Delaware Literary Connection - Newsletter, September 2009

Newsletter, September 2009

THE DELAWARE LITERARY CONNECTION NEWSLETTER

September 2009

Labor Day is just around the corner, and chunky yellow school buses are already slowing down traffic. While we expect a few weeks of Indian summer, we've had a taste of fall and know that cooler weather is waiting impatiently in the wings. The bikinis will be shoved into the bottom drawer of the dresser, while comfortable corduroy pants and snuggly sweaters will be resurrected from the cedar chest. Autumn approaches. Pumpkin time... and we're suddenly longing for fall.

The DLC Board has been busy working on the "Cooling It With Kerouac" reading, which will be held at the Deer Park Tavern on Main Street in Newark, Delaware on Saturday, October 17^th. Check out the details in the article below. It promises to be a fun evening of literary entertainment, and we hope you'll be there to enjoy it with us.

It's been a few months since our April 4^th conference at Wesley College. We've received many complimentary emails about the conference and are delighted that you had a wonderful time. We're already looking ahead to the next conference and anticipate bringing you enticing, thought-provoking workshops and panel discussions. We're also planning several independent workshops throughout the next year. We'll send more details as our plans finalize.

And now to catch up. . . and present some new information. Get yourself a cup of tea or coffee, settle back in front of your computer... and enjoy.

In this issue:

Cooling It With Kerouac: A Beat Generation Reading
e. jean Lanyon - "The People's Poet"
"leap" by e. jean lanyon
Don DeLillo Receives Common Wealth Award
English: A Dying Language
"The Play's The Thing..." UD's Resident Ensemble Players and the Professional Theatre Training Program Offer A Season of Sparkling Delights
What We're Reading
Upcoming Events
Opportunities for Publication
Contests

* * *

Cooling It With Kerouac: A Beat Generation Reading

Sponsored by

The Delaware Literary Connection

At the historic Deer Park Tavern, Newark, Delaware

Celebrate the 54^th anniversary of the Six Gallery Reading

that launched a cultural revolution of writers and artists

who sought bliss in Cold War America

Readings! Raffle! Slam Contest for Cash Prizes

When: 4:00 to 7:00 p.m., Saturday, October 17, 2009.

Where: 108 W. Main St., Newark, DE Phone: (302) 731-5315.

Cost: $5 at the door. Includes party trays.

Bring your original writing to read at the open mic. Any theme. 5 minutes per reader.
Enter the slam contest with original Beat-inspired poems or prose. PLEASE TIME YOUR READING BEFOREHAND, 3 MINUTES OR LESS.
Hear a dramatic reading of Allen Ginsberg's famous poem "Howl."

The story behind the Six Gallery Reading . . .It was at the Six Gallery in San Francisco, October 7, 1955, where Allen Ginsberg first publicly read "Howl," his epic poem that celebrated sexual ecstasy, railed against 1950s conformity, and championed his friends, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs. The reading revived poetry as an oral tradition in America. Kerouac and Burroughs published their own Beat testaments in their seminal novels, On the Road and Naked Lunch. Kerouac coined the term "beat" from "beatific," and the Beat Generation inspired the hippy movement a decade later.To enter the Beat Slam, you can sign up in advance with Barbara Gray at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . Or sign up at the door.

Don't miss this celebration!

* * *

e. jean lanyon - "The People's Poet"

Former Delaware Poet Laureate e. jean lanyon delights us with her poetry... and her art

- Barbara E. Gray

e. jean lanyon, 74, former Poet Laureate of the State of Delaware and accomplished plein air artist, started writing poetry around the age of eight, but she's been painting ever since she could hold a brush. Her desire to excel at both took her to Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont. She subsequently attended the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, California, where she learned the basics of drawing and painting and burnished her skills while studying with other students who were preparing for careers as artists for Disney or as technical artists in the motion picture industry. e. jean returned to the East Coast and worked at the University of Delaware while raising her daughter, Stephanie, all the while continuing to apply her brush to paper and her pen to page.

e. jean writes her poetry in notebooks, on scraps of paper and on the back pages of her sketch pads - whatever she has with her, wherever she is We talked at length about the act of writing, how it mimics the act of painting in some aspects, and helps to define the creative process in her life.

"Drawing is a language," she told me over a cup of strong coffee. "The right lines in the right place make drawings speak. Painting is to say something."

Plein air painting takes the artist from the studio out into the open air where he/she views the world through the human eye. Plein air painting requires being there: No photographs where a scene is observed from one point of view. It takes the human eye, two points of view and peripheral vision to see and then paint what the plein air artist captures on paper or canvas.

