The Writer's News
News | Obituaries | Awards
News
Congress to Pass Law Limiting Artistic Freedom?
The Orphan Works Act of 2008 (H.R. 5889) was introduced to Congress on April 24, 2008. The bill proposes to that all artists must record their works with private registries as well as paying the registry for the service. If a work is not recorded through these private registries, it would become an "Orphaned Work," its copyright would be invalidated, and it would enter instantly into the public domain. Any interested party could then sell or distribute the work without fully reimbursing the original artist. According to OpenCongress.org, the bill stipulates that the interested party would not be liable if they “performed a diligent search for the copyright holder before using their work.” Supporters claim that the aim of this act is to allow for open access to copyrighted works whose owners are difficult to locate. A petition against the Act at: http://www.gopetition.com/... has gained nearly 10,000 signatures.
Financial Downturn Limits Access to Higher Education
According to the College Board’s recent report, college tuitions in the past five years have skyrocketed upward more rapidly than at any other time in the past thirty years—an enormous increase of 40%. This is occurring while Americans are earning even less. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average weekly take-home pay for all Americans has actually decreased from $331 in the first quarter of 2002 to $327 in the first quarter of 2008. However, due to the recent credit crisis, student loans are becoming more difficult to secure. More than fifty student lenders, such as College Loan Corporation, HSBC, and Washington Mutual, no longer issue federally guaranteed loans. The situation became dire enough for the government to intervene. Congress recently voted for legislation channeling funds to state guaranty agencies, which could then offer resources to colleges needing financial support for loans. This legislation, which is now in effect, will transform the federal government into the largest provider of student loans, replacing traditional lenders. Detractors contend that the legislation might dissuade parents and students from selecting private-sector options. But prominent representatives, including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, are championing further extending the government’s role in student loans. In this issue, there is some measure of bipartisan accord. In an interview with David Cho from the Washington Post, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings stated, "Families should have concerns about big tuition increases, year over year, and our broken financing system… it's as if we are trying to keep kids out of college."
Random House Chief Resigns
One of the most influential personalities in publishing, Peter W. Olson, Random House CEO, resigned his position on May 20, 2008. He had acted as CEO of Random House since 1998. Random House is the world’s largest consumer publisher. Among its imprints are Bantam Dell, Crown Publishing Group, Doubleday, Knopf, and Ballantine. Allegedly, Bertelsmann AG, Random House’s parent company, exerted pressure on Olson to leave. Despite several recent high profile successes, Random House sales fell nearly 6% in the past year. Markus Dohle, CEO of Arvato Print also a Bertelsmann unit, will take on the post. According to the New York Times, Hartmut Ostrowski, the new CEO of Bertelsmann, wanted to remove Olson in order to install his own executive.
Mismanagement, Poor Results Derail "No Child Left Behind"
According to a report from the Institute of Education Sciences, the $6 billion reading program, “Reading First,” has failed in its goals. The program is a cornerstone in the “No Child Left Behind” act. Reading First was designed to augment reading skills for K–3 students via grants to thousand of low-income elementary schools. Detractors insist the program is flawed as it deemphasizes the “whole language” approach, which uses literature to train young readers. Supporters maintain that the program’s funding has helped schools. According to a March 30 report in the Washington Post, Mark Allan, director of elementary instruction for the Virginia Department of Education, maintains that “Reading First” has helped the state fund reading coaches, teacher training, and other initiatives. But the Institute of Education Sciences findings suggest that this funding resulted in no variation between the reading comprehension scores of students who participated and other students that had not. In addition, the Reading First program has been criticized for allegations of corruption and mismanagement. Its funding was recently slashed after official inquiries uncovered government officials advising school districts to purchase reading materials in which they had personal financial ties to the publishers. In spite of these scandals, the basic program is still endorsed by the Bush Administration, in particular Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, who is a passionate adherent to the potential merits of the program.
Censorship in Pittsburgh?
Jan Beatty's overtly sexual third collection of poems, Red Sugar, has created a stir due to a cancelled poetry reading in a bookstore in Pittsburgh’s South Side. According to Bob Hoover of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Joseph-Beth Booksellers was concerned that other patrons or children could hear the explicit poetry over the store's sound system. Even though Beatty previously read her work at the store, she was told she would not be granted a reading from Red Sugar unless the store could select which poems they felt were appropriate. They also recommended that Beatty could only sign books without a reading or conduct a reading with the sound system turned off. Beatty refused, saying, "My position is that the store needs to contact me to apologize and to let me read with no strings attached."
