Tag: news

Dear Lit Mag Enthusiasts and Sweater Weather Lovers,

Welcome to fall and the latest edition of TGLR. Yes, friends, today is the day… The big reveal of Issue #21!! It’s always a delight to introduce the authors and artists we meet through the publication process, but it’s especially wonderful when people are as kind as this bunch. We’re honored to promote them and this bountiful collection of amazing work! 

We’re excited to feature two poems by Rodrigo Toscano plus more sweet, sweet lines by Rayni K. Wekluk, Matthew James Babcock, Bob King, Elizabeth Anguamea, and Caroline Sutphin. And that would certainly be more than enough, however, we are beyond thrilled to offer, for the very first time, spoken word! These brave souls were willing to jump into the bounce house with us for this fun new endeavor: Eve Addams, Dufflyn Lammers, and Esman Rodas Calderon.

A huge thank you to Bianca Swift who agreed to be our guest editor for this segment!

In flash creative nonfiction, we have two essays by Camila Cal Mello, the doctor says i must milk her body and my mother says she wants to go out tonight and a third, The Percolator, by Marlene Olin. For longer essays, we have Rearview Mirror by Brad Snyder and Swan Song by Sarah Safsten.

And because it is getting harder and harder to turn excellent work away, we could not resist accepting the six fiction pieces that are included in the virtual pages of this issue – flash by Charlie Rogers and Sarah Schiff, and short fiction by Simon Ashton, Ben Seabolt, David Hutto, and Mikaela Conley. All are worth taking time time to read and enjoy!

Of course, the issue would not be complete without a full complement of artwork. We’re pleased to showcase “Early Rising” by Amuri Morris on the cover and pieces by J.C. Henderson, Crystal Angeles, Fabio Sassi, and Harry Bauld accompanying the writing in the issue. More about each artist and their work is available on the Issue 21 Art page. 

With that, we are delighted to release Issue #21 ~ Autumn 2025 into the wild!  

As always, thank you for visiting, reading, supporting independent journals, and believing in the arts!

Cheers to Leaf Peeping and Stormy Mornings,
~Shyla, Tacheny, and The Good Life Review Team

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Issue #21 Editorial Team: M.A. Boswell, Ashley Espinoza, Tacheny Perry, Tana Buoy, Patrick O’Dell, Carina Faz, Amy Crawford, Annie Barker, Debra Rose Brillati, Erin Challenor, Cid Galicia, Terry Belew, Michelle Pierce Battle, Cat Dixon, Stepha Vesper, and Shyla Shehan

Issue #21 Readers: Jamie Wendt, Toni Allen, Zach Vesper, Jill Veltkamp, Julie Johanning, Brittany Turek, Miranda Jansen, Madeline Torbenson, Mitra Vajjala, Julia Sample, Ashley DeVrieze, and Christine Nessler

Dear Friends and Readers,

Welcome to the sweltering heart of summer. If this is your first visit to The Good Life Review, the 20th, or the 100th, we thank you. If you’re here to read a single poem that was written by someone you know or intend to read this latest release “cover to cover,” we thank you. And if you are just here for a taste of what we have to offer because you are considering sending us some writing or art, we thank you. No matter the reason, we are grateful and excited to share what we feel is one of our most glorious collections to date!

This issue includes the winners of our annual Honeybee prize, along with other select finalists that were favorites of our editorial team. This is the 5th year we’ve run a contest, and we received a larger volume of poems, stories, and essays than ever before. It makes narrowing down to a short list of finalists (available here) extremely difficult, and also means that all of the pieces selected are truly the best of the best.

Before we get down to business with the official rundown of what’s included in this issue, we want to express gratitude to the judges of this year’s contest – Julia Kolchinsky (Poetry), Brenna Womer (Short CNF), Kristine Langley Mahler (Flash CNF), Michael Czyzniejewski (Short Fiction), and Tom Paine (Flash Fiction). All were wonderful to work with, generous with their time, and thoughtful in their endorsements. Those endorsements, incidentally, are included with the winning piece in each genre…

In addition, the following pieces were selected by our teams to receive Editor’s Choice accolades…

Poetry:
Red and Yellow Light Over the Top of Houses by Dolapo Demuren
Arouse Yourself, why do You sleep, O LORD? by Yin Cheng
The Year I Carried You by Sara Shea
The Widower Writes From the Shipwreck by Ellie Gold Laabs
True Apothecary by Ellie Gold Laabs

In Flash Creative Nonfiction:
The Leftovers by Michelle La Vone

In Short Fiction:
Take Me Through the Finish by Tom Ziemer

In Flash Fiction:
The Summer He Left by Alison Ozawa Sanders
Solitary Creatures by Charlie Rogers & Jaime Gill

Congratulations, again, to all these fine folks for creating such wonderful pieces.

