Subscribe by August 17 for Issue 100!

In early September, we will publish Boulevard No. 100. As you might suspect, this is a big deal for us. We’ve put together an issue that is both special and also emblematic of what it is to be Boulevard. Though we usually don’t announce our contributors ahead of time, well, this is Issue 100:

Fiction: Stephen Dixon, Dan Stolar, Weike Wang, Colin Fleming, George Williams, Sanjena Sathian

Fiction Contest winner: Caitlin Campbell

Essays: Craft Interview with Jane Smiley, Brandon Schrand, Chana Kim, Ariel Saramandi, BJ Hollars

Symposium: Robert Zaller, Meron Hadero, Shara McCallum, Rene Martinez, Phong Nguyen, Daniel Mendoza

Poetry: Hanif Abdurraqib, Carl Phillips, Albert Goldbarth, Karthik Purushothaman, Jessica Yuan, Elizabeth Tornes, Joannie Strangeland, Sean Shearer, Karla Morton, Joshua Aiken, Cynthia X. Hua

Poetry Contest winner: Mandy Gutmann-Gonzalez

Cover art: Tran Nguyen

We very much hope that you’ll subscribe, either to the print magazine or to our ebook edition.

In other news, our inaugural Nonfiction Contest for Emerging Writers closes at the end of September. It’s got a $1,000 prize, and every one who submits will receive a subscription. You can check out the guidelines or submit here.

We are delighted to announce the results of the 2018 Poetry Contest for Emerging Poets. We received many excellent entries this year, and our contest judge, Ryan Smith, selected Mandy Gutmann-Gonzalez as the winner. Their winning group of three poems will appear in the Fall 2018 or Spring 2019 issue.

Congratulations also to our honorable mentions: Joshua Aiken and Cynthia X. Hua. We will be publishing selections from their submissions as well. Huge thank yous to everyone who submitted; we enjoyed reading your work immensely.

If you would like to read their winning poems, you can subscribe to our print journal or to the e-book edition.

The Boulevard Emerging Poets Contest closes TONIGHT MIDNIGHT CT!

$1,000 and publication awarded for the winning group of three poems by a poet who has not yet published a book of poetry with a nationally distributed press.

The entry fee is $16 per group of three poems and $16 for each additional group. Fee includes a one-year subscription.

We will be standing by for questions ALL DAY at [email protected].

See full guidelines here.

You can send work in electronically on @submittable here.

We also take submissions by mail. See guidelines for address.

We asked Elizabeth Hoover, author of the winning entry of our 2017 Poetry Contest for Emerging Poets, to write about her poems and process. You can find her online at www.ehooverink.com. -Boulevard

I wish I had a good “burst of inspiration” story about these poems, but these poems are a result of a slow process of accretion.

I think about gender all the time. I think about gendered violence and how representations of gender contribute to creating the conditions for this violence. I think about why people talk about Lolita like it’s a romance novel. I wonder if it’s related to why a defense attorney would say of an 11-year-old rape victim, “Like the spider and the fly, wasn’t she saying ‘Come into my parlor?’” I like to think about finding little cracks or seams to slip through, spaces where we can try to get free.

I am deeply influenced by Miriam Schapiro’s and Melissa Meyer’s “Waste Not Want Not: An Inquiry into What Women Saved and Assembled—FEMMAGE.” In it, they define a feminist art practice within the arena of decorative craft. They write about how women take advantage of cheap and free materials—images excised from discarded magazines, remainder fabric, shoe boxes—available to artists without institutional support. They write, “Women have always collected things and saved and recycled them because leftovers yielded nourishment in new forms.” Femmage may have originally arisen from paucity, but it can also offer abundance. Found objects offer an alternative baseline for artmaking by being a referent besides “the tradition.”

 My poems are my own version of femmage: layering fragments from things I’ve seen, read, and experienced. Poetry is my chosen medium in part because it simultaneous creates and shatters a speaker via the line break. That seems to work well for a writer who tends to “lose herself” in citations.

 Because my work takes so long to write, I feel a lot of uncertainty about my process. It’s nice to have some kind of confirmation my tedious work is paying off! Since the poems were published in Boulevard, strangers have been reaching out to tell me how much the poems meant to them. “Listening” was re-printed on Poetry Daily, and I got so many emails and Facebook messages. I even heard from someone who translated it into Polish. It’s very cool. I’m grateful that I received the award. --Elizabeth Hoover

The 2018 Poetry Contest for Emerging Poets is open until June 1, 2018 at midnight CT online or postmark. $1,000 and publication awarded for the winning group of three poems by a poet who has not yet published a book of poetry with a nationally distributed press.

Today is #GiveSTLDay!

Today is #GiveSTLDay, a day of supporting nonprofits organized by the St. Louis Community Foundation. Please consider supporting Boulevard with a donation today.

