At the NewPages Blog readers and writers can catch up with their favorite literary and alternative magazines, independent and university presses, creative writing programs, and writing and literary events. Find new books, new issue announcements, contest winners, and so much more!
The 2015 annual issue of The Meadow features the winner of their 2015 Novella Prize: “Still Life” by Jerry D. Mathes II.
The Novella Prize is open until December 15 for previously unpublished manuscripts between 18,000 and 35,000 words. The winner receives $500 and publication in the print journal as well as online. The judge for 2015 has not yet been announced. For more information, visit The Meadow website.
Happy 10th Anniversary to New Madrid, the national journal of the low-residency MFA program at Murray State University. In her Editor’s Introduction, Ann Neelon takes a look back, noting that “as milestones go, a decade is not insignificant, especially for a low-residency program like ours that operates, within the university budget, according to a make-or break financial model much like that of a small business.”
In looking to the future, Neelon resolves to “keep getting better,” with plans underway “to start up a literature option in Ireland. April 2016 marks the centenary of the rebellion immortalized by William Butler Yeats in his poem, ‘Easter, 1916.’ and our plan is to take advantage of the many exhibits and events the government of Ireland has planned in commemoration. Our first study-abroad course, to be offered in June of 2016, will use the Easter Rising as a lens through which to examine the entanglement of literature, history, and politics. The course will be open to alumni as well as current students.”
Issue 59 of Creative Nonfiction is themed Waiting. In his editorial, “What’s the Story?” Lee Gutkind examines many of his own experiences with waiting – as an editor, as a writer, as a coffee consumer. He also considers the role he plays in the lives of others and their waiting to hear about submissions they’ve sent in to CNF, that process, and why there is so much waiting for others to do.This issue also includes the essay “Any Given Day” by Judith Kitchen, submitted specifically for this issue prior to her passing August 20, 2014, and the essay “A Genre by Any Other Name?: The Story Behind ‘Creative Nonfiction” by Dinty W. Moore. Gutkind’s and Moore’s essays can be read online as well as “Sleepless in Any City: Insomnia in Lorca’s Madrid” by Janine Zeitlin for readers to get a sample of the publication’s content.
The Malahat Review issue 191 includes winners of their 2015 Long Poem Prize: Gary Geddes for “The Resumption of Play” and Genevieve Lehr for “The latter half of the third quarter of the waning moon.”
The Malahat Review website features and interview with each author on their winning poems as well as a link to a symposium on the Long Form which was presented at the League of Canadian Poets’ Long Poem panel May 2015 annual general meeting in Winnipeg. Contributing authors and commentaries include: Kate Braid’s “Tending the Garden: The Fruits and Dangers of the Long Poem”; Cornelia Hoogland’s “The Long Poem and the Shape of the Working Mind”; and Sharon Thesen’s “After-Thoughts on the Long Poem.”
Kurt Beals’s award winning translation of Swiss short story writer Regina Ullmann’s 1921 The Country Road will appeal mostly to mature readers who find themselves uncomfortable in contemporary fiction, seeking instead something old-fashioned. This is a different collection, unlike any short stories written today, more like vignettes, reveries, or sketches of rural peasant life in small villages, not grim but also not sentimental. It is not a page-turner; the reader will want to savor the beautiful prose and insights into human nature. Plot and character development are minimal, motivation and “backstory” in all but one case not given, lending a sense of mystery to the account. A repeated stylistic series of dots or ellipses suggests the steady continuum of life. Continue reading “The Country Road”
A girl with blue skin is found drowning in a lake. A fifteen-year-old girl named Audrey saves her. Audrey’s mother, Irene, stands by. So do Irene’s friends, Magda and Libby. So do Audrey’s friends, Rebecca and Caroline. Audrey is the only one who acts; the rest of them watch. Audrey isn’t only the one who saved The Blue Girl, which is a remarkable thing for a fifteen year-old to do in itself, but she is the only one who attempted to save her. This singular moment—this moment of action and inaction—is the foundation for The Blue Girl by Laurie Foos. This event propels the story forward—how these six characters interpret this event, and thus in the process, how they come to understand themselves. Continue reading “The Blue Girl”
