Mine Künstlerroman: Writer In the Making

For Immediate Release: Walang Hiya Anthology Now Available

2010-06-13T18:33:00.001-07:00

WALANG HIYA…LITERATURE TAKING RISKS TOWARD LIBERATORY PRACTICE AVAILABLE PHILIPPINE INDEPENDENCE DAY 2010

New Literary Anthology Features 32 Filipino Writers on the Verge

(San Francisco, CA) Presented by Carayan Press, Walang Hiya…Literature Taking Risks Toward Liberatory Practice is a groundbreaking collection of poetry and short fiction by today’s most established and anticipated Filipino and Filipino-American Writers. Walang Hiya, a term traditionally used to shame has been reclaimed through this body of work to examine the taboo in our communities with fresh, honest and unflinching voices.

Educators and community groups can also use the collection as a tool in the classroom. Walang Hiya…Literature Taking Risks Toward Liberatory Practice features a study guide to creatively explore the themes of migration, identity and empowerment.

Advance Praise:

“I say the hidden cultural meaning of Walang Hiya is “Bring It On.” This collection certainly brings it on with all of the melodrama, pleasure seeking, and comedy that is identity and the diaspora.”

- Joel B. Tan, author of “Monster” and “Type O Negative”

“Walanghiya ka (You have no shame.) Nakakahiya. (It is shameful). Mahiya ka naman (You should be ashamed of yourself.). In Philippine culture, these words are meant to shame not only those who are corrupt or intentionally harm others but also those who are different, unique, radical. This amazing anthology…affirms that the process of reclaiming a word signifies a liberating ideology, and features engaging, interrogative, and brilliantly written texts that enable us to understand diaspora nationalism.”

- Joi Barrios, Lecturer of Filipino and Philippine Literature, University of California Berkeley

WHAT: Release of Walang Hiya…Literature Taking Risks Toward Liberatory Practice

WHO: Edited by Lolan Buhain Sevilla and Roseli Ilano. Featuring short fiction and poetry from emerging Pilipino and Pilipino-American writers:

Adrien Salazar, Aimee Suzara, Aldrich Sabac, Amalia Bueno, David Maduli, Dionisio Velasco, Edene Matutina, Eileen Tabios, Ellen-Rae Cachola, Elsa Valmidiano, Emily Lawsin, Grace Talusan, Jen Palmares Meadows, Jenny C. Lares, Joan Iva Cube, Kristen Sajonas, Laurel Fantauzzo, Lolan Buhain Sevilla, Melanie Dulfo, Melissa Reyes, Michael Janairo, Michelle Ferrer, Niki Escobar, Paul Ocampo, Pippi Prado, Rachel Gray, Regie Cabico, Ricco Villanueva Siasoco, Roseli Ilano, Thomas Paras, Tina Bartolome. Artwork by Arlene Rodrigo and Aimee Espiritu.

WHERE: Available for direct order at www.walanghiyaanthology.com, Carayan Press, and independent booksellers near you beginning June 12, 2010.

PRICE: $18.95

CONTACT:
Roseli Ilano 510-326-1440
roseli.ilano@walanghiyaanthology.com

Lolan Buhain Sevilla 510-604-2843
lolan.sevilla@walanghiyaanthology.com

Call For Submissions: The Asian Writer

2010-04-29T18:04:00.000-07:00

via Philippine American Writers and Artists, Inc.
----
In exactly 12 weeks The Asian Writer turns three and to celebrate we’ve got an exciting project up our sleeves.

We’re taking the best content and turning it into a collection – that any book lover will treasure. We want you to choose your best bits and pieces, quotes and favourite books to go in the collection.
That’s not all.

The Asian Writer is inviting writers to contribute new writing on the theme ‘Celebration’ for a collection.

We’re happy for you to flaunt your talent and send us your poems, haikus, short stories, flash fiction and novel extracts for consideration. If features are more your thing, we’re also looking for writers to comment on their fave book/ most inspiring author for a separate section in the collection. We’re happy for you to send us your videos and audio for the online edition.

The collection will celebrate Asian literature and three years of The Asian Writer – which offers new and emerging Asian writers a platform to showcase their work.

Your entry needs to be under 1000 words and should include a short biography with web links (if any). A photo in high res is optional. Email your entry to: editor@theasianwriter.co.uk with Writing Competition in the subject heading.

Entries close: July 31st, 2010

A selection of entries will feature on our website and in a collection that will be sold to support the work of The Asian Writer and its future projects. If you’d like to feature in the book in another capacity or have any questions please email me at editor@theasianwriter.co.uk

The collection will be published via Lulu.com and Yudu.com and will be available in August 2010.

Call For Submissions: Tayo Magazine

2010-04-29T18:02:00.000-07:00

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

“For our culture, by our culture.”

CALLING FOR SUBMISSIONS FOR OUR 2ND PRINT ISSUE & OUR ONLINE FEATURES

* We accept creative works including:
Short fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, photography, paintings, drawings and digital artwork

*

All are encouraged to submit, regardless of ethnicity and age

* All materials submitted are considered for both our print magazine & our online features

* Submissions for our online content are reviewed on a rolling basis

* Deadline for print content is midnight, FRIDAY, JUNE 18, 2010

SUBMISSION POLICY

TAYO Literary Magazine does not charge a fee for submitting. As such, we do not pay a monetary sum to any of our contributors.
Your submissions go a long way in supporting the arts in the Asian American community, especially through inspiring younger artists, helping them
to find their audience, to find their voice.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

{SUBMIT TO OUR ONLINE FEATURES}
Every other week, we will post the most intriguing and compelling submissions we receive from our TAYO Contributers. Your artistic work will be viewed by an online community of creative people like you. Also, once submitted, your work will be considered for our annual print publication, forthcoming in August 2010.

*You must send a {TAYO Submission Form} along with your submission.

Please send an email to:
tayoliterarymag@gmail.com with the subject line: “TAYO Website Submissions – Writing/Art”

[writing submissions]
* Include:
A cover page with your Name, Contact Infomation, and Genre of Piece.
A 3,000 maximum word limit.
Submit each different literary as a separate Word Document (submit as extension .doc, no exceptions!).
* Remember: For our submission process, please keep the cover page as a separate page from your literary work.

[art submissions]
* Include:
A low-res 72-dpi JPEG with a width of 950px (for submission & review purposes only).
A caption explaining the intent behind your work (submit as a Word .DOC, no exceptions!)
* Remember: For print purposes, please have a 300-dpi CMYK vertical image (extension must be .TIFF) of your work, 7.75″ X 9.85″ (dimensions include .125 ” bleed on top & sides).

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

{SUBMIT TO OUR ANNUAL MAGAZINE}
TAYO Literary Magazine produces an annual anthology featuring literary and art entries we receive throughout the year.

*You must send a {TAYO Submission Form} along with your submission.
*PLEASE NOTE: All submissions for our annual publication MUST BE made especially for TAYO Literary Magazine and not be posted on any magazine or website prior to the publish date. Thank you.

Please send an email to:
tayoliterarymag@gmail.com with the subject line: “TAYO Magazine Submissions – Writing/Art”

[writing submissions]
* Include:
A cover page with your Name, Contact Infomation, and Genre of Piece.
Submit each different literary as a separate Word Document (submit as extension .doc, no exceptions!).
* Remember: For our submission process, please keep the cover page as a separate page from your literary work.

[art submissions]
* Include:
A low-res 72-dpi JPEG with a width of 950px, (for submission & review purposes only).
A caption explaining the intent behind your work (submit as a Word .DOC, no exceptions!)
* Remember: For print purposes, please have a 300-dpi CMYK vertical image of your work, 7.75″ X 9.85″ (dimensions include .125 ” bleed on top & sides).

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

*By submitting you are allowing TAYO Literary Magazine to reproduce your work.
*Not all submissions may be featured. You will be notified via email if your work has been selected for our Online Features/Annual publication.

--
In solidarity,

Melissa R. Sipin & Kristine A. Co
Co-Directors
TAYO Literary Magazine
Issue 01 | 2009-2010

CSUS Festival Of The Arts: Carole Maso

2010-03-16T13:28:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, March 17, 7 pm, 1005 Mendocino Hall

Fiction reading with Carole Maso Carole Maso is the author of the novels: Ghost Dance, The Art Lover, AVA, The American Woman in the Chinese Hat, and Defiance ; as well as Aureole (a book of short fictions); Break Every Rule (essays); The Room Lit by Roses (a journal of pregnancy and birth) and Beauty is Convulsive: The Passion of Frida Kahlo. She is the recipient of many awards, including a Lannan Fellowship. She teaches creative writing and film at Brown University.

Thursday, March 18, 3 pm, 2nd floor Hornet Bookstore

Alumni Fiction Reading Erica Jeffrey author of Omaha Beach a collection of short stories translate Franco-Belgian comic books and graphic novels from French to English. She has a MA in Creative Writing from Sacramento State University. Jordan Okumura has published work in Gargoyle Magazine and Calaveras Station. She has a MA in Creative Writing from Sacramento State University.

Friday, March 19, Noon, 145 Kadema Hall

Fiction Reading with Ricardo Cortez Cruz Ricardo Cortez Cruz is the author of Straight Outta Compton and Five Days fo Bleeding. His work has appeared in many journals and anthologies including: Step into a World: A Global Anthology of the New Black Literature, Not Guilty:12 Black Men Speak Out on Law, Justice, and Life, In the Middle of the Middle West He teaches creative writing, African American Literature and Cultural Studies at Illinois State University.

A Conversation With Michelle Cruz Skinner: Tayo Reading March 5, Tribal Cafe

2010-03-05T11:52:00.000-08:00

Come to support your local Filipino American authors at Tayo Literary Magazine's first reading.

A Conversation With Michelle Cruz Skinner
March 5th, 2010 | 6PM - 8PM
Prior to B.C. Tizenor's Art Reception

Tribal Cafe
Historic Filipinotown
1651 West Temple Street
Los Angeles, CA 90026-5026

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Michelle Cruz Skinner has published two short story collections, Balikbayan and Mango Seasons (nominated for the 1996 Philippine National Book Award). She teaches at an independent preparatory institution, Punahou School in Hawaii (President Obama's alma mater).

She was born in Manila and raised primarily in Olongapo City, Philippines. A short story from her first collection was selected for the PEN Syndicated Fiction Project. Her work has been adapted for stage and public radio and she has read extensively at universities and conferences, both in the Philippines and on the mainland.

Please refer to the Tayo website.

FREE FOOD! REFRESHMENTS!
Complimentary sandwiches will be provided! (First come, first serve) *

Steven Church Reading @ CSUS Bookstore: March 8

2010-02-26T12:11:00.000-08:00

Steve Church is coming to Sacramento State to give a Fictional Reading of Memoir and other strange narrative extrapolations on Monday, March 8 at noon at the Hornet Bookstore, second floor. Free Open to the public.

He is the tall and mad author of The Guiness Book of Me, The Day after the Day and Theoretical Killings.

STEVEN CHURCH was born and raised in Lawrence, Kansas. He earned his BA in philosophy at the University of Kansas and his MFA in Creative Writing from Colorado State University.

He has worked as a fry cook, a tour guide, a Bobcat operator, a maintenance man, a housepainter, a barista, a conflict mediator, an academic adviser, a teacher.

His essays and stories have been published or are forthcoming in the Colorado Review, The North American Review, Interim, Fourth Genre, River Teeth, Post Road, Quarterly West, and others. His work has been thrice nominated for a Pushcart Prize. His first book, The Guinness Book of Me: a Memoir of Record, was released in 2005 by Simon & Schuster.
--------------------------

I studied with Steve Church at CSU Summer Arts in Fresno back in 2008. Check him out if you can!

Jason Magabo Perez: Oh Angelita Garcia! in Tayo Literary Magazine

2010-02-17T13:23:00.000-08:00

I've been reading Tayo online, and damned if I fell for this writer, Jason Magabo Perez. His story, Oh Angelita Garcia! just blew me away. He does a lot of spoken word, but I'm looking to get my hands on more of his writing.

I feel like a cheap fraud after reading him.

Jason Magabo Perez, writer and performer, youngest son of Leonora Magabo Perez, and alumnus of the University of California, San Diego, received his M.F.A. in Writing & Consciousness from the now defunct New College of California in San Francisco. His short fiction has been selected as a Finalist for Narrative Magazine’s 30 Below Story Contest and Fiction Contest, for Glimmer Train’s Family Matters Contest, and is forthcoming in TAYO Literary Magazine and Witness: Issue XXIII. A VONA Summer Voices Writing Workshop alumnus, and a featured artist for the New Americans Museum and the AjA Project, he was recently invited as a resident artist at the UCSD Cross-Cultural Center. He has read and performed at several university campuses and at various venues including the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and the La Jolla Playhouse. Currently, he is writing a novel and teaches for the Ethnic Studies Program at the University of San Diego. - http://events.berkeley.edu/?event_ID=25565&date=2009-12-01&tab=all_events

The Writers Thumb @ Tayo Literary Magazine.

2010-02-15T12:08:00.001-08:00

Tayo Literary Magazine has been updating its website, and the very first post to my series, The Writer's Thumb is up. I'm in love with the logo for my series. From now on, my longer wax lyricals will likely be posted there. Poetry, fiction, non-fiction and artwork from their first issue is now available for reading at their online version of the magazine.

Pai Gow Poker & Kare Kare

2010-02-15T11:53:00.001-08:00

I've been working on an experimental piece about Pai Gow Poker, my favorite table game. It's a lot of fun and totally different than anything I've ever written before. I'm mostly trying out new forms and letting the language take me where it wants.

I'd also like to get an annotated recipe in the works--kare kare has been on the back burner for awhile now.

Writing, writing, writing.

Pai Gow poker (also called Double-hand poker) is an Americanized version of Pai Gow (in that it is played with playing cards bearing poker hand values, instead of Pai Gow's Chinese dominoes).

Kare-kare is a Philippine stew. It is made from peanut sauce with a variety of vegetables, stewed oxtail, beef, and occasionally offal or tripe. Meat variants may include goat meat or (rarely) chicken. It is often eaten with bagoong (shrimp paste), sometimes spiced with chili, and sprinkled with calamansi lime juice.
---Wikipedia

2010 Kundiman Asian American Poetry Retreat

2010-02-11T14:32:00.000-08:00

In order to help mentor the next generation of Asian-American poets, Kundiman is sponsoring an annual Poetry Retreat at Fordham University in New York City. During the Retreat, nationally renowned Asian American poets will conduct workshops with fellows. Readings, writing circles and informal social gatherings will also be scheduled. Through this Retreat, Kundiman hopes to provide a safe and instructive environment that identifies and addresses the unique challenges faced by emerging Asian American poets. This 6-day Retreat will take place from Tuesday to Sunday. Workshops will not exceed eight students.

2010 Faculty:
Regie Cabico is a spoken word pioneer having won top prizes in the 1993, 1994 and 1997 National Poetry Slams. His work appears in over 30 anthologies including “Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Café”, “Spoken Word Revolution” and “Slam.” He has appeared on two seasons of HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, PBS’ “In The Life” and MTV’s “Free Your Mind” Spoken Word Tour. Regie is the recipient of the 10th annual Writers for Writers Award sponsored by Poets & Writers and has received three New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships for Poetry and Multi- Disciplinary Performance.

Tan Lin is a writer, artist, and critic. He is the author of the poetry collections “Lotion Bullwhip Giraffe” (Sun & Moon Press) and “BlipSoak01” (atelos). His visual and video work has been exhibited at the Yale Art Museum (New Haven), the Sophienholm (Copenhagen), and the Marianne Boesky Gallery (New York City). His writing has appeared in a variety of contemporary literary and cultural journals, including Conjunctions, Purple, Black Book, and Cabinet. He is a professor of English and creative writing at New Jersey City University.

Paisley Rekdal is the author of a book of essays, The Night My Mother Met Bruce Lee and three books of poetry, A Crash of Rhinos, Six Girls Without Pants and The Invention of the Kaleidoscope. A hybrid photo-text memoir that combines poems, nonfiction and fiction entitled Intimate is forthcoming from Tupelo. Her work has received a Village Voice Writers on the Verge Award, an NEA Fellowship, a Pushcart Prize, the University of Georgia Press’ Contemporary Poetry Series Award, a Fulbright Fellowship, and the Laurence Goldstein Poetry Prize from Michigan Quarterly Review. Her poems and essays have appeared in or are forthcoming from The New York Times Magazine, American Poetry Review, Ploughshares, Poetry, Virginia Quarterly Review, Tin House, and on National Public Radio among others. She is an Associate Professor at the University of Utah.

Fees:
Tuition fee is $350. Room and Board is free to accepted Fellows.

Application Process:
Send five to seven (5-7) paginated, stapled pages of poetry, with your name included on each page. Include a cover letter with your name, address, phone number, e-mail address and a brief paragraph describing what you would like to accomplish at the Kundiman Asian American Poetry Retreat. Include a SAS postcard if you want an application receipt. Manuscripts will not be returned. No electronic submissions, please.

Mail application to:
Kundiman
P.O. Box 3168
Staunton, VA 24402-2565

Submissions must be postmarked between January 15 and March 1, 2010.

Questions?
Please e-mail any questions to info(at)kundiman.org

7th annual Intergenerational Writers Lab

2010-02-08T13:31:00.000-08:00

The 7th annual Intergenerational Writers Lab is a unique program with three of SF’s community-based interdisciplinary arts organizations designed to thoroughly explore and develop your writing. Accepted applicants will participate in eight workshops led by accomplished writers and artists, engage in and be inspired by other artistic genres, perform their work at a public event, be published in online anthology, and have the opportunity to develop a communal network of writing peers.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: RECEIVED BY 5PM, FEBRUARY 19, 2010.
NOT A POSTMARK DEADLINE. PHYSICAL APPLICATIONS MUST BE RECEIVED BY 5PM on 2/19/2010.

TO APPLY:
Please submit the following:

1. An IWL 2010 application form;
2. Writing sample, 12 point & double-spaced, not to exceed 7 pages;
3. A description of why you want to enroll in the IWL program, not to exceed 500 words.
4. A submission fee of $10 (check or money order made out to Intersection for the Arts). Please note: submission fees are used to cover artist fees, the online publication, and partial and full scholarships. Submission fees may be waived on as-need basis, and per applicant request. To request a submission fee waiver, please contact KSW at info@kearnystreet.org.

TUITION & SCHOLARSHIPS:
The tuition for accepted IWL participants is $425, (two full or four partial scholarships are available). Tuition levels will be determined on a case-by-case basis, based on individual participant needs. If you wish to be considered for a partial or full scholarship, please submit an additional description of your circumstances and why you believe you deserve a scholarship.

Please submit all materials and application fee to:
Intersection for the Arts
Attention: IWL 2009
446 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

For Application please visit Kearnystreet.org

SF-based arts organizations, Kearny Street Workshop, Intersection for the Arts and Amate: Women Painting Stories. are seeking applications for, the 7th annual Intergenerational Writers Lab (IWL), a literary program for emerging writers, scheduled to take place April 3 – May 22, 2010 (Saturdays, 10 am – 1 pm). Twelve students will be selected to participate in the literary program which will involve a series of workshops, a public reading, and an online anthology publication. IWL workshops will be led by Lorna Dee Cervantes, Leticia Hernandez, Ben Fong-Torres and Genny Lim. The IWL will conclude with a public reading in early July at Intersection for the Arts.

Call For Submissions: Lantern Review

2010-02-04T13:51:00.000-08:00

Lantern Review's reading period is currently open, and will close on April 15, 2010.

Submissions are accepted via our online system only. Please read our guidelines thoroughly before proceeding to the submissions form (link located at the bottom of this page).

Categories of Work Accepted

Original poems - Collaborative or individual; traditional, experimental, hybrid forms — all are welcome!
Translations - New translations of contemporary and classic poems into English.
Community Voices - Each issue will feature a number of poems that have produced in the context of a writing or arts community, as well as a short profile of the group(s) that produced the work.
Book reviews - Reviews of recent poetry collections
Essay - Creative nonfiction or critical analysis relating to craft, contemporary Asian American poetry collections, or issues in poetics
Visual art & photography - We seek visual art to feature both as cover art and alongside the poems in each issue.

Please visit their website for more submission information.

Updates From TAYO Literary Magazine

2010-02-02T22:09:00.000-08:00

From Tayo's Co-editors, Melissa Sipin and Kristine Co:

Hello everyone!

TAYO Literary Magazine has been under the radar for the past four months... But on February 15th, our website will be live and running! We have been working diligently the past months behind scenes. We apologize for our disappearance act, but with the new year and with our forthcoming second issue, we promise that TAYO will become a stronger independent publication and online community.

In the meantime, please save-the-dates for these current events!

TAYO Reading and Flying Fist Collective Readings:

1. TAYO & FFC Reading Series:
Noel Alumit Reading/Workshop at USC:
February 6th, 2010, 6pm - 8:30pm.
Please bring $10 in cash if you'll like to attend the workshop!

2. Michelle Cruz Skinner (Hawaiian/Filipina writer) Reading at UCLA:
March 3rd, 2010, 4pm - 6pm
Rolfe Hall 1301

Michelle is the author of Balikbayan and will be reading from her new novel, In the Company of Strangers.

3. TAYO Reading Series:
Michelle Cruz Skinner reading
Location: TBA
March 4th, 2010

4. TAYO & FFC Reading Series
Peter Bacho Reading/Workshop at USC
March 27th, 2010

Call For Submissions: Sakura Review - Feb. 28 Deadline

2010-01-31T16:29:00.000-08:00

SAKURA REVIEW is reading poetry, fiction, and nonfiction submissions for its next print issue.

http://www.sakurareview.com/

About Sakura Review:
Situated in the District of Columbia and run by graduate students in the MFA Program in Creative Writing at the University of Maryland, Sakura Review publishes poetry and prose; we are particularly interested in – though not limited to – work that in some way satisfies or reflects our own preoccupation with a city embodied in location temporary; the new surrounded by collections and artifacts; what is documented alongside what is ultimately forgotten.

Submission Guidelines:
The submission deadline for our Spring 2010 issue is February 28th. Any submissions received after the deadline will automatically carry over to our next reading period.

