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New Lit on the Block :: Vinyl Poetry

Editors Gregory Sherl (poet and author of The Oregon Trail Is the Oregon Trail, a novella in verse forthcoming from Mud Luscious Press in 2012) and KMA Sullivan (MFA candidate in poetry at Virginia Tech) are the energy behind newly launched Vinyl Poetry online.

The inaugural issue of Vinyl features works by JoAnn Balingit, Kristy Bowen, Melissa Broder, Andrea Cohen, Sasha Fletcher, Matt Hart, Thomas Patrick Levy, Rob MacDonald, Adrian Matejka, Ben Mirov, Sam Pink, Anne Marie Rooney, Nate Slawson, Joseph Young, and Franz Wright.

An additional feature titled Grocery Lists is the result of asking three writers for a handwritten grocery list. What Vinyl got: “One [Julianna Baggott] offers a personal essay. One [Jeff Mann] puts together an end-of-life fantasy to do list. One [Bob Hicok] sends in a handwritten list with some items that are hard to locate – like a better serve for his tennis game.”

Vinyl currently publishes works by solicitation only. According to the editors: “We’re constantly trolling the online mags for poets we’re excited about. We’re interested in fostering the already thriving online community of poets and writers. But since we are writers ourselves, we just don’t have time to go through a mass of submissions.”

Still, if you are a published poet, they encourage you to send an email with links to your poetry online. They’ll take a look, and if your work makes them “tingle,” they’ll ask you for some new stuff.

Glimmer Train June Fiction Open Winners :: 2010

Glimmer Train has just chosen the winning stories for their June Fiction Open competition. This competition is held quarterly and is open to all writers for stories with a word count range between 2000 – 20,000. The next Fiction Open will take place in September. Glimmer Train’s monthly submission calendar may be viewed here.

First place: Nona Caspers, of San Francisco, CA, wins $2000 for “Ants.” Her story will be published in the Fall 2011 issue of Glimmer Train Stories. [Photo credit: Arlene Diehl]

Second place: James F. Sidel, also of San Francisco, CA, wins $1000 for “Insurance.” His story will also be published in an upcoming issue of Glimmer Train Stories.

Third place: S. Ruth Joffre, of Falls Church, VA, wins $600 for “Grateful, Somewhere.”

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

Deadline soon approaching for the Short Story Award for New Writers: August 31

This competition is held quarterly and is open to all writers whose fiction has not appeared in a print publication with a circulation over 5000. No theme restrictions. Word count should not exceed 12,000. (All shorter lengths welcome.) Click here for complete guidelines.

CFS Southern Poetry Anthology – Louisiana

Editors Paul Ruffin and William Wright now seek submissions for the fourth volume in their series of THE SOUTHERN POETRY ANTHOLOGY, featuring Louisiana poets. The anthology will be published by Texas Review Press in 2011. CFS for a Georgia anthology is forthcoming.

If you are a Louisiana native, or if you have lived in Louisiana for more than one year at any time, please feel free to send up to five poems for consideration. This anthology is not limited to those who have published before; the editors invite first-time submitters as well as those who have had full-length poetry books published by national presses. The only rules: Poems must be original and of high quality.

The editors consider formal poems and free verse. Poems about Louisiana are not necessarily championed over other motifs and themes, as they wish for the “sense of place” to manifest in different ways, with different voices.

Please note that the success of this anthology depends a great deal on word of mouth. Notify your poetry students, poetry-writing friends, and gifted nemeses of this opportunity.

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

Please submit your poems to the Series Editor and Volume Editor, William Wright, at vercimber-at-hotmail-dot-com. Please type “Louisiana Poetry Submission” in your subject heading, then include your first and last names in parentheses. For example: Louisiana Poetry Submission (William Wright). Unfortunately, snail-mail submissions are not possible given the nature of the editing process.

Please include a short cover letter within the text of the e-mail, as well as names of the poems submitted. Submit a maximum of five poems, and ensure that the poems are sent in .rtf (Rich Text Format), .doc (World 97-03), or .docx (Word 2007) format. Please include all submitted poems in only one attachment (this is important).

All submissions should include a bio (up to 150 words) after the poems and on a separate page. Please italicize names of publications.

The editors welcome both new and previously published work. However, if poems have been previously published, submitters must hold rights to them and provide full publication data (journal and/or book publisher, title of book/journal if applicable, date of publication). Finally, please make sure that each submission includes a preferred e-mail address and street mailing address within the text of the e-mail and on at least one page of the attached submission.

Submission Deadline: September 30 (Early submissions encouraged!)

