It’s another end of another month, my dear pals, and you know what that means!
On a personal note, I was thrilled to have a piece of mine come out in an anthology this month.
This project was a long time coming, and I admit, with all the delays of the last few years, I had moments of doubt that it would ever materialize. But it did! It is here! And I am thrilled to be a part of it and share it with all of you.
Rather than have writers submit whatever they wanted, each writer was assigned a specific time period and subject within that time period. From the book description:
The editors selected 58 images from noted collections consisting of vintage photography, propaganda posters, newsreel stills, etc. matching each to a poet, short story writer, plus features by essayists…The book includes four parts: Part I covers the rise of Nazism and heightening antisemitism…Part II revolves around forced labor, ghettos, and extermination, dealing with such topics as death squads, the “final solution,” and collaborators. Part III is all about escape, rescue, and resistance…Part IV deals with the aftermath, the liberation of concentration camp prisoners, the refugee crisis, and the Nuremberg trials.
I was assigned to write something for Part III: Escape, Rescue and Resistance.
In particular, I was assigned to write about The Sobibor Uprising of 1943, and to tell the story of Chaim and Selma Engel.
Are you familiar with The Sobibor Uprising? It is a fascinating part of history. I’m ashamed to say that I had never heard of it. My paternal grandparents were Jews who fled Germany (and went to Shanghai, China). I’ve heard many stories about their lives. I had never heard of The Sobibor Uprising.
The assignment led me to various articles, books and movies on the subject, all of which I would highly recommend. My work of flash fiction, featured here, is written from the point of view of Selma Engel. She and Chaim were two of the few who organized the revolt, escaped and survived. They went on to marry, have children and live into old age.
This is a long introduction to this month’s Lit Mag Brag, I know. But I find this history to be fascinating and the people whose stories are featured here so inspiring. Plus, after four years, this anthology is finally out in the world!
If you’re interested in ordering the book, it is available on Amazon and via the publisher. The editors would love for people to write some reviews on Amazon or Goodreads. And if you read it and encounter my work in there, I’d love to know what you think!
Anyway.
Enough about me.
Let’s talk about you.
Did you have work come out in a lit mag this month? Give us all the details!
Where did your work appear? (Share the link!)
How did you choose this venue?
What was your publishing experience like?
How long were you submitting this work before it found its cozy little home?
Tell us the story behind the story, the lines between the poem!
Do not be shy! It’s your time to shine!
Step right up and come on out and brag your lit mag!
Apr 29, 2023·edited Apr 30, 2023Liked by Becky Tuch
I had a reprint of one of my favorite essays, re-titled as "Free Man in London," in Wanderlust, a lovely travel writing journal. They accepted it quickly. It's about being really depressed and dealing with the terrible pain of an accident while teaching in London and how great art turned everything around for me: https://wanderlust-journal.com/2023/04/02/free-man-in-london/
And then The Smart Set took a memoir essay about my brother almost as soon as the new editor got to the submissions. They pay well and published an essay about my late mother, a Holocaust survivor, last year. I had a feeling this would hit their sweet spot and it did.
I've used Submittable, Chill Subs, and Duotrope over the past two years, not sure which led to which.
I think that's everything. :-) And thanks, Becky for the opportunity above and also with the shout-out chance because it helped me assess how good things have been despite a death in my family.
Congratulations, Becky. I know the story of the Uprising and look forward to reading your contribution to the book. It's always interesting to read about how an assignment can bring us to a subject and a story we might never have dreamed of otherwise.
It's not quite a "lit mag brag", but my book Talking Vonnegut: Centennial Interviews and Essays was published this week by McFarland Books. It's a tribute to the work of Kurt Vonnegut and features interviews with Steve Almond, filmmakers Robert Weide and Keith Gordon, Kurt's daughter Edith, and many others, all of them sharing their thoughts and memories about Vonnegut's life and work. I've had the privilege to interview dozens of great people over the years, all of whom have been open and supportive of the project. The essays explore topics like Vonnegut's posthumous work, his short stories from the 1950's, the best YouTube Vonnegut clips, and a pop quiz about his life. Proving that, indeed, there is often a lit mag connection to be found, one of the essays, about Vonnegut's views on guns, was previously published by Literary Hub. When I started doing these interviews about eight years ago, I was just a curious Vonnegut fan, never dreaming that I would eventually write a book about him. You never know where your interests might lead.
One final connection: the first essay I wrote about Vonnegut, Deadeye Dick and the Aesthetics of Accessibility, was published by you in The Review Review. It's not included in Talking Vonnegut, but I always appreciated your taking a chance on that piece. Thank you.
Congratulations, Becky! That anthology sounds amazing, and the NYT article re Selma Engel was fascinating.
This month I had a poem published in Gyroscope Review. I received an acceptance in 16 days (they are known for being speedy). I submitted to three places total, and Gyroscope was the second journal to respond. The editors sent galleys 10 days before the issue launch. One of the things I love about this journal is that while the issue is free to read on the website and through Kindle Unlimited, you also have the option of purchasing a print copy via Amazon. The PDF link is below--poem at pages 23 and 24 (with a heads up that this is basically the opposite of my light-hearted satire from last month):
Also, The Broadkill Review published my first CNF piece. It's short and sweet (under 500 words), and relates to one of my passions, genealogy research. I received the acceptance in 50 days. I submitted to six places total, and Broadkill was the second journal to get back to me. The editors were lovely, sent galleys, and made my proposed edits right away.
Such a beautiful blessing, that this poem, "Sonnet on Otherness" was published in Amethyst Review, in their print magazine. I chose to submit to them, because their focus is on spirituality. I will submit to them again, which is rare for me, having just been trying to add to these numbers: I've been published 142 times, in 24 countries, in 12 languages...
