Conjunctus

2009-11-30T08:33:00.000-08:00

What challenges do you face as a publisher?(correction)

being completely inconsequential or unknown - it's certainly easy to slip through the cracks as a small publisher - and money - paying out of pocket - not being a nonprofit - makes it difficult - for these reasons it's always important to think imaginatively about how to produce work and get them out there - we have a distrubutor and people generally buy things - so we just need to keep getting things out - but I have to figure out how to spend as little as possible making a good looking book - object - so it's a matter of figuring out how or where I can print out a bunch of stuff for as cheaply as possible

2009-11-29T22:40:00.000-08:00

INTERVIEW WITH GUNNAR BENEDIKTSSON - 5_TROPE

1) How did you arrive at your current position? What other presses have you worked for? Under what capacity? Did you publish your own work through said presses? What other projects are you working on?

Like every writer, I have about 11 projects on the go, the most pressing of which is finishing my dissertation at the University of Iowa. However, I do try to split my time between 5_trope, my own writing and various other online projects through webdelsol that I often find myself involved in. I've done web work for a variety of online journals, and have read submissions for a few others. I've been involved in 5_trope since about 1998, and have also worked with Flyway, Sketch, Filling Station and a handful of others. My involvement dates back to 1995 or so, which really makes me wish this was a more remunerative field!

2) What is the staff structure at your press/magazine? How do the six of you from the mast as it is communicate, collaborate, and pull it all together?

I handle submission flow for prose submissions, which are read by me and associate editor Travis Godsoe. Poetry is managed from beginning to end by Joel Chace--a guy with a far more impressive resume than mine, who also writes a rocking poem himself. His work is all over the place, in print and online--he's the real deal. He shares some of the submission volume with Heather Thomas, also an accomplished experimental poet. Mike Neff hosts the web space and promotes the journal through webdelsol. In practice, this means that poetry and prose are assembled separately, but in general the issue ends up taking a particular shape by the time the work all comes together. I usually try to add an "editor's note" to put everything in context and to offer some commentary on the world of online publishing as it stands.

3) What challenges do you face as a publisher? How closely do you keep your deadlines? What kinds of costs do you have (time and money)? How is it different publishing electronically, as opposed to in print?

As you may have gathered, we operate on the thinnest of shoestrings when it comes to staff. We also have a massive backlog of accepted work, which isn't unusual in this business. We try to stick to a trimesterly schedule, but in practice that's very challenging with four people living thousands of miles apart. However, that is also the key benefit to publishing electronically. Not only are costs low, but it's possible to build fruitful and rewarding relationships with other people who live on other parts of the globe. The cost is also low--which is good, because it allows for us to be a little more dedicated to the mission of our particular journal, which serves a very specific niche.

4) Do you have any cover letter advice? (Generally vs. Specific to your site?)

Don't be cute. Be brief, show that you know the journal and let the story speak for itself. Gimmicks almost never work--in general, it's better to treat it the same way you did your piece--be honest, show that you care about our aesthetic mission (or, indeed--that you know what it is) and don't go on for too long.

5) What do you look for in a submission? How vetted are your writers? (Do you find that you get/publish submissions from all ranges of experience, age, education?)

We don't actively select for writers previously published elsewhere, but in practice, most of our writers are not publishing their first piece with us. There are certain writers that we've published before that we really like, and others that have turned their 5_trope publications into print publication projects, something that we love to see. We look for work that is innovative, experimental, crafted and interested in language and aesthetics. The majority of pieces that we reject are not unsuitable because they're bad--they are unsuitable because they're completely out of line with what we're interested in. To us, experimentation is more than an end in itself--it's a mode of social and cultural critique, and the work we're most interested in will instantly strike its reader as different, interesting, exciting and well crafted.

6) You say that you've got a new trope in the works... what does that entail? How are submissions processed at your press/magazine? How do you work to create an aesthetic for each issue? (There seem to be some visual/structural similarities amongst the published pieces; does someone format the submitted work to fit the style of 5_trope?)

We have a template that we use. In essence, the poetry and prose are assembled separately, and then I bring them together and see what kind of thematics unite the pieces with each other.

7) Do you have a favorite unsolicited submission discovery or anecdote? Favorite work in general?
7-2) For aspiring reader-of-good-stuff: Who should I read (big books)? Presses that aren't already 5_trope musts? Critics I should read? What's the most recent delight you've encountered and why was her.his work so powerful to you?

My memory isn't good enough to answer that question very well; usually, my favourite stories are of editorial collaboration with writers.

I would look at DIAGRAM, a fantastic journal edited by my friend Ander Monson. It's consistently excellent. Also, Mad Hatter's Review and Tarpaulin Sky. A few years ago we published a piece from Jane Unrue's book that came out in 08 (I think)--and her work is exactly what 5_trope loves. Experimental, formally interesting, yet also visceral, energetic and really, really good.

8) What advice do you have for first-time submitters?
8-2) Since you've got enough to read as it is, where can you advise me to go submit that would be open to hearing from a green writer, such as myself?

It's hard to give advice without reading your work. My main piece of advice is to be patient. Look around at the different journals on webdelsol.com, and find the one s that you like the most. Read around in them, see what kind of work they're interested in, and figure out if it's a good fit. That's a crucial stage, so don't fake your way through it. If you feel that genuine connection with a journal, with its aesthetic project, with its tastes, goals and desires, odds are it will work out eventually. Don't be discouraged by rejection--but when you get one, take a few days to figure out why it may not have floated the editor's boat.

9) What are your long-term plans for your magazine/press?

We're going to add a contest and a print anthology. Very exciting stuff.

10) What's your evaluation of the current literary landscape? How do you foresee publishing changing in the near future, given the explosion of electronic publishing?

The world of Web 2.0, social networking and so on has spawned an even greater fragmentation of the industry, which means that every niche, no matter how small, gets served in some way. This is as true in politics, news, entertainment, comedy and the rest of that many-headed monster we call culture as it is in literature. For us, that means we can continue toiling in our tiny patch of landscape until someone tells us to stop, which hasn't happened yet.

Mathew Timmons Interview

2009-11-28T22:58:00.000-08:00

Why do you publish on paper/in print?

This question almost implies that publishing on paper is outmoded - that we should move to ebooks and online journals etc. and pretty much trends in general point to the same implication - but we publish paperback books and somewhat precious chapbooks alongside certainly precious Fold Magazine - for me publishing on paper is an important choice - there is simultaneously a solid, physical, lasting quality to books chapbooks etc that is lacking in the online world - and paradoxically a much more ephemeral quality - as online journals or ebooks or whatever are virtually "in print" forever - For example, we've pretty much sold out of our first chapbook - Harold Abramowitz Three Column Table - we've very much sold out of Fold Magazine (print runs were 300 for the chap and probably 400 for Fold) and Ara Shirinyan's Handsome Fish Offices (the paperback print run 300) is getting low on supply as well (though I know we sent many more of these to bookstores, spd, etc and probably gave more away) - and these are pretty much out of print hard to get limited editions - you can't find the text online - ... though now I realize in saying this that we've had a pdf of Fold Magazine available for about a year on our website - we'll eventually take that down though - and it will be again - impossible to get your hands onSo the permanence of objecthood/ephemeral quality of print is very alluring - and the object status itself as far as design etc and literary objectness is a factor in itself - though I stare at my computer too many hours a day and read all kinds of things online - I like chapbooks and fancy magazines and real books - even to an almost fetishistic level - I collect chapbooks and small press publications - not like crazy crazy, but I do -

If you were to have a Mission Statement, what would it be?

We're deliberately vague on the website - for better or worse - but I think the statement - Insert Press publishes Chapbooks and Perfectbound books of innovative literature in Los Angeles, CA. is accurate - we also mention on the submission page that we publish 30-60 page manuscripts - and I'd say we're certainly dedicated to publishing chapbooks that are a longer single work than your average chapbook press would publish - and our one paperback so far wasn't much longer than 60pages either - but it wouldn't have worked as well in chapbook form - otherwise I'd say we're fairly committed to publishing los angeles writers - through other projects like Fold magazine etc we include people from outside los angeles, but when we started Insert Press it didn't seem like there was much around for los angeles writers that we were interested in - and so we've kept pretty close to home - which isn't difficult - for a further sense of our mission one could look at our editorial statement from FOLD and our calls for work for FOLD-

What makes you a Small Press Publication?

I would say we're closer to a micro press - if that's a word you've seen around - I certainly have heard the phrase before - I would say we're "micro" because our print runs are very small - though I have seen places that print even smaller runs - but also because we don't have a regular publishing schedule - we don't do 3 books a year for certain - over the past year we haven't published anything - though that will be changing very soon - as there are two perfectbound books coming out and a number of shorter chapbooks - also distribution - we only -
What is your budget for publishing Insert Press materials?

everything is out of pocket-

What sorts of financial support do you receive?

we recieve no financial support except through sales - which unfortunately do not come close to covering costs

How did you arrive at your current position?

Let's see - as I said in your class I was working with another publisher - helping out in some kind of assistant editor capacity and we had a falling out - so I wanted to start my own press - I started the press with a friend - Stan Apps - in 05/06 roughly - we fairly quickly decided on some projects and worked through them - our last publication was a perfectbound book (aka paperback) that we put out last summer. We've been very inactive for well over a year as Stan and I have had difficulties pulling projects together - he moved away and is less interested in doing the basic work of publishing and feels he lacks the financial resources to continue

What is the staff structure at your press/magazine?

Me. though recently I've begun to work with a brilliant printmaker and generally brilliant artist on the production of books etc.

What challenges do you face as a publisher?

being completely inconsequential or unknown - it's certainly easy to slip through the cracks as a small publisher - and money - paying out of pocket - not being a nonprofit - makes it difficult - for these reasons it's always important to think imaginatively about how to produce work and get them out there - we have a distrubutor and people generally buy things - so we just need to keep getting things out - but I have to figure out how to spend as little as possible making a good looking book - object - so it's a matter of figuring out how or where I can print out a bunch of stuff for free - often this means ferreting around institutions etc colleges whatever and putting equipment to work surreptitiously

Do you have any cover letter advice?

the best advice for a cover letter is knowing what you're getting into - who you're sending to - and keeping concise - you say - here's this work I've read from your press - here's why and how I think my work resonates with what I perceive going on in the things your press publishes - then simply mention where parts or excerpts of what you're submitting may have been published before - and possibly allude to where you see the work being placed - or what kind of categories it would fit in to for potential audience

What do you look for in a submission?

something that works with the aesthetic of the press - however vaguely defined that may be - and someone whose work I would like to promote - mostly I look for people in Los Angeles because I feel more people need to be exposed to work from this area

How are submissions processed at your press/magazine?

we have an email address posted on the site - and only accept electronic submissions - asking for a cover letter and short excerpt - 10 pages of the work - I can get the idea from that
more soon - travelling and need to get on a plane - good luck - and let me know if I'm too late - thanksM

Interview with Michelle Detorie, Publisher of Hex Presse

2009-11-25T16:32:00.000-08:00

1. When did you start publishing and how did you become interested in publishing?

When I was in high school and college, I became interested in zine culture. I loved that it was messy and cheap. I read a lot of zines and worked on a few with friends. The first time I worked on a publication devoted to poetry was in 1995. I’d become friends with a fellow poet, and our shared energy and enthusiasm for all things related to poetry inspired us to begin a flyer campaign in the name of poetry. We posted lines of poetry all over campus, and we also created cryptic messages promoting poetry (Things like “While you were out, poetry called. Call it back!” and “Poetry Emergency!”). We had a lot of fun, and I learned that there is something very special and empowering about collaborating with friends to make something. It wasn’t until 10 years later, in 2005, that I felt moved to begin another publishing venture. At that point I had become very excited by the work many writers were doing online. A number of poets who I admire had begun online magazine and little presses, and I was inspired by their work and felt compelled to participate. After briefly attending the bookfair at AWP (it was in Austin that year), I decided that I wanted to work on an online magazine that featured the work of writers who self-identify as women. So I started Womb Poetry (wombpoetry.com) in 2006 and the first issue went live in January 2007. A few months later I began working on Hex Presse, the 3-d companion to Womb, and published the first Hex Presse chapbook in November 2007.

2. Did you get much of your own writing published before publishing other writers' works? What kind of writing did/do you do?

I’m primarily a poet, though I also work with prose and multi-media. I published several poems in zines when I was in high school and college, but my first publication in a literary journal wasn’t until 2004. When I first started working on WOMB, I was submitting and publishing my own work more regularly.

3. What are some of the difficulties and problems you encounter while publishing? Do you think it is more difficult to be a publisher of a small press rather than a publisher of a larger press?

I have two jobs, so the primary difficulty is scheduling enough time to complete projects. And of course funding is an issue, since I lose money on each publication. I’d love to have more resources to devote to WOMB and Hex Presse. As it is, I usually have to wait for a gap in my regular schedule to have time for the journal and press. I suppose larger presses have funding and staff, but I’ve never worked within a large publishing model, so I don’t really know if that makes things easier. I do feel very committed to all of the work I’ve published, and that makes the work – despite its difficulties—incredibly fulfilling.