[Via William Wright and Paul Ruffin, Editors]

Antioch Review :: Fiction Will Survive

“Many writers and editors hope that literary magazines will carry writers through these difficult economic times by providing outlets. There is the usual hysteria about the ‘death of fiction’ but we have seen little of that here as young, middle-aged and older writers keep emerging, keep sharpening their pencils and trying to ouwit and outfence their readers. It’s not like the heyday of the late sixties when George Hitchcock published Kayak, when Gordon Lish shepherded and drove Raymond Carver to reach beyond himself and the bottle to produce a new order of writing that was distinctive, driven by aesthetic concerns rather than merely commercial ones.

“It certainly was an imperfect golden age, but short stories (very good ones) are still being produced and there are, as Salman Rushdie noted, lots of terrific magazines that continue to nourish the hears of readers and writers.”

Excerpt from Robert S. Fogarty’s Editorial “The Short Story Today” from The Antioch Review’s Annual All Fiction Issue

Calyx Celebrates 34 Years

After a year of seeing so many long-standing publications shut down, it sure is good to recognize the 34th anniversary of Calyx, and especially considering the work that Calyx has done over the these year to “provide a forum for women’s creative work — including work by women of color, lesbian and bisexual women, young women, old women.” Happy Anniversary Calyx!

VQR Writers from Iran

The Summer 2010 issue of Virginia Quarterly Review includes A Special Symposium of Writers from Iran in response to recent events, including the death of Neda Agha-Soltan, who’s death during protests in central Tehran was captured on video and quickly went viral. VQR recounts the events that lead up to this tragedy, and introduces readers to the personal life of Neda, including her love for photographer Caspian Makan, who was jailed following Neda’s death and has since been released and fled his home country.

“To tell this side of life in Iran—the personal side, the side of longing and heartbreak—we asked Iranian-born writers Laleh Khadivi and Erika Abrahamian to assemble a special portfolio of work by writers from Iran. They have gathered intimate portraits of love curbed by Sharia law and separation imposed by political imprisonment; this work illustrates both the untenable strictures that give rise to protest and the unendurable consequences of opposing the government’s mandates. They also provide the backdrop and context for the other places in the world where people find themselves caught between impossible choices.”

Read more on VQR, including some articles in their entirety.

Writers Not on Writing

The New Quarterly #115 includes The Extra New Quarterly 40+ page supplement trade-format magazine “In Which Writers Writing on Everything But Writing.” Guest edited and introduced by Katia Grubisic, it includes watercolors by Jon Claytor and the following sections and authors:

CONFESSIONS
AMY JONES Confessions of a Roller Coaster Addict
ANNE FLEMING Confessions of a Ukulele Devotee
PATRICIA YOUNG Confessions from the End of the World
RICHARD CUMYN Confessions of a Sourdough Nerd
CARRIE SNYDER Confessions of an Unsettled Woman
HEATHER BIRRELL Confessions of a High School (Student) Survivor

COLLECTIONS
TERRY GRIGGS Rockface
JEANETTE LYNES Enlightening Fetish
SKY GILBERT Bank Ladies

OBSESSIONS
PASHA MALLA A Night at the Theatre
KATHRYN KUITENBROUWER Wide Open
MICHAEL REDHILL The Root of Consciousness
LEESA DEAN Cycle

REFLECTIONS
ALBERTO MANGUEL Stubborn Continuity
ANNE SIMPSON The Great Saskatoon Scavenger Hunt
ISABEL HUGGAN Reflecting on Mirrors
GORAN SIMIC Anatomy of Escape
RONNA BLOOM To Be With Strangers
ANDREW TIBBETTS The Taste of Pins

Call for Fellowship Applications

Movement, Somatics and Writing: A Practice-Based Research Symposium February 18th/19th, Duderstadt Video Performance Studio, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Conference Team:
Amy Sara Carroll, Assistant Professor of English and American Culture (Latina/o Studies), UM Thom Donovan, poet and essayist, co-editor of ON: Contemporary Practice and the weblog Wild Horses Of Fire Kate Elswit, Andrew W. Mellon Fellow (Drama/Dance), Stanford University Bhanu Kapil, Assistant Professor, Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, Naropa University (Cross-Genre Narrative and Poetics) Jina Kim, PhD student, English/Women?s Studies, UM (Visual Culture) Petra Kuppers, Associate Professor of English, UM (Performance Studies) Eleni Stecopoulos, poet, writer, educator, curator of the Poetics of Healing project at the Poetry Center, San Francisco State University

In our forth arts-based inquiry symposium (after Anarcha: African American culture/Disability Culture/Medical Ethics; Touching Time:
Bodies/Writing/Histories; Eco-Performance) we want to build on the
inter- or transdisciplinary methods explored so far, and invite scholars and artists to engage in experimental writing and art practice at the sites/cites of the moving, living body and the moving, living text.

