In This Edition...
To include your news, send your articles to: swells@ashland.edu
Summer and Fall Registration Opened April 1
Current students should complete registration online through WebAdvisor for the summer and fall semesters. Students are encouraged to work with a faculty member they've never worked with before.
Each faculty member works with no more than five students each semester; register early to secure a spot with the faculty member you'd most like to work with. Registration closes May 15. New students will be registered after May 15. Current students are encouraged to register as soon as possible to work with the faculty mentor of their choice.
**Note: Students should register for the same faculty mentor for both summer and fall sessions.
Financial Aid Priority Deadline April 30
Students applying for financial aid need to have all of their forms submitted to the Financial Aid office by April 30 in order to ensure processing of your loan applications. The following forms are required for your financial aid application:
Step-by-step instructions for applying for financial aid can be found on the AU Financial Aid website. Be sure to follow the instructions for Graduate Students.
Residency Preference Sheet & Information Form Due May 15
All current students must return the Residency Preference Sheet to Sarah Wells by May 15; new students by June 15. Details about the Summer Residency and Preference Sheet are below.
To include your news, send your articles to: swells@ashland.edu
Coffee House Chat Sessions for the Spring
There will be two scheduled chat sessions each month in the WebCT Coffee House this spring. These are optional opportunities for all students in the program to chat with students in other sections and across the genres. The schedule for chats this spring will be:
- Tuesday, April 15 at 9 PM
- Thursday, May 1 at 9 PM
- Tuesday, May 13 at 9 PM
We will not have chat sessions scheduled between spring and summer semesters. Beginning in Fall 2008, an MFA Online Community Forum will be opened for dialogue across genres and classes. This will be a message board format with the opportunity for chat sessions as well.
Ashland University Spring Reading Series
The final two readers in Ashland University's spring reading series are presentations you will not want to miss. All readings will take place in Room 138 of the Dwight Schar Building and are free and open to the public. Readings begin at 4:30 p.m. followed by refreshments with a master class at 5:30 p.m.
- Monday, April 21 - Stephen Haven, poetry
- Monday, April 28 - Eric Pankey, poetry
Wayne County Writers' Guild Meeting
The next meeting is Tuesday, April 8 at the Wayne Center for the Arts in Wooster, Ohio. Meeting time is 6:30 PM. Bring your latest work in progress.
To include your news, send your articles to: swells@ashland.edu
2008 Residency: July 13 through July 26
Summer Residency Packets
The Summer Residency Packet and Residency Preference Sheet are now available. Please review the packet for important times, dates, and pricing information for this year's residency. The Preference Sheet must be returned to Sarah Wells by May 15 (June 15 for new students). Remember that Session I of the summer residency will be with your fall faculty mentor. Hard copies of the Summer Residency Packet will be mailed as soon as they come back from the print shop.
Student Activities Committee
Students interested in organizing social activities and readings during the residency should email Sarah Wells swells@ashland.edu.
Pre-Residency Retreat
Students interested in a pre-residency retreat to Holmes County and Amish country should contact Sarah Wells or Joanne Lehman.
To include your news, send your articles to: swells@ashland.edu
Aurorean editor Carol Smallwood Seeking Submissions from U.S. Women Writers for Two Proposed Books
Submissions due April 30, 2008
1. Women & Poetry:
Tips on Writing, Publishing and Teaching from Women Poets
(Carol Smallwood and Cynthia Brackett-Vincent, co-editors)
We are looking for material from successful women poets and teachers aimed at helping women poets: markets, time management, family issues, networking, conferences and teaching tips are just a few areas in which women poets and teachers are interested.
2. Milestones for American Women: Our Defining Passages
(Carol Smallwood and Cynthia Brackett-Vincent, co-editors)
We are looking for material about the important milestones, life changing events and transitions that would broadly fit the "Women's Studies" genre and is highly readable and moving, which other women can easily identify with. Contributions will focus on those pivotal moments and why they were milestones.
