Monday, March 30, 2009

Success!

Hello all friends and supporters of 7 Mondays -

We are very pleased to announce that student funding of 7 Mondays will continue!

Thank you for all of your support, and stay tuned for the 2008/2009 edition of 7 Mondays, coming out soon!

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Calling all students...

If you are a Mount Allison student, make sure to....

VOTE TODAY!

conversely, polling stations will also be open tomorrow.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Come to the Pub for Trivia! / Vote!

As the last pre-referendum event 7 Mondays is hosting, come out to the Pub tonight (the 24th) for some 7 Mondays-themed trivia! It gets underway at 10:30 pm. No admission, 19+. It will be snazzy, we swear.

This Thursday and Friday, make sure to get out and vote "yes" to 7 Mondays on the SAC referendum ballot. Polling stations will be at Jennings Meal Hall, the Wallace McCain Student Centre, and at the library.

From the Archives

godliness
From Vol 14, 2008

places unswept gather dirt
under fingernails grime builds with them
in places hidden and forgotten
filth flowers

windowpane holds universe
parallel universe in bathroom sink
wormholes in drainholes

i crept under and around with the silverfish

i tried to squeeze my body
into something filthy

- Sophie Woodrooffe

Sunday, March 22, 2009

pieces of 7 Mondays

august, halifax
From Volume 12, 2006

call mom in cheshire regarding:
vacuum
table
and chairs.

call tom fun and get him to go

*

familiar backs and hair cuts receding into the complacent blend of side-
walk cracks, sunlight, and subsequent shadows.

*

my eyes follow the graffiti footprints
across the vertical plane of smooth concrete (imperfect with pores)
just cooling now from the blind gape of the sun

- Nathan Richards

Saturday, March 21, 2009

From 7 Mondays of Years Past

Bath
From Volume XII, 2007

The faint green ring, the high tide line
where the seaweed shows
the water where to stop.
From the flecks of
flung grass that stick to
frogs' backs, Dad's lawn-stained socks.
From cartwheel attempts,
staining knees and heels of hands
pounded into feet over barefoot mouths.
From lime green lime popsicle drips.
From the Luna moth in the bathroom window.
Firefly flash left on our hands.
- Rian Lougheed-Smith

Friday, March 20, 2009

World Poetry Day

For all the poetry lovers out there (and I suspect there might be some reading this blog) I thought it might be worth mentioning that Sackville is going to be celebrating World Poetry Day tomarrow (Saturday). The event kicks off at 2pm at the Bridge Street Cafe, where there will be poetry readings by people from all sorts of the different communities inside the town. Should be good!

From the Archives

From Volume 12 (2006):

Astronomer's Dessert
A tiny, ripe orange
Laid upon
A great navy napkin
- Bess Winter

Tournament Night at Peacock's
rich elderly men
wielding fancy two-piece cues
missing all their shots
- Bess Winter

Thursday, March 19, 2009

7 Reasons to Support 7 Mondays

  1. 7 Mondays is a student-edited outlet for student work. It should stay student-funded.
  1. 7 Mondays offers an opportunity for student poets, authors, and photographers to have their work peer-reviewed; giving young artists and editors alike a start. Those involved in 7 Mondays have gone on to edit other journals and write Governor-General award nominated books.
  1. 7 Mondays is inclusive. Every student on campus may submit work and may apply for a position on the editorial board. Also, any events sponsored by 7 Mondays (such as visiting authors and writing workshops) are hosted free of charge and made available to all students.
  1. 7 Mondays is part of a Mount Allison tradition. In its current incarnation it has been going for 15 years. When the University Administration cut funding for the writer-in-residence program the students in conjunction with the would-be-writer-in-residence responded by creating this journal. Mount Allison University has had literary journals off and on since 1952, several of which have benefited from SAC funding.
  1. 7 Mondays is distributed to every student. Exposure to the work of our peers is important for the cultural fabric of our community. Even those books that are returned are put to use at recruitment fairs, and other Mount Allison events adding to the profile of the institution beyond the campus boundaries benefiting all students.
  1. 7 Mondays is one of the few public outlets for undergraduate work.
  1. All of this 7 Mondays-wonderfulness is made available to you for 3.00$ a year (or 1.50$ a semester).

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Out of the Archives

From 7 Mondays, Volume Ten (2004).

