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In Memoriam :: Dorothy Sterling


Kid’s literature luminary Sterling dies at age 95
By Elaine Woo
Los Angeles Times

Dorothy Sterling, a significant figure in 20th century children’s literature for her well-researched portrayals of historical black Americans written decades before multiculturalism became mainstream, died Dec. 1 at her home in Wellfleet, Mass. She was 95.

A self-described accidental historian, Sterling wrote more than 35 books, among the best known of which is “Freedom Train: The Story of Harriet Tubman.” Published in 1954 and still in print, it was one of the first full-length biographies of a historic black figure written for children.

The author drew attention to more obscure but important figures in “Captain of the Planter: The Story of Robert Smalls” (1958), the first children’s biography of the slave who captured a Confederate gunboat during the Civil War. “The Making of an Afro-American: Martin Robison Delany” (1971) helped stir interest in the little-known abolitionist, Harvard-educated physician and early proponent of black nationalism…[read the rest here]

NewPages Updates :: December 20, 2008

The New Plains Review – poetry, fiction, essays and creative nonfiction
Sidebrow – poetry, prose, art
Holly Rose Review – poetry, tattoos
Wilderness House Literary Review – poetry, fiction, non-fiction, art, book reviews
Qarrtsiluni – non-fiction, poetry, and short fiction, photographs, digitized artwork, and short films
Buffalo Carp – poetry,short story, fiction, non-fiction, essays, playlets

Rain Taxi Online Auction

There’s still time left support Rain Taxi and get your bids in on signed first editions, gorgeous broadsides, rare chapbooks, seminal graphic novels, quirky collectible books, handcrafted items, and more! M.T. Anderson, John Ashbery, Paul Auster, Charles Bernstein, Robert Bly, Paul Bowles, Stephen Colbert, Samuel R. Delany, Neil Gaiman, Patricia Hampl, Richard Hell, Jaime Hernandez, Garrison Keillor, Jonathan Lethem, David Markson, Henry Miller, Rick Moody, Barack Obama, Ron Padgett, Jerome Rothenberg, Joe Sacco, Arthur Sze, Jeff Vandermeer, Anne Waldman, Keith and Rosmarie Waldrop, and Marjorie Welish are just some of the authors whose works you’ll find. To see the full listings, go to Rain Taxi’s online benefit auction.

Interviewing at AWP?

The Chronicle of Higher Ed has some advice “Conference Rookies: Preparing to attend your first big academic convention? Here’s what you need to consider,” by Julie Miller Vick, senior associate director of career services at the University of Pennsylvania, and Jennifer S. Furlong, associate director of graduate-student career development at Columbia University’s Center for Career Education.

Symposium & CFP :: Stepping Out

Stepping Out: Academics, Civic Engagement, and Activism

Miami’s English Graduate and Adjunct Association’s Symposium
The sixth annual symposium will be held Saturday, March 28th, 2009 at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

In a time of war and economic crisis, when people are suffering both locally and globally, what is the role of the academic and of higher education? The academy at large has been accused of living an insular existence, speaking only within disciplinary boundaries and rarely reaching the minds and bodies of those not admitted to higher education’s spaces. With this call, we hope to challenge the claim that the academy exists only for the academy’s sake as well as encourage collaboration and community-building across disciplinary and geographic divides that artificially mark sites of education.

CFP – See website. Deadline: Feb 15

Conference & CFP :: Waiting Time

Waiting Time
New York University
Department of Comparative Literature
Graduate Student Conference
April 17-19, 2009

Keynote Speaker: Marshall Berman

What are we waiting for? What awaits us? While often dismissed as a period of wastefulness or lost time, waiting may also intensify experience and become a condition in which to consider questions of modernity, aesthetic process, politics, erotics and the tempos of everyday life.

Amid other theorizations of time, history and eventfulness, waiting offers a thematic axis around which conversation among scholars from a wide range of disciplines and critical perspectives can emerge. How can we unsettle the received divide between waiting and action? Or given this divide, how can we re-think the relationship between the two? Beyond (in)activity, how might waiting also be conceived of as a mode of attention or practice?

