At the NewPages Blog readers and writers can catch up with their favorite literary and alternative magazines, independent and university presses, creative writing programs, and writing and literary events. Find new books, new issue announcements, contest winners, and so much more!
A new batch of literary magazines reviews has been posted, including reviews of Bartleby Snopes, Bellevue Literary Review, Bloodroot, Evergreen Review, Fifth Wednesday Journal, Gander Press Review, Gigantic Sequins, Hanging Loose, inscape, Iowa Review, Long Story, MAKE, make/shift, Malahat Review, The Meadow, Moon City Review, Paul Revere’s Horse, and Shenandoah
The International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP) has created a music library to provide music scores free of charge to anyone with internet access, with several other projects in planning. IMSLP is also entirely collaborative, and all contributions are greatly welcome.
BETHESDA, MD (Oct 14) — Poet Lore, the nation’s oldest continuously published poetry journal, marks its 120th anniversary this year.
At a time when many literary journals (and the publishing industry of which they are part) are struggling, Poet Lore, with its distinctive historic look, has remained true to its core value — bringing great poetry to light — and created a proven and lasting nationwide identity. E. Ethelbert Miller and Jody Bolz carefully read every submission they receive, and their work reaffirms the value of poetry in a landscape that often devalues the written word. “Poetry may not be regarded as culturally central,” Jody Bolz explains, “but it’s still what people turn to at the most important moments in their lives. At every life-cycle ritual—from naming ceremonies to funerals—the language of poetry speaks to us and speaks for us. As editors, our role is to connect poets and readers, building upon Poet Lore‘s 120-year-long record of literary discovery.”
That 120-year-long record is what Poet Lore and its publisher, The Writer’s Center, honor. It’s a rich and varied story, and as you’ll see below, the journal has played an active and important role in bringing literary talent to light.
Founded in 1889 by two brilliant, iconoclastic scholars, Helen Clarke and Charlotte Porter, as a journal “devoted to Shakespeare, Browning, and the Comparative Study of Literature,” Poet Lore developed an early following among literary societies and later expanded its influence by offering unique features, such as its “Play Series” — which in 1913 was the first to print a complete, English-language edition of Anton Chekhov’s play “The Seagull.” And Walt Whitman, in the final year of his life, ran three paid advertisements in Poet Lore for Leaves of Grass.
During the course of its illustrious history, Poet Lore has played an active role in introducing American readers to the likes of some of the finest international poets. In its early years, in fact, very few American authors were published in Poet Lore. For the majority of its content, Poet Lore set its sights abroad. Among the many authors who were discovered or whose careers on the international stage were advanced by Poet Lore include Maxim Gorky, Henrik Ibsen, Frederic Mistral, and August Strindberg. And it was among the first publications to introduce the work of Bengali poet and Nobel Prize winner Rabindranath Tagore to American readers. In the late 20th Century, Poet Lore published the early work of such remarkable American poets as Mary Oliver, Colette Inez, Cornelius Eady, Carl Phillips, Carolyn Forché, Sharon Olds, Dana Gioia, Pablo Medina, and Alice Fulton, among many others. In recent years, the editors were the first to publish the poetry of Dwayne Betts, who sent his submission from prison.
SURPRISING FACTS ABOUT POET LORE:
Founders Charlotte E. Porter and Helen A. Clarke were writers, editors, Shakespeare and Browning scholars, and literary critics at a time when women in these roles were few and far between. Porter composed poetry, Clarke wrote musical compositions, and both wrote essays and reviews that appeared in early editions of Poet Lore and elsewhere.
Porter and Clarke were both named “Helen” at birth. Charlotte later changed her name from Helen Charlotte Porter to Charlotte Endymion Porter, borrowing her middle name from the Keats poem. The two women exchanged rings in a commitment ceremony and lived together until Helen A. Clarke died at age 65. Charlotte Porter scattered Helen’s ashes by their summer home in Penobscot Bay, Maine.
Whitman advertised his finally completed Leaves of Grass in three 1892 editions of Poet Lore.
