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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!

Oh poop…


Poop Culture
How America Is Shaped by Its Grossest National Product
By Dave Praeger
Foreword by Paul Provenza, director of The Aristocrats
Published by Feral House “This book is not a history of poop, but a study of today. Its goal is to understand how poop affects us, how we view it, and why; to appreciate its impact from the moment it slides out of our anal sphincters to the moment it enters the sewage treatment plant; to explore how we’ve arrived at this strange discomfort and confusion about a natural product of our bodies; to see how this contradiction-the natural as unnatural-shapes our minds, relationships, environment, culture, economics, media, and art.”

New Issue: Adirondack

Adirondack Review, Summer 2007
For your reading pleasure, another issue full of great writing, articles, and art, featuring the photography of Mary Robison, the illustrations of Jesse Hawley, writing from both seasoned and brand new writers, book reviews, film reviews, and a fascinating piece of travel writing about an American woman’s experiences with cheese vendors and effusive neighbors in Turkey.

Adopt a Tibetan Book

Dharma Publishing sponsors “Adopt a Tibetan Book program to fund the restoration of sacred Tibetan Buddhist texts and art. Annually, at the World Peace Ceremony in Bodh Gaya, India, the books and art are freely distributed to over eight thousand lamas, monks, nuns and lay people and also to over 3300 monasteries and educational institutions. The primary purpose is to rebuild libraries of the educational institutions of the Tibetan refugees in exile in India, Nepal, Bhutan.” The goal is to help reestablish these libraries in Tibet. [more information]

Soylent Green Anyone?

Wishing for What We Already Have
by Robin Nixon
Genewatch, May-June 2007
“This spring, 450 acres of Kansas will be planted with rice that has been modified to contain human genes. It will look much like any normal field of rice, but the biotechnological innovation within each stalk is being sold as if it were magic from the Land of Oz. Essentially, the Kansas field will be a factory. The machinery is the rice plant itself. The inputs are human genes. The outputs are human proteins — lactoferrin and lysozyme — normally found in breast milk and other secretions, such as tears…” [read more]

Out on Stage

Out Came the First Coming Out Play
by Laurence Senelick
The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide, May-June 2007
“‘Outing’ in our sense comes on stage with the homosexual law-reform movements. In several German plays of the early twentieth century, characters are ‘outed’ involuntarily. From Ludwig Dilsner’s Jasmine Blossoms (1899) to Reinhart Kluge’s Who Is to Blame? (1923), the exposure of the protagonist’s homosexuality is effected by blackmail or vice-squad raids or the maneuvers of jilted lovers. It is a traumatic and embarrassing experience that blights one’s life. The upshot is almost invariably suicide. Although the goal of these plays was to enlighten the general public as to the sorry lot of those with ‘contrary sexual feelings,’ the effect upon the homosexual individual was probably a determination to stay under wraps.

It is therefore surprising to find a play about coming out, in the current sense, on the Dutch stage shortly after the First World War…” [read more]

Writer Residency: Lynchburg College, VA

Thornton Writer Residency at Lynchburg College, Spring 2008 semester. Eight-week residency with $8,000 stipend, housing, meals, and roundtrip travel expenses for a poet. Writers gives a weekly creative writing workshop and a public reading. Submit: copy of a previously published poetry collection, curriculum vitae, cover letter outlining successful teaching experience. No entry fee. Deadline: July 1. Lynchburg College, Thornton Writer Residency, English Dept., 1501 Lakeside Dr., Lynchburg, VA 24501.

New Issue: Big Ugly

It’s not ugly, but it is BIG!

