Wednesday, January 04, 2012

Pushcart Prize Nominations

Blood Orange Review is proud to announce our 2011 nominations for the Pushcart Prize:

Brit Blalock, "Epigraph for This Poem"
Jessica Karbowiak, "Second Scraping"
Deanna Larsen, "What Rape Is Like"
Paula Marafino Bernett, “G Is for Grief”
Brittany Perham, "Poem for the Beloved's Lover"
Kelley E. Shinn, "Taking Heart"

Good luck, everyone!

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Notable new book by Paul Lindholdt



If you are interested in environmental literature, H.K. Hummel recently reviewed Paul Lindholdt's new collection of essays, In Earshot of Water: Notes from the Columbia Plateau on her blog, Practice and Craft. In this work, Lindholdt takes on weighty issues like industrial contamination, superfund clean-up sites and hydroelectric dams with piercing insight and wry humor. His style is philosophical and empathetic, reverent and entertaining. Go to Practice and Craft to read a full review.

In Earshot of Water: Notes from the Columbia Plateau by Paul Lindholdt was published by University of Iowa Press in March 2011.

Saturday, July 09, 2011

The summer 2011 issue of Blood Orange Review is here!


We are pleased to announce that the newest online issue of Blood Orange Review is now available.

The newest issue of Blood Orange Review includes new writing by Brit Blalock, Jacqueline Doyle, Leonard Gontarek, Danielle Hanson, Deanna Larsen, and Claudia Serea. The issue showcases Paul McMillan's richly surreal artwork and audio recordings of poetry by Cecelia Hagen and Colette Tennant. This summer issue pops with illuminating moments that startle and humor in turn. Take a look!

Wednesday, April 06, 2011

Blood Orange Review 6.1 is here!

We’re pleased to announce the new issue of Blood Orange Review, featuring poetry by Siobhan Casey, Brittany Perham, Roger Bernard Smith, Jeffrey Taylor with a recorded poem by Jacqueline Lyons. Also in this issue, read fiction by Kelley E. Shinn and Scott R. Tucker. The photography of Sheila Smart creates the visual centerpiece for this new issue.

From the Editor's Notes
by Bryan Fry:

Here we are readers, at our unusual meeting ground, the editor’s notes, which means we editors have completed yet another issue of our journal and have officially entered our sixth year of publication. Welcome!

I would like to celebrate by congratulating our interns who have dedicated a part of their busy lives over the last year to help us sift through hundreds of submissions. We could not be more happy with their professionalism and their enthusiasm for our journal. [Continue]

Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Interns on the Scene

We hope you had a chance to meet our interns at this year’s AWP conference in Washington, DC. If you were unable to attend the conference, feel free to read the intern blogs below, which highlight some of the events.

See you next year in Chicago!

Monday, February 07, 2011

Maddie Reports from AWP (part 2)

Our first night experiencing D.C. ran much later than predicted, and the six of us awoke in a sleep-deprived stupor. After shuffling to grab our badges and winter sweaters we stumbled out into the cold, once again looking for coffee. We returned in much higher spirits, each checking our schedules in order to pick out the readings that looked most intriguing.

I settled finally on an early reading about the necessity for accurate environmental writing, a wonderful piece that discussed how the idea of the “nature writer” has shifted from Thoreau and Burroughs, taking on a more journalistic identity. Each member of the panel (including the editor of Ecotone) discussed the need for responsible environmental writers who were dedicated to the current issues of society, while still respecting to the art that is inherent in good literature. Having a particular love of reading and writing nonfiction, as well as a strong devotion to the natural world, I was extremely impressed by this discussion. It was by far my favorite of the day.

Another memorable part of the day was the book fair. We interns had struck up an unofficial competition to see who could collect the most buttons and bookmarks, and so we took it upon ourselves to scour every last inch of the fair. Getting to see all of the other journals was overwhelming to say the least, but it was also exciting and informative. We lingered a little longer at all of our favorites; River Teeth, Black Warrior, Tin House, and Mod Cloth were among the tables that caught our attention. I was most intrigued by the visual rhetoric and design methods employed by all the other journals, and took extensive notes about which colors and fonts looked best together. By the end, there was a pretty even spread between my three columns of “looks great”, “could work”, and “definitely not”.

All in all, not a bad way to end the day. Tomorrow we are going to tour a bit of D.C. and see more than just the hotel. It will be nice to get away from the constant, high energy pulse of AWP for a few hours, before returning for the final readings.

Sunday, February 06, 2011

Deven Reports from AWP

The AWP conference has been an overwhelming adventure thus far, especially with the line-up of authors. One of the readings I attended on Thursday featured Sandra Cisneros and the Iowa Writer’s Workshop panel. The group read from their upcoming book, “We Wanted to be Writers”, and debated the pros and cons of academic workshops versus independent study. At the end of the reading, I met with Cisneros and had her sign a copy “The House on Mango Street”.

