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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!

Revisiting 1984 in 2020

Guest Post by Raymond Abbott.

Recently I came upon a paperback copy of the novel 1984, George Orwell’s classic. I first read it easily fifty years ago. I remembered well the overall theme, a fictional account of the totalitarian government that existed in England in 1984, and well before that date.  What I didn’t recall were the particulars, the details, the events, the various characters, even the main character’s name, Winston.

I found the story engrossing for the first 100 pages, almost what one might call a page turner. Then the narrative slowed way down, almost stopped,  at least for me. This happened with the introduction of Julia, Winston’s lover.

What I noticed this time through is just how hostile Orwell is toward women. I quote a line (and there are others). He writes, “It was always the women, and above all the young ones, who were the most bigoted adherents of the Party, the swallowers of slogans, the amateur spies and nose out of unorthodoxy.”

Hard to imagine getting such words past today’s gatekeepers, many of whom are women. I say lucky for Orwell that he published when he did, late forties, or there might not exist a 1984 novel for me to reread.


1984 by George Orwell. Secker & Warburg, June 1949.

Reviewer bio: Raymond Abbott lives in Louisville, Kentucky. Once in a while his prose is published. He used to be a social worker working among severely mentally disabled adults in Louisville.

See What People Are Saying about Jewish Fiction.net

Have you had a chance to check out the 10th Anniversary issue of Jewish Fiction.net?

People are talking about it! The issue has been covered by The Jerusalem PostDetroit Jewish NewsOpen Book, and the Canadian Jewish Record, among other publications.

Since the journal’s first issue in 2010, they have published over 400 works of fiction never before published in English. These were originally written in sixteen languages (Italian, Spanish, French, Danish, English, Hungarian, Russian, Romanian, Serbian, Turkish, Polish, German, Croatian, Hebrew, Ladino, and Yiddish). This current issue contains 18 works of fiction, so don’t miss out on your chance to read exceptional Jewish fiction from a unique online journal.

Call :: Blue Mountain Review Seeks Homespun Feel with International Appeal

The Blue Mountain Review flierDeadline: Submissions 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. The November 2020 issue features interviews with writers Lee Herrick, Lee Matthew Goldberg, and Jendi Reiter.

Making Comics

Book Review by Denise Hill.

After watching this book trailer for Making Comics by Lynda Barry, I still didn’t understand it but was intrigued enough to get the book. I started with the “assignments” just for fun and fell in love. It’s not at all what I had expected. Barry is very much of the you-don’t-need-to-be-an-artist-to-create-art mindset (says it’s better if you haven’t been formally trained in drawing!). The book is essentially a guide to how she teaches her course at UW-Madison in Interdisciplinary Creativity (her areas of interest include “comic strips, cartoons, writer, spoken-word, graphic illustrator, exploring question of ‘what is an image?’ in work”). The book is interspersed with Barry’s own personal stories, classroom experiences and explanations of methodology. She blends drawing and storytelling using memory recall exercises and various approaches to daily journaling. Barry instructs how to create both nonfiction and fiction using her story generating and mapping ideas.

It’s a subtly prescriptive practice that over the past couple of months has repeatedly surprised me with the outcomes – just as she says it will. While some assignments are meant for use in groups, I was able to complete them solo. When we can be back in the classroom, I plan to use her techniques with students, from remedial to college writing as well as literature. Barry’s own love of her students and (obsession with) their creations has instilled a new attitude of appreciation for me. And when family (safely two-week quarantined first) come to visit for Christmas, I plan to sneak in a round of Face Jam or Character Jam on game night.

For writers, for teachers, for non-artists most especially – this book will have you reimaging what it means to be creative. Barry closes: “Everything good in my life came because I drew a picture. I hope you will all draw a picture soon. I will always want to see it. XOX”

Making Comics by Lynda Barry, Drawn & Quarterly, November 2019.

Air & Aging

Guest Post by Chloe Yelena Miller.

Naomi Thiers splits her poetry book, Made of Air, into two sections, Ordinary Women and Made of Air. The first half of the poems are dedicated to specific women, but a feminine presence is strong in the second half, through the narrator or, often, “she.” The poem, “Old People Waking,” ends with the lines, “And if everything hurts, it means / the current’s flowing; we hiss inside: / Life. Live.” This is the book’s message in a stanza: feel and acknowledge the pain and keep living.

The female narrator’s awareness of age centers on her own years lived, as she remains every age she has been. She ends the poem, “The Pearl” with the line, “For I feel my own 16-year-old inside, humming / eager, terrified—real as the slow / rain of wild and gentle losses.” Aging women aren’t often seen, but here, the narrator centers them in the poem’s scenes.


Made of Air by Naomi Thiers. Kelsay Books, October 2020.

