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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!

September 2021 eLitPak :: The Caribbean Writer is Open for Artwork and Creative Submissions

Screenshot of The Caribbean Writer flier for the NewPages September 2021 eLitPak
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TCW is especially inviting artwork to grace the next cover and interior sections of Volume 36 under the 2021 theme: “Disruption, Disguise and Illuminations.” Increasingly, as history meets day to day experiences, epiphanies unfold. And as we self-interrogate the disruption motifs in many of these illuminations, the roots of prevailing disruptions emerge, complicated by disguise. We’re exploring the widest permutations.

View the full September 2021 eLitPak Newsletter here.

September 2021 eLitPak :: Find Your Story Here

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MFA in Creative Writing at UNCG

Application deadline: January 1, 2022
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.

View the full September 2021 eLitPak Newsletter here.

September eLitPak :: NEXT: Visions Towards a Less Divided America

Pangyrus flier for the NewPages September 2021 eLitPakDeadline: October 30, 2021
Submit your best essays taking on the problems of today, and the potential of tomorrow. Whether hopeful or despairing, the strongest essays will find their way into publication, and the contest winner earns both Pangyrus publication and a prize of $1,000.⁠ OUR JUDGE is Jabari Asim, an accomplished poet, playwright, and writer.⁠

View the full September 2021 eLitPak Newsletter here.

September 2021 eLitPak :: Last Call! Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest

Screenshot of Winning Writers flier for the NewPages September 2021 eLitPak
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Deadline: September 30, 2021
Submit published or unpublished poems to the Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest sponsored by Winning Writers and co-sponsored by Duotrope.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. Fee: $15 for 1-2 poems.

View the full September 2021 eLitPak Newsletter here.

Call :: Atmosphere Press Seeking Book Manuscripts in All Genres

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.

“Finding the Light in the Dark”

The Summer 2021 issue of Kaleidoscope features one book review. Sandra J. Lindow’s “Finding the Light in the Dark,” covers An Eclipse and a Butcher by Ann-Chadwell Humphries (Muddy Ford Press, 2020).

The review begins:

Consisting of thirty-eight poems, and an “Introduction” by Ed Madden, Poet Laureate of Columbia South Carolina, Ann-Chadwell Humphries’s poetry collection is well-wrought and accessible to any educated reader. As an adult, Humphries lost her vision from a genetic disorder called retinitis pigmentosa. Her website, ann-chadwellhumphries.com, describes the process of her loss “I went from (seeing through) a hula hoop to a donut and then a straw.” Her poem “My Blind Obsession” delineates how she struggled with advancing disease and at first and tried to ignore it, chase it from her yard,

but it would not leave.
So blindness and I shook hands, became friends.

Becoming friends with blindness seems a nearly impossible process, but although Humphries admits to drawing “blood” in her fight with the disease, she is convincing when she asserts that her life has become better because of her blindness (website).  Her other senses have become stronger, and she claims to have “at least sixteen” of them including “sense of memory, sense of organization, sense of concentration, sense of movement, sense of orientation, [and] sense of humor” (website). Her sense of humor, in particular has been “an asset when forced to change” (41). Her wry wit peeks from many of her poems, especially when she announces that “love is blind” (41). Scents of Listerine and linseed oil wander into her poems, exemplifying her sensory grounding in the physical world. She feels the vines and flowers gilded on the cover of a rare book as if she is actually seeing them. Her powerful sense of visual organization, part memory, part something else, allows her to “imagine how people look” when she talks with them (41). All these talented senses become apparent to her readers and listening audiences, especially when she recites her poetry from memory.

Kaleidoscope‘s issues are free online, so visit their website to check out the rest of this book review.

Spoon River Poetry Review – Fall 2021

In this issue: work by Kim Hyesoon translated by Don Mee Choi, Aaron Lopatin, Linnea Nelson, Jacob Stratman, James McKee, Leslie Ann Minot, John C. Morrison, Andrea L. Fry, Andrew Hemmert, María Negroni translated by Michelle Gil-Montero, Enzo Silon Surin, Carlos Soto-Román translated by Daniel Borzutzky, Lara Dopazo Ruibal translated by Laura Cesarco Eglin, and more. See a full list of contributors at the SRPR website.

Able Muse Authors Reading with Drury, Espaillat, & White

Able Muse is hosting another reading with three of its authors on September 17, 2021. Are you enjoying their reading series so far? Don’t forget that these readings are being held via Zoom and are free and open to the public. You do have to register in order to participate.

