The short story collection Ngoi Nha Xua Ben Suoi (The Old House by the Stream), by Tay ethnic writer Cao Duy Son has been nominated for the Southeast Asian Writers Award for Viet Nam this year. Here Son talks about the book as well as his writing career.
“The next generation of online education could be great for students — and catastrophic for universities.” Story by Kevin Carey on Washington Monthly.
It’s nice to see a publication find their way back after one of those short breaks that often become permanent. Red Line Blues, a theme-based journal from Brooklyn, NY and Asheville, NC is back from their hiatus.
From the Red Line Blues Crew (Moriah Norris-Hale, Erich Nagler, and Benjamin Yanes): “We’ve been on hiatus for the past few months (ok, perhaps a year) renovating barns, traveling to Finland and back, and weathering the ole recesh’. We’re stoked to be back in the saddle and hope you’ll join us for issue #7.”
The upcoming theme for the issue is “Lean Times”: “Now that a full year’s limped by since Lehman went belly up, we’re marking the era with the theme ‘Lean Times.’ We’re casting the net for prose, poetry, photos, prints, drawings, and songs that illuminate our recent [in]securities, and tell the tales of staying afloat in the downturn. All submissions are due by Halloween, 2009 (Saturday, October 31st).”
See their website for further details.
The English Department of Willamette University invites applications for the tenure-track Hallie Brown Ford Chair in Writing. Review begins November 9. Online Application Form
The University of Nevada, Reno Department of English announces an entry-level, tenure-track position in creative writing, with a specialization in poetry. Oct 29
Penn State York invites applications for an Assistant Professor of English (tenure-track, 36 weeks). Dr. Joseph McCormick, Director of Academic Affairs. Review begins November 10.
University of San Diego Assistant Professor of English in Creative Writing, specializaiton: fiction writing. Sr. Mary Hotz, Chair, Creative Writing Search Committee, Department of English. Nov 1
Miami University (Oxford, OH) Assistant Professor in British poetry of the Romantic period. J. Kerry Powell, Chair, Department of English. Screening begins immediately until Oct. 31.
For appointment beginning in the fall of 2010, The George Washington University seeks a writer of creative non-fiction to teach two semesters at as the Jenny McKean Moore Writer-in-Washington. Nov 1
Cleveland State University Assistant Professor – Creative Writing (Fiction). David Larson, English Department. Nov 2
The Amherst College Department of English invites applications for a tenure-track assistant professor (beginning or advanced) specializing in medieval literature, in particular, medieval poetry taught in the original language. Nov 1
The Amherst College Creative Writing Program invites applications from fiction writers for the position of Visiting Writer, to begin July 2010. Nov 15
Educational Center for the Arts, CT. Writer in Residence in fiction and/or poetry sought to teach in New Haven, part-time, on Mon and Tues afternoons from 1-4:00 in the Creative Writing Dept. in a high school for the arts for gifted students. Compensation includes five hours prep time and five hours teaching time. Students are highly motivated and graduate to pursue further study at NYU, Barnard, Columbia, Wesleyan, Sarah Lawrence, etc. Please email crosenstone_at_snet_dot_net immediately if interested.
Narrativehas announced the winners of their 2009 Poetry Prize contest:
First Prize: Alice Jones, “Spell”
Second Prize: Anne Marie Rooney, “After It”
Third Prize: Tom
While we are sorrow to hear of bookstores closing, it’s great news to hear of a new one opening. The Open Book co-operative has signed a one-year lease to take over a former Harry Schwartz bookstore space on Oakland Avenue in Shorewood, WI. A spokesperson for Open Book says “we’re about halfway there” in raising the money needed to actually open a store. They have raised about $50,000, and are hoping supporters will come forward and donate and/or purchase memberships to help raise the remainder.
From the Volcano Press website, Adam Gottstein, Publisher and Ruth Gottstein, Publisher Emerita:
Volcano Press has been publishing books on domestic violence and women’s health for forty years.
Forty years ago, the domestic violence movement consisted of a handful of grass-roots shelters, struggling to survive.
And yet the struggle to end domestic violence is still a movement. Although today there is the federally funded Violence Against Women Act (authored by Senator Joe Biden), and many dedicated community agencies, activists, counselors, attorneys, law enforcement, and caring families and friends, there is still a long way to go.
We are living in a time of violence. “33 MILLION is the number of U.S. adults–representing 15% of the population–who say they have been victims of domestic violence.” (Source: Harris Poll)
If we can develop tools and understanding to effectively stop intimate violence, perhaps we can develop tools and understanding to end all violence in our time.
Towards this goal, we continue to pledge our allegiance. We hope that the Volcano Press books you see listed here will be of assistance. You will note that we are now making available some fine books and pamphlets from other publishers, and plan to add more as we learn about them.
