Tin House‘s summer reading issue is a beautiful oil on canvas painting by Jocelyn Hobbie titled Forsythia. Dig it? View more of her work on her website.

If you’re not afraid of bears, PULP Literature‘s latest cover will make you question if perhaps you should be. A mutant, robotic bear stands out first, and all you can see of the dark army of bears behind it are their red dotted eyes. The work is by JJ Lee, and he also has another illustration inside the issue to accompany his writing “Built to Love.”

Vallum‘s cover is a drive-in movie of sorts. It may be hard to see on the screen, but there are a bunch of matchbox cars lined up in front of an old television. I loved it even more when I read the title of the piece: “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” by Andrew B. Myers.

While in other parts of the country Spring may have come earlier, in Michigan, our trees have only just started to bloom. So in honor of our first real week of Spring and warmer weather, here’s all the covers this week that are both striking and Spring-filled.

Concho River Review‘s Spring 2014 cover couldn’t be more inviting. The photograph is by Danny Meyer.

The Aurorean‘s Spring/Summer 2014 issue features “Flowering Tree at Emily Dickinson’s House” by Cynthia Brackett-Vincent.

So Exit 7‘s cover isn’t quite the aesthetic as the other two, but nothing sounds better now than a nice bike ride. The art is Simple by Jeff Cohen, and his piece Berlin with Bicycle is on the back cover.

The artwork on the latest issue of Phoebe is by Jaime Bennati, an artist who “makes the viewer question our relationship to things we keep and discard daily” by using materials often overlooked. The center of the issue features more of her work as well as a self-written how-to guide so you can try a piece of your own. Her included collection comes from using bus tickets that were discarded. “On average about 200,000 were discarded per day.” As a person who makes jewelry out of discarded materials, I’m intensely interested in her work.

The Fall 2013 issue of Kestrel features artwork by Julie Anne Struck titled A Story which is photo transfer, ink, collage, and colored pencil on panel. It’s great to look at up close. Struck “has always touched upon and explored anything that illustrates her interest in dissolving boundaries and celebrating connections between fine art, design, writing, and other creative disciplines.” More of her work is featured in full color inside the issue.

Not only are the colors and the actual skill of this cover art for Ruminate fascinating, but Sarah Megan Jenkins’s Jean Lafitte Swamp (acrylic and mixed media) feels like today in Michigan. The trees are gloomy, the world looks sad after a harsh, long winter, but the sun is coming up and there’s hope on the horizon.

As you’ll quickly be able to tell, this week it’s all about color. It’s been a dull and dreary winter, and I loved having a collection of colors filling my bins this week:

I saw this staring up at me from the top of my magazine pile, and I gravitated to it. Teen in Body Paint, Key West, Florida is a picture by Roger Sacha of a young man painted by Tony Gregory with body paint in 2005. You’ll have to pick up an actual copy of Subtropics to get the full effect.

The color on the cover of The London Magazine‘s new issue is fascinating as though it’s a rainy day, there’s still a rainbow of color. It’s detail from Leonid Afremov’s Rain of Fire, oil on canvas, 2007.

This cover of Boulevard completes the list of colorful action as the lights dance of the bridge in the photograph. It’s by Charles Gross and titled Crossing the Tuo River at Night.

The Spring/Summer issue of Alaska Quarterly Review features an appropriate image for the weeks to come (at least I’m hoping for more rain and less snow): Yellow umbrellas, 2014 by Clark James Mishler.

This cover of Room is a pastel on vellum by Cathy Daley. “Since the mid-1990s when I began the current body of work known as the dress series or dancing legs,” she writes, “my drawings have been untitled. Because I was so depicting the body and gestures of the body I wanted the work to speak through the body and a title seemed limiting. The postures and gestures in the work create meaning for the viewer through cultural associations and subjectivities.”

The cover of Hunger Mountain‘s Winter 2013/2014 issue is by Lucinda Bliss with details from Atlas of American War Book 4: Hearts and Octopus with graphite and colored pencil on found paper.

I picked this cover of Witness not after having looked at it but after having read about it: “One of thousands of copper canisters preserving the cremated remains of patients who died at a state-run psychiatric hospital in Salem, Oregon, between the 1880s and the 1970s and whose ashes remain unclaimed by their families.”