Finally, a publication to share. On April 25, my poem, "Ode to Chicken Fricassee," appeared in Hyacinth Review. I originally wrote it in prose during a food writing course a few years ago. In my weekly trolling of themed opportunities in the Duotrope newsletter, Hyacinth Review was looking for submissions, I forget now what the theme was, but I sent in this poem: https://hyacinthreview.org/barbara-krasner-ode-to-chicken-fricassee/
After submitting five times to Apparition Lit, I'm very excited to have my poem "Invertebrate Gazebo" featured in their Symmetry issue. Check out the Creator Spotlight below the poem: https://apparitionlit.com/invertebrate-gazebo/
Brag you say? I had the most fantastic April publishing month of my life (so far), short story-wise, which is good because on the book front it's doom and gloom, lol.
Only "Signed, Joey" went through rejections and was in the submission game for a year. I guess editors weren't sure what to do with it. Tender crime? Not literary enough? Not genre enough. Glad it found a home at ApoCon. I wanted to get in there.
The other stories were in "non-simul" and responses came in quick, about 2 weeks. I'm a repeater at Guilty. Super happy to have made it into Black Cat Weekly and Cowboy Jamboree. I very much wanted to be published by them. Their author roster is impressive.
Congratulations on your anthology (great opportunity but lots of work!) and thanks for the opportunity to share! I have a flash NF essay in the Spring issue of Under the Gum Tree. I chose this journal because they don’t shy away from tough issues. The editor (Donna Rice) gently guided me toward a more nuanced and meaningful ending. It took 9 months to get in print (and online) once accepted, but the issue has gorgeous artwork and similar themes among essays.
I have been writing poems chiseled out of dreams. One called "Ancient Seeds" has been accepted by Mono. for an anthology called Dream: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry. I had sent this poem to several other journals, so once I heard from the editor of Mono., I sent messages to these other journals, and I think that made some of them switch my submission's status from "Received" to "In Progress" at Submittable. I have also received a few encouraging rejections recently. When I received a rejection after submitting my chapbook ms. to Wolfson Press, I wrote to the editor to ask how many submissions they had received. He wrote back, telling me that they had received 200 submissions, and that my ms. was near the top of the 100 that didn't make it into the next round. He said that given a different set of readers, my manuscript could easily have gone farther in the competition. What was even better, he offered his advice about my work. He found my project worthwhile and gave me notes about what more he wanted to see. I really appreciated his taking the time to give me such helpful feedback.
Apr 29, 2023·edited Apr 29, 2023Liked by Becky Tuch
Although it may seem like I'm cranking them out, AMAGANSETT '84, published this month (one year after my last novel, WONDERLESS), actually took 30 years to write, or to finish anyway. Had a frame; cut the frame; rewrote the frame; cut the frame, etc etc, finally realizing a short epilogue was all that was needed. Two reviews in this month, both strong (link below for the one from IndieReader, who has a terrific staff). Also got a strong review this month for WONDERLESS from Reader's Favorite, a less reliable outfit but one that came through with a sharp, sensitive review, also pasted in below. Thanks y'all.
The first chapter of my still largely unwritten novel "Dilly & Mags: A Madrigal" received a Notable Mention award in the 1st chapter contest of Gutsy Great Novelist. There were 21 awards out of 887 international entries written in English, so I'll consider that a win, though I could have used a little prize money, you know? Anyway, here's a link to the chapter. I hope everyone enjoys it.
It's not as recent as this month, but last December my publisher, Cyberwit, released a 3rd book of 60 poems titled 'Soul Songs'. And that's what they are, each born of an awareness I gained 52 years ago when I tried to end my life to escape the living hell of a major clinical depression. As a 24 year old atheist, I believed that death meant extinction: How very wrong I was I have been wrestling with for over 1/2 a century. But the early poets, going back to the Psalmists, were right: we each have a consciousness that predates birth and survives death...an endless soul. I'm a bit ashamed that it has taken me 5 decades almost to share it with the world, but I'm old now and edge ever closer to death, which as I learned the hard way-- a very, very hard way- is not a wall but a door taking one from this world (which seems, to me, ever more like a long dream shared by billions) to the next world--and that is the tricky part I suspect. Anyway, my publisher was gracious enough to let me end Soul Songs with a prose account of my leap, the NDE, (which was far from the 'white light' ), and my gradual 're-birth', a process I'm still going through. Soul Songs is available under my pen name,. Nolo Segundo, at Amazon and Barnes and Noble--the modest royalties go to Doctors Without Borders.
Both moderately experimental pieces based on the non-specific protagonist I call "the observer."
How did I find the venues? A mix of Poets & Writers, Newpages, Facebook ads, random reviews in various periodicals, and mentions in book groups. This is my second story in October Hill.
I think both pieces have a little chip on their shoulders. Or dirt because I took their titles and vibes from hip-hop throwbacks.
Incarcerated was absolutely influenced by the Sylvia Chan piece we read in the Cincinnati Review (join Becky’s reading club y’all). Raekwon’s Incarcerated Scarfaces pumped me back up after reading that.
Casualties came from Eric B.& Rakim’s last single which I turned to after this year’s Super Bowl.
Quick turnaround times - I do 4 or 5 subs at once and these were the first to respond. It’s a lot easier to send a withdrawal than delete a rejection. :)
A fabulous month for me, along with many others it seems, including you. (Here's a theory, Becky; being a LitMag News subscriber increases your chances. :-))
Firstly, one for the never-give-up file. The delightful Sari Botton, Editor of Oldster, had agreed last year to pay for an essay of mine for publication in April this year. However, in the months that intervened. Oldster had evolved into a different vibe and she wrote to say, with great regret, that she wouldn't be publishing it and offering a reduced fee for my trouble. I countered with suggesting that she keep the money and consider another creative non-fiction piece that I thought might better suit the evolved Oldster. She quickly accepted my piece and here it is. Now that's pure class on her part. https://oldster.substack.com/p/boys-driving-around-in-cars And the best part is a lot of people liked this story that has taken 3 years to be accepted.
