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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!

New Book :: The Red Ear Blows Its Nose

The Red Ear Blows Its Nose Poems for Children and Others by Robert Schechter Illustrated by S. Federico published by Word Galaxy Press book cover image

The Red Ear Blows Its Nose: Poems for Children and Others
Poetry by Robert Schechter
Illustrations by S. Federico
Word Galaxy Press, April 2023

If you’ve got any “littles” in your life, The Red Ear Blows Its Nose is the perfect gift book to preorder for next year’s National Poetry Month. Published by Word Galaxy Press, an imprint of the well-respected Able Muse Press, The Red Ear Blows Its Nose dishes out hilarity, wit, wordplay, and wisdom in a playfully illustrated collection of poems “for children and others.” It considers thought, identity and what it means to be a person, nature and the seasons, and includes assorted creatures, such as a horse who says “Moo,” a “Dear Earthling” letter from an invading alien, bees, ants, birds, and elephants. Several poems focus on the senses and the brain, including this thoughtful short work:

Just Wondering

For there to be a butterfly
must the caterpillar die?
Or does the caterpillar brain
in the butterfly remain?

This debut collection from Robert Schechter is complemented by S. Federico’s illustrations, which add to the possible interpretations of the works. Robert Schechter’s award-winning poetry for children has appeared in Highlights for Children, Cricket, Spider, Ladybug, the Caterpillar, Blast Off, Countdown, Orbit, and more than a dozen anthologies published by Bloomsbury, National Geographic, Macmillan, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, the Emma Press, and Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

Magazine Stand :: THEMA – Autumn 2022

Thema print literary magazine Autumn 2022 issue cover image

The newest print issue of THEMA features works in response to the premise, “Get it over with!” Contributors include Lynda Fox, Linda Berry, Bill Glose, June Thompson, Ruth Holzer, Lisa Timpf, Margaret Pearce, Melanie Reitzel, R.G. Halstead, Jesse Doiron, Marica Bernstein, Melinda Thomsen, Matthew J. Spireng, Beverly Boyd, Linda McMullen, Dana Stamps, and Ojo Moses. For each THEMA issue, the premise must “be an integral part of the plot, not necessarily the central theme but not merely incidental.” Submissions can include prose, poetry, artwork, and B&W illustrations. Upcoming themes include “So THAT’S why” (deadline 11/1/22) and “Help from a stranger” (deadline 3/1/23). Visit THEMA for more information.

Where to Submit Round-up: October 14, 2022

Happy Friday! The leaves in Michigan are venturing towards their peak colors while the temperatures keep dropping and the long-awaited rain finally shows up in time for the harvest. Time to air out your sweaters, grab a warm drink, and get to writing and editing, isn’t it? Our Where to Submit Round-up covers new and ongoing submission opportunities to help you out.

hand holding a pen and writing in a notebook

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! You’ll also get our monthly eLitPak. View October’s, which was emailed to our subscribers on Wednesday of this week, here.

Continue reading “Where to Submit Round-up: October 14, 2022”

Book Review :: The Fastening by Julie Doxsee

The Fastening, poetry by Julie Doxsee published by Black Ocean book cover image

Guest Post by Jami Macarty

In The Fastening, Julie Doxsee’s fifth collection, the poet makes a poetry of unburdening “that feeling / she always felt”: imperiled. At the center of these poems is a “flesh-twin” of childhood that arises when a new mother’s fears for the safety of her children trigger a visitation of memories of her own lack of safety as a child:

When I am old enough, I’ll know
a mother’s sunset can’t blacken out
the underside of the door, I’ll know
I can’t stay by the river in the park
because there’s no protection
from being a girl.

(“Masterpiece of the Hijacked Girl”)

As well as being a book that plumbs the experiences of a childhood, the implications of being a daughter, and the meaning of motherhood, this is a book about survival—the precarious survival of a woman and an artist: the “rough forms of me.” In these poems, there always seems to be something inserting hooks, applying thumbs; something to get out from under so the “body / can shake this debt” of gender-blame in pursuit of the pleasure orbiting connections between life partners and between mother and sons. The pleasure that fastens a woman to her life and a poet to her “imagination— / the strobing mono-light blurring as it wails near.” With narrative concision, lyric urgency, and emotional coherence, Julie Doxsee speaks from “roadways that artists can’t / fake.”

The Fastening, Julie Doxsee. Black Ocean Press, May 2022.

Reviewer bio: Jami Macarty is the author of The Minuses (Center for Literary Publishing, 2020), winner of the 2020 New Mexico/Arizona Book Award – Poetry Arizona, and three chapbooks, including Mind of Spring (Vallum, 2017), winner of the 2017 Vallum Chapbook Award. Jami’s writing has been honored by financial support from Arizona Commission on the Arts, British Columbia Arts Council, and by editors at magazines such as The Capilano Review, Concision Poetry Journal, Interim, Redivider, Vallum, and Volt, where Jami’s poems appear. More at https://jamimacarty.com/

If you are interested in contributing a Guest Post to “What I’m Reading,” please click this link: NewPages.com Reviewer Guidelines.

Magazine Stand :: New England Review – 43.3

New England Review print literary magazine issue 43.3 cover image

Cozy into fall with the newest issue of New England Review. Whether exploring the mystery of fever and illness, violence in a synagogue, or a father or mother moving into the past tense, the pieces within frequently take on ultimate things through the earthy particular. A special feature, “Mirroring Practice: Poets Respond to Jasper Johns,” includes new poems by Rick Barot, Khadijah Queen, Cole Swensen, and Brian Teare, written in response to a recent Jasper Johns retrospective. Sushil Lee Park translates Korean women poets from previous centuries, and essays explore cities and wilderness past and present, from a police station in Lagos to the streets of Berlin to Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee. Plus new work by a dozen poets and fiction writers. Browse the full table of contents here. Single copies are available as well as subscriptions.

New England Review dedicates this issue to the memory of Marcia Parlow Pomerance, their steadfast, beloved managing editor from 2013 to 2021, who devoted herself to NER with patience, precision, good humor, and abiding compassion.

