The staff at Black Rock & Sage has some fantastic recommendations for the month of November. Check them out below!

Jeff Howard, Editor-in-Chief:

My area of study is generally eighteenth-century British novelists, but when I need a break from Defoe and Richardson (as I sometimes do), I like to read Western writers. Not writers of Westerns, mind you, like Zane Grey or Louis L’Amour or Owen Wister (that’s my dad’s thing, and his dad’s), but rather contemporary authors such as Robert Wrigley and James Galvin who write in and about the American West. I recently read Galvin’s Resurrection Update, Collected Poems 1975-97. I loved his book The Meadow, and his poetry is very similar in its treatment of people carving out a living in the harsh beauty of the rugged West. He plays with themes of death, survival, family, and tempered spirituality. His careful representations of rugged landscapes and his verbal economy make his writing an inviting frontier that any reader interested in poetry about the West can and should explore.

Christopher Swenson, Prose Editor:

 This strange little book is a pretend collection of three small dictionaries belonging to a now long forgotten country. The dictionaries themselves represent the three religions the nation was looking at for both a sense of direction and purpose. The pretend dictionaries were for the religions of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam respectively. Each dictionary’s entries act as short stories of sorts , and the three books tell often the same story differently. The writing itself is a bizarre magical realism akin to something like Gabriel García Márquez mixed with the textual playfulness of Vladimir Nabokov. The book also came in both male and female editions with differing passages. As the author explains in the epilogue; people should closely compare notes with each other on the differences, and in this way be brought together. it is a truly unique little book that is definitely worth checking out.

Anelise Farris, Poetry Editor:

This month I devoured Leopoldine Core’s When Watched: Stories. I don’t often read short story collections because I have trouble getting through them. I read a story here and there without ever feeling really committed to the collection. That did not happen here. I read story after story in Core’s collection with the same pace in which I work through really good novels. Each story is different–offering new characters, locations, plots–and yet, there is a similar energy: a stark and poignant observation of humanity. While each of the nineteen stories are fantastic, a few of my favorites are “Hog for Sorrow,” “Historic Tree Nurseries,” and “Pleasure Kid.” If you are looking for a read that is both bleak and beautiful, this is it!

Susan Goslee, Faculty Advisor:

Night Sky with Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong. It’s terrific!

Every month, we at Black Rock & Sage update our regional calendar (https://blackrockandsage.org/calendar/). The purpose of this calendar is to keep ourselves and our followers up-to-date about local creative events—that is, those involving art, writing, music, etc.—that might be of interest! We will add to this list throughout the month as we become aware of more events, so please check back with us regularly.

Here are some events taking place in November that we know of thus far:

• ALL NOVEMBER LONG: National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo or NANO)
• Tuesdays, 7:30pm-10:30pm: Acoustic Jam Session, Portneuf Brewery
• Fridays and Saturdays, 9pm-11:30pm: Live Music, Portneuf Brewery
• Thursday, 11.03, 7pm: Renee Gladman and Catie Crabtree, Guest Writers Series, Finch Lane Gallery
• Friday, 11.04, 6-8pm : First Friday Art Walk, Old Town Pocatello
• Friday, 11.25, 6pm:  Night Lights Parade, Old Town Pocatello
• Tuesday, 11.29, 7pm-9pm: PaintBox Paint n’ Sip, Portneuf Brewery

If you are hosting an event, participating in an event, or simply know of an event that you would like us to add to our calendar, do share it with us. Happy November!

“The Cave” by Anonymous

The cave is colder than it used to be.

A week ago, I woke up and found this scrawled in the dirt:

She always had a way with hieroglyphs. A little cryptic, maybe, but that’s why I loved her. I drew a line around it, so as to remind myself not to walk or urinate on it. I should’ve tried that a long time ago. Maybe things would’ve been different. “We’re not animals,” she used to say. Every time I go out or come in, I have step over or around the drawing, making sure not to spoil it.

I spend most of my time hanging out on a boulder near the cave’s mouth, grooming my red cheek hair, my shoulders, my belly, anything I can reach. There are certain parts of my back that, even with my long arms, I just can’t get to, so part of me resembles an osprey nest, matted and interwoven with twigs and leaves, crawling with mites and deer ticks.

I’ve eaten most of the edible berries and mushrooms that grow around our cave. They would’ve lasted about six months if I’d shown more restraint. There’s one more patch of boysenberries about thirty yards from here. Once I eat those I’ll probably need to expand my foraging area or simply find another cave. That might be helpful anyway. I would have to move northeast because of the new highway. Sometimes she and I used to sit and listen as the sounds of the engines shouldered through the trees and the otherwise silent hills, and chat about what the next twenty years would bring.

I sprawl next to our collection of the cameras (SLRs, EVILs, MILCs, disposables, even a camcorder or two) we’ve taken from the overly zealous cryptozoologists and hikers we’ve mugged or spooked over the years. A strip of orange light has crept into the cave. Condensation beads on the walls and collects like sorrow in an impression, like a shallow basin in the rock, just inches from the light’s reach. But when it grows colder, that light will shift, extend. At least I can count on that.

I roll to my side and stare at her drawing a while longer. Finally I close my eyes, grunting, trying to ignore whatever it is that’s biting, burrowing beneath my skin.

