Celebrate Earth Day with Fringe

In honor of Earth Day, why not take a gander through Fringe's most recent and environmentally-themed issue? 

And while you're at it, we're a mere $114 away from our website re-design goal. Consider a $5 or $10 donation through the widget on the right.

poems for public radio

WMUK, Kalamazoo's NPR affiliate, put out an unusual request recently:

"Local public radio station wants to feature poems about radio experiences of any kind and/or fundraising to be read by area poets during the final day of pledge drive, April 4, in the afternoon. Station streams on internet so you can hear your poem. If you have anything, please mail to [mme642-at-yahoo.com] WMUK (Kalamazoo, Michigan) is the station. Humor good. Sentiment good. No cussin'."

via newpages

How's that for originality and support of literature?

Now if I can just get my NPR-lovin friends together to help me compose an ode to Ira Glass.

Fear His Wrath... or don't... maybe

Ah, the power of the media: post an idea in the ‘comment is free’ section of a national newspaper’s website and watch it grow. Or in the case of Ariane Sherine, you can also watch the public falling over each other to pledge their pennies towards your humble cause.

Sherine wanted to raise £11,000 in order put an atheist message on no less than 30 London buses for 4 weeks – the rationale being to counter all the damnation-style religious advertising that plague public transport (something, I must admit, I have been blissfully oblivious to). After enrolling the British Humanist Association, plus everyone’s favourite anti-God spokesman, Richard Dawkins (who promised to match whatever the public throws in – but only up to £5,500) Sherine has already amassed a healthy £115,820.10.

I’m not quite sure what to make of it all. Part of me thinks ‘fair enough’ and another part is left wondering, as you always do with such matters, whether all those lovely pennies (and the formidable power of the public forum) could be put to better use. Much has also been made of the phrasing of the ad, said to make its debut in January. What will it achieve? I can’t imagine a mini-ambush of atheist buses will weald significant influence over commuters, but I suppose in light of all the lovely debate it’s inspired, the ad itself is almost incidental. Interestingly, theologian think-tank Theos has also donated £50, under the reasoning that, hey, at least it gets people talking. It’s all publicity, innit.


A more eloquent (and informed) take on it all.

News from the Center of American Poetry

I receive in the mail a cream-colored envelope from the Academy of American Poets in New York, New York. In the lower left-hand corner, this quote from Walt Whitman: “To have great poets, there must be great audiences…”

The bundle of paper inside is about what you expect: sophisticated panhandling.

First, a letter from the Chairman. “Dear Friend,” it reads. What follows is a petition for my Membership in an organization founded well over seventy years ago by Marie Bullock, who was “outraged” by the fact that poets were not given time off from their jobs to give readings—jobs such as “soda-fountain jerk” or “salesman in a clothing store.” A rather confident letter.

As a member, among other perks, you get copies of books awarded by the Academy, “a valued edition to your personal library.” Join at a higher level (“which will bring you closer to the center of the American poetry world”) and you get a DVD. About poets.

By now I am dismayed.

But look, a letter from Donald Hall, author of the great Anti-Institutional essay "Poetry and Ambition" (1983), telling me poetry “requires institutions to give it a presence in the public world.”

Here is a brochure on all the Programs the Academy sponsors: awards, book clubs, websites, events, and prizes, prizes, prizes. I feel ill.

Finally, the bottom line: check a box next to a dollar amount. American Poetry accepts Visa, MasterCard, and American Express. This donation puts your name on Annual Reports. The return envelope has paid postage—though a first-class stamp will “help keep costs down.”

Whitman’s dream. But how did Whitman get my name and address?

Holiday Gifts? Buy Women for Women

Here's a holiday gift suggestions for those of you who are still shopping -- check out Women for Women International's bazaar, which sells crafts made bywomen survivors of war.

For those of you who don't know, Women for Women is an award-winning nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lot of women in war-torn countries.

You can sponsor a woman, which entails a $27/month donation. $5 of this donation keeps the organization running, and the rest provides your sister with staples for her family, and pays for job and rights-awareness training. Depending on where and how educated your sister is, you may be able to correspond with her. At the end of one year, each woman "graduates".

