NonFiction

SR Pod/Vod Series: Author Shawna Ervin

Superstition Review

Shawna Ervin headshotThis Tuesday, we are proud to feature a podcast of SR contributor Shawna Ervin reading her essay from Issue 17.

You can listen to the podcast on our iTunes channel, podcast #228.

You can follow along with Shawna’s essay in Superstition Review, Issue 17.

More about the author:

Shawna is a Pushcart nominee and has taught writing workshops for both adults and children. She is a member of Lighthouse Writers Workshop in Denver, where she recently graduated from the Book Project, a two-year intensive mentoring program. She is working on a memoir about her experience in foster care and adopting two kids from South Korea. Recent publications include poetry in Forge, and prose in Moon City Review, Willow Review, Existere, The Delmarva Review, The Diverse Arts Project, and Sliver of Stone.

SR Pod/Vod Series, Recording: Author Jonathan Louis Duckworth

Superstition Review

Jonathan Louis DuckworthThis Tuesday, we are proud to feature a podcast of SR contributor Jonathan Louis Duckworth reading his nonfiction essay from Issue 17.

You can listen to the podcast on our iTunes channel, podcast #226.

You can follow along with Jonathan’s nonfiction essay in Superstition Review, Issue 17.

More about the author:

Jonathan Louis Duckworth is an MFA student at Florida International University, where he serves as a reader and copy-editor for the Gulf Stream Magazine. His fiction, poetry, and non-fiction appears in or is forthcoming in New Ohio Review, Fourteen Hills, Literary Orphans, Cha, Off the Coast, Superstition, and elsewhere. He is a dual-citizen with American and Belgian citizenship. Apart from his love of the written word, he also loves to cook, and hopes to start a cooking blog one day.

SR Pod/Vod Series, Recording: Author Megan Harlan

Superstition Review

Megan HarlanThis Tuesday, we are proud to feature a podcast of s[r] contributor Megan Harlan reading her nonfiction essay from Issue 17.

You can listen to the podcast on our iTunes channel, podcast #220.

You can follow along with Megan’s nonfiction essay in Superstition Review, Issue 17.

More about the author:

Megan Harlan’s creative nonfiction essays have recently appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review and The Common. She is the author of Mapmaking (BkMk Press/New Letters), awarded the John Ciardi Prize for Poetry. Her poems, short stories, and articles have appeared or are forthcoming in Hotel Amerika, AGNI, TriQuarterly, The New York Times, Prairie Schooner, New Orleans Review, Meridian, and Arts & Letters, among other publications. She holds an MFA from New York University’s Creative Writing Program and lives and works as a writer and editor in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Event: AZ Humanities

Superstition Review

AUTHORS NIGHT WITH ROBERT ISENBERG EXPLORES TRAVEL WRITING, AND LIVING IN COSTA RICA

Kick off your summer with stories of travel inspiration June 7th in downtown Phoenix

Phoenix, AZ – The public is invited to join Arizona Humanities for a talk with local author Robert Isenberg. Isenberg will kick off your summer travels with stories and inspiration from his works, including his newest book, The Green Season about his life as a journalist in Costa Rica. The Authors Night takes place at the historic Ellis-Shackelford House in downtown Phoenix (1242 N. Central Avenue Phoenix, AZ 85004) on Tuesday, June 7th from 6:00-8:00pm. The program is free and light refreshments are included.

Isenberg describes his many years as a travel writer and journalist, scouring the globe for provocative stories. Hear about his rustic New England origins, life as a freelancer, and the evolving nature of long-form nonfiction. Considering a trip to Costa Rica? Ask him anything. This author night promises lively discussion about adventure in the age of the smartphone.

Seating is limited and guests are encouraged to RSVP at https://robertisenbergauthorsnight.eventbrite.com or call 602-257-0335.

Grean Season CoverAbout The Green Season: “A dynamic collection of essays and reportage, The Green Season illustrates daily life in Costa Rica, a tiny Central American nation dedicated to peace and teeming with tropical life. With his trademark humor and observation, Robert Isenberg describes the people, culture, and biodiversity that make Costa Rica so unique—from a centuries-old indigenous ceremony to a remote jungle crisscrossed by crocodile-filled canals. Isenberg explores the country head-on, fighting his way through San José traffic, mingling with venomous snakes, and even making a cameo in an epic soccer film at the height of World Cup fever. Richly detailed and tenderly written, The Green Season is one expat’s love letter to his adoptive homeland.”

Robert IsenbergAbout Robert Isenberg is a freelance writer, filmmaker, and stage performer. Most recently, he is the author of The Green Season, about his life as a journalist in Costa Rica. His work includes five books, 17 produced plays, dozens of short documentaries, and hundreds of articles for various magazines and newspapers. He created two one-man shows, The Archipelago (about his travels in postwar Bosnia) and One Million Elephants (about the Secret War in Laos). Isenberg is a past Whitford Fellow, Brackenridge Fellow, and recipient of two Golden Quill Awards, as well as a Pushcart Prize nominee. Visit him at robertisenberg.net.

Announcing Black Warrior Review’s Twelfth-Annual Contest for Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry!

Superstition Review
Announcing Black Warrior Review’s Twelfth-Annual Contest for Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry! Grand prize in each genre: $1,000 and publication. Runner-up prize in each genre: $100. Cost to enter: $20 (includes a one-year subscription). Judges: Hoa Nguyen (poetry), Sofia Samatar (fiction), and T Clutch Fleischmann (nonfiction). Deadline:September 1. bwr.ua.edu.
BWR 2016 contest ad

 

Superstition Review Issue 16 Launch

Patricia Murphy

I am thrilled to announce the launch of Issue 16 of Superstition Review. This marks eight years of incredible institutional support from Arizona State University; stellar work from over 250 undergraduate students who have completed all the tasks of running the magazine; and art, fiction, interviews, nonficiton, and poetry from nearly 900 international and national contributors. Issue 16

This semester I’m particularly proud of my students for several things.

