Home » NewPages Blog » Page 260

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!

Slice – Spring/Summer 2009

Slice Magazine is definitely slick. To begin with, it has a nice shape, slightly more square than rectangular, bigger than the typical paperback book – its very size lending itself more to the coffee table display than the random misplacement on an overstuffed bookshelf. Page by page, the design by Amy Sly and Amanda Ice is hip and pleasing to the eye; this issue is embellished throughout with a color I want to name “pumpkin,” the only additional color enhancing the requisite black and white. Titles are rewarded with their very own pages, the type large, unique, inviting, accompanied by a thematically appropriate illustration or photograph. Even the white spaces between sections of prose are uniquely addressed; while one story is divided by three pumpkin colored X’s, the next is divided by a series of pumpkin colored asterisks, the next by a pair of slightly staggered lines. The cover illustration by Jessica Gomez is immediately followed by an equally appealing cover photograph by Patrick Schlichtenmyer, as if the burden of narrowing in on a single cover layout was simply too much to bear. Teetering somewhere between an art/lit magazine or a lit/art magazine, the overall design and presentation of Slice is definitely exemplary. Continue reading “Slice – Spring/Summer 2009”

The Sycamore Review – Winter/Spring 2009

My favorite section of this issue was the interviews: Theresa D. Smith interviews the poet Adam Zagajewski, and Mehdi Okasi interviews the novelist Lan Samantha Chang. Zagajewski discusses how he writes poetry, why he writes poetry and themes in his work. “The empirical world is less luminous than our favorite books of poetry,” he concludes. Chang talks about her craft process and how reading other contemporary novelists has challenged her to write differently than she originally intended. These mini Paris Review-like interviews are both informative and inspiring. Continue reading “The Sycamore Review – Winter/Spring 2009”

Third Coast – Spring 2009

A quick glance at the Contributors Notes of the Spring 2009 issue of Third Coast reads like a promotional pamphlet for the country’s top MFA programs. Coast to coast, nearly every school is represented, the teachers of writing, the recent graduates, those still pursuing the elusive MFA or PhD. Yet, despite the ongoing rant that too many MFA graduates will inevitably result in the generic poem or prose, this issue serves as a glorious contradiction. Occupying nearly 200 pages of text, a total of 28 poets writing 36 poems, 15 prose writers writing 6 short stories, 2 creative non-fiction pieces, 1 play, and several reviews for a recommended books section, I applaud the editors of Third Coast for their wonderful diversity of taste, for their willingness to publish both the well established and the newly emerging, for their particular caliber of excellence. This issue provides a little something for everyone in pursuit of a satisfying read. Continue reading “Third Coast – Spring 2009”

Western Humanities Review – Winter 2009

“This issue of WHR brings together several papers from ‘Critical Renovations,’ a symposium held at the University of Utah in November 2007. The symposium invited scholars of English working in a wide range of periods, genres, and media to reflect on, revisit, and perhaps recycle our scholarly past.” Hold onto your hat. Here comes some serious lit crit, cultural studies, scholarly stuff. I mean I. A. Richards, and Eve Sedgewick, and Saussure, and Leo Spitzer, and Ortega y Gasset, and Fredric Jameson, and Paul de Man. I mean “critical gestures,” and an “oblique gloss” on methodological problems, and “developmentalist narratives.” But, don’t despair! There’s something valuable in every one of these dense, academic essays. Continue reading “Western Humanities Review – Winter 2009”

Willow Springs – Spring 2009

Where have I been for the past thirty years? The older I get the more frequently I find myself stunned by the breadth and depth of my absolute cluelessness. Not knowing about Willow Springs is definitely my latest admonishment. If issue 63 is any indication, Willow Springs’s thirty year publishing history is hard earned and well deserved; from cover to cover, the work in this issue is above and beyond. Continue reading “Willow Springs – Spring 2009”

Word Riot – March 2009

This issue has so many good stories, it is a shame that only a few can be singled out. Most interesting perhaps is “An Honest Man” by Doug Rudoff, which begins, “The first thing you should know is that everything that I write here is a lie.” The author then takes us on the journey of a young boy’s life in Mexico, some of which is supposedly true, but we’re never sure what. Another engaging story is “Blink” by Chuck Campbell, about an eighty-one year old widower, his stubbornness, his relationship with his son, and the man’s eroding ability to separate fact from fantasy. Continue reading “Word Riot – March 2009”

