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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!

‘Peculiar Heritage’

Guest Post by Chloe Yelena Miller.

DeMisty D. Bellinger’s Peculiar Heritage opens with the title poem. She invites us—at times challenges us—to look with that first line of the title poem, “if you look at her eyes.” The collective heritage of poems moves through slavery, different regions of the US, the African diaspora in Paris, as well as more contemporary violence in America.

The collection is divided into four parts, including a break in part three with protest poems. This almost aside of protest poems, as Part III continues again with a page break, draws attention to the fact that many, if not all of these poems, are already protest poems. Continue reading “‘Peculiar Heritage’”

Call :: Chestnut Review Invites Submissions for Spring 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! Currently reading for our Spring 2022 issue due out in April. chestnutreview.com

Experiencing One’s Self

Guest Post by Diana De Jesus.

Nietzsche once remarked, “In the end, one experiences only one’s self.”

The novel Hating Olivia: A Love Story by Mark SaFranko truly emphasizes this notion through the eyes of our main protagonist Max Zajack, a struggling artist and wannabe writer who lives in a rundown apartment in New Jersey. To support himself, Zajack takes on a low-paying job loading trucks for a living and playing gigs in nightclubs and bars. During one of his gigs, he meets Olivia Aphrodite, a literature student who changes his life in more ways than one. Continue reading “Experiencing One’s Self”

The Writing Disorder – Fall 2021

The Fall 2021 issue of The Writing Disorder features fiction by Tori Bissonette, Ethan Klein, Sarah Terez Rosenblum, Marcia Bradley, Justin Meckes, Carolyn Weisbecker, Paul Garson, and Austin McLellan; poetry by Milton P. Ehrlich, Travis Stephens, Maria Marrocchino, Jordyn Taylor, Mikayla Schutte, and Kim Zach; and nonfiction by Jamie Good, Ruth Heilgeist, Graeme Hunter, and JoAnne E. Lehman. Plus art by Amy Earls and an interview with Pauline Butcher Bird. More info at The Writing Disorder website.

World Literature Today – Fall 2021

Translation takes the spotlight in WLT’s autumn issue, which—for the first time in its ninety-five-year history—is entirely devoted to the craft that makes world literature possible: every poem, story, essay, interview, and Notebook/Outpost contribution has been translated into English, and the entirety of the book review section is likewise dedicated to translated books. Check out what else you can find in this issue at the World Literature Today website.

Call :: Oyster River Pages Special Issue

Oyster River Pages Special Issue 3 bannerDeadline: November 15, 2021
We think about it. We live in it. A world that both explores and hides the sensuality and sexuality hidden within us and what’s around us. We all have our stories, experiences, and thoughts on what it means to teeter the lines of sexuality in ourselves. Now through November 15, ORP’s special issue is seeking to accept poetry, fiction, and visual art that centers your experiences in love and life. Although we are looking to accept work from many creatives, we are looking to center the work of individuals who identify as BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and disabled people.

Leaping Clear – Fall 2021

Leaping Clear - logo

We’re delighted to welcome you to the fifth-year anniversary edition of Leaping Clear! We invite you to enjoy the many manifestations of visual art, music, and writing. Music by Roseminna Watson; photography/video by Carla Brennan, Izumi Tanaka, Zangmo Alexander, and more; and poetry by Alison Luterman, Jane Hirshfield, Jody Gladding, Susan Harvey, and others; essays by Mary Lane Potter and Stephen Batchelor. Visit the Leaping Clear website to see what else is in this issue.

Cleaver Magazine – No. 35

The Fall 2021 issue of Cleaver features creative nonfiction by E. A. Farrow and Tricia Park; fiction by Sarah Schiff, Frankie McMillan, Peter Amos, and more; a visual narrative by Emily Steinberg; flash by Suman Mallick, Alex Juffer, Sarah Freligh, Kelly Gray, Gay Degani, Chelsey Clammer, and others; and poetry by Sara Mae, John Cullen, Danny Cooper, Melody Wilson, Tingyu Liu, and Tom Laichas. See what else you can find in this issue at the Mag Stand.

