Superstition Review is the online literary magazine produced by creative writing and web design students at Arizona State University. Founded in 2008, the mission of the journal is to promote contemporary art and literature by providing a free, easy-to-navigate, high quality online publication that features work by established and emerging artists and authors from all over the world. We publish two issues a year with art, fiction, interviews, nonfiction, and poetry. We also enjoy honoring all members of our Superstition Review family by maintaining a strong year-round community of editors, submitters, contributors, and readers on our blog and social networks.
Trainees
Trainees will register for a 3 credit-hour ENG 394 course. The course will offer a study of the field of literary magazines.
Upon successful completion of ENG 394, trainees will enroll in ENG 484 and become active interns with the magazine.
All work is done completely online.
We welcome interns from all fields.
Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.
What Interns Say:
“This class has been a huge eye-opener for me and I feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to work in the publishing and editing industry before graduating.”
“The skills I learned have given me a huge amount of confidence as I begin my search for a job, and I’m so glad this course was available.”
“I feel I got a great internship experience that will help me post graduation.”
I have been thinking again, as I often do, about poetry as an inquiry.
I was staring at my blank page, so this was, in that moment, an incitement: What am I wondering about? I don’t mean literally a question that could be answered by research. I mean an opening of some sort, an uncertainty that can barely be articulated, a yearning or a bafflement that is deeply rooted in my experience of living.
In that moment, I idly thought and ended up scribbling “I wonder why against the dim light and gray sky the tree across the street seems to burn even brighter.” Yes, I could probably answer that question with some research into the effects of light and color and optics, but the possibility that some things can seem more clear in unclear situations opened something. I did feel like I could muddle around in the space created there. Between image and question, I could ease into a creative space.
Trying to feel my way into my own questions is also a useful exercise as I grapple with a collection of newer poems struggling to work together. Can I discern in my recent poem attempts what are my questions, where is the focus of my concern? I ask myself that because if I can better understand my questions, I hope to better hone my poems in the revision process. I suspect that from a far enough vantage point, a common concern will emerge from a large number of those poems. And if I can catch that whiff of inquiry, a path will be cleared to create a collection that coheres not around obvious theme but rather around a deep question.
By asking myself to define my question, I may risk writing poems that are ghastly earnest and stiff with self-conscious thought. To be too aware of where my head is at can block the whole process entirely, creation and revision (as revision itself is a creative process). It’s almost like I have to pose a question and then hum loudly over my own thoughts, distract myself by doing the dishes or mopping the floor, let any response drift in and fade off, leaving sticky things behind: a bit of spider web, a crumb of chocolate. From those bits, I can work.
Do all poems have to have an inquiry behind them? I suppose this is arguable. But deep down inside, I think so. Sometimes though you have to dive deep beneath the veils of your own work, behind the imagery, the humor, the distractions, the voice, the masks, the showing off, to catch yourself peering out, to read your eyes. What do you fear? What do you hope? How do you live?
This semester, Superstition Review is highlighting the Editors producing Issue 32. On Dec. 1st, readers will be able to view content that these interns have worked to compile over the course of the semester.
Meet Daniel Gernant, issue 32 poetry editor
SR: What are your plans for after graduation? DG: I plan on finding a career in editing young adult novels.
SR: Describe your perfect Saturday morning DG:My perfect Saturday morning would be to sleep in as long as I need, make lunch/breakfast, and play video games with my friends.
SR: What is one place you’d like to travel to?
DG: I’d love to visit Greece and Italy to see the architecture.
Meet Charlise Bar-Shai, issue 32 art editor
SR: What are your plans for after graduation? CB: I’m undecided about what field of journalism I will enter after college, but right now I’m leaning on becoming an investigative journalist for NPR. I also plan to move to California (if I can afford it).