Embargoed Voices: Poesia Ultima / Italian Poetry Now

Festival of Italian Contemporary Poetry & Poetics
Presenting Maria Attanasio, Giovanna Frene, Marco Giovenale & Milli Graffi
New York May 26-27 / Chicago May 28-29

Featuring Italy’s foremost experimental and emerging writers–poets, but also critics and translators–the festival inludes readings, panel discussion, symposium and salon to bring an array of new poetic voices to US readers to reveal points of confluence and conflict within Italian and global poetries.

Curated by Aufgabe #7 guest editor Jennifer Scappettone and co-sponsored by Litmus Press, Poets House, the Italian Cultural Institute of New York, St. Mark’s Poetry Project, University of Chicago Arts Council and Departments of Romance Languages and Creative Writing, Northwestern University Department of French and Italian, Chicago Poetry Center, and Th!nkArt Gallery.

Questions About CNF? Ask the Godfather

Lee Gutkind, editor of Creative Nonfiction, has created a blog category of great interest for CNF writers, Ask the Godfather: “A lot of people have a lot of questions about creative nonfiction, but I’ve noticed that a majority of those questions are similar. So, in an attempt to broaden the reach of my answers, I’ve decided to post some of your questions with my answers here on my blog.”

Want to know the truth about creative nonfiction sub-genres? Or the best way to convince people the value of creative nonfiction? Or how to gauge whether or not what your writing is creative nonfiction?

Visit this first of what we can hope will be many great installments from the Godfather of CNF. And, of course, readers are invited to send in questions!

The Tin House Martini

A professed beer aficionado, I have to admit, I’m looking forward to trying one of these this summer while reading the newest issue of Tin House, appropriately themed “Appetites”:

The Tin House Martini was developed for Tin House magazine by Mr. Greg Connolly, bartender at the Four Seasons restaurant in New York City, who has also been known to call it “The Best Martini in the World.” Order the Tin House Martini at the Four Seasons bar, or use this recipe to educate your favorite bartender about this inspired improvement on the standard gin martini.

Pour 1/2 oz of Pernod into a cocktail shaker and swirl until it coats the inside of the shaker, pour off any excess. In countries where it is still legal, such as Portugal and Spain, absinthe can be appropriately substituted for Pernod.

Splash two eye-dropperfuls of Cinzano dry vermouth into the bottom of the shaker, and again swirl it about, then pour off the excess.

Pour 4 to 4 1/2 oz of Tanqueray gin into the shaker, add ice, and with a ridiculously long-handled silver mixing spoon, stir exactly twenty times.

Pour the drink into a very well-chilled martini glass. Then add three small cocktail olives, or two large ones, sans toothpick.

The flavors of olive and Pernod commingle so deliciously, that at least one of the olives should be consumed after the drink is finished. You see, sometimes consolation can be found in the bottom of a martini glass.

Ten Questions for Poetry Editors

Poet Nic Sebastian has started a new weekly feature on the blog, Very Like A Whale: Ten Questions for Poetry Editors – with new posts each Tuesday. Steve Schroeder, editor of Anti- poetry magazine is the first respondent.

The past Ten Questions Series has asked Ten Questions of poets on poetry-related issues (Rob Mackenzie, Scavella, Julie Carter, Sarah Sloat, Tony Williams, Greg Perry, Steven Schroeder, Howard Miller, Paul Stevens, Katy Evans-Bush, C.E. Chaffin, Ron Silliman) and Ten Questions of poets on publication-related issues (Brent Fisk, Carolyn Guinzio, Edward Byrne, Ivy Alvarez, Kristy Bowen, Michaela Gabriel, Nate Pritts, Neil Aitken, Rachel Bunting, Reb Livingston, Reginald Shepherd, Sam Byfield).

All Q&As are available on the blog archives. If you haven’t been keeping up, it’s time to start reading!

