Thursday, March 29, 2007

Billy Collins Poetry in Motion

We (a Miranda Magazine) have been kicking around the idea of video readings and creating videos that merge the reading with a visual experience. In our exploration we came across some of Billy Collins work. Great stuff. Google search Billy Collins in the video section. You will find some good ones.




This one is hilarious!

Peter Johnson--Times and Locations

Monday, April 2: Peter Johnson Prose Poetry Workshop, 7 pm, Student Center 228

Tuesday, April 3: Peter Johnson Reading, 7 pm, Alumni Hall

A Message from Dean Durnin About Graduation

March 20, 2007

Dear Graduate Student,

I am pleased to announce that for the first time, graduate students at Western Connecticut State University will be honored at a separate commencement ceremony. Graduate students and faculty members have requested an event where they may celebrate their achievements with family and friends. If you are eligible for January, May or August 2007 graduation, I invite you to participate in this special event. The ceremony will be held at 7:00 PM on Friday, May 18, 2007 in Ives Concert Hall, in White Hall on the Midtown campus.

The commencement program will celebrate your accomplishments, and the focus of the ceremony will be on the contributions you have made to the university and continue to make to the larger community. WestConn President James W. Schmotter will be our keynote speaker; the committee has chosen him for his commitment to the diverse academic community and to the range of quality academic programs at WestConn.

Music will be provided by WestConn’s Faculty Brass Quintet and a reception will be held after the ceremony in Warner Hall. Graduates will be hooded by their graduate faculty coordinators when they walk across the stage, adding another personal touch to the ceremony.

If you are eligible for graduation and have not applied to do so, you must contact the Division of Graduate Studies office immediately. You may call 203 837-8244 to request a form; visit our website at www.wcsu.edu/graduate to download the form and fax it to the Graduate Studies office (fax: 203 837-8326); or visit the office in person in Old Main 206. Refer to the university’s commencement website (www.wcsu.edu/commencement) for additional information.

I look forward to celebrating the university’s first graduate commencement with our students, faculty and staff.

Sincerely,


Ellen D. Durnin, Ph.D.

Job at AWP

George Mason University
AWP Associate Editor

National nonprofit organization serving literary writers seeks Associate
Editor. Duties include copyediting, graphic design and layout, and
management of advertising sales. Applicant must be familiar with design
software (Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign). Demonstrated working
knowledge of desktop publishing required. Strong copy-editing skills a
must. BA in English or related field or equivalent required, MFA
preferred. Collegial work atmosphere, great benefits. Salary from
$25,750-$35,000. Submit resumes online through http://jobs.gmu.edu. For
more information on AWP visit www.awpwriter.org. AA/EOE.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Another Blog for MFAers

I'm not sure if anyone has seen this. There is a blog called After the MFA . I stumbled upon it this morning perusing through the Six Apart website (company who does Typepad, etc.) I only had a few minutes to spend, but looks like postings from other writers.

Check it out!
Anne

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Props to MFA-ers!

Congratulations to Lisa Smith-Overton, whose story "The Travels of Mary Magdalene" won the CSU Fiction Award and appears in the new (Spring 2007) issue of CT Review. Poet Lisa Siedlarz, whose poem "I Dream My Brother Plays Baseball" won the Leo Connellan Poetry Prize and also appears in the issue, will be entering the MFA program in the fall. Work by current and past MFA faculty members Jim Scrimgeour and Tom Hazuka also appears in the issue.

Events on Campus--Peter Johnson and Elisabeth Frost

Thursday, March 29, 3:30 in Warner Lobby: poet and critic Elisabeth Frost will talk about "Innovative Women Poets," which is the title of her important new anthology from University of Iowa Press. Dr. Frost will speak about "the problems of anthologizing women's poetry and the need for such a book in the current publishing/academic climate," about the work of a few poets in the anthology, about her use of the term "innovative" and "what hope that might convey about feminism and poetry."

Monday, April 2, (evening time and location TBD) prose poetry/flash fiction workshop with poet, novelist, and editor Peter Johnson. All students are encouraged to attend and to bring work. More details forthcoming.

Tuesday, April 3, 7:00 (location TBD), reading by Peter Johnson

Monday, March 26, 2007

Blogging It Gets You "Ink"

Hello everyone. I hope your semester is going well.

One of my "blogging mentors" had suggested that I research blogs about work/life balance and start making postings to drive traffic to my own blogsite The Eclectic Writer and get more exposure. I decided to give it a go – and in about ten minutes wrote up a response for the Time magazine's Work in Progress blog by Lisa Cullen. I based my response on a workshop I was going to deliver over the weekend at the Women in Business Passing the Baton conference. My workshop was about taking the stress out of work/life balance.

Well, I received a very nice note back from Lisa the next day saying that what I wrote was so nice, she wanted my permission to post it in its entirety. So if you check out the link by clicking on Work in Progress and scroll to the bottom response, it’s mine – complete with a link to my blog when you click on my name!

The whole world of blogging is truly fascinating. It's starting to get a lot of attention -- Dave Barry has even taken time away from his column to spend more time on his blog. My "mentor" is encouraging me to try My Space. Not quite ready for that leap but I'm figuring it out!

Hope to see some of you at a reading soon!

Anne

Friday, March 23, 2007

Crazyhorse

Something I thought someone might be interested in. I would LOVE to do this!

We wanted to make sure and let you know about an exciting opportunity for writers that Crazyhorse is undertaking with Tupelo Press. In June of 2007, we will inaugurate the First Annual Crazyhorse/Tupelo PressPublishing Institute, an institute founded to meet the needs of writers by providing training in the theory and practice of literary publishingand editing in order to prepare them for successful careers aspublishers and editors.

The institute offers you the chance to earn six hours of graduate credit while working closely with Crazyhorse Editors Carol Ann Davisand Garrett Doherty and Tupelo Press Publisher and Editor-in-ChiefJeffrey Levine. The institute will combine an intensive, four-week course that chronicles the choosing of the winner in the annual TupeloPress First Book Prize (now judged collaboratively by Crazyhorseeditors and Tupelo Press editors) with opportunities to intern at Crazyhorse. The institute will run from June 4 - June 30. We hope you'll visit thewebsite at http://crazyhorse.cofc.edu/pubinstitute and/or email CarolAnn Davis at davisca@cofc.edu for more information.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Miranda Gears Up for the Spring Issue

March 20, 2007
We are looking forward to presenting some great fiction, poetry, essays, and visuals to you in the next issue. Spring is coming and we are gearing up for it.

Video Art Books
In the spring issue we will continue to bring the literary quality that you've come to expect from Miranda Literary Magazine, but you will also find some nice surprises. We have added a "Video Art Book" project to our visual arts section. These unique art books are turned into video productions, scored by professional musicians, to share this one-of-a-kind book. Ice Flows is up now for your viewing and in the spring we will add another unique video art book to add to the entire experience. This is a new way of sharing art books and altered books, and we are pleased to deliver this multimedia content.

Maria McKee
In the works is an interview with singer and songwriter Maria McKee. She was a founding member of the country rock band Lone Justice. She released her first self-titled solo album in 1989. As a prolific writer and performer, she continues today with more than seven albums and collections of music. Her song "Show Me Heaven", which appeared on the soundtrack to the film Days of Thunder, was a number one single in the United Kingdom for four weeks in 1990. Later, her eerie, country-tinged single, "If Love Is a Red Dress (Hang Me in Rags)" was released on the soundtrack of Pulp Fiction.(1994). In April, she will release her newest offering titled Late December, and we look forward to presenting her interview and the release of this album.

Anthology
We are working on the pre-production for our first anthology. It is a significant endeavour and we hope that you are patience with us. We were hoping for a release that would coincide with the spring issue, but it seems that it might be pushed back a bit.

Lastly, we are have acquired our ISSN number which I had forgotten about until it came in the mail, so we are listed in the Library of Congress. It is our goals this year to offer advertising and begin making money that will be placed right back into our anthology project, Internet expenses, awards (down the road), and advertising. We have an outline of ad rates and hope to begin attracting advertisers. We would also like to represent the magazine at conferences like Recharging the Sensorium in Connecticut in April and perhaps make our mark if I go to the Juniper Writing Workshop Umass/Amherst. It also important to expand the magazine. I think we need to offer something more than a print magazine, with sound, video, interactive experiences, mingled with the traditional foundation that we have established. I hope you are as excited as I am about this coming year.

Sincerely,
Ron Samul
Publisher / Miranda Literary Magazine





Tuesday, March 20, 2007

National Writers Workshop, Hartford, CT, April 14-15, 2007

National Writers Workshop – April 14 & 15, 2007
Hartford, CT

This may be of interest to those in the New England region. Tonia and I attended last year’s conference. While the weekend is sponsored by the Hartford Courant (and many attendees’ name tags indicated journal/newspaper affiliations), the speakers and topics were diverse. This year’s lineup includes David Baldacci as a keynote speaker, as well as many novelists, journalists, memoir and nonfiction writers, etc.

I see that Rita Rosenkrancz will be a speaker (she was one of the agents at our August 2006 residency, and will speak on a similar topic at the CAPA day in May.)

