Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Poet Named Finalist for Literary Award

Dawn Lundy Martin has been named a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in the category of Poetry for her book A GATHERING OF MATTER / A MATTER OF GATHERING. The Lambda Awards recognize writers of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender literature. The winners will be announced at a ceremony in West Hollywood on May 29.

A GATHERING OF MATTER / A MATTER OF GATHERING was chosen by Carl Phillips for the 2006 Cave Canem Poetry Prize; the UGA Press published the book in 2007. Martin is the author of one other poetry collection, The Morning Hour, chosen by C. D. Wright for the Poetry Society of America's National Chapbook Fellowship.

Martin cofounded the Third Wave Foundation a feminist, activist foundation that supports young women and transgender youth working towards gender, racial, economic, and social justice. She is also coeditor of The Fire This Time: Young Activists and the New Feminism. She teaches in the English Department at the University of Pittsburgh.

Photo of Dawn Lundy Martin by Stephanie Hopkins
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Friday, March 14, 2008

Short Story Writer Recognized

Margot Singer has received an honorable mention for the 2008 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for her short story collection THE PALE OF SETTLEMENT. One of the most prestigious literary awards for first books of fiction, the PEN/Hemingway Award is given by PEN New England and the JFK Presidential Library. In addition to this year's winner, Joshua Ferris for the novel Then We Came to the End, two finalists and one other honorable mention were recognized.

Read an interview with Margot Singer in Next Book.

Check out reviews of THE PALE OF SETTLEMENT in NewPages.com, the Miami Herald, Columbus Dispatch, and Venus.

Photo of Margot Singer by Tim DeGenero

Monday, March 10, 2008

Short Takes

Interviews:
Peter LaSalle, author of TELL BORGES IF YOU SEE HIM, in Bookslut.

Major Jackson, author of LEAVING SATURN, on NPR's New Letters on the Air.

Authors in the news:
Mary Jo Bang, author of THE DOWNSTREAM EXTREMITY OF THE ISLE OF SWANS, has won the 2007 National Book Critics Award for Poetry for her collection titled Elegy.

David Crouse, author of COPY CATS, has won the Mary McCarthy Prize for Short Fiction for a short story collection that will be published in August by Sarabande Books.

Sue William Silverman, author of the memoir BECAUSE I REMEMBER TERROR, FATHER, I REMEMBER YOU, is also author of the novel Love Sick, which has been made into a movie by the Lifetime Network.

Awards:
SOUTHERN COMFORTS by Sudye Cauthen has won the bronze in Florida Nonfiction from the Florida Book Awards. Winning books and their authors will be featured in the July issue of the Florida Humanities Council's Forum magazine.

Three UGA Press titles have been named finalists for the ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Award: THE RINGING EAR (Anthologies category), DOUGH (Autobiography/Memoir category), and PROPHET FROM PLAINS (Political Science category).

Reviews:
DOUGH in Jbooks.

SPRAWLING PLACES is part of a feature on modern architecture in a recent issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education.

The spring issue of the Jewish Book World features a great review of THE PALE OF SETTLEMENT: "Singer writes clearly, succinctly, and effectively. The characters are believable, and the stories uplifting but realistic. Modern issues—terrorism and the second Lebanon war—intrude, but do not overwhelm, a testament to Singer’s skill and artistry."

The unaugural volumes in the VQR Poetry Series were featured in a full-page spread in a recent issue of Publishers Weekly:
- BOY (starred review): "This second collection from Kate Tufts Award–winner Phillips ... is haunted by memories, could-have-beens and what-ifs ... Phillips is consumed with his vulnerability as a parent and finds himself lost in the cyclical recurrences of time."
- THE HISTORY OF ANONYMITY: "[Chang] is at her best and boldest in raw poems ... The final section continues the narrative of the victimized child, her sister, and her mother, with frankness and a refreshing lack of melodrama."
- HARDSCRABBLE: "This debut showcases a wild and powerful wit in action."
- FIELD FOLLY SNOW: "The sharp, pastoral imagery of Parks’s debut is set ablaze by an ominous tone and the author’s fine musical ear. Her tight tercets and prose blocks convey a sense of isolation, which, when broken by the appearance of someone other than the speaker, is as jarring as a rock heaved into a still pond."

PROPHET FROM PLAINS by Frye Gaillard in the National Catholic Reporter.

GROUNDED GLOBALISM by James L. Peacock in the Nashville Tennessean.

THE PALE OF SETTLEMENT by Margot Singer in NewPages.com.

NEW ORLEANS AFTER THE PROMISES by Kent Germany in the American Historical Review.

We get blogged:
Sudye Cauthen, author of SOUTHERN COMFORTS, has a new blog.

Recommendation for THE UNABRIDGED DEVIL'S DICTIONARY by Ambrose Bierce in Etcetera Whatever

Praise for Michael Martone, author of RACING IN PLACE, in Zyzzyvaspeaks

Reflections on Erskine Caldwell's TOBACCO ROAD and GOD'S LITTLE ACRE in The View from Graustark

Mention of EQUIANO THE AFRICAN by Vincent Carretta in African Disapora, Ph.D.

Monday, March 03, 2008

Get to Know Donny Hathaway

For many fans of old school R&B, the music of Donny Hathaway is sacred. Hathaway's suicide in 1979 at the age of thirty-three ended a troubled and enigmatic life, but in that short time he left a body of compositions and recordings that continue to earn devoted fans around the world.

Hathaway continues to inspire musicians and his presence is being felt in more mainstream circles today. In Amy Winehouse's Grammy-winning hit "Rehab," she sings, "I'd rather be at home with Ray / I ain't got seventy days / Cause there's nothing / There's nothing you can teach me / That I can't learn from Mr. Hathaway." And recently on American Idol, contestant Chikezie sang Hathaway's "I Believe To My Soul." Not only did he perform Hathaway's music, but he did so with backing vocals by Kenya Hathaway, a daughter of Donny who is in the American Idol house band.

Poet Ed Pavlic has long been fascinated by Hathaway and his music. In WINNERS HAVE YET TO BE ANNOUNCED: A SONG FOR DONNY HATHAWAY, he uses poetry to get inside the performer's head and to portray how he saw and was seen by the world. "To capture the monumental paradoxes and prismatic genius of Donny Hathaway," says Michael Eric Dyson, "one must have an epic imagination and a sense of language that flames in poetry toward transcendent truth. Ed Pavlic rises to the task admirably."

If you don't know Hathaway's music and want to hear what all the fuss is about, check out the wonderful reissues on Rhino Records. Here's hoping that Hathaway is finally starting to get his due, more widely, for the musical genius he was.

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