NewPages is still looking to add a couple more reviewers for both book reviews and magazine reviews. If you are interested, please check out this page for more information. Then send a message to Kirsten, kirstenmcilvenna[at]newpageswork[dot]com for magazine reviews or to Holly at hollyzemsta[at]newpageswork[dot]com for book reviews. Please pass along this information to anyone you think may be interested.
The editor’s note in Arc Poetry Magazine announces a few changes in the editorial staff. Prose Editor Chris Jennings steps into his new role: “The title of prose editor may be new, but Arc has always had a ‘prose editor’ function usually handled by the Editor.” Additionally, former Coordinating Editor Katia Grubisic is thanked for her work and given a send-off. Jennings writes, “Those of you who know her know that she is tireless and professional, and we were proud to have her at the helm for the brief time we enjoyed the privilege. As with Anita Lahey and John Barton before her, we will take some solace in knowing that Katia the poet and writer will continue to participate in the Canadian poetry conversation.”
Stepping into her shoes is Robyn Jeffrey. Jennings says that “Robyn brings considerable experience in project coordination and organizational capacity to our operations, and we look forward to having her insight and talents on Arc‘s editorial team.”
The Spring & Summer 2013 issue of Alaska Quarterly Review features a special section for the place of two novellas. Included in this section are Cary Holladay’s “The Army Disease” and Christie Hodgen’s “Mistakes I Made.”
The issue also includes fiction by Ben Brooks, Matt Carmichael, Patricia Schultheis, Peter Gordon, Ihab Hassan, Catherine Bussinger, Emily Mitchell; nonfiction by Anne Kaier, Edward Hower, Mary Koral, and Leslie Ullman; and poetry by Matthew Westbrook, Joan I. Siegel, Kim Farrar, Carol Edelstein, Deborah Brown, and many more.
For seven years now, Meat for Tea has been putting forth issues. To celebrate, they have released a special “Lardo” issue, featuring the work of Micahel Alves, Elizabeth Macduffie, D. H. Yondernod, Meg Pokrass, Ben Bellizzi, Robert Joshua Mobley, John Sibley Williams, Gina Williams, Kirby Wright, Clare Haxby, David P. Miller, Loren Kantor, Richard E. Corrigan, John Lurie, Gina Marie Bernard, and many more. They also celebrate with creating a new style for the magazine: “Deciding it was time Meat for Tea grew a back bone, I have turned to a perfect bound format,” writes Meaty Gonzales, Editor-in-Chief.
The most recent issue of The MacGuffin features the winner of the 17th National Poet Hunt: Sharron Singleton for “Like a scrap of Michigan sky.” Judge Dorianne Laux says that she was hooked after the first line, saying “already a place, already an image, a tone.” She says that, “This is a poem to hold in our hands, to sing out loud.”
The honorable mentions go to Sophia Rivkin for “Lido Island” and Kevin Griffin for “Melt,” also featured in this issue alongside Rik Barberi, Carrie Callaghan, Jorge Casuso, Barbara Crooker, Justin Daughtery, Marti Dodge, Taylor Dowd, Kathleen Founds, Deborah Kent, Kent Maynard, Billy Middleton, Rex Richards, and many more.
From the Academy of American Poets:
It’s hard to believe that when the Academy of American Poets launched National Poetry Month in 1996, only a few hundred people participated. Today, it is the largest literary celebration in the world with special events taking place in thousands of schools, libraries, bookstores, and communities nationwide. Here are some ways to participate in National Poetry Month this year:
Sign up for Poem-A-Day, which delivers a new poem to your inbox every morning.
Spread the Word: Download the official 2013 National Poetry Month logo for promoting your poetry events this month. And, promote your events on our national Events Calendar.
Participate in Poem-in-Your-Pocket Day April 18.
Learn about what’s happening with poetry in your state by taking a looking at our poetry maps.
Or, consider one of these 30 Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month in your community.
THEMA‘s Spring 2013 issue marks the magazine’s 25th anniversary. To celebrate, the theme is “White Wine Chilling,” and Editor Virginia Howard encourages you to “drink a toast to THEMA Literary Journal!”
What started as a game among friends in 1988 at a Chinese restaurant has now evolved into the popular themed magazine. “We would each write a story based on the fortunes printed in the fortune cookies received that day. We invited other literary friends to join us,” writes Howard. “This mental exercise turned out to be such a pleasure that it fueled our curiousity. How would other authors handle the same theme? And what about other unusual themes? . . . And how would various imaginations react to them? We had to know!”
Featured in this issue are D’Ann Gunn, Norbert Petsch, Dennis Trujillo, Corrine D’Italia, Debbie Okun Hill, Gary R. Hoffman, Lorraine Merrin, Marvin Thrasher, Sandra Storey, Elinor Davis, Susan Shaw Sailer, Norman Weddle, Ronald Edwin Lane, Judy Swann, J. F. Pierce, Stefanie Freele, James B. Nicola, and Suszanne Stuhaug,
The Fall 2012 issue of Glass Mountain features the winners of the Robertson Prize:
Poetry Winner
Sam Coronado: “Pete”
Poetry Runner-Up
Sessa Kratz: “Issac and Abraham”
Fiction Winner
Heather Pedoto: “Imogene the Voodoo Queen”
Fiction Runner-Up
Daniel Chang: “The Slip”
The Winter 2013 issue of The Antigonish Review features the winners of the Great Blue Heron Poetry Contest and the Sheldon Currie Fiction Contest.
