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!
Issue 27 on the theme of ‘Geography’ is now online. Poetry by D A Prince, Lynne Lawner, George Moore, Ruth O’Callaghan, Rebecca Gethin, Finola Scott, Phil Vernon, Grant Tarbard, John Grey, Simon Perchik, Alistair Noon, Kelley White, Kristine Johanson, Chris Pellizzari, Joe Crocker, Caroline Davies, Philip Burton, Paula Aamli, Stuart Mckenzie, Toby Jackson, and more. See a full list of contributors at the Allegro Poetry Magazine website.
Sometimes after reading a story, I want to know more about it—what the inspiration was and what went into writing the piece. Southern Humanities Review quenches that thirst for answers in their “Features” section on their website, providing the occasional interview with a contributor of their print journal. Right now, readers can find an interview with Leslie Blanco, whose short story “A Sane Person Doesn’t Do Something Like That” is in Volume 54 Number 2 of Southern Humanities Review. The story “examines the strain in the marriage of Yvelis and Hector during the Cuban Revolution.”
Blanco and interviewer Caitlin Rae Taylor discuss the motivations behind the actions of the story’s characters, and the research that went into writing this piece. Here’s what she says about her attitude toward research:
The truth is, I love research. I love the melodrama of history and the magic of stepping mentally into another time, so I did a ton of research. Even as I type the answers to these questions, a vast “sensory” landscape covers one wall of my office, representing research for a novel set just after the revolution. It is a map of Havana with pushpins in all intersections of significant historical moments, surrounded by photos depicting the everyday people swept up in those events, complete with their glorious beehives or their iconic beards.
The interview finishes in a more general area. Taylor asks Blanco what she’s currently reading, what current projects she’s working on, and what advice she’d give to writers “who want to write fiction set against historically significant events,” making this interview an interesting read even for those who have yet to take in “A Sane Person Doesn’t Do Something Like That.”
Online literary magazine Brilliant Flash Fiction has released is second print anthology! Branching Out: International Tales of Brilliant Flash Fiction is a collection of stories – all 300 words or less. These unique tales will entertain you while inspiring your own writing.
The anthology includes authors from Australia, Canada, England, India, Ireland, Malta, New Zealand, Nigeria, the Philippines, Scotland, and the United States.
Want a copy? Submit a $12 donation via the button on their homepage.
If you didn’t already know, literary magazine Variety Pack will release what they call “Mini Packs” on occasion. On August 30, they released Mini-Mega Pack: 6×6. This features six poems from six separate poets to whet your appetite between the releases of Issue 5 (don’t forget to check that out!) and Issue 6 (due out at the end of October).
The six poets featured in the Mini-Mega Pack are Kayla Keyes, Will Cordeiro, Ben Nardolilli, John Sweet, Peter Mitchell, and Adrian Sobo. So jump online and check this mini delight out and don’t forget they are accepting submissions through September 15.
Deadline: 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.
The 2021 Ambit Competition winners have been announced! The theme of this contest was METAMORPHOSIS.
Michael Salu selected “To The Cow, The Trees” by Georgina Parfitt as the winner of the Stories Competition. “Welcome Kanye!” by Luke Jackson took home second and “Oak Peg” by Edward Hofman won third place.
Honorable mentions include Joanne Hayden’s “Wingbeat”; “Metamorphosis” by Xan Nichols; “It’s Complicated” by William Macbeth; “Metamorphosis” by Amelia Sparling; “Snow” by Amanda Hodes; “I want, I want” by Sharmini Wijeyesekera; “Another Life” by Laura Plummer; “Secrets of a Stitchbird” by Jess Richards; “Made to Love Magic” by Sophie Goldsworthy; and “Re-branded: My Careworker’s Uniform” by Deborah Nash.
Michael Salu was also the judge of the Art and Illustration Competition. This marks the first time this category was featured. The inaugural winner was Lucy Gray’s “Being Blue.” Second prize went to “Metamorphosis” by Yeshé Thapa Magar and third prize went to “A Pair of Glasses, A Blue Handbag and an Elegantly Coiled Tail” by Nina Carter.