· Only previously unpublished work will be considered. Simultaneous submissions are fine, if noted (but please notify us immediately if the work is accepted elsewhere).

· For prose, please submit only one manuscript at a time. The preferred maximum length is 2,500 words. For poetry, please submit no more than five
poems, a maximum of 10 pages, at one time. Include all poems within one document.

· Please submit your work as a Word attachment to (replace (at) with @). Your genre – poetry or prose – and your name should appear in the subject field.

Contributors receive two copies of the issue in which their work appears.

Our first issue is now available for purchase at our website. We encourage you to read it before submitting.

http://www.sakurareview.com/

Maxine Hong Kingston Reading: January 27 at Stanford

2010-01-27T06:21:00.000-08:00

Maxine Hong Kingston (who rarely gives public readings) is giving a reading today, Jan. 27, 7:00 pm at Stanford Humanities Center, Levinthal Hall (The Center is 424 Santa Teresa St., on the Stanford campus)

Maxine Hong Kingston (Chinese: 湯婷婷; born October 27, 1940) is a Chinese American author and Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, where she graduated with a BA in English in 1962. Kingston has written three novels and several works of non-fiction about the experiences of Chinese immigrants living in the United States. She has contributed to the feminist movement with such works as her novel The Woman Warrior, which discusses gender and ethnicity and how these concepts affect the lives of women. Kingston has received several awards for her contributions to Chinese American Literature including the National Book Award in 1981 for her novel China Men.

The reading is FREE and open to the public. Arrive early if you want to make sure and get a seat!

------------------------
I wish I could go. However, the distance makes for difficult travel with the wee one. If you're up for last minute adventures, Go--

Following The Greats: T. S. Eliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

2010-01-22T23:02:00.000-08:00

Feeling a bit disappointed with my own writing as of late and decided that I need to study and experience the feel of good writing. I came across this tip today:

Copy one of your favorite novels, poems or short stories word for word. As you type, think about how the words and sentences feel to your fingers and eyes.

I've chosen T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", which resides in the public domain. And so, I begin. The following has been typed verbatim, so I beg your pardon for spelling errors or missing accents:

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse
a persona che mai tornasse al mondo,
questa fiamma stara senza piu scossse.
Ma per cio che giammai di questo fondo
non torno vivo alcub, s'i' odo il vero,
senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.

Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherised upon a table;
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
The muttering retreats
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:
Streets that follow like a tedious argument
Of insidious intent
To lead you to an overwhelming question. . .
Oh, do not ask, 'What is it?'
Let us go and make our visit.

In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.

The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes.
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,
Lingered upon the pools that stand in the drains,
Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys.
Slipped by the terrace, made the sudden leap,
And seeing that it was a soft October night,
Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.

And indeed there will be a time
For the yellow smoke that slides along the street
Rubbing its back upon the window-panes;
There will be a time, there will be a time
To prepare a face to meet the face that you meet;
There will be time to murder and create,
And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a question on your plate;
Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of toast and tea.

In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.

And indeed there will be time
To wonder, 'Do I dare?' and, 'Do I dare?'
Time to turn back and descend the stair,
With a bald spot in the middle of my hair--
(They will say: 'How his hair is growing thin!')
My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,
My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin--
(They will say: 'But how his arms and legs are thin!')
Do I dare
Disturb the universe
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.

For I have known them all already, known them all--
Have known the evenings, morning, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spons;
I know the voices dying with a dying fall
Beneath the music from a farther room.
So how should I presume?

And I have know the eyes already, known them all--
The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase,
And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin,
When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall,
Then how should I begin
To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways?
And how should I presume?

And I have known the arms already, known them all--
Arms that are braceleted and white and bare
(But in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair!)
Is it perfume from a dress
That makes me so digress?
Arms that lie along a table, or wrape about a shawl.
And should I presume?
And how should I begin?

. . . . .

Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets
And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes
Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows? . . .

I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.

. . . . .

And the afternoon, the evening sleeps so peacefully!
Smoothed by long fingers,
Asleep . . . tired . . . or it malingers,
Stretched on the floor, here beside you and mee.
Should !, after tea and cakes and ices,
Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis?
But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed,
Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter,
I am no propher--and here's no great matter;
I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker
And in short, I was afraid.

And would it have been worth it, after all,
After he cups, the marmalade, the tea,
Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,
Would it have been worth while,
To have bitten off the matter with a smile,
To have squeeze the universe into a ball
To roll it towards some overwhelming question,
To say: 'I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all'--
If one, settling a pillow by here head,
Should say: 'That is not what I meant at all.
That is not it, at all.'

And would it have been worth it, after all,
Would it have been worth while,
After the sunsets and dooryards and the sprinkled streets,
After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor--
And this, and so much more?--
It is impossible to say just what I mean!
But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen:
Would it have been worth while
If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl,
And turning toward the window, should say:
'That is not it at all,
That is not what I meant, at all.'

. . . . .

No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meat to be;
An an attendant lord, one that will do
To swell a progress, start a scene or two,
Advise the price; no doubt, an easy tool,
Deferential, glad to be of use,
Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
Full of high sentences, but a bit obtuse;
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous--
Almost, at times, the Fool.

I grow old . . . I grow old . . .
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.

Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.

I do not that they will sing to me.

I have seen them riding seaward on the waves.
Combing the white hair of the waves blown back
When the wind blows the water white and black.

We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.

Afterthought: It might have been smarter to copy prose, as the majority of what I write is fiction. Though, typing the poem does allow for a closer perusal, rather than just reading alone.

Collaboration: Writers Working Together

2010-01-18T15:56:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I met with Maricar Liberato, a staff writer at Filipinas Magazine, to talk about a collaboration that we've been dreaming about for years.

I met Maricar in 2003, when I was still at San Francisco State University and needed a part-time job. Public transportation can be expensive if you get caught without a ticket! However, I settled for a non-paying internship at Filipinas Magazine and rode the train gratis.

The result: one of the best learning experiences I've ever had and friendships to last a lifetime.

The collaboration: Co-editing a Filipino collection of literature.

This weekend, we did a lot of brainstorming and planning. We have a lot to work on before we next touch base. I came away from our meeting invigorated and excited about our plans.

Expect to see a Call for Submissions here and elsewhere soon.

AGNI Online: Finding Inspiration

2010-01-18T15:36:00.001-08:00

Read a lovely piece of fiction by a writer named Matthew M. Quick called, "Do Not Hate Them Very Much" in AGNI recently and feel very inspired. I've looked up the author and intend to read more of his works.

Also, I've been meaning to order a subscription of AGNI and back issue #66 with Bill Vollmann's, "Widow's Weeds." I'm hoping it's the story he read aloud at CSU Summer Arts 2008, which he described as a piece of "supernatural erotica."

Coming Soon? Sacramento/Northern CA Chapter of The Editorial Freelancers Association

2010-01-14T21:57:00.000-08:00

A message from our friends at Two Songbirds Press...

Hello writer friends!

I am considering starting up a Sacramento/Northern CA chapter of The Editorial Freelancers Association and am putting out feelers for interested people. You don't have to be a member of the organization to take part in the chapter events, you could come as my guest or as the guest of another member or just as an "interested freelancer."

This is a great page on their website that lets you see what kind of resources the EFA makes available: http://www.the-efa.org/res/resources.php

EFA's membership includes —
abstractors
copyeditors
designers
desktop publishing experts
editors
indexers
manuscript evaluators
picture researchers
project managers
proofreaders
researchers
textbook development editors
translators
writers
I'm asking you, #1, if you would be interested in a Sacramento/NoCal EFA chapter yourself, and #2 for you to please pass on this little tidbit to anyone you know who is working professionally in those fields just listed or is interested in editorial freelancing; that is, anyone who is or hopes to make a living assisting others with their writing. The EFA is the largest and oldest national professional organization of editorial freelancers.

Robin Martin, Founder
Two Songbirds Press

Am I ready For My Own Domain?

2010-01-12T22:46:00.001-08:00

I've been playing around with officially creating my own domain. Although I've enjoyed my time here at Mine Kunstlerroman, let's just say it: the address is a bit difficult to spell and blogspot has its limitations. It would be smarter to have my own domain.

So far, I really like what ipage offers, and the price is right. A professional domain would mean my own email domain, a link to my blog, bio/curriculum vitae and likely some tear sheets in PDF form. This all follows My Post Masters Degree Plan.

However, I've decided to do a little more planning and homework before committing to a domain. Perhaps I'll work on the layout and study a bit on web design.

Digging Through The Dregs: Revisiting My Old Writing

2010-01-08T21:15:00.001-08:00

I've been rifling through my file cabinet and reading drivel that I wrote years ago back in my BA days at San Francisco State University. I've even found some things from junior high.

I've spent the last hour banging sheafs of papers on my head and trying to read the stuff aloud without gagging. I'm at odds whether to shred the stuff or keep it just because I've always had a hard time parting with the old me. I can only imagine what other writers who I've workshopped with must have thought of my abilities.

Awful. Talentless. Pathetic. Cliche. Annoying. Trite.

How many times have I read someone else's writing and rolled my eyes?

In 2008, while workshopping with Doug Rice at CSU Summer Arts in Fresno, he said [paraphrasing] "Be kind when criticizing others--you never know what kind of writer they will become." He went on to discuss the writer's ability to grow and improve. He talked about a writer's best friend: Revision. He handed this out in class. It's with me always:

Original Paragraph:

I stood on the threshold, dazzled by the alabaster light and the two attractive young women in white dresses who sat on an enormous couch in the middle of the large room. I could feel a nice breeze. there were white curtains over the open window and a wince-colored rug on the floor. On the wall was a landscape painting of some sort. Tom joined me, and we walked into the room.

Revised:

A breeze blew through the room, blew curtains in at one end and out the other like pale flags, twisting them up towards the frosted wedding-cake of the ceiling, and then rippled over the wine-colored rug, making a shadow on it as wind does on the sea.

The only stationary object in the room was an enormous couch on which two young women were buoyed up as though upon an anchored balloon. They were both in white, and their dresses were rippling and fluttering as if they had just been blown back in after a short flight around the house. I must have stood for a few moments listening to the whip and snap of the curtains and the groan of a picture on the wall. Then there was a boom as Tom Buchanan shut the rear windows and the caught wind died about the room, and the curtains and the rugs and the two young women ballooned slowly to the floor.

--F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby

Amazing, no?

I admit, most of my dregs need to be chucked or maybe buried somewhere, but I think I've found some terrible pieces in which I might be able to salvage a line or two with some work.

If you've never taken the time to REALLY sift through your old dregs, I recommend it. Go back as far as you can. Old love letters you wrote to an elementary school sweetheart. English papers.
Notes passed in class. These all say something about your evolution as a writer.

You'll be embarassed. Humiliated. And proud of how far you've come.

I know I am.

For funnies. The following is an old 'sensory exercise' I wrote for my very first creative writing class. I might not have understood what 'sensory exercise' meant because it's littered with lots of 'smelling' and 'feeling' nonsense. This is going the way of the hatchet, so I don't mind pasting it here, except that I'm SO embarrassed. If anyone has something particularly shameful to post in kind, feel free.

...10 minutes later...I'm losing my nerve...don't think I can bear to share this...okay fine...and yes, the poem was center justified when originally written.

Soft with Clouds, Hopes and Dreams

Smelling my wet insides soaked.
Feeling my chest breathing, stretching, falling in on my heart.
Tasting the bitter tears of emptiness of love.
Hearing the tortured sounds from my throat.
And seeing the shredded tissue in my hand.

Smelling, feeling, tasting, hearing, touching.
Swimming in the endless fathoms of my salty tears.
There’s just a little bit dribbling,
Catching in the small cup of my ear,
To soak and mix with the blood thrumming in my veins.

Seeing the tissue, sweet tissue!
Tasting your endless kiss, caress, and sweep against my face.
My nose, my lips, the soft underside of my eye.
A sweep of my brow, check and trembling chin.
Catch them.
Save me.
Shredded, sweet, drenched and mangled tissue.
Love me!
Soak aloft the tears,
And take my pain.

Tissue. Sweet tissue. Will you go to heaven?
You healed my pain, eased my sorrow, and took from me
All I could pour into so small a space.

How much love flows into our dead trees.
Breezes, wishes and rivers.
Soft with clouds, hopes and dreams.

Long and lasting, visits did they come
To funerals,
Teenage bedrooms, mother’s, father’s,
Endless of people’s of times lost and reborn.
Dead and strong on the tarmac of life,
Clenched in the hand of a weeping lover’s heart?

Tragedy wept with rivulets into our woods
Breezes, wishes and rivers.
Soft with clouds, hopes and dreams.
Tissue, sweet tissue. Will you go to heaven?

Forthcoming in January 2010: Walang Hiya Anthology

2010-01-04T14:43:00.000-08:00

Walang Hiya: Literature Taking Risks Toward Liberatory Practice, edited by Lolan Buhain Sevilla and Roseli Ilano. Forthcoming in January 2010.

Presented by Arkipelago Books Publishing, this anthology is committed to using the narrative as a departure point for personal and political transformation. Featuring short fiction and poetry from emerging Pilipino and Pilipino-American writers:

Adrien Salazar, Aimee Suzara, Aldrich Sabac, Amalia Buena, David Maduli, Dionisio Velasco, Edene Matutina, Eileen Tabios, Ellen-Rae Cachola, Elsa Valmidiano, Emily Lawsin, Grace Talusan, Jen Palmares Meadows, Jenny C. Lares, Joan Iva Cube, Kristen Sajonas, Laurel Fantauzo, Lolan Buhain Sevilla, Melanie Dulfo, Melissa Reyes, Michael Janairo, Michelle Ferrer, Niki Escobar, Paul Ocampo, Pippi Prado, Rachel Gray, Regie Cabico, Ricco Villanueva Siasoco, Roseli Ilano, Thomas Paras, Tina Bartolome. Artwork by Arlene Rodrigo and Aimee Espiritu.

November is National Novel Writing Month

2009-11-05T16:57:00.003-08:00

Writing on steroids. NaNoWriMo is a great way to get the novel that you've been meaning to write started. It's also a great way to write a piece of crap. Whatever your reasons, check it out for yourself. Once you've got that novel done, I know a great writer who can help you shape it into a masterpiece.
-------------------------------------
From the National Novel Writing Month Org website:

What is NaNoWriMo?

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.

Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.

Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that's a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.

As you spend November writing, you can draw comfort from the fact that, all around the world, other National Novel Writing Month participants are going through the same joys and sorrows of producing the Great Frantic Novel. Wrimos meet throughout the month to offer encouragement, commiseration, and—when the thing is done—the kind of raucous celebrations that tend to frighten animals and small children.

In 2008, we had over 119,000 participants. More than 21,000 of them crossed the 50k finish line by the midnight deadline, entering into the annals of NaNoWriMo superstardom forever. They started the month as auto mechanics, out-of-work actors, and middle school English teachers. They walked away novelists.

So, to recap:

What: Writing one 50,000-word novel from scratch in a month's time.

Who: You! We can't do this unless we have some other people trying it as well. Let's write laughably awful yet lengthy prose together.

Why: The reasons are endless! To actively participate in one of our era's most enchanting art forms! To write without having to obsess over quality. To be able to make obscure references to passages from our novels at parties. To be able to mock real novelists who dawdle on and on, taking far longer than 30 days to produce their work.

When: You can sign up anytime to add your name to the roster and browse the forums. Writing begins November 1. To be added to the official list of winners, you must reach the 50,000-word mark by November 30 at midnight. Once your novel has been verified by our web-based team of robotic word counters, the partying begins.

Call For Submissions: Kartika Review

2009-10-12T15:27:00.005-07:00

Kartika Review is accepting submissions for upcoming issues of our online Asian American literary magazine.

We accept: fiction, flash fiction, creative nonfiction (memoir, reportage, essays, letters), poetry and visual art by Asian American artists.

We are a quarterly journal We read submissions all year. Simultaneous submission are okay, but please notify us immediately if your work has been accepted elsewhere.

Full submission guidelines, including the email addresses for submitting work, are available at our website:
http://www.kartikareview.com/submit.html

Kartika Review serves the Asian American community and those involved with Diasporic Asian-inspired literature. We scout for compelling Asian American creative writing and artwork to present to the public at large. Our editors actively solicit contributions from established virtuosos in our community in hopes their works here will inspire the next generation of virtuosos. We also want to promote emerging writers and artists we foresee to be the future powerhouses of their craft. Ultimately, Kartika strives to create a literary forum that caters to and celebrates the wordsmiths of the Asian Diaspora.

Peter Grandbois' Arsenic Lobster Release Party

2009-10-12T15:27:00.003-07:00

For weeks now, I've been looking forward to and dreading the release party for Peter Grandbois' newest book, 'Arsenic Lobster: A Hybrid Memoir.' Sure, I'm excited to catch up with colleagues who I haven't seen since graduation in May, but I'm not looking forward to toting along my six-week old son to the event. Picture upset crying during the middle of the reading.

In the end, I decide to stay for the meet and greet cocktail hour and leave before the reading begins.

The release party is being hosted by Robin Martin at The Urban Hive, a midtown Sacramento coworking space located very near Old Soul, where my writers group, Writers in Progress, used to meet. Janna Santoro is one of The Urban Hive's founders, so I'm interested to see what the place is like.

We get there around 6:30--it's not yet dark yet. It's an artsy warehouse, brick with art on white walls, mod seating, very open, uncluttered.

Bridget Mabunga, or Auntie Bridget, sports a sweet new do, straighter than I've ever seen it, shorter and highlighted with some pink streaks. She's also wearing a purple coat--ah--she must be like, the coolest professor ever. She takes the kid with a smile and a, "Go get something to eat." I try not to kick up my legs on my way to the buffet. In the back of my mind, I'm wondering if it would be kosher take off, just chuck some Similac out the window of my car, screeching tires and all.

I check out the stacks of 'Arsenic Lobster: A Hybrid Memoir.' I pick one up, looking around the studio, thumb through a bit of it, wondering what makes a memoir hybrid. Wondering, wondering.

I congratulate Grandbois and purchase two copies: one for me and the other I tell him is likely to end up a Christmas gift and so not to write it to anyone--though if the screenplay to his "Gravedigger" is successful, it might end up on ebay. He signs them both, seems a little muddled, and I smile looking every which way, wondering if he's thinking, "Shame, shame--you brought a baby?"

Flatmancrooked makes an appearance, and I get a free copy of one of their anthologies. After a few more awkward words of congratulations, I shuffle off--certain that one of his groupies is about to demand his attention.

We crash on a couch, and chat with Rich Martin, Robin's husband. Eventually, Kylee Cook and Marie Hoffman join us along with Bridget and her husband, Bobby. Everyone's been up to something. Robin's got a new tow-hitch on her car. Bridget's working at Folsom Lake College. Gordon got a haircut and he's been very busy agenting books. Aschala Edwards. Trina Drotar. Both in Sac State's graduate program now.

Embarassing moment: Rich Martin, Robin's husband, points out that my teeth are all red from the lobster cookie I had been eating. Thanks, Gordon Warnock.

Eventually, Robin calls for everyone's attention--she smiles, wearing a black and white patterned dress--it's a little bit go-go artsy writer, but that's Robin. This is where we make our exit. The kid has been asleep the entire event, but I don't want to risk tears during the reading.

It's dark outside now. I settle into the passenger seat while Jason buckles in the kid, and I exhale deep, thankful that we got through the night, well, halfway through the night, minus any poops, or meltdowns. It seems fitting that one of his first outings is a literary event--even if he couldn't make it through the reading.

That night, I fantasize about having my very own book release party at The Urban Hive. Robin would introduce me, "I remember the first time I met Jen, and thinking 'Wow, I wish I could be more like her.'" I snicker and roll over into a dreamless sleep.

Call For Submissions: {M}aganda Magazine Issue 23

2009-10-12T15:27:00.001-07:00

{M}aganda Magazine Issue 23 Call For Submissions

Deadline: December 31, 2009

{m}aganda magazine is a student-run academic publication based at the University of California, Berkeley. Founded in 1989 , it has evolved from its beginnings as a bi-annual magazine, and is now a diverse anthology of submitted work that is published once a year. We serve as a vital forum for the presentation of diverse experiences and opinions through all platforms for creativity–including art, prose, poetry, film, music, journalism and scholarly writing.

We record our lives as “cultural historians,” not forgetting that our forefathers and foremothers have blazed this path for us, making publications like maganda possible. We come from a strong tradition of Filipino and Filipino American writers, a tradition which includes Dr. Jose Rizal, Paz Marquez Benitez, Estrella Alfon, Jose Garcia Villa, Nick Joaquin, Carlos Bulosan, Bienvenido Santos, N.V.M. Gonzales, Renato Constantino, Jose Maria Sison, Ninotchka Rosca, Jessica Hagedorn, and the Kearny Street Workshop Writers. Because of them, and for the future, we proudly give our community {m}aganda.

Writing Hiatus: Post Graduation Slump

2009-09-30T12:21:00.000-07:00

Was reading older posts and came across something I wrote before graduation. Here I am, four months out of graduate school, and I'm no closer to figuring out what kind of writer I'll be...

"I've been thinking about life after graduation a lot lately. What happens after graduation? Okay, okay. I know what's happening three months from now when my bump becomes baby, but what about my writing? What's to keep me from sinking into non-writing obscurity? How can I stay motivated and keep growing as a writer outside of school?

I'll have to keep thinking about that." - May 16, 2009

Post graduation, a number of my colleagues have gone on to use their degrees successfully--teaching at the community college level, working for themselves, working for publishers and/or being published.

I imagine Robin would say something like, "Jen, you're at a different place right now, where you're focusing on your new baby and being a mom. You should enjoy it!"

Blah blah blah, Robin.

STOP MAKING SENSE!: Poetry Workshop with Luis Francia

2009-09-24T11:24:00.000-07:00

STOP MAKING SENSE!:
Poetry Workshop with Luis Francia

Saturday, October 17, 2009
9:30am-12:30pm

Bayanihan Community Center
1010 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA

Mean without meaning to.
Chance upon delight, mystery, paradox,
and other linguistic revelations as, given free rein,
words can lead you to broad and unexpected spaces/places.
In approaching the writing of a poem,
this morning workshop emphasizes play, lyricism,
and an openness unbeholden to narrative.
Worry not about the latter: its texts are indelibly written in the everyday.
Worry not about your grandmother, your sexuality,
your roots, all the peculiarities of your life.
They will never leave you.

