The newest issue of College Literature (General Issue 37.4 / Fall 2010) includes the essay “Assessing the Promise of Jonathan Franzan’s First Three Novels: A Rejection of ‘Refuge'” by Ty Hawkins (Ph. D., Saint Louis University). Frazen’s works cited in the essay: The Twenty-Seventh City, Strong Motion, The Corrections, “Mr. Difficult” and “A Word About This Book,” both from How to Be Alone: Essays.

Adam Gussow: Ole Miss English prof by day, blues man by – well – day also: “I’ve always had a dual interests between the blues and literature,” Gussow said. “I treat blues lyrics like lyric poetry. I try to keep a balance situated between performance and critique.” Gussow’s solo album, Kick and Stomp, has just been released.

Coedited by E. C. Osondu and William Pierce, the AGNI Portfolio of African Fiction is a landmark gathering of stories from Djibouti, Nigeria, Uganda, South Africa, the Gambia, and elsewhere. “The AGNI Portfolio of African Fiction creates an unexpected portrait of the African continent—political, sexual, religious, commercial, and literary — by writers such as Abdourahman A. Waberi, Henrietta Rose-Innes, Helon Habila, Doreen Baingana, Chuma Nwokolo, Jr., and Monica Arac de Nyeko.” The portfolio will connect AGNI’s two venues this fall: half of the stories appearing in AGNI 72 (now available for purchase), and half available full text at AGNI Online.

Jason Nelson has built an exhibition of digital poetry interfaces on heliozoa. Nelson writes, “In the simplest terms Digital Poems are born from the combination of technology and poetry, with writers using all multi-media elements as critical texts. Sounds, images, movement, video, interface/interactivity and words are combined to create new poetic forms and experiences. And when a piece like ‘game, game…’ attracts millions of readers while a ‘successful’ print poem might attract a hundred, I think the digital truly is the future of poetry.”

PEN’s Handbook for Writers in Prison features detailed guides on the art of writing fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and screenplays as well as information on punctuation, cover letters, and a list of recommended magazines and journals that consider work for publication. This is an invaluable resource to any incarcerated writer. To date, PEN has distributed 20,000 copies of the Handbook and continues to receive requests.

If you or someone you know is currently incarcerated, you are eligible to order a FREE copy of the Handbook for Writers in Prison. Workshop instructors who would like to use the Handbook for Writers in Prison for classes are encouraged to purchase copies for only $5.

How can one understand what Chekhov is to Russian culture and Russian life? “Only by reading him,” says Tamara Eidelman in the latest issue of Chtenia: Readings from Russia. The Fall 2010 issue is a bilingual focus on Chekhov, including a translation of writing from Ivan Bunin, Russia’s first Nobel Laureate for literature (1933), and several of Chekhov’s stories both in Russian and in English translation: A Horsey Name, A Foolish Frenchman, The Student, The Seagull (excerpt), The Man in a Case, Gooseberries, and About Love. The volume is completed with an essay by Sasha Chyorny, “Why Did Chekhov Quit This Earth So Soon?”

In every issue of Thema, editors include correspondence from readers. However, in the most recent issue of the publication (Autumn 2010), the editors note that “for the first time in 22 years, no one communicated with us!” I don’t believe this lack of communication is due to any absence of readers, but rather the method of receiving the missives: traditional post. No doubt if Thema were to accept e-mail and text messages (and publish tweets and FB wall scrawls), there would be no lapse in this feedback loop. It seems reflective of the times that the days of letter writing, envelopes and stamps – even for a publications whose readers appreciate the print format – are quickly coming to an end for many.