Reviewer bio: Chloe Yelena Miller is a writer and teacher living in Washington, D.C.

NewPages Book Stand – December 2020

The last Book Stand of the year is here! As usual, we’ve featured five titles, and you can find other great fiction, nonfiction, and poetry books at our website.

Featured nonfiction Fragments of a Mortal Mind by Donald Anderson shows us how the disparate elements of our lives collect to construct our deepest selves and help us to make sense of it all.

Mckenzie Cassidy’s Here Lies a Father follows fifteen-year-old Ian as he uncovers the truths of his late father’s life and secret families.

The poems in Polly Buckingham’s The River People move through both dream and natural landscapes exploring connection and loss, abundance and degradation, the personal and the political.

Brian Phillip Whalen explores the loss of relationships in Semiotic Love [Stories], reminding us that for better or for worse, we’re all a little rougher with the people we love the most.

In Women in the Waiting Room, Kirun Kapur “makes an imaginative whole from Hindu mythology, confessions from a hotline for sexual abuse, meditations on a friend’s mortal illness, and the poet’s private pain.”

You can learn more about each of these New & Noteworthy books at our websiteClick here to see how to place your book in our New & Noteworthy section.

Wordrunner eChapbooks – Winter 2020

First Kings and Other Stories. Here are three haunting winter tales you’ll be glad you stayed home to read. In these dreamy and introspective stories, award-winning author Morrissey take us to a remote and frigid landscape where blinding white snow and sky are indistinguishable, and those who must venture out to pit their resolve against icy weather lose their way and possibly their senses.

Event :: The Virtual 2021 Palm Beach Poetry Festival Takes Place Next Month

Palm Beach Poetry Festival eLitPak flier
click image to open PDF

Event Dates: January 18-23, 2021 Location: Virtual
17th Annual Palm Beach Poetry Festival in Delray Beach, Florida, January 18-23, 2021. Focus on your work with America’s most engaging and award-winning poets. Workshops with David Baker, Laure-Anne Bosselaar, Traci Brimhall, Vievee Francis, Kevin Prufer, Martha Rhodes, and Tim Seibles. Six days of workshops, readings, craft talks, panel discussion, social events, and so much more. One-on-one conference Faculty: Lorna Blake, Sally Bliumis-Dunn, Nickole Brown, Jessica Jacobs, and Angela Narciso-Torres. Special Guest: Gregory Orr and the Parkington Sisters. Poet At Large: Brian Turner. To find out more, visit www.palmbeachpoetryfestival.org. Apply to attend a workshop!

The Shore – Winter 2020

The winter issue of The Shore marks our two year anniversary! It features engaging and moving poetry by Doug Ramspeck, A Prevett, Donald Platt, Jane Zwart, Iheoma Uzomba, Aiden Baker, Jennifer Loyd, Jane Satterfield, Emry Trantham, Dylan Ecker, Trivarna Hariharan, Karah Kemmerly, Su Cho, Laura Minor, Hannah Bridges, Eileen Winn, and more. It also features haunting photography by Ellery Beck.

Rain Taxi Review of Books – No. 100

Rain Taxi Review of Books 100th issue

Rain Taxi Review of Books is proud to cap off its 25th year with our 100th issue. For those who know the magazine, many things about it are the same—issue #100 features dozens of reviews, interviews, and essays by a wide variety of contributors discussing an astonishing array of aesthetically adventurous books. It also includes special features like a full-page poetry comic by Gary Sullivan and a letter from editor Eric Lorberer reflecting on Rain Taxi’s life at this odd but exciting time. See the complete table of contents at our website and join us on the ride!

Cleaver Magazine – Winter 2020

In the newest issue of Cleaver Magazine find: poetry by Meggie Royer, Amy Beth Sisson, Heikki Huotari, and more; nonfiction by Jinna Han, Christina Berke, Susan Hamlin, Claire Rudy Foster, and others; a visual narrative by Michael Green; short stories by Dylan Cook, L.L. Babb, and Mike Nees; flash by Steve Gergley, B. Bilby Barton, Darlene Eliot, and more; and paintings by Morgan Motes.

Persephone’s Daughters – No. 7

Issue Seven is three issues in one—a poetry issue, a prose issue, and an art issue. This is our largest issue to date, filled with art, poetry, and prose from domestic and sexual violence survivors, child abuse survivors, and harassment victims. Work by Taylor Drake, Sky Dai, Emma Jokinen, Elena Fite, Siri Espy, Isabella Neblett, Charlotte Kane, Carly Hall, Melanie Ward, Rachael Gay, Mae Herring, Miriam Leibowitz, Mars Rightwildish, Ranjeet Singh, and many more. We were also fortunate to be able to interview Lori Greene for the issue, who created the artwork for the United States’s first permanent memorial to sexual violence survivors.

