ISSUE 10 - SPRING 2020
"So This Is Paradise"
Oil on Canvas by Britnie Walston
We are currently closed to Issue 10 submissions. From 1500 individual prose poems, lyric and hybrid essays, and works of creative nonfiction this reading period, these 50 or so have been chosen. Why so many? Because there were so many shiny things to pick from, and as we all know, the shiny things are appealing. Yet still our acceptance rate is just over 3%, and we had to pass on 1450 pieces of work. Several new works will be released each month through sometime this summer. Our lovely artwork for this issue is by Britnie Walston and was chosen from over 200 pieces. Many thanks to each and every writer and artist who sent something in.
Cezarija Abartis - "A Geography of Sisters" (hybrid prose)
Ingrid Andersson - "The Wife Who Made a Wish" (prose poetry)
Richard Baldasty - "The Museum" (prose poetry)
Gaby Bedetti - "Kisses" and "The Day After Christmas" (prose poetry)
Lisa Bellamy - "Wisdom" (prose poetry)
Hannah Blaser - "Necessities" (creative nonfiction)
Ace Boggess - "A House, Like Technology, Soon is Obsolete" (prose poetry)
Lisa Dart - "Every So Often Along Manor Road" (prose poetry)
Katherine Fallon - "Safety" and "Remembering Myself" (prose poetry)
Elisabeth Fondell - "An Essay on Gray" (creative nonfiction)
Marc Frazier - "Waiting to Grow Up" (prose poetry)
Julia Gerhardt - "My Best Friend's Father" and "22 and Wanting" (prose poetry)
Michael Hanner - "Vespers" and "Jumping Uphill" (prose poetry)
Chad Hanson - "Aperture" (prose poetry)
Daniel Holmes - "Among Swimmers" (prose poetry)
Kristen Holt-Browning - "Ineffable" (prose poetry)
Juleigh Howard-Hobson - "Some Lithuanian American Family Facts" (creative nonfiction)
Eli Jacobs - "Counting Rabbis" (creative nonfiction)
Chris Kaiser - "It's In Our Nature" (prose poetry)
R. D. King - "/* Jane.c */" (prose poetry)
Emily Kingery - "Seventeen" (prose poetry)
Amy Lundquist - "Six-Month Check-up" (prose poetry)
Trenton Mabey - "Games People Play" (prose poetry)
Angela Mackintosh - "Happy Sobriety Birthday" (creative nonfiction)
BF McCune - "If I Met My Mother Now, Would We Be Friends?" (prose poetry)
Kailey Medzadourian - "To Each Parishioner Their Own" (prose poetry)
Robert Miltner - "Greenland" (prose poetry)
Laurel Miram - "The Oldest Spider" (creative nonfiction)
Eric Odynocki - "Deliverance" (prose poetry)
Haley Petcher - "To You, When Displaced" (prose poetry)
Kay Porterfield - "No More, No Less" (creative nonfiction)
Sean Prentiss - "103 Pounder Studies the Garden of Earthly Delights" (creative nonfiction)
Charles Rafferty - "An Omelet for the Sedges" and "I No Longer Worry About Drowning in Misnamed Water" (prose poetry)
M. Ann Reed - "Remembering Mary Oliver," "Celebrating the Dandelion," and "Golden Silk Orbweaver" (prose poetry)
Emily Sanford - "Familiaris" (prose poetry)
Jeff Schiff - "Flower Market" and "What It Takes to Shop in the Third World" (prose poetry)
Cathryn Shea - "In the Wake of My Sister" (prose poetry)
Rianna Starheim - "True Story, in as Many Words" (creative nonfiction)
Lenora Steele - "Visiting on David's Birthday" (prose poetry)
Dawn Terpstra - "Kitchen Vigil" (prose poetry)
Samantha Walsh - "Postcards from Georgia" (prose poetry)
Connie Wieneke - "When All There Is Is Blue" (prose poetry)
Cezarija Abartis - "A Geography of Sisters" (hybrid prose)
Ingrid Andersson - "The Wife Who Made a Wish" (prose poetry)
Richard Baldasty - "The Museum" (prose poetry)
Gaby Bedetti - "Kisses" and "The Day After Christmas" (prose poetry)
Lisa Bellamy - "Wisdom" (prose poetry)
Hannah Blaser - "Necessities" (creative nonfiction)
Ace Boggess - "A House, Like Technology, Soon is Obsolete" (prose poetry)
Lisa Dart - "Every So Often Along Manor Road" (prose poetry)
Katherine Fallon - "Safety" and "Remembering Myself" (prose poetry)
Elisabeth Fondell - "An Essay on Gray" (creative nonfiction)
Marc Frazier - "Waiting to Grow Up" (prose poetry)