CFP
Possible paper topics may include, but are by no means limited to:

-Messianism & eschatology
-Event & revolution
-Fidelity & trust
-Designing patience: waiting rooms, drawing rooms, prisons, train stations
-Style and technique: the pause (in music and beyond), rest, suspense, seriality
-Waiting Faster: technologies of convenience, speed, acceleration
-Bureaucracy: legal process, immigration, the post, (un)employment, drudgery
-Sickness & convalescence
-Ennui, anxiety, boredom, killing time
-Erotics of waiting: desire and deferral, chastity, courtly love, chivalric romance, sexual suspense
-Gestation, inspiration, latency
-Hope, fate, & inevitability
-Progress, process, & telos
-Revenge & ressentiment
-Waiting nations: birth, belatedness, & modernization
-Military strategy: ambush attack
-Immigration & exile

Please send a 300-word paper abstracts due January 20, 2009 via email to WaitingTime.Spring2009_at_gmail.com.

Zombie Fans

You’ll love Frederik Peeters celebrity art on Portraits as Living Deads blog. That’s Buddy Holly, by the way, in case the glasses didn’t give him away.

Jobs :: Normandale CC

Message from Kris Bigalk@Normandale CC:

I wanted to let you know about three positions that are opening up at Normandale Community College in Bloomington, Minnesota this year, in the event that you or someone you know is looking for a full-time teaching position. We are hiring a Visiting Scholar in Creative Writing (a one-year appointment) and three unlimited full-time English generalist positions.

Our AFA in Creative Writing program is growing, and we are adding a Certificate in Creative Writing program this spring; currently, we offer at least one section of five or more different creative writing courses each semester,including Intro to Creative Writing, Poetry Writing, Fiction Writing, Play and Screen Writing, and Memoir/Creative Nonfiction Writing, and serve over 400 students per year in creative writing courses alone. Our other English offerings are also robust, and include several levels of composition, as well as a variety of literature courses. Normandale’s enrollment is around 10,000 students per year.

For more information on necessary qualifications, please see the links below. The application deadline is January 15, so act fast. Feel free to forward this to others, or to e-mail Kris with any questions – Kris.Bigalk-at-normandale.edu

Visiting Scholar in Creative Writing

Three Unlimited Full-time English Positions

Every Best of 2008

Looking for the “Best of 2008” book lists? Look no further, as Largehearted Boy has gone obsessive in collecting them all! I don’t have an exact count, but I’d say he’s got over 200 online sources on that list – and growing.

Largehearted Boy is a music blog featuring daily free and legal music downloads as well as news from the worlds of music, literature, and pop culture. LB has run best-of music lists, but this year is “aggregating 2008 year-end online book lists in this post and updating the list daily as new lists are added.” He welcomes you to send along a link to lists not on his, well, list.

Girls Write Now :: Maude Newton

Thanks to Maude Newton for posting her support for Girls Write Now on her blog, along with a video of one of writers from the program reading. Newton just joined the board of directors with Girls Write Now, a mentor writing program in New York city for young girls at risk. If you visit the video on YouTube, there are many other clips there from this same reading. But, if after watching Emily’s clip, My Name is Not My Sky – you aren’t in some way compelled to support this program (not just monetarily), or find ways to get involved with young writers, well, I just gotta wonder…

Conference & CFP :: Navigating the Body

Navigating the Body
Spaces, Mapping, and Embodiment
University of Virginia Department of English
Graduate-Student Conference
March 20-22, 2009

The Graduate English Student Association at the University of Virginia is hosting a Spring conference on “Spaces, Mapping, and Embodiment.” This conference is intended to cross several periods and disciplines within the humanities, and to engage with recently opened critical conversations on such issues as: theories and forms of cultural, literary and literary-historical mapping; history and historiography; sexuality and gender; the designation and re-designation of national, political, and cultural spaces; and embodied and performative modes of history and memory.