4. Is there anything specific that you look for when deciding to publish a writer's piece? Do you look for unique structure/form or do you mainly look for something that is aesthetically pleasing and moves you?

I’m attracted to liveliness, experiments in syntax and form, writing that engages visual and spatial elements, and politically motivated writing. I’ve also noticed that there tends to be a sort of generosity in the work I admire and publish.

5. Do you have other publishers help you read submissions and make decisions whether or not to publish something?

I haven’t done this, but it is something that I would be interested in doing if Womb or Hex ever has an extended open reading period. It would certainly allow me to consider more submissions.

6. I understand that many writers feel it is important to belong to a larger community of writers. Do you feel like there is a sort of separate community for publishers, or do you feel connected to a larger community of the literary world in general?

It is true that many of my poet-friends are also involved in publishing activities, but I do not think of it as a community that is separate in any way. Most of the publishers I know are interested in building communities and that spirit has certainly allowed me to feel connected to other writers, artists, and readers.

7. I love how you create different ways for readers to participate and engage in poetry. What kinds of spool poems have you published? Are there specific topics or themes that the writers tend to use?

So far, I’ve only published one of my own poems as a spool poem, “Gloss.” The spools are incredibly labor intensive because of the pyrography on the wooden spool itself and the hand lettering on the ribbon. If I make a mistake, I have to start all over! That said, I asked the poet Kristy Bowen for a poem to put on a spool, and I do plan on making that once I have the time and materials. Kristy’s poem definitely lends itself to “unwinding.” I am obsessed with exploring different ways to experience or engage the act of “reading.” I probably have a pretty radical definition of reading. It doesn’t have to involve words or meaning: it’s more of a “making sense” – experiencing letters, words, glyphs, objects, colors. I find it such a tremendous source of pleasure.

8. Your poetry jewelry is absolutely beautiful. Do you make the jewelry yourself? How did you come up with the idea for poetry jewelry? What are your inspirations?

Thanks! I do make the jewelry myself. The first piece of jewelry that I wanted to make was a “locketbook.” I used to love charm necklaces and charm bracelets when I was kid, and I was often grateful to have the little charms to play with and look at when I was bored. I also enjoy the tactile feel of beads and the tiny tinkly chimes made by glass on metal. Even though I do make some of my poetry jewelry available through the Hex Presse shop, it is hard for me to think of the pieces as anything other than gifts.

I am inspired by the poetry I love; almost all of the jewelry is inspired by the work of various women writers. I usually condense or excise language from a larger text to create the poetry jewelry (and puzzles and cleromancy games). Sometimes I use a process to select the words (divination by rolling a die or something similar; I also tend to do a lot of things with the number 6, aka “hex”), and other times I select the words that feel most “charming.” I’m also interested in how the process of condensing a text creates multiple texts, and how words and letters can form a sort of syntax with beads and hoops and charms.

9. I've never heard of poetry puzzles before. Can you explain what can be done with them and what you think people can or should learn from the puzzles?

I call them puzzles, but there is not one singular “solution.” I definitely like to play, and so I hope the puzzles inspire a sense of playfulness for the people who engage with them. Each puzzle is inspired by a specific poem by a women writer. I select six words from the poem, and spell out each of those words with colorful letter beads. Then I gather additional, tiny materials -- matches, beads, feathers, candy, aspirin, thread, bells, plastic babies – that seem as though they could be part of the world of the poem (the plastic baby went into a puzzle inspired by Sylvia Plath’s “Fever 103°”). I also try to include materials that will inspire each of the senses. I collect all the letters for the six words and all the other little materials in a glass jar. The contents of the jar can be removed and sorted, touched, arranged, constructed, deconstructed – it is really up to the reader/participant how she would like to engage the materials. There is the idea that one can “solve” the puzzle by spelling out the six words, but I also imagine that people create new words and anagrams.

My main hope is that people are delighted and inspired by the puzzles. I do think engaging with the puzzle can offer new insight into the poem, but the puzzle itself isn’t meant to be overly didactic.

I think the primary inspiration for the poetry puzzles come from the “letter boxes” that I encountered when I was working at a Montessori school. The “letter boxes” were part of the language arts curriculum for very young children (2-3 years, usually). Each clear, plastic box related to a letter/ phonetic sound and contained a variety of miniature objects that began with that sound. For example, the “B” box could contain a tiny bat, a bone, a button, a bird, a ball, and a boat. The children loved exploring these boxes and saying the names of the objects as they spread them out on a table of a rug. As the children progressed, they sometimes worked with multiple boxes, and sorted a gathering of objects into their various boxes. There seemed to be something meditative and almost ritualistic about this activity, and it is something I’ve thought about often over the past years.

10. Who are your favorite poets from the past? What about more recent, less recognized poets?

Emily Dickinson is probably the poet I return to most frequently. I also return to Sylvia Plath, Gertrude Stein, Mina Loy, Langston Hughes, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Wallace Stevens, Gwendolyn Brooks, Lorine Niedecker, George Herbert, and H.D. As far as contemporary writers go, I’m a fan of Harryette Mullen, Eileen Myles, Wanda Coleman, Fanny Howe, Rae Armentrout, Bernadette Mayer, and Alice Notley. Some of the newer writers I’m interested in include Anne Boyer, Jessica Smith, K. Lorraine Graham, Laura Goldstein, Susana Gardner, Juliet Cook, Amanda Ackerman, Harold Abramowitz, Julia Drescher, CJ Martin, Helen White, Alixandra Bamford, and Michalle Gould. I’m sure I’ve left many writers off of the list.

11. How did you come up with the name "Hex" for you press? How does the word relate to the works that you publish and the jewelry and puzzles you create?

I love the letter “x” and I love the word “hex.” I must admit that I sometimes have a fetishistic attitude toward certain letters, letter combinations, words, and sounds. I think of it as a mild form of synesthesia. I’ve also done some writing experiments that are based on spells or inspired by various forms of divination. I also like hexagons and hex signs. I like the multiple meanings of “hex.”

12. Is there anything else you would like to share about your passions, Hex, the publishing world, etc.? Any advice for how a young person can get into publishing?

I’m so excited by young, enthusiastic, optimistic writers and artists who just *do* the thing they want to do. I encourage anybody who has the inclination to publish, make books, and share texts to find a way to do it. You don’t have to wait for anybody’s permission.

Interview with Michael Rayes of Rafka Press

2009-11-23T21:51:00.000-08:00

1. What is the staff structure at your press [rafkapress.com]?

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to explain our apostolate and the motivation behind it. Rafka Press is owned by me and my wife. It is a very small, privately owned publishing company that exists to publish good Catholic literature for both children and adults. We began in 2006.

Our teenage sons also help with the operations – mostly computer work (web site updates and they also help with some data entry and typesetting). All our print and binding work is outsourced. We do all the editing, typesetting, cover design, shipping, and packaging in-house.

2. What do you look for in a submission?

Three things: Catholicism, readability, and salability.

Catholicism: The manuscript must be a Catholic work; if literature, the Catholic Faith must be at least covertly permeated throughout the work. There must be absolutely no doctrinal deficiencies in the work.

Readability: I’m not worried so much about grammar. By “readable” I mean the story has to flow. All the conflicts must be resolved after the climax (in the falling action and conclusion). What is the point of the story? There should be some moral to it. And – this is the part many would-be Catholic authors miss – the setting must be there. Many manuscripts are plot-heavy but don’t pull the reader in with the five senses. What did the restaurant smell like? Was it a cloudy day or clear? Did the characters wipe sweat from their brows or shiver from the cold? Build up suspense if it’s a mystery book.

The characters should also be consistent. A melancholic character should be consistently melancholic.

Salability: The manuscript may be fantastic, but if no one will buy it, the publisher can’t invest in it. There must be a Catholic market for the work. Authors need to do a little of this research on their own and include their findings in their query letters. (“Parents will buy my book because …” or “There is already a growing number of self-help books, and my manuscript fills a void …”) The work also must be timeless: We do not plan on pulling books off our site after only 18 months! We publish titles that will be fresh 20 years from now. (We won’t publish something on the current President, nor anything on the stock market or the current state of the Church.)

3. How are submissions processed at your press/magazine?

First, authors should send a query and a sample chapter via the “contact” links on our www.rafkapress.com web site.

Next, if it appears compelling (based on the three criteria above) I will ask for the entire manuscript. We then reject it or notify the author of our interest.

The next step is to interview the author to see if we are a good match for each other. The author has to realize we simply do not have the same broad distribution channels as the major Catholic publishers that have been around for decades.

If the author appears to be a good match for Rafka Press, we will mail a contract.

4. What advice do you have for first-time submitters?

The best advice is to not submit your manuscript yet. Go over it one more time:

Fiction: Add more setting and proofread it for grammar.

Self-help: Add a few more anecdotes and proofread it for grammar.

A documentary or spiritual book: Add more quotes from the Saints and proofread it for grammar.

Next: Have your spouse proofread it. (The other gender’s viewpoint will give your book better balance.)

Then: Have another person, possibly a priest, review it for you and give his or her opinion along with some editing notes.

Next: Ask around and see if others are interested in your work. Find out if there is a market for your book. Submit a few articles to Catholic periodicals to get your name established.

Finally: Make online backups! (Email the manuscript to yourself so it’s on your ISP’s server as a backup.) Then, submit a query letter and a sample chapter. Keep submitting articles and other writings to get your name established.

5. What are your long-term plans for your magazine/press?

Our long-term plans are happy, positive growth. Rafka Press exists to develop more Catholic literature for Catholics today. Many Catholic publishers are so strapped for cash, they only publish reprints of deceased authors. This is a very safe business model, as what sold well in the 1950s should sell today to the orthodox, devout Catholic market. But the long-term business plan for Rafka Press is to publish living authors who write orthodox, outstanding works that help Catholics on their journeys to Heaven.

We will gradually add more titles to our family of books, so that a few years from now the current (timeless) titles will still sell, in addition to the new works. We do not have any plans for alternative format books but that may change if newer media formats become universally accepted in conservative Catholic households.

6. What made you change your writing to focus on children’s fiction?

We began with children’s fiction because there is a recognized but unmet need for it. Catholic children unfortunately read a lot of trash (wizardry for boys, sassy attitudes for girls, grotesque cartoon characters, and so forth) because so much of it is available from worldly publishers. Catholic fiction for children helps to fill the void – literature that is both entertaining and wholesome. We will expand to adult fiction as funds become available for more publishing projects.

7. What do you feel are some differences between the business of writing fiction and the business of publishing fiction?

Writing fiction = creative, fun, put all the work into the plot and setting, and then promote like crazy.

Publishing fiction = communicate with authors, communicate with printers, do a lot of paperwork for the government, make sure you have the right ISBN numbers, figure out how to discount shipping but still make money, communicate with distributors, communicate with reviewers, be very creative and put a lot of energy into promoting and selling.

8. Do you ever find it difficult to make decisions as both a writer and a publisher?

Not really. For me this is the fun part – it’s the business of running a company. The challenging part was in the first year of operation, as my publishing company began with my own book. I had to convince book reviewers that my book was not self-published. Once we published our second title by another author, this problem went away.

9. How do you determine what works of literature are “faithful” to traditional teachings? How does the press define “tradition”?

Tradition is half of divine revelation. (Scripture is the other half.) Protestants may not accept that divina revelatio is not merely sola scriptura, but sola scriptura is a 16^th century novelty imagined by a scrupulous monk as a reaction against vast corruption in the Church. Tradition is handed down to us through the teachings of the early Church fathers, popes, and ecumenical councils – codified in the Catechism of the Council of Trent, and later in the Baltimore Catechism. To be faithful to Tradition (with a capital “T”) means the work does not put forth any doctrinal errors that would go against any teachings from, for example, the Catechism of the Council of Trent, the Baltimore Catechism series, the Syllabus of Errors (of Bd. Pius IX), or any papal encyclical. An example could be something directly heretical, such as “Why did Jesus talk to the woman that way? He did not yet realize he was God” or something doctrinally defective by its ambiguity, such as “we are a Eucharistic people.”

Tradition with a lower case “t” is simply the customs people develop over the years, such as red felt in collection baskets, doughnuts after Mass, the use of bulletins and other literature in the back of church, plastic instead of ceramic statuary, and so on. These may be changed freely without harming the orthopraxis of the local Catholic community.

Tradition (capital “T”) is further benchmarked by the Tridentine Latin liturgy because of its precision and inherent reverence. Our current Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, recognizes this while at the same time keeping the liturgy of Pope Paul VI normative.

10. What is most rewarding for you: children’s fiction, advice/mentoring books, development of the press?

All of the above! I do enjoy mentoring authors. I also thoroughly enjoy growing our Rafka Press apostolate. But I am a writer first and foremost; that is my Catholic cri de coeur.

