Subscriber News: October 2023
Recent Honors
Congratulations to Kaecey McCormick. She won first prize in the 2023 Connecticut Poetry Award and her poem "Bruin Walk" was published on the Connecticut Poetry Society website. The most recent submission period for this $100 prize was April 1-May 31. Visit Kaecey's website to learn more about her writing and artwork.
Congratulations to Richard Attree. His story "The Last Wave" won third prize in the 2023 Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition. Set on the wild west coast of Ireland, it's about a surfer struggling to come to terms with ageing and searching for something to replace surfing. As he drives to the beach for his last ever dawn patrol, he looks back at the landmark moments in his life: the people, the waves, and the music. Read the story and author's note on his website. The most recent deadline was April 1 for this contest for emerging writers, with a top prize of $1,500. Final judge Lorian Hemingway, granddaughter of Ernest, said of Richard's story, "It is such a beautiful, full-of-heart tribute to the passions and memories and music that find such deeply sweet and painful places to dwell in us. You walk the fine line that truly excellent writers do, with a craft that allows the humanity of your story to become the radiant force. And what a powerful force it is, one filled with a wisdom that is not forced upon the reader, but rather evoked. I came away humbled and feeling damned good about the world."
Congratulations to Jess Chua. Her debut poetry chapbook, let it rip, was published in September by Bottlecap Press. She kindly shares a sample poem here. From the publisher's website: "let it rip showcases the implosion of relationships that aren't meant to be...It's also an ode to the freedom we gain from truths we learn through heartbreak."
Congratulations to Allison Backous Troy. Her essay "Sow" was one of 10 finalists selected for inclusion in The Masters Review Anthology XII, edited by Toni Jensen. The book will be published next spring.
Congratulations to MB Caschetta. Her memoir-in-essays, A Cheerleader's Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment (Engine Books, 2022), won the Essay category of the 2023 Memoir Book Prize from Memoir Magazine.
Congratulations to Gary Beck. His poetry collection Days of Destruction was published in July by Cyberwit. In September, Scimitar Edge, a division of Purple Unicorn Media, published Sophocles: Three Plays, translated by Gary Beck and Dr. Carl Caravana. The selection includes the well-known plays Antigone and Electra and the farce The Searching Satyrs, which Gary directed Off-Broadway.
Congratulations to Lesléa Newman. Her book Always Matt: A Tribute to Mathew Shepard was published in September by Abrams ComicArts. This book for readers aged 14+ is illustrated by Brian Britigan.
Congratulations to Samantha Terrell. Her poetry collection Dismantling Mountains is forthcoming from Vellum Publishing. She will be reading from it on November 16 at the "WordPlace" poetry showcase, which takes place from 8:00-10:00 pm at the Bundy Museum of History and Art, 129 Main Street, Binghamton, NY.
Recent Publications
Winning Writers contest judge Mina Manchester's story "The God Committee" was published in The Evergreen Review and featured in the top spot on their home page in September.
Cheryl J. Fish, author of the novel Off the Yoga Mat (Livingston Press, 2022), will be reading with poet Heidi Wakeman on Friday, October 20, at 7:00 pm, at the Little Arts Cinema, 19 School Street, Rockport, MA. The event is sponsored by the Gloucester Writing Center, where Cheryl is writer-in-residence. Their conversation will cover writing novels and poems based on travels, friendships, coming of middle age, and the role of yoga and sauna in Fish's fiction and poetry.
R. Bremner has several poetry publications to report. "Saving grace" was included in "A Collection of Jazz Poetry—Summer 2023", a feature in the online journal Jerry Jazz Musician. This is his 16th publication in that magazine. In other news, he was the featured American poet in The High Window in February 2023. Five of his poems appeared in The Galway Review in May. He was the featured poet in The Red Wheelbarrow #15 (2022), which published 18 of his poems and a lengthy intro. Two more poems were published in The Kolkata Arts. He tells Winning Writers, "There have been many more publications for me this year, including Brownstone Poets Anthology, Arcade of the Stars, National Beat Foundation Anthology, Exacting Clam (under a pseudonym), an anthology that will be placed on the moon, and others too numerous to list here."
Mark Scheel's poem "The 'Nature' of Politics" appeared in Poetica #13: An Inner Circle Writers' Group Poetry Anthology. His poem "Season of Believers" and his essay "Lives on the Line" were included in The Write Bridge, a digital anthology from Anamcara Press. His story "The Snow Field" was reprinted at The Milk House, an online journal of rural creative writing. Check out his novel The Potter's Wheel, the story of a Midwestern farm youth discovering California's "summer of love" in 1967.
Marilyn McVicker's fourth poetry collection, Long Field Hollow, is available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. This chapbook tells the story of locating and living in a small mountain cove, where Marilyn retired over twenty years ago, due to a debilitating health condition. She kindly shares a sample poem here. Reviewer Tom Dancer says of Long Field Hollow, "The depth of Marilyn's honesty, awareness, love, and humor is truly a gift for all of us who value a strong sense of place and being." Marilyn's previous full-length poetry collection, As for Life: A memoir in poetry exploring the isolation & loss of chronic illness (Redhawk Publications, 2022), received an Honorable Mention in North Carolina Poetry Society's 2020 Lena Shull Book Contest. Her other published works include Some Shimmer of You (Finishing Line Press, 2014) and Sauna Detoxification Therapy (McFarland & Co., 1997). Visit her website for purchasing information. She tells Winning Writers, "I enjoy your publication so much—your suggestions, offerings, comments, information. You do a great service to the writing community, and I am appreciative."
Richard Eric Johnson's poem "An Errant Night Tale" was published in August at The Raven's Perch.
Published: October 8, 2023
