Enizagam

Congratulations to Donna Steiner and Anneliese Schultz

chosen by Kim Addonizio and Sarah Shun-lien Bynum

as the winners of the 2013 Enizagam Literary Awards in Poetry and Fiction.

Of Anneliese’s short story, Sarah Shun-lien Bynum writes:

“‘Child’ is a story that offers what I think of as fiction’s greatest pleasures: the experience of shadowing another’s consciousness, as well as the illusion of inhabiting another’s body. In this story, the body is aging and in pain, and the consciousness is often set delicately adrift, yet the writing throughout is nimble and exhilaratingly alive. Anneliese Schultz takes the most familiar of struggles – growing old, losing independence, surviving the Christmas holidays – and imbues them with a fresh sense of mystery and urgency. Equally poignant and funny, despairing and triumphant, ‘Child’ is itself a triumph.”

Of Donna’s poems (and the work of Terrel Adams and Meredith Greenwood) Kim Addonizio writes:

“All of these finalists are true poets; their work is smart, observant, and filled with the music of language as well as its meanings. In the end, I was most captured by Donna Steiner’s poems, by their precision and heart. Starkly lyrical, the voice here is a fully realized presence on the page, aware of and able to express the beauty and pain of mortal life.”

2013 Finalists 

Poetry

 Fiction

2013 Semifinalists 

Fiction

 Poetry

Enizagam’s staff is grateful to the many skilled writers – from India, Japan, Singapore, Canada and the U.S. – who’ve given us the opportunity to read their work; to our gracious celebrity judges; and to everyone else who comes together each year to make Enizagam a dazzling literary collection.

 Writers: we urge you to enter the 2014 contest (judges TBD). Our staff received many stunning works, which might have placed in the contest, via the general submissions process.

Ms. Addonizio and Ms. Bynum had these kind words for OSA (the urban, public charter school at which Soma Mei Sheng Frazier and her close-knit team of students staff Enizagam):

“Oakland School for the Arts makes me feel nearly giddy with hope. How thrilling, and how necessary, that such a school exists: a place where young artists are taught and mentored and inspired by faculty who are themselves working artists. There is nothing more compelling than the power of example, and what an example these teachers have set by striking a balance between their own creative practice and their impassioned commitment to and advocacy for the next generation of artists.”

– Sarah Shun-lien Bynum

“How many young people are encouraged to be artists, in any era? Not many. But here is a school that is doing just that, and providing them the discipline, focus, and community they need to succeed. I’ve seen first-hand what a difference such a school makes—my daughter went San Francisco School of the Arts. Without it, she might never have found her path as an actor. (She is working today in film, theater, and TV.) At SOTA, she was treated as an artist from day one. How heartening to have OSA and know that the next generation is coming into its own here in the Bay Area, with the skills and imagination we will all need more than ever in the coming years.”

– Kim Addonizio

Eniz Community: Please help shine the light on a scholarship opportunity for young people: a summer writers’ workshop to which – thanks to Keith Stephenson and Purple Heart Patient Center – OSA admits a number of kids 100% free. (Those whose families can pay underwrite our ability to let other kids in for free, and all additional proceeds will directly support our 2013-14 Lit. Arts budget!)

—
 

Writers (un)Block      youth workshops 
July 15-19 / July 22-26 / July 29-Aug. 9, M-F
9 AM — 3 PM
Nothing to write about? No ideas? Start new, generate work, submit to publishers and demolish those pesky “blocks.”

Oakland School for the Arts
530 Eighteenth Street
Oakland, CA 94612

Info + application:
sfrazier@oakarts.org / www.oakarts.org

Scholarships available.

“I’m supposed to write something great about Oakland School For The Arts but, yikes and zikes, clatter bang boom, they write well enough themselves. And paint and perform and make things and show them to everyone etc etc etc. They don’t need a few nice sentences from me. They’re going to come roaring out of that place running all of us over. They’re the new thing, the next thing, and the best thing we can all do is take cover.” — Daniel Handler, AKA Lemony Snicket

“I applaud the poets who are just beginning their journey into their inner selves. The world waits your questions and wisdom.” — Nikki Giovanni

“I see Oakland School for the Arts not only as a splendid nurturer of young talent but as an integral part of a truly important cultural phenomenon.  In parlous times like these, when divisiveness and distrust pervade the zeitgeist, more than ever we need artists, whose very job it is to assure us all that the things that divide us are not as important as the human condition we share.  In the creation of new generations of artists, Oakland School for the Arts is not only admirable but deeply necessary.” — Robert Olen Butler

The City of Oakland, California invites talented young writers (ages 13-18) to apply for the 2013 Youth Poet Laureate award. We are looking for young writers who represent the best of the Bay and live, or attend school, in Oakland.

