Deadlines are as follows
March 1 – Spring
June 1 – Summer
September 1 – Autumn
December 1 – Winter
Please read this section before submitting work.
Please include some form of identification in the work itself.
All submissions must be in electronic form. Our preference is an MS Word file uploaded through the system below. Please do not send us pdf files. We can't use them.
By submitting work to us you grant us a non-exclusive license to publish your work in any form we see fit. You may withdraw a submission up until the issue deadline (see above).
We don't pay so you retain all copyrights. If we publish your work online we may include it in a printed edition.
Poetry may be submitted in any length. Please don't submit 100 poems and ask us to pick 3.
Fiction may be submitted in three formats:
very short stories less than 500 words in length
short stories less than 1000 words in length
Short stories that don’t fit the above should be less than 3000 words.
We also accept longer forms of fiction occasionally.
Non-Fiction is just that so lets see some
interesting footnotes. Non-fiction should be short, (a lot) less than 5000
words
Book Reviews should be positive unless the author
is a well-known blowhard. Our mission is to encourage literature not
discourage it..
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 44st issue (Volume 11, no 4) 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 keep publishing their anthologies).
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. These files are large and we hope you will be patient when downloading
then, however 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 Vulgar Art Movement: There is a word that seems to define our times, it’s vulgar. There is something about our current imitation of the gilded age that has a vulgarity the mansions of Newport Rhode Island never had. Wealth, robber barons, and over-the-top ostentation are a new sign of the times.
Having an art collection has always been a sign of cultural sophistication. Hiring an art consultant to make sure your collection is up to par, regardless of cost or contents, is also a sign of the times and a signal that the cultural value one’s collection is of less importance than the price paid at public auction. To be seen as sophisticated is far more important than being sophisticated.
Future historians of the arts will find 2017 to be a watershed year.
Not a single “A-List” performing artist is willing to perform for the incoming President of the United States at his inauguration. A number of prominent visual artists, when informed about who had collected their works. rebelled, asking that their works be removed from these collections.
Like it or not, the President of the United States has a lot of power far beyond the merely political. It goes well into the cultural heart of the nation. Who gets funded, who gets appointed, who gets what awards are all part of the power the President has over the cultural life of the country. Those who want to curry favor with the power elite will adopt whatever artistic standards seem appropriate even if it’s nothing more than a gilded coprolite.
Of course, there will always be those willing to jump in whenever there is a vacuum. If the 2016 A-List in the arts is, in retaliation, shunned, a new A-list will eagerly appear. At the risk of stepping on a fresh turd, I am going to call the new movement in the arts simply the Vulgar Movement. It will be a movement designed, at the outset, to appeal to this new cultural elite (who are, by definition, those willing to pay for art). There is already a Vulgar Movement in the political arts, there will be a Vulgar Movement in visual as well as aural arts and, I suspect, the theater arts as well. Hamilton will run its course and be replaced by something more appealing to the Forbes top 200 and their sycophants.
A wonderful collection of essays came in over the transom this Summer. Our essays range from a war memoir to a dissertation on writing letters by hand and lots more.
Our fiction editor loves Anton Chekhov and despairs the notion that there are no latter day Chekhov's submitting works for her consideration. This is not to say that the work she 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.
We are thrilled to have Tim Gager back at the helm of our fiction section while Prima takes a well deserved break. Tim also has a new novel out. See the review below.
Every once in a while we publish "experimental" works. Here is one:
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.
While we're at it. Our poetry editor, Teicha, also has a new book out. See the review below for that too. As usual we have a remarkable lineup of poets, so enjoy.
The widget server that once provided a smooth scrolling region for our reviews has gone the way of the Dodo and no replacement has been found so we'll just have to point you to The Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene
We are a bit incestuous this issue. Julia Carlson, our first fiction editor, reviews Teisha Dawn Twomey's new book of poetry. Teisha is our current poetry editor. Tim Gager, who returns as fiction editor (he replaced Julia Carlson) has a new book out that we've reviewed. Not to be outdone Dennis Daly both reviews a book and has his own book reviewed. We didn't do this on purpose, honest, it just came out that way.
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 nineth
anthology. You may purchase them here:
