We have what you’re looking for! Created by popular demand:

NewPages Guide to Graduate Creative Writing Programs

This page is “in progress.” If you know of a graduate school writing program that is not currently listed, please let us know. More information on listed programs will be posted in Sept. 2007. That is, as they say, the plan.

This page will also link to a larger list of creative writing programs, including undergrad programs and a list of annual creative writing conferences, workshops & retreats. Any not listed that you would like to see? Let us know!

As noted in a previous blog, Jessica Powers, author of the young adult novel The Confessional (Random House, July 2007) had been disinvited to speak at Cathedral High School in El Paso because her book contained “language” and sexual innuendos. The principal of the private, Catholic school spoke with an El Paso reporter for Newspaper Tree saying he felt “compelled to protect our kids [who begin attending at 13 years old] and our school.” Has this guy walked down his own hallways lately? Where does he think Jessica got the realistic teen behavior material for her book? Not only that, but didn’t these people actually READ her book before inviting her to speak?

Even so, it hardly seems the point, since Powers says she wasn’t going to speak about her book, but rather on the issues she writes about in the book: “immigration (illegal and legal); underlying racial tension in a border society like El Paso’s; violence and pacifism; social divisions between different groups of people; and faith or doubts about faith.” But, as Cathedral is a private rather than public school, its decision was regarded differently by Bobby Byrd, co-publisher and vice president of Cinco Puntos Press, who “said the decision for a private school to cancel a book event is a ‘whole different situation’ from public censorship. ‘The parents are essentially hiring the school to make certain decisions,’ he said. ‘If a teacher were teaching that book, then it would be a whole different decision.’ The decision to cancel the discussion may not have been the correct one, though, Byrd suggested. ‘To me it speaks of timidity,’ he added. ‘Literature is literature.'”

It was Jessica’s contention that her visit had been cancelled because of a coinciding visit to take place by U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. The cancellation itself was brought on, not by school members, but by Former Chief Justice Barajas – who I also doubt even read the book. Ironically enough, on August 12, Jessica made note in her blog that the superintendent of the schools actually gave her approval of the book: “Because of all the brouhaha, a teacher made sure the superintendent of Catholic schools in El Paso had a copy of the book. She read it and called the principal up and said she didn’t see what all the fuss was about. She said, ‘I don’t want our boys to talk this way…but they do.’ Former Chief Justice Barajas, the one who forced the cancellation of the event, had allegedly said this was an attack on the church and a threat. But a teacher who read it said, ‘Every time the boys get in trouble, they return to what they were taught. They pray, they go to confession….What else can you ask for?'”

Only what’s left to ask: WWJD?

A new batch of lit mag reviews has been posted. Go see: Literary Magazine Reviews.

Untitled, for a Good Reason
by Donovan Chase

What follows will make no sense.
I intend for this to happen,
And so it will.
I want my poem to be considered deep, so I’ll have it make no sense.
I’ll use random bits of
pretentious nonsense,
To make a point
That doesn’t exist…

[Read the rest on 24:7 Magazine.]
[Or don’t.]
[But then you’ll miss this part:

I’ll use “vague but disturbing imagery”
Like the idea of someone taking a cat
and putting it in a cheese taco
to make the poem seem to have meaning…]

[And other funny bits.]

Department of English and Shippensburg
University
Tenure-track assistant professor in Creative Writing (Poetry), full-time appointment beginning August 2008. MFA or PhD required by time of appointment. Candidates must demonstrate a commitment to teaching, service, and professional activity including published poetry (preferably a book). Twelve-hour course load each semester will include creative writing, other courses in the English major, and general education courses, with course reduction available for advising the student literary magazine. Additional teaching expertise in creative nonfiction and/or literary study desirable. The committee will request writing samples from selected candidates and may meet with these candidates at MLA. On-campus interviews will include a demonstration of teaching effectiveness and a brief poetry reading. Review of applications begins November 2, 2007, and will continue until the position is filled. View posting here.

63 Channels, an online literary/art magazine, is accepting submission for a Fall/Winter 2007 print issue as well as looking for writers and artists to be matched for their 2008 calendar project. Also looking at least two columnists and two or three book & music reviewers.

Now online: 27 rue del fleures – poetries by women. Featured in Issue Three, Summer 2007 are works by Kristin Abraham, Marcia Arrieta, Juliet Cook, Hildred Crill, Melissa DeGezelle, Karen Heywood, A.S. Morgan, Jess Neiweem, Rhonda Robison, Carly Sachs, Amanda Silbernagel, and Yvette Thomas.

A Midsummer Night’s Press announces two new annual anthologies: BEST GAY POETRY edited by Lawrence Schimel and BEST LESBIAN POETRY edited by Linda Alvarez. For the 2008 editions of this exciting new series celebrating the best in gay/lesbian poetry, A Midsummer Night’s Press invites submissions of poems published during 2007. Submission information here.

Students can request free copies of The Nation to pass out at campus events, meetings or protests. Go to their website to fill out the request form: Student Nation

The MacGuffin, established in 1984, is a national literary magazine from Schoolcraft College in Livonia, Michigan. Our journal is a 160 page 6” x 9” perfect bound collection of the best poetry, short fiction, and creative non-fiction that we receive. We also have artwork including black and white photos, prints, and drawings. We publish three issues yearly.

