5.31.2008

New GLO Coordinators Announced!!

As we move forward with merging WEGO, EGO and LAC to form the Graduate Literary Organization (GLO), we have selected two amazing co-coordinators who will lead GLO next year: Amber Beaman from the writing program and Jennifer Davis from the English program. Amber will be a second-year fiction student in the fall and has been involved with WEGO, the WIC (Writing Intensive Course) assistant program and the Writing Center. Jennifer will also be a second-year student and served on EGO's general committee this year. They both have great ideas for building a stronger literary community and planning events that are of interest to both writing and English students.

The coordinators will take the reigns in the fall. For now, I will continue to post to the blog through mid-June. From there, the URL may change to reflect the GLO name. We'll keep you posted about changes as they happen.

Thanks everyone for your continued support. Welcome Amber and Jennifer!

5.28.2008

Contest: Narrative Magazine (Deadline July 31)

Narrative Contest Guidelines

The Narrative First-Person Contest is open to all writers. We’re looking for works of fiction or nonfiction written in the first-person point of view in the following categories: short stories, short short stories, novel excerpts, essays, memoirs, and excerpts from book-length nonfiction. Entries must be previously unpublished, no longer than 8,000 words, and must not have been previously chosen as a winner, finalist, or honorable mention in another contest.

In seeking fiction and nonfiction written in first-person point of view, we are especially looking for works that transcend narrow self-interest and self-expression. We are looking for authors whose use of the first person demonstrates a sense of proportion and perspective, an engagement with the world beyond the self, for authors whose gifts of thought or feeling and of insight enhance a reader’s sense of connection and possibility. And, as always, we are looking for manuscripts with a strong narrative, in which the effects of language are intense and total. Reading the first-person narrator—the I of the story—we hope to find the most necessary, most intimate, most personal stories made universal.

Awards: First Prize is $3,000, Second Prize is $1,750, and Third Prize is $1,000. The prize winners will be announced in Narrative and will be eligible for publication. Additionally, ten finalists will receive $125 each. We’ll announce finalists in the magazine as well. All entries will be considered for publication.

There is a $20 fee for each entry. And with your entry, you’ll receive six months of complimentary access to Narrative Backstage.

Entries will be accepted between May 1 and July 31, 2008.

The contest will be judged by the editors of the magazine. Winners and finalists will be announced to the public by August 31, 2008. All writers who enter will be notified by email of the judges’ decisions.

We accept online entries only. We do accept simultaneous submissions, but if your entry is accepted elsewhere, please let us know as soon as possible (and accept our congratulations!).

Entries should be formatted as follows: Double-spaced, with 12-point type, at least one-inch margins, and sequentially numbered pages. Please give the author’s name, address, telephone number, and email address at the top of the first page.

KELLOGG AWARD WINNERS

The English Department's Kellogg Committee is pleased to announce its 2008 award recipients in student writing and achievement, as presented on Thursday May 23rd at the 44th Annual Nina Mae Kellogg Awards Ceremony.

