Willow Springs release party

You’re invited to celebrate the release of Willow Springs 87, which features poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and an interview with Jericho Brown. Founded in 1977 and produced within the The MFA at EWU, Willow Springs is published semi-annually in both print and digital format.

The online release party (free, of course) will be held this Saturday, March 6, 2021, starting at 5:00pm Pacific, on the EWU MFA Visiting Writers Series YouTube channel.

Mini Lit Fair – tomorrow!

The annual print journal Moss has rounded up literary organizations from across Cascadia to present a marathon of poetry, storytelling, and lyrical cinema, tomorrow, Saturday, February 20, 2021. Featured readers include (among many others) Jess Walter, Shelley Wong, Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya, the Cadence: Video Poetry Festival, plus a panel discussion between publication editors and curators.

It’s all free. See the complete details here and register here.

Tuesday launch

The latest edition of Cirque Journal, Volume 11, Number 1, is now published and available in hard copy for purchase and digital, free online.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, December 29, 2020, a free online launch will include seven contributors from this issue as well as readings from the authors of two new Cirque Press books: Sandra Wassilie reading from The Dream that is Childhood and Sean Ulman reading from Seward Soundboard. Join the reading on Zoom at 6:00pm Alaska / 7:00pm Pacific with the passcode 1111.

returning

In the midst of everything, the re-launch of a venerable but long-absent print literary journal may seem unlikely. But in fact, Northwest Review, which first saw publication in 1957 and went on hiatus in 2011, “is in the process of a rebrand, redesign, and relaunch: the journal will resume publication in the Fall.”

We are especially interested in writers and artists working near the artistic frontier of American literature; writers who have previously been rejected by mainstream for-profit publications such as The New Yorker, Harper’s, or The Atlantic, are especially encouraged to submit their work.

Is that you?

still ekphrastic

Poetry projects come and go, so it’s nice to see one that stays. We posted about Visual Verse back in 2017 (see that post here) and as of January 1, 2020, the project is still very much alive. The images posted each month are varied in style and subject, and the resulting online journal is robust and attractive. The guidelines are here. Try it out.

bye bye, Glimmer Train

And speaking of longevity… the Portland, Oregon, based literary fiction print journal Glimmer Train has been publishing (and paying writers) steadily since 1990. After nearly 30 years, Susan and Linda have published their final issue, number 106, and plan to “begin a new phase of our lives with our husbands and families — still sisters and next-door neighbors, still avid readers looking back in history and forward, wondering, and trying to figure out how we can best make ourselves useful in these strange times.”

We salute them for their vision and contribution. Thank you!

Visit the Glimmer Train website to learn more about the journal, current and past issues, and online resources.

sweet Clover

For the last eight years, Clover: A Literary Rag has shown up, twice a year as if by magic, filled with poetry and prose, its ivory cover imprinted with a partial list of the Contents.

If Clover was initially hailed as a local publication, it reached far beyond its Bellingham roots to gain a far-flung and appreciative audience. We can only imagine the conversation between Mary Gillilan and Norman L. Green “under lamplight on the corner of Holly and Commercial Streets in Bellingham, Washington” that resulted in the launch of Clover, but we have all been the beneficiaries of their ambitious imaginations and ferocious hard work.

When Mary and Norman announced, at the February 24, 2019, Clover reading at Village Books, that Clover 16 would be the last volume, they were greeted with a stunned silence that, after a few words of explanation, turned to a standing ovation.

As poets, writers, and readers, we are deeply grateful to Mary and Norman for their vision, grace, good humor, and hard work — for turning our ragged words into a robust, handsome, and respected literary journal, sixteen times over.

Read Mary’s brief post on the closing of Clover here.

change is in the air

We’ve recently caught wind of some notable changes in the poetry and publishing world:

• Glimmer Train has announced that its final issues will be Glimmer Train Stories (#106) and Writers Ask (#85), to be published in the fall of 2019.
• The HerStories Project will stop publishing new stories in 2019, but will retain the website and keep the current material accessible.
• Tin House Magazine will cease publication with it 20th Anniversary Issue, to be published in June 2019.
• Whirlwind ended publication with its 12th issue in August of 2018.
• At the Poetry Society of America (PSA), Alice Quinn will step down from her executive directorship in June after 18 years.

