Google and Barnes & Noble Team Up to Combat Amazon, My Parents Open Carry, and More
John Freeman's new anthology series; a bookstore helps build a library; the value of e-book subscription services; and other news.
Writing Your Way Into a Novel
"There's a great difference between that public world with the prizes, interviews, and public readings, and the private world of the closed door and the hiss of silence." Award-winning novelist Ian McEwan discusses his struggles with confidence and the bliss of writing.
Crafts
Are you a crafty person? Or would you like to be the type of person who gives handmade presents to loved ones for the holidays? This week, write about something someone has made for you. What makes this item so much more special than an item you could purchase in a store? Or, write about something you want to make for someone else. Maybe you are working on the item right now, or maybe you still need to acquire the skills necessary to make it. What would you have to learn? How long would it take, and what makes the effort worth it?
Dogfish Head Poetry Prize Open for Submissions
The 12th annual Dogfish Head Poetry Prize, cosponsored by Dogfish Head Craft Brewed Beer and Delaware–based newspaper the Cape Gazette, is currently open for submissions. The annual award is given for a poetry collection by a poet who resides in a Mid-Atlantic state. The winner will receive $500, publication by Broadkill River Press, ten author copies, and two cases of Dogfish Head Craft Brewed Beer.
Poets over the age of 21 who reside in Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington D.C., or West Virginia are eligible. Submit a manuscript of 48 to 78 pages by e-mail to Linda Blaskey, Prize Coordinator, at dogfishheadpoetryprize@earthlink.net by September 1. There is no entry fee. The winner will be required to attend the award ceremony on December 13 at the Dogfish Head Brewery in Milton, Delaware. Lodging for one night in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, is included; transportation expenses are not covered.
Sam Calagione, owner and CEO of Dogfish Head Brewery, established the Dogfish Head Poetry Prize in 2003. Calagione studied English in college and attended writing classes at Columbia University before leaving to apprentice at a brewery. The prize was originally given for a poetry chapbook by a poet from the Delmarva Peninsula.
Grant Clauser of Hatfield, Pennsylvania, won the 2013 Dogfish Head Poetry Prize for his poetry collection Necessary Myths.
Writers and Failure, Designing a Book Cover, and More
Scrabble adds 5,000 new words to its dictionary; new evidence suggests James Joyce had syphilis; Sherlock Holmes is given back to the people; and other news.
Whitman Illuminated
Illustrator and writer Allen Crawford offers a glimpse into the process of hand-lettering and illustrating his book, Whitman Illuminated: Song of Myself (Tin House Books, 2014). Crawford is the cofounder of Plankton Art Company, known for the illustrations on display at the American Museum of Natural History's Hall of Ocean Life.
Academy Expands Whitman Award
The Academy of American Poets has announced two changes to its distinguished Walt Whitman Award, making it the most valuable first-book award for poetry in the United States. In addition to a $5,000 cash prize, the winner of the 2015 award will receive publication of his or her manuscript by Graywolf Press, and a six-week all-expenses-paid residency at the Civitella Ranieri Center in Umbria, Italy.
Established in 1975, the annual prize is given to an emerging poet who has not yet published a book. The 2015 judge will be Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Tracy K. Smith.
“The partnership with the Academy affirms Graywolf Press’s forty-year commitment to publish the work of important new poets,” said Graywolf Executive Editor Jeffrey Shotts in a press release. “It seems fitting to announce this collaboration thirty years after Graywolf published Christopher Gilbert’s Walt Whitman Award–winning Across the Mutual Landscape in 1984. We simply cannot wait to see what new marvels are ahead through the award and through our work with the Academy of American Poets."
The Civitella Ranieri Center has hosted creative writers, composers, and visual artists since 1995. Residents are provided with room, board, and studio or work space in a fifteenth-century castle in rural Umbria. “This new affiliation will add to our history of outstanding poetry Fellows,” said director Dana Prescott. “We look forward to welcoming future recipients of the Walt Whitman Award to our particularly magical corner of Italy.”
Using the online submission system, poets who have not yet published a full-length book of poetry may submit a manuscript of 48 to 100 pages with a $35 entry fee between September 1 and November 1. Visit the website for complete submission guidelines.
The Academy will also purchase copies of the winning book for distribution to five thousand of its members, and will feature the poet and his or her work in its magazine, American Poets, and on its website. The winner will also receive an all-expenses-paid trip to New York City to attend the Academy's awards ceremony.
The 2014 winner was Hannah Sanghee Park for her collection The Same-Different, which will be published by Louisiana State University Press next year.
Photo: Civitella Ranieri Center
Odd Type Writers: From Joyce and Dickens to Wharton and Welty, the Obsessive Habits and Quirky Techniques of Great Authors
In Odd Type Writers, Celia Blue Johnson explores the quirky writing habits of authors such as Truman Capote, Ernest Hemingway, and Virginia Woolf—who liked to use purple ink and, in her twenties, preferred to write while standing up.
Forgotten Dr. Seuss Stories, Simon & Schuster's Behind the Book Series, and More
David Cameron defends UK security measure limiting books sent to prisons; the most disastrous typos in western history; Patti Smith reviews Murakami; and other news.
Inspired by James Joyce
To mark the centennial anniversary of the publication of James Joyce's Dubliners, author Victor LaValle explains how Joyce's stories about the ordinary people of Dublin influenced his own writing of the underrepresented voices in his Queens neighborhood.
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