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CRAFT 2021 First Chapters Contest Winners

CRAFT 2021 First Chapters Contest

CRAFT has announced the winners of its 2021 First Chapters Contest selected by guest judge Masie Cochran of Tin House. The winning entries will be published in December, so keep an eye out!

Congratulations to the winners, finalists, and honorable mentions. You can view the full longlist and honorable mentions here.

Winners

First Place: Sam Simas, We the Liars

Second Place: Sena Moon, Familiar Strangers

Third Place: Leigh Comacho Rourks, When We Drowned

Finalists

Vanessa Banigo, The Nigerwife

Catherine Carberry, Untitled

Catherine Con Morse, The Notes

C. Quintana, The Twisted Fate of La Media Luna

Steve Sanders, The Agreed Upon Facts

Kirsten Scott, Liberty Park

Amy Stuber, In a Dark Corner Shining

JJ Tan, Angels Unaware

Allison Torgan, Red State

John Vurro, Video Planet

Taylor Werner, What Empties As It Fills

Marie Williams (Nia Forrester), Those Less Fortunate

Nimrod International Journal’s 2021 Prize Winners

Issue 43 of Nimrod International Journal is all about award winners! Check out the winners and finalists of the Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction and the Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry.

The Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction

First Prize
“White Black People” by Celine Aenlle-Rocha

Second Prize
“The Inventories” by Paula Closson Buck

Honorable Mentions
“A Dolphin in Pain” by Rachel Furey
“God Is In Your Body” by Rachel Reeher

Finalists
“Wife Of; or, What Does It Mean to Be Haunted?” by Jennifer Blackman
“The Southern Part of the State” by Teresa Milbrodt
“Thug” by Edvin Subašić

The Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry

First Prize
“Spell for Patience” and other poems by Emily Rose Cole

Second Prize
“Now” by Julie Marie Wade

Honorable Mentions
“Vanishing Point” and other poems by Laura Apol
“Like a Friend” and other poems by Francesca Bell
“Everything I Love I Want to Consume” and other poems by Angela Sucich

Winners of the 2021 Adroit Prizes

Adroit Journal‘s Adroit Prizes are awarded to two undergraduate or secondary students annually. The 2021 judges were Carl Phillips and Samantha Hunt.

Winners receive $200 and publication. Runners-up and finalists also receive publication. You can read the pieces now in Issue 39 released in October.

Winners:

Stephanie Chang | Poetry | Kenyon College, ‘25
Enshia Li | Nonfiction | Stanford University, ‘22

Runners-Up:

Amal Haddad | Fiction | Swarthmore College, ‘22
Delilah Silberman | Poetry | Bennington College, ‘21

Finalists:

Aluna Brogdon | Fiction | Williams College, ‘26
Eliza Browning | Poetry | Wheaton College, ‘22
David Emeka | Fiction | The Federal University of Technology – Owerri, ‘21
Aidan Forster | Fiction | Brown University, ‘22
Jack Goodman | Poetry | Walter Payton College Preparatory School, ‘22
Sharon Lin | Poetry | Massachusetts Institute of Technology, ‘21
Sofia Montrone | Fiction | Columbia University, ‘21
Jackson Neal | Poetry | University of Wisconsin – Madison, ‘23
Ngoc Pham | Poetry | Macalester College, ‘21
Kit Pyne-Jaeger | Fiction | Cornell University, ‘21
Clara Rosarius | Fiction | Oberlin College, ‘23
Kyle Wang | Poetry | Stanford University, ‘22

The Masters Review 2021 Flash Fiction Contest Winners

The Masters Review has announced the winners of its 2021 Flash Fiction Contest judged by Stuart Dybek.

In first place, we have Tanya Perkins with “Agora é Sempre” in which “a mere thousand words encompasses oceans complete with their currents, riptides, rogue waves. and rolling plastic.”

In second place, is “Play That Again” by John Glowney. “As the title suggests, an odd set of piano lessons becomes a story that is also about music and emotion, and youth, and the recognition of beauty.”

Candice May’s “How to Develop (Film)” took home third place with its use of modernistic techniques that never overwhelm the underlying story.

You can read all three pieces on The Masters Review‘s Blog.

Don’t forget, The Masters Review has two contests currently open to submissions: Novel Excerpt Contest (deadline 11/30) and the Chapbook Open for Emerging Writers (deadline 12/31).

Frontier Winter Poetry Lab

This past spring, Frontier Poetry ran their first Poetry Lab, and they’re back with another one this winter.

With this online space, your work will be read and edited by editor-partners Jenny Molberg, Kathleen Volk Miller, Rob MacDonald, and Mike Good.

Digital versions of Frontier‘s poetry chapbooks: How Often I Have Chosen Love by Xiao Yue Shan, Shadow Black by Naima Tokunow, and In the Year of Our Making & Unmaking by Frederick Speers will be paired with guided learning materials about crafting your own chapbook.

