Adam Pasen and Joe Sanders earn recognition at American College Theater Festival.

Adam's play "Spats," which was a regional winner at ACTF last January, was a co-winner along with Joe Sanders' play "Fly-Over State" at the Actors' Theatre of Grand Rapids "Living on the Edge VIII: Secrets and Lies" festival of new 10-minute works. It was also in the top 40 for the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Festival in New York under a pseudonym, and performed at the Lion Theatre on 42nd Street. Here is the website: http://oob.samuelfrench.com/index.php/the-final-forty/spats-by-adrian-singleton/

Adam's dissertation play Tea with Edie and Fitz, which was produced in York Arena in July, has been awarded an Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation grant of $1000. The Foundation awards grants to projects that present LGBT figures in an actual historical context, and awarded the grant based on Tea's exploration of the sexual and gender dynamics between Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald as well as Henry James' struggle with his own latent desires.

Fall 2011

New Issues Poetry & Prose FALL 2011  Fall releases from New Issues by Susanna Childress, Lizzie Hutton, and Rachel Eliza Griffiths are now available for pre-order. About Us New Issues was established in 1996 by poet Herbert S. Scott.    Winner of the 2011 New Issues Poetry Prize Andrew Allport has won the 2011 New Issues Poetry Prize for his manuscript the body | of space | in the shape of the human. David Wojahn, author of World Tree, judged. Andrew wins a $2,000 award and publication of his manuscript in the spring of 2012 Dear Friends, Thank you so much for making our anniversary a success! We had a wonderful time, and enjoyed a sampling of Susanna Childress' and Lizzie Hutton's new works, which will be available very soon. Here's a preview of our third fall release, Rachel Eliza Griffiths' Mule & Pear: Mule & Pear, New Poems by Rachel Eliza Griffiths Sincerely, Kimberly Kolbe New Issues Poetry & Prose Here's a poet whose intelligence and imagination value truth above any of its enemies: comfort, decoration, lovely music, the blurring of the line between the personal and the human. The poems feel emotionally and intellectually spontaneous, as if we were present at their coming-into-being, a genuine writer-reader intimacy that's hard to achieve at any stage, let alone in a first book. The poems about childhood and adolescence are among the most powerful I've ever read. Tough, sexy, probing, tender, devoid of sentimentality, fiercely intelligent, and always a step ahead of the reader, She'd Waited Millennia is an important debut. --Chase Twichell Susanna Childress writes at the cutting edge of the long tradition of love poetry. Her poems often involve tense negotiations between a sharp cultural intelligence and a body that craves its fulfillment. She writes with grace about love and lust, and she unfailingly delivers rhythmic and linguistic pleasures to her lucky readers as they follow the course of these inquisitive, unpredictable poems. --Billy Collins Smart, nuanced, lush in their beauty, yetnever unaware of beauty's price, the poems in Mule & Pear meditate on what to do with the ghosts of history by which, as if inevitably, we find ourselves now shaped, now cornered, and now inhabited-each of us, then, an unwitting vessel made to carry the past forward. Griffiths is a master at capturing persona, and uses that gift, especially, to consider the notion of heritage-how much is inherited, how much is imposed? How much of what we believe is what we're told is true? The ambition of these poems dazzles, as does indeed their  achievement.--Carl Phillips Our titles are available online through Amazon.com and spdbooks.org.

New Issues Event Sunday, August 28

New Issues Poetry & Prose SUMMER 2011

In This Issue About Us 2011 New Issues Poetry Prize Book of the Year Award About Us New Issues was established in 1996 by poet Herbert S. Scott.    Winner of the 2011 New Issues Poetry Prize Andrew Allport has won the 2011 New Issues Poetry Prize for his manuscript the body | of space | in the shape of the human. David Wojahn, author of World Tree, judged. Andrew wins a $2,000 award and publication of his manuscript in the spring of 2012