Read ‘n Vote: Million Writers Award

Take the long holiday weekend to visit the storySouth Million Writers Award 2009. Voting is open May 17 – June 17. Here’s who you’ll find on the finalist list and the original publications in which their stories first appeared:

“The Whale Hunter” by Steinur Bell (Agni)

“Intertropical Convergence Zone” by Nadia Bulkin (ChiZine)

“No Bullets in the House” by Geronimo Madrid (Drunken Boat)

“Fuckbuddy” by Roderic Crooks (Eyeshot)

“The Fisherman’s Wife” by Jenny Williams (LitNImage)

“Every Earth is Fit for Burial” by Cyn Kitchen (Menda City Review)

“Interview With A Moron” by Elizabeth Stuckey-French (Narrative Magazine)

“The Tale of Junko and Sayuri” by Peter S. Beagle (OSC’s Intergalactic Medicine Show)

“Grief Mongers” by Sefi Atta (Per Contra Fiction)

“Nine Sundays in a Row” by Kris Dikeman (Strange Horizons)

L.A. Times: Off the Shelf

Off the Shelf: Writes on Writing is a new feature on L.A. Times Books that debuted during the 2009 Festival of Books. So far, the Friday weekly features Tod Goldberg (“Dungeons & Dragons, and iPhones and pizza”), Nahid Rachlin (“A room of her own: A writer remembers her childhood writing room in Iran.”), Taylor Antri (“When second novels go bad”), and Art Spiegelman (on “Creative Block”).

Marginalia News and LetterPress Chapbook

Marginalia, is now “free of its institutional chains,” as founding Editor Alicita Rodriguez recently left Western State College of Colorado. “Now unaffiliated with any academic institution, this means more editorial freedom (and less money).”

To help encourage support for the publication, the newest issue of Marginalia (v4) includes a beautiful chapbook, Dana Burchfield’s “Habit,” winner of the 2008 Marginalia College Contest.

Noted on the front of the book: “An embellished homophonic translation of Karin Boye’s Swedish poem, ‘Havet,’ from Dikter (Albert Bonniers Forl

Documentary Film Grant

Cinereach funds artful narrative and documentary films that depict underrepresented perspectives, cross international boundaries and start meaningful conversations. Film projects that are consistent with Cinereach’s ethos favor good storytelling over didacticism, complexity over traditional duality. Cinereach-supported films demonstrate creativity, visual artistry and take a character-based approach.

In the past, Cinereach has awarded grants from $5,000 to $50,000 per project.

Deadline: June 1, 2009

Work to Start on Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Two-hundred-year-old logs lie in wait on the ground, a Mount Sterling man is making shingles, and construction of a replica of the fictional Uncle Tom’s Cabin is expected to begin in Lancaster in mid-June.

The cabin will be built on the grounds of the Gov. William Owsley House on U.S. 27 about a mile south of the Public Square, but it won’t be ready for tourists and visitors until summer 2010…[read the rest]

Reported by Art Jester
The Advocate-Messenger
Richmond Register

Audio :: Ubu Web

Rare Audio from Anthology Film Archives (1964-1974)

UbuWeb has announced a new project in their ongoing partnership with Anthology Film Archives in New York City. This is the first in a series of over 1,000 tapes from the Anthology historic audio collection. These recordings feature many years worth of interviews, lectures, question & answer sessions and other amazing discoveries.

The first series includes: P. Adams Sitney Interviews Kenneth Anger on WNYC’s “Arts Forum” (1972); Charles Levine Interviews Robert Breer (July 1970); Jonas Mekas Interviews Emile De Antonio (11/06/1969); Jonas Mekas Interviews Emile De Antonio (11/06/1969); Poetry And The Film: Amos Vogel, Maya Deren, Parker Tyler, Willard Maas & Dylan Thomas Sessions 1 & 2 At Cinema 16 (10/28/ 1953); P. Adams Sitney Interviews Sidney Peterson On WNYC’s “Arts Forum” (1976); P. Adams Sitney Interviews Sidney Peterson On WNYC’s “Arts Forum” (1976); Annette Michelson Interviews Yvonne Rainer On WNYC’s “Arts Forum” (01/25/1974); Pauline Kael And Stan Brakhage (1964); Robert Haller Interviews Carolee Schneemann (11/30/1973); Hollis Frampton At Binghampton University, Part 1 & 2 (03/11/1972); Ken Jacobs, Larry Gottheim, Stan Brakhage: Binghampton Council Of Churches (11/23/1970) defending a Hermann Nitsch action; Harry Smith Interviewed by P. Adams Sitney (1965).