Julia Gerhardt - "My Best Friend's Father" and "22 and Wanting" (prose poetry)
Michael Hanner - "Vespers" and "Jumping Uphill" (prose poetry)
Chad Hanson - "Aperture" (prose poetry)
Daniel Holmes - "Among Swimmers" (prose poetry)
Kristen Holt-Browning - "Ineffable" (prose poetry)
Juleigh Howard-Hobson - "Some Lithuanian American Family Facts" (creative nonfiction)
Eli Jacobs - "Counting Rabbis" (creative nonfiction)
Chris Kaiser - "It's In Our Nature" (prose poetry)
R. D. King - "/* Jane.c */" (prose poetry)
Emily Kingery - "Seventeen" (prose poetry)
Amy Lundquist - "Six-Month Check-up" (prose poetry)
Trenton Mabey - "Games People Play" (prose poetry)
Angela Mackintosh - "Happy Sobriety Birthday" (creative nonfiction)
BF McCune - "If I Met My Mother Now, Would We Be Friends?" (prose poetry)
Kailey Medzadourian - "To Each Parishioner Their Own" (prose poetry)
Robert Miltner - "Greenland" (prose poetry)
Laurel Miram - "The Oldest Spider" (creative nonfiction)
Eric Odynocki - "Deliverance" (prose poetry)
Haley Petcher - "To You, When Displaced" (prose poetry)
Kay Porterfield - "No More, No Less" (creative nonfiction)
Sean Prentiss - "103 Pounder Studies the Garden of Earthly Delights" (creative nonfiction)
Charles Rafferty - "An Omelet for the Sedges" and "I No Longer Worry About Drowning in Misnamed Water" (prose poetry)
M. Ann Reed - "Remembering Mary Oliver," "Celebrating the Dandelion," and "Golden Silk Orbweaver" (prose poetry)
Emily Sanford - "Familiaris" (prose poetry)
Jeff Schiff - "Flower Market" and "What It Takes to Shop in the Third World" (prose poetry)
Cathryn Shea - "In the Wake of My Sister" (prose poetry)
Rianna Starheim - "True Story, in as Many Words" (creative nonfiction)
Lenora Steele - "Visiting on David's Birthday" (prose poetry)
Dawn Terpstra - "Kitchen Vigil" (prose poetry)
Samantha Walsh - "Postcards from Georgia" (prose poetry)
Connie Wieneke - "When All There Is Is Blue" (prose poetry)
GENERAL INFORMATION (and far too much of it; hopefully it's helpful)
What we seek: Place-based themes, literary vitality, moral consequence, the sharply beautiful and achingly honest but without a lingering on the darkness. Your submission should be considered "crossover" work: that is, suitable for most ages, though certainly not dumbed down or soft or overtly religious.
What we hope to avoid: purple prose, genre/mainstream writing, erotica, horror, bawdy and base elements, base humor, predictability, swearing, gratuitous sexuality, racial or sexual bias, bigotry, name-calling, preaching / conversion attempts / agenda in religious or philosophical work, political works without story and literary bent or which aims to convert. Excessive and unnecessary drama for drama's sake. Darkness for darkness' sake. Find better ways to employ strong emotion in your writing.
If you're not sure about a work or a topic, please send it anyway.
Miscellaneous Facts
Simultaneous submissions are fine but as per usual please let us know immediately if you receive an acceptance before you hear back from us, as is customary.
We do not favor reprints unless it's a piece that meets our requirements above and has been published in an outstanding and well-known literary venue.
Any writer from any country in the world is welcome to submit work in English.
Include a short third person, 50 word, bio in the Cover Letter space on the Submittable form.
This will be an online-only issue; accepted work will be posted online either month-by-month or all at once, TBD. Some work may be included in a future print anthology.
Our final decisions will be based on work quality and current needs (though we may occasionally solicit work). That being said, we eschew favoritism in all its insidious forms.
Suitable submissions may be nominated for the Pushcart award, Best of the Net, Best American Essays, etc.
Please do not ask about a free submission until at least 4 months have passed.