Poet Lore was famous in the early 20th century for translations, publishing, for example, an early edition of Chekhov’s “The Seagull” in its folios and presenting literary luminaries like Ibsen, Strindberg, Gorky, D’Annunzio, Mistral, and Tagore to readers early on.
The first piece of writing F. Scott Fitzgerald ever placed (outside of school publications) was the poem “The Way of Purgation.” He sold it to Poet Lore in September of 1917, but for reasons unknown to the current publishers, it didn’t appear in the next issue, or any subsequent. It was finally printed in our Winter 1989-1990 issue (Vol. 84, No. 4) with the note: “Poet Lore apologizes for any inconvenience this delay may have caused.”
Poet Lore’s executive editors read all submissions, without regard to the reputation of the poet, year-round. They meet in Washington, D.C., to read aloud their selections and winnow the stacks of poems.
About The Writer’s Center: Since 1987, Poet Lore has been published by The Writer’s Center in Bethesda, MD. The Writer’s Center cultivates the creation, publication, presentation, and dissemination of literary work. We are an independent literary organization with a global reach, rooted in a dynamic community of writers. As one of the premier centers of our kind in the country, we believe the craft of writing is open to people of all backgrounds and ages. Writing is interdisciplinary and unique among the arts for its ability to touch on all aspects of the human experience. It enriches our lives and open doors to knowledge and understanding. The Writer’s Center is a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization. We are supported in part by The Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, and by a grant from the Maryland State Arts Council, an agency funded by the State of Maryland and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Quinnipiac University (CT) invites applications for an Assistant Professor position beginning in Fall 2010. Applications must be received by February 28, 2010.
Kent State University (OH) tenure-track Assistant Professor position in poetry writing. January 15, 2010
Seton Hill University seeks published genre novelist (priority for popular mystery/crime/suspense writer; will also consider fantasy or romance author) for tenure-track position in our low-residency MFA program in Writing Popular Fiction, starting June 2010. February 3, 2010
The Pearl Hogrefe Creative Writing Fellowship offers a talented writer one academic year to study creative writing full time at Iowa State University and focus on his/her creative work without distraction. January 5, 2010
Bath Spa University seeks Lecturer/Senior Lecturer: Creative Writing and Lecturer/Senior Lecturer: Creative Writing (Nature Writing. Closing Date: 12 noon, 11 January 2010
Emerson College Department of Writing, Literature, and Publishing seeks a full-time, tenure-track Assistant Professor in the area of Creative Nonfiction writing. Review begins December 15 until filled.
Minnesota State Universit Mankato English/Creative Writing – Fiction, Assistant Professor. January 15, 2010. Additional information on Minnesota State University, Mankato can be found here.
Stephen F. Austin State University (Nacogdoches, TX) Faculty – Liberal Arts – English and Literature. Posted December 4, 2009 until filled.
For Better for Verse is “an interactive on-line tutorial that can train you to scan traditionally metered English poetry. Here you can get practice and instant feedback in one important way of analyzing, and developing an ear and a feel for, accentual-syllabic verse.”
What NewPages is listening to: Laura Veirs. As one YouTube user comments: “I am angry at the world that she isn’t extravagantly famous. This song is amazing.” (DrGrabow) Her range of style is what’s amazing, and her videos a fun venture into alt-indie media – more artistic than flashy.
The Pongo Teen Writing Project has just launched a new web site that features 34 online writing activities for youth who have led difficult lives. These activities are geared to teens who may never have written before. The activities may also be downloaded for use in the classroom, etc.
As examples of writing exercises, the web site has an activity “I Just Thought You Should Know,” which could be a letter to a missing parent, or “Letter After a Time,” which is a letter to someone important who died. There are activities called “You Don’t Know Me” and “Anger” and “Love, Sometimes” and “Addicted.”
When teens finish their poems online they have the option of printing and emailing their poems to themselves and their friends, and also of submitting their poems to Pongo. In addition, the site contains information for teachers, 100 teen poems, and a project journal.