Our list of contributors does not end there, though. This issue also includes some incredible artwork by several talented artists: Mary Amato ( “Zephyr” featured on the cover), Roger Camp, Britnie Walston, Nataliia Burmaka, Ferris Jones, Milena Makani, Maud Bocquillod, Joe Hernandez, and Sebastian Mark. These pieces were selected because of their style, use of color, and texture, and also because of how their work visually complements the writing in the issue. More about these artists is available on the Issue #20 Artwork page.

With that, we invite you to dive into Issue #20 ~ Summer 2025 and celebrate with us! We hope that you enjoy these pieces as much as we do. Thank you again for visiting, reading, supporting independent journals, and believing in the arts.

Cheers to Shade Trees and Honeybees,
~Shyla, Tacheny, and All of The Good Life Review Team

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Issue #20 Editorial Team: M.A. Boswell, Erin Challenor, Debra Rose Brillati, Annie Barker, Patrick O’Dell, Tana Buoy, Tacheny Perry, Carina Faz, Dave Mainelli, Cid Galicia, Michelle Pierce Battle, Cat Dixon, Terry Belew, Stepha Vesper, and Shyla Shehan

Issue #20 Readers: Amy Crawford, Julia Sample, Madeline Torbenson, Jamie Wendt, Jill Veltkamp, Toni Allen, Julie Johanning, Zach Vesper, Ashley DeVrieze, Arianna Ashby, and Miranda Jansen.

Hello friends. June has come and gone and just like snap, we’re barreling straight for the sweltering heart of summer here in the heartland.

For landlocked Nebraska that means hot days, muggy nights, loads of weeding and watering the gardens, and, for us at TGLR, it means celebrating results of our annual contest, the Honeybee Prize.

Friends, this is the 5th year we’ve run the contest and for those who don’t know, 100% of the funds received from submission fees are used to pay contributing writers and artists, which is central to our vision, so we owe a debt of gratitude to all who participated!!

And though we are a few weeks behind schedule, we’re delighted to officially announce the winners selected by this year’s judges and other finalists selected by our team to receive editor’s choice accolades. ↓↓↓

Our congratulations goes out to these fine folks for their amazing writing and to the winners for snagging those beautiful jars of honey!

We’re not done yet, though!! The best is yet to come as most of these award winning pieces will appear in Issue #20 ~ Summer 2025, the Honeybee Prize Edition. It’s gonna be so, so good… we can’t wait to share it with you (very soon).

Cheers,
~The Good Life Review Team

PS. We’re open for our Autumn issue including our first-ever call for spoken-word pieces, for which submissions are free. The window closes on July 20th. ⭐ We’re also on the hunt for artwork for our autumn issue. ⭐

As a reminder, we nominate for Pushcart, Best of the Net, Best New Poets, Best Small Fictions and… YES we are a paying market! ($60 per piece published in the seasonal issue, $25 per piece published in Micro Monday, $50 for cover art).

Your work will be handled with care and read by at least two (typically three or more) members of our editorial team.

Huzzah, we’ve finally done it! At long last the team is finished reading and deliberating submissions for the 2025 Honeybee Prize. This included hundreds of stories and essays and over a thousand poems! We’re pleased to report that finalists have been sent to the judges in each of the 5 genres.

And we’re equally as excited to heave a hearty congratulations in the direction of those that made it onto this year’s short list. ↓↓↓

Stay tuned to learn the results of the contest and who the judges selected as the winners.

If you missed sending work for the prize this year (or even if you didn’t), there’s always another chance just around the next bend. And, we’re always open. Click here to give us a go. ↓↓↓

As a reminder, we nominate for Pushcart, Best of the Net, Best New Poets, Best Small Fictions and… YES we are a paying market! ($60 per piece published in the seasonal issue, $25 per piece published in Micro Monday, $50 for cover art).

Your work will be handled with care and read by at least two (typically three or more) members of our editorial team.

Peace and Love,
The Good Life Review Team

Why? Because we love spring and we love summer, and we love reading poems and essays and strange stories by wonderful writers, even ones with spiders.

Because we are done reading for this year’s HoneyBee Prize and are anxiously awaiting results from the five judges. And because we don’t want that pesky $3 fee to cause people to hold any grudges.

Too much? OK. Maybe we’re doing it because we can.

Guidelines are available on our submission page and the form to send work is available on Submittable (be sure to select the fee-free option, unless you want to give us moneys, which is OK too).

As a reminder, we nominate for Pushcart, Best of the Net, Best New Poets, Best Small Fictions and… YES we are a paying market! ($60 per piece published in the seasonal issue, $25 per piece published in Micro Monday, $50 for cover art).

Your work will be handled with care and read by at least two (typically three or more) members of our editorial team.

Dear Lit Mag Lovers and Fellow Egg Hunters, 

Spring has sprung here in Omaha and, after the last few snow doozies, we (and the trees) are ready. We’re ready for green to take over everything. We’re ready for brilliant pops of yellow, purple, and white to grace every landscape. And we are more than ready to share and celebrate our 5th spring issue!

