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Peabody Props

Check out Edward Champion’s Return of the Reluctant blog – Richard Peabody: Mondo Literature – where Ed gives a well-deserved tip of the keyboard to Richard and his life-long dedication “to printing work by unknown poets and fiction writers, as well as seeking out the overlooked or neglected…” publishing “‘name’ writers — sometimes before they were ‘names’.” And recognizing that: “As if being an unparalleled literary impresario and entrepreneur isn’t enough, Rick is also a superb poet and fiction writer.” If you don’t know Gargoyle or Richard or Ed – you can get it all – and then some – in this one read.

Literary Podcasts at Chattahoochee Review

The Chattahoochee Review hosts podcasts from Georgia Perimeter College. A great variety of readings, interviews and lectures. Here’s just naming a few:

Mark Bixler Lecture – author of The Lost Boys of Sudan

Donald Bogle Lecture – two parts lecture by the award winning African-American film historian and media scholar discussing the history of African-Americans in the movies.

William Julius Wilson Lecture – the preeminent sociologist and former advisor to President Clinton discussing his book There Goes The Neighborhood, an examination of race and class issues in Chicago. November 2, 2006.

Leonard Susskind – The Cosmic Landscape: String Theory and the Illusion of Intelligent Design
Luis Alberto Urrea Interview
Elizabeth Cox Reading
Alistair MacLeod Reading
Several GPC faculty open mic readings

Crazyhorse Winners Announced

Crazyhorse prize judges (Fiction judge: Antonya Nelson, Poetry judge: Marvin Bell) are pleased to announce:

Crazyhorse Fiction Prize Winner: Karen Brown for the story “Galatea”

Fiction finalists: Jacob M. Appel, Kathy Conner, Rick Craig, Diane Greco, and Ann Joslin Williams

Lynda Hull Memorial Poetry Prize Winner: Jude Nutter for the poem “Frank O’Hara in Paradise”

Poetry finalists: Kurt Brown, Colin Cheney, Melody S. Gee, Luisa A. Igloria, John Isles, Joshua Kryah, Gabriella Klein Lindsey, M.B. McLatchey, Xu Smith, and Jared White

The 2007 Crazyhorse Prize Winners receive $2000 each and publication in Crazyhorse Number 72, due out Nov. 1, 2007.

2River View: New Issue Online

2River has just released the 11.4 (Summer 2007) issue of The 2River View,with new poems by Philp Brady, Therese Broderick, Ryan Collins, LydiaCooper, Michael Flanagan, Nancy Henry, Laura McCullough, Karen Pape, PetreStoica, and Sally Van Doren; and art from the Underground Series by MeganKarlen.

Take a few moments to stop by 2River and read or print the issue, available as PDF.

Get Your Vote In: storySouth Million Writer Awards

Votes are now being counted (yes, there are places in this great nation of ours where votes really still do count) for storySouth Million Writer Award for Fiction 2007. The top ten online stories have been selected and readers will choose the winner. To read the top ten stories and cast you vote, as well as read more about the award and the Notable Stories 2006 from which they were selected, visit storySouth.

Voting will run through June 30, 2007.

New Lit on the Block

Memoir (and)
Autobiography, Peotry, Essay, Graphics, Lies and More…
“Memoir (and) is a nonprofit literary journal born with these ideas in mind. Our mission is to publish traditional as well as non-traditional forms of nonfiction allied with memoir. This includes, but is not limited to, autobiography, diary, personal and critical essay, memoir, reportage, autobiographical fiction, alternative histories, journalistic accounts, ‘flash memoir,’ narrative poetry or ‘poemoir’ (it’s okay to groan, we did) and graphic memoir. No submission is too unusual—postmodern, modern or hypermodern—for us to consider. We look forward to the ways you will surprise, delight and perhaps shock us.”

Quay
A Journal of the Arts from Six Bad Apples Press
“Symmetry with error. A pattern you would think is incomplete but is not.”
Publishing literature and art three times a year online and in print.
CALL FOR SUBMISSION – open May 1 – June 30.

