At the NewPages Blog readers and writers can catch up with their favorite literary and alternative magazines, independent and university presses, creative writing programs, and writing and literary events. Find new books, new issue announcements, contest winners, and so much more!
The Great Lakes: Love Song and Lament
A Michigan Quarterly Review Conference
Friday, November 4th 2011
Kelsey Museum of Archaeology
434 South State Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Free and Open to the Public
Speakers and readers include: Jonathan Freedman, Keith Taylor, Jerry Dennis, Alison Swan, Paul Webb, John Knott, Philip Deloria, Margaret Noori, Terry Blackhawk and Steve Amick.
Armchair/Shotgun magazine, which reads all pieces blindly (without knowledge of the author’s name until the piece has been accepted for publication), proudly announces that the current issue, “by happy accident,” is filled with writing only by female writers. “A writer’s resume . . . is no guarantee of a compelling story—good writing knows only story, and writers of all backgrounds may craft exciting tales,” says the editorial staff. “Our previous issues featured a gender-balanced split of male and female poets, fiction writers, and visual artists. So when we de-anonymized the Issue 3 acceptances, we were surprised and delighted to see that we’d inadvertently created a roster of 11 amazing female writers.”
VIDA, each year, puts out a gender breakdown of writers, reviewers, and books reviewed within well-known publications. “The difference between our outcomes and the average VIDA results—which indicate a male dominated roster of published authors—is notable,” says the staff.
This issue features Alanna Bailey, Elliott batTzedek, Genevieve Burger-Weiser, Allison Campbell, Diana Clarke, Sarah Goffman, Inge Hoonte, Debbie Ann Ice, Liana Jahan Imam, Danielle Lapidoth, and J.E. Reich. The issue also includes an interview with Reif Larsen, author of The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet; the paintings of Steve Chellis; and the photography of Andrew Wertz.
Lunch Ticket is a new online biannual magazine that evokes “school, hanging with friends, having interesting discussions over bologna sandwiches.” The name comes from a program Antioch University Los Angeles used to have in which a new student would be paired with an experienced student for lunch and given a “lunch ticket.” Current Editor-in-Chief Lise Quintana says that since Antioch is one of the top 5 low-residency MFA programs in the country and didn’t have its own literary magazine, there was a clear need to start Lunch Ticket. “[It] exists both to showcase great literary talent and to support Antioch University Los Angeles’s mission of social justice,” Quintana says.
She says that you can expect to find “interviews with interesting and important authors (our premier issue had an interview with Natasha Trethewey, poet laureate of the United States), essays on social justice issues, and great writing by authors from all over.”
The staff are all current MFA students at Antioch. “We know what it’s like putting yourself out there,” says Quintana, “and we appreciate the support we’ve been shown.” The editors vary per issue, but currently the editor-in-chief is Quintana, the fiction editor is Kathleen Rohr, the Writing for Young People editor is Kristen Schroer, the creative nonfiction editor is Wendy Fontaine, the poetry editor is Janice Luo, and the art editor is Audrey Mandelbaum.
The first issue features interviews by Natasha Trethewey, Gregory Boyle, Rick Moody, and Francesca Lia Block; essays by Naomi Benaron and Nancy L. Conyers; fiction by Jennifer A. Orth-Veillon, Jessica Pitchford, Diana Payne, Kyle Hemmings, Jenny Dunning, Terry Sanville, and LaToya Watkins; creative nonfiction by Andy Johnson (nominated for a Pushcart Prize), Mark Brazaitis, Sion Dayson, and John Calderazzo; Writing for Young People by G. Neri; and poetry by Andrei Guruianu, Hugh Behm-Steinberg, James Valdis, Nate Pritts, Martin Ott and John F. Buckley, Sheila Black, George Bishop, Yim Tang Wong, R L Swihart, Derek Pollard, Eleanor Levine, Lois Marie Harrod, Dina Hardy, Ricky Garni, Valentina Cano, and Gabriel Cabrera.
In the future, the staff would like “a more ambitious art section, incorporating more writing about art.” The would also like to create a best-of anthology as a print-on-demand hardcopy book.
The current reading period ends at the end of this month and is reopened in March, although writers and artists can send their submissions at any time. Submissions can be sent through Submittable.
