Practicing Writing

Monday Morning Markets/Jobs/Opportunities

2009-11-09T00:01:00.004-05:00

From Amy Paturel, who teaches The Renegade Writer's e-class on "Essay Writing: How to Find the Story in You--And Sell It: "[I]n the spirit of gratitude and creating abundance, I'm calling on YOU...to share what Thanksgiving means to you. The person who tugs at my heart strings the most will get a free essay writing class (Premium version) when the new session starts up on January 11." You must

Friday Find: ASJA's Contracts Watch

2009-11-06T00:01:00.000-05:00

This week, I received an e-mail from the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) which read, in part:If you've missed Contracts Watch during its hiatus, good news: it's back!If you're not familiar with Contracts Watch, take a look. The American Society of Journalists and Authors' Contracts Committee reviews writing contracts and answers questions for both ASJA members and non-members,

Introducing "Quotation of the Week"

2009-11-05T00:01:00.001-05:00

This new blog feature stems from my sense of inadequacy when a friend contacted me last week hoping/expecting that I'd be able to help her out with a writing-related quotation. Despite my great love for bite-sized morsels of writing wit and wisdom, I was unable to do so.So partially as a task of self-education, and partially as an effort to inspire all of you, I'm launching a new "Quotation of

The Wednesday Web Browser

2009-11-04T00:01:00.001-05:00

An interview with a writer whose fiction has won a number of contests.==========Much more of Kenyon Review editor David Lynn's aforementioned reflections on "Print Vs. Internet."==========If you're interested in news from/about the Jewish literary world, please don't forget to check in with my other blog. Here's one recent, info-packed post.==========Remember our recent discussion on "how old is

Just for Emphasis

2009-11-03T00:01:00.002-05:00

I've been thinking a lot lately about what makes memoiristic nonfiction (whether in poetry or prose) relevant to anyone beyond the writer. (Let's just say that last week I was reading a very me, me, me essay--a published one--and subsequently was consumed with the wish to figure out how to avoid afflicting readers with similar unpleasantness in my own work.) Then I recalled Lisa Romeo's sage

Monday Morning Markets/Jobs/Opportunities

2009-11-02T00:01:00.004-05:00

CV2, "the Canadian journal of poetry and critical writing," plans a winter 2010 issue themed "At the Root of Voice": "Where does today’s poetry come from? What influence do our past expectations continue to have on popular verse? Is rhyme really dead or merely resting? Is the current fascination with traditional forms pushing poetic innovation into new creative territory or are today’s poets

Friday Find: AWP's Hallmarks of an Effective Low-Residency MFA Program in Creative Writing

2009-10-30T00:01:00.000-04:00

I receive LOTS of requests for advice on low-res programs. Sometimes, people ask me to tell them whether program A or B is "better." Which I absolutely, positively, cannot do. A big part of this inability, of course, comes from the truth that what might be "better" to one person would be "worse" to another. (This is why I'm not such a fan of rankings.)What can be helpful, however, is the capacity

Conference Scholarship for Ontario Writers (Deadline Approaching Fast!)

2009-10-29T00:01:00.001-04:00

There's no time to save this announcement for the Monday morning round-up, so I'm posting it today. The Ontario Writers' Conference offers a "Kick-Start Writing Prize" for entrants (ages 18-26) who attend a postsecondary institution in the province of Ontario. "We believe in the importance of encouraging young writers to explore their creativity, strengthen their craft and immerse themselves in

The Wednesday Web Browser

2009-10-28T00:01:00.002-04:00

Here are the latest notes from the NYT newsroom "on grammar, usage and style."==========InsideHigherEd.com reports on U.S. Poet Laureate Kay Ryan's new initiative, Poetry for the Mind's Joy, "through which she hopes to draw national attention to community colleges, as well as drawing the colleges' attention to poetry. She plans to do so in a variety of ways: for starters, by reading her poetry at

Department of Congratulations

2009-10-27T00:01:00.001-04:00

Congratulations to practicing writer Suchi Rudra Vasquez, whose new fiction collection, Kitaab, has been published by Six Gallery Press. Suchi writes that the book "was inspired by a year i spent living and volunteering in Bombay" and adds, given our recent blog discussion on prose poetry, that "people have called it poetic prose AND prose poetry, and I am also confused about genre, but very

Monday Morning Markets/Jobs/Opportunities

2009-10-26T00:01:00.002-04:00

By week's end the November issue of "The Practicing Writer" will go out to subscribers. (The October issue is currently available on freelancewriting.com.) Not yet a subscriber? Click here.==========Just a reminder that you have only a few more days if you want to submit work this season to Ellipsis, a journal based at Westminster College in Salt Lake City. The deadline is November 1. Pays: $10/

Friday Find: Smartish Pace's Poets Q&A

2009-10-23T00:01:00.000-04:00

One of the best aspects of my still-nascent poetry practice is my rediscovery and new enjoyment of poetry-only journals. One of these publications, Smartish Pace, runs a wonderful online feature, "Poets Q&A," in which readers can submit questions to prominent practitioners of the craft; the poets respond, and a full set of questions and answers appears online. Until November 6, you can submit a

TBR: Five Titles On My Nightstand

2009-10-22T00:01:00.001-04:00

Literally, these five books are stacked on my nightstand. I'd love to say that sometime in the near future I'll have read them all, and will be able to blog about each one, but let's face it: I have no clue when I'll have read them, let alone reflected sufficiently to write about them. So, as dubious a substitute as it may be, here's a photo of the fab five. I don't know what to think of the fact

The Wednesday Web Browser

2009-10-21T00:01:00.001-04:00

Starting soon: Low-Residency MFA for Asian Writing in English. Location: City University of Hong Kong. Details here.==========Meant to bring this one to you last week, but, as they say, better late than never: Ellis Weiner's "Shouts and Murmurs" piece takes wickedly funny aim at modern book publicity/marketing.==========Back to serious stuff: Liesl Schillinger offers an energetic and thoughtful

How Old is Too Old for a Traditional MFA Program?

