Monday Markets/Jobs/Opportunities for Writers

  • I’ve mentioned this no-fee contest in a previous issue of The Practicing Writer, but since the deadline is approaching, it’s probably worth mentioning again: “This year sampad is delighted to be celebrating the 150th anniversary of the birth of Rabindranath Tagore with Inspired by Tagore an international writing competition. Tagore was a hugely influential South Asian poet and many sampad projects have celebrated his legacy or been sparked by a line of his poetry….There are 2 categories: one for writers aged between 8 and 15, one for writers aged 16 and over. Entries can be poetry, short stories or reportage, and writers can submit up to 6 pieces of work, maximum length 400 words, using Tagore’s poetry and writing as a starting point.” Cash prizes and publication. Open to writers around the world. Deadline: January 31, 2012.
  • From WritersWeekly.com: “We’re Out Of Features! QUERY US! WritersWeekly pays $60 on acceptance for features averaging around 600 words. See our guidelines HERE.”
  • “The American South is a haunted place — full of ghost stories, native legends, persistent devils & angels, souls sold at the crossroads, and moon-eyed maidens living in the Okefenokee. The South’s best writers — Faulkner, O’Connor, McCullers — all keep this sense of the otherworldly in their fiction. In this spirit, Q & W Publishers is looking for submissions for an anthology of short fiction and non-fiction that explores the fantastic, eerie, and bizarre side of the American South.” Pays: $50/accepted piece, plus one copy of the anthology.”
  • From the Kentucky Arts Council: “BOOKSTORE SEEKING LOCAL AUTHOR BOOKS FOR SALE Bakery Blessings & Bookstore @ the Bar in Lexington is accepting local, Kentucky author books for sale on consignment. More info: Jan(at)aprilword(dot)com.”
  • Something for my fellow New Yorkers: Free writing workshops around Manhattan on January 10 and 11. Check them out and pre-register.
  • From Colby College (Maine): “Position in Fiction Writing starting September 2012 to teach 1-3 sections of Introduction to Fiction (English 278). Applicants must have a MFA or equivalent, publication, and evidence of teaching effectiveness at the college level.”
  • The Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University (Mass.) seeks a Staff Writer, Melville House Publishing (Brooklyn, N.Y.) is looking for a Publicist, and Carleton College (Minn.) seeks applications for a Publications Writer/Editor.
  • The Wednesday Web Browser for Writers

    New Year's cake decorated by my niece. Photo © Joanna Dreifus.
  • Susan Woodring shares generous New Year’s wishes for practicing writers. Meantime, here are some excellent New Year’s resolutions from independent publicist Dana Kaye (thanks to @_joycastro for pointing me to the latter).
  • @SocialDialect recommends a post that features 10 blogs about blogging, “because we can all use more resources.”
  • The New York Times profiles the Hmong American Writers’ Circle–and its preoccupations. (See also the sample writings.)
  • The Millions previews highly anticipated books coming in 2012. (Hint for those who want to build a book-reviewing practice–you may find some forthcoming titles for review pitches here.)
  • In case you’ve ever wondered exactly what a “poetry chapbook” is, Brian Klems explains.
  • Friday Find: What to Do Before Your Book Debuts

    Over on the information-packed, multi-author Beyond the Margins blog, Randy Susan Meyers has begun a series of “What do Do Before Your Book Debuts” posts. The first post outlines some beginning steps; the second focuses on author websites and blogging; and in due course we’ll be reading about “Publicists, Marketing, Launch Parties, MANNERS! and more.” I’ll be following along and trying to learn what I might have done more effectively before my story collection, Quiet Americans, was published.

    Meantime, here’s wishing you all an extra-wonderful New Year’s weekend. See you back here in 2012!

    The Wednesday Web Browser for Writers

  • Scott Nadelson’s new story collection, Aftermath, is this week’s Fiction Writers Review Book of the Week. Follow @FictionWriters for a chance to win a copy. (Having read Nadelson’s two previous collections, I’ll admit that I would love to be a winner this week.)
  • My fellow Last Light Studio author, Ericka Lutz, has posted her first book trailer for The Edge of Maybe, her forthcoming LLS novel. Take a peek (but be forewarned that you should be wearing headphones if you’re listening at work and/or in the vicinity of children).
  • Thanks to the Yiddishkayt site, I discovered a fabulous video profile of author Arnost Lustig (1926-2011) that was produced for Czech TV. Thankfully, there are English subtitles. And the profile perfectly captures Arnost, with whom I had the privilege of studying in the Prague Summer Program in 2004. Arnost would have turned 85 last week.
  • D.G. Myers remembers those writers, like Arnost, who left this world in 2011. (Myers also comes up with his own set of the year’s top 10 literary news stories.)
  • In case you haven’t heard about the latest brouhaha in the poetry world, here’s a pretty good summary. Disclosure: I have never studied with Rita Dove, but I have taken courses with Helen Vendler (a British lit survey as an undergrad and a summer seminar on Yeats after I’d finished graduate school), and I think she is brilliant.
  • Lest you believe that anthology quarrels are new to our modern moment, Benjamin Ivry recalls some older literary history. Hint: Ralph Waldo Emerson and Emma Lazarus are key players here.
  • On a less fraught note, author Alan Heathcock recommends a poem a day. (And so do I.)
  • The Wednesday Web Browser for Writers

  • Faye Rapoport DesPres recently published such a good post on rejection on her blog that she inspired me to go back and dig up a short essay of mine on the same subject.
  • On the Fiction Writers Review blog, Celeste Ng reflects on naming practices in fiction–and provides some links to online name generators you may want to try.
  • I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how I have sometimes managed to turns peeves and annoyances into fee-garnering writing (for one example, see this essay). So naturally, Midge Raymond’s latest writing prompt caught my eye.
  • Kelly James-Enger suggests “5 Things for Freelancers to Do Before Year’s End.”
  • Feeling a bit crunched? Worried that you aren’t writing during this holiday season? Lori Ann Bloomfield shares tips for making sure you don’t neglect your writing practice.
  • If you haven’t heard about the latest Facebook changes, Robert Lee Brewer will help you get oriented.
  • It has been quite a long time since I’ve shared a New York Times “After Deadline” post (on grammar, usage, and style). Here’s an example of what you’ve been missing.
  • From David Abrams: A gorgeous look at the year in book covers.
  • Please tune in tomorrow, when I’ll share the story behind my first commissioned short story, “Fidelis,” which is currently airing on NPR.