Crab Creek Review on NewPages.com

Crab Creek Review has been reviewed by David Morck for NewPages.com. It's a fantastic review of our journal! Thank you, NewPages! http://www.newpages.com/literary-magazine-reviews/2011-01-15/

Crab Creek Review
Volume 23 Number 2 2010
Biannual  

Review by David Morck

After winning a year’s subscription during last year’s National Poetry Day, I discovered the joy of the Crab Creek Review. What had drawn me into past issues was the range of voices, both from experienced writers and fresh, emerging writers. There has always been a certain charm to the pieces selected, whether their tone leans towards the more serious or whimsical, and this issue is no exception.

The biggest standout in the second issue for 2010 is the section entitled Beyond Ekphrasis: Poems of the Musical, Mathematical, and Visual in which Crab Creek Review’s first guest editor Susan Rich pulled from “over fifteen hundred poems submitted by more than four hundred poets from three different continents,” “work inspired by photography, sculpture, music, film and even a mathematical equation.” One of the exceptional pieces inspired by art in this section is a poem called “The Plague Doctor” by Peter Pereira based on a 1656 engraving entitled “Doktor Schabel von Rom” by Paul Fürst. The engraving is included above the poem and lends itself to the poem’s dark and mystical force. The poem begins:

Brow shadowed by a black
wide-brimmed hat, he swings
his wooden cane to part the swarm
of flies crawling your motionless body,
prods you with the cane’s tip
to measure your response.

The word choice in the poem is exquisitely brutal, offering images of “erupting pustules”, “flea-infested straw”, “pungence repelling pungence,” and the pitch-perfect ending leaves an enduring image of:

Its two oval sockets lensed in red glass
as if to warn you—how scavenger birds
always begin with the eyes.

Other poems that are worthy of mention within the section on ekphrasis are “Prelude” by Valerie Nieman, based on a photograph of Rosa Parks getting her fingerprints taken, and a heart-rending look at youth and strength in “Patrick Swayze” by Casey Fuller, highlighting the promise of Hollywood vigor, about the actor, who unfortunately fell victim to cancer last year.

For those that are animal aficionados, there seems to be a strong motif of animals throughout many of this issue’s poems. One particularly enjoyable poem, although perhaps light in its content, is Anita K. Boyle’s “Time with Cats,” which is a very charming piece, and echoes the epigraph from Colette, “Time with cats is never wasted,” in its ending:

The cats have fallen asleep.
One is upside down.
It begins to purr.
This is a day not wasted.

Another enjoyable piece is “My Pet Chicken” by James Bertolino, in which there is a recall of having a pet chicken killed because of fencing that was:

…high enough
to keep my chicken in, but not
strong enough to keep the neighbor’s
German Shepherd from knocking
them down

The reflection in the ending of this carefully constructed piece is beautifully done:

…Disappointed
I hadn’t built a better pen for my bird,
I didn’t blame that dog, and decided
to try pigeons next. I knew they could fly
away when molested.

There is no lack of truly well-constructed poetry within this issue, and as well the fiction is strong, especially Midge Raymond’s “Two Lies and a Truth,” which plays off of the game of telling someone two lies and one truth, then guessing which is which, and speaks deeply to the nature of friendship and what truth really entails.

Overall, this issue of Crab Creek Review is successful in capturing your attention, interest, and imagination, and is a worthy addition to anyone’s reading schedule.

[www.crabcreekreview.org/]

Crab Creek Review at the Seattle Arts & Lectures Poetry Series

Crab Creek Review is now a Media Sponsor of the Seattle Arts & Lectures Poetry Series at Benaroya Hall. At last night's reading (with Olympia poet and Pulitzer nominee, Lucia Perillo), we sold our journal in the lobby along with fellow SAL sponsors Poetry Northwest, Copper Canyon Press, and Open Books. Look for us at the following 2011 Poetry Series events:

Feb. 15: Patricia Smith
Mar. 15: Marie Howe
Apr. 14: Brian Turner, Major Jackson, and Susan Rich (our own Crab Creek Review Advisory Board Member!)
May 22: Billy Collins

We encourage our Seattle area subscribers and contributors to support SAL’s mission of presenting programs that further the arts and invite cultural dialogue. To learn more about SAL and to purchase tickets to the Poetry Series and other events, please visit their website: http://www.lectures.org./

Crab Creek Review Announces 2010 Pushcart Nominations and Editors' Prize

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Crab Creek Review has nominated the following poets and writers for the 2010 Pushcart Prize:

Fiction:
Two Lies and a Truth by Midge Raymond, 2010 Vol 2 
Live Model by Laura Maylene Walter, 2010 Vol 2

Poetry:
Not Love by Rachel Mehl, 2010 Vol I
Inherited Music by Michael Schmeltzer, 2010 Vol 2
Girl Walking in Wallace, Idaho by Tim Sherry, 2010 Vol I
The Aprons of Adam and Eve by Molly Tenenbaum, 2010 Vol I

Congratulations to our nominees!


The Co-Editors of Crab Creek Review (Kelli Russell Agodon and Annette Spaulding-Convy) are awarding the Crab Creek Review 2010 Editors' Prize to Seattle poet, musician, and teacher, Molly Tenenbaum, for her poem, The Aprons of Adam and Eve (2010 Vol I). Our annual Editors' Prize is awarded for the best poem, short story, or creative non-fiction essay published by Crab Creek Review in a given year.

Congratulations, Molly!

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Crab Creek Review 2010 Vol.2 Now Available!

2010 Vol.2 features new work from John M. Anderson, Deborah Bauer, James Bertolino, Anita K. Boyle, John Davis, Tracy DeBrincat, Alice Derry, Hilary Vaughn Dobel, Paul Fisher, Rebecca J. Foust, Matthew Guenette, Joe Haferbecker, Jeff Hardin, Michael Kriesel, Joanne Lowery, John McKay, Kevin Miller, Matt Mulder, Fernando Perez, Midge Raymond, Michael Schmeltzer, Tina Schumann, Britton Shurley, Martha Silano, Ann Spiers, David Stallings, Joannie Kervran Stangeland, Sara Tracey, James Valvis, Rebecca van Laer, Laura Van Prooyen, David Wagoner, Laura Maylene Walter, and Yim Tan Wong.
2010 Vol.2 also features a special section of poetry, Beyond Ekphrasis, guest edited by Susan Rich. Beyond Ekphrasis contains poems based on other art forms and features new work from Lavonne J. Adams, Emily Bedard, Patricia Fargnoli, Kerri French, Casey Fuller, Erin Malone, Anne McDuffie, Valerie Nieman, Mary Peelen, Peter Pereira, Ellie Rogers, and Ann Teplick.
Cover Art: See Food? by Joanne Schoener Scott.
An excerpt from our Editors' Note:
It is late October here, writes Britton Shurley in his poem, “To James Wright” (p.54). It is late October here on Puget Sound, and though the big leaf maples are turning brown, we haven’t had our first, hard frost, yet. Welcome to Crab Creek Review, 2010 Vol. 2, an issue which several of our editors have described as “quirky,” “dark and light” and “ultimately life affirming.” This past year we have had a noticeable increase in submissions, and for our editorial staff this has brought excitement and some late nights. The poetry and fiction in this issue is both captivating and unique and these particular submissions jumped out at us from the bundles of strong writing that we received...
Order 2010 Vol.2 here and consider subscribing to Crab Creek Review!

Crab Creek Review Reading at Elliott Bay Book Co., Seattle

Please join us on Saturday, Nov. 20th at 3 p.m. for our 2010 Vol.2 launch at Elliott Bay Book Co. in Seattle. The featured readers are well known Seattle area poets whose work appears in our new issue: Erin Malone, Kevin Miller, Peter Pereira, Michael Schmeltzer, and Martha Silano.
Special thanks to Elliott Bay Book Co. for hosting our reading at their new location: 1521 10th Avenue, Seattle, WA.

