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Audio Podcast: The Bat Segundo Show

Newly added to the NewPages Guide to Literary Podcasts, Video, Audio:

Edward Champion’s The Bat Segundo Show is a cultural and literary podcast that involves very thorough long-form interviews with contemporary authors and other assorted artists. Standard questions that have been asked of guests over and over are avoided, whenever possible. The show is updated (ideally) every week and sometimes every two weeks. There are at least five podcasts unveiled to the listening public every month and, more often than not, considerably more. Currently, there are nearly 400 shows available, with a full index of guests.

Intern at Habitus

Habitus is offering two internship opportunities for organized, independent, globally minded individuals. As a small, independent publication with growing visibility and acclaim, we are able to offer highly personalized internships that will provide substantive experience, diverse responsibilities, and direct contact with our esteemed contributors around the globe. Both internships require a minimum commitment of two full days a week for a minimum of three months. These positions are unpaid.” See website for more information and application process.

Brian Clements Leaves Sentence

After founding and seeing Sentence: a journal of prose poetics through eight issues, Brian Clements will be turning over editorship to Brian Johnson, who had previously held the position of Associate Editor. “I look forward to seeing the ways in which Brian’s vision for the journal leads it in new directions,” Clements writes. “I can assure you that he will maintain Sentence‘s mission of representing an eclectic mixture of styles, poets, and features.” As well as maintaining what now seems to be the established editor first name! Best to both Brian and Brian on their new ventures.

apt: Reversing the Trend?

Edited by Randolph Pfaff, Carissa Halston, Robin E. Mørk, and J.F. Lynch, apt magazine of literature and art has been publishing online since 2005, and will continue to do so, but have now initiated an annual print issue.

Reversing the trend over the past years of print magazines going online, apt editors comment, “In a time when readers are crying that print is (finally, honestly, genuinely) dead, we’ve moved to a the tangible pages. Our approach to this shift is similar to our aesthetic. . . We want apt to surprise its readers with its willingness to showcase experimental work alongside traditional pieces, but also for the delivery of the material.”

And, aptly enough, this first issue is available in paper or PDF.

The inaugural print issue of apt features the work of Brian Bahouth, David Bartone, Franco Belmonte, Liam Day, Javier Berzal de Dios, Shannon Derby, Cyndi Gacosta, Carissa Halston, Christina Kapp, J.F. Lynch, Seann McCollum, Dolan Morgan, Robin E. Mørk, Pete Mullen, Randolph Pfaff, Vincent Scarpa, Janelle M. Segarra, N. A’Yara Stein, and Curtis Tompkins.

apt is part of Aforementioned Productions. Aforementioned is a small press and producer of readings, theatre, and other literary events.

New Lit on the Block :: Toad

Toad is an online bimonthly of new poetry, prose, and visual art. Toad‘s “habitat is protected by conservationist, Bob Hicok, and nourished by the Creative Writing graduate students of Virginia Tech,” and currently includes: Elias Simpson, Lauren Jensen, Julia Clare Tillinghast, Raina, Lauren Fields, Ashley Nicole Montjoy, Bryan Christopher Murray, Brianna Stout, and L. Lamar Wilson.

Toad {:1} includes works by Dorthea Lasky & Matthew Zapruder, Remica Bingham, Elisabeth Tonnard, Amit Majmudar, Randall Horton, Jack Ridl, Ghangbin Kim, Susan Schorn, Kimberly Grey, Katherine Bode-Lang, Lisa Norris, Peter Tonningsen, Quinn Latimer, Ashley David, Caren Beilin, and Brandon Downing.

Submissions to Toad are open year-round.

Discounted & Free Books from First Book

If you’re an educator or program administrator, and at least 50 percent of the children in your program come from low-income families, First Book can help.

Eligible programs receive access to the First Book Marketplace, offering new books at 50 to 90 percent off retail prices. And if you serve a higher proportion of children in need — 80 percent or more — then your school or program may also be eligible for free books through the First Book National Book Bank and book grants through First Book’s local Advisory Boards.

Visit First Book online to learn more.

Room 2010 Writing Contest Winners

The newest issue (34.1) of Room Magazine, Canada’s oldest literary journal by and about women, includes the first and second prize winners of the 2010 Contest.

