Breathing in New Sources of Poems: A Piper Writers Studio Offering

"In making poems, I work with a kind of poetic faith: a trust that the needed material will come, if only I remain alert and open. A trust that additional streams of information, from mythology or history or language itself, will come along to complicate and frustrate the process and ultimately bring it to completion." -- Gregory Donovan

For those of you interested in advancing your poetic side (and who live in or near Phoenix!), The Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing (the proud home of HFR) has an opportunity for you to work with excited professional writers that want to help inspire and educate new talent.

POETRY: "Snow on the Mountain: Breathing in New Sources of Poems"

September 15th-November 3rd, Thursdays 6-8pm at the Piper Writers House at Arizona State University

Course Instructor: Gregory Donovan

Gregory is a senior editor of Blackbird: an online journal of literature and the arts and is one of the founding faculty members of the MFA in Creative Writing Program at the Virgina Commonwealth University. Donovan is the author of the poetry collection Calling His Children Home and won the Devins award in 1993.

For more information about registering for this or other exciting Piper Writers Studio courses, visit the Piper Center website.

Book Review: Thirteen Loops by B.J. Hollars

Thirteen Loops: Race, Violence and the Last Lynching in America, by B. J. Hollars.
The University of Alabama, 2011.
Creative Nonfiction.
Review by Debrah Lechner
Debrah.Lechner@gmail.com

Thirteen Loops examines the role of the lynching of Black men in American society, particularly as a reaction to the struggle for civil rights, from about 1933 to 1981. It’s a cogent and valuable history, documented extensively in a lengthy bibliography; it is an important academic document. It is more than that, though. It is written in story form, conversationally, as though recounted by a friend, and this form makes it a very personal experience to read. It makes Thirteen Loops one of those rare books that is impossible to put down, that is transformative, that will remain forever in memory.

The title of the book refers to the thirteen loops in the noose that was used to murder Michael Donald, a young black man randomly assaulted by two Klan-influenced men.

Thirteen loops killed Michael Donald.
Of course, others might argue that racism killed Michael Donald, or madness, but it was the loops as well. It was the rope and the men who wielded it, tying knots with a surgeon’s precision.
A utility knife did not kill him, or a tree limb, or the hanging itself.
Michael Donald died because Henry Hays pressed his boot to the young man’s face, because he and Tiger Knowles took turns tugging the rope, pulling so tightly that the bones fractured in Michael’s neck.

Hollars is unsparing of detail in his recounting of these events, and not just in the gore and injustice of the atrocities, but in describing the humanity of all persons involved.

We learn the origin of Tiger’s nickname.

We hear about what death row was like for Henry Hays, and in that the comparison between lynching and execution is inevitable. Hollars does not dwell on such questions didactically. It is more than enough to be exposed to the reality in order to raise troubling questions about our cultural reliance on violence, and the violence we of which we may each be capable. (There are photographs in this book as well: study the faces.)

We learn that Michael Donald loved basketball.

Though I didn’t know him, this is the way I choose to remember him; the ball gripped tightly in his hands or weaving between his legs, his shoulder tucked low, releasing for the easy layup. Or playing defense, perhaps, cutting off the lane and forcing the ball. Shooting the three, the free throw, the short jumper. The pass, the chest pass, boys toppling to the wooden floor before laughing and picking themselves back up.

Meet Michael Donald, and open your mind and heart by reading Thirteen Loops: Race, Violence, and the Last Lynching in America.

B. J. Hollars is the editor of You Must Be This Tall to Ride: Contemporary Writers Take You Inside the Story and has published in a number of journals. Visit his personal website. Thirteen Loops will be available for purchase soon from most vendors. Find it on Amazon here.

Notes from NJ — Hi Beth (# 2)

Chuck Tripi has lived a life of poetry and study since a medical catastrophe suddenly ended his flying career in 1998. After his poem "Crack-Up" was published in HFR's 47th issue, he struck up a correspondence with Managing Editor Beth Staples. His epistolary perspective on writing and the writing life has been so valuable to Beth, she wanted to share some of his notes here. He writes from Sussex County. See all of Chuck's letters here. 
*

Hi Beth,

There was a sort of bistro we used to frequent in Los Angeles on layovers between our flights from New York and back. Ten or fifteen times, returning to the hotel, I met the same street-singer, and we took the random offering of our contact to come a little more alive and well.

