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NewPages Blog

At the NewPages Blog readers and writers can catch up with their favorite literary and alternative magazines, independent and university presses, creative writing programs, and writing and literary events. Find new books, new issue announcements, contest winners, and so much more!

NYT Picks 10 Best Children’s Books

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)

Charter for Compassion Released Nov 12

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.

South Asian Diaspora Fiction

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.

Cool New Lit: Underwater New York

From Nicki Pombier Berger, Editor-in-Chief:

Underwater New York is an online collection of stories inspired by objects found underwater in and around New York City. The objects range from the whimsical (a fleet of ice cream trucks) to the historical (the Dreamland bell), and we’re interested in the stories that these underwater objects evoke, in whatever form they might take (fiction, non-fiction, poetry, etc). We accept submissions in any genre and on a rolling basis, and we are actively recruiting new stories.

[Pictured: Flying Fish Washed Ashore by Adrian Kinloch]

iTunes of Poetry

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.

Imprisoned Writers Who Could Not Be Silenced

The newest issue of World Literature Today (Nov/Dec 2009) includes a special section: “Voices Against the Darkness: Imprisoned Writers Who Could Not Be Silenced.” This 26-page section has also generously been made available full-text on the WLT website. The section includes an introduction by Editor Daniel Simon, and a page with “How to Get Involved”: organizations and links, and “Voices Against the Darkness: A Guide to Essential Reading.” Writers whose works are featured include U Win Tin, Breyten Breytenbach, Orhan Kemal, Nâzım Hikmet, Omar Al-Kikli, Tha Zin, Nahid Persson Sarvestani, Saadi Youssef, and Amer Hanna Fatuhi.

Phillips Academy Writer-in-Residence

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

Shop Dalkey Archives for the Holidays

Save 60% and get free shipping in the U.S.* with Dalkey Archive’s Holiday Sale, running through November 22, 2009.

10 Books for $65!
20 Books for $120!

Offer applies to all Dalkey Archive books and issues of The Review of Contemporary Fiction. Choose one copy of several books, or multiple copies of a single book – while supplies last.

To take advantage of this offer:

1. Choose which books you would like.
2. Click on the sale option below for 10 or 20 books.
3. During “Checkout” you will see a “Notes” field. Please enter your selections in this field.

10 books for $65 w/free shipping
20 books for $120 w/free shipping

Another Sad Loss: Bailey Coy Books

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.

Jobs and Fellowships

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.

Happy Birthday Vera Long

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.

The Stare Seen Around the World

15 Countries,
31 Cities,
32,000 photos,
One stare.

The Rolling Exhibit
Photography by Kevin Connolly

Artist Statement:

1 year ago I was asked by a little boy in Christchurch, New Zealand if I had been eaten by a shark.

2 months ago I was asked by an elderly woman in Sighisoara, Romania if I had lost my legs in a car accident.

6 weeks ago I was asked by a bar patron in Helena, Montana if I still wore my dog tags from Iraq.

Everyone tries to create a story in their heads to explain the things that baffle them. For the same reason we want to know how a magic trick works, or how mystery novel ends, we want to know how someone different, strange, or disfigured came to be as they are. Everyone does it. It’s natural. It’s curiosity.

But before any of us can ponder or speculate – we react. We stare. Whether it is a glance or a neck twisting ogle, we look at that which does not seem to fit in our day to day lives. It is that one instant of unabashed curiosity – more reflex than conscious action – that makes us who we are and has been one of my goals to capture over the past year.

It is after this instant that we try to hazard a guess as to why such an anomalous person exists. Was it disease? Was it a birth defect? Was it a landmine? These narratives all come from the context in which we live our lives. Illness, drugs, calamity, war – all of these might become potential stories depending upon what we are exposed to in connection with disability.

In each photograph the subjects share a commonality, but what does their context say? Looking at each face, I saw humanity. Rolling through their streets, I found the unique cultures and customs that created an individual.

