Desert Nights, Rising Stars Conference Winner!

Drum roll, please! The winner of the 2013 Desert Nights, Rising Stars conference giveaway is...

          Vicky Jeter!

Congratulations, Vicky! Please contact us as hfr@asu.edu for details on attending the conference.

We want to thank each of you who entered to win a place in at this year's conference. Your interest in the conference has been amazing, and while there was only one winner for this contest, we still hope to see you at DNRS!

Thanks again to all who entered!

Desert Nights, Rising Stars Conference Contest!

It's almost that time again, when we gather fellow writers for some quality time in the warmth of the Tempe sun. That's right—the Desert Nights, Rising Stars conference is coming up! Last year we held our first-ever event contest, where the winner received entry to the entire conference. We had so much fun hanging out with last year's winner, Shawnte Orion, that we're doing it again! So here's the deal.
Now through January 25th, we’re opening a contest to win entry to our annual Desert Nights, Rising Stars (DNRS) conference. The winner will receive entry to the conference—valued at $375—which includes readings, receptions, book signings and sales, lectures, and plenty of opportunity to meet and mingle with fellow writers and attendees. This year's conference welcomes Barbara Peters, Tom Leveen, and Jewell Parker Rhodes (and so many more), so you don't want to miss it!

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To enter, retweet our DNRS tweets, share our DNRS posts on Facebook, and comment on this post. Each of those options counts as an entry, so you can enter a maximum of 3 times. Good luck!

What:  Win entry to Desert Nights, Rising Stars conference, held Feb. 22–24, 2013 

When:  Enter now through midnight, Jan. 25 

How:  Retweet, share, and comment on this post to win. On Facebook, be sure to share our original post so we can track your entry! And, when commenting, please leave a name (it doesn't have to be your real name, but it's unlikely we'll be able to tell one anonymous from the other).

The winner will be chosen at random and results will be posted here, on Facebook and on Twitter.

Please note that this giveaway does not include airfare or lodging. But if you haven't been to Arizona in February, you can absolutely count this as a vacation.

Aimee Bender in the (Piper) House!

The fabulous Aimee Bender will be on campus this week. These are events you won't want to miss. She'll be doing a free and open-to-the-public Q&A session this Wednesday the 30th at The Piper House at 1:00, and then a reading (also free, also open to the public) at 7:45 that night at The Lyceum Theater.

To whet your literary appetite, check out this great interview with Phoenix's New Times.

Rumor has it that there will be lemon cake for the eating. But no particular sadness, we're hoping. 

Miami Book Fair International: A Week of All Things Literary

From November 13^th through the 20^th the city of Miami will be playing host to its annual Book Fair, which features over 350 authors and activities such as:

• Ibero-American Authors Program: a full program in Spanish
• Children’s Alley: fun, interactive activities for young readers
• Student Literary Encounters: sessions with students, on campus and outreach locations
• Antiquarian Annex: a rare books showcase.

 

Each evening will feature selected readings and discussions with authors from around the world. Also more than 250 publishers and book sellers will be in attendance with a plethora of books. So if your like me, and have a ongoing list of books to read you'll be sure to find those and so much more.  

For more information about the fair look here, and if you'd like to watch footage from the 2010 fair take a look here. So if you live close, or can take the time I'd say a jaunt to Miami will be the perfect trip for November.

A Celebration Honoring Czeslaw Milosz

Milosz & the Future: October 19-21

The Family of Benjamin Z. Gould Center for Humanistic Studies invites you to join in a celebration of one of the most important literary figures of the twentieth century, Nobel Laureate Czeslaw Milosz.

Poets, translators and writers will gather to discuss Milosz's impact in both the United States, of which he was a citizen for decades, and in Poland, his native realm and mother tongue. Our festival participants will read the Milosz pieces that touched them most deeply, and their own work that his writing inspired.

Writers in exile, people living under conditions hostile to creative expression, translators, poets, and all those struggling to find connections between disparate places will speak about the particular bridges—to another language, to inner freedom, to their own heart—the Polish poet's words built for them.

Registration for the festival speaker events are free. Meals during the festival are provided at no charge to students, faculty and staff of The Claremont Colleges and at a nominal cost to the general public. Find more information and register here.

Anywhere Near NYC? Support The Council of Literary Magazines and Publishers! Oh, and Have Fun...

Get Thee to NYC! Lit Mags Galore!

If you don't already live in NYC, the 12th Annual LIT MAG MARATHON WEEKEND may just be the reason to go. On June 11th and 12th, the magazines may be little, but the weekend is big, big, BIG! It’s time once again for CLMP’s annual Lit Mag Marathon Weekend, a massive showcase of America’s diverse literary magazines and journals.

