Subscriber News: October 2015
Recent Honors
Congratulations to Philippa Rees. Her story "Blerrie Fockin' Beautiful" was named one of Narrative Magazine's "Best 5 of the Year" for 2014 and an audio version of it was published in Narrative Backstage, a premium section of the website. Her story "Nuisance Value" was a Story of the Week in 2015.
Congratulations to Angela Lombardo. Her essay "Middle Aged Memory" won an honorable mention in the 2015 1st/2nd Quarter "America's Funniest Humor" Writing Contest from HumorPress.com. The 3rd/4th Quarter contest, with prizes up to $100 and online publication, is open now through December 31.
Congratulations to Florence Ladd. Her poetry chapbook Reclaiming Rose was recently published by Finishing Line Press. Poet Martha Collins says of this collection, "A family story with both research and imagination, Florence Ladd compresses into nineteen finely crafted poems the long life of her great-grandmother Rose, who was born into slavery on a North Carolina island...Ladd delivers an unforgettable story that is rich in telling detail and emotional complexity."
Congratulations to Jeff Walt. His poem "That Douchebag Norma Jean Next to Me at the Crescent" was a runner-up in the 2015 Fugue Annual Writing Contest, judged by Kevin Prufer. Fugue is the literary journal of the University of Idaho. The most recent submission period for this contest, with prizes of $1,000 for poetry and prose, was January 1-May 1. In other news, Jeff's poem "Each Morning I Rise Like a Sleepwalker & Rot a Little More." won an honorable mention in the 2014 Oscar Wilde Award from Gival Press, under its former title "He Aimed for the Bull's-eye". He kindly shares it with us here. The next deadline for this $100 prize for a poem about LGBT life will be June 27.
Recent Publications
E.E. King's fictional satire, Dirk Quigby's Guide to the Afterlife, is now available in an updated and expanded edition from Smashwords. The original edition garnered positive blurbs from legendary science fiction writer Ray Bradbury and comedian Margaret Cho. From the review in San Francisco Weekly: "A mock ZAGAT Guide to the Lord's domain, Dirk Quigby's Guide to the Afterlife is a sly and satirical glimpse into what would happen if a Madison Avenue mad man gave heaven a PR makeover. As the book's framing narrative develops, the titular ad man finds that his succinct reviews of the world's religions (using a convenient ZAGAT-style rating scale) inflame believers of all faiths." Visit her website and blog for more books by this author.
Carolyn Howard-Johnson's latest poetry collection, Imperfect Echoes, is now available in print and e-book formats from Amazon.com, with cover art by incarcerated writer-artist Richard Conway Jackson. These poems of activism and cross-cultural encounters were inspired by Nobel Prize winner Czeslaw Milosz's poem "Incantation", which lauds the power of human reason over the recurring and seemingly insane political realities of our time. Proceeds from book sales will be donated to Amnesty International. She kindly shares a sample poem here.
Bobby Sentell's novella Tony! is now available on Amazon.com. Tony! is the story of a naïve amateur boxing champion facing down rumors that could destroy his career.
Johnathan Abraham Antelept's collection of philosophical poetry, The Crystal in the Burning Garden, is now available in paperback on Amazon.com. Read a sample poem in the Amazon book description by clicking the "Read More" link.
John Reinhart was the featured poet for the week of September 8 at Moon Pigeon Press. The article included his poems "sentries" and "as if" and an author interview. His poem "inverted helix" appeared in Fish Food Magazine. "The Sounds of Science" was published at New Myths. "sipping time" appeared in the urban fantasist webzine Grievous Angel. His work was also included in Issue #67 of Leading Edge, the science fiction and fantasy magazine of Brigham Young University, and in the August issue of Scifaikuest, an illustrated quarterly of Japanese short-form poetry.
R.T. Castleberry's poems "To Make a Bargain with the Rain" and "Tracing the Sin (to the Source)" were published in the Fall/Winter 2015-16 Issue of Iodine Poetry Journal. His poems "The Story (Each Day)", "To Thirst (Beneath the Sun)", and "In a Season of Useless Prayer" were published in Ray's Road Review.
Lesléa Newman will be reading from her poetry collection I Carry My Mother (Headmistress Press, 2015) on Monday, November 2, at 7:00 PM at the Springfield Jewish Community Center, 1160 Dickinson Street, Springfield, MA. I Carry My Mother is a book-length series of poems that explores a daughter's journey through her mother's illness and death and her own grief.
Published: October 7, 2015