Along with the myriad ancient virtues of storytelling-giving pleasure, passing time, stimulating thought, connecting strangers — literature is a passport to places both real and imagined. In an increasingly interdependent world, rife with ignorance and incomprehension of other cultures, literature in translation has an especially important role.

Few literatures have truly prospered in isolation from the world. English-speaking culture in general and American culture in particular has long benefited from cross-pollination with other worlds and languages. Thus it is an especially dangerous imbalance when, today, 50% of all the books in translation now published worldwide are translated from English, but only 6% are translated into English.

Words Without Borders opens doors to international exchange through translation of the world’s best writing — selected and translated by a distinguished group of writers, translators, and publishing professionals — and publishing and promoting these works (or excerpts) on the web. We also serve as an advocacy organization for literature in translation, producing events that feature the work of foreign writers and connecting these writers to universities and the media.

Our ultimate aim is to introduce exciting international writing to the general public — travelers, teachers, students, publishers, and a new generation of eclectic readers — by presenting international literature not as a static, elite phenomenon, but a portal through which to explore the world. In the richness of cultural information we present, we hope to help foster a “globalization” of cultural engagement and exchange, one that allows many voices in many languages to prosper.

Words Without Borders is a partner of PEN American Center and the Center for Literary Translation at Columbia University, and is hosted by Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.

Got Doc’s CD in the mail and didn’t think much of it until I took a closer look at what exactly this “drummstick” is that he plays. This is some incredible technology! You can check out more at his site: www.drummstick.com and see other YouTube clips of him performing with other musicians.

If you haven’t been reading along as each story has been released, the full
Issue 21 is now available featuring stories by: Gretchen McCullough, Kay Sexton, JSun Howard, Amelia Gray, Dan Capriotti, Sung J. Woo, Terry White, Paula Bomer, Clifford Garstang, Emily M. Z. Carlyle, Joel Van Noord, Anthony Neil Smith, Laurie Seidler, and Josh Capps. Issue 22 will start in a week or so, with a new story released every 2-3 days.

The Dead Bird Elegy
By Martha Henry
Most of us have our own ways of avoiding the idea of death, if not the actual event itself. But we also have ways of confronting death, usually in a sideways way, like Zombie movies or estate planning. Then there are the traditional Buddhist methods, such as meditating on the uncertainty of the time of death or hanging out with fresh corpses in a charnel ground. Me, I take photographs of dead birds.

Read the rest, or listen to the the MP3 version, on tricycle: the independent voice of Buddhism.

Sarah Lawrence College seeks established nonfiction writers to fill two half-time tenure-track positions beginning in the fall of 2008. Teaching responsibilities include undergraduate and graduate nonfiction-writing workshops, regular individual tutorials with students, and supervision of M.F.A. theses. We are looking for candidates with an M.F.A. or equivalent, at least one published book, teaching experience at the undergraduate or graduate level, a demonstrated commitment to excellence in teaching, and a willingness to participate actively in the nonfiction-writing program and the academic life of the college.

Please send a letter of application, a C.V., samples of writing, and three letters of recommendation to Nonfiction Search, c/o Rosemary Weeks, Faculty Assistant, Sarah Lawrence College, 1 Mead Way, Bronxville, NY 10708. Applications should be postmarked by November 15, 2007.

Palabra: A Magazine of Chicano & Latino Literary Art invites submissions of short fiction, poetry, short plays and novel excerpts. Looking especially for work that pays attention to language as much as content, takes literary risks and explores new territory in Chicano & Latino literary art.

The first issue of the Delaware Poetry Review, an online magazine featuring new works from the Mid-Atlantic region, is now available. The inaugural issue features 23 poets. The Delaware Poetry Review was formed when the editors of five well-respected, award-winning journals in Delaware, Virginia, and Washington, DC (Bay Oak Press, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Bogg, Delmarva Quarterly, Delmarva Review, and Gargoyle) decided to collaborate on a new project together. Read it here: Delaware Poetry Review

Bent Pin Quarterly, an online journal, is seeking original poetry, flash fiction, essays and creative non-fiction for its Fall 2007 edition. Also needed: original submissions for two regular features: Story within Story, flash fiction (or other genre) that somehow nests two unfolding, releated stories; The Poem at Length, one longer poem, or a poem series. Bent Pin publishes online on January 1, April 1, July 1, October 1,and reads submissions year round. We are now reading for our Fall 2007 issue which will be published on Oct 1.

2008 Sandburg-Auden-Stein Residency
Intensive Learning Term poet-in-residence program, April 29-May 16, 2008
Poets who have published at least one book of poetry are eligible. Application deadline: Postmark by September 10, 2007

A Fading Taboo
By Donna Shaw
“Paper by paper, advertising is making its way onto the nation’s front pages and section fronts…Whatever the shape, size or hue, the long-unfashionable page-one advertisement is gaining grudging acceptance from many editors, page designers and even reporters.” Read the rest: American Journalism Review