~ News ~
On August 15, Poetry Daily featured Robert Bense’s poem “Morandi,” first published in AGNI 69.
For the fifth year in a row, an AGNI Online story has been named one of the Top Ten Online Stories of the year by storySouth. Congratulations to Steinur Bell and “The Whale Hunter”!
Bruce Smith’s poem “Devotion: Fly” (AGNI 67) and Lia Purpura’s essay “Two Experiments and a Coda” (AGNI 68) have won Pushcart Prizes! They will be reprinted in the 2010 anthology, Pushcart Prize XXXIV.
Eleanor Henderson’s story “The Farms” (AGNI 68) will be reprinted in The Best American Short Stories 2009.
Helen Wickes’s poem “The World As You Left It” (AGNI Online) will be reprinted in The Best of the Web 2009 (Dzanc Books).
Tom Sleigh’s poem “At the Pool” (AGNI 65) and Derek Walcott’s poem “A Sea-Change” (AGNI 67) will be reprinted in The Best American Poetry 2009.
2008
Harrison Solow’s essay “Bendithion,” accompanied by a music CD in AGNI 66, is reprinted in the 2009 Pushcart Prize anthology. Six other AGNI pieces receive Special Mention: Peter LaSalle’s story “Mendoza-Burke’s Reform,” Lia Purpura’s essay “The Lustres,” and Kenneth Wong’s story “Movie Nights in Rangoon,” from AGNI 65, and from AGNI 66, Margo Berdeshevsky’s story “Pas de Deux, à Trois,” Scott Diel’s essay “69° North 33° East: Running from the Russians,” and Stephen O’Connor’s essay “Milosz’s Choice.”
Marie Mutsuki Mockett’s “Letter from a Japanese Crematorium” (AGNI 65) will be reprinted in The Best Creative Nonfiction, Vol. 3, to be published by W. W. Norton in 2009.
Joan Wickersham is a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award for her memoir The Suicide Index, two sections of which first appeared in AGNI.
Derek Walcott’s poem “A Sea-Change,” which first appeared in AGNI 67, is reprinted in the October 2008 issue of Harper’s Magazine.
Four AGNI essays are cited as distinguished in the new Best American Essays 2008: Editor Sven Birkerts’s “The Thinker in the Garden,” Marie Mutsuki Mockett’s “Letter from a Japanese Crematorium,” and Lia Purpura’s “The Lustres,” from AGNI 65, and from AGNI 66, Founding Editor Askold Melnyczuk’s Shadowboxing essay “Daytripping Chatila.”
In 2008, Poetry Daily has featured David Bottoms’s “My Father Adjusts His Hearing Aids” (AGNI 68), David Rivard’s “A Note on Stephen Berg’s Rimbaud” (an essay from AGNI 67), and Peter Campion’s “Recurring Dream in a New Home” (AGNI 66).
For the fourth straight year, an AGNI Online story has been named one of the Top Ten Online Stories of the year by storySouth. Congratulations to Matthew M. Quick, author of “Do Not Hate Them Very Much”!
Alex Lemon’s poem “from Hallelujah Blackout,” first published in AGNI 65, will appear in Best American Poetry 2008.
A next-generation website to launch our second 35 years! We owe warm thanks to Bruce Mount, Margaret Desjardins, and longtime editorial assistant Lindsay Guth for their tireless work in designing and preparing the vast new AGNI Online.
2007
The latest issue of the Italian literary magazine Buràn features translations of three AGNI Online stories and one from the print magazine. Yannick Murphy’s “Walls,” E. C. Osondu’s “A Letter from Home,” Thomas Frick’s excerpt “from The Iron Boys,” and Phong Nguyen’s “Memory Sickness” (AGNI 63) appear in the issue of Buràn entitled “Il Conflitto.”
On December 11, 2007, William Pierce will introduce AGNI author Ben Miller at Periodically Speaking, an event held at the New York Public Library’s main branch. Editors from two other publications will introduce an emerging fiction writer and an emerging poet. Periodically Speaking is sponsored by the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses.
Paul Eggers’s story “Monsieur le Genius” (from AGNI 63) is cited among the Other Distinguished Stories in this year’s Best American Short Stories anthology (2007).
A. P. Miller’s essay “Blessing the New Moon” and Melanie Rae Thon’s story “Confession for Raymond Good Bird” (both from AGNI 63) win Pushcart Prizes and will be reprinted in Pushcart Prize XXXII (2008).
For the third year in a row, an AGNI Online story is named one of the Top Ten Online Stories of the year by storySouth. E. C. Osondu’s “A Letter from Home” received the honor for 2006. Our previous Top Ten stories are John J. Clayton’s “Light at the End of the Tunnel” (2005) and Jai Clare’s “Bone on Bone” (2004).
This October, Mattox Roesch’s story “Humpies,” which first appeared at AGNI Online, will be reprinted in Best American Non-Required Reading 2007. “Humpies” was Mattox Roesch’s first published story.
On Wednesday, May 16, 2007, Poetry Daily features Roger Greenwald’s translation of Cathrine Grøndahl’s “Selected Exercises in Case Law II” (AGNI 65).
