The writers and artists whose work makes up Ruminate Issue 60 probe the imagery and metaphor of being at sea. Included are Devon Miller-Duggan’s poem, “Perhaps a Prayer for Surviving the Night” and Peggy Shumaker’s “Gifts We Cannot Keep.” George Choundas’s engrossing story, “Katingo Carried 15,980 Tons and Gentleman,” transports us to the world of those who live and work on cargo ships. And O-Jeremiah Agbaakin’s poem, “landscape with broken ekphrasis,” muses on the image of the last ship that brought enslaved people to the United States. This issue features the winning story from our 2021 William Van Dyke Short Story Prize.
This month’s featured selection: “On Long Poems, Lyric Sequences, and ‘Cop’”; An interview with Connie Voisine by Amanda Newell. Mark Wagenaar reviews Carmine Starnino’s Dirty Words. In nonfiction: “Reading the Qur’an with Rumi” by Amer Latif. This month’s poetry contributors include Ira Sadoff, John Hodgen, Katja Gorečan, Pablo Piñero Stillmann, Bhisham Bherwani, Kelli Russell Agodon, Brendan Constantine, and more. Find this issue at the Plume website.
In our first issue of 2022, Ben Kaufman searches for the ghost in the machine as he questions the way language and meaning changes through time in “Unknown Caller.” Pauletta Hansel views various effects of trying to live as the marrow in someone else’s bones in three poems beginning with “So Maybe It’s True.” And George Singleton shares the story of a boy named Renfro who wants only to earn his driver’s license and to reconcile his odd parents in “Here’s a Little Song.”
I love Dorothy Chan’s poetry, so I’m always excited to see her name in a lit mag’s table of contents. Two of her poems are included in the Fall/Winter 2021 issue of Colorado Review: “You Might Change Your Mind About Kids” and “Triple Sonnet for Batman Villains and Whatever This Is.”
In “You Might Change Your Mind About Kids,” the speaker is told this titular sentence by a man she has a romantic relationship with. The poem is the mental dissection of his opinion on this topic, an inner rebellion broiling beneath the surface. Who is this man to claim her body, her future, her future child? How is she seen as “the place to reserve / for a baby, the hotel for a womb?” She feels palpable derision toward his assumptions and I love that clarity of the speaker knowing exactly what she wants and does not want. She’s not going to change for this man or any other man and she finishes the poem with, “If I ever love someone, I’ll be baby forever.”
“Triple Sonnet for Batman Villains and Whatever This Is” is such a fun poem that still holds a hefty dose of seriousness in its final stanza. This poem has one thing I always enjoy about Chan’s poetry which is the absolute pleasure of experiencing different foods. These two pieces are just as delectable as “sashimi and Snow / Beauty sake and mango mochi for dessert.”
Deadline: Rolling
Don’t forget Storm Cellar seeks new and amazing writing and art for its spring issue! We are a journal of safety and danger, in many senses, in print and ebook formats since 2011. Send secrets, codes, adventures, mad experiments, and wild things. Black, Indigenous, POC, LGBTQIA+, disabled, neurodivergent, fat, border-straddling, poor, and other marginalized authors encouraged, bonus points for a Midwest connection. Now paying; limited no-fee submissions available each month. Full guidelines and F.A.Q. at stormcellar.org/submit and submit via Submittable.
Winter is upon us and so is the new issue of The Writing Disorder. Find “Aesthetic Transmissions,” an interview with Robert Hass by George Guida; fiction by Robert Boucheron, Inez Hollander, Justin Reamer, Jeff Underwood, and more; poetry by Holly Day, Ash Ellison, Jonah Meyer, Bruce Parker, Frederick Pollack, and Kate Porter; nonfiction by Joan Frank, Donna Talarico, and Emilio Williams; and art by Nick Bryant.
Muscogee writer Cynthia Leitich Smith headlines the January 2022 issue with a reflective essay on “Decolonizing Neverland” in YA lit. Also inside, Fowzia Karimi finds a “small flame” of hope in Afghanistan, while other essays survey Vanuatu women writers, China’s minority fiction, and the new Van Gogh exhibition at the Dalí Museum. Additional highlights include interviews with African writers Masiyaleti Mbewe and Henrietta Rose-Innes, fiction from Iran and Japan, and poetry from Colombia, Ivory Coast, and Siberia. As always, more than twenty book reviews.
