the madison review

Happy New Year!

2012-01-15T12:24:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year From the The Madison Review!

The Madison Review Editors, Staff, and "Faculty Accessory"
Von Trapp Style-- at the Fall Issue Release Party at the Orpheum Theater 12/8/2011

Photo credit (and thanks!) to Katie Garth

2011 was a great year for us. We put out two great looking (and reading) issues; had the honor of interviewing Jane Hamilton, Maurice Manning, and Billy Collins; threw two incredible release parties featuring readings by Adam Haslett, David Rhodes, and Sean Bishop; co-hosted a reading with Monsters of Poetry, got a new website; brought the blog (and facebook, and twitter) back from the dead--just to name a few highlights. We also (as you can see) have a wonderful (and handsome) staff!

Speaking of the blog, we have just made several exciting updates! We've added an Literary Events Calendar that will list events we are hosting as well as all literary events happening in Madison! If you're in Madison and want to know about readings going on around town this is the place to check!

(We'll be doing our best to maintain the list but if you're having an event or know of one, please email us with details at madisonrevw@gmail.com--subject: events calendar--and we'll be sure to add it!).

We've also added a "Friends" of The Madison Review page as well a Submissions Update where we'll try to keep people update on where in the review process we are.

We'd also like to remind everyone that we are currently accepting submissions to our annual Short Story and Poetry Contests! There is a $1,000 prize in each category and the winning pieces will be published in the Fall 2012 Issue! For more information and submission guidelines click here. Contest closes February 1st so get writing/submitting.

Looking forward to the new semester and next issue!

The Winter Catalog

2011-12-12T21:47:00.000-08:00

Looking for those last gifts for the people on your list? Looking to buy smart, thoughtful gifts that support a good cause (such as independent literary publishing)?! Well look not further than the Madison Review Store! We have a beautiful new issue out featuring work by upcoming, cutting-edge artists and writers as well as a whole bunch of new Madison Review "swag" such as T-shirts and screen-printed posters!

As with all our merchandise, shipping is FREE. Plus, order by 12/15 and get your goodies in time for Christmas! We also have several great deals going on, so make sure to check those out!

Fall 2011 Issue: Featuring an art by Ann Toebbe, an interview with Billy Collins, the Phyllis Smart Young and Chris O'Malley prize winners, and a "meta-zombie story"!

Also available: Madison Review Subscriptions

One Year (2 issues): $15

Two Year: (4 issues): $25

*Special Offer: get a FREE thermos with the purchase of a subscription!*

The Madison Review Bundle

What a deal! Our current issue and two last issues (Fall 2011, Spring 2011, Fall 2010).

$15

*Special Offer: get the the Spring 2010 issue as well! That's 4 issues for $15*

NEW! Madison Review T-Shirts!

These beautiful, extra-soft shirts feature the "bespectacled" Madison Review logo on the left chest and on the back, we snuck on a merry little band of minstrels. They bare an uncanny resemblance to the editors...

Royal blue on slate American Apparel Unisex Crew/V-Necks

$16

Crew Neck: S-XL

V-Necks: XS-XL

NEW! Limited Edition Screen Print Posters

Hand-printed!

Mono-printed elements/tongues!

12 x 20.5 " on high quality Canson cardstock.

Varied edition of 25:

-Deep blue and white on Gray

-Deep blue and red on Champagne/Ivory

by Anna Wehrwein, 2011

$8*

* NOTE: The posters are not yet available on our online store. To purchase, please email us at madisonrevw@gmail.com

(There are also several Artist Proof versions available at a discounted $5. Includes different color options (black on mint), or slight printing flaws, etc. Send an email to find out more).

Coffee (or Tea) Vessels!

MUG: This handsome, deep blue ceramic mug features our simple, but classy, text design.

Only a few left! Get em while they're hot!

THERMOS: The Madison Review thermos will keep your coffee warm while at the same time impressing your colleagues, classmates, or favorite barista with both your environmental consciousness and impeccable taste in literary magazines!

Pour-out style. Comes with a strange, but awesome, leather carrying case.

$15

(what a deal!)

Presenting the Fall 2011 Issue!

2011-12-12T21:25:00.000-08:00

Our new issue is fresh hot off the press! It's our best one yet (I know we always say that, but we mean it!). The cover and interior art is by the incredible Chicago-based artist Ann Toebbe and the issue concludes with an interview with former poet-laureate Billy Collins! And of course, the issue is chock-full of fantastic poems and stories (including the Phyllis Smart Young and Chris O'Malley prize winners). Heck, we even have a "meta-zombie" story in this one--what more could you ask for? You can order a copy through our online store or pick one up at A Room of One's Own Books in Madison (more vending locations tba). They make GREAT holiday gifts...