He'd sing some jazz, and I would be his audience. I'd give him a five or a ten or, once, a twenty, but it was only that one time, and it was a while after this:

I asked him one night, after another of our lyrical conversations, if he could help me to an understanding of the basis of our more than ordinary affinity.

With his index finger tapping on my chest and the history of art in his rheumy eyes, he said this—a heart knows a heart. He said a heart knows a heart.

And isn’t it the failure sometimes of our poetic representations, to make romance of the deprivations of street-singers, and isn’t it our triumph sometimes to do the same with our own, to wrangle from our aches a thing sublime and lilting with a new reality?

It has been nearly fifty years since we began to perceive the element of racism in the phrase, “Columbus discovered America.” Isn’t poetry exactly this, discovering hearts, writers’ and readers,’ their teeming contents, already there? And to arrange from our distillations true and engaging things, isn’t it the way of poetry, exactly this, to awaken in a reader’s heart the things already there and burgeoning?

Best,
CKT

Unusual Calls for Submissions

Theportlandreview.com is currently seeking humor pieces for publication. We're looking for snide, cynical prose of about 500-1,000 words on a variety of topics. The sky is the limit, as they say. Here are some topic we're currently looking for pieces on:
1) Defend a movie that has been critically panned, for example; tell us why Sinbad's Houseguest is an awesome movie.
2) Tell us why a critically acclaimed film is awful, for example; tell us why Citizen Kane is a pretentious glob of goo.
3) Write about your favorite episode of ER. (Seriously).
4) Tell us about a piece of pop culture (an album, a TV show, lawn darts, whatever) that has a significant emotional resonance to you. But be funny about it.
5) Anything funny.
email: portlandreviewonline@gmail.com

For an anthology of Polish/American authors, the editors (John Guzlowski and John Minczeski) seek quality poetry, short fiction and creative non-fiction, not necessarily on a Polish theme, from writers with a Polish background. The anthology will update Concert at Chopin’s House, a Collection of Polish/American Writing, published by New Rivers Press in 1988. Payment, 1 copy. Please respond by January 31, 2012 by Word or RTF attachment to: Polish.Anthology(at)gmail.com (replace (at) with @ in sending e-mail)

[out of nothing], an electronic publication interested in new works in image, sound, text, and the intersections between these media, is now open to submissions for its sixth issue: "in the mirror, a sleep, a spectral nothing." Please submit your textual, aural, visual, poly/ambi-medial work to us at shelling.peanuts(at)gmail.com [replace (at) with @]. Deadline: October 31, 2011 Complete submissions guidelines are available here.

Past Loves Day Story Contest, 2011. Write your true story of a former sweetheart, in 700 words or less. Awards: $100, $75, $50, Honorable Mention(s). Winning stories will be published in an upcoming anthology. No entry fee. Authors retain all rights. Deadline: August 17, 2011. More here.

Sugar Mule: A Literary Magazine invites submissions for a special issue on Women Writing Nature. For this issue, the guest editor, Jeanetta Calhoun Mish, would like to see poetry and creative nonfiction (or the two combined) only—please don’t send fiction. Please send poetry, essays, memoirs, reflections, and scientifically-based essays (think McPhee) aimed at a general audience. Topics include (but are not limited to) women’s perspectives on nature, women’s experiences with nature or with its non-human inhabitants, and travel/voyager/explorer journals that concentrate on the writer’s interaction with the natural world. Contributions by women of color and by women outside the academy are encouraged. If you’re not sure if your essay will “fit,” send it along anyway—the editor hopes to collect the unusual essay as well as the common one written uncommonly well. If your essay is selected, it will be published online July 2112 in Sugar Mule. You may send queries for prose if you wish to confirm conditional acceptance before writing. Sugar Mule does not pay for accepted work(s) at this time. Query deadline is December 15; submission deadline (with or without query) is February 1. Please send submissions directly to the editor, Jeanetta Calhoun Mish: tonguetiedwoman(at)gmail.com (replace (at) with @ in sending e-mail). Subject line must read: “Women Writing Nature.” We will not respond to submissions sent to the wrong email address or that do not have “Women Writing Nature” in the subject line.