The Baltimore Review 2021 Print Collection

The 2021 print collection of the poems, stories, and creative nonfiction published in The Baltimore Review‘s online issues is here. Work by Cara Lynn Albert, Francesca Bell, A. J. Bermudez, Gregory Byrd, Charlie Clark, Emily Rose Cole, M. M. De Voe, Jehanne Dubrow, Emily James, Joshua Jones, Meg Kearney, Cindy King, Tara Lynn Masih, Ed Meek, Susan Messer, and more. See more contributors at the Mag Stand.

About Place Journal – October 2021

Do we define the earth or does the earth define us? Robin Wall Kimmerer says that “The land knows us, even if we are lost.” In a time of extreme climate change, extreme consumption and mass migrations, we cannot continue to tell ourselves the same stories about the land. We need to tell ourselves a different story (or remember ones long lost) – one that honors and heals both the earth and ourselves. Gary Nabhan, ethnobiologist, calls this idea Restoryation. These new stories “can become a compass for us” in a time when everyone feels adrift and uncertain. More info at the About Place Journal website.

Contest :: Last Month to Enter the 2021 Dillydoun International Fiction Prize

Dillydoun 2021 International Fiction PrizeDeadline: October 31, 2021
The 2021 Dillydoun International Fiction Prize: Enter Now Via Submittable. Deadline: October 31, 2021. Winners announced by November 30, 2021. 8,000 word max, no minimum. All genres welcome. Entry Fee: $25. CASH PRIZES: 1st – $2,000; 2nd – $1,000; 3rd – $500; Honorable Mentions – $50. Winners and honorable mentions will be published in the print anthology, and will receive one free contributor copy. All other entries will be considered for publication in a TDR Issue/TDR Daily. All TDR publications are considered at the end of the year for our Best of the Best print anthology. Writer may refuse offer to publish.

2021 Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers Winners

The winners of the 2021 Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers are in the September/October 2021 issue of Kenyon Review.

Winner
“Golden” by Daniel Zhang

Runners-up
“Dr. Freud’s Magic 8-Ball” by Blair Enright
“Ghost Town, Ohio” by Gaia Rajan

Judge Emily Nason introduces the three pieces, saying, “What I am most impressed by in Zhang, Enright, and Rajan’s poetry is their deep generosity toward their subjects. These are poets with a deep grasp on humanity and empathy.”

Get your own copy of this issue at Kenyon Review’s website.

Confessional Voicemails

Magazine Review by Katy Haas.

I’ve decided I will never be a mother, but when friends tell me the good news of their pregnancies, I feel so incredibly happy and excited for them. Hiding under that happiness, though, is always a small part of me that feels sad to know priorities are changing and our friendship is changing along with them. The speaker in “Charles, Delete This Voicemail” by Nate Duke grapples with this sad acceptance.

The poem is honest. Confessional. The speaker admits to their friend they wish “I could turn you / back from a dad into the boys we swore / we’d stay [ . . . ]” and goes on to compare Charles’s daughter to a bear “grunting [ . . . ] outside the tent” she was conceived in. The comparison isn’t pretty. The confession isn’t a pretty thought. And that’s what makes it feel so real, so relatable to the thoughts we hold back from the people we love so we don’t hurt them with our ugly truths. The title brings everything together—a wish to take protect the loved one from those truths, to take it all back. “Charles, Delete This Voicemail” is an almost painfully honest (yet still fully enjoyable) read.


Charles, Delete This Voicemail” by Nate Duke. Willow Springs, Fall 2021.

CRAFT 2021 Short Fiction Prize Winners Announced

banner for CRAFT 2021 Short Fiction Prize winnersThe results are in! CRAFT has just announced the winner selected by judge Kirstin Valdez Quade for their 2021 Short Fiction Prize. The winners will be published online in October. The next Short Fiction Prize will kick off in Spring 2022.

