Author’s Note: “This poem virtually wrote itself when I was hole up writing in Marfa, Texas, a thin place, as in hardly separated from the source. One afternoon outside my back door I espied through the coke-bottle glass, a young girl who sat at a card table on her porch across the street happy as you please writing in that red bird notebook. I simply stood there in solidarity with another non-civilian.”... [Continue Story]
Editor’s Note: “Goodbye Mr. Kamali,” from the review’s 15th anniversary edition, has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize in fiction.
Author’s Note: “Growing up in a country under theocratic rule, I witnessed most Iranians suffering from religious and cultural cleansing, the root of Iranians’ ongoing uprisings today. Minorities, especially Jews and Baha’is, are in constant danger still. Here, I am a young girl hiding in a cupboard, listening. I discover the crime of my father’s friend: his refusal to convert to Islam, and the fate he will suffer for it.”... [Continue Story]
Author’s Note: Since I first looked into a kaleidoscope as a young child, I’ve been fascinated by and deeply curious about perception. How do we perceive the world and apprehend mystery? How do we know what we know about anything? Our limitations and the possibility of enlightenment always are juxtaposed, as they are in the poem. I’ve come to rely on poetry itself as a way of perceiving and knowing the world, other people, and the divine.... [Continue Story]
Author’s Note: I wrote “Lemon Ginger Tea” after spending a winter afternoon with my brother. We are both at really transitory moments in our lives and this felt especially true that day. Both our conversation and where we sat felt so indicative to me of both being in a liminal space together. In a lot of ways, I see the poem as being about brotherhood and being able to know someone’s life from that perspective. I use the “you” to try to convey that closeness to the reader so hopefully they can feel it too... [Continue Story]
Author’s Note: “Rescue” was my first attempt at writing flash fiction when I craved something immediate and stark in between revisions of a novel. That initial dabble with flash years ago spawned a series of stories about women who reluctantly come to care for dogs. While most of the other pieces—flash fiction, short stories, and a novella—deal with connections between people or with nature, and some even have hopeful notes, my firstborn remains my favorite... [Continue Story]
Author’s Note: I live just outside of Baltimore, in a historically blue-collar neighborhood surrounded by water and wildlife. Sometimes it feels like living in a novel Gabriel Garcia Márquez and Kurt Vonnegut could have written together: filled with the magic and tragicomedy of the universe. As people and animals were dying around me, I wrote this narrative meditation on the disheartening matter-of-factness of transience and finding comfort in tiny acts of kindness and each new day... [Continue Story]
Delmarva Review announced six Pushcart Prize nominations for poetry, fiction, and nonfiction from the literary journal’s 15th anniversary edition, released in November.
Poetry nominations are “Red Beans,” By Catherine Carter, of North Carolina, “Now Only in Part,” by Marda Messick, of Florida, and “Learning to Swim,” by Ellen Sazzman, of Maryland.
Fiction nominations include “Goodbye Mr. Kamali,” by Sepideh Zamani, and “Butchery,” by Josh Trapani, both from Maryland.
A personal essay, “The Entropy of Little Things,” by Martina Kado, from Maryland, was nominated for nonfiction.
The Pushcart Prize honors outstanding writing published during the year by small presses “dedicated to exciting, innovative and eclectic prose and poetry.”
Delmarva Review was created to encourage authors to pursue their best writing. While publication is competitive, the review offers writers a valued publishing home in print for their most compelling writing at a time when many commercial publications are reducing literary content or going out of business.
Since its first issue in 2008, the Delmarva Review has published the new literary work of 490 writers. They have come from 42 states, the District of Columbia, and 16 foreign countries. Forty-six percent are from the tri-state Delmarva Peninsula and Chesapeake Bay region of the Mid-Atlantic. Eighty-four have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Some have received notable mention in “best of” anthologies or achieved recognition from literary critics and editors. For some, publication has been the first public recognition of their literary accomplishments.
The submission period for Delmarva Review’s 16th annual edition is open now through March 31, 2023. Editors read all submissions and do not charge reading fees. A submission link is on the guidelines page of the website at delmarvareview.org.
Delmarva Review is an independent, 501(c)(3) nonprofit literary publication produced by the Delmarva Review Literary Fund Inc, in Talbot County, Maryland. Financial support comes from tax-deductible contributions and a grant from Talbot Arts, with funds from the Maryland State Arts Council.
The journal is available worldwide in print and electronic editions from Amazon.com and other online booksellers. Print editions are also available from regional specialty book shops.
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Author’s Note: The poem tries to uncover the gnawing sense of loneliness and alienation that has become a characteristic feature of life in the cities. With every passing day, no matter how well we remain connected to the outside world through social media, there is always this sense of emptiness that devours us. This poem tries to capture that sense of angst and the problematics of belonging... [Continue Story]
St. Michaels, MD - Delmarva Review announced publication of its 15th anniversary literary journal presenting new poetry, short stories, and creative nonfiction from 60 authors in 18 states, the District of Columbia, and six foreign countries. The review publishes the most compelling new writing selected from thousands of submissions during the year.
“Through the author’s voice, we discover qualities and truths about ourselves,” said Wilson Wyatt, executive editor. “Perhaps more than anything else this describes the strength of our connections with literature.”
Since its beginning in 2008, Delmarva Review has published new literary poetry and prose from 490 authors from 42 states, the District of Columbia, and 16 foreign countries. Forty-six percent are from the Chesapeake and Delmarva region. Eighty-four have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Some have attained notable attention in “best of” anthologies or received public acclaim from other literary critics and editors.
As a literary collection, the focus is on outstanding new writing. This year’s topics include dealing with grief, sickness, death, love, human freedoms, aging, and the uncertainty of life, among others. They have one quality in common—change—and the uncomfortable challenges of dealing with change.
This year’s cover photograph, The Fisherman, by Wyatt, tells a visual story. An osprey spreads its wings to exhibit his power, while positioned high above the water on a storm-broken tree. His talons are clutching a partially devoured fish.
“The osprey’s purpose is not so much the fish,” Wyatt said, “as it is his desire to lure a suitable mate for the season’s nest. Thematically, the image exhibits the territorial imperative shared throughout the animal kingdom, including humans.”
Delmarva Review was created to offer authors a valued home to publish their best writing at a time when many commercial publications were reducing literary content or closing their doors.
The review makes room for new writers, as well. This year’s fiction includes writing from the first recipient of the Delmarva Review Talbot County Youth Writing Scholarship award. In partnership with Talbot County Schools and supported by a grant from Talbot Arts, the review selected “E Duo Unum” from Maxine Poe-Jensen, a high school senior at St. Michaels High School.
While favoring the permanence of the printed word, the review publishes electronic versions to meet the digital preferences of readers. Both paperback and electronic editions are immediately available at Amazon and other online booksellers. The print edition is also available at regional specialty bookstores.
In addition to Wyatt, the journal’s editorial staff for this edition includes Bill Gourgey, the managing editor who designs and publishes the review, poetry editor Anne Colwell, poetry assistant editor Katherine Gekker, fiction senior editor Harold O. Wilson, fiction coeditors Lee Slater and Judy Reveal, and nonfiction editor Ellen Brown.
The submission period for the 16th edition is open to all writers now through March 31, 2023. Delmarva Review does not charge any submission or reading fees. Writers’ guidelines are posted on DelmarvaReview.org.
Published by the Delmarva Review Literary Fund Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, the journal receives financial support from individual tax-deductible contributions and a public grant from Talbot Arts, with revenues from the Maryland State Arts Council. For more information, see DelmarvaReview.org.
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Author’s Note: “Elm Trees” started as my memory of watching the daily removal of the last trees destroyed by Dutch Elm Disease. Period photos of Clinton County, New York show the damage to the landscape caused by the disease. Soon even long-time residents would have only a vague memory of elms. As I wrote each draft during the height of the pandemic, the trees took on a haunting sense of fear and helplessness... [Continue Story]
