ISSUE 07
Steve Evans. Oteeyho Iro. Charles Haddox. Zama Madinana. Taylor Graham. Natalie Harris-Spencer. Jason Lobell. Maggie Yang. Aaron Weinzapfel. Meredith Wadley. Asma Al-Masyabi. Linda Neal. Shilo Niziolek. David A. Porter.
Subnivean never flees from chilling poems, penetrating stories, words that whip our perspectives around. Housed at the State University of New York at Oswego, where 4x more snow falls on our city than Manhattan, we’ve learned to persist. When winter comes, we reject migration. We use the cold itself as insulation.
Truth Thomas. Alyssa Quinn. Adedamola Olabimpe. Joanna Clapps Herman. Miah Jeffra. Glenn Cannon. Nikki Barnhart. Zachary Kluckman. Jenny Qi. Woody Woodger. Alison Granucci. Brooklyn Saternow. Cynthia Marie Hoffman. Abdulrazaq Salihu. Jennifer Judge. Blake Z. Rong. Symone Henry.
SUBNIVEAN AWARDS
2022-2023
WINNERS
POETRY
JENNY
QI
Here is what 2023 Subnivean Awards Final Judge in Poetry Kazim Ali, who recently graced the cover of The Writer's Chronicle, had to say about Jenny Qi's winning poetry:
Across the range of these poems (I felt I was traveling them like a range of mountains) I find beauty, sadness, ferocity, different geographies and formal structures, and also something intangible, that bit of music in the air. But imagine Stravinsky being played by a street performer, or the ashes left after a devastating fire, or the ruins of a relationship between friends, lovers, or parent and child. Something in these poems knows how to identify loss, map it, make of the unspeakable mysteries of our lives, something real and understandable. I can't think of a more valuable quality for poetry to have.
— Kazim Ali
FICTION
ALYSSA
QUINN
Here is what 2023 Subnivean Awards Final Judge in Fiction Joan Silber, recently interviewed by The New Yorker, had to say about Alyssa Quinn's winning story:
How remarkable and original this story is. It begins with the narrator’s joy at going deeper into “the wild,” enchanted by a knowing guide, and takes us to a spot where knowledge gives out. The writing feels both folkloric and modern and has surprises at every turn. (I won’t soon forget the bats with wings that feel like “petals”—or the guide’s subterfuges, his porous expertise.) And it’s a great use of the short form, with its bits of dialogue rolling into the ultimate high-drama. Abundant talent is evident here—and no fear in dealing with large themes.
— Joan Silber
NEW WRITERS AWARD
BROOKLYN
SATERNOW
Subnivean invited talented new writers to participate in a special opportunity for high school students living in our New York headquarters’ seven-county region: Oswego County, Onondaga County, Oneida County, Herkimer County, Madison County, Cayuga County and Cortland County.
We are delighted to announce our inaugural scholarship winner: Brooklyn Saternow, from Oswego, NY
LISTEN
SUBNIVEAN
EPISODE 4: TRUTH
Get ready to be read to like a baby at bedtime. In Episode 4, Subnivean pokes at the thin membrane between your truth and mine with poems by Truth Thomas, Jennifer Judge and Blake Z. Rong, plus a microstory by Symone Henry. Special thanks to voice actors Cris Eli Blak, Chrisaury Guzman and Nathan Santana, and to our editing and production team: Lydia Seki, Miles Weber, David Daniel Hosannah and Soma Mei Sheng Frazier.
WATCH
LAST
by AMALIA RUSSELL
In Last, a short animation, a child has something to say to a stranger.
ABOUT THE CREATOR
Amalia Russell is an undergraduate studying game design at Champlain College.
"Matter exploding, stars being born, nothing becoming everything..."
— LAST
NEWS & EVENTS
SUBNIVEAN AWARDS 2023-24
— Final judges chosen
Beyond welcoming the longer daylight hours of spring in New York, Subnivean is delighted to welcome our two incoming Subnivean Awards superheroes.
