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Colorado Review

“Not For Us”

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Magazine Review by Katy Haas

Rage Hezekiah has three poems in the Summer 2021 issue of Colorado Review. Of these, “Not For Us” stuck out to me the most, visually grabbing my attention as I paged through the issue.

“Not For Us” is an erasure of rejection letters. I assume these were taken from publication rejections, and appreciated the poet’s ability to create new writing out of these. The reader takes in the sparse words left over and it’s interesting to see how similar the language is, the repetition leading the reader’s eyes over the two-page spread of rejections.

Hezekiah’s piece is a good reminder that just because something is “not for us,” doesn’t mean that’s the end.

“Not For Us” by Rage Hezekiah. Colorado Review, Summer 2021.

NewPages Mag Stand: Colorado Review

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The Summer 2021 issue features work by Rage Hezekiah, Patricia Liu, Neha Mulay, Bradley Bazzle, and Sarah Curtis. Also in this issue: Tom Howard, Lance Olsen, Nikki Ervice, Jehanne Dubrow, Richard Zonnenmoser, Darren C. Demaree, and more. See a full list of contributors at the Mag Stand.

Colorado Review Podcast: In Conversation with Brandon King

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Screenshot of Colorado Review PodcastPodcasts are still all the rage and literary magazines are supplementing the work they feature in print and online with podcast series. Colorado Review has it’s very own podcast series available in Apple Podcasts or the iTunes store.

They list the archive of their episodes, dating back to 2011, online. The most recent episode, posted on June 7, features podcast host C Culbertson sitting down with Brandon Krieg, author of Magnifier and winner of the 2019 Colorado Prize for Poetry. They talk ecopoetics, environmental thought, and how the practice of walking calls on us to notice the world around use.

To start with the walking. . . it’s such a practice for renewal of my own sort of mental state. It helps me get out of my head in a way. . . . You’re moving through a landscape, you’re noticing, you’re in your senses. . . it’s a way of getting out of thoughts for me.

You can also hear Krieg read a few poems from his book Magnifier.

Don’t forget to read the Spring 2021 issue of Colorado Review & subscribe today if you haven’t already.

NewPages Mag Stand: Colorado Review

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The Spring 2021 issue features nonfiction by Molly Rogers; fiction by Kathryn Harlan; and poetry by Genevieve Payne, T. Dallas Saylor, and Emma Lewis. Also in this issue: Tim Erwin, Holly Goddard Jones, Monica Macansantos, and more. See other contributors at the Mag Stand.

“The German Woman” by Josie Sigler Sibara

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“She was generous to him in every way a woman could be. Hands large and fast, but tender. Flanked like a draft horse. Breasts heavy as the cheesecloth sacks hanging over her kitchen sink, dripping whey. She had managed to keep a single goat alive in the cellar of that house, every last of its windows smashed out. She brought Richard curds so fresh they squeaked against his teeth as she scooped them into his eager mouth on a crust of bread. How was this possible when anything left breathing in her country had been killed by his own comrades?”

So begins “The German Woman” by Josie Sigler Sibara, winner of the 2020 Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction and selected by Lori Ostlund. Readers can find this short story in the Fall/Winter 2020 issue of Colorado Review.

This year’s Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction is currently taking submissions until March 14, 2021.

NewPages Mag Stand: Colorado Review

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The Fall 2020 issue features poetry by Augusta Funk, nonfiction by Ania Spyra, poetry by Lucien Darjeun Meadows, fiction by Josie Sigler Sibara, and poetry by Caitlin Ferguson. See other contributors at the Mag Stand.

NewPages Mag Stand: Colorado Review

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The latest issue of Colorado Review features fiction by Jessica Treadway; nonfiction by Jennifer Genest; and poetry by Saretta Morgan, M.A. Cowgill, and Matthew Gellman. See the other contributors to this issue at the Mag Stand.

Focus on Flowers

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Colorado Review - Spring 2020Magazine Review by Katy Haas

With the weather warming up, I see new green sprouting in my backyard daily. This seems like a good time to focus on poems about flowers found in the Spring 2020 issue of Colorado Review.

In “Bloom,” Emily Van Kley’s speaker talks to the forsythia plant “beside the house.” Together, they move through the seasons: gray in winter, blooming in summer just for the blooms to quickly disappear into leaves. Van Kley’s images are beautiful and strong with lines that really pulled at me, like “The sadness that carries / my thoughts close to its chest / will unpack it’s summer / wardrobe,” and “Soon the last rains // will poor themselves down / storm sewers’ gullets.”

Leah Tieger also writes of flowers in “Five Sunflowers,” which are a gift from “the man who loves me.” The flowers “turn the room from real / to magazine, so picture my life perpetually happy.” The flowers urge the speaker to be grateful, “if not for your presence, / at least for the hands that brought you.” The piece feels warm and loving, the same “brilliant / and saturated” yellow of the flowers.

Welcome in spring and some much needed color with these poems from Colorado Review.

NewPages Mag Stand: Colorado Review

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Colorado Review - Spring 2020Featured in this issue of Colorado Review, find poetry by Jack Ridl, Amanda Gunn, and Yerra Sugarman; fiction by Alyssa Northrop; and nonfiction by David Schuman. Plus Raksha Vasudevan, Emily Van Kley, Leah Tieger, Gay Baines, Michael Homolka, Kazim Ali, Franco Paz, Laura Kolbe, Angie Macri, Benjamin Seanor, and many more. Find out more at NewPages.

Contest :: Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction 2020

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The Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction is accepting submissions through March 14, 2020. Winner receives $2,000 and publication in the Fall issue of literary magazine Colorado Review. $15 fee to submit by mail or $17 via Submittable. Learn more…

2019 Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction Winner

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Colorado Review - Fall/Winter 2019The featured fiction piece in the Fall 2019 issue of Colorado Review is the winner of this year’s Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction: Bryna Cofrin-Shaw’s “Loss and Damage.”

Joan Silber selected the winner, and says of her selection: “How many writers could turn a conference on climate change into a very smart tale of sexual intrigue? It has ideas (all too rare in fiction), irony so good it’s unexpected, and great characters.”

Pick up a copy of the latest issue of Colorado Review to take in this story and the rest of the quality work inside the issue, or check out the winning piece online.