What's on our minds
Colorado Review Digital Issue (PDF)
Apr, 23 2012 | no responses
Digital friends, we’re pleased to announce that the Spring 2012 edition of Colorado Review is now also available in digital format, in addition to our beautiful print format. The digital issue features all of the great content of the print edition. It comes in a tagged Adobe PDF that is compatible with Adobe Acrobat and [...]
Poetry Submissions Closed for the Summer
Apr, 10 2012 | no responses
Dear poets, Due to a recent influx in submissions, we’ve closed our poetry submissions early for the year. Fiction submissions will remain open until our usual deadline of April 30. Nonfiction submissions are read and accepted year-round. We respect the hard work you put into your craft, and we would feel terrible guilt at not [...]
March Podcast: John Gallaher reads “Where They Feed Their Children to Kings”
Mar, 26 2012 | one response
No foolin’. Selections from Colorado Review doesn’t pull pranks or play practical jokes. We’re not going to jerk you around by flushing the toilet when you’re in the shower or pretending we got engaged last weekend to that guy you don’t like. We’re here to bring you great poetry and prose from Colorado Review, and that’s [...]
The Professionalization of Writing at Colorado Review
Mar, 20 2012 | one response
Colorado Review Editorial Assistant Derek Askey, citing author Cathy Day’s blog, outlines the discussion on professionalization in MFA programs, relating his experiences with the Center for Literary Publishing.
Contributing Editor Robin Black on Writer’s Block
Mar, 16 2012 | no responses
From Beyond the Margins, here’s a wonderful post by Colorado Review contributing editor Robin Black on dreams, ambition, genius, and self-sabotage.
February Podcast: Michelle Hoover reads “Our Little Bertha”
Feb, 28 2012 | no responses
Everyone knows the best holiday in February is on the 28. Everyone. Even Tina knows it, and she’s still non-ironically wearing Hypercolor shirts. Because Selections from Colorado Review is hip and cool and alternative and in-the-know, we waited until this exact date to release our February podcast where, by clicking this link, you can hear [...]
Laynie Browne, reading for mid-December podcast
Dec, 21 2011 | no responses
This is a bonus episode of “Selections from Colorado Review.” Do not be alarmed by its presence. Do not attempt to fight it. Do not attempt to destroy it immediately lest it destroy you first, because by waiting long enough you will be able to confirm that it has no designs on destroying you at [...]
Dec, 20 2011 | one response
Colorado Review Editorial Assistant (and Pennsylvania native) Derek Askey interviews Martin Cozza about his story “Pennsylvania Polka,” which appeared in the Summer 2010 issue (an excerpt follows this interview) Derek Askey: Among so many other things, what “Pennsylvania Polka” does well is capture (and in many ways hinges upon) its setting. What prompted the [...]
December podcast: “Beautiful Souls” by Joan Leegant
Dec, 05 2011 | 2 responses
“Selections from Colorado Review” must deliver fresh poetry and prose every month to its listeners and readers of Colorado Review. This isn’t a want thing, or a desire thing—it is a biologically-compelled-to-do-it thing, lest it suffer an unbearable and possibly fatal poetry and prose backup, which can be painful. Some people might find that fact [...]
November Podcast: Caroline Arden’s “Yolo County”
Nov, 04 2011 | no responses
Look, “Selections from Colorado Review” has a few ground rules if you and it are going to take this relationship seriously—just before you get any ideas, okay? SFCR is in this to provide you, the internet-savvy, literature-loving consumer, with fresh poetry and prose from the pages of Colorado Review every month. That’s it. So no [...]
October Podcast: Andrew D. Cohen’s “Boys School”
Oct, 07 2011 | one response
Listen—a clatterin’ in the distance. The cattle were restless today; that old sheepdog gave a plaintive howl. “I know this sound,” murmured Ole Sal. “‘Tis ‘Selections from Colorado Review‘, the cattle-rustlinest podcast ever to deliver fresh poetry and prose from Colorado Review round these parts. Reckon by the sound of it they brought some nonfiction [...]
Interview with Steven Schwartz, our new fiction editor
Sep, 09 2011 | one response
The Wonder of It By Lauren Gullion, Associate Editor I recently sat down with fiction writer, Colorado State University creative writing professor, and Warren Wilson MFA faculty member Steven Schwartz to discuss his new role as fiction editor here at Colorado Review. The conversation—meant to be about Steven—quickly evolved into an enthralling contemplation on fiction [...]
