Today’s Washington Post featured a column by Steven Pearlstein, with his take on the new technologies that are transforming publishing and bookselling. He must be a brave man, if he’s willing to make predictions on where all this change will lead.
Still more congratulations are in order for yet another NC Writers’ Network member:
David Rigsbee will be the recipient of the 30th Annual Sam Ragan Award for Literature, to be presented this Thursday, February 4, at St. Andrews Presbyterian College.
The following is from the press release announcing the award:
“Three distinguished fine arts awards will be presented to the recipients of the 30th Annual Sam Ragan Fine Arts Awards at St. Andrews Presbyterian College on Feb. 4.
The honorees include Mary Louise ‘Mel’ Bringle for music, Arthur McDonald for art and David Rigsbee for literature.
‘Each year, we honor distinguished North Carolinians – past and present,’ said Ron Bayes, chair of the Ragan Awards Committee. ‘Honorees are persons who have, over a long period, been outstanding practitioners of their art, and who have selflessly shared their talent with other creators, working in their primary genre and beyond.’
. . . Rigsbee contributes to literature not only as a published poet, sporting 12 full books and two more in publication for 2010, but also as an editor. Rigsbee most recently served as contributing editor and regular book reviewer for The Cortland Review but has previously served as the St. Andrews Press and Poetry Editor for the St. Andrews Review and co-founded the New Delta Review at LSU. His poetry has appeared in The New Yorker, American Poetry Review, North Atlantic Review, Prairie Schooner, The Southern Poetry Review and The St. Andrews Review.
His awards for literature include the 2009 Black Lawrence Poetry Price, American Library Association notable university press book and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Virginia Commission on the Arts and the Pound Prize in Experimental Poetry.
Rigsbee is a professor of English at Mount Olive College. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia with areas of concentration in contemporary poetry and theory.
Following the presentation of the awards, Rigsbee will share some of his written works during the Fortner Writers’ Forum beginning at 8 p.m. in Orange Main Lounge. The forum is free and open to the public.
For more information, please call 910-277-5310.”
Congratulations, David.
Cathy Smith Bowers, who led the poetry workshop at the Network’s 2009 Squire Summer Writing Residency, is North Carolina’s new Poet Laureate.
Cathy’s appointment was announced today by Governor Beverly Perdue. “Cathy’s powerful poems open new avenues of thought, and are a reflection of the love of words and learning. She believes poetry inspires and instructs North Carolinians of all ages,” Gov. Perdue said.
Cathy teaches in UNC Asheville’s Great Smokies Writing Program and in the M.F.A. program at Queens University of Charlotte, where she received the 2002 J.B. Fuqua Distinguished Educator Award. She also received the Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet Award given by the North Carolina Poetry Society in 2006 and 2007.
Cathy will be installed at a ceremony at 4:30 pm, Wednesday, February 10, at the State Capitol.
The Charlotte Observer has a nice article about Cathy and her appointment. Congratulations, Cathy, from all your friends in the Network.
NCWN board member Ginger Hendricks is now the Executive Director of Winston-Salem’s BookMARKS Festival of Books. Congratulations are in order, not just to Ginger for this new position, but to BookMARKS for hiring someone with Ginger’s abilities, and to Winston-Salem for having one of its cultural highlights in such capable hands. BookMARKS has quickly become one of the outstanding book festivals in the state, the South, and the country.
Below is the release announcing Ginger’s hiring, or you can read the Winston-Salem Journal’s article about it.
Congratulations again to Ginger.
BOOKMARKS Names Ginger Hendricks as Executive Director
Winston-Salem, NC– BOOKMARKS works to foster a community of passionate readers. It promotes literacy and inspires the love of reading and writing through literary experiences. The BOOKMARKS Board of Directors recently named Ginger Hendricks as Executive Director. Hendricks will manage the production of BOOKMARKS annual book festival and its author-based and literary events. She is also charged with fundraising, marketing and public relations, and other duties as assigned by the Board.
“We are delighted that Ginger is joining us as BOOKMARKS’ first Executive Director,” said Debbie Harllee, BOOKMARKS President. “This is a major move forward for the organization, securing her as Executive Director to oversee its operation and the work of our Community Volunteer Planning Committee.”
