Sybil Baker story collection to be released in December

Talismans, a short story collection by Sybil Baker (“Cape of Good Hope,” upstreet number four), will be released on December 7 by C&R Press. In a series of linked short stories, this collection follows the journey of the protagonist, Elise, as she comes to terms with the deaths of her first love, her mother, and especially her father, and learns what she must hold onto, and what she must leave behind.

“Sybil Baker’s Talismans is a contemporary Heart of Darkness.”
—David Jauss, author of Black Maps

“Sybil Baker writes beautifully, with such keen honesty.”
—Patricia Henley, author of Hummingbird House

A graduate of Virginia Tech, Sybil Baker holds an MA in English from the University of Colorado at Boulder and an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She has traveled extensively around the world, especially in Asia, and for twelve years lived and taught English in South Korea. She has been to more than thirty countries, including Mongolia, Laos, Myanmar (Burma), Cambodia, Indonesia, Peru, and Turkey. During her travels, she became increasingly interested in the allure and alienation of American travelers and expatriates, and this has heavily influenced her writing. Her work has appeared in a variety of journals, and her novel, The Life Plan, was published by Casperian Books in 2009. Sybil is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where she teaches creative writing. She and her husband, Rowan Johnson, live in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Nadelson article published in December 2010 Writer’s Chronicle

“What about the Suffering?: The Quiet Power of Minor Characters,” an essay by upstreet author Scott Nadelson, appears in the December 2010 issue of The Writer’s Chronicle, a publication of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP). Scott’s short story “Oslo” appeared in upstreet number six, and was listed as a Distinguished Story in Best American Short Stories 2010, edited by Richard Russo.

Scott’s Chronicle essay discusses the importance of minor characters in fiction, both as examples of what a protagonist’s life might have been or might be in the future, and as catalysts who cause a protagonist to change his attitude or behavior in some way. To demonstrate this, he analyzes minor characters in two fictional works, the David Malouf short story “A Trip to the Grundelsee” and Anton Chekhov’s novella “Three Years.”

Scott Nadelson is the author of two story collections, The Cantor’s Daughter, recipient of the Reform Judaism Fiction Prize and the Samuel Goldberg & Sons Fiction Prize for Emerging Jewish Writers, and Saving Stanley: The Brickman Stories, winner of the Oregon Book Award for short fiction and the Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Glimmer Train Stories, American Literary Review, Arts & Letters, Puerto del Sol, South Dakota Review, and elsewhere. He lives in Salem, OR. “Oslo” will appear in Scott’s third story collection, Aftermath, which is due to be released by Hawthorne Books in the Fall of 2011.

Glover to read at Brooklyn Railtenth anniversary celebration

upstreet author Douglas Glover will be one of fifteen poets and prose writers reading at the tenth anniversary celebration of The Brooklyn Rail, a print and online literary journal that features critical perspectives on arts, politics, and culture. The event, hosted by Brooklyn Rail Fiction Editor Donald Breckenridge, will take place Friday, October 22, at 8:30pm in the ISSUE Project Room, Old American Can Factory, 232 Third Street, Brooklyn. Admission is five dollars; advance tickets may be purchased online.

Glover, a Canadian who lives in upstate New York, is the author of five story collections, four novels, a book of essays, and a book about novel form. He won the 2006 Writers’ Trust of Canada Timothy Findley Award. His novel Elle won the 2003 Governor-General’s Award for Fiction in English, and was a finalist for the 2005 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. His essay “Don Quixote, Rosemary’s Baby, Alien, and The French Lieutenant’s Woman: Meditations on the Ideology of Closure and the Comforting Lie” was published in upstreet number four, and another essay, “Before/After History and the Novel,” in upstreet number six. His stories have also appeared in Best American Short Stories, Best Canadian Stories, The New Oxford Book of Canadian Stories, and other anthologies. He has taught at Skidmore College, Colgate University, Davidson College, and SUNY/Albany, and is currently on the faculty of Vermont College of Fine Arts.

