First novel by Ayana Mathis In 1923,
a teenage Hattie flees Georgia for Philadelphia, where, though her first two
babies die because she can't afford medicine, she keeps nine children alive
with old southern remedies and sheer love. Saddled with a husband who will bring her
nothing but disappointment, she prepares her children for a world she knows
will not be kind to them. The story of
human persistence in the face of insurmountable adversity resonated with
critics. The Publishers Weekly
starred review surmised, “Mathis weaves this story with confidence, proving
herself a gifted and powerful writer.” And Marilynne Robinson, Pulitzer Prize winner
and a mentor to Mathis during her time at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, says of
the debut novel, “The Twelve Tribes of Hattie is a vibrant and compassionate
portrait of a family hardened and scattered by circumstance and yet deeply a
family. Its language is elegant in its
purity and rigor. The characters are
full of life, mingled thing that it is, and dignified by the writer’s judicious
tenderness towards them. This first
novel is a work of rare maturity.” Although
Mathis has written throughout her life, she says she never really thought
writing would be her career. “I thought
that I would always write, and publish a book at some point, but I assumed that
I would always have some other means of making a living and that I'd write on
the side,” she says. “I did lots of
things, from waiting tables to fact-checking and freelance writing for
magazines in New York. But life has a
strange way of leading you where you need to go—at least sometimes it does—and
I ended up in a great writing class where I met an incredible teacher and the
person who was to become my best friend. He came to the Writers’ Workshop and a year
later I decided to apply as well.” It
was at Iowa where Mathis was able to put writing at the center of her life, in
every way. She had time to write; she
had financial support; she had exposure to great contemporary writers, studying
with Robinson (“she taught me so much about being a writer and a human being”)
and Lan Samantha Chang, Paul Harding, and Allan Gurganus. “Learning with them made me want to be better,
to do better, even when it was hard,” Mathis says. “Especially when it was hard.” And now, as the spotlight shines bright,
Mathis is back at the workshop, serving as a visiting faculty member for the
spring semester.
The Michael Feinstein Great American Songbook
Initiative hosts the only high school
vocal academy and competition in the U.S. dedicated solely to the music from
Broadway, Hollywood musicals and the Tin Pan Alley era of the early to
mid-twentieth century. The Great
American Songbook Vocal Academy and Competition has proven to be one of the
Michael Feinstein Initiative’s most exciting education programs. “The competition this year was a tremendous
success, and we are excited to announce that our plan to expand the event nationally
continues with the addition of 11 states in 2013 for a total of 22 states,”
said Chris Lewis, Director of the Vocal Academy & Competition. Judges will select students for regional
competitions held in five cities across the country. The regional competitions, held May-June 2013,
include a full day of workshops followed by an evening performance. Two finalists will be selected in each region. The ten regional finalists will be invited to
the Feinstein Initiative’s headquarters in Carmel, IN, July 21-26, 2013, to
participate in a five-day “boot-camp” on interpreting and performing the music
of the Great American Songbook. Five-time
Grammy nominee, Michael Feinstein, and other top music industry professionals
will conduct workshops and master classes throughout the week. The final competition performance will be held
in the 1,600 seat Palladium Concert Hall at the Center for the Performing
Arts. http://currentincarmel.com/michael-feinstein-launches-search-for-2013-great-american-songbook-youth-ambassado
Facebook Inc. (FB) is developing a smartphone application
that will track the location of users, two people with knowledge of the matter
said, bolstering efforts to benefit from growing use of social media on mobile
computers. The app,
scheduled for release by mid-March, is designed to help users find nearby
friends and would run even when the program isn’t open on a handset, said one
of the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans aren’t public. Facebook is adding features to help it profit from the
surging portion of its more than 1 billion users who access the service via
handheld devices. The tracking app could
help Facebook sell ads based on users’ whereabouts and daily habits. It may also raise the hackles of consumers and
privacy advocates concerned about the company’s handling of personal
information. Facebook’s data-use policy
tells users that the company may use information on location “to tell you and
your friends about people or events nearby, or offer deals to you that you
might be interested in.” The company
said it may also put together data “to serve you ads that might be more
relevant.” “When we get your GPS
location, we put it together with other location information we have about you
(like your current city),” the data use policy reads. “But we only keep it until it is no longer
useful to provide you services, like keeping your last GPS coordinates to send
you relevant notifications.” A host of
apps, including Apple’s Find My Friends and Math Camp Inc.’s Highlight, constantly
track user locations to help them find friends or places of interest. Many of
the programs have failed to gain wide audiences because of privacy concerns and
the heavy toll such apps have on the battery life of mobile phones.
