FLAC NEWS

Jane's Stories Press update

2011-12-26T14:50:00.001-05:00

From FLAC Member Jane's Stories Press:
This year we've had the honor of announcing the winners of two contests, once again retreated in the mild climes of St. Augustine, connected with authors for Talk Shoe BookChats about their publications and their thoughts on writing, and published our own works like JSPF's chapbook Bridges and Borders: voices of immigrant women, Susanna Lang's Two by Two, and Georgia Ann Banks-Martin's Rhapsody for Lessons Learned or Remembered. More info: http://www.janesstories.org/index.html

YellowJacket Press Annual Chapbook Contest

2011-11-22T15:10:00.000-05:00

Tampa, FL--- YellowJacket Press announces the Eighth Annual Chapbook Contest for Florida Poets. All entrants must be permanent adult residents of Florida. Poetry manuscripts should be no longer than 24 pages, including title page, table of contents and acknowledgments. Include a brief bio, date you became a Florida resident, and SASE, along with $10 reading fee (check or money order made payable to Gianna Russo). Include notice of previous publications of specific poems, if applicable.

Postmark deadline is December 1, 2011. Manuscripts will not be returned. The winner(s) will be announced by March 15, 2011 and will receive $100 and 30 copies. All entrants receive a copy of the winning book.

Send submissions to: Yellow Jacket Press Chapbook Competition, c/o Gianna Russo
1410 E. Paris Street, Tampa, Fl. 33604. No e-mail submissions.

Previous winners of the contest include: A Tiny Hunger, by Laura Sobbott Ross of Sorrento (2010); My Grandfather Singing by Jesse Millner of Fort Myers (2009); Better Accidents, by Kate Sweeney of Tampa (2008); Our Keen Blue House, by Michael Trammell of Tallahassee (2007); Many Loves, by Michael Hettich of Miami (2006); Message on a Branch, by Sharon Scholl of Jacksonville (2006); Night Windows, by Susan Lilley of Orlando (2005); Music in Arabic, by Mary Jane Ryals of Tallahassee (2005); Florida Straits, by Gregory Byrd of Clearwater (2004). To purchase one of the above, send an additional $6.50 along with your submission.

YellowJacket Press is a non-profit, independent literary press. The mission of YellowJacket Press is to support emerging and established poets in Florida with an annual chapbook contest, chapbook publications, and public readings. YellowJacket Press creates a means for poets to share and promote their work, and nurtures a sense of community among poets and audiences across the state.

Special Thanks, Kudos, and Praise!

2011-11-16T23:44:00.001-05:00

Special Thanks, Kudos, and Praise!

Based on all the early indications and surveys, this year’s Other Words Conference was a thoroughgoing success. Thanks to all of you for attending! You gave memorable, inspiring readings. Your panels brought fresh ideas and insights. You made us glad to be there and to be part of such a strong, creative independent literary community.

Special thanks are due to Jim Wilson, Tamara Wilson, and the great group of Flagler College students, who were generous and gracious hosts. They made us feel welcome and at ease. The time and attention they devoted to pre-conference planning and arrangements, as well as the nonstop work they did during the time we were on campus kept everything running smoothly. Rick Campbell also earns our thanks for putting together an outstanding schedule. His “Renga” Reading concept opened up the Friday night festival event to fresh new expressions of “Other Words.” The creative writing workshop faculty—Mark Powell, Ira Sukruangruang, and Terri Witek—reminded us of the imagination and craftsmanship at the heart of our work. This year’s workshops had record enrollments, and continue as sources for conversation and influence afterwards.

In short, let’s share a final round of applause and compliments for all concerned—and extend sincere appreciation to Flagler College for the use of their wonderful campus in the heart of the nation’s oldest city.

Over the next few weeks, we hope to post some notes and comments from students—and from any of you who would like to share your thoughts on Other Words 2011.

With thanks and Happy Thanksgiving to all on behalf of all the FLAC Board Members . . .

Richard

Help Contemporary Literature at USF

2011-11-16T09:10:00.003-05:00

A message from FLAC Member the University of South Florida:

Dear Friends,

Since 2006, the University of South Florida has been celebrating National Poetry Month by sponsoring poetry readings, workshops, craft talks, seminars, Q&A sessions, lectures and panel discussions that have featured some of the finest poets in the world including Louise Glück, Robert Pinsky, Billy Collins, Galway Kinnell, Natasha Trethewey, Carol Frost, Michael Waters and Dana Levin. And we in USF’s new MFA program are already hard at work making sure that the celebrations for National Poetry Month 2012 (April 1-30, 2012) will be the biggest and best ever. NPM@USF 2012 will feature readings and workshops by Erica Dawson, Helen Wallace, James Kimbrell, Jennifer Clarvoe and Sasenarine Persaud as well as a Spoken Word Showcase, a Best-of-the-Bay Showcase, a poetry movie night and a one-of-a-kind event (“The Future is Sustainable: Art & Food”) to be held in USF’s new Poetry Garden.

But we need your help.

It costs money to make great contemporary literature and the artists who created it available not only to USF students, but also to those living in and around the Tampa Bay area. Sadly, due to the devastating budget cuts the University of South Florida has sustained in recent years, we don’t have any. The members of the all-star lineup we have scheduled for National Poetry Month 2012 have all agreed to visit USF and provide their services free of charge (not one honorarium will be paid); even so, we still have their expenses to cover (gas for those who will be driving, airfare for those flying in, hotels, food, etc.), the venues to rent, the advertising and promotional materials to produce. Organizations like the Florida Book Awards, the University of South Florida Humanities Institute and the University of South Florida English Department have all pledged to help as much as they can, but we still need people like you—people who value the literary arts—to get involved.

In short: we need you to donate money. And now, making a donation to support USF’s National Poetry Month celebrations is easier than ever. All you have to do is:

1. Go to: https://usfweb2.usf.edu/foundation/asp/ssl/adfdn/funds.asp?dept=HUI&group=TA

2. Select “420019 Humanities Institute Fund” and click “continue”3.

Fill out the brief form and next to “This gift is made in memory/honor of,” type: This Gift is For National Poetry MonthAnd that’s it; follow the prompts and you’re done. If you would like to verify that your gift has been received and is correctly earmarked, you can drop Elizabeth Kicak a line at ekicak@usf.edu.

And if you don’t have a lot of extra cash lying around, don’t worry about it. No one does, not these days. If you want to give thousands of dollars, please do; but your donation can be as little as $1.00. In these economic times, there is no such thing as a small donation. Every little bit helps; in fact, I just made a $25.00 donation!

Finally, I ask that you forward this email to as many people as you can and please ask them to forward it to their friends, family members and colleagues. If you have a website, please post this email to your website. If you have a blog, please post this email to your blog. If you have a Facebook account, please post this email to your Facebook account.

Please, we need your help. Help us make NPM@USF 2012 a reality. You can make a difference.