11. How do you plan on expanding the press’s offering of children’s fiction?

By saving and obtaining funds to do print runs on future works. The publishing business model is that a lot of money must be spent up front; then, funds are gradually replaced as the books sell in both retail and wholesale channels. We already receive unsolicited manuscripts so all we need is time and money. But everyone in the world needs those two commodities!

12. Do you have any advice to writers who craft works with a very specific audience in mind?

Learn more about your niche audience. What compels them to buy books? What do they look for in a book? They have hard-won money but not much of it; how can you get them to spend some of it on your book?

The short answer is the beginning of the book must be compelling and give the reader something right away. Authors may want to save the first chapter for last. Write the middle of the book first and then concentrate on the beginning once you already have the rest of the book finished. This makes the beginning more accurate and also gets more of the book written, without getting hung up on the beginning. If writing children’s fiction, write in medias res (begin the first chapter “in the middle of affairs”: start the action right away).

Also, once your book is published, get it reviewed by recognized book reviewers: your local diocesan newspaper, popular blogs, other periodicals, and so on.

Put the book where your niche market will see it. Bookstores are not always very good places to sell a book. If an author’s book is intended for a specific audience, it may simply get lost among all the other titles in a bookstore. If animals are the main characters in a children’s story, get a pet food store to carry the book; also ask Catholic schools to sell it. If the book is a devotional on family life, sell it at book tables after Mass; get fast-food restaurants and small shops near Catholic churches and schools to carry the book. Get a dry cleaner or cigar shop to carry your book on men’s spirituality.

The final word: many authors do not realize that they are the best promoters of their book. No one will have as much enthusiasm as the author himself in promoting and selling the book. The publisher makes the book a reality and does a great deal of promoting, but the author has his own circle of family, friends, and regional markets (local Catholic bookstores, gift shops, and so on) in which the book should sell very well.

Rafka Press has a limited focus and scope of publishing. We receive many manuscripts that are well written, but are not necessarily a good fit for the company. Therefore my wife and I launched another publishing company, which is a hybrid of self-publishing and traditional publishing: Leonine Publishers. Our web site is www.leoninepublishers.com and is an excellent option for Catholic authors who wish to fund their own publishing effort, but also stay with a Catholic publisher.

Thank you again for discussing Catholic publishing with me.

SIDEBROW: GHOSTS AS A SOCIAL THEORY

2009-11-23T18:05:00.000-08:00

At first, I wasn’t sure that Sidebrow was something I wanted to read and write a reflective paper on. I thought that it was one of those internet sites where weird random poets would go to submit their works. The reason why I say this is because there is a lot of crap in the internet. Crap that is boring, that doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. Crap that only inside groups, private members, and college students can digest. Stuff that I would never go online to read. Then again, the challenge of “what is considered crap” kicks in and what is sense-making challenges me to attempt the reading of the unusual. After a couple of poems from the Ghost project I thought a little bit more open minded and wanted to learn to appreciate the rest of the site. However, I decided to focus on the intriguing project of Ghost. I thought it was pretty awesome. This whole idea of seeking to “investigate the otherworldly, the disembodied, the envoiced got me thinking of something else.

When I was in grade school, all the way through high school, my source of what is considered history has always been linear and state-ordered. As I read some of these history books something in the back of my head made me think of why certain aspects of history weren’t present in history. For example, when I read about Christopher Columbus, I thought of WHY would a whole nation of people CHOOSE to nicely give up their land to a crew of Spanish settlers that believed in God? How is it that America was able to win WWII and the Cold War? Who built the bombs? Who was cleaning the nuclear reactors after the bomb was finished? Where are all the women that were involved in the Chicano Movement? Who were the unheard people that were erased from history in order to create a “stable and safe” nation?

When I think of a ghost or the otherworldly, or the disembodied, I think of those people in history that were part of something, but when the time came to “record” what happened disappeared or ceased to exist. The ghosts that people carry with them from past to present, that haunt their present existence. That haunting feeling that affects our lives, the way we see each other and how we interact with others and how they make a living breathing reality. The ones who were disembodied by a time or event that cannot be seen but can be felt through time….

I don’t know. I’m thinking of ghosts as a social theory to explain the things, people and ideas that fell through the cracks of time.

Jorge N

Reading is Performance

2009-11-22T16:12:00.000-08:00

We'll be talking about readings and performances on Tuesday. Here is a basic article on how to give a poetry reading: How to Give a Good Reading of Your Poems by Gary Mex Glazner. We'll be using this as a base to talk about performance, including what is being performed.

Interview With Gregory Wolfe

2009-11-22T14:12:00.000-08:00

1) The vision for Image journal is different from most other journals that have received acclaim, especially from a Pulitzer Prize winner Annie Dillon. What inspired you and your staff to create a journal with the specific focus of integrating imagination and religion?

The goal was to fill a gap in our culture -- for most of the last 100 years, both religious believers and secularists have agreed that great art could no longer be created by people grappling with religious faith. Many believers dismiss "modern art" as somehow incapable of conveying a spiritual vision. And many secularists think that faith is an escape from reality and thus cannot generate great art. We wanted to prove both sides wrong. After 20 years and over 60 issues, we think we've done that.

2) Can you talk a little bit about the history of your journal and some of the growing pains it went through to get to where it is today? What were some of the biggest challenges your journal faced or still faces today?

Well, the obvious answer is that money has always been the biggest challenge. But in a way we also struggled for credibility -- when we started IMAGE the editors had no money, no reputation, no institutional backing. We had only a single issue of a quality journal to show off, and we used that to try to convince people that it was needed. The biggest challenge we face today is the difficulty of convincing people that reading a literary journal is worth the effort. In an era of short attention spans a publication that contains long stories and essays, and challenging poems, is not an easy sell. And yet the rewards for this kind of deep reading are tremendous.

3) As you are a teacher, publisher, and editor, is it difficult to find time to write yourself? How do you make time to write?

All I have time to write these days are short pieces: four editorial statements for IMAGE each year, a few book reviews and blog posts. That's because my work for IMAGE and the Seattle Pacific University MFA in Creative Writing take up so much of my time. I hope one day soon to be able to hire more workers to help shoulder some of the workload. On that happy day, I will be able to begin writing books again.

4) What type of genre do you normally write? Do you have any works in progress?

I write nonfiction of many types: literary criticism, cultural reflections, biography, etc. I have begun research for a book I hope to write: a group biography of several Renaissance Christian Humanists, including Erasmus, Thomas More, and Hans Holbein the Younger. Also, a book of my essays will be published in about a year and I am editing a volume of selected poems by the twentieth century American poet Dunstan Thompson.

5) In ways does the novel you're currently working on "The Company of Good Letters: How Erasmus and His Circle of Renaissance Christian Humanists Shaped the Modern World" fit in to the vision statement of your journal? Or are you planning on going in a different direction?

It's not going to be a novel (work of fiction); it will be a nonfiction book -- narrative history. And yes, it is completely in line with the vision of IMAGE because I see in Erasmus and Co. a vision that is almost identical to that of IMAGE. These Christian humanists thought that literature and the imagination were extremely important as a way of bringing a balanced vision to a highly politicized era.

6) Who were some of the other writers who were important to the early part of your career?

The poet T.S. Eliot. Fiction writers like Flannery O'Connor, Walker Percy, Graham Greene, Evelyn Waugh, Georges Bernarnos, Francois Mauriac, and Shusaku Endo.

7) Finally, do you have any advice to anyone who would be interested in submitting their work to your journal?

Be patient with us -- we are a small staff with a huge workload. It can take us a while to read your submission. Don't be discouraged if you work is not accepted. Keep submitting to IMAGE and other journals. Above all, keep writing!

Interview with Kate Bernheimer

2009-11-20T21:56:00.000-08:00

Kate Bernheimer is the author of The Complete Tales of Ketzia Gold and The Complete Tales of Merry Gold. She is also the founder and editor of the Fairy Tale Review.

The latest issue of Fairy Tale Review, The Aquamarine Issue and previous issues can be found on Amazon.

1) Why do you gravitate towards fairy tales? Why do you think readers gravitate towards fairy tales?

I gravitate toward fairy tales in much the same way that I gravitate toward air. Sensibly, but senselessly, I find them because I need them, never knowing quite why. It is a mystery to me. That is the first part of why. The second part of why is that fairy tales---and here I mean the older versions collected in translated collections---come in a form of book that I love. The reproduction and replication of versions fascinate me; the range of style from awkward to elegant, from sparse to floral, never cease to amaze. I love the most common techniques in fairy tales too: abstraction, everyday magic, depthlessness, intuitive logic. Of course thematically I am drawn to the motif of the underling, the weak, the humble among humans, rising, along with he hedgehogs and mice. Everything small shining. Each piece of dirt speaking. This is not fanciful; it simply is. I love the flatness of fairy tales---to me reading a fairy tale constitutes bliss. In my research, I've found that many readers are drawn to fairy tales because reading fairy tales provoke in them some feeling of consolation and bliss. Senselessly, they make sense. Some adult readers are embarrassed to admit they love fairy tales, or perhaps they've forgotten what fairy tales are---but I noticed that changing around 1995, and believe it is changing still, and readers are now finally acknowledging the beautiful impact that wonder stories have had on their lives as readers and authors.

2) What constitutes a fairy tale in your opinion? Must it always have fantastical elements?

I've gone out on a limb recently, and will continue to do so: I believe that all pieces of writing owe something to fairy tales. From there, one can identify, by careful and intuitive inspection, elements of fairy tales that give stories (or art works in any media) more or less of a fairy-tale feel. Those works that have a fairy-tale feel, an essence, a charge: those are fairy tales. There are more than you'd think; fairy tales sometimes come in very subtle, transparent forms seemingly absent of what you might mean by 'fantastical elements.' I would argue that The Great Gatsby is as much a fairy tale as Coraline. Sometimes the fantastical resides in the syntax. Sometimes it resides in a closet.

3) Can you describe the initial stages of the Fairy Tale Review? How many people were involved? Was it your first literary publication? (whatever you feel necessary to share).

When I founded Fairy Tale Review in 2004, there was precisely one person involved! I had the idea to begin a journal devoted entirely to fairy tales as a literary art form for many, many, many years, around the time I was writing my first novel, The Complete Tales of Ketzia Gold, and was editing my first anthology (Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Women Writers Explore Their Favorite Fairy Tales). At that time I had begun to notice the overpowering influence of fairy tales on contemporary writers, and a surge in the appearance of fairy-tale motifs in poetry, short stories, visual art, film, and prose--the use of enchantment, if you will. I also noticed, both in the media and by word of mouth, that stories or novels based on fairy tales were being disparaged or overlooked critically (or editorially). So I noticed a great influence of tales on a great many wildly talented writers whose books I had read, but also noted a weird, simultaneous rejection of the tradition of fairy tales as a viable, intellectual, artistic form--in the United States. So I felt that there must be some terrific, special works out there seeking a home. I established Fairy Tale Review to give those works a home and to try to help preserve and celebrate fairy tales in a way that might bring their amazing influence more broadly to light; to make it undeniable that fairy tales cannot be ignored or reduced or celebrated in only broad strokes. Though I founded Fairy Tale Review alone, I must acknowledge the early support of my outstanding, founding advisory board: Maria Tatar, Jack Zipes, and Marina Warner. Now the board also includes Lydia Millet and Don Haase. And I have a wonderful contributing (and next issue's guest) editor, Timothy Schaffert, at this time. Fairy tales are that special: a giving tradition, a tradition that invites humility and consolation and luck. (This is not to deny the bruises, the darkness, the very hard knocks---but that's another interview.) I honestly would not have had the courage to begin the journal without the sweetness of the fairy-tale scholars I so admired (had admired for many years) saying yes, yes, we embrace this vision as well; it was truly communal of them to offer their advisement and time. Though starting a literary journal was a massive undertaking---one I am still reeling from daily---the editorship of fairy tales is so intrinsic to their history and to my life as a novelist, I could not imagine my world without the journal at all. I could not imagine not editing fairy tales, just as I try to write them. To edit a fairy tale is to write a fairy tale. To live one. And it's such a generous and communal tradition.

4) What contemporary fairytale comes to mind that has been a favorite of yours? Why is it good in your opinion?

That is a very difficult question to answer. While I could single stories out, I'd rather not, because I am too horizontal in my thinking to do that. I would have to defer to the Table of Contents of each issue of Fairy Tale Review published so far, and say that those fairy tales are clearly among my favorites of the new kinds of fairy tales I have been privileged to receive in the mail for consideration for the journal. (Among many I have not been able to publish there are also many favorites---in fact, in some ways, every submission I receive becomes in its own way a cherished friend, whether it suits my needs for the journal or not, because every submission I receive seems to me to reflect a very intimate and honorable love of the long tradition of fairy tales.) All of these works make undeniably new creatures from old sensations, old skeletons. It is not originality that is sublime; it is the sensation of sublimity itself which comes from becoming (whether out of something old, now, or futuristic---they are collapsed and the same in fairy tales).

