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Chimamanda Adichie:

‘How Will History

Depict The African Woman?’

July 23, 2012

How will history depict the African woman? That is the question Chimamanda Adichie explored as she spoke at the Royal African Society’s first annual literary festival in London. Africa’s leading literary voice and one of Forbes’ Youngest Power Women in Africa, Adichie reflected on five momentous decades of an African literary culture, saying, “Africans must speak for themselves… especially women.” Above all, it was a heartfelt tribute to Africa’s women writers. Speaking on the legacy and “complex femaleness” of the authors, Adichie declared, “African women writers’ story-telling nurtured mine.” The lecture was also a chance to get intimate with the Purple Hibiscus author as she discussed details of her childhood. To Ike Anya, who sat next to her, Adichie was the “small girl next door” whose imagination was “shrouded in wonder.” As Anya explains, “When the Achebes moved out, the Adichies moved in,” revealing Nsukka’s prestigious line of homegrown writers.

*All photos by Siddharth Khajuria.

An issue particularly close to the author’s heart is the role of women and marriage in African societies. Having decided to call herself a “feminist,” Adichie shared her amusement that a Nigerian reporter once told her, “Feminists are unhappy women who cannot find a husband.” Arguing, “We should not be raising our daughters to aspire to marriage,” Adichie urged her audience to “make space” in society for women who do not wish to get married. She added, “We need to teach our girls to conquer the world [instead].” Above all, Adichie hoped that history would remember that African women could love and be loved. One of the main reasons why her readers are drawn to Half of a Yellow Sun is its ability to humanise people in deeply troubling circumstances. Even amidst the horrors of the Biafran War, Adichie’s characters were allowed to be passionately in love; from Odenigbo to Ugwu, master to houseboy, there was love at every level of the story. In societies where sex is rarely discussed and in a literary culture where love and romance are reserved for the blonde-haired, blue-eyed heroine (and “tall, dark and handsome”) means something very different to what a much younger Adichie had imagined, Adichie enforced what she called “the democratisation of sex.” She insisted, “The [African] woman is more than merely an object but [an individual] with her own desires.”

It was only a matter of time, however, before the language debate pervaded her speech. Having previously been accused of succumbing to “western” standards by people that Adichie jokingly describes as the “preservers of the African culture,” she defended her decision to write in English. She declared, “English is mine… it has become mine.” While Adichie grew up speaking both English and Igbo, her school system was entirely in English. She recalled how children could be punished for speaking the vernacular at school. Pointing out that many from her generation can neither read nor write in Igbo, Adichie explained, “English was the only language by which we could express ourselves philosophically.” She did, however, maintain that, “We need to find ways to give value to our language,” before adding that she finds it is “silly” that some are ashamed to speak their native language. Nonetheless, it is clear that Adichie operates beyond the confinements of the many burdens of representation faced by African, or indeed black, writers. She dismissed these burdens and their confinements, saying, “I don’t speak for all Nigerians.” She continued, “It is not something I think about. I want to write. I want to tell stories.”

This discussion soon found itself wandering towards homosexuality, a taboo subject by African standards (although this is changing). “I believe in love” was Adichie’s simple answer to Africa’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights question. Boldly declaring that homophobia is “fundamentally wrong,” Adichie maintained, “Being gay is not something white people brought to us. Africans have been gay for centuries.” As for the Hollywood rendition of Half of a Yellow Sun, featuring Thandie Newton, Adichie said she was glad that even more people would be introduced to her story. However, explaining that books are, by nature, very different to movies, Adichie told her audience, “Half of a Yellow Sun matters to me in a deeply personal way… but I want nothing to do with the [directing of the] film.”

As the interest in Africa grows, Mary Harper, Africa Editor at the BBC World Service, shared her excitement for the prospects for African literature. She said, “This is just part of the whole Africa rebirth, the Africa renaissance,” adding, “Africa is growing into itself, as it were”. Harper praised Adichie, saying, “She has inspired others to write. She gave them courage.” Examining the outlook for future African writers, Adichie admits, “We don’t have many stories but it is changing. The more African stories we have, the better.” Adichie urged the audience to look to the past, as well as to the future, saying, “The books that truly matter are the ones that survive the ages. The books of the African Writers’ Series have endured.”

Story by Okayafrica Contributor Vinjeru Mkandawire.

