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At the NewPages Blog readers and writers can catch up with their favorite literary and alternative magazines, independent and university presses, creative writing programs, and writing and literary events. Find new books, new issue announcements, contest winners, and so much more!

Book Review :: God is a Black Woman by Christena Cleveland

God is a Black Woman by Christena Cleveland published by HarperOne book review by Jack Bylund book cover image

Guest Post by Jack Bylund

In God is a Black Woman, author and professor Christena Cleveland confronts the faults of the mainstream Christian deity, whom she refers to as “whitemalegod.” A perpetrator of endless wrongs in society, the whitemalegod that Cleveland interrogates is found at the heart of racism, misogyny, transphobia, homophobia, and toxic masculinity, among others. Cleveland makes her case for mainstream Christianity’s role in these issues succinctly and effectively, providing compelling evidence from recent events and her own upbringing in Christianity; stories drawn from her life prove as compelling and honest as they are tragic and too common.

All the while, Cleveland presents a narrative of her travels through France on a pilgrimage seeking out Black Madonnas—statues of the Virgin Mary throughout the world who are Black. In her efforts to connect with these works of art, she enumerates the multifaceted ways in which Black Madonna—the titular figure of the book—contrasts with and rejects the white supremacist ideals of whitemalegod. She applies Black Madonna ideology to modern issues and rhetoric. Most of all, Cleveland gives hope for people in need of a God who truly loves amid the post-Trump rise in Christian hatred and nationalism.

God is a Black Woman by Christena Cleveland. HarperOne, February 2022.

Reviewer bio: Jack Bylund teaches and studies English literature and fiction at Utah State University. He loves contemporary lit, Panda Express, and books about the end of the world.

Magazine Stand :: Terrain.org – November 2022

Terrain.org logo image

Terrain.org publishes place-based editorials, poetry, essays, fiction, hybrid forms, articles, videos, reviews, interviews, the ARTerrain gallery, the Unsprawl case study, and critically acclaimed series such as Letter to America on a rolling basis. Readers to the most recent posts will find the wild in its many forms: wildlife, wild kin, wildflowers, and the wild mind it takes to reconnect with wild earth. Read poetry by Brian Turner, an interview with Gavin Van Horn, and an excerpt of David Hinton’s new book, plus a Letter to America by Rashna Wadia, a delightfully skunky poem by Sunni Brown Wilkinson, a wild story by Natalli Amato, and learn about wildflowers above the Colorado treeline in “A Life of Science.” All of Terrain.org‘s content is free and accessible to read online. Teachers (and students – tell your teachers!) Terrain.org offers Teach Terrain.org – “Outstanding place-based, ad-free literature and more for high schools, colleges, and communities” with materials ranging from “lyrical poetry to longform journalism and from detailed community case studies to interviews of some of the world’s most important thinkers. Many contributions also include audio and other interactive features such as slideshows, maps, and video.”

Book Review :: Cost of Living by Emily Maloney

Cost of Living, essays by Emily Maloney published by Henry Holt and Co. book cover image

Guest Post by Jackie Martin

Emily Maloney’s memoir, Cost of Living, is an exploration of “an expense that’s hard to bear.” In the sixteen essays that make up the collection, Maloney introduces readers to a roster of memorable characters and generously shares stories that explain – but never excuse – the financial and metaphorical costs of the American healthcare system. Maloney employs a surgeon’s precision to cut into the business of health, revealing unethical prescribing, inequitable resources, medical sexism, inadequate mental health care, and other malignancies that hide beneath the surface. Her insights come from time spent as a patient as well as an employee: her background includes such varied work as an emergency room tech “expected to guard against the depletion of resources,” an EMT trainee who learned “it was never about the patients themselves,” and a “medical publications manager” who was tasked with schmoozing doctors at conferences. Though Maloney’s essays inspire a multitude of reactions from melancholy to righteous anger to utter disbelief, her writing is never preachy or overwrought. Her personal stories serve the greater narrative, reminding us that there are real people behind the bloated price tag of even simple curative procedures. With an artful, sardonic humor and a refreshingly straightforward perspective, Maloney stitches medical facts together with personal experience and observation to investigate the “enormous cost” of trying to stay healthy in America today.

Cost of Living by Emily Maloney. Henry Holt and Co., February 2022.

Reviewer bio: Jackie Martin is a writer and teacher from the Boston area. Her stage plays have been produced around the U.S. and published by Heuer, Applause, and others. She is currently pursuing her MA in English at Bridgewater State University.

New Book :: The Woods

The Woods Short Fiction by Janice Obuchowski published by University of Iowa Press book cover image

The Woods
Short Fiction by Janice Obuchowski
University of Iowa Press, November 2022

Winner of The John Simmons Short Fiction Award, The Woods explores the lives of people in a small Vermont college town and its surrounding areas—a place at the edge of the bucolic, where the land begins to shift into something untamed. In the tradition of Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge and Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio, these stories follow people who carry private griefs but search for contentment. As they try to make sense of their worlds, grappling with problems—worried about their careers, their marriages, their children, their ambitions—they also sift through the happiness they have, and often find deep solace in the landscape.

Magazine Stand :: Colorado Review – Fall/Winter 2022

Colorado Review print literary magazine fall 2022 issue cover image

The newest issue of Colorado Review features the winner of the Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction, Mike Murray’s “Night Owls.” Final Judge Ramona Ausubel commented, “‘Night Owls’ takes place in the darkness – characters are hiding, sneaking, and seeking. I found myself squinting as I read, trying to see through the murk to decipher which things were pure and which were depraved, which were evidence of love, which destruction.” Joining this winning entry are works by Angela Sue Winsor, Da-Lin, Joy Guo, Alyson Mosquera Dutemple, Geoff Wyss, Carolyn Kuebler, Georgia Cloepfil, Mirri Glasson-Darling, Chris Ketchum, Laura Donnelly, Martha Silano, Molly Sutton Kiefer, Mary Helen Callier, Emily Koehn, Nicole Callihan, Jennifer Peterson, Emily Adams-Aucoin, Virginia Ottley Craighill, Jodie Hollander, Sage Ravenwood, Meghan Sterling, John Sibley Williams, Luisa Muradyan, Ashley Colley, Landa Wo, Jeffrey Bean, Tyler Kline, Natalie Scenters-Zapico, C. Henry Smith, Jessica Hincapie, Mandy Gutmann-Gonzalez, and Andrew Hemmert.