SR: What are some of your hobbies? CB: I’m a visual artist. I’ve been drawing seriously and consistently since 7th grade, and I often post my finished pieces to my Instagram. I’m also a huge music lover, so I collect records (I have about 60). I also love to write short stories, play video games and make crafts. Recently, I’ve also been learning to sew and knit. Basically, I love doing anything creative.
Meet Eden Smith, issue 32 fiction editor
SR: What are your plans for after graduation? ES: I hope to promote beautiful writers and their work through a career in publishing.
SR: What are you currently reading? ES: I have been chewing at “The Count of Monte Cristo” since mid-June.
SR: What are some of your hobbies? ES: Hiking in the Superstition Mountains, reading, coffee tasting.
Meet Emma Raimondo, issue 32 social media manager
SR: What are your plans for after graduation? ER: Write and work!
SR: What are you currently reading? ER: I’m currently reading Real Estate by Deborah Levy.
SR: What is your hidden talent? ER: I’m great at placing famous doppelgängers.
John Reed has recently published The Never End: The Other Orwell, the Cold War, the CIA, and the Origin of Animal Farm.
In The Never End, John Reed collects two decades of subject-Orwell findings previously published in PANK, Guernica, Literary Hub, The Brooklyn Rail, The Rumpus, The New York Press, The Believer, Harper’s Magazine, and The Paris Review. Reed views Orwell in a twenty-first century global context, considering Orwell’s collaboration with Cold War intelligence operations in the U.S. and UK with unfaltering objectivity and a corrective and peerlessly contemporary lens. The Never End is at once a hatchet job and a celebration. It’s hard to imagine that Orwell—in our own moment of global doublethink—wouldn’t have wanted his devotion to contrariety applied to the literary legacy he left behind.
Reed’s perspective on Orwell has already garnered extensive praise from The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, Guernica, and Popmatters.
“John Reed challenges us deeply with his elegant September 11 updating of Orwell’s Animal Farm.” —Richard Falk, professor at Princeton University.
“Some books double as a matchstick: if struck in the right conditions, they can cause a wildfire.” —The Rumpus
“Reed skewers our early twenty-first century (edgy, tragic, absurd) with a marvelously precise wit.” —Locus Magazine
“John Reed has been writing hard-to-classify books for over a decade, to great acclaim and sometimes greater notoriety.” —Bomb Magazine
John grew up in the shadow of the Towers, born to prominent downtown artists Judy Rifka and David Reed. John is an American novelist who wrote “A Still Small Voice,” “Snowball’s Chance” with a preface by Alexander Cockburn, “All the World’s a Grave: A New Play by William Shakespeare,” “The Whole,” “Tales of Woe,” “Free Boat: Collected Lies and Love Poems,” “A Drama In Time: The New School Century,” and “The Family Dolls: A Manson Paper + Play Book.” He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University. His work has been widely published in journals including ElectricLit, the Brooklyn Rail, Tin House, Paper Magazine, Artforum, Hyperallergic, Bomb Magazine, Art in America, the Los Angeles Times, the Believer, the Rumpus, Observer, the PEN Poetry Series, the Daily Beast, Gawker, Slate, the Paris Review, the Times Literary Supplement, the Wall Street Journal, Vice, The New York Times, Harpers, and Rolling Stone, and anthologized in Best American Essays (Houghton Mifflin). HIs works have been translated and performed worldwide, and his films have been distinguished at festivals internationally. A two-term board member of the National Book Critics Circle, he is currently Associate Professor and Director in the MFA in Creative Writing at The New School.
Congratulations to past contributor Vanessa Lopez Aziz who recently published Play it Back.
In her debut novel, Aziz tells the story of a 27-year-old Asian-American woman, Carmen, who reels she has a perfect life. She has a hard-won life and independent lifestyle with a rewarding job, a loving boyfriend, and great friends. She grew up from a socially awkward teenager with immigrant parents and no college acceptances to the person she is today. She has no reason to want to relive her teen years, but that’s exactly what happens when she reluctantly attends her high school reunion and finds herself transported ten years in the past to relive her senior year. Knowing how her life turns out, she figures while she’s in 1999, she might as well enjoy it. She joins drama club, goes to parties, and flirts with the boy who will become her future fiancé. It’s not all fun and games, though, as she realizes her best friends chafe under the changes and her parents’ marriage implodes. As she struggles to navigate her past life, Carmen must confront the question of why she was sent here in the first place – a question that may lead her to the realization that the life she thought had turned out so perfectly may not be everything she dreamed of after all.
