About this project

The New Guard is the first independent multi-genre literary review in the state of Maine. I founded this review to support fellow writers, first and foremost. I also wanted to juxtapose narrative with experiment and create a new dialogue. The submissions were absolutely incredible.The journal is an exemplary collection of inventive and brave new work.

This review came out of thin air. I had no money to put up, but I had a team of great people working toward a common goal. As with most things starting out it was far more expensive than anyone predicted to put the review into the world. Going forward we are looking to keep our financial structure sound, so that we can put out another wonderful book and keep up our good work. This is my biggest support of the arts. I hope you will join me in this important support of writers, who really do have it rough.

We held two contests for our inaugural issue, a contest in fiction judged by Debra Spark and a contest in poetry judged by Donald Hall. The Machigonne Fiction Contest was named for the original name of Portland, Maine and the Knightville Poetry Contest was named for the South Portland neighborhood of the founder. Each contest offered a $1,000 prize and publication. Because of our auspicious judges, anyone participating in this first issue could always be proud of the outcome, and could use this publication as a stepping stone in their career. We had two winners, Payne Ratner (Fish Story, fiction) and William Derge (A Red Chair, poetry), seven finalists in fiction, 14 finalists in poetry and 14 semi-finalists in poetry. All were published in the inaugural issue.

The money will go to fund such costs as the actual printing of the publication, distribution, and getting the word out about our contests. This money will secure a portion of what we will need to fund our second review, with all new judges and all new contributors and segments. TNG #2 will knock you out! Please chip in today and be a part of our team, making this special new annual review possible.

The TNG team is all-Maine, and each person has worked hard to make this review a reality. I can safely say that this issue has been a labor of passion for everyone involved. We are a humble troupe of writers and artists who believed that we could create something fresh and original if we put our heads down and worked hard. The product we came up with is exceptional. We hope that we can put out a book a year. The winner of our fiction contest had never before been published. That fact made all the work I'd done well worth it. When it comes to publishing, I am a writer for writers' sake.

Times are tough for independent literary reviews and for publishing in general. Because of this, many a talented writer finds it near impossible to get their work published. It is even harder for writers to get their work in a print publication. We have pledged to stand up and put on the gloves for those good stories and poems. We hope our help might revitalize the greater writing community by creating a new and interesting venue for new work.

It is our mission to publish the unknown writer alongside the established writer. This issue contains two new, unpublished essays by Bill Roorbach and Jaed Coffin, and a segment called "Writers to Writers: Fan Letters to the Dead," where several writers created fan letters especially for TNG. The contributors to that segment are: Sven Birkirts, Adam Braver, Boman Desai, Annie Finch, John Goldbach, Tom Grimes, Richard Hoffman, Maxine Kumin, Thomas Lynch, Josip Novakovich, Lewis Robinson, Afaa Michael Weaver and Scott Wolven. Please see www.obit-mag.com for an article by Suzanne Strempek Shea on the fan letter segment. Soon there also will be a video interview about the review posted on Columbia College's website.

For more information please visit our website at www.newguardreview.com or visit us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/thenewguard