Book Review :: Lightning Flowers by Katherine E. Standefer

Lightning Flowers by Katherine E. Standefer published by Little, Brown Spark book cover image

Guest Post by Elizabeth Robin

“On the last morning of my first life,” are the words that haunt the second chapter of Katherine E. Standefer’s debut memoir, Lightning Flowers: My Journey to Uncover the Cost of Saving a Life. In her early twenties, Standefer is confronted with the ghosts of her past — a genetic heart defect hidden within her bloodline for generations (called Long QT syndrome) — and must now learn to navigate young adulthood while simultaneously trying to reconnect with her body which, she states, has “become a stranger.” This book is as much about the grief of a life-changing diagnosis as it is a biting criticism of the broken medical system housed under capitalism, which holds “inordinate power” over a vulnerable population. Standefer, who begins her Long QT journey uninsured, finds that she’s unable to afford the life-saving care that she needs without significant help from her family, friends, and charitable doctors; she writes that she “was paying in other ways” as by having to rearrange her life around her symptoms and medical appointments. As an activist, Standefer feels hesitant about getting a doctor-recommended defibrillator, which could be made from conflict metals. She is then forced to question if her life is worth more than those who work to mine the metal. Standefer’s work portrays the intense and complex feelings of having a chronic illness, and the desperation of an American bound to a broken system. However, there is hope and love found within these pages, too. Through this journey, Standefer grows closer with her family and her own sense of self. It serves as a reminder that there is “hard work that lies before us,” and it is our responsibility to change a broken system.

Lightning Flowers by Katherine E. Standefer. Little, Brown Spark, November 2020.

Reviewer bio: Elizabeth Robin is a student at Bridgewater State University and a teacher. She live in the Boston area with her partner and their two cats.

Magazine Stand :: Raleigh Review – Fall 2022

Raleigh Review print literary magazine Fall 2022 issue cover image

Raleigh Review Co-Editor Bryce Emley offers a thoughtful introduction to this newest issue, which begins, “I like to think of telling the truth and being honest as two different things. Telling the truth is a straight line from one point to another, while being honest is a passage more of a toward than a to. . . ” Emley connects this discussion to the Laux/Millar Poetry prize winners included in this issue. Allison Blevins and Joshua Davis both “demonstrate the honest messiness of loss, of grief’s complicated grace.” Joining them in this issue are writers Colin Bailes, Mary Buchinger, Caroline Chavatel, Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach, Gregory Djanikian, J.R. Evans, Grace Ezra, Loisa Fenichell, C. Francis Fisher, Stephanie Kaylor, Peter Laberge, Justin Lacour, Cass Lintz, Owen McLeod, Annie Dyer Stuart, Erica Jenks Henry, Katherine Joshi, Andrea Lewis, Caroline McCoy, John Salter, and Mackenzie Sanders. And “for the first time in 12+ years,” this issue features original illustrations by Nora Kelly made specifically to accompany the written works.

New Book :: Simultaneities and Lyric Chemisms

Simultaneities and Lyric Chemisms poetry by Ardengo Soffici translated Olivia E. Sears published by World Poetry Books book cover image

Simultaneities and Lyric Chemisms
Poetry by Ardengo Soffici, Trans. Olivia E. Sears
World Poetry Books, September 2022

This publication is being heralded as “a vital reconstruction” of Italian Futurist poet Ardengo Soffici’s visual poetics, presented for the first time in English in Olivia E. Sears’s exacting translations with a foreword by Marjorie Perloff. With unexpected lyricism, buzzing between the entropic and the erotic, Soffici’s unrelenting poems manifest his milieu’s fascination with the metropolis. Guillaume Apollinaire called it “very important work, rich in fresh beauties.” This facsimile-style edition—with a foreword by Marjorie Perloff, helpful annotations, and an informative afterword by the translator—offers a glimpse into the vibrant early avant-garde, when modernity held tremendous promise. Ardengo Soffici (1879-1964) was an Italian painter, poet, and art critic associated with Florentine Futurism. Years spent in Parisian artistic circles spurred Soffici to champion an artistic renewal in Italy, introducing French impressionism and cubism and a vibrant magazine culture. Olivia E. Sears is a translator of Italian poetry and prose, specializing in avant-garde women writers. She founded the Center for the Art of Translation and the journal Two Lines, where she served as editor for twelve years.

Book Review :: The Slain Birds by Michael Longley

The Slain Birds, poetry by Michael Longley published by Wake Forest University Press book cover image

Guest Post by James Scruton

The late Seamus Heaney titled his first collection of poems Death of a Naturalist. Michael Longley, his friend and fellow poet from Northern Ireland, has devoted decades to just the opposite principle: celebrating the flora and (mostly avian) fauna of Carrigskeewaun, in County Mayo of the Republic. In The Slain Birds, Longley continues this project, his imagination sparked by bog asphodel and snowdrop, white helleborine and sneezewort, some of the flowers, like some of the townlands (Carricksnashinnagh, Barnabaun, Kinnakillew) sounding made up, invented—and yet, what names are not? Flowers, he declares, seem the “Secret of the cosmos,” some house martins “God-spark . . .dream birds.” But Longley’s practice is less an Adamic naming than an honoring, an affirming of love, family lore, and local custom even as he draws parallels from Homer, modern war, and recent pandemic. Whether his eye falls on lupine and catkin or follows the flight of plovers and godwits, whether his ear is attuned to the ”cheer-up-cheer-up” of nightingale or the “wind’s / Vocal cords,” Longley pays tribute. From the elegiac to the exuberant, the poems brought together here form a lyrical, joyous extension of a sparkling poetic career.

The Slain Birds by Michael Longley. Wake Forest University Press, 2022.

Reviewer bio: James Scruton is the author of two full collections and five chapbooks of poetry as well as dozens of reviews, essays, and articles on poetry, fiction, and non-fiction.

Magazine Stand :: Months to Years – Fall 2022

Months to Years online literary magazine fall 2022 issue cover image

The newest issue of Months to Years features eleven nonfiction writers, nine poets, and five photographers and artists whose works explore mortality and terminal illness. Two of the nonfiction writers in this issue use basic tools of craft to reveal grief from unique angles. In the “Tree of Judas,” by Jenny Flores, the narrator directly addresses her unnamed spouse as “you” throughout. The effect provides readers with simultaneously intimate and objective perspectives. Kathleen Quigley’s use of the imperative tense in “After Your Mother Dies,” takes readers along on the relentlessly practical tasks that must happen in the immediate aftermath of a death, regardless of the fact we may be consumed by grief. Months To Years‘ Design Director and Photo Editor Barbara Labounta found that “The Empty Chair” by Frances Fish juxtaposes the now-forever empty chair with the cultural imperative to just “be happy.” Poetry Editor Joseph Paulson noted that Liz Grisaru’s poem, “Grief Came in Torn Blue Jeans,” offers a novel take on the unanswerable grief question: how long will this last? These are a just few of the works included in this issue, which readers can access fully online for free.

