NewPages Blog

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

For real?

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

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

Seriously.

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

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

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

If this blog is not already on your radar – add it – NOW! I know there are a lot of teachers who read this blog, so please cue your students into this one – regularly!

Writer Beware Blogs!
“Writer Beware, a publishing industry watchdog group sponsored by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, shines a light into the dark corners of the shadow-world of literary scams, schemes, and pitfalls.”

At the keyboard for this blog are Victoria Strauss, Richard White, and A. C. Crispin, though Victoria seems to be the main blogger.

The blog regularly posts alerts regarding scam and highly questionable contests, carefully reviewing fine print and bringing unethical and questionable behaviors to the surface. There are also many posts and continued conversations on the print-on-demand publishing phenom.

Writer Beware is on top of the issues, and if you have any questions or concerns about anything regarding writers being taken advantage of in contests, publishing, marketing, etc., this is the place and these are the people to contact. (Though review the blog archive first, as you may well find your answer there already!)

Priceless.

Jason Kottke notes on his blog that the NY Times has only used 96 pt. type for the headline on the front page of the paper five times:

MEN WALK ON MOON
NIXON RESIGNS
U.S. ATTACKED
1/1/00
OBAMA

Did I Miss Anything
by Tom Wayman

Question frequently asked by
students after missing a class

Nothing. When we realized you weren’t here
we sat with our hands folded on our desks
in silence, for the full two hours

Everything. I gave an exam worth
40 per cent of the grade for this term
and assigned some reading due today
on which I’m about to hand out a quiz
worth 50 per cent

Nothing. None of the content of this course
has value or meaning
Take as many days off as you like:
any activities we undertake as a class
I assure you will not matter either to you or me
and are without purpose

Everything. A few minutes after we began last time
a shaft of light descended and an angel
or other heavenly being appeared
and revealed to us what each woman or man must do
to attain divine wisdom in this life and
the hereafter
This is the last time the class will meet
before we disperse to bring this good news to all people
on earth

Nothing. When you are not present
how could something significant occur?

Everything. Contained in this classroom
is a microcosm of human existence
assembled for you to query and examine and ponder
gathered

but it was one place

And you weren’t here

***

Please visit the original online so you can get the spacing blogger won’t allow:
U of Toronto Library – Canadian Poets: Tom Wayman
Originally from: The Astonishing Weight of the Dead
Vancouver: Polestar, 1994.

The Petree College of Arts and Sciences of Oklahoma City University is seeking an assistant professor of writing for a tenure-track position.

The MFA Writing Program, based in the School of Critical Studies at California Institute of the Arts, invites applications for a regular faculty position (two courses per semester) in fiction and/or creative non-fiction. Jan. 5, 2009.

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

Portland State University Assistant or Associate Professor, Fiction Writing/20th Century Fiction, tenure-track, to begin September 15, 2009. Dec. 1 – interviews MLA & AWP.

Florida International University-Biscayne Bay Department of English seeks an Assistant Professor with a specialty in fiction for a tenure-track position within the Creative Writing MFA program. Dec. 1.

Hampshire College is accepting applications for an Assistant Professor of Poetry Writing. Nov. 30.

Florida Atlantic University Department of English invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position in Creative Nonfiction, beginning August 2009. Nov. 7.

Bucknell University Stadler Center for Poetry. The 2009-10 Stadler Fellowship offers professional training in arts administration & literary editing in a thriving, university-based poetry center, while also providing the Fellow time to pursue his or her own writing. Dec. 6.

Duke University English Department welcomes nominations & applications for a distinguished a poet with a national or international reputation to be the inaugural holder of the Reynolds Price Chair in Creative Writing. Nov. 15.

Louisiana State University Department of English invites applications from poets for an anticipated Assistant Professor position in the Creative Writing Program.

