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!
The Autumn 2021 issue is here featuring the winner of our 2021 Far Horizons Award for Short Fiction. Poetry by Y. S. Lee, Laurie D. Graham, Yuan Changming, Sebastien Wen, Allison LaSorda, Danielle Hubbard, Elisabeth Gill, Rozina Jessa, Sue J. Levon, and morej, as well as fiction by Jenny Ferguson, Sara Mang, and Cassidy McFadzean. Find more contributors at The Malahat Review website.
Featuring the Amon Liner Poetry Prize winner, “Pygmalion” by Megan Gower, an Editor’s Note from Terry L. Kennedy, and new work from Dan Albergotti, Talal Alyan, Ricky Aucoin, Joseph Bathanti, Ronda Piszk Broatch, Grant Clauser, Whitney Collins, Beth Dufford, Susan Grimm, Paul Guest, Julie Innis, Mary Elder Jacobsen, Justin Jannise, Julia Kenny, Mary Ann Larkin, Trapper Markelz, Joy Moore, Tomás Q. Morín, Elle Napolitano, and more. Find more contributors at The Greensboro Review website.
The new issue of Gemini Magazine is now online featuring the winners of our 12th annual Short Story Contest. Top honors and the $1,000 prize go to Kathleen Spivack of Watertown, Massachusetts for “Moths,” a high intensity story about a woman who fights with her husband over the future of their special-needs child. Second prize: “Banjo” by Earl LeClaire. See honorable mentions at the Gemini Magazine website.
In this newly redesigned issue of Creative Nonfiction we explore the roots of the genre and celebrate the spirit of rebellion that’s always infused it. And we consider where we are now at this moment that feels pivotal for so many. Plus, new essays about the limitations of identity labels; what we can (and can’t) learn from dinosaur tracks; how to reintegrate after two military tours overseas; the challenges of translation; and how to approach a sibling who’s taken a deep dive into conspiracy theories. Essays by Valerie Boyd, Margaret Kimball, Bret Lott, Marisa Manuel, Brenda Miller, Clinton Crockett Peters, and others.
More info at the Creative Nonfiction website.
Featuring new work from Ricardo Pau-Llosa, Jane O. Wayne, Tim Whitsel, the winners of our 2021 Curt Johnson Prose Awards, two beautiful art portfolios by Howard Skrill and Jean Wolff, and much more! Poetry by Erin Bealmear, Erica Bodwell, Dina Elenbogen, Rebecca Foust, Ellen Romano, Reyes Ramirez, and others. Fiction by Dinah Cox, Bill Gaythwaite, Barb Johnson, Sarah Starr Murphy, K.W. Oxnard, and Anamyn Turowski. Check out nonfiction contributors at the december website.
Featuring the 2021 Crazyhorse prize winners in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, Mary Clark, Jung Hae Chae, and Mark Wagenaar; a debut story from Nancy Nguyen; fiction from Nicole VanderLinden, Weston Cutter, and Timothy Mullaney; an essay from A.C. Zhang; and poems from Lisa Low, Michael Prior, Mary Kaiser, Jose Hernandez Diaz, and Mehrnoosh Torbatnejad, among others. Now on Crazyhorse website.
The Fall 2021 issue of Carve is out now and features the winners of the Raymond Carver Contest, guest judged by Leesa Cross-Smith.
First Place
“Habits” by Morgan Nicole Green
Second Place
“The Pit” by Chris Blexrud
Third Place
“Field Dressing” by Mariah Rigg
Editors’ Choice
“What Happened With the Librarian?” by Haley Hach
“Kingdom of the Shades” by Nina Ellis
You can learn more about each story by checking out the author interviews following each piece. Print and digital issues are available at Carve‘s website.
Lauren Taylor Grad’s work was featured in Woven Tale Press Volume XI Number 9. Jennifer Nelson, WTP feature writer interviewed Taylor Grad recently on the meaning and thought processes behind several of her works along with her pursuit of an MFA.
From using found items to create sculptures to utilizing her undergraduate work in biology to create paintings, Taylor Grad’s work is diverse. One of the most interesting pieces is Tethered which is comprised of used clothing made to create two concrete boulders and a connecting line between them. She also created a video art piece to accompany the sculpture about moving these boulders around a curving path.
