I’m thrilled to announce that the new 2022 Western Voices edition of Setu Mag has been published! It was an honor and a pleasure to serve as guest editor again this year for the 4^th annual edition. Big thank you to Sunil Sharma and Anurag Sharma for the opportunity to be a part of the project, and thank you as well to the 32 wonderful poets who contributed their work.

My introductory essay “Invisible Hands in the Age of Churning” can be read here along with the full issue…

https://www.setumag.com/2022/04/guest-editors-note-setu-special.html

I’m stoked that my poem “41-Hoot Salute” has been published in the 20^th anniversary issue of The Piker Press operated out of California. Big thank you to Sand Pilarski for including my work in her venue, and congratulations on reaching such a cool milestone! The piece can be read here…

https://www.pikerpress.com/article.php?aID=9161

Setu: A Bilingual Journal of Literature
Western Voices Special
4^th Annual Edition

Submission Guidelines:

Please send 3-5 previously unpublished poems
Times New Roman 12-pt font
Attach as Word Document
Include a brief third person bio

Subject Line: SETU 2022 WESTERN VOICES – Your Name

Deadline is April 20, 2022.

Submissions should be addressed to:

17Numa@gmail.com

We look forward to receiving and reading your work!

Selah,
Scott Thomas Outlar
Guest Editor

Please visit Setumag.com to access past issues and find out more about other upcoming special editions, projects, and events.

My poem “A Lot of Good, Our Thumbs” was published today as part of the Dissident Voice Sunday Poetry Page. Thank you to Angie Tibbs for including it. That piece can be read here…

https://dissidentvoice.org/2022/03/a-lot-of-good-our-thumbs/

I’m happy that my poems “When Form Takes Shape” and “Violins with Falsetto” have been published in the new Poetry Unites Anthology released out of India. Thank you to Shyamolima Saikia for including my work.

Copies of the anthology are available here…
https://www.amazon.in/dp/9355650736

It was a great honor and thrill to present a poetry workshop for the Georgia Writers Museum this weekend in Eatonton, Georgia.

The highlight moment of 2021 for me was the release of Evermore after having spent the past two years writing the book in collaboration with Mihaela Melnic. Anyone interested in picking up a copy and taking a journey across the farm can do so here…

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09F1CV4NV

All the best to everyone in 2022!

I’m thrilled that two of my poems have been translated into Italian and published in the August issue of Rivista Noiqui. Big thank you to Mihaela Melnic for translating my work. One of the pieces is an excerpt from our new collaborative book, Evermore. Thank you, as well, to Luciano Zampini for including the poems in his venue. “Thousands Upon Thousands” and “Fault Lines” can be read here…

https://www.noiqui.it/2021/08/31/rivista-agosto-2021/

And all your days are numbered, the same as mine; but neither of ours shall be as short as theirs. Because karma loves the truth as much as God.

And woe be to those who would lead the flock astray, for the wool they pull over others’ eyes shall be multiplied in their own reciprocity of darkness.

And if you pick one or one thousand ripened figs in the heat of summer, know that the sugar stored within your cells will serve as energy for growth during the shift of autumn.

And fanatical fascists may flap their tyrannical traps for all their hours upon the earth, but it is surely a sign that reveals the tale of their own weakness; for those who run their mouth with the spew of authoritarianism concede the fact that they lack self-control and are forever lost to fits of chaos.

Copies of Evermore are available here…

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09F1CV4NV

I’m stoked that an excerpt from my book, Of Sand and Sugar, has been translated into Bengali and published in TechTouch Talk out of India. Big thank you to Mahua Das for translating my work. The English and Bengali versions of “When Form Takes Shape” can be read here…

https://www.techtouchtalk.in/md08092021/

For many years one of the central expressions I have been promoting and advocating in favor of is the great affirmation of life, saying Yes to the process with a triumphant declaration even in the face of the suffering and sorrow that are inherent elements of existing in the flesh here on earth.

And while I still believe this to be a powerful spiritual philosophy to extoll for the development of mindfulness and resiliency in dealing with the problems we naturally go through in life’s trials, tests, and tribulations, we have now entered a period of time in the world where there must be subtle adjustments made.

Because now the moment has arrived where the most powerful word left in our lexicon and the most important ideological stance that can be taken is to simply say NO.