5) How do you process submissions to the Fairy Tale Review? What qualities do you look for in submissions?

I "process" submissions by receiving them in an email account and then egregiously slowly making my way through the submissions one by one. As a sole editor who receives around 2,300 submissions to each issue, I will be the first to admit that I "process' submissions too slowly. As a writer I understand the frustration of waiting and waiting only to hear "Thank you but no thank you." That's why I write really gushy rejections, and I mean every word that I say. I process submissions slowly but kindly, I think. I read every single submission, not looking for any particular quality apart from the inability to stop reading---the sense of becoming---the feeling you are going somewhere new, a little bit familiar but with that uncanny glow. This can come in any style, in any form. Then, when I love something, I have a number of other trusted readers consider the work too. Sometimes, when I have a strong aversion to a particular submission, I also ask other readers to step in; though I have strong intuition, and a strong vision for the journal, I am not very important, not in the end. I'm listening in for the future of fairy tales.

6) What was one of your favorite submissions to the Fairy Tale Review?

I received a submission from a very young person---I think she said she was eleven years old. This was a rhyming poem about a child who did not want to go to sleep at night, and who instead went out in her pink nightgown for some pie, out of which marched mice, crows, and the teeniest, tiniest dolls. At the end of the poem everyone died. However, when I wrote to the author to accept the story, I never heard back, and never could send her a contract, and so I never could publish the work. Are you out there? Are you old enough now to be reading online? Or are you laughing at me as you read this, because you were never eleven, or never existed at all? I loved your poem and I hope you're not dead.

7) Have you noticed any commonalities with submissions to the Fairy Tale Review? for example, do most submissions come from certain part of the country, from a certain age groups. Are there many about hot male vampires? *Just what kind things do you see common in submissions?

A great love of fairy tales---though that love takes, as all love takes, endlessly various form (sometimes weird, sometimes wonderful, always consoling to me, even when disturbing). That love of fairy tales--however twisted or however serene---is the commonality. FTR receives submissions from all over the country and all over the world. I have never made a regional spreadsheet. I have never received any submissions about hot male vampires (or, that I know of, from any hot male vampires).

8) Can you share some of your experiences when you first began submitting your work for publishing?

My image of what it is like to "submit work for publishing" was formed early on, when I read Louisa May Alcott's Little Women and Jo received a letter from a magazine with a check in the envelope, accepting a mystery story. The image of her elation stayed. When I first began submitting my work, I held it in mind, expecting very long waits and not at all counting on any acceptance. So I am still always astonished and grateful when my work is accepted; it suits a fantasy I have that was formed in childhood, about the editor-author relationship: a kind of abstract and ethereal but very intellectually intimate connection that comes rarely but magically. With Ralph Berry of FC2, who published my first two novels, I had this precise experience; my first novel was literally discovered in a dusty old pile in the corner of an office by Brenda Mills, and the two of them contacted me. I submit my work very cautiously and sparingly, usually without much expectation or ego. I'm not of the "more is better" mentality, and I don't send my work out willy-nilly; rejection is too painful for me. I wait a very long time after writing something before I show it to anyone at all.

9) Do you have any advice for writers submitting for the first time?

The only advice I can offer is to practice and remember what you love, which is to think and to read and to write. To hold that closely in mind. Then when the letters come telling you something unhappy---"This isn't a short story at all"---you have that to rely on, that memory of what you love. It will come back after the harm.

10) Can you share a little about how you came about your Pink Horse story for the Significant Objects Project? You must be please with receiving over $100 dollars at bid. Is that the most any author has gotten so far?

Josh Glenn, the kindly editor of the project, sent me a photograph of the Pink Horse to write about for Significant Objects. I fell in love with that strange horse instantly---its strength and its glow. "The Rosebud," the German tale that I based my story on, has always haunted me; I've brought it into two novels so far too, and it's featured prominently in an essay I wrote for The Writer's Notebook (Tin House Books), as a perfect example of a story containing fairy-tale techniques. I needed to revisit the tale again as soon as I saw that horse. I've donated the "winnings" from the story to Wide Horizons for Children (www.whfc.org), the adoption agency and humanitarian organization through which we adopted our daughter. I love their work.

11) what are some long term goals for the Fairy Tale Review?

The mission of Fairy Tale Review is to promote an appreciation of fairy tales, old and new, to preserve the tradition for future generations of readers. As such I've established a Fairy-Tale Book Repository, hoping to gather those old, dusty fairy-tale books that often are simply discarded; not the most well-known books, but those random and arcane editions that you sometimes see in boxes at thrift shops. It would be nice to reach more readers. As such, FTR would be meeting its goal of bringing fairy tales---old and new---and their scholars--the respect they deserve, for I believe that fairy tales are the single greatest influence on all forms of contemporary literature, but also the most disparaged influence in certain critical circles. So there is much work to be done.

12) Will you please ask yourself a question and answer it?

That scares me too much.

Out of Nothing

2009-11-19T15:42:00.000-08:00

When I looked at the different online journals, I found them to be extremely non-user friendly at first. The websites were very creative and geared towards an artists mind. This was really interesting for me because the college student in me wanted to find the information I was looking for within the first two seconds of opening the page. But most of the websites challenged the viewer to slow down and accept the website and it’s product slowly. The one website I found to be extremely user friendly and simple was the “out of nothing” online journal. The home page was straight forward with its Issues and statement of purpose.
I appreciate the way in which this online journal has catered itself to the majority of the attention deficit internet users. The journal does an excellent job utilizing the artistic creativity and the freedom that comes with it while still making the website easy to surf through. It combines the inherent desire of artists to break rules and boundaries but still works within the medium of which it is presented. For example, a painter uses a canvass to paint. However the canvass is the medium in which the art is presented. If a painter uses a canvass, the artist must stay restrained to the limits of the canvass. In the same way this online journal has an outline that creates a user-friendly order within the chaotic disorder of art. This journal also appeals to the audio, visual, and imaginative senses of the human body through an mp3, paintings/pictures, and poetry/fiction.

2009-11-19T12:32:00.000-08:00

Out of nothing is a fascinating website. I'm into the set up, the design of it, the sheer black backdrop, the gray gradients of speech boxes and text, or the sudden splashes of color on one of the many pages available for pouring over. It feels like their name- the space of the website seems to grow out of nothingness, this blackness and darkness.
The writing presented here is fabulous. I am getting into the out of nothing our souls burst forth like shelling peanuts. The second selection there, by Jared Woodland is a dizzying, dark and magical tale of a character somewhat out of sorts, laying down in a gutter, welcoming cockroaches to crawl all up on his hands. The piece contains no use of punctuation, is one continuous maniacal speeding train of consciousness, naming no characters, only speaking in the first and second person. I like how this selection of work is arranged, each individual piece classified within a block similar to those of the elements on the periodic table. Its as if when combined, all the elements of this selection form something, out of nothing, out of words which are really only still artifice.

I found Sidebrow's website far less appealing to my eye and attention than out of nothing. Their page looks old, outdated, simple white and html basic text with hardly any color. I did find it interestiong to place the main contents skewed over to the right hand side of the page rather than the usual left, an unexpected feature. However when I went to go read some of the work I was not intrigued, they open and appear as mere word documents, receiving no real special treatment to make the text feel and look more readable and manageable to the online blog reading literary audience. Upon more investigation, however, some of the projects are rather thrilling and weird like the Ghost Project, presented as images and texts approaching the issue of embodiment and other worldliness present in our physical realm of existence. I'm reeled into the story here, still wanting more from the website. Simplicity though is always welcome. I'd just say this site is slightly minimal for my taste.
love, Ben

Web as Medium

2009-11-17T07:13:00.000-08:00

For Thursday: pick one of these sites and write a short review/reflection. Specifically consider how the project works within an online setting.

Ubuweb
Out of Nothing
Sidebrow
HOW2
Delirious Hem

The Concept of the Canon

2009-11-17T05:08:00.000-08:00

First of all I'd like to apologize for how incredibly late this post is. I didn't realize this was due until I went in to talk with Professor Carmody. Anyways so here is my post on the Concept of the Canon.

At first I resonated very deeply with this article and it's critique on the "Canon" of literature. There were a lot of times when I felt as if other writers had read, referred to, and even modeled their writing after a select group of authors and their novels and I knew these were the novels I should read. In my mind, the idea of a canon gives a power of valorization to writers as a whole. I felt less of a writer because I haven't read so many authors of the supposed Canon that existed. But towards the end of it I realized that there was a problem. Krupat had essentially debased the idea of a canon without necessarily proposing a solution, at least not within the intro. And for me I was at odds with this.

The very idea of a canon is problematic, as evidenced in the great care and difficulty Krupat went into defining it. But it also is one of those topics that no matter how much you argue for either side or perception, there will always be both pro's and con's. For instance if an established canon should exist, then it serves as a template or guide for developing writers to follow and model their writing after. However who's to say what should be in the canon at all? If an established canon should not exist, then the quality of writing and literature becomes piss-poor. Yet people would have the freedom to choose who and what to model their writing after.

So as I see this as a debate with valid arguments for both sides, I will highlight some points that I thought were very perceptive of Krupat and then give my own purpose of having a canon and its function.

Krupat talked about how the current Canon is based on the "race of the Euroamerican, Native American, and Afro-American." He argues that there very well may have been other ethnic writers to write pieces of literature that could contribute to the Canon. One author that immediately comes to mind would be Amy Tan.

He also predicted how Spanish novels will soon be included in the standardized Canon. I think this is a very perceptive prediction. I already see a movement within my Spanish Literature classes, to whom he refers to as the "members of the professiorate." It's one thing to have a class read a novel in Spanish written by an author of Spanish descent. It's another thing to specifically choose texts that attack American capitalism, challenging U.S. students to reconfigure their perception of the U.S. and its policies. Even in High School, Esquival's Like Water For Chocolate and Isabel Allende's House of Spirits were required texts of my I.B. English class in my Junior year.

Krupat also noticed that it was "only recently that anyone has attempted to divorce literature from social utility." This statement ties into my last segment of my post.

I believe that people should only write if it serves a social utility. This means the piece of work is relevant to the social context its intended for and the work reveals some truth about the human experience. In my opinion, writing simply to create beauty is incredibly vainglorious and useless. Often times the most beautiful pieces of work of art are grounded in its social utility. The sculpture of David, the Sistine Chapel, and Mozart's symphony's. All of these were created for the recipient to enhance their lives and to share with them something they have experienced themselves. This is how I have come to terms with my writing and why I write. However I have an incredibly liberal view. Other authors have their own reasons for writing and I will hold nothing against them. All I am concerned about is the relationship between the audience and myself. The audience can expect from me social utility in my writing.

How I view the canon from a writer's perspective is that it is a gateway book to a genre of literature that helps us better understand how those before us tackled their own passion for writing. If the writer seeks to write in the genre of modern day suspense and terror, they could read John Grisham. If they want to write in the genre of Fiction in the mid-1900's, they could read Tolkien. And the list can go on. The point being that we learn from those before us their mistakes and their resolution of the problems they faced in their writing as well as appreciate the text as we hope our readers appreciate ours.

In this class I've been told that if we want to be writers we have to be really good readers as well. I truly believe in this concept because simply put, the more we read the more we learn. As writing itself is free-flowing, the idea of reading books from different writing styles would help us pick and choose attributes that we can select to synthesize our own style of writing.

Guest: Jen Hofer

2009-11-16T19:57:00.000-08:00

Jen Hofer will be visiting our class tomorrow. Her recent publications include One (Palm Press, 2009), Laws (Dusie Books, 2009), The Route, a collaboration with Patrick Durgin (Atelos, 2008), sexoPUROsexoVELOZ and Septiembre, a translation from Dolores Dorantes by Dolores Dorantes (Counterpath Press and Kenning Editions, 2008), lip wolf, a translation of Laura Solórzano’s lobo de labio (Action Books, 2007), and Sin puertas visibles: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry by Mexican Women (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2003). Her forthcoming books are from the valley of death (Ponzipo) and a translation of Guatemalan poet Alan Mills’ Síncope (Piedra Santa).

Here are some links and articles that Jen will be referencing tomorrow:

1. "Translation as Subversive Speech" by Jen Hofer in The Journal of Aesthetics and Protest

2. PDF versions of all Dusie books (including Jen's) from the first year of the project

3. PDF version of Jen's second Dusie book

4. Link to Jen's collaborative chapbook with Sawako Nakayasu, Dusie year three

5. Also check out The Journal of Aesthetics and Protest, Dusie Press Kollektive, and HOW2.

Making Things, Like Chapbooks

2009-11-11T17:19:00.001-08:00

We'll be learning some basic book making techniques tomorrow. Please also read the following:

"Considering Chapbooks: A Brief History of the Little Book" by Noah Eli Gordon

DIY Poetry Publishing Cooperative -- Scroll down and look at their demos for MS word chaps (on the right hand side).

