The 19th Amendment centennial is coming up on August 18, 2020, which in publishing timelines is practically tomorrow. We at CALYX thought we were going to spend the centennial celebrating our progress with the first female president; we find ourselves instead looking forward to an anniversary that is much for suited to the discussion of
Hello to all! On the behalf of CALYX, I get to make an exciting announcement… we have an upcoming project: the publication of our new Social Justice Reader! No title yet, the reader is still young, just a sapling of an idea being tended to, and at the moment we vaguely refer to it as
Unless you have been contentedly nesting your days away under a rock, I’m sure you have witnessed the all-pervading media buzz surrounding Hulu’s new TV series based off of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. It’s a great watch, but also a great read. Befitting the resurgence in attention to Atwood’s feminist dystopia, I’ve put together
On May 5, 2017, Barbara Baldwin—poet and founding editor of CALYX—passed away. I didn’t have the privilege of knowing Barbara long enough, although I’d been hearing about her for years as a pillar of the Corvallis community. She was a patient at my father’s optometry clinic, and he would often come home and ask me
Sandell Morse’s work has appeared in Creative Nonfiction, Ploughshares, the New England Review, Fourth Genre and Ascent. She has won second place in the 2015 Tiferet nonfiction contest and has been named a finalist in the Orison Books Anthology 2015, nonfiction contest. “Hiding” is a notable essay of 2013, listed in Best American Essays, 2013.
Rebecca Keller is an artist and writer. She has published in New Fairy Tales, Calyx, Public Historian, “Crossing Lines”(MainStreet Rag Press), Alimentum, Great Lakes Review and other journals. “Excavating History” is her book of art and essays. Her awards include two Fulbrights, grants from the NEA and the Illinois Arts Council, the Jakobson Award from the
This week we are excited to share Caitlin Scarano’s poem “To My Little Sister, Driving Drunk,” which was published in CALYX’s 27:3 issue. Caitlin Scarano is a poet in the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee PhD creative writing program. She was a finalist for the 2014 Best of the Net Anthology and the winner of the 2015 Indiana
This week we are pleased to have Ada Molinoff reading her short story “From White Space to Black Letter: Taking My Place in the Women’s Torah.” Ada Molinoff earned her MFA in nonfiction from Pacific University. Her poems have been published in literary journals, newspapers, and anthologies. This is her first published memoir piece, and
Today Voices of CALYX is proud to bring you Airica Parker’s poem “Identity,” which appeared in Volume 28:3 of CALYX, available here. Airica Parker’s work appears most recently in Camas, Driftwood Press, CALYX, The Fiddlehead, and Lalitamba. The Poetry Foundation selected her as a 2011 finalist for a Ruth Lilly Fellowship. An accomplished performer, instructor, and
CALYX is happy to showcase Abby Minor’s piece “Whitetail,” which was published in volume 28:2. Abby Minor has studied at Smith College, The Penland School of Crafts, and The Pennsylvania State University. Her book reviews and poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Georgia Review, AGNI Online, Pleiades, and The Fourth River, among others. Also a visual artist,
Happy Friday, CALYX-ers! We are already on to week two of Voices of CALYX, and today I’m excited to present Kathleen Kelly’s poem “Free Range,” which was published in Volume 28:1. A first-generation editor and poet, Kathleen A. Kelly’s poems and essays have been published in North American Review, PoemMemoirStory, Rain Taxi, CALYX, and Nimrod. She completed Ph.D. coursework in literature
We’re proud to exhibit our first audio piece, written and recorded by Camellia Phillips. Camellia’s piece appears in Volume 27:3 of CALYX Journal. Camellia Phillips is a longtime grant writer with nonprofit organizations focused on social justice and civic engagement. In addition to CALYX Journal, her fiction has appeared in cream city review and her
Hello Calyx blog readers! This is Olivia, one of CALYX’s interns. My first blog post is a prelude to a longer interview that will be up next week. It’s about Project Girl, a student-led initiative in the Dominican Republic focused on breaking the cycle of poverty for young girls in the DR through educational workshops
Last night I attended “Transmit Culture: Women in Writing and Publishing” at Portland State University. It was a panel featuring author Karen Karbo, Tin House Press editor Masie Cochran, and our own Alicia Bublitz. There was a lot of discussion about what it means to be a woman in publishing and how marketing women’s writing has
