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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!

Juked – Winter 2007/2008

While Juked is primarily on online literary journal, the editors call for longer submissions of fiction and cull through poetry subs and put together an annual print issue. This issue features the winners of the fiction (Marianne Villanueva) and poetry contests (James Belflower) as well as other selected work. Also included is Kelly Spitzer’s insightful interview with Claudia Smith regarding Smith’s literary struggles and successes. Continue reading “Juked – Winter 2007/2008”

The Louisville Review – Spring 2008

Sorrow, loss and grief are recurring themes among the solid fiction in this issue of The Louisville Review. In Amy Tudor’s “Mourning Cloak,” a parent mourns the loss of a still-born child. Troy Ehlers’s “The Tide of Night” is a character study of a Vietnam Vet grappling with a traumatic past. Equally sad, Cate McGowan’s “How Can You Title Longing” skillfully weaves poetry and narrative as a shopper at a flea market finds an old book of poems. The story alternates between the present day and yesteryear scenes from the life of the poet. Continue reading “The Louisville Review – Spring 2008”

Monkeybicycle – Spring 2008

This issue celebrates dirty funny, e.g. bathroom humor, disfigurement, internet porn, genitalia, an aborted fetus, sodomy jokes, piercing mishaps, unusual orgasms, Beckett and Whitman; in essence, something for everyone. If you’re not amused by your own gas then you probably won’t laugh at some of these stories. Then again, you may not get what language we speak here on Earth. Guest-editor Eric Spitznagel distinguishes between run-of-the-bowl boring poo jokes and true poo humor: those that float or sink on their literary merit. Ahem. Continue reading “Monkeybicycle – Spring 2008”

NewPages Update :: Gimme the Online Print Combo

Starting today, all sponsored listings and basic links to literary magazines – print & online – can now be viewed in the most popular page on our website: HERE

Because we maintain a list of quality online lit mags, we feel it is only fair to include them in the complete list of lit mags. This will benefit both readers and writers who come to NewPages to find the web’s best list of literary magazines.

As always, if you know of a publication that you think should be listed on NewPages, drop us a line: denisehill-at-newpages.com

Video Poetry :: Rabbit Light Movie

Created by Joshua Marie WilkinsonRabbit Light Movies began in February 2007 as a poemfilm journal on dvd (including Episodes #1-4). With Episode #5, Rabbit Light Movies will continue online, updated twice a year, and will no longer be available on dvd. In the short films where the poets’ faces don’t appear, their voices do. No open submissions, queries are welcome.

Some past voices/faces you’ll find on RLM include: Eric Baus, Sommer Browning, Allison Titus, Chuck Stebelton, Catherine Wagner, Joshua Poteat, Jason Bredle, J.W. Marshall, Joyelle McSweeney, Dana Ward, Sasha Steensen, Christopher Stackhouse, Matthea Harvey, Mary Jo Bang, Christine Deavel, Juliana Leslie, Johannes G

Awards :: Glimmer Train June Fiction Open :: August 2008

Glimmer Train has just chosen the three winning stories of their June Fiction Open competition! This quarterly competition is open to all writers and all themes.

First place: Shimon Tanaka of San Francisco, CA, wins $2000 for “The Suit”. His story will be published in the Fall 2009 issue of Glimmer Train Stories.

Second place: Christine Sneed of Evanston, IL, wins $1000 for “Twelve + Twelve”. Her story will also be published in an upcoming issue of Glimmer Train Stories.

Third place: Horatio Potter, also of Wilsall, MT, wins $600 for “Summer Help”. His story will also be published in an upcoming issue of Glimmer Train Stories, increasing his prize to $700.

Word count range: 2000-20,000. Submissions may be sent for the September Fiction Open using our online submissions system.

Just in Time for Back-to-School

Spying on Professors Proposed by NAS
From John K. Wilson
Blog: College Freedom

The National Association of Scholars announced plans for monitoring campuses [“The Argus Project“], and it’s getting some well deserved criticism.

In defense of NAS, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with monitoring what colleges do, and protecting the rights of students and faculty is a good thing. I wish that progressives had some organization that did this, now that NAS, FIRE, Students for Academic Freedom, NoIndoctrination.org, and many others are monitoring campuses.

However, what makes the monitoring by NAS wrong is the ideological nature of it. Note how they proclaim that they will be scrutinizing “politicized teaching” or “slights to conservative students.” Neither of these are violations of student rights (and, of course, slights to liberal students will be ignored). Indeed, it is the attempt to banish “politicized” teaching that threatens academic freedom and free speech on campus.

