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!
Our first issue of volume three is ready and free to read on our site. Find work by Jenny Hykes Jiang, Jacqueline Staikos, Tara Isabel Zambrano, Lindy Biller, Christina Yoseph, Akhim Alexis, Richard Lingo, and more. Find a full list of contributors at the Chestnut Review website.
Guest Post by Natalie Hess.
Fox Forever is the conclusion to the Jenna Fox Chronicles. I wasn’t sure what to expect going into this given that I really enjoyed the first book, and didn’t care much for the second, but this was a solid conclusion to the trilogy.
The story follows Locke as he tries to fulfill a favor he owes in Boston, which involves Miesha’s long lost husband, and a girl Locke accidentally falls for who is tied to the favor in a way that she doesn’t even know. As in the other two books, the characters are the best part of this story by far, but the plot is really good as well. There are reveals and plot twists around every corner, and they are quite unpredictable for the most part. Pearson constantly adds pieces to the puzzle and it grows more complicated as the situation reveals itself.
If you enjoyed the first book, and even if you didn’t enjoy the second book, I definitely think this is a series worth continuing!
Fox Forever by Mary E. Pearson. Square Fish, February 2014.
Reviewer bio: I’m Natalie Hess and I’m simply a high school student who LOVES reading everything from scifi to romance to nonfiction and everything in between. I also love sharing my thoughts and I hope you enjoy!
Buy this book from our affiliate Bookshop.org.
Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry ContestDeadline: 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 Both published and unpublished work accepted.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.
Guest Post by Stephanie Katz.
New-Hampshire-based poet Amanda Lou Doster’s first chapbook Everything Begins Somewhere is a gentle yet ambitious journey across the poet’s life. The first poem, “Actually,” sets in motion the idea of loss mixed with returning home, a theme which threads throughout the chapbook. Doster writes:
here, have this poem which all my life I thought
would be big enough for the languages and the countries
and the drugs, but which is really just a basket
woven from hay. Fragile stuff from the farm
I never thought I’d live on, but where it turns out I do.
The poems that reference children or motherhood paint stark pictures of the experience. In “A mother dreams of more babies” Doster writes:
In my friend’s belly grow tiny teeth,
perfect little knives. She says
they’re eating her alive.
One of the most vivid and raw poems in the collection is “You are expected to be more decorous than linoleum.” Doster writes:
It is unseemly to wash your hair in snowmelt. Impolite to discuss
your lover with your husband, but since you asked
in sixty-four years we will dissolve. All of us.
The themes of loss and quiet self-destruction play heavily throughout the poems, but the last poem “Next time I’ll ask someone else” hints at self-acceptance with the final line “I can collect everything / inside that green trunk—some vintage clothes, / paisley, and other lapses in judgement.”
This chapbook was published by Slate Roof Press, a unique member-run letterpress based in Massachusetts. New poets are selected through their annual contests and spend the next three years a member of the press learning and helping to produce their own title.
Everything Begins Somewhere by Amanda Lou Doster. Slate Roof Press, 2020.
Reviewer bio: Stephanie Katz is a librarian with the Manatee Libraries and editor in chief of award-winning litmag 805 Lit + Art. She was selected as a Library Journal 2020 Mover & Shaker and is the author of Libraries Publish: How to Start a Magazine, Small Press, Blog, and More. She blogs about creative library publishing at LiteraryLibraries.org.
Ruminate has announced the winner, runner up, and honorable mention for their 2021 William Van Dyke Short Story Prize. The final judge of the prize this year was Kelli Jo Ford whose debut novel Crooked Hallelujah made waves last year.
First Place: “The Florist” by Alex Cothren
Second Place: “A Guide to Removal” by Amber Baleser-Wardzala
Honorable Mention: “Kantingo Carried 16,980 Tons and a Gentleman” by George Choundas
These stories will be published in the Fall 2021 issue of Ruminate due out in mid-September. The issue is currently available for pre-order, so don’t forget to reserve your copy today if you aren’t a subscriber already.
