American Literary Review - Summer 2019

In the latest issue, American Literary Review brings readers the winners of the annual ALR Awards. The 2019 winners feature Ellen Seusy in poetry, Cady Vishniac in fiction, and Julialicia Case in nonfiction.

Seusy’s “The Spiral Jetty” is an ekphrastic poem about Robert Smithson’s titular art piece. Seusy’s speaker compares Smithson’s creation with six-year-olds creating bowls from mud and spit, pointing out how “It’s the making that matters most,” even now that “we’re / out of breath, still running. Still tasting / dirt and salt. The work holds water, still.” It isn’t the finished product or the public reception that matters most—it’s the act of creating.

The narrator in Vishniac’s “Bumper Crop” faces the consequences he’s created for himself. The main character—bitter and a bit insufferable after his recent separation from his wife—encounters chickens on the way to the daycare where he works, an interruption to his usual day of hitting on his co-teacher, being too protective of his son who attends the daycare, and holding grudges against children. Vishniac crafts an entertaining story with a satisfying karmic ending.

Karmic endings also come into play in Case’s “The Stories I Do Not Know For Sure.” The nonfiction piece centers on Case’s former coworker David and his wife Sandra. The two concoct stories about their lives, stories that eventually fall apart, revealing muddled truths underneath. Case ends the piece reflecting on the stories we tell and the realities they create, recreate, or destroy. The gripping piece almost reads like a thriller, each paragraph revealing a new detail about Case’s story and the stories David and Sandra weave.

The winners of the ALR Awards are a great introduction to American Literary Review, and this year’s contest is currently open for submissions until October.

 

Review by Katy Haas

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New Lit on the Block: Paperbark

Promising “stimulating, relevant, high-quality writing and art from across the world” focused on issues related to climate change, environmental justice, social justice, and, in the case of their upcoming second issue, resilience, Paperbark Literary Magazine is a stunning new annual of poetry, prose, and visual and multimedia art.

Promising “stimulating, relevant, high-quality writing and art from across the world” focused on issues related to climate change, environmental justice, social justice, and, in the case of their upcoming second issue, resilience, Paperbark Literary Magazine is a stunning new annual of poetry, prose, and visual and multimedia art.

Originally developed by a cooperative network of faculty, graduate students, and alumni of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, from both the College of Earth and Sustainability and the College of the Humanities and Fine Arts, Editor-in-Chief Rachel Berggren explains, Paperbark  began in early 2015 as Book And Plow. “The team developed and refined strategic plans, proposals, and preliminary budgets before passing the baton to the next generation of enthusiastic graduate students in the Fall of 2016. Though the new staff at the time changed the name to Paperbark, the magazine remains rooted in the original vision to create a literary magazine that lives at the intersection of sustainability, environmental justice, and the fine arts."

“The name Paperbark,” shares Managing Editor Erin Wnorowski, “came from a tree, while not native to the New England area, is on the top of the list as part of a local initiative by The Public Amherst Shade Tree Committee to plant more trees. As such, we wanted to name the magazine after something that represented the types of sustainability-based activities we would like to champion.”

Joining them on the editorial team are Creative Director Sarena Brown, Visual Media Coordinator Allyson Fairweather, Marketing Director Caroline B. Heafey, Submissions Editor Tara Dugan, Special Projects Coordinator Charles Misenti, and Outreach and Engagement Coordinator Luke Canavan. “We are a diverse, interdisciplinary team,” Rachel says. “This contributes to Paperbark 's unique vision and voice. We are writers, scientists, artists, architects, and activists.” Read more about Paperbark ’s staff here. 

Taking the reins of an established publication is no easy task, trying to hold to original intent while also putting your own signature on it. Rachel understands this, “The founders were motivated to create a platform for conversations about environmental justice, climate change, and the promotion of the literary fine arts.” From this, Paperbark Literary Magazine will continue “as an expression of the intellectual and artistic currents working to shape collective consciousness about issues of sustainability in the dynamic, complex sociopolitical environment we live in today.”

The process is one that has rewarded their efforts, as Erin recounts, “Something we have been surprised by and excited about has been watching the magazine evolve into a mechanism for community building. By creating this physical space for conversations about things that matter, we have built community and created that space within our community through events and workshops. Seeing people from multiple disciplines and walks of life in the same room talking about the past, hope for a better future, and working collaboratively to envision ways to bring about a more just and sustainable world has been so fulfilling and inspiring. We hope to be more than a magazine. We are working toward being a catalyst for change.”

For writers wanting to join in being a catalyst for change by submitting works, Paperbark 's Submissions Editor manages a group of readers, and each submission is reviewed by the readers, the Creative Director, and ultimately the editorial staff. Paperbark  has many advisers and mentors who contribute to the publication’s vision - Editorial Reviewers and an Advisory Board – and their plan this year is to have the entire issue peer-reviewed before it goes to print.

Each issue is produced in both print and online with different content in each (soon to have full content available online). Issue 1 themed Emergence featured

Issue 2 will be themed Resilience, and the theme for Issue 3 will be announced this fall.

Rachel closed by saying, “Paperbark does not have full-time, paid staff members; it is operated by graduate student volunteers with a passion for the mission and content. Our primary goal is to continue to publish the magazine annually, and ultimately become financially sustainable, so we can continue blurring the lines between disciplines and featuring the work of talented, outspoken writers and artists.”

Readers and writers alike can help make this vision a reality.

