HUMAN FLOWERS
Margin's winter 2005 edition cover artist BEATRIZ INGLESSIS was recently featured as part of the Human Flower Project. We selected her image, Botanical Composition #4 because, like her other work, it suggests the possible rising out of the impossible. We wish her continued good luck with her dramatic, unique and challenging work.

CLMP MERGER SUPPORTS INDY PUBLISHING
In 2001, the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses [CLMP] (a 38 year-old non-profit organization providing technical assistance to independent literary publishers) invited Margin to join the organization as one of its first-ever electronic publications. This was a great move on their part. Acknowledging the electronic media even a few years ago was considered risky business. But the industry has dramatically improved in even that short period, and electronic publishers are getting the credit they deserve, particularly because of efforts made by the CLMP.
We have been extremely grateful for the association, for it has meant we have enjoyed the fruits of such membership, including networking, exposure, inclusion in major literary events and the like.

So naturally we're happy to post that the CLMP recently merged with the Literary Ventures Fund (LVF, Inc.), a newly formed venture philanthropy supporting literary publishing. From the news release:

"The Literary Ventures Fund, Inc., founded by Jim Bildner, builds on the premise that given a level marketing playing field, exceptional literary works from small presses can thrive in the marketplace."

Kudos to CLMP and LVF for looking out for the future of small press and independent literary publishing in the US! This has got to be one of the most important efforts at championing free speech and expression in publishing that our country has seen in a long time. Our sincere thanks to the fine folks at CLMP. We send them our heartiest congratulations!

A NEW WAVE PUERTO RICAN WRITERS
Fans of Puerto Rican writing should get a copy of the second edition of Hostos Review/Revista Hostosiana, published by the Latin American Writers Institute at Hostos Community College in the Bronx, New York.
The issue is entitled "Open Mic/Microfono Abierto: Nuevas Literaturas Puerto/Neorrique?as/New Puerto/Nuyor Rican Literatures" and is guest-edited by the Puerto Rican critic Juan Flores and the Puerto Rican writer Mayra Santos-Febres, professors at Hunter College (CUNY) and at the University of Puerto Rico, respectively.

The 300-page issue features "a newcrop of writers, first emerging around 1990, who approach the idea and practice of 'Puerto Rican literature' from new angles and with new meanings. Some new texts written from this perspective set out to pronounce important changes within the literary field of what had been referred to as 'Puerto Rican/Nuyorican literature' for more than two decades."

Hostos Review/Revista Hostosiana is edited by Peruvian writer Isaac Goldemberg, and its mission is to build bridges between Latino artists and intellectuals in the United States with their counterparts in Latin America and other parts of the world. To get your copy or to subscribe to the journal, please call (718) 518-6859 or write LAWI@hostos.cuny.edu Thanks to contributor Naomi Ayala for this tip

WRITERS' WORKSHOPS
Margin contributor THADDEUS RUTKOWSKI is leading a couple of workshops this summer:

"Generating Fiction" will be offered as part of the Hofstra University Summer Writing Workshops, Hempstead, L.I. Ten meetings, July 11-22. Open to all. Info: 516.463.7600.

"Short and Sweet," a prose poetry workshop. Hudson Valley Writers Center, Sleepy Hollow, NY. Four Tuesdays in August. Contact by e-mail or phone 914.332.5953