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The Stare Seen Around the World

15 Countries,
31 Cities,
32,000 photos,
One stare.

The Rolling Exhibit
Photography by Kevin Connolly

Artist Statement:

1 year ago I was asked by a little boy in Christchurch, New Zealand if I had been eaten by a shark.

2 months ago I was asked by an elderly woman in Sighisoara, Romania if I had lost my legs in a car accident.

6 weeks ago I was asked by a bar patron in Helena, Montana if I still wore my dog tags from Iraq.

Everyone tries to create a story in their heads to explain the things that baffle them. For the same reason we want to know how a magic trick works, or how mystery novel ends, we want to know how someone different, strange, or disfigured came to be as they are. Everyone does it. It’s natural. It’s curiosity.

But before any of us can ponder or speculate – we react. We stare. Whether it is a glance or a neck twisting ogle, we look at that which does not seem to fit in our day to day lives. It is that one instant of unabashed curiosity – more reflex than conscious action – that makes us who we are and has been one of my goals to capture over the past year.

It is after this instant that we try to hazard a guess as to why such an anomalous person exists. Was it disease? Was it a birth defect? Was it a landmine? These narratives all come from the context in which we live our lives. Illness, drugs, calamity, war – all of these might become potential stories depending upon what we are exposed to in connection with disability.

In each photograph the subjects share a commonality, but what does their context say? Looking at each face, I saw humanity. Rolling through their streets, I found the unique cultures and customs that created an individual.

NPR slide show and audio of Connolly discussing this exhibit.

Gone Digital: Ascent

Ascent (Concordia College) has gone completely online. Their new format still allows them to select quality essays, fiction, poetry and “other forms” (which still need a presence on the new site), as well as a Readers Blog – already well under way. Stop by and check out this new transition of Ascent.

Endings: Rambler Magazine

Rambler Magazine‘s “hiatus” status has now changed to indefinite. According to Editor Dave Korzon: “As such, there are no immediate plans for future issues.” No further submissions nor subscriptions will be accepted. Back issues of the magazine will continue to be available for order online.

Our condolences to The Rambler staff – I’ve known them since my start here at NewPages. It’s sad to see such a well-established publication come to an end. I think there are new efforts on the rise, but nothing ever fills the place of such well-known publications whose tireless staff fought the fight to pave the way for so many others. Thanks Rambler. Almost too cliche to say, but for those of us old enough to have grown up with it, we have the right, especially on these fall days: Ramble On my friends.

Climate Change 350 Poems

350 Poems is part of 350.org’s international day of climate action that happened on October 24, 2009.

On this site, 350 writers each contributed a poem responding to climate change (in a language of their choosing) in the days/hours leading up to October 24th. As an additional constraint – mirroring the real political obstacles and shortage of time we face – each poem had to be 3.5 lines in length.

“Why 350? Because that is the agreed upon safe upper limit for CO2 in the atmosphere (in parts per million). We’re currently at 390 and rising, close to what climate experts call “the point of no return.” This is a critical moment: we and our political representatives must act quickly in the less than two months before this December’s United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Visit 350.org for other actions in your area (there are currently over 4000 actions in over 170 countries).”

If You Could Recommend Only One Movie

Mitchell Jarosz, my esteemed colleague who has taught film studies for longer than he will disclose, was asked: “If you could recommend just one film for someone to watch, just one, what would it be?”

His reply: The Girl in the Cafe

This is a quietly and surprisingly incredible film. Starring Bill Nighy and Kelly Macdonald (one of my favs from No Country for Old Men; Nanny McPhee; Gosford Park)

From the IMDB entry: “A May-December comedy becomes a political drama. Lawrence, a spindly, self-effacing civil servant, is a senior researcher for the Chancellor of the Exchequer, preparing for a G-8 summit that will determine the scope of the world’s effort to reduce extreme poverty. In a crowded caf

New Brooklyn Poet Laureate Sought

Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz is seeking the next Brooklyn poet laureate and has appointed a five-member Brooklyn Poet Laureate Recommendation Committee to evaluate candidates for the volunteer position. The Committee will recommend a pool of three finalists to the borough president, from which he will choose one to be the bard of the borough.

