“LEMONY SNICKET”
BOOK AUTHOR DAN HANDLER TO JUDGE
GLOBAL LITERARY
COMPETITION PRESENTED BY
COGSWELL
COLLEGE’S JUST
LAUNCHED MULTIMEDIA
PUBLICATION “COG”:
WINNING ENTRY WILL BECOME
ANIMATED FILM,
GRAPHIC NOVEL OR ART
SERIES --
“COG” Will Include
New Works By & Interviews With National Figures,
Writers And
Other Notables
Cogswell is a Top Digital Arts School in San Jose
San
Jose, CA, November 10, 2015 –
Cogswell
College,
an historic, 600-student educational institution offering a
unique
curriculum fusing Digital Art, Engineering and Entrepreneurship,
has announced
the launch of “COG”-- a multimedia publication launched
yesterday by noted
writer and Cogswell Professor Soma Mei Sheng Frazier and the
students who
comprise her English 299STHA publishing course. Please see:
www.cogzine.com
Frazier
and her class have created an “All-Star Literary Lineup” that
will be featured
within Issue 1 of COG. Artist Ajuan Mance, whose “1001 Black
Men” series has
earned attention, is creating the Issue 1 cover, which will
depict a figure
drawing with cogs integrated within.
Highlights
will include:
**
The announcement of the “COG: Page to Screen Awards,” a global
literary
competition open to everyone and adjudicated in 2015-16 by
Daniel Handler,
author of the
Lemony Snicket
book series. The winning
piece from each year's competition will be adapted as a short
animated film, 2D
animation, graphic novel or interpretive illustration series by
Cogswell
College’s
Digital Art & Animation
students. Says Handler, “A literary contest is like a full moon.
It casts
a striking and comforting glow across the bleak sky, and turns a
small number
of people into werewolves.”
**
The announcement of the “COG: Poetry Awards,” a global poetry
competition
judged in 2015-16 by celebrated poet A. Van Jordan. The
winning poetry
set will also be adapted as visual art by Cogswell’s Digital Art
&
Animation students.
**
The first issue of COG will also premiere “Cogitate,” an
original audio
broadcast formatted similarly to NPR’s “Snap Judgment” and “This
American
Life” radio programs.
At
present, plans are underway for three online issues, and one
print issue, per
year for COG. Frazier and her students are also planning various
promotional
events on behalf of COG, including an on-campus speaking event
with Dan
Handler/Lemony Snicket that will be open to 50-80 local
residents, and
readings and performances by the publication's high-caliber
contributors and
supporters, in 2016.
“We
are delighted to be launching COG,” said Dr. Deborah Snyder,
President, Cogswell
College.
“Our goal with COG is to
increase our school’s visibility on a national level. Those of
our students who
work on the creation of COG will also be enhancing their resumes
and job
prospects by enabling them to staff a soon-to-be nationally
known publication.
Professor Soma Frazier, who is leading this effort, is a gifted
writer. An
award-winning author and active member of the literary
community, she is the
perfect person to be helming the launch of COG!”
Adds
Frazier, “I developed COG with a dual purpose: First, to offer
audiences a
fresh, unique and carefully curated publication, and secondly,
to give my
students a hands-on, multimedia publishing experience. We will
strive to make
COG as credible as ‘ZYZZYVA,’ 'Glimmer Train' or ‘Ploughshares,’
with the added
digital art component that is our students' sweet spot. I look
forward to the
day COG is recognized by art and literature lovers everywhere,
as well as ‘
Poets
& Writers,’ ‘AWP,’ and other similar
outlets.”
She
adds, “The first thing I asked our student staff as we were
conceiving COG was,
‘What do Lemony Snicket, NPR/PRI’s Glynn Washington,
Gish Jen, Molly
Giles, Paul S.Flores, Opal Palmer Adisa, Antique Naked Soul,
Arisa White, Tomas
Moniz, Ron Austin, and other stellar artists, musicians, and
writers all have
in common?’ It was the first day of our Fall 2015 class. They
stared blankly
until I answered with: ‘The first Issue of Cog.’ My next
question to the class
was: ‘How will we top that all-star lineup in Issue Two?’ Stay
tuned to COG for
the answer...”
ABOUT
SOMA MEI SHENG FRAZIER:
Soma
Mei Sheng Frazier serves as Assistant Professor and Chair,
English and the
Humanities, at San Jose’s Cogswell College.
Her book Collateral Damage: A
Triptych earned
praise from Nikki Giovanni, Daniel Handler,
author of the Lemony Snicket book series, Antonya
Nelson, Sarah
Shun-lien Bynum, and others. Frazier's second book is
forthcoming in 2016 from
Nomadic press, along with scheduled to appear in “ZYZZYVA” and
“Glimmer Train,”
as she completes a novel and screenplay.
A
native of rural New
Hampshire,
Frazier supplemented a basic public school education with
whatever additional
opportunities her mother’s income – or her own resourcefulness –
could afford.
These included her attending Odyssey of the Mind, the St. Paul’s School Advanced Studies
Program, the Governor’s Mentorship
Program, and a Creative Writing course that she “finagled her
way into”
auditing at Dartmouth
College
while still in
high school.
After graduating high school, Frazier attended
Middlebury’s
intensive summer immersion program in Japanese. She later earned
a B.A. in
Asian Studies from Pomona
College, and an M.F.A.
in Writing at Sarah
Lawrence College. She has
taught
in prisons and schools alike.
ABOUT COGSWELL
COLLEGE:
Designed as a “fiercely collaborative, living laboratory,” Cogswell College
is located in the heart of the legendary Silicon Valley in San Jose, California.
The school is a WASC accredited, four-year institution of higher
education with
a specialized curriculum that fuses digital arts, audio
technology, game
design, engineering and entrepreneurship. In
2015, Cogswell was cited by Animation Career Review as “One of
the Top 50 Private Game
Design Schools
and Colleges in the U.S.”
Numerous alumni of Cogswell
College have secured
prominent
positions within the entertainment, videogame, technology,
computer, animation,
and motion graphics industries throughout California and beyond.
Several of these
alumni have established careers with such high profile companies
as Activision,
DreamWorks Animation, Disney, Electronic Arts, Pixar, and
Microsoft Game
Studio. Many other alumni have launched their own creative
ventures.
Recent Cogswell alumni were members of the Academy
Award-winning production teams that worked on the blockbuster
films “Frozen”
and “Life of Pi.” Some of the other well-known consumer projects
to which
Cogswell alumni have contributed include the feature films “Big
Hero 6” and
“The Avengers,” and the popular videogames “Call of Duty:
Advanced Warfare,”
“Halo 4” and “Battlefield Hardline.”
Cogswell College
is located at 191
Baypointe Parkway, San
Jose, California,
95134.
For more information, please
call 1-800-264-7955 or visit
http://www.cogswell.edu
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