Last year in May and June, New Rivers held its first ever Short Nonfiction call, looking for manuscripts of creative nonfiction, essays, and mixed-genre work 70 – 120 pages in length. Our goal was to find important works that live in that nebulous mid-range—too long to be short, but too short to be long—and give them voice. We received too many great submissions—more than we have room for in our publishing slate. We were blown away by the fantastic works we received, and we’re hoping to receive as many great submissions when we re-open the call in April.
New Rivers is excited to announce the two manuscripts that were selected for publication from this first call. Elizabeth Mosier’s The Pit and the Page: Archaeology, Memory, and Home and Jehanne Dubrow’s throughsmoke: an essay in notes will be the first two titles in this series.
In the authors’ words:
The Pit and the Page:
My interest in objects and their stories—cultivated at the Independence National Park Archaeology Laboratory in Philadelphia, where for seven years I processed Colonial-era artifacts from The President’s House and National Constitution Center sites—inspired this book of essays. The collection draws upon the terminology and processes of archaeology as a framework for presenting personal memories and social history, in order to illuminate the emotional process by which the archaeological record is formed. In recovering artifacts from my past, I seek to reconstitute “home” in the wake of my mother’s devastating memory loss.
throughsmoke:
We are wooed by perfume. It vexes us. The fleeting habits of fragrance charm and irritate—What is that delicious smell? What does it make me remember? What does it make me taste? Why does it disappear just when I begin to feel it is part of me? This manuscript explores the question of how I came to be obsessed with the art and science of perfume and compares my love of perfumery with my love of poetry. The book includes interviews with other poets who collect perfume, with scientists, with a literary scholar who studies the role of scent in the French Symbolists, and with the founder of perfumed soap company. throughsmoke frequently looks to classical and contemporary literature, philosophy, and pop culture for answers to the questions: How do we become obsessed with something as seemingly frivolous as perfume? And why might a love of the frivolous be necessary in dark times such as these?
We’re excited to welcome Elizabeth and Jehanne to the New Rivers family!
Expect these publications to drop at AWP 2019 in Portland!
Want to be cool like Elizabeth and Jehanne? Submit your short mixed-genre and nonfiction works when our submission call re-opens in April!