*Note: Spoilers below. Go read the book.* As Brenna has already told you, several of us from the CALYX office took a road trip to Vancouver, BC to see the Vancouver International Film Festival showing of Into the Forest. We live(ish) tweeted, ate poutine (because, Canada, eh!), and extensively discussed our reactions. Much like other
Unless you live under a twitter rock you will have seen that Marlon James has won the Man Booker Prize for his novel A Brief History of Seven Killings. He is the first Jamaican, and, from the sound of things, the first author to use so many swear words to win the prize. We’re so
Last Thursday, I had the tremendous privilege of attending the Vancouver International Film Festival, where I was able to see an early screening of Into the Forest, the new Patricia Rozema film based on Jean Hegland’s novel of the same name. I also had the privilege of posting cheeky tweets about it throughout the day, but
Tomorrow, our small but intrepid staff heads up to Vancouver, BC, to see the premiere of Into the Forest, a movie based off of the post-apocalyptic Jean Hegland novel that CALYX published back in 1996. I want to share this experience with you all as soon as humanly possible. Ideally, I’d just wait until the movie gets
CALYX’s General Submission period opens next Thursday, October 1st, and runs until December 31st. I love this time of year because I get to read beautiful, brilliant poetry and prose for four months straight. But I recognize that for the women who submit, this can be an extremely frustrating time. After all, if you submit in October,
Poet Claudia Rankine penned an arresting, courageous body of work about racism with her book Citizen: An American Lyric (2013). I found Citizen to be one of the most important contemporary poetry collections I have read as it relates to the conversation women’s literature creates around addressing micro-aggression, marginalization, and racism in the United States
To Do List for the Damaged: My Hedgebrook recipe for writing a book By Tammy Robacker As Hedgebrook opens their call for women writers to apply this June, I cannot help but express gratitude for my own poetry residency there in 2011. My experience at Hedgebrook is especially humbling today since I celebrate recent news
Claire Harden is from Napa, California and currently lives in Corvallis, Oregon. She attends Oregon State University and is working on a Bachelor of Fine Arts. Claire works at Interzone Cafe and enjoys slacklining, hiking, camping, unicycling and painting. Claire is hosting an open studio art sale at her apartment on Sunday, June 7th on
Kate Ver Ploeg’s “Fall From the Sky” was incorrectly published in CALYX Vol. 28:1 as fiction. Her piece is, in fact, a true experience told from a vulnerable place in her heart. We are deeply apologetic to Ms. Ver Ploeg for the misprint, and wish to give her the space to reclaim the label and
Not sure what to do to make National Poetry Month special this April? Poets.org compiled a list of 30 ways to celebrate. Here are ten of our favorite! 1) Attend a poetry reading. 2) Pick you favorite poem and memorize it. 3) Buy a book of poetry from your local bookstore. 4) Try your hand
Did you know that April is National Poetry Month? Whether you are a devout poetry lover or think it’s impossible to understand, there is something for you to enjoy this month! Here’s an infographic with some facts about poetry to get you started: Infographic by Kelsey Sutton
Genealogies of Resistance by the Kinship Collective The Genealogies of Resistance created by the Kinship Collective is a zine formed by students in Oregon States Queer of Color Critiques course, lead by Dr. Qwo-li Driskill. The zine is a creative and collective project that demonstrates artistic activism, art that critiques, analyzes and reflects particular cultural,
Poet Dana Guthrie Martin has released an eBook collection of poetry titled, Toward What Is Awful, through YesYes Books (2012). Martin’s work has been paired with mute-toned, creaturely illustrations of visual artist GB Kim. The result is a small collection of poems that combine strangely beautiful visual components and multimedia formatting. This is a work
Staceyann Chin is a Jamaican born lesbian, spoken word poet, artist and activist. She has written a number of poems addressing issues of race and sexuality as well as a memoir titled, The Other Side of Paradise, an unforgettable story that documents her experiences growing up in an unfamiliar and dysfunctional home in Paradise Jamaica.
