ABOUT THE NEW GUARD
“Hey, buddy boy, there’s going to be some changes around here…”
THE NEW GUARD is an annual independent literary review proudly founded in Knightville, Maine. We are writers for writers' sake. Our troupe is humble. Our mission is big. The New Guard is here to showcase newcomers alongside established writers, and to juxtapose tradition with experiment to create a new dialogue.
WE WANT:
Literary and experimental fiction.
Narrative and experimental poetry.
In a time of publishing crisis The New Guard will stand up and put on the gloves for those good stories and poems.
Give us your ire, your lore, your guarded passage.
Patrick Rioux, video/Shanna McNair, music
"The New Guard presents a curious mixture of the traditional narrative with the experimental, whether it is intimate fan letters to long-deceased authors, short stories showcasing mythical transformations, or free-verse poems." --New Pages
"It is a rollicking read, at turns whimsical, sad, and experimental." --The Portland Phoenix
More on TNG: The New Guard on Poets & Writers The New Guard and Shanna McNair in The Portland Phoenix TNG's New Pages review TNG on WinningWriters.com TNG on liveworkportland.org TNG live on ABC radio Australia TNG in Lily Magazine TNG Columbia College video interview at AWP 2011 TNG on obitmag.com
The New Guard is a proud member of the Council of Literary Magazines & Presses (CLMP), an organization committed to literary causes and to ethics in contest practices.
Interested in helping support our cause? The New Guard accepts donations mailed to our postal address, payable to The New Guard, or via the PayPal donation button below. Every dollar counts for writers!
Thank you for your support!
THE NEW GUARD READING SERIES at Longfellow Books
Our reading series is be held at the wonderful, fiercely independent Longfellow Books bookstore in Portland, Maine, as a literary offshoot of the First Friday Art Walk. Take a look at what's in store for this year's series! Most readings (except the July 11th reading) will take place on First Friday, and most of our TNG readers will be local Maine writers. Of course, both TNG2010 and 2011 are available for purchase at Longfellow's, and our authors will be happy to sign your book!
TNG 2011 ranks #8 on the Longfellow Books Top 40 Bestsellers list!
July 11, 7-8: special reading! TBA...
August 3rd, 7-8: Maine-based author and TNG Contributor Tess Gerritsen.
Tess Gerritsen was trained as a medical doctor and built a second career as a thriller writer. Her 23 novels include the Rizzoli and Isles crime series, on which the TV show "Rizzoli & Isles" is based. Among her titles are The Surgeon, Ice Cold, and The Silent Girl. Her books are translated into 37 languages and more than 20 million copies have been sold.
October 5th, 7-8: All-Maine author reading! TNG Contributor Sarah Braunstein, TNG Contributor Jaed Coffin, and TNG Fiction Finalist Jefferson Navicky.
Sarah Braunstein is the author of The Sweet Relief of Missing Children. Honors include being named one of "5 Under 35" fiction writers by the national Book Foundation, and she was a 2007 recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award. Stories and essays have appeared (or are forthcoming) in Green Mountains Review, Five Chapters, AGNI, Ploughshares, Nylon Magazine, Maine Magazine, and on NPR’s All Things Considered.
Jaed Muncharoen Coffin is the author of A Chant to Soothe Wild Elephants . Jaed has spoken widely at universities and colleges where his book is taught as a common text in multicultural curriculum initiatives. Honors include receiving the 2009 William Sloane Fellow at Bread Loaf Writers Conference and the 2009-10 Wilson Fellow in Creative Writing at Deerfield Academy.His forthcoming book, Roughhouse Friday, is about the year he fought as the middleweight champion of a barroom boxing show in Juneau, Alaska.
Jefferson Navicky is the author of the poetry chapbook, Map of the Second Person and his work has appeared in such publications as Quickfiction and Tarpaulin Sky. His play, Lungfish, was chosen for the 2010 Maine Playwright's Festival.
PAST READINGS:
April 6th, 7-8: An all-Maine author reading! TNG Editor and Contributor Bill Roorbach, TNG Editor and Contributor Scott Wolven, TNG Poetry Finalist Melissa Roberts, and TNG Founding Editor & Publisher Shanna McNair.
Shanna McNair* is the founder of TNG. She writes fiction, poetry, scripts and the occasional article. She is an award-winning journalist with a background in the visual and performing arts. Recent publications include Maine Magazine, among others. She has a novel, S.W.I.M. (Someone Who Isn't Me), and a book of short stories, The Hotel Utah, forthcoming.
