Ephemera Newsletter Iss Dec.4

(Creativity and Motivation Weekly)

Welcome to the Ephemera Newsletter, Zanmi! (Haitian Creole for “friends”)

This is our last issue of December, albeit a tad late. We were celebrating new years and taking a few days to recoup, not from drinking and partying (we’re teetotalers) but from the weight of all of the expectations of family, friends, and the culture. This week, instead of a music section we have a video on a philosophy that we discuss in the artist section. Next issue, Jan.1, we’ll be back to our usual format. Thanks for staying with us.

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

And here are some reminders:

• Call For Submissions: We are open for February now. Final deadline is Jan 5. March will open shortly. If you are a paid subscriber to Ephemera, you can submit to poetry @ Ephemera for free as a membership perk! (We email you a secret link at the end of the month). Free subscribers and anyone else can submit, too, with the reading fee and can submit up to 10 poems. Paying the reading fee will grant you 1-month paid access to Ephemera’s full letter. Learn more or:

---

In Brief…this week’s features:

• Thoughts on Okuda San Miguel’s colorful mural and street art, with particular attention paid to “feeling” and the governing principles of Gestalt Theory.

• Video Aid: Principles of design via Gestalt.

• December’s poet, Kirsten Shuying Chen and her final of four poems, “Angles”

• Our weekly lists:

  • 3 magazines with open calls

  • 3 awards/prizes

  • 3 recent job listings for editors and writers.

• **No sponsor this issue: Sponsor our letter! Reach out to info@Litbreaker.com to advertise with us.**

• More ephemera: check out an Interesante selection, a definition and review of Gestalt Pyschology, 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.

---

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

---

Ephemera

Dear Readers,

Briefly this week, we’re taking a resting moment. Quiet. Solitude. Work, yes, but little else. We want to detox from plans and obligations, from the rush and pizzazz of the holidays, of celebrations and having to be ‘on.’ In combination, we’re also trying a fast of 18 hours for the last two days and going forward til the end of the week. Cleansing. That’s the theme of the week before we get back to our very ambitious new year schedule and plans. Art plans! Writing schedule! Books and reading lists! We’re organizing our stacks of books acquired though not yet cracked. We have notebooks at the ready. A new set of pens and pencils. A new plant for our writing desk. A schedule of places to submit to. A list of potential grants and getaways for writers. It’s all coming down the pike and we need a few days of quiet mornings, sitting in the dark in the evening. Maybe this is all an introversion thing. It feels needed. It feels reinvigorating—no sugars or processed and otherwise junk foods. Lightness. Celerity of the mind and body. Direct simple days. This is our way for the week.

“A (person) is rich in proportion to the number of things (they) can afford to let alone.”
—Henry David Thoreau

Essentially, we’re contemplating a minimalist start to the year. We’d like to eschew things other than what most enriches us for work, writing, and family (enriching friends and significant others included). Only media content that advances our creative intrigue. No binging on streaming services. No passive consumption. Reduced overall media consumption. Clean and uncluttered spaces. Simple plans. Limited social engagements—it’s a bit rigid but the minimalist principles are meant to create a maximalist space for the creative self to flourish. Of course, schedules might look a tad different for extroverts and plenty of creatives are that. If togetherness fuels your creative energy, by all means promote gatherings in your life. The idea here is to maximize what you need for creative efficacy to start the year. Even if you take minimal stock of your space and schedules and plans and lifestyle, any effort paid toward improving your creative energy and the time available to you for writing will be a boon. Rest, breathe, and have a moment. We’re going to finish some projects, start something gloriously new, and feel great about where and who we are as creatives. Blessings.

Gratitid!
(Gratitude)

---

Extended Deadline for the February Issues

---

Poetry by Kirsten Shuying Chen

Angles

The radiator starts like a thought in the night refusing 
to be unheard. I am constantly drawn to old distractions.
When steam     meets water.  When foot          meets floor.
How one sound is always slamming into another & the ease 
in which these disturbances take hold. The glint of your 
heartbeat renders me still for one perfect moment—
then leaves! My mouth full of adagio strings.
My basil and thyme cry hard at the window.
The orchestra of energies it must take just to wake
peaceful in a bright room. I seek the sacred of each season,
trap what I can. Every day like a treasure 
hunt, every night          to be named.

---

---

Bookstore: Guides, Gifts & Classics

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

The Best Short Stories of 2023 - The O. Henry Prize Winners

From Last Week — Man Booker Prize Winner 2023: Prophet Song

---

---

Writers Submit: 3 Magazines