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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!

‘Wilderness of Hope’ by Quinn Grover

Wilderness of Hope - Quinn GroverGuest Post by Carly Schaelling

Quinn Grover takes readers into a landscape of rivers, wildness, and fly fishing in his essay collection Wilderness of Hope: Fly Fishing and Public Lands in the American West. His descriptions of Idaho, Utah, and Oregon rivers make the reader feel as if they can hear the current and smell the water. Central to this essay collection is a discussion about home, and he suggests that certain geographies can make us feel “young and old, safe and unsure . . . closer to those I love, yet perfectly alone.”

Through punchy short essays consisting solely of dialogue and moments of self-deprecating humor, Grover’s collection interrogates the meaning of wildness and the importance of public lands. One of my favorite moments in this collection is an essay called “The Case for Inefficiency.” Grover recounts a fishing trip that gets off to a rocky start—a forgotten sleeping bag, a popped tire. Instead of giving in to feeling inefficient, he asks whether it is possible to measure wasted time. If we walk somewhere instead of drive, but find ourselves outside breathing the air and being more patient because of it, is our time really wasted? To treat public lands well sometimes “requires us to blaspheme the gospel of efficiency.”

You don’t have to know anything about fishing to enjoy this book. You will escape to places you may have never been to and fall in love with them when giving this collection a read.

Wilderness of Hope by Quinn Grover. Bison Books, September 2019.

About the reviewer: Carly Schaelling is a creative writing student at Utah State University.

The Veterans Writing Project

writing-war.jpgThe Veterans Writing Project. Writers Digest.  …When he got back to the States he tried conventional talk therapy. He tried medication. He drank. He got a dog named Harry. None of it was getting the PTSD symptoms in the box. He went to a community writing workshop at Walter Reed [medical center], part of Operation Homecoming, and the writing actually helped.

So he went to Johns Hopkins with his GI bill and got an MA in creative writing, with a double concentration in fiction and nonfiction. He wrote his memoir [Seriously Not All Right: Five Wars in Ten Years (Schaffner Press)] as his thesis. Then he decided that he wanted to give back and create a nonprofit that would offer creative writing skills to veterans and family members, regardless of why they wanted to tell their stories—whether it was for expressive and therapeutic purposes, to leave it in a box for the grandkids, or get something published.

Southern Humanities Review – Winter 2019

Southern Humanities Review - Winter 2019

The Winter 2019 issue of Southern Humanities Review is out. In the issue: nonfiction by Lia Greenwell and Leslie Stainton; fiction by Erin Blue Burke, Dounia Choukri, Sayantani Dasgupta, and Alex Pickett; and poetry by J. Scott Brownlee, Sarah Edwards, Jared Harél, Kathryn Kirkpatrick, Matthew Landrum, Donna J. Gelagotis Lee, Rodney Terich Leonard, A.T. McWilliams, Michelle Peñaloza, and Supritha Rajan. Plus, cover art by Martha Park.

The Iowa Review – Winter 2019

Iowa Review - Winter 2019/2020

The latest issue of The Iowa Review is out. In this issue: toes, 362.28 in the card catalog, a portfolio of fantastical and surreal writing and artwork, a tenure review gone awry, and the winners of the 2019 Iowa Review Awards. Contributors include Julie Gray, Derby Maxwell, Elizabeth Dodd, Andes Hruby, and Laura Crossett in nonfiction; Joyelle McSweeney, Brian Sneeden, Philip Metres, Maggie Millner, and Stephanie Ellis Schlaifer in poetry; and Chloe Wilson, Sherry Kramer, Terrence Holt, Analia Villagra, and Bruce Holbert in fiction.

Raymond Carver and the Night of the Living Bukowski

Raymond Carver and the Night of the Living Bukowski. Los Angeles Review of Books.

“Nothing about Carver stood out as remarkable at the time. Indeed, he gave the impression of someone who did not want to be noticed, sitting not at the head of the conference table like other visiting poets but on the side with the students, slouched in his chair, hiding behind dark glasses and a scrim of smoke. When prompted by our teacher, Morton Marcus, to talk about his work and to give advice to the table of young, aspiring poets, Carver mumbled through a couple of poems and said something about keeping after it and not giving up. Then he lit another cigarette.

…But as Maderos remembered it, in spite of all Bukowski’s bravado, the mix of students and faculty and town poets in this elite academic environment seemed to have thrown the poet off his game, as he rushed his lines or threw the best ones away. And yet The New Yorker writer William Finnegan, another UCSC undergraduate at the time, recalled loving the event, finding Bukowski more literary than he had expected and, most certainly, larger than life.”

Margaret Atwood’s New Poetry

Margaret-Atwood-new-poetry-book.jpgMargaret Atwood to publish first collection of poetry in over a decade. The Guardian.

Margaret Atwood is set to publish her first collection of poetry in over a decade, an exploration of “absences and endings, ageing and retrospection” that will also feature werewolves, aliens and sirens.