This web site brings together some of Pongo’s best work from the last 15 years. Pongo’s writing program has served over 4,000 teens in juvenile detention, the state psychiatric hospital, homeless shelters, and other agencies.
Still: Literature of the Mountain South is an on-line literary journal featuring literature of the Southern Appalachian region with fiction editor – Silas House, poetry editor – Marianne Worthington, and nonfiction editor – Jason Howard.
Still is published three times a year, in October, February and June, with submissions accepted from December 1 – 31.
The first issue of Still features fiction by Mark Powell, Kathi Whitley, Tiffany and Williams, poetry by Steve Holt, Ron Houchin, Irene Latham, Lisa Parker, and Joshua Robbins, nonfiction by Donna McClanahan, Karen McElmurray, and Beth Newberry, an interview with Jack Wright (filmmaker, musician, writer, scholar, activist, veteran, and Appalachian “cultural worker” – Jack’s label for himself), and a video/audio of the song, “Who Owns Appalacia” performed by Sue Massek on banjo with vocals.
Rain Taxi: Review of Books, a nonprofit literary organization, is running their annual online fundraising auction this week. There are first editions, gorgeous broadsides, rare chapbooks, quirky used books, as well as original art, an article of clothing, a decorative bag, a crazy quilt, and more. Many items are SIGNED by the authors and/or artists. This is a great way to support a valued publication in the literary culture and get some cool stuff (think holiday gifts!). Bidding is conducted on eBay.
Lambda Rising, known for 35 years as Washington’s “bookstore that celebrates the gay and lesbian experience,” has announced the imminent closing of their two stores in Washington DC and Rehoboth Beach DE.
The Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry at Emory University is accepting applications for one Junior/Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Poetics for an academic year of study, teaching, and residence in the Center. The deadline for submissions of completed applications is February 18, 2010; awards will be announced in mid-April 2010.
Black Lawrence Press has announced Brad Ricca the winner for the 2009 St. Lawrence Book Award for his poetry manuscript American Mastodon. Ricca receives $1,000 and publication. American Mastodon will be available from Black Lawrence Press in late 2011.
In addition to naming the winner of the 2009 St. Lawrence Book Award, Black Lawrence Press editors have chosen Finalist Eric Gamalinda’s short story collection People Are Strange for publication from Black Lawrence Press in late 2011.
Semi-Finalists:
Sean Bernard
Seth Borgen
Valerie Finn
Amy Havel
Tyrone Jaeger
Marylee MacDonald
Marjorie Manwaring
Andrew McIntyre
Edward Mullany
Mike Schiavone
Ira Sukrungruang
Steven Tarlow
Finalists:
Joshua Butts
Carrie Conners
Tracy DeBrincat
Christine DeSimone
Sarah Wetzel Fishman
Jeremy Griffin
Tina May Hall
Karen Holman
Steve Kistulentz
Mary McCray
Jennifer Moses
Carrie Oeding
This magazine was founded in 1957 in print form and none other than Jean Paul Sartre and Samuel Beckett contributed to its pages. In the years to come, it continued to feature such luminaries as William Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Terry Southern, and Allen Ginsberg until the final issue in 1973. The Review was revived as an online edition in 1998. The present edition, issue number 120, has a pleasant mix of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, reviews, and several reprints from the past. Continue reading “Evergreen Review – October 2009”
“Defining literature. In real context.” is how Fifth Wednesday describes itself, making smart use of the multiple layers of meaning these terms evoke (I especially like “defining,” which works grammatical overtime). That said, I’m not sure what this actually does mean. What I do know, thanks to publisher Vern Miller’s Editor’s Notes, is that each issue is guest edited (fiction editor this issue is J.C. Hallman and poetry editor is Nina Corwin); in this fourth issue the journal has now added a section of book reviews; and the magazine feels “obligated” to bring readers some new voices in literature. Alongside these emerging voices, Issue 4 also includes a poem by the incredibly prolific and popular novelist and poet Marge Piercy and award-winning poet Arielle Greenberg. An interview with Greenberg opens the issue. Continue reading “Fifth Wednesday Journal – Spring 2009”
I recognized only two names in the Table of Contents, Nahid Rachlin and Simon Perchik. Yet, even a quick glance at the Contributors’ Notes lets me know that most of the 16 fiction writers, three nonfiction writers, and more than two-dozen poets whose work appears here have substantial publishing credits. Despite the popular notion that people don’t read and the literary world is suffering, languishing, or on the decline, there are so many journals of all kinds, and so many people writing and publishing, it is difficult to keep up with them all. Gander Press Review, published by Loosey Goosey Press in Bowling Green, Kentucky, is doing its part to keep small press publishing thriving. Continue reading “Gander Press Review – Spring/Summer 2009”
