As in, only six days are left to register for the 2009 Squire Summer Writing Residency. We still have a few spaces available in each class, but they’re filling up quickly. Please visit www.ncwriters.org now to save your place.
You can also call 336.293.8844 or 919.251.9140 to sign up, but please note that the Network offices will be closed tomorrow, July 3, in honor of Independence Day.
Speaking of Independence, some of you may have heard about Amazon.com “disaffiliating” its North Carolina affiliates (many of whom are authors) to avoid paying a proposed sales tax.
If you have been an Amazon affiliate, you should look into becoming IndieBound. IndieBound “is a community-oriented movement begun by the independent bookseller members of the American Booksellers Association. It brings together booksellers, readers, indie retailers, local business alliances, and anyone else with a passionate belief that healthy local economies help communities thrive. Supporting local, indie businesses means that dollars, jobs, diversity, choice, and taxes stay local, creating strong, unique communities and happy citizens.” Visit www.indiebound.org to learn more.
Happy Fourth of July, everyone.
As in, registration for the 2009 Squire Summer Writing Residency will close in two weeks. We still have some spaces available in all three workshops - Poetry with Cathy Smith Bowers, Fiction with Tommy Hays, and Creative Nonfiction with Catherine Reid - so visit www.ncwriters.org to sign up now.
If you’re not sure whether or not you want to come, Virginia has supplied you with her Top 5 Reasons to Sign Up for the Squire Summer Writing Residency:
1. The landscape that inspired Thomas Wolfe can inspire you.
(Ed’s Note: It would help if you’re an awkward, sensitive, 6′6″ man-child with a ragingly dysfunctional family.)
2. Breathtaking scenery and cool, fresh mountain air.
3. If you are from other parts of the U.S., rest assured that the Residency will not be a three-day snake-handling tent revival.
(Ed’s Note: Apparently someone actually asked Virginia about this. She thinks they were joking. I kind of wished she had told them that yes, we will be handling snakes.)
4. NC native (and star of the new movie The Hangover) Zach Galifianakis has said his ultimate dream is to start a writing residency in the mountains.
(Ed’s Note: You can beat the Hollywood crowd and call yourself a trendsetter.)
5. Uninterrupted writing time.
(Ed’s Note: Well, it’ll be uninterrupted up until it’s interrupted for breakfast, lunch, dinner, workshops, readings, the panel discussion, the picnic, social time with fellow writers . . . )
I’ve talked to several Network members in the last few days who asked if the Squire Summer Writing Residency workshops are already full.
They’re not. We still have space available in all three workshops: poetry with Cathy Smith Bowers, fiction with Tommy Hays, and creative nonfiction with Catherine Reid.
Please visit www.ncwriters.org to sign up. Remember that the deadline is July 8, so don’t put it off.
Like a good parent, I love the Spring Conference, the Summer Residency, and the Fall Conference equally - but, to be honest, I like the Summer Residency best. Last year’s was a blast. Because of the smaller size and the intimate environment, we all get to know each other a little better than we do at the Spring or Fall Conferences. This year’s will have the advantage of being held on the gorgeous Blue Ridge Mountain campus of Warren Wilson College (and, for those who came last year, I’ve been assured there will be no bike races anywhere near the campus).
Please come join us for what’s sure to be a weekend of outstanding writing, learning, and - pardon the pun - networking.
- The Poet’s House has a free, online database of 20,000 poetry book titles. You can search here.
- Poets Arielle Greenberg and Rachel Zucker sent out a call to poets the day before Inauguration asking them to write a poem about the current political climate. Poets such as Mark Doty and Fanny Howe have contributed to the site. A new poem is posted each day. Link is here.
- If you want to make posts that are not so editorialized, such as post poems with pictures, Tumblring might be your thing. Here is a link to free Tumblr accounts.
And lastly, if you are blue about the fate of the printed word, don’t worry: you can email the novelist Dave Eggers about it at deggers@826national.org.
And you always have the NC Writers’ Network.
Many members ask, “What is the first step in getting published?”
Agents do look to see if you have been previously published or won any literary contests when they consider whether or not they can be an advocate for your work.
Our Submit It! section under Resources for Writers on our website (within the Literary Calendar) lists contests in specific genres, but also lists calls for anthologies; literary magazines looking for stories, essays, and poems; festivals or bookstores looking for authors; and other unique opportunities for writers.
Only members can view this section, so one first needs to login with their User ID (email address, all lower-case) and password (county of residence, first letter capitalized) before one can see Submit It!
Those of you who missed Spring Conference missed some outstanding workshops, readings, and discussions about the craft and business of writing.
As tempting as it may be to gloat, though, I hope that those who were there will share a little bit of what they learned with the rest of the Network.
If you attended the 2009 Spring Conference, please leave a comment on this blog, telling us the most useful or insightful piece of information or advice you heard Saturday.
You can summarize one of your workshops, share a quote or two that you enjoyed, or talk about your favorite aspect of the conference.
Thanks again to all of you who attended the conference, and to our instructors, readers, panelists, and volunteers who helped to make it so memorable.
And keep your eye on www.ncwriters.org - Summer Residency registration will be open soon.
The 2009 NCWN Spring Conference is only two days away. Registration is still open, but please note that all of our fiction workshops are now full.
Meanwhile, in this morning’s Shelf Awareness I saw some good news for the keynote speaker from last year’s Spring Conference:
“Linda Gregg won the $50,000 Jackson Poetry Prize, which honors “an American poet of exceptional talent who has published at least one book of recognized literary merit but has not yet received major national acclaim,” according to Poets & Writers magazine, which sponsors the prize. Gregg’s books, including her most recent collection, All of It Singing, are published by Graywolf Press.
“The judges for this year’s award–Brenda Hillman, Edward Hirsch and Charles Simic–described Gregg’s poems as ‘charting human emotion at its most risky, leading the reader at times into a metaphysical or mystical utterance, and at times into a plain-spoken observation of a human world. Her poems are wise and beautiful.’”
Congratulations, Linda.
Happy National Poetry Month!
If you decide to renew your membership or join in the month of April (National Poetry Month), you will receive an award-winning poetry chapbook. These chapbooks make great graduation presents or Mother’s Day gifts.
You can join online at http://www.ncwriters.org/join
And don’t forget that today is the last day to register for Spring Conference 2009 at the early rate of $99 for Network members ($150 for nonmembers).
You only have until this Thursday, April 16, to register for the 2009 Spring Conference at the early-bird rates of $99 for Network members, $150 for nonmembers.
After Thursday, registration will cost members $135, and nonmembers $165.
Some workshops are already full, and others will fill up soon. Please register now to make sure you get into the workshops you want.
The Network offices will be closed tomorrow, April 10. We’ll be open again on Monday, April 13.
Of course, even though the office is closed, you can still register online for the 2009 Spring Conference - and I suggest you do so soon, since several of the workshops are close to capacity.
The latest post for Writing the New South is up now. Writing the New South is an ongoing project - we’re going to keep posting new stories, poems, narratives, and plays as long as we keep getting good ones to post.
If you’ve submitted an entry to WNS but it hasn’t yet been posted on the website, don’t despair. We don’t really reject submissions to Writing the New South, in that an entry would have to be either spectacularly bad or gratuitously offensive for us to say it will never be posted.
Remember, though, that the purpose of Writing the New South is to find work that deals with the challenges and opportunities faced by contemporary North Carolinians. You may have written a masterful poem about, say, daffodils, or a brilliant short story set in the War of 1812, but that’s not exactly Writing the New South.
So y’all keep writing, and we’ll keep posting.