New Book :: Plume Poetry 10

Plume Poetry 10 Anthology Edited by Daniel Lawless published by Canisy Press book cover image

Plume Poetry 10
Edited by Daniel Lawless
Canisy Press, 2022

For those who love poetry, teach poetry, and who write poetry, add this Plume Poetry 10 anthology to your list. In keeping with the approach used in their previous anthology, Plume invited “’well-known/established’ poets (for lack of better descriptor) to contribute a poem; then each of these poets introduces a poem from a ‘less well-known/established’ poet, whom they have selected and believe merit a brighter spotlight.” The result, says Lawless, “makes for a more diverse reading experience.” Plume Poetry 10 includes new poems from “established” poets ranging from Juan Felipe Herrera to Jane Hirshfield, Kwame Dawes to Rae Armantrout — and so many more, with a Featured Selection including new translations, essays on and photographs of Rimbaud, by Mark Irwin. Visit the Plume website Anthologies page for ordering information for this newest anthology as well as past anthologies.

New Book :: Islands Apart

Islands Apart Becoming Dominican American a YA memoir by Jasminne Mendez published by Pinata Books book cover image

Islands Apart: Becoming Dominican American
YA Memoir by Jasminne Mendez
Piñata Books, September 2022

Jasminne Mendez didn’t speak English when she started kindergarten, and her young, white teacher thought the girl was deaf because in Louisiana, you were either black or white. She had no idea that a black girl could be a Spanish speaker. In this memoir for teens about growing up Afro Latina in the Deep South, Jasminne writes about feeling torn between her Dominican, Spanish-speaking culture at home and the American, English-speaking one around her. She desperately wanted to fit in, to be seen as American, and she realized early on that language mattered. Learning to read and write English well was the road to acceptance. Mendez shares typical childhood experiences such as having an imaginary friend, boys and puberty, but she also exposes the anti-black racism within her own family and the conflict created by her family’s conservative traditions.

Magazine Stand :: Cutleaf – 2.23

Cutleaf online literary magazine volume 2 number 23 cover image

Publishing new content online twice each month, Cutleaf publishes poetry, short stories, essays and other nonfiction from both new and established writers. Sign up for updates, and an overview of new content will be delivered to your mailbox. Some recent contributors include Hussain Ahmed, Lauren Davis, Ben Weakley, John Lane, Dustin Hoffman, Christopher Linforth, Monic Ductan, Sara Siddiquil Chansarkar, Moriel Rothman-Zecher, Daniel Romo, Lori Brack, Nathan Alling Long, Elise Gregory, William Woolfitt, and George Ella Lyon. All content is free and accessible to read online.

Book Review :: The Book Collectors of Daraya by Delphine Minoui

The Book Collectors of Daraya by Delphine Minoui published by Picador book cover image

Guest Post by Marc Martorell Junyent

The Book Collectors of Daraya by Delphine Minoui offers a particular glimpse into the drama of the Syrian Civil War. The author, a correspondent for the French newspaper Le Figaro in Istanbul, happened to find on Facebook a picture of two men in a library in 2015. The caption of the picture informed her that the library was located in Daraya, a suburb of Syria’s capital Damascus besieged by Bashar al-Assad’s troops since 2012.

Throughout numerous interviews conducted over Skype, which stretched for almost a year, Minoui got to know first-hand about the bombing and lack of food and medicines the inhabitants of Daraya had to endure. At the same time, however, Minoui learned more about the project a group of revolutionaries had managed to build in the midst of general destruction: a secret library with books rescued from the bombed ruins of Daraya. Minoui describes the secret library as “a hopeful page in the dark novel that is Syria.”

When interviewed by the author, Ahmad Muaddamani, one of the co-founders of the library in 2013, explained that creating a site of culture and sharing information about it on Facebook was a way to send a powerful message to the world. As he explains, “What better way to defy Syria’s leader than to contradict his narrative of a terrorist opposition? Another of the organizers of the library, Shadi Matar, tells Minoui how the group organized English lessons in the library and describes these moments as “a feeling of normalcy.”

The Book Collectors of Daraya is the result of Minoui’s conviction that, despite her inability to travel to Syria and cover what was happening on the ground, the story of the Daraya library deserved to be told. And the French author does so in a most convincing way.

The Book Collectors of Daraya by Delphine Minoui. Picador, March 2020.

Reviewer bio: Marc Martorell Junyent graduated in International Relations and currently studies holds a joint Master in Comparative Middle East Politics and Society at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen and the American University in Cairo. His main interests are the politics and history of the Middle East (particularly Iran, Turkey and Yemen). He has studied and worked in Ankara, Istanbul and Tunis. He tweets at @MarcMartorell3.

New Book :: Collect Call to My Mother

Collect Call to My Mother: Essays on Love, Grief, and Getting a Good Night's Sleep Nonfiction by Lori Horvitz published by New Meridian Arts book cover image

Collect Call to My Mother: Essays on Love, Grief, and Getting a Good Night’s Sleep
Nonfiction by Lori Horvitz
New Meridian Arts, February 2023

Collect Call to My Mother follows Lori Horvitz’ experiences as a queer Jewish New Yorker living in the South, looking for love in the internet age. When she teaches a class of queer college students who look to her as a role model, what they don’t know is that she spent her twenties and thirties in the closet, and leapt from one relationship disaster to the next. Each of her turbulent trysts helps unearth the roots of her poor judgment: a chaotic upbringing, compounded by her mother’s emotional distance and early death. In these essays exploring themes of love, family, and grief, Horvitz gradually embraces who she is and finds a healthy, long-term relationship. Horvitz’ first collection of memoir-essays, The Girls of Usually (Truman State UP), won the 2016 Gold Medal IPPY Book Award in Autobiography/Memoir. Her creative nonfiction has appeared in a variety of journals. Professor of English at UNC Asheville, Horvitz holds a Ph.D. in English from SUNY Albany, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Brooklyn College. The book is currently available for pre-order directly from the author who will sign advanced order copies.

