Online Seminar in Poetry

CUNY and The New York Times invite you to participate in a unique series of online seminars led by elite scholars, researchers, artists and authors, who will explore with you a range of informative and thought provoking topics from the historical to the contemporary, the theoretical to the practical.

Laugh Lines: Humor and the Art of Writing Poetry

In this online writing workshop, you’ll be treated to a panel of experts who help unravel what makes a poem great, funny or not — and, at the same time, you’ll have a chance to get your writing shaped by them. CUNY Distinguished Professor Kimiko Hahn, from Queens College and David Orr, Poetry Columnist for The New York Times Book Review, will chat with former U.S. Poet Laureate and CUNY Distinguished Professor Billy Collins, Ph.D. and award winning writer Donna Masini of hunter College about how the canon of poetry can be funny and how that has influenced their own voices. In a second session, Hahn will be joined by contemporary writers Roger Sedarat, Ph.D. of Queens College, Gregory Pardlo of Medgar College, and CUNY Distinguished Professor Wayne Koestenbaum, Ph.D. of the Graduate School of The City University of New York, on the impact of culture on poetry.

For more information, and to register, please visit www.sps.cuny.edu/knowledge

SNReview Celebrates 10 Years of Publishing!

SNReview (SNR, www.snreview.org) has entered its tenth year of publishing fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. In celebration of those who have enable the magazine’s success during the past decade, SNR has published its largest issue – with more than 40 prose and poetry writers offering more than 260 pages of insights and entertainment. Those writers, who developed their perspectives around the world and in a variety of cultures, include the following:

Fiction: CL Bledsoe, Michell Cacho-Negrete, Mary Carroll-Hackett, Cindy Fazzi, Grand Flint, Nels Hanson, Catherine Kelley, Rosemary Landano, Scott Leslie, Jala Pfaff, Mohanalashmi Rajakumar, Sarah Scholes, and Emmanuel Sigauke.

Poetry: William Aarnes, Jeff Crouch, Kelly Davio, Tom Deiker, William Doreski, Orville Lloyd Douglas, Michael Estabrook, Patrick Frank, Timothy Houghton, K.A. Markee, Jerry D. Mathes II, Joey Minutillo, Jason Mott, Jaime Peak, Sandra Pollock, Charles Rafferty, Megan Ronan, Sankar Roy, Ashley Shivar, Kristen Sund, Christopher Watkins, Kelley White, and Changming Yuan.

Creative Non-Fiction: Andrew Coburn, Jennifer Coke, Sayantani Dasgupta, John Fox, Betsy Hall, Shelley Leveson, Deborah McCarroll, Brendan O’Meara, and Eron Witzel.

You can see their work in one of three formats: Web page, Adobe file (PDF), or print. You start at SNR’s Web site: www.snreview.org. If you wish to read their works in print, use the “Order” link provided on the opening page of the site. The cost is nominal, $15 for more than four hours of unique entertainment. The meager profit from your $15 also goes to support the Web site. Another way to show your support: Click the link to SNR’s Shop and purchase an SNR t-shirt, sweatshirt, mug, notebook, or set of notecards, and all the proceeds go to support SNR.

During the past year, viewership has continued to increase: climbing more than 60 percent over a comparable period in 2007 and more than 180 percent over a comparable period in 2006. Growing pains have come with SNR’s success, though. During the past six months, the number of submissions have more than doubled, putting a strain on our abilities to respond as quickly as we would like.

We have always worked on the premise that we will publish as many good writers as we can. Cost of publishing is not a factor. Adding pages to a Web site adds almost no cost, and since we use a print-on-demand publisher, the size of the print edition is not a financial factor. But we have run into one commodity that few have enough of: time. And so we apologize to the writers who have submitted work and still have not heard from us. We have not forgotten you.

The next issue of SNR should appear in August. It will be our Summer 2008 issue, and with it, we will finally be publishing in a more up-to-date fashion.

We will like to thank all the individuals, writers, and readers who have made SNR a success during the past decade and, in particular, Linda, Paul, and Brian.

Enjoy the issue,

Joseph Conlin

Editor@SNReview.org

www.SNReview.org

2009 Magic Carpet Ride Mentorship

Tamara Sellman, director of MRCentral (www.mrcentral. net) announces the opening of the 2009 Magic Carpet Ride mentorship application period (www.angelfire. com/wa2/margin/ MRCentral/ mentorship. html).