The photograph on the cover of Big Muddy‘s latest issue makes you wonder why this kid has abandoned his (her?) bike, and where exactly is that ladder leading to? Bradley Phillips is the photographer.

It was like love at first site with this cover of The Georgia Review. From the staff of music at the top, to the illustrations, to the text, measurements, and symbols sketched throughout, this design by MF Cardamone (Elvis with Sweetgum, 2010) is capturing. More work from this artist is inside, too.

Cover art for this issue of Salt Hill comes from Martin Klimas: Untitled (Miles Davis, “Pharaoh’s Dance”). What can I say? The bright colors capture my attention.

Alongside the QR code on this cover of North Dakota Quarterly is a quote from Marshall McLuhan: “We shape our tools and aftewards our tools shape us.” This is the cover for the special issue “What is Digital Art?” guest edited by Timothy J. Pasch and Sharon Carson.

There isn’t a single part of this cover of The Stinging Fly that I don’t love. The colors, the shapes, the photograph in the back. It’s designed by Fergal Condon.

Poetry‘s March 2014 issue features the work of Lorna Simpson, titled “Back of Yellow Dress,” for the issue dedicated to “Split this Rock” (of injustice) and the way in which poetry can “speak out publicly for justice and peace.”

 

PMS poemmemoirstory‘s cover image is by In

I’m loving the brilliant colors of Birmingham Poetry Review‘s Spring 2014 cover: The Alchemy of Invention, 2013 by Nicola Mason, mixed-media on canvas.

Simon says press red. Simon says press blue. Simon says admire the cover of The Literary Review. A fitting cover image for the themed issue “Artificial Intelligence.” And in case you’re wondering what the inscription is underneath, it says, “Nothing that matters is new or fake. Nothing can’t be controlled with a joystick. Buttons are original thought. Peripherals are unpredictable. Synapses are mythic, like the words we live by.”

Initial thought as I looked at this, out loud, “Ooo I really love this cover of BPJ.” A minute later upon closer look, “Oh gross, it’s actually kind of creepy, I thought it was just feathers.” Thirty seconds later: “I still really love it.” Beloit Poetry Journal takes an interesting approach for the cover of the Spring issue: a dead bird’s feet among crunchy, dead leaves. The photograph is titled “Raven Elegy” and is actually by Editor Lee Sharkey. Hauntingly beautiful.

Look quickly or from far away, and you’ll imagine that this cover of The Southern Review features one of those energy-saving light bulb, but this is what you thought, I encourage you to look closer. The art is done with polyester resin and Philips circular fluorescent tube lighting by Bernardi Roig, titled Pierrot le fou.

Under the Gum Tree‘s current issue cover is by Jane Ryder, “an artist whose chosen medium is paint, and the current inspiration for her gouache paintings can be found in the lakes, rivers, prairies and forests of south central Iowa.”

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Willow Springs‘s Spring 2014 issue has beautiful colors. Joan Snyder’s Cherry Fall, 1995 is made with oil, acrylic, herbs, and cloth on linen. 

 

I always seem to love Ecotone‘s covers, but this one blew me away. I can’t stop admiring it. The colors are brilliant, and it’s perfect for the cover of their migration issue: a young woman carries a suitcase, her head in the clouds. The photograph is titled Head in the Clouds by Alicia Savage.

This cover of Image features James Mellick’s Poseidon’s Phantom: laminated and carved ebonized poplar, bleached ash and maple, copper, 30 x 22 x 12 inches.

Sugared Water‘s inaugural issue cover may not look all that impressive on the screen, but hold in your hands and you’ll see that it is. Every issue is printed and handbound, the cover hand screened and stenciled on recycled card stock.

So it’s been a while since I posted about magazine covers, but don’t worry–I’m not stopping now! The holidays and AWP have put me a little behind with these posts, but there are plenty in store. If only you could see the boxes and boxes of litmags I have to go through! And one of the delights is discovering some amazing artwork and photography and design on the covers:

Room‘s cover features a house with one side removed so that you can see the, what do you know, rooms. The Dollhouse: Blue Night #2 was constructed in 2007 by Heather Benning with wood, plaster, paint, mixed media, and an existing abandoned house.

Salmagundi Magazine‘s cover just looks like fun. It features Untitled (Hunterdon County, NJ) by Meredith Moody from about 1984.