Great Blue Heron Poetry Contest
First Prize: Charles P. R. Tisdale
Second Prize: Kim Trainor
Third Prize: Laura Legge
Sheldon Currie Fiction Contest
First Prize: Veronica Ross
Second Prize: Fred Annesley
Third Prize: Joan M. Baril
The issue also includes work from Jocko Benoit, Dwayne Brenna, Jan Conn, Mark Corkery, Mike Donaldson, Aloys Fleischmann, Michelle Glennie, Sean Howard & Mark Silverberg, Kevin Irie, Edward Lemond, Lisa McLean, Jean McNeil, Mark Puhlman, and Reynold Stone.
Naugatuck River Review‘s Winter 2013 issue features the winners of their fourth annual Narrative Poetry Contest, judged by Pamela Uschuk.
First Prize
Diane Lockward “Original Sin”
Second Prize
Doug Ramspeck “Idle Signs”
Third Prize
Bianca Diaz “The Light in the Dark”
Finalists
Lauren K. Alleyne “Dear Christopher”
John Victor Anderson “El Lagarto”
Lana Hechtman Ayers “In My Dreams I Draw Circles But None Of Their Edges Touch”
Wendy Burbank “Frederick”
Judith Waller Carroll “Pas de Deux”
Beth Copeland “Blue Honey”
Maureen Tollman Flannery “Selling the Ranch”
Veronica Golos “China Town Fish Market, New York, Circa Unknown”
Paul Hostovsky “Del Nelmezzo”
Brenna LeMieux “On Mending”
Mary Leonard “Tel Aviv Sonnet”
Taylor Mali “What the Whispering Means”
Thomas R. Moore “Pinus Strobus”
Roger Pfingston “Divorce”
Gail Thomas “Flame”
Lauren Wolk “Wolf Hollow, Pennsylvania”
Lisa Wujnovich “Cynthia”
To view a complete list of the semi-finalists, please click here.
In addition to their twice annual, large-format (8.5×11) literary journal, Fact-Simile is now in their fourth year of publishing Poetry Trading Cards. Each card features a full-color front with a photograph of the poet and the poem printed on the back using traditional trading card stock. Each card comes in an archival quality plastic sleeve and can be purchased for 99 cents each or $10 for the year (+s/h). You can still subscribe now and get the “back issues” as well as receive monthly delivery for the remainder of the year.
I was thrilled when I learned that a number of the Trading Card Poets would be signing cards at the Fact-Simile table at AWP Boston. I’ve been a subscriber from the start, so picked out the cards, printed the signing schedule, and for three days, I haunted the Fact-Simile staff regularly throughout each day! I was their most obsessed fan, I’m sure of it, and was tolerated with kindness and humor each time I ran back and forth (several times to catch Hoa Nguyen, who in addition to signing cards was giving tarot readings in the aisle way).
My diligence paid off as I was able to meet and have cards signed by Charles Bernstein, Marcella Durand, K. Silem Mohammad, Hoa Nguyen, Jena Osman, Vanessa Place, Elizabeth Robinson, and Lewis Warsh. Huge thanks to Fact-Simile for creating and keeping this series going. It’s a treat to get one of these in the mail each month. And thanks for the signing, for obsessed fans like me it was a great opportunity!
Southern Poetry Review‘s new issue features Georgia Poets. In their original call for submissions, they were clear that they weren’t necessarily looking for work that addressed Georgia or the South, but instead should come from poets that were from Georgia or had a significant connection to it. “We wanted to see who was, so to speak, out there,” writes Co-Editor James Smith. “A few of the poems do, indeed, make passing reference to Georgia, and some of them, to a large extent, are “about” the South, but the reader must decide if the other poems carry any redolence of place. We decided not to arrange the issue, as we usually do, selecting a poem with which to lead off, one with which to end, and intimating connections along the way . . . but in an issue devoted to a particular group of poets, we wanted to be careful not to give the impression of ranking, so we chose the alphabetical approach and found nonetheless many interesting juxtapositions and groupings.”
So, in alphabetically order, the issue includes Rebecca Baggett, Coleman Barks, Beverly Burch, Kathryn Stripling Byer, George David Clark, Alfred Corn, Heather Cousins, Blanche Farley, Rupert Fike, Starkey Flythe Jr., Gregory Fraser, Alice Friman, Roberta George, Sarah Gordon, William Greenway, Linda Lee Harper, Gordon Johnston, Robert S. King, Nick McRae, Judson Mitcham, Eric Nelson, William L. Ramsey, Rosemary Royston, Anya Silver, Nancy Simpson, Charlie Smith, Matthew Buckley Smith, Ron Smith, R. T. Smith, A. E. Stallings, Memye Curtis Tucker, Austin Wilson, Edward Wilson, and William Wright.
Map Literary, an online magazine, has just put out their second print issue, an anthology collection from the past year. Although it doesn’t include everything that was published online, it features the best of the best.
It features the work of Keith Newton, Nicholas Brown, Tina Brown Celona, Michelle Valois, Julia Cohen, Sam White, Joshua Ware, Dan Kaplan, Beth Couture, Paige Taggart, Craig Foltz, Patrick Swaney, Jim Daniels, Simon Perchik, Kirk Curnutt, Joe Lennon, and Joanna Clapps Herman.
If you love American Literary Review, you best get your hands on their current issue. It will be their last print issue. However, this doesn’t mean they are extinct! Starting with the Fall 2013 issue, the magazine will be featured exclusively online. “The necessity of change has taken us a little by surprise, although publications before us have taken to the ehter, due to economic circumstances and the attendant promise of a wider readership,” writes Editor Ann McCutchan. “And while we mourn the physical journal, we’re excited about the advantages of the new format.”
With the new format, the magazine can be offered for free—and who doesn’t love free—and will be able to fit in even more poems, stories, and essays, with a “substantially beefed-up book review section.”