As I argue in my book Patriotic Correctness, it’s time for progressives to form an activist organization that will monitor violations of liberty on campuses (especially the campuses ignored by the right-wing groups), and protect the intellectual freedom of right-wingers, left-wingers, and everyone in between. If you’re interested in helping with this (whether you’re conservative or liberal), please contact me at [email protected]

Literary Festival :: Words Alive – Sharon, Ontario 9.21

The 2nd annual Words Alive Literary Festival celebrates a rich literary heritage providing a showcase for Canadian authors. One day of author readings, public readings, workshops, panel discussions and storytelling including poetry with music and art. This year’s presenters include:

Allan Briesmaster
Allyson Latta
Anthony De Sa
Barry Dempster
bill bissett
Brenda Byers
Christopher Dewdney
Fay Wilkinson
Heather Whaley
Jim Blake
Karolyn Smardz Frost
Kelley Armstrong
Kim Michele
Marie Campbell
Mary Swan
Maureen Jennings
Maureen Scott Harris
Menaka Thakkar
Peter Unwin
Uma Parameswaran
Valentino Assenza

Jobs :: Various

The English Department at Western Kentucky University seeks applicants for the following position: Distinguished Visiting Professor in Creative Writing (Poetry), Summer 2009. Dr. Tom C. Hunley, Department of English, Chair, Distinguished Visiting Creative Writing Professor Search Committee. October 31, 2008.

Illinois Valley Community College, located in North Central Illinois, anticipates filling this position to begin January 2009. Glenna Jones, Director of Human Resources.

2008 Brooklyn Book Festival Sept 14

On Sunday, September 14, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, the Brooklyn Literary Council and Brooklyn Tourism host the annual Brooklyn Book Festival, a huge, free event presenting an array of literary stars and emerging authors who represent the exciting world of literature today.

Confirmed authors include Joan Didion, Richard Price, Jonathan Lethem, Dorothy Allison, Russell Banks, A.M. Homes, George Pelecanos, Terry McMillan, Jonathan Franzen, Susan Choi, Esmeralda Santiago, Thurston Moore, Paul Beatty, Jacqueline Woodson, Chuck Klosterman, Jimmy Breslin, Pete Hamill, Nikki Turner, Elizabeth Nunez, Ed Park, Pico Iyer, Gail Carson Levine, Cecily von Ziegesar, Chris Myers, Jane O’Connor, Jon Scieszka, Mo Willems and many more.

3-Day Novel Contest

The 31st Annual 3-Day Novel Contest is coming up in September and registration has begun. Every year more than 500 writers from around the world enter to write their brains out over the long weekend and be published. Here’s how it works: entrants begin writing after 12:01am on Sept 1st, and must stop by 11:59pm, Sept 3rd. Participants can write in any location, anywhere in the world. The organizers of the contest say they would know if people were cheating, so no cheating. Writers may write on any subject and in any genre, and finished novels must be submitted by mail in the week following the contest.

NewPages Welcomes New Sponsors

decomP is an online literary magazine that is updated monthly. decomP has been in existence since April 2004 and was originally called Decomposition Magazine. Contributors range from all over the country, and recently, an increased fan base in places like London and Scotland. decomP publish prose, poetry, art, and solicited book reviews. decomP is currently open for submissions.

River Teeth is a biannual creative nonfiction journal co-edited by Joe Mackall and Dan Lehman with the assistance of students in the low-residency MFA program at Ashland University. Founded in 1999, River Teeth combines the best of creative nonfiction, including narrative reportage, essays, and memoirs, as well as critical essays that examine the genre and that explore the impact of nonfiction narrative on the lives of its writers, subjects, and readers. River Teeth is currently open for submissions.

TV :: The Black List

”The Black List’ highlights African-American luminaries
By Mekeisha Madden Toby
Detroit News
Article Last Updated: 08/25/2008 12:05:06 AM PDT

The African-American experience is not relegated to February, declares film critic Elvis Mitchell, whose HBO documentary “The Black List: Volume One” premieres tonight.

A Detroit native and former New York Times film critic, Mitchell, 50, has moved behind the camera, and with the help of acclaimed photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders created “The Black List,” a series of interviews with African-American luminaries in literature, sports, entertainment and politics, including Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison and former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.

In addition to touring all over the country to promote “The Black List,” he hosts “Elvis Mitchell: Under the Influence” on Turner Classic Movies (TCM), interviewing the likes of Emmy- and Tony-winning actor Laurence Fishburne and comedic legend Bill Murray. Mitchell’s show will return in January.

Here’s what Mitchell had to say about the film — which he dedicated to the late Bernie Mac — and other subjects…[read the rest]

To Note or Not to Note Contributors

The most recent issue of Spoon River Poetry Review includes an interesting commentary from Editor Bruce Guernsey on the inclusion or not of contributors notes in a literary publication. (And is it contributors / contributor’s / contributors’ – I’ve seen all of these!)