The Hampden-Sydney Poetry Review‘s Winter 2013 issue is exciting, right from glancing at the cover. When I received the NewPages copy, I had to look closely. Is that Sharpie on the cover? I flipped right to the editor’s note, and saw this:

“And isn’t this, we could say, ‘uncontrollable’ element of art one of the things that makes it so indispensable? I think so. When we publish the magazine each year, it is no longer, literally, in our hands, but in the hands (and eyes and ears) of our subscribers and readers. To that end, this year’s cover is something rather unusual. Each copy of this issue has an individually illustrated cover. Some may be signed, others may be anonymous. The artists range from professional illustrators and visual artists to college students, to academics, to elementary art school teachers to elementary school students themselves. They’ve all been done in a the simple medium of a permanent marker or two . . .”

Nathaniel Perry goes on to say that just like you can’t control what will be on the cover of your copy, you can’t control how you will read or react to any of the poetry. But here are the writers you can expect to find in this issue: Claudia Emerson, Maria Hummel, Christopher Howell, Robert Wrigley, and more.

Meaty Gonzales writes in this “bones” issue of Meat for Tea: “This issue will get under your skin and cut through the fat to get to the very bone. Bones. To get to the bare-boned truth, to reveal the skeletons in your closet, to sip a healing broth, bones evoke many conflicting emotions and memories . . .”

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The 2013 issue of The Idaho Review features Bill Carmen’s “The Earialist” which is a 5×7 acrylic on copper made in 2010. It’s slightly creepy, unsettling, but oh-so-interesting to look at!

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Read this about the latest Tin House cover: “This issue’s cover art, Yellow Book, is about connections forged through books. [The artist, Sophie Blackall, says] ‘So many of the missed connections I read [on Craigslist] mention books, ‘You were on the F train, reading As I Lay Dying . . .’ but lots of us have also found friends and lovers through books. The only thing better than a beloved book is a book shared with a beloved.'”

This cover of The Missouri Review‘s Fall 2013 issue is a photo by Beth Hoeckel titled “Tip Toe.” This is a special “transcendence” issue, featuring Nick Arvin, Claudia Emerson, Jane Gillette, Jason Koo, Dorothea Lasky, and more.

In general, I just love The Common‘s cover designs; they always feature a common object. And just as they aim to “find the extraordinary in the common” for their writing, they follow the same example with their covers. It just makes sense.

And speaking of covers that just make sense, check out the recent cover of Iron Horse Literary Review. Does it really need any explanation? The artwork is metal sculptures located at Landmark Bank, N.A. in Kingston, Oklahoma, constructed and designed by Doug Owen.

Transference is a brand new lit mag out of Western Michigan University that features translated work. The cover image is by Er

“Even in the digital age, the letter exerts a mysterious pull . . . ,” write the editors. “But for the young girls on our cover [of Poet Lore], walking to the mailbox was a serious rural ritual, the day’s post a lifeline linking farm routes and cities, family and friends . . . What kind of lifeline does poetry offer, what kind of ‘news’?”

I found that the colors on this issue of Cutbank are stunning, and if you look closer, you realize it’s a collage of birds. It’s a mixed media painting on canvas titled “The Birds of Wonderland” by Nanuka Tchitchoua in 2009.

Lost in Thought‘s new cover (and the design of the issue as a whole) is definitely eye-catching. Unfortunately, I can’t locate the artist of the cover image, but it does indicate that the issue contains art by Haley Friesen and ink work by Nobuhiro Sato.

Photography for this cover of Image comes from Fritz Liedtke, titled “Swimming Hole Boys” from the series Welcome to Wonderland. There is more of his work inside.

American Letters & Commentary‘s new issue has a special feature on Suspended Animation. The cover features a piece of Matthea Harvey’s ice cube art, with more on the back cover and inside.

Cover art for issue 3 of Phantom Drift is “Hypnagogia” by Chris Mars. It definitely has a creep look; I can’t stare for too long.

The Stinging Fly, from Dublin, puts forth this special translation issue, listing the names of the pieces in their original language, all spanning out in a web from the fly logo in the middle. Included are translations from French, Dutch, Chinese, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish, German, Greek, and more.

