Dive into Great Lit This November
NewPages Newsletter #153 Featuring 43 Submission Opportunities & Upcoming Events
Happy Monday and happy Veteran’s Day! It’s a blustery day here in Michigan that makes me happy that I get to stay indoors out of the fierce wind. November will already be half over with this week. That means our eLitPak newsletter will be hitting your inboxes on Wednesday afternoon! You will get to enjoy flyers on calls for submissions, writing and book contests, new titles, upcoming events, and an MFA program.
If you’re looking for reasons to stay inside and avoid blustery, cold, or rainy weather, NewPages is here to help! Our Magazine Stand can help you find some great new issues of literary magazines to while away the hours. Apple Valley Review’s Fall 2024 issue features work by Mary Grimm, Franz Jørgen Neumann and Anna Gáspár-Singer (translated from the Hungarian), Annabel Jankovic, Judith Harris, and more.
The 100th issue of AGNI exemplifies the engagement, nuance, and spirit that are AGNI’s trademark. Enjoy cover art by Chitra Ganesh and writing by Colin Winnette, Xueyi Zhou, Paisley Rekdal, J. P. Grasser, and others. The Fall 2024 issue of The Missouri Review is themed “Hard Truths.” Discover powerful wors ready to engage by Parul Kaushik, Amy Miller, and Shannon Cain to name just a few contributors.
The premise for the Autumn 2024 issue of THEMA is “The Missing Piece of the Puzzle.” Enjoy work by Allan Lake, Erica Hoffman, James Scruton, Robinne Weiss, and more. You can also get your creative juices flowing as their next premise is “the lost sock.” You can now enjoy the November 2024 edition of online journal The Lake with work by Ruth Aylett, Jeff Gallagher, Charles Rammelkamp, and Hannah Stone.
For lovers of the printed page, Baltimore Review has released their annual print anthology. The 2024 edition features the works from the Summer 2023, Fall 2023, Winter 2024, and Spring 2024 online editions. Come back to the Magazine Stand throughout the week to learn more about the latest issues of New Letters, Bennington Review, The Midwest Quarterly, and Booth. You can also learn more about fledgling journal Midwest Weird.
In book news, you can enjoy Christie and Lane Waldman’s debut novel as an author-illustrator team with The Voice of the Wooden Dragon. This entertaining yet inspiring MG/YA fantasy follows Princess Meredith, an anthropomorphic dragon, as she brings together her friends and others to fight against the injustice done be dragons to humankind.
If you need book recommendations, our reviewers are here to help! Eleanor J. Bader voices her thoughts on three titles. First is The Essential Howard Gardner on Education. An acclaimed Harvard professor, Gardner feels that education systems ignore the “multiple intelligences” of individuals and the twenty-nine essays in this collection argue for “individual-centered schools” instead of schools focusing solely on standardized tests and scores.
Next, Bader reviews Lyta Gold’s Dangerous Fictions: The Fear of Fantasy and the Invention of Reality. In this book, Gold “reports that even in less politically charged times, the books we read, the movies and television shows we watch, and the video games we play, are heavily controlled by market forces, fear of upsetting the status quo, and pressures from both the right and the left to influence our viewpoints and emotional responses.”
Lastly, Bader reviews Katherine Stewart’s latest book, Money, Lies, and God: Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy. In it, Stewart draws connections between disparate groups and individuals who spent the last 40-plus years working to turn the US into a theocratic, authoritarian regime. Come back to the NewPages Blog later in the week for a review of Sarah Smarsh’s Bone of the Bone.
Inspiration
Back in the day during my college years, I watched the television show called Rock Star: INXS. The goal of the show was to find a new lead singer for the band INXS. Every episode had the wannabe lead singers tasked with taking on a new song and making it their own in hopes of winning the coveted position. The eventual winner of the show had tattoos on both arms. One read “human” and the other “being.” This stands out in memory as there is always drama going on behind the scenes and he had a heartfelt talk with another cast member talking about how we are all “human beings” but sometimes we find ourselves only “being human.”
With it being Veterans Day in the United States today, that makes for quite the food for thought, don’t you think? What is the difference between being human and human beings? What do you think he meant by saying that and what significance the phrases hold?
Can you write two poems exploring what human beings and being human entails? Can you turn it into a craft essay on character and world building? Or write a story about something desperately wanting to be human that it researches and works hard to become one? Maybe like in the vein of Pinocchio or Bicentennial Man? What do you think would happen if something that wanted to become a human being found out that being human is not all it is cracked up to be?
Calls, Contests, & More
Below are this week’s writing contests, calls for submissions, and literary and writing events. Enjoy 43 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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