After jointly winning the Booker prize with Bernardine Evaristo last year for her bestselling sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, The Testaments, Atwood’s publisher said today that the 80-year-old Canadian author’s next book would be Dearly. Out in November, the collection will be Atwood’s first book of poetry since 2007’s The Door.

The Gettysburg Review – Fall 2019

Gettysburg Review - Autumn 2019

The Autumn 2019 issue of The Gettysburg Review features a selection of paintings by Anne Siems; fiction by Cody Harrison, Gary Amdahl, and Kathryn Harlan; essays by Valerie Sayers, Geoff Wyss, and Floyd Collins; poetry by Gregory Fraser, Robert Gibb, Adam Tavel, G. C. Waldrep, Connor Yeck, Kathryn Nuernberger, Alison Pelegrin, Todd Davis, Alice Friman, Nancy Carol Moody, Edward Mayes, Averill Curdy, Joyce Sutphen, Sarah Kain Gutowski, and Stanley Plumly.

Smorgasbords Don’t Have Bottoms

nplus1-article.jpgSmorgasbords Don’t Have Bottoms. N+1 magazine. A long read touching on Borders, Amazon, the Kindle, indie bookstores, ebooks, audiobooks, Barnes & Noble, conglomerate publishing, Trump books, the end of fact-checking and editing, Goodreads, indie publishers, and more.

“… there is a giant constellation of books being produced by America’s independent publishers, carefully edited and intelligently marketed, that are worth reading. Though they face long odds and ghastly profit margins (n+1 barely breaks even on books we sell through Amazon), in a destabilized media environment, books published by independents often get the same degree of press as those with six-figure marketing budgets, their impact on the culture wildly disproportionate to their authors’ and publishers’ limited means.”

Chinese Literature Today – Winter 2020

Chinese Literature Today - Volume 8 Number 2

In the latest issue of Chinese Literature Today, find a special feature on Twenty-First Century Chinese Theater with work by Liu Hongtao, Zhang Xian, Li Jing (including an interview with Li Jing by Liu Hongtao), Zhai Yueqin, Ding Luonan, Chen Jide, and Song Baozhen. Also in this tenth anniversary issue: a tribute to Jin Yong with work by Liu Hongtao, Paul B. Foster, and Weijie Song; work by Xiao Fuxing; and featured scholar Charles A. Laughlin.

Pause and Effect

punctuation.jpgThe past and future of punctuation marks. History Matters magazine.

We send each other millions of faces each day, hoping to press complex emotional tones into waywardly arranged punctuation marks: a colon, a dash, half a bracket, closed if happy, open if sad. This seems like a radical reinvention of these marks, yet the real leap of thought happened much earlier.

In classical times there were no punctuation marks or spaces between words. Since punctuation determines sense (‘Let’s eat, Grandpa’ versus ‘Let’s eat Grandpa’)…

New England Review – Polish Poetry in Translation

New England Review - Volume 4 Number 2, 2019Magazine Review by Andrea Diamond

Ellen Hinsey and Jakob Ziguras were invited to assist the New England Review in compiling a collection of poems written by previously untranslated Polish authors in a special issue titled “Polish Poetry in Translation: Bridging the Frontiers of Language” (Volume 40 Number 2, 2019). No doubt, Ellen Hinsey, who had previously used love as her guide to identify works to include in her book Scattering the Dark: An Anthology of Polish Women Poets, was chosen for her care and attention.

The introduction to Hinsey’s anthology is referenced in an editor’s note in this issue and highlights difficulties that translation presents. Hinsey describes how even best efforts are often unable to fully create expressions and understandings in English that exist uniquely in Polish (and other languages) while also preserving beauty in the verses. Continue reading “New England Review – Polish Poetry in Translation”

On the Hatred of Literature

hatred of literature.pngOn the Hatred of Literature. The Point, Issue 21. … Nearly giving way to what seemed to me at the time (but not now) an embarrassing overflow of emotion, she accused the professors of “hating” literature. We had become English majors in the first place, she went on, not because novels and poems told us interesting things about history or politics but because they made us feel less alone, captivated us with their beauty, helped us to better know ourselves and the world. The professors, as far as I can remember, responded politely: after all, the student was only a sophomore. She would learn.

Chinese Literature Today Celebrates 10 Years

Chinese Literature Today - Volume 8 Number 2Back at the end of August 2019, Chinese Literature Today celebrated its tenth anniversary. During the past ten years, the journal—a sister publication to World Literature Today—has published sixteen issues of Chinese work and culture. With their latest issue, the editors have chosen to celebrate by publishing “the first ever CLT special section on contemporary Chinese theater.”

In this feature, readers will find over fifty pages of work, including “Boundary-Crossing Experiments: Ecology of the Shanghai Avant-Garde Theater in the New Century” by Zhai Yueqin, translated by Josh Stenberg; an examination of experimental theater by Ding Luonan, translated by Nienyuan Cheng; an interview with Li Jing by Liu Hongtao, translated by David N. C. Hull; and more.

