Ready, Set, Read—Tacoma! (RSR-T) is an engaging preschool literacy and kindergarten-readiness program that aims to help children prepare for the transition into a school setting. By the time children enter kindergarten, they are expected to know the individual sounds that letters make, recite the alphabet, finish a rhyming sentence, and many other skills. Each of the 75 books in the RSR-T book set focuses on at least one of the kindergarten expectations. In addition, they help establish story time and reading as a part of an ongoing routine, both in and out of the classroom.
By attending weekly RSR-T story times with their children, parents are able to see story times modeled by certified librarians. A wealth of information and resources, these teacher-librarians can help parents support their young learners by teaching reading strategies that parents can use at home. Additionally, each RSR-T book contains reading tips, tailored reading activities, and suggestions for similar books (available at our local public schools and libraries). Establishing partnerships between schools, families, and communities, RSR-T surrounds our students with a network of caring individuals, ensuring that they start school prepared and ready to learn.


MORE BOOK REVIEWS
Rainbow in the Night is a beautiful testimony of how our Messiah works in our lives. As I read the pages of this book, it gave me encouragement and pause to think about my own life. I laughed and cried along the way as I read so many of Goldie’s life experiences. Goldie writes not only of her own life circumstances, trials, and joys but also provides thought-provoking questions at the end of each chapter. She encourages you to dig deep and search out your own heart with the Lord. Goldie writes, “Spiritual growth is a process, not a one-time event.” This book eloquently delineates this and beautifully shows God’s providential and merciful hand in our lives. The richest takeaway was to read the testimony of “Nikadot.” In Hebrew, that word means “period.” If one believes Yeshua is the Messiah, your sins will be forgiven and remembered no more—NIKADOT. The Lord also promises to walk through life with you and has a place prepared in eternity for you when you take your last breath! I sincerely and deeply encourage you to read this book and share it with others!
Marla D., Boca Raton FL


(with Susan Olasky) - There's something curious going on in the world of Bible translation. Just when it seemed that many evangelical translators were deciding that it was time to get with it and, in the words of the NIV Committee on Bible Translation, "mute the patriarchalism of the Old Testament," along comes a group-composed largely of more liberal theologians-determined to undertake an entirely new translation of the Bible, one preserving that "patriarchalism."
The project is called "The Chicago Bible Translation Project." The committee working on the translation includes scholars from a variety of Chicago-area theological institutions ranging in affiliation from United Methodist to Roman Catholic.
Eerdmans Publishing House, publishers for the project, issued a press release stating that the translation is designed for use in settings "where teachers of the English Bible (using current English translations) often find themselves explaining, 'This is not what the text really says.'" The proposed translation will solve this dilemma by providing a more literal translation-one that will not permit "modern premises to invade the biblical text and obscure its original cultural and historical context."
In a clear reference to unisex language, and a slap at recent translations like the New Revised Standard Version and the New Living Translation that head in that direction, the announcement stated, "This translation will not be guided by current efforts to make the Bible more egalitarian, more tolerant, and less patriarchal in its language or in its portrayal of the social cultures of its context."
The translation, which is to be based on the work of scholarly translations for commentaries, has a publisher and a translation committee; the only remaining obstacle to publication is the need for additional funds to complete the translation work. But why would liberal scholars labor on a translation preserving traditional gender language?
Robert Jewett, professor of New Testament at Garrett-Northwestern Theological Seminary and chairman of the translation's steering committee, is a self-described "liberal evangelical" who "hold[s] to the authority of Scripture but not to the inerrancy." He told WORLD about "a passion at the center of our project for the original meaning of Scripture." Mr. Jewett added, "We're not interested in ascribing to a modern overlay, whether right-wing or left-wing."
Mr. Jewett's objection to gender-neutral language is based on his higher-critical approach to the Bible. Like others who do not see all Scripture as inspired, he believes that God is less patriarchal than writers like Paul. He also claims that earlier authors of Scripture had less understanding of God's truth in this area than later authors, and that there is revolutionary change even in the course of Paul's writing-from an early patriarchalism to a more egalitarian maturity.
Gender-neutral language, Mr. Jewett said, "obscures the genuine revolution that is there in Scripture." The enemy of scriptural truth in Mr. Jewett's view is not patriarchalism or any other element of ancient culture, but liberal dishonesty: A gender-neutral translation that claims to be accurate is "almost as bad as Stalin's revisions of world history in which every 10 years he'd change all the history textbooks."
Speaking of the inclusive-language New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), Mr. Jewett said, "We're facing, with the NRSV, liberal dishonesty in spades. The modern liberated perspective which imposes itself on the text is about as dishonest as you can be. All the way through the NRSV, implying that Paul has all these liberated concepts and so forth like the current politically correct person in an Ivy League school: I mean that's just ridiculous. Here you have the imposition of liberal prejudice on the biblical text with the ridiculous assumption that our modern liberal views were Paul's."
While liberal scholars such as Mr. Jewett view inclusive language as the imposition of modern prejudices on the text, one evangelical scholar affiliated with the Chicago Translation Project sees no conflict in his involvement with the Chicago Bible Translation and support for gender-neutral Bibles.
David Scholer, professor of New Testament at Fuller Seminary and author of an editorial in the evangelical feminist publication The Priscilla Papers that called on Zondervan and the International Bible Society to release the gender-neutral NIV in the United States, told members of the Chicago Translation's advisory board in February 1997, "I look forward to the appearance of this Bible. I will even get to use it in my teaching for a few years before my retirement."
He said a version targeted at students will fit right in with the trend in modern translation to target specific audiences, including "those with certain ecclesiastical needs, those with certain theological concerns and agendas," and "persons for whom the historical and cultural distance of the Bible is seen as something to be overcome."


WELCOME to Barbara Branden's web site!
This site provides biographical information about Barbara (including some photos of interest) as well as information about her landmark biography The Passion of Ayn Rand and Showtime's movie adaptation of the book.
This web site also contains a description of Barbara's seminal course "Principles of Efficient Thinking", her interview with the publication Full Context, and a short essay by Barbara on smoking, as well as her answer to Ayn Rand's famous charges of wrongdoing (from the 1960's).
The site also features information about the anthology Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand, to which Barbara was a contributor, and features Barbara's growing collection of book reviews.
For further information about any of the projects described on this site, you may contact Barbara Branden at:


So, I’ll be honest – this was the very first book I wanted to choose for you, dear readers. In English it is known as The Hunchback of Notre Dame. But I feared that picking a 450-page novel as the first book might discourage many and make you feel that I was being a bit too “book clubby” (as Literature majors are often wont to do). My goal was and is to give you a chance to know Paris well through books, whether you live here now, plan to live here or visit, or never shall.
The book is not now, nor has it ever been titled, “The Hunchback of” Notre-Dame. Indeed, I’m glad to see that in the recent Penguin edition there is a pushback on this point. The story is not about a hunchback. It is about the power, majesty, and importance of the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris. The entire story is built around it. At the end of the day, the Hunchback is just a character in that story, but he has been seized upon by Disney and others to be the protagonist in a story about not hating the outcasts of our society – when, laughably, this novel is much darker and less obvious than the after-school special some would have us believe it is.
The trouble with translation is if you get it wrong, you can miss an entire audience. Sometimes those tweaks are obvious and smart: The Martian was translated into Seul Sur Mars when the movie came out here. There was also the Kate Winslet/Josh Brolin film Labor Day which was translated as The Last Days of Summer here in France – for one thing – Labor Day is in September in the United States and marks the end of summer – in Europe Labor Day is May 1st and is a marker for summer’s approach.
So somewhere in the 1800s the English translators decided that because a title like Notre-Dame would lead readers to think this was a religious work (though how they could think that with Victor Hugo as the author, I don’t know), they went with “The Hunchback of…”
So, my complaint aside, Notre-Dame is, truly and simply, a masterpiece. Not only is it among the best works you can read to learn about Paris and its history and layout, but as literature, it is truly great. It’s part history lesson, part architectural study (via digression), part character examination (both of the French national character and of individuals), and part tortured love story, just to name a few areas that Hugo dips his pen in.
But what stays with me more than anything, and revists me often when my eyes fall upon my favorite object in my beloved city, the church itself, are Hugo’s words.
“…a vast symphony of stone, if we may be allowed the expression. It is the colossal work of a people and one man, like the Iliad or the Romanceros, of which it is a sibling. It is the prodigious product of the forces of the age in which the fancy of the workman, chastened by the genius of the artist, is seen surging forth in a hundred ways on every stone. In short, it is a sort of human Creation, powerful and fertile as the Divine Creation, from which it seems to have borrowed its twofold character of variety and eternity.”
On the bells (which rung far more often in Hugo’s day)…
“This is truly an opera well worth listening to. Normally the noises that Paris makes in the daytime represent the city talking; at night the city breathes. In this case the city sings. Lend your ear then to this tutti of steeples; listen to the buzzing of half a million human beings, the eternal murmur of the river, the infinite breathing of the wind, the grave and distant quartet of the four forests placed like immense organs on the four hills of the horizon. Soften, as with a demi-tint, all that is too shrill and too harsh in the central mass of sound – and say if you know anything in the world more rich, more joyful, more golden, more overwhelming than that tumult of bells, than that furnace of music, than those ten thousand voices of bronze singing all at once from flutes of stone three hundred feet high, than that city which has become an orchestra, than that symphony which roars like a storm.”
On the fact that prior to the printing press, cathedrals were at once our great books and libraries…
“Let no one be deceived, architecture is dead, with no ghost to return, killed by the printed book because it did not last as long and cost more…A book is quickly made, costs so little, and may go so far! Is it surprising all human thought should flow down that slope?…architecture will no more be the social, collective, dominant art. The great poem, the great work of humankind will never again be built, but printed…When one tries to grasp a complete image of all the products of printing to our days, does not the whole appear to us like an immense construction, resting on the world…it is the anthill of intelligence. It is the hive to which every kind of imagination, those golden bees, brings its honey.”
It’s by no means a short read, but it will be one you will enjoy.