*Shanna will be reading, from the 2011 TNG special section on Ralph Ellison, the previously unpublished Ralph Ellison story, A Storm of Blizzard Proportions (1944). This is the first time the story will be read in a public setting.Melissa Roberts is a student in the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. She lives in Maine.
Bill Roorbach is the author of eight books of fiction and nonfiction, including the Flannery O'Connor Prize and O. Henry Prize winner Big Bend (2001), Into Woods (2003), and Temple Stream (2005). Life Among Giants, a novel, is forthcoming this year. The 10th anniversary edition of his craft book, Writing Life Stories (2008), is used in writing programs around the world. Recently, Bill was a judge on Food Network All Star Challenge, evaluating incredible Life Stories cakes. Bill’s work has been published in Harper's, The Atlantic Monthly, Playboy, The New York Times Magazine, Granta, and dozens of other magazines and journals.
Scott Wolven is the author of the short story collection, Controlled Burn. His stories have appeared seven years in a row in The Best American Mystery Stories Series, the most consecutive appearances in the history of the series. The title story of the collection appeared in Best American Noir of the Century.
Liza Provenzano
2011 CONTEST ARCHIVE
Thank you to all who entered the 2011 Machigonne and Knightville contests! Competition was very tough. TNG submissions increased by a third and we received entries from all over the world. Entries were outstanding and the selection process was difficult, to say the least.
All of the finalists and semi-finalists are published alongside the winners and contributors in the 2011 issue. Big congratulations to our winners, finalists and semi-finalists.
THE NEW GUARD 2011 CONTEST WINNERSMachigonne Fiction Contest Winner
Dan Marmor
Short story, Recipes For Disaster
Dan Marmor graduated from Stanford University in 2010 with a bachelor's degree in English. He is a scrappy, young writer from the suburbs of Long Island, currently working on a novel, Recipes For Disaster. Dan is pursuing a master's degree in English and Creative Writing with hopes of one day starting a literary journal devoted to publishing new and experimental fiction.
Knightville Poetry Contest Winner
Kathleen Spivack
Long form poem, The Great Railroad Train of Art
Kathleen Spivack is the author of seven books of prose and poetry. With Robert Lowell and His Famous Circle: Boston:1959-79, a memoir, is forthcoming in 2012. A History of Yearning (2010) won the Sow's Ear International Poetry Chapbook Prize and also won first prize in the poetry book category at the London Book Festival. Recent poems have won first prizes including the Allen Ginsberg Memorial Poetry Award and the New England Poetry Club's Erika Mumford Prize. She has also won several Solas International Best Essay awards. Residencies include the Radcliffe Institute, Yaddo, The MacDowell Colony and the American Academy in Rome. Fellowships include grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Fulbright Commission. She teaches in Boston and Paris.MACHIGONNE FICTION FINALISTS
Allison Alsup, A Good Likeness
Michael Caleb Tasker, The Visit
Amina Gautier, Most Honest
Caron Levis, Late Pass
Lisa Locascio, American Hospitality
Greta Schuler, Witchcraft
Brent van Staalduinen, Buddy's Mirror
Kirk Wilson, The Story You Never Heard About Lattorial
Sam Wilson, Maybe in Casper, Wyoming
MACHIGONNE FICTION SEMI-FINALISTS
Jackie Zollo Brooks, Chinaberries
Soma Mei Sheng Frazier, She Must Remember
Gwendoline Riley, A. Born etc.
Mitchell Stocks, We Chinese
KNIGHTVILLE POETRY FINALISTS
Ioanna Carlsen, Two Variations on a Borrowed Phrase
Kevin Carollo, A Theory
Mary Christine Delea, My Villain
Rob Dennis, Why I Am Not a Tech Writer
Jaydn DeWald, Epithalamium (or, Landscape with Soldier)
Nicole DiCello, The Long Emergency
William Doreski, Confess to Me
Iris Jamahl Dunkle, How to Cope in a New Landscape
Soma Mei Sheng Frazier, The Deepest Hours
Robin Michel, The Boy and the Moon
Marcia Popp, when she died she took all her best stories with her
Melissa Roberts, Resurgam: Portland, Maine
Don Schofield, Shepherd
Terese Svoboda, Car Problem
Ken Taylor, foursome
Elaine Zimmerman, The Floor Rattled with Us
KNIGHTVILLE POETRY SEMI-FINALISTS
Austin Allen, Valentine Variations
Heather Altfeld, Annals of the Orphelines
Luke Bramley, All the Pretty Lights
Mary Christine Delea, Purr
Lynn Tudor Deming, In Gipsies' Cant
Chad Frisbie, Q
Lyall Harris, Etching
Kenya T. Jennings, Epiphany
Matthew Keuter, Verisimilitude and Other Untruths
Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingde, Marlene Dietrich Meets Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Wulf Losee, The Nautilus Motel
Shahé Mankerian, The Mosaic of the Missing
Nikolas James Perez, Dedication
Jeannie Tomasko, Crossword Sonnet: Codes
Julie Marie Wade, Grammar
Liza Provenzano
THE NEW GUARD 2012 CONTESTS
Our 2012 contests are open! Entry period is March 1-June 18, 2012 (postmark). Entries are $15.
