Stories Inspired by HFR

Remember those Basis students and their very excellent 500 word stories? Here is another one for you all. This is an exceptional story that uses red shoes as a spring board to deeper themes. Here's is Vaibhavi M's story inspired by "Les chaussons rouges" by Claudine Doury from Issue #47 of HFR.

*They all came at once, like a pack of angry wildebeests. Their thin blonde hair hid their faces as the wind blew from the South. Every boy on the block stopped, turning to catch a glimpse of the beauties walking down the street. I myself kept my face down, knowing that I could never join their group. My dark skin and black hair only sealed my fate. Well, I never stared at their faces, or their skimpy skirts and immodest shirts. I only noticed the beautiful red shoes, gleaming like rubies in the faint sunlight. I looked down at my own feet in despair. They still sported the same faded purple Vans I had received as a birthday present four years ago. Why could I not possess shoes like those?

And then comes the matter of their dress. They wear white everyday to school as well as crosses, though some of the girls practice Judaism. No boy every tries to asks them to prom or to the high school banquet. Why? Someone who fills their locker with pictures of saints and God kind of wards off any guys who come on fresh. Though they are openly religious and promote Christianity on campus, in the midst of hundreds of students of other religions, these girls still dress as if they just came back from going clubbing in Vegas. They are the ultimate paradox.

No one can penetrate their tight knit clique, even if they claimed to be the daughter of the king of the entire universe. As Shakespeare said “Give me your hands if we be friends, and let Robin restore amends.” They don’t believe that old friends are gold, and new ones are silver. Only old friends exist, no one else. I never took notice of them at all, until they started to accessorize their otherwise plain outfit with those wonderful red shoes.

Website of the Week: My Unfinished Novels

My Unfinished Novels is a brand new online journal/blog that invites readers to submit their most valiant attempts at finishing a novel. It's a literary graveyard of sorts, with some of the stories sounding so familiar they could have happened to you (and maybe they did). Ultimately, as the site bio addresses, My Unfinished Novels looks to do more than just throw a giant pity party for failed writing attempts; the blog looks to "explore [an] idea: why was this novel abandoned?"

The answers are truly stories within themselves; some funny, some slightly depressing, others kinda frustrating: stories of writers who have done the hard part and actually finished a work, only to get lazy about actually trying to get it published; another about a girl who allowed her crazy, narcissistic friend talk her out of finishing her novel so she could have more time to edit the friend's. Then there are the horror stories, such as Susan Remondi's computer glitch that made her entire novel dissapear [Ed. Note: I actually found Susan's book online, although it may not be the full-length one she had intended to get published. If you're interested, here's a link to I Probably Pooped on Your Couch.]

Check out My Unfinished Novels where you can read through all the entries submitted thus far, as well as submit your own unfinished novel, should such a thing exist.

Book Review: 13 ways of happily

13 ways of happily, by Emily Carr. Parlor Press, Anderson, South Carolina, 2011. Review by Debrah Lechner. Poetry.

Myth panting gravity cell leaf & bud bewildered adjacency unchristened unclarified wax flowers wound wings butterflies tremolo cobweb chickweed venetian blinds spandex fever sobbing frog fiberglass cows lunatic logic whirligig curtain & cloud green mountains melt seed drop of water elderly drunk human hands grief & surprise plankton America begins here cannas mitrochondria nothing nothing nothing− soaring dandelion hero’s dream delirious & shredded

I’ve gathered the words above more or less at random from “Book 1: The Journal of Elastic Perception”. This is the first section of Emily Carr’s new book of poetry 13 ways of happily, and I hope it illustrates why reviewers Cole Swenson and Cynthia Hogue invoked words like “kaleidoscopic” and “ecstasy” respectively to describe her work. There are any number of themes that can be found in her work, but what is delicious for the reader is the sensory impact of her poetry in her ambition to encompass a world in words.

In both “Book 1” and “Book 2, An Alphabet of Gluing from Misshapen Wings,” the carefully meted out number of words on each page enhances this transcendent effect, and also captures an elusive characteristic of life−that each moment is another beginning.

In “Book 2” there is increased contemplation of the eternal in the moment, and I enjoyed the wry portrayal of the spiritual manifested in the material.

From “Draft 4, The Long Fall to Dirt Heaven” in “Book 2” of 13 ways of happily:

2

in the heaven of June, a naked angel scratches
a misquito bite checks her

watch at wit’s end the limp guillotined gladioli are
radiant & lonely, singing in disbelief−

13 ways of happily is the winner of the New Measure Poetry Prize. Emily Carr’s first book,
Directions for Flying, was the winner of the 2009 Furniture Press Poetry Prize.

Read more of Carr’s poetry in the online content of Hayden’s Ferry Review issue 46 here. Treat yourself to the luscious poetry of 13 ways of happily at any bookseller or by purchasing it here at Amazon.com.

O, Miami!