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New Lit on the Block: The Shore

Cutting, strange, and daring  are the words The Shore uses to describe the kind of poetry they seek to publish for its readership. Like the waters of lakes or seas or even rivers, the editors detail, “We want poems that push and ache and recede.” And like any beautiful and powerful shoreline, how could readers and writers not be drawn in?

Cutting, strange, and daring  are the words The Shore uses to describe the kind of poetry they seek to publish for its readership. Like the waters of lakes or seas or even rivers, the editors detail, “We want poems that push and ache and recede.” And like any beautiful and powerful shoreline, how could readers and writers not be drawn in?

The name, The Shore, was originally Editor Caroline Chavatel's idea. “We all worked together on the Eastern Shore of Maryland before dispersing across the country,” the editors explain. “We agreed the idea of a shore (as a liminal space, an in-between, a place where meaning is made) was a solid concept to build a mission statement for a literary genre around.” Already with their second issue online, they tell me it is a name they have wholly grown into.

The editorial team draws from the vast experience of three co-editors and founders, Caroline Chavatel [pictured],  Emma DePanise and John A. Nieves, and one interview editor, Ellery Beck. Caroline, a PhD candidate at Georgia State University won The Laurel Review Midwest Chapbook Contest for her first chapbook, White Noises. Emma is an MFA candidate at Purdue University who recently won an AWP Intro Journal Award and the Pablo Neruda Prize in Poetry. John A. Nieves is Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in English at Salisbury University. His first book, Curio, won the Elixir Press Annual Judges Prize, and Ellery Beck is an undergraduate at Salisbury University and was a winner of the Portland Review AWP Flash prize.

With so much of their own work to focus on, the editors explain their generous desire to start up a journal: “We all deeply believe in contemporary poetry and love the idea of getting poems into the world that stretch the way we understand it. We want to help share daring and finely crafted work with the literary world. We also deeply admire many literary magazines and we wanted to become a part of that important community.” [Emma DePanise pictured]

While frustrations in journal start-up can be many and multifaceted, The Shore editors take a tone of appreciation in the process, “One great joy we experienced was putting out the first issue and figuring out how to promote it. We fliered much of the AWP bookfair and personally talked to everyone we could about the magazine. It was so rewarding to see how receptive people were to our new endeavor. We are happy to say our second issue is getting even more attention than our first. It has been such a joy for our team to share this experience and learn as we go.”

For writers, the editors believe they continue to stay true to their mission as expressed in their call, and encourage new and established poets alike to submit "poems that explore the worlds of things and ideas, that recognize the liminality, the shifting of everything around us and our ability to name a thing whole." Each issue will feature around twenty-five poets, a visual artist, and interviews based on the work of each issue.

In terms of editorial process, all three co-editors read every single submission, making notes which they discuss via weekly virtual meetings. The editors work collectively to decide what to hold onto and what to let go and to strategize the shape of the upcoming issue. The interview editor then chooses two authors per issue to interview out of the accepted work.

The editors have a clear intention for readers, “We want poems that try to understand the world anew. We want poems that make us have to go back to them, to read them aloud, to tell others about them.” Isn’t that the best kind of poetry? Among those who meet the criteria for the first two issues: JK Anowe, Jack B. Bedell, Ryan Clark, Charlotte Covey, Satya Dash, Alejandro Ruiz del Sol, Jordan Durham, Sneha Subramanian Kanta, Nancy Mitchell, Anand Prahlad, Nicole Rollender, Christine Spillson, Bob Sykora, Alexandra Teague, and Matthew Woodman. Chelsea Dingman and Matty Layne Glasgow are poets featured in interviews, and Maggie Delaney and Katie Chavatel have been featured artists. [John A. Nieves pictured]

Heading into the second half of their first year, the editors comment, “We hope to keep growing in readership and reputation and eventually in staff. We really enjoy working together and we would love to get as much excellent work out into the world as possible. Our goal is to deliver stunning poetry every issue and to have people able to count on us for that.”

Issues one and two are available to read online. Submissions for issue three (Autumn 2019) are open until September 1, 2019.

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About Place and Dignity as an Endangered Species

Published by the Black Earth Institute, dedicated to re-forging the links between art, spirit, and society, the May 2019 issue of About Place is themed "Dignity As An Endangered Species."

Issue Editor Pamela Uschuk notes that the editors "chose work that addressed the question, what is dignity?" from the starting point that "dignity is endangered during these times." Assistant Editor CMarie Fuhrman asserts, "It is necessary that we begin to define, for ourselves and as a Nation, that which makes us human, humane." And Assistant Editor Maggie Miller explores the concept of dignity and closes her preface: "With chin up, shoulders back, we too go forward – with dignity given not  taken away."

Contributors to the issue include Rita Dove, Joy Harjo, Jacqueline Johnson, Patricia Spears Jones, Fenton Johnson, Patricia Jabbeh Wesley, Linda Weasel Head, Kelle Groom, Maria Melendez Kelson, Cornelius Eady, Sagirah Shahid, Inés Hernández-Ávila, Gerald L. Coleman, K.LEE, K. Eltinaé, and Kimberly Blaeser.

Submissions for the next issue of About Place Journal are being accepted until August 1, 2019 on the theme: "Infinite Country: Deepening Our Connection to Place, Culture and One Another." Editor Austin Smith and Assistant Editors Taylor Brorby and  Brenna Cussen Anglada.

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