“The Jane Austen’s Fiction Manuscripts Digital Edition gathers together in the virtual space of the web some 1100 pages of fiction written in Jane Austen’s own hand. Through digital reunification, it is now possible to access, read, and compare high quality images of original manuscripts whose material forms are scattered around the world in libraries and private collections. Unlike the famous printed novels, all published in a short span between 1811 and 1818, these manuscripts trace Jane Austen’s development as a writer from childhood to the year of her death; that is, from 1787 (aged 11 or 12) to 1817 (aged 41). Not only do they provide a unique visual record of her imagination from her teenage experiments to her last unfinished writings, these pages represent one of the earliest collections of creative writings in the author’s hand to survive for a British novelist.”

The newest issue of The Hudson Review (Autumn 2010) includes a bonus CD audio recording of the magazines Writers on Writing series featuring Dana Gioia. The program was hosted by Josephine Reed and aired July 5, 2010. The three tracks include an introduction to the poem, a reading of “Haunted” and an interview.

Sponsored yearly by the Art House Co-op (The Brooklyn Art Library), the Sketchbook Project (for a fee) sends out a blank sketchbook to be filled by participating artists. If completed and sent in by the deadline, the book will join others on a tour around the US and then be housed at the Brooklyn Art Library.

Each book will be given a barcode so it can be cataloged into The Brooklyn Art Library system. Once cataloged, artists will be able to track where on the tour their book is viewed and how many times someone pulled it from the shelf.

Anyone – from anywhere in the world – can be a part of the project. Artist must order the book online by first selecting a theme from those listed (for example: Things found on restaurant napkins; Dirigibles and submersibles; Coffee and cigarettes). Once chosen, the theme must be adhered to in the sketchbook, and number of participants in each theme is limited.

To participate, artists must sign up by Oct. 31. Finished sketchbooks must be returned postmark by January 15, and the tour begins March 2011. So far, cities on the tour include: Brooklyn, NY; Austin, TX; San Francisco, CA; Portland, ME; Atlanta, GA; Chicago, IL; Washington, DC; Winter Park, FL.

From The Oatmeal – creators of some of the best instructional posters on the planet.

In issue 12.1 of River Teeth: A Journal of Nonfiction Narrative, Phillip Lopate’s essay “In Defense of the Essay Collection” begins: “In these uncertain times for the book trade,when the very future of the printed word seems in question, the one thing certain is that no one wants to publish a collection of essays. Your agent would prefer not to have to sell it, your old publishers don’t want to touch it, and even those pretty young editors who smile enticingly around the buffet table and give midlist authors such as yourself their cards don’t want anything to do with it. Perhaps – perhaps – an essay collection with a focus, a hot topic that will get an author on talk shows, yes, that’s conceivable. But a mere compendium of random essays previously published in magazines, forget it.”

Despite the humorously dismal beginning, Lopate does indeed go on to defend the essay collection (with further poignant humor) and our true – though often publicly inhibited – desire for the form. Lopate is editor of The Art of the Personal Essay: An Anthology from the Classical Era to the Present.

M. Scott Douglas, publisher and editor of The Main Street Rag, writes in the Fall 2010 issue editorial: “…a massive price reduction has occurred for ALL Main Street Rag books bought from the MSR Online Bookstore. The idea is to cut the price in such a way that our books will cost less from the MSR Online Bookstore than they would if bought at a bookstore – even with the shipping.” Douglass recognizes the “fierce competition for shelf space in bookstores” and that even when obtained, “shelf life is fleeting…it’s smarter and more cost-effective to sell at a discount directly to readers than it is to give an even larger discount to bookstores and distributors and never know if you will get paid.”

An excerpt from The Bailing Out of Aunt P by Sarah Sorensen:

“Then she stayed at our house for a while. She slept in my Strawberry Shortcake canopy bed. Things were too tough at home, I guess. So there she was. And I liked being there “helping” her. I wanted to ask her things. I wanted to know where you had to go and what you had to do to be a big punk lesbo. I used to think about boy names and try to pick out ones I liked enough to date. I liked girl names better. Aunt P. had figured out a system where it was cool and rebellious to like girls. Who’d she learn that from?”

Read the rest in the Fall/Winter issue of Dark Sky Magazine.