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

Photo Exhibit :: Chelsea Hotel Anniversary 5.9.08

Celebrating the 125th Anniversary of the Chelsea Hotel
Photo Exhibit
May 9-11, 2008

The Chelsea Hotel, a historic landmark hotel and an iconic gathering place for artists in all genres turns 125 years old this year. To celebrate this glamorous outpost of Bohemia, 30 photographers will exhibit their work in homage to this inspirational place where luminaries such as Mark Twain, Madonna, and Martha Graham worked.

The exhibition will be held in the hotel, located at 222 W 23rd St. It opens Friday, May 9 and runs through Sunday, May 11 from noon to 6pm. (It is the weekend before the first New York Photography Festival.) “The show will unite colleagues in a celebration of this cultural icon,” says curator Linda Troeller, a longtime resident of the hotel and the author of a recent photo book, Hotel Chelsea Atmosphere: An Artist’s Memoir.

Million Writers Award :: Get Your Vote In!

Completely lifted from Jason Sanford’s blog:

Final days for Million Writers Award nominations
We’re nearing the deadline for reader and editor nominations for the 2008 Million Writers Award for best online short story. Remember, nominations need to be submitted by the end of the day on March 31st. Editor nominations can be made here, while reader nominations go on this page. As always, a big thanks goes to the Edit Red Writing Community for sponsoring the contest, which means there is a $300 prize for the overall winner.

Passings :: Dith Pran

Dith Pran, the Cambodian-born journalist whose harrowing tale of enslavement and eventual escape from that country’s murderous Khmer Rouge revolutionaries in 1979 became the subject of the award-winning film “The Killing Fields,” died Sunday. He was 65.

Dith died at a New Jersey hospital Sunday morning of pancreatic cancer, according to Sydney Schanberg, his former colleague at The New York Times. Dith had been diagnosed almost three months ago.

[ABC News]

Seven Deadly Words of Review Writing :: Bob Harris

On March 25, 2008, Bob Harris, on New York Times “Paper Cuts: A Blog About Books” posted his contribution, “Seven Deadly Words of Book Reviewing.”

Before listing his words and explaining their “deadliness” he comments: “Like all professions book reviewing has a lingo. Out of laziness, haste or a misguided effort to sound ‘literary,’ reviewers use some words with startling predictability. Each of these seven entries is a perfectly good word (well, maybe not eschew), but they crop up in book reviews with wearying regularity. To little avail, admonitions abound. ‘The best critics,’ Follett writes, ‘are those who use the plainest words and who make their taste rational by describing actions rather than by reporting or imputing feelings.'”

Better still, in the five days the post has been available, over 100 readers have commented with their own contributions to the list. Some offer explanations, some don’t need to. It’s a rollicking good read. Oh, wait, that’s on the list…

Jobs :: Various

Poetry Foundation Director, Harriet Monroe Poetry Institute.

Kansas State University Department of English invites applications for a visiting assistant professor serving as a one-year replacement in fiction writing beginning August 10, 2008. Karin Westman, Head, Eng. Dept. April 14.

University of Missouri – St. Louis. The MFA Program at the University of Missouri St. Louis seeks a distinguished visiting fiction writer for the spring semester of 2009. Mary Troy, MFA Program Director. April 11.

Assistant Professor in Creative Writing and Contemporary Fiction and Theory
Institution: Pace University (Pleasantville, NY). April 15.

Visiting Assistant Professor of English, Hollins University, one-year leave replacement position for a writer with book publication in fiction or creative nonfiction and some publication in a second genre (poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction), to teach multi-genre creative writing at the undergraduate and graduate levels as well as possible literature courses. Ph.D. or creative writing master’s with scholarly content required. Open until filled.

Assistant Professors of English: Creative Writing-Fiction; Creative Writing-Fiction/Nonfiction, plus Composition; Creative Writing-Poetry. University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Open until filled.

Assistant Professor of English, Central State University, Ohio, teach creative w, prose (fiction and creative nonfiction), as well as composition. Open until filled.

Assistant Professor of Creative Writing -Fiction/Nonfiction/Composition. Eureka College, Illinois. Open until filled.

Assistant professor or instructor, one-year term position; specialty in journalism; M.A. Department fo English, Northern Michigan University. May 2.

Young Writers Residency :: ACA 4.08

Teen Creative Writing Residency at Atlantic Center for the Arts
July 13 through July 26, 2008
Application Deadline: Postmark April 4, 2008

Atlantic Center for the Arts’ your word: Teen Creative Writing Residency offers 21 participants from around the country an extraordinary opportunity to explore and expand the power of their individual voices through writing workshops. In this one-of-kind, multi-genre summer writing residency, 9th through 12th grade writers will participate in workshops and be mentored by distinguished authors in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction/memoir.

