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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!

Gay Teens in YA Lit

This is worth the free sign-up process to hear on New Hampshire Public Radio: “Gay Teens in Literature” in which “James Murdock (Columbia University) visits some bookstores and libraries in New York City. He finds that some customers are noticing a change in how gay teens are portrayed in literature” (5:33). Murdock looks at the shift in teen fiction, from focusing on crisis of “being gay” to now “the private struggle of being gay to the public act of coming out.” Authors interviewed include Alex Sanchez, Julie Anne Peters, and David Levithan, as well as Linda Braun, who teaches Young Adult Literature at Simmons College in Boston and is President Elect – Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). Young adult readers are also interviewed, and their comments offer insight into their interest in reading about gay characters in fiction, from self-identification to a way to explore the lives of others and become more open to the diversity of our culture.

NCTE Gallery of Writing

The NCTE National Gallery of Writing is a virtual space where people who perhaps have never thought of themselves as writers — mothers, bus drivers, fathers, veterans, nurses, firefighters, sanitation workers, stockbrokers — select and post one thing they have written that is important to them. The Gallery accommodates any composition format — from word processing to photography, audio recording to text messages — and all types of writing — from letters to lists, memoirs to memos.

The National Gallery of Writing includes three types of display spaces where writing can be found:

1. The Gallery of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) represents a broad cross-section of writing hosted by the National Council of Teachers of English.

2. National Partner Galleries include writing that corresponds to a theme or purpose identified by one of the National Partners participating in this initiative.

3. Local Partner Galleries include works from writers in a classroom, school, club, workplace, city, or other local entity.

The National Gallery of Writing will open for submissions starting this spring, and will be open for viewing/reading from the National Day on Writing (October 20, 2009) through June 1, 2010. The Gallery will provide a lively reading experience and an opportunity for writers to share their craft and find a broad and diverse audience. And, everyone who visits the Gallery of NCTE can find useful tips and guidelines for writers from the National Council of Teachers of English.

A Refreshing “Focus on Women”

Issue No. 4 of Cadillac Circatrix is absolutely jam-packed with its “Focus On Women.” Featured writers and artists in this issue include: Norma Boucher, Elizabeth Burk, Joan Connor, Tracy DeBrincat, Diane Shipley DeCillis, Janet Flora, Wendy A Goldman, Phyllis Grilikhes, Kathleen Glassburn, Lynne Huffer, Signe Jorgenson, Casey Kait, Edye Kasteel, Jocelyn Paige Kelly, Jon Kersey, Andrea Lewis, Naomi Lowinski, Letitia Moffitt, JWM Morgan, Ronda Muir, Alice Pero, Janet Petrine, Deborah Prespare, Moira Ricci, Penny Susan Rose, Sandy Sims, Dorothy Stroud, Elaine Tuman, Toni Wilkes, Elaine Winer, and Kao Kalia Yang.

It’s clean layout and snappy graphics make this easy to navigate. The writing and art make it worth a deeper look.

Summer Publishing Institute

Crazyhorse/Tupelo Press Publishing Institute
Charleston
June 2-30, 2009

This institute is a graduate-level program open to writers at any post-baccalaureate level, whether finished with a graduate program in creative writing, currently enrolled or considering attending one. Students may choose to pursue either a credit or non-credit option. The program of study is unique in combining the opportunity for a practical internship at Crazyhorse with important lessons on the first book through an intensive, four-week course that chronicles the selection of a winner in the annual Tupelo Press First Book Prize. This year, in addition to the internship and the first books course, the institute is proud to offer poetry and fiction workshops with poet Carol Ann Davis and fiction writer Bret Lott, as well as an opportunity for book-length manuscript review with Tupelo Press Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Levine.

What Publishers Should Know

Publisher Confidential
Nicole found this one while out purusing the web: “It is a book compiled of over a hundred email responses from librarians, booksellers, and readers to the question ‘What do you wish publishers knew.’ It’s a joint project of Unshelved and BookExpo America.” It’s a quick read, with pictures no less, and I’d say I agree with most of the feedback!

Special CFS

I received a note from Dos Passos Review – apparently they’ve had some trouble getting their CFS ads out there, so to help them get word out a bit quicker, I’m posting this on the blog. Please let others know:

Dos Passos Review accepting fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry submissions February 1-July 31, 2009. Limit 3-5 poems, 3,000 words prose. Send to: Editor, The Dos Passos Review, Dept.of English, Longwood University, 201 High St., Farmville, VA 23909. sase for reply only. See Web site for specific guidelines.