The Fall 2012 issue of The Pinch features a section dedicated to the University of New Orleans Creative Writing Contest. Winners receive full tuition and housing at the Writing Workshops in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Fiction
Kiki Whang: “What You Need to Know About Missing Persons”
Poetry
Jill Frischhertz: “Sleep is Not an Option”
Creative Nonfiction
Anne Royan “Ten Thousand Things”
These pieces are included in the issue as well as “an interview on story craft and character development with the always spectacular Bobbie Ann Mason,” say the editors. “We’re also serving up incredible poetry, creative nonfiction, and fiction from Roxane Gay, Michael Croley, Nicholas Wong, Christine Stewart, Meg Cowen, Ray McManus, Raymond Fleischmann, Christopher Kempf, Eireann Lorsung, David Roderick, Daniel Browne, William Lusk Coppage, Jax Peters Lowell, Derek Palacio, Susan Gubernat, John Vanderslice, Allison Campbell, Maria Rapoport, Traci Brimhall, Charlotte Boulay, James Crizer, Bryce Emley, Mark Jay Brewin, Jr., Helen Phillips, Brad Henderson, Harold Whit Williams, Ira Sukrungruang, Elizabeth O’Brien, Anthony Opal, Tim Hayes, Sydney Lea, and Tory Adkisson. . . . The Fall issue also features stunning visual art from Maysey Craddock, Amy Lind, Dan Ball, and Marie Porterfield.”
“Yes, after 76 years, Robin’s Books will close forever at the end of 2012. We are grateful to all of those worthy souls who have patronized us throughout the years, all of the poets, philosophers, scholars, students, and seekers of all stripes.”
Even if you don’t know or particularly care about Robin’s Books, I encourage you to at least read their “About” page, where you’ll learn how Larry Robin continued a bookstore founded by his grandfather, and what Robin thinks the role of the indie bookstore is in the community. I don’t want to harp on the “this is what you’re losing” we hear so often with such bookstore closings, but instead, how about just a nod of appreciation for what folks like Robin have done (and what so many continue to do).
“What It is I Do: I sell books. The written record of thoughts and feelings and facts. This is the primary way in which humankind communicates. There is history, where we come from and what we have done. There is poetry, taking us beyond facts into our feelings. There are novels, exploring our experiences and sharing our successes and failures. Contrary to popular belief, this is not just product. A independent book store is by its nature, a community center and the book seller is an educator. Our job is to help our customers find what they are looking for. All of us are looking for the Truth. Of course, our customers do not always know that. You need to analyze where each customer is, find what they are looking for and figure out how you can help them take the next step.” Larry Robin
Thank you, Larry. I hope there is some way this is able to continue in our communities. Some way.
Blue Lyra Review is a new online venture that publishes poetry, nonfiction, translations, and artistic imagery three times a year, with a print issue at the end of December (beginning in 2013). “Our aim,” says M. E. Silverman, poetry and art editor, “is to bring together the voices of writers and artists from a diverse array of backgrounds, paying special homage to Jewish writers and other communities that are historically underrepresented in literary magazines.”
Silverman tells the story of the origin of the magazine’s name: “One of the most difficult decisions was coming up with a name that was not already taken, and had a free domain available! So after inquiring with some acquaintances and colleagues, I finally stumbled onto an idea while watching my daughter play Rocket Girl. I have always loved blues and jazz and the color blue. I loved the echo of sound in ‘review’ and ‘blue’, but I also liked the color for the connection to Israel. But Blue Review? Then I remembered the story of Lyra. The Greeks believed after Orpheus died, Zeus sent an eagle to get his lyre and then Zeus placed both in the sky. Now it is one of the 88 constellations (according to International Astronomical Union) with the second brightest star in the northern hemisphere. One can only hope to strive for so much, and I wish all of our acceptances soar so high!”
Silverman—along with Adrienne Ross Scanlan, nonfiction editor; Nancy Naomi Carlson, translation editor; B. Kari Moore, fiction editor; Lenore Weiss, copy editor; and Laura Hong, web editor—will present “a beautiful array of diverse voices” within the publication.
The first issue includes poetry from Marge Piercy, Lyn Lifshin, John Wood, Jeff Friedman, Gene Doty, Peter Serchuk, Jeannie Hall Gailey, and others; essays from Terry Persun, Neil Mathison, Sarah Corbett Morgan, Sue Eisenfeld, and Louis Bourgeois; and artistic work by Robin Grotke and Ginn Conn.
