Subscriber News: June 2014
Recent Honors
Congratulations to Laurel Blossom. Her book-length narrative prose poem, Longevity, will be published by Four Way Books in October 2015. Three sections from the book are published online in the Spring 2014 issue of FRIGG Magazine.
Congratulations to James Dorr. His dark fantasy collection The Tears of Isis (Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing, 2013) was a finalist for the Horror Writers Association's annual Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection. Visit James's blog to learn more about his poetry and prose books.
Congratulations to Lucia May. Her poetry chapbook Blond Boy was the runner-up for the 2013 Helen Kay Chapbook Prize and will be published this year by Evening Street Press. See the book trailer on her website. She kindly shares a sample poem here. Blond Boy is a family memoir in poems, set in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe. The most recent deadline for this $250 prize was December 31.
Congratulations to Diane Frank. Her novel Yoga of the Impossible was released in May by 1st World Publishing. From the book blurb: "Take an American geisha, a sculptor who knows everything the geishas know about love. Put her in a society that's morally profane, and ask her to find her way. The story is told through the soul of a sculptor who lives her life as a contemporary Aphrodite. Katarina sees everything through the lens of an obscure Indian philosophy, Yoga of the Impossible. Early in the novel, two young teenagers face a trauma that will ripple through their lives unless they turn around and deal with it. You'll meet a tribe of late-blooming artists searching for love on a crooked path."
Congratulations to The Poet Spiel. He won first prize for poetry in the 2013 Ascent Aspirations Anthology Contest for "childplay" and an honorable mention in the same contest for "lamb". He kindly shares the former poem here. Visit his website for more of his poetry and artwork. This Canadian contest gives prizes up to C$100 apiece for poetry and flash fiction; the most recent deadline was June 15.
Congratulations to Katherine J. Leisering. She won third prize for poetry in the 2014 Writers-Editors Network International Writing Competition for "Verses Scribbl'd in My Burning House", a parody of Anne Bradstreet's "Verses Upon the Burning of Our House". She kindly shares it with us here. The 2015 contest, with prizes up to $100 in various genres, is now open through March 15. See the winners' list here.
Recent Publications
Carolyn Howard-Johnson's poem "The Romantic 40s", inspired by her late father's love of jazz, was published in the April 2014 issue of Cyclamens and Swords. Find out more about Carolyn's HowToDoItFrugally series of book promotion guides on her website.
Ellaraine Lockie's poems "On Becoming George Sand" and "Angle of Repose" were published in Cultural Weekly in May. This online journal of the arts offers a free weekly e-newsletter with original poetry, podcast interviews, and articles on film, music, literature, performing arts and more.
Elizabeth Marchitti's poem "River of My Heart" and her husband John's poem "Passaic River, Your Story" were included in The Great Falls Anthology (Maria Mazziotti Gillan, editor), published by the Poetry Center of Passaic County Community College. Contributors presented their work at a reading in Paterson, New Jersey on May 10.
Ann Eustace's poem "My Three Musketeers" was published in the Spring 2014 issue of Open Minds Quarterly, whose theme was "Peer Support". This journal focuses on the poetry and literature of mental health recovery.
William A. Gordon's book 1,001 Tips for Writers is now available in print and e-book editions through his North Ridge Books imprint. This compendium of quotations on writing and publishing includes advice from a wide variety of books, articles, speeches, and reflections by notable authors. Two examples: "On the door to success it says Push and Pull." (Yiddish proverb)..."Literary success of any enduring kind is made by refusing to do what publishers want, by refusing to write what the public wants, by refusing to accept any popular standards, by refusing to write anything to order." (Lafcadio Hearn)
Ruth Thompson's poetry collection Woman with Crows (Saddle Road Press, 2013) was favorably reviewed by Claire Farley in The California Journal of Women Writers. An excerpt: "It is the strength of spirit behind Thompson's lyrical verse that deserves celebration. She is a woman writer for women writers; there is a clear sense of feminine community in her work that is as pragmatic as it is mythic." Ruth will be reading her poetry at Moe's Books, 2476 Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley, CA, at 7:30 PM on June 19, and at Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera, CA, at 4:00 PM on June 22.
Judy Juanita's essay "The N-Word" was published on June 6 at The Weeklings.
Published: June 14, 2014