Participants will also receive over 40 pages of submission advice from editors from a selection of other literary magazines. Frontier promises to “send you a dozen great places that could be a good fit for your particular voice. Every participant will get individualized recommendations from our experienced team.”

You can learn more about the poetry lab at Frontier‘s website and register for the $299 lab through their Submittable. The deadline to register is November 30.

2022 Press 53 Award for Poetry Winner

Congratulations to the winner and finalists of the Press 53 Award for Poetry.

Winner
The Italian Professor’s Wife by Ann Pedone

Finalists
We Are Children by Bill Ayres
Watts UpRise by Ron Dowell
The Bones Beneath by Sheila Smith McKoy
Splendor of Ignition by Robert Miltner
Passaic by Paula Neves
The Past Tense of Green by Alison Prine
The Ice Beneath the Earth by Brian Ascalon Roley

Tom Lombardo served as the only reader and judge for this contest, and Pedone’s manuscript was chosen from more than 380 entries. The Italian Professor’s Wife will be published by Press 53 in April 2022.

Read for ANMLY

ANMLY is currently looking for a new fiction reader. This volunteer position asks for two or three hours of your time per week. The publication tends to focus on work that is experimental and innovative.

Applications are open until November 15. Email the editors to apply.

NewPages Fall 2021 LitPak has been Mailed!

Screenshot of NewPages Cover Letter & Ad for the NewPages Fall 2021 LitPak
click image to go to LitPak

After a brief hiatus, NewPages has brought back our physical LitPak mailing to graduate and undergraduate creative writing programs and classes.

The LitPaks were mailed last week and contain fliers and ads from december, Florida Atlantic University/Swamp Ape Review, Diode Editions, Arcadia University MFA, Temple University Press, Soundings East, Palm Beach Poetry Festival, Rattle, Fourth Genre, The Society of Classical Poets, Amherst Writers & Artists, selva oscura press, George Mason University MFA/BFA, Chatham University MFA, Colorado Review, Tint Journal, Copperfield Review Quarterly, Collateral, I-70 Review, Willow Springs, Change Seven Magazine, Abandon Journal, and Blackwater Press.

Don’t worry if you’re not on the list to get the physical mailings, because we are happy to share a special digital edition right here on the NewPages Blog. Please feel free to print, download, and share the digital version of the fliers.

If you are interested in making sure your university’s writing program receives future LitPaks, please contact us!

2021 Auburn Witness Poetry Prize Winner

The Fall 2021 issue of Southern Humanities Review features the winner of the 2021 Auburn Witness Poetry Prize, judged by Jericho Brown.

Winner
“Slouching like a velvet rope” by Elizabeth Aoki

Runners-Up
“Dorothy Dandridge on White Men in Hollywood” by Maurya Kerr
“I Left the Church in Search of God” by Darius Simpson

Aoki will receive $1000 and travel to Auburn, Alabama to celebrate the seventh annual poetry prize where she will read her work at an event headlined by Jericho Brown. The Fall 2021 issue is sold out in print, but you can still check out the winning poem online.

2021 CRAFT Short Fiction Prize Winners

CRAFT has announced the winners of the 2021 Short Fiction Prize judged by Kristin Valdez Quade. The winners were published this month.

First Place—Willa Zhang: “Night Air”
Second Place—Leesa Fenderson: “Ugly: A Stream of Consciousness”
Third Place—Cyn Nooney: “Just the Thing for a Day Like This”

Finalists

María Isabel Álvarez: “Happiness and Other Found Objects”
Caro Claire Burke: “Gold Rush”
Emily Cataneo: “From the Mouths of Girls, a Leviathan”
Celeste Chen: “your body is a memory in motion”
Gina L. Grandi: “Layabout”
Kathryn Holmstrom: “From Gardens where We Feel Secure”
Robert Maynor: “Always with You”
Anna Mazhirov: “An Absolute”
Amanda McLaughlin: “Cheap Trick”
Neeru Nagarajan: “Suckling”
A.J. Rodriguez: “Lenguaje”
Leigh Claire Schmidli: “Sometimes the Going”

Congratulations to the winners and finalists. Don’t forget their Flash Fiction Contest is open to entries of stories up to a 1,000 words through October 31. The guest judge is Robert Lopez.

Creative Nonfiction’s Self-Guided Write Your Memoir Month

creative nonfiction write your memoir month screenshotNot wanting to let novelists have all the fun during the month of November, Creative Nonfiction is offering a self-guided Write Your Memoir course.

Running from November 1-26, the course is patterned after their popular Thirty-Minute Memoir and is designed to “help you break the potentially overwhelming task of writing a memoir into manageable daily writing assignments.”

Each week’s lesson will be revealed on Mondays and will focus on a different aspect of memoir writing and offers daily prompts to help you generate work and inspiration via written lectures and selected readings.

The best part? It’s only $29.99, so join NaMeWriMo today!

