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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=navy face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:navy'>FYI</span></font><br>
<br>
<br>
</p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Organization: Summer Literary Seminars<br>
Reply-To: kenya@sumlitsem.org<br>
From: "Thomas Burke" <kenya@sumlitsem.org><br>
To: <maurya.simon@ucr.edu><br>
Subject: SLS: </span></font>Literature, Russia and Kenya<br>
<br>
Dear people on the Summer Literary Seminars (St. Petersburg,
Russia/Nairobi-Lamu, Kenya) mailing list – friends and friends of friends
of the program, SLS participants past and future, writers, poets, lovers
of literature – <br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
This is a mid-season program update. The St. Petersburg-06 SLS session has just
come to a close. It was our largest (almost 120 participants, more than twenty
faculty members) and, in all senses of the word, most successful program to
date. This year we added to the list of our offerings the first SLS Russian
Workshop, comprised of 17 talented young Russian writers and poets and led by
the internationally renowned author Sergey Gandlevsky – one of <?xml:namespace
prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
/>Russia's most prominent poets and novelists. We intend to expand the scope
and further variegate the nature of the Russian Workshop in 2007, deepening its
ties with the "main" program – thereby, hopefully, facilitating
a greater degree of artistic exchange and creative cooperation between the
writers and poets living on different continents. Currently in development is
the idea of an SLS-organized Russian literary contest whose winners will have
the opportunity to present their work to North American literary audiences and
participate in the SLS program in Kenya. We are also thinking of the new ways
to present the work by the talented young American writers to the reading
public in Russia. More on this – in our future updates and on the SLS
website: <a href="http://www.sumlitsem.org/">www.sumlitsem.org</a>.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
SLS-Kenya: for the next few months, it will become the primary focus of our
attention. This year, the program will be held between December 14-28 –
and it will be a vibrantly fascinating and ground-breaking one, too: the only
literary conference of such kind in sub-Saharan Africa. Organized in
affiliation with our old friend and partner in Kenya, the Kwani? literary
magazine and trust, it will feature an international faculty made up of some of
the leading North American and African writers – and an equally eclectic
and diverse cast of North American and local participants. It will be an
unforgettable two weeks on the equator. The hallmark of the SLS-Kenya program
is that special closeness of creative spirit and literary interests which
enables writers reared in starkly dissimilar cultures instantly to develop
strong artistic bonds and, often, commence to work on joint literary projects. <br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
As for the immense visual richness and emotional intensity of East Africa, the
frenetic excitement of Nairobi, the boundless solitary vistas of the great Rift
Valley, the shimmering Indian Ocean coast, the dizzying timelessness of the Old
Lamu town – we won't even attempt to describe any of that… Kenya is
one of those rare places in the world one has to see with one's own eyes just
in order to believe that it exists…<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Currently SLS is accepting submissions for its Kenya-06 Literary Contest, held
jointly with the Maisonneuve (Canada) and Tin House (USA) magazines. The
complete contest guidelines can be found on the SLS-Kenya website: <a
href="http://www.sumlitsem.org/kenya">www.sumlitsem.org/kenya</a>. Winning
entries will be published in Tin House (fiction and poetry; final judges
– magazine's editors) and Maisonneuve (non-fiction; final judge Phillip
Lopate); first prize winners will also receive all-expense-paid trips to Kenya
with the SLS-06 program.<br>
<br>
(POSTMARK DEADLINE: September 15th)<br>
<br>
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> <br>
<br>
All the information about the SLS-Kenya program, along with the online
application form, can be found on the program website: <a
href="http://www.sumlitsem.org/kenya">www.sumlitsem.org/kenya</a>. <br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Interesting, exciting days and months await us. We look with optimism to the
future. And we look forward to hearing from you – and hopefully, seeing
some of you in the months and years to come, be it in Kenya or St. Petersburg,
or North America.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
All Very Best,<br>
<br>
Warmly,<br>
<br>
Summer Literary Seminars<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
As always, if you'd like to be removed from this mailing list, please hit reply
and type REMOVE as the subject.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
</p>
<p></x-sigsep><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><x-sigsep>Maurya
Simon<br>
<br>
Professor <br>
Department of Creative Writing<br>
University of California Riverside<br>
900 University Avenue<br>
Riverside, CA 92521-0318<br>
<br>
TEL. (951) 827-2006 (office)<br>
<br>
FAX: (951) 827-3619 </span></font></p>
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