KNIGHTVILLE POETRY CONTEST: $1,000 for an exceptional work of narrative and/or experimental poetry. Three poems per entry. Up to 300 lines per poem. Judged by National Poetry Series winner JEANNE MARIE BEAUMONT.
MACHIGONNE FICTION CONTEST: $1,000 for an exceptional work of literary and/or experimental fiction. Submit up to 7,500 words: anything from flash to the long story. Novel excerpts are welcome if the manuscript functions as a stand-alone story. We do not publish illustrations. Judged by Novelist and Essayist RICK BASS.
KNIGHTVILLE POETRY CONTEST JUDGE
Jeanne Marie Beaumont is the author of three books of poetry, most recently, Burning of the Three Fires, which was a finalist for the 2011 Writers’ League of Texas Book Award, and Curious Conduct. Her first book, Placebo Effects, was selected as a winner in the National Poetry Series. She also won the Dana Award for Poetry and The Greensboro Review literary award for poetry. Her poems have been included in two dozen anthologies and textbooks, including Good Poems for Hard Times, The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, The Norton Introduction to Literature, 9th ed., and Poetry Daily: 366 Poems from the World's Most Popular Poetry Website. She was co-editor of the literary magazine, American Letters & Commentary, from 1992-2000. With Claudia Carlson, she co-edited the anthology, The Poets' Grimm: Twentieth Century Poems from Grimm Fairy Tales.
"Afraid So," a poem from Curious Conduct, was made into a short film by the same name (narrated by Garrison Keillor) by award-winning filmmaker Jay Rosenblatt. The movie has been screened at numerous international film festivals, on the IFC, and at the Museum of Modern Art. She served as director of the annual Advanced Poetry Seminar from 2006-2010, and she currently teaches at both The Unterberg Poetry Center of the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan, and at the Stonecoast MFA Program in Maine.
MACHIGONNE FICTION CONTEST JUDGE
Rick Bass grew up in Houston, and started writing short stories on his lunch breaks while working as a petroleum geologist in Jackson, Mississippi.
Bass has published more than 20 books of essays and novels, and has worked passionately for environmental causes all over the world. His honors and awards include a PEN/Nelson Algren Award Special Citation for fiction, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, and the James Jones Literary Society First Novel Fellowship for Where the Sea Used to Be. He was a finalist for the Story Prize in 2006 for his short story collection The Lives of Rocks. He was a finalist of the National Book Critics Circle Award for his autobiography, Why I Came West. He was also awarded the General Electric Younger Writers Award.
Bass lives in the remote Yaak Valley of Montana, where he works to protect his adopted home from roads and logging. He serves on the board of both the Yaak Valley Forest Council and Round River Conservation Studies. His papers are held at the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library at Texas Tech University and Texas State University–San Marcos.
THE NEW GUARD 2012 contest readers are looking forward to reading your work! You can submit online via our submissions manager or by postal mail with a check for the entry fee, which is $15 for either contest. Contest winners and all finalists get two free copies of TNG, and each submission will be carefully considered for publication. Final judging is blind.
We accept .doc or similar files–no PDFs, please. We do pay strict attention to word and line count. TNG accepts previously unpublished work only. Any size print run or online publication (including blogs and/or social networking) disqualify your entry. Simultaneous submissions are accepted, provided we're notified upon publication elsewhere.
TNG retains standard first publication rights; all rights immediately revert to the writer upon publication. Please note that TNG cannot return manuscripts. We are not presently accepting submissions aside from our contests.