Stop by and peruse our ever-growing Summer Online Edition! Escape into the world of “Dispatches from the Poetry Wars” as presented in an interview with creators Michael Boughn and Kent Johnson. Turn a corner with Kent and enter the synchronous world of César Aira in “How I Became the Narrator of a César Aira Novel.” Reviews of poetry by Nico Vassilakis; nonfiction exploring Black Mountain writers John Wieners and Larry Eigner; and more. See what else is online at the Rain Taxi website.
The July/August issue of the Kenyon Review features work by two poets who piercingly explore race and historical memory at a time when these issues seem more urgent than ever before. The noted writer Paisley Rekdal offers three poems from the online project “West: A Translation.” The issue also includes two poems by Bryan Byrdlong, whose work interrogates the figure of the zombie as it relates to Blackness and Black precarity in the face of white supremacy, and as a general symbol for those struggling with marginalization. Plus work by Betsy Boyd, Perry Lopez, Christopher Blackman, Kelsey Norris, Austyn Gaffney, and more. Read more at the Kenyon Review website.
Enjoy a free virtual reading event from Word Galaxy Press, an imprint of Able Muse Press. On Thursday, July 29 from 7-8 PM EST, join David Alpaugh, James Kochalka, Sydney Lea, and host John Beaton. There will also be a Q&A session. While signing up is free, you do have to register to attend. The reading and Q&A will be done via Zoom.
These three writers had books published by Word Galaxy Press in 2020: Spooky Action at a Distance: Poems (David Alpaugh) and The Exquisite Triumph of Wormboy: An Illustrated Epic (James Kochalka and Sydney Lea).
Grab your copies of these titles today and don’t forget to register for the reading!
In this summer issue of Kaleidoscope, we have personal essays, poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, a book review, a dance feature, and information regarding the release of the documentary film Fierce Love and Art. Featured essay by Kimberly Roblin. Featured art by Diane Reid. Additional work by Mariana Abeid-McDougall, Dyland Ward, Carrie Jade Williams, and more. See a further list of contributors at the Kaleidoscope website.
In this issue, Jesse Graves delves into that complicated space where family connects with history and place in three poems that begin with “An Exile.” Ace Boggess tells the story of the winding road the carries eight men to a West Virginia penitentiary in “Welcome to Rock Haul.” Amy Wright remembers the summer after her brother died from cancer, and the line of communication that opened, in “Life After Death,” an excerpt from her forthcoming book Paper Concert: A Conversation in the Round. Read more at the Cutleaf website.
If you’ve ever wondered which lit mags have the largest Twitter followings, Brecht De Poortere has you covered. On the writer’s website is a ranking of 500 literary journals with the highest Twitter follower counts. Being published by these ranked magazines may direct more traffic to a writer’s published piece, and can help followers find new work by writers that they may have otherwise missed.
You can find the rankings here. Happy following!
Deadline: September 1, 2021
Event Dates: October 13-17, 2021
Event Location: Lodge at Whitehawk Ranch in the Lost Sierras near Clio, California
A generative and restorative writing retreat at the Lodge at Whitehawk Ranch in California facilitated by Carolyn Dawn Flynn, the Story Catalyst, acclaimed novelist, memoirist, and TEDx speaker; and poet, essayist, and novelist Jona Kottler. Let the pristine forest of California’s Lost Sierras be your inspiration for this generative and restorative retreat for writers of fiction and creative nonfiction. This retreat will help you deepen and refine your work. Participants receive an extensive editorial letter and individual consultations with a mentor. The cuisine and the landscape will be sumptuous, and there will be time to write! carolynflynn.com/sierra-writing-retreat-2021/
Magazine Review by Katy Haas
Rage Hezekiah has three poems in the Summer 2021 issue of Colorado Review. Of these, “Not For Us” stuck out to me the most, visually grabbing my attention as I paged through the issue.
“Not For Us” is an erasure of rejection letters. I assume these were taken from publication rejections, and appreciated the poet’s ability to create new writing out of these. The reader takes in the sparse words left over and it’s interesting to see how similar the language is, the repetition leading the reader’s eyes over the two-page spread of rejections.
