Freezin' for a Reason

When was the last time you put on a swim suit and jumped into the icy cold waters of Lake Michigan in the middle of goddamn winter?  For us here in Stoneboatlandia, it has been almost one year to the day. Yes, my friends, it is time once again for our annual Polar Bear Plunge fundraiser. (Donate here.) Let me say right away that I, Poetry and Arts Editor Lisa Vihos, do not go in the water. I leave that to the professionals. I have carried towels, blankets, and hot chocolate. I provide the warming house because I live near the lake. I just don't go in.

Polar Bear Plunge 2016

That's right! We're taking the plunge—again. In 2014 and 2015, our editors-in-chief rang in the New Year with a plunge into the icy waters of Lake Michigan to raise funds that have helped Stoneboat Literary Journal stay up and running and able to continue publishing great fiction, poetry, nonfiction, graphic literature, and artwork.

Lipogram Contest Winner Announced

Our imprint, Pebblebrook Press, recently held a poetry contest to celebrate the release of Mark Zimmermann's collection of lipograms, Impersonations. Entrants were challenged to write a poem using the lipogram constraint, which requires poets to deliberately exclude certain letters from their poems. Zimmermann was the judge; he read the poems blindly and selected Jason Primm's "Stoneboat" as the winner. Primm, whose short story "Light" appeared in Stoneboat 2.1, used only the letters in the poem's title to compose his work, which appears below.

An interview with Mark Zimmermann

We interviewed Mark Zimmermann, author of Pebblebrook Press's forthcoming poetry collection Impersonations, to find out more about his writing process and his experiences with the literary form of the lipogram. Zimmermann is a Wisconsin native currently living in Milwaukee. He was featured in Pebblebrook's first release, the anthology Masquerades and Misdemeanors, and he has spent time teaching humanities and writing courses, both abroad and here in the United States. Impersonations is his first collection.

Are you up for a challenge?

Pebblebrook Press is holding a poetry contest to celebrate the release of Impersonations, a collection of lipogram poems by Mark Zimmermann. A lipogram is a written work composed of words chosen so as to avoid the use of one or more specific alphabetic characters.

Introducing our newest intern...

Hello. My name is Kimberly Thimmig and I am in my final semester at Lakeland College, majoring in religion with minors in writing and history.  I live near Mount Calvary, Wisconsin, with my husband, Gary, where I enjoy working on my perennial gardens, establishing a native prairie on our property, and reading while enjoying a cup of tea.  I have loved writing all my life, and it has spanned my divergent interests--things such as farming, religion, cemeteries, maps, and pondering my love of canning fruits and vegetables.  I have been transcribing my grandmother’s diaries, which begin in 1946; this has fueled an interest in post-war American society and my families’ histories.  

Duotrope Editor Interview Questionnaire

Co-Editor in Chief and Nonfiction Editor Signe Jorgenson recently completed the Duotrope editor interview questionnaire. We thought we'd share her answers. Check out Stoneboat's Duotrope listing here.