AWP 2023 Shiny Fam!

Check out the Gigantic Sequins Shiny Family at the following #AWP23 events, on and off-site!

We can’t afford to be there this year, but we’re so proud of all of our past contributors, contest judges, editors, readers, etc. who will be participating in these events. Check as many out as possible!

PRE-RECORDED

12pm/on-demand: Arisa White, panel: Bodies in Archives: Researching Personhood, Researching as a Person

12pm/on-demand: Aram Mrjoian, panel: We Are All Armenian Launch

WEDNESDAY 3/8

6pm: Katie Prince, off-site reading: Inspired by Iceland: A Multi-Media Poetry Reading

6pm: Mag Gabbert, off-site reading: City Feet, Swamp Mouths: A Louisiana Regional Offsite Reading at AWP

7pm: Jose Hernandez Diaz: Quarter After 8 Launch Party & Reading

THURSDAY 3/9

9am: Kimberly Gray, panel: Poetic Experiments: Incorporating Play into Writing and Teaching

1:45pm: Mónica Gomery, panel: Jewish Diasporist Poetics

4pm: Isle McElroy, off-site reading: The Future is No One

5pm: Alina Stefanescu, off-site reading: AWP: Wandering Words & Wild Euphony

6pm: Dorothy Chan, off-site reading: Diode Editions Presents: Poetry

9pm: Muriel Leung & Ronaldo V. Wilson, off-site event: Nightboat All Night

FRIDAY 3/10

9am: Caits Meissner, panel: Those who can…TEACH, Sponsored by WITS Alliance

10:35am: Saul Lemerond, panel: Not Lazy and Stupid: Atypical Minds Fighting for Space on the Page

1:45pm: Gabrielle Bates, panel: So You Want to Publish a Poetry Collection

1:45pm: Jericho Brown, panel: How We Do It: Black Writers on Craft, Practice, and Skill, Sponsored by the Hurston/Wright Foundation

1:45pm: Jose Hernandez Diaz, panel: “Surprised by Joy”: The Generative Writing Workshop

1:45pm: Rachel Mennies, panel: The Best of All Worlds: Partnering to Support Presses, Nonprofits, and Writers

1:45pm, Maurice Carlos Ruffin, panel: How Writers of Color Use Humor To Tell Their Stories

3:20pm, Caits Meissner, panel: Through the Walls: Working Equitably with Incarcerated Writers

3:20pm: Dustin M. Hoffman, panel: Wonderfully Weird and Small: How to Build a Thriving Small Press

5pm: Gabrielle Bates and MICHAEL CHANGE, off-site reading: We Keep Beginning • An AWP 2023 Offsite Event

5:30pm: Cheryl Clark Vermeulen, off-site reading: The Word Works

6pm: Ronaldo V. Wilson, off-site reading: MarginShift Presents: an AWP off-site with Counterpath Press

7pm: Arisa White, off-site reading: The Wilds—Pleasure, Power, and the Erotic—Celebrating Miah Jeffra’s American Gospel

7pm: jay dodd, off-site reading: AWP: Group Reading with Nightboat, FC2 and The Elephants

7pm: Alyse Knorr & Kathleen Rooney, off-site reading: Switchback, Futurepoem, Action, VOLT, Jellyfish, Boa, & Everybody: AWP Off-site Extravaganza

7pm: Sommer Brownding, off-site reading: Rendezvous: An AWP Offsite

7pm: Gabrielle Bates, off-site reading: Brooklyn Poets AWP Seattle Offsite Reading

7:30pm: S. Brook Corfman, off-site reading: Autumn House Queer Nature Anthology

7:30pm: Kristina Langley Mahler, off-site event: AWP Offsite

8pm Jose Hernandez Diaz, off-site reading: Harbor/Acre Poets AWP Off-Site Reading: Where the Sea Meets the Land

SATURDAY 3/11

9am: Kayleb Rae Candrilli, panel: From Poe and Plath to Meds and Co-Pays: Poetry and Mental Illness

10:35am: Jericho Brown, panel: Growing the Garden: Paying Tribute to Joanne Gabbin and Furious Flower

10:35am: Wendy Xu, panel: Poets of Chinese Heritage: A Reading

12:10am: Alina Stefanescu, panel: Writing Abortion in the Wake of Roe

3:20pm: Keetje Kuipers, panel: Begin Again: New Editors on Taking the Helm, Sponsored by CLMP

3:20pm: Saul Lemerond, panel: The Nuts and Bolts of Podcasting: Practical Advice for Teaching Out Loud

3:20pm: Isle McElroy, panel: Laughter in the Time of Suffering: Writing Humor from the Margins

5:30pm: Jennifer Fliss, off-site off-site reading: Words with Music…And Friends

6pm: Maurice Carlos Ruffin, off-site reading: Glitterati

GS @ 2022 AWP / Shiny Family Schedule!