NPR slide show and audio of Connolly discussing this exhibit.

Endings: Rambler Magazine

Rambler Magazine‘s “hiatus” status has now changed to indefinite. According to Editor Dave Korzon: “As such, there are no immediate plans for future issues.” No further submissions nor subscriptions will be accepted. Back issues of the magazine will continue to be available for order online.

Our condolences to The Rambler staff – I’ve known them since my start here at NewPages. It’s sad to see such a well-established publication come to an end. I think there are new efforts on the rise, but nothing ever fills the place of such well-known publications whose tireless staff fought the fight to pave the way for so many others. Thanks Rambler. Almost too cliche to say, but for those of us old enough to have grown up with it, we have the right, especially on these fall days: Ramble On my friends.

Climate Change 350 Poems

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).”

If You Could Recommend Only One Movie

Mitchell Jarosz, my esteemed colleague who has taught film studies for longer than he will disclose, was asked: “If you could recommend just one film for someone to watch, just one, what would it be?”

His reply: The Girl in the Cafe

This is a quietly and surprisingly incredible film. Starring Bill Nighy and Kelly Macdonald (one of my favs from No Country for Old Men; Nanny McPhee; Gosford Park)

From the IMDB entry: “A May-December comedy becomes a political drama. Lawrence, a spindly, self-effacing civil servant, is a senior researcher for the Chancellor of the Exchequer, preparing for a G-8 summit that will determine the scope of the world’s effort to reduce extreme poverty. In a crowded caf

New Brooklyn Poet Laureate Sought

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.

Jobs

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.

Fugue State

If you are prowling for something truly chilling to read, Edgar and International Horror Guild Award-nominated author Brian Evenson’s collection of unsettling short fiction, Fugue State, may be just the thing to curdle your blood. Accompanied by illustrations from the multi-talented graphic novelist Zak Sally, Fugue State also includes an evocative graphic short that brings “Dread” to life. Each of the book’s nineteen stories include subjects who tenuously skirt the borderlines of sanity and the edges of awareness, of substantive reality. Significantly, Evenson successfully marries the usually disparate genres of horror and literary fiction. Continue reading “Fugue State”

Swan Dive

Johnny ‘Blue’ Heron is a private eye more interested in sex and alcohol than the steady job he could have with the local police. Blue is hired by George Fuller to trai his son to find out if the younger Fuller is having an affair. This deceptively simple job lands Blue in the middle of affairs, intrigue, incest, corruption, and some rather shady business deals. Blue comes off as cynical sort of fellow, believing that no one is quite what they appear to be (“Always thought I was a fake, but aren’t we all. We invent ourselves and defy the world to discover the ruse.”), but he is surprisingly unaware of some people’s darker sides. Continue reading “Swan Dive”

Europes

With his Proust-like ramblings, Europes is Jacques Réda’s entertaining reflection upon the various selves that surface in different locales across the continent. In fact, often the named country provides only the most tangential entry point for the inner world into which he dives. Take for example a passage from “Switzerland. IV. The Eagle”: Continue reading “Europes”

Gourmet Rhapsody

Gourmet Rhapsody, Muriel Barbery’s slim but savory novel, is like poetry served on a platter – filled with dazzling and delicious language. The story begins with the world’s most famous (and most despised) food critic realizing that he will die in 48 hours. Monsieur Pierre Arthens lives in Paris, in the building immortalized in Barbery’s first novel, The Elegance of the Hedgehog. Continue reading “Gourmet Rhapsody”

An Angle of Vision

Few aspects of personal experience are taboo any longer, but Lorraine López has collected a set of essays in this anthology that address an emerging topic of national conversation: what does it mean to grow up poor? In our current cultural moment, when the availability of health care for all Americans is being negotiated, the concerns of this collection are particularly sage. Continue reading “An Angle of Vision”