Terms of Publication
By submitting your work to the Eastern Iowa Review, you agree, should your work be accepted, to grant the Eastern Iowa Review exclusive print and electronic rights to your work until the time of print or online publication, as well as a non-exclusive right to maintain a copy of the published work in the literary journal archives indefinitely, online included; this includes the right to republish your work in anthology form without further remuneration, if any, to you. Any subsequent publication should include the credit “originally published in the Eastern Iowa Review.”
“Exclusive print and electronic rights” means that you agree not to re-publish your work elsewhere in print or online until the time of print publication, or in the case of online-only issues, until official online release. “Publish” means any public display of your work, and includes your personal website and posting to message boards. You are welcome to link to the page featuring your work instead, if sample excerpts or the complete work is featured online. Once the issue your work appears in has been published in print, you are free to republish your work in print or online. We have the right to display your work, in part or the whole, for promotional purposes online, in flyers, in anthology form, etc., in perpetuity. This includes on various online sales channels, in perpetuity.
Effective 2014, you also grant the Eastern Iowa Review the perpetual right to post an audio version (podcast) of your work on this or another site using our choice of reader.
You retain all other rights, including the right to re-publish the work in electronic or non-electronic form once the print issue has been released.
Letters to the editor(s) from any party may be published in whole or in part here or elsewhere on line. Names and other identifying information will be withheld unless the author’s express permission is obtained. We welcome letters to the editor. Send to: [email protected].
Masthead
While no longer a member of CLMP, we strive to achieve a similar level of ethical standards: "...to connect writers and readers by publishing exceptional writing. We believe that intent to act ethically, clarity of guidelines, and transparency of process form the foundation of an ethical contest. To that end, we agree to 1) conduct our contests as ethically as possible and to address any unethical behavior on the part of our readers, judges, or editors; 2) to provide clear and specific contest guidelines—defining conflict of interest for all parties involved; and 3) to make the mechanics of our selection process available to the public. This Code recognizes that different contest models produce different results, but that each model can be run ethically."
Further, as is often the case with CLMP journals and presses, Eastern Iowa Review uses a blind judging system to arrive at writing acceptances and contest winners. This is how we do it:
1. We accept submissions via Submittable only and use its tools to ensure that all identifying information is hidden from our readers throughout the selections process.
2. We ask entrants not to include their names or contact information within the document they upload to Submittable or its title; those who neglect this requirement will be disqualified.
3. While many journals disqualify close friends, relatives, students, and former students of the readers/judges from participation in any contest/award scenario, we're letting this one pass. We read "blind," and if the managing editor recognizes an author, she passes the work on to at least two of her other readers for their impartial input. We despise partiality in all its insidious forms and have no plans on letting it slither its way into our decisions at Eastern Iowa Review. We've turned down a number of "friends" and some many times.
- Most journals and reviews want a story; we want magic in the language & fire in the flow, a show to impress over drama to incite. Please stretch your lyrical wings. Give us the beautiful, the musical, even the odd & quirky. Think Annie Dillard meets Gertrude Stein, but make sure it makes sense.
- Free general submissions during our reading months, except for our speedy reply & basic feedback options.
- All stories must appeal to a broad audience. Do feel free to delve into the tougher subjects, only do so carefully. We are a "journal of good spaces."
- No identifying author details on submissions. We read "blind." We also reserve the right to edit all material submitted, if necessary, but the author will have final say as per usual. (Note, however, that we are not heavy-handed editors.)
- Please do not submit again until you hear back from us.
- We are primarily seeking lyric essays & prose poetry, though we'll also consider creative nonfiction. Please, no standard poetry, journalistic essays, book reviews, etc. If you've not read Annie Dillard, you may not have discovered the kind of lyricism we especially love.
- Favorite authors: Annie Dillard, Anne Carson, Kathleen Dean Moore, Ellen Meloy, Gertrude Stein, Cormac McCarthy, Stephanie Dickinson, and others.
- We love nature, the world, outer space. Cultures & creatures. Unique takes, new voices, the same made different.
- We'd rather avoid stories of illnesses, relationship problems, and harsh family dynamics as the central focus. We want to see the gentle or redemptive or calm within the honest, the light of the flame within the darkness; and though the flame may burn at times, show us the blue streaks within the flame, the pink of the scars, and what the healing means to you, not how loudly you screamed at the touch.
- Be witty, fun or meditative. Be experimental with language.
- We generally avoid accepting divisive topics primarily because we want to reach a large audience rather than gain a small following. We will probably pass on subjects devoted to politics, creation vs evolution, religious rants, abortion as a primary theme, etc.
