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!
Dust off the CD player, it’s time for Gargoyle‘s audio issue (#76). “Hunted and gathered” by editor Richard Peabody, the line-up features music and spoken word by Amanda Newell, Barbara Ungar, Blair Ewing, Bob Hate/Chet Hix, Bone People, Carmen Calatayud, The Crooked Angels, Dave Essinger, David Taylor Nielsen, Eugenie Bisulco, Gerry LaFemina and the Downstrokes, Henry Crawford, John King, Knuckleberry Finn, M. Scott Douglass, Maryann Hannan, Nancy Mitchell & The Chris English Band, Randi Ward, Sally Toner, Sarah Browning, Stephen Scott Whitaker, and Tim Wendel.
Belly to the Brutal by Jennifer Givhan sings a corrido of the love between mothers and daughters, confronting the learned complicity with patriarchal violence passed down from generation to generation. Givhan’s poetry edges into the borderlands, touching the realm of chora—humming, screaming, rhythm—transporting the words outside of patriarchal and racist constructs. Drawing from curanderisma and a revived wave of feminist brujería, Givhan creates a healing space for Brown women and mothers. Each poem finds its own form, interweaving beauty and devastation to create a pathway out of the systems that have for too long oppressed women. The poems dwell in the thick language of “motherfear,” “where love grows too / in the shining center of the wound.” This poetry of invocation moves toward a transformation of violence that is ultimately redemptive. Jennifer Givhan (Albuquerque, NM) is an award-winning Mexican-American poet and novelist whose family has ancestral ties to the Indigenous peoples of New Mexico and Texas.
It’s the first full week of September. Weather in Michigan can’t make up its mind if it wants to be fall or cling on to summer. This means its a great time to grab a cup of coffee, tea, or cocoa in the morning and get to writing, editing, and submitting while you can still catch a break and enjoy some great weather (hopefully) in the afternoon.
Want to get alerts for new opportunities sent directly to your inbox every week instead of waiting for our Friday 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! You’ll also get our monthly eLitPak (view August’s here) along with the occasional promotional emails from advertisers.
Readers will love to luxuriate in this generously sized 9″x9″ print South Dakota Review (with beautiful cream-colored pages). Volume 56, Number 3 features poetry by Jeffrey Bean, Claudia Buckholts, Holli Carrell, Mary Cisper, Gillian Cummings, Marlon Hacla (translated by Kristine Ong Muslim), Jacob Griffin Hall, Twyla M. Hansen, Callia Liang, Kevin McLellan, Laurie Saurborn, Tyler Smith, Kevin West, John Sibley Williams, Keith Woodruff, and Adrena Zawinski; short fiction by Joseph Biancalana; nonfiction by Sharon Goldberg; an epistolary essay by John Yohe; and a scholarly experimental essay by Jessica Hudson.
underbelly is a unique online publication with the goal “to bring to the surface what we often strive to make invisible: the joyful, arduous, miraculous, by turns tender and brutal process of shepherding a poem from its primal state to its final state.” Since 2018, Co-founders Maya Marshall and Marty McConnell have been inviting writers to share poems and micro-essays – not just in their final form, but also with the veil lifted “to undo the notion that poems always or even usually arrive perfect and whole from the genius mind of the writer.” Each contributor offers the “backstory” of the work along with one or more drafts side-by-side with the final version.
Again, the founders say, the goal is to satisfy the desire to “know how [the poem] came to be. In workshops and classrooms, we analyze the end product, often hazarding guesses about how a poem began or what forms it may have taken along the way.” Being able to see the writing process – or at least portions of it – is a way “to reassure ourselves and others who seek to improve their craft or understanding that the magic of writing and revision is a practical magic — one that can be taught, practiced, and hopefully maybe possibly even someday mastered.”
The Tree Stand Stories by Jay Atkinson Livingston Press, October 2022
Jay Atkinson’s The Tree Stand presents short stories of hardscrabble living and crushing blows, shot through with seams of love and hope. Readers will find the settings convincing and mesmerizing; the characters heartwarming and heartbreaking. Along with the title story, the 300-page collection includes “Bergeron Framing & Remodeling,” “Lowell Boulevard,” “High Pine Acres,” “Java Man,” “Ellie’s Diamonds,” and “Hoot.” Atkinson is a professor of writing at Boston University and has an extensive sports background: he has done winter exercises with the US Marines, run with bulls in Pamplona, and played rugby in Belfast during “The Troubles” of the 1980s. He’s written two novels, a story collection, and five narrative nonfiction books, and received the 2016 Massachusetts Book Award Honors in Nonfiction, among other publications and awards. An excerpt and pre-order information can be found Livingston Press.
Publishing stories “of approximately 50 words” in print since 2009, Blink-Ink has persevered through the pandemic – thanks to continued subscriber support – and plans to forge ahead despite the rising costs of print. The publication offers four “seasonal” issues per year, but also provides bonus joy to subscribers by including publications from their sister imprint, The Mambo Academy of Kitty Wang at least twice a year, as well as other “goodies and surprises.” The newest edition of Blink-Ink is themed “Storm” and features works from thirty contributors in a nifty 4.25″x5.5″ package. “Country Roads” is the newest theme, with submissions open until October 15.
