Congratulations to SR Contributor Brandel France De Bravo on her upcoming book.
Bravo’s collection of poems, Locomotive Cathedral, was chosen for honorable mention and a $1,000 prize in the Backwaters Press Prize in Poetry contest—an imprint of the University of Nebraska. The collection will be published in early 2025.
Contest judge Hilda Raz, editor of the Mary Burritt Christiansen Poetry Series at the University of New Mexico Press, commented on Locomotive Cathedral, “I was delighted by the wit of the speaker, her refusal to be downed by the isolation and grief caused by the COVID-19 pandemic as well as drug and AIDs deaths she remembers, and cancer.”
“I am thrilled to be joining the Backwaters Press and University of Nebraska family!” said France de Bravo. “Transformation is a recurring theme in Locomotive Cathedral. I’m delighted that these poems, which explore the very human desire for permanence and control in a world of ceaseless flux, spoke to judge Hilda Raz.”
This year, Brandel also had the opportunity to serve as a contemplative coach to a Dalai Lama Fellow.
A second-generation Washingtonian, Brandel has served on the Board of PEN Mexico for three years and serves on the Board of the National Center for Health Research. She is a mentor through the Mexican nonprofit Jovenes Adelante and a certified instructor of Compassion Cultivation Training. A poet, author of numerous nonfiction pieces and essays, and translator, Brandel is the author of Mother, Loose (Accents Publishing) and Provenance (Washington Writers’ Publishing House). Her poems have appeared in 32 Poems, Barrow Street, Conduit, Diode, and elsewhere.
View Brandel’s poem in issue 29 of Superstition Review. Learn more about Brandel here.
While submissions for issue 32 are closed, Superstition Review’s blog is actively accepting submissions.
Superstition Review features Guest Posts and Authors Talks on the blog. These can be short essays, videos or audio recordings that examine current literary topics and trends. Please review the Guest Posts category and the Authors Talk category for reference prior to submitting.
We do not publish poetry or short stories on our blog. We do not accept submissions from ASU undergraduate students.
The Department of English at Arizona State University is putting on a series of informative and educational events this October. Take a look at some of the happenings on campus:
John Plotz – ‘We Have Always Been Posthuman: Speculative Satire before Science Fiction’ | October 2nd
Come to the annual Ian Fletcher Memorial Lecture, sponsored by the Department of English in honor of Professor Ian Fletcher (1920-1988). This year’s lecture will be delivered by John Plotz, the Barbara Mandel Professor of the Humanities at Brandies University and co-host of Recall This Book podcast. His research interests are in nineteenth- and twentieth-century British literature, the novel, science fiction, and fantasy, and is the author of several related works including “The Crowd: British Literature and Public Politics” (2000), “Portable Property: Victorian Culture on the Move” (2017), and “My Reading: Ursula Le Guin’s ‘Earthsea'” (2023).
The event will take place in Ross-Blakley Hall (RBHL) room 196 on the Tempe Campus. Doors open at 4:45. The event begins at 5:15. Refreshments will be served. Learn more.
‘Flatland’ Book Club with John Plotz | October 2nd
Professor John Plotz will also be hosting a discussion of the nineteenth-century novel “Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions” (1884) by Edwin Abbott Abbott.
The book club will take place in Ross-Blakley Hall (RBHL) room 324 on the Tempe Campus. The event will be held from 10:45 a.m.-noon. Please RVSP if you would like to attend this free event.
Echoes Seen: Collaborations in Image and Verse| September 14 – October 14
Supported by the Institute for Humanities Research, Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, The Department of English and the School of Art; the graduate students and faculty of the MFA programs of Creative Writing and the School of Art at ASU present “Echoes Seen: Collaborations in Image and Verse.” The exhibition displays work across many mediums, varying from photography, drawing, clothing, ceramics, paper-mâché, video and sound installation, and range in subject matter from joy, collective mythology, personal history, cultural fragments and their assemblage, and the significance of artifacts. In this exhibition, the possibilities for new perspectives in artists’ craft through the lens of collaboration – in pleasurable submissions and active encounters with another’s imagination – is ultimately about forging new and radical relationships through art.
