Chez Robert Giron

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The 9th Annual Gival Press Short Story Award with a cash prize of $1,000.00 is Wednesday, August 8th.

Guidelines: Submissions of a previously unpublished original (not a translation) short story in English must be approximately 5,000 to 15,000 words of high literary quality, typed, double-spaced on one side of the paper only, with word count in the upper left hand side of the first page, along with the title. The author's name should not appear on the numbered pages of the ms which should be clipped together. Author should keep a copy of the submission as it will not be returned.

Please note that the story should be a "stand alone story" —-not a chapter from a novel. Please be sure that your envelope is properly sealed.

Prize: Author will receive $1,000.00 and the winning story will be published on the Gival Press website and in a future anthology of short stories.


Author Identification: Submit name, address, telephone number, email address on a separate page, along with the title of the short story submitted.

A short bio should also be included.

If the short story wins, the author must make the manuscript available to Gival Press on an IBM-compatible CD or USB in Rich Text Format (RTF)—this refers to how one saves the document on one's computer disk.

Reading fee: $25.00 (USD) by check or money order drawn on an American bank for each short story submitted. Payable to: Gival Press, LLC.

International entrants must send a check drawn on a USA bank routed through a USA address, such as Bank of America; no international money orders are acceptable.

Please note that Gival Press can also accept the entry free by major credit card; however, only take credit card information is taken by phone (703.351.0079).

Mail to: Robert L. Giron, Editor
Gival Press Short Story Award
Gival Press, LLC
PO Box 3812
Arlington, VA 22203.

Notification of the Winner: Include a self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE) for notification of the winner or visit our website (http://www.givalpress.com), where the winner and finalists will be announced. Please be sure that your envelope is properly sealed.
Usually the announcement of the winner is done by December.


Judging: Short stories will be judged anonymously and the decision of the judge will be final. The winner for the previous award will be the judge for the following year.

First of all, the USA is grieving with the families whose loved ones were killed and those who are struggling with their wounds.

We may never find out what was going on in the mind of the person who is responsible for the recent tragedy but we can certainly begin to ask ourselves questions:
Why is it easier to buy 6,000 rounds of ammunition than trying to vote in the USA? Why is it that one now has to show proof of age to buy cough syrup but yet it's easier to buy a gun? Why is it that someone even needs to buy a machine gun? Why is it that one has to have a license to drive a car which can and does kill thousands and injures hundreds of thousands more a year yet one doesn't need any kind of license to buy a gun?


Then:
Why isn't Homeland Security keeping track of individuals buying 6,000 rounds of ammunition online or machine guns in this country?

Then:
Why is it that the tragedy hasn't stirred up the conservatives? Is there any correlation to the fact that the "arrested" person is a white male?

Can you imagine what would be the talk on conservative talk shows had the person been from the Middle East?

The disconnect with logic in the USA has reached a serious point. Are people just not thinking or have they been "bought" by those who can "pay" them to think via the massive propaganda machine backed by billionaires with ties to casinos or the like?

I agree with many Americans who say: I want my old America back but the one I want back is one that is not controlled by "bought politicians" or "bought national speakers be they on TV or radio"--give us back a free America that is not "bought" by money but is controlled by reason, logic, empathy for humanity, and one that stands up for the truth not lies to make people think that the lies are truth.

I guess what I am asking for is critical thinking skills but governed by logic not money.

Does such a place exist in this world any more?

I've just returned from Lubber Run Amphitheater where I heard Eric Scott and his band play pop / neo-soul music which was extremely well received by the lively group this evening.

Eric Scott who hails from Baltimore is blessed with a wonderly soft, engaging voice that stays in one's ears like a fine red wine with a goumet dinner. He also writes his own songs but at times collaborates with Mike Stacey, Jennifer Smith, Scott Smith, Ruut, Charlie Colin, Robert Hotchkiss, Pat Monahan, James W. Stafford, and Scott Michael Underwood as in his most recent CD titled Where the Water Runs Deepest.

Visit his website: EricScottMusic.com


Concerts on Fridays and Saturdays begin at 8 PM. Also visit Lubber Run Amphitheater this summer for the following concerts:


ArlingtonArts.org/venues/Lubber-Run-Amphitheater

Saturday July 14 – Andrew Acosta and the New Old Time String Band


AndrewAcosta.com

A night of acoustic Americana with a rich repertoire of traditional American roots music, the New Old-Time String Band is a regular in outdoor venues in the Washington, D.C. area.


Sunday July 15, 6 p.m. – Colleen Shanley and Grand Junction Click here


With deep Arlington roots (band members Colleen Shanley, husband Casey O'Neal and son Evan live in Arlington Forest) plays “Americana Music”, blending various genres of music such as bluegrass, folk, Irish, country, blues, swing, rock and jazz.


Friday July 20 – Cartoon Johnny CartoonJohnny.com


Drawing on influences from classic soul to modern alternative, they're often mistaken for an instrumental band - but it's all vocal. The two-time National Harmony Sweepstakes finalists won the title for the Mid-Atlantic Region in 2005, and in New York in 2009.


