BEST NEW LITERARY JOURNAL OF THE YEAR!
Award conferred at the MLA in Los Angeles by the Council of Editors of Learned Journals, January 8, 2011.
CHIRPS FROM THE SPARROW
POETRY
Our National Treasure, Pulitzer Prize Poet Edna St. Vincent Millay
Modern Declaration, Sonnet
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Senryu, William Cullen, Jr.
Family Secret, Meteor Shower, Cj Giroux
Echo, Free, Mike Berger
Driving the Snowflakes, Moment, Death Call, Ctrl, Alt, Delete, Ivy Page
Bird Throat, Natasha L. Kessler
Millions Of People, Dennis Rivard [Release February 2011]
Kiss, What You Said About Love, Sitting By The Lily Pad, If The Whole World Kissed, Kosrof Chantikian
Of Good Stock, Noble Woman, End Of Season, Halli Lilburn
Unwritten Letter, Joshua Berida
My Neighbor’s Lemons, Rhoda Greenstone
Mr. Flip as a Clocktower, Eidetic, Emperor to Emperor, Krstine Ong Muslim
Creosote Ash, Paul Cordeiro
[Untitled], Simon Perchik
Magnolias, Delicate Arch, Suburban Landscape with Robins, Jeffrey Tucker
La Sierra 1942, Karen Kelsay
From Cythera, After Watteau, Franz Baskett
Bear Fence, William Kelley Woolfitt
FLASH
By Sweater, Deirdre Fagan
When Good Banks Go Bad, Gary Rasmussen
Wrecks, Carissa Halston
Languages, Kendall Darfler
It Seems I am More Intrigued by “Stupidity” than “Intelligence,” Marian Kilcoyne
There’s a Moment Every Winter, Maureen Kingston
Coast Live Oak, Tom Mahony [Released February 1st, 2011]
SHORT STORIES
Igloo, Donna Trump
Ocean In A Box, Marko Fong
Familiar, Patrick Jackson
The Whistle, Pam Parker
A Hunter In The Snow, Susan Kendzulak
Miss Julianne, Karen Lenar
The Walk Home, Iris Chan [Released February, 2011]
PHOTOGRAPHY
Justice, Shiva, Sunset, Ajay Prasannan
Guest Photographer Eleanor Bennett
Guest Photographer, Jeff Foster
Minimalist Winter, James S. Oppenheim
ART
Beveled Glass, John Larsen
LITERARY NEWS
Interview with Marko Fong by Editor Annam Manthiram
CONTRIBUTORS
Our National Treasure: Edna St. Vincent Millay
Edna St. Vincent Millay, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, is honored posthumously as one of our national treasures in poetry.
In Huntsman, What Quarry? the Sparrow has chosen two of Poet Millay’s poems that speak to love and intellectual history: Sonnet and Modern Declaration. Many of the poems in this book denounce the fascism and violence of the times.
The Edna St. Vincent Millay Society graciously has allowed publication; we trust you will enjoy them as we have.
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GOJ/Robert S. Allen lives in Iowa, but longs to return to milder climes of the Northwest, where he was born and raised, as evidenced by his webbed feet and love of rain. When he is not creating art, Mr. Allen laments not creating art, writes, and watches a great deal of movies about artists, both frustrated and fruitful.
He holds a BFA in “visual technologies” and is working towards a Bachelors of Science in “Game Art & Design.”
You may find more of his photography at Flickr, url: (www.flickr.com/people/Goj/).
Yubraj Aryal, a Ph.D. Student at Purdue University, is Secretary of The Society for Philosophy and Literary Studies (SPLS) and Editor of its publication Journal of Philosophy: A Cross-Disciplinary Inquiry. He is also a Committee member for Asian Philosophers and Philosophies of American Philosophical Association (APA). Aryal also writes short stories, and his book The Humanities at Work: International Exchange of Ideas in Philosophy, Literature and Aesthetics, first published from Nepal in 2008, is coming out from LAMBERT Academic Publishing AG & Co in 2011. His research areas include modernist aesthetics, affects and transnationalism.