The exhibition is open from September 14 – October 14, 2023. The gallery is open Thursday-Saturday, noon-5 p.m. ; first and third Fridays, 6 to 9 p.m. Learn more.
Humanities Week | October 15-20th
From October 15-20, ASU will be hosting The College’s Humanities Week with over 20 in-person and virtual events. Learn more.
MFA Student Reading Series | October 20th
Presented by ASU’s Creative Writing Program, the event brings notable alumni authors to the ASU community for readings and discussions about their writing and literary works.
The event will take place at the Ellis-Shackelford House, 1242 N. Central Ave. Phoenix, AZ 85004 from 5:30-7:00 p.m.
ASU Common Read: A Virtual Visit with Woo-kyoung Ahn| October 26th ASU is excited to host Yale psychologist Woo-kyoung Ahn, author of “Thinking 101: How to Reason Better to Live Better,” for a virtual visit. Ahn will discuss “Thinking 101″—ASU’s Writing Programs selected Common Read for 2023-24—and answer questions from students and faculty.
The event will be held on Zoom from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. MST on Thursday, October 26, 2023. Learn more.
Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing: Distinguished Visiting Writers Series (DNRS)| October 27th
The Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing holds a series of free events open to the public to ensure all individuals have the ability to participate in the literary arts. Visiting authors host small workshops in partnership with the Piper Writers Studio, engage in intimate craft talks with students, visit ASU classes, and participate in other meaningful activities.
This month, the Piper Center welcomes Eileen Myles and Jenny Irish. The event will feature a reading and conversation with two inimitable voices as they read their work and discuss poetry, life, love, gender and more.
About the authors:
Eileen Myles
Eileen Myles (they/them, b. 1949) is a poet, novelist and art journalist whose practice of vernacular first-person writing has made them one of the most recognized writers of their generation. Pathetic Literature, which they edited, came out in Fall of 2022. A “working life,’ their newest collection of poems is out now. They live in New York & in Marfa, TX.
Jenny Irish
Jenny Irish is from Maine and lives in Arizona. She is the author of the hybrid collections Common Ancestor and Tooth Box, and the short story collection I Am Faithful. Her latest book is the poetry collection, Lupine. She is an associate professor of creative writing at Arizona State University.
Hear from these talented writers on Friday, October 27, 2023 from 6:30-8 p.m. MST.
The event will be held on the Tempe Campus in the Piper Writers House. RSVP to save your spot for this exciting literary event. Learn more.
Congratulations to SR Contributor Jenny Marie Day on her assorted projects.
Jenny has upcoming solo exhibitions this winter featuring paintings and sculptures with Alabama Contemporary in Mobile, Alabama and Jonathan Ferrara Gallery in New Orleans, Louisiana. Jenny also has recent and upcoming artist residencies with Greenwich House Pottery in New York City and Anderson Ranch in Aspen, Colorado.
Since 2022, Day’s work has also been included in solo and group exhibitions with Galerie Bengelstrater in Islehorn, Dusseldorf, and Cologne, Germany; Visons West in Denver, Colorado and Bozeman, Montana; William Havu Gallery in Colorado, Form and Concept in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and many other venues.
Day’s practice has expanded to new mediums, including acrylic on canvas paintings; ceramic; mixed media; and textile sculptures.