We celebrated the release of the new issue with an incredible reading by Sean Bishop (gracefully filling in for the new father, Kevin Gonzalez) and David Rhodes at the Overture Center in Madison. Thanks to both of them and everyone who came to the reading and after-party!

* Please note that we are currently in the process of updating our website. To order the current, Fall 2011 issue, simply order "current issue" and just write Fall 2011 in the paypal memo field.*

We also have a bunch of other great items for sale such as subscriptions, T-shirts, thermoses, and much more! See next post for more details.

We really love this issue and we hope you do too!

Announcing the Fall Issue Release Party! Featuring David Rhodes & Kevin González

2011-11-26T10:30:00.000-08:00

David Rhodes received his MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 1971. He is the author of The Last Fair Deal Going Down (Atlantic/Little, Brown, 1972), The Easter House (Harper & Row, 1974), and Rock Island Line (Harper & Row, 1975). A motorcycle accident in 1976 left him paralyzed from the chest down, which brought a temporary halt to his publishing career. In 2008, he returned to publication with Driftless, which has been heralded as a critical success and the “best work of fiction to come out of the Midwest in many years” (Chicago Tribune).

Kevin González holds MFA degrees from the University of Wisconsin and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He was awarded the 2011 Narrative Prize for best work published by a new writer for his fiction and his first poetry collection, Cultural Studies, was published by Carnegie Mellon University Press and was a finalist for the 2010 Paterson Poetry Prize. His stories have appeared in Playboy, Virginia Quarterly Review, Narrative Magazine, Best American NonRequired Reading, and Best American Voices. He lives and teaches in Madison, Wisconsin where he is a curator of the Monsters of Poetry reading series and serves as editor of jubilat.

HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!

(http://www.facebook.com/events/300020680022915/)

Prize Season is Upon Us!

2011-11-19T11:15:00.001-08:00

It's that time of year again! Time for the

Phyllis Smart Young Prize in Poetry
&
Chris O'Malley Prize in Fiction!

Every year, The Madison Review hosts the Phyllis SmartYoung Prize in Poetry and the Chris O'Malley Prize in Fiction. The finest unpublished short story and triad of unpublished poems are awarded $1,000 and publication in the fall issue of The Madison Review!

Submissions accepted

December 1st - February 1st

This year, we will be exclusively accepting submissions online.

Submission Guidelines & Requirements:

Submissions for the prizes are accepted Dec 1st- Feb 1st.
Submissions must be made online (available starting 12/1).
There is a $10 entry fee per submission (1 story; triad of poems).
30 page maximum for short stories.
15 page maximum for combined 3 poems.
Only one submission is allowed per person per contest (O'Malley; Smart Young).
Manuscripts must be previously unpublished and should be double-spaced, with standard 1" margins and 12 pt font.
Simultaneous submissions are welcome as long as you notify us of publication elsewhere.
Submissions should include a cover-letter complete with contact information and the name(s) of your story or poem(s).

Winners will be announced by April!

Questions? madisonrevw@gmail.com

An Interview with David Vann

2011-11-14T22:00:00.001-08:00

David Vann is the author of the award-winning collection Legend of a Suicide and recentlypublished Caribou Island. The twoworks, both in set in a raw Alaskan wilderness, tear apart what family is and what it is supposed to be. The following is an excerpt from Madison Review fiction reviewer Kia Namin’s interviewwith the author.

Alaska is a characterin itself in both Legend of a Suicideand Caribou Island, could you havewritten these stories with out it?

Landscape was central to all of it. The reason it’s centralis that for me, writing is mostly unconscious. I don’t know what the charactersare going to do or say each day, and I don’t know what the whole thing will beabout. And the way I find out is I just keep describing place. I also focus oncharacter and the conflict between characters. But I really don’t know where it’sgoing to go. And to me that is what’s wonderful about landscape, as a writer isthat it’s a kind of blank space for the unconscious to fill, it’s a way for theunconscious to be able to write itself on to the page. Because landscape byitself doesn’t mean anything. It only gains meaning in relation to how thecharacters view it. And so as I describe the place I find out who thecharacters are and what their vision is. And the landscape does these crazy transformations,which is my favorite part.

Continuing in thisvein, what kind of function did you want Alaska to have in Caribou Island, what effect did you want it to have onyour characters?