Most recently, Hendricks served as the Director of the Center for Women Writers and Coordinator of Cultural Events at Salem College and, from 2003 – 2005, as Assistant to the Dean of Cultural and Special Programs at Elon University. Hendricks has more than seven years of experience in event planning, public relations, development, and media relations.
“During the past four years,” Ginger Hendricks said, “I worked regularly with BOOKMARKS, participating in their annual Book Festival each September. I also helped to coordinate two stand alone events in the BOOKMARKS “Conversations with” series featuring bestselling and nationally acclaimed authors, Sue Monk Kidd and Geraldine Brooks. I am excited to work with an organization whose mission is aligned with my own passion for reading and writing.”
The sixth BOOKMARKS Festival of Books will be held on Saturday, September 11, 2010, returning to the downtown Winston-Salem’s Arts District, centering on Trade and Sixth Streets. The 2010 Festival will present more than 35 local, regional, and nationally renowned authors, illustrators, storytellers, and chefs.
The annual festival brings thousands of book enthusiasts together for a free celebration of literacy through readings, workshops, panel discussions, cooking demonstrations, and creative and interactive activities for children and teens. In partnership with community organizations, BOOKMARKS features live entertainment, a variety of food vendors and reading-related exhibitors. Activities will take place in enclosed tents and interior spaces donated by Arts District studios, galleries, and businesses.
At long last, Writing the New South is back from hiatus with an essay by Bob McCarthy. I hope you’ll all check it out soon. Look for the next new WNS posting in about two weeks.
With Writing the New South back in action, we thought it would be a good idea to remind everyone about the purpose and guidelines for this program.
When we launched the program last year, I said, “We want our members to grapple with what’s going on in the state and in the world. We are North Carolina writers living in a historic moment for North Carolina. We need to be writing about what’s happening around us, to us, to our families and friends and neighbors.”
I stand by those words. After Writing the New South for the better part of a year, though, we find that some of our guidelines need small adjustments and slight clarifications:
- Authors must be current members of the North Carolina Writers’ Network. (Ask us if you’re not sure.)
- Submissions must be no longer than 5,000 words. (We’re flexible on this, but it can’t be much longer or everyone will get that eye twitch I developed last fall.)
- Submissions may be in any genre: fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, drama, journalism, etc.
- Submissions must deal with one (or both) of two themes: 1. Current or recent events of historical significance as they relate to life in present-day North Carolina; 2. Snapshots of life in a particular city or region of North Carolina, in 500 words or less. (We mean it. Chances are, what’s going on in your neighbor’s backyard isn’t really significant in any historical sense. Ask yourself if a news story on your topic could appear in one of the state’s major newspapers.)
- Submissions do not have to be objective; however, submissions may not proselytize or attempt to convert readers to any particular viewpoint, political affiliation, or religion. (We’re the N.C. Writers’ Network, not the N.C. Preachers’ Network, N.C. Professors’ Network, or N.C. Trojan Princes’ Network. So don’t preach, lecture, or hector.)
- Submissions must be original and unpublished. (If you submit a piece to WNS, but then have a chance at publication or prizes elsewhere, we’ll be delighted to take it out of the WNS queue, and we’ll root for you.)
- The Network reserves the right to reject any submission. (As I’ve told several writers, we don’t really ‘accept’ or ‘reject’ submissions for WNS, in the traditional sense. The only reasons we’d reject a submission are if it is gratuitously offensive, woefully off-topic, or embarrassingly awful. Otherwise, we keep submissions in the queue for possible use in the future.)
- Submissions will be considered for publication in a possible anthology. By submitting their work to Writing the New South, authors agree to execute whatever steps are necessary in the event that their work is selected for such an anthology. (This is still a very real possibility, so y’all keep submitting.)
I’ll say it again: Y’all keep submitting. We wouldn’t do this if we didn’t want to read what y’all have to write about the time and place in which we live. Writing the New South is, for the foreseeable future, an ongoing program, so there’s no deadline. We have some outstanding submissions to choose from, but we’re always hungry for more. If you have questions about Writing the New South, or have trouble uploading your work to the site, please e-mail me at ed@ncwriters.org.
Now quit reading, and get back to writing.
