August 9th was National Book Lovers Day! This year, celebrate books and literature by checking out the latest news and essays from the VIDA Review. Happy reading!
VIDA News
The 2017 VIDA Count is in! Check out all the data collected from the 2017 VIDA Count. Read highlights, observations, and an introduction from Editor-In-Chief Amy King, Assistant Editor Sarah Clark, and the VIDA Board of Directors:
So, while the number of women and nonbinary people published in these top-tier publications may not yet be on our side, the number of us no longer willing to accept the normalcy of these frankly discriminating publishing practices is on our side.
And VIDAs, if need be, I trust that together we can burn this whole establishment to the ground and build something just and beautiful in its place.
-Amy King and Sarah Clark
CONT’D--http://www.vidaweb.org/the-2017-vida-count/
Congratulations to the VIDA writers who have been nominated for some wonderful honors! Check out these fantastic essays featured on the VIDA Review:
Best of the Net:
"The Authored Self," by Reema Zaman (http://www.vidaweb.org/the-authored-self/)
"An Ending," by Juliana Roth (http://www.vidaweb.org/an-ending/)
Best American Science and Nature Writing 2019:
"SPAM Stigma: An Open Letter to White People," by Ina Cariño (http://www.vidaweb.org/spam-stigma-an-open-letter-to-white-people/)
Best American Travel Writing 2019:
"Literacy Breaking the Cage," by Melat Mengistu (http://www.vidaweb.org/literacy-breaking-the-cage/)
#saferLIT
VIDA is pledging to help make 2018 a year of #saferLIT, and we ask that you pledge to do so, too. Take the pledge to help ensure that the literary community is as safe as possible, free from sexual misconduct of any kind. Pledge to not harass or abuse anyone. Pledge to not be a bystander. Pledge “to do more than just read and nod at this pledge, but to also actively engage in and encourage all of the above actions whenever necessary.” Check out the full pledge at http://www.vidaweb.org/saferlit/. For a guide for presses navigating the #MeToo era, check out the pledge for journals and presses. And remember to use the hashtag #safterLIT on social media to pledge to fight sexual misconduct.
VIDA Responds to Boston Review — Sign Your Name
After multiple women accused Junot Díaz, writer and fiction editor at Boston Review, of bullying and sexual misconduct, Editors-in-Chief Deborah Chasman and Joshua Cohen decided to keep Díaz on as fiction editor. However, the poetry editors, including VIDA’s own BK Fischer, announced they will step down from their roles in protest. VIDA responded to these reactions in solidarity with the poetry editors who stepped down in protest of a decision with which they did not agree. Please join VIDA in taking a stand and sign your name here if you believe institutions should be safe havens for the oppressed and not their oppressors. And if you haven’t already, take VIDA’s #saferLIT pledge, to encourage journals and presses to prioritize the safety and well-being of all members of our community.
VIDA Honored as Literary Advocates at the 2018 Authors Guild Foundation’s Annual Benefit
“Former Guild President Roxana Robinson presented the final award of the evening to VIDA: Women in Literary Arts. Amy King, Lynn Melnick, and Camille Rankine accepted on behalf of the organization. Rankine spoke about VIDA’s commitment to providing a platform for the voices of marginalized communities within the literary community and beyond. “It is essential that we make space for a multiplicity of voices to be heard within its realm—especially when there are many voices in our culture that we too often fail to recognize as valid, and too many whose humanity we fail to comprehend.””
CONT’D--http://www.vidaweb.org/vida-honored-as-literary-advocates-at-the-2018-authors-guild-foundations-annual-benefit/
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What The Voices Of Bettering American Poetry Are Saying…
최 Lindsay
Check out what 최 Lindsay has been reading lately. 최 Lindsay shares the pieces that inspired their poem in Bettering American Poetry Volume 2. While these inspirations come in various media, 최 Lindsay says, ““PH(R)ASE” has mostly literary influences. The simplest description I can give of it is that it’s a piece of writing about reading and listening. But when I was writing “PH(R)ASE,” I was going through a period of time where I would turn on random Korean TV shows and radio programs and play them in the background while I wrote, to keep myself suspended in a state of code-switching—this space of mostly sonic and emotional association that opens for me when I’m trying to think very rapidly between languages.”
- 최 Lindsay
CONT’D--http://www.vidaweb.org/voices-of-bettering-american-poetry-volume-2-%EC%B5%9C-lindsay/
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Reports From The Field
Zero Tolerance, An Open Letter from Jewish Writers about U.S. Immigration Policy
And so we have decided to institute our own zero-tolerance policy: zero-tolerance for the U.S. government’s disregard for human rights and barbaric treatment of immigrants. And we call on all those who were shocked and appalled by the separation of children from their families to implement such a zero-tolerance strategy as well, and to continue to protest – actively and vocally – Trump’s cruel and perverse policies.
-Richard Zimler
CONT’D--http://www.vidaweb.org/report-from-the-field-zero-tolerance-an-open-letter-from-jewish-writers-about-u-s-immigration-policy/
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The Permission to Reveal
I was waiting for another person to come out first, someone else to expose him so I could follow in kind, a student or a person with a more traditional imbalance of power to set his abuse in clear, unequivocal terms.
But, I realized, it was time for a new erasure, one that chiseled away at the powerlessness men had convinced me my words and body had, and to carve out a new one.