Sincerely,

Dr. Jay Hopler
Associate Professor
Department of English
University of South Florida

Michael Gills Interview

2011-10-29T20:48:00.001-04:00

Other Words Evening Reader Michael Gills interviews about who's worth loving: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/creating-in-flow/201110/whos-worth-loving

Conference Schedule and Bios Posted

2011-10-23T09:40:00.002-04:00

Check it out: the (almost completed draft of) the 2011 Other Words Conference and Bios has been posted online:

http://floridarts.org/other-words-conference/new-2011-other-words-draft-schedule-and-bios/

FLAC Member Anhinga Press Announcement

2011-10-22T16:27:00.002-04:00

Anhinga Press Announces the Release of the Book of Lamenting by Lory Bedikian

Winner of the Philip Levine Prize for Poetry

Selected by Brian Turner, author of Here Bullet and Phantom Noise

Anhinga Press is pleased to announce the release of Lory Bedikian’s prize winning collection, The Book of Lamenting. Lory Bedikian received her BA from UCLA with an emphasis in Creative Writing, Poetry where she was twice nominated for the Ina Coolbrith Memorial Prize in Poetry. She earned her MFA in Poetry from the University of Oregon, where she was awarded the Dan Kimble First Year Teaching Award for Poetry. Her poems have been published in the Connecticut Review, Portland Review, Poetry International, Poet Lore and Heliotrope among other journals and have been included in Blue Arc West: An Anthology of California Poets. She teaches poetry workshops in Los Angeles.

Support the Tuscaloosa Community at Other Words

2011-10-19T09:26:00.000-04:00

Writers from Slash Pine Press read their work in support of the victims of the April 27 storm in Tuscaloosa, in which an EF4 tornado 3/4 of a mile wide cut a 5.9 mile swath through the city. Thousands of homes and businesses were destroyed, schools and city services were flattened, and the city's tree canopy was torn out. Donations for Temporary Emergency Services, Tuscaloosa's central agency for tornado relief, will be accepted. Slash Pine Press is part of the Department of English at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa; the press publishes two chapbooks per year, stages a variety of creative writing events, including the Poetry Hike and the Slash Pine Writers Festival, and engages in undergraduate writers exchanges with universities and colleges in the south and midwest.

Other Words adds another Conference Hotel

2011-10-13T10:38:00.000-04:00

Good news! We've filled the Monterrey Inn Motel.
We've added the Marion Motor Lodge as a conference hotel.
Info: 120 Avenida Menendez, St. Augustine, FL 32084, (904) 829-2261, (800) 258-2261
Rates for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday: $98 each night.
Be sure to ask for the "Other Words Conference" rate.
Within walking distance of Flagler College, the bayfront, and downtown St. Augustine. For more information about the location: http://marionmotorlodge.com/

YellowJacket Press Chapbook Contest

2011-10-13T10:37:00.000-04:00

YellowJacket Press (FLAC Member) announces the Eighth Annual Chapbook Contest for Florida Poets. All entrants must be permanent adult residents of Florida. Poetry manuscripts should be no longer than 24 pages, including title page, table of contents and acknowledgments. Include a brief bio, date you became a Florida resident, and SASE, along with $10 reading fee (check or money order made paya...ble to Gianna Russo). Include notice of previous publications of specific poems, if applicable. Postmark deadline is December 1, 2011. Manuscripts will not be returned. The winner(s) will be announced by March 15, 2011 and will receive $100 and 30 copies. All entrants receive a copy of the winning book.
Send submissions to: Yellow Jacket Press Chapbook Competition, c/o Gianna Russo
1410 E. Paris Street, Tampa, Fl. 33604. No e-mail submissions

Autumn House Press Publishes The Water Books

2011-09-21T11:42:00.001-04:00

Anne Waldman raves poet Judith Vollmer’s newest book The Water Books is “a remarkable achievement for its tough wit and shimmering beauties”. Vollmer’s essays and reviews are included in The Cambridge Companion to Baudelaire and elsewhere. She teaches at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg and in the Drew University MFA Program in Poetry and Poetry in Translation, and is a founding editor of the literary journal 5 AM.

Autumn House Press is participaing in the Other Words Conference in November.

http://www.autumnhouse.org/the-water-books-by-judith-vollmer/

Yellow Jacket Press Event

2011-09-21T11:09:00.000-04:00

YellowJacket Press (YJP) presents the 4th Annual Florida Poets Happy Hour and Prime Time Show, a very special evening that will spotlight the Poets Laureate of Tampa Bay. The show will take place on Friday, September 23, 2011 from 6:30-9pm at Hillsborough Community College Ybor Campus.

The event will feature James Tokley, whose book The Epic of the Sandwiche Cubano will be debuted, along with Peter Meinke, whose book Lassing Park was published by YJP in April. Both poets will read from their books and other work. They will be joined by acclaimed local poets Erica Dawson, Enid Shomer, Pamela Hill Epps, Gregory Byrd, Cole Bellamy, and Kirsten Holt. Suggested donation is $5.00

FLAC Member Terri Witek Featured on Frequency

2011-09-20T10:03:00.001-04:00

Terri Witek reads her poem “See You Tomorrow Night” on PBS Newshour. Terri Witek is the Art & Melissa Sullivan Chair in Creative Writing at Stetson University. She is the author of "The Shipwreck Dress," (2008, Florida Book Award Winner), "Carnal World" (2006), "Fools and Crows" (2003), and "Courting Couples" (2000 Center for Book Arts Prize). http://www.frequency.com/video/weekly-poem-see-you-tomorrow-night-by/16831484

Other Words Panelist: Chattahoochee Review Turns 31

2011-09-14T07:34:00.000-04:00

Now celebrating its 31st year in print, The Chattahoochee Review is under all new editorship: Editor Anna Schachner, Managing Editor Lydia Ship, Fiction Editor Andy Rogers, Nonfiction Editor Louise McKinney, Poetry Editor Michael Diebert; Art Editor Claire Paul, and Social Media Editor Michael Rowley.

Managing Editor Lydia Ship writes: "Although our roots are in the South, and we publish important writers such as William Gay, George Singleton, and Natasha Trethewey, we also publish writers from other regions of the U.S. and other countries such as Denmark, Mexico, Romania, and England. We are committed to exploring literature in translation and to writers who transgress borders, cultural and otherwise. While the Review features poetry, fiction, nonfiction, interviews, reviews, and occasional graphic work, we are also open to nontraditional forms. We value established writers but take great pride in discovering new voices. Work from The Chattahoochee Review is regularly featured in nationally published anthologies and books."

Conference Poetry Writing Workshop

2011-08-30T19:57:00.003-04:00

Conference Non-Fiction Writing Workshop with Ira Sukrungruang:

How to Make Your Life Matter

Annie Dillard says that memoirists are minor historians. As a memoirist, not only are we responsible in telling our story, but also the story of our culture. Why do our lives matter? Why does the writing of our lives matter? In this time period of political and social upheaval, how can the story of the lives of people elevate the social consciousness of our culture? Participants of this workshop will discuss the pitfalls and beauty of the contemporary memoir, and also locate themselves not only in the life of their stories but the mind of their stories.

Ira Sukrungruang is the author of the memoir Talk Thai: The Adventures of Buddhist Boy. His work has appeared many literary journals, including Post Road, The Sun, and Creative Nonfiction. He is the editor of Sweet: A Literary Confection (sweetlit.com), and teaches in the MFA program at University of South Florida. For more information about him, please visit: www.sukrungruang.com.