April is National Poetry Month, and I'm imagining tons of poets and poetry lovers coming together to celebrate all month long. What I'm having a hard time imagining is the spectacle that will be Miami this April due to the month-long celebration the city is hosting in honor of National Poetry Month: 'O, Miami.' This will not be a bunch of poets sitting around in a hotel-conference room or library, etc. going over their work--nope. The point of this event is to get every single person in Miami to read/look at/touch/absorb at least one poem before the month is out. There's 2.5 million people in the city. So naturally, poetry will be everywhere. The Miami Arts Charter building will be wrapped with a blank canvas of paper on Monday, April 25, and people are invited to come and write poetry on it, there will be poems on the Miami-Dade buses throughout the month, and during a poem-drop, poems will be dropped from a plane onto the city of Miami.

HFR found out about this when we got an email from the Betsy Hotel--one of the sponsors of O, Miami. The Betsy was first opened in 1942. The hotel asked us to send them two copies of HFR for display in their lobby for the O, Miami event, but the cool part is the Betsy Hotel is poem-friendly all year long, making sure each of its rooms has its own library and instead of (or maybe along with) the traditional pillow-mint, you get a poem on your pillow every night.

Miami is lucky to be able to have an event (and a hotel) like this, but wherever you are, I hope you have as good a time during National Poetry Month as I know they'll be having in Miami.

Stories Inspired by HFR

I hope you are all enjoying these stories by young writers as much as we are! These students are 7th graders at BASIS in Scottsdale, and their assignment was to write a 500 word story or scene inspired by a photo from Issue #47 of HFR. This richly imaginative story is written by Alice Y. and is inspired by "Horse in Hall" by Debbie Fleming Caffery.


* To anyone who had wandered across this hallway in the museum, the rocking horse would just appear to be one of the many unsorted toys, just laying there, forgotten by all. However, this seemingly ordinary plaything is the cause of many premature deaths, its innocent eyes concealing the impending danger that lurks inside it; this rocking horse is one of the few portals that had not been destroyed in the old war. Any child who wanders along this hallway and is foolish enough to play on it is sucked into a portal to the Thirteenth Dimension. But I cannot explain any more of this until I have described the Other Worlds; the Other Worlds exist as the homes of fantastical creatures, those who roamed Earth eons ago until they were banished by wizards to different dimensions. There are thirteen Other dimensions, not including ours, the one known as the Original World, where life began. The creatures were separated by their nature, elves and faeries, the winged ones, shared the first, centaurs, satyrs, and others shared the second, and so on. As expected, not all of these creatures had good intentions, and the ones with the darkest natures were driven to the Thirteenth Dimension, the dimension of nightmares. Demons and Wraiths lurked in every shadow, stalking their next victim, and creatures not heard of since the beginning of time roamed the forests, with dark clouds looming ominously in the distance. Rotting carcasses formed bridges over the rivers of blood and tribes were constantly at war; food was scarce enough that corpses were gathered from battlefields and eaten. This was a world where the weak did not survive. But this would not be what the human lured into this dimension would see; they would find themselves in their ideal world, given whatever they want and accompanied by whoever they want. Their every wish and desire would be fulfilled and they could do whatever they want. They would live in this illusion until the demons grew tired of toying with them and killed them, tearing their still-beating hearts out of their chest, sucking their souls out of their bodies, and feasting on their flesh. Every month, a few children would be lured into the trap. In this world, they would be reported as missing and forgotten, any memories of them dying out with their lives. This inevitable tragedy befalls many hapless children, a tragedy that starts with a simple rock on a rocking horse.

Stories Inspired by HFR

The third story! These young writers from BASIS in Scottsdale certainly have a way with words. (The prompt: to write a 500 word story or scene inspired by a photo from HFR #47) This skilled piece by George Y. is inspired by "Sleeping Lizards" by Debbie Fleming Caffery.


* The young boy looked down into his palm, his dead lizard’s tail hanging from it. The lizard he had only caught a month ago, its two legs cut off by him when it was still wild and free, had attempted to free itself, and now, it would never see the boy again. He never knew what species it had been, or even bothered to search. All he did was enjoy watching it scampering around, and, after a while of amusement, catching it with one of his carefully crafted nets.

Somehow, the girls at Hereon Elementary School did not take pleasure in his anecdotes; one of which including how he preformed “surgery” on his lizard, catching it in a net and cutting off its legs. A schoolmate once said they would grow back, but after a while, to his dismay, he realized his lizard’s front legs would never come back. Nonetheless, even without its two front legs, the lizard had always managed to move around, and the boy constantly thought it peculiar for a lizard to stand on hind legs. But now, as he held up the severed tail, he thought that that would never happen again. He would have to buy a new animal from the store or catch one to play with, and so far he had no such luck; for the thousandth time, he gazed at the empty net that had once caught so many animals: his furry white mouse, his recently deceased lizard, and his “adorable” huge eyed bunny, as the girls called it before it was amputated.