Call for Submissions: No Record Press Short Story Anthology

Once a year, No Record publishes an anthology of short literary fiction by previously-unpublished writers. Last year’s anthology included 14 stories, which ranged between 500 and 11,000 words, and included work from a former Yale divinity professor, a 15 year-old high school student, an actor from Milwaukee, a congressional staff member, and a professional guitarist.

No Record Press is currently taking submissions for next year’s anthology, which they hope to publish in early 2008.

More info here: No Records Press Short Story Anthology Guidelines.

Bill Moyers: Call to Action

Stamp Out the Rate Hike: Stop the Post OfficeThe May 18, 2007 blog entry from Bill Moyers is a call to action to help small press publications. Large publishing firms (Time Warner at the forefront) have lobbied for substantial media mail postal rate increases with built-in discounts for those who send large amounts of mail. Small press publications would not receive these discounts.

In our work with NewPages, we are already hearing from literary magazines who fear they will need to cease publication if the rates go into effect because they simply cannot afford a 25-30% postal increase on their already tight budgets.

There is the link on Bill Moyers’s blog to the Free Press, where you can read more about this issue and how to take action – a sample letter to send to those making this decision is included.

New Lit Mag: Yellow Medicine Review

Yellow Medicine Review: A Journal of Indigenous Literature, Art, and Thought

“The title Yellow Medicine Review is significant in that it incorporates the name of a river in Southwest Minnesota. The Dakota dug the yellow root of the moonseed plant for medicinal purposes, for healing. Such is the spirit of Yellow Medicine Review.

“At this time, we encourage submissions from indigenous perspectives in the area of fiction, poetry, scholarly essays, and art. We define indigenous universally as representative of all pre-colonial peoples.”

Lummox Journal Now Online

After eleven years in print and a hiatus of a few months, the Lummox Journal is now online!

This inaugural issue features two interviews that present ‘a sort of Ying and Yang view of modern poetry’: Billy Jones (Caboolture, AUS) and Hugh Fox (Madison, WI). Also of interest: an essay by Todd Moore on the poetics of American poetry, an article by Charles Ries on a poetry reading in Santa Cruz, CA, several reviews and some great poetry.

Read the inaugural issue here: Lummox Journal

What the LitBlog crew will be reading…

The LitBlog Co-op announces Spring 2007 Read This! selection.

Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead is a collection of short stories that combines the fantastic with the prosaic. A woman walks into a Quik-Mart and winds up on a hillside, surrounded by swords and scimitars. A tedious post-college job isn’t quite as boring as it seems. And girls and boys flirt and touch and fly off buildings and escape Byzantine soldiers and pirouette and fall. Each time I thought I had these stories figured, they came around a corner to surprise me anew.

Spring 2007 Noneuclidean Caf

Volume 2, Issue 3 – Spring 2007
All Free – All Online

Including:
A Word from the Editor, James Swingle
Articles by Femke Stuut and Kerry Hughes
Interviews with Judith DeLozier and Dr. Michael Shermer
Poetry Kristine Ong Muslim, Zachary C. Bush, Ken Head, Noel Slobada
Fiction by Ralph Greco, Jr., Daniel Ausema, Tesssa Johnstone, Tom Leveen, Mark Fewell, and Craig Pirrall
And book reviews

Noneuclidean Caf

What the puck?

Hey. I was reading lit blogs and a hockey game broke out. The litboys are flailing away. (I think it’s mostly a litboy thing. Correct me if I’m wrong.) The fight is over something like this: These guys, Gessen and Roth from N+1 (a hefty print lit mag), think blogs suck. For the most part anyway. (Have I got that right?) Several blogger dudes have, for some reason, taken offense to this. And it goes on and on, linked through posts in various blogs. Like these things get to do in blogs. So if you feel like you’re missing out on all the fun, start here at Scott Esposito’s Conversational Reading. He’ll shoot you over to Dan Green’s The Reading Experience. Follow it further if your favorite part of a hockey game is when the gloves go flying and the punches are thrown.

