Happy birthday to founding editor, Ira Sukrungruang! Your Sweet family wishes you joy, health, and lots of cake!
Join us in the birthday celebration! Post a birthday message or drop a few coins in our tip jar so Ira can keep funding his special initiative, Sweet: Reach, our outreach program.
It’s party time!
We are temporarily closing Creative Nonfiction submissions while we catch up on all the amazing submissions we have received. Keep writing and we’ll let you know when we open back up. In the meantime, you can read our latest issue here!
Calling all Sweet Contributors! We are looking for more Sweet Connections to feature on our blog. Come fill out a short form, upload a cool photo of you, and let us tell everyone what amazing things you have been doing.
You can find the form HERE.
Photo by Albert Rafael on Pexels.com
Hi Sweet writers & readers,
Just wanted to let you know that we are open for submissions, and reading already-submitted work diligently, if often slowly. It is strange to live through such a world-changing experience as this pandemic, to be in the midst of it and know just how huge it is, to be observant and thoughtful and wonder just what sort of changes may come. At the same time as we’re surviving day-to-day, we’re inevitably seeing this thing as writers—following themes and phrases, trying to make sense of it all through words.
I know one question I have as a writer is just how tired editors may become of poems that refer to the pandemic, so I thought I’d address that issue as far as Sweet’s poetry submissions go: honestly, we’re still looking for the poems we like best, regardless of topic. If you’re sending us new work, it will inevitably be affected by the pandemic, no matter what it’s about. The dread, the uncertainty, the confinement—it will underlie poems even if you’re writing about your childhood. If you’re writing specifically about the pandemic, that’s ok too, as long as you’re turning it over/around/inside out, making art of it.
If it’s work that only makes sense if read within a short time of a specific news event, however, you’re better off finding one of the several current events poetry venues that are out there on the internet. Several have popped up specifically to deal with the art we cannot help but make about the COVID-19 pandemic.
We hope that some of the work you read in Sweet may sustain you during this bizarre and difficult time. We are grateful for the work you send in to us to consider, and glad there are so many fine writers out there.
–Katie Riegel, Editor & Poetry Editor
Come visit Sweet: A Literary Confection at the AWP conference in San Antonio, Texas. This week, from Wednesday March 4th to Saturday March 7th, Sweet booth #1121 is featuring a variety of chapbooks for purchase, with author signings scheduled throughout the conference.
Our chapbook and broadside lineup this year includes:
Kindling by Lisa Laughlin
The remaining copies of our inaugural 2017 Flash Nonfiction Contest winning chapbook are available for purchase. Get this beautiful book before it’s gone.
Borderlines by Jill McCabe Johnson
Jill McCabe Johnson’s lyric essay, “Borderlines” dives into memory and water. In poetic prose, Johnson fragments a moment in her life, seeking to understand and uncover the innocence of childhood and the dark shadows that ever follow.
All of Us—Sweet: The First Five Years edited by Katherine Riegel
If you’re looking for a great poetry anthology, look no further!
Lady in Ink by R. Claire Stephens
Still our most popular book, Lady in Ink is a mystery, the kind that everyone is trying to solve every minute of their lives: “Why did I do that? Why in God’s name did I do that?”
After the Night, a comic by Jarod Roselló
This comic details a father’s struggle with the demands of raising his little girl. In a heartwarming sketched style, Roselló candidly retells his own experiences and lessons learned on the importance of patience, love, and family.
Body of Starlight by Melissa Carroll
Carroll explores the female body and its connection to the cosmos, shirking conventional ideas of beauty and physicality with sometimes tragic, often witty meditations on Eastern philosophy and Western superficiality. Characterizing womanhood as both supremely divine and hopelessly mortal, Carroll chronicles her experiences, observations, and opinions with intimate detail.
All of these are available in the Sweet Shop online if you can’t make it to San Antonio this year.
New to the Sweet lineup this year – Come check out this Sweet graphic chapbook:
Press Play by Edward Gunawan, illustrated by Elbert Lim
“Press Play” recounts one person’s story of fighting depression and anxiety in simple, elegant prose and black and white images.
Stop by and say hello to us at booth #1121!
If you missed getting the handmade chapbook, Brian Baumgart’s Rules for Loving Right is now available on Amazon in kindle e-reader format.
And don’t forget to read the awesome interview from exactly this day in 2018!
We are super excited to announce that a winner has been selected for Sweet’s 3rd Annual Flash Non Fiction Essay contest. Jason Huff will receive $500 his essay, “Animagraphy”. Congratulations!
The runners-up were:
Sweet is proud to announce this year’s Pushcart Prize nominations. Congratulations and good luck to the following authors:
CREATIVE NONFICTION
Hannah Star Bright, “How to Bleed a Child,” Issue 12.1
Kristine Jepsen, “Jaw Wiring,” Issue 11.3
Vandana Khanna, “The In-Between Girl,” Issue 11.3
POETRY
Emily Rose Cole, “MS Nocturne with Fuse, Crosshairs, and Irreparable Fissure,” Issue 11.3
Becca J.R. Lachman, “If I Had It In Me, I’d Make a Grocery List Worthy of My Century,” Issue 11.2
Michael Schmeltzer, “What Accidental Grace Fills the Mistakes,” Issue 11.3
Sweet is excited to present our nominations for this year’s Best of the Net 2019. Be sure to read these again!
For Poetry
Sara Ryan, “My Father Asks If I Was Raised By A Jackal”
Published in Issue 11.1 September 2018
Jen Karetnick, “It’s about the dog, but not really about the dog,”
Published in Issue 11.2 January 2019
Cynthia Atkins, “House and Home”
Published in Issue 11.2 January 2019
Diane LeBlanc, “Expired”
Published in Issue 11.2 January 2019
Amanda Moore, “Which Came First”
Published in Issue 11.3 May 2019
Meghan McClure, “Remember That Quince Can Burn Like A Star”
Published in Issue 11.3 May 2019
For Essays
Jody Kennedy, “Ruger Single-Six”
Published in Issue 11.2 January 2019
Vandana Khanna, “The In-Between Girl”
Published in Issue 11.3 May 2019
Congratulations to our nominees and best of luck to you!
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