The IAF needs YOU!

2009 was a pretty awesome year for the Interstitial Arts Foundation: Interfictions 2 came out, they released some excellent fiction for free online in their Annex, and we had a successful auction of interstitial art featuring some amazing creations. I hear they also had some pretty fabulous Salons in New York and Los Angeles, but this Georgia lady wasn't able to make any of those. (Here's for an Atlanta-based Interstitial Salon in 2010! Who's with me?*)

By the by, if anyone is located in or near Indianapolis, Indiana: there's a Interstitial Salon happening at the Indiana Writer's Center on February 28th! See this post for access to more information.

I'm excited to see this interstitial arts movement flourishing, and more people both noticing and celebrating art that defies categorization. I'm delighted a support structure is growing for those artists who create works that side-step genre and dance between forms; I'm overjoyed that necklaces-what-are-also-stories and fiction-that-is-also-an-itemized-list and postcards-that-are-poems have a platform on which to glory. And I'm absolutely on board with the IAF's latest call: we need more people, more enthusiasm, and more ideas!

In short, we need YOU.

The Board and Working Group have already compiled a bit of a 2010 Wishlist and posted it on the main IAF blog, but I'll reproduce it for you below:

Post more regular news, reviews, events, and promotion of interstitial artists and their work.
Establish a forum for interstitial artists to exchange ideas, collaborate, network, and brainstorm.
Create an online art gallery.
Feature guest bloggers on a regular basis.
Organize an interstitial art symposium.
Begin work on Interfictions 3.
Generate a wider engagement with the interstitial art community through co-sponsored events with other artists & organizations.
Hold more salons in towns across the U.S. & in Europe (Please visit our new How to Host an IAF Salon page!)

Each of these items is a solid prospect for perpetuating and heightening the momentum the Interstitial Arts Foundation now has. I'm completely game for assisting in an Atlanta Salon - and you can easily get started on one of your own, with the tutorial already available on the website.

But what else should be added to that list?

I'm considering ways to get interstitial art in general (and Interfictions in particular) involved more academically. My ideas are still largely inchoate; however, given my current status as a graduate student, this is definitely an area where I'd like to focus some enthusiasm and elbow grease.

But come, bring your thoughts and suggestions! Bring your enthusiasm! You can comment here or join in the discussion on the original IAF post. And, if you've ever wanted to volunteer with the IAF, now's the time to speak up!


This entry was originally posted at Livejournal on February 15th, 2010. You can comment here or there.

Vote in the first annual Rose & Bay Awards!

 The time is now, my friends, to vote for the recipients of the first annual Rose & Bay Awards!

Votes must be in by February 28th. In case you missed my explanation of the Awards at the beginning of January, allow me to re-post my initial explanation:

This past year has really been an excellent year for crowdfunded fiction: 2009 was the year Catherynne M. Valente serialized the remarkable The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making. It was the year Shira Lipkin not only continued her Wind Tunnel Dreams, but put out a hardbound copy of all WTD pieces then extant. This was the year of T.A. Pratt's Bone Shop and Dave Freer's Save the Dragons and the continuing adventures of Seanan McGuire's Velveteen Vs. Everything. It was a year for the continuance of Shadow Unit, the hardbound publication of the previously web-published The Admonishments of Kherishdar, and so much more.

2009 was also the year that saw the birth of the Rose and Bay Awards, a five-category award conceived by the crowdfunding  community to honor both those who put everything into quality crowdfunded works and those individual patrons who pour financial support into these brave creators. The specified categories are Art, Fiction, Poetry, Other Project, and Patron. Just as these remarkable crowdfunded works benefits by the participation of every interested party, the Rose and Bay Awards likewise asks for the participation of the same as they search for eligible works for the first annual awards.

Read more about the Rose and Bay Awards in this post by crowdfunding , and spread the word!

And now, here are links to the voting posts for each category: 

Art: Vote for this category.
Nominees include haikujaguar's Stardancer Art Archive and flutterbychildflutterbychild's The Rebirth of Me.

Fiction: Vote for this category.
Nominees include Seanan McGuireseanan_mcguire's Velveteen Vs. Everything and catvalente's The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making.

Poetry: Vote for this category.
Nominees include wyld_dandelyon and ysabetwordsmith ysabetwordsmith.

Other Project: Vote for this category.
Nominees include shadesong's Wind Tunnel Dreams and Ellen Million's EMG-Zine.

Patron: Vote for this category.
Nominees include phinnia and minor_architectminor_architect.

Remember, you only have until February 28th to vote! 



This entry was originally posted at Livejournal on February 16th, 2010. You can comment here or there.

The Fickleness of February

I'm sorry for the lack of a free fiction posting last Friday, folks! My life has been a bit crazy recently, I must admit.

How crazy?

Well, last Monday, I celebrated my birthday with meat and drink and all good things. I'm now living my thirtieth year!

In what is becoming a horrifying tradition, I then promptly fell ill with food poisoning (or something like) and didn't fully recover until Friday. Friday is, of course, in the middle of my work-week.

Also, in an unexpected afternoon of magic, the Snow Queen saw fit to dump several inches of snow on Atlanta. This threw the rest of the weekend out of whack, as my employer sent me home early because of the snow (thence to work from home, actually). On Saturday, I was iced in: I live on top of a steep hill with one road up and that road was ice. Luckily, my employer understood and let me work from home then as well.

Now, I am slowly digging my way out from under the work that didn't get done while I was ill. Expect to see pictures of Snow! in the South! (that's why it's mad), two posts concerning free fiction this week, and my debut blogging for Cabinet des Fées.

In the meanwhile, who fancies reading a poem of mine in draft?

This entry was originally posted at Livejournal on February 16th, 2010. You can comment here or there.