On Friday I attended a reading by Carol Joyce Oats. She spoke of the untimely death of her beloved husband due to pneumonia and read from her latest book, “A Widow’ Memoir”. As a volunteer for hospice, I’ve worked with death, the dying, and the families that they leave behind. Oats’ words were emotional yet simple; beautiful yet comical. She read directly from her book, added anecdotal information, and provided wisdom and advice for those coping with loss. I have read countless pieces about death and loss and this reading was truly heart-felt, and as Oats put it—“a widow’s handbook”. Being the literary geek that I am, I also had Oats sign my copy of “The Coalminer’s Daughter”.

Sarah Reports from AWP

AWP was a complete whirlwind. We danced, laughed, attended panels, and met some amazing writers. On Thursday I checked out a panel about Jewish American Fiction. I won’t lie, the title drew me in: “Beyond Bagels and Lox.” You just can’t get more Jewish than that.

Writers Erika Dreifus, Andrew Furman, Kevin Haworth, Margot Singer, Anna Solomon discussed the challenges, freedoms, and trends in Jewish American fiction. The scene for Jewish writers is rapidly evolving from the earlier literature of assimilation. New books in the genre explore Jewish experiences from before the Holocaust, both in America and beyond it. They challenge mainstream readers to do the work to understand the vast Jewish experience and culture. Kevin Haworth described graffiti in Israel that he says describes the essence of new Jewish fiction in America. Written on a wall were the words, “Am Yisrael Chai” (The People of Israel Are Alive) and below it, a new tag read, “No shit.”

Saturday, February 05, 2011

Maddie Reports from AWP

Our descent into Washington D.C. was overwhelming and luminescent, the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial glowing like beacons across the Potomac. We had an equally illuminating trip to our hotel, thanks to our taxi driver turned tour guide, and managed to somehow settle into a deep sleep. The next day we woke bright and early to register for the conference and drink some much-needed coffee. The two-block trek to get to Starbucks was somewhat troubling to this Pacific Northwesterner, who is used to having at least three coffee shops per city block. Annoyance aside, I was able to return caffeinated and happy, and our bright maze of a hotel was a welcoming sight against the biting cold. We interns split off toward the various discussions and readings that we had chosen, and all at once AWP had begun.

My first panel was a discussion on human rights from the perspective of several Iranian American women writers. They were brilliant individuals, each with one Iranian parent, and each with a uniquely personal story. The rich emotion of their fiction, memoirs, and poetry was truly moving. I attended several more readings inspired by this first one, most of which were focused on human rights and current environmental or political issues.

I also attended the SpeakPeace exhibit put on by the Wick Poetry Center. The WPC presented several Vietnamese and Iraqi children’s paintings which depicted visions of peace and war. The Center also compiled a series of poems responding to each painting. Students, veterans, and writers from across America participated. As a PowerPoint presentation displayed the artwork, a group of children and writers performed a dramatic reading of these inspiring poems. By the end there were few dry eyes left in the room. Still, I left the reading chatting with strangers about hope for the future, rather than despair for the past.

Wednesday, February 02, 2011

Blood Orange in DC: February 2-5

Blood Orange Review is excited to be returning to AWP, held this year in Washington, DC.

Editor Bryan Fry will be on-site with our six editorial interns (Caitlin, Deven, Maddie, Sarah, Simmone, and Zach) who will be attending panels and inviting writers to submit their work.

If you're a past contributor to Blood Orange Review and will be attending the conference, please let us know. We'd love to schedule a time to meet up with you and get a recording of your work. Send an email Bryan at bryanfry@bloodorangereview.com to schedule a time to record.

We'd also like to thank Washington State University for their support of our editorial internship program and for making it possible for the interns to participate in this wonderful professional development opportunity.

Wednesday, December 08, 2010

Blood Orange Review 5.3 is here!

We’re pleased to announce the new issue of Blood Orange Review.

Featuring poetry by Candace Black, John McKernan, James Tyner with audio poetry by Amy Ash and Mandy Malloy. Also in this issue, read fiction by Lindsay Merbaum, Paige Riehl, and Gregory J. Wolos and nonfiction by Emily Adler and Tom Molanphy. The photography of Marius G. Sipa creates the visual centerpiece for this new issue.

From the Editor’s Notes
H.K. Hummel


The sky looks like it portends snow, and the maples are bare of all the brilliant fall colors they had just weeks ago. This morning, a woodpecker was busily drilling the tree in our yard, and like the woodpecker, I feel the urgent need to tidy up the winter supplies.

As I’ve been reviewing the proofs for this issue and doing the last bits of tidying work before we publish, I’ve been moved by the stories found in these pages, and the authentic glimpses of humanity that they reveal. When such pieces as each of these come across our editorial desks, we set down our coffee, rub our bleary eyes, and happily nod in turns. [read more]

See below for our nominations for the Pushcart Prize!

