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Other Words
by Richard Mathews
Introductory remarks,
Other Words Conference: March 4-5, 2005 Tallahassee, Florida
Some Opening Remarks about Vision
The title of our conference -- "Other
Words" -- encompasses the mission of the Florida Literary Arts
Coalition. However, as editors and writers, most of us know that the
best chosen words don't always mean what they first seem to say. Take
the Florida Literary Arts Coalition, for example. We are a group,
gathered in Florida, united by our purpose to advance the literary arts
-- but today our coalition includes participants from Alabama, Georgia,
Louisiana, New York, Minnesota, Michigan, and other states. Our
coalition is clearly larger than the geographic borders of a single
state. And the conference itself: its name is the gift of our
Tallahassee host Rick Campbell of Anhinga Press, who must have been
visited by the Muse when he coined the name "Other Words." We agreed at
once that it sounded right, and as this conference has taken shape -- as
I have thought more about the "Other Words" we have convened to explore
-- I have become more than ever convinced of the rightness and the
richness of the name. By "Other Words" we mean not only the independent
and alternative writing that conveys the living tradition and cutting
edge of contemporary American fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction;
we also mean the genuinely "other" words that shape our conscience,
consciousness, and vision in history, politics, journalism, science,
philosophy, and law.
Thinking of "Other Words" we are quickly
called to consider the wide scope and larger borders of the literary
arts. Like the participants from many states who have gathered here, the
"other words" in literary arts include great works in many areas -- from
theology and history to science and politics. The Declaration of
Independence, for example, is a superb work of American "other words,"
independently published, and an enduring literary achievement of the
highest order. More obviously or conventionally literary are the many
original works of prose and poetry that are taught in literature
classrooms -- and many of the those, too, have their origins in
independent or alternative publication. Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass"
is one of the best-known examples of poetic "other words" --
self-published -- that gave voice to a new American sensibility that
continues to inspire the poets and readers of today. Literary history is
full of examples of the impact of written words that found their way
into print and into the hands of their readers only through independent
or alternative modes of publication and distribution. Writers, editors,
publishers, and readers share common goals in nurturing and exploring
the means and the media through which literary arts are created and
enjoyed.
The Florida Literary Arts Coalition
affirms the significance and vitality of independent writing that moves
beyond the limits of a narrow definition of literary art. The creative
and unique expressions of thought in words that give voice to our
concepts and feelings, to our imagination and our dreams, have been and
must remain central to the aspirations of a free and civilized society.
And they are essential to the complex individuals who comprise it and
sustain it. With this realization, in the face of the myriad forces that
foster mass communication, popular culture, and global media
conglomerates, our coalition in support of the creation, publication,
and dissemination of independent, non-commercial literary arts gains a
special sense of relevance and urgency.
It has been said that in order to love,
one must come to know and embrace that which is truly "other." It has
also been said that only by knowing the "other" can we fully know
ourselves. With these thoughts in mind, this first conference of the
Florida Literary Arts Coalition is a chance to get to know one another
and to know ourselves, to share our ideas, ideals, and imaginations, to
celebrate our diversity, and to explore and delight in "other words."
(Excerpts from Other Words conference
welcome)
Richard Mathews is editor of Tampa Review,
Director of the University of Tampa Press, and Dana Professor of English
at the University of Tampa. He is the author of several critical books
about science fiction and fantasy writers, and his poetry has appeared
widely in magazines and anthologies. His most recent book of poems is
Numbery (Borgo Press, 1995).  |
Also from
Other Words
On Freeing Words
by R. M. Berry
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P.O. Box 1580