The EDITORS UNLEASHED Magathon kicks off the weekend with a “marathon” reading. In celebration of the Library’s 100th Anniversary, editors representing journals of myriad sizes and styles will present favorite selections from their first issues. Participating magazines include: A Public Space, Adanna Literary Journal, anderbo.com, Bomb, Bone Bouquet, Conjunctions, Explosion-Proof, H.O.W. Journal, The Hudson Review, Inkwell Magazine, Literal Latté, The Literary Review, Parnassus, Rattapallax, Shot Glass Journal and The Fib Review, The Summerset Review, The Mom Egg and Washington Square. It's at New York Public Library’s DeWitt Wallace Periodical Room, 5th Ave. at 42nd St. Saturday, June 11th from 4–6:30 PM.

BARGAINS! BARGAINS! BARGAINS! Lit fiends can take home armfuls of hugely discounted lit mags— any at only $2 a copy! Choose from hundreds of magazines from all over the country and hobnob with many of the editors who’ll be there in person to meet and greet. The GIANT Lit Mag Fair at Housing Works. Housing Works Used Book Café, 126 Crosby Street in Soho. Sunday, June 12th from 11–4PM.

See all details on CLMP's Facebook page.

Alaska's Fiddling Poet brings fiddle, poetry to AZ

If there are two things in this world that I love dearly, they are poetry and fiddles. So I can't wait for Ken Waldman, Alaska's premier fiddling poet, to visit the Valley. He'll be bringing his fiddle, his poetry, and even some stories, to the Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) for performances April 28th through the 30th.

Waldman is a former college professor and the author of 6 books of poetry, a memoir, a children's book. He's also produced 9 CDs. He travels the country, sometimes performing solo, but often with accompanists, and details his life in Alaska and around the country through song, story, and poetry.

His shows at MIM will include a mandolin player, a guitarist, and a banjo player, and will appeal to "anyone who enjoys traditional folk music, smart poetry, acclaimed storytelling, or Alaska." The performances are free with museum admission, and are a great way to wrap up your Poetry Month celebrations!

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.

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.

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.

Californ-vacation

How about southern California for a change? The Southern California Writers' Conference hits Newport Beach in late September. Here are a few questions we had about the event that Executive Director, Michael Steven Gregory, was happy to answer for us.

1.) Why there? Why then? (What atmosphere can participants expect to experience? "Readings? Panels? Night Life? Extra-Curricular?")

Whether in San Diego in February, or Newport Beach come September, one of the things we've long prided ourselves in with the SCWC is fostering a greater sense of community, and making it first and foremost about the conferees -- addressing their immediate needs in a beautiful, spirited, highly accessible environment. As so many writers work in complete isolation, too often removed from empirically qualified on their work, we strive at each of our events to quickly bust through the rigid, overly-serious, pinched-brow atmosphere pervasive at many conferences, assuage the fears and trepidation many new writers carry when exposing their work for the first time, and simply have fun in our collective effort to help make their work suck less on the final day of the conference than it may have on the first. That's our motto: "I suck less at the Southern California Writers' Conference!"

Between the informational and troubleshooting sessions to our late-night read & critique workshops, which can go on anywhere from midnight 'til six in the morning, we have fun working hard to better empower the modern author.

As far as extra-curricular activities are concerned, an SCWC weekend is about the writers and writing, not Sea World or shopping, or even non-writing spouses. In fact, we're dedicated to getting as much work done in the bar as any given workshop. And we do.

2.) Walking away smiling? (What will participants gain from this conference i.e. what aspects of craft will be focused on? "Character,dialog, theme, structure, action, plotting, etc.etc.?")

Beyond the dozens of interactive troubleshooting, informational, and read & critique workshops addressing myriad aspects of story and execution, a great deal of time and attention is paid to current industry trends, author marketing strategies, platform building & branding, as well as new & future technologies that can aid authors of every ilk in launching or sustaining a successful career.

3.) "Amateur at best" or "The best, no amateurs?" (What level of writers will benefit the most from this conference?)

The SCWC has facilitated nearly $4 million worth of first-time author's book and screen deals over the past 24 years. It is geared for writers just starting out, as well as those accomplished professionals switching genres or simply uncertain whether or not their new material is working. In our estimations, the level of the writer is less important than our ability to provide the writer the needed information for her to achieve her publishing objectives, whether with book-length work or feature articles, poetry, screenplays or otherwise.

4.) Where can one hang one's hat? (What kind of accommodations are there for conference goers? "Participating Hotels, package deals? Transportation?")

