In 1937, dust storms hit Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico. People actually tasted dirt when they ate their food. Homeowners plugged window sills and door frames. They hung wet sheets over windows and doors. Dust clouds blocked the sun.
Exercise 1: Read about the “dust bowl.” Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath, Jerry Stanley’s Children of the Dustbowl, and Timothy Egan’s The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived THe Great American Dust Bowl are good choices. 2. Write a short story or poem about a character in this time period and setting. 3. Write about confinement. Have you ever been forced to stay at home due to weather or another event? How have you used your time? Has it ever been a good experience? You can choose a personal narrative or another form to write about the issue of confining a person to one space.
Bread & Circuses is a new zine produced by the members of the Orinda Poetry Project. We welcome submissions of original and unpublished poetry, prose, letters, recipes, reviews, interviews, manifestos, photos, scripts, confessions, paintings, collages, essays, cartoons, found art, and anything else you’d like to contribute. Experimental work is encouraged.
The first issue of Bread & Circuses will be published in March 2009. We review submissions in the order they are received, so submitting sooner is to your advantage.
Submissions should be emailed to breadandcircuseszine(at)gmail(dot)com with “Submission” in the subject line and your full name and phone number in the body of the email.
Attach .doc, .rtf, or .txt files for written work, and .jpgs for artwork. You may include a bio if you like. Artwork should be reproducible in black and white, and nondigital work may be scanned at high resolution or photographed with good lighting and focus. To submit art or writing by postal mail, please email us for guidelines.
You may submit as many things as you like, but keep in mind that we are a small group of people with a relatively small amount of money and aren’t going to publish your 50-page love poem. On a similar note, by submitting to Bread & Circuses, you grant permission for us to publish your work in print and/or online, so do make sure your boyfriend won’t mind that love letter being printed before you send it.
In order to keep the zine free for everyone, we regret that we are unable to pay contributors at this time except with copies and adoration. If we ever start making money, we promise we’ll share it. For now, the printing costs of our first issue are subsidized by a generous grant from Youth Speaks.
Feel free to email us with questions, comments, interesting facts, your favorite kind of candy, and, of course, your submissions. Thanks for your interest!
It’s Friday the 13th! Are you superstitious? In numerology, the number twelve is considered to be “complete.” It symbolizes the twelve apostles and the numbers on the clock, the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve Gods of Olympus.
But thirteen?
Exercise 1: Are you superstitious? Why or why not? Trace your families beliefs using ancedotes through your life.
2. Write a short story or poem with the theme of superstition.
3. Use this as a story starter: It all began when I walked under the ladder and a black cat screeched in front of me . . .