Essay in THE BEST AMERICAN ESSAYS 2018;
(cited in BAE 2015, 2016, 2020); PUSHCART poetry finalist

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Summer 2015

Editor’s Note

Always a joy, our Summer Contest Issue.  To discover new talent.  To acknowledge established writers.  The heart of a literary magazine is to bring such fine works to you, our esteemed readers.

The winner of the $1,000 Prize for Fiction, chosen by final judge, Kim McLarin, is Shanyn Fiske, for “Calligraphy,” her debut publication, an exquisite story of a young Chinese prodigy and her mother’s misunderstanding of her brilliance.  Runner-up is Jennie Rathbun for “The House Wren,” a highly amusing yet touching story of a lesbian couple dealing with an intrusive family member.  The Editors’ Picks in Fiction, chosen by Brenda Prescott and myself, are Richard Downing’s provocative “Full-Service Fat Girl” and Vanessa Nirode’s moving, elliptical tale, “Once We Were Young.”

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The winner of the $500 Nonfiction Prize, donated by Michael Steinberg, and judged by Richard Hoffman is Michelle Blake for “A Fable for Our Times,” reflections on an election season.  And the Editors’ Pick is Flora Gonzalez for “The Sewing Room,” personal insights into the transformation of Cuba.

In addition, we offer special publication to our Featured Authors, distinguished writers, such as: Jaimee Wriston Colbert in Fiction; Amy Yelin, Elizabeth Searle and Jason Clemence in Nonfiction; and to our new Poetry co-editor January Gill O’Neil, and Martha Collins, as well as to other fabulous poets.

Also, we are thrilled to present Neal Rantoul’s aerial photography of wheat fields. Our photographer editor has worked with him in the past.

We received so many talented contest submissions this year that we especially thank all who submitted and very much hope we will hear from you again.

As a magazine of diverse voices, we also feel called to respond to some of the recent violence in our country, so we sent you a Call for Submissions for our new blog series on Race, Class and Culture.  Also, we are adding a new feature in our weekly newsletters:  Contributors’ News, announcing new or forthcoming books and awards from those we have published over the past six years!  For instance, congrats to SolLit’s Poetry in Translation Editor, Dzvinia Orlowsky, and poet Jeff Friedman, who have just been awarded a 2016 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Translation Fellowship for their translations of poems by Polish poet Mieczslaw Jastrun. You can let us know your news, here.

And thanks to you all for being part of our ever-growing diverse community.  Please subscribe and share our Summer Issue with your friends. Let’s reach out more, extend ourselves, cross borders! Warmly, Lee Hope
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Editors' Notes

  • EDITOR’S NOTE
    by Lee Hope
  • POETRY EDITOR’S NOTE
    by Ben Berman

Fiction

  • Winner
    Calligraphy
    by Shanyn Fiske
  • Runner-up
    The House Wren
    by Jennie Rathbun
  • Editors' Pick
    Full-Service Fat Girl
    by Richard Downing
  • Editors' Pick
    Once We Were Young
    by Vanessa Nirode
  • Featured
    Wild Things
    by Jaimee Wriston Colbert
  • SHORT SHORT
    Hallways

    by Bryan Carvalho

Nonfiction

  • Winner
    A Fable for Our Times
    by Michelle Blake
  • Editors' Pick
    The Sewing Room
    by Flora González
  • Featured
    The Mysterious Case of the Girl Gang Member
    by Amy Yelin
  • ACT TRESSES: Hair as Performance Art
    by Elizabeth Searle
  • Custom Made
    by Jason Clemence

Photography

  • Wheat 2009-2014
    by Neal Rantoul

Poetry

  • Winner
    OMNIPOTENCE
    by Alysia Nicole Harris
  • Finalist
    Diorama
    by Richard Garcia
  • Finalist
    Charms (3)
    by Wendy Mnookin
  • Featured
    Sober
    by January Gill O'Neil
  • Featured
    from Admit One: An American Scrapbook:
    Exit / Exeunt

    by Martha Collins
  • Requiem
    by Karol Maliszewski
  • Girl on roadside
    by Karol Maliszewski
  • Krynica1
    by Karol Maliszewski
  • Simple story
    by Karol Maliszewski
  • Selective Service Decision to Defer Him After his Psychiatrist Wrote a Letter
    by Russell Thorburn
  • Montgomery Clift Talks in that Slow, Rounded Way of Someone Desperately Drunk
    by Russell Thorburn
  • Pretend Nice, But Terrible
    by Marissa Johnson-Valenzuela
  • Chemotherapy
    by Richard Brobst
  • Dwellers
    by Michael Catherwood
  • Yellowthunder
    by Michael Catherwood

Reviews & Interviews

  • Interview
    Organizing Chaos: A Candid Conversation with Joan Wickersham About Her Memoir, The Suicide Index: Putting My Father’s Death In Order
    by Melanie Brooks


Contributors

Avatar photoAlysia Nicole Harris
Avatar photoAmy Yelin
Avatar photoBryan Carvalho
Elizabeth SearleElizabeth Searle
Avatar photoFlora González
Avatar photoJaimee Wriston Colbert
Avatar photoJanuary Gill O'Neil
Avatar photoJason Clemence
Avatar photoJennie Rathbun
Avatar photoKarol Maliszewski
Avatar photoMarissa Johnson-Valenzuela
Avatar photoMartha Collins
Avatar photoMelanie Brooks
Avatar photoMichael Catherwood
Avatar photoMichelle Blake
Avatar photoNeal Rantoul
Avatar photoRichard Brobst
Avatar photoRichard Downing
Avatar photoRichard Garcia
Avatar photoRussell Thorburn
Avatar photoShanyn Fiske
Avatar photoVanessa Nirode
Avatar photoWendy Mnookin

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We experiment.  We publish fine work, of course, from published established writers to emerging writers, whether formal or informal, traditional or experimental. We also publish underserved writers, or writers on the margins. We publish writers of diverse nationalities, races and religions, and also writers from diverse cultures within our culture.
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