NewPages Updates :: October 30, 2009

Added to NewPages Guide to Literary Magazines:
The Breakwater Review – poetry, fiction, nonfiction
14×14 – poetry
Autumn Sky – poetry
Jersey Devil Press – fiction
The Battered Suitcase – fiction, poetry, nonfiction, artwork
The Write Place at the Write Time – fiction, poetry, photos, artwork, interviews
REAL (Regarding Arts & Letters) – poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction
The Furnace Review – poetry, artwork, photography
Confrontation – fiction, memoir, poems, plays, reviews, commentary
Gowanus – essay, short fiction, reviews
Stickman Review – fiction, poetry, non-fiction, photography and artwork
Hack Writers
Poets’ Quarterly

Poetry as Memory and Moment

The current issue of Cave Wall, adorned by Deborah Mersky’s “New Frog” on the cover, opens with some thoughtful considerations by Editor Rhett Iseman Trull on the nature of saving and preservation: “We can’t protect everything all the time,” she begins. “I used to think I could prevent accidents by performing rituals, like counting my steps or touching the lamps in a certain order I tried to freeze the good times… But we cannot remain in one place. The circle of life keeps turning. In memory and in our art, however, we can revisit a moment, letting it touch and change us anew… Perhaps every poem is a kind of elegy: a song for what cannot last. But each song here is vital, at least to me, in this moment.”

CFS: Riverbend Film Festival

River Bend Film Festival (April 30-May 1, 2010, Edwardsburg, MI). Open to all filmmakers, including high school and college students. Seeking Features and Shorts in the following categories: Narrative, Documentary, Music Video, Experimental, Animation, Industrial/Commercial, and Student Project. Deadline: October 1, 2009 (early), January 1, 2009 (regular), March 15, 2010 (late). ENTRY FEE: $0-$30

Nimrod Contest Winners Featured

The Fall/Winter 2009 issue of Nimrod International Journal from the University of Tulsa is titled “Words at Play” and features works by the 31st Annual Award Winners and Finalists for Poetry and Fiction:

The Pablo Neruda Prize in Poetry
First: Mike Nelson, “Acacia”
Second: Alicia Case, “Ascension” and other poems
HM: Natalie Diaz, “The Elephants” and other poems

The Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Fiction
Fisrt: $2,000: Lacey Jane Henson, “Trigger”
Second: $1,000: Margaret Kaufman, “Live Saving Lessons”
HM: Patricia Grace King, “Dogs in Guatemala” and Laura Hulthén Thomas, “Down to the Last Kopek”

Antioch: A Student Retrospect

While I am aware of the controversy regarding Antioch, I am certainly not “embroiled” in it as many must be. Still, I found myself deeply interested The Antioch Review Editor’s comments about a particular aspect of his work at the college. Robert S. Fogerty, in the latest issue (Fall 2009), titles his editorial “Young Man Geertz” after Clifford Geertz, a returning vet who was a senior at Antioch in 1949.

Fogerty has gained access to almost 400 “Senior Papers” – a graduation requirement dating back to the late 1920s. His plans are to write a “prosopography” (collective biography) for which select papers will comprise the focus of his work. In his editorial, he offers selections from a numbers of these, considering what might have happened had Antioch shut its doors for good (it will resume 2011) to the very experiences written about in these essays. In just the small sampling he provides, it is clear that these papers are rich with period perspective, of young people writing of their own time of change, of the future they lived through, the history we look back on, and the Antioch that was: “Utopian, experimental, nonconformist, painfully earnest, desperately intense, and filled with political radicals and and aesthetic free spirits (or were they aesthetic radicals and political free spirits?), it was counter-culture before its time.”

Clifford Geertz went on to win a National Book Critics Award as well as many more distinguished awards in social sciences and was honored by numerous universities. His “Senior Essay” is included in this issue of The Antioch Review.

