International literary salon Naked Girls Reading is looking for exceptional, “gut level” writing in the areas of Short Fiction, Poetry, Criticism and Erotica. In November 2010, an array of famous Naked Girls will read finalists in every category and give away the Naked Girls Reading Literary Honors at a special event in Chicago. This Honors includes a reader funded cash prize of at least $500 and the prestige of being the first recipient of the award.

Patrick Kingsley of The Guardian writes a response to the question “Has endlessly skimming short texts on the internet made us stupider?” answering in the affirmative and consulting the research that says we need to slow down: The Art of Slow Reading.

Anna Ross interviews acclaimed poet Marie Ponsot just before her stroke, on oil, the oral supremacy of poetry, and (what else?) the end of the world: “Between Riddle and Charm.”(Guernica, July 2010)

2010 Other Words Conference
Flagler College, St. Augustine, Florida
November 4-6
Open for proposals, tables, sponsored readings.

Thursday, November 4 kicks off at 7:30 pm with a reading by local writers William Slaughter and Laura Lee Smith. The Thursday reading will begin at 7:30 pm.

Friday and Saturday events follow with panels and readings scheduled from 9 am to 5:30 pm and evening readings with a keynote event by Jeffrey Lependorf of CLMP and SPD. Evening readings feature Lola Haskins and Wil Haygood on Friday night and Diane Wakoski and Terese Svoboda on Saturday night.

The theme of this year’s conference is “Writing About Something.” Proposed panels should have a theme such as writing about art, writing about place, writing about baseball, writing about physics, etc. This will allow participants who want to include readings of their poetry, fiction, or nonfiction in their presentation to do so as long as it follows the thematic guidelines. There will also be panels about publishing, submitting work, agents, editors, small presses, teaching creative writing, collaboration, and others.

For a small additional fee, there will be creative writing workshops in fiction, poetry, and nonfiction and special sessions of workshops as outreach to underserved youth. Writing faculty currently include Terri Witek (poetry); Mark Powell (fiction); Lisa Zimmerman (poetry); Tania Rochelle (poetry). Conference writing staff (also for an additional fee) will offer individual manuscript consultations or advice for publishing one’s work.

Publishers and journals will be able to sponsor readings by their authors by signing up for a table at the book fair and paying a fee above the cost of a table alone.

At this time we are ready to entertain panel proposals in any area and to discuss with small presses and journals the methods for getting sponsored readings.

This information will be posted on the FLAC/Other Words blogspot, Facebook page, and website. Please see http://flacnews.blogspot.com/ and http://www.floridarts.org/, and become a fan on Facebook by searching “Other Words Conference.”

To make a proposal or get more information, please email Rick Campbell or Jim Wilson. Further details about scheduling, participating writers, conference hotels, and more will be posted soon.

Rick Campbell, FLAC, rc2121-at-tds.net
Jim Wilson, Flagler College, jmwilson-at-flagler.edu

================================

INFORMATION SUMMARY
Conference dates November 4-6, 2010
Conference Fees
$80.00 Non FLAC members conference registration
$50.00 FLAC members conference registration
$100.00 Book Fair table with sponsored reading (includes one personal conference registration)
$60.00 Book Fair table only (includes one personal conference registration)
$25.00 Non FLAC member Student registrations
FLAC member students get free registration
Creative Writing Workshops ($25 and $15 for students )
Individual Manuscript Consultations ($40.00; 25 pages fiction and nonfiction; 12 pages of poetry)
Publishing Advice Sessions with editors and publishers ($30 for 20 minute session; advisers will not critique work)

A list of participants as of now:

Wil Haygood
Diane Wakoski
Terese Svoboda
Lola Haskins
Ken Hart
Terri Witek
Cyriaco Lopes
Lisa Zimmerman
Tania Rochele
Mark Powell
Marc Fitten
Stephen Corey
Sean Sexton
Lynn Aarti Chandhok
Kelle Groom
Shane Seely
Carol Lynne Knight
Allison Granucci
Michael Hettich
Kelle Groom
Jesse Milner
Shane Seely

PRESSES AND JOURNALS

All Nations Press
Anhinga Press
Autumn House Press
Yellow Jacket Press
University of Tampa Press
Kitsune Press
The Tampa Review
The Georgia Review
The Florida Review
Apalachee Review and Press

Reviews in Cultural Theory is a journal of book reviews that responds to new developments in the theorization of culture. Published online bi-weekly and collected into issues three times a year, Reviews in Cultural Theory seeks to provide a forum to foreground both new work in this field and the emergent community of scholars who share an interest in the complex and changing problematic of culture today.

