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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!

Cascadia Poetry Festival 2015

cascadia-poetry-festivalThe Cascadia Poetry Festival, the third in an annual festival series that originated in 2012 in Seattle will be held in the Vancouver Island city of Nanaimo, BC, April 30 – May 4.

Organizers have received a $5000 grant from the Tourism Development Fund of Nanaimo, and a $2500 grant from the Canada Council for the Arts for this festival. In addition to business, organization and individual sponsors, there will be a number of small presses purchasing tables at the festival, and tables are available for reservation.

Entrance is available via Gold Passes at $25.00 for a four-day all events pass (Workshops are separate.), $10.00 for students. There will be four workshops delivered by Canadian and International featured and headliner poets.

The NewPages Writing Conferences & Events Guide this and more conferences, book & literary festivals, workshops and retreats, residencies and writing centers. Check it out!

Verso Live Jour- nal

versalAmsterdam-based Versal literary journal went on “intermission” last year, which Editor Megan Garr soundly defends does not mean the publication is dead. To the contrary, Versal is achieving goals they had set for their downtime (though selling out the back issues is still on the To Do List – which you all could help with!). In a bold step forward and away from their past, Versal has started a super cool new venture: Verso / live jour- nal which “renders the literary journal in live form.” Each curated edition will feature one editor and one writer, and a selection of artists and thinkers in various forms: interviews, essays, slideshows, film, sound, and more. Each live issue is themed and edited: 1.1 “Hold Your Tongue” ed. Megan Garr; 1.2 “A Good Road to Follow” ed. Daniel J. Cecil; 1.3 “Chain Gang” ed. Anna Arov; 1.4 “Bad Dog” ed. Jane Lewty. Such a cool idea, but no surprise coming from Versal!

Lit Mag Covers :: Picks of the Week

conjunctions

Issue 63 of Conjunctions is themed “Speaking Volumes,” and Kerry Miller’s mixed media piece Brehm Djurens Liv (Animal Life) does just that in its visual imagery.

berkeley-poetry-review

To continue the theme of speaking, subtle ceiling is credited for this cover image on issue 44 of Berkeley Poetry Review. The tumblr account, subtleceling.tumbler.com is credited to carolina, a “mixed media maker of things” from California now in Gotenburg, Sweden. The issue itself features many works that create a “collage of discrepant (and sometimes discordant) voices . . . “

gigantic-sequins-52

This cover image for Gigantic Sequins #52 seemed a natural flow from BPR. And likewise, a natural from book designer, poet, and artist Meg Willing.

black-warrior-review
And then this nice, natural flow of images to the cover of Black Warrior Review (Fall/Winter 2014): Nager in Cyan by Summer Johnson. Sometimes, these lit mag cover features just take on a thematic flow of their own.

Some Literary News Links :: November 11, 2014

The Association for Library Service to Children has release six unique Graphic Novels Reading Lists for K-8.

Mitch Kellaway of The Advocate offers his list of The Year’s 10 Best Transgender Non-Fiction Books: Trans non-fiction writing has had a banner year, exploring love, sexuality, and family in deep and refreshing ways.

Apply by Dec 30 to win $3000 to promote your library from the Campaign for America’s Libraries.

Landon MacDonald of USC’s The Daily Trojan sleuths the truth about Sherlock Holmes and the curious case of expired copyright.

Major New Prize for African Literature Announced recognizing excellent writing in African languages and encouraging translation from, between and into African languages.

From the BBC’s iWonder website Writing the Future: A Timeline of Science Fiction Writing.

The University of Iowa has undertaken to digitize science fiction fanzines from the James L. ‘Rusty’ Hevelin Collection of almost 10,000 fanzines.

American Short Fiction Contest Winner

american-short-fictionThe Fall 2014 issue of American Short Fiction features Scott Gloden’s “What Is Louder,” the winning entry of the American Short Fiction Contest. His same story had been awarded second place in the Glimmer Train March 2014 Family Matters Contest.

Gloden’s story is about a man who works in a post office and his brother who is soldier in Pakistan. Contest judge Amy Hempel praised the story for its new territory, commenting, “the ending is unnerving, very unsettling, and continues the story in a reader’s imagination.”