“The Girl on the Swing,” the first novella of this two-story collection by Peter Grandbois, fittingly opens with a Kafka quote, because this is very much a story of metamorphosis. Not only does “the girl,” timid but precocious twelve-year-old Isabel, undergo a dramatic physical transformation, but so do the other three members of her family: her mother, father, and her brother, each in their own unsettling way. Isabel’s dramatic and quite gruesome transformation triggers a domino effect throughout the family; the panic caused by her transformation highlights her family’s dysfunction, which soon snowballs into a full-blown collapse. Continue reading “The Girl on the Swing and At Night in Crumbling Voices”
The King of the Sea Monkeys is a novel of two parts. The first part is about Paul, a young high school teacher, a loving father to Jessie and husband to Lilian. The second part is about Saul, whom Paul “becomes” after surviving a gunshot to the head upon being thrust into the middle of a gas station robbery. Wrong place, wrong time, and just like that, Paul becomes Saul. Continue reading “The King of the Sea Monkeys”
Running beneath each story in Liz Prato’s collection, Baby’s on Fire, is a murmuring chaos, the kind that seems to bubble beneath the surface either as the aftermath of or building up to a full-blown eruption. But those eruptions never come to readers in the span of the narratives. They’ve already happened, or this story is the building up to it, or it may never happen at all, and what we witness in these lives is precisely what we witness in the lives of people who surround us on a daily basis. Whole lives lived, the full details of which we have absolutely no awareness, but that simmer there, just below the surface. Just like our own lives in relation to others. Continue reading “Baby’s on Fire”
“The body as sculpture,” Testament—G. C. Waldrep’s book-length poem—begins, and with it we feel the steadying gesture that prefaces any great feat—fingers at one’s temples, eyes closed, the breath held. Continue reading “Testament”
FitzPatrick’s debut collection, published by the Vandalia Press imprint of West Virginia University Press, consists of nine powerful stories about the fragility of hope, the devastation of grief, and the precarious balance of family harmony that lies between the two. Four of the nine stories feature the same characters, allowing us to see growth, and sometimes the lack thereof, in the lives of these individuals. Continue reading “My Pulse Is an Earthquake”
Even before turning the first page of Khaty Xiong’s beautifully composed chapbook Deer Hour, we are given a visual clue as to what we’ll find inside. The cover image shows a large and noble buck suspended between an expanse of grey sky above and yellow field below. The animal, balanced between the two seemingly endless landscapes, defies and resists enclosure. Much the same way, Xiong’s poems refuse to be confined to definitive beginnings and endings, and instead hover, suspended on each page. Continue reading “Deer Hour”
“Been working on my abstractions now / for over a lifetime” is the very opening line of the book. This line holds true through the duration of Jon Curley’s Hybrid Moments,which is of the school that plain language ought to be reserved for journalism. Though it is a modern work, influenced by much in the contemporary realm, it rings in the manner of the classic romantics. The language is ornate and the thoughts are powerful. There are many threads that must be teased from one another. Continue reading “Hybrid Moments”
Author Geoffrey Peerson Leed is a voice from the future. Other than a webpage issued by The Market Optimization Bureau labeling him “subversive,” there is his “lost work” Partisans. Leed too is a “ghostly neighbor” whose fate is unknown. M. Allen Cunningham is responsible for the book’s publication, presented in accordance with the author’s wishes “as indicated in manuscripts discovered after his disappearance.” Readers who favor either the political dystopias of Orwell or the zombie-apocalypse works of Max Brooks will be interested in what Leed has to say. Continue reading “Partisans”
When I finished Julia Cohen’s I Was Not Born I had the following reactions, more or less simultaneously: That really ends with a punch. I am not so sure what just happened there. I want to try something like this. Even from the first paragraph of the first essay, I knew that this was not going to be a traditional project. Continue reading “I Was Not Born”
The 2015 round is now open for the Sustainable Arts Foundation. The foundation offers awards in two major categories: visual arts and writing. Writers working in fiction, nonfiction, playwriting, and poetry are endouraged to apply. Visual artists practicing painting, sculpture, drawing, printmaking, mixed-media and photography are encouraged to apply. At this time they are not accepting applications in the performing arts, film/video, or music.
To be eligible, the applicant must have at least one child under the age of 18. The foundation will award Sustainable Arts Foundation Award: $6,000 and Sustainable Arts Foundation Promise Award: $2,000. They typically offer five of each award in each application round.
There is a $15 application fee, but 100% of the fee goes to the jurors, who are also fellow parent artists themselves. Deadline September 4, 2015.
