January 12, 2026
Baltimore Review News: All winter issue selections have been made—15 works—and the final works, author photos, bios, etc., have been collected. The writers, including the contest winners, have been sent payment. The ball is now in the webmaster’s court. Once everything is on the website, some of the editors review it before we send the link to the writers so that they can review their pages. Then we make the winter issue the main page. I’m looking forward to making that happen.
Our AWP plans are coming together: a great off-site event on March 5, 2026, 5:00 p.m. at Pickles Pub, thanks to the collaborative effort of reps from Yellow Arrow Publishing, Mason Jar Press, Washington Writers’ Publishing House, Akinoga Press, and Modern Artist Press—and Baltimore Review. And I’ll need to line up volunteers for the table. And maybe line up a couple of people to sign books. I think March is going to be here before I know it. And then there’s Eastern Shore Writers Association Bay-to-Ocean Conference right on the heels of AWP.
After a break from meetings during the holidays, several BR staff meetings are lined for the next couple of weeks. Discussion items, along with the event plans: financial reports, the publishing schedule, a website refresh for our 30th year, blog ideas, a possible pop-up prompt session, updating our prompts doc (the one we send writers when they donate $5), new interns, and, of course, submissions—anything editors would like to discuss and some quiet reading together. Maybe procedures to consider and issue/contest ideas before opening Submittable again on February 1.
Delighted that a BR contributor, Chris Notarnicola, will be included Best Microfiction.2026!
On a personal note: Still participating in the P&W Monday write-ins whenever I can, as well as a couple of other writing groups. These are so important to me, for so many reasons: for accountability, for continuing to grow as a writer, to provide feedback to fellow writers, to talk about the writing life with people who love it as much as I do. One group is making me turn my attention back to lineation in my poems, after spending quite a bit of time on prose poems and micro/flash forms (and a couple of longer stories). I’m enjoying having line breaks in my techniques arsenal again, and focusing on sonic elements and working hard to find words to sharpen and layer meaning. Not that I ignore these craft techniques when writing prose but, yeah, at least for me, this all feel so much more intense and intentional in writing poems.