Our good friends at Guernica Magazine, the magazine that Howard Zinn (!) has called an “extraordinary bouquet of stories, poems, social commentary, and art” and Esquire called a “great online literary magazine,” is having a party to celebrate their fifth anniversary. If you are in New York on October 28 this is where you are going to want to be.
It's quite impressive what Guernica has accomplished in just five years. Some highlights include E.C. Osondu’s story “Waiting,” originally published in Guernica, winning the 2009 Caine Prize, Africa’s leading literary award. A panel discussion on activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, part of the PEN World Voices Festival, was featured in the New York Times. In addition, the Guardian, Salon.com, The New Yorker and other publications have all written about Guernica on their blogs and in their pages.
(Full disclosure: I am Guernica's Blog Editor. That being said, the reason I wanted to be a part of Guernica was, and continues to be, because of the voice they add to the political and artistic conversation that goes on daily in the world. I am consistently impressed by the content that appears on the site and am glad to be a part of it.)
Here's the press release:
Guernica Magazine Celebrates Five Years
with Bash Featuring Jonathan Ames,
Brooklyn Lager, Music, Food, Prizes
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 14 – To celebrate five years of award-winning coverage of international arts and politics, Guernica Magazine is throwing a birthday party on Wednesday, October 28, at the powerHouse Arena in Brooklyn, NY. The Guernica at 5 benefit bash will feature a reading by author Jonathan Ames, the creator of HBO's Bored to Death, along with performances by a special musical guest. Partygoers will enjoy free food and drinks, including beer provided by Brooklyn Brewery, and will each receive a complimentary two-year subscription to Time Out New York.
Guernica at 5
Wednesday, October 28, 2009, 7-10 p.m.
powerHouse Arena, 37 Main Street, Brooklyn, NY
“Guernica has a strong tradition of hosting provocative and exciting cultural events, and Guernica at 5 promises to provide even more of the energy that our followers have come to expect from us,” explained co-founder Joel Whitney. Guernica’s popular monthly New York City salons have offered the opportunity for writers, readers, and artists to gather together to share drinks and opinions. Recent Guernica events include a live conversation between Mia Farrow and Bernard-Henri Lévy, a sold-out Hudson River cruise, and a discussion on activist Ken Saro-Wiwa which was featured in the New York Times.
Tickets to the Guernica at 5 can be purchased online through www.mycommunitytickets.com for $45. The first 50 ticket holders will be automatically entered in a raffle to see Andrew Bird perform in Philadelphia on October 25. Funds raised by the benefit will directly support Guernica's ongoing mission to expand the grass-roots international arts and literary community. Members of the Benefit Committee include Mia Farrow, Tom & Susan Chehak, Mark Dowie, Tim Gray, Howard Zinn, and Wendell Potter.
ABOUT THE MAGAZINE: Guernica was founded in 2004 and has grown into an indispensable forum for cultural conversation. It has sparked discussions about the environment; published great stories, poems, paintings, and photos from around the world; and weighed in on topics ranging from the crisis in Darfur to the Iraq war. The magazine has featured heads of state, Nobel Prize winners, literary stalwarts, lawmakers, filmmakers, salsa gods, and cabinet members.
MORE INFORMATION: To arrange for an interview, press passes, or publicity stills,
contact Robin Beth Schaer at guernicamag@gmail.com.
Showing posts with label Guernica Magazine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Guernica Magazine. Show all posts
7.15.2009
An Experiment in Web Serialization
Recently, a contributor to Guernica emailed me expressing some concern. I am "fed up with the old model of submitting my work to corporate publishing houses," Shya Scanlon wrote, "only to have them balk at the commercial prospects of literary, unorthodox fiction. So I'm trying another approach." Well, that approach begins tomorrow when Scanlon's "Forecast 42 Project" begins.
The approach to getting his novel Forecast into the world is an experiment in web serialization. Scanlon has brought on board 42 web sites--as he describes them, "a fine mixture of well-established literary journals, avid bloggers, and otherwise supportive literary-minded folk"--to publish Forecast in twice-weekly installments (Mondays and Thursdays). Beginning tomorrow with the journal Juked, Forecast will also be seen in 3:AM Magazine, Opium Magazine, and many others before it's final installment on Monkeybicycle.
Forecast is a literary novel that uses elements of science fiction and noir to tell the story of Helen--a suburban house wife of a lying weatherman--and Mawell--a Civilian Surveillant paid by the government to watch Helen--in a world where the weather has gone berserk and electricity is made out of negative human emotion.
Working in publishing, and specifically online publishing, the idea of how best to reach an audience who has so much to look at, listen to, and read is constantly at the forefront of one's mind. This is nothing new, I suppose, but given that online media is still relatively young there still exist huge opportunities for experimentation. It's exciting to see people playing with ways to use the tools at their disposal when publishing online.