Event :: Shooter Literary Magazine 2021 Short Story Courses Open for Enrollment

Shooter Magazine 2021 Virtual Short Story Courses
click image to open PDF

Event Dates: January 8-February 26, March 5-April 23, April 30-June 18
Event Location: Virtual
Registration Deadline: Year-round
Shooter’s editor, Melanie White, leads eight-week short story courses throughout the academic year. They are designed to help writers develop their craft and complete a polished short story. The courses are best suited to aspiring fiction writers keen to hone their skills and publish their work. Courses comprise a weekly class via email, including readings and exercises; a private Facebook group where participants can discuss class topics and work; one-to-one guidance with the course leader via email; optional feedback on completed stories; and consideration for inclusion in Shooter. Further information at our website.

What’s in a Name?

Magazine Review by Katy Haas.

Not to be missed in Issue 212 of The Malahat Review: “It’s Here All the Beauty I Told You About” by Shane Rhodes.

This piece is an excerpt from a manuscript in progress. In it, Rhodes explores Shane, a 1949 Western pulp novel by Jack Schaefer; the origins of given names; and the ways in which Western novels continue to “obscure and rewrite the history of North American colonization and settlement and the racism that fuels them.”

This excerpt combines written work, cut-outs of overlapping book pages, and handwriting. Rhodes collects copies of Shane and is drawn to “the most abused copies” with writing in the margins, underlined words, browning pages, and this excerpt adopts this feeling of a much-used book. Each page offers something new and arrests the eye, a real treat to read through.

Readers can get an idea of Rhodes’s style by checking out recently published work from the same manuscript in progress in periodicities : a journal of poetry and poetics.

News from The Louisville Review

The Louisville Review has some announcements! In addition to the release of Issue 88 featuring poetry, short fiction and (K-12) poetry, the editors have also announced their Pushcart nominees:

Poetry
from The Louisville Review, No. 87, Spring 2020
“If a Fox” by Luke Wallin
“Institutional Lies” by Frank X Walker

Fiction
from The Louisville Review, No. 88, Fall 2020
“Mama, I Need Some Money” by Jim Bellar
“Let No One Fear Me” by Lori Ann Stephens

Poetry
from The Louisville Review, No. 88, Fall 2020
“Rebuilding the Temple: Higashi Honganji, Kyoto” by Greg Pape
“Human Head, Dream” by Milica Mijatović
Congrats and good luck to the nominees!

Event :: Virtual Master Class in Hybrid Writing

SLS & St. Petersburg Review Master Class in Hybrid WritingEvent Dates: January 17-30, 2021
Event Location: Virtual
Deadline: December 30, 2020
Summer Literary International Retreats and St. Petersburg Review are once again collaborating to bring you an unique online experience in writing: a two-week, ten-person Master’s Class in Hybrid Writing (fiction and/or nonfiction and/or memoir), January 17-30, working with notables Laurie Stone, Dawn Raffel, Meg Storey, Alex Halberstadt, Masha Gessen, and Polina Barskova among others. Submission deadline 12/30/20. Comments from participants in the November Virtual Master’s Class in Fiction: “Best experience I’ve ever had online EVAH!!!!” S.A., Givatayim, Israel; “The talented cohort and distinguished professionals I had the honor to work with were worldclass.” S.C., Baltimore, Maryland. stpetersburgreview.com/master-class

December 2020 eLitPak :: Tartt First Fiction Award

November 2020 - January 2021 Livingston Press eLitPak flier screenshot
click image to open PDF

Winning short story collection will be published by Livingston Press at the University of West Alabama, in simultaneous hardcover and trade paper editions, also in e-book and Kindle formats. Winner will receive $1000, plus our standard royalty contract, which includes 50 copies of the book. Author must not have had book of short fiction published at time of entry, though novels or poetry are okay. Deadline: March 15, 2021.

Of Love and Revelation

Guest Post by Michael Hettich.

Denusha Laméris’s Bonfire Opera, a book of surprising, deeply moving personal lyrics, is a stellar example of what’s best in contemporary mainstream American poetry. Published in the ever-more-impressive and various Pitt Poetry Series, the poems in this book are masterfully crafted, emotionally challenging, and accessible—capable of speaking powerfully to both poets and general readers alike. While her poems break no new ground, the news Laméris brings us is intimate, timely, and often profoundly revelatory. Continue reading “Of Love and Revelation”

Sponsor Spotlight :: River Styx

River Styx Issue 103/104 coverRiver Styx is a print literary magazine that was founded in 1975. Since their founding, they have remained a non-profit literary organization free of institutional ties. They feature thoughtful yet accessible literature and art.

