Happy Monday and an early happy Fourth of July. Hopefully the weather will cooperate, and you can have a fun and relaxing holiday. Looking for a good book or a new issue of a literary magazine to help you while away some time this holiday season? NewPages has you covered! And if you’re traveling and need some great ideas for places to visit, don’t forget to check out the local indie bookstore. NewPages is here to help with our Guide to Indie Bookstores. If you find a great indie store on your travels that we don’t list, feel free to contact us to let us know about!
Get your lit mag fix with new issue announcements on the NewPages Magazine Stand. Hailing from Eastern Washington University, Willow Springs 2024 Spring print journal features Surrealist Prize Winner Meg Kelleher, whose poem is available to read online along with an audio recording. Sheila-Na-Gig Volume 8.4, Summer 2024 offers readers breadth and depth in well-crafted free verse poetry (and some forms!) with a spotlight on Editor’s Choice Award winner Shannon K. Winston.
Coming later this week, enjoy learning more about New England Review issue 45.2 which includes the special feature “Where On Earth Did You Come From?’ — Seven South Korean Poets & Their Translators,” guest edited by Soje. With eight bonus pages, the July 2024 issue of World Literature Today presents International Horror Fiction in Translation, guest-edited by Rachel Cordasco. The cover feature gathers stories by Junko Mase (Japan), C. E. Feiling (Argentina), Mahmoud Fikry (Egypt), and John Ajvide Lindqvist (Sweden), plus a reading list by Jess Nevins and online interview with Megan McDowell.
On Wednesday, you can learn more about The Greyhound Journal as they become the latest entry in our New Lit on the Block series. Publishing biannually online with a regularly updated “Featured” column, The Greyhound Journal was originally created to open more spaces for literary dialogue revolving around history and to increase the accessibility of history through narrative. Need even more literary magazines? Check out our roundup of all the new issues released in June.
In book news, you can view a full list of new and forthcoming titles sent to NewPages back in June. Need help selecting a new title to read? Our reviewers are here to help. Kevin Brown reviews Onyi Nwabineli’s second novel, Allow Me to Introduce Myself, which follows Aṅụrị Chinasa, a twenty-five year-old woman born in Nigeria and raised in England. A novel really for today’s digital influencer age as the main character struggles to deal with her upbringing by one of the first momfluencers. “Nwabineli’s novel is an excellent exploration of the effects of the internet’s lack of privacy on children, calling into question parents (and children) who willingly give up their lives to total strangers for financial gain.”
Brown also reviews Michael Harriot’s Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America. “Some of the history will be familiar to most readers, though the angle Harriot takes won’t be. For example, when he refers to at least one elected official as a serial killer, what he means is that they were an active member in the KKK.”
Last, but not least, Jami Macarty tackles Haley Lasché’s debut poetry collection One “Where a ‘spark of voice’ joins a ‘prism of sound,’” becoming a “‘song ravenous for light’!”
As July 4 approaches this week, it’s meaning can inspire your writing, can’t it? Freedom. The age-old topic. What is freedom? What does it mean to you, to those you love? Freedom is something that is not black and white, cut and dried, is it? Like many things it comes with a thousand different meanings to different people around the globe. Your version of freedom may be completely different from someone else’s.
What is freedom to an immigrant? To a POW? To a refugee? To a child? To a caretaker? To someone with a disability? Has the definition of freedom changed as you have grown up and experienced life? To you, today, what is your version of freedom?
Calls, Contests, & More
Below are this week’s writing contests, calls for submissions, and literary and writing events. Enjoy 39 opportunities to get your work published or to enhance your writing craft. Please note: only paid subscribers get access to this information! You can become a paid subscriber for only $5 a month and get early access to submission opportunities and events before they go live on our site.
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