Winners

First Place—Willa Zhang: “Night Air”
Second Place—Leesa Fenderson: “Ugly”
Third Place—Cyn Nooney: “Just the Thing for a Day Like This”

Finalists

María Isabel Álvarez: “Happiness and Other Found Objects”
Caro Claire Burke: “Gold Rush”
Emily Cataneo: “From the Mouths of Girls, a Leviathan”
Celeste Chen: “your body is a memory in motion”
Gina L. Grandi: “Layabout”
Kathryn Holmstrom: “From Gardens where We Feel Secure”
Robert Maynor: “Always with You”
Anna Mazhirov: “An Absolute”
Amanda McLaughlin: “Cheap Trick”
Neeru Nagarajan: “Suckling”
A.J. Rodriguez: “Lenguaje”
Leigh Claire Schmidli: “Sometimes the Going”

Longlist

Sam Asher: “Worldsick”
Stephanie Early Green: “The Meat They Feed On”
Zilla Jones: “Checkmate”
Michael Knoedler: “All You Have Is Hope”
Annie Liontas: “Revelations”
Melissa Madore: “Home Bird”
Kita Mehaffy: “The Mothers”
Ray Morrison: “Reason to Believe”
Hugh Notman: “Erosion”
Rudy Ruiz: “Mexico Beach”
Kate Ryan: “The Mighty Have Fallen”
Leah Silverman: “The Memory Of”
Bill Smoot: “Black Feathers”
Lisa Thorne: “Fling”
Clancy Tripp: “Gifted & Talented”
Victoria Windrem: “Bookmarks”
Robert Winterode: “aparicio”

Honorable Mentions

Jordi Torres Barroso: “A Little Color in It”
Lucia Bettencourt, with translation by Kim Hastings: “Chocolate Bites”
Leslie Campbell: “Motherlode”
Celeste Chen: “Tuesday, Postmortem”
Edite Cunhã: “The Truth that Is Hidden”
Sarah Gilligan: “Joanie on the Spot”
Sarah Gilmartin: “The Other Woman”
Leena Gundapaneni: “Pheromone Party”
Aleksandra Hill: “Words of Advice at the End of the World”
Will Hodginson: “Pillowtalk”
Aram Kim: “The Professor”
Diana López: “After Star Wars”
Anastasia Lugo Mendez: “Then Time”
Stephanie Mullings: “Eating Mango Whole”
Areej Quraishi: “Like the Chiffon of a Sari”
Flor Salcedo: “See, right here.”
Jasmine Sawers: “Tea with the Queen”
Roberta Silman: “Bed and Breakfast”
Pascha Sotolongo: “The Mustache”
Catherine Uroff: “You Can’t Make Me Go”
Adriana Mora Vargas: “A Pinch of Cinnamon”
Sharon Wahl: “Everything Flirts”

Contest :: November 15 Deadline for Interim’s Test Site Poetry Prize

Interim 2021 Test Site Poetry Prize bannerDeadline: November 15, 2021
We’re looking for manuscripts of at least 48 pages that engage the perilous conditions of life in the 21st century, as they pertain to issues of social justice and the earth. Because we believe the truth is always experimental, we’ll especially appreciate books with innovative approaches. Beginning in 2021 and going forward, Interim will be publishing two books in their Test Site Poetry series—one title publicized as the winner of the Test Site Poetry Series and the other as the Betsy Joiner Flanagan Award in Poetry. Both winners will receive $1,000 and publication by the University of Nevada Press. www.interimpoetics.org/test-site-poetry-series

Rick Campbell – Virtual Reading and Q&A

Join Frostburg Center for Literary Arts for a reading and Q&A with Rick Campbell. Tomorrow night, October 1, at 7:00PM EST, Campbell will open the 15th Annual Western Maryland Independent Literature Festival. You can watch this reading at YouTube, and can set yourself a reminder now so you don’t miss out.

Campbell’s newest book is Provenance (Blue Horse Press.) Other titles include Gunshot, Peacock, Dog (Madville Publishing); The History of Steel (All Nations Press); Dixmont, (Autumn House Press and Black Bay Books); The Traveler’s Companion (Black Bay Books); Setting The World In Order (Texas Tech UP) which won the Walt McDonald Prize; and A Day’s Work (State Street Press).

The reading will take place at this URL.

Ruminate Announces Inaugural Flash Prose Winners

screenshot of The Waking: Ruminate OnlineIf you didn’t know already, print literary magazine Ruminate has an online component known as The Waking. They recently held their first Flash Prose Contest with the winners being published online.