Nelson: Why did you feel it was important to earn an MFA?
The decision to go to graduate school and earn my Masters in Fine Arts was not one that I took lightly. It is a huge investment, both in time and money, and I wanted to be sure that it was the right path for me to take before I made that leap. I personally really enjoy academia; I think that the amount of growth and nurturing that occurs in an individual throughout art school in such a short amount of time is transformative, and unlike anything that you can get elsewhere.
Taylor Grad also talked about taking time off after earning her undergraduate degree to try out being a living artist and other avenues before ultimately going back to earn her MFA so that she can also become an art instructor.
Read the full interview here and look at some of Taylor Grad’s amazing work.
In case you missed the news, our weekly NewPages Newsletter has officially moved to Substack. Don’t forget to subscribe today so you get our next newsletter delivered straight to your inbox on Monday and our monthly eLitPak delivered to you on Wednesday. If you missed out on the submission opportunities, new titles, and craft advancement opportunities featured on NewPages this week, you’re in luck. They are rounded up here for you.
Continue reading “Weekly Round-up of Calls & Contests :: December 10, 2021”
Deadline: January 31, 2022
Submissions are still being accepted for the 10th Saroyan Prize. The awards, co-sponsored by Stanford Libraries and the William Saroyan Foundation, are “intended to encourage new or emerging writers and honor the Saroyan legacy of originality, vitality, and stylistic innovation.” Two prizes of $5,000 each are given for works of fiction and nonfiction. Writers who have published four books or more are ineligible. Submit five copies of your work published between January 1, 2020, and December 31, 2021, with a $50 entry fee by January 31, 2022. Visit our website for complete eligibility and submission details: library.stanford.edu/saroyan.
As a writer the wait to hear from a journal or press about the status of your submissions can be a long and tedious road where you are stuck in limbo. With their 2022 In-House Contest, Driftwood Press has decided to make some changes to alleviate this.
Instead of notifying writers once everything has been read and judged, they will be announcing results to writers as soon as the piece has been read and a decision made, whether a rejection or continuing on in the contest.
All submissions accepted will be initially given runner-up status. Then in April 2022, one of the runners-up will be awarded the Grand Prize.
The deadline to submit to the In-House Short Story Contest is January 15. There is a $12 fee. The chosen Grand Prize winner will receive $500, publication, and five copies of the issue in which their story appears. They will also have the opportunity to be interviewed about their work and the interview will be published alongside the winning story.
Runner-ups will be offered publication, an accompanying interview, $150, and one copy of the issue in which their story appears.
If you’re a fan of novellas, Volume 42 Number 3 of New England Review and the Summer & Fall 2021 issue of Alaska Quarterly Review have got you covered.
In Alaska Quarterly Review, Kristopher Jansma’s “Like a Bomb Went Off” opens the issue. It begins:
The Neighbor’s House Explodes
The neighbor’s house explodes at 5:05 p.m. Harriet is behind the family station wagon, vacuuming summer’s sand out of the trunk. There is an incredible noise, like something collapsing to the ground. She looks up to see a white cloud rising behind the fence. Warm air rushes by like bathwater. There is no fireball. “It was like a bomb went off,” she’ll soon say, for the first time, even though it is not like that at all.
New England Review has published “Past Perfect” by Alice Greenway. The novella starts with:
“Can you explain when we use was and when use had been?” Sayed Zubair asked. He sat cross-legged on a blanket distributed by Samaritan’s Purse. It was spread on the floor as a rug. His back was impressively straight. He was a neat trim man with a tidy moustache, his hair beginning to thin on top, and he held a notebook in his lap. Behind him, a small plastic fan wedged into a square window blew in welcome air. He was proud of the fan, as he had pirated the electricity, hooking wires into the overhead floodlights that lit the camp at night.
Everything starts the same, but it all ends differently. The First Line is a print literary magazine that is unaffiliated, unfunded, unassuming, and works hard to be inspiring. Each year they offer four writing prompts. All pieces submitted must start with these lines. Where they go from there is dependent on you.