Candidates for the poet laureate position must be a Brooklyn resident with recognition as a poet, and demonstrate a commitment to using the position for community outreach and projects that promote poetry and/or literacy in our diverse borough of Brooklyn.

“We know that with all our borough’s beauty, character—and characters, Brooklyn writers and poets never lack inspiration,” said BP Markowitz. “We have so many terrific writers, but the way I see it, our new poet laureate should follow the expansive example of Ken Siegelman, our previous poet laureate now of blessed memory, by not only being a fine poet, but an enthusiastic ambassador of poetry and literacy here in Brooklyn. This person should have the time and the temperament to reach out, share their work with diverse communities and spread the word about the joys and benefits of reading widely and writing well.”

Members of the committee are: Julie Agoos, coordinator of the MFA Program in Poetry at Brooklyn College, where she is Tow Professor of English; Robert N. Casper, programs director for the Poetry Society of America; Linda Susan Jackson, poet and associate professor of English at Medgar Evers College; Dionne Mack-Harvin, executive director, Brooklyn Public Library; and Anthony Vigorito, poet and retired teacher who assisted former poet laureate Ken Siegelman with Brooklyn Poetry Outreach, a program established by Siegelman.

Ken Siegelman, the late Brooklyn poet laureate, was appointed by the borough president in 2002 and served until his death this year. In addition to establishing Brooklyn Poetry Outreach, he held workshops at Phoenix House and encouraged young people to write.

To be considered for the position, candidates should submit 5–10 pages of their work, a maximum two-page bio or résumé and a cover letter that describes their vision of engaging Brooklyn’s various communities in poetry. The deadline for nominations is November 24 at 5:00 p.m. Information can be e-mailed to [email protected], faxed to 718-802-3452, or mailed to Poet Laureate Recommendation Committee, Brooklyn Borough Hall, 209 Joralemon Street, Brooklyn, New York 11201.

Jobs

University of Alaska, Fairbanks, English Department is seeking a creative non-fiction writer for a full-time, 9-month, tenure-track Assistant Professor position in Creative Writing, beginning Fall 2010. Nov 15

University of Dayton Herbert W. Martin Post-graduate Fellowship in Creative Writing, with possibility of renewal for a second year. Nov 6

The Department of English at the University of San Francisco invites applications for a tenure-track faculty position at the assistant professor level in creative writing with an emphasis in creative nonfiction.

Poetry as Memory and Moment

The current issue of Cave Wall, adorned by Deborah Mersky’s “New Frog” on the cover, opens with some thoughtful considerations by Editor Rhett Iseman Trull on the nature of saving and preservation: “We can’t protect everything all the time,” she begins. “I used to think I could prevent accidents by performing rituals, like counting my steps or touching the lamps in a certain order I tried to freeze the good times… But we cannot remain in one place. The circle of life keeps turning. In memory and in our art, however, we can revisit a moment, letting it touch and change us anew… Perhaps every poem is a kind of elegy: a song for what cannot last. But each song here is vital, at least to me, in this moment.”

CFS: Riverbend Film Festival

River Bend Film Festival (April 30-May 1, 2010, Edwardsburg, MI). Open to all filmmakers, including high school and college students. Seeking Features and Shorts in the following categories: Narrative, Documentary, Music Video, Experimental, Animation, Industrial/Commercial, and Student Project. Deadline: October 1, 2009 (early), January 1, 2009 (regular), March 15, 2010 (late). ENTRY FEE: $0-$30

Nimrod Contest Winners Featured

The Fall/Winter 2009 issue of Nimrod International Journal from the University of Tulsa is titled “Words at Play” and features works by the 31st Annual Award Winners and Finalists for Poetry and Fiction:

The Pablo Neruda Prize in Poetry
First: Mike Nelson, “Acacia”
Second: Alicia Case, “Ascension” and other poems
HM: Natalie Diaz, “The Elephants” and other poems

The Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Fiction
Fisrt: $2,000: Lacey Jane Henson, “Trigger”
Second: $1,000: Margaret Kaufman, “Live Saving Lessons”
HM: Patricia Grace King, “Dogs in Guatemala” and Laura Hulthén Thomas, “Down to the Last Kopek”

Antioch: A Student Retrospect

While I am aware of the controversy regarding Antioch, I am certainly not “embroiled” in it as many must be. Still, I found myself deeply interested The Antioch Review Editor’s comments about a particular aspect of his work at the college. Robert S. Fogerty, in the latest issue (Fall 2009), titles his editorial “Young Man Geertz” after Clifford Geertz, a returning vet who was a senior at Antioch in 1949.

