Find the latest news from literary and alternative magazines including new issues, editorial openings, and much more.
This issue’s Plume featured selection includes an interview with Teri Ellen Cross Davis by Leeya Mehta, as well as work by the poet. John Wall Barger reviews That was Now, This Is Then by Vijay Seshadri. In nonfiction find A Frozen Present: D. Nurkse on the Language of Fascism and “The Land of Magic.”
Issue #18 is Into the Void‘s most packed issue ever, 10% bigger than previous issues. The eye-catching cover image “Sub Seb 2” by Chalice Mitchell would really spice up your bookshelf. Inside the cover: fiction by Anne Baldo, Nim Folb, Eloise Lindblom, Karl Plank, Ash Winters, and more; creative nonfiction by Grace Camille and Bill Capossere; and poetry by Annie Cigic, Daun Daemon, Roy Duffield, Rebecca Faulkner, Molly Fuller, Beth Gordon, Chana G. Miller, and others.
Hole in The Head Review begins their second year with this new issue. Visit for new work by Tim Benjamin, Richard Jones, S. Stephanie, Connor Doyle, Ashley Mallick, Larkin Warren, Eva Goetz, Ron Riekki, Beth Copeland, Roger Camp, Heather Newman, Tom Barlow, Dennis Herrell, Lily Anna Erb, Dick Altman, Glen Armstrong, Erin Wilson, Yoni Hammer-Kossov, Matthew Moment, Cynthia Galaher, Lisa Zimmerman, Christy Sheffield, Tilly Woodward, and more.
Issue 212 of Cimarron Review features poetry by Michael Marberry, Robert Bharda, Emily Grelle, Adam Day, Ellen Cantrell, Jennifer Met, Morgan Hamill, Ben Aguilar, Carolyn Adams, Kim Kent, Donna Reis, and more; fiction by Toby Donovan, Rachel Hall, Thomas H. McNeely, and Abby Frucht.
The “Fame and Obscurity” issue with poetry by Emily Pettit, Maia Seigel, Elizabeth Hughey, Jacob Montgomery, Oni Buchanan, Kathleen Ossip, Anne Marie Rooney, Jose Hernandez Diaz, jayy dodd, Catherine Pierce, Rob Schlegel, Ed Skoog, TR Brady, Ryo Yamaguchi, and more; fiction by Cynthia Cruz, Stuart Nadler, Lucy Corin, Bonnie Chau, and others; and nonfiction by Elisa Albert, Kelle Groom, Craig Morgan Teicher, Kirsten Kaschock, and more. More info at the Bennington Review website.
In the Fall/Winter 2020 issue of Concho River Review, two ekphrastic poems can be found one after the other. First is “Abraham Preparing to Sacrifice His Son” by David Denny about Marc Chagall’s “Abraham Preparing to Sacrifice his Son, According to God’s Command,” and the second is “Telephone in a Dish with Three Grilled Sardines at the end of September” by Paul Dickey about Salvador Dali’s painting which the poem is titled after.
Denny’s poem describes Chagall’s piece and then slides the focus out of frame, to those not pictured. The speaker states, “[ . . . ] while the men / play out their little dramas of heaven and earth, / it’s those left out of the official portrait that make / the real sacrifices.” Denny then paints a picture of Sarah, Abraham’s wife, imaging the heartbreaking grief one would feel seeing her husband “tie her beloved boy to the saddle, / tuck his best knife into his belt.” I enjoyed this focus on the emotion the portrait fails to include.
Dickey’s poem questions the meaning of Dali’s painting again and again, walking us through the detail as his attention slips from one to the next. While Denny focuses on what’s not in the portrait, Dickey becomes focused on discovering what is presented to us and what it means.
These two poems work as great companion pieces for one another, well-placed within the pages of this issue.
Review by Katy Haas
Featuring gorgeous cover art from Raqs Media Collective, new work from Eileen G’Sell, Albert Goldbarth, Noah Davis, John Sibley Williams, and the winner from our 2020 Curt Johnson Prose Awards, art from Brian Dettmer and Ebony Paterson, and much more. Read more info at the december website.