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  <p>Chimamanda Adichie: The danger of a single story from Africa Talks on Vimeo.</p>

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Award winning author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Image: Writer Pictures/Geraint Lewis via AP Images)

Speaking at the Africa Writes 2012 literature and book festival, a literary event organised by Royal African Society, award winning Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie told the crowd that society should set higher goals for our girls.

“We shouldn’t raise our daughters to aspire to just marriage”, Adichie told a full packed lecture hall at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).

The 34-year-old said she started calling herself a happy black African feminist after a reporter told her feminists were women who were angry they hadn’t found husbands.

“We shouldn’t equate marriage with fulfilment and we should make place in our society for women who don’t want to marry,” she pointed out.

Adichie, who is only in London for the event, also cautioned those who believe homosexuality is “unafrican”.

“Homosexuality is not something white people brought to Africa,” adding: “Gay people have been there for centuries.”

One of Adichie’s novels, Half Of A Yellow Sun, is being made into a movie and the Orange Prize award winner told the crowd she’s had nothing to do with the filmatisation of the popular novel.

“I had nothing to do with it [film] because I didn’t want to have a heart attack”, she joked.

She added: “Of course I hope it will be good, though movies are always different from books.”

The movie by same name stars British actors Thandie Newtown and Chiwetel Ejiofor and is slated for a 2013 release.

>via: http://www.africapost.co.uk/2012/07/01/shouldnt-raise-our-daughters-to-aspire...

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07 May 2012

IN(HER)VIEW:

A Conversation

With Black Women

Harlow Project is a site dedicated to celebrating and telling the stories of women and people of color. Our mission is to produce projects that create a community of consciousness. The goal is to talk to everyday people and give them a platform to share their stories by creating a space where we can talk genuinely and truthfully.

written by Harlow Project

Director, Producer and Editor: Charla Harlow

www.harlowproject.com
facebook.com/HarlowProject
twitter: @harlowproject

Taking Surprising Risks

For The Ideal Body

 

March 22, 2010

 

Listen to the Story

Download body_image.mp3

First of a yearlong series

Davia Nelson for NPR / The Jamaican vision of beauty keeps evolving. "Most of the young girls now coming up — they don't want fat no more, they want slim and trim," says farmer Kadesha Abrahms (left) at a feed store in Treasure Beach, Jamaica.

Every culture has its idealized woman — a standard of beauty that is sought and valorized. And everywhere around the world, women are altering themselves to achieve the look that is celebrated, from cosmetics to liposuction.

In Jamaica, women have come up with some of their own unique, homegrown beauty enhancement techniques.

"Some girls, in order to be more attractive to the male, they get themselves into the use of chicken pills. Chicken pills are the same pills farmers give to make the chickens grow faster," says Carol Turpin of St. Catherine, Jamaica, who is the head of the 4-H Club.

The trend began in the '90s — and took people by surprise.

"Women take the chicken pills to get broader hips and bigger bottoms," says Carol's son Jason. "In our Jamaican culture, we love a girl that has a lot of shape."

"Most males, they love to see women with big bottoms. The whole idea of Coca-Cola bottle shape" Carol says. " 'I don't want a meager woman,' that's how the men would speak. ... They're figuring if you look meager, you look poor, in the sense that you're not being taken care of."

According to Carolyn Cooper, professor of literary and cultural studies at the University of the West Indies, "big bottoms" reveal power — but there are competing norms of beauty in Jamaica.

"There's a kind of anorexic, Eurocentric model of beauty," she says. "Also, a much more Afrocentric body type that is valorized."

Under the African standard of beauty, health is expressed in some amount of fat. The "healthy body girl" is at least between 160 and 210 pounds, says Sonjah Stanley-Niaah, lecturer in cultural studies at the University of the West Indies.

"If you have no meat on your bones, the society can't see your wealth, your progress, your being," she says.

In Jamaica, there is a high level of activity around modifying the body — and there are deep conversations in the culture that manifest in the music and the dance hall about the ideal body type.

"What I find amazing is the degree to which women will put themselves at risk to fit an image they consider ideal," Cooper says.

Taking Health Risks To Be Beautiful

Dr. Neil Persadsingh, a dermatologist in Kingston, has seen hundreds of young women who have taken chicken pills and have suffered the side effects.

What I find amazing is the degree to which women will put themselves at risk to fit an image they consider ideal.