SUBMISSIONS
The 2012 contests are open! The entry period is March 1-June 18, 2012 (postmark).
***Please note we will not consider any unpaid entries. We currently do not accept submissions other than contest submissions. Please follow the steps past this screen and pay for your entry to be considered.
Please continue on to PayPal (you can use a credit card or PayPal) and pay the entry fee; alternatively, please mail your submission to the address below, with a $15 check payable to TNG. Enter as many times as you like, and best of luck. We're excited to read your work!
THE NEW GUARD
P.O. Box 10612
Portland, ME 04104
Manuscripts cannot be returned.
***International entrants: please enter "AA" in the US "state" field, and 00000 in the "zip code" field. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Cover art by Jeff McCreight
ORDER YOUR COPIES OF TNG TODAY!
You can also choose other purchase options from the dropdown menu: TNG 2010 is $15, and the set of both TNG 2011 and 2010 is $30. Order carefully!
TO PURCHASE THE 2011 BOOK IN BULK USE THIS BUTTON:
To order TNG 2010 and 2011 as a set, please click the button below:
Orders over 20 copies nationally and over 10 copies internationally need special shipping attention. Please contact us at info@newguardreview.com before ordering.
TNG 2011 features A Storm of Blizzard Proportions (1944) by Ralph Ellison, a complete finished story which has never before been in print, and has only been read by a handful of people! Alongside A Storm of Blizzard Proportions, we've published a reproduction the original typewritten pages, straight from The Library of Congress.
Also included in this special section is an interview of John Callahan, Mr. Ellison's literary executor and author of A Man You Could Love. We are excited by this tremendous opportunity to share Mr. Ellison's work with our readers and writers.
TNG 2011 is a deluxe trade paperback with French flaps of 334 pages. Cover art is by Maine artist Jeff McCreight.
2011 Contest Winners: Knightville Poetry Contest winner: Kathleen Spivack; 2011 Machigonne Fiction Contest winner: Dan Marmor. All 2011 contests finalists and semi-finalists (both genres) are also published in this issue.
The 2011 Letters Section: "Writers to Superheroes and Supervillains." Letter contributors: Joe Wenderoth, Tim Seibles, Tod Goldberg, Fred Marchant, Michael Kimball, Ed Skoog, Carolina De Robertis, Aaron Hamburger, Sarah Braunstein, James Zimmerman, Alexandra Oliver & Mike Heppner. A special illustration by local artist dave naybor (Dave Peabody) precedes the letters and kicks off this year's group.
TNG 2011 has a new section called "Twenty Questions," to honor Maine's rich writing tradition. It's TNG's ode to writers who have lived and worked in Maine. Writers playing 20Q for 2011 are Tess Gerritsen, Liz Hand & former Maine Poet Laureate Baron Wormser.
We are also be featuring two established writers in this volume: Theodore Deppe & Cortright McMeel.TNG is grateful to our incredible 2011 judges: former U.S. Poet Laureate Charles Simic & novelist and author of The Pure Lover, DAVID PLANTE.
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To order TNG 2010 and 2011 as a set, please click the button below:
TNG 2010 features previously unpublished essays by two phenomenal Maine writers, Jaed Coffin & Bill Roorbach.
2010 Knightville Poetry Contest winner: William Derge; 2010 Machigonne Fiction Contest winner: Payne Ratner.
Our most gracious 2010 judges: former U.S. Poet Laureate Donald Hall & Good for the Jews author Debra Spark.
Issue 2010's letters: "Writers to Writers: Fan Letters to the Dead," a collection of fan letters to dead writers. Fan Letter contributors include: Sven Birkirts, Tom Grimes, Maxine Kumin, Thomas Lynch & Josip Novakovich.
TNG is also available at these fine bookstores:
Longfellow Books, Sherman's, McNally Jackson Books (Manhattan), Book Culture (Manhattan), Devaney, Doak & Garrett, Nonesuch Books, USM Bookstore, Colby Bookstore & Skylight Books.Click the link below for THE NEW GUARD store! Get your TNG merchandise and be the coolest kid on the block:
THE NEW GUARD MERCHANDISE link
CONTACT
THE NEW GUARD
P.O. Box 10612
Portland, ME 04104
Founding Editor & Publisher:
2012 Special Sections Editors:
Shanna McNair
Scott Wolven
2012 Contest Readers:
Richard Hoffman, Fiction
Shanna McNair, Fiction, Poetry
Scott Wolven, Fiction
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