Jump to navigation Skip to content
"Our family trait is to remember / only the good times / like a last blown kiss at the door." This poem from Cynthia Atkins is made into a short film by the Poetry Storehouse. Atkins is the author of In the Event of Full Disclosure (Wordtech, 2013), a book of poetry exploring mental illness and family ties.
The long road to publishing Laura Ingalls Wilder's Pioneer Girl; a library with no books; the relationship between writing and fishing; and other news.
Giovanni's Room finds new owner and partner; Scribd teams up with Capstone; the language of emoji; and other news.
This documentary film captures a 2012 art installation from Luzinterruptus, an internationally-known light-artists collective from Spain. The team received ten thousand discarded library books, added LED lights, and displayed them in a public space in Melbourne, Australia.
Submissions are open for the twenty-seventh annual Oregon Book Awards, sponsored by the Portland-based nonprofit Literary Arts. The annual prizes are given for books by Oregon residents published in the previous year. The winners will receive $1,000 each and will be announced at an awards ceremony in Portland in April.
Awards are given in the following categories: poetry, short fiction, the novel, creative nonfiction, general nonfiction, children’s literature, young adult literature, drama, and readers’ choice. Submit two copies of a book published between August 1, 2013, and July 31, 2014, with the required entry form and $40 entry fee by August 29. Submissions should be mailed to Literary Arts, 925 SW Washington, Portland, OR 97205. Writers who are Oregon residents and who live in Oregon for at least six months of the year are eligible. Self-published books are eligible. The judges for each category will be announced when the finalists are announced in January; all judges are from out of state.
The 2014 winners include poet Mary Szybist for her collection Incarnadine (Graywolf), chosen by Kwame Dawes; fiction writer Ursula K. Le Guin for her story collection The Unreal and the Real (Small Beer Press), chosen by Alan Cheuse; nonfiction writer Jay Ponteri for his memoir Wedlocked (Hawthorne Books), chosen by Ander Monson; and fiction writer Amanda Coplin for her novel The Orchardist (Harper Perennial), chosen by readers.
Literary Arts has administered the Oregon Book Awards for twenty-seven years. The organization also offers the Portland Arts & Lectures series, Oregon Fellowships, Writers in the Schools program, and Delve Readers Seminars.
Photo: Ursula K. Le Guin, the 2014 fiction winner. Credit: Motoya Nakamura
Rivka Galchen and Zoë Heller on whether writing can be taught; Germany's culture and media minister backs authors against Amazon; Amanda Palmer's new memoir; and other news.
Climbing is an exercise that’s both exhilarating and exhausting. This week think of the highest peak you’ve ever climbed. It could have been a ladder to your childhood tree house or Mount Kilimanjaro. Were you climbing for fun, or out of necessity? How did it feel once you reached the top? If you feel you’ve never climbed to any significant height, would you ever want to?
Book collectors and enthusiasts are always on the hunt for the elusive first edition of a book. AbeBooks explains the even rarer forms of editions that come before and are not often seen by the public.
Is there a fee for working with agents or do they get part of the commission from the book sales?
There is no fee. We only make money when our clients make money. The standard agent commission is 15 percent of all domestic income and 20 percent of all foreign income brokered by that agency. If you encounter an agent who requires an up-front fee, run from him as you would from a burning barn.
Iranian poet and activist Simin Behbahani dies; the case for laughter in literature; what editors read; and other news.
