Feeling competitive?
Poets&Writers Magazine recently published a list of not ten, not twenty, but forty-five writing contests whose deadlines fall between February 15 and March 15 of this year. Entries include many competitions sponsored by literary magazines and journals, as well as grants and other awards, for a range of genres and styles. And if the idea of wading through forty-five possible contests takes you from feeling competitive to just feeling overwhelmed - don’t worry! Poets&Writers has organized the information into a handy submission calendar, with easy links to all of the specific submission and contact information you need.
Good luck!
The Poets&Writers Submission Calendar for February 2010.
We love sharing news like this!
Quickies! and Creative Writing I instructor Mary Hamilton has recently won the Rose Metal Press Fourth Annual Short Short Chapbook contest. The folks at Rose Metal wrote a nice blog about Mary and her submission. And of course, we’re supremely proud of her.
In addition to writing and teaching and working...Mary is also one of the founders of the Quickie! reading series. All the stories are four minutes or less. Amazing.
Congratulations to Mary!
For your monthly fix of the local literary scene, be sure to check out the readings and author discussions coming up at The Book Cellar, an independent book store located in Lincoln Square. Here are just a few of their upcoming events:
Saturday, February 13 @ 7 PM: Brian Costello hosts the reading series Second City / Third Person. Readers include Erin Teegarden and Brandon Will.
Monday, February 15 @ 7PM: ”Chicago’s only first-person charitable reading series,” Essay Fiesta, presents comedian Robert Buscemi, writer/comedian Kelsie Huff, comedian/SecondCityTraining Center instructor Bryan Bowden, novelist/essayist Mary T. Wagner, comedian Adam Guerino, and improviser Janna Sobel.
Wednesday, February 17 @ 7PM: Local Author Night at the Book Cellar! Featuring: Kathleen Rooney (author of the memoir Live Nude Girl, and a new essay collection For You, For You I am Trilling These Songs); Cristina Henriquez, (author of the short story collection Come Together, Fall Apart and the novel The World in Half, recently released in paperback); and Melanie Benjamin (author of the new release, Alice, I Have Been).
Friday, February 19 @ 7PM: More authors! Featuring: Jerry Gabriel (author of the new story collection Drowned Boy), Patrick Sommerville (New York Times Best Books of 2009 – The Cradle), and Mark Rader (Nominee for the 2009 Pushcart Prize).
Friday, February 26 @ 7PM: Kevin Sampsell reads and discusses his memoir, Common Pornography.
For more information, or to check out future events, please visit The Book Cellar Online Events Calendar.
We’re officially over one twelfth of the way into the New Year, and if you’re anything like me, some of those crazy, exciting New Year’s Resolutions – the same ones that seemed like such bold goals at the end of December – may be feeling a little insurmountable by now. But instead of kicking yourself for not yet finishing your novel or losing that holiday weight, take a peek at SSC student Barabara Govednik’s essay at The Women’s Conference, and consider a new kind of personal goal for the coming year: “…To simply be who I am without putting up all the arguments against myself that have become second nature.” You might just find yourself making a new resolution.
Congratulations to Barbara for her publication – and many thanks for the sound advice!
I started my writing career as a gun for hire. I was paid to write news stories and newsletters, proposals and presentations, even employee benefits manuals.
At first, I was terrified, worried that my style--my writing voice--would be ridiculed. After all, I wasn’t being paid to write like F. Scott Fitzgerald. I was supposed to persuade a prospect to buy a product or help an employee choose a health plan. it soon became clear that this type of writing was a collaborative process and I began to enjoy being the one to put that first draft together, 
to shape its structure. I also enjoyed that I was usually the last person to edit the piece, putting a final sheen on the words. It was a challenge, but one that became easier the more I wrote.
The lightbulb really went on for me years later when I began to study fiction and realized that while I was writing marketing materials for corporations, I was also telling a story, providing a “narrative” and a “call to action” for the reader.
When StoryStudio came along, it seemed natural that we would help business writers tell their stories better too. Some of the same techniques that we use to teach fiction and creative non-fiction help our business writing students be more confident and creative with the words they have to write for work.
In our upcoming one-day class, Business Writing Fundamentals, we start the day with some creative writing to loosen up our muscles. Then we work on strategies for efficiency and tools to make us more persuasive in our writing.
It’s a pretty fun class and it does a great job of slaying the demons that haunt us when we write at work.
Business Writing Fundamentals is on Monday, February 22. Oh, and did I mention we do lunch!
Next Page
