No One Knows Their Blood Type: An Online Book Launch

Join us for the international online launch of the novel No One Knows Their Blood Type by Maya Abu Al-Hayyat, translated by Hazem Jamjoum.

Find us Sunday, October 13, at 12 noon ET (Cleveland time), register here: https://tinyurl.com/NoOneKnows2024

Qs? Write h.plum [at] csuohio [dot] edu. Hope to see you!

*

“There’s a remarkable coiled power to this slim novel—it moves in unexpected directions, its characters’ lives tossed about by the collision of history and personality.” KAMILA SHAMSIE

“No One Knows Their Blood Type rejects the impulse to hyper-explain Palestinian life, instead taking the reader into the inner lives of characters shaped by the exile and instability that have come to define the Palestinian condition. There are no perfect victims here. Instead, we get intimate, honest portraits of actual human beings, in their kindness and cruelty, their failure and triumph. The masterful English translation is a triumph of language over trauma. Through and through, this is a story told by Palestinians, for Palestinians. Now, more than ever, we deserve to tell our stories.” EMAN ABDELHADI

“No One Knows Their Blood Type offers a gripping, textured vision of what it can feel like to be human amidst colonial dehumanization. In this novel, the deep disruptions of war and oppression sharpen universal family complexities and prod the young Palestinian women at the novel’s center to examine their own places in the world. I loved this tender, troubling book.” KATHARINE BEUTNER

"Material Conditions: Adjuncting & Wellness": A Cleveland Humanities Festival Event

The CSU Poetry Center is hosting an online event as part of the Cleveland Humanities Festival, whose 2023 theme is “Wellness.” On Thursday April 27 at 4 pm Eastern Time, find us on Zoom, no registration required: https://tinyurl.com/AdjunctingNEO

According to the 2022 Contingent Faculty Survey conducted by the American Federation of Teachers, “75% of faculty [nationally] are not eligible for tenure and 47% hold part-time positions.” Fewer than 50 percent of the respondents reported having employer-provided health insurance, most make well under $4,000 per class, and only 20 percent report being able to comfortably cover basic monthly expenses. When we discuss “wellness” in academic and community contexts, who is included in that conversation? What is wellness if not healthcare, livable wages, predictable schedules, and on-the-job resources—none of which are available to most part-time faculty? This hour will be dedicated to a conversation about adjunct issues and futures. We will discuss the current conditions of adjuncting in northeast Ohio; national movements toward unionization, higher wages, and workers’ rights; and ways our specific academic communities might contribute to the wellbeing of this ever-growing faculty population via amplification, resource sharing, activism, and job creation.

Writers at Work 3/26/23: Nia Hampton

Join us via Zoom on 3/26/23 at 6pm ET for a conversation with Nia Hampton, hosted by Anisfield-Wolf Fellow Joseph Earl Thomas.

Here’s the link to join, no registration required: tinyurl.com/csupcwritersatwork.

Nia Hampton is a cultural worker from West Baltimore, MD. After starring in Al Jazeera America’s viral doc about the similarities in police brutality in Brazil and Baltimore she began a career in freelance journalism. Her written work has been featured in Vice, The Village Voice, Dazed Digital, and elsewhere. Her photo and videography work has been covered by BESE, AFROPUNK and screened in the Baltimore Museum of Art. She founded the Black Femme Supremacy Film Fest in 2018. Learn more about her at: https://about.me/nia3

Writers at Work 2/19/23: Publishing First Books with Joseph Earl Thomas & Laura Maylene Walter

Join us via Zoom on 2/19/23 at 5pm ET for a conversation about publishing first books of fiction and creative nonfiction with Joseph Earl Thomas and Laura Maylene Walter.

Here’s the link to join, no registration required: tinyurl.com/FirstBooksProse.

Joseph Earl Thomas is a writer from Frankford whose work has appeared or is forthcoming in VQR, N+1, Gulf Coast, The Offing, and The Kenyon Review. He has an MFA in prose from the University of Notre Dame and studies English in the PhD program at the University of Pennsylvania. His memoir Sink won the 2020 Chautauqua Janus Prize and he has received fellowships from Fulbright, VONA, Tin House, and Bread Loaf. He’s writing the novel God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer, and a collection of stories, Leviathan Beach, among other oddities. He is the current Anisfield-Wolf Fellow in Writing & Publishing at the CSU Poetry Center.