We are grateful for all that these people and publications have contributed to our literary lives.

(The trend is not reserved for poetry journals. Major periodicals, including Cooking Light and Glamour have also announced their intent to cease print publication or switch to occasional special-interest journals.)

. . . . .
image

O, pen

Now and then we like to update you on poetry submission deadlines for Cascadia-based publications.
NOTE 1: This list does not include contests.
NOTE 2: This is not a list of all the literary publications in the region, only those with open or nearly-open submissions. To see more, see the NW lit scene links in the sidebar at right.
NOTE 3: Read the publication and read the guidelines before submitting. Please.

Here’s the latest:

• Burnside Review is accepting poetry through February 28, 2018.
• Cascadia Review reads submissions year round.
• The Cascadia Subduction Zone reads submissions year round.
• Cirque Journal deadline for Cirque #18 (Summer) issue is March 21, 2018.
• Clover, A Literary Rag Submit stories, poems, and essays until April 30,2018 for the 15th edition.
• EVENT accepts submissions year round.
• Geist accepts work (by postal mail only) with a Canadian connection year round.
• Gramma reads submissions year-round for Daily Gramma.
• High Desert Journal reviews submissions from residents of the interior West year round.
• Image Journal and the Good Letters blog accept submissions year round.
• Isthmus is open for submissions.
• Moss is open for submissions.
• Pacifica Literary Review general submission period is open year-round.
• PageBoy Magazine seeks submissions for an issue devoted exclusively to 17 word poems, deadline March 15, 2018.
• Pif Magazine is open for submissions.
• Poetry Northwest welcomes unsolicited submissions of poetry, original or in translation, through March 15, 2018.
• PRISM international accepts submissions year round.
• The Raven Chronicles will accept submissions for Vol. 26, Theme: LAST Call (literally!), March 1 – April 30, 2018.
• Ricepaper accepts submissions from Asian-Canadian writers; current theme: Found In Translation, deadline: March 31, 2018.
• Room Magazine open call, deadline: April 30, 2018.
• The Seattle Review accepts long-form submissions, February 1 – May 1, 2018.
• Shark Reef reading for summer edition through March 31, 2018.
• Silk Road Review reads submissions year round.
• StringTown reads submissions year round.
• subTerrain Issue #80 (Summer/Fall 18) Theme: Margins, will be open March 26 – June 8, 2018.
• Sweet Tree Review submissions open through March 18, 2018.
• Switched-on Gutenberg issue 25 on the theme Change open through April 30, 2018.
• Timberline Review theme for Issue #7 is Rebirth, deadline April 30, 2018.
• Tin House accepts submissions in March.
• Willow Springs poetry submissions open between September 1 and May 31.

Raven landing in Kirkland

The latest edition is out and you’re invited to join RAVEN CHRONICLES PRESS and BookTree at a reading and reception for Raven Chronicles Journal Vol. 25: Balancing Acts on Saturday, February 17, 2018, 6:15-7:30pm, at BookTree in Kirkland, Washington.

Edited by Anna Bálint, Phoebe Bosché, Matt Briggs, Paul Hunter, and Doug Johnson, Volume 25 features the work of 77 writers and 23 artists/illustrators from 17 states and 10 countries. To celebrating Seattle’s 2017 designation as a UNESCO City of Literature, Raven 25 also features writers from Seattle’s Sister City, Christchurch, New Zealand: Doc Drumheller, Fiona Farrell, Erik Kennedy, Nic Low, Frankie McMillan, and Heather McQuillan. Cover artwork is by Bainbridge Island artist Jeannie Grisham.

Featured readers on the 17th are Paul Hunter, emcee (Seattle); Luther Allen (Bellingham); Ed Harkness (Shoreline); Alicia Hokanson (Seattle); Thomas Hubbard (Kirkland); Jill McCabe Johnson (Orcas Island); Jed Myers (Seattle); and Mary Ellen Talley (Seattle). An Open Mic will follow the reading, from 7:30-8:20pm.

NOTE: Prior to the reading, 4:30-6:00pm, poet/editor/emcee Paul Hunter will offer a free workshop, also at BookTree: Storytelling for Poets, Essayists & Fiction Writers. See the details here.