Subscriber News: September 2023
Recent Honors
Winning Writers Editor Jendi Reiter's essay "Double Incision Diary" was the runner-up for the Michael Steinberg Nonfiction Prize in the 2023 Solstice Lit Mag Annual Literary Contest. Nonfiction judge Grace Talusan said, "In addition to the powerful writing about the body, I appreciated the form and structure of Reiter's account of their surgery and the way that time circles around the profound event." The most recent submission period was April 1-June 7 for this award series, with prizes of $500 for poetry, fiction, essays, and graphic literature. In other news, Jendi's poem "Ariel" was selected for inclusion in the Sundress Publications digital anthology Transmasculine Poetics, edited by Remi Recchia. Read the latest review of Jendi's poetry collection Made Man (Little Red Tree, 2022) on the Sundress Reads blog. Reviewer Izzy Astuto says, "Maybe hopeful is the singular best word to describe Reiter’s collection. While prone to believing the worst in mankind, stuck in torrid political spirals that nothing can get better, there is a heart in the middle of it all that hopes desperately it somehow can."
Congratulations to Linda Dittmar. Her war memoir, Tracing Homelands; Israel, Palestine, and the Claims of Belonging, was published this summer by Interlink Publishing. Linda says, "Sections of this memoir were published thanks to your Winning Writers website. One of them won the Massachusetts Cultural Council grant."
Congratulations to Eileen Malone and Laura Plummer. They were Grand Prize winners, along with Claire J. Baker, in the 2023 Richard Angilly Memorial Contest from the Dancing Poetry Festival. This long-running award, recently renamed in honor of the founder's late husband, gives prizes up to $100 and web publication. The three Grand Prize winners are also honored with an interpretive dance performance based on their work. The most recent deadline was April 15.
Congratulations to Mary K. O'Melveny. Her fourth poetry collection, Flight Patterns, was recently released by Kelsay Books. Poet Rhina P. Espaillat says, "This beautiful, courageous, truthful book makes for delightful reading...These poems offer meditations and fantasy, dialogues between birds and humans and a path to reversing daily losses of 'birdsong.' Here, we can celebrate nature's ineffable, profoundly moving gifts and understand the work required to save ourselves and those who will follow us into the future."
Congratulations to Terri Kirby Erickson. Her seventh poetry collection, Night Talks: New and Selected Poems, will be released October 15 by Press 53 and is available for pre-order. Join her for the book launch at Bookmarks, 634 W. 4th Street, #110, Winston-Salem, NC, at 2:00 pm Eastern time on Sunday, October 15. The book includes 54 new poems plus selections from her six previous books with Press 53. Visit her website to learn more. She kindly shares the title poem here.
Congratulations to Axel Forrester. His novel Three Steps of the Sun was longlisted for the 2023 Bath Novel Award, and the first chapter was published in Embark Literary Journal (April 2023). This work of historical fiction is based on Victorian artist and architect Mary Watts, whose independent work brought her into tension with her husband, the painter G.F. Watts. The most recent submission period for this 3,000 pounds prize for novel manuscripts was December 1-May 31. In other news, Axel's novel Swan Diaries was a finalist for the James Jones First Novel Fellowship. The submission period for this $10,000 award for debut authors is October 1-March 15. His autobiographical fiction essay, "Write What You Know", was awarded Honorable Mention in the Mainstream/Literary Short Story category of the 92nd Annual Writer's Digest Writing Competition. Visit his website to learn more about his writing and music, and follow him on Instagram @acornishodyssey.
Congratulations to Carrie Naughton and Timothy Jay Smith. They won second and third prize, respectively, in the 2023 Gutsy Great Novelist Page One Prize. Read excerpts from Carrie's thriller Talo and Timothy's thriller Cooper's War on the contest website. The most recent submission period for this contest, with prizes up to $1,000, was June 14-July 14.
Recent Publications
Michael McKeown Bondhus' poem "Bean Sí" was published in the poetry journal RHINO in July. He kindly shares it with us here.
J Brooke's poems "I Drew a House" and "T" were published in The Rumpus in June.
Gloria Mindock celebrates 18 years as the founder and publisher of Červená Barva Press, a poetry and literary fiction publisher in Somerville, MA. To mark their anniversary, the press is hosting an online Poetry and Fiction Summit from September 30-October 1. Topics include writing humor poetry, the revision process, and literary translation. Visit their website for payment and presenter information.
Judy Juanita will be speaking on a panel titled "Black Fire This Time" at the Medgar Evers College Literary Salon on Thursday, Sept. 28, at 6:30 pm, at 10 Lafayatte Ave., Brooklyn, NY. She will also be a reader at the Brooklyn Literary Festival on Friday, Sept. 29, from 6:30-8:30 pm, at Weeksville Heritage Center, 158 Buffalo Ave., Brooklyn.
Richard Raymond III recently released his book of Sherlock Holmes stories, My Life With Holmes: The Further Adventures of John H. Watson, M.D.
Published: September 5, 2023