Along with their biannual issues, they also host two reading series and offer online individual critiques and online workshop critiques in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. They are open to submissions year-round, but will take a few breaks during the year to catch up.

Their annual Microfiction Contest is currently accepting submissions of stories under 500 words through December 31. The winner receives $1,000 and publication. Plus, if you aren’t already a subscriber, don’t forget to sign-up for a subscription. They will be releasing issue 103/104 soon.

Stop by their listing on NewPages to learn more.

Call :: NOMADartx Review Seeks Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Art, Interviews, & Reviews

NOMADartx logoDeadline: Rolling
NOMADartx is an emerging global creative network dedicated to sharing and amplifying creative potential, regardless of genre. Our new NOMADartx Review curates fresh voices that address creativity and creative process via fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, interviews, critiques, and reviews. Our “Industry Specials” column also provides a place for contemporary creatives to share wisdom (individual or collective) toward building success in their fields of practice. We currently consider work that addresses these themes in any way. More information is here: nomadartx.submittable.com/submit.

Call :: Essential Voices Anthology Extends Submissions Deadline to January 15

Extended Deadline: January 15, 2021
While the pandemic has ravaged our world, certain populations have been impacted more deeply than others. Essential Voices strives to give voice to those who have been silenced. Send us your poems, stories, recipes, or works of art that reflect upon the experience of COVID and COVID related issues in your life. This anthology will be published by West Virginia University Press. To accommodate those who do not have computer and/or internet access, we accept both electronic and mail-in submissions either typed or handwritten. However, we only accept visual art electronically. There is no submission fee. Please see the full guidelines at www.essentialvoicesanthology.wordpress.com before submitting to [email protected].

Contest :: Last Month to Enter to Win a Full-Tuition Scholarship to Interlochen Arts Academy

Interlochen Arts Academy LogoDeadline: January 14, 2021
Interlochen Arts Academy is now accepting submissions for the 2021 Virginia B. Ball Creative Writing Scholarship Competition. Apply to win a full-tuition scholarship to Interlochen Arts Academy. All students in grades 8-11 during this academic year are eligible to apply. Applicants must submit writing samples in two of the following genres: Literary Fiction; Poetry; Personal Essay or Memoir; Screenwriting; Playwriting; Experimental/Unclassifiable Writing. For submission guidelines and more information, visit write.interlochen.org. Use application fee waiver code: WRITE21.

‘The Lost Grip’ by Eva Zimet Is Not for the Faint of Heart

Guest Post by Scudder H. Parker.

Opening Eva Zimet’s first book of poetry The Lost Grip makes the reader feel drawn unexpectedly into a Tango lesson offered by a skilled instructor who is also a Zen master.

You can’t stand back and watch. Your hand has been taken; an arm touches your back lightly; you are drawn onto the floor. You feel the pain the writer has known, but you are not allowed to step back and offer comfort. You must feel and share it in the dance.

This delicate, piercing volume sometimes confides, sometimes spins you around, sometimes tugs you back in close, sometimes pauses and stands there with you waiting.

In “A Dreamspace For All of Us,” Zimet writes: “I dreamed of a space for us / any of us, all of us.” But instead of some comfortable, welcoming home, she concludes:

The floor is wide-planked and smooth.
The space is otherwise empty.
I sleep against the wall.
Daniel also slept by the wall in a studio, and he survived.
We are the most intimate, in that.

The book is haunted by violence and the struggle to recover trust and intimacy.  Sometimes it is brusque and almost protective in tone. In “Risk,” Zimet writes: “I wanted to share the freefall of intimacy / with you. Didn’t happen.”

The poems reveal again and again a guarded strength that will not be overwhelmed by loss. In “Three Jewls: A Commentary,” Zimet concludes:

I am still with the contents of this emptiness,
no relic, no recognizable thing.
There was nothing there after all,
but my gift.

This book is not for the faint of heart, but when you stick with it, it sticks with you, and in its own spare, powerful way offers unexpected comfort.


The Lost Grip by Eva Zimet, Rootstock Publishing, December 15, 2020.

Reviewer bio: Scudder H. Parker lives in Vermont and is a poet and author of Safe as Lightning.

Rain Taxi 2020 Benefit Auction

Rain Taxi Review of Books 100th issueRain Taxi Review of Books is an award-winning quarterly connecting readers to books of merits that might go otherwise overlooked. They cover fiction, poetry, nonfiction, art, graphic novels, translations and more. Rain Taxi exists not just for readers and writers, but also for literary publishers of all shapes and sizes, booksellers, educators, and kindred spirits. They do their best to help keep books flourishing in a distracted society.

