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Good Halloween costumes distill the essence of what or who you are dressing up as, so that it’s immediately recognizable. This week, think about the scariest Halloween costume you’ve ever seen. What was it about the costume that really made an impact on you?
The “algorithm versus librarian” debate heats up; French culture minister sparks controversy; the subtext of Victorian horror; and other news.
The fright-seekers are gearing up to get scared this week, visiting haunted houses, riding haunted hayrides, and stumbling through cavernous corn mazes. Imagine one of your characters is hired to be a monster for one of these frightful events. Why does she take the job? Does she like scaring people, or does she just need the money? What does her costume look like? Does she feel guilty about frightening people?
Award-winning author Brock Clarke reads from his latest novel, The Happiest People in the World (Algonquin Books, 2014), at the 2014 Colgate Writers' Conference. Clarke is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
Authors to auction off character names for charity; Halloween costumes of famous authors; post-apocalyptic novels; and other news.
Actor Steve Martin interviews the author and cartoonist about her start as a staff cartoonist at the New Yorker. Chast won the Kirkus Prize in nonfiction for her graphic memoir Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? (Bloomsbury, 2014).
Haunted houses are a classic setting for ghost stories. This week, write a poem about the house you live in as though it were haunted. Imagine what kind of spirits might live there, why they remain, and how they inhabit the space. Describe the sound of the creaky floorboard near the refrigerator, the way the windows slide shut on their own, and the weird smell near the fireplace. For inspiration, read Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem “Haunted Houses.”
Submissions are currently open for the Madison Review’s Phyllis Smart-Young Prize in Poetry and Chris O’Malley Prize in Fiction. The prizes are given annually for a trio of poems and a short story. Each winner will receive $1,000 and publication in the Madison Review.
Using the online submission system, submit either three poems totaling no more than fifteen pages, or a story of up to thirty pages with a $10 entry fee by November 1. The editors of the Madison Review will judge.
Established in the early 1970s, the Madison Review is the undergraduate student–run journal of the University of Wisconsin in Madison. The biannual review has published the work of poets Stephen Dunn, Lisel Mueller, and C. K. Williams, and fiction writers Charles Baxter and Isaac Bashevis Singer.
The 2013 poetry prize–winner was Steve Tomasko for his poems “And No Spiders Were Harmed,” “The Plane of the Ecliptic,” and “An Inordinate Fondness.” Phillippe Diederich won the fiction prize for his short story “The Falling.” The winning pieces were published in the Spring 2014 issue of the Madison Review.
Dundee International Book Prize winner announced; Dylan Thomas’s reputation in Wales; Maryland bookstore donates to international charities; and other news.
Guernica publisher Lisa Lucas moderates a reading and discussion with Mitchell Jackson, author of The Residue Years (Bloomsbury, 2014), and Kiese Laymon, author of Long Division (Agate Bolden, 2013), on the issues of race and class in literature. An interview with Lucas is featured in the new issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