An excerpt: “My brother tells me that the bombs don’t look like they did on television when we were young: they’re not bowling balls with wick spouts that fire out like a sparkler. Instead, they’re clock radios; they’re wads of Silly Putty with electromagnetic current running through sparse wires; they’re ramshackle, he even said—so much so, a bomb looks more like something you store in the garage, which you don’t need every day but keep around in case of emergencies.”

Winners of the American Short Fiction prize receive $1000 and publication.

 

Hudson Review New Writers Issue

hudson-reviewThe newest issue of The Hudson Review (Autumn 2014) is their New Writers Issue and features essays by Mara Naselli, James Santel, fiction by Asako Serizawa, Edward Porter, Lauren Schenkman, and poetry by Cally Conan-Davies, William Louis-Dreyfus, Trent Busch, Katherine Robinson, Guillermo Bleichmar, Anne Nance, and Susan de Sola. Some of the works can be read in full on the journal’s website.

Joseph Bathanti Gives MSR the Answers

BathantiM. Scott Douglass, publisher and editor of Main Steet Rag, is one of the most doggedly and passionately persistent people I know, especially when it comes to poetry. His efforts turned a bit more political this past year with the controversy surrounding the annual appointment of North Carolina’s Poet Laureate. In Scott’s words:

“In Mid-July, North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory bypassed the established protocol for selecting [former Poet Laureate Joseph Bathanti’s] replacement in the position of NC Poet Laureate. An internet donnybrook ensued because his selection seemed out of touch with the state’s writing community. A spokesperson from the governor’s office said the position was largely symbolic, didn’t require qualifications, and called those who were complaining ‘elitists.’ The governor’s selection for Poet Laureate then resigned. No replacement has been named. National news was made.”

It turns out that Lisa Zerkle had just finished an interview with Bathanti for this issue of MSR during the news of this controversy, but said Bathanti didn’t seem ready to talk about it yet. Scott would not be deterred when he later saw Bathanti would be speaking publicly on the issue. He attended the meeting, asked his own questions, then ask Bathanti if he would be willing to do a follow up on the issue with Zerkle. Bathanti agreed, and the resulting interview is published in this issue, with several pages devoted to the governor’s treatment of the role of Poet Laureate.

2015 Bard Fiction Winner

Laura-van-den-BergAuthor Laura van den Berg has been selected to receive the annual Bard Fiction Prize for 2015. The prize, established in 2001 by Bard College to encourage and support promising young fiction writers, consists of a $30,000 cash award and appointment as writer in residence for one semester. Van den Berg is receiving the prize for her book The Isle of Youth (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2013). Van den Berg’s residency at Bard College will be for the spring 2015 semester, during which time she will continue her writing, meet informally with students, and give a public reading. Read what the judges had to say and more about the winner here.

Shenandoah Takes on the Whys and Whatfors

Two great back-to-back posts on Snopes: A Blog for the Shenandoah Journal : “Why I Write, and Why I May Not Hve a Choice in the Matter” by nash16 (Emma Nash?) and “The Power of Storytelling” by Anna Kathyryn Barnes.

Nash and Barnes both question the value and importance of writing and storytelling. Nash references Orwell’s essay, “Why I Write” as well as Alice W. Flaherty’s book The Midnight Disease which explores of the neurological reasons for the ‘need’ to write.

Barnes takes on the questions of why what we write matters, whether or not stories have a point or make any change in the world. Big questions, to be sure, but she calls upon Chimnmanda Adichie’s TED Talk “The Danger of a Single Story” which supports the need for many stories in our lives. Barnes then connects this with The Facing Project, “a national non-profit organization that works with communities to connect through storytelling over a particular challenge or social issue.” Her work with The Facing Sexual Violence Project combines the networking organization with her value of storytelling in an effort to address sexual violence in Rockbridge County, VA.

Both of these essays pose and respond to critical questions writers ask themselves time and again and together they make an excellent starting point for discussion and call to action. Snopes  has the helpful feature of print and PDF options on each of their blog posts, so these make it easy to assign as online reading that students to print and bring along to class.

