Readers will notice something new in the left column on the main page of RichardHowe.com, an image of the cover of issue #1 of The Lowell Review, a literary magazine that we have spun off this blog.

In the tradition of American literary magazines, The Lowell Review includes stories, essays, poems, and artwork. This annual publication will draw on the best from the Howe blog in that year plus submitted and curated selections.

The introduction in issue #1 features a capsule history of magazine and journal publication in Lowell, going back to The Lowell Offering, produced by women mill workers in the 1840s. We see this magazine as part of the continuum of literary projects in the city and region. Many contributors have links to Lowell, but that is not a requirement for inclusion. The Howe blog regularly publishes work by writers from around the country and world. For example, the weekly feature with Irish writers called Trasna has expanded the blog’s reach into Europe.

The Lowell Review notice at the far left offers details about obtaining a hard copy of the first issue, free access to an online version, and information about submitting material for writers and artists who want to be considered for the next issue, which will be published in early 2022.

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Here’s the Table of Contents for Issue #1

The Virus
We Are Really in This Now by Emily Ferrara
Diary in The Time of Coronavirus: March 23, 2020 by Paul Hudon
Remembering my Illness-Caused Separation, a Semi-Social Distancing by Marie Sweeney
The Coronavirus Wedding by Fred Faust
The Ladies of Central Sterile Supply by John Wooding
Isolation Scenes by Doug Sparks
Pandemic Journal by Richard Howe

Justice
How I Came to Have an Autographed Photo of John Lewis by Jacquelyn Malone
When I Heard John Lewis Speak by Lianna Kushi
Equality and Justice: What Can We Do? By Anthony Nganga
Shout Out to All the Dads by Chris Wilkinson
When the Most Famous Woman in America Lived in the Merrimack Valley by Juliet Haines Mofford
Trees of Bolton by Chath pierSath
Revenge or Really? By Tooch Van
Germany: Reconciling with the Past by Richard Howe

Reflections (I)
The Waitresses of America by David Daniel
Did Someone Say ‘Coffee’? by Jack McDonough
Tomatoes, Tea, and Beer by Charles Nikitopoulos
Spring Nettles: Gifts from the Great Mother by Linda Hoffman
Foliage by Susan April
Glacier by Tom Sexton
Home for the Holidays: Cowboy Christmas by Henri Marchand

People
Jay Pendergast: A Singular Man by Steve O’Connor
For Louise Gluck, Poetry Was Survival by Dana White
Dancing with Bette Davis’s Daughter by James Provencher
For John Dolan by Michael Casey
Bebé and Me by Louise Peloquin
Bon Appetit, Julia by Nancye Tuttle
Meeting Patti Smith in Texas, c.1978 by Frank Wagner
Dick Van Dyke

Reflections (II)
Sweetland Gardens 1969 by Marie Louise St. Onge
Catamount by Joe Blair
Kristos Anestis! By George Chigas
The New Old New England Halloween Blues by Dave Robinson
Postcards from Haggett’s Pond by Kathleen Aponick
Rikki Don’t Lose That Number by David Daniel
The Cold Meteorite by William Reed Huntington
Pecos Mission, New Mexico 1621, 1680 by Fred Woods
Farewell, Little Canada: An Excerpt by Charles Gargiulo

Sports
The Art of Getting Home: Bart Giamatti and the 1952 Saint Patrick’s Girls Softball Team by Christine O’Connor
The ’69 Mets: A Time and Season to Remember by Geoffrey Douglas
Suzanne Dion: She Loved the Game by Prudence Brighton
Football in Chelmsford by Dave Perry

Trasna
Pasteur and Uncle Paddy by Margaret O’Brien
The Belated Discovery of a Role Model: Eavan Boland by Ness O’Mahony
Large Bottles and Sweet Butter Pastry by Julie Ward
Towards a Wild Ecology of Being by Clare Mulvany
The Sheep Shearers by Joe Whelan
Droichead na nDeoir by Billy Fenton