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NewPages Blog

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!

New Book :: Unaccompanied

Unaccompanied by Tracy White book cover image

Unaccompanied: Stories of Brave Teenagers Seeking Asylum by Tracy White
Street Noise Books, June 2023

Unaccompanied: Stories of Brave Teenagers Seeking Asylum, a graphic novel by Tracy White, tells the true stories of five brave teens fleeing their home countries of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Guinea, on their own, traveling through unknown and unfriendly places, and ultimately crossing into the US to find refuge and seek asylum. Based on extensive interviews with teen refugees, lawyers, caseworkers, and activists, this book shines a light on five individual kids from among the tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors who enter the US each year. In stark black and white illustrations, she helps us understand why some young people would literally risk their lives to seek safety in the US. Each one of them has been backed into a corner where emigration to the US seems like their only hope.

To discover more great books from small, independent, and university presses, visit the NewPages Guide to Publishers as well as the New Books category on our blog. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

Magazine Stand :: As You Were – Volume 18

Military Experience and the Arts logo image

As You Were: The Military Review, Volume 18 from Military Experience & the Arts contains over thirty works in literary fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and artwork representative of the full spectrum of those impacted by military service – combat veterans, war orphans, or citizens who’ve felt the pull of history. They are all important additions to the literary and artistic canon surrounding military service. The issue features fiction by Jack R. Johnson, Phil Carson, Lucas Randolph, Ginger Dehlinger, Craig Gridelli, Ben Weise, Jillian Danback-McGhan, Erik Cederblom; nonfiction by Stanley Ross, William Gritzbaugh, Bettina Hindes, Larry Moss, Michael Dedrick, Richard Bramley, Art Foster, Erik E. Gize, Aliza Dube, Travis Harman; poetry by Carlin Corsino, Michelle DeRose, Christian Aldana, Katharina Breide, Nancy Austin, Michael Ball, Chad Corrigan, Deborah Baxter, Nelson Randall, Connie Kinsey, Cathleen Lundy Daniel, Patrick Dennis Riley, Andrew Lafleche, Michael Foran, Jerry L. Staub, Blake Ringer; and artwork by Wayne David Hubbard, Jennifer McKeen Rodrigues, Erik E. Gize, Dmitry Borshch.

Lit Mag Covers :: Picks of the Week – July 17, 2023

Lit Mag Covers: Picks of the Week recognizes cover art and designs for literary magazines, whether in print or online. These are chosen solely at the discretion of the Editor. Enjoy!

The Cincinnati Review Spring 2023 cover image

The Spring 2023 issue of The Cincinnati Review features cover art by Tina Williams Brewer, detail from I Come from a Long Line of Big Boned Black Women, 2002, fabric with mixed media. Inside includes a portfolio of her work as well as an artist statement. Writers might like to know about the special section of “Craft review of ‘unreasonably good’ writing.” Lots to enjoy in this issue.

Conjunctions 80 cover image

“Ways of Water” is the theme for issue 80 of Conjunctions biannual print journal, with hypnotizing cover art, Consortium, 2021, oil on linen by Elliott Green.

Southern Poetry Review 60.2 cover image

Founded in 1958, Southern Poetry Review is the “second oldest poetry journal in the region,” and remains fresh and relevant with each new issue. “Night Heron” (2021) is the cover image by filmmaker, writer, and photographer Kayla Bell.

To find more great reading, visit the NewPages Guide to Literary Magazines, the NewPages Big List of Literary Magazines, the NewPages Big List of Alternative Magazines, and the NewPages Guide to Publications for Young Writers. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

New Book :: The Strength of the Illusion

The Strength of the Illusion by Jared Moore book cover image

The Strength of the Illusion by Jared Moore
Ergal Press, September 2023

The Strength of the Illusion comes to readers from Jared Moore, lecturer at the University of Washing School of Computer Science, who has created a course on the philosophy of AI and regularly teaches ethics and technical artificial intelligence courses. In this debut satirical novel, the AI researcher, Ty, has discovered how to teach a machine to write. He joins a start-up, Opel, eager to bring on-demand literature to millions. As Opel makes overbold claims about how its writing machine with automate human connection, Ty is increasingly drawn to the fiery connection with his activist partner, Zora. As each flees from their own past, Ty and Zora enjoy passionate debates about how to create a future together. When Zora urges Ty to join her protest against big tech, Ty is forced to decide what he really values. Caught between worlds, Ty loses himself in the advice of his writing machine.

To discover more great books from small, independent, and university presses, visit the NewPages Guide to Publishers as well as the New Books category on our blog. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

Book Review :: Divination with a Human Heart Attached by Emily Stoddard

Divination with a Human Heart Attached by Emily Stoddard book cover image

Guest Post by Jami Macarty

The central figure of Emily Stoddard’s Divination with a Human Heart Attached is a daughter who is sometimes the poet interested in story and belief, and at others, she is Petronilla, the spiritual daughter of Peter. Peter, as it is told, trapped Petronilla either by paralyzing her or by locking her in a tower to prevent her from being beguiled by suitors taken with her beauty: “which part of my body most worried him, was it the eyes.” The main concerns of these poems are father-daughter relationships, gendered power structures, and venustraphobia: “has there ever been a body / like that / that hasn’t been dangerous.” The poems also foreground trials of faith and tests of will: “how optimistically / some people use the word faith.” The daughter writing the poems struggles with relationships to God, to family, and to her husband. As the poems confront deaths of family members and loss of marital innocence—“proportions of grief”—they seem to ask who/what is divine, “looking for a God / to attach to it.” While God seems not to appear, Magpie does, conjuring the 16th-century nursery rhyme “One for Sorrow,” which suggests the number of birds seen tells of good or bad fortune. Also, as it is told, Magpie stayed outside the ark during the Flood’s rising waters and did not offer Jesus comfort at the crucifixion. These acts of divination, independence, and defiance seem to be what inspires the daughter in these poems. Through her, the poems arrive at two declarations: “I want more passion, less resurrection” and “Grief is the thing / that says the world is real.” If an “elegy is trying to tell the future,” then reading Emily Stoddard’s “gold-star” debut may well foretell yours.

Divination with a Human Heart Attached by Emily Stoddard. Game Over Books, February 2023.