Magazine Stand :: Woven Tale Press – vol. 10 no. 7

Woven Tale Press online literary and art magazine volume 10 issue 7 cover image

The Woven Tale Press promotes itself as “a hub for writing and visual arts, bringing together notable artists and writers seeking to share their work more broadly with communities actively in quest of unique voices and compelling perspectives.” Drawing readers in with Julie Harrison’s rich artwork, this newest issue features work by Mary-Jo Adjetey, Ea Anderson, L. Shapley Bassen, Chao Ding, Ron Eigner, Julie Harrison, Karen Kilcup, Elizabeth Kirkpatrick-Vrenios, Kim McAninch, Pawel Pacholec, and Gregg Maxwell Parker, as well as more of Harrison’s artwork and artist’s statement. All free and accessible to read online in addition to content like Art Central with interviews, exhibits, profiles, reviews and glimpses into artists’ spaces and art links from around the web.

Book Review :: Stone Junction by Jim Dodge

Stone Junction fiction by Jim Dodge published by Grove press book cover image

Guest Post by Colm McKenna

This year saw the re-release of Jim Dodge’s 1990 cult classic Stone Junction. While Fup remains the cornerstone of Dodge’s legacy, his first full novel is considerably more ambitious. Inexplicably, it is yet to be made into a film.

The story follows Daniel Pearse, a child taken in by AMO – Alliance of Magicians and Outlaws alongside his mother Annalee. Following her murder early on in the story, Stone Junction evolves into a bildungsroman, with Daniel being brought up by an eccentric cast of criminals and wizards. His unconventional education occurs alongside a search for his mother’s killer and an attempt to steal a supernatural diamond from the U.S. government.

Daniel and Annalee’s relationship is a driving force of the story, even after her death. Their situation is unusual, but their bond means they never feel unrelatable. Early on, Daniel offers his mother a piece of tear-soaked birthday cake he had just smashed; he was angry that she couldn’t tell him who his father was even if she wanted to. This moving scene of reconciliation takes place on a boat for magicians and outlaws, perfectly displaying the book’s capacity to juggle emotionally heavy themes and a more playful side.

With the recent success of literary adaptations (The Queen’s Gambit, Shadow and Bone, etc.), re-printing Stone Junction feels appropriate if a film is ever going to come. The novel appeals both to young and old readers; it is an emotionally intelligent coming-of-age story, but also engages with adult themes, ranging from grief to impotency. Dodge’s oeuvre has a minor place in 20th Century American Literature, and I hope this re-print of Stone Junction can help it receive the recognition it deserves.

Stone Junction by Jim Dodge. Grove Press, July 2022

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

New Book :: Bipolar Bear

Bipolar Bear and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Health Insurance a fable for grownups by Kathleen Founds published by Graphic Mundi book cover image

Bipolar Bear and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Health Insurance
A Fable for Grownups by Kathleen Founds
Graphic Mundi, November 2022

Theodore is a bear with wild mood swings. When he is up, he carves epic poetry into tree trunks. When he is down, he paints sad faces on rocks and turtle shells. In search of prescription medications that will bring stability to his life, Theodore finds a job with health insurance benefits. He gets the meds, but when he can’t pay the psychiatrist’s bill, he becomes lost in the Labyrinth of Health Insurance Claims. Featuring 195 color illustrations, this tale follows the comical exploits of Theodore, a loveable and relatable bear, as he copes with bipolar disorder, navigates the inequities of capitalist society, founds a commune, and becomes an activist, all the while accompanied by a memorable cast of characters—fat-cat insurance CEOs, a wrongfully convicted snake, raccoons with tommy guns, and an unemployed old dog who cannot learn new tricks. Entertaining, whimsical, and bitingly satirical, Bipolar Bear is a fable for grownups that manages the delicate balance of addressing society’s ills while simultaneously presenting a hopeful vision for the world.

Magazine Stand :: Plume – #135

Plume online poetry magazine issue #135 cover image

The November 2022 issue of Plume is online and waiting for readers to discover new poems by Sandra Moussempès, Olivia Elias, Stewart Moss, Virginia Konchan, Yuliia Vereta, Ron Smith, Michael Torres, Marc Vincenz, John Wall Barger, Henry Israeli, Daisy Fried, Christopher Bakken, and Bruce Bond. “The Poets and Translators Speak” is a section in which contributors share commentary on their work. Readers can also enjoy a feature section “In conversation with the world: Three poems & an interview with Vivek Narayanan, by Leeya Mehta,” and the essay “ROOM AT THE TABLE” by Charles Coe introduced by Chard DeNiord, who writes of Coe, “Both his prose and poetry address incidents of racist turpitude with a largeness of spirit and eloquence that betrays the verbal efficacy of truth-telling, immense particulars, and courageous witness, as evidenced in his essay for Plume this month.”

Magazine Stand :: Space and Culture – November 2022

Space and Culture International Journal of Social Space November 2022 issue cover image

Space and Culture brings together critical interdisciplinary theory and research on social spaces and spatializations, eveyday rhythms and cultural topologies at the interface of urban geography, sociology, cultural studies, studies of time-space, architectural theory, ethnography, media and urban studies, environmental studies. Space and Culture‘s focus is on social spaces, such as retail, laboratory, leisure spaces, suburbia, virtual spaces, diasporic spaces or migrancy, or the home and everyday life. This most recent issue includes articles like “Emigration Chests in Ankara, Turkey,” “Socio-technological Factors and Changing Urban Spaces,” “Homeless People in Public Space and the Politics of (In)visibility,” “A Paradigm Model of Traditional Iranian Neighborhood (Mahalleh),” “Cross-cultural Encounters in Urban Festivals,” and many more in this 200+ page issue.

Book Review :: Out Here on Our Own by J.J. Anselmi

Out Here on Our Own: An Oral History of an American Boomtown by J.J. Anselmi with photography by Jordan Utley published by Bison Books book cover image

Guest Post by Raymond Jenkins

The spirited voices of Rock Springs, Wyoming come to life in J.J. Anselmi’s retelling of an American boomtown’s prosperous but turbulent history. Out Here on Our Own: An Oral History of an American Boomtown captures the history of Rock Springs by chronicling the town’s boom and bust cycles through personal narratives from locals alongside his own personal account of the coal-mining town.

Shining a light on the amoral history of Rock Springs, Anselmi reflects on the way of life of the residents impacted by the oil drilling industry that seized their community. The toils from the laborious coal-mining operation are gathered candidly from the voices of residents who shared witness to the troubles that plagued the area, such as widespread alcoholism and a disturbing increase of mental and physical health illnesses.