We invite up to ten fellows (graduate students, faculty, independent artists and writers) to come together for two days, to workshop, to use performances and presentations as provocations, and to plumb methods of merging art practice and critical writing. The specific topics we will address are yet to be determined by applicants’ interests. But, to date, this symposium’s foci include or relate to innovative methodologies, writing-as-practice, somatics/embodiment, breath poetics, prosodic magic, language limit zones, conceptual -isms, skin and membranes, mixed media and metaphors, the ethics of touch and movement, enjambed spacetime, transitions and becoming ______ . We will be in praxis together: this is not a conference to share the results of previous research or practice. Thus, we are not looking for papers, performances, portfolios, or readings; we plan to experiment. Come and share the excitement of your creative and critical research, present a workshop based on your passions, and find out what could happen.

Each invitee will have transport and accommodation costs reimbursed up to $200 dollars. The conference hotel offers rooms for about sixty dollars a night, and we will assist people who want to be hosted by graduate students.

Application Process: please send a short CV, a sample of your writing (creative, experimental, performative or critical), and a brief statement about why you would like to participate, to petra-at-umich.edu.

You can also send URLs or a DVD or CD with performance or visual arts material.

Query first about snail mail address by emailing the symposium director: Petra Kuppers, petra-at-umich.edu.

Deadline: October 1, 2010 Notification: October 20, 2010

—

Petra Kuppers
Associate Professor
English, Theatre and Dance, Women’s Studies University of Michigan
435 S. State Street
3187 Angell Hall
Ann Arbor
MI 48109-1003
mobile: 734-239-2634
email: petra-at-umich.edu
Artistic Director of The Olimpias
homepage: www.olimpias.org

Daring Publishing

“One might argue that it’s easy enough to criticize from outside the world of profit margins. But I think that even in this climate – maybe especially in the climate – publishers would benefit from a more daring and honest mode of decision making, one in which the virtues of the thing itself were allowed to outweigh hypothetical projections of its marketability. What if the primary question were not Will it sell? but Is it good? . . . I realize, of course, that ‘good’ is not some kind of simple universal category . . . We need diversity of informed, sophisticated opinion in publishing, just as we need it in every sphere of life. What we don’t need is a relentless march toward the middle, a huddling together in the safest spot. We don’t need publishing decisions driven by some algorithmic notion of what the greatest number of people might be most likely to buy.” Christina Thompson, Harvard Review #38

ClassicsTurned Poster Art

Based in Ontario, PosterText offers classic text turned poster art. Novels like Peter Pan, Moby Dick, Wizard of Oz, and Alice in Wonderland are fashioned onto readable, poster-sized paper. In some cases, the full text is used, while in others, only a portion (the first 26 chapters of Moby Dick). There’s also a poster of the US Constitution and the source code of the Linux Kernel with more novels planned.

New Lit on the Block :: Pig in a Poke

Editors Harry Calhoun, the publisher of the ’80s underground magazine Pig in a Poke, and Trina Allen, have resurrected Pig in a Poke, “The New Porker,” now available online.

In it’s former life (dare I say hay-day?) “The Pig” featured work by Charles Bukowski, Jim Daniels, Louis McKee, Lyn Lifshin, Judson Crews and many more. And now hopes to find “writers with passion — poets, storytellers, essayists and others.” Calhoun will oversee the poems and literary essays, while Allen will select the fiction.

The re-inagural issue features Poetry by Jim Daniels, Louis McKee, Lyn Lifshin, Howie Good, Christopher Cunningham, William Doreski, David Barker, Carol Lynn Grellas, Robin Stratton, Alan Catlin, Karla Huston, Corey Mesler, Donal Mahoney, Shirley Allard; Fiction by Sharmagne Leland-St. John, Daniel Davis, Anne Woodman, Burgess Needle, Marjorie Petesch, Ginny Swart, James Neenan; and Essays by Anne Woodman and Heller Levenson.

A second issue went live in July, and Pig and a Poke is accepting submissions for an October issue, deadline September 15. Submissions are open year-round for upcoming issues.

Dacha Life

The latest issue of Chtenia Journalis themed “Dacha Life” – second home, rural living for city dwellers (something southern Michigan city dwellers refer to as “going up north” or “to the cabin” – usually near water). Editor Tamara Eidelman writes in her introduction, “Autonomy, Solitude and Peace”:

“Of supreme importance at the dacha is that life there be absolutely unlike life in the city. For a landowner in the second half of the nineteenth century, it meant there was no need to follow the conventions of high society. For a city person, it meant resting from the burdens of one’s labors, breathing fresh air free of the smoke and soot of a large city, and socializing with friends without any excessive formality . . . For over a century, Russian city dwellers have bee attracted to dacha life for the autonomy, solitude and peace it has to offer. So it is no accident that so many works of Russian literature take place in dachas – this is where people feel freer, where they open up more quickly.”

And this issue of Chtenia continues this tradition with contemporary authors prose and poetry in English (Alexei Bayer, Irina Borisova, Marina Arsenievna Tarkovskaya) as well as translations of past Russian writers: Leonid Nikolayevich Andreyev, Alexander Blok, Aton Chekhov, Bavrila Romanovich Derzhavin, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and Vladimir Mayakovsky.

