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Reclamation of a Name

Parhelion - Winter 2020

Magazine Review by Katy Haas

In the latest issue of Parehlion, readers can find a selection of poetry by Sierra Lindsay. In this set of four poems, “The Line Between” especially stood out to me.

In this poem, Lindsay explores her name in three stanzas. The beginning draws readers in and explains the origin of this study: “I get lumps cut out of my breasts & on the hospital   bracelet, last name first.” The second stanza studies the name as it’s used by people she “shouldn’t be         fucking,” and the last stanza focuses on the name as it stands on a workplace name tag as customers question its source. The ending is explosive with its reclamation of her name and the power there, “I will put your name on my / tongue &       make you taste it.”

The layout of the poem makes it even more enjoyable to read, along with Lindsay’s careful construction of language that ebbs and flows.

Kari Gunter-Seymour Talks Trigger Warnings

Sheila-Na-Gig online - Spring 2020Magazine Review by Katy Haas

The Spring 2020 issue of Sheila-Na-Gig online features the winner and honorable mentions of the Spring Poetry Contest. Winner Kari Gunter-Seymour pens the poignant “Trigger Warning.”

In this piece, the speaker’s son grapples with PTSD which worsens in November, the result of time in the military. The speaker’s ability to relate is limited; the closest thing she has is watching her father die, and holding dogs as they’ve died. Throughout the poem she mourns not only her father, but also “the farm boy, the quipster, / the Ren & Stimpy impersonator” who her son used to be before he “boarded the plane, now camouflaged / in anxiety meds and a skeletal body.” I really liked the use of “camouflage” here, an image that not only describes the concealing the person he was, but one that also conjures up military uniforms he once donned.

Gunter-Seymour sums up the message of the poem in two truthful lines, “We don’t get to choose our memories, / they are triggered.”

Unique & Refreshing Poems by Tyler Dempsey

Re-Side Issue 5Guest Post by C.L. Butler

The other day while combing the world of literary magazines I came across something both unique and refreshing. I’m referring to Tyler Dempsey’s two poems most recently published in Re-Side Magazine Issue 5. These pieces use erasure poetry crafted from letters from Dempsey’s brother Travis Dempsey, who has been serving a prison sentence since 2009 in Oklahoma.

His poem “protein” captures the woes of the incarcerated for the outside world to hear. It draws attention to the role of economics in prisons to deal with basic everyday needs like nutrition. In “150MphWinds,” Dempsey points to his brother’s everyday observations. He finds the crux between complex and the dignity of simplicity by again showing what we take for granted.

While Tyler Dempsey is the curator of these poems, the words present a unique voice filled with legitimacy for the reader. It feels as if Dempsey’s brother is talking himself, creating a poetic mirroring of these letters. I chose to review these poems to not only produce more reviews on indie authors, but also to bring the attention of the privileged to the art coming from those with the least amount of civil liberties.

Reviewer bio: C.L. Butler is an African American and Dutch poet, historian, and entrepreneur from Philadelphia based in Houston, TX. In 2017 his poem Laissez Faire was published by The Bayou Review. In 2019 he published academic research with the Journal of International Relations & Diplomacy.

The Greensboro Review – Spring 2020

Greensboro Review - Spring 2020

In this issue: the Robert Watson Literary Prize-winning story, Brendan Egan’s “War Rugs,” and Prize-winning poem, Emily Nason’s “Sertraline,” as well as an Editor’s Note from Terry L. Kennedy and new work from Helen Marie Casey, Will Hearn, Daniel Liebert, Robert Garner McBrearty, Elisabeth Murawski, Maxine Patroni, Alice Turski, and more. Read more at The Greensboro Review website.