For those just starting to write poetry. All interested in exploring and writing welcome.
Bring paper and be ready to do some writing exercises.

Student sliding scale $20-$30 / Regular sliding scale $35-$45
(Fee includes breakfast and snacks)

9:30 am: Welcome, Breakfast
10:00 am Workshop
2:00 pm (free event): PAWA Arkipelago author Reading Series featuring:
Neela Banerjee, Luis Francia, Alejandro Munguía, Jean Vengua,
& music performed by Chris Planas, Carlos Ziálcita

Luis H. Francia’s poetry collections include Museum of Absences and The Arctic Archipelago and Other Poems. His semiautobiographical Eye of the Fish: A Personal Archipelago won both the 2002 PEN Center Open Book and The 2002 Asian American Literary Award. His poetry theater piece, The Beauty of Ghosts, premiered at Topaz Arts in 2007. He edited Brown River, White Ocean: An Anthology of Twentieth Century Philippine Literature in English, and is co-editor of Flippin’: Filipinos on America, and Vestiges of War: The Philippine-American War and the Aftermath of an Imperial Dream, 1899-1999. He is the author of the Introduction to Penguin Classic’s Doveglion: Collected Poems by Jose Garcia Villa. He teaches at New York University’s Asian/Pacific/American Studies program.

For more information e-mail PAWA: pawa@pawainc.com

To register online:
http://app.formassembly.com/forms/view/52172

or go to the following sites and follow the links:
http://www.pawainc.com/events.html
or
http://pawainc.blogspot.com

Peter Grandbois's The Arsenic Lobster: A Hybrid Memoir - Release Party

2009-09-14T11:46:00.000-07:00

Peter Grandbois's The Arsenic Lobster:
A Hybrid Memoir - Release Party

Wednesday, 30 September 2009
18:00 - 23:00

The Urban Hive
1931 H. St
Sacramento, CA
916-585-HIVE

Price: FREE

Spuyten Duyvil presents 'The Arsenic Lobster: A Hybrid Memoir' by Peter Grandbois.

Come out and meet the rising star of the literary scene, Peter Grandbois (author of 'The Gravedigger,' soon a major motion picture), pick up a copy of his new book.

Go below to pick up your copy today:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1933132728/scripternet

About the book: From http://www.spdbooks.org/Producte/9781933132723/the-arsenic-lobster-a-hybrid-memoir.aspx

Literary Nonfiction. Memoir. "In this hilarious and poignant tour de force, our hero is caught in a maze of simulacra, the mirrored hallways of America gone mad. The hero's quest is to smash the mirrors around him--will his sword work? Could a guitar's chords shatter the glass with its rising duende? How can he demolish the specular artifice to find the scene of his real selves? But what is the real? And how do we get there, when there is no one to drive the car"--Eleni Sikelianos. "In Peter Grandbois' `hybrid' memoir the materials of his suburban anomie are cut apart and thrust into arresting and disturbing juxtapositions. Passages of spiky adrenalin play against a melancholic, duende-driven introspection as identity is assembled and re-assembled in a strobe-lit chamber"--Sven Birkerts.

Author Hometown: DAVIS, CA USA

About the author: Peter Grandbois is the author of The Gravedigger (Chronicle Books, 2006), a Borders "Original Voices" and Barnes and Noble "Discover Great New Writers" selection, as well as THE ARSENIC LOBSTER: A HYBRID MEMOIR, published by Spuyten Duyvil in 2009. His essays and short fiction have appeared in numerous magazines and recently received an honorable mention for the 2007 Pushcart Prize. In addition, his translation of San Juan: Memoir of a City was recently nominated for a PEN Translation award. He is a professor of creative writing and contemporary literature at California State University in Sacramento.

Mary Mackey's "The Widow's War" Book Launch: Sept 3 at Time Tested Books

2009-08-07T08:06:00.003-07:00

I recently received an email from my English 230A professor, Mary Mackey, who retired last year. In early September, she'll be launching her new novel, "The Widow's War," which she was writing in the Spring of 2008, when I was taking her class.

"The Widow's War" Book Launch & Reading: September 3rd at 7:00

Time Tested Books
1114 21st Street
Sacramento, CA 95811
916-447-5696

Art and plot summary from Mary Mackey's website.

The Widow's War

“Mary Mackey gives her readers yet another woman warrior, this one a fighter in the Civil War. We thrill to the story of Carrie Vinton as she courageously takes the side of freedom over slavery” _Maxine Hong Kingston, author of The Woman Warrior

With an “inventive imagination and crisp style,” bestselling author Mary Mackey has captured readers' hearts with her epic, sweeping works of historical fiction. Now in THE WIDOW'S WAR, she presents a novel of a woman's fierce spirit, rebellious love, and struggle for justice set against the backdrop of the approaching Civil War.

In 1853, Carolyn Vinton is left alone and pregnant in Rio de Janeiro when her fiancé, abolitionist Dr. William Saylor, disappears. Grieving and desperate, Carrie is easy prey for William's stepbrother, Deacon Presgrove, who convinces her that William is dead and offers to take her back to the United States and marry her to give her baby a father.

Carrie soon realizes that she has been betrayed at every turn by her new husband. Deacon's father is a proslavery senator, and Deacon plans to use Carrie's inheritance-not to fight slavery as he promised-but to support it. Carrie's love for William and her powerful abolitionist views have never died. When she discovers that William is alive and fighting to bring the Kansas Territory into the Union as a free state, she escapes the clutches of her husband and joins him.

Their passionate reunion takes place in the midst of a violent civil war that will soon engulf the entire nation. As abolitionists and proslavers battled over the Kansas Territory, fire and fury sweep across the plains threatening to tear Carrie and William apart forever.

When a band of pro-slavers kidnaps Carrie's child, William, and thirteen free blacks, Carrie arms a band of African-American soldiers and leads them into battle to save the hostages from certain death. Beautifully researched and written, The Widow's War is a fast-paced, compelling tale that offers readers passion, adventure, the magic of Afro-Brazilian religious practices, and the story of the first African American soldiers to fight in the Civil War.

THE WIDOW'S WAR
by Mary Mackey
Berkley Trade Paperback Original
publication date: September 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-425-22791-6
$15.00

CSUS English Department Faculty & Staff Furlough

2009-08-07T08:00:00.000-07:00

The following message was circulated via English L, Sacramento State's English Department's link serv.
----------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Students:

Due to unprecedented budget reductions imposed upon the CSU, our employee bargaining units have agreed to take 24 furlough days this year.

The staff of the English Department and I will be observing furlough on the campus designated days of Friday, August 7 and Friday, August 14. The English Department, therefore, will be closed on both of those dates. We will reopen on Monday, August 10 and Monday, August 17, respectively. If you call or email us during those days, we will try to respond as soon as possible after we reopen.

While most departments will be closed on these dates, there are some activities that may continue.

In an emergency, please contact Public Safety at (916) 278-6851.

During Fall 2009, the campus has also designated the following dates as campus-wide furlough: Friday, November 27 (the day after Thanksgiving) and December 21-24; on those days the English Department will be closed. The staff and I will be rotating our other furlough days so as to cause as little disruption as possible.

As for faculty furlough, we are awaiting further instructions on implementation. So, I do not yet know how it will impact instruction. I assure you that as soon as I have a better idea of faculty furlough implementation, I will communicate that information to you.

Sincerely,
Sheree Meyer, Chair
English

CSU Sacramento English Graduate Program: No Spring 2010 Applications

2009-07-16T16:30:00.001-07:00

A message from Sacramento State University English Department Linkserv
Dear English-L,
---------------------------------------------------------

Due to unprecedented budget cuts, the university will not be accepting new students to the graduate program for Spring 2010. Moreover, the CSU has established the Fall 2010 Graduate Program application filing period as October 1 – November 30th, 2009. This means you must submit a complete application within this time period for priority consideration.

If you plan to continue with your academic career at Sacramento State after you graduate with your BA in either Fall 2009 or Spring 2010, it is imperative you submit your application by this November 30th. To be considered for admission, Graduate Studies must receive the following documents by the application deadline:

· University Application
· Official Transcripts
· Test Scores
· Residency Information

Should you have specific questions regarding the English MA or TESOL programs, please contact our respective coordinators for advising. **Note** It is highly recommended those students graduating this Fall meet with the coordinator.

English MA – Dr. David Toise, dwtoise@csus.edu, CLV 163
TESOL – Dr. Julian Heather, jheather@csus.edu, CLV 138

Calaveras Station Call For Submissions & Updated Website

2009-07-16T16:19:00.001-07:00

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

CALAVERAS STATION
California State University, Sacramento
Literary Journal

What: Accepting submissions of original poetry, short fiction, creative nonfiction, and critical analysis for possible inclusion in the May 2010 issue of the annual Calaveras Station Literary Journal. (Maximum of three submissions per category)

Work cannot have been previously published in any publication.

Who: Any currently enrolled CSUS student (undergraduate and graduate).

When: Submission deadline is Thursday, October 15, 3:00 p.m.

Where: Submit work to:

Calaveras Station
c/o English Department, Calaveras Hall (Room 104)
California State University, Sacramento
6000 J Street
Sacramento, CA 95819

Format of submissions:

Submit three printed copies of each manuscript (12 pt. font). Each copy should contain the title of the work ONLY – no author’s name.
Cover sheet must accompany each category of work and include:
Date of submission
Author’s name, mailing and email address, phone number, and academic status and major
Category of work and title(s)
MLA format required for critical analysis pieces.
No electronic submissions will be accepted.

Process: All submissions will be distributed to section editors for blind judging. Executive editors, in conjunction with faculty advisors, will make final decisions based upon the quality of the works and the space available.

Queries: Contact CalaverasStationCSUS@gmail.com for further information.
-----------------------------------------------

The editors and staff of Calaveras Station are pleased to announce our updated website. Please visit and see photos from both the 2008 and 2009 release parties, learn how to submit poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and critical analysis pieces (deadline is October 15, 2009), and learn where to purchase copies. http://www.csus.edu/org/litjrnl/

Additionally, the editors and staff would like to invite you to visit our brand new Facebook page and become a member. http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=116640083045

Sincerely,

Trina L. Drotar and Jim Benton,
Co-Executive Editors, Calaveras Station

TAYO Magazine Launch Party: August 22 in Los Angeles

2009-07-14T14:15:00.001-07:00

I'm disappointed to say that I will not be able to attend the launch party, especially since I was very excited to meet the other contributors. The following invite was copied from the facebook invitation I received.
-----------------------------------
WE CORDIALLY INVITE YOU TO THE VERY FIRST TAYO LAUNCH PARTY!

This is the first event of the year for TAYO Literary Magazine, and it is also our first showcase of our inaugural magazine! Come to this great party, eat great Filipino food with us, pick up your amazing magazine, view or even buy your favorite art pieces, and listen to great performances all night!

Event Info:
$25 for a pre-sale ticket.

Date: 08.22.09
Saturday, 6PM - 9PM

Location:
Salakot Sizzle & Grill
2122 Beverly Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90057

Buy: Your TAYO Magazines for $5!
Buffet-Style, Filipino cuisine! Best in Historic Filipinotown!
RSVP at: TAYOLITERARYMAG@GMAIL.COM

Please email us if you want to perform or display your work! We welcome all artists.

OPEN MIC & ART GALLERY

Semi-Formal Affair
Doors open @ 6PM
To get on guestlist, RSVP to tayoliterarymag@gmail.com
You can also pay at the door
Support your community's artists and writers!
Parking instructions will be emailed to you once you RSVP.
There will be great food!
Be excited!

Remember, please email tayoliterarymag@gmail.com to RSVP officially! :)

Call for Submissions: Flatmancrooked Prize Great Fiscal Renewal Writing Contest

2009-07-01T13:10:00.000-07:00

Flatmancrooked literary magazine (recently recognized by Esquire as one of the top 5 online literary journals in the U.S.) is seeking short fiction submissions for their next collection -- Excellent Writing Done During a Period of Great Fiscal Renewal.

Guest Editor Aimee Bender (author of The Girl in the Flammable Skirt, An Invisible Sign of My Own, Willful Creatures, recipient of the Pushcart Prize and professor of creative writing at University of Southern California) will help select the best short story for the collection.

1st Place - $1000.00, publication in the next Flatmancrooked Anthology with recognition as 2009 Flatmancrooked Prize Recipient, and online publication and recognition.

2nd-10th Place - Publication in the next Flatmancrooked Anthology with recognition as 2009 Flatmancrooked Prize Finalist, and online publication and recognition.

Submission details: http://www.flatmancrooked.com/2009-flatmancrooked-prize
----------------------------------------
Steve D. Owen
Assistant Editor
Flatmancrooked

Just Write: Summer Writing Camp for Young Writers in Progress

2009-07-01T10:15:00.000-07:00

Summer Writing Camp for Young Writers in Progress

Just Write Sacramento is a week-long summer writing program for high school students who like to write, but might need a bit of direction when it comes to craft. Under the guidance of experienced writers, both professional and academic, students will explore their creative writing interests with like-minded young writers. While experimenting with genre, form, style, and word choice, they will learn how to identify and showcase a successful piece of writing.

Monday through Friday, August 3 - 8, 2009
8:00 am to 5:30 pm daily

Hosted at Capitol Public Radio
7055 Folsom Boulevard, Sacramento, CA
Complimentary Parking Available

Highlighted Instruction

Week-long Craft Development Classes
Cultivating Creativity
Writing from Personal Experience
Poetry or Fiction
Strengthen Your Voice with Power Verbs
Publishing: Finding Outlets for Writing

Eligibility and Cost

Open to Students Age 14 to 17
Writing Sample(s) Requested with Registration
$235 per student

Register Online: JustWriteSacramento.com
Questions/Email: contact@justwritesacramento.com
Sponsored in part by Capitol Public Radio

--------------------------------------------
Spread the word to anyone you know who might be interested -- high school students (ages 14-17) with an interest in writing, or parents of high school students. Just Write Sacramento was designed and coordinated by Janna Santoro, who intends to make this an annual conference with hopes of cultivating and nurturing creative writing in the Sacramento area. Also teaching will be Bridget Mabunga. Both Santoro and Mabunga are members of Writers in Progress, the summer writing workshop I attend.

Sylvanopolis Writing Society Presents Leafkin Anthology: 18 July at CSUS

2009-07-01T10:10:00.000-07:00

On July 18th the local writing society, Sylvanopolis, will present their first anthology, Leafkin. Most of the submissions come from current or former Sacramento State students.

Sylvanopolis Writing Society Presents

Leafkin

Our first annual Anthology

July 18th
8:00pm – 10:00 pm
Sierra 2 Center, Room 10
2791 24th Street
Sacramento, CA 95818

Tickets
Adults $10
Children under 12 $5

All are welcome to attend! Come for food, a raffle, book readings, items for sale, live music, poetry readings, and two other local authors.

---I've updated the location. Thanks to Erin for the correction.

Acceptance: TAYO Literary Magazine

2009-06-25T14:21:00.000-07:00

Acceptance tastes so good when eaten with your hands.

My poem, 'Crow The Mangoes Parumping' has been accepted to TAYO Literary Magazine's first inaugural issue. TAYO is the first independent publication presented by the Filipino American Library. In Tagalog, TAYO means: 'we' or 'us', and also means 'to stand up.' Here's an excerpt from the acceptance email:

Congratulations! First, the TAYO TEAM would like to thank you for your submissions. Your work has been chosen to be published in the TAYO Literary Magazine, the very first independent literary publication that ties together the Filipino-American community. We have reviewed nearly 200 submissions and could only accept 30 submissions. We appreciate your patience in hearing back from us!

---------------------
TAYO Launch Party
August 22nd, 2009 6PM – 9PM
Salakot Sizzle & Grill, in Historic Filipinotown

Pre-Sale Tickets - $25.00
Door-sale Tickets - $30.00
VIP Tickets - $35.00 --VIP Ticket comes with 1 Swag Bag: including, 1 free magazine, 1 free TAYO v-neck shirts, and much more!

To RSVP for the TAYO Launch party, please email tayoliterarymag(at)gmail.com. Replace (at) with @
---------------------------
The release party is in Los Angeles shortly after I'm due, so I won't be able to go. I'm a little bummed out because I'd love to make connections with some LA writers and do a reading at the release party.

Brad Buchanan Reading at Luna's Cafe: June 25th at 8pm

2009-06-24T09:04:00.000-07:00

CSUS Professor of English, Brad Buchanan, will be performing poems from his most recent book, "Swimming the Mirror: Poems for My Daughter"

on
Thursday, June 25th at 8pm
at
Luna's Cafe
1414 16th Street
Sacramento. California

He will also be reading some newer poems about parenthood and his recently acquired US citizenship. This will be his last reading for a while, as his second child is due in mid-August.

Image from previous November 2008 reading at Luna's.

I'm Banking On My Writing: Opening A Writing Expense Account

2009-06-07T12:05:00.001-07:00

As part of my plan to become a professional, I've decided to use every bit of graduation gift cash and whatever I could scrounge up in change as seed money to start my very own business checking account completely devoted to writing expenses. Any income received from writing jobs will go directly back into the bank account.

My writing checking account will pay for:

Professional business cards
Setup and maintenance of a professional website
Writing contests
Conference attendance fees, traveling fees
Writers association fees
Writing supplies, postage

At the bank, I'm seated across from a banking associate. She wears bright blue, dangling earrings and her black hair is pulled into a knot. She looks a couple years younger than me and I bet her job pays benefits. I remember when I was happy with a regular desk job, and wonder for a moment if I could be again. We shake hands and I tell her I want to create new checking and savings accounts. She's very nice, though rarely looks up from her computer screen between the questions she asks me.

"Are you currently employed?"
"No," I say immediately, then wish I could still say I'm a graduate student with a valid purpose. "Well, I'm a freelance writer."
"So you're self-employed." More typing.
"Uh, yah."

Later she hands me a small stack of papers to sign to create the account. I look down at the sheets, verifying my address, contact information, and that everything is spelled correctly. Under employment, it reads:

Self employed - Writer

Writer. It's there. Right in front of me in black and white. So official and from a real institution. If the bank says I'm a writer, it must be true.

I love receiving affirmation from large institutions.

------
Note: Although I've been part-time freelancing for years, I've chosen to list this post under "How to Become A Freelance Writer". I'm attempting to be more methodical about finding regular work as a full-time professional.

How to Become a Freelance Writer: My Post Masters Degree Plan

2009-06-03T18:21:00.001-07:00

For months now, I've been asking the question: What happens after graduation? Besides panicking, I created "My Post Masters Degree Plan" to get me on track to finding regular freelance work. This is just to start off with, so I'll be adding more details as I think of them.

"My Post Masters Degree Plan"

Research professional freelance writing.
Create and maintain a professional website advertising my resume and skills.
Write more. Create new writing everyday. Envision new methods to tackle writing.
Revisit old writing projects and see if anything is salvageable.
Read more.
Build my platform in the Sacramento and Filipino writing communities.
Join a regular writing group and writer's associations.
Create a business checking account devoted to writing.
Attend conferences, workshops, local Northern California literary events.
Pursue query writing, submit to contests, call for submissions, journalism articles.
Do non-profit work that will build my experience and name.
Say 'Yes' to all jobs. New writers cannot be choosers.
Stay on track.
Write more.

Pens & Pencils: Writing Implements I Recommend

2009-05-28T10:38:00.001-07:00

I'm particular about my writing tools and I loathe change, so once I find a brand I love, I stick with it forever.

You probably have your own favorites--a chewed up big blue pencil you've saved since elementary school, the pen you stole from your doctor's office. I completely understand. Actually, my favorite pen/pencil holder is a clay snowman I molded back in kindergarten.

But should you ever decide to try something new, the following brands and models receive my highest and most sincere recommendations.

PENCIL: Dixon Ticonderoga Yellow No. 2

You can always judge a pencil by the quality of its wood shavings. The Dixon Ticonderoga 2 sharpens easily and the wood never cracks. Its graphite is pretty tough, unlike with some pencils that leave you sharpening and sharpening again and again. Plus, the eraser is top notch, and doesn't leave any greasy pink mark.

Made by Prang. Ticonderoga 2 tri-write in image below.
Runner up: Sanford also makes really high quality pencils.

COLORED PENCILS: Prismacolor Professional Quality Soft Thick Lead Pencils

Nothing beats Prismacolor Professional Quality soft thick lead pencils. These soft pencils color like butter spreading over warm bread and the colors are incredibly vibrant. Once you use them you'll never go back to the kiddie stuff.

Prisma pencils are rarely discounted (try Amazon), but they do sell at Michaels, so with a coupon, you can get a good deal. Otherwise, a single Prisma can sell for about a dollar.

Made by Sanford.

CHECKBOOK/WALLET/PURSE PEN: Fisher Bullet Pen

For Christmas, way back in my undergraduate years, my college roommate gave me a blue Fisher bullet pen which I still carry in my wallet. Originally designed for NASA by Paul C. Fisher, the pen can write upside down, under water and in extreme heat. I don't usually do any of those things, but it's sleek and has a sweet cap so the inside of my wallet never gets gross with ink smears. Plus, nowadays, you can get refills at places like Staples, instead of ordering direct from Fisher.

Manufactured in Boulder City, Nevada, USA.

DISPOSABLE DESK PEN: Pilot G2 .07 Retractable Gel Ink Rolling Ball

I reach for the odd Bic or Papermate when I'm forced to, but prefer the feel of words rolling out from under a Pilot G2 .07. I've found that the super fine points are too thin for me, and the .09 is too thick. The .07 seems to be just right.

I'm trying hard to be smart about recycling my office supplies. Most disposable pens like those made by Bic and Papermate do not recycle, and cannot be refilled. At least the Pilot G2 sells refills.

ULTIMATE PROFESSIONAL PEN: Tiffany T-Clip Retractable Ball Point Pen in Sterling Silver

I couldn't resist posting an image of the new addition to my writing tool favorites, a Tiffany retractable ball point, given to me as a graduation gift from my brother and sister-in-law.

So many professional pens look bulky and masculine, but the Tiffany is stream-lined and classy. Actual Tiffany refills might be difficult to get a hold of, but I'm certain I can find a suitable generic refill when necessary.