Nathan Long’s “Summer of Joy” won in the fiction category and Kianna Green’s essay “Sitting Quiet” won the nonfiction prize. Both pieces are available for your reading please on The Waking right now.

Congratulations to the winners! And don’t forget that Ruminate‘s VanderMey Nonfiction Prize is officially open to submissions through October 15 (with a 3-day grace period).

Stories of Endurance

Guest Post by Ann Graham.

Eleven short stories mostly first published in well-known literary journals delve into the sinewy reality of our being human animals. The first story explores the emotionally precarious time for female teens. In the second story, “Feast,” Rayna’s miscarriage causes her to experience hallucinations. “I saw the first baby part in a bouquet of marigolds. . . .”

In “Tongues” Zeyah thinks for herself and endures the anger of their pastor and her parents. Gloria is dying of cancer in” The Loss of Heaven,” and Fred doesn’t understand her refusal of more treatments: “He wanted to shake her, grip hard into those bird-boned shoulders until [ . . . ] only a monster would treat a dying person like that.”

In “The Hearts of Enemies” complex mother daughter relationships are derailed with each one’s own private emotions.  In “Outside the Raft” the guilt after a near drowning, “I didn’t know how to apologize for wanting to save my own life.” “Exotics” is the shortest story and, for me, absolutely accusatory of our animalistic capacity for cruelty.

Despite some of the subject matter, the stories are uplifting in that we learn about endurance. Moniz exposes truths about our animal-ness that nobody wants to admit or accept as reality and shows us how we might survive anyway. Dantiel W. Moniz is an author unafraid to poke our corporality and the way it blends with our psyches.


Milk Blood Heat by Dantiel W. Moniz. Grove, February 2021.

Reviewer bio: While trying to remain hopeful that democracy will survive, Ann Graham reads and writes in Texas. Once in a while, she comments about a short story on her blog: www.ann-graham.com.

Buy this book from our affiliate Bookshop.org.

Call :: Storm Cellar Still Seeking Work for Volume 10

abstract cover art of literary magazine Storm CellarDeadline: Rolling
Storm Cellar, a print-and-ebook journal of safety and danger since 2011, is still seeking amazing new work for volume 10! Send emotionally, aesthetically, technically, and linguistically ambitious writing, photos, and art. We’re especially listening for Indigenous, Black, POC, LGBTQIA+, enby, fat, disabled, neuroatypical, poor, border-straddling, and other marginalized voices. Our roots are in the American Midwest. Surprise us! Full guidelines at stormcellar.org/submit and submission portal at stormcellar.submittable.com.

A Lifetime in a Minute

Guest Post by Mimi Drop.

“I hurled paper and paste into space, as a tortured howl climbed from occult depths. I knew what I must do.”

Flash fiction has a way of getting under my skin, like poetry. I read it once, twice, looking for meaning. Just as I reach understanding, it elevates. Oh, there’s another level. I found it. And above? Another.

“After I Do” by Bonnie Meekums appears to sum up a marriage in trouble. Or is it? Marriages are long, complicated tomes punctuated by passages of reflection and climax. We remember how we began. We begin again. The writing, lovely in both conception and execution, gives a lifetime in a minute, which is about how long it takes to read it. Enjoy.


After I Do” by Bonnie Meekums. Reflex Press, May 2020.

Mimi Drop’s fiction and poetry have appeared in Flash Fiction Magazine, Bright Flash Literary Review, and THAT Literary Review, to name a few. Links at http://mimidrop.com/.

Gemini Magazine – August 2021

The new issue of Gemini Magazine featuring the winners of the Poetry Open is out. A sincere thank you to all who entered. James Henry Zukin of Los Angeles took top honors and the $1,000 award for “Gimp Boy and I.” Beatrice Kujichagulia Greene won second prize for “Eyes (circa 1990).” Honorable mentions include work by Ana Wooldridge, Suzanne Chick, David Butler, and Tom Bixby. More info at the Gemini Magazine website.