 —Carolyn Cooper, professor of literary and cultural studies at the University of the West Indies.

He says it's the arsenic in the chicken pills that stimulates the appetite of the chicken. The government has banned the chicken pill for chickens and women, but it is still available across the island in farm stores and on the street.

Some of the side effects include numbness, diarrhea and dermatitis. And arsenic is a cumulative poison that can build up in the body and cause cancer. But the trend may be moving away from the chicken pills.

At a feed store in Treasure Beach, Jamaica, young farmer Kadesha Abrahms who works at the store says, "Most of the young girls now coming up — they don't want fat no more, they want slim and trim," Abrahms says. "The overseas culture is coming in. Everybody's adapting to it, trying be slim. Seeing girls on TV, on runway shows, on MTV, the girls all slim. They don't want big body like me anymore."

Donna Hope, a lecturer in reggae studies at the University of the West Indies says that, like women in all cultures, Jamaican women are using all kinds of artifice, hair extensions, eyelash extensions and skin bleaching as a form of enhancement. It's fashionable even though it's damaging to the epidermis.

Like chicken pills, the bleaching products are sold on Princess Street, Kingston's downtown market. They're packaged in little plastic bags with no labels.

Hope says that these cosmetic concoctions are a mix of toothpaste and curry powder that is rubbed on the skin and left for a period of time to lighten the skin.

"You have to keep yourself out of the sun, so they cover their skin," she says. "The skin starts to take on a reddish appearance, which means your epidermis is being burned."

Complicated History

This conversation about beauty is heard in the soundtrack of Jamaica, from Captain Barkey's song "Bleach on, Girl" to Mr. Lex's "Let Those Monkeys Out," where he likens bleachers to monkeys and vampires who have to stay out of the sun. And Queen Ifrica, a Rastafari artist, sings that bleaching is a negation of your African self in "Mi Nah Rub."

Davia Nelson for NPR / On the streets of Kingston, Jamaica, women buy bleaching products sold in plastic bags without labels.

 

Cooper says the politics of the body in Jamaica is complicated, because Jamaican society emerged out of the trauma of slavery. Color is an important marker of social status.

"We still have a racist legacy in which the perception is reinforced that the lighter your skin is, the more beautiful you are, the further you can go in the culture, the more socially accepted you are," she says. "Still, in Jamaica, a lot of positions of power are occupied by people who are light-skinned. And the attitude is, if light skin is in, I can get it, too."

Jamaican beauty contests have long been a place where these competing norms of beauty collide. At a beauty contest held in Kingston in 1955, the lighter skinned women were named after flowers — like Miss Lotus and Miss Apple Blossom, Cooper says. The darker women were named after hardwoods: Miss Mahogany, Miss Ebony. The flowers won more than the hardwoods.

Three years ago, Zahra Redwood, a Rastafarian woman with organic dreadlocks and a broad nose and full lips, won Miss Universe. Fifty years ago, that kind of image would never be paraded on a stage as beautiful, says Cooper.

"We have to see that we have come a long way in terms of society's readiness to accept multiple models of beauty," she says.

Transforming The Body, Transcending Cultures

There are risks involved in taking chicken pills, using bleaching products, doing surgical implants, having plastic surgery. Women do these modifications thinking they will have greater purchase.

This preoccupation with transforming the body is something that transcends cultures. Whether it's under the surgeon's knife or freelancing with a chicken pill. It's a whole discourse of dissatisfaction and anxiety about accepting the body as naturally beautiful.

"At the end of the day," says Stanley-Niaah, "women do these beauty practices not to diminish themselves, but to somehow assert themselves."

Produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva), mixed by Jim McKee

WHITE POWER U.S.A.

From Aryan skinhead gatherings in the middle of the Arizona desert to the anti-immigrant militias patrolling the US-Mexican border, from the white-supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens in Mississippi to the right wing of the "Tea Party Movement", Big Noise takes an inside look at the resurgence of white nationalism in America. The inauguration of President Barack Obama was hailed as a turning point in US race relations. The country was said to be entering a new era of post-racial politics. But while crowds flocked to Washington to witness the swearing in, others were refusing to join the party. Racially motivated threats against Obama rose to new heights in the first months of his presidency, with the US seeing nine high-profile race killings in 2009. Meanwhile white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups claim their membership is growing and that visits to their websites are increasing. Is the racial undercurrent that has long structured US politics reasserting itself? Originally aired on Al Jazeera English. Available on Dispatches Vol.6