You can also read selections from FILM CULTURE Magazine (1955-1996) including many of the artists featured in the audio archive.

UbuWeb is a completely independent resource dedicated to all strains of the avant-garde, ethnopoetics, and outsider arts.

All materials on UbuWeb are being made available for noncommercial and educational use only. All rights belong to the author(s).

UbuWeb is completely free.

Bits from Iowa Review

The Iowa Review offers a number of works from their most recent issue (v39n1) online, including a link to an audio excerpt of Tom Montgomery-Fate’s Saunter: A Conversation with Henry David Thoreau, and a work by Ron Tanner, “Cats as Tuna” which I will whet your appetite with here: “I filled a pot with housecats. The pot was my biggest. Still, there were a lot of cats. They didn’t seem to mind being in the pot. I knew they weren’t tuna. But I needed to make tuna salad. And all I had were cats. Cats always seem to be around and underfoot, winding through my legs. Cat hair floats through my house like dandelion down.”

Gigantic’s First Issue

The first issue of Gigantic is out, and it indeed holds up to its name (or rather, needs to be held up). This puppy is big, but in a fun-to-read-on-the-bus sort of way, and I imagine the superlarge, four-color image by Nat Russel of dancing cowboys is going to end up decorating a lot of walls.

Fiction by Kenny Aquiles, Dan Bevacqia, Ben Blum, Matt Di Paoli, Douglas Elsass, Howard Good, Yuka Igarashi, Derek Johnson, Shane Jones, Kristen O’Toole, Ed Park, Pedro Ponce, Lauren Spohrer, Justin Taylor, Adm Wilson and Anya Yurchyshyn; Dialogues with Malcolm Gladwell, Tao Lin, Garry Shteyngart, Deb Olin Unferth, and Joe Wenderoth; Artwork by Joanna Neborsky, Andrew Bulger, Mark Hewko, Jerome Jakubiec, Kevin Kwan, Thomas Pierce, Nat Russell, Erin Grey West, James J. Williams III, Todd Zuniga.

Hudson-Brown Fellowship at Washington College

The Hodson-Brown Fellowship supports work by academics, independent scholars and writers working on significant projects relating to the literature, history, culture,or art of the Americas before 1830. The fellowship is also open to filmmakers, novelists, creative and performing artists, and others working on projects that draw on this period of history.

The fellowship award supports two months of research and two months of writing. The stipend is $5,000 per month for a total of $20,000, plus housing and university privileges.

Deadline: July 15, 2009

New Lit on the Block :: Arroyo

Spring 2009 brings readers the premier annual issue of Arroyo Literary Review (v1n1) from the Department of English at California State University, East Bay. Editors Eric Neuenfeldt, John Gannon (designer) and Scott Goodenow, and advisors Susan Gubernat and Aaron Jason have put together a beautiful-to-touch-and-see publication with even more to read than can be imagined within its eighty-some pages.

This first issue includes an interview with and fiction by Eric Miles Williamson, a Cal State alum, fiction by Patrick Ryan, Richard Peabody, Sara McAulay, and Stephen D. Gutierrez, peotyr by Dan Bellm, Mark Svenvold, Jeremy Halinen, Ilyse Kusnetz, Patty Seyburn, Marvin Bell, Jan Heller Levi, Lucille Lang Day, Trebor Healey, and Nellie Hill, and cover art by James Jean and a unique threadwork portfolio by Lisa Solomon.

Hemingway Reissue: A Moveable Feast

Reissued from Simon & Shuster: “When Ernest Hemingway died in 1961 he had nearly completed A Moveable Feast, which eventually was published posthumously in 1964 and edited by his widow Mary Hemingway. This new special edition of Hemingway’s classic memoir of his early years in Paris in the 1920’s presents the original manuscript as the author intended it to be published at the time of his death. This new publication also includes a number of unfinished Paris sketches on writing and experiences that Hemingway had with his son, Jack, his wife Hadley, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ford Maddox Ford and others. A personal foreword by Patrick Hemingway, Ernest’s sole surviving son, precedes an introduction by the editor, Sean Hemingway, grandson of the author. It is a literary feast, brilliantly evoking the exuberant mood of Paris after World War I and the youthful spirit, unbridled creativity, and unquenchable enthusiasm that Hemingway himself epitomized.”

