All submissions must be in electronic form. Our preference is an MS Word file uploaded through the form below.
We don't pay so you retain all copyrights. If we publish your work online we may include it in our print annual.
Poetry may be submitted in any length. Please don't submit 100 poems and ask us to pick 3.
Short fiction may be submitted in three formats:
1.very short stories less than 500 words in length
2.short stories less than 1000 words in length
3.Short stories that don’t fit the above should be less than 5000 words.
We also accept longer forms of fiction occasionally.
Non-Fiction is just that so lets see some
interesting footnotes.
Book Reviews should be positive unless the author
is a well-known blowhard. Our mission is to encourage literature not
discourage it.
Non-fiction should be short, (a lot) less than 5000
words.
Any form of art may be submitted with the constraint that
it must be something that can be published in 2 dimensions. It’s hard to
publish sculpture but illustrations together with some intelligent prose
count.
Published works are welcome with proper attribution.
Welcome to the nineteenth issue (Volume 5, no 3) of the Wilderness
House Literary Review. WHLR is a result of the collaboration between a
group of poets and writers who call themselves the Bagel Bards (who have just published their latest anthology).
The stories, articles, poems and examples of art have
been presented as PDF files. This is a format that
allows for a much cleaner presentation than would otherwise be available on
the web. If you don’t have an Adobe Reader (used to read a PDF file) on your
computer you can download one from the Adobe website. The files are large and we hope you will be patient when downloading
but we think the beauty of the words deserves a beautiful presentation.
Finally, the
copyrights are owned by their respective authors whose opinions are theirs
alone and do not reflect the opinions of our sponsors or partners.
The leaves are falling like snow in the gentle breeze. Autumn, like spring, is brief in this part of New England. A maple tree that was summer green a week ago now flames red and yellow at the edges and will be consumed within the next two weeks leaving only its gray winter skeleton to endure the cold. The hummingbirds left quietly a week ago while indecisive flocks of geese form fleets in the air prepared to fly south, and some do.
Winter is coming early this year but the Starlings have not yet held their convention. The summer drought has left the Littleton Town Forest, normally a dark foul swamp, dry enough to walk through and the little stream that normally meanders through has been reduced to a collection of muddy vernal pools. The tracks of deer, coyotes, a bobcat and, perhaps, a bear (not seen in 150 years) lead to and from these spots and the grasses along the edges have long since thrown next year’s seed to the wind. Hunting will be easy this year. The Fire Chief looks out his window and ponders, the last great fire here was over 100 years ago and it’s very dry in the new grown forest.
Still this is the time to rejoice in New England, this is the time tourists flock to the back roads and farmsteads. Johnny Appleseed lived here, so did Uncle Sam and there is nothing more American than New England in the fall.
Our annual anthology will be available soon - come back often for announcements or join our mailing list - top left. Or
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Art
Will Kerr is the Artist in Residence at Sichuan University in Chengdu, China where he is currently painting 300 original works for the Hotel Khalifa (Doha, Qatar), a commission by the Royal Crown Prince of Qatar for a flagship luxury destination/resort in the Middle East..
Essays
Tracy Strauss tells us about the Norman Mailer Writers Colony in A Writer’s Journey
A year or so ago we ran a story by Frances Metzman titled My Inheritance It was so good we nominated it for a prize. It turns out that we have a book of short stories in the making. Here are two more chapters: The Invisible Wife and The Right Seasoning
Our fiction editor loves Anton Chekhov and despairs the notion that there are no latter day Chekhovs submitting works for his consideration. This is not to say that the work he receives isn’t excellent … it’s just not Chekhov. To that end WHLReview announces a new prize for fiction to be called “the Chekhov Prize.” A google search reveals several other Chekhov prizes with cash. Alas we’re not offering cash. We will look for a bearded bobble-head doll. In the mean time we have T-shirts with the Chekhov Prize logo available. Just click on Chekhov's head.
Our fiction editor Timothy Gager is taking time off to finish a novel. For this issue we welcome back Julia Carlson who was kind enough to reprise her role as fiction editor one more time. Julia's taste in literature is different from Timothy's. This has proved to be very interesting.
fragments of novels looking for homes (publishers)
Will Tinkham has a problem with the delivery of Roses
Poetry
Our poetry editor, not wanting to be outdone by our fiction editor is pleased to announce the Gertrude Stein "rose" prize for creativity in poetry. Anyone published in Volume 3 (and beyond) is eligible. We don't have any idea what the prize will consist of - a t-shirt for sure. Perhaps we can find a Plaster of Paris bust of Julius Caesar, put a rose in its mouth and decorate it to look like Gertrude Stein. In the mean time we have T-shirts with the our rose prize logo available. Just click on Gerturde's head.
Come back often. We post up to ten new reviews every week.
As we said when we started this is a joint
production of Wilderness House Literary Retreat and the “bagel bards”.
The “Bagel Bards” have just published their fifth
anthology. You may purchase them here:
WHLReview is brought to you by:
An exciting travelog:
Seven Days in Fiji
by Steve Glines
