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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!

A Historical Love Story

Guest Post by Joyce Bou Charaa.

Usually, reading a biographical book is not as enjoyable and exciting as this impressive one by Andrew D. Kaufman. The Gambler Wife is the life story of a brilliant woman who played a huge role in her husband’s writing career, their love story marking the Russian literary history of the 19th century. The interesting life of Anna Snitkina, a successful Russian feminist, and her husband Fyodor Dostoyevsky, the famous writer of all time, will be remembered for many decades.

In this book, Kaufman traces the life of Anna Snitkina, from her childhood as an educated and ambitious young girl who likes reading and storytelling, until she met her most favorite writer, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and worked with him as a stenographer. Continue reading “A Historical Love Story”

Event :: Still Time to Register for a Workshop at the 18th Annual Palm Beach Poetry Festival

Screenshot of Palm Beach Poetry Festival 2022 Flier for the NewPages LitPakApplication Deadline: November 15, 2021
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. Apply to attend a workshop by November 15!

Chloe Yelena Miller Interviews Lindsay Merbaum

Guest Post by Chloe Yelena Miller.

Chloe Yelena Miller, author of Viable (Lily Poetry Review Books, 2021) interviews Lindsay Merbaum, author of The Gold Persimmon (Creature Publishing, 2021).

I so enjoyed reading your book, Lindsay. I was curious to understand what “feminist horror” meant, and these two, interwoven, gender-focused storylines offer a clear definition. The psychological horror of loneliness and loss and the distance between self and the mother figure felt tangible throughout the book. The characters were seeking physical and emotional comfort, despite or because of what’s happening around them. I admire how easily the characters’ mothers’ voices interject in scenes where the mothers would not otherwise be present. Continue reading “Chloe Yelena Miller Interviews Lindsay Merbaum”

Driftwood Press Novella Prize Winner Announced!

Driftwood Press has officially announced the results of their Novella Reading Period. Kevin Litchty’s The Circle That Fits is the winner. “The novella explores the fraught relationships between two parents and their son as they live in a travelling carnival.” The Circle That Fits will be released in 2022.

Due to a generous donation from Sarah “Hollis Queen,” the award for Litchty’s novella was increased from $400 to $1,000.

Driftwood Press is currently accepting novella manuscripts once more. There is a $20 fee. Future novellas selected will receive $400, publication, and 10 copies of their printed novella.

Contest :: Submit to the Inaugural Emma Howell Rising Poet Prize

drawing of a heron standing on one leg with willow springs books written to the right of itDeadline: 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.

Southern Humanities Review

In the current issue: nonfiction by Barbara Liles and JJ Peña; fiction by Barbara Barrow, Erin Comerford, Judith Dancoff, Erica Jasmin Dixon, and Lee Rozelle; and poetry by Elizabeth Aoki, Mary Leauna Christensen, Noah Davis, Armen Davoudian, Marlanda Dekine, Andrew Hemmert, Maurya Kerr, Cate Lycurgus, Athena Nassar, Khalisa Rae, Darius Simpson, and Ariana Francesca Thomas.

More info at the Southern Humanities Review website.

New Letters – Fall 2021

New writing by Tamas Dobozy, Marcie Alexander, B.H. Fairchild, Jennifer Perrine, Heather Sellers, and Eliza Tudor. Fiction by Shubha Sunder, Andrew Porter, David Ryan, Marcie Alexander, and Maureen Aitken. Essays by Amy Day Wilkinson and Emily Ruehs-Navarro. See poetry contributors at the New Letters website.

Cutleaf – Issue 1 Volume 19

In this issue Erika Veurink takes us on a tragic, and perhaps painfully humorous, first date with two people whose interest in each other simply don’t match in “Five Hours Ahead.” Diane Payne recounts ways isolation makes simple trips to the dentist or the grocery fraught in the short essay “The New You.” And Ralph Sneeden asks, “Where is the middle / distance of history” in four poems beginning with “Skiff Hill.” The images in this issue are from a 1921 illustrated guide to figure skating by Swedish skating champion Bror Myer. More info at the Cutleaf website.