We are pleased to announce publication of Wordrunner eChapbooks‘ 44th issue, our Winter 2021 fiction echapbook: Arrest, Stories by Lazarus Trubman. A riveting and grimly comic collection, Arrest is the account of a Moldavian-Jewish dissident’s interrogation by the KGB, subsequent imprisonment in a labor camp, and a difficult emigration from the former Soviet Union with his family. The author’s life is the source for this fiction, narrated by a character named Trubman, a survivor scarred by his experience who finds a new home in the USA.
This winter’s new issue of The Shore marks our third full year of publication! In it is glistening poetry by Shannon K. Winston, Marlo Starr, Lynne Ellis, Kyle Vaughn, Eunice Lee, Lauren K. Carlson, Fatima Jafar, Taiwo Hassan, Stefanie Kirby, Charles Hensler, Simon Perchik, Stephen Ruffus, Kathryn Knight Sonntag, Amy Williams, Meghan Kemp-Gee, Matthew Murrey, David Dodd Lee, Lorrie Ness, Julia Schorr, Jake Bailey, Katie Kemple, C.C. Russell, Adam Deutsch, Nick Visconti, Andrea Krause, Sam Moe, Patrick Wright, Brittney Corrigan, and more. Find a full list of contributors at The Shore website.
The January issue is out now featuring Gale Acuff, Marianne Brems, Frand De Canio, George Freek, Judith O’Connell Hoyer, Todd Mercer, Maren O. Mitchell, Ronald Moran, Pesach Rotem, Gant Tarbard, Rodney Wood. Review of Laura Kolbe’s Little Pharma.
Driftwood Press‘s latest short stories “Wing Breaker” by Rachel Phillippo and “Spanish Soap Operas Killed My Mother” by Dailihana Alfonseca take you from brutal arctic traditions to the cultural traumas of migrants in America. This issue also collects some of the most insightful and harrowing poetry being written today; these poems delve into illness, motherhood, religious pressure, and much more. Wrapping up the issue are visual arts and comics by Io Weurich, Kelsey M. Evans, SAMO Collective, Jim Still-Pepper, Andrew White, Kimball Anderson, & Casey Jo Stohrer. Now at the Driftwood Press website.
Our Wintry Mix. Creative nonfiction by Bree Smith, Dhaea Kang, Christine Muller, Benedicte Grima, and Virginia Petrucci; flash by Eliot Li, Gabriella Souza, Cassie Burkhardt, and others; fiction by Amy Savage, Kim Magowan, and Maggie Hill; and poetry by Peter Grandbois, Kelley White, Brenda Taulbee, and more. Learn about this issue’s visual work at the Cleaver Magazine website.
This issue of Big Muddy includes work by Brian Baumgart, August B. Clark, Charlotte Covey, Mark Fabiano, Doris Ferleger, Spencer Fleury, Jennifer Gravely, Ian T. Hall, D.E. Kern, Bronson Lemer, Paul Luikart, Leah Mccormack, Matt Mcgowan, Luke Rolfes, Rosalia Scalia, Christine Stewart-Nuñez, Katie Strine, Rachel Tramonte, Carol Tyx, Christian Vazquez, Daniel Webre, Adam D. Weeks, Holden Tyler Wright, and Kirby Michael Wright.
Glass Mountain hosts their annual Boldface Writers’ Conference. Attendees are invited to enter the Robertson Prize after revising their work. Winners of this free contest (one per genre) receive $100 and publication in Glass Mountain. This year’s winners are included in Volume 27.
Winners “Four Yelp Reviews (After J. Bradley)” by Robin Burns
“The Masseuse” by John Cai
“An Obituary for the Ginko Berry Tree in Drexel” by Coutney DuChen
Deadline: January 14, 2022
$2,500 honorarium and book publication: Submit book-length collection of poems to the Colorado Prize for Poetry by January 14, 2022 (we will observe a 5-day grace period). $25 reading fee (add $3 to submit online) includes subscription to Colorado Review. Final judge is Gillian Conoley; friends and students (current or former) of the judge are not eligible to compete, nor are Colorado State University employees, students, or alumni. Complete guidelines at coloradoprize.colostate.edu or Colorado Prize for Poetry, Center for Literary Publishing, 9105 Campus Delivery, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523-9105.