The next day, a surprise awaited him in an expensive cage filled with green foliage. Looking into the cage, there seemed to be nothing striking or particular that was at first of interest. But after staring for a long, hard ten seconds, he perceived a chameleon, the lizard he had always wanted to catch, the same type his friend claimed to be able to turn invisible. He eagerly grabbed the cage and sprinted off to the garden.

His father murmured, “Happy birthday, son.”

“Geez, you’re always that boring, aren’t you? I mean, you’re not like even turning invisible and stuffs,” he said, yearning for the thrill brought by the previous animals. The boy then opened the cage, hoping the lizard would finally act as his predecessor. With miraculous agility for the once lazy and motionless lizard, the chameleon shot through the boy’s legs and darted into an adjacent bush, feet moving in a blur. “Wow, you’re like really fast!” The boy, enthralled by the sudden movement, hurried into his luxurious mountainside mansion, grabbed his net, and set up the trap on a Palo Verde tree. He kicked at the infinite desert brooms for a few minutes and heard a snapping sound: the distinct reverberation of his trap springing into action. He sprinted to the Palo Verde tree and saw a lizard; the two front legs and the tail missing confirmed it was the same lizard which he thought was dead, and upon closer inspection, the gecko was also there, remarkably camouflaged in a striped fashion.

Out of Silence: Readings from the Afghan Women's Writing Project

We blogged about the Afghan Women's Writing Project (AWWP) back in July and are happy to support the organization again as they prepare for what promises to be an awesome event here on ASU's campus, 'Out of Silence: Readings from the Afghan Women's Writing Project'.

Eight students from ASU's MFA program will read select works from women writers that are part of AWWP on May 3rd at 7pm in NEEB Hall on the ASU campus. The event is free and open to the public, with donations towards AWWP graciously accepted.

For more information, check out the event page or contact Melissa Pritchard at melissap@asu.edu.

Unusual Calls for Submissions

Pirene's Fountain is planning to sponsor an anthology of poems, flash fiction, essays, etc. about what is going on in Japan. Interested submitters can make a statement, show love and support, speak about Japan's importance to the world, its culture, loss, recovery, whatever they wish. Paste in body of email to pirenepublisher(at)gmail.com (replace (at) with @ in sending e-mail) along with an idea for a title and brief bio.Deadline--November 1, 2011. Any/All proceeds will go toward relief efforts.

Recently, on a shopping trip to Toys R Us, I (Antoinette Brim) came across a display of Barbies in the Basic Black series. Each doll was clothed in a little black dress inspired by legendary designer, Diane Von Furstenberg. In the front row of the display, there were three different black Barbies in three skin colors and with three different hair textures in three different little black dresses. My dear friend was immediately drawn to the doll known as "Goddess." She picked up the doll and said softly, "I have never seen a Barbie [with] my color and with my hair." Educators, poets, artists and now co-editors, Antoinette Brim, Lita Hooper and Demetrice Worley will be compiling an anthology of poetry, fiction, non-fiction (essays), and ten-minute plays surrounding the notion of beauty as it relates to black girls and women. Use Deidre, Goddess and/or Mbilia (the three black Barbies) as your muses. However, while the three black Barbies are the catalyst for this project, they need not be represented directly in your work. Consider how the standard of beauty impacts the way girls groom, envision, present, value and devalue themselves and each other. Consider how the larger community judges black beauty. Consider how the media depicts the black body. Visual Artists interested in submitting artwork for the anthology cover, should also submit.The submission deadline is June 21, 2011. This call is open to all races and genders. Previously published work is welcome. Presently, a publisher is being sought.Please e-mail poetry submissions to: threeblackbarbiespoetry(at)gmail.com Please e-mail fiction submissions to: threeblackbarbiesfiction(at)gmail.com Please e-mail essays and ten minute play submissions to: threeblackbarbiesessays.plays(at)gmail.com Please e-mail cover art submissions to: threeblackbarbiescoverart(at)gmail.com (replace (at) with @ in sending e-mail)

THE POSTCARD PRESS is a new monthly literary magazine featuring one work of poetry or prose printed on a handsome 4”x6” postcard. WE’RE SEEKING prose works of approximately 100 words or less; poems of approximately 10 lines/35 characters per line or less. (It’s gotta fit on a 4”x6” postcard with room for the title and your name, friends.) Simultaneous submissions are fine, just let us know if your work is accepted elsewhere. Please, one submission per theme. WE WANT IT BY: March 31st for our first theme, BEGINNINGS. SEND IT TO US in the body of an email (no attachments!) along with your name, email address, phone number, mailing address, and one-sentence (no more than 25 words) bio. Please put SUBMISSION and your name in the subject line of your email. Address: thepostcardpress (at) gmail (dot) com. More here.