Master Writers-in-Residence are Thomas Sayers Ellis (Poetry), Maggie Estep(Fiction), and Terese Svoboda (Creative Nonfiction/Memoir). Poet John Murillo is the 2008 your word Fellowship recipient.

LGBT Film Fest :: OUTFEST 7.08

OUTFEST
The Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival
July 10 – 21, 2008

“More than just a FILM FESTIVAL, it’s a full-on HAPPENING.” – Los Angeles Times

Outfest is the oldest continuous film festival in Southern California. Since its founding in 1982, Outfest has presented more than 4,200 films and videos for audiences of over half a million people.

Pick Your Price Subscriptions to Fence

An intriguing marketing move from Fence Magazine, good until April 30, 2008:

“We at Fence love Radiohead, and so jumped at the chance to buy their newest album (I’m so old I call it an “album”) at the price of our choosing. One of us paid $1 for it; another of us paid $17 for it; these seemed like fair prices. We have heard some paid two months’ salary.

“And now we’re offering a similar opportunity for you to choose your own price for subscribing to Fence (or re-upping your current subscription). It’s very important to us that Fence have readers–that the work inside Fence have readers, really–and so we want you to pay us whatever you want for your year’s subscription.”

The page is their standard donation page with a PayPal link: here. It will be interesting to see how this works out for Fence.

New Letters Writers Workshop & Conference 6.08

The Mark Twain Writers Workshop
University of Missouri-Kansas City
Department of English and New Letters
June 9 – June 27, 2008

Fiction, poetry, drama, literary nonfiction.
3 Weeks 3 Hours a Day 3 Hours Credit

Writing for Love, Money, & Immortality
The New Letters Weekend Writers Conference
June 27 – 29, 2008

A whirlwind weekend of writing, coached by true professionals, conducted in a gorgeous city venue. Exposure to many genres of writing, as well as workshops in your chosen genre, marketing your work, and the opportunities and obstacles of a successful writing career.

Graff Revisited :: Professing Literature in 2008

The twentieth anniversary reissue of one of my graduate class texts has brought a surge of new discussion on an issue that never really quite found a quiet place for itself. Recently reviewed in The Nation (March 11, 2008), William Deresiewicz writes:

“Graff’s new preface reaffirms his belief that the answer to the mutual isolation of competing critical schools is to ‘teach the conflicts,’ but it doesn’t tell us what’s happened in the past twenty years (which happen to be the twenty years since I decided to go to graduate school). Broadly speaking, the past two decades have seen a move back toward historicism from the purely rhetorical realms of deconstruction: postcolonialism, New Historicism, cultural studies, history of the book. But the uniqueness of Graff’s study was its attempt to offer, in the words of its subtitle, an ‘institutional history,’ not merely a chronology of intellectual trends. What’s been going on there, at the more fundamental level of institutional structure and practice?”

Two points he mentions which make the commentary worth a look: “the profession’s intellectual agenda is being set by teenagers” and “the real story of academic literary criticism today is that the profession is, however slowly, dying.”

Graff, Round Two – Ding! Ding!

Weirdies and Public Readings :: Ed Lin Speaks Out

In his essay, “Waylaid by Weirdness: On Q&As, Pop-Tarts, and Asian Porn Stars,” Ed Lin takes a hindsight humorous look at the “Weirdies” that seem to crop up regularly at public readings. “The only downside to readings is when the Weirdies show up. Weirdies love mouthing along during the reading; asking many, many questions during the Q&A; and following the author for blocks afterward.” For specific examples, visit Lin’s piece on The Stranger.

Screenwriting Workshop :: Community of Writers 8.08

Community of Writers
Squaw Valley California
Screenwriting Workshop
August 2-9, 2008

“The Screenwriting Program is an intensive, week-long program which focuses on individual attention and work-in-progress, by award-winning writers and writer/directors. Film clips, lectures and writing exercises are incorporated into daily workshops, emphasizing the grammar of film, story development, narrative point of view, character analysis and scene structure. This unique program is designed for screenwriters and filmmakers, (of narrative features and, for the first time, documentaries). Additionally, fiction writers and playwrights who wish to translate their work into the film medium may apply. Our goal is to assist writers to improve their craft and thus move them closer to production.”

