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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!

August Book Reviews Posted

A new batch of NewPages book reviews have been posted:

Vanishing Point: Not a Memoir
Graywolf Press, March 2010
Nonfiction by Ander Monson
Review by Nate Logan

Black Box Theater as Abandoned Zoo
Poetry by Dana Elkun
Concrete Wolf, December 2009
Review by Noel Sloboda

How to Catch a Falling Knife
Poetry by Daniel Johnson
Alice James Books, June 2010
Review by Kate Angus

The Evolutionary Revolution
Fiction by Lily Hoang
Les Figues Press, June 2010
Review by Caleb Tankersley

The Logic of the World and Other Fictions
Fiction by Robert Kelly
McPherson & Company, April 2010
Review by Thomas Hubbard

Tea Time with Terrorists: A Motorcycle Journey Into the Heart of Sri Lanka’s Civil War
Nonfiction by Mark Stephen Meadows
Soft Skull Press, May 2010
Review by Ann Beman

The Relenting: A Play of Sorts
By Lisa Gill
New Rivers Press, 2010
Review by Richard Oyama

Under the Small Lights
Novella by John Cotter
Miami University Press, June 2010
Review by Dan Magers

Falling off the Bicycle Forever
Poetry by Michael Rattee
Adastra Press, February 2010
Review by Caleb Tankersley

Destruction Myth
Poetry by Mathias Svalina
CSU Poetry Center, November 2009
Review by Noel Sloboda

I Have to Go Back to 1994 and Kill a Girl
Poetry by Karyna McGlynn
Sarabande Books, November 2009
Review by Kristin Abraham

Requiem for the Orchard
Poetry by Oliver de la Paz
University of Akron Press, March 2010
Review by Lisa Dolensky

Creating a Life
Memoir by Corbin Lewars
Catalyst Book Press, February 2010
Review by Laura Pryor

The Disappeared
Fiction by Kim Echlin
Black Cat, December 2009
Review by Katherine Kipp

Victorian Journal Submissions Editor Wanted

The Victorian Network (ISSN 2042-616X), an online journal dedicated to publishing and promoting the best postgraduate work in Victorian Studies, is recruiting a Submissions Editor. They are looking for a dedicated doctoral student in the first or second year of a PhD in Victorian Studies who is interested in gaining experience and developing career-relevant skills in the publishing process.

The Submissions Editor is an executive member of the Editorial Board, involved in all stages of the publishing process and in charge of managing submissions and liaising with authors.

For more information and details about the application process please send a 250-word statement about yourself and your research interests to victoriannetwork-at-gmail.com no later than 29 August 2010.

New Lit on the Block :: Prime Number

Edited by Clifford Garstang and Valerie Nieman (poetry), Prime Number Magazine is an online quarterly of fiction, creative non-fiction, craft essays, and poetry, with Prime Decimal updates in between featuring flash fiction, flash non-fiction, and shorter poems, and plans for an annual editors’ choice print edition to be published by Press 53.

Issue 2 (the premier issue – in prime numbers, remember) includes: poetry by Fleda Brown, James Harms, Sarah Lindsay, and Jake Adam York; fiction by Peter Orner, Scott Loring Sanders, Anne Sanow, and Kevin Wilson; nonfiction by Roy Kesey and Carol Fisher Saller; interviews with Josh Weil, author of The New Valley and Gina Welch, author of In the Land of Believers; Mary Akers’ review of Love in Mid-Air, by Kim Wright and Elizabeth McCullough’s review of Eaarth—Making a Life on a Tough New Planet, by Bill McKibben.

Prime Numbers Decimals is also online and features flash ficiton by Valerie Fioravanti and Stefanie Freele, and poetry by Scott Owens and Michael Bazzett.

Prime Number Magazine is open for submissions of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, book-reviews, interviews, essays on craft, flash fiction, flash non-fiction, and shorter poems.

