In this issue of River Styx: poetry by Nin Andrews, Gabriella Balza, Talia Bloch, Bruce Bond, Lyn Li Che, Jeff Gundy, David Kirby, Jenna Le, Timothy Liu, Adrian Matejka, Miho Nonaka, Emily Ransdell, Erin Saxon, Troy Varvel, Kiani Yiu, and more; fiction by Winston Bribach, Michael Byers, Jack Driscoll, and Andrea L. Rogers; essays by Maura Lammers, Jennifer Murvin, and Kerry Neville.
The Winter 2021 issue of Baltimore Review features poetry and prose by John Van Kirk, Mary Ardery, Tara Lynn Masih, Shailen Mishra, Basmah Sakrani, LeRoy Sorenson, Susan Messer, Alden M. Hayashi, Gregory Byrd, Emily James, and more.
Magazine Review by Katy Haas.
The Winter 2020 issue of The Malahat Review opens with the winner of the 2020 Constance Rooke Prize for Creative Nonfiction: “On Playing Double Jeopardy!” by Christina Brobby. This piece works through the different money categories in a game of Jeopardy all on the theme of photographic terms. Like the show, Brobby is given the answer and she responds with the appropriate question as she connects the term to her life.
I enjoyed the set-up of this piece. It flows seamlessly, Brobby always taking care to weave the photographic terms into the moments of her life. She examines how she presents as her race, in her adoptive family, as a wife, a partner, a mother. When she gives the answer of “What is a filter?” she ends the section turning it back inward: “Be more or less vibrant, act more coolly, like when the man after your husband said you were too emotional and that’ s not what he was signing up for. You donned your neutral-density filter . . . ”
This piece is a great opener for the issue, and well-deserved of taking home the Constance Rooke Prize. It immediately caught my eye and drew me in with its unique format, something greatly appreciated in the these days of shortened attention spans.
Guest Post by Hamilton Davis.
The early 1970s were rough on Vermont’s criminal justice system. Central to that era was the long criminal career of Paul Lawrence, the bad cop who, while working as an undercover narcotics agent for state and local police, framed more than 100 young Vermonters on drug charges. Lawrence’s depredations managed to contaminate the whole justice system—state police and several prosecutors and judges—and his crimes and the resulting turmoil put Vermont on front pages across the land.
One public official deeply affected by the Lawrence mess was Kimberly Cheney, a Yale Law School graduate and a Republican, who had just been elected in 1972 as Vermont’s attorney general. Cheney, in his candid memoir A Lawyer’s Life to Live, tells much about his life in Montpelier, Vermont, as attorney general but also, earlier and later, as a small-town private attorney and county prosecutor. He describes all the moral quandaries, deal-making, the courtroom dramas, and the shenanigans that readers would expect from an observant lawyer-turned-author.
But what he also offers is a striking assessment of what became known as the “Paul Lawrence Affair.” Lawrence’s crimes were committed long ago, but Cheney’s book is an important reminder of how things can go wrong. The author is as tough on himself as he is on other players who were far more involved in that affair. That’s a quality that is rare and praiseworthy in the literature of public life.
A Lawyer’s Life to Live: A Memoir by Kim Cheney. Rootstock Publishing, February 2021.
Reviewer bio: Hamilton E. Davis has been a journalist and policy analyst for more than 50 years. He is the author Mocking Justice: America’s Biggest Drug Scandal (Crown Publishers, 1978).
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The Winter 2020 issue of New England Review is by turns bracing, inspiring, surprising, and devastating. Like every issue of NER, it gives readers a chance to expand their sense of the known world through language, image, and narrative. But what’s different is that emerging writers almost entirely populate this issue, and for many this is among their first publications.
We are honored to present the very first Massachusetts Review issue focused on Native American writing. The issue’s poetry and prose show the depth and range of Native writing in our current moment. We put forward work by both new and established Indigenous writers that is diverse in its aesthetics and comes from tribal people who live all over the country. Essays by Tiffany Midge, Shaina A. Nez, Chandre Szafran, and more; stories by Stephen Graham Jones, Chip Livingston, Erika Wurth, and more; and poetry by Lemanuel Loley, Stephanie Lenox, Bojan Louis, Jessica Mehta, and more. Plus novel excerpts and hybrid texts. Read more at The Massachusetts Review website.
