Monday Morning Markets/Jobs/Opportunities

  • “The Elizabeth Kostova Foundation offers its fourth annual summer fiction-writing seminar in historic Sozopol in Bulgaria. Fiction writers from Bulgaria and fiction writers from English-speaking countries, including but not limited to the U.S. and the U.K., are invited to apply. A total number of ten applicants will be selected for participation and funding.” No application fee. Deadline: February 15, 2011.
  • New prize in German-to-English literary translation: The Frederick & Grace Gutekunst Prize for Young Translators. Open to college students and translators under the age of 35 who have not published or are under contract for a book-length translation. Applicants must live in the U.S., and will be required to translate a literary text that will be made available upon request from the Goethe-Institut New York. Prize includes a $2,500 award. No application fee indicated. Deadline: February 28, 2011. (via ALTA_USA)
  • For our practicing writers in the U.K.: How would you like to earn a bit of money for writing a letter of complaint? Check out this monthly competition, which awards prizes of £30. (And also take a look at the list where I found the competition in the first place, over on the Mistakes Writers Make blog. It’s a nice resource for nonfiction writers, especially those based in the U.K.)
  • The New School (N.Y.) is advertising for two visiting associate professorships in writing (fiction).
  • The University of Central Missouri is looking for an Assistant or Associate Professor of Creative Writing: “The successful candidate will have a terminal degree (MFA or PhD), significant publications, and outstanding promise as a writer and teacher. Past editorial experience is essential. Duties will include teaching composition, survey literature, and all levels of creative writing, as well as editorial responsibilities at Pleiades: A Journal of New Writing and Pleiades Press. Teaching load is 4-4 with the possibility of a course reduction for work on Pleiades.”
  • Denison University (Ohio) “seeks a one-year visiting assistant professor in creative writing with an emphasis in fiction. Ability to teach introductory creative writing classes is required, with capabilities in poetry and nonfiction. The 3/3 teaching assignment may include introductory and advanced creative-writing courses, first-year writing, a literature course in the candidate’s field, and supervision of senior creative-writing projects.”
  • Plymouth State University (N.H.) seeks a staff writer/editor. Weill Cornell Medical College (N.Y.) is looking for an assistant editorial specialist. And the American College of Nurse-Midwives (Md.) has posted a call for a part-time writer and editor (30 hrs./week).
  • Friday Find: How to Plan Your Virtual Book Tour

    So, as I mentioned yesterday, I’ve been hard at work preparing for the blog tour for my short-story collection, Quiet Americans. And it so happens that I’ve been receiving a number of questions about planning such tours.

    True to form, I’ve been pointing my questioners to various links and websites to help them become more familiar with the idea and practice. Now, I have a new resource to share: Sandra Beckwith’s guest post for The Savvy Book Marketer.

    It’s a post filled with good tips, and it’s exactly the sort of thing I would have appreciated back at the start of my own planning process.

    On that note, here’s wishing you all a good weekend. See you back here on Monday for the start of an especially exciting week!

    Thursday’s (Final) Pre-Publication Post

    March 25, 2010. That was the date of our first “Thursday Pre-Publication Post.” Less than 10 months later, it’s time for the last post in the series. Next Wednesday, January 19, will see the official publication date of my short-story collection, Quiet Americans. And next Thursday, we’ll take this show on the post-publication road. I’m so thankful for the advice and support that you’ve shown me here on the blog in this pre-publication phase, and I hope you’ll stick around to see how this particular publishing story plays out.

    Right now, I’m especially focused on launching our Winter 2011 Blog Tour, which begins next week. I won’t tell you exactly how much time I spent last weekend drafting guest posts for host blogs. Let’s just say that it was considerable. Not that I’m complaining! I am really grateful to have these opportunities.

    This week, I’ve been shifting a bit from the guest posts to my part of author Q&As. In case you haven’t surmised, this time, I’m the one supplying the “A”, not the “Q.” And I have been blown away by my interviewers’ incisiveness. (Sure, I knew they were smart, but this smart?)

    I don’t want to give you any examples yet. Let’s let the suspense build for the tour, shall we? But I will share that working on these interviews, on the heels of receiving excellent blurbs and more recent feedback, I’ve been reminded of a December blog post by Ellen Meeropol on what Elli, as another debut author, has been learning from her readers.

    “I didn’t expect to be surprised–and humbled–by readers’ insights into my characters and their story,” she wrote.

    Frankly, I didn’t expect it, either. In my case, there’s some especially delicious icing on this cake: readers’ insights into not only specific characters and stories, but also on the collection as a whole.

    You’ll see what I’m talking about once the tour is under way. Happily, it’s not long now!

    The Wednesday Web Browser for Writers

  • “Oronte Churm” asked MFA directors at Michigan, Syracuse, Irvine, Alabama, the Michener Center, and Ohio University for their thoughts on digital thesis deposits. Here’s how they responded.
  • Chris Fischbach is right: listening to Norah Labiner’s reading at Prairie Lights in Iowa City is great fun. (Especially since I’ve read and reviewed Labiner’s book, German for Travelers: A Novel in 95 Lessons.)
  • Maureen Corrigan reflects on William Trevor and his newly released collection of short stories.
  • My subscriber copy of The Writer magazine arrived on Monday, and it’s quite an issue. I’m in there again (this time with a guide to the upcoming Association of Writers & Writing Programs [AWP] conference), and I’ve got some amazing company: Jim Shepard, Betsy Lerner, Dani Shapiro, and more. Check out the table of contents.
  • Also just arrived in the mail: the latest issue of Vanity Fair, which includes a lovely feature on Atlanta’s literary ladies (including Jessica Handler, one of our wonderful Winter Blog Tour hosts!).
  • Author and professor Aurelie Sheehan, in The New York Times, on Arizona.