AWP 2009, and a Happy Ending from an AWP 2008 Rejection

I know: It’s an exciting day here in the USA. But whatever happens at the polls, life will go on. Which means, among other things, that the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) will continue to hold conferences, and writers will continue to need work. (Keep reading–you’ll see the connections soon enough.)

AWP has recently posted the schedule for its next conference, slated for February 2009 in Chicago. I’m actually going to take a raincheck (or snowcheck, as the case may be) and skip the festivities this year. But it’s always interesting to see which proposals survived to the final program, and which writers will be participating.

Since the start the twenty-first century, I’ve been a part of three “successful” panel proposals— and more than three that AWP turned down. For last winter’s 2008 conference, which was held in New York, my would-be co-panelists and I thought we had come up with a terrific idea: a panel on nonteaching job opportunities for writers in colleges and universities. The five of us, all MFA grads, are employed in postsecondary institutions in writing-intensive positions. AWP says that it’s interested in conference proposals on “career advancement,” including “jobs within and outside academe,” and we thought we had a fresh and useful take on the subject.

Well, the AWP Conference powers-that-were must have seen it differently. They rejected our proposal. That’s when Stubborn Erika (“The Taurus”), supported by the others, decided to take the idea elsewhere.

I approached my editors at The Writer magazine with an article pitch. You may have seen the result, “MFA Grads Find Nonteaching Jobs on Campus,” in the November 2008 issue. The article is (if I may say so myself) chock full of insights from Matt O’Donnell (MFA in poetry, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro; currently associate editor, Bowdoin Magazine); Gregg Rosenblum (MFA in fiction, Emerson College; currently editor, Office of Career Services, Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences); Margaret von Steinen (MFA in poetry, Western Michigan University; currently Prague Summer Program coordinator and communications officer for WMU’s Diether H. Haenicke Institute for Global Education); and Gabriel Welsch (MFA in fiction, The Pennsylvania State University; currently assistant vice president for marketing, Juniata College).

And if you haven’t caught the article in The Writer, well, today is your lucky day! You can now find the text on my Web site as well. Just click here and scroll down to the “MFA Grads Find Nonteaching Jobs on Campus” link. Enjoy!

Back on Monday

The day job is taking me offsite today and tomorrow, so let me wish you a Happy Halloween and a good weekend a bit early. See you all back here on Monday!

Practicing Philanthropy: How Writers Can Contribute to the Greater Good

PRACTICING PHILANTHROPY: HOW WRITERS CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THE GREATER GOOD

By Erika Dreifus

Even in healthy financial times, writers who aren’t named J.K. Rowling or James Patterson don’t often have abundant funds to spare for charitable contributions. And when the economy suffers, writers’ incomes suffer, too. But writers can help their favorite causes in many ways other than writing checks. Especially as the holiday season approaches, it seems appropriate to consider some of these possibilities.

1. The “Write-A-Thon”: Perhaps some of you have seen the short article in a recent issue of The Writer magazine in which I described my participation in the New York Writers Coalition’s past two Write-A-Thons. As I explained there, I’ve always backed my friends and family members by pledging to support their walk-a-thons, bike-a-thons, and other physically demanding charitable activities. For the NYWC’s Write-A-Thon, I asked for their sponsorship and raised hundreds of dollars that went directly to the NYWC, a nonprofit community writing organization that provides free writing workshops throughout New York City for at-risk youth, adult residents of supportive housing, formerly incarcerated people, seniors, and others who often struggle to voice their experiences. If you’d like to see the Write-A-Thon model in action right now, check out the efforts under way at Dzanc Books, a nonprofit publisher (link provided at this article’s end).

2. The Auction: Some months ago, author Tayari Jones raised over $2,500 to assist the victims of the June 2007 Dunbar Village (Florida) attacks. How did she do it? She set up an eBay auction and enlisted literary types to contribute what they could: autographed books, manuscript critiques, and even, from this practicing writer, a set of e-books. But this is far from the only example of an auction featuring writer-related goods and services for a common cause. As I draft this article, the folks at Grub Street, a literary center that was a significant part of my prior writing life in Massachusetts, are preparing for their own “literary silent auction” fundraiser. See the link at this article’s end to check out the intriguing items on Grub’s auction block and the names of participating authors.

3. The Anthology: One example that comes to mind here is Telling Tales, a 2004 anthology edited by Nadine Gordimer. All the book’s contributors (among them multiple recipients of the Nobel Prize for Literature) waived royalties/fees, so the book’s profits could benefit programs responding to the HIV-AIDS crisis. A more grass-roots case might be Stories of Strength, which emerged from the AbsoluteWrite.com discussion boards in an effort to contribute to disaster relief efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

4. The Book Donation: Countless book donation programs exist to build (or rebuild) library collections, promote literacy, and accomplish other reading-related goals. If you’re a published author, consider donating copies of your book(s). If you’re a writer who also happens to be an avid book buyer, consider donating some used texts. You can start by looking into the book donation policies at your local library. Googling “book donation” will produce thousands of links to additional book donation programs. Again, check the links at the end of this article for some suggestions.

