NewPages Blog

I’ve never had a Chick-fil-A anything, and I’m not even sure we have them in this area, but apparently their calendar is a hit with their customers. This year, the cow characters are shown in scenes which represents famous works of literature. Funny how some of these most famous works can be so well-known and recognized, but have probably gone unread. I guess that’s the power of literary reference. Or movies. Or Spark Notes. Or, now, a chicken sandwich.

Only a Witch Can Fly, by Alison McGhee, illustrated by Taeeun Yoo (Feiwel & Friends)
Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11, written and illustrated by Brian Floca (Richard Jackson/Atheneum)
The Odd Egg, written and illustrated by Emily Gravett (Simon & Schuster)
A Penguin Story, written and illustrated by Antoinette Portis (HarperCollins)
The Lion & the Mouse, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney (Little, Brown)
The Snow Day, written and illustrated by Komako Sakai (Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic)
Tales from Outer Suburbia, written and illustrated by Shaun Tan (Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic)
Yummy: Eight Favorite Fairy Tales, written and illustrated by Lucy Cousins (Candlewick)
White Noise, by David A. Carter (Little Simon/Simon & Schuster)
All the World, by Liz Garton Scanlon, illus trated by Marla Frazee (Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster)

The result of Karen Armstrong’s 2008 TED Prize wish, the Charter for Compassion is a document about the core shared value of every world religion and moral code, the Golden Rule. In November 2008 the world was invited to contribute their words to the Charter. Thousands of contributions from over 100 countries were received. This document will be released to the world on November 12, the result of months of collaborative work by diverse religious leaders and great thinkers.

Guernica guest fiction editors Amitava Kumar and V.V. Ganeshananthan present South Asian diaspora literature. In their introductory chat, “I Don’t Want To Fight,” they discuss their selections, along with war and conflict, and its effect on literature.

Their selections include:

“Red Ink” by Romesh Gunesekera
“The Other Gandhi” by Tania James
“Murder the Queen” by Hasanthika Sirisena
“A Rightful Share” by Preeta Samarasan

Visit Guernica Fiction to read all of these stories full text.

Terry Gilliam interjects commentary for Time Out’s list of 50 Greatest Animated Films.

PoetrySpeaks.com was created by Sourcebooks, Inc., the publishers of three New York Times bestsellers, Poetry Speaks, Poetry Speaks to Children, and Hip Hop Speaks to Children. This beta version of the site has just launched after five years of development work and an estimated $250,000 of investment from Sourcebooks.

As you can guess, with that kind of investment, there has to be revenue from users, thus the site is modeled as an “iTunes for poetry.” With some free samples to entice users, audio and text poems will go for 99 cents, and video versions $1.99. Future plans include partnering with retailers to sell books, CDs, ebooks, DVDs, as well as promotion and sales for tickets to poetry slams, readings, and online performances.

Phillips Academy, an independent, coeducational, secondary boarding/day school in Andover, Massachusetts with a diverse community of students & faculty is seeking a writer-in-residence to fill the Roger F. Murray Chair in Creative Writing beginning in the academic year 2010-2011. The term of appointment is two years with a possible renewal. Review begins Nov 15

Snagged from jseattle, blog reporter fro the CHS Capitol Hill Seattle Blog:

Michael Wells, owner of indie Capitol Hill bookstore Bailey Coy Books and a prominent member of the Hill business community, announced that he is closing doors on the shop at the end of November.

jseattle interviews Wells in his most recent addition to this blog story.

University of North Carolina Greensboro Assistant Professor Poetry. Tenure-track appointment in creative writing effective August 1, 2010. Postmark Nov 20.

University of Northern Colorado tenure-track, assistant professor of English, Creative Writing- Fiction. Apps due Dec 11.

The Department of English at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, is searching for a Fiction Writer, rank open, to join the faculty of their Creative Writing International Program. Nov 15

New College of Florida Humanities Division announces an opening for a Writer in Residence, spring semester 2010 (February-May). Informaion: Dr. Robert Zamsky, Chair, Search Committee, Division of Humanities, New College of Florida, 5800 Bay Shore Road, Sarasota, FL 34243-2109. Review begins Dec 1

Gilman School, an independent boys’ school in Baltimore, announces its search to award the fifteenth Tickner Writing Fellowship to a writer in fiction, poetry, playwriting, or creative non-fiction. Jan 8

The Undergraduate Writing Program of Warren Wilson College seeks a fiction writer for a full-time, continuing position in an extended contract system with a 3-3 load. Review begins Dec 15.

The Department of English and Creative Writing at the State University of New York at Oswego invites applications for a tenure track Assistant Professor position. Robert O’Connor, Department of English & Creative Writing. Review begins January 4, 2010.

U of North Carolina, Greensboro seeks Assistant Professor tenure-track appointment in creative writing (poetry). Deadline Nov 20

Saginaw Valley State University Department of English is seeking applicants for a tenure-track Assistant Professor of English, with emphasis in creative writing: poetry, beginning Fall 2010.

Cornell University Creative Writing Program of the English Department invites applications for a poet (with an MFA degree in Creative Writing & at least one full-length book of poetry published by a reputable press) for a full-time, tenure-track assistant professorship beginning July 2010. Dec 15 deadline.