Franz Baskett noted, “I am a graduate of the Creative Writing Program at the University of Arkansas. My poetry has appeared in the Southern Review, The Pacific Review, The New Orleans Review, Innisfree Poetry Journal and the delinquent, et al. My book, “The Accident Prone Man,” was published in 1994 by Orchises Press of Washington, D.C. I am the winner of the Raymond L. Barnes Award and The Academy of American Poets Prize. I live in Fayetteville, Arkansas where I work in the newspaper industry.”
Eleanor Leonne Bennett is a amateur photographer and artist who has won contests with National Geographic,The Woodland Trust, The World Photography Organisation and Nature’s Best Photography.She has had her photographs published in exhibitions and magazines across the world including the Guardian, RSPB Birds , RSPB Bird Life, Dot Dot Dash ,Alabama Coast , Alabama Seaport and NG Kids Magazine (the most popular kids magazine in the world). She was also the only person from the UK to have her work displayed in the National Geographic and Airbus run See The Bigger Picture Global exhibition tour with the United Nations International Year Of Biodiversity. Eleanor said, “I have been taking photos for two and a half years but I also enjoy drawing and constructing mixed media collages of which have won me the Woodland Trust Nature Detectives art competition three times since the age of 11.”
Mike Berger holds a Ph.D. in Clinical and Research psychology from Utah State University. He worked for years as a senior therapist and specialized in attention deficit disorder in children. Mike is the author of two books of short stories. Three humor pieces have won awards. He has been writing poetry for less than a year. Work has or will appear in forty-five journals. These include AIM, Still Crazy, First Edition, Stray Branch, and Mid West Quarterly, Evergreen and Krax. His chapbook, Raw was published by CC&D Press.
Joshua Berida is a 22 year old fresh graduate from the Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines. Joshua said, “As of now I work in a corporate office and use writing as a means to express myself. I have publications and forthcoming publications in Static Movement and the Houston Literary Review. ”
Iris Chan is a recent college graduate and works in a think tank in Washington, D.C.
Kosrof Chantikian is the author of two works of poems–Prophecies & Transformations and Imaginations & Self-Discoveries, and the editor of Octavio Paz: Homage to the Poet, and The Other Shore: 100 Poems by Rafael Alberti. He was poet-in-residence at the San Francisco Public Library, edited KOSMOS: A Journal of Poetry, and was general editor of the KOSMOS Modern Poets in Translation Series. Kosrof has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Arts Council, and the San Francisco Foundation. He is working on a new collection of poems, The Future Overthrown.
Karen Collins is a new writer from the historic Cathedral City of Wells in the South West of England. A recent graduate of a local creative writing course led by Orange Prize long-listed author, her inspiration comes from the ancient architecture and landscape of the county of Somerset.
Paul Cordeiro had his last free-verse publication in The Chiron Review, where he lead-off its last issue with two comic poems. He hopes it wasn’t a fluke.
William Cullen, Jr. published his first haiku in Modern Haiku in 1988. His senryu and haiku have appeared in many journals over the years including Asahi/International Herald Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, Frogpond, and Mainichi Daily News. His work has been frequently anthologized, including appearances in five of the Red Moon Anthologies to date (best haiku of the year series), and has placed or received honorable mention in many contests (Harold G. Henderson, Mainichi Daily News, Mie Times, among others). Bill was a co-judge of the Haiku Society of America’s Harold G. Henderson contest in 2004. Bill works at a non-profit in Brooklyn, New York. He’s married and has two college-age sons. He has been nominated for a Pushcart prize this year.
Kendall Darfler is currently making coffee for minimum wage and interning for Poets & Writers, Inc. She also edits the online journal, Little PinkShack. She has been published in Alchemy, Alembic, and Short, Fast and Deadly.
Deirdre Fagan is an Associate Professor of English at Quincy University. She is the author of Critical Companion to Robert Frost and has also published articles in The Emily Dickinson Journal, The Explicator, South Asian Review, and Americana Review. Her fiction has appeared in Bartleby Snopes and Picayune, and her poems in nibble.
Marko Fong lives in Northern California. Recently, he completed a linked story collection. His stories have been published in Kartika Review and The Summerset Review.
Jeff Foster is from Missouri. He noted, he is heavily influenced by Heironymus Bosch. His work is currently appearing in “A fly in amber”, “New Myths” and “Electricspec.” Jeff runs a cleaning business and his art has been described as a “synthesizer” type of music.