The back cover of this book will give readers the most bare-bone details of Mr. and Mrs. Doctor; that Job and Ifi are a Nigerian couple in an arranged marriage, that Job, “Mr. Doctor,” isn’t actually a doctor, and that this lie puts a strain on their marriage and their life at large. But Julie Iromuanya’s novel is about more than a struggle to keep up appearances. It delves into the nitty gritty details of a culture, a marriage, two people unto themselves, displaced in a strange land that is famed to provide opportunity and riches. From the very first pages, it is painfully clear that this life is not what either Job or Ifi had pictured for themselves. Continue reading “Mr. and Mrs. Doctor”
Carissa Halston’s “Call It a Map” has been awarded the 2015 Willow Springs Fiction Prize of $2000 and publication in issue #76. Halston offers insight on the winning story: the Craigslist ad that inspired the concept, her signing up for a sleep study and researching disabilities. She writes of the piece, “I wanted to push sensory details as far as I could without relying on imagery, which meant I was allowed to choose similes and metaphors that wouldn’t fly in another story. All stories rely on internal logic, but I find the most cohesive narratives are those that use their plot details to inform their diction.” Read the story and more from Halston here.
Glimmer Train has just chosen the winning stories for their May Short Story Award for New Writers. This competition is held quarterly and is open to all writers whose fiction has not appeared in a print publication with a circulation greater than 5000. The next Short Story Award competition will take place in August. Glimmer Train’s monthly submission calendar may be viewed here.
1st place goes to Lauren Green [pictured] of New York, NY. She wins $1500 for “When We Hear Yellow” and her story will be published in Issue 97 of Glimmer Train Stories. This will be her first publication.
2nd place goes to Emory Harkins of Brooklyn, NY. He wins $500 for “We’re Talking to Ourselves.”
3rd place goes to Ellen Graham of Seattle, WA. She wins $300 for “Livingston.”
A PDF of the Top 25 winners can be found here.
Deadline today for the Very Short Fiction Award: July 31. This competition is held quarterly, and 1st place wins $1500, publication in the journal, and 20 copies of that issue. It’s open to all writers, with no theme restrictions, and the word count must not exceed 3000. Click here for complete guidelines.
Molly Lynch give us 10 books to entertain, inspire and encourage young feminists – agree? disagree?
150 Years of Wonderland is on exhibit at The Morgan Library & Museum, with an online exhibition available for mouse click travelers.
Follow that up with Anarchy in Wonderland: Vivienne Westwood’s anti-capitalist take on Alice’s Adventures on NewStatesman.
Washington Post’s Valerie Strauss examines Common Core and Martin Luther King Jr.: Is this any way to teach his famous letter from jail?
What do Americans look like in Arabic literature? Columnist Marcia Lynx Qualey @arablit explores Portraits of Americans in Arabic literature.
I could have used a couple of these when I first began smartphone reading: 5 Tips for Reading Serious Literature on Smartphones.
And Dartmouth College is running a contest to see what artificial intelligence can create the most human-like writing and music entries.
Volume 36.2 of New England Review includes a Focus on China, with first English translation of poems by Xiao Kaiyu, Ya Shi, and Yin Lichuan; Wei An’s ruminations on nature just north of Beijing; Wendy Willis on Ai Weiwei’s blockbuster show at Alcatraz; and fiction by Chinese-born American writer Michael X. Wang.
Editor Speer Morgan writes in his Editor’s Note: “At NER, the door has always been open to translations, from any language, but Chinese literature has been missing from our pages since 1987, when we published David Hinton’s rendition of classical Chinese poet Tu Fu. So for this issue we reached out in order to bring more of it in. We’ve assembled a handful of contemporary works translated from Chinese as well as works pertaining to China written in English. This is not an attempt to present some kind of overview—not at all—but rather we’re doing what NER does best, that is, offering a lively sample of what’s new and good. They’re presented not as a discrete section but are integrated into the issue as a whole, because it turns out that the China-related pieces in this issue speak just as often, and sometimes more clearly, to the other works assembled here as to each other.”
Since 1983, the University of Georgia Press has annualy held their Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, which, according to their website, “was established to encourage gifted emerging writers by bringing their work to a national readership.” Siamak Vossoughi’s winning collection Better Than War will be published in September 2015.
From the publisher’s description: “The stories in Better Than War encompass narratives from a diverse set of Iranian immigrants, many searching for a balance between memories of their homeland and their new American culture. [ . . . ] All Iranian immigrants, young or old, carry with them a vivid past in their contemporary life. Vossoughi’s Better Than War is about growing up, coming of age, and raising children in America while still remembering the importance of retaining Iranian pride.”