Gargoyle Magazine‘s second issue for 2013 features cover photography by Cassia Beck and includes almost 500 pages of nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and artwork.

The Georgia Review‘s cover definitely had me staring for a while. Celeste Rapone’s Blue Dress is a painting done by oil on canvas, and she has more art, too, featured on the back cover and inside.

We got these issues in a couple of weeks ago, actually, but they are still totally worth seeing:

Pacifica Literary Review‘s second issue features a moose at an old drive-in theater, Pacifica Drive-In Theater, to be exact. Cover art is by Andrew Belanger.

Salt Hill‘s issue 31 features cover art by Hollie Chastain: “Community Chorus” and “Adalyn’s Party Trick I.”

The Intentional, a brand new print mag, features a sort of connect-the-dots over top of their cover image, but this person isn’t quite filled out yet–the perfect imagery for this magazine that aims to “capture the twenty-something experience and explore innovations that might augment quality of life for millennials.”

Take a look at these covers that came in this past week!

What’s not to love about this cover of Lumina? I mean, how often do you see a superhero out grocery shopping, much less dropping his bags on the ground? Titled “Shopping,” this piece is done with oil on canvas by Andreas Englund.

This issue of The Jabberwock Review made the girl in me go, “ooo, pretty!” I couldn’t find the name of the artist who designed or drew this, but it sure is eye-catching!

And as with most covers of Eleven Eleven, I’m not quite sure what to say, not sure if I should be fascinated or grossed-out. The cover art, which wraps to the back of the issue as well, is titled “Dead Sea” by Howie Tsui. 

Here’s the magazine covers that popped out at me this week. We’ve got a puppy, an eye-tantalizing, geometric design, and a large green hand with pink fingernails. What more could I ask for?

Cleaver Magazine‘s “Literature & Art Go Back to School” issue. You can read it online for free.

Heavy Feather Review‘s Volume 2 Number 2, with cover images by Sam Chiver. Available in print subscription or as an e-pub.

New Letters‘ cover image is by Peggy Noland. See the full image on the back of the issue as well.

Here, my friends, are some magazines that came in this week whose covers I simply had to share. There’s a crying shark in a pink dress, a dead horse and a staring girl, and the Philosophers’ Rock in Austin, TX.

Whiskey Island

Camera Obscura

The Cape Rock

It’s a colorful week; here are my picks for this week!

Tin House

West Branch

MUSE

Okay so by now it should really be “picks of the month.” There haven’t been any of these posts in a while, but that’s really just because there was a lull where we didn’t receive many new issues in the mail. But rest assured; NewPages went on vacation for a week, and I returned to find 2 large bins of litmags! So let me cease my rambling; I present you with my top picks/pics for this week:

New Orleans Review

Green Mountains Review

Cimarron Review

Wow! I guess last week’s litmag covers were well loved by others too; the post was our top viewed post this month. Here are some more for this week:

Booth‘s print issue number 5 not only contains great content, but it also features the cover art Fillmore by Kevin Cyr.

 Seneca Review‘s cover is Bulbouscarcinotopia by Mary A. Johnson: red and yellow beet dye, concord grapes, pomegranate, acetone photograph transfer, colored pencil, digitally altered photographs and ink, 2013.

 Notre Dame Review‘s front cover art is The Storm, oil on canvas, 2011, by Alex Gross.

Continuing on the with tradition, here are this week’s covers that caught my eye from literary magazines that came in this week:

Versal, with the line “A Journal is a Fish,” has the cover of a dead fish: “We’ve never chosen an image that so compellingly captures the work within an issue,” writes the editor.

Willow Springs Fall 2013 issue features Madly in Love by Joan Snyder done with oil, acrylic, herbs, fabric on linen, in 2003.

Image‘s Spring 2013 cover features Anselm Kiefer’s Book with Wings, 1992-94, made with lead, tin, and steel.

You shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover, but it doesn’t mean the cover can’t be appealing. Here are a few magazines that came in this week that made me stop to think, say “wow,” or simply announce to my coworkers, “Hey, check out this cover!”

Here’s this week’s picks:

Knock‘s Greed Issue

Subtropics

You shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover, but it doesn’t mean the cover can’t be appealing. Here are a few magazines that came in this week that made me stop to think, say “wow,” or simply announce to my coworkers, “Hey, check out this cover!”