Reviewer bio: Jami Macarty is the author of The Minuses (Center for Literary Publishing, 2020), winner of the 2020 New Mexico/Arizona Book Award – Poetry Arizona, and three chapbooks, including Mind of Spring (Vallum, 2017), winner of the 2017 Vallum Chapbook Award. Jami’s writing has been honored by financial support from Arizona Commission on the Arts, British Columbia Arts Council, and by editors at magazines such as The Capilano Review, Concision Poetry Journal, Interim, Redivider, Vallum, and Volt, where Jami’s poems appear. More at https://jamimacarty.com/

New Book :: The Book of Redacted Paintings

The Book of Redacted Paintings by Arthur Kayzakian book cover image

The Book of Redacted Paintings by Arthur Kayzakian
Black Lawrence Press, May 2023

In The Book of Redacted Paintings by Arthur Kayzakian, the narrative arc follows a boy in search of his father’s painting, but it is unclear whether the painting exists or not. The book, a poetry collection, is also populated by a series of paintings. Some are real, incomplete, and/or missing, while most are redacted from reality. The withdrawn paintings concept is the emotional arc of the book, a combination of wishing one could paint the pieces he/she/they envision and the feeling of something torn out of a person due to a traumatic upbringing. A sort of erasure ekphrasis, to foresee artwork that was never painted. A Black Lawrence Immigrant Writing Series selection.

To discover more great books from small, independent, and university presses, visit the NewPages Guide to Publishers as well as the New Books category on our blog. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

New Book :: Hammer of the Dogs

Hammer of the Dogs: A Novel by Jarret Keene book cover image

Hammer of the Dogs: A Novel by Jarret Keene
University of Nevada Press, September 2023

Hammer of the Dogs: A Novel by Jarret Keene is a literary dystopian adventure set in the wasteland of post-apocalyptic Las Vegas and filled with high-octane fun starring twenty-one-year-old Lash. With her high-tech skill set and warrior mentality, Lash is a master of her own fate as she helps to shield the Las Vegas valley’s survivors and protect her younger classmates at a paramilitary school holed up in Luxor on the Las Vegas Strip. After graduation, she’ll be alone in fending off the deadly intentions and desires of the school’s most powerful opponents.

To discover more great books from small, independent, and university presses, visit the NewPages Guide to Publishers as well as the New Books category on our blog. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

Books Received July 2023

NewPages receives many wonderful book titles each month to share with our readers. You can read more about some of these by clicking on “New Books” under the NewPages Blog or Books tab on the menu. If you are a publisher or author looking to be listed here or featured on our blog and social media, please contact us!

Poetry

54 Poems, John Levy, Shearsman Books
Alone, J.R. Solonche, David Robert Books
American Scapegoat, Enzo Silon Surin, Black Lawrence Press
the book of redacted paintings, Arthur Kayzakian, Black Lawrence Press
Dear Beloved Humans: Selected Poems by Grzegorz Wróblewski, trans. Piotr Gwiazda, Lavender Ink/Dialogos Books
Its Shadow Rakes the Grass, Bill Christophersen, Kelsay Books
The Ledger of Mistakes, Kathy Nelson, Terrapin Books
The Teller’s Cage, John Philip Drury, Able Muse Press

Fiction

All the Ways We Lived, Aida Zileian, Keylight Books
And Dogs to Chase Them, Ray Trotter, EastOver Press
The Black Hole Pastrami, Jeffrey Feingold, Meat for Tea Press
Black Licorice, Elaina Battista-Parsons
The Books Of Clash Volume 2: Legendary Legends Of Legendarious Achievery by Gene Luen Yang; illustrated by Les McClaine and Alison Acton, First Second Books
Doña Quixote: Rise of the Knight by Rey Terciero; illustrated by Monica M. Magaña, Henry Holt Books

Continue reading “Books Received July 2023”

Magazine Stand :: About Place Journal – July 2023

About Place Journal July 2023 cover image

About Place Journal is published by the Black Earth Institute with each issue having a specific theme and edited by one of their BEI Fellows. The July 2023 issue is themed ‘On Rivers.’ Rivers are deep sources of connection and memory, holding very different meanings for different communities, and this issue seeks to honor the many types of relationships we have with rivers. Coeditors Teresa Dzieglewicz and Laura-Gray Street, with consulting editors Lucien Darjeun Meadows and Irene Vázquez, have curated a wide range of prose, poetry, visual art, and hybrid and multi-modal work, creating a collective view on rivers that is expansive and surprising.

To find more great reading, visit the NewPages Guide to Literary Magazines, the NewPages Big List of Literary Magazines, the NewPages Big List of Alternative Magazines, and the NewPages Guide to Publications for Young Writers. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

New Book :: What Drifted Here

What Drifted Here: Poems by Barbara Siegel Carlson book cover image

What Drifted Here: Poems by Barbara Siegel Carlson
Cherry Grove Collections, December 2022

What Drifted Here by Barabara Siegel Carlson is a book of intensely lyrical meditations that dwells in the silent, often overlooked or seemingly ordinary places where the mysterious and miraculous abide, and where amidst love and grief, we draw ever closer to the heart of the spiritual. The poems, some in prose form and dramatic monologue, take dreamlike leaps into worlds both personal and historical, glimpsing through the cracks something we can never wholly know but which leaves us changed.

To discover more great books from small, independent, and university presses, visit the NewPages Guide to Publishers as well as the New Books category on our blog. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

July 2023 eLitPak :: 2024 Todos Santos Writers Workshop

Screenshot of the flyer for the 2024 Todos Santos Writers Workshop
click image to open PDF

February 4-10, 2024

Early Bird Discount Deadline: September 1, 2023
Join us in Baja, in our pueblo magico by the sea, for our 11th annual Winter Session in Todos Santos, Baja California Sur, Mexico. Writers at all levels welcome, with workshops in Memoir, Poetry, Fiction, and Storytelling Strategies. Faculty: Jeanne McCulloch, Karen Karbo, Christopher Merrill, and Rex Weiner. To apply, visit our website. View flyer for more details. #lithappens

Want early access to our eLitPak flyers? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter! You can also support NewPages with a paid subscription and get early access to the majority submission opportunities, upcoming events, and more before they are posted to our site.

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July 2023 eLitPak :: Loida Maritza Pérez SOMOS Writer’s Showcase Reading

Screenshot of the SOMOS Writers' Showcase Loida Maritza Pérez Reading flyer
click image to open PDF

Presenting Writers Showcase author, Loida Maritza Pérez, on Saturday, 8/19/23, at 5:30pm at SOMOS, 108 Civic Plaza Drive, Taos, NM 87571. A native of the Dominican Republic, a 2022-23 National Leaders of Color Fellow, Perez is the author of Geographies of Home. Her upcoming book, Beyond the Pale, won a PEN America 2019 Jean Stein Grant for Literary Oral History. View flyer to learn more.

