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Wednesday Web Browser for Writers

by Erika Dreifus on
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  • Poet Kelli Russell Agodon provides this week’s writing prompt on Midge Raymond’s blog, and it’s a good one
  • Cathy Day interviews John Vanderslice on the nuts-and-bolts of teaching a novel-focused workshop (in two parts).
  • Another teaching-related item: writer Chloé Yelena Miller helps you figure out if you should teach online.
  • Melanie Bishop reminds us of an essential truth about short stories: Something happens.
  • In Sunday’s New York Times, “[Joyce Carol] Oates and [Meghan] O’Rourke discussed how they wrote about their own grief and why the literature of loss resonates with readers today.”
  • Philip Graham, on narrative structure.
  • Last, but by no means least: author Arnost Lustig passed away over the weekend. I am building a tribute page/post.

    • Monday Morning Markets/Jobs/Opportunities for Writers

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled
  • Good news: flashquake is back! The spring issue of this “literary and art journal for the briefest of forms” will launch on March 1. In submissions news, you can send work until February 15 for the current reading period. This remains a paying (albeit low-paying) publication.
  • Want to have your essay on the writing life published in Writer’s Digest magazine? It’s a distinct possibility! (Via e-mail, I’ve been assured that this is a paying freelance opportunity.)
  • As I said on Twitter when I discovered this competition last week, this Short Story Prize is my ideal contest–or it would be, if I were still 16-25…and “resident in the UK.” From the Franco-British Council: “Do you have a passion for France? Are you a Francophile with a story to share? The FBC, in conjunction with Prospect magazine and Eurostar, is inviting those aged between 16 and 25 to submit a short story of no more than 1,500 words. This year we are asking entrants to be inspired by a few choice quotes from French literature in writing a story that touches on some aspect of France or the French. The story does not have to be set in France but should simply possess a French element, however tentative. Particular credit will be given to stories that are well plotted, set in a real rather than abstract world and illuminating unexpected rather than familiar aspects of France or Frenchness.” Cash and travel prizes. No entry fee. Deadline: April 1, 2011. (Bonne chance!)
  • Another opportunity for writers on the younger side: In conjunction with the Lex Allen Literary Festival, Hollis University (Va.) has announced literary festival prizes in poetry and fiction ($100 each). Undergraduate college students are eligible. No entry fee. Submission deadline is Monday, February 7, 2011.
  • LOTS more no-fee competitions (and paying literary markets) are included in the February issue of The Practicing Writer, which went out to subscribers over the weekend. But the current issue is also online.
  • “The English Department at Siena Heights University in Adrian, MI, seeks candidates for a full-time, Assistant Professor position in creative writing with a specialization in Fiction. The successful candidate may also be asked to help develop a potential program in Digital Media Arts and Communication. Siena Heights University is a Catholic liberal arts University sponsored by the Adrian Dominican sisters.”
  • “Southern New Hampshire University seeks candidates for the position of Assistant Professor of Creative Writing and English, and Director of the Creative Writing Program. This is a full-time position with excellent benefits, starting September 1, 2011. As the coordinator for the undergraduate creative writing major, the successful candidate will have a passion for creative writing, an excellent record in teaching undergraduates, and experience in administering a writing program.”
  • From the University of Puget Sound (Wash.), where they’re looking for a Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing: “We seek a colleague who works in fiction, with secondary areas of teaching ability in one of the following: poetry, playwriting, screenwriting, or creative non-fiction. The course load is three courses per semester and the faculty member in this position will be asked to teach composition courses in addition to creative writing. Depending upon interest and expertise, the possibility for the candidate to teach literature courses also exists.”
  • Harvard University (Medical School, Mass.) is looking for a Writer/Editor, Rice University (Texas) seeks a Communication Writer, and the Writers Guild of Alberta (Canada) invites applications for a Program Coordinator position.

    • The Wednesday Web Browser for Writers

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled
  • “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.

    • The Wednesday Web Browser

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled
  • This week, I’m reading Andrew Furman’s new memoir, My Los Angeles in Black and (Almost) White. It’s a very absorbing read—and I’d say that even if Andy weren’t a friend! Over on her Reading for Writers blog, A. P. Bucak, who has already finished the book, seems to feel the same way.
  • Stacy Schiff shares advice for aspiring biographers.
  • You still have three days to buy Christmas presents, and Writer Abroad has some gift suggestions for the international writers on your lists.
  • My latest book review tackles some questions about how anthologies are compiled.
  • The ever-reliable After Deadline blog presents a new batch of “notes from the newsroom on grammar, usage and style.”