Check out the first lines slated for 2022 & consider taking up the challenge and writing a story. And don’t forget to check out their past issues.
Spring:
“Rayna sat in front of the mirror removing her makeup and wondered who she would discover underneath.”
Due date: February 1, 2022
Summer:
“Thomas hadn’t expected to be alive when the town’s time capsule was opened.”
Due date: May 1, 2022
Fall:
“Lily unlocked the back door of the thrift store using a key that didn’t belong to her.”
Due date: August 1, 2022
Winter:
“When he died, their father had two requests.”
Due date: November 1, 2022
Deadline: December 31, 2021
Chestnut Review (“for stubborn artists”) invites submissions year-round of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, art, and photography. We offer free submissions for poetry (3 poems), flash fiction (<1000 words), and art/photography (20 images); $5 submissions for fiction/nonfiction (<5k words), or 4-6 poems. Published artists receive $120. Notification in <30 days or submission fee refunded. We appreciate stories in every genre we publish. All issues free online which illustrates what we have liked, but we are always ready to be surprised by the new! Any submissions received after December 31 will be considered for the next issue. chestnutreview.com
Grab a copy of the November/December 2021 issue of Kenyon Review to check out the winners of the Short Nonfiction Contest.
Winner
“And We Inherit Everything” by Brigitte Leschhorn Arrocha
Runners-up
“Blue Whale Challenge” by Christian Butterfield
“Translating” by dm armstrong
The contest was judged by Roxane Gay, who writes of the winning essay, “[ . . . ] we are taken on a lyrical journey about grief, yes, but also the wounds of family and the myths of the people to whom we belong.” Grab a copy of the issue to read the winning essays, and see what Gay says about the runners-up.
Guest Post by Petra Mucnjak.
This novel begins with a young girl named Emily Benedict returning to the small town of Mullaby, where her mother had grown up and her grandfather still resides. Although her grandfather’s demeanor appears to be somewhat aloof, her grandfather welcomes Emily home, generously offering her the choice of picking one of his many empty spare rooms as her bedroom. Naturally, the girl chooses her mother’s former room and soon realizes that it possesses an extraordinary air to it. Then there is the issue of the mysterious lights which have the habit of appearing over the lake at night . . .
The Girl Who Chased The Moon is the first book I have read by Sarah Addison Allen and, expecting a syrupy family-reconciliation-romance novel, I was delightfully surprised upon encountering a humorous, warm, humane tale about family, friends, and how being haunted by the ghosts of the past doesn’t necessarily have to mean havoc. Miss Allen’s writing is very poetic, her words luring the reader into her small American town with no more or less than the charm of a siren. Sentences like “The air outside was tomato-sweet and hickory-smokey, all at once delicious and strange,” brought me into the center of this wonderful atmosphere, making my senses hum.
Continue reading “A Homey Little Book”
What’s new this month? Found fabrics, feather textiles, calligraphic lines, resonate poems about donkeys, and more. Work by Elias Andreopoulos, G.D. Brown, Corrine Demas, Michal Gavish, Alia Georges, Deborah Kruger, Marianna Marlowe, and more. Find a full list of contributors at The Woven Tale Press website.
Issue 28 of Superstition Review which features art by Jeff Rivers. Interview Editor Anna Narin interviews Joyce Carol Oates. Fiction by Melissa Llanes Brownlee, nonfiction by Amanda Gaines, and poetry by Gleen Shaheen.
More info at the Superstition Review website.
This month’s featured selection: “Jewish American Women Poets” by Sally Bliumis-Dunn featuring Jennifer Barber, Jessica Greenbaum, Judy Katz and Nomi Stone. In nonfiction: “All These Red and Yellow Things: Short Papers on Art by Lesle Lewis.” Jeri Theriault reviews Devon Walker-Figueroa’s Philomath. See a selection of this month’s poets at the Plume website.
The December issue is now online featuring Dan Brook, Gavan Duffy, Edilson A. Ferreira, Nels Hanson, Amy Holman, Tom Kelly, Deborah Kennedy, Charles Rammelkamp, Michael Salcman, Kerrin P. Sharpe, Andrew Sheilds, J. R. Solonche, Marjory Woodfield. Reviews of Michael Salcman’s Shades and Graces and Judith Wilson’s Fleet. Learn more about this issue’s reviews at The Lake website.
