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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!

Contest :: The MacGuffin Poet Hunt 26 Open

Screenshot of The MacGuffin's 26th Annual Poet Hunt
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Poet Hunt 26, Judged by Indigo Moor, is Now Open!!

Deadline: June 15, 2021
Indigo Moor judges the MacGuffin’s 26th Poet Hunt contest, open April 1 through June 15! $500 first prize plus publication; up to two Honorable Mentions will also be published. All entrants receive one copy of this issue. Send no more than five poems per $15 entry fee. Include a cover page that lists your contact info and poem titles. On the following page(s), include your poem(s), beginning each poem on a new page devoid of personally identifiable information to preserve the blind review process. Enter via Submittable, or to enter by email or post, see full rules at schoolcraft.edu/macguffin/contest-rules.

New Letters Volume 87 Numbers 1 & 2

woman looking at a poster for a ballet performanceLiterary magazine New Letters publishes two double issues a year in print. Their Winter/Spring 2021 issue is now available for purchase and features fiction by Blair Hurley, Robert P. Kaye, Kirstin Scott, Anthony Varallo, and Leslie Blanco; essays by Carolina Avarado Molk, Emily Howorth, and Michaela Django Walsh; and poetry by Rebecca Foust, Jennifer Perrine, D.S. Waldman, Ted Kooser, Mihaela Moscaliuc, and Liane Strauss.

Also in this issue find the winners of their annual literary awards!

  • “Indigent” by Elizabeth Robinson, winner of the Editor’s Choice Award
  • Two poems by Mark Wagenaar, winner of the Patricia Clearly Miller Award for Poetry
  • “Lobu Hoteru” by Jacob R. Weber, winner of the Robert Day Award for Fiction
  • “Joan” by Rebecca Young, winner of the Beasley Jr. Award for Nonfiction

Their current awards in fiction, poetry, and nonfiction are open to entries through midnight CST on May 18! Check out the 2020 winners and don’t forget to pick up this issue and support the journal by subscribing!

‘Even the Saints Audition’

Guest Post by Sherrel McLafferty.

When we are asked to carry stories with us, fables and religion and family origins, we carry not just their words but their implications. Opening with a thoughtful exploration of Job, we witness the haunting impacts of “. . . the Devil asking / for permission to torment” and “God saying yes” on a vulnerable persona who ties these poems together. As a reader, the three acts serve as a pathway between childhood, where poems are playful including asking questions about sex in Sunday school, to the self doubt and self-harm of teenagehood, and ending with a young woman’s struggle with addiction.

In the background of this transformation, there is God and this story that haunts the beginning of each act, Job. God let him suffer. God lets our persona suffer. The commitment to the theme is astonishing; Jackson uses erasure of hymns, references to Jonah, and the anticipated language of sin. However, the redemption arc is not quite there. Jackson keeps us hungering for relief that only appears in the occasional rhetorical line or question, “Who am I /to go against God & the saints?”

I arrived at this book in need of fellowship about midway through this hellscape of a year. What a welcome 75 pages of commiseration. An open hand to anyone, regardless of religion, despite its theme because at its heart, it builds a story of abandonment, of melancholy, of needing someone to witness one’s pain.

Even the Saints Audition by Raych Jackson. Button Poetry, September 2019.

Reviewer bio: Sherrel McLafferty is a Pushcart nominated writer residing in Bowling Green, Ohio. For more information, visit her website at sherrelmclafferty.com or her Twitter @AwesomeSherrel.

Buy this book from our affiliate Bookshop.org.

