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Media moguls Barry Diller and Scott Rudin, together with publishing veteran Frances Coady, have partnered with the Atavist to form a new publisher called Brightline; faced with dwindling book sales, Fast Company investigates how some authors turn to speaking engagements to supplement their income;essayist and famed New Yorker fiction editor Roger Angell is ninety-two today; and other news.
In R. V. Cassill’s classic book Writing Fiction (Prentice Hall Trade, 1975), he describes “conversion,” a method for revision that he says is “vaguely comparable to transposing a piece of music from one key to another.” Try the following conversion exercise: Cut up a story into its paragraphs (using scissors). Rearrange the paragraphs, and add any connective writing needed to support the new structure.
"The thing that happened with my life was that it sort of turned into a thriller," Rushdie said recently in an interview with Charlie Rose. "It turned into a thriller/spy novel." Rushdie's memoir, Joseph Anton, published this month by Random House, details the days, months, and years following the publication of The Satanic Verses in 1998, which prompted Iran’s spiritual leader to issue a fatwa against the author.
The New York Times remembers Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Louis Simpson; the Millions explains how to make a movie about an author; Melville House features a slideshow of writers in their underpants; and other news.
Choose a poem—one of your favorites or one you select randomly—and closely analyze its structure. How many stanzas does it have? How many lines comprise each stanza? How many stressed syllables are in each line? Is there a pattern to the number of syllables per line? Once you've fully analyzed the structure, write a poem of your own using that structure.
Whitefish Review, a literary journal based in Whitefish, Montana, has launched its first annual Montana Prize for Fiction. The winner will receive $1,000 and publication in the Winter 2012/2013 issue of Whitefish Review. Acclaimed author Rick Bass will judge.
The theme for the issue, which is also currently open to general submissions, is “Beneath the Surface.” The editors seek submissions that “use art to mine for something beneath the surface, to search for something deeper than is apparent to the naked eye.”
Emerging writers are particularly encouraged to submit. “We're especially excited about finding new talent,” says founding editor Brian Schott. “We're proud to have published literary legends like Bill Kittredge, but finding that spark of fresh talent and publishing younger and previously unpublished authors is what gets us really excited. We have a huge volunteer staff of readers and weigh the merits of each submission very carefully. When we wake up the next day thinking about a piece we have read, that is a good indicator. It should surprise us. It should challenge us. Take a risk!”
Using the online submission manager, submit a short story of up to 5,000 words, along with a brief biography and a $15 entry fee, by October 15.
Fiction and nonfiction writer Rick Bass, author most recently of the novel Nashville Chrome (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010), will judge the contest. The author of over twenty books of fiction and nonfiction, Bass received the 1995 James Jones Literary Society First Novel Fellowship, and has been a finalist for the Story Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. His work has appeared in the Pushcart and O. Henry anthologies, Best American Short Stories, and numerous literary magazines. Bass will also serve as the guest editor of the Winter issue, and will contribute a new essay to its pages.
Established in 2007, Whitefish Review publishes original poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction, as well as art, photography, and interviews, with a focus on mountain culture. General submissions for the Winter issue run annually from August 15 to October 15; submissions for the Spring issue run from January 15 to March 15. There is no entry fee for general submissions.
For more information about Whitefish Review, and for complete submission guidelines, visit the website.
A student discovered an unknown manuscript by Claude McKay—a leading author of the Harlem Renaissance; Book Riot lists the lesser-known books of famous authors, including Vladimir Nabokov's The Eye; for Banned Books Month, Tin House's Rob Spillman discusses William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying; and other news.
In this animation for Electric Literature's Recommended Reading, Gretta Johnson animates a sentence from "Hello Everybody" by A. M. Homes, with music by Micheal Asif.
Fred Armisen of Saturday Night Live and Portlandia plays Penny Marshall in this hilarious trailer for Marshall's new memoir, published by Amazon this month.
Northern California-based literary agent Pam van Hylckama was allegedly attacked by a disgruntled writer; Allen Ginsberg’s former research assistant tells the Awl what it was like to work for the famed poet; Word & Film details actor Brad Pitt's latest moves adapting works of literature for the screen; and other news.
