AWP 07

Tomorrow, Kati, Wade, Shawn, and I travel by plane and by automobile to Atlanta for AWP's annual conference and book fair.

Drop by table 254 to visit. We have issues to sell to you for your delight at low low prices. And we also have a wonderful poster that is not for sale.

We'll be sharing the table with the folks over at So To Speak, our university's feminist journal.

Also, the George Mason poetry faculty will be giving a reading at the conference, so if you can stop by and see that as well, do so. They are good people.

Search Out These Authors and Read Their Work

Word came to us about two of our recent contributors and how they're doing out there.

Pretty well I'd say.

Ryan Bartelmay's story, "All This Flatness," recently won the Boulevard Short Fiction Contest for Emerging Writers and appeared in the Spring 2006 issue of that journal.

And Joshua Ferris' debut novel, Then We Came to the End, published by Little, Brown & Co., is now in bookstores. If you can't get away from the computer for some reason, then you can find it here or here. Also, Mark Sarvas, contented defiler of prose and host of The Elegant Variation, has blogged about his own experience with the novel: how he briefly overcame his prejudice against MFA grads to discover his favorite book of the year. Visit his site for the story, and the first chapter of Ferris' novel, which Mark has nicely excerpted.

As for our other contributors, please send us hints and tips at phoebe@gmu.edu as to what you're up to, awards you've won, publications, etc. We'd be happy to brag for you. Simply write "blog" in the subject line.

Fiction Contest Finalists in the Mail

Kelli sent the Winter Fiction Contest finalist stories to judge Nell Freudenberger last week. I imagine we'll announce the list of finalists and the contest winner as soon as Nell gets back to us with her choices.

Thanks to all who entered; I think we had over 140 contest entries this year.

We've now turned our attention to reading regular fiction submissions, which haved clogged up our filing cabinet; those of you waiting to hear from us, we haven't forgotten you.

Pushcart Nominations

Some old news that we're happy to announce.

Last November we sent our nominations to the Pushcart prize committee.

In no particular order, here they are.


Poetry:

Lynn Xu: "[Language Exists Because]" from volume 35 issue 2
Elizabether Winder: "Where Is That Salty Place Where X Gives Up Her Subtlety" from volume 35 issue 2
Daniel Gutstein: "Code" from volume 35 issue 1
Megan Harlan: "Atget's Paris" from volume 35 issue 2


Fiction:

Joshua Ferris: "This Would Be Life-" from volume 35 issue 2
Ryan Bartelmay: "What Good Is It If You Can't Reach It?" from volume 35 issue 1



Congrats to the nominees and good luck.

Welcome to Phoebe Blog

Dear Subscribers, Contributors, Readers, and friends,

It is my pleasure to welcome you to the Phoebe Blog. We at Phoebe envision this as a place where we can share dynamic information on our contributors' recent triumphs (chapbooks, novels, awards, etc.), as well as a space where we communicate our progress on new issues of the journal.

We will still be fielding formal status inquiries and questions at phoebe@gmu.edu and posting submission guidelines and contest information on our website www.gmu.edu/pubs/phoebe. However, this is an additional area for us to give you the run down on news and offer other interesting features forthcoming, such as book reviews. It may also be an opportunity to get to know the new staff of Phoebe from year to year.

We hope you read and enjoy!

-Kati Fargo, Phoebe Editor