Generations of Poetry: The eZine for Genealogists. The mission of the zine will be to share: poetry on the genealogy obsession (the research, the rewards, the pitfalls), as well as biographical poems about ancestors and kin. We will include poetry by famous authors (such as Robert Frost, who inspired the title of the zine with his poem, Generations of Men). We are open for submissions from poets interested in genealogy, and genealogists with a hankering for poetry. Submission Guidelines can be read on the website.

Switched-On Gutenberg, (www.switched-ongutenberg(dot)org), a poetry magazine online since 1995, is looking for poems on the theme: Accidental (vagaries of fate synchronicity chance meeting ouija board car accident portent love of your life predictions adventure). Submissions: * will be taken through March 31, 2011. * of ONE TO THREE POEMS ONLY, each not to exceed 48 lines. * must be original (previously published work is okay if credits are included). Simultaneous submissions are OK as long as you notify us as soon as a poem is selected elsewhere. * Poetry can be in Text only (TXT or RTF), in Word (DOC or DOCX) format or included in the body of your e-mail. PLEASE DO NOT SEND PDF FILES! And please name your file with part of your last name you'd be amazed at how many "Gutenberg.doc" files we have to sort out). * should be e-mailed to editor(at)switched-ongutenberg.org (replace (at) with @). Please include your name in the subject line. * should include: your name and e-mail address o a short (three-line) biographical note. Please limit the list of publication credits to five. Address and phone number in case we need to contact you. We try to report on submissions within 3 months of the March 31 deadline. Please wait to query us till August 2011. We plan to release Issue 17 in late-summer 2011.

SUBMISSIONS ARE NOW OPEN FOR ISSUE #13 of Soundzine. We will be open for submissions until May 31, 2011. For Issue #13, we are celebrating LUCK in all its silly-serious, superstitious glory. Good luck, bad luck and all the luck in-between! What makes you feel lucky? Four leaf clovers, your lucky socks? What makes you shiver a bit? Three crows in a tree, a black cat crossing your path? Heck, do you even believe in luck? Take this one as far as you want - have fun with it! Push your luck and see what happens! NOTE: We will also accept non-themed poetry and prose. We accept quality poetry and flash fiction (450 to 800 word maximum),as well as author's readings. We are now also accepting submissions ofmusic and song. Submissions should be accompanied by a brief bio. Articles concerning literary criticism or theory will also be considered. All submissions EXCEPT prose should be e-mailed to submissions(at)soundzine.org (and for prose prose(at)soundzine.net (replace (at) with @ in sending e-mail).

Stories Inspired by HFR

We love these stories! This is the second of stories inspired by Hayden's Ferry Review. Just as a reminder, these talented writers are seventh graders at BASIS in Scottsdale, and the prompt was to write a 500 word story or scene based on a photo from the most recent issue of HFR. Today's story is written by Samantha N. and is inspired by Julie Blackmon's "Cherry." The ending is absolutely perfect.


*
When my parents walked out the door, I waited patiently with my book on my lap until I heard our garage door meet the concrete floor of our overcrowded garage with a bang. I leapt from my pose on the couch and stole to the window, where I peeked out of the drab curtains, and watched their car drive down the street. I lingered until they were out of sight to ensure they would not return unexpectedly. I possessed a full hour to do whatever I wanted, a full hour of parent-free time. Sprinting to the stereo, which I was forbidden to touch, I cranked the music to its highest available volume.

The house shook with musical vibrations. I pranced into the kitchen, pausing only to get the key to the baby lock connected to the fridge out of a drawer. I nearly ripped the refrigerator door off when I successfully unlocked the confounded device that denied us food. Browsing the different selections, I spotted my favorite treat: cherries. Since I was in such a hurry to shove those delicious cherries into my mouth, I accidentally spilled some of the juice on my shirt. Shoot, I thought, Mom can’t see this. I ripped off my shirt and threw it under the sink.

I reclined on the couch, moments away from plopping one of the cherries in my mouth, when I heard a familiar, high-pitched voice. Slowly I looked up and saw the major flaw in my plan. A devilish smile adorned my sister’s face. Blonde curls bouncing, she leaned her head back and dropped one of my cherries into her mouth. Walking around the couch to face me, she rocked back and forth on her black Mary-Jane’s and said to me in her most innocent of voice, “If you wanna stay out of trouble, you’re gonna do exactly what I say.”

merj Launch Event

Where will you be on April 2? If your answer is anywhere in the Phoenix area, it should also involve this awesome event, hosted by merj magazine! merj is a new online and print publication, designed to get artists from different mediums interacting and creating together. The goal of merj is to foster collaboration between artists and forms, and promote art within the community.

The event, which will take place from 6-8 p.m. at Art Intersection in Gilbert, AZ, will feature multimedia projects, such as photography, music, and poetry, copies of the first issue, delicious cupcakes, and more. It's a great way to support the local Arizona art scene and celebrate the creation of a new literary and arts journal.