Openings :: The Next Chapter Bookstore

The Next Chapter Bookstore in Gainesville, GA is an new outreach program from Our Neighbor, a non-profit organization for adults with disabilities who staff the store. The shop stocks its shelves with donated books – the largest contribution from Frances Mathis of 2000 books from her husband’s collection. Read more about it on the Gainsville Times online.

Peace Corps Writer Award

PEACE CORPS WRITERS announced that In An Uncharted Country by Clifford Garstang (South Korea 1976–78) has won the 2010 Maria Thomas Fiction Award for the outstanding fiction book published by a Peace Corps writer during 2009. In An Uncharted Country showcases ordinary men and women in and around Rugglesville, Virginia, as they struggle to find places and identities in their families and the community. This collection of short stories is Garstang’s first published book, and it has also won the Independent Publisher’s IPPY Gold Medal this year for Best Fiction in the Mid Atlantic. Garstang currently edits Prime Number Magazine.

Podcasts :: New Letters on the Air

New Letters on the Air features more than 1000 half-hour audio interviews and readings by many of the greatest poets, fiction writers, essayists, and playwrights of the past 30 years. The weekly series and its archives are available live on PBS stations, on the site via free weekly podcast, or on CD or cassette (purchase details on site).

New Letters on the Air has recently broadcast shows featuring Robert Pinsky, Demetria Martinez, Beth Ann Fennelly, Hilda Raz, Clancy Martin, Maria Finn, Tobias Wolf, Martha Serpas, C. Dale Young, Michael Chabon and Kathleen Norris.

For more audio and video programs visit NewPages Guide to Podcasts, Videos, and Audio Programs from literary magazines, book publishers, alternative magazines, universities and bloggers. Includes poetry readings, lectures, author interviews, academic forums and news casts. If you know of sites that would be relevant for our readers, please e-mail info to: denisehill-at-newpages.com

New Lit on the Block :: Bird Fly Good

Bird Fly Good is a small press and poetry journal with the aim “to foster communities of poetry, starting with Austin, Texas.” Run in DIY batches of 150 issues, Bird Fly Good publishes only solicited work at this time and is available through their website. The first issue features works by Sarah Blake, Kate Greenstreet, Hoa Nguyen, Elisa McCool, Eileen Myles, Christopher Perez, Dale Smith, and Cindy St. John.

What Counts as Previously Published?

The editors at Verse Wisconsin take on the issue of “previously published” or not when a writer submits a poem that has been published on the writer’s personal blog or website. Some publications (most notably in my encounters – online journals) count personal blog/website postings as “previously published.” Others do not consider it “published” unless it has gone through an outside (of yourself) editorial process. Verse Wisconsin‘s position after much consideration and consultation: “We will accept poems that have appeared on the poet’s OWN blog or website (only), with an understanding that upon acceptance, the poet will remove the accepted poem from their own site for the duration of the VW issue, print or online, their poem appears in. After the issue is past, poets are free to publish the poem again on their blog, with a credit to VW listed and hopefully a link to the issue in our archives.” Solution? Well, it’s one approach.

Poetry Digest – Just Eat It

With their own quirky backstory, Chrissy Williams and Swithun Cooper are the editors of Poetry Digest, “a compact biodegradable and/or edible literary magazine of new and existing poems.” Taking the form (based on their online images) of cakes and cupcakes, Poetry Digest accepts poetry for publication in their “issues” – and though there are no length limits on submissions, “given the limitations of the small cake format, short poems will be given preference over longer works.”

upstreet – 2010

Upstreet is an award-winning publication that claims to have “the best new fiction, poetry and creative non-fiction available” to “offer a voice to prose writers and poets who might not find publication in more mainstream journals.” However “mainstream” might be defined, whether these pieces are off-beat, they are definitely striking and high-quality. Choosing which poems and short-stories to comment on is almost a random process; there is good variety, and the quality is consistent. The size of the journal is typical of any paperback; about two hundred pages, sporting a shiny black cover with the title printed in bold orange on the front. Continue reading “upstreet – 2010”