Cultural Pride and Shame

Now in its second issue, Elder Mountain: A Journal of Ozarks Studies editor C. D. Albin addresses the fine line, or “enduring tension between shame and pride” that is part of the “cultural complexity” of the Ozark region: ” –shame at a supposed backwardness or lack of sophistication, pride in foregoing conformity and in maintaining connections to the wisdom and folkways of past generations. The upshot is that Ozarkers, who tend to be reticent about their feelings, rarely discuss shame or pride. After all, pride itself tends to make shame a dirty word, and pride fuels resentment at a larger culture Ozarkers perceive as turning shallow notions of ‘hillbillies’ into a default joke, always good for a programmed laugh when genuine cleverness roves too taxing. Yet complaining about such portrayal can hint that one might feel ashamed or bothered by them, so little is said at all.” Except between the pages of Elder Mountain, where writers express and explore this very tension and complexity.

BPJ Seeks Two Editorial Board Members

From Editor Lee Sharkey:

The Beloit Poetry Journal is looking to bring two new people onto its editorial board. The ideal person for the positions will be deeply grounded in poetry, particularly poetry whose quickened language and formal inventiveness expand our sense of poetic possibilities and our vision of the world. He or she will be eager to devote time over the long term to the work of editing.

That work will consist of online screening of manuscripts that have already passed through primary and secondary screenings—about 80 per quarter—and participating in weekend-long quarterly editorial board sessions in Farmington, Maine, where poems are read aloud, thoroughly discussed, and an issue chosen. The rewards? As a small, independent journal, we have always run entirely on volunteer labor, but we offer good talk, good food, a poetry family, and the opportunity to contribute to a publication that has had a hand in defining contemporary literature for six decades and counting.

If you are interested, send a letter describing your background and what attracts you to the position to bpj-at-bpj.org by October 15. Please note that you must be able to commit yourself to attending editorial board sessions. And do spread the word to your friends in the poetry community.

New Lit on the Block :: Literary Laundry

Literary Laundry is a biannual online/annual print literary journal of poetry, prose, drama and editorial reviews. Literary Laundry was established “to promote the literature we crave: masterful writing that can hold discourse with great literary and intellectual traditions while still engaging the complexities of our world today. Literary Laundry recognizes the obscure (and at times glib) character of much currently published creative writing. Many potential readers approach the world of contemporary fiction only to abandon it, overwhelmed and discouraged. We regard this trend as a problem and have created Literary Laundry in order to fix it.”

Seeing to this mission are Executive Editors Jonathan Canel (poetry and drama), Samuel Chiu (poetry), Corey Tazzara (prose fiction,; Justin Brooke (prose fiction and drama), Giulio Gratta (webmaster); and Associate Editors Alyssa Martin (prose fiction), David Chang (poetry), Molly Pam (drama), Craig Harbick (prose fiction), Lydia Lindenberg (prose fiction), Grzegorz Robak (prose fiction), Dean Schaffer (prose fiction), Ben Seitelman (prose fiction).

Each issue of Literary Laundry is also accompanied by a writing competition. All pieces submitted for review will be entered into consideration for Awards of Distinction and cash awards.

The inaugural issue includes poetry by Lydia Lindenberg, Dana Isokawa (undergraduate award), Amanda Auerbach, Jessica Lynn Wickman, Hannah Dow, D. Gilson, Wendy Xu, Edward Church, Matt Wimberley, and Tej Patel, and fiction by Kelly Swope (undergraduate award), Sydney Langway, Len Kuntz, Matt Popkin, and Samantha Toh, and drama by Erin E. McGuff and Carly Augenstein (undergraduate award).

Submissions are now open for the next issue – deadline December 1.

Literary Classics on DVD

This September Twentieth Century Fox and MGM Home Entertainment will be releasing 15 Literary Classics in a new DVD collection: Much Ado About Nothing, Moby Dick, Of Mice and Men, Jane Eyre, Lord of the Flies, The Lion In Winter, Inherit the Wind, Les Miserables, Anna Karenina, How Green Was My Valley, Journey To the Center of the Earth, Henry V, The Grapes of Wrath, Richard III and The Children’s Hour. Each DVD in the collection includes a removable bookmark that incorporates artwork and a quote from the respective film.

Read more here.

