Give Away Someone Else’s Book on World Book Night

World Book Night, a British experiment in giving away royalty-free new books to strangers, is coming to the US, and we’re on board. Here’s the background.

On every first Thursday in March since 1998, the UK has celebrated World Book Day by giving several million British schoolchildren £1 tokens they can use to purchase any book at a bookseller. UK publishers produce special £1 World Book Day editions of select books, and booksellers, schools, and libraries host hundreds of author visits, story times, and dress parties to celebrate the day. By all accounts, World Book Day has become quite successful in bringing books to children and families to bookstores.

A couple years ago, Jamie Byng, managing director of British publisher Canongate, had the thought that the festivities shouldn’t be limited to schoolchildren, that adults who rarely read books could also use some encouragement. He founded World Book Night, an event in which volunteers, including book authors, would give away one million special-edition paperbacks to strangers at train stations, hospitals, prisons and other sites. Margaret Atwood, Alan Bennett, John Le Carré, and Philip Pullman, and other authors kicked off the first World Book Night last year by reading from their favorite books to thousands of people gathered in Trafalgar Square on a chilly March evening.

British media covered World Book Night extensively, and, defying the expectations of some, the publishers and authors of the books given away fared well: book sales rose substantially for nearly all the 25 titles that were handed out.

On April 23rd, World Book Night comes to the US, with much of the publishing industry behind the effort, including major publishers, Ingram, the American Booksellers Association, Barnes & Noble, and the American Library Association. A committee of booksellers and librarians selected the 30 books that are being printed in special World Book Night editions. (Please note, the Authors Guild took no role in selecting the titles.)

Want to volunteer to be a book giver? Choose one of the 30 books (list here) that you particularly enjoyed, choose a place to give away the book, and apply at the World Book Night website. There’s nothing in it for you, except for the satisfaction of introducing others to a favorite book, and perhaps the glory of a local newspaper or radio story. You’ll likely increase your odds for being chosen if you mention that you’re an author and you choose a distribution site calculated to reach those who rarely read books.

Carl Lennertz, formerly of Random, Harper, Little Brown, and Book Sense, is the executive director of World Book Night US. He’ll be reviewing all applications and pledges to be on the lookout for authors.

The application deadline is February 1st.

Volunteer application

World Book Night website

--------------------------------
Feel free to forward, post, or tweet. Here is a short URL for linking: http://tiny.cc/8ybbe

Bent and broken into a better shape

The MOFET Institute and The British Council present:

Bent and broken into a better shape:

the magical storytelling of Charles Dickens

Tuesday 14 February 2012, 15:00-17:30

Programme:

• Reception: 15:00-15:45
• Welcome Address & Performance: 15:45-17:00
• Q & A and Closing Remarks: 17:00-17:30

For a map of the college campus and for directions to the Institute, please
click here.

Click here for a map of the area.

The Dickens Universe video

As many of you know, our department is part of the consortium of the Dickens Universe Project at the University of Santa Cruz, CA. I was there in 2011 and co-directed a graduate students workshop (I'll be there again in summer 2012).

Here is a video of the project. And yes, the redwoods are real!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJgV87yGBSs

Represented!

Congratulations to all of our BA students, and most especially to Maizy Eliash who is our first English Department student representative in years!

Elections for Student Representative are coming!

I'm not going to discuss the undergrad representative here* but I do want every master's student who is eligible to vote to know that Adva Berar is the only candidate for the master's students (she studies Hebrew literature) who appears to be at all interested in what we have to say. If we elect her, we're electing someone with similar interests and with a fairly good plan of action involving interdepartmental communication, and she's the only one who's bothered to sort out an English Department POC [Point Of Contact - that would be me].

And that's all I have to say about that. Please vote on Wednesday.

* Vote Maizy! Please! It's high time we had an English Literature student representing the English Department, and not outsiders who have repeatedly and consistently done absolutely nothing for us in the past...

Poetry Prizes - for BA and MA students

I totally forgot to re-post this (we've been hearing about it since mid-November)...

Dear Students,

We are pleased to announce that prizes will be awarded in 2012 for original poems (in English), written by students of the Department of English and American Studies.

* Winners receive generous monetary awards!!! *

Guidelines:

1.  You can submit up to four original poems.

2. Send your submissions in one file (.doc) to this email address:English.department.poetry@gmail.com

3. The file you submit should include a cover page with your name, id number, and phone number, and then one poem per page. Your name should not appear on the same pages as the poems.

4.   The deadline for submission is: January 31, 2012.

5.  ONLY students of the Department of English and American Studies may submit to this contest.

If you have questions, contact Dara Barnat barnatda@post.tau.ac.il or Karen Alkalay-Gut gut22@post.tau.ac.il

Good luck!

The Department of English and American Studies

After clarifying: You can submit 4 poems total, no matter the length. Just make sure each new poem starts on its own page.