Besides their magazine, they also have a publishing arm which produces chapbooks and broadsides and they host a reading series and annual Twin Cities Book Festival. Each year, Rain Taxi also hosts a benefit auction. Their current auction runs through December 16th (only one more day left!). It officially ends at 5 PM CST.

This year’s auction includes first editions by Raymond Carver, Isabel Allende, and Paul Auster; counter-culture tomes; quirky titles from Bette Midler, John Updike, and Sharyn McCrumb; collectible treasures; and much, much more. Swing by their auction page to learn more and don’t forget to drop by their listing at NewPages.

Rain Taxi is also celebrating milestones, i.e. 25 years of publication and 100 issues published!

Call :: 1 Month Left to Submit to great weather for MEDIA 2021 Anthology

great weather for MEDIA logoDeadline: January 15 2021
Last month left to submit, writers! great weather for MEDIA seeks poetry, flash fiction, short stories, dramatic monologues, and creative nonfiction for our annual print anthology. Our focus is on the fearless, the unpredictable, and the experimental. Please visit our website for guidelines: www.greatweatherformedia.com/submissions.

Shenandoah – Fall 2020

The Fall 2020 issue of Shenandoah features fiction by Rachel Heng, Nathan Poole, Xhenet Aliu, and more; poetry by Samyak Shertok, Stephanie Rogers, Diane Seuss, Ashley M. Jones, John Kinsella, Jen Schalliol Huang, and others; and nonfiction by Leslie Jernegan, J.D. Ho, Lynette Benton, Mason Andrew Hamberlin, and Sarah Beth Childers.

Months To Years – Fall 2020

The latest issue of Months To Years is out. It includes yet another fantastic roster of talented writers reflecting on grief and loss from diverse perspectives. Work by Zan Bockes, John Q. McDonald, Nancy Morgan, Rosa Angelica Garcia, Co Bauman, Susan Rothstein, Megeen R. Mulholland, Paul Sohar, Stewart Lindh, Bruce Gorden, Michal Mahgerefteh, Karen Storm, Linda Ankrah-Dove, Charlene Stegman Moskal, Marjorie Stamm Rosenfeld, Elizabeth Haukaas, C.T. Holte, Beth Hope-Cushey, Kim Malinowski, Liza Bernstein, Lucy Meynell, and Charlie Morris.

Navigate the Lit Mag Landscape with Creative Nonfiction

You still have time to register to attend Creative Nonfiction‘s December 16 webinar. The webinar will run from 2pm – 3:15pm EST on Wednesday. It is $25 to register, and registration closes 24 hours before the event.

The event aims to help writers:

  • GAIN an understanding of the contemporary literary/literary magazine landscape and why you would want (or not want) to publish in lit mags.
  • LEARN how and where to send your work.
  • CONSIDER the writer-editor relationship and what happens once your work is accepted

Hattie Fletcher, managing editor of Creative Nonfiction, will lead the webinar. Find out more at the lit mag’s website.

The Greensboro Review – Fall 2020

Featuring the Amon Liner Poetry Prize winner, “An Imperfect Figure” by Tegan Daly, plus the first selection in our new flash fiction category, Stephen Hundley’s “Tiger Drill in Butterfly Class.” Issue 108 includes an Editor’s Note from Terry L. Kennedy as well as new fiction and poetry from Bridget Apfeld, Kathleen Balma, Andrew Bode-Lang, Rick Bursky, Christopher Citro, and more. Read more at The Greensboro Review website.

The Georgia Review – Winter 2020

The latest issue of The Georgia Review is out with new work from Terrance Hayes, Arthur Sze, Jenny Boully, Samuel R. Delany, Maud Casey, and many other voices. The issue features the 2020 winner of the Review’s Loraine Williams Poetry Prize, selected by Ilya Kaminsky, as well as three finalists. It also showcases a selection of translated poems by Taiwanese author Sun Tzu-ping, and a long poem by the late Molly Brodak, annotated by her widower, Blake Butler. Moreover, there is an art portfolio of UGA Alumna Meghann Riepenhoff’s work, the artist interviewed by Georgia Review editor Douglas Carlson.

Contest :: Autumn House Press 2021 Rising Writer Contests

Autumn House Press logoDeadline: January 15, 2021
The Autumn House Press Rising Writer Contests for Poetry and Fiction are for writers 36 years old or younger who have yet to publish a full-length book. In addition to publication, the winner also receives $1,000 ($500 advance against royalties and a $500 travel/publicity grant to promote the book), 35 author copies, distribution through the University of Chicago Press, and a post-publication prize package. The judge for the 2021 Rising Writer Prize in Poetry is Matthew Dickman. The judge for the 2021 Rising Writer Prize in Fiction is Maryse Meijer. For more info: www.autumnhouse.org/submissions/.