Bruce Guernsey addresses SRPR‘s choice to omit these notes – I would recommend your picking up the most recent issue to read his comments in full. In less than two pages, he succinctly and thoroughly discusses the practical issue of space in a print publication as well as the “symbolic” issue of wanting readers to focus on the poem rather than “the celebrity mentality that infects the current poetry scene.” Though Guernsey admits he is just as guilty of going to contributors notes “in this all-too-competitive market world” to see “where so-and-so has recently published.”

Interestingly enough, a SRPR reader sent in an e-mail saying contributors notes help know where else to find an author’s work. And my response to this was the same as Guernsey’s: “Look on the Internet.” It does seem to be the knee-jerk response to any question we have these days, and it’s Guernsey’s comment on this that I found most poignant: “…given the sources we now have on the Internet, that information can almost always be easily found online. Speed and information go well together. It’s poetry, that primitive technology, which is slow going and belongs in journals and books – when we can’t be there to hear it, anyway.”

Seriously?

The Headline: “Woman Arrested For Failing To Return Library Books ‘Angels and Demons’ and ‘White Oleander’ borrowed last year”

ABC/wisn.com
August 21, 2008
GRAFTON, Wis. — A woman has been arrested for failing to return two books to the Grafton Library…[read the full story here]

It may sound extreme, until you read that she ignored notices, including a court date, thinking, “What are they going to to, arrest me?” Uh, yeah, since what you did went from “borrow” to “theft”, arrest would be the right response… I just hope the books were worth it – I mean, do you think she even read them?

Listen & Be Heard Open Mic

Tuesday, August 26, 2008 from 8-9:30pm PST. Three rounds of open mic. The lightning round (30 seconds) and spotlight round (five minutes) will feature several designated poets who signed the open mic list ahead of time at Listen & Be Heard Poetry Cafe. The third round will be for poets who are listening to call in and share one poem. Hosted by Martha Cinader Mims. Scheduled to be featured are Bill Vartnaw, Olivia Johnson, Dana Teen Lomax and Gerald Schwartz.

Women’s Lit :: Tulsa Studies

The newest issue of Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature (27.1, Spring 2008) features a special section: Revisiting Female Authorship in the Long Eighteenth Century. Also included in the publication are articles on the work of Peal S. Buck, Una Mars, and others. The publication accepts submissions of articles, notes, contributions to archives, and queries on literature in all time periods and places, including foreign-language literatures, and in every genre—poetry, prose, drama, essays, diaries, memoirs, journalism, and criticism. TSWL currently has a special call for papers: Women Writing Race – deadline January 19, 2009.

Barry Unsworth on Historical Fiction, Language and Aging

An interview with Barry Unsworth, winner of the Man Booker Prize in 1993 for his novel Sacred Hunger, has recently been posted on Littoral: The blog of the Key West Literary Seminar. Unsworth discusses the effects of expatriate life, of aging, and the role historical fiction plays in understanding our past and our present.

Here, he comments on how age has affected his writing: “With time I have grown more sparing with the words. I think less of fire-works and flourishes. I try to get warmth and color through precision of language. This is more difficult, I think, which may be why I find writing novels so challenging and exacting.”

And on public appearances, he comes to this: “There is also a division of persona in the way the writer is perceived, the discrepancy between the effects of his books and the impression he makes when the reader gets to talk to him or listen to him. It has to be admitted that there will often be an element of disappointment here. The best of us goes into the book. We are not, with some rare and spectacular exceptions, so brilliant or wise or witty as might have been hoped or expected. Far from it. And perhaps the lure of readings and talks and panels, and all these public forums, is simply a doomed desire to live up to the promise, to not disappoint.”

Read more of the interview on Littoral.

Barry Unsworth will deliver the John Hersey Memorial Address to open the second session of the 2009 Key West Literary Seminar.

Jobs :: Various

The English Department at The University of Texas (Austin), in conjunction with the Michener Center for Writers, seeks applicants for the James A. Michener Chair in Creative Writing (Fiction). November 1, 2008.

The MFA program at Texas State University, invites applications for a tenure-track position in poetry writing. The program’s permanent poetry faculty are Cyrus Cassells, Roger Jones, Kathleen Peirce, and Steve Wilson. Prof. Tom Grimes, Chair, Poetry Search Committee. November 1, 2008.

The Department of English of Texas State University invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor in English position, with a specialty in fiction writing.

The English Department at Trinity College seeks to hire an actively-publishing poet to fill a tenure-track Assistant Professorship in Poetry Writing and Literary Studies. Paul Lauter, Chair. November 1, 2008.

Colby-Sawyer College has an opportunity for an innovative and energetic full-time Assistant Professor of Literature and Creative Writing in the Department of Humanities. October 15, 2008.

The Wheaton College Department of English invites applications for a tenure-track position in Creative Writing – Creative Nonfiction. Dr. Sharon Coolidge, Chair. November 14, 2008.

