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NewPages Blog

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

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.”

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.

Magazine Stand :: Allegro Poetry Magazine – Issue 29

Allegro online poetry magazine Issue 29 logo image

Publishing two issues of Allegro Poetry Magazine a year, Editor Sally Long hasn’t missed a beat since 2014. Each online issue is free to read and features a fine selection of works that are not longer than 40 lines each. Long introduces Issue 29: “When I set the theme of ‘Freedom’ I had in mind an expression of solidarity with the poets and people of Ukraine and others around the world whose freedom is threatened by war and various forms of oppression. I’m pleased that the theme captured the imagination of so many poets. I’m especially delighted to be welcoming poets from Ukraine whose works are featured in this edition. I hope you enjoy reading the variety of interpretations of freedom represented in Issue 29.”

Authors who made this cut this issue include Dee Allen, Rupa Anand, Byron Beynon, Fiona Cartwright, David Chorlton, Craig Dobson, Philip Dunkerley, Tim Dwyer, Paul Fenn, S.C. Flynn, Cole Henry Forster, Jeff Gallagher, Rebecca Gethin, Marcello Giovanelli, Amlanjyoti Goswami, Robin Helweg-Larsen, Eve Jackson, Vyacheslav Konoval, Steve Lang, Mary Mulholland, Eira Needham, Robert Nisbet, Jon Plunkett, Marc Isaac Potter, Mykyta Ryzhykh, Finola Scott, Louise Warren, and Gareth Writer-Davies.

The next submission window is December 1-January 31 for the March 23 edition, which is a general issue with no set theme.

Able Muse 2022 Contest Winners

Brian Brodeur headshot winner of the Able Muse Poetry Prize 2022

Able Muse: A Review of Poetry Prose and Art has announced the winners of the Write Prize for Poetry and Fiction, judged anonymously throughout by the Able Muse Contest Committee and the final judges, Dennis Must for fiction, and Aaron Poochigian or poetry. The winning writer and the winning poet each receive a $500 prize.

FICTION WINNER: Lorna Brown – “Looking for Anna”

Here is what Dennis Must has to say about Lorna Brown’s winning story: “‘Fiction is the art form of human yearning . . . absolutely essential to any work of fictional narrative art—a character who yearns. And that is not the same as a character who simply has problems . . .’—Robert Olen Butler. Lorna Brown’s ‘Looking For Anna’ embodies the lifeblood of those stories that endure in our memory stream long after they have been read.”

POETRY WINNER: Brian Brodeur [pictured] – “On Mistaking a Stranger for a Dead Friend”

Here is what Aaron Poochigian has to say about Brian Brodeur’s winning poem: “‘On Mistaking a Stranger for a Dead Friend’ has it all—the sounds, the psychology (a whole theory of memory) and, most important of all, playfulness even when the subject is tragic. Bird, riverbank, and a random encounter all blend into a perfect representation of a human mind at work. Bravo!”

Visit the Able Muse blog for a full list of finalists and honorable mentions. Winners and finalists will be published in the Winter 2022/23 issue.

Magazine Stand :: Fictive Dream – August-September 2022

Fictive Dream short stories online logo

Fictive Dream is an online magazine for well-crafted and compelling short stories “that give an insight into the human condition.” Publishing several features on a rolling basis monthly, it’s a good idea to sign up for their email notifications so you never miss out on what’s new. Recent additions include “House Porn” by Francesca Leader, “Hangar Straight” by Emily Macdonald, “Now We Are Things” by Joanna Theiss, “The Vocabulary Builder of Utopia Gardens” by Roberta Beary, “Divine Intervention” by Mary Carroll Moore, “Vivana’s Aunt” by Gay Degani, as well as stories by Melissa Llanes Brownlee, Chris Haven, DS Levy, Mary Grimm, Sara Dobbie, Michelle Panik, Kerry Hadley-Pryce, and Gary Fincke. Each story is accompanied by an original artwork or photo.

