“Researchers at the University of Liverpool found the prose of Shakespeare and Wordsworth and the like had a beneficial effect on the mind, providing a ‘rocket-boost’ to morale by catching the reader’s attention and triggering moments of self-reflection.”

The Kenyon Review selected Elie Wiesel as the winner of the 2012 Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achievement. “Wiesel is the author of more than fifty books, most famous among them his haunting work Night. His writing deals with the moral imperative of all people to fight hatred, racism, and genocide. He is a Holocaust survivor and a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. Wiesel accepted the Kenyon Review award in New York City on Nov. 8.” The Kenyon Review has made available on its website: a recording of Roger Rosenblatt’s remarks; a recording of Wiesel’s Nov. 8th acceptance speech; a short reading by Natalie Shapero and Elizabeth Lindsey Rogers, the current Kenyon Review Fellows; a link to c overage (with photos) of the 2012 event by Bloomberg News.

River Teeth: A Journal of Nonfiction Narrative is offering undergraduate and graduate student scholarships to attend their 2nd annual conference, May 17-19 in Ashland, Ohio. Students must be currently enrolled in a writing program. The scholarship includes registration fees; other expenses (travel, room, board) are the responsibility of the scholarship recipient. Deadline for application is March 1, 2013.

The Arc Poetry Soci

Peer English (ISSN 1746-5621) is a refereed, open-access online journal produced by members of the School of English. Issued once a year since 2006, its remit is to publish leading research from academics at the very beginnings of their careers (graduate study, post-doctoral research) through to those already established within the community. This approach also includes the notion of ‘work in progress’ and the editors welcome contributions of high academic standards from those currently involved in active research, be they doctoral candidates or Heads of Departments. More information is available at the English Association website.

Published annually, Peer English embraces not only the full range of subject coverage within the field of English Studies, but also the increasingly wide range of approaches and perspectives that can be brought to bear upon the discipline. We welcome, therefore, both traditional and modern approaches to the field, from close critical readings of literary texts, to interdisciplinary approaches or cross-subject analyses.

The deadline for submissions for 2013 is 31 August 2013. A style sheet for the journal is available by request.

The International Writing Program of the University of Iowa is presenting a free, online, seven-week poetry writing course in February. This course is “designed for advanced writers with an active commitment to reading poetry and refining their craft, though no previous experience is required.” The class is limited to 15 participants, and applications must be sent by January 28th. For sign up information, visit their Facebook page.

The Facebook page already shows 27 people “going,” so either the program will be extending its offering, or they may be some disappointed poets. Either way, it would be good to send your information along to IWP so they know of your interest for future offerings.

This resource comes from the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester, so there is some content specific to that field, but it otherwise provides a lot of good, general sources for those looking to get a job in higher education

And this essay from Inside Higher Ed: Questions They Might Ask You by Katherine Ellison and Cheryl Ball.

Red Feather Journal is a growing online, international, interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal that provides a forum for scholars and professionals to interrogate representations of children in film, television, Cyberspace, video games, art, photography, advertisement or any other visual medium in which the image of the child is featured. Red Feather Journal facilitates an international dialogue among scholars and professionals through vigorous discussion of the intersections between the child and the conception of childhood, children’s material culture, children and politics, the child body, and any other intersections of culture and the child image within local, national, and global contexts.

Red Feather Journal is seeking interested applicants who would like to be a part of our exciting and diverse group of scholars in the capacity of editor and/or assistant web administrator.

For the editor position we seek applicants who have published scholarly works or established research in the area(s) of film/media studies, or children and childhood studies, or related field.

For the Assistant Web Administrator position we seek applicants with established research in film/media or children’s studies (or related field) and who have web-page design and maintenance experience. Duties include [Assistant Web Administrator] assisting Web Administrator with journal publication and design (published twice a year), and [Editor] active participation in the double-blind peer review process.

Scholars from outside the United States and Graduate Students who are ABD are encouraged to apply.