E. C. Osondu’s story “Jimmy Carter’s Eyes” (AGNI Online) is shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African Writing! The list of four other finalists includes stories from The New Yorker and The Atlantic Monthly.
Lia Purpura’s essay collection On Looking is a finalist for the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism! The collection includes “Glaciology,” first published in AGNI 60 and reprinted in the 2006 anthology Pushcart Prize XXX.
Poetry Daily’s first print anthology, Poetry Daily Essentials 2007 (released in spring 2007), includes four poems first published in AGNI 62: Richard Tillinghast’s “Big Doors,” Eamon Grennan’s “Edge,” Paula Closson Buck’s “Report from My Own Backyard,” and Peter Leight’s “Resistance.”
The 2007 Pushcart Prize volume gives Special Mention to Ben Miller’s essay “Romancing the Dankerts” and Brock Clarke’s story “The Price of the Haircut,” both published in AGNI 61.
AGNI, the Russian literary magazine Znamya, and the Summer Literary Seminars in St. Petersburg (SLS) cosponsor “Tamizdat,” a Russian-language fiction and poetry contest. Winners will appear in Znamya and, in translation of course, in AGNI. The contest takes its name from the twin underground systems that kept literature alive during the Soviet era: samizdat, a kind of ad hoc publishing that relied on copyists and ditto machines, and tamizdat, the smuggling and publication of dissident writers’ works overseas.
2006
Poetry Daily features three poems from AGNI 64: Kate Northrop’s “Now Over the Empty Apartment” (Thursday, December 14), and Jamie McKendrick’s “Ès el senyor Gaudí!” and “Twain” (Thursday, December 21, 2006).
Ben Miller’s essay “Romancing the Dankerts” (AGNI 61) is cited as a “notable essay” in Best American Essays 2006.
An interview with William Pierce about literary magazines in general and AGNI in particular appears at NewPages.com.
Autumn Eve Watts’s poem “Dry Lake, Nevada, 1983” (from AGNI Online) is reprinted in the UVA anthology Best New Poets 2006.
Charles Haverty’s story “Crackers,” from AGNI 60, is one of nine “Recommended Stories” in The O. Henry Prize Stories 2006.
“The Letter Writer” by M. T. Sharif, which first appeared in AGNI 27, is read at Manhattan’s Symphony Space on February 8th as part of the Selected Shorts series—a live literary performance series recorded for subsequent broadcast on National Public Radio.
Lia Purpura’s essay “Glaciology” and Tom Sleigh’s poem “After Herodotus,” originally published in AGNI 60, appear in the newly released 2006 Pushcart Prize XXX. Martha Cooley’s essay “Dogs: A Moscow Triptych,” William Pierce’s essay “Fabulously Real,” and Vivek Narayanan’s story “My Father, the Perfect Man,” all from AGNI 59, and Jack Pulaski’s story “The Matinee,” from AGNI 60, received Special Mention.
2005
Several editions of Poetry Daily feature work from AGNI 62, including Richard Tillinghast’s “Big Doors” on Monday, November 14; Peter Leight’s “Resistance” on Tuesday, November 22; and Paula Closson Buck’s “Report from My Own Backyard.”
Poet and AGNI Contributing Editor Thomas Sayers Ellis wins the prestigious Whiting Award, given to “emerging writers of exceptional talent and promise.” His first full-length collection, published by Graywolf Press this year (2005), is The Maverick Room. In 1996, Ellis and two other poets (Larissa Szporluk and Joe Osterhaus) appeared in Take Three, the first volume of Graywolf’s “AGNI New Poet Series.” Ellis’s “T.A.P.O.A.F.O.M.”—first published in AGNI 52—was reprinted in Best American Poetry 2001.
Another of 2005’s Whiting Awards goes to AGNI Online poet Dana Levin.
In the newly released Best American anthologies for 2005: Vivek Narayanan’s “My Father, the Perfect Man” (AGNI 59) is cited as a “notable story”; Lia Purpura’s “Glaciology” (AGNI 60) and Donald Hall’s “Domains” (AGNI 59) are cited as “notable essays”; and Tom Bissell’s “Truth in Oxiana” (AGNI 60) is cited as “notable travel writing.”
Paula Bohince’s poem “The Fly” (from AGNI 59) is reprinted in the UVA anthology Best New Poets 2005, along with “Reincarnation” by AGNI Poetry Editor Ellen Wehle.
AGNI is proud to announce that poet and translator Rosanna Warren, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and president of the Association of Literary Scholars and Critics, has joined the Advisory Board after years of aiding and inspiring the magazine less formally. Warren joins Leslie Epstein, Robert Pinsky, and Derek Walcott.
~ Past Events ~
2009
Tomaz Salamun with David Rivard, a “Eurospectives” reading and discussion:
On Thursday, November 5, at 7:00 p.m., AGNI and Boston University’s Institute for Human Sciences host acclaimed Slovenian poet Tomaz Salamun, considered one of the great postwar Central European poets. David Rivard moderates. A reception follows. Barrister’s Hall, BU School of Law, 765 Commonwealth Ave., 1st floor, behind Marsh Chapel. Free and open to the public.