Walloon Writers Review – No. 6

Walloon Writers Review edition 6 is a collection of poetry, short stories and nature photography inspired by Northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula. This independent regionally focused literary magazine is published annually. “Edition 6” edited by Associate Editor Glen Young, is so titled as this is our first digital edition. Walloon Writers Review edition 6 is available on issuu and the link can be found on our website. No charge for the digital edition this year. Cover photography by Elizabeth J. Bates.

Nimrod Announces New Contest Deadline for Literary Awards

Nimrod LitPak FlierLiterary magazine Nimrod has announced a new deadline for their annual Literary Awards. Instead of submissions being accepted through April 30, contest entries are now being accepted January 1 through April 1.

The Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction and the Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry award $2,000 and publication to the first prize winners.

Nimrod accepts both snail mail and online entries. The $20 reading fee includes a one-year subscription. Check out their website for full submission information: artsandsciences.utulsa.edu/nimrod/nimrod-literary-awards/.

Don’t forget to update your calendars, writers!

NewPages Book Stand – January 2020

NewPages Book Stand - January 2020A new Book Stand is available at NewPages! Visit for new and forthcoming titles in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, anthologies, and children’s/YA. Our New & Noteworthy section features six titles this month.

Americans Are trump by Randall G. Nichols explores the mindset of Americans who support our current president.

Dispatches from the End of Ice by Beth Peterson “is part science, part lyric essay, and part research reportage.”

In HULL, Xandria Phillips “explores emotional impacts of colonialism and racism on the Black queer body and the present-day emotional impacts of enslavement in urban, rural, and international settings” in their debut collection.

Orison Books has released their fourth anthology, “an annual collection of the finest spiritually engaged writing that appeared in periodicals in the preceding year.”

Someone You Love Is Still Alive by Ephraim Scott Sommers has been called “a gorgeous and dangerous book” by Jericho Brown.

Thirty-six writers share their worst reading experiences in What Could Possibly Go Wrong? edited by Richard Peabody.

You can learn more about each of these featured titles at our website. Interested in placing your book in our New & Noteworthy section? Learn more here.

2019 Writer’s Block Prize in Fiction Winner

The Louisville Review - Fall 2019Winners of Louisville Literary Arts’ annual Writer’s Block Prize are published in The Louisville Review. The Fall 2019 issue includes the winner of the 2019 prize: “The Things We Leave Behind” by Aimée Lehmann.

Lehmann’s fiction was selected by 2019 judge Garth Greenwell. In addition to publication, Lehmann also received a $500 prize for her winning piece. The 2020 Writer’s Block Prize is open during the summer months, so stay tuned for updates on this year’s deadline.

Updated :: 15th Annual Mudfish Poetry Prize

Mudfish 21 coverLiterary magazine Mudfish has announced it is now accepting submissions for its 15th Mudfish Poetry Prize. This year’s judge is Erica Jong, American novelist, satirist, and poet.

Mudfish is accepting both snail mail and email entries to the contest. You can submit up to 3 poems for $20. $3 fee for each additional poem.

Mail entries to Mudfish, 184 Franklin St, Ground Fl., New York, NY 10013 or email to [email protected]. Deadline to enter is March 15. On March 5, Mudfish announced they are extending the contest deadline to May 15, 2020.

Winners of last year’s contest, judged by John Yau, can be read in Issue 21 which is now available for pre-order.

“Owosso” by Mary Birnbaum

Crazyhorse - Fall 2019Magazine Review by Katy Haas

Mary Birnbaum’s nonfiction piece “Owosso” caught my eye in the latest issue of Crazyhorse, not only because it’s the winner of the Crazyhorse Nonfiction Prize, but because it’s a familiar name (though a surprise to see in a national literary journal); the tiny town in Michigan is a mere hour away from where I’ve lived my whole life. It’s also where Birnbaum’s grandfather lived, she learns as she reads his obituary at the gym. This discovery leads her on an exploration of the concept of ghosts and hauntings.

Across the country, Birnbaum writes of the ghostly characters of The Turn of the Screw by Henry James and personal ghost stories shared by two friends. This leads her to look at the ghosts of her own life. These are not supernatural beings haunting the darkness, but are her father and her grandfather, two strangers removed from her life.

Birnbaum’s thoughts about her father and grandfather are complex and complicated. She breaks her ideas apart into small chunks, making them easily digestible as she bounces back and forth between ghost stories, the “what-ifs” of finding and confronting her father, and her discovery at the gym. At one point she wonders, “if it’s worse to be a ghost or to be haunted. I wonder if both are possible in me,” leading me to consider the ways in which I myself am a ghost or am being haunted in my own life.

As the essay wraps up, Birnbaum decides to label Owosso a mythical location. But while the small city is something separated from herself, it did conjure up from the shadows a tiny, welcomed connection between writer and this reader.