"Scene from the latest Hollywood Blockbuster 'Not-so-close encounters,'" seems to capture the essence of Volume 2, Issue 2: music and literature often blur the boundaries between the real and the
imagined. As Jacquier's character Edgar states, a lie becomes a truth "if I write a song about it..."
I was very happy to have not one but two translations appear in The Short Story Project: "Eclipse" and "Señora Smaig", both by Spanish contemporary writer Almudena Sánchez (read here: https://shortstoryproject.com/writers/almudena-sanchez/). Additionally, it was a genuine thrill to publish my "Stuck at 3%", an analysis of what ails publishing of lit in translation and how lit mags are a crucial bridge to visibilizing our work for publishers, right here on Lit Mag News! (Read here: https://litmagnews.substack.com/p/stuck-at-3-why-cant-we-have-more). I am delighted to say I've been invited to talk at the PEN World Voices Festival in New York and, in addition to my own event, I look forward to meeting some writers and translators that I have not yet met in the "meat world". NYC peeps, check it out! My event's the translation slam with Sam Schnee, MarÍa Fernanda Ampuero, and other great talents. Check out the festival program here: https://worldvoices.pen.org/?s=voice
Congrats, Becky. After a lifetime of thinking my family, with two Catholic nuns, had a strictly Christian heritage, I now know I'm 9% Ashkenazi Jewish. I look forward to reading your work in the anthology.
My essay "Nesters" was submitted 21 times, received positive feedback (along with a rejection) from a respected journal, and ultimately appeared this month in Portage Magazine, a university journal based about 2 miles from my home. They published it beautifully along with my author interview in audio and print. https://portagemagazine.org/nesters/
Congratulations Becky! I look forward to reading your piece and the larger anthology.
It's especially gratifying to see projects come to fruition after a long time. It took me 40 years to finally finish a poetry collection due to many detours: marriage, children, and a handful of jobs. I still have a full-time job outside the literary world, but I prioritized my writing again finally.
Shanti Arts will publish my poetry collection Tethers End within the next year. The short version had made it to the top ten of a chapbook competition, but when accepted on the fifth time out by Shanti Arts, the publisher asked if I wanted to make a longer work, so that longer work will be the final product.
I'd also taken the ideas from the micro nonfiction string and written a crown of decastich, also titled "Ready, or Not," which on its first submission was a runner-up in the CommuterLit.com poetry contest and appeared on April 28, 2023 at the website. I deviated from a true crown by using 9 poems instead of 10 for the nine lives of the cat who is the central character. I was thrilled by the acceptance letter in which the editor said that she smiled the whole time as she read the piece. It has also been accepted for a podcast when I manage to record it.
Book of Matches Literary Magazine is slated to publish my poem “Into Blue” on May 1 and the poem "Barn Buzzard" was accepted on its first time out for the Wallon Writers Review 2023 issue. I have a connection to that area of Northern Michigan, so I had read an earlier issue of the review. Then I wrote the poem about an event Up North with that journal in mind.
Apr 29, 2023·edited Apr 29, 2023Liked by Becky Tuch
Congratulations to Becky T for her story and publication! I look forward to reading all of yours as well. I have one piece accepted this month, a "narrative" drawing of studies I did of children practicing soccer in covid masks in a journal called Arkana.https://arkanamag.org/ , submitted in December of '22. Since then I wrote an accompanying text---they might appear together in the future somewhere else. Otherwise I have 39 stories and essays in various stages of wait and 19 declines. I'm thick into rewriting two of the "de Refuse" I believe in (maybe 20-30 declines on those) and working on a novella from a serialized piece on substack. My acceptance to decline ratio has tended to be about 1 out of 20, (give or take a lot) so maybe May will be better.
Darn, Becky. Just when I thought I could keep the vow of not buying any more books until I read at least a portion of the stack I have, I need to buy this anthology! Maybe it can double as a birthday gift for my son! Congratulations, anyway.
I had two pieces published this month. One is a flash CNF piece, which has been around, "Can Spring Be Far Behind..." in Musings Publications which I found on Duotrope. I can't figure out how to link it.
The other is a piece on Bob Dylan in a fun little journal, Moss Piglet, that I learned about from a writing friend.
Congratulations on your anthology. I had not known about the Sobibor Uprising Holocaust, but I do now. Courageous and tragic. Only in the last three months have I read details about Shanghai (and China) during WWII. For the Jews and Chinese, the Japanese were brutal. The Last Rose of Shanghai by Weina Dai Randel testifies to the destruction of war and endurance. As always, Becky, thank you for sharing your literary world.
Mazel tov on your anthology publication, Becky! I published a tanka and a haiku recently. My tanka “College Reunion” appeared in the column “Tanka Hangout: Music” with poems about music selected by Ken Slaughter in Ribbons 19.1 (Winter 2023): page 22. My haiku “May Snowfall” appeared in Humana Obscura #6 (Spring/Summer 2023): page 44. The link is https://issuu.com/humanaobscura/docs/humanaobscura_issue6_digital
Best wishes for the spring, everyone!
Sincerely,
Janet Ruth Heller
Author of the poetry books Nature’s Olympics (Wipf and Stock, 2021), Exodus (WordTech Editions, 2014), Folk Concert: Changing Times (Anaphora Literary Press, 2012) and Traffic Stop (Finishing Line Press, 2011), the scholarly book Coleridge, Lamb, Hazlitt, and the Reader of Drama (University of Missouri Press, 1990), the middle-grade chapter book for kids The Passover Surprise (Fictive Press, 2015, 2016), and the award-winning picture book for kids about bullying, How the Moon Regained Her Shape (Arbordale, 2006; seventh edition 2022).