Honorable mentions include “Metamorphosis, 2020” by Neelam Bhullar; “Snake Seed” by Matthew Richardson; “Metamorphosis” by Lisa Kalloo; Hannah Millar’s “An Altered Network”; “Rebirth” by Aisling McGee; “Shapeshifter” by Susanna Burton; “Eyes of Sierra Padre” by Chris Vaughan; “Posture ay punctuate collection” by Ben Thompson; and “A Transformation, from the ‘Seventh Swan’ a forgotten folk tale by Sasha Alfille, Wormhearts” by Essy Syed.
Kim Addonizio was the judge of the Poetry Competition. She selected Laurie Ogden’s “What we are given” as the winner. Sarah Gibbons’ “Things hang well on me now I’m so beautifully sad” took home second and E. Walker’s “Deux ex Cochlea” won third.
Honorable mentions include “Girlhood” by Stephanie Powell; “Kerkyra, Corfu” by Johan Huybrechts; “Chrysalis” by Mark McGuinness; “Corot’s Berthe” by Elisabeth Murawski; “too small” by Elisabeth Murawski; “Growing a Face” by Mary Mulholland; “Hanging with Rexie” by Elisabeth Sennitt Clough; “That Kiss in Padua” by Kit Ingram; “What the River did Next” by Anne Bailey; and “Poema” by Alix Willard.
Online literary magazine The Boiler has an exciting interview series “Under Pressure.” This series highlights previous contributors and focuses on elements of craft and process – excellent reading for both writers and readers.
You can currently find interviews with Dana Alsamsam, Esteban Rodriguez, Kayleb Rae Candrilli, Jenny Molberg, Stephanie Cawley, Alyse Bensel, Dorothy Chan, Anthony Cody, Lena Khalaf Tuffaha, Marlin M. Jenkins, Todd Dillard, K-Ming Chang, Michael Torres, Dorsey Craft, Tatiana Ryckman, Alan Chazaro, Malcolm Friend, Sara Lupita Olivares, Roberto Carlos Garcia, Melissa Wiley, Jody Chan, Naima Yael Tokunow, Kelly Grace Thomas, and Jessica Abughattas.
Deadline: 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
Guest Post by Lisa Graham-Peterson.
“Write like a human” has been my advice to university students for years; imagine my delight to see those same words from Kurt Vonnegut to his pupils in Pity the Reader: On Writing with Style. For any writer, novice or not, advice on the craft from someone like Vonnegut is well worth your time. Fans of his will wince a bit at my purposeful use of a semicolon in my opening sentence.
The book’s cover lists Kurt Vonnegut and Suzanne McConnell as authors, though he’d been dead for 12 years by the time this book was published. The attribution is appropriate. McConnell includes so much of his work and words, it’s only fair he gets top billing.
McConnell was a student of Vonnegut’s at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and went on to a lifelong friendship with the storied writer and his family. Not meant to be a biography but so much of his life and personality inspired or surfaced within Vonnegut’s writing, this book wouldn’t be complete without those details. With her close connection to the family, McConnell includes rare photos and reproductions of letters, marked-up drafts and—my favorite—assignments and notes to students. I now need to up my game with my university course materials.
McConnell gives us bite-sized reading, with attention to page layout that would bring a sly smile to Vonnegut. It’s an organized primer—inspiration, mechanics—up to and including how to build community and take care of oneself in this solitary business we call writing.
Pity the Reader: On Writing with Style by Kurt Vonnegut & Suzanne McConnell. Seven Stories Press, 2019.
Reviewer bio: Lisa Graham-Peterson is a freelance writer and adjunct professor at the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota. More about Lisa at lisagrahampeterson.com.
Buy this book from our affiliate Bookshop.org.
Yesterday CRAFT announced the winners of their inaugural CRAFT Creative Nonfiction Award. This year’s contest was judged by Joy Castro.
