We’re Halfway Through Our Reading Period!

The Covent Garden Night Mare, by Thomas Rowlandson, courtesy of the Public Domain Review

We are just halfway through our reading period, which is still open through July 31, 2015. We are currently accepting full-length manuscripts in the categories of poetry and prose.

You can view our submission guidelines and send your work for consideration on Submittable.

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!

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Upcoming Readings by ‘Hook’ Author Randall Horton

Photo: Rachel Eliza Griffiths

Augury is excited to announce some upcoming readings from Randall Horton, author of Hook, forthcoming from Augury Books in 2015.

 

June 12th, 6-8pm: 

CUNY School of Professional Studies

Joseph S. Murphy Institute for Worker Education, Urban and Labor Studies

25 West 43rd Street, New York, NY.

 

June 13th, 1pm:

Worker Writers Summer School on Governor’s Island

Building #20A in Nolan Park.

 

June 16th, 8pm:

Over the Eight

594 Union Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

 

In addition to these readings, Horton will be reading with Meg Kearney and Anne-Marie Oomen on Saturday, July 11 at 7:30 pm. This will include readings from Hook: A Memoir, as well as his poetry collection Pitch Dark Anarchy. Readings will be held in the Founder’s Room of Pine Manor College, 400 Heath Street, Chestnut Hill, and are free and open to the public.

Check out an excerpt from Hook on our blog.

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Augury Books’ spring/summer 2015 reading period is now open for submissions in poetry and prose. For guidelines and general information, please visit our submissions page.

Please Support the 5th Annual New York City Poetry Festival

Albert Robida’s Leaving the Opera in the Year 2000 (1902), courtesy of the Public Domain Review

The New York City Poetry Festival, now approaching its 5th year running, has become an important and much anticipated event for the poetry community of NYC. Hosted by The Poetry Society of New York, the festival gathers over 200 poets on Governor’s Island for readings and other poetry-related matters.

The festival is normally free for all who attend, including the vendors, poetry organizations, and general public. This is only possible due to the generous donations received from those who can afford to give them.

Unfortunately, there have been significantly less donations this year. And if the fundraising goal of $12,000 isn’t met by May 21st, this could result in the festival being notably scaled back. We therefore encourage all who are able to donate to do so. Please tell your friends and family as well.

To contribute to the the 5th annual New York City Poetry Festival, go to their Kickstarter.

You can also help spread the word through HeadTalker by allowing them to post to your Twitter, Facebook, or Tumblr on your behalf.

Randall Horton Featured in 2015 PEN World Voices Anthology

Carleton Watkins’ Among The Tree Tops Calaveras Grove (1829), courtesy of the Public Domain Review

We would like to congratulate Randall Horton on having an excerpt from Hook: A Memoir through Letters featured in the 2015 PEN World Voices Online Anthology. Hook is forthcoming from Augury Books in 2015. The PEN collection is comprised of prose, poetry, and dramatic writing from the participants of this year’s World Voices Festival. Among the other authors included are Nathalie Handal, Zoe Pilger, and Cormac James.

PEN’s World Voices Festival, running from May 4th to the 10th, celebrates literature from all over the globe. This year’s theme, On Africa, strives to make heard the voices of contemporary African artists.

The full PWV Anthology can be read online here. New writings are added weekly.

More on Randall Horton

Parachute Literary Arts To Hold Poetry Reading on Coney Island’s Wonder Wheel

From Owen Jones’ Examples of Chinese Ornament (1867), courtesy of the Public Domain Review

Parachute Literary Arts, an organization that celebrates the poetry community of Brooklyn, is hosting Poem-a-Rama on May 8th. The first poetry reading to ever take place on Coney Island’s Wonder Wheel, the event will feature over fourteen poets from New York City. While riding the wheel, they will read their works related to NYC, and more specifically, to Coney Island. The reading will serve as a benefit for Parachute Literary Arts’ writing workshops and for poetry libraries in the area.

Among the writers participating in Poem-a-Rama are Amber Atiya, Patricia Spear Jones, Ian Dreiblatt, Jen Fitzgerald, and Michael Broder. There will also be a performance by Soozee Hwang & The Relastics.

For the complete list of readers, visit Parachute Literary Arts’ website.

Tickets for the event can be purchased here.

‘The Family Cannon’ Receives Eric Hoffer Award for Cover Art

Congratulations to Dave Bledsoe and Daniel Estrella, recipients of the 2015 Eric Hoffer da Vinci Eye award for exceptional cover art for The Family Cannon (author Halina Duraj, Augury Books, 2014).

Other winners include Tina Freeman and Morgan Northrop for Artist Spaces (University of LA at Lafayette Press) and Teresa Jordan for Years of Living Virtuously (Weekends Off) (Counterpoint Press).

To view the complete lists of winners for 2015, visit the Eric Hoffer website.

More on Halina Duraj and The Family Cannon

CLMP Firecracker Reading, Featuring Finalist Halina Duraj’s ‘The Family Cannon’

Space Colony Art from the 1970s, courtesy of the Public Domain Review

The Council of Literary Magazines and Presses  (CLMP) is holding a reading this Sunday afternoon, featuring the finalists for their new Firecracker Awards, including Halina Duraj for The Family Cannon (Augury Books, 2014).