Poetry Workshop :: Community of Writers 6.08

Community of Writers
Squaw Valley California
Poetry Workshop
Juy 19-26, 2008

“The Poetry Program is founded on the belief that when poets gather in a community to write new poems, each poet may well break through old habits and write something stronger and truer than before. To help this happen we work together to create an atmosphere in which everyone might feel free to try anything. In the mornings we meet in workshops to read to each other the work of the previous twenty-four hours; each participant also has an opportunity to work with each staff poet. In the late afternoons we gather for a conversation about some aspect of craft. On several late afternoons staff poets hold brief individual conferences.”

Visiting poets include Lucille Clifton, Robert Hass, Sharon Olds, C.D. Wright, and Dean Young.

Podcasts :: Ninth Letter

Check out Ninth Letter’s array of podcasts, which include video and audio casts of written works, interviews, performances, you name it! Featured on the casts (though not always performing their own works): Archie Dick, Ander Monson, Richard Powers, Jim Wicks, Ron Carlson, Amy Guth, and James Fortier. My personal favorite: Steve Krakow walking the interviewer through his Chicago apartment to see his incredible collection of “all things punk-psychedelia and much, much more.” Uh, they’re being conservative on the “much, much” part.

Conference :: Napa Valley 7.08

28th Annual
Napa Valley Writers’ Conference
July 27 – August 1, 2008

This year’s conference features fiction writers Ron Carlson, Lan Samantha Chang, Ehud Havazelet, and Ann Packera, and poets Mark Doty, Nick Flynn, Brenda Hillman, and Claudia Rankine, offering workshops, readings and lectures, all with the goal of helping writers develop their craft.

Without Wax

William Walsh’s debut novel, Without Wax, is the story of Wax Williams, legendary male porn star and “the 8th wonder of the world,” whose shy, down-to-earth demeanor endears him to female fans while also making him accessible to male fans. Dissatisfied with (and even afraid for) his life, Wax decides to retire at the pinnacle of his career. In keeping with documentary form and style, Walsh weaves together interview fragments, traditional narrative, depositions, Consumer Profiles, and the script of Wax’s first feature film. The novel is structured in such a way that is entertaining and compulsively readable, getting as close to watching its filmic incarnation as the written word will allow. Continue reading “Without Wax”

Master of Reality

As the singer and songwriter of the indie rock band The Mountain Goats, John Darnielle has often been called a “literary” rocker, thanks to the great lyrics contained in the approximately four hundred songs produced by that band. Whether listening to lo-fi productions of his earlier career or the more musically complex John Vanderslice-produced records he’s done with 4AD, the focus of Darnielle’s fans has always been on his lyrics and the stories contained within. Now he’s stepped off the stage and sat down at the typewriter to deliver Master of Reality, his first novel and a stunning piece of rock criticism and appreciation. Continue reading “Master of Reality”

Modern Life

Like the mysterious dominoes that grace the cover suggest, Matthea Harvey’s poetry collection Modern Life deals surprise and gambles sentiment, tossing out disjointed associations with such daring that only the most careful reading will unravel the whole chain of implication. Harvey puts her strongest, most readable poems in the center, creating a core of potential energy to propel the reader through the peculiar, disorienting landscapes still to come. The strategy pays off, giving the book both symmetry and a needed respite from her more difficult works. Continue reading “Modern Life”

Our Aperture

In some ways, Ander Monson’s new chapbook Our Aperture finds the writer up to his familiar tricks. Like his fiction and his essays, Monson’s poems are elegiac in mood, mourning the losses of old lovers and dead friends even as they pine for obscure shampoo ingredients and virtual realities. He concentrates his energies on lists of objects and failing technologies, on relics of recent memories, on complaints against the loved ones who once owned and inhabited the things and places that make up a life. Continue reading “Our Aperture”

Teller Tales

In the tradition of Southern oral storytelling style, Jo Carson writes her stories for telling aloud. Teller Tales: Histories, her newest book, carries on this almost lost art of speaking and of handing down the history created by previous generations. According to Carson, both stories, “What Sweet Lips Can Do,” and “Men of Their Time,” were originally written to be performed. Unlike many other traditional texts that recount American historical events, Teller Tales is a narration, a performance of two stories wrapped around the American Revolutionary War. Neither monotonous nor mundane, Teller Tales reads as if the narrators are standing on a stage, talking, reminiscing, throwing laughable tidbits, and handing down what they know about the events that helped shape the America we know today. Continue reading “Teller Tales”

Yes, Yes, Cherries

“Beverly puts words in jail. She hunts and traps them, stuffs them into little black boxes. Crosswords.” This quote from the beginning of Mary Otis’ short story “Picture Head” illustrates not only Otis’ skill with language, but also one of the over arcing themes in her first short story collection Yes, Yes, Cherries: the complacent trap we as humans must break out of if we are to live our life happily and completely. Continue reading “Yes, Yes, Cherries”

The Melancholy Fate of Captain Lewis

Meriwether Lewis can’t achieve death, much less the Northwest Passage. And his modern counterpart, Bill Lewis, can’t connect with himself, let alone the students he’s trying to instruct. Bill is simply stymied by his own life, and the suicidal end of Meriwether’s.