Winners
“The Ties That Bind” by Tammy Delatorre
“What You Don’t Know” by Claire Fielder
“Catalogue for a Coming of Age” by Liz Harmer
Editors’ Choice Selections
“The Untimely Collaborators” by Sara Davis
“Face, Velvet, Church, Daisy, Red” by Marilyn Hope
These placing pieces can be read on CRAFT‘s website. There, you’ll also find a list of finalists, the rest of the longlist, and honorable mentions, as well as information about this year’s judge.
Able Muse’s guest judge Mark Jarman has chosen Kelly Rowe’s poetry manuscript Rise Above the River as the winner of the 2021 Able Muse Book Award. Rowe wins $1,000 and publication by Able Muse Press in spring/summer 2022. View Rowe’s bio and samples from the work.
Stay tuned for announcements of the 2022 awards and don’t forget to get your copy of the 2020 winner, Say What You Will by Len Krisak which will officially be released in November.
Guest Post by Susan Kay Anderson.
Poet Kevin Ridgeway dishes it out in seemingly endless amounts of true grit in his poems of loss and despair in Too Young To Know. His poems are a cross between Richard Brautigan and Denis Johnson and we can read the pathos of “Kool Aid Mustache,” “The 1988 Sears Christmas Catalog,” “My Drug Dealer’s Girlfriend,” and “The Original Unsung Hometown Zero” because less is more, because we get pulled down and are entertained, because we fall in love with Ridgeway, and because we survive along with him no matter what.
These are short poems written in lawn mower narrative chunks like Dean Young’s. I have heard this style called “new narrative” or “street style.” What is new about Ridgeway’s work is that his white trash experiences and escapades are just the setting for heroics of living when everything else comes crashing down in the world of alcohol and drug dependence.
From “Two Dimensional Lovers”:
. . . my sweetheart
that I secretly called Sharlena, her never
ending smile making out with me when I
saw the shell shocked faces of other sons,
frightened refugees smoked out of their
cavernous mall video arcade hideouts
For all the depression and desperation here, Ridgeway lifts us up because he just barely escapes with his biggest weapon. His scraggly Nordic looks? His jolly underwear? His nine hundred lives? All these? What passes for pathos and gutter writing is none other than beauty and connection.
Ridgeway’s poems are on Facebook and he posts short videos of himself reading. You’ll find yourself seeking him out again and again, addicted and craving more. His new chapbook is called In His Own Little World (Stubborn Mule Press) out now.
Too Young To Know by Kevin Ridgeway. Stubborn Mule Press, July 2019.
Reviewer bio: Susan Kay Anderson lives at the headwaters of Sutherlin Creek in southwestern Oregon’s Umpqua Basin. She is the author of Please Plant This Book Coast To Coast (Finishing Line Press, 2021) Virginia Brautigan Aste’s memoir. Anderson is a poetry reader for Quarterly West and Lily Poetry Review. Her poems are forthcoming in Barrow Street Journal, Heron Tree, and Wild Roof Journal.
Buy this book from our affiliate Bookshop.org.
Deadline: Rolling
Don’t forget Storm Cellar, a print-and-ebook journal of safety and danger since 2011, seeks 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.
In this issue of Qu Literary Magazine: fiction by Sarah Starr Murphy and Andi Diehn. Nonfiction by Joseph Cuomo. Poetry by Ron Riekki, Sydney Haas, Katie Ellen Bowers, Darius Atefat-Peckham, Michael Buckius, Rae Hoffman Jager, Austin Garrett, Amanda Hartzell, and Hannah Cohen. See what else is in this issue at the Qu website.
“Moving On.” Inside: First fiction by Danica Li. Alex Ramirez on boxing, defeat, and Diego Corrales. Poetry by Bruce Campbell, Tiana Clark, V. Penelope Pelizzon, and Nancy Reddy. Stories by Samantha Xiao Cody, Shakarean Hutchinson, Daphne Kalotay, and Becky Mandelbaum. See what else you can find in this issue at the Missouri Review website.
The Summer 2021 issue of The Malahat Review features poetry by Elena Bentley, Patricia Caspers, Leah Callen, Christina Shah, Jamella Hagen, and Saeed Tavanee Marvi. See what else you can find in this issue at The Malahat Review website.