"How is a composition composed?" she asks. "Is it spoken or told? Poems are paintings with words - a translation from one art form to the other."

e. jean paints what she doesn't write. And what she writes, she's driven to write down. Short stories come and "insist" themselves. She writes them in notebooks where wonderful sentences and clean pages add to the story's sensory enjoyment.

She doesn't own a computer. She writes by hand - it's a more "intimate interaction" than pounding out words on a keyboard. The hand grips the pen - just so - and shapes the letters that form the words, then sentences, then paragraphs to create a short story or a poem. "It's like painting," she told me. "You hold the pen or pencil as a painter holds a brush. It's an extension of the self. Drawing is Zen-like. Think of a horse without blinders. When the writer or the artist is centered, the creative juices float to the surface. Solitude provides focus, as the muse has to rest and feed."

She says that artists have to ask themselves questions: "What is the painting saying?" "Does the artist's intent work?" "Is it crippled by sponsor's money and must it be what the sponsor wants?" Writers have to learn to ask, "What if? Should I change an image, a character, the plot?" And writers and painters both have to remember that "Rejections are opinions, not facts."

e. jean was greatly influenced by Jeanette Slocomb Edwards, Delaware's second Poet Laureate. She invited e. jean to join the First State Writers, and told her, "If you want to work on being original, not a copyist or clone, you have to be a duck's back - you have to learn to take rejection and let it slide right off."

e. jean understands the art of the critique. For many years, she ran the First State Writers' critique group, and still attends an artists' critique group every week. She offers the following advice for those aspiring to run or participate in a critique group:

If one is critiquing, one should be neutral.
Critique groups should offer suggestions.
A critique should never be mean. One should always find something positive to say along with the objective criticism.
The artist or subject should never be attacked.
Critiques should identify what the "blind artist" cannot see in his/her own work.
Critiques should examine structure, cohesiveness of design (whatever the medium), and determine if the piece works.

The People's Poet

e. jean was appointed Poet Laureate by Delaware Governor Pete duPont and honored by Tom Carper and Ruth Ann Minner. She also served through Mike Castle's terms in office. A famous controversy swirled about her initial appointment as Poet Laureate. When former Poet Laureate David Hudson failed in his attempt for re-appointment to the post, he wrote a letter criticizing e. jean and her poetry, a letter published in the News Journal. But the literary establishment and the people of Delaware championed her appointment, and she received many letters of support. She ultimately served as Poet Laureate for 22 years.

"Thank you for saying that for me."

e. jean writes to be understood. She thinks in pictures - then translates the pictures into words. She takes ordinary things that people can grab onto and makes them extraordinary. She wants the audience to identify with what she's written. "Thank you for saying that for me," is a response she's often heard.

As I was leaving her crowded studio filled with the plein air pictures she loves, she looked up at me with an impish grin and said, "Whatever gets under my fingers is where the poems start." e. jean, we couldn't be more delighted.

e. jean lanyon's paintings are available through the Station Gallery, 3922 Kennett Pike, Greenville, DE 19807. To view samples of her work online, go to www.stationgallery.net/

e. jean will be the featured reader at the Gibby Center in Middletown, DE on October 25, 2009 at 1:00 p.m.

leap

when we jumped across

that five story chasm,

rooftop to rooftop,

your urgency was so great

i did not stop to think,

threw you my shoes,

and leapt

when squirrels fly

from tree limb to tree limb,

and spread the little web of skin

from their bodies as sails

they do not need a catcher

on the other end,

to grab them from

the half-missed ledge

and haul them in,

breathless

and in disbelief of the act

they just performed.

later, down on the pavement,

in my rhinestone heels

and sheath party dress -

you in tight sweater

and flat shoes,

we walked as though

no one could question us.

i met a woman

who never left her house.

all she knew was closed

within her doors -

rearranging little piles

of stale life.

she never leapt

from roof to roof,

not even the chasm

of her mind.

but we did!

and I can leap

and sometimes fly

like the little squirrel,

knowing in my heart

that the branch is there.

even if I miss,

i always walk as though

no one can question me.

e. jean lanyon

* * *

Don LeLillo Receives Common Wealth Award

- Robert Hambling Davis

On April 25^th, PNC Bank of Delaware honored four individuals with Common Wealth Awards for their professional achievements and contributions to humanity. This year's award for Literature was given to the American novelist Don DeLillo, whose work portrays the dehumanizing effects of a consumerist culture. A child of Italian immigrants, DeLillo was born in the Bronx in 1936. He has written 14 novels, many of which explore crowd psychology, especially during major crises in U.S. history. Libra focuses on the life of Lee Harvey Oswald, offering a speculative account of the circumstances that shaped the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. White Noise, which won the 1985 National Book Award, is about the evacuation of a college town when a chemical spill from a rail car releases an "airborne toxic event." DeLillo's most recent novel, Falling Man, which features a fictive survivor of the 9/11 attacks, examines how mass media often serves to promote terrorism. If there is a recurring theme in DeLillo's work, it is that we are living in perilous times.