August Book Reviews Posted

A new batch of NewPages book reviews have been posted:

Vanishing Point: Not a Memoir
Graywolf Press, March 2010
Nonfiction by Ander Monson
Review by Nate Logan

Black Box Theater as Abandoned Zoo
Poetry by Dana Elkun
Concrete Wolf, December 2009
Review by Noel Sloboda

How to Catch a Falling Knife
Poetry by Daniel Johnson
Alice James Books, June 2010
Review by Kate Angus

The Evolutionary Revolution
Fiction by Lily Hoang
Les Figues Press, June 2010
Review by Caleb Tankersley

The Logic of the World and Other Fictions
Fiction by Robert Kelly
McPherson & Company, April 2010
Review by Thomas Hubbard

Tea Time with Terrorists: A Motorcycle Journey Into the Heart of Sri Lanka’s Civil War
Nonfiction by Mark Stephen Meadows
Soft Skull Press, May 2010
Review by Ann Beman

The Relenting: A Play of Sorts
By Lisa Gill
New Rivers Press, 2010
Review by Richard Oyama

Under the Small Lights
Novella by John Cotter
Miami University Press, June 2010
Review by Dan Magers

Falling off the Bicycle Forever
Poetry by Michael Rattee
Adastra Press, February 2010
Review by Caleb Tankersley

Destruction Myth
Poetry by Mathias Svalina
CSU Poetry Center, November 2009
Review by Noel Sloboda

I Have to Go Back to 1994 and Kill a Girl
Poetry by Karyna McGlynn
Sarabande Books, November 2009
Review by Kristin Abraham

Requiem for the Orchard
Poetry by Oliver de la Paz
University of Akron Press, March 2010
Review by Lisa Dolensky

Creating a Life
Memoir by Corbin Lewars
Catalyst Book Press, February 2010
Review by Laura Pryor

The Disappeared
Fiction by Kim Echlin
Black Cat, December 2009
Review by Katherine Kipp

Victorian Journal Submissions Editor Wanted

The Victorian Network (ISSN 2042-616X), an online journal dedicated to publishing and promoting the best postgraduate work in Victorian Studies, is recruiting a Submissions Editor. They are looking for a dedicated doctoral student in the first or second year of a PhD in Victorian Studies who is interested in gaining experience and developing career-relevant skills in the publishing process.

The Submissions Editor is an executive member of the Editorial Board, involved in all stages of the publishing process and in charge of managing submissions and liaising with authors.

For more information and details about the application process please send a 250-word statement about yourself and your research interests to victoriannetwork-at-gmail.com no later than 29 August 2010.

New Lit on the Block :: Prime Number

Edited by Clifford Garstang and Valerie Nieman (poetry), Prime Number Magazine is an online quarterly of fiction, creative non-fiction, craft essays, and poetry, with Prime Decimal updates in between featuring flash fiction, flash non-fiction, and shorter poems, and plans for an annual editors’ choice print edition to be published by Press 53.

Issue 2 (the premier issue – in prime numbers, remember) includes: poetry by Fleda Brown, James Harms, Sarah Lindsay, and Jake Adam York; fiction by Peter Orner, Scott Loring Sanders, Anne Sanow, and Kevin Wilson; nonfiction by Roy Kesey and Carol Fisher Saller; interviews with Josh Weil, author of The New Valley and Gina Welch, author of In the Land of Believers; Mary Akers’ review of Love in Mid-Air, by Kim Wright and Elizabeth McCullough’s review of Eaarth—Making a Life on a Tough New Planet, by Bill McKibben.

Prime Numbers Decimals is also online and features flash ficiton by Valerie Fioravanti and Stefanie Freele, and poetry by Scott Owens and Michael Bazzett.

Prime Number Magazine is open for submissions of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, book-reviews, interviews, essays on craft, flash fiction, flash non-fiction, and shorter poems.

Openings :: The Next Chapter Bookstore

The Next Chapter Bookstore in Gainesville, GA is an new outreach program from Our Neighbor, a non-profit organization for adults with disabilities who staff the store. The shop stocks its shelves with donated books – the largest contribution from Frances Mathis of 2000 books from her husband’s collection. Read more about it on the Gainsville Times online.

Peace Corps Writer Award

PEACE CORPS WRITERS announced that In An Uncharted Country by Clifford Garstang (South Korea 1976–78) has won the 2010 Maria Thomas Fiction Award for the outstanding fiction book published by a Peace Corps writer during 2009. In An Uncharted Country showcases ordinary men and women in and around Rugglesville, Virginia, as they struggle to find places and identities in their families and the community. This collection of short stories is Garstang’s first published book, and it has also won the Independent Publisher’s IPPY Gold Medal this year for Best Fiction in the Mid Atlantic. Garstang currently edits Prime Number Magazine.

Podcasts :: New Letters on the Air

New Letters on the Air features more than 1000 half-hour audio interviews and readings by many of the greatest poets, fiction writers, essayists, and playwrights of the past 30 years. The weekly series and its archives are available live on PBS stations, on the site via free weekly podcast, or on CD or cassette (purchase details on site).

New Letters on the Air has recently broadcast shows featuring Robert Pinsky, Demetria Martinez, Beth Ann Fennelly, Hilda Raz, Clancy Martin, Maria Finn, Tobias Wolf, Martha Serpas, C. Dale Young, Michael Chabon and Kathleen Norris.