New Book :: Murder in Times Square

Murder in Times Square a novel by William Baer published by Many Words Press book cover image

Murder in Times Square
Fiction by William Baer
Many Words Press, February 2023

Murder in Times Square, a Deirdre Mystery, initiates a new series by the author of the popular Jack Colt mystery series: When a young woman in a red designer dress falls twenty-five stories from the roof of Times Square One, the well-known New York fashion model known as Deirdre resolves to unravel the mystery. Capable and determined, Deirdre is relentless in her drive to unravel the mystery and find justice for the victim, while protecting those she loves from looming threats. Baer, who has worked in New York City’s fashion district, showcases not only his depth of knowledge of the fashion industry but also of New York City and its landmarks and history. He weaves an intricate, fast-paced, and spellbinding narrative that takes us through New York City, Atlantic City, the Jersey Shore, and the Caribbean. In Murder in Times Square, Baer once again proves he is a master of suspense and intrigue. Many Words Press is an imprint of Able Muse Press.

Magazine Stand :: Jewish Fiction .net Issue 31

Jewish Fiction .net online literary magazine Issue 31 cover image

The newest issue of Jewish Fiction .net is the Rosh Hashana issue, which includes 18 stories originally written in Czech, Yiddish, Hebrew, and English – and in honor of the upcoming holidays, this new issue features no less than 5 stories translated from Hebrew. This brings to 525 the number of works published by Jewish Fiction .net, that were either written in English or translated from 18 languages. Readers can find works by Eli Amir, Shira Gorshman, Jakuba Katalpa, Mayan Rogel, Yishai Sarid, Dorit Shiloh, Steve Stern, and many more. All available to read free online.

New Book :: O

O poetry by Tammy Nguyen published by Ugly Duckling Presse book cover image

O
Poetry by Tammy Nguyen
Ugly Duckling Presse, September 2022

From a dentist’s office in San Francisco to the caves of the Phong Nha Karst, Tammy Nguyen’s O sounds the depths of personal, mineral, and geopolitical histories of Vietnam. In this many-threaded narrative, a wind that carved mountains whistles through a young girl’s teeth. The electric green of a plastic forest glints off of glazed porcelain. The shape of a bowl becomes the mouth of a cave. What emerges is a story without a center: an anti-allegory that finds its meaning in echoes and refracted light, a book stitched together by the O woven through the work as its visual spine and sonic refrain. Tammy Nguyen is a multimedia artist and writer whose work spans painting, drawing, printmaking, and publishing. Intersecting geopolitical realities with fiction, her practice addresses lesser-known histories through a blend of myth and visual narrative. She is the founder of Passenger Pigeon Press, an independent press that joins the work of scientists, journalists, creative writers, and artists to create politically nuanced and cross-disciplinary projects. Ngueyn is Assistant Professor of Art at Wesleyan University.

September 2022 eLitPak :: Join Our Community of Writers: Apply to UNCG’s MFA Program

Screenshot of UNCG MFA's flier for the NewPages September 2022 eLitPak
click image to open PDF

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

View the full September 2022 eLitPak Newsletter here. Want to get our eLitPak opportunities delivered straight to your inbox? Subscribe today!

New Book :: Green Burial

Green Burial poetry by Derek Graf published by Elixir Press book cover image

Green Burial
Poetry by Derek Graf
Elixir Press, January 2023

Winner of the Elixir Press 2021 Antivenom Poetry Award, Judge Kirun Kapur had this to say: “Lush and frantic, Green Burial submerges us in a dazzling, apocalyptic pastoral. Here we find a brother’s funeral and a lover’s last drink on the way to rehab as we travel a dreamscape of birds, trash, down-on-their-luck towns, motels and oil derricks. ‘A body falls / through the galaxies / inside an opal,’ the poet writes. And so, we do. In Graf’s hands the end of the world is both grief-stricken and saturated with an exhilarating, hallucinatory zeal.” Derek Graf was born in Tampa, FL. He completed his MFA at Oklahoma State University and his PhD at the University of Kansas. He currently lives in New York City. Green Burial is his first collection.

