News For Writers

Joy Harjo to judge Kore's

2014 First Book Award for Poetry

August 31 deadline, $25 reading fee

Poet, Musician, Storyteller, Writer & Artist Joy Harjo was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma and is a member of the Mvskoke Nation.

Click here for contest history; 2013 contest details here.

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Open Submissions and Short Fiction Award are now closed.

Thank you to all who submitted!

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Great seeing you at Boston AWP!

Kore, in the house for 20 years!

Therese Perreault, Director of Development & Operations

Dawn Lundy Martin (left) & TC Tolbert at Troubling the Line panel.

Carolyn Hembree's "signing" (left) & Jeanette Winterson

Duriel E. Harris, Embracing the Verb of It: Black Poets Innovating (or Innovative?) with Ruth Ellen Kocher, Lillian-Yvonne Bertram, Douglas Kearney.

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Announcing: A 20th anniversary edition, The Best Of 2012

selected poems submitted to Kore Press in 2012

Edited by Ann Dernier with

Niki Herd, Natalie Diaz, Gail Brown, Joni Wallace,

Rebecca Seiferle

Introduction by Alison Deming

"This is an important collection because it demands that we, as

female writers, not conform, rather, we must only write the things

that are in us to be written.”—Natalie Diaz

available Fall 2013

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2013 Open Submissions

CLOSED: ms review completed in August

your ms will receive careful, critical feedback from Kore editors & be considered for 2015 publishing season

$35 reading fee

Click here for guidelines

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2013 Short Fiction Award

CLOSED: Results announced in August

Judge: Kate Bernheimer

"One of the living masters of the fairy tale."--Tin House

author of The Complete Tales of Lucy Gold

A prize of $1,000 plus chapbook publication by Kore Press
is given annually for a short story written in English.

guidelines here

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2013 First Book Award for Poetry

congratulations to this year's winner!

Jen McClanaghan for River Legs

Judge Nikky Finney says of River Legs: "The mark of a truly imaginative poet is to say what we human beings all feel in a way that's never been said before. That's what happens in River Legs. Beautiful work! Tender. Gutsy. Full of treasured phrases and wonderings. The poet never gives up until all the pieces of the poem come together. She builds such a strong path with the surprise of language until we leave our predictable worlds behind---completely trusting each and every step."

Jen McClanaghan was educated at Antioch College, Columbia University, and Florida State University. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Iowa Review, The Southern Review, AGNI online and New England Review. Currently she's an assistant professor at Stephen F Austin State University in East Texas, where she lives with her husband and their son.

Thank you to our 2013 judge Nikky Finney

to the readers and all poets who submitted

keep writing!

Click here for contest history; 2013 contest details here.

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2012 Short Fiction Award

Congratulations to Mary Byrne for "A Parallel Life"

selected by Karen Brennan out of over 200 manuscripts

as the 2012 Kore Press Short Fiction Award winner

Brennan on the winning story: "This remarkable story traces the life of a Serbian woman, Zorica, marooned for years in Paris, struggling with illiteracy, bureaucracy, aging and the forces of history that have shaped her life. Told by a nameless narrator with an effortless blend of humor and pathos, “A Parallel Life” is structured like a document-- eschewing the traditional dramatic action of literary realism and straddling the borderland between fiction and nonfiction. . .from start to finish, it rings with integrity and wisdom."

  

Byrne was born in County Louth, Ireland, and currently lives in Normandy France after long spells in Paris, south of France and Morocco. She has taught at various French universities in Paris and Normandy and is now a freelance translator. Her short fiction has been published or broadcast in Europe, North America, Australia. She is anthologized in Faber Book of Best New Irish Short Stories (Fabers 2007), Queens Noir (Akashic 2008), Best Paris Stories anthology, forthcoming May 2012. She is also the winner of Fiction International short fiction contest 2011.

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And the hits keep coming for Kore. We love our editorial team... good to know the feeling's mutual. Thanks, Anna Clark

 

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July 21, 2011: Kore Press receives an NEA to host the first The Big Read in Tucson

The Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.

Kore Press is one of 76 non-profit organizations receiving a grant to host The Big Read project this fall. Funded by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and in cooperation with Arts Midwest, The Big Read is an initiative to restore reading to the center of American culture. Tucson's Big Read will involve creative and educational community programming and events taking place between Sept. 22 and Nov. 13, 2011. Kore has chosen to celebrate the poetry of Emily Dickinson, and bring her prolific work to our community in active and meaningful ways. 

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Kore Press wins a 2011 Innovations in Reading Prize

 

Kore is one of four organizations in the country (selected out of 120) to be honored by the National Book Foundation with a 2011 Innovations in Reading Prize! The National Book Foundation awards prizes to individuals and institutions that have developed innovative means of creating and sustaining a lifelong love of reading.