September podcast: Leslie Johnson’s “Other Lives”
Sep, 09 2011 | no responses
If you have been meaning to read Leslie Johnson’s “Other Lives,” from the Spring 2011 issue, but have for several months now had your efforts foiled by a series of eyeglasses-related accidents, each one more tragic than the last, hang up on your emergency optometrist: the very first fiction episode of “Selections from Colorado Review” [...]
Three Cups of Veritas: A Review of Byliner.com
Jul, 01 2011 | no responses
A cross-post from Brevity’s nonfiction blog by Colorado Review alumnus R. B. Moreno, now a doctoral student at the University of South Dakota’s creative writing program. Moreno’s other work can be found online at RBMoreno.com. Here’s a thought. Byliner.com’s debut nonfiction stems from several American wars. And for good reason. So often this is “the most powerful way in human [...]
June’s Podcast: 2 Poems from Katherine Factor
Jun, 21 2011 | no responses
By Dan Moore Fans of poetry read by its authors and would-be mycophiliacs take heed: June’s “Selections from Colorado Review” has been released upon an unsuspecting internet, primarily because the internet has come to expect “Selections from Colorado Review” on the first Friday of every month. To make up for startling the internet like that, [...]
May 6, 2011 Podcast: Natalie Eilbert
May, 06 2011 | no responses
Dan Moore, Colorado Review Editorial Assistant and Podcast Editor It is the first Friday of the month, and it is our goal as nascent podcasters and glossers-over of B. F. Skinner to condition Colorado Review readers to associate that particularly joyous occasion with the release of another episode of “Selections from Colorado Review,” the [...]
It’s Always Nonfiction Season at Colorado Review
May, 06 2011 | one response
As noted in our guidelines, Colorado Review closes its submission period on April 30 and re-opens on August 1. Starting this spring, however, we’re reading nonfiction year-round. It’s not that we don’t love fiction and poetry—we do!—but we just don’t get enough nonfiction. Between August 2010 and today, 54.74% of the online submissions have been [...]
An Interview with Robert Boswell
May, 05 2011 | no responses
Colorado Review’s Managing Editor, Merrill Shane Jones, interviews Robert Boswell about his story “Destroy This,” which appears in the Spring 2011 issue (an excerpt follows this interview). Merrill Shane Jones: How did “Destroy This” come about? Can you talk a bit about the process? Robert Boswell: I don’t actually remember how I got started on [...]
Colorado Review Now Podcasting
Apr, 13 2011 | one response
By Colorado Review Editorial Assistant Dan Moore Consider, if you will, some of the situations in which it is typically dangerous to read a literary journal: while driving, while jogging, while attempting to impress all your new-media friends with your casual disdain for paper content-delivery systems. For these scenarios, among others, we at Colorado Review [...]
Apr, 12 2011 | no responses
Colorado Review Editorial Assistant Nicholas Maistros interviews Shannon Cain, author of “Juniper Beach,” which appears in the Spring 2011 issue of CR Photo by Sarah Prall Nicholas Maistros: “Juniper Beach” is the story of a woman who spontaneously purchases an RV and embarks on a journey across the country. As a reader, I appreciated the [...]
Cooking with the Skloots: Veal Italienne “Sklootini”
Apr, 11 2011 | no responses
By Colorado Review Associate Editor Sarah Lin A few months ago, while in the middle of production for the Spring 2011 issue of Colorado Review, I was delighted to find myself reading for the first time Floyd Skloot‘s nonfiction piece “The Famous Recipe.” The essay details Skloot’s exploration of an intriguing, never-before-seen recipe authored by [...]
Apr, 05 2011 | no responses
With spring upon us and the end of the academic year almost in sight, the editors at Colorado Review have been seeking inspiration and enlightenment in our reading lists to give us that final push through to the close of the semester.
I Didn’t Read It, But I Saw the Movie
Mar, 31 2011 | no responses
By Colorado Review Editorial Assistant Nicholas Maistros I found myself in line for the opening of the latest Harry Potter movie. The woman in front of me was anxiously reading the book version of the film we were about to see, saying to anyone who’d listen things like, “Oh, they better get it right” or [...]
Mar, 30 2011 | no responses
By Colorado Review Editorial Assistant Nicholas Maistros In a recent New Yorker article, “The Information: How the Internet Gets Inside Us,” Adam Gopnik chronicles the debate between the two camps who’ve amassed since the Internet boom: the Never-Betters, those who “believe that we’re on the brink of a new utopia, where information will be made [...]
So I Got My MFA . . . Am I a Writer Yet?
Mar, 29 2011 | one response
By Colorado Review Editorial Assistant Nicholas Maistros In a recent online interview with the Paris Review, novelist Michael Cunningham had this to say in response to the ongoing debate over the necessity of MFA programs: “Few people question artists going to art school, or musicians going to music school. There’s some strange romance about the [...]