upstreet nominates six for 2011 Pushcart

The editors of upstreet have nominated six works appearing in the journal’s sixth issue for this year’s Pushcart Prize. The nominees are two short stories, “Depositions,” by David Jauss, and “The True Story of Yu Tien,” by Erik Wennermark; two creative nonfiction pieces, “That Furrowed Brow,” by Andrew D. Cohen, and “The Barest Shapes of Light,” by Nina Feng; and two poems, “The Ballad of Trash and Meat,” by Daniel Meltz, and “The Card Reader,” by Frances Richey.These six works were submitted to compete for inclusion in the 2011 issue of The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses, the only annual anthology to showcase work from America’s alternative, literary presses. This is the fifth year that upstreet has made Pushcart Prize nominations.

upstreet congratulates its nominees, and wishes them the best of luck in the competition.

Nadelson story cited as ‘Distinguished’by Best American Short Stories 2010

“Oslo,” a story by Scott Nadelson in upstreet number five, has been listed as one of “100 Other Distinguished Stories” by the editors of Best American Short Stories 2010, edited by Richard Russo.

This is the fifth time an upstreet work has been mentioned in one of the prestigious annual Best American anthologies. Earlier this year, Phyllis Barber’s upstreet number five essay, “Sweetgrass,” was cited in Best American Essays 2010. Last year, Frank Tempone’s essay, “Everlasting,” was listed in Best American Nonrequired Reading 2009, and Katherine Lien Chariott’s “Vocabulary Lesson” and Michael Martone’s “Hermes Goes to College” were cited in Best American Essays 2009; all three essays were from the award-winning upstreet number four.

Scott Nadelson is the author of two story collections, The Cantor’s Daughter, recipient of the Reform Judaism Fiction Prize and the Samuel Goldberg & Sons Fiction Prize for Emerging Jewish Writers, and Saving Stanley: The Brickman Stories, winner of the Oregon Book Award for short fiction and the Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Glimmer Train Stories, American Literary Review, Arts & Letters, Puerto del Sol, South Dakota Review, and elsewhere. He lives in Salem, OR.

“Oslo” will appear in Scott’s third story collection, Aftermath, which is due to be released by Hawthorne Books in the Fall of 2011.

We congratulate Scott, and thank him for helping to make upstreet Distinguished.

Glover to judge 2010 FreeFall writing contest

upstreet author Douglas Glover will be the judge and editor for this year's prose and poetry contest conducted by FreeFall, “Canada’s magazine of exquisite writing.” The contest is open to Canadians living in Canada or abroad. Prizes for the contest total $1,100, and winning entries will be published in Volume XXI, No. 1 of FreeFall. The entry fee is $20, and includes a one-year subscription to the magazine. For the contest rules and entry form, go here.

Glover, a Canadian who lives in upstate New York, is the author of five story collections, four novels, a book of essays, and a book about novel form. He won the 2006 Writers' Trust of Canada Timothy Findley Award, and his novel Elle won the 2003 Governor-General's Award for Fiction in English, and was a finalist for the 2005 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. His essay “Don Quixote, Rosemary’s Baby, Alien, and The French Lieutenant’s Woman: Meditations on the Ideology of Closure and the Comforting Lie” was published in upstreet number four, and another essay, “Before/After History and the Novel,” in upstreet number six. He is currently on the faculty of Vermont College of Fine Arts.

New Creative Nonfiction Editor

Beginning with the upcoming seventh issue, Richard J. Farrell (above, with Maggie, 9, and Thomas, 5) of San Diego, CA, will be upstreet’s Creative Nonfiction Editor. He replaces Harrison Candelaria Fletcher, who held this position for the previous four issues.

