Call for submissions: JAAM 30

JAAM literary journal is delighted to announce that issue 30, 2012, will be guest edited by poet and academic Anna Jackson, assisted by a small editorial team.

Anna’s most recent collection of poetry was Thicket, published in July by Auckland University Press. She lectures in English literature at Victoria University of Wellington. As well as poetry, she also writes fiction from time to time, and her story ‘When We were Bread’ was recently highly commended in The Long and the Short of It competition, in the long (over 10,000 words) category.

JAAM considers poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, essays, photography and other artwork. There is no set theme for JAAM 30

JAAM prefers emailed submissions. Use ‘JAAM submission’ (or similar) in your subject line, so we know it’s not spam. Include your submission(s) in the body of your email. If you have particular formatting, you can also include your submissions in an attachment (.doc, .rtf, .pdf or any image file type is ok for images). If you don’t have email, you can post submissions to:

JAAM
PO Box 25239
Panama Street
Wellington 6146
New Zealand

Make sure you include a stamped self-addressed envelope for reply.

The deadline for submissions is 31 March 2012, and JAAM 30 will be published around September 2012.

JAAM 29 unleashed!

Cover of JAAM 29

If you’re a contributor or a subscriber, JAAM is on its way to you (if it hasn’t made it already). It should be in bookshops by the end of the week (or thereabouts). Hooray!

Thank you to everyone who submitted, to our subscribers and readers, and thank you most of all to Anne Kennedy, our wonderful guest editor who has curated a wonderful issue. Thanks also to Creative NZ, without whose help we would find it much harder to publish JAAM.

More about JAAM 29 in our media release below:

JAAM 29 celebrates the Pacific: “this vast region we slosh about in”

When award-winning writer Anne Kennedy agreed to guest edit the 29th issue of JAAM, she knew she wanted it to reflect New Zealand’s position as a country in the Pacific, and connections with the Pacific.

She says: “After living in Hawai`i for seven of the last eight years, I see Aotearoa as part of the Pacific in a way I didn’t appreciate before. Yes, I always knew what our lat. and long. were – but our similarities, our instabilities, our connections brought about by travel across this ocean, are clearer to me now.”

“So I am delighted that JAAM 29 has a range, not only across genre, with poetry, fiction and non-fiction, and including established and new writers, but across the expanse of this vast region we slosh about in. JAAM 29 showcases writers, visual artists – and even a composer – from Aotearoa, Hawai`i, Australia and California, with connections to Samoa, Tonga and the Philippines. This mix is inherently eclectic in aesthetic, in ideas and in Englishes.”

Over the last year New Zealand has been changed by the devastating earthquakes in Canterbury, and because of this the issue opens with a number of pieces by Christchurch writers who “bear testament to the solidarity, bravery, and artistic spirit of the people of that city”. They include a poem by Fiona Farrell about trying to deal with one of the many issues caused by the quakes – a leaking roof. Tusiata Avia’s series of poems about the quake includes the arresting ‘Finding Sepela: 22 February,’ which recreates her anxious journey to find her three-year-old daughter: “There are giant worms/ under the ground/ as big as Cairo/ they eat the fish and chip shop”.

Kennedy has drawn together work by many of New Zealand’s most-celebrated writers, including Albert Wendt, Elizabeth Smither, Murray Edmond and Michele Leggott. And alongside them is work by many new and up-and-coming writers, such as Lynn Jenner, winner of the 2010 best first book of poetry, and Selina Tusitala Marsh, who won the same award the year before.

The cover features a striking photogram from a sequence of portraits by Auckland photographer Jocelyn Carlin – six more from the series are reproduced inside. Drawings by Ya-Wen Ho are accompanied by poems by Renee Liang and illustrate ‘The Seven Sisters of Industry’, a Chinese name for Matariki or The Pleiades. And, in a first for JAAM, a page of a handwritten music manuscript by celebrated composer John Psathas is reproduced.

Kennedy, who now teaches creative writing, had originally studied music. Her own writing spans many forms – she’s published poetry, short fiction, novels and a novella, and has written for film. Her poetry book Sing-Song won the Montana Award for Poetry in 2004.

JAAM is published by the independent JAAM Collective based in Wellington, and is supported by funding from Creative New Zealand.

JAAM is available from good bookshops or by subscription. For subscription information, visit http://jaam.wordpress.com/subscribe/ or email jaammagazine@yahoo.co.nz.

