We are happy to announce that, as of 2025, we are rebooting The Upper New Review. We have created a standalone website, and we are retooling almost every faction of the way The Upper New Review is organized, managed, and published online.
The Upper New Review is one of many projects implemented by The Upper New.
Publications
We are beginning to publish creative works. Here are the latest nonfiction publications.
It comes too early. The same time each day. A little after dawn. I’d guess half past six on a clock. I wouldn’t know. I don’t bother with clocks here. They don’t mean much. They don’t change the light or the weather or what needs to be done. I hear it before I see it. Often I don’t see it at all. A
“Even in the slightest breeze, you can hear the voice of the cottonwood tree; this we understand is its prayer to the Great Spirit.”
–Heȟáka Sápa (Black Elk), Oglala Lakota medicine man Since the end of the last ice age, when humans first ventured into what is now the Middle Rio Grande Valley, Indi
I became a forest steward less than a week after my dad died in his mountain home. Still in shock over his passing – though in his early 90s, he was so robust in mind and spirit it seemed he’d live forever – it would’ve been easy to skip a green cities orientation I’d signed up for in the community
Before I had a name for it, I had land. Red dirt and hayfields. Skinned knees and peacock feathers. The sharp smell of cattle, the shimmer of heat above the highway. And over time, I learned that the Oklahoma prairie has its own way of marking you. I grew up knowing the names of things that didn’t s
“Honey! It came on time! You’re gonna get to be Beetlejuice for Halloween!” I can’t help but smile as the three-year-old meets his mama with a grin big enough for a grown man. You can’t buy moments like that. Well, I suppose you can for however much that Beetlejuice costume cost. He races across the
We leave early, the greydark sky still holding its calm hand over the sun’s burgeoning light, gentle touch of a mother, palm pressed to her child’s forehead. The roads are clear; there is never traffic at this time. A bright earring of moon dangles from the sky’s lobe, a dazzle or two of star studs
We’re also publishing series, which are thematic collections of creative works organized in serial format, similar to an issue of an online magazine. Many of these series are intended to also be published in print-on-demand collections as well.
We’re building an online first accretion of published prose that will be organized into various series and issues.
As we accept, publish, and curate increasing numbers of high quality artifacts, we will put in to motion a plan to create and deliver print-on-demand anthologies and collections that will be available as eBooks and printable ephemera, for sale through our website store.
We’re already working with collaborators to curate some critical special issues, such as one called Climate Consequences, and another focused on Myanmar.
We are also on the lookout for volunteer feature writers that would serve as sort of bioregional columnists, in service of ongoing series such as Perturbations. Some preliminary topic areas of focus could be founded in perspectives such as ecological literacy and a sense of place.
Submissions.
We’re currently taking submissions in a variety of formats.
We will be creating additional submission opportunities as time permits.
The Upper New Review was founded in 2023 as an ecological literary arts magazine.
Where is The Upper New Review?
To give our readers a sense of place for The Upper New Review, we’ve provided an interactive map of The Upper New basin (watershed) and all its neighboring basins. You may also view the map here.
The offices of The Upper New, Inc. are located in Sparta, NC which is in the headwaters, near the southern edge of The Upper New basin, along the escarpment of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
As part of The Upper New mission for ecological literacy, we’d like to share some information about our home sub-basin: Upper New (USGS 05050001).
We’d love to hear from you.
If you have any interest in The Upper New Review that is not related to submission of your work for consideration, please contact us using this form.