Welcome to the “Food Work” issue. Katherine Barrett urges us to think more about essential workers. Cairistiona Clark, Moni Brar, Kathy Mak, Carmen Wall, Christine Pennylegion, and Chantal Martineau pen poems on the theme. Read more at the Understorey website.
The February issue of The Lake features Edward Alport, Holly Day, Mike Dillon, William Ogden Haynes, Katherine Hoerth, Paul McDonald, Gordon Meade, Jill Sharp, J. R. Solonche, John L. Stanizzi, J. S. Watts, Emma Wells, Sarah White. Reviews of Colin Carberry’s Ghost Homeland, Paul Summers’ the dreamer’s ark, and Jennifer McGowan’s Still Lives with Apocalypse.
This issue of Cumberland River Review features new poetry by Jane Zwart, Paul Hamill, Alex Aldred, Merrill Oliver Douglas, Mary Elizabeth Birnbaum, Al Maginnes, Lauren Claus, Julia Wendell, David O’Connell, and Emily Light. Fiction by Ben Penley. Artwork by Chris Gwaltney.
Creative Nonfiction #74: “Moments of Clarity” features stories of sudden realizations, things that can’t be unsaid, and power dynamics laid bare: a seventeen-year-old flirts her way into trouble; a daughter’s offhand remark shatters a family’s fragile peace; an employee quietly decides HR’s focus on diversity is actually kind of racist, and more.
In this issue: fiction by Tom Murphy, Doug Ramspeck, Terry Sanville, and Ken Wheatcroft-Pardue, and nonfiction by Paul Juhasz, Jeffrey Lockwood, John Robinson, Rachel Schiel, and Steve Wing. Read more at the Concho River Review website.
In the newest issue of Brilliant Flash Fiction find fabulous flash fiction by Ravibala Shenoy, Avra Margariti, Jihoon Park, Kelsey Englert, Joe Farley, Tim Seyfert, CG Miller, Hannah Whiteoak, Yunya Yang, and Taylor Rae.
Adroit 36 is a brilliant collection of work—elegiac in its nature—both hopeful and loud in its grief. Poetry by Angelo Nikolopoulos, Ocean Vuong, Martha Collins, D. A. Powell, Ellen Bass, Alex Dimitrov, Tariq Thompson, Aurielle Marie, Nomi Stone, and more; prose by Ghinwa Jawhari, Blake Bell, Robert Long Foreman, Ethan Chatagnier, Steffi Sin, and Ben Reed; and art by Gyuri Kim, L.I. Henley, Connie Gong, and Tianran Song.
Magazine Review by Katy Haas.
The Fall 2020 issue of The MacGuffin is the Formal Poetry Issue featuring 43 formal poems. The issue is introduced by retiring Poetry Editor Carol Was. Sonnets, pantoums, villanelles, quatrains, and more make up the poetry portion of the issue.
Among these is “Coyote in Town,” a sestina by Marla Kay Houghteling. The speaker wakes one night to see a coyote through their window in the city, their new home not as removed from the “wild / watchers” as they once thought. This poem reads easily, both the reader and the speaker stalked by wildness and shadows throughout the piece.
In Terry Blackhawk’s villanelle “No Callous Shell,” the poetry speaks to Conrad Hilberry and wonders if she can even write a villanelle. This is a fun, good-humored poem that felt relatable thinking back to my own questionable attempts at penning a form poem.
The poets in this issue, however, have all done a great job of taking on form poems, introducing me to forms I was unfamiliar with and serving inspiration to maybe try my own hand at writing one again.
Don’t forget that besides having its six print issues a year, literary magazine The Kenyon Review has a separate online component called KROnline which is published every two weeks and features innovative fiction, poetry, and essays.
The January/February 2021 KROnline is now available. The issue features three poems by Jenn Blair; “Hello, Walt Whitman” by Siamak Vossoughi; “A River Passes By Here” by Caroline Tracey; “Elation” by January Gill O’Neil; “Man Goes to Check” by Libby Flores; and “The Pupil” by Lesley Jenike.
Need more from Kenyon Review? How about checking out “Poetry Today: Emma Hine and Ignacio Carvajal” by Ruben Quesada. The Poetry Today series features living poets answering questions about poetry and poetics. You’ll get a short bio, an introduction, their thoughts on poetry’s potential, and information about their latest releases.
The Kenyon Review has so much to offer readers and writers! Don’t forget to subscribe to their journal and stop by their website for their frequent digital content.
New on Terrain.org this month, find poetry by John Daniel, Robert Wrigley, Eric Pankey, Natasha Sajé, Jenifer K. Sweeney, and Naila Moreira with photos by Stephen Petegorsky; nonfiction by Christine Byl and Deborah Schillbach; fiction by Caprice Garvin; and an interview with Rob Carney by Jackson Reed.
“We Are Worthy” is the theme of this issue of Kaleidoscope. Our featured essay is “Wrap Me Up and Tie It with a Bow” by Shawna Borman. Author Marilyn Slominski Shapiro writes with vivid imagery in her story, “Rejoice the Archangel Raphael!” Judi Fleischman shares creative nonfiction, “My Man George.” This issue contains our first lyric essay, and our first publication of a drabble. In poetry, anxious thoughts are “Intruders” in the mind of Mari-Carmen Marin. You’ll find many other stories, personal essays, and thought-provoking poems that reflect the experience of disability and life in the midst of a pandemic. Cover art by Philadelphia street artist Blur.
This issue of Carve features eleven stellar writers. In the short fiction and accompanying interviews: Vincent Anioke, Toby Lloyd, Stephanie Macias Gibson, and James A. Jordan. Also in this issue, we celebrate Stacy Trautwein Burns’s publication of “Shelter Break” in Ruminate. In Gustavo Hernandez’s poem, we reach toward the future. In Rose Auslander’s, we consider tactility and embodiedness. We also sit with Kerry James Evans’s meditation on I, and Robert Carr’s billowing loss. Emily Breese writes on familial bonds. And finally, in a conversation with Anita Felicelli: illuminating thoughts about reality and identity, song and story, social norms, societal relationships, and simultaneous conflicting truths. Read more at the Carve website.
The Winter 2021 issue of The 2River View features new poems by Kate Wylie, Marissa Ahmadkhani, Roger Camp, Jessica Dionne, Ryan Keeney, Lisa C. Krueger, Al Maginnes, January Pearson, Stan Sanvel Rubin, Ralph James Savarese, and Rachel Stempel, with winter photography by Kilian Schönberger.
Magazine Review by Katy Haas.
Holly Day has two pieces of work in the Fall 2020 issue of Tipton Poetry Journal. “The Last Days of the Flu” are rich with imagery as Day describes that feeling of breathlessness when sick: “gears almost catching but slipping again and again.”
“The Day the Leaves Start to Change” builds a church up around the reader and we’re suddenly sitting in a pew, watching a preacher react to a bird flying overhead.
Each poem ends with a stark finality. While they each cover separate subjects, the endings draw them together, unmistakably written by the same poet with the ability to craft a strong poetic ending. Both are lovely reads.
Visit Tiger Moth Review for art and literature that engages with nature, culture, the environment, and ecology. In this issue: Cheryl Julia Lee, Neeti Singh, Anna Morris, Anne Yeoh, Pooja Ugrani, Sekhar Banerjee, Ian Goh, Marie Scarles, Rea Maac, Lorraine Caputo, Guna Moran, Ernest Goh, Joe Balaz, Turner Wilson, Peggy Landsman, Chris Johnson, Ashwani Kumar, Crispin Rodrigues, Tammy Lai-Ming Ho, Jaxton Su, Gail Anderson, Lucas Zulu, and more.
