An Indiana poet, frustrated by his work being rejected from some journals, decided he would write a poem stylized after Edgar Allan Poe and say it was a long lost poem by the famed author. The poem, "Leonainie," was published in a newspaper. However, when the public found out the poem was not penned by Poe, the real author was fired from his job. Later, he went on to further fame and fortune by writing under his own name.
Be the first tell us the name of this poet by sending an email to inreview (at) indiana (dot) edu with the subject "Blue Light Contest" and you will receive a free copy of our latest issue.
Yay for contests!
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
2009 Blue Light Contest Round 1: An Indiana Hoax
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Announcing the 2nd Annual Blue Light Contest
Hey there Blue Light readers! Those of you who've been with us for a while may remember our "Five Hump Days of Funk" contest last year. For those of you who don't remember, it went down like this: every Wednesday for the month of July, we asked a Funk trivia question and gave a free copy of issue 30.1 (that gorgeous issue with the Funk Feature) to the winner. The contest was so much fun that we're doing it again this year!
Here's this year's lowdown: the contest will run from July 8th to August 1st, with questions posed on the 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th. Answers should be emailed to us with the subject "Blue Light Contest." We'll announce the winner each following Monday. Winners will be determined first by accuracy and then by response time, and will receive a free (that's right, free!) copy of our latest issue: Summer 2009 31.1.
This year's theme: Indiana history and facts. Round 1 will be posted on July 8th.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Yay Julia Story!
Congratulations to issue 31.1 contributor Julia Story, who has won the Kathryn A. Morton Prize in Poetry from Sarabande Books for her collection Post Moxie.
You can read selections from Post Moxie in the "Special Highlight on Short Short Fiction and the Prose Poem" section of our latest issue, Summer 2009 vol 31.1.
Congrats Julia!
Monday, June 29, 2009
Atlantis Meets Mir
On this very day in 1995 the American space shuttle Atlantis docked with the Russian space station Mir to create the largest man-made satellite to ever orbit the Earth. It's amazing the things that can be accomplished when people, teams, and astronauts work together.
While sometimes writing may seem to be a solitary effort, we must not forget the fun, the inspiration, the craft lessons, and the new words we learn when writers come together and share their words, their thoughts.
At IR we love to celebrate collaboration. It is a collaborative effort to read through all the submissions, to figure out where commas go, and in the end, most importantly, the finished copy is a coming together of many voices in poems, in stories, and essays, to create a unified (and beautiful) issue.
Just look at the fruit of collaboration: the largest man-made satellite, our latest issue of 31.1. Have you not seen it yet? You can order it online.
--Alessandra
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Lucia Perillo
The Poetry Foundation has posted an interview with MacArthur "Genius" Fellow Lucia Perillo. Maria McLeod talks to Perillo about her beginnings as a poet, her relationship to her work, and her identity as a "disabled poet."
IR has long been a fan of Perillo's work. Her poetry was first published in Volume 20.2, which featured the poems “Beige Trash,” and “Home.” Volume 25.1 featured four of her poems: “Given unlimited space, the dead expand limitlessly,” “Poem without Breasts,” “Fizz Ed,” and “Viagra.” Volume 26.1 featured “Juarez,” and “Wormhole Theory.” Her most recent appearance in the magazine was in Volume 29.1, with "Martha" and "Rebuttal."
Monday, June 22, 2009
Ouroboros to you!
Ouroboros kind of sounds like a greeting to me or perhaps the name of an important piece of lawnmower (as in "The ouroboros broke and I need to fix it ASAP").
However, the dictionary cleared things up for me.
As stated by the Oxford English Dictionary Ouroboros (also spelled uroborus) is:
The symbol, usu. in the form of a circle, of a snake (or dragon) eating its tail.
and may have first be written in: 1940 by H.G. Baynes in Mythol. of Soul vi. 221 "Thus the uroborus symbol represents our psychic continuity with the immemorial past."
One of the great things about being a part of IR is reading everything that comes across my desk and the opportunity to learn new words. I love to learn a new word because once I learn it, I start to see it everywhere: on the sides of buses, in poems, in prose, in shiny coupons in the Sunday paper.
I wonder if I will start seeing this word, or depictions of it, when I leave the office today.
10 points* for anyone who writes it into a poem. 15 points for anyone who finds it in a poem. 20 points for anyone who finds the word graffiti-ed on a brick wall.
---Alessandra
*Please note these points have no monetary or tangible, redeemable value, but supply a large amount of good-happy feelings (exact amount is at the digression of the winner of said points).
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
This Week in Bloomington
The Indiana University Writers Conference! June 14-19th. Check 'em out!
Also check out their reading series. All readings are free, open to the public, and take place at 8 p.m. in the Rose Firebay at the John Waldron Arts Center 122 S. Walnut Street, Bloomington, IN 47404
Their website also has video of last year's readings, including IU's own, Ross Gay.
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