Driftwood Press Novella Prize Winner Announced!

Driftwood Press has officially announced the results of their Novella Reading Period. Kevin Litchty’s The Circle That Fits is the winner. “The novella explores the fraught relationships between two parents and their son as they live in a travelling carnival.” The Circle That Fits will be released in 2022.

Due to a generous donation from Sarah “Hollis Queen,” the award for Litchty’s novella was increased from $400 to $1,000.

Driftwood Press is currently accepting novella manuscripts once more. There is a $20 fee. Future novellas selected will receive $400, publication, and 10 copies of their printed novella.

Coming Up: The Adroit Journal Issue 39 Release Reading

Join The Adroit Journal in two days, on Tuesday October 26, 2021 for the release reading for their 39th issue.

Readers include Jonny Teklit, Paul Tran, Lory Bedikian, Anthony Okpunor, Kate Wisel, and our Adroit Prizes winners Stephanie Chang and Enshia Li! Kate Gaskin will host the Zoom event.

Register for the event and learn a little bit more about the readers at Eventbrite.

2021 Frontier OPEN Winner

Congratulations to the winner of the 2021 Frontier OPEN. This award celebrates a single piece of poetry, and the winner receives $5,000 and publication.

Winner
“Fireworks” by Chaun Ballard

Editors describe this piece as “A wrenching performance of the political lyric, read from right to left.” Read Ballard’s poem here and check out this link for work by the OPEN finalists.

Themed Mag Issues

I enjoy a themed lit mag issue, and if you do too, here are some suggestions to pick up.

Rattle‘s issues always have a special section, and the Fall 2021 issue includes a Tribute to Indian Poets. Poets included are Tishani Doshi (who is also interviewed in the issue), Kinshuk Gupta, Zilka Joseph, Pankaj Khemka, Sophia Naz, and others.

The Summer 2021 issue of Nimrod International Journal brings us work that focuses on “Endings and Beginnings.” The editors promise “work that presents familiar beginnings and endings in new and compelling ways as well as work that illuminates smaller, unique kinds of endings and beginnings.” Angela Sucich, Sarah Carleton, Katie Culligan, and Bethany Shultz Hurst are a few who take on this task.

Every issue of THEMA is a themed issue. This time around for the Summer 2021 issue, writers and artists responded to the prompt “The Tiny Red Suitcase,” including Lynda Fox, Laura Ruth Loomis, James Penha, and Laura Blatt.

Rain Taxi’s Twin Cities Book Festival Virtual Events

Rain Taxi‘s Twin Cities Book Festival continues to offer virtual events. Events coming up include: “Speaking Up” with Veera Hiranandani, Ronald Smith, and Susan & Lexi Haas; Achy Obejas and Phillip B. Williams in conversation with Gary Dop; Kate DiCamillo and Sophie Blackall in conversation with Ann Patchett; and more.

Find out more about these free events and register at the Twin Cities Book Festival website.

2021 Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers Winners

The winners of the 2021 Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers are in the September/October 2021 issue of Kenyon Review.

Winner
“Golden” by Daniel Zhang

Runners-up
“Dr. Freud’s Magic 8-Ball” by Blair Enright
“Ghost Town, Ohio” by Gaia Rajan

Judge Emily Nason introduces the three pieces, saying, “What I am most impressed by in Zhang, Enright, and Rajan’s poetry is their deep generosity toward their subjects. These are poets with a deep grasp on humanity and empathy.”

Get your own copy of this issue at Kenyon Review’s website.

CRAFT 2021 Short Fiction Prize Winners Announced

banner for CRAFT 2021 Short Fiction Prize winnersThe results are in! CRAFT has just announced the winner selected by judge Kirstin Valdez Quade for their 2021 Short Fiction Prize. The winners will be published online in October. The next Short Fiction Prize will kick off in Spring 2022.

Winners

First Place—Willa Zhang: “Night Air”
Second Place—Leesa Fenderson: “Ugly”
Third Place—Cyn Nooney: “Just the Thing for a Day Like This”

Finalists

María Isabel Álvarez: “Happiness and Other Found Objects”
Caro Claire Burke: “Gold Rush”
Emily Cataneo: “From the Mouths of Girls, a Leviathan”
Celeste Chen: “your body is a memory in motion”
Gina L. Grandi: “Layabout”
Kathryn Holmstrom: “From Gardens where We Feel Secure”
Robert Maynor: “Always with You”
Anna Mazhirov: “An Absolute”
Amanda McLaughlin: “Cheap Trick”
Neeru Nagarajan: “Suckling”
A.J. Rodriguez: “Lenguaje”
Leigh Claire Schmidli: “Sometimes the Going”