The Big Ugly Review, Issue 6, “The Body Issue” includes:

Fiction by Peter Orner, Mary Kolesnikova, Wendy Van Landingham, Mark MacNamara, Kristina Moriconi, Chad Morgan, Angela Marino, RG McCartney, Sabrina Tom, Michelle Morrison

Non-fiction by Laura Fraser, Joe Loya, Derek Patton Pearcy, Mimi Ghez, Laura Barcella, Andy Raskin

Poetry by John M. Anderson, Amanda Field, Denise Dooley, Grey Held, Edward Smallfield

Music by Audrey Howard, Sez Giulian, Thomas Kilts, Vanessa Peters

Photo essays by Daniel Hernandez, Stephanie Gene Morgan

Film by Kia Simon (*the most absorbingly gorgeous four minutes you could spend staring at the computer today – trust me – open in your own player to watch full screen for best effect)

Whew! Big!

New Issue: Carve Magazine

The Carve Volume 8 Issue 2, Summer 2007

Hybrid
by Stephanie Dickinson
I’m looking at myself in the taxi’s side mirror. You will never get a kiss because you’re invisible, the mirror says, a glare of sun where my face should be…[Read more]

Samurai Bluegrass
by Craig Terlson
Their harmonies teeter on the edge of sweetness and mournful whine. It’s that high lonesome sound. The bluegrass band enraptures the pierced patrons, their ghost-white faces tilt toward the stage…[Read more]

Turning the Bones
by Marcy Campbell
Jillian and I are sitting on the hard-packed earth in front of a large fire, the flames illuminating the faces of the others in the circle. The air is saturated with the smell of spice, strong coffee and sweat…[Read more]

If You Don’t
by Rob Bass
When Ryan is four and Colleen is two, another toddler comes up to her in the sandbox and kicks over the upside down bucket mold she’s just finished patting down to perfection. She throws her hands up in the air and lets loose with a great wail and Ryan stomps over to push the offending party down into the sand…[Read more]

PEN American Opposes Cultural Boycotts

For more information contact: Larry Siems, (212) 334-1660 ext. 105

New York, NY, June 22, 2007—PEN American Center has released a statement of principle opposing academic and cultural boycotts, saying such actions threaten the internationally guaranteed right to freedom of expression.

The statement cites PEN’s commitment over many decades to the principle that knowledge, literature, art, and cultural materials belong to humanity as a whole and should circulate freely even in times of conflict and political upheaval, and declares PEN American Center’s opposition to “any efforts to inhibit the free international exchange of knowledge, literature, or art, including academic and cultural boycotts.” Academic and cultural boycotts harm free expression in both the targeted country and the country where the boycott is practiced, PEN contends, insisting that “the universally guaranteed right of all to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers includes the right to engage in direct, face-to-face discussions, debates, challenges, and collaborations.”

The statement follows a vote last month by the University and College Union in the United Kingdom to refer an appeal for an academic and cultural boycott of Israel to its membership for discussion and possible action. That vote has sparked an international debate over the ethics and efficacy of such boycotts.

“We felt it was important to articulate this essential principle at this time,” said Larry Siems, Director of Freedom to Write and International Programs at PEN American Center. “We commend this statement to our academic colleagues in the U.K. for their consideration, and to all who may be asked to consider similar measures now and in the future.”
————————————–
PEN American Center Statement on Academic Boycotts
PEN is an organization founded on the principle that the unhampered transmission of thought within each nation and between all nations is essential for human coexistence and understanding. It believes that literature, works of art, and ideas must remain common currency among people despite political or international upheavals, and that political and national passions should not prevent or interrupt intellectual and cultural exchange.

In this spirit, PEN American Center emphatically opposes any efforts to inhibit the free international exchange of literature, art, information, or knowledge, including academic and cultural boycotts. We believe that such boycotts threaten the free expression rights not only of those associated with the boycotted institutions but also of those in the countries where the boycott is practiced, and that the universally guaranteed right of all to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers includes the right to engage in direct, face-to-face discussions, debates, challenges, and collaborations.