Hezekiah’s piece is a good reminder that just because something is “not for us,” doesn’t mean that’s the end.
“Not For Us” by Rage Hezekiah. Colorado Review, Summer 2021.
Galileo Press, the book publishing arm of literary magazine Free State Review has released a new chapbook from writer and filmmaker Tara Stillions Whitehead, Blood Histories. This is a fiction, poetry, hybrid chapbook.
What the book trailer and grab your copy today!
Translator Frances Riddle sits down to interview Argentine author Claudia Piñeiro about her writing life and new book, Elena Knows (Charco Press, July 2021). Piñeiro talks about how she believes writing came formatted in her DNA as she felt the need to express herself with the written word. She also talked about how she couldn’t study writing or humanities at college as the military dictatorship in Argentina had closed all humanities departments. Her writing education was informal workshops taught by well-known, important writers at houses, cafes, or bars. She personally recognizes Guillermo Saccomanno as her mentor as she studied with him the longest.
If I could sum it up: my formation has been just me seeking out things I could add on to learn to write better.
Piñeiro talks about how you cannot make a living as a writer in Argentina and how she had to write surrounded by her kids, the doorbell ringing, and other distractions. She also talks about her writing practice.
I don’t have an outline. . . . But I do have an idea—a global idea—of where the characters will go and what’s going to happen. And I do imagine the ending. Then, during writing, sometimes I take those routes, or sometimes I veer off onto other paths. Often the ending changes.
Read the full interview online in the Southwest Review.
Literary magazine StoryQuarterly has decided to do something new – general nonfiction and fiction reading periods versus running multiple contests. This year on July 31, they will begin accepting nonfiction submissions via Submittable. This submission period will run through Sunday, October 17.
They seek personal essays, narrative nonfiction, memoir, flash nonfiction, lyric essays, and other forms of creative nonfiction, preferably under 6,250 words.
Then, they will open up a reading period for fiction only from October 16 through December 19. If you would like to enter their Fiction Contest, that will open August 28 and run through November 7.
While waiting for these submissions opportunities to open up, don’t forget to read Issue 53 featuring work by Sophie Braxton, Nina de Gramont, Viet Dinh, Anthony Tognazzini, Kathleen Heil, Beatrice Baltuck Garrard, Jim Flanagan, Asher Dark, Chaney Kwak, Michelle Gurule, Cassie Mannes Murray, Rachel Toliver, Chris Stuck, Noel Alumit, James Magruder, Miah Jeffra, Rachel Howard, Kathy Anderson, J.E. Sills, and Amelia Martens.
Guest Post by Natalie Hess.
This sequel to Strange the Dreamer was absolutely phenomenal. It picks up right where the first book leaves off as Minya tries to force Lazlo to do her bidding, with the threat of releasing Sarai’s soul and letting her evanesce if he does not comply.
There are so many twists and turns throughout all 500 pages of this masterpiece. There are high stakes. There is whimsy. There is Laini Taylor’s gorgeous writing. There are the extremely lovable characters. And most of all, there is an amazing conclusion to this duology.
Throughout the entire story it seems as if there is no way to solve all of the major problems, even as more are being introduced, but somehow it all comes together for a spectacular ending that leaves the reader with so much emotion. I would highly recommend this duology to everyone, because it is absolutely breathtaking.
Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor. Little, Brown and Company, October 2018.
Reviewer bio: I’m Natalie Hess and I’m simply a high school student who LOVES reading everything from scifi to romance to nonfiction and everything in between. I also love sharing my thoughts and I hope you enjoy!
Buy this book from our affiliate Bookshop.org.
Are you taking advantage of summer downtime by getting some reading done? At this month’s Book Stand, we have more books to add to your “to-read” list, including five featured titles.
The prose poems in Ariadne Awakens: Instructions for the Labyrinth by Laura Costas “rearticulate the myth of following, finding, losing and following again an invisible thread that connects body to body, body to soul, soul to soul.”