CFP Deadline: Jan 23

Study Abroad :: Summer Literary Seminars

Summer Literary Seminars is now accepting applications for their new programs in Italy (May 15-30, 2009) and Lithuania (July 20 – August 4, 2009). Academic credit is available through Concordia University. SLS produces a blended program of workshops, lectures and unique cultural experiences. Deadline: April 15, 2009.

AWP Student Volunteers

For students interested in attending the AWP in Chicago (February 11-14, 2009) who are also trying to save some cash, volunteer for one four-hour shift in exchange for your reg fee. For more info, click here – soon, while shifts are still available.

Fellowship :: Black Mountain

Black Mountain offers nine-month fellowships to published writers and public intellectuals. The program accepts applications from novelists, poets, playwrights, historians, political scientists, independent scholars, and anyone else whose work is meant for a general, educated lay audience. Black Mountain awards three to five fellowships each year to outstanding writers who have published at least one critically acclaimed book before the time of application. Foreign nationals conversant in English are welcome to apply. There are no degree requirements. Fellows receive a $50,000 stipend, an office, a computer, and access to UNLV’s Lied Library. They remain in residence at BMI for the duration of the fellowship term (approximately August 24, 2009 to May 14, 2010) and work daily at the BMI offices. Application deadline: February 1, 2009.

Fellowships :: Terra Foundation

For the ninth consecutive year, the Terra Foundation for American Art is offering ten summer fellowships to artists and scholars from the United States and Europe. These fellowships are awarded to doctoral students engaged in research on American art and to artists who have completed their studies at masters level (or the equivalent). Each Terra Summer Fellow is provided with lodging and study or studio space, daily lunches and a program consisting of independent study, meetings and seminars. During their eight-week stay, senior artists and scholars are in residence to mentor the fellows and to pursue their own work. As Giverny is located less than an hour from Paris, fellows have easy access to the limitless cultural and academic resources of the French capital. Deadline January 15, 2009.

Residency :: Hambidge

The Hambidge Residency Program provides setting, solitude and time for creative individuals working in a wide variety of creative disciplines: visual arts, design, music, dance, writing. Fellowships are offered for two to eight week residencies, year round, except for the month of January. Fellows enjoy the gift of life without every-day distractions, in individual cottage/studios. These sanctuaries are scattered across our 600 acre setting of mountain forests, streams, waterfalls, hiking trails and wildflower meadows in Rabun Gap, Georgia.

Application Deadlines:
January 15, 2009 for May thru August
April 15, 2009 for September thru November
September 15, 2009 for December thru April, 2010

Art on Eating

Visit images from the work in progress: “I Am What I Ate” by Louis Dunn currently showing in Alimentum Journal‘s online gallery.

Alexie Book Removed

Funny how in the span of a week, I can post a video of Alexie receiving a National Book Award and now this article about the removal of his book from a high school curriculum. I think a letter of concern would be a good holiday gift to send a few people involved:

Jeff Landaker is the board chair who, it is reported, despite the complainants not following proper procedure by first talking with the teacher and going instead directly to the board, supports the ban.
[email protected]

Jim Golden is the Principal of the school. Golden was reportedly opposed to banning the book.
[email protected]

Rich Shultz is the superintendent of the schools.
[email protected]

Crook County removes book from schools after parent complains
by Helen Jung
Thursday December 11, 2008
The Oregonian

Sherman Alexie’s book has raised some concerns in the Crook County school district. The Crook County School District has temporarily removed a book from classrooms after one parent complained to the school board that the National Book Award winner was “trashy” and “inappropriate.”

Written by Sherman Alexie, “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” which is based on Alexie’s own experiences, follows a boy who leaves the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white school “where the only other Indian is the school mascot” according to the book jacket description…[read the rest here]

Jobs :: Various

One-year appointment for emerging writer lecturer at Gettysburg College beginning August 2009, for a creative writer who plans a career that involves college-level teaching, to teach three courses per semester, including Introduction to Creative Writing and an advanced course in the writer’s genre, as well as to assist with departmental writing activities. Jan 30.

