"The New Guard presents a curious mixture of the traditional narrative with the experimental, whether it is intimate fan letters to long-deceased authors, short stories showcasing mythical transformations, or free-verse poems." --NewPages

"It is a rollicking read, at turns whimsical, sad, and experimental." --The Portland Phoenix

More on TNG:

The New Guard on Poets & Writers

The New Guard and Shanna McNair in The Portland Phoenix

TNG on WinningWriters.com

TNG on liveworkportland.org

TNG live on ABC radio Australia

TNG in Lily Magazine

TNG Columbia College video interview at AWP 2011

TNG on obitmag.com

The New Guard is a proud member of the Council of Literary Magazines & Presses (CLMP), an organization committed to literary causes and to ethics in contest practices.

Interested in helping support our cause? The New Guard accepts donations mailed to our postal address, payable to The New Guard, or via the PayPal donation button below. Every dollar counts for writers!

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THE NEW GUARD 2012 CONTESTS (Volume III)

Thank you to all who entered the Volume III, 2012 Machigonne Fiction Contest and/or The Knightville Poetry Contest! Competition was extremely tough, more so than ever before. We got an overwhelming response to our contests—the amount of entries doubled from last year, and we saw manuscripts coming in from all over the world. The stories and poems were of an extremely high caliber, and the selection process was truly a challenge.

All of the finalists and semi-finalists are to be published alongside the winners and contributors in Volume III. Big congratulations to our winners, finalists and semi-finalists!

Machigonne Fiction Contest Winner:

Mark Wagstaff

Short story, Burn Lines (judged by Rick Bass)

Mark Wagstaff lives in London. Since 1999 he has had stories published across a range of journals and online, including Stone Highway Review, Scissors & Spackle, and Inkwell. Mark has published four novels and a novella. His most recent novel, In Sparta, a story of radicalism, conformity and terror, is available in print and e-book. Mark's first collection of short stories appeared in 2002 and his second collection will be published in 2012 by InkTears. He is also working on an e-book project with Folded Word.

Knightville Poetry Contest Winner:

Bruce Bond

Poem, Sea of Trees (judged by Jeanne Marie Beaumont)

Bruce Bond is the author of eight published books of poetry, most recently The Visible, Peal, and Blind Rain. His tetralogy of new books entitled Choir of the Wells will be released in 2013. Presently, he is a Regents Professor of English at the University of North Texas, and Poetry Editor for American Literary Review.

2012 VOLUME III MACHIGONNE FICTION CONTEST

FINALISTS

Jacob Appel, The Rod Of Asclepius

Brian Beard, Merci Jesus

John Blair, Three Little Indians

Taylor Brown, The Vizsla

Tracy Debrincat, A Certain Fire

Sarah Gerkensmeyer, Vanishing Point

Joan Lee Hunter, The Dog

Jenn Chan Lyman, The Natural

Leslie Jill Patterson, Catch And Release

Sara Patton, The Bull Rider

Leslie Rodd, Las Manos Grandes

Benjamin Rybeck, Perfect, Starting Now

Tamra Wilson, The Cozy Corner

Charles Wyatt, The Goldberg Variations

SEMI-FINALISTS

Conor Broughan, Moving Forward, No Delays

Paul Brown, Two Russians and An American Walk Into An Irish Pub

Justin Burnell, Non-lexemic Translation

Chris Connolly, Rabbit

Tomek Dzido, Ya Get Me

B D Feil, Men In Love

Kristen Hay, Hazard Ratios

Marc Mewshaw, Happy Accidents

Leslie Munnelly, Tonic Immobility

Gregg Schroeder, Apartment 6D

Lones Seiber, Finches

2012 VOLUME III KNIGHTVILLE POETRY CONTEST

FINALISTS

Quenton Baker, Nude Transformation and Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Nigger

Christopher Bursk, Untitled—Mark Rothko—1969/70

Kevin Conner, Skinny

Meghan Dunn, Galileo Sees His Future

Roberta George, Reading Palms

John Johnson, California Breakdown

Wulf Losee, In the Season of Rain

Eamon Mahoney, Blood On The Moon

Kristina McDonald, My Brother Tries to Tell Me About the Zeno Effect

Jenny Molberg, Matryoshka

Jose Padua, One Night at the Nuyorican

SEMI-FINALISTS

Robyn Art, Frost, Beleagured Plains, Augeries of Dew, Whatever:

Vincent Basso, On the Death of Poets

M. Callen, History of Romance

Doris Ferleger Now the Smoke Bushes

Wayne Lee, Just Like John Glenn

Gregory Loselle, My Cat has an X ray

Allister MacMartin, The News

Ed Madden Adrift off the Islets of Langerhans

Mary Morris, Dinner with Hades

Gabriela Tiessen, Composed

Erica Vega, An Open Window

ORDER YOUR COPIES OF TNG TODAY!

