Thanks again to all who came out last night at Tulane, and thanks again to Melissa Dickey and to A Studio in the Woods for such a lovely evening. Across town, Room 220 is hosting a book launch event at Press Street Headquarters (3718 St Claude) this coming Thursday, featuring a new collection of fiction by Nathan C. Martin, called We’re Pregnant. More details are available here.

As part of an evening organized by A Studio in the Woods, I’m honored to be reading with Melissa Dickey next week, at Tulane University’s Cudd Hall. I’ll be reading from the manuscript of Ecotone, newly-completed (though of course, one loses a few fingernails clawing it back from the mail slot at the post office). The reading takes place on Monday night, February 25th, at 7pm; more details are available from the Studio here.

And for those who may not have heard, the Studio has just announced its call for proposals for next year’s residencies, which are available in all artistic media, and which continue the theme of “Ebb & Flow.” The deadline is in May; more details are available on the Studio’s website.

For those in the Jackson area, the 2013 ceremony for the Governor’s Awards for the Arts, hosted by the Mississippi Arts Commission, is next Thursday, February 21st. A fantastic celebration of the state’s artistic, musical, and literary heritage, the ceremony is open to the public (and tons of fun). Hope to see you there.

For those who may not have already heard about it, the School of Scottish Studies at the University of Edinburgh has begun a campaign to preserve its collections from prospective dissemination and relocation in coming years. As a former researcher at the school’s archive while at IASH, I cannot overstate how important it is to keep these collections together. From the campaign’s website:

Students and Academics at Edinburgh University are greatly concerned by proposals to carve up the School of Scottish Studies, an internationally respected beacon for Scotland’s culture, by separating the world famous archive collection from its associated libraries and from ongoing teaching and research. A student campaign is under way to convince the University and the public that the School of Scottish Studies resources must remain intact and accessible to researchers, ethnologists and to the wider public.

If you work in libraries, folklore, ethnography or ethnology, history, literature, or anything within a caber’s toss of those fields, please do consider reading and supporting the petition. Even if you’re not based in Scotland, every signature matters.

New Orleans is the latest in Ploughshares’ profiles of literary cities, in a lovely piece contributed by our own Michael Allen Zell. If you’re in the neighborhood, stop by Crescent City Books down in the Quarter to say thanks.