Shiny Family

GS @ 2022 AWP / Shiny Family Schedule!

Check us out at T548 in the bookfair–our EIC Kimberly Ann Southwick, Poetry Editor Billie R. Tadros, and CNF Editor LaTanya McQueen will be joined by readers E Kerr and Saul Lemerond Thurs-Sat. 9am-5pm! Come by, grab a free sticker and/or some candy–maybe a back issue?! Maybe our current issue!? We’d love to see you, even if it’s just to say hi.

Here’s everything else you should do besides the above while you’re in PHL:

WEDNESDAY 3/23/2022

7-9pm / Jose Hernandez Diaz (GS 7.1) / Readings On the Pike/MoCo Underground Do AWP!

THURSDAY 3/24/2022

ON-SITE

9-10am / VIRTUAL / Jericho Brown (GS’s 2nd Annual Poetry Contest Judge) / “The Poetics of Film: Five Poets on the Influence & Impact of Cinema“

10:35-11:50am / Sofia Samatar (GS 8.2) / “Myth & Monsters in Memoir: Using Folklore to Structure Personal Writing“

10:35-11:50am / Saul Lemerond (GS 8.1 & current Fiction Reader) & Kimberly Ann Southwick (GS Founder & EIC) / “The Neanderthal & the Fax Machine: Teaching the Surreal & Absurd“

10:35-11:50am / Bianca Stone (GS 6.2 & 2015 Winter Poetry Comics Judge) / “Honoring American Poet Ruth Stone in a New Film about Her Life & Poetry“

10:35-11:50 / VIRTUAL / Tracy Fuad (GS 7.2) / “AWP Award Series Reading“

12:10-1:25pm / MIchael Czyzniejewski (GS issue 12) / “Flash Fiction: Forward to the Future!“

1:45-3pm / Kayleb Rae Candrilli (GS 8.2, issue 11, & 10th Annual Summer Poetry Contest Judge) / “Shaping a Poetry Manuscript That Has a Chance in Today’s Literary Landscape”

1:45-3pm / Chloe Martinez (GS issue 11) / “Change of Plans: The Pleasure & Pain of Walking Away from Academia“

3:20-4:20pm / VIRTUAL / celeste doaks (GS 7th Annual Poetry Contest Judge) / “United We Stand: How Diverse Collections Create Space“

3:20-4:20pm / VIRTUAL / Rachel Mennies (GS 5.1) / “Beyond Representation: Intersections of Poetry & Mental Illness“

5-6:15pm / Dawn Lundy Martin (GS 3rd Annual Poetry Contest Judge) / “A Reading & Conversation with Elizabeth Acevedo, Dawn Lundy Martin, and Deesha Philyaw, Sponsored by Blue Flower Arts“

OFF-SITE

3-5pm / Spencer Silverthorne (GS issue 13) / UL Lafayette CW Program Off-Site Reading

5:30pm / Mag Gabbert (GS issue 12) / The Arkansas International and The Massachusetts Review Present: an Evening of Poetry and Prose

5pm / Sara Fetherolf (GS issue 13) / “New American Press Celebrates New Writing“

6pm / Tracy Fuad (GS 7.2) / Minza’s Off-site Reading: The Experimental Issue

6pm / Athena Dixon (Past GS Reader) / Women’s Voices, Women’s Stories – An Evening of Memoir Readings

6pm / VIRTUAL / Meredith Clark (10.2) / Platypus Press Presents…

7pm / Kimberly Ann Southwick (GS Founder & EIC), & Nicole Steinberg (GS 6.2) / Bedfellows Thursday Thirst & Issue 11 Launch

7pm / VIRTUAL & IN-PERSON / Jennifer Fliss (GS 9.1) & Ellen Rhudy (GS issue 11) / Alternating Current & Okay Donkey Collaborative Reading

7pm / Sommer Browning (GS 6.2 Guest Poetry Editor) / A Reading by Birds LLC, Fence, Fonograf Editions, & the CSU Poetry Center

8pm / Tracy Fuad (GS 7.2) / AWP Conference Off-site Reading by Austin Segrest, Anne Barngrover, Tracy Fuad, and Keith Kopka

8:30-10pm / Jim Daniels (GS 2.2) / Glassworks Magazine 10th Anniversary Reading

FRIDAY 3/25/2022

9-10:15am / Marcela Sulak (GS issue 12) / “Reverberation: The Book Review as Literary (Labor) Labor“

9-10:15am / Chloe Martinez (GS issue 11) / “Admit It, You’re Writing a Poem: Ars Poetica & the Awkward Confession“

10:35-11:50am / Len Lawson (GS 10.1) / “The Future of Black: The Advent of 21st-Century Second-Wave Afrofuturism Poetry“

10:35-10:50 / Jane Wong (GS 3.2) / “Teaching & Writing Asian America in the CW Classroom“

10:35-10:50 / Annie Liontas (5th Annual Flash Fiction Contest Judge) / “Both/And: Boosting Women, Genderquee,r & LGBT Writers“

10:35-11:50am / Kayleb Rae Candrilli (GS 8.2, issue 11, and 10th Annual Poetry Contest Judge) / “Saturnalia Books Twentieth Anniversary Reading“

12:10-1:10pm / VIRTUAL / LaTanya McQueen (GS CNF Editor) / “Research & Reckoning: How Nonfiction Research Allows Us to Reckon with the Past“

12:10-1:25pm / Arisa White (9th Annual Poetry Contest Judge) / “Total Strangers: Undergrads, Authors, & Editors on Amplifying International Voices“

1:45-3pm / Mag Gabbert (GS issue 12)/ “Empowering New Writers: Strategies for Teaching the Hesitant Poetry Student“

3:20-4:20pm / VIRTUAL / Tyler Barton (GS 9.1) / “Houses Full of Houses: The Structure & Craft of Building Story Collections“

3:20-4:20pm / VIRTUAL / Tafisha A. Edwards (GS 7.1 & GS Poetry Editor) / “Call Me by My Name: Poetry of Black Womanhood & the Erotic“

3:20-4:35pm / Saul Lemerond (GS 8.1 & current fiction reader) & Billie R. Tadros (GS 7.1 & GS Poetry Editor) / “Multimodal Identities: How Podcasting Can Unbind Creative Voices“

3:20-4:35pm / Olivia Kate Cerrone (GS 3.1) / “Building Sustainable Writing Communities in a Postpandemic World“

3:20-4:35pm / Keetje Kuipers (GS 5.1) / “Transparency & Transformation: The Literary Institution at the Tipping Point“

OFF-SITE

5pm / Dorothy Chan (10.1) / Friday Poetry @ Brickbat Books

6:30-8pm / MICHAEL CHANG (GS issue 13), Mónica Gomery, Elizabeth Deanna Morris Lakes (GS issue 12) & Bianca Stone (GS 6.2 & Poetry Comics Contest Judge) / The Gigantic Sequins, Iterant, Ruth Stone House, & Rose Metal Press Off-site Reading at Young American Cider

7pm / Alyse Knorr (7.2) / Switchback Books, Jellyfish Review, & Furniture Press Books Reading

SATURDAY 3/26/2022

ON-SITE

9-10:15am / Michael Czyzniejewski (12.1) / “Bowling Green State University MFA’s Fiftieth Anniversary Reading“

12:10-1:25pm / Paul Lisicky (GS 2018 Flash CNF Contest Judge) / “Chosen Families: A Reading & Conversation Presented by Red Hen Press“

1:45-3pm / Atom Atkinson (GS 2.2) / “Sum = {Poetry + New Media + Politics + Performance}“

1:45-3pm / MarÍa Isabel Alvarez (GS 8.1) / “Embracing Bilingual Writing & Bicultural Narratives“

3:20-4:35pm / Jane Wong (3.2) / “In Order to Be Totally Free: Teaching via the Writing Constraint“

OFF-SITE

3-5pm / celeste doaks (GS 7th Annual Poetry Contest Judge) / ?th Annual Rock & Roll Reading