Interested scholars please send letter of interest, contact information, CV, and one sample publication (or link to a sample) to Debbie Olson, debbieo-at-okstate.edu or dolson-at-uta.edu

Applications will be accepted until January 31st, 2013.

EDvance is a practitioner-based resource for developmental educators seeking innovative methods of instruction for their classrooms. The journal publishes research-based pedagogy that challenges students to think deeply about their learning in highly creative and imaginative ways. The purpose of the publication is to extend the scope of what it means to teach students of the developmental level.

Submissions: Lessons must be thoughtfully designed and suited for the developmental English classroom. The editors anticipate a careful consideration of scaffolding that would be appropriate for various levels of developmental English.

Sundance Institute’s Native American and Indigenous Program has created a Fellowship to provide direct support to emerging Native American, Native Hawaiian, and Alaskan Native film artists working in the U.S. The Fellowship is a two-stage development opportunity for filmmakers with short film scripts. The first stage of development is an intensive 5-day workshop, held May 20th – 24th, 2013. During the workshop, Fellows received intensive feedback on their projects from established screenwriters and directors.

From the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE): “Literacy teachers, working with community members and educators across a school system, have a special responsibility in the wake of school tragedy. They help students build empathy and understanding through reading literature, informational texts, and multimedia accounts of events in and around their school. They help students gain perspective by learning to place events in cultural, social, and historical contexts. And they help students organize evidence so they can write persuasively about changes that will promote safety, security, and healing.

“In a time where violence and social disruption do not stop at the school house door, NCTE honors the vital work of literacy educators, and all who collaborate with them, to advance learning under the most difficult circumstances.

“We’ve assembled these resources on responding to tragedy in schools for you and your school community.”

– Sandy Hayes, NCTE President

Technoculture (ISSN 1938-0526) is an independent annual peer-reviewed journal. Publishing both critical and creative works that explore the ways in which technology impacts this (or any) society, with a broad definition of technology.

Technoculture seek creative works that use new media and/or are on the subject of technology, and essays from a broad a range of academic disciplines that focus on cultural studies of technology. Essays published examine the topic “technology and society,” or, perhaps,“technologies and societies.”

For Volume 3 (2013), The Retro Issue, the editors are particularly seeking essays and creative works that focus on lost, ancient, old or dead technologies, technologies that no one uses, or very few people still employ. Topics could include depictions of technologies that treat a wide range of subjects related to the social sciences and humanities. These subjects might include:

• technologies once popular that are no longer used, such as 8-track tape
• film and television as technologies (especially in the early days of television and film)
• celebrities’ use of technology in a given historical moment, such as the early days of television or the heyday of radio
• politics and technology, especially historical approaches
• music production and dissemination, especially historical approaches (such as Listz’ transcriptions of entire Wagner operas and Beethoven symphonies)
• visual artists and their use of (or flight from) given technologies, especially historical approaches
• literary depictions of technologies (especially in works from other decades than our own)
• computer/video gaming (older games, rather than newer games)
• the dissemination of the arts via technology to broad or to specialized audiences in particular historical moments
• the disappearance of a given technology or technologies and what that disappearance/disappearances means/mean for the archival issues that surround the humanities.
• sports and sports figures of the past
• memorabilia and collectibles from the past

In particular, the editors are interested in a conception of “technology” and the “humanist impulse” that pushes beyond contemporary American culture and its fascination with computers; they seek papers that deal with any technology or technologies in any number of historical periods from any relevant theoretical perspective with a particular focus on old, dead and lost technologies for this issue.

Technocluture is not interested in “how to” pedagogical papers that deal with the use of technology in the classroom.

Technoculture will publish scholarly/critical papers in the latest MLA citation style, but also creative works including poetry and creative non-fiction are of interest to us. They will publish art work and especially media designed for display/dissemination on a computer monitor including still images, video or audio.

Submissions for Volume 3 (2013) accepted until 31 August 2013.

The Posen Foundation is proud to announce a unique international fellowship for junior scholars and emerging fiction writers. Each member of the Posen Society of Fellows receives a two-year, $40,000 award, as well as a special opportunity to collaborate with peers and learn from seasoned scholars and writers.