“Transcendence: A Schematic” by Alyssa Quinn

Meridian - Summer 2019Magazine Review by Shaun Anderson

Alyssa Quinn’s “Transcendence: A Schematic”—Meridian Editors’ Prize 2019 winner—explores her efforts to process the loss of her brother. Weaving together a pilgrimage to Walden Pond, her memories of her brother, and her own beliefs and doubts, Quinn probes the hollowed out spaces, searching for a truth she can hold in the absence of her brother.

The exploration of emptiness leads Quinn to consider the places others turn to for truth. She explores science, religion, and maps, searching for a space where she can find her brother. Even in form, Quinn demonstrates absence as she creates a schematic, seeking answers from figures that do not exist. As Quinn tries to present an answer to her questions about death, transcendence, and reality she can only state with absolute uncertainty, “Perhaps the center is just as elusive as the beyond; matter as problematic as spirit.” In death, Quinn’s brother has shattered Quinn’s understanding of reality.

While the essay pulses with the agony of living in an emptied reality, Quinn recognizes that even her writing has been reformed by the loss of her brother. Quinn must confront the fact that “Syntax cannot convey true absence—say ‘I miss him’ and there he is again—there is no language for loss, for such awful missing.” Her work plunges into the loss of her brother, and emerges with the knowledge that Quinn must create a space to hold her brother within her own words.

 

About the reviewer: Shaun Anderson is a creative writing student at Utah State University.

2019 SRPR Editor’s Prize Winners

Spoon River Poetry Review - Winter 2019Spoon River Poetry Review’s Winter 2019 issue features the 2019 SRPR Editors’ Prize winner and runners-up.

Winner
“The Mammoth Steppe” by Mirande Bissell

Runners-Up
“I Thought I Was the Scream that Woke Me” by Abigail McFee
“After  weeks apart” by Alex Chertok
“Burning the Field” by Mitchell Untch
“Evolution” by Andrea Deeken
“Hoodoos” by Robin Rosen Chang
“Arizona” by Harry Bauld

Final Judge Rachel Webster introduces Bissell’s work and explains her choice, stating, “And maybe what I appreciate most about this poem is the fact that it introduces me to a speaker, a family and a landscape that are new to me, and piercingly vivid.” This year’s contest is currently open until April 15.

Get the NewPages Winter 2020 LitPak

NewPages will be mailing our annual Winter LitPak the week of February 10. LitPaks are sent to colleges and universities with both graduate and undergraduate programs and classes.

Don’t know what a LitPak is yet?

NewPages LitPak EnvelopeLitPaks are 9×12 envelopes containing fliers from literary magazines, independent and university presses, writing conferences and events, as well as creative writing programs. You can learn about new titles, new issues, calls for submissions, writing and book contests, upcoming application deadlines, new events, and more.

While NewPages won’t be handing out these LitPaks at AWP this year, you can still get your own copy delivered right to your doorstep. The cost for the Winter LitPak is only $5 – the price of shipping ($10 if you live in Canada).

Subscribe here: npofficespace.com/litpak/subscription/.

2019 Kenyon Review Short Fiction Contest Winners

Kenyon Review - January/February 2020Grab the first Kenyon Review issue of the year for the winners of the 2019 Kenyon Review Short Fiction Contest.

Winner
“Brown Girls” by Daphne Palasi Andreades

Runners-up
“Solitaria” by Emily Everett
“You Break It, You Own It” by Susan Falco

Fiction Editor Kirsten Reach introduces the three selections. Be sure to check this intro out for Judge Mia Alvar’s thoughts on her choices. Also not to be missed is the cover art for this issue, a literary illustration by Milan-based illustrator Emiliano Ponzi.

Contest :: The Southern Collective Experience Launches Women of Resilience Chapbook Contest

The Southern Collective 2020 Chapbook ContestThe Southern Collective Experience, home of quarterly literary magazine The Blue Mountain Review, launched a “women only” poetry chapbook contest this past November.

The Women of Resilience Chapbook Contest’s goal is “to highlight not only the struggle, but a way to the light” as “time and again, women have shown tremendous resilience while overcoming hardship, be it personal, marital, financial, parental, medical, addiction, and personal self worth. In fact, the caverns women navigate to ‘find the light’ are often deep, and brutal.”

The deadline to enter the contest is March 31 with winners announced on April 15. First prize is $200 and chapbook publication. The winner will be interviewed in the Summer 2020 issue of The Blue Mountain Review. There is a $25 fee.

The judge of this year’s contest is Melissa Studdard, author of four books including I Ate the Cosmos for Breakfast and Six Weeks to Yehidah.

“Dream Logic: The Art of Ten Contemporary Surrealists” by Kristine Somerville

Missouri Review - Fall 2019

Magazine Review by Katy Haas

The Fall 2019 issue of the Missouri Review invites readers to wander away from the ordinary into a world that’s a little bit “off” in its feature. In “Dream Logic: The Art of Ten Contemporary Surrealists,”Kristine Somerville offers a brief history of the surrealist art movement.