The Writing Disorder – Summer 2010

This is a brand spanking new lit mag with only two issues published, but one which shows considerable promise. The website is pleasant and easy to negotiate and there is a wide variety of material to choose from: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, paintings, comic art, photography, interviews, and reviews. I had so much fun I delved into their single archive to get a taste of everything. Continue reading “The Writing Disorder – Summer 2010”

Aufgabe – 2010

An engaging and provocative issue of this ever-impressive annual. This year’s portfolio of international writing features contemporary Polish poetry selected by guest editor Mark Tardi, complex and inventive work worthy of serious reading and sustained attention. Another portfolio guest edited Laura Moriarty presents the work of “A Tonalist” poets; and guest editors E. Tracy Grinnell, Paul Foster Johnson, Julian T. Brolaski and contributing editors Jen Hofer and Nathalie Stephens selected the work of three dozen other poets and a number of unconventional review essays. Continue reading “Aufgabe – 2010”

The Bellingham Review – Spring 2010

The awards issue – and the judges chose well! A poem by Elizabeth McLagan, “All Alien Spirits Rest the Spirit,” chosen by Paulann Petersen; an essay by Alexandra Marzano-Lesnevich, “In the Fade,” chosen by Kim Stafford; and a story by Irene Keliher, “SPN,” chosen by Kathleen Alcalá. Well-composed, confident work; subtle, yet focused and intense. McLagan’s poem is representative of much of the poetry in this issue, poems steeped in rich images of the natural world rendered in careful, round language (“There are rocks that have forgotten the body: / orphaned, smoothed by their journey, tossed up // at random and left to dry in the sun.”) The winning essay, too, sets the stage for the creative nonfiction that follows, other essays (is this intentional or coincidental?) which explore a childhood relationship with the beach/ocean (essays by Julie Jeanell Leung and Susan Buis). And the winning story is also typical of the work in this issue, family dramas that rise above the vast sea of such work, thanks to strong prose and a tendency toward understatement. Continue reading “The Bellingham Review – Spring 2010”

Columbia Poetry Review – 2010

Household names – in households that read poetry, of course – include Alice Notley, Simone Muench, Jan Beatty, David Dodd Lee, and Alan Michael Parker. Forces to be reckoned with include Michael Robins, James Shea, Dora Malech, Daniel Borzutsky, Anne Boyer, Suzanne Buffam, and Mathias Svalina. Up-and-coming poets include Kristin Ravel, Sarah Elliott, Sandra Lim, and K. Silem Mohammad, among others. Continue reading “Columbia Poetry Review – 2010”

Michigan Quarterly Review – Spring 2010

I admired Esther Schor’s recent biography of Emma Lazarus very much, so I was happy to find a new essay of hers in Michigan Quarterly Review (“The G20 and the E17”), and that’s where I entered this volume. The essay’s about a conference in a town three hours east of Istanbul, Turkey on Esperanto, the “international language” first created by the Polish Jewish occultist L. L. Zamenhof in the late 1880’s. I appreciate Schor’s lucid, fluid prose and the way in which she deftly moves the essay toward a consideration of other issues larger in scope and implication than the fate of Esperanto. Continue reading “Michigan Quarterly Review – Spring 2010”

Pilgrimage – 2010

“Body, My House,” is the theme of new editor Maria Melendez’s first issue. “Human bodies, alive and in crisis, command the spotlight in the non-fiction books that have held my attention for the last 18 months,” she tells us in her “Welcome.” This is possibly, she reveals, the result of bodies in crisis in her own life, first her father’s triple bypass surgery, and later bouts of H1N1 from which she and family members suffered. There is certainly much writing about the experience of illness and disease in this issue, but there is also a good deal of work about food and eating; the body’s connection to the natural world; reproduction and aging; an essay about quitting smoking; and a poem about the art of maintaining a home as art (“this house is my poem!”). Continue reading “Pilgrimage – 2010”