Literary Chopping Block: Is Your State Next?

As pointed out in this notice from Creative Nonfiction, this is not just a Pennsylvania issue – it’s one that, if your state hasn’t been hit with already, you should be proactive about confronting:

Times are tough, but when your State Senate passes a budget that includes ZERO FUNDING FOR THE ARTS, you know you’re in trouble. And that is exactly what’s happening here in Pennsylvania.

To put this in perspective, the funding CNF receives from the state is equivalent to the yearly amount we spend paying our writers… and paying writers is a good thing, no?

Thankfully, bureaucracy moves slowly, and there’s still time to take action. If you live in Pennsylvania, then the following information is for you. Even if you don’t, you may want to pay attention, this could be a sign of things to come across the nation.

From the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council:

Yesterday afternoon the Pennsylvania Senate passed its version of the FY 2010 state budget (SB 850) with a 30-20 vote. The bill, introduced on May 4, eliminates all arts and culture grants in the state through the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (PCA) and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC). While this is an unfortunate occurrence, the budget process isn’t complete yet.

Appropriations Chair Dwight Evans introduced the House budget bill (HB 1416) which includes funding for both the PCA and the PHMC. The House will act on this piece of legislation later this month, so it is important for anyone who cares about arts and culture to continue to communicate with their legislators about this issue. The two bills will then go into what will likely be a contentious conference committee before its final passage in the General Assembly…

…Be sure to thank [your representives] when they vote favorably for issues that are of importance to you. At the same time, it is equally important to let them know when they vote in a manner that is not representative of your views… See how your State Senator voted on SB 850.

If you have yet to contact your legislators about ensuring that funding for arts and culture is included in the FY2010 Pennsylvania State budget, we urge you to do so today, before it is too late. To locate your legislators please visit the Citizens for the Arts in Pennsylvania website.

Please, if you’re a PA resident, take a moment to contact your legislators and urge them to support funding for arts and culture in the 2010 budget.

Grant :: Warhol Foundation

The Creative Capital / Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant Program supports individual writers whose work addresses contemporary visual art through grants in the following categories: articles; blogs; books; new and alternative media; and short-form writing. Grants range from $3,000 to $50,000 depending on the needs and scope of the project. Application Deadline: Monday, June 8, 2009

TriQuarterly’s Notes from Donna Seaman

Booklist editor Donna Seaman was the guest editor for the most recent issue of TriQuarterly (133). In her introduction, she begins: “My respect for the mystery implicit in creativity runs high, so I decided not to interfere with the process in my role as guest editor for this brimming issue of TriQuarterly. I did not name a theme, or assign a topic. Instead, I sought out writers who see life whole, who are curious about the interconnectivity and complexity of existence, and who care, deeply and unabashedly, about the world. When asked what I was looking for, I simply said, ‘strong medicine.'”

“Good writing,” she goes on, “is a tonic. The work of inquisitive, imaginative, unfettered, and courageous observers, thinkers, and dreamers provide succor. Heat and light. Food for thought and balm for pain. Lucid and compassionate literature breaks the isolating fever of the self.”

Seaman has more to say on the parallels of this soul-felt medicine, introducing numerous contributors in the issue and their works, but it was her closing remark on the concept I was most comforted by, as so often, I don’t find what I read so much soothing as jarring, awakening me to feelings unlike any salve should. Seaman addresses this as well: “Strong medicine may make you sick before it makes you better. Here, writers and readers alike face harsh truths about humankind’s diabolical paradoxes and planet-altering endeavors. Strong medicine goads us into asking questions, articulating objections, and fueling the coalescence, let us hope, of new ways of seeing, and new ways of being.”

Will my insurance cover this prescription of TriQuarterly? Oh, heck – the cover price is less than my co-pay, and no nasty side effects!

