Avoiding Amazon: Where We’re Buying Books

There's a lot of Terrible going on right now, but books make things better! Lately it feels increasingly vital to show our support for small businesses, especially minority-owned ones. Not sure where to go for your book-ish needs, other than Amazon? Never fear! Members of your friendly neighborhood tmr staff have curated a list of …

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Wide Range Through a Single Lens: An Interview with Michael Dumanis of Bennington Review

"I discovered writers whose work I really admire as a consequence of editing Bennington Review. The ideas I have about writing as a writer probably influence my aesthetic as an editor. "

A Braided History of Socialism, Literacy, and Education

Since the beginning, the minnesota review has supported and published progressive essays, criticism, and creative literature in an ongoing effort to provide “lively and sophisticated signposts to navigating current critical discourse” (via Duke University Press). Also published in the minnesota review are interviews with contemporary intellectuals and radical thinkers, who contribute context and a higher …

What We’re Reading

The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron: This classic self-help recovery for creatives book has given me back my sealegs after beginning the MFA. Fighting imposter syndrome, feeling creatively blocked, wondering whether or not poetry is a worthwhile pursuit? This book's week by week readings and activities get me out of my head. Right now I'm …

Applying to Grad School? A Quick (Real) Guide to Applying to MFAs

Application season is a dreadful, exhausting season for many MFA-seeking writers. It's true when they say ('they' being current MFA students, past applicants, and program faculty) applying to MFA programs is not for the faint-hearted. For one, it takes forever. Researching and deciding on your top schools is not a simple task. Most programs require …

Poem Review: “When I Kiss You, A Casket Opens” by beyza ozer

  “When I Kiss You, A Casket Opens” begins its first line in the middle of a response that has no discernible ending— “this is not terrorism/this is toxic masculinity”— it is a reaction, a refusal, a riot against the mass media that twists its angles for the right endorsement and against the culture that twists …

We’re Reading!

Dear writers, far and wide, the minnesota review is now reading submissions! From now until November 1st, we will be looking at your prose and poetry submissions from our round table (actually, kind of a lopsided, hallow square) of dedicated editors. Since 1960, the minnesota review has published a range of talented writers from every …

One Reader’s Not-Quite-Manifesto on Poetry Selection for the Lit Magazine

Magazines have outlines for the kinds of work they want – format, delivery, length, and maybe a few general dos and don’ts (no genre pieces, no previously published, no rhyming, please do rhyme, etc.). Beyond that, the only indication anyone usually writers is to “read our previous issues” – which, while not bad practice, doesn’t …

On Writing Race

A lot of us here when asked to talk about race are most comfortable, or least uncomfortable, talking about it in the language of scandal. It’s so satisfying, so clear, so easy. The wronged. The evildoers. The undeserving. The shady. The good intentions and the cynical manipulations. The righteous side talking, the head shaking. Scandal …

Contributor Update: Jessica D. Hand

Jessica D. Hand's "Blind Gods, Human Braille," excerpted below,  first appeared in issue 69 (fall/ winter 2007) of the minnesota review. Since then, Hand's work has been published in Redactions, The Cortland Review, and Barrow Street, among others. She won first place in the Agnes Scott Poetry Competition in 2011, judged by Arda Collins, and …

Contributor Update: Valerie Bandura

Valerie Bandura's poem "Step Right Up" was first published in Issue 78 (Fall 2012) of the minnesota review. Since then, Bandura has just released a new book of poetry, Freak Show (Black Lawrence Press/Dzanc Books, 2013). Bandura's poems have also appeared in numerous journals, including Ploughshares,  Alaska Quarterly Review, Cimarron Review, Mid-American Review, The Asheville Poetry …

The Best Books We Read in 2013: Poetry Roundup

  TMR's poetry readers share the best books we've read in the last year. Arian's pick: Rough Day, Ed Skoog (Copper Canyon, 2013) Ed Skoog’s newest collection of poems, Rough Day, navigates the potential of language to make us into the world and negotiates the spaces that we are ultimately born into. These poems reconcile the …

Crying, Singing, Speaking: On How Meter Leaks Into Our Lives

Not many of my friends who write poetry do so with a conscious, traditional application of rhyme and meter. I'm not complaining—I'm not a formalist, don't think that these features are vital to poetry, and recognize that as we write, we constantly produce new forms (whether or not we refer to them that way). Creating …

Contributor Update: Wendy Wisner

Wendy Wisner's poem "Nursing: Two Years Old" was first published in Issue 75 (Fall 2010) of the minnesota review (excerpted below). Since then, Wisner has just released a new book of poetry, Morph and Bloom (2013). Wisner is also the author of Epicenter (2004), as well as a chapbook, Another Place of Rocking (2010). Her …

“The cat & I are so sad and God I wish you’d call”

About a month ago, someone sent me an email that contained a link to Portia Elan's poem, "A Simile Is a Suspension Bridge," featured in Ninth Letter's Web #1 issue from this past winter. The email was empty except for the link . Nothing else was needed.I read the poem in my office and cried. I …

Contributor Update: Adam Tavel

Adam Tavel's poem "Letter to A.S. Kramer Written on the Back of a Mushroom Soup Can Label" was first published in Issue 77 (Fall 2011) of the minnesota review. It will also be featured in Tavel's new chapbook, Red Flag Up, available through Kattywompus Press. Tavel received the 2010 Robert Frost Award, and his first …

[Contributor Update]: Jesse Damiani

In honor of the new academic year, we're re-visiting Jesse Damiani's "First Grade," which appeared in issue 78 of the minnesota review. Damiani is currently an MFA candidate in poetry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His poetry has been published or forthcoming in 42opus, elimae, Pleiades, and Ninth Letter, among others. He is a past …

Interview with Karin Miller, Editor of The Cancer Poetry Project Anthology

As I’m writing this introduction, I’m also waiting to hear the results of my niece Malia’s one-year scans. They will tell us whether or not the stage IV neuroblastoma that she spent half of her life fighting has stayed away from her neural crest cells. Since Malia was declared NED (No Evidence of Disease) last …

Recently Read This and Loved it all the Way – Carrie Nelson

George Ella Lyon is a celebrated southern writer whose work includes everything from children’s books to memoirs to plays.  She is, however, first and foremost, a poet which means her job is to “see and sing the connection between things.”  Her collection Catalpa won her the Appalachian Book of the Year Award, and last year …

Kids Write Poetry, Too

Recently a friend of mine posted on Facebook a poem that her son wrote. When I read her comment under the poem, “Justen wants to publish this someday so bad!” I got to wondering if there are places for children to submit their creative work, beyond the last page of their local newspapers. I found …