The 2023-24 competition will open, and the judges' names will be announced, in late autumn, 2023. Let's gooooo!
HINT: Junot Diaz once called the incoming Final Judge in Fiction ""the Great American Novelist we're always hearing about." Perhaps that's because John Updike literally named her his 21st century successor...
HINT: the incoming Final Judge in Poetry may be an Absurd Man, but that didn't stop him from winning Guggenheim, NEA, Pushcart and many other awards.
To read about the competition, swing by our Submissions page in late autumn.
WEDNESDAY
MAY 31, 2023
THE SUBNIVEAN
AWARDS
U.S. POET LAUREATE EMERITUS JUAN FELIPE HERRERA & DANIEL HANDLER:
Literary Legends in Conversation
"...and if I went all out, I would probably have pistachio in there."
— Jf Herrera
What do U.S. Poet Laureate Emeritus Juan Felipe Herrera and Daniel "Lemony Snicket" Handler have in common? Hint: it's not fave ice cream flavors!
Subnivean. Catch these heavyweight authors in conversation, and get read to like a baby at bedtime by last year's Subnivean Awards finalists and winners: poets Artemisio Romero y Carver, Moni Brar, Alicia Rebecca Myers and Lauren Holguin; fiction writers Avtar Singh, Melissa Brown and Zach Swiss.
NEW WRITERS AWARD
— Five finalists named
SPRING 2023
Subnivean invited talented new writers to participate in a special opportunity for high school students living in our New York headquarters’ seven-county region: Oswego County, Onondaga County, Oneida County, Herkimer County, Madison County, Cayuga County and Cortland County.
We are delighted to announce the five 2023 finalists:
Rafael Jennings (Syracuse)
Flora Mei (Jamesville)
Katie Niederhoff (Liverpool)
Aarohi Rastogi (Syracuse)
Brooklyn Saternow (Oswego)
To read about the competition and winner, click here.
THANKS TO OUR READERS FOR PUTTING US ON THE MAP
— News feature shines a bright spotlight
WEDNESDAY
MAY 31, 2023
Thanks to all y'all, we've grown even since providing the numbers for this SUNY Oswego news feature.
Beyond reaching thousands of readers around the globe in our first 4.5 months (on every continent but Antarctica: get with the program, penguins) we've now received submissions from writers working in Afghanistan, Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Latvia, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Myanmar, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Palestine, Paraguay, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, Zimbabwe and 49 U.S. states as well as Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
So, writers from North Dakota, our U.S. holdout, let's do this: our Issue 9 reading period is now open.
2021 FIRECRACKER AWARDS
— Subnivean announced as a finalist
MONDAY
May 10, 2021
If you feel the ground shaking beneath you today, that's the result of much barefoot jumping up and down by Subnivean's international community.
Why barefoot? Because this nod from the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP) rocks our socks off!
Regardless of which deserving publication earns the top
Magazine: Best Debut prize at the June 23, 7pm EST awards ceremony, Subnivean is honored to be among the Firecracker Awards finalists. We urge you to join us at this free, virtual event and check out the other finalist publications, as well: more good reading for your commute, lunch break or bedtime...
SNICKET, WHITE & SINCLAIR:
Literary Legends in Conversation
"I would recommend, like, a bottle of Jim Beam ... before Googling yourself."
— Daniel Handler
What do Lemony Snicket (AKA Daniel Handler), April Sinclair (whose book, Coffee Will Make You Black, will soon be a major motion picture) and luminary poet Arisa White have in common?
Subnivean. Catch these heavyweight authors in conversation, and then prepare to get read to like a baby at bedtime by the Subnivean Awards finalists: poets Chaun Ballard, Joan Kwon Glass, Canaan Morse and Emma Wynn; fiction writers Nicole Lynn Cohen, Jared Green, Angie Kang and Kyle Rea.