Barn Owl Review

Barn Owl Review in Brief: Matt Hart's Light-Headed

2012-01-28T09:17:00.000-08:00

Friend of BOR and poetry Senior Hardcore Analyst Matt Hart has a book called Light-Headed. Coincidentally, I ordered this book and received it just days before the book made the list for Coldfront's Top 30 Poetry Books of 2011. The book is composed of mega-sonnets (with goodness between). The kind that can run ultra-marathons while memorizing all the most explosive words in the dictionary.

One of my favorite aspects of this book is how well Hart builds from the accumulation of recurring images. As he masterfully cycles back through images and phrases, each recurrence feels like it's new again, like I didn't just hear the word/phrase a few pages ago, but rather that I have known that phrase on my own for quite some time and am now seeing it new in a poem. It's that thing that poetry does, giving you something you think you know but never really knew, except that Hart makes that experience happen right here and now instead of it being a transference that comes from outside the context of the book. Delicious salad of (mis)understanding.

The Full Monty

2012-01-26T07:24:00.001-08:00

Ladies and gentlemen, we are now at the printer. Long live Barn Owl Review 5!

Barn Owl Review 5

2012-01-20T08:08:00.001-08:00

Waldrep and Gallaher in Akron, OH

2011-11-01T10:31:00.000-07:00

Contributor Update + AWP Reading Extravaganza

2011-10-26T08:19:00.001-07:00

Barn Owl Review #5 will make its grand debut at AWP Chicago. Here's a list-in-progress of the issue's contributors. We're so excited (and open until 11/1/11, in case you'd still like to send work our way).

Anne Barngrover * Erica Bernheim * Jason Bredle * Lisa Fay Coutley * Kristina Marie Darling * Sarah Freligh * John Gallaher * Kimberly Grey * Matthew Guenette * Matt Hart * Rebecca Hazelton * Stephanie Kartalopoulos * Steve Kistulentz * David Dodd Lee * Kyle McCord * Gary McDowell * John Minczeski * Daniela Olszewska * Danielle Pafunda * Julie Platt * Ben Purkert * Emily Rosko * Zach Savich * Steven D. Schroeder * Sarah Sloat * Elena Tomorowitz * Joshua Ware * * * and featuring a folio of sonnets by Sandra Simonds * * *

Barn Owl Review + Diode AWP Offsite Reading Lineup

2011-10-03T06:48:00.000-07:00

Dear Everyone, please add this amazing event to your AWP 2012 Chicago dance cards. Barn Owl Review and Diode are both celebrating fifth birthdays this year, and we'd love to have you join us for one heck of a party. Drinks and treats and the finest poetry imaginable.

Barn Owl Review & Diode Offsite Poetry Reading
Friday, March 2nd, 7:00 pm
Fine Arts Building, Curtiss Hall
410 South Michigan Avenue (mere steps from the conference hotel!)
Chicago, IL, USA

Readers:

Jason Bredle * Traci Brimhall * Peter Campion * John Gallaher * Brent Goodman * Matthew Guenette * Rebecca Hazelton * Sandy Longhorn * Erika Meitner * Aimee Nezhukumatathil * Alison Pelegrin * G.C. Waldrep

It's our first offsite ever, and we're super honored to be teaming up with Diode. Hope to see you there (albeit in a few months). We're so excited to celebrate these poets and their poems.

Long Overdue Updates

2011-09-26T12:58:00.000-07:00

-Barn Owl Review is in the process of finishing an assemblage of poets for AWP 2012. In the near future, be on the lookout for time, location, and a list of featured readers.

-We here at BOR are almost down to one month remaining in our open submissions period. That means you're running out of time to send us your poems to be considered for our 5th issue.

-Friend of BOR, The Big Big Mess Reading Series, was featured in the locally distributed (and FREE!) Buzzbin Magazine. Pick up a copy and stare into Nick Sturm's grinning mug.

A BIG BIG Sequel

2011-06-29T07:32:00.000-07:00

Friends of BOR: It's already time for the second installment of Akron's, nay, Northeast Ohio's newest BIG reading series! Come out this Friday from 7-9 pm to Annabell's Bar + Lounge for another round of great readers, fun prizes, drinks, and irreverent behavior.

Night Owl Review in Brief

2011-06-28T21:08:00.001-07:00

Last week I attended the Juniper Summer Writing Institute. I made some great friends, listened to Matthea Harvey talk about mermaids, Heather Christle talk to local water fowl, and nervously approached James Tate. Not only did I have an awesome week, but I came home to Ben Mirov's Vortexts, which just came out from Supermachine. Mirov is one of the exciting young voices in poetry right now and this new collection of poems proves it. His lines are so clean and they really move, let alone when he hits the high notes of performance in poems:

Lake is such a beautiful word.

I'd like to die with it inside me.

If you haven't picked up his work yet I highly suggest you do so now.

-Mike

The Saint Monica Library Project

2011-06-20T07:17:00.001-07:00

Saint Monica isn't the patron saint of libraries, but libraries were a saving grace to Mary Biddinger. That's why she is donating four copies of SAINT MONICA to libraries in need, along with a lifetime subscription to Barn Owl Review for each library. Ideally, several of these libraries would be in rural areas, like the setting of the book.

To nominate a library in need, send links + a brief rationale (300 words or fewer) to mb at marybiddinger dot com by 7/5/11. The four libraries will be selected by Mary in consultation with the Barn Owl Review editors, and announced here and elsewhere.

Note: while the book does contain some adult themes, it's not "blasphemous" in a way that would be unwelcome at libraries. Please share this call for nominations, and support your local library whenever you can. Thanks!

Give Us Weapons: A Call for Discussion

2011-06-13T13:44:00.000-07:00

Let's be honest, BOR editor Eric Morris and I really hate/do not hate each other. One time there was a donut on the sidewalk in downtown Akron and we broke into full sprints just to see who could pretend to want it more. This story may or may not be true, but hey, it could happen, I just feel it in my bones.

At The Big Big Mess reading last Friday, Eric and I were discussing what we were going to do with the BORBlog, when he suggested that we interview each other. After a few drinks and more talk (at least I remember it this way) we decided to do just that but to record it for all to see.

For this interview we are sending out a Call For Weapons. We are asking any and all who want to contribute to enlarging our discussion to send in their questions/topical material. We are looking to go beyond something egotistical, and get all of you involved in something a little bigger. So please, send us your questions about writing, poetry, Akron, Ohio, rain, tornados, hands--basically anything loosely (and I mean loosely) creative/destructive. We will select some your requests to include in our talk which will air at some point in the near future right here on BORBlog.

Send your "stuff" to us at: submit at barnowlreview.com (fill in the @ as needed, yo).

One last thing: PLEASE note that this IS NOT a call for poetry submissions. If that's your desire (which we hope it is) please check out our submissions page for details on how to submit entries for BOR 5.

-Mike

Here comes THE BIG BIG MESS reading series.

2011-06-06T08:23:00.000-07:00

This is the next big, messy thing to happen in Akron, Ohio. We hope to see you on Friday, 6/10 at 7:00 pm at Annabell's Bar + Lounge, 782 West Market Street, Akron, OH.

Dzanc Workshop Day comes to Akron

2011-03-25T12:53:00.000-07:00

Click to make the flyer larger, or check out full details here. Barn Owl Review editors Mary Biddinger and Eric Morris will be leading this workshop, all for the awesome cause of supporting Dzanc Books and its many programs for writers.

Submissions open 6/1/11

2011-03-23T10:14:00.000-07:00

BOR 4 goes to Washington.

2011-02-02T13:46:00.000-08:00

The new issue is here, and I reckon it's the prettiest one yet. And perhaps the awesomest, too. Won't you stop by our table at AWP and get you some? Or order one from our pretty website?

For the AWP-goers, we will be at table A11 with the University of Akron Press. Please come say hello!

Full exposure.

2011-01-11T05:35:00.000-08:00

Order yourself a copy here.

Barn Owl Review Pushcart Nominations, 2010

2010-12-03T06:42:00.000-08:00

Dear World,

We're super happy to announce the names (and poem names!) of the pieces we've nominated for the Pushcart this year. As always, it's so hard deliberating over this, since every poem in the magazine is our favorite. So this year we went semi-scientific and used reader input along with our own brainstorming.

Many congrats to those nominated, and fingers crossed for you.

Love,

Barn Owl Review

~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Barn Owl Review Pushcart Nominations, 2010

Elizabeth J. Colen, “From Love Field”

Jehanne Dubrow, “Wiretap”

Peter Joseph Gloviczki, “For My Cerebral Palsy at the London School of Economics”

Lee Gulyas, “Lightning Hits Preacher after Call to God”

Dora Malech, “The Station”

Erika Meitner, “In Praise of Heat”

New book review @ BOR online.

2010-12-02T12:05:00.000-08:00

We BOR editors love Erika Meitner, so we asked someone extra awesome to review her new book, Ideal Cities. You can check the review out here.

And now that mama has learned herself some Dreamweaver, we'll be having even more reviews up on the website very soon.

Oh, and Pushcart nominations released tomorrow, too.

Booya!

BOR 4 Contributor Update Update

2010-11-19T07:58:00.000-08:00

We received 667 submissions for BOR 4 this year, and we are still catching up with our reading. Here's a roster-in-progress of the poets you will see in the issue.

BOR 4 Contributor List as of 11/19/10.

Jenna Cardinale * Brittany Cavallaro * Elizabeth J. Colen * Juliet Cook * Jaydn DeWald * Lorraine Doran * Carolina Ebeid * John Gallaher * Peter Joseph Gloviczki * Brent Goodman * Matthew Guenette * Carol Guess * Charles Jensen * Stephanie Kartalopoulos * Steve Kistulentz * David Dodd Lee * Rebecca Loudon * Amit Majmudar * Adrian Matejka * Louise Mathias * Shane McCrae * Robert Miltner * John Minczeski * Carrie Oeding * Alison Pelegrin * Dan Pinkerton * Nate Pritts * Liz Robbins * C.J. Sage * Carmen Gimenez Smith * Catherine Wing * Cori A. Winrock

BOR will be sharing a table with The University of Akron Press at AWP, so please swing by A11 for your one-stop poetry hotspot.

We'll have BOR 4, of course, plus a variety of delicious books by Akron Series in Poetry writers, including the debut of Nothing Fatal by Sarah Perrier, Orphan, Indiana by David Dodd Lee, and 2010 Akron Poetry Prize winner Le Spleen de Poughkeepsie by Joshua Harmon.

We will also be selling (and handing out a free mini-galley for) The Monkey and the Wrench: Essays into Contemporary Poetics, co-edited by Mary Biddinger and John Gallaher. This book contains some rather riveting essays on issues in contemporary poetics, including an exploration of the litany in contemporary poetry, a discussion of poetic closure, and a symposium piece on hybrid aesthetics. Don't miss it!

BOR editors will be staffing the table along with the amazing Amy Freels, who designs the UA Press books and is responsible for some of the most breathtaking book covers in recent memory.

Can you tell that we're just a little bit excited?

BOR 4 Contributor Update

2010-09-03T06:00:00.000-07:00

We've been open for submissions since June 1st, and have received over 460 subs so far. Good golly! There's still time to submit (until November 1st), so don't delay if you're thinking about sending us work for Barn Owl Review 4.

We have a ton of stuff still under consideration, so do not panic if you haven't heard from us yet, but here's a list of authors you'll be seeing in the next issue, for sure.

BOR 4 Contributor List as of 9/3/10

Jenna Cardinale * Brittany Cavallaro * Juliet Cook * Jaydn DeWald * Lorraine Doran * Carolina Ebeid * Peter Joseph Gloviczki * Stephanie Kartalopoulos * Steve Kistulentz * David Dodd Lee * Louise Mathias * Shane McCrae * Carrie Oeding * Nate Pritts * Liz Robbins * Carmen Gimenez Smith

Check back and watch this list grow!

More Verse Daily + Meitnermania

2010-08-26T09:25:00.000-07:00

"Worse than the Bite" by Rebecca Givens Rolland is on Verse Daily today, the third BOR 3 poem to appear up there. Super awesome!

We are also affectionately cradling Ideal Cities by Erika Meitner, which is our new favorite book in the universe. If we were stranded on a desert island and could choose only one book to eat, it would be this one. So delicious.

Meitnermania is hitting Akron pretty hardcore, and she'll be visiting UA for a craft talk with a certain BOR editor in early October. Details forthcoming, and rumor has it they'll be discussing poetry taboos, and reading their own poems, too. You won't want to miss it.

Verse Daily (make that two...)

