Sarabande Books was founded in 1994 by Sarah Gorham and Jeffrey Skinner to publish poetry, short fiction, and essay; to disburse these works with diligence and integrity; and to serve as an educational resource for readers, students, and teachers of creative writing.  First titles appeared in 1996, and the press currently has more than 220 titles under contract or in print, many of them prize-winning.  Sarabande authors and staff members conduct an estimated 225 readings, workshops, and lectures per year, and they strive to make their programs and services accessible to all.  Sarabande publishes ten to twelve books each year, including selections for the Mary McCarthy prize in fiction, the Kathryn A. Morton prize in poetry, and the Linda Bruckheimer Series in Kentucky Literature.  Sarabande authors and titles have won or been short-listed for, among many others, the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Critics Circle Award, the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, the National Jewish Book Award, LA Times Book Prize, Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award, Lambda Literary awards, Story Prize Spotlight award, and several PEN/American honors, including the PEN/Hemingway. 

http://www.sarabandebooks.org/history/  Thank you, Muse reader!

Amy Gustine’s short fiction has appeared in The Kenyon Review, North American Review, Black Warrior Review, The Massachusetts Review, and many others. She lives in Ottawa Hills, Ohio.  See http://amygustine.com/  Gustine's book You Should Pity Us Instead 

has received starred reviews in three of the major reviewing periodicals:  Kirkus, Publishers Weekly and Booklist.  Here's the PW review:  http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-941411-19-3

"What is the math of a mother's love?  Infinity, she thinks."  You Should Pity Us Instead by Amy Gustine

Seven UNESCO world heritage wine regions to visit by Chris Mercer   Hungary’s Tokaj appellation, characterised by its rolling and verdant hills, has the distinction of being Europe’s first classified wine region.  The UNESCO area of the Loire comprises 164 towns and villages–including Chinon, Samur and Angers–between the two hillsides that border the river from Sully-sur-Loire (Loiret) and Chalonnessur-Loire (Maine-et-Loire).  Demarcated in 1756, the Douro is one of the world’s oldest wine regions and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of the human influence on its development.  More than 2,000 years of winemaking have shaped it into a terraced, vine-covered, wine-producing destination.  The World Heritage Committee added the ‘vineyard landscape of Piedmont:  Langhe-Roero and Monferrato’ in 2014.  The Middle Rhine’s beauty is well-chronicled, but it gained UNESCO status for its role as a major trade artery in the evolution of history and human development.  According to UNESCO, Bordeaux's 2,000-year-old role as the capital of a world-famous wine producing region make it a shining example of cultural heritage.  Looking for somewhere more remote to explore?   The wild card entry in this selection is Pantelleria, 85km off Italy’s southern coast.  Its terraced bush vine growing technique handed down through centuries of generations was placed on the UNESCO world heritage list in late 2014.  http://www.decanter.com/wine-travel/decanter-travel-guide-world-heritage-regions-25003/

The Paella is of Arabic provenience and humble beginnings indeed.  It originated in the region of Valencia in Eastern Spain.  Valencia is one of the largest ports by the Mediterranean Sea and is a rice producer in Spain since it was introduced by the Arabs or Moors over 1200 years ago.  The word for “rice” in Spanish is “Arroz” which is derived from the Arabic “Arruzz”.  Paella was originally the meal of peasants, cooked over an open wood fire in the rice fields and eaten by the peasants directly from the pan with their own wooden spoons.  It was originally made of rice and whatever ingredient was readily at hand, usually tomatoes, onions, leeks and snails, with some green beans and garbanzos for texture.  Duck or rabbit were also added if available and for special occasions chicken and a touch of saffron for color and added flavor.  Tapa is a Spanish word that means “cover” or “lid”.  The story goes that King Alfonso X, byname “Alfonso the Wise” or “The Learned,” in Spanish “Alfonso El Sabio,” King of Castilla and Leon from 1252 to 1284.  While on a long trip, the King stopped to rest at a hostel in the town of Ventorillo del Chato in the Southern province of Cádiz and ordered a glass of Jerez (Sherry) to sit and relax after the long journey.  There was a gusty wind and lots of sand dust flying all over the place, so the Inn-keeper served him his glass of Jerez covered with a slice of ham to prevent the sand from getting into the drink.  King Alfonso X ate the ham and chased it with his Jerez, and liked it.  He then asked for a second glass of Jerez and requested that it comes with a “tapa” or lid.

