Columbia's Favorite Poetry - Today, featuring Cassie Premo Steele

In celebration of National Poetry Month the Jasper Project invited several artists, writers, and leaders in the Columbia arts community to share with us their favorite poems and most of them generously accepted.

We’ve put together this collection of our favorite poems and will be sharing them with you, poem by poem, day by day, over the month of April. Some of the poems are old and traditional, others are new and inventive. Some are whimsical, others are insightful. Some rhyme. Some don’t.

What they all have in common is that someone you know loves that poem – and this gives us such lovely insight into the soul of our community.

Thank you to everyone who shared their poetry with us.

And Happy National Poetry Month from Jasper.

Our fist poem is from poet and author Cassie Premo Steele.

Cassie Premo Steele

"My favorite poem is For Each of Us by Audre Lorde. Audre Lorde's poetry has been important to me throughout my life, so much so that I remember being in my twenties and feeling like life was worth living because I hadn't yet read everything she'd written. I love this poem especially because it is fierce and wise and supportive, but with the paradox of truth that makes Lorde a poet-philosopher. Power and pain exist together. Preparing a meal is essential, but there is more to life. The best politics come when we quiet down and do the work. Nothing is eternal, even the deepest love. And yet, we go on loving and nurturing in a spirit of pride and strength."

FOR EACH OF YOU

By Audre Lorde

Be who you are and will be

learn to cherish

that boisterous Black Angel that drives you

up one day and down another

protecting the place where your power rises

running like hot blood

from the same source 

as your pain.

When you are hungry

learn to eat

whatever sustains you

until morning

but do not be misled by details

simply because you live them.

Do not let your head deny

your hands

any memory of what passes through them

nor your eyes

nor your heart

everything can be used

except what is wasteful

(you will need

to remember this when you are accused of destruction.) 

Even when they are dangerous examine the heart of those machines you hate

before you discard them

and never mourn the lack of their power

lest you be condemned

to relive them.

If you do not learn to hate

you will never be lonely

enough

to love easily

nor will you always be brave

although it does not grow any easier

Do not pretend to convenient beliefs

even when they are righteous

you will never be able to defend your city

while shouting.

Remember whatever pain you bring back 

from your dreaming

but do not look for new gods

in the sea

nor in any part of a rainbow

Each time you love

love as deeply as if were

forever

only nothing is

eternal.

Speak proudly to your children

where ever you may find them

tell them

you are offspring of slaves

and your mother was

a princess

in darkness. 

Cassie Premo Steele is the author of fifteen books, including six books of poetry, and her new novel, The ReSisters, will be out later this year.

Cassie Premo Steele

In Guns We Trust by Ed Madden with Bert Easter

"Bert built a crucifix in the backyard." - Ed Madden

After the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, in February, National Rifle Association spokesman Wayne LaPierre said at a conservative political meeting that the right to bear arms “is not bestowed by man but granted by God to all Americans as our American birthright.” My husband Bert and I were struck by the religious language LaPierre used, the idea that God grants us, as Americans, the right to carry a gun. For the next few days, we kept talking about this language, this almost-religious devotion to the gun as an American icon, what it represents, what it can do.

I was reminded of an essay historian Garry Wills wrote after the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting in 2012, “Our Moloch,” in which he compares the American worship of the gun to the stories of Moloch, the Old Testament god of the Canaanites that required the sacrifice of children.  “The gun is not a mere tool, a bit of technology, a political issue, a point of debate,” he says. “It is an object of reverence. Devotion to it precludes interruption with the sacrifices it entails. Like most gods, it does what it will, and cannot be questioned. Its acolytes think it is capable only of good things. It guarantees life and safety and freedom. It even guarantees law. Law grows from it. Then how can law question it?”

As we kept talking, we began to imagine a religion of the gun, a chapel to the gun, the gun as a god that requires the sacrifice of children. We imagined a child crucified on a cross of guns, a church banner with LaPierre’s quote. I suggested one of those hokey traditional pictures of the guardian angel hovering over two children, but with belligerent NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch’s head pasted on it, maybe a gun in her hand.

A few years ago, as part of a collaborative show centered on the image of Saint Sebastian, Bert and I designed an interactive chapel to Sebastian. The show was organized by Alejandro Garcia Lémos and Leslie Pierce at Friday Cottage in downtown Columbia, and featured a range of artists—visual art, sculpture, stained glass, performance, film, poetry—all exploring the iconography of the saint and the historical status of the saint as a gay icon. In our little chapel, there was an altar with votive candles and a statue of the saint, surrounded by any little plastic figure I could find with a bow and arrow (cowboys and Indians, Vikings, even a Smurf). There were church pews, banners, and a shrine where you could write down your prayers, shames, or desires on strips of red paper and pin them to the body of the saint. By the end of the evening, it was covered with red ribbons of prayer.

So we imagined a chapel to the gun. A window diorama. We would call it In Guns We Trust, our national motto inscribed on all currency, evoking thus national patriotic and religious (and perhaps commercial) resonances. We asked Tapp’s Arts Center—perhaps a little in jest, since we are not trained visual artists—if we could do a window installation. They said yes. So we began work in earnest, hoping to get it installed in advance of the March for Our Lives.

Bert built a crucifix in the backyard. We bought toy rifles and machine guns. I bought Dana Loesch’s 2014 book, Hands Off My Gun: Defeating the Plot to Disarm America.  I looked up LaPierre’s infamous press conference on December 21, 2012 after the Sandy Hook school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, where he said, “The only way to stop a monster from killing our kids is to be personally involved and invested in a plan of absolute protection. The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” 

I began to read more and more about how American attitudes toward guns suggested something sacred. “How can we determine if we are in bondage to an idol?” asked theologian John Thatamani in “The Price of Freedom? Child Sacrifice and the American Gun Cult.”  “Intensity of reaction is a sure-fire marker that we traffic with the sacred,” he said.  “We know that the gun has become a sacred object because it commands unquestioning reverence. Interrogating its sacral status triggers anger and even death threats.”

After the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Garry Wills wrote, in “A Nation Captive to the Gun”:  “God gave us guns to show us who we are. Giving up the gun would be a surrender to evil, taking us abruptly into eschatological time.” Eschatological, meaning end times, death and judgment, the end of the world.

“So this time,” Wills continued, “let us skip all the sighing and promising and moments of silence. Why keep up the pretense that we are going to take any real and practical steps toward sanity? Everyone knows we are not going to do a single damn thing. We can’t. We are captives of The Gun.”

“The Gun is patriotic,” he wrote, “The Gun is America. The Gun is God.”

