The Beat Studies Association invites proposals for papers on all aspects of Beat literature and Beat studies for the two panels the association anticipates sponsoring at this year’s American Literature Association Conference (May 21-24 in Boston). Proposals of one to two pages (250-500 words) should be sent electronically to Tim Hunt at tahunt-at-ilstu.edu by January 2, 2009.

The Beat Studies Association would especially welcome proposals that engage understudied figures central to or related to the Beats and proposals that consider the significance of current and emerging critical paradigms for study of the Beats.

Sci-fi special: Is science fiction dying?
by Marcus Chown
New Scientist
12 November 2008

Chown takes a look at the current state of SciFi lit and includes a section from each of six leading science fiction authors who comment on where they think the genre is going: Margaret Atwood, Stephen Baxter, William Gibson, Ursula K Le Guin, Kim Stanley Robinson, and Nick Sagan.

The Bolin Fellowships are two-year residencies at Williams College, and three scholars or artists are appointed each year. Fellows devote the bulk of the first year to the completion of dissertation work—or in the case of MFA applicants, building their professional portfolios—while also teaching one course as a faculty member in one of the College’s academic departments or programs. The second year of residency (ideally with degree in hand) is spent on academic career development while again teaching just one course.

Gaius Charles Bolin was the first black graduate of Williams. The fellowship program was founded in 1985, on the centennial of his admission to the College.

Poetry program heads to court
NEC sues over exit of director to N.J. school
By AnnMarie Timmns
Concord Monitor
November 23, 2008

New England College is about to lose its status as the one school in the country with a poetry-only master’s degree program. And administrators blame the program’s former director, who they say stole NEC’s faculty and students and re-created its program at Drew University in New Jersey… [read the rest here]

Nigel Beale is a writer/broadcaster who specializes in literary journalism. In his role as host of The Biblio File he has interviewed Nobel, Man Booker, IMPAC, and many other Award and Prize winning authors; plus publishers, booksellers, editors, book collectors, librarians, conservators, illustrators… He has recently interviewed James Meek’s on We are now Making our Decent; Nam Le, this year’s winner of the Dylan Thomas Prize; Rebecca Rosenblum, Nam Le, and Anne Enright on those qualities which Flannery O’Connor thought best constituted a good short story; Rawi Hage 2008 IMPAC Award Winner; and many more.

We’re Not Worthy
By David Kelly
NYT PaperCuts
November 24, 2008

I stole an idea from Rolling Stone a couple of months ago, so now I’ll swipe one from Entertainment Weekly. That magazine is conducting a survey called “Recall the Gold,” in which voters pick some of the most undeserving Academy Award winners. Kevin Costner, be prepared to cough up your Oscar. You, too, Roberto Benigni.

Which literary-award winners have been the most undeserving? Good luck ripping the Pulitzer away from Margaret Mitchell or Herman Wouk. When it comes to Nobel laureates, of course, the list is almost endless…[read the rest here]

Literature E-Reference Ratings
The purpose of this tool is to provide an overview and evaluations of some of the most well-known and respected subscription-based electronic resources in 14 subject categories. Each database is rated based on the seven criteria librarians consider the most when making purchasing decisions. Covered in this category: American literature; British literature; world literature; literary biography; literary criticism; fiction; poetry; drama; readers’ advisory (RA) tools.

By Lauren Lampasone
Library Journal
November 15, 2008

Infinity’s Kitchen is a graphic literary journal featuring experimental writing and art. The publication is online and in print. “We’d like to cook up a tasty mishmash of words, sounds and images, using whichever ingredients seem best.” Infinity’s Kitchen is an independent publication of essays, fiction, poetry, art and whatever else that’s cooking. It is a place for creative people to work out their ideas. They’re an arts and letters publication with a focus on the experimental and the avant-garde. Some of their influences include DaDa magazines and manifestos, Futurist publications, UbuWeb, Ray Gun Magazine.

HMH Places “Temporary” Halt on Acquisitions
By Rachel Deahl
Publishers Weekly
November 24, 2008

It’s been clear for months that it will be a not-so-merry holiday season for publishers, but at least one house has gone so far as to halt acquisitions. PW has learned that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has asked its editors to stop buying books.

Josef Blumenfeld, v-p of communications for HMH, confirmed that the publisher has “temporarily stopped acquiring manuscripts” across its trade and reference divisions. The directive was given verbally to a handful of executives and, according to Blumenfeld, is “not a permanent change.” Blumenfeld, who hedged on when the ban might be lifted, said that the right project could still go to the editorial review board. He also maintained that the the decision is less about taking drastic measures than conducting good business… [read the rest here]

HTML GIANT is playing Secret Santa as a way to support independent literature. Sign up now, and you’re name will be exchanged with another participant. The gift-giving is anything indie lit – subscriptions to magazines, books from indie publishers, a print anthology from online publications, etc. Deadline for getting your name in the exchange is December 5.

