News Around the Net

Joseph O'Neill's Netherland wins the PEN/Faulkner Award .

Remembering John Updike on Books and Bookstores.

Remembering Irish writer, Christopher Nolan.

Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine wins the Warwick Prize.

Agatha Christie's home to be opened to the public.

Stephen King's newest version of The Stand, a graphic novelization, will only be available in comic book stores.

Edward Upward, British author and influence of Auden, Isherwood, and Spender, dies at 105.

Newmarket takes home two Oscars for its screenplays Slumdog Millionaire and Milk.

Margaret Atwood on the Dubai festival.

The drinking and the prolific writers.

Have the liberal arts reached the end? Prepare to be infuriated.

Jack Kerouac's "lost" first novel, The Sea is My Brother, to be published at last.

A non-sex approach to writing by and for women.

Poetry is experiencing a boom online.

Unusual Calls for Submissions

BLACKBIRD - AN ONLINE JOURNAL OF LITERATURE AND THE ARTS SPECIAL CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: THE VIDEO ESSAY
Postmark / Email receipt deadline: April 3, 2009. Like its print counterpart, the video essay is an attempt of personal reflection while engaging with the facts of the world. The video essay, writes Phillip Lopate, "wears proudly the confusion of an independent soul trying to grope in isolation toward truth." Agnes Varda, the poetic French filmmaker who coined the term cinécriture, or film-writing, best described the promise of the video essay when noting that, for her, writing meant more than simply wording a script. Choosing images, designing sound—these, too, are part of that process. At its best, the video essay combines the visceral power of sound and image, building a sympathetic resonance with language and taking a direct route to the senses. We believe this emerging form of creative nonfiction to be, by its very nature, personal, poetic, open to invention. We invite your explorations. Specifically, Blackbird is seeking video essays between two and ten minutes in length (with five to seven minutes being an ideal). More here.

Call For Submissions: New Delta Review
Our theme is Deltafications: Forces Meeting, Colliding. Please send us your non-fiction on the theme of deltas and deltafications. We are interested in work that explores the space and moment at which two forces meet. We are looking for a variety of deltafications, including but not limited to the geographical sort. Topics include: the more or less triangular tract of alluvial land formed at the mouth of a river, and enclosed or traversed by its diverging branches; any triangular space or figure; the constellation of the Triangle. Pythagorean theory, bottle necks, weddings, special interests groups collaborating, train tracks, freeways, social clicks uniting, power plays, love triangles, and things that shouldn't come together but do: raisins and chicken salad. Both short (3,000) and medium length (6,000) are welcomed. SUBMISSION DEADLINE: March 10, 2009.

The Gun Stories: Submissions Guidelines
We’re looking for noisy tales of the Weird South. Strange stories with a ragged sort of energy. You don’t need to be a Southern writer (or an American, for that matter), though we’re certainly interested in Southern perspectives. Nor does your story have to take place below the Mason-Dixon line. What we do need to see is some kind of anchor in the South – a character indelibly informed by the region, or themes of special Southern relevance. We’re looking for speculative fiction of every stripe: horror, sci-fi, fantasy, slipstream. We’re looking for confident prose and bizarre ideas. More here.

Call for Submissions: Canary online environmental literary webpage
Seeking poems, short fiction and essays (prose not to exceed 1500 words) on Nature and the current dangers to it. Please look at Canary before submitting to see what we use.

TallGrass Writers Guild
DEADLINE EXTENDED TO 3-31. Working title: Fearsome Fascinations. We interpret broadly; can mean fascination wi th the paranormal as well as snakes and spiders, and dangerous/extreme sports, addictions and the allure of Forbidden Fruit: Bad Boys, Vamps, flirty married bosses, vices, etc. Especially interested in poetry. No limit on number of submissions in either category. FOR COMPLETE GUIDELINES WITH REQUIRED ENTRY FORM: outriderpress@sbcglobal.net or tallgrassguild@sbcglobal.net

Fairy Tale Review
The Red Issue, the sixth issue of Fairy Tale Review, will be the first themed issue ever, devoted to work hewn from "Little Red Riding Hood." I will read from February 15, 2009 to June 15,2009 for this issue. I welcome email submissions per the guidelines on the FTR website. The issue is forthcoming in Fall 2010. I can only consider unpublished work, though new translations of previously published work always are welcome (with the appropriate permission to translate in hand from the writer or the estate for work not in the public domain). There are no length or form guidelines or restrictions. Complete guidelines may be found on the website.

[out of nothing] is an electronic publication interested in new works in image, sound, text, and the intersections between these media. Generally speaking, we are actively seeking works that address, in some manner: * the vacuum * salvage / remainders * imaginary spaces possessed of imaginary dimensions * darkness / lightlessness * reduced or infinitesimal means * the exponential * self-abnegating symbols * the blank * obliteration * the inconsequential * refusal * the contentless / general contentlessness * the generic and / or undifferentiated and / or the contra-original * adhesive agents in search of clients to bind * none of the above or below. Specifically, issue #2 (Spring / Summer 2009) will have as its theme: [a new frame of nothing]. If you would like for your work to be considered for our next issue, please submit your work to shelling.peanuts(at)gmail.com [replace (at) with @] by March 8th, 2009.

