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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!

New to U.S. :: The Drawbridge, London

Alice Waugh, Commissioning Editor of The Drawbridge, London, wrote recently to give us the heads up that their publication will be jumping the pond to make its way to the U.S. later this year. She writes:

“The Drawbridge is an independent quarterly magazine, established in 2006 with the aim of delivering wit, thought and reflection. It takes the form of a full-colour broadsheet newspaper. It has attracted written contributions from Isabel Allende, J.G. Ballard, John Berger, Hugo Chavez, Tishani Doshi, Terry Eagleton, Eric Hobsbawm, Christopher Ondaatje, DBC Pierre, David Rieff, Slavoj Zizek and many others, including a number of emerging writers, along with a wide array of top photography and drawing from renowned image-makers including Edward Burtynsky, Paul Fryer, Robert Polidori, David Shrigley and Joel Sternfeld. Each issue has a theme. Earlier topics include Failure, Freedom, Risk, and Memory. Our next issue, on Rage is published in May.”

We’ll look forward to seeing this one hit the stands!

Awards :: storySouth Million Writers Award

From Jason Sanford, editor, storySouth:

“The Million Writers Award Notable Stories of 2007 have now been released. The preliminary judges picked 164 notable stories, more than in any of the awards from the previous four years. This growth appears to have come in selections from the many new online magazines which have popped up in the last year, proving that online literature is still in an amazing growth period.

“The MWA award for best overall online publication goes to Blackbird for having seven of their stories selected as notable stories of the year. The MWA for best publisher of novella-length fiction goes to Jim Baen’s Universe, while the award for best new online magazine or journal goes to Farrago’s Wainscot (with runner ups being Wheelhouse Magazine and Coyote Wild).”

The top ten stories will be released in late May, at which time public vote for best overall story will begin.

Alimentum Menu Poems Succeed a Second Year!

Dinner, and a Side of Poetry
by Desiree Cooper
April 26, 2008

From Weekend America: “Alimentum, a literary journal all about food, chose to celebrate the month with food poetry. For the second year in a row, they distributed a menu of poems to New York City restaurants and cafes. We visited some of the eateries to see what people thought about getting their meal with a side of verse.”

The audio includes interviews with a number of menu poem readers, some relating their own stories of poetry in their lives, some responding to the idea of menu poems, and some reading the poems from the menus. Several poems are available on the WA website, as well as images of the menu broadside. Lucky New Yokers! Well done Alimentum!

Ontario Review Retires after 34 Years

Posted on Crossing the Border: Joyce Carol Oates News and Opinion
March 14, 2008 by Randy Souther

“With the passing of its editor, Raymond J. Smith, Ontario Review itself will cease publication with the forthcoming Spring 2008 issue. Smith began Ontario Review in 1974 in Windsor, Ontario, with his wife Joyce Carol Oates as associate editor; the Review later moved with its editors to Princeton, NJ…” Read the rest here.

I’m an Author, He’s an Author, She’s an Author…

Wouldn’t you like to be an Author too?

Rachel Donadio’s essay in the Sunday New York Times Book Review, You’re an Author? Me Too! explores this very phenomenon – or is it pestilence – of book “publishing.” Beginning with what we all know by now – U.S.ers are reading less, yet, “In 2007, a whopping 400,000 books were published or distributed in the United States, up from 300,000 in 2006, according to the industry tracker Bowker, which attributed the sharp rise to the number of print-on-demand books and reprints of out-of-print titles.”

And at the same time our nation is reading less, there are more writers in the U.S. than at any other time in our history, and credentialed MFA programs kicking out an exponentially growing number of these. Additionally, Donadio notes that for as little as $3.50 a copy, “authors” can have their books printed and distributed through Amazon, and Borders is no in the fray, offering print packages starting at $300, with the “premium package,” which includes some actual editorial work, starting at $500.

While Donadio discusses the role of the writing programs as the “democratizer” of the talent pool, Gabriel Zaid, critic and author of “So Many Books: Reading and Publishing in the Age of Abundance,” says: “Everyone now can afford to preach in the desert.”