Check us out at T548 in the bookfair–our EIC Kimberly Ann Southwick, Poetry Editor Billie R. Tadros, and CNF Editor LaTanya McQueen will be joined by readers E Kerr and Saul Lemerond Thurs-Sat. 9am-5pm! Come by, grab a free sticker and/or some candy–maybe a back issue?! Maybe our current issue!? We’d love to see you, even if it’s just to say hi.

Here’s everything else you should do besides the above while you’re in PHL:

WEDNESDAY 3/23/2022

7-9pm / Jose Hernandez Diaz (GS 7.1) / Readings On the Pike/MoCo Underground Do AWP!

THURSDAY 3/24/2022

ON-SITE

9-10am / VIRTUAL / Jericho Brown (GS’s 2nd Annual Poetry Contest Judge) / “The Poetics of Film: Five Poets on the Influence & Impact of Cinema

10:35-11:50am / Sofia Samatar (GS 8.2) / “Myth & Monsters in Memoir: Using Folklore to Structure Personal Writing

10:35-11:50am / Saul Lemerond (GS 8.1 & current Fiction Reader) & Kimberly Ann Southwick (GS Founder & EIC) / “The Neanderthal & the Fax Machine: Teaching the Surreal & Absurd

10:35-11:50am / Bianca Stone (GS 6.2 & 2015 Winter Poetry Comics Judge) / “Honoring American Poet Ruth Stone in a New Film about Her Life & Poetry

10:35-11:50 / VIRTUAL / Tracy Fuad (GS 7.2) / “AWP Award Series Reading

12:10-1:25pm / MIchael Czyzniejewski  (GS issue 12) / “Flash Fiction: Forward to the Future!

1:45-3pm / Kayleb Rae Candrilli (GS 8.2, issue 11, & 10th Annual Summer Poetry Contest Judge) / “Shaping a Poetry Manuscript That Has a Chance in Today’s Literary Landscape

1:45-3pm / Chloe Martinez (GS issue 11) / “Change of Plans: The Pleasure & Pain of Walking Away from Academia

3:20-4:20pm / VIRTUAL / celeste doaks (GS 7th Annual Poetry Contest Judge) / “United We Stand: How Diverse Collections Create Space

3:20-4:20pm / VIRTUAL / Rachel Mennies (GS 5.1) / “Beyond Representation: Intersections of Poetry & Mental Illness

5-6:15pm / Dawn Lundy Martin (GS 3rd Annual Poetry Contest Judge) / “A Reading & Conversation with Elizabeth Acevedo, Dawn Lundy Martin, and Deesha Philyaw, Sponsored by Blue Flower Arts

OFF-SITE

3-5pm / Spencer Silverthorne (GS issue 13) / UL Lafayette CW Program Off-Site Reading

5:30pm / Mag Gabbert (GS issue 12) / The Arkansas International and The Massachusetts Review Present: an Evening of Poetry and Prose

5pm / Sara Fetherolf (GS issue 13) / “New American Press Celebrates New Writing

6pm / Tracy Fuad (GS 7.2) / Minza’s Off-site Reading: The Experimental Issue

6pm / Athena Dixon (Past GS Reader) / Women’s Voices, Women’s Stories – An Evening of Memoir Readings

6pm / VIRTUAL / Meredith Clark (10.2) / Platypus Press Presents…

7pm / Kimberly Ann Southwick (GS Founder & EIC), & Nicole Steinberg (GS 6.2) / Bedfellows Thursday Thirst & Issue 11 Launch

7pm / VIRTUAL & IN-PERSON / Jennifer Fliss (GS 9.1) & Ellen Rhudy (GS issue 11) / Alternating Current & Okay Donkey Collaborative Reading

7pm / Sommer Browning (GS 6.2 Guest Poetry Editor) / A Reading by Birds LLC, Fence, Fonograf Editions, & the CSU Poetry Center

8pm / Tracy Fuad (GS 7.2) / AWP Conference Off-site Reading by Austin Segrest, Anne Barngrover, Tracy Fuad, and Keith Kopka

8:30-10pm / Jim Daniels (GS 2.2) / Glassworks Magazine 10th Anniversary Reading

FRIDAY 3/25/2022

9-10:15am / Marcela Sulak (GS issue 12) / “Reverberation: The Book Review as Literary (Labor) Labor

9-10:15am / Chloe Martinez (GS issue 11) / “Admit It, You’re Writing a Poem: Ars Poetica & the Awkward Confession