Contest :: 7th North Street Book Prize for Self-Published Books

sketched lion head surrounded by text reading North Street Book PrizeDeadline: June 30, 2021
Now in its seventh year, the North Street Book Prize is sponsored by Winning Writers and co-sponsored by BookBaby and Carolyn Howard-Johnson. Self-published books in seven categories can win up to $5,000 plus additional benefits. Submit online or by mail. Winning Writers is a partner member of the Alliance of Independent Authors, and this contest is recommended by Reedsy. Entry fee: $65/book. Free gifts for everyone who enters. winningwriters.com/northnp21

Magazine Stand :: Wordrunner eChapbooks – 2021

Our theme for this issue is LOVE in all its painful, confusing, passionate, and joyous diversity. Featuring fiction by Louise Blalock, Margaret Emma Brandl, Ed Davis, Stefan Kiesbye, and Nick Sweeney; memoir by Jane Boch, Ruth Askew Brelsford, Laura Foxworthy, and Carmela Delia Lanza; and poetry and prose poems by Leonore Hildebrandt, Robert Murray, and Jacalyn Shelley.

Contest :: 2021 Raleigh Review Laux/Millar Poetry Prize open until 01 June 2021!

Raleigh Review 2021 Laux/Millar Poetry Prize bannerA firm deadline of June 1, 2021 at midnight EST.
The 2021 Laux/Millar Raleigh Review Poetry Prize is now underway. Dorianne Laux & Joseph Millar are the judges of the finalists. This contest closes to submissions on 01 June 2021 at midnight Eastern Standard Time. Our deadlines are firm at Raleigh Review. Top prize is $500. There is a $15 entry fee to submit, and all entrants will receive a free copy of the fall 2021 prize issue. raleighreview.submittable.com/submit

Call :: Send Your Best Stories in All Genres to Blue Mountain Review

The Blue Mountain Review flierSubmissions accepted year-round.
 The Blue Mountain Review launched from Athens, Georgia in 2015 with the mantra, “We’re all south of somewhere.” As a journal of culture the BMR strives to represent life through its stories. Stories are vital to our survival. Songs save the soul. Our goal is to preserve and promote lives told well through prose, poetry, music, and the visual arts. Our editors read year-round with an eye out for work with homespun and international appeal. We’ve published work by and interviews with Jericho Brown, Kelli Russell Agodon, Robert Pinsky, Rising Appalachia, Nahko, Michel Stone, Genesis Greykid, Cassandra King, Melissa Studdard, and A.E. Stallings.

Don’t forget to read their February 2021 issue featuring the winners of the LGBTQ Chapbook Contest.

At the Intersection of Religion & Generational Conflict

Guest Post by Madeline Thomas.

When a combination of a Catholic upbringing and the unforgettable viewing of a commercial for The Exorcist sends a young girl’s mind to the inevitability of a personal demon possession, the first steps are taken on a path to parental disappointment. Jessica Power Braun’s “Black Alpaca” places readers at the intersection of religion, generational conflict, and closet-Jesus nightmares with sharp humor and unflinching honesty.

The essay, published in Hippocampus Magazine, works through the realities of fear and guilt in the Catholic Church, the slow movement away from your family’s religious identity, and the discovery of a poignant black alpaca painting in the context of Braun’s identities as a mother, wife, and daughter. Humor forms the heart of the piece, but the essay makes no attempt to pull away from what is both painful and real—forming a balance that cultivates both emotional impact and investment for readers.

In a time where I feel the need for constant breaks from the mire of news and the world in general, the humor and tone present in “Black Alpaca” provides needed relief. Braun utilizes her power in storytelling to craft something worth connecting with.

“Black Alpaca” by Jessica Power Braun. Hippocampus Magazine, January 2021.

Reviewer bio: Madeline Thomas is a graduate student and writer at Utah State University.

Join Poor Yorick for Their Monthly Reading Series

skull on black and pink backgroundPoor Yorick is continuing their monthly reading series with a virtual open mic and fireside chat! This event features a sneak preview of upcoming special issue in honor of National Poetry Month, “The Poet’s Mask.” Several contributors will present their work on the theme of masks and masking on April 29.

Contact Brianna Paris ([email protected]) for a Microsoft Teams invitation.

“The Poet’s Mask” will be published on Friday, April 30 on Poor Yorick‘s website.