McCutchan extends her gratitude to her editors and everyone that has worked with the magazine as well as to the readership. “Jim Lee imagined that if he built it, ‘they’ would come. Now after more than two decades, it’s fair to say that you’ve built it, with your writing and readership. Once more, thank you, and we’ll see you online.”
Sponsored by The Van Dyke Family Charitable Foundation and judged by Mark Richard, the William Van Dyke Short Story Prize is featured in the newest issue from Ruminate. “It was a pleasure to read this year’s submissions,” writes Richard. “In one story, grief is made real in images of rain and through music. In another, a woman hopes to find healing from her childhood, trying to accept love from those who often fail her and from a God who never does. A person of faith begins to have doubts during the prolonged death of a loved one, the meaning of the suffering proving elusive. A man struggles to keep the contents of his mind from spilling out at the end of his life. Another person of faith desires to surrender unto death, but the will to survive is stronger.”
First Place
David Brendan Hopes: “Saturdays He Drove the Ford Pickup”
Second Place
Terrence Cheng: “In San Francisco”
Honorable Mention
Megan Malone: “Safekeeping”
Finalists
Daniel Casey: “RE: Sentencing”
Peter Court: “The Simple Art of Flight”
A.R. Gardner: “A Mother’s Legacy”
Lindsey Griffin: “Tenebrae”
Linda McCullough Moore: “What a Lifetime Is”
Alexandre Puttick: “The Fall”
Richards writes, “David Hopes’ ‘Saturdays He Drove the Ford Pickup’ spoke to me as a parable would, and I’m always inclined toward a parable. And on subsequent readings, it seemed a bit more layered than I originally thought. The things I first thought sentimental about the piece actually gave it ultimate poignancy.”
Seattle Poetry Panels invites you to “The State of Seattle Poetry” at 7 p.m. on March 24. “Founded by Greg Bem and Amber Nelson, Seattle Poetry Panels is a naturally occurring online phenomenon. For each panel, a Seattle poet is designated captain, gathers forces, and leads the charge on tough, in-depth investigations on any given subject related to poetry, Seattle, or Seattle poetry. These panels will take place in google hangout so anyone can watch from the comfort of their sofas and snuggies.”
The discussion will also be saved on YouTube to view it in the future. To attend the Google Hangout, please view the Facebook event invitation. Or you can directly email Greg at gregbem[at]gmail[dot]com or Amber at ambydexterous[at]gmail[dot]com.
For all of you in NYC in April, there will be a Downtown Literary Festival hosted by McNally Jackson and Housing Works Bookstore Cafe. “The festival will take place at both bookstores simultaneously on Sunday, April 14, 2013, followed by a happy hour mingle at Housing Work Bookstore and an after-party at Pravda, featuring Russian literature–themed cocktails. The goal of DLF is to showcase the literature and writers of New York City. We will aim to reflect the diversity and creativity that characterizes downtown NYC with a day of the non-traditional events for which McNally Jackson and Housing Works Bookstore have become known.”
American Life in Poetry: Column 416
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE
This kite-flying poem caught me right up and sent me flying as soon as Robert Gibb described those dimestore kites furled tighter than umbrellas, a perfect image. Gibb lives in Pennsylvania.
Kites
Come March we’d find them
In the five-and-dimes,
Furled tighter than umbrellas
About their slats, the air
In an undertow above us
Like weather on the maps.
We’d play out lines
Of kite string, tugging against
The bucking sideways flights.
Readied for assembly,
I’d arc the tensed keel of balsa
Into place against the crosspiece,
Feeling the paper snap
Taughtly as a sheet, then lift
The almost weightless body
Up to where it hauled me
Trolling into the winds—
Knotted bows like vertebrae
Flashing among fields
Of light. Why ruin it
By recalling the aftermaths?
Kites gone down in tatters,
Kites fraying like flotsam
From the tops of the trees.
American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2012 by Robert Gibb from his most recent book of poems, Sheet Music, Autumn House Press, 2012. Poem reprinted by permission of Robert Gibb and Autumn House Press. Introduction copyright © 2013 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.
Two current news pieces on literature in China – present and future:
The World has yet to See the Best of Chinese Literature by Samantha Kuok Leese in The Spectator (UK): “…it’s early days for modern Chinese literature…the issue must be understood in the context of the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution. Mao Zedong’s atrocious campaigns all but shut down education, and left a frightening number of Chinese people illiterate. Writers in China are now suffering the aftereffects…”
The Future of the Novel in China published by the Guardian UK is an edited version of Li Er’s speech at the Edinburgh World Writers’ Conference 2012-2013, Beijing, translated by Alice Xin Liu. “China’s mass media-connected society is more complicated than novelists in the west could ever have imagined, requiring new forms of storytelling to define our subjective experience.” Full versions of this and all the speeches are available on the Edinburgh World Writers’ Conference website.
Passages North’s newest issue (which I must say has a great cover) features the winners of their 2012 fiction contests.
Waasmode Fiction Prize, judged by Caitlin Horrocks
Winner
“We Are Here Because of a Horse” by Karin C. Davidson
Just Desserts Short-Short Fiction Prize, judged by Roxane Gay
Winner
“After the Flood the Captain of the Hamadryas Discovers a Madonna” by Traci Brimhall
Honorable Mentions
“Girl” by Nahal Jamir
“Dirty Girl” by Rochelle Hurt
The rest of the issue features features Kristin Abraham, John Azrak, Jenny Boully, Hans Burger, Christine Caulfield, Michelle Dove, Stefani Farris, Michael Filas, Toni Graham, Karen Hays, Rochelle Hurt, Brandon David Jennings, Hiram Larew, Sally Wen Mao, Roy Mash, Brenda Miller, Jill Osier, Elena Passarello, Emma Ramey, Susan Terris, Matthew Vollmer, Allen Woodman, and many more.