Emory University Two-year Creative Writing Fellowship in poetry in lively undergraduate English/Creative Writing Program, beginning fall 2009. Feb 2.

MSU Mankato English/Creative Writing – Fiction, Assistant Professor. Jan 23.

American University Department of Literature in the College of Arts & Sciences invites applications for two tenure-track positions in Creative Writing/Fiction & Creative Non-fiction beginning fall 2009. Jonathan Loesberg, Chair, Department of Literature. Until filled. Interviews AWP

Wichita State University Distinguished Writer-in-Residence. Temporary one-month position for a writer of fiction to teach a tutorial course to approximately 15 graduate & advanced undergraduate fiction writing students. Margaret Dawe, Chair, Department of English. Feb 15.

California Institute of the Arts MFA Writing Program, based in the School of Critical Studies, invites applications for a regular faculty position (two courses per semester) in fiction and/or creative non-fiction. Jan 5.

Lyon College seeks a distinguished writer of fiction for its 4th biennial Visiting Fellowship in Creative Writing (fiction), a semester-long residency scheduled during the autumn 2009 semester. April 1.

Wichita State University Distinguished Poet-in-Residence. Temporary one-month position for a writer of poetry to teach a tutorial course to approximately 15 graduate & advanced undergraduate poetry writing students. Margaret Dawe, Chair, Department of English. Feb 15.

Grinnel College two-year leave replacement position in the English Department in Fiction Writing. Professor Ralph Savarese, Department of English. Jan 16.

New Lit on the Block :: experiment-o

experiment-o is published annually as a PDF magazine “with the aim of bringing attention to works that do what art is supposed to do and that is to risk.” Amanda Earl of AngelHousePress is behind this new project, and the first issue contains what appear to be several AHP regulars, though the publication is open for submissions.

experiment-o will consider interviews, reviews, visual art, visual poetry, concrete poetry, poetry, prose, manifestos, maps, rants, blog entries, translations and other digital miscellany. Only contributions that are possible in PDF form will be considered.

Issue 1 features: Gary Barwin, Camille Martin, rob mclennan, Pearl Pirie, Roland Prevost, Jenny Sampirisi, Emily A. Falvey, Steve Venright, and Spencer Gordon.

Watercolors :: Candy Witcher


I came across Witcher’s work published in the most recent issue of the Wilderness House Literary Review – an online with a print annual. I’m a sucker for watercolors, and these images won me over. It’s worth checking out Witcher’s site as well; the Elephant Eye pencil drawing is especially worth a gaze.

You Had Me at Cello

The newest issue of The Hudson Review (Autumn 2008), celebrating its 60th anniversary, includes a CD: “Poetry into Music with Dana Gioia.” The CD includes the intro track with Gergory Hesselink on cello and baritone, Leon Williams. Dana Gioia speaks on intermittent “Conversations” tracks between combined singers and musicians. A great holiday gift (if you’re STILL shopping).

Film :: Rwanda Film Festival

In East Africa, a new generation of storytellers is emerging. For the first time in history, Rwandans are using film and an inflatable screen to tell their own stories, in their own language. A film festival in which “the theater is coming to you…”

Film Festival: Rwanda is a feature-length documentary that follows Rwandan filmmakers producing their own films, and screening them in remote villages for hundreds to thousands of people. For many Rwandans, this is the first time they’ve seen a film, let alone one in their local language, “Kinyarwanda”.

Rather than re-examining the past, these young storytellers are using film to project a positive vision of their country’s future. Their motivation, energy and creativity, inspired us to start following them last year.