This event is brought to you by the editorial team at Poor Yorick: A Journal of Rediscovery, which is the online literary publication of Western Connecticut State University’s M.F.A. Program. The journal publishes poems, stories, essays, photo essays, and other innovative works about rediscovery, the lost and the found—what we bury, and what we dig up. The editor will be on hand at the open mic to talk submissions, too; if this sounds like your kind of publication, contact us!

A Memoir of Two Illnesses

Guest Post by Kylie Smith.

In Every Last Breath: A Memoir of Two Illnesses, scholar and memoirist Joanne Jacobson strings twelve independently stunning essays together to create a lyrically compressed contemplation of the always frail body.

The essays detail Jacobson’s heart-wrenching experience of discovering her own chronic illness even as she was writing about her mother’s. Both memoir and biography, the book rejects the linear trajectory of conventional narrative to call the reader “out of time” and into the lives of two Jewish-American women as their diseases, one of blood and one of breath, force them to confront “end of life” together.

With the precision of a poet, Jacobson gracefully and honestly explores the ephemerality of time and breath and speaks deeply to the shared human experience of incremental loss. Every Last Breath is a hopeful and hurting reminder that the body is both singly inhabited and commonly shared.

Every Last Breath: A Memoir of Two Illnesses by Joanne Jacobson. The University of Utah Press, 2020.

Reviewer bio: Kylie Smith is a writer based out of Logan, Utah.

Buy this book from our affiliate Bookshop.org.

A Departure from the Everyday Love Story

Guest Post by Aramide Salako.

Love it. I reckon this to be the best Romance/Young Adult fiction ever. All love stories, fiction and nonfiction, are each unique manifestations unlike none other. But here, the story of love takes a clear departure from your everyday love story. What makes this book a brilliant read is the simple presentation of the power and shortcoming of love in the face of mortality.

Humans have a life to live, and the love to share wholeheartedly with another is the blessedness of being human. That humans will ultimately die, leaving the one bereaved of such felt assurance and aliveness that only the other half could provide, is the nemesis of being human.

Hazel Grace and Augustus Waters, bound with the affliction of cancer and then again bound by the Cupid arrow, grapple with the reality of their fate stoically, braving the odds stacked against them. They experience, enjoy, and embrace love, but death, that Grim Reaper, of course, has the final say.

The Fault In Our Stars is a fictitious narration of a story of our lives. Life is transient—a mere finite number within infinity.

We shall not have all the time in the world to experience the profundity of companionship, mirth, eros, and all of the fine attributes accompanied by love. But in that brief expanse of time—cancer-ridden, poverty-ridden, crisis-ridden, virus-ridden—love endures and triumphs over all human vagaries and the finitude of time.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. Penguin Group, April 2014.

Reviewer bio: My name is Aramide Salako from Nigeria. I enjoy reading classics and bestsellers. I’ve read some classics that linger in memory, both fiction and nonfiction. I self-published my first book this year: Thoughts in Traffic; 243 Quick-fire Notes to Aid Your Outlook on Self, Life and the Afterlife.

Buy this book from our affiliate Bookshop.org.

Sponsor Spotlight :: Neon: A Literary Magazine

black and white photograph looking up at a wind turbineNeon: A Literary Magazine is a tiny biannual journal and chapbook press. It is one of the longest-running independent literary magazines in the UK which focuses on slipstream fiction, poetry, and artwork. They publish work that is fantastical, surreal, and which crosses the boundaries between science fiction, horror, and literary fiction.

Neon publishes in print and a range of digital formats. They allow you to set your own price for a digital copy. When you purchase a print subscription (they ship to anywhere in the world!), you can addon on of their chapbooks, too. Subscribe today!

Plus, if you’re a writer, Neon is currently open to submissions. The theme of the next issue will be “Cities.” They are a paying market.

Drop by their listing on NewPages to learn more.

NewPages Book Stand – April 2021

If you’re always on the look-out for new books, be sure to check out our monthly updated Book Stand. This month, we featured the five titles below.

Christopher Citro in If We Had a Lemon We’d Throw It and Call That the Sun “makes wildly inventive, exciting, vital poems.”

