excavation in this issue as we highlight the gorgeous work of Carolyn Marie Rodgers, author of numerous books, cofounder of Third World Press, long-time Chicago resident, and a vital Black poet whose work never appeared in the pages of Poetry until now.”
Other poets whose works are featured in this issue include Adrian Matejka, Alex Dimitrov, Dāshaun Washington, Martín Espada, Ruth Ellen Kocher, Yusef Komunyakaa, Karyna Mcglynn, Trevor Ketner, Edgar Kunz, Eugene Gloria, Victoria Chang, Myronn Hardy, Winniebell Xinyu Zong, Ladan Osman, and Diane Seuss.
Deadline: December 10, 2022 Pangyrus announces its first Fiction Contest. Calling all writers of short stories! The contest is an open theme and the judge is novelist Jennifer Haigh. Cash prizes and publication for the top three winners! Please see Pangyrus‘s Fiction Contest 2022 Submittable page or view flyer for more details.
Want to get our eLitPak opportunities delivered straight to your inbox? Subscribe today!
The newest print issue of THEMA features works in response to the premise, “Get it over with!” Contributors include Lynda Fox, Linda Berry, Bill Glose, June Thompson, Ruth Holzer, Lisa Timpf, Margaret Pearce, Melanie Reitzel, R.G. Halstead, Jesse Doiron, Marica Bernstein, Melinda Thomsen, Matthew J. Spireng, Beverly Boyd, Linda McMullen, Dana Stamps, and Ojo Moses. For each THEMA issue, the premise must “be an integral part of the plot, not necessarily the central theme but not merely incidental.” Submissions can include prose, poetry, artwork, and B&W illustrations. Upcoming themes include “So THAT’S why” (deadline 11/1/22) and “Help from a stranger” (deadline 3/1/23). Visit THEMA for more information.
Cozy into fall with the newest issue of New England Review. Whether exploring the mystery of fever and illness, violence in a synagogue, or a father or mother moving into the past tense, the pieces within frequently take on ultimate things through the earthy particular. A special feature, “Mirroring Practice: Poets Respond to Jasper Johns,” includes new poems by Rick Barot, Khadijah Queen, Cole Swensen, and Brian Teare, written in response to a recent Jasper Johns retrospective. Sushil Lee Park translates Korean women poets from previous centuries, and essays explore cities and wilderness past and present, from a police station in Lagos to the streets of Berlin to Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee. Plus new work by a dozen poets and fiction writers. Browse the full table of contents here. Single copies are available as well as subscriptions.
New England Review dedicates this issue to the memory of Marcia Parlow Pomerance, their steadfast, beloved managing editor from 2013 to 2021, who devoted herself to NER with patience, precision, good humor, and abiding compassion.
New online and NFT-based literary magazine Megacity Review has announced its inaugural writing contest offering up to $1,000 prize for a fiction or nonfiction story. Deadline to enter work is November 15.
The newest issue of Rain Taxi Review of Books includes an interview with Ryan Blacketter by Arthur Shattuck O’Keefe and an interview with Hillary Leftwich by Zack Koppl. There are also articles readers can enjoy: “Elements of the Icelandic Saga” by Emil Siekkinen, “The New Life” a comic by Gary Sullivan, and “On Writing in Public and Helping the Public Write” by Eric Elshtain, in addition to dozens of reviews of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and comics.
Radon [rey-don] noun Chemistry + Journal [jur-nl] noun Literature
[entry] what happens when a group of highly educated people with more than fifty years writing experience and twenty-five years in publishing get tired of not seeing their interests represented so create a journal combining libertarian socialism with science fiction.
Initially launched without a masthead, “afraid of potential blowback against a sci-fi anarchist journal of expression,” Radon Editors now reflect, “nothing except love has come our way, and we are proud to provide a professional venue for authors of all forward-thinking stripes.”
Publishing mid-January, May, and September, Radon Journal focuses on science fiction, anarchism, transhumanism, and dystopian literary arts, though they do also look for professional digital artwork for each issue. Stories are available for free reading and download, and they will also provide any requested digital format to their patrons.
The name Radon comes from the publication’s motto: “Radical Perception.” By taking the first three letters and the last two, the editors “forged a snappier name to rally behind. That the word Radon is also a known radioactive gas is simply a delightful coincidence.”
Eking out the final days of summer, there’s still time to enjoy The Malahat Review‘s newest issue, featuring Novella Prize winner Jenny Ferguson’s “Missing,” along with Poetry by Amy M. Alvarez, Jes Battis, Heather Birrell, Rose Henbest, Meghan Kemp-Gee, Michael Kenyon, Louie Leyson, Lauren Marshall, Jordan Mounteer, Heo Nanseolheon and Lee Okbong (both translated by Suphil Lee Park), K. R. Segriff, and Kenneth Tanemura; Fiction by Martha Nell Cooley; Creative nonfiction by Daniel Allen Cox and Jen Hirt; and Reviews of books by Lee Gowan, Steven Heighton, Tomson Highway, Helen Humphreys, Sarah Mintz, Leah Ranada, and Diane Tucker, as well as three anthologies AfriCANthology: Perspectives of Black Canadian Poets, Me Tomorrow: Indigenous Voices on the Future, and Best Canadian Poetry 2021. Cover art by Jinny Yu.