So at the end of CaribouIsland for instance, Irene is running in the forest and she feels like theearth is tilting underneath her, and that the whole island is top heavy withthe rock and trees and its going to turn over and the underside is going to beexposed to the sky, and that’s that moment of transformation where theunconscious is performing this act that provides some insight into the character’sinterior life, and to me, those are the surprising moments that are really whyI write, like that’s when I find out what the whole book is about. I guessAlaska is that kind of important landscape for me because I spent my childhoodthere, and so my first couple years of memories are from the rainforest fromSouth East Alaska. And it’s a landscape that is still mythic for me. Alaskaalways felt animated, it was always alive. It’s because of these childhoodexperiences that landscape ends up transforming and becoming something in thefiction.

The way I view landscape is that it’s basically like a barestage and when I’m writing a novel, I’m basically writing a play just toldthrough the landscape. The reason landscape works well as a bare stage is thatit doesn’t have any meaning on its own, it just reflects the characters back tothe characters what’s going on inside of them. And that reflection it alsomagnifies so its like a stage with mirrors all around.

Your description ofthe landscape, characters’ trains of thought, and dialogue are all so muscularand vivid. The transgressions in both Legend of a Suicide and Caribou Island are grim by any standard. All of this leading reviewers to compareyour writing to Cormac McCarthy’s. Do you enjoy this comparison? Are you a fanof McCarthy or has he influenced you?

Well, yea. Of course he’s my favorite writer. Blood Meridianwas a huge influence for me because of the way he extends literal landscapesinto figurative landscapes. So the example that I always give that seems theclearest, he describes a mountain range whose true geology was not stone butfear, and it’s that move from stone to fear. Literal landscape to the figurative.That’s how he gets to theme and meaning in his books. I love how he does thatand I think he takes it from Faulkner but he is better than Faulkner. I’mreally a different writer than him in a lot of ways, what I’m writing is adrama. It’s like a play and all the threat comes from within the characterswhere as he writes from a tradition of horror where the threat comes fromwithout. I’d kill to be able to write his sentences. His writing is sobeautiful that even if he’s describing something violent it is.

In many interviews,you explain how massively therapeutic and redemptive writing Legend of aSuicide was, did Caribou Island have any similar effects on you? What was CaribouIsland to you, why did you write it?

Writing can be redemptive, therapeutic, cathartic. But, itcan’t stop there because writing has to be about the beautiful, so therefore itmust be about a transformation.

Right to my nextquestion, though Legend of a Suicideis outwardly dark, you have mentioned that it is essentially a love story foryour father? How so?

It takes me a couple of years and a lot of conversations tofind out what it is that I’ve written. The reason that it’s a love story isthat what I’m trying to do in that book is not forget him and loose him asecond time. You lose some once when they die, and you lose them again if youlose all the memories of them. So I was trying to preserve those, and also insome more fundamental way trying to bring him back to life like trying tounderstand him and preserve something about him, and at the end, of SukkwanIsland with in Legend of a Suicide there’s the thought it should have beenenough that his son loved him and he just didn’t understand that in time. Andthat’s how it’s a love story, in that I always have felt like it should’ve beenenough that I loved him, that should have been enough reason for him to stay.And so that to me has always been the biggest problem, the reason I was soangry at him for thirty years, why was that not enough that made him want tostay that I loved him? So that’s really what the book is exploring, that morethan anything else.

Is there a similardynamic at work in Caribou Island?

Caribou Island has a couple true family stories in thebackground also with the death of my mother’s grandmother by suicide and themurder-suicide of my stepmother’s parents is just something that I’ve alwayswanted to understand. And so the books are similar in that they both have thesefamily stories in the background that bothered me for decades that I’m tryingto understand but they’ve both been completely transformed.

To me the fiction does this wonderful kind of transformationthat different characters, different places, different events but they allspeak to that true story in the background to help me to understand it.

I guess I feel like I need those true stories becausewriting is mostly unconscious and nothing is going to happen if there is notanything that the unconscious has been chewing on for decades, like there hasto be some fuel there, some material otherwise the unconscious doesn’t kick in,it doesn’t do anything, it doesn’t provide any transformation

How do you like towrite? With a pen and paper? On a laptop? In long bursts or little by little?

When I was writing “Sukkwan island,” I was sailing fromCalifornia to Hawaii, it was the first time I started writing on a laptop,before that the short stories had all been by hand because I had a class withGrace Paley and she was really emphasizing that and I thought it was great, butoffshore the paper would get wet, so I would sit with my laptop velcroed acrossmy knees and I’ve never gone back and its great.

Now, I type so fast that I’m not aware of it, basically ableto put down words as quickly as I think them. So I love it, I write two orthree hours every morning, 7 days a week, and for me it's all about momentumbeing there everyday and that’s how the unconscious can be cohesive, how you can have everything fit together.