This issue features work by Tawahum Bige, Megan Butcher, Rachel Lachmansingh, and Aaron Schneider. Plus the winner of the 2020 Constance Rooke CNF Prize: Christina Brobby who is also interviewed.
In this issue of The Main Street Rag, find a featured interview with Ellen Birkett Morris by Beth Browne. Fiction by Ellen Birkett Morris, Lawrence F. Farrar, Michael Graves, Kathie Giorgio, and Steve Cushman. Poetry by Carrie Albert, Diana Anhalt, Rose Auslander, Joan Barasovska, Brenton Booth, Raymond Byrnes, Robert Cooperman, Rachel Dixon, Richelle Buccilli, Angela Gaito-Lagnese, Martha Golensky, Kari Gunter-Seymour, Ted Jonathan, Elda Lepak, Anne Hall Levine, Vikram Masson, Ken Meisel, David Mills, Randy Minnich, Harry Moore, Gail Peck, Ann Pedone, Gary V. Powell, Charles Rammelkamp, David Rock, Seth Rosenbloom, Russell Rowland, Tom Wayman, and more.
This issue features Notes on Writing from Maria Reva, Souvankham Thammavongsa, and Joshua Whitehead. Also in this issue: nonfiction by Darlene McLeod; fiction by Dian Parker, Stephen Guppy, and Dennis McFadden; and poetry by Ashley Hynd, Shazia Hafiz Ramji, Rose Hunter, Natasha Zarin, Peter Richardson, Thomas Mixon, Nate Logan, Jean Van Loon, D.S. Martin, and more. Read more at the EVENT website.
Poor Yorick: A Journal of Rediscovery is continuing their monthly reading series with a virtual open mic and fireside chat!
Cozy up with your favorite beverage and share your poetry, short fiction, and creative nonfiction. Stick around for an open discussion between readers and writers.
This month’s theme is about family—the people who get us through bad times and celebrate the good times with us.
The reading will take place on February 25 from 7-9 pm EST and is free to attend on Microsoft Zoom. Find out more at Poor Yorick‘s website.
Salamander #51, featuring: fiction by Jinwoo Chong, Gretchen Comba, Michael O’Brien, Carol Dines, and Kanza Javed; nonfiction by Darius Stewart; an art portfolio by Angela N. Weddle; reviews by Hope Wabuke, Marcela Sulak, and Jacquelyn Pope; and poetry by Michael Bazzett, Paula Abramo tr. by Dick Cluster, Suphil Lee Park, Jennifer Jean, and more.
This issue’s Plume featured selection includes an interview with Teri Ellen Cross Davis by Leeya Mehta, as well as work by the poet. John Wall Barger reviews That was Now, This Is Then by Vijay Seshadri. In nonfiction find A Frozen Present: D. Nurkse on the Language of Fascism and “The Land of Magic.”
Issue #18 is Into the Void‘s most packed issue ever, 10% bigger than previous issues. The eye-catching cover image “Sub Seb 2” by Chalice Mitchell would really spice up your bookshelf. Inside the cover: fiction by Anne Baldo, Nim Folb, Eloise Lindblom, Karl Plank, Ash Winters, and more; creative nonfiction by Grace Camille and Bill Capossere; and poetry by Annie Cigic, Daun Daemon, Roy Duffield, Rebecca Faulkner, Molly Fuller, Beth Gordon, Chana G. Miller, and others.
Issue 212 of Cimarron Review features poetry by Michael Marberry, Robert Bharda, Emily Grelle, Adam Day, Ellen Cantrell, Jennifer Met, Morgan Hamill, Ben Aguilar, Carolyn Adams, Kim Kent, Donna Reis, and more; fiction by Toby Donovan, Rachel Hall, Thomas H. McNeely, and Abby Frucht.