When Libra was published in 1988, one critic called it "an act of literary vandalism and bad citizenship." DeLillo replied, saying that as a novelist he considered the accusation a compliment. He added that novelists, especially American novelists, ought to be bad citizens "in the sense that we're writing against what power represents, and often what government represents, and what the corporation dictates, and what consumer consciousness has come to mean. In that sense, if we're bad citizens, we're doing our job."

In Conversations with Don DeLillo, edited by Thomas DePietro, the novelist is quoted as saying, "There are so many temptations for American writers to become part of the system and part of the structure that now, more than ever, we have to resist. American writers ought to stand and live in the margins, and be more dangerous."

At the Common Wealth Awards press conference in the Hotel du Pont, an interviewer questioned DeLillo about the power of the novel in a world where the major publishing houses are owned by global conglomerates. "If fiction writing becomes more marginal," he responded, "it will increase the significance of the novel." When asked if cyberfiction would be the literature of the future, DeLillo said he had no idea, but that as a fiction writer, he "looks at history with a sense of awe." He remarked about how amazed he was when he researched the Warren Report in order to write Libra. "Fiction can examine real-life characters in ways that historians can't," he said, and stressed the subversive importance of this function, since governments manipulate history to serve their own power.

DeLillo has lamented the time it took to write his first novel, Americana, which was published in 1971. At the time, he was working as a copywriter because he couldn't get a job in publishing. When I asked him what he'd learned from writing that novel that had made him more efficient in writing the ones that followed, he gave a one-word answer: "Discipline." He said it had taken him four years to complete what should have taken two. "I had no idea how much discipline it would require to finish that first book. But now, it's automatic. I have breakfast, then sit down to write." Perhaps true to the themes of his novels, he said that working as an ad man did not help prepare him for writing fiction. "There was no correlation between the two," he said.

The three other 2009 Common Wealth Award recipients were the astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the Academy Award-winning actor Kevin Spacey, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin. Along with DeLillo, each received $50,000.

Since 1979, the Common Wealth Awards have conferred $4.6 million in prize money to 169 honorees of international distinction, including Jonas Salk, Betty Ford, John Glenn, Toni Morrison, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Morgan Freeman, and Meryl Streep.

ENGLISH: A Dying Language

(The following column was first published in the News Journal several years ago.)

- Bob Yearick

English as we know it is dying. It's been in ill health for years. And now, thanks to various culprits -- advertisers, sportscasters, the business world, the military and the media in general -- its death rattle is clearly audible.

I believe the end began with Ike -- as in Dwight D. Eisenhower. Our 34th president introduced the word "finalize." Americans of the 1950s loved and trusted Ike and they grabbed the word and ran.

"We're finalizing plans for our trip to Korea," Ike would say. And Mom and Dad would say, "We're finalizing plans for our trip to Secaucus." (Ike also mispronounced nuclear, making it "nucular," but hey, many public figures do that, including at least one of our presidents.)

"Finalize" was a small blow perhaps, but I call it a precursor, a portent, the beginning of the end.

Next, "lend" disappeared.

That's right. One morning we woke up and it was gone. In its place was "loan," as in, "Loan me a dollar."

From that morning on, to my knowledge, no one has used the word lend. In fact, I'm now sure that Marc Antony actually said, "Friends, Romans, countrymen, LOAN me your ears."

At about the same time, I began to notice the prevalence of the phrase "between you and I." "Between," as we all know, is a preposition, and it takes the objective pronoun. Thus, "between you and me" is correct. But pretentious people with a smattering of learning just can't bring themselves to say "between you and me." It doesn't sound sophisticated. (Even worse is the hideous "between he and I.")

Next, television introduced the commercial that told us, "Lite beer has less calories." The word should be "fewer," not "less," as any English teacher will tell you. Generally speaking, if you're using a plural, make it "fewer"; if it's singular, it's "less." Anheuser-Busch, please note.

Then there's the old bugaboo, the most misused word in the English language, "literally." It's employed whenever someone wants to emphasize a point, and they always -- repeat, ALWAYS -- misuse it.

A colleague recently told me that criticizing the boss would be "like biting the hand that feeds me -- literally." The other day, a sportscaster reported that "The Broncos literally crushed the Bengals."

