– Events kick off on Saturday at 4 PM with The Magathon at the New York Public Library (main branch: Fifth Ave @ 42nd Street). For 2.5 hours, a number of journal editors will present favorite selections from their latest issues.

– Then on Sunday from noon to 5, get your discounted periodical fix at the 11th Annual Literary Magazine Fair (also known as the Giant Lit Mag Fair) at Housing Works Bookstore Café (126 Crosby St.). Hundreds of mags will be marked down…some by more than 50%! Meet the editors and learn more about the staggering variety of literary magazines/journals seeking new work and new readers.

If you can’t make it next weekend but want to learn more about what lit journals are out there–and what they’re looking for–the CLMP is currently offering its annually updated Literary Press and Magazine Directory for only $20.

Stairway in the Old American Can Factory / photo from http://www.xoprojects.com/

Are you currently weighing the benefits of an MFA? If you heard Michael Chabon’s take on MFA programs in his amazing AWP keynote, you’re probably hitchhiking to UC Irvine, a typewriter strapped to your heart — but even so, you might be wrestling with important questions like these:

• Will an advanced degree help you with your particular goals as a writer — and if so, when is the right time to go?
• How important is full or partial funding? What about opportunities to teach or work on a journal?
• What are program directors and committees looking for in MFA students, and how can you make your application sing?

This summer from July 25-30, One Story’s associate editor, Marie-Helene Bertino, will be offering a six-day writing workshop centered around addressing such questions, as well as on honing a workshopped portfolio — one usable as a writing sample for applications. The workshop will be held in Brooklyn’s The Old American Can Factory, the curated arts space in Gowanus where One Story keeps its offices.

Via One Story:

The week will include morning workshops, afternoon craft lectures, and evening panels with writers, editors, agents, and MFA directors. All events are designed to give students the practical advice they need to either apply for an MFA or launch their career outside of academia.

Students will leave with:

• A workshopped portfolio they can use as their writing sample
• Advice from MFA directors about what they look for in an applicant
• A full understanding of the range of MFA and non-MFA options
• Insight about what an MFA can offer a writer
• A breakdown of the financial implications of an MFA
• An introduction to a community of writers at the same stage of their career
• Access to One Story editors and writers
• A look at the wider publishing world from established agents, editors, and writers

The application period is open between now and May 31. Learn more on One Story’s website.

Thursday, April 8
10:30 – 11:45 a.m.
Rooms 102, 104
Colorado Convention Center, Street Level

R124. Bollywood, Bullets, and Beyond: The Poetry of South Asian America. (Featuring: Summi Kaipa, Pireeni Sundaralingam, Ravi Shankar, Bhanu Kapil, Subhashini Kaligotla and Monica Ferrell) What do a sestina, 9/11, and Amitabh Bachchan have in common? Popular, political, and poetic themes all appear in Indivisible (University of Arkansas Press, 2010), the first anthology of contemporary South Asian American poetry. The collection features emerging and established poets who can trace their ethnic heritages to Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Six extraordinary writers from this collection read from their work.

Thursday, April 8
12:00 – 1:15
Granite Room
Hyatt Regency Denver, 3rd Floor

R168. The Soul and The Machine: Teaching Creative Writing through Technology. (Laura Valeri, David Rothman, Kathryn Winograd, Steven Wingate) This panel explores the complexities of teaching prose and poetry with online technologies and social media. New medias offer us practical advantages, but also present technical and pedagogical challenges involving privacy, censorship, copyright, and other issues we are only beginning to understand. Creative writing professors share their lessons adapting Podcasts, Wikis, Videos, Facebook, online course platforms, and other sundry tools to graduate and undergraduate creative writing classes.

Margaret Lazarus Dean: photo credit Joe Vaughn

Friday, April 9
9:00 – 10:15
Rooms 401, 402
Colorado Convention Center, Street Level

F119. The Place of Place: Crafting Place as Character in Fiction. (Sejal Shah, Margaret Lazarus Dean, Geeta Kothari, Michael Byers, Jesmyn Ward) It’s a commonplace notion that setting can be so central to fiction that the landscape can become a character—even a central character. But how, in craft terms, does it come to pass that place can inhabit fiction as much as fiction inhabits place? Five fiction writers will discuss their approaches to writing place—both urban and rural—in their works, drawing on settings as diverse as Bombay, the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Upstate New York, Cape Canaveral, Washington State, and the American Midwest.