5. The Volunteer Service: Writers have so many professional skills to share: editing, proofreading, translating, etc. For instance, I’ve voluntarily proofread a congregational history published by my synagogue. Another writer I know has edited a book whose sales benefit an alumnae association. Examples abound. You may have already done something similar. If not, think about it!

6. The Hat Tip: This one is oh-so-easy (and inexpensive!). Whether you e-mail a writer directly to tell her how much her poem or essay means to you, or you credit her market research (ahem) when you use it for your own newsletter or blog, it’s charitable to tip your hat to your fellow writers. Writers are particularly sensitive to words – and silences. This month I’d like to thank the Hayden’s Ferry Review blog for naming The Practicing Writer a “Website of the Week” and the soon-to-be MFA student who sent me an e-mail message telling me how much she appreciated the site as a “refuge.” You’ve earned yourselves some good karma!

As writers, we may not always earn lots of income to give away. But writing by no means excludes us from contributing to the greater good.

Relevant links:
New York Writers Coalition Write-A-Thon
http://nywriterscoalition.org/writeathon.htm

Dzanc Books Write-a-Thon
http://www.tayarijones.com/blog/archives/2008/04/weve_done_somet.html

Grub Street, Inc.,’s Literary Silent Auction
http://www.grubstreet.org/index.php?id=169

National Public Radio on Telling Tales
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4201842

AbsoluteWrite.com forum section on Stories of Strength
http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=86

Book Donation Programs page compiled by the American Library Association (includes links to international programs)
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/hqops/library/libraryfactsheet/alalibraryfactsheet12.cfm

© 2008 Erika Dreifus. May not be reprinted without permission.

(A version of this article originally appeared in The Practicing Writer, November 2008.)

The Wednesday Web Browser: New Posts from Churm, Daily Writing Practice, and Tales from a Term Paper Mill Writer

Our chum “Churm” has two excellent new posts over on his blog. First, he wonders if literary publishing is “inefficient or inhumane.” Chances are most practicing writers will find something to relate to here! And then, he introduces us to a new book about Chekhov (this especially piqued my interest because I’m just wrapping up a related book review).
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We all know that the best way to work toward writing success is to write. Ideally, daily. Somehow, though, Nova’s recent post “makes it new” and worth hearing all over again.
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As hungry as I was for work as a freelancer, I never considered writing for one of the notorious term paper mills. So Nick Mamatas’s testimony threw new, if not altogether surprising light on that experience. (via AL Daily)

PDFs and Polyglossia

Part of my work as a practicing writer (and yours, in case you haven’t realized it) involves keeping up with technology. Or, in my case, trying to make up deficits.

Here’s an example: In the last week I’ve finally learned how to upload PDFs to my Web site on my own. My larger goal–and I’ll get there someday–is acquiring the ability to build entire new site pages that would consist of full articles or stories. But in the meantime, I’m slowly adding some of my work to the site in PDF form.

Case in point: My mini-rant related to this year’s Nobel Prize for literature and surrounding commentary is hardly my only writing taking on American literary “isolation” or “insulation.” Here’s the start of an essay, “In Praise of Polyglossia,” published in 2004 in Matrix magazine:

Last winter I sat with my fellow (American) fiction writers around a seminar table, absorbing our (American) instructor’s insights about Craft and Process. We had just finished critiquing one of my classmate’s manuscripts, and during a brief discussion the instructor pronounced one of the most shocking statements I’d ever heard a writing teacher articulate:

“People who use foreign words in their fiction,” she began, leaning back in her chair and waving her hand, “are just showing off.”

Slight, polite laughter rippled through the room. My own face froze.

Ma foi! Was she, I wondered, alluding to my own “person,” my own fiction? Was she thinking of my own reputation for peppering speech with a French phrase here and there? Because to my knowledge she had not yet read any of my stories, many of which feature immigrant characters, stories in which German-Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany, especially, address loved ones as Liebchen, or slowly and painfully acquire English language skills. In any case, even granted the tension-filled time that it was, with the United States and France veritable foes at the United Nations, the instructor’s comments seemed the epitome of American exceptionalism—and certainly provided another insight concerning “why they hate us.”

To download and read the rest of the essay, please go to my Web site’s Writing page and scroll down. “In Praise of Polyglossia” appears twice, once with the articles about writing, and a second time in the “Essays” category.