Longlist

Sam Asher: “Worldsick”
Stephanie Early Green: “The Meat They Feed On”
Zilla Jones: “Checkmate”
Michael Knoedler: “All You Have Is Hope”
Annie Liontas: “Revelations”
Melissa Madore: “Home Bird”
Kita Mehaffy: “The Mothers”
Ray Morrison: “Reason to Believe”
Hugh Notman: “Erosion”
Rudy Ruiz: “Mexico Beach”
Kate Ryan: “The Mighty Have Fallen”
Leah Silverman: “The Memory Of”
Bill Smoot: “Black Feathers”
Lisa Thorne: “Fling”
Clancy Tripp: “Gifted & Talented”
Victoria Windrem: “Bookmarks”
Robert Winterode: “aparicio”

Honorable Mentions

Jordi Torres Barroso: “A Little Color in It”
Lucia Bettencourt, with translation by Kim Hastings: “Chocolate Bites”
Leslie Campbell: “Motherlode”
Celeste Chen: “Tuesday, Postmortem”
Edite Cunhã: “The Truth that Is Hidden”
Sarah Gilligan: “Joanie on the Spot”
Sarah Gilmartin: “The Other Woman”
Leena Gundapaneni: “Pheromone Party”
Aleksandra Hill: “Words of Advice at the End of the World”
Will Hodginson: “Pillowtalk”
Aram Kim: “The Professor”
Diana López: “After Star Wars”
Anastasia Lugo Mendez: “Then Time”
Stephanie Mullings: “Eating Mango Whole”
Areej Quraishi: “Like the Chiffon of a Sari”
Flor Salcedo: “See, right here.”
Jasmine Sawers: “Tea with the Queen”
Roberta Silman: “Bed and Breakfast”
Pascha Sotolongo: “The Mustache”
Catherine Uroff: “You Can’t Make Me Go”
Adriana Mora Vargas: “A Pinch of Cinnamon”
Sharon Wahl: “Everything Flirts”

Rick Campbell – Virtual Reading and Q&A

Join Frostburg Center for Literary Arts for a reading and Q&A with Rick Campbell. Tomorrow night, October 1, at 7:00PM EST, Campbell will open the 15th Annual Western Maryland Independent Literature Festival. You can watch this reading at YouTube, and can set yourself a reminder now so you don’t miss out.

Campbell’s newest book is Provenance (Blue Horse Press.) Other titles include Gunshot, Peacock, Dog (Madville Publishing); The History of Steel (All Nations Press); Dixmont, (Autumn House Press and Black Bay Books); The Traveler’s Companion (Black Bay Books); Setting The World In Order (Texas Tech UP) which won the Walt McDonald Prize; and A Day’s Work (State Street Press).

The reading will take place at this URL.

Ruminate Announces Inaugural Flash Prose Winners

screenshot of The Waking: Ruminate OnlineIf you didn’t know already, print literary magazine Ruminate has an online component known as The Waking. They recently held their first Flash Prose Contest with the winners being published online.

Nathan Long’s “Summer of Joy” won in the fiction category and Kianna Green’s essay “Sitting Quiet” won the nonfiction prize. Both pieces are available for your reading please on The Waking right now.

Congratulations to the winners! And don’t forget that Ruminate‘s VanderMey Nonfiction Prize is officially open to submissions through October 15 (with a 3-day grace period).

Terrain.org Reading Series

Join Terrain.org next Monday for the Terrain.org Reading Series. The Zoom event will take place on Monday, September 27 at 5:00pm MST. This Q&A and reading will feature Joy Castro, Elizabeth Jacobson, and Allen Braden, and will be moderated by Juan Morales.

You can register for this online event here.

This Week: Virtual Q&A with Nimrod Editors

Join Nimrod‘s Editor-in-Chief, Eilis O’Neal, and Associate Editor, Cassidy McCants this week on Thursday, September 23 at 7:00pm CDT for a virtual Q&A session. Do you have questions about the publishing industry, getting ready for submissions, editing, revising, and everything in between? They have answers.

Learn more about O’Neal and McCants and this “Ask Us Anything: Editing and Publishing Q&A” at Nimrod‘s Submittable, where you can also register for the event for five dollars. While you’re there, check out the other upcoming virtual events they’re offering throughout fall.

Looking Back at Hong Kong Reading

Next month, The Massachusetts Review will co-host an event for Looking Back at Hong Kong: An Anthology of Writing and Art forthcoming from co-host Cart Noodles Press. This reading and panel discussion will feature Nicolette Wong, Xu Xi, Sharon Yam, Yeung Chak Yan, and Q.M. Zhang.

These writers “who have called Hong Kong home will come together to read from their work and reflect on the profound changes and subtle transitions that have transpired in Hong Kong, both in recent times and over the past decades.”

The online event will take place on Wednesday, October 6 at 8PM EDT. Learn more and register here.

American Life in Poetry :: Carrie Green

American Life in Poetry
Column 860
By Kwame Dawes

What haunts this loose sonnet by Carrie Green is loss, anticipated loss, but loss, nonetheless. Yet, what emerges is an elegant “pre-elegy.” A tender anthem to a father and to the sweetness he represents, an anthem made more intimate by the choice of addressee: “Brother.”