Fogerty has gained access to almost 400 “Senior Papers” – a graduation requirement dating back to the late 1920s. His plans are to write a “prosopography” (collective biography) for which select papers will comprise the focus of his work. In his editorial, he offers selections from a numbers of these, considering what might have happened had Antioch shut its doors for good (it will resume 2011) to the very experiences written about in these essays. In just the small sampling he provides, it is clear that these papers are rich with period perspective, of young people writing of their own time of change, of the future they lived through, the history we look back on, and the Antioch that was: “Utopian, experimental, nonconformist, painfully earnest, desperately intense, and filled with political radicals and and aesthetic free spirits (or were they aesthetic radicals and political free spirits?), it was counter-culture before its time.”

Clifford Geertz went on to win a National Book Critics Award as well as many more distinguished awards in social sciences and was honored by numerous universities. His “Senior Essay” is included in this issue of The Antioch Review.

Creative Nonfiction Archeological Find

Apparently, the folks at Creative Nonfiction have done some excavating and recently unearthed a box of classic creative nonfiction books by editor-in-chief Lee Gutkind. Long out of print, limited copies are again available of Lee’s landmark work Many Sleepless Nights: The World of Organ Transplantation and One Children’s Place. They also have a limited number of Lee’s one and only novel, God’s Helicopter, for sale. That’s right, the “Godfather of Creative Nonfiction” briefly dabbled in the world of fiction.

Online vs Print: Professional Considerations

In the Fall 2009 issue of The Kenyon Review, Editor David H. Lynn takes on the issue of “Print vs. Internet: An Ongoing Conversion” in his consideration of where to submit his most recent story – to a print publication or to an online publication. Of course, the fact KR has started its own online edition – KRO – is thrown into the mix, as well as a status check on the professional perception of online publications.

Lynn is troubled by knowing that “Some writers…especially those who have passed through the opening thresholds of their careers, already have a book or two but have not yet been tenured or feel professionally secure, might not even submit their work to us any longer. They worry that if we chose a poem or story for Internet publication instead of print, they wouldn’t want to have to decline the offer and risk offending.”

I would respond that there is a change underway, and it will continue as more of those of us in-the-know about online publishing find our ways “in” and put ourselves in positions of making decisions and flexing the standards. I have participated in numerous hiring committees at various colleges where I have worked and continue to educate my colleagues as to the value of reputable online publications.

An interesting paradox I have seen already is the professional value placed on a self-published, POD book, while a peer-edited, online publication is dismissed. It’s not enough that we read and write and publish. We also need to involve ourselves in the work that makes professional change “institutional.”

Jobs

Penn State University Press Editor in Chief.

The Department of Writing in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Ithaca College invites applications for a tenure-eligible position in creative writing (fiction), beginning August 16, 2010.

The Department of English at Rhode Island School of Design invites applications for an Assistant Professor in Literature and Writing. November 13, 2009 for full consideration.

Assistant Professor Creative Writing Western Illinois University. Dr. Mohammad Siddiqi, Interim Chair of English & Journalism. Interviews at MLA. Screening begins Nov 30.

The Writing Program in the School of the Arts, Columbia University, announces several full-time positions as Lecturer in Discipline in its undergraduate Creative Writing Program with concentrations in fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction, effective July 1, 2010.

Digital Lit Community

Jason Nelson wrote to share his most recent digital poetry game: Evidence of Everything Exploding

It’s ‘a blast’ in more ways than one, but even better – I must admit – was his sharing a link to his and Davin Heckman’s digi-poetry portal, “a group site of sorts” which can be joined by interested writers/theorists/artists: NetPoetic

Lots here for writers and readers interested in digi-lit of many forms. The most recent post (with comments) asks where the digi-lit-focused MFAs are – so if you’re looking or you know, stop on by NetPoetic.