I found that the psalm Dana Loesch cites in her acknowledgments, Psalm 144:1, was inscribed on AR-15 rifles by a gunmaker in Florida in 2015.  “Blessed be the Lord my Rock who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.”  The gunmaker said he hoped a Muslim terrorist would be struck by a bolt of lightning if he picked up the gun.

I was struck by the fact that the toy guns we bought for the installation all had the gun safety integrated into the mode switch, so that you can toggle between safe, semi, and automatic. On the cheaper guns on which the accessories were molded, the switch is permanently set on semi. We’re set on semi-safe.

In Guns We Trust, our window installation at Tapp’s on Main Street is meant to draw attention to the almost religious devotion to guns in America, which prevents us from talking about reasonable control legislation. It is a chapel to the gun with banners (including the February quote from Wayne LaPierre and another intoning, in good Republican fashion, "Now is not the time"), a communion tray with cups filled not with wine but with spent AR-15 bullets. On the left side of the window, a poem called “Semi.” (We’re set on semi-safe.)  On the right side, passages from some of the things I’d been reading. There is a trinity of toy machine guns in the air, their laser targets trained on the sidewalk. There is an image of Dana Loesch as the traditional guardian angel, and a child crucified on a cross made of guns.

We hope the window raises awareness, or at least questions, about our American devotion to guns. We hope it helps to start conversations. We clearly need to start talking. Maybe now is the time.

Ed Madden is the poetry editor for Jasper Magazine and the poet laureate for the City of Columbia, SC. 

Tickets Go On Sale for Deckle Edge Keynote Address and Nikky Finney Southern Truth Award Celebration

Terrance Hayes

Nikky Finney photo by Forrest Clonts

DECKLE EDGE LITERARY FESTIVAL 2018 OPENS TICKET SALES FOR TERRANCE HAYES KEYNOTE ADDRESS AND NIKKY FINNEY SOUTHERN TRUTH AWARD CELEBRATION

In the third year of celebrating South Carolina’s rich literary tradition Deckle Edge Literary Festival 2018 will welcome keynote speaker Terrance Hayes and renowned Southern literary artist Nikky Finney March 3, 2018 for the Deckle Edge 2018 Keynote Address and Southern Truth Award Celebration. Following the 2018 Deckle Edge Literary Festival daytime sessions from 9:30 am until 5 pm at Richland Library on Assembly Street, the Keynote Address and Southern Truth Award Celebration will take place at 7 pm at 701 Whaley Street Market Space. Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 day of, and $10 for students. Heavy hors d’oeuvres from Chef Joe Turkaly will be served with music from Cola Jazz’s Amos Hoffman and Sam Edwards, and there will be a cash bar. Tickets are available at Brown Paper Tickets at https://de18.bpt.me.

Prior to the Keynote Address and Southern Truth Award Celebration a VAP* Champagne Reception will be held from 5:30 until 7 pm, also at 701 Whaley Market Space. (*Very Appreciated Person). The VAP Celebration allows attendees to meet and mingle, as well as raise a champagne toast to, Terrance Hayes, Nikky Finney and other honored participants in this year’s Deckle Edge Literary Festival. The reception will feature free champagne, heavy hors d’oeuvres, and reserved seats for the keynote address and award ceremony to follow, as well as recognition at the event. The reception will also serve as a fund raising opportunity for Deckle Edge Literary Festival. The purchase of VAP tickets will not only help offset festival costs but will serve as a scholarship fund for additional students to attend the evening’s Keynote address.

Winner of MacArthur, Guggenheim, US Artists Zell, and National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, Hayes is the author of Lighthead, which was the winner of the 2010 National Book Award, Wind in a Box, Hip Logic, and Muscular Music. How to Be Drawn, his most recent collection of poems, was a finalist for the 2016 National Book Award, the 2016 National Book Critics Circle Award, and received the 2016 NAACP Image Award for Poetry. He is the current poetry editor at New York Times Magazine and has two manuscripts forthcoming in 2018.

A South Carolina native, Nikky Finney is the author of Head Off & Split, which won the 2011 National Book Award for poetry, The World Is Round, Rice, Heartwood, and On Wings Made of Gauze. She is the John H. Bennett, Jr. Chair in Creative Writing and Southern Letters at the University of South Carolina.

Over two dozen sessions will make up the Deckle Edge Literary Festival this year with panels and presentations that cover poetry, prose, songwriting, screenwriting, new works from local authors, a live interview for the Pat Conroy Literary Center filmed on-site, writing graphic novels, writing for social justice, a poetry workshop for teens, USC’s Moving Images Resource Center, literary history, and interactive art-making with Columbia-based fiber and installation artist Susan Lenz. Among the authors attending are Chuck Brown, Sanford Greene, Julia Elliott, Scott Gould, Mark Powell, Tim Conroy, Claudia Smith Brinson, Anthony Grooms, Alvin McEwan, Monifa Lemons, Ray McManus, Cassie Premo Steele, Marjorie Spruill, all of SC’s poets laureates – Marjory Wentworth, Marcus Amaker, and Ed Madden, Brock Adams, Isabella Gomez and many more.

The daytime event is free and open to the public and tickets to the keynote celebration are available at https://de18.bpt.me.

Watch the website at www.Deckleedgesc.org for further details as they are released.

Fall Lines Literary Magazine Accepting Submissions for 2018 Issue

Fall Lines – a literary convergence is a literary journal presented by The Jasper Project in partnership with Richland Library and One Columbia for Arts and History.

Fall Lines will accept submissions of previously unpublished poetry, essays, short fiction, and flash fiction from January 15, 2018 through April 1, 2018. While the editors of Fall Lines hope to attract the work of writers and poets from the Carolinas and the Southeastern US, acceptance of work is not dependent upon residence.

Publication in Fall Lines will be determined by a panel of judges and accepted authors (ONLY) will be notified by May 30, 2018, with a publication date in July 2018. Two $250 cash prizes, sponsored by the Richland Library Friends, will be awarded: The Saluda River Prize for Poetry and the Broad River Prize for Prose.

Each entry must be submitted as a single independent entry and include its own cover sheet.

Submit each individual poetry submission, along with its own cover sheet, to FallLines@JasperProject.org with the word POETRY in the subject line.

Submit each individual prose submission, along with its own cover sheet, to FallLines@JasperProject.org with the word PROSE in the subject line.

Cover sheets MUST include your name, the name of the one individual entry you are submitting with that cover sheet, email address, and USPO address. There is no fee to enter, but submissions that fail to follow the above instructions will be disqualified without review.

Please limit short fiction to 2000 words or less; flash fiction to 350 – 500 words per submission; essays to 1200 words; and poetry to three pages (Times New Roman 12 pt.) Please submit no more than a total of 5 entries.

