Subscriber News: February 2017
Recent Honors
Congratulations to Jocelyn Pihlaja. Her essay "Family, Edited" was selected by Sundress Publications for Best of the Net 2016, honoring the top poems, stories, and essays published in online journals last year. This piece won an honorable mention in the 2015 Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest.
Congratulations to Linda Heuring. Her short story "Red Light, Green Light" won the 2016 Rash Award in Fiction from the Broad River Review, the literary magazine of Gardner-Webb University. The most recent submission period was August 15-November 15 for this contest with $500 prizes for poetry and fiction.
Congratulations to Ricky Rapoport Friesem. Her poem "Director's Notes: Holocaust Memorial Day, Tel Aviv" won first prize in the 2016 Reuben Rose Poetry Competition from Voices Israel. She kindly shares it with us here. The most recent submission period was July 15-September 30 for this contest with prizes up to $500 and anthology publication.
Congratulations to Carol Smallwood. Her poetry collection In Hubble's Shadow was published this year by Shanti Arts Publishing. She kindly shares a sample poem here. Poet Judith Skillman says of this book, "Carol Smallwood's poems, with their wealth of cosmology as well as quantum physics, reverberate with mystery. Her koan-like brevity reminds the reader to not take appearances for granted." Her essay collection Interweavings is also available from the same publisher. Writing professor Diane LeBlanc says of these essays, "In one moment, objects and environments in this dynamic collection appear through a magnifying glass, and in the next, the glass is lowered to turn our senses to the resonant words and images of novelists, scholars, and artists." Read the press release here.
Congratulations to Roberta Beary. The Haiku Foundation appointed her to its newly created position of Roving Ambassador. She will travel the world in 2017 to engage with haiku cultures on three continents, give readings and presentations, and spread the word about the Foundation's programs. Contact her to schedule an appearance, and follow her on Twitter for news of her travels.
Congratulations to Sandy Longley. Her debut poetry chapbook, Navigating the Waters, was published in fall 2016 by Finishing Line Press. She kindly shares a sample poem here.
Congratulations to Madeleine McDonald. Her poem "In Egypt", about the loss of her husband, was Commended in the 2016 Carers UK Creative Writing Competition and published in the anthology I Belong Here. The most recent deadline for this free poetry and fiction contest was July 31, with prizes of gift cards worth 150 pounds.
Congratulations to Rick Lupert. The Poetry Kit, a British writers' resource site, presented him with the 2017 Ted Slade Award for Service to Poetry. Lupert's website Poetry Super Highway celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. Poetry Kit founder Jim Bennett cited PSH's "Great Poetry Exchange, where poets send their books to each other...E-Book Free For All where for 24 hours poetry e-books, usually specially produced for the project, are available to download to everyone...Prompt-a-Day for National Poetry Month and the huge links directory to resources on the internet. Poetry Super Highway is now a major international resource that adds to the landscape of poetry."
Congratulations to Ruth Hill. She placed 41 poems in 2016. "Harbor of Rainbows" and "Pine Siskin" both won Honorable Mentions in Alabama State Poetry Society contests. "The Lesson Plan" and "The Shade Tree" each won a 2nd Prize of $25 in Poetry Society of Michigan contests, and were both published in the Peninsula Poets 2016 prize anthology. "Lacking You, I Lack All" won a League of Minnesota Poets Award of Merit. "A Psychopath" and "The Inukshuk" were published online October 2016 by British Columbia's Royal City Literary Arts Society e-zine, Wordplay. "A True Christmas Story", "Christmas Auction", and "Mine for Now" were published in Wordplay in December. The Bardo Group BeZINE will publish "A Friend Heals My Countenance".
Recent Publications
Annie Dawid's essay "What They Call Him" was published in Excavating Honesty: An Anthology of Rage and Hope in America, a free digital anthology from Paper Nautilus that features work by writers with diverse marginalized identities.
Sofia Kioroglou's poem "Je ne regrette rien" was published in the French literary magazine Dumas de Demain, Vol. 2. Her poems "Where do I belong?" and "When dreams fade away" will be published in The Basil O'Flaherty, an online literary journal, in March. She says of the Winning Writers newsletter: "The site is a treasure trove of opportunities for us writers and the content is simply amazing."
Pamela Uschuk was interviewed this month on Leslie Tate's blog about the sources of inspiration for her award-winning poetry, which include anti-war activism, music, the natural world, and her Russian/Czech immigrant family. Pam's most recent book is Blood Flower (Wings Press, 2015). She is editor-in-chief of the literary journal Cutthroat. Visit her website to find out more about her work.
Ellaraine Lockie's poems "While Waiting Outside Pete's PizzaRia" and "Home of the Brave" were featured at Poetry Super Highway on February 6. They are excerpted from her new chapbook Tripping with the Top Down, forthcoming this spring from Foothills Publishing. She also contributed a line (#16) to the collaborative poem-in-progress "The Trump Years" on the website Epic Protest Poems.
Published: February 8, 2017