Live Online Poetry Reading

From the Fishouse and the Poetry Society of America (PSA) are pleased to present a reading by poets Carey McHugh and Lytton Smith, PSA's 2008 New York Chapbook Fellows, this Thursday, February 26, 2009, at 7:30 p.m., which will be broadcast live on the Web here. Simply visit the above link any time after 7:30 and watch the reading as it happens from the comfort of wherever you may be.

For more information, and to listen to poems by McHugh and Smith, visit From the Fishouse.

Summer Writing Residencies

Writers in The Heartland is now taking applications for its inaugural season. Writers in the Heartland is a writing colony for creative writers in all genres. The colony is located in Gilman, Illinois, approximately 2 hours south of Chicago. It is located on a beautiful 30-acre wooded site with lakes and walking paths. A limited number of one-week residencies are available for September 4-11 and October 2-9. All lodging and food is included. For the inaugural year, we are only accepting applications from writers living in the Midwest region of the United States.

Applications must be received by April 15, 2009, to be considered. Decisions will be announced by July 1st. For further information about applying to Writers in the Heartland, see our website www.writersintheheartland.orgor contact us at (replace (at) with @)

Edgewood Arts, a non-profit organization located in Savannah, GA is offering a summer residency program for young writers and we want to let students across the country know about this unique opportunity. Our program invites two writers to live in the Edgewood house, a spacious home across from one of Savannah's famous parks. Together with our program directors, these writers hold weekly group critiques, supporting and inspiring one another.

We also ask our Residents to participate as teachers in our Storyboard program, an arts education initiative aimed at Savannah middle school students. Edgewood Arts provides teacher training and tested curricula, so no teaching experience is necessary. The goal of our organization is to encourage young writers to involve themselves in their communities. Our Residents become part of the Edgewood collective and they also hone their craft by teaching it to the next generation.

Our Summer Session runs from May 8th to August 21st. We welcome applications in poetry, fiction, screenwriting, playwriting, and creative nonfiction. Our application deadline is March 15th, 2009. More information and application materials are available on our website at www.edgewoodarts.org.

HERBERT HOOVER NATIONAL HISTORICAL SITE, Iowa
Residencies open to: American writers, composers, and visual and visual performing artists. Application deadline: February 28. Residency period: May 1 through September 30. Number & length of residencies: Two (2) of two to four weeks each. Contact: Adam Prato at 319-643-7855 CST. Go here for additional information and how to apply.

News Around the 'Net

Spring book festivals!

Vote for your favorite odd book title finalist.

John Updike biography on the way.

The New Yorker launches an online book club.

Interview with David Lehman, editor of Best American Poetry.

Is the writing life worth it?

Haruki Murakami on why he accepted the Jerusalem Award.

Worst Love Poem/Flash Fiction Contest -- Poetry

First place in the Worst Love Poem/Flash Fiction Contest goes to Morgan Ross and Briana Gagnier! Congratulations Morgan and Briana! Enjoy the wonderful poem "Submerge Me."

Thanks again to all who submitted to the contest! It was a lot of fun to read these submissions, and I hope those who submitted had fun writing them. More contests are on the way so keep an eye on the blog!

Submerge Me
a love poem

Your lips
are like two waves,
moist, like the ocean,
like your skin.

Your toenails
are solid and opaque
like foggy windows.

Your nose
is straight like an arrow,
it points to my heart.

Those pants
when you wear them
you look like a flesh colored balloon
filled with cottage cheese.
delicious.

Your voice
is husky,
like a pack of snoring wolves.

Your legs
undulate like two jellyfish tentacles,
moving freely in the ocean
that is your upper lip.

Worst Love Poem/Flash Fiction Contest -- Poetry

Second place in the Worst Love Poem/Flash Fiction Contest goes to Amy Schrader! Congratulations Amy! Enjoy reading "Valentine Poem," and check back tomorrow for the first place winner!

Valentine Poem
-for Chris

Consider thistle . Thorn & prickle.
Beloved, how we're slapped & tickled!

I'm petticoated, crinolined. Your Gibson
Girl upon the beach, your Wonder Woman,

a pinned-up pin-up: say chignon,
mon petit chou, fillet mignon.

Exaggerate, conceal: these we do
& very well. I'm hourglass, I'm bell,

a gust of wind will set me swinging.
I'm ankled & I'm bare. We're peeking

underneath the cage, the watch-
spring sprung & all my skirts

are flown up in my face. We're on the floor
& laughing clear. Je t'aime. Je vous adore.

Worst Love Poem/Flash Fiction Contest -- Poetry

Third place in the Worst Love Poem/Flash Fiction Contest goes to David Hundsness! Congratulations David! Enjoy reading "Never Was a Love So True," and check back tomorrow for the second place winner in the Poetry category!

Never Was A Love So True
by David Hundsness

Thine eyes so sparkly, near and bright
As rainbow beacons in the night.
Thy hair so shiny, shimm'ring soft
As swarms of butterflies aloft.

Thy skin so silky, fair and clean
As summer sands in sites unseen.
Thy lips so luscious, plump and red
As mating doves coo o'erhead.