The English Department at St. Lawrence University invites applications for a one-year, visiting position in poetry. Review begins Nov 15.

West Chester University is seeking applicants for Director, Poetry Center and Creative Writing Faculty: Poetry. This is a tenure-track position, which may be filled at Assistant or Associate rank, will be split between six credits of administrative duties as director of the WCU Poetry Center and Poetry Conference, and six credits of teaching (two courses) per semester, with the courses including poetry workshops, poetry seminars, poetic forms, introductory creative writing, and general education. Dr. Anne Herzog, Chair Department of English. Review begins Nov 15.

Flagler College English Department invites applications for a full-time position at the rank of assistant professor to begin August 2010 with a specialization in English language study, a secondary interest in creative writing, and other specializations open. Dr. Alan Woolfolk, Dean of Academic Affairs. Review begins November 13; initial interviews 2009 MLA Conference in Philadelphia.

Stanford University Department of English & the Creative Writing Program are conducting a search for a fiction writer at the tenured associate level. Professor Eavan Boland, Director. December 4 for full consideration.

Arizona State University Assistant Professor in Creative Writing, with emphasis in Fiction or related discipline. Nov 16.

Celebrate Vera Long’s is 85 today! Celebrate her birthday by reading her two 2006 Anderbo Poetry Prize-winning poems.

Now a widow, Vera has been writing Country Poetry for sixty years, living in rural Oklahoma. She has written poems about life and love, time and place and family life. Many of her poems can be found in various anthologies and on-line. She is listed in Who’s Who of American Women for her poetry. Vera and her late husband, Othadell Long, were married almost 57 years. She still lives on their farm near her two children. She belongs to the Oklahoma Poetry Society and is Secretary of Stillwater Writers Group.

Ascent (Concordia College) has gone completely online. Their new format still allows them to select quality essays, fiction, poetry and “other forms” (which still need a presence on the new site), as well as a Readers Blog – already well under way. Stop by and check out this new transition of Ascent.

350 Poems is part of 350.org’s international day of climate action that happened on October 24, 2009.

On this site, 350 writers each contributed a poem responding to climate change (in a language of their choosing) in the days/hours leading up to October 24th. As an additional constraint – mirroring the real political obstacles and shortage of time we face – each poem had to be 3.5 lines in length.

“Why 350? Because that is the agreed upon safe upper limit for CO2 in the atmosphere (in parts per million). We’re currently at 390 and rising, close to what climate experts call “the point of no return.” This is a critical moment: we and our political representatives must act quickly in the less than two months before this December’s United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Visit 350.org for other actions in your area (there are currently over 4000 actions in over 170 countries).”

Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz is seeking the next Brooklyn poet laureate and has appointed a five-member Brooklyn Poet Laureate Recommendation Committee to evaluate candidates for the volunteer position. The Committee will recommend a pool of three finalists to the borough president, from which he will choose one to be the bard of the borough.

Candidates for the poet laureate position must be a Brooklyn resident with recognition as a poet, and demonstrate a commitment to using the position for community outreach and projects that promote poetry and/or literacy in our diverse borough of Brooklyn.

“We know that with all our borough’s beauty, character—and characters, Brooklyn writers and poets never lack inspiration,” said BP Markowitz. “We have so many terrific writers, but the way I see it, our new poet laureate should follow the expansive example of Ken Siegelman, our previous poet laureate now of blessed memory, by not only being a fine poet, but an enthusiastic ambassador of poetry and literacy here in Brooklyn. This person should have the time and the temperament to reach out, share their work with diverse communities and spread the word about the joys and benefits of reading widely and writing well.”

Members of the committee are: Julie Agoos, coordinator of the MFA Program in Poetry at Brooklyn College, where she is Tow Professor of English; Robert N. Casper, programs director for the Poetry Society of America; Linda Susan Jackson, poet and associate professor of English at Medgar Evers College; Dionne Mack-Harvin, executive director, Brooklyn Public Library; and Anthony Vigorito, poet and retired teacher who assisted former poet laureate Ken Siegelman with Brooklyn Poetry Outreach, a program established by Siegelman.

Ken Siegelman, the late Brooklyn poet laureate, was appointed by the borough president in 2002 and served until his death this year. In addition to establishing Brooklyn Poetry Outreach, he held workshops at Phoenix House and encouraged young people to write.

To be considered for the position, candidates should submit 5–10 pages of their work, a maximum two-page bio or résumé and a cover letter that describes their vision of engaging Brooklyn’s various communities in poetry. The deadline for nominations is November 24 at 5:00 p.m. Information can be e-mailed to [email protected], faxed to 718-802-3452, or mailed to Poet Laureate Recommendation Committee, Brooklyn Borough Hall, 209 Joralemon Street, Brooklyn, New York 11201.

University of Alaska, Fairbanks, English Department is seeking a creative non-fiction writer for a full-time, 9-month, tenure-track Assistant Professor position in Creative Writing, beginning Fall 2010. Nov 15

University of Dayton Herbert W. Martin Post-graduate Fellowship in Creative Writing, with possibility of renewal for a second year. Nov 6

The Department of English at the University of San Francisco invites applications for a tenure-track faculty position at the assistant professor level in creative writing with an emphasis in creative nonfiction.

The Art of Digital Storytelling
Utne, Nov-Dec 2009.