For eighteen years, Kore Press has been defined by innovation. Whether it's publishing the highest quality women's literature, educating youth, or doing creative community programming, they have been on the edge of using literature to advance progressive social change. As a community of literary activists, Kore is dedicated to engaging the public through several visionary, creative writing projects.

 

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June 9, 2011: Kore Press wins the 2011 LUMIE Award for an Established Arts Organization

Kore received the award for an Established Arts Organization at this year's Tucson Pima Arts Council LUMIES Awards. This prize is awarded to an organization functioning for over ten years, in recognition of their innovation, creativity and sustained excellence in their field.

"Championing women writers and those underrepresented in the cultural mainstream, Kore Press has thrived as an independent press against difficult economic environments that easily favor corporations. Kore Press remains as one of only six feminist literary publishers in the country and is a leading voice for advancing progressive social change in Southern Arizona. As a platform for emerging writers, Kore renders personal attention to each writer’s work and always gives detailed feedback to enhance the writings of local writers. This organization has furthered the discussion of Tucson’s cultural and artistic future through activism projects and presentations in schools. Engaging local citizens, Kore Press will continue to make literary activism and social justice

a priority in the years to come."

 

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And the hits keep coming for Kore. We love our editorial readers... good to know the feeling's mutual. Thanks, Anna Clark!

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Grrls Literary Activism Workshops

Empowering the next generation of leaders

Workshop participant Zamzam Hirsi talks with Dr Cornel West

at a special reception, Spring '11, UA Centennial Hall

Visit the Grrls website, blog, and Facebook.

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Coming in Hot opens dialogue across cultures and generations with the stories of female veterans.

Up Next:

Female veteran & Grrls' Literary activists

The Listening Project: an interviewing & audio archive project

Adapted for the stage from the groundbreaking 2008 title Powder: Writing by Women in the Ranks, from Vietnam to Iraq, Coming in Hot ignites theater with activism& dialog about women in the military.

Want to produce this play with your students? contact kore@korepress.org

Visit the Coming in Hot: Civil Discourse website, blog, and Facebook.

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THANK YOU 

Kore program partners:

 

and funding partners:

 

 

   

 

Projects & Events

The Listening Project

Keeping history real

by lifting up the voices of women & girls

A cross-generational, cross-cultural, civil discourse project in Tucson, AZ. Teen grrls trained in the documentary arts are conversing with female veterans and service members in AZ to record their stories, and reflect on their own experiences. Grrls will create radio stories for public broadcast and interviews will become part of on an on-line audio archive for civil discourse.

Supported in part by the Tucson-Pima Arts Council/KRESGE,

The Southwest Foundation, and AZ tax credit donors.

Please visit our facebook event page for more information.

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Kore Press 20th Anniversary

Garden Party & Benefit Art Auction

join the celebrations for 20 years of publishing women!

Sunday, Spetember 29th, 2013

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Kore Press mission

As a community of literary activists devoted to bringing forth a diversity of voices through works that meet the highest artistic standards, Kore Press publishes women's writing to deepen awareness and advance progressive social change.

Why we publish women & educate girls

Kore Press is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) arts organization made possible only by grants, book sales, and gifts from individuals like yourself.

 

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Preview available soon for the Fall 2012 Grrls' short film

on Wonder Women

premiere at The Loft cinema, Tucson, in October

 

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Sexy Brains tee-shirts designed by

the Grrls Literary Activism Workshop

$20

Women's V-neck, dark gray with pink ink (women's XL, L, M, S)

Men's crew neck, white with pink ink (L & XL)

Kore Press T-Shirts

 

 

 

Who's Your Wonderwoman?

What's your strength or superpower?

If you could create a supergirl or super woman, what powers would she have? 

Let us know. 

 

 

 

 

Shout out to the talented 2012 Open Subs Editorial Team:

Poetry
Prose
Victoria Chang
Andi Werblin
Ashaki Jackson
Meagan Lehr
Rebecca Seiferle
Ann Dernier
Joni Wallace
Stephanie Balzer
Deborah Fries
Elizabeth Falcon

Kara Waite
Erin Wilcox
Aisha Sloan
Patricia Grace King
Lisa O’Neill
Maria Eliades
Natalie Diaz
Raha Namy
TaraShea Nesbit
Emily Jeanes
Frankie Rollins

thank you for the generous donation of your time and expertise in support of Kore Press.

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Thanks to all artists, sponsors, volunteers and guests for making the 2012 Silent Auction and Garden Party a success! 70 pieces of art and 30 services from local businesses were auctioned, raising almost $15k that will go toward publishing women and educating girls. One thousand bows!! See Tom Willet's fabulous photos from the event on Facebook.

