…for submissions!
Submissions for the CutBank print edition are now open. Our print journal is accepting submissions of fiction or creative nonfiction up to 8,500 words, and poetry up to 5 poems per submission. Electronic only, please. There is no fee, and full guidelines are right here: http://www.cutbankonline.org/print-edition/
The CutBank Big Sky, Small Prose: Flash Contest is still open, but shuts down entries tomorrow, September 16. There’s a $500 first place prize, with publication in CutBank 88. Two runners-up will be awarded $50 and publication in CutBank 88. All other submissions will be considered with submissions for the CutBank print edition. Send us 750 words or fewer. Lyric essays, prose poems, short essays, vignettes - send us your best, most dazzling short form prose. Hurry! Entry fee is only $7.00. Submit here: https://cutbank.submittable.com/submit
David Byron Queen, in the fiction track at UM’s MFA program, has a fabulously unsettling flash piece up in the latest issue of (b)OINK: "Bonesetters." And Renée Branum (UM MFA 2017), is the Nonfiction Winner of Aquifer, the Florida Review Online’s 2017 Editor’s Award, with her essay, “Bolt.”
The Cassini spacecraft made the ultimate sacrifice, and is now mind-and-body melded with Saturn. Its life ended in a fiery, “do no harm” way, to ensure our horrible terrestrial microbes wouldn’t rub off should Cassini bump into Titan or Enceladus, two of Saturn’s SIXTY-TWO moons. Coverage here, at WAPO.
Elsewhere in the sky, we’ve had atmospheric issues nationwide (that’s an understatement), yet some beauty may still come of it. The Northwest may be seeing its season of flames and haze end soon, and yet, words remain, some of them gorgeous in their ominous tone. Or just plain gorgeous. The Seattle Times turned to artists and writers to turn smoke into art.
In the random notes file, we’ve got wonders from all around:
- Signature raves: “Celeste Ng Stuns Again in New Novel, Little Fires Everywhere”
- On BREVITY's Nonfiction Blog, indulge your digital self: “Click, Scroll, Select, and Drive: Navigating the Digital Essay.” Sarah Minor and Eric LeMay discuss whether essayists are “interested in preserving the essay as a genre that values so much of what our digital spaces don’t.” This may help you form an opinion: “Essays on the Essay and Other Essays” by Eric LeMay.
- “Ahead of 2017’s National short story prize, Jon McGregor reluctantly chooses ‘swoony’ work from recent years showing some of the ways to write them well,” in a Guardian listicle that must’ve been a tough one to narrow down: “Top 10 contemporary short stories.”
- Add this Lit Hub list to this list, too: “THE CLASSES 25 FAMOUS WRITERS TEACH: They're Not Always What You'd Expect”
Until next time, here’s Elvis Costello, and his pitch to “write every day” … sort of.
:-)