Tint Journal – No. 6

The 24 new poems, short stories, and essays in Tint Fall ’21 (Issue 6) by writers identifying with 19 different nationalities and speaking 15 different mother tongues are just as diverse in their subject matter: Ranging from belonging, grief, labor and LGBTQ+ to abuse and trauma, they will cue the readers to think about the pressing issues of our time and open new literary landscapes for them to enjoy. Each text is accompanied with an original visual artwork and a brief Q&A with the writer. More info at Tint Journal website.

Still Point Arts Quarterly – Fall 2021

“Living on the Water.” Featured writers this issue include Jennifer Novotney, Tricia Gates Brown, Patricia B. Carley, Susan Emeline Bills, Marc Eichen, Jennifer Fearon, Katherine Hauswirth, Barbara Cole, Anthony Cordasco, Karen Bowers, Felecia Babb, Rachel Racette, Debbie Cutler, and Russel Rowland. See this issue’s featured artists at the Still Point Arts Quarterly website.

The Shore – Fall 2021

You will fall for the autumn issue of The Shore. It features moving and inventive poetry by Paige Sullivan, Julia Watson, Chris Cocca, Dhwanee Goyal, Paige Welsh, Caroline Plasket, Katie McMorris, Vismai Rao, Debarshi Mitra, Tatiana Clark, Abi Pollokoff, Sophia Liu, Mia Bell, Loisa Fenichell, Barbara Daniels, Julia McDaniel, Jennie E Owen, Melissa Strilecki, Corinna Schulenburg, Odukoya Adeniyi, and more. See who else contributed to this issue at The Shore website.

Magazine Stand :: The Gettysburg Review – 33.3

With paintings by Jenny Brillhart, fiction by Jeff Frawley, Matthew Raymond, Kevin Breen, Kay Bontempo, and David Blanton; essays by Anne Kenner, Kathy Flann, and Phillip Hurst; poetry by Rosalie Moffett, Ann Keniston, Evan Blake, Lynn Domina, John McCarthy, D. S. Waldman, Diane Martini, James Harms, John Bargowski, Jill McDonough, Ed Falco, Jeffrey Harrison, Sharon Dolin, Danusha Laméris, Lance Larsen, Richard Lyons, Linda Pastan, Mark Kraushaar, Melissa Kwasny, and Nance Van Winckel. More info at The Gettysburg Review website.

The Boiler – 34

A new issue of The Boiler is out with nonfiction by Virginia L Wood; fiction by Joe Baumann, Margaret Emma Brandl, Mialise Carney, Kathryn Holzman, and Yun Wei; and poetry by Sarah Ghazal Ali, Ruth Baumann, Flower Conroy, Jennifer Funk, Aeon Ginsberg, Bretty Hanley, Allie Hoback, Jenna Le, Fatima Malik, Noathan Spoon, travis tate, James Kelly Quigley, and more. Art by Claire Morales.

More info at The Boiler website.

Carlos Soto-Román in SRPR

Each issue, Spoon River Poetry Review features one SRPR Illinois Poet. The Summer 2021 issue features Carlos Soto-Román. His work, translated by Daniel Borzutzky, spans 16 pages and is followed by an interview conducted by Borzutzky.

The two discuss Soto-Román’s forthcoming book 11, the interview beginning with the question, “How was the book written?” Soto-Román answers:

First, I wouldn’t say the book was written, at least, in the traditional sense. Maybe just a couple of “poems” included in the book were actually written by me. The whole process was more about compiling different fragments, quotes, and excerpts from multiple documents related to the Chilean dictatorship period and combining them within a new context in order to configure an alternate narrative of events, one that is intentionally veiled, which forces the reader to confront the past in a different way, encouraging the exercise of personal and collective memory to therefore complete the gaps.

You can learn more about Carlos Soto-Román and his work in the current issue of SRPR.

Event :: 18th Annual Palm Beach Poetry Festival

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

Application Deadline: November 15, 2021
Event Dates: January 10-15, 2022
Event Location: Virtual
18th Annual Virtual Palm Beach Poetry Festival, 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.

Terrain.org Reading Series

Join Terrain.org next Monday for the Terrain.org Reading Series. The Zoom event will take place on Monday, September 27 at 5:00pm MST. This Q&A and reading will feature Joy Castro, Elizabeth Jacobson, and Allen Braden, and will be moderated by Juan Morales.

You can register for this online event here.

