I’ve only recently resumed submitting stories for publication, and I am as proud as can be that my short story, “Souvenirs,” has been published in the Fall 2024 Issue of The Summerset Review. The story is about a cab ride not dissimilar to one I took nearly a decade ago, and I was struck by the story the cab driver told me. I spent years considering how I might tell the story, and this was what I came up with.
From the Summerset Review homepage:
The Summerset Review is a literary journal released quarterly on the 15th of March, June, September, and December on the Internet, and periodically in print form. Founded in 2002, the journal is exclusively devoted to the review and publication of unsolicited fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.
Staff Bios
Joseph Levens has had fiction and nonfiction appear in The Gettysburg Review, Florida Review (Editors’ Award for Fiction), New Orleans Review, AGNI, Sou’wester, Meridian, Other Voices, The Literary Review, Zone 3, The Good Men Project, and many other places. He lives on Long Island and currently teaches Creative Writing at Stony Brook University. www.josephlevens.com
Erin Murphy is the author or editor of eleven books, including Human Resources (forthcoming from Salmon Poetry of Ireland) and Assisted Living (Brick Road Poetry Prize, 2018), a collection of demi-sonnets, a form she devised. Her most recent co-edited anthology, Bodies of Truth: Personal Narratives on Illness, Disability, and Medicine (University of Nebraska Press, 2019), won the Foreword INDIES Gold Medal Book of the Year Award. Her awards include the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Prize, the Foley Poetry Award, the National Writers’ Union Poetry Award judged by Donald Hall, a Best of the Net award judged by Patricia Smith, and The Normal School Poetry Prize judged by Nick Flynn. She is Professor of English and Creative Writing at Penn State Altoona. www.erin-murphy.com
History of the Journal
The Summerset Review started as an online literary quarterly in 2002, publishing exclusively fiction and nonfiction. With a staff of three volunteers, the magazine faithfully produced its issues on time, reviewing unsolicited submissions year-round, the great majority of which were made electronically and sent through email from hopeful writers ranging from high school students to authors with many published books to their names.
Since 2002, the journal has taken on poetry, book reviews and art essays on occasion, and produced a few print issues collecting a sampling of work that previously appeared online. Remaining ad-free and accessible at zero cost to readers, the publication has released all quarterly issues on time over its twenty-year history. Editorial staff members are proud to say that they respond to all submissions within four months, do not solicit authors, and do not navigate a slush pile.
The Summerset Review has read at The New York Public Library, national conferences, colleges, and other places, including events sponsored by the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP), the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), and the Association of Literary Scholars and Critics (ALSC). Print issues of the magazine are frequently donated to book fairs across the country, with all proceeds going to charitable causes in the respective areas.
Work originally published in The Summerset Review has been reprinted in the Pushcart Prize, the Best American series, the PEN America Award series, the Best of the Net anthology, notable collections such as the Iowa Short Fiction Award, and a great many books published by our contributors.
Mission Statement
We think of ourselves as simply people who like to read good contemporary literature, who want to share the best of our experiences with others. The highest form of retribution for our efforts is a lasting impact on a few sensitive readers of our journal—people we don’t know, people we will never meet. We received an email from a reader once, who said a story in our current issue (at the time) changed her life. Assuming this change was for the better, what more could we ask for?
joshbarlas.com 