The maiden publication of Asheville Poetry Review, published in 1994, featured twenty-two poets from Western North Carolina, including Thomas Rain Crowe, Ann Dunn, and Keith Flynn, founder and current managing editor.
Since then, the rag has grown to publish over 600 writers from fourteen different countries. Published annually, the journal offers 180–220 pages of poems, interviews, translations, essays, historical perspectives, and book reviews.
To subscribe, click here. To check out back issues, click here.
Recent contributors have included Sherman Alexie; Robert Bly; and North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame inductee and former NC poet laureate Fred Chappell (who, coincidentally, will be giving the Keynote Address at the NCWN 2017 Spring Conference on April 22 at UNCG—save the date!).
Other Carolina contributors include former NC poet laureate Joseph Bathanti; NCWN regional rep for Clay County Janice Moore Fuller; and NCWN regional rep for the Central Foothills, Scott Owens, among many others.
Asheville Poetry Review accepts regular submissions January 15 through July 15 annually, so they’re currently reading. For guidelines, click here.
Winners of the annual 2016 William Matthews Poetry Prize have just been announced. Marilee Richards, from Sedona, AZ, was awarded first prize for her poem, “The Double Zero.” She won $1,000, plus publication in Asheville Poetry Review (Vol. 23, Issue 26, 2016), out now. NCWN rep for Jackson and Macon Counties, Catherine Carter, from Cullowhee, was the third-prize recipient for her poem “First Witch.†Her poem also appears in the current issue.
The website has extensive samples of the kind of poetry they publish, from contributors over the past twenty-three years. Asheville Poetry Review also maintains a presence in the community of Western North Carolina.
“The two most remarkable things about the Asheville Poetry Review have been its diversity and quality,” said Rob Neufeld, who wrote the introduction for the inaugural issue lo those many years ago. “Yes, Asheville, you’ve got a poetry journal of special note here.”
Visit Asheville Poetry Review on the web at www.AshevillePoetryReview.com. They’re also on Facebook.