Once again at this time of year we marvel at the many talents of our readers. The occasion is the annual Summer Fiction issue (18th annual, in fact) that is coming Wednesday, July 23.
As we explained earlier in this space, an E-mail glitch caused several E-mail submissions to be lost in the ether. So if you sent something to us electronically, and did not get a “got it” reply, then we may not have gotten it. Please re-send to fiction@princetoninfo.com by this Friday, June 20. And if you are just a procrastinator and are still tweaking your poem or short story, then send it for the first time to the same address by the same date.
Either way you will then be in the pool of submitted work that will end up in our July 23 issue.
And there will be some marvelous stuff in that pool, we are sure. Each year, in fact, we say look at this person — a researcher, a salesperson, a state bureaucrat, or whatever. Isn’t it remarkable that they are able to do this writing on the side?
After attending the recent Princeton University alumni panel on “Living the Arts,” we are thinking we should turn that around: Look at this writer. Isn’t it remarkable that he also is a researcher, salesperson, state worker, or whatever.”
That was a point made and reinforced by several of the Princeton alumni on the Reunions panel. Harry Weber, a nationally known sculptor celebrating his 50th reunion, recalled the time when he had a day job in business and then created art as soon as he got out of work. “Some of the best work I did was sketching in bars in New York, unpaid,” he said. “I am producing no better art now.” Weber added that he knew “dozens of really good artists who are not making a living as artists — they are bankers or something else.”
If you have to take a “day job” in order to eat, by all means do so. “Stop starving but don’t feel like you’ve given art up,” Weber said. “Don’t ever stop calling yourself an artist.”
So: Attention poets and writers! Get your submissions to us ASAP. Thanks.
To the Editor:
For many years the Institute for Advanced Study has been a responsible and public-spirited steward of its lands. Indeed, the preservation of the site of the Princeton Battlefield itself for public benefit results from the Institute’s generosity.
We have every reason to have full confidence in the Institute’s continued sensitivity to this historic site and to the environmentally sensitive lands around it. Its amended plan for faculty housing is in full compliance deserves the support of the Princeton community and the Planning Board.
Landon Y. Jones
Hibben Road, Princeton
Editor’s note: The Institute’s application to build additional faculty housing on its property will be heard by the Princeton Planning Board Thursday, June 19, at 7:30 p.m. at the municipal building at 400 Witherspoon Street.