Focusing on the wide distribution of short and timely reviews and review essays, the journal aims to remain responsive to the dynamism and pace of this field. The journal’s first three issues chart the contemporary shape of cultural theory as it touches on Visual Culture, Gender Studies, Geography, Queer Theory, Marxism, Anthropology, Critical Race Theory, Postcolonial Studies, Cultural History, and Sound Studies, among other fields and subjects, established and emerging. We welcome suggestions of new work for review.

Editors: Imre Szemán, Sarah Blacker, Justin Sully

The Modernist Literature and Economic Theory Project is being developed by Tudor Balinisteanu (PhD English Literature).

Project Description:
This project aims to connect modernist texts with economic concepts in transnational perspective. It responds to a need to reassess the contribution of literature to our interconnected forms of social and material life. Once fully developed, it will provide resources to scholars interested in exploring the connection between literature and economic materialism. On the one hand, the project invites reflection on literature as a market form itself; on the other it invites explorations of the ways in which literature engenders forms of social performativity and agency that contribute materially to society, and can therefore be studied in the framework of economic theory.

Contributions to the site are invited, and will be acknowledged on the page where they are placed.

New or used, booksellers are struggling.

John King Books, an institution of used and rare books in Detroit, has slashed its prices in an effort to stay alive – “If we don’t move the entire inventory in a fairly quick time – a couple months – then I don’t know what I will do,” King said.

And another indie bookstore closes its doors – Second Story Books, NY. Such closures as this are no longer surprising news, and Peter Applebome of the NYT explores why.

The Marie Alexander Poetry Series has an open submission period during the month of July. An award of $500 and publication will be given for a chosen collection of prose poems by an American poet. Submit a manuscript of at least 48 pages, which can include some lineated pieces, along with a cover letter with complete contact information and an SASE for notification only. Postmark must be between July 1 and 31. Entries should also include a simultaneous electronic submission of the manuscript (MS Word or PDF format) sent to . There is no entry fee.

Marie Alexander Poetry Series
Attention: Nickole Brown, Co-Editor
P.O. Box 5686
Louisville, KY 40255-0686

“Brooklyn indie poetry publisher Ugly Duckling Presse has turned to e-books as a means of re-issuing out-of-print poetry chapbooks, which has doubled readership for the books. The platform they’ve chosen — Issuu — has proven to be both robust and attractive, but also has complications in part because it is based on Flash.” Read more about the e-re-issue on Publishing Perspectives.

Started by Mathias Svalina and Zach Schomburg, Press Press Press is a “blog-shop for small poetry presses and journals” and features poetry, chapbooks, journals, and “things.” The are multiple contributors to the blog, and when I contacted Mathias to ask about how it works, he replied: “Ideally PPP should be viral. All members have administrative power & have been encouraged to invite whomever they think would be a good fit to be a part of it. Zach Schomburg & I started it as a place to be able to check in to find about about new releases from micro-presses. I don’t feel like we’re in charge of it, though. The only rules are that presses can only post the latest releases, no back catalog, & there should be no ‘bloggy’ posts.” Definitely worth a look and keeping an eye on.

“In celebration of the 10th anniversary of Pindeldyboz, we’ve made the decision to shut it down.” – Whitney Pastorek, Executive Editor

Since the recent Tin House announcement asking readers (NOT requiring them to do so, mind you) to purchase a book from an independent bookseller (“Buy a Book, Save a Bookstore“) and use the receipt as their “ticket” to submitting work to the magazine as well as its contest, a slew of discussions have started about publications “charging” writers for submissions.

Brevity is asking its readers whether or not they should charge, and the nearly 300 responses run the spectrum of opinion on the matter.