What an Introduction

From Rick Rofihe at Anderbo.com: “Not accepted for the NYU MFA writing program, Harvard Law grad Jessica Pishko will enter Columbia’s in the fall — read her award-winning short story ‘Izzi Accepts a Bagel From Her Mother’ on Anderbo.” How can you not go and check that out? Here’s a bit more incentive:

Izzi definitely had her doubts, and she had tried calling once to tell her mother about it.

“Matt—how’s Matt?” her mother asked.

“He’s OK, I guess, I’m just not sure sometimes.”

“What, what do you mean?”

“Well, I just feel like he doesn’t understand me very well…I can’t explain it any better, I’m sorry.”

“What do you mean?”

“He just doesn’t understand me, I can just tell, it’s terrible, I’m sorry. I feel really bad about it, he means well.”

“Honey, who would understand you?”

Izzi picked up a framed photograph of her and her mother at Christmas; in it they were both wearing blue and have the same eyes. She threw it across the room and it shattered.

“What’s that?” her mother asked.

“Nothing, Mom, I just dropped a glass.”

The Conqueror

I read the opening scene of The Conqueror, the second novel in a trilogy by the Norwegian writer Jan Kjærstad, with relief. The trilogy depicts the life of Jonas Wergeland, an ordinary boy from an undistinguished Oslo neighborhood, who rises to national and even international fame as a television personality. In the 600 pages of the first novel in the series, The Seducer, we read of Jonas’s travels, triumphs, and yes, seductions (there are many, from a beautiful and accomplished cast of women to, eventually, an entire nation transfixed by his documentaries). Jonas is equipped with a magic penis, a set of memorized quotations from books he hasn’t read, a silver thread in his spine, a crystal prism in his pocket, and an unerring eye for great art. He can’t go wrong. The Seducer is a vast and undeniably ambitious novel, but also, in its unremitting catalog of the successes of its hero, a little wearying. Continue reading “The Conqueror”

Mosquito

The mosquito season never seems to end in Sri Lanka; the swarms, “deadly as flying needles,” are always lurking in the shadows, waiting to strike. Frequently referenced as a harbinger of death and strife, the image of the mosquito figures prominently in Mosquito, Roma Tearne’s eloquent and moving novel of love in war-torn Sri Lanka. Continue reading “Mosquito”

American Fractal

Timothy Green’s debut collection of verse, American Fractal, is named for the concept of order existing within what appears to be randomness that mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot developed in fractal geometry. Although his new way of perceiving relationships has revolutionized modern science, initially others were not able to “see” what Mandelbrot discerned and represented in unconventional mathematical formulas. As a poet, Green also challenges readers to see with him the patterns he has discovered and recreated in this aptly named collection of fifty poems in five sections. Continue reading “American Fractal”

Words Overflown by Stars

Words Overflown by Stars is a mammoth-sized compendium of thirty-two essays on the craft of writing fiction and poetry. At their best, these essays, culled mainly from lectures, are transcriptions of teachers compassionately addressing their students, inviting them to dig beneath the surface of language, to sharpen all of their senses as they write and read, to cross boundaries, to challenge their comfort zones, to write and rewrite and rewrite again. Continue reading “Words Overflown by Stars”

Persephone

It says on the “About the Author” page at the back of Persephone that “Lyn Lifshin has written more than 120 books.” I want to read all of them. Here is not only a prolific but gifted and generous poet. In Persephone alone, Lifshin offers 189 poems, every one of them skillfully crafted and emotionally resonant. Some of them are overwhelming. Continue reading “Persephone”

The Accordionists Son

Bernardo Atxaga’s latest novel, The Accordionist’s Son, aims to expose the effects that the Spanish Civil War and its aftermath had on the collective conscious of the Basque people. However, it is not a novel of the war, nor is it record of the clandestine resistance that followed. It is a novel of a people and a place, about a way of living life that vanishes as soon as it hits the page. Into this world Atxaga has carefully injected the struggles and sufferings that can befall the oppressed. That he does so without sacrificing any of the everyday beauty that he has found in his people and their land is a testament to his power as a storyteller. Continue reading “The Accordionists Son”

