The self-esteem movement should hate itself

Last week I stood in front of my 8:00 class for a solid three minutes in complete silence. Usually, after thirty seconds students in most classes get so uncomfortable somebody will utter something no matter how stupid. But not this class. They would sit for the entire hour and half if I let them. I finally asked, why is no one answering the question? One student blurted out fairly quickly: I don’t know the answer. This would be a fair enough response if the question hadn’t started with: What do you think . . . . It was a question completely based on opinion. Even when I ask this particular class, do you agree with A or B? They still won’t answer. The students want to know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they are giving the right answer before saying a word.

When I was working on the editorial staff of Harpur Palate, I remember receiving a letter complaining about a rejection. This isn’t uncommon when working on a literary magazine, but this letter stood out. One of the editors really liked this writer so they wrote him a quick note showing their admiration. The writer should have been thrilled. Anything beyond the form rejection is a definite thumbs-up. But the writer wasn’t so gracious. This person quickly sent in another submission, which is against protocol listed on the website, then became furious when this work was also rejected. The writer sent everything back to us. All the poems and the rejection letters. He claimed that we were just jerking a poor Southerner around and we needed to make up our minds if we liked the work or not.

Both instances should be an everyday occurrence that people can just brush off. Sure, when we first start sending out our writing, it’s hard to get back those rejection letters. So burn the rejection letter, tear it up, do something. To take the time to type up a letter is completely ridiculous. My students should have been told “no” throughout their education. But they haven’t. For the most part all of my students are freshman, a few are juniors in high school taking dual credit courses, and I’m the first teacher they’ve had tell them, flat out, no. And they don’t know how to handle it.

It’s not just the fault of the 80’s self-esteem movement that people can’t deal with the most basic rejections. It’s also the fault of standardized testing. And the fault of cultural intolerance that says if you don’t make the right life choices you will be punished. And the fault of abstinence-only education that says one mistake and your body is ruined. And the fault of politicians who never admit to mistakes. And the fault of the media that makes everything black and white, left and right, good and bad.

So purposely tell somebody the wrong answer today. Do it knowing and hoping they will tell you that you are wrong. Give out the wrong amount of change. Pick up the wrong umbrella. Send out a poem that is absolutely horrendous. Then apologize. Apologize because saying you’re sorry doesn’t make you weak or bad or pathetic. It makes you human. Apologize for the bad poem, the wrong change, the incorrect answer. Let’s stick it to the self-esteem movement and feel good about ourselves and be completely wrong at the same time.

And time continues to run away

Finally:

The new Purple issue is up! That is the big news at this point in time. We have a really strong issue that we hope you will all enjoy. With work by Chigozie John Obioma, Kat Meads, Scott T. Starbuck, Jana Russ, Cynthia Arrieu-King, Jodi Hollander, and Joseph Borja.

Let us know what you think.

The Editors

Shameless Promotion

It seems as though the world of literary fiction was just too glamorous and renumerative for me, so as of late I've been immersed in the cooler waters of book reviewing. Thanks to the good people at Open Letters, you can view my ruminations, and those of more talented folks, here.

Next up: I take on two books that ask, more or less, whether all the political crap happenning is your fault. My eight ball says signs point to no, but we'll see.

When did writing become easy and glamorous?

Let me start off by saying: it’s not. It’s lonely and tedious and frustrating and, after the one thousandth and one rejection letter, can lead to irrational plans of rejecting the editors and agents who rejected you in a way that will really make them pay (which, believe me, is impossible and just annoying). For example, just to write this blog, just to get started, I spent half an hour walking my dog around the neighborhood at one in the morning. No rational person does that. It was me and a couple drug riddled teenagers sharing the street. But, in some form or fashion, that’s what writing is.

I’ve noticed, ever since I started going to grad school and had to tell people I was getting a degree in creative writing, that not only does everyone think they can write, they’re pretty sure they can do it better than you. Or, at the very least, that you will be somewhat impressed by their work. And maybe artists and musicians and photographers have the same problem. I don’t know. But, after telling someone that I teach they never say, oh, I have this great lesson plan you should really look at.

The other thing that amazes me, and is really what led me to write this blog, (I was walking around thinking about my students at the prison) is that everyone assumes they can make money with their writing. And, usually, not just a little money. They think once they hand me a poem that I can (and will want to) pass on to someone who will pass it one to someone who will give them fifty million bucks. Dude, I’ve been studying and working for six years and haven’t seen a penny. I have friends who have been doing it for twice as long and are in the same boat. And, you’re going to solve all of your financial problems with this one poem. When was the last time you bought a book that wasn’t self-help or written by a Republican, let alone a book of poetry? Maybe I’m being whiny.

So, back to the actual issue of my creative writing students. Several have these plans of solving their family’s financial problems with their writing. I can’t blame them for the idea. These guys are stuck behind a fence, working sixty to seventy hours a week, and, after all living expenses are paid and a percentage pulled out for fines to the government, the guys get a nickel per hour. Maybe a dime or quarter if they’ve been in long enough, so they need some get rich quick plan. But the problem isn’t just with the incarcerated. Most people have a disconnect between the fact that they don’t spend money to buy books, yet they feel there must be easy money in writing books. There was a great moment during one of the talks at the Summer Literary Seminar in Russia a few years back. One of the participants went off about the unfairness of journals not paying their writers. Small literary journals like ours. She vowed not to allow her fiction to be published unless she was getting paid for her efforts. Eli Horowitz, one of the panel members and an editor for the McSweeney’s publishing company, asked the lady how many of these journals she actually bought. He asked her, quite bluntly, how she could demand payment from these journals while she was unwilling to spend money for these journals? The crowd broke out in applause.

Honestly, there’s an even greater problem than just the amateur writer not reading. Right now, I’m reading Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma. I just finished the first section on corn production. This section discussing, among many things, how Americans don’t realize that the Twinke they’re putting in their mouth actually comes from a farm in Iowa, or how close to a barrel of oil went into producing that burger they are eating. We want clean air but won’t stop buying Hummers. We want to lose weight but won’t quit drinking cokes (I’m in Texas, so that’s a generic term for soft drinks). These disconnects occur all over our society. Our consumer culture has taught us not to fix problems, but apply band-aids which only cause other problems. So, I shouldn’t blame my hairdresser when she hands me twenty pages about her mother. Capitalist society has taught her that there is plenty of money for the taking, just not in hair dressing, otherwise she would already be rich. So, she looks to writing. Because of my personal experience and expertise, I know that she won’t be able to pay her bills with those twenty pages. I am obviously the enlightened one here and have started work on a screenplay.

Scary revisions and charming inmates

First, an update. We are trying our hardest to get the Purple Issue out as soon as possible. It should be up and running by the end of this month. Hopefully.

Second, why our revisions so scary? I have no problem sitting down and writing new stories, chapters, scenes, or maybe a naughty limerick or two. But, writing a second draft seems so much more daunting. Draft is probably a better term than revision. I can do revisions. I sit down write a story, then go back and add in all the missed words and correct awkward phrasing. When it comes to writing a second draft, something that will, most likely, look drastically different from the first, I’m terrified. I’ve been working on a novel for over two years now. This past January, I finished my first draft and handed a few copies out to trusted friends and mentors. I received some really good notes and know pretty well where I’m lacking and what needs to be changed. No big deal, right? Yet, it’s approaching mid-afternoon on Sunday and I have yet to turn my laptop on or look at the legal pad where I have accumulated all those notes. I was supposed to be working on the novel starting Friday afternoon. Is it becoming too real? Am I worried that after the second draft I will have to write a third, fourth, fifth to point where I have revised my novel to oblivion and have to scratch the entire thing and start over? Or am I just being lazy both in my revising, finding books to read and movies to watch instead of actually working, and in my blogging, asking a stream of rhetorical questions which I would never let my students get away with?

Anyway.

Finally in this random blog, my summer vacation lasted a total of two days and I am back at the prison teaching. I should have some pretty interesting posts about these classes. Last fall, I taught at the men’s unit. This summer, I have two classes with the men (One class is creative writing which I am really excited about.) and one class on the women’s unit. Walking into a class of twenty-four women, at least half older than myself, was quite an interesting experience. Honestly, it was the best first day of class I have ever had. All the women know each other and most have already taken classes together, so we didn’t have to go through that awkwardness of not wanting to look foolish in front of people we don’t know. They also have the excitement and desire of upper level English students. They can’t afford to fail. Most of them won’t even accept C’s or B’s because they feel the need to prove themselves much more acutely than my students in the community. And, they will actually work for the A’s, not just expect them. Again, different from my community classes. In the weeks to come, I should have plenty of interesting experiences and ruminations. I have much more freedom with my female students because it’s medium security, not maximum like the men. Meaning, I have access to a DVD player, CD player, TV's, and possible even projectors. So, we’ll see what happens.