A new issue of The Dillydoun Review is only a couple days away, but don’t miss Issue 7 with poetry by Julie Benesh, Robert Beveridge, Eve Chilali, Robin Gow, Lily Mayo, Anita Nahal, and more; prose poetry by Cecilia M. Gigliotti; nonfiction by Jeff Lawenda; and more. See what else you can find at The Dillydoun Review website.
The Baltimore Review is pleased to present their Summer 2021 issue with poems, short stories, and creative nonfiction by: Jeffrey Bean, David Bergman, Stephen Cramer, Vishnas R. Gaitonde, Robin Gow, Claire Kortyna, Kelley J. P. Lindberg, Jarid McCarthy, and more. See a full list of contributors at The Baltimore Review website.
Issue 38 of The Adroit Journal is out! Poetry by David Hernandez, Mark Doty, Patricia Liu, Margaret Ray, Chris Santiago, Maja Lukic, Rachel Long, Mai Der Vang, Rebecca Morton, Rita Dove, and more; prose by Tucker Leighty-Phillips, Raye Hendrix, Krystle DiCristofalo, and Perry Lopez; and interviews with Rachel Yoder, Forrest Gander, Brandon Taylor, and Shangyang Fang. Read more info at The Androit Journal website.
Deadline: September 30, 2021
19th year, sponsored by Winning Writers. Win $3,000 for a poem in any style and $3,000 for a poem that rhymes or has a traditional style. Total prizes: $8,000. The top two winners will also receive two-year gift certificates from our co-sponsor, Duotrope (a $100 value). Both published and unpublished work accepted. Winning entries published online. Submit two poems for one $15 entry fee. Length limit: 250 lines per poem. Judged by S. Mei Sheng Frazier. This contest is recommended by Reedsy. See past winners, advice from the judge, and submit online at winningwriters.com/tompoetrynp21.
I was surprised by the change of scenery when visiting 2River View’s website. The online literary journal just had a small makeover. Like before, the new design spotlights the four latest publications but they’re now at the center of the homepage with larger thumbnails of their always stunning featured art. The rest of the layout is mostly the same, but there is less text on the homepage, bringing the focus to those issues. So what are you waiting for? Go check out them out at their newly designed home!
Book Review by Katy Haas.
I’ve had Mary Biddinger’s Partial Genius on my “to-read” shelf of my bookcase for two years now. While participating in this year’s Sealy Challenge—reading 31 books of poetry in 31 days—I finally was able to sit down and read it (and reread it).
In these prose poems, Biddinger’s voice is both cynical and whimsical. I found humor throughout in lines like “I’d have to move back to Northern Michigan in order to be beautiful,” and “Your favorite part of the Bible was that story about the flood, but it was mostly the thought of luxuriating on a ship between camels and zebras and cranes and their vast, auspicious futures.”
But then suddenly there are lines that sober like these from “Untamed Thickets”:
I did a lot of really dumb things, like jumping out of cars and allowing my feelings to seep into the pad under the carpet. [ . . . ] Certain nights were so hot I just loomed on stairways waiting for someone to push me aside, which isn’t a punishment like making out with a man who hurt you, in a closet filled with electrified metal hangers, and then missing it.
It’s impossible to guess where Biddinger will take us. In “Voir Dire,” the paragraphs jump back and forth between scenes—one a thread linking religion to a diamond ring to the idea of ownership and freedom, and the other thread carrying us through a story of a robbery and being in court. In most other poems, we read one sentence and are immediately whisked off to another thought, and this unpredictability is what I love about this collection. Every poem is fresh, exciting, and beautifully crafted.
Biddinger has another book, Department of Elegy, forthcoming from Black Lawrence Press next year. I promise it won’t have any time to collect dust on my to-read shelf.
Partial Genius by Mary Biddinger. Black Lawrence Press, August 2019.
Buy this book from our affiliate Bookshop.org.
