We have a pretty darn beautiful batch of Pushcart Prize Nominations! We encourage you to sit down with a nice glass of wine (if you're over 21) or cup of tea (if you prefer tea) and give these talented folks a read. 

• "In the Garden, the Stormtroopers" by Rachel Bunting
• "Shareef & Stella, Snowlit" by Rachel Eliza Griffiths
• "I Do Have a Seam" by Jamaal May
  
• "Poem for Three Dead Girls of Last Summer" by Rachel McKibbens
  
• "All That Glitters" by Bianca Spriggs
• "Love Letter to Pam Grier" by Marcus Wicker
  

We are excited to announce our six nominees for the Sundress Best of the Net annual anthology:

• "Poem for Three Dead Girls of Last Summer" by Rachel McKibbens
• "In the Garden, the Stormtroopers" by Rachel Bunting
• "the fidelity of epitaphs (20 days later)" by Marty McConnell
• "Love Letter to Pam Grier" by Marcus Wicker
• "black studies" by Kevin Coval
• "I Do Have a Seam" by Jamaal May

Here are your waters and your watering place. 
Drink and be whole again beyond confusion.
-- Robert Frost

We are now accepting submissions for a special Spring 2012 issue, centered around the theme of "Drink." Submit 3-5 poems or visual art pieces (each piece submitted as a separate file) that relate somehow to the theme of "Drink" via our submissions manager.

By drink, we don't mean to limit submissions to poems about frat parties and praying to the porcelain gods (though they are certainly welcome). We encourage submitters to be creative with the theme. 

Here are a few possible subcategories: 

• Communion (wine & those wafer things...)
• Celebrations!
• Hangovers
• Addiction
• Drinking things other than booze (ie: water, coffee, orange juice, etc)
• Things that make you really thirsty (ie: pretzels, walking uphill, hot summer days, sex, etc).

Here are a few examples of poems Stevie (the editor-in-chief) likes that deal with the theme of "Drink" in somewhat differing ways:

1) "A House is Not a Home" by Terrance Hayes
2) "Small, Generic Night Towns" by Erika Meitner
3) "Bar Xanadu" by Lynda Hull
4) "Directive" by Robert Frost
5) "Alcohol" by Franz Wright

We encourage readers to comment on this blog entry with links to their favorite poems that fit the theme of "drink" in some way. 

We are thrilled to launch Muzzle's One-Year Anniversary Issue today!  We are incredibly proud of the caliber and breadth of work we've been able to showcase in our first 5 quarterly issues. Thank you to everyone who has supported Muzzle thus far by submitting work, reading our past issues, editing, contributing work, and telling friends about what we're doing here. We hope the next year of Muzzle will be filled with more inspiring and brave work that pushes boundaries and challenges us all to be better poets, artists, and humans. We've come a long, long way already, and we ain't going nowhere. 

As always, this issue includes a beautiful and fierce line up of poets:

• Stephanie Wortman
• Bianca Spriggs
• Sam Sax*
• Aaron Samuels*
• Angel Nafis
• Anis Mojgani*
• Eugenia Leigh*
• Geoff Kagan Trenchard
• Rachel Eliza Griffiths*
• Weston Cutter*
• Rachelle Cruz*
• Corrina Bain
• Derrick Austin*

This issue also features some stunning photography from the likes of Todd Brown, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Gwynne Johnson, Eleanor Leonne Bennett, and Beth Massura. Additionally, you won't want to miss JW Basilo's review of Gypsee Yo's performance at the Rustbelt Regional Slam and Stevie Edwards' review of Kevin Coval's soon-to-be-released book, L-vis Lives!: Racemusic Poems)

If you would like to support Muzzle's future endeavors, we highly encourage you to consider donating via paypal and/or purchasing a copy of our "Best of the First Year" print issue. 

Another way to support our future issues is to submit your own poetry, artwork, reviews, and interviews. We take the task of reviewing submissions very seriously, and we are incredibly grateful to all of those who entrust us with their work. For more information on how to submit your work to Muzzle, please review our submission guidelines.

Muzzle is now accepting donations via PayPal. We are currently in the process of putting the finishing touches on a "Best of the First Year" print issue, which will include some of our staff's favorite pieces from the first four issues of Muzzle. We need your financial support so that we can afford to provide contributor copies to the outstanding poets and artists who will appear in this issue. 

*Unfortunately, Muzzle does not currently have 501(c)3 status, so your donations cannot be used as a tax write off. We are incredibly grateful for anything you can spare and greatly appreciate your support.

To donate, please click on the PayPal button below.

We are reopening for submissions until July 31st for the following categories: art, reviews, and interviews.  We are not reopening for submissions in poetry (any poetry submitted will be held for consideration in future issues).

Please submit using our online submissions manager and review our submission guidelines. 

We are currently taking submissions for our 1-Year Anniversary Issue, scheduled to come out in late August 2011. We hope to honor the past year of extraordinary work that's appeared in Muzzle by putting out the most badass and gorgeous issue imaginable. We are enjoining you to submit your work so that we can reach this lofty goal. Submissions for our 1-Year Anniversary issue will close on July 15, 2011 at 11:59 PM (we're flexible on time zone). 

We've had quite an exciting first year of publication. Muzzle has the distinct honor of being the only online literary magazine named as one of the ten best new magazines of 2010 by Steve Black at Library Journal in “LJ Best New Magazines of 2010: Ten new periodicals rise to the top.” Additionally, in a starred review published in January 2011, Steve Black called our little magazine "a fine literary journal of creative writing by people of diverse backgrounds that deserves to be linked to from catalogs in libraries everywhere." Our past issues have included stunning work from Roger Bonair-Agard, Marty McConnell, Rachel McKibbens, Marcus Wicker, Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz, Jamaal May, and many many other talented folks. 

Muzzle  publishes poetry, visual art, interviews, book reviews, and poetry performance reviews. To submit to Muzzle, please use our online submissions manager (and be sure to check out our submission guidelines).

We highly encourage everyone to read past issues of Muzzle prior to submitting. Everybody has aesthetic biases. For more information on what we're about, check out our  interviews at Six Questions for... and Duotrope.com.

Ben Clark’s first book Reasons To Leave The Slaughter balances delicately between beauty and brutality. This is a collection of poems dedicated to the stories we tell each other: to remember, to teach, to define ourselves as human beings. These are poems that grapple with death, distance, solitude, love, and belonging. These poems sing, shake, and ask for forgiveness, then stomp around swearing and kicking over grain silos. From cornfields to sail boats adrift in the ocean, from fathers warning sons about ghost hay bales to endless laughter and song emerging from the Chicago night, these poems dazzle again and again.

To purchase, contact Ben directly or go to the Write Bloody Store: http://writebloody.com/store/index.html.

Muzzle was recently named in Library Journal's "Best Magazines 2010" list, published May 1, 2011. This list names the top 10 best new magazines of 2010, of which Muzzle is the only online literary magazine named.

Additionally, in January 2011, Steve Black gave Muzzle a starred review in Library Journal. In the review, Black notes that Muzzle "features excellent writing that is generally upbeat and thought-provoking" and "is a fine literary journal of creative writing by people of diverse backgrounds that deserves to be linked to from catalogs in libraries everywhere."