Call for Photo Submissions: 'Dinner' Time

Harvey Stein, a photographer featured in the upcoming issue of HFR, has a new photo project that he is opening to the public. Here's the call:

From casual meals to gourmet banquets, DINNER is part of our daily lives. Whether we celebrate it or just tolerate it, we can't do without it. We plan greatly for it, or grin and bear it. It's a ritual, whether eating on the run or at the dinner table, alone or with friends and family. We romance and socialize around it, worry about it, prepare for it, dread it, or try to ignore it. We study recipes, look through fancy restaurant windows in envy, are hungry for the next DINNER, wonder if we can afford it.

We want to see your photos of your DINNER (and/or others) and what you do when you are there. Whether your photographs are of a person eating a piece of pizza on the subway, a Thanksgiving or Passover feast, or a lonely individual at a diner, we are interested. From shopping for it, preparing it, indulging in it, or cleaning up afterwards, make your photos as personal, interesting, sensual, fun, beautiful, startling as you can. No DINNER is out of bounds.

If you're interested in submitting photos of you getting down on your Mom's famous sloppy joe's, e-mail info@umbrellaarts.com to get an entry form. Winners will have their work displayed at Umbrella Arts studio in the East Village. Submissions are due by April 11, 2011 so get cookin'.

Mange, Mange / Home on the range

Stories Inspired by HFR

Here's something that we at HFR think is really awesome...

A local middle school teacher tasked his 7th grade English students at BASIS in Scottsdale with an assignment based on the latest issue of HFR. The prompt is: to write a 500 word story or scene inspired by a photo in the most recent issue. I think HFR is developing a new fan following. The stories we have received so far are excellent, and we are thoroughly enjoying reading them. These blossoming writers are exceptionally creative, and really took the prompt and ran with it.

We will be publishing a student's story (and the image from which it was inspired) every couple of days on the blog. First is a heart-wrenching and powerful story by Amanda C. This story is inspired by Debbie Fleming Caffery's "A Horse in the Hall." Enjoy.

*
High above the dangers that lie below on the forest floor, a frail boy is staring off into the eye of the night sky as branches of the ancient trees protect him from the painful wind, but a wolf’s cry breaks the boy’s concentration as he snaps back to reality. Noticing how much time has passed by, the boy quickly slides down the tree trunk, running quickly as he can as leaves crack and crinkle under his feet. Blinding lights shine out from the living room window as his feet drag him closer and closer towards the back door. The boy pushes the handle down and nudges the door forward as he holds his breath. Warm air embraces his body, sending shivers down his spine; one of his sneaker covered feet takes a careful step forward. Suddenly a large calloused hand slaps the back of the boy's head. The blow sends him crashing into a cabinet.

The impact scrapes his forehead; warm liquid drips down into his eyes as he instinctively brings his arms up to protect his head. A single blow from his father’s leather shoe knocks him unconscious. A painful jerk from his hair brings him back to reality; the pain devours his body like a wildfire. As the boy slowly lets the darkness envelop him he sees a white blur.

A chirping noise awakes the sleeping boy; pain instantly hits his body hard as he slowly crawls on all fours. Noticing the blood on the floor the boy slowly creeps his way towards the storage room to grab a mop. The mops sucks in the blood, tinting its dreadlocks a pinkish color. Lifting the mop, the boy walks wearily back to the storage room making sure not to drop any water on the floor.

After the boy returns back to the hallway, he looks back to where he saw the white blur, a rocking white horse meeting his gaze. Overjoyed, the boy forgets his pain and hastily climbs onto the horse, resting his body upon it. The boy continues to rock back and forth upon the horse, his eyes slowly growing heavier with each flutter of his eyelids, and suddenly they shut close. A sudden slam from the boy’s father wakes him up. Frightened, the boy runs to the back door, escaping into his haven, the forest, as his father walks through the front doors. The boy’s father rushes to the sound of creaking in the hallway only to find a wooden horse rocking on the glossy floor.

News Around the Net

David Foster Wallace's unfinished novel, The Pale King, comes out next month. If you can't wait until then to read the (very long) opening sentence, well, neither could the people at The Millions.

Deborah Eisenberg won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for her short story compilation The Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg.

Not sure if I've ever linked to this, but I make the rules here, and if I want to link it again, I will do so. This is a really cool continuing feature from The Rumpus. And we all get to participate if we want!

Here's Bret Easton Ellis chiming in on the Charlie Sheen ramblings with his own ramblings about something he's calling a post-Empire atmosphere.

Bi Feiyu won the Man Asian Literary Prize this week, awarded to what is judged as the best piece in the 26 nation Asia-Pacific region. I feel like Asian literature is kind of overlooked. I'm sad I'm not more up-to-date on it.

So, uh, Ezra Pound. Not really known for being the best person in the world.

Submissions Temporarily Closed

Please note that our submission manager will be temporarily closed as we migrate on over to Submishmash. If you've submitted recently - don't worry! Your submission will be converted over to the new system. If you haven't submitted, we hope you do. And we think you're going to love the new system. Details will follow early next week after everything is set up. Thanks for your patience!