Tuesday Plus More

2009-11-08T22:35:00.001-08:00

Here is one brief article for Tuesday's class (along with readings in The Practical Reader and Rebel Yell).

Interview with Literary Agent Georges Borchardt

And here are some upcoming dates:

Thursday, November 12: Due—Reader's response to three articles
Thursday: November 19: Due!—Evidence of submitting to three literary journals (print or online)

Interview post schedule: As this has been slightly derailed, I'd like to follow this new improved schedule:

Friday, November 13: Shannon
Monday, November 16: Andrew
Tuesday, November 17: Giang
Wednesday, November 18: Becky
Thursday, November 19: John
Friday, November 20: Jorge
Monday, November 23: Ben

See you on Tuesday

Tuesday's Guest: Mathew Timmons

2009-10-31T15:55:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone,

On Tuesday, Mathew Timmons will be visiting our class. Mathew is a writer, curator and critic in Los Angeles. He is the General Director of General Projects at various locations including Outpost for Contemporary Art and The Ups & Downs, an installation series, at workspace. He also co-edits/curates Insert Press (w/ Stan Apps), LA-Lit (w/ Stephanie Rioux), Late Night Snack (w/ Harold Abramowitz) and he is the Los Angeles editor of Joyland. He is the author of Credit (Blanc Press) and Lip Service, a chapbook from Slack Buddha Press. His work may also be found in various journals, including: P-Queue, Holy Beep!, Flim Forum, The Physical Poets, NōD, PRECIPICe, Or, Moonlit, aslongasittakes, eohippus labs, Area Sneaks, Artweek and The Encyclopedia Project.

Before Tuesday, please read "Statement by the Editors" in Fold Appropriate Text. You can download this journal as a PDF for free on the Insert Press website. The first "Click Here" is the journal; the second "Click Here" is the literary supplement.

Also, choose one (1) LA-Lit interview and listen to it. These are all hosted at Penn Sound. Here's the link.

I'll also be looking for your responses to each others posts, posted here before Tuesday's class.

We'll be picking up this conversation on Thursday. Two additional readings for Thursday:

Response to Numbers Trouble

2009-10-29T23:46:00.000-07:00

My first response to Numbers Trouble, is gratitude for someone bothering to check the assumptions and facts that were produced and recirculated through in Jennifer Ashton's piece that said that there is not need for feminism. From the research, fact checking, and survey information that we read in the piece by Spahr and Young, it is clear that feminism still has a place in poetry, in literature, and in society. It's clear that even artists who consider themselves educated and knowledgeable can make the huge mistake of underestimating the need for a consistent push for equal treatment and respectful consideration of "minority" groups. These sort of movements that are supported by a group or are done to secure rights for a group seem to me to exist in a sort of "watchdog" position for a lot of their existence. Just because a situation has been reconciled or is making progress toward fairness, doesn't mean that if that "policing" group were to retire or disband, that the fairness or progress would continue in its absence.

This is the connection that the authors were making when describing the function of feminist or female-author-centered anthologies or collections. it would be a fantastic idea to think that we may someday reach a point in a future society where these types of groups and themes in anthologies and other publications wouldn't be "needed," in a sense, to remind people of the existence of the work, but would be made in celebration and seen as just a collection around a certain topic, and not mostly as an artistically functional political statement, as has been the case for the last several decades.

Additionally, I think it is important to note that the area and the poets' experiences that are being discussed in this essay may differ from Ashton's focus in her article. The authors' desire here is to apply the findings in Ashton's piece to the experiences that they and other experimental/postmodern/avant-garde/innovative poets have witnessed and lived through. Here, I would like to propose that the same trend of male-dominance has been prevalent in similar or parallel movements in the other arts and in other experimental aspects of society. It seems that this may stem from the educational gap that has had such an impact on US society. just like any other instance of social under-representation, if younger generations of people don't see examples and role-models to look up to and high levels of capability, it takes longer for those talented, skilled, and capable individuals to rise to the top of their field and for others from that group to join them in noticeable amounts.

This has also been the case for other realms in education or occupational fields where education is necessary or preferred. The "shortage" of women in different fields of science and mathematics has been well addressed in US society through different programs in schools and universities. in my own personal experience, if I had been a student in another field of study there would have been more institutional support structures to guide me through to success in my selected industry if I had majored in engineering or been a pre-med student. Then again, this is also due to this specific university's undeniable overall focus on the sciences. If more of these types of institutional support systems were available for female writers from a younger age, we might see more accepting attitudes toward those that are present today since the problem would be more concrete and socially visible. As it stands today, the world of poetry, especially experimental/postmodern/avant-garde/innovative poetry is not easily accessed by the public, so problems within the genre are kept, whether purposefully or incidentally, from being detected or addressed within view of the rest of US literature and wider society.

Response to The Concept of the Canon

2009-10-29T19:39:00.000-07:00

Before reading this article, I didn't realize that there were so many different views of what texts should be in the canon. There's the essentialist, traditionalist, pragmatist, instrumentalist, etc. It was hard to keep them all straight while I was reading the article. I think that was part of the point though. There are so many different views and there is no one correct view. He did seem to argue that part of determining whether a work of literature is a candidate for the canon is by examining its cohesiveness ("content") and the techniques the author uses to present the text ("form"). Krupat also mentions something I've never heard of: techné of delight. I'm assuming that this refers to a text's way of delighting/entertaining readers and being enjoyable to read.

Another issue that Krupat goes into is the underrepresentation of minority writers in the literary canon. He says that "the cultural expression of red, white, and black people seems to me to have a historically urgent claim to primary attention" (54). I was a little unnerved by the fact that he used the terms "red," "white," and "black" to describe ethnicities, but I suppose his intention was not to offend. This section confused me somewhat because he calls for more representation of minority writers in the canon (or at least as candidates for the canon), but doesn't propose to create a proportionate representation for these groups. He simply wants the texts of minority writers to be read and studied as much as "Euramerican" literature. It seems fair enough to me, and makes sense since the groups he mentioned are a large part of the "Western" history and literature. I'm not sure exactly how one would go about making the recognition of these texts happen, though.

The concept of the canon is so abstract (at least to me), and so is the idea of including more minorities into the canon. It requires a lot of questions to be answered concretely: Which texts are in the current canon(s)? Who decides on what goes in a canon? How do readers (serious and casual ones) know what is in the canon? How does one decide which non-Euramerican texts are worth including in the canon? Are they chosen because of their merit/"greatness" or just because they are from a minority perspective? It seems to me that for quite a long time the canon has been considered a body of "classic" texts that have been representative of particular cultures and histories, but has been excluding certain groups, either intentionally or unintentionally. From what I've gathered in Krupat's article, though, the traditional view of having "classics" (typically written by white males) in the canon is constantly being challenged by other views.

Value of Sulfur

2009-10-29T15:09:00.000-07:00

Bernstein points out that he corresponds to a poetry committed to composition, than opposition. A sort of composing that values inquiry above representation. I agree with Berstein that poetics, good poetics that leave a lasting impression, adheres to these principles. Berstein explains, so often, especially with new poetry, he feels as though "poetry" needs to be defended. He compares such defense to be like selling a kitchenette product.

The idea that there are perhaps guided procedures, or approaches to poetry is criticized by Bernstein. Bernstein calls poetry a wilderness, one that is unconquerable. Just admitting to this, means a surrender of the ability to conquer it. He offers the opinion that preference for the most part is inarguable, people will gravitate to their own taste. However, this does result in repetitive same production. How would we ever get something new? He offers the idea that projects-in-language are not limited to those who can, who have or who will. That it is not a matter of Proper Names but of Works.
It's been over 20 years since this article. Though I agree with Bernstein that poetics is something that can not be contained or pinned down, most new poets are still having to find ways to defend or legitimize it. It's not poetry that usually finds publishing. The Bernstein of that article wouldn't be too happy today; it's still more of the same being published.

Sulfuric Acid

2009-10-29T12:39:00.000-07:00

Needless to say, based on the article's title, I had no real assumptions or expectations of its content before beginning to read, which made it all the more fascinating to me. I find this concept of characterizing language as a wild, open and unexplored space within our world of solids and materials, language exists on its own plane, above and below general frames of existence or reality. This train of thought offers a new perspective on language, words as part of speech, some encompassing whole or far from whole being. This being is stronger than many other, as language, with its never ending combinations, orders, tricks of punctuation and of writerly tact, may be manipulated into so many interpretations and argumentation, crossing perceptions and views or searching for something newer, honest from a specific frame of sight. Language is tricky. It may be so personal, with the words scrawled in frazzled cursive on the pages of your tired diary, or tapped out madly on your facebook walls but language may be presented on such a grand scale, with horrifying amounts of influence. Take the bibles, our declaration of independence, Magna Carta, Oprah's Book Club, countless magazines and newspapers. Words and language contain in them a power, when used and arranged properly (or improperly whatever the intent may be), that is quite difficult to compare to. I find this to be the angle of perception which words leave out and open to their readers, left to us to interpret using our unique world views, morals, beliefs, hatred, passions, desires, etc. It's an open-ended armada, with limitless ammunition. Poetry is no mere pitiful blood sucking mosquito, it is more of a force which divides. Divides all readers and critics bytheir perceived notions and understandings of the text, whether they believe it and live by it or hate it and rise up against it- poetry and the words cause action, if only in thought. When the author touches on the fact that if we admit there is a wilderness that stands separate from our orderly governed world, and if poetry exists on a similar level of wilderness and wonder, then admitting its apartness in this battle to conquer it as a force to be reckoned with the battle is already lost.

Poetry is considered special because it challenges this notion of preferential taste, condemns those who choose one specific preference, one side of the mirror, strives for a rattling against these constant and unchanging same views. What is the fun in staying the same? Why be stubborn readers and members of this scattered society when we can afford to be a little more welcoming, a little more free formed. To hold out and stand so rooted in meaning that is mundane, already heard, already argued for and against, fixed and unchanging is what bears politics, minutia already authorized and approved by some other body and school of thought. Old and tired meanings lead to nothing new. Meaning should not be seen as normalized and gentrified, but as an investigation of this normalization, a refuting the notion of possible perfection, looking for some sense of interpreted real truth of mind, thought, ideals.

love, Ben

My Response to Whining Women

2009-10-29T11:59:00.000-07:00

John Schell

I'm tired of being told how men get "threatened and aggressive" (Spahr and Young, 99) when we respond to feminists, as if any counter-discussion is automatically chauvinist and wrong. Maybe we're just filtering information through a non-feminist lens. That doesn't make it anti-feminist. But nooo, I'm the asshole just because I think we should re-institutionalize slavery and take back suffrage.

According to Spahr and Young, "anthologies and publication and prizes do matter. They lead to more jobs and money, and women need these things." But do they? I mean proportionally, and I also mean to question the concept of need. After all, historically a woman's "needs" have been met by men. And the "need" to break free from male domination is only felt by feminists. There are a number of "traditional" women out there, who don't need to burn bras to feel empowered. So do women "need" to work and make money? No, only the women that feel the need to work and make money need to work and make money. And yes I'm focusing on one sentence; this observation really has nothing to do with equal representation of MFAs in tenured positions or equal wages; I get it, women don't get paid fairly. Boo hoo. My point is that it's feminist values that are corrupt, not the practices of the publishers.

The Market has spoken, people. Deal with it.

Here's something that I take issue with: saying that orthodox teaching is fundamentally degrading, or that traditional (Christian in our American context) beliefs lead to suffering or maintain the current suffering level of the world, is pessimistic. Who's to say that conservation doesn't create the best of all possible worlds? Yes, there are problems, and yes conservative mentalities fight against anything that would seek to change our position in the world, but one might understand that dramatic, unchecked changes could be more disastrous than the status quo.

American Women just aren't ready to be treated like those commie broads in the podunk nation of Scandanavia.

An irony with the feminist critique is that 'women being oppressed and underrepresented' is a theme that drives the feminist movement. Should women become equally represented then there's nothing left to argue about. Spahr and Young should be thanking those mean 'ol numbers for giving them a job to do.

My response to the Canon Concept

2009-10-28T21:25:00.001-07:00

Well that Canon reading was very heavy indeed. Although I was familiar with some of the writers he mentioned in the reading (Foucault, Molina, etc...), and even as an ethnic studies student the theme was very familiar too. However there were some very confusing where I wasn’t sure what I needed to get out this reading and how it will help me as a writer. But, after our little chat in class, I can completely digest the importance of this reading. One thing I absorbed was the idea of how this Canon concept is predominantly manipulated by specific peoples for a specific reason, and unconsciously denying or excluding the thoughts, writings, bodies and experiences of other writers in the span of American history. the canon or canons need to expand they’re trajectory to view a broader horizon where the, child, student, average person or graduate student can have access to an expanded array of thought. This, I feel is how the canon can be efficiently utilized as a culturally, morally, and progressively competent tool for the projection of human thought-. Jorge Narvaez

My response to SULFUR!