New Lit on the Block :: Conclave

Founding Editor Valya Dudycz Lupescu and a crew of over two dozen editors and readers have brought forth the premier issue of Conclave: A Journal of Character, an annual print journal of character-focused writing and photography.

The first print issue, including some online content, features:

POETRY by: Jeffrey C. Alfier, Denise Duhamel, Michael S. Glaser, Randall Horton, Lawrence Kessenich, Claire Keyes, Christina Lovin, Mark Neely, Christina Pacosz, K.H. Solomon, Savannah Thorne, Jeffrey Warzecha, Amy Watkins, Andrea L. Watson, Kathleen Dusenbery, Michelle Menting;

NONFICTION by: Jill Christman, Richard Goodman, Lisa Van Orman Hadley, Tom Maremaa, Kendra Ann Thomas;

FICTION by: Kevin Brown, Louisa Howerow, Stephen Johnston, Amanda Leduc, Sarah Maloney, Tara L. Masih, Ryan B. Richey. Lori Romero, Lisa Carl, Christine Beth Reish, Richard Rutherford, Jeremy Adam Smith;

DRAMATIC EXCERPTS by Kathy Coudle King, Anne Phelan, Steven Shutzman;

PHOTOGRAPHY by: Stacey Debono, Michael Epps, Vinayak Garg, Beth Hommel, G

Residency :: A Studio in the Woods

Changing Landscapes is a 6-week residency based on the premise that Southern Louisiana can be seen as a microcosm of the global environment, manifesting both the challenges and possibilities inherent in human interaction with the natural world.

Open to visual, musician/composing, performance, literary, new media, and interdisciplinary artists. Both established and emerging artists are encouraged to apply, but a rigorous work ethic and demonstrated commitment to environmental issues are expected.

Grant :: Washington State

Washington State Artist Trust Fellowship is accepting grant applications from practicing professional artists of exceptional talent and demonstrated ability working in crafts, literary arts, media arts, and music in Washington State. The total amount to be awarded is up to $7,500 in unrestricted funds, with $500 payable to artists upon completion of a Meet the Artist event. Deadline: June 12, 2009.

Lit Mag Survival

There’s always much being said on the issue of funding and support for literary magazine, whether they are associated with a university, non-profit arts organization, or completely “independent,” but now more than ever, there is a real concern about the survival of the literary magazine. Like the roots of an old oak, those concerns run deep, branching into areas far beyond simple finances.

A two-part manifesto Virginia Quarterly Review blog post brings a great deal of the matter into focus, with plenty of further reading reference:

The Future of University Presses and Journals (A Manifesto)
By Ted Genoways
May 9th, 2009

Whose Woods Are These? (A Manifesto, Part 2)
By Ted Genoways
May 14th, 2009

Via Carolyn Kellogg

Awards :: Tupelo Press Dorset Prize

Tupelo Press has announced the results of this year’s Dorset Prize. Judge Ilya Kaminsky has selected Joshua Corey of Evanston, IL for the manuscript Severance Songs.

Runner-up:
Geri Doran of Eugene, OR for the manuscript Sanderlings

Honorable Mentions to:
Shane McCrae, Iowa City, IA for Mule
Rusty Morrison, Richmond, CA for Landscape, Not Fable

A full list of other finalists and semi-finalists can be viewed on Tupelo’s website.

Residency & Fellowship :: Vermont Studio

Vermont Studio Center
Full Fellowships
Deadline: June 15

The Vermont Studio Center is an international residency program open to all artists and writers. Year-round, VSC hosts 50 artists and writers per month, each of whom receives an individual studio, private room, and all meals. Residencies last from 2-12 weeks and provide uninterrupted time to work, a community of creative peers, and a beautiful village setting in northern Vermont. In addition, VSC’s program includes a roster of Visiting Artists and Writers (2 painters, 2 sculptors and 2 writers per month) who offer slide talks/readings and individual studio visits/conferences.

Visual Verse

Free Verse: Poetry in the Wild

Inspired by the 2009 National Poetry Month poster design, the Academy of American Poets invites you to capture and share your own ephemeral bits of verse. Write lines from a favorite poem on a sandy beach, assemble twigs on a hillside, or chalk the sidewalk. Take a photo before it disappears and post it to the Free Verse group page on Flickr. Include the source of your lines in the photo caption.