Blue Lyra Review accepts submissions through Submittable but is not looking for horror, westerns, anything offensive, or mixed media art. Currently, they are considering book reviews of Jewish poets; should you be interested, contact the editors through the website.
Camera Obscura‘s autumnal issue features the winners of the summer 2012 photography contest. Judged by Michael Gilbert, Laurie Klein, and Kerry Jordan, the Outstanding Professional Photography Award goes to Heather Evans Smith for her beautiful photo “The Midway,” which is featured on the cover of the issue as well as within the pages. Other winners include:
Outstanding Amateur Photography Award
“Into the Stream” by Hugh Jones
Editor’s Choice Award for Professional Photography
“Sewing” by Larry Louie
Editor’s Choice Award for Amateur Photography
“On the Edge” by Pierre Hauser
A complete list of the finalists for both professional and amateur photography can be seen on Camera Obscura‘s website.
Clockhouse Review’s best quality is that you don’t know what to expect. You’ll read a traditionally formed story about family dynamics, and then you’ll read a fake academic paper about medieval witches. Weird, but refreshing. Although CR boasts the usual suspects (poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction), it also features some unusual suspects such as graphic narrative and drama. Although it’s awesome to see these forms in literary magazines (more, please), I don’t think I’m the best judge of their quality. Truthfully, I find graphic narratives bizarre; although I can say that the one in this issue (“Stomach Hole” by Mike Mosher) is truly fascinating in its bizarreness. Continue reading “Clockhouse Review – Summer 2012”
6X6 is an eccentric little number, a mini-compilation of avant-garde poetry. When you pick up the most recent issue of 6X6, titled “Enough About Pigs,” you know you’re in for a party. The journal is slim and funky, its bubble-gum pink cover accented with red letters and held together by a nifty red rubber-band for the binding. This poetry magazine, published by Ugly Duckling Presse, is a chapbook like no other, displaying the innovative work of six poets. Continue reading “6X6 – Summer 2012”
This issue of Crazyhorse is full of interesting, off-beat writing, as befits a magazine with the journal’s oversized design. Continue reading “Crazyhorse – Spring 2012”
This month, Sundog Lit opens the pages of its very first issue. Including poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, it hosts a bevy of writers, both established and new. Editor Justin Lawrence Daugherty writes in his note that this issue accomplishes what they hoped it would; “it burns retinas.” If there is one piece that stands out as “burning” my retinas, it’s definitely “Caul” by Jenna Lynch. It was, well to be honest, gross (if you don’t know what a “caul” is, look it up), but even though it is eerie and not pleasant to picture, it’s insightful: Continue reading “Sundog Lit – October 2012”
Dogwood has returned to print after a year’s hiatus with Sonya Huber as the new editor. Huber aims to take this university magazine in a new direction with an online presence and the inclusion of creative nonfiction alongside their usual offerings of fiction and poetry. Readers won’t be disappointed with this restart. This issue features solid writing and the winners of the 2012 Dogwood Awards, with special guest judges Katherine Riegel and Ira Sukrungruang. Continue reading “Dogwood – Spring 2012”
The Rusty Toque, now in its third issue, is churning some solid butter. And instead of having just the traditional poetry, fiction, and nonfiction categories, The Rusty Toque publishes comics, monologues, art, and even videos. There is room in this home for a lot of different work. Continue reading “The Rusty Toque – 2012”
Enizagam is a breath of fresh air in the literary world. It proves that you don’t have to hold a master’s degree in order to enjoy, edit, and critique good literature. The young students at Oakland School for the Arts edit this literary magazine written by adults and for adult readership every year. Though it is a highly esteemed magazine, I had never gotten the pleasure of reading it until this issue, and it sure didn’t disappoint. Continue reading “Enizagam – 2011”
This issue of Sleet Magazine is a mash up. Inside there is a knitting monkey, a speaking octopus, and an affectionate doe and buck; there are plastic dolls, cymbal crashes, and “Peter Pan teeth”; and amidst all that, there are also pieces with more serious subject matter.