Good? Bad? Hard as writers, publishers – and readers – to be indifferent on this topic.

Read the full article here.

Sensational Spectacular

Nate Pritts lives in a sealed chamber. At least, I think he does, or wishes he did. Whether the voice in his poems is his own or an invented persona is unclear, but the question is soon overwhelmed by the noisy glass cubicle of his poetic consciousness – things don’t hesitate to boom, explode, and self-destruct. The place simply simmers with internal threat. After all, volcanoes are exploding here, dinosaurs are waiting, lighting strikes, the roller coaster won’t stop, the wind won’t stop, violent floods of emotion assail him, and the light is dangerously perfect. But you only know it because he tells you so. You can’t see it. You can’t break through those glass barriers – no one can. Not the woman Pritts longs after with potent intensity, and not the nameless friends he apparently lives amongst. Continue reading “Sensational Spectacular”

Oh Baby

Those familiar with the writing of Kim Chinquee will be pleased to read the seventy-four flash fictions and prose poems collected in her book, Oh Baby, not only for the satisfaction of revisiting a few select, memorable pieces, but also for the opportunity to see Chinquee work at length, crafting with a spare and precise language the most complicated, emotional stories possible per page. Continue reading “Oh Baby”

The Strange Case of Maribel Dixon

Charles Jensen’s The Strange Case of Maribel Dixon is an ambitious book, highly entertaining yet formally daring. It incorporates a variety of prose and poetic forms to tell a love story that spans most of the twentieth-century and at least two dimensions, all within the space of a mere twenty-one pages. Comprised of diary entries, academic papers, and shredded documents full of supposed “automatic writing,” this slim volume weaves a mysterious love story with far greater gravity than its size on paper would suggest possible. Continue reading “The Strange Case of Maribel Dixon”

Behind My Eyes

Li-Young Lee’s fourth collection of poetry is an elegiac march through a landscape of prayer, death, love, the eternal strife of family relations and the omnipresent political realities that come with the immigrant identity. More than any other theme, the status of the displaced illuminates these mysterious and evasively simplistic poems. Continue reading “Behind My Eyes”

You Must Be This Happy to Enter

In Elizabeth Crane’s You Must Be This Happy to Enter, her third collection of stories, she tempers a sometimes pessimistic worldview with an exuberant joy that suffuses her stories from start to finish. From the bouncing opening story “My Life is Awesome! And Great!” (which may contain more exclamation points than every other short story collection published this year combined) to the warm familial ending of “Promise,” Crane takes her quirky style and uses it to bring a variety of mostly female protagonists to life, including a woman who gets turned into a zombie at a JoAnn Fabrics store and ends up as a contestant on reality television, a girl obsessed with staying inside her boyfriend’s closet, and a teenager whose forehead is covered in ever-changing multi-colored words who meets a boy whose face displays polaroids. Continue reading “You Must Be This Happy to Enter”

City of Regret

The poems in Andrew Kozma’s City of Regret spring from a source of electric personality and emotion, striving to escape grief by staring at it unblinkingly until it becomes something else. Surrealistic images stretch and bend until they encounter recognizable truths. Metaphors, which may at first appear too close in the mirror, shift to give perspective: the poem becomes a unified field of beauty. For example, in “The Cleansing Power of Metaphor” we see: Continue reading “City of Regret”

Spring Wind Brings the Fireworks

The title of this collection ambitiously suggests that after the first part of translations, the following variations and responses should enlighten our skies and blow us away. And while it doesn’t deliver the promised symphony of fire, it does burn in a few impressions that will last after the words have faded. Continue reading “Spring Wind Brings the Fireworks”