Sunday, December 05, 2010

2010 Pushcart Nominations

We are happy to announce our 2010 Pushcart nominations:

Emily Adler, “Summer of Our Unemployment

Scot Erin Briggs, “Target Practice

Rosalyn Cowart, “At Breakfast I Asked About the Burning of Bones

Marcia Trahan, “Bloodletting

We wish the best of luck to all of the nominees!

Tuesday, October 05, 2010

Meet BOR at the Hemingway Fair

Stop by our table at the bookfair and meet Blood Orange Review editor Bryan Fry at the Hemingway & Idaho Festival in Moscow, Idaho on Tuesday, October 5. Details below:

Local Authors Read, Live Jazz, & Book Fair
Eastside Marketplace
1420 S. Blaine St. 8:30 p.m. - to Late
After the film, join us at Eastside Marketplace for a festival reading celebrating the 20th Anniversary of FUGUE, the creative writing program’s prize-winning literary journal. Readers include Kim Barnes, Robert Wrigley, Joy Passanante, Kevin Goodan, and Brandon Schrand.

*Stay after for a drink at Mix, appetizers, live jazz, and the festival book fair.

Thursday, September 09, 2010

Good news about past contributors

We've received so many notes with good news about past contributors, we wanted to share some of it with you. Congratulations everyone!

Leah Browning's chapbook, Picking Cherries in the EspaƱola Valley, was published by Dancing Girl Press in early 2010. The poems "Spring, and the Clocks Go Back," and "Under Construction," were first published in issue 1.4.

Douglas Bruton recently won the HISSAC and Biscuit Short Story Prize for his short story, "Darius and the Bloody Big Fish." To read more of Bruton’s work, go to issue 3.3.


Charles Jensen published his full-length collection of poems through Lethe Press. The collection, The First Risk, confronts murder, myth, the nature of love, and the confusion of loss. You can read a selection of Jensen’s poems from his award-winning chapbook Living Things in issue 1.3.



Montgomery Maxton published This Beautiful Bizarre from Moon Ice Press. His editor said, “Montgomery Maxton writes classical poetry with a photographer’s eye.” Montgomery Maxton was published in issue 1.2.






Diane Simmons won the Ohio State University Press prize for her collection of short stories, Little America. You can read her work in issue 4.2.

Jayne Lyn Stahl was recently published by NYQ Books. Aram Saroyan says Riding with Destiny “embraces a literary heritage from Rimbaud to Ginsberg, from Yeats to Bob Dylan, and makes a street-wise, sexy music all her own.” Her work focuses on the art of poetry and how to “dance the dance of life.” You can read her work in issue 1.1.

Colette Tennant's first book of poetry, Commotion of Wings, is now available from Main Street Rag. Tennant says of her own writing that, “I hear music, and the music I hear is not a solo. It’s meant to be shared—usually as poems, sometimes as songs.” Tennant’s poems “Praise” and “Signs” first appeared in issue 4.3.

Wednesday, September 08, 2010

Our reading period is now open!

We're taking submissions again through our online submission manager. Please take a look at our guidelines and keep us busy!

Sunday, August 01, 2010

Blood Orange Review 5.2 is here!

The 21st online issue of Blood Orange Review has arrived!
The Summer 2010 issue of Blood Orange Review (5.2) includes fresh writing by Mark Beaver, Shimmy Boyle, Scot Erin Briggs, Whitney Dibo, John D. Fry, Aseem Kaul, Jacqueline Lyons, and Jonathan Starke with audio poetry by Arlene Ang and Brently Johnson. Illustrator Scott Gray creates the visual centerpiece for this new issue. Take a look!

Sunday, June 06, 2010

Blood Orange Review 5.1 is here!


We’re pleased to announce the new issue of Blood Orange Review.

Featuring the multimedia art installations of Karri A. Dieken, audio poetry by Kimberly Burwick, and fresh writing from Amy Ash, Ilse Bendorf, Rosalyn Cowart, Jeannie Galeazzi, Allan Peterson, Tania Pryputniewicz, and Marcia Trahan.

Wednesday, April 07, 2010

AWP Conference 2010


The AWP Conference 2010 kicks off tomorrow morning and the Blood Orange Review editors have gathered in Denver to enjoy the event. If you are in Denver for the conference too, you can find us at table O15 in the AWP book fair. Come visit with Blood Orange Review staff, browse our limited edition letterpress broadsides for sale, and re-energize with some orange slice candy if your energy is flagging.

Monday, March 01, 2010


Blood Orange Review would like to congratulate Todd Heldt for the publication of his full-length collection of poetry, Card Tricks for the Starving, through Ghost Road Press. Heldt’s poem, “Gather Us” appeared in Blood Orange Review in Volume 2.5.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Congratulations to Sean Patrick Hill

We would like to congratulate Sean Patrick Hill, whose poem "Love Terns" was first published in Volume 4.1. His first book of poetry, The Imagined Field, is being published by Paper Kite Press, and will be available in February. You can read more about the book and Hill's other works on his blog.