Sky Island Journal’s stunning 15th issue features poetry, flash fiction, and creative nonfiction from contributors around the globe. Accomplished, well-established authors are published—side by side—with fresh, emerging voices. Readers are provided with a powerful, focused literary experience that transports them: one that challenges them intellectually and moves them emotionally.
The Jan/Feb 2021 issue of the Kenyon Review is available now. This issue marks the beginning of Nicole Terez Dutton’s editorial stewardship of the renowned journal. Some of the many pleasures to be found include stories by the winners of the 2020 KR Short Fiction Contest—Janika Oza, Steffi Sin, and Stanley Delgado.
We’re excited to bring you the first issue of the year! The January-February 2021 edition features 14 pieces of creative nonfiction; our selection of essays and flash CNF includes: Sayuri Ayers, Chris J. Bahnsen, Jessica Power Braun, Emily Cluff, and more. See a full contributor list at the Mag Stand.
Our Winter Issue is now available in free download! Featuring work by fifteen amazing artists as well as the winners of our Stubborn Writers Contest: Maurya Kerr, Jen Ashburn, Dan Reilly, Sara Pirkle, Teal Fitzpatrick, Jasper Oliver, Cyn Nooney, Lazar Trubman, and Teddy Engs. See what else can be found in this issue at the Chestnut Review website.
Issue 66 of Brevity is here! Find nonfiction by Jesse Lee Kercheval, Elena Passarello, Sonja Livingston, Ira Sukrungruang, Kate Hopper, Melissa Stephenson, Anne Panning, Hiram Perez, Noah Davis, Laurie Klein, Lizz Huerta, Francis Walsh, Tyler Orion, Dorian Fox, and Michael McAllister.
In the issue of Zone 3 (Fall 2020): nonfiction by Hadil Ghoneimj, Steven Harvey, Kathryn Nuernberger, and more; fiction by Scott Brennan, Mary Louise Hill, Sarah Layden, Nathan Moseley, and others; and poetry by Ellery Beck, Jennifer Brown, Jesse DeLong, Jose Hernandez Diaz, Andrew Johnson, Arden Levine, Matt McBride, Leah Osowski, Charlie Peck, Marlo Starr, Dan Veach, and more. Cover art by Jiha Moon.
This issue of Tipton Poetry Journal features forty poets from the United States (17 different states) and five poets from Australia, Ireland, Italy, Nigeria, and Ukraine. Work by Claire Scott, Julie L. Moore, Liz Dolan, Jeanine Stevens, Holly Day, Paul Daniel Lee, Janet Jiahui Wu, and more.
Southern Humanities Review features nonfiction by Taylor Bororby and Ceridwen Hall; fiction by Nicole Baute, Torrey Crim, Gloria L. Huang, and Megan Kakimoto; and poetry by Celia Bland, E. G. Cunningham, R. M. Kinder, Daniel Lassell, and more.
The MacGuffin’s Fall 2020 issue spotlights formal verse. In all, nineteen different forms are featured from poets across the map, near and far. From sonnets to sestinas, pantoums to clerihews, all connoisseurs of the written word will find something to delight in. Our usual selection of fiction and nonfiction is interspersed, with personal essays from Nadia Ibrahim and Gretchen Clark, tales of loss—though not the same—from Dave Larsen and Trisha McKee, and a look at two quite different families from Shirley Sullivan and Bethany Snyder. Rounding out this issue is the colorful work of Nicholas D’Angelo.
Issue 88 of The Louisville Review features poetry, short fiction, and (K-12) poetry. Poetry by Peter Grandbois, Simon Perchik, Laurie Welch, Maxima Kahn, John A. Nieves, Jason Tandon, Laine Derr, Tyler King, Margarita Cruz, and more. Fiction by Stan Lee Werlin, J. A. Bernstein, Jim Bellar, Lori Ann Stephens, Jen McConnell, and others. One book review by Mary Popham, and in the K-12 Cornerstone section: Kieran Chung, Sofia Dzodan, and Hannah Slayton.