The Common- Spring 2020

The Common - Spring 2020

The Common’s Spring 2020 issue released today. Inside the issue: an Arabic Portfolio from Sudan with work by Andel-Ghani Karamalla, Ishraga Mustafa Hamid, Bwader Basheer, Jamal Aldin Ali Alhaj, Mustafa Mubarak, and more. Also in this issue is fiction by Thoraya El-Rayyes, Catherine Buni, Bina Shah, and others; essays by A. Kendra Greene, Suraj Alva, and Tanya Coke; and poetry by January Gill O’Neil, Emily Leithauser, Megan Pinto, Mira Rosenthal, Tara Skurtu, John Freeman, marcus scott williams, and more.

Able Muse – Winter 2019

In this issue, find essays by Edward Lee and Tony Whedon; a photographic exhibit from artists around the world on the theme “Hunt”; poetry by Daniel Galef, Len Krisak, Katie Hartstock,  Hailey Leithauser, and more. Featured in this issue are the 2019 Write Prize for Poetry winners and finalists and the 2019 Write Prize for Fiction Winner. Find a full list of contributors at the Able Muse website.

Wordrunner eChapbooks – 2020

Wordrunner eChapbooks - April 2020

The title and cover art for Wordrunner eChapbook‘s 2020 anthology reflect a future more uncertain than usual, as well as hopefulness as we intend to publish more excellent writing in the next decade. Fiction by Cathy Cruise, Sam Gridley, Ashley Jeffalone, Lazar Trubman, and more; nonfiction by Lisbeth Davidoff, Kandi Maxwell, and others; poetry by Michelle Lerner and a prose poem by Robert Clinton.

Orson’s Review

Orson’s Review - April 2020

The new issue of Orson’s Review is out. In this issue: “Mia” an excerpt by Kayla Eason, “Run Over Dog” by Brian Moore, “The Kushcopia” by Jordan Dilley, “The Little General,” by Joyce Polance, and “Four Years Later” by Michael Bourne.

Anomaly – No 30

Anomaly - April 2020

The latest issue of Anomaly is out. In this issue: comics by Mita Mahato, Kimball Anderson, Jason Hart, and more; fiction by Monica Macansantos, Feliz Moreno, and more; poetry by Turandot Shayegan, Rodney A. Brown, María Lysandra Hernández, Jacq Greyja, Hussain Ahmed, Hari Alluri, Gabrielle Spear, Fargo Tbakhi, Derek Berry, Ashely Adams, and more; and translated work by Zsuka Nagy, Yan An, João Luís Barreto Guimarães, and others.

Inside The Ring

The Ring - April 2020Guest Post by Andrew Rihn

This month’s issue of The Ring magazine (“The Bible of Boxing”) straddles what has come to feel like two very distinct, almost distant, time periods. It arrived two days ago but, given the timeline for magazine publishing, most of the issue’s content covers events that happened roughly six weeks ago.

Example: the cover features Román “Chocolatito” González, hand raised in victory after his Feb 29 defeat of Khalid Yafai. Example: Robert “The Nordic Nightmare” Helenius is deemed “Fighter of the Month” for his upset over rising star Adam Kownacki on March 7.

I savor this issue of The Ring with a hastily cultivated sense of nostalgia; so much distance between that March to this April. Locked down in Ohio, it feels like time is telescoping away, these fights from another world, another life. Didn’t I just have friends over to watch Helenius vs Kownacki? Didn’t we share a pizza? Sit next to each other on the couch? How long ago was that?

There is some coronavirus coverage as well. An article titled “Standstill” opens with an arresting photo of an amateur bout being held in an empty stadium. And in “Voices from the Outbreak,” various fighters comment on how shutdowns and fight cancellations have upended their lives. “This is a time when we shouldn’t be talking about ‘We miss boxing,’” says recent Hall of Famer Bernard Hopkins. “This is a time we have to re-evaluate our good deeds and evil deeds.”

Known for responding to short questions with passionate, sometimes drifting monologues, Hopkins continues: “Ask someone you love how they’re doing. Ask someone about their dog.”