The issue of charging for submissions is nothing new Narrative charges writers a “nominal” fee of $15-20 for all unsolicited submissions, and the The Missouri Review charges writers “a small fee” of $3 to submit their works electronically (I’m sure there are others, but this is who comes to mind at the moment). TMR Editor Speer Morgan in his discussion at this year’s AWP (Session 179 – The Future of the Literary Magazine) made no apologies for charging writers this fee (and they seem not to be lacking in submissions). He felt it offered at least some means of screening submissions and lessening the mass-submit phenomenon available to writers who use e-services (sending to as many publications as possible without familiarizing themselves with the publications content).

It also reminds writers that there is a cost to these literary endeavors – magazines are not staffed, printed, or able to maintain an online presence/e-mail submissions out of the kindness of this society’s heart – it takes cash, which the loss of several long-standing publications each year proves. I heard it’s “Robin Hood robbing the poor to pay the rich,” but I’m not sure I get that one, because anybody who think literary endeavors are rolling in it (esp. lit mags) is out of touch with reality (or needs to intern with a lit mag). I think it’s more like, “You have a nickel and I have a nickel, so let’s rub them together” – and hope we can keep this lit mag afloat another year.

Missouri Review also offers readers the option to send via traditional mail, which – remember – also costs money. Could not allowing submissions via electronic medium constitute a submission fee? I suppose you’ll have to take that one up with the post office (which will soon be raising those fee rates).

I don’t think this initiating act, which on the part of Tin House means encourage support for the literary community, should be the matter of contention. Sort of like playing Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots with yourself (“Yeah! I knocked my block off!”). “Just going through this list of independent bookstores,” NewPages Managing Editor Nicole Foor adds, “I can’t believe how many of them have closed.” Tin House is dead on with their effort. Buy books from indie bookstores and small presses, and buy/subscribe to literary magazines. Support the grassroots literary community – at their roots. That’s the point.

Still, this subsequent conversation – whether or not to charge cash fees for submission – is a good one and worth ongoing consideration. Michael A. FitzGerald (author of Radiant Days, co-founder of Submishmash) offers a more writer-focused perspective on this matter here: Reading Fees From a Writer’s Perspective.

Until July 26 Creative Nonfiction is having a virtual yard sale with: 10% off subscriptions; books up to 40% off; 80% off back issues; and $5 CNF mugs.

Check out the latest great post of NewPages Literary Magazine Reviews, including both new and established publications in print and online – with a special thanks to all the reviewers who dedicate their time and energy to recognize these publications and writers:

Alaska Quarterly Review
The Asian American Literary Review
Blue Earth Review
Bombay Gin
Carpe Articulum
Fringe
Gargoyle
get born
Glimmer Train
Literal
Lumina
The New Quarterly
The Orange Coast Review
Oyez Review
Quiddity
Salmagundi
Sentence
Stone Canoe
West Wind Review

You are invited to participate in the first World Listening Day, which happens on Sunday, July 18, 2010.

The purposes of World Listening Day are:

• to celebrate the practice of listening as it relates to the world around us, environmental awareness, and acoustic ecology;
• to raise awareness about issues related to the World Soundscape Project, World Listening Project, World Forum for Acoustic Ecology, and individual and group efforts to creatively explore phonography;
• and to design and implement educational initiatives which explore these concepts and practices.

World Listening Day is being organized by the World Listening Project, in partnership with other organizations. July 18 was chosen as the date for World Listening Day because it is the birthday of the Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer. Schafer is one of the founders of the Acoustic Ecology movement. The World Soundscape Project, which he directed, is an important organization which has inspired a lot of activity in this field, and his book Soundscape: The Tuning of the World helped to define many of the terms and background behind the acoustic ecology movement.

The World Listening Project invites you to participate in World Listening Day. Here are several possibilities—

• You can set aside some time when you pay attention to your soundscape.
• You can organize a soundwalk or a listening party when people play field recordings.
• You can organize a performance event that involves field recordings and other artistic expressions that explore our soundscape and how we can listen to our sonic environment.
• You can facilitate an educational event that relates to acoustic ecology, field recordings, or a similar topic.
• You can contact organizations or individuals that are listed as participating in World Listening Day, to see if you can get involved that way.

Visit The World Listening Project for more information.