Event :: Ireland Writing Retreat – Wild Atlantic Way – June 12-16, 2022

photograph of Ireland's Wild Atlantic WayRegistration Deadline: May 15, 2022
Event Dates: June 12-16, 2022
Location: Delphi Resort Adventure Spa in Leenane, Ireland
With Carolyn Dawn Flynn, acclaimed novelist/memoirist and TEDx speaker, and writer-poet Jona Kottler. Let the mythic landscape of Connemara call you to a writing adventure at this enchanted spa resort. For writers of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. Participants receive an extensive editorial letter and individual consultations, plus craft talks. Whether you’re writing essays or a book-length memoir, short stories or a novel, this retreat is designed to help you deepen and refine your work-in-progress. You will have time to write at this generative and restorative retreat. Website: www.carolynflynn.com/ireland-retreat-2022/

Coming Up: The Adroit Journal Issue 39 Release Reading

Join The Adroit Journal in two days, on Tuesday October 26, 2021 for the release reading for their 39th issue.

Readers include Jonny Teklit, Paul Tran, Lory Bedikian, Anthony Okpunor, Kate Wisel, and our Adroit Prizes winners Stephanie Chang and Enshia Li! Kate Gaskin will host the Zoom event.

Register for the event and learn a little bit more about the readers at Eventbrite.

YA Representation from Chloe Gong

Guest Post by Skylar Edwards.

Shakespeare meets Shanghai in this Romeo and Juliet retelling with a monstrous twist. Chloe Gong modernizes a familiar, yet different, plot sequence, with relevant characters and battles against colonialism, while honoring classical themes: love, hate, and loyalty. Roma and Juliette align to fight a monster, while navigating the dangers of a blood feud, gangster-run Shanghai, and foreign powers. As heirs to the competing gangs, Roma and Juliette have the most to lose and the stakes have never been higher.

Juliette returns from America to find that the life she once knew has changed and she struggles to redefine herself within Shanghai. Her loyalty to the Scarlet Gang is tested against the disputing territories quickly rising to power: rival gangs, communists, and colonizers. Tensions rise as she is forced to collaborate with her former lover, Roma of the White Flowers.

Gong paves the way for YA representation and creates authenticity by normalizing diverse characters, each with a unique perspective. In the story’s web, intertwined with queer and cultural identities, readers discover the Scarlet Gang are Chinese, while The White Flowers are primarily Russian. Sparks emerge between same-sex characters and readers discover that one gang member identifies as transgender.

Readers assume the antagonist is the monster who has released a plague of madness on Shanghai. However, Gong uses the monster-hunt trope to highlight who the real enemy is: each other. Two lovers and liars must put aside their differences, and convince others to do the same, before it is too late. Readers are left with a disastrous ending, where competing territories turn on each other and release the real monsters into Shanghai.

“Men are sometimes masters of their own fates.” —Shakespeare


These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong. Margaret K. McElderry Books, November 2020.

Reviewer bio: Primarily a bookish fanatic working with nonprofits, Skylar is also a micro-influencer on BookTok; follow TwiceReadTales for more!

Buy this book from our affiliate Bookshop.org.

Exploring the Depths of the Voice

Guest Post by Brooke M. Smith.

Poet and essayist Jessica Sabo explores the depths of the voice within her collection of poems. A Body of Impulse offers a magnifying lens into a woman’s life reflections. An Adelaide Literary Award in Poetry finalist (2020), Sabo lays bare a rawness leaving the reader to feel commiseration with her protagonist.

In “What I Should Have Said Instead of ‘Nothing,'” Sabo’s use of metaphors and imagery detail the pain and process of wanting to be understood:

It is a cancer, mom
eating me alive from the inside like a plague
and I am so raw I can’t feel the pain anymore. I can’t feel anymore. I can’t anymore. This hollowing is the only time I feel whole
and I know–I know! I could fight back if I really tried
and if I really wanted it
but I don’t want it, mom. I get so tired of being the outsider. Tired of living in this body that has
never been a home. I am homesick, mom. I am sick, mom.

Reading these last stanzas of her poem provoked a question most humans ask in life: Who am I? Am I happy with who I am . . . who I’ve become?  Self-acceptance is a process, and a painful one at times. The ending of her poem “Requital spotlights our imperfections as women and being human.  Acceptance of our choices, learning to accept ourselves as whole and worthy, no matter the condition we are in.

Now, it is my naked body in front of a mirror
a road map of
razor scars and stretch marks, faded tattoos
piercings that refuse to close. It is here I am
learning how to say mine without stutter
refusing to apologize for taking up (too               much) sidewalk. Learning to fill the space
reserved for all my apologies.

