Greensboro, NC Weekend

Exciting LIMP WRIST News!

Limp Wrist will offer a $150 scholarship via a poetry contest to a high school Senior who identifies as LGBT, and I am happy to announce my mentor and friend, Dr. Beth Gylys, as the has agreed to be our inaugural judge. Beth Gylys has had her work published in numerous journals, anthologies, received a mention in Drury's Poetry Dictionary as well authored two award winning poetry collections: Spot in the Dark and Bodies that Hum.

In addition to the winning poem being published in LW, I am excited to announce a twist to the first annual scholarship. The winner of the scholarship will also win a spot at the 2009 Juniper Summer Writing Institute-- all thanks and praise to the fantastic Dara Wier for believing in LW enough to make this opportunity possible for a lucky youth who happens to identify as LGBT.

Since LW is going to send a lucky senior to Juniper in 2009, we need your help in the fundraising arena. Please click here to see how you can support LW and help make the inaugural scholarship a successful reality.


Rules for Students Entering the Contest:
~ Student must identify as a member of the LGBT community.
~ Student must be a high school senior at the time the poem is submitted.
~ Student must have a teacher submit an email from a school email address verifying that the student is a senior or provide another form of evidence verifying the student's status as a senior.
~ Only one poem of no more than 75 lines may be submitted in the body of an email. The poem should be submitted to dustin@limpwristmag.com, and the subject line must read "LW Sholarship" with the student's first and last name.
~ The poem submitted should not be previously published or have won a previous contest.
~ The student must be willing to attend the 2009 Juniper Summer Writers Institute.
~ The email must include the following statement: "The poem submitted is my own original work and has not been previously published."
~ The submission email must also include the student's name, mailing address, school name, and the name of teacher submitting his/her verification email.
~ All submissions must be received by 12/15/08.

"Dinner Party Horror" ~ Denise Duhamel

Dinner Party Horror


After dessert, my friends and I try to figure out the order in which we would die in a horror movie.

Stan, the aggressive male, would be murdered first. His macho-ness would lead him out into the woods or up into the attic, unprepared for what he'd find there. Chatty Peg would go next—too innocently boisterous. She'd walk right up to the killer and try to make friends. Then David would go, through no fault of his own, but because he's black—sorry to say, minorities never make it to the end of horror films. Susan would also meet a grisly fate because (she admits this herself) she's a bit of a slut and sluts are always punished in movies.

It's down to Mary and me—I think she'd be the lone survivor since she's the most likeable. She thinks I'd be the lone survivor since I'm the most likeable. And surely, if one of us were to die, it would be as she tried to save the other.

Then Stan says, Before you start congratulating yourselves, remember, one of your two bitches has to be the killer.

We are horrified. Did he really say bitches?

It's a joke, he assures us.

David chimes in, It's definitely an outside killer. Not Mary or Denise. Besides, Susan says her autopsy shows she was molested before she was butchered, so that means her killer was male, right?

Peg says Wait!—maybe Stan stabbed his twin right off to fool us, and he's not really dead, but has been lurking as the killer in the movie all along. Stan likes the idea of his character coming back in the final scene. David still thinks it's an outside job. Mary says the whole conversation is giving her the creeps. Anyway, she has to get up early in the morning. She gets up from the couch and reaches for her car keys.

Wait! Don't go out there alone!

I tried to warn her, but she wouldn't listen.

Hiking at Amicalola Falls State Park

WHY DO I WRITE ~ Paul Hostovsky

WHY DO I WRITE ~ Paul Hostovsky



Why do I write? You know, I often ask myself that same question. Why do I insist on spending so much time thinking about and writing and rewriting the poems? I have been accused of never wanting to DO anything; I have been told to my face that all I ever think about are my stupid clever poems. I think we poets are very annoying people. Picky, picky, picky. If not for the poetry, I don't think I'd have anything to do with us. I suppose I write because I have to write. To tell you the truth, I'd rather build houses or play the oboe. But I don't know how to build houses or play the oboe. But I do know how to write poems. So I write them. Because I have always written. Because I'm happiest when I'm writing. Because I'm always thinking of something else, something a little off the point. I'm one of those people you sometimes see sitting alone in restaurants and on trains, mouthing the words to themselves. The words to what? Are they rehearsing or something? Are they crazy? Yes and no. They are in love. In love with the words. The words that live in the mouth. I am making love to the words, with my mouth. If it looks a little
obscene, a little dangerous, well, it probably is. I think it's even illegal in some places.

Tina Fey as Sarah Palin

I have been waiting for this moment:

Bi-Weekly Sunday Eye Candy ~ Mark Vanderloo

LIMP WRIST #2 ~ The Complete Info

Dustin Brookshire Interviews:
Denise Duhamel

Reviewed in the Blurb by Charles Jensen:
David Trinidad's The Late Show

Poets in Issue 2:
Ellen Bass
Kurt Brown
Nick Carbo
Karen Chase
Jeffrey Conway
Kate Evans
Jessica Hand
Larry Kaplun
Genevieve Lyons
Gillian McCain
Khadijah Queen
Robert Siek
David Trinidad
Timothy Wright

Prose Writers in Issue 2:
Paul Lisicky
Eric Sasson
Kelly Thompson

I Love Me Some Ms. Perry

Quarrel Begins!