Hope to see you there for an afternoon of terrific poetry!
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Crab Creek Review 2010 Fiction Contest Judge: Kathryn Trueblood

We are delighted and honored that Western Washington University professor and writer, Kathryn Trueblood, will be judging our annual Fiction Contest.  Kathryn Trueblood is the author of The Baby Lottery, which was a Book Sense Pick in 2007, and The Sperm Donor's Daughter, which received a Special Mention for the Pushcart Prize in 2000.  She has co-edited two anthologies of multicultural literature, The Before Columbus Foundation Fiction Anthology: Selections from the American Book Awards with Ishmael Reed and Shawn Wong, (W.W. Norton, 1992); also Homeground, which won the Jurors' Choice Award at the Seattle’s City Arts Festival. Her stories and articles have been published in Poets & Writers Magazine, Rain Taxi Review of Books, Publishers Weekly, The Seattle Weekly, Glimmer Train, and Zyzzyva, among others. She is an Associate Professor of English at Western Washington University.

Crab Creek Review's Fiction Contest: Sept. 15th - Dec. 31, 2010

• Original, previously unpublished fiction up to 3,000 words, double spaced.
• Please include a $10 entry fee (check made payable to Crab Creek Review) and a SASE.
• Postmark deadline is Dec. 31, 2010.
• Winner will receive $150 and publication in Crab Creek Review.
• All contest submissions will be considered for publication.

Please read our complete guidelines: http://www.crabcreekreview.org/contest.htm

We look forward to reading your work!

Crab Creek Review's Annual Fiction Contest: Sept. 15th - Nov. 30th, 2010

We encourage both emerging and established fiction writers to submit to our 2010 Fiction Contest. We look forward to reading your work!

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:

•Original, previously unpublished fiction up to 3,000 words, double spaced.
•Name and contact info must NOT appear on any pages of the fiction piece.
•Please include a cover letter with your name, address, telephone number, email address, and the title of your story with a brief bio.
•Please include a $10 entry fee (check made payable to Crab Creek Review) and a SASE.
•Postmark deadline is Nov. 30th, 2010.
•Mail submissions to:
Crab Creek Review Fiction Contest
c/o 7315 34th Ave NW
Seattle, WA 98117
•Winner will receive $150 and publication in Crab Creek Review.
•All contest submissions will be considered for publication.
•Simultaneous submissions are permitted as long as Crab Creek Review is notified immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere.
•Contest Judge: TBA
http://www.crabcreekreview.org/contest.htm

Crab Creek Review will be at Wordstock: Portland, OR (Oct. 9-10, 2010)

We are excited to be part of the annual Wordstock Festival this year in Portland! Wordstock is one of the Pacific Northwest's largest book fairs for writers and educators. Crab Creek Review will have a table at the festival with our current issue/past issues for sale and we will have our submission guidelines available as well. Stop by and chat with us!

Co-Editor, Kelli Russell Agodon, and Advisory Board Member, Susan Rich, will have their recently published books available for purchase. Both Kelli and Susan are 2010 Wordstock Festival Authors and are featured readers. Susan's book, The Alchemist's Kitchen, is published by White Pine Press (2010) and Kelli's book, Letters from the Emily Dickinson Room, is also published by White Pine Press (2010) and is the winner of the White Pine Press Poetry Prize.

