Category: general

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Sticks & Bricks: Stories from the Wrong Side of the Tracks

Cover from The Wrong Side of the Tracks: Stories, formerly known as Sticks and Bricks. Cover shows a girl peering through a chain link fence at boxcars sitting on a siding with graffiti painted on their sides.

So many people have been patiently waiting for news of the selection progress with Sticks & Bricks. At last, the editors, have given us the go-ahead to share a longlist with everyone, with heartfelt apologies because family emergencies intruded, and kept the selection process on hold for too long. We won’t be able to fit all of these into the book, but at least submitters can check this list to see if their submission is still under consideration.

Biographies for the three editors of this anthology, with small thumbnail photos for Luanne Smith, Michael Gills, and T.E. Wilderson

The Longlist (and a name change)

Submitted work for THE WRONG SIDE OF THE TRACKS: STORIES

  • Hallmark Town—Linda Heuring
  • A Day In the Life of a Five Year Old Pool Player—Francine Roderiguez
  • Paquete—Dan Timoskevich
  • Backyards—Catherine Alexander
  • All the Lonely People—Alex Stein (lyrics issue)
  • King of the Lake—Christine Rice
  • Dogs Always Bark—Melissa Chordas
  • A White Girl, A Horse, Two Cats and a Dog—Deborah Meltvedt
  • The Lesser Countries—August Tarrier
  • Witnesses—April Asbury
  • Human Statues—Leslie Johnson
  • Settle—Troy Bernardo
  • Diorama—Steve Tem
  • Street Sermon Annie—Vali Hawkins-Mitchell
  • Gonna Like It in the Jailhouse—Polar Levine
  • Whatever Happened to the American Dream—Don Robishaw
  • By the Grace—Gayle Bell (flash fiction)
  • Jets—R. Louis Fox
  • Gina and the Werewolf—Hadley Moore
  • Federico and His Boy—Victoria Ballesteros
  • Canary—Virginia Pina (pen name Watts)
  • Private Duties—Madeleine Mysko
  • The Angel of Lead Belly’s—John Mauk

Solicited Work for THE WRONG SIDE OF THE TRACKS: STORIES

  • Hunger—Pirette McKamey
  • Fast Hands, Fast Feet—Maurice Carlos Ruffin
  • Afterglow—Steph Post
  • Some Get-Back—Eric Miles Williamson
  • Leaving Early—Penn Stewart
  • Grit—Jesse Waters
  • Hard Shoes—Steve Gutierrez
  • The Short Story—Steve Gutierrez
  • Palette—Chavisa Woods
  • Kitty Rose—Jana Sasser (J.C. Sasser)
  • Flowchart—Kim Addonizio
  • Christmas Story of the Golden Cockroach—Ana Castillo
  • Old Dogs—Bonnie Jo Campbell
  • Amusement—Joe Haske
  • TBD—Elizabeth “e.” Stuelke
  • Tea Training—Zary Fekete (Zaqary)
  • The Bride Beneath my Bed—Lee Zacharias
  • TBD—Chavisa Woods
  • The Main Game—Chris Offutt
  • Barbie-Q—Sandra Cisneros
  • TBD—Manual Munoz
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Southern Festival of Books 2023

Map for the 2023 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, Tennessee

We will be attending the Southern Festival of Books in 2023 It is in Nashville again this year, and we loved it so much last year, we can’t wait to get back. We look forward to seeing so many friends, especially, our wonderful Linda Parsons has a book that we published featured, Valediction. She’ll be there with us at booth number 27. Come see us there!

This will be the 35th annual Southern Festival of Books–among the oldest literary festivals in the country. It is free to attend with performance stages, food trucks, publishers and booksellers. (We’ll be at booth #27.)