Friday, April 8
9:00 – 10:15
Room 111
Colorado Convention Center, Street Level

F108. To West or Not to West. (Jenny Shank, Marilyn Krysl, Steven Wingate, Laura Pritchett, Robert Garner McBrearty, Janis Hallowell) Fiction writers in the West inevitably find themselves face to face with two forces: the region’s role in America’s cultural mythos and the shadow of “the Western” as a genre in fiction and film. Many authors with roots in the West do not write “western” fiction, yet they feel their aesthetics and subject matter being influenced by the life of the region. This panel will explore the variety of ways Colorado fiction writers respond to the West at a time when the region’s identity is shifting.

Margaret Lazarus Dean: photo credit Joe Vaughn

Friday, April 9
3-4:15pm
Room 108
Colorado Convention Center, Street Level

F196. From MFA Thesis to First Novel—Five Writers Share Their Stories. (Sheila O’Connor, Geoff Herbach, Nami Mun, Valerie Laken, Patti Frazee, Margaret Lazarus Dean) Is the MFA thesis an end or a beginning? How do we know if our thesis project is a viable book or an early draft that still requires radical revision? For books that need revision, how do writers practice the necessary discipline novels require over the long haul? How do emerging writers secure agents and publishers for that first book? Focusing on the challenges and triumphs of seeing theses projects into print, five first- time novelists will share their diverse writing and publishing experiences.

Saturday, April 10
10:30 – 11:45 a.m.
Room 201
Colorado Convention Center, Street Level

S132. Re-writing America: Complicating the Poetics of Identity. (Featuring Hayan Charara, Samantha Thornhill, Ching-In Chen, Tim Hernandez, Summi Kaipa. Moderated by Neelanjana Banerjee.) Even as the minority surges towards the majority in making up the New America, poets seek out the nurturing spaces of ethno-literary organizations like Kundiman and Cave Canem. Popular ethnic-specific anthologies are being published each year. Yet the work coming out of these cultural boundaries is incredibly diverse in style and influence. This panel examines the ways in which hyphenated American poets are rethinking the concept of identity and, in turn, shaping the national zeitgeist.

FWR at AWP 2009 (holding my photo. I had pneumonia!)

AWP 2010 in Denver is just days away, and Fiction Writers Review will be there. Stop by our table at the bookfair, sign up for our mailing list, win loot from the FWR store, and check out our panel with the editors of Waccamaw, The Emerging Writers Network/Dzanc, and storySouth on Saturday from noon to 1:15 (Granite Room: Hyatt Regency, 3rd Floor):

S163. Evolution of the New Media: Online Literary Journals and Websites in 2010. (Dan Albergotti, Dan Wickett, Jeremiah Chamberlin, Terry Kennedy) This panel examines the evolution of online publishing and literary promotion via digital media in the 21st century. Dan Wickett and Jeremiah Chamberlin will discuss ways their sites have developed an extended literary community for emerging writers, while Dan Albergotti and Terry Kennedy will address how aesthetics of online journal design and presentation have evolved in recent years.

Denver-based writers: even if you’re not registered, the bookfair is FREE and open to the public on the last day of the conference (Saturday, April 10).

We hope to see many of you soon!

Next Monday, March 22, at 7:30 PM, Brooklyn’s Greenlight Bookstore continues their Blogger/Author Pairings series, wherein lit bloggers host and talk with authors whose books they love, and the authors read from their work. Next up is Brooklyn’s own blogger/critic Maud Newton (of MaudNewton.com, one of the finest lit blogs, exclamation point) and award-winning author Victor LaValle, whose work has drawn comparisons to the likes of Ralph Ellison, Shirley Jackson, and Thomas Pyncheon, and whose novel (of the same title) inspired Mos Def’s The Ecstatic. LaValle will read from and discuss his new novel Big Machine, which Greenlight’s newsletter describes as “the story of a middle-aged hustler inducted into a band of paranormal investigators.” New York-based readers can RSVP on Facebook or just show up. Greenlight is located at 686 Fulton Street, Brooklyn.

I love this idea of organizing blogger/author pairings at a local indie bookstore; inviting a respected blogger who loves a particular book to join that book’s author offline, in a face-to-face dialogue with readers, affords a rare opportunity for publicity and community: a chance to support books, bookstores, and lit blogs all at once. Is this kind of event happening throughout the country? Because it should be!

If you could host and talk with any author, at any bookstore, who would you introduce, and where would it be?