Preorder your copy of Better Than War at the University of Georgia Press website.
With little fanfare, John Rosenwald and Lee Sharkey have stepped down as The Editors of Beloit Poetry Journal, roles they have held for nearly 25 years.
The publication has a long and romantic history – starting up at Beloit College, declaring its independence to defy the opinions of those who would censor it, and moving from Wisconsin to Maine while keeping its place-based name, establishing an international reputation for contemporary poetry. Writers speak of ‘not being ready yet’ to submit to BPJ, but someday, they will; or of being rejected, they smile – as though accomplishing the attempt was enough (and they always say, “I got the nicest rejection…”). Sigh. There just aren’t many such stories as those nowadays with the revolving door of publication start ups and closures, hundreds of lit mags to submit to, mass submission processes where writers don’t even know the publications they’ve sent work to.
Beloit Poetry Journal’s history is a good read and reminder of the literary journals that paved the way for so many others. And not just publications, but the people involved with them: editors, readers, writers, publishers. All of us.
Having known John and Lee (and Ann Arbor) for well over a decade now, I know this decision to pass on the publication was not an easy one. Please readers, understand, it was within their power to end Beloit Poetry Journal and call it a good run. Stepping away is hard enough, but handing over a publication with such an incredible reputation was not so much a decision as a process that took several years to come through. My appreciation and admiration to John and Lee and Ann for all of their hard work and dedication to writers AND readers. They never separated the importance of those two roles through the years they ran the journal, which is what makes it so well known today within the literary community.
I see John and Lee are still listed in the publication as “Senior Editors,” so I’m sure they will continue on in some advisory capacity. But I have also met the new editors: Melissa Crowe and Rachel Contreni Flynn. I know they will look to their Senior Editors in the years to come to guide them, but I already sense that they will have strength and creativity of their own to take the journal into the next great phase of its existence.
Melissa and Rachel provide a short note about the transition here. I like how in it, and elsewhere on the site, the role of Editor is referred to as handling the day-to-day operations of the journal. But as the literary community had come to know first David and Marion Stocking, then John Rosenwald, Lee Sharkey, and Ann Arbor as the face(s) of Beloit Poetry Journal – there is a great deal more responsibility to being the Editor of a journal than simply running the day-to-day. That day-to-day may actually feel like the work of it all, but much more than that is required to maintain a good literary publication. A great literary publication. One of the best.
The tangible, the day-to-day, that will be the easy part. It’s the other, the expectations, that become the true responsibility. The expectations of writers, of readers, of other editors, other publications, of teachers, of students, of the up-and-coming, of the established, of yourselves – most of all – of yourselves. Continually satisfy these changing expecations of the collective imagination, sustain this, and you will have a publication people know internationally. For decades. It has been done. It can be done.
My best to Melissa and Rachel. No cliches about shoes to fill. You have already done that or you wouldn’t be here already. Ten years from now, let’s look back, talk about where Beloit Poetry Journal has been and imagine where you see it going.
Big Muddy: A Journal of the MIssissippi River Valley issue 15.1 features winning entries from their 2014 contests:
Wilda Hearne Flash Fiction Contest
Jeannine Dorian Vesser, Missouri, “That Summer”
Mighty River Short Story Contest
Hannah Gildea [pictured], Oregon, “Cottonmouth”
2014 contest winners for full-length works to be published by Southeast Missouri State University Press include:
Cowles Poetry Book Prize
Angie Macri, Underwater Panther
Publication Date: September 1, 2015
Nilsen Literary Prize for a First Novel
James Tate Hill, Academy Gothic
Publication Date: October 1, 2015
The Masters Review volume IV features ten authors whose stories were selected by Kevin Brockmeier [pictured] as “The Best Stories by Emerging Writers.” The Masters Review has two submission periods per year, one for new voices published online, and the print anthology, which in the past was open to just those in graduate-level programs.
This year’s anthology opened to submissions “from emerging writers of all kinds.” Editor Kim Winternheimer writes, “As The Masters Review grows in its literary pursuits, its focus remains on celebrating and promoting new and emerging authors. Yet, by showcasing writers from a single demographic we were limiting our platform. As we mark our fourth year, we are thrilled to embrace a growing range of voices.”
Winternheimer comments that while nonfiction entries were submitted, none were selected for this final colletion, making this anthology an all-fiction issue. Authors and works included can be found here, as well as a link to the shortlist of finalists.
