A Muted Blue Star Muses: ezine

Showing posts with label ezine. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 15, 2025

Is(sue) 17 Deadline Reminder

Dear Kinfolk.

Here we are at the Deadline for Is(sue) 17, which is April 30, 2025. So: get your weird, wonderful, experimental poetry, art, and short stories in our inbox by then. This is your final reminder.

Thank you for making us the premier ezine in Appalachia for all things avant-garde! See you in June!

Sincerely,

Sabne Raznik

Poetry/Art Ed(itor)

www.avantappalachia.com

Saturday, June 15, 2024

Is(sue) 15 and New Schedule - AvantAppal(achia)

Dear Kinfolk,

Is(sue) 15 is live! There are 7 countries total and 10 states within the US represented. This includes our first contributions from Egypt and Peru.

The work chosen to be arch(ived) from Is(sue) 14 is JWM Morgan's story, Volodymyr Bilyk's art, and Joshua Martin's poem. Read it on the Arch(ive) page.

Check the Sub(missions) page. We have made our longstanding policy regarding how we arch(ive) past is(sues) even clearer so that there can be no confusion that you as the author of your work bear responsibility for keeping records of publication and not us. Also, the date of deadline for each is(sue) has changed.

Deadline for Is(sue) 16 is October 31, 2024. So send us your avant-garde and experimental poetry, art, and short stories! You make this ezine the foremost home of the Avant in Appalachia. We are special and weird because of you. Thank you!

www.avantappalachia.com

Sincerely,

Sabne Raznik
Poetry/Art Ed(itor)

Saturday, December 16, 2023

Is(sue) 14 is live!

Dear Kinfolk,

Dave Sykes and I are proud to announce that Is(sue) 14 of AvantAppal(achia) went live on December 15, 2023! It is one of our best is(sues). There is a lot of work from South Korea this time. But we also have poetry, art, and fiction from several U.S. states, Ukraine, and Siberia.

We have made several changes to the submission guidelines so be sure to read those on the Sub(missions) page. These include a how-to guide to ensure photos and videos taken with an Apple device save and send as JPG files.

The deadline for Is(sue) 15 is May 31, 2024. www.avantappalachia.com

Thank you for making this ezine the premiere home for the experimental and weird of literature in Appalachia and supporting its outreach to the world!

Sincerely,

Sabne Raznik

Poetry/Art Ed(itor)

Monday, May 16, 2022

Deadline for Is(sue) 11

Dear Kinfolk,

Our deadline for Is(sue) 11 is May 31, 2022. We need your avant garde, experimental, weird, fantastic poetry, short fiction, and art.

Please look at the Guidelines on the website. Because of time constraints we will now have to automatically reject submissions that do not follow the Guidelines. Especially, we ask that you remember to include your state or country of current residence in your bio.

Thank you so much! AvantAppal(achia) is what it is because of each and everyone of you.

See you soon!

Sincerely,

Sabne Raznik

Poetry/Art Ed(itor)

www.avantappalachia.com

Wednesday, October 14, 2020

Yes(ABLED) Is(sue) is Live!

Dear Kinfolk,

The Yes(ABLED) Special Is(sue) is live! It can be found here: https://www.avantappalachia.com/special-issues.html

There are 4 countries featured, including 4 states in the U.S. You will find a poem by Volodymyr Bilyk of Ukraine written in a precursor of Braille called Moon Type, some thought-provoking poetry from Ricky Ray in Connecticut, and a fascinating essay regarding mental illness by Brandy Renee McCann from Virginia. We hope that this is(sue) highlights the unique perspective and creativity of the disabled population worldwide.

The submission period for the 9th regular is(sue) is still wide open. The deadline for it is now set at May 31, 2021. Please read the guidelines under “Sub(missions)” in the menu on the website as there have been some changes.

Thank you so much – all of you – for making this ezine every incredible thing that is! We couldn’t do it without each and every one of you.

We would like to take a moment to express condolences for the deaths of regular contributors Philip Kent Church and Linda Regula earlier this year.

Please stay safe during this unusual year. We are sending you calmness and best wishes!

Sincerely,

Sabne Raznik

Poetry/Art Ed(itor)

Monday, September 28, 2020

AvantAppal(achia) Virtual Poetry Reading on Zoom - September 25, 2020

Sunday, April 30, 2017

(Issue) 3 of AvantAppal(achia) Coming Soon!

Please, remember: you only have one more month to submit to AvantAppal(achia). Deadline for (Issue) 3 is May 31, 2017. We need your avant garde/experimental poetry, short stories, and visual art. Time is almost up! (Issue) 3 will go live on June 15, 2017.

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

AvantAppal(achia) (Issue) 1 is Live!

We are an excited bunch here at AvantAppal(achia)! (Issue) 1 just went live! Thank you so much to everyone who submitted! Please submit again. Remember, while we do publish some Appal(Trad) - traditional Appalachian work - our focus is on the experimental, on stretching the boundaries of what can be done in art. I don't mean shocking, although that can be good sometimes, but definitely surprise us. Our motto: If it doesn't surprise us, it'll bore our readers. It's a chance to challenge yourselves as artists and writers and to expand the readers' horizons. The deadline for (Issue) 2 is November 30, 2016! We are overjoyed at the prospect of reading the next batch. Thank you for helping to bring our little dream to life! www.avantappalachia.com

Much love to all of you kin,

Sabne Raznik

Poetry and Art Ed(itor)

"Fingers" Broadside

A unique broadside designed and printed on January 4, 2014 for the Kentucky Association of Sexual Assault Programs (KASAP)'s The Rising Center's "No More" traveling art exhibit to raise awareness to end sexual and domestic violence. The art exhibit will travel throughout the state of Kentucky in 2015, after which the broadside will be auctioned off at the Rising Center's discretion. The broadside features the much-praised poem "Fingers" from the collection "Following Hope" (Xlibris, 2007). There is only one (1) "Fingers" Broadside in existence.