Literally means "actually, precisely, exactly." My colleague is not about to bite the boss's hand, and the Bengals, although arguably a very bad team in the NFL, are still alive; they have not been crushed. What was meant in both cases was "figuratively," and in truth neither figuratively nor literally is necessary to make the point. So, for future reference, you should literally NEVER use the word "literally."

But these developments are mere background. The true frontal assault on the mother tongue has been unleashed by the corporate world. The jargon created by business people is unending. They take nouns and turn them into verbs or adjectives. They add prefixes and suffixes to perfectly good words, creating ugly mutations. And these words then filter into general use.

According to my notes, it began with "impact." Remember when impact was simply a noun? You know, like when the speaker at your college graduation ceremony told you to go out and make an impact on the world.

But now "impact" is more often a verb, as in "The product dramatically impacted the market." And it didn't end there. "Impactful" soon followed. "Impactive" is the latest bastardization of this formerly fine, upstanding noun. What's next? Impactfully?

Business people seem to have a fondness for words beginning with the letter "p." We don't set priorities any more; we "prioritize." And planning is no longer enough. Now we're into "pre-planning," which means planning to make plans, I guess. I recently came across an even worse abomination: "Planful action." May the God of English wreak havoc on the originator of that phrase.

Our abuse of the language isn't limited to creating new words. We also wallow in verbosity: We never use one word where we can squeeze in two or more. "Truly unique" is a favorite, followed closely by "totally unique." We're surrounded by truly unique people, products and opportunities. Unique, according to the dictionary, means "one of a kind." So what then, does "truly unique" signify?

A classic case of verbosity came across my desk not long ago in a memo that said "alternative options" were being explored. Tell me, what IS the difference between an alternative and an option? Obviously the phrase can be transposed, so I expect to see "optional alternatives" any day.

And then there are the truly redundant "past history" and the all-time favorite, "general consensus of opinion."

I offer these examples as warnings, as signs of the apocalypse, and I urge all literate people to gird their loins for the final battle. But I fear the end is near, and inevitable. One day in the not too distant future, someone will utter a sentence something like this: "Just between you and I, we're prioritizing our pre-planning efforts in order to create a truly unique and impactful wine cooler with less calories."

And no one will bat an eye.

* * *

"The Play's The Thing..."

UD's Resident Ensemble Players (REP) & Professional Theatre Training Program (PTTP) Offer a Season of Diversity, Complexity, and Intoxicating Theatre

If you haven't spent an evening with the University of Delaware's Resident Ensemble Players, you've missed a wonderful treat. Experienced actors, fabulous lighting, costumes and sets, expert direction, and a unique selection of plays combine to provide Delaware audiences with sparkling theater. PTTP thespians and technicians strut their stuff with great panache. Affordable prices and an amazing new house add to the thrill of the theatre experience at UD. Here's the lineup for the next 10 months. Google University of Delaware PTTP for specific performance dates and ticket prices, or use the following website: http://www.udel.edu/theatre/. Treat yourself to a night of exceptional theatre at UD - you deserve it!

I Am My Own Wife (Doug Wright) REP September 18 - October 4, 2009

Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (Tennessee Williams) REP October 15 - November 1, 2009

You Never Can Tell (George Bernard Shaw) PTTP November 6 - November 14, 2009

Bus Stop (William Inge) PTTP December 4 - December 13, 2009

She Stoops To Conquer (Oliver Goldsmith) REP January 21 - February 20, 2009

Two Gentlemen of Verona (William Shakespeare) PTTP February 11 - February 27, 2009

Cymbeline (William Shakespeare) PTTP February 13 - February 28, 2009

Death of a Salesman (Arthur Miller) REP March 11 - March 25, 2009

Dancing at Lughnasa (Brian Friel) REP April 16 - May 15, 2009

The Resistible Rises of Arturo UI (Bertolt Brecht) REP April 29 - May 16, 2009

What We're Reading - The Beats.... And more

The Beats: A Graphic History by Harvey Pekar

- Robert Hambling Davis

Since 1976, Harvey Pekar has penned a series of autobiographical comic books called American Splendor, about his everyday life in Cleveland. Although Pekar created the series, which won the American Book Award in 1987, he claims he's "incapable of drawing a straight line," and has recruited a number of artists to illustrate his text. Most notably, they include R. Crumb, who spearheaded the underground comic-book movement in the1960s, with Fritz the Cat, Keep on Truckin', and Zap Comix; and more recently, Alan Moore, who created the Watchmen series, V for Vendetta, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. In 2003, the Pekar biopic American Splendor, starring Paul Giamatti of Sideways fame, won the Grand Jury Prize for a Dramatic Film at the Sundance Festival.