Jonathan Galassi Receives Perkins Award

The Mercantile Library Center for Fiction in New York City has selected Jonathan Galassi, president of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, as the recipient of its 2008 Maxwell E. Perkins Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Field of Fiction. The award recognizes an editor, publisher or agent who, over the course of his or her career, has discovered, nurtured and championed writers of fiction in the U.S.

(Publishers Weekly, 8/20/2008 7:33:01 AM)

Robert Stewart on the Quality of Literary Magazines

This current issue of New Letters (74.3, 2008) follows the magazine’s recent National Magazine Award for the essay “I Am Joe’s Prostate” by Thomas E. Kennedy (73.4, 2007). In his editor’s note, “Time and the Fabric of Immensity,” Robert Stewart reflects on the awards night and give further consideration to comments he made in his acceptance speech. “What did it mean, then, for me to say in my acceptance ‘speech’ to the audience at Lincoln Center on May 1st, that the mission of a literary magazine differs in quality from that of many other, even other fine, magazines?”

Considering the participants in the audience, many of them “great editors of our time,” Stewart questions himself: “Who did I think I was?” He goes on to discuss the difficulty readers as well as even he had with the very essay that won the award that evening, questioning its ‘literary-ness’ and further the very definition of ‘literary.’

The burden of creating this definition not only rests on editors, but readers as well – perhaps not accepting at first what they read, but then coming to find a place for it in their literary experience. Stewart bookends his editorial with Don Quixote: “Good, literary writing trumps everything. It carries us along and expands our scope. We readers merely need to have courage equal to that required to write it. Didn’t we laugh at Don Quixote, also? Yes. His story is terrifying and hilarious. It’s literary.”

Dennis Lehane Move from Book to Film to “Literature”

Lehane, a favorite with filmmakers, expands his literary horizon
By Chris Vognar
The Dallas Morning News

Until now you’ve been able to find Dennis Lehane’s work in two places: the mystery paperback shelves, where his superbly crafted novels have been confined to a sort of genre fiction ghetto, and the multiplex, where filmmakers have converted his cinematic prose into movies such as “Mystic River” and “Gone Baby Gone.”

The film streak won’t stop with “The Given Day,” Lehane’s epic historical novel built around the 1919 Boston police strike. Columbia Pictures has already snapped up the rights, and Sam Raimi is expected to direct. But when the book hits stores in September, you can expect to find it in the literature section — where, some might argue, Lehane’s work has belonged all along…[read the rest]

Award :: Tupelo Press First Book Award

Tupelo Press is delighted to announce the results of the 9th annual First Book Award, in conjunction with the journal Crazyhorse. This year the annual First Book Award, which will be published by Tupelo Press with the generous support of The College of Charleston in fall 2010, goes to:

Megan Snyder-Camp of Seattle, WA for The Forest of Sure Things

Co-runners up:
Shane McCrae of Iowa City, IA for Mule
Marc McKee of Columbia, MO for Fuse

Other finalists:
Matthew A. Andersson of Barrington, IL for What a Vessel in a Stem
Beth Bachman of Nashville, TN for Temper
Colin Cheney of Brooklyn, NY for Here There Be Monsters
Adam Fell of Madison, WI for Human Resources
Paul Legault of Charlottesville, VA for With
Erin Lyndal Martin of Newport, VA for Hive Mind
Rob Schlegel of Missoula, MT for flame & fern between our fingers flow
Matthew Shindell of La Jolla, CA for In Another Castle
Amanda Rachelle Warren of Kalamazoo, MI for Ridge Runner

All manuscripts were read by Carol Ann Davis and Garret Doherty, Editors of Crazyhorse, and the winner was selected by a panel of three judges consisting of Carol Ann Davis, Garret Doherty, and Jeffrey Levine, Editor-in-Chief of Tupelo Press.

Jobs :: Various

The Department of Literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz, invites applications for a tenure-track or tenured position in Creative Writing-Poetry. This is a “re-opened” search. November 1, 2008.

The University of Wyoming English Department invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor in nonfiction to join the MFA faculty, appointment to begin in Fall 2009.

MFA in Creative Writing–Chair, Antioch University, Santa Barbara. Nanci Braunschweiger, Human Resources.

Colby-Sawyer College has an opportunity for an innovative and energetic full-time Assistant Professor of Literature and Creative Writing in the Department of Humanities. October 15, 2008.

New Online Lit :: Torch

Amanda Johnston, Cave Canem Fellow, Affrilachian Poet, and now founding editor, brings readers and writers the new online publication Torch: poetry, prose, and short stories by African American Women.

