Monthly Archives: October 2017

The Muggy Night Air by Kristen Ruggles

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There is an alley I walk
with my dog in the late
evening, between two
buildings that have
turned their backs on
one another.

Through the cracks in
refrigerator box porches, green
blades of long grass reach
through and point at
the yellowed light that
gives the night a
jaundiced feeling
and illuminates my
mental state.

Those fingers reach for
Me, prisoners
trapped in wooden cells,
much like the inhabitants
of shoe-box homesteads
behind protected wooden boundaries.

They reach their
hands through to me, asking
for one last connection
before the executioner
with his scythe takes
their heads for crimes
against their own nature.

—

Kristen Ruggles is an adjunct professor in the First Year Writing Program at Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi.  She is pursuing a Masters of Fine Arts in creative writing in Eastern Kentucky University’s Bluegrass Writing Studio.  She has been published in the Sagebrush Review and the Rat’s Ass Review.

To Go From Here by Michelle Holland

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Our little lives extinguish themselves
like lit matches – ephemeral brilliance –
then darkness that can’t be helped.

The match is not meant to burn long,
just a moment in order to ignite
something else – a camp fire,
a cigarette, to sterilize a needle
before the splinter is removed.

We flame up, create our colors,
burn briefly, with just enough time,
maybe to start something.
Another life, a movement, a poem,
a garden, a body of work,
a connection with a network
of family, friends, our momentary mark.

Before Jim died, an arbitrary sequence of events,
his son, our daughter, the threat of fire –
led to their family evacuating
to our big, rambling adobe home,
created a chance to connect,
to get to know his silent ways,
his wry grin, his shaggy, black dog.

Just a guy and his family,
a daughter, young and moody,
whose tears brought him to her borrowed room,
where she let him know she wanted
no part of our hospitality, just wanted
to go home. He listened,
and later she groomed our big, friendly horse.

Her father is dead now; only a couple of days ago
he was alive. Suddenly, his match lost its fire,
whatever he was able to touch with his light
done. A son who wants to fly,
the last ignition of a father who made the connection
real. The fire will continue,
in ways no one knows.

Fathers die. Fathers die unexpectedly,
commonly, on the floor sprawled, unaccountably breathless.
The match was lit, and sputtered to its ashen end,
but everyone else he illuminated continues to inhale,
embrace the connection to keep our flames alive.
resist the breath that will extinguish.

Michelle Holland lives and writes in Chimayo, New Mexico.  Her books include the New Mexico Book Award winning collection, The Sound a Raven Makes, Tres Chicas Press; and Chaos Theory, Sin Fronteras Press.

Enjoy additional poems by Michelle Holland: “Take The Apple”, “Approaching Another New Year,” and “Empire of Dust”.

11 Literary Journals Seeking Work from Undergraduate Students

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30 North Literary Review: 30 North is one of the few nationwide undergraduate literary journals in the country. We are dedicated to publishing the finest in undergraduate poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and artwork in our annual print journal. We also publish author interviews and reviews of contemporary literature conducted and written by our staff on our website.

ANGLES is a magazine that publishes brief prose and poetry that reveals distinct and important perspectives on ourselves and our world. We seek fresh, urgent writing that cares about language and pays close attention to it, that uses form and structure purposefully, and that isn’t afraid to take risks. We value traditions but are keen on challenging them. As a publication edited by undergraduates, we value and prioritize college-aged voices with distinct perspectives, and take pride in being among a writer’s first publications.

The Chimes accepts submissions from students, faculty, and alumni of Shorter University, as well as from undergraduate students enrolled at any college or university. All submissions must be original; plagiarism, whether accidental or purposeful, is unacceptable. The Chimes, having been part of Shorter University’s history for over 130 years, holds to the values upheld by the University. We withhold the right to reject any pieces submitted for publication that do not fit with the University’s mission (“Transforming Lives Through Christ”);

The Merrimack Review: We only accept submissions from current undergraduate (associate/bachelor’s) or graduate (master’s/PhD) students. Submissions should display a strong understanding of craft and cause readers to react, both emotionally and intellectually. They should be previously unpublished, meaning work that has not already appeared in another magazine, on another website, in a book, etc. Work that appeared on your personal blog is fine by us, but we have a preference for stuff the public hasn’t seen before.

Miscellany: The College of Charleston’s student-produced literary and art journal. Students are invited to submit their original artwork, poetry, photography and prose to be considered for publication. A student committee consisting of individuals selected by the editor-in-chief will meet during the beginning of each spring semester to select works for publication in Miscellany. The finished product is distributed to the campus community in April.

The Mochila Review: is an annual international undergraduate journal published with support from the English and Modern Languages department at Missouri Western State University. Our goal is to publish the best short stories, poems, and essays from the next generation of important authors: student writers. Our staff, comprised primarily of undergraduate students, understands the publishing challenges that emerging writers face and is committed to helping talented students gain wider audiences in the pages of The Mochila Review and on our website.

