Ooligan Press staffers...
Chuck Palahniuk and Ursula K. Le Guin meet...
Ooligan Press goodies...
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Photos from Write to Publish Conference 2010
Ooligan Press staffers... Chuck Palahniuk and Ursula K. Le Guin meet... Ooligan Press goodies...
Monday, May 31, 2010
This Week's Poem
Power Outage
Tonight a piano
counters the chill
and silence
of a house still standing.
Limbs
and lifeless power lines
snaking paths
through the frost.
Candles upon which
we love tenderest
lining like a runway
the edges of things.
And the somber keys,
black upon white,
warning us
of an icy landing.
-published by Pure Francis
Tonight a piano
counters the chill
and silence
of a house still standing.
Limbs
and lifeless power lines
snaking paths
through the frost.
Candles upon which
we love tenderest
lining like a runway
the edges of things.
And the somber keys,
black upon white,
warning us
of an icy landing.
-published by Pure Francis
Friday, May 28, 2010
100 Publications!
With word that Cutthroat: a journal of the arts will be publishing my poem A Sign on the Road in their Summer 2010 edition, my poetry and fiction has now been displayed in 100 publications!
My first publication was an Eastern European-inspired short story called The German Board (was reading alot of Kafka at the time) in Collected Stories in 2001. Unlike most of my youthful fiction, it's one of the few stories that still reverberates with me. My initial experiments in poetry began in 2003 with the publication of rather immature poems like Crocodile Tears and An Empty Pillow (published in Typically Unusual). It wasn't until 2007 that I began to understand the nuances of poetry and to devote my full creative drive and passion to its study and composition.
Now, 3 short years later, I've traveled quite a bit and written in many styles, from direct narrative to experimental/conceptual poetry, and am pushing to publish any of my (presently) 5 chapbooks. Hasn't been that long a ride yet, but a good one...and the future is very much looking in one direction...
Monday, May 24, 2010
This Week's Poem
Flowers
I’m handed a disheveled bouquet
as gypsy as its collector,
stalks nearly bare and browned by a sun
preferring everything adopt that sand-fleshed
Turkish tan, everything be of sand.
One bouquet takes the place of success, happiness.
The one given me replaces love.
The courtyard faucets splash in bird-play.
Going and coming back they draw their curves,
glowing red in the cold
and now quietly mumbling white.
I carry the flowers out to the canal.
Everywhere something in a foreign tongue
is sold, recycled, sold,
purchased with differing currency
then left on café tables and balustrades.
Perhaps it is such half-objects
fully illuminated by summer
that hold together like a mouth
the hard sea, harder earth,
and what falls from our hands
along the way.
-previously published by and nominated for 2009 Pushcart Prize by The Shine Journal.
I’m handed a disheveled bouquet
as gypsy as its collector,
stalks nearly bare and browned by a sun
preferring everything adopt that sand-fleshed
Turkish tan, everything be of sand.
One bouquet takes the place of success, happiness.
The one given me replaces love.
The courtyard faucets splash in bird-play.
Going and coming back they draw their curves,
glowing red in the cold
and now quietly mumbling white.
I carry the flowers out to the canal.
Everywhere something in a foreign tongue
is sold, recycled, sold,
purchased with differing currency
then left on café tables and balustrades.
Perhaps it is such half-objects
fully illuminated by summer
that hold together like a mouth
the hard sea, harder earth,
and what falls from our hands
along the way.
-previously published by and nominated for 2009 Pushcart Prize by The Shine Journal.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Write to Publish Flash Fiction Contest Winners!
Ooligan Press is proud to announce the winners of the 2010 Write to Publish Flash Fiction Contest.
First place: “The Woman and Her Steed” by Traci Schatz
Second place: “Assumptions” by Erin Popelka
Third place: “Esophagi” by Meredith Barrett
We received many strong stories with unique voices, imagery, and characters, but these three writers stood tall amongst their competition. You can read all three winning stories at www.ooligan.pdx.edu.
Each winner brought a different strength and focus to the contest. “The Woman and Her Steed” creates a thoughtful, mysterious mood with touches of artistic imagination and magical realism. “Assumptions” brings us to a lonely station in Antarctica where food, and friends, are in short supply. “Esophagi” uses rich, detailed description to paint a truly emotional scene.
