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Trees I Have Known and Anne Frank

In the latest issue of Drash, Pam Grossman’s poem “Kaddish” – a Hebrew prayer for the dead – is offered to a tree. It begins: “Our tree is dying / hunks of splintered bark peel away / branches creak ominously / then litter the yard with brittle bones // The tree surgeon arrives, surveys the damage / proffers a prognosis / two years at most.”

It reminded me of trees I have known, and the willingness of some people to care for them rather than just tear them down when they are ill or diseased. It also brought to mind the chestnut tree at the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam, that years ago was very ill and many feared would need to be removed. The tree had been mentioned numerous times in Anne’s diary – being one of the few images of nature she could see during the day through the uncovered attic window. The tree was not only saved and remains under care, but seedlings from its chestnuts were sprouted and shared. You can read more about it on the Anne Frank Museum Amsterdam website, including an interactive monument to the Anne Frank Tree where you can “Leave a Leaf.”

Bruce Guernsey on Multiple Submissions

The Spoon River Poetry Review Editor Bruce Guernsey adds his two cents in the Summer/Fall 2009 issue on the misuse of multiple submissions. Though he completely understands their use given the “exasperating expectation of waiting,” only to receive a rejection letter, he recounts his having read several cover letters for contest poems also submitted to other contests, with checks written out to those other contests – and others not signed or bounced – and of going through the time-consuming process on his end, only to have the poems rescinded because they were accepted elsewhere. It’s also general submissions as well that he is more often receiving at SRPR, but with another publication’s name on the letter.

Guernsey recalls Donald Hall’s labeling of this multiple submissions batching as “McPoem” and the movement of “poe-biz.” Guernsey writes: “In addition, the letters themselves have taken on a generic sameness: an opening paragraph asking that the poems be considered…then an indented section in bold face listing the poems, and last by a longer paragraph listing the poet’s publications and mandatory M.F.A. I have also heard (with horror) that there are actual services out there that will handle all of one’s submissions and rejections, getting poems constantly in the mail and frantically keeping them there.

“‘Multiple submissions’ is conducive to mass production, and acquiring a long list of publishing credits has become, for some, their goal. But poetry is not some kind of commodity like pork bellies. We should care where our poems go and who reads them. Anne Bradstreet even thought of her poems as her children – a sentimental notions perhaps, but one that kept her from sending them carelessly into the street.”

BPJ Barks Interview

In addition to the beautiful cover (Ding Jitang “Picking Persimmons,” Xi’an, China, 2000) and the carefully selected poetry to fill its pages, this issue (v60 n3) of Beliot Poetry Journal includes a conversation with Coleman Barks by John Rosenwald and Ann Arbor. In it, they talk about “the relationship between music and poetry, isolation and community, judgment and acceptance.”

For anyone who has seen Barks read along with musicians (visit YouTube if you have not), this interview adds another layer of depth to the idea of poetry and music combined, as well as to the complexity of Barks. As Barks says of joining his reading with musicians, “I work regularly with cello; I mean any instrument. The poem feels just so bare or something; I think the music puts it out of the mind, puts it in that layer below, back down in the water table. Somewhere the music lets the personality maybe dissolve a little more, or the ego. A lot of people think that the poem should stand on its own, but it feels good; it feels like I’m giving up some of my proudness, pride in the language of selection, when I let the music carry it along.”

Fresh Lit Mag Reviews March 15

NewPages Literary Magazine Reviews

The Antigonish Review
The Barcelona Review
Black Warrior Review
Cadences
Carpe Articulum
The Gettysburg Review
Iron Horse Literary Review
The Kenyon Review
The Laurel Review
The Literary Review
The Massachusetts Review
New Letters
Ninth Letter
North Dakota Quarterly
Poetry
Southern Humanities Review
THEMA
The Threepenny Review
West Branch
World Literature Today

Sou’wester Welcomes Adrian Matejka

With the newest issue of Sou’wester, Adrian Matejka steps in as the new Poetry Editor, taking the place of Allison Funk, a job Matejka recognizes as “daunting.” Still, Matejka hopes to “perpetuate the precedent set forth by Allison, who was dedicated to publishing thoughtful, provocative poetry, while also working to cultivate a dialogue between the diverse aesthetics in contemporary American poetry.” Welcome Adrian – may this be the first of many more issues of Sou’wester for you!