Featured authors are John Philip Drury whose book Sea Level Rising: Poems was published by Able Muse Press in 2015; Rhina P. Espaillat whose book And After All: Poems was published by Able Muse Press in 2019; and Gail White whose Asperity Street: Poems was published by Able Muse Press in 2015.

Jennifer Reeser will act as host. Reeser’s collection Indigenous was published by Able Muse Press in 2019 and she has another collection forthcoming from the press in 2021/22 titled Strong Feather.

If you’ve missed out on any of these readings, don’t forget you can watch them on Able Muse’s official YouTube Channel.

Open Editorial Positions Available at MAYDAY

screenshot of MAYDAY's call for volunteer editors
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magazine-news-MAYDAYEditorialPositionsAfter a year of rigorous expansion, online literary magazine MAYDAY seeks to share its updated format and expanded vision with new audiences. To do this, they are expanding and diversifying their editorial staff to include new intellectual and cultural backgrounds, experiences, perspectives, and points of view.

MAYDAY is a volunteer organization composed entirely of unpaid volunteers who can work anywhere in the world as long as there is an internet connection.

They are open to applications for production editors, social media editors, culture editors, translation editors, and visual arts editors through October 15, 2021.

Take a look at their redesigned site and content and consider joining their team. View the PDF for more information.

Fall Workshops at Cleaver

Online classes with Cleaver Magazine begin early next month. Stay cozy at home as the weather gets cooler while you strengthen your writing skills.

This season, workshops include “Telling Stories of Disability and Illness” taught by Michelle Hoppe, “Voice Lessons: Identifying and Creating Perspective in Poetry” taught by Claire Oleson, “The Writing Lab: Playful Experiments to Unstuck Your Writing” taught by Tricia Park, and plenty more.

You can find additional information on how to register and what to expect from the available workshop at Cleaver‘s website.

Driftwood Press 2020 Poetry Collection Results

screenshot of Driftwood Press 2020 poetry collection resultsDriftwood Press has announced their 2020 poetry collection reading period results. They have selected three manuscripts for publication.

One Person Holds so Much Silence by David Greenspan was chosen for its “surprising, jaw-dropping language from poem to poem.” Also selected, is O by Niki Tulk is a fable revealing real-world trauma of sexual assault through the fantastical. Last, but not least, Fit to be Tied by Sarah Moore Wagner examines addiction and experiences of womanhood in a small, rural town.

Honorable mentions include Robin Gow’s Stained Glass Rifle, Laura Bandy’s CINEMA, Heather Bartlett’s Another Word for Hunger, and Carolyn Oliver’s Inside the Storm I Want to Touch the Tremble.

Keep an eye out for the three forthcoming collections and if you’re interested in submitting your own poetry manuscripts, they are currently open to submissions.

Carve’s Short Story Writing: Fundamentals Starts Monday, September 13

And there’s still time to register! The Short Story Writing: Fundamentals class consists of five lessons: Character & Plot, Point of View, Dialogue, Inner Monologue, and Description. The best part is that each weekly lesson can be completed on your own schedule.

The lessons also include detailed explanations, examples, Carve short stories to read and respond to, and up to two short writing exercises. You are also expected to provide peer feedback to at least two other students (minimum of 5 students required for the class).

The class will run September 13 through October 21. If you’re interested, register here.

If you are interested more in help with Techniques, their next class for that starts October 25th.

‘The Body’

Guest Post by Kirpa Bajaj.

The centerpiece of The Body is an aging playwright who accepts a very tempting offer to have his mind transplanted into a younger physique. He obviously then faces the extreme consequences of his decision to chase his vanished youth.

Hanif Kureishi’s insights into the human condition are on point. This novel is very well written and carries a hint of rare warmth and humanity. Kureishi has this certain intensity and integrity of vision which makes this book ten times more impressive. This volume of fiction is a must read!

The Body by Hanif Kureishi. Scribner Book Company, April 2011.

Reviewer bio: I am Kirpa, a bibliophile and student who loves to dive in the sea of books and reviewing them for others. I also write as it’s one of my major interests. I hope I was able to help you out!

Buy this book from our affiliate Bookshop.org.

A Tale of Two Giraffes and a Dust Bowl Boy

Guest Post by Cindy Dale.

Occasionally, you come across a book that is so unusual, so original that it stops you in your tracks. Case in point:  West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge. The novel was Inspired by a true event—two giraffes in transit aboard the SS Robin Goodfellow from Africa to America shipwrecked in the 1938 “Long Island Express” hurricane. The tale is narrated by 105-year-old Woodrow Wilson Nickel from his VA hospital room as, in a race against time, he records the events of a short, pivotal period from his early life.