Continue reading “The Melancholy Fate of Captain Lewis”

Audacious Women Writers :: $50,000 10.31.08

$50,000
2009 Gift of Freedom
A Room of Her Own

AROHO is interested in supporting women who have a track record of commitment to their art and who are also making a substantial effort to be self-sufficient. The successful applicant will have a well articulated creative project concept and a clear plan for how it may accomplished. Now accepting applications in poetry, playwriting, creative nonfiction, and fiction.

Applications must be postmarked on or before October 31, 2008

Tom Batiuk :: Cancer and Comics

Lisa’s Story
The Other Shoe
by Tom Batiuk
Published by The Kent State University Press

Tom Batiuk spent several years as a middle school art teacher before creating the comic strip Funky Winkerbean in 1972. Originally a “gag-a-day” comic strip that portrayed life in high school, Funky has evolved into a mature series of real-life stories examining such social issues as teen dating abuse, teen pregnancy, teen suicide, violence in schools, the war in the Middle East, alcoholism, divorce, and cancer.

In 1999, Lisa Moore, one of Funky’s friends and a main character, discovered she had breast cancer. Batiuk, unsure about dealing with such a serious subject on the funny pages, decided to go ahead with the story line. He approached the topic with the idea that mixing humor with serious and real themes heightens the reader’s interest. Lisa and husband Les faced the same physical, psychological, and social issues as anyone else dealing with the disease.

After a mastectomy and chemotherapy, Lisa was cancer free. She finished her law degree, opened a practice, and had a baby daughter, Summer. Then, in the spring of 2006, the cancer returned and metastasized. Lisa’s Story: The Other Shoe is a collection of both the 1999 comic strips on Lisa’s initial battle with cancer and the current series examining her struggle with the disease and its outcome. Additionally, it contains resource material on breast cancer, including early detection, information sources, support systems, and health care.

Tom Batiuk is a graduate of Kent State University. His Funky Winkerbean and Crankshaft comic strips are carried in over 700 newspapers throughout the U.S. In 2006, he was honored by the American Cancer Society and presented its Cancer Care Hall of Fame Award for his sympathetic work in highlighting the experiences of those with cancer.

Portions from the sale of this book will go towards cancer research and education. Visit Lisa’s Legacy Fund to learn more or to make a direct donation.

Conference :: Postgrad at Vermont College 8.08

Postgraduate Writers’ Conference
Vermont College of Fine Arts
August 8-14, 2008

The annual Vermont College of Fine Arts of Union Institute & University’s Postgraduate Writers’ Conference is open to all experienced writers, with or without graduate degrees. The conference emphasizes process and craft through its unique program that includes intimate workshops limited to 5-7 participants, individual consultations with faculty workshop leaders, faculty and participant readings, issues forums and master classes, all in a community of writers who share meals, ideas, and social activities in scenic Vermont. Workshop manuscripts are sent out to all workshop participants in advance.

The Novella :: MHP Series

Too Short to be a novel, too long to be a short story – what, exactly, is a novella?

An award-winning series from Melville House Publishing answers the question by taking a look at the renegade form in all its varieties, as practiced by some of history’s greatest writers. It does so in a beautifully packaged and inexpensive line featuring many titles that have never been published as stand-alone books before, many that are otherwise unavailable, and many that are in sparkling new translations. Consider these for classroom use as well as personal reading! Visit The Art of the Novel page on MHP’s Web site for more information.