Social Security Annual Statistical Supplement, 2012 issued February 2013
About
55.4 million persons received Social Security benefits for
December 2011, an increase of 1,372,512 (2.5 percent) since
December 2010. Sixty-nine percent were retired workers
and their spouses and children, 11 percent were survivors of deceased
workers, and 19 percent were disabled workers and their spouses and
children. Seventy-four percent of
the 35.6 million retired workers received reduced benefits because of
entitlement prior to full retirement age. Relatively more women (76.4 percent) than
men (71.3 percent) received reduced benefits. The number of beneficiaries aged 65 or
older rose from about 34.5 million in 2006 to more than 38.2 million
in 2011 (10.9 percent). The number
of beneficiaries aged 85 or older increased at a greater rate during the 5-year period
(14.5 percent), from fewer than 4.7 million in 2006 to more than
5.3 million in 2011. In 2011, about
53,000 centenarians were receiving Social Security. About 21.5 million women aged 65 or
older received benefits for December 2011. About 9.7 million (45.1 percent)
were entitled solely to a retired-worker benefit. About 6.3 million (29.1 percent)
were dually entitled to a retired-worker benefit and a wife's or widow's
benefit, and about 5.6 million (25.8 percent) were receiving wife's
or widow's benefits only. More than
3.2 million children under age 18 received benefits, including
1,224,280 children of deceased workers, 1,706,029 children of
disabled workers, and 314,970 children of retired workers. About 9.8 million persons received
benefits based on disability—8,575,544 disabled workers,
977,026 disabled adult children, and 251,011 disabled widows and
widowers. In addition, 164,030 spouses and 1,768,493 minor and student children
of disabled workers received benefits.
https://www.socialsecurity.gov/policy/docs/statcomps/supplement/2012/highlights.html
See entire supplement at: https://www.socialsecurity.gov/policy/docs/statcomps/supplement/2012/
Feb. 8, 2013 Longbourn, by Jo Baker, was snapped up
by US and UK publishers last week. "Jane
Austen was my first experience of grown-up literature," said Baker. "But as I read and re-read her books, I
began to become aware that if I'd been living at the time, I wouldn't have got
to go to the ball; I would have been stuck at home with the sewing." The 39-year-old British author said she drew
her inspiration from her family's years in service. "Aware of that English class thing,
Pride and Prejudice begins to read a little differently," she explained. Longbourn follows a romance between a newly
arrived footman and a housemaid in the Bennet household that runs parallel to
the love story between Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet. "I sent it out last week," said
Clare Alexander, Baker's agent. "[US publisher] Knopf bought it Monday. On Wednesday, it was bought by Doubleday in
the UK. "By Thursday the film rights
had gone. By Friday, we had signed up
two foreign translations." A contemporary
version of Sense and Sensibility, written by Joanna Trollope, will be published
later this year, one of six Austen re-workings by modern-day writers. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21379834
Despite being among the brightest
objects in the sky, Mercury is a planet very rarely seen by even experienced stargazers. The next couple of weeks offer the best
opportunity in 2013 for observers in the Northern Hemisphere to spot Mercury's
tiny speck of light in the evening twilight sky. The trick for spotting Mercury
is first to find an observing location with a low unobstructed western horizon,
wait for half an hour after sunset for the sky to darken, and then sweep to the
left of the sunset with binoculars. Once
you've initially located the planet with binoculars,
you can usually see Mercury with the unaided eye. Don't wait too late, or Mercury will have set.
In a telescope, Mercury appears as a
tiny "half moon." Probably the
earliest you can spot Mercury will be on Friday night (Feb. 8). This is a special night because Mars will
appear very close to Mercury in the sky, giving observers a view of two planets
at once. http://www.space.com/19688-mercury-night-sky-observing-tips.html
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