Free Exchange Fundraiser!

Join us for a FREE PARTY in support of the UofC English grad. students'
Free Exchange Conference!

Live Music by the Ogden Owls
DJs Chris B & Arlen

Saturday February 13th @ 8pm
Hillhurst Sunnyside Community Centre
1320 5th Avenue NW
Walking distance from Sunnyside Train Station

$4.00 Beer & Wine
donations welcome at the door

Join the Facebook event & help us spread the word:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=281549791777&ref=ts

Free Exchange is an annual graduate student conference organized entirely
by graduate students at the University of Calgary Department of English.
Founded more than fifteen years ago, it has grown to attract participants
from across Canada, the United States, and elsewhere in the world. Due to
the current economic climate, it has become the responsibility of students
to raise much of the funds necessary for hosting Free Exchange. If you are
interested in supporting this conference, but are unable to attend our
fundraiser party, please feel free to contact conference organizers Carmen
Derkson and Colin Martin at freeex@ucalgary.ca. Visit
http://english.ucalgary.ca/FreeExchange for more details.

Harper's Penis Tastes Salty

As many of you know, I'm the president of filling Station magazine. Over the last 15 years we've published - often for the first time - pretty much every major poet working in Canada today and a damn good selection of the prose writers and visual artists.

We don't meet these criteria. And we apparently don't publish enough work about beef insemination. Too bad for us. Follow the link, read the article, shit on your Conservative MP's porch.

call for work

NōD Magazine [Poetry – Prose – Visual Art]

Call for open submissions

Issue 11 / Fall 2009

Deadline: Oct 31

E-mail: nodmagazine@gmail.com

mail: NōD Magazine
c/o Dep’t of English
University of Calgary
2500 University Dr NW, T2T 1N4

NōD, creative writing publication of the University of Calgary undergraduates, is looking for innovative works of poetry prose or visual art for its eleventh issue. Works from undergraduate students and also the community are eligible for publication.

New this year: NōD magazine is looking for submissions of 50-100 words for a feature on NUTV (UofC's on campus television). Eligible entries are selected monthly from the open submissions and will show regularly during the chosen month. Eligible entries are also featured in the Magazine.

fS Call!

Call to Artists – filling Station Magazine

filling Station Magazine, now in its 14th year of publishing, is a Calgary-based, nationally-distributed literary and arts magazine. A non-profit, it is completely run by volunteers from the community invested in bringing great writing and art from Calgary and area into the national spotlight.

Both emerging and established artists are invited to submit images of their art, or articles, statements, rants and manifestos about art accompanied by images, to our Fine Arts Editor for consideration in upcoming issues of filling Station. Submissions can include visual art, photography, documentation of artworks and events, photo essays about arts events, happenings and more.

Successful contributors receive:
1) a one year (3 issue) subscription to filling Station Magazine
2) two complimentary copies of the issue in which you submission appears
3) exposure to readers across Canada
4) a new line on your CV
5) our everlasting good will

filling Station receives First North American Serial Rights, meaning it appears in our magazine before any other publication. The artist retains all other rights.

How to Submit:

Images may be sent in low (email-able) resolution to Debbie.lee Miszaniec at finearts.fs@gmail.com If selected for publication, the editor will arrange with you to receive high resolution files of images in 300 dpi or higher. Images appearing within filling Station’s pages would be black and white, but colour versions can be made available on our new website at www.fillingstation.ca Also, images selected to appear on covers would be published in colour.

Please include with your submission a short bio or artist’s statement, your mailing address, and your email address in the body of your email.

filling Station publishes 3 issues per year; therefore, please allow up 0-4 months for reply.

About the Fine Arts Editor:
Debbie.lee Miszaniec is an artist living and working in Calgary, Alberta Canada. In 2008 she completed her BFA in painting with distinction at the Alberta College of Art + Design. Further information about her work can be found at www.debbieleemiszaniec.com

Student Unemployment

The hole is getting deeper and deeper. When will our elected representatives start addressing the problem of class education barriers with a productive response?

Never, under the current administration.

For Roy Everett Martin

i wrote this poem for my grandfather during the spring. he died today. i hope, for his sake, that he sees grandma in heaven. i don't believe he will but she was always worth seeing.

there are two versions...

1

my grandpa’s watch stopped years ago

new batteries startled it into motion

but when it recalled the time it said nono

that’s all wrong

the watch changed dates

accorded a martial keeping,

awakened me at strange moments,

bit the hairs from my arm

with jumpy little twitchings

we synchronized our complaints

and proceeded

with our mission

2

my Grandfather’s watch

stopped years ago

new batteries startled

into motion but when it

recollected the time said

nono. that’s all wrong

the time is wrong

the watch changes dates

reminisces about the war

and awakens me at

strange moments to insist

something

its bracelet pinches and bites

the hairs from my arms

makes its complaints

my own, over time

i always vow to wear the watch

when i visit

so sometimes i just wear it

around the house and stuff

god bless you, grandpa. rest in peace.

Amber Bowerman

One of the lead stories on the CBC this morning is about the scholarships created in memory of Amber Bowerman. I only met her once, as a moderator for a session she gave at an AMPA conference a couple of years back, but she struck me that morning as being a wonderful, compassionate person who had made all the choices necessary to pursue a life of publishing and writing that truly fulfilled her. Not all of us have the strength of character to do what she did. It is wonderful to see that her life is not a total waste, that a legacy of helping other developing writers do what she did continues for students across Alberta.