17 Years Ago Today

This short preface to the Winter 2009 issue of Glimmer Train was a nice look back. It’s not a birthday or anniversary, just years of living life and saying, Whew! it’s been a long road, a hard road, and a bad road, and a good road: “Seventeen years ago we published our first issue of Glimmer Train Stories. The Gulf War had just ended, the Soviet Union was collapsing, the first-ever documented South Atlantic tropical cyclone developed in the Southern Hemisphere, the Dow passed 3000 for the first time, Tim Berners-Lee released an article describing his idea for the World Wide Web, and the first President Bush was in the final year of his presidency. We’re sending this issue to press just weeks before the November 4 election, an old chapter closing and a new one pushing open. And for the two of us, as well: We have now both crossed into our second half-century, and life is a compelling as it’s ever been. It’s good being alive, being sisters, and doing this work.” Susan and Linda – keep it going girls!

Nobel Winner Exhibits Art

Museo Wurth La Rioja hosts After the Flood an Exhibition by Gao Xingjian
From Art Knowledge News

AGONCILLO-LA RIOJA, SPAIN – Museo Wurth La Rioja presents the exhibition After the Flood, which brings together the work by the prestigious Chinese artist Gao Xingjian (Ganzhou, China, 1940), 2000 Nobel Prize in Literature. A selection of 80 recently created artworks, including ink paintings on canvas and paper. Regarded as one of the most important Chinese writers at present, Gao Xingjian still is not well known as a painter in Spain, although he is recognized by the international art scene and his oeuvre was previously exhibited at the Reina Sofia Museum (Madrid, 2002). His work has been presented in several solo and group exhibitions in Europe, Asia and the United States, and is included in important art collections around the world. [Read the rest on Art Knowledge News]

Life Photos Online

LIFE photo archive hosted by Google
Search millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, stretching from the 1750s to today. Most were never published and are now available for the first time through the joint work of LIFE and Google.

Dr. Seuss Secrets…Shhhh…

10 Stories Behind Dr. Seuss Stories
by Stacy Conradt
Mental Floss
November 16, 200

Okay, I’ll give away number one, but fans of Horton and Cat, visit the site:

1. The Lorax. In case you haven’t read The Lorax, it’s widely recognized as Dr. Seuss’ take on environmentalism and how humans are destroying nature. The logging industry was so upset about the book that some groups within the industry sponsored The Truax, a similar book—but from the logging point of view. Another interesting fact: the book used to contain the line, “I hear things are just as bad up in Lake Erie,” but 14 years after the book was published, the Ohio Sea Grant Program wrote to Seuss and told him how much the conditions had improved and implored him to take the line out. Dr. Seuss agreed and said that it wouldn’t be in future editions. [Sorry Seuss, but we need the line back for those bastards…]

Red Hen Press Holiday Sale

Red Hen Press is offering some sweet deals for the holidays, including select titles at 40% off until December 31, and one-year gift subscriptions for the upcoming publishing year – you can get select poetry (12 titles) or prose (8 titles), as well as a catalog subscription (20 titles!).

As with any of these great publisher deals, if not for you or a loved one, don’t forget your local library, public school, care homes, prison reading programs, community centers, ETC! Share the love of READING!

Geof Huth on VisoPoetry

The November 2008 issue of Poetry features a nice, full-color photo section on visual poetry. You can read Geof Huth’s commentary on Poetry’s website, but for the full visual imagery, you’ve got to get your hands on a copy.

“Few visual poems these days function as poems do. Instead, they encompass a wide range of verbo-visual creations that focus on the textual materiality of language. The form includes poems written as mathematical equations, collage poems, xerographic pieces that include no words but concentrate on the meaning that has built up within the shapes of letters, and even asemic writings in invented scripts created to mean through shape rather than word. Visual poetry is written for the eye, but its methods and intentions, even in those works most limited in their verbal content, are always poetic, always compelling the reader forward into the transformative power of language, always entranced by—and entrancing through—the text that is before us.” (pictured: “jHegaf” by Geof Huth)

New Lit on the Block :: The Honey Land Review

The Honey Land Review is a contemporary web journal dedicated to the poetry and photography of both emerging and established artists.

