Redivider Journal to Celebrate 10th Anniversary

RedividerIf you are unfamiliar with Redivider, we are a literary journal produced by the graduate students of Emerson College in Boston, and this year we are commemorating our 10th anniversary. Looking back over the past decade, we’re proud of what we’ve accomplished thus far: We’ve published amazing fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and art since our inception from writers such as Sherman Alexie, Tracy K. Smith, Steve Almond, and Denise Duhamel; we’ve been catapulted into the digital age with the release of our first e-book this past winter, reaching wider audiences than ever; and we created our annual Beacon Street Prize with $500 prizes, for both fiction and poetry, as well as publication—which is open for submissions February 15 to April 30. Each year, we have special guest judges, and we’re thrilled to announce that this year our judges are Amy Hempel for fiction and Heather McHugh for poetry.

With AWP just around the corner, we’re ramping up for a Redivider Birthday Bash— complete with cake, party hats, and piñata— that you don’t want to miss. We will also hold our AWP Quickie Contest which challenges attendees to write a short poem within the span of the conference. The winning entry will be published in our Winter 2013 issue, 11.1, alongside the 2013 Beacon Street Prize winners and our selection of both established and emerging writers.

For our current issue, 10.1, we designed a cover that commemorates some of our favorite covers from the past ten years. It is a simple, yet beautiful, design that showcases what has come before while looking toward the future of our journal. The content includes the winning entries from 2012’s Beacon Street Prize and a breathtaking array of original fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and art from Kim Addonizio, Jen Hirt, Diane Cook, and many more. You can read it in print or on any reading device by ordering through Amazon or our website. But, for now, please enjoy an exclusive sneak peak of 10.1–a short fiction piece titled “False Teeth” by Glenn Shaheen right here, the only place you will find it online.

For more details about the Beacon Street Prize, our Redivider Birthday Bash, the fun we’ll have at AWP, submitting your work, or anything else Redivider, check out our website, or find us on Facebook and Twitter.

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FALSE TEETHglenn shaheen
by Glenn Shaheen

Sarah loves Halloween. She puts weeks into preparing these parties, putting cobwebs on all our books, fake severed hands in each of our drawers. The parties are always hits. Everybody has Facebook photo albums of them from all different angles. This year Sarah went as a vampire. She got those fangs that they specially make, the really expensive ones. But she left them in even after the party, after Halloween. At first it was funny, like some kind of novelty. Everybody just saying “Oh, Sarah!” and getting back to work. But now it’s almost December. Thanksgiving has passed. I said to her that it can’t be good for her real teeth, to leave those fake ones in for most of the day. I wore mine just during the party and my mouth hurt for like two days. She said that was because I threw my werewolf costume together at the last minute and bought my fake teeth from a gas station. Hers were real art. I said it was probably time to take them out, people are talking. She just raised her arms above her head and said “Blood! I vant your blood!” It’s tough to argue with her when she’s being cute. I can’t stand vampire movies, but when we started dating I told Sarah I loved them. It’s way past the point of no return on that lie. We actually have sex to the Lost Boys soundtrack a lot more frequently than I’d even care to admit. People are strange, thou shalt not kill spilling from the speakers. Jesus. Sarah’s great, she’s not like a goth or anything. But when does that road start? When we fight she wishes aloud sometimes that “her romantic vampire” would just come and take her away. I don’t know how I get jealous of that but I do. Of some imaginary creature that would never exist in a million years. And when we watch any new vampire movie I just get furious secretly. The guys flash teeth and I’m sure she’s getting off on it. I can’t picture my life after her, if she left, but I can feel the air being let out, the pressure letting up. I tell her she’s pretty, she’s the best, there’s no end to my love. “Fangs a lot,” she says.

Writers@Work Conference 2012, June 6 – 10

Writers@Work, an organization for independent writers that “connects Intermountain area writers to the national publishing and writing scene,” is holding its 27th Conference at Alta Lodge in the scenic Wasatch Mountains east of Salt Lake City Utah from June 6 through June 10, 2012. Highlights of the conference include workshops, readings, and consultations with distinguished faculty.

Workshops are small, intensive, and limited to 16 participants. Led by expert, award-winning writers/teachers in fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry, workshops will meet from 9 a.m. to noon and from 3 to 5 p.m. on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of the Conference. Workshop faculty, genres, and topics include:

  • Steve Almond (non-fiction) – I am writing to break your heart. Steve was interviewed in Superstition Review’s issue number 2;
  • Pete Fromm (multi-genre) – Beginning with the beginning
  • Bill Harley (storytelling & song writing) – Talking your story through
  • Heather McHugh, with Timothy O’Keefe (poetry) – Shapes in wordscapes: Patterns beyond prosody
  • Debra Monroe (fiction and memoir) – How details build the story shape (SOLD OUT)

Consultations are 30-minute meetings with an editor or agent who has pre-read a submitted manuscript of no more than 7000 words. The manuscript must be double-spaced and in 12-point type and must be attached (as a .doc or .pdf file) to an e-mail sent to Jennifer@writersatwork.org no later than May 25th. The attachment will be forwarded to the consultant before the Conference.  No hard-copy manuscripts will be forwarded.

Consultation faculty includes Agents Kathryn Beaumont of The Kneerim & Williams Agency (Boston, MA) and Kit Ward of The Ward & Balkin Agency (Lowell, MA) and editors Margaret Dalrymple of the University of Nevada Press (Reno, NV) and Kate Gale of Red Hen Press (Los Angeles, CA). Consultation times are limited and will be assigned on a first-come/first-served basis. On-site consultation with an agent or editor is $25.00.

Readings will be held each evening at 7:30 p.m. and open mike sessions for attendees will take place after lunch on Friday and Saturday.

Conference tuition without on-site lodging is $575 and includes all meals Wednesday lunch through Sunday Brunch. Conference tuition with on-site lodging is $725 and includes shared room and all meals Wednesday lunch through Sunday morning.  A single supplement of $120 will be charged for those who do not wish to share a room.  Limited dormitory accommodations, 3-4 persons to a room, are available for $675.  Rooms are assigned on a first-come/first-served basis.

Superstition Review and The Story Prize

The Story Prize, an annual award for books of short fiction, has recently released its 2011 award winners. Three outstanding short story collections were chosen from among a field of 92 books that 60 different publishers or imprints submitted in 2011. With so many worthy entries this year, The Story Prize included an additional list of seven outstanding contenders and 25 noteworthy mentions.

We would like to congratulate all of our SR contributors who made the list:

Issue 3 contributor Edith Pearlman‘s book Binocular Vision was one of the three award winners.

Of the seven finalists, SR has featured Steve Almond and Daniel Orozco in Issue 2.

Issue 2 contributor, Michael Martone from Issue 4.

Caitlin Horrocks, mentioned for her book, This Is Not Your City, will be featured in our upcoming release of Superstition Review Issue 9.