Dan Baldwin is the author of westerns, mysteries, thrillers, short story collections and books on the paranormal. He is the winner of numerous local, regional, and national awards for writing and directing film and video projects. He earned an Honorable Mention from the Society of Southwestern Authors writing competition for his short story Flat Busted and a Finalist designation from the National Indie Excellence Awards for Trapp Canyon and Caldera III – A Man of Blood.
Baldwin received a Finalist designation in the New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards for Sparky and the King. Bock’s Canyon earned the Winner designation in the 2017 Best Book Awards. Baldwin’s paranormal works are The Practical Pendulum – A Swinging Guide, Find Me as told to Dan Baldwin, They Are Not Yet Lost and How Find Me Lost Me – A Betrayal of Trust Told by the Psychic Who Didn’t See It Coming. They Are Not Yet Lost earned the Winner designation in the New Mexico-Arizona Book Competition. How Find Me Lost Me won the Winner designation in the Best Book Awards 2017 competition and the Finalist designation in the New Mexico-Arizona Book Competition.
Copyright © 2023 Dan Baldwin - Writer - All Rights Reserved.


in Early Postcards
The wealth and variety of Albanian folk costumes was first captured in
photographs in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Albania’s
traditional isolation from the rest of Europe gave rise to much originality in
dress and early foreign travellers were quite captivated by what they saw. In
the harsh northern mountains of the country, each tribe, indeed each valley and
settlement, had its own distinctive dress that was easily recognizable by the
whole population. Costumes revealed not only tribal and religious affiliation,
but for women in many cases also marital status. These traditional costumes
were in general use well into the 1930s, and in some regions of the country until
after the Second World War. Even in the first decades of the twenty-first
century, it is no rarity to see traditional costumes worn by Albanian women
daily, or at least on market day, in particular in the northern regions of
Shkodra, Malësia e Madhe, Lezha and Mirdita and in some more isolated parts
of southern Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro and Macedonia. However,
globalization is swiftly taking its toll.
In the first three decades of the twentieth century, the photographs made of
folk costumes were turned into postcards and put on sale, as in other countries.
The present collection of these early postcards was kindly made available from
the archives of the Centre for Albanian Studies in London. It should be noted
that southern Albanian costumes are underrepresented in this collection, not
because they are any less spectacular, but simply because the earliest
photographers and the earliest costume postcards happened to be from the
north of the country.


Digital publishing refers to the process of creating, distributing, and consuming written, visual, or multimedia content in digital formats that can be accessed and read on electronic devices such as computers, tablets, e-readers, smartphones, and other digital platforms. It encompasses a wide range of content types, including books, magazines, newspapers, academic papers, reports, blogs, and websites, among others.
Digital publishing has revolutionized the way content is created, distributed, and consumed, enabling greater accessibility, interactivity, and flexibility in the dissemination of information and creative works. It has significantly transformed the publishing sector in numerous ways, impacting various aspects of the industry. Here are some of the key impacts:
Digital publishing has a lower environmental footprint compared to traditional printing methods, which require paper, ink, and energy for production and transportation. This aligns with growing environmental awareness and sustainable practices. It offers substantial environmental benefits by reducing paper consumption, energy use, emissions, and waste associated with traditional print publishing. However, responsible management of electronic waste and energy consumption remains important to ensure that the overall environmental impact of digital technologies is minimized.
Traditional publishing involves costs related to printing, distribution, and storage. Digital publishing eliminates many of these expenses, making it easier for authors, especially independent ones, to publish their work without the need for a traditional publishing house. This has led to an increase in self-publishing and smaller niche publications.
SPEED OF PUBLICATION
The speed of publication is one of the notable advantages of digital publishing. Compared to traditional print publishing, where the process of producing physical copies can be time-consuming, digital publishing offers rapid and efficient ways to bring content to readers.
With digital publishing, content can be published quickly, reducing the time between writing and reaching the audience. This is particularly advantageous for news and current affairs, where timely dissemination of information is crucial.
AVAILABILITY & DISTRIBUTION
Digital publishing has made content easily accessible to a global audience. Readers can instantly download or access books, articles, and other content from anywhere in the world. This has led to a democratization of knowledge and literature, enabling authors to reach a broader readership.
Digital content can be made available on online marketplaces such as Amazon Kindle Store, Apple Books, Google Play Books, and more. These platforms provide a wide reach and established customer base for authors and publishers. Digital publishing has also seen the rise of subscription services like Scribd, Kindle Unlimited, and Audible, where users pay a monthly fee for access to a library of digital content.
INTEGRATION OF MULTIMEDIA
Integration of multimedia in digital publishing refers to the incorporation of various multimedia elements, such as images, videos, audio, animations, interactive graphics, and more, into digital content. This enhances the reader’s experience and provides a more engaging and interactive way of presenting information.
The integration of multimedia in digital publishing enhances engagement, improves comprehension, and enables a more immersive and interactive reading experience. As technology continues to advance, multimedia integration will likely play an increasingly significant role in how content is presented and consumed in the digital landscape.
ADAPTATION & PERSONALIZATION
Adaptation and personalization are powerful features of digital publishing that enhance the reader’s experience by tailoring content to individual preferences, needs, and behaviors. Digital publishing allows for dynamic updates and revisions to content. Publishers can respond to reader feedback and changing trends, ensuring that content remains relevant and up to date. Additionally, digital platforms can employ algorithms to personalize content recommendations for readers.
Digital platforms can collect and analyze user data, such as browsing history, reading patterns, and interactions with content. This data provides insights into individual preferences and interests. Based on user data analysis, digital publishing platforms can offer personalized content recommendations. Readers receive suggestions for articles, books, videos, or other content that aligns with their interests.
Adaptation and personalization in digital publishing have the potential to create more meaningful interactions between readers and content, fostering engagement, loyalty, and a deeper connection to the material being consumed.
CHANGING READING HABITS
Digital publishing has influenced how people read. Shorter attention spans, increased screen time, and the availability of multimedia content have impacted the way readers engage with texts. This has implications for the design and structure of digital publications.
OPENING NEWER AVENUES FOR CREATIVITY
Digital platforms have opened up new avenues for creative expression, such as web-comics, interactive fiction, and multimedia storytelling. This has allowed artists and writers to experiment with innovative formats and storytelling techniques.
COPYRIGHT & PIRACY CONCERNS
Copyright and piracy concerns are significant issues in the realm of digital publishing, as the ease of copying and distributing digital content has given rise to various challenges for creators, publishers, and consumers. Publishers need to implement effective digital rights management (DRM) systems to protect their content and ensure proper compensation for authors. Here’s an overview of some these concerns:
- Unauthorized Distribution: Digital content can be easily copied and shared, leading to the unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material. This can result in lost revenue for content creators and publishers.
- Plagiarism: Digital platforms make it easier for individuals to plagiarize content by copying and republishing it without proper attribution. This undermines the original creators’ intellectual property rights and damages their reputation.
- Global Copyright Laws: Digital publishing operates on a global scale, making it challenging to navigate the complexities of copyright laws in different jurisdictions. Creators and publishers need to understand and comply with international copyright regulations.
- Digital Piracy: Piracy involves the unauthorized reproduction and distribution of digital content, such as books, music, movies, and software. Pirated copies can be easily shared through file-sharing platforms, torrent sites, and social media.
- Impact on Sales: Piracy can lead to decreased sales and revenue for content creators and publishers, as consumers may opt for free or pirated versions instead of purchasing legitimate copies.
- Loss of Control: Piracy takes away the control that creators and publishers have over the distribution and presentation of their content. Illegitimate copies might be altered, leading to a distorted representation of the original work.
Addressing copyright and piracy concerns requires a multi-faceted approach that involves a combination of technological solutions, legal measures, consumer education, and adaptive business strategies.
The impact of digital publishing on the publishing sector has been profound, leading to increased accessibility, reduced costs, faster publication cycles, and new creative possibilities. However, it has also posed challenges related to copyright, piracy, and changing reader habits, requiring publishers to adapt and innovate to remain relevant in the evolving landscape.
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... is the former editor of the magazine New Worlds, and a former reviewer for the Guardian newspaper
Hilary has published 18 novels, the first in 1975, the most recent, Fifty First State, in 2008
Several of her books have been read on BBC Radio, and many sold to foreign publishers. Her novels include:
The Notting Hill Series - Polly Put The Kettle On, (Constable 1975) Mrs Mulvaney, (Constable/Pan 1980) and As Time Goes By, (Constable and Pavanne, 1988)
The thrillers - Connections (Severn House 2000) and Fifty First State, (Severn House 2008)
The historical novels - All The Days of My Life, (Heinemann/Pan1985) A Stranger To Herself, (Macmillan/Pan 1989) The Cry From Street To Street, (Constable/Pan 1992) Cassandra, Princess of Troy, (Cape/Pan 1993) and Elizabeth and Lily, (Pocketbooks, 1997)
She has just completed her latest book, and is now working on a drama, with Leonora Rose-Aqotu, centred on the life of Caribbean slave, Mary Prince
Hilary lives in London
Contact Hilary Bailey...
All material is Copyright © 2009 - 2014 Midnight Oil and Hilary Bailey where not copyright of the originator.


