35 Hours and Counting

Perigee's 2006 Fiction Contest closes in just under 35 hours, at Midnight (PST), May 31st.

Visit our current issue or click here to read the guidelines and submit immediately.

Sans Distraction

The recently instated $1 cover charge for Perigee has been rescinded!

The full 12th issue of Perigee is now available at no charge. Quick and easy access is available via our main index page.

Read the previous post, found below, for full details on the rescindment.

Bah, Let Them Eat ... Wait, Seriously?

OK, so I've been listening to the quiet rumblings from the Perigee readership regarding our recently instated dollar cover charge.

Susan Fellows, our advisory and contributing editor, has been fielding questions from a growing number of students and professors. "Again, remind me why we are charging?" she asked me in a recent e-mail. "I have had students ask me this—and they are not pleased."

A few weeks ago this sort of thing made me roll my eyes. I was in my "Bah, let them eat cake" phase.

"The idea was to put some money in the Perigee coffers to allow for compensation to writers/artists," I reminded Sue. "And also to fund moving to print, which is not a cheap endeavor."

Misattributed Marie Antoinette quotes aside, I would be lying if I didn't acknowledge disappointment at the number of readers (few) who are willing to part with a single dollar to read the complete issue of Perigee.

There were a few days of funky discouragement for me—just ask my wife.

But Perigee was not created to make money; it was created to offer a venue for quality art and literature. At no time has that changed.

Regular contributor and admired wordsmith Tom Sheehan shared recently that, "The $1.00 fee was a big departure from the norm, as I see it. The hardest part, from some people who have come back to me in sort of a report retort, has been the very manipulation of things to get into the site itself. I had a few pals that remarked on the difficulty."

Fair enough. The public has spoken. Since our primary mission has always been simply to provide a venue for writers and poets at a time when so many talented voices are overlooked, we will continue to do that in our own small way. Sans distractions. Sans complications. Sans cover charge.

(R Woerheide, Encouraged Editor)

Fiction Contest Closing Soon!

Perigee's third annual fiction contest will be closing in just under two weeks, on May 31st. The cash prizes have been increased and the top entries will all be published in Perigee.

Don't let the deadline slip by! Rubber bands, post-it notes, soap script on the bathroom mirror—do whatever it takes to remember to participate in this contest. Remember, there won't be another one for a full year.

Visit our main web site, navigate to our contests page, and proceed as instructed.

Harlem Children's Zone

Catch 60 Minutes last night? If you did, you know about the Harlem Children's Zone—an ambitious, philanthropic endeavor which stands as an example of real educational reform. Reform with results.

60 Minutes' feature on Geoffrey Canada and his charter school was empowering and inspirational. Here is a man, an organization, and an ideal that deserves all our support.

"If your child comes to this school," Canada tells Harlem parents, "we will guarantee that we will get your child into college. We will be with you with your child from the moment they enter our school till the moment they graduate from college."

Learn more about the Harlem Children's Zone and Geoffrey Canada. You can even show your support by making a donation.

Editor's Fiction in Coe Review

A new work of fiction by Perigee's Editor in Chief is currently available in the 36th volume of Coe Review.

The all-fiction issue is available for $10.00 by contacting Coe Review at Coe College, 1220 First Ave. NE, Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52402.

Be sure to specify you want the 36th volume.

Lorca's "Duende"

I've been captivated by Lorca's idea of "duende" since my readings, a couple years ago, of the Spanish poet, Miguel Hernandez, and most recently, the famed Pablo Neruda. For me, Latin poetry seems to possess the magic of "duende" more than any other poetry I read. As for "duende," I most love the following quote from Lorca's lecture "Play and Theory of the Duende":

The duende, then, is power, not work; it is struggle, not thought. I have heard an old maestro of the guiatar say, "The duende is not in the throat; the duende climbs up inside you, from the soles of the feet." In other words, it is not a question of ability, but of true, living style, of blood, of ancient culture, of the act of creation.

Indeed, all of us poets write laboriously with the intent of creating something that will lift the reader from the page to an extraordinary place of thoughts and emotions. And after hours and hours of work, finally, there are those few rare moments when we know--not from our thoughts, but from the "duende that climbs inside . . . from the soles of the feet"--that what we are creating is magical, mirculous, ethereal. And its source seems to be from a place of angels and hell.

(Jensea Storie, Editor)