PDR Blog

Remember when you were a teenager, and writing poetry was your secret shame? With the growth of several area performance poetry groups, writing and performing poetry has become – can we risk saying it? – cool. On March 21^st at UMass Boston, MassPoetry’s annual Student Day of Poetry will bring together young poets from across the Commonwealth for a day of writing, workshop, and performance.

One of the featured poets at this year’s SDOP is PDR contributor Sam Cha. Sam earned his MFA in poetry at UMass Boston where he was the 2011 and 2012 recipient of the Academy of American Poets Prize. He is a poet, essayist, fiction writer, and translator, as well as the poetry editor of the online journal Radius. Sam will be performing work on stage, and leading workshops for the student poets in attendance.

For more information, or to register a student group, visit http://masspoetry.org/student-day-of-poetry-2014/.

Need some excitement to get you through the winter? Got a crazy piece of fiction waiting for a home?

The Conium Review is a biannual, print-only literary journal that pushes the limits of fiction and poetry. Until March 15th, they are accepting entries in their 2014 Innovative Short Fiction Contest. This year’s judge is Manuel Gonzales, author of The Miniature Wife (Riverhead Books, 2013) and executive director of the Austin Bat Cave, a nonprofit creative writing center for children.

In the Innovative Short Fiction Contest rewards writers who are unafraid to take risks—to shock and impress, to do something new. The winning story will be published in The Conium Review’s next issue. The winning author will receive $500, five copies of the issue, and a copy of the judge’s latest book.

All manuscripts must be submitted by March 15, 2014. Submissions can include one or more stories up to a total of 7,500 words, uploaded as a single manuscript file containing no identifying information about the author. All submissions must include a $15 entry fee. All entrants will receive a free digital download of the issue. The winner will be announced by May 30th, 2014. o take risks – to shock and impress, to do something new. The winning story will be published in The Conium Review’s next issue. The winning author will receive $500, five copies of the issue, and a copy of the judge’s latest book.

Devra’s doorway looked the same as it had before Keira’s funeral – shadowy and silent, while a bulb like a floodlight fronted every other house on the block. I almost tripped ascending the porch steps, and I thought perhaps I would fix them for her.

Gemma Cooper-Novack’s story “Home Repair,” an excerpt from her novel-in-progress Go Home Faster (first published in our Fall 2013 issue) is now available to read on our website. This web feature also includes a recording of the author reading the work, which explores gender, race, and coming-of-age with humor, pathos, and grace. If you want to read more (and we think you will), another excerpt, “Mars,” was just published in Elsewhere, a literary magazine about place.

Gemma is a writer, writing coach, and educator living in Boston. Her work has appeared in Hanging Loose, Aubade, Euphony, the Saint Ann’s Review, Rufous City Review, Blast Furnace Review, and Lyre Lyre and is forthcoming in Amethyst Arsenic and Spry. Her plays have been produced in New York and Chicago, and her article on writing coaching and disability in higher education, co-written with Eileen Berger, appeared in the NASPA Knowledge Communities Publication. Gemma intends to travel to all seven continents before she turns forty.