25 Books That Inspired the World

cheAs part of World Literature Today magazine’s November 2014 cover feature focusing on central European literature since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the editors invited 25 writers to nominate one book that most influenced their own writing or ways of seeing the world. Nominations were open to any book-length work—written in any language and published since November 1989—as long as it could be read in English. The longlist was then published on WLT’s blog, and readers were invited to vote for their three favorites. The top ten results, along with the nominating statements for the three winning titles, can be found in the most recent issue and on their website.

Fiddlehead Remembers Alistair MacLeod

The Autumn 2014 (No. 261) issue of Fiddlehead features “Remembering Alistair MacLeod.” Editorials by Ross Leckie (“Remembering Alistair MacLeod”), Mark Anthony Jarman (“A Master in the Heart of Cork”), Douglas Gibson (“A Great Writer and a Great Man”), and D.R. MacDonald (“Alistair MacLeod Tribute”). Immediately following this section is a work of fiction by Alistair MacLeod, “The Vastness of the Dark.”

Lit Mag Covers :: Picks of the Week

poetry-nov

Can I politely say there’s just something compellingly creepy about this image on the November 2014 issue of Poetry that make it difficult to look away? Considering the image, I think that’s a compliment to the artist’s intention, expressed as well in the title of the work, “Entanglement Practice” (2011) by Lise Haller Baggesen.

east-coast-ink

East Coast Ink covers reflect the theme of each issue, a visual interpretation that can be both challenging and enjoyable. In issue 4, the editors note: “we explored bridges and connections of all kinds, whether they’re being built or burned.” The next issue: Bones.

when-women-waken

The Fall 2014 cover of the online journal When Women Waken features Spirit Dancer, a beautifully flowing painted image by Leah Thompson, who says, “My art is about passion. The subject I choose whether figurative or floral is second to my passion for the application of paint and color.” Read more about Leah here.

What Good Editors Do and How to Find One

About Betty Kelly Sargent

betty-kelly-sargentWith a few credentials under her belt, including former Editor-in-Chief of William Morrow, Executive Editor of Harper Collins, and Executive Editor of Delacorte Press, Betty Kelly Sargent offers writers succinct and sound advice in her feature essay “What Good Editors Do and How To Find One.” It can be read in the Fall 2014 online issue of Compose: A Journal of Simply Good Writing.

Slipstream – 2014

Rust, dust, lust is the three-pronged theme carried in the pages of this year’s Slipstream. Poems start on page 5 of this issue and continue, unrelentingly in all the right ways through page 92. That’s 87 consecutive pages of notable work! Janet Warman and Margo Davis do an absolutely amazing job, separately, in weaving a compelling link between all three themes in a short space. Warman’s poem “Tin Man” uses familiar subject matter for the most part and left me cringing in anticipation. School plays, for their derision among parents, foster a necessity for creative ingenuity and a waypoint for future childhood memories. The lines “She made us rust, / and I was to grab his legs / as he told his Beautiful story.” showcase this perfectly. Continue reading “Slipstream – 2014”

Willow Springs – Fall 2014

Willow Springs has a thirty-year tradition of publishing fine contemporary fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. With this edition, the tradition continues with an impressive body of work. This is a strategically compiled collection, replete with recurring thematic and structural patterns. A striking feature in the issue is Jeffrey Bean’s series of “Voyeur” poems. The pieces, which comprise this series, are interspersed throughout the issue, presenting the speaker as voyeur. But his voice is not menacing or threatening. Instead, it is a gentle voice of longing and inquiry. Continue reading “Willow Springs – Fall 2014”

Big Fiction – Summer/Fall 2014

Only two stories—but two big stories, longer than short stories and shorter than novels, big in word count and big in quality—is what this beautiful issue of Big Fiction offers. When you read the website, you think: big ambition! When you hold the book, you think: big, admirable taste in design and material! When you dive into the stories you think: big winners! big pleasure! big success! This issue is, to put it in big letters, EXCELLENT. SPECTACULAR. WELL WORTH YOUR TIME. Continue reading “Big Fiction – Summer/Fall 2014”

