Subscriber News: November 2026
Recent Honors
Congratulations to Justin Hunt. His poetry collection Requiem in Wide-Open Minor will be published in April by CavanKerry Press. The book includes his poem "My Mother, My Father", which won an Honorable Mention in our 2015 Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest. Award-winning poet Kevin Prufer says of this book, "Justin Hunt transforms loss—the suicide of an only son—into poems of grace, honesty, and emotional complexity...This is a deeply moving, brilliant collection that understands mourning not only as a burden, but as an act of memory and love." Justin tells us, "I'd like to thank you and your team for publishing my poem and helping lay one of my collection's earliest foundations. Knowing that my work resonated with the judges of a well-known contest was a big boost to my confidence back then, and for that I remain deeply grateful."
Congratulations to Mark D. Hart. His poetry collection Ogham: Poems Inspired by Trees and the Gaelic Tree Alphabet was recently released by Levellers Press. Upcoming readings include an event at the Sunderland Public Library, 20 School Street, Sunderland, MA, on Tuesday, December 8, at 6:30 pm. Read sample poems and find more events on his website.
Congratulations to Mary K. O'Melveny. Her new poetry collection, What Remains, was published in October by Broadstone Books. Novelist and writing teacher Dave Essinger calls it "beautiful and ambitious...Beyond the personal artifact, fascinating natural research offers anchor and refrain. These poems introduce us to radioactive wasp nests, the syntax of whale songs, and to jellyfish who mutate inexorably toward salvation."
Congratulations to Laurinda Lind. Her poem "After Bruce" won an Honorable Mention in the 2025 Allen Ginsberg Poetry Awards and was published in Paterson Literary Review, Issue #54 (2026). She kindly shares this poem with us here. The next deadline for this contest, with prizes up to $2,000, is February 1. In other news, her haiku "red thread at sunset" and "from each heart to each" were published in The Red Thread Poetry Project booklet, a project of the World Parkinson's Congress. Her poems "Early Interviews" and "Floored" appeared at Silver Birch Press. "After Compression" was published in the "Trauma and the Environment" issue of Tendrils (Summer 2026).
Congratulations to Darrell Lindsey. His haiku received a Merit Award in the 37th annual ITO EN Oi Ocha Shinhaiku Contest (International Haiku Division). Sponsored by the ITO EN bottled iced tea company, it is the largest short-form poetry competition in the world, receiving 26,062 entries this year in the English-language category. Darrell's poem is currently featured on ITO EN's official international showcase platform. A QR code will be on bottles of tea all over Japan, and will link to the contest results that includes his award-winning haiku.
Congratulations to Joseph Stanton. His 10th poetry collection, Stilled Lives, was published by Shanti Arts. This volume of ekphrastic poetry includes 25 full-color images of the artworks that inspired it. He kindly shares a sample poem here. Joseph's book tour included a reading at the National Gallery of Art in October.
Recent Publications
Winning Writers Editor Jendi Reiter's essay "Assigned Barbara at Birth", a review of novels by Jordy Rosenberg and Daniel Lavery, was published in Full Stop on November 5. Their poem "No One Asked Why I Wanted the Gun" was reprinted in Write Angles Journal, a publication of Straw Dog Writers Guild. It first appeared in SHINE Quarterly.
Beckie A. Miller's memoir, Losing Brian: Finding a New Me, the story of her teenage son's murder and its aftermath, was released by Atmosphere Press.
Lee Desrosiers' new poetry collection, Pocketing the Light (Kelsay Books, 2026), was featured in the August 2026 Bookshelf at Mom Egg Review.
Judy Juanita's poem "I Will Speak for You, My Dear" was published September 9 in The New Verse News, an online journal of politically progressive poetry about current events.
Chen Du and Xisheng Chen's translations of Yan An's poems "The Qin Mountains: The Seven States of the Boulder Manor" and "Seven Days in the Qin Mountains" were published in Kyoto Journal #111 (October 2026).
Cheryl J. Fish's flash fiction "Funny Bone" was published in brief + incorrect on November 2. Cheryl is one of our critique specialists.
Kathleen McNamara's story collection Gold in the Furnace, forthcoming from Eastover Press in February, was recommended by Kirkus Reviews with a "Get It!" rating: "In this magnetic collection of short fiction, reality can be the spookiest setting of all."
Published: November 8, 2026