The most recent, special double issue of World Literature Today features some amazing photography. “Why is World Literature Today, a literary magazine, publishing a photography issue?” writes Editor Daniel Simon. “For one thing, 2013 marks the centenary of popular 35mm still photography: the American Tourist Multiple camera was introduced in 1913, and Oskar Barnack began developing the prototype of the ur-Leica that same year. Moreover, 1913 stands out as a watershed modernist moment.” During that same year, Camera Work published a special issue featuring art photography and the movement known as pictorialism. Simon explains, “By juxtaposing photography with other works of modern art and literature, Stieglitz was hoping to promote ‘the camera’s role as the most apt metaphor for the modernist enterprise’ and to defend the use and aims of photography ‘as one of the defining tasks of modernism itself.'”
He goes on to say that “one hundred years later—and in a similar spirit—WLT presents a special double issue devoted to the language of photography and, by extension, literature . . . By the conventional measure, the seventy-plus pictures included in this issue must be worth more than seventy thousand words. And while photographers often prefer to let the images they create stand on their won, without comment, in this instance we’re fortunate to have their words alongside their photos.”
The featured photographers include Yousef Khanfar, David Goldblatt & Nadine Gordimer, Lois Greenfield, Jacko Vassilev, Lisa Kristine, Robert Glenn Ketchum, Lalla A. Essaydi, Kenro Izu, Joyce Tenneson, Misha Gordin, Ken Duncan, Ami Vitale, David Doubilet, Candida Höfer & Umberto Eco, Tim Mantoani, Angela Bacon-Kidwell, Phil Borges, Graciela Iturbide, Jay Dusard, Camille Seaman, and Shahidul Alam.
The issue also contains essays by Kamila Shamsie, Adnan Mahmutović, and Mark Budman, as well as poetry by André Naffis-Sahely.
Check out Spry Literary Journal, a brand new online, biannual publication that features creative nonfiction, fiction, flash prose, and poetry that is brief, “works that rely on each word to be agile, lithe, to carry its own weight—to be spry.” Editors Erin A. Corriveau and Linsey Jayne said that inside the issues, readers will find “works that will move them to tears, works that will make them laugh, and works that will challenge them to see the world through new and imaginative lenses. . . . They will find their reflections in magical realism and the art of the real. Readers can expect to find creative nonfiction, poetry and fiction from seasoned authors and first time published writers as well. Their work is risky, vulnerable, historical, and honest.”
Linsey said that as her and Erin came to the end of their MFA program and their work with Mason’s Road journal, they realized that the next step would be to make a literary journal of their own. “During our time in the MFA program, we had each worked on a critical thesis that lent itself to the study and creation of concise literature.”
Eager to branch out, Linsey said that they hope to eventually become a triannual publication, introduce audio/visual elements to the journal, and explore opportunities for other formats beyond the online model. “We are looking forward to planning our first launch party, building up our site, hosting contests, and much, much more,” she said. “We’re more eager than anything, though, to see each new submission that comes through our manager, and to determining which pieces will make future issues come to life.”
Each of Spry’s issues features a five-question interview with an established writer. Linsey is pleased to announce that the first issue features Porochista Khakpour and encourages readers to read the interview and leave comments. “We’re excited for the future,” she said, “we have some exciting interviewees lined up and more great submissions coming through every day.” She expressed that they are always open to new ideas and to contact her at any time.
The first issue also features creative nonfiction by Elizabeth Hilts, Jenni Nance, Alan Shaw, Amy Sibley, and Barbara Wanamaker; fiction by Kate Alexander-Kirk, Jeni McFarland, Wei He, Paul Pekin, and Ben Sneyd; flash by Allie Marini Batts, Lucas Burris, Adrien Creger, Christine Hale, Matt Lucas, Saeide Mirzaei, Bill Riley, Michael Dwayne Smith, Alexandra Todak, and Janna Vought; and poetry by Sheila Black, Conor Bracken, Jeremy Byars, Elizabeth Cooley, B.D. Fischer, Erin Hoover, Leigh Anne Hornfeldt, Paul Hostovsky, Kevin Miller, and Michael Sarnowski.
Submissions of short creative nonfiction, short fiction, flash (in any genre), and poetry are being accepted now through March 31 for the second issue. Linsey notes that for the flash category, they accept “fiction and nonfiction, as well as anything experimental in that genre.” Spry has a blind submission policy and accepts submissions via Submittable. For more submission guidelines, please view their website.
Chicago School of Poetics scholarships are now available thanks to supports of their scholarship campaign. CSP is now able to offer need-based scholarships for up to four students, attending eight-week courses, or up to six students attending the Master Classes for the 2013 school year. For information, see the CSP website.
Some of us from NewPages spent last week at the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) Conference in Boston, MA. It was fantastic, and we want to say a huge thanks to everyone who stopped by our bookfair tables to say hello. We spend 99.9% of our work time here at the computer, so being able to meet people face-to-face is a great opportunity for us. We appreciated hearing your comments about the site – what you like and how we can make it better. Ten years ago, when NewPages attended our first AWP, we spent hours walking the bookfair floor, introducing ourselves, explaining our site, our concept, our vision. Now, people recognize our name and shout out: “I love NewPages!” and “You guys do great work!” Thanks to all of you who shouted, stopped, said hello, and chatted it up with us. We do love meeting you and hearing from you. Please excuse our absence from the blog while we caught our breath, but get ready, because we’ve got tons of great stuff to share from AWP and will be spilling that out over the next few weeks.
[That blue book you see on our table is The NewPages Lit Pak for AWP Boston 2013 and is available for free on our site here.]