Sweet – Fall 2014

One thing to be said about Sweet’s publications is the creative “cover” of each online issue, making the issue even more of an experience. With this issue, it’s all about the autumn treats: the table of contents is set up like a tray of blueberry pie, the section titles powdered with sugar. And each slice, each piece of writing, is a delicious treat. Courtney Kersten’s very short essays are easily relatable and allow the metaphors to provide all of the insight. For example, in “My Father in Wisconsin,” her father experiences a tragic event, and as a result of it, he has large scars from the gashes: “When I was younger, I would watch him shirtless and swearing and lugging things around the front yard unable to fathom how such deep gashes were able to heal.” Continue reading “Sweet – Fall 2014”

Driftwood Press – Fall 2014

One thing that sets Driftwood Press apart from the crowd of literary magazines is that following each piece of writing is a quick ‘interview’ with the writer, asking about inspiration for the piece and the writer’s creative process. A few writers get asked what drew them to the magazine, and the resounding answer seems to be the cover art. So go ahead, judge the book by its beautiful cover; the writing inside is just as pleasing. One writer who agrees is Jillian Briglia, who contributes the poem “Insomniac’s Eulogy to the Moon.” With a young girl’s imagination, the narrator keeps a suitcase by her bed, only half asleep as she plans escape routes in case of “fires floods earthquakes pirates.” But later in life, this backfires as insomnia ensues: “alarm blinks red every six and half breaths and the dancing shadows are a folded page I can’t help turning to and I think what if what if what if I could fall . . . ” Continue reading “Driftwood Press – Fall 2014”

Embodied Effigies – Summer 2014

Started in April of 2012, Embodied Effigies puts an emphasis on creative nonfiction writers, “and the bonds that hold us together as we explore our pasts, presents, and futures.” A long time coming, the Summer 2014 issue is now out, and it was worth the wait.

In Mark Lewandowski’s piece, he admits to having commitment issues, but not those of the romantic variety—he can’t pick a hairdresser: Continue reading “Embodied Effigies – Summer 2014”

Front Porch – August 2014

As part of the Texas State University MFA program, Front Porch Journal publishes poetry, fiction, nonfiction, reviews, and interviews. I’ve perhaps come across it too late to enjoy on those final summer afternoons as the editors suggest (especially since I swore I saw snow this morning), but it’s never too late to enjoy the writing. As I do with most journals, I gravitated to the nonfiction section first. The first of the two selections is Wendy C. Ortiz’s “September 1986,” which was first published in issue 10 and republished here to honor the publication of her collection of essays, Excavation: A Memoir. After reading it, I certainly wanted to pick up her book. Set in a junior high classroom, this essay explores a moment in which, despite her desire to come off as disinterested, Ortiz is first recognized for her writing. Continue reading “Front Porch – August 2014”

Bat City Review – 2014

“I like folksy vulgarity. I don’t say that because ‘folksy vulgarity’ is a good way to describe the contents of this issue of Bat City Review. I say it because one of my favorite scenes from a novel takes place in Rabelais’s Gargantua and Pantagruel,” writes Alen Hamza in the editorial preface. And thus begins the Fall 2014 issue of Bat City Review. Continue reading “Bat City Review – 2014”

Permafrost – Winter 2014

permafrost-v36-n1-winter-2014.jpg

Permafrost is an unusually entertaining collection of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, book reviews, drama and art published in “the farthest north literary journal in the United States.” All of the works provide perspectives that are fresh and introduce a broad variety of creative talent that doesn’t often appear in the same place. If there’s one characteristic throughout the entire collection, it’s the detailed imagery.