2010-08-23T08:16:00.000-07:00

Big kudos to Angela Vogel, whose poem from BOR#3 is up at Verse Daily today.

And hey, congrats to Rob Schlegel, whose poem from BOR#3 was on Verse Daily yesterday.

Rock on, team owl.

We're reading.

2010-06-01T09:20:00.000-07:00

Add to the pile.

How to submit to BOR

2010-05-31T12:36:00.000-07:00

Dear Poets,

Somehow the email address on our submissions page has gone missing (at least until tomorrow morning, when I have access to a computer with dreamweaver and can fix it). If you'd like to submit your work to BOR (after midnight tonight), send to: submit at barnowlreview dot com. (In)complete guidelines here.

Thank you, and apologies for the mystery.

Love,

The Editors.

Update: Everything is fixed. Carry on.

Poets and their owls.

2010-05-18T09:33:00.001-07:00

The amazing Noah Falck and his owl.

Poets and their owls.

2010-05-14T05:55:00.000-07:00

The lovely Amy Bracken Sparks, Poetry Editor for BOR. And, of course, her owl.

Poets and their owls.

2010-05-03T13:04:00.001-07:00

BOR 3 contributor J. Michael Wahlgren poses with his owl. Check out his poem "Underwater Confession" in our new issue.

Poets and their owls.

2010-05-02T11:24:00.000-07:00

The amazing Susan Grimm has two owls, and she's also joining our editorial staff. What could be better?

Poets and their owls.

2010-04-29T06:31:00.000-07:00

Here's John Minczeski posing with BOR #3 during his visit to Akron. We'd love to post more pictures of our contributors and their owls. Email a pic to Mary, and we will put it on the blog to share the joy of the new issue.

We start taking submissions for BOR #4 on June first. Hooray!

Thank you, Denver.

2010-04-15T09:49:00.001-07:00

Thanks so much to all who stopped by the BOR table at AWP. We sold out of the issues we brought, but have plenty more here at home. Contributor copies and orders will be going out within the next 1-2 weeks. I'm sure we'll share a shot of our envelope-stuffing extravaganza.

The BOR website is undergoing some changes (still in progress), with new photos by yours truly. We also hope to have some new book reviews up soon.

Submissions for BOR 4 begin June 1st. Duotrope has our new cover up, and everything. It's a happy day in owlville, and it wouldn't be the same without you. Lots of love from sunny Akron!

We're having a party. You should come.

2010-04-04T17:36:00.000-07:00

AWP Denver
Friday, April 9th
6:30PM-8:30PM
Mary Biddinger & Michael Dumanis host a Cleveland State University Poetry Center & University of Akron Press Poetry Reading

Location: Paris on the Platte Cafe & Bar
Cost: Free admission, Cash Bar, Appetizers gratis

Please join us for readings by Allison Benis White, John Bradley, Ashley Capps, Oliver de la Paz, Heather Derr-Smith, David Dodd Lee, Elyse Fenton, John Gallaher, Beckian Fritz Goldberg, Helena Mesa, Mathias Svalina, & Allison Titus. Come by table A22 to pick up your invitation and map.

Get you some.

2010-04-04T12:24:00.001-07:00

Barn Owl Review 3 is here, and it's even hotter than we ever imagined. You can order your own copy here. We take paypal, and good old fashioned checks.

Submissions begin June 1st for BOR 4, so check out the current issue and see what we like (though we are rather eclectic, all things considered).

If you're at AWP this week, stop by table K8 and say hello to Mary B. and Jay R. We can't wait to show off this gorgeous new issue.

The big reveal: BOR #3 cover

2010-03-15T19:50:00.001-07:00

Galley time.

2010-03-10T08:42:00.000-08:00

BOR#3 contributors, please check your inboxes. Galleys have been sent out (give me a holler if you didn't receive an email from me this morning). And yes, the design is way different this time. I think you're going to like it.

Fly, little owl.

2010-03-03T11:32:00.001-08:00

In case you can't read the fine print, that says Barn Owl Review.

Just finished final edits, and ready to send the manuscript to our designer. Contributors will be getting galleys very soon (via our gmail address, so don't be shocked).

On cloud nine right now.

BOR#3 Passes Crucial Test

2010-02-19T17:55:00.000-08:00

For Immediate Release: The master document of Barn Owl Review #3 has now officially been curled up with in the city of Akron, OH. Sources are reporting that the issue is now fully compiled, and when read by a reclining young lady, the results were most pleasing. Unconfirmed testimonies mention that there are even some unexpected, mind-blowing, and mildly amusing connections between poem titles.

Said one unnamed bystander: "This issue is kinda hot."

Pre-order a copy here and receive a free BOR #2, while supplies last. Make sure Paypal has your shipping address. We've been getting a lot of orders without addresses, in which case we just email you and nag for one.

You can also send a check for $14 payable to BARN OWL REVIEW, INC to the address here, along with your shipping details and email address so I can confirm your purchase.

Contributors: we'll be sending galleys your way soon. We have a gmail account now. Yes, we are that cool.

Saturday afternoon live from Owl Headquarters

2010-02-06T11:35:00.000-08:00

She begins putting it all together.

Note: that is snow, not a nuclear apocalypse, providing the blinding light through the window.

Introducing Barn Owl Review #3

2010-02-03T07:10:00.000-08:00

Dear Readers, here's the lineup of poets featured in BOR #3. It is such a pleasure to share this list, but also bittersweet, because we wish we could've accepted so many more poems. The issue is going to be amazing, and this time around it will be completely edited and assembled by MB and JR, and designed by the spectacular Amy Freels. Thanks so much to all who submitted. I'm hoping to document our process of assembling the issue, and will post some pictures on this blog as we roll up our sleeves and get to work.

BARN OWL REVIEW #3

Brent Armendinger * Michele Battiste * Brian Brodeur * Adam Clay * Elizabeth Colen * Weston Cutter * Oliver de la Paz * Heather Derr-Smith * Jehanne Dubrow * Justin Evans * Noah Falck * Rebecca Morgan Frank * Suzanne Frischkorn * Bernadette Geyer * Rebecca Givens Rolland * Peter Joseph Gloviczki * Susan Grimm * Matthew Guenette * Carol Guess * Lee Gulyas * Leslie Harrison * Matthew Hittinger * Kimberly Johnson * Stephanie Kartalopoulos * Anna Leahy * David Dodd Lee * Gary Leising * dawn lonsinger * John Loughlin * Dora Malech * Nathan McClain * Gary McDowell * Marc McKee * Erika Meitner * Michael Meyerhofer * John Minczeski * Keith Montesano * Trey Moody * Carrie Oeding * Christina Olson * Alison Pelegrin * Sarah Perrier * F. Daniel Rzicznek * Rob Schlegel * Sarah Sloat * Alison Stine * Angela Vogel * J. Michael Wahlgren * Ruth Williams * Michael Young

Pushcart Prize Nominations: Barn Owl Review #2

2009-11-06T07:07:00.000-08:00

Many congratulations to the following poems (and their poets) for being nominated by Barn Owl Review for the Pushcart Prize. The editors salute you, and will be keeping their fingers crossed for you.

“Love Poem for Lamoni, Iowa” by Deborah Ager

“Clouds” by Jason Bredle

“Who But I, O Reckless Death” by David Dodd Lee

“Hurricane Party” by Alison Pelegrin

“The Violin Thief…” by Lee Ann Roripaugh

“Human Error” by Mathias Svalina

Contributor Update: BOR #3 All Poetry Issue

2009-11-03T12:13:00.000-08:00

This year we received a total of 767 poetry submissions for the Barn Owl Review all poetry issue. We have now stopped accepting submissions, but will continue reading those we received by (or on) November 1st. Thanks to all who submitted, and thank you for your patience if you're waiting to hear back from us. We obviously experienced quite a deluge.

An update of BOR#3 contributors, as of 11/3/09:

Michele Battiste * Adam Clay * Weston Cutter * Oliver de la Paz * Heather Derr-Smith * Jehanne Dubrow * Justin Evans * Suzanne Frischkorn * Bernadette Geyer * Rebecca Rolland Givens * Peter Joseph Gloviczki * Susan Grimm * Matthew Guenette * Carol Guess * Lee Gulyas * Leslie Harrison * Matthew Hittinger * Stephanie Kartalopoulos * Anna Leahy * David Dodd Lee * Gary Leising * Dawn Lonsinger * John Loughlin * Dora Malech * Gary McDowell * Nathain McClain * Marc McKee * Erika Meitner * Michael Meyerhofer * John Minczeski * Keith Montesano * Trey Moody * Carrie Oeding * Christina Olson * Sarah Perrier * F. Daniel Rzicznek * Sarah Sloat * Alison Stine * Angela Vogel * J. Michael Wahlgren * Ruth Williams * Michael Young

Contributor Update: BOR #3 All Poetry Issue

2009-09-23T08:43:00.001-07:00

We're very excited to have accepted poems by the following folks, and we're still hip-deep in our reading for the third issue. Thanks for your patience, if you're waiting to hear back from us. We will be accepting submissions of poetry until 11:59 am on October 31st.

Barn Owl Review #3 Contributors as of 9/23/09

Michele Battiste * Adam Clay * Weston Cutter * Heather Derr-Smith * Suzanne Frischkorn * Bernadette Geyer * Rebecca Rolland Givens * Peter Joseph Gloviczki * Susan Grimm * Matthew Guenette * Carol Guess * Lee Gulyas * Leslie Harrison * Matthew Hittinger * Stephanie Kartalopoulos * Gary Leising * Dawn Lonsinger * John Loughlin * Dora Malech * Nathain McClain * Marc McKee * Michael Meyerhofer * Keith Montesano * Trey Moody * Christina Olson * F. Daniel Rzicznek * Sarah Sloat * Alison Stine * Angela Vogel * J. Michael Wahlgren * Ruth Williams * Michael Young

Barn Owl Review #3: All-Poetry Issue

2009-05-26T06:42:00.001-07:00

After much deliberation, we've decided to make Barn Owl Review #3 an all-poetry issue. Submissions begin Monday. Please check out our revised guidelines below.

BOR's open reading period will resume 1 June 2009.

Barn Owl Review 3 Call for Submissions:

Barn Owl Review welcomes submissions for its third volume, which will be an all-poetry issue. We are a handsomely designed print journal looking for work that takes risks while still connecting with readers. We aim to publish the highest quality poetry from both emerging and established writers. Barn Owl Review 3 will be released in April 2010 at the AWP bookfair in Denver. Though Barn Owl Review is a print journal, submissions are only taken electronically. Please follow our guidelines carefully.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
Submit your manuscript as an attachment formatted for MS Word or .rtf with ‘Poetry Submission: NAME’ as an email subject line (for example, 'Poetry Submission: Emily Dickinson'). Include contact information in the attachment. See full guidelines link for email address.

A cover letter with contact information is required, and should be pasted into your email message and addressed to the editors. Please list your attachment's name in the body of your cover letter. We are unable to open attachments that are not specified as such.

Simultaneous submissions are welcome with immediate notification of acceptance elsewhere. No previously published work, please. Barn Owl Review will provide pre-publication galleys of accepted work. Please note that we only accept one submission per author per genre during our reading period.

POETRY: Submit 3-5 poems (in a single attachment) to the attention of the poetry editors. Barn Owl Review favors no particular poetic style or school; however, we look for innovation and risk-taking in the poems that we publish. We are interested in poems with a strong narrative or lyric presence by poets who understand the energy of the line, poems that “make it new” in a way that’s truly new. Barn Owl Review prides itself on being eclectic and strives to publish new writers alongside established ones. Submissions of inspirational/greeting card verse are not for us, but otherwise we are quite open to subject and style. Dazzle us. Curl our toes. But most of all, surprise us.

Drumroll, please

2008-12-31T10:34:00.001-08:00

Barn Owl Review #2 will feature:

POETRY: Seth Abramson, Deborah Ager, Nin Andrews, Aimée Baker, Erica Bernheim, Jason Bredle, Robert Lee Brewer, Edward Byrne, Paula Cisewski, Elizabeth J. Colen, Rachel Dacus, J.P. Dancing Bear, Emari DiGiorgio, Steve Fellner, Brent Fisk, John Gallaher, Leslie Harrison, Anna Journey, Stephanie Kartalopoulos, Lori Lamothe, David Dodd Lee, Gary Leising, Adrian C. Louis, Greg McBride, Erika Meitner, Keith Montesano, Alison Pelegrin, Greg Rappleye, Lee Ann Roripaugh, Brent Royster, Sean Singer, Sarah Sloat, Amy Bracken Sparks, Jennifer Sullivan, Mathias Svalina, Laura Madeline Wiseman, Karen J. Weyant, Brian R. Young

CRITICAL PROSE: Kazim Ali, Megan Savage

FICTION: Christina Kapp, Sheba Karim, Edward Mullany, Tom Noyes

This year we received almost 1,500 submissions--far beyond what we'd ever imagined--and had an incredibly tough time making our decisions. Many thanks to everyone who sent us work. We only wish that we had the funds to make the issue twice its size.