Adele M. Acciani
Adele M. Acciani was born in the Bronx NY, to John & Jennie Acciani (Battistella). Adele Attended Our Lady Of Mercy Catholic School + Mt. St. Ursula High School. She worked for Aramco Service until retirement. Later on she worked in the Library at Olympic Heights High School. She is survived by her Niece Jean McCauley (Kevin McCauley) and Great Nephew John Lawrence.


Sir Ernest Alexander Campbell Macmillan (English Ernest Alexander Campbell McMillan, August 18, 1893, Etobicoke – May 6, 1973, Toronto) – Canadian conductor, composer, pianist, teacher and functionary of musical organizations. Long-term director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Toronto Choir. Mendelssohn. Companion of the Order of Canada (1970).BiographyBy the age of ten, Ernest Macmillan began to compose songs and give public organ concerts. As a teenager, he attended music courses at the University of Edinburgh and received an organist degree and a first degree in music. At the age of 15, he already got a job as organist in one of the in Toronto.In 1914, at the beginning of World War I, Macmillan ended up in Germany and spent four years in an internment camp as a subject of a hostile power. In the camp, he organized performances and concerts, and after returning to Canada in the early 1920s, he again became organist and choirmaster. He also wrote notes for magazines, gave music lessons, and continued to compose. Most of his own works were written during these years.In 1926, Macmillan became the head of the Toronto Conservatory of Music. He will hold this post until 1942. From 1927 to 1952 he was also Dean of the Department of Music at the University of Toronto. At the same time, he takes an active part in organizing concerts and music (including folklore) festivals throughout the country. In 1931 he became Music Director and Conductor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and remained in this position until 1956. During the last 14 years of this period, he concurrently leads the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. He organized the first commercial recordings of both bands. As a conductor, he specialized in the performance of Bach and Canadian composers.Recognition of meritIn 1935, Ernest Macmillan was knighted. In 1964 he was awarded the Medal of the Arts Council of Canada, and in 1970 he became a Companion of the Order of Canada. In 1973, posthumously, Macmillan was awarded the Canadian Council of Music Medal. He is also a of the Richard Strauss Medal (from the German Authors’ Society GEMA) and from eight universities.A theater in Toronto and a chain of fine arts clubs in Vancouver are named after Ernest McMillan. The Sir Ernest MacMillan Memorial Fund, founded by his family in 1985, is dedicated to helping gifted young musicians.


Mitchell Stein – I’ve been a Muppet fan as long as I can remember. As a kid, I owned Don’t Eat The Pictures: Sesame Street at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on VHS, and I remember watching that thing over and over everyday after coming home from school. Like most kids, I grew up with the Street.
My family also took upon the custom of visiting Walt Disney World at least once a year (which I am incredibly grateful for) and of course, throughout this time I’ve seen Muppet-Vision 3D many times. Upon seeing that, I automatically knew that the Muppets were hilarious, so when I stumbled upon The Great Muppet Caper in a local library I instantly rented it. Thus, a Muppet fan was born.
Over time, as for some crazy reason, as there was no new worthwhile Muppet productions being released, my Muppet fandom wore off. Luckily, the release of a new Muppet movie slapped me in the face and quickly pulled me back in. The Muppets (2011) was a fun, heart-felt movie with great classic Muppet references. It was the perfect gift to all Muppet fans. It made me proud to be a Muppet fan.
I’ve been a Muppet fan for over five years at this point, and proud of it. Muppet fans are by far the best fandom in the world as well as the online world. I was pulled into the Muppet fan world first by finding The MuppetCast. From there I found out that the Muppet fan world exists very largely online.
Throughout my time being a Muppet fan, I’ve met many great people, and had a lot of fun being a member of the greatest fandom there is.
The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier, firstname.lastname@example.org


If there’s one thing I’ve been taught, it’s to find the silver lining in everything.
I usually devour most of my books in the summer, reading outside in the sun. This year, most of the reading happened in spring and inside, but it still happened. I must say, I’ve loved nearly every book I’ve read, which is why I wanted to record that before it fades away from my memory, like a lot of things from this hell-of-a-year. Without further ado, here are the 30 books I’ve read in 2020:
I started the year by re-reading the La Passe-Miroir saga by Christelle Dabos. I (travelled to Sout Korea and) caught a good’ol flu and got stuck in bed, so I used that time to read the last book of the saga in one day. I’m afraid I don’t remember everything because of the fever, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as the others (book 1 and 2 are gems), and I felt like she tried to tie up a plot that was all rushed in one book instead of evenly distributing the clues across all four books.
I finally read Love, Simon which I found at my local library (it took me until May to give it back). Not so memorable but sweet.
I had to read Orlando by Virginia Woolf for my English class, which I unexpectedly enjoyed! Really liked the travelling and the whole changin-gender-and-persepctive-on-life-thing. Didn’t understand all the grammar though…
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman was greatly recommended to me by my friend. I liked it, but it did not make it to my Best Book list (I may have missed the point; or not, reading is also about the reader).
When quarantine hit, I watched Howl’s Moving Castle and got obssessed, so I downloaded a pdf version of the book by Diana Wynne Jones and to my surprise, finished it quickly (I hate reading in digital). I decided to buy a physical version which is now sitting on top of my other books and which I look at lovingly regularly. Definitely made it to the Best Books list.
A Green and Ancient Light by Frederic S. Durbin was unexpectedly good as well. I really enjoyed the nostalgic and whimsical feel it had. The fantasy was really subtly tied into the plot making it so real and believable. Would recommend to read with a cup of tea in the sun.
This was that moment during lockdown where things at school hadn’t kicked in yet so I had still plenty of time to read. I decided that I was going to read Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin, and not stop at the first book like I had done previously. I powered through all the books until Mary Ann in Autumn, which I set quickly back aside because of the terrible French translation (my parents bought them so I only have French copies). I wish I could have read those when they came out (haha) because I felt like I was missing the revolutionary aspect of the books. I did fell in love with San Francisco even more though.
The Muse of Nightmare is the book continuing Strange the Dreamer, and it did not disappoint. Probably a Best Book of the year for me.
Then I discovered the animated series She-Ra on Netflix, written by Noëlle Stevenson. It was one of the few things that got my through the spring lockdown, and I decided to check out Noëlle’s previous writings. Here comes Nimona. A fun, quick read, unlike anything I’ve ever read. Also, lovers-to-ennemies anyone??
King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo was a long awaited read. I had loved the character of Nikolai in the Shadow and Bone trilogy so it was a pleasure to meet him again in more details. I loved seeing how the author depicted Nikolai’s royalty as a daily job and the insight on what it takes to be king (in a fantasy world of course). It also provided me with the fantastic quote « We hope or we falter » by Nikolai.
During my summer internship, I used commuting time to read Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carol, which I had never read before. I loved how completely crazy and weird it was although I struggle to remember much more than that. A quick read.
The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon was another recommended read and thank God it was! A fantasy story that deserves a nice lit place in my Best Books list. It had everything I love: dragons, swords, magic, pirates and lesbians (!!!). I constantly found myself pleasantly surprised at the fact that it was a matriarchal society and that every insignificant characters were women: I always saw « the two guards » and designated them as men, only to be hit a few lines later with « both women ran ». Made my heart swell a bit not gonna lie. Also platonic and non-ambiguous male-female friendship?? Bless Samantha Shannon.
Again, recommended read, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. Here I need to stop and say: this book provided me the serotonin I needed to get through 2020. Think, the best found family trope I’ve ever read, but in space (space!). I literally loved that book so much that I am reading this book again at the moment (we’re January 2021). I found myself giggling out loud and grabbing my covers when reading in bed. My Best Book of 2020.
Carol by Patricia Highsmith was also a library find (I had seen the movie before so I knew what I was getting into). It took me a long time to find it becoming interesting, but overall I’d say I liked the book. Both characters were pretty unsettling to me (but that might be because of the time period??). I didn’t remember much of the movie so I couldn’t compare. Yet another book I didn’t realise had had such an impact when it came out.
Another library find, La Différence Invisible by Julie Sachez. An illustrated story about a woman finding out about her autism. I read it in one sitting, and found it very interesting and myth-busting. Would recommend! (I’m also told that a certain sneaky sister spotted the book on my shelf, took it to her room and read it in one siting too. So, a good thing I brought it home).
Then, and yes I am not kidding, I did read Hamlet by my own will. I actually had a copy I had borrowed from my friend more than a year ago that I had to give back quickly. It contained all her notes from studying it in her American Literature class so it was super interesting to have the explanations on hand! I found it hilarious, such as when Hamlet exclaim « What an ass I am! » or when the Queen absolutely destroys Polonius with a « More matter, with less art ». Hamlet really is the dumbass emo prince the world of tragedy needed.
We’re getting to the end! Following my excitement about space and aliens by Chambers’ book, my mom suggested I read Resistance is futile, which I really disliked. Obviously because of the French translation that bugged me to the point of translating every dialogue back to English in my head with simultaneously reading, but also because of the plot (and the characters). The main character was a I’m-not-like-other-girls type, mixed in with I’m-ready-to-die-for-this-guy-I-met-literally-a-week-ago. Forced dialogues, a plot I could see from a mile away, an alien that weirdly read like an autistic person (weird huh) and a romance thrown into the whole like flour in a sticky dough. One thing I liked was the final take of the author on how aliens are waiting to communicate with us humans because they don’t think we’re ready yet. Seeing the state of the world, I can only agree. See that chapter from Chambers’ book about the necessary intra-species wars necessary for a species to mature before launching into space (did I make connections?? woohoo!).
The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton was a weird one. I got bored pretty soon but at the same time, I couldn’t resign from reading it? Like I was turning pages and sighing at how many I had until the end, but I still read everything. An overly complicated murder scene ties in with a Bigger Plot with a Unexpected Twist near the end. I didn’t really connect with the characters (although I think that it’s a good thing seeing them). Entertaining and mind twisting, makes more for a summer read than a Best Book contender.
And last but certainly not least, The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by the one and only V.E. Schwab. The Christmas break read, sitting on the couch with a box of chocolates and Christmas music playing (at least that’s how I read it, not how I’d recommend to read it). I think I still have to make my mind up on how I feel about it. I should mention that the author whom I follow on social media had really promoted the book early, so it is very possible that I had high expectations. Most of all, I felt like the whole book was poetry. The writing was beautiful, to the point of being maybe a bit much sometimes. Not heavy as in incomprehensible, but I-need-a-break-from-the-beauty-to-appreciate-it-again heavy. I really connected with the character of Addie; her will to live and her never-ending wonder about the world really struck home (a bit too much to be healthy probably). I remember setting the book down and thinking it was a beautiful read, but I missed something to tie it all together, to draw the tear that would make it impactful. I can’t put my finger on it yet, maybe it’ll come with a reread, who knows. I’d still recommend it though, with a warning that the writing style is not characteristic of the author.
So there it is, the Great 2020 Book Wrap Up for you! A reminder that you can find on the sidebar of my blog the books I’m currently reading.
I would finally like to address a special mention to two books that I started but never finished: So you want to talk about race by Ijeoma Uluo and Making our way home by Blair Imani. I have started both of these and they’re really good and informative, however without getting to deep, I read as a form of escapism and require a story to keep me going. Those two books, I would like to make a point of reading them and actually remembering what I learned with annotations and all. This stacked up on top of school work and I fell behind (Blair Imani’s Instagram is a much more practical way for me to learn during the term) but it’s just a postponnement!
To 2021, a year I hope filled with new readings and discoveries.


