The deadline’s approaching fast (February 28) for submissions to Chicken Soup for the Shopper’s Soul. Writers of (nonfiction) stories accepted for final publication may choose between a $200 payment or 16 complimentary copies of the volume (per story published). Payment for published poems will be $50, on publication. For more terms and submission instructions, see the announcement.
This call just arrived in my e-mailbox yesterday from Camille Cusumano. She’s editing a new volume titled Greece, A Love Story: Women Write About the Greek Experience. Like preceding volumes (on France, Italy, and Mexico), this one will be published by Seal Press. Here’s the info (which you can also find here):
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS:
GREECE, A LOVE STORY
Women Write About the Greek Experience
Slated for Spring 2007
Greece evokes a richly embroidered tapestry of images, from old monuments rife with history to idyllic isles of glass-blue sea and blinding white stucco dwellings. The ancient Greeks, as well as the contemporary, permeate our Western culture with the unparalleled gifts of beauty and wisdom they left behind: classical literature, mythology, philosophy, rhetoric; a mind-stirring history and civilization; and a language that is musical and expressive of emotions/ideas not reflected in other languages. Vestiges of their artistic genius are huge and imposing: Greek temples, marvels of architecture such as Athens’s Parthenon and Acropolis, gracefully sculptured statues, delicate pottery. Greece, it is said, is where “art became inseparable from life.”
We are looking for twenty to thirty essays to fill this collection on the Greece that lies behind postcards. We would like personal stories that go beyond the practical travel guide and that embrace more “literary” travel writing, from writers who have been deeply affected by the country. Writers will demonstrate that they have had some kind of love affair with the country, whether with its people, cities, islands, food, history, art, or culture.
For examples of the various styles of writing that will work for this collection, see essays in the books already published in the “Love Story” series—on France, Italy, and Mexico. As with these anthologies, Greece, A Love Story will embrace every angle of love—whether of place, people, food, culture, or art—and the stories will capture the experience that changes, teaches, enlightens the author-and by extension the reader.
We are looking for strong narratives, excellent first-person writing, good storytelling, and diverse voices. Personal style and humor are encouraged.
EDITOR: Camille Cusumano was an editor at VIA Magazine in San Francisco for 17 years. She is the author of many food and travel articles and several books and the editor of France, A Love Story, Italy, A Love Story, and Mexico, A Love Story.
PUBLISHER: Seal Press, an imprint of Avalon Publishing Group, Inc.
DEADLINE: May 1, 2006
LENGTH: 2,500 to 5,000 words
FORMAT: Essays must be typed, double-spaced, and paginated. Please include your address, phone number, email address, and a short bio on the last page.
SUBMITTING: Electronic submissions are preferred. Send essay electronically as a Word or Rich Text Format file (with .doc or .rtf extension) to CAMILLE CUSUMANO at ocaramia@earthlink.net. Put GREECE A LOVE STORY in the subject line. If email is not possible, mail the essay to CAMILLE CUSUMANO, Seal Press, c/o Denise Silva, 1400 65th Street, Suite 250, Emeryville, CA 94608. Please direct any inquiries to ocaramia@earthlink.net.
PAYMENT: $100
REPLY: Editor cannot reply to every submission personally. Please allow until July 31, 2006, for a response. If you haven’t received a response by then, please assume your essay has not been selected.
If you’re looking for some writing-oriented reading this weekend you can find plenty to keep you occupied (and thinking) in online offerings from the January-February 2006 Poets & Writers magazine. I found so much of direct interest to me in this issue I’m still marveling over it.
My interest was piqued first when I saw that the magazine had published a complimentary letter penned by a friend of mine. That was a good sign! (No, that’s not one of the online offerings I’m pointing you to. But I have to say it made me smile as I read on.)
I can’t say I’ve read all of David Foster Wallace’s work, but his story, “The Depressed Person,” remains a favorite. So I was more than just intrigued to find Joe Woodward’s piece, “In Search of David Foster Wallace,” in the magazine.
Then, because I’m a pretty active book reviewer (I should probably be writing a review right this minute instead of blogging–the book in question is reprovingly within my peripheral vision) and try to help others learn about book reviewing I was also interested in Timothy Schaffert’s Q&A with David Ulin, who now edits the Los Angeles Times Book Review.
As if that weren’t enough, Daniel Nester’s article on Stephen Elliott’s new anthology addresses one of my favorite topics: “politically inspired fiction.”
And finally, there’s Kevin Larimer’s report on the outcome of the most recent Winnow Press First Fiction competition. Or maybe lack of outcome is a better term, since no prize was awarded. I certainly can’t say I’m an uninvolved party here, both because I know very well which little bird alerted Mr. Larimer to this piece of news and because yes, I am one of the 300 people whose manuscripts the press found, in the words of publisher Corinne Lee, “so disappointing.” I suppose I’ll just remain grateful to (and perhaps in a very human way will prefer the judgments of) the editors of the five journals and two contests that published and “prized” the stories included in this manuscript collection (a shortened one, due to the contest’s page limits) in the past. And I’ll be grateful, too, to Winnow Press for returning my contest fee.
The latest offerings from JBooks.com: The Online Jewish Book Community are now available. As someone who has not infrequently submitted work to anthologies, frankly enjoys reading them, and sometimes even daydreams about possible anthology topics myself, I found Sanford Pinsker’s piece, inspired by a new anthology edited by Jerome Charyn, a very intriguing read. (Of course, I’m also partial to my own current JBooks.com contribution, a review of Abigail Pogrebin’s Stars of David.)