September 2022 eLitPak :: Madville has Two Open Calls for Submissions in September

Screenshot of Madville Publishing's two open calls for submissions in September flier
click image to open PDF

Madville Publishing currently has two open calls for submissions, The Second Annual Arthur Smith Poetry Prize for a full length poetry collection closes September 30, and the Sticks & Bricks: Stories from the Wrong Side of Town Anthology closes November 30, 2022. Visit our site and view our flyer for more information.

View the full September 2022 eLitPak Newsletter here. Want to get our eLitPak opportunities delivered straight to your inbox? Subscribe today!

September 2022 eLitPak :: 2022 Permafrost Book Prize in Nonfiction

Screenshot of Permafrost's Book Prize in Nonfiction flier for the September 2022 eLitPak

Deadline: October 1
The annual Permafrost Book Prize is open for submissions. Sponsored by Permafrost, the northernmost literary magazine in the U.S., the prize is awarded in alternate years in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. In 2022, the prize will be awarded for nonfiction. Judge: Joy Castro. The winner of the contest will receive $1,000 and publication by the University of Alaska Press. Visit our website or view our flyer to learn more.

View the full September 2022 eLitPak Newsletter here. Want to get our eLitPak opportunities delivered straight to your inbox? Subscribe today!

September 2022 eLitPak :: 24th Annual Taos Storytelling Festival

Screenshot of SOMOS'flier for the 24th annual Taos Storytelling Festival
click image to open PDF

Registration Deadline: October 15, 2022
Featuring headliners Carmen Agra Deedy, Sarah “Juba” Addison and local legend, Cisco Guevara at the main show on 10/15/22 at 7pm at the TCA, Taos, NM. Other events include community storytelling, storyswap, storytelling workshop, and a children’s performance at an elementary school. Come, tell a story, hear a story, laugh, cry and be entertained. FMI, go to our online schedule or call SOMOS, 575-758-0081. View flyer to learn more.

View the full September 2022 eLitPak Newsletter here. Want to get our eLitPak opportunities delivered straight to your inbox? Subscribe today!

September 2022 eLitPak :: Todos Santos Writers Workshop 10th Anniversary

Screenshot of August/September 2022 eLitPak flier for 10th Anniversary Todos Santos Writers Workshop
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The Todos Santos Writers Workshop is thrilled to announce our 10th anniversary session, JANUARY 28 – FEBRUARY 5. Join us for a week of workshops, craft talks, fiestas, and camaraderie in our pueblo magico by the sea. Faculty: Christopher Merrill, Leigh Newman, Jeanne McCulloch, Karen Karbo, and Rex Weiner. Open to writers in all genres and at all levels. For more information and to register, please go to our website. Register with early bird discount before October 15. View flyer to learn more.

View the full September 2022 eLitPak Newsletter here. Want to get our eLitPak opportunities delivered straight to your inbox? Subscribe today!

September 2022 eLitPak :: Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest – Last Call!

Screenshot of Winning Writers' flier for the 2022 Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest
click image to open PDF

Submit published or unpublished poems to the 20th annual Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest sponsored by Winning Writers and co-sponsored by Duotrope. We will award $3,000 for the best poem in any style and $3,000 for the best poem that rhymes or has a traditional style. The top 12 poems will be published online. Final judge: S. Mei Sheng Frazier. Deadline: September 30. Fee: $20 for 1-3 poems. View flyer to learn more.

View the full September 2022 eLitPak Newsletter here. Want to get our eLitPak opportunities delivered straight to your inbox? Subscribe today!

Where to Submit Round-up: September 16, 2022

hand holding a pen and writing in a notebook

With more mild weather, it’s definitely a good time to take a blanket, a light sweater, a cup of coffee or tea and heat outside with your notebook and pen to write and edit. Or grab your laptop and get working on your submission goals.