Sorry for the month and half long hiatus in posts. We should be back on top of things within the month.

Nothing says I'm leader like acting like an ape

Don’t worry (or maybe you should) I’m not going to discuss the presidential campaign but am back to the classroom, ruminating about my students.

Last Friday I had the best discussions in my two freshman classes. (Best meaning, of this semester, not best as in, one of the best discussions of my life.) I had them read Paul Theroux’s “Being a Man”. I was hoping we could jump right in to talking about gender roles in the US and maybe even nurture verses nature when it comes to defining one’s sense of self in terms of sex. This didn’t happen. Instead, I had to start discussing sports. They perked right up and joined in, but through out class I showed my ignorance of the entire sports world. I kept saying linebacker, realized I was referring to the wrong position, and the only thing I could come up with was: the fat guys in front of the quarter back. Then I asked if any of them had seen the cover of Vogue which they thought was hilarious and the laughter only got worse when I called the basketball player Bronson James.

Anyway, during my second class’s discussion we started talking about leadership and the majority of the students were saying that men made better leaders. It was just in their nature. I pointed out that one of the soft-spoken female students who sits in the front of the class was the best leader in that room. Guys, when she speaks you listen, I said. You listen to her better than you do me. She waits her turn, speaks quietly, but speaks her mind and makes intelligent comments when she has them. Everyone stopped and chewed this idea over, but then one student argued furiously that I was wrong.

It was the female student I had pointed out. While all the other students could only agree with me, she was adamant that she was not a good leader. I really don’t like English at all, she said. That has nothing to do with being a good leader, I responded. No, I’ve been in college before and I’m coming back. I’ve already taken several speech courses so I can express myself. I’m married and have a kid, so I just have more experience than most of the other students in here. It’s not that I’m more intelligent, it’s just that I can form my ideas more quickly than most freshmen.

When I told a fellow professor about my student’s response he said, so she’s more articulate, more experienced and therefore more intelligent, and she finds it very easy to make people listen. What does she need to do go water board someone before she can become a leader?

Theroux makes a comment about how most little boys are encouraged to act like monkeys while most girls need to show off their pretty dress. I think we have a prime example of that here. Most of my male students tend to act more like monkeys than normal people. During that same discussion one of my male students announced he had to pee before getting up and leaving the classroom. As a society we are convinced that female leaders have to act tough and hard like our typical male leaders. But here I have a student who fits the stereotypical female personality and can command the classroom much more effectively than I can. Even so, it always tends to be the monkey in the front of the classroom who gets most of the attention.

Books, Blogs and Time

So, nothing bores me more than reading articles about whether the printed word is dying, books versus blogs, who reads and doesn't read novels blah blah blah. It is fascinating, though, when you take a step back from these kinds of arguments, just to *notice* how we're transitioning from one literacy to another, with all kinds of exciting possibilities.

And then, your mother ships you 180 pounds of books that had been sitting in her basement, mixed together with notebooks you'd forgot you'd written in, and takes you back in time.

Like a lot of people, I'm superstitious about throwing out books, even when they're damaged beyond readability. I volunteer at a used book store, and people are really upset if they suspect we might throw out their paperback with the torn cover and water damage, even if they know we can't possibly sell it.

So, one of the books in the box was James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room. The price on the side is 60 cents and Alfred Kazin has a blurb on the back. The cover is missing as are all the pages up to 15. I remember reading this book more than ten years ago - as it often happens after that period, I don't remember much about the plot but I remember being overwhelmed by its beauty and sadness, and I remember wanting to go to Paris.

On page 16, I read this:

I began, perhaps, to be lonely that summer and began, that summer, the flight which has brought me to this darkening window.

And yet - when one begins to search for that crucial, the definitive moment, the moment which changed all others, one finds oneself pressing, in great pain, through a maze of false signals and abruptly locking doors. My flight may, indeed, have begun that summer - which does not tell me where to find the germ of the dilemma which resolved itself, that summer, into flight. Of course, it was somewhere before me, locked in that reflection I am watching in the window as the night comes down outside. It is trapped in the room with me, always has been, and always will be, and it is yet more foreign to me than those foreign hills outside.

Two new updates

Update 1: Our next issue will be purple.

Update 2: The Purple Issue will be up during the first of May. Our cut-off date for this reading period will by April 15th, so send us your submissions.