Also: Women Writing on Family:
Writing, Publishing, and Teaching Tips by U.S. Women Writers
(Carol Smallwood, editor)
Not just on writing but tips for women writing about family. Possible subject areas: markets; why women write about family; using life experience; critique groups; networking; blogs; unique issues women must overcome; formal education; queries and proposals; conference participation; family scheduling; self-publishing; teaching tips; family in creative nonfiction, poetry, short stories, novels.
REQUEST GUIDELINES BEFORE SUBMITTING. Send request to: info@encirclepub.com.
You will receive guidelines for all three anthologies
in one Word document (.doc).
Sport Literate: Honest Reflections on Life's Leisurely Diversions
Call for Submissions
A Chicago-based journal that's been cracking literary skulls since 1995, Sport Literate is perhaps the nation's lone literary magazine focusing on the creative nonfiction exploration of sports. There's some poetry, too, but we want the truth. We can handle the truth. So consider sending us your football best. You may even make some money.
Football Contest: Send your creative nonfiction essay with a $15 contest fee. Entries must be postmarked by May 1, 2008. First place essay wins $300.
SL Poetry: Gives a whole new meaning to Ezra Pound. Put on a cup for this one, Ditka, and send verse - metered or otherwise - that will make a grown fan cry.
Pigskin Best: We want this issue to be wall-to-wall football. Also looking for good conversations with personalities from the game.
For more information and full guidelines, visit www.sportliterate.org
Elsewhere Announces 2008 Scott Russell Sanders Prize
Elsewhere is pleased to announce that it will be reading submissions for the first annual Scott Russell Sander Prize for nonfiction. Sanders will act as the final judge for the contest and write a brief introduction to the winning essay, which we will also be publishing as a limited-edition chapbook. The press and print-run are TBA. In addition, the winning writer will receive an engraved antique compass. The winner will be announced in late fall and will be published in the Winter 2008 issue of Elsewhere. Five finalists will also be published.
NO ENTRY FEE, Final Judge: Scott Russell Sanders
Reading Period: April 1, 2008-July 4, 2008
Visit http://elsewherejournal.org/contest.html for contest guidelines and additional information.
Dante's Heart: A Journal of Myth, Fairytale, Folklore, and Fantasy Call for Submissions: Wolves & Wolf Folklore
Submissions due June 15, 2008
Dante's Heart: A Journal of Myth, Fairytale, Folklore, and Fantasy (www.dantesheart.com) is calling for submissions of art, poetry, fiction, essays, book reviews, or lyrics that explore the folklore of the wolf and the contradictions of the wolf as character, figure, and symbol in contemporary culture whether in the U.S. or around the world. Whether the subject is Little Red Riding Hood or the decimation of the Arctic or Fenris chained by the gods, Dante's Heart fresh and invigorating work. Send submissions digitally to editors@dantesheart.com.
We are especially interested in finding out where we are, here at the near start of the 21st century, in looking at wolves as potent, alarming, or attractive creatures. What does the wolf mean to us today, and what do past stories or art about wolves mean to us today? How in our current folklore do we use, fear, celebrate, or learn from wolves?
Work submitted will be considered for publication in a special issue of Dante's Heart in Fall 2008.
Our blog is also hosting an ongoing discussion of wolf folklore at:
http://dantesheart.blogspot.com/2008/02/questions-about-wolves.html
Omnidawn Poetry Prize
Submissions due June 30, 2008
The 2008 Omnidawn Poetry Prize is Omnidawn Publishing's first annual contest for a first or second full-length collection of poems by a poet writing in English. The contest will be judged by Marjorie Welish, with a cash prize of $2,000 and Fall 2009 publication by Omnidawn Publishing. Manuscripts will remain anonymous until a winner is selected.