Jessica Sabo’s beautifully threaded lines leave readers pondering these questions in her three-part poetry collection.


A Body of Impulse by Jessica Sabo. Dancing Girl Press & Studio, 2021.

Reviewer bio: Brooke M. Smith is a librarian who loves cats, coffee, cozy mysteries, camping, and many other things that don’t begin with the letter C.  She also is a poetry editor for 805 Lit + Art Magazine.

NewPages Book Stand – October 2021

No tricks this October—just some book treats! Take a look at which titles we’ve featured this month at the Book Stand.

Amanda Paradise by CAConrad is made up of memories of loved ones who died of AIDS, the daily struggle of existing through the pandemic, and the effort to arrive at a new way of falling in love with the world as it is, not as it was.

Ashanti Anderson’s Black Under layers outward perception with internal truth to offer an almost-telescopic examination of the redundancies—and incongruences—of marginalization and hypervisibility.

The short stories in Counterfactual Love Stories & Other Experiments by Jackson Bliss are an exploration of not just mixed-race/hapa identity in Michigan (and the American Midwest), but also of the infinite ways in which stories can be told, challenged, celebrated, and subverted.

In thirteen chapters, Laura Kalpakian’s Memory into Memoir provides a lively guide for anyone looking to wrestle the unruly past onto the page.

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 websiteClick here to see how to place your book in our New & Noteworthy section.

A Journey through Food & Culture

Guest Post by Kristina Pudlewski.

Stanley Tucci’s latest book, Taste: My Life Through Food, is wonderful. It takes readers on a journey through food and culture in the early 60’s to present day, 2021.

In the early chapters it talks about Tucci’s family life and what he grew up eating and experiencing in New York. Growing up in an Italian household means fun stories and delicious meals daily. Tucci describes both of these gracefully. His details about the food he grew up eating leaves your mouth watering and it’s extremely helpful that he also includes recipes so you can make the meals he grew up loving, at home with your own families.

I love to eat, but my pockets don’t enjoy the price that some meals cost these days. Taste: My Life Through Food gives insights into ways you can cook amazing meals on a budget and where to go in the United States and abroad to get a good, cheap, filling meal.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a love for cooking and travel. This book talks about both and it shows just how great life can be when surrounded by good food and good company.


Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci. Gallery Books, October 2021.

Reviewer bio: I am a Freelance Writer from Illinois. I love to write fiction novels, short stories and poetry. I am currently writing my first novel.

Buy this book from our affiliate Bookshop.org.

Call :: Heron Tree 2022

Deadline: January 15, 2022
Heron Tree
is open for submissions through January 15, 2022. We will read submissions and make decisions on a rolling basis. Accepted poems will be published individually online (one poem a week beginning in February 2022) and then collected in Heron Tree volume 9, which will be available as a free downloadable ebook. This special issue will be devoted to found poetry. See our detailed submission guidelines at herontree.com/how/.

Sky Island Journal – No. 18

Sky Island Journal’s stunning 18th issue is now out. Accomplished, well-established authors are published—side by side—with fresh, emerging voices. Readers are provided with a powerful, focused literary experience that transports them: one that challenges them intellectually and moves them emotionally. Always free to access, and always free from advertising, discover what over 90,000 readers in 145 countries already know; the finest new writing is here, at your fingertips. More info at Sky Island Journal website.

New England Review – Fall 2021

This issue features fiction by Hisham Bustani, Scott Blackwood, Gregory Spatz, Nicole Cuffy and Blair Hurly. It includes Alice Greenway’s novella describing the life in an overcrowded refugee camp. There is also poetry by Natalie Scenters-Zapico, Emma Trelles, Suphil Lee Park, Emelie Griffin, and Benjamin Paloff plus nonfiction by Leath Tonino. And a performance piece by John Cotter.

More info at the New England Review website.

The Dillydoun Review – October 2021

Dillydoun Review cover imaage

The latest issue of The Dillydoun Review features short stories by Amita Basu, Byron Lafayette, Tacheny Perry, Trevor Sorel, and Michael Washburn; flash fiction by Adrienne Marie Barrios, Chris Coplan, Ben Gartner, Lorette C. Luzajic, Kim McCollum, and Anna Zwede; nonfiction by Cyndy Cendagorta, Laura Gaddis, and Carla Williams; and flash nonfiction by Anne R. Gibbons, River Kozhar, and Byron Spooner. See poetry contributors at The Dillydoun Review website.