The reading will take place from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.,  during the 16th Annual Lit Mag Fair at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe. Other finalists and publishers include, Bonnie Friedman (Etruscan Press), Vikas K. Menon and Dan Goldman (Rattapallax), Jesse Lonergan (NBM Publishing), Hubert & Kerascoet (NBM Publishing), Eric Hobbs and Noel Tuazon (NBM Publishing).

Winners of the Firecracker Award will be announced on May 27th at powerHouse Arena in DUMBO, Brooklyn.

Join Augury Books at Housing Works on Sunday as editor Kate Angus reads from The Family Cannon.

More on THE FAMILY CANNON

Halina Duraj’s The Family Cannon Nominated for CLMP Firecracker Award

From E. Weiß’s Bilderatlas der Sternenwelt (1888), courtesy of the Public Domain Review

The Community of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP) released the nominees for their new Firecracker Awards. Inspired by the Firecracker Alternative Book Awards, CLMP’s awards strive to honor and support literary works from independent publishers and self-published writers.

The finalists are divided into six categories: creative nonfiction, fiction, poetry, young adult, graphic novels, and literary magazines. Among them is Augury author Halina Duraj for her book of short stories, The Family Cannon. Other finalists across categories include Jeffery Renard AllenMartha Baillie, Bonnie Friedman, Allen Crawford, and Ransom Riggs, as well as several literary magazines, including 6 x 6, A Public Space, and Mosaic. Tin House, Graywolf Press, Ahsahta Press, and Tender Buttons Press are all among the publishers that have titles shortlisted. The winners in each group will be announced on May 27th at powerHouse Arena in DUMBO.

To see the complete shortlists for the Firecracker Awards, view CLMP’s press release.

For more about Halina Duraj and The Family Cannon, click here.

Literary Hub Set To Launch April 8th

Utagawa Hiroshige’s The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō (1848), courtesy of the Public Domain Review

Literary Hub, a website which will gather literary content from across the internet and combine in one place, is set to launch on April 8th. Emily Firetog, the managing editor of the site, spoke to Augury about the new website and its goals.

Augury: How did you get involved with Lit Hub? Do you have a particular role within the organization?

Emily: There is a small daily team at Lit Hub: editor in chief Jonny Diamond, managing editor (me) and assistant editor Blair Beusman. We have a part time assistant editor Ben Philippe, six contributing editors (Roxane Gay, Alexander Chee, Rebecca Wolff, Adam Fitzgerald, Ashley Ford, and Oscar Villalon), and John Freeman is our executive editor/features editor.

A: What is Lit Hub’s mission? How does it see itself within the literary community?

E: Lit Hub is investing in the future of literary culture and its readers. It’s a site designed to be a destination for readers to discover the very best literary content on the web. Our partners include large publishers, small presses, university presses, print and digital journals, bookstores, and nonprofits, because we want to be inclusive, reflecting the reality of literary publishing today.

A: What sorts of things does Lit Hub have planned for the future? (Do you envision any events or readings?)

E: We’re a website. We’re going to focus on bringing the best content to readers every day.

Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks Re-opens

From J.J. Grandville’s The Flowers Personified (1847), courtesy of the Public Domain Review

One of the few independent bookstores left in Manhattan, Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks recently reopened at a new location on 28 East Second Street. The store’s owner, Bonnie Slotnick, sat down with Augury to discuss her shop and the recent changes it has undergone.

Augury Books: How did you decide to start selling books?

Bonnie Slotnick: I had begun collecting cookbooks when I was in my twenties. When I was thirty, I saw a store selling new cookbooks in the city. I ended signing up to become a book scout for them. After a while, I was sick of being under somebody else’s sphere of influence and I opened my store. That was 17 years ago.

A: What made you decide to focus on cookbooks in particular?

B: I used to look at my mother’s cookbooks when I was a kid. She didn’t have a lot, but there was one that I was just particularly taken with. I used to look at it all the time. It was my favorite book when I was ten or eleven. When I started seeing the books in stores, they really resonated with me. I found old cookbooks and they really struck a chord with me. The old ones are much more interesting; there’s so much history. The new ones all look the same to me.

A: What are some of your favorite books you’ve sold?

B: I like books from the 20s, 30s, 40s. I like books that are in the format of conversations. Some books at the start of the 19th century were written as a conversation between an older woman and a new bride or young girl who has to take care of her family. I like that the conversation isn’t just comprised of instructions. They’re in the form of letters.

A: How has the move been?

B: It was very traumatic to lose the lease on my store after all these years. I was very lucky to find someone who wanted to rent to me. And now I’m a tenant and I have a much bigger spot for the same rent. And it has a backyard. It’s really unbelievable. They really wanted a bookstore as their tenant.

A: Do you have any plans for the new space?

To restock. I’m now certain to buy again. And I have enough room that I can have events here – author events. Because I have a nice space in an interesting neighborhood, people are already getting in touch with me. If somebody wants to have a talk or a book club, I have space for that. Classes can come. Professors would bring their classes to the old shop, and we’d be packed in. Now I feel like I can have a square dance in here!

For more on Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks, visit the website.