In March 2009, Hill and Wang published The Beats as part of their "Novel Graphics" series. Pekar writes the text, together with five other contributors, including his wife Joyce Brabner, Nancy Peters, who co-owns the legendary City Lights Bookstore with Lawrence Ferlinghetti; and 86-year-old poet Tuli Kupferberg, who in 1964 co-founded the Fugs, a subversive psychedelic rock band.

The Beats chronicles the lives of the movement's founders, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William Burroughs, as well as Beat Generation writers and poets, including Gary Snyder, Robert Creeley, Diane DiPrima, and Ferlinghetti, who was the first Poet Laureate of San Francisco. There's a section on the San Francisco Poetry Renaissance that followed the Six Gallery Reading on October 7, 1955. It was at the Six Gallery where Ginsberg gave the first public reading of his seminal poem "Howl," which attacked what he saw as the destructive forces of materialism and conformity in the United States. The Six Gallery Reading is often credited with bringing poetry out of the academy, onto the streets, to be read aloud and performed in bars and coffee houses across America. Perhaps for this reason many academicians don't take the Beats seriously, and they are usually not taught in most curriculums, while the popularity of the Beats has increased since their heyday in the 1950s.Pekar makes some errors in the first part of the book, especially when writing about Kerouac. He states that Kerouac "developed a love for literature and wanted to become a professional writer" while attending Horace Mann prep school in New York. Actually, Kerouac had done extensive reading when he was growing up in Lowell, Massachusetts, and his early idols included Jack London, William Saroyan, and especially Thomas Wolfe. Kerouac expressly went to New York to follow their footsteps, and this is evident in his collected letters and Atop an Underwood: Early Stories and Other Writings. Pekar also claims that booze and drugs prevented Kerouac from trying to capitalize on his new fame after the publication of his bestselling novel, On the Road. Rather, he was vilified by the media and called "the King of the Beatniks" and "a spokesman for thugs." For the rest of his life, members of the literary establishment frequently made fun of him, including Truman Capote, who denounced Kerouac's spontaneous prose, saying, "That's not writing, that's typing."

The second part of The Beats is devoted to lesser known figures associated with the movement, like the early jazz poet Kenneth Patchen, and visual artists such as Jay DeFeo. The most interesting section, however, is "Beatnik Chicks," written by Pekar's wife, Joyce Brabner, the daughter of a University of Delaware professor. She grew up in Newark and worked as a social worker for inmates in the state prison system before becoming co-owner of a comic book store in Wilmington. There she discovered American Splendor and began corresponding with her future husband, Pekar. Brabner emphasizes the importance of the often overlooked women associated with the Beat Movement: Hettie Jones, Joan Kerouac, Carolyn Cassady, and Joyce Johnson, whose 1983 memoir, aptly named Minor Characters, won the National Book Critics Circle Award. Brabner describes the "beatnik chicks" as sexy women whose "cleavage didn't spill out of their clothes like Jayne Mansfield," and who "didn't wiggle when they walked like Marilyn Monroe." However, she follows this with a cliché, saying, "Theirs was another kind of sexy. Beatnik chicks gyrating in black catsuits as bongos thumped in coffee houses." Then, truer to their character, she writes that these women often spent "long nights writing or making art," mostly unnoticed by their famous husbands and boyfriends.

Aside from occasional inaccuracies and stereotypes, The Beats is an engaging portrait of both the famous and less-celebrated figures of the Beat Generation, and the stylistic variety of graphics by 11 comic-book artists make the text fun to read.

Testimony by Anita Shreve

- Barbara Gray

You're at home, comfortable, safe, anticipating an ordinary afternoon, when the phone rings. You pick up the receiver and the voice on the other end tells you that your son's in trouble. You climb into your car and race to the New England private school where your son, a senior, along with several other students, is being investigated for participation in a sex scandal that will rock the community and destroy lives.

This book is an exercise in point of view. Shreve looks at the incident and resulting chaos through the eyes of the students involved, their classmates, school officials, parents and the small New England community in which they live. The alternating first person points of view work well to create the intimacy that the tale demands. But Shreve goes a bit further. She switches to third person from time to time to examine lives - one in particular - keeping the reader at a slight distance - just as one of the main characters manages to distance himself from the incident, although he's intimately involved. That works, too.

As Testimony unfolds, you'll find yourself turning the pages more and more quickly in your own race toward the end. It's an enticing psychological read - and if you're fascinated by tales told in first person points of view, it's an education, too.

Author Anita Shreve is a highly successful and prolific writer. Her best known novel, The Pilot's Wife, was an Oprah selection, won a number of awards, and was produced as a movie. Testimony has all that potential, too. Enjoy!