A 1991 graduate of the US Naval Academy, Rich earned an MA in Secondary Education from Webster University, St. Louis, MO. Following his career as a Naval aircraft pilot, he taught science, math, and history at Cathedral High School in San Diego. He is currently a candidate for an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts, Montpelier, where he has worked with authors Jess Row, Ellen Lesser, Douglas Glover, and Philip Graham, among others. He has been a submission reader for the literary journal Hunger Mountain, and for its Howard Frank Mosher Short Fiction Prize, and is a Contributing Editor for Glover’s literary blog, Numéro Cinq.

Asked to comment on what he would look for in a creative nonfiction submission, Rich said: “Good writing allows a reader to explore different worlds, to inhabit different bodies, and to understand different minds, but in the end always takes us home to ourselves. For upstreet, I want to find that careful writer who crafts the mysterious mixture of thought, emotion, and soul. The creative nonfiction genre encompasses so much, but is unified by an attention to, and a love of, language. I don’t believe in boundaries. In the end, good writing always finds a way to transcend whatever restrictions hold it down.”

Submissions for upstreet number seven opened September 1, and will close March 1, 2011.

upstreet call for submissions featuredin Poets & Writers’ Literary MagNet

upstreet is one of six journals appearing in the Literary MagNet column of the September/October issue of Poets & Writers magazine. The item reads: “upstreet (http://www.upstreet-mag.org/), the annual journal founded in 2005 by publisher and editor Vivian Dorsel and based in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, is now open for submissions. Writers are invited to submit poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction for the seventh issue, due out in July 2001. Visit the Web site for complete guidelines.”

The upstreet Submission Manager went online at 1:30 this morning, and will take submissions for number seven until March 1, 2011. upstreet number six, which came out in June, contains an interview with memoirist Sue William Silverman, and work by David Jauss, Douglas Glover, Karen Chase, Mark Halliday, Jeffrey Harrison, and many other distinguished writers. The sixth issue received a record total of 3,681 submissions—1,331 stories, 1,952 poems, and 398 essays.

Ackerman poem chosen for Best New Poets 2010

“A Small Obsession,” a poem by Stephen Ackerman in upstreet number five, has been chosen to appear in Best New Poets, an annual anthology of poems from emerging writers. The 2010 editor is Claudia Emerson, who selected 50 poems from nominations made by literary magazines and writing programs, and an open internet competition.

“A Small Obsession” was nominated for the anthology by upstreet Poetry Editor Jessica Greenbaum and Editor/Publisher Vivian Dorsel. Previous nominations of Steve Ackerman’s poems for Best New Poets were for “Magic Lantern” in upstreet number three and “How to Touch a Woman” in upstreet number four. All three poems, and “Strange How Trains” in upstreet number two, were also nominated for Pushcart Prizes.

Steve’s poems have appeared in The Antioch Review, Boulevard, Columbia Review, Lana Turner, Mudfish, Partisan Review, Ploughshares, Salamander, and Seneca Review. He holds a BA from Columbia University, an MA from Johns Hopkins and a JD from Boston University School of Law. An attorney since 1989 in the Legal Counsel Division of the New York City Law Department, he lives in Beekman, NY, with his wife, Laurie, and their sons, Nick and Will.

upstreet is delighted to congratulate Steve. Here is his winning poem:

A Small Obsession
He could ride a bicycle backwards and when he did
“He thought he was the cat’s meow,” his wife said.
Thank you for my eyes, thank you for opening my eyes.
Thank you for my idyllic childhood, long summer days
Outdoors and food in the kitchen, your glove oiled
To dark chocolate, it folds like a book, old, soft leather first baseman’s
Mitt, foundered on a reef of grief when you died,
One extra large sob at your wake and several years
Of intermittent self-pity of which I am proud.
Thank you for adultery, it makes life vivid as when
I kicked the grill in the garage and one triangular leg
Impaled the sheet rock and there hung, waiting
For summer, for skewed suburban summer, for skewered
Idyllic summer. Oh, thank you for my eyes! Which weep,
Which are hazel like your wife’s eyes, which wear glasses
To read the fine print, which is where beauty is, in the text
And in the footnotes, in the woven sheets with the high
Thread count, in a firm handshake (for which I must thank you).
They are a foreign race to me, who shake hands diffidently.
Were their fathers not Marines? Did they have idyllic childhoods
With long summer days and fathers who worked
And came home from work and played catch and read
The paper, days so long the mail was delivered twice
And so long ago that actual letters arrived, morning and
Afternoon, punctuated by the dash of lunch
On the run, screen door slapping the frame.
You introduced the world to me, in all its
Famous complexity, but only after providing
The simplicity of long summer days,
Deep woods, slow currents, open fields, cobalt clouds.
This poem is a coffin, and a resurrection.
To mourn the dead is not a small obsession.
—Stephen Ackerman

Harrison Candelaria Fletcher launches online CNF journal

Harrison Candelaria Fletcher, upstreet’s Creative Nonfiction Editor for the past four years, has launched Shadowbox, “a biannual journal exclusively devoted to creative nonfiction of every shape, style, and incarnation.” Co-edited by John-Michael Rivera, each issue will include new writing, interviews, reviews of published work, interactive links, a gallery of visual/literary collaborations, and an archive of resurrected writings. The inaugural Spring 2010 issue features an interview with Brenda Miller, a word/image collaboration by Margo Klass and Frank Soos, and work by thirteen essayists, including upstreet number three author Karen Michelle Otero, upstreet number four author Daniel Hales, J. Michael Martinez, Kerry Muir, and Robert Vivian, and much more.

Fletcher’s work has appeared in The Touchstone Anthology of Contemporary Creative Nonfiction, New Letters, Fourth Genre, Water-Stone Review, Puerto del Sol, Palabra, and many other journals. A finalist for the National Magazine Award, PEN Center USA, and Bakeless Literary Prize, his recent honors include a New Letters best essay award and Pushcart Prize special mention. He just completed an essay collection, Man in a Box, and is writing a memoir. He teaches literary nonfiction at Regis University, the University of Denver, and Lighthouse Writer’s Workshop.

Rivera is Associate Professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he teaches cultural studies and literary nonfiction. His poems and essays have appeared in numerous journals, including Palabra, Pilgrimage, sienwerden, Eclectica Magazine, American Literary History and Aztlan. An award-winning writer, he also curates writing exhibits for innovative writers of color in the US and abroad. He is working on a mixed-genre project titled amatl, an encyclopaedia in part(s), and Clock Works, a Diagram of Time.

upstreet sends Shadowbox its very best wishes for success.

upstreet Fiction Editor to read in Albany area

upstreet Fiction Editor Robin Oliveira will appear in two New York State Capital Region locations on Monday, July 26, as part of the reading/signing tour for her novel, My Name is Mary Sutter (Viking Penguin, 2010). At 2pm, she will visit Pruyn House in Latham, NY, where she will read from the novel and talk about its Albany setting.

At 7pm, there will be a reading and book signing at the Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza in Albany, where Robin will be introduced by upstreet Editor/Publisher Vivian Dorsel.

My Name is Mary Sutter appeared in the July issue of O! The Oprah Magazine as the No. 7 selection on Oprah's Summer Reading List.

upstreet to be a sponsor of Berkshire WordFest

upstreet will be one of the sponsors of the first annual Berkshire WordFest, a celebration of words and ideas that will take place July 23-25 at The Mount in Lenox, Massachusetts, the historic home and gardens of Edith Wharton. This literary festival will bring together a varied collection of contemporary authors in an exciting array of events that will include talks, readings, panel discussions, interviews, and book signings. Featured authors will include Garrison Keillor, Francine Prose, Jim Shepard, Susan Orlean, and many others. For further information about the WordFest schedule, and to reserve tickets and day passes, call 413-551-5113 or visit http://berkshirewordfest.org/

