Lit Med Database

Literature, Arts, and Medicine
This site, sposored by NYU, is a resource I keep coming across in my research. Time and again, when working on analysis of literature, this site pops up, and I have found it immensely helpful in guiding some of my work. Specifically, "The Literature, Arts, & Medicine Database is an annotated multimedia listing of prose, poetry, film, video and art that was developed to be a dynamic, accessible, comprehensive resource for teaching and research in MEDICAL HUMANITIES, and for use in health/pre-health, graduate and undergraduate liberal arts and social science settings."

Fine for med students, as a lit student/teacher, this site works great for me! Each entry specifies genre (including medium for art), keywords (which help direct analysis from a medical perspective and are linked to others with the same theme), summary and commentary. Bibliographic information is also provided.

Lit Mag Start-up Advice

From blogger Noel P. Mariano of The Acadmic Masochist: I went to school for this?

So you want to start your own magazine?

I had been kicking around the idea of starting up my own online literary journal. One of the graduates of the masters program that I'm in had started one up and it's become very successful garnering some nominations for the Pushcart as well as other awards including Best of the Web.

I sat [and] talked to him about some of the advice and some of the things he considered when starting and here's what Niel had to say...

Read the blog post on The Academic Masochist.

Holocaust Memoirs Wanted

Appeal for Previously Unpublished or Unavailable Memoirs by Survivors of the Shoah
Worldwide Shoah Memoirs Collection

The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) has launched a worldwide appeal to Jewish survivors of the Holocaust and their families to submit previously unpublished or unavailable memoirs to a worldwide electronic collection.

This collection is being established in cooperation with Yad Vashem, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Mémorial de la Shoah/Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine, the Jewish Historical Institute, the Holocaust Survivors' Memoirs Project, and many other Holocaust organizations in countries around the world.

Duffer Sighting :: Chicago Lit Examiner

Long-time supporter of and intermittent review writer for NewPages (when he's not doing a hundred other things!), Rob Duffer has embarked on a new endeavor: "I'm the Chicago Literary Scene Examiner."

Rob explains:

Examiner is a community news source with 'examiners' giving the low-down on a specific scene. Examiner has expanded into 60 cities with over 6 million users. Dave Clapper, founder and editor of SmokeLong Quarterly, is the Seattle Lit Examiner. Its Chicago market is only two months old. It's new, I'm newer, and I'm trying to get people involved.

My intention is to make the site a comprehensive resource of everything literary going on in and around Chicago. Promoting events; featuring authors, editors, agents, lit journals, presses, reading series; interviewing literary folk; reporting lit news; suggesting writing prompts or playing local lit trivia—pretty much anything to do with the written word in Chicago.

So what can you get out of it? Exposure. Promotion. Tapping into a growing network of sometimes disparate literary groups. One place to get reliable literary news in Chicago and nationwide.

The first author to be featured on Examiner will be Stephanie Kuehnert.

Send me your news, put me on your newsletter, add me to your RSS feed, forward this message to anyone who wants another venue to promote their writing. Check out the site. Email me at duffer@robertduffer.com

VOTE TODAY! 2008 Million Writers Award

Today is the last day to cast your vote in the storySouth 2008 Million Writers Award. The top tens stories have been selected, and reader votes will determine the #1 online story of the year!

Top Ten Stories of 2007:

"Do Not Hate Them Very Much" by Matthew M. Quick (Agni)
"Friday Afternoons on Bus 51" by Sruthi Thekkiam (Blackbird)
"Postcards from my Brother" by Paul Yoon (Memorious)
"We Never Talk About My Brother" by Peter S. Beagle (Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show)
"The Ethical Dilemma of a Sandwich Down the Pants" by Kelly Shriver (Pindeldyboz)
"The Hide" by Liz Williams (Strange Horizons)
"Alex Trebek Never Eats Fried Chicken" by Matt Bell (Storyglossia)
"Grinder" by X.J. Kennedy (StoryQuarterly) Note: free registration required to read this story.
"The Surgeon's Tale" by Cat Rambo and Jeff VanderMeer (Subterranean)
"News About Yourself" by Scott Wolven (Thuglit)

Submissions Page Updated July 17

Heads up for blog readers - a day's advance notice! Visit the NewPages Calls for Submissions page for new listings. Sponsor listings are at the top of the page; scroll down to see all others. Expired listings removed regularly. For listing consideration, please e-mail information and/or website link to: denisehill@newpages.com

Cadillac Cicatrix California Fire Response

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, July 17, 2008

Dear Friends …

I write to you with an update on the third issue of Cadillac Cicatrix and with news about our recent evacuation due to the encroachment of wildfires upon our office.

As some of you know, the recent spread of California wildfires has been difficult and exhausting for many communities and fire fighters. Our office has been threatened for the past two months by not only one fire but now a second, more serious fire.