Prole – 2010

Prole is proudly launching its inaugural voyage, and what a voyage. The message on page two states that this is “a journal of accessible poetry and prose to challenge and engage.” This journal is nothing if not challenging and engaging. Prole’s fiction and prose uses only artful story-telling, skillful-weaving, compact wording; no literary tricks, twists, surprise endings or jolts to deliver one deep into their vast little worlds. There are short stories with suspense and horror, such as “Book Covers” by Rebecca Hotchen and “Flower as Big as the Sky” by Matt Dennison. There are minute character studies such as “Shoes” by Dave Barrett and Bruce J. Berger’s “He had to Go.” And completing this tasty assortment are the odd and sad like “Stone and Wind” by Carl T. Abt, “Scarred” by Kevin Brown, and Stephen Ross’s “Clocks without Hands.” Continue reading “Prole – 2010”

Red Cedar Review – 2010

Interviewed in this issue by Jim Porter, master of prose style Richard McCann defines voice as a function of rhythm (Ms. Woolf was right, of course!) and describes his process of walking around memorizing his own words as they come to him. I have never heard this process described before (which is, for what it’s worth, exactly the way I compose poetry) and I appreciated McCann’s candor. His interview is one of the highlights of the issue. Continue reading “Red Cedar Review – 2010”

Smartish Pace – 2010

The work in Smartish Pace is just what the journal’s title suggests, accomplished and sophisticated. The issue features many poets whose reputations are entirely in keeping with that categorization (Gerald Stern, Eamon Grennan, Carol Muske-Dukes, Terrance Hayes, Barbara Ras, Kim Stafford, William Logan, Sandra McPherson, Amjad Nasser of Egypt, Norman Dubie, and Michael Collier); and many others whose poems are no less accomplished or sophisticated (Steven Cushman, Terence Winch, Casey Thayer, Patrick Ryan Frank, and Katie Ford, among others).

Continue reading “Smartish Pace – 2010”

Sonora Review – 2010

The bright, colorful, fun, full bleed cover with its octopus, crab, and turtle swimming from margin to margin says it all. It announces Number 57’s theme (“The Sea Issue”); the journal’s tone (delightful, playful, forward moving); and its voice (a little over the top, “Featuring the riveting poetry of Jeffrey McDaniel; the unputdownable fiction of Amelia Grey, and the dazzling nonfiction of Steven Church” the cover copy shouts). The journal is produced by graduate students in the Department of English at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Ah, but the faculty advisor is Ander Monson. Well, now I get it! Monson is the inventive and clever editor of the online journal diagram (and a lot of great stuff in print) and the publisher of hybrid and graphically oriented work at his New Michigan Press. His students are learning their lessons well. The journal is really inventive. Really fun. And, despite some excesses, really successful at what it does, beginning with the illustrated instructions on how to read the journal. Continue reading “Sonora Review – 2010”

Tiferet – 2010

Tiferet is an independent “multi-faith publication dedicated to promoting peace in the individual and in the world,” published six times annually (two print issues and four online issues). Issue 13 features five essays (most are excerpts from forthcoming or recently published books); three short stories; the work of a dozen poets; black and white photographs by Taoli-Ambika Talwar and a drawing by Israel Carlos Lomovasky. The large format is ideal for Talwar’s exceptional photographs, three images that couldn’t be more different from each other (a close-up of a blossom; a distanced view of a house in the woods; and a close-up of a wall of granite rock), except for the skill and creativity of their composition. Continue reading “Tiferet – 2010”

Passings :: Ron Offen

Ronald (Ron) Charles Offen, 79, of Glenview, Illinois, died on August 9th in Glenview. The cause of death was cancer.