The Wordstock Book Fair @ the Oregon Convention Center
777 NE MLK Jr Blvd.
Portland, Oregon
10am-6pm
$7 for one day, $10 for two days. Tickets are available at TicketsWest or the door.
Children 13 and under are free.
Saturday, October 9th & Sunday, October 10th, 2010

For More Information: http://www.wordstockfestival.com/

Crab Creek Review Announces 2010 Poetry Contest Winners

The quality of work submitted was extremely high which made judging very difficult. Our guest judge, Nancy Pagh, commented that she enjoyed every single poem. All sixteen selected finalists will be published. Her choices are:

Winner:
“Finding Randy in Window Creek”— Cameron Aveson

Honorable Mention:
“The Perfect Sentence”—Cameron Aveson
“Chicken Day”—Hannah Oberman-Breindel
“I Would Have Had Some Other Version of You, That’s All”—Valarie Jonas
“Ontology”—Claire McQuerry
“Banishment at Noon”—Tina Schumann

Finalists:
“Bonnard Remembers Marthe in Evening Light”—Mary Jo Balistreri
“Aesop’s Table”—Deborah Doolittle
“The Produce and Me”—Matthew Guenette
“Bootlaces Stay Tight”—Sky Joiner
“Cemetery of Glass”—Greg Nicholl
“Hush”—Susan Sample
“Watching a Gull at Cannon Beach”—Linda Strever
“The Fitting”—Jeanne Wagner
“Don’t Bring Yourself, Just Gifts”—Jody Zorgdrager
“Why So Many Poets Commit Suicide”—Jody Zorgdrager

Congratulations to all of the selected poets. And to all of our participants, keep writing those wonderful poems and thank you for supporting our nonprofit independent literary journal. We greatly appreciate your entries.

Look for all these poems in Crab Creek Review 2011, Vol.I.
And, special thanks to our wonderful poetry editor, Lana Hechtman Ayers.

Crab Creek Review Reading and Editors Panel at Centrum Writers' Conference in Port Townsend, WA (July 21 & 23, 2010)

Join us on July 23rd at 7:30 p.m. as we celebrate the release of our 2010 Vol.I issue at Fort Worden (Port Townsend) in a joint reading with Willow Springs Literary Magazine. Our featured readers will be poets, Molly Tenenbaum and Peter Munro (both of whom have poems featured in 2010 Vol.I). Special thanks to the Centrum Writers' Conference for hosting us.

About our readers:

Molly Tenenbaum’s books: Now (Bear Star Press, 2007)
and By a Thread (Van West & Co, 2000). Her chapbooks:
Blue Willow, Old Voile, and Story. Her old-time stringband:
The Queen City Bulldogs. Her CD: Instead of a Pony.
Her location: Seattle. Her work: teaching music and
English.

Peter Munro is a fisheries scientist who works in the
Bering Sea, the Aleutian Islands, the Gulf of Alaska, and
Seattle. On-line, he hangs out at Café Blue, a literary
listserv, which can be found at http://wiz.cath.vt.edu/
mailman/listinfo/cafe-blue.

The editors from Crab Creek Review will be participating in a panel about publishing on July 21st from 2-3:30 p.m. at the Centrum Writers' Conference:
Panel Discussion Room D “How to Run a Literary Journal”
Featuring the editors of the Crab Creek Review (Kelli Russell Agodon, Lana Hechtman Ayers, Jen Betterley, and Annette Spaulding-Convy); The Meadow (Lindsay Wilson); and Willow Springs (Sam Ligon); this discussion will center, from an editor’s perspective, on how to successfully curate the most vital and essential sector of the world’s literary venues: the literary journal.

Congrats to Crab Creek Review Fiction Winner: Shann Ray

Gonzaga U. Professor Shann Ferch Wins Prestigious Nason Bakeless Literary Prize

Shann Ferch’s pen name — (Shann) Ray — is the name he and his mother share. “I write fiction and poetry under my middle name in honor of my Mom,” said Ferch, whose mother and father live in Bozeman, Mont. (Below) is the author with his mother.

SPOKANE, Wash. – Shann Ferch, professor of leadership in Gonzaga University’s Doctoral Program in Leadership Studies, has won the prestigious 2010 Katharine Nason Bakeless Literary Publication Prize, for his collection of short stories entitled: “American Masculine: Montana Stories.”


Read the entire article here.  Congrats Shann!

Guest Blogger: Shann Ray

We are thrilled to have one of favorite fiction writers guest blog for us this week-- Shann Ray, winner of 2009 Crab Creek Review Fiction Prize for this story, Rodin's The Hand of God.


Shann is also a recent winner of the prestigious 2010 Katharine Nason Bakeless Literary Publication Prize, for his collection of short stories entitled: American Masculine: Montana Stories.


Congratulations, Shann!


________________

This Spring, after some long years, news came that brought one of those family moments that speak so clearly to the mystery of life: when it came, my wife and I cried with joy and our three daughters danced. I know many of you are familiar with the many rejections as well as the quiet beauty of the writing life. My first story was taken by South Dakota Review 10 years ago, after 8 years of rejections. Now 18 years later I received a call from Michael Collier, director of the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference and Poetry Editor at Harcourt to say my story collection American Masculine had won the Bakeless Prize and would be published by Graywolf Press. That's what all the tears and dancing were about!


Along the way, there have been some very joyful moments in among the over 400 rejection slips for poems and stories. Of course, writing, or trying to see people with new and compassionate eyes is not about stories being accepted for publication by the journals we love. But when those acceptance letters or emails or phone calls come in it always reminds me of the subtle presence of gratitude in the world. Last fall, when the lovely editors here at Crab Creek Review informed me "Rodin's The Hand of God" had won the CCR Fiction Prize it came when I was personally taking a hard close look at writing as vocation, and doubting if I had the necessary heart for the work. Happily, I'm still searching. Crab Creek Review is an important part of the nexus in the literary arts where poetry and prose intersect, and in this place I think there is strength and comfort for me and others who hope to find life's vitality even in the global uncertainty that often haunts people and nations.

The story taken by Crab Creek Review is one of the central stories in the collection that won the Bakeless Prize and that is a tribute to CCR, especially considering the history of the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference and the Bakeless Prize. Since 1926 the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference has convened every August. The conference, founded by Robert Frost and Willa Cather, brings together established poets and prose writers, editors, and literary agents to work with writers at various stages of their careers. While part of Bread Loaf's reputation was built on the writers associated with it-W. H. Auden, Wallace Stegner, Katherine Anne Porter, Toni Morrison, and Adrienne Rich, to name a few-it has an equally high reputation for finding and supporting writers of promise in the earliest stages of their careers. Eudora Welty, Carson McCullers, Anne Sexton, May Swenson, Russell Banks, Joan Didion, Richard Ford, Julia Alvarez, Carolyn Forché, Linda Pastan, Ellen Bryant Voigt, Andrea Barrett, and Tim O'Brien are some of the poets, novelists, and short story writers who benefited from early associations with Bread Loaf.

Again, gratitude is something that I'm finding it hard to live without. I believe art can give us the opportunity to face despair with longing, forgiveness, responsibility, and the generosity that can be a profound undercurrent even in the complexity and chaos of contemporary life. Van Gogh said, 'The greatest work of art is to love someone.' I agree. An artistic sense of love brings about justice and engenders grace. I believe the artistry involved in truly loving and serving others is inherently imbued with authentic power. In the artists I look to for direction-from van Gogh to Bach, from Alice Walker to Marilynne Robinson-- I believe it is this power that helps heal the heart of the world.

I want to say thanks to the whole Crab Creek Review community for your care and the light you give to me and to many!



~Shann Ray

Bio:
Shann Ray is the winner of the Subterrain Poetry Prize, the Crab Creek Review Fiction Prize, and the Ruminate Short Story Prize. His work has also appeared in Montana Quarterly, Poetry International, South Dakota Review, McSweeney's, Narrative, and StoryQuarterly among other venues. He holds a Ph.D. in systems psychology from the University of Alberta in Canada, an MA in clinical psychology from Pepperdine University, and an MFA in poetry and fiction from the Inland Northwest Center for Writers at Eastern Washington University. He grew up in Montana and spent part of his childhood on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in southeast Montana. He lives with his wife and three daughters in Spokane, Washington, where he teaches leadership and forgiveness studies at Gonzaga University.