Marcela Sulak’s City of Skypapers “not only enact[s], but also celebrate[s] what it means to be alive ‘in a place where the flowers are old enough to have stories.’”
Matt Longabucco’s book-length essay M/W: An Essay on Jean Eustache’s La maman et la putain reckons with Jean Eustache’s document of political bitterness and romantic catastrophe from the standpoint of our own vexed present.
Edited by Meredith Stabel and Zachary Turpin, Radicals is a two-volume collection of writings by American women of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with special attention paid to the voices of Black, Indigenous, and Asian American women.
While the novella has existed as a distinct literary form for over four hundred years, Sharon Oard Warner’s Writing the Novella is the first craft book dedicated to creating this intermediate-length fiction.
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.
If you enjoy literary podcasts as well as ekphrastic writing and art appreciation, you may want to check out TERcets. This is the literary podcast of The Ekphrastic Review.
They just uploaded their 9th episode on July 15 to Spotify and in this episode they launched something new. Instead of the host Brian Salmons reading the work, they have the writers themselves reading their pieces. This episode brings you works by Courtney Justus, Anthony DiMatteo, and Sara Eddy. Past episodes have featured the works of Margo Davis, Faith Kaltenbach, Anita Nahal, and more. And these are short listens ranging from 10 to 20 minutes, so you can spend your coffee break or lunch listening to some works by amazing writers.
Beginning in 2021, Inverted Syntax will be publishing its annual print issue in November. Their online issue, Fissured Tongue Series is published in the summer. Their submissions period is normally February through June, but they opened submissions later this year and they are now accepting work for online and print publication through July 29. They do charge a $4 fee.
If you’re interested in being part of the 4th installment of their “The Art of the Postcard” series, submissions are ongoing for that project, with the cutoff date being September 15. This is free to enter via Submittable and then you have to mail them your postcard.
Don’t forget to swing by their site to see all the cool things they are doing. Their Sublingua Prize is currently on hiatus for 2021.
Guest Post by Allison Kaminski.
The Wife’s House by Arianne Richmonde is a psychological thriller full of suspense, twists, and heartache. A widow lives alone on the edge of the Big Sur cliff tops, home to her modern glass refuge Cliffside. Little does she know, her lavish paradise is going to become her worst nightmare.
Triplets. A psycho ex-wife. Creepy notes. A dead husband. What could possibly go wrong?
Richmonde does a fantastic job of conveying suspense while building a main character who learns how to find confidence and strength in order to overcome the obstacles in her life.
Personally, I haven’t read a thriller quite like this. Its uniqueness in plot and suspicious characters had me hooked from the very beginning. I loved not knowing what characters I could or couldn’t trust. And let’s not forget the ending. Wow!
Overall, if you’re looking for an unputdownable thriller that will send you through a hurricane of emotions, The Wife’s House is the perfect read for you!
The Wife’s House by Arianne Richmonde. Bookouture, August 2020.
Reviewer bio: Allison Kaminski is a YA author who writes gripping mysteries and romance stories. She spends her days working to achieve a Bachelor in English with an emphasis in creative writing. When she’s not writing, she can be found reading and watching old movies. Connect with me on social media: https://www.instagram.com/author_allisonk.
Buy this book from our affiliate Bookshop.org.
Online literary magazine Frontier Poetry is offering a lab on prose poetry this summer. This lab will be completely virtual and asynchronous. Writers will be paired with award-winning poets Jihyun Yun, Felicia Zamora, or Jose Hernandez Diaz.
You can submit up to 10 pages of poetry. They recommend 5-7 being the sweet spot to get the most out of your editor’s time. Since this is a prose poetry lab, they can only be prose poems. The deadline to submit is July 31, but you can contact the editor about an extension. They have reserved 4 scholarships for BIPOC authors on a first come, first served basis.
There is no phone calls or zoom meetings. Materials will be sent to the editors and they will be in touch with feedback for you.