10:35-11:50am / Len Lawson (GS 10.1) / “The Future of Black: The Advent of 21st-Century Second-Wave Afrofuturism Poetry

10:35-10:50 / Jane Wong (GS 3.2) / “Teaching & Writing Asian America in the CW Classroom

10:35-10:50 / Annie Liontas (5th Annual Flash Fiction Contest Judge) / “Both/And: Boosting Women, Genderquee,r & LGBT Writers

10:35-11:50am / Kayleb Rae Candrilli (GS 8.2, issue 11, and 10th Annual Poetry Contest Judge) / “Saturnalia Books Twentieth Anniversary Reading

12:10-1:10pm / VIRTUAL / LaTanya McQueen (GS CNF Editor) / “Research & Reckoning: How Nonfiction Research Allows Us to Reckon with the Past

12:10-1:25pm / Arisa White (9th Annual Poetry Contest Judge) / “Total Strangers: Undergrads, Authors, & Editors on Amplifying International Voices

1:45-3pm / Mag Gabbert (GS issue 12)/ “Empowering New Writers: Strategies for Teaching the Hesitant Poetry Student

3:20-4:20pm / VIRTUAL / Tyler Barton (GS 9.1) / “Houses Full of Houses: The Structure & Craft of Building Story Collections

3:20-4:20pm / VIRTUAL / Tafisha A. Edwards (GS 7.1 & GS Poetry Editor) / “Call Me by My Name: Poetry of Black Womanhood & the Erotic

3:20-4:35pm / Saul Lemerond (GS 8.1 & current fiction reader) & Billie R. Tadros (GS 7.1 & GS Poetry Editor) / “Multimodal Identities: How Podcasting Can Unbind Creative Voices

3:20-4:35pm / Olivia Kate Cerrone (GS 3.1) / “Building Sustainable Writing Communities in a Postpandemic World

3:20-4:35pm / Keetje Kuipers (GS 5.1) / “Transparency & Transformation: The Literary Institution at the Tipping Point

OFF-SITE

5pm / Dorothy Chan (10.1) / Friday Poetry @ Brickbat Books

6:30-8pm / MICHAEL CHANG (GS issue 13), Mónica Gomery, Elizabeth Deanna Morris Lakes (GS issue 12) & Bianca Stone (GS 6.2 & Poetry Comics Contest Judge) / The Gigantic Sequins, Iterant, Ruth Stone House, & Rose Metal Press Off-site Reading at Young American Cider

7pm / Alyse Knorr (7.2) / Switchback Books, Jellyfish Review, & Furniture Press Books Reading

SATURDAY 3/26/2022

ON-SITE

9-10:15am / Michael Czyzniejewski (12.1) / “Bowling Green State University MFA’s Fiftieth Anniversary Reading

12:10-1:25pm / Paul Lisicky (GS 2018 Flash CNF Contest Judge) / “Chosen Families: A Reading & Conversation Presented by Red Hen Press

1:45-3pm / Atom Atkinson (GS 2.2) / “Sum = {Poetry + New Media + Politics + Performance}

1:45-3pm / MarÍa Isabel Alvarez (GS 8.1) / “Embracing Bilingual Writing & Bicultural Narratives

3:20-4:35pm / Jane Wong (3.2) / “In Order to Be Totally Free: Teaching via the Writing Constraint

OFF-SITE

3-5pm / celeste doaks (GS 7th Annual Poetry Contest Judge) / ?th Annual Rock & Roll Reading

6pm / Jameka Williams (7.2) / Bloom: A Spring AWP ’22 Offsite Poetry Reading

OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS

Brewery ARS (in South Philly & Fishtown)

Philly. Style. Bagels. (in Fishtown & Old City)

Philly AIDS Thrift & Philly AIDS Thrift @ Giovanni’s Room (aka “queerbooks.com)

Head & the Hand Books (Fishtown)

Brickbat Books (South Philly)

Harriett’s Bookshop (Fishtown)

Amalgam Comics & Coffeehouse (Fishtown)

Please do not leave this city without trying the scrumptious dessert WATER ICE, eating a SOFT PRETZEL (they really are better here), and getting yelled at by someone–preferably someone riding a bicycle who is righteous in their yelling at you OR someone in Philly sports gear who is not righteous in their yelling at you.

The GS 2020 Pushcart Prize Nominees

We are honored to be able to nominate the following 6 pieces for a Pushcart Prize this year, all of which can be found in our sole 2020 issue, issue 11!

“Higher! Higher!” by Ellen Rhudy

“Brainchild” by Cheryl Clark Vermeulen

“Spacesuit, or Learning How to Float Through Public Space” by Alan Chazaro

“True Owl” by Brendan Curtinrich

“How a Person Becomes a Body” by Paula Marafino Bernett

“After Ariana Grande” by Amy Zimmerman

Image that looks sort of 80s in pink, black, and white, reiterating the information already on this page: the winners' names and works' names.