Dear Friends, Can you believe it's been 15 years? By the end of this year New Issues will have published 135 books, and we couldn't have done it without you. Come celebrate this anniversary, and help us show appreciation for all of the hard work and dedication put forth by our departing Managing Editor, Marianne Swierenga. The event will take place at Bell's Brewery, 355 E. Kalamazoo Ave. on Sunday, August 28 from 2:30 pm-5:00pm. We'll feature readings by novelists Jaimy Gordon & Bonnie Jo Campbell, and poets Susanna Childress & Lizzie Hutton. A $5.00 donation will be requested; as a non-profit we greatly appreciate your generosity! Sincerely, Kimberly Kolbe New Issues Poetry & Prose Fall releases from New Issues by Susanna Childress andLizzie Hutton will be available for pre-order. Susanna Childress writes at the cutting edge of the long tradition of love poetry. Her poems often involve tense negotiations between a sharp cultural intelligence and a body that craves its fulfillment. She writes with grace about love and lust, and she unfailingly delivers rhythmic and linguistic pleasures to her lucky readers as they follow the course of these inquisitive, unpredictable poems. --Billy Collins Here's a poet whose intelligence and imagination value truth above any of its enemies: comfort, decoration, lovely music, the blurring of the line between the personal and the human. The poems feel emotionally and intellectually spontaneous, as if we were present at their coming-into-being, a genuine writer-reader intimacy that's hard to achieve at any stage, let alone in a first book. The poems about childhood and adolescence are among the most powerful I've ever read. Tough, sexy, probing, tender, devoid of sentimentality, fiercely intelligent, and always a step ahead of the reader, She'd Waited Millennia is an important debut. --Chase Twichell Translation by Jaimy Gordon It's not just a dog's life-it's a pig-cow-rat's life. In this deftly executed allegorical novel, Beig (Lost Weddings) gives an episodic, animal-centered account of the life of a young woman in rural Germany between the two world wars. Brief chapters-"Horse," "Cat," "Pig," etc.-recount the protagonist's less-than-idyllic encounters with the natural world. At birth, Hermine resembles a mutant horse; at school, she finds herself unable to write the assigned essay "Hurray, We're Slaughtering!" As a young teacher, she inadvertently causes the injury of a pupil during a spirited game based on a bear hunt, and she maims a badger with her motorbike. Disowned by her family for killing their pet goose, she is even scolded by her husband: "No one can have an animal with you around." Granted, "some days Hermine liked well enough," but most days she loses her battle with the bestiary. . . .This earthy, unsentimental novel is the perfect holiday gift for nihilists with a sense of humor. --Publisher's Weekly It would be too bad if, because of Campbell's realistic style and ferocious attention to her setting, "Once Upon a River" were discounted as merely a fine example of American regionalism. It is, rather, an excellent American parable about the consequences of our favorite ideal, freedom. --Jane Smiley, The New York Times  Our titles are available online through Amazon.com and spdbooks.org.

Desire—Grad Conference@CUNY (Nov. 2011)

CUNY Graduate Center (365 5th Avenue, New York, New York)
November 10-11, 2011

Desire: From Eros to Eroticism

The students of the Department of Comparative Literature at the City University of New York Graduate Center present an interdisciplinary graduate student conference on November 10-11, 2011.

The concept of desire has been the subject of much examination throughout centuries of literature. From the ancient Greek idea of eros to psychological analysis of the subject through contemporary negotiations of love and desire, the interpretation of desire has evolved, but it has always held a central role in literature and discourse. Desire serves as the motivation for action, and yet the most satisfying desire is often the one that remains unfulfilled. This conference will explore desire as it impels us forward in our pursuit of an end that may ultimately be unattainable.

We invite papers from all disciplines focusing on works from any period that explore desire as it is portrayed in literature, philosophy, theory, art, film, or society. Some of the questions this conference seeks to answer include, but are not limited to:

• How does desire serve as a motivating force?
• Must desire be fulfilled or does it serve another purpose?
• In what ways are the repercussions of desire demonstrated?
• How has the definition of desire evolved between different cultures or time periods?
• In what way does desire figure into political landscapes, contemporary or otherwise?
• What is the relationship between desire and cultural production and entertainment in the age of the Internet and other technologies?
• How does an author’s desire factor into the creation of a text?
• How does a character’s lack of desire affect the text?
• How does comprehension of desire help us to explore the human psyche?
• How is desiring the “undesirable” presented and addressed?
• How does desire relate to discussions of gender, sexuality, race, and other intersections of sexual politics?
• How does desire relate to other concepts such as love, seduction, intoxication, and pleasure?

Please submit a 300 word abstract for a 15-20 minute paper by September 15, 2011 to desireconference2011@gmail.com. Proposals should include the title of the paper, presenter’s name, institutional and departmental affiliation, and any technology requests. We also welcome panel proposals of three to four papers.