Rounding out its first year of publication, Crab Fat Literary Magazine has four print issues (August, November, February, May) and a ‘best of’ anthology in addition to its online collection from posting new writing every other Sunday of the year.
Founding/Managing Editor Caseyrenée Lopez and Fiction Editor Ella Ann Weaver oversee the publication of fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, flash fiction, interviews, art/photography, and experimental/hybrid work. They will consider audio/video of readings, but it’s not something they’ve published regularly.
The motivation for starting CFLM, Caseyrenée tells me, was “to join the conversation. My educational background is focused on queer writing/publishing, and supporting minority voices was the next step for me. I also wanted to see what was out there; starting Crab Fat has provided me with interactions and experience I wouldn’t have gained otherwise.”
Most intriguing to me is that name – Crab Fat. Where on earth did that come from? Caseyrenée says, “I wanted something memorable and cool, but was struggling to find something that would vibe with my goal of highlighting awkward/experimental/queer prose and poetry. A few days before I committed to buying a domain, my husband and I were at breakfast and started calling out random phrases and obscure words. He suggested ‘crab fat’ because we’d been listening to Crudbump‘s Illuminati Shit. Our favorite line in the song is ‘rock a big gut, that’s my crab fat’ and we’d been making jokes about his chubby belly being ‘crab fat.’ So really, the name Crab Fat is a weird mashup of rap lyrics and body positivity.”
In keeping with the unique name, readers can expect to find “a little bit of this and a little bit of that,” Caseyrenée tells me. “We feature a wide variety of voices and offer an eclectic mix of contemporary content. We are progressive and like to publish work that goes against the grain of mainstream.” To that end, during their first year CFLM has featured writing from Adam Kuta, Edward A. Boyle, D.S. West, Haley Fedor, Alana I. Capria, Philicia Montgomery, and Susannah Betts.
The future for CFLM will include pushing the genre limits and incorporating more experimental work into the magazine. “We want work that breaks conventions and makes us question what we know about genre” says Caseyrenée, “so we are actively reaching out to a wider audience than before. We are also trying to raise money through tip-jar submissions, a GoFundMe campaign, a cool image prompt contest, and sales of our print anthology. We want to pay writers for their work, even if it is just a token payment, to show that we appreciate all of their hard work.” Crab Fat also actively works to recognize writers through nominations for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net.
CFLM’s print anthology is published under the Damaged Goods Press imprint. Caseyrenée is the founder of both, so in a sense, they’re sister sites/publications. The quarterly magazine is available as PDF and print, and the every other Sunday installments on available online. Submissions are accepted a rolling basis using Submittable.
Ruminate Summer 2015 includes the first and second place winners and the honorable mention of the 2015 VanderMey Nonfiction Prize judged by Scott Russel Sanders.
First Place
D.L. Mayfield for Blessed are the Pure in Heart
Second Place
Elizabeth Dark Wiley for “If you Want it to Last…”
Honorable Mention
Shannon Huffman Polson for Naked: A Triptych
Drunken Boat #21 includes work from each of the finalists for the DB Book Contest. The contest was opened to opened to poetry, translations, and hybrid works. The editors received nearly 300 manuscripts which were narrowed down to 10 finalists. Forrest Gander chose the winner of the contest: Collier Nogue’s The Ground I Stand on is Not My Ground, a book that utilizes QR codes that link up to a website to create a truly immersive multimedia experience.
The finalists contest: Diana Thow translating Amelia Rosselli; Eleanor Goodman; Amaranth Borsuk and Gabriela Jauregui; Amy Pence; Catherine Hammond translating Carmen Boullosa; Collier Nogues; Elisabeth Murawski; Haley Larson; Meredith Stricker; Michael Leong; and Stephanie Anderson.
Samples of their work can be read on Drunken Boat #21 here.
The newest issue of Southern Humanities Review (v48 n4) includes a special poetry section featuring the winner, runners-up and finalists for the 2014 Auburn Witness Poetry Prize honoring Jake Adam York (pictured; 1972-2012).
WINNER
Amanda Gunn
Gunn was the guest of honor at “Abide”: A Tribute to Jake Adam York and His Work, October 2014.
