Subscriber News: March 2016
Recent Honors
Winning Writers contest judge Soma Mei Sheng Frazier's short fiction chapbook Salve is available for pre-order from Nomadic Press.
Congratulations to Gil Fagiani. His poetry collection Logos was published in 2015 by Guernica Editions. Logos tells the story of a heroin treatment center in the South Bronx where the author was a resident in the 1960s. A social worker by profession, Fagiani worked for 12 years at a Bronx psychiatric hospital and directed a residential rehab program in Brooklyn for 21 years. He kindly shares a sample poem here.
Congratulations to Karen Hunt. Her essay "Reflections from Istanbul", an excerpt from her unpublished memoir Into the World, won the 40th New Millennium Writings Award for Nonfiction. This twice-yearly contest gives $1,000 prizes for unpublished poetry, fiction, and essays; the next deadline is June 19. In other news, Karen's paranormal young adult novel, Key of Mystery, is now available in print and e-book from Evernight Teen, under her pen name K.H. Mezek. It is the first book in her Night Angels Chronicles series. Her essay "Why I Choose to Remember My 50th Blood-Bath of a Birthday Instead of Trying to Forget It" was published in Pooled Ink, the 2015 contest anthology from Northern Colorado Writers. In it she recounts stories of helping at-risk and incarcerated youth in Los Angeles. Her current social service endeavor is the My World Project, teaching creative writing and art to children in impoverished communities around the world.
Congratulations to Lisa Rhodes-Ryabchich. Her poetry chapboook We Are Beautiful Like Snowflakes will be published in June by Finishing Line Press, and is now available for pre-order. Cave Canem Poetry Prize winner F. Douglas Brown says of this collection, "Rhodes-Ryabchich wrenches the readers, asking not with questions, but with images that pinpoint sentiment, 'Each year drops of blood pool/To a darker shade.' These lines, from her poem 'Age,' which is dedicated to Sandra Bland, continues to seek answers for the senseless removal of Bland's premature death. Lisa Rhodes-Ryabchich challenges the complexity of our moments, so we can bask in the grand warmth of our experiences."
Congratulations to Jane Fuller. Her poem "Conversation with Two-Time Mid-American Conference Relief Pitcher Douglas Dean Stackhouse on Winning, Losing and Learning to Fiddle" won the 2015 James Boatwright III Prize. This $1,000 award is given for the best poem published in Shenandoah, the literary journal of Washington & Lee University; there is no separate application process. Editor R.T. Smith said of this poem, "Seldom have sports and music cooperated so effectively and efficiently. It beats any half-time show."
Congratulations to Terry Severhill. His poem "Beneath the Shadow of the Sun" won the 2016 Art Young Memorial Award for Poetry from Garbanzo Literary Journal and was published in the March 1 issue of Art Young's Good Morning. The most recent deadline for this $100 prize was December 15.
Congratulations to Elizabeth Marchitti. Her poem "Mother's Snuggies" won an Editor's Choice award in the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Awards sponsored by the Poetry Center of Passaic County Community College. It will appear in issue #44 of The Paterson Literary Review. The next deadline for this $1,000 prize is April 1.
Congratulations to Johnmichael Simon and Helen Bar-Lev. They won first and second prize, respectively, for their poems "Romantic" and "Samson's Saga" in the 2015 Reuben Rose Poetry Competition from Voices Israel. The most recent submission period for this $500 award was June 15-September 15. They kindly share the winning poems here and here.
Recent Publications
Winning Writers contest judge Ellaraine Lockie had a selection of her poems published on City Creatures Blog, a project of the Center for Humans and Nature.
Tracy Koretsky's poem "A Prayer for Enough" was published in February in Ascent, the journal of Concordia College.
Bruce Golden's short story collection Tales of My Ancestors is available on Amazon.com. From the jacket copy: "Tales of My Ancestors is like watching the History Channel broadcast via 'The Twilight Zone'...[It] features 18 stories rich with historical detail, but each with a speculative element that in no way contradicts recorded history."
Christopher Bernard's new novel, Voyage to a Phantom City, is now available on Amazon.com. This philosophical adventure story combines a spiritual quest with romance and the traumatic legacy of war. The author's next reading and book signing will be on Thursday, March 17, at 5:30 p.m. at University Press Books, 2430 Bancroft Way, Berkeley, CA.
Robert Gilbert's short story "Pointed Gun" was published in the March issue of Frontier Tales, a free online journal of writing about the Old West. His story "Chase for Uber Mix" will appear in the April issue.
Nancy Shiffrin's dramatic script Allison's War is available as an e-book from Lulu.com. "In bed and in the kitchen, Paul Benjamin, editor/producer, Green Beret Vet, and Allison Starr, author, emergency intervention counselor, spar about a potential project. They compare scars, relive trauma, fall in love, see new possibilities."
R. Bremner's poems "Lace up those boots!", "For the widow of Edward O'Connor, Jr.", "Jaffna revisited", and "Roses in the closet" were published in the new online journal Anti-Heroin Chic. One of his senryu was published in Haiku Universe.
R.T. Castleberry's poems "Above the Winter Rock", "Nothing Was Plain (in the Water's Light", and "A Narrow Trail" were published in 'Merica Magazine.
Published: March 8, 2016