So, I'll be watching Scanlon's experiment closely. And there's another aspect to Forecast 42 Project that I respect immensely. It is Scanlon's hope "that if you aren't familiar with [the participating online journals] already, you'll explore their rich offerings long after this project has concluded." As the founding editor of one online magazine and the blog editor of another, I'm a fan of any project that attempts to shine some light on 42 of these "literary-minded folk."
To follow Scanlon's Forecast 42 Project:
1) follow his Twitter posts, @shyascanlon
2) befriend him at Facebook.com/shya.scanlon
3) continue to check this page, which will be updated with links to each chapter as it goes live
4) each chapter will link back to the previous chapter, and forward to the next once it's live, so I encourage you to use the participating sites themselves to navigate the novel. Click here for the full list of sites.
Photo: Courtesy of Matty Harper.
The approach to getting his novel Forecast into the world is an experiment in web serialization. Scanlon has brought on board 42 web sites--as he describes them, "a fine mixture of well-established literary journals, avid bloggers, and otherwise supportive literary-minded folk"--to publish Forecast in twice-weekly installments (Mondays and Thursdays). Beginning tomorrow with the journal Juked, Forecast will also be seen in 3:AM Magazine, Opium Magazine, and many others before it's final installment on Monkeybicycle.
Forecast is a literary novel that uses elements of science fiction and noir to tell the story of Helen--a suburban house wife of a lying weatherman--and Mawell--a Civilian Surveillant paid by the government to watch Helen--in a world where the weather has gone berserk and electricity is made out of negative human emotion.
Working in publishing, and specifically online publishing, the idea of how best to reach an audience who has so much to look at, listen to, and read is constantly at the forefront of one's mind. This is nothing new, I suppose, but given that online media is still relatively young there still exist huge opportunities for experimentation. It's exciting to see people playing with ways to use the tools at their disposal when publishing online.
So, I'll be watching Scanlon's experiment closely. And there's another aspect to Forecast 42 Project that I respect immensely. It is Scanlon's hope "that if you aren't familiar with [the participating online journals] already, you'll explore their rich offerings long after this project has concluded." As the founding editor of one online magazine and the blog editor of another, I'm a fan of any project that attempts to shine some light on 42 of these "literary-minded folk."
To follow Scanlon's Forecast 42 Project:
1) follow his Twitter posts, @shyascanlon
2) befriend him at Facebook.com/shya.scanlon
3) continue to check this page, which will be updated with links to each chapter as it goes live
4) each chapter will link back to the previous chapter, and forward to the next once it's live, so I encourage you to use the participating sites themselves to navigate the novel. Click here for the full list of sites.
Photo: Courtesy of Matty Harper.
4.27.2009
Guernica Magazine Sponsors a PEN World Voices Event
To all InDigest readers in New York: As part of the PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature, Guernica Magazine (where I am the blog editor) is cosponsoring the following event this Saturday, May 2 from 1-2:30pm. Hope to see you there.
May 2, 2009 | Standing Before History: Remembering Ken Saro-Wiwa
Introduction by Larry Siems, with Ken Wiwa, Richard North Patterson, with a reading by Steve Connell and Sekou; moderated by Okey Ndibe
On November 10, 1995, Nigeria’s military dictatorship hanged Ken Saro-Wiwa, one of the country’s most acclaimed and popular writers and the leader of a grassroots environmental movement in the oil-rich but impoverished Niger Delta. The region still seethes with unrest and many of the issues Saro-Wiwa gave his life to raise will be the subject of a lawsuit opening in New York this week against oil interests for complicity in his murder. Join Ken Wiwa Jr. and author Richard North Patterson for a discussion of Ken Saro-Wiwa's literary and political legacy, with readings from Saro-Wiwa’s work by Steve Connell and Sekou.
When: Saturday, May 2, 2009: 1–2:30 p.m.
Where: Elebash Recital Hall, CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue [directions]
Free and open to the public
Cosponsored by Guernica magazine and the Martin E. Segal Theatre, The Graduate Center, CUNY
1.22.2009
Our Friends at Guernica Magazine Praised by Esquire
Guernica Magazine, where I am the Blog Editor, got a little praise from Esquire for our fiction section. The Fiction section editor, Meakin Armstrong, has been published twice in InDigest and will be reading at our second InDigest 1207 on Feb. 4, along with Guernica's Poetry Editor, Erica Wright, who we've also published a couple times in InDigest.
Well played, Meakin.
Well played, Meakin.
9.08.2008
Arts & Politics
As we gear up for the release of Issue 8 I just thought I'd take a bit of my down time to point something out. If you aren't familiar with Guernica (or maybe it's InDigest that is the missing link for you) you should check it out. InDigest editor David Doody runs the BLOG>>> over there, and over the last few weeks I have been feverishly reading it. It's largely focused on the politics side of the magazines content (arts and politics), and there have been some fantastic essays over there from the guest bloggers. Some great stuff from Frederick Lane (who just ran an excerpt in InDigest's last issue) and Norman Solomon (and David himself) covering the election and the nomination of Sarah Palin. Some fantastic content lately, one of my current favorite blogs.
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