Thy breath so wafting fresh doth please
As springtime pastures in the breeze.
Thy voice, a ballad melody
As brooks do babble endlessly.

Thy breasts so perky, pert and firm,
For which the angels' lips do yearn.
Thine ass so mighty, high and tight,
Of which men dream throughout the night.

For never was a love so true
As is the love that I do you.

Flash Fiction Winner of Worst Love Poem/Flash Fiction Contest!

Judging has concluded for the Worst Love Poem/Flash Fiction contest! Everyone who submitted should have an e-mail response from us in their inbox. We received several excellent submissions, and judging was difficult. If you didn't place this time, please submit for future contests! To our four winners: congratulations and enjoy your free one-year subscription to HFR!

The winner in the Flash Fiction category is Hannah Gambel. Congratulations Hannah! Enjoy reading, and be sure to check back tomorrow for the third place winner in the Poetry category!

Sitting by This Pond With You, Valentine, Even My Heart of Stone Skips.

Nutmeg was not only the first girl I ever kissed, she was also the first girl to put her hands down my pants. Her father, Mr. Tim (of Mr. Tim’s Party Town Palace), bought one of the greeting card messages I had been composing since age 11: It’s your birthday! Don’t be disappointed if you don’t get everything you want—presents are just things that will probably break and lost their original colors if you leave them sitting in the sun. But my love for you is un-harmable, un-fadable, and completely mysterious, even to me.

Mr. Tim proposed that this would be the first in a series of cards which we could call Heartbeats by Bradley. Nutmeg would design the outside of the card, he said. I was thrilled, until the next week when I saw the card that she had designed for my birthday ode; the front of the card was a patchwork of burnt sienna foil, mint green waffle paper, and purple feathers. If my 14 year old self had been familiar with the bead and booze-centric spring-time rituals of the deep, neglected South, I might have written in my journal later that the card looked like a 300 lb man ate Mardi Gras and then vomited it up into a 5x7 inch mold.

I didn’t see Nutmeg again until she showed up at my house the next summer, while my parents ran a parenting conference in Colorado. I didn’t understand why she was suddenly in my living room, and she didn’t explain. When she began to undo my pants, I froze, having no idea what to expect. Only once had I attempted self-stimulation and I had been unaware that a certain sub-equatorial rigidity was needed if my bedroom was to become the den of perpetual pleasure that I had hoped it would be. Wondering what ecstasy would be like, I had prodded and fondled, trying not to be distracted by the strangeness of having something so like a dejected, relatively under-evolved sea-creature attached to me. Eventually, I’d given up, and never touched the thing again.

Nutmeg waiting, I considered what I was. Bradley Williams: an appropriator of British phraseology, a salad dressing snob, a fearful self-disciplinarian, someone indiscriminately seeking validation…For the first time, I wanted to be something other than what I was. I remember thinking that perhaps I would have to learn to be unafraid. On the spot, I composed a greeting card: Valentine, sleeping on this bedazzled rug with you, I feel safe even though you are a dangerous creature. Far from extinction is the Egyptian Plover, which lives in the mouth of the crocodile, earning his stay by picking debris from the gleaming teeth. I reject the safe, fluorescently-lit world I thought I once wanted. My eyes are adjusting to the dark. It’s much like how the caves of central Bolivia are dangerous, but they’re also protective aren’t they?

LAST DAY! Worst Love Poem/Flash Fiction Contest

Just wanted to remind you all that the Worst Love Poem/Flash Fiction contest closes at 12:00AM TONIGHT (FEB 13TH). You still have a good chance at getting into the top three, so don't delay!




You're so sweet
Horseflies keep hangin' 'round your face
Kentucky moonshine
Could never take your place
And your eyes
Could give me goose bumps down to my toes
Feel like the only rooster in the hencoop,
And I guess it shows.
--Neal Diamond

Have you recovered from the "compliment" of those first two lines yet? If you haven't, we'll give you a few minutes. Are you back? OK, here's the scoop: HFR is hosting the Worst Love Poem/Flash Fiction contest in honor of Valentine's Day! Go ahead and interpret this any way you want. Entertain us with witty satire, clever puns, or just the worst clichés you can drag up. Woo us until we vomit.

Rules for entering:
1) One poem or one flash fiction piece (max 500 words) per entry.
2) E-mail your entry to hfr@asu.edu with the subject VALENTINE'S DAY CONTEST.

The top three entries in each category will be published on the blog, and each winner will receive a free one-year subscription to Hayden's Ferry Review!


The work will be judged, and the winners will be notified by e-mail and be published on the blog the following week. Happy writing!

News Around the Net

Amazon unveils its Kindle 2. Stephen King even wrote a story especially for it!

Authors go head-to-head with Amazon over audio rights for the Kindle 2.

Writing about publishing. Can it be done?

Julia Gregson wins the Romantic Novel of the Year 2009!

We usually try to stick to news about fiction, creative non-fiction, and poetry, but this is rather interesting: TWO authors will share the Lincoln Prize for scholarship on the 16th president, James M. McPherson and Craig L. Symonds.

Scholastics has been accused of misusing school book clubs to push non-literature materials on school children.

