The James Franco Review

12/08/2017

Monica Lewis:

"in light of all the huge gross feels at the state of this country, this world, this past year, i revisited, and was so comforted, by this special issue of The James Franco Review i curated and edited last fall.

dig in to these pieces, if you need a similar inspiring, reviving, reassuring vibe like i did tonight. work by Vanessa Mártir, Zinzi Clemmons, Sara Nović, Jeremy O. Harris, Joshua Jennifer Espinoza, Kamden Ishmael Hilliard, Laura Jean Moore, Joanna C. Valente, Quenton Baker, David Ishaya Osu, Ryka Aoki, Devin Kelly, Karrie Higgins, Dawnie Walton, Luther Hughes. still pinching myself at these voices, all together: dream team for realest."

What is our responsibility as artists to reinvent or reimagine our world, our selves, our work in order to dismantle current systems and conventions and tastes that are at best, dated and stifling,…

25/03/2017

Congrats to Xandria Phillips who's been nominated for a Pushcart Prize for her work this year in TJFR!!! & Thanks to editor David Ishaya Osu for selecting her incredible words.

https://thejamesfrancoreview.com/2016/07/01/poetry-by-xandria-phillips/

You took the knife out of my hands, told me I was worth your time and pursuit for my smooth bones encased in the marbled meat of the season.

23/02/2017

This is cool: http://www.fearnolit.com/fellowship/

Visit the post for more.

01/01/2017

Thanks for the shout-out, Joanna C. Valente! We were so grateful to have your stunning work in our journal this year!!

http://joannavalente.com/post/155228093014/the-things-that-resonated-with-me-in-2016

The Things That Resonated With Me in 2016

20/12/2016

email: [email protected]

As 2017 soon approaches and Nicole McCarthy and I (Monica Lewis) start building our new journal (the reimagination of The James Franco Review), one aspect that will remain of the former project will be the use of rotating guest editors for each genre for each issue. Please let me know if you would be interested in serving in such a role (we have had serious ballers as editors!). The reading period for the first issue will likely begin mid-spring (perhaps late spring) with a goal of a roll out date for summer 2017. A lot of info will be forthcoming, but any writers/editors with interest in any future issue, please let me know. We will also be seeking a skilled copyeditor, a media director, and an art director, so, holler at your girl. Eventually, I'd like to find a way to offer some financial support for these roles. But right now, I'm making a list and checking it twice. ;)

Here is some history on this change by our founder, Corinne Manning: https://thejamesfrancoreview.com/2016/10/19/reimagining-the-james-franco-review/

Sometimes the name and the body stop serving one another. It has been ineffective to always have to explain what this journal wasn’t (about JF, for instance) before we could say what we were. It is…

17/12/2016

Luther Hughes, who'd be on our own list for 2016, picks his top 10 poems of the year, including "Contract for Social Death" by Xandria Phillips from our issue 7.

https://lutherxhughes.com/2016/12/16/10-poems-that-haunted-the-outta-me-in-2016/

Many people have said, will say, and will continue to spread: 2016 was the worst year we have ever seen. I won’t comment on that. But, I will say, this year, 2016, was a fantastic year for po…

17/12/2016

Top of our 2017 must read list? Recent contributor, Zinzi Clemmons's debut novel, "What We Lose" rolling out 7/11/17 from Viking Books!

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/new-titles/adult-announcements/article/72259-spring-2017-announcements-literary-fiction.html

With works from a Pulitzer winner and a debut novelist, this spring’s fiction features ghosts, a retelling of Clytemnestra’s tale, sinister VHS tapes, and much more.

15/12/2016

We close out our reimagination issue with a play by the virtuoso, Jeremy O. Harris. Jeremy is an artist whose work so perfectly aligns with our mission as a journal, as well as our call for this special issue, so it is an honor to end with his words today.

"In darkness, 49 cell phones ring, and call out to be held, touched one more time."

Read here: https://thejamesfrancoreview.com/2016/12/15/a-play-by-jeremy-o-harris/

14/12/2016

One of the bravest, most powerful writers we know, Vanessa Mártir, has once again lit a much needed fire with her words. Don't miss her essay on erasure, "She Called it 'White Woman S**t'":

"I was left wondering why I even questioned myself in the first place. Me, a woman who is so quick to express herself and tell people what’s exactly what on my mind, why did I hesitate? What is it about my dynamic with white women that makes me, a normally very outspoken, quick to defend herself woman, get quiet when challenged or dismissed by them? What is this silence I’ve internalized? Where does it come from?

I reached out to my friend D who went to NYU and works at NYU and whose daughter recently graduated from NYU. She shared stories of 'me too'—the white female professor who gave her a dirty look; having to ally herself with people who would use her for what she could do for them…there are so many sacrifices we make to survive in white spaces.

I thought about the reflection I wrote after AWP15, color in AW(hite)Place: 'There was a time when I refused to believe that race was such a pervasive issue. I’d cringe when people cried ‘racism.’ I’ve been known to say, ‘Not everything comes down to race.’ I’m not that naïve anymore.'

And I thought about how I’d ended that essay: 'Because silence is a political act.' My silence is a political act. Is this who I want to be? Is this how I want to show up in the world? Acid settled in the back of my throat. It burned."

She Called it “White Woman S**t” On the morning of August 8th, I clicked on an Electric Literature essay that showed up on my FB timeline. The essay was written by a white woman …

13/12/2016

"What Are We Fighting For?" is a much-needed essay by Zinzi Clemmons on the difference between call-out culture and critical discourse within our communities as artists concerned with social justice.

"And then November 8th happened.

Facing what many believe is shaping up to be a neo-fascist regime, we can expect the suppression of dissent to become a huge issue in the coming years. We should expect this from right- as well as left-leaning politicians and media, who, as we saw during the election, are equally eager to suppress criticism of their actions. One of our jobs as writers concerned with social justice will be protecting the rights of individuals to—much like I did in my essay—criticize and question institutions and their practices. A failure to do so will mean real suffering for the most vulnerable members of society [ . . . ]

As writers concerned with equality, we have two jobs that we must approach simultaneously. As activists, we must defend our politics and rights to safe spaces, while as writers, we must defend our right to free speech in the pursuit of truth. If we fail to do either, we are betraying one identity or the other."

Read here:

One of our jobs as writers concerned with social justice will be protecting the rights of individuals to criticize and question institutions and their practices. A failure to do so will mean real s…

11/12/2016

We are so excited for this forthcoming collection by one of our favorite poets, Jayy Dodd (Platypus Press). Congrats, Jayy!

http://platypuspress.co.uk/mannishtongues

08/12/2016

Quenton Baker, whose debut collection, This Glittering Republic (Willow Books), is out this week, has gifted us with this remarkable poem today:

"every touch
on me
has been theft:

chunks of hair and dick and spit
made to follow an imperial vector

every touch
by me
has been theft:

a righteous jack move/ holy elision
an umbra of scar and collection


and i rejoice
within the dirty pronoun of my skin."

https://thejamesfrancoreview.com/2016/12/08/poetry-by-quenton-baker-2/

Quenton Baker is a poet and educator from Seattle. His current focus is the fact of blackness in American society. He is a 2015-16 Made at Hugo House fellow and a two -time Pushcart Prize nominee. …