The Last Unkillable Thing by Emily Pittinos is a journey across landscapes of mourning.

In More Enduring for Having Been Broken by Gwendolyn Paradice, readers can expect stories of children abandoned, forgotten, and ignored as they survive the trauma they experience.

Saturation Project by Christine Hume is genre-defying as it “brings memoir and essay to the land of myth.”

The poems in Aaron Caycedo- Kimura’s Ubasute are detailed, elegiac meditations within a particular American family.

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.

West Trade Review Volume 12 Available for Preorder

West Trade Review Volume 12 cover

West Trade Review, formerly Encore Literary Arts Magazine, is accepting preorders for its 12th print issue due out in May of this year.

This issue features fiction by Sophie Nau, Reshmi Hebbar, Lex Chilson; poetry by Mercury-Marvin Sunderland, Tesa Flores, Hunter Boone, Stephanie Dickinson; plus art, interviews, and reviews. Check out their preview and don’t forget to order a copy today.

Plus, don’t forget to swing by their listing on NewPages to learn more about them.

World Literature Today – Spring 2021

World Literature Today’s spring issue, “Redreaming Dreamland,” gathers the work of 21 writers and artists reflecting on the centennial of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, including Patricia Smith, Joy Harjo, Jewell Parker Rhodes, and Tracy K. Smith. Additional highlights in the issue include a special section on Chinese migrant workers’ literature; an essay on how Giannina Braschi’s work keeps “popping up” in pop culture; fiction from Belarus and Iraq; plus reviews of new books by Najwan Darwish, Cixin Liu, Olga Tokarczuk, and dozens more.

Sky Island Journal – Spring 2021

Sky Island Journal’s stunning 16th issue features poetry, flash fiction, and creative nonfiction from contributors around the globe. Accomplished, well-established authors are published—side by side—with fresh, emerging voices. Readers are provided with a powerful, focused literary experience that transports them: one that challenges them intellectually and moves them emotionally. Always free to access, and always free from advertising, discover what over 80,000 readers in 145 countries already know; the finest new writing is here, at your fingertips.

Mom Egg Review – No. 19

In an extraordinary year, writers grapple with current changes and more long-lived concerns and relationships. The works demonstrate profound attention and the fine application of language to lived experience, quotidian and extraordinary. Read more at the Mom Egg Review website.

Chestnut Review – Spring 2021

The springtime brings a sense of renewal: feeling the sun beginning to heat up and shedding the cocoon of cold winter nights. Spring offers the opportunity to get out and discover something new. At Chestnut Review, we are also experiencing a turn, a closing of our second volume and anticipating our third. This issue features work by Cutter Streeby, Gretchen Rockwell, Rebecca Poynor, Zackary Medlin, Lorette C. Luzajic, Satya Dash, Fatima Malik, and more. See what else can be found in this issue at the Chestnut Review website.

Contest :: Carve Magazine Raymond Carver Contest

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Deadline: May 15, 2021
Carve Magazine‘s Raymond Carver Short Story Contest is open April 1 – May 15. Accepting submissions from all over the world, but story must be in English. Max 10,000 words. Prizes: $2,000, $500, $250, + 2 Editor’s Choice $125 each. All 5 winners published in Fall 2021 issue and reviewed by lit agencies. Entry fee $17 online. Guest judge Leesa Cross-Smith.

Alaska Quarterly Review – Winter 2021

In this issue, find special Memoir as Drama feature “Dialogue Box” by Debbie Urbanski. Also in this issue: stories by Emily Mitchell, Elizabeth Stix, Cara Blue Adams, JoAnna Novak, and more; essays by Emma Hine, Catalina Bode, Nicole Graev Lipson, and Josh Shoemake; and poetry by Emily Nason, Rose DeMaris, Dorsey Craft, and others. Find more contributors at the Alaska Quarterly Review website.

