NewPages Blog

With its most recent edition, Black Warrior Review introduces the renaming of their online edition of the publication: Boyfriend Village.

The name comes a story written Zachary Doss, “The Village with All of the Boyfriends.” Zach was an editor with BWR  and beloved member of the literary community. He passed away in March 2018.

Brandi Wells writes, “Zach loved BWR before, during, and after he was editor there. It makes sense that he might be woven into the infrastructure in this way. I hope it is a space for weird voices and writers who are trying something new, something surprising.”

She offers readers this excerpt from Zach’s story: “The Village with All of the Boyfriends is where all of your boyfriends wind up eventually. You built this Village for them and they can’t leave and neither can you. You are not allowed inside, but you wait in the desert at the edge of town.”

Driftwood Press is kicking off their new Seminar Series with a five-week online Erasure Poetry Seminar lead by Jerrod Schwarz [pictured], instructor of creative writing at the University of Tampa. The seminar covers the history, practice, and importance of erasure poetry. The format is weekly video, writing prompts with feedback, a class-only Facebook group and YouTube channel. The course fee includes a copy of A Little White Shadow  by Mary Ruefle. Students will contribute to a Showcase Booklet which will be made available for free on Driftwood’s website and via their social media outlets.

Writers interested in attending the seminar must apply with writing sample and statement of interest no later than October 31. After selection, the course will run from November 12 – December 14.

Glimmer Train may be winding down, but its Bulletins with craft essays from writers continues a stongly as ever. The October 2018 installment features:

Writing Immigrant Stories by May-lee Chai [pictured]: “For American authors writing about a multicultural, globalized world, the issue of translation is unavoidable: what to put into English, what to leave in a mother tongue, and how to render the mixed-English that often is used in immigrant families.”

Novel and Story by William Luvaas: “For years, the novel was dominant, with its loud, broad-shouldered personality. Novel was so self-assured—something of a bully, really—while Story scurried about, mouse-like under the furniture, speaking in a whisper, fearing Novel would step on it. Then something unexpected happened.”

Tobias Wolff (from an interview by Travis Holland): “So when I would read a great story of Ray Carver’s, like ‘Errand’ or ‘Cathedral,’ my thought would be, ‘I want to write this well.’ Not write like him, because I knew I couldn’t. That was his world, his voice, all that.”

This and all previous bulletins are archived here.

“Literature is not efficient,” writes New England Review Editor Carolyn Kuebler in the Editor’s Note to V39 N3. “Reading it, writing it, and publishing it all require a seemingly unreasonable investment in time. Journals like ours take part in this economy of inefficiency by keeping our doors open to writing from everyone, everywhere.” She goes on to discuss the weight placed on editors to make selections from thousands of unsolicited submissions, which open publications with good reputations face.

“Because of this openness to new writing, we have to say ‘no’ far more often than we say ‘yes,’ which can give writers a kind of ‘who do they think they are’ feeling of resentment. It also sets literary editors up as gatekeepers, as if reading and evaluating manuscripts were in some way equivalent to being a bouncer at an exclusive nightclub or a troll under the bridge. To me, the problem with the image of a gatekeeper is that it implies that the lit mag is some steadfast entity that simply exists, and that editors are only blocking the way to it. But without the efforts of those same people who are reading the manuscripts, there would be no there there.”

Instead, Kuebler entreats readers (and writers) to consider “lit mags and their staff of editors and readers in terms of service,” with many of those working behind the scenes doing so for little or no pay, and putting “aside their own agendas and literary preferences, and often their own writing, in service of another’s.”

I get it. I hope others do, too. Thanks Carolyn – and countless other editors, readers, and all of those who give selflessly in the service of literature to make these publications ‘there.’

As always, Brevity’s craft essays cover a wide range of topics to interest any/every writer of “concise literary nonfiction,” and then some. The September 2018 installment features “Schizophrenia, Dandelions, Cookies, Floods and Scabs: Alternate Approaches” by Elizabeth Robinson; “Picturing the Hybrid Form” by Rebecca Fish Ewan [pictured], which offers readers “an illustrated crash course on graphic memoir”; and an exploration of “the interplay of language and visual arts” with Beth Kephart’s “Paynes Gray: When Watercolors Become Words.”

Congratulations to Boulevard on its 100th issue of fiction, poetry and essays. Special to this issue is a craft interview with Jane Smiley in which she discusses the “necessary ingredients” that went into the structure of her Last Hundred Years trilogy, what she was “obsessed with” when writing, and the impact of winning the Pulitzer. Also included is the Boulevard’s regular Symposium feature on the topic “Writing In the Donald Trump Age.” Contributors include Shara McCallum, Phong Nguyen, Daniel M. Mendoza, René Martínez, Meron Haredo, and Robert Zaller.

The Fall 2018 Still Point Arts Quarterly is a special issue titled “Four Freedoms Reinterpreted.” Editor Christine Brooks Cote writes in her introduction that the concept was inspired by Franklin Roosevelt’s 1941 speech in which he specifically identified freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. She explains:

“Two years later The Saturday Evening Post  published four paintings by Norman Rockwell, each devoted to one of the Four Freedoms. There were accompanying essays written by respected writers of the day. Now seventy-five years later, it seems appropriate to revisit these ‘essential’ freedoms and think about where we stand today. . . This special issue is filled with art and writing from people who have something to say about freedom. It is both a celebration of who we are as a country and a cry for attention to the ways in which the foundations of our country are threatened. I hope you will be moved by this outpouring of love for our country and concern for our future.”

Readers can view a generous sample of the publication here.