I Was Told There’d Be Cake

Sloane Crosley’s debut collection of essays is the kind of book that causes deep bouts of guilty recognition almost as often as it induces laughing out loud. Crosley’s essays are self-deprecating and self-obsessed, written with a style reminiscent of David Sedaris but with a voice that’s all her own. Chronicling her disasters more often than her successes, Crosley relates everyday abilities like constantly losing her wallet and locking herself out of two different apartments on moving day, plus more specialized skills at ruining weddings and investigating unexpected “presents” left on her bathroom floor after dinner parties. The best of these is “Bring-Your-Machete-To-Work Day,” about the ancient computer game The Oregon Trail, and Crosley’s subversive playing style: Continue reading “I Was Told There’d Be Cake”

The Musical Illusionist

Alex Rose’s The Musical Illusionist is a work of ambitious fantasy, written not as a novel or a collection of stories but as a guide to the myth-like Library of Tangents, “an archive not of history but of possibility.” These fictions (which are not properly stories, with the possible exception of the excellent title piece) take the form of articles describing the Library’s many exhibitions, including fantastical cultures, books, paintings, numerous foreign lands, even psychological disorders and microorganisms. Each entry is written so credibly that disorientation and disbelief go hand in hand, as the convincing prose and accompanying diagrams, photos, and maps seek to stun the reader into believing in even the most outlandish of exhibits. Continue reading “The Musical Illusionist”

Jobs :: Various

The Scripps College Writing Program seeks two distinguished visiting writers to fill the Mary Routt Chair of Writing, one during the spring semester of 2009 and the other during the spring semester of 2010. Kimberly Drake, Director of the Writing Program, May 1.

John Carroll University Department of English announces a Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing position, for one year with possible renewal for up to three years, depending upon need & funding. Rev. Dr. Francis X. Ryan, SJ, Chair, Department of English.

Seton Hall University English Department invites applications for a one-year, Visiting Professor position in Creative Writing specializing in Poetry to begin September 2008. May 12.

The Poetry Center of Chicago and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago will award a month-long poetry residency with housing. This residency is open to poets who have published no more than one book of poetry, not including self-published work. Submission deadline Friday, May 09, 2008.

Grrls Summer Camp = Art + Activism

Kore Press
Art Activists Summer Camp for Girls
Ages 13-18
June 9 – 20, 2008
Tucson, AZ

Opportunities to work with artists and writers: creative writing, video, public performance. Challenge your own and others’ imagination and critical thinking by putting your words and ideas out in public.

Part of the The Grrrls Literary Activism Project: enabling young women to exercise their voices in the public sphere. The project is inspired by activist foremothers such as the Guerrilla Girls, the New York City-based band of artists whose creative street activism inspired a shift in the way women artists appear in museums and the media.

For more information contact Lisa Bowden: [email protected] or 520.629-9752 ext. 227.

[Artwork by Piper Jack taken from Kore Press promotional poster.]

Pongo Teen Writing Program

Juvenile Offenders Put It Out There with Poetry
By Claudia Rowe, Seattle PI Reporter
April 24, 2008

When Richard Gold begins working with teens at King County’s juvenile detention center — youths held for robbery or car theft or assault — he often asks them to write down a question anonymously. Any issue that scratches at them and which they cannot understand.

Almost always, he gets some version of the query: “Why does life have so much pain?”

Gold’s poetry classes begin there, with the detention hall kids writing about neighborhoods that feel like wild jungles, or parents who don’t want them or the experience of turning 18 and being transferred from juvie to jail.

Read the rest along with several poems written by Pongo Participants on Seattle PI.com.

CLMP Annual Lit Mag Marathon Weekend

CLMP’s 9th Annual Lit Mag Marathon Weekend
New York City
June 14-15

“The Magathon” Reading at NYPL
Date/Time: Saturday, June 14th (4 pm to 6:30 pm)
Location: NYPL main branch, Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street
This annual marathon reading features 15-20 editors, reading short selections from recent issues. This is a rare and wonderful opportunity to bring our varied and vibrant literary publications to the beautiful New York Public Library.

