Genre: Fiction

Avoidance Speech

The Time Is Now
1.18.17

Within some cultures in Africa, Australia, and India, there exist strict rules which regulate the type of language permissible to use with one’s in-laws—for example, married women in Ethiopia who speak the Kambaata language and follow the ballishsha rule are forbidden to use any word that starts with the same syllables as the names of their parents-in-law. Often the solution is to use synonyms, euphemisms, or more generic terms. Write a scene in which two characters must have a conversation while abiding by a law that restricts particular words. Why is this law in place, and how do your characters deal with it? What power dynamics are involved? Are there hidden messages within the dialogue that cause a misunderstanding?

Live by Night

Caption: 

The film adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s Edgar Award–winning crime novel, Live by Night (William Morrow, 2012), follows the Coughlin family’s epic rise and fall through the Prohibition Era, from Boston to the Gulf Coast. Ben Affleck directs and stars in the film with Chris Cooper, Elle Fanning, Sienna Miller, and Zoe Saldana.

Genre: 
Fiction
Tags: 
2012
2017
Dennis Lehane
Edgar Award
film adaptation
Live by Night
movie trailer
William Morrow

Finalists for Story Prize Announced

G&A: The Contest Blog
1.11.17

The finalists for the 2016 Story Prize have been announced. The annual prize is given for a story collection published in the previous year. The winner receives $20,000 and the finalists each receive $5,000.

The finalists for this year’s prize are Rick Bass for For a Little While (Little, Brown), Anna Noyes for Goodnight, Beautiful Women (Grove Press), and Helen Maryles Shankman for They Were Like Family to Me (Scribner). Prize founders Larry Dark and Julie Lindsey selected the finalists from 106 submissions; Harold Augenbraum, Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, and Daniel Goldin will choose the winner.

“These three books stood out from a large and varied field, each offering skillful storytelling, beautifully detailed language, and a whole greater than its parts,” said Dark. The winner will be announced at a ceremony in New York City on March 8.

Established in 2004, the Story Prize is one of the largest prizes given for a story collection. Recent winners include George Saunders for Tenth of December, Elizabeth McCracken for Thunderstruck, and Adam Johnson for Fortune Smiles.

Edible Trends

The Time Is Now
1.11.17

Wraps, bubble tea, pork belly, kale, elaborate hamburgers, macarons. Different years are prone to different food trends, with the popular items appearing everywhere from fine-dining establishments, to fast food joints and snack trucks, to packaged goods and home cooking. Incorporate a trending food item from a certain time period into a short story. How does the insertion contribute a specific sense of time and place into your piece? What does it tell the reader about your characters’ lifestyles?

Pam Houston on Dialogue

Caption: 

“Nothing makes me want to hurl a book across the room harder and faster than when the writer gives me a quick little emotional recap to make sure I’m keeping up.” For the Word Works series at Hugo House, Pam Houston, the author most recently of Contents May Have Shifted (Norton, 2012), delivers a lecture on crafting dialogue.

Genre: 
Fiction
Tags: 
Hugo House
Word Works
Pam Houston
dialogue
2012
2014
Contents May Have Shifted
Norton

Imbolo Mbue in New York City

Caption: 

In this Louisiana Channel interview, Imbolo Mbue speaks about her love of New York City and the challenges of being black and working-class in America, which she explores in her debut novel, Behold the Dreamers (Random House, 2016). Mbue is one of the debut authors featured in “First Fiction 2016” in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Genre: 
Fiction
Tags: 
2016
Behold the Dreamers
First Fiction 2016
Imbolo Mbue
interview
July/August 2016
Louisiana Channel
Random House

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