On August 17 literary magazine The Common featured a conversation between Ilan Stavans and Haoran Tong on poetry and the use of multiple languages. Besides talking on how language is used and how they consider it in their own work, you also get to learn how they grew up and learned their languages from it being completely natural with no dominance of one language over the other to acquiring a new language as being an invasion.
My English education, in contrast, focused more on practical dialogues than on literature. English was taught to me as a useful tool to acquire more knowledge, but Chinese was me. This probably explains my initial reluctance to use English elements in Chinese poems, or vice versa. Moreover, I seriously scrutinized my poems, out of guilt, for any “latinized” syntax that sounded “unChinese.”
Stavans and Tong also talk on “decidophobia” and how common it is now when in societies today choices are constantly demanded and their is always the underlying fear that you may make the wrong one.
Decidophobia is a common social trait, especially in capitalist societies: we are constantly demanding ourselves to make a choice. This, obviously, comes with the fear of making the wrong one. Is it possible to have too many choices before us? Should one try to avoid such a situation? Probably not.
And if you are interested in translation versus translingualism, Stavans and Tong have a lot to bring to the table on the subject as well: “Whereas translation tells, explains, or instructs, translingual writing shows, infuses and liberates.” Check out the interview in it’s entirety.
Walter M. Robinson was selected by guest judge Megan Stielstra as the winner of River Teeth‘s 2020 Literary Nonfiction Book Prize. His book, What Cannot Be Undone, will be published by the University of New Mexico Press in Spring 2022. Stielstra writes that Dr. Robinson’s book gave her was “the deep humanity of the people called to save our lives.” Dr. Robinson also received a cash prize of $1,000.
The 2021 Literary Nonfiction Book Prize officially opened on August 1 with a deadline of October 31. The guest judge is award-winning author Rigoberto González. The winner receives $1,000 and book publication by The University of New Mexico Press.
Runner Up
Souvenirs from Paradise by Erin Langner
Three Finalists
Afterlight by Joshua Bernstein
How to Live by Kelle Groom
Swampitude by Quitman Marshall
Five Semi-Finalists
The Mothers by Rebe Huntman
Homemaker by Jessica Johnson
From Your Friend Carey Dean by Lisa Knopp
Poisons of War by Sabrina Veroczi
The Mary Years by Julie Marie Wade
Summer activities seem to be wrapping up, which is great news—now there is more time for reading! At this month’s Book Stand, we have more books to add to your “to-read” list, including five featured titles.
In Daughters by Brittney Corrigan, the poet reimagines characters from mythology, folklore, fairy tales, and pop culture from the perspective of their daughters—daughters we don’t expect such individuals to have, as we don’t usually think of Bigfoot, the Mad Hatter, or Medusa as parents.
Mortality, With Friends is a collection of lyrical essays from Fleda Brown, a writer and caretaker who lives with the nagging uneasiness that her cancer could return.
New Moons: Contemporary Writing by North American Muslims was edited by Kazim Ali who says: “This collection of voices ought to be symphony and cacophony at once, like the body of Muslims as they are today.”
L.E. Bowman delves into the intricate relationship between humans and nature, and how these often overlooked in What I Learned from the Trees.
Francine Rodriguez’s A Woman’s Story tells the stories of Latina women’s lives, stories that resonate on a deeply emotional level.
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.
On July 27, it was officially announced that Lynne Nugent will be officially taking over the editorship of literary magazine The Iowa Review. Nugent is the seventh editor in the journal’s half-century history and is the first nonwhite person to hold this position.
Nugent was the acting editor for the past year before being officially moved into the position. Katie Berta will now be taking Nugent’s vacated managing editor position.
The Iowa Review produces issues three times a year and has been in continuous publication since1970. Don’t forget to support the journal by subscribing or purchasing single issues.
Deadline: October 1, 2021
The Missouri Review is pleased to announce that the 31st annual Jeffrey E. Smith Editors’ Prize is now open. Winners in fiction, poetry, and nonfiction receive $5000 and publication, promotion, and an event to be determined later. All entries are considered for publication in TMR, or in our web-exclusive features, BLAST and/or Poem of the Week. Visit our website to learn more: www.missourireview.com/contests/jeffrey-e-smith-editors-prize/.