Continue reading “Sleet Magazine – Fall/Winter 2012”There are enough apt images in this magazine to build a new world whole. In three of its quarterly issues, The Fiddlehead publishes short fiction: not here. Here you’ll find reviews of Canadian literature, as is usual in the journal, but then in addition, purely poetry—enough to populate your mind with figures and tropes and patterns of sound until winter comes to call. The Fiddlehead (a reference to a fern unfolding) is, according to its website, “a veritable institution of literary culture in Canada.” Published in New Brunswick for over 65 years, it is “a regional magazine with a national and international reputation.” Especially if contemporary poetry interests you, it’s easy, in this issue, to see why. Continue reading “The Fiddlehead – Summer 2012”
The cover image for this issue of Menacing Hedge—“A Tree” by Alexander Jansson—is a perfect intro to what you’ll find inside. The image features a tree house I’d definitely like to climb up in, with a collection of empty picture frames, lanterns, and odds and ends hanging from the branches of the trees. It’s odd, it’s magical, it’s unique: truly representative of the work inside. Continue reading “Menacing Hedge – Fall 2012”
Founded in 1990, the glossy literary magazine Glimmer Train Stories showcases mostly emerging talent and hosts a bevy of contests to help cull those voices. I did not appreciate the fruits of their model until I read this issue, which carried me cover to cover, through a labyrinth of sound, structure, and emotional and literary sophistication. Continue reading “Glimmer Train Stories – Fall 2012”
Fiction Fix offers a large issue (so please forgive my not-so-mini review) filled with many different types of fiction. Some are more traditional stories, while others offer their messages by incorporating images and drawings. Continue reading “Fiction Fix – 2012”
Hayden’s Ferry Review announces itself immediately as an important publication, and not just because of its justifiably stellar reputation. This twenty-fifth anniversary issue boasts a top-shelf list of contributors, and the journal itself is heavy and substantial in the hand. This issue puts a special focus on the “artifact,” an object with “unique meaning both within its context and apart from it.” This focus is explicit in the issue’s reproductions of artifacts from notable writers, but is also implicit in many of the poems and short stories that fill the rest of the pages. Continue reading “Hayden’s Ferry Review – Spring/Summer 2012”
Flash pieces are often my favorite to read (and write), so when I came upon this brand new magazine, I simply had to review it (after delightedly sharing it with my fellow flash fiction lovers). Quickly publishes pieces unbound by genre or form, so long as they can say what they need to say in 703 words or fewer. Continue reading “Quickly – Issue 1”
The rawness, dissonance and clamor of contemporary American urban life are present in several fine poems in the latest issue of Hiram Poetry Review. Continue reading “Hiram Poetry Review – Spring 2012”
failbetter.com is an online magazine inspired by the quote from Samuel Beckett: “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” After a short break, they are now publishing again. This issue of failbetter.com offers two stories and two poems. Continue reading “failbetter.com – Fall 2012”
Knock is published bi-annually by Antioch University Seattle and has lots of flavor and flair; it is comprised of poems, fiction, essays, excerpts from books, interviews, and some fantastic color art and one hybrid piece. It must have been difficult to choose which artists’ and writers’ names would be featured on the cover as this issue shocked me with a tremendous amount of quality work. The editors certainly live up to the expectation of publishing “cutting edge” writing. Continue reading “Knock – 2012”
Arsenic Lobster is a great concoction, a boiling pot of poetry that fizzles and pops. The poetry pokes, it prods. Cristofre Kayser’s poem asks “Was there ever a knife that did not cut?” And Jeanne Stauffer-Merle’s poem tells us that “The mouth of wind is jagged and hanging and / cold and cold . . .” Continue reading “Arsenic Lobster – Summer 2012”
Meat for Tea is a quirky little journal from western Massachusetts that showcases fiction, poetry, and art of eclectic taste. Themes jump around from absurd, realistic, and even to a small taste of science fiction in a blend that is peculiar yet satisfying, like bacon in earl gray or pork in green tea. You get the idea. Continue reading “Meat for Tea – June 2012”
This magazine is one that features women writers all over the age of 60. The editors write, “Too often older women’s artistic work is ignored or disregarded, and only those few who are already established receive the attention they deserve. Yet many women are at the height of their creative abilities in their later decades and have a great deal to contribute.” This magazine’s mission is endearing, especially to me as my grandmother didn’t even start writing until she was in her ‘60s. It’s nice to see a magazine that showcases this type of work. Continue reading “Persimmon Tree – Fall 2012”
