PUSHCART PRIZE
We're thrilled to announce that contributor Inam Kang has won a Pushcart Prize for his poem "meteorology is the science of remembering the sky stays relatively the same," which appeared in Issue 4 of Gordon Square Review. This poem will be included in the 2021 Pushcart anthology. Congratulations, Inam!
OUR MISSION
Gordon Square Review is a publication of Literary Cleveland, a nonprofit organization committed to creating a vital, diverse, and supportive literary community in Northeast Ohio. Gordon Square Review is published online biannually to showcase emerging writers nationwide and internationally, award editing mentorships, and provide a venue to spotlight Northeast Ohio writers.
Why Gordon Square?
Gordon Square Review is published by Literary Cleveland, a nonprofit organization working to nurture a vibrant literary arts community in Northeast Ohio. Literary Cleveland is headquartered in the Gordon Square Arts District, which serves as the cultural heart of Cleveland’s Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood. Gordon Square Review embraces its namesake’s ideals surrounding creativity, artistic exploration, and the value of supporting and celebrating emerging talent.
What does Gordon Square Review publish?
Gordon Square Review considers submissions of short fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction from writers across the United States and internationally. We feature emerging writers no matter their geographic location, but we also reserve a special place for Northeast Ohio writers.
Northeast Ohio Writers
Every issue of Gordon Square Review will spotlight at least one writer in Northeast Ohio—an area that, by our definition, includes the Cleveland, Akron/Canton, Youngstown, Kent, and Lorain/Elyria/Oberlin areas. Northeast Ohio writers are particularly encouraged to enter our contests. Local writers may also apply to be volunteer readers for Issue 6; please apply via Submittable by January 1, 2020.
Editorial Mentorships
As part of its mission, Gordon Square Review strives to mentor emerging writers. During the selection process, each editor will each choose a piece of writing from the general submission pool and work with the author in revision. Completed drafts resulting from these mentorships will be published in Gordon Square Review and accompanied by micro essays from the respective contributors and editors. These competitive editing mentorships will help guide emerging writers through the revision and publication process. All writers who submit to Gordon Square Review are automatically considered for a mentorship.
Gordon Square Review is published by Literary Cleveland, a nonprofit organization working to nurture a vibrant literary arts community in Northeast Ohio. Literary Cleveland is headquartered in the Gordon Square Arts District, which serves as the cultural heart of Cleveland’s Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood. Gordon Square Review embraces its namesake’s ideals surrounding creativity, artistic exploration, and the value of supporting and celebrating emerging talent.
What does Gordon Square Review publish?
Gordon Square Review considers submissions of short fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction from writers across the United States and internationally. We feature emerging writers no matter their geographic location, but we also reserve a special place for Northeast Ohio writers.
Northeast Ohio Writers
Every issue of Gordon Square Review will spotlight at least one writer in Northeast Ohio—an area that, by our definition, includes the Cleveland, Akron/Canton, Youngstown, Kent, and Lorain/Elyria/Oberlin areas. Northeast Ohio writers are particularly encouraged to enter our contests. Local writers may also apply to be volunteer readers for Issue 6; please apply via Submittable by January 1, 2020.
Editorial Mentorships
As part of its mission, Gordon Square Review strives to mentor emerging writers. During the selection process, each editor will each choose a piece of writing from the general submission pool and work with the author in revision. Completed drafts resulting from these mentorships will be published in Gordon Square Review and accompanied by micro essays from the respective contributors and editors. These competitive editing mentorships will help guide emerging writers through the revision and publication process. All writers who submit to Gordon Square Review are automatically considered for a mentorship.
Meet Our Team
LAURA MAYLENE WALTER
EDITOR-IN-CHIEFLaura Maylene Walter is a writer and editor in Cleveland. Her debut novel, BODY OF STARS, is forthcoming from Dutton (Penguin). Her writing has appeared in Poets & Writers, The Sun, Kenyon Review, Ninth Letter, Michigan Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. She was a Yaddo Fellow, a Tin House Writers’ Workshop Scholar, and the recipient of the Ohioana Walter Rumsey Marvin Grant. Her debut story collection, Living Arrangements (BkMk Press), won the G.S. Sharat Chandra Prize. Laura teaches workshops for Literary Cleveland, blogs for the Kenyon Review, and works for Cleveland Public Library. She is no stranger to rejection.