Galle Literary Festival celebrates freedom of expression in Sri Lanka.

Poets on 'Project Runway'?

... No, not quite. Project Verse is a poetry contest seeking poets to write poetry instead of sew and hem scraps of jeans. It's a poetry contest with a Project Runway twist created and introduced, not by Heidi Klum, but by Dustin Brookshire, a poet, activist, and founder of I Was Born Doing Reference Work in Sin blog site and Limp Wrist, an online magazine.

The contest is a 10-week event in which poets will complete an “assignment” posted each Monday and submit it by noon Friday of that same week. Judges read and check the assignments over the weekend and announce in the I Was Born Doing Reference Work in Sin blog site who is “in or out” the following Monday. The winner of Project Verse will of course receive wonderful prizes that include a contract for a limited edition chapbook published by Limp Wrist, an interview with Joe Milford of “The Joe Milford Poetry Show,” and so much more. So hurry and turn in an application by March 01, 2009.

For more detailed information about how to apply, rules and regulations, visit I Was Born Doing Reference Work in Sin blog site.

Website of the Week -- Project Row Houses

Project Row Houses is a nonprofit arts organization established by African-Americans in Houston’s Northern Third Ward. The project grew out of discussions among African-American artists in 1993 who wanted to “establish a positive, creative presence in their own community.” Spearheaded by artist and community activist Rick Lowe, Project Row Houses (PRH) really took off when he found an abandoned site of 22 houses in the area.

PRH is “founded on the principle that art – and the community it creates – can be the foundation for revitalizing depressed inner-city neighborhoods.”

The program is inspired by the principles of renowned artist Dr. John Biggers (quoted from website below):

* Art and creativity should be viewed as an integral part of life, exemplified in African traditions wherein art is interwoven into the very fabric of life through rituals and ceremony activities.
* Quality education is defined through impartation of knowledge and wisdom - including understanding that is passed from generation to generation.
* Strong neighborhoods have social safety nets, woven by community to support community and to raise social responsibility
* Good and relevant architecture; meaning housing that should not only be well designed, but also make sense to preserve a community’s historic character

PRH has established a variety of programs such as neighborhood revitalization, historic preservation, and low-income housing. Since it’s inception, the PRH campus has grown to encompass 40 properties, exhibition and residency spaces, houses for young mothers, artist residencies, and more. Check them out.

Unusual Calls for Submissions

Kenyon Review 2009 Short Fiction Contest for Writers Under 30
The submission period for the 2009 Short Fiction Contest will be open from February 1st to February 28th, 2009. We are pleased and excited to announce the second annual Kenyon Review Short Fiction Contest, for writers under the age of thirty. Richard Ford will be the final judge. Submissions will be accepted February 1st-February 28th, with the winner announced in late spring. Submissions must be 1200 words or less. There is no entry fee. The Kenyon Review will publish the winning short story in the Winter 2010 issue, and the author will be awarded a scholarship to attend the 2009 Writers Workshop, June 14th to the 21st, in beautiful Gambier, Ohio.

The Bridport Prize 2009
International Creative Writing Competition for Short Stories and Poems. The Bridport Prize 2009 website is now open for entries! The Bridport Prize is the richest open writing competition in the English language - with £5000 first prize for a short story (of up to 5000 words); and £5000 first prize for a poem (of up to 42 lines). The Bridport is also known as a tremendous literary stepping stone - the first step in the careers of writers such as: Kate Atkinson, Tobias Hill, Carol Ann Duffy and Helen Dunmore. Anyone can enter - so long as the work is previously unpublished. It costs £7 per story or £6 per poem and the closing date is 30th June 2009. Each year the prize is judged by well known writers - this year we are delighted to have Ali Smith judging short stories and Jackie Kay judging poetry.

Redactions Investigates the Lyric Poem
"Redactions Poetry & Poetics" newest question of aesthetics is concerned with the lyric. We are looking for responses to one or all of the following questions: – What happened to the lyrical poem in contemporary American poetry? – Why is it disappearing? – How has the lyric lost its prominence? Please send a 200-500 word response to . Please send as a Word attachment, .rtf attachment, or paste in the body of the email. (replace (at) with @). You may also send 3-5 lyric or non-lyric poems to . Please send as a Word attachment, .rtf attachment, or paste in the body of the email. (replace (at) with @). Deadline May 2009.

Enter the Tiferet Writing Awards— Prizes Doubled to $500 Each
Postmark Deadline: April 1. TIFERET: A Journal of Spiritual Literature offers awards of $500 each (doubled from $250) for Poetry and Prose. We publish writing from a variety of spiritual and religious traditions. Our mission is to help reveal spirit through the written word and to promote peace within the individual and the world. $15 entry for one story or essay (Prose) up to 25 pages or 6 poems (Poetry). To enter, please mail your submission and check payable to TIFERET to 211 Dryden Road, Bernardsville, NJ 07924. Or you may submit your entry online. Specify a genre of "Contest-Prose", or "Contest-Poetry", then pay the entry fee using PayPal. Winners will be announced Summer 2009. Poetry Judge: Elisabeth Murawski. Nonfiction: Peter Selgin. Fiction: Ilan Stavans. Mail to: TIFERET: A Journal of Spiritual Literature/ 211 Dryden Road/ Bernardsville, NJ 07924/ 908-432-2149.