The prizes for all winners include a Write to Publish full-day pass (5 workshops) to Workshop Day, May 22, as well as two tickets to the open house. Each winner will also receive a copy of You Have Time for This, Ooligan’s book of contemporary American flash fiction.
Ooligan supports the art of the short story, with the previous compilations Do Angels Cry?, The Survival League, The Weight of the Sun, and You Have Time for This. All books are available at our website.
First place: “The Woman and Her Steed” by Traci Schatz
Second place: “Assumptions” by Erin Popelka
Third place: “Esophagi” by Meredith Barrett
We received many strong stories with unique voices, imagery, and characters, but these three writers stood tall amongst their competition. You can read all three winning stories at www.ooligan.pdx.edu.
Each winner brought a different strength and focus to the contest. “The Woman and Her Steed” creates a thoughtful, mysterious mood with touches of artistic imagination and magical realism. “Assumptions” brings us to a lonely station in Antarctica where food, and friends, are in short supply. “Esophagi” uses rich, detailed description to paint a truly emotional scene.
The prizes for all winners include a Write to Publish full-day pass (5 workshops) to Workshop Day, May 22, as well as two tickets to the open house. Each winner will also receive a copy of You Have Time for This, Ooligan’s book of contemporary American flash fiction.
Ooligan supports the art of the short story, with the previous compilations Do Angels Cry?, The Survival League, The Weight of the Sun, and You Have Time for This. All books are available at our website.
Write to Publish promo video
As our annual Write to Publish conference approaches this weekend, Ooligan created a promotional video...please check it out! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrMfwUsMN_g
Monday, May 17, 2010
This Week's Poem
Stone Sagas
In Reykholt his statue inspects the old church’s
slight movements, doctrinal pauses before light
warms the wood pews, its garden of crosses
shaved from the hillside, also the sun-bleached
lava fields, fluttering mountains, awkward streams
keeping back the fjord’s distant glare, overseeing
the various separations.
The colorful doors of the scattered houses all close
in greeting. Winds panic from all sides,
graying the sky. My eyes stone in response
as I read the great sagas of our time,
those even history cannot shame.
In the margins I note such fear
solitude bears, its proximity to stone.
No music whistles from the land. No overtures.
No warnings. Only the brash noise
used to startle time into progressing.
The misspelled experiences. The old tongues
buffered by unyielding monuments
hands could never write or, in a definite image,
reshape.
-previously published by The Journal and Poet's Ink
In Reykholt his statue inspects the old church’s
slight movements, doctrinal pauses before light
warms the wood pews, its garden of crosses
shaved from the hillside, also the sun-bleached
lava fields, fluttering mountains, awkward streams
keeping back the fjord’s distant glare, overseeing
the various separations.
The colorful doors of the scattered houses all close
in greeting. Winds panic from all sides,
graying the sky. My eyes stone in response
as I read the great sagas of our time,
those even history cannot shame.
In the margins I note such fear
solitude bears, its proximity to stone.
No music whistles from the land. No overtures.
No warnings. Only the brash noise
used to startle time into progressing.
The misspelled experiences. The old tongues
buffered by unyielding monuments
hands could never write or, in a definite image,
reshape.
-previously published by The Journal and Poet's Ink
Monday, May 10, 2010
Weekly Poem
Kafka
Around the same time he affixed feathers, wings,
so too a wire-meshed pen,
and hunched over his meager seed allowance
commenced to peck at his cage.
Years forgot themselves
as housecats their missing claws
and though he pecked still
well after he’d razed the pen,
savagely attacking empty air
as if it held his freedom,
this ongoing dust worship
finally took the place of flight.
-published by Cadillac Cicatrix
Around the same time he affixed feathers, wings,
so too a wire-meshed pen,
and hunched over his meager seed allowance
commenced to peck at his cage.
Years forgot themselves
as housecats their missing claws
and though he pecked still
well after he’d razed the pen,
savagely attacking empty air
as if it held his freedom,
this ongoing dust worship
finally took the place of flight.
-published by Cadillac Cicatrix
Monday, May 3, 2010
This Week's Poem
Autumn Rain
From the leaf-choked gutters,
from café awnings and streaked glass,
the sky is falling,
buffered by our thousand canopies,
softer than a gentle rain.