Want early access to our eLitPak flyers? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter! You can also support NewPages with a paid subscription and get early access to the majority submission opportunities, upcoming events, and more before they are posted to our site.

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July 2023 eLitPak :: Write and Workshop—Women Writer’s Retreat in the Catskills

Screenshot of the Women at Woodstock Fall 2023 Retreat flyer
click image to open PDF

Registration Deadline: October 1, 2023
An intimate retreat of passionate writers. We write and workshop by day and gather for a wine & cheese salon every evening to share readings. Guest writer Elizabeth Brundage, author of several novels including The Vanishing Point, A Stranger Like You, and All Things Cease to Appear (the basis for the Netflix film “Things Heard and Seen”) will lead an in-depth conversation on our third day. View flyer and click here to request more information.

Want early access to our eLitPak flyers? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter! You can also support NewPages with a paid subscription and get early access to the majority submission opportunities, upcoming events, and more before they are posted to our site.

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July 2023 eLitPak :: Now Available: The Collected Short Stories of Bharati Mukherjee

Screenshot of Temple University Press flyer announcing release of The Collected Short Stories of Bharati Mukherjee
click image to open PDF

The Collected Short Stories of Bharati Mukherjee is the first volume to feature the author’s complete short fiction. Leading Mukherjee scholar Ruth Maxey unearthed seven unknown stories: five in Mukherjee’s unpublished 1963 Iowa Writer’s Workshop M.F.A. thesis, “The Shattered Mirror,” and two tales from 2008. It is essential for readers familiar with Mukherjee’s work and new to her groundbreaking fiction. View flyer to learn more.

Want early access to our eLitPak flyers? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter! You can also support NewPages with a paid subscription and get early access to the majority submission opportunities, upcoming events, and more before they are posted to our site.

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July 2023 eLitPak :: Issue 87 of Kaleidoscope Available! Accepting Submissions Year-Round

Screenshot of Kaleidoscope's flyer for Issue 87 release and call for submissions
click image to open PDF

We experience many connections in life and in this issue we take a closer look at the ties that bind. Each thread woven into loops, knots, and swirls, revealing an intricate tapestry. Kaleidoscope magazine publishes literature and artwork that creatively explore the experience of disability. Submit your best work to us today! Visit our website and view our flyer for more information.

Want early access to our eLitPak flyers? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter! You can also support NewPages with a paid subscription and get early access to the majority submission opportunities, upcoming events, and more before they are posted to our site.

Interested in advertising in the eLitPak? Learn more here.

Where to Submit Roundup: July 14, 2023

33 Submission Opportunities including calls for submissions, writing contests, and book prizes.

Where to Submit Roundup 2023

NewPages is back with your weekly roundup of submission opportunities for the week of July 14. Hard to believe July is already half over with this weekend. Don’t forget about the July 15 deadlines!

Our eLitPak Newsletter was emailed to subscribers this past Wednesday and features more submission opportunities and upcoming events as well as new releases. You can read it here. Are you interested in promoting your own journal, small press, new book release, upcoming event, or submission opportunities, you can learn more here.

NewPages Newsletter subscribers with a paid subscription get early and first access to our submission opportunities and upcoming events, the majority before they go live on our site. Consider subscribing today.

Continue reading “Where to Submit Roundup: July 14, 2023”

Magazine Stand :: The Keeping Room – July 2023

face of a woman facing to the right on a purple background with Minerva Rising Press written underneath

The Keeping Room is an online magazine from Minerva Rising Press that publishes short stories, essays, free writing, and photo essays that touch on topics related to Women’s Wisdom, Lessons Learned, Self-care, Bodies, Relationships, and Community. Writers selected for publication will be paid $25 via PayPal. Recent works include “DOGGED” by Marty Kingsbury, “Jesus Is Delicious” by Monica J. Casper, “Lipstick” by Norma Schafer, “Dinner for Two Lovely People” by Tracy Harris, and “Glimpses” by Anne E. Beall.

To find more great reading, visit the NewPages Guide to Literary Magazines, the NewPages Big List of Literary Magazines, the NewPages Big List of Alternative Magazines, and the NewPages Guide to Publications for Young Writers. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

New Book :: American Scapegoat

American Scapegoat by Enzo Silon Surin book cover image

American Scapegoat by Enzo Silon Surin
Black Lawrence Press, May 2023

American Scapegoat by Enzo Silon Surin is a book of painstakingly honest and chilling poems about America’s neglectful relationship with its own history. At the core of this reluctance to frame the past in its proper context is the fraudulent and fraught mythology that Black people are what America needs to be protected from. This extremely damaging narrative has been prominently embedded within the socio-political framework of American culture and continues to play an inescapably significant role in the Black experience in America. This timely collection looks both to the past and the future and fosters a deeply essential conversation about what it means to be Black and American in a democracy at war with itself and its humanity.

To discover more great books from small, independent, and university presses, visit the NewPages Guide to Publishers as well as the New Books category on our blog. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

Book Review :: Bonsai by Alejandro Zambra

Bonsai by Alejandro Zambra book cover image

Guest Post by Colm McKenna

Bonsai, Alejandro Zambra’s first novel feels like it is over before it has even begun. I read it this morning over two coffees. By the time I finished it, I had eight, largely monosyllabic notes scrawled across the front-end paper; more often than not, my comments will spill over onto the half-title page. That is not to say that there is little noteworthy in Zambra’s book. Moreso, it is indicative of a well-crafted, engrossing story, a story in which narrative takes absolute precedent.

I find myself falling into Zambra’s stories without the teething problems that even the most ardent reader sometimes confronts in the opening few pages of a book. There is a mediopassive effect to Zambra’s prose. I think this ease stems from his self-contained, self-referential narratives; we are made to know from the off that we need only dedicate our attention to once-lovers Julio and Emilia, and that the periphery characters exist here only insofar as they reveal our protagonists. Those others could be fleshed out; they all have their favorite books, their ambitions, and secrets; they all go on dates and fall in love, but these details are not of any concern to the story being told. The narrative itself stands over the world like something tangible; when characters move on from Julio and Emilia, they move away from the story that is being told. In this self-contained narrative, this distance is equivalent to dropping out of the world.

Bonsai: A Novel by Alejandro Zambra; translated by Megan McDowell. Penguin Books, August 2022.

