I’m fortunate enough to have a large-windowed office in an old building and a cute little money tree on my desk (which looks like it needs watering…must get to that). And what have I been doing during these alternating stifling and soppy days? Reading the mounds of book catalogs that publishers send our way in preparation for booking the upcoming season.

And I’ve found a lot of interesting themes. One being the spiritual memoir (be sure to check out feminist Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg reading from Surprised By God at CNW on Thursday, September 4 at 7pm) and another being Ida B. Wells.

Having worked within the publishing industry, I know that these things come in waves. What’s your favorite recent publishing fad?

I’m Stacey, the summer intern at the Center for New Words, and I’d like to take a minute to introduce myself to our lovely and faithful blog readership. I’m a rising senior at Tufts University and I have just returned from Paris, France, where I spent the semester studying French language and culture. My past experience in the nonprofit field and my interest in promoting women’s literacy and related issues drew me to the Center for New Words, and I am excited to be involved in planning the WAM! conference this summer. A little bit about me personally— I am an English and French double major and an avid reader. I grew up near Manchester, New Hampshire, and I love Cape Cod and the Red Sox! I also like playing the piano and going to the beach, especially on hot days like today—good thing the CNW office is air-conditioned =) I’ll be writing on the blog about once a week, so check back for updates!

As I stepped into EBHS yesterday, I felt a twinge of nervous excitement. Would the girls really be into extracurricular writing (especially after taking the dreaded MCAS the day before)? Would they want to share their experiences with me, someone they don’t know? Would they follow my lead? All these questions swirled around in my head as I stood up in front of eleven of the most talented girls in the school.

I needn’t have worried—these girls were ready to push themselves (and their peers) to the limits of both their dreams and their expectations of what they can do. We spent a very productive afternoon doing writing exercises and brainstorming topics for next Fall’s writing group (things like self-confidence, race, class, gender, teen pregnancy, and the economy).

Watch out writing world. The girls from East Boston are getting writing and getting real.

For many women, writing is a way to find out who you are, to claim your identity and needs in the world. So many women, starting in their youth, are not encouraged to voice themselves, to develop their voices, to tell the world who they are and what they want.

So how can we start to address this problem? GEMMA (Girls, Empowerment, Mentoring, Mastery, Action) is trying to do just that. This new program at East Boston High School aims to support the academic and creative needs of teen girls through empowering them to speak for themselves. CNW is proud and excited to be collaborating with GEMMA by developing and facilitating a bi-weekly writing group with the girls. Janet and I went over to EBHS last week and met with some of the girls who want to be in the group (which will start in the Fall) and I have to say, they were pretty amazing. Not only were they full of personality, they were invested in the act of writing and the formation of this new group. I was asked by one girl if we could write about topics that are important to theirs lives, like teen pregnancy and body image (these topics may correspond to talks given to the GEMMA girls on the weeks that they don’t have writing group). We even talked about releasing a collection of their work! My teacher-sense (like spidey-sense only a bit more fun) tells me that I’m not going to have a problem motivating these girls.

I’ll meet with the girls next week and we’ll set a schedule for the coming school year (including topics they want to write about). I’ll keep you updated with all the things we come up with. Got an idea for us? Shoot me an email or leave it in the comments.

Whew! I feel a little winded just thinking about all the great things that go on around the Center. And now that the Spring season has come to a close, I’m finally getting a chance to reflect on all the moments that made it a success.

Here are just a few of my fav’s:

When I read that Seven Stories Press was putting out a new volume called Live Through This: The Art of Self-Destruction I thought I couldn’t get more excited. That is until the editor, Sabrina Chapadjiev, came to CNW to give a creative workshop (geared towards folks interested in all genres of art) called Rage to the Page. Talking about self-destruction isn’t easy but Chapadjiev, a dynamic and supportive leader, shared and encouraged ways to channel self-destructive behaviors into positive energies and creative work through facilitating real conversations around experiences that many of us shared.

Just a week later I (along with a roomful of poetry afficionados!) was swimming in the soulful words of mz. hattie gossett. This legendary poet awed the crowd with her breathless immigrant suite, hitting on what it means to belong, the injustices that people face as immigrants, people of color, children, and women face everyday in this country.

Nadejda Marques put us all in a revolutionary (and reflective mood) as she told her story to a packed house at the Central Square Library. Marques talked about fleeing from Brazil after her father, a member of a student group that resisted the dictatorship there, was murdered by the government in 1973. As political refugees in the 1970s and 1980s, Marques and her mother saw social, political, and economic upheaval and injustice all over Latin America. This powerful reading brought together those in the present with those that are no longer with us, reminding us why we fight for personal and political freedoms. Check her (and her new memoir) at: www.bornsubversive.com

The next evening we were slammed by the fierce and fiery poetics of Joyce Jellison at Mouthful, our monthly open mic. Joined by old friends and new voices, Jellison waxed poetic on race, class, and love. Her new book, Black Apple, hits the streets next week and I just can’t wait!

Finally, our inspiring season culminated with a meaningful evening with Nora Pierce, a Native American writer who shared with us insights into the politics of place, the complex nature of identity, and a compelling and intense story of a young girl negotiating her way through mental illness, alcoholism, poverty, and displacement.

If you missed any of these events, never fear, dear reader, you’ll soon be able to catch Nadejda Marques and Nora Pierce on our website. And, of course, we are planning another politically charged, critically engaging, and just plain fabulous Fall season. I’ll be back with updates on what we’re working on! See you at the Center!

Now if I could just learn to believe in the institution of marriage…

The fight’s not over yet, as anti-equality forces are working on a ballot initiative similar to the one that was tried here in MA, but it’s a huge step toward justice from a fairly conservative court. Hooray!