2009-10-20T00:01:00.003-04:00

As a group, you have proven to be such a wonderful source of knowledge (see, for instance, the recents posts on prose poetry and reading Dickens) that I am going to turn to you once again for your wisdom and advice.An anonymous reader recently left this comment:I have a question. What age is too old for a traditional MFA program? Everybody seems to be in their 20s. I'm currently in an excellent

Monday Morning Markets/Jobs/Opportunities

2009-10-19T00:01:00.002-04:00

Fugue, a literary journal based at the University of Idaho, is assembling a 20th anniversary issue "in the form of a regionally based issue. Bruce Barcott said, 'We created the northwest with words,' but we are adding that it is this region which causes writers to write. This latter thought is what we are developing our anniversary issue around - the writers of the west, but more specifically the

Friday Find: The Secrets to Publishing Success

2009-10-16T00:01:00.001-04:00

That post title sure grabbed your attention, didn't it? Well, Jane Friedman, publisher and editorial director of the Writer's Digest brand at F+W Media, has compiled a set of extremely helpful posts from her There Are No Rules blog (which itself has appeared on our list of frequently checked blogs and links for quite some time). Subtitled "Jane's 2009 Tough Love Guide," "The Secrets to Publishing

Genre Confusion: Help Wanted!

2009-10-15T00:01:00.002-04:00

In many ways, I am not at all suited to be a fiction writer. I am not one of those lucky souls who is "taken over" by a character who demands to have a story written. I am not someone to whom plot comes naturally. My work is often idea- or circumstance-driven, which, I've (finally?) begun to realize, often makes it more suited to essays or poems. Or prose poems. Maybe. Without getting far more

The Wednesday Web Browser

2009-10-14T00:01:00.002-04:00

Deonne Kahler reports on the results of her personal write-a-thon.==========Hannah Tinti interviews Jennifer Haigh regarding Haigh's recent One Story story, "Desiderata." It's an excellent story, and fans of Haigh's Baker Towers will be interested to learn which characters from the novel reappear within it.==========Via Tayari Jones: The fabulous Honorée Fanonne Jeffers has started a blog,

"For Services Rendered": A Story and Its History

2009-10-13T00:01:00.001-04:00

If you've visited my other blog lately (it's called My Machberet, and it focuses on matters of more specifically Jewish cultural and literary interest), you've likely noticed my multi-part interview with Kelly Hartog, the founding editor of Scribblers on the Roof, an exciting new online forum for Jewish fiction and poetry.Scribblers on the Roof does not currently pay its contributors, but it does

Monday Morning Markets/Jobs/Opportunities

2009-10-12T00:01:00.004-04:00

Writers who have received their terminal degree in creative writing within the last five years have until November 1 to apply for an Axton Fellowship at the University of Louisville (Ky.). "The purpose of these fellowships is to provide recent graduates with time to further their own work, to associate them with a distinguished faculty, and to allow them to contribute to a vibrant creative

Friday Find: Creating Van Gogh

2009-10-09T00:01:00.001-04:00

Creating Van Gogh is a new blog from John Vanderslice, chronicling Vanderslice's progress as he writes an historical novel featuring Vincent Van Gogh. I think it will particularly interest those of us who give a lot of thought to the use of "real" people in historical fiction. (Side note: The addition of Creating Van Gogh to the links at left signals the first [to my knowledge] set of

The Thursday Web Browser

2009-10-08T00:01:00.002-04:00

I know--Wednesday is the day for the Web Browser--but there is so much to share that I'm taking the liberty of making the regular "column" a two-day event this week:While nixing cookie service at faculty meetings (or perhaps because of this cost-cutting measure), Harvard manages to purchase the archive of John Updike.==========Intriguing article about the day job/writing dilemma(s). (via

The Wednesday Web Browser

2009-10-07T00:01:00.002-04:00

Our friend "Oronte Churm" interviews Philip Graham, who teaches creative writing at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The main topic of discussion: Graham's soon-to-be-released nonfiction book, The Moon, Come to Earth: Dispatches from Lisbon, which is inspired by a recent sabbatical year. Lots of interesting material here, about Portugal, writing about cultures not one's own, "'

Craft Tips Culled from Contest-Judging

2009-10-06T00:01:00.000-04:00

If you're a Practicing Writer newsletter subscriber, you've already seen this piece, which was featured in the issue that went out last week. But I thought I'd reprint it here. Enjoy!CRAFT TIPS CULLED FROM CONTEST-JUDGINGby Erika DreifusAs some of you may remember, my writing practice recently expanded when I was invited to judge a short fiction competition. I am very grateful to have been asked