Editor-in-Chief Kimberly Ann Southwick kicks off her new mag with a warm welcome to potential contributors: Continue reading “Gigantic Sequins – 2009”
Hanging Loose always does a good job of mixing it up: a combination of established poets and newer voices, along with the fresh work of “writers of high school age.” The youthful poems are particularly appealing this issue, more mature in their insights than one has a right to expect from such young writers. Continue reading “Hanging Loose – 2009”
This edition of inscape finds loss of every sort within its pages. Each piece is different, naturally, but the element of emptiness seems to touch each poem, each story, in this journal. The first I’ll give a glimpse of is Brian Brown’s “History of Time”: Continue reading “Inscape – 2009”
In May and June of 2008, The Cedar River, after days of torrential rain, broke through its restraints, and the city of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was suddenly plunged into a flood, destroying the city and displacing most of its inhabitants. The memory of this event permeates the pages of this edition of the Iowa review, and the journal cannot be read without feeling the loss that these people, and these writers, felt. So deep was their loss, and their shock, that stories and poems about the river fill each and every page, with nostalgia, sadness and anger. All manner of emotion can be found within The Iowa Review’s pages. Continue reading “The Iowa Review – Fall 2009”
This journal is, not the least surprisingly, composed almost entirely by long, short stories. It was a joy to read, and it is my sincere hope that, at the end of this review, I will have convinced you to purchase a copy. Continue reading “The Long Story – 2009”
One appreciates a literary magazine with a central theme, and this is precisely what MAKE: A Chicago Literary Magazine delivers. It trains it sights on the underdogs of society, with stories and poem focused on character and a sense of place, depicting individuals who have been brushed aside or overlooked by society. Continue reading “MAKE – Summer/Fall 2009”
I didn’t even realize publications like make/shift still existed. What a relief! Reading this radical magazine-style (not journal, magazine!) publication made me nostalgic for Off Our Backs (maybe even for On Our Backs) and Lesbian Connections and the let’s-turn-the-world-upside-down rags I looked forward to every month in the 70’s and 80’s when women’s bookstores were (sometimes) dangerous and (always) exhilarating, and I could rely on feminist writing to inspire and sustain me. Continue reading “make/shift – Fall/Winter 2009/2010”
Despite much evidence to the contrary, or the apparent – or at least underestimated – challenges of doing so, it is possible to write an original and unforgettable speaker-meets-nature poem; or a speaker talks-to-poem poem; or a family story poem; or a poem with diction as casual as a nonchalant conversation; or a poem with images of popular culture; or yet one more poem about the mystery of math. It is possible to write an original and satisfying story from the perspective of a child or an adolescent that is also mature and inventive, not excessively playful or childish. It is possible to write a book review that exhibits intellectual sophistication without resorting to jargon. It is, in fact, possible to find all of these original and exceptional pieces in one place, writing by Susan Gillis, Jefferey Donaldson, Sam Cheuk, Rachel Rose, Eve Joseph, Ross Leckie, Eliza Robertson, Devon Code, Jackie Gay, Eric Miller – in The Malahat Review. Continue reading “The Malahat Review – Fall 2009”
The Meadow is an annual journal published by Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno, Nevada. Truckee Meadows students serve on the editorial board and represent the largest group of contributors to the magazine, although this issue’s contributors also include several MFA students from large universities and a few more seasoned writers. The centerpiece of the issue is an interview with novelist and memoirist Kim Barnes (A Country Called Home, Finding Caruso, In the Wilderness: Coming of Age in an Unknown Country, Hungry for the World), conducted by the journal’s fiction editor, Mark Maynard. They discuss the genesis of Barnes’s most recent novel, the importance of place in that book, her writing process, and her upcoming work. Continue reading “The Meadow – 2009”