Conference Poetry Writing Workshop

2011-08-29T20:24:00.001-04:00

Conference Writing Workshop with Terri Witek (Stetson University Sullivan Chair in Creative Writing): "Poetry in the Gallery"--the workshop will meet in the Crisp Ellert Art Museum and writers will generate new work inspired by/based on/ that space. Registration forms will be posted on the floridarts.org website soon.

Florida Literary Community Loses Iconic Author Stetson Kennedy

2011-08-28T09:19:00.012-04:00

Stetson Kennedy, Florida's last living link to the WPA Federal Writers' Project, died Saturday, August 27, at the age of 94. He had studied at the University of Florida in a class taught by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and served the Roosevelt-era project as writer and editor of Florida: A Guide to the Southernmost State, still regarded as a milestone portrait of the state. At the age of 21, Kennedy was hired as director of the folklore division, in which role he "supervised" and collaborated with Zora Neale Hurston, another unemployed and little-known writer who had just published Their Eyes Were Watching God.

He later continued to write and publish work as a Florida folklorist and civil rights activist. His books included Palmetto Country, published in the American Folklore Series edited by Erskine Cladwell in 1942, and the important civil rights book I Rode with the Ku Klux Klan (also re-published as The Klan Unmasked) in 1954.

He was inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame in 2005.

Stetson Kennedy photo by Ivy Bigbee courtesy of Florida Artists Hall of Fame website, Florida Division of Cultural Affairs.

Reviewed: “I Wore the Ocean in the Shape of a Girl”

2011-08-22T14:51:00.002-04:00

Kelle Groom's (FLAC member) memoir was reviewed in the New York Times Sunday Book Review

Other Words Special Guest

2011-08-22T14:23:00.000-04:00

Julie Lequin is a French Canadian artist currently based in Quebec. She received a B.F.A. from Concordia University, Montreal, PQ in 2001 and an M.F.A. from Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA in 2005. Julie's multidisciplinary practice interweaves personal history with fictionalized events and circumstances in a manner that constantly blurs the line between the artist as individual and the artist as self-consciously constructed persona. She has exhibited at the Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum in California, La Centrale Powerhouse in Montreal, White Columns in New York City and was most recently included in Between Document and Fiction at MausHabitos in Oporto, Portugual. Lequin was recently honored with the Joseph S. Stauffer Award from the Canada Council for the Arts and has completed residencies at Yaddo, Art Omi, Macdowell Colony and Les Recollets in Paris. 2nd Cannons Publications published her first book and DVD project in 2007.

Conference Evening Reader: Carol Frost

2011-08-16T16:36:00.000-04:00

Carol Frost, director of is the author of eleven books of poems. The Queen's Desertion, I Will Say Beauty, Love and Scorn: New and Selected Poems, all from Northwestern University Press, are recent volumes. The Florida Book Awards named her latest poetry collection Honeycomb the gold medal winner in poetry for 2010. Her poems have appeared in four Pushcart Prize anthologies, and she has been a recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships. The Poets’ Prize and Elliston Award committees have also honored her work.

Carol Frost is the Theodore Bruce and Barbara Lawrence Alfond Chair at Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida, where she is professor of English and the Director of Winter with the Writers, A Festival of the Literary Arts. She is also a fore faculty member of the New England College Master of Fine Arts Program in Poetry. She spends time and writes each spring on Florida's "Nature Coast" in Cedar Key.

For more information visit:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/uploads/authors/carol-frost/448x/carol-frost.jpg

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/carol-frost

Watch our website for scheduling information.

Florida Writer's Circuit

2011-08-08T12:55:00.000-04:00

This year's FLAC Florida Writer's Circuit (amazing!):
Peter Trachtenberg--October 2011
Erika Meitner--November 2011
Gerry LaFemina--November 2011
Tim Seibles--February 2012
John Blair--April 2012

Thanks to Gianmarc, Rick, and Richard for all their work!

visit http://www.floridarts.org/florida-writer-s-circuit/ for more info

"Marketing Your Work by Marketing Yourself"

2011-07-29T12:42:00.000-04:00

Planned Conference Workshop: "Marketing Your Work by Marketing Yourself"
by M. Scott Douglass of the Main Street Rag Publishing Company

There is little doubt about the correlation between how well and author reads his or her work in front of an audience and whether the audience buys that work afterward. In this workshop, participants will have an opportunity to discuss and identify strengths and weaknesses within their own approach to public reading as well as techniques and suggestions that may enhance whatever skill level they already have. Participants should come prepared to read something.

www.floridarts.org/other-words-conference

2011-07-27T10:04:00.000-04:00

Peter Trachtenberg will be on the Florida Writer's Circuit this fall. He is the author of The Book of Calamities: Five Questions About Suffering and Its Meaning (Little, Brown 2008), a book that combines reportage, memoir, and moral philosophy to explore suffering and its narratives, which won the 2009 Phi Beta Kappa Ralph Waldo Emerson Award for works that contribute significantly to interpretations of the intellectual and cultural condition of humanity. In 1997, his debut book, Seven Tattoos: A Memoir in the Flesh (Crown) was published. Of this book, the Montreal Gazette wrote, “Seven Tattoos is like a Lou Reed record: off-key and on the mark at the same time….A reminder that the memoir, when it’s revealing and reflective, can go where the best literature has always sought to go—straight to the human heart.”

For dates and locations visit: www.floridart.org/calendar

Planned Conference Panel

2011-07-25T11:52:00.000-04:00

"Collaboration: A Dialogue" with Michael Kemp, Lawrence Hetrick, Sean Sexton, and Patricia Waters. This collaboration takes place between four artists/writers who work and travel readily between the literary, visual and tactile arts in their daily work. This is an ongoing series which began at the Other Words Conference in 2009. The panel will include discussion, visual resources and exposition of book projects that have evolved from the four artists association with one another over the years.

Some of the presses coming to the Other Words Conference (and their readers)

2011-07-25T11:48:00.000-04:00

Anhinga Press (Gerry LaFamina and others)
Autumn House Press (Philip Terman, Connie Hales, Rick Campbell)
All Nations Press (Tom Williams, Bob Kunzinger, Jillian Weise)
University of Tampa Press (TBA)

Proposal Deadline Extended

2011-07-13T17:29:00.000-04:00

The deadline for Other Words Conference proposals for panels is now August 1st. Please contact rick@floridarts.org or jim@floridarts.org with panel proposals.

Michael Hettich, winner of Swan Scythe Press Contest

2011-07-13T17:16:00.000-04:00

Congratulations FLAC Member Michael Hettich:

2011 SWAN SCYTHE PRESS CHAPBOOK CONTEST WINNER

SACRAMENTO, CA, JULY 10, 2011 –- Swan Scythe Press, one of the U.S.’s most respected poetry publishers, today announced the winner of the 2011 Swan Scythe Press Poetry Chapbook Contest. The winning manuscript is The Measured Breathing by Michael Hettich of Miami Shores, Florida.

Mr. Hettich’s manuscript will be published by Swan Scythe Press in Fall 2011, and he will receive a $200 award for his work. According to Swan Scythe Press’s editor, James DenBoer, his choice of the contest winner was based on “Michael Hettich’s distinct voice; his work stood out immediately from the large number of competent and interesting poets who entered our contest. I was particularly impressed by his ability to write a book of lyric poems without using the word “I” and by his startling images of transformation and transcendence.”

Michael Hettich's poetry has appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, Cake, Hamilton Stone Review, International Literary Quarterly, Poetry East, and many other literary journals. His most recently-published book of poems is Like Happiness, from Anhinga Press; a new book, The Animals Beyond Us, is forth-coming from New Rivers Press. Born in Brooklyn, NY, he now teaches at Miami Dade College.

Swan Scythe Press was founded in 2000 by poet Sandra McPherson, and is now edited by James DenBoer, also a poet. The Measured Breathing was chosen as the contest winner from among 165 entries, from 34 U.S. states and 4 foreign countries. Mr. DenBoer made the final selection of the winner, with the help of a small group of outside readers. Mr Hettich’s book will be the 32nd book of poetry published by Swan Scythe Press. Its authors have won many awards and prizes, and have distinguished themselves as artists and educators throughout the U.S. and abroad.

For more information on Swan Scythe Press itself, please see the Press’s website at http://www.swanscythe.com, email the editor directly at jimzbookz@yahoo.com, or write to the press at 515 P Street, #804, Sacramento CA 95814.

Conference Hotel Information

2011-06-27T13:56:00.000-04:00

When staying in St. Augustine for the conference, save money at the official Conference Hotel, The Monterey Inn and ask for the "Other Words Conference/Florida Literary Arts Coalition" Rate.

Prices:
Thursday $79
Friday $99
Saturday $99

For more information about this location visit: themontereyinn.com

Other Words to be dedicated to the memory of Jeanne Leiby

2011-05-09T15:20:00.001-04:00

Jeanne Leiby contributed high professional standards as well as contagious energy and enthusiasm to the early years of the Florida Literary Arts Coalition. She was not only a great source for creative ideas, but a strong supporter of good ideas from others. Although she hailed from Michigan, she worked her way south, earning her MFA at the University of Alabama and then winding up in Florida in 2004 when she became editor of the Florida Review. She embraced Florida, and she enlivened and enriched literary arts in the state while she was here. She will be deeply missed.

Call for Proposals and Book Fair Participation

2011-04-29T11:03:00.000-04:00

2011 Other Words Conference
Florida Literary Arts Coalition
St. Augustine, Florida
November 10th-12th, 2011

Call for Proposals and Book Fair Participation
The Other Words conference welcomes proposals for 1:15 minute panels on the theme of "Writing for an Audience" for the 2011 Conference, to be held on the historic Flagler College Campus. The conference is open to all who are interested in the contemporary practice of literary writing, and will offer a mixture of panels, workshops and readings. Additionally, there will be readings of poetry, fiction, or nonfiction.

Please send panel and reading submissions by May 20th, 2011.

Broadly, we see "Writing for an Audience" as panels on themes such as how to determine who your audience is, writing to a community (artists, children, teens, etc.), writing for public readings, writing to get published in literary journals, writing to get an agent's attention, among others. There will also the more pragmatic, nuts and bolts panels about publishing, submitting work, agents, editors, small presses, teaching creative writing, collaboration, and others.

We will offer (for a small additional fee) creative writing workshops in fiction, poetry, and nonfiction and screenplays. Our writing staff (also for an additional fee) will offer individual manuscript consultations or advice for publishing one’s work.

Publishers and journals may sponsor readings by their authors by signing up for a table at the book fair and paying a fee above the cost of a table alone.

This information will be posted on the FLAC/Other Words blogspot, Facebook page, and website. (Please see http://flacnews.blogspot.com/ and http://www.floridarts.org/, and become a fan on Facebook.

Further details about scheduling, participating writers, conference hotels, and more will be posted soon.

Please include:
1. Panel Title
2. Description (up to 300 words)
3. List of up to 4 participants with names, affiliation (for example, which university, museum, press, etc) and complete contact information including e-mail addresses . Please indicate if you are conference sponsors or institutional members of the Florida Literary Arts Coalition when you submit. Indicate too which participant will be the main contact; that person will hear from the conference by mid-summer. Please submit early: we regret that the number of available slots means only the most competitive proposals will be considered.
4. List any AV or other special requests for your panel.

Submit proposals to:

Rick Campbell, FLAC, rc2121@tds.net
Jim Wilson, Flagler College, jmwilson@flagler.edu

Conference dates November 10-12, 2011

New Poetry Prize from YellowJacket Press

2011-01-29T09:13:00.000-05:00

YellowJacket Press announced the establishment of the Peter Meinke Prize for a poetry chapbook. Long considered a Florida treasure, Peter Meinke was the director of the Writing Workshop at Eckerd College for over 20 years and is the author of over a dozen poetry, fiction and nonfiction books, including The Contracted World: New and Selected Poems (University of Pittsburgh Press) and The Shape of Poetry, (The Writer, Inc.). In 2009, Meinke was appointed the first ever Poet Laureate of St. Petersburg. For more information about Peter Meinke, see his website at http://petermeinke.com

Poetry manuscripts for the Peter Meinke Prize should be no longer than 24 pages, including title page, table of contents and acknowledgments. All entrants must be permanent adult residents of Florida. Include a brief bio, date you became a Florida resident, notice of previous publications of specific poems, if applicable, and SASE. The contest is free, but only one manuscript per contestant may be submitted.

Submissions must be postmarked between February 15-25, 2011. Manuscripts will not be returned. The winner(s) will be announced by March 15, 2011, the same date upon which YellowJacket Press will announce the winner of its Annual Chapbook Contest for Florida Poets. The winner of the Peter Meinke Prize will receive 30 copies of his/her book, $100 and will be invited to read with Meinke and other poets during the National Poetry Month reading in April.

Send submissions to: YellowJacket Press, Peter Meinke Prize, c/o Gianna Russo,

1410 E. Paris Street, Tampa, Fl. 33604. No e-mail submissions.

Other Words Presenter Wil Haygood Wins Kudos!

2010-10-03T19:32:00.000-04:00

Breaking news: Other Words presenter Wil Haygood has just been named a runner-up for the 2010 PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing for his book Sweet Thunder: The Life and Times of Sugar Ray Robinson. The award recognizes outstanding books about sports published in 2009. Congratulations!

UT Books Honored by Southeastern Libraries Association

2010-10-03T19:29:00.000-04:00

The Southeastern Libraries Association has honored the University of Tampa Press with Awards of Excellence for three of its books in the Southern Book Competition Awards, 2008 and 2009. Sponsored every two years by the Southeastern Libraries Association, the Southern Book Competition Award Committee gave its highest award, the 2009 Award of Excellence, to Lines from Neuchatel, a collection of poems by St. Petersburg Poet Laureate Peter Meinke, with drawings by Jeanne Meinke, and the 2008 Award of Excellence for Dust Jacket Design to The White Bride, a collection of poems by Sarah Maclay, who will be reading and presenting at this year’s Florida Literary Arts Coalition “Other Words” conference in St. Augustine. The committee also issued a 2009 Special Award to Lankes: His Woodcut Miniatures by J. J. Lankes, a limited edition hand-printed letterpress miniature book and the first handmade book produced by the University of Tampa Press at its Tampa Book Arts Studio. It was printed on the 1848 Washington Hand Press once owned by the American woodcut artist J. J. Lankes, on which he printed his woodcut illustrations for books by Robert Frost, Sherwood Anderson, and others.

The winning books will be part of a traveling exhibit that debuted at the joint conference of the Arkansas Library Association and the Southeastern Library Association in Little Rock, Arkansas. The exhibit of will then travel to various libraries throughout the Southeast. A copy of each book will also become part of the permanent archive held by the W. T. Young Library of the University of Kentucky.

Liz Robbins Hits Radio

2010-09-14T08:09:00.000-04:00

Flagler College professor and poet Liz Robbins is featured on Red River Writers Live radio. She reads her poems "Jesus, My Suitor," "Studio," "Kentucky Derby Poem (2008)," "Horror Flicks, or Poem Beginning with a Line by Auden," "Poem with Oceanic Variables," "God Poem," "The Letter (1940)," and "My Soul Went to Hastings, and All I Got Was This Lousy Crack Pipe." Check it out!

Yellow Jacket Press Happy Hour Benefit!

2010-09-08T12:50:00.000-04:00

The 3nd Annual Florida Poets Happy Hour and Prime Time Show
Friday, September 24, 2010, 6-9pm.
Tre Amici at the Ybor Bunker
1907 N. 19th St. Ybor City, Tampa
813-247-6964
Suggested donation: $5.00

Join YellowJacket Press (YJP) for a TGIF happening! The 3nd Annual Florida Poets Happy Hour and Prime Time Show will take place on Friday, September 24, 2010, from 6-9 pm. The event will feature "poetry specials” throughout the night by YellowJacket Press Poets and other well-known Florida poets.

Peter Meinke, Poet Laureate of St. Petersburg, will read along with YJP poets Cole Bellamy, Gregory Byrd, Robert S. Carr, Nyssa Hanger, Kirsten Holt, Susan Lilley, Jesse Millner. Guest poets include Silvia Curbelo, Philip F. Deaver, Melissa Fair, Phyllis McEwen, and Enid Shomer.

The evening will include food and drink specials, book sales, and a raffle. In addition, a silent auction will allow guests to bid on a dozen one-of a kind individualized and literary experiences.

The 3nd Annual Florida Poets Happy Hour and Prime Time Show rides the wave of Tampa’s cultural happenings. It will take place at Tre Amici at the Ybor Bunker, the most welcoming venue for artists of all stripes in Ybor City. We envision people coming and going throughout the evening, not necessarily staying the whole night. Come for a reading, an hour, or the whole evening--but do come!

A $5.00 donation will support YellowJacket Press a 501c3 non-profit.

YellowJacket Press is an independent poetry press and currently the only publisher of poetry chapbook manuscripts in Florida. Established in 2005 by Gianna Russo, YJP sponsors the annual Chapbook Contest for Florida Poets. Renowned across the state, the contest identifies the state’s most vital and vibrant poets and brings their exhilarating, well-crafted poems to the public eye.

Happy Hour, readings at 6:15 pm
Prime Time, readings at 7:00 pm
Raffle and Auction at 8pm
Last Call, readings at 8:20 pm

Update on Kelle Groom Memoir

2010-08-26T14:39:00.000-04:00

We congratulated Kelle Groom a little while back on the upcoming publication of her new memoir, but now there's even better news! I Wore the Ocean in the Shape of a Girl will be published by The Free Press/Simon & Schuster in September 2011, not 2012 as we initially reported. Way to go, Kelle! Can't wait for the release.

SCREENWRITING JUST ADDED!

2010-08-26T14:34:00.000-04:00

This year, for the first time, the Other Words conference will feature a workshop in screenwriting, in addition to the core workshops in fiction, poetry, non-fiction, publishing and more. Be sure to visit the FLAC/Other Words site for registration information and more details!

Bartleby, the Sportscaster

2010-08-16T11:07:00.000-04:00

Check out Ted Pelton's novella here: Ted was a presenter at last year's Other Words Conference in St. Augustine. Congrats, Ted!

Holiday Inn Special Rate for 2010 Conference

2010-08-16T11:02:00.000-04:00

Holiday Inn is helping out for our November conference. They are offering $79 for Thursday night (11/4) and $89 for Fri and Sat nights (11/5 and 11/6). Address: 1302 North Ponce de Leon Blvd. St. Augustine, FL 32084 Phone: 800-569-8008. Ask for the “Florida Literary Arts Conference” rate. And don't forget we still have deals at the Bayfront Hilton and The Monterrey Inn. Scroll down for more info.

Dennis Hinrichsen Wins Tampa Review Prize

2010-07-27T08:04:00.000-04:00

Poet Dennis Hinrichsen of Lansing, Michigan, has won the 2010 Tampa Review Prize for Poetry. He receives a $2,000 cash award and book publication by the University of Tampa Press for his winning manuscript, Rip-tooth. His book will be released simultaneously in hardback and quality paperback editions in early 2011. Read more!

Hotel Deals for Other Words Conference!

2010-07-20T11:51:00.000-04:00

Monterrey Inn
904-824-4482
Nov. 4-6, 2010
Thursday: $70
Friday: $99
Saturday: $99
Ask for "Other Words Conference" rate.

Bayfront Hilton
1-800-Hiltons
Thurs, Fri, Sat: $239 each.
Ask for "Other Words Conference" rate.
Reserve room by Oct. 6th for rate.

Congratulations, Poet Rhett Trull

2010-07-08T12:46:00.000-04:00

Rhett Trull, a presenter at last year's Other Words conference, has earned well-deserved recognition recently. Her book The Real Warnings (Anhinga Press, 2009), winner of the 2008 Anhinga Prize for Poetry, has received three book awards: the 2010 Devil's Kitchen Reading Award in Poetry from Southern Illinois University, given for the best book of poetry published in 2009; the North Carolina Poetry Society's 2010 Brockman Campbell Book Award and the Poetry Council of North Carolina's 2010 Oscar Arnold Young Book Award, both given to the best collection by a N.C. author published in 2009. Congratulations, Rhett!

Katie Riegel and Yellow Jacket Press!

2010-07-08T12:44:00.000-04:00

Congratulations to Yellow Jacket Press board member Katie Riegel, whose poetry collection Castaway was a finalist for the FutureCycle Poetry Book Prize. Her book will be published in the near future. Way to go, Katie! Upcoming Yellow Jacket Press Events: Sept. 11, Tampa--Deep Carnivale--YJP is involved and will most likely have a reading slot. Sep. 24th--3rd Annual YJP Happy Hour and Prime Time Show--all YJP poets are invited to read.

Register NOW for Other Words!!

2010-07-01T12:10:00.000-04:00

Registration is now open for the Sixth Annual Other Words Conference, Nov 4-6, 2010, held again this year in St. Augustine, Florida on the campus of Flagler College. Click here to download your registration form, and we'll see you in November!

