Sherry Chandler

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The Last Moonshiner. Any comments?

Shenandoah turns 60 and turns digital.:

Shenandoah will publish in its usual format in fall 2010. In spring 2011, there will be a limited-edition anthology of poems published in Shenandoah over the last 15 years. And then will come the biggest change of all. “For the foreseeable future,” said Smith, “that will be the last print issue of Shenandoah.”

Starting with the fall 2011 issue, it will be entirely online. A paid subscription will be a thing of the past. “It is perhaps inevitable when we look at what has happened to other literary journals,” said Smith. “Literary magazines per se are going to have to change their way of conceiving themselves and of reaching their audiences. And this is all tied up in the deep inquiry going on in our culture about the future of print. There is time to make that transition and be an innovator.”

The way the journal involves students in its work will be innovative as well. “The interns will not just observe and theorize about the actual editorial decisions, from design to contents to policies,” said Smith, “but they will also participate in the decisions, plus do things like screening submissions and blogging.”

See Death of a lit mag, and thanks to Edward Byrne for the news.

Texas Conservatives Win Curriculum Change

AUSTIN, Tex. — After three days of turbulent meetings, the Texas Board of Education on Friday approved a social studies curriculum that will put a conservative stamp on history and economics textbooks, stressing the superiority of American capitalism, questioning the Founding Fathers’ commitment to a purely secular government and presenting Republican political philosophies in a more positive light

. . .

Cynthia Dunbar, a lawyer from Richmond who is a strict constitutionalist and thinks the nation was founded on Christian beliefs, managed to cut Thomas Jefferson from a list of figures whose writings inspired revolutions in the late 18th century and 19th century, replacing him with St. Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin and William Blackstone. (Jefferson is not well liked among conservatives on the board because he coined the term “separation between church and state.”)

I’m not sure why Texas gets to hold our entire education system hostage but there it is.

On the other hand, the most Draconian version of Utah’s anti-abortion bill did not pass:

DENVER — A sweeping anti-abortion statute in Utah that would have allowed up to life in prison for a woman whose fetus died from her intentional or reckless behavior was withdrawn by its sponsor on Thursday and will be revised to be narrower in scope.

. . .

The sponsor, Representative Carl D. Wimmer, a Republican, said he had removed a key clause that would have allowed prosecution under Utah’s criminal homicide laws for a “reckless act of the woman” that resulted in death to a fetus. Language will remain, he said, that makes a woman’s “intentional” actions, if resulting in the death of her fetus in an illegal abortion, a felony.

The bill was prompted by a case last year in which a 17-year-old who was seven months pregnant sought to induce a miscarriage by paying a man to beat her. She was arrested, but released by a judge who said seeking an abortion was not a crime.

Legal abortions, performed by a doctor, would not be affected by the old bill or its replacement. But Utah has statutes on the books intended to discourage abortions, including a parental consent requirement for minors.

My bleeding heart instincts say that any 17-year-old as desperate as all that should be treated with great compassion and not exploited as a poster-child for turning women into criminals.

Meanwhile, there’s this from Amnesty International. I would somehow feel more sympathetic toward the anti-abortion idealogues if I thought there was any real compassion involved. But I see little evidence of it.

Amnesty International’s report Deadly Delivery: The Maternal Health Care Crisis in the USA, urges action to tackle a crisis that sees between two and three women die every day during pregnancy and childbirth in the USA.

A total of 1.7 million women a year, one-third of all pregnant women in the country, suffer from pregnancy-related complications.

The report also revealed that severe pregnancy-related complications that nearly cause death — known as “near misses” — are rising at an alarming rate, increasing by 25 percent since 1998.

Minorities, those living in poverty, Native American and immigrant women and those who speak little or no English are particularly affected.

“This country’s extraordinary record of medical advancement makes its haphazard approach to maternal care all the more scandalous and disgraceful,” said Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International USA.

, , ,

“Mothers die not because the United States can’t provide good care, but because it lacks the political will to make sure good care is available to all women,” said Larry Cox.

Amnesty International’s analysis also shows a health care reform proposal before the US Congress does not address the crisis of maternal health care.

And then there’s this, an antidote to Oscar hype (though I’m pleased about Jeff Bridges):

Appreciation

A friend has drawn my attention to Poets’ Quarterly, and I in turn would like to point you in that direction. This recently launched online publication features interviews and reviews of books and chapbooks. From their “about” page:

Poets’ Quarterly publishes in-depth reviews of poetry books and chapbooks, recognizing new works from both emerging and established poets. The interview series aims to showcase the overall scope of work poets contribute to their society. Through these avenues, Poets’ Quarterly aims to emphasize the importance of poetic contributions to the literary community – and the community-at-large – and to recognize both the diversities and commonalities expressed through this art form.

And from their guidelines page:

Also, please note, Poets’ Quarterly has no interest in overtly negative reviews. If you don’t care for a book, there’s no obligation to submit a review for it. There are far too many quality books deserving of our readers’ attention; while we offer critical analyses and ask questions, Poets’ Quarterly prefers to only cover books we want our readers to seek out. There simply isn’t enough time or space to cover anything less than a recommended book/poet.

The current issue contains reviews by poets whose work I know, including Katerina Stoykova-Klemer, Ann Fisher-Wirth, Penelope Scambly Schott, Patricia Smith, and Scott Owens. And some familiar names also show up on the contributors’ list. So I think it’s well worth a look.

My friend sent me the link because she knows I write reviews and she thought it might be a good venue for me. And so it might. I certainly like their philosophy.

I have published reviews in magazines in the past (and you can find links to them in the nav bar above the header), but I’ve backed off the practice of sending reviews out. I experienced several frustrations with getting reviews published. For one thing, a number of publications limit reviews to about 500 words, and that’s constraining. And then we all know that response times are slow and most authors would like reviews of their new books to be timely. I would like that, provided I ever have a new book to be reviewed.

But the thing that really stopped me was my experience with Rain Taxi. I admire Rain Taxi and for a while I harbored an ambition to be one of their stable of reviewers. I submitted to them several times and I found them to be responsive and even receptive to my work.

But there was always a catch, and most often the catch was conflict of interest. My relationship to the poet I was reviewing was too close. My objectivity was questionable.

I admire this integrity, and thinking about it, I had to admit that the editors at Rain Taxi are right. For the most part, I don’t write objective reviews. I write appreciations of work I’ve sought out, either because I know the poet or share a publisher or a discussion list with the poet.

Like the editors at Poets’ Quarterly, I see no reason to be negative about work. I try to understand what the poet is doing and talk about where I think s/he has succeeded. In some venues, this would be looked upon as a sort of extended blurbing but it’s the way I operate.

For one thing, I’m not confident of my scholarship or my taste that I would want to go negative on somebody’s work. And for another, I know how much hard work goes into writing a book of poetry and how little reward there is in it.

And anyway, I promised myself a long time ago, when I started to put myself out in the world as a poet, that I would always practice generosity.

So I put my reviews on my blog where I can say what I want at whatever length I want and if there’s conflict of interest, well it’s my blog. That’s all about every Joe Schmoe or Jane Doe mouthing off about things they don’t really understand, right?

But go read Poets’ Quarterly.

On matters of varying importance

I don’t know about the groundhogs but the raccoons around here are certainly seeing their shadows. Here are a couple of shots TR got of the daylight raid on the supplementary sunflower seed feeders. The birds are many at the feeders this year.

Some people call this Candlemas Day and Your Daily Poem has posted “A Song for Candlemas” by Lizette Woodworth Reese (1856 – 1935)

Issue 2 of Still is up and it includes literature by some of my favorite writers. I draw your attention especially to Matthew Haughton, Bobbi Buchanan, and Elaine Fowler Palencia. Let me tell you that Elaine is one of the masters of the short story. Her collection, Small Caucasian Woman, remains one of the best examples of Appalachian literature and of the American short story. Matthew is circulating a fine poetry manuscript. And Bobbi edits New Southerner.

