Dear LPG Canada group members:

The Literary Press Group of Canada announces its national reading campaign, FIERY FIRST FICTION, in the month of May 2008.

Fiery First Fiction features 14 of the season’s hot new first-fiction titles from literary presses across Canada. The idea came about from the desire to support independent publishers who often take great risks by believing in and signing on new literary voices in a small industry burgeoning with bestselling books from south of the border.

The selected short story and long fiction titles feature a roster of new talent from various backgrounds, including magazine editors Nathan Whitlock, Arjun Basu, and Naomi K. Lewis; playwright Claudia Dey; university professors and poets Richard Lemm and Lesley Belleau; creative writing program graduates Shari Lapeña and Nila Gupta; screenwriter Jason Brink; and illustrator Jim Westergard.

IT’S A WIN-WIN SITUATION!
Look for readings in your cities: Montreal, Toronto, Edmonton, North Bay, and Vancouver. Walk into any participating independent bookstore (see our web site for locations), buy a Fiery First Fiction book, and get a beautiful limited edition FFF canvas bag FREE. Best of all, participate in the Open Book Toronto month-long May contest, and win a set of FFF books + bag each week!

Join us at:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Fiery-First-Fiction/11756151503

where you can get the latest updates on events for May.

Best,
Kulsum
Publicist, The Literary Press Group of Canada
Website: http://fieryfirstfiction.blogspot.com

ACORN-PLANTOS AWARD

The Acorn-Plantos Award for Peoples Poetry is awarded annually to a
Canadian poet, based on a book published in the previous calendar year.
The work should follow in the tradition of Acorn, Livesay, Purdy, Plantos and
Others by being accessible to all people in its use of language and image.

The award is open to any living poet who is a Canadian citizen or landed
immigrant. The work may be entered by the poet or the publisher. The award
itself honours the poet.

The award consists of a cheque for $500.00 CDN and a medallion.

The deadline for entries published in 2007 is June 30, 2008, received.

To enter, send five copies and a cheque for $25.00 for each title to:

Acorn-Plantos Award

c/o Jeff Seffinga

36 Sunset Avenue

Hamilton, ON

L8R 1V6

For further information contact:  jeffseff@allstream.net

Previous winners include Christine Smart, Ronnie R. Brown,
Laisha Resnau, and Erin Noteboom.

* for those of you who don’t know about poet Milton Acorn and Ted Plantos go to the CPA website for info. Jeff Seffinga was past VP for the CPA. Also James Deahl, who works with Jeff on this award, is a CPA cofounder…ciao Donna

Open Call for Submissions Preoccupations: Things Artists Do Anyway

A bookwork published by Studio Bibliothèque

Submission Deadline: 29 Mar 2008 Extended to 15 Apr 2008!

Concept

Preoccupations: Things Artists Do Anyway is a bookwork that explores the preoccupations of artists between, besides and beyond their main artistic practices. It is conceived and will be edited by artists Cornelia Erdmann and Michael Lee Hong Hwee, and will be published by Studio Bibliothèque in Jul 2008 (tbc) at a venue in Hong Kong (tbc), in conjunction with Hong Kong Book Fair during 23 – 29 Jul 2008.

By definition, a ‘preoccupation’ is an idea, thing, person, activity or event on which a person expends extended time and energy. For this proposed publication, preoccupation may also be a full-time or part-time employment, a hobby, a collection or any other particular area of interest. Obviously, everything that an artist does, feels and thinks about is interrelated to the extent that any attempt to keep life and art separate, including to isolate things artists do in and outside art, is good only for analysis, if not futile or rhetorical. But the key aim here is for artists to select for self-analysis a single preoccupation that he or she will/must engage in anyway – i.e., using whatever method, in any case or event, no matter what, in spite of….

The key question for the artist to ponder is: What drives or preoccupies you other than art?