RUNNERS-UP
Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach
Shara Lessley
FINALISTS
Lauren Camp
Kai Carlson-Wee
Joshua Gage
Jennifer Horne
Jeremy Keenan Jackson
Anna Leahy
Enid Shomer
David Tucker
Seth Brady Tucker
Richard Tyler
I couldn’t help but to share this snippet from Mark Jarman’s editorial remarks for the summer fiction issue of The Fiddlehead (n264):
I will be brief: this is an amazing collection, an astounding summer fiction issue. Look at the stories and writers from around the globe, writers new and proven: no one else in Canada can touch what we are doing right now.
There I’ve said it; the gods of the small mags can strike me down.
Rather than being struck down, I hope this encourages readers to take look (a couple can be read full text online) and judge for themselves!
Polychrome Ink is a new biannual print and e-published journal with the mission to highlight that diversity is not a niche market, but a mass market.
“Polychrome Ink is run by a group of diverse friends,” Executive Editor Em Salgado explained to me. “We met due to a mutual love of literature. During frequent literary discussions, we often noticed a shortage of characters that represented any of our individual diversity points, which only further highlighted what we felt was lacking. The need to see ourselves normalized in the literature being produced and the literature we love became our raison d’être. Eventually we grew tired of simply talking about it and decided to take matters into our own hands.”
At the editorial helm along with Em are Associate Editor Zire Fournier, Copy Editor Kimmia Masterson, and Assistant Associate Editor Zaira Fournier. Additionally, Polychrome Ink currently has eight specialty editors who assist with topics and themes in which they have experience. For example, if Polychrome Ink receives a submission with any of the following themes: gay male, genderqueer, religious, neuroatypical — the editors send that submission to Aaron for review because he, himself, is a gay neuroatypical genderqueer individual who studies theology.
Unique to this publication, writers who submit may choose the editor that they feel best suits their work. Em explained, “The process of selecting an editor with the appropriate diversity points and literary interests helps to assure writers that their submission is being reviewed by someone that their work will resonate with the most — thus making the relationship between writer and editor more personal.”
Even the name Polychrome Ink speaks to the diversity of the publication: “We were looking for a moniker that represented diversity,” Em said, “and by extension, diversity in writing. Polychrome means multicolored, yet does not have the same connotation as rainbow, since our demographic extends beyond LGBTQIA+ themes. And Ink, of course, represents the writing itself.”
Readers of Polychrome Ink can expect to find a collection of short fiction, creative nonfiction, flash fiction, essays, and poetry written by diverse authors and/or with diverse themes. Em explains that “Polychrome Ink seeks to share authentic voices and quality literature, covering an array of genres and topics, with the hopes that the work resonates with readers.”
For their inaugural issue, the featured author was Tessa Gratton, alongside Emma Mauze, Frances Kimpel, D. Michael Warren, Shana Bulhan Haydock, David Perlmutter, Yuan Changming, Anders Scott, Jan Steckel, Robin Wyatt Dunn, Courtney Hamel, Kim Luna, Jaycee Boydgarcia, Alex Franco, Malcolm Friend, and Stephen Mead.
“In terms of the future,” Em told me, “we will continue providing an outlet and resource for writers and readers alike. We would like to be amidst the publications everyone looks to for original diverse literature. We also have plans to expand our staff — thus broadening the diverse spectrum of our editorial team.”
Polychrome Ink accepts submissions via email and is approaching the end of the submission period for Volume II — which releases in October. (Submissions close July 31.) There is no reading fee and the publication is a paying market with hopes that as readership grows, so will the compensation to writers.
The Lucy cell
the stock exchange creating a consciousness
the computer, functioning on man-made algorithms
corrects its own mistakes
error-correction is a sign of
(to a computer)
a sign of its own conscious
its own identity…
From [Language] CSS and HTML [/Language] by Sara Marron and Michael Reich
Chagrin River Review, Issue 6 (Spring 2015)
“At age 26, your first teaching assignment shattered your dreams. Your students preferred other forms of entertainment such as talking on their cell phones or discussing who was sleeping with whom to studying Shakespeare and dangling participles. Most had no clue how to express themselves using a complete sentence, and if you’d had a whisky shot for every time you read an essay containing the word ‘cuz,’ you would have become a fine drunk, which in retrospect doesn’t sound so bad.”
From “A Guide for the Burned Out Teacher” by Kelly Charlton published in Crab Fat Literary Magazine online content, July 2, 2015.
