New Content LIVE at Hunger Mountain

This week The Varying Shades of Shadows welcomes an exploration of self and sisterhood by Janet Gurtler in Embracing Shadows. Janet’s new novel I’m Not Her was just named to the LA Times Summer Reading List. Also new is In the Half-Light, an essay detailing the shadowy subconscious that aided Hunger Mountain Sneak Peek author Joe Lunievicz in creating his debut novel, Open Wounds (WestSide Books, 2011) which has earned a PW starred review. We are honored to showcase new fiction by Jennifer Hubbard, author of The Secret Year. Monsters is a surprising and raw read. Lastly, in our Industry Insider column we have an interview with Elena Mechlin and Joan Slattery in New Faces at Pippin Properties. Elena and Joan were both kind enough to offer critiques in the HM/VCFA e-bay auction and both agents saw their bids go sky high! We thank them and all the other auction participants and bidders.

E. Kirstin Anderson, HM new Assistant Editor

Along with new content, we have some editorial announcements. Caroline Carlson began as an Assistant Editor working most directly with Miciah Bay Gault, Managing Editor, earlier this year. Caroline has been a tremendous resource, both editorially and in the creating of the web pages for the Hunger Mountain Young Adult and Children’s pieces. Thank you, Caroline. We also welcome E. Kristin Anderson to our staff as Assistant Editor. Emily is a poet (her work has been published here at HM and at the Cimarron Review and others), an up-and-coming novelist (we will be featuring a chapter from her WIP Myself Behind Myself this fall), a book blogger (The Hate Mongering Tart) and is one of the brains behind the popular Dear Teen Me website. Emily will begin by helping to shape content for our fall—The Art (& Insanity) of Creativity— issue. Welcome, Emily.

Sneak Peak over at Hunger Mountain!

From my Welcome from the Editor

We are thrilled to offer a sneak peak into Joe Lunievicz’s debut novel, Open Wounds (WestSide Books, 2011). I had the pleasure of reading this novel while still in manuscript form and have been waiting with bated breath to see it reach the shelves, which it will in early June. I was hooked from word one and know you will be too.

 Earlier, this week, Open Wounds earned it’s first review—starred from Publisher’s Weekly: “Lunievicz’s impressive debut is a dark, often brutal story, balancing some of the meanest villains in recent memory with a beautifully portrayed historical New York and a movie-obsessed boy determined to overcome the hand life has dealt him…Lunievicz paints a grim picture of Depression-era New York: anti-Semitism, violence, and poverty (an early eviction scene stands out) dominate the storytelling, yet bright spots like Cid’s love of cinema are painted with equal brilliance and realism.”

Come back later this month to read “In the Half Light”, an essay written by Joe detailing how he followed the subconscious to discover Cid Wymann, his main character, amid the clashing of swords.

And come back to HERE when I host Joe next month at Inside the Writer's Studio!

Hunger Mountain YA & Children's Summer Issue--Varying Shade of Shadows

New content is now LIVE over at Hunger Mountain. This issue we begin rolling out new content every other week. Four fabulous pieces are available now--and a SNEAK PEAK into Open Wounds, a debut novel by Joe Lunievicz  (which just earned a PW starred review) will go live later this week. But join Joe and I tonight for a live author chat at 8pm EST, 7pm CST as part of Reach Out Reads.

 

From my Welcome Letter

Welcome to the summer 2011 issue, The Varying Shades of Shadows. Time stretches in the summer. The days can be filled with activities or slow down to an almost complete stop.  Laughter can bounce across the lake as buoyant as a beach ball or it can become muffled by the heat and the trees and turn melancholy in a matter of minutes. There is a dichotomy in summer, as there is in most everything. We writers love dichotomy—for it is in the exploring of seeming polar opposites that we find the “good stuff”—the betwixt, between-ness of our natures.

From May through September, we will be exploring lightness and darkness and the many shades of grey in between. Beginning this issue, every other week, we will welcome three or four new pieces including additional feature pieces, fiction, craft –essays and interviews. We’ve changed the way we publish our online content to serve our readers’ needs. The Hunger Mountain YA & Children’s Lit section has such meaty content that launching all pieces at the same time didn’t give enough creative digestive time. Hence, our new way of doing things.

Janet Fox

This week The Varying Shades of Shadows welcomes a wickedly smart investigation into the use of elision by Janet Fox in The Shadowy Landscape of Dreams Where Reader and Writer Meet. 

Deborah Halverson

 We also welcome an instructive Toolbox piece, Where the Teens Are: 5 Ways to Freshen Up YA Fiction’s Favorite Places from Deborah Halverson, author of the newly released, Writing Young Adult Fiction For Dummies.

Liz Garton Scanlon

Our In Response essay to the Passion for the Picture Book special feature  is by the outstanding author Liz Garton Scanlon. 

Lindsey Lane

Last, but not least, in Fiction we offer The Proposal, a short story by Lindsey Lane which dives deep into the hiddenness of our human natures and our desires to be both safe and loved.


(I spoke about Lindsey's short story cycle in this interview over at Word Crushes, Lovin' The Story, when interviewed in March and am thrilled the piece is now live.)


So, please stop back often.  Read, respond, share your thoughts and delight in the darkness and luxuriate in the light. They both offer respite and reward. Go ahead, see for yourselves.


Best,
Bethany Hegedus, Editor

Please note: submissions are still open for The Art & Insanity of Creativity issue for fall 2011, and we welcome submissions through our Submissions Manager.  Look for 2012 themes to be announced this fall.


AND a big thank you to all those who participated and bid in the Hunger Mountain e-bay critique auction! Thanks to the support of agents Erin Murphy, Ammi-Joan Paquette, Elena Mechlin, Joan Slattery, Jill Corcoran,Emily Van Beek and authors Sara Zarr,  Sara Pennypacker, G. Neri, Janet S. Wong, Holly Cupala, and illustrator Julian Hector.  In total the Kid Lit portion of the auction brought in $6981.50 and the total auction $10,638.49. Funds go to supporting the journal and the artists we publish! Thank you! Thank you for making this auction such a success...and to winning bidders--enjoy the critiques!