Adaptations of plays by Menander
Most of the surviving ancient material on New Comedy is in the form of plays by Menander who wrote in the fourth century BCE and his work has come down to us in fragmentary form. I have written adaptations of four of his plays, which have been self-published as paperbacks on Amazon together with a short book Menander and Life on the background and social contexts of the plays.
The first two have been performed for film. More detail is on separate pages on this site.
The other two have not yet been filmed but the paperbacks are on Amazon and the plays can be performed royalty free.
In the original performances the unfolding story, or main action, would have been interspersed by several song and dance numbers by a separate group of performers known as the Chorus. We have none of the text for these dances but I have written some new ones, choosing themes that seemed to me pertinent to those arising in the plays. These additions, I suggest, round the plays out, giving them more potential to provide a satisfying performance experience. I have also written some new material where there are large gaps in what has come down to us.
The composer Penny Shipley has written music for the choral dances and the printed music scores, together with the texts that accompany the dances are also available on Amazon as Music for Menander.
The music and masks for the performance of Not the Same Old Samia are featured in a short film on Youtube.


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2019 VCAL/VLA Workshop: ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education
November 8, 2019
Vermont Technical College
Randolph Center, VT
Please consider joining us for a fun day of learning and networking.
View the agenda for the day. Check out the schedule and registration site for more information.
Registration is open through October 31, 2019, at the following URL:
Buy your tickets soon as this is a limited space event!
Please contact the co-chairs with any questions!
Chenfang Yang (email@example.com)
Christie Silkotch (firstname.lastname@example.org)
Save the Date: Framework Workshop
Engaging with the ACRL Framework:
A Catalyst for Exploring and Expanding Our Teaching Practices
Friday, November 8th, 2019
Vermont Consortium of Academic Libraries (VCAL) andVLA College & Special Libraries SectionJudd Hall at Vermont Technical CollegeRandolph Center, VT
This fall, the VLA College & Special Libraries Section, in collaboration with the Vermont Consortium of Academic Libraries, is excited to present an all-day intensive workshop about the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. This workshop supports librarians in engaging more deeply with the Framework and exploring ways that it can enrich your individual teaching practices, as well as your local instruction programs and institutions.
Participants will explore concepts and pedagogical approaches outlined in the Framework and the significance to their own instructional work. Attendees will apply their learning and reflection to create instruction plans for their own local contexts and consider possibilities for growing teaching partnerships.
This workshop will be led by two expert presenters:
- Brittney Johnson, Digital Literacy Program Coordinator, Texas State University
- Lindsay Matts-Benson, Instructional Designer, University of Minnesota
More information about workshop curriculum, presenters, and a sample schedule can be found at: http://www.ala.org/acrl/conferences/roadshows/frameworkroadshow
Registration will open in September. Watch for another email to register soon!
Please note that this workshop is in lieu of our traditional annual fall program, which will resume in 2020. We hope you can take advantage of this incredible professional development opportunity so close to home!
VCAL OER Summit
April 25th 2019 9:30-2:30 PM
Vermont Technical College, Judd Hall, Randolph Center, VT
Almost all VCAL libraries were represented at the conference and everyone was excited about the conversations around OER. The featured speakers Marilyn Billings and Robin DeRosa generated alot of energy and interest. Their slide presentations are shared below.
Open Education: The Why, What, and How for Librarians- Marilyn Billings
Marilyn Billings is the Scholarly Communication & Special Initiatives Librarian at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her most recent activity has focused on her work as a campus leader and national speaker on the topic of alternatives to high cost textbooks, the use of open educational resources, and coordinator of the Open Education Initiative (OEI) launched at UMass Amherst in spring 2011.
Open Pedagogy, Social Justice, and the Practical Path to Commons-Oriented Learning- Robin De Rosa
Robin DeRosa is a professor at Plymouth State University, part of the University System of New Hampshire, where she directs the Interdisciplinary Studies program. She is also an editor for Hybrid Pedagogy, an open-access, peer-reviewed journal that combines the strands of critical pedagogy and digital pedagogy to arrive at the best social and civil uses for technology and new media in education. Robin represents a faculty perspective in implementing OER.The slides from Robin’s presentation.Raw slides in Google for remixing.
VCAL Opposes Federal Budget Proposal
Like others in the library community, the Vermont Consortium of Academic Libraries (VCAL) is dismayed at the draconian budgetary cuts proposed in President Trump’s FY2018 budget. The specific proposals to eliminate funding for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) would have a devastating effect on small communities in a rural state such as Vermont, communities that rely heavily on federal support to keep the doors of their libraries open to the public.
Read here for the remainder of our statement: VCAL Opposes Federal Budget Proposal
October is National Information Literacy Awareness Month
October is National Information Literacy Awareness Month. The attached statement details the centrality of information literacy to lifelong learning and responsible citizenship. The Vermont Consortium of Academic Libraries, Vermont School Library Association, and the Vermont Library Association believe this important topic deserves the attention of all Vermonters.
We appreciate your time and attention in reading our statement, which is a starting point in an effort to raise awareness about the importance of information literacy to Vermonters’ success in school, the workplace, and society.
Information Literacy Initiative
The Vermont Consortium of Academic Libraries (VCAL) and the Vermont School Librarians Association (VSLA) have joined forces to promote information literacy as an essential skill for all Vermonters, with a special focus on high school and college students and academic success.
A joint working group (Jane Kearns, Eileen Gatti, Nancy Fawley (VCAL); Sharon Hayes, Susan Monmaney, (VSLA); and Margaret Woodruff (VLA)) has been charged with the following as a first step in this effort: “The Information Literacy Working Group will circulate a letter focused on the benefits of an informationally literate student body to Vermont school committees in time for National Information Literacy Month in October 2016.”
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It is a current convention that policymakers have low status in research by academics on the outcomes of policy and in the relationship between researchers and the editors of journals.
A huge quantity of research is stored in depths of library databases and journals. Hundreds of reports have been published. There are an enormous number of studies. Such studies that are both sound and pertinent for policy issues
Policy-makers , while carrying on their normal activities, need to handle this information in order to make decisions and to formulate adequate policies both at national and European level.
Policy-makers do need to have access to research results and key documents: unfortunately these information are not available in synthesized format.
Who are the policy-makers addressed by GEMMA?
EU Policy makers
National policy makers
Departments of Ministries
National/local health services
What is the GEMMA contribution for POLICY-MAKERS?
GEMMA will contribute to the synthesis of high quality research and coordination between policy makers and researchers by providing:
Opportunities for networking and dialogue between researchers, policy-makers and Civil Society Organizations
Policy briefs – a synthesis instrument that enhance the visibility and access to research results for policy-makers, the media and civil society
GEMMA showcase composed by: GEMMA abstract, thematic Policy briefs and an horizontal Policy Review
What will GEMMA produce for you ?
5 Policy Dialogue and Networking workshops dealing with Gender & Migration theme in 5 European Countries (Italy, Austria, Hungary, France and United Kingdom) which will result in 5 Recommendations documents for improving communication and cooperation between researchers and policy-makers.