Creative Nonfiction Archeological Find

Apparently, the folks at Creative Nonfiction have done some excavating and recently unearthed a box of classic creative nonfiction books by editor-in-chief Lee Gutkind. Long out of print, limited copies are again available of Lee’s landmark work Many Sleepless Nights: The World of Organ Transplantation and One Children’s Place. They also have a limited number of Lee’s one and only novel, God’s Helicopter, for sale. That’s right, the “Godfather of Creative Nonfiction” briefly dabbled in the world of fiction.

Online vs Print: Professional Considerations

In the Fall 2009 issue of The Kenyon Review, Editor David H. Lynn takes on the issue of “Print vs. Internet: An Ongoing Conversion” in his consideration of where to submit his most recent story – to a print publication or to an online publication. Of course, the fact KR has started its own online edition – KRO – is thrown into the mix, as well as a status check on the professional perception of online publications.

Lynn is troubled by knowing that “Some writers…especially those who have passed through the opening thresholds of their careers, already have a book or two but have not yet been tenured or feel professionally secure, might not even submit their work to us any longer. They worry that if we chose a poem or story for Internet publication instead of print, they wouldn’t want to have to decline the offer and risk offending.”

I would respond that there is a change underway, and it will continue as more of those of us in-the-know about online publishing find our ways “in” and put ourselves in positions of making decisions and flexing the standards. I have participated in numerous hiring committees at various colleges where I have worked and continue to educate my colleagues as to the value of reputable online publications.

An interesting paradox I have seen already is the professional value placed on a self-published, POD book, while a peer-edited, online publication is dismissed. It’s not enough that we read and write and publish. We also need to involve ourselves in the work that makes professional change “institutional.”

Jobs

Penn State University Press Editor in Chief.

The Department of Writing in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Ithaca College invites applications for a tenure-eligible position in creative writing (fiction), beginning August 16, 2010.

The Department of English at Rhode Island School of Design invites applications for an Assistant Professor in Literature and Writing. November 13, 2009 for full consideration.

Assistant Professor Creative Writing Western Illinois University. Dr. Mohammad Siddiqi, Interim Chair of English & Journalism. Interviews at MLA. Screening begins Nov 30.

The Writing Program in the School of the Arts, Columbia University, announces several full-time positions as Lecturer in Discipline in its undergraduate Creative Writing Program with concentrations in fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction, effective July 1, 2010.

Digital Lit Community

Jason Nelson wrote to share his most recent digital poetry game: Evidence of Everything Exploding

It’s ‘a blast’ in more ways than one, but even better – I must admit – was his sharing a link to his and Davin Heckman’s digi-poetry portal, “a group site of sorts” which can be joined by interested writers/theorists/artists: NetPoetic

Lots here for writers and readers interested in digi-lit of many forms. The most recent post (with comments) asks where the digi-lit-focused MFAs are – so if you’re looking or you know, stop on by NetPoetic.

Glimmer Train August Short Story Award – 2009

Glimmer Train has just chosen the winning stories for their August Short Story Award for New Writers competition. This competition is held quarterly and is open to any writers whose fiction hasn’t appeared in a print publication with a circulation great than 5000. No theme restrictions. Word count range: 500-12,000. Their monthly submission calendar may be viewed here.

First place: Evan Christopher Burton (pictured) of New York, NY, wins $1200 for “Exposure.” His story will be published in the Winter 2011 issue of Glimmer Train Stories, out in November 2010. [Photo credit Patrick Buckley.]

Second place: David Rothman of Jackson Heights, NY, wins $500 for “Guided by Voices.” His story will also be published in an upcoming issue of Glimmer Train Stories, raising his prize to $700.

Third place: Scott Tucker of Seattle, WA, wins $300 for “Touring.”

A PDF of the Top 25 winners can be found here. Also: Family Matters competition (deadline soon approaching! October 31) Glimmer Train hosts this competition twice a year, and first place is $1,200 and publication in the journal. It’s open to all writers for stories about family. Word count range: 500-12,000. Click here for complete guidelines.

