One traditional critics’ rap about anthologies is that they are “uneven,” which may be true of A World Between: Poems, Short Stories, and Essays by Iranian-Americans (George Braziller, $18.50 paper), but there’s a vibrancy, almost a sense of urgency, to the writing. The editors of this timely collection (it’s the 20th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution) will be at Book People on Thursday, June 24 at 7pm to read selections from A World Between, which has its origins in Austin. In May 1998, one of the editors, Persis M. Karim, graduated with a Ph.D. in comparative literature from UT and — beating the odds — now actually has a tenure track position at San Jose State. “I envisioned this project as being able to get beyond the academic setting,” she says, and, fortunately, her publisher agreed.
Submissions
The deadline for submitting short stories of 2,500 words or less to the eighth annual Chronicle Short Story Contest is Monday, June 21. The story should be previously unpublished, typewritten, and accompanied by a separate cover letter that has your name, address, and phone number, so in other words don’t put that information anywhere on the story itself. And only send us one story! Send to: Short Story Contest, PO Box 49066, Austin, TX 78765 or via the Internet at: http://www.auschron.com/shortstory/ … Time again to submit entries to the Austin Writers’ League’s ninth annual Violet Crown Book Awards. $1,000 cash prizes will be awarded in each of three categories — fiction, nonfiction, and poetry/prose (which includes essay and short fiction) — to AWL members who have published books between July 1, 1998 and June 30, 1999. (Authors can join AWL upon submitting two copies of the book, a $10 entry fee, and entry form.) Deadline is June 30; Barnes & Noble co-sponsors the awards. Call 499-8914 for more information.
Book Arts Fair
The Austin Book Workers host their annual Book Arts Fair this weekend at Laguna Gloria (3809 W. 35th), 1-5pm, free. See “Calendar” page for more information.
Book of the Week
The recently released coffeetable book Dancing With Cats (Chronicle Books, $16.95 paper) features, among many other savory characters, a person who resembles a mime wearing black leather pants while dancing with his cat Wiky. That would ordinarily exempt Dancing With Cats from parody based on the dictum that making fun of mimes is just too easy. But who could pass up mention of a book that also showcases a man named Fred who paints his body to resemble a zebra and attaches a tail of his own when dancing with his cat and a woman who is quoted as saying of her four-year-old Persian cat Boots, “‘He’s a Scorpio and I have the sun in Pisces, so there’s a good deal of karmic support. Also our auras usually match, and numerologically we’re both Eights, which makes for a strong psychic bond.'” Judging from Dancing With Cats, cat dancers need to be wary of “overstimulating” their auras; take the advice of Marvin, who has learned from his sessions with Missy that at intense levels of cat dancing “an unstable etheric oscillation could collapse into an astral vortex and suck my spiritual reserves into a state of negative sub-matter.” Aha, Marvin! You haven’t fooled the Chronicle staff with that tricky language of yours. All around, we think you’re the best thing about Dancing With Cats.
This article appears in June 18 • 1999 and June 18 • 1999 (Cover).