S as in Sam, Z as in Zebra - February 2009

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Dear Ones,

It's been a spell since you've received the news from S as in Sam, Z as in Zebra. In part because I am busy as can be working on my PhD in Women's Studies at the University of Maryland. So busy that for the first time in a number of years, we sent out "store-bought" holiday cards and not hand-made ones. That's busy! Busy is good, however, fertile, productive, engaging, and exciting. Below are some quick links of recent writing published.

Valentine's Day Column on Alternet

A new column titled, "A Valentine's Day Challenge: Would You Not Get Married Until I Can Get Married?," was published on Alternet on Valentine's Day. To read it, click over to http://www.alternet.org/story/126873/a_valentine%27s_day_challenge%3A_would_you_not_get_married_until_i_can_get_married/ and check it out. 

Two New Poems in OCHO

Miguel Murphy edited a special issue of OCHO titled, Dear America Don't Be My Valentine. There are many fabulous writers in this issue of OCHO - Scott Hightower, C. Dale Young, Jeremy Halinen, DM Solis and many others. I'm thrilled to be included. My two poems are "Seeing Annie Leibovitz's A Photographer's Life 1990-2006" and "Cunts." You can read the journal online here: http://issuu.com/didimenendez/docs/ocho22_miguelmurphy?mode=embed&documentId=090205143339-bc85b2cd020245438a3ffab9fc9e8d85.

Lesbian Poetry Archive

As a part of my course of study in the PhD program in Women's Studies, I've developed and launched the Lesbian Poetry Archive. You can see it online at www.LesbianPoetryArchive.org. For my work, I'm interested in lesbian publishing and circulation of poetry between 1969 and 1989. Too much of the work that was published then has fallen out of print. I am hoping to rectify some of that through the Lesbian Poetry Archive. As I say on the site, I'm happy to hear suggestions for additional materials to add (although I already have a very long list!) and if you or someone you know would like to guest edit a section, I'm happy to talk about that as well.

Sinister Wisdom: Lesbian Theories/Lesbian Controversies

The special issue I edited of Sinister Wisdom on the topic of Lesbian Theories/Lesbian Controversies is now available. You can read the introduction at my blog here, http://julierenszer.blogspot.com/2009/01/sinister-wisdom-lesbian-theorieslesbian.html. I encourage you to subscribe to Sinister Wisdom and keep one of the longest publishing lesbian periodicals in print and thriving. Subscription information is here: http://www.sinisterwisdom.org/subscribe.html. If you'd like a copy of this special issue, email me at JulieREnszer@gmail.com.

Upcoming Reading

I am thrilled to be reading with a group of four other women from the Wom-po ListServ at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC. We will read poems from Letters to the World, the anthology from the Wom-po ListServ, and new work. The readers are Kim Becker, Lesley Wheeler, Rosemary Starace, Rosemary Winslow, and me. This is going to be a fantastic afternoon in one of the great museums of Washington. Please join us on Sunday, 5 April 2009 for readings from Letters to the World at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC at 2 p.m.

Upcoming Work and Conferences

I just review page proofs for my two forthcoming poems, “For Judith Remembering Jane Cooper and Grace Paley” and “After the Revolution,” in Feminist Studies--look for those this spring!

Like most graduate students, I dream of traveling and sublimate that dream into conference presentations at cool locations outside of Maryland. I'll be at the Society for Textual Studies in New York in mid-March, then the Queer Art/Queer Action conference in Asheville, NC at the end of March. I'll finish my conference circuit presenting at Quick & Dirty, the graduate student queer conference on Maryland's campus, in mid-April. This will keep me busy for a while.

Follow Me Online!

I update my blog regularly, http://julierenszer.blogspot.com, and I'm actively using Twitter and Facebook. If we're not connected through social networking, let's connect!

Warm wishes to you all for these last days of winter and the coming of spring,

Julie

P.S. You're receiving this email newsletter because sometime, somewhere I thought that you might be interested in periodic updates about my work. If you'd like to be removed, please just reply to this email and I'll remove you from the list promptly.