I want also to share with you this video add for Darlene Campbell’s new fantasy novel, Dragon’s Heir. The artwork in this video is Darlene’s own and I am thoroughly charmed by the notion of using YouTube to do a form of cover blurb. Darlene is also a fine poet who posts at Raven’s Shadowl

And just as a follow up, the other day I did a search on Melverina Elverina Peppercorn and found, in addition to my own post, not much except this musing on names at Vast Public Indifference, where I find that there was more than one man in the 19^th century south named Alexander The Great.

Oh, and Fringe Magazine has an interesting interview with the founder of Bookslut, Jessa Crispin: The Accidental Tastemaker

Announcements

Isn’t that a sterling blog post title?

I was thinking the other morning that, if I got to start over again with this blog, that I would just have numbered the posts. I would now be up to 3,239.

Oh well. Some things.

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Following Lance Mannion, here are some ways to help Haiti.

Doctors Without Borders
American Red Cross

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Mick Kennedy has asked us to remind everybody that they still have three days to get their submission in for The Heartland Review’s 2010 Joy Bale Boone Prize. January 16 is a postmark deadline. Guidelines at the link. Leatha Kendrick is the judge this year.

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The Review has also put out a call for art.

The Heartland Review and Morrison Gallery at Elizabethtown Community and Technical College invite submissions of artwork for a juried exhibition. The theme for the 2010 show is inspired by the idea of “organic setting.” Over the last hundred years artists have continually turned to organic design as a response to the growing ubiquity of mass-produced, machine-made and computer-generated designs. For some, organic is an attempt to reevaluate what it means to be “modern. “ We welcome works of art of every media type and style that address the topic of organic, organic design or organic setting through one or more of the following themes:

• Nature
• Natural Materials
• The Body
• Responses to Modernity
• Identity
• Environmentalism
• Urbanism

The Heartland Review asks for a $10 contribution for up to six entries to support the journal and the contest/show. Artists may submit up to six pieces; however, all artwork must have been created in the last six months prior to submission. The deadline for submissions is 1 February 2010. Finalists will be selected by a committee composed of two professional artists, two Morrison Gallery representatives, and one representative from The Heartland Review.

The artwork of these finalists will be displayed in the Morrison Gallery at Elizabethtown Community and Technical College and be published in the 2010 spring/fall issues of The Heartland Review. The artwork which best depicts an “organic setting” will be awarded the 2010 spring issue’s cover and a $250 cash prize. The gallery exhibit will run from 5 April – 14 May 2010, with a reception to be held on Thursday, 15 April.

Interested individuals should submit:

• A digital image of their work to be considered (no larger than 300 dpi resolution)
• Full identification of the work (artist name, phone number, title, medium, dimension, and value)
• A short artist statement, no longer than one page in length
• $10 contribution, with checks made payable to “The Heartland Review”

Send submissions or questions via email to: Mick.Kennedy@KCTCS.edu or creynolds0077@kctcs.edu; please include “Heartland Art” in the email subject heading.

$10 contribution should be mailed to:

THR Art Exhibit, c/o Mick Kennedy
Elizabethtown Community and Technical College
600 College Street Road
Elizabethtown, KY 42701

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Speaking of Leatha Kendrick, don’t miss the opportunity to read her List Poem at the Public Republic.

Also new at the Public Republic, Katerina Stoykova-Klemer’s interview of Sheri Wright, “Poetry was a voice I didn’t know I had”.

Tilt-a-Whirl

“Another one goes away before i had even heard of it,” says Jessie.

Which gives me a perfect cue to point you all toward Tilt-a-Whirl, a new “poetry sporadical” for repeating forms from editor and publish Kate Bernadette Benedict.

