Ephemera Newsletter Iss May.1
(Creativity and Motivation Weekly)
Welcome to the Ephemera Newsletter free edition, Chingu! (Korean for “friends”)
Thank you to all who submitted to poetry in March for our May issues and especially to our finalist, Robert McBrearty who will be the poet for the month of May! You can review his poems altogether once they publish as well as his artist statement and bio on this dedicated post on our substack page. We thank you for checking out Roberts’s work.
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:
Monthly Invite to Submit: Submissions are in for the June issues. We look forward to reading! We are open for July now. May 30 is the deadline. 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 your second consecutive paid month and every month thereafter for as long as you are a paid subscriber). 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 Yayoi Kusama’s most recent exhibition in San Francisco’s MoMA called “Infinite Love.”
Listening to Duke Ellington’s “In A Sentimental Mood,” with John Coltrane on the sax.
May’s poet, Robert McBrearty and his first of four poems, “The Café on the Hill.”
Our weekly lists:
3 magazines with open calls
3 awards/prizes
3 recent job listings for editors and writers.
SPONSOR: From Simon & Schuster publishers, The Which of Shakespeare’s Why, a novel about a playwright who attempts to answer the question of Shakespeare’s true identity while putting on a play of his own under immense pressure from funders and performers alike.
More ephemera: check out our Interesante Section, where we present an article or site or interesting bit of info—sometimes a study, sometimes a video, sometimes an interactive site, sometimes an experiment.
In this issue, an intro article on the importance of trees and our relationship with them.
Book Recs, bonus content, and our mini-essays to start!
Last Week’s Issue.
Merci. Danke. Kiitos. 고마워 Go-ma-wo. Cảm ơn. Xiè xiè.
Ephemera
Dear Readers,
As the sun sets west dipping beneath the Pacific Ocean’s horizon, on an evening where clouds remain in clumps, the light stays longer than the occlusion of our star ought to permit. Driving route 1 up California’s coast, viewing the whole saga from a plucky cliff face, you’re at the edge of the world and the rays still reach for you, lighting up those lucky clouds as if a glow originates from within their atmospheric churn. It’s a delightful and yet eerie experience, one that the east coast cannot supply and likely nowhere else, not even just beyond the coast ridges driving along the inland 101 when it dips through the redwood parks. If you haven’t you must. We’ve never been to a better presented, better maintained, more friendly and beautiful park system than the Humboldt, and Redwood, and Jedediah State parks. Glorious. Inspirational. Diverting as you need and see fit. There’s so much natural beauty, so much wonder, and the presentation at informational outposts and headquarters so proficient and thorough, we must recommend at least one excursion. You’ll gain an appreciation for the country. You’ll well with gratitude, from a nature-derived efflorescence. Plainly, you’ll be inspired.
“Overhead is a distant, radiant star, and the more I stretch to reach it, the further it recedes. But by the power of my spirit and my single-hearted pursuit of the path, I have clawed my way through the labyrinthine confusion of the world of people in an unstinting effort to approach even one step closer to the realm of the soul.”
—Yayoi Kusama, from Phillips.com
We lead with the roads and parks because of awe. It might be one of the sacred duties of creatives, particularly of writers, to pursue astonishment from natural experience as we can and are able. And our writing benefits when imbued with place and historicity and a sense of the geography. Our realms must make their way into our pens and lines, and there’s a strong argument for experiencing the breadth of our place, from microcosms of neighborhoods, to larger entities of cities and states, to the macrocosm of country. In this trekking, we find cause to pray, to meditate, to worship outside of ourselves. For us, no place was more compelling than the oldest and densest Redwood groves. We may have relearned spirituality, holiness within in the cradling confines of thousand, in some cases, two thousand year old mother trees, their prolific living cultivating the space around them from their roots and the soils to the moisture and air of their filling around their trunks, and likely, though not perceived, their vaunted tree tops. We milled about just above their roots, resting after considerable hikes, thinking and processing why we were so moved. Moved to grace. Moved to tears. Moved in unanticipated and inarticulable ways. That space of unknown glowing, of complex and raw soul satiation—the clean, unadulterated air, too—awakened within us a sense of divine, of being of the utmost being. It’s embarrassing to admit how enriched we felt. We can only advise everyone on seeking this experience. We are forever wealthy. Our minds sponged with a richness eventually destined for the page.