BARTLEBY THE SCRIVENER by HERMAN MELVILLE mhp

THE LESSON OF THE MASTER by HENRY JAMES

MY LIFE by ANTON CHEKHOV

THE DEVIL by LEO TOLSTOY

THE TOUCHSTONE by EDITH WHARTON

THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES by ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

THE DEAD by JAMES JOYCE

FIRST LOVE by IVAN TURGENEV

A SIMPLE HEART by GUSTAVE FLAUBERT

THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING by RUDYARD KIPLING

MICHAEL KOHLHAAS by HEINRICH VON KLEIST

THE BEACH OF FALESA by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

THE HORLA by GUY DE MAUPASSANT

THE ETERNAL HUSBAND by FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY

THE MAN THAT CORRUPTED HADLEYBURG by MARK TWAIN

THE LIFTED VEIL by GEORGE ELIOT

THE GIRL WITH THE GOLDEN EYES by HONORE DE BALZAC

A SLEEP AND A FORGETTING by WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS

BENITO CERENO by HERMAN MELVILLE

MATHILDA by MARY SHELLEY

A CASTLE IN TRANSYLVANIA by JULES VERNE

STEMPENIU: A JEWISH ROMANCE by SHOLEM ALEICHEM

FREYA OF THE SEVEN ISLES by JOSEPH CONRAD

HOW THE TWO IVANS QUARRELLED by NIKOLAI GOGOL

THE LEMOINE AFFAIR by MARCEL PROUST

THE COXON FUND by HENRY JAMES

MAY DAY by F. SCOTT FITZGERALD

RASSELAS, PRINCE OF ABYSSINIA by SAMUEL JOHNSON

THE DECEITFUL MARRIAGE by MIGUEL DE CERVANTES

Summer Residency :: Poetry Center Chicago 5.9

The Poetry Center of Chicago
Summer Residency

One poet will be awarded 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. In addition to housing, the Poet will receive a $1,000 stipend. The Poet is responsible for his/her own travel and meal expenses.

Submission deadline Friday, May 09, 2008. Applications and supporting materials must be received in office by 6 pm on Friday, May 09, 2008. Download application here.

Poem :: Armando T. Zuniga

Almonds
by Armando T. Zuniga
Featured poet in the inaugural issue of The Straitjackets

First we shake the trees
and almonds fall from the sky,
like hundreds of tan little hearts.
Kneeling down,
beneath the shade of the young tree,
I pick up earth and nuts from the ground,
carry good and bad in the palm of my hand,
foreman’s eyes peer upon me punitively.
I don’t want to do this forever .
Shaking and picking.
So early in the morning.
Within us workers,
tan, falling to the ground, good and bad,
there is a heart and feeling,
not to be shared beneath the trees,
beneath the foreman’s eyes,
until we pick ourselves up from the ground.

The Straitjackets publishes short stories, essays, political commentary, personal memoirs, poetry, book excerpts, etc. Next issue: Works By or About Women. Taking submissions until April 1.

Books :: Combat Boot Moms

My Mother Wears Combat Boots
A Parenting Guide for the Rest of Us
AK Press
November 2007

“Jessica Mills is a touring musician, artist, activist, writer, teacher, and mother of two. Disappointed by run-of-the-mill parenting books that didn’t speak to her experience, she set out to write a book tackling the issues faced by a new generation of moms and dads. The result is a parenting guide like no other. Written with humor, extensive research, and much trial and error, My Mother Wears Combat Boots delivers sound advice for parents of all stripes. Amid stories of bringing kids (and grandparents) to women’s rights demonstrations, taking baby on tour with her band, and organizing cooperative childcare, Jessica gives detailed nuts-and-bolts information about weaning, cloth vs. disposable diapers, the psychological effects of co-sleeping, and even how to get free infant gear. This book provides a clever, hip, and entertaining mix of advice, anecdotes, political analysis, and factual sidebars that will help parents as they navigate the first years of their child’s life.”

Site Trouble

NewPages has been experiencing some technical difficulties with the site this weekend. (And though that looks like the computer is hungover, it’s not, and neither are we, really – it’s a TECH problem…) If you’ve have any trouble accessing the site, it should now be taken care of. Please post to the blog if you experience any difficulties accessing the site so we can take care of it pronto. Thank you!

Beatles Fans :: Namarupa Delivers

“Namarupa, Categories of Indian Thought, is a new journal that conveys the vast scope of sacred philosophical thought that has emanated from the land and people of India over many millennia.” Issue Number 7 (November 2007) of Namarupa features The Beatles on the cover and the article “The Beatles in India” by Paul Saltzman.