Then, a Thousand Crows

Keith Ratzlaff would like some answers. Or perhaps he would like a world that didn’t need so much explaining. This collection of anecdotes and meditations, despite not being dramatically questioning, still seem to present the ghost of “I don’t know why, do you?” From stories of misbehaving, fighting relatives to portraits of paintings in Amsterdam, a current of surprise runs through the plain text and action that reminds us that there are things worth knowing before we pass judgment on our neighbors. Continue reading “Then, a Thousand Crows”

A Disposition for Shininess

In Arisa White’s debut collection, A Disposition for Shininess, family eclipses mere flesh and blood. Siblings are a unit that both torture and uplift one another, come what may in the strange universe of adults. White’s observations of family dynamics gain interpretive momentum as the reader progresses through this slim volume of nine poems. Continue reading “A Disposition for Shininess”

Drift and Swerve

Drift and Swerve, Samuel Ligon’s second book and winner of the 2008 Autumn House Press Fiction Prize, takes its title from the second piece in the collection, a road trip story about a family traveling behind a drunk driver as they return home after visiting their dying grandmother. While the family bickers, the drunk driver grows more erratic, weaving across the road, first lazily and then desperately, before wrecking the car into an enormous concrete ditch. Each family member reacts differently to the nearly fatal accident: the mother cradles the injured drunk’s head against her body to comfort him; the father weakly stands to the side with a blanket, pretending to offer help; and the children, disappointed because the man is not dead, go sliding through the mud “as if it were winter and the drainage ditch a frozen over river.” Continue reading “Drift and Swerve”

Story South Remake and Million Writers

storySouth is up and running with a new look after a brief reshuffling hiatus, which is a relief to see considering how many magazines I’ve seen go on hiatus and never return: “Online fads can’t help but fade away; great writing endures. storySouth is all about the writing.”

storySouth is indeed back with new content for spring, and the Million Writers Award stories are now online. The top ten will be selected and available for public vote starting May 15, and thanks to some generous donors, it looks as though the prize pot is healthy.

Contest for Booksellers

Unbridled Books and NetGalley announce a contest inspired by author Emily St. John Mandel and our bookseller partners. We want to encourage booksellers to read e-galleys, and to make this possible, we are offering a SONY Reader to the three booksellers who craft the best handselling pitches for Mandel’s debut novel, Last Night in Montreal(pub. date June 2). The contest runs from May 1, 2009 through midnight on June 1, 2009.

Poets Respond to Art

Each month, TATE ETC. (“Europe’s largest art magazine”) publishes new poetry by leading poets such as John Burnside, Moniza Alvi, Adam Thorpe, Alice Oswald and David Harsent who respond to works from the Tate Collection. This April, Elaine Feinstein presents her poem, Isaac Babel Riding with Budyonny, based on R.B. Kitaj’s work of the same name. This work is not currently on display in Tate galleries, but Erasmus Variations by the same artist is on display in Tate Britain, and Isaac Babel Riding with Budyonny can be viewed on the Tate Collection online.

Writer in Residence UL Lafayette

University of Louisiana at Lafayette accepting applications for Writer-in-Residence and Professor/Associate Professor of English. Tenure-track position, beginning Fall 2009. Creative Writing-Fiction.

Duties: teaching one Creative Writing workshop per academic year, directing dissertations and theses, working with graduate and undergraduate students in creative writing, presenting at least one public reading or lecture each year, and participating in the department and university community. Continued publishing in field and other duties associated with holding a university position.

Qualifications: International reputation as a creative writer as evidenced by awards and publications in prestigious international venues, extensive publications in creative genres (fiction, poetry, drama, creative non-fiction), professional experience in teaching advanced Creative Writing workshops.

Send application letter, current CV, and names and addresses of three references to Professor James McDonald, Department Head, Department of English, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, P. O. Box 44691, Lafayette, LA 70504.

Awards :: Narrative Winter Short Story Contest

Narrative Magazine 2009 Winter Short Story Contest Winners:

FIRST PRIZE
Janet Burroway “White Space”

SECOND PRIZE
Adam Atlas “New Year’s Weekend on the Hand Surgery Ward, Old Pilgrims’ Hospital, Naples, Italy”

THIRD PRIZE
David Bradley “That Ain’t Jazz”

The Spring Story Contest, with a First Prize of $3,250, a Second Prize of $1,500, a Third Prize of $750, and ten finalists receiving $100 each, is open to fiction and nonfiction entries from all writers. Entry deadline: July 31.