I only intend to use my Tiffany for special occasions: buying our first home, my first book signing, book contracts, witnessing a wedding--stuff like that. I love it, love it, love it and may have even licked the pen, just so it knew who it belonged to.

In the end, I think I'd like to be buried with my Tiffany and Fisher Bullet.

Update: In response to this post, Gordon Warnock, author of The Jiggly Bits, posted his own favorite writing implements. Check it out.

Earning My MA & Getting Hooded: CSUS Commencement at Arco Arena, 22 May 2009

2009-05-26T19:45:00.000-07:00

We arrive at Arco Arena around 11:15--just a little bit early before the graduates are supposed to gather. It's bright out--but the weather forecast says it should be a comfortable 85 degrees tops. I'm already starting to sweat under these black polyester poly-something robes that my mom was kind enough to iron for me that very morning.

After some pictures with the family in the parking lot, I tuck four folded plastic beach balls underneath my cap. I can't wear it, because it's so full. My mom catches a glimpse of the bright orange and asks me what I have.

"Nothing."
"Come on, Jen," she says. "You aren't going to throw something are you?"
I look at my brother and then down to straighten my robes. "What do you think I am Mom," I say, "an undergrad?"
"I hope not," she says, shaking her head. "You're getting your Masters, so you should be serious."
"Yes, Mom."

I've convinced myself that the art of white lies is part and parcel to a fiction writer's persona. I don't feel guilty at all.

Graduates are supposed to gather at the service entrance, which is just under the South Entrance of Arco Arena, so I separate from my family. Security doesn't search me, so the four beach balls I have tucked underneath my cap are safe.

Sloping cement ceilings overhead mean the stadium seating is just above. It's cool and dark inside; the sweat on my forehead begins to dry. I tug on my cap. It's so annoying, slipping over my hair and tilting this way and that. Luckily I've brought some bobby pins, tucked in a small wallet, clipped to the front of my shirt and stuffed underneath my robes. I reach down, trying to juggle everything at once: my cap, my hood, a bottle of water, four folded beach balls, my open wallet and the bobby pins.

I feel like an idiot, and figure I have some time before friends start arriving, so I duck into the restroom. In a stall, I shove all four beach balls down the front of my robe. I'm seven months pregnant, but all the black conceals all the bumps and bulges--though with the beach balls, I look like I'm lactating. At the stink, I stand in front of the mirror, pinning my hair, and try hard not to drag my sleeves through puddles of water on the counter.

When I come back out, it's much more crowded with the arrival of graduates. I have a hard time recognizing people's faces when I can't see the shape of their bodies underneath black robes. I recognize Bridget Mabunga by her blonde hair and figure that the tall person standing next to her smiling must be Robin Martin. A few squints and tentative steps forward confirm my thoughts. Casey Rene Miller is already there too, along with Joshua Neely. All the creative writers are gathered under a piece of paper on the wall that reads:

"MASTERS - English, Liberal Arts, Music - Place your hood over your left arm."

I've already got my hood on, and with help from Casey, lift it off, careful not to knock my cap. For a few minutes, we're all able to relax, take pictures and marvel at our greatness. Every once in awhile, a new person joins our group for a picture and then leaves: Gordon Warnock, Aschala Edwards.

Sheree Meyer, English Department Chair, comes by wearing fancy PhD robes. I want to run my hands over the velvety stripes on her sleeves, but restrain myself. I don't know her very well after all. She instructs us on how to properly hang our hood over our arms to expedite the hooding process. All the grad candidates, me included, stand there turning our hoods inside and out, white, then yellow, then green, trying to do it just like her. Is that right?

We start moving. Robin Martin, Casey Rene Miller, me, followed by Bridget Mabunga. Everyone's walking real fast, and I waddle forward, faster than I've moved in weeks. At last.

We emerge from a tunnel. Lights. People. Relatives. Friends. Bleachers of yelling people.

I feel like a star, like an NBA player ready to hit the court, and as I walk to my seat, I march accompanied to Pomp and Circumstance, the song so familiar a rite of passage that I recognize the moment as so special that it requires a soundtrack. Last dances with crushes. Car rides with friends. A funeral procession. A wedding ceremony. A first dance.

I'll never forget this.

So fast and we're being seated. We all look at each other--can it be? The English Masters candidates are seated in the front row, seats of importance. I think back to when I graduated with my Bachelors Degree from San Francisco State University in 2004 and to the pictures my mom took from the football field stands. Even with the camera zoom, I was just a purple dot amongst dots. But here at last, two years of additional higher education have earned me the right to stand out, up front, near enough to run up and touch CSUS President Alexander Gonzalez if I want to, or to lob one of the beach balls stuffed down my shirt at his head.

We English graduates stand there, spinning around looking for friends and family, almost speechless, except to let out deep breaths, faltering laughs and one word exclamations. I spot my family. They are seated directly to my left, in the perfect spot to see me get hooded. I wave. Everyone is smiling.

Casey looks like she's going to cry. She attended CSUS during her undergraduate study, so her heart's been there longer than mine. Bridget says she's going to cry. She does later. Everyone does.

Happy that I am to sit in a seat of such prestige, having such a high profile seat with my front exposed leaves a hitch in my plans to inflate all these beach balls without detection. In the end, Casey and I decide that it's smarter to pass the balls back and hope that fellow graduates will inflate them.

On each of our seats is the graduation program, a Sac State Alum sticker, and a little card and pencil to fill out with our description and names so they can forward us our pictures after the ceremony. I fill mine out. Black hair, glasses. I doubt they'll get it right. (They don't.)

And then the waiting. Speeches. Honorees. A PhD. Professor Emeritus.

Only one part truly moves me, and I don't remember who said it. Something said to the masters candidates, about being a master of a subject, and officially becoming an academic scholar.

I am a master. I am a scholar.
I am.

Finally, the time has come. Our front row stands and we file in line. I take deep breaths. This is the moment. This is the moment. I try to smile when the hood goes over my head, but I feel stupid, unable to find a place between ecstatic and solemn. I hope I look proud.

When Robin goes up to the podium, I can't cheer. I'm too busy smiling for a picture in front of the American flag that I won't buy. I don't even notice when Casey's name gets called. I'm too busy wondering if the person will read my name correctly.

My turn. I step forward. A woman smiles, shakes my hand and takes the card. I yell my name loud in her ear. She looks at the card, repeats it aloud, nods and goes to the podium.

Jennifer Palmares Meadows.

Yes. That's me with all the correct syllables.

I go forward and shake a man's hand. He hands me a card, clearly not my diploma, which will be mailed out weeks from now, pending my final grades. Then, I swing my arms up over my head and yell, trying hard not to fly out of my shoes.

Afterward, I return to my seat, my heart still beating hard, whooping when I see an undergraduate walk: Aschala, Gordon, Lucy Nevins, Jason Conde. Damn there are a lot of undergrads. I try not to get depressed--my moment seems to have passed. I look to the stands and wave at my family, my niece with a tub of popcorn.

Everyone gets to their feet when Estelle Rees Arroyo approaches the front. She's 92 years old and earning her bachelors degree in history. She shuffles forward, and the crowd of graduates goes wild, calling out, whooping. I tear up a little. Casey yells at me to turn around, and I start laughing--the beach balls have started flying, all four of them. One comes my way. I catch it and chuck it as far as I can. A woman in her PhD robes charges forward with a look of chagrin on her face. Someone whacks a ball out of her way before she can confiscate it.

That's something else I will always remember, the faces of all my friends, fellow graduates, following the orange beach balls and the poor PhD chastising our lack of solemnity.

It's over. We file out. Into the tunnel again, and I cry aloud, "What am I going to do with my life, now I'm out of school?"

Other graduates turn around to look at me like I'm pathetic, as if to say, "I'm freaking out too, but please act with a little bit of decorum."

Decorum aside, what am I going to do with my life now I'm out of school?

Images from the top, names listed left to right:

Check out the hoods: Bridget Mabunga, Casey Rene Miller, Jen Palmares Meadows (photo credit Robin Martin)
Creative Writing is in the Hzouse: Bridget Mabunga, Casey Rene Miller, Robin Martin, Jen Palmares Meadows, Joshua Neely, Gordon Warnock
Smile: Collage includes all above and Aschala Edwards
Hold your robe like this: Sheree Meyer
Front stage
We're here: Robin Martin, Casey Rene Miller
Hood us already: Graduates sitting
We did it: Robin Martin, Casey Rene Miller, Jen Palmares Meadows, Bridget Mabunga

CSU Sacramento English Department Graduation Celebration

2009-05-16T21:17:00.001-07:00

It's weird being on campus. With only one class this semester, I'm so rarely there. I didn't even buy a parking permit. If I do find myself on campus, it's to run paperwork errands, pay a binding fee, pick up robes, get something signed.

For once, I'm not hauling around a big backpack--just a small purse wallet. It's hot out. If a bride ever wants to ensure that it doesn't rain on her wedding day, she should schedule it on the same day as a May college graduation.

I called Robin Martin earlier to ask if she thought I ought to dress up, so I'm wearing a spring dress, and sandals.

People are already gathering between Douglass and Calaveras Halls. I take a seat behind Kylee Cook, who I haven't seen in awhile. She smiles at me, but we leave the chatting for later as the ceremony has started. Sheree Meyer, Chair of the English Department, is standing in front of a picnic table with a mic, and opens with something insightful about the novel.

I fan myself with the yellow program, and open it, wondering how long I'll have to sit out in the sun before I get handed my piece of paper. One after another professors come up to speak about award winning students and I clap. Most of them are undergraduates, and I recognize them from walking the halls and from classes I took before I was classified.

Eventually, I tromp up to the front for a certificate of achievement for earning my Masters, presented by David Madden, and then again when I am inducted to Sigma Tau Delta, an international English Honor Society. No pomp. No circumstance. But it all seems just right receiving pieces of paper between these two buildings that have been my second home for two years.

Sheree Meyer makes the closing remarks, ending with words from students in the Calaveras Station Literary Journal. She reads excerpts from Aschala Edward's "Loads Heavier Than Mine," Casey Rene Miller's "Heat Stroke," and Ray Crosby's, "The Power of a Word." I look around while she reads. Casey's not around, and I know she would just die if she knew. Ray Crosby left CSUS last year and is pursuing his PhD at UC Riverside.

Afterward, it's cake, crabby puffs, and chatting with members of WIP who I haven't seen in forever. Marie Hoffman and Mary Guidice are in attendance. Gordon Warnock, who I haven't seen since last December, is also graduating and tells me about a few projects he's working on.

I even manage to get a picture with Doug Rice.

A group of us head over to Hoppy's for some dinner and drinks. On the way, Bridget Mabunga shares her and her husband's plans to visit Hawaii. We joke about odd placed tattoos and life after graduation.

Life after graduation.

I've been thinking about life after graduation a lot lately. What happens after graduation? Okay, okay. I know what's happening three months from now when my bump becomes baby, but what about my writing? What's to keep me from sinking into non-writing obscurity? How can I stay motivated and keep growing as a writer outside of school?

I'll have to keep thinking about that.

Program

CSUS Department of English 16th Annual "Graduation Celebration" dually honoring the December 2008 Graduates and the Spring and Summer Class of 2009

Welcome - Professor Sheree Meyer, Chair of the English Department
The First English Department Student Conference "What's at Stake" Recognition of student organizers - Presented by Professor Hellen Lee-Keller to: Rhett Farinholt, Jacob Phillips and Rachelane Smith
Outstanding Senior Award - Presented by Professor Hellen Lee-Keller to Jordan Reynolds
Elizabeth Keith Olmstead Memorial Scholarship - Presented by Professor Emeritus Robert Olmstead to Anne Purvis
Hortense Simmons Study Abroad Scholarship - Presented to Kristen Campbell
Karen Lee Warmdahl Memorial Scholarship - Presented to Jeffery Pressnell
John F. Wilhelm Award - Presented to Ashley Andreoni
Presentation of Sigma Tau Delta Honor Society Inductees - Presented by Professor David Toise
Certificate of Achievement, Master of Arts in English - Presented by Professor David Madden, Graduate Coordinator
Certificate of Achievement, Bachelor of Arts in English - Presented by Professor Bradley Buchannan, Undergraduate Programs Coordinator
Closing Remarks - Professor Sheree Meyer, Chair of the English Department

Click on images to view enlarged versions.

2009 Bazzanella Literary Award Winners

2009-05-13T09:55:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to the 2009 Dominic J. Bazzanella Literary Award Winners! The Bazzanella Literary Awards are named after the late Dominic J. Bazzanella, CSU Sacramento English Professor and Acting Dean of Arts and Sciences. The annual writing competition encourages graduate and undergraduate students to enter their work in one of four categories: critical analysis, creative nonfiction, poetry, or short fiction. First ($200) and second place ($100) winning entrants each win a cash prize.

2009 BAZZANELLA GRADUATE RECIPIENTS

Critical Analysis
James Benton
Jill Buettner
Creative Non-fiction
Bridget Crenshaw Mabunga
Trina Drotar
Poetry
Steve Owen
James Benton

Short Fiction
Ron Cruz
Timothy Sanders

2009 BAZZANELLA UNDERGRADUATE RECIPIENTS

Critical Analysis
Joe Montalbo
Janet Reyes Lopez
Creative Non-fiction
Elison Alcovendaz
Jeffrey Pressnell
Poetry
Lucy Nevins
Kelsey Sorensen
Short Fiction
Jonathan Alston
Hugh Trenton Durst, Jr.

Thanks to Bridget Mabunga for forwarding me the list of recipients.

Poets & Writers 2010 California Writers Exchange

2009-05-12T09:46:00.001-07:00

Dear California Writer,

Poets & Writers is now welcoming submissions to the 2010 California Writers Exchange Contest. One poet and one fiction writer from California will receive a $500 honorarium and an all-expenses-paid trip to New York City, where they will meet with agents, editors, and prominent writers, and give a public reading of their work in Spring 2010. The winners will be selected by Karen Tei Yamashita (fiction)and Juan Felipe Herrera (poetry).

The contest is open to poets and fiction writers who:

Have never published a book, or
Have published no more than one full-length book in the genre in which they are applying, and
Have resided in California for at least two consecutive years prior to the date they submit their manuscripts.

An application must accompany all manuscripts and be postmarked no later than August 31, 2009. For complete guidelines and an application, please visit www.pw.org/about-us/california_writers_exchange_award.

Sincerely,

Cheryl Klein
Director, California Office and Readings/Workshops (West)

Poets & Writers, California Office | 2035 Westwood Boulevard | Suite
211 | Los Angeles | CA | 90025

House On Mango Meets Memory

2009-05-11T15:04:00.001-07:00

Recently, I reread Sandra Cisneros' House on Mango Street. I was very inspired by the coming of age stories, and have been playing around with writing my own series of vignettes. Lately, I've been working on my novel so much that I haven't produced much fresh material, so I'm ready to set the novel aside for a bit and start on something new.

Where this project will lead, I'm not sure, but maybe it'll open up avenues of creativity. I imagine that in the beginning, much of what I write will rely on my own experiences, but I expect for the collection to go the fictional route. We'll see.

Today, I worked on my first piece, which is called, "Older Sister." It's so strange living in memory.

My 500 Project Finale: Formatting & Fiasco

2009-05-07T07:59:00.001-07:00

Since receiving feedback on the final draft of my project, I've been busy with all those last minute 500 project to-do's. The deadline to submit a thesis or project to Graduate Studies was May 8th, but I managed to get mine in by the 5th. Here's a brief look at what's been keeping me busy:

Received feedback from my second reader at Calaveras Student Pick-up
Made final grammar and punctuation revisions to my project
Formatted my project following Graduate Studies guidelines - the Thesis Formatting workshop really did help
Waited in line at Graduate Studies (about one hour) with the first 20 pages of a draft of my project
Graduate studies gives me the go-ahead to print on the fancy cotton paper
Made a nighttime visit to Kinkos to have my project printed on Strathmore 100% cotton paper, and to bind and print two additional copies for my Chair and Second Reader: about $30.00

Attended the Calaveras Station Release Party to get my project signed by Graduate Coordinator (David Madden), Committee Chair (Doug Rice), and Second Reader (Susan Wanlass)
Printed and filled out the Thesis/Project/Dissertation Receipt Form
Paid the Microfilming and Binding Fee at Lassen Hall: $60.00
Made three copies of thesis forms, signature forms and receipts at The Copy Graphics Center
Took the stairs up to Graduate Studies because the elevator decided to break down on the most important and busy week of the semester
Waited in line for 15 minutes
Received a Receipt of Thesis/Project/Dissertation Submission with an official CSUS stamp
Picked up Graduation robes on the third floor of the Student Union: cap, gown, tassel, hood $58.00
Realized only right now, while photoshopping images for this blog, that Doug Rice did not date his signature on page ii of my project

Dammit. How could I have missed that?

So the question is: Do I go to Graduate Studies and ask them to add the date to my project, or do I pray they won't notice, bind the project, and then add the date a year from now when I check it out at the library?

Will I never be done?
------------------------
Special thanks to Robin Martin for graciously sharing her 500 project to use as a sample format for my own. Spoiler Alert: The following is a help email I drafted whilst figuring out how to tackle the project formatting monster. If you have not yet completed your project and still harbor romantic notions about the process, please feel free to skip the reading.

I used the Project (without copyright page included) Template because it seemed to work better for me. All the pages that precede text are in arabic, and afterwards in roman numerals. I was able to delete the Acknowledgments, List of Tables and List of Figures pages. At some point, I don't remember where, the formatting changed when I was deleting. I just kept an eye out for when that happened, and instead of deleting that page, I erased the text alone. Essentially I left the page blank, but to prevent page deletion and formatting change, I inserted a page break. I did this because if you keep deleting those unnecessary pages (List of Tables, List of Figures) the formatting becomes roman numerals. What I ended up with was:
i First Title Page
ii Sign off page by first and second reader
iii Sign off page by Dave Madden
iv Abstract
v Table of Contents
vi Blank page with page break (necessary because if deleted will mess with formatting)
When I print everything out, I will simply remove the vi blank page from the project. As long as these "blank pages" are at the end of the arabic pages, they should not alter the pagination. Also, the roman numerals where the text began did not get messed up.

Calaveras Station Release Party Images

2009-05-06T20:27:00.001-07:00

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Calaveras Station Release Party on Friday, May 1.

Professor Peter Grandbois - Opening remarks
Trina Drotar - Executive Editor welcome
Professor David Madden - Professor Jon Price introduction (journal dedication)
Professor Jon Price - "Catechism in James Joyce's Ulysses" abridged reading
Readings by some of the authors
Hors d'oeuvres reception

Writers: Jen Palmares Meadows (top right), Aschala Edwards (middle left), Trina Drotar (bottom left), Robin Martin (bottom middle)

Speakers (in order from top left to right): Professor Peter Grandbois, Professor David Madden, Professor Jon Price, Trina Drotar, Joshua Neely, Jen Palmares Meadows, Aschala Edwards, Colleen Flohr, Brett Wallis, Cindy Hurn, Lindsay Snodgrass, Jordan Okumura, Jim Benton, Kelsy Sorenson, Kimberly Brunson, Donald Evans

Click on images to view larger picture.

Calaveras Station Literary Journal Release Party: Friday, May 1

2009-04-16T10:30:00.001-07:00

Calaveras Station Literary Journal

2009 Issue Release Party

Friday, May 1, 2009
Library Gallery
2:00 – 4:30 p.m.

Please join the editorial staff in honoring the contributors
to the 2009 issue of Calaveras Station.
Readings, Food, Book Signings

James Benton Robin Branson Kimberly C. Brunson

Leanne Cameron Genelle Chaconas Ray Crosby

Jeanine Deibel Aschala Edwards Donald Evans

Colleen Flohr Kim Hudson Cindy Hurn

Robin Martin Jen Palmares Meadows Casey Renee Miller

Joshua Neely Jordan Okumura Professor Jon Price

Paul Rios Timothy Lisa Schneider Lindsay Snodgrass

Kelsey Sorensen Meghan Wagner Brett Wallis

Books Available – cash or check only

2009 - $10.00
2008 - $10.00
Specials on older issues

Am I Overeducated, Underqualified & Unemployable?

2009-04-09T12:43:00.001-07:00

Just in time for graduation, English L, the CSUS English Department link serv, sent out an email which included "helpful suggestions" for new MA graduates looking for work with community colleges. In a previous post, I asked the question: "Can I Get a Job Without an F in My MA?" Today I ask the question: "Am I Overeducated, Underqualified, and Unemployable?"

It looks like it.

Below is the abridged email forwarded by Sheree Meyer, CSUS English Chair. My comments are in red.

Dear M.A. Students:

These helpful suggestions are from CSU English Council where we meet with members of ECCTYC, our colleagues from the Community Colleges. It is similar to information already posted on our website, but I thought it was worth sharing again—especially for those of you graduating and going into the job market.

There is talk of setting up some sessions at the October ECCTYC conference (see below) specifically for graduate students. I also encourage you to submit papers to their conference and articles to their journals.

Best,
Sheree Meyer, Chair

Employment in the California Community Colleges

Desirable qualifications for M.A. in English Graduate Students

1. Emphasis in English or Composition/Rhetoric
Creative Writing noticeably absent
2. Experience in teaching developmental and transfer level composition
None.
3. Recent experience in teaching composition in a computer classroom
None.
4. Experience in teaching hybrid/online composition courses
None.
5. Tutoring/teaching experience in a Writing Center
I knew I should have done that.
6. Demonstrated involvement and leadership in professional organizations (e.g., ECCTYC, CCCC, etc.)
Does attending the English Club game night count?
7. Experience with Student Learning Outcome (SLO) models.
What's that?
8. Demonstrated experience in teaching critical thinking at all levels
I've given presentations during seminars, but am not sure if anyone was listening.
9. Clear sensitivity to the unique needs of the California community college student
I'm sensitive. Just ask my husband.
10. Diverse pedagogical delivery methodologies
Again, what?

Sigh. I guess no one ever got a degree in Creative Writing to get a job that paid benefits.