 

See the rest here.

2012 Annual Garden Party & Art Auction

Kore Press marked 19 years of

publishing women

at the Annual Benefit Auction & Garden Party

Sunday, May 27th, 2012 6pm,

Review art here

 

 

Thanks to Rocco's Little Chicago for the Garden Party love!

 

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Curator, Marketer, Poet, Jeweler: Annie Guthrie on the UA Poetry Center's Off the Page Symposium

Read the full Q&A

Click to Off-the-Page...

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Patricia Grace King remembers the late Jeanne Leiby

"From the plethora of panels and readings to the book fair to free-range meetings in elevators and hallways, the AWP conference can come to resemble a three-day cocktail party, set at warp speed.  But at this year’s tribute to writer and editor Jeanne Leiby, participants found a space for real contemplation.  In the midst of the regular conference frenzy, we reflected on our lives as writers, and in particular on one well-lived writer’s life."

read more...

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archive in progress for

BIG READ Tucson

bigreadtucson.com

 

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snazzy Big Read bling still available

T-shirts, stickers, trucker hats, postcards

T-shirts & hats just $10

This text reads: "The brain is wider than the sky..."

Buy them here!

Women or Unisex sizes available - M & L

 

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Delight--becomes pictorial

A visual lexicon of Emily Dickinson's first lines

Click here to view the artwork online

Dec. 8, 2011: Tucson Weekly spreads the word about "Delight--becomes pictorial" and our Emily D Bday Bash

Click here to read "Pictorial Pleasures"

by Margaret Regan

 

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Thank you all for supporting

Big Read Tucson!

 

Sincere thanks to all 70 pledgers who made our Kickstarter campaign a success!

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Dec. 2, 2011: Eat, Be Merry, and Support the Arts! Local restaurants that made Emily D into tasty treats

 

 

 

Links to Kore Press' Big Read events

in the media

Click here for Tucson Weekly's feature about "If My Verse is Alive..."

Click here for Tucson Weekly's article about Kore Press' role in the Big Read programming

Click here for Tucson Poetry Examiner's blog entry about our "Writing Woman" lecture with Dr. Aiken

Click here for the NEA's feature about "If My Verse is Alive..." in their Big Read blog

 

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Nov. 18, 2011: Listen to a recording of Eva Heisler's original work "It Sounds Like a Poem"

Eva H

Eva Heisler is an art critic, poet, and scholar from Heidelberg, Germany. She visited Tucson this October to contribute to our Big Read celebration of Emily Dickinson. Kore Press will publish Heisler's forthcoming book of poems in Spring, 2012, called "Reading Emily Dickinson in Icelandic." 

 

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Nov. 6, 2011: KXCI community radio interviews Jane Miller and Lisa Bowden about Dickinson, the Big Read, and Miller's latest poems...

Did you miss the excitement? No problem! Click here to listen to the entire 30-minute radio broadcast online.

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Click here for a table of contents for Big Read Tucson and handy guide to programs, events & resources

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Oct. 1, 2011: Kore's Grrls Literary Activists screened their new short film at the Loft

in conjunction with AZ List's film "Miss Representation"

The Grrls' film explored media, sex, sexuality & self image

Thanks to Pam Grissom & the Crossroads Collaborative with funding from the Ford Foundation!

Grrls' mentor Jamie Lee with Aida Villareal-Licona

& Marigold Hall. photo by Kimi Eisele

Grrls Literary Activism Workshops helps get the voices of young women and trans youth heard.

 

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Aug. 2, 2011: Arizona Public Media interviews Kore Press Publisher Lisa Bowden about our 2011 LUMIE Award

Click here to watch the interview with AZPM, and hear some exciting updates about up-and-coming Kore Press programs!

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We love and appreciate our generous artists, sponsors and donors to the annual auction & garden party.

See the benefits of giving to Kore and

Read our 2011 thank you list here

 

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Book News

Month of Mothers' Days Special! All new releases are 20 percent off.

New Releases 20% Off

 

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now available:

Hot off the press!

Reading Emily Dickinson in Icelandic

poems by Eva Heisler

"Eva Heisler has written a remarkable book."

—Michael Burkard

Exactly how much does language shape perception? In Reading Emily Dickinson in Icelandic, Heisler explores the materiality of language with a collection of prose poems inspired by her nine years in Iceland.

$15.95, 6x9," 114 pgs, perfect bound 

Hot off the press! Available now

Dead Meander

essays by Adria Bernardi

"Bernardi's poetic prose is hypnotic and original"

—Eleanor Wilner

Ruminating on the fundamental mysteries of human life--the tenuous nature of memory, bereavement, and grief, as well as the vexing complexity of familial connections--Bernardi explores the pleasures of slowing down, and the deep losses incurred by not taking time to look and listen.