QUARREL

"We make out of the quarrel with others, rhetoric, but of the quarrel with ourselves, poetry." ~ Yeats

What's it about? I'm not telling-- click and find out for yourself.

Reminder: 9/18/08 U*Space Gallery Reading

Doors open at 7:00 pm Performances start at 7:30 pm "FREE" To The Public

Why Do I Write ~ Courtney Queeney

WHY DO I WRITE ~ Courtney Queeney





Well, I was a weird kid. It seems that helps. I spent my childhood in my closet, with the door closed, reading (I was runty too; it was an easy fit). As Stephen Dunn wrote, “I was burned by books early/and kept sidling up to the flame.”

Sometimes I think it’s futile. Often I think it’s brutal—the blank page and my lame brain against endless looping Law and Order: SVU episodes on TV or the temptation of posting on a blog started by my graduate workshop where we take turns writing at length about how we don’t have time to write. Sometimes I just want to be able to afford more frivolous shoes or get my cavities fixed. And I’ve lost a lot of boyfriends to writing, because none of them, so far, has been able to compete. (I am currently accepting applications until this position has been filled.)

But then I read Rilke’s Duino Elegies, or Adrienne Rich’s acceptance speech for the US National Book Foundation 2006 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, where she trumpets, “Poetry is not a healing lotion, an emotional massage, a kind of linguistic aromatherapy. Nor is it a blueprint, nor an instruction manual, nor a billboard,” and I’m reminded why it’s completely necessary in my life. I’m kind of a literate bitch, but poetry prevents me from deepening my own ruts, from failing to see the vast beauty of the world—even as Rilke reminds that beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror.

Most days, I feel infinitely fortunate to be able to do this at all, even if it’s just scrawling notes on my long daily commute or scribbling a stanza while I’m hold at my (sigh) day job. To paraphrase Randall Jarrell, I’m incredibly lucky to be able to hang out in the thunderstorm, hoping to get struck by lightning five or six times over the course of my life. And even when I have a bad week, or year, I continue to be lit by what’s hitting others.

McCain/Palin Vs. Obama/Biden ~ HIV/AIDS

ALL information is from the GMHC:

PALIN AND BIDEN'S CONTRASTING RECORDS ON HIV/AIDS
GMHC Releases New Report Today ~ 9/4/08

New York City — Vice Presidential nominees Sarah Palin and Joseph Biden have sharply divergent records on HIV/AIDS, according to a report released today, "McCain-Palin vs. Obama-Biden on HIV/AIDS Issues," by Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC), the country's oldest HIV/AIDS organization. Palin is a staunch opponent of sex education and a supporter of abstinence-only-until-marriage. Her position on other HIV/AIDS policy issues is unknown. Senator Biden supports comprehensive sex education as well as syringe exchange to reduce HIV/AIDS transmission among intravenous drug users. Most recently, Biden helped craft a reauthorization of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief that repealed the statutory entry ban for people living with HIV/AIDS. It also promotes prevention among men who have sex with men (MSM), along with research on HIV incidence among MSM. While Biden supports civil unions, Palin opposes domestic partner health-insurance benefits for state workers in same-sex relationships

"Senator Biden has shown leadership by supporting civil rights for people living with HIV and evidence-based prevention to fight the epidemic globally," said Robert Bank, Chief Operating Officer of GMHC. "We know little about Governor Palin's positions on HIV/AIDS, except that she supports abstinence-only programming, which is full of anti-gay and sexist content, as well as dangerous misinformation about contraception and AIDS."

"We look forward to learning more about Governor Palin's positions in the weeks ahead. We will send her a survey asking her about her positions on a wide range of domestic and global HIV/AIDS issues, as we have sent Senator McCain twice. Thus far, the contrast between Joe Biden's courageous leadership on HIV/AIDS and Sarah Palin's lack thereof is striking," added Robert Bank.

Click here for a print ready version of the report.


**PLEASE share the link to this report with everyone you know!**

LIMP WRIST & Tax-Deductible Donations--- Now In The Same Sentence

HELLO Blogosphere:

Here's your chance to support Limp Wrist, which I am proud to advertise as an e-zine with queer sensibility. At LW we have a number of goals to accomplish, and I consider the main goal to be to offer a scholarship to an LGBT high school senior via a poetry contest. However, we can't offer a scholarship without your help!

Also, I am in the planning stages regarding a chapbook contest sponsored by LW. I am happy to say a distinguished poet has already agreed to be the judge the chapbook contest once we get to that stage. The contest will be open to homo's and hetero's. It is also a goal of mine to raise enough funds to be able to avoid an entry fee for the contest. If you're in the poetry "business" you know contests can break the bank, and I'm not out to break anyone's bank. I'm out to promote poetry and poets, and I will do everything I can to do so.

Click here to show LW a little financial love.

Please note: Limp Wrist is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions in behalf of Limp Wrist may be made payable to Fractured Atlas and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.

Don't forget, Limp Wrist thanks you for your support whether it is financial, reading an issue, or telling a friend or two to browse our website.

hugs,
Dustin & the rest of the LW Crew

When I Connect the Dots........

When I heard Sarah Palin and Evangelical in the same sentence I immediately thought of Jesus Camp. If you haven't seen Jesus Camp your homework assignment is to rent it ASAP. Trust me, you won't regret renting it.

Until you can get your hands on it, here are two clips: