We're taking the Polar Bear Plunge again. Maybe. (It's up to you.)

Here at Stoneboat Literary Journal and Pebblebrook Press, our annual fundraiser (donate here) has given rise to a New Year’s tradition. For three years in a row, our co-editors in chief took the Polar Bear Plunge to solicit monetary support for the journal and its press. In 2014, ’15, and ’16, Rob Pockat and Signe Jorgenson jumped into icy Lake Michigan on New Year's Day, despite subzero temperatures, to raise funds that offset our annual operating costs. While this helped us raise money, it also put their health in jeopardy each January. We gave our EICs the year off in 2017 and held a more traditional fundraiser instead. But there’s no fun in that—not for us, and not for you, our supporters.

So, we’re reviving the Polar Bear Plunge fundraiser in 2018 (donate here), but with two twists. First, Poetry and Arts Editor Lisa Vihos will be joining Rob and Signe at the lakefront. And second, our donors will decide whether we stay warm and dry on New Year’s Day or jump into the water with the crowd that chants “It’s not cold enough!” no matter how low the mercury dips. Donors will designate their contributions as “Plunge” or “Don’t Plunge,” and the group that raises the most funds will determine our fate. We’ll broadcast live from Lake Michigan on New Year’s Day, via Facebook, to announce the winner—and jump in if need be.

Stoneboat Literary Journal Welcomes Guest Poetry Editor

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:  Signe Jorgenson

Stoneboat Literary Journal

PO Box 1254
Sheboygan, WI 53082-1254

920-783-8512

stoneboat.journal @gmail.com

Sheboygan, WI –May  4, 2017 – Stoneboat Literary Journal is pleased to announce that Katie Amundsen will serve as Guest Poetry Editor for the Fall 2017 issue. Amundsen will take on the Poetry Editor role that is normally filled by Lisa Vihos, who will spend the coming months focusing on building a children’s reading garden in Malawi.

Stoneboat & Pebblebrook Need Your Help

Dear Friends,

As many of you know, our co-editors in chief, Rob Pockat and Signe Jorgenson, have taken part in the Polar Bear Plunge fundraiser at Sheboygan's lake front for the last three years, jumping into the lake in sub-zero temperatures on New Year's Day to solicit your support for Stoneboat literary journal and its imprint Pebblebrook Press.

Introducing our newest INTERNal recruit

Hello! My name is Brittany Beckmann—avid coffee drinker, reader, and writer. I will be interning with Stoneboat over the next several months. I graduated from Lakeland in May of 2015, earning a degree in both creative writing and vocal performance. Like so many who frequent this blog or follow Stoneboat, I also have a passion for writing—mostly nonfiction—and reading. During my undergrad, I had the opportunity to intern with Seems under the direction of Karl Elder and am looking forward to working alongside editors and publishers once again. In my free time, you can find me singing with the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus, tutoring at the Mead Public Library, or playing piano for a church somewhere out in the boonies. I’m excited to work with Stoneboat and to learn more about the inner-workings of literary journals.

Call for Submissions: “Beyond Red and Blue: Voices for America”

Stoneboat Literary Journal seeks submissions of poetry, literary prose, cartoons, b&w artwork, graphic literature, and photo essays for a special section of the Spring 2017 issue, tentatively titled “Beyond Red and Blue: Voices for America.”

Remembering the Vineyard

Listen to the voice

of each dead poet

as if it were yours.

It is.

Philip Dacey

From Mosquito Operas, 2010

The sad news came today that a poet and good friend to Stoneboat, Philip Dacey, has died after struggling with leukemia for quite a while. I only met Philip in person on one occasion, and that was at the Great Lakes Writers Festival at Lakeland College back in 2007. At the time, I had not tried to write a poem for many years. I was on major hiatus as far as poetry was concerned. But meeting Philip and hearing his work, I was impressed by his poems and by his welcoming nature. He was not snobbish about poetry. He did not make it seem like an enterprise for only some special sect of people. He helped me see that poetry is there for anyone who wants to partake of it. He was a true mentor in that regard.

Break Out Your Dancing Shoes, Poetic Pairings Are Coming

Lisa Vihos, Stoneboat's poetry and arts editor, reporting here:

I have been long fascinated by the way in which poetry, when spoken aloud (as opposed to read in silence from the printed page) is in fact a form of theater. This hit me upside the head a few years back when I staged a reading from my then-new chapbook, The Accidental Present, and instead of me droning on reading poem after poem, I had my friends and neighbors read the majority of poems in my stead. I cast my poems in the voices of people of all ages and walks of life, and the result was pretty nearly breathtaking. Seriously, it was very cool. Even people who had not come to Paradigm coffeehouse that night for poetry looked up from their laptops to listen.

Forthcoming from Pebblebrook Press

Pebblebrook Press, an imprint of Stoneboat Literary Journal, is proud to announce the forthcoming release of its fifth poetry collection, Thomas J. Erickson's The Biology of Consciousness. The book is scheduled for release on May 1st, 2016.

Elder talks craft, inspiration of Earth as It Is in Heaven

By Gina Covelli

Photo by Benjamin Wilks

It was like old times, sitting in the yellow vinyl chair across from Karl Elder in his Lakeland College office, which was lit only by the late afternoon sun. The standard can of cola in a faded coozie sat to the right of his computer keyboard, hidden among the stacks of books and papers littering his desk. And like I had done so many times before, when I was Karl’s poetry student, I took a casual glance over my left shoulder to see the beautifully classic and complex poster-sized portrait of Anne Sexton before beginning the conversation.

Marketing Happens

Here at Pebblebrook Press, as is the case at so many small presses, we are grateful for the ingenuity of our authors’ marketing efforts to promote their books. Since our staff is only four people (all of us with day jobs and a literary journal called Stoneboat to produce twice a year), and since the bank account balance for the journal and press combined rarely exceeds triple digits, we simply don't have the time or the resources to extensively market our book titles. We send out review copies, we take books to festivals and other events, and we sing our titles’ praises on social media, but as far as actual "marketing campaigns" go, well, we know we are rather lacking in this department.

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.

We're taking the plunge...again!

That’s right—we’ll be taking the Polar Bear Plunge this New Year’s Day for the second year in a row, and like last year, we’re raising funds for Stoneboat while we’re at it.

Holiday/Winter Deals!

Just in time for the holidays (and all you last-minute gift-givers), we’re offering a couple different package deals on our two latest Pebblebrook Press releases: Marilyn Zelke-Windau’s poetry collection, Momentary Ordinary, and Erik Richardson's chapbook, a berserker stuck in traffic. 

An Interview with Sandra Kleven

Photo: Michael Kleven

We asked our friend Sandra Kleven to answer a few questions for us, covering her processes, beliefs, and experience as an artist. Sandra is a poet, writer, filmmaker, and editor of Cirque, a literary journal based in Alaska. Her answers, as expected, proved thought-provoking with just the right touch of that “quirky Sandy thing.” (Keep reading for more on that!)