Deadline: March 14, 2022 $2,500 honorarium and publication in the Fall/Winter issue of Colorado Review: Submit an unpublished story between 2,500 and 12,500 words by March 14, 2022 (we will observe a 5-day grace period). $15 reading fee (add $2 to submit online). Final judge is Ramona Ausubel; friends and students (current or former) of the judge are not eligible to compete, nor are Colorado State University employees, students, or alumni. Complete guidelines at nelliganprize.colostate.edu or Nelligan Prize, Colorado Review, 9105 Campus Delivery, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523-9105.
If you like themed lit mag issues, we’ve got some recommendations!
Each issue of THEMAfocuses on one themed prompt. The Autumn 2021 issue’s theme is “Which Virginia?” Twenty contributors try their hand at exploring this Virginian theme.
While not quite a theme, Hanging Loose does feature a selection of high school aged writers in each issue. Issue 111 includes work by eleven different high school writers who close out the issue.
Bennington Review‘s Summer 2021 issue focuses on a theme that’s probably on most of our minds right now: The Health of the Sick. Michael Dumanis’s note from the editor explains, “Many of the pieces in this issue of Bennington Review display a keen awareness of the vulnerability of the human body, physically, emotionally, and psychologically.” The theme “borrows its title from Argentine writer Julio Cortázar’s underappreciated 1966 short story . . . “
Issue 22 of The Common includes a portfolio of writing from the Arabian Gulf introduced by Deepak Unnikrishnan. This includes fiction by Tariq Al Haydar, Farah Ali, and others; essays by Mona Kareem, Keija Parssinen, and Priyanka Sacheti; and poetry by Hala Alyan, Rewa Zeinati, Zeina Hashem Beck, and more.
AGNI Number 94 brings readers a portfolio of work in translation. You can expect to find work by Azzurra D’Agostino translated by Johanna Bishop, Yi Won translated by E. J. Koh & Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello, Ananda Devi translated by Kazim Ali, and much more.
Finally, The Missouri Review asks the question “How did I get here?” in the Fall 2021 issue, the theme inspired by “Once in a Lifetime” by the Talking Heads.
Visit each literary magazine to show some support and learn more about these issues.
Deadline: Rolling Storm Cellar seeks new and amazing writing and art for its spring issue! We are a journal of safety and danger, in many senses, in print and ebook formats since 2011. Send secrets, codes, adventures, mad experiments, and wild things. Black, Indigenous, POC, LGBTQIA+, disabled, neurodivergent, fat, border-straddling, poor, and other marginalized authorsLi encouraged, bonus points for a Midwest connection. Now paying; limited no-fee submissions available each month. Full guidelines, F.A.Q., and link to submit here: stormcellar.org/submit.
Next month, Cleaver begins their Winter 2022 Workshops. The magazine’s senior editors are bringing writers EKPHRASTIC POETRY: The Art of Words on Art with Poetry editor Claire Oleson, UNSHAPING THE ESSAY: Experimental Forms in Creative Nonfiction with Creative Nonfiction editor Sydney Tammarine, and WRITE, REVISE, PUBLISH! Flash and Microfiction Practice with Flash editor Kathryn Kulpa.
These all take place online. Workshops are capped at twelve registrants.
Learn more about the upcoming workshops here and register through Submittable.
This issue’s Special Feature is “Beyond Illusory Space” by Albert Wong, who is also interviewed by John Zheng. Lauri Scheyer interviews Lenard D. Moore. In Haibun & Tanka Prose: Rich Youmans, Keith Polette, Ce Rosenow, and Terri L. French. Poetry by Elizabeth Burk, Ambrielle Butler, Andrea DEeken, Theodore Haddin, Charlene Langfur, Ann Lauinger, George Looney, Ted McCormack, Adam Moore, Steve Myers, Dan Pettee, Margo Taft Stever, and Jason Visconti. Find prose contributors at the Valley Voices website.