- Accepted contributors will be required to sign an author's agreement.
What we seek: Place-based themes, literary vitality, moral consequence, the sharply beautiful and achingly honest but without a lingering on the darkness. Your submission should be considered "crossover" work: that is, suitable for most ages, though certainly not dumbed down or soft or overtly religious.
What we hope to avoid: purple prose, genre/mainstream writing, erotica, horror, bawdy and base elements, base humor, predictability, swearing, gratuitous sexuality, racial or sexual bias, bigotry, name-calling, preaching / conversion attempts / agenda in religious or philosophical work, political works without story and literary bent or which aims to convert. Excessive and unnecessary drama for drama's sake. Darkness for darkness' sake. Find better ways to employ strong emotion in your writing.
If you're not sure about a work or a topic, please send it anyway.
Miscellaneous Facts
Simultaneous submissions are fine but as per usual please let us know immediately if you receive an acceptance before you hear back from us, as is customary.
We do not favor reprints unless it's a piece that meets our requirements above and has been published in an outstanding and well-known literary venue.
Any writer from any country in the world is welcome to submit work in English.
Include a short third person, 50 word, bio in the Cover Letter space on the Submittable form.
This will be an online-only issue; accepted work will be posted online either month-by-month or all at once, TBD. Some work may be included in a future print anthology.
Our final decisions will be based on work quality and current needs (though we may occasionally solicit work). That being said, we eschew favoritism in all its insidious forms.
Suitable submissions may be nominated for the Pushcart award, Best of the Net, Best American Essays, etc.
Please do not ask about a free submission until at least 4 months have passed.
Terms of Publication
By submitting your work to the Eastern Iowa Review, you agree, should your work be accepted, to grant the Eastern Iowa Review exclusive print and electronic rights to your work until the time of print or online publication, as well as a non-exclusive right to maintain a copy of the published work in the literary journal archives indefinitely, online included; this includes the right to republish your work in anthology form without further remuneration, if any, to you. Any subsequent publication should include the credit “originally published in the Eastern Iowa Review.”
“Exclusive print and electronic rights” means that you agree not to re-publish your work elsewhere in print or online until the time of print publication, or in the case of online-only issues, until official online release. “Publish” means any public display of your work, and includes your personal website and posting to message boards. You are welcome to link to the page featuring your work instead, if sample excerpts or the complete work is featured online. Once the issue your work appears in has been published in print, you are free to republish your work in print or online. We have the right to display your work, in part or the whole, for promotional purposes online, in flyers, in anthology form, etc., in perpetuity. This includes on various online sales channels, in perpetuity.
Effective 2014, you also grant the Eastern Iowa Review the perpetual right to post an audio version (podcast) of your work on this or another site using our choice of reader.
You retain all other rights, including the right to re-publish the work in electronic or non-electronic form once the print issue has been released.
Letters to the editor(s) from any party may be published in whole or in part here or elsewhere on line. Names and other identifying information will be withheld unless the author’s express permission is obtained. We welcome letters to the editor. Send to: [email protected].
Masthead
While no longer a member of CLMP, we strive to achieve a similar level of ethical standards: "...to connect writers and readers by publishing exceptional writing. We believe that intent to act ethically, clarity of guidelines, and transparency of process form the foundation of an ethical contest. To that end, we agree to 1) conduct our contests as ethically as possible and to address any unethical behavior on the part of our readers, judges, or editors; 2) to provide clear and specific contest guidelines—defining conflict of interest for all parties involved; and 3) to make the mechanics of our selection process available to the public. This Code recognizes that different contest models produce different results, but that each model can be run ethically."
Further, as is often the case with CLMP journals and presses, Eastern Iowa Review uses a blind judging system to arrive at writing acceptances and contest winners. This is how we do it:
1. We accept submissions via Submittable only and use its tools to ensure that all identifying information is hidden from our readers throughout the selections process.
2. We ask entrants not to include their names or contact information within the document they upload to Submittable or its title; those who neglect this requirement will be disqualified.
3. While many journals disqualify close friends, relatives, students, and former students of the readers/judges from participation in any contest/award scenario, we're letting this one pass. We read "blind," and if the managing editor recognizes an author, she passes the work on to at least two of her other readers for their impartial input. We despise partiality in all its insidious forms and have no plans on letting it slither its way into our decisions at Eastern Iowa Review. We've turned down a number of "friends" and some many times.