Look for us at AWP: Table 724, Hilton Chicago, Southwest Hall, Lower Level

Our November 1st deadline approaches!

2008-10-16T07:34:00.000-07:00

We'll be accepting submissions until midnight on Halloween, so don't delay. In the meantime, here's an update:

Barn Owl Review #2 Contributors as of 10/16/08

Seth Abramson * Deborah Ager * Nin Andrews * Aimee Baker * Erica Bernheim * Jason Bredle * Robert Lee Brewer * Edward Byrne * Paula Cisewski * Rachel Dacus * J.P. Dancing Bear * Brent Fisk * John Gallaher * Leslie Harrison * Stephanie Kartalopoulos * Lori Lamothe * David Dodd Lee * Gary Leising * Adrian C. Louis * Greg McBride * Erika Meitner * Keith Montesano * Alison Pelegrin * Greg Rappleye * Lee Ann Roripaugh * Brent Royster * Sean Singer * Sarah Sloat * Amy Bracken Sparks * Jennifer Sullivan * Mathias Svalina * Laura Madeline Wiseman * Karen J. Weyant

It's time for an update.

2008-08-12T05:59:00.000-07:00

As of Tuesday, 8/12/08, we have now received 630 submissions since we opened on June 1st, and we are accepting submissions until November 1st (unless we have to close up early again this year). If you're still waiting to hear back from us, thanks so much for your patience!

An updated contributors' list for Barn Owl Review #2

POETRY:

Seth Abramson * Deborah Ager * Nin Andrews * Erica Bernheim * Robert Lee Brewer * Edward Byrne * J.P. Dancing Bear * Paula Cisewski * Rachel Dacus * Brent Fisk * Leslie Harrison * Stephanie Kartalopoulos * Lori Lamothe * David Dodd Lee * Gary Leising * Greg McBride * Erika Meitner * Keith Montesano * Alison Pelegrin * Greg Rappleye * Brent Royster * Sean Singer * Sarah Sloat * Amy Bracken Sparks * Jennifer Sullivan * Mathias Svalina *
Laura Madeline Wiseman * Karen J. Weyant

CRITICAL PROSE:

Kazim Ali

Breach by Anne Haines

2008-07-18T05:43:00.001-07:00

BOR #1 contributor Anne Haines has a new chapbook, Breach, coming out with Finishing Line Press. Order your copy today, and support this fabulous poet.

The chapbook is $12 (free shipping if ordered by July 25; add $2 shipping after that date). Advance orders will ship on or about August 22.

Praise for Breach:

In this astonishingly vital collection Anne Haines moves back and forth between land and sea, exploring every possible kind of breach and blessing. Her embrace encompasses accidents, birds, bodies, "everything that whispers," "every bone and every breath," and "every form of longing." In poems displaying a range of poetic gifts, Haines stimulates the brain and plunges deep into the heart. (Diane Lockward, author of Eve's Red Dress and What Feeds Us)

In Breach, Anne Haines continues the tradition of exploring edges, the liminal territory historically mapped by Bishop, Moore and other women. Hers is a verse of in-betweenness: in-between waking and sleeping, in-between clouds and earth, in-between animal and human, in-between the sea and land, and in-between here and there. In her poetry, water appears and reappears -- it buoys up the substance of the poem and becomes a complicated surface. Haines investigates the natural with a close, but not objective eye. Her empathy for the wilderness and its processes is evident in nearly every word. Her poetry is peaceful and frequently beautiful, but most of all, this poet creates something original. The way she negotiates the limits of language when describing nature makes the reader feel as if he/she is experiencing "what is wild" in an entirely new way. (Christine Hamm, author of The Transparent Dinner, The Salt Daughter, and others)

A Visible Sign by Jeff Newberry

2008-07-10T07:05:00.000-07:00

BOR #1 contributor (x2) Jeff Newberry has a new chapbook out with Finishing Line Press: A Visible Sign. Order your copy here!

A few blurbs about this exciting new title:

In this collection Jeffrey Newberry demonstrates again and again that the language of faith is evergreen. These poems are as fresh as Eden's first dew. ~Mark Jarman, Epistles

How adroitly Jeff Newberry works with the noticing of contradictions, of paradoxes that make final sense, balance, and harmony. In this way, we welcome his new voice in poetry, his ability to discern new sight in shadow, new vision in breath, how he distills "the spaces between breaths," finding illumination and revelation in that hidden and observed place. His is a "theology of want" in which we may find ourselves reflected. Here is where we find the fine, new voice of Jeff Newberry, a welcome refreshment that gives us again to the detailed image, the new, the alien and the familiar. ~Nicholas Samaras, Hands of the Saddlemaker

Contributor list as of 7/7/08

2008-07-07T07:48:00.000-07:00

Here's a sampling of the poets who will appear in Barn Owl Review #2! We've been open for submissions for a little over a month, and have received about 300 subs so far between the genres. Thus, we've only been able to make it through a fraction of the submissions, so do not fret if you are stil waiting to hear from us.

Poets who will be featured in Barn Owl Review #2:

Deborah Ager * Nin Andrews * Robert Lee Brewer * Edward Byrne * J.P. Dancing Bear * Leslie Harrison * Stephanie Kartalopoulos * Lori Lamothe * David Dodd Lee * Gary Leising * Erika Meitner * Keith Montesano * Alison Pelegrin * Greg Rappleye * Brent Royster * Sean Singer * Sarah Sloat * Jennifer Sullivan * Karen J. Weyant

Important news flash: Barn Owl Review #1 is now officially sold out! You can pre-order a copy of BOR #2 now, though. We will also begin posting interviews on our website soon. I'll keep you posted.

Critical prose call for submissions, and update by the numbers.

2008-06-13T07:51:00.000-07:00

Did you hear the news that Barn Owl Review is going to start publishing critical prose? We'll have 1-2 essays appear in the print issue, and others published on our website. All essays will be made available in pdf form, as well, so that we can share your thoughts with the widest possible readership. Here are the guidelines:

BARN OWL REVIEW--CRITICAL PROSE: Submit critical work (5,000 w. maximum) to the attention of Adam Deutsch, at submit at barnowlreview dot com. We're specifically interested in essays on craft and the writing life as well as explorations into the culture and larger contexts of creating art in the contemporary world. Though usually considered to be solely produced by academia, the ideas expressed in these pieces are not under the ownership of any educational institution. We encourage and welcome prose of the vocational academic as well as the blue-collar scholar and those guided by the production of art, regardless of the notions of tenure tracks, book sales, and/or the prevailing winds of fickle audiences.

We have now been open for 13 days, and have so far received 157 submissions. Wow! Thanks so much for your enthusiastic response, and if you're still thinking about sending work, don't delay. We hope to get our first round of acceptances out next week.

Contributor Interview # 3 - Bernadette Geyer

2008-06-02T11:44:00.000-07:00

Barn Owl Review contributor Bernadette Geyer discusses her work as a free-lance writer and poet, the merits of chapbooks, and forging a community of writers.

ST: First, the basics. When did you start writing and why?

BG: I remember writing Nancy Drew-type mysteries when I was about 11 or 12. I still have some of them. I don’t exactly remember why I started, but I remember it was great fun. I wrote on the playground at recess and my classmates would take each page as I finished it and pass it around. A neighbor even paid me 50 cents for letting her read them. As for poetry, I wrote some in high school for English classes and started loving poems then, even collecting favorite poems. One of the first poems I memorized was Resume, by Dorothy Parker. After graduating from college, I moved to Washington, DC, and focused on establishing a career in public relations for the first several years. In 1996, I participated in a free poetry workshop offered by a bookstore and realized how much I enjoyed writing poetry and pretty much gave myself over to it.

ST: Where do you find inspiration? What themes or images keep popping up in your work?

BG: The full-length manuscript I’ve been shopping around has a lot to do with things we inherit or that are passed down to us – traditions, memories, stories. Also, that inanimate objects have histories important for us to seek out and pay attention to. My current manuscript-in-progress is a little wilder in that a significant portion of it consists of persona poems, many in contemporary bastardizations of traditional forms. The manuscript is currently titled “Women I Could Have Been,” so I’m delving into some of the less “amenable” aspects of myself and submerging myself in personas of women I wouldn’t naturally gravitate toward. Sort of along the lines of “There but for the grace of God go I.” There’s a much more spiritually-reflective bent towards some of my newer work as well.

ST: Who are you reading? (Or what’s your favorite book of 2007/08?)

BG: I am so behind on my reading that I’ll probably get to the 2007 poetry releases somewhere about 2010. Right now I’m reading the new issue of The Writer’s Chronicle, W.S. Merwin’s The Carrier of Ladders, and Immortal, a novel by Traci L. Slatton. I’m reviewing the last for the quarterly book review e-zine I publish. I have about 200 books and lit journals on my “to-read” shelves. As the stay-at-home-mother of a two-year-old daughter I don’t get much time to read anymore so it takes a bit longer for me to finish a book.

ST: Who are your biggest influences (literary, mentors, other)?

BG: I am particularly inspired by the poetry of Wislawa Szymborska, Miron Bialoszewsky, Zbigniew Herbert, Gregory Orr, Sharon Olds, Margaret Atwood, Dana Gioia, and Louise Gluck. I’ve also been heavily influenced by the poetics of Thomas Lux, Charles Simic, James Tate and Marvin Bell, based on essays and interviews I’ve read by them. I don’t have an MFA, but I have participated in several workshops and master classes. I can’t say I have “mentors” as such, but Rick Barot and Dana Roeser were wonderful “teachers” in the Jenny McKean Moore Poetry Workshops I participated in; I definitely feel I learned a lot from them. I have a few close friends I exchange poems with and have found their friendships to be sort of co-mentorships.

ST: Which literary journals (besides Barn Owl Review, of course) do you enjoy most?

BG: Mid-American Review, 32 Poems, The Bitter Oleander, Smartish Pace. I’m sure I could name more.

ST: What advice would you give to writers who are just starting to send out their work?

BG: Don’t take rejection personally. Check out publications before you submit to them to make sure your work is right for them, or that you actually would want to be published by them. When I started out, some of my poems were published in journals that were actually very poor quality – both design-wise and content-wise.

Don’t be in a rush to submit your poems – let them gestate; take your time with the editing process. To me, “intent” is the key to a successful poem. Every word, every image and metaphor, every line break should have a specific purpose. A poet should be able to tell a reader why he/she broke a line in a certain place, what purpose any given image serves, and why one particular word was chosen over the thousands of words at our disposal. I believe every poem should have a reason for existing outside of mere description or as the result of an exercise.

ST: Would you tell us a little bit about your chapbook, What Remains, and your thoughts on publishing chapbooks vs. full length manuscripts?

BG: I think the chapbook doesn’t get the credit it deserves, and I’m not just saying that because my first publication was a chapbook. Many poets have published chapbooks following the publication of successful full-length collections. Louise Glück for one. I think chapbooks are a great medium for publishing a very strongly linked series of poems that might seem forced if expanded to suit a full-length manuscript.

When my chapbook came out, I had been involved in the DC-area poetry scene for about four years. I was starting to be invited to be a featured reader in various poetry series, based on poems I read at open mics and connections I was making. I had enough poems that tied together thematically to form a chapbook, but not enough to be a cohesive full-length manuscript. R.D. Baker, who published four of the poems in WordWrights magazine, invited me to submit a chapbook for his consideration, which he did accept and publish the following year.

There are a lot of chapbook publishers who really care about design. Some very gorgeous chapbooks I own include Barbara Tran’s In the Mynah Bird’s Own Words (Tupelo Press), Katharine Whitcomb’s Hosannas (Parallel Press), and Rebecca Cook’s The Terrible Baby (Dancing Girl Press). Even DIY chapbooks can be very creatively designed as well.

ST: You’re a free-lance writer and publisher of an e-zine. How do you balance these projects with your work as a poet?