Benjamin Percy, author of The Language of Elk and Refresh, Refresh. Photo Credit: Jennifer May

New York readers, ring in the New Year with a month of Monday readings to celebrate The Paris Review’s iconic interview series. Starting this Monday, January 4th, the Barnes and Noble flagship store at 86th and Lexington, in New York City, will host a month-long series of interviews showcasing authors, artists, and editors discussing writers, writing, and the writing life. The first event will feature Benjamin Percy–one of our favorite authors here at FWR–who will be interviewing Carol Sklenicka about her recent biography of Raymond Carver.

Here is the schedule of the events:

Monday, January 4th at 7:00pm:
Benjamin Percy, 2007 recipient of The Paris Review’s Plimpton Prize and author of Refresh, Refresh will interview Carol Sklenicka, author of the recent Raymond Carver biography, A Writer’s Life.

Monday, January 11th at 7:00pm:
Philip Gourevitch, Editor of The Paris Review and author of The Ballad of Abu Ghraib will interview Richard Price, author of Lush Life and Clockers, among other classics of American urban fiction.

Monday, January 18th at 7:00pm:
Frank Rich, Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times will interview America’s premiere composer and lyricist, Stephen Sondheim.

Monday, January 25th at 7:00pm:
Nathaniel Rich, Senior Editor of The Paris Review and author of The Mayor’s Tongue, will interview Paul Auster, author of, most recently, Invisible.

Order Your Copy of Volume IV of The Paris Review Interviews

For a (still-growing) list of events–readings, signings, meals, lectures, discussions, book launch parties, a master class, a midnight costume party, and more–visit the NYCIB’s website.

This double-launch party at Unnameable Books sounds particularly insane/intriguing:

November 17
MIDNIGHT

A never-before-seen, new publication from the posthumous Vladimir N.
AND
A we’ve-seen-it-all-before, new publication from the maverick Sarah P.

THE ORIGINAL OF LAURA by V. Nabokov & GOING ROGUE by S. Palin

Dress as your favorite character from either book.

We will attempt to perform a simultaneous (marathon?) reading of both.

Orhan Pamuk / photo by Elena Seibert

Boston-area FWR readers, check out the Boston Book Festival THIS Saturday, October 24, 10:00 am to 6:00 pm at Copley Square. The festival features readings, lectures, and discussions such as:

• Keynote speaker Orhan Pamuk
• “Ties That Bind”: novelists Richard Russo, Michael Thomas, and Elinor Lipman on the family in fiction
• John Hodgman interviewed by Tom Perrotta
• “Book Worms and Net Crawlers”: thoughts on “the ubiquitous internet and the explosion of social media” by authors Ben Mezrich and Ethan Gilsdorf and New York Times technology columnist David Pogue. (Read the FWR review of Ethan’s book, Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks, here.)
• “Struggles in a Strange Land: The Power of Place,” a panel discussion with Anita Diamant, Anita Shreve, Elizabeth Nunez and Carolina De Robertis
• Free writing classes from Grub Street, Boston’s premier independent writing center

Click here for a full list of events and descriptions. There will also be lots of exhibitors, like 826Boston and One Story Magazine, with giveaways and goodies.

Admission is free and the festival happens rain or shine.

To celebrate Banned Books Week, The Wall Street Journal published an op-ed piece by Mitchell Muncy entitled “Finding Censorship Where There Is None,” which asserts that Banned Books Week is, basically, a time for overzealous First-Amendment freaks to flex their muscle. There’s no censorship in the U.S., Muncey insists, because

In the common-law tradition, censorship refers specifically to the government’s prior restraint on publication. None of the sponsors claim this has happened; the acts they have in mind are perpetrated by private citizens.

Moreover, Muncy claims, no books are banned in the U.S., either, because you can still find them somewhere:

The problem of loose language aside, we can still ask whether books are banned in this country. The obvious answer is no, if banned means something like “made dangerous or difficult for the average person to obtain.” Many books that have drawn critics’ attention have been best sellers (the Harry Potter books and Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” trilogy), classics (”The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and “To Kill a Mockingbird”), or the work of acclaimed authors (Toni Morrison and Margaret Atwood). If a book isn’t available at one library or bookstore, it’s certainly available at another.

In fact, according to Muncy, the ALA is making a big fuss over nothing, because despite the number of complaints, very few books are actually removed from libraries:

In only 10% of the 186 cases on the map was a book permanently removed from a library. (If we add books removed from individual classrooms, we reach 16%.) If the criterion of book banning is that a book be banned—anywhere—the incidence of censorship drops about 90%. The ALA grants on its Web site that “most of the books featured during [Banned Books Week] were not banned.