Ron was born October 2, 1930 in Chicago to Charles Offen and Ellen Shirreffs Offen. He graduated from Austin High School, received an A.A. from Wright College and an M.A. in English Language and Literature from the University of Chicago. In the 1970s and 1980s he lived in Southern California and was delighted to return to the Chicago area in 2001.

He was divorced from his first wife, Sharon Nealy; his second wife, Rosine Brueckner Franke, died in 2001. He is survived by his third wife, Beverly Kahling Offen, his sister, Pam (Charles) Veley, his children, Eric (Diane) Offen and Deirdre (Don) Junta, Michele Offen and Darren (Beatriz) Offen, five grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.

Ron held many jobs, from taxi driver to insurance investigator to middle school library assistant. But the force that gave his life meaning was always the written word; he was an author, a poet, playwright, editor, and theater producer.

In 1989, after a bout with cancer, he thought about how important poetry had been to him and how much it had given him. To give something back to poetry and poets, he started the magazine Free Lunch, with the commitment to give all serious poets in the U.S. a free subscription and also to comment on all work submitted to him. Free Lunch has published many of the best-known contemporary American poets. In 2009, due to his illness, publication of the magazine ceased.

Ron loved his wife, his children, his many friends, poetry, trees, the color orange, playing the trumpet and the piano, cookies, contemporary art and architecture, WFMT, caring for his collection of house plants, books, turtles, jazz, Bach and Chopin, swimming, the Midwest, and evenings at home.

There will no funeral services. A memorial celebration will be scheduled.

Ron’s papers are archived in Special Collections at the University of Chicago. Memorial donations may be made to the University of Chicago with an indication that they are intended for support of Special Collections. Send to Judy Lindsey, Director of Development, University of Chicago Library, 1100 East 57th Street, Chicago, IL 60637.

[Text provide by Beverly Offen.]

Mid-American Review Contest Winners

The latest double issue of Mid-American Review (v30 – 1&2) celebrates the 30th anniversary of the publication with and Featured Poet Tony Trigilio. Included within the whopping 400+ pages are winners and select finalists of the following contests:

Jill Haberkern, winner of Mid-American Review’s Sherwood Anderson Fiction Award
Editors’ Choice – Nick Kocz and Jeffrey Martin

Kimberly Davis, winner of the James Wright Poetry Award
Editor’s Choice – Casey Thayer and Gretchen Steele Pratt

Alan Michael Parker winner the Fineline Competition for Prose Poems, Short-Shorts, and Anything In-Between
Editors’ Choice – Kelli Boyles, Jaime Brunton, Ashley Davidson, Cherie Hunter Day, Richard Garcia, Ian Golding, Nina Mamikunian, Alan Michael Parker, and Jennie Thompson

Also included in this issue are the 2009 AWP Intro Journals Awards – Kayla Skarbakka and David Lumpkin.

New Lit & More on the Block :: Storychord

Every other Monday, Storychord.com features one story, one image, and a one-song “soundtrack” – each by a different underexposed, talented up-and-comer. All issues are thoughtfully curated by Sarah Lynn Knowles (SARAHSPY, The Furnace Review).

Currently available on the site are:

Written works by Katharine Tillman, Dan Lopez, Miles Klee, Duncan Birmingham, David Fishkind, Amanda McCarty, Amanda Kimmerly, Greg Turner, Tao Lin

Artwork by Soo Im Lee, Anna Moller, Mike Dote,Sarah Fletcher, Omar Bakry, Nika States, Crystal Barbre, Ericka Bailie-Byrne, Helena Kvarnstr

OneWord Online Writing Exercise

OneWord is an online writing prompt that provides user with – yes – one word on which they have 60 seconds to write. The site advises against word definitions and writing about freaking out because you don’t know what the word means. Instead, they say to write whatever the word “inspires” and that the point to the exercise is to “learn to flow.” Over 4000 members access the site and sign-up is free. Anyone who visits the site can see the word and be given the timed screen on which to write without having to sign up – so you can check it out before committing to sharing your writing. For those who do share and/or want to read, you can see posts by other members. OneWord is a self-monitored community of writers, and has announced the publication of 365 Days: A Year in the Life of OneWord.com. OneWord also includes a call-in podcast and has just begun a video series.