PEN American Center
588 Broadway, Suite 303
New York, NY 10012
Tel. (212) 334-1660
Fax. (212) 334-2181
www.pen.org

New Issue: Contrary Magazine

The summer 2007 issue of Contrary Magazine features the prose poetry of wildlife biologist Patrick Loafman, whose eye for the natural captures the magical. Poetic prose is Contrary’s specialty, and you’ll find more examples in stories by Thomas King (of McSweeney’s and The Believer), Sarah Layden, and Amy Reed. We also have new poetry by C.E. Chaffin, Derek Pollard, Taylor Graham, and Patrick Reichard.

In other news from Contrary:
A poem by Contrary Poetry Editor Shaindel Beers won first place in the Dylan Days Festival, honoring Bob Dylan, in Hibbing Minnesota. Her poem “Rewind” surpassed about 400 poems from 250-300 poets from almost every state and most continents.

Two Contrary contributors have new books out: Mary E. Mitchell’s novel Starting Out Sideways (St. Martin’s Press), and Corey Mesler’s winner of the Southern Hum Chapbook Competition,The Lita Conversation.

Kelly Spitzer: Writer Profile Project

From Kelly Spitzer, currently with Smokelong Quarterly:

“Starting on March 1st, I will be launching the Writer Profile Project. Each profile will consist of approximately ten questions posed to writers at various stages in their careers. During the series, you will meet editors of literary magazines, novelists, poets, and a wide variety of up and coming authors in all genres. I expect the series to run through the end of the year, so check back often for new profiles.”

Profiles to date: Mary Akers, Hobart editor Aaron Burch, Kathy Fish, Alicia Gifford, Ellen Meister, Fleur Bradley, SmokeLong Quarterly founder Dave Clapper, Ann Walters (Sharon Hurlbut), Jason Makansi, Mary Miller, Jeff Landon, Jason Shaffner, NO

Punk Planet Ceases Publication

“Dear Friends,
As much as it breaks our hearts to write these words, the final issue of Punk Planet is in the post, possibly heading toward you right now. Over the last 80 issues and 13 years, we’ve covered every aspect of the financially independent, emotionally autonomous, free culture we refer to as “the underground.” In that time we’ve sounded many alarms from our editorial offices: about threats of co-optation, big-media emulation, and unseen corporate sponsorship. We’ve also done everything in our power to create a support network for independent media, experiment with revenue streams, and correct the distribution issues that have increasingly plagued independent magazines. But now we’ve come to the impossible decision to stop printing, having sounded all the alarms and reenvisioned all the systems we can. Benefit shows are no longer enough to make up for bad distribution deals, disappearing advertisers, and a decreasing audience of subscribers.”

Read more as to why and what next: Punk Planet

Interesting Times for Lit Mags

Interesting indeed, given the number of lit mags currently in editorial and financial flux, as noted in the Virginia Times Quarterly Blog. Magazines mentioned include Ploughshares, Georgia Review, Southern Review, Granta, Paris Review, The Antioch Review, and most notably (for their unique response) McSweeny’s, facing $130,000 debt has turned to an online auction to raise money (a guided tour of the Daily Show with John Hodgman is still availaible – but hurry).

Making Poetry Submissions

From Chris Hamilton-Emery’s 101 Ways to Make Poems Sell: The Salt Guide to Getting and Staying Published

Becoming a Player
The world of poetry is not a world of isolated individual practitioners. Hermits in their caves. If you currently find yourself in this position, you should try to get out more. The world of poetry is a very busy place, filled with a wide range of professionals most of whom are eager to tell you about their talents.

The world of poetry is not filled with gentle suffering creatures (to call upon Eliot). It is not fair, just, or particularly caring. It can be supportive, but it is not a self help group. It is not a world based upon power sharing. In fact, the world of poetry can be a bear pit, and like any industry it is competitive and has moments of confrontation and even dirty tricks. Be prepared to take some knocks along the way.

Read the rest – including “50 dos and don’ts” – on Salt Publishing.