The fourteenth annual Literary Review Bad Sex in Fiction Awards took place last week. The awards were set up by Auberon Waugh with the aim of gently dissuading authors and publishers from including unconvincing, perfunctory, embarrassing or redundant passages of a sexual nature in otherwise sound literary novels. Previous winners include Tom Wolfe, AA Gill, Sebastian Faulks, and Melvyn Bragg. Read the winner as well as shortlisted passages here.

a s l o n g a s i t t a k e s, is a sound poetry magazine published by the Atlanta Poets Group. They publish sound poetry, scores for sound poetry and essays on sound poetry.

“What is ‘sound poetry’? It’s one of those know it when you see (hear) it kind of things. It’s probably not music (thanks Dick Higgins). It might be noise. If you think about a spectrum of possible noise made by the human body (or simulations thereof or substitutions therefor), and at one end of the spectrum is a person reading her poem and at the other end is abstract noise…”

a s l o n g a s i t t a k e s prefers works that fall towards the latter end.

Just posted, issue two includes work by Adachi Tomomi, the Atlanta Poets Group (performing a piece by Michael Basinski and some Love Songs by Bruce Andrews), Gary Barwin (alone and with Gregory Betts), Michael Basinski, David Braden, Craig Dongoski, Brian Howe, Maja Jantar (alone and with Vincent Tholome), e k rzepka, Larissa Shmailo, and Mathew Timmons (performing a Hugo Ball poem).

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has designated Iowa City, Iowa, the world’s third City of Literature, making the community part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network.

“This is at once a celebration of the literary riches and resources of Iowa City and a spur to action,” said University of Iowa International Writing Program Director Christopher Merrill, who led the UI Writing University committee that submitted the city’s proposal. “We look forward to working with our new partners in the Creative Cities network — to forging dynamic relationships with writers, artists and others committed to the life of discovery. This is a great day for Iowa City.”

Iowa City joins Edinburgh, Scotland, and Melbourne, Australia, as UNESCO Cities of Literature. Other cities in the Creative Cities Network – honoring and connecting cultural centers for cinema, music, crafts and folk arts, design, media arts and gastronomy, as well as literature – include Aswan, Egypt; Santa Fe, N.M.; Berlin, Germany; Montreal, Canada; Popayan, Colombia; Bologna, Italy; Shenzhen, China; and Seville, Spain.

Read more here.

Out of Town News, the newsstand that has offered a cornucopia of newspapers and magazines as a Harvard Square landmark for more than 50 years, could close.

The owners have informed Cambridge officials that they have no plans to renew their lease after it expires Jan. 31. City officials say they are hoping to find another newsstand to take its place, but acknowledge that the business climate is grim as more customers get their news online rather than in print.

“It could be that we’re chasing moonbeams, and we’ll have to look at our re-use options,” said Robert W. Healey, the city manager.

The newsstand occupies the center of Harvard Square and is on the National Register of Historic Places. No matter what happens to the business, city officials say they will keep the building, which is used as much as a meeting place as a place to buy news.

By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff
The Boston Globe

Given a box of bilingual books for kids, reviewer and columnist Jessica Powers delves into more than a slew of reviews, asking and perhaps answering the much larger question of the role and responsibility of bilingual book publishing. Read it here: Bilingual Books for Kids: Commentary and Reviews.

The Fine Arts Work Center offers a unique residency for writers and visual artists in the crucial early stages of their careers. Located in Provincetown, an area with a long history as an arts colony, the Work Center provides seven-month fellowships to twenty fellows each year in the form of living/work space and a modest monthly stipend. Residencies run from October 1 through May 1. Fellows have the opportunity to pursue their work independently in a diverse and supportive community. An historic fishing port, Provincetown is situated at the tip of Cape Cod in an area of spectacular natural beauty, surrounded by miles of dunes and National Seashore beaches.

Each year, the deadline for Creative Writing Fellowship applications is December 1, and the deadline for Visual Arts Fellowship applications is February 1.

Black & White Journal for the Arts is produced by students of Western Connecticut State University. It was founded in the Fall of 2007 with the primary goal of creating a high quality print magazine for the arts. Since publishing their first issue in the Spring of 2008, they have expanded into a weekly newsprint format and an electronic format; and they have hosted a theatrical audio production over the University’s radio station.

The annual and electronic editions are open to contributors outside of the university. The deadline for the 2009 issue is November 30. There are no restrictions on format or subject matter for artwork or verbal arts. See website for submission information.

Note: The Spring 2008 issue has not yet been made available to the public, but the Spring 2009 issue will be made available for sale on the website upon its printing.