Barber essay cited as ‘Notable’ by Best American Essays 2010

“Sweetgrass,” an essay by Phyllis Barber in upstreet number five, has been listed as a Notable work by the editors of Best American Essays 2010, edited by Christopher Hitchens. This is the fourth time a work appearing in upstreet has been mentioned in one of the prestigious annual Best American anthologies. The previous ones were Frank Tempone’s essay, “Everlasting,” in Best American Nonrequired Reading 2009, and the essays “Vocabulary Lesson,” by Katherine Lien Chariott, and “Hermes Goes to College,” by Michael Martone, in Best American Essays 2009—all from the award-winning issue, upstreet number four.

Phyllis Barber’s seventh book, Raw Edges (U. of Nevada), a coming-of-age-in-middle-age memoir, came out earlier this year. She is the author of the novel And the Desert Shall Blossom (U. of Utah), two books of short stories, The School of Love (U. of Utah) and Parting the Veil: Stories From a Mormon Imagination (Signature Books), and How I Got Cultured: A Nevada Memoir (U. of Georgia), for which she received the AWP Award Series prize in Creative Nonfiction in 1991. Phyllis has been on the prose faculty of the Vermont College of Fine Arts, and was recently inducted into the Nevada Writers’ Hall of Fame. She lives in Denver.

We congratulate Phyllis, and thank her for helping to make upstreet Notable.

Robin Oliveira novel released May 15

My Name is Mary Sutter, a novel by upstreet Fiction Editor Robin Oliveira, was released by Viking Penguin on May 15. Set in the mid-19th century, Robin’s novel follows the aspirations and difficulties of a brilliant, somewhat odd, yet remarkable young midwife from Albany, NY, whose lofty hope of becoming a surgeon far exceeds what her family and the physicians and medical schools of her time are willing to accept. She travels to Washington, DC, to work in the Civil War hospitals, only to find the challenges formidable and the pull of home unavoidable.

“A magnificent Civil War epic, a saga of female liberation, and a gorgeous love story. Mary is indomitable, fearless, and captivating—a riveting read.”—Douglas Glover, author of Elle

“My Name is Mary Sutter is a powerful debut—equally compelling for its portrayal of the horrors of surgery during the Civil War as it is for its human drama. Mary Sutter is unforgettable, not just because she’s quirky, odd, and persistent in her quest to be a surgeon, but also because she is alive inside anyone who knows what it is to dream.—Xu Xi, author of Habit of a Foreign Sky

“The subject matter—medicine and medical conditions during the Civil War—is thoroughly researched and compelling. The plot—the Union’s conduct of the war, intertwined with the wartime love story—moves quickly and inevitably. But, most important, the protagonist, Mary Sutter, takes hold of the readers on the first page and leads us, with confidence and determination, to the last.”—Vivian Dorsel, Editor/Publisher of upstreet

In 2007, Robin won the $10,000 15th annual James Jones First Novel Fellowship, awarded to an American author of a first-novel-in-progress by the James Jones Literary Society and Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre, PA. Born in Albany, NY, in 1954, she earned a BA in Russian from the University of Montana and continued to study at the Pushkin Language Institute in Moscow, USSR. She became a Registered Nurse, and then worked as a bone marrow transplant and cardiac care nurse in Seattle before earning an MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2006. She has been Fiction Editor for upstreet number three, four, five, and the upcoming six, which will appear in June of this year. Robin lives in Seattle with her husband, Andrew Oliveira, their daughter, Noelle, and their son, Miles.

Robin is represented by agent Marly Rusoff of Marly Rusoff & Associates (NA). For details of Robin’s book tour, go here.

Scholarship offered for Martone workshopat Postgraduate Writers’ Conference

upstreet number four author Michael Martone will join the award-winning faculty at the 15th annual Postgraduate Writers’ Conference, August 9-15, at Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier. Designed for experienced writers with MFAs or equivalent backgrounds, the Conference features workshops limited to six participants, faculty and participant readings, craft classes, issues forums, and individual consultations with faculty, all within a vibrant, inclusive community atmosphere.