Prose: Sheheryar Sheikh

By one of NewPages contributors, Sheheryar Badar Sheikh:

-struck life
I.
Watch the walk, especially the strut, jingle. Hear the curious tinktink of coins, metallic sound in his pocket like rhythm. He lingers in air, suspended, arced in step suspended still in air suspended like air like substance in air. The god in him set to roast out the truth and go deeper until evaporation, until rain. Broad shoulders, cool expanse swarthy balmy calm sea, his shoulders the morph of a sun’s arc. Hear jingle, see arcs, see strut, see rhythm in flesh, the timing. Sunchoked sun split sunblonde, dancer in walks sunkissed. Almost god, mostly sun, younger brother of the murderer.

Read the rest: Cricket Online Review

New Issue: Raving Dove


Raving Dove is an online literary journal dedicated to sharing thought-provoking writing, photography, and art that opposes the use of violence as conflict resolution, and embraces the intrinsic themes of peace and human rights.

Summer 2007 Contributors: Martha Braniff, Howard Camner, Sharon Carter, DB Cox, Arlene Distler, Michael Estabrook, Joachim Frank, David V. Gibson, Cory Hutcheson, John Kay, Laurel Lundstrom, Caroline Maun, Beverly Mills, Russell Reece, Anthony Santella, Dorit Sasson, Sarah Shaw, Roger Singer, Townsend Walker, Harry Youtt, Changming Yuan

Published in February, June, and October, Raving Dove welcomes original poetry, nonfiction essays, fiction, photography, and art. See submissions guidelines for complete details. Now reviewing work for the winter 2007 edition, which will be online on October 21st.

New Contests Posted

I have been updating our contest pages every couple of days. These are contests for single works in all genres for publication in literary magazines (see Lit Mag Contests), both in print and online, as well as book contests.

The contests listed on NewPages are those sponsored by literary magazines (print), online literary magazines, alternative magazines, book publishers and creative writing programs that are listed on our site.

If you have a request to see a contest listed, please e-mail [email protected] with information about the contest.

M. Allen Cunningham’s Newest Novel


A former contributor to NewPages, we’re happy to announce Mark’s second novel published with Unbridled Books: Lost Son about the great poet Rainer Maria Rilke, author of “Letters to a Young Poet” and “The Duino Elegies.”

“Spanning Western Europe from 1875 to 1917, LOST SON brings alive the intellectual and artistic currents that shaped the 20th century and the personalities that made this history their own–from Rainer Maria Rilke himself to the great sculptor Rodin to the fascinating Lou Andreas-Salome, mistress or confidant of Rilke, Freud and Nietzsche. The result is an exploration of the forever imperfect loyalties we face in life and the seemingly immeasurable distances that can separate life and art.”

Beginning Monday June 4, Cunningham will be reading at bookstores in Northern California, Oregon, and Seattle. View the event schedule at his author blog here.

Congrats Mark!

Disability Issues and Responsible Journalism

How the News Media Handicap Those with Disabilities
by Susan M. LoTempio

“It’s a good month when the usual reporting on disability is balanced by even a single good story. Those months are few and far between, but in May The New York Times gave me reason to hope that thoughtful, stereotype-free stories about people with disabilities can actually see the light of day.

But before we get to that, let’s first note a few high-profile media events that took place in May that illustrate the status quo…”

Read the rest and other articles on Poynter Online: Everything You Need to be a Better Journalist.

Wanted: Volunteer Teachers in Seattle Area

From Richard Gold, Pongo Teen Writing Project:

WHAT IS PONGO? Since 1992, the Pongo Publishing Teen Writing Project has worked with teens who are in jail, on the streets, or in other ways leading difficult lives. We help young people express themselves through poetry, and the teens often write about traumatic life experiences. Through creative writing, Pongo helps its authors communicate feelings, build self-esteem, and take better control of their lives. Each summer we publish chapbook compilations of the teens’ work. The chapbooks are distributed free to incarcerated youth and others. You can find out more about us at www.pongopublishing.org.

