Ephemera Newsletter Iss August.3

(Creativity and Motivation Weekly)

Welcome to the Ephemera Newsletter free edition, Hoa! (Maori for “friends”)

Our yearly residency we sponsor helps our letter and provides an opportunity for at least 1 intrepid writer to win a week’s time at the Good Contrivance Farm! Submit a writing sample for a chance to stay at the Hen House Cottage for a week where you can focus on creativity surrounded by idyllic pastures and natural beauty. There are folks to interact at the farm as well. Deadline is soon!

Or else, please join us to support the letter so we can continue to bring weird tidbits, mini essays, artists and music from a writerly lens, opportunities and other literary and creative ephemera. Thanks and onward!

Tara Zafft Ephemera’s poet for August!

You can review her poems altogether once they publish as well as her artist statement and bio on this dedicated post on our Substack page. We thank you for checking out Tara Zafft’s work.

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

And here are some reminders:

• Monthly Invite to Submit: We are open for October now. 25 current submissions out of 100. September 1 is the deadline. If you are a paid subscriber to Ephemera, you can submit to poetry @ Ephemera for free as a membership perk! Paying the reading fee will grant you 1-month paid access to Ephemera’s full letter. Learn more or:

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In Brief…this week’s features:

• Thoughts on Isa Genzken’s mixed media and collage-esque postmodern sculptures and other creations.

• Listening to “The Otherworld” by electronic, and trippy-ambient artist C-Thru.

• August’s poet, Tara Zafft’s third of four poems, “I See a Smashed Bird”

• Our weekly lists:

  • 3 magazines with open calls

  • 3 awards/prizes

  • 3 recent job listings for editors and writers.

• Interesante: In this issue, we look into the science of being original with an important anecdote about Bob Dylan.

• Book Recs, bonus content, and our mini-essays to start!

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

• Last week’s issue.

• Ephemera’s Good Contrivance Residency: Deadline August 31

• or

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

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Ephemera

We’ve developed a habit of reading aloud in the evenings to involve our loved ones with our literary and art-focused inner-life. It’s been an interesting experiment these past few weeks. Phones off, of course, we’ll take turns reading for as long as our attention spans allow, switching roles for fun or focus of as our jaws and lips lose pronunciation precision—let us say, if you haven’t been reading out loud, your Embouchure will get a work out; plan on taking frequent turns or reading in short bursts. Say what you will, given the quick and penetrating accessibility of her writing, we’ve recently concluded dinners with Mary Oliver’s collected works (a few at a time) before moving into longer form writing. Before that, as an entremés into our new habit, we re-read Bluets (warning: not for the kiddos). Ranging from half an hour to an hour, these readings have become essential to us, refreshing and invigorating. We recommend keeping a notebook on hand for personal thoughts as well as discussion points. The readings have stayed with us into the evening, into the next day, marking pathways for our thoughts, keeping us intrigued and less distracted by phones and streaming services and intrusive thoughts. Think well!

“Artists should not look to the left or the right. Art should be strong and nonconformist—and most importantly, art should always be personal.”
—Isa Genzken, Interview Magazine

Maybe we’re talking about creating a bespoke, daily cultural experience, not only for yourself but your family or community. Imagine the shared art experience you would accumulate over the course of a year or several if practiced with even modest regularity. Non-conform in your daily and weekly and monthly life, but let’s bring in anyone we can, at least some of the time—we can’t all live on islands exclusively. We’ve spent many issues promoting myriad creative practices that generally focus on the individual and want to make sure we think about incorporating others. Maybe that will become contagious. Maybe we’ll invite folks over periodically in the neighborhood. Maybe we’ll once in a while host a reading. Maybe we’ll reach out to a press or magazine and see if they’d like to collaborate…they supply a writer or two, a gift card for refreshments, and we supply the interested people, the party. Personal to the local to the global back to the personal. There’s a system here that can benefit everyone as well as the individual creative. Build art community however you can. And yet let’s listen to Isa Genzken: demonstrate strength and nonconformity.

Whakamoemiti!
(Gratitude)

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Poetry by Tara Zafft

I See a Smashed Bird

Today I see a smashed bird 
on the sidewalk on the way 
home. 

The air is soupy hot. The kind
you need a scythe to slice through. I 
drag.

Each breath, a struggle. I see

what was the bird. Try to walk fast.
Past. Try to look
away. I cannot.

The neglected sidewalk. Thick 
with bits of wrappers, half a Coke can, two
pairs of shoes. 

Abandoned. 

Three minutes before 
I am sitting with my friend. Drinking 
large black no sugar Americanos.

Talking about our families. So far
away. My children not children a sea
away.

And here. Now, a violent bloodless death. 

And all I can think is somewhere
is a mama singing a song of lament
for her baby.

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Prizes/Awards/Stipends Winter ‘241

EPHEMERA’S RESIDENCY: Support Ephemera. Support your practice.

• We’ve teamed up with Good Contrivance Farm for a 3rd time! We’re sponsoring up to two (2) writers each for a 1-week stay and a travel stipend to the Good Contrivance Farm Residency in Maryland.

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

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

  • $200 stipend

  • Total Value: $1100

  • $30 application fee (for early applicants before July 31) $40 thereafter

or

The Doctorow Prize $15,000 and publication to a fiction writer with 3 or more books. Submissions can be any form of fiction. Published by Fiction Collective 2 (FC2 w/ U Alabama Press). $15k + Pub. $25 fee DEADLINE NOVEMBER 1

Slipstream awards $1000, publication, and 50 copies to a chapbook. They are not-for-profit and mostly known for their magazine since 1980. It’s one of the larger chapbook awards. $1k + Pub + 50 copies. $20 fee. DEADLINE DECEMBER 1

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Music: C-Thru