Momentum was something I discovered in the writing, what Irealized is that Caribou Island ismostly about momentum. Gary and Irene went to Alaska and it was just supposed tobe a summer, but they stayed thirty years and that became their lives and thatbecame their marriage even though it wasn’t right for either of them and Ithink that’s true for a lot of people that their lives become something otherthan what they had imagined or what they had wanted, and as the years go bythere’s a kind of force to all of it which is very difficult to fight. So, I thinkmomentum is the best word for people’s lives becoming something other than whatthey had wanted, and that therefore can be a great source of regret and angerand all those sorts of things.

Submissions Update

2011-11-08T21:12:00.000-08:00

Dear Submitters,

We'd like to let you know that we are finally caught up with submissions! All work that was sent via snail mail has been read and responses have been mailed or are on their way.

However, there are a few exceptions. Several poems/stories are still being read and some are still being considered for publication. We will let you know as soon as we make our final decision (probably by late December) so please wait to contact us until then. That said, no news is most likely bad news... If you do not hear from us, the most likely explanation is that your SASE was lost in the mail or perhaps lost in the reading process. We apologize. These sorts of errors are one of the reasons we have decided to go online for submissions. It will also allow us to respond much more quickly (within a month or two we're hoping!).

Thank you so much for your patience and the chance to read your writing. We hope you submit again!

Best,

The Madison Review

Interview with Maurice Manning

2011-10-23T12:41:00.000-07:00

The city of Madison hosted the 10th anniversary of the Wisconsin Book Festival this past week and the packed event schedule featured prominent authors and poets from across the country. The Madison Review was lucky enough to sit down and talk with esteemed poet and Guggenheim Fellow, Maurice Manning, who read on October 20th at the Overture Center. Manning is known for utilizing his personal experience of living in Kentucky to depict the nuances and complexities of seemingly simple ideas or characters. Manning's fourth collection of narratives, The Common Man, was released in 2010 and Fiction Editor, Patrick Johnson, was eager to chat with Manning about his writing style and outlook on writing. Check out the video of the interview below!

The Alumni Review

2011-10-18T20:19:00.000-07:00

Join MR Alum Marysa LaRowe at the Wisconsin Book Festival!

Former Madison Review Editor/Office Manager extraordinaire Marysa LaRowe will be reading at Avol's Bookstore this Friday, October 21st at 5:30 pm, as part of the Wisconsin Book Festival! LaRowe, who is currently an MFA candidate at Vanderbilt University, is one of the winners of the WP&I / WI Book Fest Writing Contest and will reading along with the other prizewinners. Her short story "The Next Thing" is also forthcoming in the fall issue of the Southeast Review.

For more information about the event: http://www.wisconsinbookfestival.org/events?eventdate=2011-10-21 or
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=246654192050004&notif_t=event_invite

MR Contributor, Margaret Hermes, Wins Doris Bakwin BookAward

Margaret Hermes's new book has been selected to receive the Doris Bakwin Book Award! The short story collection, Relative Strangers, includes the story "Over Easy,” which originally appeared in Fall 2007 issue of The Madison Review. The collection is
scheduled to bepublished in January 2012, by Carolina Wren Press.

See [upcoming] MR Featured Artist--Ann Toebbe--at the Museum of Contemporary Art!

We usually like to keep our cover art/artist a secret until the issue is printed but we're just too excited...
Chicago-based artist Ann Toebbe currently has a show up at MCA in Chicago! The show, UBS 12 × 12: New Artists/New Work: Anne Toebbe, runs October 8th-30th. If you're in the Chicago area, check it out! We can't claim any credit here, but we're truly honored to be showing Toebbe's work in our upcoming Fall 2011 issue.

Chicago is also sort of in love with our Spring 2010 cover-boy Nathan Vernau. Vernau's solo show "Lovesick" ran at Robert Bills Contemporary September 9th-October 15th 2011 (sorry, we really dropped the ball on this one) to rave reviews and was declared one of Chicago's Top 10 Shows of the fall by Bad At Sports!

Are you a former Madison Review contributor or staffer? Are you doing cool things? Let us know and we'll totally talk you up! Send news and shameless self promotion to madisonrevw@gmail.com

This Friday: Monsters of Poetry & Madison Review Mash Up

2011-10-04T16:09:00.000-07:00

Monsters of Poetry & The Madison Review

present

Brad Liening, Lily Brown, Claire Becker &

Carmen Maria Machado

WHEN: Friday, October 7th @ 7:30 pm

WHERE: The Project Lodge

817 E. Johnson, Madison, WI

We're super excited to host CARMEN MARIA MACHADO, contributing author to our Spring 2011 issue. Her story, "Flood" is one of our all time favorites and can be read on our website!

