Judging from Pembroke Magazine’s recent “Where in the World?” blog postings, readers are enjoying the new issue #49—one of the largest volumes to date—pretty much everywhere: while flying kites, while enjoying a plate of jumbalaya, at Lum and Abner Jot ‘Em Down Store & Museum in Pine Ridge Arkansas, among many other locales and while engaged with many otherwise mundane chores (feeding goats!).
There’s something perfect about this series of photos, which seem to perfectly encapsulate where Pembroke Magazine is now after forty-eight years of publication. They’ve got their feet firmly planted in their North Carolina literary heritage, but they’ve got one eye on the new, soliciting photos from readers and posting them to their blog, even while continuing to expand in both influence and reach.
Pembroke’s latest issue features a Q&A with Belle Boggs (The Art of Waiting) plus creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry on subjects from “women reclaiming their backwoods origins to bad behavior at Vacation Bible School to infertility and loss.” Past contributors include fiction writers Jacob M. Appel, George Choundas, and Katie Cortese; poets Morri Creech, Alan Michael Parker, and Anne Dyer Stuart; and creative nonfiction by Theo Greenblatt, Dionisia Morales, and C.W. Smith.
Since Jessica Pitchford became editor in 2013, Pembroke Magazine has expanded its annual offering—the magazine is physically thicker than in years past—and made an effort to become more global in its breadth. Still, the rag continues to honor North Carolina roots that reach back to its founding by Norman Macleod in 1969. Past editors include NC Literary Hall of Fame inductee and current NC poet laureate Shelby Stephenson, who served as editor from 1979 to his retirement in 2010.
You can donate or subscribe to Pembroke for $10, or order a back issue for $8, by downloading an order form here or clicking here to order online.
Pembroke accepts poetry (no more than 5 poems at a time, with a maximum of 10 pages total per submission); prose up to 7,500 words; flash prose up to 1,000 words, and art. Query for interviews. To submit, click here.
Pembroke Magazine is published at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. You can follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.