Bookstores :: Bookmarks Bookshop

I guess the struggle of independent bookstores is very much the same no matter which side of the pond they are on.

Bookmarks bookshop battles the giants with solidarity appeal.

“Independent bookstores in central London are being hit by two things – the property boom that is driving up rents, and developments in the book trade aimed at chasing profits,” says Mark Thomas, manager of Bookmarks.

This situation was highlighted last week by the announcement that Gay’s The Word, Britain’s last surviving specialist lesbian and gay bookshop, faces closure unless it raises enough cash to pay its soaring rent bill.

High streets across Britain are becoming more homogenous, says Mark, with ever larger retail chains dominating the market and driving out smaller independent competitors.”

Publishing

Holy Cow! It’s 30 years old! “If you had to name the home of the oldest literary presses in Minnesota, you’d probably say the Twin Cities. But to be correct, you’d also have to mention Duluth. It’s home to Holy Cow! Press, which is celebrating its third decade.”

Million Poems Show NYC

“The next episode of The Million Poems Show is this Monday, March 26, at 6:30 p.m. at the Bowery Poetry Club (1st & Bowery, NYC). Buck Downs, author of Marijuana Soft Drink, Recreational Vehicle, and many other fundamentally unstoppably brilliant collections of poems, will be taking the stage. As will Nicole Renaud, the singer the New York Times describes as an “ethereal soprano,” and whom the New Yorker says “earns the overused descriptor ethereal.” Franklin Bruno sings the theme song, banters, collaborates, and if you’re good, he takes us out with a song. And as for me [Jordan Davis], I try to make it so you almost forget you’re at a poetry event. The Million Poems Show is free. What’s more, it coincides with happy hour — come by Monday, have a couple drinks. The words will do things you don’t see coming.”

Words

Why Sexist Language Matters, by Sherryl Kleinman, AlterNet. “Gendered words and phrases like ‘you guys’ may seem small compared to issues like violence against women, but changing our language is an easy way to begin overcoming gender inequality.”

Books :: LibriVox

LibriVox free audio books from LibrarianActivist.org: “LibriVox is a volunteer project with the goal of making pubilc domain works available as audio books. There’s a plethora of goodies here for bibliophiles. Not only is the available of classic works a beautiful thing, but access to audio books is a boon to those who benefit from having access to books through alternative mediums … coming to mind: people who self-identify as LD, ADHD, or visually impaired…”

Books :: God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens

Congratulations, Christopher Hitchens! But Why Won’t You Bring The Funny? From the Huffington Post. “…his upcoming book, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (May 1, 2007), sounds like a laugh riot. Check out this sample line: ‘Monotheistic religion is a plagiarism of a plagiarism of a hearsay of a hearsay, of an illusion of an illusion, extending all the way back to a fabrication of a few nonevents.’ Try the veal! Remember to tip your waitress!

Libraries

New Progressive Librarians Guild chapter at Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “The purpose of PLG is to foster discussion and action related to librarianship and social responsibility. We believe that the vital role of the library in a democratic society requires a politically and socially engaged profession.” Includes links to other chapters.

Book Review

Poets in full bloom. Leslie Adrienne Miller, Deborah Keenan and Diane Glancy — longtime Minnesota English professors — are at the height of their poetic powers in these three new collections. Reviews by Andrea Hoag, Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

Scene New: Lit Mags

One of the benefits of attending AWP is getting to meet and discover “new” lit mags on the scene. As saddened as we so often are to hear of magazines folding under economic or other life constraints, it is at the same time with great joy that we see new mags crop up, with invigorated, often “youthful” labor, and somehow enough change in their pockets (or foraging skills) to get the publication started. Who knows where these fresh starts may end up; no doubt some of the long-standing lit mags have staff who remember their start-up days — before they went glossy, before they went 501c(3), before the .com, before finding a comfortable hold within academic walls, or perhaps after leaving academia behind… A smattering of new mags offering an infusion of hope include:

Alehouse, San Francisco, CA. Editor Jay Rubin, Contributing Editors Edward A. Dougherty, Kake Huck, and Gary Lessing.