We are looking for mature individuals who have a clear understanding of personal boundaries and an ability to adapt to institutional rules. Ideal candidates will write poetry, have education as teachers or counselors, and have experience working with distressed youth. Candidates must make a commitment to attending the weekly Pongo sessions, being on time, and staying with the program until its completion in April.

If you are interested in becoming a Pongoite, please contact us soon. Spaces are limited, and the application and interview process must be completed in July. You can begin this process by emailing us a copy of your resume and a writing sample to [email protected]. We welcome your questions, too.

Cheers!

Books :: Jia by Hyejin Kim


Jia
by Hyejin Kim
“Based on true events, Jia is the first novel about present-day North Korea to appear in English. All but closed to outside visitors, North Korea is among the most opaque nations on earth. While most readers know only the bleak outlines of its politics and history, Hyejin Kim illuminates Korea from within.”
From MIDNIGHT EDITIONS, an imprint of CLEIS PRESS.

Submissions: Poetry on Girlhood

For an anthology of contemporary poetry on girlhood aimed at high school and college level readers, co-editors Arielle Greenberg and Becca Klaver seek submission of poems on or relevant to any aspect of the experience of girlhood, from childhood to young adulthood by poets with at least one published or forthcoming poetry collection from a nationally-distributed press.

For more information: Switchback Books

Retreat as Activism: David Gessner

On Space
by David Gessner, Ecotone Editor
Ecotone, Volume 2 Issue 2

“I admit that it is a strange and contrary impulse to focus on retreat during times of war, when you can’t help but find a military connotation in the word. But one thing I’ve learned from my reading is that retreat often leads to its opposite…”

Read more: Ecotone.

Weed Wars

The War on Dandelions
by John A. Johnson

“The lawn is a symbol that humankind, with its big brains, has fought nature for survival, and won. And because nature got it wrong the first time, we’re re-making it the right way. The idea is that we take nasty, ‘undeveloped’ land, and reshape it, groom it, and reconfigure it into proper, ‘developed’ land, which can be sold for a nice chunk of change. Sans dandelions, of course…”

More serious irreverence can be found at Eat the State! A Forum for Anti-Authoritarian Political Opinion, Research and Humor.

Seeing Celeb in Africa

Bono, I Presume? Covering Africa Through Celebrities
By Julie Hollar
Extra! May/June 2007

“Africa is sexy and people need to know that,” declared U2 singer Bono (New York Times, 3/5/07), promoting his new (RED) line of products that propose to save Africa one iPod at a time.

Celebrity interest in Africa is not particularly new, but today more stars than ever seem to be converging upon the continent, with television crews seldom far behind. But, as Bono clearly understands, what media tend to find sexy about Africa is not Africa itself, but the stars like himself who have taken up causes in the region. In television news in particular, with its typically cursory treatment of subjects and emphasis on the visual, African countries and issues are to a striking degree seen through the prism of celebrity.

Read this and more from Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) at Extra! online.

Submissions: Milkweed Editions Seeks Minnesota Writers

Jerome Anthology Call for Submissions
Milkweed Editions seeks works of short fiction for an anthology to be published in fall 2008. The editors hope to solicit work suggestive of the increasingly diverse and multicultural nature of Minnesota, and the volume’s publication is timed to mark the sesquicentennial of the founding of the state. Authors must be residents of Minnesota, and may not have more than one previous book-length publication. Unpublished writers and writers of color are encouraged to submit manuscripts for consideration. All contributors will receive an honorarium of at least $500 (the final amount to be determined according to the number of contributors included).

For more information visit Milkweed Editions.

Load it, crank it! Wax Poetic

Wax Poetic
“This is the first in a three-part series from Nublu founder and band leader Ilhan Ersahin’s Wax Poetic project. On this record, there’s a subdued Northern European energy creeping through the rocky, Garbage-esque tracks. This series will take Ersahin to different countries to collaborate with its musicians. Next up is ‘Wax Poetic Istanbul,’ followed by ‘Wax Poetic Brasil.'”