ROBBING THE BEES
By Carrie Green

after John Wood

Brother, one day the grove and hives will empty:
the neighbor’s trees frozen back to stumps,
our father’s bees scattered across the scrub.
But today the scent of orange blossom
reaches our patch of sand, and the beeyard
teems with thieving wings. Our father works
the hives, white shirt buttoned to the neck,
hands glove-clumsy. Veiled, he’s mysterious

as a bride. Brother, we’ll want to recall
the pollen-dusted light kissing scrub oak
and sand pine, the needles smoking in tin,
the bees’ stunned flight as our father offers
a taste of honey on his pocketknife.
Our tongues steal sweetness from the rusted blade.

 

WE DO NOT ACCEPT UNSOLICITED MANUSCRIPTS
American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2020 by Carrie Green, “ROBBING THE BEES” from Studies of Familiar Birds (Able Muse Press, 2020). Poem reprinted by permission of the author and the publisher. Introduction copyright ©2021 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Kwame Dawes, is George W. Holmes Professor of English and Glenna Luschei Editor of Prairie Schooner at the University of Nebraska.

 

Open Editorial Positions Available at MAYDAY

screenshot of MAYDAY's call for volunteer editors
click image to view PDF

magazine-news-MAYDAYEditorialPositionsAfter a year of rigorous expansion, online literary magazine MAYDAY seeks to share its updated format and expanded vision with new audiences. To do this, they are expanding and diversifying their editorial staff to include new intellectual and cultural backgrounds, experiences, perspectives, and points of view.

MAYDAY is a volunteer organization composed entirely of unpaid volunteers who can work anywhere in the world as long as there is an internet connection.

They are open to applications for production editors, social media editors, culture editors, translation editors, and visual arts editors through October 15, 2021.

Take a look at their redesigned site and content and consider joining their team. View the PDF for more information.

Fall Workshops at Cleaver

Online classes with Cleaver Magazine begin early next month. Stay cozy at home as the weather gets cooler while you strengthen your writing skills.

This season, workshops include “Telling Stories of Disability and Illness” taught by Michelle Hoppe, “Voice Lessons: Identifying and Creating Perspective in Poetry” taught by Claire Oleson, “The Writing Lab: Playful Experiments to Unstuck Your Writing” taught by Tricia Park, and plenty more.

You can find additional information on how to register and what to expect from the available workshop at Cleaver‘s website.

Driftwood Press 2020 Poetry Collection Results

screenshot of Driftwood Press 2020 poetry collection resultsDriftwood Press has announced their 2020 poetry collection reading period results. They have selected three manuscripts for publication.

One Person Holds so Much Silence by David Greenspan was chosen for its “surprising, jaw-dropping language from poem to poem.” Also selected, is O by Niki Tulk is a fable revealing real-world trauma of sexual assault through the fantastical. Last, but not least, Fit to be Tied by Sarah Moore Wagner examines addiction and experiences of womanhood in a small, rural town.

Honorable mentions include Robin Gow’s Stained Glass Rifle, Laura Bandy’s CINEMA, Heather Bartlett’s Another Word for Hunger, and Carolyn Oliver’s Inside the Storm I Want to Touch the Tremble.

Keep an eye out for the three forthcoming collections and if you’re interested in submitting your own poetry manuscripts, they are currently open to submissions.

Brilliant Flash Fiction Releases Branching Out

book leaning against trunk of a tree surrounded by leavesOnline literary magazine Brilliant Flash Fiction has released is second print anthology! Branching Out: International Tales of Brilliant Flash Fiction is a collection of stories – all 300 words or less. These unique tales will entertain you while inspiring your own writing.

The anthology includes authors from Australia, Canada, England, India, Ireland, Malta, New Zealand, Nigeria, the Philippines, Scotland, and the United States.

Want a copy? Submit a $12 donation via the button on their homepage.

Variety Pack Mini-Mega Pack

cover of Variety Pack's Mini-Mega Pack 6x6

If you didn’t already know, literary magazine Variety Pack will release what they call “Mini Packs” on occasion. On August 30, they released Mini-Mega Pack: 6×6. This features six poems from six separate poets to whet your appetite between the releases of Issue 5 (don’t forget to check that out!) and Issue 6 (due out at the end of October).

The six poets featured in the Mini-Mega Pack are Kayla Keyes, Will Cordeiro, Ben Nardolilli, John Sweet, Peter Mitchell, and Adrian Sobo. So jump online and check this mini delight out and don’t forget they are accepting submissions through September 15.

2021 Ambit Competition Winners

screenshot from Ambit's websiteThe 2021 Ambit Competition winners have been announced! The theme of this contest was METAMORPHOSIS.

Michael Salu selected “To The Cow, The Trees” by Georgina Parfitt as the winner of the Stories Competition. “Welcome Kanye!” by Luke Jackson took home second and “Oak Peg” by Edward Hofman won third place.