Eligible scholars should be completing a doctoral dissertation on a topic related to modern Jewish history or culture. Eligible fiction writers should be working on a Jewish-themed novel or short story collection, and should not yet have published their first book.

The inaugural class of Fellows will include six scholars and two fiction writers, who will convene each summer to share work, discuss progress, participate in workshops, and attend lectures by senior scholars and writers. The first gathering of Fellows will take place August 11–13, 2013, in Berkeley. Each Fellow will be expected to attend two annual gatherings, and, later on, to submit a report on their progress and adapt their work for a public audience.

To be considered for the Society, scholars must submit a dissertation prospectus, a writing sample of no more than 15 pages, a letter of recommendation from a major advisor, and a curriculum vitae. Scholars must have completed their comprehensive exams or have commenced writing their dissertations by April 1, 2013.

Writers should submit a writing sample (for novelists: 30-40 pages of prose; for short story writers: two or three completed stories), curriculum vitae, a description of the work in progress, and an explanation of how the writing sample fits into the larger work.

The Posen Society of Fellows is not restricted to any religion or nationality. Participants from outside North America should be in possession of valid visas.

In an article for Publishers Weekly, Robert Atwan, the founder of The Best American Essays series, picks the 10 best essays of the postwar period. Six of the essays are available to read full-text online, and one via subscription (New Yorker).

Tin House Books and Octopus Books have announced a new collaborative poetry series. Acquiring titles in the new line will be Matthew Dickman, poetry editor of Tin House magazine, and Zachary Schomburg, editor at Octopus Books. First in the series will be Brandon Shimoda’s Portuguese. The two editors discuss the reasons for the new collaboration in their editors’ note:

“We represent two different types of small presses, with two different aesthetics, and two different audiences, but we’re both based in a city [Portland, Ore.] that has a palpable collaborative energy that is proving itself every day. And at a time when many larger presses are thinning their poetry rosters, we wonder if publishing collaboratively is a model that presses are missing out on, a model that smaller independent presses are capable of, because there is nothing to lose in teaming up to publish books for a multiplied and overlapped audience. This is a model that is necessary for a new kind of conversation to begin, not to see how we can meet in the middle, but how we can meet at the edges.”

Portuguese will be published by Tin House Books and Octopus Books on March 12, 2013 and distributed by Publishers Group West. Shimoda is the author of three previous books of poetry and is currently coediting, with poet Thom Donovan, a retrospective collection of writing by Lebanese American poet Etel Adnan (Nightboat Books, forthcoming).

In 2014, Tin House and Octopus will again collaborate to publish Bianca Stone’s new collection, Someone Else’s Wedding Vows.

“I often wish [poetry] was more didactic. I like it to mean things, I confess.”

Juliana Spahr talks to Full Stop about historicized reading in the classroom, academic labor, and Meaning as part of the series Teaching in the Margins. With Teaching in the Margins, Full Stop looks to poets, novelists, educators and academics to survey the state of the humanities and explore the relationship between innovative writing and pedagogy.

You can find the interview here.

Washington Post article on the new common reading core in K-12:

Excerpts:

The Common Core State Standards in English, which have been adopted in 46 states and the District, call for public schools to ramp up nonfiction so that by 12th grade students will be reading mostly “informational text” instead of fictional literature.
…
English teacher J.D. Wilson agrees with much of what the standards aim to accomplish. But he is disturbed by the subtle shift the new standards are already causing in his classroom at Wareham High School in Wareham, Mass. “Reading for information makes you knowledgeable — you learn stuff,” Wilson said. “But reading literature makes you wise.” Wilson has wrestled with which poems to cut from his lesson plans and which nonfiction to teach instead. And then he hit upon an idea. This fall, he has taught “Literature Is Not Data: Against Digital Humanities,” “Shakespeare, a Poet Who Is Still Making Our History” and “Who Killed the Liberal Arts?” They are all essays that emphasize the value of literature.