Agincourt by Bernard Cornwell

- Bob Yearick

If you want a close-up look at the savagery, horror and squalor of 15^th century warfare, grab this novel from your local bookstore or library. Cornwell, one of the best writers of historical adventure novels, describes the run-up to and the legendary battle of Agincourt, fought by England's King Henry V and his "band of brothers" against a much larger French force on October 25, 1415.

The story is told through Nicholas Hook, a low-born English archer of prodigious strength and skill, who finds his calling and his lover - the bastard daughter of a French nobleman - as he rises through the ranks during the English army's march to Agincourt.

Cornwell is a master at recreating the era of knighthood and all the glory and gore it encompassed. He draws striking characters - both good and evil - on both sides of the line of battle who engage in all manner of carnage and cruelty. It seems that on almost every page, someone is being beheaded, disemboweled, blinded, tortured or mutilated in explicit and often creative ways. In describing these horrific acts, Cornwell provides a veritable glossary of the era's armor and weaponry, including a fascinating description of 15^th century archery and its deadly effectiveness. (You will learn more about bodkins and fletches than you'd ever thought possible.) And he doesn't stint on the day-to-day misery endured by Hook and his comrades, emphasizing bodily functions and the resultant stench and filth that pervade the camps and battlefields. The language is also foul, as both peasants and royalty spout nearly as many Anglos saxonisms as Tony Soprano and his cohorts -- except for, surprisingly, the f-word. Since Cornwell's research and knowledge of the period is so thorough, I'm guessing the word did not exist at that time.

Agincourt is not for the weak of heart or stomach, but if you like a fast-paced adventure yarn with a historical backdrop, this book's for you.

The Best Game Ever by Mark Bowden

- Bob Yearick

The author of Black Hawk Down earned his journalistic bona fides as a sports reporter, and he returns to that world with this incisive look at the 1958 NFL championship game between the Baltimore Colts and the New York Giants. Viewed by millions on television, the Colts' overtime victory - the first overtime in league history -- essentially gave birth to the modern NFL.

Seventeen - count ‘em, 17 -- eventual NFL Hall of Famers were on the field or coaching on the sidelines during that freezing December Sunday evening in Yankee Stadium. Bowden provides an in-depth look at many of them, with emphasis on Giants linebacker Sam Huff and Colts receiver Raymond Berry and legendary quarterback Johnny Unitas. (Bowden told me that Giant halfback Frank Gifford, who gained nationwide fame as a Monday Night Football analyst and husband of Kathie Lee, declined to be interviewed because he was working on his own book about the game.)

Besides being a struggle between the league's best offense - the Colts - and the best defense - the Giants - the contest pitted New York glamour (Gifford, quarterback Charlie Conerly and other Giants often appeared in TV and print ads) against the blue-collar grit of Baltimore.

Player portraits are woven into game action, which Bowden analyzes without sugar-coating the fact that the play was spotty, with many fumbles, interceptions and penalties on both sides. Giving him a big assist was Philadelphia Eagles Coach Andy Reid, who, according to Bowden, spent two hours going over game film with him.

The author - who graciously participated in the DLC's recent Writers Conference -- conveys the drama of the game with his trademark no-nonsense, straightforward style. It's a fascinating read, impaired only slightly by a few typos and lapses in punctuation and grammar.

UPCOMING EVENTS

September 10, 2009: inSPIREd Launch Party and Reading. Nightingale Lounge, 213 2^nd Avenue, New York, NY 10003. 7 p.m. JoAnn Balingit will be reading from her new book, Your Heart and How It Works (Spire Press, 2009). JoAnn's work has appeared in Harpur Palate, Salt Hill Journal, Smartish Pace and elsewhere, including the anthologies DIAGRAM.2 and Best New Poets 2007. She serves as Delaware's poet laureate, appointed in 2008. She teaches poetry in schools and community organizations throughout the state and lives with her family in Newark. Other featured readers are Alice Pettway - Barbed Wire and Bedclothes (Spire Press, 2009); Matthew Hittinger - Pear Slip (Spire Press, 2007); and Ann E. Michael - More Than Shelter (Spire Press, 2004).

September 12, 2009: Eastern Shore Writers' Association "What Editors Want - Presenting Your Work to Reviews." Town Dock Restaurant (overlooking the harbor), 125 Mulberry Street, St. Michaels, MD. Get an "insider's view" from a panel of editors representing The Delmarva Review, Broadkill Review, and Bogg literary journal. John Elsberg, editor of Bogg literary journal, will moderate a panel that includes Jamie Brown, editor of Broadkill Review, Linda Fritz, editor of The Delmarva Review, and Margot Miller, on the Editorial Board of The Delmarva Review. The panel combines a wealth of experience in selecting fiction, poetry and nonfiction for literary reviews as well as for magazines. The speakers will answer all of your questions and encourage writers to submit to regional reviews. You should come away with valuable "insider" advice.