Call for Submissions: SJSU Literary Journal - Asian American Literature: Reading, Pedagogy, Practice

2009-04-08T09:23:00.001-07:00

ASIAN AMERICAN LITERATURE:

READING, PEDAGOGY, PRACTICE

Editor:

Noelle Brada-Williams, San José State University

Editorial Board:

Karen Chow, De Anza College

Wei Ming Dariotis, San Francisco State University

Eileen Fung, University of San Francisco

Rowena Tomaneng, De Anza College

Mission:

The production, collection, and distribution of accessible high quality research on Asian American Literature for students, teachers, and the general public is our goal. We seek contributions that, while informed by the theoretical concerns of specialists in the field, are composed in order to be understood by non-specialists, including students and non-specialist teachers at the high school and college levels. It is our goal to use the internet to grant access to research in multiple ways: one, by going directly to the internet where many students and even faculty now begin their research rather than through a publisher and then via a proprietary database; and two, by emphasizing clear and jargon-free prose so that the complexity of research findings in the field can be accessed by readers with a variety of objectives, including the general reader seeking more information on this complex and sometimes misrepresented field. An online journal also gives us the opportunity to continually update and add information. Thus, we hope to offer information in the style, say, of Sau-ling Wong and Stephen Sumida's A Resource Guide to Asian American Literature, but hope that the ongoing nature of a journal will allow us to continue to add to the information available as new books are published and new authors make their mark on the field.

Submission Guidelines

We are now accepting submissions for this newly founded online journal.

We welcome submissions on any Asian American author. In addition to traditional analytical interpretations of texts and contexts, we are interested in essays on the pedagogy of Asian American literature, overviews of the historical and cultural context of key texts, and also bibliographic overviews of relevant criticism. All submissions need to be in MLA format and under 10,000 words. We actually prefer pieces of around 2,000 to 7,000 words. Submissions should be submitted electronically to awilli@email.sjsu.edu. The author's name should not appear on the manuscript itself and all references to previously published research should be described in the third person.

http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/awilliams/AALRPP.html

CSUS English Department Graduation Celebration: Friday, May 15th

2009-04-07T10:08:00.003-07:00

Dear English-L,

You are invited to attend the English Department’s annual Graduation Celebration. The party will be held on the green between Calaveras and Douglass at 5:00pm on Friday, May 15^th. At that time, Sigma Tau Delta Inductees, Scholarship Recipients, Fall 2008 Graduates and Spring 2009 Graduates will be honored. Please feel free to invite family and friends. The celebration will last until 6:30. Refreshments will be provided.

If you would like to attend, please email jmanthey(at)csus.edu (replace 'at' with @) or stop by CLV 102. Please include the number of guests that will be attending as well as whether you will be graduating or have graduated. The deadline to RSVP will be Thursday, May 14^th at 5:00pm.

Prior to the graduation ceremony, the First English Department Student Conference, “What’s at Stake?” will be held from 2:30 – 4:45 in the Orchard Suite of the University Union. The invitation and program follows as inline text. Please consider attending and supporting your fellow students.

Word Dreaming: The Wheelmobile Visits Stockton

2009-04-05T09:56:00.001-07:00

I love word games. Most English majors and writers do. I enjoy anagrams, Scrabble, hangman, and of course, Wheel of Fortune.

Every weekday night when I was growing up, except for when the Lakers were playing, at 7:00 my family and I would sit around our downstairs television watching Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune.

This is back when 25,000 dollars was the biggest prize, and when the final contestant had to pick their prize from a letter in the word "WHEEL". This is back when Vanna had to actually turn the tiles and there were no "preview puzzles" or "toss up puzzles."

My mom and dad would be eating a late dinner and my Lola sitting in her recliner with a blanket covering her legs. I would have just come home from swim practice, my hair still wet from a shower and my skin still reeking of chlorine. I'm on the couch, my younger brother on the floor. He beats me all the time at Jeopardy! Wheel is more my game.

Enter Vanna White and Pat Sajack. Just thirty minutes and we're all taking turns yelling at each other and at the television.

Lola likes Vanna's dress.
Mom guesses the answers to the puzzles, calling out words.
"Mom!" my brother and I yell. "Don't say it out loud unless you know the whole thing!"
Dad interrupts and asks what teams are playing that night.
"He doesn't know how to spin. Always getting bankrupt," Lola comments.

In the final puzzle, a contestant gets the category "Thing," and I'm certain he's screwed. The answer could be anything. 5 letters and it looks like a one syllable word, but it's likely to be two. RSTLN E. A hardcore fan will suggest the letters CMD A. The buzzer sounds. Pat looks sympathetic and we all groan when he opens the card to reveal what the contestant didn't win: 25,000 dollars.

I've watched Wheel change over the years, wondered what my Lola would think about how the game has changed. Despite Wheel's evolutions, my desire to be on the show has never waned. It is my destiny to be on Wheel of Fortune. In my old age, if I were to look back and never have been on Wheel, never have cried "Big Money," never grabbed a spoke for a spin, I would feel my life incomplete.

So, when the Wheelmobile announced that it was coming to Stockton, about an hour from my home, I knew had to go, on the slim chance that maybe, just maybe, I'd be selected in a random drawing, to compete for a spot as a contestant.

The drive to Stockton is longer than I expect. When we pull up to the Stockton Ports Baseball Park, my eyes go immediately to the bright yellow eyesore in the parking lot. "There it is," I cry. "It's the Wheelmobile!"

What is the Wheelmobile? It's 39 feet long, 13 feet high and bright yellow. It rolls through cities, down highways and into America's heartland. Wherever it stops, huge crowds are waiting. It's giving fans all over the country the chance to try out for America's favorite game show. The Wheelmobile serves as the preliminary screening process before the final Wheel of Fortune contestant audition.

There are long lines of fans everywhere. Jason and I fill out information cards and pray one of our names, mine, will be picked. There's a really chintzy game board and wheel with prizes. The stage is sidled by cardboard Pat and Vanna cutouts. When the smarmy Fake Pat host takes the stage with Fake Vanna, the crowd explodes. I jump up and down, yell, wave my arms, and respond to Fake Pat's calls like a penned up monkey. Jason isn't clapping and I shake him by the shoulders. "Come on, babe. You've gotta look enthusiastic."

Thousands of fans fill out applications and gather in front of stage with a traveling version of the famous Wheel and Puzzle board. Applications are drawn at random throughout the event, calling individuals on stage in groups of five to participate in a brief interview, play a version of the Wheel of Fortune speed-up round and win special show-themed prizes. The most promising candidates are invited back to participate in final auditions for the show, usually held at a later date in the Wheelmobile host city. At the final auditions, Contestant Coordinators select the individuals who will appear on the show.

They start drawing the first names. I clap loud, trying to be a good sport when they don't call me. Fake Pat interviews the contestants before each puzzle to see if they have the energy and personality to make it on television. After a brief speed up round, where Fake Vanna writes guessed letters on the board with a dry eraser marker, contestants walk away with key chains, hats and pictures of real Pat and Vanna. The host is so enthusiastic, Jason is convinced that the guy goes into the Wheelmobile on breaks to snort. How anyone can get so excited about a Wheel of Fortune key chain, I have no idea.

After thirty names, my feet are hurting, and I'm wondering where the bathroom is, where I can sit down. Three hours later, Fake Pat still hasn't called my name. We file out of the arena. I'm depressed, but not defeated. My time will come.

Last year over a million people requested the chance to audition for Wheel of Fortune. Fewer than 600 people were selected to appear on the show.

Excerpts borrowed from Wheel of Fortune's website.

Dumble: My First Attempt At Flash Fiction

2009-04-03T11:14:00.003-07:00

I've decided to try my hand at flash fiction and see what all the hoopla is about. But since I don't know much about what qualifies something as "flash fiction," I looked it up.

Flash fiction is fiction of extreme brevity. The standard, generally-accepted length of a flash fiction piece is 1000 words or less...

Other names for flash fiction include sudden fiction, microfiction, micro-story, postcard fiction, and short short story, though distinctions are sometimes drawn between some of these terms; for example, sometimes 1,000 words is considered the cut-off between "flash fiction" and the slightly longer "sudden fiction". --Wikipedia

Besides that brief bit of shallow research, I intend to start reading flash fiction. If anyone has recommendations, please let me know.

So, here's my first attempt:

Annabelle always cracked her eggs before she turned the stove on, so when two yolks came from one shell to stare at her with goggling eyes, the pan didn’t sizzle, and the whites stayed clear. Her stomach moved, then settled when she felt the linoleum underneath her bare feet. She studied the yolks, thinking something magic, wondered if they were safe to eat. In the end, she poured the pan into the sink, watched the eggs disappear down its mouth.

After breakfast, she read about strawberries spliced with the gene of fish. Something about how the fruit could be harvested during winter months.

“Ain’t that the strangest.”

She washed a load of laundry and fell asleep on the couch, her belly moving underneath her breasts like a tongue pushing itself into bubble gum. She dreamt the same dream again, with the jelly beans falling from between her legs, while that stripper danced on chopsticks at the bar across his office.

She woke up when the cat knocked over a pencil.

When she went to move the laundry, the clothes smelled sour and rotten, so she ran the wash again.

“Strange thing happened,” she said to him that night. “Two yolks from one shell.”

“Heard that happens sometimes.” His mouth moved around the corner of his fist, while he studied the fiscal projections of his 401K side by side with some bills.

“’Nuther doctor’s visit, ‘nuther bill.” A bit of saliva dripped from his fist.

“Dropped it down the drain.”

“Didn’t save a one?”

“Contaminated both of ‘em.”

It's 257 words, but I think there's supposed to be more. It feels incomplete. I was going for brevity, but is it supposed to be longer? When do I know when to stop? Does a flash fiction story have a beginning, middle and end? Is it character driven? Plot driven? Does flash fiction typically have a theme? Is it a slice of life? A vignette? Can it be any and all these things?

Oh look.

One type of flash fiction is the short story with an exact word count. Examples include 55 Fiction, the Drabble and the 69er. Nanofictions are complete stories, with at least one character and a discernible plot, exactly 55 words long. A Drabble is a story of exactly 100 words, excluding titles, and a 69er is a story of exactly 69 words, again excluding the title.

Whether intentionally or not, it looks like I've created flash fiction with an exact word count of 257. I'm so proud. I've decided to call it a "dumble" for now, until it grows into something longer.

For funnies, I invite you to submit your "dumble" of exactly 257 words, not including the title. All submissions will be posted on this blog, no matter the merit. Save your good stuff for publishers who accept and print quality writing (not me). If in the event that your flash fiction gets to 257 words and you just have to write more, just send the first 257. I'd be happy to delete your piece later if you decide to submit it for publication.

Acceptance: Graduation Imminent

2009-04-03T11:14:00.001-07:00

Today I received my most meaningful acceptance letter yet, an email from Doug Rice concerning my novel project.

Jen
I have finished reading your project. All looks good. I think you did a much better job with [the narrator] in the creation myth and of the movement through the city as well as getting her on the plane and so on. Lets meet as early next week as we can to go over this...

Exhale. I'm graduating. I'm graduating.

Don't Write For Mom And Dad

2009-04-02T09:25:00.003-07:00

I had an awful dream last night. My mother was reading a draft of my novel, and it was covered in red felt pen markings with corrections she'd made. Entire passages were crossed out and her notes included suggestions for how my writing could be improved. On top of the first page was "51%" and a giant "F."

I woke up feeling anxious, upset, questioning my writing ability and asking the question: Will I ever stop seeking the approval of my parents?

I was a good kid growing up, honest. I wasn't the smartest, but I stayed out of trouble. In high school, I got decent grades, made Varsity Swim and Water Polo. I was even voted 'Best Impromptu Speaker' on my Logic and Debate Team. I was respectful, always on time, and only lied a few times about going to the library when I was really somewhere else.

I earned my Bachelors Degree in English Literature. At the time, I thought graduating meant the end of seeking my parents's approval. I was wrong.

After graduation, I was intent on finding a job right away to prove that they hadn't wasted tons of money on my education, and that I was truly ready to make it "in the real world." I found a position marketing for an online auction site. I saved money, married my first boyfriend, and baby number one is one the way.

What more could they want from me? Must my mother even nag me in my sleep?

I admit it. Seeking my parents's approval has been a huge motivating factor when it comes to accomplishment in my life.

But getting my Masters Degree? Writing? That's for me.

On May 22nd, I'll be graduating. My thesis will be submitted, and my mother wants to read my project when it's done. I've decided I won't be giving her a copy. Sorry, Mom.

A lot of my writing tackles subjects seen as taboo in my own Filipino family culture. Plus, like most writers, much of my novel draws on my own thoughts, feelings and sometimes experiences, though the majority is fictionalized. Parts of it will make my mother squirm, and other parts might make my sister laugh.

But I can't afford to be influenced by familial expectation or criticism.

I'm not writing a novel that's likely to be a best seller, and the average reader won't plow through it in one night. But, I hope to create something highbrow that writers will read and find meaning in, something complex and character driven. I hope to create something that must be revisited again and again, mulled over and read slowly.

Doug Rice said, "Write for other writers."
I think he'd also say: Don't write for Mom and Dad.

"A lot of writing is an acquired schizophrenia. You have to really allow yourself to be a kind of egomaniac when you first start a story or a piece of work. Everything you write has to seem good to you and just get it out. Let it inspire you to the next sentence and the next scene and the next character. And in that way, you discover what your story is. But if you're looking over your own shoulder all the time, crossing every other sentence out, and holding every other word up to the light as you're composing, that can lead you to become kind of constipated as a writer. Later on, you have to look at your work with a very cold eye, as if you were editing someone else's. But in that first blush, why not enjoy it?" --Tobias Wolff

Can I Get A Job Without An F In My MA?

2009-04-02T09:25:00.001-07:00

One of the smarter choices I made as a writer was joining a writer's list serv, a network of writers who forward each other literary events, call for submissions and book reviews. I also receive creative writing job openings in academia, typically seeking Professors of English Creative Writing. Having not yet earned my degree, most of these emails went straight to the trash, but as I got closer and closer to graduation, I found myself opening them and wondering if one of the positions might be for me. That's when I realized something.

Most, if not all of the job openings, required that applicants have an MFA (Master of Fine Arts) in Creative Writing.

But wait a sec--my degree won't have an F in it. I'm getting an MA (Master of Arts).

So now, I must ask the question: Can I get a job without an F in my MA?

Many CSUS graduates go on to teach at the community college level, but teach composition, having received comp certificates, which require an additional year at CSUS. Others go on to pursue their MFAs or PHDs elsewhere.

Some people say getting hired is all about having the right connections. Rubbing shoulders with professors and administration could put your name at the top of a stack.

I've also been told, and this is what I'm more likely to believe, that getting hired really comes down to your publications and your accomplishment as a working writer. Carole Maso, for example, who I met at CSU Summer Arts last July in Fresno, received a bachelor’s degree in English from Vassar College in 1977. Because of her accomplishment as a writer, she is well known for her "experimental, poetic and fragmentary narratives often called postmodern," Maso works as a professor of English at Brown University, and has previously held positions as a writer-in-residence at Illinois State and George Washington University.

Her very talent and commitment to writing has earned her the right to teach young upstarts such as myself.

A writer like Carole Maso can and does "Break Every Rule."

But what about nobodies like me?

I won't hold my breath that I'll ever be as successful as Carole Maso, but in the end, a working writer can make a lot of leeway in the world of academia without a terminal degree. It's just much more difficult. Plus, most Professors with PHDs and MFAs in Creative Writing are also widely published.

Back to school.

Acceptance: Walang Hiya - Literature Taking Risks Toward Liberatory Practice

2009-04-01T17:16:00.001-07:00

I'm happy to share the news that my short story, "Unripe Bananas" has been accepted for publication in "Walang Hiya...Literature Taking Risks Toward Liberatory Practice." "Walang Hiya" means "Without Shame" or "Shameless" in Tagalog. Here's an excerpt from its Call for Submissions:

Walang Hiya … literature taking risks toward liberatory practice is a literary anthology...will feature a study guide in the back of the anthology for educators and community...

We seek to challenge the boundaries and cultural norms, sharing our stories without shame. We feature emerging Pilipina/o artists, works that capture the spirit of innovation and contradiction.

And my favorite part, the acceptance letter:

Dear Jen,

Thank you so much for taking the time to submit to Walang Hiya … Literature Taking Risks Toward Liberatory Practice. We really appreciate all the community support we’ve received from folks who felt drawn to our vision of cultural work and the role literature can have not only to entertain, but to educate as well. This outpouring of support meant we were blessed with the challenge of sorting through the many powerful submissions documenting the variety of experiences and perspectives our people face within the diaspora. While we would have loved to incorporate everybody’s work, we had to make extremely hard albeit thoughtful decisions about which pieces to include.

We’re very excited to let you know that we’d be honored to include "Unripe Bananas" within this body of work. The collection of pieces selected will no doubt greatly enhance the voice of Filipino literature. Thank you for including your words and experience. We’ll be getting in touch shortly with any editorial suggestions that need to happen.

Feel free to contact us if you have any questions. We look forward to working more with you as we embark on this new, untread path laid before us.

In the spirit of community,

Roseli Ilano & Lolan Buhain Sevilla, co-editors
"Walang Hiya ... Literature Taking Risks Toward Liberatory Practice"

The anthology will be published by Arkipelago Press in Spring 2009. Arkipelago is based in San Francisco, California.

Creation Myth Revised - Another Draft of My Novel

2009-04-01T17:15:00.001-07:00

Just last Thursday, I submitted another draft of my novel to Doug Rice. It felt wrong to blog when I was supposed to be "writing like the Dickens." In any case, now I can breathe a little before he gets back to me with feedback.

My last meeting with Rice, which followed my Collective Reading Series reading, went much better than our first. At one point, Rice leaned back into his chair and said, "Well, Jen, it's better. I was worried I'd have to give you another talk," (ie. the one where he doesn't think I'll be able to complete my project in time to graduate). I'm relieved, but at the same time, feel so sick to my stomach to have come so close to congenital thesis failure. At our previous meeting, Rice suggested that I:

Bring out more of my protagonist's character in the creation myth, having her engage more and interrupt, perhaps with questions that would reveal something of her personality.
Focus on what the grandmother, who is telling the creation story, is trying to convey to the protagonist. What is she trying to communicate and why?
Bring central themes of the novel into the creation myth prologue.
Train scene: Slow down so that protagonist can focus on what she is seeing.
Create another scene where protagonist can interact more with another character.
Bring more warmth to the narrator's voice.

It's funny--when Rice told me to revise the first draft of my creation myth or get rid of it altogether, I wanted to die. If you remember, his feedback read:

The opening italicized section is simply a generic origin myth, so I’m not certain what all is accomplished with it? I know why you as a writer might want to include it but since it remains so generic, I am not certain how it moves the story into the place it needs to be as it begins. In other words, how specifically, and in a concrete way does it set the particular story into motion and by setting the story in motion, set its theme into motion (aside from the obvious and the general…By the way, I am not saying to drop the origin myth but you have to do more with it if you keep it.

Since then, I've done a lot of work with the creation myth, and it's working out to be one of my favorite parts of the novel. So, I have a lot to thank Rice for--essentially, he's helped me improve the shakiest part of my novel that I'd been terrified to tackle. He also told me that my ability to choose scenes has gotten better since my 230A class with him.

In other news, hoorah to Robin Martin, and her recent reading at the "Soul Making Awards Reading" on March 22nd. Our Professor Emeritus, Dr. Mary Mackey was in attendance and is a judge for next year's competition. Actually, it was in Mackey's Grandmother, Mother, Me class where I first met Robin.

I'm so jealous of Robin sometimes. She seems to be living some kind of writer lifestyle that I haven't gotten to yet: working with Narrative Magazine, winning awards, and getting awful (yet satisfying) rejection slips via snail mail--I haven't the courage yet to set out and be my own kind of Robin, but maybe that comes after graduation.

CSUS Collective Reading Series - March 4, Wednesday 12 Noon

2009-03-02T14:51:00.000-08:00

Collective Reading Series

Spring 2008
CSUS English Department

In the Library Gallery 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm
Wednesday, March 4th

Jen Palmares Meadows

Followed by “Open Mic”

Email Adam Crittenden to sign up or inquire at crsatcsus@yahoo.com

I'll be reading some new revisions to my novel, which will be included in my 500 project.

Update: At the reading, I read "Montag Forgets," a brief homage to Ray Bradbury, "They're Brazil Nuts, Bitch," the poem accepted to Calaveras Station, and the newest draft of my creation story from my novel. Afterwards, I was very happy with the feedback I received from some of the writers present. Thanks to everyone who came out.

Thanks also to Robin Martin for the picture of the reading. What looks like a towel is really a scarf draped around my neck. I was going for the odd, eccentric writer look, so I guess I succeeded.

Calaveras Station 2009 Contributors

2009-01-28T15:24:00.001-08:00

The Calaveras Station Release Party has been scheduled for 2:00PM on Friday, May 1 at CSUS Library Galleria. This year's featured faculty member will be Dr. Jon Price.

The journal is currently looking for 2010 staff.. To apply to become a section editor for poetry, critical analysis, creative nonfiction, or fiction or to become an associate editor or to become a web editor, please visit their website.

The following is a list of the 2009 contributors.

James Benton
Robin Branson
Kimberly C. Brunson
Leanne Cameron
Genelle Chaconas
Ray Crosby
Jeanine Deibel
Aschala Edwards
Donald Evans
Colleen Flohr
Kim Hudson
Cindy Hurn
Robin Martin
Jen Palmares Meadows
Casey Renee Miller
Joshua Neely
Jordan Okumura
Paul Rios
Timothy Lish Schneider
Lindsay Snodgrass
Kelsey Sorensen
Meghan Wagner
Brett Wallis

Call for Submissions: Arroyo Literary Review

2009-01-28T14:05:00.001-08:00

Arroyo Literary Review seeks poetry and fiction for second issue. Submissions between January 15, 2009 and April 15, 2009.

Submissions should be sent by mail to:

Arroyo Literary Review
Department of English – MB 2579
California State University, East Bay
25800 Carlos Bee Blvd.
Hayward, CA 94542

Arroyo Literary Review is published annually by the Department of English at California State University, East Bay. Arroyo is edited, designed, and managed by graduate students in the English program, and advised by faculty members. The editorial staff is dedicated to showcasing both new and established writers from the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond.