This mentorship, an innovative one-on-one creative writing program, is the first of its kind to provide specialized instruction, direction, and motivation specifically for a writer of literary magical realism.

The purpose of the Magic Carpet Ride mentorship is to assist a promising magical realist writer from anywhere in the world in the completion of a polished manuscript by the end of the session which may then be actively submitted to potential publishers.

Qualification
This mentorship, valued at $1500, will be awarded annually, and on a competitive basis, to a single applicant who is able to demonstrate:

• a deep commitment to completing their work in progress

• strong writing skills

• a desire to learn and to succeed

• a good understanding of the magical realist nature of their manuscript

Applications for the 2009 mentorship session are now available
(www.angelfire. com/wa2/margin/ MRCentral/ mentorship. html)

Applicants must fill out an online application, respond to a questionnaire, send a 10-page sample and pay the application fee ($40 for members of MRCentral; $60 for nonmembers, which covers lifetime membership).

Postmark deadline for receipt of all application materials for the 2009 mentorship session is October 31, 2008. Email deadline for receipt of all application materials for the 2008 mentorship session is midnight [Pacific time], October 31, 2008.

More info
(www.angelfire. com/wa2/margin/ MRCentral/ mentorship. html)
(magicalrealismmaven at hotmail dot com)

Tamara Kaye Sellman, director, MRCentral.net
Magical Realism’s Interactive Community

New Poetry : Seven Floors Up

Cati Porter, editor of Poemeleon and assoc. editor for Babel Fruit has a new poetry collection available from Mayapple Press: Seven Floors Up.

The book is available through Amazon or Mayapple Press’s website: http://www.mayapplepress.com/

Colleen Wright - Feature Editor

Colleen Wright is the editor of the Literacy Volunteers LVSFC Newsletter and a media relations consultant for Operation Hope, which provides food, shelter and services to homeless community members. During her stint as a newspaper reporter, she re-discovered her passion for creative writing, and now specializes in personal essays, travel and lifestyle articles.

Colleen teaches English as a Second Language near her hometown of Fairfield, Connecticut, and holds an MFA in Professional Writing from Western Connecticut State University. She is now working with Miranda Literary Magazine as a Feature Editor. Her experience and insight will be a great asset to the magazine.

Cantara Chistopher’s Interview in Subtle Tea

Spring is always about seeing your way through the cold, short days of winter and building strength, energy, and new ideas in the new warmth of spring. In shifting your thoughts to brighter days, check out Cantara Christopher’s interview in the hip online magazine Subtle Tea. The interview will be launched on April 1, 2008.

Cantara is a forward thinking publisher of Cantarabooks and Cantaraville. In the interview, she discuss vanity publishing, print-on demand, and why Cantarabooks is  the future of the smll press model. She discusss publishing Stephen Gyllenhaal and the dynamics behind his poetry, her brief career in the “golden age” of porn, and he plans for the future. Check it out after you grab you first breath of fresh spring air.

Magical Realism Blog Launches

If you click on this title you will go to the Big Blog of Marvel, which deals with the slippery and sometimes disputed ideas that are and surrounds magical realism. The purpose as described on the blog: Commentary from a cluster of literary writers, educators, scholars and other thoughtful folk interested in literary magical realism. If you are interested in this topic or just curious… check it out.

Welcome Kelly Ripley Feller to Miranda

Miranda Literary Magazine would like to welcome Kelly Ripley Feller as a new media correspondent. Read her article “Riding The Wave: An Ongoing Look at how Social Media is Transforming Politics : The Power of the People: US Presidential Politics in Second Life.” Kelly has enjoyed a fulfilling and diverse professional career managing marketing and communications strategies for organizations that include non-profit, natural foods, healthcare, and high technology. She has worked with a variety of technology companies including Intel, Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, Intuit, SAS Software, Symantec, and IBM. Today she manages social media programs for a Fortune 100 technology company and writes about social media, marketing, business, Second Life, and politics in her dwindling spare time. An enthusiastic live music lover and classical singer, Kelly performs at local schools and senior homes and is a hospice volunteer for veterans. She has been active in Second Life for over a year and a half—the equivalent of several lifetimes in that virtual realm. She lives outside of Portland, OR with her husband and son, and holds a BA in Communications and Political Science from the University of Michigan.

