New Submission Opportunities & Great Literature
NewPages Newsletter #111 Featuring 44 Submission Opportunities
Well after a nice week-long arctic blast that kept our 10 inches of snow around and our roads icy, we are hitting a balmy 30s this week. And with warmer weather in winter comes lots of fun weather events from more snow to rain to freezing rain. Hopefully you are all staying safe and sound. We are back in our final full week of January with great reasons to stay indoors reading, writing, and submitting.
In case you missed it, our eLitPak Newsletter for January was emailed to our current subscribers last Wednesday. Don’t forget to check it out to discover the 18th annual National Indie Excellence Book Awards, Third Street Review announcing their upcoming reading period, dates for the Kenyon Review Summer Residential Adult Writers Workshops, a new issue and call for submissions from Kaleidoscope, Pangyrus Press’ release of Wheatley at 250, a call for submissions from Hindsight Journal, poetry contests from Trio House Press, About Place Journal’s call for submissions on the theme Strange Wests, fellowship information for the Martha’s Vineyard Summer Writers Conference (deadline today!), the Changing Light Prize for a Novel-in-Verse, application deadline for the MFA in Writing for Screen & Television at Pepperdine, and the 2024 First Pages Prize.
Editor Denise Hills is back with three new cover recommendations for her Lit Mag Covers :: Picks of the Week! Ponder Review, a student-run publication of the MFA program at Mississippi University for Women, Volume 7 Issue 2 cover is graced with cover art by Lila Byrne. Keeping in the vein of journals from colleges and universities, we have The Ear Volume 26 with Synthesis of Man and Nature by Brennan Roach on the cover. Subtropics: The Literary Journal of the University of Florida Summer/Fall 2023 issue cover image is In the Parco Piersanti Mattarella (Giardino inglese), Palermo (2022), photograph by Mark Mitchell. When you are done admiring the covers, don’t forget to dive into the work inside.
The Magazine Stand features new and noteworthy issues of literary and alternative magazines. The Winter 2024 issue of The Kenyon Review includes an essay by Carrie Cogan, the winner of the 2023 Kenyon Review Nonfiction Contest, selected by Leslie Jamison; work by the 2021 Kenyon Review Developmental Editing Fellows, Allison Albino, Emily Stoddard, and Jane Walton, and so much more. Come back to the Magazine Stand throughout the week to learn about the Winter/Spring 2024 issue of Kaleidoscope and Southern Humanities Review 56.4. You can also discover Where the Meadows Reside in our New Lit on the Block series.
Recently on the Book Stand, dive into James Taylor Toothman’s Three Sixes and a Forked Tongue or Cold Medicine and a Liar. The novel revolves around a desperate young girl who discovers a book of witchcraft and pledges herself to Satan in 1970s West Virginia. Later this week you will be able to learn more about Unnie by Yun-Yun and Book of Lamentations: Poems by Red Hawk (aka Robert Moore).
Get more recommendations from our reviewers! Kevin Brown reviews Paul Lynch’s 2023 Booker-prize-winning novel Prophet Song in which “There’s no way to read this novel without thinking of the current rise of fascist or fascist-like leaders, despite the reader only seeing the result of decisions, not the politicians in charge.” Brown also covers Transitions: A Mother’s Journey by Élodie Durand. “Visually, the work moves between more realistic comic panels that tell most of the story and impressionistic sketches that reveal how characters (usually Anne) are feeling.”
Last, but certainly not least, Brown reviews How to Read Now by Elaine Castillo, a collection of essays coming from the lineage of Toni Morrison’s Playing in the Dark. “Her main point, which underlies all others, is that white writers/readers get the benefit of seeing their work as universal, while writers of color are educational material, something one reads to learn about a particular culture, not work that conveys any ideas about simply being human.”
Susan Kay Anderson believes Telling the Truth as It Comes Up Selected Talks & Essays 1991-2018 by Alice Notley is a collection of prose writing that gives opinions and anecdotes of strong interest to reviewers and scholars of contemporary poets and poetics. Denise Hill dives into Things in the Basement by Ben Hatke in which a young boy is sent into the basement of his new home to finds is baby sister’s special sock which has gone missing. “Milo’s lack of confidence throughout the story is frustrating at times, but this also makes him a wonderful role model for kids who may fear basements as well as for kids who are fascinated by them.”
Drop by the blog throughout the week for reviews of Roman Stories by Jhumpa Lahiri and How to Become the God of Small Things by Fiona Lu.
Calls, Contests, & More
Below are this week’s writing contests, calls for submissions, and literary and writing events. Enjoy 44 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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