Extended Deadline: January 15, 2022 MUSE is especially looking to publish work from under- or misrepresented groups, such as people of color, disabled people, LGBTQ+, present/formerly incarcerated people, and others from a culturally and linguistically diverse background. Deadline extended to January 15 for Spangler Award submissions. Submit up to three poems about a child or childhood, $5 fee payable by check or Venmo @rccmuse. Mail to RCC MUSE, Riverside City College, 4800 Magnolia Avenue, Riverside, CA 92506 or email. If emailing, send as attachment with “LastName – Spangler – Title” in the subject line (e.g., Smith – Spangler – “Summer”). Please include contact information. See full submission guidelines at rcc.edu/muse.
The Winter 2021 issue of Still Point Arts Quarterly is available digitally and in print. The theme of this issue is Ruins. It includes the work of roughly fifty artists and writers from around the world. Work by Beebe Bahrami, Sandra Fees, Barbara Haas, J. R. Solonche, Zach Murphy, Jen Mierisch, Catherine MacKenzie, Jane Hertenstein, Mercury-Marvin Sunderland, Cici Grove, Terry Allen, Bob Royalty, Martin Willitts Jr., Kiss Moon, Andrew Ilachinski, Diane Danthony, Hall Jameson, and Carol McCord. More info at the Still Point Arts Quarterly website.
Last year at this time we released our first issue dedicated to emerging writers, and now with 42.4 we’ve done it again. While this issue offers up the range of voices, genres, and styles New England Review promises every quarter, this time that mission is accomplished by writers who won’t be recognizable to most readers, that is, they’ve not yet published a book or full-length collection. Find a selection of this year’s contributors at the New England Review website.
Volume 27 is out with art by Isabella Celentano, David Dodd Lee, Weining Wang, Emily Fannin, Nicole Choi, and more; poetry by Jose Wilson, Tom War, Tobias Tegrotenhuis, David Romanda, Riley Morrison, Annie Martin, Delaney Kelly, Ambrose Day, and Lorelei Bacht; and prose by Amber Barney, Nicole Collingwood, Devan Hawkins, Haley Herzberg, Hannah Lindsay, Khalid McCalla, Adia Muhammad, Elena Negrón, and Beatrix Zwolfer. Plus the winners of the Robertson Prize. More info at the Glass Mountain website.
Cutleaf celebrates the end of our first year with this all-nonfiction issue featuring three must-read essays. Elise Lasko speculates on the potential for relapse into old habits while imagining her mother’s death and funeral, in “Relapse Fantasy.” Carter Sickels realizes that “the universe keeps moving, surprising you with what it drops in your path,” in “Rescued.” Greg Bottoms recounts how his father and grandfather expressed—or didn’t express—emotion, in “One Summer Morning.” Learn about this issue’s images at the Cutleaf website.
Extended Deadline: January 1, 2022
We’re still looking for manuscripts of at least 48 pages that engage the perilous conditions of life in the 21st century, as they pertain to issues of social justice and the earth. Because we believe the truth is always experimental, we’ll especially appreciate books with innovative approaches. Beginning in 2021 and going forward, Interim will be publishing two books in their Test Site Poetry series—one title publicized as the winner of the Test Site Poetry Series and the other as the Betsy Joiner Flanagan Award in Poetry. Both winners will receive $1,000 and publication by the University of Nevada Press. www.interimpoetics.org/test-site-poetry-series
Consequence Volume 13 is now for sale! Although this is the first issue since our founding editor passed, the volume is still chock-full of provocative and sublime works dealing with the human consequences and realities of war or geopolitical violence. Check the flyer to see the star-studded contributors’ list.
Deadline: February 26, 2022
This fully independent journal is committed to featuring the work of emerging writers and artists alongside that of more established people, such as Jane Yolen, Marge Piercy, John Lurie, David Yow, and many other luminaries. This is a physical print publication designed to showcase contributor’s work beautifully. Let your writing and art shine in Meat for Tea.
In their December 14 newsletter, Anomaly announced additions to their editorial staff with new editors in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and translation.
Ashely Adams and Mizzy Hussain join as new Nonfiction Co-Editors while the Poetry editorial team welcomes Tricia Lopez, Tianna Bratcher, Lucy Zhou, and Eleonora Natilii. The Fiction team has been revamped with Talia Wright, Dino de Haas, Carson Faust, and jonah wu with Maxine Savage joining as their new Assistant Translation Editor.