Jenny Day is a painter and sculptor based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She earned an MFA in Painting from the University of Arizona, a BFA in Painting from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and a BA in Environmental Studies from the University of California Santa Cruz. Her exhibition record includes Arte Laguna in Venice, Italy; Czong Institute for Contemporary Art in Korea; Museum of Art Fort Collins; Mesa Arts Museum; Phoenix Art Museum; Blue Star Contemporary Museum in San Antonio, TX; Alabama Contemporary in Mobile, AL; and Elmhurst Museum in Chicago, IL. Day’s work has been supported by an Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant, a Puffin Foundation Grant, a Contemporary Forum Artist Grant from the Phoenix Art Museum, a Barron Purchase Award and ongoing support from The Process Museum. Day has participated at Greenwich House Pottery, the Ucross Foundation, the Jentel Foundation, and the Playa Foundation For The Arts, among other artist residencies. Jenny Day is represented by Jonathan Ferrara Gallery in New Orleans, Louisiana; Visions West in Denver, Colorado and Bozeman, Montana; and Galerie Bengelstrater in Dusseldorf, Germany.
View Jenny’s paintings essays in issue 19 and issue 29 of Superstition Review and hear Jenny discuss her issue 19 paintings and artistic backgrounds in her feature on the Superstition Review blog’s Authors Talk series.
This semester, Superstition Review is highlighting the Editors producing Issue 32. Today we got to know Phoebe Nguyen, an Interview Editor for Issue 32.
SR: What are your plans for after graduation? PN: I plan on traveling.
SR: What are you currently reading? PN: “A Brave New World.”
SR: What is your hidden talent? PN: I am scuba dive certified.
SR: What is one place you’d like to travel to? PN: Paris, France.
SR: What are some of your hobbies? PN:Reading, writing, shopping, horseback riding and being with my friends.
SR: Describe your perfect Saturday morning PN: Waking up to a cloudy morning where I can read in bed.
SR: What’s your favorite midnight snack? PN:A rebel from Dutch.
Congratulations to SR Contributor Sarah Beth Childers on her forthcoming book, Prodigals: A Sister’s Memoir of Appalachia and Loss.
Prodigals is a series of lyric essays of loss and resistance told in the voice of an Appalachian storyteller.
The book examines how Childers’ brother’s story was both universal and uniquely Appalachian. While the familiar story of the prodigal son carries all its assumed baggage, the Appalachian setting of Prodigals brings its own influences. Childers foregrounds the Appalachian landscape in her narrative, depicting its hardwood forests, winding roads, mining-stained creeks and rivers, hill-clinging goats and cows, neighborhoods and trailer parks tucked between mountains. The Childers family’s fervent religious faith and resistance to medical intervention seems normal in this environment, as is their conflicting desires to both escape from Appalachia and to stay forever at home.
Prodigals weaves in the stories of other famous prodigals, including the alcoholic brother of the Brontë sisters, Jimmy Swaggart, the fallen televangelist; Robert Crumb, her brother’s beloved author of racist and sexist comic books; and Childers herself. The story examines the role of prodigals within the intimate tapestry of family life and beyond—to its larger sociocultural meanings.
Read some of the book’s reviews:
“An Appalachian childhood steeped in Pentecostalism, the Brontë siblings roaming the English moors, the New Testament parable of the Prodigal Son: Sarah Beth Childers’ memoir triangulates between these and more. From the outset, it raises the question of who the prodigal is—the younger brother Childers loved and lost, too young, to mental illness, or Childers herself, who left West Virginia and her insular family to become a writer and professor. In prose that’s full of swerves and surprises, Childers tells and retells her brother’s story. This telling is an act of loving retrieval—even a kind of return. Riveting, luminous, memorable. I’ve read it three times and can’t wait to begin again.” — Jennifer Brice, author of Unlearning to Fly and Another North.
“Prodigals is about the author’s grief as she explores—via memory, via writing, and via time—her brother Joshua’s mental illness and his loss. She came from a family that did not ascribe names and diagnoses to mental illness, no less Joshua’s, and she must not only find a variety of definitions for loss, love, and relationship but also for herself. This is a journey of self, intellect, and history, toward understanding.” —Karen Salyer McElmurray, author of Wanting Radiance.