The “Fame and Obscurity” issue with poetry by Emily Pettit, Maia Seigel, Elizabeth Hughey, Jacob Montgomery, Oni Buchanan, Kathleen Ossip, Anne Marie Rooney, Jose Hernandez Diaz, jayy dodd, Catherine Pierce, Rob Schlegel, Ed Skoog, TR Brady, Ryo Yamaguchi, and more; fiction by Cynthia Cruz, Stuart Nadler, Lucy Corin, Bonnie Chau, and others; and nonfiction by Elisa Albert, Kelle Groom, Craig Morgan Teicher, Kirsten Kaschock, and more. More info at the Bennington Review website.
Guest Post by Kevin Wiberg.
This is a little book with a big heart and a lot of common sense.
In the fast-paced, high-stress world of securing competitive funding, it can be easy to chase opportunities and lose sight of what matters most—the people and communities who rely on the success of your work. While chasing the dollars is often driven by the organizational imperative to survive, it is an ineffective and uninspired strategy to engage grantmakers.
As my career has moved from grantseeker to grantmaker, Barbara Floersch has identified critical themes and strategies that I continue to look for when evaluating proposals. Don’t assume a grantmaker knows who you are and what you do; but do assume that most grantmakers will be deeply grounded in the fields, populations, and issues that your organization addresses.
A critical part of your organization’s work is to demonstrate competency, document a solid grounding in data trends from national to local levels, promising and best practices, identify who else does similar work, and how your organization collaborates with others to produce efficient and impactful outcomes. These are just a few of the critical lessons Floersch has shared with thousands of grantseekers around the US and internationally. I credit Floersch’s teaching and mentorship over the years with my success in securing millions of public and private dollars and these lessons continues to inform my work as a grantmaker.
A real strength of Floersch’s new book is her engaging and authentic communications style. She practices what she preaches, and I’m so pleased she continues to share her knowledge with a genuine interest in your organization’s success in addressing critical and compelling social issues and needs.
You Have a Hammer: Building Grant Proposals for Social Change by Barbara Floersch, Rootstock Publishing, January 2021.
Reviewer bio: Kevin Wiberg lives in Vermont and is the Philanthropic Advisor for Community Engagement at The Vermont Community Foundation.
Featuring gorgeous cover art from Raqs Media Collective, new work from Eileen G’Sell, Albert Goldbarth, Noah Davis, John Sibley Williams, and the winner from our 2020 Curt Johnson Prose Awards, art from Brian Dettmer and Ebony Paterson, and much more. Read more info at the december website.
Welcome to the “Food Work” issue. Katherine Barrett urges us to think more about essential workers. Cairistiona Clark, Moni Brar, Kathy Mak, Carmen Wall, Christine Pennylegion, and Chantal Martineau pen poems on the theme. Read more at the Understorey website.
This issue of Cumberland River Review features new poetry by Jane Zwart, Paul Hamill, Alex Aldred, Merrill Oliver Douglas, Mary Elizabeth Birnbaum, Al Maginnes, Lauren Claus, Julia Wendell, David O’Connell, and Emily Light. Fiction by Ben Penley. Artwork by Chris Gwaltney.
Creative Nonfiction #74: “Moments of Clarity” features stories of sudden realizations, things that can’t be unsaid, and power dynamics laid bare: a seventeen-year-old flirts her way into trouble; a daughter’s offhand remark shatters a family’s fragile peace; an employee quietly decides HR’s focus on diversity is actually kind of racist, and more.
In this issue: fiction by Tom Murphy, Doug Ramspeck, Terry Sanville, and Ken Wheatcroft-Pardue, and nonfiction by Paul Juhasz, Jeffrey Lockwood, John Robinson, Rachel Schiel, and Steve Wing. Read more at the Concho River Review website.
Adroit 36 is a brilliant collection of work—elegiac in its nature—both hopeful and loud in its grief. Poetry by Angelo Nikolopoulos, Ocean Vuong, Martha Collins, D. A. Powell, Ellen Bass, Alex Dimitrov, Tariq Thompson, Aurielle Marie, Nomi Stone, and more; prose by Ghinwa Jawhari, Blake Bell, Robert Long Foreman, Ethan Chatagnier, Steffi Sin, and Ben Reed; and art by Gyuri Kim, L.I. Henley, Connie Gong, and Tianran Song.