6pm / Jameka Williams (7.2) / Bloom: A Spring AWP ’22 Offsite Poetry Reading

OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS

Brewery ARS (in South Philly & Fishtown)

Philly. Style. Bagels. (in Fishtown & Old City)

Philly AIDS Thrift & Philly AIDS Thrift @ Giovanni’s Room (aka “queerbooks.com)

Head & the Hand Books (Fishtown)

Brickbat Books (South Philly)

Harriett’s Bookshop (Fishtown)

Amalgam Comics & Coffeehouse (Fishtown)

Please do not leave this city without trying the scrumptious dessert WATER ICE, eating a SOFT PRETZEL (they really are better here), and getting yelled at by someone–preferably someone riding a bicycle who is righteous in their yelling at you OR someone in Philly sports gear who is not righteous in their yelling at you.

Announcing… the GS 9.2 Roster!

Gigantic Sequins 9.2 debuts this summer, and we can’t wait. Meanwhile, here are all the writers & artists whose fantastic work will be appearing within its print pages! WHILE YOU’RE AT IT, check out our online store for a SNEAK PREVIEW of the 9.2 front cover (art by Fumi Mini Nakamura, design by meg willing)… and your first opportunity to pre-order this phenomenal issue. A full spread of the cover should go up on our official website within the next month or so.

Dana Alsamsam

Zoë Blair-Schlagenhauf

Meriwether Clarke

Kelsey Gray

Brett Elizabeth Jenkins

Brianna Johnson

Mitchell King

Grant Kittrell

Annalise Mabe

Kristine Langley Mahler

Fumi Mini Nakamura

Simone Person

Natalie Sharp

Sarah Thompson

Alison Thumel

M. A. Vizsolyi

plus, a book review of The Barbarous Century by Leah Umansky (Eyewear Press, March 2018) by Kim Jacobs-Beck

SHINY FAMILY :: RECENT NEWS FROM OUR CNF CONTRIBUTORS

It’s the end of the summer, shiny people, and we’re hard at work getting out our next issue. While it’s far too hot to even deal, our creative non-fiction contributors haven’t been slowed down. Here’s a little taste of what they’ve been working on:

Jake Little (8.1) has a mesmerizing new piece called “During my shift at the Circle K, a young girl asks for cigarettes” at Rabble Lit!

Justin Carter from 7.2 has two pieces of micro prose the New South Journal called “Memory In Which Nothing Happens” and “Slow Erosion”.

Alex McElroy (5.2) is busy writing reviews for the Atlantic! Here’s one he did on a debut novel about the dark side of athletic greatness called Stephen Florida.

Maia Dolphin-Krute from 8.2 wrote a book about “illness not as a metaphor” called GHOSTBODIES, which you can order directly from the site!

J. Bradley (7.1) has work that made the “longlist” over at WIGLEAF!

Lastly, an enormously heartfelt congratulations to Colette Arrand (6.2), who released her book HOLD ME GORILLA MONSOON and enjoyed a fantastic reading tour earlier this summer.

We’ll see you all this coming fall, Shiny Fam, for issue 9.1 and even more contributor news!

SHINY FAMILY :: RECENT NEWS FROM OUR POETRY CONTRIBUTORS

Long time, no sparkle. While we’ve been chugging away at getting our next issue out, our poetry contributors have been busy, busy, busy. Here’s a small smattering of what they’ve been up to.

First up: check out all of these shiny poets glittering new work in other literary journals:

Morgan Parker (5.1) in Buzzfeed!

Jane Wong and Nicole Steinberg (7.1) in American Poetry Review

Jared Joseph (7.1) in glittermob!

Daniel Rzicznek (2.1) Candice Wuehle (3.1) & Laura Kochman (7.1) in PITH!

José Hernández Díaz (7.1) in Green Mountain Review!

Jennifer Hanks (7.2) in Permafrost Magazine!

Gina Abelkop (3.2) and Chris Tonelli (6.2) in Lute & Drum!

Emily O’Neill (5.1) in Adroit!

Billie R. Tadros (7.1) in WordRiot!