On Saturday, July 12, we were persuasively evacuated from our offices because The Basin Complex Fire had come within potential striking distance of the community where we are located. The Basin Complex is the same fire that threatened Big Sur two weeks ago and has since moved northeast toward Carmel Valley through the Ventana Wilderness.

The fire is currently less than a comfortable distance from the Cadillac Cicatrix office and moving ever closer.

This being said, we are optimistic about the outcome, and we are attempting to move forward with our project (now from a satellite location) but it has been difficult – we are in a state of resolute plodding. Our intentions are to continue as we have for the past two years, but many of our files are currently in a tenuous location and it is uncertain when we might be able to access them.

Depending on the weather, the ability of thousands of fire fighters, as well as military and federal authorities, we could be back in our offices within a few weeks. If the worst does come to pass … well, I'd rather not think about it.

In the spirit of good communication, we only wish to inform you of our current situation and that the release of our third issue (in print any way) has been somewhat delayed.

The entire content of the issue – a focus on ADAPTATION – is available free online at www.CadillacCicatrix.org. We invite you to enjoy the very many talented writers and artists who have contributed to this issue, released July 1.

I look forward to sending you a more positive update soon and thank you for your continued support of our project.

Sincerely,

Benjamin Spencer
Executive Editor

CADILLACCICATRIX
www.CadillacCicatrix.org
21800 Parrot Ranch Road
Carmel Valley, CA 93924
northernpros@gmail.com

Mag Mailbag July 17

After a couple weeks of "host issues," I am finally able to update the site!

Stop by NewPages Magazine Stand to find publisher descriptions and cover art from our sponsor magazines, and a list of all new issues of other literary magazines received here at NewPages World Headquarters.

Trying something new once again, this page will combine print and online lit mags.

The alternative magazines page has also been recently updated, but as we aren't getting a lot of these coming through NPWHQ, and visitor traffic to this page is discouraging low, this may be the last time this page is updated. (Unless there's some huge public outcry opposed to its elimination...)

If you'd like to be listed, as well as considered for review, be sure we get a copy of your publication (see our FAQ page for more information). For online lit mags, you only need to e-mail notification of when you have a new issue posted online: denisehill-at-newpages.com

NewPages Update :: New Listings

More great finds added to the NewPages ranks. Welcome aboard - give 'em a click!

When viewing our guides, if you know of any links (mags, publishers, bookstores, record labels, etc.) you would like us to consider, please write to me: denisehill-at-newpages.com and send me a link.

New Online Lit Mags Listed
Parlor Journal
Shelf Life
CellA's Round Trip
Road Runner Haiku Journal
Pregnant Moon Poetry Review

New Print Lit Mags Listed
Low Rent
Two Review
Packingtown Review
Oval
Illuminations
Ocho
MiPOesias

New Online Alt Mags Listed
Is Greater Than

New Print Alt Mags Listed
Penguin Eggs
Ode Magazine
Good Magazine
Alternatives
Whole Terrain
Our Truths/Neustras Verdades
Social Policy
The Last Straw
Permaculture Activist

New Publishers Listed
Green Candy Press
Firebrand Books

PEN Amercian Prison Writing Awards

Every year, the PEN Prison Writing Program recognizes the work of writers imprisoned throughout the country. Exiled from our schools and society, inmates submit manuscripts in every form to one of the only forums of public expression for incarcerated writers. Presented on the PEN American website are uncensored writings (poetry, fiction, essay, memoir, drama) from this year's Prison Writing Contest winners, as well as one-on-one interviews with some of the most hidden voices in America.

NewPages Update :: New Lit Mag Reviews

Visit NewPages Literary Magazine Reviews to read thoughtful commentaries on the following print publications - Alaska Quarterly Review :: Beeswax :: Briar Cliff Review :: Broken Bridge Review :: Cannibal :: Conduit :: Creative Nonfiction :: First City Review :: Forge :: Georgia Review :: Gettysburg Review :: Hayden's Ferry Review :: Lumberyard :: Measure :: Memoir (and) :: Mudfish :: Northwest Review :: PEN America :: Reverie :: Tusculum Review :: World Literature Today.

For information on having your publication considered for review, please visit the NewPages FAQ page.

Poetry Postcard Fest :: Sign Up Now!

Call For 2008 August Poetry Postcard Fest Participants
From the August Postcard Poetry Blog:

In August 2007, Organic Poetry guy Paul Nelson and Lana Ayers initiated the first August Postcard Poetry Fest with 95 poets signing up to write and send a poem a day on a postcard. It's nearly August so we're chomping at the corner of our cards with the 2nd annual August Poetry Postcard Fest.

Here's what's involved:

Get yourself at least 31 postcards. These can be found at book stores, thrift shops, online, drug stores, antique shops, museums, gift shops. (You'll be amazed at how quickly you become a postcard whore.)

