Jump to navigation Skip to content
Looking for Alaska (Dutton Books, 2005), John Green’s debut young adult novel based on his own experiences at a boarding school, has been adapted into a television miniseries for Hulu. Created by Josh Schwartz, the teen drama stars Kristine Froseth, Charlie Plummer, Uriah Shelton, and Sofia Vassilieva.
Dozens arrested for protesting Amazon’s involvement with ICE; a virtual tour of Jane Austen’s library; the resurgence of books featuring witchcraft; and other news.
Exploring events in Detroit has been exciting this summer. There are a number of lesser-known venues in the city that have recently started hosting literary events. For those looking for a space to write or build community, the Room Project in the North End has been a go-to location for me. A membership includes use of the workspace, library, and podcast equipment. They also have an event space that hosts artist talks, readings, and writing workshops.
For a change of scenery and an interactive experience, Signal-Return in Eastern Market has hands-on workshops in their letterpress print shop as well as a range of public programming including exhibitions, book release parties, and the Motor Signal Reading Series cohosted by Literary Detroit. The series pairs a local writer with a traveling writer in a double-feature reading that includes an intermission activity with the audience.
Visiting these locations has been a pleasant learning opportunity on how to help build up the literary community across the city. Shout-out to other spots I’ve visited that I encourage all to check out: Artist Village Detroit, Book Suey, the Commons on Mack Avenue, and the Corner Ballpark.
Search the Literary Places and Reading Venues databases for spots to visit near you!
Justin Rogers is the literary outreach coordinator for Poets & Writers in Detroit. Contact him at Detroit@pw.org or on Twitter, @Detroitpworg.“What we can contribute is an open space that’s really excited about learning and welcoming poets and writers from across different communities of literature in New York.” In this BRIC TV video, Rachel Valinsky, the artistic director of the Brooklyn nonprofit Wendy’s Subway, talks about the organization’s history and programming, and how it functions in the community as a reading room, event space, and publisher.
The author of the story collection Black Light finds the best writing lessons in the most unlikely places.
Submissions are open for a wealth of opportunities with a deadline of August 15 or August 16. Each contest offers a prize of $1,000 or more, or a prize of $500 with no entry fee—and one also awards two cases of beer. Cheers, writers!
Baton Rouge Area Foundation Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence: A prize of $10,000 is given annually to an emerging African American writer for a book of fiction published in the current year. The winner also receives travel and lodging expenses to attend an awards ceremony and participate in educational outreach events in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in January 2020. Anthony Grooms, Edward P. Jones, Elizabeth Nunez, Francine Prose, and Patricia Towers will judge. Deadline: August 15. Entry fee: none.
Dogfish Head Craft Brewed Ales Poetry Prize: A prize of $500, publication by Broadkill River Press, ten author copies, and two cases of Dogfish Head craft beer are given annually for a poetry collection written by a poet living in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, D.C., or West Virginia. The winner is expected to attend a reading and award ceremony at the Dogfish Inn in Lewes, Delaware, on December 14. Lodging is provided, but travel expenses are not included. Joseph Millar will judge. Deadline: August 15. Entry fee: none.
Grayson Books Poetry Prize: A prize of $1,000 and publication by Grayson Books is given annually for a poetry collection. Robert Cording will judge. Deadline: August 15. Entry fee: $25.
Gulf Coast Barthelme Prize for Short Prose: A prize of $1,000 and publication in Gulf Coast is given annually for a work of short prose. Deadline: August 16. Entry fee: $20, which includes a subscription to Gulf Coast.
Indiana Review “1/2 K” Prize: A prize of $1,000 and publication in Indiana Review is given annually for a poem or a work of flash fiction or creative nonfiction. Megan Giddings will judge. Deadline: August 15. Entry fee: $20, which includes a subscription to Indiana Review.
Kore Press Poetry Prize: A prize of $1,500, publication by Kore Press, and 20 author copies is given annually for a poetry collection by a woman, trans, or gender-nonconforming poet. Erica Hunt will judge. Deadline: August 15. Entry fee: $28, with some entry fee scholarships available.
Red Wheelbarrow Poetry Prize: A prize of $1,000 and publication in Red Wheelbarrow will be given annually for a poem. The winner will also receive 20 copies of a letterpress broadside of the winning poem. Marilyn Chin will judge. Deadline: August 15. Entry fee: $15.
TulipTree Publishing Stories That Need to Be Told Contest: A prize of $1,000 is given annually for a poem, a short story, or an essay that “tells a story.” The winner will also receive a two-year subscription to Duotrope and publication in the contest anthology, Stories That Need to Be Told. Deadline: August 15. Entry fee: $20.
Visit the contest websites for complete guidelines, and check out the Grants & Awards database and Submission Calendar for more contests in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction.
“There’s a long history, and many families and stories that just haven’t been told.” Tommy Orange talks about the need for more Native American stories in literature and the origins of his debut novel, There There (Knopf, 2018), in this interview on Late Night With Seth Meyers.
We return to certain novels not only to be enchanted and inspired, to be transported out of ourselves, but also to know ourselves more deeply.
“Language alone protects us from the scariness of things with no names.” The life of Nobel laureate and Pulitzer Prize–winning author Toni Morrison is remembered through this 2004 interview for CBS Sunday Morning highlighting what was most important to her: being a mother and a writer. Morrison died at the age of eighty-eight on August 5, 2019.
Catacombs decorated with bones in Rome, an underground reservoir in Istanbul from the sixth century, a former subterranean city in northern France with hundreds of rooms, chapels, town squares, and a bakery. In a recent National Geographic article, nine different historic sites around Europe that are located underground are rediscovered. Consider what strange activities might be unfolding at any given moment right under your feet. Write a story that takes place in an underground location. Have historical sites been repurposed for an entirely new function, or has something new been built? Is the atmosphere lively and bustling, or cool and foreboding?