Reviewer bio: Colm McKenna is a second-hand bookseller based in Paris. He has published and self-published an array of short stories and articles, hoping to eventually release a collection of stories. He is mainly interested in the works of John Cowper Powys, Claude Houghton, and a range of Latin American writers.

Magazine Stand :: Bomb – Summer 2023

https://bombmagazine.org/

In BOMB’s Summer 2023 issue, painters Merlin James and Victoria Morton prepare for their upcoming joint show, poet Paisley Rekdal and visual artist Kenneth Tam visit the union of the transcontinental railroad, filmmaker Khalik Allah becomes one with the universe by a fireside, and Sophie Narrett talks to novelist Colm Tóibín about breaking free of societal expectations through embroidery. Plus, short stories from Vauhini Vara and Emily Nemens, an essay from poet Jenny Johnson on shadow bodies and the “oh so many ways to feel continuous,” poetry from Álvaro de Campos (a.k.a Fernando Pessoa), the conclusion of our Poetry of the Northern Triangle Diaspora series, and much more for readers to enjoy as summer courses on. Visit the BOMB website for information on subscriptions, single-issue orders, and to read select online content.

To find more great reading, visit the NewPages Guide to Literary Magazines, the NewPages Big List of Literary Magazines, the NewPages Big List of Alternative Magazines, and the NewPages Guide to Publications for Young Writers. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

New Book :: Cursebreakers

Cursebreakers by Madeleine Nakamura book cover image

Cursebreakers by Madeleine Nakamura
Canis Major Books, September 2023

In Cursebreakers by Madeleine Nakamura, professor of magic and disgraced ex-physician Adrien Desfourneaux has discovered a conspiracy. Someone is inflicting magical comas on the inhabitants of the massive city of Astrum, and no one knows how or why. Caught between a faction of scheming magical academics and an explosive schism in the ranks of the Astrum’s power-hungry military, Adrien is swallowed by the growing chaos. Alongside Gennady, an unruly, damaged young soldier, and Malise, a brilliant healer and Adrien’s best friend, Adrien searches for a way to stop the spreading curse before the city implodes. He must survive his own bipolar disorder, his self-destructive tendencies, and his entanglement with the man who doesn’t love him back.

To discover more great books from small, independent, and university presses, visit the NewPages Guide to Publishers as well as the New Books category on our blog. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

New Lit on the Block :: The Palisades Review

cover of The Palisades Review Issue 1

The Palisades Review was named in tribute to Founder and Editor-in-Chief Mea Cohen’s hometown, Palisades, New York. “Given that so much of what I have personally written takes place in this town, and that the magazine is all about featuring the personal experience, I felt the name was fitting!”

The Palisades Review offers a new short-form nonfiction quarterly that favors “compressed stories that reverberate and deepen our collective sense of self, stories that are charged within by the extraordinary capacity of language to create community from individuals.”

Continue reading “New Lit on the Block :: The Palisades Review”

Magazine Stand :: The Gay & Lesbian Review – July/August 2023

The Gay and Lesbian Review July-August 2023 cover image

The Gay & Lesbian Review Editor Richard Schneider opens the July-August 2023 issue by exploring the theme “Fantasy Lands”: “Today’s digital technologies have created possibilities for whole new worlds of immersion and experience, and with them a panoply of subcultures organized around these sites. Under the rubric of ‘Fantasy Lands,’ let us visit a few of these milieux with relevance to LGBT life and culture. This is somewhat new territory for this magazine, which is usually concerned with historical themes and the arts, and it’s worth noting that all four theme articles were written by first-time contributors.” Those articles include “We’re Heroes, We’re Queeros…” by Andrew White; “Romancing the Avatar” by Ashton Corsetti; “Fanfiction and the Omegaverse” by Hannah Matthews; and “Grindr Leaves the City Behind” by Aislin Neufeldt. Visit the G&LR website for more information about his issue as well as past issues and subscriptions.

To find more great reading, visit the NewPages Guide to Literary Magazines, the NewPages Big List of Literary Magazines, the NewPages Big List of Alternative Magazines, and the NewPages Guide to Publications for Young Writers. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

New Book :: Layers

Layers: A Memoir by Pénélope Bagieu; translated by Montana Kane book cover image

Layers: A Memoir by Pénélope Bagieu; translated by Montana Kane
First Second, October 2023

When Pénélope Bagieu dusted off her old diaries, she found layer upon layer of cringe-worthy, hilarious, and heartbreaking stories begging to be drawn. (Yes, seriously – this book is based on her actual diaries.) While she never thought she’d published a graphic memoir, Bagieu reflects on her childhood and teen years with her characteristic wit and unflinching honesty. The result is fifteen short stories about friendship, love, grief, and those awkward first steps toward adulthood.

To discover more great books from small, independent, and university presses, visit the NewPages Guide to Publishers as well as the New Books category on our blog. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

Magazine Stand :: Collateral – Spring 2023

Online literary magazine Collateral logo

Collateral, which just released its 14th issue Spring 2023 online, publishes literary and visual art concerned with the impact of violent conflict and military service beyond the combat zone. There are many platforms sharing perspectives from the combat experience, and since 2016, Collateral has felt a need to amplify voices from the reverberations and lasting effects of conflict. These voices include stories from military families, environmentalists, active duty service members and veterans, civilians, immigrants, survivors, teachers, activists, journalists, and more. Collateral is run by women who are impacted by military service, either their own or from within their families, and the journal is completely online, free to read, and charges no fee to submit. They publish twice a year and often include work by long-established writers and artists alongside the newly published.

Contributors to the Spring 2023 issue include Lisa Wujnovich, Peter Schmitt, Andrew Shattuck McBride, Susanna Lang, Sonia Greenfield, C.C. Garrett, Paula Friedman, Ben Corvo, Layle Keane Chambers, Kevin Carollo, S.Y. Ball, Gale Acuff, Diane Lefer, Andria Williams, Jason Arment, Brecht De Poortere, Andy Flaherty, Mitzi Weems, Christina M. Wells, with a special feature on Eric J. García, an artist, cartoonist, veteran, and mentor from New Mexico.