The project is aimed at uncovering the range and roles of different ‘third terms’ that mediate between an artist and his or her art practice, particularly in ways that the terms interrelate, compliment or contest one another. This project is expected to offer insights into various relationships pertaining to the creative life: art / life, work / leisure, publicized practice / private preoccupations, to name a few. The key significance of this compilation is the culmination of an archive of autobiographical fragments that will engage existing discourses on identity politics, relational aesthetics, creative processes and reception studies.

Methodology

The collection of artists’ contributions is through a combination of open call and invitation. Each included contribution will be showcased on a spread, one page for text writeup and the other for image, both relating to the preoccupation.

The copyright of text and image in each included contribution will be retained by individual contributors.

The editors reserve the right to select contributions to compose a thematically diverse compilation.

The publisher regrets that no honorarium could be offered as all fund that are in the process of being sought will be channelled to the printing cost. However, each contributor will receive two copies of the publication when it is published.

Submission

Submission involves duly filling up the attached Submission Form (on page 3) and emailing it with required attachments to studiobibliotheque@gmail.com by 29 Mar 2008 Extended to 15 Apr 2008!

Contact information

C: Michael Lee Hong Hwee or Cornelia Erdmann

T: (+852) 9249 7199

E: studiobibliotheque@gmail.com mail@corneliaerdmann.de

W: http://www.studiobibliotheque.blogspot.com

A: #1812 Blk B Wah Luen Ind Ctr, 15-21 Wong Chuk Yeung St, Fo Tan, NT, HK

About the editors

Cornelia Erdmann was born and brought up in Frankfurt, Germany. She received a degree in architecture in 2002 and a MFA in Public Art in 2005 from Bauhaus-University Weimar, Germany. Since 2002 Cornelia Erdmann is intensely involved in making art. In 2003 Cornelia Erdmann is a lecturer for «Mediatecture» at the Department of Architecture of the ETH in Zürich, Switzerland. At the same time she also teaches workshops at Bauhaus-University Weimar, and continues her work as a media-artist. In August 2006 Cornelia moves to Hong Kong. In her projects she is mainly interested in the interaction of space and society, scrutinising aspects of urbanity and life style – always bearing a small smile along the way. <www.corneliaerdmann.de>

Michael Lee Hong-Hwee is a Singapore-born artist currently based in Hong Kong and Singapore. Concerned with the relation between desire and space, he explores different forms and media, especially photographic installation, model-making, book-making, video, writing and curating. He was the recipient of Young Artist Award (Visual Arts) 2005, conferred by National Arts Council, Singapore. <www.michael.farm.sg>

About Things Artists Do series

Things Artists Do is an exhibition / publication series addressing the gap amidst the onslaught of survey art projects focusing on theme or art form, by examining instead the action and being of artists. So far, two installments in the series have been completed (Autobiobliophiles: Artists who make or use books, in May/June 2007; and Eniminiminimos: Artists who make things small, Jan 2008, both held at Studio Bibliothèque) and one in the forthcoming (Hong Kong Anarchitecture Bananas: Artists respond to HKSZBUA, co-organised with and held at Artist Commune, Mar 2008).

About Studio Bibliothèque

Studio Bibliothèque facilitates experiments in making, writing, curating and learning. It is the workspace of artist Michael Lee Hong Hwee. The studio has been featured in the mass media including iSh, Sunday Morning Post, Ming Pao Daily, Ming Pao Weekly, Take Me Home and Weekend Weekly. <studiobibliotheque.blogspot.com>

About Hong Kong Book Fair

The Hong Kong Book Fair is a fair organised by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council held usually in July at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, selling and exhibiting books, printed matter, stationery, printing, compact discs and othe rmultimedia publishing. <hkbookfair.tdctrade.com>

Submission Form

Artist

Preoccupation

Name (English / Chinese):

Writeup (max. 500 words, or fill in filename):

Tel:

Email:

Url:

Mailing Address:

Biography (max. 200 words, or fill in filename):

Curriculum Vitae (or fill in filename):

Image (hi-res, 300dpi, no less than 1Mb; please fill in filename):

Submission involves duly filling up this Submission Form and emailing it with required attachments to studiobibliotheque@gmail.com mail@corneliaerdmann.de by 29 Mar 2008 Extended to 15 Apr 2008!