Book Review

Majestic Nights: Love Poems of Bengali Women. Translated by Carolyne Wright and Others. White Pine Press, 2008. Review by Debrah Lechner.

Majestic Nights is a beautiful, seductively produced slim volume of love poetry, and the first riffle through the pages confirms that the well-chosen poetry included in this anthology is lyrical, very often romantic and not infrequently ecstatic.

It is that: but it’s a great deal more than that as well, and reading it with more attention is a little like discovering a loaded gun in a beautifully gift-wrapped package. The impact is explosive.

It is that: but then again the discovery of this impact is not sudden. It unfolds─ as notes about the poems and the lives of the women who wrote them are absorbed, and as the collection transforms into more than the sum of the poems, coalescing into a whole, coming to full bloom.

The subject matter in Majestic Nights covers the experience of Bengali women over nearly a century: Muslim and Hindu women, women from both Bangladesh and West Bengal in India, women who wrote from the seclusion of purdah, women tolerate extreme exposure and exile for the sake of writing poetry, women of diverse modern professions, women in love, women in fury, women in rebellion, women in grief, women who must surrender in their various ways to their own lives and the insistent inspiration of their own hearts.

It is not an easy thing to try to balance the desire for freedom and equality with the craving for a place of your own in the culture you love, for an anchor deep in family, tradition, and spiritual discipline. The subjugation of women is a highly inflammatory topic.

Majestic Nights also traverses an important era in the history of Bangladesh, a country where “war of words” is not just a figure of speech. Language in many ways defines Bengali culture, and it is a passion for which Bengalis have laid down their lives through the years. Their pride in their language and culture is manifest in these poems.

Negotiating these issues and the personal and political passages that they create required a deft touch. The result is a work that is deeper and more profound than any political manifesto because it is personal, and because no matter what the circumstances, it invokes the possibility of love.

Carolyne Wright may be the only person who could have succeeded at this. Her publications, prizes and accomplishments as a poet and a translator are too numerous to catalog, unless you want to read a list a yard long in 12 point type.

She appears to have crammed several lifetimes into the one she is still living. She researched for several years in Chile, publishing portions of a memoir in progress about her experiences, and her recent years in West Bengal and Bangladesh are yielding numerous translations of the poetry and prose of Bengali women, including two earlier volumes, The Game in Reverse: Poems of Taslima Nasrin (Braziller), and Another Spring, Darkness: Selected Poems of Amuradha Mahapatra (Calyx Books). In progress are other individual collections and a larger comprehensive anthology, A Bouquet of Roses on Burning Ground.

As a translator, the work she has done has been financed in part by a Fulbright Study Grant and a Fulbright Senior Research Fellowship, as well as an NEA Fellowship in Translation. Recently one of her poems was published in The Best American Poetry of 2009, and in the Pushcart Prize XXXIV: Best of the Small Presses (2010).

Majestic Nights may be purchased at Amazon.com here. You can watch podcasts of Carolyne Wright reading her own poetry here and here.

News Around the Net

The house that may have inspired F. Scott Fitzgerald to write The Great Gatsby is set to be demolished with the property being sold for five new homes.

Michael Chabon and his wife are setting up a drama about magicians trying to thwart Hitler during World War II. And now I might need to reactivate my cable.

America's top 10 most awesome poems. I think I've even read a couple of them!

David Foster Wallace talking about contemporary popular literature and reading. Intelligent, interesting, and very, very fidgety.

Co-founder of Open City, Thomas Beller, looks back on the now-defunct magazine.

Maybe not overly literary, but still really cool: typeface faces.

Unusual Calls for Submissions

Obsessions and Compulsions. We seek additional poems for an anthology project we started five years ago. Now that we’re gearing up again to complete the project and propose it to more publishers, we’d like more material to consider. What are you obsessed with in your poetry writing? What are you compelled to write about over and over? What subjects show up again and again across a wide body of work? The weirder the better. The National Enquirer? George Clooney? Psycho? Tattoos? Half-chewed cough drops from your grandmother’s purse? Broken rake handles in the cow barn? Artificial legs? Clam chowder? The ghost waiter at Cafe du Monde? Surprise us, delight us, and scare us with your obsessions and compulsions. (We do not want to see poems about ex lovers. We have enough already.) Those accepted will be asked to contribute an additional short essay later that explains why their subject matters so much to them and why it’s important to write obsessively and compulsively about it. E-mail attachments preferred. Send several poems about your obsessive, compulsive subject (so we can see just how obsessed you are) to Stephen Powers and Michalene Mogensen at obsessionsanthology(at)gmail.com (replace (at) with @ in sending e-mail). Deadline: May 31st. Snail mail (with SASE for response) should be sent to Dr. Stephen Powers, Gordon College, 419 College Drive, Barnesville, GA 30204.