Our San Diego event takes place every Presidents' Day Weekend in February at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, located mere minutes from historic Old Town, the popular Gaslamp District, world famous San Diego Zoo, and Sea World. Our Newport Beach conference, the last weekend of September, takes place at the Hyatt Regency Newport Beach, a wonderful resort, only a short jaunt from John Wayne Airport in Irvine. Both hotels offer discounted lodging for SCWC conferees, so long as bookings are made before the respective deadlines, as well as shuttles to and from the nearby airport.

5.) Who are these people? (How and who gets selected for the privilege of leading/teaching these workshops?)

The SCWC features a large and growing roster of accomplished authors, editors, agents and other publishing professionals. On the agents front, specifically, we only allow aboard those who are actively seeking new clients. As literary agents find themselves becoming increasingly irrelevant within the industry, more are turning to writers' conferences as an easy means to spend free weekends in beautiful locales, without having any genuine intent of cultivating, let alone representing, fresh talent.

For the conference's official site click Here

For a look at other conferences highlighted on our blog click Here

Gonna be in NY for March 2nd?

Electric Literature lit mag is hosting a contest with a twist. A short work of fiction (500 words or less) by a previously unpublished writer, will be performed at Symphony Space by a world-renowned actor, and broadcast on Public Radio International.

On Wednesday, March 2, Selected Shorts is hosting an Evening with Electric Literature. Mike Birbiglia, John Lithgow, and others will perform stories by EL contributors Rick Moody, Lydia Millet and Joy Williams.

You must be a ticket holder to submit to the Electric Shorts Contest, co-hosted by Electric Literature and Selected Shorts. The contest will be judged by Rick Moody and the winning story will be read on stage at Symphony Space by one of the evening's performers, and featured on the Selected Shorts broadcast.

Beth says if John Lithgow read a story of hers she would die happy. Hmm.

For tickets and event details click here. For submission guidelines, click here.

New Poets of the American West Reading Tonight!

Join poets Jefferson Carter, David Chorlton and others from the anthology New Poets of the American West for a reading at Pheonix's Puppet Theater, on the corner of 3rd Ave. and Latham at 7:30 tonight, September 22.

Editor Lowell Jaeger says of the anthology, "Collected here are poems about horse racing, mining, trash collecting, nuclear testing, firefighting, border crossings, buffalo hunting, surfing, logging, and sifting flour. In these pages you will visit flea markets, military bases, internment camps, reservations, funerals, weddings, rodeos, nursing homes, national parks, backyard barbecues, prisons, forests, meadows, rivers, and mountain tops. In your mind s eye, you will meet a simple-minded girl who gets run over by a bull, two mothers watching a bear menacingly nosing toward unsuspecting children, and children who have yet to be toilet trained out of their souls. You will learn to reach into the sacred womb, / grasp a placid hoof / and coax life toward this certain moment. You ll teach poetry to third graders, converse with hitchhikers, lament for an incarcerated brother trying to fill the holes in his soul / with Camel cigarettes / and crude tattoos. You will sit at the kitchen table where perhaps the world will end while we are laughing and crying, eating of the last sweet bite. In the short time each of us has in this world, here s your chance to experience life widely and to reflect on your experiences deeply."

The Sixth Annual Printers' Ball

Visiting Chicago has been on my "to-do" list since the first time I saw Ferris Bueller's Day Off, but never has it seemed more tempting than when I read about this year's Printers' Ball taking place on July 30 at Columbia College Chicago.

The Printers' Ball is a FREE evening of live readings, performances, music and various printing demonstrations. There are tons of free lit mags, books and broadsides for the taking, and the first 500 guests in the door get a limited edition Printers' Ball Busy Beavers button.

This year's theme is "Print loves Digital," a theme hoping to "demonstrate how print and digital media can complement one another." There are tons of exhibits and events helping to promote the co-habitation of print and digital media, including Mark Jeffrey and Judd Morrissey's "The Procession" and Chris Hershey Van Horn's "Text Object".

All in all, it should be a fun night of awesome writing blended with incredible audio and video productions, along with a bunch of freebies and some beer and refreshments. I'm pretty jealous.

Find out all the info you need on the Poetry Foundation's website, here.

Lit Mag Marathon Weekend!

This weekend, June 19th and 20th, is the 11th Annual LIT MAG MARATHON WEEKEND! All events are free and open to the public.

The magazines may be little, but the weekend is big, big, BIG! Itʼs time once again for CLMPʼs annual Lit Mag Marathon Weekend, a massive showcase of Americaʼs diverse literary magazines and journals.

EDITORS UNLEASHED! The Magathon, New York Public Libraryʼs DeWitt Wallace Periodical Room, 5th Ave. at 42nd St. Saturday, June 19th from 4–6:30 PM. The Magathon kicks off the weekend with a celebratory “marathon” reading. Dozens of editors representing journals of different sizes and styles will present favorite selections from their latest issues.