BG: I don’t think of it as a balancing act, which implies that all things are of equal weight at any given moment. To me it’s a juggling act. I have a two-year-old daughter who gets about 90% of my attention when she’s awake. When she’s asleep, one project gets all my attention at a time. When I am working on poems, the house goes to hell. When I’m working on the e-zine, I don’t worry that I’m not writing poetry. When the weeds get too high in the garden, I get down on my hands and knees with canvas gloves and a trowel. I’ve learned to hone my attention to the task at hand, which has probably saved my sanity. I’m also lucky enough to have a mother-in-law who comes over four hours a week to play with her granddaughter, which allows me time to get out and work on my writing. There are things I’ve scaled back on – primarily volunteer activities – until my daughter starts school. I realized that I needed to focus on my family and my own creative activities at this point in my life. Everyone needs to take stock of where they are once-in-a-while. Reassigning priorities is nothing to be ashamed about.

ST: You mentioned that you didn't go the MFA route as a writer, but you seem to be very adept at making connections and forming/finding a community of writers to work with. Can you talk a bit more about that experience?

BG: I’ve been very fortunate that the Washington, DC, area has such a wealth and variety of poetry reading venues and literary organizations. I started regularly attending the IOTA Poetry Series in Arlington, Virginia, back in about 1997 and met Miles David Moore, the host of the reading series. It was really his friendship that led to my involvement with The Word Works, a literary non-profit organization that publishes wonderful poetry, organizes readings, and sponsors an annual poetry book competition, the Washington Prize. I met so many other wonderful writers through my volunteering with The Word Works. I served as editor-in-chief for a couple of years and had the pleasure of working closely with several local authors on their books, and with a couple of the Washington Prize winners. I had also spent a couple of years volunteering as an editor for a local literary magazine called WordWrights, which also led to friendships with many fine writers in the region. I guess if I had lived somewhere without a local poetry community, I would have had to try to forge one. But the internet has also become a great way for writers to seek communities. I belong to a couple of poetry lists, which helps me to meet other writers. Of course, there’s the blogosphere, in which I spend far too much time … but which also serves as a valuable community.

*

Bernadette Geyer in Barn Owl Review:
from “The Sword Swallower Finds a New Calling”

She filled herself with pearls
until her skin rivaled their milkiness.
Under the floodlights, she glowed,
audiences rapt as they never had been
when it was just another trick,
sword seeming to disappear
in the scabbard of her throat.

Ohiotica: “When I was an undergrad at Allegheny College in Meadville, PA., we used to drive to Ohio to purchase alcohol because the drinking age had just been raised from 19 to 21 and we were grandfathered in as legal.”

*

Still want to know more about Bernadette? Visit her website.

Contributor Interview # 2 - Gary McDowell

2008-04-06T19:34:00.001-07:00

In the second Barn Owl Review Contributor Interview, Gary McDowell talks about writing, life as a PhD student, and the inevitable wait that comes with finishing a manuscript.

ST: First, the basics. When did you start writing and why?

GM: I started writing in high school (well, aside from the illustrated stories I’d write for my family when I was in grade school). My stepfather died of brain cancer when I was sixteen. He had been a huge influence on my life and once he passed I started carrying a notebook with me everywhere I went, jotted down “thoughts” and “memories” that I would then later turn into horrific little poems about my “feelings”: truly atrocious stuff, seriously… so bad. I think I did it because I felt like I needed a place to record what I was going through. I didn’t respond well to psychologists and writing seemed a natural way to deal with my grief, with my pain.

I also used to go to the shore of the Fox River in Illinois while in high school and write about my surroundings, the broken tree stumps, the muddy water, the frogs, the vegetation, the dead catfish that littered the inlets. So I guess maybe nature, and my connection to it, got me interested in writing a more serious poetry, a poetry more mature than adolescent grievings. And then, at Northern Illinois University I took a fiction writing course and from there found Modern and Contemporary poetry through my professors recommendations. Then I kept writing because I couldn’t stop. I still can’t stop, and I hope I never do.

ST: Where do you find inspiration? What themes or images keep popping up in your work?

GM: I draw inspiration from music, film, literature, nature, etc. The things, people, and events that surround me inspire me. Music though is where it’s really at for me: I love Muddy Waters, Metallica, Neutral Milk Hotel, Son House, Ben Webster, CLOP, Jay-Z, Leadbelly, Queen, Rascal Flatts, Silver Jews, Talib Kweli, Tom Waits, Wilco, Miles Davis, and on and on. I love the way different genres of music mix and filter through me, the images I get by going from a Billy Joel song to a Beatles song to a Blitzen Trapper song to an LL Cool J song.

Reading (anything: newspapers, historical nonfiction, poetry, fiction, etc) inspires me, too. It’s nearly impossible for me to read and not want to write afterward. Is this normal? Anyway.

As for images and themes? Fathers, sex, fish/fishing, rivers, water, childhood, birds (I love birds!!). There are so many common themes and images in my work… it’s sort of depressing, like maybe I need to invest in some new material!

ST: Who are you reading? (Or what’s your favorite book of 2007/08?)

GM: My favorite book of 07-08 was F. Daniel Rzicznek’s Neck of the World (Utah State UP 2008), winner of last year’s May Swenson Prize. Runner’s up would include: Peter Gizzi’s The Outernationale (Wesleyan 2007), Peter Conners’ Of Whiskey and Winter (White Pine Press 2007), Linda Gregerson’s Magnetic North (Houghton Mifflin 2007), Alex Lemon’s Hallelujah Blackout (Milkweed 2008), Joshua Kryah’s Glean (Nightboat Books 2007), and others. Don’t even get me started on the fiction and nonfiction… so much good stuff out there this year!

I might as well mention a few others, books that I’ve read recently and loved but that didn’t come out this year: Charles Wright’s Country Music, Virginia Woolf’s The Waves, all 3 of Peter Gizzi’s previous books, Seamus Heaney’s The Government of the Tongue, Louise Gluck’s Proofs & Theories, and Charles Wright’s Halflife and Quarter Notes. So many more I could name though!

ST: Who are your biggest influences (literary, mentors, other)?

GM: I’ve been extremely lucky in that I’ve studied with very giving, very inspirational poets at all three of the higher-educational schools I’ve attended: Amy Newman at Northern Illinois University, Larissa Szporluk at Bowling Green State University, and William Olsen and Nancy Eimers at Western Michigan University. They have all been mentors to me, provided me with insight, encouragement, and criticism… though I must say that Amy’s mentorship has been the longest lasting and meant the most to me. She’s the best—a friend, a poet, a teacher. She introduced me to poetry when I was lost and confused about my professional and scholarly ambitions as a scrappy 19-year old; she helped me understand that being a poet had a lot more to do with heart and determination and grit than with berets and coffee and black t-shirts; and to this day she continues to encourage, support, and influence me both with her literary wisdom and her unfaltering friendship.

As for literary influences… well, there’s so many. Here’s a few (though I know I’ll forget someone really important): Faulkner, Rilke, Charles Wright, Marilynne Robinson (Housekeeping), Tom Andrews, C.D. Wright (Deepstep Come Shining), James Wright, Berryman, Dostoevsky, Joyce (A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man), Gary Young, Rosmarie Waldrop, Russell Edson, Ted Hughes (mostly just Crow), Robert Hass, Yeats, Hemingway Larry Levis, Raymond Carver, Kevin Canty, and most recently, Peter Gizzi. I also return often to Rachel Carson’s The Sea Around Us and all of Oliver Sacks’ books. I find that really great nonfiction influences me more than poetry most days.

And music (see question #2 above). Jackson Pollock’s art. So many influences, so little time!

ST: Which literary journals (besides Barn Owl Review, of course) do you enjoy most?

GM: I like to read any and every lit journal I can get my hands on. I love seeing what my peers are up to as well as reading writers I’ve never read before. Isn’t that feeling just tremendous, when you read a poem by someone you’ve never heard of and then immediately flip to the contributor’s notes to see where else they’ve published so you can track their work down? Oh man, I love that! Anyway, there are a few mags that I either subscribe to or at least try to read every issue of: Colorado Review, Laurel Review, RHINO, DIAGRAM, Tin House, jubilat, Gulf Coast, American Poetry Review, Mid-American Review, Sentence, Poetry, Black Warrior Review. There are so many more great literary magazines than space allows here.

ST: What advice would you give to writers who are just starting to send out their work?

GM: Read. Read widely and voraciously. Also, go listen to poets read (or go to PennSound online or some other audio archive and listen and listen and listen). If you live anywhere near a city with a good reading scene, go check out some of the ‘stars’ that come through town. I saw Robert Hass read when I was first getting started in poetry and it changed my life. Also, don’t silence yourself; be honest, be forthright, be fearless in your writing and your reading. Just go for it. Write like hell. Read like hell.

ST: You’re currently looking for a publisher for your first manuscript. How did you get the project ready for the mail, and how are you handling the wait?

GM: As for getting my manuscript ready for the mail… well, I’m still working on the damn thing. I find that it’s an endless process. I’m always tinkering, I’m always refining and tweaking. But eventually I just stop and put postage on it, write a check, and mail it off. I have to. If I don’t, no one will ever read it. In all seriousness though, this is where my mentors (Newman, Szporluk, Olsen, Eimers) have been so important. I’ve shown them different drafts, different incarnations of the manuscript, and their input has been crucial to the book’s development. It’s a tough beast, the first book manuscript. I don’t know much about it, I guess. I’m not sure I ever will. I just keep my head down and write and revise the best I know how. As for the waiting, it’s tough. I wish the turnaround were quicker, but I have been on the other side of these manuscript contests as a reader and screener and I completely understand why the process can take months. And to be honest, I’d rather wait.... hopefully that means my manuscript is getting a good read, some solid consideration. But I’ll not lie, waiting sucks!

ST: You’re working on your Ph.D. at Western Michigan University. Why did you decide to take the academic route?

GM: Yeah, the Ph.D.isease. Seriously though, I went to Northern Illinois University more than 10 years ago in hopes of becoming a Computer Scientist, a video-game programmer (I know, dorksville… like poetry’s any better!?). I took one Calculus class and as soon as the semester was over I ran, not walked, but ran to the advisor’s office and switched my major to English. After a semester in the English Department I realized I wanted to teach. Teaching high school, however, didn’t appeal to me. I loved what Amy Newman and my other college professors meant to me and decided that that’s what I wanted to do with my life: teach upper-level literature and creative writing. It’s great that the profession allows writers time to create and teach, even though the jobs are nearly impossible to secure. I love the atmosphere of the classroom, of the university, of young minds working together in the humanities, using their minds and hearts to create, build, and synthesize the literature of the past, present, and future. I can’t imagine ever wanting to do anything else.

*

Gary McDowell in Barn Owl Review:
from “On the Death of Houdini”

Even on his deathbed,
surrounded by friends,
his appendix mangled and bleeding,
stupefying the doctors,
his forehead, at the hairline,
blistering from fever,
he wouldn’t fall down.

Ohiotica: “I spent the last two years in Ohio earning my MFA at Bowling Green State University; it’s a two-year stint I wouldn’t trade for anything. Did I mention I also got married to my beautiful wife while living in Ohio?”

Still want to know about Gary? Check out his blog or send him an email at mcdowgl (at) gmail (dot) com.

The Man Suit by Zachary Schomburg

2008-03-14T12:39:00.000-07:00

The Man Suit
Zachary Schomburg
Black Ocean
2007
$12.95

Zachary Schomburg’s debut collection of poetry, The Man Suit, features a mysterious coffin floating through the night sky. The cover captures the essence of the poetry. In the collection, whales are able to talk, monsters have human qualities, and a lung and haircut have a relationship. Schomburg’s mixture of everyday meditations and bizarre occurrences will grip readers' attention. In “Policy for Whales,” Schomburg presents readers with the bizarre idea that,“There was a whale singing a sincere and flawless rendition of The Thrill is Gone in a nightclub.” As the poem demonstrates, Schomburg exercises admirable control over his juxtapositions, and thus leaves the reader amused and satisfied.

For a debut collection of poetry, it is a longer book at 105 pages, but Schomburg has divided it into several sections. The sections are little chapbooks that intensify the strangeness of the world he has created. The first of these chapbooks tells the story of two phones. In one poem the speaker says, “There is a man around here somewhere, in the woods behind my house, who has a white telephone for a head. He has loud buzzing chainsaws for arms.” Audiences will find enjoyment in the uncanny, and be reminded of the weird things they might have imagined as children, when the world was still fresh and unexplored.

“What Everyone Started Wearing” is one of the strangest poems of the collection. It begins, “Everyone started wearing small log cabins on their heads. They opened the windows so they could see each other, and they opened the front doors so they could speak to each other.” The idea seems unreal to a reader, yet it is delivered in such a matter-of-fact manner that we may want to acquire log cabins for our own heads, becoming the newest victims of contagious fashion.