Laura Maylene Walter is the author of the novel Body of Stars. Her writing has appeared in Poets & Writers, Kenyon Review, Slate, The Sun, Ninth Letter, The Masters Review, the Horse Girls anthology, and many other publications. She has received grants, awards, or fellowships from Tin House, Yaddo, the Ohio Arts Council, the Ohioana Library Association, the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, the Chautauqua Institution, and Art Omi: Writers. Laura is the Ohio Center for the Book Fellow at Cleveland Public Library, where she hosts Page Count, a literary podcast.

Haaaaappy Anniversary: 60 years at the CSU Poetry Center

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Cleveland State University Poetry Center. An independent small press survives through the care and good vibes of its readers, and we thank you for participating in six decades of literary exchange and adventure. Here are the exploratory, culture-making endeavors we’re up to this year, as well as ways you might join in or support our work:

Publishing

Preorder our fall catalogue—featuring new poetry by Michael Joseph Walsh and Raúl Gómez Jattin (tr. by Katherine M. Hedeen and Olivia Lott).

Follow three new series at our digital space, Exclamation’s Gauntlet—named after a poem by the Cleveland poet, playwright, editor, and composer Russell Atkins—featuring commentary on editing, process, and creativity:

And Could They Hear Me I Would Tell Them: interviews with small press authors about their newest books, publishing experiences, and the social aspects of their writing and reading lives.

Arch(d)ives: artifacts and ephemera plucked from our press’s dust, placed in personal, contemporary, and historical contexts.

Index for Continuance: a podcast series featuring conversations with workers at independent, small-press, and DIY literary presses and projects, and offering grassroots knowledge about how to edit, collaborate, reach readers, and build community (coming in 2023).

Programming

Lighthouse Reading Series: hosts eight poets and nonfiction writers annually, including a 60th-year anniversary reading and celebration in April 2023. Events are in-person and open to the public.

NEOMFA Writers at Work Colloquium: provides students opportunities to hear from visiting writers about their experiences in editing, arts administration, journalism, translation, or community programming, offering an expansive definition of literary work and where it takes place.

Bookfairs: find us at Loganberry Books' Author Alley, Lit Cleveland’s Inkubator, AWP, SMOL Fair, and Mission Creek, among other literary gatherings.

Pedagogy and Community

Graduate assistantships: we offer multiyear graduate assistantships to NEOMFA students interested in gaining experience in literary publishing and editing while pursuing an MFA in creative writing. We also teach literary editing and publishing and offer internship and volunteer opportunities.

Anisfield-Wolf Fellowship in Publishing and Writing: a two-year postgrad fellowship offering an emerging writer time to work toward a first or second book and professional experience teaching creative writing and engaging in community-oriented literary work in collaboration with the CSUPC. Our next application period will open in winter 2023/2024.

Cleveland partnerships: we collaborate with local writers and organizers at Lake Erie Ink, Cleveland Review of Books, The Refugee Response, Cleveland Drafts, grieveland, Lit Cleveland, Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, The Dodge, Mac’s Backs Books, and Loganberry Books.

Possibilities

The CSU Poetry Center is a nonprofit independent literary press and arts center whose funding comes from book sales, individual donations, and occasional grants. To support the work we do you can buy our books, attend our events, or MAKE A DONATION.

AWP 2017: Washington DC

Join the Cleveland State University Poetry Center and Rescue Press for an AWP offsite book launch and reading. Our presses believe in the future of books and the necessity for innovative literature; we're thrilled to spend an evening celebrating new poetry and prose.

Our event will take place from 7-9 p.m. on Thursday, February 9th at The Black Squirrel, a gastropub in Adams Morgan (Washington, DC).

Readers will include:

Vanessa Jimenez Gabb
James Allen Hall
Douglas Kearney
Andrea Lawlor
Jane Lewty
Sheila McMullin
Hilary Plum
Adrienne Raphel
Zach Savich

We'll have pre-release copies of our 2017 spring catalogue available for purchase throughout the weekend; if you can't make it to the launch reading, stop by our table at the AWP Conference book-fair (#616-T). See you in DC!!

CSU Poetry Center at AWP:

Hello dear readers, we hope to see you in Minneapolis next week!

Stop by our book table (#447) from Thursday through Saturday to buy books, chat with our staff, and check out this year’s brand new poetry catalog featuring titles by Siwar Masannat, Broc Rossell, and Lee Upton.

Also, please join us Friday evening for our collaborate reading and book release extravaganza with Rescue Press, called Welcome to the Future. The reading will take place from 8:00-9:30 at the Instinct Art Gallery and will feature new work from the following writers:

Bridgette Bates
Lauren Haldeman
Siwar Masannat
Blueberry Morningsnow
Marc Rahe
Broc Rossell
Andy Stallings
Christian TeBordo
Lee Upton