For more information, see the facebook event

So many thanks to our friends The Monsters of Poetry. They're horribly awesome.

See you there!

From The Editors' Meeting: Apple Cake

2011-10-02T12:43:00.000-07:00

So we know what you're thinking-- only two posts after rousing this blog from it's Rip-Van-Winkleish slumber and it's already turned into yet another food blog?!

This is a special circumstance you see.

Last week, one of the fiction editors brought in an absolutely stunning apple cake for our weekly meeting. It was still warm, and nestled in it's springform pan when he arrived, and although there have been some ambitious snacks brought in before, (I recall a tiramisu) this one really 'took the cake' (if you can stomach the pun). It's a family recipe (as most good recipes are) and it yields a cake that is exceptionally moist and with a restrained sweetness that made his co-editor exclaim that it "was the kind of cake you can eat for breakfast!" Needless to say, debate over why you can't eat any and all cake for breakfast ensued.

But so did a conversation about Jane Hamilton--fantastic author, reader at last fall's release party, interviewee in our spring 2011 issue, and longtime Wisconsin apple orchard resident. If you haven't gotten a chance to read the interview yet, you really should. If you haven't gotten your hands on an issue yet, it can be purchased here!

In the mean time, here's a a bite from the interview in which Hamilton shares some apple wisdom:

"My favorite apple is the one that’s ripein the moment. It’s a perk, and aprivilege to be able to walk out into the orchard in the fall and pick what’s ready. A ripe Macoun, a ripe Cortland, a ripeJonathan, a ripe Golden, a ripe Russet, a ripe Winesap, a ripe anything. " - Jane Hamilton

So in honor of autumn, apples, Jane Hamilton, and one of the best cakes we've ever had, here is a Madison/Malone Review Recipe:

My mom did her graduate thesis on this cake, so the directions can get infinitely more specific. Here's the basic version—when I get confused, I usually end up baking with the phone tucked between my ear & shoulder, measuring/poking stuff while asking my mother questions*... but it's really not that complicated.

*Joe's mother's phone number may be available by request. Or just shoot us a tweet.

***

14 T. butter (two sticks minus 2 T.)

1 7/8c. sugar

2 eggs, whole

4 eggs, separated

1 c. milk

2 1/2 c. whole wheat bread flour

3 t. baking powder

1/2 t. salt

Whip together the butter and sugar. KitchenAids are great, but a handheld electric mixer works just fine. Helps to "beat the dickens" out of the sugar/butter until it's well mixed and smooth.

Add the 4 egg yolks and two whole eggs, mix.

While mixing, gradually add the dry ingredients and milk, alternating between the two (works well to add the dry in thirds and the milk in halves).

Beat the leftover 4 egg whites, and fold in to the batter. This cake needs all the air it can get, so the more efficiently you can fold in the egg whites, the better. More stirring = denser cake.

Bake at 375°F, usually around 35-45 minutes. I think an 8" cake pan is the size you want. Put parchment or wax paper on the bottom. It's done when a toothpick comes out dry and the top is golden brown. Let cool for a few minutes, squeeze lemon juice over the top of the cake while it's still warm.

If you want the Apple Upside Down Cake variation, just put a layer of sliced apples in the bottom of the cake pan, pour the batter over it, bake, and serve by inverting onto a plate.

***

BON APPETIT!

and we promise, our next post won't be about food.

The Madison Review is BACK!

2011-09-05T20:53:00.000-07:00

So after a lengthy summer recess (actually, judging from our last post it's been more like a half-year hiatus...), a few lost and then recovered passwords, and the creation of a new website (going live any second now...) the Madison Review Blog is back and ready to become your new favorite internet tendency!

After being away for so long, we have quite a bit of news:

Firstly, the previously mentioned new website! Thanks to some friends in UW—Madison's School of Library and Information Studies, and the tireless and tech-savvy new Fiction Co-Editor Joe Malone, the Madison Review is the proud owner of a new, spiffy, and updatable(!) website. The new site features an extensive archive of past issues and sample work, an index of contributers, and an updated store where you can purchase the beautiful Spring 2011 issue , back issues, and new Madison Review swag!

Spring 2011 Issue

Additionally, the launch of the new site will mark our switch over to digital submissions! From this point on, all work should now be submitted online. In addition to saving some trees, our goal is to make both the submittal and reading process easier and more efficient (as well as make our response time exponentially faster)! One change, however, is that we will now be charging a (puny) $2 submission fee. This small chunk of change (less than what you would have spent on printing and postage) will be put to good use--we promise. Thanks for understanding!