For more information, email Helen Rickerby, JAAM co-managing editor, jaammagazine@yahoo.co.nz or phone 027 738 5997

JAAM 29 sneak peek

JAAM 29, which has been guest edited by Anne Kennedy, is almost here! Here’s a sneak peek of the cover…

Cover of JAAM 29

The image on the cover is ‘Paula’ by photographer Jocelyn Carlin. It’s from a series ‘To Be: Portraits’, and other beautiful images from the series are included inside the issue.

Anne Kennedy has assembled an amazing array of writers, from literary heavyweights such as Albert Wendt and Fiona Farrell, to new up-and-comers. Anne has included writers and writing from around the Pacific, reminding us where we live in the world.

More soon!

JAAM 28 reviewed

Some reviews of JAAM 28 have recently appeared.

First up, Bryan James reviewed it briefly in the Otago Daily Times, along with the latest issue of Landfall. He said: ‘JAAM provides a useful counterweight to Landfall, with a more expansive brief and an acceptance of more experimental work. ‘ He went on to say that meant more risk, and obviously not all the work included was his cup of tea. He concluded: ‘There are some gems, however, in some of the other pieces: Mikaela Nyman’s moving reflections of her Finnish dance teacher; Kate Baggot’s encounter with a busker; and Julie Hill’s brilliant slow waltz with Tricky. ‘

Next up was a brief review in issue 42 of Poetry New Zealand. The reviewer says ‘JAAM continues to provide a wide and various outlet for writers from every segment of New Zealand’s literary community’ and goes on to describe the issue.

The third, and most thorough, review is by Gillian Cameron in A Fine Line, the NZ Poetry Society’s magazine.

The idea behind Dance Dance Dance is, as editor Clare Needham explains, to get “writers thinking about dance and dancers thinking about writing” and “to gather them together and ask them to perform as an ensemble”. Dance Dance Dance achieves this – not just for the contributors but for the reader as well. There is a wonderful mix of short stories, interviews, poetry, photos and artwork. While some of the pieces seemed (to this reader at any rate) to have only a slight connection to dance, most explore the connection of dance and writing in thought-provoking ways.

Cameron goes on to say that she particularly liked the interview with dancer, choreographer, writer and reviewer Lyne Pringle, and found the other interviews engaging. She calls Mikaela Nyman’s story, ‘The Obituary’, ‘entrancing with its depiction of Arja dancing the seasons, the land, the birds, even a harsh judgment of death in the boggy marshland around Lake Inarijarvi’ and ‘stories from writers that I had not previously encountered – Kate Baggott, Simon Minto, Nina Seja and Julie Hill – glide across the dance floor and leave me wanting more.’

On to the poetry:

Jo Thorpe’s ‘Hunt the slipper’ weaves a breathless spell of seduction around legendary prima ballerina Marie Taglioni. In ‘Dancing on lego’ Anna Jackson skillfully skitters and slides … Extracts from Janis Freegard’s ‘The continuing Adventures of Alice Spider’ have whetted my appetite for more about “Alice Webster”. Nicole Taylor’s ‘Jerry’s Dance’ underlines dance as an integral part of the human experience.

She concludes: ‘Last but not least, Kesha Robert’s photos provide a sizzling display of Latin American dance festivities. My copy of Dance Dance Dance is now looking very well thumbed!Last but not least, Kesha Robert’s photos provide a sizzling display of Latin American dance festivities. My copy of Dance Dance Dance is now looking very well thumbed!

Submissions closed

JAAM submissions have closed for another year. We’ll do our best to get back to everyone who submitted as soon as possible, but thanks for you patience, because there’s rather a lot of submissions to get through.

We aim to publish JAAM 29 around September.

Only a few days left to submit to JAAM

Submissions for JAAM 29 close at the end of March, which is THIS THURSDAY! For the details, check out the call for submissions:  http://jaam.wordpress.com/2011/02/08/call-for-submissions-for-jaam-29/.

Call for submissions for JAAM 29

JAAM is delighted to announce that issue 29 will be guest edited by Anne Kennedy.

Anne’s writing spans many forms – she’s published poetry, short fiction, novels and a novella, and has written for film. Her poetry book Sing-Song won the Montana Award for Poetry in 2004. For several years she’s been teaching creative writing at the University of Hawai‘i, and is currently living back in Auckland. She is a co-editor of online literary journal Trout.

There is no set theme for JAAM 29, but we particularly invite work from writers from around the Pacific – the Pacific Islands, Hawai‘i and Australia, as well as those from New Zealand.

JAAM considers poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, essays, photography and other artwork.