The Honey Land Review has designed a spotlight feature to highlight the work of current graduate students. Their intention is to maintain a forum where graduate students can showcase their work as well as provide some insight into the many wonderful creative writing programs available to writers today.

HLR is open for submission Dec – Sept.

[photo by Christina Ebel, featured in HLR]

e-Poetry Festival :: Barcelona


E-Poetry Festival
5th Annual
Universitat Obertat de Catalunya (UOC)
Barcelona
May 24-27, 2009

E-Poetry is both a conference and a festival on digital poetry. The festival is the most significant digital literary gathering in the field. Authors and researchers worldwide meet and present their researches and works. This will permit researchers to present their latest research and artists to premier their newest works. A selection of the papers will be published after the conference following the peer review system and we will also like to publish proceedings of the conference.

Artistic events will take place at key Barcelona venues such as the Barcelona Center for Contemporary Culture (CCCB), providing authors the opportunity to present their works to a public curious about new poetry and artistic trends employing technology and communication during the Setmana de la Poesia, that is also sharing a part of our artistic program.

Katherine Hayles (Duke), Roberto Simanowski (Brown University) and Jean Clément (Université Paris 8) have already accepted to be key-note speakers.

The UOC’s research group Hermeneia with the collaboration of Electronic Poetry Center (University of Buffalo) and the Laboratoire Paragraph (Univ. Paris VIII) will organize the event.

Papers and works for the Conference & the Festival are currently being accepted. Deadline December 1, 2008.

Tupelo Holiday Sale

Just in time for the holidays: every full-length paperback book is $10.00 from now until January 1, 2009, when ordered directly from the Tupelo Press website.

New Lit on the Block :: Holly Rose Review

The Holly Rose Review is a unique online journal featuring poetry and tattoos – Honest! – on the theme of “Peace.” Not only will readers find text and images, but recordings of some of the authors reading their own works.

Issue 1 features: Lori Schreiner, Karen Neuberg, Jane Wohl, Cyril Wong, Maxime Lanouette, Arlene Ang, Lane Falcon, Beatrix Gates, Rhonda Palmer, Scott Corbin, Debbi Brody, Danny Bellinger, Santi Ruiz, Mani Rao, Jon Gerhard, Robin King, John Bloomberg-Rissman, Maria Williams-Russell, Tony Gibert, Donnell McGee, Peter Joseph Gloviczki, Simon Petkovich.

Submission are being accepting for Issue Two on the theme of “Passion” according to the following dates: December 1, 2008, to April 30, 2009, for tattoos, and February 1 to April 30, 2009 for poetry.

New Lit on the Block :: Sidebrow

Sidebrow is an online & print journal dedicated to innovation & collaboration. Sidebrow provides a forum for exploring the collective and the singular in literary arts. Submissions that re-imagine or explore interstices between posted pieces or respond to ongoing projects are encouraged.

The first issue of Sidebrow includes an impressive lineup: Jenny Allan, A.K. Arkadin, Jeff Bacon, Andrea Baker, Julia Bloch,Lawrence Ytzhak Braithwaite, Nick Bredie, Amina Cain, Kate Hill Gantrill, Nona Gaspers, Jimmy Chen, Kim Ghinquee. John Cleary, Steve Dalachinsky, Catherine Daly, Brett Evans, Brian Evenson, Raymond Farr, Sandy Florian, Paul Gacioch, Anne Germanacos, Scott Glassman, Noah Eli Gordon, Paul Hardacre, HL Hazuka, Anne Heide, Malia Jackson, Carrie-Sinclair Katz, Susanna Kittredge, Richard Kostelanetz, Kristine Leja Norman Lock, Doug MacPherson, Scott Malby, Bob Marcacci, Bill Marsh, rob mclennan, LJ Moore, Greg Mulcahy, Cathi Murphy, Eireene Nealand, Daniel Pendergrass, Kristin Prevallet, kathryn 1. pringle, Stephen Ratcliffe, Francis Raven, AE Reiff, Daniel C. Remein, Elizabeth Robinson, Zach Savich, Len Shneyder, Nina Shope, Kyle Simonsen, Ed Skoog, Jason Snyder, Anna Joy Springer, Chris Stroffolino, Cole Swensen, Joanne Tracy, Chris Tysh, Nico Vassilakis, James Wagner, Derek White, Joshua Marie Wilkinson, and Angela Woodward.