Fiction, Judged by June Hutton
1st Place: “Chocolate Season” by Amy Kenny, Hamilton, ON
2nd Place: “Pill-Sorting for Dummies” by Judy McFarlane, West Vancouver, BC
Honourable Mention: “Sum our Polaroids” by Kathleen Brown, Markham, ON

Poetry, Judged by Jennica Harper
1st Place: “Pre-med, Prepatoria” by Melissa Walker, Stratford, ON
2nd Place: “The Mountain Pine Beetle Suite” by Chantal Gibson, Vancouver, BC
Honourable Mention: “The First Word” by Kim Trainor, Vancouver, BC

Creative Non-Fiction, Judged by Lynne Van Luven
1st Place: “The Goddess of Light & Dark” by Jane Silcott, Vancouver, BC
2nd Place (tie): “Love and Other Irregular Verbs” by Sigal Samuel, Vancouver, BC
2nd Place (tie): “The Visitor” by Lesleyanne Ryan, Holyrood, NL

New Lit on the Block :: Asymptote

Newly launched online translation magazine Asymptote publishes poetry, fiction, drama, criticism, interview, essay, as well as original English-language essays introducing a foreign writer and a wildcard special feature that varies issue to issue. Their first issue showcases 77 writers and translators working in 17 languages, and features Du Fu, Mary Gaitskill, Thomas Bernhard, Alain de Botton, Aim

CV2 Two-Day Ten-Word Poem Contest

At 12:00 midnight (CST), when Friday becomes Saturday, April 2, Canada’s print poetry magazine Contemporary Verse 2 sends a list of 10 words to registered participants by email. Participants then have 2 days (48 hours) to write their best poem using each word at least once. The final submitted poem may not exceed 48 lines. Only one poem may be entered per participant.

There is a $12.00 registration fee for the contest. Also, a special Play & Read discount is only available to contest entrants. For an additional $10.00, contestants get a 1-year subscription to CV2 (60% off the standard subscription price!), four issues of new Canadian poetry, interviews and reviews. The contest fee can be paid by credit card online through PayPal or by a cheque/money order sent to the CV2 office. Registration and an email address are required to play.

The contest is open to both Canadian and international residents.

$900 in prizes + paid publication

All entrants receive a copy of the issue of CV2 featuring the winners of the 2-Day Contest.

New Lit on the Block :: Dragnet

Editors Andrew Battershill and Jeremy Hanson-Finger bring us Dragnet Magazine, a new online/eBook literary journal that “trawls the sea of stories for the best fiction.”

Dragnet Issue One can be read three different ways: Computer (website, flipbook, eBook); Tablet (flipbook, eBook); Phone or eReader (eBook).

The inaugural issue features works by Sheila Heti, Joe Yachimec, Sasha Manoli, Claire Battershill, Thomas Mundt, J. R. Carpenter, Luke LeBrun, Andy Sinclair, Catriona Wright, Erica Schmidt, Agnes von Pfifferling, Hamish Adams, Jeff Fry, Jacob Wren, Amelia Floortje, Alexis Zanghi, Matthew R. Loney, and Aaron Fox.

Submissions for Issue Two are open until May 1.

Indian Review of World Literature Online

The Indian Review of World Literature in English is a bi-annual online scholarly literary journal that “aims to create an awareness among the general readers, research scholars and students of literature about the many forgotten and lesser-known classics of the world by publishing scholarly articles on various aspects of World literature.”

The Indian Review of World Literature in English welcomes submission of articles on various aspects of World literature in English. Scholarly articles on individual authors or works are welcome for publication, subject to the evaluation by the editorial team. Published in January and July every year, the articles that appear in the online journal will be published in book form either as collections or monographs.

New Lit on the Block :: Anomalous

Anomalous Press, launched in March of 2011, as a non-profit press and online publication, available in both visual and audio forms on various platforms. Anomalous Press “has its sights set on publishing chapbooks, advancing audio forms and creation, and supporting all sorts of alternative realities of the near future.”

Anomalous #1 is available online with PDF, MP3, Kindle, and eBook versions available in trade for a Tweet or Facebook post.