Announcing the Obama Millennium Award...
Because of the spontaneous outpouring of good will and good writing that flowed into our Inboxes in response to the election and inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama as president, we're now accepting online submissions for poetry and prose to mark this moment in our young millennium. Wax lyrical, critical, inspirational, analytical, cynical, spritual or in any other way you please to shine a light on the significance of this moment in history. We're looking for the link between the personal and the public. What does Obama's election mean to you and to our world? One winner and three runners-up or more will be published in the next issue of NMW, due out in November, and at www.NewMillenniumWritings.com. The deadline for this contest is midnight Sunday, March 1, 2009 and will not be extended. $1,000 will go to the best single piece of writing--whether poetry, essay or fiction on the subject... you guessed it... Obama. Writers from all three categories will compete for the top prize (as they did for our special award on the significance of the new millennium in 1999). At least three $100 prizes also will be awarded to runners-up. Winners will be announced in May. All contestants will receive a copy of our 2009 Special Issue containing the winners, due out in November. More here.

WHEN DOCTORS AND LAWYERS CONNECT--AND COLLIDE: CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
For a collection to be published by Southern Methodist University Press, Creative Nonfiction is seeking new essays written by or about doctors and lawyers, exploring the two professions--their similarities as well as their divisions and points of conflict. What intrigues, interests, or annoys doctors and lawyers--and, potentially, others--about each other? The objective of this project is to capture the complex relationship between these two professions.Essays must be vivid and dramatic; they should combine a strong and compelling narrative with a significant element of research or information. We're looking for well-written prose, rich with detail and a distinctive voice. Creative Nonfiction editors will award $2,500 for Best Essay.Guidelines: Essay must be: unpublished, 5,000 words or less, postmarked by March 15, 2009, and clearly marked "Doctors and Lawyers" on both the essay and the outside of the envelope. There is a $20 reading fee; $25 includes a 4-issue CNF subscription. Multiple entries are welcome ($20/essay) as are entries from outside the U.S. (though subscription shipping costs do apply). Please send manuscript, accompanied by a cover letter with complete contact information, SASE and payment to: Creative Nonfiction/Attn: Doctors and Lawyers/5501 Walnut Street, Suite 202/Pittsburgh, PA 15232.

Newsflash: Editor eats foot!

The New York Times reported yesterday on the arrival of the newest version of Amazon’s Kindle. Buried in the text of the story was this dismal quote from Carolyn Reidy:

"We do not agree with their pricing strategy," said Carolyn K. Reidy, chief executive of Simon & Schuster. "I don’t believe that a new book by an author should ipso facto be less expensive electronically than it is in paper format."

Publishers seem to be committed to sawing off their own legs. The economy of electronic publishing should be a no-brainer. It is also the answer to getting people reading again. When a potential customer can download a book from where they sit for a lower cost than buying a physical book in a store, the economy of scale kicks back in, and the cost of putting together that book lowers for every copy sold. This could also be a way of getting around the tax on inventory that publishers face. Maybe publishers have been losing money for so long they can’t think of anything else but a shrinking audience. It would be terrible if Amazon became the principle publisher of texts in this world, instead of people who love words. But it’s time for them to read the writing on the wall. Electronic publishing is finally here. It’s already being embraced by retailers like Amazon and by the reading public. Would that the publishers would embrace it, too.

Going to AWP!

If you're headed to the Association of Writers and Writing Programs conference (AWP) in Chicago later this week, we hope you'll come some hi to the HFR staff and ASU faculty at any of the following events...

Wednesday
HFR is participating in a Literary Death Match Wednesday night against five other literary entities. Readers will read, judges will judge, and there will be a literary showdown to determine the winner. Don't miss it! When: February 11, 6:15 (doors at 6:00). Where: The Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia Ave., Chicago, IL. Cost: $5. More details here.

Thursday
The Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing and Arizona State's MFA progam (HFR's home) invite you to a reading by Eric Bogosian in the International Ballroom North, 2nd Floor of the Hilton from 4:30-5:45.

Afterwards, at 7:00, we'll be hosting a reception in the Continental C, Lobby Level room. Join us for a drink!

Friday
Private Dining Room 2, 3rd Floor, 1:30-2:45. Passing through the Fourth Wall: The Academy in the Community. (Cynthia Hogue, Melissa Pritchard, Sean Nevin, Sheilah Britton, Alberto Ríos) ASU's faculty, staff, and students have been involved in projects that seek to make the community the fourth wall of the classroom. Leaders of various community impact programs from ASU discuss ways in which the academic creative writing world can affect the surrounding community through artistic interventions, using our myriad programs as guides, for the terminally ill, hospitalized children, marginalized adolescents in Kolkata, US veterans and peace activists, and pedagogy for MFAs who work with K-12 students in underserved schools.

All the freaking time
We'll be at the bookfair! We've got free stuff, discounted HFR subscriptions, a raffle, and lots of charm. Our table is listed under "The Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing" but the HFR staff will be there in full force. Please stop by to say hi.

Getting to Know the HFR Interns.....

