News From the Lowestoft Chronicle

Latest Issue #37: The Spring edition of Lowestoft Chronicle features stories by Christie B. Cochrell, Rob Dinsmoor and Don Noel, poetry by Cat Dixon, Valerie Nieman, James Sale and Lee Clark Zumpe, and creative nonfiction by Lori Barrett, Scott Dominic Carpenter, Mary Donaldson-Evans and Olga Pavlinova Olenich.
Read it at www.lowestoftchronicle.com


Steadfast Trekkers
A Lowestoft Chronicle Anthology: The latest anthology, published in September, includes a foreword by author Rob Dinsmoor and interviews with Dietrich Kalteis and Sheldon Russell. Get your copy while stocks last. One place to order it is here.


What's in Season @ Lowestoft Chronicle?

Check out the latest issue of Lowestoft Chronicle, the free online magazine featuring fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction, and interviews.

This Spring at Lowestoft Chronicle:
Romance blossoms and a marriage withers as globetrotting friends outstay their welcome in Italy, and on a sightseeing trip in Norway, a gregarious American helps thaw frosty relations between a quarrelsome British couple. In France, an American professor grapples with the local's love of facts and figures and historical minutia, and a pair of expats in Belgium try to ignore embarrassing nightly noises.

We proudly present the work of Lori Barrett, Scott Dominic Carpenter, Christie B. Cochrell, Rob Dinsmoor, Cat Dixon, Mary Donaldson-Evans, Valerie Nieman, Don Noel, Olga Pavlinova Olenich, James Sale, and Lee Clark Zumpe.

Our thanks to all contributors, as well as everyone who submitted work to us. We are currently accepting submissions for Issue #38 (due on June 1st). Preference is given to humorous submissions with an emphasis on travel. See our submissions page for guidelines.

The Latest News...
Lowestoft Chronicle Editor's Syndicated Book Reviews
A regular writer for the Colorado Review and the UK media group Johnston Press, the LC editor's book reviews are published weekly on the websites of 25 newspapers across the UK. You can read his various recent articles at the venues below:
Colorado Review, Lancashire Post, St. Helens Reporter, Burnley Express, Blackpool Gazette, Wigan Observer, Lancaster Guardian, The Garstang Courier, Fleetwood Weekly News, and elsewhere.

Book News by Lowestoft Chronicle Friends and Contributors
Borrow the Night / The Fifth Caller by Helen Nielsen (Introduction by Nicholas Litchfield)

Stories in the Key of Me by Michael C. Keith

When Hell Struck Twelve (A Billy Boyle WWII Mystery) by James R. Benn

To the Bones by Valerie Nieman

Cocktails with a Dead Man by Joe Albanese

Drone Strike by Joe Giordano

Kind regards,
Lowestoft Chronicle

Forgotten Books: The Best-Loved Poems of the American People - Selected by Hazel Felleman

This is another book from my childhood. As far back as I can remember, there was a copy on the bookshelves in my parents' house, although I think it actually may have belonged to my sister. Whoever it belonged to, I spent a lot of time reading it when I was a kid. The original edition was published in 1936; I believe the edition we had was newer than that. I know it had the same dust jacket as in the picture, because I remember it. It was just about that beat up, too.

THE BEST-LOVED POEMS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE had a lot of classic 19th Century poetry in it. The more recent poems tended toward the sentimental. To be honest, I remember very little of it, despite the hours I spent reading it. It didn't turn me into a poetry fan, either. To this day, I don't read much along those lines. But looking up images of this volume definitely made me feel nostalgic, although it's no SCUPPERS THE SAILOR DOG.

Forgotten Books: Rhymes of Texas and the Old West - Robert E. Howard

Here's one that not many of you have, I'll bet. This chapbook was published in a very limited edition in 2007 by the Robert E. Howard Foundation. I think it may have been the first thing the REHF published, but don't hold me to that. It contains 22 poems by Robert E. Howard, all with Western settings and subjects. I wrote the introduction and Jim and Ruth Keegan provided the cover art. It's a really nice little volume. Here are the poems included, courtesy of the Howardworks website:

OLD MEMORIES

"But the Hills Were Ancient Then" (poem)

"Cimmeria" (poem)

"The Lost San Saba Mine" (poem)

"The Dweller in Dark Valley" (poem)

FIRST AMERICANS

"Ghost Dancers" (poem)

"The Kiowa's Tale" (poem)

THE GRIM LAND

"The Grim Land" (poem)

"Sonora to Del Rio" (poem)

THE PEOPLE

"Cowboy" (poem)

"Over the Old Rio Grandey" (poem)

"The Bandit" (poem)

"Roundelay of the Roughneck" (poem)

"John Ringold" (poem)

"The Ballad of Buckshot Roberts" (poem)

Untitled "Old Faro Bill . . ." (poem)

"Modest Bill" (poem)

THE FIGHTS

"The Alamo" (poem)

"San Jacinto (I)" (poem)

"San Jacinto (II)" (poem)

"The Feud" (poem)

"End of the Glory Trail" (poem)

"The Sand-Hill's Crest" (poem)

Celebrations in the Ossuary - Kyle J. Knapp

It's a cliche, but in this case it's true: I sat down to glance at this book and wound up reading the whole thing. As many of you know, Kyle J. Knapp was David Cranmer's nephew who passed away earlier this summer. That makes this collection of his poetry that much more poignant, but it's powerful in its own right. Proving, I guess, that maybe noir runs in the family, many of the poems here focus on death, loss, and struggle and have a decidedly dark edge, but that's balanced with vivid, beautiful imagery and clever wordplay that leavens the tone with a bit of humor. It's compelling stuff, no doubt about that. Highly recommended.