Help Contemporary Literature at USF

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

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

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

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

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

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

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