Contest Announcement!

Words & Images would like to announce a contest open exclusively to USM students, The Dos Cosas Award.

“Dos Cosas” is Spanish for “two things.” Why two things, you ask? And why in Spanish – considering we’re in Maine and none of our staff speak Spanish?: “Maybe all literature is just two things banging together. Characters banging against settings; dialogue banging against secondary action; similies banging against alliteration; memory banging against the present moment.  …All writing should hold a contradiction. Of course, those aforementioned pairs aren’t really contradictions. But man oh man, a contradiction surely must consist of two things.”
-Benjamin Rybeck, Publishing Director 2009

And Spanish sounds more fun. Though “Deux Choses” has a certain allure as well…

So here it is: Submit up to five poems or a short fiction piece of less than 5,000 words by December 1st. The winner, selected by a panel of peer judges will receive $500 dollars for their outstanding work and an opportunity to read their piece at the Words & Images 2012 journal release party.

There is no contest entry fee, but we must reiterate – this contest is only for USM students. Send your submissions to the appropriate e-mail addresses and make sure to indicate your piece is for the Dos Cosas Award.

wordsandimagespoetry @ gmail.com
wordsandimagesprose @ gmail.com

The 2011 issue of Words & Images is here!

…almost.

We received 500 copies of the journal from the printers today, and all 500 of them are might fine looking!
Copies of the journal will be available for purchase on April 29th during our release party and from then on, at the USM Bookstore as well as other local bookstore (full list to be released soon.)

Stay tuned for event details…

The Editors are not Robots (Part Five): Caroline O’Connor Thomas

Caroline O’Connor Thomas has lived in too many locations in the Boston area, including: Somerville, Revere, the North End, Cambridge, Medford. She has slept under beds, in beds and on floors. Prefers night, but thinks day has some excellent qualities. Likes mountains as much as skyscrapers. She takes music courses that do not have anything to do with her major in English. Being the poetry editor of Words and Images 2009, she enjoys reading and writing poems. Favorite poem as of today: Wherever You Are, Be Somewhere Else by Denise Riley. It does not take much prompting to get her to dance/ make a fool of herself. Her favorite feeling is indescribable but it includes being a stranger in a crowd/ a small thing in a stream.  Despite the heading of this post, Caroline may actually be a robot. The previous sentence is a lie, as Caroline is secretly sensitive and romantic (please don’t tell anyone). Enjoys adventures in cars with friends, particularly if it involves going to the 76 Diner in Latham, NY past midnight. Does not exclude rap or country music from the blanket statement “I like all kinds of music.” Caroline is going to England next semester, where she hopes to acquire a British accent, meet Julian Barratt of The Mighty Boosh and single handedly destroy Stonehenge (just kidding). If you are a poem that looks sparse on the page but features heavy words that bend their very definitions and like long walks on the beach, soft caresses and the song “Monkey Gone to Heaven” by the Pixies, please contact Caroline, as you may be her soul mate. Take a chance, buy her a drink, read her poetry – you’ve got nothing to lose.

Those interested can read a few of Caroline’s poems here: (LINK!). Her thoughts are also available for mass consumption: (LINK!).

The Editors are not Robots (Part Four): Benjamin Rybeck

Benjamin Rybeck is the publishing director of Words and Images; from 2007-2008, he served as managing editor. He considers his most important job to be finding the right people with whom to work, and being as he has put together a staff replete with editors who are smarter than he, his job sometimes seems almost ridiculously easy.

Rybeck is a full time English major at the University of Southern Maine, interested in interdisciplinary studies. He is especially drawn to the following: the films of Paul Thomas Anderson and the French New Wave; the stories of Raymond Carver, Flannery O’Connor, and Charles D’Ambrosio; “Winesburg, Ohio”; all things James Bond; and the TV series The Wire.

He’s hoping to find fiction and poetry that all those other idiot literary journals have missed; after all, tons of great stories and poems go to sleep unpublished each night. He’s not looking for “perfect” work, because “perfect” work lacks the rough edges where the soul of the artist can be seen bursting out, trying to struggle free from under a pile of technique, trying to breathe again. Jonathan Franzen’s “The Corrections,” a novel with a million digressions, is preferable to Geraldine Brooks’ “March,” a perfectly controlled story, because “The Corrections” has energy in its imperfections, and “March” seems overworked and smoothed out until it lies dead on the page.

Sometimes he has trouble finding the time to exercise.

The Editors are not Robots (Part Three): Jill Jacobs

Jill Jacobs is one of the two fiction editors for Words and Images 2009. By day, she is a Piano Performance major who studies under Laura Kargul; under the cover of night, she writes, and feasts upon literature to such a fiendish extent that her room currently resembles a library. Though Jill’s two passions seem disparate, she finds each process to be a fairly similar journey towards perfection; both require manic amounts of analysis, and an obsessive, unyielding eye for detail.