Glimmer Train August Short Story Award – 2009

Glimmer Train has just chosen the winning stories for their August Short Story Award for New Writers competition. This competition is held quarterly and is open to any writers whose fiction hasn’t appeared in a print publication with a circulation great than 5000. No theme restrictions. Word count range: 500-12,000. Their monthly submission calendar may be viewed here.

First place: Evan Christopher Burton (pictured) of New York, NY, wins $1200 for “Exposure.” His story will be published in the Winter 2011 issue of Glimmer Train Stories, out in November 2010. [Photo credit Patrick Buckley.]

Second place: David Rothman of Jackson Heights, NY, wins $500 for “Guided by Voices.” His story will also be published in an upcoming issue of Glimmer Train Stories, raising his prize to $700.

Third place: Scott Tucker of Seattle, WA, wins $300 for “Touring.”

A PDF of the Top 25 winners can be found here. Also: Family Matters competition (deadline soon approaching! October 31) Glimmer Train hosts this competition twice a year, and first place is $1,200 and publication in the journal. It’s open to all writers for stories about family. Word count range: 500-12,000. Click here for complete guidelines.

Photography: Roadside Stranded

Guernica – the online magazine of art and politics – October 2009 features Stranded: “Amy Stein’s photographs document stranded motorists on roadsides across the United States – and meditate on how the country was stuck in a similar space between distress & relief after Katrina.”

New Lit on the Block: Jersey Devil Press

Eirik Gumeny and Monica Rodriguez are the ambition behind the newly established Jersey Devil Press, “a small, independent publisher, based deep in the upper right ventricle of northern New Jersey.” Their plan includes a monthly online magazine of short fiction, a yearly print anthology, and “a smattering of novels and story collections scattered throughout the rest of the year.”

The first issue, October 2009, features works by Kate Delany, Corey Mesler, Stephen Schwegler, Noel Sloboda, Christopher Woods, Robert Levin and Mike Sweeney, as well as “The Legend of the Jersey Devil” by Eirik Gumeny.

Jersey Devil Press is now accepting short story submissions for both their monthly online journal and yearly print anthology (to be published Summer 2010).

CFS: Dealing with Dying

From the editors of FREE INQUIRY magazine:

In our October/November 2007 issue, FREE INQUIRY featured “Dealing with Dying,” a selection of essays from readers describing their experiences with dying, death, and end-of-life rituals. This feature was very well-received, so in June/July 2010 we plan another such symposium in print. FREE INQUIRY solicits brief essays (or proposals for essays) from readers concerning secular humanist responses to:

serious, debilitating, or chronic illness;
caring for a seriously ill loved one or friend;
end-of-life phenomena; and
issues relating to physician aid in dying, assisted suicide, or other forms of beneficent euthanasia.

Essays or proposals are invited from persons suffering serious illness, who have recovered from serious illness, and from family members, loved ones, caregivers, and concerned professionals. Completed essays will be due no later than February 26, 2010, and may be submitted at any earlier time. If submitting a completed essay, total word count should ideally be shorter than 750 words and must not exceed 1,200 words. You may also write a brief proposal describing the essay you have in mind.

Send your essay or proposal to:

Donna Danford
FREE INQUIRY
P.O. Box 664
Amherst, NY 14226-0664

or e-mail:

ddanford-at-centerforinquiry.net

Essays submitted by mail must be accompanied by a file in rich text or Microsoft Word format on CD, diskette, or flash drive. Essays submitted by e-mail may be included in the body of the e-mail or attached as a file in rich text or Microsoft Word format. Please note, these special submission requirements apply only to this feature.

Unless otherwise specified, submissions become the property of the Council for Secular Humanism. Submissions will be accepted or rejected and may be published in print or online at the exclusive discretion of the editors. Sorry, FREE INQUIRY is unable to offer payment for submissions.

Why the Fuss Over Indie Bookstores?