Guest Post by J. Gauner.
As a literary pilgrim and a John Steinbeck scholar, John J. Han has traveled to Japan since 2007 to attend the annual Steinbeck conference and roam to some famous literary sites and Zen temples to pay his respects to iconic writers such as Matsuo Basho, Masaoka Shiki, and Yasunari Kawabata and delight himself in learning about Japanese culture. His literary travels have borne fruit, a collection of ten photo essays titled On the Road Again, which follows the footprints of Matsuo Basho’s well-known work, The Narrow Road to the Deep North, a poetic narrative in the form of haibun.
Han’s collection visually presents the literary sites he has visited. The unique lenses bring the reader the mindscape of the author’s literary pilgrimage and sensibility to Japanese literature and culture.
Like a tour guide who has a backpack of stories, Han leads the reader to see the sites and “listen” to his narratives. Sometimes he offers his own haiku to accompany his photos. For example, his response to the replica of Basho’s hut sounds pleasant, though slightly ironic:
a long pilgrimage
to Basho’s hut
a fake front
Another interesting part of Han’s book is that some captions provide useful information for better understanding of the sites presented by his photos. Below is the one accompanying the photo about Masaoka Shiki writing his death haiku (used also as the book cover):
Shiki died of tuberculosis at the young age of thirty-four. In this scene, displayed in the Shiki Museum, he writes three death poems (jisei) in haiku form on September 18, 1902, one day before his passing.
Han includes Shiki’s three death haiku in the caption to satisfy the reader’s curiosity. For some photos, especially the ones on the Basho and Shiki haiku rocks, it would make the tours more curious if he includes haiku in the captions.
Han’s literary pilgrimage helps him understand that “one of the best ways to maintain international peace is to learn about each other’s cultural heritage.” He believes this learning can start with a visit to famous literary sites because “literature is one of the best ways to understand and connect with people of another country.” Han gets his mission into literary travels in On the Road Again.
On the Road Again by John J. Han. Cyberwit, 2020.
Guest Post by Claude Clayton Smith.
I was 13 in 1957 when my junior high English teacher asked us to read a book about someone in the career to which we aspired. I enjoyed school, so I figured I’d become a teacher. Happily, I found what I thought was the perfect book at our town library—My Life As A Teacher by John Erskine. But no doubt its opening sentence spun my 13-year-old head:
Nothing in education needs explaining more than this, that a teacher may be neither a professor nor an educator, that a professor may mature to the age of retirement without teaching or educating, and that an educator, without loss of reputation, may profess nothing, and never face a class.
Sixty-four years later, after ten years of teaching English at the secondary level and thirty as a professor at the university level, I appreciate what Erskine was saying. But all I could remember from junior high was that he had taught at Amherst College.
Re-reading Erskine confirmed my best instincts. “I wanted to be a teacher,” Erskine wrote, “and I wanted to write.” In the classroom he developed writers by “encouraging each individual to discover for himself the manner and the style which was natural and characteristic.” The teacher’s part was “to connect the reading with the pupil’s experience.” What could be more simple or obvious?
Erskine began teaching at Amherst in 1903, and later, at Columbia, became the father of the Great Books course. There were negatives, certainly. At Amherst, Erskine found his students ill-prepared and had to institute a course in spelling. (“The elements should have been acquired in high school English.”) Erskine also soon discovered that: “No professor is thought so necessary as the coach.”
It’s now 2021. What else is new?
My Life As A Teacher by John Erskine. J.P. Lippencott Company, 1948.
Reviewer bio: Claude Clayton Smith, professor emeritus of English at Ohio Northern University, is the author of eight books and co-editor/translator of four others. His website is: claudeclaytonsmith.wordpress.com.
Guest Post by Michael Coolen.
“I remember coming to one village whose streets were black with priests, and its taverns full of seething atheists.”