And so it begins…
All Free Library of Philadelphia Branch, Regional and Central Libraries Closed
“We deeply regret to inform you that without the necessary budgetary legislation by the State Legislature in Harrisburg, the City of Philadelphia will not have the funds to operate our neighborhood branch libraries, regional libraries, or the Parkway Central Library after October 2, 2009.”
The six finalists for the Man Booker Prize have been named. A winner will be named in October.
A S Byatt, The Children’s Book (Chatto and Windus)
J M Coetzee, Summertime (Harvill Secker)
Adam Foulds, The Quickening Maze (Jonathan Cape)
Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall (Fourth Estate)
Simon Mawer, The Glass Room (Little Brown UK)
Sarah Waters, The Little Stranger (Virago)
Remember Mimi Bobeck from The Drew Carey Show? If not, just as well – the character was one that bordered on freakishly scary. Actress Kathy Kinney is still in character, but these days as a slightly more subdued Mrs. P (actually a bit like Mrs. Doubtfire). Mrs. P is an educational book and reading website for kids. It’s really quite well done, with video, audio, games, funny stories told by Kinney and lots of good books read by her as well. The site is interactive and offers a lot of options to encourage regular visits, as well as provides adult supervision commentary (such as never giving out your name, phone, address on the web) and parent/guardian information.
Also involved in this endeavor are Clay Graham, head writer and Executive Producer of “The Drew Carey Show” for seven years, and Dana Plautz, former worldwide marketing executive for Hanna-Barbera.
Mrs. P is currently running a “Be-a-Famous-Writer Contest” for kids ages 4-8 and 9-13. There is no entry fee for this, and judges include Dave Barry, Andre Bormanis, Craig Ferguson, and Diana Leszczynski. Winners will have their stories illustrated and produced for the Mrs. P website; other prizes include gift certificates to Powell’s Books, a sponsor of the contest.
Martin Scorcese will direct the pilot of a new 2010 HBO series Boardwalk Empire based on the novel by Nelson Johnson. Aside from Mad Men, I don’t watch series television, but I’m going to have to give this one a try: “The series stars Steve Buscemi as Nucky Thompson, a Prohibition-era bootlegger and prominent figure in the Atlantic City of the early 1920s, someone who’s described as “equal parts politician and gangster.” Kelly Macdonald (“No Country for Old Men”), Michael Pitt (“The Village”), Michael Kenneth Williams (“The Wire”), Michael Shannon (“Revolutionary Road”) and Dabney Coleman also star.”
The newest issue of American Short Fiction (Fall 2009) includes the first- and second-place winners of their inaugural American Short(er) Fiction Prize:
First Place: Mary Kay Zuravleff “The Things They Paid For”
Second Place: Kaitlyn Greenidge “The Innocent”
The Summer 2009 issue of College Literature is another of their “General Issues” which includes a wide range of articles helpful for both college and university teachers. This issue includes the essays “‘Bodied Forth in Words’: Sylvia Plath’s Ecopoetics” (Scott Knickerbocker), “The Orients of Gertrude Stein” (Josephine Nock-Hee Park), “The Postcolonial Orphan’s Autobiography: Authoring the Self in Jamaica Kincaid’s Mr. Potter and Calixthe Beyala’s La Petite fille du reverbere” (Julian Everett), “Speakers and Sleepers: Chang-rae Lee’s Native Speaker, Whitman, and the Performance of Americanness” (Christian Moraru), “Pride and Prestige: Jane Austen and the Professions” (Alice Drum), “‘Other and More Terrible Evils’: Anticapitalist Rhetoric in Harriet Wilson’s Our Nig and Proslavery Propaganda” (David Dowling), “Shakespeare, Faulkner, and the Expression of the Tragic” (Duncan McColl Chesney), “‘Energetic Space’: The Experience of Literature and Learning” (Maria Takolander), “Prepreprofessionalism: Rankings, Rewards, and the Graduate Admissions Process” (Craig T. Fehrman). Also included are review essays and book reviews – a usefully packed professional quarterly journal.
Here’s a simple fundraiser for your school groups, organizations, etc. – sell coffee! Higher Grounds is a great organization that does good work (organic, fair trade, sustainable, environmental), and wants to help others do the same. You can get the coffee wholesale from them and distribute it at your own price, keeping the difference for your fundraising. Not only is it simple, it’s delicious coffee to boot!
The 46 Essential Rock Reads on LA Time Jacket Copy.