New food blog - Food for Us casual cooking at home with a dash of verse - invites poetry submissions for publication with upcoming recipe posts. Send 1 - 3 poems about food or that have food as a component. Please attach submissions as a Word.doc or include them in the body of your email and send to: foodforusblog(at)gmail.com. (replace (at) with @ in sending submissions) Don't forget to send a short bio, too! View blog here.

Lit Journal Volunteer Needed!

Anobium Books, a small publishing upstart from Chicago, IL, is seeking one extraordinary assistant editor to help with the compilation of Anobium: Volume 2 - our second literary journal release.

We'll be upfront: this is an unpaid position. All of the money Anobium makes goes straight back into future Anobium productions. Everyone who works for Anobium does so on a volunteer basis. We love writing. That's all there is to it.

As a volunteer, you still have a lot to gain from the experience:
- You will be an important part in helping to develop a small business with a lot of potential.
- You will gain valuable editing, communications and publishing experience which you can apply towards future professional positions.
- You will receive credits as an assistant editor both on the website and in the print publication; credits which can also be used to develop your own name as an editor and writer.

The ideal candidate should:
- Be familiar with Volume 1 (doesn't hurt to have purchased Volume 1).
- Be able to commit for the duration of this project (up to six months).
- Be able to put in 5-10 hours per week working for Anobium.
- Be a published writer.
- Be interested in brand development and promotion.
- Have some editorial experience (doesn't necessarily have to be literary editing).
- Have a working knowledge of InDesign.
- Have a constant and stable Internet connection.
- Have a personal website.
- Be active and involved in social media and networking (Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, etc.) [This is very important].
- Live in the Chicago area, though this is not required (most of the work is telecommunicative).

Please note: It is okay if you don't have all of these things, though the more you have, the better.

Responsibilities will include:
- Reading and grading poetry and prose submissions to Anobium: Volume 2.
- Promoting Anobium in social media and brick-and-mortar outlets.
- Editing selected writings for publication.
- Communicating with independent authors.
- Communicating and meeting with other Anobium team-members.
- Possible fundraising.
- Attending a few possible events.

While experience and ambition are important determining factors for this position, it is also important that applicants share similar aesthetic and literary sensibilities with Anobium. Please go to our website to get an idea of our tastes.

If you have read all of these guidelines and are still interested in the position, please send a resume and a short letter listing your qualifications to our Managing Editor, Benjamin van Loon, at b@benvanloon.com. Please make your subject: "APPLICATION FOR ANOBIUM: [Last Name], [First Name]."

Contest Winners!

Do you ever crave something really delicious? We suggest you get yourself a cup of coffee and try an Elizabeth Barrett Brownie, or maybe a smidge of Truman Compote. Or maybe you’re actually looking for something that will whip you into shape in no time. Well, all the code heroes are using Hemingweights nowadays!

All right, enough with the puns. We’re just giving you a taste of what we heard from the HFR horde on Twitter this week when we challenged everyone to give us their best author-inspired products. We had some great entries, and these are the winners!

• “Jorie Graham Crackers: when your post-poststructural hunger just won’t abate.” —@JamesDucat

• “Tired of regular pens? Try our new Bukowski Bics! Select from our flavors of Bitter, Old Man, Beer, and Bar Fight.” —@fartmaster5000

• “Worried about winter at Walden pond? Get your Henry David Throws today!” —@chidorme

• “Judy Bloomers!” —@eleanorstrouser

• “Sick of idling in line so long that you could’ve read an epic trilogy? Get your J. R. R. Tollpass.” —@ka_booms

Each of these witty wordsmiths won a copy of Word of Mouth, part of a new series published by our own Virginia G. Piper Center. This volume features candid conversations with writers and poets including Charles D’Ambrosio, Francine Prose, Kimiko Hahn, Bob Hicok, and Franz Wright. Thanks again to everyone who participated and made our Wednesday lively. If you didn’t get in on this challenge, we hope to hear from you next time!

Tweeted Questions: Answers Revealed! (Part II)

A List of Plots, Storylines, Techniques and Situations we Often See Overused or Poorly Executed

We recently received a request on Twitter to post plots and storylines that we see too frequently in our submissions queue. So we rounded up opinions from our best readers and editors. These plots and plot devices often make us yawn, wince, and occasionally scream in anger. But we want to be clear: we think no subject is off the table. The trouble with the things on this list is they need a unique perspective, and a clear intention. We’re happy to read your work about anything, but here are some common pitfalls…

1) A complicated point of view. It’s hard to write from the POV of a child well, and we see that done poorly lots. We also see the use of the second person for no apparent reason (or just for the sake of it). Using “you” doesn’t make a boring story not-boring. Another problem is using an omniscient or unsteady POV without care or intention: it’s hard to give more than one POV its due in a short story. If you’re going to try it, make sure all of the voices are necessary to the story you want to tell.