Honorable mentions include Joanne Hayden’s “Wingbeat”; “Metamorphosis” by Xan Nichols; “It’s Complicated” by William Macbeth; “Metamorphosis” by Amelia Sparling; “Snow” by Amanda Hodes; “I want, I want” by Sharmini Wijeyesekera; “Another Life” by Laura Plummer; “Secrets of a Stitchbird” by Jess Richards; “Made to Love Magic” by Sophie Goldsworthy; and “Re-branded: My Careworker’s Uniform” by Deborah Nash.

Michael Salu was also the judge of the Art and Illustration Competition. This marks the first time this category was featured. The inaugural winner was Lucy Gray’s “Being Blue.” Second prize went to “Metamorphosis” by Yeshé Thapa Magar and third prize went to “A Pair of Glasses, A Blue Handbag and an Elegantly Coiled Tail” by Nina Carter.

Honorable mentions include “Metamorphosis, 2020” by Neelam Bhullar; “Snake Seed” by Matthew Richardson; “Metamorphosis” by Lisa Kalloo; Hannah Millar’s “An Altered Network”; “Rebirth” by Aisling McGee; “Shapeshifter” by Susanna Burton; “Eyes of Sierra Padre” by Chris Vaughan; “Posture ay punctuate collection” by Ben Thompson; and “A Transformation, from the ‘Seventh Swan’ a forgotten folk tale by Sasha Alfille, Wormhearts” by Essy Syed.

Kim Addonizio was the judge of the Poetry Competition. She selected Laurie Ogden’s “What we are given” as the winner. Sarah Gibbons’ “Things hang well on me now I’m so beautifully sad” took home second and E. Walker’s “Deux ex Cochlea” won third.

Honorable mentions include “Girlhood” by Stephanie Powell; “Kerkyra, Corfu” by Johan Huybrechts; “Chrysalis” by Mark McGuinness; “Corot’s Berthe” by Elisabeth Murawski; “too small” by Elisabeth Murawski; “Growing a Face” by Mary Mulholland; “Hanging with Rexie” by Elisabeth Sennitt Clough; “That Kiss in Padua” by Kit Ingram; “What the River did Next” by Anne Bailey; and “Poema” by Alix Willard.

2020 CRAFT Creative Nonfiction Award Winners

craft logo on dark blue backgroundYesterday CRAFT announced the winners of their inaugural CRAFT Creative Nonfiction Award. This year’s contest was judged by Joy Castro.

Winners
“The Ties That Bind” by Tammy Delatorre
“What You Don’t Know” by Claire Fielder
“Catalogue for a Coming of Age” by Liz Harmer

Editors’ Choice Selections
“The Untimely Collaborators” by Sara Davis
“Face, Velvet, Church, Daisy, Red” by Marilyn Hope

These placing pieces can be read on CRAFT‘s website. There, you’ll also find a list of finalists, the rest of the longlist, and honorable mentions, as well as information about this year’s judge.

Able Muse 2021 Book Award Winner

screenshot of Able Muse's 2021 Book Award Contest WinnerAble Muse’s guest judge Mark Jarman has chosen Kelly Rowe’s poetry manuscript Rise Above the River as the winner of the 2021 Able Muse Book Award. Rowe wins $1,000 and publication by Able Muse Press in spring/summer 2022. View Rowe’s bio and samples from the work.

FINALISTS:

  • Gregory Emilio: Kitchen Apocrypha
  • Nicole Caruso Garcia: Oxblood

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

  • Caitlin Cowan: Happy Everything
  • Robert W. Crawford: The Snowstorms That Remain
  • Claudia Gary: Time and Other Solvents
  • Meghan Kemp-Gee: The Animal in the Room
  • Burt Myers: This Late Hour

Stay tuned for announcements of the 2022 awards and don’t forget to get your copy of the 2020 winner, Say What You Will by Len Krisak which will officially be released in November.

New Look for 2River

I was surprised by the change of scenery when visiting 2River View’s website. The online literary journal just had a small makeover. Like before, the new design spotlights the four latest publications but they’re now at the center of the homepage with larger thumbnails of their always stunning featured art. The rest of the layout is mostly the same, but there is less text on the homepage, bringing the focus to those issues. So what are you waiting for? Go check out them out at their newly designed home!

River Teeth’s 2020 Literary Nonfiction Book Prize Winner

headshot of a man with a graying beard in front of a mustard yellow house

Walter M. Robinson was selected by guest judge Megan Stielstra as the winner of River Teeth‘s 2020 Literary Nonfiction Book Prize. His book, What Cannot Be Undone, will be published by the University of New Mexico Press in Spring 2022. Stielstra writes that Dr. Robinson’s book gave her was “the deep humanity of the people called to save our lives.” Dr. Robinson also received a cash prize of $1,000.