WHR Tackles Literary Hybrid

The newest issue of Western Humanities Review (v64.2 – not yet posted on their website as of this blog post) features Hybrid/Collborative Work. Even the Editors’ Note, which addresses the topic “What is Hybrid Work?” is a “Collaborative on a Conversation about Hybridity.” In in, the editors discuss the history of hybrid work as a genre, set forth a working definition of hybrid as a literary form, and discuss the benefits of hybrid as an alternative to conventional forms. The editors’ also suggest moving away from rigid definitions of hybrid, which would allow us to “see hybrids everywhere, including critics’ discussion of ‘genre authenticity’ and “standards we have deemed ‘genre normative’.” An interesting and worthwhile editorial discussion for those interested in the issue of literary hybrids, and an volume of contributions to the discussion worth seeking out. If not for this, then definitely for the artwork by Kate MacDowell which graces the front and back covers as well as several pieces within.

High Chair – Philippines Poetry Journal

Publishing since 2000, High Chair is a nonprofit small press that aims to promote genuine interest in poetry in the Philippines. The editor/s of the journal solicit work directly from poets, and also welcome unsolicitied poetry and prose submissions. High Chair online poetry journal publishes poetry, essays, interviews, book reviews and a section titled “Free Association.”

Until October 13, issue editors Kristine Domingo and Allan Popa invite interested writers to submit poems, essays, and reviews for possible inclusion in the 13th issue, which will be released in November this year. High Chair accepts works in Filipino and English.

New Lit on the Block :: Psychic Meatloaf

Edited by George McKim, Psychic Meatloaf publishes artwork and “free-verse and experimental poetry that is quirky and imaginative.” Every three months Psychic Meatloaf will e-publish the journal as a free downloadable pdf file and also self-publish the journal in print, which will be available for purchase.

The first issue includes works from Felino A. Soriano, Gillian Prew, Philip Dacey, Maria Bennett, David McLean, Sam Schild, Amylia Grace, Robert Lietz, Bill Wolak, William Doreski, P.A.Levy, Michael Salcman, Amy Spraque, Howie Good, brian prince, Jory Mickelson, Heather Cox, Steve Mitchell, Serena M. Tome, J. P. Dancing Bear, Mark DeCarteret, Martha Clarkson, Michael McAloran, Mira Martin-Parker, justin wade thompson, Chuck Augello, Helen White, John Swain, Ashley Bovan, Rob Spiegel, Flower Conroy, Nicole Dahlke, Erik Hill, James Duncan, Gale Acuff, Monique Roussel, James W. Hritz, Tobi Cogswell, and Jeffrey Alfier.

Psychic Meatloaf is open for sumbissions and accepts up to six poems and up to three artwork images per submission.

Monologues! Get Your Monologues Here!

Editor-in-Chief [Sir] Tristram Stjohn Bexindale-Webb along with a staff that is a bit difficult to identify for certain other than Irish/American playwright and prose writer K.D. Halpin, have created a blog publication of monologues – The Good Ear Review: A Dramatists Literary Journal. Accepting submissions of “comedy, drama, and all the complexities in between” from both new and established writers, The Good Ear Review hopes to attract writers just as much as readers who will share in the idea that “monologues that are not only enjoyable to watch and/or listen to, but equally enjoyable to read. And read again.”