Creative Nonfiction Holiday Sale Ends Tonight!

Don’t forget that Creative Nonfiction‘s holiday sale officially ends tonight at 11:59 PM EST. They have some amazing deals going on perfect for the creative nonfiction lover in your life.

You can get 50% off a subscription to Creative Nonfiction and single issues for only $2.50. Like their long essay magazine True Story? You can get single issues for just a $1. They also have their books available for $8 and have even created special bundles of their favorite issues. These bundles include Animals, Exploration, Food & Drink, History, Home, Pushcart Nominees, Starting Over, Teaching & Learning, Technology, and Women Write.

Love T-Shirts? They have those available for $5, too.

Want to gift a writer or your self with an online course in nonfiction? Creative Nonfiction is currently offering 11 online classes. You can save $50 off the cost if you enroll by December 21.

A Melodic & Timely Poetry Collection

Guest Post by Chris L. Butler.

2020 was filled with many twists and turns, but one thing that stayed consistent was Reggie Johnson’s commitment to poetry. One of my favorite books I’ve read this year is Cuarentena, Johnson’s ninth poetry collection in five years. Cuarentena is a melodic full-length collection reflecting on Johnson’s experiences of the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic. This book is broken into several sections, beginning with “Life Before Quarantine,” and culminating with “The New Normal.” Johnson reminds us of how carefree life once was with lines like “Saturday’s used to be the night to unwind,” in “Saturday Shenanigans.”

As the book progresses, the reader gets to engage a section titled “Unrest.” Here, Johnson draws the audience into his interpretation of race relations in America. This section features pieces like “Divided,” Johnson’s viral poem, which was featured on WLWT 5 NBC Cincinnati in June. As a Black American, I personally connected with this book. Johnson lays it all on the table for me with lines like “No matter the time period, I am more than a statistic . . . a stereotype,” featured in the poem “Look at Me.”

Cuarentena hits home for the reader, in a timely collection where Johnson dives into the political. I would recommend this book to anyone, but especially those experiencing the duality of living in the pandemic as an oppressed person.


Cuarentena by Reggie Johnson. Rad Press Publishing, September 2020.

Reviewer bio: Chris L. Butler is an African American and Dutch, Pushcart nominated poet, and essayist. Chris was selected as a 2020 HUES Scholar. He was a participant in the 2020 Palette Poetry BIPOC Chapbook Workshop. His work can be found in The Daily Drunk Mag, Rejection Letters, and others.

Ruminate :: Subscription Drive

If you’ve wanted to check out issues of Ruminate, now is the perfect time to do it. Right now, they’re running their Holiday Drive with the goal of reaching 125 new and renewed subscribers going into the new year. Renew your subscription, gift one to a family member or friend this holiday season, or write a donation in someone’s name as a gift.

You can grab a gift subscription here, where you can also check out their progress. At the time of writing this blog post, they’ve reached about 40% of their goal.

Enjoy high quality, quarterly issues with your own subscription.

Shanti Arts :: Spring Leaves Chapbook Series

I love a good chapbook—something slim and short and perfect for my pandemic-shortened attention span. With this in mind, I was excited to find out Shanti Arts, publisher of literary and art journal Still Point Arts Quarterly, has begun to publish the Spring Leaves Chapbook Series.

The first chapbook in this series was released back in August. The Vermeer Tales by Gail Tyson is “[i]nspired by A. S. Byatt’s The Matisse Stories and Johannes Vermeer’s exquisite paintings of women,” and was written “during a transition from a demanding career to full-time writing in 2017, and finished the last after [Tyson’s] beloved’s brief, terrifying illness and death.”

The chapbook is available now at the Shanti Arts website. There, readers can also have a sneak peek at the contents before purchasing.

Grace Amidst Confusion: a review of ‘Avalon’ by Richard Jones

Guest Post by Michael Hettich.

In this disjunct time, when cynicism and lies swarm the air like gnats, it’s a great solace to find a poet whose work is suffused with what can only be called love, a poet whose vision, though fully engaged with the fractures and griefs of this moment, is imbued with a sense of wonder, humor and compassion for all, including himself. Richard Jones has been writing such poems for many years. His numerous books published by Copper Canyon Press as well as stellar chapbooks from Adastra Press and other small publishers, to say nothing of his translations or of his work editing Poetry East, have distinguished him as one of our most valuable poets. His new book, Avalon, from Green Linden Press, is as strong as anything he has previously written, a work of great tenderness and vision.