Newbery Medalist Patricia MacLachlan and acclaimed picture book creator Steven Kellogg will collaborate to create the children’s book Snowflakes Fall as a tribute to the community of Sandy Hook, Connecticut. The book is slated for release this November from Random House and can be pre-ordered directly from their website. The publisher notes: “Random House Children’s Books together with Random House, Inc. will make a significant monetary donation to child-focused organizations that will be chosen by the collaborators.”
“When you say you want to write a novel when you’re 17, people think it’s cute,” Mr. Quick said. “When you’re 32 years old and you’re living with your in-laws, especially if you are a man in America and you’re not making any money, people make you feel like you’re committing a crime.” Matthew Quick, author of The Silver Linings Playbook, from his keynote speech at the 23rd Annual Betty Curtis Worcester County Young Writers’ Conference on Saturday at St. John’s High School. Read the rest on Telegram.com.
Started in 2010, the KMSU Weekly Reader is an author interview radio program currently hosted by newcomers Kyle Jaeger, Alec Cizak, and Beth Mouw. It airs on KMSU 89.7 FM in Mankato Minnesota, and is available as a podcast through iTunes. The Weekly Reader airs in-depth discussions with authors from all around the country. Authors, publishers, and agents are welcome to contact the hosts and send books to the hosts.
A sample of archived archived programs:
Adams, S. J., Sparks
Bugan, Carmen, Burying the Typewriter
Cohen, Joshua, Four New Messages
D’Souza, Tony, Mule
Fell, Adam, I Am Not A Pioneer
Gabbert, Elisa, The French Exit
Hagy, Alyson, Boleto
Karrow, David and Joseph Butts, The Alpha League
LeBoutillier, Nate, Horse Camp
Memmer, Philip, The Storehouses of the Snow
Nau, Dennis, The Year God Forgot Us
Pinda, Jon, Sleep In Me
Ryan, Matt, Read This Or You’re Dead To Me
Sanders, Ted, No Animals We Could Name
Terrill, Richard, Music and poetry, China twenty years later
Vizenor, Gerald, Chair of Tears
Wells, Will, Unsettled Accounts
If you’re not already reading Writer Beware! (“the public face of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America’s Committee on Writing Scams”) on a regular basis, then now the time to start. A recent post by regular blogger and published writer Victoria Strauss examines why and when writers should copyright their work. The post calls out the practice of vanity publishers trolling copyright registration lists for fresh meat new customers.
Edited by Elizabeth Bradfield, Gabrielle Calvocoressi, Sean Hill, Alexandra Teague, and Mark Temelko, Broadsided has been putting literature in the streets since 2005. Each month, a new broadside is posted both on the website and around the nation.
Writing is chosen through submissions sent to Broadsided. Artists allied with Broadsided are emailed the selected writing. They then “dibs” on what resonates for them and respond visually – sometimes more than one artist will respond offering a selection of broadsides.
The resulting letter-sized pdf is designed to be downloaded and printed by anyone with a computer and printer. The goal is to create something both gorgeous and cheap, to put words and art on the streets.
The site contains a gallery of past broadsides, a map of cities/state/countries that have been broadsided (and where you can add yours), and links to other broadside sites.
Staple guns and duct tape to the ready – time to get your city on the map!
[Pictured: Broadsided March 1, 2013: “Landing Under Water I See Roots” Poem by Annie Finch; Art by Jennifer Moses]
The March issue of Glimmer Train’s eBulletin features craft essays by writers whose works have recently appeared in Glimmer Train Stories:
In “Literary Fabric,” Vi Khi Nao begins, “Writing should be a cinematic moment. The function of a writer is to convert word in such a fashion that its etymological beauty moves from frame to frame. In this state, anything is possible. Including the possibility of levitating, descending, dancing—a cinematic place filled with balletic gestures of human pain, sorrow, and bliss.”
William Luvaas in “ON REVISION / REVISION” writes: “Revision can be tedious. Can seem like pathological nit-picking. It can feel like we are endlessly redigesting our own words. But, incredibly, rather than making a story seem labored and lifeless—as intuition suggests it would—revision liberates it and makes it appear effortless.”
“Being Open to Opportunities” for Matthew Salesses is two-sided, “Whenever I am asked to do anything, in the literary world, I agree if at all possible. I hate to turn down anyone genuinely interested in me or my work. How rare and amazing that attention is. This kind of philosophy can backfire, of course.”
Joyce Thomson learned, as she expresses in “The Fan Letter”: “I had wanted to be able to make readers laugh, cry, and think. Now I amended my wish list: I want to make people identify beyond the furthest outposts of their prejudices.”
The bulletin is a free, monthly publication.
Court Green, published in association with Columbia College Chicago, publishes a new dossier of poems each year. This year, the theme is sex.
Poems include titles such as “Where the Mood Struck Me” (Jeffery Conway), “Quiet, I come Alive” (Phillip B. Williams), “The Fury of Cocks” (Anne Sexton), “Blowjobs” (Sarah Crossland), “How Did Dinosaurs Have Sex?” (Lois Marie Harrod), “A Psalm Praising the Hair of a Man’s Body” (Denise Levertov), “Fertility” (Christopher Davis), and many more.
Other poets in this issue include Jan Beatty, Anselm Berrigan, Denise Duhamel, Kimiko Hahn, George Kalamaras, Ron Koertge, R. Zamora Linmark, Gillian McCain, Karyna McGlynn, Randall Mann, Gordon Massman, Richard Meier, Harryette Mullen, Kathleen Ossip, Mary Ruefle, Jerome Sala, Jason Schneiderman, Maureen Seaton, Terence Winch, and many more.