2) Stories about bad relationships are a dime a dozen around here, which makes sense given the fact that horrific relationships are a universal aspect of humanity (gulp). What we typically see is an individual in an unhappy marriage or relationship because he or she either gets cheated on, abused, and/or neglected. Often the characters talk about how sad this is, over dinner, their fingers playing delicately or angrily with the stem of their wine glasses.

3) The mid-life crises also makes up a big part of our rejections. These stories usually involve a middle-aged male regretting an extra-marital affair or missing his wife. A lot of times he’s sitting at a bar. He says to the bartender, “I’ve made a mistake that I now regret. Don’t ever do what I did or you’ll end up hating your life like I do right now. On this bar stool.”

4) It’s hard to write a story about art or writing without making it seem overly self-conscious, like navel-gazing or like a failure or imagination. Many writers choose the struggling artist as their protagonist. Writers writing about writing or writing classes or writing workshops or writer's block get submitted a lot. Does this sentence annoy you? You see what we mean.

5) Writing from the perspective of someone with a psychological disorder is hard. This isn’t necessarily overused or uninteresting – in fact, it has a lot of potential, but writers seem to think it’s more original than it really is. We see a lot of stories that incorporate people who have autistic-like symptoms and/or think in ambiguous images. Sure, we love people with unconventional ways of viewing the world. But if the narration is so disjointed that we can’t make sense of the story, you lose us. You know how your drug trip or last night’s dream is only interesting to you? Ditto here. We need some context for the "crazy," some guiding logic or narrative to keep us invested.

6) We do love and encourage inventiveness and experimentation, but experimentation for the sake of experimentation is problematic. There still has to be character, and there still has to be story, and the formal elements better be necessary and navigated with care. Please do not send your character to heaven or hell. We get it, it’s hot down there and the devil is really mean and/or surprising witty! Your character might wake up to find he’s a tree/bird/dinosaur, but these unique situations are not inherently interesting. We promise. Neither are footnotes. Really. We get it: footnotes used to only be in academic papers! But we’ve all read DFW. The word on footnotes in fiction is out. Again, we're not against these things, but they need to earn their place; they can't be replacements for plot or character development.

7) Stories with awesomely bad gratuitous sex scenes – on second thought, keep them coming.

8) Unfortunately for you M. Night Shyamalan fans out there (if those even exist anymore), we don’t much care for the shocking ending or the curveball. Finding out that the protagonist is crazy or having the protagonist kill herself or reveal her homosexuality at the end are plot cop-outs. We’d rather explore the significance of a character situation than have you withhold the simple fact of it. A story should renew our attention constantly. That doesn't mean we want something happening all the time, but we do want the most important detail(s) of the story to be dealt with throughout and not just at the end.

9) We also tend to get a lot of stories about young adults drinking, partying, and/or doing drugs. The extent of the narrative arc usually involves someone doing something stupid when he or she is intoxicated and then regretting it later. It’s just a little too obvious. Do we need to expound on this one? To put it bluntly, even if that keg stand you did was really awesome, we’re not all that interested in what you did last weekend.

10) Finally, we have sob stories (yes that sounds cold, but hear us out). These stories usually involve a loved one with a terminal illness or a drug abuse problem. Yes, these situations are hard, but they’re also at this point fairly familiar. We know these situations are difficult and sad. If a story simply reinforces how sad and difficult they are, we’re in standard territory. Sorry. We feel mean about this one, but it’s true.

These kinds of plots are overworked for a reason. They generally represent our common fears, experiences, or desires. But any story can be fresh and interesting with the right angle and the right storyteller. There have been a lot of stories published. It’s the writer’s job to tell the familiar in a new/unique/unprecedented way, not to rehash things we’ve seen before or tread familiar ground. That’s really hard, we know that. But we also know it’s possible to surprise, astonish and amaze us. Our admiration is at the ready. Get writing!