Schomburg shifts from prose poems to free verse through the collection. The first poem, “The Monster Hour,” is a prose poem, while other poems like “Letter to the Late Baron” demand line breaks in order to dramatize the narrative of the story. The shifting of styles allows the reader to simply absorb the stories and laugh at the bizarre humor. This shift in format is quite effective, as the poems never become daunting to the reader, despite the risks taken throughout.

The other chapbook sections also tell stories of the strange, with titles like “Abraham Lincoln’s Death Scene” and “[Opera Singer].” The strange becomes expected and the normal unexpected with The Man Suit, to the extent that we may begin viewing our surroundings differently, perhaps with a more suspicious eye. The phone ringing on our desk may not be a phone after all.

--Frank DePoole, Assistant Editor

Contributor Interview # 1 - Jeff Newberry

2008-03-09T15:34:00.001-07:00

Welcome to Barn Owl Review's first contributor interview! Jeff Newberry, who has two poems in BOR #1, has a few things to say about writing, reading, and the life of a poet.

ST: First, the basics. When did you start writing and why?

JN: I began writing stories at a young age—ten or eleven, if I remember correctly. One summer, a hurricane hit my home town (Port St. Joe, Florida), and we lost power for about two weeks. My mother, father, brother and I subsisted on canned water and Red Cross sandwiches. While my father and mother listened to the radio for any news, I began writing a story in a red composition book. It was silly, a story about a boy and a sea captain who go on a cruise around the Florida Keys, cut through the Panama Canal, and wind up somewhere in Alaska. My mother liked it, however, and showed it to the local high school’s honors English teacher. She liked it, too. Later, when I took her class as a sophomore in high school, she let me write short stories in lieu of essay assignments.

I didn’t write poetry seriously until graduate school. I was an English major throughout my undergraduate career, a rather directionless student with the vague idea of being a novelist. I’d taken a poetry workshop or two as an undergrad, but most of what I wrote was proto-Beatnik nonsense, stuff inspired by my (mis)reading of Howl and Kerouac.

My first semester as a graduate student, I began reading lots of contemporary poetry, thanks to a workshop I was in that term. The first poet that really stuck with me then was Philip Levine. I liked some poetry—scattered anthology pieces by Eliot, Yeats, and Stevens—but Levine was the first living poet that I admired. It sounds silly now, but as I read his lyrical narratives of doomed, angry young men, trapped in nowhere jobs, I thought, “This is poetry? You can write about things like this?” From there, I began to write my own poetry.

ST: Where do you find inspiration? What themes or images keep popping up in your work?

JN: I find inspiration in many places: the sound of a car, the way the sky seems a strange color of blue on certain mornings. I’ve drawn also lots of inspiration from my faith. As a professing Christian, I realize the dangers of proselytizing in my work: I try my hardest never to provide answers when I write about my faith. Answers are easy; questions are hard. Questions are urgent. Questions inspire me.

I find a lot of inspiration in music, too. I listen widely. I love jazz--Miles Davis and Bill Evans (particularly Scott Lafaro’s bass playing on Sunday at the Village Vanguard); Blues players like Leadbelly, Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Keb’ Mo’, scads of others; rock groups as diverse Nirvana and Wilco; soul singers like Sam Cooke and Donny Hathaway; country artists like Allison Kraus and Johnny Cash; even hip-hop artists like MF DOOM, Paul Barman, and Ugly Duckling.

As far as themes are concerned, I think I write about the same things again and again: the past, fathers and sons, dead-end jobs in dead-end towns, the impossibility of knowing, the paradoxes of faith. In an odd way, I think that all of these things are somehow interrelated, though I’d be hard pressed to tell you exactly how.

ST: What are you reading?

JN: Right now, I’m rereading Al Maginnes’s Film History, a fine book of poems. I love how Maginnes’s poetry straddles the line between lyric and narrative, the way his words dwell in the shadows of the stories he tells. I’ve also been reading Jake Adam York’s new book, A Murmuration of Starlings. Jake’s one of my favorite poets writing today. He does this whole “documentary lyric” thing that I find really cool. My major professor at the University of Georgia is Ed Pavlic, and I’ve been reading his new book, Winners Have Yet to Be Announced: A Song for Donny Hathaway. It’s a fine book, too, an extended mediation on music, love, and life. That sounds abstract, but I think it’s true.

ST: Who are your biggest influences (literary, mentors, other)?

JN: I think I’m influenced in a wide variety of ways by a wide variety of things. I mentioned Scott Lafaro earlier; his bass playing is a major influence on my sense of rhythm. Buddy Guy’s guitar playing influences my work, too: he works often in these florid clusters of sound, something I’ve tried to mimic in writing.

Poetically, the poets I turn to time and again are Walt Whitman, Hart Crane, T.S. Eliot, Yusef Komunyakaa, and a few others. A poet whose work is very different from mine but still inspires me is Theodore Enslin. I love the way Enslin composes with words.

However, I gain as much inspiration from prose writers, too: Cormac McCarthy, William Faulkner, Larry Brown, Harry Crews, Judson Mitcham, Annie Dillard, a few others.

ST: You have a chapbook forthcoming from Finishing Line Press. Would you tell us a bit about the series and working with the press?

JN: I submitted to Finishing Line’s Open Chapbook contest this past year. I’d been submitting my chapbook, A Visible Sign, to various publishers and contest for about two years.

The publisher has been wonderful. Leah and Kevin Maines keep me very informed about the book. They answer email (sometimes immediately). As the book has not been published just yet, I can’t say too much about the press. I can say that my friend John Guzlowski published his chapbook with Finishing Line and speaks very highly of the press. Finishing Line designs a beautiful book and maintains an online bookstore. Those are two of the main reasons I submitted to the press.

ST: What’s your submission strategy?

JN: I like to send to places that publish work I like: Copper Nickel, The Eleventh Muse, The Cortland Review, lots of others. If I like the work that the journal publishes, then I’ll usually submit, if I think what I have will fit with the journal’s aesthetic.

My main strategy? Read. Read. Read. And then, just to be certain, read a bit more. Know thy market, poet.

ST: Which literary journals (besides Barn Owl Review, of course) do you enjoy most?

JN: I love The Cortland Review. Their audio features draw me every time. I also really enjoy Copper Nickel. I read Image on a regular basis. I also like a newer journal called Relief: A Quarterly Christian Expression. The Pebble Lake Review never disappoints. I also really like DIAGRAM, storySouth, and The Hobble Creek Review.

ST: What advice would you give to writers who are just starting to send out their work?

JN: Read. Read. Read. Read. Read. Read. Read.

And then read more.

Seriously, read literary journals. Since so many are available online these days, writers don’t have any excuse not to read contemporary work (indeed, why wouldn’t you want to read?). Submit to journals that print poets you like. Submit to journals that print poems you like. I’d stay away from blindly submitting. When I first started writing seriously, about 8 or 10 years ago now, I used to submit blindly. I’d read the classifieds in Poets & Writers and carpet bomb ten or fifteen journals with packets of five poems, all simultaneous subs.

However, I got my first real hit in storySouth, a journal I submitted to because I loved. I’d been in a couple of smaller journals before storySouth. But after that, I started reading the contributor’s notes of writers whose work I enjoyed in the journals I read. Then, I began reading those journals, voraciously.

ST: How do you support your poetry habit?

JN: I am working on my doctorate at the University of Georgia. I’m in the Creative Writing Program, so my dissertation will be a full-length collection of poetry along with a long apologia on craft. I finished my coursework in Spring 2007, so now, ostensibly, I’m studying for comprehensive examinations. Like all doctoral students at UGA, I’m studying three major areas: Creative Writing (Poetry and Craft), American Modernism, and 20th Century British Literature. However, I am also a full-time Assistant Professor of English, so my time is very hard to manage. Couple these things with taking care of a ten-month old, and I’m sure you can understand how busy I am.

I teach at a small college in south Georgia, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College (ABAC), and I applied for academic leave in order to do my coursework. The administration assented, and I applied for an FDIG (Faculty Development in Georgia) Grant, which I received. That money helped pay for my coursework. I’m very grateful to teach in the University System of Georgia. Additionally, I’m very happy to be at ABAC. My colleagues are very supportive of my writing. They usually go out of their way to come to any readings I’m giving.

ST: So you’re a new dad. Has being a parent changed your writing?

JN: Having Benjamin has been (warning, cliché coming) life-changing. Looking at him, I can’t even express how I feel to myself, much less in poetry. If having Ben has changed my writing, I’ve not noticed those changes yet. I suspect that the changes are small: tiny shifts in perception and values. I’ve not written much about him, yet. I write so much about my own father that I’m not even sure how to address my son in a poem: in much of the poetry I have written, I am the son.

ST: I noticed sound (music, voice, rhythm, etc.) plays a large part of both “Transposition” and “Fishing the Bridge.” How does your work as a poet interact with your interest in music?

JN: I’ve played guitar for as long as I can remember. I don’t remember not playing. Over the past few years, I’ve taught myself bass and mandolin. Music is very much a part of who I am. If I’m not thinking about a poem, I’m generally thinking about a piece of music.

My mentor at UGA, Ed Pavlic, urged me to push the music in my lines. He taught me about rhythm; he taught me how to compose with my words. I think of the rhythm of a poem the same way I think about the rhythm of a piece of music: it has to feel right. The words and the rhythm have to form an organic whole. One has to blend into the other like a vocal harmony.

*

Jeff Newberry in Barn Owl Review:

from "Fishing the Bridge"

On the abandoned bridge, my brother & I

Cast snatch hooks, glowing lures fish strike

On instinct. We talk about this late heat,

Sip Miller Lite, keep our words weightless:

The mill's shut-down, next season's

Defensive line. We don't mention

A mildew-streaked white house. A father

dead ten years.

Ohiotica: Jeff feels that although "Cleveland Rocks" made a fine theme song for "The Drew Carey Show," he prefers the more subdued "Moon over Parma" opening.

Still want to know more about Jeff? He blogs, and you can see more of his work here and here.

***

Look for our next interview, with poet Gary McDowell, at the end of the month.

Only the Senses Sleep by Wayne Miller

2008-02-12T08:27:00.000-08:00

New Issues, 2006
$14.00

Wayne Miller’s first book, Only the Senses Sleep, is a city shrouded in ice like a “basket of broken glass,” an upstairs apartment with blank walls, and a desk drawer filled with living watches and black and white photographs. Drawing on international poets, photographers and artists, Senses is an intellectual study in contemporary society. But these poems are not over-thought or over-educated; each detached observation has an underlying emotional resonance, sometimes obvious, sometimes only hinted. This is one of Miller’s talents: to balance seemingly contradictory elements. In this collection, Miller composes an urban landscape that somehow feels sparse and minimalistic even as he piles layer after layer of detail in his reader’s lap.

While many first books appear to be a collection of disparate poems gathered and held together by little more than a cover, Miller’s work is a cohesive whole. His use of the colors and images of winter; snow, ice, and muted blues (like “breastmilk blue” in “Sunrise Study”) and grays (smoke, ashes, fog, the “dull gray crisscross / of moonlit tracks” in “Night Stop”) throughout Senses help each poem, even those with dissimilar subject matter, to build upon those around it. There is a chill in almost every poem, a billowing wind that makes readers want to grab the nearest sweater. And while the world of Senses is often frigid, as seen in poems like “November Wind” and “Ice Storm,” the speaker is not. The iced-over landscape allows for subtle access to emotions, as seen in here: "buried stone walls he must remember / into being. // Yesterday’s cold East River / is extant and unbreathable— // dark air in a forever /snow-sealed barn." ("Vermont")

Thankfully, Miller doesn’t leave his readers out in the cold. He invites them in, wraps them in a faded afghan, and leaves the room so they can snoop through his dresser drawers. Senses is a catalog of small things, the clutter that gathers in a room: sand, wax, blank paper, pay stubs, books that “open and close like valves.” What makes these groups of items more than mere lists is the associative quality that Miller lends them. The willingness to play with syntax and the ability to gather unlike objects in a logical manner allows the random groupings to work on multiple levels, as seen in “Elegy”:

Your phone number on the fridge

—your voice—or the baby teeth
boxed in your mother’s closet.

Or the stack of letters you left

beside your mattress, half-
covered by your blanket.

Or your blanket.