Seeping inside, soft, steady,
to ring stains upon the wooden ledges
and upon the trees that fare better
but for heavy limbs draped lower over the road
and those broken snapping underfoot
as we race home to close the windows
and water the flowers
thirsting in their clear vase.
High above the ceiling cracked and bowing.
-published by The Journal
From the leaf-choked gutters,
from café awnings and streaked glass,
the sky is falling,
buffered by our thousand canopies,
softer than a gentle rain.
Seeping inside, soft, steady,
to ring stains upon the wooden ledges
and upon the trees that fare better
but for heavy limbs draped lower over the road
and those broken snapping underfoot
as we race home to close the windows
and water the flowers
thirsting in their clear vase.
High above the ceiling cracked and bowing.
-published by The Journal
Monday, April 26, 2010
Weekly Poetry Post
The Art of Raining
“The art of raining…has now been lost.”
-Pablo Neruda, Memoirs
I walked blindly into her hands,
the sea somewhere behind me,
asking why.
What fire, wind, and rain
has chosen to leave standing
and the ferocity of the vanished’s
returning, often in conversations silenced
over vast tablefuls of food and friends,
that moment all consent to mass introspection,
often too in bullet casings, polished silver,
lodged in the lung of endless answer-waiting,
when extraction could shut down the whole system.
Once we spoke the unspeakable, but no longer.
Is this the belief she whispers to my sleep, as if from Isla Negra?
That somehow tears are wine if we admit our weeping?
The sky over the sea, blindly eyeing my back,
storms and calms and wonders
why our countless words for rain.
To it there is one, synonymous with love,
and one for love, synonymous with why,
and one for why, synonymous with rain.
-published by Silenced Press
“The art of raining…has now been lost.”
-Pablo Neruda, Memoirs
I walked blindly into her hands,
the sea somewhere behind me,
asking why.
What fire, wind, and rain
has chosen to leave standing
and the ferocity of the vanished’s
returning, often in conversations silenced
over vast tablefuls of food and friends,
that moment all consent to mass introspection,
often too in bullet casings, polished silver,
lodged in the lung of endless answer-waiting,
when extraction could shut down the whole system.
Once we spoke the unspeakable, but no longer.
Is this the belief she whispers to my sleep, as if from Isla Negra?
That somehow tears are wine if we admit our weeping?
The sky over the sea, blindly eyeing my back,
storms and calms and wonders
why our countless words for rain.
To it there is one, synonymous with love,
and one for love, synonymous with why,
and one for why, synonymous with rain.
-published by Silenced Press
Monday, April 19, 2010
Weekly Poety Post
Confessional Hymns
Bless us, fertile new morning.
Bless the barrage of tangerine light
streaming through the thawing pines.
Bless the slight wisps penetrating within
these bedroom windows,
balancing upon her forehead.
To whoever misses the conch’s hermetic ocean voice
grinding and honking down the avenues,
bless those ears pressed to concrete
who know history never fully unfurls.
Bless the gathering hummingbirds
who resuscitate night’s lost shadows,
swarming into a single crab
splayed across our bedroom wall,
legs furiously kicking the air.
Bless the beasts conquered and belly up,
accepting without pretense the slaughter and their breath.
Bless all the things each sea coughs up.
Bless their ignorance, their well-lit tree within.
Bless the bountiful cold waves
sleep polishes our wounds,
our nightly flight taken with Icarus
and our awaking moments before the sea opens its mouth.
Bless the moment between waking and understanding,
when such purity of new morning blinds us
to what the night undid.
-previously published by Flint Hills Review and Stirring
Bless us, fertile new morning.
Bless the barrage of tangerine light
streaming through the thawing pines.
Bless the slight wisps penetrating within
these bedroom windows,
balancing upon her forehead.
To whoever misses the conch’s hermetic ocean voice
grinding and honking down the avenues,
bless those ears pressed to concrete
who know history never fully unfurls.
Bless the gathering hummingbirds
who resuscitate night’s lost shadows,
swarming into a single crab
splayed across our bedroom wall,
legs furiously kicking the air.
Bless the beasts conquered and belly up,
accepting without pretense the slaughter and their breath.
Bless all the things each sea coughs up.
Bless their ignorance, their well-lit tree within.
Bless the bountiful cold waves
sleep polishes our wounds,
our nightly flight taken with Icarus
and our awaking moments before the sea opens its mouth.