The First Annual Poetry Contest, with a First Prize of $1,500, a Second Prize of $750, a Third Prize of $300, and ten finalists receiving $75 each, is open to poetry from all writers. Contest dates: May 23 to July 18.

The World Lit Conundrum

A recent article in Rueters looks at unsuccessful efforts by the Chinese literary culture to have their works considered abroad. Lack of background knowledge to fully be able to understand/appreciate the works as well as lack of English translators are cited as a couple reasons for this continued struggle. What books do get recognized? Mostly those which are banned in China; not necessarily the strongest examples of Chinese literature, but they get the translations and readership because of the controversy. Though, if the US is still showing a decline in readership for its own literature, what hope do other countries have in finding recognition here?

And an interesting counter or alter-perspective to this article is “Author, Author: The World of ‘world’ Literature” in which Pankaj Mishra comments on “literary cosmopolitanism” – in relation to Karl Marx and Susan Sontag (of all pairings) – and the rise of India as a force in the book world: “Cultural palates in this flattened world can only be progressively homogenised. Whether attempting social or magical realism, literary writers also become increasingly subject to market realism.”

Awards :: Glimmer Train Very Short Fiction

Glimmer Train has just chosen the winning stories for their February Very Short Fiction Award. This twice yearly competition is open to all writers for stories on any theme, with a word count range of 500-3,000.

First place:Rolaine Hochstein of New York, NY, wins $1200 for “Virtuous Woman”. Her story will be published in the Summer 2010 issue of Glimmer Train Stories, out in May 2010.

Second place: Anne de Marcken of Olympia, WA, wins $500 for “Best Western”. Her story will also be published in an upcoming issue of Glimmer Train Stories, increasing her prize to $700.

Third place: Evan Christopher Burton of New York, NY, wins $300 for “Levitation”.

Also: Family Matters competition (deadline soon approaching! April 30)

Glimmer Train hosts this competition quarterly, 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.

Court Green – 2009

The best part of Court Green, published annually by Columbia College of Chicago, is always the “Dossier,” featuring a special topic or theme. And this year’s, “Letters,” is my favorite so far. Whatever the reason – because letter-writing is, in its essence, about the printed word; or because so many of us have some things we can imagine saying to so many people; or because people who love to write and are, by profession, proficient at it, are also, naturally, great letter-writers – these “letter poems” make for extremely inventive and entertaining reading. Continue reading “Court Green – 2009”

The Florida Review – Winter 2008

In her entertaining and highly original Editors’ Note, Jocelyn Bartkevicius says at The Florida Review they’ve been “arguing over what counts as truth.” If names in the Table of Contents don’t make you eager to read the journal (Maureen P. Stanton, Baron Wormser, Tony Hoagland, Denise Duhamel, Michel Burkard, an interview with Terese Svoboda), the editor’s creative consideration of what constitutes fact checking, whether or not authors get to define the genres of their work, and the meaning of “truth” in these post James Frey Debacle times (as the Review’s staff refers to them) surely will. Continue reading “The Florida Review – Winter 2008”

Fugue – Summer-Fall 2008

Mark Halliday, judge for the journal’s annual poetry contest, describes the winning poems as “ready to…confront contradictions,” “avoid dumb enthusiasm,” and provide “neatly managed endings,” which serves equally well to describe Fugue’s editorial approach, and it’s one of the reasons I’ve always liked the magazine. I appreciate Halliday’s winning choices, poems by Lisa Bellamy, David J. Corbett, and Carol Louise Munn, three distinctly different examples of what it takes to make a poem, but all “strikingly alive,” as Halliday says, and all more emotionally charged and more satisfying than they appear on a first reading. These poems tell stories more moving and more complex than their language, at first, seems to imply. Bellamy, in particular, is both clever and tender, a combination of tones that can be difficult to pull off. Continue reading “Fugue – Summer-Fall 2008”

Green Mountains Review – 2009

The theme of this all-fiction issue is shame and glory, “which seemed a marvelously arbitrary way to come across good stories,” writes Leslie Daniels in her introduction to the issue. “As writers, shame set us wildly in motion. And glory is . . . transformation, the alchemy involved in making art,” she concludes. Continue reading “Green Mountains Review – 2009”