All photos posted by April 15 were automatically entered in a contest to win the new Poem in Your Pocket Anthology and a commemorative piece of hand-engraved jewelry by San Francisco designer Jeanine Payer.

Selected entries to the Free Verse Photo Project will be featured in the ongoing gallery on Poets.org.

Worth a visit!

(Image submitted by Amy T. from San Luis Obispo, CA)

Some Agni Bits

Agni has long been providing exclusive online content, unique and separate from the print publication, with the content of each carefully selected for the delivery mechanism. The newest print issue of Agni (69) indeed offers something not only unique to print, but wholly unique to Agni among literary magazines: an exceptionally well reproduced, two-sided, trifold foldout of the collage “Where Were You When the Moon Was Full” by Aldwyth. This is in addition to several other color and black and white images to accompany Rosamond Purcell’s art feature on Aldwyth, “In Her Hand: The Art World Goes to War.”

Also included in this issue, the Editor’s Note by Sven Birkerts, “What Remains,” honors the lives of David Foster Wallace and John Updike through a thoughtful remembrance of their writing. As only Birkerts can, these comments truly honor without gushing, and say a great deal more about the place of writers in our memories. Worth a read regardless of your fan status with either author.

Literary Canada’s Fight for Survival

Canadian lit mags are still putting a call out for support. According to Managing Editor Rosalynn Tyo of The New Quarterly, “the Department of Canadian Heritage plans to eliminate funding for magazines with less than 5000 in annual ciculation as of April 2010…All that would remain on the table, of what’s on my table anyway, is Geist and Canadian Living.”

Like so many other quality, small literary publications, TNQ and other Canadian magazines could probably get by for a short period of time without this support, but more to the point is demanding the arts continue to be recognized for their cultural value and importance and supported as such. Not, as Tyo points out, forcing profitability and commercial viability as the marker of survival. Some things we just know are good for us, even if they don’t make us rich.

Speaking from a state (Michigan) where we’ve seen massive funding cuts for arts and historical organizations, it’s a sad, sad existence. And once it’s taken away, don’t think you’re going to see it back any time soon. Fight while you still can, Canada, and for those of you with any say in this, visit TNQ‘s website for information on how to participate. Of course, purchasing subscriptions always helps.

New Press CFS :: Slash Pine Press

Fixed the Links!

From the editors of SPS: “Housed a the University of Alabama, Slash Pine Press is currently seeking poetry or mixed-genre chapbook manuscripts, with the aim of publishing two of them in the coming year. The press locates itself as an intellectual space where forms and intuitions make writing a process of risk and otherness—a space where the high stakes of creative inquiry make self-effacement impossible. Neither cynical nor rhetorically meek, the work is concerned with but not limited by the map; its logic is global, written against the grain of history and biography. And where there is a cut, a thick sap flows. For more information, please visit our website or join our Facebook group (type in Slash Pine Press).”

What’s New at Antioch Review?

According to Editor Robert Fogarty, the Antioch Review Spring 2009 issue introduces the new feature From Our Archives: “Beginning with this issue we will reprint a famous piece from our archives (essays, stories, poems).”

I’ve previously heard some controversy about publications doing this, as reprinting already published works takes up valuable real estate that hungry new writers are ever eager to fill. However, Antioch‘s approach to this, simply stated, is intriguing: “Read it and see how it stood the test of time. Is it gold or pyrite?”

Regardless of the hungry masses, this is a great question to ask and have the opportunity to explore. As often as I run across “old” lit mags and am thrilled to find some of the first works of now-famous authors, there are far more where-are-they-now authors. Granted, we can’t all be famous, or even a recognized name, but probably more the issue: is what was written for the time, or for all time? And does its having been the former rather than the latter render it “pyrite”? I’ll be interested to see what Antioch discovers with their new feature and some feedback from their readers.

New Lit on the Block :: MAYDAY Magazine

Editors David Bowen, Okla Elliott, Jared Schickling, and Art Consultant Dave Myers have unveiled MAYDAY Magazine, a biannual of nonfiction, microfiction, poetry, political/cultural commentary, translation, and visual art. An annual print edition will feature the best work published in the last two online issues as well as longer prose and other work more appropriate for a print medium.