New South Spring/Summer 2009 includes the winners of their 2009 writing contest:
Poetry winners, judged by Chelsea Rathburn: Sarah Blackman, “Coriolis” and Maya Jewell Zeller, “Monroe Street: Route 24”
Fiction winners, judged by John Weir: Megan Mayhew Bergman, “The Cow That Milked Herself” and Liza Wieland, “Quickening”
Also a nod to Cara Blue Adams, former NewPages review writer, for publication of her stories “After I Slept With You But Before I Was Your Girlfriend” and “How to Marry Well” in this same issue.
From the Boston.com:
“Cushing Academy has all the hallmarks of a New England prep school, with one exception. This year, after having amassed a collection of more than 20,000 books, officials at the pristine campus about 90 minutes west of Boston have decided the 144-year-old school no longer needs a traditional library. The academy’s administrators have decided to discard all their books and have given away half of what stocked their sprawling stacks – the classics, novels, poetry, biographies, tomes on every subject from the humanities to the sciences. The future, they believe, is digital.”
[Read the rest here.]
Tim Carmody takes a closer look at this “technology bump” – which he had tweeted as “not about technology or pedagogy but remodeling – and only accidentally the other things.” His commentary with reader feedback offers a much more in depth consideration of the effects of such decisions.
Dalkey Archive Press has launched an innovative fellowship program at the University of Illinois with the first six fellows: four in Applied Translation and two in Literary Publishing. The program is part of a series of innovative educational programs that the Press has been developing over the past two years, in cooperation with the University’s Center for Translation Studies.
Funded in part through foundations and the University of Illinois, Dalkey Archive’s fellowship program is designed to offer unique opportunities for young people to develop as translators, publishers, and literary advocates. The Applied Translation program was created in response to the need on a national and international level for providing practical experience to young literary translators. As part of the program, each fellow will translate a complete book to be published by Dalkey Archive Press by the end of their fellowship year.
The 2009 fellows in the Applied Translation are: Rhett Warren McNeil (USA), Ursula Meany Scott (Ireland), Jamie Richards (USA), Kerri Pierce (USA).
The Literary Publishing fellowship program is designed to offer young people an opportunity to gain experience in the publishing industry while working full-time at Dalkey Archive Press. The 2009-2010 fellows for Literary Publishing are: Stephen Sparks (USA) and Shir Alon (Israel).
For more information on Dalkey Archive’s fellowships programs, contact Martin Riker: riker_atdalkeyarchive_dot_com
The fall issue of Beloit Poetry Journal includes two beautiful entries (both available full text online) in remembrance and honor of Marion Kingston Stocking (June 4, 1922-May 12, 2009), former editor and guardian angel of the publication.
The first piece, which is available in full-text on the BPJ website, is “Letter to Herself at Twenty-Eight: Diary Excerpts, New Year’s Eve, 1940.” Marion recounts how “the world is in a pretty awful mess…America is arming at top speed. A draft has been ordered, & every week more men are poured into the Army. I hope you are living in a world at peace, with no race our country prejudice.” Her words carry an amazing sense of hope for her world and encouragement for her place in it: “You were born to stand on hilltops with the wind blowing stars through your hair. Never forget it.” It is all incredibly heartfelt, thoughtful, and just downright sweet.
The second piece is a collective editor’s note from John Rosenwald and Lee Sharkey – and perhaps a few others who had a hand in it as well. It’s a beautifully renedered history of Marion’s work with BPJ, the influences she and her husband David had on the publication and the people who were a part of it, and the influence and traditions of hers that still remain with BPJ. Thank you John and Lee for this.
Many others contributed tributes to Marion, a sampling for which BPJ has created a page here.
“A recent study from Cleantech finds that e-readers could have a major impact on improving the sustainability and environmental impact on the publishing industry, one of the world’s most polluting sectors. In 2008, the U.S. book and newspaper industries combined resulted in the harvesting of 125 million trees, not to mention wastewater that was produced or its massive carbon footprint.”
Nothing against poetry, but the newest issue of Alaska Quarterly Review (Fall & Winter 2009) is an all-prose issue – with fiction and nonfiction only. The full table of contents is available on their website.
Edited by screenwriter and poet Alveraz Ricardez, Lung is an “independent peddler of unique voices in contemporary poetry.” Lung is available free online using Issuu, and is currently accepting submissions for its second publication until October 5th.
The first issue of Lung features writers whose works met the submission criteria of ‘invoking emotion but avoiding the trappings of mediocrity’ of being ‘fresh, innovative voices that have something original to say,’ and moreover being ‘unique’ and ‘jumping off the page’: Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz, Cyril Wong, Olivia Tandon, Gabriel Ramos-Rocchio, Sandy Benitez, Nina Romano, Christopher Mulrooney, Aleathia Drehmer , Rei Thompson, J. Bradley, M.J. Hamada, Christopher Woods, Nina Ki, J. Michael Wahlgren, Janann Dawkins, Steve Meador, Derek Richards, David McIntire, and Alex Galper.
An Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Conference Hosted by The Program in Literature
Duke University
November 20 & 21, 2009
NEW DEADLINE: September 15, 2009
UPDATE: Travel support is now available for some presenters due to generous support from the Duke University Center for International Studies, with priority for international speakers.
Keynote Speaker: Stanley Aronowitz (CUNY), author of How Class Works and Just Around The Corner: The Paradox of a Jobless Recovery
Around 5:00 AM on Nov. 28—the day after Thanksgiving—a Wal-Mart employee was trampled to death by shoppers eager to participate in the store’s annual “Black Friday” sales blitz. On Dec. 1, after three months of violent upheaval in the banking sector, the National Bureau of Economic Research announced that the U.S. had been in economic recession for almost a year. On Dec. 5, a group of mostly Hispanic workers staged a sit-in at Republic Windows and Doors after being laid off from the Chicago-based factory with only three days’ notice. Throughout mid-December 2008, critics lauded the “tightness” and “economy” of Kelly Reichardt’s Wendy and Lucy, an 80-minute long independent film featuring a young woman, a dog, the Pacific Northwest, and not much else. Meanwhile, the country of Iceland—designated a terrorist state by Britain in an effort to freeze some of its assets—has declared bankruptcy. Widespread economic and institutional breakdown has resulted in a new wave of urban radicalism spreading across Greece, France, Italy, Spain, and the U.K. In China, mass deprivation and joblessness riots have escalated as authorities struggle to prop up a falling GDP. Despite unprecedented bailout and stimulus spending by the Bush and Obama administrations, the U.S. stock market has receded to levels last seen in 1997, with the unemployment rate crossing 10% in some states.
This conference invites graduate students from humanities and social science disciplines to think about how the idea and experience of recession—a sustained national or global-economic downturn that makes itself visible through declines in industrial production, employment, sales, and income—frames the cultural life and livelihood of affected communities, places, and governing bodies. This shift in communal and political makeup opens space for discussion about the impact of recession on cultural forms. What sort of cultural phenomena—artistic, political, or otherwise—find expression during times of recession? Are there features of recession that seem to transcend history or geography? Are certain socioeconomic climates more or less poised to give birth to recession—and what sort of political positionalities or modes of thought find themselves competing to “solve” recessive crises? How does recession change the parameters of social and political institutions? Within the governing structure, how do power dynamics shuffle as blame is distributed between institutions and people? How might the idea of recession compare to related concepts like depression, inflation, deflation, unemployment, crisis, or overproduction? Can we identify specific literary or artistic forms, motifs, and icons that emerge during times of recession?
Possible panel or paper topics
• Recession and cultures of work
• Recession and the global economy
• Recession and the language of loss, failure, or decline
• Recession and establishment discourse
• Recession, labor struggle, and “class warfare”
• Recession and the banking-sector bailout
• Recession and debt
• Recession and the politics of greed or waste
• Recession, crisis theory, and the logic of capital
• Recession and radical political resurgences
• Recession and nostalgia
• Recession and consumer culture
• Historical recessions: the post-war ‘40s, the 1970s, Japan’s Lost Decade, etc.
• Recession in an age of Facebook, blogs, and “instant” information
• Recession and cultural production
• Recession and the politics of religion
• Recession and the politics of race, gender, and/or sexuality
• Recession and environmental/energy crises
• Recession and the university
Please send a 250-500 word abstract to culturesofrecession_at_gmail_dot_com by September 15, 2009.
ORGANIZERS
Sara Appel
Gerry Canavan
Alex Greenberg
Lisa Klarr
Ryan Vu
Glimmer Train has just selected the 50 winning entries for their first Best Start competition. Each wins $50 and makes Glimmer Train’s Best Start list. This competition is held quarterly and is open only to writers whose fiction has not appeared in a print publication with a circulation over 3000. Each submission should be an engaging, coherent narrative, but does not need to be a complete story, just an important part of a story in progress. Word count: under 1000. Their next Best Start competition will take place in September.
Glimmer Train has also chosen the winning stories for their June Fiction Open competition. This competition is held quarterly and is open to all writers for stories with a word count range between 2000-20,000. No theme restrictions. Their monthly submission calendar may be viewed here.
First place: Ingrid Hill (pictured) of Iowa City, IA, wins $2000 for “Pavilion.” Her story will be published in the Fall 2010 issue of Glimmer Train Stories, out in August 2010.
Second place: Adam Theron-Lee Rensch of Bronxville, NY, wins $1000 for “A Day in the Life.” His story will also be published in an upcoming issue of Glimmer Train Stories.
Third place: Sam Ruddick of Brighton, MA, wins $600 for “Flight.”
A PDF of the Top 25 winners can be found here.