___

The Columbia Fall Line is a natural junction, along which the Congaree River falls and rapids form, running parallel to the east coast of the country between the resilient rocks of the Appalachians and the softer, more gentle coastal plain.

Deckle Edge Literary Festival Announces Terrance Hayes as 2018 Keynote Speaker

Terrance Hayes will give keynote address at 2018 Deckle Edge Literary Festival

In the third year of celebrating South Carolina’s rich literary tradition Deckle Edge Literary Festival 2018 will welcome keynote speaker Terrance Hayes on March 3, 2018. Winner of MacArthur, Guggenheim, US Artists Zell, and National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, Hayes is the author of Lighthead, which was the winner of the 2010 National Book Award, Wind in a Box, Hip Logic, and Muscular Music. How to Be Drawn, his most recent collection of poems, was a finalist for the 2016 National Book Award, the 2016 National Book Critics Circle Award, and received the 2016 NAACP Image Award for Poetry. He is the current poetry editor at New York Times Magazine and has two manuscripts forthcoming in 2018.

The one-day festival will take place on Saturday, March 3, 2018 with daytime events being held at Richland Library in downtown Columbia. The keynote address by Hayes will take place on Saturday evening at a culminating celebration during which Columbia-based literary artist Nikky Finney will be presented with the inaugural Deckle Edge Southern Truth Award. A South Carolina native, Finney is the author of Head Off & Split, which won the 2011 National Book Award for poetry, The World Is Round, Rice, Heartwood, and On Wings Made of Gauze. She is the John H. Bennett, Jr. Chair in Creative Writing and Southern Letters at the University of South Carolina. The keynote celebration will take place at the 701 Whaley Market Space.

Almost two dozen sessions will make up the Deckle Edge Literary Festival this year with panels and presentations that cover poetry, prose, songwriting, screenwriting, new works from local authors, a live interview for the Pat Conroy Literary Center filmed on-site, writing graphic novels, writing for social justice, a poetry workshop for teens, USC’s Moving Images Resource Center, literary history, and interactive art-making with Columbia-based fiber and installation artist Susan Lenz. Among the authors attending are Chuck Brown, Sanford Greene, Julia Elliott, Scott Gould, Mark Powell, Tim Conroy, Marjorie Spruill, all of SC’s poets laureates – Marjory Wentworth, Marcus Amaker, and Ed Madden, Brock Adams, Isabella Gomez and many more. The daytime event is free and open to the public and tickets to the keynote celebration will be available soon. Watch the website at www.Deckleedgesc.org for further details as they are released

Focus on JAY Finalists - Don McCallister for literary arts

We're chatting with the 2017 JAY Awards Finalists as we enter the last few days of voting and preparing for the JAY Awards (& Retro Christmas party!) coming up on December 5th

Don McCallister - photo by Forrest Clonts

Jasper: What made the past year so great for you as an artist, how have you grown, and to what do you attribute that growth? 

Don: Becoming my own publisher after many years of submitting and freelancing offered new challenges and opportunities to expand my base of knowledge. It’s also opened up new avenues of creativity as I work on the PR side of the game. I’ve even begun designing some of my own graphic materials, which I had experience doing in the past for my small retail clothing business.

Jasper: How have you seen your arts community grow over the past few years and to what do you attribute that growth? 

Don: I’ve noticed and admired so much growth in our arts scene that I wrote a novel about it called Let the Glory Pass Away! (see excerpt at bottom)

Jasper: Why is art so important right now? 

Don: Art is never-not important, perhaps especially so as humanity struggles to pierce through an emergent veil into next-stage consciousness. Look to the artists for guidance. They’re ahead of the curve—always.

Jasper: What role does art play in your life? 

Don: My current body of work already offers a cohesive literary vision, and as the next few books come out this corpus will take on added dimensions of connection in terms of character and plot, but also in a thematic sense. Achieving what will ultimately be the ten or twelve book world of “Edgewater County” has turned into a longterm art project, and at this late stage in the process, I couldn’t imagine living any other way.

Jasper: Who have been your major influences? 

Don: Major adolescent influences were heavy-hitters of the day like John Irving, Vonnegut, Updike, Stephen King and hardcore sci-fi on the pop side of the equation. Lately I’ve been digging Norway’s Karl Ove Knausgaard and his autobiographical “novel” series My Struggle. Not everyone would, though. It’s a writer-to-writer thing in my case with Knausgaard.

Jasper: Who are some of your favorite local artists from an arts discipline other than your own? 

Don: Our community as a whole enjoys a high per-capita rate of remarkably talented and incisive artists, across all disciplines. Visual artists, mixed-media artists, musicians, writers, actors, filmmakers, hybrids, young people striving to break through into new forms—we have it all here. Too many individuals to name.

Jasper: Is there anyone you’d like to thank for their support of your arts career? 

Don: I’ve had ample support from the community and family and friends, but my wife deserves particular citation for supporting me through the years of intensive art-life concentration and effort it took to have achieved my modest but satisfying publishing successes. The literary arts are a lonely, often non-lucrative trade, and having a life partner to provide and manage things proved crucial to my success.

Jasper: Why should folks come out to the 2017 JAY Awards and Retro Christmas Party? 

Don: What’s not to love about a party? And in the case of the Jasper crew, one may expect the retro-holiday cheer served up with a sense of artistic style, a dash of zest, a feeling of accomplishment and grace.

---

EXCERPT FROM LET THE GLORY PASS AWAY:

[Narrator Cort Beauchamp, charged with convincing a reclusive rock star to participate in a public ceremony honoring his superstar career, has taken a weekend beach getaway that will get him in close proximity to his prey.]

As I clambered down the other side of the mossy, slick groin and headed for the spit, somehow I didn’t hear the heavy footsteps running across the beach toward me—perhaps the pounding of Mahler’s timpani and the wind cutting across my ears had something to do with it. With my prey so close, now only twenty yards away and striking his yoga poses, I had myopia like a camera lens irising to a small round circle amidst an endless field of black. 

DD. 

In my sights. 

“Duncan! Duncan Devereaux—it’s me, it’s Cort Beauchamp, it’s—”

Oof—a massive force from behind, a blackout, my wind knocked out; my face, slamming into the rough hard sand and sliding a foot or so to a stop. I tried to cry out, but my words had no wind beneath their wings, only a mouthful of gritty, salty sand.

A pressure in the small of my back—a knee. A voice belonging to the knee, sonorous, a vibration traveling down the length of my aching body. “Sir—I’m going to release you, now, real slow and easy and we all real cool. No sudden movements. Me and sudden movements don’t get along.”

Upon the lifting of the knee, my back, cracking in a fine and thorough manner the likes of which I’ve not enjoyed since I last hit the chiropractor, now over a year ago.

“Gah,” I managed to say. “Blargh.”