Funny-

There is a shocking
similarity
Between the hollow
echo of a train whistle
Across piled snow
And
the flat wail of a dialtone
Reborn after the other phone has been hung up



-Steph Berntson


Tuesday, March 17, 2009

From the First Issue (1995)

Sonnet MCMXCIV

Tonight our groceries cannot defy
Our battle: we are what we eat. And how
We choose a cantalope by touch will show
Each other how we can be satisfied.
We can't decide whose turn it is to buy
The eggs this week, or if we're getting low
On milk, or if I will this once allow
Unsliced bread to complicate this lie.
Inside the kitchen, later, I cannot
Equate the mustard with the honey in
The sauce I make. And while I stand and skin
Garbanzo beans, one hand still stirs the pot -
Rising, covering chicken breasts in tight
Saran - I know where I will sleep tonight

- trini finlay

Monday, March 16, 2009

Pieces of 7 Mondays

From Volume Twelve (2006)

How To Furnish an Entire House

Inherit a bright orange recliner
From your uncle-by-marriage's mother, after her husband dies.
The family joke, with an orange plaid blanket to match.
Travel to Ottawa to visit your cousins.
While you're there, buy a modern metal chair.
Don't think about how you need to take it home on an airplane.
Go to the thrift store and find a wooden lamp base which cost ten dollars.
Attach a cream-coloured lampshade which doesn't have a price of its own.
Buy them as a single unit.
When your grandfather dies, lay claim in his striped telephone table
That was moved into your aunt's basement.
Take your youngest brother's bed with the drawers underneith,
So that he can have the double bad your grandfather used to sleep on.
Let your former housemate leave her kitchen table behind
When she doesn't need one in her new house.
Cover it in a yellow tablecloth so that if you spill anything it can be
cleaned easily.
Purchase a black butterfly chair at the grocery store for twelve dollars.
On it, drape the blanket your parents brought home for you from their trip to Mexico.
Carry home a desk from the thrift store across the street with your roommate.
Refuse offers of help from passersby.
Offer to store a family friend's dressers while she goes overseas for a year;
Use them.
Store her blue pull-out couch, also.
Clean out your parents' kitchen cupboards.
After they are done remarking on all the dishes they have not seen in twenty years,
Let them offer the dishes to you.
Accept.

- Lindsay Zwicker

Poetry Reading and Concert

Good day, readers!

We are pleased to announce that at 9:30 on Wednesday evening, March 18, 7 Mondays will present a poetry reading and music show in conjunction with SAC Entertainment. Readers will include those having work published in the 2009 upcoming edition, as well as some who have had work published in the past. Musical guests include Urban Preacher, Sean Ashby, and Field Museum.

Entrance is $3 for pub members, and $5 for non-pub members. For more information, see the Facebook event.

Come on out to show your support for 7 Mondays!

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Referendum Information

The referendum will be on Thurs. March 26th and Fri. March 27th.
The polling stations will be at the Library, the Student Centre, and Jennings Hall.
The question will read as follows:
Would you like to continue to contribute $3 of your SAC fees towards 7 Mondays?

Please take a few minutes to come out and vote "Yes" on this question.
Save 7 Mondays!

Pieces of 7 Mondays

From Volume Twelve (2006):

poet


tell me again of the woman
who spoke fire, leaning forward
so that you could hear the way
her voice slipped from rich vowels
to helpless disconnected words, drowning
every pause significant
even the silence burned
like the orange glow of the lamp
curling up her throat and across her cheeks
disappearing into the dark shadows of eyes
sparkling off her teeth

tell me again of the way she speaks
a word - and sparks scatter across the floor
singeing the carpet and unprotected toes
burning hairs so they shine like hot wires
branding ears and shoulders
while her short dark hair falls over her forehead
wrapping about her
the dark shadow, glowing
until walking outside when she is finished
even the day seems to have no light

-Emily Gordon

Saturday, March 14, 2009

From 7 Mondays past. Help us print more like it!

Volume 12 (2006)

Chop You Down

Plaid shirt.
Cold night.
Sitting on winter steps to a warm bar, with a half-finished cigarette in my
mouth and the taste of smoke in my nose. I'm a Sackville spartan with an
armor of tartan. An academic lumberjack with an ax to grind 'cause
there's no
bright blue ox on my arm. But I'm too lost in the labyrinth of my own
plaid
patterned shirt to notice your hoof clops. So stop trying: you're no Europa
and I ain't King Midas- you won't turn to gold at the touch of my hand.

- Ian Mullan

How to wear your support on your sleeve


Learn how to wear your support on your sleeve in this step-by-step instructional video, brought to you by the Editors of 7 Mondays. Then, never leave home without your glorious new pin!

How to wear your support on your sleeve


Friday, March 13, 2009

From 7 Mondays History: Poems Short and Sweet

From Volume Nine (2003):

The Electron Revisited
I see the girl
with red hair
at the library
and post office only,
though presumably
she exists between.