Guest Post by Lauren Mead.
Survive the Night by Riley Sager is a twisted psychological thriller that will leave readers biting their nails right up until the end. It’s your classic girl-meets-boy story, but with serial killers and revenge. Awesome. When Charlie accepts a ride home from Josh Baxter, she is nervous, but no way could he be anything other than a nice guy. But as they journey farther towards their final destination, Charlie begins to discover that Josh isn’t who he says he is. She starts to think that he is the serial killer who murdered her roommate two months ago. Now she’s trapped in a car, in the middle of nowhere with a murderer and she’s got a suspicion that she’s next. In Riley Sager’s new page turner, no one is who they appear to be and, certainly, no one is safe.
Riley Sager’s books are all gripping, but Survive the Night turns up the heat as the reader tries to guess who the serial killer might be. It’s an insightful look into the idea of safety. Who can we trust? What does a “safe person” look like? This is a particularly resonant discussion given the current #metoo reveals. As a reader, inhabiting the mind of a terrified girl trapped in the car with a maybe serial killer made me think hard about the ways that women learn not to trust their instincts even when they feel like a situation is bad. At every turn, Charlie was terrified, but second guessed herself. In Survive the Night, Sager asks the question: If not yourself, who can you trust?
Survive the Night by Riley Sager. Dutton Books, June 2021.
Reviewer bio: Lauren Mead has been published in The Danforth Review, The MacGuffin, Soliloquies and Forest for the Trees. She also writes for her blog, www.novelshrink.com.
Buy this book from our affiliate Bookshop.org.
Able Muse has just released the announcement of their 2021 Write Prize for Poetry and Fiction winners. The submissions were judged anonymously by the Able Muse Contest Committee and the final judges, William Baer (fiction) and Jehanne Dubrow (poetry).
Amina Gautier’s “We Ask Why” wins the Write Prize for fiction. Baer said the piece is “a deeply moving story that raises serious questions about personal identity and parentage.” The winning story will be published in the Winter 2021/22 edition of Able Muse.
FICTION HONORABLE MENTION:
FICTION SHORTLIST:
E. D. Watson’s “Twelfth of May” wins the Write Prize for Poetry. Dubrow states “What I so appreciate abut this poem is the wryness, its gift for evoking landscape…and the speaker’s sudden hunger in the early aftermath of trauma.” The winning poem and the finalists will be also be published in the Winter 2021/22 issue.
POETRY FINALISTS:
POETRY HONORABLE MENTION:
Stay tuned for the 2021 Able Muse Book Award announcement.
Endings & Beginnings. Fiction by Sruthi Narayanan, Titus Chalk, Michael Nye, and others; creative nonfiction by Katie Culligan and Kirsten L. Parkinson; and poetry by Chelsea Wagenaar, Richard K. Kent, Grant Clauser, John A. Nieves, Chelsea Bayouth, Emma Aylor, Suzie Eckl, Magpie Miller, Christen Noel Kauffman, Carol Guess & Rochelle Hurt, and more. See more contributors at the Nimrod website.
Deadline: Rolling
Have fun with your writing practice with our free classes: Free Your Writing Flow and Start with Sparks! Play on the Page is teaching writers how to tweak their writing attitudes and strategies to create joyful, ongoing, productive writing lives. Thanks to an Individual Artists Program Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, our summer classes are free to all through September 30, 2021! Learn more and register at www.playonthepage.com. Let’s play!
In this issue: fiction by Kristi Humphrey Davis, Brett Dixon, Ankur Razdan, Babak Movahed, Douglas K. Currier, and David Sapp; poetry by Michael S. Glaser, Buffy Aakaash, Ellen Austin-Li, Rachel Barton, Anthony Butts, Ted Clausen, Richard Cole, John Cullen, Holly Day, John Philip Drury, Susan Entsminger, Craig Evenson, Ken Fifer, Kasha Martin Gauthier, Carol Hamilton, Ken Holland, William Snyder, Jr., William R. Stoddart, Maryfrances Wagner, Kari Wergeland, Nicole Walker, Richard Widerkehr, Beth Oast Williams, and more. See who else you can find in this issue at The Main Street Rag website.