http://paellabycarlos.com/origins-of-paella-and-tapas/

-ology, -logy, -ologist, -logist  (Greek: a suffix meaning:  to talk, to speak; a branch of knowledge; any science or academic field that ends in-ology which is a variant of -logy; a person who speaks in a certain manner; someone who deals with certain topics or subjects)

Find 80 pages of examples at http://wordinfo.info/unit/1463

Jerome "Jerry" Siegel (1914–1996), who also used pseudonyms including Joe Carter, Jerry Ess, and Herbert S. Fine, was the American co-creator of Superman, along with Joe Shuster, the first of the great comic book superheroes and one of the most recognizable of the 20th century.  He was inducted (with Shuster posthumously) into the comic book industry's Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1992 and the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1993.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Siegel

Joseph "Joe" Shuster (1914–1992) was a Canadian-American comic book artist.  He was best known for co-creating the DC Comics character Superman, with writer Jerry Siegel, first published in Action Comics No. 1 (June 1938).  Shuster was involved in a number of legal battles concerning the ownership of the Superman character, eventually gaining recognition for his part in its creation.  His comic book career after Superman was relatively unsuccessful, and by the mid-1970s Shuster had left the field completely due to partial blindness.  In 2005, the Canadian Comic Book Creator Awards Association instituted the Joe Shuster Awards, named to honor the Canada-born artist.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Shuster

In 2016, 17 states will have new voting restrictions in place for the first time in a presidential election.  The new laws range from strict photo ID requirements to early voting cutbacks to registration restrictions.  Those 17 states are:  Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin.  Overall, 22 states have new restrictions in effect since the 2010 midterm election.  Find the new restrictive voting requirements put in place during that time period and sign up for the election 2016 newsletter from the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, a nonpartisan law and policy institute, at http://www.brennancenter.org/new-voting-restrictions-2010-election

Each year, the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom compiles a list of the top ten most frequently challenged books in order to inform the public about censorship in libraries and schools.  A challenge is defined as a formal, written complaint, filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness.  The number of challenges reflects only incidents reported.  Find a list of The top ten most frequently challenged books of 2015 at http://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10

Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” has faced a lot of accusations in the 45 years since it was released.  And, for years, people have said “Stairway” sounds a lot like “Taurus”—a song by a much less famous band called Spirit who performed it allegedly while sharing bills with Zeppelin in the late 1960s.  Members of  Led Zeppelin—specifically, singer Robert Plant and guitarist Jimmy Page, the writers of “Stairway”—will face a jury trial on May 10, 2016.  The question:  Did they copy at least some parts their most famous song?  “While it is true that a descending chromatic four-chord progression is a common convention that abounds in the music industry, the similarities here transcend this core structure,” U.S. District Judge Gary Klausner of the Central District of California wrote in a 20-page opinion denying, in part, Led Zeppelin’s motion for summary judgment.  “For example, the descending bass line in both Taurus and Stairway to Heaven appears at the beginning of both songs, arguably the most recognizable and important segments. … Additionally, the descending bass line is played at the same pitch, repeated twice, and separated by a short bridge in both songs.”  Citing another opinion, he added:  “Enough similar protectable expression is here that the issue of substantial similarity should [proceed to the jury].”  Justin Wm. Moyer  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/04/12/led-zeppelin-members-face-trial-in-stairway-to-heaven-copyright-infringement-lawsuit/

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1455  April 13, 2016  On this date in 1742,  George Frideric Handel's oratorio Messiah made its premiere in Dublin, Ireland.  Handel wrote Messiah for modest vocal and instrumental forces, with optional settings for many of the individual numbers.  In the years after his death, the work was adapted for performance on a much larger scale, with giant orchestras and choirs.  In other efforts to update it, its orchestration was revised and amplified by (among others) Mozart.  On this date in 1816, English composer, pianist and music educator William Sterndale Bennett was born.  Among his students were Arthur Sullivan and Hubert Parry.