The winning poet will earn a $5,000 educational scholarship – and embark on a year of opportunities as an ambassador for literacy, arts and youth expression. I look forward to serving as a judge: if this year’s submissions mirror last year’s in quality, it will be a true pleasure to read your work.

Application Deadline: Friday, April 19, 2013.

Learn how to apply here: http://youthspeaks.org/poetlaureate

If you are a young writer with questions, please feel free to email me personally at sfrazier@oakarts.org.

I look forward to reading your work.

What do Nikki Giovanni, Lemony Snicket (AKA Daniel Handler), Kim Addonizio, Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, Michelle Tea, Walter Mosley and Robert Olen Butler have in common? 1. Stellar writing. 2. Enizagam. Last year, Nikki Giovanni and Daniel Handler adjudicated our annual writing competition and blurbed our winners’ work. This year, poetry phenom’ Kim Addonizio and The New Yorker’s 20 Under 40 author Sarah Shun-lien Bynum will do the same.

Winners in the Poetry and Fiction competitions will receive $1,000.00 each; blurbs about their work from the celebrity judges; and the chance to have their work published in the print journal, and online. Winners and finalists will be nominated for the Pushcart Prize by Enizagam’s editor.

Even better: by submitting work, you’ll be supporting the hardworking young artists who study writing at Oakland School for the Arts – an urban, public school. Combine a philanthropic act with a career-boosting one. Even if you don’t win or place, you’ll receive a lovely contributor’s copy, which you can read; prop up a wobbly table with; or inscribe, and give as a gift.

The 2013 contest is now open. In response to multiple requests, and because we are greedy to read more writing of the caliber we’ve seen this year, we have extended the deadline to March 31, 2013. Best of luck, authors!

Kim Addonizio (2013 Poetry judge) is “one of our nation’s most provocative and edgy poets.” (San Diego Tribune) Her latest books are Lucifer at the Starlite, a finalist for the Poets Prize and the Northern CA Book Award; and Ordinary Genius: A Guide for the Poet Within, both from W.W. Norton. Her novel-in-verse, Jimmy & Rita, was recently reissued by Stephen F. Austin State University Press. Kalima Press published her Selected Poems in Arabic. Addonizio’s many honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, two NEA Fellowships, and Pushcart Prizes for both poetry and the essay. Her collection Tell Me was a National Book Award Finalist. Other books include two novels from Simon & Schuster, Little Beauties and My Dreams Out in the Street.

Sarah Shun-lien Bynum (2013 Fiction judge) was named one of The New Yorker‘s young fiction writers to watch. “The Erlking,” featured in 20 Under 40: Stories from The New Yorker, on shelves now, has solidified her as central to this literary generation. Ms. Bynum has written short stories for The New Yorker and Tin House among other magazines. “Accomplice” was selected for The Best American Short Stories 2004 and in the same year, her first novel, Madeleine is Sleeping, was a finalist for the National Book Award and winner of the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize. Bynum’s second novel, Ms. Hempel Chronicles, is a series of eight interconnected stories featuring Beatrice Hempel, a middle school English teacher. It was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award in 2009. Bynum is the recipient of a Whiting Writers’ Award and an NEA Fellowship.

Check out our contest guidelines here: http://oakarts.submishmash.com/Submit. 

Poet Arisa White, who has supported Enizagam in countless ways, was recently named a 2013 NAACP Image Award Nominee in Poetry. The only other female nominee in her category? U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey. You can catch Arisa reading with members of the Enizagam staff tonight:

Arisa White at Pegasus on Shattuck: 02/27, 7:30pm

• 1. Arisa White, Cave Canem author, recently nominated for an NAACP Image Award. Read more about Arisa White here
• 2. Kiala Givehand, Cave Canem author and founder of Generations literary journal. Read more about Kiala Givehand here
• Enizagam Featured Readers: Lili Ruane, Chloe Ashley, Olivia Hoffman, Mina Jameson, Jimmy Olney, Francesca Pemberton, Maryam Selassie, Gabriela Shaffer

Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94704

What to do on a temperate, lovely Bay Area Wednesday evening? Come out and join us!

