What a fantastic event the 41st Annual Literary Arts Festival was! Last Thursday afternoon, we were transported into different worlds through each others’ words, both from student award-winners and from the featured writer, Layli Long Soldier.
Thanks to all involved: the presenters, the participants, everyone who submitted writing, everyone who served as judges, the student volunteers, the hosts for the event, and the event organizers.
It would be great if anyone who participated or attended would leave a comment here to share what stood out to you, what you loved, what moved you, what the event motivated you to write, or anything else that you took away with you from the event.
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
Download this yearâs poster, designed by City Tech student Evelyn Ng.
City Techâs 41st Annual Literary Arts Festival Featuring award-winning poet Layli Long Soldier, author of Whereas and readings & performances by City Tech students
For more info: Megan Behrent mbehrent@citytech.cuny.edu Sponsored by: Coordinated Undergraduate Education (CUE), City Tech Student Government Association, New York City College of Technology
We want to hear your voice, your story, your words!
Please submit writing in any genre: poetry, fiction, non-fiction, speeches, journalism, multimodal work, photo essays, videos, animation, spoken-word performances, and more. All creative work is welcome!
Submission Guidelines
Written Work: 1,000 words maximum; Videos/Performance Art should be between 10 seconds and 5 minutes.
To submit your work, please visit the City Tech Literary Arts Festival OpenLab Website Submissions Guidelines page
You will be asked to fill out a form and upload your written work. Do not include your name in the submission attachment.
For large files or videos, please include a URL link or send your work to CityTechLAF@gmail.com.
Award categories include: the Adolphus Lee Poetry Award, the Charles Matusik Fiction Award, the Kay-Hirsch Literary Criticism Award, the Michele Forsten Advocacy Award, the Walter-Scanlon Creative Non-Fiction Award, the Aaron Barlow Journalism Award, and the Mary Nilles Multimodal Writing Award.
Competition winners receive monetary awards and a possible reading at the Literary Arts Festival, a virtual event to be held on on March 24th at 4:30 p.m.
For more information: Megan Behrent: mbehrent@citytech.cuny.edu
Layli Long Soldier is an Oglala Lakota poet, writer, feminist and activist. She is the author of the chapbook Chromosomory (2010) and the full-length collection Whereas (2017), winner of the National Books Critics Circle award and a finalist for the National Book Award. She has also won the National Artist Fellowship from the Arts and Cultures Foundation, the Whiting Writerâs Award, and a Lannan Literary Fellowship. In 2012, her participatory installation, Whereas We Respond, was featured on the Pine Ridge Reservation. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Reading of Whereas and Discussion on the Whiting Foundation:
Interview: The Freedom of Real Apologies
An interview on Krista Tippetâs On Being. In this show, available as an interview transcript or a podcast, Layli Long Soldier discusses pieces from her book WHEREAS written in response to the 2009 congressional resolution of apology to Native Americans. Long Soldier states:
âFirst of all what motivated me to even respond to the apology was the delivery. So thatâs the heart of it â or, I should say, the non-delivery of the apology.â
The interview also discusses how the poet integrated personal stories of apology, her search for justice, and the importance of being heard.
On Tuesday, April 13 at 5pm, join us on Zoom for City Tech student stories and our 2021 LAF featured writer,  STACEYANN CHIN.
Staceyann Chin is a poet and spoken-word artist who recently published her first full-length collection of what publisher Haymarket Books describes as her “feminist-LGBTQ-Caribbean, activist-driven poetry”, Crossfire: A Litany for Survival (Haymarket Books, 2019). Â She is also the author of The Other Side of Paradise: A Memoir.Â
An interview with Chin about the publication of Crossfire can be found here.
If only out of vanity I have wondered what kind of woman I will be when I am well past the summer of my raging youth Will I still be raising revolutionary flags and making impassioned speeches thatâŚ
At Unboundâ a literary series co-presented by BAM and Greenlight Bookstoreârenowned LGBTQ poet and spoken word artist Staceyann Chin celebrated the release o…