Good Naked: How to Write More, Write Better, and Be Happier Revised and Expanded Edition by Joni B. Cole University of New Mexico Press, September 2022
In this revised and updated edition of Good Naked: How to Write More, Write Better, and Be Happier, once again, Joni B. Cole’s humor and wisdom shine through as she debunks long-held misconceptions of how we’re supposed to write, replacing them with advice that works. Feeling overwhelmed? Having trouble getting started or staying motivated? In this edition, Cole offers more stories, strategies, tips on craft, and exercises to serve new and seasoned writers from the first draft to the final edit. Writers will even find help making peace with rejection. Admirers as well as newcomers to Cole’s work appreciate her uniquely cheerful approach, time tested to foster creativity and productivity. Keeping this generous and essential guide close by will provide a jump start to inspiration and a daily reminder of the meaning, humor, and happiness that can be discovered in your own writing life.
Clover + Bee Magazine is – can I just say this? – a GORGEOUS digital publication of fictional prose (in all genres), narrative nonfiction, poetry, and visual art. Clover + Bee Magazine has been publishing at a rate of 3-4 issues per year, with “no set-in-stone schedule as of yet,” according to Editors Alex Campbell and Cara Copeland.
At its inception, Campbell and Copeland say they found themselves at “the perfect intersection of our own creative journeys, our places within our respective online literary and art communities, and our desire to create a platform for emerging and established creators to showcase their work. A literary and visual art magazine just made sense as something that we could do to contribute to the larger creative ecosystem.”
Publishing in an open-access online format since 2019, River Heron Review is true to its namesake in being a sophisticatedly stylish journal. This newest issue features the work of Thomas McGuire, winner of the 2022 River Heron Poetry Prize selected by Deshawn McKinney. Finalists whose works are also included: Sarah Carey, Tresha Faye Haefner, Steve Nolan, and Sal Ragen. Contributors’ works fill out the rest of this installment, including Julie Cooper-Fratrik, Stephanie McConnell, Sylvia Karman, Jennifer Bullis, Grant Clauser, Beth Oast Williams, Michael Young, Eve Rosenbaum, Stephanie Yue Duhem, Suzanne Honda, Grant Chemidlin, Carol Sadtler, Richard Foerster, Amy Beth Sisson, Matt Thomas, Lisa Marie Oliver, Charity Everitt, Andrea McLaughlin, Gloria Monaghan, Devon Balwit, Ken Turner, Daniel Rabuzzi, Cheryl Martone, Ale de Luis, and Frank Paino. General Submissions and The River Heron Editors’ Prize opened on September 1 until November 30. Additional submissions and contest period deadlines can be found on the River Heron Reviewwebsite.
Join award-winning poet, editor, and writing coach John Sibley Williams this fall for virtual Caesura Poetry Workshops. These are hosted via Zoom. Upcoming classes include Writing Evocative Love Poems (September 17), Elegy: Writing Poems of Loss (October 2 & 9), two group critique classes (Fridays in October, Sundays in November), and more.
The Most Excellent Immigrant Stories by Mark Budman Livingston Press, November 2022
“There is a secret that we immigrants never share with the natives: a good immigrant adapts to a new country, while a most excellent immigrant makes the new country better.” The 22 stories in this newest collection by Mark Budman take readers on a ride from magic realism to hardcore realism to real magic. A certified interpreter of dreams and afflictions searches for treasure buried in a set of antique pillows. An interstellar alien in disguise guards the children at play. A prescription cream stops the dream thieves. A mass killer bares his soul, if he has any. The secret of eternal youth is for sale. And twelve potentially treasure-filled pillows float throughout, befuddling and entrancing their successive owners and seekers.
I recently heard from Matthew Johnson, managing editor of Portrait of New England online literary journal, that the publication was coming back from hiatus. Truth be told: we see a lot of magazines go on “hiatus” never to be heard from again, so I took this opportunity to talk with Matthew and his colleagues about what happened and how they bounced back. Portrait of New England publishes poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction from writers who are residents, former residents, or have connections (e.g., attended college in the region) to New England.
Origin Story and Hiatus
Matthew: “The original team for Portrait of New England was Brett Murphy Hunt, Jon Bishop, and Smrithi Eswar, who are all based in Massachusetts. They published the first issue of the magazine in 2019, of which I was originally a part of, as they accepted two of my poems.”
I am originally from New Rochelle, NY, but spent the majority of my childhood in Stratford, Connecticut, of which I have fond memories. I moved down to North Carolina in high school, and outside of a year stint in upstate New York as a sports journalist and editor after my undergrad, I’ve been based in North Carolina for close to 13 years now. Though I have not lived in New England for many years, I’ve visited Connecticut since moving to North Carolina, and it has always been a special place for me.”
Brett: “Basically, the idea of a literary magazine is something we fully support, but it’s incredibly labor-intensive! The amount of hours spent setting everything up compounded with the reading and vetting of submissions, and I think it was hard to think about the next issue. I personally own two businesses and teach at two universities, so my day-to-day is already task-saturated. Plus, I think we were incredibly proud of the first one, so trying to top that felt impossible! Nevertheless, we kept our website active because we definitely had the idea to continue SOMEDAY.”
