Sherry Chandler

Mick Kennedy is reminding us that The Heartland Review is seeking submissions for their winter number and for their 2006 Short-short Fiction contest (1,000 words or less).

(Brooks Carver, who sometimes channels The Little Tramp, placed in last year’s fiction contest with his story “Under a Wild Full Moon,” which can be found in his collection Pilgrim Heart.)

Deadline for all submissions is September 1.

Contest guidelines here.

General guidelines here.

P.S. They’re also looking for art work. And check out their spiffy new web page, designed by Laurie MacKellar.

From this morning’s NYTimes—Bush Said to Be Frustrated by Level of Public Support in Iraq:

“I sensed a frustration with the lack of progress on the bigger picture of Iraq generally — that we continue to lose a lot of lives, it continues to sap our budget,” said one person who attended the meeting. “The president wants the people in Iraq to get more on board to bring success.”

…

More generally, the participants said, the president expressed frustration that Iraqis had not come to appreciate the sacrifices the United States had made in Iraq…

Participants said Mr. Bush appeared serious and engaged during the lunch, which lasted more than 90 minutes, as the experts went through a lengthy discussion of the political, ethnic, religious and security challenges in Iraq.

An e-mail from Joan Slavin:

We are a not for profit theatre company , looking for memoirs, stories, poems and monologues about Irish and Irish American women that will be compiled and workshopped into a play that will premiere this March in New York City.

Our focus is to give voice to and explore the issues that Irish and Irish American women faced in the past and in the present day. All submissions are welcome!! Send your work to irishproject2006@yahoo.com. Deadline for submissions is September 1, 2006. If we decide to use your work in our theatre piece, we will contact you about working with us on the project. To learn more about our theatre company, go to www.turtleshellproductions.com.

If you would just like to share some ideas you have about Ireland and women and write us your thoughts about this subject, feel free to do that! What you send can just be rambling thoughts….we just want to hear what you have to say! Here are some questions that might help stimulate some thoughts:

1. Where do we belong and who are we now as Irish/Irish-American women?
2. What does Ireland and being Irish mean to you?
3. What do you think of the changes in Ireland today? Are they for the best? How do they change the role of women in the country? Do you mourn the loss of the “old country” that is now becoming the “Celtic Tiger”?
4. Do you feel at home in Ireland? Do you own property there? If you are American, do you have any stories about your visits to Ireland ?
5. If Irish American, when did your family come to the U.S. Do you have any stories of the Irish women in your family and their life in America?
6. If Irish, do you have any stories about women in your family and their life in Ireland?
7. How do you feel about the issues that are important to Irish women now….changes in family life, equal rights, women and the church, the “troubles” in the North, divorce, abortion, gay rights? Do you have any stories about Irish women or Irish American women and these issues?