Göran Sonnevi and his translator, poet Rika Lesser, a “Eurospectives” reading and discussion:
On Friday, October 30, at 5:00 p.m., AGNI and Boston University’s Institute for Human Sciences present Swedish poet Göran Sonnevi, winner of the 2006 Nordic Council’s Literature Prize, with his English-language translator, poet Rika Lesser. AGNI Advisory Board member Rosanna Warren will moderate. A reception follows. BU’s Photonics Center, 8 St. Mary’s St, 9th Floor. Free and open to the public. [Due to illness, Göran Sonnevi was unable to attend.]
Twenty Years After the Fall of the Wall, a “Eurospectives” reading and discussion:
On Wednesday, October 28, at 7:00 p.m., AGNI and Boston University’s Institute for Human Sciences present German poet, songwriter, and former dissident Wolf Biermann, along with Marianne Birthler, head of the state-funded body that manages the archives of the former East German secret police (Stasi). Karl Kaiser of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government will moderate. A reception follows. BU’s Photonics Center, 8 St. Mary’s St, 9th Floor. Free and open to the public.
Saskia Hamilton and Kieron Winn, a “Eurospectives” reading and discussion:
On Monday, October 5, at 7:00 p.m., AGNI and Boston University’s Institute for Human Sciences present poets Saskia Hamilton and Kieron Winn, in conversation with Christopher Ricks, professor of the humanities at Boston University. A reception follows. Barrister’s Hall, BU School of Law, 765 Commonwealth Ave., 1st Floor (behind the School of Theology and Marsh Plaza). Free and open to the public.
The first fall event in our major 2009 series, “Eurospectives”:
On Monday, September 21, at 7:00 p.m., AGNI and Boston University’s Institute for Human Sciences present Simon Armitage, widely considered among the top British poets of his generation, in conversation with Mark Feeney, Pulitzer Prize–winning critic for The Boston Globe. A reception follows. BU’s Photonics Center, 8 St. Mary’s St, 9th Floor. Free and open to the public.
A Celebration of AGNI:
On Tuesday, June 23rd, at 7:00 p.m., Newtonville Books hosts AGNI for a reading with Bret Anthony Johnston, Rosamond Purcell, and Melissa Green. 296 Walnut St., Newtonville.
The launch of AGNI 69, the next event in our “Eurospectives” series:
On Monday, May 4, at 7:00 p.m., AGNI, Boston University’s Institute for Human Sciences, and the Center for International Relations present Bernardo Atxaga, the Basque-Spanish author of The Accordionist’s Son, and Ilan Stavans, the “czar of Latino culture in the United States” (The New York Times), in conversation with Mark Feeney, Pulitzer Prize–winning critic for The Boston Globe. BU’s Photonics Center, 8 St. Mary’s St, 9th Floor. Free and open to the public. A reception follows, plus TAPAS AT AGNI’s OFFICES! [see the event flyer here]
An AGNI evening in Massachusetts Cultural Council’s “Commonwealth Reading Series”:
On Tuesday, February 10, at 7:00 p.m., the Massachusetts Cultural Council and AGNI cohost a reading featuring Michael Downing, Rachel Kadish, Rebecca Kaiser Gibson, and Joan Wickersham. The series features fellows and finalists from MCC’s Artist Fellowship Program. Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge. Free and open to the public.
First event in a major 2009 series, “Eurospectives”:
On Monday, February 2, at 6:30 p.m., AGNI and Boston University’s Institute for Human Sciences present Bernhard Schlink, the German author of The Reader (now a major motion picture starring Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes), in conversation with Mark Feeney, Pulitzer Prize–winning critic for The Boston Globe. A reception follows. BU’s Photonics Center, 8 St. Mary’s St, 9th Floor. Free and open to the public.
2008
A Celebration of AGNI Fiction:
On Thursday, December 4, at 7 p.m., Newtonville Books hosts AGNI for a reading with Charles Haverty, Xujun Eberlein, and Urban Waite. 296 Walnut St., Newtonville.
The launch of AGNI 68:
On Wednesday, November 12th, at 7:00 p.m., AGNI launches issue 68 with readings by Dick Allen, Leah Hager Cohen, and Roland Merullo; also a screening of the Robert Gardner film included on DVD in the issue, and a raffle of a Dante print by featured artist Michael Mazur. Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, 949 Comm Ave., Boston. Free and open to the public.
NEPC’s annual celebration of AGNI:
On Tuesday, October 21st, at 7:00 p.m., the New England Poetry Club hosts an all-AGNI reading at the Cambridge Public Library, Central Square branch. Todd Hearon, Emily Scudder, and Dzvinia Orlowsky read from their work. 45 Pearl St., Cambridge, Mass. Free and open to the public.
The launch of AGNI 67:
On Thursday, May 1st, at 7:00 p.m., AGNI launches issue 67 with a reading and discussion with Polish novelist Magdalena Tulli and American writer Lawrence Weschler, moderated by Editor Sven Birkerts. Cohosted by the Institute for Human Sciences, with a release party following. BU School of Management,
595 Comm. Ave., 4th floor. Free and open to the public.