The online sampler for Copenhagen includes two music videos and two songs, and for Istanbul and Brasil, two songs each. Full album available for purchase via Amazon and iTunes. Worth the Quicktime download to check this smack out!

Common Ground Regained in The Big Easy

Malik Rahim: Spreading Common Ground
An interview with the cofounder of New Orleans’ Common Ground Collective
by Doug Pibel

Doug: What has the experience of Common Ground taught you about how communities can learn to act together?
Malik: I’m going to tell you, that’s the reason why I continue on. Not only has it taught me what we can do, it has shown me the true greatness of this nation. Yes we are a rich nation; yes we are one of the most powerful nations. But, the greatness of our nation is not in our government—it is in our people. I have seen the essence of that greatness in those who made sacrifices to come down to help us in our time of need.

Read the rest of this interview and more on Yes! Magazine, Summer 2007 Issue: Latin America Rising.

Z Magazine Memorials: Olsen and Ivins

Memorial for Tillie Olsen
Tillie Lerner was never supposed to be a writer. She grew up poor. She dropped out of high school. She was a teenage mother. She worked long hours to support her kids. She got fired. Too often, she recalled, “the simplest circumstances for creation did not exist.” Yet, she wrote. (More at Z Magazine Online)

Memorial for Molly Ivins
Mary Tyler “Molly” Ivins (August 30, 1944–January 31, 2007) was a U.S. newspaper columnist, political commentator, and bestselling author from Austin, Texas. Ivins was born in Monterey, California, raised in Houston, Texas and attended St. John’s School in Houston. (More at Z Magazine Online)

Gulf Coast Interview: Bob Hicok and Matthew Siegel

MS: What message, if any, do you have for the several thousand people who are going to graduate this year with MFAs?
BH: Remember that, when I say I want my root beer without ice, I mean it.

Read the full interview in Gulf Coast, Volume 19 Number 2, Summer/Fall 2007, where you’ll find more humor as well as insight in response to questions such as:
MS: So many poets are rushing to get that first book out, spending hundreds of dollars on contests and reading fees. Do you believe this is the best way for young poets to get noticed?
and
MS: Some of your newer poems seem to be much more meditative and less “witty” than your earlier work. Also, I’ve been told that you are trying to turn away from this perception of you being a “funny” poet. Is this true” If so, what do you find troubling about being called a “funny” poet?

Dollars and Sense: The Magazine of Economic Justice

Muckraking Around the Globe
“BBC investigative reporter and international gadfly Greg Palast has dug into many critical stories in recent years—particularly those, like the vulture funds saga (see Palast’s article in the current issue of D&S), that lie at the intersection of political decision-making and corporate greed. Dollars & Sense recently interviewed Palast about the sometimes-surprising appraisals that he offers in his latest book, Armed Madhouse, which came out in a revised paperback edition in April.”

Also from the current issue of Dollars and Sense and available online:

The Homeownership Myth by Howard Karger
A contrarian asks whether homeownership really benefits low-income families.

The Real Political Purpose of the ICE Raids by David Bacon
Using immigration raids as a pressure tactic to get Congress to approve new guest worker programs is not a legitimate use of enforcement.

Fidelity and Genocide by Chris Sturr
Activists are calling on Fidelity and other investment houses to divest from Chinese oil companies that help fund the killing in Darfur.

New & Forthcoming from Anhinga Press

My Last Door by Wendy Bishop (2007)

Yellow Jackets by Patti White (2007)

The View from Zero Bridge by Lynn Aarti Chandhok, winner of the Levine Prize in Poetry (2007)

All you have to do is ask by Meredith Walters, winner of the Anhinga Prize for Poetry (2006)

Visit Anhinga Press for more on their publications.