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 16, 2022”

New Book :: Writing While Parenting

Writing While Parenting by Ben Berman published by Able Muse Press book cover image

Writing While Parenting
Essays by Ben Berman
Able Muse Press, March 2023

Ben Berman’s Writing While Parenting explores what it means to pursue one’s creative passions while also raising a family, how having children can make us more vulnerable and imaginative as artists. Given how hectic parenting is, it is possible to balance a career and family let alone find two minutes to pee without someone tugging your leg and asking to watch you make bubbles? How do we possibly find the time or energy to be creative? Spanning five years, these essays range from humorous beginnings (the seven-year-old daughter complaining that she just got kicked in the weenie) to more serious moments (finding two swastikas etched into the slide at the playground, a few blocks down the street from the family home). No matter the genesis, each piece examines the overlaps and dissonance between the creative life and the procreative one. This is a witty, inspired, and illuminating collection for the writer and/or the parent.

Book Review :: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow a novel by Gabrielle Zevin published by Knopf book cover image

Guest Post by Kevin Brown

While Gabrielle Zevin’s title might initially make readers think of Shakespeare, she sets her story in the 1990s and 2000s video game culture. Her title refers to the ability to start over in games, to continue playing the game until one figures out how to win. Life, though, doesn’t present that same opportunity, and, while lifelong friends Sam and Sadie are still relatively young at the end of the novel, they have come to the clear realization that they are mortal. They are unable to start over during their experiences of loss, which, at times, paralyzes them; their differing approaches to those occurances often leads to the conflict between them. Sam and Sadie recognize each other’s gifts, but they also know each other better than most spouses, so they also see the other’s shortcomings. They thus often seem Shakespearean, star-crossed lovers who come together to create games, then drift apart, often over miscommunication and misunderstandings. Zevin’s novel explores creative friendships and the conflicts that come with them, but, more importantly, she creates characters one wants to spend time with, even when they are at their most frustrating. In other words, she creates characters who behave like humans, for better and worse.


Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. Knopf, July 2022.

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

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

New Book :: How Much?

How Much New and Selected Poetry by Jerome Sala published by NYQ Books cover image

How Much? New and Selected Poems
Poetry by Jerome Sala
NYQ Books, November 2022

How Much? New and Selected Poems by Jerome Sala offers a panoramic view of a poet whose work has often been a cult-pleasure until now. Spanning Sala’s early years as a punk performance poet in Chicago to his career as a copywriter/Creative Director in New York City, these poems offer satiric insights from the “belly of the beast” of commercial and pop culture. Sala’s books of poetry include cult classics such as I Am Not a Juvenile Delinquent, The Trip, Raw Deal, Look Slimmer Instantly, Prom Night (a collaboration with artist Tamara Gonzales), The Cheapskates, and Corporations Are People, Too! His poetry and criticism have appeared widely. Before moving to New York City in the 80s, Sala and his spouse, poet Elaine Equi, did numerous readings together, helping to create Chicago’s lively performance poetry scene. He has a PhD in American Studies from New York University.

New Book :: Girl Flees Circus

Girl Flees Circus a novel by C W Smith published by University of New Mexico Press book cover image

Girl Flees Circus
Fiction by C. W. Smith
University of New Mexico Press, September 2022

Girl Flees Circus, the newest release by C. W. Smith, follows nineteen-year-old aviatrix Katie Burke after she crash lands her biplane on the only street in No Name, New Mexico. Her arrival changes her life and the lives of everyone around her. As Katie and her craft need repair, locals take her in and help her, including a schoolteacher who longs for Katie’s friendship, an interracial couple who own the town’s diner, a handsome young mechanic who lives in a teepee, and a shell-shocked veteran of World War I. As her story unfolds, Katie’s mysteries deepen—revealing shocking secrets, a scandalous past, and a future in true peril. Girl Flees Circus takes flight the moment Katie crashes to earth, promising a journey into the lives of a glamorous, redheaded stranger and the people she will change forever.