The year is 2025 and many species of wildlife, including giraffes, are near extinction thanks to us humans. At 17 Woody was orphaned, escaped the Dust Bowl, and made it to New York City where he got wind of the plan to transport the two stranded giraffes from New York to the San Diego Zoo. The novel recounts the audacious ocean to ocean odyssey. Woody steals a bicycle and takes off after old man Riley Jones who has been hired by San Diego Zoo doyenne Belle Benchley to transport the “towering creatures of God’s pure Eden.” Also hot on the tail of Riley Jones and the giraffes is “Red,” a pin-up pretty, young redheaded Margaret Bourke-White wannabe.

Part road trip, part coming of age story, part unrequited love story, the novel is studded with meticulously researched historical references.  Woody and Riley’s journey takes them on the southern route through the Jim Crow south and across the Texas panhandle where Woody must face memories from his own tragic past. At the heart of the novel is the concept of home. As Riley says to Woody, “Home’s not the place you’re from, Woody. Home’s the place you want to be.” A wonderful, heart-warming story perfect for these dark times.

West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge. Lake Union Publishing, February 2021.

Reviewer bio: Cindy Dale has published over twenty short stories in literary journals and anthologies. She lives on a barrier beach off the coast of Long Island.

Buy this book from our affiliate Bookshop.org.

Poets in Space

Guest Post by Susan Kay Anderson.

The Space Poet is written in well-researched prose-like stanzas so it appears scientific, logical. There are some list poems. The premise for this book is so super intriguing, that’s why I am writing something here so more people know about it!

A poet is sent to a space station to do research on what it is like (space) and write poems. This book could have been sparked by more recent projects about space (besides 2001: A Space Odyssey) Laurie Anderson’s Moon project, and Duncan Jones’ movie, Moon, but there are lots of space inspired books of poems, it seems (by looking around this book at the endorsements and epigraphs and such). I like this book because the idea of it is so strange and reading it does put one into the mood of the weirdness of space. The language of science is so weird. It can be. Enter advertising language of hype and sell.

From “Planet Hop from Trappist-1f!”

Planet hop from Trappist-1 f, the terrestrial Earth-sized planet
smack-dab in the habitable zone of our galaxy’s newly
discovered solar system and your new home amongst the stars!

These poems are kind of sad. It is melancholy in space.

From “The Cupola”

[ . . . ] the space poet cannot work with this, out here where nothing
is what you think it ought to be, where there is no rage [ . . . ]

[ . . . ] student loans or credit card debt, nothing is late for work,
nothing misses someone, nothing is late for work,
nothing misses someone, nothing loves or lives or leaves—
and what’s poetic about that?

I don’t want to say it but I will: the Pandemic. Plus, going to space to get rid of debt is kind of cruel, but I can easily see millions doing so.

The Space Poet by Samantha Edmonds. Split Lip Press, February 2020.

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.

Rattle – Fall 2021

The Fall 2021 issue features a tribute to Indian Poets. The world’s largest democracy is also the second-largest English-speaking population. We explore the state of contemporary poetry in India, featuring 16 Indian poets and a profound conversation with Forward Prize-winner Tishani Doshi. The issue also includes both cover art and a brilliant sestina by Shreya Vikram, a young poet who debuted in this year’s RYPA anthology. See what else is in this issue at the Rattle website.

Call :: Chestnut Review (“for stubborn artists”) Now Pays $120

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! Stay tuned for the Autumn 2021 issue set to be released next month. Currently reading for the Winter 2022 issue through September 30. chestnutreview.com

The MacGuffin – Spring Summer 2021

The cover of the MacGuffin’s Vol. 37.2 is a postcard, painted by featured artist Kathleen Frank, sent from summer vacation. Travel stories abound: hike to ESSNWNAU-AL in Gracjan Kraszewski’s “First Impressions” and fly out to Saskatchewan on a brief hunt for truth and a certain mythological creature in Alexander Wentzell’s “Big Feet.” Check out what other pieces are in this issue at The MacGuffin website.

Jewish Fiction .net – September 2021

Jewish Fiction .net announces a beautiful new Rosh Hashana issue! Here you’ll find 12 delightful stories, as refreshing as apples and as sweet as honey, originally written in five languages: Czech, Hungarian, Yiddish, Hebrew, and English. The Czech story, “Luck,” is the first one we’ve published translated from that language, and this brings to 17 the number of languages represented in Jewish Fiction .net. See what else is in this issue at the Jewish Fiction .net website.