A Quick (Apology) Note and Update on Submitted Work: After spending much of the spring reading contest submissions and our summer on a reading recess, we are rather behind on submissions. We should be caught up (and finished with paper submissions for good!) by October. Please forgive the delay. We will be in touch as soon as possible.

We could go on-- there are the hot-off-the-press hand-printed Madison Review posters to talk about, and the unveiling of our celebrity author interview coming out in the Fall 2011 issue...but you'll just have to check back to find out about such things!

Cheers!

the MR

Submissions Update

2010-12-02T11:45:00.001-08:00

As promised, dear readers, we've caught up on submissions! We'll be sending out acceptance and rejection letters shortly, so keep your eyes peeled!

On a related note, please be sure to include an SASE (self addressed stamped envelope) with your submission. We can't respond, otherwise! And we feel bad when we don't.

The Resurrection ... Sort Of

2010-11-22T11:49:00.000-08:00

My, my, it's certainly been a while! Time to bring this blog back from the dead.

We've been busy here at the Madison Review. As you can probably imagine, putting together an issue is no small feat, and thanks to those lovely months of summer vacation, we're a bit behind in our reading. Our website says we have about a six month turnaround time with submissions, and we should be back on track in just a few weeks. We are currently in the midst of reading submissions from April and May, so don't fret if you haven't heard back from us yet -- you will soon!

Also, November seems to be the month of international submissions. So far we've gotten stories from Italy, Ireland, and Japan, amongst others. Keep them coming! We're suckers for aesthetically pleasing stamps. And nice penmanship. And good stories.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

In Print, Out Loud: Anthony Doerr in Madison

2010-04-23T21:44:00.000-07:00

Come celebrate the new issue of the Madison Review and hear one of the most compelling authors working today. The Madison Review, The UW-Madison MFA Students and the Monsters of Poetry present a reading by writer and essayist Anthony Doerr. We'll also celebrate the release of the Spring 2010 issue of The Madison Review, which features an interview with Doerr.

The event will be held on Saturday, May 8 at Brocach Irish Pub, 7 W. Main Street, Madison, WI at 8 p.m. Under 21 must enter before 9 p.m.

Anthony Doerr is the author of the short story collection The Shell Collector, the novel About Grace, the memoir Four Seasons in Rome, and the short story collection, Memory Wall, which will be published this summer. Doerr's fiction has won three O. Henry prizes and has been anthologized in the Best American Short Story collections. He is a frequent contributor to The New York Times Book Review and a science columnist for The Boston Globe, and also teaches in the low-residency MFA program at Warren Wilson College. Doerr lives in Boise, ID with his family, where he is also Idaho's state writer-in-residence.

Tickets are $5 at the door. A brief signing will follow the reading. Then stay and help us kick off the new issue!

Email madisonrevw@gmail.com for more information.

The 2010 Chris O'Malley and Phyllis Smart Young Award Winners

2010-04-15T07:13:00.000-07:00

The Madison Review congratulates the winners of this year's Chris O'Malley prize for fiction and Phyllis Smart Young prize for poetry.

The Chris O'Malley winner is Joan Corwin for her story "Wonderland."

The Phyllis Smart Young winner is Brooke Axtell for her poems "Frida," "Border Girls"and "Kore of Incantation."

Both winners will have their work published in the Fall 2010 issue of The Madison Review

We received an unprecedented number of submissions this year, and in our efforts to give them all the most thoughtful and careful consideration, we've exceeded our traditional deadline of March 1st for announcing the winners. We apologize for the delay and offer our sincere thanks for the huge number of truly excellent submissions, both of poetry and short stories. You made our job very difficult, which is a wonderful problem to have.

Again, a heartfelt thanks to all who submitted their work and waited patiently through the deafening silence for our verdict. We couldn't do what we do without you. If you didn't win, never fear: we had such a hard time choosing, we'll be publishing a number of submissions (with the author's permission, of course), so watch your inboxes for a message from us.

We invite you to submit again to the 2011 prizes! We accept submissions of one short story up to thirty pages in length or three poems from December 1st to February 1st. Starting next year, we'll announce winners on April 15th and publish winners in the Fall issue. And of course, we're always happy to receive your regular submissions; guidelines can be found on the website.

Again, all our gratitude and best wishes,

The Editors

The Next Elmore Leonard Contest

2010-03-07T16:47:00.001-08:00

Are you the next Elmore Leonard? Or do you think you could help him get started on his next book? Or can you tell a story the way he does but in 800 words (or fewer)? Here's your chance to prove it!