Thanks to Aaron, Brian, Karen, Todd, Lauren, Rutger, Anita, Christian, Chris, and Beth for their contributions to this list.

Note: Making Shapely Fiction by Jerome Stern has a great list, "What Not to Do," that might also be of interest.

Book Review: Mania Klepto, the Book of Eulene by Carolyne Wright

Mania Klepto: the Book of Eulene, by Carolyne Wright
Turning Point Books, 2011.
Poetry.
Review by Debrah Lechner
Debrah.Lechner@gmail.com

Eulene, the heroine and putative author of Carolyne Wright’s Mania Klepto, is more than just a character or even an alter ego: she’s a person fully formed from possibilities, some realized, some not. Either way, Eulene refuses to ever relinquish any possibility. That gives her an advantage over most of us―we who are ordinary, fully-incarnated personalities. Most of us find there’s a rather pressing necessity to narrow ourselves as time moves on. That’s how we define ourselves.

Eulene also changes and grows over time, but she defines herself as much by what hasn’t happened as what has, as much by what she chooses not to embody as what she does. Eulene never has to abandon one path to pursue an alternative trail. She may move on from one lover to another, but she never leaves anyone. She is relentlessly faithful first to herself, then almost equally faithful to any person or experience that falls within her ever-widening gravitational pull. She’s not necessarily an Earthling. There’s more than one planet in her universe.

This makes her, by her nature and her design, very hard to pin down. True, she’s tricky, but not without a purpose. True, she’s a klepto who prefers to leave things behind, but she does pick up things, and she does keep them. Her genius is that she remembers where she put things and has pretty much instant access to them when she needs them or decides to drop them off.

Sometimes she whispers “Instructions to Her Double,” as in the poem “Critical Theory: Eulene:”
Never bring your elbows to this class. There’s barely enough room to duck the dean’s eye . . .

At other times she simply gets up and gets going. From the same poem:

Eulene wakes at dawn, love nailed
high on her list of intentions.
She reminds herself to hold her hormones’
bayings in abeyance, until the right bells
ring, to get to class on time.

After Wright’s long experience as a translator while living in India and Bangladesh, and more than a passing acquaintance with the spirituality of these regions, it’s not surprising that Eulene invites a harrowing encounter with the Divine. From “Eulene Goes Back to Godhead:”

Eulene leafs through a technicolor-cover copy
of the Gita (“As It Is”) for answers,
frowning at its wicked passions
and specious deaths, its questionable
translations and dubious interpretations . . .

Suddenly
a trumpet ought to have sounded offstage,
Eulene looks up: Arjuna’s chariot,
complete with fly-whisks and parasols
and scythe-blades on the wheels,
come swinging low for to carry her
out of here. No one since Medea
would have had it easier.

But that Being clutching the reins
with half a dozen of His countless hands
His countless heads swiveling
in all directions . . .

. . . This is the face that no man sees and lives, Eulene thinks. Then, Thank God that I’m a woman.

After decades of writing poetry and translating poetry and prose, I doubt that neither Wright nor Eulene believe in such a thing as “a word.” Once words become this wobbly, identity also becomes a matter of interpretation. Eulene is Wright’s translation of herself, and vice versa. It’s a fantastic thing to have such open access to the self. We could learn a thing or two from Eulene, and God knows we could all use a bubble bath and a good read, something Eulene also appreciates. Mania Klepto: the Book of Eulene is fun, insightful, brilliant, and not to be missed.

Carolyne Wright is the author of nine volumes of poetry, numerous translations and books of translation, including the recent and superb Majestic Nights: the Love Poems of Bengali Women, recently reviewed by yours truly for the Hayden’s Ferry Review blog. Look it up! Mania Klepto: the Book of Eulene is now available at many vendors, including Amazon.com. You can purchase it from Amazon here.

Post Script: In an afterword to the book of Mania Klepto, Wright notes Eulene’s plan for the present:

If either of us is to be a casualty of the downsized, outsourced, post-industrial, post-employment, health benefits-free, simultaneously globalized and balkanized, leaner and meaner Brave New Sweatshop, it will certainly not be Eulene.

Go Eulene!

News Around the Net

Check out this great website, dedicated to keeping underused words alive. Adopt a word and promise to use it in conversation as much as possible!

Should novelists be critics as well? It's a tough one. Who would know novels better? But a bad review always stinks of sour grapes.

