IthacaLit Issue One: Autumn

IthacaLit is a new online journal that features poetry and art. Their inaugral issue is now online: IthacaLit Issue One: Autumn. In addition to the Poets page, there is a gallery page + an interview with artist Lin Price, and an essay on Audre Lorde's poetry: "Crafting Her Life".

About IthacaLit
Michele Lesko founded IthacaLit, thinking her new hometown would be well represented by both the actual & mythical journey to Ithaca. Ithaca is a dynamic town with both the Ivy League Cornell University and Ithaca College, historically well known for its music & arts programs. Ithaca is Gorges is more than a clever slogan; Ithaca has the kind of stunning natural beauty that many travel far to see. Set at the edge of Cayuga Lake, with a thriving, artsy downtown commons, Ithaca is a very supportive place for artists & writers to explore.

From the equally stunning state of Montana, Sherry O'Keefe joined Michele in the pursuit of the best voices in contemporary poetry. Montana is a vast, wide-open, sparsely populated state best experienced by traveling through and taking time to stop as many times as possible. Here you will find the middle of nowhere and after a bit of time you'll come to realize the middle of nowhere becomes the center of everything. It's a great place to locate your inner poetry.

"We look for writing that honors the beggar & the hero. We hope the work published in IthacLit will take you home: your home, our home, the real & the imagined, quite simply the home that connects your spirit with the world surrounding you as well as the mythical home we journey toward throughout our lives."

Contributors to IthacaLit's first issue are: Madeleine Beckman, Kelly N. Cockerham, Risa Denenberg, Alex Grant, Mike Harrell, Rose Hunter, Susan Johnson, Kathleen Kirk, Diane Lockward, Katharyn Howd Machan, Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé, Uche Ogbuji and painter Lin Price.

Call for the IthacaLit Winter Issue
IthacaLit is now open to submissions for the Winter issue, guidelines.

IthacaLit 
Issue One: Autumn

Persist: In Praise of the Creative Spirit in a World Gone Mad with Commerce - Peter Clothier (Parami)

Persist: In Praise of the Creative Spirit in a World Gone Mad with Commerce is a collection of essays spanning thirty years of engagement with the culture of our times. Peter Clothier is a long-time student of the dharma and a meditation practitioner. In this context he examines the qualities of compassion, perseverance, and discernment in his reflections on the artist’s predicament in a world that judges success in terms of celebrity and material reward. Persist explores ways today's artists in any medium can find fulfillment, a sense of purpose, and joy in alternative and more lasting values.

Peter Clothier has served as an educator and an art school dean variously at the University of Southern California, Otis Art Institute and Loyola Marymount University. Clothier left academia many years ago to devote himself full time to his writing. He still describes himself as a “recovering academic.” A student of the dharma who follows a daily meditation practice, he is the author of the online weblog, The Buddha Diaries; his political passions find their outlet in his regular contributions to The Huffington Post.

About Parami Press
Parami Press is an independent book publisher situated in Vancouver, Canada, and focuses on books from a Buddhist point of view. Their book program includes:  "One Monk, Many Masters - The Wanderings of a a Simple Buddhist Traveler" by Paul Breiter; "The Ten Perfections - a Study Guide" by Thanissaro Bhikku and "Mapping the Dharma" by Paul Gerhards.

Peter Clothier: Persist
collected essays
132 pages
ISBN: 978-0-9779774-1-3

note: this book feature was inspired by Jean Morris' blog post "Persist"

Stone Highway Review #1

Stone Highway is a new literary journal of short prose and poetry, dedicated to language - to work that haunts, electrifies, tingles: "We like creativity. We believe the imagination contains as much truth as "truth."

The issue is available as print copy + free PDF dowload. The website also includes an extra page with colored versions of the included photography and artwork, and a blog.

Contributors included in the first issue are: Michelle Reale, Paul David Adkins, James W. Hritz, Ariana D. Den Bleyker, Kim King, Peter Schireson, Jenny Catlin, Maggie Koger, Caitlin Elizabeth Thomson, Christina Dubach, Len Kuntz, Christopher Woods, William Doreski, Devon Miller-Duggan, Dr. Ernest Williamson III, Tom Holmes, Christina Murphy, Alex Yuschik, Ruth Holzer and Jenny Ortiz.

About Stone Highway
The magazine is edited by Mary Stone Dockery who is interested in "new stuff, the writers who dare to breaks some rules, who write about what we “shouldn’t” write about, in surreal and magical ways…" and by  Amanda Hash, who loves "writing that really pays attention to language and the beauty of finding the right words". For some more notes on the magazine, try the Everyday Other Things feature.
Stone Highway will publish twice yearly, in both print and electronic format. Submissions are now open for the next issue. Guidelines

Stone Highway Review
literary journal

Festival of the Trees #63: Slugyard University

The Festival of the Trees is a monthly blog carnival for all things arboreal, hosted at a different blog each month.

The theme of edition 63 is: How animals and other wildlife interact with trees: "Keep your eyes and ears open, and take a look at what the wildlife are up to–up in the trees. Send the link to your blog post, video, podcast, slideshow, or other e-tree-creation."

The collected contributions are now online at Slugyard University

Edition Announcement"Go back to school with the Festival of the Trees! Edition #63 finds us at Slugyard University, where the learning never stops because, as everyone knows, beer is fatal to slugs. Many of the links this time fit the announced theme of trees and wildlife. The contributors (now promoted to professor status) found marbled murrelets, grey herons, tufted titmice, collared doves, varied carpet beetles, termites, fire ants… even, improbably, a pair of turtle shells in the trees. Classes at Slug U aren’t restricted to science, however, but include offerings in art, literature, religion, and conservation, too. Don’t be late to class!"

Upcoming Festival + Previous EditionsAn info page with current calls and an archive of previous editions can be found at Festival of the Trees. The next festival of the Trees will be hosted at European Trees, the theme is open - all tree topics are welcome. Deadline is Sept. 30.

Festival of Trees #63
a blog carnival

related links: nature, web projects

ECSTATIC/.of facts - Raymon Farr (Otoliths)

In ECSTATIC/.of facts, his latest book of poetry, Raymond Farr investigates the relationship between language, meaning and culture, and explores how language can shape new worlds out of the American suburban culture of generic mega stores, chain restaurants and popular music - "With an astute sense of phrasing and rhythm, Farr reveals that under the “Onslaught of language,” we find the “amber light of meaning stares back” from something as “fundamental as chaos.” - John C. Goodman

Some samples of the collection are online at Ditch: Paraboles of Paul Eluard & other poems

Raymond Farr lives in Ocala, FL. He has published widely in recent years. His work appears in Otoliths, Cricket On Line Review, BlazeVox2kX, Letterbox, Ditch, The Argotist On Line, Cannot Exist, EOAGH, Moria, Out of Nothing, Clutching at Straws, Kill Author, Text Base, Xstream, & Apocryphal Text. His chap book, Two Hats Appear When Applauded, is available free at Dusie. All four of his poetry books may be previewed and purchased at the Blue & Yellow Dog Book Shop. He is editor of Blue & Yellow Dog - which just has a new issue out that includes a special APG poetry feature, check it out here: B&YDog #6.

About Otoliths
Otoliths is a magazine of many e-things, published by Mark Young, Australia. The online issue of Otoliths appears quarterly, the current issue is: southern winter, 2011. The publishing arm of Otoliths began as print editions of the e-zine Otoliths, but has since expanded to include books & chapbooks by authors associated with the journal.

Raymon Farr: ECSTATIC/.of facts
poetry collection
112 pages, $13.45
ISBN 978-0-9808785-3-0