September 12, 2009: 2nd Saturday Poets, Over Coffee Café, Lantana Square Shopping Center, Hockessin. 5:00 - 7 p.m. Featured Reader: Chris Childers. Monthly poetry readings held on the 2nd Saturday of every month. Monthly featured readers are followed by open mic readings. Poetry and spoken-word performances are welcome. Please see Second Saturday Poets website for further details.

September 14 - November 2, 2009: Philadelphia Stories Poetry Workshop: 8-week workshop, Mondays, 8 - 9:30 p.m. Robin's Moonstone, 2^nd floor, 110A South 13th Street, Philadelphia (three blocks from Suburban Station; conveniently located parking). Workshop led by Eileen Moeller, M.A. in Creative Writing, Syracuse University. The workshop will provide writing discussion and professional development, with an eye toward increasing awareness of the audience, and will help writers improve and develop their work through the use of peer-critiques. All levels of experience are welcome. Fee: $125. For additional information, please visit the Philadelphia Stories website.

September 17, 2009: Delaware Press Association and the Delaware Coalition for Open Government (DelCOG): FREE public forum, "What Really Happened to Our Economy: The Consequences of Not Knowing," at Delaware Theatre Company on Thursday, September 17, at 7:30 p.m. Keynote speaker, Michael Greenberger, is a nationally renowned lawyer, professor and expert on financial regulation. He has been a guest on CNN, ABC's "World News Tonight," the CBS Evening News, NBC Evening News, CNBC, MSNBC, "The Jim Lehrer News Hour," NPR's "Fresh Air," PBS's "Frontline," and C-SPAN and has been quoted in many newspapers and magazines, including the July issue of Rolling Stone. The ensuing discussion among the distinguished panelists (including Mr. Greenberger) -- Delaware State Senator Karen Peterson, News Journal senior reporter Cris Barrish and Widener University law professor and Constitutional scholar Alan Garfield -- will be moderated by DPA member Ralph Begleiter, University of Delaware's Distinguished Professor of Communication and former CNN world affairs correspondent. Questions will be taken from the audience. A reception will follow the discussion.

September 21 - November 9, 2009: Philadelphia Stories Fiction Workshop: 8-week workshop, Mondays, 6:30 - 8 p.m., Robin's Moonstone, 2^nd floor, 110A South 13th Street, Philadelphia (three blocks from Suburban Station; conveniently located parking). Workshop led by Aimee LaBrie, M.A. in writing, DePaul University, and M.F.A. in fiction from Penn State. The workshop will provide writing discussion and professional development to help improve participants'writing utilizing peer-critiques. All levels of experience are welcome. Fee: $125. For more information, please visit the Philadelphia Stories website.

September 22, 2009: Former Poet Laureate, Fleda Brown will read selections from a new work of poetry at the Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts, 200 S. Madison Street, Wilmington, DE. Additional information is available at (302) 656-6466.

September 24, 2009: Poetry at the Beach. This excellent poetry reading series, now in its 4^th year, offers its final presentation for 2009 with a reading at the South Coastal Library, located at 43 Kent Avenue in Bethany Beach. Drop in on Thursday, September 24^th between 7:00 - 8:00 p.m. and enjoy an end-of-summer/beginning-of-fall reading featuring the poetry of JoAnn Balingit, Gail Comorat and Abby Millager.

October 10, 2009: Eastern Shore Writers Association. Brick Hotel, Georgetown, DE. 11 a.m. Wilson Wyatt will speak on "The Seven Keys to Writing for the Press." Bring pen and paper to write your own press release. This is an opportunity to learn how to write your message so the news media will use it. Wilson is a former journalist and was the head of communications at three international corporations. Website: www.linkedin.com/in/wilsonwyatt.

October 17, 2009: Delaware Literary Connection. "Cooling It with Kerouac: A Beat Generation Reading." Deer Park Tavern, 108 W. Main Street, Newark, DE, 4 - 7 p.m. A celebration of the 54th anniversary of a seminal event in Beat Generation history: the first public reading by Allen Ginsberg of his poem "Howl." The reading, at San Francisco's Six Gallery on Oct. 7, 1955, helped bring into prominence Beat culture, which sought bliss in Cold War America while rejecting mainstream American values. The Beat Movement inspired the hippie generation a decade later. The DLC event will feature open mic readings, a dramatic reading of classic Beat works and a poetry slam contest for cash prizes. Party trays will be provided, along with a cash bar. Admission is $5. For further information, contact Barbara Gray at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

October 17, 2009: The 14th F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Conference. Montgomery College, Rockville, MD. The conference offers readings, workshops, and an address by novelist Julia Alvarez, winner of the 2009 F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Award. For more information, see the website: www.peerlessrockville.org/FSF.