In this issue, Barrett Bowlin chronicles the pain of parenthood through a child’s “Milk Teeth.” Julia Halprin Jackson writes about the relationships we have with our bodies, and the decisions that our cells sometimes make without us in “Scouting.” And Elijah Burrell merges his love and knowledge of music with the mysterious longings of friendship in three poems beginning with “Even the Best Records Have Gaps Between the Tracks.” Learn about this issue’s images at the Cutleaf website.
This issue fatures work by Janice N. Harrington, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Cindy Juyoung Ok, Danny Thiemann, and Zack Finch. Additional fiction by Siân Griffiths, Anu Kandikuppa, and Brendan Williams-Childs; nonfiction by Lauren Haldeman and Megan Baxter; and poetry by Diana Khoi Nguyen, Stella Wong, April Freely, Phillip West, Joshua Bennett, Bryce Emley, Chee Brossy, Ellen Samuels, Stacy Gnall, Dorothy Chan, and more. See a full list of contributors at the Colorado Review website.
The Arts & Letters Fall Issue is out! This issue features our annual prize winners, as well as fiction by E. A. Bagby, Emma Wunsch, and Brett Armes; flash fiction by Dog Cavanaugh and Andrew Kane; poetry by Michael Waters, Joshua Garcia, Anne Barngrover, Nicholas Samaras, Yerra Sugarman, Elisabeth Murawski, Arthur Vogelsang, and Kay Cosgrove; and creative nonfiction by Sonja Livingston and Kevin Callaway.
More info at the Arts & Letters website.
Bellevue Literary Review is celebrating 20 years of publication with Issue 41, the 20th Anniversary Issue! Founding Editor Danielle Ofri opens the issue with a foreword that details the journal’s beginnings.
“Pulling together an inaugural issue during the summer of 2001 was both heady and nerve-wracking, as we trod uncharted territory in everything from poetic sensibility and creative-nonfiction definition to font size and paper weight. We packed the first issue off to press in the first week of September and then the attacks of 9/11 occurred. Everything ground to a halt in New York City, logistically and emotionally. Not only could we not get our print run delivered, but we could hardly muster the spirit to find joy in any accomplishment. In the heavy pall of grief, everything else seemed inconsequential.”
Ofri goes on to recount how they moved forward and what happened in the wake of the tragedy of 9/11. In the following pages, readers can check out a 20th Anniversary Editorial Roundtable where “editors past and present, plus our founding publisher, [ . . . ] offer reflections on the BLR‘s founding and its evolution over two decades of publishing.” Check out the issue here.
The Winter 2021 issue of Rattle features the Rattle Poetry Prize winner and finalists.
Winner
“Encephalon” by Ann Giard-Chase
Finalists
“After My Teenager Tries to Kill Herself . . .” by Elizabeth Johnston Ambrose
“This Is How I Make My Money” by Heather Bell
“Do You Have Children?” by Susan Browne
“Follow Me” by Rayon Lennon
“Black Boys as Fireflies” by Dayna Hodge Lynch
“White Privilege Skydives with Black Guy in Appalachia” by Mary Meadows
“The Internet of Things” by Erin Murphy
“Exodus: Gilliam Coal Camp, West Virginia, 1949” by L. Renée
“Purgatorio” by Zella Rivas
“My Father Transformed by Dying” by Richard Westheimer
Subscribers to Rattle can vote for their favorite out of the finalists to determine the winner of the $5,000 Readers’ Choice Award. The voting deadline is February 1.
Gift yourself or someone special Creative Nonfiction goodies this holiday season. Until Friday, December 12, the literary journal is offering discounts on magazines, subscriptions, books, and merch.
Get books for as low as $8, back issues of Creative Nonfiction for $2.50 each, back issues of True Story for $1, 33% off one-year subscriptions, and up to 33% off merch.
Show off your love of CNF on your bookshelves or in your wardrobe and learn more about this limited time sale here.