Every semester Hayden's Ferry Review welcomes six new interns to help out with processing submissions and various other sundry and secret acts they're not permitted to talk about. But they are allowed to talk about themselves. For a peek behind the scenes at who gets knee-deep in the slush pile, here are our interns...

Hey guys!!! I’m Rebecca, I’m from Chicago, Illinois. This is my last semester here at Arizona State University. I’m a Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies major with the concentrations of Mass Communication and Creative Writing. I hope to be a magazine editor someday or work along the lines of PR for a fashion magazine. Dream big is what I like to say. Now, as far as my personal life, lets see, I’m obsessed with Twilight, and lets get real, who wouldn’t want a charming and flawless Edward? As far as food goes, I’m a huge fan when it comes to sushi and Japanese food. That’s about it. We've got lots of fun events planned for the calendar so take a look and see for yourself.

Hi, my name is Elizabeth. I'm an English major with a concentration in Creative Writing. I was born and lived in Vermont for nearly 13 years before moving to Arizona, and I go back and forth between missing the country and being perfectly content to relax in 70 degree weather when they're snowed in at -20! It's probably not surprising given my degree choice that my principal interests include reading and writing. I also enjoy crafts like cross stitching and beading. My favorite book is Persuasion by Jane Austen, and I love fruit, my favorite being mango. Happy reading and writing everyone!

Hey guys, my name is Dolmii Dee Remeliik. I'm a senior at ASU,majoring in English with a concentration in Creative Writing. I love music, karaoke, baking, and Hawaiian delight pizza. And of course I love to read! I love Gabriel Garcia Marquez's novels, especially Love in the Time of Cholera, which was introduced to me by Beth. I also love to read Agatha Christie's mystery novelsstarring crime detective Hercule Poirot. I make time for CSI: Las Vegas on Thursday nights and re-runs of Friends every weekday at 5pm. I should be making time for writing. I hope to make writing a career, as well as teaching English in Palau, my home island.

Hey everyone, it’s Kelly. I escaped Minnesota four years ago to come to this beautiful climate. I am currently majoring in both Creative Writing and Accounting. I’d love to someday have a job that deals with publishing books. I will read almost anything and have a certain fondness for historical novels. For a time I was obsessed with Harry Potter. I love the television shows The West Wing and Gilmore Girls, and watch the DVD’s frequently. I plan on resurrecting a weekly blog entry called "From the Intern’s Desk," so make sure you check it out!

My name is Aaron Falvey and I am a post-bacc student at ASU. I am married with a wonderful wife and child. Currently my writing god is Bernard Malamud, subject to change without notice. I have also been reading Miranda July, Isaac Asimov and a lot of Phillip Roth lately. I like my food carbonized, my car with a manual transmission, and Pilot pens. I am currently trying to read five short stories a day. I am very happy to be interning at the Piper House and for the Hayden's Ferry Review this semester.

Hey guys! I'm Melissa , I'm an English literature major. I enjoy rock climbing, playing board games, and collecting high-top sneakers. After graduation, I hope to study in China, and go to graduate school. I'd really like to do humanitarian work in Cambodia and/or rural China. My 2009 Oscar picks are Meryl Streep for best actress; Sean Penn for beset actor; and Slumdog Millionare for best picture. My favorite writers are Michael Chabon, Jamaica Kincaid, Judith Butler, Milan

Kundera, and Carol Rumens. I'm so excited to be interning for the Piper House.

News Around the 'Net

Stephen King disses Stephenie Meyer.

Romantic Novel of the Year shortlist announced. Check out excerpts from the six novels here.

Science Fiction: the next generation of writers. Who will they be?

The Reading, 'Riting, and 'Rithmatic of poetry.

A few non-English words notwithstanding, alphaDictionary.com has compiled a list of "The 100 Most Beautiful Words in English." Prepare to fall in love...let us know which is your favorite!

Here's a chimera to top all chimeras. We won't even tell you what it is. You have to see it to believe it.

Leanne Shapton has literally turned her novel into a catalog of items to be auctioned off...or is that the other way around?

Winners of Kingsley Tufts Poetry Awards announced.

John Updike's last publications.

It looks like Sarah Palin has found a friend in the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, who has allowed a book to be banned.

The Non-Reading Writer and The Review Review (Our Website of the Week)

A recent New York Times article about self-publishing began with this sentence: "The point may soon come when there are more people who want to write books than there are people who want to read them." It's a frightening thought, one which agents, editors and publishers alike must spend much of their time thinking about. As Managing Editor of HFR and a teacher of fiction writing here at ASU, here are a few things that I spend time thinking about/shuddering over:

1) At AWP, if you put out two piles of information on your bookfair table, one labeled "Submission Information" and one labeled "Subscription Information," the former pile will disappear five times as fast (okay, I'm guesstimating) as the latter.

2) If HFR got half as many subcriptions each year as we do submissions, I'm sure I would poop my pants.

3) For - I'd say - 25% of the submissions we receive, it's immediately obvious that the submitter has neither bothered to ever read HFR nor even checked our website for submission guidelines.

4) When I ask my class of intermediate level fiction writers about who they read or who their favorite writers are, half of people they name are dead. The other half are Stephen King and Chuck Palahniuk.