Bless the moment between waking and understanding,
when such purity of new morning blinds us
to what the night undid.
-previously published by Flint Hills Review and Stirring
Friday, April 16, 2010
Poetry Broadsides and Samples
I've posted a few self-designed poetry broadsides to my site: www.TheArtOfRaining.com. I'm not a designer, by any means, but let me know what you think. I'll also begin weekly postings of samples of my poems on the site, starting this weekend!
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
The 2010 Write to Publish Flash Fiction Contest
Deadline: May 7, 2010
Guidelines:
Please submit one flash fiction piece of fewer than five hundred words. There is no specific theme, but we are not seeking genre-specific work (i.e. romance, western, sci-fi). Work can be previously published if you let us know where. All submissions should be sent as an attachment to events@ooliganpress.pdx.edu, with a note about your interest in the Write to Publish conference and an optional brief bio in the email body. Please include “Flash Fiction Contest” in the subject line.
First Prize: 1) workshop of your choice on Day 1 of conference, 2) two passes to Open House Day, and 3) a copy of You Have Time for This, Ooligan’s book of flash fiction.
Second Prize: 1) two passes to Open House Day and 2) a copy of You Have Time for This.
Third Prize: 1) one pass to Open House Day and 2) a copy of You Have Time for This.
ü All three winning stories will be displayed on the Ooligan Press website.
Write to Publish:
May 22 and 23, 2010
Organized by Ooligan Press, Write to Publish aims to demystify the publishing process for writers. Write to Publish is different from other writing conferences in that we do not focus on the craft of writing, but rather on the process of getting published via lectures, workshops, and industry professionals available to answer your questions. Speakers at this years conference include Chuck Palahniuk and Ursula K. Le Guin.
For more info, please visit ooligan.pdx.edu.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Pacific Northwest Writers Assocation
I just joined and am the newest member of Pacific Northwest Writers Assocation, an organization dedicated to helping writers in the northwest connect to other writers, publishers, agents, and editors across the country via conferences, workshops, and a magazine.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Write to Publish Conference!
Amazing opportunity for writers and publishers! Write to Publish Conference is May 22 and 23 in Portland. Chuck Palahniuk and Ursula K. Le Guin, amongst other writers, will be speaking. More info at: http://ooligan.pdx.edu.
Write to Publish, affectionately known as Oolicon, is a conference organized by Ooligan Press. The primary goal of Write to Publish is to demystify the publishing process for writers. Write to Publish is different from other writing conferences in that it does not focus on the craft of writing, but rather on the process of getting published.
On May 22, Workshop Day, choose to attend workshops for writers or workshops for industry professionals. Come back on May 23, Open House Day, to mingle with professionals in the industry and to hear authors speak about their experiences with the publishing process.
Ticket prices are $130 for writers for the full conference (this includes five workshops and the Open House on the second day) or $32 per workshop. Ticket prices are $215 for industry professionals for the full conference.
To purchase tickets, please contact the Portland State University box office at (503) 725-3307.
Seven Circle Press Winter 2009 out now!
Volume 3, Winter 2009, issue of Circle Show, a publication by Seven Circle Press, is now available for purchase at www.sevencirclepress.com. It contains three of my poems! Check it out!
Monday, March 29, 2010
Four Poems Available!
Four of my poems have just been made available at http://www.albany.edu/offcourse/issue41/john_williams.html via Offcourse Literary Journal!! The above link takes you directly to my page on their site!
Not Even Names
My poem Not Even Names was just accepted for publication by Literary Tonic and can be viewed at http://literarytonic.wordpress.com. Please check it out!
Friday, March 26, 2010
The Chaffey Review Publication
A second acceptance today! The Chaffey Review will be publishing my new poem A Pure River in their Spring 2010 print issue!
Finalist for Poetry Prize!
My poem Historic Scenes was a finalist in The Heartland Review's 2010 Joy Bale Boone Poetry Prize! As the name of the journal suggestes, the work is based in the heartland, mainly Kentucky, and I'm proud my coastal mindset still met their editorial preferences. My poem will be in their Spring 2010 issue, coming out in May!
Monday, March 22, 2010
Mad Swirl publication!!