See what Grand Little Things has published in the past month: poetry by Jane Kennedy Mitchell, Steve Mentz, Sean Patrick, David Russell Mosley, Evan Vandermeer, Ken Gosse, Tonya Walter, Amanda Ryan, Martin Potter, and Bob McAfee. Get more info at the Grand Little Things website.
In this issue, Vanessa Nirode deciphers the vague alteration notes left for the often-over-looked, behind-the-scenes tailors for television shows. Benjamin Woodard gives a breath-taking account of Barry, a man in his mid-50s, who acts impulsively while out for an evening stroll with his wife. Ohio Poet Laureate Kari Gunter-Seymour writes about what happens when you try to love someone who thinks he doesn’t deserve to be loved. Learn more about this issue’s images at the Cutleaf website.
Phew, August has found The Masters Review making a lot of announcements.
First, they announced that Dean Jamieson is the winner of their Winter 2020-21 Short Story Award for New Writers. His winning story, “Straight to My Heart” can be read online. Plus, they also have an interview with Dean.
Corey Flintoff’s “Collection Of The Artist” took home second place. The story and an interview with Corey is also available.
Then they announced the ten finalists selected by guest judge Diane Cook for publication in The Masters Review Anthology X.
The Bird Rattle by Chelsy Diaz Amaya
Atlas, Bayonet, (War) Correspondence: An Abecedarian by Tanya Bellehumeur-Allatt
Limbs by Megan Callahan
Do Not Duplicate by John Darcy
Resurrection by Hilary Dean
Comfort Animals by Travis Eisenbise
Persimmon by Elissa C. Huang
All That Is or Ever Was or Ever Will Be by Eliana Ramage
A String of Lapis Beads by Greg Schutz
Sugar by Francis Walsh
And finally, they have announced that Nick Almeida’s Masterplans has won their inaugural chapbook contest. The book is forthcoming in Fall 2021 and you can read the titular story right now as a preview of what’s to come.
At the end of last year, we introduced a Canadian independent bookstores mailing list to help writers reach our neighbors to the north. Right now, you can get the digital Canadian bookstore list for free when you buy the digital United States bookstore list. Reach nearly 1,800 bookstores with both lists.
More interested in reaching libraries? You can still buy our public library list and receive the academic library list for free.
Learn more about all our mailing lists at our website.
Jeffrey Levine and Kristina Marie Darling invite you to join Tupelo Press’ expertly-designed online poetry manuscript conference. We will meet in small, intimate groups. You will be guided through the craft of transforming your manuscript into a book that coheres and sings! At the end, you’ll have a readied manuscript, a publication plan, and a community of fellow poets. Rolling registration.
View the full NewPages August 2021 eLitPak newsletter.
All authors want to get their books into the hands of as many readers as possible. Though it is a publisher’s role to aid and assist authors in marketing and publicity for every book, the role of any publisher necessarily takes a back seat to your all-important efforts. Nobody else can do this essential work as effectively as you can.
View the full NewPages August 2021 eLitPak newsletter.
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 mfagreensboro.org. Application deadline: January 1.
View the full NewPages August 2021 eLitPak newsletter.
Consequence has a rich tradition of publishing engaging translations and nonfiction, including Richard Hoffman’s 2022 Pushcart-winning essay “Remembering the Alchemists.” We look to strengthen this tradition in both our Spring ’22 print volume and our online platform, so if you have exceptional work in either of these genres, please send them to us via consequenceforum.org/submissions. Deadline: October 15, 2021.
View the full NewPages August 2021 eLitPak newsletter.
This collection of craft essays offers thoughtful insights from some of the highest-rated speakers from HippoCamp: A Conference for Creative Nonfiction Writers, who also happen to be some of the brightest minds in CNF we know. Get your copy today.
View the full NewPages August 2021 eLitPak newsletter.