Dan Godston interviews Vanessa Place – poet, novelist, critic, editor, founder/editor of Les Figues Press. Godston talks with her about her influences, her novel La Medusa, the latest projects with Les Figues Press, and the lit scene in LA. (examiner.com – Detroit)

Playwright/performer Prince Gomolvilas takes on the movie 21, starting with the question:

“What is the greatest piece of Asian-American literature of all time?”

And it’s not The Joy Luck Club or No-No Boy…

21 Reasons Why This Movie Sucks

Survivor Chronicles is a small independent publication dedicated to trauma release, healing and survival. We are mostly a poetry magazine, but also invite short fiction/non fiction as we acknowledge the fact that many writers/artists are more comfortable expressing themselves through other styles.

We want to hear from you:

•If you have survived a major trauma, or are in the process of surviving it.
•If someone close to you has survived a major trauma or is in the process of surviving it.
•If you are a social worker or health worker or any other professional and have seen trauma at close range.
•If you are a writer or artist who deeply empathizes with the human condition and can portray trauma and its process and/or effects honestly and sensitively.
•If you are a photographer who has documented trauma and its survival.

Here are some general submission guidelines:

•We prefer shorter pieces to longer ones, owing to the attention span of the average internet reader.
•We love poetry, and occasionally well crafted short fiction, and are also interested in analytical opinion pieces (non fiction) and musings about trauma survival and its relationship with leading a meaningful life.
•In the body of an email, paste 1-5 poems, or short fiction/non fiction within 1500 words.
Artists and photographers can send 1-5 pieces for consideration; email •as separate attachments.

Guest edited by stevenallenmay, the Summer 2010 issue of Beltway Poetry Quarterly online celebrates the history of Plan B Press, with poems by 21 authors published by the press from its founding in 1999 to the present. Featured poets include: Lamont Steptoe, Mary Ann Larkin, Jason Venner, Dan Maguire, Tony Brewer, Tina Darragh, Gray Jacobik, and Tony Medina. The issue traces the press’s evolution as it moved from Leola, PA to Philadelphia, to the greater DC area.

Tin House Implements New Policy for Fall Reading Period. Unsolicited Submissions must be Accompanied by a Receipt for a Hardcover or Paperback from a Real-Life Bookstore.

PORTLAND, OREGON (JUNE 30, 2010) In the spirit of discovering new talent as well as supporting established authors and the bookstores who support them, Tin House Books will accept unsolicited manuscripts dated between August 1 and November 30, 2010, as long as each submission is accompanied by a receipt for a book from a bookstore. Tin House magazine will require the same for unsolicited submissions sent between September 1 and December 30, 2010.

Writers who cannot afford to buy a book or cannot get to an actual bookstore are encouraged to explain why in haiku or one sentence (100 words or fewer). Tin House Books and Tin House magazine will consider the purchase of e-books as a substitute only if the writer explains: why he or she cannot go to his or her neighborhood bookstore, why he or she prefers digital reads, what device, and why.

Writers are invited to videotape, film, paint, photograph, animate, twitter, or memorialize in any way (that is logical and/or decipherable) the process of stepping into a bookstore and buying a book to send along for our possible amusement and/or use on our Web site.

Tin House Books will not accept electronic submissions. Tin House magazine will accept manuscripts by mail or digitally. The magazine will accept scans of bookstore receipts.

ALL MANUSCRIPTS WITHOUT RECEIPT OR EXPLANATION WILL BE RETURNED UNREAD IN SASE.

Please send manuscripts to:

Save a Book
Tin House Books
2617 NW Thurman
Portland, OR 97210

Or

Save a Book
Tin House Magazine
PO Box 10500
Portland, OR 97210

[From Deborah Jayne, Director of Publicity, Tin House Books]

“And if you want to write, you just write and publish yourself. No need to ask permission, just open a website. And if you want to write a book, you just write it, send it to Lulu.com or BookSurge at Amazon or PubIt or ExLibris and you’ve got yourself an e-book. No problem. And that is the future of publishing: 18 million authors in America, each with an average of 14 readers, eight of whom are blood relatives. Average annual earnings: $1.75.”

