poetry

Todd Mercer

by Suzanna Anderson Creates

Todd Mercer was nominated for Best of the Net in 2018. Mercer won 1st, 2nd & 3rd place of the Kent County Dyer-Ives Poetry Prizes and the won Grand Rapids Festival Flash Fiction Prize. His digital chapbook Life-wish Maintenance is posted at Right Hand Pointing. Recent work appears in: Leaves of Ink, The Pangolin Review. Postcard Poems and Prose, Praxis and Soft Cartel.

The Tow-Boat Captain and Oceanic Atmospheric, Volume 1, Issue 2
Billy Fell Through (Clam Lake, 1928), Volume 2, Issue 1
EXTERIOR. WILLOW SPRINGS ROAD–NIGHT, Volume 3, Issue 1
Calendar Senior, aka Captain Miracle; Ingenue Meets Gravity; and In the Great Green Room, Volume 5, Issue 1

Robert Krantz

by Suzanna Anderson Creates

Robert Krantz was born and raised in western New York. He studied Creative Writing and English Literature at both Niagara County Community College, New York, and the University of Akron, Ohio. He is currently a M.F.A. candidate at the University of Arkansas-Monticello. Robert has published a chapbook of poetry and prose, Leg Brace Legato, available at Amazon. His work has appeared in Akros Review, Bare Fiction, Bitterzoet, East Coast Literary Review, and Poetry Quarterly. Check out his website here.

arwen, Volume 1, Issue 1
Review of Gargoyles in Volume 2, Issue 2
Review of Mishigamaa

James Croal Jackson

by Suzanna Anderson Creates

James Croal Jackson is the author of The Frayed Edge of Memory (Writing Knights Press, 2017). His poetry has appeared in Columbia Journal, Rattle, Hobart, FLAPPERHOUSE, and elsewhere. He edits The Mantle from Columbus, Ohio. Find him at jimjakk.com and @jimjakk.

Beach Mouth, Volume 1, Issue 2
Vibration of a Single Degree, Bowling, and Stand-Up Comedy, Volume 3, Issue 2
Valentine for Sara Rosenblum, In Charleston, the Day After the Shooting (2015), Coma, Instagram, Enough, and Stray, Volume 4, Issue 2

John Grey

by Suzanna Anderson Creates

John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident. Recently published in the Homestead Review, Poetry East and Columbia Review with work upcoming in the Roanoke Review, the Hawaii Review, and North Dakota Quarterly.

Rain, The Author and Winter Burial, Volume 1, Issue 1
You Read Me Stories, Volume 3, Issue 2
Interview
Blue Blood, Manifesto, and Lenny, Volume 4, Issue 2
Falling in Love, I’m in a Painting by Hopper, and Freak-Show, Volume 5, Issue 1

According to its Lights and An Ode to the Morning After, Volume 6, Issue 1

Gary Beck

by Suzanna Anderson Creates

Gary Beck has spent most of his adult life as a theater director. He has 14 published chapbooks. His poetry collections include: Days of Destruction (Skive Press), Expectations (Rogue Scholars Press). Dawn in Cities, Assault on Nature, Songs of a Clerk, Civilized Ways, Displays, Perceptions, Fault Lines, Tremors, Perturbations and Rude Awakenings (Winter Goose Publishing) The Remission of Order, Contusions and Desperate Seeker will be published by Winter Goose Publishing. Conditioned Response (Nazar Look). Resonance (Dreaming Big Publications). Virtual Living (Thurston Howl Publications). Blossoms of Decay, Expectations and Blunt Force (Wordcatcher Publishing). His novels include: Extreme Change (Cogwheel Press), Flawed Connections (Black Rose Writing), Call to Valor and Crumbling Ramparts (Gnome on Pigs Productions). As part of the continuing series, ‘Stand to Arms Marines’, Gnome on Pigs Productions will publish the third book in the series, Raise High the Walls. Sudden Conflicts (Lillicat Publishers). Acts of Defiance and Flare Up will be published by Wordcatcher Publishing. Extreme Change will be published by Winter Goose Publishing. His short story collections include, A Glimpse of Youth (Sweatshoppe Publications). Now I Accuse and other stories (Winter Goose Publishing). Dogs Don’t Send Flowers and other stories will be published by Wordcatcher Publishing. The Republic of Dreams and other essays will be published by Gnome on Pigs Productions. His original plays and translations of Moliere, Aristophanes and Sophocles have been produced Off Broadway. His poetry, fiction and essays have appeared in hundreds of literary magazines. He lives in New York City.

Check out his website here.

Sightings, Volume 1, Issue 1
Visitations II, Volume 2, Issue 1
Book Release, Tremors, Virtual Living, Perturbations, Blossoms of Decay, Now I Accuse, Sudden Conflicts, Expectations: A Collection of Poetry, Rude Awakenings, Internet Yearnings, Voices of War, Blunt Force: A Collection of Poetry, The Remission of Order, The Republic of Dreams: And Other Essays, Acts of Defiance, Flare Up, Transitions, Contusions, Earth Links, Mortal Coil, The Big Match, Still Defiant, and Desperate Seeker.
Purchase Power II, Volume 3, Issue 2
Interview
Clown Show play announcement
Review, Internet Yearnings, Volume 4, Issue 2
Homeless VII, Volume 5, Issue 1
Review, Blunt Force: A Collection of Poetry, The Remission of Order, Volume 5, Issue 1

Hurricane V and Cold Spell, Volume 5, Issue 2

Book Release: Raise High the Walls, Too Harsh For Pastels, State of Rage, Temporal Dreams: A Collection of Poetry, Severance, Extreme Change: A Novel, and Redemption Value

Volume 1, Issue 2

by Suzanna Anderson Creates

Welcome to the second issue of The Magnolia Review!

