Support the PEN/Faulkner Foundation, Bringing Literature to Public Classrooms

The PEN/Faulkner Foundation is running a DonateNow campaign for contributions of any size to help support their annual award for fiction, their public reading series, and the Writers in Schools Program, which brings writers and over 1,800 copies of their books to the classrooms of D.C. public schools.

PEN/Faulkner’s mission is to promote literature in the classroom by way of adequate writing materials, new books, and author visits for high school students. Recently, Karen Joy Fowler was awarded the 34th PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, and Joan Silber was invited to talk with northeast D.C. students about writing.

The foundation’s initiatives are funded in large part by donations, and PEN/Faulkner Foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, so contributions are tax-deductible.

Visit this link for more information on the PEN/Faulkner Foundation, or click here to go directly to the donation page. As friends of the foundation, we greatly applaud any support you are able to give.

Augury Books’ reading period is open — Submit your manuscript!

PICS: Maureen Alsop Wins Tony Quagliano International Poetry Award, Reads at Berl’s in Brooklyn

Augury’s own Maureen Alsop (MANTIC, Augury Books, 2013) is the new recipient of the Tony Quagliano International Poetry Award, which, in conjunction with the Hawai’i Council for the Humanities (HCH), annually recognizes an accomplished poet with an outstanding body of work. HCH and Tony shared the vision that:

“the words we know, all the words we have acquired along the ways of connecting them in all our respective cultures, are nothing less than the irreducible expression of a singular nature we call human.” —Tony Quagliano

Poet Devreaux Baker, last year’s winner of the Tony Quagliano Award and primary judge for this year, had this to say about Maureen Alsop’s work:

“Maureen Alsop creates a world where language and rhythm form a perfect ‘fusion.’ This poetry that is both inventive and elegant and yet never loses emotional depth…. As a reader I felt I was being taken on an extraordinary journey in which I was offered new and unexpected ways to experience the world. Throughout all the poems there is the underlying beauty of expression; a sense of real joy that is felt by a poet pushing the limits, bypassing boundaries, creating whole new territories of the mind, heart, and voice.”

Also this week, more pictures from Maureen’s recent reading with fellow writers Julie Carr, Sasha Steensen, and Graeme Bezanson at Berl’s Poetry Shop in Brooklyn. Thanks to everyone that came out, and congratulations again to Maureen Alsop!

Augury’s Maureen Alsop reads from MANTIC at Berl’s Poetry Shop

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sasha Steensen (HOUSE OF DEER, Fence Books) reads at Berl’s Poetry Shop

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Julie Carr (RAG, Omnidawn) reads at Berl’s Poetry Shop

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Founding Editor of ColdfrontGraeme Bezanson reads at Berl’s Poetry Shop

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Find out more about the readers and the event  here on Berl’s site.

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Augury Books’ reading period is open — Submit your manuscript!

Augury Books Welcomes Our New Assistant Editor and Summer Intern

Augury Books is happy to announce that Nicolas Amara and Rhett Jones will be joining the press this summer as assistant editor and summer intern, respectively.

Nicolas Amara is a student at the New School for Liberal Arts where he is pursuing a degree in Literary Studies: Writing, with a focus in fiction. He has published poetry in Bards Annual (Local Gems Press) and issues 2 and 3 of Eleven and a Half, where he was previously a production manager (Eugene Lang College). An eastern Long Island native, he now resides in lower Manhattan, working with Augury and Bookforum. He looks forward to working on the press’s editorial board.

Rhett Jones is a current law student at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, but she is originally from Boulder, Colorado. Rhett was an English and Government double major at Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania, and the editor of her high school’s literary magazine. She plans to work in publishing and entertainment law after she graduates. Meanwhile, Augury Books’ reading period is still open — Submit your manuscript!

PICS: Augury’s Frances Justine Post Reads at Brazos Bookstore

This week, Augury author Frances Justine Post (author of BEAST, 2014) read at Brazos Bookstore in Houston with Elizabeth Lyons, David Tomas Martinez, and Karyna McGlynn. Thanks for everyone who came out. Enjoy the pics!

Karyna McGlynn, author of “I Have to Go Back to 1994 and Kill a Girl” (Sarabande Books), reads at Brazos.

David Tomas Martinez, author of “Hustle” (Sarabande Books) reads at Brazos.

Books from the readers at Brazos Bookstore

Elizabeth Lyons reads at Brazos Bookstore

 

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Augury Books’ reading period is open — Submit your manuscript!