A Dash of Poetry

Guest Post by Kristina Pudlewski.

I read a poem recently called “Dash Poem” by Linda Ellis. Only the Poet Rupi Kaur has ever amazed me with her words but then this poem came along and changed my outlook on life.

The “Dash Poem” is one of beauty. It reminds us that all of the years we are alive, we should live them well. We should not live for materialistic objects but for memorable moments, and we should love ourselves and those around us. “Dash Poem” also reminds us to create a life we will be proud of and I think a lot of people in the world want that.

This poem brought tears to my eyes and power back to my soul. I advise everyone to read this poem once, because that is all you will need to do to change your outlook on life.


Dash Poem” by Linda Ellis. 1996.

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.

NewPages Book Stand – September 2021

Stay cozy with your new favorite book. Look for it at the Book Stand. This month we feature three poetry titles, and two nonfiction titles.

The Breaks by Julietta Singh celebrates queer family-making, communal living, and Brown girlhood, complicating the stark binaries that shape contemporary US discourse.

Bernard Clay’s autobiographical poetry debut, English Lit, juxtaposes the roots of Black male identity against an urban and rural Kentucky landscape.

Hex & Howl by Simone Muench & Jackie K. White is collaborative writing at its most innovative, playful, and powerful.

Andrea Kayne’s Kicking Ass in a Corset maps out effective leadership that teaches readers how to tune out the external noise so that they can truly live and lead from the inside out.

In origin story, Gary Jackson outlines a family history of distant sisters, grieving mothers and daughters, and alcoholic fathers.

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.

‘The Cousins’

Guest Post by Jiya Ahuja.

This novel revolves around the Story family residing in gull cove island: a grandmother who owns the entire island, and parents who were disinherited by a mysterious “You know what you did” letter.

Jonah, Aubrey, and Milly are cousins who hardly know each other and have never met their grandmother. So when they receive a letter from their long-lost grandmother inviting them to the island, they aren’t particularly thrilled to go but, their parents see this as a golden opportunity to get back in their mother’s good graces. When they arrive on the island, the cousins realize their grandmother has different plans for them. Here they uncover secrets that lead them to their family’s dark and mysterious past. The entire family has secrets that they wish remained buried.

The story is told from three main points of view and is filled with a lot of twists and turns that keep readers hooked until the very last line. Although some parts felt a little slow-paced, this is still satisfying and entertaining enough. The Cousins is a highly recommended young adult mystery to readers of age 13 and above.


The Cousins by Karen M. McManus. Delacorte Press, December 2020..

Reviewer bio: Reach Jiya Ahuja here.

Buy this book from our affiliate Bookshop.org.

This Week: Virtual Q&A with Nimrod Editors

Join Nimrod‘s Editor-in-Chief, Eilis O’Neal, and Associate Editor, Cassidy McCants this week on Thursday, September 23 at 7:00pm CDT for a virtual Q&A session. Do you have questions about the publishing industry, getting ready for submissions, editing, revising, and everything in between? They have answers.

Learn more about O’Neal and McCants and this “Ask Us Anything: Editing and Publishing Q&A” at Nimrod‘s Submittable, where you can also register for the event for five dollars. While you’re there, check out the other upcoming virtual events they’re offering throughout fall.

Magazine Stand :: Wordrunner eChapbooks – September 2021

A novella in stories, these ten powerful and gritty, interlinked tales take readers inside an impoverished, drug-ridden central Florida neighborhood where the Collins family lives. The three children are being raised by their bartender mother while their father is in prison. The angry oldest son Phillip bullies his siblings—Daniel, who likes to try on his mama’s clothes and lipstick, and little sister Tammy, wise beyond her years. Tammy has a crush on Angelo, a boy across the street whose multi-generation Puerto Rican family provides a contrast with the dysfunctional Collinses. More about this issue at the Wordrunner website.

Rain Taxi Review of Books – Fall 2021

The new Fall 2021 issue is hard to miss with a stunning cover by Minnesota poet and artist Paula Cisewski! Inside, you’ll find interviews with poet Mervyn Taylor and talk radio host turned author Peter Werbe, a visit with Tessa B. Dick, a closer look at the legacy of Braiding Sweetgrass, and reviews of books by Joan Mitchell, Richard Wright, Geoff Dyer, Will Alexander, Duo Duo, N. H. Pritchard, Allison Bechdel, and many more! More info at the Rain Taxi website.