Reviewer bio: Andrew Rihn wrote Revelation, a book of poetry about Mike Tyson. He also writes The Pugilist, a monthly boxing column with a literary edge.

Mom Egg Review – No. 18

Mom Egg Review - Spring 2020

The 18th annual edition of Mom Egg Review is here, with the theme of “Home.” Back in 2019, we conceived of an issue on the subject. Now, as we shelter in place, we experience new relationships with our dwellings. Is a home a place, a feeling, a center, a community? Mom Egg Review writers explore “Home” through the lens of motherhood.

Focus on Flowers

Colorado Review - Spring 2020Magazine Review by Katy Haas

With the weather warming up, I see new green sprouting in my backyard daily. This seems like a good time to focus on poems about flowers found in the Spring 2020 issue of Colorado Review.

In “Bloom,” Emily Van Kley’s speaker talks to the forsythia plant “beside the house.” Together, they move through the seasons: gray in winter, blooming in summer just for the blooms to quickly disappear into leaves. Van Kley’s images are beautiful and strong with lines that really pulled at me, like “The sadness that carries / my thoughts close to its chest / will unpack it’s summer / wardrobe,” and “Soon the last rains // will poor themselves down / storm sewers’ gullets.”

Leah Tieger also writes of flowers in “Five Sunflowers,” which are a gift from “the man who loves me.” The flowers “turn the room from real / to magazine, so picture my life perpetually happy.” The flowers urge the speaker to be grateful, “if not for your presence, / at least for the hands that brought you.” The piece feels warm and loving, the same “brilliant / and saturated” yellow of the flowers.

Welcome in spring and some much needed color with these poems from Colorado Review.

Graphic Nonfiction for Everyone

World Literature Today - Spring 2020

Magazine Review by Katy Haas

A big fan of graphic novels (and nonfiction and poetry), I’m always thrilled when a literary magazine releases an issue featuring graphic work. World Literature Today’s Spring 2020 issue features a selection of graphic nonfiction by seven artists.

Each piece brings something different to the table. The art styles are all vastly different and each focuses on something unique: politics, history, art, ego, love.

My favorite of these is “Shadow Portrait” by Rachel Ang. Ang’s art is calming and enjoyable to look at, muted tones splayed across the page. She writes of love and ego, the ways in which we see ourselves in art, in stories, in the people we love.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is an excerpt from Guantanamo Voices: True Accounts from the World’s Most Notorious Prison by Sarah Mirk, illustrated by Omar Khouri. Unlike Ang’s calming tones, this excerpt uses bold lines and an orange color scheme which ramps up the feeling of anxiety the story produces. I’m a little disappointed at the length of the excerpt—the four pages we’re given leave on a cliffhanger that left me wanting more, though I suppose that just highlights the writer’s and artist’s skill.

This selection of graphic nonfiction has a little bit of something for everyone, and each artist/writer utilizes their craft impressively. This issue of World Literature Today is a real treat to read.

Poetry – April 2020

Poetry Magazine - April 2020

The latest issue of Poetry features work by Michael Hofmann, Martha Sprackland, Harmony Holiday, Pascale Petit, Jeannine Hall Gailey, Gertrude Stein & Bianca Stone, Tishani Doshi, Madeline Gins, Joy Ladin, Emily Jungmin Yoon,Sumita Chakraborty, Katie Pyontek, Sun Yung Shin, Torrin A. Greathouse, Sally Wen Mao, Lucy Ives, Shane Neilson, Nelly Sachs, Ocean Vuong, and more. Plus, an essay by Joy Ladin.

World Literature Today – Spring 2020

World Literature Today - Spring 2020

A special section devoted to Graphic Nonfiction, showcasing seven writers and artists from around the globe, headlines the Spring 2020 issue of World Literature Today. The issue also presents interviews with translators Antonia Lloyd-Jones and Isabel Fargo Cole; new fiction from Italy, France, and the Philippines; essays on Nigerian fiction and the “humanity on display” in museum exhibitions; poetry by Elyas Alavi (Afghanistan), Khaled Mattawa (Libya/US), and Mohamad Nassereddine (Lebanon); and Poupeh Missaghi’s recommended booklist about cities. More than forty book reviews also round out the issue, giving readers a wealth of titles to inspire their spring reading adventures.

