MARKET NEWS
By Sandy Raschke
Legend:
(WD)
Writer’s Digest; (WM)
Writer’s Market;
(N&SSWM) Novel &
Short Story Writer’s Market;
(PM)
Poet’s Market;
(P&W)
Poets & Writers
mmm
Ekphrasis,
Laverne &
Carol Frith, Editors, PO box 161236, Sacramento, CA 95816-1236.
Website:
www.hometown.aol.com/ekphrasis1.
Biannual journal.
Seeking poems, each based on a single work of art.
Free or formal verse considered.
No simultaneous submissions; previously published okay if
credited.
Send 3-7 original poems, bio, phone number to address
above. No info on
rights purchased or payment. (P&W)
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Blackbird
(www.blackbird.vcu.edu),
Editor,
Poetry, Virginia Commonwealth University, Department of English,
PO Box 843082, Richmond, VA 23284-3082.
Biyearly online journal of literature and the arts.
Accepts original poetry; no previously published.
Send two to six poems with brief cover letter that
includes a short paragraph of biographical info via email (transom@vcu.edu)
or by mail with SASE.
No info as to response time, rights purchased, or
payment. (WD)
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Dogs for
Kids,
Editorial
Dept, PO Box 6050, Mission Viejo, CA 92690. Web site:
www.dogsforkids.com.
Educates
and entertains 8-13 year-old readers who care for purebred and
mixed breed dogs.
Can use articles about respectful and responsible dog ownership,
activities with dogs and articles describing dog-related
careers.
Query first to
dogsforkids@bowtieinc.com.
Writers should not talk down to children, but use
clear language and be well-organized, using bullets, subheads
and other devices to help young readers access and process the
information.
No breed profiles or topics that relate to adult dog
owners.
Pays $300 for features of 1,000-1,200 words, on
publication for First North American serial rights.
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The Kean
Review,
Kean
University, Union NJ 07083. Semi-annual journal.
Seeks writing of every sort (including humor, layman’s
science, graphic stories, etc.) for its Fall 2007 issue.
Metropolitan NJ/NYC focus or inflections especially
welcome.
Poetry to 10 pages; scripts to 15 pages; graphics stories
or essays to 10 pages; prose to 5,000 words.
Send PDF files to
tkr@kean.edu, or paper
submissions to above address.
No info on response time, rights purchased or payment. (P&W)
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Snow
Monkey (ravennapress.com/snowmonkey),
PO Box 127, Edmonds, VA. 98020.
Biyearly eclectic online journal.
Accepts original, unpublished submissions of poetry.
Most styles welcome if they illustrate craft.
Send poetry by mail with SASE or by e-mail (text-only, no
attachments or HTML) to
submissions@ravennapress.com.
Include your last name in the subject line.
No info as to response time, rights purchased or payment.
(WD)
C O N T E S T S
The
Ruthanne Wiley Memorial Novella
Contest,
sponsored
by Cleveland State University, Department of Engllish P&W, 2121
Euclid Ave., Cleveland, OH 44115-2214. Guidelines for SASE or on
web site:
www.csuohio.edu/poetrycenter.
Offers
two prizes of $500 and publication of the two winning novellas
in a collection.
Entry fee: $25 ($15 for students)
Submission
period: April 1, 2007-October 1, 2007 (postmark deadline). (P&W)
NOTES OF INTEREST
Writer’s
Digest
has now changed its schedule to six issues a year; not that they
actually informed anyone about this—I found out by looking
inside where the subscription information is printed.
So far, no printed complaints in letters to the editor
about the decrease in frequency of the magazine, or the lack of
market news they used to feature.
True,
there are many sources of market information available on the
internet, but, I don’t
have the time to do endless searching, nor do I want to
download material to my computer, if I can avoid it.
Maybe I’ll just have to explore other writers’ mags when
my current subscription expires.
POETRY REVIEW
Lions
Walk Around My Bed, Selected Poems
by Elsie H. Landstrom, 160 pgs., 5x7, spiral-bound, original
trade paperback, published by Lost Coast Press.
ISBN 978-1-882897-91-9.
Publication date: June 2007.
Price to be announced.
Elsie H. Landstrom spent her first twelve years in China,
her home on the banks of the Yangtze River.
In the U.S., she has worked
as a
freelance writer and editor.
She has written
Closing the Circle: An American Family in China (QED Press)
and was editor of Hyla-Doc:
Surgeon in China and
Hyla- Doc in Africa, both reading selections of the Board of
Global Methodist Ministries.
Now, at the age of 83, she has compiled a collection of
her poetry, broken into three parts: “Lions Walk Around My Bed,”
records an inner life of dreams, imagination, and belief that
touches upon the Second World War; “The Rags of Time” spans the
period between the 1940’s and 1990; and “Here We Are,” covers 25
years of setting down roots in the New England countryside,
meditating on the changing seasons, the sadness of deep
loss, aging, and the challenges of moving on.
In the first section, the poet employs fragmented imagery
to create mysterious flights of fancy and, at times, lofty
language that serves to distance herself from the reader.
In several cases, I was distracted enough to spend a
goodly amount of time thumbing through the dictionary to discern
the meaning (in parentheses) of her words (underlined).
For example, from the poem, “A Toast”:
Lord, it is yours/to
disentangle as you will; there is no/enchiridion
{handbook} to power/
confidence in handing back/unwanted gifts.
Or, from “Message in the Sand”:
…Ensorceled
{bewitched} by our
mind/the rising forms it shapes/command us….Nonetheless, I
thought this a small slight and persevered.
Soon, I was rewarded.
In the
second part, the poet cracks open the door to her inner self as
she sketches the people she encounters, and the emotions that
surface as she meets and confronts questions of Fear, Loss, and
the mysteries of Nature.
Some of the most memorable poems in this section are
“Invitation” where the poet engages Fear, and “She Was the
Last,” a soft-rhyming evocation of remembrance.
In Part
3, “Here Where We Are,” the poems become more lyrical and
cohesive, as the poet assumes the role of story teller and,
weaving observation with deep emotional resonance, gently
invites the reader into her past and future world.
This is most evident in the poem “Gardening,” where the
poet seamlessly blends her awareness of aging with the sudden
recall of an early childhood experience.
From the first two stanzas:
Look,
look, my hands:/What must they do?
Thickened, splotched/with years, today they plant/and thin and
mulch/while, curious, I watch:/these are the child’s hands/that
scrabbled in the dirt/to bury what remained/of lost and surplus
children/disinterred by dogs…
A
raw and chilling image, horrific even, but one that adds
understanding to the world we inhabit.
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