9th Annual Literary Magazine Fair
Date/Time: Sunday, June 15th (12pm to 5pm)
Location: Housing Works Used Book Café, 126 Crosby Street

Awards & Readings :: Georgia Review in NYC

From David Ingle, Assistant Editor, The Georgia Review:

We’re headed up next week to attend the National Magazine Awards, where we’ve been named as a finalist in the General Excellence category for mags with a circulation of less that 100,000. Our litmag brethren Virginia Quarterly Review are also nominated in the same category, along with 3 other non-lit publications. The awards are Thursday, May 1st, at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

In conjunction with that, we’re putting on 3 great readings in NYC — two in Manhattan and one in Brooklyn — featuring a nice mix of well-known writers and newcomers, all of whom have published in GR. Here are the basics on those:

Monday, 4/28, a reading by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Stephen Dunn and acclaimed nonfiction writer Barbara Hurd. The Dactyl Foundation, 64 Grand Street, 8pm. Free and open to the public. Sponsored by The Georgia Review, the University of Georgia Press, and W.W. Norton & Company.

Tuesday, 4/29, “A (Peach) Tree Grows in Brooklyn: Four Writers from the Pages of The Georgia Review,” featuring D. Foy, Rene Houtrides, Anna Solomon, and Craig Morgan Teicher. Music by Athens, Georgia’s own Brian Connell. Union Hall, 702 Union Street, Park Slope, Brooklyn. 8pm. Free and open to the public.

Friday, 5/2, “The Writer’s Studio of New York Celebrates The Georgia Review” with readings by two-time National Book Critic’s Circle prize-winning poet Albert Goldbarth, Pulitzer Prize winner Philip Levine, and up-and-coming fiction writer Anna Solomon. Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South, 7pm. $5 suggested donation.

Tip o’ the Pint

My thanks to those who have recently supported the NewPages beer fund. I am coming to the end of the school year, which means a) no more papers to read for three months; b) more time to blog; c) the need for more beer. In case you didn’t know already, the blog does run on beer, so if you like it (and you like other features on the site that are announced on the blog), don’t be afraid to show your appreciation by making a donation! Any amount is welcome. Sunday is beer and burger day at my favorite bar, so $1.50 will buy me a pint. I’ll take care of the tip. Cheers!

Robert Olen Butler Exclusive on Redivider

From Laura van den Berg, Editor, Redivider

“For any Robert Olen Butler fans out there, Redivider just posted a web exclusive of the title story from Butler’s forthcoming collection, Intercourse, which is scheduled to be published by Chronicle Books in late May. You can check out the story at www.redividerjournal.org and, if you enjoy, of course please feel free to share.”

Awards :: Glimmmer Train Short Fiction Contest Winners

Glimmer Train has selected the three winning stories of the February Very Short Fiction competition! This competition is held twice a year for short stories under 3000 words in length:

First place: Cynthia Gregory of Concord, CA wins $1200 for “Melting at Both Ends.” Her story will be published in the Summer 2009 issue of Glimmer Train Stories.

Second place: Michael Schiavone of Gloucester, MA, wins $500 for “Ghost Pain.” His story will also be published in an upcoming issue of Glimmer Train Stories, increasing his prize to $700.

Third place: Linda Stansberry of Honeydew, CA, wins $300 for “Home for Good.”

The May Short Story Award for New Writers is now open. Authors are eligible whose fiction has not appeared in a publication with a circulation greater than 5000. Send stories up to 12,000 words using the online submissions system at www.glimmertrain.org.

Get with TED :: Amy Tan Did!

TED
Technology, Entertainment, Design
This week on TED.com, novelist Amy Tan takes the TED audience on a funny, thoughtful walk through her head, in search of the germs of creativity. Watch this master storyteller tell her own story – she sets fire to the TED Commandments in the first minute, and rolls from there. Also look for Brian Greene, a master storyteller in his own right, as he explains string theory to you (really!). And check out a talk from last week that is packed with insight and inspiration: Dr. Ernest Madu, talking about the creative tactics he uses to bring good health care to poor communities in Jamaica.