New Lit on the Block :: Gleam

Gleam Journal of the Cadralor online literary magazine logo image

In conversation with Jonathan Bate about Stephan Fry’s book The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within and the value of poetic form, Stephan Fry encouraged writers to “Just try out writing in that form. I think people will amaze themselves when they do that.” For writers willing to explore new forms and challenge their development of craft, and for readers who appreciate seeing the variety of poetic expertise that a single form can produce, Gleam: Journal of the Cadralor is your next stop.

Developed in August 2020, the cadralor is a portmanteau of the names of the two co-creators of this poetic form, Christopher Cadra and Lori Howe. The rules of the form are explained on Gleam’s website, but in brief, this is a five-stanza poem with each stanza containing a consistent number of lines, up to ten, and each stanza able to stand alone as a complete poem. It cannot be narrative, though the stanzas should be contextually related. They must be imagist, vivid poems without cliché that are “a feast for the senses.” The fifth stanza acts as the crucible “illuminating the gleaming thread (Thus, the ‘gleam’ in the name.) that runs through the entire poem,” pulling the poem “into a coherence as a kind of love poem,” and answering the compelling question, “for what do you yearn?” The poem does not need to be a traditional love poem, as the editors explain, “Yearning takes many forms,” but it is characteristic that a “successful cadralor end on a note of hope rather than hopelessness.”

Poets ready to tackle the form can expect their work to be well received by seasoned writers who want to engage the community in a supportive way. Editor in Chief Lori Howe is author of two books of poetry, Cloudshade, Poems of the High Plains, and Voices at Twilight, was Executive Editor of Blood, Water, Wind, and Stone: An Anthology of Wyoming Writers, and formerly Editor in Chief of Clerestory: Poems of the Mountain West, and Open Window Review. She holds an MFA in Poetry from University of Wyoming, where she is also Professor. Founding Editor, Christopher Cadra is a poet/writer whose work has appeared in The Cimarron Review and elsewhere. His criticism has appeared in Basalt and a journal he edited, The Literati Quarterly.

Publishing two to three issues per year, Gleam accepts submissions via email, and, as Howe points out, “We offer a great deal of feedback on submissions, and often offer ‘revise and resubmit’ options, which we believe is somewhat rare among poetry journals. We do this because the form is both new and especially challenging to embody. We like to encourage poets to keep working on cadralor until they get there.”

There is a growing list of contributors whose cadralor have arrived to provide readers “the finest examples of this form anywhere in the world,” including Louise Barden, Rachel Barton, Robert Beveridge, Susan Cole, Kate Copeland, Jane Dougherty:, Scott Ferry, Malcolm Glass, Joanna Grisham, Georgia Hertz, Marie Marchand, Bob McAfee, Julia Paul, Charlotte Porter, Nick Reeves, Michelle Rochniak, Anastasia Vassos, Sherre Vernon, Sterling Warner, Ingrid Wilson, and Jonathan Yungkans.

In starting this new form as well as taking it onto a public platform, Howe shares, “My greatest joy is in reading submissions of cadralor from all over the world and discovering that this form is being taught in MFA poetry workshops around the country.”

As Cadra and Howe state, Gleam is THE flagship journal for the new poetic form, the cadralor, and the plan is for it to continue to hold that well-deserved place in our literary community.

Magazine Stand :: Wordrunner eChapbooks – Summer 2022

The Satisfaction of Longing stories by Victoria Melekian book cover image

With its 46th and newest issue, Wordrunner eChapbooks‘ Summer 2022, The Satisfaction of Longing by Victoria Melekian, the number of fiction collections published in their free, online or epub format is 24. Add to this 5 memoirs, 5 poetry collections, and 12 anthologies, and visitors will find plenty to keep their reading needs satisfied, indeed!

Melekian’s stories are considered “emotionally rich and ethically complicated. . . suffused in longing and loss.” The collection of seven stories opens with the chance encounter of a woman and man who had once endured unbearable tragedy. A fatherless woman with an imprisoned husband has a mysterious benefactor. Two sisters conflict over what to do with their father’s ashes. In the final story, a woman and her son flee her estranged husband, who never wanted children.