If there’s anything to critique in Senses (besides the frost-bite), it would be Miller’s tendency to leave things open-ended. Some readers may be surprised to turn a page and find a new poem instead of a final stanza, and in many of those final stanzas, Miller chooses to end with a dash instead of a period. It’s clear that his intention is to create suspense or to bring readers back to the poem for a second or third reading, but there is a sense of frustration that no conclusions are provided. Still, Miller seems to have crafted these endings as carefully as any image throughout the book and to be aware of exactly what it evokes in the reader: “I can’t / understand what I’ve learned, // except figuratively. // And why that isn’t enough.” (Elegy)

--Sara Tracey

An Owl of One's Own

2008-02-06T08:05:00.000-08:00

Barn Owl Review #1 is now on sale!

$12 includes domestic shipping. Contributors will receive two free copies, to be sent out this week, plus $5 for additional copies (email me for this rate). Hooray!

Another glorious new arrival

2008-01-25T07:37:00.000-08:00

Anti- is alive! Look at that lineup! I'm especially fond of the poem by Jay Robinson, but perhaps I'm a little biased.

Many congrats, Steve!

The Scoop

2008-01-22T17:44:00.000-08:00

Barn Owl Review #1 is here! The journal will debut at the AWP bookfair next week, and after that we will open up paypal sales (link will be posted as soon as we're ready to go). Don't worry--we are going to stockpile a bunch so that we don't sell out at AWP, and we're already prepared to do a second printing, if needed. Thanks to everyone who has asked about copies.

It's always so thrilling to see a brand new journal. I've worked for several other magazines--RHINO, ACM, Mid-American Review-- but I've never been so intimately involved in a project. I am so happy to say that the quality of the journal (and the writing inside it) far surpassed my expectations. Thank you to all of the editors, to the contributors, and to our readers to be.

Check out this bad boy...

2008-01-03T17:36:00.001-08:00

It's a pretty good bet when BOR rolls up at AWP in this ride, heads will turn.

To finance the BORmobile and the fuel it requires, issue 1 will sell for $2,500. Each.

(This is a joke. This is only a joke.)

Our first issue: the final lineup.

2007-12-31T11:17:00.000-08:00

Barn Owl Review #1 will feature poetry and fiction by:

Kelli Russell Agodon * Neil Aitken * Ivy Alvarez * Nin Andrews * Amanda Auchter * Rusty Barnes * Sandra Beasley * Jennifer Berney * Erin M. Bertram * Patrick Carrington * Adam Clay * William Coughlin * Melissa Culbertson * Michael Czyzniejewski * Adam Deutsch * Emily D. Dressler * Jehanne Dubrow * Denise Duhamel * Noah Falck * Brent Fisk * Jeannine Hall Gailey * John Gallaher * Richard Garcia * Jessi Lee Gaylord * Do Gentry * Bernadette Geyer * Brent Goodman * Jessica Greenbaum * Susan Grimm * Shurice Gross * John Guzlowski * Anne Haines * Karen Hausdoerffer * Brandi Homan * Jessica Jewell * Leonard Kress * Jenifer Browne Lawrence * Amy Lemmon * Alex Lemon * Rebecca Loudon * Louise Mathias * Clay Matthews * Nathan McClain * Gary L. McDowell * Helena Mesa * Corey Mesler * Wayne Miller * Natasha Kochicheril Moni * Steve Mueske * Jeff Newberry * Julie Platt * Stephany Prodromides * Susan Rich * Renee Ruderman * F. Daniel Rzicznek * Steven D. Schroeder * Peter Jay Shippy * Sarah Sloat * Amy Bracken Sparks * Matthew Thorburn * Joshua Weber * Debbie Yee * Susan Yount

Plus Jay Robinson reviews Cate Marvin's Fragment of the Head of a Queen and Kirk Nesset's Paradise Road.

Barn Owl Review #1 will make its debut at the AWP Book Fair January 30-February 2, 2008. Look for us at table 406, Americas Hall II, access from the third floor. Fabulous books from the Akron Series in Poetry, and information on the Akron Poetry Prize, will also be available at our table.

Please join the BOR editors at 7:00 pm on Saturday, 2/2, for the NEOMFA: Northeast Ohio Masters in Fine Arts program reception. (The Sutton Center, Hilton New York, 2nd Floor S209.) Come enjoy a glass of wine and the hospitality of the faculty and students of the only consortial MFA program in creative writing in the nation.

Shortly after AWP we will begin Paypal sales of BOR#1, and contributor copies that aren't picked up at AWP will be mailed in early February. Contributors will receive two free copies, plus half-off additional copies ($5). Stay tuned to this blog for further updates, and thanks for your support!

BOR 1

2007-10-04T06:24:00.000-07:00

If you follow this link, you'll end up at the BOR site, specifically the current issue page.

The cover image is up.

Updated contributor list

2007-09-26T05:54:00.000-07:00

Here are the folks who have poetry or fiction appearing in Barn Owl Review as of Saturday, 6 October, 2007, 4:43 pm Eastern Time.

PS--If you haven't heard from us yet, thanks for your patience! We will be in touch soon, I promise.

Kelli Russell Agodon * Neil Aitken * Ivy Alvarez * Nin Andrews * Rusty Barnes * Sandra Beasley * Jennifer Berney * Erin M. Bertram * Patrick Carrington * Adam Clay * William Coughlin * Melissa Culbertson * Adam Deutsch * Emily D. Dressler * Jehanne Dubrow * Denise Duhamel * Noah Falck * Brent Fisk * Jeannine Hall Gailey * John Gallaher * Richard Garcia * Jessi Lee Gaylord * Do Gentry * Bernadette Geyer * Brent Goodman * Jessica Greenbaum * Susan Grimm * Shurice Gross * John Guzlowski * Anne Haines * Brandi Homan * Jessica Jewell * Leonard Kress * Jenifer Browne Lawrence * Amy Lemmon * Alex Lemon * Rebecca Loudon * Louise Mathias * Clay Matthews * Nathan McClain * Helena Mesa * Gary L. McDowell * Corey Mesler * Natasha Kochicheril Moni * Steve Mueske * Jeff Newberry * Julie Platt * Stephany Prodromides * Susan Rich * Renee Ruderman * F. Daniel Rzicznek * Steven D. Schroeder * Peter Jay Shippy * Sarah Sloat * Matthew Thorburn * Debbie Yee * Susan Yount

If you look to your right...

2007-09-19T06:09:00.000-07:00

...you'll notice some new names listed under the Editorial Staff heading. Sara Tracey has joined the crew as associate editor, and Jason Scales as consulting editor.

Let's have a warm round of applause for the new Owls!

Editorial Profile: Dawson Steeber

2007-08-23T09:54:00.000-07:00

Fiction Editor Dawson Steeber gives us the lowdown on reading submissions, writing in the NEOMFA program, and enjoying stories with "dirty-realism."

MB: Dawson, since you don’t blog (to my knowledge, at least) you are still an enigma to many of the folks who are reading this interview. Could you please tell us five interesting things about yourself: four that are true, and one that isn’t? Don’t tell us which one is a lie.

DS: Hmmm…I’m really not that interesting…1) I have a sweet bullet wound on my hip from being shot at through the door of my old truck. 2) I prefer the classics in literature and music. (See? Not very interesting) 3) I once traveled from Vancouver, B.C. to Eugene, Oregon in the trunk of a ’77 Pontiac Grand Prix. 4) I’m the proud papa of a beautiful chubby baby boy called Giovanni. And 5) I once arm-wrestled Rick Flair and won. Okay, that was a lie, but I did have a drink with him in a hotel bar in Indiana.

MB: Has the editorial experience at BOR surprised you in any way? What is your approach to reading fiction manuscripts? What kinds of stories are the most interesting to you? The least interesting?

DS: The entire experience has been a surprise. I consider myself to be very lucky to be thought of for the position. I guess I’m also surprised by the number of submissions coming in from abroad.

As far as my approach to reading manuscripts, I sit down to read every submission as if it were already a published piece. I also read every word of every story. I don’t ever want to be one of those editors that gives a writer two-three paragraphs to convince she/he to continue reading. That said, it can get a bit tiring sometimes; like walking through wet concrete.

I like all kinds of stories. I like the dirty-realism slices of life, the painful rainy day depressing types, but I also really like the kind of story that isn’t afraid to be nice. I’m not sure if I’m articulating that very well. I remember a friend telling me once that, “Nice stories are boring.” Though I completely agree, a story’s conflict and crisis need not always be of gargantuan proportion. Ultimately all I hope to find when I sit down with a story is a good story. Every writer, when she/he sits down to write a story, I would hope, attempts to write the best story they’ve ever written. Every writer wants to write a story that is bigger than the story. The problem is that that mission often times gets in the way of the writing. It’s hard to remind ourselves that it’s okay to just tell a good story, and if it is in fact a good story, the other bigger parts are almost inherent in that writing.

So, I guess the least interesting stories to me are those that try too hard to be something other than good stories. If I wanted to read a lecture on modern philosophy, the state of the nation, or global politics, I’d sign up for a class.

MB: What advice do you have for writers submitting stories, both to BOR and other journals? Are there common mistakes that writers should avoid making?

DS: I think I may have answered that above. Certainly, getting your hands on previous issues to the journal you intend to submit to is the best piece of advice I can give. Where possible, get to know what type of stories the journal tends to look for. I certainly wouldn’t send a piece of dirty-realism to Black Secrets, or True Confessions. Granted, if it’s a new journal like BOR, well, shake the dice and let them roll. And please, please, please—I think GT said something about this—proofread your work. If you aren’t sending out your best work, why are you sending it?

MB: You’re in your third and final year of the NEOMFA program. Please share your thoughts about the MFA. How has it helped you grow as a fiction writer? What are you working on now? If readers out there are considering applying to the NEOMFA, what are a few benefits of the program?

DS: My time in the NEOMFA program has been of great help to me as a writer, a reader, and as a person. Sounds cheesy, I know, but it’s true. It has been of immense help to be part of a community of writers learning and honing their craft together, and to have the opportunity to learn from such an array of excellent writers has been invaluable. I’ve been exposed to, and facilitated a session at, the Winter Wheat writer’s conference in Bowling Green, Ohio. I’ve been exposed to AWP this last year in Hotlanta. Wow! I’ve seen and heard accomplished writers from all over, from various lecture series to applicant interviews to classroom visits. I was also chosen, along with four fellow students, to participate in a summer workshop in Bisbee, AZ. at the Wick Ranch under the tutelage Maggie Anderson. All of this has helped me to grow and mature as a writer. I’d always scribbled, but now I’ve learned and been exposed to the elements of style and voice, the ways in which to make your metaphors earn their place, the requisite components to good story writing. I have also grown a much greater appreciation for poetry.

I am currently working on my thesis whenever I can find a spare moment. It is intended to be a collection of short stories, but, as evidenced in my responses to your questions, I have a real issue with brevity. The majority of my stories are over twenty pages. I guess I missed the class on minimalism.

The NEOMFA is full of great opportunities. Not unlike any other MFA program, it is an excellent opportunity to share three years with other writers while learning the trade, and you are guaranteed large readership through several workshops (no more calling up a buddy to beg, “Hey, man, you want to hear a story?” or annoying a significant other, “Hey, you got a minute?”). But what really separates the NEOMFA from the rest is the opportunity to soak up the resources of four different universities. No one writer is shackled to the same two or three professors, or the same five to ten students. Every semester students have the opportunity to learn from different professors and students with different backgrounds, different ideas, and skill levels; after all, the more eyes reading your work the better.

MB: As a writer, who have you been influenced by? What single short story best defines the genre for you, and why? Conversely, are there any writers whose work you’ve never been able to connect with, even though you admire it?

DS: I think I’m influenced in some capacity by everyone I’ve read. Most of my influences are novel writers—Céline, Dostoevsky, Nabokov, Malamud, to name a few—and that is probably why I have a problem writing truly short stories. Of course there are the big guns: Chekhov, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Maupassant, the list goes on; but I feel I’ve learned a great deal from the stories of Bellow, Fante, Goyen, and most recently Richard Yates and Patrick McCabe.

Though I hadn’t mentioned her, one of the short stories that best defines the genre for me is a story called “Bones of the Inner Ear” by Kiana Davenport. It is a story so rich with language, a sense of place, loving and loathing, family legacy—it is simply a truly visceral experience every time I read it, and it is all wrapped up in eleven pages. There are plenty of other stories that might better define the genre (e.g. Hills like White Elephants, The Lady with the Little Dog, Babylon Revisited) but this story always stays with me.

Hmmm…I guess I’d have to say that I’m not sure how much I really connect with most of the POMO writers, though I have read and reread David Foster Wallace, Pynchon, and Safran Foer, and enjoyed their works very much. There seem to be elements of the zany for zany’s sake, more cheeky than clever puzzle box writing in that genre that I feel isolates and/or distances readers unnecessarily. That’s not to say that I don’t recognize and respect its place in the fiction world. I just don’t connect as well with that type of writing.