Out Here on Our Own offers a candid view of Rock Springs through honest words from people who call the boomtown home and are accompanied by Jordan Utley’s fascinating photographs. Words capture the stark truth and pain of living in Rocksprings during booms and recessions. The photos provide a glimpse of their reality, showing the bleak lifestyle of Rock Springs without denying the sheer beauty of the region’s landscape. Although Anselmi admits after moving away, “I may never be a resident of the town again . . . ” the fascinating stories from the residents of Rock Springs show that the value of the town is not from the coal-mining industry, but rather the reverence that persists in the people who choose to stay and tell their stories.

Out Here on Our Own: An Oral History of an American Boomtown by J.J. Anselmi; Photographs by Jordan Utley. Bison Books, October 2022.

Reviewer bio: Raymond Jenkins is a student at Bridgewater State University, in the English MA program with a concentration in Creative Writing. Raymond is an emerging writer residing in the Boston area. He enjoys long hikes with friends, binge watching tv shows and drinking tea during sunset.

New Book :: Zakiya’s Enduring Wounds

Zakiya's Enduring Wounds a Roosevelt High School Series fiction by Gloria L Valasquez published by Pinata Books book cover image

Zakiya’s Enduring Wounds
Roosevelt High School Series
Fiction by Gloria L. Velásquez
Piñata Books, September 2022

Zakiya, a sophomore at Roosevelt High School, has settled into the new school year. She loves her friends, the volleyball team and her dance class. There’s even a cute guy she has her eye on. But her world falls apart when her dad dies unexpectedly. Zakiya had a special relationship with her father and is completely devastated by his death. After the funeral, her friends and family try to console her, but Zakiya pushes them away. She just wants to be alone. She quits the volleyball team, shuts down the boy she once dreamed of dating and even skips school. When she experiences a frightening episode of anxiety, she discovers that cutting herself helps to relieve the pain. Will she ever learn how to deal with her grief and sense of loss?

Book Review :: Double Negative by Claudia Putnam

Double Negative memoir by Claudia Putnam published by Split Lip Press book cover image

Guest Post by Mark Guzman

“The intimacy of housing another body and soul inside your own body and soul is indescribable,” writes Claudia Putnam in her debut nonfiction chapbook Double Negative, winner of the 2021 Nonfiction/Hybrid Chapbook Contest. In this short memoir, Putnam engages her reader with this connection of mother and child. It is an intimate portrait of a mother who welcomed her son, Jacob, into the world, only to see him pass so soon in his infancy. Putnam is cerebral but genuine, her prose approachable. She contemplates life and death, the soul, where and how it arrives and departs, the beforehere and the afterhere.

Putnam writes this some three decades after losing her son, Jacob, and what she would have done for him. “Hack and splice, sure. I would have let them cut out my heart if it would have cured my son. It would not have.” This willingness of Putnam to offer her own body in sacrifice for her son, her very heart, echoes the deep bond between mother and child, of souls interwoven even in death. Admitting that this sacrifice would not have saved him is harrowing. She leaves the reader to consider that even if Jacob was saved, his would have been a life of constant struggle and pain. Putnam wants us to consider what it must be like to live beyond the unimaginable.

Double Negative is a meditation on life and death, of parenthood, of the soul and spirit, of dreams and the often-harsh reality that comes with living. Putnam successfully invites us to reflect on the concept of how we live, oftentimes so close to death.

Double Negative by Claudia Putnam. Split Lip Press, March 2022.

Reviewer bio: Mark Guzman lives and teaches in Massachusetts. He is currently pursuing his Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) degree in English at Bridgewater State University.

Magazine Stand :: The MacGuffin – Fall 2022

The MacGuffin literary magazine fall 2022 issue cover image

The newest issue of Schoolcraft College’s The MacGuffin (vol. 38.2) makes good on their staff’s mission to find work that takes risks with and evolves the narrative form. Look to Lisa L. Leibow’s “The Watch,” which utilizes multiple forms of the written word, as well as the magazine’s first-ever comic panel; Derek Updegraff’s “One Day at Work” satirizes message board vernacular; and A.J. Cunder’s “A Recipe for Chicken Parm” entwines the story in, well, a recipe for chicken parm. Augmenting these works are Janée J. Baugher’s ekphrases on two Andrew Wyeth paintings and Len Krisak’s tribute to “Four Characters” of a bygone era in Hollywood. Cover image: Mission Cone Flowers by Maeve Croghan.

New Book :: Edgewood

Edgewood: A Fictional Memoir in Prose Couplets Poetry by Mark Belair published by Turning Point Books book cover image

Edgewood: A Fictional Memoir in Prose Couplets
Poetry by Mark Belair
Turning Point Books, August 2022

Edgewood, a sequel to Stonehaven, the author’s previous book, finds that story’s young, small- town, 1950s family in the booming suburbs at the onset of a new era: the Late 1960s. An era-troubled over Civil Rights and the Vietnam War-whose underlying social conflicts remain troublingly current. Edgewood uses formal strategies to create a work of fiction with the intimacy and detail of a memoir set in language looser than poetry, tauter than prose. The narrative again borrows from music the three-movement form of the sonata (exposition of themes; development; recapitulation), while the text, as in film, renders the behavior of the characters without authorial comment, leaving all interpretation to the reader. The story in each book is self-contained, but the ready resonances between the books reward a combined reading. Sample poems can be read on the publisher’s website.

New & Noted Lit & Alt Mags – November 2022

NewPages receives many wonderful literary magazine and alternative magazine titles each month to share with our readers. You can read more about some of these titles by clicking on the “New Mag Issues” tag under “Popular Topics.” Find out more about many of these titles with our Guide to Literary Magazines. If you are a publication looking to be listed here or featured on our blog and social media, please contact us!