While we learn the history, we also see full-color images of surreal artwork, including embroidered mixed media images by Robin McCarthy, clay sculptures by Ronit Baranga, collages by Rodriguez Calero, and more. Indeed, these all carry dreamlike qualities as they challenge our expectations. Each piece grabs the eye and forces it to take in new, creative perspectives. Baranga’s work features grotesque human features emerging from delicate teacups. Gensis Belanger’s work seems to showcase the ordinary until you blink and realize a stool is supported by four large cigarettes instead of regular legs, and the foot inside the sandal that rests on the stool is actually a hot dog. Whimsy and dream logic reign in this feature. The provided history grounds us, though, giving a clear lens through which we can examine the art.

Somerville closes with the reminder, “surrealism provides an outlet for creativity and spontaneity and an escape from the tyranny of the real.” Allow yourself to escape for a moment and wander into the dreams of the surreal artists found in the Fall 2019 issue.

New Stories from the Midwest 2020

New Stories from the Midwest 2018 coverNew Stories from the Midwest is celebrating its milestone 10th anniversary by presenting selections from previous volumes alongside new stories published in 2018 and 2019. Michael Martone is the guest editor for this volume.

Journals can submit up to six pieces of fiction published in 2018-19 for free. Writers can submit an unlimited amount of stories for $3/story.

A $100 prize is awarded to a story with exceptional power.

The deadline for nominations and submissions is February 1. All contributors receive two copies of the anthology and a discount on additional copies.

New Stories from the Midwest is published by New American Press, publisher of literary magazine Mayday and home to the New American Prizes, to help bring more visibility to “the flourishing crop of Midwestern writers who consistently produce work that is innovative, engaging, finely crafted, and strong in voice.”

2019 SRPR Editors’ Prize Winner

Spoon River Poetry Review - Winter 2019Spoon River Poetry Review’s Winter 2019 issue features the 2019 SRPR Editors’ Prize winner and runners-up.

Winner
“The Mammoth Steppe” by Mirande Bissell

 

Runners-Up
“I Thought I Was the Scream that Woke Me” by Abigail McFee
“After  weeks apart” by Alex Chertok
“Burning the Field” by Mitchell Untch
“Evolution” by Andrea Deeken
“Hoodoos” by Robin Rosen Chang
“Arizona” by Harry Bauld

Final Judge Rachel Webster introduces Bissell’s work and explains her choice, stating, “And maybe what I appreciate most about this poem is the fact that it introduces me to a speaker, a family and a landscape that are new to me, and piercingly vivid.” This year’s contest is currently open until April 15.

Why Book Reviewing Isn’t Going Anywhere

Inside-the-Critics-Circle.jpgA researcher explores the future of a changing practice By Scott Nover, The American Scholar.

Now an assistant professor of sociology at McMaster University in Ontario, Chong researches how fiction book reviews come to fruition, trying to solve the puzzle of why some books get reviewed and why so many more are ignored. Her new book, Inside the Critics’ Circle: Book Reviewing in Uncertain Times makes the case for the persistence of old-guard professional criticism even in the Internet age.

…It’s a really good question. No one said they were giving good reviews to really bad books, or bad reviews to really good books. It’s more a matter of degree: how much am I going to gush about a book I loved before I worry about sounding stupid and pull back, or how much am I really going to tear into a book before I worry about potential fallout and pull back. And those aren’t just questions about honesty or authenticity, it’s also about what’s the right professional tone to strike when producing cultural journalism.

Masters Review: New Writing on the Net

Masters Review: New Writing on the Net January 2020.

“In our first edition of New Writing on the Net for 2020, The Masters Review reader Nicole VanderLinden shares her suggestions for your weekend reading list, all selected from the best new writing published online in the previous month! Happy new year!”

Featured this month is fiction from Grist Online, Lunch Ticket, JuxtaProse, Juked, SmokeLong Quarterly, Hobart, and Crack the Spine.

Promiscuity Is a Virtue: An Interview with Garth Greenwell

Garth-Greenwell

Garth Greenwell interviewed by Ilya Kaminsky in The Paris Review.

I don’t know how much these distinctions exist for me. Certainly I think the conversation of art doesn’t care about them very much. I’ve always been turned off by a kind of assertive Americanism, and the American writers I love best, from Hawthorne and James and Baldwin to Alexander Chee and Yiyun Li, have all been cosmopolitan in their tastes and views. Of course, America is important to my writing—the landscape of the American South, the rhythms of American speech, the expansive, sometimes-redemptive, sometimes-toxic sense of American selfhood.

What it means to be American is one of the subjects of my books, as it is of any book about Americans abroad. Bulgaria is important to the books, too. I was speaking Bulgarian every day as I wrote What Belongs to You. Often enough, I spoke only Bulgarian. The rhythms of Bulgarian—the most beautiful, the most musical language in the world, so far as I’m concerned—are part of those sentences, as is the cityscape of Mladost, the quarter of Sofia where I lived, which I also think is very beautiful, though maybe with a difficult kind of beauty.

