Copper Nickel is the national literary journal housed at the University of Colorado Denver. It is edited by poet, editor, and translator Wayne Miller (author of five collections, including We the Jury and Post-, coeditor of Literary Publishing in the Twenty-First Century, and co-translator of Moikom Zeqo’s Zodiac) and co-editor Joanna Luloff (author of Remind Me Again What Happened and The Beach at Galle Road)—along with poetry editors Brian Barker (author of Vanishing Acts, The Black Ocean, and The Animal Gospels) and Nicky Beer (author of Real Phonies and Genuine Fakes, The Octopus Game and The Diminishing House), and fiction editors Teague Bohlen (author of The Pull of the Earth), Christopher Merkner (author of The Rise & Fall of the Scandamerican Domestic), and Emily Wortman-Wunder (author of Not a Thing to Comfort You).
Since the journal’s relaunch in 2015, work published in Copper Nickel has been regularly selected for inclusion in Best American Poetry, Best American Short Stories, Best Small Fictions, Best Literary Translations, and the Pushcart Prize Anthology, and has often been listed as “notable” in the Best American Essays. According to Clifford Garstang’s 2023 literary journal rankings, Copper Nickel is ranked number 10 for poetry and number 34 for fiction, out of more than 700 regularly publishing literary journals.
Contributors to Copper Nickel have received numerous honors for their work, including the Nobel Prize; the National Book Critics Circle Award; the Pulitzer Prize; the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award; the Kate Tufts Discovery Award; the Laughlin Award; the American, California, Colorado, Minnesota, and Washington State Book Awards; the Georg Büchner Prize; the Prix Max Jacob; the Griffin Poetry Prize; the Lenore Marshall Prize; the T. S. Eliot and Forward Prizes; the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award; the Alice Fay Di Castagnola Award; the Lambda Literary Award; as well as fellowships from the NEA and the MacArthur, Guggenheim, Ingram Merrill, Witter Bynner, Soros, Rona Jaffee, Bush, and Jerome Foundations.
Copper Nickel is published twice a year, on March 15 and October 15, and is distributed nationally to bookstores and other outlets by Publishers Group West (PGW) and Accelerate 360.
Issue 38 Includes:
• A Symposium on the work of poet Reginald Shepherd, featuring seven poems by Shepherd and critical appraisals by National Book Award–winner Robin Coste Lewis, National Book Award–finalist Tommye Blount, Rilke Prize–winner Rick Barot, PEN Open Book Margins Award–winner Timothy Liu, Guggenheim Fellow Paisley Rekdal, Lama Rod Owens, Camille Rankine, and Charles Stephens.
• Translation Folios with work by South Korean poet Kim Hyesoon, translated by Cindy Juyong Ok; Italian poet Vivian Lamarque, translated by Geoffrey Brock; German poet Jan Wagner, translated by David Keplinger; Iraqi poet Saadi Youssef, translated by Khaled Mattawa.
• New Poetry by Hurston/Wright Legacy Award–winner Myronn Hardy, Whiting Award–winner Diannely Antigua, Guggenheim Fellow Geoffrey Brock, Amy Lowell Fellow Rebecca Lindenberg, Rome Fellow Mark Halliday, Eric Gregory Award–winner James Conor Patterson, Alice Fay di Castagnola Award–winner Melissa Kwasny, Ruth Lilly Fellow Matthew Nienow, NEA Fellows Traci Brimhall and Chris Forhan, Iowa Poetry Prize–winner Stephanie Choi, and relative newcomers Mya Mateo Alexice, Katie Condon, Saúl Hernández, Dana Isokawa, James Jabar, Tyler Raso, and Cintia Santana.
• New Fiction by Betty Gabehart Prize–winner Jennifer Militello, Fulbright Scholar Matthew Lawrence Garcia, Anthony M. Abboreno, Rebecca Entel, Xavier Balckwell-Lipkind, Randy F. Nelson, and Allyson Stack.
• A New Essay by Rona Jaffe Writers’ Award–winner Hasanthika Sirisena.
• Cover Art by Oakland-based artist Stephanie Syjuco.