For twenty years, Moon City Review was a student-run biannual journal published by the Missouri State University department of English. With the 2009 issue, the magazine transitions to a “book annual featuring work in various genres from multiple communities; from current students and faculty to celebrated alums and artists of regional, national, and even international reputation.” The new journal will include a section titled “Archival Treasures from the Ozarks,” which will “’bring back’ artists whose works lie languishing, and largely forgotten.” In their lengthy introduction announcing these changes, the editors invite submissions for future issues, which will focus on special themes, though not to the exclusion of other work, to include “speculative fictions,” an alumni issue, and the art and literature of children and adolescents. Continue reading “Moon City Review – 2009”
This literary journal presents eight stories a month to the reading public and then has viewers vote on their favorite. That story becomes the featured story of the month, to be included in a downloadable biannual collection produced in July and January. Two new stories are featured each week, encouraging frequent visitations to the website by interested readers. This is strictly a fiction website, and there is a range from microfiction up to 4000 words. Continue reading “Bartleby Snopes – November 2009”
For those of us fortunate to live in Massachusetts, the name Paul Revere nearly conjures magic, in the fairy-tale sense. Perhaps it was by design, then, that the publishers of this journal’s very first edition would use tales that evoke feelings of long-agos, and far, far-aways. Micaela Morrissette’s tale, “The Glowing Light in the Forest” is the perfect ambassador for Paul Revere’s Horse’s first foray, and the perfect example of magic conjured by pen. Truly, I can give but a hint or two of her ingenious story/poem. For example, “In the cool, damp, dark forest, a princess.” If this seems like a slight tease, then I’ll add one of Morrissette’s devilishly clever lists: “The forest. The princess. The well. The tower. The red rose. The frog. The ring. The dog. The tear. The servant. The key. The mirror. The witch. The disguise.” But that is all I will say. To give you, the reader, more would spoil the surprise that is Morrissette’s writing, and her utterly captivating tale. This imagining would be enough to recommend the journal; it’s that good, but Paul Revere’s Horse has so much more to offer. Continue reading “Paul Revere’s Horse – Spring 2009”
I admire Bellevue Literary Review for its consistency and the polish, confidence, and competence of its contents. Produced at NYU’s Langone Medical Center, with a focus on “illness, health, and healing,” it is easy to conceive of a journal that might compromise on or sacrifice literary quality in its quest to adequately represent these themes, yet Bellevue pays as much attention to composition as to subject matter. Featuring fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and book reviews, the journal presents the work of accomplished writers with impressive credentials from the world of medicine, literature, the social sciences, education, and the MFA poetry scene. Continue reading “Bellevue Literary Review – Fall 2009”
As usual there are great poems and stories in the latest issue of Shenandoah, though I must say that the two essays, Jeffrey Hammond’s engaging “My Father’s Hats, and a wrenching must-read by Shari Wagner, “Camels, Cowries & A Poem for Aisha,” about harrowing conditions in Somalia, are stand-outs. Set within the frame of a memoir, Jeffrey Hammond’s essay, “My Father’s Hats,” is an entertaining history of the hat, beginning with the snug pilos, the Greek name for a common, helmet-shaped cap made of felt. I sat at my computer as I read, Googling the names of hats as Hammond’s prose moved through the centuries. Continue reading “Shenandoah – Fall 2009”
This second edition of Bloodroot, “dedicated to publishing diverse voices through the adventure of poetry, short fiction and creative nonfiction,” features the work of 27 poets, five fiction writers, and one essayist. Poems tend to fall into one of three categories, personal narratives, nature scenes, or personal encounters with nature, with a few exceptions (including a few more metaphysically oriented pieces). David Strait’s “Christmas Day” is characteristic of the personal narrative. The poem begins: Continue reading “Bloodroot – 2009”
Added to NewPages Big List of Literary Magazines:
nthWORD – satires and allegories, articles on politics and pop-culture, fiction, poetry, visual art
Rust and Moth – poetry, photography, art
The Mom Egg – poetry, creative prose, short fiction
Eudaimonia Poetry Review
The Lyric Magazine
nthWORD satire, allegory, articles on politics and pop-culture, fiction, poetry, visual art
The Round
Mythium
moonset
The Poetry Porch
Porchlight
Beatdom
Fact-Simile
Write This
shady side review – fiction, non-fiction, poetry
Added to NewPages Independent Publishers & University Presses:
Added to NewPages Writing Conferences, Workshops, Retreats, Centers, Residencies & Book & Literary:Festivals
From Nicki Pombier Berger, Editor-in-Chief, Underwater New York:
The Underwater New York Shipwreck Story Contest: In conjunction with the American Folk Art Museum
Underwater New York is an online anthology of stories, art and music inspired by the underwater objects and phenomena that surround New York City.