The $25 entry fee entitles entrants to one free Omnidawn title of their choice, if they enclose SASE with postage. The prize winning book will be produced, distributed, and advertised to Omnidawn standards and will also meet the Green Press Initiative standards and have the Green Press Initiative statement on the copyright page. The book will be printed using the same archival quality acid-free paper and full four-color cover used for other Omnidawn books. As with other Omnidawn books, we will encourage the winning poet to participate in the design of the book, including choice of typefaces, cover colors and artwork, with all stages subject to the approval of the winning poet. The book will be distributed worldwide by Omnidawn's distributor, Independent Publishers Group, and will be advertised along with other Omnidawn books in Poets & Writers Magazine, American Poetry Review, American Book Review, Rain Taxi, and other publications. All costs, including production, distribution, and advertising will be fully paid by Omnidawn. In addition to the $2,000 cash prize, the winning poet will also receive 100 copies of the book free of charge.
(For complete guidelines, more about Omnidawn, and a complete list of our publications, visit www.omnidawn.com.)
Pergola Publishing is seeking submissions for inclusion in
Memoir of Meanness
An in-depth look at the subject of “mean” from childhood through maturity. Non-fiction essays on your personal
experience with “mean” are preferred, but excellent short stories and poems will also have a chance. (Artwork also considered.)
We’re looking for variety: mean as kids, mean in relationships, being mean, being a victim, defending someone, mean on a world scale - the sky’s the limit!
Questions and submissions to:
pergolapublishing@gmail.com
Rattle Announces its Next Themes for Issues #30 & #31
Next winter’s issue, #30, will feature the work of cowboy/western poets. If you happen to be a rancher/cowboy/western poet, send us your unpublished poems and essays by August 1st. Next summer, issue #31 will feature a tribute to African-American poets. Deadline: February 1st, 2009. After that we’ll be featuring formal verse, but that’s too far down the road to be thinking about now.
And please remember that we’re always open to regular submissions—about 75% of the poems in every issue are open to any style, genre, or poet. We always enjoy reading submissions, and accept them by email and hardcopy, year-round. Visit www.rattle.com/submissions.htm for guidelines.
Submit to Another Chicago Magazine
The ACM reading period begins February 1 and ends August 1. Give us unpublished poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction. Send work with an SASE to: ACM, 3709 N Kenmore Ave., Chicago, IL 60613.
Visit anotherchicagomagazine.org for more information.
Gently Read Literature Call for Submissions:
Gently Read Literature is a new internet journal looking for contributors for its premiere issue. Gently Read Literature will be a forum of criticism and analysis of contemporary literature, specifically contemporary poetry and the contemporary novel. GRL will present new, in-depth reviews of contemporary poetry and literary fiction as well as original essays pertaining to aesthetics, writing, and culture. We hope that you come to see GRL as a valuable resource and outlet for your own thought.
Submission Guidelines
Submit reviews of no less than 500 words, there is no maximum. Each review or essay must strive to incorporate as much close, textual analysis as possible. Submissions should be sent as MS Word attachments and in the body of the email to Daniel Sumrall, editor, at danielsumrall@yahoo.com.
Please include the following information: Your Name Title of Essay/Review Author Reviewed Name Title of Work Reviewed Publisher ISBN # Contributors needn’t submit a bio or list of publications unless they feel compelled to do so. At this time there is no payment.
To include your news, send your articles to: swells@ashland.edu
A Room Of Her Own Foundation Invites Applications for
Literary Gift of Freedom Award
Deadline: October 31, 2008
A Room Of Her Own Foundation (http://www.aroomofherownfoundation.org/) is dedicated to helping women artists achieve the privacy and financial support necessary to pursue their art. To this end, the foundation annually provides an award of $50,000 to a woman writer.
The foundation's 2009 Literary Gift of Freedom Award will be given to an American woman writer who is a U.S. citizen and will be living in the U.S. during the grant period.
Acceptable genres for this grant are poetry, playwriting, creative nonfiction, and fiction.
Visit the foundation's Web site for complete program guidelines. (Please note: The program requires an application fee.)
