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Last Exit Books and Coffeehouse is a distinctive independent bookstore located in downtown Kent, Ohio. Their inventory encompasses a diverse range of items: secondhand books, DVDs, CDs, and an extensive collection of vinyl records. Situated at the front of the store is a charming coffee house serving locally roasted coffee and baked goods. The shop frequently hosts open mic nights for writers and musicians, as well as an ongoing poetry reading series.
Thank You Books is a women-owned independent bookstore in Birmingham, Alabama. Their inventory includes contemporary works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, as well as selections for young readers, and their website includes a wish list for books donated to incarcerated individuals in Alabama and Texas. The bookshop also hosts literary events, including book club meetings, author events, and poetry readings, providing a vital platform for the voices and works of the city’s literary community.
In January Gill O’Neil’s poem “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” published in the Fall 2022 issue of Rattle, the poet writes about watching the late Tina Turner sing her iconic song in a music video on MTV. “And when Tina sings I’ve been taking on / a new direction directly to the camera, / defiant, her lips glazed a tumultuous red, / she takes her hand and adjusts her / honey brown bangs out of her eyes,” writes O’Neil. This “sweeping gesture” makes a lasting impression on O’Neil as she connects the song’s message to her own experiences with love, recalling the struggles in her parents’ marriage and her own. Consider the lasting impact music has had on your life and title a poem with lyrics from your favorite song. Use these words as a jumping-off point to the memories that come with it.
The author of Spoken Word: A Cultural History and The Study of Human Life explores how writers might “cover” literary works as musicians do songs.
Congratulations to the finalists of the ninth annual Firecracker Awards for Independently Published Literature from the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP). The awards celebrate the best independently published books of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry as well as the best literary magazines in the categories of debut and general excellence.
CLMP will announce the winners during a virtual awards ceremony on June 22 at 6:00 PM EST. Each winner in the books category will receive $1,000 to $2,000 for the press and $1,000 for the author or translator. The magazine winners will each receive $1,000. The publishers of winning books receive a free one-year membership to CLMP, and magazine winners receive a one-year CLMP member subscription to Submittable. All winners are included in a national publicity campaign. Good luck, everyone!
FICTION
Brother Alive by Zain Khalid
Grove Atlantic, July 2022
God’s Children Are Little Broken Things by Arinze Ifeakandu
A Public Space Books, June 2022
Stories of a Life by Nataliya Meshchaninova, translated by Fiona Bell
Deep Vellum, February 2022
Violets by Kyung-sook Shin, translated by Anton Hur
Feminist Press, April 2022
When I Sing, Mountains Dance by Irene Solà, translated by Mara Faye Lethem
Graywolf Press, March 2022
CREATIVE NONFICTION
Brown Neon by Raquel Gutiérrez
Coffee House Press, June 2022
Conversations with Birds by Priyanka Kumar
Milkweed Editions, November 2022
Imminent Domains: Reckoning with the Anthropocene by Alessandra Naccarato
Book*hug Press, October 2022
O by Tammy Nguyen
Ugly Duckling Presse, April 2022
Optic Subwoof by Douglas Kearney
Wave Books, November 2022
POETRY
Customs by Solmaz Sharif
Graywolf Press, March 2022
Look at This Blue by Allison Adelle Hedge Coke
Coffee House Press, March 2022
Maafa by Harmony Holiday
Fence Books, April 2022
The Rupture Tense by Jenny Xie
Graywolf Press, September 2022
Togetherness by Wo Chan
Nightboat Books, September 2022
MAGAZINES/BEST DEBUT
128 Lit
The Ampersand Review of Writing & Publishing
Lampblack
LIBER: A Feminist Review
Lines & Breaks
MAGAZINES/GENERAL EXCELLENCE
The Arkansas International
Ecotone
Ninth Letter
Orion
Oxford American
A selection of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction writing prompts that are perfect for creative writers just starting out, and for teachers and workshop leaders who want to inspire their students.
“I am so happy to tell people, and to have learned myself, that a passion for the writing is all you really need.” Patricia Smith reads from her new collection, Unshuttered (TriQuarterly Books, 2023), and speaks about continuing to challenge herself with her writing for this Poetry.LA interview with host and poet Lynne Thompson. For more on Smith, read “Unshuttered: Patricia Smith’s Journey Into the Aperture of History” by Tyehimba Jess in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
In Monica Youn’s essay “Generative Revision: Beyond the Zero-Sum Game,” published in the Spring 2023 issue of the Sewanee Review, the poet argues for a revision practice that offers “expansions, alternatives, subversions, and offspring that enrich the original work” rather than replacing or subtracting parts of a first draft. In this generative revision practice, a detail can be expanded in a different version or new poem altogether as Youn explains with two poems by C. D. Wright, “What No One Could Have Told Them” and “Detail from What No One Could Have Told Them.” Youn writes how in the latter poem Wright is “expanding the scope slightly, offering a bit more context, a glimpse of the setting.” Inspired by this technique, write a new poem that focuses on a single detail from an older poem of yours. How can you expand the scope?
“I am constantly questioning, resisting, studying, accepting, and wondering—all of which I believe to be the hallmarks of the writer’s life.” —Airea D. Matthews, author of Bread and Circus
If you’re not at the beach this Memorial Day, why not apply to some writing contests with a June 1 deadline? There is no entry fee for three generous awards: the Bard Fiction prize, which comes with $30,000 and a one-semester appointment as a writer-in-residence at Bard College; PEN America’s PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grants, which offer awards of up to $4,000 to support the translation of book-length works; PEN America’s PEN/Jean Stein Grants for Literary Oral History, which offer awards of $15,000 to two nonfiction works-in-progress that “use oral history to illuminate an event, individual, place, or movement.” All other contests offer a cash award of $1,000 or more and publication. Good luck, writers!
American Short Fiction
Halifax Ranch Fiction Prize
A prize of $2,500 and publication in American Short Fiction is given annually for a short story. The winner also receives a weeklong, all-expenses-paid writing retreat at the Tasajillo Residency in Kyle, Texas. Entry fee: $20.
Bard College
Bard Fiction Prize
A prize of $30,000 and a one-semester appointment as writer-in-residence at Bard College is given annually to a U.S. fiction writer under the age of 40. The recipient must give at least one public lecture and meet informally with students but is not expected to teach traditional courses. Entry fee: None.
Boulevard
Emerging Poets Contest
A prize of $1,000 and publication in Boulevard is given annually for a group of poems by a poet who has not published a poetry collection with a nationally distributed press. The editors will judge. Entry fee: $18.
PEN America
PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grants
Ten grants between $3,000 and $4,000 each are given annually to support the translation of book-length works of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction that have not previously appeared in English or have appeared only in an “outdated or otherwise flawed translation.” An additional $5,000 grant, the PEN Grant for the English Translation of Italian Literature, is given to support the translation of a book of fiction or nonfiction from Italian into English. Manuscripts with up to two translators are eligible. Entry fee: None.
PEN America
PEN/Jean Stein Grants for Literary Oral History
Two grants of $15,000 are given annually for nonfiction works-in-progress that “use oral history to illuminate an event, individual, place, or movement.” Entry fee: None.
Salamander
Fiction Prize
A prize of $1,000 and publication in Salamander is given annually for a short story. Kirstin Valdez Quade will judge. Entry fee: $15
Visit the contest websites for complete guidelines, and check out the Grants & Awards database and Submission Calendar for more contests in poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and translation.