Gomaum!
(Gratitude)
Poetry by Robert McBrearty
The Café on the Hill. On this fine morning the tables of the café on the hill are nearly full and one thrills to the cheerful chatter. The air is sweet even if smoky today from the fires of the rabble burning the town. But the path to our splendid enclave is well-guarded, the machine guns mounted, ready to fire, and we are assured the soldiers will will make quick work of the mob. We trust we are safe here at the top of the hill. But what is this? The waiters in their crisp jackets are now brandishing pistols as if they are angry we’ve forgotten to tip them. We scream and roll under the tables pulling the tablecloths over our heads. How rude! How contemptible! The morning is ruined and we have not even finished our scones and lattes.
Music: Duke Ellington
“In A Sentimental Mood” is one of those jazz inventions—much like “Take Five”—that was so popular that it has become a standard of the genre, covered and referenced by many greats, individuals and orchestras alike. Composed in 1935 by Duke Ellington, the piece was popular for nearly thirty years while Ellington continuously added to its complexity via rewrites before the pairing of Coltrane on the track we’re listening to embedded above; Ellington and Coltrane’s colab came in 1962 and seems to be the primary version easily available.
Born Edward Kennedy Ellington in 1899(!), Duke grew up in D.C., where he gigged and performed at small cafes and venues in his youth before forming local bands that were fairly successful, despite the scourge of Jim Crow. Interestingly, Ellington turned down art school—admission to Pratt—to continue his music. By the 1920s, he’d moved to NYC and soon formed his eponymous band and with which he played for the rest of his life from 1923 until his passing. Across many collaborations, some of them lasting decades, Ellington is credited with as many as 1,000 compositions. He was the house band at the Cotton Club for years spanning a couple of stints beginning in the mid-1920s and restarting in the late 1930s; the Cotton Club was the premiere nightlife for the well to do in New York City during that period—although, at the time, it was whites only for some abysmal reason—and afforded Ellington a decent living while he also recorded prolifically. As with other musicians of the time, the details of his colabs, recitals, gigs, goings on in music, love, and life are myriad and interesting. We recommend a deeper read for our music buff friends.
“What we could not say openly, we expressed in music.”
—Duke Ellington, via Smithsonian’s website
This quote from Ellington is meaningful in several ways. Primarily, it expressed his view that activism through words was a more dangerous endeavor, while, through music, he could affect the hearts of white people by exposing them to the emotions, dreams, misgivings, and all of the complexity of the Black experience. “In A Sentimental Mood,” is a type of love song, really. What does it express about race relations? Well, expressing the very essence of being a person, expressing in a way that anyone can connect with it, lucid, crisp, sophisticated notes, arrangements, and execution all serve the goal humanization, amplifying the music as would a skilled orator through tone, or gesture, or clever metaphor. While many hailed Dave Brubeck for similar skill sets, including Time magazine on whose cover Brubeck appeared in 1954, Brubeck himself believed it was Ellington who deserved the recognition, who had popularized jazz.
When we listen, we’re easily transported into sentiment and contemplation. We love this piece for clearing away everything in mind to the point where all we hear, all we know, are the quite sweet notes from the refrain—delivered by piano and some light touches of from the percussion—before we’re then transported into the arms of Coltrane’s sax. Each instrument contributes feeling, a unique flair from the performer in this recording (as well as others of this track) to the point where we can imagine voices speaking to us. It’s easy. It’s clean. It’s expressive. And all of that is achieved by the virtuosity of the composer. The middle-of-the-track time shift, a tad upbeat, provides a nice reprieve from the sentiment, almost a reminder of the good days ahead or behind equal, not to get too down, while also serving as a vehicle for some jazzy flair. We’re taking emotionality, texture, and feeling from this piece. We’re thinking about how to write complexly with skill in a way that reads easy and yet impacts the emotions of the reader. We’ll be studying Ellington with renewed vigor and focus.
More on Ellington via Smithsonian.
Video interview with Swedish TV.