Happy December! The year is nearly over with. Hopefully you have been able to keep up with your writing and submission goals. Take a look at the submission and craft advancement opportunities featured on NewPages this past week to help. Newsletter subscribers get an early peek, so subscribe today!
Continue reading “Weekly Round-up of Calls & Contests :: December 3, 2021”
The MFA in Creative Writing program at George Mason University combines acclaimed faculty with a welcoming community to be the place where you want to create literary art. With the new Watershed Lit: Center for Literary Engagement and Publishing Practice, we are here to develop your artistic and professional careers. Students can receive funding as Graduate Teaching Assistants or Graduate Professional Assistants. Be part of the rich cultural life at Mason, in Northern Virginia, and throughout the Washington, D.C., region. Check out a recording of our recent Online Open House! Just email [email protected] to request access.
Deadline: Rolling
Storm Cellar seeks new and amazing writing and art for its spring issue! We are a journal of safety and danger, in many senses, in print and ebook formats since 2011. Send secrets, codes, adventures, mad experiments, and wild things. Black, Indigenous, POC, LGBTQIA+, disabled, neurodivergent, fat, border-straddling, poor, and other marginalized authors encouraged, bonus points for a Midwest connection. Now paying; limited no-fee submissions available each month. Full guidelines and f.a.q. at stormcellar.org/submit and submit at Submittable.
Guest Post by Antonio Addessi.
In Anatomy of Want, Lee takes us deep into the intimacy between lovers, the memories they create, hold on to and try to forget but can’t. Through his talent for noticing the small details of everyday life, he arouses all of the senses, often on the same line or stanza.
In poems like “Compliments to the Cook” and “La Cocina,” Lee wafts the scents of fragrant food into our noses and holds up the spoon to our mouths to taste the poems coming off the pages. The longing to love and be loved is stitched tightly into each line as we’re carried through cityscapes with lively streets and dark bedrooms with empty beds all reminding us of lovers lost.
Anatomy of Want is an enticing and heartfelt ode to what it means to give part of yourself to the people you allow close to you. In it we see ourselves as the speaker, the holder of secrets and the teller of truths sometimes hard to swallow. The nostalgia exudes itself onto every page—evoked by memories of sorrow and loss, of growing up too fast and living in an often foreign feeling state that is strangely familiar. Its Americana places us deep in the heart of Manhattan’s subway systems and the long aisles of grocery stores filled with people that infinitely stay strangers. This book is definitely on the edge of what poetry is going to look and feel like for years to come. It is one that deserves to be read and reread for it’s intimate look at what being human truly is.
Anatomy of Want by Daniel W. K. Lee. Rebel Satori Press, 2019.
Reviewer bio: Antonio Addessi is a poet and writer living in New York City. He received his MFA from Columbia University (’20) and his debut book of poetry Sleeptalking, published by Rebel Satori Press, comes out April 2022.
Deadline: January 31, 2022
Ethos Literacy—a nonprofit literacy program—announces its 3rd Annual Short Short Story Contest. 100-word limit on one of these topics: chewing gum, horror movies, skyscrapers, or tubas. Cash prizes: Best in Contest: $250; Best Youth Prize (14 years or younger): $100; 4 Best of Category: $100; People’s Choice $100. Publication in a digital magazine + webcast of winners reading their stories. Submission fee: $10. Proceeds support literacy programs for teens and adults.
CRAFT has announced the winners of its 2021 First Chapters Contest selected by guest judge Masie Cochran of Tin House. The winning entries will be published in December, so keep an eye out!
Congratulations to the winners, finalists, and honorable mentions. You can view the full longlist and honorable mentions here.