The Department of Comparative Literature at the University of Georgia is launching a new journal of comparative literature, Xenophile. This journal will feature the works of undergraduate and graduate students from around the world. They are currently seeking submissions for the premiere issue. This is a perfect opportunity for undergraduate students seeking their first (or second, or third) scholarly publication, as well as for graduate students hoping to reach a new audience.
Papers will be evaluated on a rolling basis, but the final deadline is March 15th, 2013. The editors seek literary scholarship with a global scope, keeping in mind the comparative aspect that distinguishes the literary discipline from others. For more information, please refer to the publication website.
Southwest Review announces the winners of The McGinnis Ritchie Award for 2012. Robert F. Ritchie was a huge supporter of the magazine. After he died in 1997, the magazine was able to give an award each year to the best works of fiction and nonfiction published in that year. Each award is worth $500.
J. F. Glubka
2012 McGinnis-Ritchie Award for Fiction
“Heat Lightning”
(Volume 97, number 4)
Jacob Newberry
2012 McGinnis-Ritchie Award for Fiction
“The Long Bright World”
(Volume 97, number 4)
Gorman Beauchamp
2012 McGinnis-Ritchie Award for Nonfiction, Essay
“‘But Tiepolo is My Painter’: Twain on Art in A Tramp Abroad”
(Volume 97, number 4)
Ann Peters
2012 McGinnis-Ritchie Award for Nonfiction, Essay
“The House on the Ledge”
(Volume 97, number 1)
A friend and colleague who is familiar with the Boston area shared the following with me when I asked her: “What should I do/see while I’m in Boston? If you could tell me one really great/cool/fantastic/don’t-miss-this ‘thing’ about Boston what would it be? And then, add all the runner-ups to that one best thing.” She couldn’t contain herself – obviously, she’s a fan of the area – so here’s what she sent me and agreed to allow me to share. So, thank you Lauren!
Sights/things to do very near the conference
1. The Prudential (the Pru) Building and Top of the Hub: Wonderful view of the city from the top of a landmark building. The food and drinks are way overpriced, but you could splurge on maybe one drink.
2. The Hancock Tower: Another cool building. It’s not as tourist-friendly as the Pru, but people enjoy the view.
3. Trinity Church: Beautiful old church and set for many movies.
4. The Trident Booksellers and Cafe: A MARVELOUS independent bookstore on Newbury Street (one street over from Boylston). A staple of progressivism, too.
5. If the weather is bearable, and you like looking at old architecture, you could spend a few hours walking around the Back Bay neighborhood. Boylston, Newbury, Commonwealth, Marlborough, and Beacon Streets are the major thoroughfares. Boylston is probably the least interesting, but it’s home to lots of lunch and coffee places (mostly chains from what I remember). Newbury Street is for art and fashion – this is where the rich and au courant live. You might find more adventurous lunch places along Newbury. Commonwealth, Marlborough, and Beacon are residential and lined with beautiful brownstones. Commonwealth is a wide street with little spots of green in it.
6. The Public Garden: You get to this historic, European-style garden from the end of Boylston or Newbury Street. Serene and dignified.
7. Across from the Garden is the Boston Common, a larger and less refined park. It is the oldest public park in America, though, and it offers the starting point for the Freedom Trail. If you like colonial history, it’s cool to walk the Freedom Trail. Sometimes, you end up on it accidentally – it’s marked with a big red line. I recommend a stroll through the Common if you want to see normal Bostonians in action.
8. The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: A quirky, gorgeous museum with a great restaurant. You can take a cab or the T (Get on at the Pru station and take an E train to the “Museum of Fine Arts” stop).
Food and drink near the conference
1. The Cactus Club: Decent Mexican food and margaritas.
2. Bukowski Tavern: One of my favorite bars of all time!!! Large selection of beers in a cozy environment. I suggest bringing a book, a tablet, your lovely spouse, etc., and settling in for a few hours. It will likely be packed the whole time we’re there – it’s a hipster mecca already, and with this hipster conference in town…still, worth it!
3. Legal Seafoods: A favorite with seafood fans. Very corporate but also very good. Inside the Pru.
Food and drink somewhat near the conference
1. Beer Works: For your microbrew needs! It might be easier to take the T there (Green Line to Kenmore or Yawkey), but it really wouldn’t be that far of a walk. It’s nothing special in terms of food and decor, but the beers are tasty. It’s next to the famous Fenway Park.
2. Addis Red Sea: Amazing Ethiopian food. Likely to be crowded, and worth the small cab fare it will take to get there.
3. The Green Dragon Tavern: Charming, friendly old bar dating back to the Revolutionary War. Take the Green Line to Government Center.
4. The Union Oyster House: I’ve never eaten there, but it’s a Boston institution. For chowder and lobster. Take the Green Line to Government Center.
5. Brown Sugar Café: Excellent Thai food! Somewhat T –accessible, but it’s probably easier to take a cab.
CAMBRIDGE INFO
If you have the time, I definitely suggest a side trip to Cambridge, an intensified, bigger version of Ann Arbor [a Michigander reference]. Harvard Square is easy to get to by T (the Red Line to “Harvard Square”), and it’ll offer you no shortage of cool places to visit.
You can get great, great beer at John Harvard’s. It’s a little stuffy for a brewery, but I like it better than Beer Works. I’m also fond of Shay’s – although their website makes it look more upscale than I remember.
For a more working-class, grubbier part of Cambridge, go to Central Square (Red Line to “Central Square”). You can get a feel for it walking up and down Massachusetts Avenue (the main street in Cambridge). Western Avenue and Prospect Street are also fun to explore. The best Indian and Middle Eastern food and markets are found here.
Go to either location of the 1369 Coffee House if you want to hear people planning the revolution.