“Torch was established to promote the work of African American women. We provide a place to celebrate contemporary poetry, prose, and short stories by experienced and emerging writers alike. We prefer our contributors to take risks and offer a diverse body of work that examines and challenges preconceived notions regarding race, ethnicity, gender roles, and identity.”

Torch accepts submissions of poetry, creative nonfiction, fiction, photography and artwork, from April 15 through August 31.

The inaugural Spring/Summer 2008 issue includes FLAME – an interview, biography, and work sample of Tayari Jones, and SPARK – featuring work by Kamilah Aisha Moon, poetry and prose by Lauren K. Alleyne, Tara Betts, Renee Breeden, Kelly Norman Ellis, francine harris , Lilian Oben, darlene anita scott, Nancy Shakir, Bianca Spriggs, a short story by Keli Stewart, and artwork by Nicole Goodwin (work featured above: “Flowers for the Fallen”).

New Lit on the Block :: The Normal School

“The Normal School is a bi-annual journal featuring nonfiction, fiction, poetry, criticism and culinary adventure journalism. We are nestled happily into the California State University at Fresno like a comfy spore in a benign and mighty lung. We dig quirky, boundary-challenging, energetic prose and poetry with innovations in content, form, and focus, which isn’t actually as high-falutin’ as it sounds. We’re just sort of the lit mag equivalent of the kid who always has bottle caps, cat’s eye marbles, dead animal skulls, little blue men and other treasures in his pockets.”

The Normal School accepts submissions of nonfiction, fiction, poetry, criticism, culinary adventure journalism, and video and audio essays. No previously published works, sim/subs okay.

Subscriptions are $20 for for two years (4 issues) and can be ordered online using PayPal. Single issues are $7 each.

Jewish Adventures in the Graphic Novel

The Thomas Library of Wittenberg University will be hosting a reading and discussion series on Jewish Adventures in the Graphic Novel. Associate Professor of Communication Dr. Matthew J. Smith will discuss five graphic novels about the Jewish experience: A Contract With God by Will Eisner (Sept 9). The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman (Sept 23), Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer by Ben Katchor (Oct 7), The Quitter by Harvey Pekar (Oct 28), and The Rabbi’s Cat by Joann Sfar (Nov 11 ).

Participation is free and open to the public, and thanks to a grant from Nextbook and the American Library Association, books will be provided to registered participants.

Best of the Net Nominations Sought

Calling all Internet-only journals!

Sundress Publications has opened submissions for its second volume of the Best of the Net Anthology.

“This project works to promote the diverse and growing collection of voices that are choosing to publish their work online, a venue that still sees little respect from such yearly anthologies as the Pushcart and Best American series. This collection is intended to bring more prestige to a innovative and continually expanding medium. Our second issue included work by Ron Carlson, Dorianne Laux, Simone Muench, Charles Jensen, Matt Hart, and more.”

Submissions from editors will be open from July 1, 2008 to September 31st, 2008. Winners will be announced in January, 2009.

For more information, visit http://www.sundress.net/bestof/

New Lit on the Block :: Hawk & Handsaw

Hawk & Handsaw
The Journal of Creative Sustainability
Unity College, Maine

“Like Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the contributors to Hawk & Handsaw know which way the wind blows. They know that a sustainable lifestyle can be messy and meaningful that it requires reflection, deep philosophical commitment and, more often than not, a good sense of humor. To this end, Hawk & Handsaw celebrates the thinking and reflection that ground sustainable practices and practitioners.

Hawk & Handsaw is published annually and accepts poetry, nonfiction, stories, and visual art from Aug 15 – Nov 15.

Contributors to the first issue include written works by James Engelhardt, Jennifer A. Barton, John Lane, Luisa A. Igloria, Bibi Wein, Andrew Tertes, Bruce Pratt, Michael Bennett, Mimi White, Christie Stark,, Paul Sergi, David Trame, Holli Cederholm, Tyler Flynn Dorholt, Michael P. Branch; and visual works by: Suzanne Caporael, Christopher Becker, Karen Gelardi, Lisa B. Martin, Emily Brown, Mark Newport, Emily Brown, Christopher Becker, Emily Brown, Karen Gelardi, Emily Brown, Suzanne Caporael

Wordle-Dordle-Doo

Wordle – The Word Cloud Generator
You can put in your own words and create a wordle – click the randomize button and it will recreate it with a new design and color scheme. Read the FAQ on how you can “control” some of the features – for example, using a word more than once will determine its size. There’s a gallery of unique wordles on the site as well. Below is a wordle I created by pasting in the NewPages blog url – the wordle grabbed all the words itself. The second one I created by copying and pasting the mission and values statement of the college where I teach. Funcoolstuff. I can see I’ll be using this with students this year!

Thanks to Gerry Canavan for posting this!