This conference is co-sponsored by the Writers’ Institute at the City University of New York Graduate Center, an un-MFA program devoted to bringing together the country’s most talented writers and today’s most celebrated editors, and by the Doctoral Students’ Council, the sole policymaking body representing students in doctoral and master’s programs at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

English Department Initiative in Digital Commons Newsletter

Our department's EDGE (English Department Global Endeavor) initiative was recently recognized. See Courtney Smith, "First Adopters at WMich: How ScholarWorks and SelectedWorks serve a key objective of the English department at Western Michigan University," Digital Commons Subscriber Newsletter (Summer 2011), 3. The department collaborated with the Waldo Library (Maira Bundza) on the Digital Commons project, which is also supported by Provost Greene.

New Issues Poets and Staff Win Awards

Congratulations to these New Issues poets on awards for their new works:

Diane Seuss, Cultural Center of Cape Code Poetry Competition
Katie Peterson, Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grant
Heather Sellers, Friends of American Writers Literary Award
Goldie Goldbloom, Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award
  AND ForeWord Review's Gold Medal in Literary Fiction
Paul Guest, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship
Jennifer Perrine, University of Utah Press' Agha Shahid Ali Prize in Poetry

And:
Congrats to New Issues' staffers, Natalie Giarratano & Jonathan Rice for their inclusion in Best New Poets! http://bestnewpoets.blogspot.com/2011/08/best-new-poets-2011-final-fifty.html

Congratulations Natalie and Jonathan !

Saturday, August 6, 2011
Best New Poets 2011 Final Fifty
We’re pleased to announce the fifty final selections for Best New Poets 2011 as made by D.A. Powell.

2011 Finalists

Scott Abels, “As Rambo Lay Dying” (nominated by Juked)
Kaveh Bassiri, “See Also”
Ash Bowen, “How Gravity Hated Us”
Thea Brown, “Anxieties of the Living Dead”
Eric Burger, “The Friendly Neighbor”
Zach Buscher, “Nanopharmacology”
William Camponovo, “Elegy”
Brittany Cavallaro, “At the Illinois State Fair”
Charlie Clark, “Essay Against Symbolism”
Claudia Cortese, “She Wants to be All Horse”
J. K. Daniels, “Unmapped” (nominated by George Mason University)
James Davis, “Aa”
Jesse DeLong, “The Amateur Scientist's Notebook: Phosphorus”
Ansel Elkins, “Ghost at My Door”
Natalie Giarratano, “New Coyote”
David Gorin, “from Dust Jackets”
Rae Gouirand, “Ice Plant”
Kimberly Grey, “Conjugated”
Christian Harder, “A Difficulty of Flowers”
Rebecca Hazelton, “Book of Janus”
Hilary S. Jacqmin, “Wedding Album”
Janine Joseph, “Wreck”
Eric Kocher, “A Taxonomy of the Etiquette of Brandos”
Virginia Konchan, “Cafe Noir” (nominated by the University of Illinois at Chicago)
Kate Lebo, “Every Beginning Wants a Good Place to Start”
Julie Lein, “Fennel”
Nate Liederbach, “Untitled [There’s only one kind of kindness...]”
Jennifer Luebbers, “Recess”
Jodie Marion, “The Exile's Wife”
Ayako Matsushita, “Lingering Summer Heat”
Gerardo Mena, “So I Was a Coffin”
Sara Michas-Martin, “Cage” (nominated by The Believer)
Hemant Mohapatra, “All That Bravery Got Us Nowhere”
Jacob Newberry, “Outdoor Sermon on the Concrete Foundation of What Was the First Baptist Church of Gulfport, Mississippi”
Angelo Nikolopoulos, “Daffodil”
Sarah Rose Nordgren, “Don’t”
Pamela Johnson Parker, “Housewifery: An Annotation”
Nancy Reddy, “My Girlhood Apothecary”
Jonathan Rice, “Soon Ghost”
Matthew Ritger, “Thirty”
Dean C Robertson, “St. Catherine Yearning in North America”
Aubrey Ryan, “Sam and Lulu at the Very End of the World”
Nicole Sealey, “An Apology for Trashing Magazines in Which You Appear”
Emily T. Smith, “Sacagawea, That Strange Bird”
Jeff Tigchelaar, “Blurbs”
Stephen Neal Weiss, “Four Color Process”
David Welch, “17 Movements in Spring”
Josh Wild, “Self-Portrait after Paul Morphy's Stroke”
Cori A. Winrock, “Anterior of a Razed Room” (nominated by Black Warrior Review)
Chelsea Woodard, “Finding the Porn Magazines”

Statistics

Number of submissions: 1363
Number of submissions sent to the guest editor: 185 (some with one poem, some with two)
Number of final selections: as always, 50
Number of male finalists: 24
Number of female finalists: 26
Number of finalists selected who were nominated by a journal or school: 5
Number of finalists selected from the Open Competition: 45

Biographies

“New Coyote”
NATALIE GIARRATANO is a PhD candidate in poetry at Western Michigan University. Recent poems appear or are forthcoming in American Literary Review, Laurel Review, and Hayden’s Ferry Review. She was poetry editor for Third Coast for two years and an assistant editor at New Issues Poetry and Prose for three.