Says Kate:

The Bronx, my home town, is famous—or infamous—for many things: its slum areas (which are greatly improved since Paul Newman fended off thugs in “Fort Apache” in 1981), its expressways, The Yankees, the Zoo—none of which epitomize my experience of the place. Growing up, I lived on a leafy street of modest homes with swing sets and barbecues in their backyards. Just three blocks from my house was a little amusement park called Funland and there I first experienced that iconic American ride called the Tilt-a-Whirl.

. . .

Surely some of the most thrilling types of poems are those written in repeating forms. Poems which rely on the repetition of words or lines have a rhythm not unlike that of a Tilt-a-Whirl ride; they have a slithery quality and keep coming around and coming around. When written well, there is a strangeness in the sameness. Each repetend provides a different slant and tingles anew. These poems possess a momentum of within-ness. Many such poems begin as they end; the reader has been taken for a ride, ended in the same place, and yet been changed by the experience. These poems take your breath away!

Welcome to Tilt-a-Whirl, an exhilarating compendium of poetry written in repeating forms.

Check out the first issue to see whereof she speaks. Not just good poems but a very attractive website, very readable, lots of nice graphics (which I like because I have a short attention span reading at the computer).

Guidelines here.

Cheatsheet of repeating forms here.

Kestrel

I’m pleased to say that I have three poems in the Fall 2009 issue of Kestrel.

The issue has fiction from Anne Stewart, Ry Collins, Dixon Hearne, and Stephaine Manuzak, ten pages of amazing black and white figure drawings from Derek Overfield, and poetry from Robert Dana, Richard Dinges, Jr., Michael Dowdy, John Grey, Sally Rosen Kindred, Joanne Lowery, Rebecca Leah Papucaru, T. E. Piekarski, Vincent Przybyla, Todd Robinson, Sheryl St. Germain, Lisa Samuels, Theresa D. Smith, Amy Watkins, and Lesley Wheeler. Also a translation of Pierre-Albert Jourdan’s “Les Sandales des pailles” by John Taylor.

In the introduction, poetry editor Elizabeth Savage says:

The assembly of Kestrel 23 has made me laugh and launched me into orbit many times throught the past few months. . . .The abundance and diversity of Kestrel 23, we editors hope and expect, will be both a garden and a boost while our literal gardens fade and go under as autumn moves toward winter. This issue will launch you into orbit, not to escape (although there is always much worth escaping) but to travel your lives through a different circuil of thoughts and emotions.

Winter is here full force now, but I’m still finding much to delight in this issue.

They are accepting submissions for the spring issue through the end of this month. The theme is “border states,” in both the literal sense of states bordering West Virginia and whatever figurative sense you can find in the concept.

It’s a lovely publication, perfect bound, printed on slick paper, with well-crafted contents. You’d be as proud as I am to have your work accepted there.

No more Free Lunch

As I mentioned, I have been in the zone, writing on a project. And because of my preoccupation, I have neglected to mention a sad event.

When I opened my latest issue of Free Lunch, number 42, I found tucked inside a note that reads

The Board of Directors of Free Lunch Arts Alliance regrets to inform you that Number 42 of Free Lunch will be its final issue. Ron Offen, the editor and founder of Free Lunch, has health issues that prevent him from continuing the magazine.

Ron Offen was one of the first magazine editors to publish my work. He took my poem “Sometimes She Forgets What She Wants” back in 2001, and I’ve been getting my Free Lunch ever since.

Sometimes I would send a contribution at the end of the year and sometimes I would mean to and forget. Whichever way it was, I always got my copy. Free Lunch was free to serious poets and I was bona fide.

I enjoyed reading Offen’s editorials, though I didn’t always agree with them, and I always found good poems in the magazine.

That’s true of this last issue that has memorable poems by Louis McKee, Gilbert Allen, A. D. Winans, and 32 pages of others.

Now there’s no more Free Lunch. I’ll lmiss it.