Whether you've never written a word in your life or write every day, we invite you to enter our Putting Our Heads Together Poetry Contest, 2011. Subject must be headache or Migraine related, but may be metaphoric or abstract. Form: Rhymed, free-verse, any form of poetry, but not prose. Poetry must be original and written by you. Submission of poetry written by someone else will result in disqualification. All poems must be unpublished work, never before published anywhere. Length: Maximum of 60 lines, no more than 80 characters per line (including spaces and punctuation). Please make special note of the 80 characters per line. This means LINES, not paragraphs. Number of entries: Please limit entries to no more than three poems per person. Age: Poems written by persons under 18 years of age must be submitted by a parent or legal guardian. "Family-friendly" language required. No profanity or other potentially offensive language. Deadline: Midnight, Tuesday, March 15, 2011. Submissions received after this date will be deleted. All poems that meet the contest rules will be published on HelpForHeadaches.com. Writer retains their copyright and is, of course, free to republish the poem elsewhere after the contest. More here.

Lavender Review is a biannual e-zine dedicated to poetry and art by, about, and for lesbians, including whatever might appeal to a lesbian readership. Contributors to the first two issues include Marilyn Hacker, R.V. Bailey, U.A. Fanthorpe, Minnie Bruce Pratt, Eleanor Lerman, Suzanne Gardinier, Judy Grahn, Ali Liebegott, Eileen Myles, A.E. Stallings, and Rachel Hadas. The theme of Issue 3 is Night, in honor of Marilyn Hacker's "night-fancied" Lettera amorosa. The deadline for submissions is 6/1/11. Send up to six unpublished poems (simsubs ok) in the body of an email to lavender.review com (replace (at) with @).

In the spirit of poetry, a literary form reliant upon small gestures of language, small spaces of silence — In solidarity with the people of St. Lucia, a small Caribbean Island still reeling from Hurricane Tomas — dirtcakes announces the First Annual Poetry Benefit Contest open to all writers. We invite poetry that celebrates the small, the individual, the overlooked. Contest winner will receive $100 and publication in an upcoming issue of dirtcakes.Winner will be announced on April 5, 2011 during a dirtcakes-sponsored Evening of Poetry and Music, one of the National Poetry Month events scheduled at Chapman University, Orange, CA. Poet Lynne Thompson will read the winning poem. All funds received will be donated to the St. Lucia Red Cross. More here.

Stymie’s FIRST ANNUAL TRADING CARD FICTION contest. Submissions will be accepted December 1, 2010 to March 15, 2011. General Guidelines: Submissions must be 100 words or less. There is a $5 entry fee. Stymie Magazine will publish the winning short story along with a selection of other finalists as part of a limited edition Trading Card Fiction set available in mid-2011. The winning story will receive a cash prize of $150 and a complimentary Trading Card Fiction set (a collection of the winning story and other finalists). All finalists will receive a complimentary Trading Card Fiction set. Submission Guidelines: * Stories must be no more than 100 words in length. * No submissions maximum per entrant, though each entry must be made separately. * Please do not simultaneously submit contest entries to another magazine or contest. * The submissions link will be active December 1, 2010 to March 15, 2011. All work must be submitted through our electronic system. We cannot accept paper submissions. * Winners will be announced in the late spring. Entrants will receive an e-mail notifying them of any decisions regarding their work. We are currently accepting entries via our Submissions Manager. Additional info may be found at our website.

Currently seeking contributors for a new book project entitled Gathered: The Anthology of Contemporary Quaker Poetry. Many anthologies of writing from other spiritual traditions have been published in recent years, and this Quaker anthology will be an important addition to the conversation. Formal membership in any branch of the Religious Society of Friends is not a prerequisite for inclusion. Contributors should, however, identify as Quaker. Submissions should be in MS Word (.doc or .docx) or RTF format, along with a cover letter containing contact information, an author bio, and a little something about your connection to Quakerism. E-mail your submission to: quaker.poetry(at)gmail.com (replace (at) with @ in sending e-mail). More here.

Website of the Week: The Sorted Books Project

I could've sworn I'd written about this website before, but as I strolled through my posting history I found nothing. The Sorted Books project is a super creative endeavor from California-based artist Nina Katchadourian where she puts together book titles to creative mini-narratives or insightful quips. Some are funny, others ominous. I like 'em all.

Contributor Spotlight: T. Zachary Cotler

Zachary, whose poems "Theresa of Avila" and "Elegy for Derrida: Aleph-one and Aleph-Null" appear in the current issue of HFR, wrote to let us know about a new project he's working on, and we thought we'd pass along the good news.

The Winter Anthology is a collection of 21st century literature, American and international. Volume One can be read on the website and includes contributions from Yves Bonnefoy, Jack Gilbert, Jean Valentine, Charles Wright, and others.