Festival :: Frank Stanford 10.17-19

Frank Stanford Literary Festival
October 17 – 19, 2008
Fayetteville, Arkansas

Featuring a Small Press Reading, a panel on Stanford’s life and works, a screening of the Stanford biopic It Wasn’t a Dream It Was a Flood, a celebratory reading from Stanford’s poems, and a marathon reading of The Battlefield Where the Moon Says I Love You.

Hosted by The Burning Chair Readings, Cannibal Books, Lost Roads Publishers, Fascicle, Typo, & The Fayetteville Public Library.

If you would like to attend, publicize, sponsor, or otherwise query, contact Matthew Henriksen of The Burning Chair Readings: frankstanfordfest (at) gmail (dot) com.

Job :: Managing Editor @ The Southern Review

MANAGING EDITOR
The Southern Review

The Southern Review announces an opening for Managing Editor. This is a permanent, full-time position. Founded in 1935 by Robert Penn Warren and Cleanth Brooks, The Southern Review is published four times a year on the campus of Louisiana State University.

Required Qualifications: Bachelor’s degree; three years editorial and copyediting experience on the staff of an established literary journal, university press, or national press; able to demonstrate the following: editorial expertise with fiction, nonfiction, and poetry; a broad knowledge of literary history, literary criticism, and contemporary fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction; computer skills including Word Perfect; a solid understanding of the publishing, especially small presses and literary magazines; web design and database management.

Additional Qualifications Desired: Excellent human relation skills suitable for dealing with diverse artistic personalities; terminal degree (M.F.A., Ph.D. or equivalent); knowledge of languages other than English.

Responsibilities: oversees management and distribution of incoming manuscript; reads, evaluates, and provides detailed comments on manuscripts; copyedits and fact-checks, giving special attention to content, style, etc.; corresponds, when required, with authors regarding changes required to accepted manuscripts; works with designer and printer toward final publication.

An offer of employment is contingent on a satisfactory pre-employment background check. Application deadline is September 8, 2008 or until a candidate is selected. Applications should include: a letter of application, CV or resume (including e-mail address), one-page statement of editorial philosophy, and contact information for three professional references. Applications should be sent to the following address:

Jeanne M. Leiby
The Southern Review
Old President’s House
Louisiana State University
Ref: #018159
Baton Rouge, LA 70803
LSU IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY/EQUAL ACCESS EMPLOYER

Ammon Shea and a Friendly Game of Dictionary

The Lexicographer and the Madman
By Gregory Cowles

When I asked Ammon Shea, the man who read the O.E.D., if he wanted to play a game of Dictionary sometime, he did me the favor of pretending I was sane.

“Do you have a specific dictionary in mind?” he wondered. “I would prefer Webster’s Third, if only because of all the bad blood between that edition and The Times.”

Bad blood?

Read the rest, including a retelling of several rounds of the game, on Paper Cuts.

Worst Ever Win Awards

Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest
2008 Results

Theirs was a New York love, a checkered taxi ride burning rubber, and like the city their passion was open 24/7, steam rising from their bodies like slick streets exhaling warm, moist, white breath through manhole covers stamped “Forged by DeLaney Bros., Piscataway, N.J.”
Garrison Spik
Washington, D.C.

The winner of the San Jose State University Dept. of English & Comparative Literature2008 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest is Garrison Spik (pronounced “speak”). Spik is the 26th grand prize winner of the contest that began in 1982.

An international literary parody contest, the competition honors the memory (if not the reputation) of Victorian novelist Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873). The goal of the contest is childishly simple: entrants are challenged to submit bad opening sentences to imaginary novels. Although best known for “The Last Days of Pompeii” (1834), which has been made into a movie three times, originating the expression “the pen is mightier than the sword,” and phrases like “the great unwashed” and “the almighty dollar,” Bulwer-Lytton opened his novel Paul Clifford (1830) with the immortal words that the “Peanuts” beagle Snoopy plagiarized for years, “It was a dark and stormy night.”

Other categories include: Adventure, Children’s Literature, Detective, Fantasy Fiction, Historical Fiction, Purple Prose, Romance, Science Fiction, Spy Fiction, Vile Puns, Western, and plenty of Miscellaneous Dishonorable Mentions, inlcuding:

Behind his pearly white smile lay a Bible black heart, not like the Psalms with its, “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord,” but like Revelations where God just smites people.
Elaine Deans
San Jose, CA

There are certain people in the world who emanate an aura of well being — they radiate sunshine, light up a room, bring out the best in others, and fill your half empty glass to overflowing – yes it was these very people thought Karl, as he sharpened his mirror-finished guthook knife, who were top of his list.
Jason Garbett
London, U.K.

Penguin Win Rights to Steinbeck’s Books

Cup of Gold: Publisher wins rights battle over Steinbeck books
Martha Graybow, National Post
Published: Wednesday, August 13, 2008

A U.S. court was wrong to award rights to some of John Steinbeck’s best-known novels, including “The Grapes of Wrath,” to his son and granddaughter, a federal appeals court ruled on Wednesday.