Humana Obscura – Fall Winter 2021

Our cover artist is Retura Claar. This issue’s featured artist is Derrick Breidenthal, and our featured poet is Luke Levi. Also in this issue: poetry by Audrey Colasanti, Sam Sharp, J. P. White, Hugh Hughes, Elaine T. Stockdale, and more; prose by Jason Goldsmith and Waverly Woldemichael; and art by Buffy Davis, Sharon Becker, Katya Belena, Tiffany Wong, M. Russek, and others. More info at the Humana Obscura website.

Hippocampus Magazine – October 2021

Inside, you’ll find essays and flash creative nonfiction by writers including: Sophie Scolnik-Brower, Morgan Eklund, Kathryn Fitzpatrick, Joey Garcia, Karen Green, Nita Noveno, Jess Payne, Sherry Shahan, Gary Smothers, Hannah Smothers, and Hillary Wentworth. Our new edition also features an articles section full of reviews, interviews, and columns. More info at the Hippocampus Magazine website.

Georgia Review – Fall 2021

The Georgia Review’s Fall 2021 issue is here. This issue features new writing from Stephanie Burt, Kwame Dawes, G. C. Waldrep, Rosa Alcalá, Aryn Kyle, and many more. Additional highlights in the issue include an essay by Darby Jo translated from the Korean, a story by Laila Stien translated from the Norwegian, and a can’t-miss art portfolio by Derek Fordjour, accompanied by an introduction and interview with the artist from GR Managing Editor C. J. Bartunek. More info at The Georgia Review website.

Cutleaf – Issue 1 Volume 17

Issue 17 of Cutleaf is live. In this issue, Melissa Helton shares two poems beginning with “The Teenager Has Gone Witchy.” Hanna Ferguson uses food to recount important moments in her life in “An In-Progress Cookbook of Recipes That Stick to My Ribs.” And Joan Wickersham prepares for Halloween with the best of intentions in the short story “The Subterranean Calendar.” Learn about this issue’s images at the Cutleaf website.

‘Horodno Burning’

Guest Post by Julie Christine Johnson.

Jews were attacked in a series of pogroms and subjected to systematic oppression during the late nineteenth and early 20th century, scapegoated as the cause of political and economic upheaval. These pogroms and the long history of limiting Jewish movement in Eastern Europe foreshadowed the Holocaust. These awful conditions intensified as nationalist movements and state-sanctioned violence grew.

Textbooks can present us with facts, but literature allows us to feel the stories history hopes we will hear. In his absorbing and graceful debut novel, Horodno Burning, author Michael Freed-Thall brings us into the heart of a family forever transformed by persecution. Continue reading “‘Horodno Burning’”

Consequence – Vol 13

Volume 13 of Consequence journal is now available! We’ve undergone a number of major changes since our founder, George Kovach, passed away last year, but what hasn’t changed in the least is our commitment to bringing you astounding prose, poetry, visual art, and translations that address the human consequences and realities of war and geopolitical violence. See what you can find in this issue at the Consequence website.

Looking Back at Hong Kong Reading

Next month, The Massachusetts Review will co-host an event for Looking Back at Hong Kong: An Anthology of Writing and Art forthcoming from co-host Cart Noodles Press. This reading and panel discussion will feature Nicolette Wong, Xu Xi, Sharon Yam, Yeung Chak Yan, and Q.M. Zhang.

These writers “who have called Hong Kong home will come together to read from their work and reflect on the profound changes and subtle transitions that have transpired in Hong Kong, both in recent times and over the past decades.”

The online event will take place on Wednesday, October 6 at 8PM EDT. Learn more and register here.

American Life in Poetry :: Carrie Green

American Life in Poetry
Column 860
By Kwame Dawes

What haunts this loose sonnet by Carrie Green is loss, anticipated loss, but loss, nonetheless. Yet, what emerges is an elegant “pre-elegy.” A tender anthem to a father and to the sweetness he represents, an anthem made more intimate by the choice of addressee: “Brother.”

