Revised contest timeline...

Hey y'all,

The upcoming year might be a little challenging for us Switchbackers, as editors leave the city (one already left, miss you H!) to go on to bigger and better things in their own lives.

In order to make the transition a little easier on everyone, we have decided to move the contest to be more aligned with the academic calendar, so we can read manuscripts over the summer instead of over the fall semester and winter break.

Therefore, our next contest period will be March 1 through June 1, 2010. Details to come both here and on our website.

Over the year, you'll see some more exciting changes taking place as well (Sales! Events small and large! Potentially returning poets!). Please be patient with us as we do everything within our power to keep supporting emerging and innovative poetry by women.

Much love,
Brandi

Hanna Andrews @ Women and Children First!!!!

Friday, JUNE 26th @ Women and Children First 5233 N. Clake St., Chicago, IL @ 7:30 PM.

Come witness the amazing and magical nature of our one and only Hanna Andrews as she appears from NYC to read with Carol Guess. Hanna doesn't appear very often so this is your chance to ask her to devulge and expose her workings as the indomitable woman poet and traveler of great distances.

Hope to see you there!!!

Black Ocean microreviews Rooney

As part of their new series. Check it HERE! Don't blink or you'll miss it!

Call for Work | Submit Submit Submit!

==========================================
O SAY CAN YOU SEE:
Nonverbal Reviews and Adaptations of Women's Poetry
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Mina Loy, Surreal Scene, n.d. Collage on painted background, 12 5/8 x 9 1/2 in.
Courtesy of the Jean Farley Levy Estate © Estate of Mina Loy.

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What book, chapbook, performance, or poem by a woman poet published/presented in the last year or two has left you speechless? How might that speechlessness manifest itself visually, sonically, or through another nonverbal medium?

Please create a response to this piece; your response can act like a review, adaptation, homage, investigation, companion piece, Frankenstein, child, or any mash-up of the aforementioned. In August, all responses submitted will be featured as a forum on Delirious Hem.

Curated by K. Lorraine Graham and Becca Klaver.


FAQ

Are all words banned?
Although the projects should not be text-based, words are not banned.

I want to create a response to a poem published in 2007. Is this too early?
Nope. We mean "published in the last year or two" loosely.

Can I create a response to a book written by:
a) a man?
b) a biological male who identifies as a woman?
c) a drag queen?
a) No. b) Yes. c) Yes, if they self-identify as a woman.

Can non-Pussipo members participate?
Yes. If you'd like to forward this call, feel free.

Can men participate?
Yes.

What file formats can you accept?
For videos, Blogger can accept AVI, MPEG, QuickTime, Real, and Windows Media, 100 MB maximum size. For images, jpg, gif, bmp and png images, 8 MB maximum size.

Responses might include videos, songs, performances, photographs, or photographs of visual pieces, but are not limited to these, so please query if you're not sure if Blogger can support your format.

Questions, submissions, stating your interest: Please contact K. Lorraine Graham (klorraine[at]gmail[dot]com) and Becca Klaver (beccavista[at]yahoo[dot]com).

Due date for submissions: July 31, 2009.

Feel free to forward this call!

This Week's Myopic Reading Series

This Sunday, June 21, Switchback Books' Advisory Board Member, Simone Muench, will be reading at the Myopic Reading Series alongside Philip Jenks and Patrick Culliton.


The reading will take place at Myopic Books at 7:00 pm (1564 N. Milwaukee Avenue, 2nd Floor)


Hope to see you all there. Good Luck Simone!

Slam CTA Harassment with Poetry

The Rogers Park Young Women's Action Team who battle street abuse has now turned its attention towards harassment on the CTA.

"They surveyed 639 CTA riders, mostly young women, and found that harassment on CTA buses and trains is pretty common. Just over half of those surveyed said they'd been sexually harassed on the CTA. Thirteen percent said they'd been sexually assaulted. Of those who had been harassed or assaulted, 91 percent said they didn't file a complaint with the police or the CTA. The transit agency had two recorded incidents of criminal sexual assault systemwide for all of last year."


To reach more people and push for improvements, the women's group is planning a poetry slam on sexual harassment on the CTA, to be held from 2 to 4 p.m. June 27 at Berger Park, 6206 N. Sheridan.


They also hope to meet with the CTA's board within the next month to talk about ways to improve safety -- and help women deal with unwanted attention.

"It's a tiny little book, but they want to burn it like a witch"

A teen book burns at the stake

Christian rights group joins library fray


The Christian Civil Liberties Union is suing the West Bend Community Library for refusing to remove Francesca Lia Block's young-adult novel Baby Be-Bop from its shelves. The plaintiffs claim that the book is "explicitly vulgar, racial (sic?), and anti-Christian." The lawsuit comes fresh on the heels of the library board's unanimous vote to oppose a plan to move all young adult novels that address gay and lesbian issues to the adult section.


The School Library Journal describes Baby Be-Bop as:

A prequel to the popular books about Weetzie Bat and her circle of quirky friends and relatives. This novel is about her best pal, Dirk, in his pre-Weetzie days. He's in high school, living with Grandma Fifi and struggling with how to come out to his best friend and soulmate. Although Dirk never does tell Pup he's gay, Pup feels the sexual tension between them: 'I love you, Dirk,' Pup said. 'But I can't handle it.' In reaction, Dirk takes to slam dancing in punk joints. When a gang of gay bashers beats him up, he drags himself home and passes out. While he's unconscious, long-dead relatives he's never known come to him in what seem to be dreams; when he wakes in the hospital, he realizes that his grandmother has been telling him stories. Out of her comforting words about how others in his family have insisted on being themselves, his battered brain fashions hopeful hallucinations, including one of his future lover. His visions assure him that 'There was love waiting; love would come,'... Gay teens in particular need this book.

The plaintiffs (none of whom are teenagers) claimed that the book's presence on the library's shelves caused damage to their mental and emotional well-being. According to their complaint:

“The average person, applying community standards, would find appeals to the prurient interest if taken as a whole.”

“Under contemporary community standards, describes or shows sexual conduct in a patently offensive way.”

“Lacks serious literary, artistic, political, educational or scientific value, if taken as a whole.”



Sign up for Francesca Lia Block's women's writing workshops or just buy a book or three.

Also, maybe drop the folks at the West Bend Community Memorial Library a little thank-you e-mail.

The Girls With A Positive Attitude Toward "Oneiromance (an epithalamion)"

Recently, Michelle Galo wrote a flattering and much deserved review of
Kathleen Rooney's Oneiromance (an epithalamion).

Such praise is not at all surprising, for as Galo describes this sequence of sequences:

"Oneiromance deserves a place among the great love literature of our time."

(To read review: http://wdsreviewofbooks.webdelsol.com/Rooney.html)


On another note, Juliet Cook listed it as one of the Best Reads of 2008:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1255314/best_reads_of_2008_poetry.html


We at Switchback say kudos to you Kathleen!

A Closer Look at the Lit 50 Reveals Feminist Poets & Publishers Rule

Incidentally I have read several of the Dancing Girl Press books including Daniela Olszewska’s “The Partial Autobiography of Jane Doe,” Kristie Odelius’s “Bee Spit, and Brandi Homan’s “Two Kinds of Arson.” All three of them were excellent (excuse the Bill and Tedism), witty and economical.

--Vittorio Carli @ Examiner.com

Mónica de la Torre Wins NYFA Grant!

Switchback's own de la Torre (Talk Shows) is one of only 18 poets to win a 2009 New York Foundation for the Arts grant!

No one could deserve it more; congrats y felicidades, Mónica!