Does Reading Really Improve Your Writing?

reading-and-writing.jpgDoes Reading Really Improve Your Writing?

While our literature professors may have embedded this idea in our heads since middle school, the relationship between reading and writing is not as straightforward as it may seem. Yes, they are obviously closely related. But, it does not mean your interaction with one will affect your skill in the other.

As someone who has written for several organizations, newspapers and magazines for a fair amount of time and can barely get through half a book, I never understood the basis of this concept. And so, trying to decipher it was like a roller coaster ride.

Brevity blog: Seven Stages of Submittable

Alison-Lowenstien-at-Brevity-Blog.jpeg“Seven Stages of Submittable” by Alison Lowenstein, Brevity Blog.

Submitting:

After meticulously crafting a brief cover letter and biographical statement, you upload your work of creative genius, along with a twelve-dollar submission fee. You press submit and enter a period of limbo when you see the essay, along with your many other submissions–ranging from haikus to flash fiction, logged as Received.

Dreaming:

Every evening you visit the web page for the literary journal you submitted to and imagine yourself on their homepage. Fantasizing that within minutes of the essay being on the journal’s website you get a book deal or at least an inquiry from a literary agent… [Read full blog post]

Personal stories of the exodus from Christianity

Empty-the-Pews.jpg“Empty the Pews: Stories of Leaving the Church” – Even as the American Christian right maintains its power and influence — despite a recent dust-up with President Trump — its children continue to abandon the fold. A recent survey by the Pew Research Center shows that fewer Americans across the political spectrum are identifying as Christian, and the phenomenon is particularly pronounced among the young.

In “Empty the Pews: Stories of Leaving the Church,” mostly Gen X and millennial writers describe their disillusionment with the faith of their youth and their departure from their religious communities.

…But the collection’s overall framing seems to equate the bigotry and ignorance of some Christians with Christianity itself. As Schaeffer writes in his foreword, “The grim ‘witness’ of how Christians have behaved and voted is too heavy a blow for faith in magical thinking to survive.” Here his critique of the Christian right slides into an implied critique of belief (“magical thinking”). In the book’s final essay, Isaac Marion is even more explicit: “All religious belief is a game of pretend.”

The New Guard 2019 Contest Winners

The New Guard - 2019The New Guard Volume VIII features the winners of the Machigonne Fiction Contest and Knigtville Poetry Contest, as well as the contests’ finalists and semi-finalists.

Machigonne Fiction Contest
Judge Rick Moody
“The View From Beachy Head” by Thos. West

Knigtville Poetry Contest
Judge Patricia Smith
“Once Upon a Time” by Damen O’Brien

In addition to the winners, finalists, and semi-finalists, the issue also features a section of eleven letters to writers’ younger selves.

Larry Kramer Wishes More People Wrote About Gay History

The American People by Larry Kramer“Larry Kramer Wishes More People Wrote About Gay History” – his new book is “The American People: Volume 2.”

Which subjects do you wish more authors would write about?

Gay history. Most historians taken seriously are always straight. They wouldn’t know a gay person if they took him to lunch. A good example is Ron Chernow’s biography of Hamilton, which doesn’t include the fact that he was both gay and in love with George Washington. Gore Vidal pointed this out to me.

Have you ever gotten in trouble for reading a book?

Not for reading one but plenty of times for writing one. Gay writers writing about other gays is not exactly a winning audience. And gays are not the best buyers or readers of their own. In “Faggots,” I used my best friend for one of the leading characters because he told such good jokes that I used. He never spoke to me again after the book came out.

“What You Need to Be Warm” by Neil Gaiman

neil-gaiman

“What You Need to Be Warm” – Neil Gaiman Reads His Humanistic Poem for Refugees, Composed from a Thousand Definitions of Warmth from Around the World

A century and a half after Walt Whitman wrote, in the middle of a civil war, that “every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you,” Neil Gaiman takes up the question of our shared belonging in a project of uncommon originality.

Frost on the ground that stays in the shadows, waiting for us. Wear a scarf. Wear a coat. Wear a sweater. Wear socks. Wear thick gloves. An infant as she sleeps between us. A tumble of dogs, a kindle of cats and kittens. Come inside. You’re safe now.

Missouri could jail librarians for lending ‘age-inappropriate’ books

jail librarians Jail Librarians… You just can’t make this stuff up!

A Missouri bill intended to bar libraries in the US state from stocking “age-inappropriate sexual material” for children has been described by critics as “a shockingly transparent attempt to legalize book banning” that could land librarians who refuse to comply with it in jail.