Visit Jeff Foster’s website at www.seclusionimagery.com.
Hugh Fox , writer, poet, editor and archeologist, has been described as ‘the Paul Bunyan of American Letters, part myth, part monster and, myself-as-subject, a magnificent non-stop story-teller’ (Bill Ryan, The Unborn Book). Born in Chicago in 1932, he has written an astonishing 105 books, 85 of which have been published. While an undergraduate, he dropped out of medical school to concentrate on the humanities and gained a Ph.D. in American Literature from the University of Illinois. Amongst many distinguished posts, he has held that of Fulbright Professor of American Studies and Literature at the universities of Hermosillo (Mexico), Caracas(Peru) and Florianopolis (Brazil). Hugh has edited a number of respected journals, including the International Quarterly of Experimental Poetry, the Western World Review and the North American Review. His recent publications include Defiance (Higganum press 2007), Finalemente/Finally (Solo press 2007), Rediscovering America (World Audience 2008), The Collected Poems (World Audience 2008), Ice House and The Thirteen Keys to Talmud (Crossing Chaos 2009). Hugh is one of the original founders of the Pushcart Prize.
Jim Fuess works with liquid acrylic paint on canvas. Most of his paintings are abstract, but there are recognizable forms and faces in a number of the abstract paintings. He is striving for grace and fluidity, movement and balance. He likes color and believes that beauty can be an artistic goal. There is whimsy, fear, energy, movement, fun and dread in his abstract paintings. A lot of his abstract paintings are anthropomorphic. The shapes seem familiar. The faces are real. The gestures and movements are recognizable.
More of his abstract paintings, both in color and black and white, may be seen at www.jimfuessart.com
CJ Giroux is a lifelong resident of Michigan who continues to be inspired by the peninsulas that surround him. Born and raised in the metropolitan Detroit area, he is an instructor of English at Saginaw Valley State University. He has been published in The Ambassador Poetry Project, Bear River Review, The Prose-Poem Project, Relief, San Pedro River Review, and Thema, among other publications.
Rhoda Greenstone said, “Although writing has always been my first love, many years as a “Freeway Flyer”—dashing through the spider web of interstate highways that connect numerous community colleges in L.A. where I taught English and humanities—meant limited time to create. Nonetheless, poems and fiction of mine have appeared in numerous respected literary journals and anthologies. Currently I’m at work on a long, thematically connected poetry manuscript I envision as a book length collection of poems, tentatively titled Approaching Diaspora’s Distant Border.”
Carissa Halston, author of A Girl Named Charlie Lester, has been twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize and was honorably mentioned in the 2008 New York Book Festival. She currently lives in Boston.
Patrick Jackson is a recent graduate from the MFA program in Creative Writing at Fairleigh Dickinson University. He does not have any publishing credits as of yet. He grew up in the small town of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. After graduating college, Patrick moved to New York City, where he has lived for the past 6 years. He teaches and tutors writing for several different SUNY colleges.
Karen Kelsay is a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee and the author of five chapbooks: A Fist of Roots (Pudding House Press 2009) Somewhere Near Evesham (The New Formalist Press 2009) Song of the Bluebell Fairy (Pudding House Press 2010) Buttercup Garden (Victorian Violet Press 2010) In Spite of Her ( Flutter Press 2010). Her book, Dove on a Church Bench, will be published next year by Punkin House Press. Karen is the Editor and creator of Victorian Violet, an online poetry magazine. She lives in Orange County, California, with her British husband and two cats.
Susan Kendzulak is an artist and writer based in Taiwan and Japan. She is the Fine Art guide at about.com (http://fineart.about.com ) and writes extensively about contemporary art for publications such as Flash Art, Art AsiaPacific, and ArtReview. Her first published short story was in Writer’s Bloc (2009). Her blog: http://everythingisdangerous.blogspot.com.
Natasha L. Kessler is a graduate student in the University of Nebraska MFA program and co-edits Strange Machine; an online poetry journal.