- Graeme Bezanson

My Mouth
Warm soft wet tongue
like an oyster
with 32 pearls
-Maryn Stockman

Thursday, March 12, 2009

An open letter from a 7 Mondays founder

This letter was passed on to us from former 7 Mondays editor Bess Winter; she received it from Amanda Jernigan, one of the founders of the journal, when 7 Mondays funding was up for referendum in 2006.

She writes:

"To the SAC, Mt. Allison University:

I am writing to express my support for the SAC's
continued support of Mt. Allison's magazine of the
literary and photographic arts, 7 Mondays.

I currently work as a writer and editor. My work has
appeared in literary journals across Canada, and
recently in the American journals Poetry (Chicago) and
Parnassus (New York). I also serve on the editorial
boards of two journals: The New Quarterly and Canadian
Notes & Queries.

My connection to 7 Mondays as an undergraduate at Mt.
A (1997-2001) was a key part of my introduction to
literary-magazine culture: how does one compile a
submission; what is it like to work with an editor;
what sort of etiquette surrounds a public reading of
one's work.

7 Mondays has been a stepping stone into the world of
literary publication for generations of Mt. A.
students. It is also a fine production in its own
right: well designed and well produced, and -- because
of its cross-disciplinary scope -- allowing for witty
or provocative juxtapositions of word and image.

It would be a disservice to the cultural life of the
university -- and of the town of Sackville -- for the
SAC to withdraw its support from this magazine. I hope
that you will choose, rather, to make a firm
commitment to 7 Mondays in the years that come.

Sincerely,
Amanda Jernigan
Mount Allison class of 2001"

Your Daily Dose of 7 Mondays History

From Volume 14 (2008):


- Isabel Gertler

From Volume 2 (1996):

High Park and Dandy Lions

I want to clasp the floating seed that falls
from crowns of whitened weeds woolfrayed and round
in to the the sea of churning breeze that drawls
and stalls, far flung tips and whips unbound

These seed off tops of weeds go rolling past
where old men pipe, fade and tan on Wednesday
check time and check mate to see how fast
they think and act, now that they do not play

nine to five games. sleep and again, sweet sleep
black suits, nic-smoke ease-full cups of blend
morning wives, sons, tax raised, dues payed all keep
lives that end tired with brill and wax shoes to lend

neat pride; young quicker men in black suits go
a dozing piece moves. wool eyes close. winds blow

- Shelton Deverell

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

An Introduction of sorts.

As is stated below the question of 7 Mondays (a journal of literary and photographic work) funding is once again going to be put to the students. This is an opportunity to open up a dialogue about the value this journal has on campus. We will update this blog daily with literary and photographic works from past 7 Mondays, letters of support from former contributors and writers-at-large, as well as articles discussing the merit of investment in the arts in general. We invite everyone to make ample use of the comment functions so that we might have a lively discussion. Regardless of the outcome of the referendum vote we hope that we can inspire some discussion and reflection about the role of artistic ventures at Mount Allison and in society through this web-space.

So without further ado, here is a piece that was featured in Volume 14 of 7 Mondays:

Constitution

The quarry cliff is nearly fifty feet
Of sheer, flat drop. Its blasted sandstones are
The same red stones that constitute the town.
Cat throws one off the cliff - its shattering
Makes satisfying wreckage, echoing.



-
Tim Jones

Why we are here.

For the past fifteen years, 7 Mondays has been producing a remarkable yearly publication of prose, poetry and photography featuring Mount Allison students. Edited by undergraduate students themselves, the journal has been made available to each student on campus through their mailboxes, making it a lively and exciting creative venue for the work of many young artists and authors. 7 Mondays is an integral part of the Mount Allison community and is rare among universities across Canada in its position as a longstanding student-run literary journal . The journal has been a starting-point for the careers of many prominent alumni, including editors of presses and journals, and poets such as Rob Winger, who was recently shortlisted for a Governor General’s Award. 7 Mondays has also hosted numerous author readings and workshops to benefit the Mount Allison community at large. This year, the SAC has voted to include 7 Mondays on a regular referendum ballot to ask students this simple question: do you want to continue contributing $3.00 of your SAC fees to 7 Mondays? The answer should be obvious: 7 Mondays is worth three dollars. Please make sure to vote “yes” at the SAC polls on March 26 and 27 to ensure 7 Mondays has a future here on campus. Keep on the lookout for announcements for exciting pre-referendum events soon, and booth locations on campus to learn more about the work of the
journal. Save 7 Mondays!