Artists and storytellers have long drawn inspiration from our cityscape, but underneath the water’s surface is another landscape entirely. On the floors of New York City’s waterways, no fewer than one hundred and seventy shipwrecks languish. Although their exact locations must remain secret to thwart the efforts of amateur looters, we are asking you to dive in and mine the wreckage.
Draw your inspiration from our gallery of shipwreck images and tell a story—fiction, creative nonfiction or poetry—in 3000 words or less, that brings these ghost ships back to life.
As with our regular submissions, we are not asking for explanations, but rather the stories that these shipwrecks evoke. Be as creative as possible, but to qualify for the contest, your story must reference a shipwreck specifically in the NYC waterways.
Underwater New York presents the Shipwreck Story Contest in conjunction with the American Folk Art Museum’s exhibition, Thomas Chambers (1808-1869): American Maritime and Landscape Painter.
The winning story will be published in Underwater New York, and its author* will have the chance to read at Underwater New York Free Music Friday: Shipwreck Stories at the American Folk Art Museum on March 5, 2010.
• Submit contest entries online.
• The deadline for submissions is February 12, 2010.
• Contest winners will be announced on the Underwater New York website on February 23rd.
• Visit the site for more details, and to view the gallery of shipwreck images.
*Provided the author is located in, or can travel to, New York City
Narrative Magazine has announced the winners and finalists of the 30 Below Contest (all entrants are between the ages of 18-30):
First Prize: Montana Ray “The Blessing”
Second Prize: Greg Brown “Smokejumpers”
Third Prize: Christa Hillstrom “Depth of Field”
Finalists:
Carrie Braman
Ashley Kunsa
Kate Levin
Michael Mitnick
Golan Moskowitz
Richard Sonnenmoser
Diana Spechler
Jackie Thomas-Kennedy
Emily Van Kley
Sara Zandieh
Time to make your MFA program shine with this contest from Creative Nonfiction. Win a reading at the 2010 AWP Conference in Denver, publication in the summer 2010 issue of CNF, and bragging rights for your program!
Judge: Barbara Lounsberry, co-author (with Gay Talese) of Writing Creative Nonfiction: The Literature of Reality
Guidelines:
Contest is open to any student currently enrolled in an MFA creative writing program.
Submissions should be typed, double-spaced, no more than 3,000 words, and unpublished.
This is a blind read; your name should appear only in the cover letter, and each page of the manuscript should include the title of the piece.
No excerpts will be considered; your submission should be a single and complete piece.
Only one submission per author will be considered.
Please send submission and a cover letter with your name, university, complete contact information and title of the work to:
Creative Nonfiction Foundation
Attn: AWP Program-Off
5501 Walnut Street, Suite 202
Pittsburgh, PA 15232
experiment-o is an annual PDF magazine established in 2008. “Its aim is to bring attention to works that do what art is supposed to do and that is to risk.” The magazine is published by Amanda Earl of AngelHouse Press.
experiment-o will consider interviews, reviews, visual art, visual poetry, concrete poetry, poetry, prose, manifestos, maps, rants, blog entries, translations and other digital miscellany.