Call :: Abandon Journal Issue #3 (Abandon Time) Open For Submissions

Abandon Journal logoDeadline: November 30, 2021
Issue #3 of Abandon Journal is open for submissions until 11/30/21. The theme is “Abandon Time” (interpret that as you wish). No fees for general subs. Accepting just about anything, as long as it is created with abandon, and we pay our contributors. See abandonjournal.com/submissions for full guidelines.

Chestnut Review – Fall 2021

The beautiful Autumn issue is now available. Work by Andrew Krivak, Mark Blackford, Gerrie Paino, Youssef Alaoui, Matt Moment, Jose Hernandez Diaz, Jonas Holdeman, Alyssa Witbeck Alexander, Bette Ridgeway, Ahmed Qaid, Cindy Buchanan, Sherre Vernon, Brandon Lewis, Sarah Pascarella, Alexis Kruckeberg, KJ Li, Roger Camp, Colby Vargas, Lucy Zhang, Mark Yale Harris, Chelsea Stickle, and Jacy Zhang. More info at the Chestnut Review website.

Event :: Apply Now for the Looking Glass Rock Writers’ Conference

Screenshot of 2022 Looking Glass Rock Writers' Conference flier
click image to open full-size PDF

Application Deadline: December 15, 2021
Event Dates:
May 19 – 22, 2022
Location: Brevard, North Carolina
Located in the mountains of western North Carolina, the May 19-22, 2022 Looking Glass Rock Writers’ Conference will explore the theme “A Sense of Place” with faculty Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Alison Hawthorne Deming, and Crystal Wilkinson leading workshops on poetry, nonfiction, and fiction writing. A partnership between the Transylvania County Library and Brevard College, the annual conference consists of writing workshops for select participants and community readings by the workshop leaders. Workshops are limited to 12 participants and scholarships are available. Acceptance is competitive and based on manuscript evaluation. There is no charge to apply. For more information visit www.lgrwc.org.

Contest :: 2022 Jeff Marks Memorial Poetry Prize

Screenshot of december's flier for the NewPages Fall 2021 LitPak
click image to open full-size flier

Deadline: December 1, 2021
december magazine seeks entries for our 2022 Jeff Marks Memorial Poetry Prize. Grace Cavalieri is judging. Prize: $1,500 & publication (winner); $500 & publication (honorable mention). All finalists will be published in the 2022 Spring/Summer awards issue. Submit up to 3 poems per entry. $20 entry fee includes copy of the awards issue. Submit October 1 to December 1. For complete guidelines please visit our website decembermag.org/2022-jeff-marks-memorial-poetry-prize.

Apple Valley Review – Fall 2021

Featuring short fiction by Alice Wilson, Alex Haber, L. Mack, Zulaikha Yusuf (translated from the Arabic by Essam M. Al-Jassim), and Mariana Villas-Boas; a novel excerpt by Josh Emmons; and poetry by Daniel Bourne, Gail Peck, DS Maolalai, Alaíde Foppa (translated from the Spanish by Dana Delibovi), Mary Crow, Julia Lisella, Judith Harris, Susan Johnson, and Robert Herschbach. Cover painting by Russian artist Ivan Shishkin. More info at the Apple Valley Review website.

Call :: Take The Fruit Religion Abuse Anthology Seeks Subs

Take The Fruit, Flood The Desert Anthology GuidelinesExtended Deadline: December 31, 2021
Take The Fruit, Flood The Desert: A Religious Trauma Anthology
is accepting submissions. Did you question church doctrine and the way leaders/family members used it to lead you? How did the threat of eternal damnation affect you? Did you experience self-loathing or an inability to make decisions? What messages did the church give you about your relationship to your body, sex, and boundaries? How have you healed and reclaimed your identity? Send up to 3 pieces of any genre (Google or Word docs) up to 2,500 words total to [email protected], with the subject “submission, Take The Fruit.” www.amandaekwriter.com/take-the-fruit-flood-the-desert

Call :: RCC MUSE Journal – Poetry and Prose Submissions Open

RCC MUSE Journal coverDeadline: December 15, 2021
MUSE is especially looking to publish work from under- or misrepresented groups, such as people of color, disabled people, LGBTQ+, present/formerly incarcerated people, and others from a culturally and linguistically diverse background.
Through Dec. 15: submit one short story or CNF 1500 words max; up to three poems. Mail to RCC MUSE, Riverside City College, 4800 Magnolia Avenue, Riverside, CA 92506 or email [email protected]. If email, send as attachment with “Last Name – Genre – Title of Submission” in the subject line (e.g., Smith – Prose – “In Summer”). Please include contact information. See full submission guidelines at rcc.edu/muse.