This collection may be read free online but can also be purchased as an ebook edition ($2.99) from Amazon or Smashwords with authors receiving 50% of all royalties. ALL Wordrunner Authors are paid, and this also supports an indie press!

Later this year, Wordrunner will be publishing their 25th fiction collection, Death in the Cathedral by Malcolm Dixon. Look for it in December.

The theme for the Spring 2023 issue will be announced by December and submissions open January 1 through February 28, 2023. Guidelines may be found here.

Events :: Poetry Foundation Library

Maya Marshall poet head shot Poetry Foundation Library

You don’t need to live in New York to take advantage of the many free events offered by the Poetry Foundation Library. Their calendar is peppered with community activities that include in-person with a virtual option as well as virtual-only events. Events like a Book Club with small group discussion online, moderated by library staff, with all participants residing in the U.S. offered a complimentary copy of the book; Forms & Features, which is billed as “part discussion, part poetry workshop,” online monthly series; and numerous Readings and Lectures, Screenings, and Performances.

The two upcoming Book Clubs are All the Blood Involved in Love by Maya Marshall [pictured] on September 30 and Somebody Else Sold the World by Adrian Matejka on October 21. Participants are welcome to sign up for one but not both club events. Closed captioning is available via Google Meet and an ASL interpreter will be provided upon request.

Magazine Stand :: december – vol. 33.1

december literary art magazine Spring Summer 2022 issue cover image

From its founding in 1958, december has remained true to its founders’ declaration, “We are humanists…far more concerned with people than dogmatic critical or aesthetic attitudes.” And showing this by publishing cutting-edge fiction, poetry, non-fiction, and art. Now on the cutting edge in print as well as online, december readers will find much to entertain: twice a year print journal, contests, online extras including contributor interviews, “From the Vault,” and “Poetry With Purpose.”

This newest print edition features Poetry by Sean Cho A., P. Hodges Adams, Jennifer Atkinson, Jessica Barksdale, Brenda Beardsley, John Blair, Evana Bodiker, Lisa Cantwell, Christian J. Collier, Sally Lipton Derringer, Daniel Donaghy, Dagne Forrest, Rebecca Foust, Ariel Friedman, Karen Holman, Romana Iorga, Judy Kaber, Susanna Lang, Jim McGarrah, Melissa McKinstry, Karen McPherson, Linda Michel-Cassidy, Michael Montlack, Kristina Moriconi, Barbara Mossberg, Alicia Rebecca Myers, David Oates, Lizzy Peterson, David Anthony Sam, Sarah Sousa, Paula Stacey, Richard Stimac, Anne Dyer Stuart, Shelly Reed Thieman, Alden Wallace, John Sibley Williams, Ariana Yeatts-Lonske; Fiction by Annelise Hatjakes, Michelle C. McAdams, John Paul Scotto, Timothy Wojcik; Nonfiction by Kierstin Bridger, Jennifer Dupree, Erin Langner, Mark Liebenow, Clancy Tripp; Art by David Humphrey; Robert Lowes Haiku Society: An Interview with Ben Gaa; Cover art by Joan Hall.

New Book :: Myopia

Myopia graphic novel by Richard Dent published by Dynamite Entertainment book cover image

Myopia
Graphic Novel by Richard Dent
Dynamite Entertainment, August 2022

A homeless man is mysteriously abducted. A journal is left on the edge of a subway platform, filled with stories about a world that doesn’t exist. Not far from here a scientist is murdered in cold blood. The only clues are his burned-down lab. A magnetically propelled motorcycle, and a man walking around New York City with the last living falcon on the planet. Imagine a world where your every thought, your every move, is filtered through The Central Lens Network. Now imagine being a twelve-year-old boy and discovering a special pair of lenses that allow you to access this network undetected. This is exactly what happens to Matthew Glen the day his father is murdered then two years later mysteriously appears back in his life. In a style that echoes back to the Dark Age of Comics when graphic novels were coming into an art form of their own, Myopia merges science fiction with noir steampunk into a thrilling alternative reality, where government and big business use entertainment devices to cover up a new authoritarian landscape.