Marian Kilcoyne is an Irish writer living on the West coast of Ireland. She noted, “I have in the past reviewed books for The Sunday Business Post(from 1998-2001) and I am primarily interested in Creative Non-fiction. I am a former teacher of English and Sociology and graduated from NUI Maynooth.”
Maureen Kingston lives and works in eastern Nebraska. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in the Alehouse Press, Blue Collar Review, Blue Earth Review, Boston Literary Magazine, Halfway Down the Stairs, Hobble Creek Review, Lucid Rhythms, Melusine, Nebraska Life, Paddlefish, Pemmican, Plains Song Review, San Pedro River Review, Tipton Poetry Journal, Triggerfish Critical Review, and WestWard Quarterly.
John Larsen, the founder of Clear Lake Stained Glass [1976], is an artist and glass beveler of a first order. He has restored stained glass windows of historical significance all over the United States. As an artist, his personal creations blend the past with the present, incorporating tiles made by Frank Lloyd Wright and more.
“We create stained glass windows and restore work for churches and homes,” John said. “My specialty is beveled glass windows of high quality. Our studio is located on five acres south of Clear Lake, Iowa. The following pictures represent recent commissions. These large windows add an elegance that will last a lifetime, or longer, but are expensive. We sell a number of Bohemian glass ornaments and light catchers for a modest price. Virtually any theme can be created. Clear Lake Stained Glass has a sailboat windows and vacation motifs; Clear Lake is known as a picturesque spot on the lake. Our town also houses The Surf with Buddy Holly reunions. Visitors are always welcome to stop by. Our website is at: http://showcase.netins.net/web/jplarsen/ Please email me at: jplarsen@netins.net or call at: (641) 357-5103 and let me know you’re coming. I enjoy showing my studio and windows to guests.”
Karen Lenar is an MFA graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson University, and her stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Bartleby Snopes, FictionDaily, and Zahir Tales. She lives with her husband in Boston, where she is currently pursuing an advanced nurse practitioner degree and working on her first novel. Ms. Lenar was nominated for a Pushcart Prize this year.
Halli Lilburn lives in Alberta, Canada with her husband and three children. She is a bookseller, librarian, and an artist. Grey Sparrow offers her first publications.
Annam Manthiram is the author of two novels, The Goju Story and After the Tsunami,and a short story collection (Dysfunction), which was a Finalist in the 2010 Elixir Press Fiction Award and received Honorable Mention in Leapfrog Press’ 2010 fiction contest.
Annam’s fiction has also been nominated for the PEN/O’Henry Prize and inclusion in the Best American Short Stories anthology. A graduate of the M.A. Writing program at the University of Southern California and a 2010 Squaw Valley Writers Conference scholar, Ms. Manthiram resides in New Mexico with her husband, Alex, and son, Sathya. You can visit her online at AnnamManthiram.com.
Tom Mahony is a biological consultant in California with an M.S. degree from Humboldt State University. His fiction has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has appeared in dozens of online and print publications. His first novel, Imperfect Solitude, was published by Casperian Books in 2010. Visit him at tommahony.net.
Kristine Ong Muslim is the author of the full-length poetry collection, A Roomful of Machines (Searle Publishing, September 2010) and the chapbooks “Doll Plagues,” “Doll Lives” (forthcoming from Thunderclap Press), “Smaller than Most” (forthcoming from Philistine Press), and “Our Mr. Flip” (Scars Publications, August 2010). Her poetry and short fiction have appeared in A cappella Zoo, A River & Sound Review, Boston Review, Boxcar Poetry Review, Coe Review, Contrary Magazine, Delmarva Review, Front Range Review, Grasslimb, Hobart, Minnetonka Review, Narrative Magazine, Potomac Review, Quay, Rougarou, Southword, The Pedestal Magazine, Tipton Poetry Journal, and Zero Ducats. She has been nominated five times for the Pushcart Prize. Her publication credits can be found at kristinemuslim.weebly.com
James S. Oppenheim was born in Washington, D.C., raised in Montgomery County, Maryland, schooled in Oxford, Ohio and resident in half a dozen Maryland towns (and, for a summer, Jacksonville, Florida). Jim has published in Equus, The North American Review, The Washington Post and Firehouse Magazine, worked as managing editor of the University of Maryland graduate literary magazine, Ethos. He has also had a life in music, producing one album and playing venues from cabin porches in West Virginia to bars in Florida. James offered the lovely dove that graces the back of the book. Today finds him in Hagerstown, Maryland as a photographer, singer/songwriter, and the editor of a blog: Oppenheim Arts & Letters devoted to the understanding of political conflicts and small wars, also art, culture, and language.