The Dillydoun Review – September 2021

dillydoun review issue 8

The September 2021 issue of The Dillydoun Review is here! Short stories by Chaya Kahanovitch, Amelia Kleiber, Liam Strong, and A. Whittenberg; flash fiction by Catherine Chang, Sarah Enamorado, Bob McNeil, Marcelo Medone, Mark Putzi, Gary Reddin, and Sky Sprayberry; flash nonfiction by Wendy BooydeGraaff, Marco Etheridge, Melanie Kallai, and Maggie Walcott. Find this issue’s poetry contributors at The Dillydoun Review website.

Call :: Seeking 20 Word Quotations, Inclusion in Outdoor Exhibit, Cash Award

outdoor art and writing exhibitDeadline: October 6, 2021
Embracing Our Differences is seeking submissions for an outdoor juried art exhibit featuring 50 billboard size images paired with a quotation created by local, national, and international artists and writers. Entries can be no longer than 20 words and should be centered by our theme “enriching lives through diversity and inclusion.” The exhibit is displayed annually at Bayfront Park in downtown Sarasota and will be displayed from January 15 – April 10, 2022. A cash award of $1,000 is given for “Best Quotation.” www.embracingourdifferences.org/submit-a-quotation-2022-exhibit/

Cutleaf – Issue 1 Volume 16

In this issue of Cutleaf, Peggy Xu remembers the joy of culinary whiplash that results when food and culture combine in “Yam’Tcha.” David B. Prather shares three poems beginning with one that takes us into the beautiful mind of “The Boy in the High School Science Room.” And Ray Trotter depicts a scene of speculation and frustration when two men wonder what’s inside a locked workshop in “Scavengers.” Learn about this issue’s images at the Cutleaf website.

Trish Hopkinson Chats with NewPages’ Denise Hill

Our own Editor-in-Chief Denise Hill had a conversation with Trish Hopkinson for Hopkinson’s Tell Tell Interview Series. The two talk about “importance of community and process for writers and poets,” as well as the equally important topic of which IPAs to try out.

On the value of literature: “But when I just think about the value of literature and our society, Why doesn’t it have a greater place? Why doesn’t it have a greater value where there’s millions of us? So where is the movement for this? How do we get that?”

Check out the entire video interview at the Tell Tell Poetry website where you can also find a transcript of the conversation.

Event :: You Had Me at Room Service!

Hotel Key ChainApplication Deadline: September 28, 2021
Applications for A Hotel Room of One’s Own: The Erma Bombeck | Anna Lefler Humorist-in-Residence Program will be accepted Sept. 7-28. Fee: $25. Two emerging humor writers will receive registration, travel and hotel expenses for the March 24-26 Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop, where they will spend two weeks at the University of Dayton Marriott to work on their writing projects. It’s the gift of time to write and free room service. Nancy Cartwright, voice of Bart Simpson, and Mike Reiss, veteran Simpsons writer, will choose two winners. Package value: approximately $5,000. Experience: priceless. Cash prizes for finalists and honorable mentions.

Allegro Poetry Magazine – Issue 27

Allegro Logo

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.

An Interview with Leslie Blanco

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.”

Brilliant Flash Fiction Releases Branching Out

book leaning against trunk of a tree surrounded by leavesOnline 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.

Variety Pack Mini-Mega Pack

cover of Variety Pack's Mini-Mega Pack 6x6

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.

Contest :: The 2021 Dillydoun International Fiction Prize

2021 Dillydoun International Fiction Prize bannerDeadline: 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 Ambit Competition Winners

screenshot from Ambit's websiteThe 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.

The Boiler Under Pressure

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.

Contest :: Interim to Publish Two Books in Test Site Poetry Series

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

Write Like a Human and Other Pithy Advice from Kurt Vonnegut

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.

2020 CRAFT Creative Nonfiction Award Winners

craft logo on dark blue backgroundYesterday 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 2021 Book Award Winner

screenshot of Able Muse's 2021 Book Award Contest WinnerAble 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.

FINALISTS:

  • Gregory Emilio: Kitchen Apocrypha
  • Nicole Caruso Garcia: Oxblood

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

  • Caitlin Cowan: Happy Everything
  • Robert W. Crawford: The Snowstorms That Remain
  • Claudia Gary: Time and Other Solvents
  • Meghan Kemp-Gee: The Animal in the Room
  • Burt Myers: This Late Hour

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.

Too Young To Know

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.

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Call :: Storm Cellar Seeks Amazing Work for Volume 10

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.

The Adroit Journal – Issue 38

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.