New Book :: How to Maintain Eye Contact

How to Maintain Eye Contact poetry by Robert Wood Lynn published by Button Poetry book cover image

How to Maintain Eye Contact
Poetry by Robert Wood Lynn
Button Poetry, January 2023

The 2020 Button Poetry Chapbook Contest Runner-Up, Robert Wood Lynn’s How to Maintain Eye Contact is set in three sections that explore interior uncertainty, interpersonal uncertainty, and uncertainty at a larger scale. These narrative poems, influenced by storytelling traditions, find themselves at the nexus of the intimate and the humorous, as well as the absurd and the tragic. These poems examine isolation and grief in their many forms—through heartbreak or the death of loved ones, or show us the world looking back at itself after it ends. Lynn’s poems have recently appeared in The Cincinnati Review, Narrative Magazine, Shenandoah, The Southern Review, and other journals. He splits his time between Brooklyn, New York, and Rockbridge County, Virginia. Signed copies of How to Maintain Eye Contact are available to order from the publisher’s website.

New Book :: What’s Left to Us by Evening

What's Left to Us by Evening poetry by David Ebenbach published by Orison Books book cover image

What’s Left to Us by Evening
Poetry by David Ebenbach
Orison Books, October 2022

How does one live in a world that is both beautiful and broken—a world of cherry blossoms and gun violence, fellowship and political enmity, plague and rebirth? What’s Left to Us by Evening, David Ebenbach’s unsparing and timely new poetry collection, examines the obligation—and privilege—of carrying it all. Ebenbach is the author of numerous books of fiction, poetry, and essays. He lives in Washington, DC, where he teaches creative writing at Georgetown University.

New Book :: Sit Down and Have a Beer Again

Sit Down and Have a Beer Again poetry and fiction by Greg Wyss published by Cholla Needles Arts & Literary Library book cover image

Sit Down and Have a Beer Again
Fiction and Poetry by Greg Wyss
Cholla Needles Arts & Literary Library, June 2022

The poems and stories that make up Sit Down and Have A Beer, the first chapter here, were in a chapbook published in 1977 by Realities Library. The stories and poems had been published in small press magazines impacting a small cadre of creatives in the country in those days.

The Small Press world of those days was the precursor to the internet – insane editors and publishers who believed that the established publications had simply lost touch with the creative reality of our nation. And, just like the internet, the small presses were eventually bought out by the rich folks who figured out the best way to beat them was to buy them out.

The second chapter of the book contains the other poems that were published in these mags but never collected till now.

The third chapter represents a small sample from When Life Was Like A Cucumber, the great novel about the early 1970’s that tells the story of a young man’s journey of self-discovery and sexual awakening as he tries to find his place in
post-Sixties America.

Where to Submit Round-up: October 6, 2022

Happy October! Leaves are turning color and the weather is making up its mind that it does want to be more like fall. The dog days of summer are now long gone. With cooler weather, it’s a perfect time to work hard on writing, editing, and submitting. Our weekly Where to Submit Round-up is here to help you out.

hand holding a pen and writing in a notebook

Want to get alerts for new opportunities sent directly to your inbox every week 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! You’ll also get our monthly eLitPak (October’s is coming out next week so stay tuned!).

Continue reading “Where to Submit Round-up: October 6, 2022”

Event :: Winter 2022-23 Caesura Poetry Workshop Offerings

Caesura Poetry Workshop logo open book with red bookmark

John Sibley Williams’ Caesura Poetry Workshop has announced Winter 2022-23 virtual events! First off there is a FREE generative workshop taking place Saturday, December 10 via Zoom: Burning Down the Old Year: Writing Poems About the New Year. Then in January, enjoy a critique and generative workshops series happening each Friday while in February these will be held on Sundays.

View their ad in the NewPages Classifieds to learn more.

New Book :: Sweet, Young, & Worried

Sweet Young and Worried poetry by Blythe Baird published by Button Poetry book cover image

Sweet, Young, & Worried
Poetry by Blythe Baird
Button Poetry, November 2022

Following her successful debut, Sweet, Young, & Worried is the sophomore collection by author Blythe Baird. Invoking breathtaking imagery and punching narratives, Baird guides readers on an expedition embracing queerness, love, loss, mental health, feminism, and healing along the way. At only 25 years old, Baird is already recognized and acclaimed for her work in spoken word poetry. Originally from the northwest suburbs of Chicago, the viral writer has garnered international recognition for her performance pieces that speak urgently and honestly about sexual assault, mental illness, eating disorder recovery, sexuality, and healing from trauma. Baird graduated from Hamline University in 2018 with a dual degree in creative writing and women’s studies. In 2020, she became the recipient of the prestigious McKnight Artist Fellowship for Spoken Word administered by The Loft Literary Center in Minnesota. Signed copies of Sweet, Young, & Worried are available to order from the publisher’s website.

Magazine Stand :: Rain Taxi – Fall 2022

Rain Taxi Review of Books print publication cover image Fall 2022

The newest issue of Rain Taxi Review of Books includes an interview with Ryan Blacketter by Arthur Shattuck O’Keefe and an interview with Hillary Leftwich by Zack Koppl. There are also articles readers can enjoy: “Elements of the Icelandic Saga” by Emil Siekkinen, “The New Life” a comic by Gary Sullivan, and “On Writing in Public and Helping the Public Write” by Eric Elshtain, in addition to dozens of reviews of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and comics.

New Lit on the Block :: Radon Journal

Radon Journal issue one online sci fi literary magazine cover image

Radon [rey-don] noun Chemistry + Journal [jur-nl] noun Literature

[entry] what happens when a group of highly educated people with more than fifty years writing experience and twenty-five years in publishing get tired of not seeing their interests represented so create a journal combining libertarian socialism with science fiction.

Initially launched without a masthead, “afraid of potential blowback against a sci-fi anarchist journal of expression,” Radon Editors now reflect, “nothing except love has come our way, and we are proud to provide a professional venue for authors of all forward-thinking stripes.”