BARGAINS! BARGAINS! BARGAINS! The GIANT Lit Mag Fair at Housing Works Used Book Café, 126 Crosby Street in Soho, Sunday, June 20th from 12–5PM. Lit fiends can take home armfuls of lit mags discounted more than 50% at only $2 a copy! Choose from hundreds of magazines from all over the country and hobnob with many of the editors whoʼll be there in person to meet and greet.

Proceeds go to Housing Works, a nonprofit organization serving homeless people living with AIDS, and to The Council of Literary Magazines and Presses, a nonprofit organization serving independent literary publishers.

If you like art, and live in NYC

Please join HFR contributor Will Steacy TONIGHT for the opening reception of his solo show DOWN THESE MEAN STREETS at Michael Mazzeo Gallery, 526 West 26th Street, Suite 209, NY NY 10001, 212.741.6599.

The photos in DOWN THESE MEAN STREETS are disturbing and haunting, documenting fear and abandonment in America's inner cities. The photos were all taken at night, using a large format view camera. Will explains, "I work in a set routine by walking between the airport and central business district of each city I photograph. My focus is the neighborhoods you wouldn't want to be in at night."

The show will feature:
-A selection of photographs, some never exhibited before.
-An installation exploring Will's working process.
-A signed newspaper made specifically for this exhibition, available at the opening.
-A limited edition print (edition of 50) also available at the opening with a newspaper.

Free Association Poetry - One Year Anniversary Reading Tuesday April 9th

One year ago, a group of accomplished poets from Glendale and Surprise formed the Rorschach Poetry Collective to spread live literary arts into the West Valley. Over the past year, they have organized poetry events for the West Valley Art Museum and locally owned coffeehouses, but their monthly open mic reading at Glendale Community College (called Free Association) has remained the focal point of their literary sprawl.

These monthly events welcome and encourage community participation, through open mic readings and are free and open to the public. Each month also brings two distinguished featured poets, so West Valley crowds can be exposed to a diverse sample of the best writers from other scenes, ranging from widely published academics to National slam champions and performance poets. April's Anniversary Celebration will be a good example of the kind of poetic diversity that we integrate, on a monthly basis.

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Free Association Open Mic Poetry Reading. One-Year Anniversary Celebration. Tuesday April 13th at Glendale Community College. with special featured poets Bakeem Lloyd & Patricia Colleen Murphy. FREE and open to the public. open mic starts at 7pm. hosted by Shawnte Orion
Glendale Comunity College (in Student Union room 104ABC). 6000 W. Olive Ave. Glendale, AZ 85302.

Poetry Out Loud

The Arizona Commission on the Arts in partnership with ASU's Young Writers Program and the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing (the home of HFR) invite you to attend the 5th Annual Poetry Out Loud Arizona State Finals on March 5 from 7:00 to 9:00 at Burton Barr Central Library Auditorium in Phoenix. Admission is free and open to the public.

The Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation that encourages high school students to learn about great poetry through memorization, performance and competition. And it's a lot of fun to watch.

Tomorrow: Open Mic Featuring Kirk Nesset & David Chorlton

Free Association open mic poetry reading, featuring Kirk Nesset & David Chorlton. FREE and open to the public (but books will be available for purchase and/or signing) in the Student Union room 104E, Glendale Comunity College, 6000 W. Olive Ave., Glendale, AZ 85302. Open mic starts at 7pm. Hosted by Shawnte Orion.

Kirk Nesset is Professor of English at Allegheny College in Pennsylvania. He has published two books of stories, Mr. Agreeable and Paradise Road, as well as a nonfiction study, The Stories of Raymond Carver, a book of poems, Saint X (forthcoming), and a book of translations, Alphabet of the World: Selected Works of Eugenio Montejo (also forthcoming). He was awarded the Drue Heinz literature prize in 2007 and has received a Pushcart Prize and grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. His stories, poems, translations and essays have appeared in hundreds of journals, including The Paris Review, Ploughshares, The Kenyon Review, The Southern Review, American Poetry Review, Gettysburg Review, Iowa Review, Agni, The Sun, Fiction and Prairie Schooner, among others.

David Chorlton was born in Austria and grew up in Manchester, England, home of rain and industry. His poems have appeared in hundreds of literary magazines, including Connecticut Review, The Bitter Oleander, Bloomsbury Review, Poet Lore, and Hawaii Pacific Review. He has had many individual collections of poetry published, including Return To Waking Life (Main Street Rag Press) and Fever Dreams (University of Arizona Press). Recent chapbooks have been awarded prizes from Slipstream Press (for The Age Of Miracles) and Rain Mountain Press (for The Lost River).

Campus map and other details can be found at www.myspace.com/rcpoets