Congrats on the anthology piece, Becky. Just this past week I read an article on how many high school students are ignorant about the Holocaust. I hope that anthologies like the one you're in can help young people understand what's happened in the past, so that that past isn't forgotten and repeated.
Earlier this week my flash piece, Tangled, was published by Medicine and Meaning, the literary journal of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. I discovered it on Duotrope, I think, in a search for pubs that accept submissions with a medical slant. Tangled is about my mother's decline from Alzheimer's, as viewed through the lens of her love of needlepoint.
Just yesterday I had a flash essay, "Strange Bedfellows," accepted by Allium, out of Columbia College in Chicago. I'll share the link whenever it's published!
That's great that the anthology with your piece is coming out, Becky. Congratulations! And to everyone else as well.
I had one story come out in April, in Wilderness House Literary Review, my second appearance there (first back in 2020). I wrote the story last year, sending it out originally and written to target more or less a site called The Bureau Dispatch. Prior to the acceptance it had 5 rejections, going back to the first submission in September. WHLR is reliably a quarterly, so not a very long wait.
May 14, 2023·edited May 14, 2023Liked by Becky Tuch
Brava, Becky, on your anthology piece!
I'm excited to announce that my personal essay "Treif" was just awarded the Brooklyn Non-Fiction Prize for 2022. To access the piece, go to their website https://filmbrooklyn.org/ and click on the link "Brooklyn Non-Fiction Stories" at the top of the page. I entered this contest because the story is about my grandmother who lived in Brooklyn for over four decades. There is no admission fee, and the prize is announced five months after the deadline at a Zoom reading of excerpts from among the finalists. The translation of the Yiddish word "treif" is torn or mortally wounded and provided a lens to view my grandmother's life and death.
My short story “The Jesus Tree” was accepted by Cowboy Jamboree Magazine for the issue “Country & Folk”. The link leads to the pdf.
CJM is a grit lit journal. Think Harry Crews, Larry Brown, Sam Shepard, Brad Watson, Dorothy Allison ; some would say Rough South lit. The acceptance was submission two and the piece was originally written (and declined) as a novelette for a grit lit anthology that later folded.
I've just finished watching a recording of Rattlecast featuring 'New Voices' (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCIsRwej_kQ&t=8782s ) – sounds like such an amazing project... movement... Congratulations on being part of it!!!
Great that you have published in the anthology of contemporary writers reflection on the Holocaust...and learned more about the courage of the resisters. Thanks for sharing this story as well and of your patience for the publication.
Congratulations, Becky. I look forward to reading your piece in New Voices: Contemporary Writers Confronting the Holocaust -- work more necessary than ever.
Immense congratulations on the launch of New Voices, Becky! I too have never heard of the Sobibor Uprising and am looking forward to learning about it. I had a short story accepted by the Toronto Journal which will come out in May — I'll be sure to brag about it next month!
"Practice in Masks at Sunset" it's on the homepage. This version doesn't include the text, so "narrative drawing" is a little confusing, except to the extent that any image is potentially "narrative, I suppose..."
I had a reprint of one of my favorite essays, re-titled as "Free Man in London," in Wanderlust, a lovely travel writing journal. They accepted it quickly. It's about being really depressed and dealing with the terrible pain of an accident while teaching in London and how great art turned everything around for me: https://wanderlust-journal.com/2023/04/02/free-man-in-london/
Something shorter was published in Fifth Wheel Press, submitted for an anthology but they thought it would work better on the site and that was fine by me: https://fifthwheelpress.com/blogarchive/feature-voyages-by-lev-raphael I like their vision.
And then The Smart Set took a memoir essay about my brother almost as soon as the new editor got to the submissions. They pay well and published an essay about my late mother, a Holocaust survivor, last year. I had a feeling this would hit their sweet spot and it did.
I've used Submittable, Chill Subs, and Duotrope over the past two years, not sure which led to which.
Oh, and last but not least, Lit Mag News just published my essay about revisions, which has been getting lots of comments: https://litmagnews.substack.com/p/i-confess-i-love-revisions
I think that's everything. :-) And thanks, Becky for the opportunity above and also with the shout-out chance because it helped me assess how good things have been despite a death in my family.
Congratulations, Becky. I know the story of the Uprising and look forward to reading your contribution to the book. It's always interesting to read about how an assignment can bring us to a subject and a story we might never have dreamed of otherwise.
It's not quite a "lit mag brag", but my book Talking Vonnegut: Centennial Interviews and Essays was published this week by McFarland Books. It's a tribute to the work of Kurt Vonnegut and features interviews with Steve Almond, filmmakers Robert Weide and Keith Gordon, Kurt's daughter Edith, and many others, all of them sharing their thoughts and memories about Vonnegut's life and work. I've had the privilege to interview dozens of great people over the years, all of whom have been open and supportive of the project. The essays explore topics like Vonnegut's posthumous work, his short stories from the 1950's, the best YouTube Vonnegut clips, and a pop quiz about his life. Proving that, indeed, there is often a lit mag connection to be found, one of the essays, about Vonnegut's views on guns, was previously published by Literary Hub. When I started doing these interviews about eight years ago, I was just a curious Vonnegut fan, never dreaming that I would eventually write a book about him. You never know where your interests might lead.
One final connection: the first essay I wrote about Vonnegut, Deadeye Dick and the Aesthetics of Accessibility, was published by you in The Review Review. It's not included in Talking Vonnegut, but I always appreciated your taking a chance on that piece. Thank you.
Congratulations, Becky! That anthology sounds amazing, and the NYT article re Selma Engel was fascinating.