Cannibal, Brooklyn, NY. Editors Matthew Henriksen (also of TYPO) and Katy Henriksen.

Cave Wall, Greensboro, NC. Editor Rhett Iseman.

New Ohio Review or /nor, Ohio University, Athens, OH. Managing Editor John Bullock.

Short Story, Columbia, SC. Editor Caroline Lord.

We wish these newbies the best in their endeavors, and hope to see them continue to grace our pages.

Poetry

The Spring 2007 Book Sense Picks Poetry Top Ten. “The list features a notable selection, including titles from a former U.S. poet laureate, a Nobel Prize winner, a Yale Series of Younger Poets winner, and comprehensive collections of two contemporary masters. The Poetry Top Ten is the result of strong support from booksellers, reflecting a deep level of knowledge and commitment.”

Bookstores :: Changing Hands PW’s Bookseller of the Year

Changing Hands Named PW’s Bookseller of the Year. Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, Arizona, has been named the recipient of the 15th annual Bookseller of the Year Award from Publishers Weekly. The bookstore, which celebrates its 33rd anniversary this year, is co-owned by Gayle Shanks, her husband, Bob Sommer, and Susie Brazil. PW reported that the store was nominated by Random House’s district sales manager, Ron Smith, who said, “The enthusiasm, energy and creativity of the people of Changing Hands Bookstore is what makes me look forward to each visit.”

Roger, roger!


Another lit mag face lift – er, name lift: roger, an art & literary magazine is the former Calliope (of Ampersand Press), still based out of Roger Williams University. While the current editorial staff remarks that “we will avail ourselves of the Internet with our Web site,” the site has yet to be “launched” (what’s there now isn’t much…). Still, the publication is “committed to hard copy,” so it would seem it’s just a matter of getting name, web space and print publication to fuse as one for this publication to become fluent in its efforts. For NewPages users, the sooner on the web presence, the better!

Two Lines Journal Crosses the Line


Two Lines: World Writing in Translation, part of the Center for the Art of Translation in San Francisco, CA, has published English translations of fiction and poetry from more than 50 languages for over a decade. Now, thanks to partnership with the University of Washington Press, this former journal has shed its ISSN to become a full-fledged ISBN’d book. “Better for distribution and sales,” says Promita Chatterji, Two Lines Marketing Administrator, and better as well as for the continued excessive content that burst the seams of the lit journal boundaries. (“Really, it’s a journal,” they would say, hefting it two-handed off the table at AWP to suspicious readers.) Our best to Two Lines on their new venture; we’ll miss them on the NewPages lit mag list.

Coleman Barks at AWP

Hearing Coleman Barks read at AWP Atlanta was the absolute highlight for me. I’ve read much of his translation of Rumi and only knew that of him. I was equally awed by his reading his own poetry that night – his non-Rumi poems. Not only is his delivery enough to carry you from the physical realm into the poetic ethereal, but his down-homey nature in his reading was like being wrapped in a cozy blanket on a cold winter’s eve. While reading, he would interject chuckles, amused by the memory of the line or the event therein reflected, and would add commentary, such as “This really happened,” as he talked the crowd of hundreds through his lines as though to a single friend over coffee. A smattering of his poetry with RealAudio recordings can be found on Courtland Review’s website. Coleman will be busy traveling this year, celebrating the 800th birthday of Rumi; if you’re lucky enough, you might be able to catch up with him.

Meena at AWP

Like most of those who attended AWP in Atlanta (Feb. 28 – Mar. 4), I’m still in hangover mode – and it has nothing (or at least little) to do with alcohol. My mind is still spinning with memories of meeting dozens of people, from teachers to publishers, students in MFA programs to published authors, and so many, many people who just wanted to stop by and say “Thanks” to NewPages for the work we do (likewise – I’m sure!). Yet, now sorting through my two boxes of lit mags to get listed, the first one I pulled out was one that most impressed me among new publications: Meena.