Continue reading “Permafrost – Winter 2014”

The Gettysburg Review – Autumn 2014

The Autumn 2014 issue of the Gettysburg Review is utterly absorbing. Its writers are not coy about the heart of the matter; readers know exactly what they’re trying to get across. It is very accessible reading. The most straightforward sentence is also fresh, and the most commonplace sentiments come wrapped in stories that linger. In “The Woods Are Never Burning,” Steven Schwartz weaves together different strands of his childhood and adolescence in Chester, Pennsylvania, anchored by his eternally optimistic furniture salesman father. In the background, there is the quiet hum of racial tension, the strangeness of growing up, and changes to Chester itself. Marian Crotty recounts the beginning of a romance in “Love at a Distance,” where the narrator is in Dubai and her lover, Chicago. The language has a touch as light as a ballerina on pointe: “When we talk, it is almost always on the edges of sleep, one of us newly emerged from the unconscious and the other ready to fall.” Continue reading “The Gettysburg Review – Autumn 2014”

The Arkansas Review – August 2014

Ordinarily, this interdisciplinary journal (formerly the Kansas Quarterly), focuses on the seven states of the Mississippi Delta. This special issue of Arkansas Review grew out of the 100th year anniversary of the arrival of the Pfeiffer family in Piggott, Arkansas, as celebrated by the Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum and Educational Center there. Its director, Adam Long, guests edits this exploration of the Hemingway-Pfeiffer connection. Continue reading “The Arkansas Review – August 2014”

Big Muddy – Spring/Summer 2014

This issue of Big Muddy contains a lot of technically very good writing. Descriptive pieces of fiction and poetry are showcased throughout its pages. The glossy cover photo of a filthy rider by Bradley Phillips should be interpreted as an invitation to explore in detail the trails that others have forged. I am left feeling the pages are a little devoid of emotion compared to a number of other publications I’ve reviewed, but that is the wonderful thing about the wide world literary magazines: there is a venue for all types! Speaking of trails, one of the 18 poems included is titled “Trails Are Trials” by James Valvis. The poem speaks to giving over to circumstances in life and surviving, regardless. I especially enjoyed the following lines, “Each step I could not be sure / the ground would catch my foot. / The trail grew muddy, treacherous.” Continue reading “Big Muddy – Spring/Summer 2014”

Tin House – Fall 2014

For their latest issue, the editors of Tin House have gone tribal, calling on some of their “favorite storytellers and poets” to help explain “what life is like in our contemporary tribes.” In creating their “Tribes” issue, they’ve assembled a trenchant and soulful collection of poetry, fiction, and essays that unsettle as they entertain, exploring the consolation and alienation of belonging or wanting to belong. Poetry from Tony Hoagland and Cate Marvin, fiction from Jess Walter and Julia Elliott, essays from Roxanne Gay and Molly Ringwald, as well as the work of many other well-known writers, all share communal space in this lively gathering of the literary tribes.

Continue reading “Tin House – Fall 2014”

Poems & Literal Truth

lawrence-raabThe Fall 2014 issue of New Ohio Review includes the feature “Poems and Literal Truth” with essays from Lawrence Raab (“Should Poems Tell the Truth?” [pictured]), Daisy Fried (“Truthless Demands”), Adrienne Su (“Where Are You Really Writing From? Reading and Writing Place and Experience”), Louise Glück (“A Brief Response” which begins “Frankly, I have no idea why this should be any sort of problem.”), Carl Dennis (“Telling the Truth in Poetry”), Kim Addonizio (“Pants on Fire”), and Michael Ryan (in which Ryan shares his experience reading through poems for Iowa Review – one of which came in with the title “Father”).

C. Dale Young’s Top Final 20

c-dale-youngThe most recent issue of New England Review (v35 n3 2014) begins with a farewell editorial by poetry editor C. Dale Young (which can be read here in its entirety). In it, he tells the story of his being called to “consult” on the massive backlog of poems the magazine received – to help sort the slush – and then his subsequent promotion to associate editor and then poetry editor. His comments on the responsibility of reading and selecting for the past 19 years are thoughtful, heartfelt and deeply genuine.

In his leaving, this particular issue features his final selection of 20 poems culled from past publications: “. . . there were at least ten poems that never left me alone, that haunted me, so much so I sometimes felt as if they were my own poems. I can even recite many of them. I wrote down these titles and then read through every issue I have helped put together in my time with the magazine to find another ten. I culled and culled until I had the twenty poems from my time with NER that not only never left me alone but actually changed me as a reader and writer. They changed my mind, and they changed my heart.”