The 2021 Literary Nonfiction Book Prize officially opened on August 1 with a deadline of October 31. The guest judge is award-winning author Rigoberto González. The winner receives $1,000 and book publication by The University of New Mexico Press.

Runner Up
Souvenirs from Paradise by Erin Langner

Three Finalists
Afterlight by Joshua Bernstein
How to Live by Kelle Groom
Swampitude by Quitman Marshall

Five Semi-Finalists
The Mothers by Rebe Huntman
Homemaker by Jessica Johnson
From Your Friend Carey Dean by Lisa Knopp
Poisons of War by Sabrina Veroczi
The Mary Years by Julie Marie Wade

Lynne Nugent Named Editor of The Iowa Review

picture of a woman with short hair and glasses, smiling

On July 27, it was officially announced that Lynne Nugent will be officially taking over the editorship of literary magazine The Iowa Review. Nugent is the seventh editor in the journal’s half-century history and is the first nonwhite person to hold this position.

Nugent was the acting editor for the past year before being officially moved into the position. Katie Berta will now be taking Nugent’s vacated managing editor position.

The Iowa Review produces issues three times a year and has been in continuous publication since1970. Don’t forget to support the journal by subscribing or purchasing single issues.

Able Muse 2021 Write Prize Winners

Able Muse has just released the announcement of their 2021 Write Prize for Poetry and Fiction winners. The submissions were judged anonymously by the Able Muse Contest Committee and the final judges, William Baer (fiction) and Jehanne Dubrow (poetry).

Photos of Amina Gautier and E. D. Watson

Amina Gautier’s “We Ask Why” wins the Write Prize for fiction. Baer said the piece is “a deeply moving story that raises serious questions about personal identity and parentage.” The winning story will be published in the Winter 2021/22 edition of Able Muse.

FICTION HONORABLE MENTION:

  • Phylis C. Dryden– “Pink Eggs and Spam”

FICTION SHORTLIST:

  • Amina Gautier – “You’ll Go”
  • Victoria Mac – “Shannon’s Hair”
  • Charlotte Pregnolato – “Moonless”
  • Alan Sincic – “The Book Of Naps”
  • Alan Sincic – “Not What You Think”
  • Rob Wright – “Between Worlds”

E. D. Watson’s “Twelfth of May” wins the Write Prize for Poetry. Dubrow states “What I so appreciate abut this poem is the wryness, its gift for evoking landscape…and the speaker’s sudden hunger in the early aftermath of trauma.” The winning poem and the finalists will be also be published in the Winter 2021/22 issue.

POETRY FINALISTS:

  • Stephen Gibson– “Little Dancer Aged Fourteen”
  • D. R. Goodman – “Wallet”
  • Leona Sevick – “My Mother’s Kitchen”

POETRY HONORABLE MENTION:

  • Paula Bonnell– “Black and White”
  • Partridge Boswell – “The Breakup”
  • Brian Brodeur – “Hard Water”
  • Leona Sevick – “Filial”
  • Natalie Staples – “She Looks Out over the Meadow”
  • Marilyn L. Taylor – “One by One”
  • Ryan Wilson – “Next Up”

Stay tuned for the 2021 Able Muse Book Award announcement.

Masters Review Winter Short Story Award Winner & Anthology X Finalists Announced

Phew, August has found The Masters Review making a lot of announcements.

First, they announced that Dean Jamieson is the winner of their Winter 2020-21 Short Story Award for New Writers. His winning story, “Straight to My Heart” can be read online. Plus, they also have an interview with Dean.

Corey Flintoff’s “Collection Of The Artist” took home second place. The story and an interview with Corey is also available.

Then they announced the ten finalists selected by guest judge Diane Cook for publication in The Masters Review Anthology X.

The Bird Rattle by Chelsy Diaz Amaya

Atlas, Bayonet, (War) Correspondence: An Abecedarian by Tanya Bellehumeur-Allatt

Limbs by Megan Callahan

Do Not Duplicate by John Darcy

Resurrection by Hilary Dean

Comfort Animals by Travis Eisenbise

Persimmon by Elissa C. Huang

All That Is or Ever Was or Ever Will Be by Eliana Ramage

A String of Lapis Beads by Greg Schutz

Sugar by Francis Walsh

And finally, they have announced that Nick Almeida’s Masterplans has won their inaugural chapbook contest. The book is forthcoming in Fall 2021 and you can read the titular story right now as a preview of what’s to come.

Reach Bookstores in the U.S. and Canada

At the end of last year, we introduced a Canadian independent bookstores mailing list to help writers reach our neighbors to the north. Right now, you can get the digital Canadian bookstore list for free when you buy the digital United States bookstore list. Reach nearly 1,800 bookstores with both lists.

More interested in reaching libraries? You can still buy our public library list and receive the academic library list for free.

Learn more about all our mailing lists at our website.

