Goodbye Spring, Hello Summer

NewPages Newsletter #125 Featuring 52 Submission Opportunities & Upcoming Events

In a sea of violets, be a dandelion © Nicole Foor

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Last Saturday was Independent Bookstore Day. Did you get in on a literary bookstore crawl, go on a scavenger hunt, devour some yummy food, or discover a new favorite bookstore? Did you completely forget about it? It’s never too late to support your favorite indie bookstore by stopping in to say hi and get that book you’ve been wanting for a while now. Not sure if you have any in your area? Take a gander at our Guide to Indie Bookstores in the US and Canada. So you don’t forget for next year, Independent Bookstore Day is always the last Saturday in April, so add a reminder in your calendar for next year’s celebration.

Is your local favorite missing from our list? Let us know!

April was definitely a month of showers…and that never-to-be-missed last protest from Winter that the season is supposed to be over. With a new season, of course, comes new issues of literary magazines. Don’t forget the NewPages Magazine Stand features new issues as well as interviews with fledgling publications. Sheila-Na-Gig Spring 2024 offers readers breadth and depth in well-crafted free verse poetry with a spotlight on Editor’s Choice Award winner Melissa Downes, Professor of English at PennWest University.

Later in the week, discover the March 2024 issue of Brilliant Flash Fiction’s tenth year of publication is an oddball mixture with a pancreas stepping out of its body and artwork consisting of photos taken inside a car during an automated carwash. The Spring 2024 issue of The Kenyon Review includes Beth Bachmann’s 2023 Short Fiction Contest-winning story, chosen by judge Danielle Evans and so much more. The Spring 2024 issue of The Apple Valley Review features work by Andrew Siegrist, Molly Lurie-Marino, and Jadranka Milenković (translated from the Serbian by Petar Penda), to name just a few contributors.

Enjoy work by Albert Goldbarth, Ravi Jain, Krista Eastman, Lori White, and others, along with the winners of the New Letters Literary Awards and Editor’s Choice Award in the Winter/Spring 2024 issue of New Letters. The Midwest Quarterly: Journal of Contemporary Thought Spring 2024 is a special issue on “Craft of Writing” guest edited by Lori Martin.

Want to run to your bookstore, but not sure what to look for? Get recommendations from our reviewers to help you make your choice. Eleanor J. Bader covers Teach for Climate Justice: A Vision for Transforming Education by longtime education activist and teacher Tom Roderick. “Since 90 percent of US children attend public schools, he believes that students can learn to push back against climate deniers, develop personal agency, and foster respect between people and Mother earth. A compendium of resources is included to aid teachers in these efforts.”

Kevin Brown reviews essayist and poet Hanif Abdurraqib’s There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension. While the subtitle may put off non-basketball fans, the reference is more of a meditation. The book mainly questions “the narrative that white people want to tell about African Americans—and other minorities, but primarily Black people—overcoming difficult odds to succeed, whatever they need that success to look like at that moment.” He also reviews Leslie Jamison’s memoir, Splinters, which tells the story of the dissolution of her marriage and her struggle to be a single mother and a writer while also dating.

Come back to the NewPages Blog later this week to find reviews of Thine by Kate Partridge, If This Isn’t Love by Susana H. Case, and The Race to be Myself by Caster Semenya.

Playing online games can be a great escape from the real world…or also a constant reminder of things going on in the real world as it can inevitably spill into our pastime escapes. Something that sadly comes into play more often than we would like can be “vitriol.” This word kept popping up in my head while reading people having an unpleasant conversation in world chat of a game that I play.

Are you a player of games? What kind? Can a game be an inspiration in our own writing? Has a certain game piqued your interest? Or have you developed a complete backstory to your own character because that’s just how you are? Has a gaming world inspired you so much that you want to create a story based in it or an ode to it? How can in-game drama mimic the real-life drama for you? Have you made lasting friends and connections through your gaming?

How can you turn to your favorite game to help with inspiration in your own writing life? Or how has writing and your real-life commitments stopped you from playing the games you once loved to?

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Calls, Contests, & More

Below are this week’s writing contests, calls for submissions, and literary and writing events. Enjoy 52 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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