Under the parental oversight of public libraries bill, which has been proposed by Missouri Republican Ben Baker, panels of parents would be elected to evaluate whether books are appropriate for children. Public hearings would then be held by the boards to ask for suggestions of potentially inappropriate books, with public libraries that allow minors access to such titles to have their funding stripped. Librarians who refuse to comply could be fined and imprisoned for up to one year.

Bennington Review – Fall Winter 2019

bennington-review cover

“The Devotions” issue features fiction by Sabirah Orah Mark, JoAnna Novak, Pablo Piñero Stillmann, Su-Yee Lin, Roger Topp, and more; nonfiction by Jenny Boully, Spencer Reece, Joan Connor, Tyler Mills, D. Gilson, and others; film by Will Stockton; art by Jochern Hendricks; Sabrina Orah Mark in conversation with Vi Khi Nao; and poetry by Peter Cooley, Endi Bogue Hartigan, Matthew Henriksen, Dujie That, Steffi Drewes, G.C. Waldrep, Antonia Pozzi, Owen McLeod, Bronwen Tate, Cary Stough, Sarah Destin, Alisha Dietzman, Christian Wessels, and more.

The Antioch Review – Summer 2019

antioch-review civer

The Antioch Review Summer 2019 issue opens with postmodernist African-American painter and printmaker Emma Amos’ 1957 Antioch College senior paper about her education as an artist whose works are currently scheduled to go to the Smithsonian. Investigative reporter Jay Tuck’s “Mankind’s Greatest Challenge: Artificial Intelligence” is a well-founded call for caution in what has become the wild west of virtual reality. Mika Seifert’s “Old Timers” will send chills up your spine and “Coming in on Time” by Stuart Neville will have you reaching for tissues. Our poetry selection rounds out this issue that once again delivers the best words in the best order.

2019 Rattle Poetry Prize Winner & Finalists

Rattle - Winter 2019Pick up the Winter 2019 issue of Rattle for the Rattle Poetry Prize winner and finalists.

Winner
“Stroke” by Matthew Dickman

Finalists
“Punch Line” by Kathleen Balma
“Bonanza” by Susan Browne
“Mother and Child” by Barbara Lydecker Crane
“Foreign-ness” by Maya Tevet Dayan
“Cathedrals: Ode to a Deported Uncle” by Daniel Arias Gómez
“The Never-Ending Serial” by Red Hawk
“Gender Studies” by Sue Howell
“From Oblivious Waters” by Kimberly Kemler
“Red in Tooth and Claw” by James Davis May
“Self-Portrait, Despite What They Say” by Gabrielle Otero

Along with the winner and finalists, there are twenty-three other poets included in this issue in the “Open Poetry section.”

“How does one not write a depressing book about depression?”

Book cover of The Scar by Mary CreganCaoilinn Hughes talks with Mary Cregan about her new book The Scar. …But this book is far more than a memoir: it is the result of decades of research on the medical history of the diagnosis, as well as the classification and treatment of depression and melancholia. To this rigorous and fascinating scholarship, Cregan has added the work of a variety of artists—from the ancient Greeks to Leonard Cohen. No surprise, then, that she teaches literature at Barnard College.

For a long time I couldn’t figure out how to write the book because the subject is seen by most people as “depressing.” How does one not write a depressing book about depression? Add to that the trigger of the death of an infant, and it seemed a daunting thing to invite readers to enter into. Death, grief, suicide, illness: these are subjects that a lot of people prefer to avoid thinking about.

Two Poems by Bill Snyder

Weber - Fall 2019

Magazine Review by Katy Haas

The Fall 2019 issue of Weber includes two poems by Bill Snyder: “Redundancy” and “Home.”

Snyder travels through time in these poems. In “Home,” he brings us to 1972 as he hitchhikes to his father’s house in Florida to surprise him with his arrival, and in “Redundancy,” he brings us to 1995 while he plays Scrabble with his mother.

Snyder writes with clarity, each poem rich with description that never bogs the message down. Each feels like a tiny short story, grabbing readers and pulling them into the scene. We are sitting at the table with his mother, “sunlight seeping in.” We are standing on the side of the road waiting in the humid air for a car to stop, “the sun behind a Burger King, Kentucky Fried, / all the rest.”

These poems are a pleasure to read, an intimate gaze at the familial bonds of Snyder’s speaker.

Caitlin O’Neil Wins Danahy Fiction Prize

Caitlin O'Neil [cropped headshot]The editors of Tampa Review are pleased to announce that Caitlin O’Neil, of Milton, Massachusetts, has won the thirteenth annual Danahy Fiction Prize for her short story entitled “Mark.”  She will receive an award of $1,000, and the story will be published in the forthcoming Spring/Summer issue of Tampa Review.

O’Neil is a graduate of the MFA program at Columbia University and currently teaches in the English Department at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. She says that her winning story came directly from her life experiences as a college professor and as a human being living in America today.

“I watched multiple school shootings unfold on television with sadness and fear,” O’Neil says. “Given the gridlock around gun control, I began to think about what a world that had adjusted to guns and gun violence might look like.”