“Soon Ghost”
JONATHAN RICE’s poems have been published in AGNI Online, Colorado Review, Mississippi Review, Sycamore Review, and Witness, among others, and were included or are forthcoming in The Southern Poetry Anthology, Volume V: Georgia, A Face to Meet the Faces: An Anthology of Contemporary Persona Poetry, Best of the Web 2009, and Best New Poets 2008. His poetry was also selected for the 2010 Indiana Review Poetry Prize, the 2010 Richard Peterson Poetry Prize from Crab Orchard Review, the 2008 Gulf Coast Poetry Prize, the 2008 Milton-Kessler Memorial Prize from Harpur Palate, the 2008 Yellowwood Poetry Prize from Yalobusha Review, and the 2006 AWP Intro to Journals Awards. He received an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University, and is currently a PhD candidate at Western Michigan University.

Natalie and Jonathan we could not be more proud of you.

Utz comes to terms with Medievalism

Richard Utz recently published, in the European Journal of English Studies, volume 15/2, 2011 (special issue on Medievalism, ed. Ute Berndt and Andrew James Johnston), an essay entitled "Coming to Terms With Medievalism."

Abstract: "Medievalism, the continuing reception of medieval culture in post-medieval times, has existed as an amphibolous term since the mid-nineteenth century, when it was employed as a synonym for the medieval period. Following the foundational theoretical work by conceptual historian Reinhart Koselleck, this essay investigates the history of the concept, ‘medievalism,’ as a linguistic performance responding to particular pressures inside and outside the academy. The concept can be shown specifically to be the product of what Koselleck calls the process of ‘temporalization’ (Verzeitlichung) which marks the transition from early modern mentalities to modernity and the modern university. Rejected as the dilettante ‘Other’ of academic medieval studies in the late nineteenth century, the English term survived probably due to the unique continuity postmedieval British subjects have felt with their medieval past. ‘medievalism’ has since transmuted into a scholarly practice (‘medievalism studies’), spawned a subfield (‘Neomedievalism’), competed with coeval movements (‘New medievalism’), and become, most recently, the linguistic and epistemological weapon of scholars who would like to bridge the rigid alterity toward medieval culture with the assistance of presentist empathy, memory, subjectivity, resonance, affection, desire, passion, speculation, fiction, imagination, and positionality. Based on its historical priority and conceptual inclusiveness, ‘medievalism’ is apt to encompass and reconfigure the various ways in which we will continue to receive medieval culture inside and outside the academy."

Legacy Seeks Applicants for Website Position

The editors of _Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers_ seek the assistance of an individual committed to enhancing the journal’s online presence. Interested parties should possess technological skills in creating modern website design, coding content for display in modern web browsers, programming dynamic text and graphic content repositories, monitoring use of the website, and troubleshooting technical problems in the website. Also required are editing experience, knowledge of the field of U.S. women’s writing from the colonial period to the early twentieth century, and the ability to work independently and meet deadlines.


Responsibilities will include designing, maintaining, monitoring, improving, and updating the _Legacy_ website http://legacy.ucsd.edu/ ; selecting (in consultation with other editors) materials for publication on the website; editing materials that appear on the website; seeking grant funding opportunities; and carrying out other activities to enhance the journal’s web presence. Individuals at any rank, ranging from advanced graduate students to senior faculty members, are encouraged to apply. Interested parties should be aware that there is no financial support available for taking on such a role; all of _Legacy_’s editors and consultants work in a volunteer capacity, although they are encouraged to seek support for their work with _Legacy_ from their home institutions.


If interested, please send your c.v. (including the names of at least three references), a statement of your qualifications, and a letter summarizing your interests in the fields covered by _Legacy_ to Legacy-editor@ucsd.edu . Review of applications will begin on 1 Sept. 2011 and will continue until the position is filled. Nominations are also welcome.