Kelle Groom to Publish Memoir

2010-06-01T12:11:00.001-04:00

Big congratulations in order! Kelle Groom's memoir, I Wore the Ocean in the Shape of a Girl, will be published by The Free Press/Simon & Schuster (Fall 2012). Way to go, Kelle. We'll be watching for the release.

Other Words 2010 Call for Proposals and Book Fair Participation

2010-05-24T10:32:00.000-04:00

We are starting to plan our 2010 Other Words Conference. It will be held on the Flagler College campus in St. Augustine, Florida, as it has the last two years. The dates for this year’s conference are November 4-6.

On Thursday, November 4, we will kick off the conference with a reading by local writers William Slaughter and Laura Lee Smith. The Thursday reading will begin at 7:30 pm.

Friday and Saturday events will follow the pattern established in the last two years with panels and readings scheduled from 9 am to 5:30 pm and then we will gather again for evening readings. We will have a keynote event by Jeffrey Lependorf of CLMP and SPD. The evening reading schedule will feature Wil Haygood on Friday night and Diane Wakoski and Terese Svoboda on Saturday night. There will not be any Sunday activities this year.

The theme of this year’s conference is, loosely speaking, “Writing About Something.” Broadly, we see this as meaning that panels should have a theme such as writing about art, writing about place, writing about baseball, writing about physics, etc. This will allow participants who want to include readings of their poetry, fiction, or nonfiction in their presentation to do so as long as it follows the thematic guidelines. There will also the more pragmatic, nuts and bolts panels about publishing, submitting work, agents, editors, small presses, teaching creative writing, collaboration, and others.

We will also offer (for a small additional fee) creative writing workshops in fiction, poetry, and nonfiction and special sessions of workshops as outreach to underserved youth. Our writing faculty, as of now, includes Terri Witek (poetry); Mark Powell (fiction); Lisa Zimmerman (poetry); Tania Rochelle (poetry). Our writing staff (also for an additional fee) will offer individual manuscript consultations or advice for publishing one’s work.

Publishers and journals will be able to sponsor readings by their authors by signing up for a table at the book fair and paying a fee above the cost of a table alone.

At this time we are ready to entertain panel proposals in any area and to discuss with small presses and journals the methods for getting sponsored readings.

This information will be posted on the FLAC/Other Words blogspot, Facebook page, and website. (Please see http://flacnews.blogspot.com/ and http://www.floridarts.org/, and become a fan on Facebook by searching “Other Words Conference.”)

To make a proposal or get more information, please email Rick Campbell or Jim Wilson. Further details about scheduling, participating writers, conference hotels, and more will be posted soon.

Rick Campbell, FLAC, rc2121@tds.net
Jim Wilson, Flagler College, jmwilson@flagler.edu

FLAC "Other Words" Conference Nov. 4, 5, & 6, 2010
Flagler College, St. Augustine, Florida

Thursday, Nov. 4, 7: 30 p.m., Flagler Room: Laura Lee Smith and William Slaughter.

Laura Lee Smith's short fiction was selected by guest editor Amy Hempel for inclusion in New Stories from the South: The Year’s Best, 2010. Her work has also appeared in The Florida Review, Natural Bridge, Bayou and other journals, and it received the Snake Nation Press prize for short fiction. She teaches creative writing at Flagler College and works as an advertising copywriter. William Slaughter is editor and publisher of Mudlark, an electronic journal of poetry and poetics, "never in and never out of print"; author of The Politics of my Heart and Untold Stories; and Professor Emeritus of English at the University of North Florida.

Friday, Nov. 5, during panels: Painting and Poetry presentation by Sean Sexton

Sexton was born in Indian River County and raised on his family's Treasure Hammock Ranch where he paints and writes and takes care of 300 brood cows. His volume of poetry, Blood Writing, was published by Anhinga Press. Sexton uses the world around him as a subject for complex allegorical still-lifes and dramatic painterly landscapes. Like Jean-Francois Millet, Sean's keen observations emphasize the untamed beauty of the natural world and its stewards-- the agrarian society of the south.

Friday, Nov. 5, 7:30 p.m., Flagler Room: Wil Haygood

Haygood is a prize-winning Washington Post staff writer and an acclaimed biographer. His In Black and White: The Life of Sammy Davis Jr., won the Zora Neale Hurston-Richard Wright Legacy Award, the ASCAP Deems-Taylor Award and was named Nonfiction Book of the Year by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. King of the Cats: The Life and Times of Adam Clayton Powell Jr., was named a New York Times Notable Book. His family memoir, The Haygoods of Columbus, received the Great Lakes Book Award. His latest book is a biography of Sugar Ray Robinson, Sweet Thunder, published in 2009 by Knopf. He has been an Alicia Patterson Fellow and, for his newspaper work, a Pulitzer Prize finalist.

Saturday morning, Nov. 6: Keynote address by Jeffrey Lependorf

Executive Director of the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP), Lependorf has a long history working in the field of literary arts. From 1996-1998, he served as the Development Director of the Poetry Society of America. There he played an instrumental role in the national expansion of the Poetry in Motion program, which brings poems to subways and buses. More recently, he has worked as Development Director for Creative Capital, an innovative foundation providing direct grants to experimental artists working in a variety of disciplines.

Saturday, Nov. 6, 7:30 p.m., Flagler Room: Terese Svoboda and Diane Wakoski.

Terese Svoboda's writing has been featured in The New Yorker, Times Literary Supplement, The New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, Slate.com, Bomb, Lit, Columbia, Yale Review, and The Paris Review. Her honors include an O. Henry for the short story, a nonfiction Pushcart Prize, a translation NEH fellowship, a PEN/Columbia Fellowship, two New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships in poetry and fiction, and the Iowa Prize in poetry. Diane Wakoski has published more than forty collections of poems, including the four books that constitute her series "The Archaeology of Movies and Books"—Argonaut Rose (1998), The Emerald City of Las Vegas (1995), Jason the Sailor (1993), and Medea the Sorceress (1991)—all published by Black Sparrow Press. Her honors include a Fulbright fellowship, a Michigan Arts Foundation award, and grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Michigan Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York State Council on the Arts.

====================================================

INFORMATION SHEET
Conference dates November 4-6, 2010

A partial list of participants:

Wil Haygood
Diane Wakoski
Terese Svoboda
Lola Haskins
Ken Hart
Terri Witek
Cyriaco Lopes
Lisa Zimmerman
Tania Rochele
Mark Powell
Marc Fitten
Stephen Corey
Sean Sexton
Lynn Aarti Chandhok
Kelle Groom
Shane Seely
Carol Lynne Knight
Allison Granucci

PRESSES AND JOURNALS

Anhinga Press
Autumn House Press
Yellow Jacket Press
University of Tampa Press
The Tampa Review
The Georgia Review
The Florida Review
Apalachee Review and Press

George Hirsch Headlines Summer Workshop

2010-05-10T09:25:00.000-04:00

Join the faculty of the Anhinga Writers' Studio Summer Workshops for intensive, hands-on instruction in three separate tracks: poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. The faculty includes NEA Fellowship recipient Peter Meinke; The Southern Review editor Jeanne Leiby; poet Lola Haskins; poet and editor of Anhinga Press Rick Campbell; agent Anne Hawkins; award winning novelist Mary Anna Evans; self-publishing expert Peter Bowerman, and noted travel writer Bob Morris. Guest of honor George Hirsch, publisher of Runners World, Men's Health, and La Cucina Italia, will speak on the changing face of publishing. July 28-31, 2010. University of Florida Hilton Convention Center, Gainesville, Florida. Registration: $395 full-price, $375 through May 15. Contact information: info@anhingwriters.org or Anhinga Writers’ Studio, P.O. Box 357154, Gainesville, Florida 32635-7154. Phone: (352) 379-8782. Website: http://www.anhingawriters.org

Inaugural UCF Book Festival!