Winners
First Place: Sam Simas, We the Liars
Second Place: Sena Moon, Familiar Strangers
Third Place: Leigh Comacho Rourks, When We Drowned
Finalists
Vanessa Banigo, The Nigerwife
Catherine Carberry, Untitled
Catherine Con Morse, The Notes
C. Quintana, The Twisted Fate of La Media Luna
Steve Sanders, The Agreed Upon Facts
Kirsten Scott, Liberty Park
Amy Stuber, In a Dark Corner Shining
JJ Tan, Angels Unaware
Allison Torgan, Red State
John Vurro, Video Planet
Taylor Werner, What Empties As It Fills
Marie Williams (Nia Forrester), Those Less Fortunate
Registration Deadline: Rolling
Amherst Writers & Artists (AWA) workshops follow a proven method that affirms writers by building confidence, creating an atmosphere of equal exploration, and protecting confidentiality. AWA trains writers to uphold the AWA method and become workshop leaders who work with everyone from novice writers, who have been led to believe they have no voice, to experienced writers seeking to hone their craft. AWA-trained leaders have founded a number of incredible non-profits devoted to using writing to address social justice issues. See our website for more information.
Guest Post by Marc Martorell Junyent.
The border between current events and history is a blurry one. David Kilcullen and Greg Mills tread on both sides of this imaginary boundary in The Ledger: Accounting for Failure in Afghanistan. The co-authors have a long experience in Afghanistan working for the international military coalition in the country.
Throughout the book, they manifest their frustration for the chaotic evacuation of US citizens and Afghans that unfolded in August 2021. In their own words, “it would not have taken a rocket scientist to devise a better, more orderly, system.”
Their criticism extends to a much longer time period, however. According to the authors, the West never had a clear strategy in Afghanistan. By focusing on short-term goals, the troops and economic aid deployed to the country did not help build solid structures, but only delayed the collapse of a system based on clientelism, corruption, and the inclusion of former warlords.
Kilcullen and Mills argue that not inviting the Taliban to sit at the negotiation table in the 2001 Bonn Conference, convened right after their overthrow from power, was a key missed opportunity. The US ended up negotiating with the Taliban in the 2020 Doha Agreement from a much weaker position.
The Ledger is particularly strong in the anecdotical evidence it presents, based on the authors’ wide range of contacts among Afghan elites and Western officials. On the contrary, the reader would probably have welcomed a more consistent book structure. The continuous chronological and thematical shifts are often confusing and lead to redundancies.
When it comes to the immediate future of Afghanistan, Kilcullen and Mills defend the idea that the restoration of aid flows to the country is needed for both humanitarian reasons and maintaining a certain influence with the Taliban.
The Ledger: Accounting for Failure in Afghanistan by David Kilcullen and Greg Mills. Hurst, January 2022.
Reviewer bio: Marc Martorell Junyent graduated in International Relations and currently studies a joint Master in Comparative Middle East Politics and Society at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen and the American University in Cairo. His main interests are the politics and history of the Middle East (particularly Iran, Turkey and Yemen). He has studied and worked in Ankara, Istanbul and Tunis. He tweets at @MarcMartorell3.
The Winter 2021 issue features our 11 Rattle Poetry Prize winners. The open section features the usual wide-ranging poems with humor and heart. These poems cover love, evolution, Robin Hood, and the DMV. The conversation section takes an unusual turn, where psychologist James Pennebaker discusses his lifetime of research on the benefits of expressive writing. Learn more at the Rattle website.
We’re excited to announce our beautiful new Chanukah issue! Here you’ll find 12 splendid stories, originally written in Yiddish, Hebrew, and English, and in honour of the upcoming holiday, one of them is a Chanukah story: “Rock of Ages.” Enjoy our new issue and, to those who celebrate, Happy Chanukah (and Happy Thanksgiving)! Now at the Jewish Ficion .net website.
Deadline: January 14, 2022
$2,500 honorarium and book publication: Submit book-length collection of poems to the Colorado Prize for Poetry by January 14, 2022 (we will observe a 5-day grace period). $25 reading fee (add $3 to submit online) includes subscription to Colorado Review. Final judge is Gillian Conoley; friends and students (current or former) of the judge are not eligible to compete, nor are Colorado State University employees, students, or alumni. Complete guidelines at coloradoprize.colostate.edu or write to Colorado Prize for Poetry, Center for Literary Publishing, 9105 Campus Delivery, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523-9105.
Let’s take a peek inside the newest issue of Hippocampus Magazine; inside, you’ll find essays and flash CNF such as: “Up” by Michelle Bailat-Jones, “Seeing Bone” by Emma Bruce, “Teeth” by Gavin Paul Colton, “How to Preserve a Body” by Lauren Cross, “What I Took After She Died in the Memory Care Wing” by Irene Fick, “Rewind” by Jennifer Fliss, “German Lessons” by Sue Mell, and more. See what else to expect in this issue at the Mag Stand.