In addition to quality contemporary fiction and poetry, each issue of Arroyo features an interview with a distinguished writer. The premier issue, set to appear Spring 2009,will include an interview with novelist and critic Eric Miles Williamson, author of East Bay Grease, Two-Up, Oakland, Jack London, and Me, and Out of Oakland.

Please include SASE. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable, though notify us immediately should your work be accepted elsewhere. We only consider previously unpublished work. Contributors will receive two copies of the issue in which their work appears.

Further questions may be directed to: arroyoliteraryreview(at)gmail.com (replace (at) with @)

Winter Break Correspondence: Acceptance, Rejection & Overdue Books

2009-01-13T15:27:00.000-08:00

So, I've been--under the weather lately, and haven't been up to posting more than the occasional call for submissions. A lot has happened over winter break--good, bad and ghastly. Here's a brief update.

Just in time for Christmas, I received an email from Trina Drotar, co-editor of CSUS's literary journal, Calaveras Station, to congratulate me on the acceptance of two of my submissions. The first, "They're brazil nuts, bitch" is a poem, which I didn't expect they would consider because of its length. I wrote it while attending CSU Summer Arts in Fresno with Doug Rice. For the most part, I'm happy with the poem, though a different title might have been more apt--like "Grandmother happy for a hanging."

"Penitensiya," was accepted in the creative non-fiction section. I wrote the short piece back in Spring 08 for "Grandmother, Mother, Me," a class with Mary Mackey. Despite my surprise, I wondered whether the piece still represented me as a writer. Moreover, I questioned whether my submissions had been selected because of their morbid subject matters: hanging and penitent self-flagellation. Although I considered withdrawing "Penitensiya," in the end I sent it off with corrections.

Here's the email I received: (I think it's only fair to post the bad with the good.)

Jen,

It is with great pleasure that I inform you that your Poem, "They're brazil nuts, bitch," has been selected for publication in the 2009 issue of Calaveras Station.

Please proof your copy for any typing errors and send an electronic copy of your piece to Trina Drotar no later than January 4, 2009. Please also send a brief bio (80 words maximum) to be included in the journal.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Sincerely,

Trina L. Drotar and Lorraine Powell

Co-Executive Editors, Calaveras Station

I had a bit of trouble writing my bio, but settled for copying Robin Martin's (duh, her work was selected) almost verbatim, the few substitutions being my name. Incidentally, she just gave me the okay on posting a link to her new blog.

My next bit of correspondence, this time from Doug Rice, was not so thrilling. At the end of the Fall semester, I submitted a few pieces to conclude my work in his 230A class. The first was my Aesthetic Essay A La Great Gatsby, a five page paper that was supposed to bring into conversation the writers that have influenced our writing in a creative way. Rice's comments though kind, I suspect were aimed to soften his later critique of my "generic" novel.

Jen,

This is a wonderful and playful approach and I did enjoy the way that you spoke to each writer and pull each one into conversation about writing and about the craft of writing and how you begin to position what you value in writing by how you see the writer. Working with and talking about those values—my suggestion is to continue to go deeper into the places where they speak of those values and how you see it happening in their works and then, most importantly, how you see it happening in your own writing.

Doug

Simper not, dear writers. You must harden your hearts against him--I am not finished! This, he had to say of the first two chapters of my novel, which opens with a creation myth. I've omitted some parts for the sake of length and my general well-being.

Jen,

The opening italicized section is simply a generic origin myth, so I’m not certain what all is accomplished with it? I know why you as a writer might want to include it but since it remains so generic, I am not certain how it moves the story into the place it needs to be as it begins. In other words, how specifically, and in a concrete way does it set the particular story into motion and by setting the story in motion, set its theme into motion (aside from the obvious and the general…

I also want you to carefully look at your paragraph length. Why so many paragraphs of the same length? This has a profound effect on the reader’s experience. Nothing is given more time and space. All is equal, so we do not know how to read on, when to slow down, so we tend to simple read savagely without lingering….

I don’t see how they (scenes) are adding to the complexity of character and complexity of her desire and conflict, so you may have to start here.

By the way, I am not saying to drop the origin myth but you have to do more with it if you keep it.

The bold bit is the most painful--Rice suggests that my novel might begin at the end of the two chapters I submitted to him. Ouch.

I do however, agree that the creation myth was more problematic than not, and have since set it to scene. I'm excited with the result so far, but we'll see.

I've also been playing with paragraph length. Rice was right--equal paragraph length made for lifeless reading.

After reading Rice's comments, I can't help but feel anxious about the direction of my 500 project, about the direction of my writing, really. I'm not sure why I ever thought I could write a novel.

My last bit of correspondence: 26 books on Fitzgerald and Conrad are overdue to the CSUS Library.

Photo (right): Doug Rice saying, "Shake if off, Jen, and have fun playing with language."

Call for Submissions: Narrative Magazine Third-Person Story Contest

2009-01-09T12:36:00.000-08:00

Third-Person Story Contest

Narrative Magazine's Third-Person Story Contest is open to all writers. For this contest we will be accepting short shorts, short stories, essays, memoirs, all forms of literary nonfiction, and excerpts from longer works of both fiction and nonfiction. Entries must be previously unpublished, no longer than 10,000 words, and must not have been
previously chosen as a winner, finalist, or honorable mention in another contest.

We are looking for works written either from a limited third-person or from an omniscient perspective. In either case, we are particularly interested in the distinction and tension that exist between the narrator's perspective and that of the characters.

The term perspective connotes an awareness of the true relationship that one thing bears to another; as a facet of point of view, perspective indicates a recognition of the cause-and-effect basis of human interactions and of the ways in which character influences fate. An accurate and nuanced use of point of view creates the illumination and drama that readers experience as pleasure, without the reader
necessarily observing and thinking at all about the writer's use of point of view. To use Virginia Woolf's phrase, a central transparency is created.

We welcome and look forward to reading your pages.

For entry instructions (0nline entry only)

Call for Poetry Manuscripts: Litmus Press

2009-01-08T17:36:00.000-08:00

Litmus Press is currently holding an open reading period to select manuscripts of poetry for publication in 2010-11. Manuscripts must be postmarked by February 15, 2009 to be considered.

We are interested in unpublished book-length manuscripts (60 pages or more) of innovative poetry or cross-genre works written in English. We will consider works written in English by non-U.S. authors in this series but works in translation are subject to our Translation Series
guidelines. Before submitting your manuscript, please familiarize yourself with our previous titles for a sense of the range of work we publish.

Please send 2 copies of your manuscript, an acknowledgments page (if applicable), and a cover letter including your name, the title of your manuscript, your address, phone number, and email to:

Litmus Press
Poetry Series
P.O. Box 25526
Brooklyn, NY 11202-5526

We regret that we cannot return your manuscript, so please do not send your only copy. Manuscripts will be recycled at the end of our reading period. Publication decisions will be announced Spring 2009.

We do NOT accept submissions via email at this time.
Please feel free to forward this call.

E. Tracy Grinnell, Paul Foster Johnson & Julian T. Brolaski, series editors

Litmus Press | PO Box 25526 | Brooklyn | NY | 11202-5526

CSU Summer Arts 2009 - Imagining Home: Writing Narratives of Place

2009-01-05T15:59:00.000-08:00

Doug Rice just forwarded me the new information on the writing class he will be teaching this July in Fresno, at CSU Summer Arts.

Check out the Summer Arts website for more information on how to apply.

Imagining Home: Writing Narratives of Place

Too often, place—geographical location—is hurried past in contemporary writing. It is pushed off to the side of many narratives as if we inhabit a nowhere land void of specific details and experiences that call us into existence, that remind us of who we are. Students, in this class, will work on seeing, on strategies for avoiding the obvious and finding the more intimate, tactile details that we miss, the more provocative insights that we pass over in the blur of everyday living. Students will explore questions of home, of place, of being in the world and in the process of doing so they will enliven their ways for thinking of these issues, creating new understandings of home and of place in general.

Students will investigate the interrelationships between personal identity, place, natural history, social history, familial histories and so on. In the process of doing such work, students will learn the elements of the craft for the writing of place. We will focus on the precision of words, the vitality of metaphor, the narrative drive of storytelling, the poetics of the sentence, the balance between reflection and dramatized scenes, and other aspects of imaginative writing. Through vivid sensory and cerebral impressions, students will come to observations that will range far beyond the literal landscapes of place into worlds of metaphysical insights.

Who Should Apply:

All writers (of memoir, fiction, poetry and drama) interested in writing narrative that explore place—our homes real and imagined places that have fascinated us. This workshop is open to writers on a variety of levels from the intermediate to the advanced and who are passionate about finding new ways to write and explore ideas about place.

How To Apply:

Submit a letter of interest and three to five pages of recent writing (poetry, memoir, or fiction).
Check out the website for addressing.

Guest Artists:

Rebecca Brown
Rebecca Brown’s thirteenth book is a collection of gonzo essays called AMERICAN ROMANCES. Brown’s other titles include THE LAST TIME I SAW YOU, THE END OF YOUTH, THE DOGS, THE TERRIBLE GIRLS, EXCERPTS FROM A FAMILY MEDICAL DICTIONARY and THE GIFTS OF THE BODY. A frequent collaborator, she has written numerous texts for dance; a play, THE TOASTER; and WOMAN IN ILL FITTING WIG, a book length collaboration with painter Nancy Kiefer. Her work has been translated into Japanese German, Italian, Norwegian and Dutch. She recently co-edited, with Mary Jane Knecht, LOOKING TOGETHER, an anthology of writers’ responses to work at the Frye Art Museum. She lives in Seattle and teaches at the low residency MFA program at Goddard College in Vermont and elsewhere.

Robert Glück
Robert Glück is the author of nine books of poetry and fiction, including the two novels, Margery Kempe (1994) and Jack the Modernist (1995), a book of poems and short prose, Reader (1989), and a collection of stories, Denny Smith (2004). He lives in San Francisco and teaches at San Francisco State University, where he is an editor of the online journal Narrativity. In 2005, Coach House Press published Biting the Error: Writers on Narrative, an anthology edited by Glück, Camille Roy, Mary Berger and Gail Scott.

Lance Olsen
Lance Olsen has written 18 books of and about innovative prose, including 10:01 (Chiasmus, 2005), Nietzsche's Kisses (FC2, 2006), Anxious Pleasures (Shoemaker & Hoard, 2007), and Rebel Yell: A Short Guide to Fiction Writing (Cambrian, 1998). He teaches at the University of Utah and serve as Chair of the Board of Directors at Fiction Collective Two; founded in 1974, FC2 is one of America's best-known ongoing literary experiments and progressive art communities. He is an associate editor at American Book Review and fiction editor at Western Humanities Review

Call for Submission: Naugatuck River Review

2009-01-05T15:49:00.000-08:00

Naugatuck River Review is a literary journal founded in order to publish and in doing so to honor good narrative poetry. Naugatuck River Review is dedicated to publishing narrative poetry in the tradition of great narrative poets such as Gerald Stern, Philip Levine or James Wright. We are open to many styles of poetry, looking for narrative that sings, which means the poem has a strong emotional core and the narrative is compressed. So, make us laugh and cry, make chills run down our spines. Knock us off our feet! We will publish twice a year, beginning with Winter 2009. We cannot pay our contributors, but will send one issue of the journal.

Please send previously unpublished work. We do occasionally accept previously published poetry, but prefer unpublished. Publication rights will revert to the author of the poem. We accept simultaneous
submissions, but please inform us if your work is accepted elsewhere. We will have two reading periods, Summer and Winter. Send submissions of NO MORE THAN THREE POEMS in the body of an email to naugatuckriver(at)aol.com (replace at with @). Make sure you include a short cover letter with your contact information and a 20-30 word bio. We will publish twice a year, Winter and Summer.

For complete information go to the website at www.naugatuckriverreview.com.
Lori Desrosiers
Managing Editor/Publisher

Submissions Open January 1 - March 1, 2009. The open submission period for the Summer issue is January 1st through March 1st. The submission period for the Winter issue is July 1st through September
1st.

Bye Bye Fall 2008 - Soon I Gradiate

2008-12-18T10:40:00.000-08:00

At last-the semester has come to its conclusion.

I've submitted my last essay to Brad Buchanan: Heroes, Narrators And Time: Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim And Its Influence On F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.

I've pestered Doug Rice for the last time this year.

I've even updated my blog. See.

Now it's on to Christmas shopping, paying overdue library fines, and returning checked out books before my trip down to Orange County for the holidays.

To get done in the next month: A completed draft of my novel. And then, my 500 project. And then, I graduate. And then--

Aesthetic Essay A La Great Gatsby

2008-12-12T14:06:00.001-08:00

Here's my aesthetic essay that I completed for my 230A class with Doug Rice. We're supposed to bring into conversation the writers that have influenced our writing in a creative way. I chose to write a scene a la Great Gatsby. I've integrated a number of quotes from Rice and quotes from my favorite authors. I don't typically post any of my fiction, but I'm posting it here because I won't be submitting anywhere for publication.

Gatsby’s mansion boomed with the commotion of hundreds of bodies curling sideways and upways, their coats and dresses climbing each other’s clothing so that the fabric weaved into a giant crawling monster of color. A drowning girl stood in a champagne fountain singing the last words of The Christmas Song, while a man with owl spectacles drank the sparkling torrents streaming from her elbows and down the hems of her dress. Between gulps, the man gasped, “They’re real books. Absolutely real—have pages and everything.” He was of course speaking of the thousands of whispering tomes filling the hardwood shelves lining the walls. Though general disorder seemed to be the theme of the night, close inspection revealed that the bodies were serpentined into some kind of line, partygoers shuffling backwards and forwards, some singing, some dancing, all drinking, their bodies and voices expanding into pure energy so that the walls of the mansion swelled and ballooned, and the planks of wood groaned under their tapping feet as if to wrench the building from the ground it was so poorly moored to.

And in the middle of this giant crawling monster, the line ended at the middle of a raised, platform, where a girl with dark hair, brown skin and rectangular glasses that looked too small for her large face, settled into her red high-backed chair. The girl studied the long line—so long that she couldn’t see its end, only the colors that disappeared into the kitchen and snaked into the family room. The sign next to her, driven into the artificial snow at her feet, read: Writers. Approach At Your Own Risk. An elf adorned in green, from the cap covering his balding head, to the tips of his pointed shoes, consulted a long list that fell to the ground and rolled around him. He straightened his spectacles and called out, “Hemingway. Ernest. You’re next.”

Hemingway stepped up the platform, while toting a tall fishing pole that branched high over his head. He wore a wore a white, short sleeved collared shirt, and a dark brown tan. His belly and beard were as large as the man himself. The girl had always enjoyed Hemingway’s company. She appreciated the brevity of his words, the subtlety of image laced into his works, and the rhythm of his language that seemed to suggest movement. He was good at making his readers hallucinate—making them see what wasn’t there. Although she sometimes questioned his lack of dialogue tags, she aspired to open her mind to the concept. Like the elf had once told her, “Be ready to revise what you think.”

“Gertrude wants to talk to you, but she couldn’t get past security. I’m supposed to send someone to get her.”

“Don’t bother,” the girl said. “This party is exclusive, not inclusive.” She pointed to the large lever next to her chair that opened the hidden shaft underneath Hemingway’s feet. “Austen and several others are still down there. Perhaps they’d enjoy Gertrude’s company?”

Hemingway snickered. “I’ve brought you a few things.” He handed the girl his fishing pole. “That’s for fun. If you don’t enjoy what you’re writing, no one will enjoy what they read.” Then he reached into his left pocket. “Damn.” He pulled a wet hand out and slapped it into her open palm. “That was supposed to be the tip of an iceberg, but I stopped off in Spain, so, I guess the heat got to it.

“If a writer of prose knows enough about what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. The dignity of movement of the iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water. The writer who omits things because he does not know them only makes hollow places in his writing.”

He finished and fiddled with his pocket, until the girl thanked him for his gifts, while she dried her hand on the side of her pants.

“That’s a fine line you speak of, Ernest, this iceberg. Writing, after all, is about revelation. Hiding something from your reader is low—like a ploy. Gertrude, for instance, couldn’t trick me into appreciating Alice’s—” the girl raised her hand and her fingers made invisible quotation marks, “autobiography with the iceberg that sank the Titanic. I noticed, in your writing, you are never in your characters’s heads. Is this part of your iceberg theory at work?”

“The emotion of a character must be expressed through action, through the senses—not thought.”

Someone knocked into Hemingway, and the elf harrumphed when Hemingway shoved back with a fat shot gun cocking in one large fist. A pale, skinny man staggered left and then right, and then into Hemingway again. He wore a salmon colored dress shirt that the girl assumed he borrowed from Gatsby.

“Toughen up, Scott. Otherwise I’ll have to slap you with that fish again,” Hemingway said.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s white flesh pulled tight over his thin cheeks as he leaned on his friend, who sidestepped him and swung a fish. Scott’s face turned red, his eyes cleared, and he wiggled his legs until he stood straight with his shoulders back. “I’ve brought you Zelda,” he said to the girl, and pulled a woman in a billowing white dress, with thin arms from behind his back.

“Scott, her bills alone will put me under.”

“Writers must be poor. Hunger was a good discipline,” Hemingway said.

“And every writer needs a cross to bear.” Fitzgerald shook Zelda’s arm and her thin blonde locks slithered, so that for a moment, the girl expected to turn into stone. Fitzgerald sat Zelda onto the floor with a, “Be good,” and turned to Hemingway.

“What are you laughing about?”

“A cross to bear? Please. You just want to off her on someone.”

“What? I’m Catholic!”

“I’m Catholic,” Hemingway added.

“You’re a convert. You’re a faux-Catholic. There’s a difference.”

The girl attempted to put off the mismatched brawl. She liked Fitzgerald, anyhow. His writing was good, sound, and his revision amazing—if only he could hold his liquor. His characters were complex, and he knew everything of them and in them. When he set out to write Gatsby, something simple, yet intricately patterned had been achieved.

“I’m Catholic,” she cried. “I’ve got it! A cross to bear. And the Bible. It’s right here.” The girl pointed over her shoulder to Zelda who was prancing around with a Bible on her head, the string bookmarker swinging in front of her eyes like a graduation tassel. Hemingway threw a cup of vodka into Zelda’s face. Her ballooning white dress melted down her body, until she looked like a child covered in white paint. Zelda was what she was. A cross. The life outside writing that demanded attention. Without a cross, a writer’s life would be misshapen, lacking. She sighed, and accepted Zelda with thanks.

“There’s more!”

“You’re making me look bad.” Ernest bumped his shoulder into Scott.

The girl unwrapped Fitzgerald’s next gift, a set of leather bound, gold tipped Conrad. “I’ve already read Conrad, thanks.” She tried to shove the books back into Fitzgerald’s arms.

“But did you really read them? Marlow’s got a lot to offer,” Fitzgerald nodded. “Conrad’s language—he was a genius.”

The girl dumped the pile of nautical novels onto the floor next to her feet. One thin book tumbled down and hit Zelda’s sleeping form, also on the floor. The girl grumbled, and got down on her haunches to rub Zelda’s shoulder before picking up the fallen book, standing and settling back into her chair.

“The Preface to The Nigger of the Narcissus?” The girl scanned the pages.

“Yes, indeed.” Fitzgerald began to quote Conrad on writing as art form:

“It is to show its vibration, its colour, its form; and through its movement, it’s form and its colour, reveal the substance of its truth—disclose its inspiring secret: the stress and passion within the core of each convincing movement. In a single-minded attempt of that kind, if one be deserving and fortunate, one may perchance attain to such clearness of sincerity that at last the presented vision of regret or pity, of terror or mirth, shall awaken in the hearts of the beholders that feeling of unavoidable solidarity; of the solidarity in mysterious origin, in toil, in joy, in hope, in uncertain fate, which binds men to each other and all mankind to the visible world.”

The girl had her eyes closed when Fitzgerald finished. She let the words flow into her, appreciating the circularity of Conrad’s language, the repetition, the dreaming and the beauty, and of course, it’s meaning—the idea behind it all. “Yes,” the girl opened her eyes. “To reveal truth, to reveal being with movement, that is an accomplishment. Thank you.”

Fitzgerald blushed and Hemingway shoved him.

“Maybe you ought to have my wife too.”

“Enough wives!”

“No, really. My first wife. Hadley!” Ernest’s voice boomed over the clatter of bodies and a woman sitting next to the fire place, rose and mazed her way through the masses. “She lost my first novel, and I had to rewrite the whole damn thing. I was able to put aside my early attempts, and cast off what I was previously unable to part with. In the end—revision made my writing into something far better.” Hadley sat next to Zelda, and finally, the two men strode off together, Hemingway dragging his friend by the armpits, and Fitzgerald’s legs dancing like Jello across the floor.

The elf consulted his list. “Cather. Willa. You’re next!”

A woman stepped up the platform, fiddling with the pleats of a dress that hung down to her boot covered ankles. Her voice was soft and low. “You’ll have to come outside with me.”

The girl stood up, glad to stretch, and followed Willa. The crowd parted so that they might pass, until they reached the double doors and Willa pushed hard at them. “I’ve brought you place,” Willa said. The screaming blister of summer heat, and the burn of frozen snow on skin, hit the girl at once. The radiance of weather assaulted Gatsby’s mansion, so that everyone on the inside demanded that they, ‘shut the door!’ Willa and the girl stepped outside, standing under the great awning, that protected them only from the elements coming overhead, but not the wind, nor heat that attacked from the sides. “They say in the beginning, that it was all the seasons. Summer. Winter. It was all the places. Desert. Ocean. And it is there, in that beginning, where you must find a place for your characters to stand. But remember, there is nothing in the intellect and nothing in your heart except through the five senses first. Experience place through your senses. Cultivate sensuality.”

The snow pulled the girl’s skin tight across her face, so that her nose and cheeks stung, her lips cracked, dry, the heat of summer sun, burning her skin into a red brown. She was thirsty for water—thirsty for place, language, for character, thirsty to revise, thirsty for many things, all of them waiting in her throat to be swallowed.

She waved to Willa, who climbed atop a steaming horse with clouds puffing from his nostrils. The girl went back into the mansion, thinking. She sat back in her red chair and sighed when the elf read the name of the next visiting writer, and the crowd of bodies jostled forward to preach the language of their minds. There were many yet to see, many words and many books to be visited. She motioned a writer forward, and read.