At the beginning of August they will send out all the learning materials while the editors work on writing feedback. Depending on the number of participants, final editorial feedback letters will be sent out in September or October and they will also be sending out letters on a rolling basis before then, too.
In Zone 3‘s Spring 2021 issue you’ll find poetry by Olivia Kingery, Kat Neis, Alyse Knorr, D.C. Leonhardt, Alice Turski, Naoko Fujimoto, John Allen Taylor, Emma Aylor, Jessica Hincapie, Alicia Mountain, Anthony Sutton, Benjamin Cutler, Camille Ferguson, Jennifer Maritza McCauley, Laura Walker, and more. See prose contributors at the Zone 3 website.
What’s new this month? Collagegraphs, phenomenal 3D modeling, hybrid landscapes, and more! Work by Manar Ali Hassan, Jasper de Beijer, Christine Crockett, N.R. Hills, Ewa Hryniewicz-Yarbrough, and others. See a full list of contributors at The Woven Tale Press website.
This year’s issue of The Meadow features nonfiction by Shaun T. Griffin and John Ballantine; fiction by A.M. Potter, Saramanda Swigart, Karly Campbell, Oreoluwa Oladimeji, Alex Moore, Mark Wagstaff, Meredith Kay, Thomas Christopher, and Eileen Bordy; and poetry by Joseph Fasano, Lisa Zimmerman, Doris Ferleger, Nancy White, Savannah Cooper, and more. See more contributors at The Meadow website.
The July/August issue is live! Inside, you’ll find essays and flash CNF such as: “Lake of the Ozarks, Osage Beach, Missouri” by Dawn-Michelle Baude, “A Very Good Liar” by Erin Branning, “Sharp” by Vanessa Chan, “11,000 People Lying Facedown on the Burnside Bridge” by Benjamin McPherson Ficklin, “Warsaw Ghetto Boy” by Sharon Goldman, and more. See more content at the Hippocampus Magazine website.
This issue of Cutleaf is now at the Mag Stand. It features excerpts from Vanishing Point, Dirk Marple’s hybrid memoir on handwritten postcards with original images. The text and images were part of ninety-two numbered postcards mailed over time to Marple’s thesis advisor, Jenny Boully.
The Summer 2021 issue features work by Rage Hezekiah, Patricia Liu, Neha Mulay, Bradley Bazzle, and Sarah Curtis. Also in this issue: Tom Howard, Lance Olsen, Nikki Ervice, Jehanne Dubrow, Richard Zonnenmoser, Darren C. Demaree, and more. See a full list of contributors at the Colorado Review website.
Guest Post by Natalie Hess.
This is the short story in the Jenna Fox Chronicles that comes after The Adoration of Jenna Fox. I absolutely loved this! The story follows Allys, Jenna’s friend, who is trying to cope with the fact that she is made mostly of bio gel which is a sort of replicating technology that can be used to replace vital organs, and therefore save lives. The problem, though, is that Allys has an extremely large amount of this inside her, making her illegal.
I can’t say that very much happened in this story, considering it was only 12 pages long, but it was still extremely enjoyable. The way that Mary E. Pearson writes is really beautiful and makes something that could be very boring and insignificant into something gorgeous and impactful, and it very much has to do with the events in the rest of the series. I would highly recommend this series, and this short story, especially to people who really enjoy sci-fi.
“The Rotten Beast” by Mary E. Pearson. Tor Books, November 2011.
Reviewer bio: I’m Natalie Hess and I’m simply a high school student who LOVES reading everything from scifi to romance to nonfiction and everything in between. I also love sharing my thoughts and I hope you enjoy!
A new issue is here featuring nonfiction by Tricia Park, Lindsay Rutherford, Courtney Elizabeth Young, and KC Pedersen; short stories by Kim Magowan & Michelle Ross, Lizzy Lemieux, Dylan Cook, and Marc Tweed; and a visual narrative by Emily Steinberg. See a full list of contributors at the Cleaver Magazine website.
