the importance of awards for writing

INTERVIEWER

Yet you did receive the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. How important was that for you?

BRADBURY

It was a fantastic evening. There was a real problem getting back to my hotel room, though. The hotel where they held the ceremony in New York was so huge, it filled me with despair. Since my stroke, I walk very slowly. I saw a sign that night that said, next restroom: two hundred and eighty miles. The registration desk was on the eighth floor. You have to wait ten minutes for an elevator just to go up and register! That night some of the women were taking me back to my room and I said, For God’s sake, where’s the men’s room? We couldn’t find one. One of the girls said, There’s a potted palm over there, why don’t you go use it? So I went over. Nobody saw me. At least I don’t think so.

More with Ray Bradbury at The Paris Review.

Nic Brown Reading

This is what I learned during Nic Brown‘s reading:

You’re gonna have to watch it to see what I’m talking about:

Nic Brown, CSUSB MFA Reading Series from

Jennine Capó Crucet Reading

Here’s footage of Jennine Capó Crucet reading her hilarious, thoughtful, intelligent, short story, ” How to Leave Hialeah” at Cal State San Bernardino’s MFA Reading Series.

Here’s more about Jennine

Victoria Patterson Reading

Victoria Patterson’s writing captures what it’s like to live in Newport. But, it’s not generic, and it’s definitely not watered down. In short, she’s a writer who isn’t afraid to speak about what’s usually ignored. Here’s her wonderful reading at Cal State San Bernardino’s MFA Reading Series last Thursday, April 14.

If you’d like to find out more about Victoria, here’s her website

reading series

The “Events” section of this blog has been updated for spring 2011. Six authors will be coming to CSUSB to read throughout the quarter. All readings will be held at 6 p.m. in the Pfau Library (University Hall, Room 4005), and the readings are free and open to the public. Yay! More info here

may release

So, after reading hundreds and hundreds upon thousands of stories/poems (really, there was a lot to read), and being forced to narrow down the selections to a handful of stories/poems, the editors have made their final decisions. We are extremely happy with the quality of work we received, and extremelyx2 happy with what will be in the mag, which is set to come out in May.
what’s next? other than celebrate with beer and Colin Stetson’s, New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges . . . there’s design, production, and other stuff I don’t handle and so don’t need to worry about, personally (more beer for me!).

ghost town t-shirts

ghost town has t-shirts, now.
they also come in red and white
email ghosttownlitmag@gmail.com to buy one

submit, submit, submit.

There’re a lot of months left until we stop accepting submissions for the spring ’11 issue of Ghost Town. I’d say about three to four months, which should add up to somewhere in February. The editors have had a lot to read–some really good stuff–and we’re looking forward to getting even more. We want to fill Ghost Town with brilliancy, and absurdity, and intrigue, and beauty, and a slew of other abstract/subjective, but pretty nice words. Your story/poem/artwork/etc. may be what we’re looking for, so let’s see it.

here’s something

The Ghost Town site (where you are right now) is going to be changed around, visually. Probably some more wormholes. I like simplicity, though.
Another goal is is to make this here blog-styled site become more bloggy. I’ve been reading up and, apparently, adding links to posts are a good way to get Google’s spider things to poke around the site more often. I could have misread, but links are fun, anyway.
In any case, check out Ghost Town’s facebook, and if you have a facebook, then hit our “like” button so we may blast you with facebook spam.
I’m also trying to get some sponsors like iPod and Campbell’s tomato soup and Hyundai automobiles so Ghost Town will become immediately more recognizable to the people of the world.