I hope everyone was able to have a lovely weekend. Michigan felt more like summer with some warm and sometimes steamy weather. It was a great time to finish planting the garden and sit outside sipping a cold drink and reading a book in a brand-new hammock chair you purchased for yourself as a present. If you live in the US, next Monday is Memorial Day. Our weekly newsletter will be moved to Tuesday.
May you all be able to enjoy a nice and quiet weekend. If you are looking for some great reading material for the long weekend, we’ve got you covered. Looking for places to submit? We can help there, too. Speaking of submissions…don’t forget New Letters’ annual literary awards deadline is today! If you need more books, literary magazines, upcoming events, and submission opportunities, don’t forget to check out the NewPages May 2024 eLitPak with flyers from the North Street Book Prize, Livingston Press, Colorado Authors League, The Word Works, Catamaran Literary Reader, a redwoods writing retreat, the 2024 Charles Simic Prize for Poetry, Vine Leaves Press, Caesura Poetry Workshop, and Black Fox Literary Magazine.
Enjoy literary magazines? Discover fledgling publications and the latest issues of your favorites on the NewPages Magazine Stand. The newest issue of AGNI (99) focuses on the places that remain. Contributors struggle with displacement and “home,” belonging and having to establish, resisting and being able to simply be. Hole in the Head re:View continues to celebrate their 5th year with a blooming May issue that announces Dana Levin as judge of the 2nd annual Charles Simic Prize for Poetry and Richard Foerster as guest editor of their August 2024 issue.
Magazine1 becomes the latest journal to be featured in our New Lit on the Block column. Newly launched biannual online Magazine1 operates out of Bookstore1 in Sarasota, Florida (hence the name) and publishes fiction, nonfiction, poetry, visual art, and hybrid works. “We’re really open to anything if you have something you don’t think fits nicely into the above categories,” says Editor-in-Chief Ben Kerns. Connections are what matter to Kerns, who hopes readers of Magazine1 are able to connect with something they didn’t think they’d connect with at first glance. Coming next week, you can discover more about Bloodletter.
In book news, stop by the NewPages Book Stand to discover new titles to add to your must-read lists. Stephen C. Pollock’s poetry collection Exits serves is musical and multilayered with a potpourri of styles including traditional forms, free verse, and hybrid works. Willow Books has announced the release of Black Fire This Time, Volume 2 (2024) edited by Derrick Harriell with Assistant Editor Kofi Antwi with an introduction by Mona Lisa Saloy. This book is the second in a series celebrating the history and legacy of the Black Arts movement.
Get book recommendations from our reviewers. Eleanor J. Bader covers Personal Score: Sport, Culture, Identity, a stunning collection of 47 essays and poems by award-winning Brisbane, Australia, based Aboriginal-Dutch writer Ellen van Neerven. Meanwhile Kevin Brown reviews Goyhood, Reuven Fenton’s debut novel. This story follows twin brothers whose lives took very different paths and who come back together again at the death of their mother and embark on dual physical and emotional journeys.
Brown also gives his thoughts on James McBride’s latest novel, The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store. The novel follows a small community in Pennsylvania in the early and middle twentieth century as it changes from a primarily Jewish area to a primarily African American one. The overall message of the novel being one of inclusivity which is needed now as much as ever.
With May being the birthday month of 2/3 of NewPages, it’s a great time for reflection. What does a birthday mean? Is it just another day because you are an older, wiser adult? Do you stay the same age once you reach a certain milestone? Hey, you’re not 39, you are just celebrating the 14th anniversary of turning 25.
Did you have a special birthday that you will always remember? Can you recall celebrating someone else’s birthday who meant the world to you? Is a birthday a celebration of a singular person or something more than that? Did you experience your very own Sixteen Candles moment?
Can you make a witty or touching acrostic using the letters of birthday?
Calls, Contests, & More
Below are this week’s writing contests, calls for submissions, and literary and writing events. Enjoy 41 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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