Also joining Anomaly is Meca’Ayo Cole and Addie Tsai who become the new Features & Reviews co-editors. They will be taking the lead on ANMLY’s Blog. Lip Manegio and Gillian Joseph are also joining the team as Assistant Folio Editors. They will work alongside Zeb Wimsatt to curate each issue’s feature folios.
And with this announcement, they also want you to know they are currently open to submissions of translations, creative nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and comics through March 1, 2022. They have no-questions-asked fee waivers available for writers and artists in need. There is also no fee for Black and Indigenous contributors.
Don’t forget to swing by their website to read their latest issues and check out all of their offerings.
Deadline: January 15, 2022 Submit soon to our In-House Short Fiction & Single Poem Contests! On the short fiction side, we’re proud to announce that we’ve upped the award to $500 for the winning story and $150 for all runners-up! Winners and runners-up also receive publication, an interview, and an illustration that will appear alongside their story. All stories submitted are considered for publication by not one—but two editors, and response times are faster than usual. On the poetry side, all works are also considered for publication, with the runner-ups awarded an interview, publication, and $50 per poem. The winner of the In-House Poetry Contest will receive $400, publication, a featured interview, and a commissioned illustration to appear alongside their work.
Deadline: January 15, 2022 Remember Heron Tree is open to submissions through January 15, 2022. Submissions will be read, and decisions made on a rolling basis. Accepted poems will be published individually online (one poem a week beginning in February 2022) and then collected in Heron Tree volume 9, which will be available as a free downloadable ebook. This special issue will be devoted to found poetry. See our detailed submission guidelines at herontree.com/how/.
Sleet‘s Winter 2021-2022 Infrastructure Edition is out. Read about art, bears, snow, fatherhood and more as infrastructure! Featuring new work by poet/professor Deborah Keenan; Lucia Cherciu; Trevor Moffa; Christian Chase Garner; Daniel Edward Moore and Yun Wang. New sweetest fiction from Astrid Egger and Ryan Love. Irregulars by Howie Good; Raphael Kosek; Steven Ostrowski; Elizabeth Kerlikowske; Guillermo Rebollo Gil and Timothy Pilgrim. AND CNF from Kathryn Ganfield, Susan Petrie and Sara Dovre Wudali.
RavensPerch this month: poetry by Joseph D. Milosch, Diana Raab, Barbara Schweitzer, Wally Swist, Giuseppe Ungaretti, Hoyt Rogers, and Margaret Krusinga. Fiction by Anne Hosansky. Nonfiction by Edgy Sack.
In this issue: Suzi F. Garcia, Taylor Johnson, Tamara Panici, Bryan Byrdlong, John Lee Clark, Angelo Mao, Simon Shieh, Kelan Nee, Lilly Bechtel, Eleanor Stanford, Paul Hlava Ceballos, Aurielle Marie, Julian Randall, Diannely Antigua, Alexis V. Jackson, Ugochukwu Damian Okpara, Steven Espada Dawson, and Camille Carter. See “Respect the Mic” contributors at the Poetry website.
The Autumn 2021 issue is here featuring the winner of our 2021 Far Horizons Award for Short Fiction. Poetry by Y. S. Lee, Laurie D. Graham, Yuan Changming, Sebastien Wen, Allison LaSorda, Danielle Hubbard, Elisabeth Gill, Rozina Jessa, Sue J. Levon, and morej, as well as fiction by Jenny Ferguson, Sara Mang, and Cassidy McFadzean. Find more contributors at The Malahat Review website.
The new issue of Gemini Magazine is now online featuring the winners of our 12th annual Short Story Contest. Top honors and the $1,000 prize go to Kathleen Spivack of Watertown, Massachusetts for “Moths,” a high intensity story about a woman who fights with her husband over the future of their special-needs child. Second prize: “Banjo” by Earl LeClaire. See honorable mentions at the Gemini Magazine website.
In this newly redesigned issue of Creative Nonfiction we explore the roots of the genre and celebrate the spirit of rebellion that’s always infused it. And we consider where we are now at this moment that feels pivotal for so many. Plus, new essays about the limitations of identity labels; what we can (and can’t) learn from dinosaur tracks; how to reintegrate after two military tours overseas; the challenges of translation; and how to approach a sibling who’s taken a deep dive into conspiracy theories. Essays by Valerie Boyd, Margaret Kimball, Bret Lott, Marisa Manuel, Brenda Miller, Clinton Crockett Peters, and others.