Middlebury College Robert Frost Fellowship in Poetry for a poet with an M.F.A. degree and at least one published book to reside in Robert Frost’s Homer Noble Farmhouse in Ripton, Vermont, to teach two courses and advise undergraduate poetry projects during the academic year, and to teach one course during the summer at either the Bread Loaf School of English or the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. Three-year renewable, begin in September 2009. Send letter of application, curriculum vitae, and three letters of recommendation (at least two of which speak to teaching ability) to Professor Brett Millier, Department of English and American Literatures, Axinn Center, 15 Old Chapel Road, Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont 05753. Review of applications will begin November 21, and will end when the position is filled.

Publishers seek new talent in Arab world
Alison Flood in Frankfurt and Ian Black
The Guardian
October 16 2008

Alexandria’s 21st century library Western publishers are launching a drive to tap the Arab world for new stars, hoping to bridge the language gap with more than 200 million native Arabic speakers – and make money from selling books.

Bloomsbury announced at the Frankfurt Book Fair yesterday that it is to launch a new Arabic-language publishing house, Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing, in partnership with the Gulf state. “The emphasis so far in Qatar has been on literacy, and our second challenge is how to move from literacy to literature to create a culture,” said Abdel-Rahman Azzam, a spokesman for Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al-Missned, the emir’s consort and the chair of the Qatar Foundation. [read more here]

The Lost Years & Last Days of David Foster Wallace
by David Lipsky
Rolling Stone Magazine
October 30, 2008

“He was the greatest writer of his generation – and also its most tormented. In the wake of his tragic suicide, his friends and family reveal the lifelong struggle of a beautiful mind.”

Stephen King’s God Trip
On the 30th anniversary of “The Stand,” the novelist confesses what haunts him about religion and today’s politics.
By John Marks
Salon.com

S: Questions of politics are never very far away in “The Stand.” Once the plague has come and gone, society has to be reformed. Do you think of it as a political novel, in any sense?

SK: I did see it that way. I’ve always been a political novelist, and those things have always interested me. “Firestarter” is a political novel. “The Dead Zone” is a political novel. There’s that scene in “The Dead Zone” where Johnny Smith sees Greg Stillson in the future starting a nuclear war. Around my house we kinda laugh when Sarah Palin comes on TV, and we say, “That’s Greg Stillson as a woman.”

On this tenth anniversary of the death of Matthew Shepherd, an interview of Jonas Slonacker by C.A. Conrad on PhillySound: new poetry really is a blunt and open discussion of many issues that surrounded the senseless murder of a young man and what has happened since.

HOMOPHOBIA and a Lexicon of Violence: a conversation with Jonas Slonacker 10 years after Matthew Shepard

In this excerpt, Slonacker responds to the power and misuse of language:

One of the things you and I know firsthand Jonas from growing up in an isolated rural culture is that people are HELL-BENT on judging and hating groups of people they don’t even know. There is so much FICTION created from unnecessary and unprovoked fears surrounding the distant Other. Building on Father Schmit’s call for learning what drives us, how marvelous would it be to have young elementary school children learning compassion by having classes which explore and explain homosexuality, as well as different racial and religious groups. Where we grew up and went to school THE MOST homophobic teacher taught sex-ed. He was so blatantly homophobic, and encouraged laughter when talking about how sick he thought a man would have to be to want something shoved up his ass. He empowered the ridicule and physical abuse my boyfriend and I endured in school, and made us feel like complete ZEROES! The sex-ed class literally taught hatred.

Language can easily set the mechanisms of fear or compassion of young minds in motion when coming from teachers and other authority figures. But wanting compassion taught to children ultimately flies in the face of our very nation’s governmental treatment of its citizens and military solutions in dealing with other nations. But we have to start somewhere.

In teaching compassion we would also need to teach the history of racism, homophobia, genocide. For instance, in battling the use of dehumanizing language of homophobia, let’s LOOK to the origin of “faggot.” Kids need to know and DESERVE to know that when they use that word they’re using a word whose origins are from the Inquisition. Homosexuals were burned alive, their flesh synonymous with and no better than the very sticks — or faggots, as faggots means sticks or kindling — that burned them to death. We’re so used to the word faggot meaning a homosexual, but have no idea of the countless tortuous deaths that created it. It’s important to define the origins of common hateful slang. Learning such things helps us in many ways to grow toward tolerance and compassion.