Almost every page of Laurie Lee’s memoir As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning: A Memoir is filled with redolent writing. Like many writers supplanted by magical realists, deconstructing whiners, and much less gifted authors, Laurie Lee is receding into the past for many readers who don’t even know his name, much less his exquisite writing.
As a composer and pianist for many decades, I draw inspiration and comfort not only from contemporary music, but from music from the distant to ancient past. Similarly, from time to time I seek out writers from the distant past, Virgil, Herodotus, et al., whose writing confirms to me that Time is just a word we use to measure grief and laughter and insight and children and love.
A friend with similar tastes introduced me to the writings of Laurie Lee just recently. I did not even know who he was. And now I can’t wait to read everything he ever wrote, where every page can contain sentences like the following: “Segovia was a city in a valley of stones—a compact, half-forgotten heap of architectural splendours built for the glory of some other time.”
As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning: A Memoir by Laurie Lee. Nonpareil Books, 2011.
Reviewer bio: Michael Coolen is an Oregon writer/pianist. He is also a composer, with works performed Carnegie Hall, MoMA, the Christie Gallery, Europe, Japan, and Russia.
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New on Terrain.org this month, find poetry by John Daniel, Robert Wrigley, Eric Pankey, Natasha Sajé, Jenifer K. Sweeney, and Naila Moreira with photos by Stephen Petegorsky; nonfiction by Christine Byl and Deborah Schillbach; fiction by Caprice Garvin; and an interview with Rob Carney by Jackson Reed.
“We Are Worthy” is the theme of this issue of Kaleidoscope. Our featured essay is “Wrap Me Up and Tie It with a Bow” by Shawna Borman. Author Marilyn Slominski Shapiro writes with vivid imagery in her story, “Rejoice the Archangel Raphael!” Judi Fleischman shares creative nonfiction, “My Man George.” This issue contains our first lyric essay, and our first publication of a drabble. In poetry, anxious thoughts are “Intruders” in the mind of Mari-Carmen Marin. You’ll find many other stories, personal essays, and thought-provoking poems that reflect the experience of disability and life in the midst of a pandemic. Cover art by Philadelphia street artist Blur.
Guest Post by Glen Donaldson.
Last year I went along to see an arthouse movie a lot of people were raving about starring William Dafoe and Robert Pattison called The Lighthouse. I wasn’t that fussed on it but it led me to seek out an autobiography of sorts published the same year called The Last Lighthouse Keeper.
Exhilarating, profound and exquisitely written, probably the highest compliment you can pay a memoir once you’re done reading it is think to yourself—even if it’s only for a few brief moments—”I wish I’d lived that life.” That’s how I feel about The Last Lighthouse Keeper.
John Cook spent twenty-six years as one of Australia’s longest serving lighthouse keepers. In the 1960’s, he was running a service station and picking up the pieces after a marriage breakup. Seeing an ad one day in the local newspaper, he applied for a position with the Australian Commonwealth Lighthouse Service. So began his decades-long love affair with ‘a life in the lights.’
The book centers chiefly on his time spent on two Tasmanian lighthouse islands, Tasman and Maatsuyker (the last spot between Australia and Antarctica). It ends with his transfer to a third, Bruny, where he stayed on for another 15 years.
The presiding tone of the book is summarized on page 55 when the author, referring to his first posting on Tasman Island, notes, “Either people come here crazy or this place turns them that way.”
From fisticuffs with fellow lighthouse keepers to removing his own rotten teeth with a wood punch to the microscopic gaps in brickwork that, via howling winds, could turn a lighthouse into an oversized whistle and drive a person insane with the sound, this book is crammed full of riveting anecdotes.
Simply one of the best reads I’ve ever enjoyed.
The Last Lighthouse Keeper by John Cook with Jon Bauer. Allen & Unwin, July 2020.
Reviewer bio: Glen Donaldson pens weekly and uniquely at both SCENIC WRITER’S SHACK and LOST IN SPACE FIRESIDE.