The book has received significant praise:
“Play it Back thrives on a simple, but compelling premise – What would happen if you woke up in the body of your younger self? What does it mean? What would you do differently? The novel is an intriguing read from page one, establishing Vanessa Lopez Aziz as an engaging literary voice who deftly blends adult sensibilities with an anxious environment of adolescent uncertainty – and the pressure to navigate (or renavigate) the final year of high school with the promise of college on the horizon. Along the way, Aziz explores the complexities of everyday life – family and friendship, love and loyalty – while seamlessly weaving elements of her own Filipino heritage into a narrative that never strays from its relatable tone. The nostalgic references are a welcome touch for those who remember using printed MapQuest directions instead of GPS systems to drive our teenage friends around to weekend parties.” – Rob Kachelriess, Trivago Magazine
View more of Vanessa’s creative work on her website. Purchase Play it Backhere.
Vanessa Lopez Aziz spent the first decade of her adulthood adventuring. She has lived along California’s coast, Nevada, the Alaskan frontier, England, and Eastern Europe. She’s jumped off mountains, excavated ancient archaeological sites, and lived out of a backpack for years at a time. These days, she is more often found writing than living adventures. She is a first-generation half-Filipino and half-Pakistani. She felt a lack of media representation growing up and now writes stories she has always wished to see more of, populated with quirky protagonists finding their way when traditional labels don’t fit. When she’s not writing, she works as a nurse in child psychiatry.
View Vanessa Lopez Aziz’ “Three Parables” in issue 31 of Superstition Review
The Department of English at Arizona State University is putting on a series of informative and educational events this October. Take a look at some of the happenings on campus:
Shakespeare at 400—’Making Shakespeare: The First Folio’ | November 8th
Arizona State University presents a screening of excerpts from the brand new PBS “Great Performances” documentary: “Making Shakespeare: The First Folio.” Shakespeare scholars Ayanna Thompson, Eric Rasmussen and Sir Jonathan Bate– all of whom appear as experts in the film – provide insights and information. ASU Scholar Ruben Espinosa moderates and provides additional insight.
Shakespeare at 400: From Fiction to Fact is an ASU celebration of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s First Folio, the first published collection of 36 of Shakespeare’s plays. The celebration is led by staff and scholars in the Department of English and is informed by the university’s enormous strength in Early Modern studies. The fall 2023 celebration includes several events: a performance, a documentary screening, and a curated book display at ASU library.
The event is in-person is free and open to the public and will also be livestreamed. The in-person event will be held at the Downtown Phoenix campus at 555 N. Central Ave., Phoenix, AZ, 85004. Parking is available for a $12 fee for three hours at the University Center Garage.
Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing: Distinguished Visiting Writers Series (DNRS)| November 9th
The Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing holds a series of free events open to the public to ensure all individuals have the ability to participate in the literary arts. Visiting authors host small workshops in partnership with the Piper Writers Studio, engage in intimate craft talks with students, visit ASU classes, and participate in other meaningful activities.
This month, the Piper Center welcomes Douglas Kearney and Octavio Quintanilla. The in-person event is a festival of words and pictures discussing prominent questions such as: How can poetic forms be reimagined and remade? What kind of poetry speaks most to us here and now?
