A Waltz Across Bookstores & Lit Galore
NewPages Newsletter #182: Your weekly spin through books, journals, and 55 ways to get published.
Happy Tuesday!
I hope you had a safe and wonderful weekend. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t quite cooperate here in Michigan—it was cold, windy, and rainy. Hopefully, your corner of the world fared better, especially for Memorial Day events. With the long weekend behind us, NewPages is back to our regularly scheduled publication dates.
With May ending this week, don’t forget to check out our calendar of Writing Contests so you don’t miss out on end-of-month deadlines and beyond!
📰 Love indie bookstores? So do we!
We maintain an up-to-date guide to independent bookstores across the U.S., its territories, and Canada—so you always know where to find your next favorite shop!
We’re always updating the list with closures, openings, address changes, and more. One exciting update: Howling Basset Books is moving from Oldwick, New Jersey to Lambertville, with a grand opening on June 7! If you’re in the area, stop by and meet the basset-in-residence, Fern!
Recently added to our guide:
The Next Chapter Bookstore - Williamsburg, Kentucky
Hey Books! - San Diego, California
That’s Entertainment - Worcester, Massachusetts
Malibu Village Books - Malibu, California
Krammer-Kynet Antiques - Carlisle, Pennsylvania
Know a hidden gem we should feature? Drop us a line and let us know!
📚 In Magazine News
You can now preview Volume VIII of Swamp Ape Review, including the winner of the Justin Waldron Memorial Prize for Innovative Prose. Like what you see? Grab the full issue in print!
Check out more new issues at the Magazine Stand:
The Malahat Review #230
Featuring winners of the 2025 Open Season Awards as well and author interviews.The Greensboro Review - Spring 2025
Includes Robert Watson Literary Prize winners: Jeni O’Neal and Emily Harper Ellis.The Main Street Rag - Spring 2025
Opens with an interview with Anna Pauscher Morawitz by Jessica K. Hylton.The Midwest Quarterly - Spring 2025
A themed “Library Issue(s)” guest edited by Sara DeCaro.
Posting this week, you can enjoy a full roundup of journals with new issues available in May as well as more information on the latest issues of South Dakota Review and Valley Voices.
📖 Book Pick of the Week
Poppy and Mary Ellen All Fed Up: Book Two of the Frankenmuth Murder Mysteries by Roz Weedman and Susan Todd and Illustrations by Lane Trabalka.
This cozy mystery centers around a Mah Jongg tournament in Frankenmuth, Michigan. When a tourist is murdered, sleuth Poppy finds herself at the top of the suspect list.
Later this week: Look out for a roundup of new titles received in May and our latest Editor’s Choice pick, Remember Us to Life: A Graphic Memoir by Joanna Rubin Dranger.
🔍 In Review
Our reviewers are here to help you decide what to read next:
Self Geofferential by Geoffrey Gatza
Jami Macarty explores Gatza’s inventive hybrid of poetry and collage, where whimsical visuals meet raw reflections on childhood trauma, memory, and artistic rebirth. A “champion of broken art,” Gatza reimagines fables and family history to create something wholly his own.Upstage by Bruce Andrews & Sally Silvers
Jami Macarty reviews this immersive collaboration that blends Andrews’s rhythmic, polyphonic text with Silvers’s haunting pandemic-era photography. Set in Asbury Park, Upstage is a fragmented yet cohesive portrait of urban life, perception, and the strange beauty of dislocation.Black in Blues: How Color Tells the Story of My People by Imani Perry
Kevin Brown reviews Perry’s lyrical and layered essay collection, where the color blue becomes a lens for reimagining Black history. Through associative storytelling, Perry weaves together music, memory, and resistance to reveal a culture that has endured—and thrived—through beauty and pain.The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
Kevin Brown reviews this genre-blending debut about a government worker assigned to help a 19th-century Arctic explorer adapt to modern life. As time travel complicates identity, history, and trust, the novel explores how we construct narratives—about others and ourselves.Antillia by Henrietta Goodman
Jami Macarty reviews this haunting collection of lyric-narrative poems that explore maternal grief, memory, and female identity. With myth, memory, and emotional candor, Goodman confronts the past through portraits of “another me,” crafting a powerful meditation on loss, resilience, and the elusive nature of truth.
Coming soon: Reviews of Twist by Colum McCann and Hesitation Waltz by Amie Whittemore.
Inspiration Prompt: How Do You Déjà Vu?
Déjà vu is often dismissed as a trick of the mind—a fleeting, familiar sensation. But what if it’s something more? Is it a ripple in time, an echo of alternate realities, a coded message waiting to be unraveled, or perhaps a memory from a past life?
Craft a piece where déjà vu serves as a pivotal force—whether it’s guiding a character toward discovery, unraveling a mystery, or deepening the layers of human connection. You might frame it as a fractured love story, a psychological thriller, or even a surrealist odyssey where memory and fate collide.
Still stuck and not sure where to start? Consider how different genres reinterpret déjà vu:
Sci-Fi & Fantasy: A time traveler stuck in a loop. A sorcerer trapped in a spell they unknowingly cast before. Siblings trapped reliving the same life and death throughout different eras.
Mystery & Thriller: A detective haunted by the same crime scene—one they swore they’ve investigated before. A woman plagued by a dream of an event that becomes reality upon discovery of an identical twin.
Horror: A house with rooms that seem to reset, trapping its visitors in an eerie sense of repetition. A nightly walk with the same ghostly tapdancing following you all the way home.
Literary Fiction: A meditation on nostalgia, homecoming, or the way history repeats itself in subtle, personal ways—like unwittingly following in a parent or grandparent’s footsteps.