Contest :: Swan Scythe Press 2021 Chapbook Contest

Swan Scythe Press logoDeadline: June 15, 2021
Swan Scythe Press announces its 2021 poetry chapbook contest. Entry fee: $18. We are accepting submissions from March 1 to June 15 (postmark deadline). Winner receives $200 and 25 perfect-bound chapbooks. The 2020 winner is Lana Issam Ghannam for Evolution of Stone. For full submission guidelines, visit our website and swanscythepress.submittable.com/submit.

The Power of Fiction

Guest Post by Elle Smith.

Michael Keenan Gutierrez explores the meaning of truth and the power of fiction in his essay “Lies I’ll Tell My Son.” Gutierrez starts the reader grounded in fact. His great grandfather, Red, was a bookie: “This is true.” Then the details of Red’s life grow murkier. The story of Red winning a WWI draft card in a poker game sounds dramatic enough it might have come from a movie. Red’s birth certificates and draft cards have different dates and names. Gutierrez’s uncle proclaims, “They were all a bunch of fucking liars.”

Gutierrez has heard that we aren’t supposed to lie to children “except about Santa Claus and death.” But what is the purpose of the lies that build such fantastic family lore? The tales are in contrast to a more recent generation that lived “the standard formula of work, retirement, and death.” The lore of Red paints the world as “more magical than a paycheck and a mortgage.”

Gutierrez resolves to tell his son the tales of his family and “shade the truth in fiction.” What about the hard truths about life and death? Well, Gutierrez explains: “I’ll let him figure out heaven on his own.”

“Lies I’ll Tell My Son” by Michael Keenan Gutierrez. 805 Lit + Art, February 2021.

Reviewer bio: Elle Smith is a graduate student at Utah State University.

When Gaps Become Story

Guest Post by Mark Smeltzer.

“We don’t know much about Mr. Otomatsu Wada of Unit B in Barrack 14 in Block 63 of the Gila River Relocation Center,” Eric L. Muller admits at the start of his essay, “The Desert Was His Home.” This lack of knowledge does not deter Muller from examining the pain and power of absence, as well as how deep research becomes an avenue for creative discovery.

Throughout this essay, Muller lays out the facts about this one Japanese-American, among many, held prisoner in the U.S. during World War II. Muller uses what little is known of this man to sketch out a rough but potent portrait of his life. Most notable was Wada’s “two-year-old mystery” marked by the refrain “We don’t know” that Muller uses until Wada’s fate is revealed.

This essay demonstrates how seamlessly and naturally a story can incorporate the many don’t knows and can’t knows inevitable in research. It is even possible, as “The Desert” shows us, how the gaps in a subject’s life can become the story. This piece can be found in Issue 74 of Creative Nonfiction.

“The Desert Was His Home” by Eric L. Muller. Creative Nonfiction, Winter 2021.

Reviewer bio: Mark Smeltzer is a graduate student in Utah State University’s English Department. His area of specialization is in poetry.

April 2021 eLitPak :: Submit to the 2021 Blue Lynx Prize For Poetry

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Lynx House Press seeks submissions of full-length poetry manuscripts for the annual Blue Lynx Prize for Poetry. The winner will receive $2,000 and publication. Entries must be at least 48 pages in length. The fee for submitting is $28, and includes a copy of a book from our catalog. Previous judges include James Tate, Yusef Komunyakaa, Dorianne Laux, Dara Wier, Melissa Kwasny, and Robert Wrigley.

View the full April 2021 NewPages eLitPak newsletter here. Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter to get weekly updates on lit mags, presses, writing programs, literary events, and more along with the monthly eLitPak newsletters.

April 2021 eLitPak :: Enjoy the Complete Works of Clifford Brooks

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The Complete Works of Clifford Brooks Now Available

Get this 3 volume set personalized, signed, and delivered for only $89.00. (Further discounts can be negotiated on larger orders.) For more information, contact the poet directly at: [email protected].

View the full April 2021 NewPages eLitPak newsletter here. Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter to get weekly updates on lit mags, presses, writing programs, literary events, and more along with the monthly eLitPak newsletters.