Agni, 96
American Poetry Review, Nov/Dec 2022
Arc Poetry Magazine, Fall 2022
Carve, Fall 2022
Cholla Needles, 72
The Cincinnati Review, Fall 2022
Colorado Review, Fall/Winter 2022
The Common, Issue 24
Conjunctions, 79
Creative Nonfiction, Fall 2022
Cutleaf, 2.23
Epiphany, Summer 2022
Feminist Studies, v48n2, 2022
Gay & Lesbian Review, Nov/Dec 2022
Geist, 121

Continue reading “New & Noted Lit & Alt Mags – November 2022”

Book Review :: When They Tell You To Be Good by Prince Shakur

When They Tell You To Be Good a memoir by Prince Shakur published by Tin House Books book cover image

Guest Post by David Sohboff

In his debut memoir, When They Tell You To Be Good, Prince Shakur traverses geography and time to answer a question that has “haunted” him since adolescence, “Who am I? Who am I? Who am I?” There’s Shakur, a Jamaican immigrant, searching for a better life only to have his father murdered. There’s the closeted Shakur who faces his truth as well as his family’s violent proclivities. There’s Shakur, who travels the globe because, “If America could not deliver me what I deserved as a young and curious Black person, I deserved to try to find it where I could and not be overpowered by the kind of son or citizen I needed to be.” There’s Shakur, the revolutionary, who combats racism, homophobia, and colonialism. There’s Shakur, the humanist, who learns that “one of the best ways we can love people is to not be afraid of them.” There’s Shakur, the provocative writer who becomes “grateful for my body, my heart, my mind, and all the people who loved me and asked questions.” This speaks to the power of “Who Am I,” which Shakur asked early on and ultimately transcends to a universal query in this artful debut.

When They Tell You To Be Good by Prince Shakur. Tin House, September 2022.

Reviewer Bio: David Sohboff is an educator in Massachusetts and a student at Bridgewater State University, pursuing an advanced degree in English. 

Magazine Stand :: The Missouri Review – Summer 2022

The Missouri Review Summer 2022 issue print literary magazine cover image

Themed “Rescue Me,” the newest issue of The Missouri Review bids a final goodbye to Summer 2002 with new fiction from Caroline Casper, Sam Dunnington, Tim Erwin, Nur Kahn, and Amy Stuber. Essays by Christopher Kempf and Daniel J. Waters. Poetry from Davis McCombs, Kelan Nee, and Rachel Richardson. Also: Curio Cabinet on the marketing of Amelia Earhart, Art Feature on Dodo in Berlin, and a review from Sam Pickering.

New Book :: Leaving the Base Camp at Dawn

Leaving the Base Camp at Dawn Poetry by Daniel Thomas published by Cherry Grove Collections book cover image

Leaving the Base Camp at Dawn
Poetry by Daniel Thomas
Cherry Grove Collections, July 2022

Drawing from Eastern and Western spiritual traditions, Leaving the Base Camp at Dawn explores how a long relationship of love is like a spiritual practice, a challenge to live in true care and compassion with those to whom we are closest. Interspersed throughout this lyric and narrative sequence are 14 poems that travel cliffs, streams and dirt paths and envision climbing a mountain whose peak cannot be reached. This contemplation of the challenge of love makes us think deeply about finding grace and charity in the ordinary moments of our daily life. Sample poems can be read on the publisher’s website.

New Book :: The Sign Catcher

The Sign Catcher a memoir by Otilio Quintero published by Arte Publico Press book cover image

The Sign Catcher
Biography by Otilio Quintero
Arte Publico Press, March 2022

As a young boy, Otilio Quintero lived with his family in abject poverty in a labor camp in California’s San Joaquin Valley. Later, they moved to a housing project that exposed him to the madness of violence. Despite his difficult childhood, he managed to go to college. But more important to his development was a trip to Mexico in which he was taken in and taught by the Mayan Chol people. In his memoir, The Sign Catcher, Quintero writes he found his calling at an indigenous ceremony during The Longest Walk, a 3,000-mile march across the country—from Alcatraz Island in San Francisco to Washington, DC—in 1978 by Native Americans to protest federal attacks on their way of life. The marchers carried the sacred pipe to the nation’s capital and ultimately legislative bills detrimental to indigenous people were defeated. His life took a dramatic turn when he found himself in a maximum-security prison facing a possible 20-year sentence.

Book Review :: Stay True by Hua Hsu

Stay True a memoir by Hua Hsu published by Penguin Random House book cover image

Guest Post by Kevin Brown

In his memoir Stay True, Hua Hsu explores identity through three different lenses: race/ethnicity, friendship, and music. Music is by far the dominant way Hsu defined himself when he was in college, the years he focuses on in this work. He uses his love of music partly to define himself as different than others—as a way to carve out an identity for himself—and to judge others—as a way to keep others at a distance. He becomes friends with Ken, a student unlike Hsu in almost every way, including musical tastes. Despite those differences, Ken becomes a friend who helps Hsu grow and change, slowly moving past his easy judgments about others. Ken and Hsu are both Asian Americans, but Ken is Japanese American. His family has been in the United States for generations, while Hsu is the son of Taiwanese immigrants, leading Hsu to feel less settled in his racial/ethnic identity. All of these strands help Hsu talk about who he was then and how that time has shaped him into who is, but the main concern of the memoir is a specific event in his relationship with Ken, one Hsu is still coming to terms with years afterward.

Stay True by Hua Hsu. Penguin Random House, September 2022.

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

Magazine Stand :: Whispering Wind Magazine – #333

Whispering Wind American Indian Past & Present issue #333 cover image

The newest bimonthly print issue of Whispering Wind Magazine: American Indian Past & Present is filled with well-researched and written articles related to history, crafts, and culture as well as information about related national organizations and events. In issue #333, readers can find “Umbilical Amulets: The History and Culture of the Sprite Lake Dakota” by Louis Garcia, “Hairbow Chokers: A Unique Style of Dentalium Choker” by Scott Thompson, “Central Plains Dance Bandolier: An Interesting Variant” by Richard Green, “Crow Hot Dance, 18102” by Allen Chronister, and “Recording the Collection” by Jim Olson. Regular features also include AuctionCorner, Museums & Galleries, BookCorner, Letters, Classified Ads, Curated Ads, and a cartoon by Terry Robinson. Whispering Wind is available in print or digital by subscription. Gift subscriptions are available.

New Book :: Memorandum from the Iowa Cloud Appreciation Society

Memorandum from the Iowa Cloud Appreciation Society Fiction by Joseph G. Peterson published by University of Iowa Press, book cover image

Memorandum from the Iowa Cloud Appreciation Society
Fiction by Joseph G. Peterson
University of Iowa Press, November 2022

When his girlfriend, Rosemary, asks about his life, Jim Moore, a successful salesman whose territory covers the entire continental United States and parts of Canada, doesn’t think there is anything to say and so he tells her “nothing happened,” or maybe he doesn’t know how to put it all into words or maybe he doesn’t want to. Stuck in an airport because of blizzard conditions, and packed into a crowded terminal with other travelers, Moore has come to believe that his life is not worth reporting about because it has largely been a life lived without incident. However, chance encounters with a yoga instructor, a man traveling to bury his mother, and an enigmatic woodsman reawaken long dormant emotions about his father’s suicide and cause Jim to newly reflect on his own life and on a memorandum that he later discovered in his deceased father’s papers, which lists all the names of the clouds, and which Jim now, from time to time, recants as if it were his own private kaddish to memorialize his lost father.