Glimmer Train as the following upcoming contest deadlines:
August Short Story Award for New Writers: August 31
This competition is held quarterly and is open to writers whose fiction has not appeared in a print publication with a circulation over 5000. No theme restrictions. Word count range: 500-12,000.
A recent note from Rhett Rhett Iseman Trull, Editor of Cave Wall, journal of poetry, is a good reminder of the importance of subscribing to literary magazines as a way to get great reading material in your hands, but also to help support these endeavors. It’s a tough time for us all, but collectively, subscriptions really can make a difference in helping mags through the year.
If you don’t already, take the step and subscribe to a couple. If you don’t “need” or want any more lit mags, then get a subscription for a friend, for your local library, elder care home, domestive violence shelter, juvie detention center, runaway home, high school creative writing class, prison, alternative high school, church – be creative! There are lots of organizations and groups that would probably really appreciate having good reading.
Even better – teachers! – get your students to subscribe as required reading – either to one specific journal for the whole class, or let them browse the NewPages list and pick one of their own choice. There are many creative ways to work with these in the classroom. Ordering a set of backcopies is also a quick and easy way to get the whole class on the same page. I’ve always had good luck with our bookstore ordering from small lit mags, and sometimes have ordered them myself and collected the money from my students. Do what you can to get students reading and keep these great publications going!
From Rhett: “There has never been a better time to subscribe to Cave Wall than this month, during our September 2009 Back Issue Sale, where current and new subscribers can purchase back issues 1-5 for just $4 each. If you have been wanting to subscribe, or if your subscription has lapsed and you missed a few issues, now is a great time to act. Also, with the holidays approaching, what better gift for a poetry lover than a complete set of Cave Wall back issues? In these difficult economic times, Cave Wall appreciates your support more than ever.”
NewPages Guides to Writing and Book Contest are continually updated so check those pages often.
Added to the NewPages Guide to Literary Magazines
The Chariton Review
Xavier Review
Yale Anglers’ Journal
Talking River
The Southern Quarterly
Boiling River
Added to the NewPages Guide to Conferences, Seminars, Workshops
Sewanee Young Writers’ Conference – For high school students (Sewanee, TN)
Writing for Stage & Screen – Vermont College
Writing Away Retreats – Breckinridge, CO
Missouri Writers Guild Conference
Roanoke Review
Kenyon Review Young Writers’ Workshop (Gambier, OH)
The Graceful Envelope Contest is sponsored by the National Association of Letter Carriers and administered by the Washington Calligraphers Guild.
This year’s theme was Address the Environment. Entrants were urged to design an envelope that promotes the preservation of our natural world and address it artistically. A trio of judges looked for skill in lettering, effective use of color and design, and creative interpretation of the theme.
This year, close to 150 entries were received; 12 were selected as “Winners” and 18 were given the distinction “Honorable Mention” in the contest’s adult division. The judges also selected student winners from 250 entries in the junior and children’s divisions.
Visit the website to see all of the winning entries from this year as well as an archive of winners from years past.
[Pictured: Best in Show winning entry by Gerry Jackson Kerdok]
Having been to this historic home, I can say with certainty that this is an idyllic location for a residency.
Carl Sandburg Writing Residency
Mrs. Paula Sandburg first generated the idea of a writer-in-resident at Connemara when her family’s North Carolina home became a unit of the National Park Service shortly after her husband’s death in 1968. Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site is pleased to host its first Writer-in-Residence Program in March 2010.
This program offers poets an opportunity to live and work at Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site. The three-week residency is scheduled for March 2010. Housing is offered in an historic cottage near the Sandburg Home, with a studio and stipend provided.
As part of the program, writers will be required to do two public programs, the first a short fifteen-minute presentation describing their work during a welcome reception. The second will be an outreach program to an audience of the writer’s choice. Writers must also donate one original piece of their work to the park’s permanent museum collection, copyrights will remain with the writer.
The deadline for submissions is October 15,2009. Selection for the 2010 residency will be announced during the second week of December 2009.
This program is made possible through support from the Friends of Carl Sandburg at Connemara.
The Black Market Review (annual) is edited exclusively by Creative Writing undergraduate and postgraduate students at Edge Hill University. BMR publishes poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction, translations, art/photography, reviews and interviews.
This first issue is an enormous effort – with nearly two dozen staff members working on the variety of content. It is dedicated to Lisa Ratcliffe, who was a student at EHU and who it appears passed away in February from some type of cancer. Robert Sheppard writes a piece in tribute to her, and the issue itself includes a fiction piece written by Lisa, “Las Cartas.” There’s also a link to her blog, which is tough but touching read of her final weeks.
