Asian American poet wins Discovery/The Nation poetry prize

On 6-29-06, Poets and Writers Magazine just named Sand Tseng (of Pittsburgh) as one of four poets were recently named winners of the 32nd annual "Discovery"/the Nation Poetry Prizes. James Richardson, Laurie Sheck, and Elizabeth Spires judged.

The prizes, sponsored by the 92nd Street Y Unterberg Poetry Center and the Nation, are given to poets who have not yet published a book of poems.

Congratulations to Sand, not only for the quality of the work, but also for managing to successfully jump through some somewhat demanding guideline hoops to qualify:

The 2007 guidelines/deadlines are already up:The Discovery/The Nation Poetry prize seems like an interesting opportunity for emerging poets.

You cannot have had a chapbook or book previously published, either self-published or by another small or large press. The deadline is Friday, January 19th, 2007 and requires 4 copies of a 10 page manuscript, and at least 2 of those poems must be previously unpublished. You actually get to use staples this time to hold your manuscript together. $8 entry fee, which is around the industry average, it seems.

No word yet on any other details of Tseng's winning text or precisely when it will see print, but we'll keep an eye out for it.

Jim Baen Passes Away. R.I.P.

Jim Baen passed away recently. You can find all sorts of notes on this around the Internet of course. The particular article I'm linking to has a nice assessment of Baen's distinctive vision and approach, especially as regards the Internet and electronic editions of books. So long, Jim, and thanks!

Asian American poet receives 2006 Barnard Women Poets Prize

Cathy Park Hong was recently selected by Adrienne Rich to receive the 2006 Barnard Women Poets Prize for her text 'Dance Dance Revolution' which means that it will be published in April 2007 and include a free public reading at Barnard College in New York.

The subject of the text is intriguing enough, and it will be interesting to see how well it's carried out, as it would clearly fall between both speculative literature and identity poetics from the way they describe it presently.

*Ok, I confess, I have to admire a poet with the nerve to name her collection after 'Dance Dance Revolution' :)

Interesting Article: Perpetuating The Yellow Peril

In These Times has an article discussing the new documentary Slanted Screen.

Sounds worth checking out. Of course, many of us have already long noticed the issues it's confronting, but it's nice to see an updated take on it to remind us how far we haven't come.

You can of course, also go to Slanted Screen itself.