My favorite Central Square Irish pubs:
The Field
The People’s Republik
The Cantab Lounge hosts a fantastic poetry slam on Wednesday nights. Lots of slam greats got their start there. And only in Cambridge does a poetry slam occasionally get SOLD OUT.
While I don’t especially love the MIT bar The Miracle of Science, it’s unique and extraordinarily popular.
Ploughshares shares their “to do” list for those attending AWP Boston 2013:
We are looking to add on a few more regular book and/or magazine reviewers for NewPages. If you are interested, please stop by the NewPages table at AWP (J1 & J2) and talk to Kirsten. If you are interested but will not be at AWP, feel free to send an email to Kirsten at [email protected] for magazine reviews and to Holly at [email protected] for book reviews.Check out this info before emailing.
Advertising calls for submissions and writing contests on NewPages.com has proven to be very successful for many magazines and presses:
“. . . the traffic generated to our site due to this ad was tremendous. Both the volume and the quality of work that we received in such a short time was nearly overwhelming. . . . and we still can clearly credit 3/4 of our traffic from NewPages.com. The service that you provide to writers and literary magazines is just wonderful,” says Lisa Andrews from The Apeiron Review, a relatively new literary magazine.
You can learn more about running ads with NewPages here. And if you’re at AWP, feel free to stop by the tables J1 & J2 so we can answer any of your questions!
Funded through Kickstarter in 2009, Fred Beneson’s Emoji Dick is now available for purchase. It is copyrighted through Creative Commons with some permissions built in and was recently accepted into the Library of Congress. The Kickstarter video explains the project – taking sentences from Moby Dick and translating them into Emoji – Japanese comic icons. [Sample shown.] Each of the 10,000 sentences in the book was translated three times, then the three versions were voted on for inclusion. “In total, over eight hundred people spent approximately 3,795,980 seconds working to create this book.” Print copies of Emoji Dick are available for purchase $40 for B&W softcover and $200 for full color hardcover.
The New Orleans Review‘s Fall 2012 issue is actually a set of five chapbooks. All under a similar design, the chapbooks include Juan Rengifo-Borrero’s “To Create a World,” Patricia Colleen Murphy’s “Beloved Father Person,” Max Ross’s “Harold’s Problem,” Lynda Sexson’s “A Nickel Novel,” and Cody Peace Adams’s “Polish Movers.”
Event‘s Winter 2013 issue features the two winners of the magazine’s 2012 Non-Fiction Contest. There were 101 entries, ten of which were selected by Event’s staff and sent (without the writer’s names attached) to Zsuzsi Gartner, the contest judge.
Winners:
Mary B. Valencia: “The Decision”
Libby Zeleke: “We Were Punk Rockers”
Gartner writes that she wasn’t surprised that all ten pieces she read were memoirs: “Although it was disappointing not to discover narrative non-fiction tha was more outward looking, it did make my job easier. Apples to apples it would be—and some crisp Ambrosias, tangy Empires, sweet Galas, and pie-worthy Granny Smiths were found in the mix. So I come not to bury the memoir, but to praise it!”
8 short-listed entries:
Paige Cooper: “The Dead in Georgetown”
Trisha Cull: “The Doctor Scott Journals
Chris Donahue: “Where Poison Gets Ya”
Katherine Fawcett: “Promo Girl”
Kirsten Madsen: “Kestrel”
Sigal Samuel: “Sadder Than You”
Emily Walker: “The Grey Goose and Wild Turkey Years”
Terence Young: “Liquor Run”
Can you believe that in just one week, we’ll be packing or already en route for Boston? Although it certainly hasn’t crept up on me, I still can’t seem to believe that it’s happening so soon. At NewPages, we’ve been hard at work, preparing everything we need to take with us. And this year, we are bringing out LitPaks again; but this year, they are even better!
The bound LitPak includes a listing of all the tables and booths that will be at the bookfair as well as lots of information from presses, creative writing programs, and literary magazines. Make sure to stop by our table (J1 & J2) to get your copy (and of course say hello to us!).
But knowing that you can’t possibly wait until then, we are offering a free PDF that you can either view online or download to your desktop. This way, you can plan out your bookfair sleuthing before you’ve even packed your bags.
Here is a link to where you can get the PDF. Even if you aren’t attending AWP, there is a lot of good information in there for writers, so be sure to share the link with any friends, colleagues, and students!
The Audio Publishers Association has announced finalists for its 2013 Audie Awards competition, the only awards program in the United States devoted entirely to honoring spoken word entertainment. Winners will be announced at the Audies Gala on May 30, 2013, at the New-York Historical Society in New York. Writer Daniel Handler, longtime friend and supporter of the audiobook industry, will emcee the event. A list of finalists can be seen here.
Categories include: audio drama; biography/memoir; business/educational; childrens; classic; fantasy; fiction; history; humor; inspirational faith fiction; literary fiction; multi-voiced performance; mystery; narration by authors or authors; non-fiction; original work; package/design; paranormal; personal development; romance; science fiction; short stories; sole narration – female; sole narration – male; teens; thriller/suspense.
The Audio Publishers Association (APA) is a not-for-profit trade organization whose primary goals since 1986 have been to promote awareness of the audiobook industry, gather and disseminate industry statistics, encourage high production standards and represent the interests of audiobook publishers.