Watch the Video

…Quadroon ball. Strange sight: all the men white, all the women coloured, or at least of African blood. Single tie created by immorality between the two races. A sort of bazaar. The women vowed as it were by law to concubinage. Incredible laxity of morals. Mothers, young girls, children at the dance;still another harmful consequences of slavery. Multitude of coloured people at New Orleans…

- French historian and political thinker Alexis de Tocqueville on going to a Quadroon ball during his trip to New Orleans (via University of Virginia)

 

The system of plaçage

by Maggie McNeill

Usually we think of concubinage as having died out in the West by the early part of the Christian Era, but in actuality it continued to exist among Europeans living in Asia because those cultures still practiced it, and in the 17^th century it was revived in a widespread form called plaçage (from the French placer, to place with) among the French and Spanish colonists in Africa and the New World.

Though the system was widespread throughout the French and Spanish colonies in the Caribbean and along the Gulf Coast (including Haiti, Martinique and Florida), it was most highly-developed and formally organized in New Orleans and reached its height during Spanish rule of the city (1769-1801).  Though plaçage was not legally recognized as marriage by the authorities, Creoles considered the arrangements honorable and referred to them as mariages de la main gauche (left-handed marriages).  Though in the earliest days most placées were slaves, this later became unusual and most were drawn from the free Creole community.  In 1788 it was estimated that there were about 1,500 placées in New Orleans, and they were the most influential members of the Creole community; their children were often educated in France, and some even owned houses, businesses, plantations and slaves of their own.Few women were interested in emigrating from France to New Orleans, and this also held true for other French and Spanish colonies from the time of the conquistadores on.  ”Suitable” European women had no trouble finding husbands or patrons among the men who remained in Europe, so there was a chronic shortage of marriageable women in the colonies; the male colonists therefore took native women as mistresses.  Inevitably these relationships produced children, and by the early 18^th century the plaçage system was developed to define the legal ramifications of these relationships, including the inheritance and other rights of the offspring.  Since New Orleans had particular difficulty in attracting marriageable women even by French colonial standards, a very large community of mixed-blood “Creoles of color” arose, forming the foundation of New Orleans’ free Creole society; in later times most placées (as the concubines were called) were “quadroons” (¼ black) or “octoroons” (¹/₈ black), but in earlier times many were mulatto, black or Native American.

A Portrait of Asher Moses Nathan and his son Circa New Orleans around 1845

 

A wealthy man would usually reside with his wife and her children at his plantation, but maintain a townhouse in New Orleans where his placée and her children lived; he stayed in this house when in town for business or used it for entertaining other city businessmen, and when he was out of town his placée and her children participated in free Creole society.  A man’s relationship with a placée often predated his marriage because he did not seek a white wife until he had established himself in business; thus, his children by the placée were often older than those by the legal wife, and some men actually named their Creole children as primary heirs over their “legitimate” children.  Normally, however, the placée could expect one-third of her husband’s property upon his death.  But if he died intestate or was forced by his legal wife to abandon his placée and her children, she got nothing more than her house (and sometimes not even that).  If she was still young and attractive she might enter into plaçage with another white man, or marry a Creole man; if not she might open a boarding house or seek employment as a merchant, hairdresser or seamstress.  And it was very likely she would bring her own daughters up to become placées.

Creole ladies at one of the last Quadroon Balls

 

By the time New Orleans became American in 1803, the usual means by which such mothers introduced their eligible daughters to wealthy white men were the Quadroon Balls.  These elegant, elaborate affairs were held every week by the owners of dance halls, and only white men and Creole women were permitted to attend.  Creole debutantes were accompanied to the balls by their mothers, and when a white gentleman found such a girl attractive and wished to take her in plaçage he had to negotiate the terms with the elder lady.  Typically, the mother would insist that the details of her daughter’s housing and upkeep be specified in writing, and that children produced by the union be recognized; these wise women wanted to be sure that their daughters would not be left without support as they had been, and if the daughter was particularly beautiful and/or the gentleman particularly generous the mother could include in the bargain a lump-sum payment or even an allowance for herself.

