Readings for issue 25:3

Hello there, dedicated followers!

It’s Mollie, one of the winter interns here at Calyx! The sun is shining through the office window as Becky, Jan and I happily work away on great fun stuff for you.

So, you ask, what am I working on today? Readings for the new issue! I’m currently contacting bookstores to host readings in the San Francisco, Arlington, and New York City areas! Authors are starting to reply with availability and it’s all terribly exciting!

Do you guys know of any great independent bookstores in these areas? We’re hoping for Bluestockings in New York because we’ve worked with them before and they’re great, but I would love the input of any readers in the S.F. or D.C. areas who know of some wonderful independent bookstores perfect for Calyx readings!

Hope you’re all doing well and enjoying the sun/rain/wind/snow wherever you are!

–Mollie Peterson

Feedback, Anyone?

Jan 28, 2010

Hopefully, you have had a chance to read our latest issue, Vol. 25:3, which was shipped early January. Of course, as anxious parents, we simply love to hear how the latest creative “child” has been received! We have gotten some lovely emails, and several of you have filled out the Survey Monkey survey via our website (thanks!) But we’d love to hear from more readers.

As we begin to develop and expand our interactive abilities, we are hoping that we can begin a dialogue with our readers, and possibly facilitate a dialogue among you. Step one is to set up feedback mechanisms (such as the Survey Monkey questionaire), and of course we are reading and responding to our Facebook page. What next? What else would you like to see, either on this blog, or on the Calyx website? You can enter comments below, or email us at info(at)calyxpress(dot)org.

It’s here!

Jan. 11 2010

Journal 25:3

Cathy and I stood in the empty parking lot of the storage locker facility. We were waiting for the drop-off. When the guy’s truck pulled up, I knew it would be the good stuff. He unlatched the back of the truck…yeah, the good stuff.

Yes, our friend in the delivery truck was dropping off the newest issue (winter 2010 vol. 25:3) of CALYX! The cover features a lovely wrap-around black and white photograph by University of Oregon senior Andi Calliope Linden. I couldn’t wait to get back to the office and take a peek at the full-color art and pages of delicious prose and poetry.

-Becky, Associate Editor and storage locker goon

Bonanza Jellybean proofs the journal

The other day as the editorial team finished up proofing,

my cat Bonanza Jellybean decided to help.

Obviously, it was very productive.

Bonanza Jellybean

CALYX Intern Day Is Here!

12/8/09

Today is fall intern celebration day. Kelly and Shayna are joining the staff at Evergreen Restaurant for their thank you for all the hard work at CALYX this term. And all of us who worked with Kelly and Shayna will miss their great energy after they finish their term at CALYX next week. It has been a pleasure to have their help with the October CALYX Glitterati, the receipt of the Sarah Lantz Poetry Book Prize manuscripts, the production of the Winter CALYX Journal (which went to press yesterday), and their handling of the hundreds of manuscripts when CALYX Journal opened October 1st. They also were great about the bulk mailings, never complaining and even learning the rudimentaries of bulk sorting mail for our non-profit bulk mail permit. Shayna and Kelly deserve a great thank you from all of us at CALYX as well as our readers and contributors. We could not maintain this small press and publish so many women’s voices without the generous support of the student interns who provide their devotion and generous time to the work of CALYX. THANK YOU KELLY AND SHAYNA! — Margarita

From the Director

Margarita

12/3/09  I just returned from a vacation to the Philadelphia area for Thanksgiving. Flying into Portland airport after a 12-hour travel day was delightful. As the plane banked over the silvery Columbia River Mt. Hood, the Three Sisters, Mt. St. Helens, and even Mt. Rainier were visible under an ascending full moon. A beautiful welcome home. Back at CALYX I returned to the new issue, Volume 25:3 (Winter 2010), which is going to press on Monday the 7th. We did all the last minute checks and corrections of another incredible issue of women’s poetry, prose, reviews, and art. Look for it in your mailboxes early in January if you are a subscriber. If you’re not a subscriber, become one by the end of the year to ensure your receipt by mail of another incredible Journal of women’s words and art.

I continue reading (with another CALYX editor) the first reads of poetry manuscripts for the Oregon Women Poets Sarah Lantz Memorial Poetry Book Prize. It is not an easy task selecting from the many fine manuscripts we have received. The meeting to select finalists to send on to the final judge Colleen McElroy is Friday, December 11th. We plan to announce the first prize winner of the Book Prize in early February. At the same time CALYX Journal also opened for the annual open submission period (October 1 to December 31) and our editors are immersed in reading those first reads. The manuscripts are coming in heavily at this point.

The Birth of a Feminist Journal

Becky (Associate Editor) and Beverly (Senior Editor)

The CALYX Journal editorial staff is knee-deep in the production of the upcoming Winter 2010 journal. As the associate editor, I work with our senior editor Beverly, to copyedit, organize and arrange the journal’s content.

One question that we have struggled with this week is what is the best way to open a feminist journal? The opening piece often sets the tone to how the journal is read, and it is important to have a strong start. Much of our prose and poetry content for this issue focuses around birth and mothers, themes in many previous CALYX Journals, and so we are tempted to open with a piece on birth. As women, we are intimately and deeply connected with the complicated feelings related to birth and raising children. But is that all that women are connected with?

While women’s bodies and lives are often uniquely tied to children and child birth, woman’s experience is not defined by birth (unless it is, perhaps, the birth of her own identity). The journal will open with “How to Become the Oracle” by Linda Strever, winner of the 2009 Lois Cranston Poetry Prize. Immediately following, will be the lush and moving prose piece by Christine Simokaitis, “Waiting for Elijah,” focused around a woman’s harrowing experiences with the birth of her son. We hope that our feminist readers recognize that stories and poems related to birth examine only a piece of the many experiences, dreams, curiosities and challenges that women face in their lives. At CALYX, we will do our best to represent all of the many faucets of woman’s experiences and imagination; this includes, but is not limited to, birth.