Event :: National Write Out 2022

National Writing Project Write Out October 9-23, 2022 logo image

Write Out (#writeout) is a free two-week celebration of writing, making, and sharing inspired by the great outdoors. It is a public invitation to get out and create that is supported with a series of online activities, made especially for educators, students, and families, to explore national parks and other public spaces. The goal is to connect and learn through place-based writing and sharing using the common hashtag #writeout.

This year’s Write Out is STEAM-Powered (STEAM = Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) and will run October 9-23, 2022. To support this theme, Write Out will be organized around the use of notebooks and journals that inspire observing, describing and annotating just like STEAM professionals do!

Write Out encourages all participants to get outdoors, write, create, reflect, share, and connect with one another on and offline. Your time commitment and level of participation in Write Out is flexible; you can use any of the content created in your own way, at your own pace, for and with your own community—you are also welcome to create your own!

Sign up now to receive information to support your planning and participation: https://writeout.nwp.org.

Magazine Stand :: Still Point Arts Quarterly – Fall 2022

Still Point Arts Quarterly literary magazine cover image Fall 2022

Produced four times a year by Shanti Arts, Still Point Arts Quarterly is a truly beautiful and engaging art and literary journal. Each issue focuses on a theme and features historical and contemporary art, fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, “Intended for artists, nature lovers, seekers, and enthusiasts of all types.” The publication is free to download from their website, but this is one journal readers will appreciate having in full-color print. When I look at the online version, it is impressive, but when I hold that copy in my hands, it’s truly immersive. Fitting, because the newest issue is themed “Immersed in Books.” Some featured works include Kathryn DeZure “Turning Fifty with Virgina Woolf,” Megan L. Steusloff “The Books I’ve Read,” Zachary Nelson “A Book is the Fastest Way to Travel,” Terry Barr “Greyhound Seats,” Jane Hertestein “Books as Signposts in Our Life,” Rosalie Sanara Petrouske “The Frangrance of Words,” and Wally Swist “Sam Murry, Bookseller,” as well as many others. Featured art and artists include Helen S. Geld, Susan Kapuscinski Gaylord, and numerous book-related archival artworks and photographs. If you have ANY booklovers in your lives (including yourself), you’re going to want to get a copy of this in their hands (or direct them to the Still Point website for the free download).

New Book :: Essentially

Essentially essays by Richard Terril published by Holy Cow Press book cover image

Essentially
Essays by Richard Terrill
Holy Cow! Press, October 2022

From Minnesotan author and jazz musician, Richard Terrill’s Essentially is an essay collection that explores what is most essential to him, from the difficult lives of jazz musicians, to trout fishing, to the shifting population and mores of suburbia. “Here’s the thing,” Terrill writes. “There’s always the thing, isn’t there, and most often, not just one?” Terrill asks through this series of wide-ranging, funny, and sometimes gut-punchingly vulnerable essays, What is essential? Maybe trout fishing, the music of Bill Evans, or the whys of dog ownership. Maybe Yasujiro Ozu’s Tokyo Story, WeChat messaging app, a musician’s early hearing loss, and spying on the neighbors. Or maybe the coming apocalypse, almost getting lost in the woods, trespassing, town clean-up days, and the reason Miles Davis never listened to his own recordings. At times self-effacing and funny, at times outspoken and provocative, Terrill fixes a clear eye on the contradictions in our present moment. “We’re at that point in a journey where you know where you’re going, but you don’t know where you are,” he writes. “The destination should come anytime now.”