November 14, 2009: Chestertown Author's Day and Book Festival. All day literary event in Chestertown, MD. The Delmarva Review will have a table at the event, from 2 - 4 p.m. For more information, refer to http://www.chestertownbookfestival.org/.

December 5, 2009: John Milton Celebration of Poets and Poetry. Milton, DE. Hold the date. Details will be available soon.

February 20, 2010: Bay to Ocean Writers Conference. Chesapeake College, Wye Mills, MD. Sponsored by the Eastern Shore Writers Association. Details available soon.

March 26-28, 2010: Writers at the Beach: Pure Sea Glass Writers Conference. Atlantic Sands Hotel on the Rehoboth Beach Boardwalk. Sponsored by the Rehoboth Beach Writers Guild. Details available soon.

Opportunities for Publication

The Delmarva Review: The submission period is now open for the third edition, which will be published in 2010. This literary journal seeks short fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction submissions from all writers. The deadline is December 31, 2009, but early submissions are encouraged. Send your best work. Only e-mailed submissions will be considered. New "Guidelines" for writers are posted on the Review's website: www.delmarvareview.com, or send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Public Radio Delmarva: Public Radio Delmarva (WSCL), an NPR affiliate in Salisbury, seeks 500-700 word essays on "Why I Live Where I Live." The essays will be recorded by the author and broadcast on WSCL. Essays should be sent to producer Penny Hartman: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . Please include a two or three sentence bio with your submission. Essays by ESWA's Wilson Wyatt, Diane Marquette and George Merrill are on the "Jukebox" link on the website www.delmarvareview.net.

Contests

Zoetrope: All-Story Short Fiction Contest. Deadline for submissions: October 1, 2009. PEN/Hemingway Award-winner Yiyun Li will judge the contest. Story length: less than 5,000 words. Three prize winners and seven honorable mentions will be considered for literary agent representation. For details, see http://www.all-story.com/.

Writers at the Beach Writing Contest. Deadline for submissions: October 15, 2009. Fiction, Nonfiction and Poetry categories with a coastal theme. The contest is sponsored by Delaware Beach Life magazine and the Rehoboth Beach Writers' Guild. The winners' work will be published in Delaware Beach Life, and winners will receive free admission to the Writers at the Beach Writers Conference in March 2010. For Guidelines and information, see www.rehobothbeachwritersguild.com/contests.html.

Bay to Ocean Writing Contest, sponsored by the Eastern Shore Writers Association and the Delmarva Quarterly, will honor first-rate writing in three categories--Short Fiction, Creative Nonfiction and Poetry. It is open now for all writers, regardless of where they live, what type of writing they do, or what subject they choose. The submission period runs through December 1, 2009. Only original, unpublished work will be considered. First-place prose and poetry will be submitted for publication in Delmarva Quarterly magazine. The winning authors will receive $100 cash and complimentary admission to the Bay to Ocean Conference on February 20, 2010. Judges are author Kate Blackwell for Short Fiction,Sheila Buckmaster, National Geographic Traveler editor at large, for Creative Nonfiction, and award-winning poet Anne Colwell for Poetry. Contest details are posted on the website: http://sites.google.com/site/btocontest or go to the contest link on www.baytoocean.com.

The Hugh Gregory Gallagher Motivational Theatre "Excellence in Writing" playwriting contest for veteran and aspiring playwrights. Deadline for scripts is December 15, 2009. Winners will be announced by February 1, 2010 and will be honored at premiere performances of their new plays during the year. The goal is to raise awareness of disability and discrimination. The plays must be original monologues or interactive plays of no more than four characters. Scripts should not exceed 15 double-spaced pages. For entry forms, write: Hugh Gregory Gallagher Motivational Theatre, Inc., P.O. Box 1048, Easton, MD 21601. For additional details, please refer to www.motivationaltheatre.com.

10th Annual Writer's Digest Short Short Story Competition. Deadline for submissions: December 1, 2009. "Bold, brilliant...but brief" stories. Up to 1500 words. For guidelines and contest information, see: www.writersdigest.com/short.

5th Annual Writer's Digest Poetry Competition. Deadline for submissions: December 15, 2009. "Engaging, thought-provoking" poetry. Maximum of 32 lines. For additional information, see www.writersdigest.com/poetryawards.

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