Anomalous welcome submissions of literary works of texts (poetry, fiction, nonfiction and translation) and hybrid, muti- and new media, audio or video literary works, and images year-round.

Contributors to the first issue include Naomi Ayala, Luis Alberto Ambroggio, Alma Baumwoll, William John Bert, Emma Borges-Scott, Ann Cefola, Hélène Sanguinetti, Mike Czagany, Venantius Fortunatus (d. ca. 600 AD), Janis Freegard, A. Kendra Greene, Ashley Elizabeth Hudson, Sarah McBee, Colby Somerville, Patrick Swaney, Sarah Tourjee, Henry Vauban, and Eugenio Volpe.

From “In the Winter” by Naomi Ayala:

There’s a gulf between me and god.
I fill it with angry fish
whose backs catch the sun.

Tripwire Re-Launch & Translator Microgrants

Tripwire, a journal of poetics, was founded in 1998 by Yedda Morrison and David Buuck. Six issues were published between 1998-2002, with a special supplement published in September, 2004 for the RNC protests in New York.

Tripwire is being re-launched and is accepting submissions of essays (on contemporary writing, performance, and art), experiments in criticism, poetics statements and investigations, interviews, translations, black and white art work, long-form review essays (that consider several books or authors linked around central themes or questions), performance scores, etc.

Submissions should “engage or address” at least one of these “constellations,” each further described on the Tripwire website: PERFORMANCE/WRITING; CONCEPTUALISM AND IDENTITY; NARRATIVE/PROSE; WHAT IS POETICS?

Tripwire also has initiated “Microgrants for Translation,” a donation-based method of recognizing the important role of translators of contemporary avant-garde and experimental writing.

Glimmer Train Very Short Fiction Contest Winners :: March 2011

Glimmer Train has just chosen the winning stories for their January Very Short Fiction competition. This competition is held twice a year and is open to all writers for stories with a word count not exceeding 3000. No theme restrictions. The next Very Short Fiction competition will take place in July.

Glimmer Train’s monthly submission calendar may be viewed here.

First place: Matt Lapata, of Chicago, IL, wins $1200 for “Ohio Home.” His story will be published in the Summer 2012 issue of Glimmer Train Stories. [Photo credit: Dio Traverso.]

Second place: Jennie Lin, of Mountain View, CA, wins $500 for “Seven Winters of Teeth.”

Third place: Rav Grewal-Kök, of Brooklyn, NY, wins $300 for “Prisoners.”

A PDF of the Top 25 winners can be found here.

Deadline for the March Fiction Open: March 31

This competition is held quarterly and is open to all writers. Word count range: 2000-20,000. No theme restrictions. Click here for complete guidelines.

Radio 3 & Naughty Bronte

“The BBC’s Radio 3 is to air an adaptation of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights complete with foul language. Romantic figures Heathcliff and Cathy will be heard using strong swear words in the station’s adaptation of one of literature’s most famous and tempestuous love stories. It is understood the expletives are used in the heat of the moment as the two characters argue. But eyebrows have been raised at the decision to air the scenes at 8pm on Sunday night.” Read more on Mail Online.

Well, you know where I’ll be Sunday night…

Habitus: The Berlin Issue

Issue No. 7 of Habitus, a publication “rooted in the experience and language of the Jewish diaspora,” focuses on Berlin. In his editorial, “Becoming Berlin,” Joshua Ellison explores the role of memory in the Berlin culture and society. He writes, “For societies, memory becomes a matter of public accountability, so the moral stakes are high. The painful process—very much active and agonizing in Germany—of defining and interpreting shared history is part of the pact we enter that creates community. In public, we decide what to remember, and that tells us something essential about who we are now. Berlin is so dense with reminders of the past that the contemporary city sometimes seems to recede, driven under the surface by their weight. But the question of what Berlin’s memorial culture tells us about contemporary Germany is still an open one.”

The full editorial is available online.

Event Non-Fiction 2011 Contest Winners

Issue 39.3 of Event Magazine (CA) features works by winners of the 2010 Non-Fiction Contest as well as an introduction by Judge Lynn Coady. Ten manuscripts were chosen from 153 entries and sent without the writers’ names to Coady for final judging. The three winners of $500 each + publication are:

“Dreamers” by Jane Finlayson, Toronto, ON
“Sleep, Mother and Child” by Suzanne Nussey, Ottawa, ON
“Issues of Skin” by Chris Urquhart, Vancouver, BC

The 2011 Event Non-Fiction Contest is currently open until April 15.

