FENCE MAGAZINE
FENCE MAGAZINE TO LAUNCH WINTER 2008-09 ISSUE AT UALBANY WITH READINGS BY THREE CONTRIBUTORS
DECEMBER 4, 2008
CALENDAR LISTING:
FENCE magazine will launch its Winter 2008-09 issue with readings by three contributors, including fiction writers Ira Sher, Edward Schwarzschild, and Shelley Jackson on Thursday, December 4, 2008 at 7:00 p.m [NOTE EARLY START TIME] in the Standish Room, Science Library, on the University at Albany’s uptown campus. The event is free and open to the public.
PROFILE:
Contributors to the Winter 2008-09 issue of FENCE magazine will read from their poetry and fiction to celebrate the release of the new issue. Featured authors will include fiction writers Ira Sher, Edward Schwarzschild, and Shelley Jackson.
Marking its 10th year of publication, FENCE is a biannual journal of poetry, fiction, criticism, and art. Widely respected, the journal is known for including writing from the “experimental” community along with the work of “mainstream” authors, and for juxtaposing the work of lesser known and/or unknown writers with some of the most well-known and respected writers of our time. Edited by National Poetry Series winning poet Rebecca Wolff, FENCE is published in partnership with the New York State Writers Institute at the University at Albany. The magazine’s fiction editor is UAlbany English Professor, New York State Writers Institute fellow, and prize-winning fiction writer Lynne Tillman.
Ira Sher is the author of “Gentlemen of Space: A Novel” (2004) and the forthcoming novel, “Singer” (2009). His short fiction has been featured in numerous journals including the “Chicago Review” and the “Gettysburg Review,” and on the public radio program, “This American Life”. Among other honors, he has been a finalist for the Pushcart Prize and Best American Mystery Stories.
“Publisher’s Weekly” said of “Singer,” “In this gorgeously written yet elusive book, sophomore novelist Sher chronicles a surreal road trip and uses the Singer Sewing Company as a metaphor for the erosion of America.”
Edward Schwarzschild, UAlbany English Department Professor and New York State Writers Institute Writing Fellow, is the author of the short story collection, “The Family Diamond” (2007), and the novel, “Responsible Men” (2005), a “San Francisco Chronicle” Best Book of the Year, a “BookSense” Notable Pick, and a finalist for the Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Samuel Goldberg and Sons Foundation Prize for Jewish Fiction.
The “Boston Globe” reviewer said of “The Family Diamond,” “Linked by the author’s generous attention to his characters and by the mixture of generations and cultures that enrich them, these nine stories sparkle with humor, insight, and heart.”
Shelley Jackson, groundbreaking creator of hypertext fiction, is the author of the first novel, “Half Life”(2006). A “Village Voice” “Writer on the Verge” and Pushcart Prize winner, Jackson is best known for her hypertext project, “Patchwork Girl by Mary/Shelley & Herself”(1995). She is also the author of a paper-and-print short story collection, “The Melancholy of Anatomy” (2002), several children's books, and “SKIN,” a story published in tattoos on the skin of 2095 volunteers.
For additional information, contact the Writers Institute at 518-442-5620 or online at https://www.albany.edu/writers-inst.