Jon: “I second everything Brett said! This was a passion project, but it was one that was becoming a full-time thing, and because of our schedules, we found it hard to think about what was next. We sort of put everything into issue one.”
A project of EastOver Press, Cutleaf publishes a new online issue twice each month and one print annual. Readers can subscribe to receive issue updates with an overview of content, making for a nice way to start the week twice a month. For contributors, Cutleaf welcomes unsolicited poetry, short stories, essays, and other nonfiction from established and emerging writers. The editors read and respond to manuscripts on a rolling basis in an effort to respond to every submission in a timely manner. Some recent contributors include Louise Marburg, Dana Wildsmith, Molly Gaudry, Marjorie Tesser, Shawna Kay Rodenberg, Beth Weinstock, Leslie Doyle, David Ishaya Osu, Leona Sevick, Darius Stewart, Carolynn Mireault, Tatiana Schlote-Bonne, Liam O’Brien, Jim Minick, and Anna Nguyen.
Essential Voices: Poetry of Iran and Its Diaspora Edited by Christopher Nelson Green Linden Press, September 2021
Published by the non-profit Green Linden Press, The Essential Voices series intends to bridge English-language readers to cultures misunderstood and under- or misrepresented. It has at its heart the ancient idea that poetry can reveal our shared humanity. The Poetry of Iran and Its Diaspora anthology features 130 poets and translators from ten countries, including Garous Abdolmalekian, Kaveh Akbar, Kazim Ali, Reza Baraheni, Kaveh Bassiri, Simin Behbahani, Mark S. Burrows, Athena Farrokhzad, Forugh Farrokhzad, Persis Karim, Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak, Sara Khalili, Mimi Khalvati, Esmail Khoi, Abbas Kiarostami, Fayre Makeig, Anis Mojgani, Yadollah Royai, Amir Safi, SAID, H.E. Sayeh, Roger Sedarat, Sohrab Sepehri, Ahmad Shamlu, Solmaz Sharif, Niloufar Talebi, Jean Valentine, Stephen Watts, Sholeh Wolpé, Nima Yushij, and many others. Introduced by Kaveh Bassiri.
One of my absolute favorite monthly publications, Poetry Magazine never ceases to engage me in the thresholds of change in our literary community. The September 2022 issue, with guest editor Esther Berlin, addresses concerns we have all witnessed and/or been part of transforming. “Dear Reader,” opens: “Honor, celebration, and memory come to mind when I think about the idea of monuments. The process of harnessing collective moments into a physical manifestation, something representational of the essence that surges a person’s core—that’s a monument. All the feels—rage, suffering, release, distrust, comfort, melancholy, ambivalence, ache, compassion, mercy, the urgency to remedy—contribute to constituting and dismantling monuments.” And, addressing both the internal workings at the Poetry Foundation, itself in a process of rebuilding, and those in our surrounding communities, Berlin continues, “This special issue brings attention to the idea of monuments in order to map and reframe contrived or mythical systems of power, to extend narratives through repositioning focal points.” And closes, “In my last issue as guest editor, I invite you to celebrate with me poetry as monuments, as unifying offerings, the revising of history of so many existing monuments, erased and rubbed out, and now redrawn. The unsaid no longer ruminating, no longer a hungry ghost, no longer a missed call.”
Contributors to this issue include Martín Tonalmeyotl, Kierstin Bridger, Lucas Jorgensen, Mansi Dahal, Rena Priest, Janelle Tan, Vance Couperus, Henk Rossouw, Crisosto Apache, Keith S. Wilson, Amber McCrary, Kenzie Allen, Lesley Wheeler, Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach, Krystyna Dąbrowska, Serena Rodriguez, Daniela Ema Aguinsky, Spring Ulmer, Joan Naviyuk Kane, Bes Bajraktarević, Tyler Mitchell, Ajibola Tolase, Christopher Shipman, Joan Wickersham, A. Van Jordan, and Walter Ancarrow.
I always know the newest issue of Gargoyle has arrived when the post office has to send the forklift to drop off this massive tome at my doorstep. Clocking in at nearly 500 pages (see a full list of contributors here), this is an annual that will truly provide a year of great reading – nonfiction, poetry, fiction, and art (Issue 75 cover art by Cynthia Connolly). What readers can expect to find is about as clear as the submission guidelines, “Gargoyle has never had guidelines during its entire history. We don’t believe in them.” Thus – be ready for just about anything, with the underlying principle that it is quality work, “The best work we can obtain. Work we can live with. Work we can read 20 times and still get a kick out of. We’ve never had a theme issue and doubt we ever will. Obviously, we want the best poem or story you will ever write. We’re not fans of the same-old/same-old and tend to publish works that are bent or edgy.” Considering the fact Gargoyle is only open for submissions from July 1 to July 31 – or until they get enough to fill the issue, “whichever comes first,” it’s clear they are well appreciated by writers! Add to this – GaygolyeOnline, which started in May 2022 and has just released its second issue. Readers have plenty to enjoy through every season!