Moreover, to read the ALA’s own accounts, the petitioners, losing nearly six times out of seven, accepted the adverse judgments peaceably. Those “who live in fear of discourse,” as the Manifesto has it, were evidently satisfied with the opportunity to make their case. For the ALA, what makes them censors is that they spoke up at all: “True” patriots, presumably, would have kept quiet. Who, then, is afraid of discourse?

Muncy concludes that Banned Books Week is really something much more sinister:

The ALA repeatedly emphasizes that public and school libraries are “government bodies.” Is Banned Books Week a celebration of free speech, or is it a way for government employees to bully ordinary citizens by stigmatizing those who complain (”bigots,” “false patriots,” “screamers,” “burners”)? They clearly hope future challenges simply won’t be brought. Does that make Banned Books Week an attempt at prior restraint on speech by the government—an act of censorship?

You read that right: Muncy is suggesting that Banned Books Week is an act of censorship. Unfortunately for his conclusion, he is completely off-target at every point.

First, the common understanding of “censorship” involves the suppression of objectionable content–the government need not be involved. (If it didn’t make me feel like a seventh-grader, I’d say “Webster’s Dictionary defines censorship as…”) Second, the purpose of Banned Books Week, according to the ALA, is to “[spotlight] actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States.” Muncy seems to feel that a 10% success rate in book banning is negligible; one wonders how high the percentage needs to be in order to be significant. Regardless, saying that attempted bannings don’t matter simply because the books weren’t ultimately banned is a little like saying that attempted murders aren’t a problem because the victims all survived–or that attempted terrorist attacks aren’t anything to worry about because they didn’t succeed.

And here’s the biggest problem with Muncy’s argument: he doesn’t seem to understand the fundamental difference between those who want to ban books and those who don’t want them banned. He appears to think that outright demands to ban books are rational forms of discussion. But in fact, would-be banners are not just people who “speak up” or who “complain.” They are not people who say, “Hey, we aren’t crazy about this book–can we talk about it?” Instead, they want to remove these books from libraries, prohibit them from bookstores, and sometimes even prevent them from being published. Because they do not approve of the content of the books, they feel that no one should be allowed to read them. Simply put, the would-be banners believe that some books do not deserve to exist.

On the other hand, the ALA and those who oppose bannings believe that all books deserve to exist. If you disapprove of those books, you may choose not to read them, but you do not have the right to prevent other people from reading them. In other words, your right to censor stops at the other reader’s eyes. “Intellectual freedom—the freedom to access information and express ideas, even if the information and ideas might be considered unorthodox or unpopular—provides the foundation for Banned Books Week,” says the ALA website. “BBW stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints for all who wish to read and access them“–my emphasis.

The ALA, Muncy sniffs, “clearly hope[s] future challenges simply won’t be brought.” Exactly. Because those challenges are attempts by some to decide what everyone else should and shouldn’t be allowed to read. That’s not discourse, despite Muncy’s attempt to cast the would-be banners as bullied victims. That’s censorship. That’s the opposite of intellectual freedom. In an ideal world, yes, there would be no calls for banning books–because everyone would respect others’ rights to read whatever books they chose.

According to his byline, Muncy is chief operating officer of the Institute for American Values (IAV)–a socially conservative organization that is vehemently pro- “traditional” marriage. Others affiliated with the IAV have written articles warning of the alleged dangers of cohabitation and criticizing couples who write their own marriage vows instead of using traditional vows. So perhaps it should be no surprise that Muncy–a prominent member of an organization devoted to telling people the “right” and “wrong” ways to live their lives–so strongly supports the would-be banners of books–i.e., censors who want to tell people the “right” and “wrong” books to read.

With all that said, though, I don’t begrudge Muncy his essay. I disagree with him almost completely, but he has the right to express his viewpoint. The same intellectual freedom that Muncy seems to value so little allows him that right. And those who disagree with him can choose not to read him, or to respond to him as I’ve attempted to do here. That’s discourse. That’s intellectual freedom. And that’s why Banned Books Week is important.

Thanks to The Millions for pointing out this op-ed.

At 3:45 on the Salon Stage, be sure to attend the 2009 Emerging Voices reading; presented by PEN USA, it will feature Erika Ayon, John Boucher, Rachelle Cruz, Thi Dao, Parnaz Foroutan, Syliva Sukop, Marissa Tinloy, and Mehnaz Turner reading poetry, stories and non-fiction. (Via Mediobistro: “Emerging Voices is a literary mentorship program designed to launch potential professional writers from underserved communities.”)

For more information and a full schedule of events, visit the fair’s website.