Sky Island Journal’s stunning 15th issue features poetry, flash fiction, and creative nonfiction from contributors around the globe. Accomplished, well-established authors are published—side by side—with fresh, emerging voices. Readers are provided with a powerful, focused literary experience that transports them: one that challenges them intellectually and moves them emotionally.
The Jan/Feb 2021 issue of the Kenyon Review is available now. This issue marks the beginning of Nicole Terez Dutton’s editorial stewardship of the renowned journal. Some of the many pleasures to be found include stories by the winners of the 2020 KR Short Fiction Contest—Janika Oza, Steffi Sin, and Stanley Delgado.
We’re excited to bring you the first issue of the year! The January-February 2021 edition features 14 pieces of creative nonfiction; our selection of essays and flash CNF includes: Sayuri Ayers, Chris J. Bahnsen, Jessica Power Braun, Emily Cluff, and more. See a full contributor list at the Mag Stand.
Issue 66 of Brevity is here! Find nonfiction by Jesse Lee Kercheval, Elena Passarello, Sonja Livingston, Ira Sukrungruang, Kate Hopper, Melissa Stephenson, Anne Panning, Hiram Perez, Noah Davis, Laurie Klein, Lizz Huerta, Francis Walsh, Tyler Orion, Dorian Fox, and Michael McAllister.
Guest Post by M.G. Noles.
Never Give In!: The Best of Winston Churchill’s Speeches is a book that lends itself to this hour in history when nothing seems certain. This collection, assembled by his grandson, Winston S. Churchill, includes his many famous speeches and some that are less widely known.
At this moment, while the entire world seems to be holding its collective breath, Churchill’s words offer hope and solace. His extraordinary knowledge and insight glisten though these speeches. His call for bravery and courage strike a vibrant chord at a time when tomorrow seems to be as unstable as anything we have ever known.
Take a moment to read his speeches and find yourself infused with a sense of destiny and the hope that we may overcome this dark hour just as the British overcame theirs in WWII. As he most nobly said, “We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival.”
Never Give In!: The Best of Winston Churchill’s Speeches by Winston S. Churchill. Hachette Books, November 2004.
Reviewer bio: M.G. Noles is a freelance writer and history buff.
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Guest Post by Kim Horner.
The first time I heard of Audre Lorde was on a Facebook page for women who had gone flat or who, like me, were considering going flat after having mastectomies. Posted on the site was one of the poet’s striking quotes: “If we are to translate the silence surrounding breast cancer into language and action against this scourge, then the first step is that women with mastectomies must become visible to each other.”
Lorde wrote those words in The Cancer Journals, a collection of essays about her breast cancer experience. First published in 1980 and reprinted this past October, the author’s entries still resonate decades later as she confronts her diagnosis and questions the norms and expectations for women facing the disease. Especially powerful are Lorde’s passages about not wearing a prosthesis after her single mastectomy. In one entry, she says a disapproving nurse told her that not wearing her foam padding was bad for “morale” in the breast surgeon’s office.
Lorde’s work comes as many women continue to face social pressure to have reconstruction or wear prostheses. More than 40 years after its initial publication, The Cancer Journals is inspiring new generations of women to deal with breast cancer on their own terms. Lorde’s essays, as Tracy K. Smith writes in her new foreword, serve as a “guide to survival for the twenty-first century body and soul.”
The Cancer Journals by Audre Lorde, with a new foreword by Tracy K. Smith. Penguin Classic, October 2020.
Reviewer bio: Kim Horner, author of Probably Someday Cancer: Genetic Risk and Preventative Mastectomy, is a writer who lives in Richardson, Texas. Connect with her at kimdhorner.com.
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In the issue of Zone 3 (Fall 2020): nonfiction by Hadil Ghoneimj, Steven Harvey, Kathryn Nuernberger, and more; fiction by Scott Brennan, Mary Louise Hill, Sarah Layden, Nathan Moseley, and others; and poetry by Ellery Beck, Jennifer Brown, Jesse DeLong, Jose Hernandez Diaz, Andrew Johnson, Arden Levine, Matt McBride, Leah Osowski, Charlie Peck, Marlo Starr, Dan Veach, and more. Cover art by Jiha Moon.