Grabbing For The Root
Genealogy is a passion to so many these days that I decided to take the plunge and see what all of the excitement was about.
My father’s family history is fairly well documented, mostly filled with Masonic Temples and Secret Societies, so I felt it might be best to hold back that information simply for safety sake.
I decided instead to search into my mother’s side of the family.
Bearing the name of ‘Irish’, I was certain that there would be very little gloss on that vessel. American history being what it is, I knew that immigrants often had their names changed by immigration officials to something that clearly indicated their racial and social position, just to make sure that they didn’t try ‘passing’ amongst decent folk.
After spending many days reading through the hundreds of records posted on the Internet, one fascinating character began to emerge from the mists of time. It is that character that I would like to showcase for you now.
FRANCIS NORSHAM IRISH.
The first mention of F.N. Irish was from a letter of protest written by Col. John Mandy to the Adjutant Generals office concerning the appointment of several young men as Commissioned Officers in the Union army whose sole qualification for command was their acquaintanceship with the young wife of an aged but very powerful General officer who was left unnamed. F.N. Irish was named specifically in this letter and it was pointed out that the young man was even incapable of sitting a horse adequately, yet he was commissioned as a Cavalry officer. It was also stated that the young Lieutenant, whose age was said to be 21 years, was a complainer and undisciplined. No reply to the letter was posted. This was dated as 1862.
THE HERO OF NEW HOPE FERRY
The next official document appears in December of 1863. It is a letter of commendation to F.N. Irish and a declaration of the facts concerning the valiant defense of the crossing at New Hope ferry where-in a small patrol under the command of the above mentioned Lt. Irish held off a much larger force of confederate regulars and successfully protected the right flank of the Grand Army of the Republic during their strategic retreat from the battle of Chippamagwa. There were only three survivors of the battle at the Ferry. Two were the Grimly brothers who deserted their posts and ran, and Lt. Irish, who, after receiving a saber wound and losing his mount, killed a confederate Officer, acquired that officers mount and rode back into the battle.
But information gleaned from a collection of letters and diary entries paints a somewhat different picture of the affair.
Piecing together the story from the letters and diaries, it seems that our young Lt. Irish, who was having difficulty coping with the cold of that late autumn in the field, had managed to severely cut his foot while trying to chop extra wood for his personal fire.
After caring for the Lieutenants foot, one Sergeant Horace Brandywine actually led the defense of the ferry.
According to letters home from the Grimly brothers, they were not deserting their post, but rather were trying to keep ahead of a ‘Crazy’ Confederate Captain who was ‘hell bent to blow their brains out if he caught them’. In their haste to retreat they had inadvertently led the Confederate Officer back through their own camp where Lt. Irish proceeded to shoot the officer in the back and steal his horse. They stated that the young Lt. had a notoriously bad sense of direction, and was actually trying to ride away from the battle when he rode out from the camp.
In the official report it is stated that a much larger Union force, under the command of one Captain Ezra Teague, had just arrived to reinforce the Lieutenants patrol when they spied the young Lieutenant charging single-handed out of the woods towards the enemy forces. The report stated that he was yelling “For Lincoln and the Union”.
There were some eyewitnesses who claimed to only hear the Lieutenant screaming, “Whoa, stop”. These were discounted to the heat of battle.
Defamation of an officer was one of the charges leveled against the two Grimly brothers before they were shot as deserters.
Lieutenant Irish was given a medal for the Saber wound he received and was promoted to the rank of Captain.
THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBERG
In an account written by one Billy Ingersall, I learned that a young Captain Irish, being in his words “the poorest damned horseman ever to sit a mount” was thrown from his horse the day before the big battle at Gettysburg and landed astraddle a thick poplar sapling. Within one hour the Lieutenant’s Testicles had swollen to the point where he could not even stand, much less sit a horse. His men propped him up on the side of the road with two canteens and a pouch full of Johnnycake and promised to try to retrieve him when the battle was over.
It was there that he was found by a wagon filled with the wounded heroes from the North Ridge who had been specifically sent to the rear because of their bravery in battle and the seriousness of their wounds. They stopped and loaded Lieutenant Irish on to the wagon and took him along with them.
In a letter of commendation dated 1864, he was named as fallen hero of the battle who had charged into cannon fire and had received severe but unspecified wounds.
He was recommended for a medal. He received a purple heart and the promotion to the rank of Major.
The Appomattox affair had several different versions, both official and private that lead me to a composite view. The official statement said that Major Irish was wounded when he stepped in front of an assassin’s bullet in an effort to protect the life of General Strom Thornton.
Piecing together several private accounts, both concerning the reputation of the Major and the actual account from the place, it seems that Major Irish had the unnerving habit of loading all six chambers of his Navy Colts sidearm instead of leaving the chamber under the hammer empty for safeties sake. He stated several times that he felt he might need that extra round to save his life. The accounts all seem to agree that the Major somehow managed to dislodge his weapon from its holster, causing it to fall to the ground and discharge. He was wounded in the Buttocks. According to the official version, the Major stepped between the General and the assassin, taking the round in his own body. It is stated that the assassin then managed to escape capture.
Young Major Irish received another purple heart and was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
THE INDIAN RESERVATION
I could find few records of his military duties between the years 1865 to 1871. He seems to have been busy through out the south during the reconstruction period with no real mention of his activities.
The next record of him appears in Newspaper clippings from the spring of 1871 with the announcement of his engagement to the daughter of a very prominent General.
Surprisingly there are official orders from the summer of that same year assigning Lt. colonel F.N. Irish to command the Indian reservation at Branderson, in the western Missouri river valley.
I also found a marriage certificate for the Generals daughter to another man dated 1876. I could find no explanation for the discrepancy.
I did find a registration of marriage between one Col. F.N. Irish, US Army, Ret., and Candice Thompson the youngest daughter of a United States Senator dated 1881. I surmise that his engagement to the Generals daughter had somehow gone awry.
He commanded the post at Branderson between 1871 and 1879.
I gleaned several interesting facts about my ancestor from statements and official records that I found.
It seems that Lt. Colonel Irish managed to save over $100,000.00 dollars from his yearly salary of $1000.00 during that eight-year period when he commanded the reservation. He stated that extreme thrift and good management were all it took to acquire his nest egg.
He was also able to reduce the indigenous population from 69,000 in the fall of 1871 to 41,000 in the spring of 1876. For this excellent effort at introducing the native population into mainstream American life, he was given a Presidential Commendation and was promoted to the rank full Colonel. To highlight his skills as an administrator, it was noted that upon his retirement, only 18,000 Indians could be accounted for on the Branderson reservation. Through incompetence, it was noted, the new commander who had replaced him had managed to lose track of over 23,000 natives immediately upon his arrival and had allowed them to escape.
THE INDUSTRIAL YEARS
It is recorded that Col. F.N. Irish retired from the Army in 1879. In 1880 he founded the F.N. Irish machine works in the upper Ohio valley. There are only the most mundane records of his business activities, mostly Government and military contracts from 1881 until his death in 1904. He had assigned a full partnership in his business to his father in law, the Senator, and that partnership extended to his brother in law, also a U.S Senator, after the father in law passed away in 1892.
Upon his death, F.N. Irish was survived by his wife and five children. His business was sold, in 1915 to a new and upcoming automobile company. Coincidently, his brother in law had lost his seat in the Senate in the election of 1914.
DRAWING MY OWN CONCLUSIONS
After sifting all of these facts out of the volumes of information on the Web, I have come to the conclusion that this whole search has been nothing more than an exercise in self-gratification and the whole thing just made my hand tired. Maybe Genealogy takes a greater sense of the majesty of the past than I can muster.


The good folk at The Bookworm Coalition are generously hosting a giveaway of a digital version of "Nightfall Gardens". They reviewed the trilogy and enjoyed it so much that they decided to help spread the word to their readers. If you haven't picked up the eBook yet, head over to their site and enter to win. The contest lasts between now and Tuesday, February 24, 2015.
A review of Nightfall Gardens by TMBA Corbett Tries to Write blog.
"Honestly everyone is talking about the Red Rising Series book series by Pierce Brown right now, but I feel they should be talking about the Nightfall Gardens series!"
For the complete review, please visit TMBA Corbett Tries to Write.
A review of Nightfall Gardens from the Bookworm Coalition
"This is one of those stories that you read that the world, and it’s inhabitants, are so rich and completely incredible that you crave to see these ideas brought to life!"
For the complete review, please visit Bookwork Coalition.
Here's an interview that I did with Brittney Porterfield of BrittneysBookNook about the Nightfall Garden series and the next series that I'm working on.
What was your inspiration for Nightfall Gardens?
The idea of “Nightfall Gardens” started with a dream that I had of a teenage girl who was performing on stage in front of an audience. In the front row, there was a man with shocking white hair and a scar across one of his cheeks. I woke up and jotted that image down.
As I started writing the first chapter I realized that I wanted to tip my hat to the books that I loved as a kid like Treasure Island, Dracula, Great Expectations, H.P. Lovecraft and so on. There’s a little nod to all of those works in the series.
I also set out to try and write the creepiest YA trilogy that I could. I feel like most Middle Grade or YA books that purport to be scary, actually shy away from delivering real chills as if the author (or publisher) doesn’t think that kids can handle it.
The scenes of the monstrous staff that takes care of the haunted house in “Nightfall Gardens” and the creatures that live in the ghostly gardens outside of the house are the things that I get emails about the most. I think kids are more resilient than they are given credit for.
What I love most about this book is how beautifully disgusting it is, and I mean that in a good way! Nightfall Gardens would be the outcome if Tim Burton, Lemony Snicket and JK Rowling all decided to write a book together. Actually, I can picture Tim Burton creating this film, and it would be excellent.
This is a book for people who enjoy reading fresh takes on old mythology. The world is interesting and well-developed, and it makes good use of the familiar creatures of legends of old while adding in new ones, too. This book is a Middle Grade book due to the age of the main characters, but they do not act like little children, far from it. It is, however, the descriptions that really give weight and emotion to this book. They are elegantly written and maintain the overall tone and feel of the setting effortlessly. This is an enjoyable, well-written book that has been produced to a high standard. It will appeal to all lovers of fantasy, mythology, and middle grade/young adult fiction, no matter their age.


Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) with Individuals, Couples, and Families Drawing on cutting-edge research on adult attachment--and providing an innovative roadmap for clinical practic, the author argues that psychotherapy is most effective when it focuses on the healing power of emotional connection. This volume shows how EFT aligns perfectly with attachment theory as it provides proven techniques for treating anxiety, depression, and relationship problems. Each modality (individual, couple, and family therapy) is covered in paired chapters that respectively introduce key concepts and present an in-depth case example. Special features include instructive end-of-chapter exercises and reflection questions.
Category:Psychiatry/Psychology Subcategory:Techniques/Resources Series:Attachment Author:Susan M Johnson


IAML (UK & Irl) home page
IAML (UK & Irl), the UK and Ireland Branch of the international organization (IAML), exists to represent and promote the interests of music librarians and libraries, music–related archives and music information providers throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland.
IAML membership, both individual and corporate, covers a wide range of institutions including public, academic and national libraries, professional orchestras, opera companies, broadcasting authorities and the music trade.
At the 2012 IAML (UK & Irl) awards for Excellence in Music Libraries, Professor Jan Smaczny, Hamilton Harty Professor of Music at Queen's University, Belfast said "The roster of excellence before us shows, more powerfully than any words of mine, that the very musical infrastructure of the United Kingdom and Ireland depends fundamentally on the work of music librarians."
The branch currently has vacancies for :
The IAML (UK & Irl) blog can be read here.
The current President of IAML (UK & Irl) is Anna Wright.
IAML (UK & Irl) is committed to equal opportunities and does not discriminate on grounds of gender, sexuality, race, religion, age or disability in the services it provides or the members it appoints to its committees.
Some of this site's documents are available in pdf format — you might need to use Adobe Reader which can be downloaded without charge from Adobe in order to read them. If you have visual impairment, the Adobe access pages give advice on using Adobe Reader in conjunction with accessibility software.
In liaison with CILIP
Page last updated: 2 June 2016 16:17
© Chris Banks, Julie Crawley & IAML (UK & Irl) 1995-2005


About a week ago I wrote of predictive fiction and its ability to capture the minds of many interested in the future. In the intervening time, I read a very interesting book.
Toast is a collection of short stories written by Charles Stross. The stories were very good, but what caught my attention was what he wrote in the edition’s foreword. The stories were written between 1990 and 2000, and Stross’ newest edition and commentary is from 2005. In his foreword and some of the story commentaries, he writes about how outdated some of the stories seem, even five years later. And in fact, another five years after that it is even more apparent that things are dated. Fiction about Y2K elicits a chuckle (this is the biggest example Stross cites as evidence that he’s dated himself), and even the relatively far-out notion of having nano-sized supercomputers woven into clothing is made somewhat quaint by our continued progression towards the “cloud” and the notion of distributed computing. However, like all good predictive fiction, certain concepts hold up well, such as in his last story where Manfred Macx, the protagonist, gives away all of his services in exchange for favors and lives without money, a subtle intermediate step to the reputation economy described in Doctorow’ Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. Additionally, Stross revisits the concept of information burn several times, an interesting thought experiment in a world where the amount of information being directed towards a person in a day often far outstrips their ability to process it.
What made this interesting was a book I started to read today, called Republic.com 2.0. The “2.0” is for the book’s second edition, written because the original book, out in mid 2001, had become heavily dated, even in the 5 or 6 years that had passed until Sunstein, the author, decided to revise it. The thesis of the book, about the dangers of information personalization and the rise of the internet “echo chamber” is still very relevant in 2010, but the arguments to support it were made at the very least incomplete by the events of 9/11 and the rise in power of blogs and content delivery sites such as Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon, not all of which even existed in 2001 (Reddit was launched in 2005, so sayeth wikipedia).
So what does this mean about the analysis of technology? The social conventions surrounding the average internet user change at a frightening pace, and by the time many sit down to write a book on it, it’s already out of date by the time it comes out. Twitter was launched in 2006, meaning that I’ve spent more time in college than Twitter has spent existing. To put it another way, Facebook was launched in 2004, MySpace in 2003. So if you were a human interactions scholar and wanted to write a book on MySpace, you had a little under a year before Facebook emerged and changed the entire game. The gap between Facebook and Twitter, two entities that also had profound effects on each other (if it weren’t for Twitter, do you think @tagging of Facebook users would have been implemented? I doubt anyone would have known what it was) was a little longer, but still not really long enough to write and publish a book.
So is this the Singularity? The idea that technologies develop faster than the userbase can react to them is a central concept to Singularity theory, as technology’s ability to outpace its userbase changes the social dynamic of technology significantly. This is truly the “information burn” concept as Stross envisioned it. The difference here is that Stross thought, at least ten years ago, that this was off in the future. But now things are becoming dated that much more quickly.
It’s not a Singularity in the popular sense. There are no artificial intelligences pushing the actual development of technology past the bound of human comprehension. However, the fact is that we are probably less than a decade away from our communications frontier changing faster than the users can transition from one domain to the next. And that is when things will get a little nuts.


Fakir Mohan Senapati
He was known as father of modern Oriya prose fictions. He is very famous for his novel "Cha Mana Atha Guntha". Beside this, his novels like Lacchama and Prayaschit and short stories like Patent Medicine, Daka Munshi and Rebati are also a craze among the lovers of Oriya literature. If you want to know more about Fakir Mohan Senapati, click here
Rebati, the story by Fakir Mohan Senapati
Rebati is a portrait of conservative and narrow mind of the backward people of Orissa during 19th century. In this story, Rebati is the main character, a portrait of innocence. She belongs to an interior village of Orissa where education of a girl child seems to be a taboo. She invited the misfortune by just one forbidden thought of "learning". Once she decided to be educated, she was heavily opposed by her grand mother. But irrespective of the strong opposition, she started learning. She has just one support that is from her teacher. But story turns tragic when the epidemic cholera hits the village. The whole village including the family of Rebati gets into the grip of this devil epidemic. It killed her father and her teacher! And the grand mother of Rebati blames her for the misfortune happens in the surrounding. According to her, all these happen because Rebati wants to be educated!
More articles: famous books


Book Notes: THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLK, W.E.B. Du Bois (1903)
Bethany Tue, 06/21/2011 - 09:54
“Of Our Spiritual Strivings”: Du Bois’s famous concept of “double-consciousness”—a “sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, […]. One ever feels his twoness,—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder” (45). Segue to a history of things to which Du Bois says black Americans have looked as their avenue towards true freedom and equality: emancipation, voting rights, education, work, and culture. (He goes on to use this list as a rough outline for the rest of the book.) All are necessary, argues Du Bois, but ultimately black Americans need to be confident and proud in their blackness and let that pride infuse their efforts in these other things.
“Of the Dawn of Freedom”: “The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line,” (54). With these words Du Bois both begins and ends the chapter. The chapter itself focuses on 1861-72, particularly the failed Freedmen’s Bureau.
“Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others”: The rather public dispute between Du Bois and Booker T. Washington. Washington pushed for black people to better themselves through hard work, right living, and education, with the idea that ultimately they would earn the respect of white people and be granted equal footing in society. Du Bois agreed to some extent, but thought white people should also accept more responsibility for the plight of black Americans. He favored more active and aggressive approaches to gaining equality than Washington did.
“Of the Meaning of Progress”: Du Bois’s experience teaching school for a poor black community in rural Tennessee. He explains how the extreme poverty made it practically impossible for his students to stay in school, much less excel.
“Of the Wings of Atalanta”: Atlanta as the icon of the black South. According to Du Bois, black Americans risk being drawn away from the path of cultural progress by materialism and industrialization, just as Greek mythological figure Atalanta fell victim to golden apples. His solution is to urge support of Southern black universities (such as the one in Atlanta).
“Of the Training of Black Men”: Why Du Bois sees universities as the salvation of young black men in the South.
“Of the Black Belt”: Economic inequality in Georgia’s Dougherty County.
“Of the Quest of the Golden Fleece”: More about inequality/injustice in Dougherty County.
“Of the Sons of Master and Man”: Black-white relations in a variety of contexts. Public schools as crucial sites of interracial contact in the fight against racial prejudice.
“Of the Faith of the Fathers”: The hegemony of the Church in Southern black society.
“Of the Passing of the First-Born”: Du Bois’s tragic realization that he thought his infant son was better off dead than having to deal with the racism Du Bois himself experienced.
“Of Alexander Crummell”: In praise of Crummell, an important black religious leader.
“Of the Coming of John”: A white boy and a black boy go away to school. They return, but the black boy can no longer tolerate his subservient position. Tragic consequences.
“Of the Sorrow Songs”: Evolution of the sorrow songs into what the world came to identify as “American” music. Pride in black contributions to American culture.
Du Bois, W. E. B. The Souls of Black Folk.1903. Introd. Randall Kenan. New York: Signet-Penguin, 1995. Print.


In 2019, Bitrus and Kangyang Gana moved into Jebbu Miango Community. Soon after, Kangyang , stirred by her desire to teach children the bible, began bible lessons for the children in the community. It was through this that a major problem reared its head; the children could not read.
Kangyang decided to do something to address the problem and invited some of the older kids for reading classes. They turned up and soon the younger siblings and friends tagged along.
As time went on, different children of different ages, strengths and levels of learning showed up. Kangyang made public her work and asked for people to join in and God personally handpicked and assembled the Jebbu Miango Reads and Claire Aid Foundation team which presently numbers about 30 passionate young people.
Presently, about two hundred and fifty (250) children benefit from Jebbu Miango Reads weekly, through 4 classes offering supplementary literacy and basic education.
We have seen remarkable improvements in reading and spoken English especially amongst learners who don’t attend conventional school.
Jebbu Miango Reads has a physical library structure which although not completed, is in use. It is open to the community and children 4 days a week. Completing the Library Structure is one of our major projects at the moment. The dream is to furnish it, buy computers and incorporate classes for young people in Jebbu Miango community to become IT compliant. Also attached to the library is a toilet block. This is to stem the problem of Open Defecation in the community.