Issue Two (2009) features works by Jamie Bradley, Peter Cicariello, K. S. Ernst, Caroline Gomersall, John C. Goodman, Jeremy Hanson-Finger, Gil McElroy, Christine McNair, Sean Moreland, and Dominik Parisien.
Issue One (2008) features works by Gary Barwin, Emily Falvey, Spencer Gordon, Camille Martin, rob mclennan, Sheila E. Murphy, Pearl Pirie, Roland Prevost, Jenny Sampirisi, and Steve Venright.
The Ralph Waldo Emerson Society announces three awards for projects that foster appreciation for Emerson.
*Research Grant*
Provides up to $500 to support scholarly work on Emerson. Preference given to junior scholars and graduate students. Submit a 1-2-page project description by March 1, 2010.
*Pedagogy or Community Project Award*
Provides up to $500 to support projects designed to bring Emerson to a non-academic audience. Submit a 1-2-page project description by March 1, 2010.
*Subvention Award*
Provides up to $500 to support costs attending the publication of a scholarly book or article on Emerson and his circle. Submit a 1-2-page proposal, including an abstract of the forthcoming work and a description of publication expenses, by March 1, 2010.
Send Research, Pedagogy/Community, and Subvention proposals to:
Leslie Eckel
leckel(at)suffolk(dot)edu
and
Daniel Malachuk
ds-malachuk(at)wiu(dot)edu
From Arc Poetry Magazine: Write and submit an essay deconstructing a published poem by a Canadian poet. Arc will select a winning essay from each province for publication in their How Poems Work webzine. Arc will select a national winner whose essay will appear in their print magazine, and who will be commissioned to write two new essays for Arc’s How Poems Work webzine. (The winner will also be offered a mentorship opportunity with Arc’s Poet-in-Residence.) All winners receive a free one-year subscription to Arc.
Deadline: February 1, 2010
Winter Fellowship at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA. The postmark deadline for the 2010-11 Writing Fellowships is December 1, 2009. 2010-2011 Visual Arts Fellowship applicants may apply online beginning December 1, 2009. Online submissions must be received by midnight February 1, 2010.
The Reginald S. Tickner Writing Fellowship is an annual writer-in-residence position named in honor of Reginald Tickner, whose 41-year career at Gilman impacted thousands of Gilman students. Jan 8 deadline.
Philip Roth Residence in Creative Writing at The Stadler Center for Poetry, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA. Deadline Feb 20.
McSweeney’s is now offering a new subscription: A Year of New Shirts. They’ve asked six artists to each come up with a t-shirt idea, which is then printed and sold as both a subscription and as individual shirts. Currently, subscribers will start with Tucker Nichols’s “Hetch Hetchy”. Visit McSweeney’s website for more info.
Autocomplete Me is site devoted to submissions of “autocomplete” strands from Google searches. Autocomplete is explained on the site: “Remember that time you were innocently searching for ‘how to avoid swine flu’ but Google assumed you were searching for ‘how to avenge your brother’s death’? Yeah, that totally wasn’t what you were searching for, but it ended up being super helpful after your best friend ‘accidentally’ stabbed Michael.” There are text as well as screen capture submissions, so you can see better how this works. You submit the strand, it could end up on the site, and readers vote for their favorites.
The first Tupelo Press Audio CD is Pure Water: Poetry of Rumi, An Evening with Coleman Barks and Eugene Friesen, cello. Recorded live at Thompson Memorial Chapel, Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts, on February 10, 2005. Available for $16.00.
A regular section in The Louisville Review, “The Children’s Corner” accepts submissions of previously unpublished poetry from students in grades K-12.
The Fall 2009 issue features works by Kian Brouwer, fifth grade, Danielle Charette, high school senior, Carla Hasson and Katie Metzger, both seventeen-years-olds, and Ema Williamson, eleventh grade.