THE ACADEMY of AMERICAN POETS AWARD
Wendy Bourgeois

THE TOM BATES AWARD for ESSAY
Haili Graff

THE TOM BATES AWARD for MEMOIR
Jan Kurtz

THE TOM BATES AWARD for REPORTING
Alexandra Behr

THE TOM and PHYLLIS BURNAM UNDERGRADUATE FICTION AWARD
Killian Czuba

THE TOM and PHYLLIS BURNAM GRADUATE FICTION AWARD
Elizabeth Lopeman

THE TOM and PHYLLIS BURNAM UNDERGRADUATE NONFICTION AWARD
Melinda McCamant

THE TOM and PHYLLIS BURNAM UNDERGRADUATE POETRY AWARD
Mariah Freeman

THE TOM and PHYLLIS BURNAM GRADUATE POETRY AWARD
Jeff Alessandrelli

THE FRANK ANDREW CLARKE and HELEN CLARKE MEMORIAL AWARD
Joy Beckett

THE TOM DOULIS GRADUATE FICTION AWARD
Cornelia Coleman

THE MARILYN FOLKESTAD SCHOLARSHIP
Undergraduate: Sarah McCarry

Graduate: Christina Struyk-Bonn
Honorable Mention (Graduate): Wendy Noonan

THE PHILLIP FORD GRADUATE AWARD
Anna Stoefen

THE NINA MAE KELLOGG SOPHOMORE AWARD
Carolyn Grigar

THE NINA MAE KELLOGG SENIOR AWARD
Nathan Peterson

THE SHELLEY REECE AWARD
Wendy Noonan

WILMA MORRISON VANGUARD AWARDS
News: Nathan Hellman
Features: Ed Johnson (Honorable Mention: Stover Harger III)
Opinion: Jesse Thiessen
Arts and Culture: Katie Kotsovos (Honorable Mention: Shane Danaher)
Sports: Skyler Archibald

5.22.2008

Helyn Trickey grabs another CNN byline!


Fiction student Helyn Trickey has been racking up clip credits. Take a look...

The Oregonian, - "Slump forces locals to rethink greenness" , April 20, 2008

cnn.com, "Slowdown may boost home-office deductions"

Golden Gate University Magazine, spring 2008, "The Man with Hope: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Representative Henry Domzalski finds hope where little else grows" and "Social Studies: Social Networks are transforming the landscape of profitable business. Why you – and your business – should care"

Nice work!

Contest: Hunger Mountain Creative Nonfiction (Deadline Sept 10)

Hunger Mountain, The Vermont College Journal of Arts & Letters, Announces the Second Annual

HUNGER MOUNTAIN CREATIVE NONFICTION PRIZE

One $1,000.00 prize winner receives publication in the Spring 2009 Issue; two honorable mentions receive $100.00 each.

Judge: Nick Flynn, author of Another Bullshit Night in Suck City: A Memoir.

Deadline: September 10, 2008

Guidelines:

A $15 entry fee, payable to "Hunger Mountain," includes a copy of the Spring 2009 Issue of Hunger Mountain
Submit one work of creative nonfiction, not to exceed 10,000 words
Name or address should not appear anywhere on the manuscript
Must be an original creation, written in English, and previously unpublished
Do not send simultaneous submissions, artwork, or translations
Entries must be typed, one-side-only
Use a paper clip or send unbound (no staples or binding please)
Enclose a standard index card with title, name, address, phone number, and email address
Enclose a SASE for notification of winners
Enclose a postage-paid postcard for acknowledgement of entry (optional)
Once submitted, entries cannot be altered
Electronic or faxed entries will not be accepted
No entries will be returned, do not send your only copy
All entries will be considered for publication
Multiple entries allowed: each entry must be sent separately and include a separate entry fee
Entries must be postmarked by September 10, 2008
Late entries will be returned unread

MAIL TO:

CNF Prize
Hunger Mountain
Vermont College/UI&U
36 College Street
Montpelier VT , 05602

5.20.2008

Summer Class: European Historical Novel

From Prof. Peter Fogtdal...

IMPORTANT:

EXCITING SUMMER COURSE FOR ODDBALL STUDENTS WHO ARE SICK OF AMERICAN IDOL ..
(RECOMMEND TO FRIENDS AND ENEMIES OR TAKE IT YOURSELF, DAMMIT!)