Southern Humanities Review features nonfiction by Taylor Bororby and Ceridwen Hall; fiction by Nicole Baute, Torrey Crim, Gloria L. Huang, and Megan Kakimoto; and poetry by Celia Bland, E. G. Cunningham, R. M. Kinder, Daniel Lassell, and more.
The MacGuffin’s Fall 2020 issue spotlights formal verse. In all, nineteen different forms are featured from poets across the map, near and far. From sonnets to sestinas, pantoums to clerihews, all connoisseurs of the written word will find something to delight in. Our usual selection of fiction and nonfiction is interspersed, with personal essays from Nadia Ibrahim and Gretchen Clark, tales of loss—though not the same—from Dave Larsen and Trisha McKee, and a look at two quite different families from Shirley Sullivan and Bethany Snyder. Rounding out this issue is the colorful work of Nicholas D’Angelo.
The Fall 2020 issue features poetry by Augusta Funk, nonfiction by Ania Spyra, poetry by Lucien Darjeun Meadows, fiction by Josie Sigler Sibara, and poetry by Caitlin Ferguson. See other contributors at the Colorado Review website.
The “Reading the Body” issue is out. Fiction by Emma Pattee, Jonathan Penner, Michele Suzann, Lauren Green, Mahak Jain, and more; nonfiction by Jeremy Griffin, Wyatt Bandt, Jack Lancaster, and others; and poetry by Jacob Boyd, Gina Ferrari, Cynthia Parker-Ohene, Sanjana Nair, Thomas Dooley, Beth Suter, and many more. Read more at the Bellevue Literary Review website.
Guest Post by James Gering.
The rudimentary jacket design of this book is deceptive—you suspect 179 Ways to be another generic book on craft. Not so. What you have here is a treasure trove of writing insights delivered in no-nonsense fashion by a natural teacher and wordsmith. Peter Selgin expertly balances analysis of craft with the more elusive elements of art to deliver a masterful study of fiction at its best.
179 Ways begins by addressing that perennially perplexing issue—is autobiographical material taboo? No, Selgin says, so long as you deftly employ the imagination to elevate the substance of your story into the realm of art. The challenge lies in sifting through the dross to find the dream—fresh events that defy mere anecdote, have a current of emotional significance, and a sense of inevitability.
Selgin supports his flow of ideas with pertinent references to successful stories and novels. What often distinguishes the master works, he says, are two things: a sense of authenticity and an unswerving flair for storytelling. In other words, be true to the work and find the drama in your tale.
Let me finish this brief commentary with a Selgin quote from the final section, “Each of us must strike our own balance between Apollonian impulses (harmonious, measured, ordered) and Dionysian (wild, orgiastic, unbounded) . . . . However we do it, somehow we have to find ways to put our own visions into the heads of strangers.”
After 30 years of collecting books on the art and craft of writing, three hundred of them grace my study shelves. Peter Selgin’s text is one of my top five.
179 Ways to Save a Novel by Peter Selgin. Writer’s Digest Books, 2010.
Reviewer bio: James Gering is a poet and short story writer from the Blue Mountains in Australia. He welcomes visitors at jamesgering.com.
Stop by this month’s Plume Featured Selection for an interview with Chanda Feldman and Erika Meitner conducted by Sally Bliumis-Dunn. Bianca Stone writes about why she makes poetry comics. Instead of the usual book review section, this month you can see what Plume’s editors have enjoyed reading this year.
The Fall 2020 issue of Glass Mountain features the Robertson Prize winners: Sarah Han Kuo in fiction, Yasmin Boakye in nonfiction, and Stephanie Lane Sutton in poetry. Also in this issue, find art by Martin Balsam, Jailyne España, Rain Mang, and more; fiction by Rain Bravo, Eric Dickey, Caitlin Helsel, and others; nonfiction by Linda Schwartz; and poetry by Danny Barbare, Emily Fernandez, Kathy Key-Tello, Stephanie Niu, and more.
