Some Things To Bring To Your Attention

First, the staff for the next Kundiman Poetry Retreat has been selected:

2011 Faculty

Kimiko Hahn is the author of eight books of poems, including: Earshot (Hanging Loose Press, 1992), which was awarded the Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Prize and an Association of Asian American Studies Literature Award; The Unbearable Heart (Kaya, 1996), which received an American Book Award; The Narrow Road to the Interior (W.W. Norton, 2006); and Toxic Flora, (W.W. Norton, 2010). As part of her service to the CUNY community, she helped initiate a Chapbook Festival that has become an annual event; since then she has published the chapbooks, Ragged Evidence and A Field Guide to the Intractable. Hahn has also written text for film, such as the 1995 MTV special, Ain't Nuthin' But a She-Thing; also, the text for Everywhere at Once, a film based on Peter Lindbergh’s still photos and narrated by Jeanne Moreau. Honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, PEN/Voelcker Award, Shelley Memorial Prize, a Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Writers' Award as well as fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. Aside from teaching for literary organizations such as the Fine Arts Work Center and Cave Canem, she has taught in graduate programs at the University of Houston and New York University, and of course, in the MFA Program in Creative Writing and Literary Translation at Queens College, The City University of New York where she is a distinguished professor.

Karen An-hwei Lee is the author of Ardor (Tupelo Press, 2008), In Medias Res (Sarabande Books, 2004), and a chapbook, God’s One Hundred Promises (Swan Scythe Press, 2002). Her books have been honored by the Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America and the Kathryn A. Morton Prize for Poetry. The recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Grant, she chairs the English department at a faith-based college in southern California, where she is also a novice harpist.

Jon Pineda's latest book, Sleep in Me, is a Barnes & Noble "Discover Great New Writers" 2010 Holiday Selection and a Library Journal "Best Books of 2010" Selection. He is the author of the poetry collections The Translator's Diary, winner of the 2007 Green Rose Prize, and Birthmark, winner of the 2003 Crab Orchard Award Series Open Competition. His new work is appearing or forthcoming in Brevity, Copper Nickel, Handsome, and storySouth. He teaches in the low-residency MFA program at Queens University of Charlotte.

Second, there's the Kundiman Poetry Prize. We're looking for manuscripts. Here's the info:

Kundiman and Alice James Books are accepting submissions of poetry manuscripts for The Kundiman Poetry Prize electronically and by regular mail through February 11, 2011. The Kundiman Poetry Prize welcomes submissions from emerging as well as established Asian American poets. Entrants must reside in the United States.

The winner receives $1000, book publication and a New York City feature reading.

Alice James Books is a cooperative poetry press with a mission is to seek out and publish the best contemporary poetry by both established and beginning poets, with particular emphasis on involving poets in the publishing process.

Guidelines for Electronic Manuscript Submission

Kundiman and Alice James Books are pleased to announce that, in addition to submitting your manuscript via regular mail, you may now enter your manuscript to The Kundiman Prize electronically.

Click on this link to submit electronically to The Kundiman Prize.

Guidelines for Print Manuscript Submission

Manuscripts must be typed, paginated, and 50 – 70 pages in length (single spaced).
Individual poems from the manuscript may have been previously published in magazines, anthologies, or chapbooks of less than 25 pages, but the collection as a whole must be unpublished. Translations and self-published books are not eligible. No multi-authored collections, please.
Manuscripts must have a table of contents and include a list of acknowledgments for poems previously published. The inclusion of a biographical note is optional. Your name, mailing address, email address and phone number should appear on the title page of your manuscript. MANUSCRIPTS CANNOT BE RETURNED. Please do not send us your only copy.
No illustrations, photographs or images should be included.
Send one copy of your manuscript submission with two copies of the title page. Use only binder clips. No staples, folders, or printer-bound copies.
The Kundiman Poetry Prize is judged by consensus of the members of Kundiman's Artistic Staff and the Alice James Books Editorial Board. Manuscripts are not read anonymously. Learn more about our judging process.
For notification of winners, include a business-sized SASE. If you wish acknowledgment of the receipt of your manuscript, include a stamped addressed postcard. Winners will be announced in June 2011.
Entry fee for The Kundiman Poetry Prize is $28. Checks or money orders should be made out to Alice James Books. On the memo line of your check write The Kundiman Poetry Prize.
Mail your entry to:

Kundiman
P.O. Box 4248
Sunnyside, NY 11104

Checklist for entry:

One (1) copy of manuscript enclosed, with acknowledgements and two (2) copies of title page

$28 entry fee

Business sized SASE

Stamped addressed postcard

Postmarked by February 11, 2011

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Some other things--winter stinks. I'm tired of snow and my knees ache because of the weather. I also hate whining, so I'll stop.

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We've cut a lot of our cable to save money and now all we get's religious channels and kid shows. Our TV viewing's been slashed, but somehow we still manage to burn a lot of time. What's the deal?

These days, I've been trying to write essays. The process is hard for me because the interrogation is of a different sort. I'm not yet attuned to the rhythm of the essay, but I'm getting much better at writing a whole bunch of stuff down. My poetry process is much closer to erasure than it is to creation.

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Currently, my e-mail box has been full of AWP stuff. I can't wait. It'll be an AWP unlike any of the others, of that I am aware. I'll be busy with meetings, but that's okay. It's the natural progression of things, I suppose.

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Current Spin:

Oliver de la PazJanuary 11, 2011