Literature Like Fireflies in the Dark
NewPages Newsletter #136 Featuring 29 Submission Opportunities
July is officially half over with! This means you get a special treat from NewPages this week with the release of our July 2024 eLitPak newsletter on Wednesday. Stay tuned! Meanwhile, hopefully your weather is treating you well. It’s been muggy, hot, with some promised rain not coming and then some great thunderstorms arriving. It can be very uncomfortable to sit outside in this weather, even when the nights cool down a little, but isn’t it worth it to sit outside to watch the fireflies dance?
Need some art to slake your thirst? Editor Denise Hill is back with her cover art picks of the week! First up is the latest issue of Ecotone: Reimagining Place, themed “the Labor issue.” Enjoy Perla Segovia’s Retablos de Imágenes y Memorias, 2022. If you like the cover art, you can enjoy a full portfolio of his work inside as well. Next is Ian Alam Sukarso’s artwork gracing the cover of Inch. Last, but not least, enjoy Leanne E. Smith’s photograph gracing the cover of the Spring 2024 issue of East Carolina University’s literary journal Tar River Poetry.
Coming this week on the Magazine Stand, you can learn more about the Summer 2024 issue of THEMA, the Summer 2024 issue of Still Points Arts Quarterly, and the Summer/Fall 2024 issue of Kaleidoscope. Plus, enjoy an introduction to fledgling literary journal Fleeting Daze Magazine.
In other magazine news, I-70 Review has announced judge Alice Friman has selected Al Ortolani’s poem “Feeling Blue” as the winner of the 2024 Bill Hickok Humor Award for Poetry.
In the close-knit community of Hentsbury, racism and the local paper mill’s oppressive control over the town collide in a gripping tale set in the 1990s in southern Arkansas along the fictional Mud River. Follow Rae-Ann, owner of a convenience store and unofficial mayor, as her life intertwines with Vernon, the paper mill’s Environmental Officer. Can their budding romance survive trauma, racism, and corrupt officials? Find out in Lenore Weiss’ Pulp into Paper.
Looking for more book recommendations? Get some from our reviewers! Jami Macarty reviews Only Insistence by James Lindsay. The poetry collection features a new father to a son who begins to reflect on his own relationships with his parents. Macarty also reviews Sheila E. Murphy’s Permission to Relax where “The poet points out life’s absurdities, relationship tensions, and communication difficulties.”
In The King of Terrors by Jim Johnstone, the poems regard death and its associates madness and fear just like the horror movies and sermons with the same name that came first have. Jami Macarty believes “In The King of Terrors, Jim Johnstone offers readers poems for the uncertain time we ‘inhabit’ ‘between / age and agency.’”
Kevin Brown returns to review Andrew Boryga’s debut novel Victim which tells the story of Javi, a Puerto Rican living in the Bronx. Javi does well in school and ends up at an elite college and his life seems to follow the traditional path of the American Dream. Meanwhile, Javi’s friend Gio’s life goes in the completely opposite direction. “Javi’s problem isn’t that he doesn’t struggle with real suffering; it’s that he seeks the approval of others, especially via social media, so much that he’s willing to do whatever it takes to obtain that approval.”
Come back to the NewPages Blog throughout the week to enjoy even more reviews of Matthew Cooperman’s Wonder About The, Rita Bullwinkel’s Headshot, and V.V. Ganeshananthan’s Brotherless Night.
“I know you can be overwhelmed, and you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed?” So asks Chastity in the movie 10 Things I Hate About You, a modern retelling of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew.
What do you think? And did you know that whelmed is actually an archaic word that was once used and no longer is? In today’s world overwhelmed has replaced whelmed and basically has the same meaning.
This is great fodder to put on the thinking and writing cap. One, to think of moments when you have been truly overwhelmed or sadly underwhelmed and to write a story, essay, or poem about these events. It’s also a great way to consider language, evolution, and how things change throughout the ages in our languages and lives.
Are there any other words like this that make you ask such questions which may seem absurd to others but take root in your brain and you cannot let go of until you discover the answer? Like, in semantics class, we learned that once upon time squeeze had the same format as freeze. It was squeeze, squoze, squozen. Granted, a bit awkward, but at the same time fun to say.
Calls, Contests, & More
Below are this week’s writing contests, calls for submissions, and literary and writing events. Enjoy 29 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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