Now Playing: Pay Pal added for sale of Periphery
Topic: January 2005
Readers from all around the world can now purchase Periphery, Margin's magical realist zine offshoot, using the convenient Pay Pal service.

More information about Periphery: what it is, how to buy it, how much it costs, why you should?

Now Playing: Magical Realism Contest: Flash Fiction/Prose Poetry
Topic: January 2005
PERIPHERY
A flash fiction/prose poem contest
Theme for 2005:
PERIPHERY 3 ~

"Reasonable Facsimiles: Twins, Mirrors and Doppelgangers"

Postmark deadline: February 15, annually.

Winner and honorable mentions published in Periphery, released August 1 annually.

Prize: $50, 3 copies of collectible print zine and publication. All manuscripts also considered for general publication in Margin. Sim subs okay with notification, but entry fee nonrefundable. Previously published okay; please credit first publisher in cover letter. Entries not returned.

Entry fee: $7.50 covers up to 5 poems or short shorts (each 500 words or less); additional submissions, $2 each. Make checks payable to Tamara Kaye Sellman.

Proceeds go to produce the August collector's edition of Periphery and to pay the prize. Judged blind by staff. See general guidelines at the website.

Email for inquiries only, no electronic submissions, please.

Winner of the 2004 PERIPHERY contest, "The Living Landscape" ~ Marjorie Manwaring of Seattle, WA. Periphery is published as a limited edition, high-quality zine. Get your copy before they sell out!

Now Playing: Magical Realist Author DANIEL A. OLIVAS Signs New Short-Story Collection
Saturday, January 22 from 4 to 6 p.m.
Tia Chucha's Cafe Cultural
12737 Glenoaks Blvd.
Sylmar, CA
Free admission

Magical realist author Daniel A. Olivas will read and sign his new collection, Devil Talk: Stories (Bilingual Press/Arizona State University).

"In a stunning departure from the social realism of his previous collection...Olivas takes readers into a disarming otherworld of the surreal and the supernatural....The quick succession of 26 narratives covers a wide territory of moods, from the strangely elliptical to the whimsical." ? El Paso Times

Info: Tia Chucha?s (818) 362-7060 or www.danielolivas.com

Please pardon this brief departure from the discussion.

Below is Tamara Sellman's prelude to her reading of a section of Pearl S. Buck's The Big Wave, to be presented at A Wave of Caring: a concert for tsunami relief to be held at the Bainbridge High School gymnasium on Sunday January 16 at 3pm in Bainbridge Island, Washington.

"I read the story, The Big Wave, about a year ago to my daughters as a bedtime story.

The Big Wave is the prizewinning children's book written by Pearl Buck, about a Japanese fishing village that is wiped out by a tsunami.

One year later, I am tucking my oldest daughter in one night, and we are discussing the tsunami when she asks, Is it like The Big Wave?

I am reminded then how providing a human context for the disastrous events of our lives, big and small, close and far away, is essential for healing the human spirit.

Watching the TV news or reading the paper only provides information and facts, but information and facts are not enough to help people, including children, to cope with bad news.

I've found, as a lifelong writer, that literature is one of the best ways to explore the uncertainties that befall the human condition. The Big Wave filled in blanks for my daughter that I was not sure I could fill in myself.

When I tell my daughter that, Yes, the tsunami is the same thing as The Big Wave, she does not respond with fear. Instead, I see her process the comparison, and her next response is not one of panic, but of compassion. How can we help? she asks. How can we help?

Thanks to Pearl Buck my daughter makes that important leap. She understands that if we share and have faith as a global community, life will persist."

Mood:  bright
Now Playing: RE: new releases, events, contests
NEW RELEASES:

Novellette: Travel in the Mouth of the Wolf by Paul Fattaruso (Soft Skull Press)
See a review

Novel: The Icarus Girl by Helen Oyeyemi (Bloomsbury)
See a review

Novel: Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami,
translated by Philip Gabriel (Harvill)
See a review


EVENTS

CASCADIA WRITING CONTEST: The 8th Annual North American Science Fiction Convention (Cascadia Con) is sponsoring a Student Science Fiction and Fantasy Contest for student writers from all grades. Postmark deadline ~ March 31, 2005
For details and entry form PDF

STATE-WIDE READING: The Master Butchers Singing Club by magical realist author Louise Erdrich has been selected as the Iowa Center for the Book's title for 2005's "All Iowa Reads" program. Postville, IA will be the site of a central discussion group based on Erdrich's novel. The main discussion will be held Tuesday, February 1 from 7:00 to 9:00 pm at the Multicultural Center.
More information

SPRING LECTURE: Magical Realist author Salman Rushdie will give this year's Tolles lecture at Hamilton College on Wednesday, April 13 in Wellin Hall. He will discuss how to balance liberty and security in the war on terror.
More information

Mood:  sharp
Now Playing: Margin contributor Jan Steckel to read in March 2005
Topic: January 2005
Jan Steckel will read "The Christening of Alonso" from Margin: Exploring Modern Magical Realism (June 2004) along with other short stories of hers on Saturday, March 19, 2005, 2 PM, at the Lakeview Branch Library, 550 El Embarcadero, Oakland, California, (510) 238.7344. Prose open mic to follow. Details

Thanks to Jan Steckel for this news lead.