Publishing mid-January, May, and September, Radon Journal focuses on science fiction, anarchism, transhumanism, and dystopian literary arts, though they do also look for professional digital artwork for each issue. Stories are available for free reading and download, and they will also provide any requested digital format to their patrons.

The name Radon comes from the publication’s motto: “Radical Perception.” By taking the first three letters and the last two, the editors “forged a snappier name to rally behind. That the word Radon is also a known radioactive gas is simply a delightful coincidence.”

Continue reading “New Lit on the Block :: Radon Journal”

New Book :: Anchor

Anchor poetry by Rebecca Aronson published by Orison Book cover image

Anchor
Poetry by Rebecca Aronson
Orison Books, October 2022

Threaded with epistolary poems to Gravity—envisioned as a capricious god as the author’s father began to fall frequently at the outset of a progressive illness—Aronson’s latest poems contemplate and address what anchors us, literally and figuratively. These poems excavate grief during the process of losing parents, one to physical illness and the other to dementia. But even in the midst of grief, Aronson never loses sight of the larger world, ever present in all its danger and beauty.

Magazine Stand :: The Malahat Review – Summer 2022

The Malahat Review print literary magazine Summer 2022 issue cover image

Eking out the final days of summer, there’s still time to enjoy The Malahat Review‘s newest issue, featuring Novella Prize winner Jenny Ferguson’s “Missing,” along with Poetry by Amy M. Alvarez, Jes Battis, Heather Birrell, Rose Henbest, Meghan Kemp-Gee, Michael Kenyon, Louie Leyson, Lauren Marshall, Jordan Mounteer, Heo Nanseolheon and Lee Okbong (both translated by Suphil Lee Park), K. R. Segriff, and Kenneth Tanemura; Fiction by Martha Nell Cooley; Creative nonfiction by Daniel Allen Cox and Jen Hirt; and Reviews of books by Lee Gowan, Steven Heighton, Tomson Highway, Helen Humphreys, Sarah Mintz, Leah Ranada, and Diane Tucker, as well as three anthologies AfriCANthology: Perspectives of Black Canadian Poets, Me Tomorrow: Indigenous Voices on the Future, and Best Canadian Poetry 2021. Cover art by Jinny Yu.

New Book :: The Anchored World

The Anchored World: Flash Fairy Tales and Folklore Fiction by Jasmine Sawers published by Rose Metal Press book cover image

The Anchored World: Flash Fairy Tales and Folklore
Fiction by Jasmine Sawers
Rose Metal Press, October 2022

A goat begins to grow inside a human heart. The rightful king is born a hard, smooth seashell. Supernovas burst across skin like ink in water. Heartbreak transforms maidens into witches, girls into goblins, mothers into monsters. Hunger drives lovers and daughters, soldiers and ghosts, to unhinge their jaws and swallow the world. Drawing inspiration from a mixed heritage and from history—from the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen to the ancient legends of Thailand, from the suburbs of Buffalo, New York to the endless horizon of the American Midwest—Jasmine Sawers invents a hybrid folklore for liminal characters who live between the lines and within the creases of race and language, culture and gender, sexuality and ability. The Anchored World: Flash Fairy Tales and Folklore is equal parts love letter to the old tales and indictment of their shortcomings, offering a new mythology to reflect the many faces and voices of the twenty-first century.

Books Received October 2022

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 “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

All the Blood Involved in Love, Maya Marshall, Haymarket Books
Anchor, Rebecca Aronson, Orison Books
Belly to the Brutal, Jennifer Givhan, Wesleyan University Press
Duets, Alexis Rhone Fancher & Cynthia Atkins, Small Harbor Publishing
The Elliott Erwitt Poems, Simon Perchik, Cholla Needles Art & Literary Library
F & G, D. Marie Fitzgerald, Cholla Needles Art & Literary Library
Green Burial, Derek Graf, Elixir Press
How to Maintain Eye Contact, Robert Wood Lynn, Button Poetry
How Much?, Jerome Sala, NYQ Books
How to Cut a Woman in Half, Janis Harrington, Able Muse Press
Never Catch Me, Darius Simpson, Button Poetry
O, Tammy Nguyen, Ugly Duckling Press
Poetry Mountain, David Chorlton, Cholla Needles Art & Literary Library
Selected Poems, Takuboku Ishikawa, Cholla Needles Art & Literary Library
Seven Stars Anthology 1973-1998, realities library
Sit Down And Have A Beer Again, Greg Wyss, Cholla Needles Art & Literary Library
Sweet, Young, & Worried, Blythe Baird, Button Poetry
Talk Smack to a Hurricane, Lynne Jensen Lampe, IceFloe Books
Tits on the Moon, Dessa, Rain Taxi Review of Books
What’s Left to Us by Evening, David Ebenbach, Orison Books

Continue reading “Books Received October 2022”

New Book :: Dancing for Our Tribe

Dancing for My Tribe: Potawatomi Traditions in the New Millennium by Sharon Hoogstraten published by The University of Oklahoma Press book cover image

Dancing for Our Tribe: Potawatomi Tradition in the New Millennium
Native American/U.S. History by Sharon Hoogstraten
The University of Oklahoma Press, July 2022
Hardcover, 304 pages, 9.5 X 13 format
272 Color and 32 B&W Illustrations, 2 maps

In the heyday of the Anishinaabe Confederacy, the Potawatomis spread across Canada, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin. Pressured by the westward expansion of the fledgling United States of America, they became the most treatied of any Indian tribe. Forced removals and multiple treaty-era relocations resulted in cultural chaos and an enduring threat to their connections to the ancestors. Despite these hardships, they have managed to maintain (or restore) their rich heritage.