New Book :: My Secret Place

My Secret Place stories by Max Talley published by Main Street Rag Publishing Company book cover image

My Secret Place
Stories by Max Talley
Main Street Rag Publishing Company, July 2022

In My Secret Place, Max Talley deftly mixes humor with pathos with biting social commentary in seventeen short stories, of legendary jazz musicians meeting for a recording session in 1966, of a painter dealing with the art market crash in downtown Manhattan, of a woman’s surreal walk home in Southern California after another day as a house cleaner, about a mid-’70s bar band achieving one-hit-wonder status, and a middle-aged wife dreaming of her imperious Long Island youth. Talley describes musicians and artists, underdogs and eccentrics; secret heroes of their own lives. People driven by eccentric quests that bewilder friends and family. Apartment managers, stoned teenagers, and pop culture collectors, all trying to live in and make sense of a modern world that may have already left them behind. Talley’s first novel, Yesterday We Forget Tomorrow, debuted in 2014, and his crime thriller, Santa Fe Psychosis, was published by Dark Edge Press in spring 2022. He teaches a writing workshop at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference and at Santa Fe Workshops. More at www.maxdevoetalley.com.

Magazine Stand :: Nimrod – Spring/Summer 2022

Nimrod International Journal Spring Summer 2022 print literary magazine cover image

Based out of the University of Tulsa, Nimrod International Journal Spring/Summer 2022 is appropriately themed, “What Now? The Future We Make.” Edited by Eilis O’Neal, this volume includes works by Amelia L. Williams, Lorna Crozier, Krystyna Dabrowska, Lauren Camp, Cristina J. Baptista, Tim Raymond, Tennessee Hill, Ginny Threefoot, Susan Azar Porterfield, Kailey Tedesco, Hannah Smith, Oksana Maksymchuk, Scott Lowery, Joel Peckham, Jacqueline Guidry, Kim Garcia, David Troupes, Lucyna Prostko, Suzanne Manizza Roszak, Stephanie Niu, Fatima Jafar, Dante Novario, Geoff Anderson, Katherine Fallon, Charles Grosel, Lauren Coggins, Molly Sutton Kiefer, Sarah Wetzel, N.Y. Ling, Crystal Cox, Amy Wang, Jayden A. McClam, Matthew Olive, Cady Favazzo, Lisa Wartenberg, and Erin Evans.

New Book :: Music Gigs Gone Wrong

Music Gigs Gone Wrong anthology edited by Richard Peabody and Gerry LaFemina published by Paycock Press book cover image

Music Gigs Gone Wrong
Edited by Richard Peabody and Gerry LaFemina
Paycock Press, September 2022

File this one under Bad Luck/Fate/Music Musician: Someone who puts $5000 worth of gear into a $500 car to drive 100 miles to a $50 gig . . . What could possibly go wrong? Edited by Gargoyle Magazine‘s Richard Peabody and writer/musician Gerry LaFemina, Music Gigs Gone Wrong gathers 74 musicians and vocalists to share exactly what can happen, whether the music be punk, rock, folk, jazz, funk, you name it. Contributing writer Michael Gentile, SpliceToday, writes “Music Gigs Gone Wrong is the ultimate ‘I’m with the band’ backstage pass. Here’s a diverse look at a variety of live music disasters told firsthand. Whether it’s a half-empty biker bar or a packed 3,400-seat auditorium— turn on the house lights—you’ll hear about the people, dates and places from big cities to the middle of nowhere. The musicians will sing in your ear about the ordeals they had to go through. Tell me more, I love reading rattling rants and sneering inner thoughts. This grand and wonderful collection appeals to all, especially band members and admirers. Without reservation, swallow Music Gigs Gone Bad hook line and sinker. Go hang out with an enjoyable read; one that draws you in deeper and deeper, guiding visions that beckon you to ride away.”

Magazine Stand :: Gargoyle – 76

Gargoyle literary magazine CD issue 76 cover image

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.

New Book :: Belly to the Brutal

Belly to the Brutal poetry by Jennifer Givhan published by Wesleyan University Press book cover image

Belly to the Brutal
Poetry by Jennifer Givhan
Wesleyan University Press, August 2022

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.

Where to Submit Round-up: September 9, 2022

hand holding a pen and writing in a notebook

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.

Continue reading “Where to Submit Round-up: September 9, 2022”