Homer on Display

The Antikenmuseum in Basel, Switzerland is currently housing an exhibit highlighting “Homer’s impact on art and culture.” In addition to a nine-meter-tall replica of the Trojan horse, a few installments noted in Hanns Neuerbourg’s AP article:

“On view are magnificent Greek and Roman amphorae and vases depicting dramatic scenes of Homer’s two epics…Coins, statuettes, fragments of text excerpts on Egyptian papyrus and other artifacts on view also stress the dominant effect of Homer’s epics on Western culture since antiquity.

“The paintings on display make up only a small fraction of the vast imagery influenced by the ancient poetry. They range from copies of Roman frescoes to canvases by German pop artist Sigmar Polke and by Cy Twombly, a key figure in American abstract expressionism. The catalogue lists many others from Rembrandt to Picasso.

“In a special room, visitors can see a 2006 video installation by American filmmaker Peter Rose, titled Odysseus on Ithaca. The 2004 movie Troy, starring Brad Pitt and Peter O’Toole, is loosely based on Homer’s epics.”

Read the full article here, and visit the museum’s site dedicated to the Homer Exhibit.

Fiction :: Amy Brill

Something So Nice for Nobody
by Amy Brill
Guernica
April 2008

Last year sucked for everybody, except maybe Jackie, who found true happiness with Carlene. He moved out just after Labor Day, leaving a bunch of stuff behind and promising to help me out with rent until I could figure things out. I’ll hold my breath for your help, I told him. And if you don’t come and get your crap out of here it’s all going in the dumpster, I swear. Then I slammed down the phone and went outside to smoke. My neighbor Ray was out on the stoop. He didn’t look quite like himself, either.

Everything all right, Ray? I called over, and when he looked back at me his eyes were filling up.

Mag and I lost a son today, he said. I went down my steps and crossed over to his side of the railing…

Read the rest on Guernica.

Jobs :: Various

The Humanities Division of Lewis-Clark State College seeks a Visiting Assistant Professor in Creative Writing and Publishing Arts. April 30 (priority).

Grand Valley State University Visiting Professor, Department of Writing. Dan Royer, Chair, Department of Writing. May 1.

The Department of English at University of Central Oklahoma seeks a temporary, one-year appointment for a Poet in Residence. Teaching responsibilities include undergraduate & graduate poetry-writing courses. Dr. J. David Macey, Chairperson, Department of English. May 15.

The English Department at the University of Memphis is accepting applications for a one-year (possibly renewable) non-tenure track instructor/administrator. April 30.

Can “Serious” Lit Survive in China?

Literati: Serious literature marginalized in China
April 17, 2008
Posted on China View

The article begins: “Should literature address more social issues, or should it get closer to the writer’s own heart and focus on one’s own experiences?” and goes on to discuss the shift in literature, reporting and reading in Chinese culture.

“Xu Chunping, editor of Literature Journal, maintains that Chinese culture as a whole is moving in the direction of entertainment. There are new genres like “cellphone literature, online literature and movie fiction” that did not exist before. “Literature as we know it gets purer and contends with only the ultimate issues, and new literature tends to provide solace rather than soul-searching capabilities.” She faults the mainstream media for the decline. “Belles-lettres are shriveling to an elitist enclave,” she laments.”

Read the rest on China View.

Much Ado for Writers :: Stadler Center for Poetry

“Founded in 1988 by Professor John Wheatcroft and philanthropist Jack Stadler and located at Bucknell University, in the scenic Susquehanna Valley of central Pennsylvania, the Stadler Center for Poetry is a professional literary center offering a wide range of programs and residencies for emerging and established poets and writers.”

The site includes several podcasts, with more to come: An interview with the director, Marylin Chin, Ilya Kaminski, Dennis Nurske, Robert Love Taylor, Cynthia Hogue.

The center offers numerous programs and residencies:

Bucknell Seminar for Younger Poets
Held for three weeks in June, the Seminar provides an extended opportunity for undergraduate poets to write and to be guided by established poets.

Stadler Fellowship
Initiated in 1998, the Stadler Fellowship offers a recent MFA, MA, or PhD graduate in poetry the opportunity to receive professional training in arts administration and literary editing along with time to complete a first or second manuscript of poems.