Deadline: December 1, 2021
Woodcrest is pleased to announce an open submission period beginning July 2021. We welcome submissions from everyone. The literary journal of Cabrini University, Woodcrest aims to publish work that is surprising, challenging, and grounded in the human experience. We want to read your submissions of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, hybrid genres, and graphic arts. Please use our Submittable page for more information about submissions: woodcrestmagazine.submittable.com/submit.
New flash fiction by Andrew Kozma, Mary Beth Hines, Ben Umayam, Alyssa Kagel, Leslie Anne Mcilroy, Thomas Broderick, Salvatore Difalco, Kaylor Jones, Douglas DiCicco, and Paul Lamar. Read more at the Brilliant Flash Fiction website.
The Spring/Summer 2021 issue of december includes the 2021 Jeff Marks Memorial Poetry Prize winner and finalists.
First Place
“Hold Tight” by John Okrent
Honorable Mention
“Disaster A/version/Re/vision” by Margaret Ray
Finalists
“Voyeurs” by Joshua Boettiger
“A List of People Who Did Not Kill Me” by Tianna Bratcher
“Tower Block Twelve” by Elena Croitoru
“Mother & Son as Oyakodon II” by Michael Frazier
“Abecedarian on Hunger” by Naomi Ling
“True Story” by Chloe Martinez
“Cicadas” by Saudamini Siegrist
“My Mother’s House” by Isabelle Walker
“Back to the Body” by Alyson Gold Weinberg
“Also Be Lost” by Kelleen Zubick
You can grab yourself a copy of this issue at december‘s website.
Book Review by Katy Haas.
Adam McOmber’s Jesus and John takes place in the days following Jesus’ crucifixion. Jesus returns from the dead as a shell of himself, unable to speak and seemingly unable to stop walking in a specific direction as if being pulled by a magnet. The man who was his lover, John, is assigned the duty of protecting Jesus as he walks. This brings them to Rome, to a mysterious house called the “Gray Palace.” Once inside the palace, John’s journey becomes much more than he bargained for.
The deeper John travels into the labyrinth of a house, the looser the definition of reality becomes. John has no idea what lies around the next corner, and readers are kept just as unaware, constantly discovering new details. Each question answered unearths another question. I stayed up reading for hours, completely unable to set down this thriller/fantasy/horror/something-else-entirely novel.
McOmber writes John’s inner thoughts and feelings so vividly, a reader can’t help experiencing these feelings along with him: his love, his uncertainties, his growing fear and desperation. It’s been a long time since a novel has kept me so entranced and I welcomed getting lost in this fantastical world and queer storyline.
Jesus and John by Adam McOmber. Lethe Press, June 2020.
Buy this book from our affiliate Bookshop.org.
New Titles from Livingston Press by James Braziel, Mark Budman, Daren Dean, William Gay, and Terence Gallagher. See our flier for more information. We will announce the Tartt winner soon and then will resume open reading for fiction titles.
In addition to American authors, this issue includes the work of seven writers from abroad who share experiences that reveal we are more alike than we are different. A pioneer in its field, Kaleidoscope magazine publishes literature and artwork that creatively explores the experience of disability. Submit your best work to us today! Visit our website for more information.
After she defies the rigid, oppressive Confucian tradition of order and conformity, Sonju descends from an aristocratic upbringing to working at a men’s club. In spite of social condemnations and personal tragedies, her determination to be her own person never wavers. Available now from Madville Publishing and all online retailers.
Madville Publishing has two open calls for submissions! The Muddy Backroads short story anthology closes August 15, 2021, and the Arthur Smith Poetry Prize closes September 1, 2021. Find out all the information on our website.
Pursue graduate study during an intensive six-week summer session. Programs are available in: Children’s Book Writing & Illustrating; Children’s Literature (MA or MFA); Playwriting (MFA); Screenwriting & Film Studies (MA); Screenwriting (MFA). The 2022 summer courses will be offered June 20 – July 29. For more information, visit our website or call (540) 362-6575. If you’re interested in applying for the full residency programs in the fall, the deadline is January 6.