New Book :: The Last Gay Man on Earth

The Last Gay Man on Earth: A Photo Comic by Ype Driessen book cover image

The Last Gay Man on Earth: A Photo Comic by Ype Driessen
Street Noise Books, June 2023

In the photo comic The Last Gay Man on Earth, author Ype Driessen is a gay man living in Amsterdam with his boyfriend Nico. When asked by Nico to accompany him on a work trip to America, Ype must confront his deep fear of flying. While doing so, Ype finds he also has to come to terms with his social and sexual anxieties, his neurotic nature, and a serious case of imposter syndrome. What follows is a moving and deeply personal story, filled with humor as well as drama —surprising, honest, and unforgettable. Ype embarks on an adventure that leads him to his ultimate fantasy: being the last person on earth. Encouraged by a sentient robot vacuum cleaner called Chupi, he finds out what it really means to be true to yourself.

To discover more great books from small, independent, and university presses, visit the NewPages Guide to Publishers as well as the New Books category on our blog. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

Book Review :: When We Were Sisters by Fatimah Asghar

When We Were Sisters by Fatimah Asghar book cover image

Guest Post by Kevin Brown

Fatimah Asghar’s novel, When We Were Sisters, tells the story of three sisters who are orphaned, as was Asghar. Their uncle, who remains unnamed throughout the work, takes them in, not to actually care for them, but to use the money from their father’s death to fund his get-rich schemes that never work. The girls fend for themselves, often going hungry for days or weeks, living in squalorous conditions. They also have to work through their emotional struggles on their own, leading to trauma and suffering, especially for Kausar, the youngest sister and primary narrator of the novel. She portrays the sisters as watching out for one another, referring to them as sister-brothers or sister-mothers periodically in an attempt to show their toughness and their ability to nurture one another; however, Kausar realizes late in the novel that her perception has not been accurate. Asghar is a poet—this is her first novel—and her short sections feel almost like prose poems, at times; she even intersperses more poetic sections from the point of view of “him” and “her,” the sisters’ dead parents. Given their childhood, readers should be amazed at how well the sisters are able to manage largely on their own, but readers will also spend the novel wondering about the misogyny and greed that leads to their having to.

When We Were Sisters by Fatimah Asghar. One World, October 2022.

Reviewer bio: Kevin Brown has published three books of poetry: Liturgical Calendar: Poems (Wipf and Stock); A Lexicon of Lost Words (winner of the Violet Reed Haas Prize for Poetry, Snake Nation Press); and Exit Lines (Plain View Press). He also has a memoir, Another Way: Finding Faith, Then Finding It Again, and a book of scholarship, They Love to Tell the Stories: Five Contemporary Novelists Take on the Gospels. Twitter @kevinbrownwrite or kevinbrownwrites.weebly.com/.

Magazine Stand :: Cholla Needles – 79

Cholla Needles Issue 79 cover image

Issue 79 of Cholla Needles from Joshua Tree, California, features an exciting cover by young artist Lily M. Capra. The magical words within are by Bonnie Bostrom, Ron Riekki, Joy Gaines-Friedler, Christien Gholson, Miriam Sagan, David Chorlton, lalo kikiriki, J. David Rawn, James Marvelle, Johnny Kovatch, and Bobby Norman. Cholla Needles publishes monthly and therefore has rolling submission deadlines with editors who favor established and emerging writers with distinctive voices that communicate well with readers.

To find more great reading, visit the NewPages Guide to Literary Magazines, the NewPages Big List of Literary Magazines, the NewPages Big List of Alternative Magazines, and the NewPages Guide to Publications for Young Writers. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

New Book :: EtC

EtC by Laura Mullen book cover image

EtC by Laura Mullen
Solid Objects, November 2023

EtC by Laura Mullen explores contemporary American selfhood, socially mediated and economically motivated, within a system where we learn to see and represent ourselves as one marketable image among many, where “brand” displaces character, and the corporal and corporate intersect. Elsie is both a collection of tropes for femininity (her embodied history leaning heavily into illness and inadequacy when not floating on fantasies of power) and also a symptom of her country’s illness. Almost constantly laughing, she is – obviously – unreliable. But EtC blends persona into hyper-confessionalism to open a space for honesty – the hope is that the spectacle of Elsie exercising her fraught and limited freedoms in the context of cultural, social, and environmental disasters might provide a point of critique, in order to readjust the values shaping our experience so as to move toward ways of being in the world that might be wiser, kinder, more sane, and more real.

To discover more great books from small, independent, and university presses, visit the NewPages Guide to Publishers as well as the New Books category on our blog. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

Book Review :: Field Guide to Graphic Literature

Field Guide to Graphic Literatury book cover image

The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Graphic Literature: Artists and Writers on Creating Graphic Narratives, Poetry Comics, and Literary Collage edited by Kelcey Ervick and Tom Hart is the newest in the publisher’s Field Guide series. To say my mind was blown when I first thumbed through this collection would be an understatement. When I settled into reading it and working through the chapters, I intermittently laughed out loud with a kind of incredulous glee that such a book exists.

Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics is probably the most popularly noted book on the subject of comic study and the tome that allowed many teachers to legitimize the incorporation of comics into academic classrooms. It’s the most oft-cited in this collection of essays, and while mentioned respectfully each time, there is a recognition of the limitation of his work, and in some cases, disagreements or differences of perspective. Each contributor who cites it does so as the starting point for furthering the dialogue in new concepts and theories on the practice of creating and reading contemporary graphic literature – pushing the conversation way outside the traditional comic frame.

Continue reading “Book Review :: Field Guide to Graphic Literature”

Lit Mag Covers :: Picks of the Week – July 10, 2023

Lit Mag Covers: Picks of the Week recognizes cover art and designs for literary magazines, whether in print or online. These are chosen solely at the discretion of the Editor. Enjoy!

Your Impossible Voice Spring 2023 cover image

Your Impossible Voice nonprofit online lit mag takes its name from “Phrases” by Arthur Rimbaud, “Bind yourself to us with your impossible voice, your voice! sole soother of this vile despair.” Issue 28 (Spring 2023) cover art is “A Different Recollection Than Yours” by Edward Lee.

86 Logic Issue 9 cover image

86 Logic Issue 9 is a print publication with sleek graphic design for both text and art throughout. The cover was commissioned from artist Tom Liesegang, whose work and an interview are included inside as well.

Yolk Literary Magazine Summer 2023 cover image

Montreal-based Yolk Literary Magazine publishes Canadian artists in print as well as offers unique online content. The cover art for their Summer 2023 issue is by Sophie Edell and captures a quintessential image of summer.

