A detail from “Life’s Lil Pleasures.” Photo credit: Gizmodo / Evan Lorenzen
Illustrator and designer Evan Lorenzen has spent the past year designing tiny, pin-sized books. The books comprise a “micro-library” of guides and curiosities, including “Life’s Lil Pleasures,” “The Little Book of Big Ideas,” and “The Mini Book of Major Events.” Thanks to Gizmodo for highlighting Lorenzen’s work. You can see more little books on his website.
A.J. Bormeester’s Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis Tabula (1684), courtesy of the Public Domain Review
The dates and theme for the 11th annual PEN World Voices Festival have recently been announced. From May 4th through May 10th, 100 writers from various countries will come together in NYC to celebrate literature “On Africa.” The 2015 program, co-curated by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, seeks to make heard the voices of contemporary African artists. Among the writers being featured are Teju Cole, Edwidge Danticat, Mona Eltahawy, and Alain Mabanckou.
PEN is an international organization dedicated to protecting free expression for writers and expanding a worldwide literary community. Each Spring, they hold their World Voices Festival, chaired by Salman Rushdie, to exhibit the works of writers cross-culturally and to “celebrate the written word.” To learn about or get involved with PEN, explore their website.
From Shin-Bijutsukai (1901-1902), courtesy of the Public Domain Review
Augury author Joe Pan will be leading Brooklyn Poets‘ Yawp on March 9th. A monthly event, Yawp consists of a writing workshop at 7 PM, followed by an open mic night at 8. The primary focus for this month’s Yawp will be the evolution of poetry throughout the writing process. It will take place at 61 Local, and admission is $5 for nonmembers.
To learn more about Yawp, visit the Brooklyn Poets website.
Joe Pan’s book, Hiccups, or Autobiomythography II, is forthcoming from Augury Books in 2015.
More on Joe Pan
Motionpoems is an organization that brings video artists and publishing companies together to create video shorts of poetry, aptly dubbed “motionpoems.” Started by Angella Kassube and Todd Boss, animator/producer and poet, respectively, Motionpoems has gone on to partner with such companies as Wave Books, Graywolf Press, McSweeney’s, and several others to bring poetry into a new medium. Following a premiere at the Walker Art Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, the fifth season of motionpoems is currently being released via Motionpoems’ subscription. Augury Books has the honor of being able to preview one of season five’s poems before it is sent out! View Matthew Zapruder’s “Albert Einstein,” adapted by John Akre, below:
In addition to a new season of work, Motionpoems and Todd Boss recently produced “Arrivals & Departures at St. Paul’s Union Depot,” a video-art installation on the Union Depot building in St. Paul, set to premiere October 10-12 at the St. Paul Art Crawl. Motionpoems will soon be taking submissions from U.S. poets for next year’s installation! Check back at the “Arrivals & Departures” page above for updates.
This year marks the 10th annual Printers Ball, a day of performances, live printmaking demos, and exhibitions surrounding poetry and literary culture. Founded in 2004 by Poetry magazine’s Art Director Fred Sasaki, Printers’ Ball takes place each year in Chicago and has seen a number of venues spanning across the city. This year, the Ball will be hosted by Spudnik Press Cooperative at the Hubbard Street Lofts, with a central theme of CHATTER, focused on “the energy and chatter of concurrent creative practices.”
Augury Books is honored to be a selected publication at this year’s Ball.
For more information, visit the event website.
Photo by Dave Bledsoe of FreeVerse Photography
We are a little over halfway through our reading period, which is still OPEN through July 31, 2014. We accept full-length manuscripts in the categories of Poetry and Prose. The new Prose category includes Short Fiction Collections and Creative Nonfiction Manuscripts.
See our Submissions Page for length requirements and other guidelines, or find out everything you need to know (including our discounted book specials for those submitting!) on our third-party submissions manager, Submittable, where you can also submit your manuscript.
We can’t wait to read your work and find out who the authors of our 2015 books will be. Thanks to all of you in advance for sharing your work with us, and thanks to those who have already submitted their work this summer!
If you would like to know more about our aesthetic to see if your work might be a good fit for Augury, visit the Books and Orders page to see what works are already in our catalogue.
Don’t forget to Like us on Facebook and Follow this Blog (link in bottom corner) for continued updates about the rest of the reading period and information about our next publication and finalists!
Photo by Dave Bledsoe of FreeVerse Photography
Cleaver Magazine‘s Matthew Girolami reviews MANTIC (Augury Books, 2013) by Maureen Alsop, wherein, according to Girolami, “both the divine and the worldly share the same page.” Girolami continues:
“As the ‘-mancy’ titles suggest, Mantic is as a much a lexical read (or listen—read aloud) as it is an exploration of reaction; Mantic is beautiful for its teaching verse and for its honesty: with poem after poem inspired by divining, Alsop points to the many ways humanity has attempted to shape the world in its favor, whether that favor comes from desire or fear. As a result, the poems shift from their theses and speak less of divining and prediction than what innately drives these practices and, ultimately, humanity.” —Matthew Girolami, Cleaver Magazine — Read the full review here
Look for MANTIC new from Augury Books
Augury Books’ reading period is open — Submit your manuscript!
Photo by Dave Bledsoe of FreeVerse Photography
The Fiction Writers Review has posted a lovely piece by Matthew Batt on Halina Duraj’s THE FAMILY CANNON (available here). Read an excerpt:
The miracle of this book, calling to mind Anthony Doerr’s recent Memory Wall, is that Duraj manages to distill the historical, cultural, familial, and interpersonal experience of love, memory, and pain in ten crystalline short stories that form a family portrait covering nearly a century, resonating both before its beginning and well beyond its end. ….
What binds it is the fierce and loyal will of the one who knows she has to keep weaving these stray bits of stick and story and trash and grass back together to make us who we are—family.”
But there’s more! Head out to La Jolla tomorrow to see Halina Duraj (recent recipient of a 2014 O.Henry Award) read at D.G. Wills Books: Saturday, May 10, 7 p.m.
Order THE FAMILY CANNON on Amazon
Augury Books’ reading period is open — Submit your manuscript!
Halina Duraj, whose debut short fiction collection, The Family Cannon, was published by Augury Books this past January, will appear in this year’s O. Henry Prize anthology. Widely regarded as one of “the most prestigious awards for short fiction” (The Atlantic Monthly), the O. Henry prizes are awarded each year to twenty short stories selected from the pages of thousands of literary magazines. Duraj will appear alongside such luminaries as National Book Award winner Louise Erdrich and Whitbread Award winner William Trevor. Duraj’s short story “Fatherland” originally appeared in Harvard Review. The 2014 O. Henry Prize anthology was edited by Laura Furman and will be published by Anchor Books in early September.
Publishers’ Weekly has a full list of the O. Henry prize winners.
Order THE FAMILY CANNON new from Augury Books here.
Congratulations, Halina!
Submit your manuscript to Augury Books — Our reading period is open!
On Friday we went to the PEN World Voices Festival Book Fair in Washington Mews, the secret little cobblestoned street just north of Washington Square Park. CLMP arranged a great group of publishers, and we were particularly happy to share a table and make new friends with Little Star Journal and n+1.
Little Star even had gummy star candy! Maybe next year we’ll make gummy foxes to bring.
And there was a food truck with pirogies. Poetry, prose, and pirogies: what more could you want?
It was a wonderful way to spend an afternoon and let people know about our reading period, currently open. Please send us your manuscripts!