It’s here! Blackbird Literary Podcast’s third episode has arrived, and it’s stunning. Listen to “Ascent, Accent” at blackbird.vcu.edu/podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Credits included here 🎧
Jessica Poli
@jessicapoli.bsky.social
Poet, Author of Red Ocher (University of Arkansas Press), and Managing Editor at Prairie Schooner www.jessicapoli.com
Heard this captivating, incredibly well-crafted poem by @jessicapoli.bsky.social in the @blackbirdjournal.bsky.social podcast and I can already tell I will never forget it. "The Duchess of Lightning Drowns" Diving Horse Show, Ocean Park, California, 1927 blackbird.vcu.edu/the-duchess-... #poetry
The Duchess of Lightning Drowns
blackbird.vcu.edu
There are just 5 days left to submit your manuscript to the 2026 Raz/Shumaker Book Prize! One winner in poetry and one winner in fiction will receive $3000 and publication through @univnebpress.bsky.social. Contest closes March 15. Submit now: prairieschoonerbookprizeseries.submittable.com/submit
"Alexia" by @jessicapoli.bsky.social has sold out, but the PDF is now available to download: sixthfinch.com/store
Our newest issue is now available for purchase! Featuring work by @feliciazamorapoet.bsky.social, @nadeemzaman.bsky.social, @mlynxqualey.bsky.social, @kgapoetwriter.bsky.social, @abbiekiefer.bsky.social, @riggstah.bsky.social, and more. Order the issue here: prairieschooner.unl.edu/issue/winter...
That’s the other thing that baffles me about AI and creative writing, actually. The work IS the joy for me. I don’t want to be able to snap my fingers and have a completed “product.” I want to be transformed by the process. I’m an author but I do this because I enjoy the rigor of being a writer.
In terms of process, I enjoy writing but revising????? Oh, that’s my real kink. A second or third draft???? A fourth???? Making tweaks on my desktop AND my phone???? *moans* I’m a WHORE for revision.
Our latest issue is now available for purchase! Featuring work by @bcar.bsky.social, @lenakt.bsky.social, @ninacpelaez.bsky.social, @pagestar.bsky.social, @preetivangani.bsky.social, @michaelimossan.bsky.social, and more. Order the issue here: prairieschooner.unl.edu/issue/fall-2...
We're very excited to announce that the new Glenna Luschei Endowed Editor-in-Chief of Prairie Schooner is Timothy Schaffert, Adele Hall Professor of English and director of creative writing at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Read more about Schaffert here: news.unl.edu/article/scha...
"If there could be love without violence, there would be no breakers or boat. There would be no tower to dive from. Maybe there would be a field..." Run over & read @jessicapoli.bsky.social's poems about diving horses at Blackbird. I took the image from her post on the poems elsewhere! rb.gy/wi6md7
A NEW round of shout-outs is up on our Substack: wildroofjournal.substack.com/p/saturday-s... @jessicapoli.bsky.social @kaicoggin.bsky.social @clmporg.bsky.social @dintywmoore.bsky.social @kashawntaylor.bsky.social @wayfarerbooks.bsky.social @mrmandell8.bsky.social @jitterbugwrites.bsky.social
Saturday Shout-Out ~ May 3, 2025
Share your recently published work with the WRJ community
wildroofjournal.substack.com
We are excited to announce that this year's judge for our Summer Creative Nonfiction Contest (opening May 15) is @nezhukumatathil.bsky.social, author of Bite By Bite and World of Wonders, a New York Times Bestseller and Barnes and Noble Book of the Year. For contest guidelines, visit bit.ly/cnf25
Michael—my favorite poet of night, of envelopes, of trains, of kisses, of mistakes, of sleep, of houses & their porches, of dreams, of the small huge (the parenthetically cosmic), of night, of night, of porches & their light, of let me try again to tell you, of the moon
Our team will be busy next week! Here are just a few events where you can find our editors and friends. We'll have a full list of Schooner-related events and panels in our upcoming newsletter. Sign up now: bit.ly/4irYItF
We're getting excited for AWP! Join managing editors from the Schooner, @northamerreview.bsky.social, South Dakota Review, and @coloradoreview.bsky.social for a conversation about managing a literary journal on Friday, March 28.
Our annual book prize in poetry and fiction is closing soon! Send us your manuscripts by March 15 for a chance to win $3000 and publication by @univnebpress.bsky.social. For full guidelines, visit prairieschooner.unl.edu/book-prize-g...
The Schooner Raz-Shumaker Book Prize is closing soon! Send us your manuscript by March 15: prairieschooner.unl.edu/book-prize-g...
"Perhaps ultimately, Poli’s collection illustrates how a collapse can lead to an expansion, leading not to an expansion of knowing, but of the true beauty of not knowing." –Grace Johnson, Colorado Review www.uapress.com/product/red-...
“ I don't know how much we want to fight to keep it. We can use it to benefit farmers and agriculture in the state, but don't want to run counter to Trump's Administration.”
Records obtained by Flatwater Free Press reveal Nebraska officials worried about far-reaching fallout from the Trump administration’s funding freeze directive, from disaster recovery to aid for mothers and infants. Read more ➡️ buff.ly/4klFXcQ
Farmers depend on climate data. They’re suing the USDA for deleting it. Growing food is a precarious business, and losing access to key information makes it worse. grist.org/food-and-agr... #Food #Farms #Agriculture #Farmers #USDA
Farmers depend on climate data. They're suing the USDA for deleting it.
Growing food is a precarious business, and losing access to key information makes it worse.
grist.org
Funding freeze leaves Kansas farmers unpaid for work they already completed www.hppr.org/hppr-news/20...
Funding freeze leaves Kansas farmers unpaid for work they already completed
Many Kansas farmers are in limbo and waiting for promised payments under contracts they signed with the federal government. It comes after a federal directive from the Trump administration paused paym...
hppr.org
All morning the / Morning has been blackening, / —Sylvia Plath
A not-so-small Monday miracle: I sent the first full draft of my dissertation to my advisor.
Just shared my books to this lovely thread - go support some trans authors!
This thread is one year old today, and, unfortunately, it is even more important to be reading and preserving trans stories than when it started. I truly thank everyone who has contributed to it, everyone who has kept sharing it, and everyone who has made a point to buy books from these authors. 🧵
"Perhaps ultimately, Poli’s collection illustrates how a collapse can lead to an expansion, leading not to an expansion of knowing, but of the true beauty of not knowing." Grateful for this beautiful and smart review of Red Ocher by Grace Johnson. coloradoreview.colostate.edu/reviews/red-...
Red Ocher - Center for Literary Publishing
$19.95 Buy Book About the Book Author: Jessica PoliReviewed By: Grace JohnsonGenre: PoetryPublisher: The University of Arkansas PressPublished: 2023Pages: 96 Book ReviewJessica Poli’s debut collection...
coloradoreview.colostate.edu
I have a new poem in the latest issue of @tahomareview.bsky.social today. Many thanks to @jessicacuello.bsky.social and the editors for including it! Read the whole issue here: tahomaliteraryreview.com/issues/issue...
You can read @mayleechai.bsky.social's essay "Lilacs" in our newest issue, which features a portfolio of Editor's Picks selected by Kwame Dawes. Order the issue here: prairieschooner.unl.edu/issue/spring...