According to Praveen Madan on the Huffington Post, Indie Bookstores:

Provide a Cultural Experience for Readers
Provide a Nurturing Environment for Lesser Known and Emerging Writers
Enable Positive Social Change in Local Communities

Where are your local indie bookstores? How about finding a few when you travel? Check out the NewPages Guide to Independent Bookstores – and please let us know if there are any you think we should add to our guide (denisehill-at-newpages-dot-com).

Silverman’s Story Offered to Readers

From David and Robin at Blue Cubicle Press:

Blue Cubicle Press announces the publication of our tenth hour of Overtime: “The Home Front” by Paul Silverman, a story of war, racism, and courage set in the kitchen of a Boston deli.

Paul lost his battle with depression this past August, which we discovered while preparing his story for print. You can read a little about Paul’s life in this article from The Boston Globe.

In honor of Paul’s passing, we’d like to offer his story for the cost of a first class stamp. Send us a stamp (no letter needed, we’ll know what it’s for), and we’ll send you a copy. You can also log on to our site and order a copy of “The Home Front” for a dollar (the extra money will help cover the PayPal fee).

For you teachers out there – or book clubbers – we’re offering 10 copies of Paul’s story for $5.00.

Blue Cubicle Press
P.O. Box 250382
Plano, TX 75025-0382

National Book Foundation Names Nominees

The National Book Award Nominees

Fiction
Bonnie Jo Campbell, American Salvage (Wayne State University Press)
Colum McCann, Let the Great World Spin (Random House)
Daniyal Mueenuddin, In Other Rooms, Other Wonders (W. W. Norton & Co.)
Jayne Anne Phillips, Lark and Termite (Alfred A. Knopf)
Marcel Theroux, Far North (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Nonfiction
David M. Carroll, Following the Water: A Hydromancer’s Notebook (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Sean B. Carroll, Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search
for the Origins of Species (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Greg Grandin, Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City (Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt)
Adrienne Mayor, The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome’s Deadliest Enemy (Princeton University Press)
T. J. Stiles, The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt (Alfred A. Knopf)

Young People’s Literature
Deborah Heiligman, Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith (Henry Holt)
Phillip Hoose, Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
David Small, Stitches (W. W. Norton & Co.)
Laini Taylor, Lips Touch: Three Times (Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic)
Rita Williams-Garcia, Jumped (HarperTeen/HarperCollins)

Poetry
Rae Armantrout, Versed (Wesleyan University Press)
Ann Lauterbach, Or to Begin Again (Viking Penguin)
Carl Phillips, Speak Low (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon, Open Interval (University of Pittsburgh Press)
Keith Waldrop, Transcendental Studies: A Trilogy (University of California Press)

Press 53 Spotlight Anthology

Press 53 has announced for a new anthology series called Press 53 Spotlight that will showcase five poets and three short story authors who are gaining recognition and building solid reputations through publication and awards but have yet to publish a book-length collection in that particular discipline. Press 53 Spotlight will debut in January 2010.

Founding editor Kevin Morgan Watson and poetry editor Tom Lombardo will co-edit the anthology. The featured writers were found by way of the Press 53 Open Awards, through the general submissions process at Press 53, and from reading print and electronic literary journals and magazines.

The selected poets for the inaugural issue of Press 53 Spotlight are:

Alexa Selph of Atlanta, GA
Austin Segrest of Birmingham, AL
Clinton B. Campbell of Beaufort, SC
Lisa Zerkle of Charlotte, NC
Malaika King Albrecht of Pinehurst, NC

The featured short story writers are:
Ray Morrison of Winston-Salem, NC
Shaindel Beers of Pendleton, OR
Taylor Brown of Asheville, NC

What’s in a Name? Eat Me Daily

Eat Me Daily – besides being one of the greatest website names I’ve seen in a long time – is a website/blog “about food with a critical (and sometimes cynical) take on the culture at large, including media, books, cookbooks, art, design, celebrity, fashion, robots, and cookery.” It was this post that led me there in the first place: Food Writing in Magazines is Alive and Well. And a nod to Alimentum Journal: The Literature of Food for getting on the comment radar – let’s get the foodies to expand those literary horizons, shall we?