Naropa Summer Writing Program 6-7.08

Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics
Naropa Summer Writing Program
June 16-July 13, 2008
Boulder, CO

Credit and noncredit programs available
Poetry • Fiction • Translation • Letterpress Printing

Week One: The Wall: Troubling of Race, Class, Economics, Gender, and Imagination
Monday, June 16–Sunday, June 22, 2008

Week Two: Elective Affinities: Against the Grain: Writerly Utopias
Monday, June 23–Sunday, June 29, 2008

Week Three: Activism, Environmentalism: The Big Picture
Monday, June 30–Sunday, July 6, 2008

Week Four: Performance. Community: Policies of the USA in the Larger World
Monday, July 7–Sunday, July 13, 2008

2008 Faculty:

Charles Alexander, Will Alexander, Sinan Antoon, Amiri Baraka, Dodie Bellamy, Lee Ann Brown, Junior Burke, Reed Bye, Jack Collom, Thulani Davis, Samuel R. Delany, Linh Dinh, Rikki Ducornet, Marcella Durand, George Evans, Brian Evenson, Raymond Federman, Forrest Gander, Bobbie Louise Hawkins, Anselm Hollo, Bob Holman, Laird Hunt, Brenda Iijima, Pierre Joris, Ilya Kaminsky, Daniel Kane, Bhanu Kapil, Kevin Killian, Lewis MacAdams, Douglas A. Martin, Miranda Mellis, K. Silem Mohammad, Tracie Morris, Anna Moschovakis, Harryette Mullen, Laura Mullen, Eileen Myles, Sawako Nakayasu, Alice Notley, Akilah Oliver, Maureen Owen, Kristin Prevallet, Karen Randall, Margaret Randall, Max Regan, Joe Richey, Elizabeth Robinson, Selah Saterstrom, Julia Seko, Eleni Sikelianos, Stacy Szymaszek, Anne Tardos, Steven Taylor, Roberto Tejada, Donna Thomas, Peter Thomas, Anne Waldman, Orlando White, Daisy Zamora

2008 Guests:

Mei Mei Berssenbrugge, Joanna Howard, Carol Moldaw, Sue Salinger, Rani Singh, Arthur Sze, Richard Tuttle

Independent Thieves :: Paul Constant Chases ’em Down

As if the idea of owning and operating an independent bookstore hadn’t been de-romanticized enough, enter Paul Constant’s “Flying Off the Shelves: The Pleasures and Perils of Chasing Book Thieves” published in Seattle’s The Stranger. Yet, for all the possible laments, Constant expresses pleasure in his literary taunting of literate unlikelies who come in with the “top five” fencable books to check his inventory. And given the comment on the masturbating chain-store security guard, staying independent and investing in a good pair of running shoes seems the better alternative. Maybe independent isn’t so unromantic after all.

First Issue Online :: Storyscape Journal

Storyscape Journal‘s first issue hit the screen in February. Divided into the following categories: Truth; Untruth; We Don’t know and They Won’t Tell Us; and Stories without Words. Under “We Don’t Know” are two interesting bits – one a “found” story and the other an “overheard” story, and under “Stories without Words,” I found “The Blues” by Mike Lewis to be the most storyish image of them all. Although, Cameron McPherson’s environmentally unfriendly but intriguing video entry is probably the closest to Storyscape’s personal-ad style call for submissions: “Looking for slim blond straight-acting 18-24 year old hunk into bran muffins and bubble wrap.” I said closest, not exact. You have to see it for yourself.

Fellowship :: VCCA Nonfiction 5.15

Goldfarb Family Fellowship for Nonfiction Writers
Virginia Center for the Creative Arts

A fully funded two-week residency to enable a nonfiction writer to concentrate solely on his or her creative work. This sponsored fellowship is provided through the generosity of former VCCA Board member Ronald Goldfarb, author and literary agent and is offered each year to one nonfiction writer during the fall scheduling period (October through January). Writers will be provided a private bedroom, separate studio, and three prepared meals a day. The application process is the same as the regular VCCA application process. Deadline May 15.

Jobs :: CCCC Editor

CCCC is seeking a new editor of College Composition and Communication. The term of the present editor will end in December 2009. Interested persons should send a letter of application to be received no later than June 2, 2008.

Letters should be accompanied by (1) a vita, (2) one published writing sample, and (3) a statement of vision, to include any suggestions for changing the journal as well as features of the journal to be continued. Do not send books, monographs, or other materials which cannot be easily copied for the Search Committee. Applicants are urged to consult with administrators on the question of time, resources, and other services that may be required. NCTE staff members are available to provide advice and assistance to all potential applicants in approaching administrators about institutional support and in explaining NCTE’s support for editors. The applicant appointed by the CCCC Executive Committee in November 2008 will effect a transition in 2009, preparing for his or her first issue in February 2010. The appointment term is five years. Applications or requests for information should be addressed to Kurt Austin, CCC Editor Search Committee, NCTE, 1111 W. Kenyon Road, Urbana, IL 61801-1096; (217) 328-3870, extension 3619; [email protected].