The name Rattle for a poetry journal interests me in the way that names of things often do. There is the death rattle, a baby’s rattle, rattlesnakes. There are people’s minds rattling off the hinges, people’s cages being rattled, and people rattling their own cages or those of others. It could be said that the best poetry rattles our nerves. A little bit of all of this is represented in this issue of Rattle, the death rattle perhaps more than the rest. If I had to pick one poem to represent the issue it would be Rohan Chhetri’s “Not the Exception.” The narrator appears to recently have come close to death and speaks of it in matter-of-fact yet insightful ways. The final lines struck me as boldest: Continue reading “Rattle – Summer 2012”
After seeing the cover of Pithead Chapel—a colorful collection of birds amongst flowers and plants—I expected something a little different. I’m not sure what, but I somehow expected stories of nature, or stories that were calm, and safe. But what I got was a different kind of surprise. Continue reading “Pithead Chapel – October 2012”
This issue of the Santa Monica Review starts out with a bang—literally. Continue reading “Santa Monica Review – Spring 2012”
The highlight of this issue of Umbrella Factory was definitely the very first piece, Kristin Faatz’s “The Guardian.” I can sometimes get sick of stories from the perspective of children because I’m often bothered by the language of it or the way that their perspective doesn’t add to the story. But Faatz does an excellent job of allowing us to sympathize with the main character, Leah, and her thoughts seem to mirror a child’s quite well. Written as a close third-person and broken into sections, I was hooked as the story developed into one where Leah has broken a picture frame of her mother and her father, her father which “left” them years ago. The narrative shows how this child understands her world and how she is able to cope with the pain she has already had to endure at such a young age. But because it is written in the third person, we are able to step outside her world for a moment and see what happened to make her father leave, the story she doesn’t know about. The sections were excellently woven together to build very round characters and a round story. Continue reading “Umbrella Factory – September 2012”
Storm Cellar is slender literary magazine—this issue is less than 30 pages—whose website advertises “a special emphasis on the Midwest.” The cover is catchy, a colorful curiosity of overlapping images. Flowers and faces mix among abstractions, and it all looks a bit like wallpaper from the neon ‘80s. Despite the inclusion of only three pieces of fiction, one of which is no longer than a page, and poems by five authors, this issue of Storm Cellar holds up as an interesting, varied read. Continue reading “Storm Cellar – Summer 2012”
First of all, I have to say that I’m not sure if Gemini Magazine has a web version or not, but the layout was perfect for mobile reading. I had no problem reading the entire issue from the comfort of my bed and my iPhone. I even had a chance to finish up reading the issue while sitting at a restaurant, awkwardly waiting for my friends to arrive. Continue reading “Gemini Magazine – October 2012”
Editor RW Spryszak begins this issue of Thrice Fiction by addressing the misconceptions some have with regard to “micro fiction.” Spryszak rejects the notion that flash fiction is “experimental” and has a very good point. “Experimental” implies that a piece isn’t fully formed “or that the writer doesn’t know what they’re trying to get at . . . by the time something is ready for public viewing the experiment should be over.” The writers whose work is represented in Thrice Fiction make use of the toolboxes of both poets and short story writers to create stories that are as emotionally potent as they are brief. Continue reading “Thrice Fiction – July 2012”
I’m sure, as writers, we sometimes feel compelled to write a letter to someone—as a way to organize our thoughts and say it “just right”—rather than try to explain what we are feeling or thinking out loud. This issue of Poemeleon is titled “The Epistolary Issue.” Each of the writers in this issue uses this form of poetry in different ways, some even explain it with a short intro. Continue reading “Poemeleon – Summer 2012”
Although The Antigonish Review is partially supported by the Canada Council for the Arts and the Nova Scotia Department of Communities, Culture & Heritage, the publication does not overreach into a philosophical or political interpretation of the American experiment. Some might imagine that public funding could encourage specific response at the expense of story, but these stories, essays, and poems are not exclusively about Canada and Canadians. The issue is rich with diverse elements—such as references to Tunisia, teenage nihilism, mortuary science, and Egypt. The writing is disciplined, and because of this convention, I can carry the magazine everywhere; it is a talisman against lost time. And that’s the best symptom of clean prose—the ability it affords the reader to weave in and out of the narrative without feeling lost. Continue reading “The Antigonish Review – Spring 2012”
Having somehow never heard of Willow Springs prior to this issue arriving on my doorstep, I was excited by the caliber of the authors listed on the cover: Amorak Huey, Kathryn Nuernberger, Roxane Gay, and even an interview with one of my all-time favorites, Tim O’Brien! Continue reading “Willow Springs – Fall 2012”
