SPECTRA Reading Series | Final Event of 2024: 12/7 fea. Jacob Saenz & Narratives QC

Posted on by Ryan Collins

SPECTRA Lives! The Quad Cities longest-running reading series returns to Rozz-Tox on Saturday, December 7 for its last event of the year, featuring award-winning poet Jacob Saenz and local writers from Narratives QC.

Saenz, whose book Throwing the Crown, won the 2018 APR/Honickman First Book Prize, will also lead a free community write-in at 6:00 p.m.; there will be short reading, followed by a prompt written by Saenz. Copies of the reading will be available at no cost, and there will be time for participants to write and briefly discuss their work, followed by an open mic. Then at 8:00 p.m., three writers from Narratives QC will read from their work – Lynn Carsten, Tanner Jordan, and Nathan Wirth – with Poet and Creative Arts Specialist for Narratives QC Chris Britton introducing. A feature reading from Jacob Saenz will close out the evening.

Being Human in the Age of AI — New Anthology Project: Submissions Open Through 12/1

Posted on by Ryan Collins

St. Ambrose University College of Arts and Sciences, Galvin Fine Arts, and the Midwest Writing Center (MWC) are partnering on a series of events and a publication around the theme of “Being Human in the Age of AI.” (more on the theme below, including the prompt).

For this project, we are looking for submissions of poetry (30 lines max.) and flash prose (fiction or nonfiction, 500 words max.). Submissions are open September 1, and close on December 1 (see complete guidelines below). MWC will select the strongest works (approx. 20-30) for publication in an anthology, to be published by MWC Press in April 2025. All contributors to the anthology will receive $100 for their work in addition to two copies of the anthology, and the opportunity to record their work for a podcast. Selections will be announced in early January 2025.