“Mister, you’re trespassing on private beachfront right now—”

Another edgy voice from behind me, urgent and upset. “What the hell are you doing, Reynaldo?”

The pressure on my back eased.

“Let him up.”

And disappeared.

Relief.

I took a tentative, deep breath; much additional crackling ensued, and a modest but sharp flurry of shooting pains.

My nose and cheeks mudded with gray Sedge Island sand, I rolled over to see a looming security goon as substantial as a small mountain. Alongside the olive-skinned man with forearms like Popeye and backlit by the blazing light of the morning sun over the Atlantic crouched a middle-aged man into whom a once chubby, longhaired rock star had transformed: now reed-thin, gray-faced and wrinkled, but still a version of none other than my old interview subject. The eyes never lie, and his intense, probing marbles shone with recognition.

Duncan’s expression of concern turned to chagrin. “It’s—you.”

“It’s me.”

DD and his bodyguard offered hands that helped me to my feet. I squinted around for the sunglasses that the security guard knocked off my head. I suspected I’d hurt for weeks—the last time I took a spill from the mountain bike I ride around the hilly, rural roads of Cypress Creek, I limped for three months with a sore knee that didn’t want to heal.

I glared at the thug that’d put my dingus into the wet sandy earth. “What is the meaning of this violence? You almost broke me in half.”

“You’re trespassing, sir—this—this is—” 

“Enough.” Duncan, grabbing me by the arm. “This man, he’s a friend. One who’s been trying to get in touch with me for over a month now. Haven’t you, Cort?”

My face, hot as an oven. I could barely meet his eyes.

“So I guess you finally got me.” His smile, genuine. “Might as well join us for breakfast, eh?”

Relieved, I could but agree. And so, for the second time in as many decades, Duncan Devereaux allowed me a glimpse, however brief, into the private life of a rock legend.

VOTE at http://jasperproject.org/jays

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Focus on JAY Finalists - Nicola Waldron for literary arts

We're chatting with the 2017 JAY Awards Finalists as we enter the last few days of voting and preparing for the JAY Awards (& Retro Christmas party!) coming up on December 5th

Nicola Waldron - literary artist     photo by Forrest Clonts

Jasper: What made the past year so great for you as an artist?

Nicola: I have been lucky to have a number of prose pieces accepted for publication in various venues, and to feel in this way that my voice is being included in the national conversation in some small way. I also had the opportunity to work on a piece of performance art through the Jasper Project’s Syzygy Solar Eclipse Festival: it was so good to collaborate with new friends, and to be given the encouragement to experiment. I learned a lot, had a lot of fun, and found some new avenues to wander down.

Jasper: Why is art so important right now?

Nicola: This has been, as they all are in their way, a hard year, which also means it’s been a year to respond to those difficulties. For me, that means thinking through issues in my writing of femaleness, Americanness, immigrant-ess, and parenthood. If your heart is a social justice engine, then struggle can be its juice, its defibrillator; and art its beat.

Jasper: What role does art play in your life?

Nicola: Writing is my way of being fully alive within myself, when public life sometimes feels oppressive. As a classic introvert, my work is where I live most of the time. It brings me ridiculous joy, those moments where the words on the page come to actually match what it is I’m thinking or feeling: synergy. There’s nothing quite like it.

Jasper: What role does community play in the execution of your art?

Nicola: The support of the community is of enormous significance. We can, and must, labor away or play with our art in private, but without an audience or someone, at some point, saying ‘I hear you; this matters,’ I’m not sure there’d be much point. For me, it’s all about connection. I love the moments here in Columbia where I find myself in a room with like-minds and think, ‘These are my people,’, by which I suppose I mean, ‘here is my true family, the people who will support me in whatever I do, in my attempt to examine a subject and get at the truth of the matter.’

Jasper: Who are some of your favorite local artists from an arts discipline other than your own?

Nicola: I really adore the visual art of painters like Lee Monts, and Christopher Lane, both of whose use of color and form moves me in the way a good poem moves me. I also enjoy the courageous, boundary-pushing work of artists like Michaela Pilar Brown, and Nicole Kallenberg Heere, and Dogon Krigga, though this is not an exhaustive list, by any means. These artists inspire me to break down some walls of my own. In theater, I have particularly enjoyed the work I’ve seen at USC’s Center for Performance Experiment this past year—so much talent in the work of directors and actors like Stephen Pearson, Robyn Hunt, and Mary Beth Gorman. Just so much talent everywhere you look!

Jasper: Is there anyone you’d like to thank for their support of your arts career?

Nicola: Without the support of the Jasper Project, and particularly people like Cindi Boiter, Ed Madden, and Al Black, their warm friendship and encouragement, I’d have fallen into a pit of despair long ago. Thank you one and all. (editor’s note – ow, wow, thanks, Nicola!)

Jasper: Why should folks come out to the 2017 JAY Awards and Retro Christmas Party?

Nicola: Because people dressed as Christmas trees!

VOTE at http://jasperproject.org/jays

BUY Tickets at https://2017jays.bpt.me/

GIVE as part of #GIVINGTUESDAY at https://www.facebook.com/JasperProjectColumbia/

THANKS!

Fall Lines 2016 Award Winners Announced (& Photos!)

Congratulations to Selected Contributors to

Fall Lines - a literary convergence, Volume III

and Prize Winners

Jasper assistant editor Kyle Petersen with Claire Kemp winner of the Broad River Prize for Prose

Claire Kemp - Winner of the Broad River Prize for Prose

Claire Kemp's short fiction, The Doll Maker, was selected from finalists by award winning, Columbia-based author Julia Elliott.

Jasper literary arts editor Ed Madden is shown awarding the Saluda River Prize for Poetry to Kathleen Nalley