J Journal – Fall 2008

J Journal takes a journey to the dark side of humankind – the criminal side, the enforcement side, to those who have been brutalized, taken advantage of…it uses literature to pose “questions of justice, directly and tangentially.” Each poem, each short story brings a situation laden with irony, and leaves it unresolved, leaving the reader to search within, find the discordant inner chord that has been struck and bring it back into tune. Continue reading “J Journal – Fall 2008”

Mid-American Review – Spring 2009

The annual Fineline Competition issue is always one of my favorites. The contest is open to entries of prose poetry, sudden fiction or non-fiction, or other “literary work that defies classification” (500 words or less). There’s a kind of freedom in the “sudden” form that seems to bring out the best in writers of all types. This year’s first-place winner is MFA student Ryan Teitman who creates a little museum of oddities, “The Cabinet of Things Swallowed,” that ends in a surprise or, more accurately, in the promise of a surprise. It’s the sense of promise that I appreciate most in these short works. Take, for example, the start of J.L. Conrad’s “Meanwhile,” one of the Editor’s Choice winners: “My dreams inscribe for me a world in which.” Or Editor’s Choice winner Alan Michael Parker’s opening line in “Our New System of Government”: “We believe we were misinformed.” The editors received nearly 2,000 submissions for the contest. I’m clearly not the only one who appreciates the form. Continue reading “Mid-American Review – Spring 2009”

Naugatuck River Review – Winter 2009

Starting a new publication, especially “in times like these” (TM), is a cause for congratulation, so here’s celebrating the debut of Naugatuck River Review, “a journal of narrative poetry that sings.” (Shouldn’t all poetry?) The “narrative” label may bring to mind first person nature encounters and bittersweet childhood memories, and NRR contains its share. The real pleasures, though, are the memorable characters, the people whose lives show up in small glimpses between the lines. We meet a sawmill worker whose retirement ceremony belies his rough-and-tumble life, a bar patron who learns to resist being treated as an object and authors her own adventure, and a cross dresser who tries too hard to impress. Continue reading “Naugatuck River Review – Winter 2009”

The Ne’er-Do-Well – 2009

More props are in order for the inaugural issue of this Portland prose journal. The Ne’er-Do-Well carries itself like a zine, an enfant terrible sneering at the establishment as all rejected writers in tiny presses are wont to do. Founder Sheila Ashdown explains that her intention was to encourage writers struggling with doubt. To keep writing, she says, “requires a high threshold for psychic pain and awkward conversation.” Continue reading “The Ne’er-Do-Well – 2009”

Notre Dame Review – Winter/Spring 2009

This issue’s theme is “bridges and views,” introduced by a stunning and unusual cover photo that merges beautifully the concept of bridge and view – the relationship of structure to perspective. The image does not have the appearance of stock photography, though I was unable to find a reference to the photographer. These are, of course, rich, provocative, and perhaps even favorite topics for artists from all disciplines and genres. Continue reading “Notre Dame Review – Winter/Spring 2009”

Quarter After Eight – 2009

Quarter After Eight publishes prose-poems, short-short fictions, essays in-brief, etc., all of which must be contained within 500 words or less. The highlighted criterion encourages an “innovative address to the prose form…dedicated to blurring the traditional lines of prose and verse.” This issue features 28 short pieces including the 2008 Robert J. DeMott Short Prose Contest winners, with First Place going to Cynthia Reeves for “Naming the Dead.” As stated in a preface by contest judge Sean Thomas Dougherty, Reeves manages “In barely a page…[to] offer us [an] elegy for the loss of a friend, the gaining of sexual knowledge, and the subsequent hurt that follows years later through the ghost of memory.” “Naming the Dead” is so beautifully rendered it’s difficult to decide if its lines should be quoted in prose or verse, such as in the following: Continue reading “Quarter After Eight – 2009”

NewPages Updates :: Contest Pages & YA Page

I’ve been updating! The Writing Contests pages have a number of new entries – click by and take a look.

NewPages lists *quality* contests on our site. These are contests sponsored by or connected with publications, presses, and colleges/universities listed in our guides. If you find incorrect information, a missing link, or have a contest you would like considered for listing please let me know.

Should you have a problem with a contest we list, notify me immediately. Contest sponsors who behave badly will promptly be removed.

