MadHat Press of Cheshire, Massachusetts — a leading publisher of unique contemporary poetry — will launch Toad Suck Éditions, a biannual anthology of poetry, in fall 2021. The launch will provide further publishing credits for writers in the UCA community, as well as student internships. The publication is a reincarnation of Toad Suck Review (TSR), which was published from 2011 to 2016 by the UCA Department of Writing in the former College of Fine Arts and Communication.

“Publisher Marc Vincenz proposed the idea to me as a vehicle to publish single-authored poetry collections in the vein of the Toad aesthetic,” said Mark Spitzer, TSR editor-in-chief and UCA associate professor of creative writing. “To reestablish the Toad canon before debuting this innovative new poetry series, a best-of anthology of poetry and poetics from annual issues 1 through 6 is scheduled for publication in 2021.”

The Best of the Sucks: High-Octane Poetix from the Legendary Toad Suck Review is now in production. It will include work by celebrated poets Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Anne Waldman, Amiri Baraka, Ed Sanders, Diane di Prima, Pulitzer Prize winner Jericho Brown and other national and international voices in contemporary literature. Renowned Arkansas poets Frank Stanford and former Rhode Island Poet Laureate CD Wright will also be included, along with work by 25 members of the UCA community, including Porter Prize winner Sandy Longhorn; UCA instructors Scotty Lewis, Daryl Spurlock and Joe Trimble; former visiting assistant professor Stacy Kidd; and former undergraduates Timothy Snediker and Heather Cox. The work of a number of additional editorial assistants, UCA alumni and Arkansans will also appear in The Best of the Sucks.

In addition to publishing works by members of the UCA community, Toad Suck Éditions is currently providing one internship per semester at UCA for an undergraduate editorial assistant, with plans to provide additional opportunities in the future.

The Toad Suck Review achieved international acclaim in 2012 when Library Journal named it one of the 10 best literary journals in the world. During the Toad’s six-year run, it was recognized for publishing cutting-edge poetry, fiction, nonfiction, literary translations, environmental literature, Arkansas-based authors, scholarship and artwork and reviews.

“With international distribution and a highly active literary community already in place, the now reimagined Toad, endemic to central Arkansas, is once again poised to receive global attention for literary excellence in the avant-garde poetry scene,” said Spitzer.

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