Thomas Lynch on Paper Cuts

One of my all-time favorite writers and human beings in general: Thomas Lynch – given the “Stray Questions” by Gregory Cowles on the NYT Paper Cuts blog.

How much time — if any — do you spend on the Web? Is it a distraction or a blessing?

“The Web is like having my favorite haunts — library and post office, theater and gallery, newsroom, museum and archives — all in the same stone’s throw. No less the mall, casino and bawdy house; but those are dissipations I’ve, for the most part, avoided. For pure pleasure, an hour’s mousing around dictionary.com is hard to better.”

Read the rest here.

New at West Branch

West Branch Editor Paula Closson Buck introduces a few new names to the publication starting with this latest issue – Fall/Winter 2008. New Advisory Editors include Shara McCallum, Chris Camuto, Deidre O’Connor, Robert Rosenberg, and G. C. Waldrep. Dinty Moore will become a contributing editor drumming up creative nonfiction submissions. And a new feature from Contributing Editor Garth Greenwell will be the annual column “To a Green Thought” – this issue includes the first installment: “Beauty’s Canker: On Jorie Grahma.” (Linked because it’s generously available full-text on the WB site.)

Writing Workshops :: NY and Italy

A fun way to see Italy: Peter Selgin’s Annual Writing Workshop in Vitorchiano, Italy. He also has another weekend workshop he does in the Catskill Mountains, NY, for those not looking to travel abroad..

Calls from Home

Join the ninth annual CALLS FROM HOME radio broadcast for prisoners.

Thousand Kites is asking you to call their toll-free line 877-518-0606 and speak directly to those behind bars this holiday season. An answering machine will record your message. Read a poem, sing a song, or just speak directly from you heart. Speak to someone you know or to everyone – make it uplifting. Call anytime, now through December 9, and record your message.

The United States has 2.4 million people behind bars. Thousand Kites wants you to lend your voice to a powerful grassroots radio broadcast that reaches into our nation’s prison and lets those inside know they are not forgotten.

Each call will be posted to the website as it comes in.

CALLS FROM HOME will broadcast on over 200 radio stations across the country and be available for download from their website on December 13. This is a project of Thousand Kites/WMMT-FM/Appalshop and a national network of grassroots organizations working for criminal justice reform.

Jobs :: Various

The Department of English at the American University of Sharjah is seeking a full-time faculty member. Dec 28. Dean William H Heidcamp: cashr-at-aus.edu

Indiana State University tenure-track assistant professor. Dec 1 until filled.

Northwestern University Simon Blattner Visiting Assistant Professorship in fiction. Mary Kinzie, Director of Creative Writing, Department of English.

Georgia College & State University Limited Term Temporary Creative Writer. Mary Kinzie, Director of Creative Writing, Department of English. Dec 15.

Columbia College Chicago visiting poet for the Elma Stuckey Liberal Arts and Sciences Emerging Poet-in-Residence. Feb 15 deadline.

Concordia College-Moorhead Fiction Writing Assistant Professor, tenure-track. Dec 10 until filled.

Visiting Poet at the University of Missouri-St. Louis MFA Program for the spring semester of 2010. Karen Bartoni, Department of English. Jan 9.

Western State College of Colorado invites applications for a Creative Writing tenure-track position in English starting August 2009. Jan 26.

Bowdoin College Department of English invites applications for a tenure-track/tenured position in creative writing (fiction & creative non-fiction). Elizabeth Muther, Chair, Department of English. Dec 15 until filled.