A special portfolio of writing from the Arabian Gulf countries, fiction from a farm in Ireland, a retirement community in India, and the Basque Country in the 1960s, essays about Easter Island, living in Greece, and exploring the Southern Ocean, and poems by Tom Sleigh, Stephanie Dinsae, Vernita Hall, and Colin Channer.
More info at The Common website.
New issue of Baltimore Review with new poetry by Iqra Khan, Gerry LaFemina, Caroline Pittman, Dannye Romine Powell, Emily Franklin, Merna Dyer Skinner, John Glowney, and Janet Jennings; fiction by J.T. Robertson, Madison Jozefiak, Nicholas Maistros, and Justine Chan; and creative nonfiction by Brandon Hansen, Morgan Florsheim, and Kerry Folan.
More info at the Baltimore Review website.
In this issue, find the novella “Like a Bomb Went Off” by Kristopher Jansma. Stories by Mackenzie McGee, Nathan Curtis Roberts, Jonathan Starke, Ada Zhang, Matt Greene, Heather Monley, and Laurie Baker. Essays by Jehanne Dubrow, Dawn Davies, Jane McCafferty, Alex Chertok, Kirsten Reneau, Jai Dulani, and Sara Eliza Johnson. One long poem by Bruce Bond, and other poems by Felicia Zamora, Lara Egger, and more. Find more poetry contributors at the Alaska Quarterly Review website.
Chatham’s MFA in Creative Writing grows from Rachel Carson ’29, a creative writer known for her social conscience. Our students treat writing as a public act with the power to effect meaningful change. Their ideas, convictions, and writing matters. Our students think deeply about their spaces and identities. They look within then connect to the world with care and intention. Concentrations include travel writing, nature writing, food writing, publishing, social engagement, and pedagogy to complement the MFA degree with genres in poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and children’s writing (low-residency only). Additionally, we offer an on-ground full-residency program and a low-residency program.
Issue 43 of Nimrod International Journal is all about award winners! Check out the winners and finalists of the Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction and the Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry.
The Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction
First Prize
“White Black People” by Celine Aenlle-Rocha
Second Prize
“The Inventories” by Paula Closson Buck
Honorable Mentions
“A Dolphin in Pain” by Rachel Furey
“God Is In Your Body” by Rachel Reeher
Finalists
“Wife Of; or, What Does It Mean to Be Haunted?” by Jennifer Blackman
“The Southern Part of the State” by Teresa Milbrodt
“Thug” by Edvin Subašić
The Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry
First Prize
“Spell for Patience” and other poems by Emily Rose Cole
Second Prize
“Now” by Julie Marie Wade
Honorable Mentions
“Vanishing Point” and other poems by Laura Apol
“Like a Friend” and other poems by Francesca Bell
“Everything I Love I Want to Consume” and other poems by Angela Sucich
Deadline: January 15, 2022
Background: The contest is in honor of Emma Howell who was born in Portland, Oregon, and died in 2001, at the age of twenty. She left behind a single volume of poetry: Slim Night of Recognition. This prize is an effort to promote the publication of young poets, to honor Emma’s memory, as well as honor the time and effort her father, Christopher Howell, former Director of Willow Springs Books, has put into our press. Prize: $2,000 + manuscript publication. Eligibility: Poets 35 years old and younger who have not yet published a book-length poetry manuscript. Submit: bit.ly/3aE00R3.
Get ready to add new books to your holiday wish list! Check out this month’s featured Book Stand titles.
Running Out of Words for Afterwards by David Hargreaves gives voice to cycles of desire, loss, and renewal.
Temple University Press has just released Invisible People by Alex Tizon in paperback. This book collects the best of Tizon’s rich, empathetic accounts.
The linked stories in Cara Blue Adams’s precise and observant You Never Get It Back offer elegantly constructed glimpses of the life of main character Kate.
You Better Be Lightning by Andrea Gibson is a queer, political, and feminist collection guided by self-reflection.