Timing It Right: Balancing Social Media & Our Love of Literature
Mar, 25 2011 | no responses
By Colorado Review Associate Editor Lauren Gullion Earlier this week, I wrote here to make my case in defense of Twitter as a viable tool for authors and other literary types. As we move into the weekend, I thought I’d offer up some tips on how we can engage in the social media game without [...]
An Interview with Katherine Hill
Mar, 22 2011 | no responses
Colorado Review Associate Editor Lauren Gullion interviews Katherine Hill, winner of the 2010 Nelligan Prize for her story “Waste Management” (selected by Andrea Barrett).
Mar, 21 2011 | no responses
Twitter turned 5 years old this past Saturday (March 19). In recognition of this marker, NPR ran a story covering the platform’s background as well as the role it’s played in recent political movements around the world. But does Twitter play a worthwhile role in the literary world?
Mar, 18 2011 | no responses
The Tournament of Books reached the end of its first round this weekend. That means it’s too late to get your bracket into the money at your office pool, but there’s still time to follow along with literature’s premier (mostly) single-elimination tournament of champions.
An Interview with Rusty Morrison
Mar, 08 2011 | no responses
Colorado Review Associate Editor Felicia Zamora interviews Rusty Morrison, co-publisher of Omnidawn and winner of (among numerous other prizes) the 2004 Colorado Prize for Poetry for her collection Whethering. Two of Morrison’s new poems, “Inventions” and “Necessities,” appear in the soon-to-be-available spring 2011 issue of Colorado Review.
Mar, 07 2011 | no responses
Bicyclists and our winged friends aren’t the only ones eager for spring. The beginning of March brings deadlines, deadlines, deadlines. It’s a full on smorgasbord of competitions for writers of all genres.
An Interview with Peggy Shinner
Mar, 03 2011 | no responses
Colorado Review Editorial Assistant R. B. Moreno interviews Peggy Shinner, whose essay “Leopold and Shinner” appears in our Fall/Winter 2010 issue (an excerpt from this essay follows the interview).
Feb, 24 2011 | no responses
Enter LitPak, a rather nifty service from NewPages that debuted earlier this month. Here, available for viewing or download from a single page, are nearly two dozen PDFs advertising contests and calls for submission pertaining to February.
In an Age of Great Nonfiction Writing, Too Much Nonfiction Writing?
Feb, 24 2011 | 2 responses
Thirty-seven books of poetry. Eighteen novels and short story collections. One book of reportage: Framing Innocence: A Mother’s Photographs, a Prosecutor’s Zeal, and a Small Town’s Response.
Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction: Deadline Approaching
Feb, 21 2011 | no responses
We want to remind the fiction writers out there that the deadline for the 2011 Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction is approaching: March 11. The writer of the winning story will receive $1,500, and the story will be published in the Fall/Winter 2011 issue of Colorado Review. Ron Carlson is the final judge. See complete [...]
Dec, 13 2010 | no responses
The 2011 Colorado Prize for Poetry, judged by Cole Swensen, is underway! We are accepting book-length poetry manuscripts now through the deadline of January 14, 2011. The author of the winning manuscript will receive $1,500 and the book will be published by the Center for Literary Publishing (that’s us!). And guess what! For the first [...]
Dec, 07 2010 | one response
Years ago, when he was an intern here, Christopher Arigo (author of Lit interim and In the archives) came up with a list of his most disliked words used in poems. We don’t have that list anymore, but I clearly remember two words from it: gossamer and diaphanous. It’s no longer possible for me to [...]
Birth Announcement: The Mountain West Poetry Series
Nov, 22 2010 | no responses
With the very generous support of the National Endowment for the Arts, the Center for Literary Publishing will soon launch a new book series, the Mountain West Poetry Series. This series features poets who live in the Mountain West (Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico). The first four titles in the [...]
You Adopt Babies, Highways, and Puppies—Why Not a Literary Magazine?
Nov, 21 2010 | no responses
Colorado Review is among the many literary magazines in this excellent program launched by our good friends and supporters at CLMP: The Council of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP) is rolling out an expanded catalogue for its Lit Mag Adoption Program for Creative Writing Courses. This program offers discounted subscriptions for selected literary magazines to [...]
Nov, 20 2010 | no responses
Our web site has been given a major makeover, thanks to the Talented Mr. Nolte, the web designer for CSU’s College of Liberal Arts (and a former CLP intern). You may recognize Drew’s work from such book covers as Brenda Is in the Room, The Lesser Fields, and Annulments. You can find more of his [...]