His collection of stories, American Masculine, won the Bakeless Fiction Prize and will appear in 2011 with Graywolf Press.

See Shann's website at www.shannray.com

Crab Creek Review 2010 Vol.I is Now Available

We are pleased to announce that Crab Creek Review 2010 Vol.I has just been released!

An excerpt from our Editors' Note: As we celebrate National Poetry Month and the creative writing process, we realize how privileged we are as editors to read the diversity of poems and stories received in the mail each week, as varied and intriguing as our April weather. Putting this issue together, we found that we had chosen works covering a wide scope of topics: contemplation of the past, former and present lovers, the surrealistic and fantastical, parenthood, the humorous, rural and urban living, the writing process, springtime and birds, to name a few. This “everything themed” issue is an apt way to begin a new decade as yet undefined, and therefore filled with every possibility. David Wagoner might express it best in his poem, How Birds Feel About Air, “and some carve it like constantly astonishing experts / into shapes ordinarily unimaginable.”
This issue features the work of: Dmitri Avaliani, P.K. Brask, Alex Cigale, Josh Cooper, Sharon Doyle, Rachel Contreni Flynn, Patrick Friesen, Terry Godbey, David Guterson, Jeremy Halinen, Michael Hanner, Jordan, Hartt, Sharon Hashimoto, Deborah Hauser, Niels Hav, Erin Coughlin Hollowell, Michael Johnsen, Robert Kostuck, Kate Lebo, Diane Lockward, George Looney, Brendan McBreen, Rachel Mehl, Natasha Kochicheril Moni, Peter Munro, Justin Petropoulos, Cati Porter, Connie Post, Rahna Reiko Rizzuto, Victor David Sandiego, Emily Scudder, Andrei Sen-Senkov, Tim Sherry, Laura Stott, George Such, Molly Tenenbaum, Natalie Haney Tilghman, David Wagoner, Wendy Wisner, Mark Wisniewski, and Rachel Zitomer.
Cover Art: Memphis Girl, by Rowland Salley.
Order Crab Creek Review 2010 Vol.I here and please consider subscribing to our journal.

Winners!! - From the Great Poetry Book Giveaway!

Here's the list of winners from our drawing for our poetry prizes -

If you see your name below, please send us an email with your mailing address to crabcreekeditors (a) gmail.com and we'll get your prizes shipped out to you!

Congrats to all and thank you to all who entered!

OUR WINNERS--

Winner of the Crab Creek Review Anniversary Anthology: Sam Boyd

Winner of the current issue: Je' Maverick

Winner of Madeline DeFrees collection: Barry Napier

Winner of the one-year subscription: Ron Lewis


Congratulations to all the winners!

National Poetry Month Giveaway

Kelli Russell Agodon, the co-editor of Crab Creek Review (with co-editor Annette Spaulding-Convy) has organized a poetry book giveaway for National Poetry Month on her blog, Book of Kells.  So how could Crab Creek Review *not* take part in it?

Here's our giveaway for National Poetry Month--

Crab Creek Review is offering 4 chances to win for National Poetry Month.

Here's our giveaway--

1. Our Anniversary Anthology

2. Our current issue with a fantastic interview with Madeline DeFrees and poems by January Gill O'Neil, Alison Pelegrin, Joannie Kervran Stangeland, Jill Crammond Wickham, Tod Marshall, Maya Ganesan, and many others.

3. Seattle Poet and Literary Icon, Madeline DeFrees' Magpie on the Gallows.  A first edition copy published by Copper Canyon Press in 1982.

Madeline has just celebrated her 90th birthday and we were honored to include a few of her unpublished poems in our last issue.


4. A One-Year subscription to Crab Creek Review delivered directly to your home!

Go here for more details

To entry this drawing, all we need you to do is leave us a comment below with an email or link so we can get ahold of you if you win to get your mailing address.

You must leave your comment by April 30th, 2010 at 11:59 pm PST to be entered.

We will use the random number generator to choose the four winners on May 1st, 2010.
Good luck to you!