Many of the poems in Avalon take the reader on spiritual journeys through realms of confusion and sorrow leading toward a sense that, somehow, amidst our existential bewilderment, the wonder of our very being holds transcendent truths we’ve yet to plumb, truths that might enthrall us were we to embrace them. A citizen of our time, Jones is nevertheless a kind of visionary, a poet who risks vulnerability to achieve the kind of innocence that makes revelation possible. His poems often start in the particulars of his own life to seamlessly move into fable-like narratives in which the ineffable is glimpsed, the unsayable (almost) whispered. And though what’s glimpsed eludes the speaker’s full grasp, nevertheless he knows it’s there, that moment out of time when the truth of each moment is revealed. In short, these poems simultaneously enact and document instances of grace, blessings in the midst of confusion.

Though never “confessional” in the conventional sense of that word, all of Jones’s poems are deeply personal, exploring not regrets and losses but rather yearnings—for the deepest connections to his family, to the world, to himself and, finally, to his God: “a praying mantis / lands on my left forearm, / turns his head, and studies me. / The spiritual way he folds / his long green wings / makes me believe he’s here / on a heavenly mission . . . .” Our blessings, for Jones, are located exactly where our confusions and griefs most pain us as feeling, yearning, tender-hearted humans. Such poetry as this is always nutritious food, but it is particularly so in these ravaged, profoundly confusing times. For those that read them carefully and with an open heart, the poems of Avalon will provide not just aesthetic pleasure but a kind of solace as well.


Avalon by Richard Jones. Green Linden Press, June 2020.

Reviewer bio: Michael Hettich has published a dozen books of poetry, most recently To Start an Orchard, which was published in 2019. A new book, The Mica Mine, is forthcoming. His website is michaelhettich.com.

Creative Writing in the Heart of Brooklyn

Long Island University, Brooklyn MFAThe MFA in Creative Writing at Long Island University is an innovative program centering on world literature, multi-genre education, and publishing. They prepare their students to be “professional writers in the world and visionary literary citizens.”

The LIU Brooklyn MFA is a two-year residency program that also helps prepare its students for careers in creative writing, academia, translation, and publishing. Students have the option of studying poetry, fiction, nonfiction, playwriting, and translation to receive a robust multi-genre education.

Students are able to learn about commercial, independent, and academic publishing during the course of their study while studying directly with professionals at the heart of the publishing industry. Current faculty include Zaina Arafat, Rita Banerjee, and Robin Hemley.

The priority deadline to apply to the program is February 15. Learn more by stopping by their listing on NewPages.

Ponder Human Existence with Margo Taft Stever

Guest Post by J. Guaner.

Margo Taft Stever, founder of the Hudson Valley Writers Center, has published her second poetry collection, Cracked Piano, which invites the reader to ponder human existence issues.

“Idiot’s Guide to Counting,” the opening poem, interprets the sane and insane with rhetorical questions comprising the first two stanzas and the first half of the third stanza: “How do you become one / with the horse, riding and becoming / the act of riding, / and the horse becoming the self / and the other at exactly / the same second, counting strides, / counting muscle movement, / counting fences, hurtling over / them with the horse, counting /the everything / of one?” These questions function as an apostrophe articulated to a grandfather figure in the past, an alter ego, or a contemporary everyman “counting strides, / counting muscle movement, / counting fences . . . ” Yet, there is no solution to everything counted or to the person who counts, as the hyperbole of “idiot” in the title suggests.

The poet also looks deep into the misery, monotony, and aloneness of human life. The person who counts suggests either an alter ego or a contemporary everyman. Sadness stays with everything counted, the existence, or the family tree, as questioned in the third stanza—“How to become one with / the branches of a tree, a grandfather / tree in an apple orchard / that no longer exists?” We count our time, but we are not able to find the meaning of life. In the end, counting becomes meaningless, and the speaker sighs, “counting / everything as no longer / existing, counting / trees as one with the everything / that no longer exists.” Stylistically, even the monotonous voice reveals the plain sameness of life confined to the person himself.

In a sense, this poem sets the tone of Stever’s Cracked Piano, a tone of loss and disconnection.


Cracked Piano by Margo Taft Stever. CavanKerry Press, 2019.

Buy this book from our affiliate Bookshop.org.

 

Call :: Chestnut Review Invites Submissions from Stubborn Artists Year-round

Deadline: Year-round
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 $100 and a copy of the annual anthology of four issues (released each summer). 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! Don’t forget to check out our recent issues at chestnutreview.com.

Driftwood Press :: New Poetry Title & Launch Party

Do you need something good to look forward to? Driftwood Press has you covered.

Their first full-length poetry collection is forthcoming on December 15: Magnolia Canopy Otherworld by Erin Carlyle. The collection has received advance praise: Rebecca Morgan Frank, author of Little Murders Everywhere calls it a “riveting, smart, and unforgettable debut,” and F. Daniel Rzicznek, author of Settlers warns readers: “Be ready for her to interrupt your life with poem after stunning poem in this haunting and arresting debut.” You can preorder your copy now.

