Inside Their Eyes: Shelter Dog Portraits

Something lovely has been happening in Tuscola, Illinois at the Douglas County Animal Control and Shelter.

Her brother and sister-in-law, Kirby and Cindy Pringle, are professional photographers with a deep fondness for animals, and have begun volunteering at their local animal shelter by photographing the shelter dogs. The shelter then posts the animals' photographs on their Facebook page, along with adoption details.

Whippet, photograph by Dogtown Artworks

What seems like every day, another elegant photograph of a recent addition to the shelter is posted, which becomes a rather disheartening situation because the photography is beautiful but another animal-in-need is not.

As the Facebook page unfolds itself, it is simultaneously becoming a sort of online art gallery.  A gallery that testifies to the bond between dog and human, and the effects the loss of such a relationship has on our dog-friends.

Often, adoption photographs of shelter dogs feature them in the kennels, behind chain-link fence or wire, and the cages often act as a barrier between the viewer and dog, thus causing the dogs to seem as though they deserve to be there--since the nature of the cage is to confine, to isolate, to keep what must be dangerous out.  

Brindle-Mix, photograph by Dogtown Artworks

These non-traditional adoption ads allow the dogs to communicate to the viewers with dignity.  Here, the dogs are allowed to show themselves outside of the fence, in the way that animals at shelters would if they weren't there.

A shelter is--at least for the ones she has visited--an often anxious, stressed environment that would drive anyone, dog or human, into rattling their cages, staring off, or barking despondently, no matter how friendly their hearts and sweet their temperaments outside the cage.

But shelter behavior, of course, is often enough to make the potential adopter move onto the next kennel, and the next (often past the adult dogs and toward the puppies), or maybe just out the door.

These are empowering photographs, and a beautiful testament to the power of art and the power of the bond between ourselves and our dogs.  Together, the world of longing and love is put into better focus.

These are our undesirables.  But the Pringles are showing us how to see them as they are: full of desire.

_____________________________________

To view more of the dogs at the Douglas County Adoption, 

or for information about volunteering or donating, 

please visit their Facebook page.

For more information about the photographers, 

see their website, Dogtown Artworks.

Three puppies at Douglas County Shelter,
photographs by Dogtown Artworks

Lake Effect 2012: Now Available, Contains Sparrows

2012 Issue of Lake Effect,
Cover Art and Design
by A.J. Noyes

Published out of Penn-State Erie, the new issue of Lake Effect (Volume 16/Spring 2012) is now available for purchase. Her story "Winter's Wooden Sparrows" appears within its pages.

This is her second time working with Lake Effect, as six years ago they published my story "Digging" (Issue #10), a story about a girl and boy who discover their siblings and father buried in the forest.  "Digging" is in The Floating Order, while "Sparrows" will be in her next book, Midwest in Memoriam, which she recently began sending out to publishers.

If a pattern has begun, then in six more years she''ll have another story for another book.  That's a rather nice idea.

Our dog Gretta does not like to read recommended works,

evidently, but she had a long day

(Copyright Erin Pringle-Toungate)

The Nortang Bears Forthcoming in Sand Journal

Image from here

A bit of lovely news:

Her very short prose piece, The Nortang Bears, has been slated for publication across the waters in SAND Journal, an English literary journal based in Berlin, Germany.

Due out in May 2012

Robert Pinsky in Spokane, February 2012

Former Poet Laureate, Robert Pinsky, will be in Spokane February 28 and 29.

Laurel wreath,
from here

Gonzaga University: February 28, in the evening 7:30-8:30, Cataldo Globe Room

Spokane Falls Community College: February 29, 11:30-12:30, in sn-w'ey'mn, Building 24, Room 110

Both reading events are free and open to the public.

From the Child's Shelf: Sendak's No Bumbler

Sendak, Maurice. Bumble-Ardy. New York: HarperCollins, 2011.

Maurice Sendak's new book Bumble-ardy is the story of a pig celebrating his first birthday party, which is his ninth birthday. The backstory, which is told in preface, is that Bumble-ardy's family "frowned on fun", which explains his lack of birthdays hitherto, and his parents were recently killed. Although his parents were butchered, the fact that humans would have been the ones to murder them isn't emphasized. And so, all readers of the book are immediately set up as the antagonists to this world. 

The story begins with Bumble-ardy moving in with his aunt and his decision, against her wishes and knowledge, to throw himself a birthday party. A masquerade party. The party lasts most of the book as the animals, dressed as humans, drink "brine", dance, and celebrate the life of Bumble-ardy--and, as such, life itself. But it's a strange dance to celebrate an equally strange life. Without surprise, as it is with any celebration of life comes life's comrade-in-the-wings: death. 

When any talk of controversy or irritability about Bumble-ardy rears, it's typically in regards to the presence of death (although, a cursory glance at the GoodReads page for the book suggests that adult readers are equally irritable due to Bumble-ardy not being Where The Wild Things Are). 

However, death is not a focus of the story, is never central to any page, stands in the background, and only becomes apparent on subsequent reads. Perhaps it is death's representation as natural and part of the scene that causes some readers to focus and dwell on it, and in dwelling, become concerned that their children are dwelling in the same ways. Perhaps if readers view death as unnatural and something to be feared, heckled, ignored, repressed, and otherwise stricken from reality, then Bumble-ardy works as a counter to those notions. 