Here’s this week’s picks:

Parcel

Indiana Review

The Chattahoochee Review

You shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover, but it doesn’t mean the cover can’t be appealing. Here are a few magazines that came in this week that made me stop to think, say “wow,” or simply announce to my coworkers, “Hey, check out this cover!”

Mississippi Review‘s Summer 2013 cover

Ecotone‘s Issue 15 cover

Sterling Number 4 cover

You shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover, but it doesn’t mean the cover can’t be appealing. Here are a few magazines that came in this week that made me stop to think, say “wow,” or simply announce to my coworkers, “Hey, check out this cover!”

I simply had to include both the front and back cover of the volume 10 year of Ninth Letter. The cover perfectly captures the quirky and fun issue, filled with all sorts of goodies. Plus: cat. Meow.

Well, actually I have to include both the front and back of AGNI also. Here are the details: Fabio D’Aroma, Retrochrionica, 2011, oil on canvas, 30″ x 56″

And I guess while I’m at it, I should include the front and back of Beloit Poetry Journal as well. This was actually Casey’s pick, but I have to agree with him here.

You shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover, but it doesn’t mean the cover can’t be appealing. Here are a few magazines that came in this week that made me stop to think, say “wow,” or simply announce to my coworkers, “Hey, check out this cover!”

Main Street Rag‘s new cover features a hallway, and at the end, there is an exit sign, pointing left and a sign below indicating poetry is to the right (pointing, of course, to where you must open the journal). Which way will you choose?

Gulf Coast‘s “Issues” cover features a selection of books of issues: Oversharing, Essay Tests, Abandonment Issues, God Complex, Drug Issues, Control Issues, and, largest and dead center, Mom Issues.

The Southern Review‘s cover features a library, taken over by disaster, with the dome of the ceiling ripped out to reveal a beautiful skyline.

Toad Suck Review‘s third issue comes with a pair of 3D glasses. Why? Well because the cover, of a shark and a toad, jumps out in 3D. “I messed around with Photoshop and a tutorial on YouTube, and this is the result,” says Editor-in-Chief Mark Spitzer. “Thank you, thank you, I am also amazed and amused.”

He goes on, “More importantly, though, is what these images happen to frame, particularly our flagship piece, ‘Underground in Amerigo.’ This is a monumental lost work by Edward Abbey, which even the most seasoned scholars of the Master Monkeywrencher (aka, Cactus Ed, the Father of the Modern Environmental Movement, etc.) don’t know jack about. . .”

Contributors to this issue include Gary Snyder, Lew Welch, Ed Sanders, Gerald Locklin, Antler, Jean Genet, Jesse Glass, Rex Rose, Molly Kat, Skip Fox, Tyrone Jaeger, Sandy Longhorn, Dennis Humphrey, Mark Jackson, Chris Shipman, Andrew Hill, Just Kibbe, Drea Kato, C. Prozac, Ben McClendon, and more.

Just when I thought I’d seen my fill of doll head art comes this newest issue of Rain Taxi, and for some creepy reason, I just can’t stop staring back at this one-eyed Kwepie winker.

If not already on your regular reading list, do add Rain Taxi Review of Books, both in print and online. Fall 2011 online edition features an interview with novelist Bonnie Jo Campbell and the mnartists.org featured essay Ghost Crawl through the Warehouse District of Minneapolis. The print issue features interviews with Peter Grandbois and Adam Hines, and reviews of books by Grant Morrison, JoAnn Verburg, Ron Hansen, Siri Hustvedt, Juan Goytisolo, Will Alexander, Kabir, and more.

Do you think the bookstores will cover up this cover of Granta when it hits the shelves? Will Granta have to wrap it in brown paper to send it in the mail? It reminds me of the ‘soft-core porn’ cover on Fence a few years back that garnered so much discussion about using sex to sell lit (or was it selling lit as sex?). Wheres Granta‘s issue is themed “Sex,” I don’t recall the content of Fence having a direct connection with the cover. It was simply used to help “sell” the mag. Did it work? I don’t know, but I figured there were going to be some pretty disappointed young boys who most likely would have stolen the magazine out of the bookstore only to find it filled with – poetry?! Or, who knows, maybe it’s covers like these that will someday be credited for having, well, turned some young readers on to literature.