Alligator Juniper Contest Winners – 2010

Alligator Juniper annual 2010, a publication of Prescott College, includes the winners of the 2010 National and Student Writing and Photography Contest:

National Prizewinners
Fiction: “Wings Raised Up ” by Laurie Ann Doyle
Poetry: “In Leaving My Lover Teaches Me Half a Bible Story ” by Lillian-Yvonne Bertram
Creative Nonfiction: “The Mormon Martyr’s Guide to Chemical Reactions ” by Miles Fuller
Photography: “Covenant Transport I ” by Marilyn Szabo (selected by David Taylor)

Prescott College Student Prizewinners
Fiction: “How to Become a Model ” by Laura Hitt (selected by Vickie Weaver)
Poetry: “Tierra Bendita ” by Jessica Roth (selected by Zach Savage)
Creative Nonfiction: “White Birds ” by Jessica Roth (selected by Dianne Aprile)
Photography: “Guardian Angel ” by K. Angeline Pittenger (selected by David Taylor)

A complete list of winners and finalists is available on the AJ website.

New Lit on the Block :: inter|rupture

Founded by Curtis Perdue and Anna Pollock-Nelson inter|rupture is an online publication that “aims to startle and assault the current by providing readers with emerging and established artists who crave discovery.” inter|rupture will publish three times a year (February, June, and October) and primarily feature poetry, though each issue will contain one piece of fiction and one visual artist. Plans are to include book reviews, essays, and interviews.

The first issue features poetry by Mary Kovaleski Byrnes, Matt Hart, Anthony McCann, Sarah Green, Russell Dillon, Dean Young, Caroline Cabrera, Katie Quarles, Phillip Muller, Emily Thomas, Jim Storm, Arisa White, Tim Greenup, Iris Jamahl Dunkle, Shiaw-Tian Liaw, Peter Jay Shippy, b: william bearhart, Nena Villamil, Javier Zamora, Rebekah Remington, Katherine Factor, Nate Pritts, and one work or art by Nicolle Richard (no fiction this issue).

Submissions of poetry, fiction, and artwork are being accepted for future issues.

Seattle Review & “The Long View”

With Volume 4 Number 1 2011, The Seattle Review has changed over in both format and content. Editor Andrew Feld writes: “Starting with this issue, we will publish, and only publish, long poems, novellas, and long essays. Instead of the standard journal format, where the table of contents lists twenty or thirty poets, with two or three poems by each one, and a few short stories and.or essays, each issue of The Seattle Review will feature five or six poets, and one or two prose writers. We are even willing, if we find work which offers the interest and delight to warrant it, to devote an entire issue to one author.”

Feld notes this is a gamble in both finding content and readership, but is also confident the first issue will establish this new place for both.

This first newly formatted issue features works by Bruce Beasley, Martha Collins, Cyrus console, Nicole Cuddeback, Robert Fernandez, David Hawkins, Lee Sharkey, Andy Stallings, Brian Teare, and Paige Even Chant.

Online Publications :: Haiku Page

Published for the past four years by The Yazoo River Press, Haiku Page features haiku, senryu, and essays on haiku. Past issues featured haiku from the South, haiga by student from Texas, and 46 Balkan poets. In 2011, Haiku Page will publish one issue each year with haiku accepted for publication being translated either into or from Chinese. An online version of the journal can be printed by poets and readers. For the 2012 issue, the editors are more interested in haiku on environment issues. The current issue features works by Lenard D. Moore, Saša Važiæ, Jane Stuart, Richard Stevenson, Stjepan Rožić, and Zhao Kun.

Southeast Review Contest Winners

Published at Florida State University, the most recent issue of The Southeast Review ( v29 n1) includes winners and finalists from their 2010 contests:

World’s Best Short Short Story Contest judged by Robert Olen Butler

Winner: Betsy Denson, “Rest” and “Motion”
(Note: In what TSR considers a “rare” event, all three of Denson’s submissions were selected as winning stories!)