From the NWW Website: http://www.courant.com/nww

”Our 13th Annual National Writers Workshop once again offers the nation's best opportunity to refine, expand and redirect your writing skills, creative thinking and techniques. Learn from some of the country's finest reporters, novelists, poets, teachers, editors and others who have dedicated their lives to the art of writing. With our distinguished faculty of award-winning professionals, this conference is widely recognized as one of the very best of its kind. Join us.

FICTION...OPINION WRITING... MEMOIRS... WRITING HUMOR… ..POLITICS... BLOGGING... POETRY... SHORT STORY WRITING... GETTING A BOOK PUBLISHED... FREELANCE TIPS... RESEARCH... NARRATIVE JOURNALISM... MUCH, MUCH MORE”

I enjoyed the speakers, and the student price kept the cost reasonable. I see they’ve changed locations – the problem last year was that the weather was cold and rainy and the ‘main tent’ was literally that – a massive, unheated tent. Perhaps the Hilton has a large enough conference room to handle the keynote audience… What I liked was that the conference allowed contact with other writers and approachable speakers, and its timing gave me a creative boost at the home stretch of the spring semester.

Holly

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Paid Summer Internships at Taunton Press

Taunton Press in Newtown is looking for several summer interns. The hourlyrate is $12, and the internships typically last 8 to 12 weeks.

EDITORIAL INTERN -- Fine Homebuilding magazineLeading publisher seeks a motivated intern to work at our Fine Homebuildingmagazine. The magazine editorial intern will report to an executive editor and experience thefull scope of magazine and web editorial work by attending all staff meetings and byshadowing several staff editors. There will be an opportunity to travel to a photo shoot onlocation with an editor. The intern will take considerable responsibility for researching articleson behalf of the staff editors and for developing editing, and /or preparing one or moredepartments for publication. There may be an opportunity to develop a short feature forpublication. Some instruction in editing and in editorial photographer will be provided.Candidates should be a college junior/senior with an interest in magazine and web publishing.Experience and/or coursework in English, journalism, or web publishing preferred. Passion forand hands-on experience in homebuilding a huge plus. Local residents preferred.

EDITORIAL INTERN -- Fine Woodworking magazineWe are looking for a motivated intern to work at Fine Woodworking magazineand help support our Web site FineWoodworking.com. This multimedia editorial intern willreport to a managing editor and experience the full scope of editorial work—both print andelectronic—by attending all staff meetings and by shadowing several staff editors. There willbe an opportunity to travel to a photo shoot on location with an editor. The intern will takeconsiderable responsibility for researching articles and Web projects on behalf of the staffeditors and for developing, editing, and/or preparing one or more departments for publication.There may be an opportunity to develop a short feature for publication. Some instruction inediting and in editorial photography will be provided. Candidates should be a collegejunior/senior with an interest in magazine or Internet publishing. Experience and/orcoursework in English, journalism, Web site publishing or related field preferred. Passion forand hands-on experience in woodworking a huge plus. Local residents preferred.

EDITORIAL INTERN -- Threads and Sew Stylish magazinesWe are looking for a motivated intern to work at our Threads and Sew Stylishmagazines. The magazine editorial intern will report to the editor-in-chief and experience thefull scope of magazine/web editorial work by attending all staff meetings and by shadowingseveral staff editors. The intern will take considerable responsibility for researching articles onbehalf of the staff editors and for developing, editing, and/or preparing articles for publicationboth for the magazine and the web. There may also be an opportunity to travel to a photoshoot on location with an editor. Some instruction in editing and in editorial photography willbe provided. Candidates should be a college junior/senior with an interest in magazinepublishing. Experience and/or coursework in English, journalism, or related field preferred.Passion for sewing and fashion design a huge plus.

HOW TO APPLYSubmit a cover letter and resume to tauntonjobs@taunton.com. http://www.taunton.com/

To read about Allan Farbman's experience interning at Taunton, see
WestConn MFA in Professional Writing: Covering Taunton's back...

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

I'm a Goofy Goober

Introducing my newest brainchild, my podcast. Thanks to Fletch for planting the idea in my head. It always amazes me when something grows up there.

You can find it on iTunes or Podcastalley.com and browse for my name or you can go hear for a listen:

http://pandoracasemysteries.com


Mark Fitch, you've heard this before in Binghamton. This story is read in exactly the same way.


Lisa S-O

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Thesis/Graduation Reminder

IMPORTANT THESIS NEWS:

The deadline for the completed thesis submission is May 1. The completed submission must be received in the MFA office not later than that date. Don't trust WestConn mail! Send it early!

GRADUATION:If you are a fourth-semester student and you have not yet submitted your Application for Graduation to the Office of Graduate Studies, please do it immediately!