Author’s Note: “The Beautiful Impossible”—speculative and oddly detailed—imagines the speaker before he was born, a figure who inhabits Nebraska and falls in love with a woman who ultimately turns away from him. At its core, the poem plays with questions we all ask at times: What would’ve happened had I done this instead of that? Would I be happier were I another? [Continue Story]
Author’s Note: “When a significant relationship ends painfully, we often find ourselves rehashing the turning points, the decisions, the regrets. With the repetition of “when, then, that,” I hope to ... [Continue Story]
Author’s Note: “This poem came to me when I was traveled to a conference in Asheville, North Carolina. I grew up in Tennessee, and when I took a walk in those southeastern woods, I was flooded with ... [Continue Story]
Author’s Note: For the last few years I have had the honor of working with children in special education. It has been a humbling and educational experience. Every time I think I understand, I realize how little I know. Christopher, the protagonist of this nonfiction story who has now graduated high school, is one such student who taught me much more than I expected...[Continue Story]
Author’s note: Let’s not pretend all long-term relationships are a place lust dies, where neither party finds another person attractive ever again. Fantasy allows for a moment of escape in what is otherwise a committed coupling, and this poem explores how romantic fantasies are born and the ways in which they exert influence in real life... [Continue Story]
Author’s Note: In my short story, Professor, I wanted to explore the complex nuance of sex, power, and choice. The protagonist is a middle-aged divorced mother who is pursued by her professor. She is flattered by the attention, feels powerful, and thinks she is making her own choices in their relationship. In the end though, it becomes clear how little choice she actually had and that her agency and power were an illusion...[Continue Story]
Author’s Note: “Ribbon Room” not only chronicles a trip into the Iowa countryside to buy groceries, it is a record of a trip back in time for my inner child who is simultaneously in the fatherly care of myself. “I bought a bag/of licorice pipes from their candy counter,/a grown man thinking he was seven…[Continue Story]
Author’s note: “This poem began as a simple list playing with the idea that beachcombing can be a metaphor for living one’s life. But I love the ... [Continue Story]
Editor’s Note: Each word leads to the discovery of unexpected sweetness from the “loco” motion of a powerful love, left to our interpretation, unaffected and unbound from any sense of order. Writer’s Note: This poem is part of a series of love poems called “Something About the Way,” just out from Kelsay Publishers, first published… [Continue Story]
Delmarva Review has been notified that the writing of three Delmarva Review authors has been nominated for inclusion in Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses (46th edition) by a member of its Board of Contributing Editors. The works are from the 13th annual issue of the literary journal (November 2020). Pushcart finalists will be notified in May for publication in the fall.
The nominations are: “When Friendship Dies,” an essay by Sue Ellen Thompson of Oxford, Maryland; “WHEN/THEN/THAT,” a poem by Katherine Gekker of Arlington, Virginia; and “Leaving Spain,” a poem by David Salner of Millsboro, Delaware.
These are in addition to six previous Pushcart nominations announced in December for works by Delmarva Review authors. The prestigious literary prize will honor writing published in 2020 by small presses “dedicated to exciting, innovative and eclectic prose and poetry.”
Delmarva Review was created in 2008 to encourage writers to pursue writing excellence. Publication in the Review, while competitive, offers authors a valued publishing opportunity for their best writing in both print and digital editions at a time when many commercial publications are reducing literary content or going out of business.
Since its first annual issue, Delmarva Review has selected the new work of 390 writers for publication. In all, authors have come from 42 states and 14 foreign countries. About half are from the tri-state Delmarva Peninsula and Chesapeake Bay region of the Mid-Atlantic. Seventy-three have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Some have been listed in “Best of” anthologies or achieved notice from other critics and editors. For many, this was the first public recognition of their literary accomplishments.
The submission period for Delmarva Review’s 14th edition is open to writers until March 31. Editors read all submissions and do not charge reading fees. A submission link is on the guidelines page of the website: www.DelmarvaReview.org.
Delmarva Review is an independent, 501(c)(3) nonprofit literary journal published by the Delmarva Review Literary Fund Inc, in Talbot County. Partial financial support comes from tax-deductible contributions and a grant from the Talbot County Arts Council, with funds from the Maryland State Arts Council.
The journal is available to readers worldwide from Amazon and other major online booksellers, as well as regional specialty book shops, like Mystery Loves Company, in Oxford.
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