Finalists:
Mical Darley, “Bruce Ismay Commentates the Winter Olympics, St. Mortiz, 1928”
Betsy Denson, “Impact”
Jen Fawkes, “Dear Ahab”
M.J. Fievre, “On the Balcony”
Amina Gautier, “Prone”
Kim Henderson, “The Carousel”
Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich, “A Clean-Shaven Man”
Rebecca J. Schmuck, “There Are No Philosophers Anymore”

SER Poetry Contest judged by Barbara Hamby

Winner: Rebecca Hoogs, “Miss Scarlet”

Finalists:
Chuck Carlise, “Street Ghazal”
Alicia Case, “Inversion”
Chad Faries, “Fracture: Of Flying”
Dion Farquhar, “Legacy”
Gabor Gyukics, “Forge or Subdue”
Rebecca Lauren, “Eschatology”
Ellen LaFlèche, “Midwife Man”
Jeanne Wagner, “Kentucky is the Saddest State”
Diana Woodcock, “Counting Desert Birds”

SER Narrative Nonfiction Contest judged by Julianna Baggott

Winner: Deborah Thompson, “See Monkey Dance, Make Good Photo”

Finalists:
Lisa K. Buchanan, “Sixty-Seven Reasons to Answer the Door on Saturday at 6:03 a.m.”
Caitlin Leffel, “Hope for Dead Letters”

The Southeast Review 2011 contests are open until March 15.

New Lit on the Block :: Anak Sastra

Edited by Kristopher Williamson, American traveler now living and working in Kuala Lumpur, Anak Sastra is an online publication showcasing short fiction and creative non-fiction in English by writers of Southeast Asian countries as well as the experiences of expatriates and tourists living or traveling in Southeast Asia.

Currently in its third edition, Anak Sastra includes works by Jill Widner, Jonathan Lim, Shaz Johar, Sharanya Manivannan, Rafi Abdullah, Bryan Normanm, Tia Sumito, Paul Gnana Selvam, Khairul Hj Anwar, Karl Wendt, and Paige Yeoh.

Anak Sastra is open for submissions of short stories, fiction or nonfiction, for its quarterly editions.

[Note: Anak Sastra is best viewed in Explorer or Firefox.]

Open Minds :: Women & Mental Illness

Open Minds Quarterly remains one of my favorite stalwart publications. I first used it when I taught a writing course themed “Understanding Disability,” and have remained a fan ever since. It is published by the Northern Initiative for Social Action out of Sudbury, Ontario, with the tag line: “Your psychosocial literary journal.” Never afraid to take on mental health issues most ‘in the news’ but certainly least understood (like PTSD when so many vets began – and yes continue – returning home to inadequate health care and support), this latest issue is yet another example of the importance of the publication’s role for readers and writers. The winter 2011 issue is focused on “Women & Mental Illness: As told by women in poetry and essays.” The publication remains fearless in its position that “consumers/survivors of mental health services are intelligent, creative, and can make a valuable contribution to society if given the opportunity to do so.” It behooves each of us to finish out this contribution by reading what these brave and talented authors have to share.

What’s in The Cupboard?

Co-edited by emily danforth, Dave Madden, and Adam Peterson and published in Lincoln, Nebraska, The Cupboard was originally a monthly ‘pamphlet,’ and downloads of the first sixteen issues can be found in the archives on the website. These can be printed and “assembled” by readers from PDFs.

The Cupboard has evolved into a quarterly publication of creative prose with each volume featuring a body of work by a single author. Design and layout are done by William Todd Seabrook.

Recent authors include James Scott / Ryan Call, Andrew Borgstrom, Amanda Goldblatt, Joshua Cohen, Michael Stewart, Caia Hagel, Mathias Svalina, Louis Streitmatter, and Jesse Ball.

The Cupboard is also holding its first-ever contest, featuring guest judge Michael Martone. The winning author will receive $500 and publication. Manuscripts between 4,000 and 10,000 words, of one piece or many, are being accepted until March 31, with the contest fee applied to a subscription if the writer chooses.