-Addie Tsai
CONT’D--http://www.vidaweb.org/report-from-the-field-the-permission-to-reveal/
~~~~~
Body Of A Poem
Neither Here nor There, Asexual and Agender in the Literary World
As an aromantic, asexual, and agender (all part of the “A” in LGBTQIA) person in the literary world, I often feel like Data—on trial. I must prove I have a right to exist in my field and literary community, where many place sex and desire at the center of their work and worldview and see my existence as a threat to both. I must prove that I comply with the rules of literary sentience. My inclusion, employment, and publication depend on it.
-Janice Worthen
CONT’D--http://www.vidaweb.org/body-of-a-poem-neither-here-nor-there-asexual-and-agender-in-the-literary-world/
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Passing: A Hybrid Form
Someone tells the nonbinary twenty-something they cannot be something in between.
The nonbinary twenty-something does not feel in between. They don’t feel
underneath or
beside.
They do not know the rules
they have somehow overstepped.
-Jennie Frost
CONT’D--http://www.vidaweb.org/body-of-a-poem-passing-a-hybrid-form/
~~~~~
VIDA Review Features
Karaoke with Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un
It was not until many years later that I came to realize my differences, not only as an introvert, but also as the child of immigrants whose customs and references were fundamentally disparate from the dominant culture. Yes, there was the shrill Chinese opera blaring from the stereo, the rice (so much of it, all day long), and the red envelopes celebrating the new year—but there were also the alien landscape of small talk at the dinner table when spending the night at friends’ houses, the default passivity relegating me to the back of the line while classmates freely asserted their desires, and the strange amputation of my own history, a result of my family’s reluctance to talk about the past. Watching Chinese soap operas and martial arts films, I plugged myself into these narratives that gave me something Western storytelling couldn’t, as I imagined these stories as mine, attaching them like phantom limbs onto my body.
-Sarah Wang
CONT’D--http://www.vidaweb.org/karaoke-with-supreme-leader-kim-jong-un/
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VIDA Reviews
Monster Portraits by Sofia Samatar & Del Samatar — Inclusion as Key to Renewal
Reviewed by Kelly Lydick
These are not portraits merely of monsters, these are portraits of people, regardless of whether they are fictional or real. That is, if we think of other as “other” instead of another equal, the result can be, especially out of fear, “monster.”
But when these monsters are humanized, then what we have is just another person—not other, not fear, not different. And the narratives that accompany these portraits, while they may be evocative of myth or archetype, further support the normalization of the people portrayed within this work’s pages.
- Kelly Lydick
CONT’D--http://www.vidaweb.org/vida-reviews-monster-portraits-by-sofia-samatar-del-samatar-inclusion-as-key-to-renewal/
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CALL: AWP Panel Adaptations
Did your AWP panel get turned down? VIDA Review is seeking to publish adaptations of panel proposals with an intersectional feminist bent, including dis lit, queer & trans lit, and panels that center people of color in writing, editing, & publishing. Please send pitches to Sarah Clark at [log in to unmask]
CALL For VIDA Review Reviews!
VIDA Review is seeking more reviews like these! We love reviews and essays responding to work with an intersectional feminist bent, by women, non-binary people, and gender minorities. We want to highlight and discuss critical and personal experiences with books, magazines, journals, reading venues, publishers, literary scenes, other reviews, or any space you wish to bring attention to. We are also interested in reviews and pieces responding to existing criticism, interrogating how industry and societal bias may have shaped the reception of work by women and gender minorities. Please submit all pitches and essays to Sarah Clark at [log in to unmask]
CALL: How have Scandals in the Lit World Affected Literary Practices?
We are looking for essays by writers, editors, and publishers on how your work has been impacted by literary scandals. From presses shuttered by outed abusers, sexual harassment in MFAs, to racist comments by publishers, what are the social and economic costs of misbehavior in the lit world? What responsibilities to writers, editors, and publishers have in responding to and negotiating literary scandals? What are the ripple effects of misconduct in the literary world? What happens when a literary “scandal” fades with time? Please submit all pitches and essays to Marcelle Heath at [log in to unmask]
CALL: Conferences, Feminism, & Your Limitless Self:
Did you rock AWP, Split This Rock, or other conferences with a panel about intersectional feminism in 2018? Or get turned down? Writing a proposal for 2019? VIDA Review would love to consider publishing adaptations of both panels that were turned down as well as accepted. Let's make sure your message gets out into the world, unbound from the constraints of any conferences. We're especially interested in panels that address intersections of indigeneity, race, disability, transness, and panels that talk about how to make the publishing world a more equitable place. Please submit all pitches and adaptations to Sarah Clark at [log in to unmask]
CALL: The Erasure of Women and LBGTQIA Literary Gatekeepers.
In light of Brigid Hughes erasure as editor of The Paris Review, we are looking for essays examine the erasure of women and LBGTQIA gatekeepers in the literary world, including works by and or about gatekeepers whose work has been undermined and/or dismantled by institutional structures; how the omission of women and LBGTQIA gatekeepers intersect with the law; historical revisionism and education; activism and community response to these erasures; and other topics that pertain to the ways in which women and LBGTQIA literary gatekeepers have faced social, economic, and political exclusionary practices.
Thank you for supporting VIDA Review and the voices we publish!
Amy King
VIDA: Women in Literary Arts
http://www.vidaweb.org/category/vida-review/
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* VIDA: Women in Literary Arts - http://www.vidaweb.org/
* Twitter @amyhappens
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