Today in Student News, congratulations to MAWP student Raul Palma, who has won first place in the Mary Mackey Short Story contest for his story “Amaranthus.” As the first place winner of this competition, Raul has been invited to read his story in San Francisco in March and was awarded a $100 prize. As we posted earlier in Student News, “Amaranthus” is also scheduled to be published in 34th Parallel Magazine. You can find out more about the Mary Mackey Short Story prize and other contests in the Soul-Making Keats Literary Competition at soulmakingcontest.us/story.

Congratulations as well to Paul Byrd and Marie Pabelonio, both MAWP, who have just finished their first book editing project. The Cobbler and the Cricket and Other Tales of Faith by George Reynolds, OP was published last week by New Priory Press. Paul served as project editor and Marie was copy and design editor. You can learn about and purchase the book at createspace.com/4103457.

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The 49th Allerton English Articulation Conference has issued a Call for Proposals and Participation: In cooperation with Liberal Arts and Sciences External Programming and the statewide Allerton Planning Committee, NIU’s Department of English is pleased to announce the 49th Allerton English Articulation Conference, to be held Wednesday and Thursday, April 17-18th, 2013. The submission deadline for the conference is in just one short week, February 1st, 2013. Conference registration is now available at niu.edu/allerton/registration/index.

The Allerton English Articulation Conference, bringing together faculty from two- and four-year colleges and universities for discussions and presentations, takes place at the Allerton Park and Retreat Center in Monticello, Illinois. In keeping with tradition, the two-day format will include plenty of opportunities for collegiality, entertainment, and woodland walks.

In honor of the reopening of the long-closed main entrance bridge to the Allerton Park, the theme will be Bridging the Divides, in the context of articulation in English Studies at two- and four-year institutions. This year’s theme challenges participants to bridge some of the traditional gaps or divides we face by investigating, discussing, and perhaps even deconstructing binaries such as (but not limited to) the following:

• composition vs. literature
• practice vs. assessment
• teaching vs. administration
• dream vs. reality
• rural vs. urban
• white vs. minority
• traditional vs. nontraditional
• print vs. digital
• community college vs. university
• student preparation vs. teacher expectation
• collaboration vs. confrontation
• public perception vs. faculty experience
• career-oriented vs. life-long learning
• process vs. product

Millie Davis, Director of the Division of Communications and Affiliate Services for NCTE, will be giving the keynote address, “The Case for College Composition: Bridging the Divide Between What the Public Things and What the Faculty Knows.”

Suggested proposal topics include but are not limited to composition, culture and diversity, English education, film, genre, literature, reading communities, and technology. Rather than formal paper-reading, Allerton envisions more informal discussion and interaction. Building upon the success of previous conferences at Allerton, proposals for both panel and individual presentations are invited, as well as discussion roundtables, which will then be grouped topically into a series of 50-minute roundtables and panels.

Please email a title and one-paragraph abstract of your roundtable or panel presentation proposal to AllertonConference@niu.edu by February 1st, 2013. Those accepted will be notified by March 1st, 2013.

You can also find the Allerton Conference on Facebook (Friends of Allerton English Conference) for conference planning updates and conversations with participants past and present.

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The 2013 Gulf Coast Prize Contest is now accepting entries in Fiction, Nonfiction/Lyric Essay, and Poetry. This year’s judges are Stanley Plumly (Poetry), Maggie Shipstead (Fiction), and Darin Strauss (Nonfiction/Lyric Essay)!

The contest awards $1,500 and publication to the winner in each genre, as well as $250 to two honorable mentions in each genre. The winners will appear in Gulf Coast 26.1, due out in Fall 2013, and all entries will be considered for paid publication on Gulf Coast’s website as Online Exclusives. All three of last year’s winners were from creative writing programs.

The deadline for entries is March 15th, 2013, and all entrants receive a free year-long subscription to Gulf Coast with their entry fee. Gulf Coast accepts submissions both via our online submissions manager and via postal mail. Please see below for more contest details or visit gulfcoastmag.org/contests.

CONTEST GUIDELINES FOR ONLINE SUBMISSIONS

• Submissions accepted via Gulf Coast’s online submissions manager.
• Fiction and nonfiction entrants may submit one piece, up to 7,000 words; poetry entrants may submit as many as five poems, up to ten pages.
• You may submit more than once or in more than one genre, but each submission must be uploaded separately as a .doc, .docx, .rtf, or .pdf file.
• Only previously unpublished work will be considered.
• The contest will be judged blindly, so please do not include your cover letter, your name, or any contact information in the uploaded document. This information should only be pasted in the “Comments” field.
• After submitting your work you will be redirected to PayPal to authorize your $23 reading fee, which includes a year-long subscription to Gulf Coast. You do not need a PayPal account to submit to the contest; PayPal accepts all major credit cards for payment. We will contact you if there are any issues with your payment.

CONTEST GUIDELINES FOR POSTAL SUBMISSIONS

• Only previously unpublished work will be considered. Fiction and nonfiction entrants may submit one piece, up to 7,000 words; poetry entrants may submit as many as five poems, up to ten pages.
• You may submit more than once or in more than one genre. Remember to pay the additional entry fee each time.
• Please address postal mail entries to:

Gulf Coast
ATTN: Gulf Coast Prize in [Genre]
Department of English
University of Houston
Houston, TX 77204-3013

• The contest will be judged blindly, so your contact information should appear only on your cover letter.
• Please include your $23 reading fee for each entry, payable to “Gulf Coast.”

Last year’s winning pieces, chosen by Joyelle McSweeney (Poetry), Victor LaValle (Fiction), and Jenny Boully (Nonfiction/Lyric Essay), are available at gulfcoastmag.org: Gulf Coast Prize Winner in Poetry, Lo Kwa Mei-en; Gulf Coast Prize Winner in Fiction, Geetha Iyer; and Gulf Coast Prize Winner in Nonfiction/Lyric Essay, Emily Watson.