Beginning with Citizen Potawatomi Nation, photographer and Citizen Potawatomi Sharon Hoogstraten visited all nine nations of the scattered Potawatomi tribe to construct a permanent record of present-day Potawatomis wearing the traditional regalia passed down through the generations, modified to reflect the influence and storytelling of contemporary life. While the silver monochrome portraits that captured Native life at the turn of the twentieth century are a priceless record of those times, they contribute to the impression that most Indian tribes exist only as obscure remnants of a dimly remembered past. With more than 150 formal portraits and illuminating handwritten statements, Dancing for Our Tribe portrays the fresh reality of today’s Native descendants and their regalia: people who live in a world of assimilation, sewing machines, polyester fabrics, duct tape, tattoos, favorite sports teams, proud military service, and high-resolution digital cameras.

The Potawatomi nations have merged loss and optimism to reinforce their legacy for generations to come. We learn from the elders the old arts of language, ribbonwork, beading, and quillwork with renewed urgency. Preserving Potawatomi culture, tribal members are translating traditional designs into their own artistic celebration of continuing existence, lighting the path forward for the next seven generations. Dancing for Our Tribe illustrates vividly that in this new millennium, “We Are Still Here.”

Magazine Stand :: Kenyon Review – Sept/Oct 2022

Kenyon Review print literary magazine September October 2022 issue cover image

The Sept/Oct 2022 issue of Kenyon Review includes fiction by Sena Moon, Matthew Neill Null, and Adam Wilson; poetry by Lillian-Yvonne Bertram, Jenny George, Rochelle Hurt, and Shelley Wong; and nonfiction by Tan Tuck Ming. Plus, readers will enjoy works from the winner and runners-up of the 2022 Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers:

First Prize: Sophie Bernik’s “Come Closer”
Runner Up: Madison Xu’s “For My Father Who Lives Alone”
Runner Up: Myra Kamal’s “Diptych on Getting from Point A to Point B”

New Book :: Selected Poems

Selected Poems by Takuboku Ishikawa edited by r soos published by Cholla Needles Arts & Literary Library book cover image

Selected Poems
Poetry by Takuboku Ishikawa
Edited by r soos
Cholla Needles Arts & Literary Library, August 2022

This book is a selection of Ishikawa’s youthful poems, and a complete imagining into English of his final collection known in English as Grieving Playthings, Sad Toys, and more specifically Suffering Playthings. For over 100 years Ishikawa’s work has been exciting for the modern reader because he was among the very first to bring the depths of his inner turmoil as a human being to life on the page.

New Book :: All the Blood Involved in Love

All the Blood Involved in Love poetry by Maya Marshall published by Haymarket Books book cover image

All the Blood Involved in Love
Poetry by Maya Marshall
Haymarket Books, June 2022

In a moment of critical struggle for reproductive justice, Maya Marshall’s haunting debut, All the Blood Involved in Love, meditates on womanhood—with and without motherhood. Traversing familial mythography with an unflinching seriousness, Marshall moves deftly between contemporary politics, the stakes of race and interracial partnership, and the monetary, mental, and physical costs of adopting or birthing a Black child. Maya Marshall, a writer, and editor, is cofounder of underbellymag.com, the journal on the practical magic of poetic revision. As an educator, Marshall has taught at Northwestern University and Loyola University Chicago. She holds fellowships from MacDowell, Vermont Studio Center, Callaloo, The Watering Hole, Community of Writers, and Cave Canem.

Magazine Stand :: Willawaw Journal – Fall 2022

Willawaw Journal online literary magazine Fall 2022 issue cover image

The newest issue of Willawaw Journal is now online for poetry and art lovers to enjoy! This issue features contributors from 22 different states and four different countries, 22 men and 19 women. Twenty-six of the forty-one poets are first-time Willawaw contributors, and an array of talent, emerging to very well-established: Kenneth Anderson, Frank Babcock, Jodi Balas, Louise Cary Barden, Carol Berg, Robert Beveridge, Ace Boggess, Jeff Burt, Natalie Callum, Dale Champlin, Margaret Chula, Richard Dinges, Rachel Fogarty, Matthew Friday, D. Dina Friedman, David A. Goodrum, John Grey, Allen Helmstetter, James Kangas, David Kirby, Tricia Knoll, Linda Laderman, Kurt Luchs, Stacy Boe Miller, Kathryn Moll, John C. Morrison, John Muro, Toti O’Brien, John Palen, Darrell Petska, Vivienne Popperl, Laura Ann Reed, Erica Reid, Lindsay Rockwell, Beate Sigriddaughter, Jeffrey Thompson, Elinor Ann Walker, William F. Welch, Charles Weld, Kevin Winchester. David Memmott is the featured artist, sharing a high-energy and high-chroma palette of work based on photo and ink drawing, which he calls his “Crooked Comix.” He is also a contributing poet.

Poem Review :: Ode on My Nightingale by Barbara Hamby

Barbara Hamby headshot

Guest Post by Aimee L.

The nightingale is often considered a songbird well known for its melodies that spur feelings of love and romance in people. It is a bird that symbolizes romanticism, which is something that Barbara Hamby’s “Ode on My Nightingale” captures. Hamby [pictured], like a nightingale, strings together a melody depicting the beauty and terror that nighttime brings—the broken dreams, regrets, the loneliness. But despite these quieter moments, she depicts a sense of wonder. “My nightingale is the conquistador of moonlight.” Reading this opening line, I felt reassured. I realized how life shines in the darkness—in the “derivative of sin,” as Hamby puts it. One passage, in particular, speaks to me: “…and I am your little god, / your drinking water straight from the stream, / for my song is spooling into the night forever / and ever, amen.” It’s a little magical.

“Ode on My Nightingale” by Barbara Hamby. 32 Poems, Spring/Summer 2020.

Reviewer Bio: Aimee L. is a regular college student and aspiring “writer.”

If you are interested in contributing a Guest Post to “What I’m Reading,” please click this link: NewPages.com Reviewer Guidelines.