2009-10-28T21:06:00.000-07:00

I thought “The Value of Sulfur” was an interesting and confusingly heavy read. It’s basically a critique of what the value of writing was and now is. One of the most interesting parts of the reading was Bernstein says: “Language is a wilderness that, unlike others, can never be conquered, or exhausted; but it can be made to accommodate: to submit, assimilate, compromise, deny.” This reminds me of how powerful language can be sometimes, especially when a dominant language is attempting to submerge smaller languages from underrepresented voices across the world, (or in political terms “assimilation”). Also, there was a part in the reading where he says: “this legacy will be hard to reverse”. That whole paragraph was difficult to understand because I wasn’t sure what he meant by poets of value. I’d like to flesh this out a little more. I also thought it was interesting how he describes a poet’s life can be so sporadic, meaning very quiet desperation and then very noisy. This can be true sometimes for me as a writers since I mostly attract an unexpected writing lifestyle.

Guest: Amina Cain

2009-10-27T18:16:00.000-07:00

Amina Cain will be a guest speaker to our class on Thursday, October 29. She is the author of I Go To Some Hollow (Les Figues Press <http://www.lesfigues.com/> , 2009), a collection of stories that revolve quietly around human relationality, landscape, and emptiness. She is also a curator (most recently for When Does It or You Begin? Memory as Innovation <http://linkshall.org/2009/09-pp-jan.shtml> , a month long festival of writing, performance, and video) and a teacher of writing/literature. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in publications such as 3rd Bed, Action Yes, Denver Quarterly, Dewclaw, The Encyclopedia Project, La Petite Zine, and Sidebrow, and was recently translated into Polish on MINIMALBOOKS. She lives in Los Angeles.

To prepare for her visit, please read the piece below, plus the following links and info:

Links Hall Artistic Associates program info: http://linkshall.org/o-aa.shtml and http://linkshall.org/o-proposals_aa.shtml

When Does It or You Begin? festival web pages: http://linkshall.org/2009/09-pp-jan.shtml

Reports from festival on Les Figues blog:

When Does It or You Begin? (Memory as Innovation)

PAST

Amina: I am made up of everything I remember, and of everything I don't. My memories don't make up the truth, but they make something. Last January I was in the audience for Method to Madness (curated by Kate Sheehy), another month long festival at Links Hall. I sat with my friend Rachel Tredon, who I will be performing with later this month, and watched the performances. Outside it was snowing, and inside Links it felt warm. For Twinkle by Nance Klehm, a starry night was made, and then inhabited, one oil lamp at a time. Spell Launcher and Love Has Brought Me to Despair by Rebecca Tennison and Aviva Steigmeyer brought me to...something...what was it? I felt so warm when I left. Couldn't writing events be like this too? This warm? This close to habitation?

Jen: Nine and a half years ago, I moved to Chicago. I didn’t think that I would stay here or anywhere. Time escapes. Waking up in the middle of a vivid dream and imagining the ending. It’s hard to remember exactly how I felt that first winter. My brother came to visit and painted the walls of my apartment red, blue, purple, yellow. The same building where I continue to live and create. Structures contain memory. For thirty years, art has been made at Links Hall. Something new and unexplainable. Sitting in the dark with groups of friends and strangers, we have experienced performance, readings, dance. Collective breathing that repeats.

PRESENT

Amina: It is a new year; this is a new festival; we are about to welcome a new president; I hope these are new times. For almost one year, Jen and I have been preparing for When Does It or You Begin? and it is almost upon us. I have started having anxiety dreams about the festival. In the first one, Jen and I quite awkwardly welcomed the audience. Tisa Bryant, who will be featured at the very end of the festival, came onstage at the beginning. What is a beginning? What is an end? Sometimes when I wake up in the middle of the night I think about the festival, go through lists in my mind of what still needs to be done. Anxiety. And also excitement. The truth is that I think the festival is going to be wonderful. I am grateful to have the chance to work on it.

Jen: I believe in beginnings. Through art, our ideas evolve. At this time and place, I wanted to bring together all of my creative communities. Writers, artists, performers, and activists. We are designing a version of the world we want to live in – everyone in the festival, who supports it and attends. This is a gift. The opportunity is equally overwhelming and phenomenal.

FUTURE

Amina: I don't want to forget to acknowledge the things I can't see or perceive, and, therefore, remember. What is a memory? Teresa Carmody, week three festival particpant writes, "A memory is a lying truth felt true." Do our memories make a place for us to inhabit? Can we inhabit truth? Can we inhabit lying? In the months ahead, Jen and I hope to collect writing from the participants of When Does It or You Begin? so that we can make a book. We hope to know where we are when we remember.

Jen: My memory feels part of me yet I can't control it. I often remember things I wish I had forgotten and forget things I wish I could remember. So, how will this festival be remembered? We have invited a team of video artists to produce creative documentation. Utilizing a variety of approaches, the end result will be to represent the diverse and complex concepts of memory through video. All completed video pieces will be screened at art spaces in Chicago and Los Angeles during 2009, ideally becoming part of a DVD project. Video artists include: Carrie Olivia Adams, Wonjung Bae, Ania Greiner, Jason Guthartz, Jeff Harms, Gretchen Hasse, Kurt Heintz, Todd Mattei, Amarnath Ravva, Bryan Saner, and Casey Smallwood.

Questions / Logistics

2009-10-26T20:11:00.000-07:00

Here are some discussion questions for tomorrow's class (I've emailed this to everyone, but just in case...)

1. In Part I of “The Concept of the Canon,” Arnold Krupat outlines two opposing views of the canon—How does he delineate these two views and what are some broad characteristics included within their perspectives?

2. Krupat argues that “An American literary canon […] is worth fighting for"; he also argues for a revision of the canon. How does he define such a canon and why does he believe it is important? How would he revise it?

3. In writing workshops, we’ll often talk about the relationship between form and content in an individual text. Krupat extends these terms by stating, “It is the image of individual wholeness and collective cohesiveness (“content”) we approve as presented by means of those techniques (“form”) we enjoy that determines our choices for the literary canon.” (44) How does he illustrate this point? What are the implications of his argument?

4. Krupat advocates for a canon formation governed by principles of “unity-in-difference” and “secular heterodoxy.” What does he mean? How is this different from “some kind of proportional representation”?

5. While Krupat focuses on ideology (or orthodoxy) in the academy, Robert McLaughlin in “Oppositional Aesthetic/Positional Ideologies: A Brief Cultural History of Alternative Publishing,” discusses the ideologies of commercial publishers. Do these ideologies overlap, and if so, how? Is McLaughlin arguing for an “art-for-art’s-sake” kind of publishing?

6. In “Numbers Trouble,” Juliana Spahr and Stephanie Young focus specifically on “experimental/postmodern/avant-garde/innovative” writing communities; how does their argument support or contradict McLaughlin’s notion of “alternative” publishing? Are they arguing for “proportional representation”? How do their research methods contribute, or detract, from their thesis?

Readings for Tuesday, Oct 27

2009-10-25T08:29:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

On Tuesday, we'll be discussing issues of culture and literary canon—how gender, diversity, and aesthetics contribute to editorial perspectives. Here are links to the readings:

Krupat, Arnold. “The Concept of Cannon.” The Voice in the Margin: Native American Literature and theCanon. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft2g5004sk/

McLaughlin, Robert L. “Oppositional Aesthetics/Oppositional Ideologies: A Brief Cultural History of Alternative Publishing in the U.S.”

Bernstein, Charles, "The Value of Sulfur," Jacket 5 (1988)

Spahr, Juliana and Stephanie Young, "Numbers Trouble," Chicago Review 53:2/3 (Autumn 2007) [for this article, google "numbers trouble chicago review" and you should find a link to a downloadable PDF]

Becky's Links for Journals/Magazines

2009-10-20T14:24:00.001-07:00

RELIEF: A CHRISTIAN LITERARY EXPRESSION

"Relief: The amazing truth in life–there is a place outside of desperate pain, anxiety, and self-loathing. “Peace that passes understanding” has become cliché, but we can’t deny the truth of it."

"For authors who cry out for a venue and readers who long for stories that don’t make them gag, we present Relief."

http://www.reliefjournal.com/

COMMONWEAL: A REVIEW OF RELIGION, POLITICS, AND CULTURE

"STYLE, STANCE: Commonweal publishes editorials, columns, essays, poetry, reviews of book's, movies, plays, the media, a selection of apposite and/or funny cartoons, & lots of letters to the editors. Liberal? Conservative? Depends on the issue & the writer. From its founding in 1924(!), the journal has held that America has much to learn from Catholicism, and vice versa-a core belief that has survived severe testing in disputes over the Spanish Civil War, civil rights, Vietnam, Humanae vitae.... "

http://www.commonwealmagazine.org/

CANDLELIGHT STORIES

"Over the years, we made our own line of high-quality children’s audio programs that presented classics like ‘Snow White’ and ‘Puss In Boots’ with voice characterizations, music and sound effects. Much of that audio is still on the site and we will be making the rest of it available for free over the next year. In fact, we still produce audio podcasts of literary works for different age groups.
We are looking for authors with novels, short stories, poems, eerie tales, horror, and children’s stories who want to get their work online for a wide audience to enjoy."

http://www.candlelightstories.com/

Five Journalz

2009-10-20T14:24:00.000-07:00

BUTT magazine:

queer quarterly publication featuring honest explorative commentary of the American gay experience.

Black Warrior Review:

Established in 1974 by graduate students in the MFA Program in Creative Writing at the University of Alabama, Black Warrior Review publishes poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and art by Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winners alongside up-and-coming writers. Stories and poems appearing in Black Warrior Reviewhave been reprinted in the Pushcart Prize series, Best American Short Stories, Best American Poetry, New Stories from the South, and other anthologies. Each issue features a chapbook from a nationally known poet.

BRICK:

International perspective. Focuses on the literary non-fiction essay, and also publishes interviews, memoir, letters, poetry, fiction, and other strange and wonderful literary matter.

Carve Magazine:

Carve Magazine, an online journal, is honest fiction. We publish the kind of stories that linger long after they are read—stories that are honest, that are willing to reveal the flaws and the beauty hidden in each of us.

Cold Mountain Review:

A forum for well-told stories. We publish the narrative poetry and lyrical prose, and we are interested in the way contemporary literature is testing the boundaries of genre.

Cutthroat:

We publish high-quality poetry and short fiction from well-known as well as previously unpublished authors.

love, Ben

Magazine Summaries

2009-10-20T03:53:00.000-07:00

The Christian Century is a Christian Magazine that seeks to adapt the content of the magazine to make it relevant to the time period. when I observed the submission guidelines, i saw that there wasn't much room for creative writing. The magazine is more focused on articles that dealt with the news and how it affects modern day Christians. However they do allow creativity in the poems that they accept.

www.Christiancentury.org

Image Journal is also a Christian magazine. The focus of this magazine is to cultivate art within Christianity instead of stifling it with cliches and over dramatic themes. This magazine seeks to reconcile contemporary culture and Christianity. The magazine has more freedom and less structure than Christian Century. It accepts fiction, essays, articles, and poetry. I feel as if this magazine is one of the two that best suits my focus and vision of my writing. Although it seeks to be creative, it doesn't compromise the core beliefs of Christianity.

www.imagejournal.org

Relief journal is the last of the Christian magazines that I related with. This journal seeks to cultivate art in the Christian sphere. Taking the basic principle of art, the Relief Journal seeks pieces of art that are masterfully made yet rings true with all those who read it with an obvious focus on Christian themes. It is a non-profit organization that gives out "honorariums" when it can but guarantees a special copy to the person who is being published. This magazine is the second magazine that I felt best complemented my vision for writing, especially with its modern and contemporary twist in a blend of focused passion inside of Christian themes.

www.reliefjournal.com

The Cincinnati Review is a literary magazine based on a college campus. Their sweeping mission statement seeks to include anyone who has a piece of literature that is worth publishing. They accept all genres of writing. Since they are also backed by a s chool, payment per prose isn't as big of an issue as it would be for non-profit organizations. The interesting thing with this magazine is that it includes a portfolio of the perosn who is published. I feel as if this would be a great way for a writer not only to get his work published but also to attach a self-described reputation. As a college student I'd be curious to see how responsive my peers would be asl well.

http://cinicinnatireview.com

The Iddie journal is a magazine that looks to promote discussions and challenge the mind of the readers. A lot of themes that I hope to explore if I don't go down the path of Christian Literature would be used to create conversation and debate. Especially the relevant themes such as current economic and social problems both at the global and local scope. Again this is a broad based magazine that accepts all genres of writing.

www.iddie.net

Bump

2009-10-19T23:55:00.000-07:00

I'll keep this short and to the point.

Opium Magazine

http://www.opiummagazine.com/

Short fiction (no more than 1,000 words online, 4,000 in print), non-profit.

Nice site: they offer you everything they've published along with an estimated reading time for each (ranging from thirty seconds to seventeen minutes).

