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Publishing-related Kickstarter projects raised over fifteen million dollars in 2012; Laura Miller reveals the worst publisher in history; advice on composing a succinct agent query letter; and other news.
Choose a topic with currency that you feel personally connected to and want to explore through writing. Research statistics, facts, and events related to it. Weave these with personal anecdotes that are also related. For example, if the topic is gun control, write an essay that combines statistics about how many people own guns in the United States, factual stories about incidents of gun violence, and personal anecdotes about how you learned to hunt growing up. Strive to explore the complexity of the topic.
From the author of God Is Dead and Everything Matters! comes Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles (Viking), a genre-bending novel featuring a character who is an amalgam of fact and fiction from Ron Currie Jr.’s own life. Interestingly, the author and his doppelgänger portrayed in this trailor is actually Benjamin Katz.
Poet Richard Blanco will read an original composition for president Barack Obama’s second inauguration; novelist Hari Kunzru reports on the political climate in Hungary, and how it's shaping Hungary's cultural institutions; Patricia Cornwell is suing her former financial manager for upwards of one hundred million dollars; and other news.
We each have our own approach to writing stories—some writers compose quickly and broadly, leaving the sentence-level refinements for later, while others labor over each sentence until its worded just right before moving on. Identify which kind of writer you are. Then revise a story you’ve been working on, applying the approach you don’t normally take.
Directed by Julien Vallée, this short film is about rediscovering our daily surroundings. Get inspired today, and as you sit down to write, may your imagination make the objects around you live and move.
The Minneapolis-based publisher Milkweed Editions is currently accepting submissions for the second annual Lindquist & Vennum Prize for Poetry. The prize, open to poets who live in the upper Midwest, offers an award of $10,000 and publication for a poetry collection. The deadline is January 31.
Poets who currently reside in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, or Wisconsin are eligible to submit a previously unpublished, book-length poetry manuscript by postal mail. There is no entry fee. Five finalists will be selected by the editors of Milkweed Editions, and the winner will be chosen by this year’s judge, poet G. C. Waldrep, whose most recent book is Archicembalo (Tupelo Press, 2009). Visit the Milkweed website for complete eligibility and submissions guidelines.
Founded in 1980, Milkweed Editions is an independent press whose mission is to “identify, nurture, and publish transformative literature, and build an engaged community around it.” The partnership between Milkweed Editions and the Minneapolis-based law offices of Lindquist & Vennum “celebrates poets for their artistic contributions, and brings outstanding regional writers to a national stage.”
The inaugural Lindquist & Vennum Prize, judged by poet Peter Campion (The Lions, University of Chicago Press, 2009), was awarded in 2012 to Patricia Kirkpatrick of St. Paul for her collection Odessa. To hear Kirkpatrick read three poems from her winning collection, published this past December by Milkweed Editions, visit our podcast page or click on the Soundcloud player below.
Fast Company predicts tablet computers will overtake the laptop market in 2013; novelist Kristopher Jansma looks at the relationship between Elmore Leonard and the television show based on his writing, FX’s Justified; John McPhee reveals what he's learned about structuring a story; and other news.
The author of the story collection Girl Trouble (Harper Perennial, 2009) discusses her debut novel, The Next Time You See Me, about the people surprisingly connected to the discovery of a dead woman's body in a small town, forthcoming from Simon & Schuster next month.
Think about something that you did or said to someone that you regret. Write a poem of apology, comprising five four-line stanzas, with the same number of stressed syllables in each line. Avoid sentimentality. Rely on images, rhythm, and structure to convey your regret.