SPONSOR — New Book
After being sent a copy, we were intrigued and entertained by this book and agreed to promote the work in the newsletter. Anyone who’s ever read a play by Shakespeare and wondered about the pseudonym will be immediately gratified by the introductory and parting notes to the reader that more formally access the who and why of the novel, addressing the politics of Shakespeare’s identity as well as the evidence. In the end—and we’ll let you read it—the author’s conclusion (pen name deployed in apropos fashion) fascinated us. And the novel as well. The notes and novel work together like a Pale Fire—as in they inform each other, though in The Which of Shakespeare’s Why the notes are indeed separate and not a part of the fiction, are meant as non-fiction, essays by the pseudonymous author who apparently serves in academia somewhere. We hope you’ll take a look for yourselves.
From the publisher:
The controversy over who really wrote Shakespeare’s plays has been around almost since they were written. Was the genius behind the plays really that obscure glover’s son from Stratford? Or was it someone else entirely—a man whose class, background, education, and peculiarities make him a more than plausible candidate?
In The Which of Shakespeare’s Why, a 21st-century playwright named Harry Haines makes the case for a major contender via a play he himself is writing for a struggling New Jersey theatre company. Faced with strong disapproval from the “Stratfordites” and with the backing of supporters that sometimes takes some unusual forms, Harry attempts, against great odds, to get the play written and staged.
In the process he has to overcome his own doubts, stay on the right side of the right people, keep his romantic life under control, and deal with not only a difficult actress or two but a flock of opinionated Rockettes. Part hilarious farce, part serious critical examination, The Which of Shakespeare’s Why provides a thought-provoking look at a controversial puzzle with a surprising, ingenious, and wholly satisfying ending that Shakespeare—whoever he was—would have given a standing ovation.
Writers Submit: 3 Magazines
One of the most well-known poetry journals for poems and translations. Submissions are free and accepted work will appear online and/or in print. They’re also looking for ekphrastic poems through their guest editor section. DEADLINE MAY 31
The print and online journal is an esteemed publisher of great writing, and is reading work for their upcoming edition in all genres. They pay an honorarium and copies of the published edition for accepted work. DEADLINE JUNE 1
The print and online literary journal is reading for “conversations, critiques, and reviews.” They are looking for conversations, translations, critiques, performance work, and book reviews. DEADLINE ROLLING
Weekly Artist: Yayoi Kusama
Last week’s intro essay briefly touched on this fun exhibition at SF MoMA from the 94-year-old Japanese artist, Yayoi Kusama, who is a global phenomenon and positive art icon. She’s all about the vibes, the love as well as time, with several exhibitions and installations aptly named: Love Forever, Love is Calling, In Infinity, eternity-modernity, and others. Yet, she’s known to suffer from bouts of mental illness, and to experience vivid hallucinations. We won’t insist, but perhaps, to a certain degree, her psychic state is related to growing up in Japan through WWII. Later, despite a psychologically taxing home life where her art was discouraged, she attended the Kyoto Municipal School of Arts and Crafts where she worked in traditional styles. Those styles proved too restricting. Kusama became interested in American and European Avant Garde work, influences that called her to move from what she deemed a more restrictive culture in Japan to the US, particularly NYC.
Kusama’s art history includes interesting interaction with many famous names, including many of the who’s who of the NYC art world of the 60’s and 70’s. We recommend a read through. There are some fascinating vignettes, interesting takes on romance and politics, and articles about her art and other components of her life there, including her propensity to wear colorful outfits and bob-styled wigs. She painted and sculpted and performed and wrote. Her long career includes commissioned work and experiential installations and performance pieces. Kusama has been spoken of as one of the most successful artists of all time, in no small part due to her tenacity and spirit.
We’re vibing on Kusama’s infinity rooms. Located all over the world, there are several of these infinity rooms on permanent exhibition in the states as well as Europe, Korea, and Indonesia. She might be best known for her polka dots—check out her Instagram and you’ll see, or a simple web search—which we find compelling and very Warhol in a way, at least in some of their manifestations.
“I fight pain, anxiety, and fear every day, and the only method I have found that relieves my illness is to keep creating art,”
―Yayoi Kusama, from NYmag.com
However, these infinity rooms, their conceit and technical application, produce more of a stirring; at the SF MoMA, you wait in line for some time and move in sixes into a large exhibition space with a white cube at the center and crouch through a small door to enter this world that must approximate the interiority of Kusama when she has her infamous hallucinations (see the interview). It’s sort of like walking through a real life “John Malkovich” door from Being John Malkovich. Very quickly, however, and also if you don’t know about Kusama’s mental illness symptoms, you melt into the world of the cube, the colors, the shapes, your own interiority. You might sit in a corner and take in all the angles and lines of filtered light. You might soften your focus and pretend to live in, amongst, and alongside the wheels of color. You might pace around the room attempting to look at all possible angles. Or people watch. Or imagine yourself somewhere else entirely, easily accessing parallel universes.