To find more great literary magazines, visit the NewPages Guide to Literary Magazines, the NewPages Big List of Literary Magazines, the NewPages Big List of Alternative Magazines, and the NewPages Guide to Publications for Young Writers. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

Magazine Stand :: The Writing Disorder – Summer 2023

The Writing Disorder Summer 2023 cover image

The Summer 2023 issue of The Writing Disorder offers readers all new fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and art to keep the season going. Featured contributors include fiction by Jennifer Blake, Rozanne Charbonneau, amy g dahla, Jonas David, Brad Gottschalk, Tina Dolly Ilangoven, Paul Perilli, Ellis Shuman; poetry by George Capaccio, Beatrice Feng, Sydney Fisher, Ron Riekki, Mykyta Ryzhykh, Scott Taylor; nonfiction by Sydney Hollins-Holloway, Eric Lee, Jonathan Kruyer, Steve Schecter, Rita Stevens; and art by Maja Lindberg.

To find more great reading, visit the NewPages Guide to Literary Magazines, the NewPages Big List of Literary Magazines, the NewPages Big List of Alternative Magazines, and the NewPages Guide to Publications for Young Writers. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

New Book :: The Prumont Method

The Prumont Method by Trevor J. Houser book cover image

The Prumont Method by Trevor J. Houser
Unsolicited Press, August 2023

Staring down the barrel of a crumbling career and imploding marriage, “math hobbyist” Roger Prumont, unwittingly creates a formula that might predict when and where the next mass shooting occurs. He hits the road (where he’s joined by his unimpressed daughter) to test whether the Method could actually save lives. Except what if mass shootings are so ubiquitous now that his predictions are merely dumb luck? And what if he’s risking his own life to find out?

To discover more great books from small, independent, and university presses, visit the NewPages Guide to Publishers as well as the New Books category on our blog. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

Book Review :: Maamoul Press

Maamoul Press logo

At the 2023 Chicago Zine Fest, I met Maamoul Press, “a multi-disciplinary small press and collective for the creation, curation and dissemination of art at the intersection of comics, printmaking, and book arts.” The submission criteria includes “by-us-for-us” storytelling which need not be strictly autobiographical, but should be “rooted in some way in the writer or artist’s lived experience,” for “works by BIPOC women, trans, and non-binary artists.” I selected several publications from the Maamoul Press table, as I was interested in how each is unique in content and style.

Loneliness by Reimena Yee book cover image

Loneliness by Reimena Yee is a ten-page zine coursing through the author’s relationship with loneliness, from youth to adulthood. Not always ‘getting along’ with being alone, but finding the joy and beauty in it, nonetheless. Yee reveals how she copes with and even welcomes loneliness into her life. An uplifting and empowering perspective for all of us solitary dwellers out there. The images are mainly black and grayscale, a few brown/sepia tones, on ivory paper. (10pp, 2020)

The Insubordinate by Rawand Issa book cover image

The Insubordinate by Rawand Issa is a bilingual (Arabic/English) full-color graphic novel ‘do-si-do’ style, showing more of the publisher’s book arts skills. Its story is based on real events that took place in Beirut between October 8, 2015, and March 20, 2017, following a young woman’s demonstration participation and arrest. Her case was turned over to the Military Court and her lawyer fights to have the case thrown out since it is a civilian and not a military matter. Issa’s use of multiple thick lines and hard edges creating geometric shapes adds intensity to the story as it ramps up and unfolds. A disturbing narrative experience in a stylishly beautiful presentation.

The Layover by Soumya Dhulekar book cover image

I selected The Layover by Soumya Dhulekar for its two-color risograph print and its all-too-familiar mundane storyline of layover waiting in an airport, banal exchanges between strangers, and the connections we make in surreal yet familiar ways. The graphic style is a perfect vehicle of expression for this story experience. (12pp, 2019)

Reviewer bio: Denise Hill is Editor of NewPages.com and reviews books she chooses based on her own personal interests.

Magazine Stand :: Bending Genres – Issue 33

Bending Genres June 2023 logo image

Bending Genres online literary magazine’s submissions guidelines say they seek “thrilling, fanciful, oddball, unusual, stunning fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction pieces. Think Olympics on a case of Red Bull. Think October in April. Think Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey.” Issue 33 contributors who made the cut include Catherine O’Brien, Jess Richardson, Erin Mizrahi, Pat Foran, Kathryn de Lancellotti, Kristin Idaszak, Samuel Edwards, Shannon Frost Greenstein, Theodora Ziolkowski, Sam Rasnake, Glen Pourciau, James Miller, Anna Mantzaris, Lisa Alletson, David Yourdon, Brendan Constantine, Nwabuisi Kenneth, Andrew Cusick, Amy Marques, Megan Jones, Laurel Benjamin, MaxieJane Frazier, Stephen Delaney, George Ryan, Claudia Monpere, Sean Ennis, Catherine Buck, Michaela Mayer, Tyler Dillow, Karen Arnold, Reece Gritzmacher, and Lee Chilcote.

To find more great reading, visit the NewPages Guide to Literary Magazines, the NewPages Big List of Literary Magazines, the NewPages Big List of Alternative Magazines, and the NewPages Guide to Publications for Young Writers. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

New Book :: Dread Space Volume 2

Dread Space Volume 2 edited by Erick Fomley book cover image

Dread Space Volume 2 ed. by Eric Fomley
Shacklebound Books, May 2023

Dread Space Volume 2 edited by Eric Fomley is an anthology of dark military science fiction stories. Within these pages are soldiers doing their best to stay alive against otherworldly odds and unimaginable terrors. Twenty-two dark flash fiction stories from Wendy Nikel, Robert Bagnall, Liam Hogan, Dawn Vogel, Jonathan Ficke & many others. Shacklebound Books is a small press that publishes anthologies and collections in the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres. Most of what they publish has “a darker bend to it.” Readers can sign up for their newsletter to stay up to date on new releases, submissions, and receive two free stories every month.

To discover more great books from small, independent, and university presses, visit the NewPages Guide to Publishers as well as the New Books category on our blog. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

Magazine Stand :: New England Review – 44.2

New England Review 44.2 cover image

New England Review 44.2 is available now in print and ebook editions and features prose by Anu Kandikuppa, Susan Daitch, Efrén Ordóñez Garza, Olivia Muenz, and Nicholas Petty, poetry by Carlie Hoffman, George Uba, Mark Kyungsoo Bias, and Meg Reynolds, translations from French, Spanish, and Catalan, artwork by Louise O’Gorman, and our long-awaited special feature honoring the life and legacy of a beloved poet, editor, and mentor—”The Door Left Wide”: Irish Poets in Tribute to Eavan Boland. Subscribers receive full content, and NER rolls out selections from each new publication on their website over several weeks.