Writing Contests
For individual works of all types.

Book Contests
For full-length manuscripts as well as already published books.

There is a separate listing for contests of interest to Young Authors (K – early college). This also includes links to YA publications and information about how to submit works as well as avoiding contest scams: New Pages Young Authors Guide

DOXA FIlm Fest

DOXA
Documentary Film Festival
Vancouver, CA
May 22nd – 31st, 2009

DOXA is presented by the Documentary Media Society, a Vancouver based non-profit, charitable society (incorporated in 1998) devoted to presenting independent and innovative documentaries to Vancouver audiences. The society exists to educate the public about documentary film as an art form through DOXA – a curated and juried festival comprised of public screenings, workshops, panel discussions and public forums.

Free Mags for Teachers :: Geist

The Goods
“Geist is delivering the best Canadian writing to classrooms from Tatamagouche to Victoria, from high school to grad school, from creative writing to English composition. Four times a year we publish fiction, life writing, essays, poetry, comix, rants, photo essays and unclassifiable dispatches — a cornucopia of genres and styles for teachers and students of writing.”

The Deal
“We send you a free class set of Geist.
We post free lesson plans that you can use in the classroom.
That’s it! No strings, no sales, no spam.”

The Agenda
“Geist is always looking for new writers and readers.
Writing teachers are always looking for new teaching ideas and opportunities for emerging writers.
Geist in the Classroom puts us together.”

Gest in the Classroom

Film :: War Rug

“War Rug is a work of documentary poetics in the form of a book length poem. Multiple interwoven narratives explore life within zones of conflict as viewed through the lens of current warfare. The narratives range from passages inspired by journal entries, firsthand accounts, and news reports to poetic constructs collaged from military doctrine, Freedom of Information Act released government documents (like CIA interrogation manuals, and detainee autopsy reports), and numerous other sources.” (Poet, translator, and new media artist Francesco Levato is the executive director of The Poetry Center of Chicago.)

Allied Media Conference

11th Allied Media Conference
“We Are Ready New: Media and creativity to transform our selves and our world”
July 16-19, 2009
Detroit, Michigan

The 11th AMC will advance our visions for a just and creative world. It will be a laboratory for media-based solutions to the matrix of life-threatening problems we face. For the past 10 years, we have evolved our definition of media, and the role it can play in our lives – from zines to video-blogging to breakdancing, to communicating solidarity and creating justice. Each conference builds off the previous one and plants the seeds for the next. Ideas and relationships evolve year-round, incorporating new networks of media-makers and social justice organizers. The 2009 AMC will draw strength from our converging movements to face the challenges and opportunities of our current moment.

Scholarly Journals :: Works and Days

Published by the English Department at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Works and Days provides a scholarly forum for the exploration of problems in cultural studies, pedagogy, and institutional critique, especially as they are impacted by the transition from print to electronic environments. Each issue of the journal is organized around specific inquiries conducted as shared disciplinary or postdisciplinary research projects. Works and Days aims to serve not only as a forum for collaborative research and teaching, but also as an environment in which mutual inquiries may flourish.

Issues include:

Academic Freedom and Intellectual Activism in the Post-9/11 University
v26-27, 2008-2009

The Society for Critical Exchange–Phase 1: 1975-1988
v25, 2007

Intellectual Intersections: Ethnic and Racial Crossings
v24, 2006

Richard Ohmann: A Retrospective
v23, 2005

Capitalizing on Play: The Politics of Computer Gaming
v22, 2004

Who’s New at the Academy?

The American Academy of Arts and Letters will hold its annual induction and award ceremony on Wednesday, May 20, 2009. President of the Academy, McClatchy stated, “The Academy is proud to welcome to its ranks these distinguished new members. It’s an eclectic group of exceptional individuals—each a pioneer of the imagination and an artist of resplendent gifts and achievements.”

Nine members will be inducted into the 250-person organization: artist Judy Pfaff and architect Tod Williams; writers T. Coraghessan Boyle, Jorie Graham, Yusef Komunyakaa, and Richard Price; composers Stephen Hartke, Frederic Rzewski, and Augusta Read Thomas.

Academician Louise Glück will deliver the Blashfield Foundation Address, titled “American Originality.” An exhibition of art, architecture, books, and manuscripts by new members and recipients of awards will be on view at the Academy’s galleries from May 21 to June 14, 2009.