For more audio and video programs visit NewPages Guide to Podcasts, Videos, and Audio Programs from literary magazines, book publishers, alternative magazines, universities and bloggers. Includes poetry readings, lectures, author interviews, academic forums and news casts. If you know of sites that would be relevant for our readers, please e-mail info to: denisehill-at-newpages.com

New Lit on the Block :: Bird Fly Good

Bird Fly Good is a small press and poetry journal with the aim “to foster communities of poetry, starting with Austin, Texas.” Run in DIY batches of 150 issues, Bird Fly Good publishes only solicited work at this time and is available through their website. The first issue features works by Sarah Blake, Kate Greenstreet, Hoa Nguyen, Elisa McCool, Eileen Myles, Christopher Perez, Dale Smith, and Cindy St. John.

What Counts as Previously Published?

The editors at Verse Wisconsin take on the issue of “previously published” or not when a writer submits a poem that has been published on the writer’s personal blog or website. Some publications (most notably in my encounters – online journals) count personal blog/website postings as “previously published.” Others do not consider it “published” unless it has gone through an outside (of yourself) editorial process. Verse Wisconsin‘s position after much consideration and consultation: “We will accept poems that have appeared on the poet’s OWN blog or website (only), with an understanding that upon acceptance, the poet will remove the accepted poem from their own site for the duration of the VW issue, print or online, their poem appears in. After the issue is past, poets are free to publish the poem again on their blog, with a credit to VW listed and hopefully a link to the issue in our archives.” Solution? Well, it’s one approach.

Poetry Digest – Just Eat It

With their own quirky backstory, Chrissy Williams and Swithun Cooper are the editors of Poetry Digest, “a compact biodegradable and/or edible literary magazine of new and existing poems.” Taking the form (based on their online images) of cakes and cupcakes, Poetry Digest accepts poetry for publication in their “issues” – and though there are no length limits on submissions, “given the limitations of the small cake format, short poems will be given preference over longer works.”

Passings :: Ron Offen

Ronald (Ron) Charles Offen, 79, of Glenview, Illinois, died on August 9th in Glenview. The cause of death was cancer.

Ron was born October 2, 1930 in Chicago to Charles Offen and Ellen Shirreffs Offen. He graduated from Austin High School, received an A.A. from Wright College and an M.A. in English Language and Literature from the University of Chicago. In the 1970s and 1980s he lived in Southern California and was delighted to return to the Chicago area in 2001.

He was divorced from his first wife, Sharon Nealy; his second wife, Rosine Brueckner Franke, died in 2001. He is survived by his third wife, Beverly Kahling Offen, his sister, Pam (Charles) Veley, his children, Eric (Diane) Offen and Deirdre (Don) Junta, Michele Offen and Darren (Beatriz) Offen, five grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.

Ron held many jobs, from taxi driver to insurance investigator to middle school library assistant. But the force that gave his life meaning was always the written word; he was an author, a poet, playwright, editor, and theater producer.

In 1989, after a bout with cancer, he thought about how important poetry had been to him and how much it had given him. To give something back to poetry and poets, he started the magazine Free Lunch, with the commitment to give all serious poets in the U.S. a free subscription and also to comment on all work submitted to him. Free Lunch has published many of the best-known contemporary American poets. In 2009, due to his illness, publication of the magazine ceased.

Ron loved his wife, his children, his many friends, poetry, trees, the color orange, playing the trumpet and the piano, cookies, contemporary art and architecture, WFMT, caring for his collection of house plants, books, turtles, jazz, Bach and Chopin, swimming, the Midwest, and evenings at home.

There will no funeral services. A memorial celebration will be scheduled.

Ron’s papers are archived in Special Collections at the University of Chicago. Memorial donations may be made to the University of Chicago with an indication that they are intended for support of Special Collections. Send to Judy Lindsey, Director of Development, University of Chicago Library, 1100 East 57th Street, Chicago, IL 60637.

[Text provide by Beverly Offen.]

Mid-American Review Contest Winners

The latest double issue of Mid-American Review (v30 – 1&2) celebrates the 30th anniversary of the publication with and Featured Poet Tony Trigilio. Included within the whopping 400+ pages are winners and select finalists of the following contests:

Jill Haberkern, winner of Mid-American Review’s Sherwood Anderson Fiction Award
Editors’ Choice – Nick Kocz and Jeffrey Martin

Kimberly Davis, winner of the James Wright Poetry Award
Editor’s Choice – Casey Thayer and Gretchen Steele Pratt

Alan Michael Parker winner the Fineline Competition for Prose Poems, Short-Shorts, and Anything In-Between
Editors’ Choice – Kelli Boyles, Jaime Brunton, Ashley Davidson, Cherie Hunter Day, Richard Garcia, Ian Golding, Nina Mamikunian, Alan Michael Parker, and Jennie Thompson

Also included in this issue are the 2009 AWP Intro Journals Awards – Kayla Skarbakka and David Lumpkin.