New summer titles from Livingston Press by James Braziel (a Tartt First Fiction Award winner due out this month!), Mark Budman, Daren Dean, William Gay, and Terence Gallagher. We will announce the Tartt winner soon and then will resume open reading for fiction titles. Plus, stay tuned for new fall and winter releases by Christy Alexander Hallberg, Kurt Leviant, James Findlay Sleigh, and M. Kaat Toy.
View the full NewPages August 2021 eLitPak newsletter.
We have started shipping Francine Rodriguez’ new collection of short stories on August 19! Be among the first to read this important and profound collection of stories of primarily Latina women who live in and around downtown Los Angeles.
View the full NewPages August 2021 eLitPak newsletter.
EVENT: A home for writers. A destination for readers. We are now accepting submissions of 5,000 words or less to the annual EVENT Non-Fiction Contest. $3,000 in prizes, plus publication. Entries must be postmarked or submitted online by October 15. Visit our website for full contest guidelines, exclusive online content, and information about our popular Reading Service for Writers.
View the full NewPages August 2021 eLitPak newsletter.
More than $3,500 in prizes, with a $1,000 grand prize in each genre and $100 to the finalists. Judges: Poetry: Ellen Bass; Nonfiction: Aimee Nezhukumatathil; Fiction: Maurice Carlos Ruffin. Deadline: Labor Day, September 6, 2021. $20 entry fee per set of 3-5 poems (or a single long poem), story, essay or article. See full guidelines and submit online.
View the full NewPages August 2021 eLitPak newsletter.
Submit published or unpublished poems to the 19th annual Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest sponsored by Winning Writers and co-sponsored by Duotrope. We will award $3,000 for the best poem in any style and $3,000 for the best poem that rhymes or has a traditional style. The top 12 poems will be published online. Final judge: S. Mei Sheng Frazier. Deadline: September 30.
View the full NewPages August 2021 eLitPak newsletter.
Our intensive two-year studio/hybrid MFA program helps you find your way in an atmosphere of cooperation and encouragement. We support college graduates who want to concentrate on craft and on reading the way writers do. Visit our website for more information. Application deadline: January 6.
View the full NewPages August 2021 eLitPak newsletter.
Guest Post by Stephanie Renee dos Santos.
Eleonora and Joseph by Julieta Ameida Rodrigues elucidates the fascinating connections between eighteenth century Portugal, Italy, and the United States, exploring revolutionary voices, supporters, and contributors to the European Enlightenment movement. The characters, former United States President Thomas Jefferson, Portuguese priest and scientist Joseph Correia da Serra, and Portugal descendant aristocratic poet and royal librarian Eleonora Fonseca Pimentel, bring to life this tumultuous and radical time of conflict and change. Each of these plays a different and distinct role in this Revolutionary era on both sides of the Atlantic.
Through these three characters, Rodrigues fleshes out a unique story, revealing the international complexities and connections in Europe and in the United States. This book allows the reader into the inner workings of this radical time where many opposing ideals were fought and died for. This is an original historical novel highlighting Eleonora, whose life story connects all three protagonists in surprising ways. Courageous Eleonora, who risked her life for the ideals of equality and freedom for all. In addition, the author recreates the historically celebrated and controversial male characters, President Thomas Jefferson and botanist Joseph Correia da Serra, whom she skillfully shows their inner motives and drives that propel the novel forward in complicated and tragic ways.
It is refreshing as a lover of historical fiction to read an original story like Eleonora and Joseph that brings to life important historical characters and events from a fresh new angle and lens.
Eleonora and Joseph by Julieta Almeida Rodrigues. New Academia Publishing, July 2020.
Reviewer bio: Stephanie Renee dos Santos is author of Cut From The Earth, a Semi-Finalist for the Chanticleer International Book Reviews Chaucer Book Awards. To learn more: www.stephaniereneedossantos.com.
Buy this book from our affiliate Bookshop.org.
Check out the titles slated for release this fall from Main Street Rag. These will be release in September, October, and November. You can order an advanced copy at a discounted price, too!
Which titles are you adding to your fall and winter reading lists?