Associate/Full Professor/John Cranford Adams Chair (nonfiction), Hofstra University (New York). Jan 1

Tenure-track in Creative Writing (fiction/cnf), Nebraska Wesleyan University. Dec 1

Assistant Professor in Creative Writing (fiction), University of Washington-Tacoma

Assistant Professor Creative Nonfiction Writing, State University of New York at Oswego. Jan 5

Assistant Professor of Writing (comp/CW), Oklahoma City University Petree College of Arts and Sciences

Assistant Professor in Creative Writing (poetry), Loyola University Chicago

Assistant Professor of English (popular fiction), Seton Hill University (Pennsylvania)

One-year visiting position in creative writing (fiction or poetry), Northwestern College (Iowa)

Creative writing position: Point Park University

Tenure-track position in American Literature and Poetry Writing, Bethany College (West Virginia). Dec 8

Narrative has announced the 30 Below Contest Winners and Finalists:

First Prize: Alita Putnam “Fisherman’s Daughter”
Second Prize: Kara Levy “Ready”
Third Prize: Alison Yin “The West Oakland Project”

Finalists
Gavin Broady
Xuan Chen
Leigh Gallagher
Maggie Gerrity
Chris D. Harvey
Jason Perez
Rebecca Rasmussin
Douglas Silver
Jackie Thomas-Kennedy
Emily Watson

The 2008 Fall Fiction Contest, with a First Prize of $3,000, a Second Prize of $1,500, a Third Prize of $750, and ten finalists receiving $100 each, is open to all writers. Entry deadline: November 30. Enter Now.

Glimmer Train has chosen the three winning stories of their September Fiction Open competition.

First place: Abby Geni of Washington, DC, wins $2000 for “Captivity”. Her story will be published in the Winter 2010 issue of Glimmer Train Stories, out in November 2009.

Second place: Maggie Shipstead of Coronado, CA, wins $1000 for “Via Serenidad”. Her story will also be published in an upcoming issue of Glimmer Train Stories.

Third place: Gregg Cusick of Durham, NC, wins $600 for “Throwing Furniture”.

Also: Short Story Award for New Writers contest (deadline soon approaching! November 30). Glimmer Train hosts this contest twice a year, and first place is $1200 plus publication in the journal. It’s open to any writer whose fiction has not appeared in a print publication with a circulation greater than 5000. Word count range 500-12,000.

Brian Foley [also a NewPages review writer] has announced the debut of SIR!, a new online literary journal of poetry and prose.

Foley says, “The flagship issue is jammed with 23 contributors of varying temperaments and styles.” It includes – Chad Reynolds, Noah Falck, Blake Butler, Ryan Walsh (of the band Hallelujah the Hills), Scott Garson, Mike Young, Juliet Cook, Brooklyn Copeland, Rauan Klassnik, Peter Berghoef, Elisa Gabbert, Carl Annarummo, Peter Schwartz, Zachary Schomburg & Emily Kendal Frey, Sean Kilpatrick, Julia Cohen, Charles Lennox, Shane Jones, Spencer Troxell, Brandon Hobson, Nicolle Elizabeth, Nathan Logan, and William Walsh.

SIR! will be accepting submissions for for Issue 2 beginning December 1st.

Afghan tale of oppression wins French literature prize
By John Lichfield in Paris
The Independent
Tuesday, 11 November 2008

An Afghan who fled his country 24 years ago carrying his mother’s carpet and a few crumpled bank notes was yesterday awarded France’s premier literary prize. Atiq Rahimi, 46, took the 2008 Prix Goncourt – the French equivalent of the Man Booker prize – with his first novel in French, a stark essay on the oppression of women in Afghanistan.

M. Rahimi, who has dual French and Afghan nationality, said his Goncourt victory was “a sign of recognition both for my work and the story of my life.”

Although he has written four novels in Farsi, and several film and television scripts in French, The Stone of Patience was his first novel in his adopted language. It takes the form of a poetic, and sometimes crude, monologue by a woman sitting with her dying “war hero” husband. M. Rahimi said the book showed that, beneath their veils, Afghan women were the same as “women anywhere, with the same desires, dreams and hopes, the same strengths and weaknesses.”

From the Kalima website: What literature best captures American dreams, opportunities and challenges? Which books could help build mutual understanding between the United States and the Arab World? Kalima invites Americans to nominate literature for translation into Arabic.

Kalima – a non-profit initiative which translates classic and contemporary writing into Arabic – invites Americans to nominate US novels, poetry or short stories for translation for Arabic readers worldwide.