Elmore Leonard was the featured speaker at the first ever Writers' Institute. Now we're celebrating that fact and his recent lifetime achievement award from PEN USA by offering this contest in his honor.

Prize: Recognition at the Writers' Institute in Madison, WI on April 24, 2010, a signed copy of Elmore Leonard's latest book, Road Dogs, and publication in the winter issue of The Madison Review.

Here's the rules: Each entry should be no more than 800 words. The author's name should appear on the cover page only. The cover page should include the name of the contest ("The Next Elmore Leonard Contest"), writer's name, address, phone number and email (if available). Entries will be judged anonymously.

Please send all entries to:

Rita Mae Reese

UW-Madison

Division of Continuing Studies

21 N. Park St. Room 7343

Madison, WI 53715

Deadline: March 29, 2010

Entry fee: $10

Limit one entry per person, please.

Some helpful hints: Take a look at Leonard's advice on writing in this essay published in the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/16/arts/writers-writing-easy-adverbs-exclamation-points-especially-hooptedoodle.html

Read his books. Watch his movies. Pay attention to how he uses dialogue. And write like you mean it.

Good luck!

The 2010 Chris O'Malley and Phyllis Smart Young Awards--Deadline Feb 1!

2010-01-21T08:16:00.001-08:00

The Madison Review awards the Chris O'Malley and Phyllis Smart Young Awards for an outstanding short story and poem(s), respectively, each spring. Winners get $1,000 and publication in the Review. The deadline is February 1, 2010 (postmark) so get your submissions in!

For more information, click here.

Looking for a Back Issue?

2009-12-29T06:28:00.000-08:00

Looking for a particular back issue? We're working on getting past inventory up on the website. For now, if there's a previous issue you'd like to order, email us at madisonrevw@gmail.com and indicate the issue, number of copies, and whether you would like to pay by check or online. Please note online orders naturally process faster.

Not all back issues are available for purchase, so please check with us first.

Happy Holidays!

2009-12-18T20:34:00.000-08:00

The Madison Review wishes you a wonderful holiday season. Our staff will be out of the office until early January, so please allow extra time for online orders placed between December 18 and January 3 to arrive.

See you in 2010!

In Print, Out Loud: Dean Bakopoulos, Benjamin Percy and the Madison Review

2009-12-04T22:28:00.000-08:00

It's that time again--release party time! A new issue is out, and we're ready to celebrate. This year, we're proud to integrate a community event into our celebration, by co-hosting a reading by two celebrated authors.

The Madison Review and The Monsters of Poetry will host a reading by authors Dean Bakopoulos and Benjamin Percy on Friday, Dec. 11, as part of the Madison Review's release of the Fall 2009 issue. Come listen to two of the Midwest's great fiction writers, then across the street to the Orpheum Lobby Restaurant for a a few drinks and the Madison Review Fall Release Party! (Be sure to check out the interview with Benjamin Percy in the new issue!)

The reading will be held at 7p.m. in the Wisconsin Studio,

on the third floor of the Overture Center for the Arts. The party will begin at the Orpheum at 8. Tickets are $5 at the door, whether you attend one even or both--a ticket to the reading gets you free entry to the party!

Books will be a available for purchase from A Room of

One's Own Bookstore. The authors will sign books

at the Orpheum after the reading.

The Basics:

What: Bakopoulos/Percy Reading and Madison Review release

Where: Reading - Wisconsin Studio, Overture Center for the Arts, 201 State St.

Signing/Party - Orpheum Lobby Restaurant, 216 State St.

When: Friday, Dec. 11. Reading at 7pm, party at 8pm.

Cost: $5 on entry to either reading or party.

Dean Bakopoulos Benjamin Percy
About the Writers:

Dean Bakopoulos grew up outside Detroit, lived in Madison and Mineral Point, WI for many years, and earned his MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. HIs novel "Please Don't Come Back From the Moon" was a New York Time notable book and is being developed into a television series. His next novel, "My American Unhappiness," is due out late 2010. Dean's fiction, nonfiction and reviews have appeared in Zoetrope All-Story, The Progressive, The New York Times Book Review, The Believer, and Real Simple. He is currently teaching in the MFA Program in Creative Writing and Environment at Iowa State University.

Benjamin Percy grew up in Central Oregon. He is the author of a forthcoming novel, The Wilding, and two collections of short stories: Refresh, Refresh and The Language of Elk. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Esquire, The Paris Review, Ploughshares, Glimmer Train, and the Chicago Tribune. He currently teaches creative writing at the MFA Program in Creative Writing and the Environment at Iowa State.