The Massachusetts Review – Spring 2020

The Massachusetts Review - Spring 2020

The Spring 2020 issue includes poetry by Desirée Alvarez, Danusha Laméris, Julie Murphy, Nancy Miller Gomez, Charlie Peck, Cynthia White, Keith Leonard, Augusta Funk, and more; fiction by Sylvia Hanitra Andriamampianina, Karin Cecile Davidson, Tad Bartlett, Gabriella Kuruvilla, Hebe Uhart, Jung Young Moon, and others; and nonfiction by Gianni Celati, Lesley Wheeler, Amy Yee, and Melanie McCabe.

The Georgia Review – Spring 2020

The Georgia Review - Spring 2020

The Georgia Review‘s Spring 2020 issue presents authors’ and artists’ explorations of what it means to attempt representation of the diverse communities that comprise the United States. Special features include “Un-Redacted: A Census of Native Land,” a collection of writings by Native authors on the legacy of settler colonialism in the U.S.; a section on the internment of people of Japanese descent in North America during WWII; and dispatches from an innovative research project on prison labor in the post–Civil War “New South.” Art by Eddie Arroyo.

Colorado Review – Spring 2020

Colorado Review - Spring 2020

Featured in this issue of Colorado Review, find poetry by Jack Ridl, Amanda Gunn, and Yerra Sugarman; fiction by Alyssa Northrop; and nonfiction by David Schuman. Plus Raksha Vasudevan, Emily Van Kley, Leah Tieger, Gay Baines, Michael Homolka, Kazim Ali, Franco Paz, Laura Kolbe, Angie Macri, Benjamin Seanor, and many more. See other contributors at the Colorado Review website.

Cleaver Magazine

Cleaver Magazine - Spring 2020

The newest issue of Cleaver features a visual narrative by Emily Steinberg; short stories by Catherine Parnell, Andrea Ellis-Perez, and others; flash by Uma Dwivedi, Kim Magowan, and more; and poetry by Marc Harshman, Jackie Craven, and more. Additional art by Serge Lecomte.

A Speaker Readers Can Root For – Three Poems by Laurinda Lind

High Desert Journal - Issue 29Magazine Review by Katy Haas

Three poems by Laurinda Lind can be found in Issue 29 of High Desert Journal: “When I Lived in Soda Springs, Idaho & I Had a Belly at the Bar,” “When I Lived in Soda Springs, Idaho & the Cashier at the Convenience Store Was Friendly to Me,” and “When I Lived in Soda Springs, Idaho & I Had Not Yet Killed a Black Widow Spider.”

This series of prose poems is strong in its storytelling. They read quickly with sentences that run on as if the speaker can’t wait to get the words out. The speaker is not the only person in these pieces. They all include other people the speaker interacts with, a cast of characters that Lind brings to life for us: her neighbor “who later stole several hundred dollars from me & nearly killed my cat,” the “old guy” who “wanted to buy us beers,” the friendly cashier who was “short & pretty” with “huge green eyes” and later robbed the store she worked at, and the man who calls her and harasses her over the phone.

There’s an edge to the writing, a take-no-nonsense attitude in every piece. The speaker is a woman who is surviving against the odds in this strange, unfamiliar place with people and animals who make living there difficult. Lind fleshes out a speaker who readers can root for.

Blackout by Burgess

Willow Springs - Spring 2020Magazine Review by Katy Haas

I’m a fan of reading and making blackout poetry, and the Spring 2020 issue of Willow Springs offers one piece of blackout by Jackson Burgess. What makes this a little more unique than other pieces of blackout I’ve read in the past is that Burgess blacks out his own poem.