More importantly, all are young writers who have the support and encouragement of others in their lives who have helped them take this step in sharing their work with others. And most importantly, The Louisville Review has provided this opportunity for them. Let’s call it “Lit Mag Mentoring.” It sure would be nice to see this in more publications; not only does this foster a new generation of writers, but readers of literary magazines. Sounds like a win-win to me.
Aside from the eye catching distressed-look cover design of Gina Myers's new poetry collection, A Model Year, one of the endorsement blurbs on the back cover snared my attention. The blurb wherein critically acclaimed poet Joseph Lease assigns to Myers work a "New York school sprezzetura" informed my reading of Myers's collection, which is one good reason I usually forego the reading of such matter until after my initial opinion has been formed. Not so this time. Continue reading “A Model Year”
My poetry workshop recently concluded all poems are about loss. To a certain extent, all stories are too. Maureen Sherbondy’s short stories in The Slow Vanishing definitely follow this theme. The title is evidence, as are the stories inside. There are vanishing limbs, vanishing mothers, vanishing children, and vanishing commas. In many cases, Sherbondy literalizes an emotional loss. A husband doesn’t just feel like his wife is lost because she isn’t doing her normal routine; she actually is lost, and he has to deal with it. Parents don’t feel like they’ve lost their children when they head out on their own; the children actually fly away. This literalization is a wonderfully imaginative way to tell a story, as well as great way to raise crucial questions about life, and how it can be lived. Continue reading “The Slow Vanishing”
Excerpted from the novel Falcons on the Floor, Justin Sirois’s MLKNG SCKLS is ostensibly the story of a road trip across a war-torn landscape. Actually, these aren’t excerpts but excised texts, deleted Word documents from narrator Salim Abid’s laptop intended for the novel Abid wrote while escaping from Fallujah to Ramadi with his friend Khalil. Salim’s epistolary accounts are composed on his laptop and are sectioned off by how much remaining battery power his laptop has. It’s a striking metafictional device that evocatively suggests that time may also be literally running out for Salim and Khalil. As Salim’s laptop’s battery power percentage decreases, the characters’ uncertainty increases. At any moment, you think that Salim will get the pop-up balloon saying: “Low Battery: You should change your battery or switch to outlet power immediately to keep from losing your work.” Continue reading “MLKNG SCKLS”
Being a bit of a history buff, I was excited to read Her Highness’ First Murder by Peg Herring. I must admit that my knowledge of the Tudor period is mostly confined to the early part of Henry VIII’s reign, but even so, I felt as if Herring accurately portrayed the personalities of her characters during the later part of his reign. Continue reading “Her Highness’ First Murder”
Rebellious Pixels remix of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Twilight. “It’s an example of transformative storytelling serving as a pro-feminist visual critique of Edward’s character and generally creepy behavior.” It’s brilliant.
A Room of Her Own Foundation’s 1st To the Lighthouse Poetry Publication Prize Winner was Genevieve Kaplan’s manuscript, In the Icehouse. Her book of poetry will be published by Red Hen Press in the fall of 2010.
2nd Annual To the Lighthouse Poetry Publication Prize
Postmark Deadline: August 31, 2010
Judge: Alice Quinn
Fall 2009 Orlando Prize Winners
Orlando Poetry Prize Winner
Mary Ellen Sanger, “Secrets of a Wooden Saint in a Church in Jalcomulco”
Orlando Nonfiction Prize Winner
Patricia Henritze, “Learning to Talk”
Orlando Sudden Fiction Prize Winner
Alyssa Cooper, “Tin Man Tick-Tock”
Orlando Short Fiction Prize Winner
Lyn Hawks, “The Flat and Weightless Tang-Filled Future”
Orlando in 2010, New Deadlines and Information
Orlando Nonfiction & Short Fiction Deadline — 1/31/10
Orlando Poetry & Sudden Fiction Deadline — 2/28/10
New dates and online forms will be available the week of 11/16/09
“Point-of-view is arguably the most important decision for an author to make since it determines—from the first word of the narrative—how the prose will be presented to the reader.”
From “On Point-of-view” by Bret Anthony Johnston, Grist (vol. 1, 2007).