To find more great reading, visit the NewPages Guide to Literary Magazines, the NewPages Big List of Literary Magazines, the NewPages Big List of Alternative Magazines, and the NewPages Guide to Publications for Young Writers. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

Where to Submit Roundup: July 7, 2023

35 Submission Opportunities including calls for submissions, writing contests, and book prizes.

Where to Submit Roundup 2023

The first week of July is a wrap. Hopefully you were able to have a safe July Fourth holiday and we hope everyone is able to keep cool and safe with these crazy heat waves and storms.

If you are able to stay indoors with the AC or fans, take the time to write, edit, and submit. NewPages has you covered with our first weekly roundup of submission opportunities for July 2023. NewPages Newsletter subscribers with a paid subscription get early and first access to our submission opportunities and upcoming events, the majority before they go live on our site. Consider subscribing today.

Continue reading “Where to Submit Roundup: July 7, 2023”

New Book :: This Morning the Mountain

This Morning the Mountain: Poems by Judy Rowe Michaels book cover image

This Morning the Mountain: Poems by Judy Rowe Michaels
Cherry Grove Collections, March 2023

Judy Rowe Michaels’ sixth bout of cancer coincided with a deeper grief: her husband’s sudden death, the end of a forty-four-year marriage. Yet the poems in This Morning the Mountain, in their various turnings, reveal unexpected moments of comfort, resilience, even laughter: the pet cat’s growling capture of a broiled shrimp, “like the fierce hunter he was meant to be”; an arresting improvisation by a favorite jazz pianist; a prisoner’s empathic insight about a poem—“I guess cancer could be a prison too.” Ranging from villanelle to prose poem to irregular stanzas that surge, stumble, or sprawl across a page, these poems find the music to explore not only our natural fears of loneliness, insufficiency, heartbreak, and death but the celebration of love.

To discover more great books from small, independent, and university presses, visit the NewPages Guide to Publishers as well as the New Books category on our blog. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

Book Promotion Mailing Lists

image of author signing book

NewPages.com offers mailing lists to help with the promotion of new books as well as set up readings or other launch events. NewPages.com offers up-to-date and affordable mailing lists for indie bookstores (U.S. & Canada), Barnes & Noble bookstores, public and academic libraries, and daily newspaper and alternative newsweeklies with a 100% postal delivery guarantee. Learn more about our mailing lists here.

Magazine Stand :: Salamander – 56

Salamander Issue 56 cover image

Issue #56 of Salamander features more fiction and creative nonfiction than ever before, with short stories and flash fiction by: Leanne Ma, Alyson Mosquera Dutemple, John William McConnell, Benjamin Van Voorhis, William Woolfitt, and Lindsay Starck; and creative nonfiction by Martha K. Petersen, Zach Semel, Kathy Davis, and Joseph Dante. Salamander Issue 56 features poetry by Aaron Caycedo-Kimura, Chelsea Dingman, Suphil Lee Park, Jose Hernandez Diaz, Remi Recchia, Sihle Ntuli, Terena Elizabeth Bell, Ricardo Pau-Llosa, Brent Ameneyro, Martha Silano, Angie Macri, Adam J. Gellings, Sebastian Merrill, and many more poets, and reviews of work by Gabrielle Octavia Rucker, Jinwoo Chong, and Jose Antonio Villarán.

To find more great reading, visit the NewPages Guide to Literary Magazines, the NewPages Big List of Literary Magazines, the NewPages Big List of Alternative Magazines, and the NewPages Guide to Publications for Young Writers. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

Book Review :: Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions by Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi

Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions by Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi book cover image

Guest Post by Kevin Brown

In Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi’s Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions, interlocking stories form a novel that follows four Nigerian girls as they become women trying to determine who they should be and what role their lives should play in the history of their country. In fact, the first story begins in 1897, well before any of the girls are born, and ends with a story set in 2050 with the remaining women meeting to help one of them solve a significant problem. On the one hand, this collection examines the positives and negatives of Nigeria’s history and culture, as it shows the effects of the Biafran war, the rise of Evangelical churches and anti-LGBTQ laws, the rich culinary connections, and the deep family relationships. In the final story, Ogunyemi even uses her background in medicine to critique the American healthcare system, especially around medical debt. More than anything, though, Ogunyemi’s work reveals richly developed characters who try to negotiate what it means to be a Nigerian woman, always relying on their friends to help them through triumph and tragedy. These characters care deeply for one another and, mostly, for their families, so they are willing to make whatever sacrifices are necessary so that the others’ lives can be better, no matter what political and cultural shifts occur.

Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions by Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi. Amistad, September 2022.

Reviewer bio: Kevin Brown has published three books of poetry: Liturgical Calendar: Poems (Wipf and Stock); A Lexicon of Lost Words (winner of the Violet Reed Haas Prize for Poetry, Snake Nation Press); and Exit Lines (Plain View Press). He also has a memoir, Another Way: Finding Faith, Then Finding It Again, and a book of scholarship, They Love to Tell the Stories: Five Contemporary Novelists Take on the Gospels. Twitter @kevinbrownwrite or kevinbrownwrites.weebly.com/.

New Book :: Ellie is Cool Now

Ellie is Cool Now by Victoria Fulton and Faith McClaren book cover image

Ellie is Cool Now by Victoria Fulton and Faith McClaren
Forever, March 2023

Ellie is Cool Now is the result of Victoria Fulton and Faith McClaren ‘plopping’ an adult romcom chapter onto Wattpad, which resulted in a favorable readership and a Watty Award. The story follows TV writer Ellie Jenkins, who worked her butt off to put her nerdy, outcast teen years behind her. The irony being that she now works for a hit show about popular high school kids when she was So. Not. Cool. And she’s been offered the promotion of a lifetime—if she attends her reunion. But Ellie’s memory of High School Hell isn’t nearly as traumatic as the reality. No one at the reunion is what Ellie expected. Not her ex-best friend and not her secret crush. The only way she’s going to survive this whole weird ordeal is by fixing her bad high school karma, kissing the one who got away, and getting the hell out of Ohio for good. But Ellie’s discovering that in real life, she can’t just rewrite the script.