Winner of the 2022 American Poetry Review Honickman First Book Prize selected by Jericho Brown, Bright Shade is an appreciation of the wild woods, the rolling hills, the Appalachian air, and the little rivers that were the setting of Chelsea Harlan’s upbringing. The poems speak through the liminal space between the body and its relationships to other bodies, and the human relationship with nature—and so climate change is, inevitably, part of this book’s undercurrent of grief. As the author navigates the high highs and the low lows of manic depression, Bright Shade articulates the wonder that accompanies sadness and the sadness that accompanies joy. Chelsea Harlan’s work is humorous, indeed bittersweet (bright / shade), and a little strange in exactly the right way.
Editor’s Note: While we generally prefer new releases, we love to see contemporary takes on older titles and how readers relate to literature over time. Blonde was originally published in 2000, re-released in 2020, and will appear as a Netflix original film in fall 2022.
Marilyn Monroe’s life story is one that most film lovers assume they know well. However, in Blonde (2000), a fictional account of the legendary actress’s life, Joyce Carol Oates takes readers deep beneath the surface of Marilyn into the hidden crevices of her life and her mind. Oates’ words at times ring out like hammer blows. She writes, “Her problem wasn’t she was a dumb blonde, it was she wasn’t a blonde and she wasn’t dumb.”
Blonde leveled me. After reading it, I found myself dizzy with thoughts of the actress – her struggles, her loneliness, her tragic demise. Oates shows that those who encountered Marilyn saw her sadness firsthand and were touched by her. As described by a pharmacy clerk who waited on Ms. Monroe at Schwab’s Drugstore in Hollywood, “She seemed like the most alone person in the world.”
This book shows a hint of the infinite sadness that lies at the center of Ms. Monroe’s eyes. In films, viewers can see the wells of loneliness behind the technicolor. Reading it now in the #MeToo era makes us see the casting couch and all its cruelty for what it is: a maker of stars and a destroyer of lives.
Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates. Harper Collins, 2000/2020.
Reviewer Bio: MG Noles is a hermit, reviewer, history buff, and nature lover.
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The Fall 2022 issue of Rattle features a Tribute to Translation, with 17 poems spanning two millennia, originally written in a wide variety of languages—from Spanish to Swahili. Featured poets include Frank Báez, Basil of Caesarea, C.P. Cavafy, Nianxi Chen, Tove Ditlevsen, Pietro Federico, Muyaka al-Ghassaniy, Karmelo C. Iribarren, Ting Li, Federico García Lorca, Francesco Petrarca, Alireza Roshan, Endre Ruset, Amira Antoun Salameh, Max Sessner, Dag T. Straumsvåg, Georg Trakl. In the conversation section, editors spoke to Danish translator Michael Favala Goldman about his award-winning work and the incredible life’s journey into it. The open section featured a broad mix of 22 poems by fresh faces and reader-favorites: Darius Atefat-Peckham, Devon Balwit, Bruce Bennett, Richelle Buccilli, e.c. crossman, Cortney Esco, Tony Gloeggler, Chris Huntington, Karan Kapoor, David Kirby, Ron Koertge, Lance Larsen, Jessica Lee, Katy Luxem, January O’Neil, Aaron Poochigian, Cindy Veach, Richard Westheimer, Guinotte Wise. Cover art by Jenny Eickbush.
The Empty Bowl: Poems of the Holocaust and After Poetry by Judith Sherman University of New Mexico Press, September 2022
In The Empty Bowl: Poems of the Holocaust and After, Holocaust survivor Judith H. Sherman strives to record trauma through art. Her poems, written largely in the words of a fifteen-year-old survivor, provide historical entry into the Holocaust. Put simply, the poems explore the reality of the events experienced by Sherman in her determination to survive—from first leaving home to illegal border crossings, hiding, capture, imprisonment by the Gestapo, the horrors of the Ravensbrück concentration camp, liberation, and, finally, a full life of joys and challenges that came after, including the unyielding intrusions of the past and hopeful celebration of a compassionate future. Forward by Arthur Kleinman. Afterword by Ilana Gelb.
Based at the University of Michigan – Flint, Qua was founded over 50 years ago. They are currently accepting submissions of fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, visual arts, and photography from writers and artists living in Michigan for the Fall 2022 issue. No fee to submit. See their ad in the NewPages Classifieds to learn more. Last month to submit!
With Small Things Like These, Claire Keegan has chosen a title that seemingly fits her work perfectly, in theme, length, and style. Her novella centers on Bill Furlong, a coal and fuel seller in 1980s Ireland. His life seems quite small, as he goes about his daily routine, working hard delivering and selling coal, logs, and other fuel to customers, and striving to provide for his wife and four daughters. As Christmas approaches, though, he has an encounter that will lead him to make a moral choice, forcing him to confront his privilege and decide what his and his family’s life should be like moving forward. Keegan’s sentences crackle with clarity, presenting exactly what the reader needs to know, and little more. The book is brief—just over a hundred pages—a work readers can digest in one sitting. It seems a small thing, much like Furlong’s life, but it contains so much more, as it grapples with Ireland’s recent history of Magdalene houses. At one point, Furlong thinks, “Why were the things that were closest so often the hardest to see?” That one question sums up decades of dark Irish history, but also so many decisions we fail to make in our lives. Keegan’s novella is a great thing, indeed.