Collective Reading Series: Bridget Mabunga, Robin Martin & Hoppy To It

2008-12-11T13:33:00.001-08:00

Every time I attend a Collective Reading Series at the CSU Sacramento Library Galleria, there's new art to enjoy, but mostly I appreciate how the art serves as an interesting background to celebrate the writers.

I step into the galleria. Bridget Mabunga and Robin Martin are reading. There are a lot of people already there. A few from my 230X class. Kylee Cook sits a couple rows ahead of me and she turns in her seat to wave. Adam Crittenden brings in more chairs, adding another row behind Kylee's. I'm impressed by the turn out--about twenty-five people and more coming.

I see Marie Hoffman talking with Bridget. I haven't seen Marie or Bridget since our last Writers In Progress meeting in August--and even then, we were all in our post CSU Summer Arts comas. We talk a little before the reading. Marie's been writing like mad, cultivating the writer's lifestyle, reading everything Carole Maso and just burying herself in books. She comes back to CSUS in the Spring. I can tell she's dreading it, but there's this glow around her because she's been feeding her writer's soul. I envy her.

After a brief introduction from Adam, Bridget reads first. She stands behind a podium, her blonde hair curling down past her shoulders onto a perky red jacket that for Bridget, just seems right. She reads an excerpt from her 500 project, a series of short stories centering around a female cop named Pinky. Over summer break, I read a number of these shorts, starring Pinky and her partner Mumpkin. Bridget's goal--to capture the cop beat realistically. Each story focuses on a call when they're on duty. Bridget will be working on her 500 with Peter Grandbois in the Spring, and I'm excited that we'll be graduating together.

Afterwards, Robin reads. She's wearing a long scarf that dangles down and I watch it swing back and forth as she animatedly reads her stories. I have also heard many of these before in our workshop. I enjoy "The Room Is Glass" again, but my favorite is a short story about a woman living in Orange County suburbs whose house is broken into. She tries to cope with the physical and psychological intrusion, and throughout, the story is edged with Robin's ironic humor. When she announces its title, "Bridget Can Be Faithful," the crowd laughs, and Bridget Mabunga throws her arms in the air.

"This isn't about Bridget," Robin adds, looking towards Mabunga's husband. "So you can relax, Bob."

After the reading, I sit in my seat for a few moments feeling overwhelmed. Robin has already completed her 500 project, and if what she just read is what I'm supposed to aspire to, I know have a lot of work ahead of me. I cringe, imagining my ramshackle novel sitting anywhere near hers in the library. We mill around the galleria talking. I chat with Gordon Warnock, who's growing his hair longer--I haven't seen Gordon since Summer Arts, and his hilarious culmination reading.

Afterwards, we meet at Hoppy, a restaurant and bar on Folsom and 65th Street. There's a giant, yellow neon sign in the front, so it's hard to miss. I still managed to get lost on the way there--somehow I ended up on J and 34th. At Hoppy, I eat some fish and chips, chatting with Marie, Gordon, and Jason, all the time thinking how much Robin looks just like her mother, who's sitting next to me, also eating fish and chips.

There's some talk of bringing new blood into Writers In Progress. Robin describes her 500 project, and the ridiculous hoops writers are made to jump through by the Office of Grad Studies--but to have a copy of your thesis in the "libary", that's really something. Bobby and Bridget are sitting down the table, and I call over to Bridget, asking if she will be walking in the Spring.

"Are you kidding me?" she laughs and makes a wacky face--classic Bridget. "After what I've been through. I have to."

I know what she means--what I've been through. Walking during graduation and being hooded--its the ultimate culmination of everything we've been working so hard for. To me, being hooded bears the same grande ramifications of being knighted. (Notice I added an "e" on "grand" to truly emphasize the elite nature of the accomplishment. I'm ecstatic. I plan to talk to her about starting an elite gang of MAs who sport their hoods around midtown. She probably won't be down, but if Bridget joins, I'm convinced the gang will really take off.

Images in their order from the top:

Bridget Mabungo & Robin Martin
Adam Crittenden
Reading
Bridget Mabunga
Robin Martin
Marie Hoffman, Robin, Bridget, Jen (me!)
Collage includes above and Gordon Warnock

Classes End But Conrad Lives On

2008-12-11T13:32:00.000-08:00

Two days ago.

It's my last class of the semester. Possibly the last class of my graduate career. Next semester, I won't be taking any classes--only working on my novel. I'm swinging my car into a parking space. Parking after 4:30 in the faculty lots is permitted, but I feel privileged, because this semester, I'm not that sucker trekking it a mile to class.

I've got senioritis. Bad. I'm not even sure if a graduate student can get senioritis, since this is only my third semester, but I'm on the verge of finishing. It's that last stretch, when procrastination sets in, and I'm more interested in mailing out Christmas cards than working on a paper. But I like school. I'll miss school.

I get out of my car. I stride happy. I stride big. Fast. Without hesitation. I own this campus. I know that even though it's already dark, leaves are bright orange and red, crisping along the sidewalks in front of Douglass Hall. I know exactly where I'm going. I know where I've been. I've done this hundreds of times. The world stops for me. I step into the intersection.

My backpack lifts, and I feel its ties pulling up, the whoosh of air and fabric being dragged and away from my body. It happens so fast--it's over. I'm in the middle of the intersection, and spin around.

"What the f@#*?"

I've been clipped by an SUV.

The driver breaks hard, a woman, probably an undergraduate, she looks so small behind the wheel, rolls down her window. "I'm so sorry," the woman cries. "Are you okay? I'm so, so sorry."

I can tell she's freaking out, nearing hysteria, and I know I'm alright. I'm not hurt. I don't think the car even touched my body, but it was close. As I stand in the middle of the intersection, part of me sympathizes with her. I probably should have stopped at the curb to make sure she stopped. She probably should have been more careful. I was probably a little distracted. She was probably a little distracted. I was probably thinking how cool I looked with the fingertips cut off my black gloves.

We're both still in the middle of the intersection. "It's okay," I tell her and turn away. I start walking to class, this time looking every which way, trying to ignore the stares of witnesses to my near collision.

Thinking back, I wish I'd done a better job of reassuring her because she was probably really upset. I would have been.

In class, we go from student to student talking about our papers. I briefly describe my thesis: Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim and its influence on F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. I can't tell if my professor, Brad Buchanan, thinks the idea is promising or not, but I'm hoping that my 12-15 paged paper will turn out alright, considering it's worth 50% of my grade.

We write a journal entry about Graham Greene's The End of the Affair and talk about it throughout class. I suggest the possibility that Sarah is part of Maurice's own psychological development. What's in an R? An R reflected backwards in a mirror? I'm not sure--though I point out that R is in the middle of both Sarah's and Maurice's names. One of my colleagues, Daniel, of whom I've grown quite fond of because of his bizarre digressions, goes to the chalkboard, scribbling character names. He points out the there are three R's in "mirror" and one R each in the names "Sarah", "Maurice" and "Henry" and at the end of "Affair." I try hard to laugh, and Sue nudges my leg, trying to get me to stop. What? It's funny.

As an aside, once, in our "Roaring Twenties Literature" class with Susan Wanlass, Daniel suggested that Dick Diver, the main character of Fitzgerald's Tender Is The Night, had a "curtain fetish." I'll miss Daniel's far fetched interpretations of the text.

I'll miss a lot of things about class.

I'll miss driving Garrett McCord, whose blog Vanilla Garlic is insanely popular, to his car--he parks off campus because he's a stingy bastard that saves his money for more important things, like living the foodie life, high style dining and posing decorated cupcakes on holiday napkins.

I'll miss joking around with Casey Rene Miller before and during English 230A with Doug Rice. "Hey buddy," Casey'll say when we meet in the hall as we wait for Rice to unlock Calaveras 133. She's funny, and I hope she won't get sick over winter break. She'll working on her 500 project, a collection of short stories, with Peter Grandbois. Yah, I'll miss Casey, but I look towards that big day in May, when we don our hoods, and strut around Arco arena because damn, we own the place.

Did I mention that Doug Rice tore up one of my short story's so badly in class that I questioned my ability as a writer and started reading High School Musical fanfiction? That's right Doug, and it's your fault. Inspiring though his lectures on writing are, I liken them to the liquid codeine I had to take when I got my tonsils out--fun for three hours, until the magic wears off and all that's left is pain and a lack of appetite.

After the Conrad class, I chat briefly with Daniel. He's named his bass guitar Joseph Conrad. I want to point out that "guitar" has an R in it, but I don't. He's graduating in the Spring too. Where does time go?

I exit Mendocino Hall, and head for the faculty parking lot, for the first time thinking about that intersection. A man walking ahead of me calls a greeting and I see it's Buchanan. Here again is another Buchanan I've never seen before--different from the coat wearing one in class, and different from the t-shirt wearing one at Luna's Cafe. He's wearing a long coat and what looks like a leather hat. No wonder I didn't recognize him. His face is hardly visible, mostly beard and a puff of breath that trails around the parking lot as we walk. I ask him how Roan Press is going. Well. He mentions that he's trying to get a book about/by a talented harpist. Sounds interesting. I drive off in my car, and my last glimpse of Buchanan is him searching for his car.

Call For Submissions - Ricepaper

2008-12-11T13:24:00.000-08:00

Ricepaper (BC), an arts and lit quarterly that focuses on Asian Pacific arts and culture, seeks submissions of poetry and fiction on any subject, in any form.

Poetry and illustrated submissions: 8 pages max; short fiction: 6000 words max.

Authors must be of either Asian Pacific or mixed descent. Include a short biographical note with submission. For more details, send email to

editor(at)ricepapermagazine.ca replace (at) with @

http://www.ricepapermagazine.ca/

Call for Submissions: Rougarou, U of Lousiana

2008-12-11T13:10:00.000-08:00

Rougarou is the new online literary magazine edited by graduate students of the Department of English at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. We seek submissions of fiction, poetry, nonfiction and book reviews for our third issue due to launch Spring 2009.
We are interested in well-crafted, innovative work that gets us excited about the possibilities of language. We accept submissions year-round.

Simultaneous submissions are fine, assuming you will notify us immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere. We do not accept previously published work. For our full guidelines and to read our first two issues, please visit our website.E-mail all work as a Word document or RTF attachment, with the appropriate genre as the subject line of the e-mail.

Send fiction to: rougaroufiction(at)gmail.com (replace (at) with @)
Send poetry to: rougaroupoetry(at)gmail.com (replace (at) with @)
Please send all poems in one file attachment.
Send nonfiction to: rougarounonfiction(at)gmail.com (replace (at) with @)
Send book reviews and all other queries to: rougaroueditors(at)gmail.com (replace (at) with @)

Call for Submissions: New Plains Review

2008-12-10T14:34:00.000-08:00

The New Plains Review seeks writing on the theme of Service for its spring issue. Weinterpret "service" broadly: military and community service, school service requirements, jury duty, all forms of volunteering, religious services, food service, customer service,serving a subpoena, etc. We're interested in poetry, fiction, essays and creative nonfiction that is thoughtful and compelling, and we'll reprint previously published work (provided the author controls the copyright). New Plains will also run a "letters" column of short, informal pieces relating experiences of "service." The editors are looking for detail,honesty and brevity in these letters.

Deadline is February 17, 2009. Submit by email (as a Word attachment)to Executive Editor Douglas Goetsch at (replace (at) with @), or send hard copies to:

New Plains Review
Submissions, Box 184
University of Central
Oklahoma, Edmond, OK 73034

Please put email, phone and postal contact on the first page of each piece you submit.

Intermission: Writing Short Fiction With Doug Rice

2008-12-10T10:57:00.001-08:00

On Monday, I had my last English 230A class with Doug Rice. Sad, though I am, I'll be working with Rice for my 500 project, so it's not the end. He did give us one assignment over Winter break: Read one good book, slowly (the adverb aside).

I considered James Joyce's Ulysses, but I flipped through it, and decided the read would require eight years, not eight weeks. Don't be fooled by the simplicity of Ulysses's book cover--it's so complex, it might take me a week to read one page!

Still to turn in for my English 230A class: 18 revised pages of my novel and an aesthetic essay.

With the conclusion of the class, I find it necessary to post some of Doug Rice's worthwhile writing anecdotes. Of course, he's very verbose, so I've left quite a few off.

Write with magic. Write with music.
Writing is about revelation.
Read everything and read it well.
Pay attention to how each scene contributes to how the character changes.
Learn rhythm from reading.
Write towards an intensity, not towards an intention.
Eliminate all ornament that is there for the sake of ornament.
Give your characters a name. Give them a good name.
Your characters have a whole life. You have to know it.
Push your characters to a point where they must reveal themselves.
Your characters have memories. You better know what they are.
Study writers who are important to you as a writer, not as a reader.
Learn to make demands on your own capacities and not be self-satisfied.
You don't have to know anything. Your story has to know something. Call it into being.
The symbols emerge from the story. You don't put them in intentionally.
Write all the way through, like white lightning, to find what it's all about.
Read "Ulysses."
Conflict. Complication. Desire. On the first page.
Learn how to manage time.
The more obvious you make a symbol in the text, the less genuine it is because it becomes, so you have to try and do it obliquely.
You have to know what you're doing before you can revise.
Know what is at stake in the scene. Know your characters. Know your story. Know the mood of the scene.
Be ready to revise what you think.
Make choices. Be exclusive, not inclusive.
There is nothing in the intellect and nothing in your heart except through the five senses first. Cultivate sensuality.
Write through the sense to the heart and to the mind.
Don't distract a reader with a mere detail--take out the fluff.
You don't have to paint the whole pictures. Paint what matters.
Don't try to get a place right. Try to reimagine it.
Reveal something about character and place.
Characters in dialogue should be revealing something about themselves, not just exchanging information.
Make the reader see there were no other choices possible.
The heart of writing is in the writing. Immortality happens inside the writing--inside the words.
Be humbled by your stories.
You don't have to think. You only have to look.
Make your readers hallucinate. Make them see what's not there. They must see.
Do not rewrite for untalented readers.
A symbol is graceful--it's barely there.
Write as if you are a painter.
Linger in the scene. Write what is there and not there. Do not rush to the end.

Writing Job: Copy Editing Internship At CSUS State Hornet

2008-12-10T10:14:00.001-08:00

Sick and tired of spotting poor grammar in the student newspaper?

Intern for The State Hornet as a copy editor for 10 hours a week and get 3 units of course credit for helping to make the newspaper a better read. Positions are open for Spring 2009. Schedule can be flexible.

Contact Editor in Chief Ashley Evans at editor@statehornet.com about testing for the position.

-------Forwarded from the CSUS English List Proc.

UAW Local 4123 Student Workers Strike Postponed

2008-12-09T23:14:00.001-08:00

Never underestimate the power of solidarity. What's that saying? The students united, will never be defeated! The following update was posted on the UAW Local 4123 website:

STRIKE POSTPONED: SENATE PRESIDENT STEINBERG TO WORK WITH UAW/CSU ON REACHING AGREEMENT

Dear Members,

Senate President Pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg has called on UAW Local 4123 to and the CSU to sit down with him in an effort to reach resolution on the current contract dispute. The bargaining team has agreed to postpone the strike, originally scheduled to begin at 7 AM, December 10, pending these meetings with the University and Senate President Pro Tempore Steinberg.

We believe that Senate President Steinberg will be a helpful influence on negotiations, and will move CSU administrators to bargain lawfully and help us reach agreement on a fee waiver. The Senator has been supportive of a fee waiver benefit for ASEs (see his letter to CSU administrators here: http://www.uaw4123.org/news/files/Steinberg_Letter_10272008.jpg, and
we look forward to working with him and CSU to reach a settlement.

We will continue to keep you updated as these meetings progress.

Solidarity,

UAW 4123 Bargaining Team

UAW Local 4123 Student Workers Strike: December 10th

2008-12-09T22:54:00.000-08:00

UPDATE: This strike event has been POSTPONED. See the postponement release from UAW Local 4123 here or at their website.
--------------------------------

The following is a press release forwarded by Bridget Mabunga concerning the UAW Local 4123 Student Workers Strike to take place on December 10th across the CSU system. UAW Local 4123 is the Union of Academic Student Employees (ASEs) at the California State University. It represents over 6000 academic student employees.

----------------------------------
December 9, 2008
TAKE ACTION TO SUPPORT ACADEMIC STUDENT WORKERS NOW.

We have called for an unfair labor practice strike for Wednesday December, 8, 2008. You can help by calling Chancellor Reed at (562) 851 4700 and the campus president in your area. The press release and contact information is included.

UAW Local 4123 to Strike at California State University Beginning
Wednesday, December 10 Over CSU's Unfair Labor Practices

(CALIFORNIA) - UAW Local 4123 announced today that Teaching Associates, Graduate Assistants, Tutors and other Instructional Student Assistants will strike at the California State University starting tomorrow, Wednesday, December 10 over the CSU's unfair labor practices. UAW members voted to authorize the bargaining team to call the strike by a 98.5% margin. Striking employees will be eligible for up to $200/week in strike benefits.

The CSU's unlawful bargaining includes not providing information critical to the bargaining process, not having the authority to bargain at the table, and conditioning resolution of one critical issue – a fee waiver for academic student employees – on settling wage "re-opener" bargaining with other unions.

"Our members are prepared to hold CSU accountable for its unlawful bargaining practices," said James Banks, President of UAW Local 4123. "However, we remain hopeful that a strike can be averted." A strong majority of UAW 4123 members have signed on to a letter to Chancellor
Reed calling on the CSU to provide fee waivers to ASEs.

Legislative leaders, including Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, Senate President pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg, Senator Gloria Romero, Chair of the Assembly Higher Education Committee Anthony Portantino, and Chair of the Assembly Labor and Employment Committee Sandré Swanson have called on CSU Chancellor Reed to negotiate a fee waiver with the UAW. Assembly member Portantino wrote, "Despite their valuable contribution to the mission of the University, ASEs took a 7% wage cut when fees increased this year. Without a fee waiver, the average ASE
earns a mere $1.80 an hour, after paying student fees."

ASEs are the only group of unionized employees or administrators at CSU that do not receive a fee waiver benefit. Fee waivers are also a standard benefit for ASEs at universities across the country, including the University of California.

The Union has the support of other campus unions and has secured strike sanction from central labor councils around the state.

You can help UAW 4123 by calling CSU Chancellor Charles Reed at (562) 851 4700 and asking for CSU to bargain lawfully and negotiate and agree to a Fee Waiver for Academic Student Employees to avoid a strike.

###

--
UAW Local 4123
union@uaw4123.org
(916) 498-8452
http://www.uaw4123.org

Writing Job: Visiting Poet, Columbia College, Chicago

2008-12-09T22:49:00.001-08:00

VISITING POET, Columbia College Chicago:

The Elma Stuckey Liberal Arts and Sciences Emerging Poet-in-Residence. Annual, one-year nonrenewable position: starts August 2009.

Poets from underrepresented communities and/or those who bring diverse cultural, ethnic, theoretical, and national perspectives to their writing and teaching are particularly encouraged to apply.

Position is named for Elma Stuckey, a poet born in Memphis who lived in Chicago for more than 40 years. Author of THE BIG GATE (1976) and THE COLLECTED POEMS OF ELMA STUCKEY (1987), she has been described as "the A.E. Housman of slavery" -- a poet who recast for contemporary readers "those things that were kept from the ears of the unknowing slavemasters."

Successful candidate will teach one course per semester (undergraduate workshop, craft, and/or literature seminars), give a public reading, and possibly supervise a small number of graduate theses. Qualified candidates will have received an M.F.A. in poetry, or Ph.D. in English (with creative dissertation), or other relevant terminal degree in past five years; demonstrate excellence and experience in college-level teaching; and will have strong record of publication in national literary magazines (but will have published no more than one full-length poetry collection). Salary: $30,000 for the year. Send cover letter, CV, 5-page sample of published poetry (photocopies are fine), sample syllabus for undergraduate or graduate-level poetry workshop or literature course, three letters of recommendation (at least one should address teaching), and statement of teaching philosophy to:

Tony Trigilio
Director, Creative Writing - Poetry
Columbia College Chicago
600 South Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL, 60605

Postmark deadline for applications: February 15, 2009.

The Creative Writing - Poetry Program has a commitment to excellence in teaching and is founded upon strong ties between the study of literature and the practice of creative expression, and features the only undergraduate creative writing - poetry BA program in the country and a single-genre MFA program, a national reading series featuring monthly readings, and two national literary magazines: COLUMBIA POETRY REVIEW and COURT GREEN. Columbia College Chicago is an urban institution of over 12,000 undergraduate and graduate students, emphasizing arts, media, and communications in a liberal
arts setting.

Columbia College Chicago encourages qualified female, Deaf, GLBT, disabled, international & minority classified individuals to apply for all positions.

Collective Reading Series: December 10th

2008-12-05T16:56:00.000-08:00

Check out the last Collective Reading Series of the Fall semester at the CSUS Library Gallery on December 10th at 4PM.

Guest Writers include:

Agnes Stark
Bridget Mabunga
Robin Martin, reading a selection from her project collection Watching.

I'll definitely be there to support my colleagues from Writers In Progress, Bridget and Robin.

Claudia Rankine Poetry Reading

2008-12-02T10:05:00.000-08:00

What: Poet Claudia Rankine to give a Multimedia Presentation entitled “Provenance.”

When: Tuesday, December 2nd at 3pm

Where: The Multicultural Center inside the Library

Claudia Rankine is the author of four collections of poetry, including Don’t Let Me Be Lonely (Graywolf 2004); PLOT (2001); The End of the Alphabet (1998); and Nothing in Nature is Private (1995), which received the Cleveland State Poetry Prize. She is co-editor of American Women Poets in the Twenty-First Century (Wesleyan University Press).

"The most articulate and moving testament to the bleak times we live in I’ve yet seen…It’s a master work in every sense.” --Robert Creeley Speaking of Rankine’s Don’t Let Me Be Lonely

-CSUS English List Proc

Live Science Syndication: Hallucinations Article

2008-11-29T18:51:00.001-08:00

My article "Dreamachines, Hallucinations, Charles Bonnet Syndrome & The 50 Year Old Question Hodological Science Answered," which I wrote for Scientificblogging.com was syndicated by Live Science.