The appeals court said copyrights to the author’s early works should belong to publisher Penguin Group, a unit of Pearson Plc. The case has been seen as having ramifications for heirs of other artists seeking to control future use of famous works.

Other Steinbeck works affected by the ruling include “Of Mice and Men,” “Tortilla Flat,” and the author’s first published novel, “Cup of Gold.”

Steinbeck, who set many of his books in his native California, received both a Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize for Literature. He died in 1968.

Read more here.

Top 12 Titles for Booksellers

A gentle reminder that what sells may not always fit our personal ideas of what’s “best.”

The 12 Top Titles that Booksellers Must Always Stock
By Stephen Adams, Arts Correspondent
Telegraph.co.uk
09 Aug 2008

The 12 books a bookseller simply cannot afford not to stock have been named.

But the list contains no Bible, no Jane Austen titles and no Lord of the Rings.

Rather it is headed by Sebastian Faulks’ Birdsong and Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

These are the top two publications of a dozen that booksellers must keep on their shelves at all times, according to market research firm Nielsen.

Its BookScan research of 1.8 million titles reveals that only 12 have appeared in the top 5,000 selling books every week for the last decade, making them the most consistent sellers.

Some books on the wide-ranging list might make the odd literary editor weep.

Read the full list here.

NewPages Facebook & MySpace

Yes, NewPages is on both Facebook and MySpace.

On Facebook, I have a personal site, which is mostly for my students and friends, though I see some writers/publishers are finding me there. Better would be for you to join as a fan of the NewPages Group. Matt Bell is more in charge of that, and posts notices of when new book review and lit mag reviews are published, and you can write on the wall there.

NewPages on MySpace is purely NewPages stuff – loads of publishers and magazines and writers we know. I keep that site updated with info about book and lit mag reviews.

Other than those, the NewPages blog and NewPages home page are really the best feed into what we’re doing here, related news and updates.

Jeanne Lieby Sighting

Jeanne Lieby has been sighted in her new post as editor of The Southern Review: “The summer 2008 issue of The Southern Review is editor Jeanne Leiby’s first issue. She comes to Louisiana State University and the Baton Rouge community from Orlando, Florida, where she was previously the editor of The Florida Review.” Jeanne is also author of Downriver, a collection of short stories, some previously published in Fiction, New Orleans Review, The Greensboro Review, and Indiana Review, among others. The title comes from Jeanne’s having grown up “downriver” Detroit. She graduated from the University of Michigan, earned her MA from the Bread Loaf School of English/Middlebury College, and her MFA from the University of Alabama. She has always been a great supporter of and steadfast advisor to our work here at NewPages, and we’re pleased as punch to see her happy in her new role.

Wear It :: Sweet Tees & More

Cool, cool t-shirts and pint glasses from Use Small Words. A group of hipsters out of New Orleans, who at the peak of boredom, came up with the idea for combining graphic design and quotes from famous writers and thinkers.

My fav? The pint glasses, of course! With a quote from Oscar Wilde, “Work is the curse of the drinking classes.” A close second is the Ben Franklin t-shirt, “Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.”

Other t-shirt quotes include Poe’s “I became insane, with long periods of horrible sanity.” Freud’s “One is very crazy when in love.” and two from Twain: “It’s no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense.” and “Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.”

Something from this collection is a must for the fall wardrobe! And I hope to see even more designs from this conscientious group of entrepreneurs.

Spelling Variations :: R U Sereus?

Certainly, language usage and spelling does change over time, but given the growing-like-a-virus widespread use of text-speak, and already seeing a lot of it filtered in through the college classroom, I find this a frightening proposal.

Bad spelling ‘should be accepted’
BBC News
August 7, 2008

Common spelling mistakes should be accepted into everyday use, not corrected, a lecturer has said.

Ken Smith of Bucks New University says the most common mistakes should be accepted as “variant spellings”.

He lists the 10 most commonly misspelt words, which include “arguement” for “argument” and “twelth” for “twelfth”.

Mr Smith says his proposal, outlined in an article in the Times Higher Education Supplement, follows years of correcting the same mistakes.

Mr Smith, a criminology lecturer, said: “Instead of complaining about the state of the education system as we correct the same mistakes year after year, I’ve got a better idea.

“University teachers should simply accept as variant spellings those words our students most commonly misspell.

“The spelling of the word ‘judgement’, for example, is now widely accepted as a variant of ‘judgment’, so why can’t ‘truely’ be accepted as a variant spelling of ‘truly’?”

Mr Smith also suggested adding the word “misspelt” to the list and all those that break the “i before e” rule – weird, seize, neighbour and foreign.