Are Lesbians Going Extinct?

Trivia: Voices of Feminism, Issue 10 focuses on the conversation “Are Lesbians Going Extinct?” Edited by Lise Weil and Betsy Warland, Trivia proclaims this the “longest and possibly most thought-provoking issue we’ve published to date,” featuring seventeen writers responding to the question “Are Lesbians Going Extinct?”. Trivia 11: “Are Lesbians Going Extinct” #2, also edited by Weil and Warland, will appear in September 2010 and is open for submissions.

[via Ruthann Robson, “Before and after Sappho: Logos“]

New Lit on the Block :: Umbrella Factory

In his Editor’s Note, Anthony ILacqua says that a recent call-to-jury-duty experience made him want to “campaign the world – everyone needs to read. And what a better place this world can be if everyone did.” Umbrella Factory is his effort, combined with fellow “workers” Oren Silverman, Mark Dragotta, and Jana Bloomquist at jumping into this very campaign. And, they are joined in good company with the writers featured in this first issue: Fiction by John Mcmanus, T.M. De Vos, T.L. Crum, Elinor Abbott; Nonfiction by Samantha L. Robinson, Charles Malone, Elizabeth Bernays; Poetry by John Mcmanus, Samantha L. Robinson, Mathias Svalina, Erin Costello, Justin Runge, Serena Chopra, Seth Landman.

Umbrella Factory is open for submissions. Their site also includes a feedback forum and information about workshops held in the Denver, CO area.

AWP – It’s Time

Yes, NewPages will be attending AWP in Denver this year! We’ll be at the bookfair – Tables F4 and F5, so stop by and say hello. We certainly enjoy being able to get out from behind our computers and meet people F2F at this annual event.

NewPages has never been to Denver before, so we’re looking for recommendations for nearby/walking distance stops – like restaurants (ethnic fare?), bars (nearby microbrews?), liquor stores with local wines and beers, bookstores, museums, cool shops, etc.

Copper Nickel Guide to AWP Denver is extremely helpful. We’ll be keeping an eye on that. Anyone else out there doing something similar? Individual recommendations are fine, but having a guide like this is great.

David Foster Wallace Archive

From the UTexas News Release: The Harry Ransom Center, a humanities research library and museum at The University of Texas at Austin, has acquired the archive of writer David Foster Wallace (1962-2008), author of Infinite Jest (1996), The Broom of the System (1987), Girl with Curious Hair (1988) and numerous collections of stories and essays. The archive contains manuscript materials for Wallace’s books, stories and essays; research materials; Wallace’s college and graduate school writings; juvenilia, including poems, stories and letters; teaching materials and books. [read the rest]

Job :: Managing Editor BOMB Magazine

BOMB Magazine, the 29 year-old arts and culture publication, is seeking a managing editor to work with the editor in chief and senior editor on the coordination, commissioning, editing, and proofreading of BOMB print and web interviews and related magazine material. In addition, the managing editor oversees the quarterly production cycle and is the primary liaison between press, design, advertising, and marketing departments. This position is also responsible for various administrative duties.

Applicants should have strong writing and editing skills and a background in the arts, as well experience in production of print and online media. BOMB is a small office and the ideal candidate will communicate well with the staff.

Send a CV and cover letter to Nick Stillman at [email protected] no later than March 19. Salary is commensurate with experience.

The Believer Book Award Editor’s Shortlist

Each year, the editors of the Believer generate a short list of the novels and story collections they thought were the strongest and most underappreciated of the year. In the January issue, readers were asked to send in their nominations for the best work of fiction from 2009; their answers, along with the winner from the following shortlist, will appear in the May 2010 issue of the Believer:

Christopher Miller, The Cardboard Universe: A Guide to the World of Phoebus K. Dank (Harper Perennial)

Percival Everett, I Am Not Sidney Poitier (Graywolf)

Mary Robison, One D.O.A., One on the Way (Counterpoint)

Blake Butler, Scorch Atlas (featherproof)

Padgett Powell, The Interrogative Mood (Ecco)

Internships :: Narrative Magazine

Narrative is currently seeking internship candidates to assist with production of the magazine, including editorial and technical tasks, public outreach, and other programs.