Kathleen Nalley - Winner of the Saluda River Prize for Poetry

Kathleen Nalley's poem, The last man on the moon, was selected from finalists by South Carolina Poet Laureate Marjory Wentworth.

~~~

Contributors' work selected or invited from more than 300 entries include:

Leah Angstman

Al Black

Julie E. Bloemeke

Laurel Blossom

Davi Travis Bland

Mark Burns

Jonathan Butler

Scott Chalupa

Tim Conroy

Ron Cooper

Pam Durban

Phillip Gardner

Terrance Hayes

Claire Kemp

Michael Miller

Tamara Miles

Patricia Moore-Pastides

Kathleen Nalley

Matthew O'Leary

Frances Pearce

Bo Petersen

Andrew Plant

Ron Rash

Mark Rodehorst

Eileen Scharenbroch

Maggie Schein

Randy Spencer

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Additional photos:

Fall lines 16 flowers

Bo Petersen

Eileen Scharenbroch

Julie Bloemeke

Jonathan Butler

Mark Rodehorst

Matthew O'Leary

Michael Miller

Scott Chalupa

Tim Conroy

Travis Bland

Fall Lines 16

Sincerest appreciation to Tapp’s Arts Center, Jonathan & Lorene Haupt, Sara June Goldstein, Bert Easter, One Columbia for Arts & History, Richland Library, Friends of Richland Library, South Carolina Academy of Authors, University of South Carolina Press, Muddy Ford Press, Columbia Museum of Art, SC Philharmonic, Rosewood Art & Music Festival, Deckle Edge Literary Festival,Lee Snelgrove, Annie Boiter-Jolley

photos by Bob Jolley & Julie Bloemeke

Fall Lines Program Announced for Thursday, July 28th at Tapp's

Thursday, July 28th, 2016 ~ 7 – 9 pm

Tapp’s Arts Center ~ Columbia, SC

7 – 8

Reception

8 – 9

Welcome & Recognition of Honored Guests – Cindi Boiter

Awarding of Prizes – Ed Madden & Kyle Petersen

Readings

Scott Chalupa

Claire Kemp

Kathleen Nalley

Travis Bland

Matthew O’Leary

Eileen Scharenbroch

Bo Petersen

Mark Rodehorst

Tim Conroy

Julie Bloemeke

Mike Miller

Jonathan Butler

Sincerest appreciation to Tapp’s Arts Center, Jonathan & Lorene Haupt, Sara June Goldstein, Bert Easter, One Columbia for Arts & History, Richland Library, Friends of Richland Library, South Carolina Academy of Authors, University of South Carolina Press, Muddy Ford Press, Columbia Museum of Art, SC Philharmonic, Rosewood Art & Music Festival, Deckle Edge Literary Festival

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Fall Lines – a literary convergence launches third issue with a reception and reading at Tapp’s Arts Center July 28th

The Columbia Fall Line is a natural junction, along which the Congaree River falls and rapids form, running parallel to the east coast of the country between the resilient rocks of the Appalachians and the softer, more gentle coastal plain.

Jasper Magazine, in partnership with Richland Library, USC Press, One Columbia, Muddy Ford Press, and The Jasper Project will release the third annual issue of Fall Lines – a literary convergence on Thursday, July 28th from 7 – 9 pm at a free reception at Tapp’s Arts Center. An annual literary journal based in Columbia, SC, Fall Lines was conceived as a mechanism for highlighting Columbia as the literary arts capitol of South Carolina.

A panel of judges selected 30 pieces of poetry and prose, from hundreds of international submissions, for publication in Fall Lines alongside invited pieces from Ron Rash, Terrance Hayes, Pam Durban, Laurel Blossom, and Patricia Moore-Pastides. Two prizes for the literary arts, sponsored by Friends of the Richland Library, will also be awarded including the Saluda River Prize for Poetry to Kathleen Nalley for her poem, “The Last Man on the Moon,” and the Broad River Prize for Prose, awarded to Claire Kemp for her short fiction, “The Dollmaker.”  Adjudicators included SC poet laureate Marjory Wentworth and award-winning author Julia Elliott. In addition, Fall Lines will also publish the winner of the 2016 South Carolina Academy of Authors Coker Fiction Fellowship, “I Can’t Remember What I Was Trying to Forget,” by Phillip Gardner.

The awards ceremony and reception will also feature readings by selected authors whose work is published in this issue of Fall Lines: Scott Chalupa, David Travis Bland, Matthew O’Leary, Mike Miller, Claire Kemp, Kathleen Nalley. Tim Conroy, Julie Bloemeke, Eileen Scharenbroch, Jonathan Butler, and Mark Rodehorst.

The editors of Fall Lines, Cindi Boiter, Ed Madden, and Kyle Petersen, are deeply appreciative of this year’s sponsors including Jonathan and Lorene Haupt, Sara June Goldstein, Richland Library, One Columbia for Arts and History, Muddy Ford Press, Columbia Museum of Art, the SC Philharmonic Orchestra, Rosewood Art and Music Festival, Deckle Edge Literary Festival 2017, and The Whig.

For more information please contact Cindi Boiter at cindiboiter@gmail.com.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Fall Lines - a literary convergence

Fall Lines – a literary convergence is a literary journal in its third year of publication based in Columbia, SC and presented by Jasper Magazine in partnership with the University of South Carolina Press, Muddy Ford Press, Richland Library and One Columbia for Arts and History.

With a single, annual publication, Fall Lines is distributed in lieu of Jasper Magazine’s regularly scheduled summer issue. Fall Lines will accept submissions of previously unpublished poetry, essays, short fiction, and flash fiction from February 1, 2016 through April 1, 2016. While the editors of Fall Lines hope to attract the work of writers and poets from the Carolinas and the Southeastern US, acceptance of work is not dependent upon residence.

Publication in Fall Lines will be determined by a panel of judges and accepted authors will be notified in May 2016, with a publication date in summer 2016. Accepted authors will receive two copies of the journal. Two $250 cash prizes, sponsored by the Richland Library Friends, will be awarded: The Saluda River Prize for Poetry and The Broad River Prize for Prose.

• Each entry must be submitted as a single independent entry with the appropriate category (poetry, essay, fiction, flash fiction) typed in the email subject heading.

• Submit poetry to submissions.poetry@jaspercolumbia.com.

• Submit prose to submissions.prose@jaspercolumbia.com.

• Please include with each submission a cover sheet stating the title of your work, your name, email address, and USPO address. There is no fee to enter.

• Please limit short fiction to 2000 words or less; flash fiction to 350 – 500 words per submission; essays to 1200 words; and poetry to three pages.  Please submit no more than a total of 5 entries.

The Columbia Fall Line is a natural junction, along which the Congaree River falls and rapids form, running parallel to the east coast of the country between the resilient rocks of the Appalachians and the softer, more gentle coastal plain.

Jasper Celebrates Fall Lines

Jasper is pleased to announce that Fall Lines -- a literary convergence is on the streets after two exciting celebrations of its release.