Knee-Jerk Offline Issue and Contests

Knee-Jerk, publishing online since 2009, has now gone “offline” with a print annual which includes fiction, essays, full-color artwork, comics and Reviews of Things by David Shields, Kim Chinquee, Jack Pendarvis, Joe Meno, John McNally, Lindsay Hunter, Roy Kesey, Dan Kennedy, Kathleen Rooney, Billy Lombardo, Michael Czyzniejewski, Lucy Knisley, Greg Fiering, and many more, as well as interviews with Glen David Gold and Harold Ramis.

Knee-Jerk is open for submissions for both their online and offline editions, and has announced their first Essay and Chapbook Contests, which rum May 1 – June 30, 2011.

New Lit on the Block :: Kugelmass

New from Firewheel Editions (Sentence: A Journal of Prose Poetics) with Editor David Holub and Publisher Brian Clements, comes Kugelmass: A Journal of Literary Humor. In the “Rambling from the Editor,” citing some statics about new literary journals failing within the first 20 minutes of establishing writers’ guidelines, Holub answers the question “Now why would we go and do this?” with “The truth is we are foolish: we did not think this through. But even if this endeavor is high in its potential for doom, that’s really what humor is all about. Humorists are gutsy, putting themselves out there like that.”

The first issue of gutsy writers who Kugelmass has helped to put out there include Steve Almond, Mike Birbiglia, David Kirby, Simon Rich, Larry Doyle, Larry Gaffney, David Galef, Kurt Luchs, Teresa Milbrodt, Thomas Mundt, Dan Pope, D. Harlan Wilson, and Curtis VanDonkelaar.

Kugelmass publishes biannually and accepts submissions of stories and essays of “1,000 words or 4,000 words or any count in between. Except 3,258. It can go to hell.”

Online Film Journal: The Projector

The Projector: Film and Media Journal is an electronic peer reviewed journal on film, media, and culture, published bi-annually by the Department of Theatre and Film at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. The journal welcomes articles, interviews, reviews, and screenplays from emerging and established scholars and practitioners.

The most recent issue edited by Cynthia Baron and Rosalind Sibielski is themed “Reflections on (Film) Genres and on (Women’s) Bodies in Art and Performance” and features contributors Sudipto Sanyal, Mark Bernard, Heidi Nees, and Hope Bernard, and “Forum Participants” Melinda Lewis, Kevan A. Feshami, Angie Fitzpatrick, Lizabeth Mason, Katie S. Barak, Mallory Jagodzinski, and Justin Philpot.

The Projector is currently seeking essays for Fall 2011 and Spring 2012 issues. Particularly interested in scholarship that engages in interdisciplinary analyses of film and media texts, including those that examine them from a cultural studies, political economy, qualitative audience research, industry analysis, feminist, queer theory, or critical race theory perspective. Essays that engage with theoretical debates in film, media and cultural studies, as well as those that engage in critical examinations of aesthetic practices are also invited, as well as essays that examine alternatives to corporate media.

The Southern Poetry Anthology CFS

Conceived by Series Editor William Wright in 2003, The Southern Poetry Anthology is a projected twelve-to-sixteen volume project celebrating established and emerging poets of the American South, published by Texas Review Press. Inspired by other single-volume anthologies, The Southern Poetry Anthology aspires to provide readers with a documentary-like survey of the best poetry being written in the American South at the present moment.

Currently available are volumes on South Carolina, Mississippi, and Contemporary Appalachia. Forthcoming are volumes on Louisiana and Georgia with plans for Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, Alabama, Florida, Texas, Arkansas, West Virginia, Kentucky, The Gulf Coast, and a final volume collecting highlights of the series.

Submissions are currently being sought for the sixth volume: Tennessee.

For more information and submission guidelines, contact William Wright: vercimber at hotmail.com or Jesse Graves: gravesj at mail.etsu.edu

New Lit on the Block :: draft

draft: the journal of process, is a new educational literary journal which features stories, drafts, and interviews about the writing process, emphasizing the importance and diversity of the creative process, especially for new writers and students in writing classrooms.

The premier issue includes Greg Hrbek’s “Saggitarious,” featured in Best American Short Stories 2009, and Mary Miller’s “Once Upon a Time, Bananas.” Each work is shown in final draft, followed by first draft (and in Hrbek’s case, “cuts” from the draft) and then an interview with the author about their writing and revision process for the featured piece.

draft editors Mark Polanzak and Rachel Yoder are “interested in mechanics, techniques, approaches, triumphs, failures, concussive frustration – everything that goes into crafting a publishable piece of creative writing through revision. We ask authors to reveal their tricks behind the illusions. To tell us how it’s done, or try to.”