Featuring new work from Ricardo Pau-Llosa, Jane O. Wayne, Tim Whitsel, the winners of our 2021 Curt Johnson Prose Awards, two beautiful art portfolios by Howard Skrill and Jean Wolff, and much more! Poetry by Erin Bealmear, Erica Bodwell, Dina Elenbogen, Rebecca Foust, Ellen Romano, Reyes Ramirez, and others. Fiction by Dinah Cox, Bill Gaythwaite, Barb Johnson, Sarah Starr Murphy, K.W. Oxnard, and Anamyn Turowski. Check out nonfiction contributors at the december website.
Featuring the 2021 Crazyhorse prize winners in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, Mary Clark, Jung Hae Chae, and Mark Wagenaar; a debut story from Nancy Nguyen; fiction from Nicole VanderLinden, Weston Cutter, and Timothy Mullaney; an essay from A.C. Zhang; and poems from Lisa Low, Michael Prior, Mary Kaiser, Jose Hernandez Diaz, and Mehrnoosh Torbatnejad, among others. Now on Crazyhorse website.
The Fall 2021 issue of Carve is out now and features the winners of the Raymond Carver Contest, guest judged by Leesa Cross-Smith.
First Place
“Habits” by Morgan Nicole Green
Second Place
“The Pit” by Chris Blexrud
Third Place
“Field Dressing” by Mariah Rigg
Editors’ Choice
“What Happened With the Librarian?” by Haley Hach
“Kingdom of the Shades” by Nina Ellis
You can learn more about each story by checking out the author interviews following each piece. Print and digital issues are available at Carve‘s website.
Lauren Taylor Grad’s work was featured in Woven Tale Press Volume XI Number 9. Jennifer Nelson, WTP feature writer interviewed Taylor Grad recently on the meaning and thought processes behind several of her works along with her pursuit of an MFA.
From using found items to create sculptures to utilizing her undergraduate work in biology to create paintings, Taylor Grad’s work is diverse. One of the most interesting pieces is Tethered which is comprised of used clothing made to create two concrete boulders and a connecting line between them. She also created a video art piece to accompany the sculpture about moving these boulders around a curving path.
Nelson: Why did you feel it was important to earn an MFA?
The decision to go to graduate school and earn my Masters in Fine Arts was not one that I took lightly. It is a huge investment, both in time and money, and I wanted to be sure that it was the right path for me to take before I made that leap. I personally really enjoy academia; I think that the amount of growth and nurturing that occurs in an individual throughout art school in such a short amount of time is transformative, and unlike anything that you can get elsewhere.
Taylor Grad also talked about taking time off after earning her undergraduate degree to try out being a living artist and other avenues before ultimately going back to earn her MFA so that she can also become an art instructor.
As a writer the wait to hear from a journal or press about the status of your submissions can be a long and tedious road where you are stuck in limbo. With their 2022 In-House Contest, Driftwood Press has decided to make some changes to alleviate this.
Instead of notifying writers once everything has been read and judged, they will be announcing results to writers as soon as the piece has been read and a decision made, whether a rejection or continuing on in the contest.
All submissions accepted will be initially given runner-up status. Then in April 2022, one of the runners-up will be awarded the Grand Prize.
The deadline to submit to the In-House Short Story Contest is January 15. There is a $12 fee. The chosen Grand Prize winner will receive $500, publication, and five copies of the issue in which their story appears. They will also have the opportunity to be interviewed about their work and the interview will be published alongside the winning story.
Runner-ups will be offered publication, an accompanying interview, $150, and one copy of the issue in which their story appears.
If you’re a fan of novellas, Volume 42 Number 3 of New England Review and the Summer & Fall 2021 issue of Alaska Quarterly Review have got you covered.
