Subscriber News: July 2017
Recent Honors
Congratulations to Linda Heuring. Her short story collection A Woman Walked into the Bar was published in April by All Nations Press. A Woman Walked into the Bar was named an Editor's Pick by NewPages, and reviewed favorably at Midwest Book Review: "Showcasing a genuine flair for narrative driven storytelling and the creation of truly memorable characters, author Linda Heuring's stories are original, unfailingly engaging, thoroughly entertaining, and inherently compelling." The title story will be published later this year in Rosebud magazine.
Congratulations to Radha Marcum. Her debut poetry collection, Bloodline, was published in June by 3: A Taos Press, a poetry publisher founded by Andrea Watson. Bloodline delves into the difficult family history of the work of Marcum's grandfather on the Manhattan Project, building the first atomic bombs in Los Alamos, New Mexico, during World War II—and how that both brave and heavy legacy has affected the women in her family, both then and now. She kindly shares a sample poem here.
Congratulations to Trish Hopkinson. Her poetry chapbook Footnote will be released this month by Lithic Press. Poet Nicole Rollender says of this collection, "What elegant control and preciseness in Trish Hopkinson's chapbook, Footnote. These response poems pay homage to the greats—artists, singers, filmmakers and other writers like Amiri Baraka, Octavio Paz, Sylvia Plath, Emily Dickinson, Rainer Maria Rilke, Ai, Janis Joplin, and Pablo Neruda...in the rhythm of response and found poems, and forms like reverse snowballs and erasures, Hopkinson covers so much ground, giving readers a taste of art from across the centuries and the world." She kindly shares a sample poem here. Visit her website for more poems and frequent postings of contests and markets for writers.
Congratulations to Gary Beck. His poetry collection Virtual Living was published in June by Thurston Howl Publications, a small press in Knoxville, TN with an interest in progressive, feminist, and LGBTQ-friendly fiction and nonfiction. From the book blurb: "Focusing on how humans relate to the world via artificial means, as well as self-imposed affected mechanisms, Beck looks at the concept of living virtually from all angles and tells his story with just enough abstractness to move readers to choose how to inhabit their own worlds." He kindly shares a sample poem here.
Recent Publications
Mike Tuohy's political speculative fiction "Fantasy Cabinet" was published in 500 Miles Magazine. "By Invitation Only", a story he co-authored with Celeste Woody about her encounter with serial killer Ted Bundy and her invitation from the State of Florida to witness his execution, was published in the Scribes Valley Publishing 2016 contest anthology. This story has been recognized in 7 competitions in 3 countries over the past 6 years. Visit his website Bunker 93a for more creative writing, a photo essay on building his earth-sheltered home, and historical research about his grandfather A.M. Sullivan, a former president of the Poetry Society of America.
Diane Lockward's anthology The Doll Collection, from her press Terrapin Books, was favorably reviewed in June by Deirdre Hines at Sabotage Reviews. Hines writes, "[Dolls] serve as routes to a new understanding of childhood, rites of passage, identity, worship, the illusory nature of reality, the sexual politic, class relations, changing fashions, sexual fantasy, paedophilia, pupaphobia, venustraphobia, auto da fes and gender construction. There are many poems in this collection which stun either through their expert handling of form, or with imagery that haunts the reader long after the book has been closed." Writing for Mom Egg Review in July, Judy Swann says of The Doll Collection, "There is rare, surprisingly oblique engagement with the questions of female agency and the racialized stratification of identities, cerebral material that the sociological literature on dolls—and fashion modeling—is replete with. Do girls and women become who we are by filiation and descent alone or is there a force other than time, something innate and irrational, that shapes the chaos of who we are into the differentiated individuals we become? I believe that our desires are responsible for much of who we are: I believe love shapes us. And have we not all loved our dolls?...There are more themes in this anthology than I can possibly do justice to in a short review—abortion, fathers, doll-makers, paper dolls, doll hospitals, the Dionne quints; and there are forms galore—sonnets, a ghazal, a sestina. Each selection is a masterpiece, and each—in its way—vivifies for us what Marjorie Tesser in 'American Girl' calls the 'glut of love'."
Naila Moreira was interviewed by Karen Brown at New England Public Radio on July 6 about her new poetry chapbook, Water Street (Finishing Line Press, 2017).
Duane L. Herrmann had four poems published in Peacock Journal, and his poem "Song of the Prairie Night" appeared on Ampersand Lit.
J. Paul Cooper has launched a blog to encourage new writers, titled Writing: Your Voice, Your Passion.
Cristofer Lentsch's poetry is included in the new anthology Games Poets Play, compiled by students from ModPo (Modern and Contemporary American Poetry, a course offered on Coursera). Buy it on Lulu.com. Anything over the publishing cost (about $1 per book) goes to Kelly Writer's House, an educational and philanthropic organization that hosts ModPo.
Jefferson Carter and Tucson, AZ Mayor Jonathan Rothschild read their poetry to a live audience for Creative Tucson, a community tv channel, on June 10. Jefferson is the poetry editor of Zócalo Magazine. Read more poetry on his website.
Fateme Banishoeib's poetry book The Whisper is available from Amazon.com and her website ReNew Business. "Lean back", one of the poems in The Whisper, was featured in a 3-minute Pop-Up Talk at TEDx Basel 2016.
Sue Ann Culp's story "Payback" was published at Sick Lit Magazine in May.
Carolyn Howard-Johnson will give a talk about book marketing on Wednesday, July 19, at 6:30 PM, at the Newbury Park Library, 2331 Borchard Road, Newbury Park, CA. She is the author of the How to Do It Frugally series of marketing guides for creative writers. The title of her talk is "Prosper Frugally in the Book Biz in 2017: The How-tos for Nudging Amazon's Sales Rankings".
Published: July 7, 2017