PURPOSE:
Narrative is a premier online literary magazine with the mission of transitioning great literature into the digital age and uniting readers and writers around the world and across generations. In its seventh year, Narrative operates under an original model, combining the values and standards of a nonprofit institution with the ethos and sensibility of a start-up: a fast pace, a tireless staff, and ceaseless determination to stretch every dollar to its fullest in support of the mission.

INTERNSHIP QUALIFICATIONS:
You have a passion for literature, strive for excellence in everything you do, thrive in a fast-paced and dynamic workplace, and are eager to envision, collaborate on, and execute ideas and tasks. You are a high-energy, low-maintenance, well-rounded person with the ability to ensure that projects, people, paperwork, schedules, and other responsibilities are timely, exceptional, and on target. For this position, we need someone who is friendly, professional, reliable, diplomatic, extremely organized, a good conversationalist, a solid writer, computer savvy, and conversant with traditional publishing, social media, electronic publishing, iPhone applications, public relations, and marketing.

Narrative is located in San Francisco and needs local interns but, as a Internet-based, digital publication, also works with interns in various locations.

How to Apply: Please send your CV and a letter indicating what you can bring to Narrative: interns-at-narrativemagazine-dot-com

Sherwood Anderson Foundation Grant

The Sherwood Anderson Foundation grant is avaialbe for a writer who has published no more than two books of fiction. These may be one novel and one book of short stories but not more than two altogether. These must have been published by respected literary journals and/or trade or university publishers. The amount of the award each year depends on a number of factors, including the investment market. The 2009 award was $15,000. Applications must arrive postmarked no later than April 1 of each year.

Passings :: David Nolan

From the Poetry Project Blog: “It is with great sadness that we share the news of the passing of our longtime friend David Nolan. David suffered a heart attack last Thursday, February 25th…Many of you know David through the countless volunteer hours he spent at Project events helping us with sound and guiding us through technical knots. He spent all of New Year’s Day, this year and last, along with David Vogen, making sure each performer everything they needed for their performance, and making sure the Project always got the highest quality recording. It was clear that he got a lot of joy from the work that he did for us as well as so many other organizations he was connected with. He loved being here and we loved him and will miss him dearly. Look for an extended obituary in the Fall issue of the Newsletter. Our deepest condolences go out to David’s family and friends.”

Jobs :: Undergrad Co-Editors

From Mary Meadows, Grassroots Co-editor;

Grassroots Undergraduate Literary Magazine of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale is looking for two new co-editors for the 2010-2011 academic year. The position is a paid undergraduate assistantship. Job responsibilities include helping to organize meetings with the Grassroots staff and other Grassroots editors, soliciting submissions and advertising the magazine, helping to design and lay out the magazine, assisting with the Devil’s Kitchen Literary festival, and plenty of other odd tasks that the magazine requires. As a co-editor, the student will work with two other editors, another co-editor and an editor in chief, as well as the grassroots staff and various members of the English department staff. This is a great opportunity for anyone who is interested in publishing, literature, or creative writing!

The job is $10/hour and is 10 hours a week. Co-editors are required to keep some set office hours every week in the Grassroots office. An interest and a passion for literature is a must have; InDesign skills are desired, but not necessary.

If you have a student you think would be interested, please forward this information to them. To apply for this position, the student must submit a complete resume and cover letter to Pinckney Benedict in the English Department Office, Faner 2380. Any questions about the position can be sent to grassrootsmag-at-gmail-dot-com.

Application deadline is Friday April, 9th.

The National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest

The National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest was established in 2005 by Fine Books & Collections magazine to recognize outstanding book collecting efforts by college and university students, the program aims to encourage young collectors to become accomplished bibliophiles.