5) When I ask twenty students how many people have heard of "literary journals," the average number of hands that go up is two.

When giving advice to beginning writers about submitting their work to journals, I always suggest they get their hands on copies of the journals they want to submit to. This is for your own good, I tell them. It will save you heartache and postage. Still they look at me skeptically. I am a money-hungry literary journal editor, fishing for subscriptions. I always figure appealing to their egos and pocketbooks is an effective way of getting them to read. But here's what I think is a more important incentive: if beginning writers expect to have anywhere to publish their work (and anyone to read it) they better start reading themselves. They better start subscribing. They better start blogging about, talking about, and getting excited about the world of small press and literary journal publishing (including online journals). Now. Which is why I make students in my classes choose a literary journal to study, read and advocate for throughout the semester. By the end of the class, a few of the students have become subscribers. At the very least, the rest of them know that their are living writers creating work, and an active and vibrant world of print and online journals that support and celebrate "emerging" writers.

This morning I got an email from Becky Tuch at The Review Review, a website that reviews literary journals. She pointed me to this really wonderful (in their "overwhelming positive" category) review of our recent grotesque issue. The website posts in-depth reviews of literary journals, publishing tips, and allows both editors and writers to speak what's on their minds. Lots of great stuff to read through. Most interesting to me, though, was the "About" page, where Becky explains how she came up with the idea for the website. She starts off by saying, "Recently, I'd become disenchanted with literary magazines," and goes on to explain that while she was actively pursuing getting published in literary journals, she wasn't actually reading them.

Not only did I not subscribe to any, I hardly cared what was in them. There were even the magazines in which I'd had stories appear, magazines in which I'd won contests. Even those I didn't read.

I was not the only writer like this. What I found when I talked to my peers was that everyone wanted to be published in these magazines, but no one knew who published what, who edited which magazines, which ones were printed from universities and which were independent, or at the very least which magazines they liked and which they didn't.

Becky's realization led her to take action in the form of The Review Review, so there's a pretty happy epilogue here, but I worry about the number of writers out there who don't take an interest in the work of other writers, who don't bother to read and support literary journals, even as they expect these journals to support them through publication.

On a literary journal blog like this, I would hope this kind of rant would be preaching to the choir, but I'm not sure it is. I'm interested to hear what submitters have to say about subscribing - those who can empathize with Becky, those who feel very differently. How do literary journals hope to generate an excited and lively readership if even their contributors can't be bothered to read them?

Frank Norris & the fate of the novel

After his death in 1902, novelist Frank Norris's critical essays were published in The Responsibilities of the Novelist. The title essay argues that novelists have a greater responsibility to their audience than even a newspaper editor or a minister. While celebrating the form, Norris acknowledges how different eras appreciate different genres. He writes:

"Today is the day of the novel. In no other day and by no other vehicle is contemporaneous life so adequately expressed; and the critics of the twenty-second century, reviewing our times, striving to reconstruct our civilization, will look not to the painters, not to the architects nor dramatists, but to the novelists to find our idiosyncrasy.
"I think this is true. [...] There is no doubt the novel will in time 'go out' of popular favour as irrevocably as the long poem has gone, and for the reason that it is no longer the right mode of expression." [for the full text of the collection visit: http://www.archive.org/details/responsibilities00norriala]

Certainly, the novel is facing its greatest threat since Norris first declared it his choice genre of the American century. The economy threatens to freeze the publishing industry. Money to acquire and market novelists is drying up, editors are being laid off and the survivors are asked to do more work they don't have time for. Authors face shrinking advances and lower royalties thanks to fewer booksales (given the choice between groceries and books, people tend to pick groceries. Unless they are in graduate school and can live on Ramen noodles.)

The shift from print material to digital material has rapidly begun with the development of e-readers, Google's great book scanning project, and the growing sophistication of web developers and web users. The economy has pressured the industry to embrace this untested arena faster than anyone expected. Web-only journals have done some initial work, managing to spread quickly thanks to lower operating costs and the satisfaction of near-instant publication. (The time it takes to respond to stories has decreased thanks to online submissions, but reading a 5,000 word story still seems to take the same amount of time.)

It's possible the short story will have a stronger presence as web-publishing gets sorted out. But the printed novel faces a the kind of marginalization that poetry currently suffers. The printed readership will decrease, albeit slower than proponents of online reading will suggest since novelists will continue to work in the medium. It will take a few commercially viable web-novelists to help convince casual readers to get on board. (Stephen King has already tried, if I'm not mistaken.) While there will always be an argument for the portability and low-cost of mass market books (who wants to take their e-book to the beach or risk leaving it behind on the subway?), the tech-savvy members of current and upcoming generations will celebrate the advantages of e-readers.

The serial publication may be the best way to encourage online or e-book reading. It certainly worked with early novels in England and in the 19th century, though the initial reason was due more to the limitation of printing and the amount of money people had to spend on books. The growth in storyline continuity since the 1990s in television suggests a greater openness to serial publishing. Daytime soap operas and comic books have used this stategy for decades. Serial films, too, tapped into an audiences desire for a perpetual storyline.