Junot Díaz Wins the Pulitzer
 |
Junot Díaz’s work, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, was chosen for the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. It took him eleven years to complete his novel about a young, obese Dominican immigrant and his tragicomic quest for love. John Matteson’s Eden’s Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father was chosen for the Pulitzer Prize for biography. Two poets shared the Pulizer Prize for Poetry: Robert Haas for Time and Materials and Philip Schultz for Failure. Saul Friedlander won in general nonfiction for The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945. Playwright Tracy Letts won the drama Pulitzer for August: Osage County. The Pulitzer Board also gave a special citation to Bob Dylan, the first rock musician to be so honored. |
What Kids Are Reading
According to the latest report from Renaissance Learning the quantity of books read by students decreased as their grade level increased. The sharpest drop occurred between 3rd and 5th Grade. The findings also suggest that gender and region influence reading kids’ reading preferences. Among 1st Grade boys, Dr. Seuss’ The Foot Book was a favorite while 1st Grade girls preferred Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham. The report also debunked the assumption that the Harry Potter series dominates the reading lists of every grade. In fact, among a sample of 5th Graders, the first Harry Potter bookranks fifth following Bridge to Terabithia, Hatchet, Holes, and The Sign of the Beaver. The report also affirmed that classics still retain their appeal. Two of the most prevalent books in grades 7-12 were The Outsiders, first published in 1967, and To Kill a Mockingbird, first published in 1960.
Al Purdy-- Canada's Titan
Al Purdy, among Canada’s most honored poets, was memorialized with a new statue in Queen’s Park in Toronto. According to a press release from the Griffin Poetry Prize, his statue is only the second full-length statue of a poet in all of Toronto (the other is Robert Burns). Pier Giorgio Di Cicco, Canada’s Poet Laureate; Eurithe Purdy, Purdy’s widow; and Dennis Lee, Canada’s first Poet Laureate, were all present at the ceremony. Lee eulogized Purdy, who died in 2000, saying, “Al Purdy is one of the titans; if we have a national poet in English Canada, he’s it.” The prominently placed statue was named Voice of the Land by the sculptor, Dam de Nogales.
Salman Rushdie: Famous Actor?
 |
Salman Rushdie, fresh from publishing his most recent novel The Enchantress of Florence, is dabbling with an entirely different career. He has requested that Hollywood casting directors send him more potential movie roles. The controversial author, who has acted in cameos previously, recently acted the role of a gynecologist in Then She Found Me. Although the sixty-year-old is better known for his authorial skills as opposed to his thespian abilities, he is the first one to acknowledge that he's addicted to acting. "When I was at college I did more acting that writing, but I discovered I wasn't any good, so I did the other thing," Contactmusic.com quoted him as saying. "Now it's like an unscratched itch. So if there are jobs, I'm available." |
Obituaries
| George Garrett (1929-2008) |
 | George Garrett, 78, a man of letters and author of over thirty books of fiction, poetry, biography, and criticism, died of bladder cancer at his home in Charlottesville on May 26, 2008. Dr. Garrett directed the University of Virginia’s creative writing department until he retired in 2000. He was poet laureate of Virginia from 2002 to 2004. His most famous works were his Elizabethan trilogy—Death of the Fox, The Succession, and Entered From the Sun. He wrote each text in radically different forms of storytelling. Dr. Garrett is best known for the first work of the trilogy, Death of the Fox, written in 1971, which became his only bestseller. According to Adam Bernstein of the Washington Post, the novel began as a section of his doctoral thesis in Princeton University. He then spent thirteen years expanding and researching his novel, whose main character is the writer and explorer Sir Walter Raleigh. Mr. Garrett offered much of his talents in giving back to the arts community. He was president of AWP for two years (1971-73). The Ingersoll Foundation recognized Garrett as "one of the most inventive and artistic writers of his generation." |
| James Byron Hall (1918-2008) |
 | James B. Hall, renowned writer and beloved professor at Cornell, University of Oregon, UC-Irvine, and UC-Santa Cruz, died February 28, 2008 in Portland, Oregon. Born July 21, 1918 on his family's farm in Midland, Ohio, he fought in World War II during 1941-46, serving in both North Africa and Europe. After his return from the war, Hall married Elizabeth Anne Cushman, his life-long partner. Hall was part of one of the earliest classes of the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop where he received both a masters and a doctorate. His early mentors were Robert Lowell and Richard Yates. Over the course of sixty years, Hall wrote fiction and poetry, creating more than twenty books. According to the Encyclopedia of Short Fiction, Hall had the honor of being "one of America's most anthologized short stories writers." His students and protégés included Ken Kesey, Bill Hotchkiss, and Barry Lopez. Mr. Hall was a past president of AWP (1975-76). |
| Jason Shinder (1955-2008) |
 | Jason Shinder’s death, at age 52, was announced by the Academy of American Poets, which reported that Mr. Shinder had fought lymphoma and leukemia for several years. He died on April 25, 2008 at his home in Manhattan. Shinder was a poet and teacher who organized the Y.M.C.A. National Writer’s Voice program, among the nation’s foremost networks of literary-arts centers. He was also a former assistant to the renowned poet Allen Ginsberg. Mr. Shinder founded the original Writer’s Voice in 1981, at Manhattan’s West Side Y.M.C.A.. According to Margalit Fox of the New York Times, this first Writer’s Voice offered high-level teaching and readings in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and dramatic writing at cost vastly reduced from a graduate writing program. Mr. Shinder was the author of two volumes of poetry, Every Room We Ever Slept In and Among Women. He edited many anthologies, among them The Poem That Changed America: “Howl” Fifty Years Later. |
Awards
2008 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. $25,000, Publication by Penguin.