Festival weekend (Oct. 21 and 22) takes place in downtown Nashville. The Festival grounds include Bicentennial Mall State Park, the Tennessee State Museum, and the Tennessee State Library and Archives. Read more at their website: https://sofestofbooks.org/schedule

At the sponsors dinner during the Southern Festival of books 2022. At back are Linda Parsons and Pauletta Hansel, and seated are Susan O'Dell Underwood, Kim Davis, and Jeff Hardin. All are glowing.
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Fantastic Imaginary Creatures

Fantastic Imaginary Creatures: An Anthology of Contemporary Prose Poems edited by Gerry LaFemina. Cover shows a clay figure painted in bright red and green. The creature has wings and pointy spikes that look like pens coming out of his head, and a big toothy grin.

An Anthology of Contemporary Prose Poems edited by Gerry LaFemina

2023 Acceptances Announced

Anthology publication planned for  Spring 2024.

This is the call Gerry LaFemina put out for this anthology: 

The prose poem is the literary sphinx, the literary chimera, minotaur, gryphon–part one thing, part another and at their best, they’re magical, mythical. Fantastic Imaginary Creatures seeks to collect the best contemporary prose poems that demonstrate the potentiality and plasticity the form allows, previously published or brand spanking new. We’re not looking for short short stories, but rather work that explores the liminal space between story and lyric, the luminous spark of possibility in the form.

And of the many fine poets who answered Gerry’s call, these are the poets and the poems Gerry selected:

Valerie Bacharach“Momento Mori”

Ujjvala Bagal-Rahn

“Just Enough House”
Ned Balbo “O Christmas Tree,” and “That Which We Discard We Also Cherish”
Madeleine Barnes “Key Rock,” and “Self Portrait in My Mother’s Closing Lines”
Michelle Boczek Evory “Absolution,” and “Dislocation”
Rick Campbell “Parable of the Forest Pygmy,” and “Forgetting the Nicene Creed”
Joseph Capista “Room for Error,” “Myth,” and “Song”
Gary Ciocco “Being and Becoming”
TS Coody “Mimesis”
Jim Daniels “With Apologies to the Tom Tom Club,” and “At Last”
Anthony DiMatteo “Every Time”
gary fincke “The Hands”
Jeff Friedman “Giver of Gifts,” “Terrorists,” and “Lost Memory”
Molly Fuller “Home Again, Home Again,” and “Tale of the Flopsy Bunny”
Joy Gaines-Friedler “Daffodils,” “Act 20:14,” “Traveling with the Band,” and “The Children’s Ward”
George Guida “Trip Wire,” and “The story of a Life”
Luke Hankins “A Voice out of the Ruins”
Gretchen Heyer“Pasiphae Answers Questions,” “Missionaries Breakfasted on the Word of God,” and “Jute, Two Inches in Diameter”
Tom Hunley “My Chili Recipe (An Ars Poetica)” and “Questions for Further Study”
Anna Jacobson “This is to That”
Peter Johnson “Vaccination, in the Broadest Sense of the Term,” “Crickets,” and “Nice Socks”
Richard Jordan “Jesus in the Café,” “With Feathers,” and “Mackerel Day”
Elizabeth Kerlikowske “At 45th Parallel, Halfway Between the Equator and the North Pole,” and “Tabula Rasa”
Nina Kossman “Kharkiv”
Gerry LaFemina “Fantastic Imaginary Creatures,” “Happy Pigs,” and “Bad Medicine”
Joseph Lerner “The Black Egret”
Geri Lipschultz “Aphrodite in Manhattan”
Lorette C. Luzajic “Feathers,” and “January River”
Gary McDowell “Prose Poem on the Nature of Things; or, Armchair Philosophy,” and “Another Apocalypse”
Kathleen McGookey “Night Sky with Calculus Worksheet”
Jennifer Militello “Identifying the Pathogen,” “Dear B,” and “Antidote with Attempts at Diagnosis”
Robert Miltner “Wolf Dancing,” and “Hopeless”
Erin Murphy “Ekphrasis,” “Gerunding,” and “Hula Dancer”
kerry neville “Decade”
Robert Perchan “The Unselfish Elfins with their Trusty Hammers,” “At Home with Marlboro Jones,” and “The Orgun Box Junkies”
Christine Rhein “Drone Pilot,” and “Sunday Night Retail”
Jane Satterfield “Latin 121,” and “Abbreviated Inventory”
Katherine Smith “Crossword,” and “Quilt”
Joshua Michael Stewart “Yellow,” and “Book of Love”
Virgil Suárez “Chinese Weather Balloon”
Matthew Thorburn “A Hundred Birds,” and “How it Starts”
Eric Torgersen “My Blindness”
Patricia Valdata “Mayfly”
Doug Van Gundy “Sideshow, Barbour County Fairgrounds, 1975,” and “To Join the Circus”
Elinor Ann Walker “Object Impermanence,” and “Fugue State”
Greg Watson “Why I Live in a Cold Climate”
Cathy Wittmeyer “Max Beckmann, Still Life with Fallen Candles, oil on canvas, 1929,” and “Otto Dix, Horse Cadaver, etching & drypoint, 1924”
George Yatchisin “Leap Year”
Michael T. Young “Quoting Blake to Mother,” and “Sweaty Palms”