Saturday July 21 – ProBolivia ProBolivia.org


Presented by Comite ProBolivia, the ensemble showcases the ancestral dances of the rich Bolivian culture. The organization includes more than 2,000 youth members, many of whom reside in Arlington.


Friday July 27 – The Traveling Players performing William Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” TravelingPlayers.org


Selected as a "Summer School in the Arts" by the NEA, Traveling Players Ensemble is a professional theatre company dedicated to bringing great theatre into the great outdoors through a thriving summer camp and year-round acting classes and workshops.


Saturday July 28 – Robyn's Place Click here Robyn and WFPW return with an evening of live jazz and blues.


Sunday July 29, 6 p.m. – Halau O'Aulani HalauO'Aulani.org'>


Native music and dance presented by Hālau O ‘Aulani, founded in 1996 for the sole purpose of creating a learning environment for students interested in the preservation of the multi-faceted cultures of Hawai’i with primary emphasis on the Hawaiian culture.


Friday August 3 – Juniper Lane JuniperLane.com


Juniper Lane is an alternative, five-piece band, has been described as "cryptic, polished dark pop firmly rooted in but not too derivative of ‘80s modern-rock." Touring extensively on the east coast, they have performed at venues such as the 9:30 Club, Recher Theatre, and DC's 99.1 HFStival.


Saturday August 4 – Hexagon Hexagon.org


Hexagon is musical, satirical and theatrical. Every year since 1956, this nonprofit has put on Washington’s only all-original revue of its kind—donating more than $3.5 million to 40-plus organizations. Hexagon's all-volunteer membership makes up the cast, crew, orchestra, front of house, and production team.


WEATHER CANCELLATIONS, PICNICS, etc.

*Sunday events start at 6pm or as otherwise noted. Lubber Run Amphitheater events are suitable for the entire family, unless noted. No reservations or tickets are required. In the event of rain, the decision is made to cancel at the last possible moment. Due to the packed performance schedules of area bands, there are unfortunately no scheduled rain-dates for events cancelled due to inclement weather. Call 703-228-1850 for day-of info. Bring a picnic, but alcohol is prohibited in all Arlington public parks! Smoking is discouraged. While these events are FREE and open to the public, we invite you to consider a generous donation to the Lubber Run "Wishing Well" as you enter.

If you are one of the lucky ones with electricity in the DC Metropolitan area and the areas affected by the derecho that wiped out our electricity for nearly 4 days--some folks are still in need of air conditioning--(my heart goes out to you and I hope the technicians get to your areas quickly), why not enjoy your electricity and read a poem by Hedy Habra and click on ArLiJo below and read some of her poems in French and Spanish as well.

Mobilis in Mobili

Watch how some people seem to be taking notes, but if we look closely, their pens race over the page, tracing cuneiform characters, arabesques, spirals intertwined in wildest vines, mysterious glyphs, oftentimes starting with a square or a circle they will randomly fill with parallel lines or curves, until the figure grows into a Rorschach stain in which they discover the extent—or limits—of their talent. And now that words refuse to follow the rows assigned to them, demand a life of their own, I find myself scribbling in concentric circles as if I were an insect lost inside a rosebud whirling like a dervish caught in a jinn’s bottle until a flower emerges from the wraps and folds of his flying gown, his bent head a dark pistil deep inside a convolvulus and does it matter if it is not an arum or a delphinium?
I add more petals opening their wings, then a stem growing into a stalk, but it is closer to a bird standing on one foot, a cormorant, maybe, or a seagull, and with a few more feathers an Aztec headdress begs for a face, but I need not decide if it will wear a jaguar mask or bear a shield, I will fill empty spaces, erase borders, remapping my colonized realm until a boat emerges calling for a prow, a triangle for a mast, its sails ready to swell, billowing with the whim of the winds and a slight twist of the pen, almost floating on the tip of the white foam breaking into droplets over the glistening ship as if stopped in motion, a mobilis in mobili, until I can feel the mist over my face and around me the pull of the waves reaching me inside the captain’s cabin where I am all alone bent over folds of maps, feeling the drift of the current guiding my pen as it slides along the mahogany desk, dragging me down over the wavering wooden floor.

Copyright © 2012 by Hedy Habra. Previously published by Poet Lore, 2005.


Biography: Hedy Habra received her MFA and a PhD in Spanish Literature from Western Michigan University where she currently teaches. Her poetry and fiction in French, Spanish and English appear in many journals including Parting Gifts, California Quarterly, Letras Femeninas, Rockhurst Review, Pirene’s Fountain, The Smoking Poet, Puerto del Sol, The New York Quarterly, Cider Press Review, Nimrod, Cutthroat, and Poet Lore as well as in anthologies such as Inclined to Speak, Come Together: Imagine Peace, Poetic Voices Without Borders 2, and Dinarzad’s Children. Shis is the author of the collection of short stories Flying Carpets (March Street Press) and a scholarly book titled Mundos alternos y artísticos en Vargas Llosa (Iberoamericana/Vervuert). Her book of poetry Tea in Heliopolis is forthcoming from Press 53.

Click on the link below to get to ArLiJo:
ArLiJo