Lowestoft Chronicle is about travel, but it’s not necessarily a travel log. The characters in the stories, in the poems, are on journeys—journeys in physical space or journeys in the heart and mind. Continue reading “Lowestoft Chronicle – Autumn 2012”
What a find Big Fiction is! The magazine publishes only three to five “shorts” or novellas of 7,000 words or more, bound in a beautiful hand-designed letterpress volume of just the right size: perfect for a weekend away, an afternoon of rich leisure, an evening curled up by the fire. This issue is a delight to hold, to view, to read carefully. The editors’ intention of visual and tactile beauty aligned with literary delectability is fully realized. The green, tastefully mismatched typography of the title takes up a small top left corner of the white cover, which is filled with a red etched fiddlehead fern. “No. 2” takes up minimal space in the bottom right corner, and in the title corner the image of a young fiddler playing unobstrusively. Continue reading “Big Fiction – Spring/Summer 2012”
This was the first issue of Zone 3 I’ve read cover-to-cover, and I was pleased with what I found. It’s an impressive, well-chosen collection of poetry and prose. Beginning with the narrative nonfiction, in “Puttanesca,” Kerry L. Malawista finds comfort in a special dish her friend made and brought to her following her daughter’s death. It is a straightforward and powerful piece that addresses and celebrates a simple gesture of humanity in the face of tragedy. Continue reading “Zone 3 – Spring 2012”
Revolution House, as the editors indicate, “is the brainchild of a disparate group of writers who came together during the tumultuous early months of 2011, when the MFA application anxiety was high and the lows were lower than low. We had a dream of a sprawling farmhouse, a place where we could all escape the dragging monotony of reality. But it’s difficult to find a house with fourteen bedrooms, so we ended up here instead, building platforms to launch other dreams.” Continue reading “Revolution House – Summer/Fall 2012”
American Life in Poetry: Column 391
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE
Kay Ryan was our nation’s Poet Laureate at The Library of Congress for the 2008-2010 terms. Her poetry is celebrated for its compression; she can get a great deal into a few words. Here’s an example of a poem swift and accurate as a dart.
Pinhole
We say
pinhole.
A pin hole
of light. We
can’t imagine
how bright
more of it
could be,
the way
this much
defeats night.
It almost
isn’t fair,
whoever
poked this,
with such
a small act
to vanquish
blackness.
American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2011 by Kay Ryan, whose most recent book of poems is Odd Blocks, Selected and New Poems, Carcanet Press, 2011. Poem reprinted from Poetry, October 2011, by permission of Kay Ryan and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2012 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.
Send a letter, receive a letter. O.M. Pen-Pals is new project at Orange Monkey Publishing. “Inspired by the Letters-in-the-Mail program at the Rumpus which focuses on established writers, we plan on receiving letters from all over the country from various emerging and established writers and distributing them to fellow writers in hopes that it will spawn friendships, discussion, and connections.”
Orange Monkey Publishing staff will manage the pen-pal connections to protect writers’ personal contact information, and also offer writers the opportunity to publish “letters that tell the best stories, or talk of great ideas.”
For more information on how to participate, visit the Orange Monkey Publishing website.
Mills College is pleased to offer one full-tuition assistantship each year to an entering student in the MFA in creative writing poetry program. This assistantship provides full tuition for either the two-year or three-year MFA program. Candidates for the assistantship will design and implement a poetry-related community project during the course of their degree program. The assistantship does not require a teaching commitment.
Applicants should follow and complete the usual application processes for the MFA in poetry by the priority application deadline of December 15. Applications for the full-tuition assistantship itself are due January 3, as per instructions on the Mills College website.
As part of its 30th anniversary, Alaska Quarterly Review celebrates with a special section in the latest issue that features three sections of invited poetry. Jane Hirshfield, guest editor, explains: “In one, you will find 30 previously published poems by poets familiar to any awake reader of contemporary literature. Many included in this section have also served as previous guest editors for AQR, all of whom were invited to contribute. I wrote to each of the thirty in this section and asked for a single, previously published poem, of their own choosing – sometimes describing it as a kind of tribute bouquet, meant for both the magazine and its readers. The resulting contributions are not bouquet in scale, though, they are continental. They range from signature poems – Marie Howe’s “What the Living Do” – to poems that first appeared in print in the past year, from publications ranging from The New Yorker to the online journal Clade Song.”