About the editor, Gerry LaFemina

Gerry LaFemina’s flash creative nonfiction essay collection, The Pursuit: A Meditation on Happiness, came out in 2022. His poetry collections include Baby Steps in Doomsday Prepping, The Story of Ash and Little Heretic. His essays on prosody, Palpable Magic, came out in 2015 and Kendall Hunt recently released his textbook, Composing Poetry: A Guide to Writing Poems and Thinking Lyrically.

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AWP 2023 Recap

The Madville Publishing booth at AWP23.

We had a wonderful time at AWP 2023 in Seattle

Poet Rick Campbell reads at the Offsite Reading at The Chieftain Irish Pub: Madville Publishing, Iris Press, and Stephen F. Austin State University Press. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Poet Rick Campbell reads at the Offsite Reading at The Chieftain Irish Pub: Madville Publishing, Iris Press, and Stephen F. Austin State University Press. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Author Andrew McFadyen-Ketchum reads at the Offsite Reading at The Chieftain Irish Pub: Madville Publishing, Iris Press, and Stephen F. Austin State University Press. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Author Andrew McFadyen-Ketchum reads at the Offsite Reading at The Chieftain Irish Pub: Madville Publishing, Iris Press, and Stephen F. Austin State University Press. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Madville Publishing founder Kim Davis reads at the Offsite Reading at The Chieftain Irish Pub: Madville Publishing, Iris Press, and Stephen F. Austin State University Press. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Madville Publishing founder Kim Davis reads at the Offsite Reading at The Chieftain Irish Pub: Madville Publishing, Iris Press, and Stephen F. Austin State University Press. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Queen Dolly regally awaits selfies with fans at the Book Fair! Photo by Lee Zacharias. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Queen Dolly regally awaits selfies with fans at the Book Fair! Photo by Lee Zacharias. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Author Wondra Chang reads from her Sonju during the Madvillans Read event. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Author Wondra Chang reads from her Sonju during the Madvillans Read event. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Author Jenny Molberg reads during the Madvillans Read Event. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Author Jenny Molberg reads during the Madvillans Read Event. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Author and photographer Lee Zacharias takes a photo with authour Michael Gills. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Author and photographer Lee Zacharias takes a photo with authour Michael Gills. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Author Mike Hilbig reads at the Offsite Reading at The Chieftain Irish Pub: Madville Publishing, Iris Press, and Stephen F. Austin State University Press. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Author Mike Hilbig reads at the Offsite Reading at The Chieftain Irish Pub: Madville Publishing, Iris Press, and Stephen F. Austin State University Press. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Author Anna Sandy-Elrod reads during the Madvillans Read event. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Author Anna Sandy-Elrod reads during the Madvillans Read event. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Michael Gills reads from The Green Mage during the Madvillans Read event. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Michael Gills reads from The Green Mage during the Madvillans Read event. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Madville Publishing founder Kim Davis reads during the Madvillans Read event. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Madville Publishing founder Kim Davis reads during the Madvillans Read event. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Author Maurice Carlos Ruffin and Madville Publishing founder Kim Davis take a photo with Dolly at the Book Fair. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Author Maurice Carlos Ruffin and Madville Publishing founder Kim Davis take a photo with Dolly at the Book Fair. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Poet Rick Campbell reads from his collection Gunshot, Peakcock, Dog at Madvillans Read. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Poet Rick Campbell reads from his collection Gunshot, Peakcock, Dog at Madvillans Read. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Author Kari Gunter-Seymour reads during the Madvillans Read event. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Author Kari Gunter-Seymour reads during the Madvillans Read event. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Writer Cherise Pollard reads during the Madvillans Read event. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Writer Cherise Pollard reads during the Madvillans Read event. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Former Texas Poet laureate Karla K. Morton reads from her collection, Turbulence and Fluids, during the Madvillans Read event. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Former Texas Poet laureate Karla K. Morton reads from her collection, Turbulence and Fluids, during the Madvillans Read event. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Writer Troy E. Wilderson reads during the The Urban and Rural: Writing about Poverty panel. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Writer Troy E. Wilderson reads during the The Urban and Rural: Writing about Poverty panel. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Author Bruce Overby reads from The Cyclone Release at the Madvillans Read event. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Author Bruce Overby reads from The Cyclone Release at the Madvillans Read event. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Author Ulrick Casimir reads at the Madvillans Read event. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Author Ulrick Casimir reads at the Madvillans Read event. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Lisa Lanser Rose reads at the Madvillans Read event. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Lisa Lanser Rose reads at the Madvillans Read event. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Author Mike Hilbig reads during the Madvillains Read event. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Author Mike Hilbig reads during the Madvillains Read event. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Author Jodi Angel speaks during the The Urban and Rural: Writing about Poverty panel. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Author Jodi Angel speaks during the The Urban and Rural: Writing about Poverty panel. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Poet Raye Hendrix reads during the Madvillans Read event. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Poet Raye Hendrix reads during the Madvillans Read event. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Former Texas Poet laureate Karla K. Morton reads from her collection, Turbulence and Fluids, at the Offsite Reading at The Chieftain Irish Pub: Madville Publishing, Iris Press, and Stephen F. Austin State University Press. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Former Texas Poet laureate Karla K. Morton reads from her collection, Turbulence and Fluids, at the Offsite Reading at The Chieftain Irish Pub: Madville Publishing, Iris Press, and Stephen F. Austin State University Press. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Author Lisa Lanser Rose reads at the Madvillans Read event.
Author Lisa Lanser Rose reads at the Madvillans Read event.
Michael Gills reads from The Green Mage during the Madvillans Read event.
Michael Gills reads from The Green Mage during the Madvillans Read event.
Former Texas Poet laureate Karla K. Morton reads from her collection, Turbulence and Fluids, during the Madvillans Read event.
Former Texas Poet Laureate Karla K. Morton reads from her collection, Turbulence and Fluids, during the Madvillans Read event.
Madville Publishing founder Kim Davis, author Lisa Lanser Rose, unknown, and writer Cherise Pollard take a group photo.
Madville Publishing founder Kim Davis, author Lisa Lanser Rose, unknown, and writer Cherise Pollard take a group photo before setting up the Book Fair booth.
Author Kari Gunter-Seymour reads during the Madvillans Read event.
Author Kari Gunter-Seymour reads during the Madvillans Read event.
All the books ready to go to the Book Fair!