Submissions can be emailed to jaammagazine@yahoo.co.nz or posted to:

PO Box 25239
Panama Street
Wellington 6146
New Zealand

Make sure you include a stamped self-addressed envelope for reply.

The deadline for submissions is 31 March 2011, and JAAM 29 will be published around September.

JAAM 28 on the web

I’ve recently written two guest posts about JAAM 28: dance dance dance.

The first was on the Tuesday Poem blog, where I featured Jo Thorpe’s poem ‘Hunt the slipper’, which is in JAAM 28: http://tuesdaypoem.blogspot.com/2010/12/hunt-slipper-romantic-divertissement-by.html.

The second was on Helen Lowe’s blog (Helen has two poems in JAAM 28), where I wrote about the genesis of the idea for this issue of JAAM, and how it all came together. I also feature ‘Siegfried’ by Hera Bird. You can read that post here: http://helenlowe.info/blog/2010/12/13/guest-post-helen-rickerby-jaam-28-dance-dance-dance/.

JAAM 28 dances out into the world

JAAM 28

Come dancing with JAAM 28: Dance dance dance. This latest issue, edited by JAAM’s managing editors Clare Needham and Helen Rickerby, showcases writing about dance, writing that dances and writing by dancers.

The idea for this themed issue came when Clare was producing a dance show, Sleep/Wake. She says, ‘Many dancers I know also write, or paint, or compose music. Many of the dance shows I’ve worked on blend different genres and disciplines to create new and exciting art. And some of the writing that I’m most moved by is informed by other art forms, including movement and dance. So when I first conceived the idea for this issue of JAAM, I was thinking about how exciting it would be to get writers thinking about dance and dancers thinking about writing, then see what happened.’

The editors were delighted at how contributors interpreted the theme laterally as well as literally. Some work is about dance or features dance, other work dances on the page, or sets up dance rhythms.

Many of the short stories, including those by Michele Powles, Nina Seja and Andrei Baltakmens, often use dancing as symbolic of life or living more fully. There are dances on stage, at weddings, A & P shows and all alone in the back yard. Mikaela Nyman’s ‘The Obituary’ features dance as a form of language in the arctic, a language becoming extinct.

As well as the dance of life, some poets have taken up the dance of death, such as Jennifer Compton’s ‘Moxham Ave’, featuring a bicycle accident, and Kerry Popplewell’s ‘Last dance’, which imagines a dance with the grim reaper that she’d rather sit out. In Vana Manasiadis’s and Emma Barnes’s poems people dance gingerly in their relationships with each other, and also, like David Eggleton and others, create dancing rhythms. In other poems, such as those by Alex Taylor, the placement of the words makes them dance across the page.

Many poets are clearly inspired by dance and dancers; Hera Bird’s three poems are from a series on Swan Lake, while Kate Bariletti’s inspiration comes from contemporary New Zealand choreographer Raewyn Hill. Barbara Strang references Anna Pavlova, while Jo Thorpe skips off with Marie Taglioni.

Take a quick turn around the floor with dancer/choreographer/writers Michele Powles, Linda Ashley, Lyne Pringle and Sam Trubridge, who, in short ‘spotlight’ interviews, share their discoveries of how dance and writing have and haven’t worked together. In her non-fiction piece Time (Step) Capsule, Jackie Davis Martin reflects on the importance of dance in many stages of her life.

Six photographs by Kesha Robertson capture the vibrancy and movement of dance in South America – her striking swirling image of a night parade in Bolivia is also reproduced to great effect on JAAM’s cover. Dance designer Sam Trubridge’s drawings – hieroglyphs to communicate with dancers – also show how movement can be captured in a static image.

This genre-crossing volume closes, appropriately, with extracts from a dance writing project by dancer Alys Longley. While the dances themselves can’t be represented in a journal, the poems and texts inspired by them are reproduced, complete with drawings, annotations and crinkles in the paper.

JAAM is published by the independent JAAM Collective based in Wellington, and is supported by funding from Creative New Zealand.

JAAM is available from good bookshops or by subscription. For subscription information, visit http://jaam.wordpress.com/subscribe/ or email jaammagazine@yahoo.co.nz.

For more information or to interview Clare Needham, email jaammagazine@yahoo.co.nz or phone
027 738 5997

JAAM 28 is published

JAAM 28 cover

JAAM 28: Dance Dance Dance has just come back from the printer and it’s looking gorgeous! It’s mass-mailout time this weekend, and if you’re a contributor or subscriber you can expect it to turn up in your mail box any day now. It will be in good bookshops soon.

And we’ll let you know more information about it soon (once we’ve quickly finished the media release).