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March 2014

Billy Ireland and Cartoons That Affect Change

by Richard Graham

Outside of basic intelligence, there is nothing more important to a good political cartoonist than ill will.
Jules Feiffer

If you can make a man laugh you can spit in his eye.
Billy Ireland

When we think about cartoons affecting change, we probably think of the most famous American editorial cartoonist, Thomas Nast - known for his successful campaign to bring down the corrupt politician William “Boss” Tweed of Tammany Hall. One of Nast’s most notorious cartoons portrayed a Tammany tiger mauling the symbol of Liberty in the Roman Coliseum, with Tweed as the Emperor Nero and the caption, “What are you going to do about it?” While this is a great example of a cartoon affecting change, recently I was reminded that there are many cartoons that exemplify the lasting power and influence of this supposedly “simple” medium.

Briefly Noted – March 2014

Monthly book reviews in brief from the staff of Prairie Schooner and associates

Monthly book reviews in brief from the staff of Prairie Schooner and associates.

Vol. 3 Issue 2. March 2014. Ed. James Madison Redd and Paul Clark.

Weeds: A Farm Daughter's Lament by Evelyn I. Funda | Reviewed by Jacqueline H. Harris Hide Island by Richard Burgin | Reviewed by Ted Wheeler Mira Corpora by Jeff Jackson | Reviewed by Jack Hill

The Border Between Sadness & Joy

by Ryan Van Winkle

When I met Adam Zagajewski I was humbled by both his work and his life story. Further − as we discuss below − he has an impressive list of accolades and awards which include the Bronze Cross of Merit, and he has twice received the Officer's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta. He has been the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and won the Neustadt International Prize for Literature. It is a joke among friends, says Polish publisher Jerzy Illg, “that Adam already won the Nobel Prize many years ago.” In the original podcast, you'll hear more about Zagajewski's work, but I wanted to share his thoughts on a how a poet deals with the (very rare) problem of recognition.

RVW: What resonates with me in much of your work is this vast, sad inner life, a loneliness that seems to come from a place of contentedness.

Lost Writer Wednesday

Margaret Haughawout
Margaret Haughawout

This post is part of our Lost Writer Wednesdays blog series, an eight-week series and companion to NETNebraska’s Lost Writers of the Plains radio programming. Each week, we’ll spotlight long-forgotten writers once published in the early days of Prairie Schooner. For the full multi-media experience, download the iBook in the iTunes store.

by Mina Holmes

How A Book Happens with Mark Brazaitis by Kristi Carter

Click below to listen to Mark Brazaitis read his story "The Bridge".
Mark Brazaitis

This is the fourth installment of our new series in which Kristi Carter, our Book Prize Coordinator, speaks with a variety of book prize winners to discuss what goes in to the preparation of a manuscript, how winning affects the life of the writer, and the life of the book.

To submit your fiction or poetry manuscript to this year's Prairie Schooner Book Prize contest, click here.

Today, we're featuring her interview with Mark Brazaitis who won the 2012 Richard Sullivan Prize in Short Fiction, for his fifth book, The Incurables.

How many times was the manuscript submitted for contests and publication? Were there any exciting milestones prior to winning the Richard Sullivan Prize in Short Fiction?

So You Wanna Win A Book Prize? with R.A. Villanueva

R.A.Villanueva
Gearing up for the upcoming Prairie Schooner Book Prize deadline (March 15th, submit now!), we are reviving "So You Wanna Win A Book Prize?" for a one-off interview with 2013 Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry winner R.A. Villanueva. Enjoy!

 

1. You won the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry in 2013 for your collection Reliquaria, what were you doing when you heard the news that you had won? How did you feel?

Because its counter often becomes my satellite office, I was walking towards Ted & Honey, a small coffee place near our apartment. It was the start of the week. July.

There was a missed call from an unknown number. There was a voicemail that I had yet to check and, for some reason, instead of playing back that message, I cut straight to returning the call. When the voice at the other end picked up, he introduced himself as Kwame Dawes.

The Storyteller Firangi: An Interview with Professor Jonathan Gil Harris (Part 2)

by Nabina Das

In Part 2 of the interview with Jonathan Gil Harris, Professor of English at Ashoka University, we further catch up with Prof. Harris’ stories of early pre- and colonial European migrants to the Indian subcontinent. Were these individuals seen as pariahs or white messiahs? Who were the European leegstretchers and dervishes? Prof. Harris’ new book The First Firangis: How to Be Authentically Indian, to be published by Aleph Books soon, answers these questions. He is interested in early modern understandings of globalization and the foreign, and how these have helped shape our knowledge and experiences of bodies, disease, commerce, time, and religious difference. Apart from having authored several books, Prof. Harris is also the editor of Indography: Writing the “Indian” in Early Modern England (Palgrave, 2012).

How a Book Happens with Tomás Q. Morín by Kristi Carter

Click below to listen to Tomas Q. Morin read his poem "The Home Front".

This is the third installment of our new series in which Kristi Carter, our Book Prize Coordinator, speaks with book prize winners to discuss what goes in to the preparation of a manuscript, how winning affects the life of the writer, and the life of the book.

To submit your fiction or poetry manuscript to this year's Prairie Schooner Book Prize contest, click here.

Today, we're featuring her interview with Tomás Q. Morín who won the 2012 The American Poetry Review /Honickman First Book Prize in Poetry, for his first poetry collection A Larger Country.

How many times was the manuscript submitted for contests and publication? Were there any exciting milestones prior to winning the APR/Honickman First Book Prize?