This month I had a poem published in Gyroscope Review. I received an acceptance in 16 days (they are known for being speedy). I submitted to three places total, and Gyroscope was the second journal to respond. The editors sent galleys 10 days before the issue launch. One of the things I love about this journal is that while the issue is free to read on the website and through Kindle Unlimited, you also have the option of purchasing a print copy via Amazon. The PDF link is below--poem at pages 23 and 24 (with a heads up that this is basically the opposite of my light-hearted satire from last month):
https://www.gyroscopereview.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/GR-PDF-Web.pdf
Also, The Broadkill Review published my first CNF piece. It's short and sweet (under 500 words), and relates to one of my passions, genealogy research. I received the acceptance in 50 days. I submitted to six places total, and Broadkill was the second journal to get back to me. The editors were lovely, sent galleys, and made my proposed edits right away.
https://www.broadkillreview.com/post/a-dna-match-not-known-to-me-asks-about-a-deceased-relative-in-common-by-colette-parris
Looking forward to reading everyone's work!
I have no idea how I chose this venue - maybe Submittable? But here it is, my story and interview in the London Independent Story Prize. https://www.londonindependentstoryprize.co.uk/post/reunion-by-lisa-johnson-mitchell
My braided essay How to Make Boiled Potatoes has been published in The FOLD’s anthology/programme.
https://issuu.com/thefold_/docs/8_f23_program_apr13_print_pages
Congrats to you, Becky! Thanks for providing this space for us at the end of each month. I had a poem published at Zone 3 (https://zone3press.com/poetry-entries/its-summer-and-im-worried-about-the-election/) that I'd been sending around for over a year. I have always loved Zone 3, which used to be solely a print pub, but with this issue, have launched as digital only. I'm also looking forward to having a sonnet appear in the Belle Point Press's Mid/South Sonnet Anthology edited by Casie Dodd & C.T. Salazar! https://bellepointpress.substack.com/p/introducing-midsouth-sonnets-e5d
Such a beautiful blessing, that this poem, "Sonnet on Otherness" was published in Amethyst Review, in their print magazine. I chose to submit to them, because their focus is on spirituality. I will submit to them again, which is rare for me, having just been trying to add to these numbers: I've been published 142 times, in 24 countries, in 12 languages...
Sonnet on Otherness
My bones my breath my thoughts my wants
my I my me my mine ~
I throw into the bright white fire
of light that sways my spine.
With power to reveal the real ~
even darkness can be kind.
The night that will conceal & seal,
the shade in which all things can shine.
Our air that birthed both you & me,
& helped our hearts begin to beat,
is everywhere it needs to be,
gives & yet remains complete.
If I didn’t have the sense of ‘other,’
would I ever suffer?
Finally, a publication to share. On April 25, my poem, "Ode to Chicken Fricassee," appeared in Hyacinth Review. I originally wrote it in prose during a food writing course a few years ago. In my weekly trolling of themed opportunities in the Duotrope newsletter, Hyacinth Review was looking for submissions, I forget now what the theme was, but I sent in this poem: https://hyacinthreview.org/barbara-krasner-ode-to-chicken-fricassee/
I've published some more speculative poetry this month. Three Spanish poems, "Oración para los antiguos viajeros de la Tierra", "Matriarca", and"Las joyas de la Vía Láctea", appear in the 2023 issue of Azahares Literary Magazine. https://uafs.edu/academics/colleges-and-schools/college-of-arts-and-sciences/departments/resources/azahares.php
After submitting five times to Apparition Lit, I'm very excited to have my poem "Invertebrate Gazebo" featured in their Symmetry issue. Check out the Creator Spotlight below the poem: https://apparitionlit.com/invertebrate-gazebo/
Finally, "Done Away with the Light-Years" was published in Frivolous Comma. https://www.frivolouscomma.com/fiction/done-away-with-the-light-years/
Brag you say? I had the most fantastic April publishing month of my life (so far), short story-wise, which is good because on the book front it's doom and gloom, lol.
So here we go:
- "Sausalito" - a piece of retro noir was published in Guilty Crime Story Magazine (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C11XYG7L)
- "Where the Gods Live" was published by Havok - that's behind a paywall (https://gohavok.com), maybe I'll make the anthology, we'll see.
- "Signed, Joey", a cute/sweet/mischievous love story love of art story came on on Apocalypse Confidential (free to read, enjoy: https://apocalypse-confidential.com/2023/04/13/signed-joey/)
- "Cottonmouths" was published in Black Cat Weekly issue #85 (https://blackcatweekly.com/b/I75tF )
- "Bag Limit" is in Cowboy Jamboree, their Country & Folk special. That's a chunk of Souther Gothic (http://www.cowboyjamboreemagazine.com/uploads/5/8/6/8/58683251/spring_2023_cjm.pdf)
Only "Signed, Joey" went through rejections and was in the submission game for a year. I guess editors weren't sure what to do with it. Tender crime? Not literary enough? Not genre enough. Glad it found a home at ApoCon. I wanted to get in there.
The other stories were in "non-simul" and responses came in quick, about 2 weeks. I'm a repeater at Guilty. Super happy to have made it into Black Cat Weekly and Cowboy Jamboree. I very much wanted to be published by them. Their author roster is impressive.
Woof... what a month!
https://janicepostwhite.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Truth-and-Consequence-Under-the-Gum-Tree-Spring-2023.pdf
Congratulations on your anthology (great opportunity but lots of work!) and thanks for the opportunity to share! I have a flash NF essay in the Spring issue of Under the Gum Tree. I chose this journal because they don’t shy away from tough issues. The editor (Donna Rice) gently guided me toward a more nuanced and meaningful ending. It took 9 months to get in print (and online) once accepted, but the issue has gorgeous artwork and similar themes among essays.
