[Douglas Basford]

Good evening, 'Spherians,

Unsplendid has just now posted its "Women and Form" issue, weirdly, it appears, at almost the same moment as Tupelo Quarterly did pretty much the same thing. No doubt a sign it's a timely matter!

We hope you will have a look and help to spread the word!

All best,
Doug (and Ida and Jason)


===========================
Unsplendid
http://www.unsplendid.com

"Women and Form"
Double Issue 5.3 + 6.1
July 2014

Poetry by Lisa Ampleman, Amy Arthur, Clara Bush, Laura Bylenok, Sherry Chandler, Jen Coleman, Juliana Gray, Carrie Green, Gail Griffin, Megan Grumbling, Carolyn Guinzio, Elizabeth Hazen, Cynthia Marie Hoffman, Anna Maria Hong, Jen Jabaily-Blackburn, Allison Joseph, Siham Karami, Ariana-Sophia Kartsonis, Jennifer Keith, Joey Kingsley, Heather Kirn Lanier, Emily Leithauser, Dawn Manning, Kathleen McClung, Jill McDonough, Mary Moore, Traci O'Dea, Hannah Sanghee Park, Joanna Pearson, Alison Pelegrin, Katherine Robinson, Emily Roediger, Marybeth Rua-Larsen, Jane Satterfield, Amy Schrader, Ekaterina Simonova (translated by Alex Cigale and Dana Golin), Callie Siskel, Kirby Snell, A. E. Stallings, Annie Stenzel, Erin Sweeten, Anne-Marie Thompson, Wendy Vardaman, Thera Webb, Allyson Whipple. Prose by Lisa Ampleman, Lucy Biederman, Sarah Giragosian, Gail Griffin, Emily Roediger, and Anne-Marie Thompson. Art by Tanja Softic.

[Mary Meriam]

Congratulations to all. I'm clicking over there now.

[Siham Karami]

It's truly a fabulous issue! And I am thrilled to have two poems in it, both in a rather puzzling form I invented. A.E. Stallings has wonderful poetry in it, as does the inimitable Marybeth Rua-Larsen. Could be more Spherians I didn't know were Spherians. Well worth checking out!

Siham

[Janice D. Soderling]

What a double summer treat! Congratulations to all the contributors. I am so looking forward to reading it.

[Douglas Basford]

Thanks so much, Janice, Mary, and Siham! I can't tell you what pleasure and excitement it brought us to bring this to fruition. So many amazing submissions!

Cheers,
D

[Esther Murer]

Great issue, Doug!

Siham, that "rather puzzling form" is a lipogram, an Oulipian constraint which restricts the letters one is permitted to use in some way. Oulipians have famously written (and translated) novels which do not use the letter "e" and novels in which "e" is the only vowel. There are many other gradations.

[Douglas Basford]

Thank you so much, Esther!

Siham, even if the lipogram has been around for a few decades, you can just go right ahead and claim you invented it. After all, it was the very same group of writers, the Oulipo, who came up with both the lipogram and the idea of "plagiat par anticipation" (plagiarism in anticipation)! Ok, it might be that Baudelaire, in claiming that he wasn't really "translating" Poe and that Poe was stealing from him, plagiarized in anticipation the Oulipians' plagiarism-in-anticipation. Such Borgesian temporal loops!

D

[Siham Karami]

Aha, Esther, you've named it after all. Well, it's good to know I stumbled onto an actual tradition, although I didn't actually know it before. However, on the subject of Oulipians, there was a poetry month Oulipian marathon of sorts which I actually started a blog in order to join, because it sounded like my kind of thing, but ultimately it was too labor-intensive for me, having to somehow run a business concurrently. But hadn't heard of a lipogram before. Btw, I thoroughly enjoy your always-inventive work! Thanks for letting me know...

And thanks for the pass, Douglas! I started writing these "lipograms" without knowing the other tradition. But I added a rule about letter-frequency, which I don't know to be — or not to be — part of the traditional lipogram rules. Probably "variation on a theme."

Siham

[Esther Murer]

Ah well, Siham, Lasos of Hermione (6th cent BC) is credited with inventing the lipogram. Anticipatory plagiarism to the max.
The lipogram is a spectrum of constraints with near-infinite variations. So yours may indeed be unique.

I did focus on Oulipo during NaPo (and had the easiest time in the 8 years I've been NaPo'ing.) I only used those Ouliposts once, and it was in fact a lipogram (leave out all the letters in the title of your local newspaper, which left me with O and Y for vowels and maybe 10 consonants. At least it encouraged rhyming).

If you feel inclined to dig deeper, Oulipo Compendium (rev & updated, 2005; edited by Harry Mathews and Alistair Brotchie) is the best resource available in English.

[Eileen Cleary]

Congratulations Siham. Can't wait to read the issue!