Currently featured on the site are monologues by Erin Austin, Claire Balfour, Andrew Biss, Kyle Bradstreet, Laura Camaione, Daragh Carville, Con Chapman, John Clancy, Doug Dolcino, John Hadden, K.D. Halpin, Alistair Hewitt, Eric Holmes, Penny Brandt Jackson, Jonathan Joy, Wayne Paul Mattingly, John McCann, Joshua Mikel, Robert Michael Morris, Benjamin Adair Murphy, LaTonia Phipps, Donald Steele, Dwight Watson, and Michael Weems.

New Lit on the Block :: Devil’s Lake

Devil’s Lake is published twice annually at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a massive literary powerhouse masthead: Seth Abramson(Senior Editor), Lauren Berry (Senior Editor), Brittany Cavallaro (Editor in Chief), Kai Carlson-Wee (Design Editor/Assistant Fiction Editor), Louisa Diodato (Managing Editor and Webmaster), Josh Kalscheur (Poetry Editor), Christopher Mohar (Fiction Editor), Jacques J. Rancourt (Poetry Editor), Nancy Reddy (Review/Interview Editor), and Michael Sheehan (Fiction Editor). Devil’s Lake accepts submissions of poetry and prose online via Submissions Manager.

The inaugural Spring issue of Devil’s Lake includes:

Prose by Lucy Corin, Brian Evenson, John Holliday, PR Griffis, Andrew Malan Milward, and Ander Monson

Poetry by Erinn Batykefer, Brian Christian, Karin Gottshall, Anna Journey, Karyna McGlynn, Courtney Queeney, Martha Serpas, Alison Stine, Jeffrey Thomson, William Wright, and Mark Wunderlich

Granta on Mark Twain

The newest issue of Granta (111) is themed “Going Back” and features an excerpt from Mark Twain’s never before published and forthcoming autobiography. Twain himself barred anyone from publishing the text until 100 years after his death. This fall, the University of California will release Volume 1 of Twain’s text. “The Farm” is available to read in the issue, and online at Granta, Benjamin Griffin writes on editing the autobiography (A Voice from the Vault) and Malcolm Jones offers his commentary, “Where do we put Mark Twain?” – on trying to place a literary great. Several other links to Twain-related sites and projects are also included, as well as images from Twain’s original text.

Writers Houses

Newly launched labor of love by A. N. Devers, The Writers’ Houses database is designed to be a field guide to deceased writers’ homes, searchable by author, city, state, and country. TWH hopes “to document all writers’ houses open to the public in the world.” Ambitious, and in need of help from writers and editors who can contribute to the blog and field guide. THANK YOU A.N. Devers!

Additionally, there are limited edition screenprint art posters of several writers’ houses available through M + E.

New Lit on the Block :: Tidal Basin Review

New online, the Tidal Basin Review editorial team includes: Tori Arthur, Fiction & Non-Fiction Editor; Marlene Hawthrone-Thomas, Photography Editor; Fred Joiner, Poetry Editor; Truth Thomas, Poetry Editor; Melanie Henderson, Managing Editor, Randall Horton, Editor-in-Chief.

The mission of TBR is “to provide a space for inclusive and interdisciplinary approaches to the creative arts. We expressively and fiscally support artists who represent the rich American landscape by publishing high-quality, well-crafted literature, visual and media art through our annual contest, readings, and print and online journals. Our vision is to amplify the voice of the human experience through art that is intimate, engaging, and audacious. We seek work that propels the present artistic landscape.”

TBR accepts general submissions August 1 – February 28/29 of each year. TBR also has a call out for poetry sequences – ” a single poem with multiple parts, or a single poem amounting to no fewer than 8 pages and no greater than 15 pages of poetry.” See the Series Poems CFS for more details.

The TBR Official Blog features Editorial Book Reviews, Special Notices and Calls, and the Basin Blog includes a Monthly Featured Writer.