By the time of the War Between the States, the plaçage system was starting to become less common for both positive and negative reasons.  New Orleans’ Creole community had grown large both from the many children produced by such arrangements and by intermarriage among the Creoles themselves, and since their economic status had grown to be comparable with that of whites the system was less necessary than it once had been.  At the same time, institutionalized racism in New Orleans had grown under American rule, and both laws and social customs made social race-mixing more difficult; for a white man of this period to actually cohabit with a Creole woman as his grandfather had became nearly impossible.  The relationships became much more clandestine, and since they were no longer officially sanctioned it became easier for an embittered wife or greedy half-siblings to cheat a placée and her children out of their inheritance.

After the war, things became much worse for the Creoles; the Carpetbaggers, unscrupulous Northern businessmen who arrived to take advantage of the South’s depleted economy, were far more racist than any native New Orleanian had ever been, and by the end of the Reconstruction many once-prosperous Creole families, descended from wealthy colonials through generations of plaçage, had fallen into ruin due to the refusal of the Carpetbagger merchants and federally-controlled puppet government to do business with them.  With plaçage gone, the beautiful and well-educated daughters of impoverished Creole families had few options; white men could not legally marry them, ruined Creole or free black men could not afford to support them, and former slaves were too far beneath their social and educational level even to be considered.  Given the circumstances, it should come as no surprise that many of them turned to high-class prostitution in the city’s booming brothel industry, where their looks and education could earn them $10/hour in a time when the average laborer made 22¢/hour.  Many of the most sought-after courtesans and wealthiest madams in Storyville were Creole beauties whose great-grandmothers had been placées.

The mixed-race descendants of plaçage made up a large and independent Creole community in New Orleans well into the 20^th century, but once the racial controversy of the 1960s and ‘70s had come and gone this community began to break up; after laws about ancestry were swept away most Creoles (some of whom were as little as ¹/₁₆ black) chose to identify as white, while others called themselves black.  Some even changed their minds over the course of their lives; two late 20^th-century  mayors of New Orleans, both born into respected Creole families, called themselves white on their Army induction papers but later found it politically expedient to identify as black when seeking election in a majority-black city.  Sadly, the last descendants of Western Civilization’s last officially-recognized concubines will soon disappear into one race or the other, taking the last traces of their unique culture with them except for those portions which have become a part of the greater culture of New Orleans.

(via The Honest Courtesan)

Video Premiere:

The Busy Twist

‘Friday Night’

August 9, 2012 Posted by: killakam

London producers The Busy Twist have spent the past 3 years traveling back-and-forth to Ghana, working with musicians from the country on tracks that bridge their hometown’s bass scene with hiplife and highlife — such as the previously featured “LDN LUANDA.” Their latest single “Friday Night” features Ghanaian singers Yaga Yo and Daniel lamenting “money grabbing women and men’s willingness to hand over the cash.” For the video, The Busy Twist ventured the Accra streets — boombox in hand and blasting — capturing a slew of friends, school children and passers-by as they got down to their beat. Friday Night EP is out September 10 via Soundway Records.

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 Audio:

The Busy Twist

‘LDN LUANDA’

+ Floor Excitement EP

The United States and Canadian Competition The Fellowship competition was at first open only to citizens of either the United States or its possessions.  In keeping with the Guggenheims' intentions, as expressed in their First Letter of Gift, the awards were originally titled the "John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowships for Advanced Study Abroad."  Beginning with the inaugural class of fifteen Fellows in 1926, all Fellows were required to spend their terms outside of the United States.  But eager to place as few restrictions as possible on the Fellows, the Foundation rescinded that requirement with the competition of 1941. Canadians became eligible for the Guggenheim Fellowships in 1940, and the name of the competition changed to "United States and Canada." Residents of the Philippines were eligible from the establishment of the Foundation (for the Philippines were a U.S. territory at that time) until 1988, when the Philippine program was discontinued; applications from the Philippines were considered by the Committee of Selection for the United States and Canada through 1949, when that responsibility shifted to the Latin American Committee.

 

How to Apply An application consists of the completed online form, together with three supporting documents submitted in PDF format. Follow the links below to apply online. United States and Canadian Competition

Deadlines & Resources Applications and accompanying documents from citizens and permanent residents of the United States and Canada should be submitted no later than September 19.  The Foundation will send requests to each of an applicant's listed references for an appraisal of the applicant and his or her proposed project. More

Follow this link to view the 2013 United States and Canada Competition Timeline

SAVA-CVC Creative Writing Competition

(South Africa)

Deadline: 31 October 2012

Write a story or a poem about dogs and/ or cats and enter the SAVA CVC Creative Writing Competition. Competition runs from 1st August to 31st October 2012. Entries can be posted to CVC Creative Writing, PO Box 25033, Monumentpark, 0105.