RFP Link: http://fconline.foundationcenter.org/pnd/10012001/giftfreedom
For additional RFPs in Arts and Culture, visit: http://foundationcenter.org/pnd/rfp/cat_arts.jhtml
Duotrope's Digest
For those of you who find keeping track of where your submissions are and how long they've been there, this handy database is the perfect tool for organizing your submissions while at the same time giving average response times from each journal or publisher. It is free as long as they continue to receive donations and support. It also provides descriptions and expectations for each journal represented on the site.
Poets and Writers 2.0
Poets & Writers recently overhauled their website, and their online databases of small presses and journals seems particularly useful and easy to navigate. http://www.pw.org/literary_magazines
http://www.pw.org/small_presses
Also, check out P&W's submission calendar for information on upcoming contests and deadlines. There are twenty-five prizes with deadlines that fall between April 15 and May 15. Don’t miss out! http://www.pw.org/content/submission_calendar
New Pages
If you haven't been to this valuable resource, it is time to click. Similar to but more comprehensive than P&W's database, New Pages has book reviews, literary magazine reviews, and exhaustive lists of publishers and literary magazines. P&W gives more information about each press/magazine unless the organization is paying for a sponsored listing, and then there is a greater wealth of information available.
River Teeth on the Web
Trying to trace down an essay from River Teeth? You can access River Teeth through the Ashland University website for free! Visit the Ashland University Library Resources page to find current and back issues of River Teeth on the web. http://www.ashland.edu/library/aupubs.html
Michigan State University Libraries - Grants & Scholarships
The Library at Michigan State University has compiled a comprehensive, up-to-date list of scholarships and grants broken down by category, demographics, and level of education. This is a free, public resource. Grants are not exclusively for MSU students - these are national and regional grants open to anyone who qualifies. Students are encouraged to research the thousands of grants available for graduate students, writing students, and other categories you may fit in.
To include your news, send your articles to: swells@ashland.edu
Faculty, Staff, and Student News
Send in your relevant news to post here. Your news will help your fellow writers find out where you're getting published and broaden the opportunities to get work out there. I'll be glad to include your recent publications, appointments, and happenings here each month. Email swells@ashland.edu with your news.
Amy Campbell
Amy's essay, "A World Away," was a finalist for the Hunger Mountain (Vermont College) creative nonfiction prize, one of fewer than 20 finalists chosen from 300 entries. Amy is an incoming MFA student. Congratulations, Amy!
Timothy West
Timothy's poem, "To My Daughter on a Workday," has been selected to be featured on an RTA bus card in Cleveland, Ohio for the annual Moving Minds: The Verse and Vision Project. Timothy is an incoming MFA student. Congratulations, Timothy!
To My Daughter on a Workday
Before the failing light
morning through paved frigidity,
I will lift you up
from your bassinet and whisper,
“Daddy loves you.”
Just so you hear the cadence
one more time.
Peter Campion
Peter's poem "The Lions" is coming out in the spring number of Blackbird (with audio). His essay on political poetry has been published in the current Poetry Northwest. His essay titled, "Sincerity and its Discontents in American Poetry Now," was recently published by Poetry and is available on their website for free. His review of Robert Pinsky's Gulf Music was published in The Boston Globe. He recently gave readings at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire and Wor-Wic College in Maryland.
There's a major aspect of my life that wouldn't come across on an official bio. I mean our almost three year old, Jack. Besides being totally gaga the way most parents are, I'm grateful that parenthood has affected my work. Is there a writer who wouldn't benefit from long, philospophical discussions about trains, giraffes and rocket ships?
Stephen Haven
Stephen's second book of poems, Dust and Bread, was published in early April by Turning Point. His memoir, The River Lock: One Boy's Life Along the Mohawk, will be published later this month by Syracuse University Press.
Robert Root
During the Lighthouse Writers Literary Festival in Denver this June, Bob will lead two evening workshops, one on writing segmented prose, the other on prose style and revision. On two consecutive weekends, he will lead a class helping writers start, progress, or complete memoirs. As part of the Litfest, Bob will read from his nonfiction at the Mercury Cafe Saturday, June 7, at 7 p.m. His essay "Terra Cognita" will be published in the Summer 2008 issue of Colorado Review.