It’s that time of year again. Enizagam has nominated the following pieces for the Pushcart Prize:

“Cucarachero,” by Kiki Whang

“The Fish,” by Nikia Chaney

“Orb of Ash,” by Amir Rabiyah

“Elegy for the Hills” by Jodie Childers

“The Scientist,” by Dena Afrasiabi

“Hawana of the East,” by Murli Melwani

Fingers crossed.

Now, back to enjoying the excellent writing that’s been submitted (thus far) to our 2013 literary competition.

Enizagam is excited to announce our Enizagam 2013 Literary Awards in Poetry and Fiction judges: powerhouse literary phenoms Kim Addonizio and Sarah Shun-lien Bynum look forward to reading, and writing a bit about, your best work.

Kim Addonizio (2013 Poetry judge) is “one of our nation’s most provocative and edgy poets.” (San Diego Tribune) Her latest books are Lucifer at the Starlite, a finalist for the Poets Prize and the Northern CA Book Award; and Ordinary Genius: A Guide for the Poet Within, both from W.W. Norton. Her novel-in-verse, Jimmy & Rita, was recently reissued by Stephen F. Austin State University Press. Kalima Press published her Selected Poems in Arabic. Addonizio’s many honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, two NEA Fellowships, and Pushcart Prizes for both poetry and the essay. Her collection Tell Me was a National Book Award Finalist. Other books include two novels from Simon & Schuster, Little Beauties and My Dreams Out in the Street.

Sarah Shun-lien Bynum (2013 Fiction judge) was named one of The New Yorker‘s “20 Under 40″ fiction writers to watch. “The Erlking,” featured in 20 Under 40: Stories from The New Yorker, on shelves now, has solidified her as central to this literary generation. Ms. Bynum has written short stories for The New Yorker and Tin House among other magazines. “Accomplice” was selected for The Best American Short Stories 2004 and in the same year, her first novel, Madeleine is Sleeping, was a finalist for the National Book Award and winner of the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize. Bynum’s second novel, Ms. Hempel Chronicles, is a series of eight interconnected stories featuring Beatrice Hempel, a middle school English teacher. It was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award in 2009. Bynum is the recipient of a Whiting Writers’ Award and an NEA Fellowship.

In addition to winning the chance to have your work “blurbed” by these luminary authors, the 2013 Eniz awards offer two $1,000 prizes, and the chance to have a reading of your work broadcast online.

Check out our contest guidelines here: http://oakarts.submishmash.com/Submit. Can’t wait to read this year’s submissions!

Does Enizagam believe in angels? Yes.

Bay Area businessman Keith Stephenson, founder/owner of Purple Heart Clinic, is flesh-and-blood evidence of their existence. Unlike many institution-based journals, ours is not run on a shoestring budget. It’s run on a no string budget. At the start of each year, we are allocated a grand total of $0 to produce, publish and distribute a national literary journal out of an urban arts school.

We reach out to strategic philanthropists every year; and every year, there is one who gives. When asked which specific School of Literary Arts project he’d like to designate the gift toward, Keith’s reply is: “It’s for the kids.”

As a writer, I am consummately aware of the fact that words – the precise, compelling tools with which Enizagam’s staff fulfills our purpose – are 100% incapable of expressing our gratitude to Mr. Stephenson.

Keith: a thousand thanks. You make what we do possible.

All gifts to the literary journal support the hardworking young writers at Oakland School for the Arts. For more information on how to give, call 510.919.3203 or send an email to EnizAwards@oakarts.org, with “EnizAngel” as your subject line.

Congratulations to Kiki Whang and Nikia Chaney, who were chosen by Daniel Handler and Nikki Giovanni as the winners of the 2012 Enizagam Literary Awards in Poetry and Fiction!

Of Kiki’s short story, Daniel Handler writes: “‘Cucarachero’ is one of those stories that works like a trap. I wandered into the first paragraphs, charmed and intrigued, and then, curiouser and curiouser, fell deeper and deeper in, and not until the story was over did I have a real appreciation for how smart the thing is, how wise about people so unwise, how careful and yet how instinctually the whole thing is put together. This is the kind of thing I always want to read.”

Of selecting Nikia as the poetry winner, Nikki Giovanni writes: “What a difficult job you handed me. These poems are extraordinary. Wonderful. Beautiful. Difficult. If I must choose, and I have agreed to do so, my number one is ‘the fish.’ What power this poem has with showing the difficulty of growing up with a terrible secret. What a powerful song this friend sings for a friend drowning in if not evil, then certainly, difficulty.”

