Literary Cleveland, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to help create and nurture a vibrant literary arts community in Northeast Ohio, is hosting a launch party for the Gordon Square Review on Thursday, November 9th from 6:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. at the Happy Dog at 5801 Detroit Ave. The event will feature readings from contributors and contest winners, networking, and a raffle for Lit Cleveland swag. Tickets are $8.00 (free for issue contributors and Lit CLE members).
Gordon Square Review is a new online literary magazine published biannually to showcase emerging writers nationwide, award editorial mentorships, and provide a venue to spotlight Northeast Ohio writers. The inaugural issue will go live the first week of November at Gordon Square Review.
“Getting published in literary magazines offers writers a way to get their work noticed and can be a launchpad for further publications,” says Lee Chilcote, Director of Lit Cleveland. “We’re very excited about the inaugural issue of Gordon Square Review, which features innovative work from writers across the country and in Northeast Ohio, work by writers who benefited from editorial mentorships, and of course featured pieces by our contest winners.”
“In our debut issue, you’ll find imaginary ponies, smoke signals, Greek mythology, gymnastics, smuggled champagne, heat waves, and hawks,” says Laura Maylene Walter, an award-winning writer who serves as editor-in-chief of Gordon Square Review. “These poems and prose pieces offer a startling range of creativity and innovative form, and we couldn’t be prouder of this issue.”
Prose writer Matt Weinkam (MFA in fiction, Northern Michigan University and managing editor of Passages North Literary Journal) serves as Gordon Square Review’s prose editor. Ali McClain (candidate in poetry, Northeast Ohio Master’s in Fine Arts program and director of West Side Community House’s Summer of Sisterhood program) is poetry editor.
Gordon Square Review received over 800 submissions (no, that’s not a typo) from around the globe, including contest entries. Ultimately, the editors selected 10 poems and 8 pieces of prose to be published. Here they are:
- Poetry contest winner: “On the Anniversary of the Kent State Shootings” by Mimi Plevin-Foust (($250 prize plus voucher for one free Lit Cleveland class)
- Prose contest winner: “The Difference Between Me and Paige Pendleton” by Shannon Ready ($250 prize plus voucher for one free Lit Cleveland class).
- Issue contributors (poetry): Bethany Brengan, Jenelle Clausen, Donna Hunt (NE Ohio spotlight), Jen Karetnick, Bill Lythgoe, Paula Persoleo, William Solden (NE Ohio spotlight), Mary Weems (NE Ohio spotlight), Stephanie Choi (editing mentorship)
- Issue contributors (prose): Joe Kapitan (NE Ohio spotlight), Christen Kauffman, Hannah Lackoff, Phyllis Levine (NE Ohio spotlight), Christine Langley Mahler, Carol Pang (editing mentorship), Nan Wigington (editing mentorship)
For more info about GSR, please visit Gordon Square Review.
For more info about Lit Cleveland, please visit Literary Cleveland.