Magazine Stand :: The Lake – November 2022

The Lake online magazine of poetry and reviews logo image

The November issue of The Lake poetry journal is now online featuring works by Bláithín Conneely Allain, Dorothy Baird, Robyn Bolam, L. J. Carber, Mike Cole, Julie Maclean, Lynn Pattison, J. R. Solonche, Sue Spiers, Hannah Stone. The Lake also publishes reviews, and this month’s issue includes commentary on Kathleen Rooney’s Where are the Snows, Oz Hardwick’s Reports Come In, and Jack Little’s Slow Leaving. Readers can also find what The Lake calls One Poem Reviews. These are single poems published from a recent book to help poets get the word out about their work. November poets include Claire Booker, Christina Buckton, Don Narkevic, and Emily Schulten.

Magazine Stand :: ICONOCLAST Celebrates 30 Years

Iconoclast print literary magazine fall 2022 issue cover image

For 30 years, more than 120 issues, ICONOCLAST Magazine has sought out and carefully selected the best new writing and poetry available from among all genres and styles and entertainment levels. Its mission is to provide a serious publishing opportunity for unheralded, unknown but deserving creators, whose work is often overlooked or trampled in the commercial, university, or internet marketplace. Among the writers appearing in ICONOCLAST first or early in their careers are Stephen Graham Jones (multi-genre fiction), Verbena “Ben” Pastor (several Italian bestsellers), Kyle Lung, and Marshall Williams. ICONOCLAST Poets that have won awards include Terrance Hayes, Marge Piercy, Gerald Locklin, Stanley Nelson, A D. Winans, and normal. As an independent, unaffiliated publication, ICONOCLAST has much of value to offer American life and letters. Single copies as well as subscriptions are available.

New Book :: Strangled

Strangled true crime by LaDonna Humphrey with Alicia Lockhart published by Genius Book Publishing book cover image

Strangled
True Crime by LaDonna Humphrey with Alecia Lockhart
Genius Book Publishing, October 2022

LaDonna Humphrey gains a new ally in her effort to find justice in the 1994 unsolved murder case of Melissa Ann Witt when Alecia Lockhart reveals a dark and troubling secret from her past. Together, Humphrey and Lockhart must delve inside a dangerous and twisted world known as the “dark web” to unlock a series of mysteries, including Alecia’s haunting connection to Melissa Witt’s murder. Strangled is the shocking and suspenseful account of the war Humphrey and Lockhart wage on a warped and depraved online community set on destruction, murder and mayhem. The stakes are high. Their safety is compromised. Evil lurks with every click. Just how far are they willing to go to find the answers they need?

November 2022 eLitPak :: Undergraduate Students, Submit Your Creative Work to The Tower

Screenshot of The Tower November 2022 Submission Deadline flyer
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Deadline: November 30, 2022
The Tower magazine is open for submissions from undergraduate students currently enrolled in colleges and universities within the U.S. Send us your poems, short stories, creative nonfiction, and visual art! Our open-ended theme for the 2023 edition is Patchwork, which for us connotes crafting, patience, attention, salvage, repair, diversity, togetherness, endurance—and more! Show us what Patchwork means to you! View flyer and visit website for more information.

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Magazine Stand :: Creative Nonfiction – Fall 2022

Creative Nonfiction print literary magazine Fall 2022 issue cover image

Creative Nonfiction #78 is themed “Experiments in Voice” and focuses on unconventional narrators and shifting perspectives. What is voice? How do you find yours? How can you change it, rearrange it, play with it? And then, how can you use it to make change in the world? This issue of Creative Nonfiction celebrates writerly playfulness, exploration, and risk-taking, featuring breathless, epistolary, speculative, second-person, and snarky essays. Plus, an interview with Hysterical memoirist Elissa Bassist, close reads of work by Steve Coughlin, Jaquira Díaz, Margo Jefferson, and R. Eric Thomas, micro-essays, and contributions from Sonya Huber, Beth Kephart, Leath Tonino, and Jill Christman among others.

Magazine Stand :: The Main Street Rag – Fall 2022

Main Street Rag print literary journal fall 2022 issue cover image

Hot off the press, the Fall 2022 issue of The Main Street Rag features an interview with author of Songbirds & Stray Dogs and Editor in Chief of Reckon Review Meagan Lucas on “The Business of Publishing.” The issue also includes Fiction by Michael L. Woodruff, Jennifer Anne Moses, David Bradley, Robert Perchan, David Sapp, Siamak Vossoughi, and Poetry by Richard Band, Anemone Beaulier, Jane Blanchard, Matthew J. Spireng, Ace Boggess, Gary Carter, Holly Day, RC deWinter, Joanne Esser, Andrea Potos, Craig Evenson, Gary Finke, Dennis Herrell, Joseph Hutchison, Lloyd Jacobs, Chuck Joy, Jeanne Julian, Robert Lee Kendrick, R.J. Lambert, Kevin LeMaster, Kerry Loughman, John Macker, Ken Massicotte, Gary Mesick, Deni Naffziger, Leslie Hodge, Andrew Oram, T R Poulson, Marjorie Power, Timothy Robbins, Peter McNamara, Russell Rowland, Peter Serchuk, Richard Weaver, Gabriel Welsch, Steven Winn, Francine Witte, Michael Young, and Richard Levine. TMSR is available in single copy as well as by subscription.

November 2022 eLitPak :: Author Marketing Mastermind

Screenshot of Lynne Golodner's Author Marketing Mastermind flyer
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Develop your author brand & marketing plan. In this digital age, writers must have a clear brand and be comfortable managing the marketing of their work. Learn from Author, Writing Coach & Marketing Entrepreneur Lynne Golodner how to create your author brand and build a marketing plan that you are eager to implement. This 12-week Mastermind begins January 12, 2023 and has only 6 spots left! Reserve yours now by emailing [email protected]. View flyer for more information.