The Fall 2020 issue features poetry by Augusta Funk, nonfiction by Ania Spyra, poetry by Lucien Darjeun Meadows, fiction by Josie Sigler Sibara, and poetry by Caitlin Ferguson. See other contributors at the Colorado Review website.
The “Reading the Body” issue is out. Fiction by Emma Pattee, Jonathan Penner, Michele Suzann, Lauren Green, Mahak Jain, and more; nonfiction by Jeremy Griffin, Wyatt Bandt, Jack Lancaster, and others; and poetry by Jacob Boyd, Gina Ferrari, Cynthia Parker-Ohene, Sanjana Nair, Thomas Dooley, Beth Suter, and many more. Read more at the Bellevue Literary Review website.
This issue offers information on the 2021 Prime Number Magazine Awards for Poetry and Short Fiction, with judges Stacy R. Nigliazzo (poetry) and Dennis McFadden (short fiction). You’ll also find our 2020 Pushcart Prize nominees, recent winners of our free 53-Word Story Contest, and poetry selections by our guest poetry editor Lindsey Royce and short fiction selections by our guest short fiction editor Rhonda Browning White.
Stop by this month’s Plume Featured Selection for an interview with Chanda Feldman and Erika Meitner conducted by Sally Bliumis-Dunn. Bianca Stone writes about why she makes poetry comics. Instead of the usual book review section, this month you can see what Plume’s editors have enjoyed reading this year.
The Fall 2020 issue of Glass Mountain features the Robertson Prize winners: Sarah Han Kuo in fiction, Yasmin Boakye in nonfiction, and Stephanie Lane Sutton in poetry. Also in this issue, find art by Martin Balsam, Jailyne España, Rain Mang, and more; fiction by Rain Bravo, Eric Dickey, Caitlin Helsel, and others; nonfiction by Linda Schwartz; and poetry by Danny Barbare, Emily Fernandez, Kathy Key-Tello, Stephanie Niu, and more.
Featured in our latest issue is the 2020 Adrift Contest winning story “Myopic” by Mason Boyles, selected by T. Geronimo Johnson, alongside another story, “Whomp,” by Lynda Montgomery. From the whispers behind grief to the galactic weight of finding a new identity, the poetry in this issue drills into some of mankind’s most intimate desires and conflicts. Read more at the Driftwood Press website.
In the latest issue of The Blue Mountain Review: Poet Lee Herrick delivers heart and fire and Sebastian Mathews writes about melody and technique. Travel with Jeremy Bassetti or spend an evening in Nashville’s Red Phone Booth. Also in the issue: a sit down with Jessica Jacobs and Nickole Brown, Freddie Ashley of the Actor’s Express, and the life and works of Rebecca Evans. Plus, even more fiction, essays, and poetry.
First Kings and Other Stories. Here are three haunting winter tales you’ll be glad you stayed home to read. In these dreamy and introspective stories, award-winning author Morrissey take us to a remote and frigid landscape where blinding white snow and sky are indistinguishable, and those who must venture out to pit their resolve against icy weather lose their way and possibly their senses.
The latest issue of Under the Gum Tree features stories from Caroline Goodwin, Arielle Schussler, Carol Ann Wilson, Lisa Witz, Angela C. Kramer, Andrée Rose Catalfamo, and Nicole R. Zimmerman. Photo essay by Fernando Socorro, and artwork by Skip Lee.
The winter issue of The Shore marks our two year anniversary! It features engaging and moving poetry by Doug Ramspeck, A Prevett, Donald Platt, Jane Zwart, Iheoma Uzomba, Aiden Baker, Jennifer Loyd, Jane Satterfield, Emry Trantham, Dylan Ecker, Trivarna Hariharan, Karah Kemmerly, Su Cho, Laura Minor, Hannah Bridges, Eileen Winn, and more. It also features haunting photography by Ellery Beck.