FL 399: THE EUROPEAN HISTORICAL NOVEL

CRN 82618

Four wonderful credits

Class in the new sexy Clay building, room 202

Strange teacher with strange accent

Tuesday/Thursdays 14.15-16.35 (Eight weeks. First day of class, Tuesday June 24)

Taught by visiting Danish novelist Peter H. Fogtdal

BOOKS:

The White Palace by Orham Pamuk (Turkey)
The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles (Great Britain)
House of Day, House of Night by Olga Tokarczuk (Poland)
A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry (Ireland)
Silk by Alessandro Barrico (Italy)

FILMS:

The Tin Drum (Germany)
Mephisto (Hungary)
Reine Margot (France)
The French Lieutenant's Woman (Great Britain)

Yours,
Peter
http://fogtdal.blogspot.com

Contests: Fourth River (Deadline Nov. 15)


Two New Contests:

Fourth River Award for Poetry

Fourth River Award for Creative Nonfiction

We are looking for poetry and creative nonfiction that capture the places—natural, built and imagined, urban, rural or wild—where humans and nature converge and collide.

First place winner in each category will be published in the Fourth River and will receive a $500 cash prize upon publication.

Final judges for each category will be announced soon.

Contest Guidelines
Submissions should be postmarked no later than November 15, 2008
Previously published works and works accepted for publication elsewhere are not eligible. Students, faculty and employees of Chatham University are not eligible.
Include a title page with your name, address, phone number and the title of your submission(s). Your name must not appear on the actual manuscript.
The reading fee is $5 for three poems or one essay (7,000 word maximum), and includes a copy of Issue 5. Please make checks payable to Chatham University. Multiple submissions are acceptable, but each submission must be accompanied by a reading fee. Manuscripts will not be returned.
Send your submission, your reading fee and a self-addressed stamped envelope to:

The Fourth River
Chatham University
Woodland Road
Pittsburgh, PA 15232
Attention: Fourth River Award for Poetry or Fourth River Award for Creative Nonfiction.


The Fourth River accepts nonfiction, short fiction, poetry, and young adult/children’s short fiction (without illustration). Please send up to seven poems or up to 7,000 words of prose to the appropriate section editor. Due to the volume of submissions, we will recycle all the manuscripts we receive. Please do not send us your only copy.
Include cover letter with name, address, phone number, email contact, and titles of enclosed work.
All manuscripts must include a SASE to be considered and returned.
No e-mail submissions accepted.
Kindly let us know if you are submitting simultaneously.
Reading Period: August 1, 2008 – February 15, 2009
Submission Address
The Fourth River
Chatham University
Woodland Road
Pittsburgh, PA 15232

Contact Us
For more information, contact The Fourth River at fourthriver@chatham.edu

5.15.2008

Kyle Cassidy honored by SPJ!



First-year nonfiction student Kyle Cassidy was chosen by the Oregon/SW Washington chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists for his outstanding work on "Truck You," published in Willamette Week in February 2007.

The honors banquet, recognizing last year's journalism achievements, will be held on May 31. His specific award will be announced then. Congrats Kyle!!

5.13.2008

EGO BOOK SALE (Tues, May 20 - Wed, 21)


The English Graduate Organization's annual Book Sale is May 20-21, 10-2 NH 407. Paperbacks are $.50, hardbacks $1. This is a great chance to stock your shelves. See you there!

Submissions: Oregon Humanities- Civility (Deadline March 15)


Oregon Humanities invites submissions for its Fall/Winter 2008 issue on the theme of “Civility.”

Rules of conduct, etiquette, and civility—whether codified or implicitly understood—are the social contracts that frame human interactions. In the midst of a dramatic election year, these interactions—between colleagues with political differences or candidates who duke it out in public debates—raise questions about how Americans engage with one another in discussing difficult issues. Can politeness, in an attempt to avoid heated conflict, keep us from having productive, meaningful conversations? Or are public discussions best regulated as inclusive, polite, consensus-building affairs?

For the Fall 2008 issue of Oregon Humanities, which falls under the Oregon Council for the Humanities’ current programmatic focus, “Borders and Boundaries,” we are looking for essays and articles that explore the theme of civility. Writers may wish to explore civility in literature, history, arts, and popular culture; the role of civility and propriety, or conversely discourtesy and impropriety, in public discourse; the changing rules of civility in a newly global, multicultural, and highly technological world; the pros and cons of regulating civility, decency, and propriety; the role of civility in the conduct of war; arguments for or against civility in environmental movements; or the notion of propriety in a variety of public spheres, such as courtrooms, talk
radio shows, and Internet blogs.