2010-03-22T12:39:00.000-04:00

Tons of great writers and poets will be appearing at UCF's Inagural Book Festival April 16-17. Look forward to catching up with Kelle Groom, Michael Hettich, John Dufresne and many, many more! Check the link for the full list of authors and events.
http://education.ucf.edu/bookfest/

New Book, Another Award Winner!

2010-03-16T13:36:00.000-04:00

A. Manette Ansay's latest novel, Good Things I Wish You, has been awarded a 2009 Florida Book Award (bronze) and will be published in paperback this June by HarperPerennial.

Ansay is the author of six novels, including Vinegar Hill, an Oprah Book Club Selection, and Midnight Champagne, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, as well as a short story collection, Read This and Tell Me What It Says, and a memoir, Limbo. Her awards include a National Endowment for the Arts Grant, a Pushcart Prize, the Nelson Algren Prize, and two Great Lakes Book Awards. She lives with her daughter in Florida, where she teaches in the MFA program at the University of Miami.

Kelle Groom Readings Coming Up!

2010-03-05T10:53:00.000-05:00

This spring, Kelle Groom will be reading from her new poetry collection Five Kingdoms at venues throughout the state. The next one is:

Saturday, April 17, Time: TBA, UCF Book Festival , UCF Arena.

Kelle Groom’s previous poetry collections are Underwater City (University of Florida, 2004), and Luckily, a Florida Book Award winner (Anhinga, 2006). Her poems have appeared in AGNI, DoubleTake, Gettysburg Review, The New Yorker, Ploughshares, Poetry, and Witness, among others.

A Bronze Medal Honor for FLAC Members

2010-03-01T14:49:00.000-05:00

Poet Peter Meinke, a featured reader at the past two FLAC Other Words Conferences, has just been awarded the Florida Book Award’s Bronze Medal for Poetry for Lines from Neuchatel: The Thirty-fifth Anniversary Edition. The special edition was published by a founding FLAC member, the University of Tampa Press. Meinke is the author of seven books of poems in the prestigious Pitt Poetry Series. He is also the author of two collections of short stories, The Piano Tuner, winner of the Flannery O’Connor Award, and, recently, Unheard Music. In 2009 he was appointed the first Poet Laureate of the City of St. Petersburg, Florida, where he and his wife, the artist Jeanne Clark, whose drawings are featured prominently in Lines from Neuchatel, have lived since 1966.

New Novel from Mary Jane Ryals

2010-02-22T15:11:00.000-05:00

Mary Jane Ryals has a novel coming out in October 2010: Cookie and Rayann, published by Kitsune Books. It’s a story of cross-racial friendship between two young teenage girls set the deep South of the 1960s. An award-winning author of nonfiction, poetry, and short stories; editor at the Apalachee Review literary magazine; and research associate at Florida State University’s College of Business, Mary Jane Ryals is also the 2008-2010 Big Bend Poet Laureate. Congratulations, Mary Jane!

Dorothy Allison at UT, March 25

2010-02-22T15:06:00.000-05:00

The University of Tampa Writers at the University series will host writer Dorothy Allison for a reading on March 25. The event is co-sponsored by UT’s student literary magazine, QUILT. Dorothy Allison grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, the first child of a fifteen-year-old unwed mother who worked as a waitress. She received the 2007 Robert Penn Warren Award for Fiction, and her books include Trash and Bastard Out of Carolina.

March 25, 8:00 p.m.
University of Tampa
Plant Hall - Grand Salon
Free – open to the public
Contact Name: Audrey Colombe
Contact E-mail acolombe@ut.edu
Contact Phone Number: (813) 257-3116

R.I.P., Robert Dana

2010-02-08T12:23:00.000-05:00

Sad news. Poet Robert Dana passed away Saturday morning, February 6, at Mercy Hospice in Iowa City after a lengthy struggle with pancreatic cancer. He died peacefully with his wife and family present. His last two books will be published in April--New & Selected Poems 1955 to 2010 (Anhinga), and a book of essays, Paris on the Flats: Versions of a Literary Life (University of Tampa). His publishers and friends will host an informal tribute at this year’s AWP Conference in Denver.

Guy Libeda, a longtime friend now with the Utah Arts Council, wrote: “He gave freely from his experience and his wisdom. I asked him for advice, not just about the lit biz, but about life & love. I looked up to him & valued his friendship. Another of our older brothers in the order has passed. Soon we will be the elders in our world. I just hope we are able to provide the kind of wisdom RP did.”

Robert Dana’s own words remain memorably eloquent, as these from his “Elegy for a Hometown”: “Soon I'll bury my own shadow & slip away like sunlight. / Simplicity's what I'm best at. / In the end, / a small box of a house by the sea. / No electricity. / No running water. Dirt floored. / Prayer, /wind & slapdash from the whereafter.”

Morrill Wins Massachusetts Review Poetry Award

2010-02-04T13:33:00.000-05:00

“Enemy Infant,” a poem by Donald Morrill, of the University of Tampa, has been awarded the 2010 Anne Halley Prize from The Massachusetts Review. The annual award, which includes a cash prize of $500, recognizes the best work to appear in the magazine in the previous year. In addition, a broadside of the poem will be produced, and Morrill will give a reading of this and other works at UMass-Amherst this spring. Congratulations!

Florida Review Call for Submissions

2010-01-29T10:35:00.000-05:00

Announcing The Florida Review 2010 Editors' Awards in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. $1,000 award and publication. Submission Deadline: February 26, 2010 (postmark). This is a blind read: title only on the manuscript; cover sheet should include title, name, and contact information. Full contest guidelines are available on our website, (http://floridareview.cah.ucf.edu/).

To enter, send $15 (includes a one-year subscription) and the manuscript to The Florida Review/UCF, Department of English, University of Central Florida, PO Box 161346, Orlando, FL 32816.

ALSO!

The Summer issue of The Florida Review, FR 35.1 is a special issue on contemporary Native American writing. The issue will be out in time for AWP in April. The issue may be purchased by mail, or by subscribing to The Florida Review. Single issue cost: $8.00. Subscription: $15.00 (by mail or at Amazon.com).

New Poems from FLAC Member Michael Hettich

2010-01-25T10:17:00.000-05:00

Michael Hettich’s new book of poems, Like Happiness, is forthcoming from Anhinga Press this spring. Hettich also has poems forthcoming in Alaska Quarterly Review, Poetry East, Prairie Schooner, South Dakota Review, Pudding, Arch, and other journals. Look for an update and new cover art coming soon!