Stadler Emerging Writer Fellowship
Initiated in 2007 and modeled on the Stadler Fellowship, the Stadler Emerging Writer program offers poets who have recently completed their graduate work the chance to contribute to a thriving poetry center while providing time for the completion of a first or second book of poems.

Philip Roth Residence in Creative Writing
Named for the Pulitzer Prize-winning Bucknell graduate and established in the fall of 1993, the Roth Residence offers an emerging writer four months of unfettered writing time during Bucknell’s fall semester, without formal academic obligations.

Poet-in-Residence
Since its initiation in 1981, the Poet-in-Residence program has brought a writer of national or international renown to spend a semester at Bucknell University each spring semester. The program is intended to honor the achievements of an accomplished poet, providing him or her with the opportunity to work with limited academic obligations.

Sandra & Gary Sojka Visiting Poet Series
The Sojka Series brings a distinguished poet to Bucknell for a two-day visit each fall. In addition to presenting a reading, the Sojka poet meets in an informal venue with students and other members of the Bucknell community.

The Antioch Review – Winter 2008

The winter 2008 edition of the Antioch Review is titled “Breaking the Rules,” though, as Robert S. Fogarty explains in his editorial, this is “no grand theme but a series of fragments and broken rules.” The authors in this issue explore rule-breaking in many different ways, some through form, others through subject or theme. Continue reading “The Antioch Review – Winter 2008”

Bateau – 2007

“We’re trying to take you somewhere.” Isn’t that every writer’s goal? To take the reader from their comfy couch or their little corner and place them into a scene to which they can relate. Or maybe it’s to put them in a situation they’ve never been in, but affects them in some way. Continue reading “Bateau – 2007”

The Bellingham Review – Spring/Fall 2007

The Bellingham Review celebrates its thirtieth anniversary in this issue with three essays from the journal’s editors, past and present. While interesting for their historical narrative, the pieces are also a testament to the inspired, beautiful madness one must possess to start a literary periodical. At the end of the volume is an index of the pieces from Bellingham’s run (so far). Continue reading “The Bellingham Review – Spring/Fall 2007”

Epiphany – Winter/Spring 2007/2008

Derek Walcott provides the centerpiece of the Winter/Spring issue of ep;phany with a selection from his new book of poems, White Egrets, and an excerpt from an essay called “Down the Coast.” The poems, most of which are about Spain, use dense natural imagery to transport the reader. The essay describes Walcott’s attempt to turn the Caribbean stories of his childhood into a film, which leads him to many fascinating ruminations about film-making and cultural identity. Continue reading “Epiphany – Winter/Spring 2007/2008”

Gulf Coast – Winter 2007/Spring 2008

Gulf Coast is published twice a year in October and April, and each issue is a work of art in itself. The journal includes fiction, poetry, nonfiction, interviews, reviews, as well as the work of artists – a blend that facilitates both a visual and textual experience. The full-color pages in the most recent issue include collages by both Donald Bathelme and Michael Miller, and each visual artist’s work is accompanied by a commentary on their pieces.

Continue reading “Gulf Coast – Winter 2007/Spring 2008”

Kaleidoscope – Winter/Spring 2008

Kaleidoscope magazine “(explores) the experience of disability through literature and the fine arts.” The articles, essays, stories, and poems in this issue do just that, giving the reader insight into life with many different conditions, including Parkinson’s disease, cerebral palsy, lupus, and multiple sclerosis, to name a few. Most importantly, the authors featured in this magazine present honestly and admirably, without asking for pity, without resorting to sentimentality. Continue reading “Kaleidoscope – Winter/Spring 2008”