I cannot imagine a higher recommendation for reading this issue of NER. Several of the poems are available to read online. [Photo credit: Marion Ettlinger]

New Reading Series at Talking Writing

talking-writing-fall-2014Talking Writing welcomes writer and teacher Wm. Anthony Connolly to its staff as the new reading series editor. “He’ll scan the world of small-press print literary work for great pieces to republish in Talking Writing,” write the editors on the blog. Starting with the current issue, there will be several selections in each issue. The current issue, Fall 2014 “Money,” features a book excerpt by William Least Heat-Moon of Writing Blue Highways and a prose poem excerpt by Kim Triedman from Hadestown.

Interviews Archive

NewPages Interviews Archive

This is an archive of interviews done with editors, publishers, and writers exclusively for NewPages. While many of these interviewers have gone on to other projects, we have chosen to keep their work here. We hope that in the future we will have more interviews to fill this page. If you’re interested in conducting an interview for this site, please contact us.

2015
Interview with Robert Fanning by Trish Harris

2012
Interview with Paulette Licitra by Tanya Angell Allen

2011
Interview with Matt Bell by Jessica Powers
Interview with James Englehardt by Jessica Powers

2007
Interview with Margarita Donnelly by Jessica Powers

2006
Interview with Gina Frangello by Robert Duffer
Interview with William Pierce by Jessica Powers
Interview with Sam Hamill by Jessica Powers
Interview with Allan Kornblum by Jessica Powers
Interview with Alexander (Sandy) Taylor by Jessica Powers

2005
Interview with M. Allen Cunningham by Tim Davis
Interview with Mary  Vermillion by Tim Davis
Interview with Stephen Policoff by Tim Davis
Interview with Pari Noskin Taichert by Tim Davis
Interview with c.c. dust by Tim Davis

Continue reading “Interviews Archive”

Denver Quarterly: Honoring Sand Creek

denver-quarterlyThe newest issue of The Denver Quarterly (49.1 2014) includes a special feature of work by a selection of Native American writers to mark the 150th anniversary of the infamous Sand Creek Massacre (Laird Hunt, Editor). Editors Billy J. Stratton and Eleni Sikelianos write, “The words that make up this special feature are indeed limited, and as we look through the contents we wonder how to best honor the dead of Sand Creek and their living descendants. Yet we did not request that contributors send work specifically about Sand Creek. Some of the writers in this feature are working directly with history and some are not, but in all lives the desire to ‘write back’ and share story and song.”

Lit Mag Covers :: Picks of the Week

madcap1

Madcap Review semiannual of literature and art makes its debut online with this cover image: Ever, November 19, 1910, 2013. Screenprint made with the master printers of the Cabiros Workshops. Click here for more information on the cover artwork.

off-the-coastThis photograph, “Longings,” by Malinda Fillingim graces the cover of the Fall 2014 poetry journal Off the Coast. It almost seemed to glimmer gold when caught in just the right light, and there’s just something about it that makes me want to be wandering down those tracks, into the fog.

yellow-medicine-reviewAs a lifetime fan of the movie, Paper Moon, I was of course struck by this image Fall 2014 cover image for Yellow Medicine Review: “Boy in the Moon” by Hulleah Tsinhnahjinne. Though the moon seems a bit sinister at first glance, the more I absorbed the image, the more of the “protector” I could envision in the story of this image.
 

Jane Austen Tea Series

miss-lucy-steeleBingley Tea has created a line of teas in celebration of Jane Austen’s many marvelous books and characters. Encompassing the full range of black, green, herbal, oolong, and white teas, Bingley has created unique blends for many characters, including “Compassion for Mrs. Bennet’s Nerves,” “Elinor’s Heart,” “Emma’s Perfect Match,” “Mr. Bingley’s Signature Blend,” and “Wicked Wickham.” Twenty-one teas in all, and each with a fun descriptor reflective of its character – both literally and literary.

Poetica Holocaust Edition

poetica-2014-holocaustAlthough the fall edition of Poetica: Contemporary Jewish Writing is already sold out, readers can still get a copy of the publication’s special fall 2014 Holocaust Edition. Fiction and poetry from writers included in this edition: Sally Albiso, Fred Amram, Helen Eisen, Joy Gaines-Friedler, Barbara Goldberg, Miriam Green (Israel), Sarah Katz, Marta Kosály, Bem Le Hunte (Australia), Jesse Morales, Drew Nacht, Baruch November, Nina Pick, Michael Robinson, Sophie Soil (Canada), Tamara Tabel, Tim Stobierski, Israel Zoberman, with cover art by Ron Weijers and inside art by Selma Waldman and Harriet Caldwell. The publication is 70 pages, perfect bound.