It is their hope that draft find its way to as many writers, MFA programs, college and university English departments, writing institutes, writing conferences, retreats, and workshops as possible. “We hope our detailed examination of the important and mysterious work that goes into story making will help to illuminate your own.”

Single copies of the publication are available for $15, though the first ‘sneak peek’ issue is only $10. Annual subscriptions (2 issues) are available for $25, and classroom copies can be purchased in quantities of 10 or more for a 20% discount.

Witness Online

In the Editor’s Comment to volume 24 (2011) of Witness, the question of print vs. online is explored. Citing the publication’s mission to make Witness more accessible, as well as the waning prejudice against online publications and the cost savings, the decision was that “Witness will once again be published three times a year: in print every January, and online in May and September. Our digital issues will appear as whole, original publications…and will continue to be distributed in e-book formation to our library subscribers. Similarly, in 2012, our print issue will be available in electronic format for a variety of devices. Going forward, the print issue will also be entirely given over to thematic work, beginning with this volume, ‘Blurring Borders.'”

Play Ball! Puffin Circus

The new edition of Puffin Circus online is a baseball-themed issue and is available as a PDF. Why baseball? Editor Anthony Kendrick says, “Baseball, at its best, is fluid and beautiful. It is history, math, science, art, and music converging. To use a cliché – it is poetry in motion.”

The issue features writing by Larry Lefkowitz, Wilda Morris, Clem J. Nagel, Francis Raven, Bruce Harris, Francis DiClemente, Kristin Fouquet, Christopher Woods, Gerry Fabian, John Pursch, John Grey, Frank Morris, Eric Stone, Eric Cartwright, Aaron Poller, Laura Garrison, Jon Sindell, and Louis Staeble. Cover image: Denny Marshall.

New Lit on the Block :: Saltwater Quarterly

Katie McClendon, Managing Editor and Founder, along with Bridgette Hahn, Poetry Editor, and Jessi Bee, Designer and Prose Editor, have released the first issue of Saltwater Quarterly, a print literary journal “devoted to publishing works of fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction that exemplify the craft of writing while remaining free of oppressive language or themes” with a focus on works by “underrepresented authors, specifically members of oppressed communities.”

The first issue is a simple 31-page, 5.5 x 7, saddle stitch chapbook-style publication, but the layout and design are elegantly done, with attention paid and credited to typography (a basic publishing concept so readily overlooked by new publications these days). Writers featured include Nicholas YB Wong, Bo Schwabacher, Marita Isabel, Luca Penne, David Glen Smith, Michael Lee Rattigan, William Doreski, Edmund Sandoval, Jeremy Halinen Heather C.D. Davis, Teresa Chuc Dowell, and Caroline Picker.

Submissions for fiction, creative non-fiction and poetry are open for issue #3 until July 15. Single copies and subscriptions can be ordered from the site, and some samples from issue #1 are also available for reading.

Prufer Leaves Pleiades

After 14 years with Pleiades: a Journal of New Writing, Kevin Prufer has moved to the creative writing program at the University of Houston. Prufer will continue as Editor-at-Large for Pleiades, with Phong Nguyen and Wayne Miller taking over daily operations. Nguyen will continue as co-editor for fiction along with Matthew Eck and Miller will continue as co-editor of poetry, now with Marc McKee. Issue 31.1 is Prufer’s final issue, so includes his and Miller’s poetry selections for the last time.

Polaris Undergrad Magazine Broadens Submissions

Previously closed submissions for Ohio Northern students only, Polaris magazine is now open to all undergraduate writers nation wide as well as internationally. Issue 54 is the first open issue, publishing works from the “global undergraduate writing community.” Polaris publishes fiction, nonfiction, poetry and visual art and has a yearly genre contest with cash award and publication. According to Khaty Xiong,Co-Editor, “Polaris has a yearly submission period from about October/November through February.” Single copies can be obtained by contacting the editors.