Kaufman Attacks the E

Alan Kaufman’s essay The Electronic Bookburning on The Evergreen Review addresses a number of issues on “the impact of Hi-Tech on Book Culture.” An essay from which every single line is integral and effective quoting nearly impossible, but, alas, if you are still resisting going to read it, here are a few lines that might take you there:

“One wonders why Nourrey cannot simply advise E- Book to go fuck itself…”
“The book is fast becoming the despised Jew of our culture.”
“I know many writers who do not see anything wrong in any of this…”
“Not since the advent of Christianity has the world witnessed so sweeping a change in the very fabric of human existence.”
“And its endgame is the disappearance of not just books but of all things human.”

While its “Holocaust as metaphor” may be strong for some, its position of resistance is a valid voice in this ongoing discussion.

CFS: Librarians Plan for Fiscal Survival

Beyond Austerity; Facing Recession, Massive Reductions in Funding and Personnel-Librarians Plan for Fiscal Survival

Publisher: major, long established, in the library field

Editor: Carol Smallwood, MLS. Writing and Publishing: The Librarian’s Handbook, American Library Association 2010; Librarians as Community Partners: An Outreach Handbook, American Library Association, 2010; Thinking Outside the Book, McFarland 2008. Some others are Peter Lang, Libraries Unlimited, Linworth, Scarecrow

Foreword: Dr. Ann Riedling, Associate Professor, University of South Florida; An Educator’s Guide to Information Literacy, Libraries Unlimited, 2007; Writing and Publishing: Contributor, The Librarian’s Handbook, American Library Association, 2010. A two-time Fulbright Scholar included in Contemporary Authors

Afterword: Dr. Loriene Roy, Professor in the School of Information, the University of Texas at Austin, Past President of the American Library Association, Director/ Founder, If I Can Read, I Can Do Anything Reading Club.
Contributor, Librarians as Community Partners: An Outreach Handbook, American Library Association, 2010

Articles sought by practicing academic, public, school, special librarians sharing their experiences on how librarians are handling the recession. Concise, how-to articles using bullets, headings, by librarians in the trenches using creativity and innovation

No previously published, simultaneously submitted material. One article sharing the range of your experience, 2100-2300 words total. If you must use citations, use MLA style faithfully. Articles welcomed by one librarian, or co-authored by two

Possible topics: creative staffing, financial planning, grant writing, community donations, sharing facilities, cooperative buying, maximizing the media, legislative participation, workshops for job hunters

The deadline for completed articles (Call #1) is November 30, 2009. Contributors will receive an agreement to sign before publication. Compensation: a complimentary copy, discount on additional copies

To avoid duplication, please e-mail up to three topics each clearly proposed with three separate short paragraphs by October 31 along with a 75-85 word bio beginning with: your name, library of employment, employment title, awards, publications, and career highlights. If co-authored, each of the two librarian-writers will need to send a separate bio. You will be contacted as soon as possible telling you which one (if any) of your topics will work, inviting you to e-mail your article; an invitation doesn’t guarantee acceptance. Please place AUSTERITY/your name on the subject line to: smallwood-at-tm.net

Florida Review Award Winners

The Florida Review has announced the winners and finalists in their 2009 Editors’ Awards Competition. Their work will appear in the Winter 2009 issue of The Florida Review.

Fiction Prize
Pictured: Fred Setterberg, “Catechism”

Fiction Finalist
Steven Gehrke, “The Terraformation of Mars”

Nonfiction Prize
Deborah Thompson, “Buying Time”

Nonfiction Finalist
Christine Gelineau, “Cops”

Poetry Prize
Emily Van Kley, “Before Ghosts,” “Vital Signs,” and “Last of the Month”

Poetry Finalist
Susan Rich, “Facing 50 with a Line by Robert Hayden” and “For My Student, Who Would Prefer to Remain Anonymous”

New Lit on the Block: Rivets

Edite Christy Frantz and Dale Debakcsy have started up Rivets Literary Magazine, an online publication of art, poetry, and fiction. The first issue features works by Brent Schaeffer, Jaime R. Wood, Alice Osborn, Laura Riggs, Danny Sullivan Rice, Janet Yung, Scott Michel, Ken Pobo, and KJ. Rivets is accepting submissions for their next issue until November 30.