Each contestant must be the top prize-winner of an officially sanctioned American collegiate book collecting contest. The principal criteria will be the intelligence and originality of the collection and the potential of the entrant to evolve the collection and develop new collections. The contestant’s understanding of the collection’s subject and its bibliography as well as the creativity of approach are the primary criteria.

Entries for the 2010 competition must be submitted by June 4, 2010.

Art :: Fourteen Hills

Fourteen Hills has always had the talent for selecting cover-poppin’ art, and their latest issue is no exception. “Stuck on Morning Thoughts” by The Pfeiffer Sisters is the appetizer for the center portfolio section of the journal, which features more of their sadly/sweetly haunting characters. Fourteen Hills also provides a link to a web portfolio of The Sisters’ (Jenny and Lisa) work, featuring some divine nude-art & graphics prints (for which they not only created the works, but modeled for them). Worth the click (and then some) to check it out.

Perugia Press Prize Winner

Winner of the 2010 Perugia Press Prize for a first or second book of poetry by a woman is Each Crumbling House by Melody S. Gee of St. Louis, Missouri. Each Crumbling House is due to be released in September 2010.

The Perugia Press Prize is given annually for a first or second unpublished poetry collection by a woman. The prize is $1000 and publication by Perugia Press.

Finalists: Susanna Childress, Entering the House of Awe; Danielle Cadena Deulen, Lovely Asunder

Semi-Finalists: Shannon Amidon, The Garden After; Joanne Diaz, Violin; Emari DiGiorgio, Hot Bullets; Mary Kaiser, The Paradiso Shuffle; Christina Lovin, A Stirring in the Dark; Beth M. Martinelli, A Quiet Room; Barbara Paparazzo, The Corridor of Lost Steps; Anna Ross, In the Room Next Door; Bethany Schultz Hurst, Birds, Disappearing; Joan I. Siegel, Soundings; Eva Skrande, My Mother’s Cuba; Annette Spaulding-Convy, In Broken Latin

Hay(na)ku for Haiti

Open Palm Press (an imprint of Meritage Press), announces the series: Hay(na)ku for Haiti – a fundraiser for Haiti. Poets who write in the hay(na)ku form have consented to create hay(na)ku for helping Haiti’s recovery efforts. The results are to be released as “pocket poem booklets” by Open Palm Press. Each will be sold for $3.00, reflecting the hay(na)ku’s three lines, with all proceeds to be donated for Haiti relief.

Jane Kenyon Poetry Prize Winner

The most recent issue of Water~Stone Review includes the winner of this year’s Jane Kenyon Poetry Prize: “Four Corners” by Michelle Bonzcek. Also included in the issue are two poems selected for honorable mention: Myron Ernst’s “Beyond the Green Line” and Brett Foster’s “Sponge Bath as Answer to the Problem of Knowledge.” Marck McMorris was the judge for this year’s prize.

The In Between Years

While previous posts have shared news of literary magazine changes in editorship, Jeanne M. Leiby of the Southern Review writes of SR’s “lost years.”

The story of how SR began is recounted in the introduction to An Anthology of Stories from the Southern Review (LSU 1953). It has been 75 years since the Louisiana State University president, James Monroe Smith, first began the journal. It was in 1942 that “because of the war and the national economic crisis, the university suspended publication of the journal” – until 1965. Leiby writes, “It’s sad for me to thing about this gap in our history, the words and works we could have brought to readers in those intervening twenty-three years. And it’s not lost on any of us here that we are again a country at war, a nation deeply affected by bleak economic realities.”

But, Leiby shows her gratitude to a supportive administration and especially to readers who have kept the magazine running, who have helped to maintain SR as a “grand literary legacy.”

At such times of struggle for so many in the literary community, her words of appreciation are well received. We do not want to have to wonder about lost years of voices and words, and we won’t have to, as long as we keep our readership and support of literary magazines strong.

Film Contest for Youth

The Palo Alto Humane Society is accepting submissions for their first annual Humane Planet Film Contest for young filmmakers, ages 14 to 24 year olds, who PAHS thinks “can offer a fresh, innovative approach to highlighting and awakening people to the many critical issues impacting animals in today’s world.” Deadline March 31, 2010.