August 2021 eLitPak :: New from Tupelo Press – Open Secrets

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A Marketing Guide for Independent Authors

All authors want to get their books into the hands of as many readers as possible. Though it is a publisher’s role to aid and assist authors in marketing and publicity for every book, the role of any publisher necessarily takes a back seat to your all-important efforts. Nobody else can do this essential work as effectively as you can.

View the full NewPages August 2021 eLitPak newsletter.

August 2021 eLitPak :: Getting to the Truth Now Available

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The Craft and Practice of Creative Nonfiction

This collection of craft essays offers thoughtful insights from some of the highest-rated speakers from HippoCamp: A Conference for Creative Nonfiction Writers, who also happen to be some of the brightest minds in CNF we know. Get your copy today.

View the full NewPages August 2021 eLitPak newsletter.

August 2021 eLitPak :: New Titles from Livingston Press

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New summer titles from Livingston Press by James Braziel (a Tartt First Fiction Award winner due out this month!), Mark Budman, Daren Dean, William Gay, and Terence Gallagher. We will announce the Tartt winner soon and then will resume open reading for fiction titles. Plus, stay tuned for new fall and winter releases by Christy Alexander Hallberg, Kurt Leviant, James Findlay Sleigh, and M. Kaat Toy.

View the full NewPages August 2021 eLitPak newsletter.

New Fall 2021 Titles from Main Street Rag Publishing Company

Check out the titles slated for release this fall from Main Street Rag. These will be release in September, October, and November. You can order an advanced copy at a discounted price, too!

  • A Flower More Enduring poems by Hellen Losse
  • A Gathering of Friends poems by Ron Lands
  • Amorotica poems by Sarah Brown Weitzman
  • Any Dumb Animal poems by AE Hines
  • Blind Green poems by Richard Carr
  • Easter Creek poems by Gary Lark
  • Floating Bridge poems by Eleanor Brawley
  • Just Off Half-Moon Road poems by Sheila Turnage
  • MAGA Sonnets poems by Donald Trump found and compiled by David Rigsbee
  • Making Payments on a Pink Cadillac stories by Robert Parham
  • Polaroids at a Yard Dale poems by Ralph J. Long, Jr.
  • Praises poems by Shelby Stephenson
  • Revised Light poems by Sharon Ackerman
  • Sainted poems by Lisa Zimmerman
  • Singing at High Altitude poems by Jennifer Markell
  • Stories of the New West short stories by Evan Morgan Williams
  • When Light Waits for Us poems by Hilda Downer
  • When There Were Horses poems by Pat Riviere-Seel
  • Wild Things poems by Elizabeth Johnston Ambrose
  • Winter Bride poems by Monica McAlpine

Which titles are you adding to your fall and winter reading lists?

Carve Announces 2021 Raymond Carver Contest Results

Literary magazine CARVE offers the Raymond Carver Short Story Contest annually in the spring with winners appearing in their fall issue. The contest awards $3,000 across five prizes and is open to stories written in English from around the world.

The 2021 contest was judged by Leesa Cross-Smith who chose the top three prizewinners.

First – $2000: “Habits” by Morgan Green in Abington, PA

Second – $500: “The Pit” by Chris Blexrud in New Orleans, LA

Third – $250: “Field Dressing” by Mariah Rigg in Eugene, OR

Editors’ Choice – $125: “What Happened with the Librarian?” by Haley Hach in Rhinebeck, NY

Editors’ Choice – $125: “The Kingdom of the Shades” by Nina Ellis in London, UK

Finalists

“Disappear” by Patricia King

“Eyrie Hours” by Stephanie Pushaw

“Mapping the New Hell” by Shana Hartmann

“Those People” by Melissa Gardea

“St. Felix Dance & Bowl” by Joshua Wales

Club Plum Announces 2021 Best of Net Nominees

Club Plum logoLast night Club Plum Literary Journal announced their 2021 Best of the Net nominees!

Fiction:
“U. Vulgaris” by Mary Alice Long
“The Swing” by t.m. thomson

Prose Poetry
“Natures Mortes” by Katherine Cart
“escape” by L. Kardon
“Downpour” by Lorette C. Luzajic
“How to Make a Shroud” by Kristen Roach
“If This Is the Truth” by Sean Rys

Art
“Plums” by Ann-Marie Brown
“The Jellyfish Invasion of Asbury Park” by Joe Lugara
“Blithe #2” by Oormila Vijayakrishnan Prahlad

You can check out these nominated pieces at the journal’s website.

Snapdragon’s Popups Returning Soon

Next month, Snapdragon will resume hosting their Art & Healing Popups. The donation-based online events feature a different artist and artistic practice each month. The series was on pause for the summer, but will return on Sunday, September 12 with “Introduction to Zentangle” with Vanesa Simon.

You can RSVP for this event to receive a reminder when it gets a little closer at Snapdragon‘s website. While you’re there, you can see what materials you’ll need, as well as a list of past events.