On Sunday, we launched Fall Lines with a celebration and reading hosted by our partner the Richland Library Many thanks to Tony Tallent not only for facilitating the partnership but also for hosting and feting us so well Sunday afternoon.

The Fall Lines Team -- left to right, Ed Madden of Jasper, Lee Snelgrove of One Columbia, and Tony Tallent of Richland Library with Cindi Boiter of Jasper seated (not pictured Jonathan Haupt of USC Press and Bob Jolley of Muddy Ford Press)

Left - Nicola Waldron, winner of the Broad River Prize for Prose; Right - Mary Hutchins Harris - winner of the Saluda River Prize for Poetry -- both sponsored by Richland Library Friends

The next day we were back on the podium with an extended reading hosted by Sara Cogswell at her beautiful gallery on State Street in West Columbia, Gallery West.

photo by Will South

Pick up your copy of Fall Lines at any of the Richland County Library branches, the One Columbia office on Lady Street, Jasper Studio in the historic Arcade at 1332 Main Street, Frame of Mind, Gallery West, and selected boutiques, galleries and venues in Columbia -- or order it online at Amazon.com or BandN.com.  And look for the Fall Lines e-book coming soon from Richland Library.

Many thanks to Roe Young of Roe Young State Farm, Tom Mack of the SC Academy of Authors, and the Richland Library Friends.

Fall Lines Contributors & Events Announced

The Columbia Fall Line is a natural junction, along which the Congaree River falls and rapids form, running parallel to the east coast of the country between the resilient rocks of the Appalachians and the softer, more gentle coastal plain.

It was almost a year ago when I first asked Tony Tallent, Lee Snelgrove, Jonathan Haupt, and Ed Madden to meet with me to talk about the prospects of a  professional quality literary journal based out of Columbia, SC. My hope was for a yearly journal that we could publish as a summer reader in lieu of the July/August issue of Jasper Magazine. In the best of all possible worlds the book would be the same size as Jasper--but with more pages--perfect bound, and free, both to submit to and to take home. I wanted the advice of these gentlemen on whether this was a feasible endeavor. Once we had batted the ball around the room several times and decided it could and should be done, I wanted their help. They delivered it generously.

On June 8th, the city of Columbia will celebrate the launch of Fall Lines - a literary convergence. We chose the name Fall Lines because we wanted to honor our city and the energy that the falling waters of the Broad and Saluda Rivers bring our way. Almost 500 submissions were entered into consideration for publication in Fall Lines. From them, 30 were accepted and seven others came to us via  invitation. In addition to winners in the fields of poetry and prose, Fall Lines will also publish work by the SC Academy of Authors 2014 fellowship winners Nancy Brock and Jo Angela Edwins; three essays from USC Press's upcoming second volume of Aida Rogers' State of the Heart (by Christopher Dickey, Josephine Humphreys, and Ray McManus); as well as poetry by SC Poet Laureate Marjory Wentworth, (sponsored by Roe Young and the Roe Young State Farm Insurance Agency.) Local designer and Jasper art director Heyward Sims designed the cover of the book. It is 98 pages long and, as always, Muddy Ford Press made it all happen.

Thank you to Tony Tallent for bringing in Richland Library as a major partner on Fall Lines, as well as the Richland Library Friends who are generously awarding the cash prizes ($250 each) to the winners of the Saluda River Prize for Poetry and the Broad River Prize for Prose. Richland Library will also offer the book in its entirety as an E-Book through the library system. Thank you to Lee Snelgrove and One Columbia and to Jonathan Haupt and USC Press for partnering with us. Thanks to Tom Mack and the SC Academy of  Authors and to Roe Young and the Roe Young State Farm Agency. Thanks to our advertisers: Trustus, Ed's Editions, Gallery West, and The Whig. Thanks most of all to Ed Madden who, of late, is more often my partner in crime than not. And my dear, dear friend.

It is with great pleasure that we announce the contributors to the 2014 inaugural issue of Fall Lines - a literary convergence literary magazine.

Dig and Delve – Nicola Waldron

April, 1965 – Betsy Breen

Soon – Jonathan Butler

Accidentals – Mary Hutchins Harris

Forgotten – Marjory Wentworth

Militants Ban School Bells in a Town in Somalia – Marjory Wentworth

Taste the Sound – Jennifer Bartell

Davy Crockett’s Last Stand – Nancy Brock

Like – Jo Angela Edwins

Island Time – Josephine Humphries

What I wish I had said to Billy Collins – Brandi Perry

Queens – Alexis Stratton

Almost – Angie Zealberg

Ghost Crabs – Hastings Hensel

Lap – Robert Petersen

Like a little bell he trembles III – Matthew Stark

Pilgrimage – Christopher Dickey

Want a ride? – Aïda Rogers

A Bike – Bob Blencowe

Cancer Voodoo II – Melissa Johnson

The Ache of Beekeeping – Tony Tallent

Ruts – Ray McManus

At Congaree Swamp – Nicola Waldron

My Father’s Chest – Jarred Coffin

Jumping into the Abyss of History, A Prologue – Megan Volpert

you burn me – Susan Laughter Meyers

The Gunpowder Craze – Doug Berg

One Quiet Morning – William Claxon

In May’s Blue Box – Linda Lee Harper

What Tassio Fulgrass Thinks of Life – Susan Levi Wallach

Letting You Die – Marlena Impisi

early November – Laura Rashley

Crazing – Lisa Hammond

Mission – Tara Powell

The Ride Back – Jo Ann Hoffman

Open Windows – Matt Mossman

Fishing for Bream – Ivan Young

Through a Glass Darkly – Debra Daniel

Please join us in celebrating Fall Lines and it's contributors with a signing and reception on one or both of the following dates:

Sunday, June 8th at 4pm at Richland Library, 1471 Assembly Street in Columbia

RSVP on the

Facebook event

Monday, June 9th at 6 pm (readings will start closer to 7) at Gallery West, 118 State Street in West Columbia

RSVP on the

Facebook event here

Pick up your Fall Lines this summer from one of the following primary distribution sites:

Richland Library -- all branches

One Columbia on Taylor Street

USC Press on Devine Street

Jasper Studio at the Historic Arcade

Ed's Editions in West Columbia

Gallery West in West Columbia

Trustus Theatre

HoFP

iF Art

701 Whaley CCA

Nickelodeon

The Whig

Congratulations to the winners and the contributors and thanks once again to everyone whose individual efforts made a very important thing happen. Columbia now has her own literary journal -- Fall Lines - a literary convergence.

-- Cindi Boiter

Announcing the Winners of Jasper's Fall Lines Writing Prizes

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The Columbia Fall Line is a natural junction, along which the Congaree River falls and rapids form, running parallel to the east coast of the country between the resilient rocks of the Appalachians and the softer, more gentle coastal plain.