From: “When everyone’s a writer, no one is: In a world where everything’s free on the web, what will happen to publishing” by Garrison Keillor, May 25, 2010, The Baltimore Sun

Susan Kan, founding director of Perugia Press, is now offering a personal manuscript review service for individualized feedback on poetry manuscripts.

Dedalus Books (UK) is able to continue publishing thanks efforts from writers JM Coetzee, Jonathan Coe, and the president of the European Commission to get the Arts Council to reinstate funding.

With the addition of Splash of Red (Asbury Park, NJ) to the NewPages Guide to Literary Magazines, I had a marked increase in e-mails from Editor Dylan Emerick-Brown providing updates – not just of publication content, which is itself impressive, but of several other activities organized by Splash of Red. I asked Dylan if he could give me a snapshot of all of these activities and accomplishments, which he has provided here. Now, I hope you’re sitting down as you read this – because most amazing of all – Splash of Red is celebrating its one-year anniversary. That’s right – all of this is within the first year of publication. And, Dylan tells me, he could add to this on a weekly basis.

Splash of Red is truly a model of what can be accomplished when people are driven by their love of literature and for their community. I know there are many wonderful publications out there participating in similar ways, both in publishing and in their communities. Please don’t hesitate to drop me a line and let me know. Other publications, new start-ups as well as those long-established, could certainly benefit from knowing what others are doing. And it’s to the benefit of us all to encourage more of these activities in expanding and supporting our larger literary community.

From Dylan Emerick-Brown:

In the past year, our first year, Splash of Red has published interviews / articles with or work by:

Pulitzer Prize winner in Fiction Eleanor Strout;
Pulitzer Prize winner in Non-Fiction Diane McWhorter;
Pulitzer Prize winner in Fiction Junot Diaz;
Pulitzer Prize winner in Fiction Robert Olen Butler (free download audio recording);
Pulitzer Prize winner in Poetry & former US Poet Laureate Charles Simic;
Pulitzer Prize finalist in Poetry Sydney Lea;
Former US Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky;
Jorge Colombo – the artist whose iPhone drawing made The New Yorker’s cover history;
John Hemingway – author & grandson of Ernest Hemingway;
Mark Vonnegut – author & son of Kurt Vonnegut;
Sue Monk Kidd & Ann Kidd Taylor;
Frank Warren – editor & creator of Post Secret;
William P. Young – author of The Shack;
Arthur Nersesian – “underground” New York City author;
Philip Connors – rising non-fiction author of the critically acclaimed Diary of a Fire Lookout.

Events Organized for the Asbury Park community:

Live reading with Pulitzer Prize finalist in Poetry Sydney Lea;
Live reading with author of Sex with Kings & Mistress of the Vatican Eleanor Herman;
Live reading / Pitchapalooza with author & editor David Henry Sterry;
First art exhibition of Danielle Lovallo;
Live reading with author of Me and Orson Welles Robert Kaplow;
Live Skype event featuring Daniel Wallace, author of Big Fish post-screening of the film;
Live reading with Pulitzer Prize winner in Fiction Junot Diaz
(7/18) Live Skype event featuring Pulitzer Prize winner in Fiction Robert Olen Butler.

Splash of Red organized a public mural project on the Asbury Park boardwalk. Three local artists were chosen to select three poems published on the website and create a piece of art inspired by a stanza. This unique marriage of literature and art will be revealed July 4th weekend. Additionally, Pulitzer Prize winner in Fiction and New Jersey local Junot Diaz lent a quote – the only he has ever written about the Jersey boardwalk – from a currently unpublished book that will be painted as the fourth panel in the overall mural. The mural itself will be painted on the eastern front side of the historic Asbury Park steam plant. Featured artists are Porkchop, Jeff Allen and Joey Parlett. Featured poets are Anthony Alessandrini, Catherine Owen and Tom Faure.

Other literary experiments include the revealing of a previously unpublished rough draft of a poem by Pulitzer Prize finalist in Poetry Sydney Lea alongside the finished published version for educational value.

We took a poem from poet Anthony Alessandrini and a piece of art from artist Joey Parlett. Each was given the others’ work and from that, created a piece of art all their own inspired from the others’ artistic medium. The result was a poem inspired by art and art inspired by a poem in a fascinating controlled experiment.