Alex Lemon (4.1) in AGNI!

Xandria Phillips (8.1 & 5th annual poetry contest winner!),Tyler Brewington (6.1), & Jameka Williams (7.2) Powder Keg Magazine!

Speaking of glittering, here’s some other shiny news of notes, including forthcoming books, workshops, reviews, and readings:

“Poetry exists in these interstitial spaces. It’s kind of like an orgasm. You can’t remain with it for fourteen hours or else you’re going to end up in the E.R.” Hear more of this great #CoffeewithCreatives podcast with 3.1’s Laura Goode here.

Toby Altman (3.2/4.1) is reading on Wednesday, September 14th, in Chicago!

Carrie Lorig (6.1) & Nick Sturm (3.2) read this Friday, September 16th, in Tuscaloosa!

Mel Bentley (4.1) is reading Wednesday, September 28th in Brooklyn!

3.2’s Jane Wong‘s book OVERPOUR is available October 1 from Action Books! Jane was also the recipient of the 2016 Stanley Kunitz Memorial Prize!

7.1 contributor and 4th annual poetry contest winner Heather Bowlan has a blog about the Urban Pastoral up on the Ploughshares blog!

Keetje Kuipers (5.1) is teaching a poetry workshop at Hugo House starting September 28th! She will also be reading on Wednesday, September 14 at 7pm as part of the Beacon Bards series at the Hugo House, as well as in NYC on Thursday, September 22 as part of the Best American Poetry anthology launch at the New School.

You can find a review of 5.1’s Emily O’Neill’s book YOU CAN’T PICK YOUR GENRE here!

7.1’s Jennifer Fossenbell reviews Ginger Ko’s MOTHERLOVER for The Volta blog!

You can now buy Notes on the End of the World by 3.2’s Meghan Privitello through Black Lawrence Press!

And, lastly, in some Shiny Poetry Editor news:

Editor-in-Chief Kimberly Ann Southwick was featured in Amazon’s Day One!

Contributing Editor Sophie Klahr has poems in Mid-American Review and BOAAT, as well as three poems in California Journal of Poetics.

Assistant Poetry Editor Tafisha Edwards’ poem was featured as the poem of the week on Split This Rock! [tw: rape]

Poetry Editor Christine Friedlander’s first book AVANT GAUZE is now available from Magic Helicopter Press. Her book is also being featured by Small Press Distributors as a #SPDHandpicked selection for the month of September, making you eligible for a discount! [tw: rape, graphic images]

Omnivorous, Trashy, & Always: Getting to Know GS Reader Michael J. Wilson

Poet Michael J. Wilson reads Poetry for Gigantic Sequins. His book, A Child of Storm, comes out in October from Stalking Horse Press, and will be available for pre-order on the press website and the usual e-sellers this summer. Explore more of his work on Limehawk or on his blog Gnash Nosh, where he posts a poem every day.

Current location?

I currently am sitting in a cafe in Santa Fe, it has an awesome garage door in the front and there is a cool breeze coming in. It is next door to a grocery store. In front is the Santa Fe River, which is a dry bed this time of year but sometime this summer it will fill with water and everything will turn green.

Pick the world of a poem / short story / essay / piece of art that you would want to live in.

I am obsessed with the worlds of Shirley Jackson. I don’t necessarily want to live in them, but a tour would be nice. We Have Always Lived in the Castle, for instance. It’s a strangely sunless place filled with characters refusing to move beyond family crisis. The actual environment has responded by crumbling about them, yet they refuse to budge. The space is baroque, filled with shadow, it’s oddly ancient and modern at the same time. It’s a mansion, but half of it is rotting. There’s a sort of old Hollywood glamour in this decay. Like Sunset Boulevard or What Ever Happened to Baby Jane or Grey Gardens.

Choose five words to describe your reading habits.

My reading habits in 5 words:

Omnivorous, Obsessive, Fast, Trashy, & Always

What was the best advice someone ever gave you about writing?