“A gorgeous meditation on family, place, and loss. In revisiting the life of her beloved brother, Sarah Beth Childers insists on bearing witness to people and places as they are while contemplating those who stay and those who leave, and the wide pulsing spaces left in their wake. Captivating and clear-sighted. A beautiful book.” —Sonja Livingston, author of Ghostbread.
Sarah Beth Childers is the author of Shake Terribly the Earthas well as numerous publications in literary journals and anthologies. She is an assistant professor of English at Oklahoma State University and lives in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
View the creative nonfiction essay “Beagle in the Road” by Sarah Beth Childers in issue 20 of Superstition Review.
Prodigals: A Sister’s Memoir of Appalachia and Loss, released on September 1 from the University of Georgia Press’s Crux Series in Creative Nonfiction. Purchase the book here.
From October 15-20, ASU will be hosting The College’s Humanities Week with over 20 in-person and virtual events.
Events are open to students, faculty, staff and community members. Enjoy free food, swag, and speakers. The current event schedule is listed below, but updates can be viewed on the Humanities Week website.
Sunday, Oct. 15
‘Fly: The Big Book of Basketball Fashion’ Book Launch by Pulitzer Prize Winner Mitchell S. Jackson in Conversation with Marc J. Spears
7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. | Phoenix Art Museum
Join us for the release of Fly: The Big Book of Basketball Fashion by Mitchell S. Jackson. This sumptuous, colorful book celebrates NBA fashion and the decades of cultural and political phenomena that bring it into being.
The author will be in conversation with renowned veteran NBA reporter Marc J. Spears.
TikTok and Tarot: Imagining Ethical Futures for Social Media
1 p.m. to 2 p.m.
The Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics invites students and faculty to play, experiment, and discover using our Humane Tech Oracle Deck to explore our relationships with “the algorithm;” a mystifying black box we interact with every time we use our smart technology or engage in social media.
We will also be sharing about our newest research project, Understanding Algorithmic Folk Theories: Tracing Community-Based Knowledge on TikTok, which was recently awarded a grant by the NEH Dangers and Opportunities of Technology program.
The School of International Letters and Cultures invites anyone who is searching for a place to come and get to know people from across the world or surround themselves with languages from around the globe.
SILC Café will be every day during Humanities Week with a different language department hosting each one — and a Sun Devil Rewards secret word each day!
Arming Students for Good: Youth Activism to Prevent Violence
3 p.m. to 5 p.m. | Walton Center for Planetary Health (Room 107 and Atrium)
Join the Humanities Lab at Arizona State University for a late afternoon event designed to elevate youth voices in collective efforts to prevent violence.
Hear from public figures, scientists and students about what we know about school shootings. Participate in interactive activities designed to demonstrate the urgent need for innovative solutions.
Open Mic hosted by Hayden’s Ferry Review and Thousand Languages Project
12 p.m. to 1 p.m. | Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing or Online
Come share your creative work at this open mic event hosted by Hayden’s Ferry Review and the Thousand Languages Project.
We welcome poets, short story writers, and song writers/musicians and a microphone will be provided. Participants may share up to 3 minutes. Walk-ins may still sign up to participate.
ASU Worldbuilding Initiative Distinguished Lecture with Connor Alexander
1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
The ASU Worldbuilding Initiative invites you to join us during Humanities Week to welcome our Fall 2023 Worldbuilding Distinguished Lecturer, Connor Alexander, lead designer of the award-winning tabletop roleplaying game Coyote & Crow.
In this interactive lecture and workshop, Connor Alexander will first introduce the world of Coyote & Crow, a sci-fi and fantasy tabletop role playing game set in a First Nations alternate future where colonization never happened, detailing the inventive and collaborative work that went into the game’s design and launch.
Afterward, he will lead participants in a character creation workshop where students and other audience members can make their own Coyote & Crow characters to take home with them, working in collaboration with Connor Alexander, the Akinana Circle live play team, and other members of the audience.
The School of International Letters and Cultures invites anyone who is searching for a place to come and get to know people from across the world or surround themselves with languages from around the globe.