Acclaimed author and Network member Karen Spears Zacharias has launched an Auction for Haiti Relief. Please check it out, and please give your support.
Due to the inclement weather affecting much of North Carolina (including my driveway; we could run Olympic bobsled trials on it), the postmark deadline for the 2010 Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize has been extended to December 23.
Here again, for your reference, are the guidelines:
The Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize honors internationally celebrated North Carolina novelist Thomas Wolfe. The winner receives $1,000 and possible publication in The Thomas Wolfe Review. The final judge for the 2010 award is novelist Sheri Reynolds. Reynolds graduated from Davidson College in 1989 and received her MFA in creative writing from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1992. She is the author of five novels. Her second novel, The Rapture of Canaan, was an Oprah Book Club selection. Her most recent novel is The Sweet In-Between (2008). She is professor of English and the Ruth and Perry Morgan Chair of Southern Literature at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.
Eligibility and Guidelines
The winner is announced in April.
Send submissions, indicating name of competition, to:
Professor Tony Abbott
PO Box 7096
Davidson College
Davidson, NC 28035
Checks should be made payable to the North Carolina Writers’ Network.
Our good friends at the North Carolina Arts Council have launched a new holiday Web site, offering “a variety of ways to experience the state’s rich artistic and cultural heritage this holiday season, including gift guide suggestions from ‘North Carolinians in the know about the arts.’”
The site features arts happenings across the state, as well as discounts on tickets, specialized gift guides, and a new blog celebrating North Carolina arts.
And, to help celebrate this launch, they’re sponsoring a contest to win “a selection of North Carolina guidebooks and art guides.” To enter, visit their site and share your favorite holiday arts memory by 11 A.M. on this Thursday, December 17. The winner will be chosen at noon on Friday, December 18.
Hmm . . . a contest for telling stories? I’ll be a little disappointed if a Network member doesn’t win.
Looking for that unique stocking stuffer or a gift for one of the eight nights of Hanukah? During the month of December, if you renew your membership or give someone else a gift membership, you will receive a free prize-winning poetry chapbook. These are collector’s items from years past and are limited editions.
To take advantage of this offer, please visit http://www.ncwriters.org/join.
There’s also still time to submit to the following North Carolina Writers’ Network literary competitions. For guidelines, please click here: http://www.ncwriters.org/programs-and-services/competitions.
Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize
Postmark deadline: December 20
Honors internationally celebrated North Carolina novelist Thomas Wolfe. The winner receives $1,000 and possible publication in the Thomas Wolfe Review.
Doris Betts Fiction Prize
Postmark deadline: February 1
Awards the first-prize winner $250 and publication in the North Carolina Literary Review. Select finalists also will be considered for publication in the NCLR.
Randall Jarrell Poetry Competition
Postmark deadline: February 14
Awards the winner publication in the Crucible literary journal and $200.
Tomorrow (November 12) is your last day to pre-register at a reduced rate for the 2009 NCWN Fall Conference, November 20-22, in Wrightsville Beach.
You have until 5 p.m. tomorrow to register by phone at either 336.293.8844 or 919.251.9140. You have until midnight tomorrow to register online at www.ncwriters.org.
If the renowned instructors, outstanding workshops, and lovely beach setting aren’t enough to entice you, maybe this year’s raffle prizes will be:
- For a $5 ticket, you get a chance to win a free three-day stay at the Westwinds Inn in Key West, or one of two gift certificates for a free one-night stay in any U.S. hotel (except in NYC) managed by Alliance Hospitality.
- For a $1 ticket, you could win a collection of books published by Novello Festival Press of Charlotte, a subscription to the Oxford American, or a subscription to Southern Cultures.
As always, Network members who register for the conference can make their books available for sale through the Network. Just bring 10-12 copies with you to the Fall Conference, and bring them to the Member Book Sales table in the registration area. The Network will sell your books on a consignment basis for the duration of the conference. We will collect a 20% commission on each copy sold, and write you a check for your proceeds on Sunday.
Finally, on this Veterans’ Day, all of us in the Network would like to honor those of our members who served in our nation’s armed forces. We thank you for your service to our country, and we hope that the Network has been of some small service to you as you tell your stories. (And, to those members who served in the U.S.M.C., happy birthday to the Corps, albeit a day late.)