bellomyc12 – Snopes

Now Accepting Entries for the Bevel Summers Prize for Short-Short Fiction

bellomyc12

From March 1 to March 31, 2012 Shenandoah will be accepting entries for the Bevel Summers Prize for Short-Short Fiction. This $500 prize is awarded to a story of 1,000 words or less, and will also be published in an upcoming issue of Shenandoah. There is no entry fee, and entrants may submit up to three previously unpublished story. Please mail 2 copies of each story (one with name and contact information, and one without) and a SASE to Shenandoah: Bevel Summers at 17 Courthouse Square, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA 24450. The judge of this year’s prize will be Chris Gavaler, his colleagues and students are not eligible to enter. Please see this page for more information about the judge and past winners: http://shenandoahliterary.org/bevel-summers/

Contact shenandoah@wlu.edu with any questions.

2011 Graybeal-Gowen Poetry Contest

bellomyc12

Shenandoah is pleased to announce the winner of the 2011 Graybeal-Gowen Poetry Award. A $500 prize awarded to a poet born or residing in Virginia, this year’s award was judged by the Poet Laureate of Virginia, Kelly Cherry. The winning poem, “Writing on the Window” was written by Margaret Mackinnon.

Mackinnon’s work has appeared in various journals, including Poetry, New England Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Southern Humanities Review, Quarterly West, and Valparaiso Poetry Review. Her new work appears in the South Carolina Review and is forthcoming in Image, RHINO, and Midwest Quarterly. Mackinnon completed the graduate program in creative writing at the University of Florida, and she has been awarded scholarships from Bread Loaf, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and the Squaw Valley Community of Writers. For the summer of 2010, she was awarded a residency at the Vermont Studio Center. Currently, Mackinnon teaches literature and creative writing at a private high school in the Washington, DC area, and lives with her husband and daughter in Falls Church, Virginia.

Said Cherry of the winning poem:

The winning poem, “Writing on the Window,” delineates credibly and movingly Sophia Hawthorne’s marriage to Nathaniel. The poem shows us their house and garden, the couple’s financial difficulties, the husband’s creative imagination, and Sophia’s serious engagement with painting and her sensitivity and intelligence. Humor, sensuality, and sadness are almost equally weighted. I particularly applaud the poet for retaining linear integrity in her narrative. Finally, what cinched my choice was that I read it aloud (to my husband): the music of this poem is wonderfully persuasive!

Congratulations also to the Graybeal-Gowen finalists:

Patsy Anne Bickerstaff
Matthew Blakley
Sarah Crossland
Anna Journey
Charlotte Matthews
Marielle Prince
Audrey Walls
Kristin Zimet

Thank you to all those who submitted work, we encourage you to enter next year’s Graybeal-Gowen contest, and the Bevel Summers Prize for the Short-Short Story, accepting entries from March 1st to March 31st, 2012.

The winning poem and all the finalists will appear as a Feature on Shenandoah‘s homepage in February.

So we are supposed to judge the covers…

bellomyc12

I recently stumbled across an interesting article in the New York Times. I’ve lately been interested in the ongoing print vs. electronic debate in the book world, and this article offered an interesting answer to the question:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/books/publishers-gild-books-with-special-effects-to-compete-with-e-books.html?ref=books

One line in particular stuck out. “If e-books are about ease and expedience, the publishers reason, then print books need to be about physical beauty and the pleasures of owning, not just reading.” There are pictures in the article of books with beautiful, embossed covers, gilded pages, tasseled bookmarks. It’s true that many of these features might make a book a beautiful addition to your shelf or coffee table. However, for now at least, it doesn’t seem that many people take their decorator to the bookstore and pick up the latest Stephen King because their den needs some more color. It seems to me that the pleasures of owning are intertwined with the pleasures of reading.

Working on a paper the other night, I found myself on the floor of the library, going through volume after volume of the beautiful 1903 Library Edition of the Works of Ruskin, and I have to say that the deckled edges and thick, high quality paper made the experience infinitely more enjoyable. I know the same thing goes for my books at home. My “pleasures of owning” don’t come from the books’ physical beauty, but more from the way their appearance correlates with my memory of reading them. I have a beautiful edition of Pride & Prejudice and I admit I liked it better than my dog-eared paper back. I like it better not just because it looks nicer on the shelf, but because the sky blue cloth cover covered in burnt red curling script makes me feel a little more Jane Austenian, a little more Lizzie Bennet curled up in a tree, when I read it.

You’ll note that the picture at the very top of the page shows Jay-Z signing his intricate memoir. Not having read Decoded I can’t comment on it or how it compares to the rest of the celebrity memoir wave, but it is interesting to see how gorgeous editions are no longer reserved for the classics. I only hope that publishers are realizing that while we can judge books, and maybe buy them, by their covers, content will never cease to be important.

The Evolution of Technology and Literature

bellomyc12

Throughout the term thus far, we each have presented to the other interns two literary journals, one a more traditional print journal and one an online journal. For the most part, I found that the online journals did a great deal to mirror their print counterparts. Though the way in which we view the material is different, both are essentially a collection of creative works and reviews, organized for the reader. Some online journals took advantage of their new medium more than others, incorporating voice recordings, video, and color photographs into their journal. However, I think the ways in which technology changes will continue to influence literature, and eventually we will see changes not just in format, but in content.

This past summer, I finally made the leap and purchased Barnes & Nobles’s color reading tablet, a device to which I had formally been vehemently opposed. I have quickly come to love its convenience and portability, and saving on the printing charges for the articles and other reading I’m assigned. However, after exploring the way novels and magazines appear on its screen, I’ve begun to wonder how the rise of such devices will change the content of what we read. Not only are certain things easier to view on small screens, but technology also conditions us to expect instant gratification, and we may expect not only easily accessible literary content, but additional information and media along with it.

Finally, we are on the verge of generation that will be raised from birth with this sort of media, and their comfort level with such technology may continue to push advances in the ways in which we view literature. All of this will surely have an impact on the types of literature produced, as writers become more mindful of both the new audience and the new format they are writing for.

It’s certainly an interesting time to be observing the literary world, and while I’m excited about the possibilities of online journals and content, I’m still hoping those beautiful hardcover books don’t disappear off our shelves too quickly!

Graybeal-Gowen Poetry Award

bellomyc12

Shenandoah is very excited to announce that the judge of this year’s Graybeal-Gowen Poetry Award will be the Poet Laureate of Virginia, Kelly Cherry. Shenandoah will be accepting entries until November 15th. Poets born or residing in Virginia can submit up to three poems. Click here for more information.