Jill’s literary tastes fluctuate according to her mood. Sometimes, she finds she must immerse herself in history books on the Napoleonic Wars; sometimes, she must binge on Russian classics, or partake in a spot of science fiction parody. Jill likes mysteries, be they of happenstance or character, and endings that surprise her. She believes many of the best books sit unnoticed in children and YA sections around the world. For the most part, genre does not influence her; she is willing to love any story, so long as it moves her.

Outside of classical music and literary pursuits, Jill enjoys listening to bands that no one has heard of, watching fabulously cheesy 80s movies, and indulging in retail therapy.

After the completion of her undergraduate degree in Spring 2010, Jill plans to flutter off to graduate school, where she will keep up on her reading and writing, and eventually be overcome with madness when she attempts to apply Schenkerian analysis to anything by Robert Schumann.

The Editors are not Robots (Part One): Seth A. Bishop

Seth A. Bishop is Managing Editor for Words and Images 2009. While a student of Political Science at the University of Southern Maine, he has made it a point to pursue interests outside of his major and, through doing so, has manufactured a relatively unique angle of vision influenced by Political Theory, Sociology, Cultural Studies, and Philosophy. The overarching theme of Seth’s studies has been the exploration of the interplay between individuals and social institutions, be they formal institutions such as the state, or informal abstractions of collective identity. He anticipates the completion of his degree in the Spring of 2009, at which point he intends to take a year off before applying to Graduate programs for Political Theory and a few interdisciplinary Social and Political Thought programs.

Seth’s literary interests are predominantly of the so-called ‘low art’ variety. An avid reader of comics and graphic novels, he considers the comic book to be a valuable yet often ignored cultural artifact that deserves greater attention as both an object of admiration and critical analysis. Toward this end, Seth is currently working on a content analysis of Captain America that examines the perpetually evolving nationalist narrative presented within the comic as well as the unique manner comics deliver collective identity narratives to disparate audiences. For similar reasons as his love of comics, he also appreciates film, science fiction in its various forms, and popular music.

Although his writing is exclusively academic, Seth appreciates reading prose and poetry. If he did not, one would assume he would not work for a literary journal.

ANNOUNCING: THE FIRST ANNUAL DOS COSAS AWARD

Words and Images will give this award to the poem or piece of fiction that best explores the following topic: the ways in which seemingly disparate arts (literary and visual) can affect and inform one another, thus erasing the boundaries between them. This is vague, pseudo-intellectual babble for the following: we’re looking for poems and fiction that take their influence from, say, film, or painting, or popular music, or [insert your own]. Since this award can go either to fiction or poetry, the contest will be judged by the entire Words and Images staff, in addition to a panel of four creative writing professors at the university, consisting of two poets and two fiction writers.

Here’s the point: the entry fee is $15, and the prize is $1000, in addition to publication in the 2009 issue of Words and Images. Unless you request otherwise when submitting your work, all entries will be considered for publication in the 2009 issue, regardless of whether they win the contest. Each entry may include one short story or two poems of any length. The deadline for entry is February 1, 2009.

Unlike regular, non-contest submissions to Words and Images, privilege is not given to writers and literature with a connection to Maine for Dos Cosas Award entries; the Dos Cosas Award seeks entries nationally. Though we only accept regular submissions electronically, we ask for hard copy entries for the contest. Any hard copies not accompanied by the $15 entry fee cannot be considered. They can be mailed to Words and Images, University of Southern Maine, PO Box 9300, Portland, Maine, 04104.

New Upcoming Event!

As Autumn fast approaches, Words and Images is bringing Portland, Maine yet another earth-shatteringly awesome event called Fast, Powerful, Punk: Obviously a Literary Event.  This evening of readings and music on September 25, 7pm at SPACE Gallery, is so epic that I don’t dare to attempt to summarize it in such a small space.  Read about it yourself on our Upcoming Event(s)! page.

What is Words and Images?

Words and Images is a literary journal published by the University of Southern Maine. What is now called Words and Images was once called Presumpscot Review. And The Review. And The Portland Review. The earliest copy we can find in the back room of the office is dated 1976. Thus, the journal is old enough to rent a car.

We’re interested in fiction that pushes the boundaries of convention and form, without: a) becoming incoherent; b) becoming lifeless, hollow, empty; c) sacrificing emotion for effect. We’re looking for popular experimentation. We want work for large groups of people to read and feel intelligent for doing so, therefore becoming a better large group of people in the process.

Words and Images’ staff for 2009 is Seth Bishop, Chad Chamberlain, Benjamin Rybeck, Aubin Thomas, and Caroline O’Connor Thomas.

Past contributors to Words and Images include John Brandon, Kevin Brockmeier, Dan Domench, Megan Grumbling, Richard Hoffman, Michael Kimball, Richard Lethem, John Manderino, Wesley McNair, Mark Melnicove, Bruce Pratt, Bill Rasmovicz, Kenneth Rosen, Colin Sargent, Betsy Sholl, Laima Sruoginis, Martin Steingesser, and Shelton Waldrep.

Past issues have featured interviews with Jennifer Egan, Dennis Lehane, Jonathan Lethem, The National, Sharon Olds, Adrienne Rich, and Richard Russo.