April 2021 eLitPak :: May 1 Deadline for december 2021 Curt Johnson Prose Awards

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Submit Now!

december Magazine seeks submissions for our 2021 Curt Johnson Prose Awards in fiction and creative nonfiction. Prizes each genre: $1,500 & publication (winner); $500 & publication (honorable mention). $20 entry fee includes a copy of awards issue. Submit 1 story or essay up to 8,000 words from March 1 to May 1. For complete guidelines visit our website.

View the full April 2021 NewPages eLitPak newsletter here. Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter to get weekly updates on lit mags, presses, writing programs, literary events, and more along with the monthly eLitPak newsletters.

April 2021 eLitPak :: Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest

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Deadline: April 30

Winning Writers will award $3,000 for the best story and $3,000 for the best essay in its Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest. The winners will also receive two-year gift certificates from the contest co-sponsor, Duotrope. Top 12 entries published on Winning Writers. Submit published or unpublished work. This contest is recommended by Reedsy. Enter online via Submittable.

View the full April 2021 NewPages eLitPak newsletter here. Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter to get weekly updates on lit mags, presses, writing programs, literary events, and more along with the monthly eLitPak newsletters.

April 2021 eLitPak :: Flying South 2021 Prizes

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Flying South 2021 will be accepting entries for prizes in Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry. Best in Category winners will be published and receive $500 each. One of the three winners will receive The WSW President’s Favorite award and win an additional $500. All entries will be considered for publication. For full details, please visit our website.

View the full April 2021 NewPages eLitPak newsletter here. Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter to get weekly updates on lit mags, presses, writing programs, literary events, and more along with the monthly eLitPak newsletters.

April 2021 eLitPak :: Hollins University Coed Summer Graduate Programs

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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). This summer courses will be offered virtually from June 21 – July 30. For more information, visit our website or call (540) 362-6575.

View the full April 2021 NewPages eLitPak newsletter here. Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter to get weekly updates on lit mags, presses, writing programs, literary events, and more along with the monthly eLitPak newsletters.

April 2021 eLitPak :: Catamaran Poetry Prize for West Coast Poets Closes April 20

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Deadline Alert!

Submit your book-length manuscript to the Catamaran Poetry Prize for West Coast poets. This year’s judge is Pulitzer Prize finalist Dorianne Laux! The prize winner will receive $1,000 and book publication. Submission deadline is April 20th, 2021. This contest is only open to poets living in California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii.

View the full April 2021 NewPages eLitPak newsletter here. Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter to get weekly updates on lit mags, presses, writing programs, literary events, and more along with the monthly eLitPak newsletters.

April 2021 eLitPak :: WritingWorkshops.com: Get 15% Off Your First Class!

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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 4/21/2021. Visit our website.

View the full April 2021 NewPages eLitPak newsletter here. Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter to get weekly updates on lit mags, presses, writing programs, literary events, and more along with the monthly eLitPak newsletters.

April 2021 eLitPak :: CARVE Magazine 2021 Raymond Carver Short Story Contest

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Carve Magazine‘s Raymond Carver Short Story Contest is open April 1 – May 15. Accepting submissions from all over the world, but story must be in English. Max 10,000 words. Prizes: $2,000, $500, $250, + 2 Editor’s Choice $125 each. All winners published in Fall 2021 issue and reviewed by lit agencies. Entry fee $17. Guest judge Leesa Cross-Smith.

View the full April 2021 NewPages eLitPak newsletter here. Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter to get weekly updates on lit mags, presses, writing programs, literary events, and more along with the monthly eLitPak newsletters.

April 2021 eLitPak :: Luci Tapahonso Keynote Speak of 5th Annual Taos Writers Conference

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Join your fellow writers at the virtual 5th Annual Taos, New Mexico, Writers Conference on Zoom. Panel presentation on “Writing about Race, Class, Culture & Gender” plus over 20 workshops in all genres. Faculty include: Frank X Walker, CMarie Fuhrman, Levi Romero, Ari Honarvar, Stephanie Han, Jeremy Paden, Margaret Garcia and many more. Go to our website, call 575-758-0081, or email us for more information.