Amidst all the debate about the “value” of higher education and the “overabundance” of MFAs being turned out of programs these days, it was refreshing to read Charlotte Morganti’s Eight Reasons to Considering Pursing an MFA on Fiction Southeast. What a great reminder that it’s okay to want to go to school to LEARN not just to EARN. Morganti writes, “Initially I enrolled in my MFA program for two reasons – to learn the craft and to hang out with some really cool people. By the time I earned the degree, I had benefited in many other ways as well.” She invites readers in or pursuing MFAs to give their own reasons for enrolling in a program, as well as responses to these two questions: Did your MFA give you benefits you dind’t expect when you first enrolled? If you opted no to pursue and MFA, what were your primary reasons?
The current issue of World Literature Today is a double issue that assures us a broader variety than usual. The expected material is itself several evenings of very enjoyable reading, but the content of this issue does literally have something for everyone. And there’s far more than a short review can hope to do justice, even without examples and quotes. Continue reading “World Literature Today – May-August 2015”
Concho River Review is a traditional literary magazine, offering the old-fashioned pleasures of text and comprehensibility under the motto “Literature from Texas and beyond.” Published twice a year in paperback by Angelo State University, and part of the Texas Tech University System, the contents are mostly from Texas, with little from beyond. They are neatly arranged in sections for fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and book reviews, with roughly equal amounts of each, with no graphics or artwork.
Continue reading “Concho River Review – Spring 2015”The Georgia Review is a venerable fixture on the American literary scene, and a magazine entrenched in the academic world. Founded in 1947 at the University of Georgia in Athens, Editor Stephen Corey is equally venerable, having joined the magazine in 1983. According to their website, “The Georgia Review seeks a broad audience of intellectually open and curious readers—and strives to give those readers rich content that invites and sustains repeated attention and consideration.” Continue reading “The Georgia Review – Spring 2015”
Smaller journals are vulnerable to becoming just another magazine in the ever-expanding literary world. It is up to the individual journals themselves to find a way to separate their art from the countless others in circulation. Border Crossing, now four issues old (founded in 2011), appears to embrace this challenge and continues to deliver high-quality work while experimenting with unique features such as their “Michigan and Ontario” section. Continue reading “Border Crossing – Fall 2014”
A Public Space fits neatly into my hands with its fine matte finish and folded flaps for bookmarks (in case there are no café receipts handy). The shade of magenta coordinates warmly with Lee Satkowski’s photograph—a writer in his studio, mosquito net surrounding his workspace, 50s checkered tile below his feet—providing a vibe that one would find in a coffee shop in Williamsburg. Its cream-colored pages are easy on the eyes, making it an ideal read under the sun or florescent lighting. Although designed with an aesthetic I am partial to, A Public Space provides content that fits neatly into your palms, but untidily in memory. Continue reading “A Public Space – Winter 2015”
Weirdness attracts weirdness, unless of course, you are the kind of reader that is repulsed by the idea of dinosaur pornography written by an elementary-aged girl. (More on Benjamin Drevlow’s story later.) I am not that kind of reader, and neither are the editors of Profane. This journal aims to unsettle minds and bring to the page tales that are, “sacred, profound, heartfelt, raw, quirky, and, at times, a little weird.” Aside from its peculiar content, Profane also includes a raw soundtrack of the authors reading their work on its website. Not all writers are professional recording artists which makes listening to the text all that more interesting as the “authors’ very lives have bled into these tracks.” Continue reading “Profane – Winter 2014”
The Iowa Review encompasses texts of the America we assume we know—strong and prideful. Yet, I read about an America whose citizens felt a series of words not synonymous with “strong” or “prideful,” but with “confused” and “defeated.” These American writers (or are they? as some questioned) trudged through turmoil on both native and foreign soil, both within themselves and with the world to compose these words that form a nation of misidentification. Continue reading “The Iowa Review – Spring 2015”
In autocratic regimes, it is not uncommon for freedoms of speech and expression to be suppressed. Social media, newspapers, the arts, and other forms of creative expression threaten the authority of governments which work by subduing the voices of many in order to amplify the voice of one. But as recent history has shown—from the Twitter Revolution and Arab Spring in the Middle East to the Euromaidan Revolution in Ukraine—the people’s voices cannot be silenced, their art cannot be forgotten, and their words cannot be erased. Artists and writers, the forces of social change, still manage to exist in places that would rather they didn’t. Continue reading “Atlanta Review – Spring/Summer 2015”
