Poem-a-Day is the original and only daily digital poetry series of the Academy of American Poets featuring over 250 new, previously unpublished poems by today’s talented poets each year. torrin a. greathouse is the guest editor of July.
This is fresh off the heels of Liv being selected as the Poetry Foundation’s Poem of the Day back at the end of June, so you know that Liv’s upcoming book, Fire in the Waiting Room (Game Over Books, 2025) is going to be much acclaimed.
McSweeney’s Publishing is a non-profit publishing house based in San Francisco, California, founded by author Dave Eggers in 1998. In addition to their daily humor website, McSweeney’s also publishes approximately ten titles a year, as well as the quarterly literary journal Timothy McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, The bimonthly magazine The Believer, Illustoria (an art and storytelling magazine for six to 11-year olds), and, formerly, the legendary food journal Lucky Peach.
McSweeney’s Internet Tendency is considered one of the most preeminent publications for literary satire and humor, so a big congratulations to John is in order!
Go check it out now, and think about it every time you are near a 7-Eleven:
We just got some excellent news today: MFA student Richard Prins has been selected for The Best American Essays 2024. Richard, fresh off the heels of winning an NEA Fellowship, had his essay “Because: An Etiology” selected by Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and acclaimed New York Times critic Wesley Morris.
The Best American series selects twenty essays out of thousands of nominations from literary journals which represent the best examples of the form published the previous year. Each year an established writer is brought in to act as judge for this prestigious anthology, but is presided over by series editor Kim Dana Kupperman at HarperCollins.
Students from our MFA Program in Creative Writing met up and held a reading in the thesis show for the QC MFA in Studio Art this past weekend, at Art Cake Gallery.
Our MFA candidates read in front of visual art installations and were treated to a sound installation by our graduating MFA student Julie Goodale.
Our very own Queens Review is having a launch party to celebrate its inaugural issue on Saturday, May 18th at 7PM in Kew & Willow Books. The launch will feature surprise guest readings by contributors and copies of the beautiful print edition (published simultaneously with the web edition) will be for sale, care of Kew & Willow Books.
Queens Review is a renewal of our program’s literary journal; it replaces our long-standing journal Armstrong Literary with a new vision to engage the multiplicity of culture and language, which is the essence of Queens, and connect those stories with the larger literary world. This issue is already yielding big results, with contributions by Cynthia Cruz, Diane Seuss, Stevie Edwards, and Rajiv Mohabir.
The Queens Reviewis a journal based in Queens: a borough with a multiplicity of cultures, languages, and experiences. Rather than present a single unified voice, we aim to express the varied landscapes around us as well as our own internal terrain. Founded by students and faculty of the Queens College MFA in Creative Writing and Literary Translation, The Queens Review is interested in work that pushes boundaries –– on an emotional level as well as a linguistic one –– poems, stories, translations, and fragments that scatter, ground, croon, and devastate.
Submissions for Issue 2 should open in the fall, but you can read the first issue on the QR website:
Our own Nicole Cooley’s new book of poems, Mother Water Ash, will be coming out this summer from LSU Press.
Mother Water Ash explores the personal grief of a mother’s sudden death alongside the environmental crises of the storms, fires, and floods that now dominate our world. Examining the landscapes of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, these poems ponder what it means to mourn in the face of ecological catastrophe, and traipse the terrains left by loss.
MFA alum Todd Sullivan has a big write-up in The Korea Times, for the 10th anniversary of his literary journal, Samjoko Magazine.
Todd moved to Korea to teach English language courses and has thrived. Todd is the author of five novels, most recently Blood Stew and The Gray Man of Smoke and Shadows, as well as dozens of short stories, poems, essays, and novelettes. He was also nominated for a Pushcart Prize last year for his short story “One Hour,” in the journal After Dinner Conversations.
Congratulations on all your hard work, Todd! Go read Todd’s profile in The Korea Times:
MFA student Julie Hornberger has won a 2024 National Organization of Italian American Women (NOIAW) Scholarship. Each year, NOIAW proudly awards 4-6 scholarships to deserving Italian American Women, enabling them to chase their dreams of higher education. Julie Hornberger was selected from among the many applicants because of her studies here at the MFA Program in Creative Writing & Literary Translation.
MFA alum Rajiv Mohabir has three poems in this Spring 2024 issue of Sixth Finch, out just today!
Sixth Finch, is a quarterly journal of poetry and art, operating continuously since 2008. You should read Rajiv’s poems right now, then think about submitting your poems for the next issue!
Professor Kimiko Hahn joined First Lady Jill Biden and Kishida Yuko, wife of Prime Minister Kishida Fumio, in a cultural program as part of an official visit to Washington, just last week.
Fresh off the heels of winning the Ruth Lilly lifetime achievement award from the Poetry Foundation, Kimiko led writing exercises with a group of local high school students, which drew from her heritage and celebrated Japanese culture. The First Lady, who is herself a former teacher of writing, of course knew that Kimiko Hahn would be a great choice to lead this workshop in honor of the Japanese ambassador’s visit.
If you want to see some of this special event, you can watch the video from The White House YouTube page:
Congratulations, Kimiko!
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