On one page, readers can find a prose poem called “Medicine,” which details an almost nightmarish account of medical themes exploring a “lifetime trying to learn what another body needs.” On the next page, the prose poem is blacked out leaving only twelve words from the original piece. Dark and creative, I enjoyed the construction and deconstruction of Burgess’s work.

Ruminate – Issue 54

Ruminate - Spring 2020

“The Everyday” issue celebrates Ruminate‘s focus on finding the sacred within everyday moments and routines. This issue features work from our 2019 Broadside winner Meredith Stricker, as well as the winning pieces from our 2020 VanderMey Nonfiction Prize written by Jasmine V. Bailey, Kelly J. Beard, and Atash Yaghmaian chosen by judge Brianna Van Dyke. Also in this issue: Erin Malone, Chelsea Dingman, Sneha Subramanian Kanta, Nick Yingling, Alyse Bensel, Daniel Seth Kraus, Andrew Huot, Stacy Trautwein Burns, and more.

New England Review – 41.1

New England Review - Volume 41 Number 1

In this issue of New England Review you’ll find fiction by Maud Casey, David Allan Cates, Nandini Dhar, Elin Hawkinson, Christine Sneed, and Lindsay Starck; poetry by Su Cho, John Freeman, Rodney Gomez, Zach Linge, Vandana Khanna, Joanna Klink, Philip Metres,, Maura Stanton, Emily Jungmin Yoon, and more; nonfiction by Kazim Ali, Jennifer Chang, Ching-In Chen, Julia Cohen, and others; and Max Frisch in translations, translated by Linda Frazee Baker. Plus cover art by Brian Nash.

Gargoyle – No. 71

Gargoyle - Number 71

Check out the new issue of Gargoyle. Contributors include: Laura Arciniega, Paula Bonnell, Sarah Browning, Michael Casey, Grace Cavalieri, Patrick Chapman, Bonnie Chau, Katie Cortese, celeste doaks, Gabriel Don, Cornelius Eady, Blair Ewing, Abby Frucht, Patricia Henley, George Kalamaras, Louise Wareham Leonard, Trish MacEnulty, Franetta McMillian, Tony Medina, Nancy Mercado, Susan Neville, A.L. Nielsen, Josip Novakovich, James J. Patterson, bart plantenga, Bern Porter, Doug Rice, Jane Satterfield, Davis Schneiderman, Claire Scott, Gregg Shapiro, Rose Solari, Maya Sonenberg, Marilyn Stablein, Susan Tepper, Michael Waters, and many more.

The MacGuffin

MacGuffin - Winter 2020

Discover a new issue of The MacGuffin. Volume 36 Number 1 spotlights the winners of our 2019 Poet Hunt Contest as selected by guest judge Richard Tillinghast. Jane Craven’s first place “The Sketchbooks of Hiroshige,” begins on p. 74, followed by our two honorable mention poets, Jill Reid and John Blair. This issue’s prose selections include Lucy Mihajlich’s “When I Infiltrated IKEA, They Greeted Me at the Door” and Teresa Milbrodt’s “Playing Krampus.” Featured artist Alison Devine graces the book’s inside and outside with a stroll through the Hamilton, Ontario countryside.

Black Warrior Review – Spring 2020

Black Warrior Review - Spring 2020

The Spring 2020 issue of Black Warrior Review is out. In this issue: Aliza Ali Khan, Sébastien Bernard, Agata Izabela Brewer, Naomi Day, Meg E. Griffitts, Katherine Indermaur, Sara Kachelman, Jasmine Khaliq, Jessica Lanay, M.L. Martin, Cherise Morris, Mónica Ramón Ríos (translated by Robin Myers), Monica Rico, Angie Sijun Lou, Molli Spalter, Qianqian Ye, and more. Chapbook by Seo-Young Chu. Cover art by Dominic Chambers.