This and other contests for youth are listed on NewPages Young Authors Guide.

Another Farewell and Hello

Editor Neil Shepard offers his Editor’s Farewell in the latest issue of Green Mountains Review. He recounts his beginning with the journal in 1986, and spotlights many of the accomplishments over the decades. Shepard will stay on as Senior Editor, while Elizabeth Powell, a new faculty at Johnson State College, will be taking the role of Poetry Editor and General Editor.

New Lit on the Block :: Sakura Review

Sakura Review is one of those sleek, zen-like journals that packs a wallop of contributors backed by a powerhouse staff: Editor David Green; Managing Editor Natalie Corbin; Poetry Editor Jen Dempsey; Prose Editor Tom Earles; and Art and Layout Director Joel Selby. It started with a lunchroom discussion and the vision to create “a magazine that would represent the unique character of the District, a town embodied by location temporary yet always maintaining an indefinable shape.”

This inaugural issue includes prose and poetry by Erinn Batykefer, Richard Boada, T.M. De Vos, Kathleen Hellen, Kevin Debs, Colin James, Dorine Jennette, Richard Jordan, Rachael Lyon, Beth Marzoni, Nick McRae, Carine Topal, Lenore Weiss, Theodore Worozbyt, and Alison Hennessee.

Sakura Review is currently open for submissions until March 15.

Carpe Verbum Fiction Contest Winners

The newest edition of Carpe Articulum features winners of the Carpe Verbum Novella/Long Short Fiction Contest:

First – Carol Howell
Second – Aashish Kaul
Third – Eric Wasserman
In Curso Honorum – Lisa Ni Bhraonain
Honorable Mentions: Paul Fahey, Brian Duggan, Chellis Glendinning, and Loree Westron

The editors write of the contest: “The Novella Award was a new addition to Carpe Articulum this year. Many nay-sayers thought that it wouldn’t garner the attention it needed to sustain itself since the Carpe Verbum Short Fiction Award was already offered here. We are proud to announce that it has been the most cussedly attended award series in Carpe Articulum‘s seven-year history. We were heart-broken to leave out many of the incredible pieces that had so much to offer Carpe‘s reader…but then, this quarterly collector’s volume would have been 700 pages long! We hope to encourage other Literary Reviews to likewise offer this particular genre as an award series. So many fascinating stories are ineligible for print in journals simple due to their length. Such a sad reason for them to never see the light of day…”

Deadlines for upcoming Carpe Articulum contests are outlined in this issue as well as on the publication’s website.

New Beginnings

In his Editor’s Note to the Winter 2009 issue of The Hampden-Sydney Poetry Review, Nathaniel Perry writes of beginnings: “Beginnings always fascinate us: we remember the first lines of novels, the first lines of well-worn poems. We relish memories of childhood. Storms build up over the far ridge and ride into town, and we stand and crane our necks to watch them.” With this issue of, Perry takes over the role of editor from Tom O’Grady, who has stepped down.

As part of his own new beginning the journal itself will take on some newness, including a larger format and full-color cover, a new section of reviews, which Perry considers an “attempt to expand [their] own participation in the larger poetry community,” and, finally, a new feature: 4×4. Each issue will include the same four questions asked of four of that issue’s contributors.

As all good things must come to an end, our farewell to Tom O’Grady, and to Nathaniel Perry: here’s to new beginnings!

Literary Mystery Spot

A Murder and a Metaphor: Litkicks Mystery Spot #1 has been posted by Levi Asher on his blog, Literary Kicks. There is an aerial photo from 1924 for which Asher is taking reader’s guesses in identifying it. Here’ are some “hints”:

• You have definitely read this novel. It’s one of the most widely loved novels of all time.

• A person is killed, during one of the novel’s climactic scenes, by the forked road near the top right of the photo.

• The vast expanse in the photo’s center, which appears to be a work of geometric modern art, provides one of the novel’s central metaphors.