The Southeast Review‘s current issue (Volume 31, Number 1) features the winners of the 2012 contests:
World’s Best Short-Short Story Contest
judged by Robert Olen Butler
Winner:
Hal Ackerman, “Belle and Melinda”
Finalists:
Heidi Bell, “Haunted”
Stace Budzko, “Why We Will Always Love You, Vera Knightville”
Michelle Dove, “Intruders”
Sandra Jensen, “Fault Lines”
Kat Gonso, “Capture the Flag”
Rochelle Hurt, “Impossible Child”
Sam Paradise, “At The Liberty Motor Inn Motel”
Chris Tusa, “Mean Blood” and “Neighborhood Association”
SER Poetry Contest
judged by James Kimbrell
Winner:
Noel Crook, “Crows”
Finalists:
Johleen Adena, “I Will Stop Loving You When This War Ends”
Barrett Warner, “Ammo Domini”
John Lander, “A Place to Hide My Crumbs”
Emily Pulfer-Terino , “What Will Never Be” and “The Familiar”
Benjamin Goldberg, “Busted Mirror of Everything Under the Sun”
Les Gottesman, “My Twentieth Century” and “Tremble”
Mark Wagenaar, “A Gospel of Hands & Breath”
SER Narrative Nonfiction Contest
judged by Jennine Capó Crucet
Winner:
Ruth Moose, “A Key As Big As My Hand”
Finalists:
JLSchneider, “The Glass Wall”
Kelly Sundberg, “Snow. Angel. Ghost
`The Antioch Review’s most recent issue, “Our Doppelganger Moment,” starts what the editors have called their “doppelganger phase.” The magazine now has an electronic version available through JSTOR. Unlike some magazines that print two different versions, these will be the same, just available in two different formats. “We are now ‘double walkers,'” says Editor Robert S. Fogarty. “It will be the same magazine in both forms . . . The digital hadow version will not be a minor-league publication with also-ran authors appearing (those who could not make the cut for the hard-copy print edition). They will be separate and equal.”
This issue features Bruce Fleming, Jeffrey Meyers, Anis Shivani, Matthew Clark, Marcia Cavell, Thomas J. Cottle, Rick DeMarinis, Paul Christensen, Robert Ready, Alex M. Frankel, Sebastian Agudelo, Valerie Wohlfeld, Richie Hofmann, Richard Howard, and Alison Powell.
Take a tumblr through Shit Rough Drafts. Definitely one to follow.
AboutSF, founded in 2005, is the educational outreach arm of the Center for the Study of Science Fiction and is a joint-project of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and the Science Fiction Research Association. Their mission is to encourage librarians, educators, and individuals to promote, teach, read and share Science Fiction, the literature of speculation and change.
The “For Teachers” content of the site includes: “Why teach SF?”; numerous full course outlines as well as shorter lesson plans; information on finding guest speakers; video of lectures and interviews; reading guides for a number of science fiction and fantasy novels; sample projects; “SF and _____” (current content includes -for the Science Classroom, -for the French Students, -for Math Students, -for Physics Students); and SF Poetry selected by author and poet Scott Green.
AboutSF welcomes correspondence from readers, teachers, and writers, including contributions to “Teaching the Future,” a column in which teachers share stories and advice about using SF in the classroom.
Jane Austen stamps were issued by the Royal Mail February 21. All six published novels are included to mark the 200th anniversary of Pride and Prejudice.
Since 1998, First Nation Films has been creating and distributing award-winning television documentary films for, by and about Indigenous people. Their exclusive programs are distributed to broadcasters, schools, libraries, universities and other individuals and institutions throughout the world. First Nation Films is also considers films for distribution.
Currently in production:
SO FAR FROM HOME
Two First Nations homeless youth search for the meaning of their home.
THE CIRCLES OF LIFE – The Medicine Wheel 2
Personal insight into the ancient stone circles in Canada and beyond!
TOTEM POLES
A visually beautiful film on the depth and meaning of the totem poles of the west coast – then and now.
BOUNDARIES
Analyzing the Indian “business” in Canada
First Nations Programs Available:
Life on the Reserve (real life)
Deception of Freedom (law)
The Medicine Wheel (native spirituality)
Whose Land is This? (land settlement)
Making Treaties (land settlement)
Role Models (inspiration for our youth)
Beat of the Drum (native music)
Native Women: Politics (history)
Reclaiming Our Children (child wellness)
DANCE – In Search of Hamat’sa (dance)
The Residential Schools (the other side)
Living in Two Worlds (old and new)
Dancing on the Moon (discovery)
Sleep Dancer (a dramatic journey)
Vanishing Links (returning to her roots)
HIV – If There’s a Will … (native people)
Echoes of the Sisters (breast cancer)
The Storytellers (truth and honor)
The Pipe Makers (making the pipe)
Sacred Buffalo People (culture and tradition)
The Medicine People (ceremony)
The favorite poems from the autumn 2012 issue are selected by an anonymous selector and donor, and the poets receive a $50 award.
Favorite haiku:: Jayne Miller
dead of winter
making stock
from the bones
Favorite senryu: Dorothy McLaughlin
my ex’s date
wearing the dress
I almost bought
Favorite haibun: Harriot West
“A Brief Analysis of Contemporary Society as Seen Through My Eyes”
Tiny Lights announces with its latest issue (18.1) that it will be its last print issue.”The world has changed a lot since 1995, and while advances such as email and the Internet have made publishing easier, increased printing and mailing costs have taken this enterprise from impractical to impossible. What hasn’t changed is the loving support from our family of writers and readers, who continue to keep the power of story alive,” writes the editors. “The decision to end the hard copy version of Tiny Lights has not been smooth or easy . . . I hope you’ll stay tuned!” Current subscribers may choose to receive back issues or have their money refunded.
The final print issue features writing by Eleanor Stanford, Kathryn Wilder, Richard Jay Goldstein, Traci Moore, JLSchneider, Gillian P. Herbert, Margaret Rose, Barbara Shine, Marilyn Petty, Catherine Crawford, Jamie Moore, Laurel Aiona, Carol Hoorn, and Teresa Oefinger.