What makes the mag a standout is very concept of it: English/Egyptian works both in their original language and in translation (half the pub is English, the other half Arabic), with art throughout. From the pub site: “The word ‘meena’ means port, or port-of-entry, in Arabic, and that is exactly what we would like Meena to be: a port between our cities, our countries, our languages, our cultures. ‘We’ are a group of writers and artists based in the port cities of New Orleans and Alexandria but from all over the United States and Egypt (and beyond) who want to share our work with each other and with you.”

Given the global climate, this is a publication well worth checking out and including in course reading lists, library collections and just passing around the cafe.

Online lit mags

Wheelhouse Magazine Online launches its debut issue, Vol. 1, with contributions from fiction writers Jim Ruland, Nahid Rachlin, Mimi Albert, Diane Lefer, Curtis Harnack, Lourdes Vasquez; poetry from Tung Hui Hu, Pat Falk, Natasha Saje, Marilyn Taylor, and Jared Carter; visual arts by Daniel Johnston, Tom Carey, and Marc Leuthold; essayists Steve Heller and Sheyene Foster Heller.

Poetry

Poetry & Commitment by Adrienne Rich. Poets Against the War newsletter. “I’m both a poet and one of the ‘everybodies’ of my country. I live with manipulated fear, ignorance, cultural confusion and social antagonism huddling together on the faultline of an empire. I hope never to idealise poetry – it has suffered enough from that. Poetry is not a healing lotion, an emotional massage, a kind of linguistic aromatherapy. Neither is it a blueprint, nor an instruction manual, nor a billboard. There is no universal Poetry, anyway, only poetries and poetics, and the streaming, intertwining histories to which they belong.”

books and film

To sing like a mockingbird: A conversation with Nathaniel Dorsky

Michelle Silva: First I want to ask about your recent book Devotional Cinema. I think it’s some of the most thoughtful and introspective writing on the human experience of cinema and the physical properties we share with the medium — such as our internal visual experience, metaphor, and the art of seeing. What’s great about the book is that it’s accessible to people who aren’t well versed in cinema, but who might be interested in a deeper understanding of their own senses.
Nathaniel Dorsky: The basic ideas for the book were originally formulated because I was hired to teach a course on avant-garde film at UC Berkeley for a semester. I didn’t want to teach a survey course on avant-garde cinema; I didn’t think I could do that with real enthusiasm, I thought it would be a little flat. I decided that what was most interesting to me about avant-garde film — or at least the avant-garde films that I found most interesting — was a search for a language which was purely a filmic language.

New Way Forward

After reading the Webhost Study Group report prepared for us by some friends of my dad, and talking with advisors for and against our current situation, we have decided on a New Way Forward. The traffic to our site is too great for our current web host. So…

NewPages.com will be offline for a day or two near the 24th of December as we switch to a new web host. They say that’s the most we should be missing, but if it’s longer than that, keep trying & we’ll show back up. Those promises have been made.

Blogs

Jason Boog asks Susan Henderson: “The art of writing is evolving as print publications struggle and blogs multiply like rabbits. Your career has crossed both these worlds in interesting ways. In your experience, what makes your web writing different from your paper writing? Any advice for new writers looking to write a blog or website?”

Publishing

Kit Whitfield blogs from the UK on publishing “scams” and “fake publishing houses”, but the information is just as relevant in the US, as PublishAmerica is one company looked at. A big problem is that the majority of writers out there with their manuscript in one hand and their dreams of fame and riches in the other, will never read information such as this.

I’ve been doing a lot of research this month on indie publishers, and I’ve been finding a much larger number of companies that are will to help you “publish” your book than I realized existed. It is becoming a large marketplace, and there are fistsfull of cash to be extracted from naive authors.

So now we have some of the companies that will sell you the chance to win a meaningless book award (Yippie!) — that’s a whole ‘nuther scam to talk about someday — offering to help you “publish” your book with promises of promoting it to huge sales. Slick, ethics-free, websites make it all sound so simple.