John Thornton Williams on Revealing Character

JohnThorntonWilliamsRevealing the interiority of a character in a way that feels natural, yet resonates powerfully within a reader is one of the most difficult tasks of the fiction writer. Considering how powerful that emotional connection between reader and character can prove to be, and how empty a story can feel without it, it’s vital that the writer bridge the distance between reader and character in ways that are subtle rather than clumsy.

But how does one accomplish it?

John Thornton Williams goes on to explain in his November Glimmer Train Newsletter bulletin Indirection of Image.

Other craft essays include:

Aurelie Sheehan: My City (or, On the Idea of Making It My Own)

Peter Turchi: Puzzle and Mystery

Greg Schreur: The Creative Process: A Diuretic Metaphor

New Ohio Review 2014 Contest Winners

NORIssue #16 / Fall 2014 of New Ohio Review features the 2014 Contest Winners as selected by Aimee Bender for Fiction and Alan Shapiro for Poetry:

Fiction Prizes

1st – Robert Glick: “The Undersized Negative”
2nd – Joseph Scapellato: “Small Boy”

Poetry Prizes

1st – Stephanie Horvath: “So That is What I Am,” “CadesCove Water Wheel,” and “Medicine”
2nd – Jennifer Perrine: “A Theory of Violence” and “Embarrassment: from baraço (halter)”

Going Beyond Georgia

GeorgiaReviewAmericans Curiously Abroad is the feature in the Fall 2014 issue of The Georgia Review. Now in its 68th year of publication, Editor Stephen Corey comments on the publication’s long-standing “aspiration” to “not be a Georgia review,” but rather, as Founding Editor Donald Wade noted: “. . . Georgians are, or should be, interested in everything, everywhere.” In this issue, The Georgia Review brings readers “a quintet of diverse essays [Corey] can almost guarantee will take you to a number of places you’ve never been or, in some cases, every thought of or even known existed.”

The special feature includes: Kate Harris “Lands of Lost Borders”; Jeff Gundy “The Other Side of Empire”; Adriana Páramo “My Timbuktu”; Anne Goldman “Travels with Jane Eyre”; Jeffrey Meyers “Ian Watt and the River Kwai.” Click here for full list of the issue’s contents. 

LGBT Book Lovers Series

LGBT2From Daily Kos online: “LGBT Literature is a Readers and Book Lovers series dedicated to discussing books that have made an impact on the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. From fiction to contemporary nonfiction to history and everything in between, any book that touches on LGBT themes is welcome in this series. LGBT Literature posts on the last Sunday of every month at 7:30 PM EST.”

Series writer and Daily Kos member Chrislove is looking for writers to join in! “You do not need to be an academic, a Ph.D. candidate, an LGBT literature buff, or even LGBT to write for this series. You do not need to provide a scholarly critical analysis. . . if you have something to say about LGBT literature, I want you to feel welcome to say it in this series. Please don’t feel that you have nothing to say. If LGBT literature has impacted you at all, your thoughts are worth sharing here in LGBT Literature.”

Visit the website for more information.

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NewPages Lit Mag Reviews
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matchbook’s New Editor

Co-founding Editor of matchbook Edward Mullany is taking leave at the magazine. He originally developed the idea for the publication, aided in the design, and “was a driving force for so much of the great work we have had the pleasure and honor to publish.” You can still follow what he is doing on his blog, The Other Notebook.

R. B. Pillay will be stepping up as matchbook’s new editor. “R. B. Pillay is a fantastic fiction writer and artists himself and matchbook is lucky to have him. After all, he’s originally from Cleveland. We hope you will look him up and send anonymous love notes,” write the editors. Pillay will also be in charge of social media for the magazine.