Laura's preferred aesthetic : I am equally enamored with the contemplative realism of Tessa Hadley or Alice Munro as I am compelled by the magic of Aimee Bender or Lesley Nneka Arimah. Lucy Corin’s apocalypses, Brenda Peynado’s “Yaiza,” and Wendy Oleson’s “How I Liked the Avocados” are just a few examples of short fiction that catches my eye. For nonfiction, I’m drawn to a gorgeous essay like Jaquira Diaz’s “Beach City,” but I also love work that blends the personal with research, like “On Not Eating the Marshmallow” by Helen Betya Rubinstein or just about anything by Roxane Gay. I welcome writing that takes risks, whether in terms of structure, content, or language. |
ALI BLACK
POETRY EDITORAli Black is a writer and youth advocate from Cleveland, Ohio. She directs Sisterhood, a literacy based after-school and summer program for girls at West Side Community House. Ali is a current graduate student for poetry at the Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts program and she is the poetry editor for Gordon Square Review. She is the recipient of the 2016 Academy of American Poets University & College Poetry Prize for her poem “Kinsman.” Her work has appeared in A Race Anthology: Dispatches and Artifacts From a Segregated City, december, The Rumpus, and jubilat.
Ali's preferred aesthetic: I admire poetry that is clear and meaningful and rich with imagery. My favorite poets use imagery to intensify language and ground the reader in the scene. I’m also attracted to poems that are structurally interesting in terms of how they appear on the page. I respect poets who know the rules, but also break the rules and I believe poems should always have clean lines, unblinking honesty and energy. A few poems I admire include: From “summer, somewhere” by Danez Smith; “Bullet Points” by Jericho Brown; “Spring” by Chloe Honum; and “The Shoots” by Shane McCrae. |
MATT WEINKAM
PROSE EDITORMatt Weinkam is a writer, editor, and college instructor with published work in Denver Quarterly, Sonora Review, New South, Quarter After Eight, Split Lip, DIAGRAM, and Electric Literature. He is founding editor of Threadcount Magazine and a former Managing Editor of Passages North literary journal. He holds an MA in creative writing from Miami University, an MFA in fiction from Northern Michigan University, and he has taught creative writing as far away as Sun Yat-sen University in Zhuhai, China. Originally from Cincinnati, Matt moved to Cleveland the same month LeBron broke the curse.
Matt's preferred aesthetic : I admire prose that gives me a new way of seeing the world. Most of my favorite writers twist or upend our preconceived ideas about what a story or an essay should be. I’m drawn to those who reinvent structure (Teju Cole, Maggie Nelson, Ander Monson), mingle genres (Amber Sparks, Charles Yu, Colson Whitehead), funk with language (Lindsay Hunter, Junot Díaz, Susan Steinberg), reveal untold perspectives (Valeria Luiselli, Svetlana Alexievich, John Keene), and generally get weird (Jesse Ball, Jen George, Alissa Nutting). “Post-Mortem” by Traci Brimhall has a lot of what I look for in a nonfiction piece: attention to language wrapped in an unconventional structure that is expertly designed to deliver emotional gut punch. “The Alive Sister” by Megan Giddings tackles topics so big in such a small space that only metafiction can allow for such meaning and emotion. A perfect display of everything fiction can do as well as why we continue to write it. |
ISSUE 6 POETRY READERS
Venus Davis, Kelly Konya, and Brandon Noel
ISSUE 6 PROSE READERS
Corey Miller, Aparna Paul, and Kimberly Rush
Venus Davis, Kelly Konya, and Brandon Noel
ISSUE 6 PROSE READERS
Corey Miller, Aparna Paul, and Kimberly Rush
SUPPORT
Support for Gordon Square Review comes from individuals like you, the George Gund Foundation, and state tax dollars allocated by the Ohio Legislature to the Ohio Arts Council (OAC). The OAC is a state agency that funds and supports quality arts experiences to strengthen Ohio communities culturally, educationally, and economically.
ABOUT LITERARY CLEVELAND
The nonprofit organization Literary Cleveland supports the publication of Gordon Square Review. Literary Cleveland was founded in 2015 to offer the region’s journalists, novelists, poets, short story writers, essayists, bloggers, authors of children’s and youth literature, technical writers, playwrights, and songwriters the opportunity to network, learn, and develop their skills. Literary Cleveland hosts the annual Inkubator conference as well as dozens of classes, workshops, readings, panel discussions, and other literary events that have served thousands of writers across Northeast Ohio.
CONTACT US
To submit work, see our Submit page. Send general inquiries* to gordonsquarereview@gmail.com.
* Please do not inquire about a submission until at least four months have passed.
* Please do not inquire about a submission until at least four months have passed.
