Thursday, April 20, 2006

Mslexia, Kathleen Jamie and the University of Gastronomic Sciences

Just got my copy of the Apr/May/Jun issue of Mslexia. The annual poetry competition closes April 28, so you might squeeze in if you hurry. The theme for the next issue is Travellers' Tales, and the one after that I'm sure will speak to a lot of us here on the Wet Coast this year: Rain. The Making a Poem column this issue features the Scottish poet Kathleen Jamie:
"I don't believe in writer's block. I think you write the things that are given to you to write and then you wait for the next thing that is given to you to write. In between are what we must call fallow periods. That's the only word for it. I hate the idea of flogging yourself in production, producing stuff for the sake of it."
Meanwhile, I've been thinking about going back to school and getting another master's degree. The University of Gastronomic Sciences offers one in Food Culture: Communicating Quality Products. Based in Italy, the program includes rigorous field seminars to learn about the production of the best foods and wines of Italy, France, Spain and Northern Europe. Sounds like a worthy academic goal, no? The price tag, room, lunches and travel abroad included, is a trifling 21,000 Euros, or just a sliver of prosciutto under $30,000 Canadian. Well, we have till July to stew on it.

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3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

rhona, any hints on bypassing the astronomical money order fees for entry fees into international contests? i suspect you must enter these things fairly regularly, and i would too, if the m.o. fee didn't automatically double the entry fee. doesn't look like they have a paypal option at this one.

11:25 a.m.  
Blogger Rhona McAdam said...

Hi Kimmy - I have a bank account in London still, which I use for such things as subscriptions and entry fees. UK bank accounts are a royal pain to set up but I'm not charged fees to maintain it. I was able to get a US bank account at the Royal Bank of Canada. I don't know if you can just set accounts up if you're travelling in a particular country, or if it's worth doing for the odd competition, or whether there's an internet bank that would let you set up a foreign currency account or two without a major investment. I noticed that Mslexia's website says you can phone them with a credit card and then (as an overseas contributor) email your entry. I don't know if the phone call would be more than the price of the money order?

1:51 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

thanks for the tips, rhona. i've got a marvelous long distance plan to call britain (4p a minute or something ridiculous). that's clearly the way to go. ta, la!

7:24 p.m.  

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