Rain Taxi Review of Books is proud to cap off its 25th year with our 100th issue. For those who know the magazine, many things about it are the same—issue #100 features dozens of reviews, interviews, and essays by a wide variety of contributors discussing an astonishing array of aesthetically adventurous books. It also includes special features like a full-page poetry comic by Gary Sullivan and a letter from editor Eric Lorberer reflecting on Rain Taxi’s life at this odd but exciting time. See the complete table of contents at our website and join us on the ride!
In the newest issue of Cleaver Magazine find: poetry by Meggie Royer, Amy Beth Sisson, Heikki Huotari, and more; nonfiction by Jinna Han, Christina Berke, Susan Hamlin, Claire Rudy Foster, and others; a visual narrative by Michael Green; short stories by Dylan Cook, L.L. Babb, and Mike Nees; flash by Steve Gergley, B. Bilby Barton, Darlene Eliot, and more; and paintings by Morgan Motes.
Issue Seven is three issues in one—a poetry issue, a prose issue, and an art issue. This is our largest issue to date, filled with art, poetry, and prose from domestic and sexual violence survivors, child abuse survivors, and harassment victims. Work by Taylor Drake, Sky Dai, Emma Jokinen, Elena Fite, Siri Espy, Isabella Neblett, Charlotte Kane, Carly Hall, Melanie Ward, Rachael Gay, Mae Herring, Miriam Leibowitz, Mars Rightwildish, Ranjeet Singh, and many more. We were also fortunate to be able to interview Lori Greene for the issue, who created the artwork for the United States’s first permanent memorial to sexual violence survivors.
For the last issue of 2020 we’re continuing to feature our Remember in November Contest for Creative Nonfiction winner, runner-up, and finalist stories. You can find these at the Mag Stand. Also, in celebration of our Pushcart and Best of the Net nominees, this month’s content also elevates a few of our favorite archived stories back to the homepage.
Magazine Review by Katy Haas.
Not to be missed in Issue 212 of The Malahat Review: “It’s Here All the Beauty I Told You About” by Shane Rhodes.
This piece is an excerpt from a manuscript in progress. In it, Rhodes explores Shane, a 1949 Western pulp novel by Jack Schaefer; the origins of given names; and the ways in which Western novels continue to “obscure and rewrite the history of North American colonization and settlement and the racism that fuels them.”
This excerpt combines written work, cut-outs of overlapping book pages, and handwriting. Rhodes collects copies of Shane and is drawn to “the most abused copies” with writing in the margins, underlined words, browning pages, and this excerpt adopts this feeling of a much-used book. Each page offers something new and arrests the eye, a real treat to read through.
Readers can get an idea of Rhodes’s style by checking out recently published work from the same manuscript in progress in periodicities : a journal of poetry and poetics.
The Fall 2020 issue of Superstition Review features art by Mary Hope Whitehead Lee, fiction by Khanh Ha, nonfiction by Eric Tran, and poetry by Quintin Collins. Plus, Interview Editor Kendall Dawson speaks to Danielle Evans about the meaningfulness of writing, the process of self-questioning, and Zora Neale Hurston.
This issue’s theme is “Food and Memory.” Featured writers include Anne Payne Barker, Jessica Chu-A-Kong, Susan Knox, Angela Borda, Harvey Silverman, Wally Swist, Heather M. Surls, Evelyn Louise May, Tina Blade, Madelaine Zadik, and more. Find more info at the Still Point Arts Quarterly website.
The Fall 2020 issue of Shenandoah features fiction by Rachel Heng, Nathan Poole, Xhenet Aliu, and more; poetry by Samyak Shertok, Stephanie Rogers, Diane Seuss, Ashley M. Jones, John Kinsella, Jen Schalliol Huang, and others; and nonfiction by Leslie Jernegan, J.D. Ho, Lynette Benton, Mason Andrew Hamberlin, and Sarah Beth Childers.