The Dirty Goat

http://www.thedirtygoat.com/

A biannual publication. World poetry, prose, literature, and visual art. Does not compensate contributors.

American Short Fiction

http://www.americanshortfiction.org/

Conservative short fiction. Nice web site: read the current issue's featured story. Unsolicited submissions are accepted, but their standards are “extremely high”.

A Public Space

http://www.apublicspace.org/

This publication cranks out a little bit of everything. Fiction, essay, op-ed, poetry, and so on. Nice web site: visually appealing.

Alehouse

http://www.alehousejournal.com/

A poetry journal.

In researching this I ran into this email correspondence posted on a would-be contributor's web page. You won't find too many people slamming poets for representing The Man, but this guy did:

( http://www.theamericandissident.org/AlehousePress.htm )

5 Literary Journals and Small Presses

2009-10-19T18:18:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!

Here are 5 literary journals or presses that I found that looked interesting to me:

Manic D

This small press has been in business for just 25 years. They take in submissions of fiction, poetry, narrative comics, and travel books, mainly alternative works that aren’t accepted by other publishers. Manic D has a simple website; the only options are to buy their books (free shipping!), submit work, and contact the press. The first thing that got my attention was the newest published work, a poetry book called “Bang Ditto” by actress Amber Tamblyn. I had no idea she wrote anything, and what’s more interesting is that, even being famous, she published through a small press.

Wanderlust Review (a.k.a Wanderlust Literary Journal)

Wanderlust is an online literary journal that publishes pieces relating to travel, not just non-fiction accounts, but also fiction, poetry, and photography. The online journal, which is more of a blog, started earlier this year, so it looks like it's still a growing project. It seems look a good place to get published for the first time for writers who are interested in creative or alternative travel writing.

Art Times

This print and online literary journal debuted in 1984, providing articles about all art forms. On the website, there are links to art essays, art reviews, dance articles, fiction pieces, poetry, critiques, and many things related to the art world. There isn't much information on submission, but I like the general idea of a literary journal that encompasses such a large range of writings about art.

Narrative Magazine

Narrative Magazine is a non-profit print and online literary journal that publishes fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. The printed version is published only a few times a year and the online journal is published at least once a month. Both are free. The online magazine also features writing contests and public submission. It seems like a well-rounded literary journal that supports both new and established writers of many different genres.

Underground Voices

This journal accepts and publishes submissions of non-fiction, fiction, poetry, and flash fiction. Submitters write about raw, personal, dark, and hard-hitting subjects such as alcoholism, mental illnesses, confessions, and psychiatric sessions. This journal appealed to me because of the writers' honesty and openness about troubled pasts (and present), disorders, and struggles. The subject matter is heavy, but the writing is edgy and engaging.

Thanks for reading! :)

Shannon

MY VERY OWN BLOG (TEAR)

2009-10-19T18:09:00.000-07:00

http://thewritingsofjorgenarvaez.blogspot.com/

please follow and stay tuned!

Hey everyone this is Jorge: Here are the ones i think are pretty cool enjoy

2009-10-19T17:24:00.000-07:00

The San Diego Writers / Editors Guild

is a group of writers and editors dedicated to improving their skills and helping others do the same.

The objectives of the Guild are to:

Promote, support, and encourage writers;
Seek and provide information about publishing and the local writing scene;
Assist with the local writer’s needs for assignments (as well as editors who seek writers);
Endorse workshops and seminars for the benefit of writers;
Promote the writing arts for youth, adults and seniors alike.
Founded in 1979 as a non-profit, the Guild is believed to be the oldest writer organization in the region, and it has more than 100 active members.

CALACA PRESS

Calaca Mission
Calaca Press is a Chicano family-owned small publishing house dedicated to publishing and producing unknown, emerging, and established progressive Chicano and Latino voices. With a commitment to social justice and human rights Calaca Press strives to bring about change through the literary arts. From poetry and the spoken word to fiction and creative non-fiction Calaca Press is determined to showcase authors from a community that has been marginalized and pushed to the side in literary circles, and in the real world, for far too long. Recognizing the need for more publishers of Chicano and Latino literature Calaca Press also actively encourages and assists individuals to self publish and/or start their own presses. Understanding the need for historical continuation Calaca Press is committed to continuing the tradition of the Chicano and Latino presses and publishing houses of the 1960's and 1970's that flourished due to community support and the need to have our stories told. ¡Calacadelante!

Chusma House Publications

has been publishing the works of Chicano and Chicana writers for over a decade. From its inception, Chusma House has decided to eschew commercial and mainstream literature, and instead concentrate on works of worth and significance. We are committed to the publication of high-quality writing by both established and emerging writers. Chusma House has also begun to publish select multi-cultural literature.
Chusma House was started in 1990 by Charley Trujillo with his first, groundbreaking narrative, Soldados: Chicanos in Viet Nam. Due to the book's unprecedented success, Charley forewent his college teaching career to devote full attention to publishing and writing.

La Prensa San Diego

It is a local newpaper that publishes articles in differents genres mainl invoking the current events of San Diego. Everynow and then i read this magazine and very interesting stories come up

BLACK ICE

- these guys are intesting they got some very intense fictional stories

An outgrowth of the Black Ice Books series and literary magazine, Alt-X's Black Ice: Fiction For A Wired Nation section continues to develop an editorial vision firmly rooted in The Rival Tradition. The work showcased here is modeled after the great avant-garde literary writing of past. Alt-X has often been compared to important presses of the print world like The Evergreen Review, City Lights, Olympia Press and New Directions. In response to the Multi-National Corporate Publishing Industry's need to uniformally produce and promote lowest-common denominator info-tainment for a massive, yet passive, audience of book consumers, the editors of Black Ice have been publishing some of the most offensive, sexy, and formally adventurous writing of the last fifteen years, constituting what we believe is a Changing of The Garde.

Readings for Tuesday, Oct 27

2009-10-19T15:30:00.000-07:00

Next week we'll be focusing on issues of culture, the literary canon and diversity. Here are links to the articles.

Krupat, Arnold. “The Concept of Cannon.” The Voice in the Margin: Native American Literature and the Canon. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft2g5004sk/

McLaughlin, Robert L. “Oppositional Aesthetics/Oppositional Ideologies: A Brief Cultural History of Alternative Publishing in the U.S.” (link online)

Bernstein, Charles. “The Value of Sulfur.” Jacket 5 (1998).

Juliana Spahr & Stephanie Young. "Numbers Trouble." Chicago Review 53:2/3 (Autumn 2007).

Note: Thank you to Dr. Philip Heldrich at the University of Washington. Several of these articles were culled from his course: "Editing a Literary Arts Magazine."

2009-10-19T14:54:00.000-07:00

Hello Class,

Here are my pick of 5.

Alimentum

The Alimentum claims to be the only Literary Review that focuses on the subject of food. The Alimentum includes works of Fiction, Poetry, and Creative Non-Fiction. Readers can learn about new food trends and foreign authors.

Food and Literature, a delicious combination, don't you think?

http://alimentumjournal.com/

Aufgabe

The Aufgabe is a literay magazine that focuses on experimental and innovative poetry. It publishes works of establishes writers and emerging writers. It also includes poetry themed essays and reviews.

www.litmuspress.org

You can take a look at the table of contents for the latest Aufgabe issue here.

Creative Nonfiction

www.creativenonfiction.org

Creative Nonfiction is a literary magazine exclusive to creative nonfiction (as the name implies). Its issues include immersion journalism, memoir, and personal essays. You can check out the table of contents for its latest issue here. Sometimes the strangest fiction is reality.

Fairy Tale Review

www.fairytalereview.com

Fairy tales are not just for children. The Fairy Tale Review is not devoted to any particular school of writing but rather to fairytales as an art form. The FTR is concerned with preserving one of the oldest literary traditions, and reviving old and contemporary fairy tales (for adults too!).
You can check out their blog here or the list of contributors of their current issue here.

Swivel
http://www.swivelmag.com/

Swivel is the only nationally distributed literary journal devoted to smart, funny writing by smart, funny women. Swivel is published biannually and showcases the work of both established and emerging writers.Emphasizing artfully crafted stories to just carefully constructed jokes, Swivel encompasses an array of genres, including fiction, essay, memoir, poetry, and shorts, as well as comics and illustrations with a kick.

Sounds interesting? Take a look at the table of contents of their issues or a peek at the excerpts.

Zahir

http://www.zahirtales.com/index.html

Zahir is a literary journal of fantasy, science fiction, and magical realism. They print tri-annually. It's one of the places I'm looking to submit. Here, they list their guidelines for submission. They also take artworks for covers.

So, this maybe a bit off topic. It's not a literary magazine or journal, but it is a point of interest if not a source of writing inspiration.
I think of it in a sense as applied literature, bending reality in our everyday life.

Improv Everywhere

http://improveverywhere.com/

Some of my favorite missions of theirs are the Surprise Wedding Reception and the MP3 Experiment.
Check out their missions here.

I hope you enjoy those.

-Giang Pham

SDCC Book Fair Reading: Laurel Corona

2009-10-14T13:46:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone,

I'd just like to share my reflections on the reading I went to at the San Diego City College Book fair. I listened to Laurel Corona read her historical novel, Until Our Last Breath: A Holocaust Story of Love and Partisan Resistance. She also gave advice to aspiring writers by sharing her own writing process. Here are my reflections on the experience:

I attended the San Diego City College book fair on Saturday, October 3rd. Unfortunately I couldn’t stay more than an hour, but I was fortunate enough to attend Laurel Corona’s reading from her historical novel, “Until Our Last Breath: A Holocaust Story of Love and Partisan Resistance.” She started out by reading a section on a man named Abba Kovner, a young activist in Lithuania. I realized how she chose the title of her book when she read Kovner’s statement, “We shall fight until our last breath.” From just that quote I could already tell how powerful the novel was in telling the story of the Jewish resistance against Nazis.

The most informative part of the reading for me was Corona’s advice and comments about the writing process and getting published. I had no idea that she wouldn’t only be reading but also telling us about her insight into the world of writing. I learned so much in that hour, about the decisions she makes as a writer, the frustration of getting horrible reviews, having to write multiple drafts (up to a dozen for many writers), and “coming to grips with” problems and difficulties. She had three factors that helped her decide whether to write a work: (1) Am I intellectually engaged with a subject?, (2) What am I latched onto and compelled to write? What is my heart saying?, (3) Will writing this make me a better writer? I could see how her deciding factors could help me with my own writing. Sometimes I don’t know if something I write is worth expanding on. Now I can use some of her ideas to help me decide.

Some of what Corona said was a bit discouraging, but it was good to have a reality check. A writer, she said, has to deal with the material she has and doesn’t have at hand. I often write about things that I already know and have information about, which I now realize is preventing me from writing something new and more engaging to me and to potential readers. One thing she said really stuck with me, and I hope it will motivate me to write about things I have never thought of writing about. Corona believed that, “Sometimes being scared is a far better reason to do it than not do it.” Writing can be a daunting and scary process for me, but knowing that her decisions as a writer, her struggles, and her perseverance through criticism and rejection eventually led her to publish many books gives me hope that I have the potential to do the same.

Upcoming: Links to 5 Lit Mags/Presses

2009-10-14T10:22:00.000-07:00

A reminder: be sure to post brief article with links to 5 literary magazines or small presses by Tuesday, October 20.

See you all next week.

About Publishing: Basic Overview of Lit Mags

2009-10-13T08:15:00.000-07:00

For next week: an article from the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses:

"About Independent Literary Publishing: What Is an Independent Literary Magazine"

See you all later today.

Readings: Thursday, October 8

2009-10-06T10:06:00.000-07:00

First off, everyone should check out Poets & Writers, as they provide a number of articles, forums and other helpful tools. Several of the articles we'll be discussing on Thursday come from their archive. Also, The Practical Writer is actually a production of Poets & Writers; you can find many other Practical Writer articles on their website for free.

The MFA Guide: How to Decide Where to Apply, by Tom Kealey, Poets & Writers. Nov/Dec 2006.

The Lowdown on Low-Residency Programs, by Erika Dreifus, Poets & Writers. March/April 2005.

Reading How You're Read: The Art of Evaluating Criticism, by Ann Pancake, May/June 2007

Also, here's some other links to articles ("The Best of the Best" in The Atlantic; "Confessions of an MFA Application Reader" in Poets and Writers) and a blog (MFA Weblog). Poets & Writers also provides a MFA Toolkit for researching and applying to graduate programs. We'll talk about what "best" might mean, as well as the nuts and bolts of MFA applications.

Residencies: An Informative Interview

2009-10-05T21:17:00.000-07:00

More food for thought: an interview on Practicing Writing blog with writer Stephanie Elizondo Griest about writers' residences.

Literary San Diego

2009-10-05T13:31:00.000-07:00

Check out this article on signonsandiego.com about literary San Diego, including classes & organizations, readings & open mics, independent presses, and annual events. Also, if for some reason you missed both book fairs this past weekend, you better get yourself to one of the open mics happening tonight.