The Adroit Journal – March 2020

Adroit Journal - March 2020

Find the newest issue of The Adroit Journal is out. Readers can check out poetry by Bryan Byrdlong, Steven Duong, Garous Abdolmalekian, Emily Lee Luan, John Freeman, Erin Adair-Hodges, Peter Streckfus, Ae Hee Lee, Matthew Gellman, Sara Elkamel, Seth Simons, Imani Davis, Kim Addonizio, Sahar Romani,  Zach Linge, Matthew Rohrer, Joanna Klink, and more; prose by Cathy Ulrich, K-Ming Chang, Connor Oswald, and others; plus conversations with Natalie Diaz, Matthew Rohrer, Brian Teare, Deb Olin Unferth, and Matthew Zapruder.

THEMA Puzzles Writers, Pleases Readers

THEMA Spring 2020 issue coverMagazine Review by Katy Haas

Each issue of THEMA invites writers to explore a given theme. The Spring 2020 issue’s theme is “Six Before Eighty,” which Editor Virginia Howard explains in her Editor’s Note, gave writers a run for their money. It “tended to puzzle more authors than usual.”

Despite the challenge, sixteen on-theme pieces made it into the issue. H.B. Salzer in “Her Number Six” writes of a woman’s bucket list—six things to do before she turns eighty. James “Jack” Penha in “Eulogy for My Elder Brother,” writes fondly of his brother who passed away at age seventy-four—six years before turning eighty. In “Written in Gold,” Larry Lefkowitz’s characters try their own hand at translating the theme finding it in a Mayan inscription in a temple. But my two favorite pieces in the issue each interpret the theme as different roads.

In “Mantra” by Lisa Timpf, the numbers are a reminder for a man’s fading memory. Regional Road 6 comes before Sideroad 80 and then he’s home. Readers can feel the anxiety in the piece as he repeats his mantra, trying to get home while admitting he “hasn’t told his wife / how much has slipped away.” But his mantra always gets him back home.

Cherie Bowers’s “Off-Ramp” is a short poem conjuring up Exit 6 as it merges onto 1-80. Here, a memorial with “fading words” reads, “We love you, Jason.” “To see it clearly,” the speaker says, “you must slow down,” a reminder for readers it’s necessary to slow down to truly see everything around us and to give thought to these fading signs we see beside the road.

I’m sure it was a lot of run writing for this issue of THEMA, and it was a lot of run reading what everyone was able to come up with.

Ann S. Epstein Questions What’s in a Name

biostories

Magazine Review by Katy Haas

bioStories invites readers into the daily lives of those around us. Ann S. Epstein’s “My Name Could Be Toby Gardner” explores a topic that follows all of us daily: our names.

Born to a family of immigrants, Epstein begins by breaking down her parents’, grandparents’, sibling’s, and aunt’s name, each of them going by one that was not given to them at birth. Once she makes it to her own name, Epstein considers the ways which we tie identity to the name people call us. But she’s never felt connected to neither her first nor last names.

There is something almost comical about the way Epstein rights about this. The constant back and forth and corrections of the names of the people she’s mentioning in her piece are handled with levity, but she concludes on a more serious tone, wondering if names can be lost if they don’t make their mark on their person when they’re young.

Whether you want to spend some time thinking about what names mean to identity, or you just want to learn about the intricacies of the names of Epstein’s family, this is a quick and interesting read.

About the reviewer: Katy Haas is Assistant Editor at NewPages. Recent poetry can be found in Taco Bell Quarterly, petrichor, and other journals. She regularly blogs at: newpages.com/blog.