SILC Café will be every day during Humanities Week with a different language department hosting each one — and a Sun Devil Rewards secret word each day!
Eddie Glaude is a passionate educator, author and political commentator. He has authored a number of books on Black communities, the difficulties of race in the United States and the challenges we face as a democracy. He has also written award-winning books on religion and philosophy.
He is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor and Chair of the Department of African American Studies at Princeton University and a contributor on programs like Morning Joe and Deadline Whitehouse with Nicolle Wallace. He also regularly appears on Meet the Press on Sundays and is a columnist for TIME Magazine.
Film and Media Studies in the Department of English at ASU invites all to our Fall 2023 Humanities Week Open House.
We’ll showcase work from FMS students and faculty, talk about upcoming courses, and provide opportunities for students and potential students to speak with FMS faculty and staff.
Hear Our Voices: Why We Need Historians to Write Children’s Books in the Wake of a Banned Books Movement
2 p.m. to 5 p.m. | Hayden Library (Room 236)
Join the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies and the ASU Libraries for visiting historian Radhika Natarajan’s discussion of her first children’s book, Hear Our Voices: A Powerful Retelling of the British Empire in 20 Stories.
Students will have the opportunity to create book ban and censorship awareness buttons via the library MakerSpace, as well as explore the Censorship Collection, a new curated collection of books and media that focuses on debates over censorship and free-speech.
Shakespeare at 400: Scenes From and Discussion of ‘The Book of Will’ by Lauren Gunderson
5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. | Old Main, Carson Ballroom or Online
In the case of “The Book of Will” by Lauren Gunderson, historical fiction illuminates historical fact. Discover how history was made with the publishing of Shakespeare’s Complete Works. Arizona State University presents scenes from “The Book of Will” by Lauren Gunderson, a modern, comedic look at how the Bard’s plays became the First Folio.
Historian Helen Cam has said: “Historical fiction is not only a respectable literary form; it is a standing reminder of the fact that history is about human beings.”
The School for Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies invites you to engage one-on-one with our current students and recent graduates who have been making an impact in public history research!
Students will showcase their projects by creating and presenting poster-sized visual representation of their findings, including the social and cultural significance of their work. The posters will be evaluated by a committee of faculty who will award fellowships to the winning students.
ASU Book Group: ‘The Circle That Fits’ by Kevin Lichty
12 p.m. to 1 p.m. | Piper Writers House or Zoom
The book group is open to all in the ASU community and meets monthly from noon–1 p.m. with two different options for attendance: either in-person at the Piper Writers House or virtually on Zoom. Registration is required for online attendance. In-person attendees are invited to join the author for lunch after at the University Club, no-host.
The School of International Letters and Cultures invites anyone who is searching for a place to come and get to know people from across the world or surround themselves with languages from around the globe.
SILC Café will be every day during Humanities Week with a different language department hosting each one — and a Sun Devil Rewards secret word each day!
Please join us for the 2023 Environmental Humanities Initiative Distinguished Lecture by Elizabeth DeLoughrey, Professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles: “Mining the Deep: Speculative Fictions and Futures.”
The lecture examines the oceanic turn in the humanities, particularly what Gaston Bachelard once termed the “depth imagination.”
6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. | Marston Exploration Theater or Online
Jonathan Daniel Wells, author of “The Kidnapping Club: Wall Street, Slavery and Resistance on the Eve of the Civil War” and Marcelo Hernandez Castillo, author of “Children of the Land” will be in conversation with communities in and beyond ASU.
Join us as we reflect on vulnerability, borders, resistance, history, love, advocacy and justice.
11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. | Armstrong Hall (Room L1-30) or Online
“So, what are you going to do with that?” English majors, history majors, language majors and more have heard the question a million times. The truth is that you can do a lot with a humanities degree.
Join a panel of alumni from the humanities division at The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences to hear their stories of where their humanities degrees took them and how their studies have positively influenced their careers.
