DesiLit / Kriti / Bodies in Motion (for sale, cheap)
maryannemohanraj
was so nice to meet so many of you at SALA. Three notes below:
1) DesiLit: http://www.desilit.org (supporting S. Asian and diaspora
writing, with active local chapters in Chicago, Bay Area, and Toronto,
and somewhat quiet chapters elsewhere) -- we have an online writing
workshop, an online biannual magazine regularly seeking submissions of
poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and more -- please visit the site and
explore for yourself.
2) the Kriti Festival: http://www.desilit.org/kriti.html (April
26-29, 2007, keynote speaker Anita Desai)
I hope lots of you are able to attend the festival; pre-registration
info is now live on-site. Please do register and come! Chicago is
lovely in late April, and assuming my baby doesn't show up a month
early, I'd love to have SALA folks over to my home for brunch on Friday
morning.
If you're accepted as a speaker/panelist, your registration fees will
be waived, and depending on how we do financially, we'll try to
reimburse our speakers up to $300 for travel costs. (I.e., anywhere
from $0-$300, depending on how many folks register). If you can get
your university to sponsor your travel and can waive potential
reimbursement, please let me know; that'd be a big help for us
financially. We also may be able to arrange crash space with local
volunteers, for those willing to rough it a bit with futons and
sleeping bags. We're working now on getting discounted hotel rates for
convention attendees.
To apply to be a speaker, please send me (directly, not to this list) a
brief bio and a title for an academic presentation geared towards the
general public. We'd probably be giving you 15-20 minutes for your
presentation (preferring more talk-y and less read-y papers) and will
have you join writers and editors on a panel or two. (If you're
primarily interested in appearing as a creative writer, you can just
send me a bio.) This is a great opportunity for graduate students to
present, and for professors to talk to the public in a relaxed setting.
3) Bodies in Motion: http://www.mamohanraj.com/bodies.html (with
glowing reviews from World Literature Today, the Boston Globe, SF
Chronicle, LA Times and elsewhere)
As I mentioned at SALA, the hardcover edition of my book has recently
gone out-of-print -- which means that all remaining unsold copies have
been destroyed, aside from a few hundred they let me buy at cost.
(Thankfully, the trade paperback is still in print.) The timing is
particularly unfortunate, as I was just told this morning that Bodies
in Motion has been selected for an Honorable Mention by the Asian
American Book Awards. Sigh.
I would love to get the copies I bought into the hands of those who
might appreciate them, so for the next week or so, I'm willing to to
sell signed hardcover copies and mail them to you for $5 + shipping.
Please e-mail if interested. I know some of you are thinking -- 'but I
already own a copy.' The real question is -- do all your friends and
relatives already own a copy? and how much do you love them? :-)
By the way, if you've already read the book and liked it, it's not too
late to post an Amazon review. Those really do help sell books, and
will likely help keep the paperback in print, so even if you just want
to post a few lines saying you liked it (eloquence is not required),
that'd be really appreciated. I'm not certain, but I think the best
place to post it would be on the page for the trade paperback edition.
Thanks so much!
- Mary Anne, already looking forward to SALA in Chicago next year!
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Mary Anne Mohanraj - http://www.mamohanraj.com
Director, Speculative Literature Foundation - http://www.speclit.org
Board member, DesiLit - http://www.desilit.org