Zombie Talk: An Interview with Susanna Kearsley

PulpLiteratureThe most recent issue of Pulp Literature (#4 Autumn 2014) features the story “Soldier, Wake” by Susanna Kearsley followed by an interview in which Kearsely comments: “My books are a marketing department’s nightmare, really, because they don’t fit tidily into any genre . . . But usually I simply tell people I write stories about present-day people who are dealing with mysteries that come from the past, with dual plot lines that weave a historical tale with a modern one.” Kearsely goes on to discuss “Soldier, Wake,” her first zombie story, why she thinks readers are drawn to the mystical, and using her international travel as research for her writing

The Family Cannon

The Family Cannon is Halina Duraj’s debut short story collection on family, loyalty, and fidelity. The collection of ten stories revolve around Magda, a 20-something woman (perhaps modeled after the writer herself?) and her immigrant parents from Poland who survived the Nazis and WWII. The father immigrates to the United States after the war and, in a few years’ time, visits his birth country to find a wife. The stories do not follow a narrowly defined linear trajectory; Continue reading “The Family Cannon”

Red Juice

Red Juice: Poems 1998-2008 is the first compilation of Hoa Nguyen’s work, gathering several of her previous small press chapbooks, including Red Juice from effing press, Your Ancient See Through from subpress, and Hecate Lochia from Hot Whiskey Press. Arranged chronologically, the book demonstrates the progressive development of some of Nguyen’s key interests—including the contradictions of popular culture; the visceral nature of childbirth, mothering, and womanhood; and a clashing sense of both culpability in and removal from impending environmental collapse.

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Lady in the Dark

The “moment” in Robert Sitton’s Lady in the Dark: Iris Barry and the Art of Film does not involve Ms. Barry. Over a series of formal meetings and parties, several millionaires (Nelson Rockefeller and Jock Whitney) and their talented, educated friends (architect Philip Johnson and the wealthy painter Gerald Murphy) decided to create The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). That they accomplished this during the Great Depression is miraculous. They knew society—not the types in nightclubs or their equivalent to the red carpet—could not survive without culture.

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Francis Jammes

The Unsung Masters Series published by Pleiades Press performs a remarkable service to writers whose work has been eclipsed for one reason or another during the ensuing decades after its original appearance. Each volume focuses upon a writer relatively unknown, providing a relatively quick, yet nonetheless detailed, summation of his or her biography along with some critical overview and examples of the work itself. Francis Jammes (1868-1938) was a major presence in the French literary scene of his day. He also received significant attention from English readers. Continue reading “Francis Jammes”

Guilty Knowledge, Guilty Pleasure

William Logan’s poetry reviews found in Guilty Knowledge, Guilty Pleasure don’t mince words. Never drab, his criticism will entertain and never bore. It doesn’t much matter whether readers agree or disagree with his judgments, as he generally delivers them with enough original panache to readily amuse all the same. He doesn’t quite reach far enough out from the borders of the poetry world to be of interest to those readers unfamiliar with poetry-at-large, but anyone with a decent background in the field, whether reading for a degree or for pleasure, will be quite well acquainted enough to follow along. Continue reading “Guilty Knowledge, Guilty Pleasure”

A Moveable Famine

John Skoyles, poetry editor of Ploughshares and professor at Emerson College, unveils in this memoir his journey as the son of a working class family in Queens whose mother introduces him to poetry, to student at a Jesuit all-male college, to the Iowa Writers Workshop, Provincetown, Yaddo, and a long, successful career as professor and published writer. He takes the reader along through his interactions with intimidating professors, competitive classmates, indifferent women, and flawed mentors. He skillfully weaves the diverse elements Continue reading “A Moveable Famine”

The Blue Box

It’s the rare book that will compel me to read it aloud rather than silently, and reading The Blue Box by Ron Carlson turned out to be one of those experiences. Flash fiction is a genre that can so easily become pretentious or overly complicated. To fit a distinct narrative voice in such a short span of time while also enticing the readers with an intriguing plot, humor, and depth is no easy feat, but Carlson seems to accomplish it all with little more than a snap of his fingers. Though the circumstances in the stories were often surreal, the voice felt cemented in a witty hyper-reality. Continue reading “The Blue Box”