HAPPY NEW YEAR!
ISSUE 149, January — March 2019
(a Press 53 publication)
Prime Number Magazine is home to distinctive poetry and short fiction from writers around the world. Browse our selections by clicking on the author's photo or title of the poem or story.
Now Open for Entries
2019 Prime Number Magazine Awards for Poetry and Short Fiction
Judged by Ginger Murchison (Poetry) and Pinckney Benedict (Short Fiction)
First Prize in each category $1,000, a Pushcart Prize nomination, and publication
New! Two runners-up in each category will be named and published
Winners of our monthly Flash Fiction Contest
Low $7 entry fee (a prime number) and a nice prize of $251 (also a prime number)
Please note: Beginning January 1, 2019, our Flash Fiction Contest will operate quarterly with a $353 First Prize, a $151 Second Prize, and a $53 Third Prize. Enter now at Submittable.
Winners of our FREE 53-Word Story Contest
Winner receives a free book by that month's judge
Editors' Selections
Each issue, we ask our guest editors to select their favorite poems or stories from those submitted during our open submission period. Submissions are free and only accepted through Submittable. Here are the guest editors for Issue 149, January-March 2019.
Guest Editor for Poetry
Howard Faerstein
Howard Faerstein is the author of Googootz and Other Poems and Dreaming of the Rain in Brooklyn, both published by Press 53 in their Silver Concho Poetry Series, edited by Pamela Uschuk and William Pitt Root. His work can be found in numerous journals including Great River Review, Nimrod, CutThroat, Off the Coast, Rattle, upstreet, Mudfish, Gris-Gris, Peacock Journal, and Connotation. He is presently “adjunct emeritus,” having retired from a teaching career at colleges throughout the country. Associate Poetry Editor of CutThroat, A Journal of the Arts, he lives in Florence, Massachusetts.
Guest Editor for Short Fiction
Virginia Pye
Virginia Pye is the author of two award-winning novels, Dreams of the Red Phoenix and River of Dust, and her debut short story collection, Shelf Life of Happiness, published by Press 53 (Fall 2018). Her stories, essays, and interviews have appeared in The North American Review, The Baltimore Review, Literary Hub, The New York Times, The Rumpus, Huffington Post and elsewhere. She lived in Richmond, Virginia, for many years and now lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Meet Our Guest Editors for Issue 157, Jul-Sep 2019
(Submissions are open now through March at Submittable)
Poetry
Read “The Apple of Granada” from Under Brushstrokes
Hedy Habra has authored two poetry collections, Under Brushstrokes, finalist for the USA Best Book Award and the International Poetry Book Award, and Tea in Heliopolis, winner of the USA Best Book Award and finalist for the International Poetry Book Award. Her story collection, Flying Carpets, won the Arab American National Book Award’s Honorable Mention and was finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award. A fourteen-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net, her work appears in Cimarron Review, The Bitter Oleander, Blue Fifth Review, Cider Press Review, Drunken Boat, Gargoyle, Nimrod, Poet Lore, World Literature Today and Verse Daily. Her website is hedyhabra.com
Short Fiction
Read “Longest Night of the Year” from Missing Persons
Stephanie Carpenter is the author of Missing Persons, winner of the 2017 Press 53 Award for Short Fiction. She was born and raised in Traverse City, Michigan. She holds an MFA from Syracuse University and a PhD in English and Creative Writing from the University of Missouri. Her current project, a pair of novellas about professional female artists in nineteenth-century New England, has received fellowships from the American Antiquarian Society, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and the Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library. She currently teaches creative writing and literature at Michigan Tech University, in the northernmost reaches of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
prime number
: any integer other than 0 or ± 1 that is not divisible without remainder by any other integers except ± 1 and ± the integer itself (Merriam-Webster's Dictionary)
In literature: poetry and prose that is distinctive and unique (Prime Number Magazine)
Prime Number Magazine is a Press 53 publication, founded by Clifford Garstang and Kevin Morgan Watson on July 1, 2010, beginning with Issue 2 and continuing in prime numbers.