New Letters – 2007/2008

Robert Stewart, the editor of New Letters, begins this issue with a note on the kind of writing the journal seeks. In his words, “We want writing….that comes out of something.” Writing that is real. That kind of intensity is felt in the opening work of fiction by Andrew Plattner, a short story entitled “A Marriage of Convenience,” where the reader is introduced to two brothers, Marian and Joe, who are bookmakers with, it turns out, enormous hearts. Marian, the older brother and supposedly the tough guy, wonders at one point, “why he was a bookmaker, why he spent so much time in the shadows, why he liked to keep the odds on his side.” Maybe, he wonders, “it wouldn’t find him, all that people lost.” What is so wonderful about this piece is Plattner’s narrative pacing, which makes the ending feel unexpected and exactly right. Continue reading “New Letters – 2007/2008”

Interview :: Ursula K. Le Guin

Breaking into the Spell
An interview with Ursula K. Le Guin
By Alexander Chee for Guernica
February 2008

Ursula LeGuin speaks from beyond the genre ghetto in about her new book Lavinia and the perils of writing against realism.

Chee writes in the introduction: “I was interested in finding the Le Guin whose insistence on a career as a woman of letters, in the broadest sense, has led her to become something of American literature’s pirate queen, living on the edge of the Pacific in a house with a view from her desk of Mt. St. Helen…On the eve of the novel’s release, Ursula K. Le Guin answers some questions about war, witches, realism and teaching herself to write as a woman.”

Read the interview on Guenica.

What is Going on in Arizona?!

Plan targets anti-Western lessons
Some fear loss of diversity in lawmaker’s education proposal
By Matthew Benson
The Arizona Republic
April 17, 2008

Arizona public schools would be barred from any teachings considered counter to democracy or Western civilization under a proposal endorsed Wednesday by a legislative panel.

Additionally, the measure would prohibit students of the state’s universities and community colleges from forming groups based in whole or part on the race of their members, such as the Black Business Students Association at Arizona State University or Native Americans United at Northern Arizona University. Those groups would be forbidden from operating on campus.

The brainchild of Rep. Russell Pearce, the measure appeared as an amendment to Senate Bill 1108, which originally would have made minor changes to the state’s Homeland Security advisory councils. The House Appropriations Committee approved the new proposal on a 9-6 vote.

Read the rest here.

Festival :: New Directions 4.29-5.4

Festival of International Literature
“Public Lives/Private Lives “
April 29 – May 4, 2008
New York
A Celebration of World Literature: 170 writers, 51 countries, 82 events. Endless possibilities!

Please join New Directions authors and translators as well as Umberto Eco, Peter Esterhazy, Nuruddin Farah, Ian McEwan, Catherine Millet, Ma Jian, Mario Vargas Llosa, Joyce Carol Oates, Michael Ondaatje, Annie Proulx, A.B. Yehoshua, and many more for six days of exciting literary exchange featuring conversations, panel discussions, readings, film screenings, a translation slam and a cabaret night! PEN World Voices festival brings together a stellar line-up of international and U.S. writers, from the most distinguished names to the freshest new voices, to mine the rich and timely theme: “Public Lives/Private Lives.” Where do we draw the lines between our private and public selves; how do we express identity in the face of cultural differences, political oppression, and war; and when must we tell private stories for the public good? Authors also talk about books that changed their life, writing sex, and tell old-fashioned stories with The Moth. Do not miss this unique celebration of international literature coming to venues across New York City and the satellite cities of Albany, Rochester and Boston. To view a complete schedule of events, go to: http://www.pen.org/festival.

Share Food Writings on Alimentum

Alimentum Journal, the only literary review all about food, invites you to share your food writings: “We’d love for you to post short pieces of your food thoughts on our new website Bulletin Board. We’re looking for menupoems and secret food confessions. 250 words tops. Post for the world to read (and possibly comment upon) and and for Alimentum Editors to peruse.”

Writers :: Take a Cartoon Caption Break

The Humor Times runs a monthly Cartoon Caption Contest. They provide the cartoon, you provide the caption. Winners receive a subscription to the magazine or you can opt for IMAX tickets to use in Sacramento. It’s worth a laugh to check out winners from the previous month, as well as good cross-genre writing practice!

