Subscriber News: November 2020
Recent Honors
Congratulations to Don Mitchell. His hybrid memoir, Shibai, is forthcoming this month from Saddle Road Press. Mitchell weaves together the brutal 1969 murder of his friend, Harvard graduate student Jane Britton, with harassment by law enforcement and the media, the language and culture of the Nagovisi people of Bougainville, the Big Island of Hawai'i and the high barrens of its dormant volcano Mauna Kea, ultra running and walking, and the New York milieus of Buffalo and Ithaca.
Congratulations to Sue Gerrard. Her chapbook Poems from the Cottage was published in a letterpress limited edition of 36 copies by The Pear Tree Press of Auckland, NZ (website may be temporarily offline in mid-November, try again in a few days). She kindly shares a sample poem here. Sue writes, "The collection was written while I was on the three-month Robert Lord Writing Residency in New Zealand in autumn 2019. I was awarded the residency in Dunedin to research Richard Seddon who was born in my hometown of St. Helens, Merseyside and became the 15th and longest serving Prime Minister of New Zealand, dying in office. I was also a guest on the Dunedin-based radio show 'All Good Poems Wear Travelling Shoes', with Liverpool-born host Ian Loughran." Visit Sue's website to learn more.
Congratulations to Saralyn Richard. Her mystery novel A Palette for Love and Murder won a silver medal in the 2020 Readers' Favorite Awards, and was a finalist in the 2020 International Book Awards from American Book Fest. In this novel in her Detective Parrott series, a theft from a gallery in an wealthy artists' community leads to murder.
Congratulations to Joan Bouza Koster. Her e-book Fast Draft Your Manuscript, the first book in her "Write For Success" series, was recently released by Short Fuse Publishing. Joan also writes romantic thrillers under the pen name Zara West, and feminist historical fiction under her own name. Visit her website for more information.
Congratulations to Nancy Shiffrin. Her poetry collection Game with Variations was published by Word Poetry. Read a sample poem, Game With Variations, on her website. Poet and critic Robert Peters has said of her work: "Nancy Shiffrin's poems are gut-land responses to a personal life of risks, frustrations, and celebrations. Her writing is lean, sensitive, erotic. She celebrates the female body with a rare vigor."
Congratulations to Nick Korolev. His sci-fi first contact novel The Cat Who Fell to Earth was released in June by Mockingbird Lane Press.
Congratulations to Gary Beck. Cyberwit Publishing recently released a new edition of three comedies by Aristophanes—Lysistrata, Women in Assembly, and The Birds—translated by Beck and Jane Oliensis. Also from Cyberwit, his poetry collection Disruptions was published this month.
Recent Publications
Winning Writers Editor Jendi Reiter's poems "Rumspringa on the Polar Express", "Year of the Rat", and "Vilna Is Burning" were published in the first issue of Subnivean, the literary journal of SUNY Oswego. They will be reading at the issue launch party, co-sponsored by SUNY Oswego's Great Lake Review, at 7:00 pm Eastern time on Thursday, November 19; join the Zoom meeting here. Their poem "Self-Portrait as Pastry Box", first published in Crosswinds Poetry Journal, was reprinted at Flowers & Vortexes Online. (Scroll down past the featured photos.)
Judith M. Ackerman's picture book The Wicked Wizard and the Worms, with illustrations by Stefan Nikolic, was released in September and is available on Amazon.
J.W. Nelson's comedic thriller Company of Fools is available on Amazon in print and Kindle editions. Diane Donovan at Midwest Book Review calls it "a fun, engrossing romp through life that juxtaposes philosophical considerations with psychological growth." Read Nelson's poem about black history, "Who Are We?", on his blog.
G. Greene's debut poetry collection, Poems in a Time of Grief, is available through BookBaby and Amazon. The book was written after the loss of his wife, Jean, to an unknown neurological disease in December 2018. Poet and Guggenheim fellow Pamela (Jody) Stewart says of this collection, "Full of intent and energy, there are pieces here that rhyme, sing, explode, and flail about, while others heartrendingly whisper from a '...house so quiet you can hear a heart ache.' This is an offering that says to others who may be grieving, or know someone who is, 'This is how it was for me. This is what it's like. I don’t know what’s next.'"
Anindita Sengupta had three poems featured in Feral Magazine—"Eureka, California", "In Bend, Oregon", and "In further glistening field"—with a brief essay about the inspiration behind them. Her poem "Involuntary Silence" was published in Variant Literature Journal, Issue 5 (Autumn 2020). Visit her website to read more of her work.
Annie Dawid's story "Faith" was accepted for reprinting in Sequestrum. This piece won the Raymond Carver Award in 1998 and was published in TOYON in 1999. It is also included in her second short fiction collection, Lily in the Desert. In addition, her photos will appear in the journal High Shelf.
R.T. Castleberry's poem "Called by Name" was published in August in Big City Lit. "Even the Stars Have Their Opinions" appeared in The Raconteur Review. "A Habit of Stone", "Shock of the Wind", and "3 Views of a Storm" were published in Hamilton Stone Review, Issue #43 (Fall 2020). "An Animal or a God" was published in Backchannels. "Early into Emptiness" and "Entering Dark Houses" were published in Dissident Voice. "Eviction Notice" and "No Country But the War" were published in the Winter 2021 Special Election issue of The Courtship of Winds magazine. "Empty Verdicts" appeared online at the Seattle Star.
Ellaraine Lockie's poem "Alone in Barcelona" was published in September at Poetry and Places, a new online feature from Silver Birch Press. The mission of Poetry and Places is to share travel adventures and celebrate our planet through poetry.
Published: November 8, 2020