I have been writing poems chiseled out of dreams. One called "Ancient Seeds" has been accepted by Mono. for an anthology called Dream: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry. I had sent this poem to several other journals, so once I heard from the editor of Mono., I sent messages to these other journals, and I think that made some of them switch my submission's status from "Received" to "In Progress" at Submittable. I have also received a few encouraging rejections recently. When I received a rejection after submitting my chapbook ms. to Wolfson Press, I wrote to the editor to ask how many submissions they had received. He wrote back, telling me that they had received 200 submissions, and that my ms. was near the top of the 100 that didn't make it into the next round. He said that given a different set of readers, my manuscript could easily have gone farther in the competition. What was even better, he offered his advice about my work. He found my project worthwhile and gave me notes about what more he wanted to see. I really appreciated his taking the time to give me such helpful feedback.
Although it may seem like I'm cranking them out, AMAGANSETT '84, published this month (one year after my last novel, WONDERLESS), actually took 30 years to write, or to finish anyway. Had a frame; cut the frame; rewrote the frame; cut the frame, etc etc, finally realizing a short epilogue was all that was needed. Two reviews in this month, both strong (link below for the one from IndieReader, who has a terrific staff). Also got a strong review this month for WONDERLESS from Reader's Favorite, a less reliable outfit but one that came through with a sharp, sensitive review, also pasted in below. Thanks y'all.
https://indiereader.com/book_review/amagansett-84/
https://readersfavorite.com/book-review/wonderless
The first chapter of my still largely unwritten novel "Dilly & Mags: A Madrigal" received a Notable Mention award in the 1st chapter contest of Gutsy Great Novelist. There were 21 awards out of 887 international entries written in English, so I'll consider that a win, though I could have used a little prize money, you know? Anyway, here's a link to the chapter. I hope everyone enjoys it.
https://gutsygreatnovelist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Frederic-Koeppel.pdf?fbclid=IwAR1lxctXm-ff3HgQCnulWS4bnXhjrRXrIgN4vX53ITAVkszC3lEGxtxlIe0
It's not as recent as this month, but last December my publisher, Cyberwit, released a 3rd book of 60 poems titled 'Soul Songs'. And that's what they are, each born of an awareness I gained 52 years ago when I tried to end my life to escape the living hell of a major clinical depression. As a 24 year old atheist, I believed that death meant extinction: How very wrong I was I have been wrestling with for over 1/2 a century. But the early poets, going back to the Psalmists, were right: we each have a consciousness that predates birth and survives death...an endless soul. I'm a bit ashamed that it has taken me 5 decades almost to share it with the world, but I'm old now and edge ever closer to death, which as I learned the hard way-- a very, very hard way- is not a wall but a door taking one from this world (which seems, to me, ever more like a long dream shared by billions) to the next world--and that is the tricky part I suspect. Anyway, my publisher was gracious enough to let me end Soul Songs with a prose account of my leap, the NDE, (which was far from the 'white light' ), and my gradual 're-birth', a process I'm still going through. Soul Songs is available under my pen name,. Nolo Segundo, at Amazon and Barnes and Noble--the modest royalties go to Doctors Without Borders.
Two pieces out in April!
"The White butterfly" in October Hill Magazine, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jUQnbIXBHpBxQ5P6gncWrrmBDxtGynKW/view
And "Watching Shadows Move" in L'Esprit Literary Review, https://lespritliteraryreview.org/2023/04/15/watching-shadows-move/
Both moderately experimental pieces based on the non-specific protagonist I call "the observer."
How did I find the venues? A mix of Poets & Writers, Newpages, Facebook ads, random reviews in various periodicals, and mentions in book groups. This is my second story in October Hill.
Congratulations everyone! It was a hyper-local month for me. Two student-run lit mags published some of my poetry: Cedar Valley Divide based out of our community college (https://issuu.com/cedarvalleydivide/docs/kirkwood_cedar_valley_divide_2023/6) and Boundless published by the Translate Iowa Project at the University of Iowa (link to pdf https://translateiowaproje.wixsite.com/website/publications).
There's something very satisfy about being a part of student work. Who knows; maybe one of them will start their own journal after school.
Congratulations, Becky. That’s a lot to brag on and worth reading more about. Impressive.
When it rains, it pours and the first week of April I had two flashes published.
Incarcerated Places in Midwestern Heat
https://www.midwesternheatmagazine.com/dave-nash.html
Casualties of War in Jake the Mag
https://jakethemag.com/casualties-of-war/
I think both pieces have a little chip on their shoulders. Or dirt because I took their titles and vibes from hip-hop throwbacks.
Incarcerated was absolutely influenced by the Sylvia Chan piece we read in the Cincinnati Review (join Becky’s reading club y’all). Raekwon’s Incarcerated Scarfaces pumped me back up after reading that.
Casualties came from Eric B.& Rakim’s last single which I turned to after this year’s Super Bowl.
Quick turnaround times - I do 4 or 5 subs at once and these were the first to respond. It’s a lot easier to send a withdrawal than delete a rejection. :)
I found these mags on Chill Subs. It’s my go to.
Good vibes to all for next month!
A fabulous month for me, along with many others it seems, including you. (Here's a theory, Becky; being a LitMag News subscriber increases your chances. :-))
Firstly, one for the never-give-up file. The delightful Sari Botton, Editor of Oldster, had agreed last year to pay for an essay of mine for publication in April this year. However, in the months that intervened. Oldster had evolved into a different vibe and she wrote to say, with great regret, that she wouldn't be publishing it and offering a reduced fee for my trouble. I countered with suggesting that she keep the money and consider another creative non-fiction piece that I thought might better suit the evolved Oldster. She quickly accepted my piece and here it is. Now that's pure class on her part. https://oldster.substack.com/p/boys-driving-around-in-cars And the best part is a lot of people liked this story that has taken 3 years to be accepted.