BMR also features the following authors and artists: Robert Sheppard, James Reidel, Kimberly Johnson, Rupert Loydell, Nicholas Samaras, Galvin Selerie, C. E. Chaffin, Carol Parris Krauss, David Toms, Donal Mahoney, Felicia Zamora, Ginna Wilkerson, Rodrigo V. Dela Pe
“This time, the principal at St. Edmund Campion Secondary School has pulled the classic American novel To Kill a Mockingbird from the school’s Grade 10 classrooms. He made the decision after a parent lodged a verbal complaint about language used in Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.”
Of course, reader’s circles, certainly not a new idea, is one way to respond to selecting texts for students: let students each choose their own books. I think that might make some people’s(aka parents and adminstrators) heads explode…
Sunsets and Silencers publishes short fiction, flash fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, essays, paintings, photography, and comic strips as a platform for emerging and established artists to showcase their work. The online journal is a subsidary of Nexus print, a biannual literary, cultural, and art magazine published by NexusCreative, a non-profit public benefit organization interested in opening new and exciting channels for creative expression.
Behind the scenes at Sunsets and Silencers are Founder and Editor Chuckie Campbell, Poetry and Fiction Editors Sarah McCartt Jackson and Bryan Jackson, and “Readers and Contributers,” though plural, lists only Sam Meyer, so maybe there’s room for more here.
This first issue includes contirbutions of fiction, poetry, and various forms of art by Beth Couture, Pete Pazimo, Russell Helms, Peter Scwartz, Christian Ward, Stephen Mead, Christopher Woods, Patrick O’Neil, Ben Nardolilli, Melanie Griffith, Bobi Conn, Jessica McEuen, and Adam Shaw.
Sunsets and Silencers is accepting submissions, and indicates that “On promising work, we may offer feedback, even if the piece didn’t work for us. Please, keep in mind, however, that we do not respond to every piece, mostly because of the volume of submissions received. We want to provide exposure to artists and writers who create out of a restless fever, and who are fearless in their choice to submit.”
Narrative Spring Story Contest winners and finalists:
First Prize: Anthony Marra
Second Prize: Jane Delury
Third Prize: Paul Griner
Finalists: Alethea Black, Evan Christopher Burton, Vicky Grut, Jeff O’Keefe, Denise Morrissey, Jay Neugeboren, Mohan Sikka, Debra Spark, Jackie Thomas-Kennedy, Jill Widner
Narrative offers the following upcoming contests for writers:
The Fall 2009 Story Contest, with a First Prize of $3,250, a Second Prize of $1,500, a Third Prize of $750, and ten finalists receiving $100 each, is open to fiction and nonfiction entries from all writers. Deadline: November 30, 2009
The Narrative 30 Below Story Contest, with a First Prize of $1,500, a Second Prize of $750, a Third Prize of $300, and ten finalists receiving $100 each, is open to all artists and authors, ages eighteen to thirty. Deadline: October 29, 2009
Squid Quarterly is an online journal of short fiction and prose poetry founded by Beth Couture and Jeff Tucker, both writers at the Center for Writers at the University of Southern Mississippi.
This first issue includes works by Kristen Eliason, Andrew Farkas, Rachel Furey, Darin Graber, Sarah Jenkins, Jen Marquardt, Tim Marsh, Michelle Nichols, Lance Olsen, Melanie Page, Leigh Phillips, Matthew Purdy, and Wendy Vardaman.
SQ is currently accepting submissions for their second issue. SQ nominates for the Pushcart Prize and plans to publish a print anthology of select works at the end of the year.
Eastern Illinois University has a tenure-track position in Creative Writing to start Fall 2010. Dr. Dana Ringuette, English Department. Nov 6
The English Department of Willamette University invites applications for the tenure-track Hallie Brown Ford Chair in Writing. REview begins Nov 9.
The Department of English at CUNY’s Brooklyn College Assistant or Associate Professor of Poetry. Review begins Oct 21.
The American University of Sharjah, UAE seeks candidates for a Department Head for the Department of English as well as Department Head for the Department of Mass Communication for Spring 2010.
Shippensburg University Assistant Professor of Creative Writing—Fiction, tenure-track. Richard Zumkhawala-Cook, Chair. Review begins Nov 2.
Brooklyn College Assistant or Associate Professor of Poetry. Michael T. Hewitt, AVP for Human Resource Services. Review begins Oct 21.
George Mason University, tenure-track assistant professor of creative writing, poetry. William Miller, Chair/Search Committee. Review begins Oct 1.
Aspen Book Store in Little Nell will close September 8 for what owner John S. Edwards says are a variety of reasons, including his desire to spend more time reading after 20 years of bookselling. Happy reading John!
This article on the Decatur Book Festival (Sept 4-6) includes some great comments from poet Thomas Lux – worth reading the whole piece – but here’s a couple clips:
Lux thoroughly appreciates poems with humor. “Why shouldn’t poetry be funny? Life is funny. I don’t like the kind of turd-in-a-punchbowl professor who says ‘Poetry can never be funny! It has to be serious!'”