Thank you to Student Editor-in-Chief David Klose, who helped manage the new #ArtLitPhx series, which is a catalog of  Arts and Literary Events in the Phoenix area, warehoused on our Blog and Facebook pages. Through #ArtLitPhx, the SR Team gathered together at many events, such as: Mark Doty reading his poetry at the Phoenix Art Museum, Matt Bell signing copies of Scrapper at the Poisoned Pen, ASU’s MFA GALA at the ASU Art Museum, volunteering at UMOM for a Read-to-Me Night.

Thanks also to Leah Newsom, one of our two wonderful Interview Editors, who conducted three of our Interviews for Issue 16 in person during the NonfictioNOW Conference in Flagstaff. You can read the transcripts of her interviews with Daisy Hernandez, Maggie Nelson, and Sarah Einstein in the issues, and the videos will be appearing on our blog starting today.

Thanks also to Cass Murphy who began a new series for our blog called “Authors Talk,” encouraging writers and artists to talk about their work for our audience.

I hope you enjoy the issue as much as I do.

SR at NonfictionNOW 2015 Flagstaff

Superstition Review

Nonfictionow Conference

28th – 31st October 2015, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ

NonfictioNOW is a conference where all kinds of nonfiction are celebrated. From long form journalism to the lyric essay, panelists, keynote speakers, readers, and student come together to discuss the craft of writing. Panel topics range from The Beasts Among Us to The Essay as Ruin, from Creative Nonfiction and Cognitive Science to Unusual Foods. For the first time ever, we are hosting a book fair for literary magazines and presses with a special interest in nonfiction, including Superstition Review.

The conference is in its fifth iteration. In 2005, it was first held in Iowa City. In 2012, RMIT hosted the conference in Melbourne, Australia. This has become an international conference devoted to every walk of nonfiction life. Keynote speakers this year include Roxane Gay, Michael Martone, Ander Monson, Maggie Nelson, Brian Doyle, and Tim Flannery with special guests Alison Deming and Joni Tevis.

Nicole Walker of Northern Arizona University is so thrilled to host the conference this year in Flagstaff, Arizona. Not only does she want to show off this great city with its surprisingly excellent restaurants and its mainstay coffee houses but also to showcase Flagstaff’s nearby access to nine National Parks. Since place informs so much about nonfiction writing, it’s important that the conference be hosted in a fascinating one. When writers converge in one, great place, great things happen.

First-Ever Tempe Community Writing Contest

Superstition Review

tempe writing contest

 

November may be National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), but for ASU students and Tempe residents who’d rather try their hand at shorter works, this is also the month to start preparing for a new spring writing challenge.

ASU’s College of Letters and Sciences and the writing programs in the Department of English in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences are partnering with Tempe Public Library to host the first-ever Tempe Community Writing Contest.

The writing contest, which invites submissions in the genres of poetry, short fiction and nonfiction, is open to all Tempe residents, Tempe Library cardholders and all ASU students.

Entries will be accepted between Jan. 15, 2015 and Feb. 15, 2015 at this online submission link, and individuals may submit one piece in each genre if they wish. Entries will be read anonymously within three judging categories: high school student, college student (undergraduate or graduate) and community adult. One winner from each entry category will be chosen for each genre.

“The contest was the idea of several of the Tempe Public Library staff,” explains Jill Brenner, adult services librarian. “We’ve recently been offering more programming for writers as a natural extension of library services. The response has been fantastic, so we wanted to take it one step further.

“We immediately thought of ASU as a partner, since several of our writing workshops are being presented by ASU faculty members,” says Brenner.

She began collaborating in August with Jeanne Hanrahan, faculty associate and liaison for ASU Academic Success Programs, and Duane Roen, College of Letters and Sciences interim dean, to organize the contest and enlist judges from the university’s creative writing community.

“I thank the many faculty and staff who have enthusiastically stepped up to support the contest, and hope faculty across ASU will encourage their students to submit their writing,” observes Roen, who enjoys leading Tempe Public Library workshops to inspire family-history writing. “The process of writing, like any of the arts, can be an outlet for expression and a lifelong journey that enriches our individual lives and our communities.”

The Tempe Community Writing Contest winners will be announced in the spring and celebrated at a reception at Tempe Public Library. Winning entries will also be published on the library’s website. Additional information and contest details and a PDF of the contest announcement can be found at the Tempe Public Library events webpage.

For more information visit: https://asunews.asu.edu/20141110-tempe-writing-contest

SR Pod/Vod Series: Writer Rebecca Meacham

Superstition Review

Each Tuesday we feature audio or video of an SR Contributor reading their work. Today we’re proud to feature a podcast by Rebecca Meacham.

Rebecca MeachamRebecca Meacham is the author the flash fiction collection Morbid Curiosities, which won the 2013 New Delta Review chapbook contest. Her story collection, Let’s Do, won University of North Texas Press’s 2004 Katherine Anne Porter Prize, and the book was a Barnes & Noble “Discover Great New Writers” selection. Meacham’s prose has appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, Indiana Review, Necessary Fiction, Paper Darts, Wigleaf, West Branch, The Collagist, Monkeybicycle, and other journals, and she’s currently a blogger for Ploughshares. She’s an Associate Professor of English at University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, where she directs the creative writing program.

You can listen to the podcast on our iTunes Channel.

You can read along with the work in Superstition Review.