The Red Mud Review: The Red Mud Review is a student-organized literary magazine published by Austin Peay State University. The journal accepts poetry, fiction, essays, drama, and visual art by students currently enrolled in any university around the nation. Alumni of Austin Peay State University and other community members are also encouraged to submit.   Please, view our submission guidelines and browse through past issues to learn more about our journal.

Sagebrush Review: All college students may submit works of Poetry, Prose, Art, and Photography for consideration of publication in the University of Texas at San Antonio’s Literary and Arts Journal, Sagebrush Review Volume 12. Students may choose to submit for free, or may choose to pay a small nominal fee of $3 per submission to be considered for the “Editor’s Choice” award in the categories of visual arts (art and photography) and writing (poetry and prose). The winner of the visual arts category will have his or her artwork featured as the volume’s cover; the winner of the writing category will be on the first page, with acknowledgement.

Sink Hollow Literary Magazine: The site of a meteorological anomaly imparts its name to this journal. The sinkholes within the Wasatch-Cache National Forest in Logan Canyon produce the coldest temperatures in Utah – and often in the entire contiguous United States. The bottom of the sinks never goes more than four days without a freeze, even in midsummer. These pools of trapped nocturnal air can vary from the temperatures surrounding the sinks by as much as 70 degrees. It is so cold, trees do not grow there. We send our salutation from a desert climate valley at -69 degrees. Welcome to Sink Hollow.

Susquehanna Review: We’re interested in undergraduate writing with fresh language, complexity, strong character development, emotional resonance, and momentum. We want to read something we haven’t read before. We want your language to linger in us long after we’ve finished the piece. Please read past issues for examples of what we’re looking for. We accept fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, literary translations, and art.

Zingara Poetry Review is accepting submissions in December 2019 and January 2020 from poets who have no more than three individual publications to their name. Current undergraduate and graduate students are encouraged to submit as are self-taught, new writers.  Poems will be published on Zingara Poetry Review during the month of January, 2020.

 

Where the Dead Go by Denise Low

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Snow petals ghost
the northern wind.

Among wild plums
my father’s face kites

in wickerwork limbs
gray-eyed, trapped,

no escape as trains
huff roadside tracks.

Within twist of this,
a flounce of cold chill.

Beneath, below, within—
where does he anchor?

—

Denise Low, Kansas Poet Laureate 2007-09, is author of over 30 books of poetry and prose. Forward Reviews writes of her memoir The Turtle’s Beating Heart: One Family’s Story of Lenape Survival: “An accomplished poet, Low’s well-honed prose flows with lyric intensity.” American Book Review wrote of her Jackalope: “an engaging and humorous read, one that reveals a great deal about the parallel, contemporary Native America that exists and thrives in ways largely invisible to many other Americans.” She teaches for Baker University’s School of Professional and Graduate Studies. She has won three Kansas Notable Book Awards and has recognition from Seaton Prizes, Pami Jurassi Bush Award of the Academy of American Poets, Roberts Prize, and the Lichtor Poetry Prize. Low has an MFA (Wichita State U.) and Ph.D. (Kansas U.). The Associated Writers and Writing Programs, national creative academic programs and independent writers, selected her to serve as board president. She is on their Inclusivity Committee and is a contributing editor of The Writer’s Chronicle.

Also enjoy my interview with Denise Low  and her poem “Remembering Monk, 1966”

 

Death like your Father by Lola Haskins

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He drops your eyes into a bowl of water. Like those Japanese packets
you think vaguely, remembering first tendrils then flowers.

He wraps your arms and legs in newspaper and packs them away.

He’s brought a special case for your breasts. It’s lined in velvet,
with a depression for each one.

He sets them in right-side up, so the nipples protrude like little doorbells.

He asks if you have anything to say. Yes, says the chunk of you that’s left.

Like your father, Death is good at looking understanding. So good that
when you’ve done, he thinks to pause before he continues,

your heart’s blood cupped in his hands.
—

Lola Haskins’ most recent poetry collection is How Small, Confronting Morning (Jacar, 2016). Her prose work includes an advice book and a book about Florida cemeteries. Among her honors are the Iowa Poetry Prize and two Florida Book Awards. She serves as Honorary Chancellor of the Florida State Poet’s Association.

13 More Ways to Sabotage Your Writing Practice

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  1. Believing you are of the wrong age, weight, gender, race, nationality, religion or anything else other or not other.
  2. Always attending conferences.
  3. Never attending conferences.
  4. Only reading Facebook and Twitter posts.
  5. Only reading what you like and or that which doesn’t challenge your sensibilities.
  6. Reading only the genre in which you write.
  7. Sacrificing your health, family, values, and quality of writing for the sake of getting published.
  8. Believing you don’t have a story to share.
  9. Not locking your office door (or otherwise protecting your writing time and space) when you write.
  10. Saying no when you should say yes.
  11. Saying yes when you really mean no.
  12. Never doing research.
  13. Doing too much research.