ROBBING THE BEES
By Carrie Green

after John Wood

Brother, one day the grove and hives will empty:
the neighbor’s trees frozen back to stumps,
our father’s bees scattered across the scrub.
But today the scent of orange blossom
reaches our patch of sand, and the beeyard
teems with thieving wings. Our father works
the hives, white shirt buttoned to the neck,
hands glove-clumsy. Veiled, he’s mysterious

as a bride. Brother, we’ll want to recall
the pollen-dusted light kissing scrub oak
and sand pine, the needles smoking in tin,
the bees’ stunned flight as our father offers
a taste of honey on his pocketknife.
Our tongues steal sweetness from the rusted blade.

 

WE DO NOT ACCEPT UNSOLICITED MANUSCRIPTS
American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2020 by Carrie Green, “ROBBING THE BEES” from Studies of Familiar Birds (Able Muse Press, 2020). Poem reprinted by permission of the author and the publisher. Introduction copyright ©2021 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Kwame Dawes, is George W. Holmes Professor of English and Glenna Luschei Editor of Prairie Schooner at the University of Nebraska.

 

Board the Bus with Van Horn

Book Review by Katy Haas.

Sometimes it’s important to slow down and not only enjoy the ride, but take in the details and really sit with them. Erica Van Horn does this in her collection of short essays, By Bus.

In By Bus, we’re transported to the bus transporting Van Horn as she describes what she sees from where she sits. “Horse” is just one paragraph long and explains an interaction between two passengers. In “Stuck in Inchicore,” we’re privy to one half of a phone conversation, the caller’s dialogue making up a majority of the essay. “A Never-Married” describes a “Ring-A-Link” bus, basically a phone-ordered bus ride which can take you “fairly straight into town” or “you ride along in the bus as it meanders through the countryside [ . . . ]. It can take as long as one hour to get to town.” We hear about it through Van Horn’s friend of a friend, Carmel, who sometimes takes this bus to meet a man—a man who is stuck on a bus for an hour with nowhere else to go. There is a variety in what the essays cover that keeps the short collection fresh throughout.

By Bus is a book for those of us who take out an earbud at the coffeeshop to eavesdrop on the gossip unfolding at a nearby table of strangers. Every interaction is a tiny glimpse into the window of a stranger’s life. Van Horn’s observations are clear and simple. She sits, she watches, she shares, and then moves onto the next one, never pausing to criticize or question. This is the perfect Sunday read, a reminder to slow down and sit with the changing landscapes and passengers of our own lives with the same gentleness Van Horn does.


By Bus by Erica Van Horn. Ugly Duckling Presse, March 2021.

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September 2021 eLitPak :: Come to the 22nd Annual Taos Storytelling Festival

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Our 22nd Annual Taos Storytelling Festival features a two hour workshop by Cisco Guevara on “The Art of Storytelling,” a free community story swap, and an evening of ten featured tellers competing for cash prizes on the theme of “Transformations.” Judges are Cisco Guevara, Sarah Malone, & David McDonnell. For registration and schedule view our website, call 575-758-0081, or send us an email.

View the full September 2021 eLitPak Newsletter here.

September 2021 eLitPak :: 20% off Your First Class at Caesura Poetry Workshop

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Caesura Poetry Workshop aims to inspire, educate, and energize poets of all backgrounds through affordable Zoom workshops hosted by award-winning poet John Sibley Williams. Workshops include poem analysis, group discussion, writing prompts, poem critiques, and writing time. Come join our growing community! 1-1 personalized workshops, coaching, and manuscript critiques to keep you writing and inspired also available. More information here.

View the full September 2021 eLitPak Newsletter here.

September 2021 eLitPak :: The Gival Press Poetry Award

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2021 Deadline is December 15

The 20th Gival Press Poetry Award, with a prize of $1,000 plus book publication in 2022, deadline is December 15, 2021. Original, unpublished manuscripts of 45+ pages in any style are acceptable. Visit: Submittable for complete details, to pay $20 reading fee, and to upload your manuscript.

View the full September 2021 eLitPak Newsletter here.

September 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 September 2021 eLitPak Newsletter here.