…Lux’s classrooms take an approach that offers an easier gateway for students and adult readers alike. “I’ve always done something Billy Collins described as ‘teaching backwards.’ You start by having [the students] read the very contemporary poems, the stuff in the language of today, even hip-hop lyrics, then go backward to the classics. For several generations, our students’ introduction to poetry was through great poets, essential poets, who nevertheless didn’t speak in the language that we speak today.”
A couple former NewPages Review Writers who just keep keeping on in their literary endeavors:
Dan Moreau has a story, “Submission Guidelines” in the new issue of Swink.
Aaron Gilbreath has a “short thing” – also known as “Try Mailing This to Alpha Centauri” in Front Porch Journal.
Author Lindsay Patterson, who wrote several books, anthologized the poems, plays and films of Afro-American artists and taught at a wide range of major colleges and universities (including Hunter and Queens in New York), died Wednesday, August 26 after a six-month battle with cancer. Born in Bastrop, Morehouse Parish, Louisiana, on July 22, 1934, Lindsay was the son of Dr. James and Adele Patterson. He graduated from high school in Winston-Salem, N.C. and received his B.A. in English from Virginia State University before serving in the US Army, where he was a reporter for Stars and Stripes. He is survived by his brother and sister-in-law, James and Mildred Patterson, Jr. of Kernersville, N.C. and his nephews, James III and Roger Lindsay (who was named for his uncle).
He arrived in New York in 1962 to be a writer. And he was indeed a major writer. In his four decades in New York, he was a regular contributor to the New York Times, as well as its book review, Essence Magazine, Newsday, Playbill, ANPI and dozens of other newspapers, magazine and wire services. He hosted an interview program on WRVR-FM and on WPIX-TV for several years, interviewing the major movers, shakers and artists within the black and white theatre and cultural worlds, leading to long-term friendships with Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee and many others. His papers were assembled to form The Lindsay Patterson Collection in Boston University’s Howard Gottlieb Archival Research Center.
According to Lindsay’s friend, fellow writer Pearl Duncan, he was obsessed with American literature. As he lay in the hospital, post-op, Ms. Duncan read to him from Hemingway’s “A Moveable Feast.” “Before I could read the words, Lindsay was reciting them. He knew that book by heart.”
James Patterson described his younger (by ten months) brother as a voracious reader. “He just loved to read. Lindsay also always had an inquisitive mind; he just wanted to know how things worked.” James added, “Several years ago, Lindsay embarked on an investigation into the family ancestry, devoting hours and hours in researching our background.”
Lindsay’s sister-in-law, Mildred Patterson, stressed that Lindsay was an extremely talented person. Very caring, she said. But also very private with a passion for writing and the arts.
His books include:
A Rock against the Wind; African-American Poems and Letters of Love and Passion, edited by Lindsay Patterson with a forward by Ruby Dee
Black Theater, A 20th Century Collection of the Works of Its Best Playwrights, compiled with an introduction by Lindsay Patterson
Anthology of the Afro-American in the Theater
The Afro-American in Music and Art
Introduction to Black Literature in America
T-Baby (unfinished novel, excerpted in Essence Magazine)
Lindsay had been an assistant professor of English (ret) at Queens College; adjunct professor of Afro-American & Caribbean Literature at Hunter and also taught at The College of New Rochelle and The Frederick Douglass Creative Arts Center. Early in his career, he worked as assistant to Langston Hughes and to Mrs. Countee Cullen. He also guest lectured at Columbia, Kent State, Iowa University, Penn State, University of Connecticut, Medgar Evers College, Clark University, 100 Black Women, among many more.
Among the publications for which Lindsay wrote are:
The Black World Today
Kente Cloth/North Texas Press
Upscale Magazine
Shooting Star
Newsday
Playbill
Theater Week
New York City Tribune
Players Magazine
Modern Black Man
Schomburg Center
Essence
New York Times / (regular contributor) plus Book Review; op-ed page My Father, Dr. Pat
Writers Yearbook
ANPI
[From neighbor/friend Ellen Levene.]
The final episode of Reading Rainbow aired today. With no further support from PBS or any other sources (some faulting Bush administration decisions), the show will not go on.
NetPoetic digital poetry portal is a new Electronic Literature/Digital Poetry portal founded by Jason Nelson and Davin Heckman. With over 30 writers, thinkers and artists, NetPoetic is a group conversation, updated near daily with posts, news, theory, artworks and all manner of E-Lit related material.