Summer 2010 Contributors
Lisa Alvarado, Lou Amyx, Beebe Barksdale-Bruner, Sarah Browning, Christine Celise, Martha Collins, Jasmon Drain, Jennifer Flescher, Gretchen Fletcher, Reginald Flood, Andy Fogle, Derrick Harriell, Kim Coleman Foote, Brian Gilmore, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Ricardo Guthrie, Carmen Gimenez Smith, Hannah Larrabee, Moira Linehan, Tamara J. Madison, Ernesto Mercer, James O’Brien, Coco Owen, Adrian S. Potter, Joseph Ross, Marian Kaplun Shapiro, Cris Staubach, Keli Stewart, Cinnamon Stuckey, Truth Thomas, Phillip B. Williams.

Spring 2010 Contributors
Abdul Ali, Sherisse Alvarez, Jordan Antonucci, Salvatore Attardo, KB Ballentine, Holly Bass, Tara Betts, Sheila Black, Antoinette Brim, Derrick Weston Brown, Sarah Browning, Jeremy Byars, Edward Byrne, Ching-In Chen, Michela A. Costello, Yago Cura, T.M. De Vos, William Doreski, Janet Engle, Lynn H. Fox, Rebecca Fremo, Regan Good, Laura Hartmark, Julie Iromuanya, Bonnie Jones, Pierre Joris, Jacqueline Jules, Douglas Kearney, Alan King, Cole Lavalais, Gene McCormick, Cathy McGuire, Stephen Mead, Tony Medina, David Mills, Gregg Mosson, Min Jung Oh, Willie Perdomo, Chrissy Rikkers, Kim Roberts, Jeff Streeby, Hillary Stringer, Cinnamon Stuckey, Qiana Towns, and Sam Truitt.

Special Thanks

Special thanks to Creative Kids and to Hanging Loose for sending me copies to share with a group of gifted and talented students I taught last week in the workshop, “Publishing a Literary Magazine.” The magazines were great examples of the kinds of magazines young authors can find to read as well at to which they can submit their writing. The young readers/writers were thrilled to know that such publications “just for them” exist.

Anthologize This!

Anthologize is a free, open-source, plugin that transforms WordPress 3.0 into a platform for publishing electronic texts. Grab posts from your WordPress blog, import feeds from external sites, or create new content directly within Anthologize. Then outline, order, and edit your work, crafting it into a single volume for export in several formats, including—in this release—PDF, ePUB, TEI. Anthologize is a project of One Week/One Tool, a project of the Center for History and New Media, George Mason University. Funding provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This page of ‘case uses’ includes a list of suggested uses for Anthologize, including turning class blogs into an anthology at the end of the semeter or school year.

What is Christian Publishing?

In Relief‘s current issue (V4 I1), Christopher Fisher debuts his first issue as editor by taking on where Relief – a journal of Christian literary expression – “fits in the scheme of contemporary publishing.” And, he writes, “I think of singing and razor wire.” Fisher discusses what Christian publishing has become, and how he recognizes the purely business aspect of the demarcation of what is Christian publishing, but also the perils of such segregation, the “ghettoization of religion.” His editorial, available in full online, is an insightful and provacative commentary on the subject matter. If you’ve been dismissive of “Christian” or religious lit mags in this past, this may well get you to reconsider.

Two Years of The Write Place at the Write Time

Celebrating its second year of publication, The Write Place At the Write Time is an online literary publication which features fiction, poetry, “Our Stories” – non-fiction, a Writers’ Craft Box of writing essays and resources from professionals in the field, an Exploration of Theme page, Archives of past issues, A Writers’ Contest, fine artwork from artists whose backgrounds include having done work for The New York Times,

Editor-in-Chief Nicole M. Bouchard writes: “Our two-year anniversary issue is up and we encourage new and seasoned writers to send in submissions for the next issue, benefit from resources we provide, read the current issue and enjoy themselves. It’s a supportive writers’ environment dedicated to artistic expression, learning and living the written word. We are a quarterly publication and our writers range from previously unpublished to having written for The New York Times, Newsweek, HBO and Business Week, and they come from all over the US and Europe.”