O’Neil’s story is set in a near-future in which guns become an even more pervasive part of the culture.

Learn more about the winning story and the runners up here: tiny.cc/danahyprize13.

NewPages January 2020 Digital eLitPak

NewPages has sent out our monthly digital eLitPak to current newsletter subscribers this afternoon. Not a subscriber yet? Sign up here: npofficespace.com/newpages-newsletter/.

Besides our monthly eLitPak featuring fliers from literary magazines, independent presses, and creative writing programs and events, we have a weekly newsletter filled with submission opportunities, literary magazines, new titles, reviews, and more.

Check out the current eLitPak below. You can view the original newsletter email here. Continue reading “NewPages January 2020 Digital eLitPak”

2019 Zone 3 Literary Awards Winners

Zone 3 - Fall 2019Find the Fiction and Poetry winners of the 2019 Zone 3 Literary Awards in the Fall 2019 issue. Winners were chosen by the genre editors.

Fiction
“Five Variations on Parnell’s Blues” by Matthew Fiander

Poetry
“Sandy” by Jasmine Dreame Wagner

For more contest winners, readers can pick up the Spring 2019 issue to check out the winner of the nonfiction prize: “In Praise of the Plains” by Sarah Fawn Montgomery. The Literary Awards are currently open until April 1.

Joy Harjo: ” Everyone wants a place where they feel safe”

Joy Harjo An American SunriseYou once said that poetry “directly or inadvertently mirrors the state of the state.” And I wonder what you think the state of the state is right now?

Everyone wants a place where they feel safe, where they feel like they might know what’s going to happen tomorrow and that they could wake up in a universe in which they feel supported. Where we know we can practice our ways and not be jailed or censored or anything. Most people want that. But I think the state of the state is marked by a great insecurity, a great insecurity running through everyone, whatever so-called side you’re on. And so I think people are really looking for connection and trust to build some kind of stability — and for some kind of leadership in which we have leaders who are trusted because they have a history of compassion, of knowledge, and they’re willing to work across any kind of political lines. Those are real leaders. The real leaders care about the people, not about the opinion of those who are going to give them money for their campaigns. Read more…

Let’s All Read More Fiction

Birdie short fiction in The Atlantic magazineOver the centuries, The Atlantic has prized great storytelling. Now we’re setting out to publish fiction with far greater frequency than we’ve managed in the past decade, starting today with “Birdie,” a new story by Lauren Groff.

Contemplative reading might be viewed as a minor act of rebellion in the internet age. At a time when every available surface is saturated in information, it sometimes seems as though facts are absorbed osmotically, even accidentally, just by moving through space and time. And although the internet is not the perfect opposite of the novel, as some people have argued, it makes fairly efficient work of splintering attention and devouring time. Literary reading—of fiction and of poetry, the kind of reading that commands moral and emotional reflection—is far too easily set aside.

Frontier Poetry Partners with Antioch University LA for New Fellowship

Frontier Poetry Antioch MFA Fellowship PrizeOnline literary magazine Frontier Poetry announces a new fellowship in partnership with the creative writing program at Antioch University Los Angeles.

The Antioch-Frontier Fellowship allows the winner to experience one of Antioch University LA’s MFA residencies first-hand. This includes 10 days of intense learning and immersion with mentorship and community opportunities. The fellow can choose between the Summer 2020 residency or the Winter 2021 residency.

The fellowship will cover travel expenses and lodging. Also, it awards a $1,000 cash prize to cover any additional expenses. The Winner will also be published on the Frontier Poetry website. February 15 application deadline. The Editors of Frontier Poetry and staff of Antioch University will select the winner. Learn more about the fellowship at Frontier Poetry‘s website.

Ruminate – Winter 2019/20

Ruminate - Winter 2019/2020Magazine Review by Katy Haas

Each issue of Ruminate opens with “Readers’ Notes,” a response from a variety of readers/writers on the issue’s theme. This is one of my favorite parts of the issue—the little snippets of connection. The Winter 2019/20 theme is “Shelter,” and thirteen readers write in with their thoughts on the subject.

It’s interesting to see the variety of approaches writers take as they cover this topic. A few speak of physical structures that offer shelter. Benjamin Malay writes of an abandoned farmhouse found while hitchhiking; Duane L. Herrmann’s shelter is a screened-in porch during childhood; and Sharon Esterly writes of a DIY Cold War bomb shelter. Moving away from man-made structures, Rebecca Martin observes a child’s own body being their shelter; Liz Degregorio’s shelter is “the kindest lie” her father could tell her as a child; and Sarah Swandell’s shelter is a womb.

Each of these pieces is short and succinct. All grab attention and hold fast as readers unfold the layers that reveal the shelter within. The Readers’ Notes section serves as a great opener for Ruminate, both as a warm-up for the rest of the issue, and as a way to jog one’s own creativity, prompting consideration on how we too might briefly write on the given topic.