MB: Finally, since the fiction section of BOR is still in the works, tell me which two poems you like best in the issue thus far, and why you were struck by them.

DS: That’s a tough question. There are so many excellent poems to choose from. I really enjoy both poems by Nin Andrews for their sad sense of place and their simple truth telling. I am also partial to Clay Matthews’s “Self-Portrait as an Aging Human Type” simply because I can relate, though I don’t search for old classmates on the internet. In fact, if I see old classmates I usually duck into the nearest store or alley. I remember nearly getting beaten up by two brothers after trying to avoid an old friend by pretending to get into the nearest car; their car. The commotion drew this friend’s attention and cost me an hour of, “So how’ve you been…” conversation. Anyway, in danger of following the pack, I found Corey Mesler’s “It was a Test was What they Told Us”, though (and maybe because) it leaves me asking so many questions, to be an excellent achievement in minimalist story telling. Fiction is my bag after all, and for that reason (though not solely) Nin Andrews’s “Youngstown, OH” and “The Years the Mills Closed” are at the top of my list. Notions of work and the deceit inherent in the American Dream have always been of great interest to me in both my reading (pleasure and scholarly) and my writing.

Thanks, Mary, for sharing our time. I hope I haven’t rambled too much. Thanks to my fellow editors for the opportunity to be a part of this project, and thank you to all of our contributors. This is sure to be one hell of a journal. See you in New York.

Editorial Profile: Gregory Thompson

2007-08-15T12:58:00.000-07:00

Gregory Thompson, Fiction Editor and Managing Editor of Barn Owl Review, discusses his aesthetic goals for the journal's design, offers advice for folks submitting fiction, and represents on behalf of the MFA-free writer.

MB: As the designer for all of Barn Owl Review’s materials—from the website and t-shirts to the magazine itself—tell us a bit about your artistic vision for the journal, including the photographs that we’ve seen on the website.

GT: I feel an obligation not to over-design the journal. That is, the poems and stories in the journal shouldn’t have to fight with design elements for attention. I prefer minimalism. The design needs to stay out of the way of the work so the reader can just read.

The photos are all places that have caught my eye in and around Akron, Ohio. We’re lucky to live near a state park and I’m lucky in particular to drive to and from work each day through that park. As the seasons have changed, it seems a new photo op lurks around every bend in the road.

Once I had a handful of photos that worked, including some nice shots of the Akron Zoo’s own Barn Owl, the layouts for the website, logo, and t-shirts fell into place.

MB: Will you give us any clues about what the cover will look like? On the other hand, will you list five things that definitely will not appear on the cover of the inaugural issue of BOR?

GT: On the EVENTS page of the website there’s a picture of a ruined home that’s in the state park. It looks like maybe it burned down or something years ago. So the foundation is there. A set of stone steps. It must have been years ago because a pretty healthy crop of trees and vines and weeds have overtaken the ruins. Anyway, I’m a big fan of this sort of thing – to me it suggests the closest thing America has to true ruins, being such a young country. In another way, it suggests nature taking the land back, so to speak. So it’s got a few things going for it.

Anyway, I’ve a strong suspicion that the ruined house will feature on the cover. Maybe I’ll catch an owl there sometime. Who knows?

Five things that won’t be on the cover:

* Chairman Mao
* Proof of Intelligent Design
* My thumb obscuring the picture. At least I hope not.
* Yoda
* A well-staged case of Budweiser. Product placement is detestable, even if Budweiser is The King of Beers.

MB: Aside from your duties at BOR, what do you do for a living, and how does it influence your work on the journal?

GT: I sell ads for a business-to-business publication that covers the tunneling industry. It gives me perspective on putting a publication together and it allows me to work around writing, which is all I ever really wanted to do.

MB: The BOR editorial staff wasn’t intentionally planned as such, but it includes writers from a variety of paths (one with an MFA, one with MFA in progress, one without an MFA, one with MFA + Ph.D.). Not to single you out or anything, but how does it feel working in literary publishing outside the MFA scene? Do you have any advice for folks wondering if they can still write and edit without getting the MFA?

GT: Step one: meet and marry an up-and-coming writer. Step Two: ride his or her coattails to glory.

I don’t know that it feels odd because it’s all I know. There are some events, like AWP, which are more geared toward academics and I have occasionally felt a bit out of place but really, I’ve never been made to feel that way. It’s not like the cool kids with the initials behind their names can smell my lack of advanced education and batter me intellectually for my lunch money.

Learning to write outside of the MFA scene is something that every writer needs to do. Eventually, when the funding dries up, it’s just you and your work. No deadlines. No built-in audience whose course participation grade depends on the amount of meaningful feedback they provide to your story or poem. I wouldn’t say that MFAs don’t prepare writers for the world, because they clearly do, but I would argue that no writer can know what he or she will become until they are a few years out of a program.

In the end, building a writing life is about dedication and perseverance. While it takes such qualities to pursue an advanced degree, the process doesn’t necessarily teach one how to be dedicated or how to hold firm in the face of the inevitable rejections.

MB: Speaking of advice, after reading over a hundred fiction submissions (and counting), what suggestions do you have for folks submitting manuscripts, both regarding the stories themselves and they way that they’re presented?

GT: Send your very best work. Every journal says that, so we’re no different. Fact is, you should never submit a story for publication that you wouldn’t want to see published. The temptation is there to send out everything you’ve got, cast as wide a net as possible. While it would be great if everything is picked up, the writer must remember that once something is published, it’s out there and you can’t take it back. You’ve got to be sure something is ready to publish – ready to you – so that if you get good news, you don’t think: “Oh, man. I kind of wish I’d done that one better.”

Another thing: a new journal is not necessarily easier to get into than an established journal. New journals are still trying to build a good reputation and as such, may have to be more choosy than some of the better known pubs.

While we’re leaning in the direction of choosiness and rejection, let me say this: nobody decides to start a litmag so they can reject people. Quite the opposite. We started Barn Owl Review to publish good writing. To add to the body of work that’s already out there. We didn’t decide that it would simply be a gas to shut the door on a bunch of people. It’s not fun sending rejections. It’s a necessary evil, though. I hope that rejection notes from BOR are met with the understanding that all it means is that this piece is not right for us at this time. Now, it might not ever be right, but still, it’s not personal. I can say that we’ve rejected some work that might have been good enough, but, as mentioned above, we’re not well enough established that good enough is going in the book.

Speaking of editorial duties, I would also hope that the good folks who’ve submitted work understand that we’re reading and discussing LOTS of manuscripts. In our first two months we’ve gotten 50 or so stories each month. Let’s say each story is 10 pages long on average. That’s 500 pages of fiction. Bear in mind this is not a complaint. We’re beyond thrilled at the response and enthusiasm we’ve seen. It is a lot, though, and we’re doing our best to get through the stories.

Finally, it’s always a good idea – well, a necessity really – to read and follow the submission guidelines. Stay under the requested word count and so on. We’ve not had too much of a problem with that, but it’s worth mentioning. Speaking from experience, if I’m reading something from somebody who couldn’t bother to take the time to read the guidelines, I’m not going to spend much energy on the manuscript. If the writer couldn’t read our guidelines, why should we sweat over their work?

MB: As a writer, who have you been influenced by? What single short story best defines the genre for you, and why? Conversely, are there any writers whose work you’ve never been able to connect with, even though you admire it?

GT: Raymond Carver and Donald Barthelme mostly. Also Ron Carlson, but I haven’t read enough of him. Every time I read a Carlson story, I’ve got an overwhelming urge to write.

The story that best defines the genre is “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” by Joyce Carol Oates. Is there a more perfect short story? Seriously?

Where to start? A writing professor told me that short stories should strive to do everything a novel does. This might sound nuts and impossible, but before you write off the notion altogether, read Oates’ story. And again. Heck, three in a row. Everything is perfectly rendered: dialogue, detail, character, and so on. The plot moves beautifully, lingering here and there when it needs to, but always charging toward its conclusion. The story picks you up, carries you along, and drops you off with a punch in the gut. You’re bleary eyed as the real world comes back into focus. Like getting really into a novel on public transport and then your stop comes and you can’t quite stand up straight because you’ve just been in another world.

Not many stories can do this. This one does.

As for writers who I haven’t been able to connect with… I don’t know. I’m not as well read as I should be and I’ve just never gotten into Faulkner. I’ve tried, but it hasn’t worked out. I take full responsibility.

MB: Finally, since the fiction section of BOR is still in the works, tell me which poem(s) you like best in the issue thus far, and why you were struck by them.

GT: Wow. Let me first say, that an impressive lineup of poets have been accepted into the premiere issue of BOR. Having read through the accepted work, I have been struck by the overall quality of what will be published. Great great stuff indeed.

Enough preamble. Cory Mesler, “It was a Test was What they Told Us.” (Now that this one’s been singled out by two of the three interviewed editors – and I’ve got a feeling DS is going to like it as well – it’s really getting some BOR-buzz.)

Anyway, Mesler’s piece is a terrific example of a story told in the perfect manner. Had he tried to stretch this one into a short story, the magic would have been gone, buried under too many words. It’s just absurd enough, just menacing enough.

I can’t think of anything other to say than: Had Donald Barthelme followed up, “The School,” with a companion piece told from the POV of a student, it would have looked like this.

Another one I enjoy is Gary McDowell’s “On the Death of Houdini.” I’ve always been a bit of a magic fan and particularly a fan of Houdini. I love how McDowell de-mystifies Houdini’s cause of death – it wasn’t, as rumored, an escape trick gone bad – but then re-mystifies it by the way he tells of Houdini’s passing. Wonderful.

Thanks, Mary. And I think I speak for everyone, editors, contributors, and readers alike, when I offer special thanks for bringing BOR into the litworld.

Contributor Update

2007-08-13T07:02:00.000-07:00

As of today, these folks will have work appearing in the first issue of Barn Owl Review. We'll be accepting poetry submissions until September 1st, and fiction submissions until November 1st. If you're waiting to hear back from us, thanks for your patience!

Kelli Russell Agodon * Neil Aitken * Ivy Alvarez * Nin Andrews * Rusty Barnes * Erin M. Bertram * Patrick Carrington * Adam Clay *William Coughlin * Melissa Culbertson * Adam Deutsch * Jehanne Dubrow * Noah Falck * Brent Fisk * Jeannine Hall Gailey * John Gallaher * Jessi Lee Gaylord * Do Gentry * Bernadette Geyer * Brent Goodman * Jessica Greenbaum * Susan Grimm * John Guzlowski * Anne Haines * Brandi Homan * Jessica Jewell * Leonard Kress * Jenifer Browne Lawrence * Alex Lemon * Rebecca Loudon * Louise Mathias * Clay Matthews * Nathan McClain * Gary L. McDowell * Corey Mesler * Natasha Kochicheril Moni * Steve Mueske * Jeff Newberry * Julie Platt * Stephany Prodromides * Susan Rich * Renee Ruderman * F. Daniel Rzicznek * Steven D. Schroeder * Peter Jay Shippy * Sarah Sloat * Matthew Thorburn * Debbie Yee * Susan Yount

Now available: Barn Owl Review gear

2007-08-09T06:37:00.000-07:00

We now have a handsome assortment of Barn Owl Review gear ready for you to check out on Cafe Press, thanks to our designer Greg. We'll have a lovely assortment for your perusal at our AWP booth, too.

I'm sure Rubi will be asking Santa for one of these dog shirts. Stickers and kids' items should also be forthcoming.

Editorial Profile: Mary Biddinger

2007-08-08T10:36:00.000-07:00

Jay Robinson poses a few questions on editorial delights, poetic influences, and moving beyond the first book.

JR: How has the experience of being a poetry editor for Barn Owl Review, a lit mag you’re responsible for, differed from your past editorial experiences?

MB: I guess the most significant aspect of editing BOR is the scope of my duties, since as founding editor I feel responsible for just about every detail of the publishing process, even though we have a crack editorial team. I’m so thankful for all of the experience I received at Mid-American Review, ACM, and RHINO, where I still serve as an Associate Editor, and it’s fun putting that experience to work. I’m glad that I have a history as an editor, since that helps folks have confidence in the magazine and allows me to actually enjoy the editorial process.

Having more responsibilities is exhilarating, though I would probably feel differently if we hadn’t gotten such a sensational response to our call for submissions. I don’t just want to produce an attractive and respected print mag, however. I want to do things differently, whether it’s acknowledging receipt of every submission by email (there’s nothing more unsettling than sending work out into the ether), giving our contributors little keepsakes, or updating everyone with the BOR blog.