Exclusive for NewPages fans: Get 15% off your first class at WritingWorkshops.com. Our classes are inclusive and intentionally small; offered on a rolling basis throughout the year; and taught by award-winning authors, agents, and editors. Use code NEWPAGES at checkout—but hurry, our upcoming classes are almost full! Discount expires 7/31/2021. Visit our website.
Interim is looking for women’s writing that explores the meaning and ethics of place in the broadest sense of the word, writing that seeks location as dwelling and indwelling simultaneously so as better to know what it means to belong somewhere. Speaking of the house, in The Poetics of Space Bachelard claims “all really inhabited space bears the essence of the notion of home.” Send poems, essays, flash fiction, and/or hybrid forms that play with notions of place for our fourth all women’s print anthology, forthcoming in December, 2021. Because we believe the truth is experimental, we’ll especially appreciate work with innovative approaches.
This summer Foglifter Press is taking a road trip across the country to collaborate with the contributors of Home is Where You Queer Your Heart. They will visit the hometowns where a roster of local queer and trans talent will also come out to celebrate the anthology’s themes of chosen family and community.
The tour comprises of 22 locations across the country including San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Chicago, Cleveland, and more. The tour kicks off on July 18 and will conclude August 31. All tour events are free and open to the public.
Home is Where You Queer Your Heart features “queer writers and artists creatively thinking through the complex and fluid realities of home in the U.S. and abroad,” including Kazim Ali, K-Ming Chang, Jubi Arriola-Headley, Kay Ulanday Barrett, Rajiv Mohabir, Donika Kelly, Jason Villemez, Joy Priest, Yanyi, t’ai freedom ford, Marlin Jenkins, Airea D Matthews, sam sax, Christopher Soto, and more. The anthology is edited by Miah JEffra, Monique Mero-Williams, and Arisa White.
It’s available from Foglifter Press in both ebook and print formats. Grab your copy today.
Guest Post by Susan Kay Anderson.
This book of long poems/poem series by Joe Safdie begins with a section called “Retirement” which sounds boring but isn’t because it poses interesting questions of the existential mode and ends with a section called “Yachats” as in Yachats, Oregon. There’s also an interesting section about Hermes; the wheel figures in all of these inroads to his personal mythology, poetic studies, and creative expression in the form of messages from the trail and to the trail.
Overland, the people offered land at no cost needed to dump a lot of stuff on their journeys West but it seems that Safdie shows us what he’s kept, collected.
Safdie tells us a thing or two or three or four. He is sitting around the ‘ole campfire spinning yarns; he is also a camera or a lens of a microscope that looks into past/present/history/future with a basket full of findings modern and ancient and everything in between.
Safdie tells us where he’s been in his life. From “The Invisible Enemy”:
I thought that was death
putting me on notice
but it had a larger audience
in mind, to be everyone’s
enemy, killing by what’s
known but not seen,
the sensitive spots—
This book is enjoyable because it is so dense with found material and phrases, making it a poetry of such staggering depth that it does feel like a ride on something at once land-bound but also dreamy and useful as a raft to float across rivers and streams, much like the prairie schooners that overran the country. Even their ruts can still be seen where the grass has not grown back. To study these poetic documents with Safdie is an engrossingly epic and jolting ride. You may choose to walk alongside it for a few miles and then jump back in.
The Oregon Trail by Joe Safdie. Spuyten Duyvil, 2021.
Reviewer bio: Susan Kay Anderson lives in Oregon’s Umpqua River Basin. Her newest book is Please Plant This Book Coast To Coast, available from Finishing Line Press. She was a recent volunteer for the Tupelo Press 30/30 Project.
Buy this book from our affiliate Bookshop.org.
Literary magazine Ruminate has curated a Poetry Prize Bundle. These three issues contain past winning poems and finalists from their Janet B. McCabe Poetry Prize. Issues included are Issue 53, Issue 49, and Issue 36.
Ruminate poetry editor Kristin George Bagdanov writes:
We need poems that exist in the space between the crumbs of hope that keep us writing and reaching, poems necessitated by gnawing stomachs that tell us there is so much left to devour, that there is so much left we cannot.
