Here are the submissions to our first Literary Review
Congratulations to the authors whose submissions appear in our first Literary Review Excellence in Writing
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For excellence in the Fiction category:
Robert S. Mueller Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME I This report is submitted to the Attorney General pursuant to 28 C.F.R. § 600.8(c), which states that, "[a]t the conclusion of the Special Counsel's work, he ... shall provide the Attorney General a confidential report explaining the prosecution or declination decisions [the Special Counsel] reached." The Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion. Evidence ofRussian government operations began to surface in mid-2016. In June, the Democratic National Committee and its cyber response team publicly announced that Russian hackers had compromised its computer network. Releases of hacked materials-hacks that public reporting soon attributed to the Russian government-began that same month. Additional releases followed in July through the organization WikiLeaks, with further releases in October and November. Continue Reading --> |
For excellence in the Poetry category:
Thomas Hardy On Sturminster Foot-bridge (ONOMATOPOEIC) Reticulations creep upon the slack stream's face When the wind skims irritably past, The current clucks smartly into each hollow place That years of flood have scrabbled in the pier's sodden base; The floating-lily leaves rot fast. On a roof stand the swallows ranged in wistful waiting rows, Till they arrow off and drop like stones Among the eyot-withies at whose foot the river flows; And beneath the roof is she who in the dark world shows As a lattice-gleam when midnight moans. 
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For excellence in Flash Fiction & Memoir
Julius Caesar Veni, Vidi, Vici Hear the story in the author's own words: |
For excellence in Nonfiction:
Jim Gibbons Jim Gibbons’ writing career started his junior year in high school when he made the wrestling team, but noticed his school newspaper didn’t cover the team’s recent victories. He complained to the editor, who countered, “Do you wanna do it?” Gibbons did it, and became sports editor the following year. Continue Reading --> |
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Report On The Investigation
Continued In late July 2016, soon after WikiLeaks's first release of stolen documents, a foreign government contacted the FBI about a May 2016 encounter with Trump Campaign foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos. Papadopoulos had suggested to a representative of that foreign government that the Trump Campaign had received indications from the Russian government that it could assist the Campaign through the anonymous release of information damaging to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. That information prompted the FBI on July 31, 2016, to open an investigation into whether individuals associated with the Trump Campaign were coordinating with the Russian government in its interference activities. That fall, two federal agencies jointly announced that the Russian government "directed recent compromises of e-mails from US persons and institutions, including US political organizations," and, "[t]hese thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the US election process." After the election, in late December 2016, the United States imposed sanctions on Russia for having interfered in the election. By early 2017, several congressional committees were examining Russia's interference in the election. Within the Executive Branch, these investigatory efforts ultimately led to the May 2017 appointment of Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller, III. The order appointing the Special Counsel authorized him to investigate "the Russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election," including any links or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump Campaign. |
Gibbons (continued)
Gibbons majored in English at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, but after disliking a Structural Linguistics class, decided to take a creative writing class, and soon became a well-known Milwaukee poet, printing a small local poetry magazine called Pretty Mama, and giving readings with other Milwaukee Poets at the Avant Garde coffee house. Gibbons’ first book of poems, Prime the Pump, was the first book printed by Morgan Press in 1970. Ed Burton’s Morgan Press, operated from his Milwaukee basement on an old letterpress, went on to print many more creative poetry books, chapbooks, posters, and postcards. During the seventies, Gibbons’ poetry was in newspapers, magazines, and poetry anthologies with some of his favorite poets, including Richard Brautigan, Charles Bukowski, Gregory Corso, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Frank O’Hara, Jack Kerouac, Anne Sexton, Lew Welch, Phillip Whalen, William Carlos Williams, and Al Young. However, before he was published with his poetry heroes, he had turned his back on the poetry scene by dropping out and moving to the woods of Mendocino County in Northern California, where he built funky cabins, and helped raise chickens, goats, and his two boys. In the late seventies, Gibbons went back to school to get his teaching credential, and got into running. He returned to journalism and wrote a weekly running column for the Willits News called FootNotes, and briefly became the Willits News sports editor. He also taught English and journalism in the local school district, and coached the runners at the high school. His next book, Going for the Bronze, will be a collection of articles he wrote for the Willits News and the Anderson Valley Advertiser about his experience travelling to different races across the country, from Buffalo to Boston to Miami to San Francisco, and finally retiring in Hawaii, where this memoir was written. |