Here’s and excerpt from “Revenge Poem Cycle” by Laura Riggs:

Revenge Poem #2
when i said “you don’t know me,”
i meant, “and you’re not going to.”
actually, i was thinking you knew me as much as i wanted you to already.

Caso Awarded Premio Planeta

Spanish author Angeles Caso has won the prestigious Premio Planeta, the second richest literature prize after the Nobel, for her novel about an African woman’s travails in Europe. The Asturian writer was awarded the prize late Thursday in Barcelona for her novel Contra el viento (Against The Wind) centered around a woman from the tiny African island nation of Cape Verde who emigrates to Portugal and then to Spain. Misfortune hounds her in Portugal and even after she leaves for Spain. Caso, born in 1959, is also a newspaper columnist. The prize comes with a cash award of 601,000 euros (895,096 dollars). (AP)

New Lit on the Block: The Breakwater Review

The Breakwater Review is the biannual online literary journal run by students in the creative writing MFA program at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. The first issues features (mostly poetry) works by J. Tamayo, Joyce Peseroff, Mark Pawlak, Michael Kroesche, Robert Edwards, Frannie Lindsay, Jason Roush, Laura Davenport, Cate Whetzel, Jeffrey Taylor, Caroline A. LeBlanc, Janelle Adsit, Kenneth M. Camacho, Rory Douglas.

TBR is accepting submissions of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction until November 15 for their next issue.

Here’s an excerpt from west by Jeffrey Taylor (all formatting is lost in blogger, so do be sure to check out the full text on TBR):

he:

called
his
boss

said
i
aint

gonna’
make
deadline

got
robbed
and

i
liked
it!

i
liked
it!

felt
like
nothin’

i
ever
felt

Jobs

Assistant Professor in Creative Writing – Nonfiction University of Alabama. Prof. Michael Martone, Search Committee Chair, Assistant Professor (Creative Non-Fiction). Review begins Oct 15.

The University of Nevada, Las Vegas invites applications for Assistant/Associate/Full Professor of English. Dr. Donald Revell, Search Committee Chair. Review begins Nov 16.

Delta College tenure-track Mainstream and Developmental Composition Instructor. Review begins Nov 1.

Saginaw Valley State University Assistant Professor of English-Creative Writing

University of Alabama Assistant Professor of Creative Writing in Fiction. Dr. Wendy Rawlings, Search Committee Chair, Assistant Professor (Fiction) Search. Review begins Oct 15.

The English Department of Eastern Michigan University invites applications for a tenure-track assistant professor position in Creative Writing. Review begins Nov 15.

The English Department at Rhodes College seeks a Fiction Writer to join the Department at the level of Assistant Professor (Tenure Track). Tina Barr, Chair, Search Committee, Department of English. Deadline Nov 6.

The English Department at St. Lawrence University invites applications for a one-year, visiting position in poetry. Mr. Pedro Ponce, Department of English. Review begins Nov 15.

Emma Goes Bollywood

Having already captured Jane Austen in Bollywood (Bride & Prejudice), Emma is the next adaptation. Aisha will be co-produced by Anil Kapoor (Slumdog Millionaire), to be released in 2010.

Chilling Effects Clearinghouse

From Chilling Effects Clearinghouse: “Do you know your online rights? Have you received a letter asking you to remove information from a Web site or to stop engaging in an activity? Are you concerned about liability for information that someone else posted to your online forum? If so, this site is for you.”

Chilling Effects is a joint project of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, University of San Francisco, University of Maine, George Washington School of Law, and Santa Clara University School of Law clinics.

[Mentioned on the Rachel Maddow Show.]

nor 2009 Contest Winners

This latest issue of New Ohio Review (6, Fall 2009) features the 2009 New Ohio Review Contest Winners, as selected by Peter Ho Davies and Philip Levine: Christine Nicolai for fiction Cecilia Woloch for poetry. Nicole Lee, one of the finalists, will have her story published in the spring 2010 issue.