Mad Swirl just accepted my poem I Say I Sing for publication, available now at http://madswirlspoetryforum.blogspot.com/2010/03/best-of-mad-swirls-poetry-forum-032110.html. Please check it out and let me know what you think! It's a quasi-love lost poem due to the promises V. actions issue while also a quasi-international poem...
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Verdad Magazine Acceptance!
Verdad Magazine just accepted my poem November for issue 8, due out in April! It's the second piece they've published, one last year, and I'm pleased this consistently strong venue for literature and art will again display my work. They have revised the poem a bit, which is rare, but also proves they felt it strong enough to put the effort into.
A pretty good month for acceptances!
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Eclectica Magazine Acceptance!
Eclectica Magazine has just accepted my poem Kansas, a very short emotional image based on my cross-country drive a few summers ago, for publication in April of this year. Please check them out at http://www.eclectica.org.
I have shifted to attempting to master the short poem this past year, and I'm excited that so many have been published recently. I'm thinking of beginning to create a chapbook from them during the summer!
March issue of Four & Twenty out now!
The new issue of Four and Twenty is now available at http://4and20poetry.com! It includes my short poem Invitation(s)! Please check it out and let me know what you think. More info is also on my website, at www.TheArtOfRaining.com.
Four and Twenty is a press run by Declaration Editing and Design, publishing poetry of no more than four lines or twenty words...
Friday, March 12, 2010
Flowers
As people have asked me for the poem that was nominated for the Pushcart by The Shine Journal, here it is:
Flowers
I’m handed a disheveled bouquet
as gypsy as its collector,
stalks nearly bare and browned by a sun
preferring everything adopt that sand-fleshed
Turkish tan, everything be of sand.
One bouquet takes the place of success, happiness.
The one given me replaces love.
The courtyard faucets splash in bird-play.
Going and coming back they draw their curves,
glowing red in the cold
and now quietly mumbling white.
I carry the flowers out to the canal.
Everywhere something in a foreign tongue
is sold, recycled, sold,
purchased with differing currency
then left on café tables and balustrades.
Perhaps it is such half-objects
fully illuminated by summer
that hold together like a mouth
the hard sea, harder earth,
and what falls from our hands
along the way.
Flowers
I’m handed a disheveled bouquet
as gypsy as its collector,
stalks nearly bare and browned by a sun
preferring everything adopt that sand-fleshed
Turkish tan, everything be of sand.
One bouquet takes the place of success, happiness.
The one given me replaces love.
The courtyard faucets splash in bird-play.
Going and coming back they draw their curves,
glowing red in the cold
and now quietly mumbling white.
I carry the flowers out to the canal.
Everywhere something in a foreign tongue
is sold, recycled, sold,
purchased with differing currency
then left on café tables and balustrades.
Perhaps it is such half-objects
fully illuminated by summer
that hold together like a mouth
the hard sea, harder earth,
and what falls from our hands
along the way.
Bottle(s)
My poem Bottle(s) is now available at http://bijoupoetryreview.blogspot.com! Please check it out and let me know if you enjoy the new style!
2009 Pushcart Prize Nomination!!!
I just discovered my poem Flowers was nominated by The Shine Journal for the 2009 Pushcart Prize!!!
Monday, March 8, 2010
River Poems Anthology Out Today!
River Poems, a print anthology of poems about rivers published by Lilly Press, just came out today! Check it out, if desired! It contains one of my poems about the Danube, partially inspired from my experiences with it in Vienna and a conversation with a Hungarian man whose impression of it in his hometown was quite different...
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Logo for my new website!
So, my beautiful and talented girlfriend, Staci Cole, has created the above image as a future logo for my website: www.TheArtOfRaining.com. It's a multi-layered project involving a painting that was cut out, wrinkled for the appearance of age, set pop-up book style atop a painted background, and photographed. It's a perfect symbol of the site's theme. The Art of Raining. Whatever that line means to you as an individual, a wonderful conceptual image for it might involve a tree with roots of ink, with written pages caught in its limbs, raining ink, which could be tears, which could be rain. I'm very excited for the work she's done on this and the amazing creation! Next step, mastering web elements to design and launch the site. More news forthcoming!
Monday, March 1, 2010
New issue of November 3rd Club out!
The soft release for the new issue of The November 3rd Club is available online, with my political poem Common Enemies in it. Please check it out and let me know what you think. http://www.november3rdclub.com/2010/02-2010/poetry/williams.html
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