The School of International Letters and Cultures invites anyone who is searching for a place to come and get to know people from across the world or surround themselves with languages from around the globe.
SILC Café will be every day during Humanities Week with a different language department hosting each one — and a Sun Devil Rewards secret word each day!
The Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing holds a series of free events open to the public to ensure all individuals have the ability to participate in the literary arts. Visiting authors host small workshops in partnership with the Piper Writers Studio, engage in intimate craft talks with students, visit ASU classes, and participate in other meaningful activities.
This month, the Piper Center, in partnership with the Hispanic Research Center at ASU, welcomes Norma Cantú and Denice Frohman. The event will offer a rare opportunity to hear from two acclaimed Latinx writers talking about mentorship, ancestry, and how we leverage the past to create something new.
About the authors:
Norma Cantu
Norma Elia Cantú, the Norine R. and T. Frank Murchison Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, is a folklorist, scholar, poet, and novelist. She served as the President of the American Folklore Society between 2019 and 2021. She is Professor emerita in English at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She is a co-founder of CantoMundo, a national organization that celebrates Latino/a poets and poetics. Her most recent publications include the novel, Cabañuelas, and Meditación Fronteriza: Poems of Love, Life, and Labor and the co-edited anthologies, Teaching Gloria E. Anzaldúa: Pedagogies and Practices for our Classrooms and our Communities and meXicana Fashions: Politics, Self-Adornment, and Identity Construction.
Denice Frohman
Denice Frohman is a poet and performer from New York City. A Pew Fellow and Baldwin-Emerson Fellow, she’s received support from CantoMundo, Headlands Center for the Arts, the National Association of Latino Arts & Cultures and Millay Colony. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The BreakBeat Poets: LatiNext, Nepantla: An Anthology for Queer Poets of Color, ESPNW and elsewhere. A former Women of the World Poetry Slam Champion, she’s featured on hundreds of national and international stages from The Apollo to The White House. She lives in Philadelphia.
Hear from these talented writers on Thursday, September 21, 2023 from 6:30-8 p.m. MST.
The event will be held on the Tempe Campus in the Alumni Lounge in the Memorial Union. RSVP to save your spot for this exciting literary event.
The Desert Nights, Rising Stars Writers Conference is returning to ASU’s Tempe campus on October 12-14 after several seasons away.
The “literary event of the year,” hosted by Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing, will feature 70 craft talks, workshops, panels, and readings from some of the industry’s most influential voices, including Superstition Review’s founding editor Patricia Murphy.
The conference spans a variety of genres and forms: fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, memoir, screenwriting, young adult, and picture books.
Sessions will discuss editing, publishing, the business of writing and the writing life. Discussion topics include travel writing, climate change, graphic novels, translation, disability studies, hybrid forms, social justice, and more
“I’ve been to lots of writing conferences in my time, and I’ve always learned something really vital about the art of writing, the practice of writing by being at conferences. It isn’t only the presentations and workshops and readings but also the chance meetings and conversations you have along the way,” says Sheila Black.
This year’s lineup includes more than 60 presenters, such as keynote speaker Joy Harjo who served three times as the U.S. poet laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Natalie Diaz. Attendees will have an opportunity to intimately engage with these voices in group readings.
“We went big this year and sent out invitations to all of the major writers we wanted, and not one person turned us down,” says Sheila Black, assistant director of the Piper Center. “The depth of talent at this year’s conference is amazing and will cover multiple genres.”
Black continues, “I think what makes a writing conference particularly valuable is the opportunity to get up close and personal with a number of different writers (including fellow attendees) and learning through hearing about their lives: how they made the books they made, what tricks and tips (often hard-won) they picked up along the way.”
View the schedule and the list of conference faculty. Find more information here.
Desert Nights, Rising Stars Writers Conference for 2023 is sold out, but please check out the faculty and schedule and think about joining next October for the 2024 conference.