~~~

Jasper is delighted to announce the winners of the Fall Lines Poetry and Prose Writing Prizes sponsored by the Richland Library Friends and published in the inaugural issue of Fall Lines – a literary convergence.

Congratulations to Nicola Waldron, winner of the Broad River Prize for Prose for her piece "Dig and Delve," and to Mary Hutchins Harris, winner of the Saluda River Prize for Poetry for her poem, "Accidentals." A check for $250 accompanies each prize.

Work by Waldron and Harris will appear in Fall Lines along with poetry and prose by such award winning writers as Christopher Dickey, Josephine Humphries, and SC Poet Laureate Marjory Wentworth, as well as Aida Rogers, Ray McManus, Susan Levi Wallach, Susan Laughter Meyers and more. Fall Lines is edited by Cynthia Boiter with poetry editor Ed Madden.

With a single annual publication, Fall Lines is distributed in lieu of Jasper Magazine’s regularly scheduled summer issue via a partnership between Jasper Magazine and Richland Library, the University of South Carolina Press, One Columbia, and Muddy Ford Press. The South Carolina Academy of Authors and Roe Young State Farm Insurance Agency also serve as generous sponsors of the literary journal.

Fall Lines will release on Sunday, June 8th with a 4 pm reception and reading at the Richland Library.

Fall Lines literary magazine deadline extended and $500 in cash prizes announced

Fall Lines

a literary convergence

Jasper is pleased to announce the addition of two $250 cash prizes, one for poetry and one for prose, offered by the Friends of the Richland Library for the 2014 Fall Lines:  A Literary Convergence project and competition. Given this exciting new information we are also delighted to extend the submission deadline until midnight on Sunday, March 16th, 2014.

We'd also like to note that while deadlines are sometimes extended due to a shortage of submissions, we are delighted that this is not the case. We have been overwhelmed not only by the number of submissions we have received, but also by the quality of the submissions themselves and the professional status of the authors submitting. We have happily received submissions all the way from emerging writers to Marjory Wentworth, South Carolina's Poet Laureate herself. We have no doubt that Fall Lines will be a new force on the literary landscape and we are thrilled that Columbia, SC is the journal's home.

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Fall Lines – a literary convergence is a new literary journal based in Columbia, SC and presented by Jasper Magazine in partnership with Richland Library, the University of South Carolina Press, Muddy Ford Press, and One Columbia.

With a single, annual publication, Fall Lines is distributed in lieu of Jasper Magazine’s regularly scheduled summer issue. While a limited issue of three thousand copies of Fall Lines will be printed, Fall Lines will be available in its entirety in a downloadable e-format via RichlandLibrary.com.

Fall Lines will accept submissions of previously unpublished poetry, essays, short fiction, and flash fiction from January 1 through March 1, 2014. (NOTE – THIS DEADLINE HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO SUNDAY, MARCH 16TH, 2014.) While the editors of Fall Lines hope to attract the work of writers and poets from the Carolinas and the Southeastern US, acceptance of work is not dependent upon residence.

Please limit short fiction to 2000 words or less; flash fiction to 350 – 500 words; essays to 1200 words; and poetry to three pages (Times New Roman 12 pt.) Submit your work via email to Editor@JasperColumbia.com with the words “Fall Lines” in the subject heading along with the category (above) of the item being submitted. While you are invited to enter up to five items, each item should be sent individually as a single submission. Please include with each submission a cover sheet stating your name, age, email address, and USPO address. There is no fee to enter.

Publication in Fall Lines will be determined by a panel of judges and accepted authors will be notified in May 2014, with a publication date in June 2014. Accepted authors will receive two copies of the journal.

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The Columbia Fall Line is a natural junction, along which the Congaree River falls and rapids form,runningparalleltothe east coast of the country between the resilient rocks of the Appalachians andthesofter, more gentle coastal plain.

Fall Lines - new Columbia-based literary journal CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

Fall Lines

a literary convergence

Fall Lines – a literary convergence is a new literary journal based in Columbia, SC and presented by Jasper Magazine in partnership with Richland Library, the University of South Carolina Press, Muddy Ford Press, and One Columbia.

With a single, annual publication, Fall Lines is distributed in lieu of Jasper Magazine’s regularly scheduled summer issue. While a limited issue of three thousand copies of Fall Lines will be printed, Fall Lines will be available in its entirety in a downloadable e-format via RichlandLibrary.com.

Fall Lines will accept submissions of previously unpublished poetry, essays, short fiction, and flash fiction from January 1 through March 1, 2014. While the editors of Fall Lines hope to attract the work of writers and poets from the Carolinas and the Southeastern US, acceptance of work is not dependent upon residence.

Please limit short fiction to 2000 words or less; flash fiction to 350 – 500 words; essays to 1200 words; and poetry to three pages (Times New Roman 12 pt.) Submit your work via email to Editor@JasperColumbia.com with the words “Fall Lines” in the subject heading along with the category (above) of the item being submitted. While you are invited to enter up to five items, each item should be sent individually as a single submission. Please include with each submission a cover sheet stating your name, age, email address, and USPO address. There is no fee to enter.

Publication in Fall Lines will be determined by a panel of judges and accepted authors will be notified in May 2014, with a publication date in June 2014. Accepted authors will receive two copies of the journal.

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The Columbia Fall Line is a natural junction, along which the Congaree River falls and rapids form,runningparalleltothe east coast of the country between the resilient rocks of the Appalachians andthesofter, more gentle coastal plain.

Book Review -- The Accidental Candidate: The Rise and Fall of Alvin Greene, by Corey Hutchins and David Axe, with art by Blue Delliquanti and cover by Dre Lopez

Before I begin, I should admit to no real expertise with graphic novels. I have read only a handful before tackling The Accidental Candidate, the new book from Free Times reporter Corey Hutchins and freelance war correspondent and graphic novelist David Axe, with art by Blue Delliquanti and cover art Dre Lopez. However, each time I return to the medium, I am amazed by its power to tell a story in a way fundamentally different, but equally as compelling, as a traditional novel. The interaction between word and image and the momentum and movement that a narrative gains from the frame structure has its own beauty, and one should read a graphic novel or two for that experience if nothing else.

But enough about the medium -- let’s talk about this particular book, which is not technically a “novel," but a graphic non-fiction work; an emerging genre in which co-writer David Axe is a leader.  The book chronicles, as the subtitle says, “The Rise and Fall of Alvin Greene,” South Carolina’s Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in 2010.

If you’ve already forgotten this bizarre, and embarrassing, political spectacle -- the kind of thing that can only happen in South Carolina -- here's the quick and dirty summary. Knowing that unseating Tea Party kingmaker Jim DeMint from his Senate seat was likely going to a be a Sisyphean task, nobody really geared up to take on the charge other than one former State House rep -- who did only minimal campaigning before the primary --  and Alvin Greene, a 32-year-old unemployed Army vet of whom nobody had ever heard, and who didn’t bother to campaign at all. But something strange, improbable, and a little suspicious happened -- Greene won the primary in a landslide. Suddenly Greene became a huge story, as countless media outlets ran interviews of the socially awkward man, who lived with his father in Manning, SC, and who seemed to have painfully little political acumen, if indeed he had any at all.