On or about July 27th, write an original poem right on a postcard and mail it to the person on the list below your name. (If you are at the very bottom, send a card to the name at the top.) For crying out loud WRITE LEGIBLY!

Starting on August 1st, ideally in response to a card YOU receive, keep writing a poem a day on a postcard and mailing it to successive folks on the list until you've sent out 31 postcards. Of course you can keep going and send as many as you like but we ask you to commit to at least 31 (a month's worth).

What to write? Something that relates to your sense of "place" however you interpret that, something about how you relate to the postcard image, what you see out the window, what you're reading, using a phrase/topic/or image from a card that you got, a dream you had that morning, or an image from it, etc. Like "real" postcards, get to something of the "here and now" when you write.

Do write original poems for the project. Taking old poems and using them is not what we have in mind. These cards are going to an eager audience of one, so there's no need to agonize. That's what's unique about this experience. Rather than submitting poems for possible rejection, you are sending your words to a ready-made and excited audience awaiting your poems in their mailboxes. Everyone loves getting postcards. And postcards with poems, all the better.

Once you start receiving postcard poems in the mail, you'll be able to respond to the poems and imagery with postcard poems or your own. That will keep your poems fresh and flowing. Mailing to Canada? .72c. Be sure to check postage for cards going abroad. The Postcard Graveyard is a very sad place.

That's all there it to it. It's that fun and that easy.

To check out what we've done before, visit the blog [where you'll also see we also have Perennial Poetry Postcard List of folks who try to write a postcard poem at least once a week regardless of receiving in order to keep connections flowing.], http://www.poetrypostcards.blogspot.com, Paul Nelson’s website or our Facebook group.

(you need to be a facebook member for this and if you are, please refrain from posting poemcards until after August, ok?)

If you are interested in a weekend writing retreat on Orcas Island in September, please let us know that as well. Tentative weekend, September 19-21, 2008.

To sign up now:

Please email Lana, lana.ayers@yahoo.com with your postal mailing address to sign up for the 2008 August Poetry Postcard Fest.

The only cost associated with this is your postage and postcards. It’s free to join, but donations are always welcome to support this and other projects like it. We will keep the list open and add names until July 25th.

And don’t forget to forward this info to all your friends and have them join us too.

Narrative Medicine

The Program in Narrative Medicine was established in the Department of Medicine at Columbia University in 1996. Its mission statement reads: "Narrative Medicine fortifies clinical practice with the narrative competence to recognize, absorb, metabolize, interpret, and be moved by the stories of illness. Through narrative training, the Program in Narrative Medicine helps doctors, nurses, social workers, and therapists to improve the effectiveness of care by developing the capacity for attention, reflection, representation, and affiliation with patients and colleagues. Our research and outreach missions are conceptualizing, evaluating, and spear-heading these ideas and practices nationally and internationally."

Included in the program are:

Narrative Medicine Rounds
Lecture/reading series with such writers as Mark Nepo, Sue Halpren, Carol Gilligan,

Literature@Work
Discussions of literature

Narrative Medicine Workshops
Three-day intensive workshops for health care professionals and literary scholars engaged in narrative medicine practice. The next workshop will be held October 24 - 26, 2008.

Narrative Oncology
Doctors, nurses, and social workers on the oncology unit of Presbyterian Hospital gather bimonthly to read to one another what they have written about their day-to-day clinical experiences.

Student Creative Rounds and Reflexions, a student literary publication, as well as seminars for students at various levels.

Job :: Bookstore Manager

Named "the best campus bookstore in the country" by Rolling Stone, Kenyon College seeks manager to begin next chapter for its campus bookstore with national reputation for its rich literary traditions. Must have experience leading and managing others, ability to network and develop marketing/event opportunities, and interest in relocating to village of Gambier, Ohio or surrounding area. Highly visible (and celebrated) position on campus requires positive, energetic and creative manager with interest in being an active part of the campus and surrounding community. Kenyon College is an EOE. Send a brief statement of interest along with resumé by 7/12 to MKaufman@PazBookBiz.com.

NewPages Employee of the Month

If you've ever wondered how the mail processing works at NewPages World Headquarters, here's an image of the first step. Scrappy the Maildog makes a daily walk to the post office to retrieve precious bundles of books, lit mags, and letters, and bring them back to HQ. As you can imagine, Scrappy is an integral part of our work here and earns some of the best food and ear-scratching bonuses of any dog employee. He takes his job seriously and has never once made a "long stop" while working; he feels to do so would be disrespectful to the literature (regardless of the fact that not all humans feel the same way).

As you can see from the image, his bag has suffered through days of hard labor. These are Outward Hound bags, which I would not recommend because of their weak zippers. Although, I suspect cramming some of those heavyweight poetry annuals in there might have had something to do with it; no zipper is a match for free verse. (You can borrow that line; I can see it might be useful in a few other situations.)