Winner: Bill Loehfeim for Fresh Kills. Contest Hosted by: Amazon.com, Penguin Group, and HP. |
 |
2008 Griffin Poetry Prize Winners. $50,000 each.
International Winner: John Ashbery for Notes from the Air: Selected Later Poems, HarperCollins Publishers/Ecco. Canadian Winner: Robin Blaser for The Holy Forest: Collected Poems of Robin Blaser, University of California Press. Judges: George Bowering, James Lasdun, and Pura López Colomé. |
 | 2008 Harold Morton Landon Translation Award. $1,000.
Winner: Clayton Eshleman for The Complete Poetry of Cesar Vallejo, The University of California Press 2007.Judge: Tony Earley. |
2008 Juniper Prize for Poetry. $1,500, Publication by The University of Massachusetts Press.
Winner: L.S. Klatt for his collection Interloper. |
2008 Juniper Prize for Fiction. $1,500, Publication by The University of Massachusetts Press.
Winner: Daniel A, Hoyt for his collection A Story of Family. |
2008-2009 Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing Fellows:
Diane Middlebrook Poetry Fellow: Jill Osier, (MFA, University of Alaska-Fairbanks)
Jay C. and Ruth Halls Poetry Fellow: Traci Brimhall, (MFA, Sarah Lawrence University)
Carol Houck Smith Fiction Fellow: Stuart Nadler, (MFA, University of Iowa)
Carl Djerassi Fiction Fellow: Amanda Rea, (MFA, University of California-Irvine)
James C. McCreight Fiction Fellow: Andrew Milward, (MFA, University of Iowa)
Halls Emerging Artist Fellowship (open only to University of Wisconsin MFA graduates): Emma Straub, (MFA in Fiction, Class of 2008).
The 2009 Carl Djerassi Distinguished Fellow in Playwriting: Michael Weller |
15th Annual Boston Review Fiction Contest.
Winner: Patricia Engel for “Desaliento.” Judges: Junot Diaz and Chris Abani. |
Reed Magazine Prizes.
Winners: The John Steinbeck Award for the Short Story ($1,000) 2008: Renato Escudero for “Barrio Exorcism.” The Edwin Markham Prize in Poetry ($500) 2008: Carl Auerbach “On Charity,” “On Love,” and “The Problem of Evil.” |
Pavement Saw Press Chapbook Contest. $500, Publication by Pavement Saw Press, and 50 Copies.
Winner: Noah Eli Gordon for Acoustic Experience. Judge: David Baratier. |
Milt Kessler Poetry Book Award. $1,000.
Winner: Albert Goldbarth for his collection The Kitchen Sink: New and Selected Poems 1972-2007, Graywolf Press. Judge: Denise Duhamel. |
 | 2008 New Issues Poetry Prize. $2,000 and Publication.
Winner: Justin Marks for A Million in Prizes. Judge: Carl Phillips. |
 | 2008 Pinch Journal Annual Contest Winners.
Fiction: First place winner: Anne Leigh Parrish for “Surrogate”; Second place winner: Jacob Appel for “Pollen”; Third place winner: David Williams for “Strange Things Happening Every Day.” Poetry: First place winner: Rebecca Patrascu for “I am in Love with Old Men”; Second place winner: Pat Keller for “Group Therapy”; Third place winner: Mark Wagenaar for “The Alchemist’s Notebook.” Judges: Jason Brown, Fiction; Sandra Meek, Poetry. |
New Millennium Writing Awards. $1,000 and Publication.
Poetry Winner: Harry Bauld for “Alaska.” Nonfiction Winners: Ralph Ryan for “Wildfire, Hellfire” and M. Norman Risch for “The Day My Son Died.” Short-Short Fiction Winner: Susan Chiavelli for “Winter Oranges.” |
9th Annual Gival Press Poetry Award-2007. $1,000, Publication, and 20 copies.
Winner: Richard Carr for Honey. Judge: Barbara Louise Ungar. |
May/Summer 2008 News
Back to Top |
