Subscriber News: August 2019
Recent Honors
Winning Writers Editor Jendi Reiter was a finalist for the 2019 Janet B. McCabe Poetry Prize from Ruminate Magazine, judged by Craig Santos Perez. Their poem "Buzz Aldrin Takes Communion on the Moon" will be published in the December issue. The most recent deadline for this $1,500 award was May 15.
Congratulations to Gregory Ashe. His second poetry chapbook, Haunted by Ghosts of Past and Present Love, will be published in October by Finishing Line Press and is now available for pre-order. Slash Coleman, best-selling author of The Bohemian Love Diaries, says of this collection: "Surprisingly dangerous and sexy as hell, Ashe delivers in his finest collection yet...Acting at times as a confessional and other times as a love letter to Generation X, the pages within are remarkably strong, demonstrating just what poetry is capable of when its maker is vulnerable enough to transcribe his truth." He kindly shares a sample poem here. Ashe's debut chapbook, Explorations (Finishing Line Press, 2018), is available on Amazon or by contacting the author at gashe123@verizon.net. LB Sedlacek, author of Mars or Bust, says of this book: "Gregory Ashe presents a world of Walt Whitman like wonder in these poems. His words channel a strong voice, a fired up soul, and a commanding vista of verse."
Congratulations to R. Bremner. His poem "Morning Song", an erasure based on Sylvia Plath's poem of the same name, won the erasure contest sponsored by Tiny Spoon magazine and was published in Issue #2.
Congratulations to Darrell Lindsey. He won second prize in the 2019 Jane Reichhold International Prize sponsored by the ukiaHaiku Festival. The most recent deadline was March 23. Read the winners here. Darrell also received a Highly Commended award in the 2019 H. Gene Murtha Memorial Senryu Contest. His poems "Change of Address" and "Runaway River" appeared in the May/June 2019 issue of County Line Magazine.
Congratulations to David Holper. His second poetry collection, The Bridge, was published in April by SequoiaSong Publications. He kindly shares a sample poem here. Susan Wooldridge, author of the classic book poemcrazy: freeing your life with words, says of this book: "Magnificent. A magnum opus...We visit intimate moments in Holper's life: hitchhiking, driving a cab in Ketchikan, discovering love of language (like the word for friend in Tlinkot) and always, the 'dangerous habit of poetry.' Poems give glimpses of basic training ('in the innermost circle of hell'), his mother's near death on the Golden Gate Bridge, his miraculous survival clinging to a mountain cliff with a friend in a thunderstorm. I almost stopped breathing."
Recent Publications
Garret Keizer's debut poetry collection, The World Pushes Back (Texas Review Press, 2019), received a starred review in Kirkus Reviews, which praised his "funny, touching, and addictively readable poems." Read an excerpt on Winning Writers Editor Jendi Reiter's blog.
Danny Thomas's story "Death's Messenger" was published in Deep South Magazine.
Nina Macheel's story "Minjakawan Mittens" was published in Midwest Review in June. Her story "Smoke Rings" appeared in Out of Print Magazine.
Kathleen McCormick's "ambiguously genred" piece "Mikimoto Mama" was published in the 30th anniversary issue of Green Hills Literary Lantern (July 2019). It continues the story of Bridget Flaherty's coming-of-age begun in her novel Dodging Satan: My Irish/Italian Sometimes Awesome, but Mostly Creepy Childhood (2016).
Frank Prem's poetry memoirs Small Town Kid and Devil in the Wind are available in print and e-book editions. Small Town Kid is a free-verse memoir of growing up in rural Australia in the 1960s and 70s. Read the Goodreads reviews here. Devil in the Wind is a free-verse collection of the voices of survivors and victims of the catastrophic Black Saturday bushfires experienced in Victoria (Australia) in 2009. Read the Goodreads reviews here. He kindly shares a poem from the latter collection here.
Konstantin Nicholas Rega has several publications to report. His article "A beginner's guide to the music of Joni Mitchell" appeared in the webzine Treble and was reprinted on Mitchell's official website in June. Also in Treble, he reviewed soul singer Mavis Staples's latest album, We Get By. His poems "Petri Dish Sequence" and "What the River Took" were published in White Wall Review in July. His story "All Must Die" was published in Coffin Bell, a journal of dark literature. At GASHER, he interviewed poet Josh Bettinger, author of A Dynamic Range of Various Designs for Quiet. Konstantin recently received the Ink, Sweat and Tears Scholarship from East Anglia's famous MA in Creative Writing program. See more of his work on his website.
Nigel J. Bennett's audiobook Take That Leap: Risking It All for What Really Matters was released by Audible on August 9 and can be downloaded for free from Amazon for the next 30 days. From the book description: "At a young age, Nigel Bennett was shocked to witness, firsthand, the real impact of oil spills on our natural world. After almost being shot down by FARC guerrillas on the Venezuela-Colombia border and being forced to escape Egypt while working for his father's oil spill contingency planning company, he decided to break away and start Aqua-Guard Spill Response. Aqua-Guard now provides equipment and services that protect water, the planet's most precious resource, in 104 countries. Take That Leap recounts Nigel's unanticipated adventures as an entrepreneur, emerging philanthropist, and avid outdoorsman."
Published: August 7, 2019