The Author’s Second Life Avatar “Cindy”

 

 

Miranda Welcomes Aaliyah Miller as a New Writer

We are pleased to have Aaliyah Miller as a writer and reviewer. Please see her movie review Inside the Outsider.

Aaliyah Miller believes the future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. This belief has kept her grounded as an artist and professional working in projects that encompass theatre, television, and film. Learning to multi-task as a “jack of trades” in these three fields has not only deepened her commitment to the arts, it has elevated her personal drive to achieve success.

Aaliyah is a member of the New York Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, her script Finding Patience was selected for a staged reading at HBO Inc. in New York City (December, 2007). In 2005, her short script Out of the Box received Honorable Mention from Hollywood Creative Connection, a resource for screenwriters pursuing a career in film and television.

Aaliyah’s credits in theatre, television and film include Moonshine (2006 Official Sundance selection), Father Panik Village: The Untold Story (2005), and Health for Children (2004), an educational video series for children in grades K-5, and Who’s Sarah Davis? (2003), an off-Broadway play.

Aaliyah also works full-time as a public relations specialist with Casey Family Services, the direct service arm of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the nation’s largest foundation solely dedicated to improving the lives of vulnerable children and families. As a public relations professional, she implements media strategies and outreach campaigns for local and national public relations efforts, coordinates in-house video productions and is a contributing writer for Casey’s print and online publications.

Jennifer Kronovet Is Awarded The 2008 A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize

Rochester, NY — Jennifer Kronovet is the 2008 A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry
Prize winner for her first collection of poems, Awayward. Jean
Valentine selected this manuscript from 17 semi-finalists and will
write a Foreword to the published collection. Kronovet will receive a
$1,500 honorarium and book publication by BOA Editions, Ltd. in
March, 2009, in the A. Poulin, Jr. New Poets of America Series.

An annual competition, the A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize is open to
poets who have yet to publish a full-length- book collection of
poetry. This year’s finalists were XING by Debora Kuan; Good Question
by Sally Fisher; and Point Everywhere by Patrick Culliton. Jennifer
Kronovet’s winning manuscript was chosen from a field of 908 entries.
Jean Valentine says, “Jennifer Kronovet’s poems in Awayward are so
surprising and compelling and beautiful, so intelligent and felt.
Kronovet uses simple words and works at a mysterious depth, one we can
enter with gladness.”

BOA Editions will be accepting manuscripts for the eighth annual A.
Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize between August 1, 2008 and November 30,
2008. An entry form and fee are required. The guidelines for the
2009 A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize will be announced on
www.boaeditions. org later this year.

Jennifer Kronovet’s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The
Colorado Review, Crowd, Harp & Altar, Pleiades, Ploughshares, Poetry
Northwest, A Public Space, and other journals. She is the co-founder
and co-editor of CIRCUMFERENCE, a journal of poetry in translation.
She received an MFA in Creative Writing from Washington University in
St. Louis, an MA in Applied Linguistics from Columbia University
Teachers College, and a BA in English from the University of Chicago.
Jennifer wrote many of the poems in Awayward while living in Beijing,
China. She now resides in her native New York City.

Jean Valentine was born in Chicago, earned her B.A. from Radcliffe
College, and has lived most of her life in New York City. She won the
Yale Younger Poets Award for her first book, Dream Barker, in 1965.
Her most recent book is Little Boat (Wesleyan University Press,
2007). Her previous collection, Door in the Mountain: New and
Collected Poems 1965 - 2003, was the winner of the 2004 National Book
Award for Poetry.

BOA Editions, Ltd., the Rochester-based Pulitzer-Prize- and National-
Book-Award-winning publishing house, received a 2001 New York State
Governor’s Arts Award for overall artistic excellence. Now in its
32nd year, BOA has published more than 190 books of American poetry,
poetry in translation, and fiction.

# # #

For More Information, Contact:
Peter Conners
BOA Editions, Ltd.
250 North Goodman Street
Suite 306
Rochester, NY 14607
(585) 546-3410