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Magazine Stand :: AGNI – 96

Agni print literary magazine issue 96 cover image

The newest issue of AGNI continues the celebration of fifty years of publication, opening with William Pierce’s Editor’s Note “On the Fraught Subject of Value.” Co-editor Sven Birkerts and Founding Editor Askold Melnyczuk each contribute their own “Reflections at 50” essay, in addition to Fiction by Caren Beilin, Teju Cole, Jesus De La Torre, Tamas Dobozy, David Hayden, Emmelie Prophète, Ellen Wiese; Essays by Ariirau, George Estreich, Karl Kirchwey, Eileen Myles, Sofia Oumhani Benbahmed, Jessie van Eerden; Poetry by Kristina Andersson Bicher, Hannah Baker Saltmarsh, Michael Bazzett, Cyrus Cassells, Robert Cording, Daniela Danz, Diana Marie Delgado, Matt Donovan, Steven Espada Dawson, Chanda Feldman, Julien Gracq, Heo Nanseolheon, Mark Irwin, Preeti Kaur Rajpal, Wayne Koestenbaum, Janiru Liyanage, Alexa Luborsky, Oksana Maksymchuk, Corey Marks, Carol Muske-Dukes, Nicholas Pierce, Diane Seuss, Natalie Shapero, Elena Shvarts, Nomi Stone, Michael Torres, Tristan Tzara; and a retrospective art featuring images of agni/fire by Gerry Bergstein, Christopher Cozier, Katherine Jackson, Deepa Jayaraman, Wosene Worke Kosrof, Anne Neely, Rosamond Purcell and Anna Schuleit Haber with an essay by Associate Editor Shuchi Saraswat. Many works from the issue can be read in full on the publication’s website.

November 2022 eLitPak :: 2023 Yeats Poetry Prize

Screenshot of the 2023 Yeats Poetry Prize flyer
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Deadline: February 1, 2023
Judge: Alan Feldman. 1st Prize $1,000, 2nd $500. Poems in English up to 60 lines, any subject, unpublished at submission. Enter at Yeats.Submittable.com/Submit or mail to WB Yeats Society of NY, National Arts Club, 15 Gramercy Park South, NYC 10003. Entrant’s name only on separate Submittable entry form or file card. Entry $15 for first, $12 each additional. View flyer and visit website to learn more.

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November 2022 eLitPak :: Apply to UNCG’s MFA Program

Screenshot of UNCG MFA's flier for the NewPages September 2022 eLitPak
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Application Deadline: January 15
UNC Greensboro’s MFA is a two-year residency program with fully funded assistantships and stipends. UNCG offers courses in poetry, fiction, publishing, and creative nonfiction, plus teaching opportunities and editorial work for The Greensboro Review. Students work closely with faculty in one-on-one tutorials and develop their craft in a lifelong community of writers. Note our new December 15th priority consideration deadline! Visit our website and view our flyer to learn more.

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November 2022 eLitPak :: 15 Annual Tartt First Fiction Award

Screenshot of Fifteenth annual Tartt First Fiction Award from Livingston Press flier
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Deadline: December 31, 2022
The Tartt First Fiction Award from Livingston Press at the University of West Alabama is given annually to a collection of short stories written in English by an American citizen. Writers cannot have already published or be under contract to publish a fiction collection. Winner will receive $1000, plus standard royalty contract, which includes 60 copies of the book. Visit the Livingston Press website or view flyer to learn more.

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New Book :: In Defense of My People

In Defense of My People by Alonso S Perales published by Arte Publico Press book cover image

In Defense of My People
Hispanic Civil Rights Series
By Alonso S. Perales, Trans. by Emilio Zamora
Arte Publico Press, November 2021

Originally published in Spanish in 1936 and 1937, In Defense of My People contains articles, letters and speeches written by Alonso S. Perales, one of the most influential civil rights activists of the early twentieth century. When Mexican-American veterans of World War II were denied service in a South Texas pool hall, even while wearing their uniforms, Perales wrote about the incident for The San Antonio Express. He also exhorted his community to secure an education and participate in civic duties. His form letter, “How to Request School Facilities for Our Children,” helped parents secure schools “equal to those furnished children of Anglo-American descent.”

November 2022 eLitPak :: Open for Entries: The 17th National Indie Excellence® Awards

17th annual National Indie Excellence® Awards flyer for the NewPages eLitPak
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Deadline: March 31, 2023
The 17th annual National Indie Excellence® Awards (NIEA) are open to all English language printed books available for sale, including small presses, mid-sized independent publishers, university presses, and self-published authors. NIEA is proud to be a champion of self-publishing and independent presses. Monetary awards, sponsorships, and entry rules are described in detail on our website.

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November 2022 eLitPak :: Madville Publishing Offering 20% off all Website Sales

Screenshot of Madville Publishing's 2022 Holiday Sale flyer
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Madville Publishing is offering 20% off all sales on our website through December 16. We can’t trust the postman to get it to you by Christmas after that! We have some beautiful fall titles, something for everyone on your Christmas list. Scan the code or use TKSGVNG20 at checkout. View flyer or visit website.

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November 2022 eLitPak :: Our Lady of the Lake University Online MFA & MA Programs

screenshot of Our Lady of the Lake University Online MFA & MA Program flyer for the June 2022 eLitPak
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Our Lady of the Lake University’s 100% online Master of Arts-Master of Fine Arts (MA-MFA) and Master of Arts (MA) in Literature, Creative Writing, and Social Justice prepare critically engaged and socially aware scholars, writers, educators, and professionals. This nationally unique, virtual program combines creativity with practical skills and critical knowledge, while keeping in mind the pursuit of social justice. View flyer or visit website to learn more.

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Where to Submit Round-up: November 18, 2022

hand holding a pen and writing in a notebook

Thanksgiving is just around the corner in the US. If you get a long weekend to write, edit, and submit, NewPages is here to help with our Where to Submit Round-up for the week of November 18, 2022.

Want to get alerts for new opportunities sent directly to your inbox every Monday afternoon instead of waiting for our Friday Where to Submit Round-ups? For just $5 a month, you can get early access to new calls for submissions and writing contests before they go live on our site, so subscribe today! Free subscribers get access to the latest submission opportunities on the following Monday.

Continue reading “Where to Submit Round-up: November 18, 2022”

New Book :: Watchman, What of the Night?

Watchman, What of the Night? poetry by W. Luther Jett book cover image

Watchman, What of the Night
Poems by W. Luther Jett
CW Books, June 2022

W. Luther Jett’s newest collection, Watchman, What of the Night? bears witness to a world in turmoil, as tyrants rise with the warming seas, while entire generations are displaced by war and catastrophe. The poet asks, what centre can hold in this whirlwind night? Here are poems which speak of past calamities in order to hold up a lamp to pierce the present murk and fog in search of clarity. This book is an alarm-bell, a cry in the night, and above all else, a call to action. Visit the CW Books website to read a sample from the collection.