"Lingua Medicina Malattia" is a book series - published
by Mimesis Edizioni - whose core paradigm is the integration between language, medicine and disease.
[submission is open]
PIRO Rosa, SCARPA Raffaella (ed.), Chapters of the History of Medical Language, Conference Proceedings, Milan, Mimesis.
SCARPA Raffaella (ed.), The Languages of Disease. Psychosis, Autism, Alzheimer, Milan, Mimesis, 2016.
BOGGIO Sara – DI BIAGIO Luisa, A Reasonable Compromise: Language Time Diagnosis. An Interview about Neurodiversity, Milan, Mimesis,
DEMA Beatrice, The Language in the History of Modern and Contemporary Psychiatry, Milan, Mimesis.


The transition of Disney’s Steamboat Willie into the public domain marks a pivotal moment in the realm of copyright law, opening new avenues for creative expression and entrepreneurial ventures. This milestone not only celebrates the rich legacy of this iconic animation but also sheds light on the intricate balance between protecting creators’ rights and fostering a thriving creative economy. Understanding the basics of copyright law, the concept of the public domain, and its implications can empower creative entrepreneurs to innovate and evolve.
Understanding Copyright Law and Public Domain
- Copyright Law Basics:
- Protection of Original Works: Copyright law protects original works of authorship, including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. This protection is available to both published and unpublished works, granting creators exclusive rights to their work.
- Exclusive Rights: These rights include the ability to reproduce, distribute, perform, display, or license the work. Copyright ensures that creators can control and benefit financially from their work.
- What is Public Domain?
- Access Without Restrictions: When a work enters the public domain, it means that it is no longer under copyright protection and is freely available for anyone to use without seeking permission or paying royalties.
- Reasons for Entering Public Domain: Works can enter the public domain for various reasons, including the expiration of copyright (as in the case of Steamboat Willie), government works, or works explicitly donated to the public domain by their creators.
Impact on Creative Entrepreneurs
- Fostering Creativity and Innovation:
- Inspiration and Adaptation: Creative entrepreneurs can use public domain works as a source of inspiration or directly adapt them into new creations, whether in film, art, literature, or any other medium.
- Combining Old and New: Entrepreneurs can merge classic elements with contemporary ideas, creating something unique and resonant, tapping into nostalgia while pushing creative boundaries.
- Economic Opportunities:
- New Products and Services: The availability of public domain works allows entrepreneurs to develop new products or services without the constraints of copyright restrictions, from merchandise and artistic prints to themed entertainment and educational materials.
- Cost Reduction: Without the need for licensing fees or royalty payments, the cost of production can be significantly reduced, making it easier for startups and small businesses to enter the market.
- Legal Clarity and Reduced Risk:
- Clearer Boundaries: The clear-cut status of public domain works provides legal clarity, reducing the risk of copyright infringement and the potential for costly litigation.
- Trademark Awareness: While the public domain liberates the use of certain works, entrepreneurs must still navigate trademark laws carefully, ensuring that their use of formerly copyrighted materials does not infringe on existing trademarks.
- Cultural and Educational Impact:
- Cultural Preservation and Accessibility: The entry of significant works into the public domain ensures that cultural heritage is preserved and made accessible for educational purposes and public enjoyment.
- Encouraging Learning and Exploration: Entrepreneurs in the educational sector can leverage public domain works to create learning materials, courses, or experiences that draw on a rich cultural history.
The entry of Steamboat Willie into the public domain is not merely a historical footnote; it represents a broader shift towards a more accessible and richly interconnected creative landscape. For creative entrepreneurs, this transition opens a realm of possibilities, encouraging innovation, reducing barriers to entry, and inviting a dynamic engagement with cultural heritage. As they navigate this new terrain, a thorough understanding of copyright and trademark laws will be crucial in leveraging the full potential of the public domain while respecting the legal framework that protects creative work. Steamboat Willie’s journey into the public domain is a call to action for creative minds to explore, innovate, and reimagine the future of art and entrepreneurship.


Bozo the Clown: An Icon as American as an Apple Pie in the Face (CUNY Academic Works)
Teaching a Course as a Narrative Arc, Faculty Focus, Aug. 31, 2022
Grading and Chaos Theory: Frustrations and Exhilarations of Parsing Motivating Factors, Faculty Focus, May 26, 2021
Will My Students Learn Better If I am a Monkey Wrench in the System or a Cog, Adjunct Nation, Dec. 19, 2019.
The Great Librarian Roundtable, Easy Street Magazine, Sept. 24, 2017.
Horatio Alger’s Road to Riches, Easy Street Magazine, June 10, 2015.
A Dissent On Teaching Huckleberry Finn, Education Week/Teacher, July 2013.
Critics Lambasted Zane Grey, but His Millions of Readers Couldn’t Care Less, Wild West Magazine, Dec. 1994
Remembered, Yet Forgotten: The Writer’s Life of John Tunis, Los Angeles Times Book Review, June 30, 1991
Additional writings can be found at kentoswald.com.


Scientific Publications: FAQ
Publications that have been reported by scientists to the university library and registered in the university bibliography have been retroactively available at the LSF from 2005 on. The university library checks if the publication can be verified and edits a bibliographic set of records in the catalogue system. The allocation of the publication to an institution is done in consideration of the cost center indicated in the registration form.
Data are synchronised every night.
The university library collects publication data based on the Alphabetical Categorisation at Scientific Libraries (RAK-WB) and in compliance with the Catalogue Guideline for the Joint Library Association (GBV). Therefore, the quality of the data must be considered high.
Currently, new publications can only be submitted to the university library. For this, two options are available:
- Individual submissions online via https://www.ub.uni-rostock.de/wissenschaftliche-services/universitaetsbibliographie/meldung-von-publikationen/. Here, monographs and essays can be collected
- Multiple submissions: If you already operate your own publication database at your institutions and would like to submit the publications contained there to the university library, please contact the library beforehand and then you may submit lists to the university library. For further information, please send an e-mail to
Every user, who is signed in, can use the query form for publications and save the list of found publications in BibTeX-format.
A Typo3 extension was developed to present LSF data within Typo3 websites. This extension allows to presenting, for instance, all publications of a specific author or institution in Typo3. The LSF data will be embedded live in Typo3. Consequently, these publication data do not need to be entered a second time into the own Typo3 web presentation.
A sample page containing LSF data ca be found here.


An award-winning African American historian and novelist takes the reader on an exciting journey from a segregated Philadelphia childhood in the 1930s to midcentury Paris, Moscow, Cambridge, and Manhattan.
Hardcover - 350 pages
Release Date: March 2011
Allen B. Ballard
Allen B. Ballard, Professor of History and Africana Studies at SUNY-Albany, is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Kenyon College in Ohio and holds a Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University. He taught government at City College of New York for 25 years, served as Dean of Faculty of the City University of New York for five years, and is now CCNY Professor Emeritus of Political Science.
Dr. Ballard has published two non-fiction books, The Education of Black Folk
(Harper and Row, 1973) and One More Day's Journey: The Story of a Family and a People
(McGraw-Hill, 1984). His articles have appeared in scholarly and popular journals, including New York Times Magazine.
His first novel Where I'm Bound
was published by Simon and Schuster in 2000, and is now available in paperback.
His first novel, Where I'm Bound
, is a Washington Post "Notable Book."
His second novel, Carried By Six
is the 2010 winner of an "Honor Book Prize" in Afro-American Literature from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association.
Divorced, Dr. Ballard has one son and lives in Clifton Park, New York. His hobbies include sailing, photography, and folk singing with his guitar. For more on his life, see this interview
, or this article
. For samples of his photographic work, see Allen's photography galleries.
Thinking that too much of contemporary church music is pop-influenced and sensing the need for an album that folks who love the traditional hymns and spirituals of the African-American church would want to listen to, the singer, Allen Ballard, decided to make this album. Many years ago, Prof. Ballard used to sing folk songs, accompanying himself on the guitar. Then,over time, he moved away from the guitar as other matters intruded on his life. Then, two years ago, he decided to take up the guitar again and began to take lessons. Encouraged by the reaction of members of his church, Mt. Calvary Baptist Church in Albany, New York, to his performing at services with the guitar, he decided to do a studio-based CD of the music so loved by African-Americans and made popular by such greats as Mahalia Jackson and Reverend James Cleveland. This is the music that came out of the American South and the African-American experience there from slavery to liberation under the leadership of Marlin Luther King. There are no drums here, no piano, just a singer and his guitar, performing as he would at home on a quiet Sunday evening. The album is made for those who yearn for the old songs, those that brought African-Americans "over a mighty long way." It's Professor Ballard's hope that the album will bring peace and comfort to those who need to hear a little bit of the old music.
Listen to or buy "Early This Morning" on iTunes.


by Erwin Raphael McManus (David C. Cook)
Earth, wind, water, fire, woodÑthese are the signs of life. In his new, five-part DVD series, storyteller Erwin Raphael McManus attempts to use these signs to point viewers to God. The first of these short films, Earth explores creation. Through a philosophical monologue, McManus discredits Solomon’s lament, “there is nothing new under the sun,” and articulates how a place that seems empty can be filled with the wonder of God’s handiwork by a change in perspective. This 10-minute vignette creatively tells the “story of us” and paints a picture of our part in God’s world.
How this brings more to life: Welcome to Earth, an abstract visual reminder of the One who makes all things new.