The Graphic Novel - CFP

1st Global Conference:
The Graphic Novel
Friday 7th September 2012 – Sunday 9th September 2012
Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom
“Behind this mask there is more than just flesh. Beneath this mask
there is an idea… and ideas are bulletproof.”
― Alan Moore, V for Vendetta
Call for Papers:
This inter- and multi-disciplinary conference aims to examine,
explore and critically engage with issues in and around the
production, creation and reading of all forms of comics and graphic
novels. Taken as a form of pictographic narrative it has been with us
since the first cave paintings and even in the 21st century remains a
hugely popular, vibrant and culturally relevant means of communication
whether expressed as sequential art, graphic literature, bandes
dessinees, tebeos, fumetti, manga, manhwa, komiks, strips,
historietas, quadrinhos, beeldverhalen, or just plain old comics. (as
noted by Paul Gravett)
Whilst the form itself became established in the 19th Century it is
perhaps not until the 20th century that comic book heroes like
Superman (who has been around since 1938) became, not just beloved
characters, but national icons. With the globalisation of publishing
brands such as Marvel and DC it is no accident that there has been an
increase in graphic novel adaptations and their associated
merchandising. Movies such as X-men, Iron man, Watchmen and the recent
Thor have grossed millions of dollars across the world and many
television series have been continued off-screen in the graphic form,
Buffy, Firefly and Farscape to name a few.
Of course America and Europe is not the only base of this art form
and the Far East and Japan have their own traditions as well as a huge
influence on graphic representations across the globe. In particular
Japanese manga has influenced comics in Taiwan, South Korea, Hong
Kong, China, France and the United States, and have created an amazing
array of reflexive appropriations and re-appropriations, in not just
in comics but in anime as well.
Of equal importance in this growth and relevance of the graphic novel
are the smaller and independent publishers that have produced
influential works such as Maus by Art Spiegleman, Persepolis by
Marjane Satrapi, Palestine by Joe Sacco, Epileptic by David B and even
Jimmy Corrigan by Chris Ware that explore, often on a personal level,
contemporary concerns such as gender, diaspora, post-colonialism,
sexuality, globalisation and approaches to health, terror and
identity. Further to this the techniques and styles of the graphic
novel have taken further form online creating entirely web-comics and
hypertexts, as in John Cei Douglas’ Lost and Found and Shelley
Jackson’s Patchwork Girl, as well as forming part of larger
trans-media narratives and submersive worlds, as in the True Blood
franchise that invites fans to enter and participate in constructing a
narrative in many varied formats and locations.
This projects invites papers that consider the place of the comic or
graphic novel in both history and location and the ways that it
appropriates and is appropriated by other media in the enactment of
individual, social and cultural identity.
Papers, reports, work-in-progress, workshops and pre-formed panels
are invited on issues related to (but not limited to) the following
themes:
 * Just what makes a Graphic Novel so Graphic and so Novel?:
 ~Sources, early representations and historical contexts of the form.

 ~Landmarks in development, format and narratology.
 ~Cartoons, comics, graphic novels and artists books.
 ~Words, images, texture and colour and what makes a GN
 ~Format, layout, speech bubbles and “where the *@#% do we go from
here?”
 * The Inner and Outer Worlds of the Graphic Novel:
 ~Outer and Inner spaces; Thoughts, cities, and galaxies and other
representations of graphic place and space.
 ~ Differing temporalities, Chronotopes and “time flies”:
Intertextuality, editing and the nature of Graphic and/or Deleuzian
time.
 ~ Graphic Superstars and Words versus Pictures: Alan Moore v Dave
Gibbons (Watchmen) Neil Gaiman v Jack Kirby (Sandman).
 ~Performance and performativity of, in and around graphic
representations.
 ~Transcriptions and translations: literature into pictures, films
into novels and high/low graphic arts.
 * Identity, Meanings and Otherness:
 ~GN as autobiography, witnessing, diary and narrative
 ~Representations of disability, illness, coping and normality
 ~Cultural appropriations, east to west and globalisation
 ~National identity, cultural icons and stereo-typical villains
 ~Immigration, postcolonial and stories of exile
 ~Representing gender, sexualities and non-normative identities.
 ~Politics, prejudices and polemics: banned, censored and comix that
are “just plain wrong”
 ~Other cultures, other voices, other words
 * To Infinity and Beyond: The Graphic Novel in the 21st Century:
 ~Fanzines and Slash-mags: individual identity through appropriation.

 ~Creator and Created: Interactions and interpolations between
authors and audience.
 ~Hypertext, Multiple formats and inter-active narratives.
 ~Cross media appropriation, GN into film, gaming and merchandisng
and vice versa
 ~Graphic Myths and visions of the future: Sandman, Hellboy, Ghost in
the Shell.
Papers can be accepted which deal solely with Graphic Novels. This
project will run concurrently with our project on Fear, Horror and
Terror – we welcome any papers considering the problems or
addressing issues on Fear, Horror and Terror and Graphic Novels for a
cross-over panel. We also welcome pre-formed panels on any aspect of
the Graphic Novel or in relation to crossover panel(s).
Papers will be accepted which deal with related areas and themes. 300
word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 16th March 2012. If an
abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be
submitted by Friday 22nd June 2012. 300 word abstracts should be
submitted to the Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word,
WordPerfect, or RTF formats, following this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract,
e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords
E-mails should be entitled: GN1 Abstract Submission
Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using any
special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or
underline). We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals
submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should
assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in
cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic
route or resend.
Organising Chairs
Nadine Farghaly
Paris-Lodron University, Salzburg,
Austria
E-mail: Nadine.Farghaly@gmx.net <mailto:Nadine.Farghaly@gmx.net>
Rob Fisher
Network Leader
Inter-Disciplinary.Net,
Freeland, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
E-Mail: gn1@inter-disciplinary.net
<mailto:gn1@inter-disciplinary.net>
The conference is part of the Education Hub series of research
projects, which in turn belong to the At the Interface programmes of
Inter-Disciplinary.Net. It aims to bring together people from
different areas and interests to share ideas and explore discussions
which are innovative and challenging. All papers accepted for and
presented at this conference are eligible for publication in an ISBN
eBook. Selected papers may be invited to go forward for development
into a themed ISBN hard copy volume or volumes.
For further details of the project, please visit:
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/at-the-interface/education/the-graphic-novel/
<../../../../at-the-interface/education/the-graphic-novel/>
For further details of the conference, please visit:
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/at-the-interface/education/the-graphic-novel/call-for-papers/
<../../../../at-the-interface/education/the-graphic-novel/call-for-papers/>
Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and
we are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel
or subsistence.