Ms. Giovanni and Mr. Handler had these kind words for OSA (the urban charter school whose award-winning faculty authors and hardworking students staff Enizagam):

“I applaud the poets who are just beginning their journey into their inner selves. The world waits your questions and wisdom.” – Nikki Giovanni

“I’m supposed to write something great about Oakland School For The Arts but, yikes and zikes, clatter bang boom, they write well enough themselves. And paint and perform and make things and show them to everyone etc etc etc. They don’t need a few nice sentences from me. They’re going to come roaring out of that place running all of us over. They’re the new thing, the next thing, and the best thing we can all do is take cover.” – Daniel Handler

2012 Finalists are:

Poetry
Jodie Childers, for “Elegy for the Hills” and other poems.
Amir Rabiyah, for “Orb of Ash” and other poems.

Fiction
Dena Afrasiabi, for “The Scientist.”
Murli Melwani, for “Hawana of the East.”

Enizagam’s staff is grateful to the many skilled writers – from India, Japan, Canada and the U.S. – who given us the opportunity to read their work; to our gracious celebrity judges; and to everyone else who comes together each year to make Enizagam a dazzling literary collection. Writers: we urge you to enter the 2013 contest (judges TBD). Our staff received many stunning works, which might have placed in the contest, via the general submissions process.

Congratulations to Jendi Reiter and Laura Shearer, who were selected by Bob Butler and Michelle Tea as the winners of the 2011 Enizagam Literary Awards in Poetry and Fiction!

Of Jendi’s short story, “Five Assignments and a Mistake,” Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Olen Butler writes: “In her winning piece, Jendi Reiter shows some of the rarest and most essential talents of a literary writer:  a natural, free-associating, compelling narrative voice; a deep rootedness in the sensual world; and a gift for metaphor that is not only fresh and vivid but resonates organically into the wholeness of the story.  Ms. Reiter is a fine writer whose work I look forward to following closely.”

Of Laura’s poems, “Lonely Car,” “Jimmy Triffin,” “Will Not Mend,” “You Better Know By Now” and “Childless,” acclaimed author Michelle Tea writes: “Laura Shearer’s stark, compact poems leave room for big lonely to come in, the poet writing as much with the spaces in between as with the words chosen, hard, wistful words, country words. All together they sprawl like some tall sky punched with sad, tough clouds. If you read them once you want to read them again, and again, their feeling growing. A beautiful, spooky creation.”

Michelle and Bob had these kind words to say about OSA:

“What better thing can there be than OSA? What better than a place that lets young artists be artists, that sees them as they are – noble, lucky, special- and urges them deeper into their very own selves, and through these magic, creative selves, out into the world. I wish every kid could go to such a great place. OSA’s existence is living justice, and the students are nothing less than scouts of hope for the rest of us.” - Michelle Tea

“I see Oakland School for the Arts not only as a splendid nurturer of young talent but as an integral part of a truly important cultural phenomenon.  In parlous times like these, when divisiveness and distrust pervade the zeitgeist, more than ever we need artists, whose very job it is to assure us all that the things that divide us are not as important as the human condition we share.  In the creation of new generations of artists, Oakland School for the Arts is not only admirable but deeply necessary.” – Robert Olen Butler

2011 Finalists are:

Poetry

Peter Kahn, for “Sniff,” “An Evening Prayer,” “Lineage,” “It Rhymes With Wilt” and “Sitting Here In.”

Nicholas Kriefall, for “Nostalgia,” “After Hours,” “Long Vacation,” “Neighborhood Watch” and “Night Shift.”

Rae Gouirand, for “High Street,” “Moon Jellies,” “Canoe and Cicadas,” “Sounds” and “Firewood.”

Fiction

Emily Danforth, for “A Ditch; A Channel.”

Cassandra Seltman, for “Never Order the Fish.”

Enizagam’s staff is grateful to the many skilled writers – from India, Japan, Canada and the U.S. – who submitted their work; to our gracious celebrity judges; and to everyone else who came together to make Enizagam 2011 a dazzling collection. Writers: we urge you to enter the 2012 contest, which will be judged by Lemony Snicket (AKA Daniel Handler) and Nikki Giovanni. Our staff received many stunning works, which might have placed in the contest, via the general submissions process.

Enizagam also extends our deepest apologies to Nicholas Kriefall, a Literary Awards 2011 Poetry finalist whose work dazzled the entire staff. We omitted Nick’s bio from the issue. The missing bio:

Nicholas Kriefall: Native to Missouri, Nick is a graduate of the University of Central Missouri where he earned a minor in creative writing. In 2008 and 2009 he was a finalist in the David Baker Poetry Contest. Nick currently lives in St. Louis.