Ephemera Newsletter Iss August.3
(Creativity and Motivation Weekly)
Welcome to the Ephemera Newsletter, pheuon! (Lao for “friends”).
Dear Readers,
Plash! We bring you our regularly scheduled program just a below. First, we ask for a few beats of focus: We’re very humbly endeavoring to realize a dream of expanding Ephemera and compensating editors. We started off as a bookstore that lost it’s space before we could launch at the start of covid and instead went all in on this letter as a creative outlet. Your response has been so uplifting and generous…(heart mewl!)…so warm that we kept building and working, and now after 37 issues (!) we’re hoping we can respectfully invite you to support us with a subscription.
As we launch subscriptions, we will keep the letter mostly free through September. With our launch we offer yearly subscribers a significant perk: apply to our 2x yearly Write-In Residency for free. We’ve set the monthly rate at the Substack minimum (we tried to go for $3, alas). The yearly comes with very clear added value. The monthly with full access to every issue and archives. Phew. That’s it. Grazie. Cheers. Danke. Xiè xiè.
If you’d like to see the full details you can read our separate post. We will remind folks for a bit so thank you in advance for allowing us to pitch. Piqued, our hearts are warm and we aim to deliver. Now on to the meat of why we’re here…
As we compose we’re hidden away inside from this heat, this humidity, these doggy-dog days as the ancients coined this eponymous period at the end of the summer; as we write we’re wishing to have slept through the storm; we’re marveling at those long-ago folks who invented the comparison—700 B.C.E. so it’s been said, the Greeks, but maybe ancienter still, the Egyptians—noticing the epochal anaphora of the star Sirius rising each year at about the time of the onset of unpleasant floods, drought, sudden storms, fever and ostensibly dogs going wild; as they might say, bad luck. We receive messaging in so many ways, some of which are coincidental and we pattern recognize them into being, begin giving them meaning beyond our Being. Messaging, as we massage our temples, happens to be a focus this week, with artist Barbara Kruger accosting us with pithy text-based installation art, & with an Ephemera take on Michael Jackson’s signature vocal ad libs serving as patternistic identifiers, as pure flair. As we dispatch our wares, 3 zines, 3 jobs, 3 awards, a definition, a book and an update on our Good Contrivance selection, prithee, we hope you’ll explore the Write-In Residency along with our subscription launch. By the stars we go.
Cygnus rises now, because of precession, where once it was Sirius with the heliacal connection. But do we notice? We’re inundated with orders of magnitude more messages, calls to attention. Yet, we gotta use these days for focus. Furthering ourselves, our only fervor being the deep bubbling angst of our creative selves. Stay reading. Stay writing. Stay liminal, limning. Find something pure, that’s wholly you, a holy you, and emote into the pad, or pen, or keys. A voice. A light. Guttural stuff that can be translated to text, shaped thus, shaped thus, again…until which time we’ve become inviting to a reader as flair, as recognizable voice, our own timbre, a hee-hee a la the king of pop. Each node of our well crafted locution bends meaning into a point through which messaging opens to a new realm of thought, enjoyment, experience, self-light. Make us glow with a like, a share, or a constellation of comments. Your messaging means the moon to us. Please keep crafting, loves. Open a voice-gambit and seal it with unassailable craft.
We’ll constellate and shine : review the perks of becoming a paid subscriber!
Khuaam ka tan nyu (Gratitude)
~We’re so happy you’re here!~
anaphora
ə-ˈna-f(ə-)rə
noun: repetition of a word or expression at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, sentences, or verses especially for rhetorical or poetic effect
The Write-In Residency
Paired with our subscription drive, we’re launching The Write-In Residency. Folks will be able to apply directly via Submittable or become a paid yearly subscriber to Ephemera and then apply for free (subscribers will be sent a special link). Subscriptions soft launch August 18 with the residency. Read about subscriptions here. Thanks for your focus & presence.