EDITOR IN OZ: May be human, only behind curtain

When I attended the Dublin Phoenix Convention as a guest last year, I met John Kenny, co-editor of Albedo One magazine. During the convention he solicited a story from me, which I then wrote for the Aeon Press anthology he edited, entitled Box of Delights.  Because I had a good experience with him as an editor, I started following the blog he recently began.  And he recently wrote a good blog article on submission strategies for writers.

It stood out to me for a number of reasons, one is likely because I find myself in a rather new situation as a long-time submitting writer: I have a number of new stories, and all of them are thirty-to-forty pages long.  Most magazines no longer accept story submissions of such length, and those who do typically cut off at 10,000 words. The few remaining either charge a $3 "reading fee" to submit or don't seem really that interested in reading long stories to begin with.

Of course, what writer with half a thought in her head would decide to write long stories ("novelettes", suggests Duotrope) at the very moment everyone else has decided that a story the size of a dead leaf is best?

Image of Writer Submitting Stories Pre-Ebook

Needless to say, I've been spending some additional hours thinking about submissions and, in many ways, feel like I'm re-experiencing what it was to send out my stories when I was 15.  Except it's not as exciting, the dazzle is gone, I don't save all my rejections in a jean purse, and online form rejection letters are--as I'm noticing--often made to seem like they're not form letters, which makes the task of submitting (and managing them) all the more frustrating.

In the good old days, the rejection form, and its variants, implied a certain code to the writer based on how it was written and signed.  Little differently, I would assume, than how a writer's cover letter--its formatting, tone, and content--will say something to the editor about the professionalism, or lack thereof, of the writer.

But in regards to the code of rejection letters: A rejection addressed to "Dear Writer" and signed with a photocopied editor's signature (or simply "The Editors") meant that the story didn't merit more than this.  It was just another story, and so the writer would know something about what just happened and how to think about re-submitting.  The same rejection letter but with a real signature above the photocopied one meant the editor was sending a sort of compliment.  It was a rejection but the editor took the time because of this particular story.  And so that would tell the writer something.  Thus, a handwritten P.S. on an otherwise form rejection was really something.  This is what was meant by "I got a good rejection."

But many magazines are emailing form rejection letters (equal to a photocopied Dear Writer form rejection) but making them look personal.  And while I'll save my deeper thoughts on pseudo-personal form rejections for another day, perhaps you can see why automated online rejections that fill the writer's first name into the "Dear" field and the story's title in the Thanks for submitting your story ___________ can be a bit confusing:

'The Floating Order Feels Significant'

Women: A Cultural Review recently published a review by John Regan, a Cambridge graduate and lecturer at University College Dublin.  His review, "More Than Women and Cats", regards two collections from Two Ravens Press: Regi Claire's Fighting It and Erin Pringle's The Floating Order.

In an overall positive review, about The Floating Order, Regan at one point calls Pringle "a master of tragicomedy" and later writes:

"Just as her stories thrive on a kind of profitable restlessness, The Floating Order feels significant by virtue of its narrative, structural and thematic variety."

Quite nice, quite nice.

Obviously, Dr. Regan has excellent taste.  Cheers!  

International Ghost Story Contest 2012

 The Dr. Euguene Clark Library in Lockhart, Texas has announced its fourth annual ghost story contest, Scare the Dickens Out of Us!

Word count: 5,000 or less

Who?: Anyone (adult and junior divisions)

Entry fee: Adult division $20; Junior division $5

The money is used to benefit the library.

First prize: $1000.00 and a trophy

Second prize: $500.00 and a ribbon 

Third prize: $250.00 and a ribbon

Junior contest prize $250.00 and a trophy

Entries will be accepted only between July 1, 2012 and October 1, 2012 (postmark dates).

For more information, formatting guidelines, and a list of previous winners, visit the library's website (www.clarklibraryfriends.com).


To qualify, stories should be of the ghost-story genre.  

Read This Book: Space, in Chains by Laura Kasischke

Her husband brought this book home from the magical place where most all the books in their house have come from--the best ones that move from bookcase to bookcase, the ones carried most and that, most often, while she and he sleep, seemingly try to slip out the door--again and again and so they must be pinned down with little notes in the margins, dark lines under their feet.

Space, in Chains is a collection of 72 poems by Laura Kasishke, whom she hadn't read or heard of until now and now she thinks is one of the most brilliant writers moving among us.

From the publisher: Space, in Chains speaks in ghostly voices, fractured narratives, songs, prayers, and dark riddles as it moves through contemporary tragedies of grief and the complex succession of generations. [. . .] Kasischke has pared the construction of her verse to its bones, leaving haunting language and a visceral strangeness of imagery.

This is one of those breathless reviews, the kind where she doesn't want to, or cannot yet, explain why this book is good, why we must read it, why the writer shows her skill--her genius here, here, and here, too.

Ho! Ho! Oh! The Floating Order Available on the Kindle

Click to Preview 
on Amazon.com

Two Ravens Press has recently released a Kindle Edition of her short-story collection The Floating Order.

Retailing at $7.99, the Kindle Edition is half the price of the print version.  A short preview of is available as well.

Merry reading!