Paul Auster has died at 77
Janet Reid, aka Miss Snark and Query Shark, left us for the great reef in the sky
PEN America awards boycotted over Gaza conflict
Jane Friedman’s key book publishing paths
Author platform is not a requirement
The 2023 NBCC Award finalists
Fiction

Nonfiction

Poetry

Contests

Flash

Resources

The Last Philosopher

The Last Philosopher

by Robert Wexelblatt
You will appreciate that the title of my lecture is ironic. As yet, there has been no last philosopher, nor do I think there is likely to be one.
Wise Young Fool

Wise Young Fool

by Sean Beaudoin
My room is tiny and dark and smells like sweaty sheets. The window is wide open, but there’s still no air. A heavy pre-lightning gloom overwhelms my clankity-clank fan.
Quiescent Infinite

Quiescent Infinite

by Hélène Cardona
On a visit to my ancestors I’m shown / into the palace of hypnotists / through a small entrance and grand rounding staircase, / each step a drawer containing sculptures.
Sleigh Ride

Sleigh Ride

by Kenneth Robbins
Where: the ninth floor of the Ritz Building, downtown in a median American city on the Southern side of the Mason Dixon Line, a city like Jacksonville, Savannah, or Montgomery, or none of them, or all of them.
Four by Rilke

Four by Rilke

translated by Len Krisak
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) is one of the most influential poets in German literature. Following are new translations of four of Rilke’s poems from his 1907 work Neue Gedichte.
The Dreamer Returns Home

The Dreamer Returns Home

by Robert S. King
This was not my house the day / it grew smaller over my shoulder. / The family my blind rage left would not / know me now, nor would I know more / than who they were.
Redemption

Redemption

by Michael O’Keefe
I want you to know two little known facts about me. One: I don’t like name-dropping. Hate it. Loathe it. Abhor it. Really. And I don’t like name-droppers either.
Visitation Rights

Visitation Rights

by Dino Parenti
He’d pick me up from Mama’s early Saturday while she slept, always waiting in his truck down the street and staring down the sun while gnashing on a spicebush twig.
Accidents

Accidents

by Midge Raymond
We’re having the same argument before my sister and her kids come over for a barbecue. I’m running out of reasons he hasn’t heard before, so I tell him, “This morning I saw a woman at Stop & Shop with a bullet on her key chain.”
Piano

Piano

by Joyce Sutphen
Somehow, it keeps itself in tune. / Each key remembers its name / and loves its neighbors— / black and white.
It all began around a campfire…

Beautiful language

is meant to be heard as well as read, and in fact words were vocalized eons before they were ever committed to clay or parchment. Storytelling began around campfires. We seek prose and poetry that continue the tradition.

Contributor Spotlight:

by Mary Liza Hartong

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Open Contests

Best Writing Contests of 2022, recommended by Reedsy

by Stephen Parrish, with the editors of The Lascaux Review