New Online Lit Mag :: Glass

Glass: A Journal of Poetry
“Poetry that enacts the artistic and creative purity of glass.”
Volume One Issue One
March 1, 2008

Featuring Rane Arroyo, Anne Baldo, Tom Carson, Lisa Fay Coutley, Jeff Crouch, Lightsey Darst, Taylor Graham, John Grey, Peter Gunn, Adam Houle, Joseph Hutchison, Jackson Lassiter, Frederick Lord, David McCoy, Ryan McLellan, Amanda McQuade, Sally O’Quinn, Adam Penna, Kenneth Pobo, Joseph Reich, Celeste Snowber, Ray Succre, Daria Tavana, Allison Tobey, Carine Topal, Davide Trame, JR Walsh, Lenore Weiss, and Martin Willitts, Jr.

Glassis published three times a year, on the first of March, June, and December, and accepts submissions between September and May.

Indie Film Means to Stay Indie and Succeed

“A group of international movie-goers announced today that they are backing filmmaker Jessica Mae Stover’s fundraising project around her original motion picture, Artemis Eternal, and are inviting other film fans to do the same. On the official site for the project, visitors can explore an interactive map of the movie’s development, track progress and impact production by contributing funds directly. By relying on contributors to promote the website, reach out to local press and even create press releases [such as this one], Stover has cut out the middleman, and allied with the audience to break ground on a new formula for film finance, production and exhibition.”

Check out the interactive press release, which includes a YouTube video interview. Stover makes some great comments on the need for independent ventures and the essential nature of marketing, as well as offers a detailed discussion of filmmaking.

Feminism in the Mass Media – Does it exist?

Feminist Studies
Volume 33 Number 2

From the preface:

“Is there such a thing as feminism in the mass media? What does it look like? These are some of the questions explored in this volume. Covering texts as diverse as Hollywood movies, Taiwanese women’s magazines, the HBO series The Sopranos, and science fiction, the writers represented here all argue that in some complex way mainstream films and bestselling publications are developing their own feminist language, whose alphabet we still need to learn. Does the gendered violence in The Sopranos simply reproduce misogynist prejudice, or does it challenge it? Does the emphasis on beauty and fashion in the coverage of feminism in women’s magazines in Taiwan challenge Western Second Wave ideals of what feminism should be? Is the Borg Queen in the Star Trek movie First Contact really a feminist role model? Are the beauty parlors in films like Desperately Seeking Susan and Legally Blonde represented as oppressive or liberating for women? Twenty-first century mass media offer possibilities for the creation of feminist spaces and the discovery of feminist voices that often constrain as much as they liberate.”

Workshop :: Marick Mini 5.03.08

The Marick Press Mini-Literary Festival
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Grosse Pointe Park, MI

Meet an outstanding group of nationally known writers: Ilya Kaminsky, G.C. Waldrep, Susan Kelly DeWitt, Peter Conners, Derick Burleson and Sean Thomas Dougherty. They will be conducting poetry and fiction workshops during which participants will have the opportunity to discuss manuscripts or work in progress. Regitser by April 25, 2008.

Summer Poetry in Idyllwild 6.08

Summer Poetry in Idyllwild
July 13–July 19, 2008

Summer Poetry in Idyllwild is designed to offer friends and aficionados of poetry a wide range of opportunities for participation, from six hours of daily immersion to an hour each evening of engaged listening. In order to provide even more options, the week is divided into two similar, but not identical, three-day sessions, July 13–15 and July 17–19, with a day off between sessions. For all activities, participants may choose either three-day session or the entire week. In addition to the Intensive Poetry Writing Workshop, a new workshop option will be available, focusing on making a chapbook. Visiting poets include Ted Kooser & Natash Trethewey, and resident poets Terrance Hayes, Eloise Klein Healy, Marie Howe, Charles Harper Webb, Ceclia Woloch, among others.

It’s Ba-a-a-ack :: Exquisite Corpse

A note from Andrei Codrescu, Editor of Exquisite Corpse:

Did you miss us? We missed you. It’s only been a brief eon but the idiots have taken over the world, and the internet is seducing us all into trading in our brains for beads. Welcome back to the Post-Katrina Resurrection Corpse, back from a dank hiatus of one year in a formaledehyde-poisoned FEMA trailer. We festered, we raged, we contemplated suicide, and in the end, voted for life because we are a Corpse already and we hate to keep on dying, just like the ideals of the Republic.

