Subscriber News: July 2024
Recent Honors
Congratulations to Tong Ge. Her debut novel, The House Filler (Ronsdale Press, 2023), was selected as one of the editor's choices by the Historical Novel Society in the UK and is among the 10 books recommended by the Miramichi Reader for Asian Heritage Month in May. This book features a young Chinese bride in 1918 contending with limited roles for women and the upheaval of the Japanese invasion.
Congratulations to William Huhn. His debut poetry collection, Bachelor Holiday, will be released this month by BlazeVOX and is available for pre-order. Poet Donald Revell calls Huhn "the Ovid of our present milieu" and says that this book "makes me grateful, and almost glad, to be living in this havoc of a century." He kindly shares a sample poem here. Visit his website for more of his published poems and literary essays.
Congratulations to Ruth Thompson. Her collection Journey Bread: New & Selected Poems is available for pre-order from Broadstone Books and will be published in August. Upcoming tour dates include a Zoom reading with Broadstone authors Michel Steven Krug and Harry Moore on Sunday, July 20, at 4:00 pm Eastern time; a Zoom reading on Sunday, August 4, at 12:00 pm Pacific time, in the Slow Lightning/Heat Lightning Reading Series; and participation in an in-person group reading on Saturday, September 21, from 2:00-5:00 pm Eastern time, at Poets House NYC to celebrate 21 years of Broadstone Books. Visit her website for details and sample poems.
Congratulations to B.J. Buckley. Her poetry collection Flyover Country was recently released by Pine Row Press. Read "Instructions for Resurrection" online in Pine Row, Issue #9 (Spring 2024), and find more sample poems from all of her poetry books on her website.
Congratulations to Brooke Herter James. She won first prize in the 2024 Fish Publishing Poetry Prize for her poem "No, I am not a Robot". Other subscribers placing in this contest included Mary K. O'Melveny, who won second prize for "Writing About the Invisible"; and Allen Shadow, whose poem "I Crossed You" was shortlisted. This is his second year in a row on the shortlist. The most recent deadline for this contest, with a top prize of 1,000 euros, was March 31.
Congratulations to Léonie Rosenstiel. Her memoir Protecting Mama: Surviving the Legal Guardianship Swamp (Calumet Editions, 2023) won first prize in the Aging category of the 13th annual IndieReader Discovery Awards for self-published, hybrid, and small press books. This is the sixth literary award for her book, which details her mother's dementia diagnosis and her subsequent 14-year struggle in New Mexico courts.
Congratulations to Alice McVeigh. Her novel Darcy: A Pride and Prejudice Variation won the gold medal in the Romantic Comedy category of the 2024 National Indie Excellence Awards. It was also one of seven finalists for the UK Selfies Book Awards 2024.
Congratulations to Maureen Connolly. Her novel A Million Miles from Yesterday was recently released by New Book Authors Publishing, a small press in Wisconsin. It is the story of a widower in a small Wisconsin town who heals with the aid of a diverse community.
Recent Publications
J Brooke's interview with Morgan Talty, the award-winning author of the story collection Night of the Living Rez (Tin House Books, 2022) and the novel Fire Exit (Tin House Books, 2024), was published in June in The Rumpus. About Fire Exit, the story of a Penobscot man struggling with whether to tell his troubled neighbor that she is really his daughter, Talty says, "Ultimately, each individual forms a sense of self through the stories created about them and told to them. So, I wondered, what if you don’t have a community? What if you haven’t been told your entire story? If pieces of your story are missing from your consciousness, how can you become a complete person?"
Sharon A. Harmon's article "Rock Burning" was published in The Backwoodsman (Spring 2024).
Tamara Kaye Sellman will have a launch party for her new fiction collection, Cul de Sac Stories (Aqueduct Press), on Thursday, July 18, at 3:30 pm Pacific time, at the Port Townsend Writers Conference, in the South Gallery #305 on the Centrum/Fort Worden campus. Read Jane's Stories Press editor Glenda Bailey-Mershon's positive review of the book at The Inspiration Shelf.
Maurya Kerr will be among the poetry readers at RHINO's virtual launch reading for their 2024 issue on Thursday, July 18, at 7:00 pm Central time.
Rick Lupert's 28th poetry collection, It's Spritz O'Clock Somewhere, is now available from his imprint Ain't Got No Press. The latest in his series of travelogue collections, this book takes a delicious and humorous look at his recent sojourns in Paris and Italy.
John Reinhart's poem "Stargames" will be included in the 2024 Dwarf Stars Anthology, a collection of the best sci-fi/fantasy poetry 10 lines or shorter. The anthology also serves as the ballot for the Dwarf Stars Award, given annually by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association. He also recently launched Poetry Across Maine, a statewide poetry mapping project, part oral history, part place poetry experiment, part self-guided tour of Maine through poetry. Anyone is welcome to enter a poem about a specific location in Maine, which will then appear on the publicly shared map.
Janet Ruth Heller read her poem "Losing My Father" at the Kalamazoo Poetry Festival in April. Her numerous recent poetry publications include: "Crocus" and "Black Pipe" in Blithe Spirit 33.1 (February 2023). "College Reunion" in Ribbons 19.1 (Winter 2023). "May Snowfall" in Humana Obscura #6 (Spring/Summer 2023). "Your Angry Words" in Moonbathing #28 (Spring/Summer 2023). "A Former Patient Returns" in One Art (June 2023). "Black Sheep" in The Frameless Sky #18 (June 2023). "Cottonwood Seeds" in Ribbons 19.2 (Spring/Summer 2023). "Sunlight Sifts" in Scarlet Dragonfly Journal #16 (August 2023). "Deer in the Cascades" in One Moment at a Time: Tanka Society of America Members' Anthology edited by Jim Chessing (2023). "Pamela Brown Thomas" in Panoply #25 (2023). "White Locust Petals" in Akitsu Quarterly (Fall/Winter 2023). "Halloween" in Scarlet Dragonfly Journal (November 2023). "Phone Call II" in the art of tanka #1 (fall/winter 2023). "Cedar Waxwings" in Eucalypt #35 (2023). "Coyote" and "Muffin Top" in Cold Moon Journal (December 11, 2023). "Birthday Visitors" in failed haiku Vol. 8, #96 (December 2023). "Mother-in-Law on the Phone", "Snow Woman in Portage", and "Mark's Progress II" in Live Encounters Poetry & Writing (January 2024). "Offerings" in Amethyst Review (January 17, 2024). "Owl" in Time Haiku #59 (February 2024). "Zucchini" in Haiku Canada Review (February 2024). "Empty Nest" in Laurels #1 (February 2024). "Yoga Class" in tsuri-dōrō #20 (March/April 2024). "Sukkot Moon" in Presence #78 (March 2024). "Your Gentle Words" in Ribbons 20.1 (Spring/Summer 2024). "Clouds and Ribs" in Blithe Spirit 34.2 (May 2024).
Published: July 9, 2024