Film Promo Contest: Bright Start

From Justin N. Satzman, crew creative:

The film Bright Star, one of the most highly praised films at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, is a portrait of love and loss between the 19th-century Romantic poet John Keats and the 18-year-old muse next door, Fanny Brawne. Based on the true story, Bright Star chronicles the brief yet torrid love affair between the struggling poet and the girl who would inspire some of the most passionate prose ever written. Academy Award-winner Jane Campion’s return to the big screen features outstanding performances from Abbie Cornish (Stop-Loss, Elizabeth: The Golden Age) as Brawne, Ben Whishaw (I’m Not There, Brideshead Revisited) as Keats and Paul Schneider (NBC’s “Parks & Recreation,” Lars and the Real Girl) as Charles Brown.

In celebration on its theatrical release, a writing contest, “Be My Bright Star Love Letter Contest” is being presented by a Diamond Is Forever and Montblanc. The grand prize winners will receive an Everlon Diamond Pave Ring from ADIF or an Everlon diamond pendant necklace from ADIF.

New Lit on the Block: Jersey Devil Press

Eirik Gumeny and Monica Rodriguez are the ambition behind the newly established Jersey Devil Press, “a small, independent publisher, based deep in the upper right ventricle of northern New Jersey.” Their plan includes a monthly online magazine of short fiction, a yearly print anthology, and “a smattering of novels and story collections scattered throughout the rest of the year.”

The first issue, October 2009, features works by Kate Delany, Corey Mesler, Stephen Schwegler, Noel Sloboda, Christopher Woods, Robert Levin and Mike Sweeney, as well as “The Legend of the Jersey Devil” by Eirik Gumeny.

Jersey Devil Press is now accepting short story submissions for both their monthly online journal and yearly print anthology (to be published Summer 2010).

CFS: Dealing with Dying

From the editors of FREE INQUIRY magazine:

In our October/November 2007 issue, FREE INQUIRY featured “Dealing with Dying,” a selection of essays from readers describing their experiences with dying, death, and end-of-life rituals. This feature was very well-received, so in June/July 2010 we plan another such symposium in print. FREE INQUIRY solicits brief essays (or proposals for essays) from readers concerning secular humanist responses to:

serious, debilitating, or chronic illness;
caring for a seriously ill loved one or friend;
end-of-life phenomena; and
issues relating to physician aid in dying, assisted suicide, or other forms of beneficent euthanasia.

Essays or proposals are invited from persons suffering serious illness, who have recovered from serious illness, and from family members, loved ones, caregivers, and concerned professionals. Completed essays will be due no later than February 26, 2010, and may be submitted at any earlier time. If submitting a completed essay, total word count should ideally be shorter than 750 words and must not exceed 1,200 words. You may also write a brief proposal describing the essay you have in mind.

Send your essay or proposal to:

Donna Danford
FREE INQUIRY
P.O. Box 664
Amherst, NY 14226-0664

or e-mail:

ddanford-at-centerforinquiry.net

Essays submitted by mail must be accompanied by a file in rich text or Microsoft Word format on CD, diskette, or flash drive. Essays submitted by e-mail may be included in the body of the e-mail or attached as a file in rich text or Microsoft Word format. Please note, these special submission requirements apply only to this feature.

Unless otherwise specified, submissions become the property of the Council for Secular Humanism. Submissions will be accepted or rejected and may be published in print or online at the exclusive discretion of the editors. Sorry, FREE INQUIRY is unable to offer payment for submissions.

2009 Governor General’s Literary Awards

Canada Council for the Arts announced the finalists for the 2009 Governor General’s Literary Awards. The finalists include authors, illustrators and translators from ages 27 to 78. The English and French awards are in the categories of fiction, non‑fiction, poetry, drama, children’s literature (text and illustration) and translation. In total, 70 books are shortlisted.