New Book :: Never Catch Me

Never Catch Me poetry by Darius Simpson published by Button Poetry book cover image

Never Catch Me
Poetry by Darius Simpson
Button Poetry, October 2022

Darius Simpson’s debut collection Never Catch Me centers on Black boyhood in the midwest and familial disintegration over time. Simpson pulls back the curtain, exposing the violence enacted against and upon, Black bodies, and yet, still, each poem is saturated in revolution and hope. Never Catch Me is the anthem necessary to organize a community that is committed to a better right now–one that can only be achieved with an intensity and action that goes far beyond the page. Darius Simpson is a writer, educator, performer, and skilled living room dancer from Akron, Ohio. Much like the means of production, he believes poetry belongs to and with the masses. He aims to inspire those chills that make you frown and slightly twist up ya face in approval. Darius believes in the dissolution of the empire and the total liberation of Afrikans and all oppressed people by any means available. Free The People. Free The Land. Free All Political Prisoners. Signed copies of Never Catch Me are available to order from the publisher’s website.

Where to Submit Round-up: September 30, 2022

hand holding a pen and writing in a notebook

It’s the final day of September already. The year keeps marching forward leaving us no time to take a break it seems. Don’t miss out on all the September 30 and October 1 deadlines below in our Where to Submit Round-up! And with October literally around the corner, do check out our Big List of Writing Contests for those with October deadlines and beyond.

Want to get alerts for new opportunities sent directly to your inbox every week 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! You’ll also get our monthly eLitPak (view September’s here) along with the occasional promotional emails from advertisers.

Continue reading “Where to Submit Round-up: September 30, 2022”

Magazine Stand :: Hippocampus – Sept/Oct 2022

Hippocampus literary magazine logo

The September-October 2022 issue of Hippocampus Magazine offers fresh essays, flash CNF, reviews, interviews, and craft and writing life columns. Contributors include Rick Brown, Sarah M. Clifford, Stephanie Eardley, Aiysha Jahan, Karen Kao, Mark Lucius, Susan Morehouse, Suzanne Orrell, Brooke Randel, Sara Streeter, and Yvanna Vien Tica. Hippocampus speaks with Sabine Hossenfelder, author of Existential Physics: A Scientist’s Guide to Life’s Big Questions, and Linda Murphy Marshall, author of Ivy Lodge: A Memoir of Translation and Discovery. And readers will appreciate Kristen Paulson-Nguyen’s Writing Life column, “How a Lit Mag Can Grow You,” in which she shares how getting involved with the literary community opened doors, as well as Nicole Breit’s Craft column, “Big Writing Dreams? Here’s Why You Need to Enter CNF Contests,” which dishes some solid submissions advice.

Magazine Stand :: Cholla Needles – 70

Cholla Needles poetry magazine issue 70 cover image

Based out of Joshua Tree, California, and edited by r soos, Cholla Needles is a unique celebration of poetry that highlights ten writers each month, offering readers several works by each, divided into individual “chapbooks” within the print publication. In this newest issue, readers can explore the works of Juan Delgado, Bettina T. Barrett, Bray McDonald, Cati Porter, Fernando Fidanza, Kathy French, Michale H. Brownstein, Tobi Alfier, Mark T. Evans, Marlene M. Tartaglione, and Roger G. Singer. (Okay, this month had 11 poets – bonus!) Cover image by Kathy French. Cholla Needles also provides monthly readings and other events in their area. A true literary boon!

New Book :: Rules of Order

Rules of Order fiction by Jeff Vande Zande published by Montag Press cover art by Andrew Reider book cover image

Rules of Order
Fiction by Jeff Vande Zande
Montag Press, August 2022

Written in a fever dream during the first five weeks of the 2020 Covid lockdown, Jeff Vande Zande’s newest novel, Rules of Order, tells the story of Harvey Crowe, a community activist, who lives in what could be the last remaining high-rise building on the wrecked planet. Cracks in the ground-floor apartments are appearing exponentially. The building’s tensile strength can’t possibly hold against the load it bears. Crowe works tirelessly to inform tenants on the upper floors that the weight of their possessions could bring the entire building down. Working with ACT (the Anti-Collapse Trust), Crowe encounters obstacles to his message, including indifferent tenants, his self-doubt, hostile security guards, and a co-op board, headed by the corrupt Chairman Burke. Even as Crowe makes meaningful alliances with other influential tenants, he can feel the way they are working against a ticking clock. With time running out, Crowe and his militant colleague Dagmar carry out a desperate plan to save what might be the planet’s last habitable space. The book features a number of boardroom scenes driven by Robert’s Rules of Order, most likely influenced by Vande Zande’s time working as a college English teacher and witnessing such nonsense in real life. Cover art features the painting Mine by art teaching colleague Andrew Reider.

Magazine Stand :: The Georgia Review – Fall 2022

The Georgia Review literary magazine Fall 2022 issue cover image

The Georgia Review’s Fall 2022 issue is now available, with new writing from Irena Klepfisz, Myronn Hardy, Dujie Tahat, Kevin Moffett, and many more, as well as translated work by Kim Soom, Sónia Hernández, and Wendy Guerra. The art pages feature a portfolio from the exhibition Returns: Cherokee Diaspora and Art with an essay by curator Ashley Holland. Readers can find several works available to read online. In this issue, Editor Gerald Maa annouced the inaugural Georgia Review Prose Prize, which will be judged by Jennine Capó Crucet. Submissions will be accepted from 1 November–15 January. “The best short story and essay will both be published. The overall winner, chosen between the two, will receive a $1,500 honorarium and an expenses-paid trip to read with Crucet at the 2023 Smithsonian Asian American Literature Festival in Washington, D.C. The runner-up will receive a $600 prize.”

Contest :: 2023 Virginia B. Ball Creative Writing Competition

2023 Virginia B. Ball Creative Writing Competition from Interlochen Arts Academy

Interlochen Arts Academy’s creative writing program is accepting applications for its Virginia B. Ball Creative Writing Competition. This is open to students in grades 8-11 during the 2022-23 school year and awards a full-tuition scholarship.

Stop by the NewPages Classifieds to learn more.