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/.
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Started in 2017, Cholla Needles is one of those quiet little lit mags that, to see it sitting on a coffee table could not even begin to speak for all it represents. A non-profit located in Joshua Tree, California, Cholla Needles publishes monthly in print using a unique format. Each issue is comprised of ten “chapbooks” divided by “covers” – an author photo as the front and an art photo as the back. They also publish books by writers featured in the journal who do not yet have a publisher. Cholla Needles publishes poetry, short stories, creative essays, art, and photography by local and visiting writers “who love the desert.” Cholla Needles also partners with local bookstores and community organizations (like the Joshua Tree Folk Center) to host monthly literary events, offers mentoring, workshops, and publishing activities for writers of all ages, and maintains a poetry, prose, and art library. They recently participated in their community’s NEA Big Read for the fourth year by handing out free copies of the journal. They also work with young writers, publishing a local-only journal twice a year. If there was a dream world for a lit mag, being part of a vibrant literary community and helping make it all happen, it would be Cholla Needles.
Happy September! Is it time to think of cooler weather and all things pumpkin spice yet? Too soon? While you may be staying in denial that fall is just around the corner this month, stay on top of your submissions game with our first Where to Submit Round-up for September 2022. There are a ton of new opportunities added this week.
Want to get alerts for new opportunities sent directly to your inbox every week instead of waiting for our Friday 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! You’ll also get our monthly eLitPak (view August’s here) along with the occasional promotional emails from advertisers.
The September 2022 issue ofThe Lakeis now online featuring works by Satya Bosman, Despy Boutris, Xiaoly Li, Todd Mercer, Bert Molsom, Sarath Reddy, Jacquelyn “Jacsun” Shah, Hilary Sideris, Fiona Sinclair, Catherine Webster. Reviews of Fiona Sinclair’s Second Wind, Hélène Demetriades’ the plumb line, and Rachel Abramowitz’s The Birthday of the Dead are also included. One Poem Reviews is a supercool feature that allows poets to share a poem from a newly published collection. This month Ben Banyard shares “Slow: Learner” from Hi-Viz, and Janet Hatherley shares “Trotline” from What Rita Tells Me.
The winner of the 2022 X. J. Kennedy Prize receives a $10,000 advance and publication by Texas Review Press. This year’s judge is Kimiko Hahn. Poets at any stage of their career are welcome to enter. Unpublished full-length collections need to be submitted by September 30. Stop by the NewPages Classifieds to learn more.
The judge of the 2022 George Garrett Fiction Prize is Vi Khi Nao. The contest is open to any writer at any stage of their career. Submit work to Texas Review Press by September 30. Grand prize is $1,000 advance and publication. Learn more by stopping by their ad in the NewPages Classifieds.
Online literary magazine Plant-Human Quarterly reads submissions that explore the myriad ways writers manifest their relationship to the botanical world year-round. Past contributors include Ellen Bass, Forrest Gander, Kimiko Hahn, and Arthur Sze. Learn more about their submission guidelines and accepted genres by stopping by their ad in the NewPages Classifieds.
The cover feature of World Literature Today’s September/October 2022 issue assembles more than a dozen writers, artists, photographers, and translators reflecting on the theme Bearing Witness: Confronting Injustice through Art. Additional highlights include creative nonfiction and essays from Argentina, Denmark, Guatemala, and the US; poetry from Venezuela; Chris Arthur’s “What to Read Now” list of his favorite recent essay collections; and visits to Lagos, Nigeria, as well as lower Manhattan’s Yu & Me Books. With more than two dozen book reviews and additional booklists rounding out the lineup, WLT‘s latest issue remains the best passport to travel the world republic of letters.
NewPages receives many wonderful titles each month to share with our readers. You can read more about some of these titles by clicking on the “New Books” tag under “Popular Blog Topics.” If you are a publisher or author looking to be listed here or featured on our blog and social media, please contact us!
Poetry
Almost Obscene, Raúl Gómez Jattin, CSU Poetry Center Ancestry Unfinished, Yasmin Kloth, Kelsay Books Bright Shade, Chelsea Harlan, Copper Canyon Press The Empty Bowl, Judith H. Sherman, University of New Mexico Press Essential Voices: Poetry of Iran and Its Diaspora, ed. Christopher Nelson, Green Linden Press If Not These Things, Kenneth Chamlee, Kelsay Books In Our Now, Valyntina Grenier, Finishing Line Press Innocence, Micahel Joseph Walsh, CSU Poetry Center The Gospel of Wildflowers & Weeds, Orlando Ricardo Menes, University of New Mexico Press The Lost Notebook of Zhao Li, J.R. Solonche, Dos Madres My Aunt’s Abortion, Jane Rosenberg LaForge, BlazeVOX My Secret Place, Max Talley, Main Street Rag Publishing Mouth, Sugar, & Smoke, Eric Tran, Diode Editions Of the Florids, Shawn Hoo, Diode Editions A Passable Man, Ralph Culver, Mad Hat Press
Visiting Her in Queens Is More Enlightening than a Month in a Monastery in Tibet Poetry by Michael Mark Rattle Poetry, August 2022
Subscribers to Rattle poetry magazine not only get four issues of the journal each year but are also treated to four chapbooks, one being the Rattle Chapbook Prize Winner. This fall, subscribers are receiving Michael Mark’s winning entry, Visiting Her in Queens Is More Enlightening than a Month in a Monastery in Tibet, “a kind of family photo album for the final years of a life.” As dementia progresses in Michael’s mother, each poem is at once a snapshot, a foreshadowing and a memory. And like memories, each is revealing, accurate, and blurry. Sample poems can be read on the Rattle website. Michael Mark has walked the Himalayas, Wales, Portugal, and Spain with his two children. He’s the author of two collections of stories, Toba and Toba at the Hands of a Thief (Atheneum).
