Monday Morning Markets/Jobs/Opportunities

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled
  • Some helpful hints on breaking into Writer’s Digest magazine.
  • Teachers & Writers Collaborative (T&W) has once again been invited to nominate a fiction book for the Ellen Levine Fund for Writers award, which is administered by the New York Community Trust. The annual award established by Ellen Levine is given to an author who has previously published (not self-published) a print edition of one or two books of fiction, and who doesn’t currently have a publishing contract for a second or third book of fiction. The winner of the Ellen Levine Fund for Writers award receives $7,500. In 2008, the first year of the award, one of T&W’s nominees, Gabriel Brownstein, won the award for his novel I Was Here, But I Disappeared. In 2009, Kathleen Lee received the award for her novel Taxi to Elsewhere. The 2010 Ellen Levine Fund for Writers award went to Travis Holland for a novel in progress, Windsor Park. Submissions to be considered for nomination by T&W should include contact information for the author (mailing address, e-mail address, and phone number(s)), a brief bio of the author listing the one or two works of fiction already published, an outline of the book, and 75-80 pages of the manuscript. Submissions should be mailed or hand-delivered to: Amy Swauger, Teachers & Writers Collaborative, 520 Eighth Ave., Ste. 2020, New York, NY 10018. Submissions will not be accepted via e-mail or fax. Incomplete submissions will not be reviewed. The deadline for submitting work to T&W is 5:00 PM (Eastern), Monday, May 2, 2011. T&W will review submissions and select one to nominate for the award. The winner of the 2011 award will be notified by the New York Community Trust in late summer/early fall. Please send questions regarding the 2011 Ellen Levine Fund for Writers award to aswauger@twc.org, or call 212-691-6590.” (NB: Teachers & Writers does not currently maintain a website listing for this opportunity, which is reprinted here with permission.)
  • “Jabberwocky is seeking poetry of any length and prose of up to 5K words (this is firm). Payment is $.01 per word for fiction and $10.00 per poem. Payment is upon publication. For examples of the kind of work we like, please see our archives.” (found via Duotrope)
  • “Signal Fire provides residencies in the Mt. Hood National Forest to selected artists from a range of practices. Each summer we bring the artists out to the forest and provide them with food, maps, a bicycle, battery power and shelter for work and sleep space.” There are two week-long residencies for eight artists. In 2011, these residencies will take place July 9-15 and July 17-22. “The artists stay in large 12×12 wall tents. They are supplied with kitchen utensils and food for self-served breakfast and lunch. Each tent is set apart from the others, but within a short walk to a base camp. Signal Fire organizers are stationed at the base camp, available for emergency and unforeseen needs. Additionally, the group gathers for dinner each evening, served at the base camp.” NB: “At this time, we do not offer travel stipends, but are able to offer places to stay in Portland for people arriving from away.” No application fee. Deadline: April 1, 2011.
  • Pacific Lutheran University (Wash.) seeks a Visiting Assistant Professor of English (Fiction Writing).
  • Luther College (Iowa) is looking for “a Visiting Instructor or Assistant Professor of English, a one-year leave replacement position beginning Fall 2011; potential for renewal.” Details: “Full time teaching load (three courses fall, one course January Term, three courses spring). English is a collegial, thirteen-member department with a strong commitment to interdisciplinary learning. Teaching responsibility will likely include Paideia I, Creative Writing: Poetry and Fiction, The Writer’s Voice, Rhetoric, and American Novel. Paideia I is an interdisciplinary reading/writing/research course required of all first-year students with a common syllabus across 36 sections. For a full program description, see http://www.luther.edu/paideia/.”
  • Columbia College-Chicago is advertising for an Assistant Professor in Creative Writing-Poetry.
  • Dartmouth College (N.H.) seeks a Senior Writer, the American Museum of Natural History (N.Y.) is looking for a Development Coordinator/Writer, and Village Voice Media (Houston) is taking applications for a position as Arts & Culture Editor/Writer.

    • Friday Find for Writers: Open House at The Writer Magazine

    by Erika Dreifus on
    3

    From our friends at The Writer magazine:

    We’re having an open house on WriterMag.com from noon on Thursday, March 17, through Thursday, March 24, and we hope you’ll stop by to take a look around! Everything on the website will be open for anyone to view. During our open house, you can:

    • Search through the market listings
    • Read subscriber-only articles
    • Review our Web columns: Web Savvy, Ask The Writer, Critique My Query, Watch Your Language, Writing for Children, Critique My Query, Dueling With Words and The 30-Second Commute
    • Look through the forums and read the what our members are talking about*
    • Investigate any other feature on the site

    If you like what you see, you can take advantage of our features for registered users by signing up on WriterMag.com. It’s easy—and free! Just look for “Welcome to WriterMag.com” on the right side of our home page and click on the “register” link.

    You’ll find the full announcement here.

    As you may know, I’m a contributing editor for The Writer, and I’ll be busy this weekend drafting my next book review for the magazine. So please go enjoy the Open House for me!

    Thursday’s Post-Publication Post: The Ebook is Coming, The Ebook is Coming

    by Erika Dreifus on
    10

    Next week, if all proceeds according to plan, Quiet Americans will begin its conversion into ebook format. Which is exciting and, I’ll admit, a bit unnerving (it’s not possible for me to approach any sort of change without at least some anxiety–that’s the only explanation I can give you).

    We’ve had some discussions among the Last Light Studio (LLS) publisher and authors about ebook pricing, but I think it’s safe to say that we haven’t determined anything conclusive or across-the-board. In fact, part of the beauty of the LLS model is that each author has quite a bit of say in the pricing of her own book.

    Which means that I’d love to hear from those of you with more ebook experience, whether you consider yourself primarily a reader, author, or publisher. What are your thoughts about ebook prices? How much is too much? Does any price ever strike you as perhaps “too little”? What differential do you expect to see between a print and ebook version? (Yes, I’ve read through a number of blog posts and articles on these matters, but I’m interested in what you have to say.)

    Please don’t limit yourself to pricing matters if you have more to share. Feel free to comment with any tips you may have about ebook promotion or other relevant issues, too. Are there specific venues you trust specifically for their ebook reviews? Please tell me about them!

    Quiet Americans and I thank you!

    The Wednesday Web Browser for Writers

    by Erika Dreifus on
    1
  • Mentioned this already on My Machberet, but it’s worth re-presenting: Last week, Cynthia Ozick was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Jewish Book Council. Read Ozick’s reflections “on what it is to write as a Jew in America” here.
  • Virtual Book Tours 101, a guest post for Grub Street Daily, provides basics and background.
  • Nina Badzin adds a new post to her Twitter Tips series.
  • Former Alaskan David Abrams pays tribute to one of the state’s favorite sons, poet John Haines, who passed away earlier this month.
  • Since I have always found endings to be among the most challenging aspects of short-story writing, I really appreciated this post on the subject from Robin Black (for Beyond the Margins).
  • Speaking of short stories: Fiction Writers Review is launching a “Journal of the Week” giveaway feature, and the inaugural offerings are three free subscriptions from One Story.
  • Looking for some guest-blogging opportunities (and not concerned about getting paid)? Check out this call (for poet-bloggers) from Chloé Yelena Miller, and this one from First Person Plural, the blog of The Writer’s Center in Bethesda, Md.
  • In the unlikely case that you haven’t heard yet about Téa Obreht and her debut novel, The Tiger’s Wife, this New York Times profile will clue you in. (I haven’t read the novel yet, but I did love this Obreht story in The Atlantic.)