The argument for not caring about literary awards. The reason we do care - probably because we like seeing books we like being liked by others, or if our book doesn't win, we also like pretending we have superior taste than the award-deciders. It's a win-win for fans.

We had a novel (then another, then another) by Lauren Conrad and I was okay, I didn't even comment on it. We had a novel by Hilary Duff, and I pointed it out, but I let it pass. But this. This cannot stand.

Here we go again. How many times do we have to go through this before people realize that The Great Gatsby will never be made into a successful movie? Those pretty sentences cannot be transplanted to the screen! Damn you, DiCaprio!

The new American Poet Laureate is Philip Levine.

Notes from NJ — Hi Beth (# 1)

Chuck Tripi has lived a life of poetry and study since a medical catastrophe suddenly ended his flying career in 1998. After his poem "Crack-Up" was published in HFR's 47th issue, he struck up a correspondence with Managing Editor Beth Staples. His epistolary perspective on writing and the writing life has been so valuable to Beth, she wanted to share some of his notes here. He writes from Sussex County.
*

Hi Beth,

In a prior life, I did other things and saw differently. And how could there be poetry without these prior lives and previous vantage points?

We were flying an all-nighter from Los Angeles to New York on the 707, an airplane the élan of which will never be attained to again, one thinks and thought, wrong twice.

As happens sometimes in the middle of the night, we were cleared direct, and once the I.N.S. was set, the night turned into one of watching for the unexpected.

The Captain owned a sailboat which had outlived its usefulness as a bare-boat charter in Tortola, and he was giving it away to a college in Florida for the tax write-off. As the three of us sat there smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee and watching all the blinking lights and the needles on the dials, the copilot asked whether the Captain had depreciated the boat for tax purposes. He had, to zero. “The boat is worth nothing, then,” the copilot said, “The value of the write-off is also zero.”

So there it was, like jazz and poetry, the unexpected note:

He took the longest drag of his unfiltered Camel, the Captain did, exhaling it shimmering and blue, turned to us, his audience for three thousand miles, and said the most wonderful thing—“You know, it’s a goddamn good thing I really love to sail.”

It’s a tough racket, poetry, full of striving and missing the mark, of almost accidental successes and utterly undeserved disappointments. Shouldn’t we poets, all of us, new, emerging, established, coming or going, stay awake to its pleasures and enrichments?

CKT, 8/14/11, Lake Mohawk

Unusual Calls for Submissions

Subject: Greenwoman Magazine - Garden Writing
Greenwoman Magazine is a new garden writing magazine and we're looking for imaginative work in the areas of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, art and comics. We love new perspectives and original voices–funny, sad, smart, bawdy, angry, contemplative, weird, joyous, sexy, but most importantly, the work must be compelling. We're looking for writing that gets to the heart and intellect that underlies the pursuit of a gardening life. Writing that pushes the boundaries of garden writing and that reflects what is going on in the garden in 21st century America. It helps to read an issue of the magazine to get a good idea of what we are after. An online version of our first issue is available at our website for $3.95. All pieces should be under 2,000 words. I will consider longer pieces, but this is a small publication (about 64-80 pages), so the chances of having a longer work accepted diminish with length. Up to six poems may be submitted at a time. Please query first on all article ideas. If you contact us through regular mail, please do not send originals of your artwork or writing. Send good copies only, along with a self-addressed stamped envelope for my reply if you send it physically. Our mailing address is P. O. Box 6587, Colorado Springs, CO 80934-6587. Artwork and submissions cannot be returned without proper postage. Artwork should be black and white only and I’m looking for artists who are skilled at drawing both plants and people. Submissions may also be sent via email (sandra(at)sandraknauf.com) or (sandra(at)greenwomanmagazine.com) (replace (at) with @ in sending e-mail), but only if they are in the body of the email. We will not open attachments.

The Obsidian Prize for Poetry
Through a literary prize, High Desert Journal aims to explore the realm described by poet Jarold Ramsey: "I believe in an ecology of story, memory and imagination as much as an ecology of land." As an organization focused on a specific place, we at High Desert Journal have discovered that a deep hunger of readers, writers, and artists exists for place-based arts and literature. We believe every place has an ecology of story, memory, and imagination that inspires us, connects us to one another and to a place. We want to offer the best of this "ecology" through the Obsidian Prize. More here.