The best advice I think I ever got about my writing came from Dana Levin. She has always told me to stop over thinking in my writing. To find the places where my OCD-self stepped in and spun the wheels off the piece. It has led me to a closer reading of my own work. And an attempt to find the places where I add an extra flourish or word when I could just say “here” and “now”.

SHINY FAMILY :: RECENT NEWS FROM OUR POETRY CONTRIBUTORS

I say, let’s spring ahead a little early this week and celebrate some awesome news from our shiny poetry contributors!

Make (No) Bones about it! Check out 3.2’s Toby Altman’s new poetry podcast of the very same name! His first includes an interview with Jacob Saenz.

4.1’s Mel Bentley’s book Bucolic Eclogue is now available for preorder from Lame House Press.

Read two poems by Doug Paul Case (4.2) in the newest Devil’s Lake.

Check out this great interview with 7.1’s José Hernández Díaz for The New Delta Review.

Read 5 new poems by Jon-Michael Frank (5.1) in the new Prelude Magazine.

3.1’s Laura Goode’s essay “I Was In Recovery From Anorexia — & Then I Got Pregnant” appears in Refinery 29.

Rebecca Hazelton (4.1) has a poem in the March issue of Poetry Magazine.

Erin Lyndal Martin (7.1) interviews Lucinda Williams about “Highway 20” over at NO DEPRESSION.

2.2’s Yelena Moskovich’s debut debut novel THE NATASHAS is out now through Serpent’s Tail. Get your copy here!

Listen to 1.1 Chris Peck’s reimagination/remix of The Heavy Howl song “The Mask” here.

4.2’s Kylan Rice has a poem in the newest issue of Pith.

SHINY EDITOR AND READER NEWS

Editor-in-Chief Kimberly Ann Southwick wrote a great piece on editing Gigantic Sequins called “IT’S NOT A JOB: IT’S MY LIFE” for Actual Pants.

You can now download our poetry reader Samantha Duncan’s chapbook The Birth Creatures for free (!) from Agape Editions here. She also had a poem appear in Stirring.

Poetry Reader Michael Wilson’s first book of poetry A Child of Storm is forthcoming from Stalking Horse Press in October 2016!

Dylan Weird (Poetry Reader) has a poem that you can read (and listen to!) via Word Riot.

Contributing Editor Sophie Klahr’s poem “Diagnosis” was featured in the Harvard Review Online. She will be reading at Pleiades, 32 Poems, and Tupelo Quarterly’s Offsite AWP Reading along with 6.2’s Bianca Stone on Wednesday, March 30th, from 7-9 pm at Opulen Studios in LA. You can find more details about the reading here.

Are you a Shiny contributor reading at AWP in LA this year? Let us know! We want to create our own Map to the Stars, so-to-speak.

SHINY FAMILY NF :: NEWS FROM OUR CONTRIBUTORS

Valentine’s Day has come and gone, but we still adore a recent contributor with one of the biggest hearts: Colette Arrand.

Colette wrote a non-fiction piece, “.081 Magenemite” for last summer’s 6.2 issue, and she’s just published a new piece at AutoStraddle titled “My Trans Body as a State of Desire.” It’s an exploration of her “emotional cave” as she discovers new modes of experiencing sexuality during her transition. It’s exciting, unique, and (of course) honest.

We’d expect no less from Colette.

Find her on Twitter and, especially, her blog.

SHINY FAMILY :: RECENT NEWS FROM OUR ART CONTRIBS

Joshua Gabriel (2.2) has a new mural up in Astoria, Queens. Go check it out in person at Yaar Indian Restaurant…or online, right here, just above this note!

A new book by Jon-Michael Frank (5.1) HOW’S EVERYTHING GOING? NOT GOOD features his comics and is now available via Ohio Edit.

Fabio Sassi (7.1) has artwork featured in RAZOR’s Winter 2016 issue.

The poem “Our Arrangement” by KC Trommer (6.2), whose poetry comics appeared in a recent issue of GS, appeared in the January 16th edition of DAY ONE.

Adrienne Celt (3.2), whose comics appeared in one of our past issues, won the 2015 PEN Southwest Book Award in Fiction for her novel THE DAUGHTERS.