Maureen Thorson Taps into Tenderness & Family

Court Green - Fall 2019Magazine Review by Katy Haas

The thumbnails of the Fall 2019 of Court Green mostly show silhouetted scenes of courtship—men playing musical instruments or bowing on knees before women, scenes of dancing and kissing. In her two poems, Maureen Thorson writes of a different sort of relationships and intimacy, instead focusing on family. Continue reading “Maureen Thorson Taps into Tenderness & Family”

The Shore Poetry – Spring 2020

The Shore - Spring 2020

A new issue of The Shore features poetry by: Julia Bouwsma, Charlie M. Brown, Nicholas Samaras, Sarah Marquez, Nicholas Holt, Rachel Small, Noah Stetzer, Kathryn de Lancellotti, Molly Tenenbaum, Kathryn Merwin, Jenny Irish, Nicholas Molbert, Alicia Hoffman, TW Selvey, Anna Sandy-Elrod, Clifford Brooks, Stephen Furlong, and many more. It also features stunning photography by Melissa Marsh.

Sheila-Na-Gig online – Spring 2020

Sheila-Na-Gig online - Spring 2020

The Spring 2020 issue of Sheila-Na-Gig Online features the Spring Poetry Contest Winner and honorable mentions as well as poetry by T-M Baird, Rose Mary Boehm, Doug Bolling,R.T. Castleberry, Alan Catlin, Susan Darlington, Kelly Dolejsi, Tyler Dunston, Rob Hunter, Glenn Ingersoll, Stephanie Kendrick, Mercedes Lawry, Betsy Mars, Tom Montag, John Palen, Robert Strickland, Laura Grace Weldon, and more.

Leaping Clear – Spring 2020

Leaping Clear - Spring 2020

The Spring 2020 of Leaping Clear is out. This issue encourages readers to find balance in troubling times. Essays by Amy Sugeno, Dorian Rolston, and more; fiction by Anita Feng; mixed media by Barbara Parmet and Deborah Kennedy; music by Jon Tho; poetry by Ben Gallagher, Kathleen Hellen, Stephen Fulder, Yasmin Kloth, and more; video by Zangmo Alexander; and visual art by Denise Susanne Townsend, Michele Giulvezan-Tanner, and Stephanie Peek.

Jewish Fiction .net – March 2020

Jewish Fiction .net - March 2020

A beautiful new issue of Jewish Fiction .net is out. We’re sharing our journal with you earlier than usual in the hope that the power of great literature will provide you with comfort and pleasure now. Find 16 excellent stories, originally written in English, Hungarian, and Hebrew. And in honour of the upcoming holiday, two stories are about Passover: The Trade” by Mendele Mokher Seforim and “The Guest” by Remy Maisel. Enjoy this fabulous new issue and we wish you and yours continued good health.

Visit Flint with About Place Journal

About Place - October 2019Magazine Review by Katy Haas

The October 2019 issue of About Place Journal takes readers on a journey from north (truth) to south (courage) to east (rebirth) to west (mourning). I immediately connected with a poem found in the north: “Flint” by Kendra Preston Leonard.

It would be hard to find someone who hasn’t heard about Flint, Michigan at this point. In early 2014, the city (which is only about a forty-five-minute drive from my home and is home to a handful of my friends) was in the news for their water crisis. After changing water sources to save money, residents were left with lead-poisoned water, an on-going issue in the city and the state.

Leonard writes about this in “Flint,” the speaker asking readers to “Come and drink,” “this acid” and “the sweet sweet leaded water,” to “Drink / and drink / and drink/ down this styx.” She invites those with distance to “Find out what it is to stand you here,” “where the river / adds children to the cemetery.” This lessens the distance between watching the information on the news and leading readers to really considering the humans that have been harmed by water, something that’s necessary to live.

Leonard’s imagery is enjoyable to read, despite the gravity of the poem’s message. The piece reads smoothly, flowing like a river. “Flint” is a great place to start your journey into this issue of About Place.

Anna Leigh Morrow Invites Us into Her Nana’s House

Still Point Arts Quarterly - Spring 2020Magazine Review by Katy Haas

The latest issue of Still Point Arts Quarterly is dedicated to “Grandparents and Other Wise Ancestors.” The art centers on this theme and the featured writers share stories of the family who came before them. Of these, Anna Leigh Morrow’s “Home-Canned Magic” really jumped out at me.