For fans of upstreet and Michael Martone, the Conference is pleased to offer a special scholarship opportunity to support participation in Martone’s Short Story workshop group. upstreet Editor/Publisher Vivian Dorsel, who has twice participated in Martone’s workshop, enthusiastically recommends it to fiction writers who would like a unique and inspiring learning experience. Interested writers should contact Conference Director Ellen Lesser at pgconference@vermontcollege.edu.

Visit www.vermontcollege.edu/post-graduate-writers-conference for full details about the conference.

Cooley poetry collection wins Kinereth Gensler Award

Milk Dress, the fourth poetry collection by upstreet poet Nicole Cooley (“Hour of the Pink Flashlight,” upstreet number five) will be published in November by Alice James Books as co-winner of the Kinereth Gensler Award. This award, one of two competitions run by the publisher, is open to poets residing in New York, New Jersey, and New England. In addition to publication, winners of the award receive $2,000 and serve a three-year term on the Alice James Books Editorial Board.

“These are poems of birth and motherhood. They begin with a new life and end in a new self. They probe deep into the places where love extinguishes identity and yet renews awareness. What is so compelling here is that the arc of this journey is described with such music, craft and rigor in this wonderful collection.”—Eavan Boland

Nicole Cooley grew up in New Orleans. Her third book of poems, Breach, about Hurricane Katrina and the Gulf Coast, was published by LSU Press in April. Her first book, Resurrection, won the 1995 Walt Whitman Award and was published by LSU Press in 1996. Her second book, The Afflicted Girls, was chosen as one of the best poetry books of 2004 by Library Journal. She directs the MFA program in Creative Writing and Literary Translation at Queens College, CUNY, and lives outside New York City with her husband and two young daughters.

Nicole was one of the featured readers in the upstreet number five offsite reading party during the April AWP Conference in Denver.

upstreet author Briccetti publishes memoir

Blood Strangers, by Katherine A. Briccetti (“Slow Dancing to a Fast Song,” upstreet number three), was released by Heyday Books on May 1. Kathy describes her new book as “a memoir about searching for my place among the tangles of three generations of adoption and absent fathers in my family.” Excerpts from the memoir have been published in Dos Passos Review, San Francisco Chronicle Sunday Magazine, Hip Mama, flashquake, Unbound Press, and in the anthologies The Maternal Is Political (Seal Press), Herstory (Adams Media) and Who's Your Mama (Soft Skull Press/Counterpoint). One excerpt was nominated for a 2007 Pushcart Prize. To see a video trailer for Blood Strangers, go here.

Kathy, whose work has appeared in literary magazines and anthologies, was awarded a residency at the Vermont Studio Center in 2009. She earned a PhD in clinical psychology from the Wright Institute in Berkeley and an MFA in creative writing from the Stonecoast program of the University of Southern Maine. She works as a school psychologist and writer/editor in the San Francisco Bay Area. She can be reached at kathybriccetti.com.

upstreet is having a party—and you’re invited

upstreet will host an off-site party/reading during the 2010 AWP Conference, which will take place in Denver from April 7-10. Our party will be at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday 8 April at the 910Arts Eventgallery, 910 Santa Fe Drive. This event is free and open to the public. The readers, poets and prose writers from upstreet number five, will be Phyllis Barber, Matthew Burns, Nicole Cooley, Tiff Holland, Jay Kauffmann, and Xu Xi. upstreet Editor/Publisher Vivian Dorsel will emcee the festivities. Following the reading, there will be an opportunity for authors to sign copies of upstreet number five, or their own books, which will also be available for purchase. Light refreshments will be provided. Come help us celebrate AWP 2010 in Denver—and don’t forget to visit upstreet’s table (#K21) in the Bookfair.