Kalima (“word” in Arabic), is one of the Arab world’s boldest and most significant cultural initiatives. Kalima seeks to widen access to books and knowledge by funding the translation, publication, and distribution of classic and contemporary writing from other languages into Arabic, each year. Currently in most Arabic countries, many works of world literature or academia are available only in their original language, making them inaccessible for most readers. To put the scale of the problem into perspective, Spain translates in one year the number of books that have been translated into Arabic in the last 1,000 years (2003 Arab Human Development Report, UNDP).

You can visit Kalima’s website and make your nominations online.

Rosemont College, a private liberal arts college, located in Philadelphia’s beautiful Main Line, is seeking an Adjunct Instructor, Creative Writing.

Two positions at Delta College in Michigan: English Instructor – Mainstream Composition, Developmental Reading, and Developmental Composition. One is tenure-track and one is a one-year renewable.

Ohio Nothern University Assistant Professor of Creative Writing (Poetry) and Modern American Literature. Tenure-track or visiting, dependent upon interest and qualifications; start September 2009.

New College of Florida announces an opening for a Writer in Residence, spring semester 2009 (February-May). December 1.

Seton Hill University seeks published novelist of popular fiction (preferably mystery/suspense), to teach and to mentor novel-length theses in the graduate low-residency Writing Popular Fiction program (half-load), and to teach undergraduate courses in creative writing and first-year composition.

Northwestern College – one-year visiting position in Creative Writing (Fiction or Poetry) starting fall 2009, with possible conversion to tenure-track.

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

Tenure-track, Assistant Professor, Creative Writing: Fiction, Concordia College.

The Department of English at Coastal Carolina University invites applications for an appointment at the rank of Lecturer effective August 16, 2009.

PEN American Center
Day of the Imprisoned Writer
November 15, 2008

In the past year, the Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC) of International PEN has monitored the cases of more than 1,000 writers and journalists in 90 countries, 200 of whom are serving long prison sentences, and the rest of whom have been detained, summoned to court, threatened, harassed or attacked. Tragically, since November 15, 2007, 39 writers have been killed, many clearly for practicing their professions, others in murkier circumstances.

Every year on November 15, PEN marks the Day of the Imprisoned Writer to honor the courage of all writers who stand up against repression and defend freedom of expression and the right to information. On this Day of the Imprisoned Writer, PEN is focusing on five cases—one from each world region and each illustrating the type of repression that is brought to bear every day against those who question, challenge or expose official lies or who paint portraits of everyday lives through their writings. PEN invites its members and friends around the world to send appeals on their behalf.

A list of journalists killed since last year’s Day of the Imprisoned Writer is available as a Word doc download on PEN’s website.

What You Can Do?
Send a Letter of Appeal
PEN urges you to take action on behalf of the many writers imprisoned around the world. This year’s Day of the Imprisoned Writer will focus on five priority cases:

Azerbaijan: Eynullah Fatullayev
Journalist serving an eight-and-a-half-year prison term for his political commentary and investigations into the murder of a fellow journalist.

China: Tsering Woeser
Tibetan writer and poet who writes in Chinese and has suffered repeated and sustained harassment for her writings on Tibet since 2004.

Iran: Mohammad Sadiq Kabudvand
Journalist and Kurdish rights activist serving an 11-year prison sentence.

Peru: Melissa Rocío Patiño Hinostroza
A student and poet currently on trial for alleged links to a terrorist organization, despite a lack of evidence.

Zimbabwe: Writers, Cast and Crew of The Crocodile of Zambezi
A play that has been banned and led to actors and crew being beaten, and the playwrights threatened.

Please visit the above case pages on PEN’s website for sample letters of appeal, as well as the names and contact information of domestic and international authorities.

Take novels seriously, urge poverty experts
Physorg.com
November 6, 2008

The team of poverty researchers from The University of Manchester and the London School of Economics say novels should be taken as seriously as academic literature as an important source of knowledge on international development. “Despite the regular flow of academic studies, expert reports, and policy position papers, it is arguably novelists who do as good a job – if not a better one – of representing and communicating the realities of international development…” [read the rest here]

For real?

As the recent ad in Gargoyle magazine says: “Must you ask?”

Visit plimptonproject.org for more information, including how to participate in deciding where the statue will go and what it will look like.

Seriously.

An Open Letter to Barack Obama
By Alice Walker | TheRoot.com
“Alice Walker on expectations, responsibilities and a new reality that is almost more than the heart can bear.”

Nate Pritts says: “Just for fun my 11th grade gifted English class is making Walt Whitman videos. I decided to make my own “series” – The New Adventures of Walt Whitman! The first three episodes are up now with three more to come. Check them out! & if you happen to have any favorite Whitman lines – from Song of Myself or elsewhere – send them to me & maybe we’ll do those next!” [You can post comments directly on YouTube, and you can also find Nate over at H_NGM_N.]

*This is a re-post, as I hadn’t earlier included the text.*