$17.95, 6x8," 152 pgs, perfect bound

 

New review for Skinny in Pebble Lake Review.

Click here to read.

Skinny by Carolyn Hembree

a first book of poems

"Hembree extends her unmistakable voice and lightning-quick vision  into areas of American life too often left unlit. The voice flows through barriers of time and space as well as class and gender, willing to illuminate and love the darker and more dubious identities we’re capable of inhabiting. An unforgettable music stamps these lines on the heart: “Remembering is / like putting a feather underneath / the skull…"—Laura Mullen

$14, 6x9," 72 pgs perfect bound

Click here to read an Interview with Carolyn Hembree by Lisa Levine

 

Double Agent by Michelle Chan Brown

2011 First Book winner selected by Bhanu Kapil

"In this vivid, near-submerged world, I paid particular attention to the  ways in which containment and incompetence were worked out by the writer. Chan Brown sets a strict boundary--"Don't wait"--only to assess its transgression: "Come quickly." Go. Come

back. Stay. Double Agent is a flip-book of the very best kind."—Bhanu Kapil

 

$14, 6x9," 80 pgs, perfect bound

Click here to read an Interview with Michelle Chan Brown by Lisa Levine

 

 

Given Away by Jennifer Barber

a second book of poems

“Barber’s perceptions are so specific and surprising in these beautiful and rigorous poems, her diction and music so pure, her rhetoric so without excess or self-congratulations that her discipline as an artist seems supernatural.”—Vijay Seshadri

$14, 6x9," 80 pgs, perfect bound 

 

 

The Death of Carrie Bradshaw

by Patricia Grace King

2011 Short Fiction winner

selected by Antonya Nelson

“The Death of Carrie Bradshaw is a story full of humor, insight, an act of god, and a great cast of major and minor characters. A rarity in short fiction, it manages to feel uplifting at closure without one unearned moment. A treat.”--Antonya Nelson

$10, 5.5 x 8.5" 32 pgs, hand painted stockings, staple binding

 

Girrl by Niki Herd

a limited edition broadside

$10, 9.75 x 13"

 

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New Works available 2013

The Best Of Kore Press 2012: Poetry

Edited by Ann Dernier

selected poems from 400 manuscripts submitted

to the Press in 2012

A Parallel Life by Mary Byrne

Kore Press Short Fiction winner 2012

The Bright Field of Everything by Deborah Fries

a second book by a Kore First Book Winner

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now on Persephone Speaks

the Kore Press blog

on women, culture, activism, politics, art & writing

Amy King

"Mother Nature's Erratic Children: Writing Superstorm Sandy"

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2011 Releases

That Place Where by Barbara Cully

“Here is a consummate poet, at the height of her interrogation

of language, philosophy, and philology. Barbara Cully is a poet’s poet. She works passionately, without ambition,

fanfare, or guile.” — Jane Miller

$11, 7 x 8.5," 32 pgs, hand-stitched
Click here to buy this beautiful new book and other titles

 

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  For Sale By Owner named Short Fiction winner in Next Generation Indie Book Awards

$16, 5.5 x 8.5," 144 pgs, trade paper
Order your copy here.

Check out the wonderful review of For Sale By Owner by Erinn Kelley at Literary Mama!

"Each piece of short fiction represents a new lens through which to view domesticity, combining relatable stories and familiar emotions with outlandish and sometimes disquieting twists."

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Territories of Folding

by TC Tolbert

A double-bound chapbook of poetry by our first gender-queer author. $13. available now, here!

 

TC Tolbert signing his double-bound chapbook of poetry, Territories of Folding, last year in Tucson

 

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Yasuko Claremont's

Award winning translation of Tada Chimako's poem "Concealment" is available here2-color, silk screen broadside $15edition of 100, 16x20"

Jeremy Ingalls' Translation Award Judge Sawako Nakayasu (left) and winner Yasuko Claremont

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Poet & Asian scholar Jeremy Ingalls website here

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Kore CDs available as digitally downloadable MP3s

Got spoken word?

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Stay tuned to literary & activist news

and events with the

Kore monthly e-newsletter

Sign up for Our Email Newsletter
Email:  

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Back issues are available as PDFs:

February

January

2010:

December

November

September/October

July/August

May/June

April March

Other back issues are available here.

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Kore has been publishing the creative genius of women writers since 1993, in part to maintain equitable public discourse and an accurate historic record. Greek for "daughter," Kore (kor-ay) recalls the myth of Persephone in which a daughter is taken into the underworld and re-emerges half the year because of a bargain struck by her mother and the nasty fellow down below. The daughter's emergence from the dark depths each year, like the creative process itself, marks a time of change!

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