To download the PDF, click TMR Volume 1 Issue 2 July 2015.

For the ePub version, click here.

Thank you, and enjoy the second issue!

Correction: Sally Deskins’ pieces use text from Laura Madeline Wiseman.

Contributors for Volume 1, Issue 2, July 2015: Michael Albright, Amy Bassin, Danny P. Barbare, Roy Bentley, Mark Blickley, Katarina Boudreaux, Barbara Brooks, Audrey Carroll, Yuan Changming, Dylan Debeli, Christine Degenaars, Sally Deskins, George Drew, James English , Richard Fein, Ruth Foley, Erin Darby Gesell, Mitchell Grabois, William A. Greenfield, Zebulon Huset, James Croal Jackson, Seth Jani, Janne Karlsson, Robert S. King, Monique Kluczykowski, Lavana Kray, Thom Kunz ,Charlene Langfur, Christine M. Lasek, Andrew Lindquist, Taidgh Lynch, Carolyn Martin, Brendan McDonnell, Michael P. McManus, Brian McRoberts, Todd Mercer, Abigail Parlier, Michael Passafiume, Richard King Perkins II, Maria Picone, Frederick Pollack, Sally Reece, Jessica Robinson, Allison Rosh, Mark Antony Rossi, Terry Savoie, Domenic Scopa, Ruth E. Towne, Bill Vernon, Terri Hadley Ward, Bill Wolak

Reviews for Volume 1, Issue 2, July 2015:The Bones of Us by J. Bradley and Adam Scott Mazer, Sylph by Abigail Cloud, I Will Love You For the Rest of My Life by Michael Czyzniejewski, The Opposite of Loneliness: Essays and Stories by Marina Keegan, Praying Drunk: Stories, Questions by Kyle Minor, and The Great Glass Sea by Josh Weil.

Interview for Volume 1, Issue 2, July 2015: A Dance with Demons, and Other Melancholies, Interview with Abigail Cloud, author of Sylph, winner of the Lena-Miles Wever Todd Prize.

Issue 2 is almost here!

by Suzanna Anderson Creates

The Magnolia Review Volume 1 Issue 2 will be available next Wednesday, July 15!

Here’s a sneak peek at our cover.

TMR 1.2 cover

For the second issue of The Magnolia Review, 12 artists submitted 47 pieces of art and photography, 20 creative nonfiction writers submitted 25 creative nonfiction pieces, 69 fiction writers submitted 71 stories, and 100 poets submitted 447 poems.

National Poetry Month

by Suzanna Anderson Creates

Thank you for joining us for National Poetry Month!

April 16: An abandoned train yard,, a gray labyrinth of rusting steel lines sprawling across a gravel field. Write a poem to find something happy among the graffiti ruins.

April 17: Have you ever dreamed of falling? Falling falling falling until you hit? You hit and you wake up falling into the bed beneath you, gasping for breath because you just fell–you felt it, the bed sinking beneath you. Write a poem about any aspect of these dreams: falling, crashing, or waking up.

April 18: Tolstoy said: “Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold.”
Meditate on this metaphor of truth. Do you agree? Write a poem exploring this metaphor, if you agree, or your own metaphor of the worth of truth.

April 19: Look around your room or out a window for ten seconds then close your eyes and describe what you see.

April 20: Choose a picture from our first issue and write some ekphrasis poetry.

April 21: Write a conversation about secrets as a poem. Use the words orange, drill, willow, and expire.

April 22: You come across a doll in the attic of a new home. What does it look like, how did it get there, and what impression do you get from it? Is it covered in dust and cobwebs? Does it look like it was recently placed there? Is it porcelain with a shattered skull?

April 23: Imagine a city. What is life like there? What are some of its most intimate nooks and crannies? Are you safe, secure? Is it static? Ever-changing? What is its history? Personify it.

April 24: Write a humor poem. Make an amusing grocery list. Crack a joke or two. Experiment with voice.

April 25: Two characters are in a living room. Describe the scene. Mention the candy bowl. What does the bowl look like? What kind of candy is the bowl? Leftovers from Halloween the year before?

April 26: What’s your favorite color? Write a poem without naming it or any other colors.

April 27: Go to your favorite hang out and write a poem using only your sense of smell, taste, and touch to describe the place.

April 28: Reflect on this Old Irish Blessing.
May those that love us, love us.
And those that don’t love us,
May God turn their hearts.
And if He doesn’t turn their hearts,
May He turn their ankles
So we will know them by their limping.

Choose a character–the man asking for the blessing, God, or those whose ankles would turn–and write a poem about their experiences surrounding the blessing.

April 29: Doodle for 20 seconds about anything. Use an object nearby as a model. Draw from the imagination. Then write a poem about the experience of doodling or the doodle itself.

April 30: Write an ars poetica. What does poetry mean to you? What is your definition? What do you love the most about it? What is your poetry-writing process?