We welcome all forms of nonfiction writing, including scholarly essays, journalistic articles, and personal essays. We accept proposals and drafts of scholarly and journalistic features, which range between 2,500 and 4,000 words in length. We accept drafts only of personal essays, which should consider larger thematic questions and run no longer than 1,500 words. All contributors receive an honorarium. Currently the magazine is distributed to 12,000 readers. Essays from Oregon Humanities have been reprinted in the Pushcart Prize anthology and the Utne Reader.

If you are interested in contributing to this discussion, please submit a proposal or draft by June 16, 2008, to Kathleen Holt, Editor, Oregon Humanities magazine, Oregon Council for the Humanities, 812 SW Washington Street, Suite 225, Portland, Oregon, 97205, or kholt@oregonhum.org.

Oregon Humanities is the triannual magazine of the Oregon Council for the Humanities, an independent, nonprofit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). We believe that knowledge and ideas are fundamental to the health of our communities. You can learn more about OCH’s programs, which include Oregon Chautauqua, Humanity in Perspective, and Commonplace Events, and read the contents of the current issue of Oregon Humanities at www.oregonhum.org .

5.12.2008

Congrats to Multi-Published Alexis Nelson!!


Nonfiction student Alexis Nelson was awarded the first place runner-up in the Iowa Review's nonfiction contest for her memoir, "Between Sand and Sky." The piece will be featured in the University of Iowa journal later this year.

Alexis has also recently published:

"Fy Girls," full-length feature in Portland Monthly, March 2008

"Trophy," personal essay, Oregon Humanities, Summer 2008

"Messages from Abroad," memoir, Manoa, University of Hawaii literary journal, Summer 2008

She is also currently interning at Tin House.

Muy impressivo!

Contest: The Nation (Deadline May 31)


Nation Student Writing Contest, 2008
Sponsored by the BIL Charitable Trust to recognize and reward the best in student writing and thinking.

We're looking for original, thoughtful, provocative student voices to answer this question: What have you learned from a personal experience that the next president should know before setting the agenda for the country? Essays should not exceed 800 words and should be original, unpublished work that demonstrates fresh, clear thinking and superior quality of expression and craftsmanship. We'll select five finalists and two winners--one from college, one from high school. Each winner will be awarded a $1,000 cash prize and a Nation subscription. The winning essays will be published and/or excerpted in the magazine and featured on our website. The five finalists will be awarded $200 each and subscriptions, and their entries will be published online. Entries (only one per student) will be accepted through May 31, 2008. A winner will be announced by September 4. Please send entries to studentprize@thenation.com.

Eligibility
The contest is open to all matriculating high school students and undergraduates at American schools, colleges and universities. Submissions must be original, unpublished work (the writing can have been published in a student publication). Each entrant is limited to one submission. Entries will be accepted through May 31, 2008. A winner will be announced by September 4, 2008.

Submissions can be e-mailed to studentprize@thenation.com. Please include the essay in the body of the e-mail. All e-mailed submissions will be acknowledged. Each entry must include author's name, address, phone number, e-mail and short biography and school affiliation - and say "student essay" in the subject line.

Please email studentprize@thenation.com for questions.

5.10.2008

KELLOGG FINALISTS ANNOUNCED!

The Kellogg Committee is pleased to announce the finalists for this year's English Department writing awards. Award winners will be announced at the 44th Annual Nina Mae Kellogg Award Ceremony, to be held at the campus Native American Center on Friday May 23rd.

Please join us that day for any and all Kellogg events: the Kellogg Lecture by Professor Susan Jarratt at 3:30, the awards at 5:30, and a reception to follow at the Simon Benson House.