He said he was not asking people to learn to spell words differently.

“All I am suggesting is that we might well put 20 or so of the most commonly misspelt words in the English language on the same footing as those other words that have a widely accepted variant spelling,” he added.

Movies with Poetry

Amy King, writer and teacher, recently posed the following request to the poetry community: “I’m looking for a few good films that offer up poetic content, to put it vaguely, or a representation of a poet that doesn’t completely romanticize the poet, disintegrating the person in the process… films with a poetry angle, please!”

Thanks to the responses of many, she has compiled an incredibly impressive list on her blog – Movies with Poetry – some with notes from the ‘recommender’. The post is open for comments and additions.

Thanks Amy and all of the contributors to this great resource!

Send O’Reilly Back to School

I am no fan of Bill O’Reilly, and even less of one of FOX news. This should come as no surprise if you have any clue about the work NewPages does to support the alternative press (see 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Fight the Right – where NewPages is listed as a resource for alternative media). But I just found out that Bill-O has a book The O’Reilly Factor for Kids in which he gives advice to kids on how not to be a bully, avoid saying mean things about other people, and the evils of racism.

Seriously.

It’s okay, The Nation is on top of it with this article and YouTube video from Fox Attacks productions. Their request: Share it with as many people as possible.

No problem. Enjoy!

Feile-Festa – Spring 2008

Feile-Feste is a taut little review produced by Paradiso-Parthas Press in New York City, “an independent venture circumventing corporate publishing.” The press defines the work it publishes as “accessible and innovative.” I’m not sure this issue demonstrates a great deal in the way of innovation, but the work is definitely “accessible” and much of it is appealing. What is most innovative, perhaps, is the inclusion of several works in English/Italian alongside their Italian/English translations, both prose and poetry. These include a very long narrative poem by a New York-based poet of Sicilian descent, Maria Frasca, and an essay by Enzo Farinella, a native Sicilian who lives in Ireland. Continue reading “Feile-Festa – Spring 2008”

Contemporary Verse 2 – Spring 2008

“The Jilted Issue: Poems of Love Lost” – I’ll admit I was nervous. In the interview that opens the issue with prolific poet and editor, Ontario native and British Columbia resident Tom Wayman, Wayman surmises that poets are drawn to write about love because poetry is the language of heightened emotion. And love is, certainly, one of life’s “main sources of heightened emotion.” Frankly, my anxiety was heightened from the get-go as I envisioned a volume of overwrought, or worse sentimental, verse. But this is, after all, Contemporary Verse 2, and I need not have worried! These are wonderful poems, surprisingly unpredictable in language, if not emotion, with contributions from widely published poets and poetry editors (Tom Wayman, Rocco di Giacomo, Susan McCaslin, Jenna Butler) as well as writers whose poetry may be less well known, but whose work is no less worthy (Kelli Russell Agodon, Robert Banks Foster). The issue also includes winners of the 2007 Lina Chartrand Poetry Award, Aldona Dzieziejko and Elsabeth de Marialfi. Continue reading “Contemporary Verse 2 – Spring 2008”

Jubilat – 2007

“At last, terror has arrived.” Thus begins the big bang of this little journal in Arda Collins’s “The News.” Quality poems follow, as is guaranteed by titles like “Heaven,” the silly goodness of Robyn Schiff’s “Dear Ralph Lauren,” and “1450-1950” by Bob Brown, a picture-poem, for want of a better word. It has eyes surrounding the verses “Eyes / Eyes / My God / What eyes!” Continue reading “Jubilat – 2007”

International Poetry Review – Spring 2008

“To be valued more for the ethnicity I was seen to represent, rather than for what I could contribute as an individual, struck me as more than a little embarrassing, particularly since I felt myself to be hardly representative of any group that I could think of,” writes Mark Smith-Soto in his “Editor’s Note,” an essay exploring the difference between the terms “Hispanic” (more inclusive) and “Latino” (predominance of English with “overflow of Spanish,” among other distinctions.) While Smith-Soto’s essay is in no manner didactic, I read his remarks as cautionary and approached this collection of 16 “Hispanic and Latino” poets as I would any “uncategorized” and eclectic group of writers. Continue reading “International Poetry Review – Spring 2008”

Mississippi Review – Spring 2008

Fiction’s first with the Mississippi Review, as usual, and this issue begins with a story about fake implants called “A Miracle of Nature” – oh, the irony! Things go wrong, as things should in short stories, and the final line clinches it with “But back then she couldn’t say no; she couldn’t.” Ten more short stories follow, including Colin Bassett’s “This is so We Don’t Start Fighting” and Jennifer Pashley’s “How to Have an Affair in 1962,” which begins as all thusly titled stories should, with the directness of the line “we meet in public.” Continue reading “Mississippi Review – Spring 2008”