NewPages Updates :: December 07, 2008

Polyphony H.S. – fiction, nonfiction, poetry
Annalemma – prose, art
a s l o n g a s i t t a k e s – poetry
10×3 plus – poetry
Amoskeag – fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, art
HeartLodge – poetry
A Cappella Zoo – poetry, fiction, drama, art
Matrix – poetry, fiction
Black & White Journal for the Arts – fiction, non-fiction, poetry, art

In Memoriam ;: Forrest J Ackerman

Sci-fi’s grand old man, Forrest J Ackerman, dies
By John Rogers
SouthFlorida.com

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Forrest J Ackerman, the sometime actor, literary agent, magazine editor and full-time bon vivant who discovered author Ray Bradbury and was widely credited with coining the term “sci-fi,” has died. He was 92.

Ackerman died Thursday of heart failure at his Los Angeles home, said Kevin Burns, head of Prometheus Entertainment and a trustee of Ackerman’s estate.

Although only marginally known to readers of mainstream literature, Ackerman was legendary in science-fiction circles as the founding editor of the pulp magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland. He was also the owner of a huge private collection of science-fiction movie and literary memorabilia that for years filled every nook and cranny of a hillside mansion overlooking Los Angeles.

“He became the Pied Piper, the spiritual leader, of everything science fiction, fantasy and horror,” Burns said Friday.

Read more here.

Visual Arts Submissions Sought

PRISM is extending the deadline for its Spring 2009, Visual Arts theme issue!

Deadline for Visual Arts Issue Extended
November 19, 2008 3:31PM
New deadline: December 15, 2008

Send your writing (poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction) about art, art about writing, creative projects that involve both, and conversations between artists and writers.

PRISM is also seeking compelling illustrations for our inside pages.

All submissions should be sent to:

PRISM international
Creative Writing Program, UBC
Buch. E462 – 1866 Main Mall
Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z1
Canada

Please indicate Visual Arts Theme Issue in your cover letter. Regular submission guidelines apply.

Disability Nation Charge :: Where Were You on Prop 8?

Commentary: Why PWD Need To Care About Prop 8
Submitted by Erika Jahneke
Disability Nation
November 18, 2008

“I have often thought that people with disabilities and people who are gay should be natural allies, even before all of the No on Proposition 8 protests and the subsequent rallies after election day started across the nation. The protests bring back memories of ADAPT actions I’ve been involved with in the past…

“I’ve had many amazing gay attendants, who each contributed in their own way to expanding my worldview beyond my suburban upbringing, and I owe them a great debt, as well as to many of my online friends, whose only agenda for me is that I do what makes my life better, and I’m feeling like they all got maligned on Election Day. I’m not okay with that. And, of course, many disabled people are gay, bisexual, or transgendered, and we should make it abundantly clear that anyone who tries to take their rights away has a fight with all of us. Yes, it’s a pain, but just think of it as a gift-with-purchase for the time we spent together on Hitler’s shit list…”

Read the rest on Disability Nation.

Will Read for Food

The 14th anniversary of Will Read for Food, the annual program of readings by local authors to benefit Greensboro charities, was held Thursday, November 20th, at the Weatherspoon Auditorium as The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Featured writers were Michael Parker, Stuart Dischell, Craig Nova, Terry Kennedy, Jennifer Grotz, Mark Smith-Soto, Allison Seay, and Lee Zacharias. The event raised $1,100 for the Glen Haven Community Development Center, which serves immigrant and refugee populations.

The event was recorded and photographed by Tina Firesheets and Jerry Wolford of the Greensboro News & Record.

Listen to each of the readings here.

Resource :: Jobs Fellowships Scholarships

Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship
The fundamental objective of MMUF is to increase the number of minority students, and others with a demonstrated commitment to eradicating racial disparities, who will pursue PhDs in core fields in the arts and sciences. The Program aims to reduce over time the serious under-representation on the faculties of individuals from certain minority groups, as well as to address the attendant educational consequences of these disparities.

The MMUF website includes a bibliography of dissertations, books, and articles, and updated lists of jobs, fellowships, scholarships, programs, and grad and post-doc programs.