After many hours of editing, assembling, re-editing, and proofing, our “Spring” 2010 issue has finally arrived in our office, albeit 2 or 3 months past the usual date. It will be shipping shortly to independent and not-so-independent booksellers (mainly, Barnes & Noble) next week. You can also print a mail order form here. (We’re working on navigating the institutional pathways to enable online sales; that should be an added feature to our site this fall.)

While it took a bit longer than expected, we’re very proud of this mammoth issue. With a final page count around 245, it’s one of our largest issues ever–and it’s saturated with the best variety of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction (whatever that means…) that we could find.

Some of the highlights of this issue include our annual literary prize winners, as determined by three of our very favorite writers, Kathy Fagan, Jesse Lee Kercheval, and David Treuer: Haines Eason for poetry, Eson Kim for creative nonfiction, and Roger Sheffer for fiction. We also have an original translation of acclaimed Peruvian writer Edgardo Rivera Martinez’s short story, “Azurite,” the first time this fantastic story has been published in English. Additionally, you’ll find a feature section of flash nonfiction and comics from the esteemed John Porcellino.

To see a complete table of contents, click here. And, while I have you, thanks for reading and visiting–and for your continued support of cream city review. To order an issue, click here.

The theme for our August 1 - November 1, 2010 reading period is “Food.” We will accept submissions of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry that incorporate this theme, as well as non-themed submissions, via our online submission manager. As always, our theme is purposefully nebulous, providing flexibility for how writers might consider “food” in a surprising manner.

We would like to thank all the writers who submitted work for our 2010 annual literary prizes: the Beau Boudreaux Poetry Prize, the A. David Schwartz Fiction Prize, and the David B. Saunders Award for Creative Nonfiction. We received many, many well-crafted and intriguing submissions, so an incredible amount of thanks is due to our judges for their careful deliberations: Kathy Fagan for poetry, David Treuer for fiction, and Jesse Lee Kercheval for creative nonfiction.

It is our pleasure to announce this year’s winners, whose works will be published in our upcoming (and relatively mammoth) issue, due out within a month:

Haines Eason - Beau Boudreauz Poetry Prize for his collection of five poems

Roger Sheffer - A. David Schwartz Fiction Prize for “Shuttle”

Eson Kim - David B. Saunders Award for Creative Nonfiction for “Fixing Everything”

Again, the narrowing down of this year’s entries was as challenging as the reading of submissions was pleasurable. If you submitted to our annual literary prize contests, we thank you for doing so and we look forward to sending you our upcoming issue.

Please note that we are currently accepting entries for our 2011 annual literary prizes. You can click here for details. Judges will be announced during the fall.