The project is a vehicle for writings that privilege density, precision, earnestness, unapologetically demonstrated intellect, and sensitivity to the numinous. Various strands of late 20th century thought have done much to problematize these values, but the writings collected in The Winter Anthology are neither sentimental atavisms nor naive attempts at reconstruction. Rather, they are elegies for art and artists, some explicit, many more implicit, conscious of the technological and social forces at work for good and ill in the 21st century.

So, check it out! And check out their annual contest to find out how to submit your work.

The Return of Desert Nights Rising Stars

And the 2011 Desert Nights Rising Stars Writers Conference commences!

I never miss the Writers Conference (and when I say never, I really mean it). As a high school student I had my mother call me out sick so I could attend the full four days. As a university student I cut classes to attend panels and volunteer – “No, don’t worry about scheduling conflicts. I’m not going to class.” And last year, as a study abroad student in Japan, I was secretly just a tad bit delighted that the Writers Conference wasn’t being held…because I didn’t miss out on anything. As a high school freshman DNRS was overwhelming and enchanting, as a high school senior it was what prompted me to pursue a Creative Writing degree at ASU, and now as a university student and a Piper House intern, it is a doorway to a career. It is always a joy to be here, always a thrill. (Addicted? Obsessed? In love? Why, yes, I am.)

This is my seventh DNRS Writers Conference. I'm ridiculously happy to be back.

It is so refreshing to return to the Writers Conference. It is relaxing. It is uplifting. It is hectic and busy and non-stop, but I can finally breathe again. I can finally stop being a student and I can return to being a writer. That's what the Writers Conference is to me, it is a renewal, it is inspiration. Desert Nights Rising Stars – the classes, the community, the atmosphere – fuels me, it feeds me, it fills me until I am confident again that I am a writer and until I can no longer hold prose in my head and must release it onto pages and sticky notes and corners of napkins.

Today...T.M. McNally emphasized the importance and existence of truth in fiction in his class entitled “A Matter of Soul (Not Character).” The life you write will save your own, and in saving your own life, you will save the lives of others. “I am not creating characters,” McNally said. “A character is false, inhuman. I am God. I create souls.” In her class “Maps for Storytellers,” Tara Ison broke down the basic structure of a story and analyzed the process of collisions and obstacles and need that drive conflict and move your character across the page.

In his keynote address “Invisible Borders,” Alberto Ríos spoke of the falseness of invisible lines and the fascinating depth of words... There are no borders between countries; the lines between cultures are only illusions. What difference is there between a green parrot and a green salad? A pen functions on so many different levels when it is una pluma. Literature is a power that transcends the invisible borders. A pencil holds enough graphite to write approximately 50,000 words, and you/I/we have the power to release those words.

I am refreshed. I am inspired. I am ready to write.

If you're here, at this revival of the Desert Nights Rising Stars Writers Conference, I hope you're enjoying everything as much as I am. If you're not here, I hope to see you next year. I'll be back.

News Around the Net

So, The Great Gatsby was a Nintendo video game and, even better, a video game version of Waiting for Godot was found. Just insane amounts of excitement there, I'm sure.

The 2010 Story Prize was awarded to Anthony Doerr. Really good writer usually win this one (Daniyal Mueenuddin, Jim Shepard, Tobias Wolff are past winners), so you might want to take note.

Have you ever wanted to follow Sylvia Plath, Samuel Beckett (with an anti-Justin Beiber obsession) or Arthur Miller on Twitter, but then thought they might be a little too dead for social networking? No more.

The 2010 Believer Book Award finalists (for the best and most underappreciated novels of the year) have been announced, albeit over two months into 2011.

Literary Journal Open City is saying goodbye after 20 years. A good run, not as long as it should have been.

Stephen King has a new novel coming out. Another 1,000 page novel. This one about a time traveler thwarting JFK's assassination. Color me intrigued.

Francine Prose visits Phoenix March 2nd and 3rd

Francine Prose, author of Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife, Reading Like a Writer and a host of wonderful novels will be visiting Phoenix later this week, and we'd love for you to come to any of the Piper Center for Creative Writing events, which are free and open to the public. Prose's Public Craft Q&A will take place at the Piper Writers House on Arizona State University's Tempe campus on Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010 at 2:00 pm. Feel free to come and ask any questions you may have about her work or the craft of writing.

Prose's reading and booksigning will take place at the Phoenix Art Museum in Whiteman Hall on Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010 at 7:00PM. Admission to the museum is free on Wednesdays so you can enjoy art before or after you enjoy the reading.

Prose's new book looks to see who the person is behind the diary and how one girl's account of a horrible tragedy is seen as a universal icon, read all over the world. The Wall Street Journal spoke with Prose about her own motivations for writing a book about one of the world's most widely read books. The article also includes a link to a book excerpt. The Los Angeles Times reviewed Prose's book saying, "With 'Anne Frank,' then, Prose means to remove Frank from the wistful amber of her posthumous celebrity and reveal her to us in a more realistic light." Read the full review here.