You can also check out my blog, "I Can Get Science" at Scientific Blogging.

Giving Thanks - My First Rejection Letter

2008-11-27T10:34:00.001-08:00

On Thanksgiving morning, I was greeted by my very first rejection letter. Kartika Review, which "publishes literary fiction, poetry, and essays that endeavor to expand and enhance the mainstream perception of Asian American creative writing", turned down one of my short stories. Though I was semi-bummed, I wasn't surprised. This is just the first of hundreds and I'll post them all here, so you know you're not alone!

In fact, most writers understand that receiving rejection is part of the job, but survive with perseverance and humor. For example, some writers choose to literally wallpaper their bathrooms with their rejection letters. Others have their rejection letters printed on toilet paper to wipe their you know whats on them!

Here it is, my very first rejection letter:

Dear Jen

Thank you so much for your submission to Kartika Review. We are a fledgling literary magazine and appreciate that you have given us the opportunity to read your work.

We regret, however, that your piece is not right for our current needs. Please forgive me for not providing comments or suggestions--I would like to offer a few personal words but I don't think a sentence or two would really help ease the blow of a rejection.

Know however that I am impressed with your writing in this particular piece. I hope you will feel encouraged by this short note and send us something else. This is NOT our customary rejection letter.

Please keep moving forward with your writing and thank you for your support of Kartika Review.

Christine
Fiction Editor
Kartika Review

I would also add that this rejection letter was much less depressing than Doug Rice's recent critique of my Orange County suburb short story, which he told me was "seriously flawed" and required a narrative design overhaul. He recommended that I rewrite all the dialogue and refocus the story because he thinks the "real story" is somewhere else. He might have also dropped the words "cliche," "simple" and added that the language was "too literal."

As you can imagine, after Rice's critique, the Kartika rejection letter was actually more like a friendly hug. Thanks, Kartika.

My Novel: A New Hope

2008-11-23T22:33:00.000-08:00

Today, I worked on my novel and was pleasantly surprised by my new revisions. I rewrote one of my opening scenes. It's better, with fuller more careful descriptions. For months I've been too intimidated to tackle old words with new skills. Revision is like exploring your way out of a maze. The more words you write, the more difficult it is to find meaning, the more difficult it is to find your way out...But that's why I went to school--to become a better writer.

Originally, when I revised, I would open up a file, reread, delete, type, move things around. The task of cutting depressed me. Sometimes I feel trapped by the words that I've already written. However, I've found that starting with a blank page is often for the best.

Here's my new revision process in Microsoft Word:

Open an older draft of a scene requiring revision.
Open a new document.
Reread the older draft, paying close attention to scene, plot, character, action, etc.
Summarize.
Tab to the blank page and revise the scene with new words, keeping in mind the above.
Do this paragraph by paragraph.
Type the words like they're new.

I try to focus on what my language is doing. Sometimes I keep the same words. Sometimes I don't. In some places, I see that three sentences have transformed into three paragraphs. With my new revision process, ideas come more easily and I find that cutting and revising isn't so difficult as I remembered.

Revision Focus: A description should enhance the plot or reveal something about character. Otherwise, it is unnecessary. Scene should always be doing something. Dialogue should always be doing three things.

Writers In The Halls: Kylee Cook & Robin Martin

2008-11-10T10:43:00.001-08:00

Recently, while heading to my Conrad class in Mendocino Hall, I bumped into two of my writing colleagues, Kylee Cook and Robin Martin. Both are in the Creative Writing graduate program at CSU Sacramento. Running into either of them is always a treat. In my humble opinion, Kylee and Robin are amongst the most talented writers in our Creative Writing program.

They're both so damn sweet, and so damn talented. They'd be easy to hate, except something about their smiles say, "Hug me instead."

I met Kylee at CSU Summer Arts. Though we'd been in the same program for a couple semesters, we'd never shared a class. I'd heard her name several times before, whispered reverently from writer to writer. I didn't know what she looked like, only that her writing was "really good." Bridget Mabunga once praised her: "Kylee's writing is a gift, a special, beautiful gift." Bridget has a really discerning character; I'm not sure if that's because she's married to a cop, or because the pink mohawk on her motorcycle helmet somehow engenders perception. Anyhow, many of my most memorable moments of Summer Arts include Kylee: a raid on the vending machines for a late night snack, rehashing Maso under hot Fresno stars just before the sprinklers go off at 11:01, and a failed attempt to coordinate a group hug.

It turns out that Doug Rice will also be Kylee's first reader in the Spring, which disconcerts me--imagining Rice poring over my work is upsetting enough, but next to Kylee's? I'm just hoping that our 500 projects are so different from each other that they're not comparable. Otherwise, sabotage might be my only option.

I've known Robin since the Spring of 2008. I learned early on in our "Grandmother, Mother, Me" class with Mary Mackey that she was an exceptional writer, despite her obsession with composition and "to be" verbs--I hear that's inescapable once you've taught it to unappreciative high schoolers. My favorite piece that I've read of Robin's was a short story she shared during our Writers In Progress workshop, about a woman staring out a glass window. It's wrenching, poetic and real--Robin's ironic humor ever present.

Robin is in the middle of her 500 Project, or Creative Writing Master's Thesis. She's writing a compilation of stories, I would guess flash fiction from what I've seen of her work. When I asked her how the 500 process was going, I was surprised to hear she was almost finished. In just a matter of weeks, Robin would be getting her project signed off by her first and second readers, and signing a check for sixty bucks to bind an official library copy of her thesis.

Part of me is bummed that I won't be working on my 500 project with Robin, but when it's my turn, I'll harass her with all those annoying incidentals and thesis screw-ups I'm certain to make.
It's hard to imagine a CSUS without Robin, but she assured me that she was returning in Spring 2009 to finish up her Composition Certificate.

Graduation seems so far away for me. When I sign that sixty dollar check to have my novel bound, (imagine a library copy!) I'll dance a jig. What comes after that, I'm not sure.

Brad Buchanan Reading at Luna's Cafe

2008-11-07T08:54:00.001-08:00

Every Thursday, Luna's Cafe hosts a poetry open mic. This Thursday, Jason and I visited Luna's to listen to CSUS Professor Brad Buchanan, who teaches my graduate seminar on Joseph Conrad/Graham Greene.

Every teacher has weird idiosyncrasies. Brad Buchanan has a few--it must be the writer in him. The first thing you notice about Buchanan when he comes into class is 1) he's wearing a collared shirt and sports coat, and 2) he's hauling around a box or paper bag filled with student journals he's been grading. He hands out the journals and takes his seat. Then, he pulls out a stack of index cards highlighting notes on the reading.

He spreads out all the index cards in front of him, like a kid playing Memory. I'm not sure if he's trying to remember or organize his thoughts, or if to him, lit criticism is a game. It's a little bizarre, but strangely endearing. Each class, he goes from index card to index card, making points on the reading. By the end of class, each index card, has been filed away, all points made.

Lately, Buchanan has done a few readings in the Sacramento area, but he never publicizes them in class. I just get the information from the CSUS English Department list proc.
---------------------------
It's Thursday night. Every college student knows that Thursday is the new Friday, and I'm no different. TGITR, as I like to say. TR = Thursday in student speak! As Jason and I drive downtown, I'm shuffling around in the passenger seat, fixing my hair, remembering the last time I went to Luna's Cafe with Lucy. I haven't seen Lucy forever. I make a vow to call her, or at least message her on facebook--I'm a member of the facebook group she created: SSHEN (Sac States's Hottest English Nerds.)

Our first stop is at Uncle Vito's Slice of NY. I can't seem to get enough of the pizza. I try to eat fast, because last time, Luna's was so packed that Lucy and I had to stand in the back by the bar. But hen we get there, the place is almost empty.

There's a family of three laughing at one of the round tables, and a guy wearing a bandanna sits by himself reading a really thick book. I'm impressed until he flips it face down onto the table and I see the cover--Twilight. Of course--the darker, goth Harry Potter. I laugh a little, and wonder if I'll ever get around to reading the vampire series. I'm terrified of vampires, so maybe never. In the back, a middle aged man in a suit hunches over the bar, writing in his notebook. His beat up leather briefcase tells me, "I, too, have a personality and a soul."

As more poets arrive, many wearing hats and scarves, bandannas, accessories, dark clothing, I contemplate my own beige cardigan and jeans and acknowledge the necessity to cultivate a more beatnik writer persona.

Buchanan arrives hefting in a box, and for a moment, I'm convinced he's brought our in-class journals to the reading. That's when I realize the box probably contains copies of his new book, "Swimming the Mirror," which was published by his new house Roan Press.

Buchanan pauses as he passes our table, surprised to see me there. (Nothing can stop me from providing news to our voracious readers--all three of them). I introduce him to Jason and they shake hands. He says "Thanks for coming," and moves on, no doubt mentally preparing himself for his reading.

The night begins with a poetry open mic and a woman named Rebbecca emcees. She announces that all poets are limited to reading one poem each. I'm relieved because there are 20 poets on the roster, and last time, each had about five minutes.

I didn't bring anything to read. I've said it before--I'm an awful poet.

In between readings, Rebbecca announces Sacramento literary events, including one this weekend with percussionist Michael Bayard, who will be playing the "Typewriter" song on a real Royal manual typewriter during Second Saturday. I can't think of a better way of cultivating writer chic than becoming a patron of typewriter music.

The first two poems Buchanan reads are, "On the Day I Became an American Citizen" and "Acceptance Speech." He wrote the poems only two days ago, after the election. He also reads the following poems:

"A Photograph from Northern Iraq"
"She Claims that the Flag is Flying Away"
"The Father's Shore" - based on the neonatal portion of his wife's pregnancy, when she was in San Juan Capistrano and he was in San Francisco.
"Ethereal Child"
"The Bubble Gum Baby" - his daughter's favorite
"Her First News of Eyelashes"
"She Catches the Wind"

My favorite was "Ethereal Child," though "The Bubble Gum Baby" came in a close second.

What I learned about Buchanan: 1. He's Canadian. 2. He knows how to capture the magic of eyelashes.

What I wonder about Buchanan: Does his doppleganger teach my Conrad/Greene class or is this really the same guy?--I guess that just goes to show--you never know anything about a person until you hear their poetry, or at least see them in a tee-shirt.

Click on the collage to check out pictures of the night.
Note: Shot a couple videos of his reading, but am struggling with the upload.

Call For Submissions: The Truth About The Fact

2008-11-06T09:27:00.001-08:00

The Truth About Fact, International Journal of Literary Nonfiction

INTERNATIONAL CALL FOR SUBMISSION: Got Truth?

The Truth About the Fact: A Journal of Literary Nonfiction is an international journal committed to the idea that excellence in the art of letters can play a vital role in transforming the planet we share. The individual truth (the lower case version) when artistically rendered in print has the potential to intellectually and emotionally engage readers with just enough power to make one consider the perspective of The Other. With just enough power to make a human being listen to another human being. No small enterprise in a world increasingly dedicated to opening wounds instead of ears.

We're interested in publishing true stories well told. Artful narratives that offer some insight into the human condition. While keeping us enraptured during the process of the telling.

We believe in the individual truth because we know, when taken collectively, it represents the human experience. The Truth About the Fact wants you to help us articulate the human experience with your art. Let's talk. Listen.

Literary nonfiction essay, memoir, commentary 1000-5000 words Literary nonfiction narrative poetry, black & white art and photography

Submission Deadline December 31, 2008
Submit via email: editor@thetruthaboutthefact.com
Published by Loyola Marymount University
thetruthaboutthefact.com

My Novel & Peter Granbois: Tiresias in Disguise

2008-11-06T09:27:00.000-08:00

Once, during my first semester in the CSUS Graduate Program, I sat in Creative Writing Professor Peter Grandbois's office, and he told me with complete honesty: Most first novels will sit in a drawer and never get published.

At the time I wanted to melt into the floor and just die right there. Now I look back, I realize Grandbois was trying to provide some sort of solace. Sometimes you have to write a novel so you know you can, and then you move on--to the real writing.

There isn't a day that passes in which I think--my novel is GODAWFUL. I read what I wrote months, a year ago, and am horrified by the vomit of it. I always think back to that conversation and ask: Could it be that I've done exactly what Peter Grandbois said I would? Is he to be my Tiresias--warning me of my failure and in fact, sending me towards my eternal doom?

For three months, I've barely touched my novel. Instead, I've been working on articles and short stories. I've written letters and blogged. I've done everything and anything to distract me from my novel, the monster living inside my laptop, always breathing, "Jenny, I'm still here. I'm still awful. What are you going to do about it?"

What am I going to do about it?

The thought that I might have failed paralyzes me, and prevents me from going further with my novel. Instead I ask the same questions again and again:

What should I keep? What should I scrap?
Should I keep revising at all?
Should I keep trying to fix something that is intrinsically flawed?
Am I wasting my time? Should I scrap it and start on something else?
How can I fix this?--Can I fix this?
Where did I go wrong?

What am I going to do about it?

After class on Monday, I approached Doug Rice.

"I'm having a hard time getting rid of some awful stuff in my novel. I just need you to tell me to get rid of it. I need you to tell me that."

His words were simple and straightforward, and coming from practiced experience: "Just get rid of it, Jen. You have to."

Deep breath.

Revise. Rewrite. I begin again.

CSU Summer Arts Part III: Finding Writers Who Breathe Like Me

2008-11-05T11:25:00.000-08:00

This summer, I spent two weeks at California State University Fresno, attending CSU Summer Arts, an annual artists’ conference.

I took a course called “Writing the Memoir” with CSU Sacramento professor Doug Rice. Guest artists included memoir writers Steven Church, poet Carole Maso and National Book Award Winner, William T. Vollmann. Although I was in the process of writing my first novel, a fiction, the work largely relied on memoir, and I looked forward to what the experience would teach me.

Summer Arts included two weeks of intensive writing, reading, listening and complete immersion in the art form, but more than that-it was a community of passionate writers who had taken time out of their schedules to breathe writing. That was magic.

After class one day, some of my classmates and I walked over to the Red Wave, a small bar adjacent to Fresno State, a cool, dark oasis to escape the sweat dripping humidity that is Fresno. That was where I met Roxanne, a Filipina writer from Fresno. With black hair that ended below her ears, she had a nose piercing, a large smile and brown red skin that looked like mine. I’d seen her in class before, but we’d never talked.

We introduced ourselves over drinks. Thirty minutes later, we rocked back and forth in our seats, guffawing as we compared similar experiences growing up in Filipino American households. We were like veterans sharing battle scars from the same war--we were cousins.

Roxanne had an MA in Linguistics and somehow stumbled her way into our memoir class. Only recently, she started pursuing the craft of creative writing. She told me about a project been playing around with—a book studying the disappearance of the certain Filipino dialects in the Philippines. Since Marcos’s implementation of martial law, the Ilokano language was being printed less and less, and more emphasis had been put on Tagalog and English.

I listened to Roxanne speak, impressed by her scholarly ambitions and its relevance to Filipino culture. How many times had I picked up a book about the Philippines, not written by a Filipino? Too many times.

“You have to write it, Roxanne,” I told her as I sipped my vodka and cran. “Someone has to. A Filipino has to.”

Summer Arts drew to its close all too soon, but Roxanne and I tried to find time between classes and performances to hang out. At the end, we hugged and made promised to see each other again, often and soon.

Meeting another Filipina writer with similar ambitions--to express the reality and values of the Filipino culture, opened my eyes in many ways. On the drive home to Sacramento, I wondered: How important is it for writers of color to support one another and belong to a community?

When I got home, I put in an order for Jessica Hagedorn’s “Dog Eaters.” Then I joined the Philippine American Writers & Artists (PAWA) organization. I also added myself to FLIPS, an email discussion list for Filipino writers, created by Vince Gotera, editor of the North American Review, the nation's oldest literary magazine.

After Summer Arts, I emailed pictures I'd taken throughout the experience to everyone in the class. I received many emails of thanks, but one stood out to me in particular, from Erin Alvarez, who wrote:

I was a little disappointed that we didn't connect as I had hoped. I don't know if it's the same at your school, but there aren't many women of color in the English department at Fresno State (thank God for Roxanne), so when I meet cool ones I try to hang on to them. We're all gonna need each other some day...

How right Erin was. We're all going to need each other.

Writing is a lonely occupation, and it’s easy for any writer to forget that there are others also, stumbling over sentences and deleting misplaced words. When a writer writes, in ways, she is always alone. But when she sets her pen down, or when her fingers pause over the keys, she must realize: to be any writer at all, she must be more than one writer—she must belong to a group of many.

Support your community of writers.
Attend readings, lectures and discussions.
Share your work.
Spread the word.
Write.

And when you do find other writers who, as Doug Rice says, "breathe the same way as you do," never let them go.

Pictures of Summer Arts writers who breathe like me: (Top) Roxanne Villaluz and Erin Alvarez, (Second) Martha Rodriguez, (Third) Me and Rox, (Bottom) Aschala Edwards and Kylee Cook.

John Updike At Crest Theatre: Tuesday, November 11

2008-11-05T10:51:00.000-08:00

The California Lecture Series Presents...

John Updike
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Crest Theatre | 7:30 p.m.

Pulitzer Prize | National Book Award | National Book Critics Circle Award

The Widows of Eastwick (October 2008), The Witches of Eastwick, Rabbit series

Widely recognized for his careful craftsmanship and prolific output, John Updike is the author of more than 50 books, including collections of short stories, poems, and criticism. Hundreds of his stories, reviews, and poems have appeared in The New Yorker since 1954. Updike is the recipient of the National Medal of Arts and his books have won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the American Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award, and the Howells Medal, among other honors. He is the father of four children and since 1957 has lived in Massachusetts.

-----Sadly, I won't be able to attend as I will be in class that night with Graham Greene.

Mine Künstlerroman: Writer In the Making

For Immediate Release: Walang Hiya Anthology Now Available

Call For Submissions: The Asian Writer

Call For Submissions: Tayo Magazine

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

“For our culture, by our culture.”

CALLING FOR SUBMISSIONS FOR OUR 2ND PRINT ISSUE & OUR ONLINE FEATURES

* We accept creative works including:Short fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, photography, paintings, drawings and digital artwork

*

All are encouraged to submit, regardless of ethnicity and age

* All materials submitted are considered for both our print magazine & our online features

* Submissions for our online content are reviewed on a rolling basis

* Deadline for print content is midnight, FRIDAY, JUNE 18, 2010

SUBMISSION POLICY

CSUS Festival Of The Arts: Carole Maso

A Conversation With Michelle Cruz Skinner: Tayo Reading March 5, Tribal Cafe

Steven Church Reading @ CSUS Bookstore: March 8

Jason Magabo Perez: Oh Angelita Garcia! in Tayo Literary Magazine

The Writers Thumb @ Tayo Literary Magazine.

Pai Gow Poker & Kare Kare

2010 Kundiman Asian American Poetry Retreat

7th annual Intergenerational Writers Lab

Call For Submissions: Lantern Review

Updates From TAYO Literary Magazine

Call For Submissions: Sakura Review - Feb. 28 Deadline

Maxine Hong Kingston Reading: January 27 at Stanford

Following The Greats: T. S. Eliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Collaboration: Writers Working Together

AGNI Online: Finding Inspiration

Coming Soon? Sacramento/Northern CA Chapter of The Editorial Freelancers Association

Am I ready For My Own Domain?

Digging Through The Dregs: Revisiting My Old Writing

Forthcoming in January 2010: Walang Hiya Anthology

November is National Novel Writing Month

Call For Submissions: Kartika Review

Peter Grandbois' Arsenic Lobster Release Party

Call For Submissions: {M}aganda Magazine Issue 23

Writing Hiatus: Post Graduation Slump

STOP MAKING SENSE!: Poetry Workshop with Luis Francia

Peter Grandbois's The Arsenic Lobster: A Hybrid Memoir - Release Party

Mary Mackey's "The Widow's War" Book Launch: Sept 3 at Time Tested Books

CSUS English Department Faculty & Staff Furlough

CSU Sacramento English Graduate Program: No Spring 2010 Applications

Calaveras Station Call For Submissions & Updated Website

TAYO Magazine Launch Party: August 22 in Los Angeles

Call for Submissions: Flatmancrooked Prize Great Fiscal Renewal Writing Contest

Just Write: Summer Writing Camp for Young Writers in Progress

Sylvanopolis Writing Society Presents Leafkin Anthology: 18 July at CSUS

Acceptance: TAYO Literary Magazine

Brad Buchanan Reading at Luna's Cafe: June 25th at 8pm

I'm Banking On My Writing: Opening A Writing Expense Account

How to Become a Freelance Writer: My Post Masters Degree Plan

Pens & Pencils: Writing Implements I Recommend

Earning My MA & Getting Hooded: CSUS Commencement at Arco Arena, 22 May 2009

CSU Sacramento English Department Graduation Celebration

2009 Bazzanella Literary Award Winners

Poets & Writers 2010 California Writers Exchange

House On Mango Meets Memory

My 500 Project Finale: Formatting & Fiasco

Calaveras Station Release Party Images

Calaveras Station Literary Journal Release Party: Friday, May 1

Am I Overeducated, Underqualified & Unemployable?

Call for Submissions: SJSU Literary Journal - Asian American Literature: Reading, Pedagogy, Practice

READING, PEDAGOGY, PRACTICE

Editor:

Noelle Brada-Williams, San José State University

Editorial Board:

Karen Chow, De Anza College

Wei Ming Dariotis, San Francisco State University

Eileen Fung, University of San Francisco

Rowena Tomaneng, De Anza College

CSUS English Department Graduation Celebration: Friday, May 15th

Word Dreaming: The Wheelmobile Visits Stockton

Dumble: My First Attempt At Flash Fiction

Acceptance: Graduation Imminent

Don't Write For Mom And Dad

Can I Get A Job Without An F In My MA?

Acceptance: Walang Hiya - Literature Taking Risks Toward Liberatory Practice

Creation Myth Revised - Another Draft of My Novel

CSUS Collective Reading Series - March 4, Wednesday 12 Noon

* We accept creative works including:
Short fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, photography, paintings, drawings and digital artwork