Though he has not given an exact deadline, Asher will not post any further comments on this until he decides reveals the answer. And, given the number, it seems this may be a recurring activity on his blog.

Job :: Editor Cleis Press

Cleis Press has an opening for an Editor to work in our Berkeley office. This is a senior position, reporting directly to co-Publishers Felice Newman and Frederique Delacoste. The successful candidate for this job is an experienced editor with 5+ years in trade publishing as an editor, project editor, managing editor, developmental editor, senior editor or acquisitions editor.

The Editor will manage the editorial and production process from manuscript to press:

Work with authors to shape projects and refine editorial content
Evaluate manuscripts and perform developmental editing as needed, collaborating with authors on changes in style, content and format of books
Copyedit 15+ books/year
Supervise freelance copyeditors and galley proofreaders
Coordinate production of new titles with freelance text designers
Write, copyedit or revise all major marketing collateral, such as back cover and catalog copy
Maintain high standards of literary excellence
Participate in our acquisitions team, evaluating book proposals and manuscripts

While acquisitions is not the main focus of this position, the Editor will have the opportunity to acquire up to 10 books/year, generating ideas, recruiting authors and developing content.

We are looking for a candidate with knowledge of the types of book we publish: literature, sexuality, gay and lesbian studies, gender studies, erotica, fiction, human rights, inspiration, gift.

The successful candidate for this position will have excellent writing, editing and proofreading skills. This person will have very strong project management skills and a demonstrated knowledge of the editorial and production process. Must be able to develop and maintain cordial relationships with authors, copyeditors, designers and others. Must be able to balance many projects in a fast-paced environment and meet deadlines. Proficiency in Microsoft Word (Mac OS).

Please e-mail your resume and cover letter. No phone calls please.

Send application to Felice Newman, Publisher: fnewman-at-cleispress-dot-com

Black River Chapbook Winner

The 2009 Fall Black River Chapbook Competition winner is Lisa Fay Coutley for In The Carnival of Breathing, which will be published by Black Lawrence Press in the summer of 2011.

Semi-Finalists
Amelia Cohen-Levy – More People than Trees
Christine Klocek-Lim – The Quantum Archives
Darren Morris – Grand Unified Theory
Edward Mullany – A New Russia
Jennifer Michalski – Go to War, Stanley Polensky
Kelly Magee – A Guide to Strange Places: Stories
Rachel Mehl – Letter to Amber in November
Stefanie Freele – Every Girl Has An Ex Named Steve
Susanna Williams – They Say We Don’t Exist
Tracy Geary – Sting
William Snyder – Voices

Finalists
Andrew R. Touhy – Designs for a Magician’s Top Hat
Benjamin Vogt – Without Such Absence
Megan Garr – The Preservationist Documents
Stephanie Gehring – Foghorn Call
David Salner – Summer Words
Alison Pelegrin – Hurricane Party
Benjamin Hollars – Some kind of memorial
Brad Davis – Self Portrait w/ Disposable Camera
Brian Trimboli and Megan Moriarty – Notes from a Zombie Apocolypse

2yr & 4yr CW Faculty Survey

Mary Lannon and Christina Rau (Instructors at Nassau Community College) are “presenting on the impact (if any) of demographics on college-level teaching of creative writing at AWP in April 2010.” If you have taught creative writing at the college level, please take the short on-line survey by clicking on the following link: Survey

Colrain Poetry Manuscript Conference

Applications are now being accepted for the Colrain Poetry Manuscript Conference (MA) for March 26-29. This conference has been created for poets who are either ready to publish a book-length (or chapbook-length) manuscript or who feel they need a reality check on their current manuscript-in-progress. Since our first conference, in March of 2006, over 35 Colrain manuscripts have been accepted for publication.

Faculty includes Martha Rhodes, Director of Four Way Books, Peter Covino, Poetry Editor of Barrow Street Press, Jeffrey Levine, Editor and Publisher of Tupelo Press, Ellen Dore Watson, Director of the Smith College Poetry Center, and conference founder, Joan Houlihan, Director of the Concord Poetry Center.