As Jaclyn and I walked in the Boston Globe’s very swanky offices in Dorchester I was reminded of just how nerve-wracking and exciting it must be to be fifteen and have your work recognized by your community (something that many writers only get to dream about).

And let me tell you, the kids were kickin’—their stage presence, their confidence, their WORDS (full of anger, sorrow, love, and hope) were a sight to behold. One thing’s for sure, these young artists did not hold anything back. When asked about their experiences writing and working with the established poets, fiction writers, performance experts, editors, and all of the other folks that put the 2008 Roxbury Literary Annual together and ran the 2008 Roxbury Literary Annual Creative Camp (an extension of the Literary Annual that takes 25 youth from public, private, charter, and METCO schools around Boston and helps them refine and explore their writing skills), the young writers responses were grateful but real. One young woman said that it was great to get so much attention from adults for her writing but she wished that people were doing more than just listening. She wished more adults were actually asking youth what support they need to succeed while helping them to figure out how to get that support. Instead, she said, people just focus on what youth are doing wrong. This point was made even more powerful when someone in the audience pointed out that we see youth violence in the headlines everyday and yet no one from the media (not even from the Boston Globe, the hosting institution) was present to cover an event that celebrated the accomplishments of youth who choose words over weapons.

Afterwards, I chatted up the young writers and invited them to our hot open mic, Mouthful (tonight! sign up to read at 7:15 and start at 7:30). I hope they show up!

For those not in the know, the UNITY ‘08 Convention will be the largest gathering of journalists of color ever. Nearly 10,000 journalists and media executives will meet to discuss timely issues affecting journalism and the media industry, and I’ll be there learning about media & race issues and encouraging folks to present and attend WAM!2009.

There are SO MANY good conferences coming up: Michelle is going to Q-Me this weekend, Janet is attending Free Press in June, and word is that Anna will be at AMC. What conferences are you checking out this summer?

Jaclyn and I are going and we are psyched! As a writer and teacher, I’m always excited to hear new voices, especially when those voices come from youth (a population that is way marginalized in our culture). Youth have so much insight into the world that’s just not recognized. And I hear that the voices in the anthologies are slammin’! It’s pretty tough to get into this publication so I’m looking forward to hearing what these young writers have to say. And I promise to report back to you! In the meantime, check out the the Roxbury Literary Annual Archives!

Just kidding. I know it’s on because Anna’s been doing such a lovely job with these amazing interviews. But we here at CNW feel bad about leaving her all on her own, and have recommitted to making this a vibrat, multi-voiced blog that gives you a real sense of what goes on here behind the scenes and what we’re concerned with in the larger world.

To kick things off, I want to point everyone to WAM!mer Latoya Peterson’s powerful writing about feminism & racism over at Racialicious. There are numerous posts worth spending some real time with, but the one that I can’t shake (even though it’s over three days old, which is at least a year in blogtime), asks a very simple question: Does Feminism Have to Address Race?

The question itself breaks my heart, because it’s not a question I can imagine a feminist answering “no” to, and yet there’s ample evidence all over the feminist blogosphere lately that so many feminists do just that. To which I say: how is that possible? How can we fight for the rights of all women without addressing race when so many women are oppressed and attacked on the basis of their race?

I see more and more how naiive this question is, and I personally have begun replacing it with a couple of more practical ones: how can we help race-blind feminists see that our movement has no hope without the leadership of women of color and a meaningful committment to the work of undoing racism? And how can CNW do better at contributing to this work?

I first knew Majka Burhardt as a fiction writer when we were both grad students. Others knew her first as the climber on the other end of the belay, or the columnist voice dispensing stories in a favorite outdoors magazine, or as the guide that led them on a mountaineering expedition.

Now that Majka’s published her first book, those many identities are coming together.

The books called Vertical Ethiopia: Climbing Toward Possibility in the Horn of Africa It follows four female climbers who traveled to the sandstone peaks in northern Ethiopia. Nobody had climbed these towers before these women determined to literally chart new territory in a field dominated by men. In narrative vignettes and brilliant photography, Vertical Ethiopia reflects on what it means to interact intimately and physically with the landscape of another country.

In a unique international collaboration, Vertical Ethiopia is printed by Shama Publishing, an Ethiopian press committed to creating a new narrative of the country. Half of the book’s print run is designated for sale in Addis Adaba.

Majka has an MFA in Creative Writing from the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers and an anthropology BA from Princeton University. A guide for nearly a decade, Majka has led a range of climbing disciplines, from high-altitude mountaineering expeditions to multi-pitch alpine rock climbs. She lives (most of the time) in Boulder, CO.

Here’s Majka:

Marguerite Bouvard is a true multidisciplinarian. As a poet, nonfiction writer, and political scientist, she’s published 15 books, covering everything from the Madres of the Plaza de Mayo to feminism and aging to the role of prayer in hard times.

Her most recent title is Healing: A Life with Chronic Illness, which is described as a “practical and spiritual guide.” Bouvard focuses on her experience living with interstitial cystitis, among other illnesses.

Bouvard is part of the Women’s Studies Research Center at Brandeis University and is a regular contributor to Women’s Voices for Change, an online community which seeks to transform the way older women fit into our culture.

Here’s Marguerite:

Christine Ahn is one smart cookie.

As an analyst with the Korean Policy and Oakland institutes, Ahn is regularly called upon to inform the public conversation on human rights, militarism, globalization. Having edited the book on free trade (Shafted: Free Trade and America’s Working Poor), with a masters degree in public policy from Georgetown, and her experience growing up in a working class Korean family in California, Ahn’s insight has diverse roots.

But don’t let her hefty resume intimidate; Ahn’s humor and imagination abounds. Wait’ll you hear about an unusual outfit she made for an unusual Tuesday night in Oakland…