As a nonprofit, Boulevard partially relies on the support of individuals to make the magic happen. If you give today, here's how your dollars go to work (generally):

1. Paying writers (about $11k) 2. Publishing the magazine (around 20k) 3. Paying staff and contractors like our designer (29k)

JOIN THE ST. LOUIS COMMUNITY FOUNDATION WEDNESDAY, MAY 2 for a online day of giving to benefit nonprofits serving the St. Louis region.

Donate Now

Our mission is to publish the finest in contemporary fiction and poetry as well as definitive essays on the arts and culture, and to publish a diversity of writers who exhibit an original sensibility. It is our conviction that creative and critical work should be presented in a variegated yet coherent ensemble-as a boulevard, which contains in one place the best a community has to offer.

Upcoming deadlines & more!

1. General submissions close on May 1. This snuck up on us! Last chance to send poetry, fiction, and essays of all types until October. Check out the guidelines and send us your best.

2. Poetry Contest submissions close on June 1. $1,000 and publication awarded for the winning group of three poems by a poet who has not yet published a book of poetry with a nationally distributed press.

3. Our DEBUT Nonfiction Contest OPENS on June 2. This is the best year to apply since it’s the first year to apply! $1,000 and publication in Boulevard awarded to the winning essay by a writer who has not yet published a book of fiction, poetry, or creative non-fiction with a nationally distributed press.

4. Did you hear our spring 2018 issue is ALIVE and out in the world? It’s jam packed with fantastic writing including an interview with Nathan Englander, fiction by Joyce Carol Oates, and poetry by Morgan Parker. Check it out in paper or digital.

Boulevard Nos. 98 & 99 is here! Get yourself a copy!

It debuts our craft interview feature discussing the genesis of inspiration, urgency, real-world characters, the impossibility of attention, and more with Nathan Englander. Featuring Joyce Carol Oates’s intense yet subtle fiction tackles grooming and Stockholm syndrome; poetry by Morgan Parker; Sommer Schaefer’s whimsically haunting story illustrates the dangers of blindly accepting love from one’s doorstep; Robbie Maakestad finds some humor and cheeseburgers in the tribulations of his recurrent lung collapse; Judith Padow recalls Jewish existential anxiety and communist panic during the Holocaust and Cold War, and Kirtan Nautiyal relates his father’s immigrant experience to the forgotten Indian scientist Dr. Yellapragada Subbarow and his discovery of the crucial chemotherapy drug methotrexate.

Also featuring the 2017 Poetry Contest for Emerging Poets winning entry: Elizabeth Hoover’s group of three poems on the art of listening while female, Lolita, lies, and more. Plus, fantastic and striking cover art by the new-to-Boulevard Rene Lynch!

Final proofs are underway!

You have until Friday to subscribe and start your subscription with this issue. We make both a print issue and a digital edition. We’d also like to hear if you’ve moved.

Please join us TOMORROW at this year's AWP Conference Book Expo. Our exhibit location is space T437.

We are hosting three author signings:

Jenny Molberg on Thursday from 1-2 pm

Jenny Molberg's debut collection, Marvels of the Invisible (Tupelo Press, 2017), won the 2014 Berkshire Prize. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Ploughshares, The Missouri Review, Poetry International, Best New Poets, Third Coast, North American Review, Copper Nickel, Mississippi Review, and other publications. She currently teaches at the University of Central Missouri and is Co-editor of Pleiades.

Michael Nye on Friday from 2:30-3:30 pm

Michael Nye is the author of the story collection Strategies Against Extinction (Queen’s Ferry Press, 2012) and the novel All the Castles Burned (Turner Publishing, 2018). His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in American Literary Review, Boulevard, Cincinnati Review, Crab Orchard Review, Epoch, Kenyon Review, New South, Normal School, Sou’wester, and South Dakota Review, among others.

Theodore Wheeler on Saturday from 11-12 pm

We’re hoping to see you at in a little over a week in Tampa for AWP18! We will be part of the book expo and our spot is T437.

We are hosting two author signings:

Jenny Molberg on Thursday from 1-2 pm

Jenny Molberg's debut collection, Marvels of the Invisible, won the 2014 Berkshire Prize. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Ploughshares, The Missouri Review, Poetry International, Best New Poets, Third Coast, North American Review, Copper Nickel, Mississippi Review, and other publications. She currently teaches at the University of Central Missouri and is Co-editor of Pleiades.

Michael Nye on Friday from 2:30-3:30 pm

Michael Nye is the author of the story collection Strategies Against Extinction  and the novel All the Castles Burned. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in American Literary Review, Cincinnati Review, Crab Orchard Review, Epoch, Kenyon Review, New South, Normal School, Sou’wester, and South Dakota Review, among others.

The final stages of production for our spring 2018 issue of Boulevard are approaching. This issue debuts our new craft interview feature with a look at Nathan Englander’s work. Also: poetry by Morgan Parker; short fiction by Joyce Carol Oats; our short fiction contest winners; essays about lung collapse, American communist panic during the Holocaust, and the forgotten Indian scientist Dr. Yellapragada Subbarow and his discovery of the crucial chemotherapy drug methotrexate. We aren’t too humble to say it: it’s an absolutely fantastic issue full of great reads, and we wouldn’t want you to miss. Long story short: subscribe now and update your address if you’ve moved.