Danielle Geller Interviewed in Superstition Review

In Issue 27 of Superstition Review, readers can find an interview with Danielle Geller conducted via email by Grace Tobin. The interview centers on Geller’s memoir Dog Flowers published by One World/Penguin Random House this year.

The interview opens with the story of how the title of Dog Flowers came to be. The two go on to talk about the decisions Geller made while writing the memoir: what to include or leave out, writing in a nonlinear storyline, and which diary entries and real life photos to include.

Continue reading “Danielle Geller Interviewed in Superstition Review”

2021 Frontier OPEN Winner

Congratulations to the winner of the 2021 Frontier OPEN. This award celebrates a single piece of poetry, and the winner receives $5,000 and publication.

Winner
“Fireworks” by Chaun Ballard

Editors describe this piece as “A wrenching performance of the political lyric, read from right to left.” Read Ballard’s poem here and check out this link for work by the OPEN finalists.

October 2021 eLitPak :: 31st Annual Jeffrey E. Smith Editors’ Prize: Deadline Extended

Screenshot of Missouri Review flier for the NewPages October eLitPak
click image to open full-size flier

Deadline: October 18, 2021
Missouri Review’s Jeffrey E. Smith Editors’ Prize has extended its deadline to October 18. Winners in fiction, poetry, and nonfiction receive $5,000 and publication. All entrants receive a 1-year digital subscription and a free copy of the digital anthology Private Lives. All-access entrants receive an additional decade of TMR digital issues, complete with audio recordings. All entries considered for publication.

View the full October 2021 eLitPak Newsletter.

October 2021 eLitPak :: 18th Annual Palm Beach Poetry Festival

Screenshot of Palm Beach Poetry Festival 2022 flier
click image to open full-size flier

Virtual festival takes 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. Apply to attend a workshop by November 15. Special Craft Talk by Kwame Dawes, Special Guest Poet Yusef Komunyakaa. Poet-at-Large, Aimee Nezhukumatathil. Find out more at our website.

View the full October 2021 eLitPak Newsletter.

October 2021 eLitPak :: Sandy Crimmins National Prize for Poetry

Screenshot of Philadelphia Stories flier for the NewPages October 2021 eLitPak
click image to open full-size flier

The Sandy Crimmins National Prize for Poetry features a first place prize of $1,000 and three Runners Up prizes of $250 each. We especially encourage poets from underrepresented groups and backgrounds to send their work. Find more information at our website.

View the full October 2021 eLitPak Newsletter.

October 2021 eLitPak :: Tartt First Fiction Award

Screenshot of Livingston Press September, October, November, December 2021 flier for the NewPages eLitPakThis year’s co-winners were Judy Juanita of Oakland, CA. and Schuyler Dickson of Houlka, MS. Their respective books will come out in June. The deadline for the new contest is December 31. Please see our website for details. And see our forthcoming books, also. Credit cards accepted.

View the full October 2021 eLitPak Newsletter.

October 2021 eLitPak :: MFA in Creative Writing at UNCG

Screenshot of UNCG MFA's flier for the NewPages August 2021 eLitPak
click image to open full-size flier

Find Your Story Here

UNC Greensboro’s MFA is a two-year residency program offering fully funded assistantships with stipends. Students work closely with faculty in one-on-one tutorials and develop their craft in a lifelong community of writers. UNCG offers courses in poetry, fiction, publishing, and creative nonfiction, plus opportunities in college teaching and editorial work for The Greensboro Review. More at our website. Application deadline: January 1.

View the full October 2021 eLitPak Newsletter.

“Blowback” by Mimi Drop

Guest Post by Bonnie Meekums.

As a flash fiction writer myself, I love to read other writers’ work, usually while making myself a cup of tea or waiting for an appointment to start. That’s one of the beauties of flash. You can devour a complete word-cake, and feel ready for more.