**Special Thanks to the Wisconsin Humanities Council for publicity support**

It's Been A While...

2009-12-04T22:22:00.000-08:00

But we're still here, and we've got some changes in store. Later this week, the Madison Review will launch its new website--an easy-to-navigate, comprehensive source for submission and contest information, online subscription and issue purchasing, preview content of the upcoming issue, merchandise, and more!

Our Fall issue will come off the press in just a few weeks. The Fall 2009 Review features great work from across the country, including a new story by Wisconsin writer Patrick Somerville, an interview with short story writer and novelist Benjamin Percy, and art by San Francisco native Kristen Eschweiler.

To help celebrate the new issue, The Madison Review is also proud to be hosting a reading by writers Dean Bakopoulos and Benjamin Percy here in Madison, followed by a signing and release party. Check the blog for details!

Party Time! Excellent.

2009-05-06T08:08:00.000-07:00

The Madison Review Spring Release Party is happening this Thursday, May 7 at 9:30pm. We will be at Cafe Montmartre with Spring 2009 issues on hand, as well as other Madison Review product. We have tossed out the cover charge this year and will accept donations instead.

Cafe Montmartre is located at, 127 East Mifflin.

See you there?

Late. And that's all.

2009-04-30T16:38:00.000-07:00

English 695 Reading.

Tonight.

Seven O'clock.

Helen C. White.

Room 6191.

Yup.

Phyllis Smart-Young Poetry and Chris O'Malley Fiction Winners

2009-03-26T18:55:00.000-07:00

The Madison Review staff would like to extend our congratulations to the 2009 Phyllis Smart-Young and Chris O'Malley contest winners.

Michael Hudson won the Phyllis Smart-Young Prize in Poetry for his three poems:

Dreaming about Jozefa after Too Much Eggnog

Drunk in Bed with a Book about Great Masterpieces of Western Art

Why I Mostly Had Trouble With Girls in High School

Jennifer Hritz won the Chris O'Malley Prize in Fiction for her short story:

Mixed Media

Read their winning submissions in the upcoming Spring 2009 issue of The Madison Review.

If you submitted a short story or poems, thank you for considering us a possible venue for your work. We appreciated the fine literature.

Deadlines are for the birds, not undergraduate contests, apparently.

2009-02-05T16:46:00.000-08:00

The First Annual Undergraduate Contest has been extended until February 16th.

Reason? Putting together the Spring 2009 issue. Reading Phyllis Smart-Young and Chris O'Malley entries. Reading regular submissions.

Or blame the gnomes. When in doubt, remember the cobbler and blame the gnomes.

Read you soon.

Deadlines are for the birds, and contests apparently.

2009-02-05T16:28:00.000-08:00

The February 1st deadline has passed for the Phyllis Smart-Young and Chris O'Malley prizes. We are busy sorting and reviewing and enjoying them. Thank you to everyone who submitted work. Winners will be announced March 15th.

The Phyllis Smart-Young Prize in Poetry & The Chris O'Malley Prize in Fiction

2008-12-04T11:03:00.000-08:00

Contest season falls upon us, which means another season of Phyllis Smart-Young poetry submissions and Chris O'Malley fiction submissions.

The Madison Review annually hosts the Phyllis Smart-Young Prize in Poetry and the Chris O'Malley Prize in Fiction. The finest unpublished short story (30 pages max), and the finest group of three unpublished poems (5 pages each max) will be awarded $1,000 with possible publication in the spring 2009 issue of The Madison Review.

The Madison Review accepts contest submissions from December 1st through February 1st. Writers may submit one entry per genre (one short story and/or group of three poems). All submissions should include the following:

An entry fee of $10 per genre submission (cash or check made payable to The Madison Review)

A business-size self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE)

A cover letter including the name(s) of your short story or poems, your name, address, email address and telephone number

All entries must be postmarked by February 1st, and all entries will be considered for publication in The Madison Review. Contest results will be announced March 15th of the current year.

Send manuscript entries and queries to:

Phyllis Smart-Young Prize in Poetry [or] Chris O'Malley Prize in Fiction

C/O The Madison Review

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Department of English

600 N. Park Street

6193 Helen C. White Hall

Madison, WI 53706

Congratulations again to our 2008 award recipients:

The Chris O'Malley Prize

The Question

Lori Rader Day

The Phyllis Smart -Young Prize

The Suburban Garden

Sleeping with Uncle Lester

The Man of Warts

Adam Day

LITERATURE AND DRINKS AND SMILES

2008-12-04T10:54:00.000-08:00

UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON UNDERGRADUATE CONTEST!

2008-12-04T10:44:00.000-08:00