“To expand this special issue beyond my own range of knowledge and taste, Ron and I decided to invite in also two exceptional, and somewhat younger, poets, Camille Dungy and Todd Boss, to guest edit a second section of another 30 poems – in this case holding new work, previously unpublished, from a mix of poets.”
Writers among the pages of the rest of the issue include Lenore Myka, Jenny Hanning, Amy Sayre-Roberts, Victoria Kelly, Katherine Heiny, Victoria Lancelotta, Nicole Miller, Laura Jok, Dina Nayeri, Kirk Perry, Eva Saulitis, Francesca Mari, Sandra Kobrin, and Jesse Goolsby.
PEN America‘s newest issue time travels back to 1922, the magazine’s founding year and the height of modernism. “Borrowing from the pages of The Dial, The Crisis, and The Little Review,” says the magazine, “we offer you a taste of the literary scene, alongside a trove of photographs, drawings, advertisements, headlines, and commentary. The featured writers—including Joyce, Du Bois, Woolf, McKay, Crane, Cather, Fitzgerald, Mansfield, and Moore—remain some of our greatest teachers and literary loves.”
In an introduction to the special section, Steven L. Isenberg, PEN America Center’s executive director, says, “This year we celebrate PEN’s ninetieth anniversary and hence our origins and our emergence after World War II and unto today as a literary human rights organization devoted to the protection of free expression and as a standard-bearer for the place of literature and thus the ties that bind, internationally, through reading, writing, translation, and fellowship. When we turn to the literature of 1922 in the pages ahead, we begin the journey once again.”
Writers featured within the pages of the rest of the journal include Jamal Joseph & Sonia Sanchez, Julie Otsuka, Herta Mϋller, Liu Xiaobo & Liu Xia, John Cage, Kimiko Hahn, Theresa Rebeck, Etgar Keret, Eileen Myles, and Richard Feynman.
Firewheel Editions has several new titles for sale and until Oct. 31 is offering to add on a second title from select books and issues of Sentence and Kugelmass for $3 each.
The Feminist Press has released a ebook edition of Pussy Riot! A Punk Prayer for Freedom with profits from the sale of the book going to support the Pussy Riot legal defense team.
Following the February 21, 2012 staged performance in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow and subsequent arrest of several band members, “the Internet exploded with petitions, music videos, and calls to action, and as the guilty verdict was anticipated, Pussy Riot responded with articulate, unwavering courtroom statements, calling for freedom of expression, an end to economic and gender oppression, and a separation of church and state. They were sentenced to two years in prison, and inspired a global movement. Collected here are the words that roused the world.”
A print edition is forthcoming.
Nimrod‘s “It’s in the Cards” issue features the winners and finalists of the magazine’s annual awards competition. The Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction was judged by Gish Jen, and Philip Levine was the judge for the Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry. The following authors and their writing can be found in the most recent issue of Nimrod:
The Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction
First Prize
Judith E. Johnson
Second Prize
Terrence Cheng
Finalist
L. E. Miller
Lones Seiber
The Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry
First Prize
Chelsea Wagenaar
Second Prize
Linda Hillringhouse
Finalists
Judy Rowe Michaels
Rafaella Del Bourgo
Dante Di Stefano
Melissa Reider
Kristen Ingrid Hoggatt
Charles P. R. Tisdale
June Blumenson
Amy Miller
Catherine Freeling
Katharyn Howd Machan
Helen T. Glenn
Joan Colby
Rafael Alvarez
Barbara Crooker
Joan I. Siegel
Semi-Finalists
Sarah L. Stecher
Jenny McDougal
Richard Agacinski
Maud Poole
Angela Patten
Gerald McCarthy
David Cazden
Matthew J. Spireng
Rebecca Hazelton
Lisa Zerkle
Lindsay Knowlton
Josephine Yu
Honorable Mention
Scot Siegel
Markham Johnson
Citing a need to “navigate the changes in market conditions for print publications,” American Short Fiction is taking a “temporary hiatus” in order to “seek the best way forward” as well as “other organizational changes” for publication publisher, Badgerdog. Read the full press release here.
