Subscriber News: February 2020
Recent Honors
Congratulations to Jennifer Davis Michael. Her poetry chapbook Let Me Let Go was published in January by Finishing Line Press. She kindly shares a sample poem here. Poet and critic Kim Bridgford says of this collection: "Let Me Let Go is about liminal spaces: what exists there and what does not. Particularly interested in the movement of people—a four-pound baby, a father with dementia—she understands that something magical happens in approaching the crossing. At the same time, there is a stubborn love that connects us when we are in the same space." In other news, her poem "The Stable Door" appeared in the online journal Halfway Down the Stairs.
Congratulations to J Brooke. Eir flash prose piece "Before and After" was a finalist in the 2019 Sunspot Literary Journal Contest (theme: "Inception") and was published in Sunspot Lit Vol. 1, Issue 5. Read a PDF of the issue here. Visit the author's website at jbrookewrites.com, and read an interview with em in Stonecoast Review.
Congratulations to Kevin Hinkle. His poetry chapbook A Few Bruises Better is now available for pre-order from Finishing Line Press. He kindly shares a sample poem here. Award-winning poet Rebecca Aronson says, "Kevin Hinkle contemplates the unreliability of the body, its many betrayals, in poems spoken in a voice both frank and gently wry...Despite this ailing body, the disobedient body parts, the voice is not weary or hopeless, but rather contemplative, knowing, and lightly humorous. This is a book that will stay with me for its lovely musicality, which is in itself a kind of joyfulness."
Congratulations to Diane Thomas-Plunk. Her story "The New Table" was a finalist in the Pen2Paper disability-related writing competition sponsored by the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities. Read the winners here.
Congratulations to Jennie MacDonald. She edited a collection of reprinted 19th-century magazine fiction, Schabraco and Other Gothic Tales from The Lady's Monthly Museum, 1798-1828, which will be published this month by Valancourt Books. In addition, her guest blog post "Discovering Character Through Place" was published in Typehouse Literary Magazine.
Congratulations to Thelma T. Reyna. Her eighth book, Dearest Papa: A Memoir in Poems, is forthcoming from Golden Foothills Press. She writes, "Dearest Papa is a tribute to my late husband of 50 years, Victor (a well-known, respected local high school teacher and championship coach), who died suddenly during minor surgery." She kindly shares a sample poem here. Visit her website to learn more.
Congratulations to E Baker. Her poem "Father, My Baby...", a sonnet about the 1921 racist massacre that destroyed "Black Wall Street" in Tulsa, OK, won second prize in the 2019 Anita McAndrews Award from Poets for Human Rights. The most recent deadline for this free contest, with prizes up to $100, was November 30. She found this contest in Winning Writers.
Congratulations to Roberta Beary. Her poetry collection Carousel was co-winner of the 2019 Snapshot Press Book Awards and will be published this year. This contest for manuscripts of haiku, tanka, and other short forms is currently open through November 30. Snapshot Press is Britain's leading independent publisher of English-language haiku and other short-form poetry.
Congratulations to Lesléa Newman. Her picture book Welcoming Elijah: A Passover Tale with a Tail, illustrated by Susan Gal, was published in January by Charlesbridge. In other news, her picture book Gittel's Journey: An Ellis Island Story (Abrams, 2019) won the Children's Literature category of the 2019 National Jewish Book Awards and a Silver Medal in the 2020 Sydney Taylor Book Awards sponsored by the Association of Jewish Libraries, which also honored Lesléa with a Sydney Taylor Body of Work Award.
Congratulations to Gary Beck. His novel State of Rage was recently released by Cyberwit Publishing. From the book blurb: "Murderous rampages prompt a young psychologist to decide to make a device that will detect disturbed individuals before they run amok. He starts a project that quickly grows and is funded by government and corporations. He falls in love with one of his colleagues and after threats and crises they commit to each other and to finding a way to stop violent madness." Gary's latest poetry collection, Temporal Dreams, is now available from Wordcatcher. From the book blurb: "Beck comments on America's troubled past of international conflict and the War on Terror. Beck explores the pressure to fit into society, a pressure made more extreme by rapid change. He explores the results of this struggle including issues with sleep, unachievable beauty standards and health."
Recent Publications
Janet Ruth Heller's poem "Elegy for Freda" was published in Mizmor Anthology: 2019 Poetry Edition, edited by Michal Mahgerefteh and David King (Poetica Publishing, 2019). She will be speaking about "Keys to Reading and Analyzing Nonfiction" for the Michigan Reading Association Conference at the Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center in Detroit, Michigan, at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, March 14 and 1:00 p.m. on Monday, March 16. Her award-winning fiction picture book about bullying, How the Moon Regained Her Shape (Arbordale, 2006), is now out in its sixth edition. Visit her website to learn more.
Kaya Do-Khanh's poetry collection When You Know Nothing is available on Amazon Kindle. The 17-year-old author describes her debut book as "a collection and dissection of emotions of a generation z teen; an exploration of adolescence, from breaking to growing to loving; a series of beginnings and endings." Visit her website to learn more.
Annie Dawid's story "June's 21st Birthday, and the Mothers" was published at The Casket of Fictional Delights.
Dean Kostos's recently published memoir The Boy Who Listened to Paintings (Spuyten Duyvil, 2019) was favorably reviewed at Yes Poetry in January by Michael McKeown Bondhus, who wrote: "Though there are many memoirs about abuse and trauma, what sets Kostos's apart are its painterly and poetic sensibilities."
R. Bremner's poems "Obsessions", "On a midsummer Thursday in New York, July 14, 2014", "Tigers", "Paint me in blacks and dark greens", and "Grinding eyes in a rubber room" were published in Adelaide Literary Magazine, #32 (January 2020). Click on the image of the issue and scroll to page 201 to see the poems. In addition, three of his Beat poems appeared in Shot Glass Journal #30: "Kerouac dream #1", "Kerouac dream #2", and "Kerouac dream #3".
Yvonne (a/k/a Yvonne Chism-Peace) had her poem "Marathon" published in Backchannels Journal, Issue #3 (2020). Her poem "Willa on North Broad Street" appeared in Philadelphia Stories (Winter 2019). Her work was included in the anthology Is It Hot in Here or Is It Just Me? Women Over Forty Write on Aging, edited by Nina Padolf, Janette Schafer, Wendy Scott, and Holly Spencer (2019).
R.T. Castleberry's poem "Are You Ready" was published in MockingHeart Review, Vol. 5, #1 (2020).
Published: February 9, 2020