Audio Interview with Halina Duraj, Author of THE FAMILY CANNON

Photo by Dave Bledsoe of FreeVerse Photography

Halina Duraj, recent 2014 O.Henry Prize recipient and author of the new THE FAMILY CANNON (Augury Books, 2014), sat down with Maureen Cavanaugh from San Diego’s local NPR affiliate KPBS to discuss many topics explored in Duraj’s book—among them the immigrant experience, the interplay between the tragic and the humorous, “the idea of questions,” and the origin of the cannon.

“I think that immigrant stories have so many similarities…. This sense of parents wanting something better for their kids, parents sacrificing for their kids. And also, that love sometimes looks like fear or discipline, but it always comes from this parents’ sense of wanting their kids to fit in in this world that [even] they don’t quite fit in. So I think there are similarities across cultures, and that in many ways the immigrant experience kind of transcends those particular places that the immigrants came from.” —Halina Duraj interview with Maureen Cavanaugh on KPBS

Listen to the whole interview here.

LAST CHANCE: Sign up for a writing and yoga retreat led by Halina Duraj

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Augury Books’ reading period is open — Submit your manuscript!

PICS from Federal Dust and Cabin/Fire’s Joint Reading

Two Baltimore reading series, Federal Dust and Cabin/Fire, joined forces earlier this month to throw “Federal Fire,” their first joint reading and cook-out. Hosted by Justin Sirois and Matthew Zingg, the reading featured Michelle Dove, Mark Cugini, Eric Nelson and Adam Wilson.

There were well-crafted words. There were hot dogs. There were marshmallows, a fire pit and a giant Mother’s Day card. A good time was had by all—see the pics below!

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Augury Books’ reading period is open — Submit your manuscript!

Michelle Dove reads at Federal Fire

Mark Cugini reads at Federal Fire

Justin Sirois with giant Mother’s Day card at Federal Fire

Eric Nelson reads for Federal Fire

Adam Wilson reads for Federal Fire

 

Cleaver Magazine Reviews Maureen Alsop’s MANTIC

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

More on MANTIC

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Augury Books’ reading period is open — Submit your manuscript!

May 21: Maureen Alsop Reads at Berl’s Poetry Shop in Brooklyn

Augury’s own Maureen Alsop (MANTIC, 2013) is in New York and will be reading Wednesday, May 21 at 7 p.m. at Berl’s Poetry Shop in Brooklyn.

She will be joined by Sasha Steensen (HOUSE OF DEER, Fence Books), Julie Carr (RAG, Omnidawn), and Coldfront Founding Editor Graeme Bezanson.

Find out all you need to know about the readers and the event details here on Berl’s site.

More on MANTIC

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Augury Books’ reading period is open — Submit your manuscript!

The Rumpus Reviews Frances Justine Post’s BEAST

Photo by Dave Bledsoe of FreeVerse Photography

This week Tova Gannana from The Rumpus reviews Frances Justine Post’s BEAST (Augury, 2014), calling it a “post-world where the poet wanders alone in memory and shadow.”

Post is a poet who begins her first book with the line ‘I put on my face.’ I put on my face feels like the opening line of an honest monologue. A dark stage with one light from that light a voice. I put on my face is a pleading, an opening for a listener. Here in lies the complexity and sophistication of Beast. I put on my face means Post has a past. We have much to gain from Post because she has much to give. Beast is a book to fight off mediocrity and middle of the road culture. These are poems that stick to your bones.” —Tova Gannana, The Rumpus

Read the full review here.

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PICS: Justine Post Talks at Houston MenilFest Indie Book Panel

Frances Justine Post Speaks at Houston MenilFest—Photo by Brenda Cook

This year the Houston MenilFest, an annual one-day festival of visual, literary and performing arts (“Art, Words, Noise”), featured Augury Books’ Frances Justine Post (author of BEAST, 2014) in its Indie Book Panel, Approaches to Publishing Your First Book, with fellow participants Martin Rock, David Tomas Martinez, Matthew Salesses and Jonathan Wells.

Frances Justine Post with former students Gabrielle Langley and Stacy Nigliazzo

If you’re in the Houston area, see Justine next read at Brazos Bookstore’s Monday night event (May 19th, 7 p.m.), “I Have to Go Back to 1994 and Hustle a Beast.” She will be reading with Elizabeth Lyons, Karyna McGlynn (I Have to Go Back to 1994 and Kill a Girl: Poems, Sarabande Books, 2009), and David Tomas Martinez (Hustle, Sarabande Books, 2014).

Read this great blog post about the upcoming Brazos reading from Inprint’s Open Book Blog.

More on BEAST

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Augury Books’ reading period is open — Submit your manuscript!