Thursday’s Post-Publication Post: FWR’s Short Story Month Collection Giveaway Project

by Erika Dreifus on
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UPDATE: Congratulations to Frume Sarah (Commenter #5 below) and Becky Wolsk (Commenter #6). You are collection giveaway winners! I will email each of you with more information shortly. Thanks to everyone for participating.

Those of you who have been following this blog for awhile may recall two salient facts. First, around this time last year, I offered a special giveaway: two short-story collections (by Susan Perabo and Margot Singer), in conjunction with the Collection Giveaway Project, an initiative coordinated by Fiction Writers Review (FWR) in celebration of Short Story Month (May). And second, I’m now a contributing editor for FWR, and it’s in that capacity that I am once again promoting the CGP as well as participating in it.

First, the promotion part: You can find details about the 2011 CGP on the FWR site, and I very much hope that plenty of you will choose to take part on your own blogs.

Second, the participation part: This May, I will once again award two short-story collections, one each to lucky commenters who shall be selected at random. This year, the collections I’m spotlighting are Midge Raymond’s newly reissued Forgetting English and my very own Quiet Americans.

I have been a fan of Midge Raymond’s work for years. In fact, I reviewed the first edition of Forgetting English for FWR back when the collection was published by Eastern Washington University Press as winner of the Spokane Prize. In its 2011 incarnation, hot off the presses this spring, the book includes two new stories. You can read an excerpt here. (By the way, Midge is also an instructive and engaging blogger, especially on writing-related topics, and definitely worth following on Twitter, too. First, though, make sure you read the guest post she shared with us right here on Practicing Writing last week as part of her virtual book tour.)

At this point, I don’t think you need much more introductory material about my story collection, Quiet Americans. After all, you’ve been reading pre-publication and post-publication posts for months. But I am very happy to have an occasion to offer another giveaway of my book. Now that Quiet Americans is available for Kindle, I’ll be able to award either a paperback OR e-copy, so please keep that in mind should you emerge as a giveaway winner. (For now, it seems that only the previous edition of Forgetting English is available for Kindle, so the choice there will be between the new edition in paperback and the older one for e-reading.)

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post, telling me about one collection you’ve read since last year’s giveaway. Title, author, press, and a line or two about what’s most memorable about it for you. The Collection Giveaway Project and Short Story Month more broadly are intended to celebrate short stories and the people who read and write them. So let’s get a big discussion (and reading list) going.

Comment anytime up to 12:01 a.m. (U.S. Eastern time) on Tuesday, May 31, 2011. At some point that day, I’ll turn to the trusty random number generator to select and announce our two winners. Please remember that I do have a day job, so I may not get to make the announcement until evening. Thanks for your patience—and for your participation!

The Wednesday Web Browser for Writers

by Erika Dreifus on
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  • If you’re looking for some short stories to read online, you might begin with the StorySouth Million Writers Award list of notable stories for 2010.
  • Ellen Meeropol has a dual perspective on bookstore readings: She has participated as an event organizer and as an author. Which makes her advice especially insightful.
  • This may be old news already for some of you, but here goes: Last Sunday evening I watched 60 Minutes for the first time in awhile. And one of the show’s segments was about author Greg Mortenson, author of the presumably nonfictional Three Cups of Tea: “[L]ast fall, we began investigating complaints from former donors, board members, staffers, and charity watchdogs about Mortenson and the way he is running his non-profit organization. And we found there are serious questions about how millions of dollars have been spent, whether Mortenson is personally benefiting, and whether some of the most dramatic and inspiring stories in his books are even true.”
  • If you haven’t visited the Poetry Foundation’s website for awhile, you should click on over and check out the redesign.
  • I keep reading wonderful reviews of Meghan O’Rourke’s new book, a memoir titled The Long Goodbye (here’s one). And part of me really wants to read it. But part of me is just too afraid to. I’m afraid that it will make me unbearably sad. Have any of you ever felt that way about a book?
  • Our friend Wordamour has a short essay in a new book, Flashlight Memories, which, according to Wordamour’s blog, “is all about people’s early experiences with reading and books, otherwise known in academia as ‘literacy autobiographies’ or ‘literacy narratives.'” To celebrate the book’s publication–and to celebrate all of our personal literacy stories–Wordamour will award a copy of Flashlight Memories to one of the commenters on her blog. You have until May 15 to post your narrative.

    • Monday Morning Markets/Jobs/Opportunities for Writers

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled
  • “Digital Science Fiction is a monthly anthology of compelling science fiction short stories from professional writers. Our anthology is published monthly through Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader and other eBook formats, and is directed towards a mature readership.” Pays: $.05/word. No simultaneous submissions. (via Duotrope.com)
  • “The American Literary Translators Association is pleased to announce that applications are now being accepted for the 2011 ALTA Travel Fellowship Awards. Each year, four to six fellowships in the amount of $1,000 are awarded to beginning (unpublished or minimally published) translators to help them pay for travel expenses to the annual ALTA conference. This year’s conference will be held November 16–19 in Kansas City, Missouri.” No application fee. Deadline: May 15, 2011 (received). “Please keep in mind that you may not apply more than 2 times consecutively or more than 3 times total.”
  • “Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, invites applications from fiction writers for a multi-year lecturer position in Creative Writing, beginning August, 2011. The successful candidate will teach writing courses in fiction (and possibly in literary nonfiction or poetry), as well as other courses in English and literature.”
  • From Berry College (Ga.): “The Department of English, Rhetoric, and Writing at Berry College invites applications for a one-year visiting assistant professor in composition with competence in creative non-fiction, beginning August 2011.”
  • From King’s College, University of London: “The Department wishes to appoint a writer with an established international reputation and an ongoing commitment to creative practice to the position of Fellow in Creative Writing.” Three-year contract.
  • And another London-based job: “Poetry London is looking for a Part-time Marketing and Website Officer with experience of social media and digital marketing. The role will include overall responsibility for the development and maintenance of the Poetry London website: including content, audience building and listings. The general marketing aspect of the role will include sales of advertising space in the print magazine, and sales into retail outlets.” Deadline is approaching fast: April 21!
  • University of California-Berkeley seeks a Writer/Editor, George Washington University Libraries (Washington) is looking for an Associate Director of Development, and the Center for Arts Education (New York) invites applications for a Communications Manager.

    • Friday Find: Ten Tips for a Writing Life

    by Erika Dreifus on
    5

    If you’re a regular reader of Practicing Writing, you know that I frequently cite/link to author Midge Raymond and/or her blog. I’m delighted to be able to share with you today Midge’s guest post on “Ten Tips for a Writing Life.”

    Midge is the author of Forgetting English, an extraordinary collection that I reviewed for Fiction Writers Review when it was first published. Happily, Forgetting English has just been re-released–in an expanded edition–and there’s still just a bit of time left to enter a Goodreads giveaway (it ends today!) for a chance to win a copy.

    Enjoy the post, and the weekend, and I’ll see you all back here on Monday.

    Take it away, Midge!

    I love lists. I wouldn’t get a single thing done without them. (If I forget to take a list to the store, for example, I have to return home for it, or I just wander the aisles wondering what I need.)

    Lists are helpful in terms of getting things done—but I also find that they’re helpful in remembering how to best get things done. That is, I often have to remind myself of how important certain habits are for living a writer’s life. So I’ve come up with a “top ten” list, which I hope will be useful to all writers who are, like most of us, juggling such things as day jobs and families while still trying to get all that writing done. (more…)