Lakȟóta : An Indigenous History The Civilization of the American Indian Series, Volume 281 By Rani-Henrik Andersson and David C. Posthumus The University of Oklahoma Press, November 2022
Lakȟóta : An Indigenous History opens with an origin story, that of White Buffalo Calf Woman (Ptesanwin) and her gift of the sacred pipe to the Lakȟóta people. Drawing on winter counts, oral traditions and histories, and Lakȟóta letters and speeches, the narrative proceeds through such periods and events as early Lakȟóta-European trading, the creation of the Great Sioux Reservation, Christian missionization, the Plains Indian Wars, the Ghost Dance and Wounded Knee (1890), the Indian New Deal, and self-determination, as well as recent challenges like the #NoDAPL movement and management of Covid-19 on reservations. This book centers Lakȟóta experience, as when it shifts the focus of the Battle of Little Bighorn from Custer to fifteen-year-old Black Elk, or puts American Horse at the heart of the negotiations with the Crook Commission, or explains the Lakȟóta agenda in negotiating the Fort Laramie Treaty in 1851. The picture that emerges—of continuity and change in Lakȟóta culture from its distant beginnings to issues in our day—is as sweeping and intimate, and as deeply complex, as the lived history it encompasses.
The Summer 2022 issue of Chestnut Review – “for stubborn artists” – includes an excerpt from the winning entry of their 2021 Prose Chapbook contest: Resistance by Sue Mell. Managing Editor Maria S. Picone interviews both Mell and contest finalist, Siddiqui Chansarkar. Other prose contributors to this issue include Carlos Contreras, Renée Jessica Tan, Yasmin Nadiyah Phillip, Joel Worford, Mattea Heller, and poetry from Stephanie Staab, Lynne Schmidt, Kim Ellingson, Remi Recchia, Michelle Hulan, Yvanna Vien Tica, Gabriela Gonzales, Cate McGowan, Sasha Wade, and art from Patrick van Raalten (cover art: Fluidity), William C. Crawford, Carolyn Guinzio, Moses Ojo, Oormila Vijayakrishnan Prahlad, and Phil Temples. Chestnut Review is free to read online or download as a PDF.
Renowned Korean American modern-dance choreographer Dana Tai Soon Burgess shares his deeply personal hyphenated world and how his multifaceted background drives his prolific art-making in Chino and the Dance of the Butterfly. The memoir traces how his choreographic aesthetic, based on the fluency of dance and the visual arts, was informed by his early years in Santa Fe, New Mexico. This insightful journey delves into an artist’s process that is inspired by the intersection of varying cultural perspectives, stories, and experiences. Candid and intelligent, Burgess gives readers the opportunity to experience up close the passion for art and dance that has informed his life.
The Lost Notebook of Zhao Li Poetry by J.R. Solonche Dos Madres Press, September 2022
When J.R. Solonche published The Five Notebooks of Zhao Li in November of 2021, it was called an “intriguing set of philosophical poems…a novel in verse [that] offers a glimpse into the most personal thoughts of a creative thinker.” Filled with more of the wise, witty, profound, silly, thoughtful, thoughtless, koan-like musings, The Lost Notebook of Zhao Li can be considered the sixth and final chapter in the tale of this 75-year-old poet/philosopher, who if asked which one he is, would answer: “Both, but not at the same time.”
Published online annually in the spring by the Institute for Research on Women (IRW) at Rutgers University in partnership with The Feminist Art Project, Rejoinder is an online journal featuring work at the intersection of scholarship and activism that reflects feminist/queer and social justice perspectives. Rejoinder publishes critical essays, fiction, poetry, and art. While some issue submissions are by invitation only or commissioned, other issues will have open calls around a specific theme or concept. Past issue themes include: Marking Time; Borders, Bodies, Homes; The Stranger Within; Me Too; Storytelling for Social Change; Climate in Crisis.
The spring 2022 issue is themed Trauma and features poetry by Okolo Chinua, artwork with artists statements by Kathy Bruce, Celia Vara, and Gail Winbury, and essays such as “A Pandemic Parent’s Story of Sadness and Loneliness” by Jennifer S. Griffiths, “Being Toward Trauma: Theorizing Post-Violence Sexuality” by Mahaliah A. Little, “Translating Body and Trauma” by Emily Irvin, and “From Buried to Living Archives: Illustration as a Vessel to Access Portals of Sound Memory. A Culture of Hope in the Making — the Cambodian Case.” by Ravy Puth.