John Henry Fleming and Fearsome Creatures

2010-01-23T13:20:00.000-05:00

Storm devils, peat fairies, and skunk apes, oh, my! FLAC member John Henry Fleming has published Fearsome Creatures of Florida, a literary bestiary of environmentally-themed Florida creatures. 20% of royalties go to the Nature Conservancy of Florida. John is also the author of The Legend of the Barefoot Mailman, a Florida novel. His short stories have appeared in McSweeney’s, The North American Review, Mississippi Review, and Fourteen Hills. He teaches creative writing at USF in Tampa.

Conference Dates Announced!

2010-01-12T08:58:00.000-05:00

Save the date . . . plenty of time to plan. The 2010 Florida Literary Arts Coalition Other Words Conference will be held November 5 and 6 in St. Augustine, Florida. That's a pretty good time of year to be in Florida, enjoying the sights of the Oldest City. Just sayin'.

Poet Chad Sweeney Turns Conference Gig into Community Service

2010-01-12T08:51:00.000-05:00

Poet Chad Sweeney, author of Arranging the Blaze, A Mirror to Shatter the Hammer, and An Architecture, turned his conference gig into community service. When Sweeney visited St. Augustine for the 2009 FLAC Other Words Conference in November, he made a special visit to the Teen Center in Hastings, Florida to work with young poets. Read all about it on Kim Bradley’s Juice Up the True Say Blog.

2010-01-08T13:24:00.000-05:00

The Other Words Conference of the Florida Literary Arts Coalition has a new logo. We're already planning for a great 2010 conference in November. More news coming soon!

Announcing the Other Words Writers' Workshops

2009-07-21T00:18:00.000-04:00

Hone your skills and build your creative energies with a full-day of Master Workshops by writers and editors from the Florida Literary Arts Coalition on Friday, November 6, 9 am-6 pm., at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida.

The daylong program will include workshops in poetry, fiction, playwriting, and creative nonfiction, an introduction to small presses, a panel on building your credentials through publishing in literary magazines and journals, a panel on promoting your work and yourself, and a panel on how to pitch a manuscript. Participating writers include Lynne Chandhok, Terri Witek, Audrey Colombe, Joseph Hayes, Jordan Smith, and Jenny Browne. Editors and publishers include Richard Mathews (Tampa Review and the University of Tampa Press), Rick Campbell (Anhinga Press), Terry Kennedy (Greensboro Review) Ted Pelton (Starcherone Press), and Michael Neff (Web Del Sol).

BUILD YOUR OWN PROGRAM: We will work with each person enrolling to build a schedule best suited to your individual interests. Cost for the Friday Workshops is just $40. Registration includes an evening reading by poets Michael Waters, Peter Meinke, Jenny Browne, and Jordan Smith. The day finishes with a reception at Flagler College's elegant Markland House for a relaxed social celebration and lively literary conversation.

Only a limited number of participants can be enrolled, so please contact us as soon as possible to reserve your place.* Here are the details: Other Words Writers' Workshops Email: Jim WIlson or Rick Campbell for questions or more information.

==================================

*The Other Words Writers’ Workshops are being planned as a pre-conference event for the annual Other Words conference of the Florida Literary Arts Coalition. Those interested in attending the writers' workshops can also register for the conference, running Saturday and Sunday on the Flagler College campus, for a special combined fee of $100. You can download a conference registration form at this link: FLAC Conference Registration.

News: A New Collaboration

2009-05-05T21:03:00.000-04:00

One of the main goals of the Florida Literary Arts Coalition, as the name suggests, is to bring together groups dedicated to the promotion of the literary arts in Florida.

To this end, this year's FLAC "Other Words" Conference, which will be held in St. Augustine, will be working with Jane's Stories of St. Augustine to assist underserved writers in the city and the St. Johns County area.

More details will follow, but rest assured, they're good ones.

Fifth Annual FLAC Conference in Planning Stage

2009-04-29T17:33:00.000-04:00

As summer rapidly approaches, board members for the Florida Literary Arts Coalition have turned up the heat on planning for the Fifth Annual "Other Words" Conference. For the second consecutive year, the gathering of independent writers, students, and publishers will take place in the nation's oldest city of St. Augustine on the campus of Flagler College.

FLAC NEWS

Jane's Stories Press update

YellowJacket Press Annual Chapbook Contest

Special Thanks, Kudos, and Praise!

Help Contemporary Literature at USF

Michael Gills Interview

Conference Schedule and Bios Posted

FLAC Member Anhinga Press Announcement

Support the Tuscaloosa Community at Other Words

Other Words adds another Conference Hotel

YellowJacket Press Chapbook Contest

Autumn House Press Publishes The Water Books

Yellow Jacket Press Event

FLAC Member Terri Witek Featured on Frequency

Other Words Panelist: Chattahoochee Review Turns 31

Conference Poetry Writing Workshop

Conference Poetry Writing Workshop

Florida Literary Community Loses Iconic Author Stetson Kennedy

Reviewed: “I Wore the Ocean in the Shape of a Girl”

Other Words Special Guest

Conference Evening Reader: Carol Frost

Florida Writer's Circuit

"Marketing Your Work by Marketing Yourself"

Planned Conference Panel

Some of the presses coming to the Other Words Conference (and their readers)

Proposal Deadline Extended

The deadline for Other Words Conference proposals for panels is now August 1st. Please contact rick@floridarts.org or jim@floridarts.org with panel proposals.

Michael Hettich, winner of Swan Scythe Press Contest

Congratulations FLAC Member Michael Hettich:

2011 SWAN SCYTHE PRESS CHAPBOOK CONTEST WINNER

Conference Hotel Information

Other Words to be dedicated to the memory of Jeanne Leiby

Call for Proposals and Book Fair Participation

New Poetry Prize from YellowJacket Press

Other Words Presenter Wil Haygood Wins Kudos!

UT Books Honored by Southeastern Libraries Association

Liz Robbins Hits Radio

Yellow Jacket Press Happy Hour Benefit!

Update on Kelle Groom Memoir

SCREENWRITING JUST ADDED!

Bartleby, the Sportscaster

Holiday Inn Special Rate for 2010 Conference

Dennis Hinrichsen Wins Tampa Review Prize

Hotel Deals for Other Words Conference!

Congratulations, Poet Rhett Trull

Katie Riegel and Yellow Jacket Press!

Register NOW for Other Words!!

Kelle Groom to Publish Memoir

Other Words 2010 Call for Proposals and Book Fair Participation

George Hirsch Headlines Summer Workshop

Inaugural UCF Book Festival!

New Book, Another Award Winner!

Kelle Groom Readings Coming Up!

A Bronze Medal Honor for FLAC Members

New Novel from Mary Jane Ryals

Dorothy Allison at UT, March 25

R.I.P., Robert Dana

Morrill Wins Massachusetts Review Poetry Award

Florida Review Call for Submissions

New Poems from FLAC Member Michael Hettich

John Henry Fleming and Fearsome Creatures

Conference Dates Announced!

Poet Chad Sweeney Turns Conference Gig into Community Service

Other Words Photos and Videos!

Announcing the Other Words Writers' Workshops

News: A New Collaboration

Fifth Annual FLAC Conference in Planning Stage