In Alaska Quarterly Review, Kristopher Jansma’s “Like a Bomb Went Off” opens the issue. It begins:
The Neighbor’s House Explodes The neighbor’s house explodes at 5:05 p.m. Harriet is behind the family station wagon, vacuuming summer’s sand out of the trunk. There is an incredible noise, like something collapsing to the ground. She looks up to see a white cloud rising behind the fence. Warm air rushes by like bathwater. There is no fireball. “It was like a bomb went off,” she’ll soon say, for the first time, even though it is not like that at all.
New England Review has published “Past Perfect” by Alice Greenway. The novella starts with:
“Can you explain when we use was and when use had been?” Sayed Zubair asked. He sat cross-legged on a blanket distributed by Samaritan’s Purse. It was spread on the floor as a rug. His back was impressively straight. He was a neat trim man with a tidy moustache, his hair beginning to thin on top, and he held a notebook in his lap. Behind him, a small plastic fan wedged into a square window blew in welcome air. He was proud of the fan, as he had pirated the electricity, hooking wires into the overhead floodlights that lit the camp at night.
Everything starts the same, but it all ends differently. The First Line is a print literary magazine that is unaffiliated, unfunded, unassuming, and works hard to be inspiring. Each year they offer four writing prompts. All pieces submitted must start with these lines. Where they go from there is dependent on you.
Check out the first lines slated for 2022 & consider taking up the challenge and writing a story. And don’t forget to check out their past issues.
Spring: “Rayna sat in front of the mirror removing her makeup and wondered who she would discover underneath.” Due date: February 1, 2022
Summer: “Thomas hadn’t expected to be alive when the town’s time capsule was opened.” Due date: May 1, 2022
Fall: “Lily unlocked the back door of the thrift store using a key that didn’t belong to her.” Due date: August 1, 2022
Winter: “When he died, their father had two requests.” Due date: November 1, 2022
Deadline: December 31, 2021 Chestnut Review (“for stubborn artists”) invites submissions year-round of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, art, and photography. We offer free submissions for poetry (3 poems), flash fiction (<1000 words), and art/photography (20 images); $5 submissions for fiction/nonfiction (<5k words), or 4-6 poems. Published artists receive $120. Notification in <30 days or submission fee refunded. We appreciate stories in every genre we publish. All issues free online which illustrates what we have liked, but we are always ready to be surprised by the new! Any submissions received after December 31 will be considered for the next issue. chestnutreview.com
Grab a copy of the November/December 2021 issue of Kenyon Review to check out the winners of the Short Nonfiction Contest.
Winner “And We Inherit Everything” by Brigitte Leschhorn Arrocha
Runners-up “Blue Whale Challenge” by Christian Butterfield
“Translating” by dm armstrong
The contest was judged by Roxane Gay, who writes of the winning essay, “[ . . . ] we are taken on a lyrical journey about grief, yes, but also the wounds of family and the myths of the people to whom we belong.” Grab a copy of the issue to read the winning essays, and see what Gay says about the runners-up.
What’s new this month? Found fabrics, feather textiles, calligraphic lines, resonate poems about donkeys, and more. Work by Elias Andreopoulos, G.D. Brown, Corrine Demas, Michal Gavish, Alia Georges, Deborah Kruger, Marianna Marlowe, and more. Find a full list of contributors at The Woven Tale Press website.
Issue 28 of Superstition Review which features art by Jeff Rivers. Interview Editor Anna Narin interviews Joyce Carol Oates. Fiction by Melissa Llanes Brownlee, nonfiction by Amanda Gaines, and poetry by Gleen Shaheen.
This month’s featured selection: “Jewish American Women Poets” by Sally Bliumis-Dunn featuring Jennifer Barber, Jessica Greenbaum, Judy Katz and Nomi Stone. In nonfiction: “All These Red and Yellow Things: Short Papers on Art by Lesle Lewis.” Jeri Theriault reviews Devon Walker-Figueroa’s Philomath. See a selection of this month’s poets at the Plume website.
The December issue is now online featuring Dan Brook, Gavan Duffy, Edilson A. Ferreira, Nels Hanson, Amy Holman, Tom Kelly, Deborah Kennedy, Charles Rammelkamp, Michael Salcman, Kerrin P. Sharpe, Andrew Sheilds, J. R. Solonche, Marjory Woodfield. Reviews of Michael Salcman’s Shades and Graces and Judith Wilson’s Fleet. Learn more about this issue’s reviews at The Lake website.