End of Updates

The cruelty of students

My original intention of the blog was to talk about publishing and online journal business. (Speaking of which we are now listed on New Pages. Be sure to tell all your friends.) But, every time I sit down I seem to feel the need to talk about my students. I guess I feel or hope that the purpose of this journal is to fight against the mentalities I see in them.

* * *

So, over the weekend I gave my students an assignment to come up with a "dangerous idea". The assignment was given after having them read and discuss several essays off of the Edge Foundations website where scientists, professors, and researchers answered the same question.
We read one about basing government on empathy, another about how we are all genetically inclined to murder, and other's about science, religion, and psychology. I thought it might be interesting to see what the students came up with.

Some students did a really good job. One suggested that we should all walk around naked. Then we couldn't create these false images of what the human body should look like and people wouldn't feel the need to spend so much money on clothes. Another said we should use the tax dollars in place to bulid the border fence and, instead, invest in Mexican companies and support their government's social programs. Some students just had observations, saying we should pay more attention to our telepathic abilities or what if we didn't have a history of violence and racism? But a good number of students, maybe a quarter of the ones who actually did the assignment, were just cruel. Several railed agianst the jail system, saying that prisoners should have no rights or privelges, that prison is just like living in the world except you can't leave. (I teach in a prison. Believe me, that is not the case.) Another said that we should take all the non-violent criminals and make them fight in Iraq. If they can prove themselves as loyal and patriotic then they don't have to finish their sentence.

The worst one, though, was the student who didn't have the guts to bring up the idea in class. During class the student said the dangerous idea was to put normal looking people on TV instead of beautiful people. Her paper was about how all government funding for the poor and homeless was a waist because they didn't appreciate the money enough.

I don't understand how these students can refuse so adamantly to step into another person's shoes. These students who go to a private university while receiving government loans and scholarships talk about how prisoners and the homeless guzzle up all the tax dollars. These students who smoke pot and drink under age consider every person in jail as evil and untrustworthy, and every homeless person lazy and stupid. These students talk about how illegeal immigrants and people on welfare don't appreicate enough the help they are given, yet these students don't show up to class half the time. Plus, a good number are taking the class over again because they failed it last semester. So who is it that doesn't appreciate the opportunities handed to them by the government?

Oh, and did I mention this is a Baptist university? While this won't suprise most people, it makes my job more frustrating. In the same breath that they condemn every person in prison, they discuss how God saved them from a life of sin. During the same half hour we discuss how illegal aliens don't belong in the country and shouldn't be allowed to use our hospitals, they talk about how the love of Christ has changed them forever.

While I may seem bitter at the moment, the fact is I'm actually quite opptimistic. I really believe that with one essay, one story, one moment when these students truely step outside themselves and see from another person's point of view, their whole lives will change. It won't be obvious or immediate, but when you look at the world from someone else's perspetive, just once, you can't help but do it again and again and again. Hopefully, this journal will keep offering up those perspectives.

Vibrant Gray grows!

The Vibrant Gray staff would like to welcome Jennifer Reimer, Javier Huerta, and Hillary Gravendyk, who will be joining Craig Perez on our poetry board.

Also, we would like to remind everyone that we are looking to get our next issue out by May, so get your submissions in by April.

Because 30 Rock is Kind of Smart

I was going to do another post where I do my advice from an editor thing, but I have a different subject on my mind that doesn’t have anything to do with writing or journals.

This semester I am teaching several sections of Rhet. and Comp. on two different campuses in central Texas. While my main objective is to teach these students how to write and communicate more effectively, I also try to include a good amount of discussion about the content of our reading.

During these discussions I come to one strange conclusion over and over again – I wish my students watched more TV. I know this sounds crazy. As an educator I am suppose to bemoan the perils of watching television and encourage my students to do nothing but read James Joyce. But I don’t. More often than not I find myself telling my students they should watch shows like The Office, Arrested Development, Weeds, The Wire (I know that Arrested Development is no longer on television but I love that show and feel it needs mentioning).

But haven’t we, as educators, won the fight if our students are no longer watching the dreaded boob tube? Not at all. From what I can tell the students have traded general TV watching for two things: videogames and reality television. Both males and females admit to playing a couple of hours worth of videogames a day, especially those that live in the dorms. My males generally watch ESPN and the girls watch Next Top Model (so do some of my males they just won’t admit it in the classroom).