Other good news this month:
- One Wild Ride reprinted my microfiction piece 'Signing Off', which was originally published by the Dribble Drabble Review. So hard to find publications that will take reprints. https://one-wild-ride.com/2023/04/06/signing-off/ In the same issue they also published my non-fiction piece reflecting on caring for ageing parents. https://one-wild-ride.com/2023/04/06/doug-jacquier-reflection-on-writing/
- Speaking of Dribble Drabble Review, they published my microfiction piece 'Tent-ness' in their Issue VII https://www.thedribbledrabblereview.com/ p.29
-The wonderful Natalie Welsh, Editor of 'Syncopation Literary Journal', published my piece about a Martian and an Earthling discussing music. https://syncopationliteraryjournal.files.wordpress.com/2023/02/d.-jacquier-scenefrom-proof.pdf And she was kind enough to say in the Intro: 'Doug Jacquier's flash fiction contribution to this issue, entitled
"Scene from the latest Hollywood Blockbuster 'Not-so-close encounters,'" seems to capture the essence of Volume 2, Issue 2: music and literature often blur the boundaries between the real and the
imagined. As Jacquier's character Edgar states, a lie becomes a truth "if I write a song about it..."
- New Zealand publication Flash Frontier included 'Adam and Eve in the garden' in their latest edition. https://flashfrontier.com/march-2023-ra-sun/
- And finally, Impspired published my microfiction piece 'Single Cell Nirvana'. https://impspired.com/2023/04/01/doug-jacquier/
I was very happy to have not one but two translations appear in The Short Story Project: "Eclipse" and "Señora Smaig", both by Spanish contemporary writer Almudena Sánchez (read here: https://shortstoryproject.com/writers/almudena-sanchez/). Additionally, it was a genuine thrill to publish my "Stuck at 3%", an analysis of what ails publishing of lit in translation and how lit mags are a crucial bridge to visibilizing our work for publishers, right here on Lit Mag News! (Read here: https://litmagnews.substack.com/p/stuck-at-3-why-cant-we-have-more). I am delighted to say I've been invited to talk at the PEN World Voices Festival in New York and, in addition to my own event, I look forward to meeting some writers and translators that I have not yet met in the "meat world". NYC peeps, check it out! My event's the translation slam with Sam Schnee, MarÍa Fernanda Ampuero, and other great talents. Check out the festival program here: https://worldvoices.pen.org/?s=voice
Congrats, Becky. After a lifetime of thinking my family, with two Catholic nuns, had a strictly Christian heritage, I now know I'm 9% Ashkenazi Jewish. I look forward to reading your work in the anthology.
For me this month, my essay "The Heart and Other Organs" was published in Good Life Review. I originally wrote it for an anthology where is was rejected. Submitted it 9 more times, and very happy to have it here. https://thegoodlifereview.com/issue-eleven/the-heart-and-other-organs-by-nancy-jorgensen/
My essay "Nesters" was submitted 21 times, received positive feedback (along with a rejection) from a respected journal, and ultimately appeared this month in Portage Magazine, a university journal based about 2 miles from my home. They published it beautifully along with my author interview in audio and print. https://portagemagazine.org/nesters/
Congratulations Becky! I look forward to reading your piece and the larger anthology.
It's especially gratifying to see projects come to fruition after a long time. It took me 40 years to finally finish a poetry collection due to many detours: marriage, children, and a handful of jobs. I still have a full-time job outside the literary world, but I prioritized my writing again finally.
Shanti Arts will publish my poetry collection Tethers End within the next year. The short version had made it to the top ten of a chapbook competition, but when accepted on the fifth time out by Shanti Arts, the publisher asked if I wanted to make a longer work, so that longer work will be the final product.
Smaller pieces to appear are the following, which are not included in Tethers End: "Ready, or Not," a micro prose nonfiction string in Reedy Branch Review https://pittcc.edu/academics/academic-programs/arts-sciences-division/english-and-humanities/rbr/, which asked me for more after publishing my essay "64745" in the 2022 issue. RBR was the fourth place to which I submitted the piece.
I'd also taken the ideas from the micro nonfiction string and written a crown of decastich, also titled "Ready, or Not," which on its first submission was a runner-up in the CommuterLit.com poetry contest and appeared on April 28, 2023 at the website. I deviated from a true crown by using 9 poems instead of 10 for the nine lives of the cat who is the central character. I was thrilled by the acceptance letter in which the editor said that she smiled the whole time as she read the piece. It has also been accepted for a podcast when I manage to record it.
Book of Matches Literary Magazine is slated to publish my poem “Into Blue” on May 1 and the poem "Barn Buzzard" was accepted on its first time out for the Wallon Writers Review 2023 issue. I have a connection to that area of Northern Michigan, so I had read an earlier issue of the review. Then I wrote the poem about an event Up North with that journal in mind.
Congratulations to Becky T for her story and publication! I look forward to reading all of yours as well. I have one piece accepted this month, a "narrative" drawing of studies I did of children practicing soccer in covid masks in a journal called Arkana.https://arkanamag.org/ , submitted in December of '22. Since then I wrote an accompanying text---they might appear together in the future somewhere else. Otherwise I have 39 stories and essays in various stages of wait and 19 declines. I'm thick into rewriting two of the "de Refuse" I believe in (maybe 20-30 declines on those) and working on a novella from a serialized piece on substack. My acceptance to decline ratio has tended to be about 1 out of 20, (give or take a lot) so maybe May will be better.
Darn, Becky. Just when I thought I could keep the vow of not buying any more books until I read at least a portion of the stack I have, I need to buy this anthology! Maybe it can double as a birthday gift for my son! Congratulations, anyway.
I had two pieces published this month. One is a flash CNF piece, which has been around, "Can Spring Be Far Behind..." in Musings Publications which I found on Duotrope. I can't figure out how to link it.
