Congratulations to Beth Ann Fennelly. Her collection of micro-memoirs, The Irish Goodbye, was recently published by W.W. Norton. Read Abby Manzella's interview with her about the book at CRAFT Literary.

Congratulations to Bruno George. His debut novel, The Coward Ulf Blank, will be released October 22 by Publication Studio and is available for pre-order. In this dystopian queer novel, an earthquake opens a portal to the land of the dead, which is quickly taken over by real estate profiteers.

Congratulations to Michael McKeown Bondhus. His poetry chapbook Portrait of the Autist as a Middle-Aged Man was published by Handtype Press in the Squares and Rebels series edited by Raymond Luczak.

Congratulations to Mandy Shunnarah. Her nonfiction book Midwest Shreds: Skating Through America's Heartland was recently released by Arcadia Publishing.

Congratulations to Tamara Kaye Sellman. Her autofiction novella Trust Fall is now available for pre-order from Gnashing Teeth Publishing. It is a feminist coming-of-age story about a girl in a right-wing family in the 1970s.

Congratulations to Lesléa Newman. Her new poetry chapbook, The Last Flame Last, will be released in November by Finishing Line Press. This collection "explores the events of October 7th and the surge of antisemitism that followed, and how these events affected and continue to affect the author, a second-generation Jewish poet living in the diaspora of the United States." The author will donate a portion of her royalties to help Beth Israel Congregation of Mississippi rebuild from a January 2026 arson attack. A pre-order discount is available till September 25.

Recent Publications

Winning Writers Editor Jendi Reiter will be the featured reader at A Writer's Night Out on Thursday, October 8, at 6:45 pm at the Longmeadow Adult Center, 211 Maple Road, Longmeadow, MA. Jendi and K.G. Keough-Huff will give a reading entitled "Poetry, Queer Identity and Changing the World" in the Voices for Resistance series on Saturday, October 10, at 2:00 pm at the Coolidge Museum in Forbes Library, 20 West Street, Northampton, MA. Both programs are sponsored by Straw Dog Writers Guild. 

Winning Writers contest judge Michal 'MJ' Jones' poem "The Trans Poem" was published at Queer Poem-A-Day on August 19.

Don Mitchell's Mauka: A Novel of Hawai'i (Saddle Road Press, 2026) was favorably reviewed in Booklife: "Mitchell's prose is patient, conversational, and unusually attentive to thinking itself...[He] captures essences of these lives and their home with care and beauty while exploring whether love at 70 is different from love at 20. Perfect for readers who appreciate love stories of experienced hearts laid bare." Foreword Reviews says that Mauka "produces trenchant insights throughout. It introduces and contends with kuleana—the Hawaiian notion of responsibility: for one’s past, life trajectory, and how one's actions or negligence affect other people." On Saturday, October 11, at 3:00 pm Eastern, Don will be interviewed online (Zoom link here) by Becky Cooper, author of the true-crime book We Keep the Dead Close, about his novel and the real-life events that inspired it.

J Brooke's poetry collection I Can Tell You the Version That Will Make You Take My Side (Driftwood Press, 2026) received a starred review from Kirkus Reviews, which called it "a quietly powerful reclamation of self-love wrapped in compelling imagery." The book was also included in Electric Literature's list of "15 Books We Read and Loved This Summer"; EL's publisher and executive director, Denne Michele Norris, called it "whip-smart, bursting with heart, and generous with its humor."

Patricia Lee Lewis, D M Gordon, Carole DeSanti, Carolyn Sanzone, and James McDonald will be featured in a Meet the Authors Literary Cocktail Reception on Wednesday, October 7, from 5:00-8:00 pm at the Garden House at Look Park, 300 North Main Street, Florence, MA. The event is sponsored by Diversified. RSVP at this link by September 30.

Rick Lupert's poetry collection Begin the Beget, an 84-poem cycle with a poem for every aliyah (a segment of the weekly Torah reading) in Genesis, was published in August by his imprint Ain't Got No Press.

Cheryl J. Fish's poetry collection Crater and Tower (Shanti Arts, 2025), which juxtaposes the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens with the 2001 World Trade Center attack, was favorably reviewed by Tohidur Rahaman in University of Bucharest Review: Literary and Cultural Studies. Dr. Rahaman writes: "Crater and Tower brings forth toxicities of disaster, crisis, shock, pain, and vulnerabilities to both the human and more-than-human world. Thus, while the regenerative properties of matter work through destruction, the trauma might also inspire. As the volcanic rocks cool down, rubble paves the way for vegetable growth, generating a lush landscape brimming with vibrancy...Fish's poetry book can suggest healing through studies of memories, recognition of wounds, and analysing accountability without being overtly engrossed in (un)ending games of blaming and shaming." In other news, Cheryl's story "Tiffany's Toenails" was published in brief and incorrect lit, a Substack-hosted literary journal.

This is a paying market.