This week Roksana is joined by British-Bangladeshi Author Dhipa A. Lee as they delve into her book, “Written”. Written depicts the life of a young girl, Eleanor born into a complex family where restrictive religious and cultural beliefs bare the landscape for painful experiences and decisions. Written is a beautifully told story of Love, Secrets, Betrayal and Honour through the eyes of a four year old girl, the reader travels into adulthood with her.
Roksana and Dhipa read extracts from the book to fully understand the concepts and beliefs of the character. Dhipa shares an inspirational message of hope that we each have the capability, opportunity and choice to create a fulfilling life.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
• That Domestic Violence should never be tolerated
• You are in control of your life despite the challenges faced
• We have different experiences in life, and that makes us unique
• Through loving yourself, you have the power to rewrite your life story
D.A. Lee is a Bangladeshi-born British author, artist, and poet, best known for her novel 'Written' published in 2019. Raised in a small town in Lancashire, England, Lee describes the cultural challenges of growing up in a Bengali household whilst navigating a western world.
Lee's novel, whilst fictional, draws on many of her own experiences of growing up in a Muslim family and explores the underworld of cultural expectations, arranged marriages, honor, abuse, and domestic violence that often limit women's choices.
Lee first started writing as a form of self-healing through the challenges of home life. The word 'Written' had become a poignant theme throughout the book, a word often expressed culturally to describe the notion of determinism and predestination adopted by most traditional Muslim families as a common explanation for events in life. Lee takes us on a journey through her character Eleanor, a young girl caught between a web of family secrets and lies where she comes into conflict with these values.
Today, Lee is an advocate for women's freedom of choice and encourages women to speak out and seek help if they feel they are in danger.
You can find Dhipa A. Lee:
Connect with Roksana Hussein:


For those that don’t know, I’m a huge SEC fan. A bit of a snob, really. I grew up in South Carolina, pulling for the Gamecocks. When they joined the SEC, Steve Tanneyhill was my favorite player. I went to school at the University of South Carolina, graduated with a Bachelor’s in History in 2002 and a Master’s in Public History and Museum Management in 2005. I worked at the University of South Carolina’s McKissick Museum for nine years. My blood bleeds Gamecock garnet and black. The SEC is the conference of my beloved university and I will defend it as long as South Carolina is there.
A couple of months ago I came across the book How the SEC Became Goliath: The Making of Football’s Most Dominant Conference by Ray Glier. It had been a while since I read a book on sports, so I thought I would give this a try. What I expected and what I got were two very different things. What I expected was a history of the Southeastern Conference’s rise as the top football conference in the country. Instead, what I got was, well, a hodgepodge.
Glier starts the book well enough. He talks about the SEC as both a dominant conference and one filled with flaws. I think this introduction is meant to show that, although he is a fan of the SEC, he also recognizes its imperfections. The first chapter is without a doubt his strongest writing in the book. Glier talks about the early days of the SEC, and I do mean the early days, going way back to the early 20th century. The stigma of the SEC as a “cheating” conference began much earlier than I had imagined. It began when the SEC wanted to grant scholarships to college football players and other conferences complained, even though the other conferences were giving paid jobs to players like “shoveling snow by the L.A. Colosseum.”
After the first chapter, Glier just goes all over the place. Suddenly you’re thrown into the 21st century, skipping over a few decades. Not talked about at length are the Fulmer Tennessee teams, the Spurrier Florida teams or the Stallings Alabama teams. In fact, other famous coaches and teams from the SEC are briefly mentioned, such as Les Miles and Gene Chizik’s Auburn Tigers. The bulk of the book’s coverage is about three men: Nick Saban, Urban Meyer and Ron Zook.
Saban and Meyer are clearly excellent coaches who have shaped the SEC into what it is today. Glier does an excellent job breaking down their recruiting methods, coaching styles, and how they relate to their players. He talks about the impact they have had on player’s lives, and how many of their players have gone on to the NFL. However, although Glier tries to not be too much of an SEC apologist, the deeper you get into the book the more he just turns a blind eye to anything negative. For example, he extols the virtues of Meyer and how he built great teams, but he barely even glances at the fact that so many of his players at Florida had problems with the law. He doesn’t even talk about his “retirement” or the connection he had with Tim Tebow. When it comes to Nick Saban, he goes on and on and on, from his time with the Cleveland Browns to the present day. One would think that Glier is actually writing an autobiography on Saban and not the rise of the SEC as a power football conference.
While the book had some excellent moments, I feel that this was less about the “rise” of the SEC than it was a retrospective of Meyer, Saban and Zook (he is clearly a Zook apologist and spent a good portion of the book defending him as a great recruiter and coach). Surprisingly, there is very little on Steve Spurrier, Marc Richt, or Phil Fulmer, three coaches who truly made the SEC into what it is today. Oh, and if you’re a fan of any SEC team besides LSU, Alabama or Florida, don’t expect to read a lot about your team. The book doesn’t follow any kind of chronological order, which is kind of what you expect from the title. Instead, it jumps all over the place. Aside from the first chapter, there is very little history, and more a celebration of three coaches.
FINAL RATING: 2.5 of 4 stars.


Information about other work, including how to find what's on the Web.
Lima Bean and other short prose
This limited edition chapbook published in 2007 brings together 10 postcard stories, many of which were previously published in Canada. The cover illustration was made especially for this publication by Indian-French artist and calligrapher Swati Lall. The book was printed on handmade paper in India. A very few copies remain. Please contact me to order one.
Price: CAN$7 + shipping and handling.
"On Seeing Tilda Again"
Published in Atlas in spring 2007. A TV journalist appears to have it all together until a lie from her distant past is discovered, and begins to unravel everything.
"Brave New Land"
Published in The Antigonish Review in spring 2004. A potential new immigrant from Russia to Canada has a sort of epiphany during a Bingo game in St. John's, Newfoundland.
Published in The New Quarterly in spring 2006. Based on a tiny news article, the story revolves around the invasion of a home in Gurgaon, India by a wild boar.
"Beneath the Sheet"
Published in Prism international in winter 2004. Two teenage girls dress up for Hallowe'en, one as a sex worker, the other in a burqa.
Published in This Magazine in spring 2004. A diamond-cutter from Yerevan, Armenia comes to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada to work in the diamond industry. The story, also based on a newspaper article, placed 3rd in the Great Canadian Literary Hunt 2003.
Published in The Fed Anthology: Brand New Fiction & Poetry from the Federation of BC Writers, edited by Susan Musgrave, 2003. A woman debates having cosmetic surgery while considering the weight of her relationships with her mother, father and step-father.
"Feeding the Gracklings"
Published in The Harpweaver in autumn 2001. A woman battling an eating disorder has to deal with her mother's death. The story was awarded The Eleanor Abram Prize for Fiction 2001-2.
Published in Monday Magazine in June 2001. A severely disabled boy observes his mother and her new boyfriend. This postcard story won the Summer Fiction Contest in 2001.
"Written in Stone"
Published in Canadian Writer's Journal in 2001. A woman discovers a secret during a medical procedure. This postcard story won 3rd prize in the Semi-Annual Short Fiction Contest in 2001.
Published in The New Orphic Review in spring 2000. A dead deer on the side of the road, a shed slated for demolition, and an affair that's not a secret. This story won 3rd prize in the journal's annual Short Story Contest.
Published in The Saanich Review in autumn 2000. A woman summons up the courage to leave her over-bearing painter boyfriend. This was the first piece of fiction I published.


Memoirs of The Destruction is the second manuscript that Jacob Watts left with my mother, Audrey Helen Watts, in 1954 or 1955. Portions of one of the narratives that is interwoven here were written originally in German, which was translated by my father more than fifty years ago. My mother believed that another version of the manuscript, perhaps entirely in German, was left with an Anglican rector in Winnipeg. To date I have not been able to verify this.
As with The Sailing of Isis,
two perspectives tell the story, this one of the revolt of AD 66 to 70
and the final days of the Second Temple. One narrative is that of a
physician in service to Queen Berenice, one of the last of the Herods,
who with her brother, usually called Agrippa II by historians, was in
Jerusalem at the beginning of the revolt and tried to stop it. The
other narrative is that of a boy from a minor priestly family who
becomes a rebel but escapes the final conflagration. Mahli son of Zabdi
in time joins the Pharisees and others who begin those debates on the
law that a century later would produce the Mishnah and eventually the
Talmud. I do not believe there is any historical basis for either
character but, not being multilingual as was my uncle, my access to the
historical sources is minimal.
John Ensminger, November 11, 2009


ISBN: Not available
Zine Collection N°19 – “The Family” by the artist Alain Laboile.
Born on May 1, 1968 in Bordeaux, France, Alain Laboile is a photographer and father of six. In 2004, as he needed to put together a portfolio of his work as a sculptor, he acquired a camera, and thus developed a taste for macrophotography, spurred by his passion for entomology. Later on, he pointed his lens towards his growing family which became his major subject : a life on the edge of the world, where intemporality and the universality of childhood meet.
Editions Bessard is a Paris-based, independent publishing house created by Pierre Bessard in 2011. Focusing on working with artists, writers and curators to realise intellectually challenging projects in book form.


Join date: Jun 16, 2018
Nov 3, 2019 ∙ 4 min
Putting women in the frame: why Claire Eastgate is Painting the Poets
We talk to artist Claire Eastgate about her new project, Painting the Poets, which puts female poets in the frame.
Oct 15, 2019 ∙ 7 min
Poems from the Edge of Extinction: A conversation with Chris McCabe
We spoke to National Poetry Librarian Chris McCabe about his new anthology, Poems from the Edge of Extinction, and just why it's so...