The depiction of Greene by both the writers and Delliquanti seems to be deliberately unadorned, conveying not only the uncertain sense that Greene might not be “all there,” but also that he lives his life largely in his head as a misunderstood loner whose poor communication skills make him come across as less intelligent than he actually is. Hutchins and Axe don’t shy away from some of the more off-the-wall ideas that Greene came up with during the race -- his suggestion that action figures of himself be made and sold to jump-start the economy and his claim that DeMint single-handedly started the recession, for example -- but they avoid making those moments merely punch lines. Greene's opponent in the primary, Vic Rawl, also comes off pretty well as an embattled defender of election fairness and democratic responsibility. It is primarily party figures on both sides who come off badly, as the writers read the Tea Party riot act and come down on the bumbling ineffectiveness of leadership in South Carolina's Democratic Party.

As compelling as the basic story is here, though, it’s a little too straightforward and limited to carry the book by itself, so the writers use the story as a jumping off point to illustrate some troubling truths about our political discourse. Hutchins himself becomes one of the central characters in the book, as he recounts not only Greene’s story, but also his own role in the debacle. An astute reporter with a knack for long-form intensive journalism, Hutchins was the first and only reporter to cover Greene before the election, and also had the benefit of conducting some of the most in-depth interviews the candidate was willing to give. While his winning portrayal of himself might come off as self-serving to some, it also seems rightly earned, given his extensive coverage of the events in Columbia’s Free Times.

Hutchins and Axe's depiction of Hutchins' own efforts point to a glaring failure, in most traditional media outlets, when it comes to covering politics, as many of the biggest and most important stories go unreported while exhaustive attention is given to the horse race of polling and acquiring the cheap sound bite. Hutchins and Axe draw connections from Greene’s story to a variety of these issues, including the controversy over faulty voting machines (South Carolina bought their current batch from Mississippi, after the latter decided they weren’t reliable enough); the known shady practice by Republican operatives of  planting poor black candidates in races in the South; the rise of the Tea Party; and, DeMint’s connections with the cultish fundamentalist group in DC known as The Fellowship.

In doing this, the team's work fits into the emerging trend of non-traditional reporting techniques made both possible and necessary due to the rise of the Internet and 24-hour cable news. While most of the story comes directly from Hutchins' own reporting on Greene, there is also a deft use of quotes from other journalists and national political figures that lends the book a weighty sense of argument.

-- Kyle Petersen

(In addition to being the music editor for Jasper Magazine, Kyle Petersen holds a master's degree in English from USC and is currently pursuing a PhD in American Literature. He is also a former employee of the SC Democratic Party Headquarters.)

Jasper's Nightstand -- Don't call it a book club, call it a book trust

By now, it should be news to no one that Columbia, SC is a readers' city. I need more fingers than the ones I have on my hands to count the number of book clubs I know about that I don't even belong to.

Some may attribute our propensity for reading to the number of institutions of higher education we have in and around town. Universities and colleges tend to attract not only students and faculty but also literate individuals who are drawn to progressive thought and intellectual engagement, whether they go to school or not. Others may posit that the lack of hard hitting cerebral stimulation from our public education system forces us, at an early age, to seek out our own intellectual adventures in books and, ultimately, establish a life-long love of losing ourselves in literature (and, for some of us clearly, loving the lilt of alliteration).

For whatever reason, last June, Columbia was named by Amazon as one of the Top 20 Most Well-Read Cities in the country.

In fact, we're #16.

You may have heard What Jasper Said yesterday about the new One Book, One Columbia selection of Ron Rash's Saints at the River as our book selection for 2012. Given that, we at Jasper are delighted to announce our new bi-monthly reading group, Jasper's Nightstand and, in keeping with our close association with the One Book, One Columbia Project (Mike and Cindi are both on the selection committee), we are even more thrilled to announce that Saints at the River will be the first book we'll be discussing.

What's on Jasper's Nightstand?

Saints at the River by Ron Rash

Thursday, February 23rd at 7 PM

Wine Down on Main at 1520 Main Street

RSVP here

Jasper's Nightstand is a book club for artists, people who love arts and artists, and people who appreciate the unique insights that artists and arts lovers bring to the complexities of life.

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Saints at the River by Ron Rash = Columbia's 2012 One Book, One Columbia selection

It's official. Saints at the River, a novel by South Carolina author Ron Rash, is the One Book, One Columbia selection for 2012.

Jasper couldn't be more pleased!

We've loved all of Rash's novels -- Serena, One Foot in Eden, The World Made Straight (our all-time favorite!) -- not to mention his poetry, which flows with hot honeyed truth, or his short stories that stay on the brain for years after the reading. Saints at the River is the story of two characters who live in Columbia -- one of whom hails from the upstate and is drawn back into the area where she was raised by an environmental conflict. It touches on family, nature, loss, and learning.

The reading period will kick off on January 17th -- but you don't have to wait until then to get started. We'll be scheduling events from the 17th throughout the month of February -- including a two day visit from Rash on February 1st and 2nd -- stay tuned for more about this.

For more information, keep your eyes posted on the One Book, One Columbia official website as well as our One Book Facebook page.

And be sure to pick up a copy of Jasper Magazine at our #3 release event on January 12th at the Arcade Mall on Main Street to read an article about our interview with Ron Rash himself.

Exciting announcement & One Book, One Columbia clues!

Here, at Jasper, we're so giddy about an announcement being made at 5 pm on Tuesday, December 13th -- that's today! -- that you might think that Santa was making the announcement himself.

No, it's not Santa who has something to say, but it is City Councilwoman Belinda Gergel, and she'll be sharing with Columbia the book we'll all be reading together during January and February 2012 as book #2 in our One Book, One Columbia project!

Here's the twist -- two of our staff members serve on the One Book, One Columbia selection committee, so (ahem) we already know what the book is, but just like anxiously awaiting the opening of Christmas presents you've meticulously selected for your family and friends -- we can't wait to see how you like your selection!

Need some clues?

• Well, the book was written by a SC author.

• It is set in contemporary SC.

• It involves subject matter of vital interest to many Southerners.

• It is fiction.

• And, the protagonist of the story is the opposite sex from the author of the book.

Got any ideas?

See if you're inclinations are correct by attending the One Book, One Columbia 2012 Kick-Off Reception this afternoon at Richland County Public Library on Assembly Street for a special wine-and-cheese gathering. We'll announce the new book as well as other exciting events lined up for your reading pleasure. All 2011 "Reading Advocates" are invited, friends of Reading Advocates, and anyone who would like to be a Reading Advocate for the 2012 program.

Then, watch this space tomorrow for a special announcement about how Jasper will be celebrating and participating in the One Book, One Columbia program.

We can't wait to see what you think!