Granted my main annoyance is that when I quote Scrubs or Friends or say: There a-loo-sions, Michael, my students have no idea what I am talking about. But beyond that, most of NBC’s shows throw in references to politics and current events, CSI had an episode about dog fighting when that scandal arose, and who knows how much they could learn by watching even one or two episodes of The Daily Show every week. I think we’ve entered into a culture where watching some amount of television is as important as reading the newspaper was twenty years ago. And I’m not talking about just news shows, but watching sitcoms and dramas to help us a gain a cultural context to the world we’re interacting with.

It just amazes me how much information is at my students’ finger tips, yet they have no clue what is going on outside of their own world. Sure, they’ve all seen the video of the kid in Japan get hit in the head with a skateboard, but they have no idea why we’re fighting in Iraq or even who the presidential candidates are. Maybe these are the typical ravings of a new teacher or maybe I just feel that I should be able to relate to my students a little better, but either way, I’m seriously thinking about assigning two hours of TV watching before class on Wednesday.

Fun at Chain Bookstores

So, I was in a certain chain bookstore to day. (I ain't naming names!) The universe must really be playing with me, because I did about five double-takes before confirming that, yes, I was looking at a Valentine's Day display that contained the following items:

1) The latest issue of a magazine that promised to make me "the sexiest brand on the market." Umm, no thanks - it's hard enough work just to be as sexy as I already am.

2) Lindt's chocolate. No problem there.

3) Sex Tips for Straight Women from Gay Men. Ok on this one too.

4) Why Men Love Bitches/Why Men Marry Bitches (guess they're a set) Interesting - they love *and* marry them, but for, like totally different reasons that demand two books!

5) The Feminine Mystique.

Yes, you knew this was headed somewhere: in between the chocolate and sex tips is a new edition of the feminist classic which helped catalyze one of the most important social movements of our century. I amused myself for the rest of the day trying to figure out if the higher-ups at said unnamed chain store were so clueless as to not recognize the hilarity of the pairing (feminine mystique . .. must be about how to be more feminine, right? to catch a man, duh) or if, as I liked to imagine, some mole was working on the inside, doing a kind of guerilla shelving. I'm in a good mood today, so I'm going with the later.

What does this have to do with Vibrant Gray? Well, not a lot. Except this: I was thinking about our mission statement in relation to conversations I've had with students over the years who don't understand what are wrong with cliches and generalizations. After all, if someone's said it a million times, it must be right, no? If some fancy pants weren't trying to make the world difficult, or make me see it as complex, or as gray, I could just live happily. And I tell them: I wish it were that way. I really wish you could tell people: do x, and you'll lose five pounds, and never age, and find true love. Self-help books thrive by telling people this, and people buy them, and then buy them again when they don't deliver, thinking this time it'll work. Even though, not being stupid, people know better, but desire is a powerful thing.

So, while a lot of teachers and writers do fetishize something called "complexity," and look for distinctions with out a difference, the real shades of gray, the real, simple fundamental questions like 'how can we be equal' are still out there. That means good writing is still out there too, no matter how many styles come and go, waiting to be written and read.

Potrait of an Editor as an Artist: We're all in it together

I do feel like this title is somewhat pretentious but I also feel like it’s better than some of my other ideas: Confessions of a Literary Journal Editor, What Journal Editors Laugh about but Never Tell. Those seem played out and cheesy so I went with pretentious and snoody.

Anyway, the idea behind this entry (and more to come after) is to give writers and editors a forum to discuss getting published and publishing in small journals. I’ll start off by telling stories and giving advice that I have gathered during the last three years I have worked with literary journals.

Now, those of you who have submitted to this journal, or are thinking about submitting, don’t worry I am not going to talk about Vibrant Gray. For the last two years I worked with a small journal in New York. I won’t give out the name directly since the current editorial staff (most of who I worked with) tends to be more tactful and discreet than I. A Google search will tell which journal this is, but since I have two last names it takes some searching.

My first piece of advice is that we are all in this together. I know that’s pretty cheesy but I feel like the larger community of writers tends to forget this. I don’t know that I have ever met an editor for a small literary journal or press who is not a writer themselves. I am sure there are some out there, but I haven’t met them.

My story to illustrate this point: while working on this print journal we receive a letter from an angry poet. The letter included two rejection letters we had sent him and note he had written. The poet was angry because the first rejection letter included a note that said we appreciated his work and would like to see more. The second rejection letter had nothing. The poet gripped about getting his hopes up and accused us of pulling a poor Southern boy’s leg.

As I said, this journal was small, we had a print run of just over a thousand, but yet we got over a thousand submissions for every bi-annual issue. It’s possible the poem was weeded out by other readers and editors before the first appreciative editor saw it. Another possibility is the original editor was gone. The journal was sponsored by our university which meant the whole staff changed every two or three years.