To discover more great books from small, independent, and university presses, visit the NewPages Guide to Publishers as well as the New Books category on our blog. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

New Book :: Things in the Basement

Things in the Basement by Ben Hatke book cover image

Things in the Basement by Ben Hatke
First Second, August 2023

In Ben Hatke’s graphic novel Things in the Basement, Milo is sent by his mother to fetch an errant sock from the basement of the historic home they’ve just moved into. It was supposed to just be a normal basement—some storage boxes, dust—the usual basement stuff. But when Milo finds a door in the back that he’s never seen before, it turns out that the basement of his house is enormous. In fact, there is a whole world down there. As Milo travels ever deeper into the Basement World, he meets the many Things that live in the shadows and gloom, and he learns that to face his fears he must approach even the strangest creatures with kindness.

To discover more great books from small, independent, and university presses, visit the NewPages Guide to Publishers as well as the New Books category on our blog. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

Magazine Stand :: Paterson Literary Review – Number 51

Paterson Literary Review 2023 cover image

Paterson Literary Review Number 51 (2023 annual) includes work by Martin Espada, Joe Weil, Marge Piercy, Dante DiStefano, Kevin Carey, Tony Gloeggler, Bob Hicok, Vivien Shipley, Barbara Crooker, and January Gill O’Neil, as well as the winning poems from the Allen Ginsberg Award and many others in its 335 pages. Edited by Maria Mazziotti Gillan since 1979, Paterson Literary Review is “an anthology of writers both famous and unknown,” and The Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College has received international recognition for many of its activities, including the Paterson Literary Review.

To find more great reading, visit the NewPages Guide to Literary Magazines, the NewPages Big List of Literary Magazines, the NewPages Big List of Alternative Magazines, and the NewPages Guide to Publications for Young Writers. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

Traveling? Visit Indie Bookstores!

Midland Street Books, Bay City, Michigan, photo of storefront

NewPages Guide to Independent Bookstores in the U.S. and Canada is a great resource for summer travelers. There is no better way to get to know a city than to check in with their local indie bookstore(s).

NewPages.com currently lists only brick-and-mortar stores (no online-only, pop-up, mobile, comics-only shops, or shops with books as a side business). We offer free enhanced listings in our Guide to Independent Bookstores to help booksellers connect with book lovers, so you can find a lot of info for many of the stores.

If we’re missing your favorite stores, do let us know!

[Thanks to our friends at Midland Street Books for the lovely storefront photo!]

Magazine Stand :: Superpresent – Summer 2023

Superpresent Summer 2023 cover image

Superpresent is a unique magazine in that it puts equal emphasis on the written word and visual arts, publishing work from a diverse set of talented writers, artists, and filmmakers. “When we chose the theme for this, our tenth issue,” explains Editor Kevin Clement, “we didn’t do an inquiry on the term ‘inquiries.’ Perhaps we should have. We didn’t expand on the theme as we sometimes do. Perhaps we should have. We did make the word plural, hoping for multiplicity. We weren’t disappointed. The writers and artists who contributed to this issue put forth questions across disciplines.” Providing some commentary on select pieces, Clements adds, “frequent contributor Duncan Forbes sent three poems that pose some fascinating questions and an essay on the brain which includes an analysis of one of our favorite Dickinson poems on the same subject. Her poem questions as it proposes. Our arts editor proposed questions to artist Aimée Beaubien whose work graces the cover. We know readers will enjoy her thoughtful responses which, like her art, have layers upon layers, questions upon questions.” Visit the Superpresent website today to read the entire issue.

New Book :: Bert Meyers

Bert Meyers The Unsung Masters Series book cover image

Bert Meyers: On the Life and Work of an American Master
Ed. Dana Leven and Adele Elise Williams
The Unsung Masters Series, June 2023

Bert Meyers: On the Life and Work of an American Master is the fourteenth volume in the Unsung Masters Series and includes both a large selection of his very best poems and appreciations from José Angel Araguz, Jim Bogen, Victoria Chang, Amy Gerstler, Garrett Hongo, Daniel Meyers, Barry Sanders, Ari Sherman, Maria Simon, Sean Singer, and others. Edited by Dana Leven and Adele Elise Williams and published with financial support by the Nancy Luton Fund and the University of Houston English Department in collaboration with Gulf Coast, Copper Nickel, and Pleiades.

To discover more great books from small, independent, and university presses, visit the NewPages Guide to Publishers as well as the New Books category on our blog. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

New Book :: Nervosa

Nervosa by Hayley Gold book cover image

Nervosa by Hayley Gold
Street Noise Books, April 2023

Hayley Gold’s graphic memoir Nervosa recognizes anorexia nervosa as an eating disorder. It is not a phase, a fad, or a choice. It is a debilitating illness, manifested in a distorted relationship with food, but which actually has more to do with issues of control. It is often a puzzle for doctors, therapists, parents, and friends. And so those who suffer from it are belittled, or tragically misunderstood, not only by society but by the healthcare system meant to treat it. Nervosa is a no-holds-barred, richly textured portrait of one young woman’s experience. In her vividly imagined retelling, Gold lays bare a callous medical system seemingly disinterested in the very patients it is supposed to treat and traces how her own life was irrevocably damaged by both the system and her own disorder, offering readers a remarkably candid exploration of the search for hope in the darkness.

To discover more great books from small, independent, and university presses, visit the NewPages Guide to Publishers as well as the New Books category on our blog. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay up to date!

Book Review :: The Funny Moon by Chris Lincoln

The Funny Moon by Chris Lincoln book cover image

Guest Post by Dave Greeley

Clair loved Wally but lately didn’t like him very much.

Wally is reminiscent of Jim Harrison’s Johnny Lundgren and Bukowski’s Henry Chinaski, guys who understand the cost of doing things the way they do because they are nothing if not self-aware.

The Funny Moon is set in a small New England college town where Wally grew up and to which he retreated in his late twenties. Lincoln renders it with a clarity that borders on virtual reality, and it becomes one of the book’s leading characters. After a few chapters, readers will feel like they grew up there, too. Inevitably, the walls are closing in on Wally. His main client wants social media advertising, a subject Wally knows nothing about. His wife Claire is running out of patience with him, or maybe she is outgrowing him. Even some of his lifelong chums are looking askance at him.

This is a classic coming-of-middle-age story, but Lincoln sails past every cliché with scenes so well-played the ending is one readers could not have predicted. The Funny Moon is sun-dappled and bleak, both a “What a ride” and “What the fuck?” As Jim Harrison puts it in Warlock, “The trouble is that no one gets to be anyone else.”

The Funny Moon by Chris Lincoln. Rootstock Publishing, June 2023.

Dave Greeley worked with the author for several years in the early 1980s. He is a communications consultant to clients in education, pharma, and high technology.