Dear Readers, My sincere thanks go out to everyone who has already supported Boulevard with subscriptions, submissions, and donations. You have made our tremendous 2017 possible. This year we have:

Published the work of 75 writers and artists—423 pages of new writing

Paid those writers and artists collectively $10,490

Held our 21st annual Fiction Contest for Emerging Writers (won by Anastasia Selby of Syracuse, NY) and our 14th Poetry Contest for Emerging Writers (won by Elizabeth Hoover of Milwaukee, Wisconsin)

Raised funds for a second paid staff position and then hired our new Managing Editor, Dusty Freund

We are delighted to share some exciting plans for this next year:

The new Nonfiction Contest for Emerging Writers (summer)

A nonfiction feature—the Boulevard Craft Interview debuting with Nathan Englander (spring)

A program to help St. Louis City high school students write college admittance essays (fall)

We have big dreams for our future. We would like to publish more frequently, increase our payments to writers and artists, create more paid staff positions, design more programs for emerging writers, and ensure the magazine's future with an endowment. However, our major grant supporters are facing budget cuts on the local, state, and federal level. Every dollar you can contribute helps us focus on making our plans a reality instead of scrambling for lost funds. Your tax-deductible donations go toward publication costs, writer payments, and programming for emerging writers. We hope you will consider giving a gift to ensure Boulevard's continued success and to support the extraordinary writers who rely on our publication to share their exciting work.

Give now!

Sincerely,

ONE MONTH LEFT to submit to our short fiction contest! $1,500 and publication in Boulevard awarded to the winning story by a writer who has not yet published a book of fiction, poetry, or creative non-fiction with a nationally distributed press. Deadline is midnight on @submittable or postmark December 31. Check out the full guidelines here.

Boulevard is a 501(c) 3 nonprofit and, as such, we’re partly made possible by the support of individuals like you. Your tax-deductible gift will support things like publishing the magazine, paying writers $10,000 annually, putting on our contests, and paying our two-person staff. Give a gift of $5, $10, $30, or whatever you can afford, and help us keep the lights on.

Also: Submissions are open!

Our Short Fiction Contest for Emerging Writers is open until 12/31 midnight CT on @submittable​ or postmarked deadline. We award the winner $1,500 and publication, and it’s open to writers who have not yet published a book of fiction, poetry, or creative non-fiction with a nationally distributed press. Questions? Check out the guidelines or hit us up at [email protected].

Until November 22, we’re offering %15 off print subscriptions with the code LIBRARY. Strike while the iron is hot! Subscriptions start at only $16.

#blvdrec (super short reviews of our favorite reads) is going strong. Check out A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley for “the best writing I’ve ever seen.” “Journey through the obsessive mind of an unreliable narrator“ in Stephen Florida by Gabe Habash. Enjoy “poem as a full-body tattoo“ in Cinema of the Present by Lisa Robertson. Or check out the full bunch for your next book recommendation.

Finally, Boulevard is a 501(c) 3 nonprofit and so donations to us are tax deductible. We make money from newsstand sales, subscriptions, and grants, but that’s never enough cover all our costs. A gift to us goes directly to publication costs and paying writers and editors. Take a moment to peruse our gift levels and help us keep the lights on.

Keep up with our latest news by subscribing for email updates:

We are delighted to announce the results of the 2017 Poetry Contest for Emerging Poets. We received many excellent entries this year, and our contest judge, Edward Nobles, selected Elizabeth Hoover. Her winning group of three poems will appear in the Spring 2018 issue.   Congratulations also to our honorable mentions: Lea Anderson and Elizabeth Eagle.

We’re delighted to announce a new very short reviews feature: Boulevard recommends. We’ll be sharing 3-5 sentence reviews of our favorite reads going forward. So far we’ve got Our Souls at Night (Haruf), Pachinko (Lee), The Life and Times of Michael K (Coetzee), The Orchard (Kelly), and But What if We’re Wrong? (Klosterman).

Polish those poems, essays, and stories! To get you prepared, we’ve prepared a very short list of submission mistakes.

1. Not reading the guidelines. You can check ours out here.

2. Not having a sense if Boulevard is a good fit for your work. Read some excerpts!

3. Sending in a document that you’ve used Word’s track changes to edit. This always, always shows up. Copy and paste to a new doc or send a PDF.

4. Not letting us know if your submission will be your debut publication. We want to know! Put it in your cover letter.

5. Sending in work that is not finished.* This means proofreading, yes, but also selecting writing that you’re comfortable with and won’t want to edit in a few weeks.

That’s it! Thanks for trusting us with your work and following us on the socials. We can’t wait to see what you have in store for us this year!

You can submit online to us on @submittable.

Pick up a print subscription or a digital one.