The Baltimore Review is proud to announce that it will be re-launching as an online journal of poems, short stories, and creative nonfiction in 2012. Work accepted for online publication will also be collected for annual print issues. The BR is also open for contest submissions with a "Room" theme. See website for complete guidelines.

Qarrtsiluni is seeking poems, stories, creative nonfiction, videopoetry and other genres for a new theme: Worship, edited by Kaspalita and Fiona Robyn. The deadline is August 31. Please see the theme description here. Complete guidelines are at our submissions manager.

Short fiction wanted: Uncle John's Flush Fiction
Uncle John's Flush Fiction wants your short story! The editors of the bestselling Uncle John's Bathroom Reader series are looking for entertaining short fiction, suitable for bathroom (or anyroom) reading, for our new fiction anthology. 1,000 words maximum. All genres, themes, styles, and hybrids considered; humor is appreciated, but not mandatory. Previously published OK. Payment: $50 honorarium plus two contributor copies. Publication date: Spring 2012. Deadline: August 31, 2011. For guidelines, here.

Best New Poets 2011!

We're so excited for Janine Joseph, whose poem "Wreck" from HFR #48 will be included in the next volume of the Best New Poets anthology. You can find all 50 winners here.

Congratulations go out to all the winners, but especially Natalie Giarratano, whose work will appear in HFR #49, and Virginia Konchan, Sarah Rose Nordgren, and Eric Burger who are previous contributors. And, last but not least, to Dean C. Robertson, one of our former interns!

We can't wait to see it!

New Work From Photographer Will Steacy

THE PRICE WE PAY, a new on-going series about the economy, Steacy presents photographs of U.S. currency that have been removed from circulation. The exhausted and worn faces of our nation's forefathers depicted in these expired bills are a symbol of the American people, who ultimately are the ones that pay the cost of budget cuts in a country whose future is dermined by dollars and no sense. The Price We Pay is now online at www.willsteacy.com. Will's work from a previous series appeared in HFR #41.

HFR's 50th Issue: Call for "Artifact" Submissions!

To celebrate HFR's 25th anniversary, we've got a special theme in the works. We'd like to receive work - fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, translations, art, mixed-media - that addresses the theme of "artifacts," as described here.

Art is, by its nature, a record. Literature, photographs, paintings, music: all these seek to catalogue the world just as they seek to elevate and transform it. A piece of art is also then, by its nature, an artifact: an object with unique meaning both within its context and apart from it. For HFR’s 50th issue, we’re interested in investigating how fragments and relics from our history help to shape our current state of being. What happens when you wrest an object from its homeland (in time, place, state of mind)? Why do we trust remnants of the past as distinctively truthful, and how do we inevitably misunderstand them? Send us writing and art that engages with the theme of “artifact” in whatever way you see fit. Consider the fact that writing itself – the writing, for instance, in HFR’s 49 past issues – becomes a slightly different object upon publication and perusal. Consider that work banned in one country develops a new set of meaning in other places. Consider how artifacts shape the identities of people, nations, cultures. Consider the lives of fraudulent artifacts, objects that create invented histories and narratives. And hey, consider something that we haven’t. Tell us all about ourselves: we trust you.

To submit, go to our Submishmash page. Choose the genre you're submitting under, and mention that you're submitting in response to our "artifact" call in the comments section. The deadline for this call is January 1, 2012. We look forward to reading your work!

Website of the Week: Kickstarter.com

It's hard trying to make it as a writer. There's no denying it. The starving artist stereotype wasn't just pulled out of thin air. We writers need money to fund our work and pursue our careers (and survive). That's where Kickstarter comes in.

Kickstarter is a way for individual artists to crowd-source funding for their work. In exchange, the donors are rewarded with copies of the artists' work. The catch with Kickstarter is this: it's all or nothing. That means if the artist doesn't reach his or her funding goal, then the artist gets nothing (and the donors' cards aren't charged!). Tens of thousands of people have contributed so far and millions of dollars have been raised for all kinds of different artistic projects. And don't worry, the artists retain 100% ownership and control over their work. So start fundraising!

And if you're in a generous mood, Elizabeth Hoover (past HFR contributor) is looking to raise some funds for her residency at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She's already over halfway there and there are still 28 days to go! Check out her project here (or the video below) to experience Kickstarter for yourself and support this talented poet.