Ephemera Newsletter Iss Aug.4

(Creativity and Motivation Weekly)

Welcome to the Ephemera Newsletter, Ro mōttam! (Marshallese for “friends”)

A fourth and final expedited shortened issue basking in the poetry of Tara Zafft, Ephemera’s poet for the month of August! If you haven’t yet, please check out her artist statement and bio on this dedicated post. We thank you for your presence.

On to our standard content matters: Won’t you please check out last week’s issue if you missed it.

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In Brief…this week’s features:

• Briefly: quick thoughts on Barbara Kruger

• Listening to CiM’s Service Pack—a reissue 20 years in the making.

• July’s poet, Tara Zafft and her fourth of four poems, “Moons”

• Our weekly lists:

  • 3 magazines with open calls

  • 3 awards/prizes

  • 3 recent job listings for editors and writers.

EPHEMERA’S RESIDENCY:

• Good Contrivance Farm: Extended Deadline is Oct 1

“I often found myself walking around the farm in quiet contemplation taking in the beautiful landscape. During these walks, friendly dogs and a gentle cat became my ‘writing companions.’ Exploring nearby nature preserves and local shops further enriched my experience. …these combined experiences made it easy to write … it was one of the most productive writing weeks I've had in quite some time.”

—Monique Harris, Ephemera’s Good Contrivance Residency Winner from 2023

or

• More ephemera:

  • Interesante! Introducing ourselves to Ron Rash via an article in Gardens&Guns.

  • Book Recs,

    • Support us on Bookshop - See our past book recs and others. A highly curated list.

• Mini Essays

• Last Week’s Issue.

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Merci. Danke. Kiitos. 고마워 Go-ma-wo. Cảm ơn. Xiè xiè.

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Ephemera

Dear Readers,

Quickly! Quickly now. The summer is slipping away, washed like silt from the streets into the steams and rivulets usually running skinny now flowing full, away, away, out of our towns and cities and mostly toward the sea, sometimes disappearing underground, some places settling into reservoirs and lakes, filling the earth with our fragments—too much unnatural detritus these days. Trillions of pieces slipping away. Trillions of photon-moments daubing each angle we take, sight or sense. We’re always in the process of being painted, being washed away. Abraded and corrected and abraded yet still despite our daily creams and straight defiant spines or arced indoorsy postures surrounded by our anti-time-perception technologies: scrolls, notes, books, snippets, chaps, pens, pads, erasings, art, snacks, teas and coffee, crumpled hated draft trash in waste baskets. Fie! The season speeds up as the light lessens, and we’ll soon, if not already, have too much to do. Stay here, at your desk, in your nook or study. Don’t let the world move you off your focus.

Despite the busy season beginning, we’ve carved out our daily time, 1-2 hours per weekday with 4 hours on the weekends. Our immediate friends and family are on board. We were firm and explicit with setting our schedule and intentions, a behavior and way of being that had to be learned the difficult way, in the crucible of trial and error, work and art, family and individual time, private self versus public self. Intentions written and then discussed tend to help. Supportive partners and peers. We want everyone to find time. Complete your projects. Finish your starts. Muddle through your middles. Stay ambitious and working. Stay connected to art and inspiration. Stay being bright in the face of the incessant washing away.

Kamoolol!
(Gratitude)

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Poetry by Tara Zafft

Moons

Today we focus on moons, says
the dance teacher 

the bony underside of fingers and toes, stowed
like boxes of unused dishes
grown dusty with disuse 


like the details of a story no pen
can rewrite or 
thought

unthink

the mind has become unhelpful

today my daughter leaves my Mediterranean Sea
returns to her art and her skyscrapers
and her subway and my insides

morph into a black-hole-coldness
I hide with a smile 

and say,

baby, I love you
baby, I believe in you
baby, go live your best life

and today the teacher, not much older
than my daughter says,

luna, says
stretch into the small spaces between the bones

I try 
in the early overcast hours
to sketch
with fingers and toes
my way into something new.

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Or please join us as paid subscribers:

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Prizes/Awards/Stipends Winter ‘24

7.13 Books A publisher “for authors by authors” looking for fiction manuscripts. Long reading period. They’ve published several memorable titles and are reading for books to be published in 2023.  $5 Fee. Open Year Round.

Summer Tide Pool Prize from C&R Press pays $100 for 1-3 chapbooks per year in any genre. The press attracts new and established authors. They also have a number of other prizes and promote widely. $100 + copies. $20 fee. Deadline September 22.

• Extended Deadline: Oct 1

  • 1 and up to 2 applicants will be chosen after submissions close

  • 1-week on the farm per person (valued at ~$900)

  • $200 travel stipend

or

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Bookstore: Guides, Gifts & Classics

Please consider supporting our letter and literature by buying books. It helps us and others! Bookstore via Bookshop.

In combination with Ephemera’s sponsored residency at Good Contrivance Farm, we want to highlight our book rec from last issue once more time. For us, it serves as both an interesting study in the methods and ways of other writers and how they managed to create spaces dedicated to their craft as well as a call to action.

Our residency offers time and some funds. Once there, you’ll need to be self directed as it’s very hands off, though also comfortable and encouraging as last year’s selectee, Monique Harris, attests to in the blurb she provided—an account where so very grateful for! Check out Writers’ Retreats: Literary Cabins, Creative Hideaways, and Favorite Writing Spaces of Iconic Authors.

You’ll understand why we also run our other residency, The Write-In: A Creative Staycation. With that program, we aim to encourage folks to make a space that is comfortable and as fully realized as possible. Spaces are everything for writers. The distance from the norm is important. Even if the boundaries are invisible, a section of the room or apartment—though we wish a full-fledged office for everyone!

Writers and their retreats:

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Featured Music: CiM