Calls, Contests, & More
Below is a small preview of this week’s 55 writing contests, calls for submissions, and literary and writing events.
Submissions Open for Housatonic Book Awards
Deadline: July 18, 2025
The Housatonic Book Awards are now accepting submissions of all books published in 2024. Authors or agents are welcome to submit poetry, fiction, and nonfiction manuscripts for consideration in the HBAs. All manuscripts will be reviewed by a committee and the winners will be notified in October 2025. Each award carries a $1,000 honorarium and $500 travel stipend in exchange for the author appearing at either WCSU's fall or summer writing residency. Entering a title implies the author’s willingness to attend the WCSU MFA residency to host a 2-hour workshop. We look forward to considering your work! Learn more here.
Darrel Alejandro Holnes judges Poet Hunt 30!
Deadline: June 15, 2025
The MacGuffin’s Poet Hunt 30 awards a $500 grand prize and publication! Up to two Honorable Mentions also published. Guest Judge Darrel Alejandro Holnes will make the final selections. Entrants receive one copy of the issue containing the selected poems. Send five poems per $15 entry fee. Include your contact info and poem titles in a cover letter or via the Submittable form. Personally identifiable information should not be included on the poems themselves to preserve the anonymous review process. Enter via Submittable; or to enter by post, see full rules at our website.
Swan Scythe Press Announces its 2025 Poetry Chapbook Contest!
Deadline: June 15, 2025
Swan Scythe Press announces its 2025 poetry chapbook contest. Entry fee: $18. We are accepting submissions from March 1 to June 15 (postmark deadline). Winner receives $200 and 25 perfect-bound chapbooks. The 2024 winner is Aida Zilelian for Dissonance. For full guidelines, visit our website and submissions manager.
Made from Midnight: Poetry and Short Fiction Wanted for Anthology
Deadline: June 6, 2025
Poets in the Pines welcomes you to our debut anthology, Made from Midnight. We are a small collective of writers, poets, and editors seeking short prose and poetry for this upcoming collection. Themes like death, rebirth, aging, grief, transitional spaces, the supernatural, or whatever else death evokes for you are all welcome. Exceptional writing, vivid imagery, and bone-chilling emotions wanted; magic desired. Please see our detailed submission guidelines, FAQ, and more information on our submission form located through the link below. Fate is unfurling a timid, open hand out to you... will you take it? Submit here.
Salamander 2025 Fiction Contest, Judged by Helen Phillips
Deadline: June 1, 2025
Salamander's annual fiction contest will accept submissions of short stories up to 30 pages or 7500 words from May 1 - June 1. First prize will win $1000 and publication; second prize is $500 and publication. Helen Phillips will judge. Entry fee of $20 includes a one-year subscription. Find more information and enter at our website. Questions: email us.
Plant-Human Quarterly Seeks Poems and Essays for Upcoming Issues
Deadline: Year-round
Plant-Human Quarterly reads year-round. We seek unpublished or published poetry and essays that explore the myriad ways writers manifest their relationship to the botanical world—whether through heavily researched pieces, keen observation, or more intuitive ways of knowing—that attempt to communicate across boundaries and approach a plant’s-eye-view of the world. Send no more than 5 poems or an essay of no more than 1500 words (flash essay or essay excerpt) in a single word document. Past contributors include Ellen Bass, Forrest Gander, Kimiko Hahn, Brenda Hillman, Jane Hirshfield, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Pattiann Rogers, Scott Russell Sanders, Arthur Sze. View submission guidelines at our website.
North Street Book Prize
Deadline: July 1, 2025
11th year sponsored by Winning Writers. Submit self-published or hybrid-published books to win $10,000. Additional benefits for entrants and winners from our co-sponsors. $22,000 in total cash prizes. Eight categories. Any year of publication eligible. Entry fee: $85. Everyone who submits online can receive feedback from a judge at no extra charge. Deadline: July 1. Learn more at our website.
HEART Poetry Award $500.00 - Deadline June 30
Deadline: June 30, 2025
Going strong since 1986! The HEART Poetry Award is open to entries of unpublished reflective modern prose poems through June 30! $10 fee to enter up to 3 poems. Winner will be awarded $500 and publication in HEART 20 (Fall/Winter 2025). This year’s judge is Grey Held. Visit Nostalgia Press to view the judge’s bio and submit.
2026 Press 53 Award for Poetry
Deadline: July 31, 2025
Publication, $1,000 advance, and 53 copies will be awarded to an outstanding, unpublished poetry manuscript. If Runner-Up is also selected, publication, $500 advance, and 25 copies. Press 53 Poetry Series Editor Tom Lombardo is the only reader and judge. Prizes awarded upon publication. Deadline July 31. Winner and finalists announced by November 1. Reading fee $30. Complete information at our website.
Slate Roof Press 2025 Elyse Wolf Prize $500
Deadline: June 30, 2025
Member-run Slate Roof Press, now in our 21st year, is pleased to announce the 2025 Elyse Wolf Prize for our annual poetry chapbook contest. The winner receives $500, becomes an active member of the press, and will have their chapbook published by Slate Roof. The runner up receives $100. We publish limited edition, art-quality chapbooks with letterpress covers. Winners make a 3-year commitment to Slate Roof, including monthly meetings, and share work responsibilities for many aspects of publishing. Submit no more than 28 pages of poetry. $10 reading fee; sliding scale available. Deadline June 30. Full guidelines at our website.
Please note: only paying subscribers get access to all 55 submission opportunities! You can become a paying 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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