Subscriber News: June 2022
Recent Honors
Congratulations to Robbie Gamble. His poetry chapbook A Can of Pinto Beans was published in January by Lily Poetry Review Books. This collection arose from his volunteer work with No More Deaths, an organization that provides medical and material aid to migrants crossing the Sonoran Desert between Arizona and Mexico. He kindly shares a sample poem here. Read Eileen Cleary's interview with him about the book in Solstice Lit Mag (Spring 2022), where he serves as a poetry editor.
Congratulations to Joseph Stanton. His seventh poetry collection, Prevailing Winds, was published this spring by Shanti Arts. This collection explores impermanence and the life cycles of nature and works of art. He kindly shares a sample poem here. An emeritus professor of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Joseph will be teaching a poetry workshop on August 20 at the Honolulu Museum of Art. Read more about his ekphrastic poetry in this September 2021 article from Valerie Robillard's blog, Poems Meet Paintings.
Congratulations to Diana Goetsch. Her memoir, This Body I Wore, was published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in May. A widely published poet and columnist for The American Scholar, Goetsch chronicles her long journey to coming out as a trans woman, a path that runs parallel to the emergence of the trans community over the past several decades. Read about her literary influences at LitHub and sign up for her June 23 online book talk hosted by Charis Books & More, a feminist bookstore in Georgia.
Congratulations to Jeffry Glover. His book of light verse, 9 Lively Cat Tales and Other Pet Poems, was published by Poems for Pleasure Press.
Congratulations to Lesléa Newman. Her bilingual picture book Alicia and the Hurricane: A Story of Puerto Rico/Alicia y el huracán: Un cuento de Puerto Rico, with illustrations by Elizabeth Erazo Baez and Spanish text by Georgina Lázaro, was published in April by Children's Press. Lesléa says, "When Hurricane Maria devastated the beautiful island of Puerto Rico in 2017, my spouse, who is from Bayamón, Puerto Rico, was devastated as well. 'What will happen to the coquís?' she asked. And in that moment, I knew I had to write a book to give hope to the children of Puerto Rico showing them that when families and friends come together with compassion and love, they can recover and rebuild their lives."
Congratulations to Ruth Thompson. Quickwater Oracles (Two Fine Crows Books, 2021), her book of poetic spiritual channelings, was shortlisted for the Grand Prize in the 2022 Eric Hoffer Awards, won first runner-up in the Spiritual category, and received one of their Montaigne Medals for most thought-provoking books of the year. This award series is open to academic, small press, and self-published books from the preceding two years. The most recent deadline was January 21.
Congratulations to John Sibley Williams. His poem "At This Table We Sing with Joy, with Sorrow" won the 2021 Vivian Shipley Award from the Connecticut Poetry Society. The next submission period will be August 1-September 30. John has several other poetry publications to report. "Goodbye Horses" appeared in Sugar House Review and was reprinted at Verse Daily. "sky burial" was published in Waxwing Literary Magazine, Issue #25. "act of contrition" was published in Breakwater Review. Verse Daily also reprinted his poem "My American Ghost" from his most recent book, The Drowning House (Elixir Press, 2022). "The Sound of Listening" was published in Palette Poetry. Read reviews of this collection in The Oregonian and PRISM International. Visit the website for upcoming readings in Portland, OR.
Congratulations to Cal Massey. His novel Own Little Worlds, a political thriller satirizing post-Trump America, won the 2020 Kenneth Patchen Award for the Innovative Novel from the Journal of Experimental Fiction and was published this spring. When a bomb explosion kills four American workers on a Japanese cargo ship, four days before the presidential election, a retired journalist must find the truth amid the competing conspiracy theories that blame both candidates. The 2023 Patchen Award, offering $1,000 and publication, is now open through August 31.
Congratulations to Mahnaz Badihian. Her poetry collection Ask the Wind (Vagabond, 2022) won a Gold Award in the Literary Titans Book Awards. From the review accompanying her award: "Ask The Wind is a collection of charming, heartwarming, and sometimes even heartbreaking poems. In them, she paints pictures of war, death, poverty, identity, immigration, belonging, and love... She challenges her readers to love one another, stand up for what is right, and do away with prejudice."
Recent Publications
Natalie Grand's debut graphic novel, Cult Girls, was published in March. Cult Girls is the story of four women raised in the Jehovah's Witnesses sect and how they escaped the confines of abusive patriarchal religion. Read an interview with her at JW Survivors.
Bobby "Z" Zielinski's narrative poetry collection, Friday Nite at the Bucket of Blood Bar, was released in April and is available on Amazon. Spanning one night at a bar in 1950s Jersey City, this collection of linked anecdotes is a historical and satirical look at the New Jersey underworld. Visit his website, Tales of the Junkyard Dog, and read Colleen Ryor's interview with him in The Adirondack Review. Bobby's poem "Spiritual Reincarnation" was published in The Poet magazine on their March 2022 Featured Poetry page (scroll down), and "The Ukraine Dream" appeared in their international anthology Poetry for Ukraine. His work has also appeared in MindFull Magazine, Issue #2 (Spring 2022), a poetry journal for writers with mental health challenges.
Jesse James Doty's essay "The Tomboy That Never Grew Up" was published in Conceit Magazine (April 2022) and in The L-Word Newsletter, a local publication in Humboldt County, CA.
Thelma T. Reyna is the editor of Golden Foothills Press, which recently released two notable books. Zapote Tree is the debut poetry collection from the iconic American Latino author Alejandro Morales, whose 20 books from past years have earned international recognition. Doctor Poets & Other Healers, released in March 2022, is written by 24 physicians, psychologists, and other frontline medical professionals whose poems and personal essays describe their direct experiences fighting COVID in its second year of devastation. Visit the publisher's website for book descriptions and purchasing links.
Pamela L. Sumners's poetry collection Etiquette for a Pandemic (& Other Social Distancing Protocols) (Backroom Window Press, 2021) was favorably reviewed by Bill Burtis at Hole in the Head Review, who called it "compelling, timely, crisply original, daringly challenging and, at once, powerfully charming."
The Poet Spiel's poems "Letting Go" and "Returnee: Hot Blood" were published in Misfit Magazine, Issue #34 (Spring 2022).
Sharon A. Harmon's poem "What Would I Carry?" was published in Where Flowers Bloom: Poems and Essays of Strength, Hope, and Resilience (Red Penguin Books, 2022). This anthology raises money for humanitarian relief for the war in Ukraine.
Published: June 12, 2022