About the authors:
Douglas Kearney
Douglas Kearney is the author of eight books, including the poetry collections Optic Subwoof (Wave Books, 2022); Sho (Wave Books, 2021), a 2022 PEN/Voelcker Award, National Book Award, and Minnesota Book Award finalist; and Buck Studies (Fence Books, 2016), a Roethke Memorial Poetry Prize winner, a Community of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP) Firecracker awardee, and California Book Award silver medalist. Kearney is also the author of Someone Took They Tongues (Subito Press, 2016), and Mess and Mess and (Noemi Press, 2015), which Publisher’s Weekly called “an extraordinary book.” He teaches at the University of Minnesota.
Octavio Quintanilla
Octavio Quintanilla is the author of the poetry collection, If I Go Missing (Slough Press, 2014). His poetry, fiction, translations, and photography have appeared in Salamander, RHINO, Alaska Quarterly Review, Pilgrimage, Green Mountains Review, Southwestern American Literature, The Texas Observer, Existere: A Journal of Art & Literature, and elsewhere. Reviews of his work can be found at CutBank Literary Journal, Concho River Review, San Antonio Express-News, American Microreviews & Interviews, Southwestern American Literature, Pleiades, and others. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of North Texas and is the regional editor for Texas Books in Review. He teaches Literature and Creative Writing in the M.A./M.F.A. program at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas.
Hear from these talented writers on Thursday, November 9, 2023 at 7 p.m. in 101 Armstrong Hall. RSVP to save your spot for this exciting literary event. Learn more.
AZCALL 2023 | November11th
AZCALL is an annual conference that brings together computer-assisted language learning (CALL) enthusiasts from around the state and region to share ideas, network and receive valuable feedback on scholarly research, academic papers and major conference presentations which are in progress or preparation. This year’s AZCALL theme is the effect of Artificial Intelligence in language learning and pedagogy. Featured speakers are Randall W. Sadler from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Jesse Egbert from Northern Arizona University.
ASU Book Group: ‘Solving Modern Problems with a Stone-Age Brain’ | November16th
The ASU Book Group’s November 2023 reading selection is Solving Modern Problems with a Stone-Age Brain: Human Evolution and the Seven Fundamental Motives by Douglas Kenrick and David Lundberg-Kenrick. In-person attendees are invited to join the author for lunch after at the University Club. Feel free to join even if you haven’t read the book! The book group is open to all in the ASU community and meets monthly from noon-1 p.m. either in-person at the Piper Writers House or virtually on Zoom.
The focus of the book is “how many of the problems we face in our daily lives stem from the fact that our brains evolved to deal with problems our ancestors faced but that are no longer major factors in our lives,” says Kenrick. “Self-driving cars, homes with air conditioning and plush mattresses, and supermarkets stocked with fresh fruit, pre-made meals and some chocolate ice cream for dessert. The hunter-gatherers would probably be shocked to learn that people living amid all of these luxuries are often miserably depressed, anxious and lonely.”
Register if you would like to attend virtually on Zoom.
Stellar Alumni Reading Series | November 15-16, 2023
On November 15th, the event will take place after the MFA Talk. Time and Location TBD.
On November 16, the Stellar Alumni Reading will feature Aimee Baker & Leah Myers at 7:00 p.m. Location TBD.
MFA Student Reading Series | November 17th
Presented by ASU’s Creative Writing Program, the event brings notable alumni authors to the ASU community for readings and discussions about their writing and literary works.
The event will take place at the Ellis-Shackelford House, 1242 N. Central Ave. Phoenix, AZ 85004 from 5:30-7:00 p.m
Congratulations to SR Contributor Marcia Aldrich on her forthcoming essay collection Studio of the Voice, coming out in February 2024.
In her essay collection, Aldrich invites readers on a journey of personal exploration of women’s lives, discussing themes such as the complicated love of mothers for daughters and daughters for mothers, slinky blue dresses and sultry red lipstick, Hollywood beauties and the stories we tell about them, the losses and treasures of getting older, her lifelong swim, and much more. The essays speak in a voice that is uniquely hers: revealing, comic, elegiac, perceptive, and wise. Each essay takes on dazzling form; some as shape-shifters, some fragmented and experimental, others in the classic mode–each of them to be discovered, savored, and shared.
