Do you honestly think I included Soyinka in that number? However, my point remains valid since your Soyinka's are very few and far between. I knew you would not put on your big boy pants and see my comments for what they are and nothing else: solid, credible criticism. As far as sending to your personal email and the obvious submission channels? You and I know all too well how many times you have lead me 'round the mulberry bush with that mess. On one occasion I sent my work to all three channels simultaneously and yet you still said, "I didn't get it."
Apart from all that I remain steadfast: You have in your hands a unique opportunity to print some of the greatest writers I've ever read. Do you truly believe you're doing anything new by publishing Soyinka? Please! He was doing YOU a favour and not the other way around. Soyinka doesn't need you or anyone else. Here's the central point to my commentary: you could bring to the fore people who could be, one day, as great as Soyinka yet you adamantly refuse to take a chance on any work which is not submitted by someone who happens, far too often, to be young, White and female. That's the truth and it is without mar for the facts are in black and white every time you publish.
La Vonda
On Wed, Aug 21, 2013 at 8:29 AM, Amatoritsero Ede <esulaalu@gmail.com> wrote:
Lavonda,
Thank you for your love letter. Critique is necessary, however It could have been couched in a more constructive tones. In your own words, this is "mean" and it is "sour grapes." You cant sanitize it. I told you in the past not to send material to my personal email directly but through the online submissions page of the MTLS. In that way it gets the proper attention and goes through the manuscript processing channels. It is not easy to keep track of things while writing a doctoral thesis and trying to finish the PhD, if you sent stuff directly to me it that situation it will 'get lost' inside my mail because i was distracted. You are a scholar too, so i am sure you know how hectic and absorbing academic work can be.
As for rubbish material that we publish... amongst that rubbish you will find an essay by Wole Soyinka, and a long poem from him. I suppose Soyinka also writes rubbish as does the stellar Canadian Poet, George Elliot Clarke, whose work we also publish. And the racial politics you allude to does not work since this is ostensibly a 'Canadian journal.' We have only about 10 percent international content. If you have material for MTLS all you should do is send it through the proper channel and it will get the proper attention. Hope you are having a great day.
regards
Amatoeritsero
On Tuesday, 20 August 2013 22:41:41 UTC-4, La Vonda R. Staples wrote:What I am going to say to you may sound mean and you might decide to be wrong and assume it is sour grapes. I have spoken and to Ama and also submitted work many times only to be told that it wasn't up to par, it has been lost, or never received.You have a chance, as the editor of a literary magazine, to print ONLY good writers and great works. You chose to publish some of the most mediocre pablum I've ever had the displeasure to read. At times, when I looked at the number of women you published, I suspected that you were using some physical ideology in selecting who and who would not be published. And I will come outright and accuse you of pandering to some inflicted psyche in your choosing. I. e. if it isn't what Europe says is good it isn't any good at all. You seem to shy away from publishing any work or even interviewing any author with an ounce of real life under his/her belt and therefore, work which could cause an emotive spark.Publish real writers and stop pandering to those who would sanitize language and force all culture into a vanilla paradigm and you would soon have a text which would rival the Paris Review. Through USA Africa Dialogues you interact with writers who make my scribblings look like kindergarten drawings and yet you do not even court an interview. How many books have been published by folks on Dr. Falola's internet salon? How many auteurs patronize Oga Falola's sweet little electronic suite? And yet you choose to seek and bring to the fore, with regularity, a bunch of insipid White girls who only fancy themselves to be what they are not. You encourage them in their folly. If they could write, if they had something to say, their gender and color wouldn't be a blip on my radar. But since they cannot write and you seem dedicated and resigned to publishing this single demographic these things cannot help but become glaring facts.Publish real writers! Interview real artists! One who mines gold doesn't have to beg for his supper as one who seeks wealth from empty and vapid holes.La Vonda R. StaplesOn Tue, Aug 20, 2013 at 1:14 PM, Amatoritsero Ede <esul...@gmail.com> wrote:Folks,
Due to funding cuts by the Arts council, we have decided to consider a public fundraiser in order to maintain our publishing standards and retain our goal and vision. We have initiated an crowdsourcing campaign at indiegogo.com. Here is our campaign page link: <http://igg.me/at/MTLS-1/x/3977058>. Kindly support, contribute, and circulate. Thanks.
regards
Amatoritsero
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You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.--La Vonda R. Staples, WriterBA Psychology 2005 and MA European History 2009"If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough."Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, This Child Will Be Great; Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa's First Woman President.--
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La Vonda R. Staples, Writer
BA Psychology 2005 and MA European History 2009
"If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough."
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, This Child Will Be Great; Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa's First Woman President.
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