The premier issue features work by writers and translators including David R. Slavitt, Abdellatif La

Kindled Too

Yes, we did it. NewPages bought a Kindle – or Kindle 2, as I am corrected by Kindle snobs. Yeah, “whatever” is what I would have thought, until Kindle 3 was just announced this week. With its nearly $500 price tag, it will certainly make us the Kindle users on the other side of the tracks.

Kindle this, Kindle that. I put off making the purchase of this yet-another-have-to-have piece of technology mainly because of the cost. I think it’s ridiculously overpriced. Holding one in my hands hasn’t changed my mind. It certainly is all it’s hyped up to be when it comes to a couple features. The first I noticed is ease on the eyes for reading. After several days of Kindle reading, I went back to a book (the word sounds so antiquated now…), and I could immediately feel a slight eye strain. Okay, so Kindle is good for aging/old people like me. And the other cool feature that holds true is being able to read the Kindle in bright sunlight. I hate to say it, but even better than a book in that I didn’t get the page glare.

Other than these two features, niceties include being able to get the New York Times (as we have always lived in a non-delivery area), Slate, and other mags delivered and portable for ease of reading access. I also appreciate being able to purchase a book and download it in seconds – literally. Again, living in an area with limited access to book sources (libraries and bookstores), when each time I go to the bookstore, I’m sure to hear, “We can order it for you,” it’s dandy to be able to find the book and begin reading it immediately. I also like being able to read a sample of the book before ordering it. A true “bookstore” style feature.

The documents download is also a great feature. I can send documents in myself, Amazon will convert them, then I can load them into the Kindle, all for free. I can also send documents and Amazon will convert them and wirelessly load them, but for that there is a fee, and a growing one. Still, worth it in a pinch. I’ve sent a couple PDFs through, and the formatting does come back a bit screwy, but it’s not terrible. Pictures are what mess it up, not so much just plain text.

My biggest Kindle mistake? Downloading a cookbook. Had it not been free through Amazon, I wouldn’t have loaded it, but for free, what the heck. The mistake? I’m not setting my Kindle on the cupboard next to a pan popping hot oil, not to mention the other open ingredients: flour, tomato sauce, wine (that’s for the cook, not the recipe). One look at my cookbooks will tell you favorite recipes by the spills and spatters on the pages. Adds character to the book. Would kill the Kindle. That said, reading in the bathtub is also out of the question.

Other irritations include thumb strain. No kidding. The ultraslim design is nice, but I find myself having to pinch it more closely than I would a book, so my thumbs hurt after reading on it for extended periods of time. It’s also odd in that I think I have pretty large hands, but the Kindle feels just a bit too wide for me to hold comfortably. So, I’m thinking it’s better designed for even larger “guy” hands. But, the keyboard is definitely more easily accessed by smaller thumbs. So, if we evolve to this technology, we’ll have larger hands and thinner thumbs. Kindle 3, however, with its newspaper reading screen – well, its beyond me how that could be comfortable.

Overall, the Kindle is cute but not a necessity. I can see how schools would be interested in using them for textbook delivery, though there need to be some modifications made in saving and organizing clippings/notes to make student use more effective. And, ultimately, I come back to the price. In keeping with the Matthew principle: those who already have will be able to afford it and continue to benefit. The have-nots will continue to be left in the dust. Not only at the cost of the device, but imagine no more cheaper, used textbooks. A level price field on books – which should all be cheaper with no paper, right? Certainly, no more borrowing textbooks from a roommate (since you can’t share Kindle files – and it’s unlikely roomies will loan you their $300+ reader with all their other books and notes on it).

A fun tech tool, but not worth the cover price. Had I not been able to consider it a tax write-off, I wouldn’t have considered it at all.

Awards :: Poetry Out Loud

“Backed by a cheering section of his family and friends, 18-year-old William Farley of Arlington, Virginia captivated both judges and audience with his poetry recitations to gain the title of 2009 Poetry Out Loud National Champion. Farley was among 12 finalists and 53 state champions from around the country who participated in the fourth national poetry recitation contest, sponsored by the National Arts Endowment and the Poetry Foundation.”