To answer the FAQ - I don't know what kind of dog Scrappy is. I adopted him when he was three from a no-kill shelter where he had been housed for nine months. He came with numerous bad behaviors, but with patience, obedience classes (for both of us), and continuous positive reinforcement, he has become a registered therapy dog, a wonderful companion, and a dedicated staff member of NewPages.

To Scrappy, all howl - Ah-rooooo!

Internships and More :: World Literature Today

World Literature Today based out of the University of Oklahoma in Norman, OK, has numerous offering for students, including: WLT Internships, WLT Research Grants, Neustadt Student Fellowship, Puterbaugh Student Fellowship. Visit their website for more information.

Disability Journal Expands Focus

In 2009 the innovative Journal of Literary Disability is moving to Liverpool University Press under the new title Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies. It will continue to focus on the literary representation of disability, but cultural studies will now be added to the multidisciplinary mix.

With an editorial board of 50 internationally renowned scholars, the journal is central to the literary disability movement that is changing the face of literary studies on a global scale.

Special issues have included Representations of Cognitive Impairment, guest edited by Dr. Lucy Burke, Senior Lecturer, Department of English, Manchester Metropolitan University; Disability and the Dialectic of Dependency, guest edited by Dr. Michael Davidson, Vice Chair, Department of Literature, University of California; and Disability and/as Poetry, guest edited by Dr. Jim Ferris, Faculty Associate, Department of Communication Arts, University of Wisconsin.

The first issue in the new format, JLCDS 3.1: Deleuze, Disability and Difference, will be a special issue, guest edited by Dr. Petra Kuppers, Associate Professor of English, Theatre, and Women’s Studies, University of Michigan; and Dr. James Overboe, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Wilfrid Laurier University. Many disability scholars have been wary of utilizing poststructuralism as a means to disrupt ableism. But there is much nuance in poststructuralist thought and its relation to representational politics, and JLCDS 3.1 hopes to push disability studies further along its journey into this territory.

Collaborative Autobiography :: The Grand Piano

An interesting concept, especially in its decades-long planning and the use of sequencing in each volume. I've not seen a copy of this - anyone who has is welcome to comment. From the website:

The Grand Piano is an experiment in collective autobiography by ten writers identified with Language poetry in San Francisco. The project takes its name from a coffeehouse at 1607 Haight Street in San Francisco where from 1976 to 1979 several of us programmed and coordinated – and all of us participated in – a weekly reading and performance series.

The Grand Piano is centered on the 1970s when we first met and collaborated. Yet we all engage issues beyond that time, and the project adheres to no prescribed set of themes. Originally, each author was to follow the prompt of the previous. In the event, many sections have been written out of order, and the project's development has been nonlinear even as it is being published in serial form. Rae Armantrout, Steve Benson, Carla Harryman, Lyn Hejinian, Tom Mandel, Ted Pearson, Bob Perelman, Kit Robinson, Ron Silliman, and Barrett Watten write The Grand Piano.

New volumes appear several times a year. The complete series will comprise ten volumes, with the ten authors appearing in different sequence in each volume, according to the following grid:

1 BP BW SB CH TM RS KR LH RA TP
2 BW TP RA SB KR TM RS CH LH BP
3 SB TM CH RA LH BP BW TP KR RS
4 CH KR TM BW RA TP LH BP RS SB
5 TM RS BW TP SB RA BP KR CH LH
6 RS SB BP KR BW LH CH RA TP TM
7 KR CH LH RS BP BW TP TM SB RA
8 LH RA RS BP TP KR TM SB BW CH
9 RA LH TP TM RS CH SB BW BP KR
10 TP BP KR LH CH SB RA RS TM BW

Meridian's Lost Classics a Great Find

Meridian, the semi-annual from the University of Virginia, celebrates its 10th Anniversary with its May 2008 issue. In it are selections from the first ten years of Meridian. One of the regular features of Meridian is the "Lost Classic" - which is exactly as it sounds.

The retrospective includes a list of the twenty classics, a brief explanation as to "why it is important," for some "what happened to it," and an excerpt of the text. A few listed classics: Letters from Jack London to Louis A. Augusin; Zora Neeale Hurston: Unpublished Writing from the Federal Writers' Project and a Lost Interview; Two Uncollected Works by Robert Frost; A special Portfolio by Jane Kenyon; A Letter from Edgar Allan Poe to Washington Irving.

This issue of Meridian's "Lost Classic" is "Stephen Crane's Deleted Chapters from Red Badge of Courage." The introduction by Jeb Livingood as well as the chapters are available on Meridian's website. A number of the previous issues' Lost Classics are also available on their site.

A wonderful feature for reconnecting and reconsidering works and their authors.