The upshot is this -- the organization helps women in warn torn countries find each other, recover, start self-sustaining businesses, and apply for micro-credit. In my book that's a worthwhile goal.

So consider getting me a set of those cutting boards(are you listening, Santa?), or better yet, sign up to sponsor a woman.

Feed the Hungry with Good Vocabulary

Over Thanksgiving weekend, I discovered a cool new site, via my aunt by way of my mother. It's called FreeRice.

The site gives you a vocabulary quiz that is quite hard -- my best level was a 46 -- and featured words like "scintilla," "veld," and "decollate". Word difficulty increases with every question you get right. For each correct answer, the site donates 10 grains of rice to a starving country via the UN -- site advertisers foot that bill.

FreeRice's sister site, Poverty.com keeps a grim death toll of people dying from hunger each minute.

Do something that's good for your vocabulary and for the starving -- check it out.

Susan B. Komen Race for the Cure

See me? I'm TOUGH.

I'm the first to admit that my life gets busy. I've got something planned every day, and it feels like I'm putting every minute to use. I spend my time commuting on the T knitting, I write emails while I watch TV, I eat while I walk. I even sleep with a book resting on my forehead just in case reading by osmosis is more than a pipe-dream. But this weekend, I am slowing down just a bit so that I can do something good for someone else.

Fringe copyeditor Karen Crosby pulled together a team to participate in the Susan B. Komen Race for the Cure, taking place in Boston this coming Sunday, September 23rd.

I've already raised $345.00 for the cause, and I can't tell you how happy I am to be spending a few hours walking with a group of dedicated Fringies and surrounded by breast cancer survivors and supporters of all shapes and sizes. Look out your windows and watch your TVs, because the Fringe team will be sporting Fringe T-shirts that day.

I can't help thinking about the women I know personally who have dealt with breast cancer. Some have been lucky, and some haven't. Aunt Judy, Aunt Karen, Aunt Donna, Nancee Sherman, Gretchen Stark, and Anne Marie McAvey, I'm racing for you. This is a women's issue, and it's not going away. What is there to do but sink my teeth into helping any way I can?

Fringe Becomes a Public Charity

Last October, Fringe Magazine incorporated as a nonprofit in the state of Delaware. Since then, we have been awaiting our federal approval, and it has arrived.

I am please to announce that Fringe is now a tax-exempt public charity under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

This means that any donations you make are tax-deductible!

We are currently trying to raise money to cover our costs for AWP 2008 , as the price of a table at the book fair has jumped from $120 to $350 in just a year.

Read For the Record!

My fellow lit-mag editor Jen Pieroni works as a grant writer for Jumpstart and is currently working on Read For the Record, which purchases numerous copies of a single book (this year, it's The Story of Ferdinand) in order to help disadvantaged children learn to read.

I think Jen said it best in her email:

"One of the statistics that literally dumbfounds me is that children in economically depressed communities have 0-2 age appropriate books in their homes. 61 percent do not have any books at all. As a writer and someone who loves books, can you even imagine?

So we're doing Jumpstart's Read for the Record to raise awareness about these disparities between disadvantaged children and their more privileged peers, while also providing low-income children and families with a beautiful book, which includes tips for families for how to make the most of reading time with young kids.

We chose The Story of Ferdinand because of its great message of being true to oneself. It's about this totally self-actualized Spanish bull who's really just content to sit in the pasture and smell the flowers even though he could probably be getting a lot of glory be fighting like all of the other bulls. It's the perfect message for the kids we're working with."

Jen has generously donated some of her own money to the cause. Want help disadvantaged kids learn to read? Donate at Jen's page and help her make her $1,000 goal!

Fringe Binge 3: The Summer Solstice

That’s right, the summer solstice is upon us (okay, it was yesterday), and what better way to celebrate the longest day of the year than by partying with Fringe Magazine! It’s our annual fundraiser, and this time we’ve upgraded from my house to the fabulous downstairs at Tommy Doyle’s in Harvard Square. The party is from 7-10pm – we’ll have hot munchies to share and rockin’ beats courtesy of DJ Tanya Ca$h. So if you’re in the Boston area, come out and support independent publishing! (Cost: $7 at the door)

Bring your dancing shoes and your drinking hat!