That’s right. There is now only one month left to enter Winning Writers’ Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest. This is open to poems written in English. They can have been previously published. $20 fee to enter 1-3 poems for a chance to win $3,000. Deadline to enter is September 30.
See the ad in the NewPages Classifieds to learn more.
Publishing new content every two weeks, Topical Poetry is an online journal readers will want to subscribe to (for free) to stay up to date on the newest posts. As the name suggests, contributors offer works in response to current events and news – what a great resource to bring into any classroom. “Poetry on current events can be transformational, thought-provoking, and everlasting.” Recent works include “Asian Solidarity” by Jenn Martin, “Still Here” by Buff Whitman-Bradley, “In New York We say” by Elizabeth Schmermund, “CLIMATES CHANGE” by Joanne Kennedy Frazer, “Man in Flames” by Matthew Murrey, “UVALDE 2022” by Dale Hensarling, and “Not Completely Safe” by Jacqueline Jules. Topical Poetry is free to read online and accepts submissions based on public news/events, preferably from the previous or current week – which means a fast turnaround time on acceptance.
“You need another literary journal like you need a hole in the head. We’re here for you.” That tagline pretty much sums up the playful attitude you’ll find at Hole in the Head re:View, an online quarterly publishing on “Groundhog Day, May Day, the editor’s birthday in August, and the day after Halloween.” Publishing poetry, art, photography, reviews, and interviews, contributors to the newest issue include Kenneth Rosen, Ginny Speirs (incl. cover art), Jeanne Julian, Laura Schaeffer, Sara Wallace, Christopher Paul Brown, Erika Michael, Jenny Doughty, Ellen Stone, Jeff Mann, Diana K. Malek, Mark DeCarteret & Pat Keck, Elizabeth Iannaci, Robin Young, Larkin Warren, Cheryl Slover-Linett, Chloe’ Firetto-Toomey, Roger Camp, Cecil Morris, Joan Mazza, M.S. Rooney, Charter Weeks, Bob Herz, David P. Miller, Annette Sisson, Larissa Monique Hauck, Brett Warren, Howie Faerstein, Jack Bordnick, Mary Beth Hines, Jim Rioux, Geoffrey Aitken, Michael T. Young, Andrew K. Clark, Casey Clark, Miho Kinnas, Bookend – Sebastian Matthews interview, Sebastian Matthews, and Greg Clary.
The Fantastic Other is a biannual digital literary magazine that specializes in speculative fiction (including flash) and poetry, and science fiction and fantasy, as well as visual art in any medium. Editor in Chief G. E. Butler adds, “We also get excited for magical realism, surrealism, or anything that is altogether strange and ‘out there.’” In addition to the summer and winter issues, The Fantastic Other also publishes occasional articles to their website between issues, such as their Author’s Spotlight segment. Readers can find the latest issues online and download them as PDF documents. All content is free to read. [Cover art by Irina Tall (Novikova)]
The online Months to Years Summer 2022 features the creative works of twenty-five writers, poets, photographers, and artists with a range of voices and perspectives. Bev Mondillo Wright remembers her mother’s Italian baking traditions in “Agrodolce, and Other Memories of the Funeral Pan.” Becca Baisch, in “Twin Hearts,” reflects on her husband’s cancer diagnosis soon after the birth of their first child. In “A Story of a Good Mom,” pediatric ICU nurse Hui-wen Sato opens our perspective to the trauma that ICU nurses witness daily. These are just a sample of the compelling works in this issue.
Other contributors include Elizabeth Berman, Harry E. Northup, Greg Turlock, Grace May, Ingrid Blaufarb Hughes, Amanda Julien, Adnan Adam Onart, Janice Lynch Schuster, Ciera Lloyd, Marie Mischel, Gwynn Wills, Michael Salcman, Dara McGarry, Jen Emmerich, John Grey, Victor Larson, Serena Piccoli, Amy Haddad, Vincent J. Tomeo, Beverly Rose Joyce, Carole Geithner, and Cheryl Comeau-Kirschner. A digital version of the Summer 2022 issue is now available on the Months to Years website. The digital flip book, a downloadable PDF, and a web-based experience of each work are available for free. Glossy magazine hard copies can be purchased via Blurb.
The eighth and newest issue of the annual print Cherry Tree: A National Literary Journal @ Washington College features work by Anthony Aguero, Mya Matteo Alexice, Amy M. Alvarez, Jeffrey Bean, Kathryn Bratt-Pfotenhauer, Erica Lee Braverman, Holly Burdoff, Camille Carter, Adam Clay, Caitlin Cowan, Meg Day, Jose Hernandez Diaz, Denise Duhamel, María Esquinca, Sophie Ezzell, Hazem Fahmy, William Fargason, Aidan Forster, Camille Guthrie, Julie Hanson, Kathryn Hargett-Hsu, Clemonce Heard, Su Hwang, Mark Jacobs, Naomi Kanakia, Justin Lacour, Daniel Lassell, Susan L. Leary, Emily Light, Chrissy Martin, Gloriz Muñoz, Catherine Pierce, Helena Rho, C.T. Salazar, Leona Sevick, Harvey Silverman, Donna Vorreyer, Siamak Vossoughi, D.S. Waldman, Nikki Wallschlaeger, Elaine Wang, Ross White, Jeff Whitney, Eileen Winn, Haolun Xu, Nicholas Yingling, and cover art by Hedieh Javanshir Ilchi. Visit the Cherry Tree website for subscription information and single-copy orders.