New Lit & More on the Block :: Storychord

Every other Monday, Storychord.com features one story, one image, and a one-song “soundtrack” – each by a different underexposed, talented up-and-comer. All issues are thoughtfully curated by Sarah Lynn Knowles (SARAHSPY, The Furnace Review).

Currently available on the site are:

Written works by Katharine Tillman, Dan Lopez, Miles Klee, Duncan Birmingham, David Fishkind, Amanda McCarty, Amanda Kimmerly, Greg Turner, Tao Lin

Artwork by Soo Im Lee, Anna Moller, Mike Dote,Sarah Fletcher, Omar Bakry, Nika States, Crystal Barbre, Ericka Bailie-Byrne, Helena Kvarnstr

WHR Tackles Literary Hybrid

The newest issue of Western Humanities Review (v64.2 – not yet posted on their website as of this blog post) features Hybrid/Collborative Work. Even the Editors’ Note, which addresses the topic “What is Hybrid Work?” is a “Collaborative on a Conversation about Hybridity.” In in, the editors discuss the history of hybrid work as a genre, set forth a working definition of hybrid as a literary form, and discuss the benefits of hybrid as an alternative to conventional forms. The editors’ also suggest moving away from rigid definitions of hybrid, which would allow us to “see hybrids everywhere, including critics’ discussion of ‘genre authenticity’ and “standards we have deemed ‘genre normative’.” An interesting and worthwhile editorial discussion for those interested in the issue of literary hybrids, and an volume of contributions to the discussion worth seeking out. If not for this, then definitely for the artwork by Kate MacDowell which graces the front and back covers as well as several pieces within.

High Chair – Philippines Poetry Journal

Publishing since 2000, High Chair is a nonprofit small press that aims to promote genuine interest in poetry in the Philippines. The editor/s of the journal solicit work directly from poets, and also welcome unsolicitied poetry and prose submissions. High Chair online poetry journal publishes poetry, essays, interviews, book reviews and a section titled “Free Association.”

Until October 13, issue editors Kristine Domingo and Allan Popa invite interested writers to submit poems, essays, and reviews for possible inclusion in the 13th issue, which will be released in November this year. High Chair accepts works in Filipino and English.

New Lit on the Block :: Psychic Meatloaf

Edited by George McKim, Psychic Meatloaf publishes artwork and “free-verse and experimental poetry that is quirky and imaginative.” Every three months Psychic Meatloaf will e-publish the journal as a free downloadable pdf file and also self-publish the journal in print, which will be available for purchase.

The first issue includes works from Felino A. Soriano, Gillian Prew, Philip Dacey, Maria Bennett, David McLean, Sam Schild, Amylia Grace, Robert Lietz, Bill Wolak, William Doreski, P.A.Levy, Michael Salcman, Amy Spraque, Howie Good, brian prince, Jory Mickelson, Heather Cox, Steve Mitchell, Serena M. Tome, J. P. Dancing Bear, Mark DeCarteret, Martha Clarkson, Michael McAloran, Mira Martin-Parker, justin wade thompson, Chuck Augello, Helen White, John Swain, Ashley Bovan, Rob Spiegel, Flower Conroy, Nicole Dahlke, Erik Hill, James Duncan, Gale Acuff, Monique Roussel, James W. Hritz, Tobi Cogswell, and Jeffrey Alfier.

Psychic Meatloaf is open for sumbissions and accepts up to six poems and up to three artwork images per submission.

Monologues! Get Your Monologues Here!

Editor-in-Chief [Sir] Tristram Stjohn Bexindale-Webb along with a staff that is a bit difficult to identify for certain other than Irish/American playwright and prose writer K.D. Halpin, have created a blog publication of monologues – The Good Ear Review: A Dramatists Literary Journal. Accepting submissions of “comedy, drama, and all the complexities in between” from both new and established writers, The Good Ear Review hopes to attract writers just as much as readers who will share in the idea that “monologues that are not only enjoyable to watch and/or listen to, but equally enjoyable to read. And read again.”

Currently featured on the site are monologues by Erin Austin, Claire Balfour, Andrew Biss, Kyle Bradstreet, Laura Camaione, Daragh Carville, Con Chapman, John Clancy, Doug Dolcino, John Hadden, K.D. Halpin, Alistair Hewitt, Eric Holmes, Penny Brandt Jackson, Jonathan Joy, Wayne Paul Mattingly, John McCann, Joshua Mikel, Robert Michael Morris, Benjamin Adair Murphy, LaTonia Phipps, Donald Steele, Dwight Watson, and Michael Weems.