Contributor Locations
Contributors to issue 38 come from all over the country and the world.
U.S. cities/regions where contributors are concentrated include:
Denver, CO (home of Copper Nickel and the Copper Nickel staff; contributor Cindy Juyong Ok)
Los Angeles, CA (contributing editors Victoria Chang, Piotr Florczyk, Amaud Jamaul Johnson,
and Chris Santiago)
San Francisco Bay Area, CA (cover artist Stephanie Syjuco; contributing editor Randall Mann)
Atlanta, GA (contributors Lama Rod Owens and Charles Stephens)
Boston/Cambridge, MA (contributor Allison Adair; contributing editors Martha Collins and
Frederick Reiken)
Baltimore, MD (contributors Joseph J. Capista and Carol Quinn)
Detroit, MI (contributors Tommye Blount and Isaac Pickell)
Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN (home of Milkweed Editions; contributing editor V. V.
Ganeshananthan)
Missoula, MT (contributor Melissa Kwasny; contributing editor Sean Hill)
Greensboro, NC (contributors James Jabar and Rhett Iseman Trull; contributing editor Emilia
Phillips)
New York, NY (contributors Dana Isokawa and Maja Lukic)
Pittsburgh, PA (contributors Jan Beatty and Camille Rankine; contributing editors Joy Katz and
Kevin Haworth)
Dallas, TX (contributor Katie Condon; contributing editor Tarfia Faizullah)
Seattle, WA (contributors Rick Barot and Matthew Nienow)
US Cities/Regions with single contributors:
West Hartford, CT (contributor Xavier Blackwell-Lipkind)
Washington, DC (contributor David Keplinger)
Boca Raton, FL (contributing editor A. Papatya Bucak)
Davenport, IA (contributor Anthony M. Abboreno)
Iowa City, IA (contributor Rebecca Entel)
Boise, ID (contributing editor Emily Ruskovich)
Chicago, IL (contributing editor Robert Archambeau)
Indianapolis, IN (contributor Chris Forhan)
Richmond, IN (contributor Christen Noel Kauffman)
Bloomington, IN (contributor Tyler Raso)
Manhattan, KS (contributor Traci Brimhall)
Lexington, KY (contributing editor Ada Limón)
Haverhill, MA (contributor Diannely Antigua)
Lewiston, ME (contributor Myronn Hardy)
Ann Arbor, MI (contributor Khaled Matttawa)
Grand Rapids, MI (contributor Andrew Collard)
Kansas City, MO (contributing editor Robert Long Foreman)
Saint Louis, MO (contributing editor Niki Herd)
Davidson, NC (contributor Randy F. Nelson)
Lincoln, NE (contributor James Brunton)
Manchester, NH (contributor Jennifer Millitello)
Jersey City, NJ (contributor Mya Matteo Alexice)
Princeton, NJ (contributing editor James Richardson)
Canton, NY (contributing editor Pedro Ponce)
Woodstock, NY (contributor Timothy Liu)
Athens, OH (contributor Mark Halliday)
Cincinnati, OH (contributor Rebecca Lindenberg)
Tulsa, OK (contributing editor Kaveh Bassiri)
Ashland, OR (contributor Cynthia Boersma)
Selinsgrove, PA (contributor Hasanthika Sirisena)
Philadelphia, PA (contributing editor Adrienne Perry)
Greenville, SC (contributor Emily Cinquemani)
Sewanee, TN (contributor Stephanie Choi)
San Antonio, TX (contributor Saúl Hernández)
St. George, UT (contributor Cindy King)
Salt Lake City, UT (contributor Paisley Rekdal)
Middlebury, VT (contributor Carolyn Orosz)
Houston, TX (contributing editor Kevin Prufer)
Blacksburg, VA (contributing editor Janine Joseph)
International contributors live in:
Düsseldorf, GERMANY (Matthew Lawrence Garcia)
Milan, ITALY (Vivian Lamarque)
Seoul, SOUTH KOREA (Kim Hyesoon)
Edinburgh, UNITED KINGDOM (Allyson Stack)
London, UNITED KINGDOM (James Conor Patterson)