All the books ready to go to the Book Fair!
Author Jenny Molberg reads during the Madvillans Read Event.
Author Jenny Molberg reads during the Madvillans Read Event.
Author Anna Sandy-Elrod reads during the Madvillans Read event.
Author Anna Sandy-Elrod reads during the Madvillans Read event.
The view from the conference hotel in Seattle.
The view from the conference hotel in Seattle.
Writer Cherise Pollard reads during the Madvillans Read event.
Writer Cherise Pollard reads during the Madvillans Read event.
Our beautiful booth, stocked with books for AWP 2023!
Our beautiful booth, stocked with books for AWP 2023!
Bill Davis sightseeing in Seattle before AWP 2023.
Bill Davis sightseeing in Seattle before AWP 2023.
Author Stephanie Powell Watts during the Urban and Rural: Writing about Poverty panel.
Author Stephanie Powell Watts during the Urban and Rural: Writing about Poverty panel.
Michael Gills speaks during the Urban and Rural: Writing about Poverty panel.
Michael Gills speaks during the Urban and Rural: Writing about Poverty panel.
Sightseeing in Seattle before AWP 2023.
Sightseeing in Seattle before AWP 2023.
Poet Raye Hendrix reads during the Madvillans Read event.
Poet Raye Hendrix reads during the Madvillans Read event.
Sightseeing in Seattle before AWP 2023.
Sightseeing in Seattle before AWP 2023.
Cat Smith and Madville Publishing founder Kim Davis pose in front of the Madville Publishing booth poster at AWP 2023.
Cat Smith and Madville Publishing founder Kim Davis pose in front of the Madville Publishing booth poster at AWP 2023.
Author Bruce Overby reads from The Cyclone Release at the Madvillans Read event.
Author Bruce Overby reads from The Cyclone Release at the Madvillans Read event.
Francine Rodriguez laughs as Jodi Angel speaks during the The Urban and Rural: Writing about Poverty panel.
Francine Rodriguez laughs as Jodi Angel speaks during the The Urban and Rural: Writing about Poverty panel.
Madville Publishing founder Kim Davis reads at the Offsite Reading at The Chieftain Irish Pub: Madville Publishing, Iris Press, and Stephen F. Austin State University Press. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Madville Publishing founder Kim Davis reads at the Offsite Reading at The Chieftain Irish Pub: Madville Publishing, Iris Press, and Stephen F. Austin State University Press. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Author Jodi Angel reads at the Madvillans Read event. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Author Jodi Angel reads at the Madvillans Read event. Photo by Lee Zacharias.
Cat Smith and author Francine Rodriguez eat dinner at Ristorante Barolo Ristorante.
Cat Smith and author Francine Rodriguez eat dinner at Ristorante Barolo Ristorante.
Former Texas Poet Laureate Karla K. Morton and Madville Publishing founder Kim Davis pose in front of the Dolly poster. Karla is holding a stack of copies of her poetry collection, Turbulence and Fluids.
Former Texas Poet Laureate Karla K. Morton and Madville Publishing founder Kim Davis pose in front of the Dolly poster. Karla is holding a stack of copies of her poetry collection, Turbulence and Fluids.
Madville Publishing founder Kim Davis and author Stephen Powers take a photo in front of the Dolly poster.
Madville Publishing founder Kim Davis and author Stephen Powers take a photo in front of the Dolly poster.
Lana K. W. Austin, author of Like Light, Like Music, reads at the Offsite Reading at The Chieftain Irish Pub: Madville Publishing, Iris Press, and Stephen F. Austin State University Press.
Lana K. W. Austin, author of Like Light, Like Music, reads at the Offsite Reading at The Chieftain Irish Pub: Madville Publishing, Iris Press, and Stephen F. Austin State University Press.
Author Susan O’Dell Underwood reads at the Madvillans Read event.
Author Susan O’Dell Underwood reads at the Madvillans Read event.
Author Mike Hilbig reads during the Madvillains Read event.
Author Mike Hilbig reads during the Madvillains Read event.
Author Francine Rodriguez gets a photo with the Dolly poster at the AWP Book Fair.
Author Francine Rodriguez gets a photo with the Dolly poster at the AWP Book Fair.
Francine Rodriguez reads from A Woman's Story during the Urban and Rural: Writing about Poverty panel.
Francine Rodriguez reads from A Woman’s Story during the Urban and Rural: Writing about Poverty panel.