Subscriber News: August 2026
Recent Honors
Congratulations to Terri Kirby Erickson. Her eighth poetry collection, The Light That Follows Us Home, is now available for pre-order from Press 53. Her book launch, which is also a fundraiser for the American Brain Foundation, will take place Saturday, October 10, 3:00-5:00 pm at the Mary Alice Warren Community Center, 7632 Warren Park Drive, Lewisville, NC. The American Brain Foundation funds research to improve treatments, advance prevention strategies for, and discover cures for brain and nervous system conditions and disorders.
Congratulations to Rebecca Hart Olander. Her second poetry collection, Singing from the Deep End, was published by CavanKerry Press. Read a review by Tessara Dudley at Mom Egg Review.
Congratulations to Victor McConnell. His poem "Love Junkies" won first prize for poetry in the 60th New Millennium Writings Awards. Subscriber Ruth Thompson received an honorable mention for "Believing in Light". This contest is typically offered twice yearly, with deadlines in July and November, and prizes up to $1,000 in each genre.
Congratulations to Jeff Walt. His poem "Why I Like to Write Poems in Gay Bars" won the 2026 Oscar Wilde Award for LGBTQ Poetry from Gival Press, judged this year by Jeff Mann. The most recent deadline for this $500 prize was June 27. Subscriber SP Mulroy was one of the four finalists.
Recent Publications
Winning Writers Editor Jendi Reiter's essay "Normalcy? In This Economy?", a review of Mac Crane's story collection Perverts (Penguin Random House), was published in The Rumpus in July.
Julie Novak-McSweeney's poem "A Given Language" was published in Dilettante Magazine, Issue 7 (Spring/Summer 2026).
Donna Baier Stein's poems "Snippets from Dream Group IV: Flying Birds" and "Four Haiku from San Miguel" were published in LIPS, Issue 63/64. Her poem "What I Am Grateful for This Winter" was published in U.S.1 Worksheets, the annual anthology of the U.S.1 Poets' Cooperative for authors in the Delaware Valley. The anthology launch reading will take place November 1, 2:00-4:00 pm at the Princeton Public Library, 65 Witherspoon Street, Princeton, NJ.
Eleanor F.J. Gamarsh's book My Heartfelt Journey: A Life of Reflections in Stories, Poems and Recipes is available on Amazon. Eleanor writes about gardening, family life, and coping with invisible disabilities from ADHD and a traumatic brain injury.
Subhaga Crystal Bacon's poem "Snow Drought" was published July 10 at Queer Poem-A-Day.
CM Pickard's poem "Resistance Launched from a Landing" was published in the Irish literary journal Swerve, Issue 6 (Summer 2026). She says, "This publication was a pleasure to work with, and although small is a paying market."
Laurinda Lind's poetry micro-chapbook The Air Out There was published as a free download by the Origami Poems Project. Her flash fiction "Lonely Poem" appeared in Five Minute Lit. "hard day" appeared in Haiku Dialogue's folio on alcohol and addiction. "my mother when angry" was published in The Solitary Daisy, Issue #77 (Summer 2026). "another cold year" and "passing trucks" appeared in Renku Sessions at the Haiku Foundation. "When the Words Come" and "Inside the Outside" were included in the International Women's Writing Guild anthology Something Inside So Strong. "holding hands" appeared in the Daily Haiku feature on Charlotte Digregorio's Writer's Blog for July 3.
Judy Juanita's memoir California Fever Dream (Willow Press) was favorably reviewed by Candice Louisa Daquin in Life and Legends. "Juanita possesses a rarefied ability of a memoir writer to reach outside her own Black feminist experiences and touch on universal humanism without neglecting her original focus...She weaves together stories that relate to her life's activism and observations, in an unpretentious, deeply connective voice." Judy was also interviewed in David Garyan's California Poets Series and had five poems published on his site.
Published: August 3, 2026