New Journal :: Conclave

Conclave is an annual print journal that focuses on character-driven writing in short stories, flash fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and prose poems; also black and white photographs, and excerpts from plays: monologues, scenes, single acts, or one-act plays. Conclave seeks writing that centers around well-crafted characters—complex and authentic: like Leopold Bloom, Huckleberry Finn, Anna Karenina, Hamlet, Miss Havisham, Hannibal Lecter, Hester Prynne, and others.

Support Poetry in Schools

Special Tupelo Press Limited Edition Hardcovers Support Poetry in the Schools

Tupelo Press kicked off its Poetry in the Schools fundraising initiative with a series of limited edition hardcover books. The following recent releases are available in numbered, signed editions for $100. There are only 100 copies of each hardcover.

Dismal Rock by Davis McCombs
Psalm by Carol Ann Davis
Spill by Michael Chitwood

Inflorescence by Sarah Hannah is also available in a numbered limited edition hardcover (of 200) for $100.

Proceeds from the sales of these special releases go to support Tupelo’s Poetry in the Schools program, which will bring poets into grammar schools and high schools across the country to deliver the joy and wonder of poetry to a nation of school children who have suffered under tremendous cuts to their arts budgets.

You may order through the Tupelo Press website or by calling directly, 802-366-8185.

Auction :: Hunger Mountain Fundraiser 5.8.08

The Hunger Mountain Third Annual Fundraising Auction will begin on May 1, 2008 (noon EST) at http://stores.ebay.com/Carolines-Hunger-Mountain-Store. Between May 1-8, 2008, you can bid on manuscript critiques with notable authors, custom signed new books, and limited edition letterpress broadsides.

New Address :: Cadillac Cicatrix on the Move

From Benjamin Spencer, Executive Editor of Cadillac Cicatrix:

www.CADILLACCICATRIX.com is now www.CADILLACCICATRIX.org. This new address is live as of MARCH 29 2008. In honor of our new address, we are having a housewarming party. Designed around our second-annual April Tribute to Poetry, we will host 30 days of poetry and art, featuring 30 national poets and 5 NY photographers. Just look for the PoetryTribute icon on the home page.

If you are encouraged by our effort, please don’t hesitate to contact us. Our submissions guidelines are available online and we welcome queries about potential projects – writing and art, video and sound, film and movies.

Jobs :: Various

Seton Hall University English Department one-year, Visiting Professor position in Creative Writing specializing in Poetry to begin September 2008. May 12, 2008.

SUNY Potsdam’s English and Communication Department is seeking applications for an Assistant Professor of English. This is a tenure-track position with primary responsibilities in teaching Creative Writing – Poetry. April 14, 2008.

Visiting Assistant Professor in Creative Writing and Publishing Arts Lewis-Clark State College. May 15 (priority April 30), 2008.

Take a Walk Down Library Lane

A recent exchange made me consider not only just how important libraries are now in my life, but how much they have been a part of my whole life. It got me to thinking about such things as my earliest visits to the library – and how I still remember getting my very first library card (I was patron #2952), summer book clubs, exploring the “Michigan Room” and discovering old copper photo negatives, graduating from the J-section of Laura Ingalls Wilder and “horsey books” to reading Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea and Melville’s Moby Dick in the “adult” stacks, and so much more. With the public library only four blocks from my childhood home, I spent a great deal of time there, year round, and later had one of my first paying jobs as a Library Page – shelving books, fixing them, putting the cards back in returned book pockets.

It’s no wonder I would end up living now only one block away from a library, but in a town that has struggled for support to keep it open. For one year, the library was completely shut down, voters having not passed a mileage vote to continue operational funding. The next year, the vote passed, 51% to 49%. A meager victory, but a victory nonetheless. Unfortunately, the library had to re-open under shortened hours and is not open when I have time to visit it. But this does not upset me. On the contrary, it makes me see all the more the point to an open library isn’t always about how it serves the individual, but what it provides to the community as a whole. An open library with limited hours is wholly more desirable than a closed library. Each day, it is helping create precious memories for many more new patrons who, I can only hope, will be the “Yes” votes of the future.