That’s right, TGLR is officially in its 5th year, and that feels pretty fantastic. Five years of reading and collaboration, learning and growth, and five years of publishing amazing work. This issue is no exception. It’s the picture-perfect example of what we’re all about. 

Yes, friends, today is the day! The big reveal of Issue #19. We’re delighted to introduce the pieces and their creators, and to celebrate this bountiful collection…

In the short creative nonfiction space, we’re honored to feature two pieces centered around one of the most difficult circumstances any person will face in their lifetime: the loss of a parent. 

“You Come Now You Leave Now” by Ramona Emerson deftly captures who her father was as an individual by exploring both old and new memories. As these are weaved together seamlessly, they also reveal what she has learned about herself and about grief. From vertiginous to euphoric, she shows grief’s many manifestations and how it “rearranges us.” 

Siobhan Ring’s essay, “Space / Time,” begins with an unexpected trip across the country and continues through each phase of her journey as she attempts to be with, and care for, her dying mother during the pandemic. Ring pulls from her family history to tether two stories that show that no matter the time or the space, losing a family member truly means, “nothing will ever be the same.” 

In flash creative nonfiction, Allison Hughes explores a different kind of pain in her essay “I Am a Body Lying in the Grass.” It’s the loss of love and hope for a budding relationship that she brings to light in this brief, poignant piece. 

Our second essay in this genre isn’t just a refreshing take on body image, but a commentary on how women are expected to feel shame or hide their shapely figures. “I like when my ass hangs out of my shorts” by Rose Marie Torres leads with sass and confidence and we love it! 

In flash fiction we’ve got three unique stories that are sure to elicit emotional reactions. “The Next Empty Cup” by Myna Chang, might make you smile through the sadness. “Flying Fish” by Corinne Harrison is likely to leave you shaking your head and then nodding in agreement with what isn’t said. And we challenge you to take a crack at the “Taco Bell Customer Satisfaction Questionnaire” by Susan L. Lin and not laugh or see yourself in the questions. Bonus points if you can correctly calculate the answer to question 15, in “Section IV: The “Are You a Robot?” Math Section.” 

Two “must read” pieces for this issue are the short fiction stories which are different in just about every way except for their superb writing and surprise endings. 

“Tbilisi” by Sara Maria Hasbun is sharp, interesting story that is relevant to present day social and political dilemmas. Tension in this piece builds with each scene and interaction as it speeds toward a conclusion you won’t see coming. 

By contrast Marilee Dahlman’s piece, “Mall Goddess,” transports the reader back to the late 80’s and early 90’s when shopping mall culture in the Midwest was at its peak. She captures the vibe and downfall of this era perfectly as the story of Kylie’s lifelong love/obsession for Justin unfolds. 

In our last release we mentioned that it’s becoming more of a challenge with each issue to make decisions because we have so much excellent work coming our way. This remains true with this issue so instead of bringing you five or six, we’ve got eight poems by these seven authors: Chris Lisieski, Ezra Fox, Pamilerin Jacob, Keira Deer, Alicia Elkort, Alex Dodt, and Katharine Jager. Each poem is a heavy hitter worth spending time with. 

Rounding out the issue, there’s a full complement of artwork. We’re pleased to showcase “Natural Hue” by Sarah Kohrs on the cover and for the first time, several of the artwork pieces featured in the issue were provided by writer featured in a previous issue, Ellen June Wright. Also included are pieces by Kim McNealy Sosin, Sholanke Boluwatife Emmanuel, Ferris Jones, Erin Song, Pieter Janaldo, Mostafa Meraji, Albert Stoynov, Juan Burgos, Raymond Kotewicz, and Luke Chesser. More about each artist and their work is available on the artwork page. And the entire issue is also available in full-spread PDF format to read, download, or print and save forever. 

With that, we are ready for Issue #19 ~ Spring 2025 to run wild all over the interwebs! Thank you for visiting, reading, supporting independent journals, and believing in the arts!

Cheers to Strawberries ‘n’ Whiped Cream,
~Shyla, Tacheny, and All of The Good Life Review Team

Issue #19 Editorial Team: Cat Dixon, Michelle Battle, Cid Galicia, Terry Belew, Stepha Vesper, Tana Buoy, Patrick O’Dell, Tacheny Perry, Ashley Espinoza, M.A. Boswell, David Mainelli, Ciara Hoff, Annie Barker, Debra Rose Brillati, Erin Challenor, and Shyla Shehan

Issue #19 Readers: Kim Louise, Amy Crawford, Jamie Wendt, Jill Veltkamp, Toni Allen, Zach Vesper, Madeline Torbenson, Julie Labuszewski, Amanda DeMel, Arianna Ashby, Ashley DeVrieze, and Miranda Jansen. 

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