Currently on the site is feature about The Longest Poem in the World “composed by aggregating real-time public twitter updates and selecting those that rhyme. It is constantly growing at ~4000 verses / day. You can see more verses by clicking the three dots at the bottom (• • •) Made by Andrei Gheorghe.” And you can read more about the project on NetPoetic.
Those who want to “play” do need to send in a request, and once approved will receive a user name and password to log into the portal. Plans for later in the year include the first NetPoetic exhibition and a peer reviewed journal.
Littoral, the journal of the Key West Literary Seminar, has a new interview with Billy Collins. In it, the two-time U.S. Poet Laureate and “most popular poet in America” discusses his rivalries with poets from Emily Dickinson to Ron Padgett, explains why “transparency” has no place in poetry, and celebrates the pleasures of disorientation in the age of the GPS.
Boiling River is a new web-based poetry journal edited by Issa Lewis. The publication accepts “all types” of poetry and encourages its writers to “take risks with their writing.”
Lewis comments that this inaugural issue took a bit more time to bring to publication than she had expected, but it’s no wonder when you take a look at the first issue’s line up: Melissa Amen, Lana Hechtman Ayers, Lea Banks, Cynthia M. Bargar, Lisa Marie Brodsky, Courtney J. Campbell, SuZanne C. Cole, Lea Deschenes, Nancy Devine, Eddie Dowe, Roberta P. Feins, Michael Fisher, John Flynn, Maria D. Laso, Jackson Lassiter, Amy MacLennan , Thomas Michael McDade, Stephen Mead, Laura Miller, Anne Britting Oleson, Alicia Suskin Ostriker, Christina Pacosz, Jacqueline Powers, Michael Schmeltzer, J.R. Solonche, Aline Soules, Alex Stolis, Angela Velez.
Boiling River is currently open for submissions until September 1.
Know any shark lovers? The Aquarium of the Pacific (Long Beach, CA) held a poetry contest to salute the Aquarium’s Shark Summer. Aquarium members and guests were invited to participate; poets were asked to express their feelings about sharks and/or rays and to use no more than 200 words. All entries were judged by poets Will Alexander and Jeffrey Yang and Aquarium President and CEO Jerry Schubel and four winners were selected:
First Place – Ellaraine Lockie
Second Place – Anna Leahy
Third Place (tied) – Benjamin Morris and Donna Ashbaugh
All poems are available on the aquarium’s website.
Calls for Submissions updated (dated 8/25) – lots of quality publications, anthologies, and inaugural issues looking for fresh, new, writers and established voices.
Welcome these new additions to the NewPages Guides. Visit the NewPages homepage for links to all of our guides.
Contests updated regularly.
Literary Magazines
College Hill Review – essays in criticism of the arts and humanities, review essays, poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction
There Journal – poetry, art, essays, activism
Aethlon – poetry, fiction, nonfiction, drama, book reviews
Coe Review – poetry, fiction
Euphony – poetry, fiction, essays, reviews, nonfiction, drama
Of(f)course – poetry, fiction, essays, reviews, concerts, art
Poetry Miscellany – poetry, essay, translation, photography
out of nothing – image, sound, text, digital arts
Conferences, Workshops, Seminars
Milton Conference
Indie Record Labels
Fire Museum Records
Professor Lindhauer’s Museum Studies Books by Alyssa Salomon
Writer Beware blogger Victoria Strauss discusses the different definitions of “kill fees” in today’s world of publishing, and why she thinks they’re bad mojo.
Check out Contemporary Poetry Review’s interview with poet Rachel Hadas, which explores the role of poet-critics (“Inevitable task? Obligation?…I think I probably felt fairly early on that reviewing teaches you what you really think about a writer; that I had as much of a right to write about poetry as other young poets did…”) and the “health” of poetry as art (“This question seems to invite a kind of pontificating I’d rather avoid.” – ah, but she doesn’t).
The brutal truth about America’s healthcare
, a story from The Independent (UK) offers an outsider’s rhetoric on America’s current issues of health care and politics – a perspective more often read by Americans about other countries. (via Alan Sondheim)
A note from Scott Esposito from The Center for the Art of Translation announcing a new blog, Two Words:
We’re eager to make the blog a resource for people who love literature, especially the translated variety. Already there are a number of interesting articles up, and in the next few months we’ll be publishing interviews with authors and translators, original articles written just for Two Words, and news on international authors.
You’ll also find links to audio from our series of events in San Francisco. We’re working on making several years’ of audio available, and you can currently hear people like Edith Grossman, Robert Hass, and Yoko Tawada talk about literature and translation.
To give an idea of what to expect on Two Words, here are some recent posts:
Susan Bernofsky on translation
Jose Manuel Prieto on diamond forgery and his novel Rex
Yerra Sugarman on the Yiddish modernist poet Celia Dropkin and her ties to Sylvia Plath