Featured Music: Michael Jackson
Perhaps the youngest among us haven’t heard of the king of pop. Perhaps, much like Elvis to our grand parents, even the most popular musicians, larger than life, fade toward obscurity. In that case, and to remind those of us who know of and still listen to Jackson, we’re fore-fronting his “Billie Jean” and applying a writer’s analysis. First off, this live performance of “Billy Jean” features, so they say, the first time he ever performed the moon walk live—talk about invention, talk about characterizing, talk about voice (why not dancers?). Jackson’s songwriting is legendary, and this song so well known, and yet we want to essay it still because of the tiny details, because of messaging (see our artist below), because of voice and patina and charm. Jackson’s distinguishing vocal flair or “signatures” set him apart—purposely—from other musicians, make it so that you can’t not know you’re listening to one of his while feeling fully rooted, paradoxically comforted and confounded (later career he seems to have toned down the yips, asides, woos, gravel, and overall accoutrements). These add-ins delineate and characterize and are a type of messaging; they are voiciness that endears and adds to the song text, while not interfering, not taking over. Woven. Masterful is the technique. Perfect is the effect. Ooh! We’d be remiss for not mentioning his elan delights in no small part because of perfect musical craftsmanship (while pizazz can be a draw in and of itself, we mean to convey the nuts and bolts of any Genre ought be present). We can learn from this, observing his balance and timing, his volume and range of emphasis. We can conceive of a poem, an essay, a story, a novel as a type of performance and the reader a crowd. We can become distinguished ourselves, for the sake of probing art, for the sake of earning publication, for the pure exhalation of inner id. Joy, too. Hee-hee!
"I work with pictures and words because they have the ability to determine who we are and who we aren't."
— Barbara Kruger
Writers Submit: Three Magazines
A minimalist online magazine with a strong counter-culture ethos. The magazine seeks poetry by “poets who write what they believe most important” and has published poems on a large range of topics. Free to submit. Open All Year.
An independent student-run magazine, associated with U. of Alabama. The current call for all genres is “Ex nihilo”, Latin for “out of nothing.” First published in 1977, they’ve published over 100 editions. Free to submit. Deadline October 14.
An online magazine publishing in all genres. The magazine “seeks to uncover new and emerging creative visionaries, especially people of color.” Writing that unifies and has a commitment to positive change. Free to submit. Deadline Nov 16.
Weekly Artist: Barbara Kruger
Barbara Kruger is a conceptual artist who recognizes the power of words, of messaging. While Kruger’s early career centered around found photographs displayed with pithy printed phrases, her most recent work hones in on language particularly. Printed boldly and often as public installations, her word based work was quickly recognized as original and moving, leading to major exhibitions in some of the most well known museums and galleries in the world. There’s an inherent nostalgia mixed with a strong sense of self, messaging that evokes tenets of feminism and humanism. The overlay of phrases on a single color, most often red or black with words in negative, give the viewer an immersive accessibility even when viewing small pictures (and writers will enjoy where she often conceives of her ideas: at the computer). In what ways does our writing embody strong messages with simple accessibility, we’re compelled to ask? Strong messages succinctly stated, pithy quips, being interrogatively provocative pens in the viewer, funnels them toward a confrontation with self, thus, identity. Do you/we/they agree with the statement? A simple binary bottleneck expands after the choke-point, forces a disputation at the pinch: is this me, can I relate, who am I in relation. It’s a lovely thought-technique to aid an artist (a writer) in permitting a viewer (reader) to incorporate self into their appraisal, to foment interaction. From Kruger herself, “I work with pictures and words because they have the ability to determine who we are and who we aren't.”
Prizes/Awards/Stipends Summer ‘22
(A Poetry&Prose Book Pub Prize, A Micropress w/ Low Fees, & A Chap Prize)
St Lawrence Book Award $1000 from Black Lawrence Press which is a well run contemporary independent press. Two awards: 1 poetry/1 prose. $1k + Pub. $27 fee. Deadline August 31.
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 21.
The Good Contrivance Residency Application Update
Ephemera has selected Katherine Velguth for our the final Good Contrivance residency slot! She presented a very strong, character driven and integrated voice, and as an upcoming writer, we’re very happy to offer her the time to finish her projects.
As a final note, we were so pleased with the work submitted, and connected with the personal statements. We were touched, truly. Our aim to select a balance of mid career and early-career was also achieved. Thank you to all who submitted such lovely applications!
Bookstore: Guides, Gifts & Classics
Please consider supporting our letter and literature by buying books. It helps us and others! Bookstore via Bookshop.
Last Week’s Book Again. On Gregory de la Haba:
We’re going to bat for this lovely book one last time. Gregory is an artful writer w/ a compelling voice, very intelligent (Harvard undergrad), whose perspective is articulate, interesting and emotive! It’s art history, self-critique, narrative, and a love story. You can find it at the publisher’s website or on amazon.
»»»Remember last week’s letter has urgent deadlines!«««
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