Mimi Drop’s offering “Blowback,” at 755 words, isn’t as short as some of the micros I read (and write), but even the title pulls its weight. It was only after reading the story a couple of times that I understood the significance. Dealing as it does with the difficult topic of PTSD, it has resonances with the word ‘flashback,’ examples of which are given in the story as the protagonist struggles to disassociate normal, everyday actions from his traumatic memory. But there is another, more sinister meaning to this word, which has to do with the precise nature of that traumatic memory.

I’m not in the business of giving spoilers, so you will just have to read it to discover that other meaning. Suffice it to say there is a juicy twist towards the end of the story.


Blowback” by Mimi Drop. Flash FIction Magazine, September 2021.

Reviewer bio: Bonnie writes novels (A Kind of Family, Between the Lines), flash fiction/memoir (Dear Damsels, Reflex, Open Page, Moss Puppy, Dribble Drabble), and the odd poem. www.bonniemeekums.weebly.com

Event :: 2021 Red Clay Writers Virtual Conference

Registration Deadline: November 12, 2021
Event Dates: November 13–14, 2021
Location: Virtual
Join us on November 13th and 14th for the Red Clay Writers Virtual Conference! The online two-day conference features writing workshops and craft talks for poets, fiction writers, creative nonfiction writers, screenwriters, children’s book authors, and young adult novelists. Some of this year’s faculty include Jose Hernandez Diaz, Laekan Zea Kemp, Megan Harlan, and Jakob Guanzon. The keynote will be given by Anna Qu, author of Made in China: A Memoir of Love and Labor. Conference registration is $80 ($50 for students) now through November 12th. Please visit the website for more information.

Call :: Atmosphere Press Seeks Book Manuscripts from Diverse Voices

atmosphere press logoDeadline: Rolling
Atmosphere Press currently seeks book manuscripts from diverse voices. There’s no submission fee, and if your manuscript is selected, we’ll be the publisher you’ve always wanted: attentive, organized, on schedule, and professional. We use a model in which the author funds the publication of the book, but retains 100% rights, royalties, and artistic autonomy. This year Atmosphere authors have received featured reviews with Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, and Booklist, and have even appeared on a giant billboard in Times Square. Submit your book manuscript at atmospherepress.com.

Extremes of Pleasure and Passion

Guest Post by Vikash Goyal.

George Milles is the mind of the 21st century teen. He is beautiful. He is a boy with no ambitions—unless you count wanting to live in Disneyland as one. He doesn’t know the pathways of his life and is consequently lost midway. He is passive and has a dormant attitude. His beauty is unparalleled and draws boys to him like flies to turds. But with so much attention in his life, it is still lifeless.

Cooper’s semi-autobiographical five book series is inspired by the writings of de Sade, which is quite evident while reading. Closer is the first in the series, perfectly introducing the protagonist George. The book, at times, reads like a pirated version of de Sade’s The 120 Days Of Sodom although nowhere near the majesty of it.

The teens who form the center of the book are disturbed, confused, and fake. They move around like a body without a belly button. Their only solace is in drugs and sex. They know no human bonds and let their death bound lives pass them by embroiled in perpetual flimsy relationships.

The writing is in teen lingo, but reads well enough. The book doesn’t hold on to a proper plot and is written in more of a documentary style. There is a dissection of the mind of the coming-of-age youth, spelling out the conditioning of priority-devoid teens. The book is refreshing in its matter of fact portrayal of homosexuality without the unnecessary drawing of the microscope over their sexuality or struggle.

George, the protagonist, is the thread in the book that binds the different unique characters, who at some point, share a liaison with him. Not one character in the book is sure and positive about his life, including a couple of characters in their forties. The book tries to encapsulate the extremes of pleasure and passion through episodes of gross torture and sexual acts, and, in a couple of cases, even death.

The book can seem to move in circles now and then, ending up becoming a few pages too many. For those that like to experiment.


Closer by Dennis Cooper. Grove, 1990.

Reviewer bio: Vikash Goyal is a writer of prose and poetry, best known for his blog “Kashivology” on WordPress, that chronicles the defining moments in the life of its protagonist, Kashiv, through a series of surrealistic, existential and philosophical prosaic poetry. He also reviews books on Instagram @Kashivology.

Buy this book from our affiliate Bookshop.org.