A six-hour Amtrak ride from NYC to Syracuse loomed. Searching for something to read, I came across Dana Spiotta’s Wayward, a novel that, surprisingly, takes place in Syracuse. I downloaded the sample on my Kindle, vowing to save the balance of the book for the train if I liked it. But once I started down the rabbit hole with 52-year-old protagonist Sam Raymond, I couldn’t stop. Sam’s having a midlife crisis and impulsively buys a fixer-upper in a sketchy Syracuse neighborhood and announces she’s leaving her husband. Her sixteen-year-old daughter, Ally, sides with dad. But this is not your typical midlife crisis novel! Set just after the 2016 election that upset so many apple carts, we follow Sam as he buys the ramshackle house, joins a radical feminist group, witnesses a cop shoot a young black boy at 3 a.m., does a disastrous night of stand-up at a local comedy club, and grapples with the impending death of her mother from cancer and the daughter who’s no longer speaking to her. Throughout, the history of Syracuse (the city L.M. Baum modeled Oz after!), the backstory about the suffragette icons of the late 1800s, and the etymology of a plethora of SAT words are seamlessly woven into the narrative. There are so many unexpected twists and thought-provoking riffs on getting old and the meaning of life in our wacked, wired world.
Wayward by Dana Spiotta. Penguin Random House, June 2022.
Reviewer bio: Cindy Dale has published over twenty short stories in literary journals and anthologies. She lives on a barrier beach off the coast of Long Island.
If you are interested in contributing a Guest Post to “What I’m Reading,” please click this link: NewPages.com Reviewer Guidelines.
Did you know this week was the final full week of August? Next week (on Thursday to be exact) kicks of September. Time is flying. Weather is still going crazy. So while Mother Nature tries to make up her mind on if its summer, fall, or somewhere in between, NewPages has you covered so you can stay inside (or find a nice outdoors nook) to stay on top of your submission goals for 2022. There are a lot of August 31 deadlines, so don’t miss out!
Want to get alerts for new opportunities sent directly to your inbox every week instead of waiting for our Where to Submit Round-ups? Paid subscribers to the NewPages weekly newsletter get early access to new calls for submissions and writing contests before they go live on our site, so subscribe today! You’ll also get our monthly eLitPak (view August’s here) along with the occasional promotional emails from advertisers.
Conduit Books and Ephemera is open to submissions for their fifth annual Open Book Prize. The winner receives $1,500 and book publication. Any poet writing in English can enter regardless of previous publication record. Do check out their literary magazine Conduit for an idea of what they like. They do charge an entry fee. View their full ad in the NewPages Classifieds to learn more.
Publishing since 1967 and still as cutting edge as ever, the newest issue of Southern Humanities Review includes Nonfiction by George Estreich, Kelly Ann Jacobson; Fiction by Alena Graedon, Lucy Zhang, Tanya Žilinskas, Sanjena Sathian; Poetry by Angelica Maria Barraza, Clayton Adam Clark, Todd Davis, Jessica Dionne, alyssa hanna, Constance Hansen, Sara Henning, Maurya Kerr, Daniel Edward Moore, tano rubio, Maureen Sherbondy, and Grace Q. Song. Cover art by MimiPrint. Several works from each issue are available to read online.
Issue 34:1of The Gettysburg Review features paintings by Carrie Moyer, fiction by Leila Mohr, Holly Beth Pratt, Corey Campbell, Allison Field Bell, and Victoria Campbell; essays by Magin LaSov Gregg, Jenny Catlin, E. G. Cunningham, and Christina Pugh; poetry by Laura Read, Michael Pearce, Linda Pastan, Katharine Jager, Danny Duffy, Anne-Marie Thompson, Hannah Craig, David Kutz-Marks, Meghan Maguire Dahn, Michael Homolka, Caroline Crew, Jill Gonet, Keith Leonard, Jacob Sunderlin, Wendy Guerra, Dorothy Chan, Michael Lavers, John Poch, Frank Paino, Cindy King, Caleb Braun, Calgary Martin, and William Olsen.
Stubborn writers wanted! Join Chestnut Review Managing Editor Maria S. Picone and Poetry Editor A.R. Salandy for a variety of unique workshops offered through August (there’s still time!) and September:
Drop-in Accountability Workshop (August 28)
Using Multiple Languages in Your Work (September 4)
The Submission & Editorial Process: Understanding the Literary World (September 10)
Stubborn Writers Workshop (September 17)
Unpacking Flash (September 25)
Discounts are available for contributors, staff, or returning attendees. For more information see the Chestnut Review workshops page.
Free Feedback Fridays Ongoing
If you’re not following Chestnut Review on Twitter, you’re missing out on Free Feedback Fridays! Follow and retweet our #freefeedbackfriday post on the first Friday of each month and you’ll enter a drawing to win a free critique on your submission. The next one is on Friday, September 2nd.
