Every year, the Association of Writing Programs holds a conference, the highlight of which is the bookfair. There you can visit tables for hundreds of literary magazines and small presses offering discounted books, free issues, and other swag. The neat thing this year was discovering people whose work I know showing up in these magazines. Some recommendations (with a few shout-outs):

• Autumn House Press: These folks put out handsome books. In December, I got a copy of Samuel Ligon’s story collection, and at the AWP conference I picked up one of their anthologies, Keeping the Wolves at Bay, a collection of stories by emerging writers, including Samuel Ligon and Donald Ray Pollock.
• Artifice Magazine: Edited by my friends, James Tadd Adcox and Rebekah Silverman, this magazine is on its third issue and already taking the market by storm. In issue 2, Fred Sasaki’s “Serious Accusation” might be the funniest thing I’ve ever read. In issue, 3, I’m especially excited to read a poem by my friend, David Blomenberg.
• Crab Orchard Review: There’s usually good stuff in Crab Orchard, but I was delighted, after leaving their booth, to discover that the issue I picked up, 14.2 opens with “Blood Memory,” by my friend Chris Arnold.
• The Cincinnati Review: This is one of the more exciting magazines out there right now, I think. Fiction edited by Brock Clarke, issue 7.1 has a story by one of my groomsmen, Brian Beglin, and another story by Aimee Bender.
• Crazyhorse: Put out by my alma mater, the College of Charleston, Crazyhorse is a consistently interesting journal.
• Mid-American Review: Another consistently interesting journal, the current issue features poetry by Bob Hicok and  a story by Kevin Wilson, an exciting up-and-coming short story writer. (Or maybe he’s arrived?)
• Redivider: I’m not hugely familiar with this journal, but I picked up two issues that both look top-notch. Issue 7.2 has fiction by Ron Carlson and Davy Rothbart, and issue 7.1 has fiction by Sherman Alexie and Dan Chaon and, I discovered today, a poem by my friend Anna Lowe Weber.
• Sycamore Review: Published by my MFA alma mater, Purdue, the editors at Sycamore have done a great job of publishing strong material and packaging it in a handsome format.

Those are just a few of many good things I saw happening at the bookfair. I suspect a handful of you readers were at the conference as well, so I’d love to see some more recommendations in the comments. Things I didn’t mention, things I didn’t see.

Bookninja points to this article about Tin House’s submission policy for the fall. If you’re going to submit a story, you must also include a receipt for the purchase of a book. That policy stirred people up, but I say good for Tin House. In the deluge era, there’s got to be some way of screening applicants. Some magazines have begun to charge a reading fee, which must weed out some of the dilettantes. In economic terms, Tin House’s police taxes something bad (blindly submitting every POS you write to everyone, thus cluttering up everyone’s inboxes) and provides an incentive for something they want to encourage (reading — or at least buying — books). Good on them.

Sycamore Review has put together an anthology of interviews from their pages. Due out this summer, it includes my and Ben Kolp’s interview with Kate Bernheimer.

Good story in the winter Appalachian Heritage, which can be read here.

Ecotone has nominated Chris’s story for a Pushcart Prize. You’d do well to familiarize yourself with this man before he takes off for the big leagues.

The spring issue of Third Coast is now available.  I just got mine in the mail, but I’m sure the fiction is stellar, as my buddy Brian and I helped screen submissions. There’s also my review of Holly Goddard Jones’s Girl Trouble. Check it out.

Good news about Beglin’s story in the Cincinnati Review. Check it out.