All entries must include a paw print purchased at your local veterinarian. Paw prints are R5 and the funds raised will be used to vaccinate and sterilise pets in disadvantaged communities that cannot afford or have no access to private veterinary services.

Prizes sponsored by Exclus1ve Books.

Please ensure your name, age and contact details are included with your entry. Judging categories are:

• Age group 8, 9 and 10: short story

• Age group 11, 12 and 13: short story

• Age group 14, 15, 16 and 18: story or poem

• Age group 18 or older: story or poem

Note: There is no limitation to the length of the poems or stories. Each entry requires a paw print. You may submit multiple entries, but each one must have its own entry paw. Thus, a story and a poem would be 2 paw prints – but these can posted in the same envelope.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries: call (012) 346 1150

For submissions: CVC Creative Writing, PO Box 25033, Monumentpark, 0105

Website: http://www.communityvet.co.za/

New Millennium Writings is now accepting submissions
for our Thirty-fifth Consecutive  Awards for Fiction, Poetry, and Nonfiction. 
Writing competition winners will be published in NMW and on this website.

$4,000 offered in Literary Grants and Awards, Plus Publication
$1,000 for best Poem
$1,000 for best Fiction
$1,000 for best Nonfiction †
$1,000 for best Short-short Fiction

† Nonfiction includes humor, memoir, creative nonfiction, travel, opinion, essay, interview, features, investigative reporting, etc. 

To apply online, follow these guidelines No restrictions as to style, content, number of submissions, or nationality. Enter as often as you like. Send between now and November 17, 2012, Midnight, all U.S. time zones. Simultaneous & multiple submissions welcome. Previously published material welcome if under 5,000-circulation or if previously published online only. Each fiction or nonfiction piece is counted as a separate entry, and should total no more than 6,000 words except Short-Short Fiction (no more than 1,000 words). Each poetry entry may include up to three poems, not to exceed five pages total per entry. All poetry Honorable Mentions will be published. Save cover sheet or letter with the submission you'll be uploading and send as one file. Should you forget to include such covers, however, it's OK, as contact information is automatically forwarded to us when you pay online. Cover sheet or letter is not required if entering online, as contact information is automatically forwarded to us when you pay. If including such a cover or letter, however, save it to the submission you'll be uploading and send as one file. --> Payment is $20 per submission in order to cover our many expenses and reserve your book. Payment will be by credit card or echeck through PayPal (See Rule 10). Each entry must be in a separate file (up to 3 poems in one file (See #6)). Many file formats are accepted. Enter file to upload:  Select category... Short-short fiction Fiction Nonfiction Poetry After clicking Upload, allow five seconds, then follow payment instructions to conclude your submission.

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Winners of NMW Awards are showcased along with interviews, profiles and tributes to writers such as Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Khaled Hosseini, J. D. Salinger, Julia Glass, Shel Silverstein, George Garrett, Ken Kesey, John Updike, Lee Smith, Cormac McCarthy, Lucille Clifton, Shelby Foote, Paul West, Norman Mailer, Sharyn McCrumb, William Kennedy and tributes to writers for the ages, including Faulkner, Hemingway, Dickinson, Keats, Percy, Warren and others; also prize-winning stories, poems and articles, plus humor, graphic arts and writing advice. --> Winners of NMW Awards are showcased along with interviews, profiles and tributes to celebrated writers such as Cormac McCarthy, Pamela Uschuk, Allen Wier, William Pitt Root, Nikki Giovanni, J. D. Salinger, Julia Glass, Shel Silverstein, Khaled Hosseini, George Garrett, Ken Kesey, John Updike, Lee Smith, Lucille Clifton, William Burroughs, Shelby Foote, Paul West, Norman Mailer, Sharyn McCrumb, William Kennedy and tributes to writers for the ages, including Faulkner, Hemingway, Dickinson, Keats, Percy, Warren and many others; also prize-winning stories, poems and articles, plus humor, graphic arts and writing advice. Color cover/ 208 pages. See our FAQ page for additional information.

Thanks for your interest and, to those of you who have already applied, thanks for your patience. Feel free to apply more than once.