Rabbit Hole

"I want the reader to imagine a dream, a dream of the sort that is not quite a nightmare where the dreamer wakes in terror but rather a dream where the dreamer is led on from curiosity to curiosity, image to image, and, confused perhaps but no less surprised by the images, wakes with a head scratch and begins the day, thinking about the world as a much stranger place than when the reader laid down to sleep ... [In the poems where the language is more] extreme . . . the deconstruction of language . . . [mirrors] the shattered state of language today and the impossibility to understand discourse of any kind anymore. It is as if language itself is designed to disguise meaning rather than convey it.” - George Fillingham

Renaissance: Visual Art 2005 - 2019

“Renaissance” is an emotional collection of work. Sabne Raznik’s pieces present the human experience in a thought-provoking and abstract way through body shapes and delicate hues. A mix of digital and traditional media, Raznik’s work is compelling in a way that makes the viewer’s eyes want to linger - taking all the details in. The traditional drawings of the “Salome Series” capture movement and exotic femininity with only the use of line and simple shading, while mixed media pieces like “Beautiful Tatters” find beauty in the mundane or unusual, like a scrap of paper soaked in wine. Raznik’s digital paintings feel like one is looking at a human emotion depicted in soft fields of color. Raznik is well known for her written word, but is proving herself to be quite the visual storyteller as well. This body of work is an excellent addition to any collection.-- Erin Alise ConleyMixed Media Artist, Host of "Weird Appalachia" Podcast

Renaissance: Positivity Cards for an Uplifting Day

"Dreaming of Bono" (VoiceLux, 2022)

A little girl, a young lady, and a mature woman walk into a bar and order a pint of Guinness. Only the mature woman leaves. Why? Because "hope has wings" and only the mature woman has the experience enough to manipulate "the sadness in our will : the courage of noble righteous doomed, who defy and defy ... because we must, if only for those who lack the strength to fight". Because, as I told you, "she's lived more than you'll ever read". The collection is a taste of mental growth in action, weaving dreams, reality and over the top stardom into a father figure only to outgrow him in the most superlative way. A carry in your pocket lifting of burdens to peruse over and over again. Why? Because "hope" is making a ruckus to get your attention! -- Marica, Artist

Fingers/Dedos Bilingual Selected Poems (English/Spanish)

Sabne Raznik’s latest collection of poetry Fingers, Selected Poems / Dedos, Poemas Seleccionados contains four powerfully emotive poems (“The Bearded Prophet,” “Poetry,” “Through Our Skin,” and “Fingers”). The English original of each poem is followed by an illustration and then by a Spanish translation by María Del Castillo Sucerquia. It concludes with a photo of the author followed by a one-paragraph biography in English and then its Spanish translation. The four poems are extremely different thematically and make use of different poetic languages. The common denominator between them is an underlying existential anxiety resulting from the inability of human beings collectively to understand each other and set aside greed and self-interest, and individually, in the case of the poet, to find consummation in love, and to discover the language in words and images to capture and communicate the essence of her experience. The poet notes in “Bearded Prophet,” she finds herself in “the era of pain -stampeding pain,” one which paradoxically leads her to identify with the “dumb hillbilly,” the bearded prophet who wears a sign that says “The End of the World Is Near.” Impending doom is suggested by images of the destruction of the environment, the open gashes of Appalachian strip mines, trees stripped bear of life to a height of eight feet by herbicide, and the violent midwestern storms intensified by climate change. “Poetry,” the most abstract of the four poems, prescribes in the form of a series of commands (“arm yourself, “leave the figure,” “Virgin love grow bold” which do not lead to consummation; they prove impotent. “Through the Skin” evokes the locus of creativity, where books, and papers, paint and turpentine are present on a table along with cup and saucer, the place where the written word and the painted image are crafted. The poem leaves the reader with a sense of a purpose shared by the “us” of the poem: “to sketch an idea to live by.” The last poem “Fingers” evokes images of a painful, repeated sexual encounter described as a violation, “like cactus thorns raking down my shapeless lines,” but the violation seems not to result from the violent impulse of the other, rather from the inability of the speaking subject to make good on the promise to the self with the words “Never again, never again.” The four poems are satisfying both as individual compositions and as panels of a multi-media whole. – Yndiana Montes Fogelquist and Jim Fogelquist, Appalachian Latinidad Fingers/Dedos is a powerful chapbook with 4 elaborate poems in English, with the same poems being translated into Spanish. The poetry captures strong images and emotions: "You sat cross-legged in the grass/And the earth framed your face." I was pulled into these poems and transformed into a cocoon waiting to be released into something with such fingers that would "Feel the bone crack,/Grind against my teeth/As I scream [...]" and become new in the aftermath. – John Compton, the castration of a minor god and how we liberated what secrets we modified