The finalists (in alphabetical order):

THE ACADEMY OF AMERICAN POETS AWARD
Jason Allen
Wendy Bourgeois
Carolyn Brazda

TOM BATES AWARD for ESSAY
Haili Graff
Kathleen Haynie
Alexis Nelson

TOM BATES AWARD for MEMOIR
Haili Graff
Jan Kurtz
Mario Ross

TOM BATES AWARD for REPORTING
Alexandra Behr
Kyle Cassidy
Anna Stoefen

THE TOM and PHYLLIS BURNAM UNDERGRADUATE FICTION AWARD
Joy Beckett
Killian Czuba
Talmage Garn

THE TOM and PHYLLIS BURNAM GRADUATE FICTION AWARD
Joyce Boles
Corneila Coleman
Elizabeth Lopeman

THE TOM and PHYLLIS BURNAM UNDERGRADUATE NONFICTION AWARD
Melinda McCamant
Sharon Murphy
Chelsia Rice

THE TOM and PHYLLIS BURNAM UNDERGRADUATE POETRY AWARD
Bryan Beck
Carolyn Brazda
Mariah Freeman

THE TOM and PHYLLIS BURNAM GRADUATE POETRY AWARD
Jeff Alessandrelli
Chris Cottrell
Patrick Haas

THE FRANK ANDREW CLARKE and HELEN CLARKE MEMORIAL AWARD
Joy Beckett
Sean Davis
Sarah McCarry

THE TOM DOULIS GRADUATE FICTION AWARD
Cornelia Coleman
Kathleen Haynie
Ryan Hume

THE PHILLIP FORD GRADUATE AWARD
Shawna Lipton
Sarah Kruse
Anna Stoefen

THE NINA MAE KELLOGG SOPHOMORE AWARD
Carolyn Grigar
Caleb Hirsch
Emily Katz

THE NINA MAE KELLOGG SENIOR AWARD
Joy Beckett
Julie Nakama
Nathan Peterson

THE SHELLEY REECE AWARD
Chris Cottrell
Patrick Haas
Wendy Noonan

WILMA MORRISON VANGUARD AWARDS
News: Nathan Hellman
Features: Ed Johnson, Honorable Mention: Stover Harger III)
Opinion: Jesse Thiessen
Arts and Culture: Katie Kotsovos (Honorable Mention: Shane Danaher)
Sports: Skyler Archibald

Please note that the Marilyn Folkestad Scholarship finalists will be announced next week.

Congratulations to all our finalists!

Poet Shannon Carson in Suisun Valley Review!


Shannon Carson's poems "Two Minutes in Hell" and "If Kubrick Had Been a Dentist" have been accepted for the 25th anniversary edition of the Suisun Valley Review. Shannon graduates from the poetry program this term. Congrats!

5.08.2008

TALES: TALL AND TRUE - STUDENT READING - MAY 27

"Tales: Tall and True" is our annual reading by graduate fiction and nonfiction students, who have recently graduated or will be graduating soon. This year, the following writers will read excerpts from their thesis:

Nonfiction students Lucy Burningham, Karyn Lynn Fisette, Jessica Machado and Alexis Nelson

Fiction students Aysha Alkusayer, Julie Leonard, Loretta Long, Elizabeth Lopeman, Julie Miyagi, Kendra Tuthill and Amy Weil

Please join us Tues, May 27 at 7 p.m. at Blackfish Gallery, 420 NW 9th Ave.

Snacks, beverages and mood lighting to be provided.

STUDENT POETRY READING - THURS, MAY 15

Join the poetry graduate students as they read their work at Blackfish Gallery on Thurs, May 15.

Blackfish Gallery
420 NW 9th Ave.
7 p.m.

Poets include Wendy Bourgeois, Shannon Carson, Chris Cottrell, Stacy Feder, Valetine Freeman, Patrick Haas, Lori Huskey and Wendy Noonan.

Snacks, beverages and intimate gallery space provided.