New Lit on the Block :: Certain Circuits

Founder Bonnie MacAllister has publicly introduced Certain Circuits, an artists’ collaboration of poetry, experimental prose, art, and new media. CC is especially interested in documenting multimedia collaborative work between artists. The first issue features work from artists in Australia, Brazil, France, Mexico, India, Japan, Oman, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The first issues is laid out online with plans to publish print copies. CC is also curating their first gallery exhibit in Philadelphia featuring a multimedia collaboration between their contributors.

CC is currently accepting proposals for multimedia, audio, and art on a rolling basis, though the reading period for poetics and prose is currently closed.

Issue 1.1 in print features the following contributors – those whose works also appear online have an asterisk:

Art: Alison Altergott* – Kirsten Ashley* – Eleanor Leonne Bennett* – Helene Constant* – Natalie Felix – Joanna Fulginiti* – Amanda Lovelee* – Ana Viviane Minorelli* – Jed Mauger Williams* – Ruth Schanbacher* – Cait Spera* – Rachel Udell* – Nico Vassilikas*

Collaborations: Handmade Philly* – Brian and Ashley Howe* – Horsey* – Radio Eris – Val Broeksmit (Bikini Robot Army) with Burnside Bums – Megan Kelley and Suguna Sridhar – Michelle Wilson* and Mary Tasillo – Jim Tuite and Patrick Morris* – Christopher Gage and Megan Kelley* – Adam Zucker and Jason Maas* – Greg Bem and Linda Thea

Poetry: Joe Amaral – Courtney Bambrick – Beth Boettcher – Zachary Bushnell – Brooke Bailey – Jane Cassady – Stuart Cooke – Iris Jamahl Dunkel – Fernando Flores – Alexander Jorgensen* – Jeff Mark – Monica Pace* – Tanya Perkins – Kathleen Radigan* – William Rodeffer* – Suguna Sridhar* – Hal Sirowitz* – Bill Wolak

Prose: Spencer Carvalho – Stephanie Dickinson* – David Hewitt* – Jeff Siegel*

Multimedia: Jeff Siegel*

Naugatuck River Review Contest Winner

Naugatuck River Review’s 2nd Annual Narrative Poetry Contest winners and finalists all have their works published in Issue 5 of the publication. For a full list of authors, visit the NRR website. The prize winners are:

First Prize of $1000 plus publication: Jon E. Seaman of Portland, OR for his poem, “A Bag of Wasps”

Second Prize of $250 plus publication: Nancy Otter of New Britain, CT for her poem, “Hart Crane”

Third Prize of $100 plus publication: Monica Hand of New York, NY for her poem, “Snuff“

Please for the World

With our thoughts on so much unrest in the world, and on the people of Japan, including our friend Jesse Glass from Ahadada Books – Japan (who is okay!), this week’s American Life in Poetry Column seems perfectly matched.

American Life in Poetry: Column 312

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006
Ellery Akers is a California poet who here brings all of us under a banner with one simple word on it.

The Word That Is a Prayer

One thing you know when you say it:
all over the earth people are saying it with you;
a child blurting it out as the seizures take her,
a woman reciting it on a cot in a hospital.
What if you take a cab through the Tenderloin:
at a street light, a man in a wool cap,
yarn unraveling across his face, knocks at the window;
he says, Please.
By the time you hear what he’s saying,
the light changes, the cab pulls away,
and you don’t go back, though you know
someone just prayed to you the way you pray.
Please: a word so short
it could get lost in the air
as it floats up to God like the feather it is,
knocking and knocking, and finally
falling back to earth as rain,
as pellets of ice, soaking a black branch,
collecting in drains, leaching into the ground,
and you walk in that weather every day.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©1997 by Ellery Akers, whose most recent book of poetry is Knocking on the Earth, Wesleyan University Press, 1989. Reprinted from The Place That Inhabits Us, Sixteen Rivers Press, 2010, by permission of Ellery Akers and the publishers. Introduction copyright © 2011 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.

American Life in Poetry provides newspapers and online publications with a free weekly column featuring contemporary American poems. The sole mission of this project is to promote poetry: American Life in Poetry seeks to create a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture. There are no costs for reprinting the columns; we do require that you register your publication here and that the text of the column be reproduced without alteration.