2015 Shiny Family Round Up!

We’re proud of our shiny family – it’s been an amazing year for so many of our contributors. We love celebrating their success! Here are some of the great books and chapbooks by our contributors, published in 2015:

Toby Altman: Tender Industrial Fabric ( Greying Ghost); Same Difference (Shirt Pocket Press)

J. Bradley : Neil ( Five Quarterly)

Caleb Curtiss : A Taxonomy Of Space Between Us (Black Lawrence Press)

Jim Daniels: Apology to the Moon (BatCat Press)

Dalton Day: Actual Cloud (Salo Press)

Nik De Dominic: Your Daily Horoscope ( New Michigan Press)

Nick Flynn: My Feelings (Graywolf Press)

Carrie Lorig:THE PULP VS. THE THRONE (Artifice Press)

Matthew Mahaney: The Storm That Bears Your Name (The Cupboard)

Carrie Murphy: Fat Daisies (Big Lucks Press)

Morgan Parker: Other People’s Comfort Keeps Me Up At Night (Switchback Books)

Matthew Siegel: Blood Work (University of Wisconsin Press)

Lillian Ann Slugoki: How To Travel With Your Demons (Spuyten Duyvil)

Brian Warfield: Beach Story (The Heavy Contortionists)

Carolyn Willams-Noren: Small Like A Tooth (Dancing Girl Press)

Jane Wong: Impossible Map (Fact-Simile)

Wendy Xu: Naturalism (Brooklyn Arts Press)

Corey Zeller: You and Other Pieces (Creative Coping Mechanisms)

AND here’s a bit of 2015 news from some of our Gigantic Sequins staff:

Non-Fiction Editor Ian Carlos Crawford released a book trailer for his unpublished novel, Vaguely Based On A True Story. Other than that, he had a pretty shitty year. He did, however, also read some great books.

Poetry Editor Chrissy Friedlander’s work was featured in Tarpaulin Sky Magazine and First Class Lit. Her first book AVANT GAUZE is forthcoming from Magic Helicopter Press in the spring of 2016

Contributing Editor Sophie Klahr’s work was featured in Harvard Review Online, Tupelo Quarterly, Ninth Letter, The Rumpus and Washington Square Review. Her first book Meet Me Here At Dawn is forthcoming from YesYes Books in the fall of 2016.

EIC Kimberly Ann Southwick moved to Breaux Bridge, Louisiana this year, where she now attends the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and is working towards her PhD in English/Creative Writing with a concentration in Poetry. Her chapbook EFS & VEES came out this past October from Hyacinth Girl Press.

Assistant Production Editor/Designer meg willing became the Associate Director of CSArt Maine—Maine’s first community-supported art share program—as well as an Associate Chapbook Editor and PDF Chapbook Designer at BOAAT Press. She also contributes mircroreviews to an exciting new chapbooks column in Rain Taxi.

Fiction Editor Zach Yontz became a master of disguise. Look, he’s sitting right next to you!

Here we come, 2016!

SHINY FAMILY :: RECENT NEWS FROM OUR POETRY CONTRIBUTORS

This November, we’re thankful for the amazing poets who have graced our issues. Here is some recent contributor news to fill you with joy:

GS 5.2 poetry comics artist Jon-Michael Frank has 2 new poems up at Hobart!

Not only did GS 7.1’s Erin Lyndal Martin interview Natalie Merchant for Salon, but Erin also has two new poems for you to read in the new Cosmo Avenue!

2 new poems from GS 5.1’s Emily O’Neill are now up at Atrocity Exhibition for you to read.

GS 3.1’s Carrie Murphy talks about patriarchy, maternity care, buying dresses & her book FAT DAISIES at Weird Sister!

Read GS 3.2’s Jane Wong’s poem “Against Boredom/Toward Warmth” up now at City Arts!

And 3rd Annual Poetry Contest Winner Carrie Lorig wrote a 24-page sonnet called “The Book of Repulsive Women” which is now unfolding on T A G VV E R K.