Lastly, we have published many emerging and well-known authors of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, artists and graphic narrative illustrators. This has all been accomplished in the past year, July 3 being our one-year anniversary. This has been made possible through hard work, dedication and a passion for bringing quality work to those who appreciate it. We are more than simply an online literary magazine. We are a literary experience.

In case you were wondering, our title comes from these three inspirations: 1) the infamous red ink in draft after draft to get the best quality writing, 2) the blood and passion that goes into only the most skillfully crafted art, and 3) great work stands out just like a splash of red.

Writer Steve Almond is self-proclaimed as “crazily” self-publishing one of his books. In April, he spent the day on the Chester College of New England campus and interviewed with Compass Rose staffer Laura Evans, who delved into this experience of self-publishing. The following is an excerpt from the full interview.

LE: You’ve recently begun self-publishing, right?

SA: It’s been pretty basic. There were a couple of projects, some things I wanted to put into the world, and it didn’t seem appropriate for some corporation or publishing house to invest money in me because I didn’t think the books were going to be profitable in that way. They’re too personal and kind of strange. These days you can put out books yourself fairly cheaply, and the best thing about it is that they cost less. And rather than have the book be a commodity that a corporation puts out and sells to a bookstore and maybe someone comes along and picks it up if you’re lucky, I can read from these books to an audience. Then, if they like it, they can buy it from me, the artist. It’s a nice feeling to be able to have it in person, like an artifact of some kind rather than a commodity that someone expects to make money on. And there’s a beautiful simplicity to it. Technology’s done all these bad things and so forth, but it also has created the opportunity for artists young and old to democratize the means of production. I’m just taking advantage of that.

I mean, I have this new book coming out, the Rock and Roll book, that Random House is publishing, and I’m delighted. That’s a whole other thing. I hope it sells a zillion copies. But I don’t have to worry about that with these little books. I just get to have the pleasure of reading them to people and having them connect in a more personal, organic way.

LE: So when would you advise self-publishing?

SA: Well, you need to do an apprenticeship. It’s great to just publish because the means are there, but your work has to be worth putting into the world. You have to spend some time, usually alone, sometimes depressed, working, and writing and writing and writing, and making bad decisions, then eventually some pretty good decisions, and then hopefully at some point some really good decisions. True decisions. I don’t know how long that takes for anybody else (for me it took twenty years), but I don’t think it’s reasonable, and would probably be very frustrating to just self-publish and expect that you’ll have a readership. You know, I’m happy to have put a few hundred of these little books into the world, but I’ve invested a lot of time and energy into becoming a better writer, earning the privilege of being able to read to people. Most writers right out of the gate don’t have that.

Read the full interview here.

Jim Kesey (now 70 years old), cousin to author Ken Kesey, talks about the author’s life as Pentacle Theatre in Salem, Oregon opens the stage production of “Cuckoo’s Nest.”

Gary Sullivan is selling original art he’s done for the “New Life” series of poetry comics which have appeared in Rain Taxi from 1997-present. Comics versions of poetry by K. Silem Mohammad, Rod Smith, Katie Degentesh, Tao Lin, Flarf Basquiat/Kevin Young, and more to come.

From Creative Nonfiction Magazine:

For a new book project to be published by Southern Methodist University Press, entitled “Immortality,” we’re seeking new essays from a variety of perspectives on recent scientific developments and the likelihood, merits and ramifications of biological immortality. We’re looking for essays by writers, physicians, scientists, philosophers, clergy–anyone with an imagination, a vision of the future, and a dream (or fear) of living forever.

Essays must be vivid and dramatic; they should combine a strong and compelling narrative with a significant element of research or information, and reach for some universal or deeper meaning in personal experiences. We’re looking for well-written prose, rich with detail and a distinctive voice.

For examples, see Creative Nonfiction #38 (Spring 2010).

Guidelines: Essays must be: unpublished, 5,000 words or less, postmarked by August 6, 2010, and clearly marked “Immortality” on both the essay and the outside of the envelope. Please send manuscript, accompanied by a cover letter with complete contact information (address, phone, and email) and SASE to:

Creative Nonfiction
Attn: Immortality
5501 Walnut Street, Suite 202
Pittsburgh, PA 15232