The other is a piece on Bob Dylan in a fun little journal, Moss Piglet, that I learned about from a writing friend.
https://www.flipsnack.com/5AF6ABFF8D6/moss-piglet-april-2023-boy-from-the-north-county-bob-dylan/full-view.html?fbclid=IwAR3GZW_WwNoi0qNQxq-EO_TrZsXrn27PXFzhAGFIOcnv8Xvdi3OdYqnG5h8
Congratulations on your anthology. I had not known about the Sobibor Uprising Holocaust, but I do now. Courageous and tragic. Only in the last three months have I read details about Shanghai (and China) during WWII. For the Jews and Chinese, the Japanese were brutal. The Last Rose of Shanghai by Weina Dai Randel testifies to the destruction of war and endurance. As always, Becky, thank you for sharing your literary world.
National Poetry Month has been very good to me. I had 3 poems published: one in Lothlorien Poetry Journal, https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/2023/04/one-poem-by-mark-hendrickson.html, one forthcoming in Honeyguide https://www.honeyguidemag.com/, and one forthcoming in Swing https://www.porchtn.org/swing#missionStatement. All of them had quick turn-around times, and have been very nice. The one in Lothlorien was published on their blog page immediately, and I love that it went there because the poem is a tribute to Tolkien. So three poems in three weeks--WOW!
Mazel tov on your anthology publication, Becky! I published a tanka and a haiku recently. My tanka “College Reunion” appeared in the column “Tanka Hangout: Music” with poems about music selected by Ken Slaughter in Ribbons 19.1 (Winter 2023): page 22. My haiku “May Snowfall” appeared in Humana Obscura #6 (Spring/Summer 2023): page 44. The link is https://issuu.com/humanaobscura/docs/humanaobscura_issue6_digital
Best wishes for the spring, everyone!
Sincerely,
Janet Ruth Heller
Author of the poetry books Nature’s Olympics (Wipf and Stock, 2021), Exodus (WordTech Editions, 2014), Folk Concert: Changing Times (Anaphora Literary Press, 2012) and Traffic Stop (Finishing Line Press, 2011), the scholarly book Coleridge, Lamb, Hazlitt, and the Reader of Drama (University of Missouri Press, 1990), the middle-grade chapter book for kids The Passover Surprise (Fictive Press, 2015, 2016), and the award-winning picture book for kids about bullying, How the Moon Regained Her Shape (Arbordale, 2006; seventh edition 2022).
My website is https://www.janetruthheller.com/
Congrats on the anthology piece, Becky. Just this past week I read an article on how many high school students are ignorant about the Holocaust. I hope that anthologies like the one you're in can help young people understand what's happened in the past, so that that past isn't forgotten and repeated.
Earlier this week my flash piece, Tangled, was published by Medicine and Meaning, the literary journal of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. I discovered it on Duotrope, I think, in a search for pubs that accept submissions with a medical slant. Tangled is about my mother's decline from Alzheimer's, as viewed through the lens of her love of needlepoint.
https://medicineandmeaning.uams.edu/tangled/
Just yesterday I had a flash essay, "Strange Bedfellows," accepted by Allium, out of Columbia College in Chicago. I'll share the link whenever it's published!
That's great that the anthology with your piece is coming out, Becky. Congratulations! And to everyone else as well.
I had one story come out in April, in Wilderness House Literary Review, my second appearance there (first back in 2020). I wrote the story last year, sending it out originally and written to target more or less a site called The Bureau Dispatch. Prior to the acceptance it had 5 rejections, going back to the first submission in September. WHLR is reliably a quarterly, so not a very long wait.
If you want to read a fairly short one, with a Twilight Zoney vibe, you can get to "Devil in the Drawer" here: https://www.whlreview.com/no-18.1/fiction/JonFain.pdf
The book sounds great.
Brava, Becky, on your anthology piece!
I'm excited to announce that my personal essay "Treif" was just awarded the Brooklyn Non-Fiction Prize for 2022. To access the piece, go to their website https://filmbrooklyn.org/ and click on the link "Brooklyn Non-Fiction Stories" at the top of the page. I entered this contest because the story is about my grandmother who lived in Brooklyn for over four decades. There is no admission fee, and the prize is announced five months after the deadline at a Zoom reading of excerpts from among the finalists. The translation of the Yiddish word "treif" is torn or mortally wounded and provided a lens to view my grandmother's life and death.
My short story “The Jesus Tree” was accepted by Cowboy Jamboree Magazine for the issue “Country & Folk”. The link leads to the pdf.
CJM is a grit lit journal. Think Harry Crews, Larry Brown, Sam Shepard, Brad Watson, Dorothy Allison ; some would say Rough South lit. The acceptance was submission two and the piece was originally written (and declined) as a novelette for a grit lit anthology that later folded.
***
http://www.cowboyjamboreemagazine.com/uploads/5/8/6/8/58683251/spring_2023_cjm.pdf
The link to the CJM website:
http://www.cowboyjamboreemagazine.com/current-issue.html
I believe a call is open for work influenced by John Prine. Go for it!
I've just finished watching a recording of Rattlecast featuring 'New Voices' (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCIsRwej_kQ&t=8782s ) – sounds like such an amazing project... movement... Congratulations on being part of it!!!
as i say to friends on FB -- congratulations !
Becky,
Great that you have published in the anthology of contemporary writers reflection on the Holocaust...and learned more about the courage of the resisters. Thanks for sharing this story as well and of your patience for the publication.
Wonderful!
Congratulations, Becky. I look forward to reading your piece in New Voices: Contemporary Writers Confronting the Holocaust -- work more necessary than ever.
Immense congratulations on the launch of New Voices, Becky! I too have never heard of the Sobibor Uprising and am looking forward to learning about it. I had a short story accepted by the Toronto Journal which will come out in May — I'll be sure to brag about it next month!
Here is that drawing link. Clearest view is to click on PDF and enlarge. https://arkanamag.org/
"Practice in Masks at Sunset" it's on the homepage. This version doesn't include the text, so "narrative drawing" is a little confusing, except to the extent that any image is potentially "narrative, I suppose..."