Resources

2009-10-03T20:23:00.000-07:00

Look to your right for links to organizations like LitLine and Poets & Writers. Take a minute to check out their lists/databases of literary magazines and independent presses.

City Works Press

2009-09-30T17:46:00.000-07:00

Based in San Diego, City Works Press is the organizing force behind the San Diego City Bookfair. They will be launching two books at the bookfair (see below). Either of these would be a great opportunity to check the press out—to see what they are publishing and if/how it resonates with you.

Here's their announcement about the bookfair:

Come see our authors at the 4th Annual San Diego City College International Book Fair this weekend-October 2nd and 3rd!

Itchy Brown Girl Seeks Employment

By Ella deCastro Baron

Itchy Brown Girl Seeks Employment is an ironic Curriculum Vitae where life and work experiences one wouldn't want a potential employer to know are highlighted using vulnerability, wit, observation, and candor. Ella deCastro Baron-a first generation Asian American woman challenged by her parents' faith, inherited sickness, and questionable life choices-shares of beginning and ending relationships, restlessness, miracles, prejudice, entitlement, and community. She leaves it up to the reader to decide, after assessing her background, education, professional experience, fieldwork, high (and low) achievements, if she is someone worth investing in.

Ella will be reading from her book on Friday, October 2nd at 7 pm in the Saville Theatre at City College as part of the San Diego City College International Book Fair!

Lavanderia: A Mixed Load of Women, Wash, and Words

Edited By: Donna J. Watson, Michelle Sierra, and Lucia Gbaya-Kanga

This anthology initiates us into one of the most sacred domestic rituals of our mundane world-the purging of physical and psychic stains, or the art and work of doing laundry. The writers' voices rise above the sounds of washing machines, non-televised daytime dramas, and laughter. Removing the clothespins from their mouths, these women reveal their secrets, fears, loves, and regrets in poem and story form. As finely detailed as the vintage sleeve of a rummage sale find, the work in "Lavanderia" brings the circle closer to home as you find yourself nodding and remembering and thanking every woman who ever sat next to you in a laundromat and made conversation.

Lavanderia will be featured on Saturday, October 3rd at noon in the Saville Theatre at City College as part of the 4th Annual San Diego City College International Book Fair!

For more information on the Book Fair go to: www.sdcitybookfair.com

Book Fairs: Out of the House

2009-09-26T13:08:00.000-07:00

There are two book fairs happening within the next week—one in San Diego and one in West Hollywood. Your assignment: pick one and attend at least one panel, reading or workshop, then write about it (see syllabus for more specifics).

The 4th Annual San Diego City College Intl. Book Fair is happening from Sept. 28-Oct. 3, 2009. The schedule includes afternoon and evening readings, creative writing workshops (with the wonderful Cheryl Klein), lectures and more. There will also be several independent presses and literary organizations in attendance. Check out their displays, and talk to the editors/publishers about what they publish and why.

Alternatively (or in addition), take a mini road trip on Sunday, October 4 to Los Angeles for the West Hollywood Book Fair. Here you'll find panel discussions on everything from comics to zombies to techniques for memoir writing. At 3:15, The Future of Publishing Think Tank will be talking about, well, the future of publishing. There will be readings throughout the day, writing workshops, and ghost stories. There are also many exhibitors, including several small presses, like Manic D, Red Hen Press, Ex Machina Press, Gorsky Press, PM Press, and Les Figues Press.

Why I Write, and Adam or the proper picture

2009-09-24T17:00:00.000-07:00

Here we go: Two of three texts to read for Tuesday, October 6:

• George Orwell: Why I Write

• Axel Thormählen, Adam or the proper picture
first published in TrenchArt: Parapet, 2007

Not many people have had Adam as their art teacher. I was one of those who had that pleasure, but unfortunately he didn’t like me. My face, he announced in front of the entire class, didn’t fit into any aesthetic context. I must have seemed so ugly to him that he avoided looking at me even in passing. In fact, he didn’t look at any of us for longer than absolutely necessary. We were, so he told us at the beginning of every art class, a superfluous, vulgar breed, and teaching us art was a waste of time. Twelve-year-old pupils, we thought of art—if we thought of it at all—as a random thing, rather than as a school subject. The main thing was for Adam to approve what we painted, then we’d get a good grade and that was art. I got one poor grade after another because Adam kept telling me to paint an apple; but I couldn’t do apples, or faces either. The soft cheeks and the shadows were beyond me. Art teacher Adam was a good-looking young man whom the biology mistress was running after, as the whole school knew. He, however, yearned for the perfect apple. Not angular and certainly not cut into pieces, cubist-fashion; not blurred in transports of water-colour or thickened in oil sludge; a pure, clear apple was what he wanted, taken from the dish of an English still life or bought off a Dutch market-woman. As time went by and nobody in our class was able to produce that apple, his apple, he tried a river instead. ‘Paint me a river!’ he commanded. ‘And anyone among you good-for-nothings who doesn’t do it properly will pay for it on the grade-sheet.’
My first river didn’t find favour with him. What was that miserable blue line, he yelled at me, did I think this was the geography class? Adam snatched the sheet of paper from my desk and tore it up in front of everybody. ‘Once more, and you’d better be quick about it!’ he ordered. Desperate, I squinted at the thing on my neighbour’s desk to see if I could pick up any ideas. But all that had occurred to him was an estuary, a delta, and that only meant a few more blue lines, some thick, others thin. Now I changed styles and used the paintbox instead of soft pencils. A river, I thought, needs water, blue water. It was the work of a moment to get a wide blue stretch of water on to the paper, framed by green, my idea of a river bank. I felt Adam’s sceptical gaze on me as I pursued my artistic endeavour and suspected he was just waiting to destroy another work of my hands. But I accepted his challenge. I suddenly grasped that a river has a bottom across which the movement, the current, rolls and tumbles; and I found that there isn’t just one blue, but endless variants. With some shades of blue you could go deep down, into the coolness; in other, lighter tones, you could even bathe. I tried hard, had deep-blue shades relieved by shallow ones, even went almost grey along the bank. From the corner of my eye, I observed that my diligence made Adam increasingly restless. Finally I saw him stride towards the window. Oh, right, I thought, he wants to think about something else; it annoys him that I’m still at it.

Our art teacher, however, did something unusual: suddenly, with a powerful gesture, he tore open both window sections, letting the gale outside into the classroom. It immediately lifted all our sheets of paper off our desks, twirled them—like an acrobat his skittles—through the air and then, chaos completed, let them drop.

‘As the wind blows,’ said Adam mockingly, closing the window again. Most of my fellow pupils were disconsolate; why, the teacher himself had intervened and torpedoed their work! That gust of wind had ruined what had come so easily to them a moment ago. I wasn’t exactly jubilant either as I picked up my sheet from where it was lying on the floor. Painted side down, of course, in the dirt which had been dragged in by many shoes and now stuck to the water-colours. A botched picture, as it seemed. Once more the art teacher relished the shot of despair that must have been evident on my face. I took another look at the misfortune and suddenly found that even dirt could be made something of, if... Swiftly, before it all dried up, I seized a wooden ruler and pushed the sand and earth into the watercourse, making lumps of it. When I added more watercolour, the lumps turned to rocks in the river. That encouraged me to create movement, eddies, around these rocks. At this point I was even having fun, playing in the river. I was just imagining trout jumping in it when Adam took the paper out of my hands once more. He looked at it, long and hard; he’d never looked at a person for that length of time. I was waiting for him to tear this one to shreds as well, but he didn’t. He held up the sheet before him and walked along the aisles like that. At last he moved back to the teacher’s desk, still staring at the picture.

‘Here’, he said, turning around and holding up the sheet in front of the class, ‘this is art.’ Then he was silent for some time. The wildest emotions clashed within me. Branded as an eternal failure, I was unable to believe in this monumental accolade; resigned, I took his words as a piece of implicit scorn to which I was sure he’d give full expression in a moment.

However, the expected opprobrium didn’t materialise. Instead Adam came up to my desk, leaned on it, pointed to my picture and said: ‘That’s really good, you know. You went through all the phases: instead of laziness—contradiction; instead of whining and giving up—sincerity, bowing to the motif. Responding to a serious challenge, not everyone can do that. And then to go on and fill it with one’s own stuff, that takes a lot. lot. You can do it, lad. Move around in your imagination. Bring me the apple!’

I tried to produce an apple but found I wasn’t able to. I could describe it, though, how it hung there high up on its tree, an alluring prize for a boy who coveted it and went to any lengths to get hold of it. Thanks to that essay I got a good grade from a colleague Adam respected, and from then on I went in for the written story.

But I kept running into my limitations when writing as well. Soon I concluded that while creating yields fulfilment, a successful piece of work immediately engenders further demands. First among them is the demand for beauty, which won’t let itself be captured, but it doesn’t want to find itself on paper by chance either. If a figure turns out well, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it fits into the framework you created for it. If you want a story too badly, it has a way of ending up in shallow waters. Far too often, these burdens breed a fear of the empty sheet of paper, of the colour, even of the sentence. And the questions linger on: Can I repeat what can’t be bettered? Hasn’t everything been said and done already? Be careful, I say to myself at such times, Adam’s standing there right behind you, he’ll tear up your piece of paper, he, the observer, the reader, the teacher. Take care to stay good: first think of the form, then of the craft and the idea together. And only then, at last, of the pleasure at the chance of taking a bite from the apple, never mind who hands it to you.

In the beginning

2009-09-19T21:57:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Distributing Literature (LTWR 129). We're going to spend the next 10 weeks thinking, and being, writers in the world. This blog will be a key component of our time together. Here, I'll be listing links to articles and other resources that will be essential to our class. More, this space will be a place for you to share resources with each other—including interviews with writers and editors, event announcements and reviews of journals, readings and other literary activities. A writer is not a solitary figure; even if we write alone, we are writing to and with others—those who have come before and those who will follow, certain voices, familial and textual, ringing in our heads. And that's just one piece, because then there's editing and revising and getting feedback and starting over and eventually, it's time to put that hard work into the world. So we ask our writer friends again: about literary journals, presses, reading series, agents, the list goes on, and hopefully, so does the community.

I'll be sharing my experiences with you as a working writer, and also as the co-founder/co-director of Les Figues Press in Los Angeles. I also co-curate a reading series— Mommy, Mommy! —and am affiliated with some other exciting projects, like The Future of Publishing Think Tank and Pussipo (see the excellent pussipo blog: Delirious Hem).

Each of these projects exist because like-minded people got together and decided to do something. That's one of the potentials of this class—that you'll meet your affinities and begin to do.

Conjunctus

Mathew Timmons Interview

Interview with Michelle Detorie, Publisher of Hex Presse

Interview with Michael Rayes of Rafka Press

SIDEBROW: GHOSTS AS A SOCIAL THEORY

Reading is Performance

Interview With Gregory Wolfe

Interview with Kate Bernheimer

Out of Nothing

Web as Medium

The Concept of the Canon

Guest: Jen Hofer

Making Things, Like Chapbooks

Tuesday Plus More

Tuesday's Guest: Mathew Timmons

Response to Numbers Trouble

Response to The Concept of the Canon

Value of Sulfur

Sulfuric Acid

My Response to Whining Women

My response to the Canon Concept

My response to SULFUR!

Guest: Amina Cain

Questions / Logistics

Readings for Tuesday, Oct 27

Becky's Links for Journals/Magazines

Five Journalz

Magazine Summaries

Bump

5 Literary Journals and Small Presses

MY VERY OWN BLOG (TEAR)

Hey everyone this is Jorge: Here are the ones i think are pretty cool enjoy

Readings for Tuesday, Oct 27

Hello Class,

Here are my pick of 5.Alimentum

The Alimentum claims to be the only Literary Review that focuses on the subject of food. The Alimentum includes works of Fiction, Poetry, and Creative Non-Fiction. Readers can learn about new food trends and foreign authors.

Food and Literature, a delicious combination, don't you think?http://alimentumjournal.com/Aufgabe The Aufgabe is a literay magazine that focuses on experimental and innovative poetry. It publishes works of establishes writers and emerging writers. It also includes poetry themed essays and reviews.

Aufgabe

Creative Nonfictionwww.creativenonfiction.org

Fairy Tale Review www.fairytalereview.com

Swivelhttp://www.swivelmag.com/

SDCC Book Fair Reading: Laurel Corona

Upcoming: Links to 5 Lit Mags/Presses

About Publishing: Basic Overview of Lit Mags

Readings: Thursday, October 8

Residencies: An Informative Interview

More food for thought: an interview on Practicing Writing blog with writer Stephanie Elizondo Griest about writers' residences.

Literary San Diego

Resources

City Works Press

Book Fairs: Out of the House

Why I Write, and Adam or the proper picture

In the beginning

Here are my pick of 5.

Alimentum

Creative Nonfiction

www.creativenonfiction.org

Fairy Tale Review

www.fairytalereview.com

Swivel
http://www.swivelmag.com/