Writers can use this strategy to lure their readers in with monthly or bi-weekly chapters or short stories. And, while the hypertext revolution didn't immediately catch on with readers, writers who become/work with webpage designers have the option to lure readers/surfers in and get them to spend an hour or more exploring a story on a website -- creating a new form where the once unseen material becomes accessbile or visual material enhances the reader's understanding of the story. Think of it as a director's cut or a special-features online novel where character sketches, alternate endings, character journals, etc. give the reader a fuller experience. Aside from that approach, a novelist could easily create a graphic-novel world with visual and audio elements that correspond with the text. The footnotes of David Foster Wallace would seem quaint or groundbreaking in this world. (For some idea of the potential of the website-as-novel, consider sites that allow readers to follow rabbit holes in the text like some older iterations of the band website Radiohead.com or the site for the film Donnie Darko). The phrase getting lost in a book can easily become getting lost in a webpage-novel.

In this setup, publishers would still have plenty of revenue opportunities (and thus writers would still get paid for their labor). Imagine reading a book that has a musical reference and being able to play the song along with the scene? Or go off to buy the song? Imagine a publisher with 4 authors -- each author publishes a new chapter each week on the website. (or 30 authors, each publishing a chapter a day!) Readers could pay for access to the entire site or the specific author's work. Want to download to an e-book reader? It's no harder than downloading from iTunes or the Amazon MP3 store. Maybe there's a fee or maybe it's included in the website membership. I'll leave the captilism to the experts, but the novelist would not have to fear a complete loss of financial stability because of the change.

The greatest change might be to the reading experience, and not necessarily the composition. The internet doesn't encourage long reading periods both because of the physical limitation of reading things onscreen as well as the lack of interest people might have spending time online after working on a computer all day. True, printed novels are only slightly easier on the eyes, and if you've ever sat in bed reading a long novel all day you know that the neck, the hands, and elbows all ache. But the technological aspect of reading, along with the physical connection so many readers love to have with their novels, will change no matter what. The price of printing, the environmental impact of so much paper used (and so much wasted), the price of storage, etc. mean that reading digitally will become the norm regardless of the merits of the printed novel.

Publishing is going to become digital. The initial generation of writers who have access to more sophisticated technology and online distribution will try very hard to push the "novel" forward. We may see monstrocities that don't deserve our reading time. There will be pieces that later readers will say was "ahead of its time." There may even be a few commercially successful books (if publishers can convince already-proven writers to given online writing a shot and not simply paste a novel on a website.)

Frank Norris (among others) will be both right and wrong. The novel as a printed object will go out of favor. But the novel as a genre, a form, will carry on. If the novel, at its core, is a detailed story involving characters and conflict, subplots, related scenes, cause and effect, and the moral obsessions of all art, then it will be the manifestation of the genre that goes out of favor, not the novel form itself. Like the long, narrative poem, the printed novel will become an artifact, making way for a different (not necessarily better or worse) form. Most assuredly, what we'll see online will not resemble the books that line my well-stocked IKEA bookshelves. What I read onscreen or download to some device will still be called a novel, but it won't resemble its printed cousin closely, just as e.e. cummings and The Odyssey are both related but vastly different.

Still, as long as there is a story and character and sentences that make the hairs on my arms prickle with electricity, I'll be happy.

EDIT: Found this on Endgadget today: http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/03/v-books-the-future/

So, What's There to do in Phoenix (Art-Wise)?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Phoenix may not be New York or San Francisco, but we've got our fair share of fun art and literature events. We'll keep you posted of these events (and more!) in our sporadically updated review "So, what's there to do in Phoenix?"

ArtEvent: Chihuly: The Nature of Glass; Desert Botanical Garden; Phoenix, AZ; November 22, 2008 to May 31, 2009

Vibrant colors and sculptures, oh my! Phoenix's Desert Botanical Garden is offering an exhibit that can't be passed up. Dale Chihuly's passion for glass-blowing is a remarkable gift, perhaps even more remarkable because he has sight in only one eye, a fact that seems nearly impossible when you experience the beautiful, intricate, detailed world of his work. Influenced by an environment that fostered the blurring of boundaries separating all the arts, as early as 1967 Chihuly was using neon, argon, and blown glass forms to create room-sized installations of organic, freestanding, plantlike imagery.

His work is displayed in over 200 museums throughout the world including many memorable installation exhibitions: Chihuly Over Venice (1995–96), Chihuly in the Light of Jerusalem 2000 at the Tower of David Museum of the History of Jerusalem (2000) and Mille Fiori at the Tacoma Art Museum (2003). Gardens are the dominant theme in his most recent work which can be seen at Chicago’s Garfield Park Conservatory (2001), the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew (2005), the New York Botanical Garden (2006), and Pittsburgh's Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens (2007).

The picture here features my absolute favorite piece in the show. According to his website, his fascination with boats "allude[s] to his childhood in Tacoma, Washington, marked by his love of the sea and his recognition of its importance to the economy of the Pacific Northwest." Though the pictures of his work online are impressive, I really encourage you to see the show in person. The way the light shimmered through the colorful pieces created a dream-like feeling as I wandered through. Truly, not to be missed!