When I first received this issue of Ninth Letter, I was curious to why it came with a box cover. Upon removing it from its sheath, I found that it came with three card inserts, each one a prose piece dedicated either to the waning Dewey decimal system, an immature book defacer, or a “Library of Water.” After reading the prose inserts, I was excited to read further. Once I opened the issue I was greeted by a myriad of art pieces of different sizes, styles, meanings; a smorgasbord of colors and patterns that would take their own review to cover in any detail, which, as a previous art student, I was tempted to write. Continue reading “Ninth Letter – Spring/Summer 2015”
When I first picked up this issue of Redivider, I found myself engrossed in the cover art by Patricia Mera. I spent what felt like hours tracing the lines and curves of a red tendril, trying to imagine if it was an arm or an artery, or if the stacked red pyramids resembled anything in particular. In an interview with the artist, printed at the back of the issue, Mera said that she titled the piece “Natural Thoughts” because “of how natural the shapes and order of images came to me.” I felt the title suited the piece perfectly, as my thoughts were repeatedly drawn to nature. Continue reading “Redivider – 2015”
The triannual, online Moss is “dedicated to bringing Northwest literature to new audiences and exposing the emerging voices of the region to discerning readers, critics, and publishers.” What better way to do this than by opening the Spring 2015 issue with an interview with Rebecca Brown, a Seattle-based writer? Continue reading “Moss – Summer 2015”
The Cossack Review is a publication that demands readers enter with a mind truly open to the unexpected and nonconformist. “Transit” is the theme of this issue, and Editor Christine Gosnay says they have selected works from writers “who create strange, overgrown worlds in clean and controlled ways, making transit through those worlds a rich and realized journey.” Well, okay, let’s see then. Continue reading “The Cossack Review – Spring 2015”
“First sort through Emily Steinberg’s A Mid Summer Soirée in quick succession,” writes Tahneer Oksman, Graphic Narratives Reviews Editor of Cleaver Magazine, “Then go back and read it slowly.”
I did just that, and found that as I progressed through the images with accompanying text, I became more and more amused by the story of each whimsical character.
“He thought his Linen Suit was the way to go.”
“She wondered if her new Coif was appropriate for an evening soiree.”
“He’d received the invite only a day before and felt decidedly B-listed.”
There’s no transition to connect the images and stories to one another, other than the overall title. As Oksman writes, “Trying to fill in the narrative gaps is part of the pleasure of the journey, as is, on the contrary, moving past those gaps in favor of experiencing the piece’s seductive rhythm.”
Going back through it slowly allows time to absorb the artwork, which is fantastic collage/sketch design work. Using newspaper, with lots of crosswords sections, some of Steinberg’s images have almost an exquisite corpse feel to them that makes it both disconcerting and impossible to look away.
Looking for an idea to get your writing started today? Try THEMA literary journal! Each issue of THEMA is based on a different unusual theme. The journal is designed to provide readers with a unique and entertaining collection of artistic theme interpretations, in the form of stories, poetry, black-and-white artwork, and photography. It also provides a stimulating forum for established and emerging literary artists and serves as source material and inspiration for teachers of creative writing.
Upcoming themes and dealines for submission:
The Neat Lady and the Colonel’s Overalls
November 1, 2015
Drop the Zucchini and Run!
March 1, 2016
Second Thoughts
July 1, 2016
“The premise given,” the editors write, “must be an integral part of the plot, not necessarily the central theme but not merely incidental.” For more information, visit THEMA.
The Spring 2015 issue of Chariton Review features the winner and finalists of their 2015 Short Fiction Prize, judged by Christine Sneed. This winner of this annual award for the best unpublished short fiction on any theme up to 5,000 words in English receives a prize of $500 and two or three finalists will receive $200 each. All U.S. entrants will receive a complimentary copy of the Spring prize issue in which the winners are published.
2015 Winner
“Sugar Bowl” by Jo DeWaal
Finalists
“Delivery in Göteborg” by Mike Lewis-Beck
“Die Laughing” by Kim Norris
“Big Sisters” by Louise Kantro
The Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prize is awarded annually, with a first prize of $1,000 and publication. During this past May, the 2014 winner was published: No Map of the Earth Includes Stars by Christina Olivares.
Also the winner of YesYes Books’s 2014 Vinyl 45 Chapbook Competition with her chapbook Petition, Olivares has poems published or forthcoming in Five Quarterly, decomP, Vinyl Poetry, and PALABRA, among others.
Check out the Marsh Hawk Press website for more information about No Map of the Earth Includes Stars or pick up a copy.
