Congratulations to Stephen C. Pollock. His poetry collection Exits, which won the Poetry category of the 2024 North Street Book Prize, has received 49 awards to date, including Gold Medals for Poetry in the 2025 American Writing Awards, the 2025 Readers' Choice Awards, and the 2023 Readers' Favorite Book Awards, and Poetry Winner in the 2025 Book Excellence Awards and the 2026 Independent Press Award. See the full list and buy the book here.

Congratulations to Gary Beck. His poetry collection The Eloquence of Distance was recently published by Purple Unicorn Media.

Congratulations to J. Arthur Moore. His Civil War coming-of-age novel Journey Into Darkness was shortlisted for the Grand Prize in the 2026 Eric Hoffer Book Awards and was also a finalist in their da Vinci Eye category for book design. The next deadline for this award series for indie and self-published books is January 21, 2027.

Recent Publications

Winning Writers Editor Jendi Reiter and Subhaga Crystal Bacon will read from their new poetry collections at 3:00 pm Eastern time on Sunday, July 5 in the Saddle Road Press "First Sundays" online reading series (Zoom link, passcode 536814). Jendi's latest book is Introvert Pervert (The Word Works, 2026) and Subhaga's is A Brief History of My Sex Life (Lily Poetry Review Press, 2026). Watch past episodes on the Saddle Road Press YouTube channel, including Jendi's 2024 reading from their novel Origin Story with Donald Mengay (Ojo). Jendi and Andrea Lawlor will also be reading their work and interviewing Joseph Osmundson about his new memoir Spawning Season: An Experiment in Queer Parenthood (Bloomsbury) at 7:00 pm on Wednesday, June 17, at Odyssey Bookshop, 9 College Street, Suite 4, South Hadley, MA.

Cheryl J. Fish's flash fiction "Smoking with Renate" was published in North American Review.

Phyllis Klein's reading with other contributors to the poetry anthology The Nature of Our Times: Poems On America's Lands, Waters, Wildlife, and Other Natural Wonders can now be viewed on YouTube (2 hours). Edited by Luisa A. Igloria, Aileen Cassinetto, and David Hassler, this anthology was a joint publication of Paloma Press, the Wick Poetry Center at Kent State University, Poets for Science, and United by Nature.

Linda Summersea's memoir The Girl with the Black and Blue Doll has been receiving positive reviews on Goodreads: "I'm a therapist, and I will be recommending this book to clients (and colleagues)." Five-star reviewer Velora Kingsley writes, "That doll is the perfect metaphor for this whole story. Linda took a doll that was 'broken' and saw herself in it. The way she describes her Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) before it even had a name is so powerful." Linda was interviewed about the book on The Fraternity Foodie Podcast (30 min) and the Mumbai-based podcast The Guiding Voice (40 min).

Terri Kirby Erickson's poem "My Daughter with MS Has Another MRI" was published in One Art.

Chen Du and Xisheng Chen's translations of Chinese poet Yan An were recently published in the following journals: "Story of Searching for Spring in the Suburbs:, "Hymn to an Envoy", and "Post Office" in The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature; "Imagining the Life of a Spider in a Village", "Elaborating on Boulders on Mount Hua", and "Outlanders" in International Poetry Review, a publication of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro; "Nests and Birds" (with co-translator Yuyang Xie) in Denver Quarterly. Their translation of Wang Jibing's poem "Low Flight" was published in The Baffler.

Duane L. Herrmann's story "Behind the Hidden Door" was published in Masticadores. His story "Final Action" appeared at Latinos USA. His story "Victorious Pen" was published in Lothlorien Poetry Journal. His poem "Asleep Looking" was published in Feed the Holy. His poem "Spring Peeping" was published by the Adirondack Center for Writing.

Charles Sartorius's flash horror story "Oschter Haws" was published in the Evil Easter edition of Flash Phantoms (April 2026). (Scroll down to the last story in the issue.) Charles tells us, "I got the idea from my paternal German grandmother who spun me the tale of the Easter Hare when I was a child; the horror aspect was concocted from my imagination."

Eva Tortora's writing was recently published in the New York Daily News (Letters to the Editor, April 24), Roar Journal, and ScreaminMamas.