New Lit on the Block :: Devil’s Lake

Devil’s Lake is published twice annually at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a massive literary powerhouse masthead: Seth Abramson(Senior Editor), Lauren Berry (Senior Editor), Brittany Cavallaro (Editor in Chief), Kai Carlson-Wee (Design Editor/Assistant Fiction Editor), Louisa Diodato (Managing Editor and Webmaster), Josh Kalscheur (Poetry Editor), Christopher Mohar (Fiction Editor), Jacques J. Rancourt (Poetry Editor), Nancy Reddy (Review/Interview Editor), and Michael Sheehan (Fiction Editor). Devil’s Lake accepts submissions of poetry and prose online via Submissions Manager.

The inaugural Spring issue of Devil’s Lake includes:

Prose by Lucy Corin, Brian Evenson, John Holliday, PR Griffis, Andrew Malan Milward, and Ander Monson

Poetry by Erinn Batykefer, Brian Christian, Karin Gottshall, Anna Journey, Karyna McGlynn, Courtney Queeney, Martha Serpas, Alison Stine, Jeffrey Thomson, William Wright, and Mark Wunderlich

Granta on Mark Twain

The newest issue of Granta (111) is themed “Going Back” and features an excerpt from Mark Twain’s never before published and forthcoming autobiography. Twain himself barred anyone from publishing the text until 100 years after his death. This fall, the University of California will release Volume 1 of Twain’s text. “The Farm” is available to read in the issue, and online at Granta, Benjamin Griffin writes on editing the autobiography (A Voice from the Vault) and Malcolm Jones offers his commentary, “Where do we put Mark Twain?” – on trying to place a literary great. Several other links to Twain-related sites and projects are also included, as well as images from Twain’s original text.

New Lit on the Block :: Tidal Basin Review

New online, the Tidal Basin Review editorial team includes: Tori Arthur, Fiction & Non-Fiction Editor; Marlene Hawthrone-Thomas, Photography Editor; Fred Joiner, Poetry Editor; Truth Thomas, Poetry Editor; Melanie Henderson, Managing Editor, Randall Horton, Editor-in-Chief.

The mission of TBR is “to provide a space for inclusive and interdisciplinary approaches to the creative arts. We expressively and fiscally support artists who represent the rich American landscape by publishing high-quality, well-crafted literature, visual and media art through our annual contest, readings, and print and online journals. Our vision is to amplify the voice of the human experience through art that is intimate, engaging, and audacious. We seek work that propels the present artistic landscape.”

TBR accepts general submissions August 1 – February 28/29 of each year. TBR also has a call out for poetry sequences – ” a single poem with multiple parts, or a single poem amounting to no fewer than 8 pages and no greater than 15 pages of poetry.” See the Series Poems CFS for more details.

The TBR Official Blog features Editorial Book Reviews, Special Notices and Calls, and the Basin Blog includes a Monthly Featured Writer.

Summer 2010 Contributors
Lisa Alvarado, Lou Amyx, Beebe Barksdale-Bruner, Sarah Browning, Christine Celise, Martha Collins, Jasmon Drain, Jennifer Flescher, Gretchen Fletcher, Reginald Flood, Andy Fogle, Derrick Harriell, Kim Coleman Foote, Brian Gilmore, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Ricardo Guthrie, Carmen Gimenez Smith, Hannah Larrabee, Moira Linehan, Tamara J. Madison, Ernesto Mercer, James O’Brien, Coco Owen, Adrian S. Potter, Joseph Ross, Marian Kaplun Shapiro, Cris Staubach, Keli Stewart, Cinnamon Stuckey, Truth Thomas, Phillip B. Williams.

Spring 2010 Contributors
Abdul Ali, Sherisse Alvarez, Jordan Antonucci, Salvatore Attardo, KB Ballentine, Holly Bass, Tara Betts, Sheila Black, Antoinette Brim, Derrick Weston Brown, Sarah Browning, Jeremy Byars, Edward Byrne, Ching-In Chen, Michela A. Costello, Yago Cura, T.M. De Vos, William Doreski, Janet Engle, Lynn H. Fox, Rebecca Fremo, Regan Good, Laura Hartmark, Julie Iromuanya, Bonnie Jones, Pierre Joris, Jacqueline Jules, Douglas Kearney, Alan King, Cole Lavalais, Gene McCormick, Cathy McGuire, Stephen Mead, Tony Medina, David Mills, Gregg Mosson, Min Jung Oh, Willie Perdomo, Chrissy Rikkers, Kim Roberts, Jeff Streeby, Hillary Stringer, Cinnamon Stuckey, Qiana Towns, and Sam Truitt.

Special Thanks

Special thanks to Creative Kids and to Hanging Loose for sending me copies to share with a group of gifted and talented students I taught last week in the workshop, “Publishing a Literary Magazine.” The magazines were great examples of the kinds of magazines young authors can find to read as well at to which they can submit their writing. The young readers/writers were thrilled to know that such publications “just for them” exist.