I’m mostly concerned about making BOR a friendly venture, a table at AWP where everyone’s welcome to stop by and say hello. I still feel too nervous or dorky to approach the editors of many mags where I’ve published, and there’s absolutely no reason for it other than the lack of communication happening between acceptance letter and contributor’s copy. I want to maintain a relationship with our contributors and readers, and being friendly is the best way to accomplish that.

JR: Two-part question: What’s your favorite poem from the inaugural issue of BOR? And also, what poem has surprised you the most, and why?

MB: You cheated with this question, so I will cheat too. Obviously I love them all, but if I had to choose, my favorite poems accepted thus far would be “[Beat Fast My Heart]” by Erin M. Bertram and “The Canary” by Louise Mathias. I love the way Erin’s poem catapults the reader right into a disorienting, fragmentary narrative—my favorite kind—and alternates between short, halting statements and astonishing enjambments. Louise’s poem is one that I admire immensely because it is so tight and luminous; this is a perfect example of how what’s withheld in a poem is just as essential as what is included. I haven’t been able to shake it. I want to keep it within reach at all times. I’m sure others will too.

As a general observation, I’m surprised by how many themes are shared between the poems we’ve selected, without having a particular theme in mind. It’s great having a number of humorous poems in the mix, as well. I was most surprised by the submissions from Nin Andrews, John Gallaher, and Jeff Newberry because I could not pick one single poem to accept. I’m usually a rather decisive gal, but there was no way I could narrow it down, so we ended up taking two from these three folks. I was especially surprised by the way Jeff Newberry’s poems made me sway and tap my foot when reading them. There’s an organic musicality in his work that I’ve never really seen—or felt—before. I think we’ll be hearing a lot about Jeff Newberry in the future.

JR: How have the submissions BOR has received in its first few months influenced your own poetry?

MB: I’ve been really struck by how many amazing young poets—late twentysomethings to early thirtysomethings—there are today. There should be a revolution! This has given me a kick in the ass when it comes to pushing my own writing. I’ve always worked best under pressure, so seeing all these wonder kids out there, you know, starting their own presses and winning major prizes, is a good reminder that the clock is ticking and the competition is fierce. I was also shocked at how many talented writers there are who I’m not familiar with yet. It’s like stumbling upon a gold mine of poetic brilliance!

The submissions have reminded me that there’s a vast world of poetry outside academe. It’s easy to think that universities are the only places where poetry happens, especially when teaching in an MFA program, but that’s simply not true. It’s everywhere.

JR: In the last year, who has been the most influential poet that you’ve read when it comes to the way you view your own poetry? Conversely, name an oft-praised poet you’ve read and not jived with at all.

MB: I have a copy of Margaret Atwood’s 1974 volume of poetry You Are Happy. I hadn’t looked at it in about ten years until last semester when I loaned it to a student writing a paper about eye imagery in poems. It’s amazing looking through that book—which I bought as an undergraduate at the University of Michigan—and seeing how profoundly Atwood has influenced my poetry. I’ve gone through phases like everyone else, but this one really stuck with me. I felt almost as if I had written the poems myself, and it was eerie but wonderful.

As for the second question, I’m lukewarm about a lot of poets, and I tend to read fiction for fun. I teach the “big names” of contemporary American poetry, but I don’t really enjoy them as much as I like reading first books by emerging authors. Thankfully I’m teaching a MFA Craft & Theory on first books this semester, in addition to a new American poetry class, so I’ll be able to bid adieu to the anthologies and teach the single-author small press collections that I admire.

I will confess that I am much more fond of Ray Carver’s fiction than his poetry, for various reasons. My friends always liked Marge Piercy a lot more than I did, too. There’s no one poet that I actively dislike, however. At least not for reasons of poetics. Just kidding.

JR: Your first book, Prairie Fever, came out in February. What’s your current project and how do you view it in relationship to the work of your debut? In other words, how have the poems you’ve written changed? Why?

MB: Prairie Fever was in so many ways a coming-of-age manuscript for me, with some of the poems written in the 1990s, and it was definitely what I wanted as a debut. Now I’m working on a more focused and specific persona—a contemporary reincarnation of Saint Monica, patron of bad marriages, among other things—which is greatly affecting the architecture of the collection. After PF came out I felt liberated, especially since I needed the book for tenure. Now I can mess around a lot more and take more risks.

One surprise with PF is how readers seem to either love or hate my prose poems. I’m writing more prose poems now because there’s no other way to say some of these things. My new series is probably more cynical than PF, and the sexuality is more straightforward, less obscured by arborvitae and Trans Ams. Though I deal with Saint Monica’s childhood in the series, I hope to write more poems about the mature female experience, and about motherhood. I don’t think I’ll ever write about my own children, though. They’d have to be heavily reinvented.

JR: If characters from TV shows wrote poems, whose work would you be interested in reading (Don’t tell me you don’t watch television)?

MB: Jay, you know that I’m not a big TV watcher or pop culture aficionado. However, I would be quite interested in reading the poetry of Special Agent Dale Cooper from Twin Peaks. I imagine Cooper’s work would be telegraphic yet straightforward, mystical yet grounded in sumptuous concrete detail. It would be poetry of place, but not to the extent that the body—in all of its florid permutations—would be secondary. He would be an intuitive poet, like Neruda. Fueled by cherry pie and coffee, Cooper’s work would maintain a pithy narrative while occasionally lapsing into the hallucinatory and the sublime. It would be primitive in reasoning and sleek in syntax, a veritable petrified forest of subtle arcs and minute-yet-riveting sensory gestures. Think Rubén Darío meets James Schuyler with a hint of John Donne and a droplet of Jacques Prévert, all bundled up in Whitmanesque waxed paper under a heat lamp fueled by a thousand Lucille Cliftons. Who could resist? Not me.

Important announcement

2007-08-03T06:20:00.000-07:00

Due to the overwhelming deluge of high quality poetry we've received, Barn Owl Review's reading period will end September 1st instead of November 1st. We will still be reading fiction submissions until November 1st, however. Thanks for your excellent submissions, and please send soon if you intend to.

Editorial Profile: Jay Robinson

2007-07-31T16:22:00.000-07:00

Jay Robinson, Poetry and Review Editor of Barn Owl Review, shares his thoughts on poetics, publishing, and the writer's life.

MB: What do you enjoy reading—both in poetry and other genres?

JR: I probably enjoy reading short fiction more than anything else. William Trevor, Alice Munro, Ray Carver—if I had to give up writing poems, and reading anything else for that matter, to save their work from a burning inferno, I’d do it without hesitation. I’m more fitful about reading poems. I find a poet I like and I try to gobble everything they’ve ever written. Once I do, I find it hard to let go of them and move on to another poet. So I read some short fiction again. This spring, though I’d already heard and read much of him, the new collected book of Zbigniew Herbert’s poems became such an obsession.

MB: After considering hundreds of poems submitted to Barn Owl Review, have you noticed any trends in the work being written today?

JR: Two things: Diversity for starters. So many poems, so many different kinds of poems, by so many different types of poets. Secondly, and more to the point I suppose, narrative poems seem to be on the rise. Especially in women’s poetry for whatever reason. At least that’s the work I’ve tended to respond to more often.

MB: If you could give three pieces of advice to writers just beginning to submit their work, what would you suggest?

JR: 1-I should never say this as an editor, but when it comes to the bigger lit mags, always simultaneously submit, no matter the policy. Unless you’re a heavyweight, and most of us aren’t, you don’t have a snowball’s chance anyway. 2-Keep finding new places to submit. It certainly makes the submission process (a.k.a the rejection slips) easier to take because maybe you won’t be getting rejected by the same place for the twentieth time. 3-Keep your pool of poems to a workable number. Keep a record of where they go. And always, as you write new poems, get rid of some of the old ones. For that matter, never be afraid to retire a poem. Most of my poems have been sent off to greener pastures, glasses of lemonade in the Florida sunshine.

MB: There’s been much discussion in the blogosphere about continuing the writer’s life after the MFA. How did you bridge the transition between your MFA days at Sarah Lawrence and your current writing projects?

JR: Well, I tried to continue to write poems after getting my degree. But they didn’t work. For a while I lost that part of my imagination; I couldn’t understand what a poem was anymore. But I never stopped reading. That’s was where the bridge began. And I always journaled about what I read from a writer’s perspective. Eventually, about two years after I’d received my degree, I started writing poems again. What I had to learn how to do, I think, was to separate myself from the work I’d done as a student. The learning I did, not the poems I wrote, was the most important part of my time at Sarah Lawrence. Once I let go of those poems, my dreadful ‘thesis,’ and started fresh, abandoning most of what I’d written before, I could write again.

MB: For those aspiring to write book reviews some day, do you have any pointers on how to write tight critical prose? What is your process when writing reviews?

JR: I always give myself a word count to begin with, something to shoot for and to keep myself contained within. Then as I read the book I dog-ear the poems that I feel are important in the collection. I select some quotes from those, type them up, and try to draw connections between them until I’ve hit my word count. Then I revise. And revise some more. As for my advice about critical prose, I would encourage most people to shy away from thinking about their writing as ‘critical prose.’ Don’t be so serious. Just try to articulate your response to the book in an orderly and economical fashion, one that doesn’t make you the star, but the book you’re reading instead.

MB: What is your favorite poem that is forthcoming in the inaugural issue of Barn Owl Review, and why?

JR: I have two, and I probably would pick one over the other if you forced me, but both deserve the label you’ve asked for. The one I like best, the one that literally tore the top of my head off, was Anne Haines’ “Surviving the Fairy Tale.” First of all, I should say, that I’m not someone who digs fairy tales. I never did as a child, and even I thought people who were captivated by fairy tales a bit odd (and still do). Even the super-sized versions we’ve had in film in the last thirty years have never suited me: Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, no thanks. And perhaps that’s why Haines’ poems hit me so hard. It takes what seems to me a played-out notion and injects it with vibrancy, a rawness, an honesty, and I guess you could say a reality, not present before. The other poem, the one I keep coming back to in my mind more and more as I think of Barn Owl Poems, would be Corey Mesler’s “It Was a Test Was What They Told Us.” It’s just the right cocktail of absurdity, surrealism and perfectly executed diction. I can totally (no pun intended with my diction) imagine such a scene taking place in almost any high school in the midwest. Plus, it’s something I never would write myself, something so totally other that it makes me think about poems in a new way.

Barn Owl Review reviews

2007-07-24T10:18:00.000-07:00

Although we're primarily a print journal, there's just not enough space to publish all of our book reviews in the annual issue, so we are proud to present our online review archive. Check back often, as the hits just keep on coming.

Current reviews:

This Clumsy Living by Bob Hicok
Standing in Line for the Beast by Jason Bredle
Lightning and Ashes by John Guzlowski
Thirst by Patrick Carrington
No one belongs here more than you by Miranda July
The Invention of the Kaleidoscope by Paisley Rekdal
Compulsions of Silkworms and Bees by Julianna Baggott

Reviews Policy: We are currently not accepting unsolicited reviews, though we do welcome review copies of books, whether poetry or prose. With regard to poetry, we are especially interested in reviewing first books and small press titles, and when it comes to fiction, the less commercial the better. No matter what we review, however, our philosophy when it comes to commentary employs the notion that, unlike some contemporary criticism, the reviewed is more significant than the reviewer. In other words, we try to review work deserving of positive press while keeping our comments to 500 words.

Are you the author of a recent small press book of poetry or fiction? Please click here for more information on submitting review copies, or contact Jay Robinson, our Review Editor.

Welcome to our fledgling blog.

2007-07-24T07:29:00.000-07:00

BARN OWL REVIEW 2008 as of 7/16/07

Kelli Russell Agodon * Nin Andrews * Rusty Barnes * Patrick Carrington * Adam Clay * William Coughlin * Melissa Culbertson * Adam Deutsch * Jehanne Dubrow * Noah Falck * Brent Fisk * Jeannine Hall Gailey * John Gallaher * Jessi Lee Gaylord * Do Gentry * Bernadette Geyer * Brent Goodman * Jessica Greenbaum * Susan Grimm * Anne Haines * Brandi Homan * Jessica Jewell * Leonard Kress * Alex Lemon * Rebecca Loudon * Louise Mathias * Clay Matthews * Nathan McClain * Gary L. McDowell * Corey Mesler * Steve Mueske * Natasha Kochicheril Moni * Julie Platt * Susan Rich * Renee Ruderman * F. Daniel Rzicznek * Peter Jay Shippy * Sarah

This will be the blog for Barn Owl Review, a stellar new literary annual produced in Northeast Ohio.