Dear ,

I hope this message finds you well and enjoying the season.

The Canada-U.S. Fulbright Progam is pleased to announce special competitions for:
the Fulbright Visiting Research Chair in Creative Writing at Arizona State University, and
the Fulbright Visiting Research Chair in Creative Writing at New York University.

I would request your assistance in informing your colleagues about these opportunities.

These chairs will be resident at either the Virginia G. Piper Centre for Creative Writing at ASU, or in the Creative Writing Program at NYU.  The special competition deadline is January 15, 2008 for an award to be taken up in September 2008 or January 2009.  An award carries a stipend of US$25,000 for one semester.  Please see the attached flyers for more information.

Canadian scholars, professionals and post-doctoral researchers interested in conducting research or teaching for one or two semesters in the United States are encouraged to visit www.fulbright.ca for further information and application details.

Thank you very much for your assistance.

Sincerely,

Brad Hector

Program Officer

The Canada-U.S. Fulbright Program

tel: (613) 688-5511

fax: (613) 237-2029

bhector@fulbright.ca

www.fulbright.ca

To Whom it May Concern:

We are trying to spread the word about our new literary journal, All Rights Reserved, which is published in Halifax, Nova Scotia.  We have recently published our fourth issue, Passports.  I am attaching a detailed Call for Submissions that you might want to post in your office.  Here is a shorter call for submissions that might be more suitable to an electronic newsletter or a listserve:

All Rights Reserved Literary Journal is accepting submissions of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and graphic shorts for our fall issue until July 22, 2007.  The theme is Testify.  Please check out full submission details at www.allrightsreserved.ca or query editors@allrightsreserved.ca .

We would also appreciate it if you could add our link to your list of literary journals on your website.  Here is a blub you may want to use:

www.allrightsreserved.ca All Rights Reserved is Halifax, Nova Scotia’s only non-profit,independent literary journal. Our mission is to provide a voice to the artistic community while actively participating in literacy initiatives. The journal publishes works of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and visual storytelling. Themed issues are published twice a year in April and October. All Rights Reserved embraces the new and emerging talents of our generation and encourages experimentation with new forms. E-mail: info@allrightsreserved.ca

Thank you in advance for helping us spread the word about our publication.

Sincerely,
Kathryn Bjornson, Editor (Poetry and Non-Fiction)

–
All Rights Reserved Literacy Journal Association
www.allrightsreserved.ca
info@allrightsreserved.ca

Dear Donna,

Thank you very much for your help! This is greatly appreciated.

You should receive the brochures and posters witthin a few days, to be distributed to your membres and at the Festival (sounds like a great initiative this Festival!).

Also, I’m pasting below a blurb that you can send by Email and use on your website.

I’ll have the links added to our website (this may take a few days).

Best regards

Sophie

–

2006 CBC LITERARY AWARDS

The 2006 CBC Literary Awards competition is now open! The deadline this year is November 1^st, 2006. The Awards are Canada’s only literary competition celebrating original, unpublished works in both official languages. There are three categories: short story, poetry, and creative nonfiction, with cash prizes totalling $60,000, courtesy of the Canada Council for the Arts, publication in Air Canada’s enRoute magazine and broadcast on the airwaves of CBC Radio and La Première Chaîne de Radio-Canada.

To find out how to enter, visit their website at http://www.cbc.ca/literaryawards/ or request a print entry form by calling them toll free at 1-877-888-6788.

–

CBC Literary Awards/Prix Littéraires Radio-Canada
http://www.cbc.ca/literaryawards
http://www.radio-canada.ca/prixlitteraires
1-877-888-6788 (phone line open June 15 – December 15)
(Cette ligne d’information est en service du 15 juin au 15 décembre)