Award-winning Aldrich has received significant praise for her newest essay collection.
“Essaying is the best way to freeze and examine and better understand the shifting phantasmagoria of our experiences in families and societies, and Marcia Aldrich’s Studio of the Voice is a whole collection of essays par excellence. With an eager, associative mind, Aldrich gathers and explores intergenerational conflicts and conundrums, generating meditative momentum toward a new vision of how we should, and can, relate to one another.” —Patrick Madden, author of Disparates: Essays
“In Studio of the Voice, Marcia Aldrich creates a studio of the voice-driven essay. Endlessly curious, digressive, formally inventive, these essays shine a light on an essential quality of the essay: it’s not about the epiphany, but process, the questions one asks. Long one of our very best essayists, Aldrich is undaunted at the dark door of the multifaceted truths self-investigation can yield, though sometimes, surprisingly, it is only the door that is dark. One essay by Marcia Aldrich is a cause for celebration. This rangy new book should provoke a parade. A signal achievement, Studio of the Voice is an essential book of essays.” —David Lazar, author of Celeste Holm Syndrome and founding editor of Hotel Amerika
“No writer evokes the way Marcia Aldrich evokes. For every scene she writes, story she tells, detail she describes, she palpates the imagination. This book is physicality incarnate. I can feel her hands as they clutch a bedpost, soothe a cheek slap, twist the chain of a pair of smudged reading glasses hanging around the neck, warm with a flash of menopause, rub the arch of Marilyn Monroe’s foot, burnish beauty, weigh the heaviness of rejection, thrill at the joy of a backflip, and press through dark water with the joy of swimming. Studio of the Voice maintains that we are most human when we are most embodied. Aldrich makes us feel fully human as she gives voice to her own body and the bodies of others in this vibrantly corporeal book.” —Nicole Walker, author of Processed Meat: Essays on Food, Flesh, and Navigating Disaster
In addition to Studio of the Voice, Aldrich also recently wrote “My First Old Person” on Oldster. Additionally, “In My Head: Tinnitus” was nominated for Best of the Net 2023.
Marcia Aldrich is the author of Girl Rearing, Companion to an Untold Story, Haze Underway, Waveform, and Edge. Her writing has received awards such as the AWP Award in Creative Nonfiction. View more of Marcia’s work on her website, where you can also view how to order Studio of the Voice.
View Marcia Aldrich’s “The Year in Review”in issue 23 of Superstition Review.
Congratulations to SR contributor Bill Gaythwaite on his debut novel, Underburn.
Underburn explores the emotional vicissitudes of a family in flux while introducing endearing and irresistible characters. The story follows Iris Flynn, an acerbic self-sufficient seventy-three-year-old widow with a minor Hollywood career in her past and some streamlined kitchen cabinets inspired by Marie Kondo. Her composed and simplified existence is disrupted when her son Frank lands on her doorstep after his rental home is destroyed in a wildfire, the latest in a string of personal setbacks in his life. He arrives with Logan, his twenty-five-year-old “startlingly handsome” boyfriend, a featured extra on a teen soap opera with a loyal Instagram following. Soon, news from Iris’ estranged family in Maine forces everyone out of their comfort zone. Iris convinces Frank and Logan to travel with her to the potato farm which she made a quick getaway fifty years earlier, unleashing a funny and poignant family saga about secrets, forgiveness, and the fluctuations of the human heart.
