The New Guard Volume IX. (346 pages; softcover. Editor: Shanna McNair. ISBN: 978-0-578-84080-2.) Contest winners: Machigonne Fiction Contest: Alexander Weinstein; Knightville Poetry Contest: Bertha Isabel Crombet. Judges: Elizabeth Hand (Fiction) and Richard Blanco (Poetry). Featured Poet: Tim Seibles. Featured Fiction: sol del llano. Letters section theme: “Letters of Epiphany”. Letter writers: Jendi Reiter, Lori Desrosiers, Lindz McLeod, Pete Follansbee, Alexandra Clausen, Melanie Anagnos, Anne Witty, Dean Gessie, S. Thomas Pauzauskie, Dan McMinn, Jeremy Eads, Virginia Watts, Lyndsie Manusos, Annette Freeman, Lisa Birk and Susan K. Bates. Cover art is "Untitled 30" by Michael Vincent Manalo. The piece is from his series, "A Hermit's Way of Looking at Life" and is a digital matte painting/photograph, 80 x 80 cm. Founding Editor & Publisher: Shanna McNair; Consulting Editor: Scott Wolven. Editorial Assistant & Contest Reader: Julie Carpenter.