View the full April 2021 NewPages eLitPak newsletter here. Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter to get weekly updates on lit mags, presses, writing programs, literary events, and more along with the monthly eLitPak newsletters.

Chaos Walking Conclusion

Guest Post by Natalie Hess.

Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness is the conclusion to the Chaos Walking trilogy. Like the second book, this story follows Todd and Viola as they fight to be together, only this time, there is a war between the people and the spackle. We also get to read about the thoughts of a spackle and see their motives and their lives which adds a lot to the story.

The Ask and Answer are still not exactly in agreement, but their fight was put on pause to focus on the spackle. This was quite a bit different from the other two books because most people seemed to actually want peace, instead of just wanting to rule over everyone else. It’s wild how every single character is so trustworthy and suspicious at the same time, and just when you start to actually believe someone’s intentions, they do some significantly bad thing out of nowhere.

Like the other books, there were some parts that were confusing and sections where I just didn’t care what was happening, but there were also parts that were really good and I had to know how things turned out. Ness did a good job of tying up all of the loose ends and giving everyone the ending that suited them in one way or another. If you liked the other books, you’ll like this one too.

Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness. Candlewick Press, 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.

Call :: NOMADartx Review Seeking Works Contemplating Maintenance

NOMADartx logoNOMADartx Review Seeks Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Art, Interviews, & Reviews

Deadline: Rolling
NOMADartx is an emerging global creative network dedicated to sharing and amplifying creative potential, regardless of genre. NOMADartx Review curates fresh voices that address creativity and creative process via visual art, fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, interviews, critiques, and reviews. Our “Industry Specials” column also provides a place for contemporary creatives to share wisdom about building success in their fields of practice. We currently consider work that addresses these themes in any way, and we have a special call currently for work that contemplates the idea of “maintenance.” More information at our submissions manager.

A Gripping YA Sequel

Guest Post by Natalie Hess.

This sequel to Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi was quite gripping as we learned what happened after Zélie brought magic back to the people of Orïsha.

When two groups of people have been fighting for decades, it seems nothing can unite them, even if peace is ultimately what they both claim to want. It is so easy to see how these characters can become so confused by their morals and so easily fooled because of their trust, but it’s very frustrating at the same time. As the reader I just wanted the best for all of these characters at all times but it seemed that something bad awaited them at every corner.

I cannot wait to see how the author ties up these loose ends in the conclusion when it comes out.

Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi. Pan Macmillan, March 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!

Buy this book from our affiliate Bookshop.org.

Call :: Oyster River Pages Seeks Work Stretching Creative & Social Boundaries

Oyster River Pages logoOyster River Pages Seeks Submissions for Annual Issue

Deadline: May 31, 2021
Oyster River Pages is a literary and artistic collective seeking submissions of fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and visual arts that stretch creative and social boundaries. We believe in the power of art to connect people to their own and others’ humanity, something we see as especially important during these tumultuous times. Because of this, we seek to feature artists whose voices have been historically decentered or marginalized. Please see www.oysterriverpages.com for submission details.

Ruminate – Spring 2021

From the editors: In the face of the immense grief that surrounds us, for this issue Ruminate Magazine editors decided to explore What Remains. “Everything is held together with stories,” writes the acclaimed author Barry Lopez, who died this past year, a few months after the Holiday Farm Fire destroyed his house and archives. “That is all that is holding us together. Stories and compassion.” This issue features the winners of our 2020 Broadside Poetry Prize: Michael Dechane and S. Yarberry.

Presence – 2021

With the publication of this 2021 issue comes the fifth anniversary of Presence Journal. Enjoy art by Reginald Baylor and work by featured poet Joseph A. Brown, S.J. Ashaq Hussain Parray translates work by Rehman Rahi and Shahnaz Rasheed. Barbara Crooker, Dante Di Stefano, Linda Nemec Foster, and Mary Ladany celebrate the lives of others in the “In Memoriam” section.