Problematically, viewers only receive a two minute stint in the cubes. You’ll wish you had more time, but at least there’s a second, with stalagmite/stalactite-esque wisps or tails or odd phalli maximi (see the interview) constructed of beach ball-like plastic and inflated—there’s a zinging or hum of the air pump to fill the ambient noise spectrum. These whatchamacallits are covered in polka dots, very on brand. This cube offers a similar experience palette but with some more adventure as the wisps allow you to duck in and around them, evading or crashing into the others. The mirror lines are occluded in some directions so you must search for the infinity effect. We sat in this one. Imagined ourselves prehistoric bunnies in a Seussian land of bizarre flora. Maybe the bunny followed the human child through an anomalous doorway.
Poetry offers the superior medium for concept work, for creating experiences and bizarre spaces for the mind to play within. The project of narrative and character renders the project of producing long form work reminiscent of Kusama’s work a bit more challenging. But we can break down concept rooms into smaller units. We can use a literal room as a narrative center, or another object, or a neighborhood or a mental space. The messaging can be but doesn’t at all need to be one of harmony and color and infinite love or what have you. We can use concept spacing as we need, as our characters demand, as our poems dip in and out of one mood or experience or memory. And we can take heart in Kusama’s career arc; she worked tirelessly at her art and for a long while was overlooked or forgotten. A decade, maybe two, and then there she was again, even after she fled NYC for financial and other reasons. The practice of writing is the practice of patience as well as perseverance. Build your concept cubes and be in touch with your interior…bizarrely and flamboyantly as you like.
Interesante: People, Trees, & Health
From: spiritualityhealth.com
— (3 min read/6 min study)
“The graveyards in Malaysia are covered so thickly with trees that the entire grounds are cool and sheltered from the tropical sun. The trees are allowed to take root into the graves and it is said that the trees whisper prayers to the creator asking for forgiveness of past transgressions of those buried in that place.”
A good intro article that covers the space of science, culture, and spirituality as it pertains to humans and our interactions with trees. We’ll be looking into our connection with trees as we go along for the month and we figured this was a useful beginner article—a quick read—to set the stage. A renewed spirituality vis-a-vis connection to nature for the purpose of expressing the very human impulse toward religion in general and acts of worship (prayer/meditation) specifically is a useful endeavor for writers to consider—we need ways of connecting with the divine, with ourselves, quiet moments of peace, way to reduce the ponderous effects of too many thoughts. —Read the article.
Prizes/Awards/Stipends Winter ‘24
The Moth Short Story Prize awards €6k & more across 3 prizes, & publication, for a short story. Many non-U.K. writers have won the prestigious award that is among the highest paying single story awards. 1st €6k, 2nd Travel + Stipend, 3rd €1k + Pub. €15 Fee. DEADLINE JUNE 30
The Petrichor Prize awards $1,000 and publication by Regal House Publishing for a collection of stories. The publisher hosts other opportunities throughout the year.
$1k + Pub. $25 fee. DEADLINE JULY 15
Alice James Award awards $2,000 and publication for a collection of poetry. Alice James Books is a cool, reputable small press with a strong history of publication.
$2k + Publication. $30 fee. DEADLINE OCTOBER 11
Bookstore: Guides, Gifts & Classics
Please consider supporting our letter and literature by buying books. It helps us and others! Bookstore via Bookshop.
Coffee Table Books:
Apropos of Redwood Walks: The Hidden Life of Trees
»»»Remember last week’s letter has urgent deadlines!«««
Thank you for subscribing to Ephemera. We appreciate your support very much! It means a lot to have you as a reader and paid subscriber. We look forward to growing the letter and bringing you new content and conversation along side our staples. At present, we’re considering creating a book volume containing a large part of our content, including artwork and essays. We’re also considering other projects, such as a monthly podcast, mini-videos, and a Q&A with our editors. Let us know if you have any ideas on how we can improve.
~~~Annyeonghi Gaseyo~~~
(Goodbye)
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