Storyglossia Issue 20 Is Complete

If you haven't been reading along as each story has been released, the full Issue 20 is now available featuring stories by: Conor Robin Madigan, Eileen Corder, Elizabeth Ellen, Myfanway Collins, Jocelyn Johnson, David Michael Wolach, Marcela Fuentes, Mark Spencer, Shubha Venugopal, Jacquie Powers, Michael Wigdor, Sabrina Tom, Julee Newberger, and Priscilla Rhoades.

Want to read all my commentary on Issue 20 on one page? Yes

Issue 21 will start in a week or so.

Buttercup, Peaches, and Doodle-bug

The newest addition to STORYGLOSSIA Issue 20 is "Bio-Mom Returns" by Julee Newberger. Goaded by his children to follow through on a prior commitment, Rollin Price seeks out his birth mother. He finds Katherine, but is she his mother? That's up to you to decide. She does have an impressive array of pet names for Rollin, which Newberger uses in a surprising way to focus the story's undercurrent.

Julee Newberger received an MFA in creative writing from American University, and fellowships in fiction writing from the Virginia Center for Creative Arts and the Vermont Studio Center. Her fiction has appeared in WordWrights! and her nonfiction has appeared in numerous newspapers and online publications. She currently does communications work for the Annie E. Casey Foundation in Baltimore, Maryland.

Pass the Grapefruit

Just up in STORYGLOSSIA Issue 20 is "The Hollywood Diet" by Priscilla Rhoades. Although set in the late 1960's, hollywood waifs are current in today's news and tabloids (Leno did a joke about the too thin Nicole Ritchie again last night), so this take on dieting and body image also has a contemporary feel. The story is narrated in what might be termed the classic first-person style, with a faux-memoir structure and tone. A real strength of this story is that Rhoades doesn't allow the narrator—who's bounced around foster homes—to wallow in self-pity as she tells her story. The foster homes fact is casually mentioned in the first sentence and becomes subtext to inform the daughter-mother interactions, which shows just how much meaning can be imparted from a key detail, and without belaboring the narrative with backstory.

Priscilla Rhoades is a writer of poetry and short fiction whose work has appeared in Mississippi Review, The Iowa Review, and the Beloit Poetry Journal.

Storyglossia Fiction Prize 2007 Contest

The Storyglossia Fiction Prize 2007 Contest offers $1000 and publication in Issue 23, October 2007 of STORYGLOSSIA to the winning story.

All styles, subject matter, and forms of short stories in the literary fiction genre are welcome. Please submit only original and previously unpublished fiction up to 7500 words.

Entry Fee: $10

Entry Deadline: July 15, 2007

All contest entries will be considered for publication.

For submission details see the complete contest guidelines.

If You're Not, Who Is?

One of the true pleasures of editing and publishing a literary journal is introducing a new writer to readers. So please welcome Michael Wigdor, whose "I'm Not Tom Cruise" is his first published story. This latest addition to STORYGLOSSIA Issue 20 continues the theme explored by some of the other stories in the issue: identity, self-image and how the perception of others shapes them. Strong story arc in this one with a neat double denouement. I also liked the sly humor and the allusions to the movies Cruise has made.

Michael Wigdor lives and works in Boston, is an avid movie fan, and has a Screenwriting Certificate from Emerson College. He has written a couple of screenplays, one of which made the quarterfinals of a national contest, two short plays, and several short stories. He has never been to Pittsburgh.

Cleanliness Is Next to Emptiness

For those of you not on the feed, a few days ago I posted Episode 20: Cleanliness Is Next to Emptiness.

This story went by the title "Release" through many revisions, but when I revised it for inclusion in the collection, this title, with its twist on the old saw, seemed a better fit. Mix of styles in this one. Scenes, free indirect discourse, straight narrative. Caryn's a cleanroom technician who's reached the limits of her sterile lifestyle . . .

Listen now [49:19 mins - 33.9 mb]. Right click to download and save without listening right away. On a Mac? Then its option + click to just download the file.