December 14, 2025

Baltimore Review News: Our contest finalists have been sent to the final judge. As soon as winners have been selected, they’ll be notified. If we decide to publish others in that group of finalists, they’ll also be notified. Then we’ll send decline responses to the others. We always include a note stating that we hope they enjoyed writing in these compressed forms, along with a list of resources to help them find a good fit for their work.

Still aiming for a mid-late January publication date for our winter issue.

I enjoyed participating in the Eastern Shore Writers Association Holiday Book Festival yesterday. Great to see some familiar faces, meet new writers and readers, and introduce people to the journal. As usual, I had a couple of writing games, including my writing-prompt fortune tellers. Cheap, low-tech fun. Even the kids liked them. Noticed that Cult Classic Brewing had shelves of board games. Nice. I think we all need some friendly human-to-human time. Could beer and board games heal the world? OK, maybe a stretch, but a few laughs and some great Scrabble scores couldn’t hurt.

On a personal note: Super pleased to receive an email from New World Writing Quarterly this morning notifying me that they nominated my micro “Switchback” for Best Microfiction. I think this is a sign from the universe that I need to focus on micros again. I do love the form—reading and writing them. And, OK, longer forms, too. With a couple inches of snow on the ground right now, this is feeling like curl-up-with-a-novel weather. And I have the new Pushcart anthology to read.