Black Rock & Sage Issue 15 (2016)

All the Girls
by Galilea Lavariega

Todas las niñas are at the beach tryna tan
Pero I am here swimming in sunscreen
Porque the brown in my skin has got me in trouble.
Because the lady in the mall keeps a close eye when I show my mom a purse and
say “¿Que linda no?”
And when I place the bolsa down her eyes follow me around the store like flashing lights.

Todas las niñas are buying sombreros
And drinking tequila
Laughing because the fee-eh-stuh was such a fun idea.
Pero I am at home con box dye y toner
Tryna bleach the black from my hair
So la maestra will stop speaking to me in dos syllables at a time
Porque she thinks que no la pue-do en-ten-der.

Todas las niñas think my mom is ilegal
Y que I crossed the border at midnight
Pero the truth is que I was born here in California
And I can speak el ingles perfecto
But el Española is part of my tan skin and black hair
And I can try to strip los colores from my body
But the colors in my tongue are stubborn
And love to roll with every “r”
And love to dance to el ritmo de Cumbia
And I can’t pretender for long
That I am todas las niñas.

Meet Natalie Homer Meeks!

She wore many hats for Black Rock & Sage—assistant editor, prose editor, and editor-in-chief—from May 2013 to August 2015.

Currently, Natalie Homer is a poetry MFA candidate at West Virginia University. She is the poetry editor for The Doctor T.J. Eckleburg Review, and her poetry has been published or is forthcoming in Ruminate, Salamander, Bellevue Literary Review, and others. She enjoys cats, rain, and catching up to the person who cut her off in traffic.

This month, we had the opportunity to chat with Natalie about her favorite places, books, and literary magazines—as well as really important questions like what superpower she’d have if she could and what animal she would be. Natalie also offers some great advice for aspiring poets and literary magazine editors.

1. What three traits define you?

Pessimism, sincerity, sarcasm.

2. What’s one thing you couldn’t live without?

Rainy, overcast days.

3. What is your greatest fear?

That I’m going to bite into a cookie, thinking it’s chocolate chip, when really it’s oatmeal raisin.

4. Where is your favorite place to be?

Island Park, Idaho.

5. What is your favorite thing to do?

To go on Pinterest for three hours while drinking a sugary, chocolate/coffee drink.

6. Where is the best place you have ever visited? Why?

Astoria, Oregon. If you’ve ever visited a town and just felt right about it—like you knew, intuitively, that you could live there—that’s why.

7. What would be your ideal career?

Copy editor, editorial assistant, or something with a desk and minimal interaction with the general public.

8. What is your favorite book, movie, and band?

The Great Gatsby, Clue (1985), Fall Out Boy.

9. What is something that might surprise us about you?

When I was eight, I wrote a series of stories about a fruit bat named Esther. I firmly believed these would make me rich and famous.

10. What is your favorite quote?

“Adversity makes men, and prosperity makes monsters.” –Victor Hugo

11. If you could have a dinner party with ANY three people (dead or alive), who would they be and why?

Bernie Sanders (because he’s awesome), Alexander Hamilton (because he was my historical crush way before the musical was even a thing), and Sylvia Plath.

12. If you had to eat one meal every day for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Shrimp alfredo.

13. If Hollywood made a movie about your life, who would you like to see cast as you?

Steve Buscemi.

14. If you were an animal what would you be?

Probably an opossum.

15. If you were stuck on an island, what three things would you bring?

Sunglasses, sunscreen, and a towel.

16. If you could have a superpower, what would it be?

Invisibility.

17. What kinds of hobbies and interests do you have outside of work?

I spend most of my free time taking arbitrary quizzes on the internet, e.g. “Which Jane Austen Hero is Your Soulmate?” or “How High is Your Pizza IQ?”

18. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

Probably as a bitter adjunct or receptionist with one poetry chapbook from an obscure press on my CV.

19. Do you have any favorite literary magazines/publications that you’d like to give a shout out to?

I’m a fan of The North American Review—I feel like the poetry they publish is very accessible. They seem to be one of the few larger magazines that actually publishes unestablished writers on a regular basis.

20. Do you have any advice for aspiring poets and literary magazine editors?

For aspiring poets: I think there’s an attitude that a lot of publications are “worthless.” That if you’re not publishing in Georgia Review or FIELD or Poetry that those publications don’t mean anything. I guess as far as securing a tenure track job, that may be the case—but I wouldn’t write off smaller, less well known publications, especially online magazines.

I feel like working my way up with smaller publications that I mentioned in my cover letters when submitting to journals has helped me “move up” a little bit to more recognizable magazines. (As a poetry editor for one online literary magazine, and a reader for another, I certainly take submissions more seriously when the submitter has a few publications under their belt.)

However, with that said, any journal that accepts over 5% of submissions is probably not one you want your work to appear in. Be selective. I would strongly recommend using a tiered system for your submissions. That is, sending poems to the top-tier magazines first, waiting to hear back from them, and then sending those poems to mid-tier magazines, etc.

For literary magazine editors: read the entire submission, even if your first impression is unfavorable. I’ve found poems I thought were gems at the tail end of an otherwise unpromising submission.

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For new spotlight posts, please visit our blog the second week of every month (but, of course, do come back more often than that!).