Morrow focuses on her grandmother’s house and the magic that seemed to be conjured there. Morrow states that while it’s both her grandparents’ house, calling it “Nana’s house” makes more sense: “Nana is so completely the queen of her domestic domain that I often use only her name when I talk about their home.” I found this piece so easy to relate to, especially now as my family has been cleaning out my grandparents’ house (though I, too, have always called it “grandma’s house”) after my grandpa’s passing in January. Climbing the precarious ladder up to the attic for the first time in years and poking through my grandmother’s old belongings in the rafters brought back my own memories of childhood magic at my own “Nana’s house.”

Morrow reveres her grandmother in the ways she has sacrificed for her family and continues to love and support them throughout the years. She details moments of magic—her green thumb, her ability to create through cooking for her grandchildren, her ability to show others where to find their own magic.

Simple and straight forward, Morrow lets readers into her Nana’s kitchen for a visit, letting us get to know the woman who encouraged and inspired her as she grew up. This piece is welcoming and full of love, a nice thing to read as a reminder of the good that surrounds us during the chaos of current events.

Not Your Ordinary Issue of True Story

True Story - Issue 35

Magazine Review by Katy Haas

True Story veers away from their usual issues in publishing Issue 35. “Not Your Ordinary Experience of Desire” is a collaborative piece between Susannah Borysthen-Tkacz and Justin Chen. When I saw this was written by two writers, I expected the nonfiction piece inside to jump back and forth between their points of view, and I suppose it does, but it does so in a more unique way than what we usually see. The entire issue is printed horizontally, Borysthen-Tkacz’s narration on the left side of the page, and Chen’s on the right.

The joint piece is broken up into three parts. The first focuses on each writer’s childhood: Borysten-Tkacz’s early history as a gymnast and the beginning of an eating disorder, and Chen’s unfamiliarity with American pop culture and intimacy. In part two, they each identify the ways their relationship begins to deteriorate; he focuses on sacrifice and giving up parts of one’s self, while she begins to realize she’s queer. In part three, the two start to shape themselves outside of their relationship, finding out who they truly are apart from each other.

By writing together, they fill in gaps the other leaves behind. We’re able to see both sides of the same story, neatly arranged next to each other on the page. Both write with a sincerity I found touching and easy to connect with. Despite the tumultuous events, they manage to bare their true story with honesty and grace.

About the reviewer: Katy Haas is Assistant Editor at NewPages. Recent poetry can be found in Taco Bell Quarterly, petrichor, and other journals. She regularly blogs at: https://www.newpages.com/.

See What’s Coming “LatiNext” in Poetry

Poetry - March 2020Magazine Review by Katy Haas

The March 2020 issue of Poetry includes a LatiNext folio with selections from The Breakbeat Poets Volume 4 forthcoming from Haymarket Books. This anthology “opposes silence and re-mixes the soundtrack of the Latinx diaspora across diverse poetic traditions” and the selection included in Poetry gives a good sampling of what to expect in this anthology releasing in April.

My favorites include “My Uncle’s Killer” by J. Estanislao Lopez, “Rules at the Juan Marcos Huelga School (Even the Unspoken Ones)” by Lupe Mendez, and “Lady Fine Is for Sugar” by Stephanie Roberts. Continue reading “See What’s Coming “LatiNext” in Poetry”

Witness – Spring 2020

Witness - Spring 2020

The “Magic” issue of Witness features new work by: Eric Tran, Mary Lane Potter, Pamela Yenser, Alex Berge, Nina Sudhakar, Andrea Eberly, Miranda Dennis, and more. Plus, the second annual Witness Literary Awards: Andrew Collard (poetry winner), Emmy Newman (poetry runner-up), Emily Greenberg (fiction winner), Kristina Ten (fiction runner-up), Michele Sharpe (nonfiction winner), and Anne Liu Kellor (nonfiction runner-up).