upstreet poet Hostovsky publishes collection

Dear Truth, a poetry collection by Paul Hostovsky, has been published by Main Street Rag. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in three issues of upstreet: “A Woman Taking off Her Shirt” (number four), “The Sadness of Dads” (number five), and “Frame” (number six). Paul’s poems have won a Pushcart Prize, the Muriel Craft Bailey Award from The Comstock Review, and chapbook contests from Grayson Books, Riverstone Press, and the Frank Cat Press. He has been featured on Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, The Writer's Almanac and Best of the Net. His first full-length collection, Bending the Notes (2008) is also available from Main Street Rag. Paul works in Boston as a sign language interpreter at the Massachusetts Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. Here is the book’s title poem:

Dear Truth
I do not love you.

I am running away
with my beloved
illusions. The sweet
nothings. Nothing
is what it seems.
I love what seems.
I am crazy in love with
the painfully obvious
transparent surface.
I am simply hungry.
You keep the house
and everything in it.
I am taking the dog.
And the windows.
—Paul Hostovsky

“Although the title poem is a sort of Dear John letter to Truth, the book itself is, in fact, dedicated to truth on a larger scale: the expansive and various truth of the imagination. In these touching, finely crafted, and often funny poems, Hostovsky remains true to his lively and inquisitive vision of the world, to beauty, joy, pain, and grief, always displaying a love of language that is contagious and invigorating.” —Jeffrey Harrison

Pushcart Board nominates two upstreet works

In addition to the nominations sent in by independent publishers and literary magazines, Pushcart Press also considers works nominated by its own Board of Contributing Editors. For the third year in a row, the Pushcart Board has nominated two works from upstreet to be considered for inclusion in the next Pushcart Prize anthology, along with the six nominations made by our editors. They are a poem by Jeffrey Harrison, “Brief Note for April’s Departure,” and a short story by Xu Xi, “Anon.,” from upstreet number five.

It is a great compliment for upstreet to be singled out by this Board, which contains some very distinguished writers. Congratulations to both nominees, and best wishes to them in the competition.

upstreet is going to Bermuda

The second Bermuda Writers’ Retreat, the brainchild of native Bermudian and upstreet author Kim Aubrey (“Notes,” upstreet number one), will be at the Rosedon Hotel, Pembroke, Bermuda, February 17-23, 2010. The retreat will take place during both Poetry Week and the Bermuda Arts Festival, and the schedule includes field trips to museums, galleries, plays and other cultural events, plus four two-hour generative morning workshops:

Postcards to the Edge, with Kim Aubrey
Character Development, with Elaine Batcher
At Home Abroad, with Nancy Anne Miller
The Fictional Environment, with Vivian Dorsel

Kim Aubrey is a Bermudian writer who lives in Toronto and holds an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her work has appeared in Best Canadian Stories, in US and Canadian journals, and is forthcoming in The New Quarterly and Room magazine. She recently completed a memoir, The Girl in the Blue Leotard.

Kim hopes to develop the retreat into an annual event. For further information and to be placed on the mailing list for next year’s retreat, e-mail kaubrey@groupklement.com.

upstreet nominates six for 2010 Pushcart

The editors of upstreet have nominated six works appearing in the journal’s fifth issue for this year’s Pushcart Prize. The nominees are two short stories, “Anon.,” by Xu Xi, and “On Seeing the Skeleton of a Whale in the Harvard Museum of Natural History,” by Maya Sonenberg; two creative nonfiction pieces, “This Place is Literally No Place,” by Jon Chopan, and “Left Behind,” by Wendy Ralph; and two poems, “A Small Obsession,” by Stephen Ackerman, and “The Sadness of Dads,” by Paul Hostovsky.

These six works were submitted to compete for inclusion in the 2010 issue of The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses, the only annual anthology to showcase work from America’s alternative, literary presses. This is the fourth year that upstreet has made Pushcart Prize nominations.