Review :: Two Poems by Maria Zoccola

two poems by Maria Zoccola from Booth online literary magazine link image

Guest Post by Hayley Davis

I came across two striking poems by Maria Zoccoloa while reading Booth online literary journal. I enjoyed the first poem, “helen of troy makes an entrance,” because it is about the beauty of childbirth and compares it to an egg being broken to reveal a baby. The author talks about how she came into this world, a story waiting to be told and with a name meant to be given to her. The second poem I found to be equally interesting. Titled, “loggerhead excavation, tybee island,” this poem is about a biologist hatching babies into the world. It is another poem exploring the gift of life, and how animals and people are born into this world with the intention of living and being free.

Two Poems by Maria Zoccola. Booth, September 2, 2022.

Reviewer Bio: Hayley Davis is 27 years old and living in Honolulu, Hawaii. Hayley is a student at Windward Community College studying for a liberal arts degree.

If you are interested in contributing a Guest Post to “What I’m Reading,” please click this link: NewPages.com Reviewer Guidelines.

Magazine Stand :: The Shore – Issue 15

The Shore online poetry magazine issue 15 Autumn 2022 cover image

The Shore issue 15 is here to bring in the autumn with crisp new poems by Michael Emmanuel, Jill Crammond, Ali Wood, Amy Wang, Lynne Ellis, Doug Ramspeck, Robert Carr, Nano Taggart, Mary Ford Neal, Jessica Baldanzi, Anne Cheilek, Jeanna Paden, Elizabeth Joy Levinson, Juliana Gray, Madelyn Musick, Ryler Dustin, Michelle Park, McKenzie Teter, Lawrence Di Stefano, Alicia Byrne Keane, Erin Little, Abigail Chang, Ion Corcos, Alec Hershman, Alison Hurwitz, Rachel Walker, Jared Beloff, Sarah Wallis, Brooke Harries, Adam Day, Maria Hiers, Bobby Parrott, Hannah Schoettmer, Lora Robinson, Jesse Fleming, Taylor Cornelius, Jennifer Metsker, Carson Sawyer, Gary Fox, and Annalee Roustio. This issue also features “gasp-worthy” art by Kaelyn Wright! All free to read online, so click on over and check it out today!

Magazine Stand :: Bullets into Bells – September 2022

Bullets into Bells Poets and Citizens Respond to Gun Violence anthology book cover image

Since Bullets into Bells: Poets & Citizens Respond to Gun Violence was published in 2017 (Beacon Press), the effort has continued to share poems, essays, music, videos, fiction, and other work on the BulletsintoBells.com website. The editors are now committed to publishing one new piece about the scourge of gun violence every week going forward, starting with “Black Marker” by Claire Hsu Accomado and “On Facts, the ABCs, and Lands of the Lost” by Jen Schneider. The publication is open to submissions.

Bullets into Bells anthology was a powerful call to end American gun violence from celebrated poets and those most impacted. Focused intensively on the crisis of gun violence in America, the volume brought together works by poets like Billy Collins, Patricia Smith, Natalie Diaz, Ocean Vuong, Danez Smith, Brenda Hillman, Natasha Threthewey, Robert Hass, Naomi Shihab Nye, Juan Felipe Herrera, Mark Doty, Rita Dove, and Yusef Komunyakaa.

Each poem in the collection is followed by a response from a gun violence prevention activist, political figure, survivor, or concerned individual, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jody Williams; Senator Christopher Murphy; Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts; survivors of the Columbine, Sandy Hook, Charleston Emmanuel AME, and Virginia Tech shootings; and Samaria Rice, mother of Tamir, and Lucy McBath, mother of Jordan Davis.

What the anthology began, the website continues by sharing works that speak directly to the heart, providing a continuously persuasive and moving testament to the urgent need for gun control.

Book Review :: We Won’t Be Here Tomorrow by Margaret Killjoy

We Won't Be Here Tomorrow and Other Stories by Margaret Killjoy published by AK Press book cover image

Guest Post by Saga

Suspenseful and thought-provoking, We Won’t Be Here Tomorrow and Other Stories by Margaret Killjoy is a collection that moves skillfully from humor to horror, passing between science fiction and fantasy to depict human strength and determination against forces both supernatural and all too real. Killjoy’s clear, gripping voice comes through as her cast of queer characters face flesh-eating ghouls, murderous time travelers, post-apocalyptic militias — and other, more mundane threats such as law enforcement, fascists, and nature itself. We might not be here tomorrow, they say, but we’ll fight like hell today.

We Won’t Be Here Tomorrow and Other Stories by Margaret Killjoy. AK Press, September 2022

Reviewer bio: Saga is a writer and editor currently working on a publishing master’s degree on the East Coast. Enjoys sci-fi, video games, worldbuilding, and iced tea. Annual National Novel Writing Month survivor and Radon Journal editor.

If you are interested in contributing a Guest Post to “What I’m Reading,” please click this link: NewPages.com Reviewer Guidelines.

New Book :: Talk Smack to a Hurricane

Talk Smack to a Hurricane poetry collection by Lynne Jensen Lampe book cover image

Talk Smack to a Hurricane
Poetry by Lynne Jensen Lampe
IceFloe Press, September 2022

In her first published poetry collection, Lynne Jensen Lampe deals intimately and specifically with the impact of her mother’s mental illness. The poems in Talk Smack to a Hurricane explore their relationship, a bond bruised by absence and shaped by psychiatry. One sequence, eight erasures sourced from a letter the author’s mother wrote the day after giving birth, tells of a new mother happy with life until an inexplicable mental shift sends her from maternity ward to psych ward—for a year, 2400 miles away from her infant and husband. Using vivid imagery, startling sonics, and odd juxtapositions, Lampe explores a tender and volatile mother-daughter relationship that fed love as well as insecurities. Talk Smack to a Hurricane also includes details of 1883 asylum records, lobotomies, even 1960s fashion icons. In examining family heritage, antisemitism, and the quest for identity, the collection also fights both shame and stigma.

