July Horizons

by Olivia Loftis

The Orchards: Summer 2026 is coming soon!

The Orchards is now CLOSED for submissions. Thank you to all this season's contributors and for your patience awaiting our response. We are in the process of sending notices of decision. Stay tuned for the official release! Submissions for Winter 2026 will open soon thereafter. 

Awards

Congratulations to our Georgia Author of the Year Award nominees, Khalil Elayan and Candice M. Kelsey!

 


Analog Synthesis was an Independent Press Award Distinguished Favorite and National Indie Excellence Awards Finalist. Congratulations, Christopher Fried!

From the Cat's Mouth: An Oklahoma Curio of Poems was a Finalist in the 2026 International Book Awards in Contemporary Narrative Poetry. Congratulations, Kasey Jones!

Congratulations, Rose Mary Boehm! Life Stuff won Bronze in the Readers' Choice Book Awards.
Go In Peace won the Literary Titan Book Award in Narrative Poetry. Congratulations, Theodore McDowell! 
Sunrise Over South Africa by Joseph Kuhn Carey (2026) won several prepublication awards in 2024, most notably winning the London Book Festival's “Poetry” Category and placing second in the “Wild Card” Category. Congratulations, Joe! 


Sarah Carleton's Notes from the Girl Cave was a 2024 Finalist of the John Ridland Poetry Prize. Congratulations, Sarah! 

Reviews & Interviews

Trisha Leigh Shufelt gave an author spotlight interview with Austin Poetry Review.

A review of Aperture by Wally Swist appears in the Summer 2026 issue of Chiron Review. 
Reviewed by Aloysius Flyte

Aperture
(Wally Swist, Kelsay Books, 2026)

"Wally Swist's Aperture is a profound, deeply personal collection that explores memory, loss, grace, and the fragile beauty of presence, particularly through the lens of Alzheimer's and caregiving, Swist's poetry is marked by a quiet attentiveness to the natural world and human relationships, a sensibility that allows him to illuminate the intimate moments of life's twilight with a tender unsentimental grace."

 

Toby Tabachnick reviewed Talking to Irwin by Lee Chottiner for The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle. 

John Coyne reviewed Elegies From the Last Days of the Empire by Jan Worth-Nelson for Peace Corps Worldwide.

Readings

Thank you to our spring reading participants in Bucks County, PA! Enjoy the photo album.

 

Doylestown poets gathered for dinner with Karen!

Wendy Steginsky, Carole Croll, and Julie Standig

Julie Standig, Cheryl Baldi, and Jane Edna Mohler

 

Joseph Chelius, Terence Culleton, and Lynn Fanok

 

Karen, Cheryl Baldi, and Jane Edna Mohler
Managing Editor Jenna Wray met KB author N.S. Boone at a writing conference!

 

Opportunities

River Paw Press is accepting submissions for the Earth Amulet Poetry Prize until July 31. Learn more. 

Book of the Month

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