Joseph Michael Owens is a 29-year old MFA student at the University of Nebraska, currently living in Omaha with his wife and five dogs. His work will appear in The Houston Literary Review, has appeared in The Rumpus and in Grey Sparrow Journal, where he is, as of our winter issue, a regular contributor from The Campus and technical editor for iPad and Kindle conversion. Additionally, his short story “We Always Trust Each Other, Except for When We Don’t” was nominated for Dzanc Books’ Best of the Web 2011 anthology. He also manages the website, Category Thirteen, dedicated primarily to the process of writing.
Ivy Page has been published nationally in journals such as, The Houston Literary Review, Boston Literary Magazine, Night Train, New Plains Review, Underground Voices, Foundling Review, and a book review for the New Southerner. She is the editor and founder of OVS Magazine. Her first book is being published Internationally with Salmon Poetry of Ireland, March 2012.
Pam Parker, an award-winning author, coaches other writers in Milwaukee at RedBird-RedOak Writers. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Potomac Review, The Marquette Literary Review, The MacGuffin, The Binnacle and other print and electronic publications.
Simon Perchik is an attorney whose poems have appeared in Partisan Review, The New Yorker and elsewhere. For more information, including his essay “Magic, Illusion and Other Realities” and a complete bibliography, please visit his website at simonperchik.com
Gary Rasmussen resides in Twin Falls, Idaho. He majored in Advertising Design, minored in Illustration, and was hired by an ad agency before graduating from Utah State University. He has worked as a Graphic Designer, Illustrator, Writer, Cutting and Reined Cow horse trainer, and Ranch hand. He is an Award winning writer and Western artist. For hobbies, he enjoys traveling, photography, and reading, He is married with four children.
Dennis Rivard is a poet who has written for many years. Dennis said, “I haven’t been involved much (if at all) with trying to publish in the past 20 years and have recently decided to submit some of my writing for publication.
Rachel Sonnenschein is a freelance photographer based out of northwestern Nebraska. Her goal is to be able to “take” a great photograph instead of using various methods of post-processing to “make” one. She specializes in landscapes, Americana, and scenes portraying rural life.
Donna Trump’s stories, poems and essays have been published in Chautauqua, The Minnetonka Review, Speakeasy and A View From The Loft. Two pieces of very short fiction have been featured in The Talking Stick and Dust and Fire. One story, “Wolf Notes,” is currently being considered for a Pushcart Prize. Donna has co-written and edited a collection of prose and poetry by severely disabled adults, and has a novel manuscript as well as a short story collection currently seeking publishing homes. Her education includes degrees in Biology and Physical Therapy as well as a host of writing classes taken and taught at The Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis. Ms. Trump noted, “I was awarded a Loft Emerging Writer Mentorship with Sandy Benitez and Peter Ho Davies in 2007-2008. I live with my husband in downtown Minneapolis, within walking distance of both Mississippi River and The Loft.”
Jeffrey Tucker is a student in the creative writing Ph.D. program at The Center for Writers, located at The University of Southern Mississippi, where he also teaches. His work has appeared in Inscape, Saw Palm, Product, Swarthmore Literary Review and the Sandy River Review, wherein he was awarded the Editors’ Choice Award for the Spring 2008 issue. He is also the co-editor of Squid Quarterly; a journal devoted to prose poetry and flash fiction.
Townsend Walker, Grey Sparrow author from our printed issue, graciously accepted our award from the Council of Editors of Learned Journals of which Grey Sparrow is a member.
William Kelley Woolfitt teaches creative writing, rhetoric, and composition at Pennsylvania State University. His short stories have appeared in Sycamore Review, Center, Weber Studies, and Portland Review. He goes walking on the Appalachian Trail or at his grandparents’ farm on Pea Ridge (near Nestorville, WV) whenever he can. Cavalry Scenes.
Grey Sparrow Journal 