Magazine Stand :: Tint Journal – Fall 2022

Tint Journal online literary art magazine Fall 2022 issue cover image

The online literary magazine for non-native English creative writing, Tint Journal Founder and Editor-in-Chief Lisa Schantl introduces the newest issue focusing on the English language and the roles it can play as a mode of expression both literary and political. This eighth issue of Tint Journal was thematically open and drew submissions from a broad range of geographical backgrounds, from South Africa to Germany, from Japan to Cuba, and Ukrain. “Thematically, the issue is just as diverse,” Schantl notes, “and readers will be confronted with big questions like What is home? What does freedom mean? How can peace be found? Mingled with these are texts in the style of magical realism, texts with a focus on semantics and yet other texts that tell of loss, love or nostalgic childhood memories.”

Each text contribution was published with a visual artwork by international artists, curated by Vanesa Erjavec, and a short interview with the author. Many of the texts can also be heard as audio clips, read by the writers themselves.

Authors in Tint Fall ’22: Fiction: Alla Barsukova, Min “Matthew” Choi, M.M. Coelho, Linda Dedkova, Volha Kastsiuk, Daniel Ogba, Sergii Pershyn, Helia S. Rethman. Nonfiction: Aysel K. Basci, Kaori Fujimoto, Viktoriia Grivina, Brinda Gulati, Lázaro Gutiérrez, Fezeka Mkhabela, Bianca-Olivia Nita, Hantian Zhang. Poetry: Pragya Dhiman, Giulia Ottavia Frattini, Natalia Kropp, Chanlee Luu, Constance Mello, Giada Pesce, Akhila Pingali, Sunday T. Saheed, Joris Soeding.
Artists in Tint Fall ’22: Xisha Angelova, Julia Barczewska, Lal Buraans, Nathan Cho, Kate Choi, Alison Cimmet, Trevor Coppersmith, Tamir David, Anastasia Dzyba, Tataru Alexandra Emanuela, Vanesa Erjavec, Vanesa Erjavec, Pedro Gomes, Inga Gurgenidze, Lisa Hopf, Jury Judge, Tamzin Merivale, Sofie Pasheva, Arusyak Pivazyan, Ipung Purnomo, Peter Rieser, Ana Rincon, Val Smets, Ilias Tsagas, Rabail.

All texts from this and past issues can be read free of charge at www.tintjournal.com.

New Book :: House of the Nine Devils

House of the Nine Devils fiction by Johannes Urzidil published by Twisted Spoon Press book cover image

House of the Nine Devils: Selected Bohemian Tales
Fiction by Johannes Urzidil
Twisted Spoon Press, November 2022

Collected here and translated into English for the first time
are some of the most renowned Bohemian stories from Prague native Johannes Urzidil, a long-neglected writer whose short fiction herein spans centuries, from the bygone mythical Prague of alchemists to the late Habsburg metropolis where ethnic tensions seethed under a genteel veneer to the terror-filled days of Nazi occupation and a desperate flight to safety. Bearing his trademark wisdom, empathy, and wit, the writing often blurs the border between reportage, memoir, and fiction, such as an encounter with Gavrilo Princip, wasting away in the Terezín prison after his assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, or a WWI soldier trying to evade military police and thus disrupting a night at Café Arco, a favorite haunt of the Prague Circle that included Brod, Kafka, and Werfel, as well as Urzidil, the group’s youngest member and one of the last links to that symbiotic milieu of Prague German-Jewish artists. Translated from the German by David Burnett.

New Book :: The Illuminated Burrow

The Illuminated Burrow fiction by Max Belcher published by Twisted Spoon Press book cover image

The Illuminated Burrow: A Sanatorium Journal
Fiction by Max Belcher
Twisted Spoon Press, November 2022

Max Blecher began writing The Illuminated Burrow in 1937 and continued working on it until his death the following spring, but its full version was only published posthumously in 1971. It was the final “novel” in what can be called a trilogy that includes Adventures in Immediate Irreality and Scarred Hearts, and like those, its imaginative distortion of real experiences is reminiscent of Bruno Schulz as well as the Surrealist autofiction of André Breton and Michel Leiris. Set in the sanatoria where Blecher received treatment for spinal tuberculosis, the ostensible narrator is forced to confront the power and limitations of memory as he attempts to capture the last moments of life as they pass “like ash … through a sieve,” one final effort to reclaim the beauty of days spent straddling the boundary between waking and dreaming, encountering the marvelous both inside and outside the sanatorium’s walls, inside and outside his very body. As his physical powers decline and he becomes permanently bedridden, the narrator’s life migrates to his inner consciousness, an “illuminated burrow” where reality is indistinguishable from fantasy, where the surreal and the mundane seamlessly fuse to enact the fears and fascinations elicited by the vibrant world that is gradually slipping away. Translated from the Romanian by Gabi Reigh with an afterword by Gabriela Glăvan.

Magazine Stand :: The Woven Tale Press – September 2022

The Woven Tale Press literary magazine v 10 n 6 2022 cover image

The newest issue of The Woven Tale Press is available for free reading online once you register, or you can order a print copy via MagCloud. This newest collection features embroidered paitings, photo transfers, installation art, poetry, prose, and more from Jessie Bloom, Stanislav Bojankov, Gray Brokaw, Maddie Hinrichs, Coralie Huon, Jeanne LaCasse, Sydney Lea, Farah Mohammad, Bruce Murphey, Mike Reis, Barbara Schweitzer, and Gina Troisi. The editors promise an eclectic mix of literary and visual arts with an effort to “grow the online presence of noteworthy writers and artists.” Many contributors have links to their own websites as well as art galleries.