Subscription options are in the dropdown menu below. TNG 2012 VOL. III (forthcoming) is $20, TNG 2011 VOL. II is $18 (20% off), the set of TNG 2010 VOL. I & 2011 VOL. II are $28 (over 20% off) and TNG 2010 VOL. I is $13 (20% off).

THE NEW GUARD Lit Review PURCHASE OPTIONS

TNG 2012, Forthcoming Issue$20.00 USD TNG 2011, Current Issue (Cover Price, $22--20% off)$18.00 USD TNG 2011 and 2010 Set (Cover Price: $37--over 20% off)$28.00 USD TNG 2010, Back Issue (Cover Price $15--20% off)$12.00 USD

VOL.III, TNG 2012, will include new work by contributors Sharon Olds, Marge Piercy, Madeleine Blais, Erin Belieu, Stephen Dunn, Barbara Hurd and Stephen Byler, among others, and interviews with Maine writers Patrick Quinlan, Elizabeth Miles, Joe Loughlin and Lewis Robinson. Our letters section for this volume is, simply, "Love Letters." Cover art will be by Maine artist Matt Welch.

Orders over 20 copies nationally and over 10 copies internationally need special shipping attention. Please contact us at info@newguardreview.com before ordering.

TNG 2011 features A Storm of Blizzard Proportions (1944) by Ralph Ellison, a complete finished story which has never before been in print, and has only been read by a handful of people! Alongside A Storm of Blizzard Proportions, we've published a reproduction the original typewritten pages, straight from The Library of Congress.

Also included in this special section is an interview of John Callahan, Mr. Ellison's literary executor and author of A Man You Could Love. We are excited by this tremendous opportunity to share Mr. Ellison's work with our readers and writers.

TNG 2011 is a deluxe trade paperback with French flaps of 334 pages. Cover art is by Maine artist Jeff McCreight.

2011 Contest Winners: Knightville Poetry Contest winner: Kathleen Spivack; 2011 Machigonne Fiction Contest winner: Dan Marmor. All Vol. II 2011 contests finalists and semi-finalists (both genres) are published in this issue.

The Vol. II 2011 Letters Section: "Writers to Superheroes and Supervillains." Letter contributors: Joe Wenderoth, Tim Seibles, Tod Goldberg, Fred Marchant, Michael Kimball, Ed Skoog, Carolina De Robertis, Aaron Hamburger, Sarah Braunstein, James Zimmerman, Alexandra Oliver & Mike Heppner. A special illustration by local artist dave naybor (Dave Peabody) precedes the letters and kicks off this volume's group.

TNG 2011 has a new section called "Twenty Questions," to honor Maine's rich writing tradition. It's TNG's ode to writers who have lived and worked in Maine. Writers playing 20Q for 2011 are Tess Gerritsen, Liz Hand & former Maine Poet Laureate Baron Wormser.

We are also be featuring two established writers in this volume: Theodore Deppe & Cortright McMeel.

TNG is grateful to our incredible 2011 judges: former U.S. Poet Laureate Charles Simic & novelist and author of The Pure Lover, DAVID PLANTE.

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TNG 2010 features previously unpublished essays by two phenomenal Maine writers, Jaed Coffin & Bill Roorbach.

2010 Knightville Poetry Contest winner: William Derge; 2010 Machigonne Fiction Contest winner: Payne Ratner.

Our most gracious 2010 judges: former U.S. Poet Laureate Donald Hall & Good for the Jews author Debra Spark.

Issue 2010's letters: "Writers to Writers: Fan Letters to the Dead," a collection of fan letters to dead writers. Fan Letter contributors include: Sven Birkirts, Tom Grimes, Maxine Kumin, Thomas Lynch & Josip Novakovich.

TNG is also available at these fine bookstores:

Longfellow Books, Sherman's, McNally Jackson Books (Manhattan),Book Culture (Manhattan), Devaney, Doak & Garrett,Nonesuch Books,USM Bookstore,Colby Bookstore & Skylight Books.

Click the link below for THE NEW GUARD store! Get your TNG merchandise and be the coolest kid on the block:
THE NEW GUARD MERCHANDISE link

THE NEW GUARD FREE READING SERIES at Longfellow Books

Our reading series is held at the wonderful, fiercely independent Longfellow Books bookstore in Portland, Maine, as a literary offshoot of the First Friday Art Walk. Most readings take place on First Friday, and most of our TNG readers are Maine writers. Of course, both TNG VOL. I, 2010 and VOL II, 2011 are available for purchase at Longfellow's, and our authors will be happy to sign your book!