What I’m Reading: Natasha Tretheway’s Native Guard In Native Guard (2006), a collection of poetry by former 2012-2014 United States Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey, the poet creates a strong sense of place and loss when she takes the reader ‘down home’ in the rural South to tell her story. By sharing personal memories of growing up
When Cherríe Moraga spoke at Oregon State University on February 10, she captivated the packed room of audience members and reminded all of us why we strive for social justice and change. She spoke about gender and sexuality, growing up in a mixed-race family, and her own struggle with identity. She addressed the important influence
Inside Starhawk’s visionary novel, The Fifth Sacred Thing (Bantam, 1993), lies a lush, thriving community of people in post-revolutionary California who have adopted an earth-based, ecofeminist set of values and ideas. While the rest of the country, and presumably the world, suffers through extreme corruption and poverty, the people of San Francisco seem to have
The first time I sat at Margarita’s desk was the first time I began to appreciate what a true force of nature she was. It was late summer, and while Margarita had ostensibly been retired for a year and a half, she was everywhere in the office she had run for 35 years. A true
“If we are to dismantle a system that is oppressive because it pushes certain people to the periphery, we must bring those same people to the center.” – Leonicka Valcius, blogger, author, editor and traveler A demand for an “equitable literary landscape” within the publishing community reflects the larger socioeconomic and political disparities among racially
On Monday, I posted onto our Facebook page a link to an article by The Guardian which listed the 50 most influential books written by women. While I can agree that list is full of novels I have enjoyed reading in the past, not all have been influential in my life. Thus, here are the top 5
Now that you have, hopefully, had a chance to read the full version of Family Fest, Lynn Casteel Harper’s compelling, insightful essay from the Summer 2012 edition of the CALYX Journal, please enjoy this equally thoughtful interview she did about the piece. “Family Fest” is set during a weekend-long Christian music gathering, which your narrator does
A detail photo of Jody Joldersma’s sculpture, “The Birth of the Homonucli,” is the cover of the Summer 2012 edition of the CALYX Journal. An expanded view of the sculpture is included in the full-color art section inside the issue, alongside more images of her work and the work of other women artists. She was
Sara Kirschenbaum’s photograph, “Pears,” can be found in the Winter 2012 edition of CALYX Journal. Here’s what she had to say about everything from photography to feminism to food. How has your personal visual style evolved throughout the years? I had a very strong visual inheritance. Both my parents are artists and Bauhaus educated. My
Rosa del Duca’s, “The Script,” can be found in the Winter 2012 edition of the CALYX Journal. I wanted to find out more about this engaging author and how her story took its shape. Some people think that the military is not an ideal environment for fostering creativity. What was your experience in the military
With the start of the 2012 Lois Cranston Memorial Poetry Prize reading period, I’ve been thinking a lot about why people submit (or should submit) to literary contests. I recently had a conversation with a friend that went something like this: Me: Hey friend who is also a poet. You should submit to the 2012
If you couldn’t tell from our snarky twitter tags (#nooneputsbabyinthecorner), the CALYX table this year at AWP was on the polar icecap of planet book fair. Despite our distance from the hustle and bustle of the central corridors (or perhaps because of it) we still had a great turn-out at the table: authors stopping by
I read a novel recently that once again prompted me to reflect on a common and highly disheartening downfall of far too many awesome female protagonists/focal characters in literature, television, movies, etc. The composition I delved into began as many other fabulous works do, portraying the shift in social, sexual, ideological, economic, and gendered thinking
Greetings, friends of CALYX! Intern Marissa writing. With summer soon coming to an end, I am once again reflecting on how fortunate I am to contribute to CALYX, along with gaining invaluable publishing experience and meeting some especially first-rate folks while here. From mini-assembly lines of letter sorting to perusing manuscripts over coffee, we interns
Dear CALYX followers, After browsing around CALYX Journals, I decided to take a look at CALYX Books. I grabbed a few titles to bring home with me. I don’t know if I will read them all, but they sure look promising. I was really attracted to what the summaries on the back covers revealed because
A while ago, while browsing around CALYX Journals and CALYX Books, I spotted a Special International Anthology. As a French woman, this tickled my curiosity and I decided to check it out. Then I realized I had been right not to entitle my introductory entry on this blog “CALYX goes International.” Because obviously, CALYX did
Hi there CALYX followers! As an intern at CALYX, I have the opportunity to be around all the journal issues published over the years, and I decided that it would be nice for me to tell you about some of the great poems and stories I came across. I must say that it was tough to