Talk the Talk Online with Writers Revealed

Join Felicia Sullivan (Editor of Small Sprial Notebook) each week in a new kind of Sunday Book Review: Writers Revealed. Participate in live discussions, book giveaways, and opportunities to get between the sheets with some of today’s most buzzworthy writers. Writers Revealed is not about name-dropping obscure authors and talking about the “process” of writing – this show is all about the hilarious and heartbreaking stories you can relate to.

This Sunday, June 17, chat live with Kevin Smokler, David Wellington, Andi Buchanan and Josh Kilmer-Purcell about successful online marketing and how you can be your own marketing & publicity machine. Previous shows available on podcast.

Visit Writers Revealed: www.writersrevealed.com.

NCAC’s Censorship News, Spring 2007

Check out the National Coalition Against Censorship Newsletter: Censorship News, No. 104. Available online and as PDF, “NCAC’s newsletter, published quarterly, contains information and discussion about freedom of expression issues, including current school censorship controversies, threats to the free flow of information, and obscenity laws.” In this issue:

Reading the Fine Print

A Minor History of Miniature Writing
By Joshua Foer
Cabinet Magazine Online
“Miniature book collector George Salomon of Paris disperses his seven-hundred-title collection, a library that reportedly “could be carried in a moderate-sized portmanteau.” His spirit lives on today in the Miniature Book Society, an organization whose interests extend only to printed works three inches or smaller.”

Read the article and see images of miniature writing through history on Cabinet Magazine Online.

Pinsky Speaks on Music and Literature

Poetry Northwest Web Exclusive
“On March 21, 2007, in Portland, some 400 people crammed the sold-out Wonder Ballroom to hear to hear the former poet laureate speak, read poems, & launch the Music Issue. Robert Pinsky condemned educational administrators who want to break the chain of culture by cutting funding to music, arts, & creative writing programs. ‘Woe unto them,’ said Pinsky, who also read recent & new poems, & closed the night with an electrifying reading of John Keats’s hymn to music & poetry, ‘Ode to a Nightingale.'”

Listen to an excerpt (apprx 45min) of this performance lecture on Poetry Northwest.

Writing in Prison: The PEN American Center Program

“Founded in 1971, the PEN Prison Writing Program believes in the restorative and rehabilitative power of writing, by providing hundreds of inmates across the country with skilled writing teachers and audiences for their work. The program seeks to provide a place for inmates to express themselves freely with paper and pen and to encourage the use of the written word as a legitimate form of power. The program sponsors an annual writing contest, publishes a free handbook for prisoners, provides one-on-one mentoring to inmates whose writing shows merit or promise, conducts workshops for former inmates, and seeks to get inmates’ work to the public through literary publications and readings.”

For more information about this program, read writing from contest winners, or how to get a copy of the writing handbook, visit PEN American Center.

How to Sustain Your Labor of Love

Love’s Labour Lost?: Working for a sustainable alternative press
By Nicole Cohen
Briarpatch Magazine
June/July 2007

“I don’t recall the exact moment I became skeptical of the term labour of love, but I do remember the day it began feeling like an inappropriate descriptor for Shameless, the independent, feminist magazine for teens I co-founded in 2003 and edited until recently.
[. . .]
While it is critical for media activists to talk seriously about the business of producing alternative media and to find innovative ways to boost circulation, it is dangerous to believe that the only way to become commercially viable is to make content more mainstream. Alternative media exist to disseminate an oppositional or radical stance, and the development of creative, sustainable business models should centre on strengthening that goal, not abandoning it.”

Read the rest of the article HERE, with Cohen’s assessment as well as advice for small, independents who wish to remain alternative.