Also this month on the Book Stand, find new and forthcoming releases from Diode Editions including Dorothy Chan’s Babe, Shanta Lee Gander’s Ghettoclaustrophobia, and Kendra DeColo & Tyler Mills’ collaborative chapbook, Low Budget Movie.
You can learn more about each of these New & Noteworthy books at our website. Click here to see how to place your book in our New & Noteworthy section.
Guest Post by Mille King.
Patrick Ness’s A Monster Calls represents the term ‘tear-jerker’; it explores themes of pain, loss, and guilt in a real and relatable way. It is clear that Conor, the protagonist, sees himself as a monster for wanting the pain he is going through to be over, even if this means losing his mother. This guilt manifests in a physical monster who he believes visits him but no one else can see. The monster helps Conor through his pain and helps him discover emotions even Conor didn’t know he had.
Ness shows how guilt comes from deep down and we often can’t acknowledge it because we cover it with lies and believe what we want to believe, even when we don’t actually fully believe it. This is a beautiful journey of self discovery and I loved every moment of it.
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. Walker Books / Candlewick Press, May 2011.
Reviewer bio: My name is Millie King, I am an English literature major and read not only for school, but for fun too! I always struggled with dyslexia so reading was hard for me but I have overcome those obstacles and am an avid book reader!
Buy this book from our affiliate Bookshop.org.
2022 Kallisto Gaia Press Saquaro Poetry Prize flier 
Deadline: December 31, 2021
Send us your polished manuscripts of original contemporary poetry totaling 28 to 48 pages. Winner receives $1,200, publication by Kallisto Gaia Press, and 20 copies. Runner-Up receives $100 and offer of publication under our generous contract. Guest judge to be announced. Individual poems may be previously published. Original work. $25 to play. Submissions through Submittable only. All judging is ID concealed. See website for more info.
Deadline: December 31, 2021
Send us your polished manuscripts of Short stories, Flash Fiction, Novellas or any combination totaling 45K to 75K words. Winner Receives $1,200, publication by Kallisto Gaia Press, and 20 copies. Runner-Up receives $100 and offer of publication under our generous contract. Gabino Iglesias is the final judge. Individual stories may be previously published. Original work. $25 to play. Submissions through Submittable only. All judging is ID concealed. See website for more info.
18th Annual Virtual Palm Beach Poetry Festival is taking place January 10-15, 2022. Focus on your work with America’s most engaging and award-winning poets. Workshops with Kim Addonizio, Laure-Anne Bosselaar, Chard deNiord, Mark Doty, Yona Harvey, John Murillo, Matthew Olzmann, and Diane Seuss. One-On-One Conferences with Lorna Blake, Sally Bliumis Dunn, Nickole Brown, Jessica Jacobs, and Angela Narciso Torres. A special Craft Talk by Kwame Dawes, Special Guest Poet, Yusef Komunyakaa. Poet-at-Large, Aimee Nezhukumatathil. To find out more, visit www.palmbeachpoetryfestival.org. There’s still time to purchase tickets to individual events and apply for a one-on-one conference!
Guest Post by Shaelynn Long.
Marie Rutkoski’s The Midnight Lie is a riveting combination of a society rooted in socioeconomic and hierarchical issues and a young woman who believes the life of crime she has chosen was, in fact, her choice. When the main character, Nirrim, discovers that the rules that were seemingly in place to keep her safe are doing more than that, she partners up with a gorgeous traveler, Sid, to find out more about the magic within the places she’s been kept from.
The story has it all: excitement, a love interest, magic, and mystery. It would also be remiss not to mention the LGBTQ nature of the romantic plotline, which is told beautifully. Overall, the story is worth the read, especially if you’re seeking something rooted in the fantastical that still discusses the problematic nature of the relationships between those who have and those who do not.
The Midnight Lie by Marie Rutkoski. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, March 2020.
Reviewer bio: Shaelynn Long is a Michigan-based author who spends the majority of her free time consuming all the books she can, often while surrounded by her three dogs. She is the author of Blur, Work In Progress, and Dirt Road Kid. You can find more about Shaelynn at her website.
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