New Book :: Tits on the Moon

Tits on the Moon by Dessa book cover image

Tits on the Moon
Poetry by Dessa
Doomtree and Rain Taxi, October 2022

Tits on the Moon features a dozen “stage poems,” many of which Dessa performs at her legendary live shows; they’re funny, weird, and occasionally bittersweet. The collection opens with a short essay on craft (and the importance of having a spare poem around for when the power goes out). Published by Rain Taxi Review of Books in association with Doomtree, Tits on the Moon features a stunning cover pressed with gold foil and structurally embossed, designed by Studio on Fire. “Singer, rapper, and writer Dessa has made a career of bucking genres and defying expectations—her résumé as a musician includes performances at Lollapalooza and Glastonbury, co-compositions for 100-voice choir, performances with the Minnesota Orchestra, and top-200 entries on the Billboard charts.”

New & Noted Lit & Alt Mags – September 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!

Allegro Poetry Magazine, Issue 29
American Poetry Review, September/October 2022
Arc Poetry Magazine, Summer 2022
The Baltimore Review, Summer 2022
The Baltimore Review 2022 Annual
Blink-Ink, #49
Bullets into Bells, September 2022
Chestnut Review, Summer 2022
Cholla Needles, 68
Cholla Needles, 69
Communities, Fall 2022
Cutleaf, August 2022
December, Spring/Summer 2022
Fictive Dream, August-September 2022
Gargoyle, 75 [print]
Gargoyle, 76 [CD]

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

Magazine Stand :: The Society of Classical Poets – September 2022

The Society of Classical Poets Journal 2022 cover image

The Society of Classical Poets Journal publishes a print annual of poetry, translations, and essays selected from those published on the SCP website between February and January as well as artwork for inclusion in the print copy. Throughout the year, readers can find these works on a rolling basis, making each visit to the website a new reading discovery. Recent works include “Last Place Winner” by Guy Warner; a poem on gun control and other poems by Stephen M. Dickey; “Mid-September Reverie” by Roy E. Peterson; “Athena Emboldens Telemachus: Book 1 of The Odyssey Complete Text,” translated by Mike Solot; “The Salt Spring Island Trolls” by Norma Pain; “Obedience” by Giuseppe Gioachino Belli, Translated by Joseph S. Salemi (with a Long Note); a poem on drug abuse “An American Tragedy” by Phil S. Rogers; “The Beginning of Wisdom” by T.M.A. Day; a poem for those affected by the Mill Fire in Siskiyou County, “In Silence I Sing,” by James A. Tweedie; and “The Adjudication” by Anthony Watts, along with many other poems and essays all free to read online.

Where to Submit Round-up: September 23, 2022

hand holding a pen and writing in a notebook

The weather has decidedly taken a more fall-like turn with lows in the 30s and high in the 60s. A perfect time to start staying indoors to write, edit, and submit. Enjoy the Where to Submit Round-up for the week of September 23, 2022 for help keeping your submission goals going strong.

Since next week ends September, don’t forget about all the end of September and beginning of October deadlines!

Want to get alerts for new opportunities sent directly to your inbox every week 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! You’ll also get our monthly eLitPak (view September’s here) along with the occasional promotional emails from advertisers.

Continue reading “Where to Submit Round-up: September 23, 2022”

Contest :: Fifth Annual Open Book Prize—$1,500 and Publication

Conduit Books & Ephemera Book Prizes

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.

Magazine Stand :: The Baltimore Review – Summer 2022

The Baltimore Review literary magazine 2022 print edition cover image

Publishing since 1996, The Baltimore Review is an online and print journal of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry, as well as visual and video arts. The newest issue continues to deliver a quality experience with works by Heather Bartos, Garrett Candrea, Elizabeth J. Coleman, Hilal Isler, Garret Keizer, Karis Lee, Joshua Jones Lofflin, Rachael Lyon, Abby E. Murray, Christopher Notarnicola, Jonathan Odell, Jennifer Saunders, Jill Witty, Andy Young, and Alison Zheng. And while the online issues offer greater accessibility, The Baltimore Review still likes to offer readers the tactile print experience with their annual compilation of poems, fiction, and creative nonfiction published in their Summer and Fall 2021 and Winter and Spring 2022 issues. Readers can purchase the print copy through Amazon or on the publication’s website.

New Book :: How to Cut a Woman in Half

How to Cut a Woman in Half poetry by Janis Harrington published by Able Muse Press book cover image

How to Cut a Woman in Half
Poetry by Janis Harrington
Able Muse Press, November 2022

Janis Harrington’s How to Cut a Woman in Half is a testament to resiliency in the throes of mounting family tragedies and trials “beyond human comprehension.” This odyssey from loss toward recovery and hope celebrates the boundless love and support between siblings. Using an adapted sonnet form, Harrington has wrought a taut and spellbinding tale in this finalist for the 2020 Able Muse Book Award. Janis Harrington’s first book, Waiting for the Hurricane, won the Lena M. Shull Book Award from the North Carolina Poetry Society. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Tar River Poetry, Journal of the American Medical Association, North Carolina Literary Review, and Beyond Forgetting: Poetry and Prose about Alzheimer’s Disease. After living in Switzerland for many years, she and her husband returned to Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Magazine Stand :: Humana Obscura – Fall/Winter 2022

Humana Obscura literary art magazine Fall Winter 2022 cover image

Humana Obscura is a gorgeous literary/art publication, available to read digitally online for free (via Issuu) or readers can order single print copies. The Fall/Winter 2022 issue features work by 82 new, emerging, and established contributors from around the globe, as far as New Zealand, The Netherlands, Germany, Malaysia, Scotland, Mexico, Greece, and throughout the United States and Canada. Contributors include Amy Aiken, Subhaga Crystal Bacon, Elizabeth Barlow, Sienna Taggart, Gail Peck, Nick Olah, KB Ballentine, Luke Levi, Jasmin Javon, Najib Joe Hakim, Jolie B. Kates, Tiffany Mackay, Darnia Hobson, Jaqui Somen, Matt Rogers, Danielle Petti, Alan Toltzis, Michelle Ortega, Joon Song, Jean Ayotte, Ellen Rowland, Katie Mollon, Katherine Harnisch, Tiffany Tuchek, Joshua St. Clare, Kerstin Voigt, Robert Fanning, Kateri Kosek, Bonnie Matthews Brock, and so many more.