Posts By: Jennifer Luebbers

“You Don’t Have to Take My Word for It”: IR 34.1 Hits the Shelves

Dear Readers,

I’ve never given birth, but I imagine it might be something like the production of a literary journal. After about nine months of hard work and sweating and weeping and bleeding (paper cuts can be painful), we are at last blessed with the new sleek, shiny new issue that we can hold close and cherish.

My mom will be the first to point out that it is probably nothing at all like childbirth; she will also be quick to remind me that an average human gestation period is, in reality, thirty-eight weeks ( and is often longer). She’s probably also the first one to read this post (Hi, mom!).

Perhaps the larger discrepancy, though, is the fact the birth of a journal is a completely collective effort, and could never have happened without the dedication and commitment of all our readers, interns, editorial staff, office staff, contributors, contest judge, typesetter, printer, distributor, and, of course, you, our readers!

So, however inapt the birth metaphor may be, we are very proud to announce the arrival of a beautiful ~1 lb. issue of Indiana Review, filled with fresh and exciting poems, stories, and essays.

If you are a subscriber, keep a lookout for your issue to arrive in the mail. If you are not a subscriber, but want to be, or if you would like to order a single-issue copy, you can do so here.

I could say so much more about the issue, here, but I’ll keep this short and sweet. Instead, I’ll leave you with the words of one LeVar Burton, who said it best when he said, “You don’t have to take my word for it.”

Thank you so much for supporting Indiana Review. We are truly grateful for your support. We could not exist without you!

Sincerely,

Jennifer

PS We are always interested in knowing what you think. Feel free to comment  below, or send us an email at inreview@indiana.edu. We can’t wait to hear from you!

 

Announcing Our 2012 Poetry Prize Winner & Runners-Up!

2012 Indiana Review Poetry Prize Winner

“The Sublime”

Joshua Gottlieb-Miller

Houston, TX

Runners-Up

“Mulberries”

Missy-Marie Montgomery

Springfield, MA

“Visiting Seattle”

Hannah Oberman-Breindel

Madison, WI

A big congratulations to Joshua Gottlieb-Miller, the winner of IR’s 2012 Poetry Prize, and our runners-up, Missy-Marie Montgomery and Hannah Oberman-Breindel!

“The Sublime” will appear in Indiana Review issue 34.2, due out this winter. Of the winning poem, Dean Young, our final judge, writes, “A beguiling and ambitious poem, ‘The Sublime’ combines a meditative calm with an imaginative sprawl to give a sharp and poignant sense of the instability and absurdity of this dear life.”

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

Many thanks to all who participated. Your support helped make this year’s Indiana Review Poetry Prize a success!

Shawty’s Like a Melody

Image: inc.com

Is that thing you wrote a prose poem, or is it a short short? We don’t care what you call it; as long as it’s 500 words or fewer,  we want to read it!

The winning entry of IR’s annual 1/2 K Prize will receive $1000 and publication in Indiana Review. All submissions are considered for publication, and all submissions are read anonymously. This year’s prize judge is the wonderful Michael Martone.

Find full submission guidelines here.

Dating Around

Image: typeconnection.com

Last September, our super design-savvy Editor, Deborah Kim, blogged about why the font you choose to use matters  in the submission process. Last week, however, I stumbled upon typeconnection, a website that is home to “A Typographic Dating Game.” The concept is basically the same as online dating—you select the font you’re most “attracted” to, and then you’re given several new fonts that you might like based on your previous selection. You check out pics of those fonts, read their bios, and then, if you fancy, you send the new font and the original font on a “date.” You’ll be told whether or not these fonts are compatible together.

While I’m a Garamond gal myself, I can’t pretend I wasn’t intrigued by the concept. Was I missing an opportunity? Was there a font out there for me?

Well, after exercising extreme care in a decision-making process that took the better part of my workday (sorry, Deb!), it turns out the two fonts I sent on a date weren’t compatible. Maybe Garamond and I are doing just fine on our own.

What about you, dear readers? Do you think a font has the power to alter the way you perceive a piece of writing? How so? We’d love to know your thoughts!

 

Announcing Indiana Review’s 2nd Annual Blue Light Reading!

Image: Snapshots

Will you be in or near Bloomington, Indiana next Friday, March 30th? If your answer is yes, be sure to mark your calendars! IR contributors Vievee Francis, Roxane Gay, and Mary Hamilton will be reading at 8pm at the Bloomington Playwrights Project,and you’re invited! 

 

Vievee Francis is the author of two books Blue-Tail Fly (Wayne State University, 2006) and Horse in the Dark (winner of the Cave Canem Northwestern University Poetry Prize, forthcoming August 31, 2012). Her work will appear or has appeared in numerous journals, and anthologies, including Best American Poetry 2010Crab Orchard ReviewIndiana Review, and Angles of Ascent: A Norton Anthology of Contemporary African American Poetry, among others.  In 2009 she was the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award. In 2010 she received a Kresge Fellowship. She was the 2009/2010 Poet in Residence for the Alice Lloyd Hall Scholar’s Program at the University of Michigan. A Cave Canem Fellow, she is currently an Associate Editor for Callaloo, the premier journal of African Diaspora Arts & Letters. 

Roxane Gay‘s writing appears or is forthcoming in Best American Short Stories 2012, New Stories From the Midwest 2011 and 2012, Best Sex Writing 2012, Salon, NOON, American Short Fiction, Indiana Review, Cream City Review, Black Warrior Review, Brevity, The Rumpus, and many others. She is the co-editor of PANK, and an HTMLGIANT contributor. 

Mary Hamilton is an optician, writer, teacher, and pedestrian living in Los Angeles. Her work has been published in several journals online and in print. In 2010 she won the fourth annual Rose Metal Press short short fiction chapbook competition. Her chapbook, Kill Me Forever is forthcoming from the Lit Pub in late 2012.