To celebrate the release of Magnolia Canopy Otherworld, tune in on December 18 for a free digital launch party held on Zoom. In addition to Erin Carlyle, Wren Hanks, Ben Kline, Helli Fang, Kimberly Povloski, Charles Malone, and Annie Christain will also be reading. Find more information about the launch party at Driftwood Press‘s Facebook.

‘The Body Dialogues’ by Miriam O’Neal

Guest Post by Chloe Yelena Miller.

After months at home during the coronavirus epidemic, I found Miriam O’Neal’s poetry collection The Body Dialogues a respite. Through a focus on the body, personal history, religion, travel, and literature, I could both leave myself and remember who I used to be. The postcard poems, in particular, reminded me of our human capacity to inhabit the past and faraway places regardless of where we are.

As we plug into our devices, we need to connect with others and ourselves. O’Neal feeds the readers with her poems and places us wherever we are. “Field” ends with, “She gives the grownups bread and tea, / the children milk and bread. / This is what it takes to tell the body, / You are here.”

That which is seemingly forgotten is etched into the poet’s experiences and appears in these poems. Sometimes, we forget who we have been. Throughout this three-part collection of poetry, O’Neal’s “I” grows and shifts into an experienced adult. In “The Sister Doesn’t Say,” O’Neal writes, “Only she will know what she can’t remember.”

Writers love their building blocks, words and grammar, and O’Neal is no different. My favorite poem, “Homesick,” has the speaker looking towards Italian grammar. The poem ends with, “and you in the present form; / always in the familiar.” Even when the reader is transported into the past, the past becomes a vivid present.

The writer can train the reader’s eyes on something to see it more clearly in order to see something else. O’Neal writes her own ars poetica within the poem “Felucca,” “Because she cannot photograph the sky / or the darkness hiding her hand, / she’ll photography my boat and say, / See? This is a Felucca.”


The Body Dialogues by Miriam O’Neal. Lily Poetry Review, January 2020.

Reviewer bio: Chloe Yelena Miller is a writer and teacher living in Washington, D.C.

Contests :: The Headlight Review Chapbook Prize

Kennesaw State University logoDeadline: After 80 submissions received
The Headlight Review
’s Annual Chapbook Prize in Prose is open for submissions! Send us your very best literary fiction, 6k-10k words, and you will be considered by our expert panel of judges for a $500 cash prize and publication of your manuscript. Submissions are $20 each, and all finalists will also be considered for publication. Publication in THR’s regular genres (Poetry, Nonfiction, Fiction, Book Reviews, & Interviews) is also year-round, and it is free to submit. Submission Guidelines for The Chapbook Prize, and for our year-round submissions, can be found on our website. We look forward to reading your work!

Rattle – Winter 2020

The Winter 2020 issue of Rattle has arrived with vibrant and beautiful poems like “Psalm of the Heights” by Dana Gioia, “Deitic” by A.E. Stallings, “Graffiti” by Josh Lefkowitz, “A Litany of Lukewarm Sentiments” by Supriya Kaur Dhaliwal, and “Modesty” by Richard Luftig. Additionally, we’re proud to present the finalists of the 2020 Rattle Poetry Prize including “I Admit Myself to the Psych Ward in a Pandemic” by Beck Anson, “Mega-” by Shelly Stewart Cato, and “Farm Sonnet” by Kitty Carpenter. Not to mention, of course, the winning poem, Alison Townsend’s “Pantoum From the Window of the Room Where I write.”

Poetry – December 2020

This issue of Poetry features poetry by Jane Wong, Noor Hindi, Pippa Little, Marcus Wicker, Talvikki Ansel, Darius Simpson, Lance Larsen, Maggie Millner, William Fuller, Alec Finlay, Jon Davis, Jordan Keller-Martinez, Ashley M. Jones, Anna Leahy, Jayy Dodd, A.D. Lauren-Abunassar, Austin Smith, Brayan Salinas, John Lennox, Kemi Alabi, Isabella Borgeson, Philip Gross, Ange Mlinko, Cyrée Jarelle Johnson, Imani Cezanne, Leila Chatti, Luther Hughes, and T.J. Clark.

Plume – December 2020

This month’s Plume featured selection is titled “Dear Stuart,” and is a celebration of the work and life of Stuart Friebert. Contributors to this section include Wayne Miller, Marilyn Johnson, Martha Moody, and more. Our nonfiction section features Bill Tremblay’s thoughts in “THE LAND OF ULRO: Czeslaw Milosz on William Blake.” Chelsea Wagenaar reviews Allison Adair’s The Clearing.