Recipe for Inspiration

File this under the “finding writing ideas in the most unlikely places” category. Check out some of these great recipe names, courtesy of Backwoods Home Magazine:

Dragon’s Breath Chili
Earth’s Greatest Cookies
Egg Thingies
Humble Stew (Served with humble pie for dessert? Oh, c’mon, you saw that one coming…)
Dishpan Cookies
Baked Macaroni and Cheese to Kill For
Czarist Chicken Salad
Chow-chow (I read the recipe and still don’t know what this is – ?)
Lazy Housewife Pickles
Emergency Casserole (Maybe to help the person killed for the mac and cheese…)

Can’t you just see it now: “She went to the kitchen and started banging pots and pans onto the stove. She’d have the last laugh for his cheating on her, the Dragon’s Breath Chili would see to that…”

Inspiration can indeed come from the strangest places. If nothing else, some of these really do sound worth trying!

New Online Issue: Dark Sky Magazine

The June 2007 issue of Dark Sky Magazine is now online, featuring literature by Jenny Steele, Michael Phillips, Charlie Geer, Meredith Doench, Jack Emery, Martin Brick, Luke Boyd, Richard O’Connell, Richard O’Connell, Louise Snowden, Rupert Fike, John Grey, and artwork by Elizabeth Cadwell, Isabel Barnes, Miranda Clark.

From “Bend” by Meredith Doench:

I.
“No one’s ever loved me before. People have told me they did, like my mom. But she only said so when I’d done something to please her, or after she’d had too much to drink or smoke. So when Alison Rogers said, Nicole, I love you, I cried harder than I’ve ever cried before. And the weird thing was Alison cried too, hugging me close, her tears getting the shoulder of my old t-shirt wet and warm.

Now the staff at Lakeridge Psychiatric Center would have called this inappropriate touch between patients, so we were wedged tight into the cubby hole of a maintenance closet that someone left open while getting a mop. I could hear…”

Read and see much more on Dark Sky Magazine.

Writing: Characters in Africa

Africa Settings: Writers in search of characters
From Worldview Magazine (v20n2)by David Arnold

“Before being there, my only reference point for any African country was a reading of Saul Bellow’s Henderson the Rain King which, as I recall, was more about crazy Henderson than about Africa. It turns out that this is typical of Americans who write about Africa. Even those like Hemingway who were there…

In this issue of WorldView, we’re sampling writers whose work has become part of our Africa bibliography: Norman Rush, George Packer, Paul Theroux, Leonard Levitt, Kathleen Coskran, Sarah Erdman, Richard Wiley, Maria Thomas and Tony D’Souza…”

Read more here: Worldview Magazine.

Leslie Bennets Speaks Out on The Feminine Mistake

From The Humanist by Heidi Bruggink:

“In her new book, The Feminine Mistake, Bennetts asserts that women’s decisions to abandon their careers may save them stress in the short-term, but the repercussions are enormously dangerous-and women often fail to understand this until it’s far too late. Further, she argues, the financial and psychological benefits of working outside the home are enormous. Bennetts herself serves as a prime example of this assertion, having crafted an enviable journalism career over the past thirty years while simultaneously raising a family. She spoke with the Humanist in March, shortly before her book’s release, to discuss the urgent message she wants to impart on today’s younger women…”

Read an excerpt of the interview here: Don’t Give Up Your Day Job: Leslie Bennetts on The Feminine Mistake

The Language of Global Warming

Sustaining Change from the Middle Ground
James Biggar and Michael M’Gonigle
Alternatives Journal Online, April 2007

“‘Climate porn.’ That’s how the Institute for Public Policy Research in Britain depicts the portrayal of the climate crisis by media and governments. In the organization’s report, ‘Warm Words,’ the authors claim the apocalyptic and external framing of global warming convinces the public that climate change is inevitable and therefore beyond human control. In the context of that frame, appeals for changes in individual behaviour, such as the Liberals’ One Tonne Challenge and the endless ‘Ten Things you Can Do’ lists, seem pretty lame, even to advocates. After all, how many times can a dutiful bicyclist be squeezed into the curb by a lumbering SUV before she feels there is no point to her action?”

Read the rest of the article at: Alternative Journal Online