Stay tuned for more readings!

PAST READINGS:

November 8th, 7 PM: All-Maine author reading! TNG Contributor Sarah Braunstein, TNG Contributor Jaed Coffin, and TNG Fiction Finalist Jefferson Navicky.

Sarah Braunstein is the author of The Sweet Relief of Missing Children. Honors include being named one of "5 Under 35" fiction writers by the national Book Foundation, and she was a 2007 recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award. Stories and essays have appeared (or are forthcoming) in Green Mountains Review, Five Chapters, AGNI, Ploughshares, Nylon Magazine, Maine Magazine, and on NPR’s All Things Considered.

Jaed Muncharoen Coffin is the author of A Chant to Soothe Wild Elephants . Jaed has spoken widely at universities and colleges where his book is taught as a common text in multicultural curriculum initiatives. Honors include receiving the 2009 William Sloane Fellow at Bread Loaf Writers Conference and the 2009-10 Wilson Fellow in Creative Writing at Deerfield Academy. His forthcoming book, Roughhouse Friday, is about the year he fought as the middleweight champion of a barroom boxing show in Juneau, Alaska.

Jefferson Navicky is the author of the poetry chapbook, Map of the Second Person and his work has recently appeared in Quickfiction, Horse Less Review, Smokelong Quarterly, Interrobang!, and Tarpaulin Sky. He received a 2011 Good Idea Grant from the Maine Arts Commission for his six-play cycle, Redwing Solitaire, and his play, Lungfish, was chosen for the 2010 Maine Playwright's Festival.

August 3rd, 7 PM: Maine-based author and TNG Contributor Tess Gerritsen. Tess gave a special reading from her forthcoming novel, Last to Die, the newest in the Rizzoli and Isles series. Last to Die is to be released on August 28th. You can pre-order the book from Longfellow's! Buy local!

Tess Gerritsen was trained as a medical doctor and built a second career as a thriller writer. Her 23 novels include the Rizzoli and Isles crime series, on which the TV show "Rizzoli & Isles" is based. Among her titles are The Surgeon, Ice Cold, and The Silent Girl. Her books are translated into 37 languages and more than 20 million copies have been sold.

July 11, 7 PM: former U.S. Poet Laureate and TNG VOL. II, 2011 Knightville Poetry Judge Charles Simic.

Charles Simic is a poet, translator, editor and essayist. He has put out over 30 books of poetry, has translated 15 books, and has published several books of essays. He won The Pulitzer Prize for his book, The World Doesn't End: Prose Poems. Other awards and fellowships include The Wallace Stevens Award, the Griffin International Poetry Prize, the Academy Fellowship and Guggenheim, MacArthur and National Endowment for the Arts grants. Simic was named a Chancellor of The Academy of American Poets in 2000. He was also was elected to The American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1995.

Georgia Review correspondent Peter Stitt wrote: “The fact that [Simic] spent his first eleven years surviving World War II as a resident of Eastern Europe makes him a going-away-from-home writer in an especially profound way...He is one of the wisest poets of his generation, and one of the best.”

April 6th, 7 PM: An all-Maine author reading! TNG Editor and Contributor Bill Roorbach, TNG Editor and Contributor Scott Wolven, TNG Poetry Finalist Melissa Roberts, and TNG Founding Editor & Publisher Shanna McNair.

Shanna McNair* is the founder of TNG. She writes fiction, poetry, scripts and the occasional article. She is an award-winning journalist with a background in the visual and performing arts. Recent publications include Maine Magazine, among others. She has a nove and a book of short stories forthcoming.

*Shanna read from the VOL. II, 2011 TNG special section on Ralph Ellison, the previously unpublished Ralph Ellison story, A Storm of Blizzard Proportions (1944). This was the first time the story was ever read in a public venue.

Melissa Roberts is a student in the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. She lives in Maine.

Bill Roorbach is the author of eight books of fiction and nonfiction, including the Flannery O'Connor Prize and O. Henry Prize winner Big Bend (2001), Into Woods (2003), and Temple Stream (2005). Life Among Giants, a novel, is forthcoming this year. The 10th anniversary edition of his craft book, Writing Life Stories (2008), is used in writing programs around the world. Recently, Bill was a judge on Food Network All Star Challenge, evaluating incredible Life Stories cakes. Bill’s work has been published in Harper's, The Atlantic Monthly, Playboy, The New York Times Magazine, Granta, and dozens of other magazines and journals.

Scott Wolven is the author of the short story collection, Controlled Burn. His stories have appeared seven years in a row in The Best American Mystery Stories Series, the most consecutive appearances in the history of the series. The title story of the collection appeared in Best American Noir of the Century.