GS 2019 Pushcart Prize Nominations

“Being the Murdered Bride” by Cathy Ulrich (10.1, fiction)

“I enjoy finding so much hair” by Rachel J. Bennett (10.1, poetry)

“Feather Rousing” by Rebecca Meacham (10.1, creative non-fiction)

Lauren T. Yates “Origin Story” (10.2, poetry)

Brody Parrish Craig “The Shape I’m In” (10.2, poetry)

“Liesl: A Cartography” by Pete Segall (10.2, fiction)

8th Annual Summer Contest Results!

8th Annual Poetry Contest Finalists & Winner

“Pelt” by Clare Welsh – finalist
“Of The Macho” by Christopher Rubio-Goldsmith – finalist
“When I Say Love I Mean El Greco’s The Assumption of the Virgin” by Sara Quinn Rivara – finalist
“Foreplay” by Samuel Piccone – finalist
“My Mania as an Alaskan Summer” by Zackary Medlin – finalist
“LOVE IN THE ANTHROPOCENE” by Rachel Harkai – finalist
“I Have Not Taken Proper Advantage of Scorpio Season” by Lauren Eggert-Crowe – finalist
“I wish all children could touch the sky at least once” by Kayleb Rae Candrilli – winner, selected by Marwa Helal

8th Annual Flash Fiction Contest Finalists & Winner

“Take Their Body” by Jen Cox-Shah – winner, selected by Imogen Binnie
“Higher! Higher!” by Ellen Rhudy – finalist
“A Hundred Small Lessons” by Daniel Goff – finalist
“The Name of Death is—a Fungus—Girdle—Chitin Teeth—the Graying Valley” by Ashely Adams – finalist
“Climate Change” by Epiphany Ferrell – finalist

 

 

Issue 10.2 Contributors!

Hello! We are pleased to announce the contributors to issue 10.2 of Gigantic Sequins!  Here they are…!

Our 10.1 Contributors!

The GS squad is happy to announce the work we’ll be publishing in GS 10.1!

ART BY…

Best of Math Class and Scott Minzy

POETRY BY…

Thea Anderson, Rachel J. Bennett, Derek Berry, Stephen Brown, Dorothy Chan, Joshua Clayton, Chelsea B. DesAutels, jayy dodd, Kari Ann Ebert, Joseph M. Gerace, Shelby Handler, Len Lawson, and Jacob Nantz

FICTION BY…

Julia Coursey, Ben Gitkind, Cathy Ulrich, and Zach VandeZande

CREATIVE NONFICTION BY…

Rebecca Meacham and Judy T. Oldfield

 

 

 

GS 7th Annual Summer Contest Results!

Thanks to our judges & all who entered. Here are the results!

POETRY

“Maadulampazham (In Which Her Daughter Hears the Diagnosis).” by Kari Ann Ebert, winner selected by celeste doaks
Annotations for [Redacted] Elegy” by Derek Berry, finalist
“An Oral History of a City Destroyed by Fire” by Kitt Keller, finalist
“IF I WERE ANY MORE AMBIDEXTROUS I’D SLAP MY OWN ASS LEFT HANDED” by Zachery Elbourne, finalist
“Passed Down on Slow Hands” by Claire Fallon, finalist
“Portrait of George Stinney, Jr, as Police Report and Trial” by Len Lawson, finalist

FLASH FICTION

“The Collectors” by Julia Coursey – winner, chosen by Rachel B. Glaser
“Evolution” Katheryn McMahon, finalist
“Father’s” by Zach VandeZande, finalist
“My Fake Brother” by Leonora Desar, finalist
“The Murderous History of Tumbleweeds” by David Drury, finalist
“Timber” by Christopher Linforth, finalist
“Walks Like a Lion” by Nancy Au, finalist

Announcing… the GS 9.2 Roster!

Gigantic Sequins 9.2 debuts this summer, and we can’t wait. Meanwhile, here are all the writers & artists whose fantastic work will be appearing within its print pages! WHILE YOU’RE AT IT, check out our online store for a SNEAK PREVIEW of the 9.2 front cover (art by Fumi Mini Nakamura, design by meg willing)… and your first opportunity to pre-order this phenomenal issue. A full spread of the cover should go up on our official website within the next month or so.
Meriwether Clarke
Kelsey Gray
Mitchell King
Natalie Sharp
Sarah Thompson
plus, a book review of The Barbarous Century by Leah Umansky (Eyewear Press, March 2018) by Kim Jacobs-Beck