But, if the editors of Vibrant Gray were in this situation I feel that we would be just as disappointed as the poet. Since we are a new journal and receive maybe a hundred submissions per issue, we would definitely notice the poet and be just as upset that we still didn’t feel that his work fit in our journal.

My point is that publishing is a tough and tedious process. So is working as an editor. Remember most editors are writers too. They feel your pain.

NPR's Book Tour

If any of you are in the same situation I am - stuck in some small town, teaching, with no cultural outlet - this book tour is pretty good. They include full thirty to forty minute readings. I will put a link up later this week. And, hopefully, we will have Deborah Poe's piece up in the near future.

What does literature do on Super Tuesday?

Today I've been watching the aftermath of Super Tuesday. With the Democratic party still in limbo about who the nominee will be and the GOP leaning towards McCain, I can't help but think that Vibrant Gray's mission is more important than ever.

I don't know that I have ever talked to a person who is completely happy with our country. No one ever says: yeah, Bush being president is really working out and I think it's great that both Obama and Clinton are in the primary. Oh, and the way McCain and Romney hate each other and argue, that really helps the country grow. If anyone has had a conversation like that, please, let me know. I would be interested.

Anyway, what does Vibrant Gray have to do with this? Our mission is about celebrating the world as gray, encouraging dialogue where there is no drive to find the "right" answer but merely expand our worlds through inquiry. This is definitely not an idea the media is latching on to. So when the media and politicians won't allow room for dialogue I think it is our responsibility, not as artists but as human beings who want to live in a better world, to create that dialogue and narrative in the form of prose and poetry.

Writers and educators alike complain that people just don't read anymore, especially not literature. But what literary pieces are being published right now? I feel like more often than not literary fiction is about the agnst of being young and single and "poor" (read: way above the poverty line, but I can't yet buy a Lexus) and living in New York. Where is the teeth? Where is the drive? Maybe instead of blaming the readers we as writers should look on our own material. Are we celebrating the masterbatory pleasure of being able to write about our own selves and feelings? Or, are we promoting dialogue, thought and discourse, then allowing our readers to make decisions on their own?

I hope Vibrant Gray will help with the latter.

The Blue Issue is up!

Yes, the Blue Issue is up and ready for your reading pleasure.

AWP was great. Things were too busy and crazy for us to blog everyday and, honestly, who wants to read about us sitting behind a table and watching people walk by.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who stopped by the table, talked and bought chapbooks. We still have plenty for sale. Just send an email to laura@vibrantgray.com and we'll send one out to you for just six dollars.

For all of our featured authors, we are hoping to put up videos of you reading the pieces we have published in the last two issues. If you have a recording or would like to make one let us know and we will set up a link here on the blog. Thus far, Deborah Poe has promised a performance of "Fragile Magnets" which should be up fairly soon.

Enjoy the second issue of Vibrant Gray and definitely let us know what you think.

AWP Day 1

The editors of Vibrant Gray have convened in New York, for the time being, for the annual AWP conference. I do believe it is the first time in almost two years that we have been in the same location at the same time. But that is beside the point. We have come to AWP to support the journal and sell the VG Chapbook (featuring Deborah Poe, Kristin Bird, Katy Acheson, David LaBounty, Caroline Berger and J.D. Smith). If you are hanging around AWP definitely drop by our table and pick up one of the books. They’re just two dollars which is way cheaper than anything else you’ll find in the book fair. And after AWP we’ll bump the price all the way up to three dollars.

So how do you find us? They put us in the back on the third floor so it’s kind of a trek from the lobby and all of the more “established” journals on the first floor but it is definitely worth the trip. While you are stopping by the Vibrant Gray table check out our poetry editor’s (Craig Perez) table for Achiote Press.

Our second issue is just almost up and running. Laura and I are sitting around in Brooklyn looking at the mock-up that our web designer is putting together. Hopefully the website will be ready to go by tomorrow morning. We have some really great contributing writers again and we hope to get some feed back on the journal.

Also, keep checking out the blog because we are planning to add some new features. One thing we want to do is put up some recorded readings of our featured work. Deborah Poe has promised to send us a video of her reading “Fragile Magnets” which should be really good. And if any of our other writers want to send us videos of their readings, go right ahead. We would love to have them. Laura and I will keep checking in, we are just sitting behind the booth all day so we should have plenty of time to keep people updated about the AWP madness going on.