The book has received significant praise:
“A quirky family story told with wit and wisdom, with shades of Anne Tyler or Elizabeth Strout.” —Kirkus Reviews
“A wonderfully engaging tale of both family and the underside of fame, Bill Gaythwaite’s debut novel Underburn mirrors the deceptive richness of the very generational ties it so charmingly explores: the long memories, conflicts big and small, surprisingly pivotal moments, and rediscovered bonds. One rarely encounters characters drawn with such candor, warmth, and humanity: you will gladly cheer and care for everyone as they seek to make peace with the past, while risking it all for a brand-new future.” —Natalie Jenner, author of the international bestseller The Jane Austen Society
“A poignant, funny, and timely family drama following the often-twisted paths we navigate toward understanding, reconciliation, and forgiveness.” —Christopher Castellani, author of Leading Men
“A witty, heartfelt novel with endearing, imperfect characters who are impossible to resist, a deft examination of a family in flux.” —Kristyn Kusek Lewis, contributing books editor, Real Simple
Learn more about Bill at his website. Preorder the hardcover of Underburn here.
Bill Gaythwaite is an established writer whose short fiction has appeared in Subtropics, Chicago Quarterly Review, Puerto Del Sol, december, Solstice, and many other publications. Gaythwaite’s work can also be found in the anthologies Mudville Diaries: A Book of Baseball Memories and Hashtag Queer: LGBTQ+ Creative Anthology, vols. 1 and 2. Gaythwaite has worked at Columbia University since 2006, where he was on the staff of the Committee on Asia and the Middle East. He is currently the Assistant Director of Special Populations at Columbia Law School. Gaythwaite grew up in Boston and raised his son in New York City and its suburbs. An avid swimmer, movie aficionado, and football fan, he lives in New Jersey with his partner, Tom. He has been writing stories since he was six years old. Underburn is Gaythwaite’s debut novel.
View “Dear Coach Carl” in issue 14 of Superstition Review or read Gaythwaite’s guest posts on the Superstition Review blog.
This semester, Superstition Review is highlighting the Editors producing Issue 32. On Dec. 1st, readers will be able to view content that these interns have worked to compile over the course of the semester.
SR: What are your plans for after graduation? NW: After graduation, I plan to pursue my passion for writing as well as a career in editing.
SR: What are some of your hobbies? NW:I love writing, reading, drawing and playing instruments (flute, piccolo, tenor sax, piano and more). I also love spending time with my family, and it’s so much fun going rock climbing, bouldering and paddleboarding with my siblings.
Stelios Mormoris has a forthcoming poetry collection, Perishable, which will soon be published from Tupelo Press.
Mormoris’ first book, The Oculus, received generous praise from established voices. Award-winning poet Donald Revell says of The Oculus, “Like memory, sunlight itself is both elusive and overwhelming. We live and we compose our lives in the interstices, in gaps both riven and secured by Vision. In The Oculus, Mormoris bodies forth a vivid myth of the interstices, bathed in sunlight, swathed in shadow … Here are poems of serenity in turbulence, dearly welcome now.” Other literary voices such as Kylie Minogue, Christine Kondoleon, Renée Fleming, Courtney Love Cobain, and Dan Beachy-Quick praised the book.
Poet and NEA fellow Emma Bolden observes, “As the title suggests, Stelios Mormoris’ The Oculus offers the reader a lush and vibrant view of the world. Mormoris’ view is expansive, revealing the gorgeous, rich vistas that surround us all in daily life. In these beautifully constructed poems, the humble objects of everyday life—‘tournedos of barley,’ ‘the fresh mint on a wet green melon’—become divine, while the divine is humbled and humanized. More than flight, what Icarus remembers is his ‘cat purring in a stand of reeds, my father sleeping with his hands on his face.’ Mormoris reminds us of how ‘necessary it is to lose yourself in tangles,’ in the beauty that surrounds us, no matter where we look.”
Stelios Mormoris is a widely published poet, author, and CEO of SCENT BEAUTY, Inc. A dual citizen of Greece and the United States, Mormoris was born in New York and spent most of his life living in Paris. He has held positions on the Boards of the French Cultural Center of Boston, New England, The Fragrance Foundation, SYMRISE, ACT-UP, and is a member of Kytherian Society of Greece.
Order a copy of The Oculushere. Keep up to date with Mormoris’ work and the upcoming publishing of Perishable here.
