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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Dear All,<br>
<br>
In order to access the AWP Job List, you're welcome to use my user I.D. and
password: <b><span style='font-weight:bold'>MSimon92521</span></b> and <b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>3477</span></b>.<br>
<br>
See AWP announcements below, plus the diatribe from John Barr, the President of
the Poetry Foundation. Send him your humorous poems!<br>
<br>
Welcome to all our incoming MFA students!<br>
<br>
Best wishes,<br>
</span></font>Maurya Simon<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
</p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Dear AWP Member,<br>
<br>
There are new job listings available on AWP eLink! To view the new<br>
positions, visit <a href="http://www.awpwriter.org. /" eudora=autourl>www.awpwriter.org.
</a>Your user name and password are<br>
included at the end of this email.<br>
<br>
A new online issue of the Job List is published the first week of every<br>
monthtwelve online issues a year on AWP eLink. We will add new jobs, the<br>
same week we receive them, to the monthly issues on eLink.<br>
<br>
If you have any questions about AWP eLink, please contact our membership<br>
services department at (703) 993-4301, or email services@awpwriter.org.<br>
<br>
<br>
AWP 2007 CONFERENCE & BOOKFAIR IN </span></font>ATLANTA!<br>
<br>
Registration for AWP¹s 2007 Conference is open! AWP¹s 2007 Conference &<br>
Bookfair will take place February 28March 3, 2007, at the Hilton Atlanta.<br>
AWP¹s 2007 Conference will offer over 300 events, with presentations from<br>
Barbara Kingsolver, Lee Smith, C.D. Wright, John Barth, Michael Martone,<br>
Anne Beattie, Charles Wright, Kay Gibbons, Terrance Hayes, Elizabeth<br>
Spencer, Les Murray, Tayari Jones, Coleman Barks, and many others. For more<br>
information, visit us online at:<br>
<a href="http://www.awpwriter.org/conference/2007headliners.php"
eudora=autourl>http://www.awpwriter.org/conference/2007headliners.php</a><br>
<br>
To register today and receive AWP¹s Early-bird registration rates visit us<br>
ONLINE: <a href="http://storefront.awpwriter.org/" eudora=autourl>http://storefront.awpwriter.org/</a><br>
<br>
Or to register by phone you may contact us at 703-993-4301!<br>
<br>
Book your hotel room today. This year, the Hilton Atlanta, our official<br>
Conference site hotel, is offering a discount rate of $139 a night, for<br>
single or double occupancy rooms. AWP's Conference hotels typically sell out<br>
of rooms months in advance; so reserve your room soon to avoid<br>
disappointment. To make your reservations today, please visit our online<br>
Hotel & Travel page: <a
href="http://www.awpwriter.org/conference/2007hoteltravel.php" eudora=autourl>http://www.awpwriter.org/conference/2007hoteltravel.php</a><br>
<br>
Discount travel through Northwest airlines will be available shortly.<br>
<br>
<br>
AWP ELECTIONS<br>
<br>
The individual members of AWP will elect, this fall, two candidates to<br>
represent the needs of individual writers and teachers on the AWP Board of<br>
Directors. To stand for election, a member of AWP must be nominated and<br>
seconded by other members of AWP. Letters of nomination and seconds must be<br>
signed hard copies, sent to AWP via U.S. postal service or another courier.<br>
Letters of nomination and seconds must be received by AWP no later than<br>
Friday, October 6th, 2006. Please see AWP eLink for more information. Go to:<br>
AWP eLink > AWP News > Governance.<br>
<br>
GEORGE GARRETT AWARD<br>
<br>
September 16th is the deadline for submitting letters to AWP to nominate<br>
your favorite literary mover and shaker for the George Garrett Award for<br>
Outstanding Community Service in Literature. Please visit our Web site for<br>
criteria by which the AWP Board of Directors selects the annual recipient of<br>
the award.<br>
<br>
PRESIDENT OF POETRY FOUNDATION IMPLIES THAT MFA GRADS ARE REMOTE, DULL,<br>
MOROSE, ARTISTICALLY IMPAIRED, SPIRITUALLY STAGNANT, AND POLITICALLY INERT<br>
CARRERISTS AND MONOMANIACS<br>
<br>
The following excerpt is from the September, 2006 issue of POETRY,<br>
''American Poetry in the New Century,'' by John Barr, President of the<br>
Poetry Foundation and investment banker for SG Barr Devlin:<br>
<br>
''More than a decade ago, Dana Gioia recognized
poetry's disjunction<br>
from public life, in his seminal essay, Can Poetry Matter?¹ The question<br>
still pertains. Lacking a general audience, poets still write for one<br>
another. (Witness the growth of writing workshops and the MFA program.)<br>
Because the book-buying public does not buy their work, at least not in<br>
commercial quantities, they cannot support themselves as writers. So they<br>
teach. But an academic life removes them yet further from a general<br>
audience. Each year, MFA programs graduate thousand of students who have<br>
been trained to think of poetry as a career, and to think poetry has<br>
something to do with credentials. The effect of these programs on the art<br>
form is to increase the abundance of poetry, but to limit its variety. The<br>
result is a poetry that is neither robust, resonant, nor---and I stress this<br>
quality---entertaining; a poetry that both starves and flourishes on<br>
academic subsides.<br>
<br>
''Not surprisingly, poetry has a morale problem. A few
years ago I read<br>
a review, in the Sunday Times, of three books of poetry. One was about the<br>
agonies of old age, one about bombed-out Ireland, one about the poet's dead<br>
father. The question arises: how does one rouse an entire art form out of a<br>
bad mood? Of course the tragic has a place in poetry. Indeed one of poetry's<br>
jobs is to descant on the worst that life can hand us. As Yeats said, let<br>
'soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing / For every tatter in its<br>
mortal dress.' But art should not be only about malfunction. Poetry need not<br>
come only from impairment. To the extent it does, it makes for a poetry that<br>
is monotonic---mono-moodic, if you will. . . . Poetry's limitations today<br>
come not from failures of craft (the MFA programs attend to that) but from<br>
afflictions of spirit. American poetry has yet to produce its Mark Twain.<br>
<br>
''The combined effects of public neglect and
careerism, then, are<br>
intellectual and spiritual stagnation in the art form. Although poets pride<br>
themselves on their independence, when did you last read a poem whose<br>
political vision truly surprised or challenged you? Attitude has replaced<br>
intellect.''<br>
<br>
Clearly, Mr. Barr needs some cheering up. Send your favorite, humorous<br>
contemporary poem to: The President, Poetry Foundation, 444 North Michigan<br>
Ave., Suite 1850, Chicago, IL 60611.<br>
<br>
Thank you for supporting AWP.<br>
<br>
YOUR USER NAME IS: MSimon92521<br>
YOUR PASSWORD IS: 3477<br>
YOUR MEMBERSHIP EXPIRES ON: 9/2/2007</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>
</span></font>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 </p>
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