In the latest issue of The Blue Mountain Review: Poet Lee Herrick delivers heart and fire and Sebastian Mathews writes about melody and technique. Travel with Jeremy Bassetti or spend an evening in Nashville’s Red Phone Booth. Also in the issue: a sit down with Jessica Jacobs and Nickole Brown, Freddie Ashley of the Actor’s Express, and the life and works of Rebecca Evans. Plus, even more fiction, essays, and poetry.
Rain Taxi Review of Books is proud to cap off its 25th year with our 100th issue. For those who know the magazine, many things about it are the same—issue #100 features dozens of reviews, interviews, and essays by a wide variety of contributors discussing an astonishing array of aesthetically adventurous books. It also includes special features like a full-page poetry comic by Gary Sullivan and a letter from editor Eric Lorberer reflecting on Rain Taxi’s life at this odd but exciting time. See the complete table of contents at our website and join us on the ride!
In the newest issue of Cleaver Magazine find: poetry by Meggie Royer, Amy Beth Sisson, Heikki Huotari, and more; nonfiction by Jinna Han, Christina Berke, Susan Hamlin, Claire Rudy Foster, and others; a visual narrative by Michael Green; short stories by Dylan Cook, L.L. Babb, and Mike Nees; flash by Steve Gergley, B. Bilby Barton, Darlene Eliot, and more; and paintings by Morgan Motes.
Issue Seven is three issues in one—a poetry issue, a prose issue, and an art issue. This is our largest issue to date, filled with art, poetry, and prose from domestic and sexual violence survivors, child abuse survivors, and harassment victims. Work by Taylor Drake, Sky Dai, Emma Jokinen, Elena Fite, Siri Espy, Isabella Neblett, Charlotte Kane, Carly Hall, Melanie Ward, Rachael Gay, Mae Herring, Miriam Leibowitz, Mars Rightwildish, Ranjeet Singh, and many more. We were also fortunate to be able to interview Lori Greene for the issue, who created the artwork for the United States’s first permanent memorial to sexual violence survivors.
For the last issue of 2020 we’re continuing to feature our Remember in November Contest for Creative Nonfiction winner, runner-up, and finalist stories. You can find these at the Mag Stand. Also, in celebration of our Pushcart and Best of the Net nominees, this month’s content also elevates a few of our favorite archived stories back to the homepage.
This issue’s theme is “Food and Memory.” Featured writers include Anne Payne Barker, Jessica Chu-A-Kong, Susan Knox, Angela Borda, Harvey Silverman, Wally Swist, Heather M. Surls, Evelyn Louise May, Tina Blade, Madelaine Zadik, and more. Find more info at the Still Point Arts Quarterly website.
The latest issue of Months To Years is out. It includes yet another fantastic roster of talented writers reflecting on grief and loss from diverse perspectives. Work by Zan Bockes, John Q. McDonald, Nancy Morgan, Rosa Angelica Garcia, Co Bauman, Susan Rothstein, Megeen R. Mulholland, Paul Sohar, Stewart Lindh, Bruce Gorden, Michal Mahgerefteh, Karen Storm, Linda Ankrah-Dove, Charlene Stegman Moskal, Marjorie Stamm Rosenfeld, Elizabeth Haukaas, C.T. Holte, Beth Hope-Cushey, Kim Malinowski, Liza Bernstein, Lucy Meynell, and Charlie Morris.
This issue of Poetry features poetry by Jane Wong, Noor Hindi, Pippa Little, Marcus Wicker, Talvikki Ansel, Darius Simpson, Lance Larsen, Maggie Millner, William Fuller, Alec Finlay, Jon Davis, Jordan Keller-Martinez, Ashley M. Jones, Anna Leahy, Jayy Dodd, A.D. Lauren-Abunassar, Austin Smith, Brayan Salinas, John Lennox, Kemi Alabi, Isabella Borgeson, Philip Gross, Ange Mlinko, Cyrée Jarelle Johnson, Imani Cezanne, Leila Chatti, Luther Hughes, and T.J. Clark.