Three Able Muse Authors Book Launch Reading Event on October 24

Able Muse October 24, 2021 Reading bannerAble Muse Press will be hosting a virtual launch, Q&A, and reading event for three of its authors on Sunday, October 24, 2021 from 3-4PM EST. Host will be Emily Leithauser, winner of the 2015 Able Muse Book Award.

Will Cordeiro will be reading from Trap Street: Poems. Cordeiro was the winner of the 2019 Able Muse Book Award. J.C. Todd, runner-up of the 2019 Able Muse Book Award, will be reading from Beyond Repair: Poems.

David Berman’s collection Progressions of the Mind: Poems has been published posthumously. Special mini host Paulette Demers will be reading from his work with Bruce Bennett and Rhina P. Espaillat.

Registration is free and required to attend. Register now so you don’t miss out and don’t forget to grab your copies of these titles.

Ruminate – Fall 2021

The writers and artists whose work makes up Ruminate issue 60 probe the imagery and metaphor of being at sea. Whether it is being at sea in the waiting to find out if a beloved will survive, as in Devon Miller-Duggan’s poem, “Perhaps a Prayer for Surviving the Night. Or as in Peggy Shumaker’s “Gifts We Cannot Keep.” See what else you can find in this issue at the Ruminate website.

Cutleaf – Issue 1 Volume 18

In this issue, Daniel Leach delivers two poems from the South Carolina low country beginning with “the year after your father dies.” Lauren Green tells the story of a couple’s reconciliation trip after the husband’s affair is discovered in “My Life.” And noted essayist Chris Arthur reveals the joy and sometimes dark thoughts that are inspired by his page-a-day art calendar in “Picturing the Day.” Find out about this issue’s images Cutleaf website.

The Bitter Oleander – Fall 2021

Our Autumn 2021 features the poetry of Alice Pettway who is interviewed at length about her poetry and her travels by our editor. Also included in this issue are short fiction pieces by Sergey Gerasimov, Nathan Greene, Amanda Jayne, Bruce Lawder, and Alexis Levitin. In addition there are translations from the poetry of Martín Camps, Lêdo Ivo, Luís Miguel Nava, Enriqueta Ochoa, Daniela Nazareth Romero, and Maria Wine. See what else is in this issue at The Bitter Oleander website.

Contest :: Carve Magazine 2021 Prose & Poetry Contest

Screenshot of CARVE's flier for their 2021 Prose & Poetry Contest
click image to open full-size flier

Deadline: November 15, 2021
Carve Magazine‘s Prose & Poetry Contest is open October 1 – November 15. Accepting submissions from all over the world, but work must be in English. Max 10,000 words for fiction and nonfiction; 2,000 words for poetry. Prizes: $1,000 each for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. All 3 winners published in Spring 2022. Entry fee $17 online only. Guest judges are Lydia Conklin for fiction; Julietta Singh for nonfiction; and Jihyun Yun for poetry. www.carvezine.com/prose-poetry-contest/

Themed Mag Issues

I enjoy a themed lit mag issue, and if you do too, here are some suggestions to pick up.

Rattle‘s issues always have a special section, and the Fall 2021 issue includes a Tribute to Indian Poets. Poets included are Tishani Doshi (who is also interviewed in the issue), Kinshuk Gupta, Zilka Joseph, Pankaj Khemka, Sophia Naz, and others.

The Summer 2021 issue of Nimrod International Journal brings us work that focuses on “Endings and Beginnings.” The editors promise “work that presents familiar beginnings and endings in new and compelling ways as well as work that illuminates smaller, unique kinds of endings and beginnings.” Angela Sucich, Sarah Carleton, Katie Culligan, and Bethany Shultz Hurst are a few who take on this task.

Every issue of THEMA is a themed issue. This time around for the Summer 2021 issue, writers and artists responded to the prompt “The Tiny Red Suitcase,” including Lynda Fox, Laura Ruth Loomis, James Penha, and Laura Blatt.

Rain Taxi’s Twin Cities Book Festival Virtual Events

Rain Taxi‘s Twin Cities Book Festival continues to offer virtual events. Events coming up include: “Speaking Up” with Veera Hiranandani, Ronald Smith, and Susan & Lexi Haas; Achy Obejas and Phillip B. Williams in conversation with Gary Dop; Kate DiCamillo and Sophie Blackall in conversation with Ann Patchett; and more.

Find out more about these free events and register at the Twin Cities Book Festival website.