The poems gathered in these three issues are reaching toward just that. Plus, you’ll also find art and prose. The bundle saves you 20% off the cover price of each issue. It’s available for only $21.
It’s a great time to grab this bundle for an idea of what they like as their Broadside Poetry Prize is currently open to submissions through August 15 (+3-day grace period).
The Spring 2021 issue of Dogwood features the 2021 Dogwood Literary Award Winners in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.
Nonfiction
“My Hundred Years of Solitude” by Marcos Villatoro
Poetry
“Ten-Foot Drop” by Maria Zoccola
Fiction
“Little Black Dress” by Roberta Gates
This year’s contest judges were Sejal Shah (nonfiction), Lauren K. Alleyne (poetry), and James Tate Hill (fiction). Visit Dogwood’s website for a celebration of each of the winners with words from the judges and bios for the winning writers.
Guest Post by Natalie Hess.
The concept of Erin Morgenstern’s The Starless Sea is so unique and different. It follows Zachary Ezra Rawlins who discovers some strange books and a mysterious painted door. He must protect the books and learn about them, while also fulfilling his destiny in the strange place beyond the door. Beyond that, it’s honestly difficult to even figure out what else went on in this story. There are so many layers, and stories within the story that are all connected in some way. It is mind-blowing and so much fun.
The fact that this story is really confusing is part of what makes it so enjoyable. Nothing makes sense about the world beyond the painted door, but whatever is going on is absolutely beautiful. None of the characters seeming to know what’s going on just makes it even better.
This is certainly a roller coaster of a story. If you like to know what’s going on in a book, then I don’t think you would enjoy this. But if you like being left with more questions than answers, and reading about a beautiful mess of fantastical elements, this is definitely the book for you!
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern. Anchor Books, August 2020.
Reviewer bio: I’m Natalie Hess and I’m simply a high school student who LOVES reading everything from scifi to romance to nonfiction and everything in between. I also love sharing my thoughts and I hope you enjoy!
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Online literary magazine AzonaL is devoted to poetry in translation. They have made it their mission to push “forth writing that must be seen, now—in translation, which is itself creation.”
Their second issue launched earlier this year with a reading that spanned February 15 and 16 and featured several contributors. If you missed the launch and reading, you can view it online.
Plus, don’t forget to read their second issue featuring poetry by Marie-Claire Bancquart (translated by Claire Elder and Marie Moulin-Salles), Zita Izsó (translated by Agnes Marton), Iulia Militaru (translated by Claudia Serea), Yan An (translated by Chen Du and Sisheng Chen), and more.
The summer issue includes fiction by L. Shapley Bassen, Grace Ford, David Henson, M.F. McAuliffe, and more; poetry by Carolyn Adams, J.R. Solonche, Torri Hammonds, Elizabeth Train-Brown, James Croal Jackson, and Matt Zachary; and nonfiction by Anita Kestin, Eve Müller, and more. Art by Ryan Heshka. See what else is in this issue at The Writing Disorder website.
Under a Warm Green Linden Issue 11 is live! Read new work by 21 astonishing poets and translators. Work by Hasan Alizadeh, James Dott, Payam Feili, Emily Franklin, Dennis Hinrichsen, and others. See a list of more contributors at the Under a Warm Green Linden website.
Issue 6 is our largest issue yet, with works that honor wild plants and flowers in the poems of Meenakshi Palaniappan and Maria Nemy Lou Rocio, as well as the photography of Heather Teo. We enter forests with Tanvi Dutta Gupta and Zen Teh, we marvel at the moon’s music and magic with Sofia Wutong Rain and Lauren Bolger. We navigate sorrow and loss with Thomas Bacon and we grow old with Cassandra J. O’Loughlin. The bilingual poems of Fran Fernández Arce and Joshua Ip take us to the fields and rivers of language and dreams, while Danielle Fleming dreams her speaker into memory, tree, and elephant song. Plus more at The Tiger Moth Review website.