Our guest-editor for this issue is the formidable poet, publisher, New Orleanian, and homme-du-monde-et-de-lettres, Bill Lavender. Bill has ploughed through the accumulated debris in our trailer, turning over towers of submissions and lovingly removing mold and giving new lustre to tarnished but potent weapons of poesy, crit, and story-time. We will continue to exalt, irritate, surprise, be loving, merciless, and obscene, just like you.

Our Bulgarian genius, Plamen Arnaudov, has updated our technology so that the Corpse may flow continually, with updates posted as quickly as the zeitgeist requires.

We also welcome Vincent Cellucci, poet and chef to Our Gang, so that we might eat well while we tryst and plunder.

Readers, please come back, visit, and, most importantly, re-register to join our raiding parties, and ride with the Resurrected Corpse. You don’t need to bring your own horse to the raiding parties because we are planning (secretly) to offer ship cruises to our subscribers (it costs nothing to subscribe).

The Corpse is back.

Conference :: Not the Same Ol’ Same Ol’ 4.5.08

Second Annual Conversations and Connections
April 5, 2008
Washington, DC
Keynote: Author Mary Gaitskill

Get the connections and information you need to take your writing — and publishing —to the next level. Panelists in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, writing for children, making connections, using the web, marketing, and everything in between. Over 30 literary magazines represented. $45 registration fee includes the full day conference, plus face-to-face “speed dating” with literary magazine editors, a subscription to the lit mag of your choice, and a book by featured speakers.

Alimentum – Winter 2008

Alimentum publishes “the literature of food.” When I first opened this magazine, I thought I knew what that meant. Poems about sandwiches, maybe, sentimental stories about grandma’s cherry pie. I thought that, at best, this magazine would succeed in making me hungry. Boy was I wrong. Almost from the first page, reading this magazine was an educational experience. I learned all kinds of interesting things about food, but more importantly, I learned something about the power of good writing. Continue reading “Alimentum – Winter 2008”

Arkansas Review – December 2007

The Arkansas Review: A Journal of Delta Studies is a large, thin, easy-to-read magazine. According to the Guidelines for Contributors, this publication prints academic articles in addition to poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction, but the December 2007 edition focuses on literary contributions. This issue features a long, fascinating interview with author Scott Ely, covering his time in Vietnam, his writing and research methods, and his screen writing experiences. This interview is followed by “The Poisoned Arrow,” a short story by Ely, which is full of vivid South Carolina flavor. Continue reading “Arkansas Review – December 2007”

Atlanta Review – Fall/Winter 2007

When I think of this volume as a whole, poignancy and humor are powerfully juxtaposed. Grouped together under the conflict theme are Korkut Onaran’s “War,” Fred Voss’ “Machinist Wanted,” Jamaal May’s “Triage,” and Vuong Quoc Vu’s “Flower Bomb.” This last poem won the review’s 2007 International Poetry Competition with lines like these: Continue reading “Atlanta Review – Fall/Winter 2007”

Conjunctions – Fall 2007

An issue of Conjunctions would be a double or triple issue for almost any other literary magazine. Even the word “magazine” doesn’t seem quite accurate. An issue of Conjunctions is a book. That said, this one actually is a double issue. The first half is titled “A Writers’ Aviary: Reflections on Birds” and the latter half is a “Special Portfolio: John Ashbery Tribute.” Continue reading “Conjunctions – Fall 2007”

Cream City Review – Fall 2007

Siblinghood – an intriguing theme. In this issue of Cream City Review, I liked how the theme of siblinghood was always present, but not necessarily the focus. Often, the sibling relation adds a dimension to the main story (such as in the wonderful “Flashlights” by Zach Bean, which is a love story first and a brothers story second) or is observed from afar by an “outsider” (e.g. “Skin,” by Theresa Milbrodt, where a mother observes her daughters, one struggling with the same skin condition as her mom, the other healthy). In Yannick Murphy’s delightful “Unreal Blue,” the issue of siblinghood is almost coincidental: this is a family story. But other stories put the focus right on the narrator’s feeling for a brother or sister. Perhaps not surprisingly, these stories are often raw and painful, e.g. Kelly Spitzer’s “Inside Out Of You,” which is both accusation and praise of the narrator’s unstable sister, or Benjamin Percy’s sinister, almost gothic “The Whisper.” Continue reading “Cream City Review – Fall 2007”