Subscriber News: March 2021
Recent Honors
Congratulations to Carol D. Marsh. Her essay "The Law of Simultaneous Contrast" won first prize for nonfiction in the 2021 Tucson Festival of Books Literary Awards. Contest judge Tom Zoellner wrote, "This story about a family secret and the careful ellisions necessary to avoid a confrontation is wrapped around a description of color theory. The conventional structure builds to some grammatical risks and an emotionally powerful conclusion." The award included a full scholarship for the March 6-8 masterclass workshops, and $1,000. The most recent deadline was October 31. Visit Carol's website to sign up for her pro-democracy newsletter and buy her memoir, Nowhere Else I Want to Be, about her time as executive director of a shelter for homeless women with AIDS in Washington, DC.
Congratulations to Gary Beck. His novel Protective Agency was published by Cyberwit in December. This thriller follows the adventures of a soldier/scholar in a new government agency that protects schools from mass shootings. In January, Cyberwit also published his poetry collection Ignition Point, and Winter Goose Publishing released his poetry collection Learning Curve, a book he describes as "inspired by social, political, and emotional unrest." Obsess, another thriller from Cyberwit, was published in February. This novel features a self-made man who fixates on revenge against the terrorists who killed his lover.
Congratulations to Jeff Walt. His poetry collection Leave Smoke (Gival Press, 2019) won the Poetry category of the 2020 Housatonic Book Awards. Visit Jeff's website to read his work. This contest from Western Connecticut State University's MFA program honors books of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and young adult/middle grade literature published in the preceding calendar year. The 2021 contest is now open through June 13. The award carries a $1,000 honorarium, $500 travel stipend, and up to two-night hotel stay for the winner to give a public reading and a one-day, three-hour workshop with MFA students.
Congratulations to Geoffrey Heptonstall. His poetry collection Sappho's Moon was recently published by Cyberwit. He kindly shares a sample poem here.
Recent Publications
Winning Writers Editor Jendi Reiter was interviewed by poet Clifford Brooks for the November 2020 issue of The Blue Mountain Review, a publication of the Southern Collective Experience. The interview covered Jendi's own work and the history and mission of Winning Writers. Read it at Issuu on pages 16-19. In other news, Jendi's poem "Eyes on the Street" was accepted by Crosswinds Poetry Journal.
Naila Moreira will be teaching an online workshop titled "Mining the Past: Writing the Children's Novel" for Pioneer Valley Writers' Workshop on Saturday, March 27, from 1-3 PM Eastern time.
Lori D. Johnson's short story "Still My Baby" was published in a BIPOC special issue of the Santa Fe Writers Project Quarterly, Issue #24 / Winter 2021. Pleasure was the theme of SFWP's special issue. Her short story "The Easter Speech" is featured in Issue #3 / December 2020 of Midnight & Indigo: Celebrating Black Women Writers (available in print or e-book). Visit her blog "Lori's Old School Mix" to read more of her work.
Berwyn Moore's poetry collection Sweet Herbaceous Miracle (BkMk Press, 2018) was favorably reviewed in Ruminate Magazine by John Repp, who wrote, "Moore brings wit, verbal music, metaphorical richness, and fiercely accurate diction to bear on sensory observation". This collection was the winner of the 2018 John Ciardi Prize.
John Reinhart has several poetry publications to report. "Cardboard Universe" was published in Aethlon, the journal of the Sport Literature Association. "Heart Tree" appeared in Taproot, Issue #43, whose theme was "Roots". “Bar Scene,” published last year in Star*Line, Issue 43.3 (Summer 2020), was also just nominated for a Rhysling Award for best short science-fiction/fantasy poem of 2020.
Dr. Gabriella Korosi's book Our Society: Addiction and More Uncovered is available on Amazon. This study features interviews with people with addiction problems, their friends and family members, and health care professionals, to provide a multifaceted look at recovery and the public policy choices that can support it.
Randall Jeffrey Pancer's poetry collection Wisdom from a Phool is available on Amazon.
Sandra Fischer's short story "Driving a Lesson Home" was selected to be included in the Luck and Opportunity anthology being released this spring by Personal Story Publishing Project of North Carolina. Fischer, a platinum member of FaithWriters.com, has published the books Seasons in the Garden and My Faithbook Messages—Devotions to Like and Share. Both are available on Amazon or through Sandra Fischer's website.
R.T. Castleberry's poems "How Deceptive the Moon" and "Restoration" were published in Dissident Voice. "Lies in Time" appeared in Constellate Magazine. "A Drink to the End of the World" was published in The Raconteur Review.
Des Mannay's poetry is included in an anthology that will be archived on the Moon. The "Writers on the Moon" project is being facilitated by Astrobotic, an official partner with NASA on its Lunar CATALYST program. Des writes, "Poet Elizabeth Wolf has included the bilingual anthology, Persian Sugar in English Tea Vol. I, in her project, for which she has scored a digital slot on a lunar lander, heading to the moon. Her theme is community on our blue planet and so she also included another anthology and pictures taken on five continents plus her own full-length poetry book. Persian Sugar in English Tea Vol. I is one of a three-volume set written in English and Farsi and distributed to private libraries in the Farsi-speaking world." Earthbound readers can find Des's poetry collection Sod 'em—and tomorrow at Waterloo Books. He kindly shares his poem "Stoned" from the anthology.
Published: March 7, 2021
