Do you have a new adaptation of a well known text? If so, The Remy Bumppo Theatre Company wants your script application for its Translations
and Adaptations Staged Reading Series.They’re hoping to bring literary works to wide audiences by presenting works that have a fresh voice or perspective.
To apply, send a script and cover letter (with a stamped, self-addressed envelope if you want your script returned) by November 1, 2010. Include up-to-date contact information and a suggested cast/doubling breakdown with your submission.The adaptation or translation must be of an already existing manuscript that the playwright has rights to adapt. Scripts will receive consideration for future development, public readings, and possible future
mainstage production. Mail to:
Remy Bumppo Theatre Company
3717 N. Ravenswood Ave Ste 245
Chicago, IL 60613
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“A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” ~Virginia Woolf
This quote is, of course, the titular line of one of Virginia Woolf’s most influential works, A Room of One’s Own. The notion of “a room of one’s own” has become a well-known cliché that refers to the universal need for personal space in which to escape and express ourselves, but those familiar with the piece will recall that the original meaning of the phrase was literal. Woolf argued, among other things, that women had been given little opportunity to flourish as writers, having been denied the same freedom, space and independence she saw male writers receive as a matter of course. She saw these elements as necessary, if women and men were ever to receive equal respect and voice as writers in society.
A Room of Her Own is a non-profit organization that seeks to support Woolf’s vision through changing “the lives of creative women by rewarding and showcasing their important voices to our own community as well as the marketplace.” They are committed to “bridging the gap between a woman’s economic reality and her artistic creation” via financial programs such as scholarships and awards, as well as by providing retreats, conferences and other resources for female writers, as well as by sponsoring women’s literary events. Their website states that, to date, they have raised over half a million dollars in support of creative women.
Among other things, the AROHO is currently hosting the To the Lighthouse Poetry Publication contest. The award will be given for the best unpublished poetry collection of 48 to 96 pages, with a prize of $1000 and publication by Red Hen Press. The deadline is August 31, 2010. Please visit the website for more information about submitting.
Don’t forget to check out the other events and resources hosted by the AROHO’s website!
Want to move your stories off your hard drive and into the hard world? Check out these outlets:
The Odyssey
A workshop for science fiction, fantasy, and horror writers is now accepting submissions for a 2010 session. The program will be held from June 7-July 16 at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New York. Former senior editor at Bantham Doubleday Dell Publishing, Jeanne Cavelos, runs the program. The workshop and applications are due by April 8, 2010.
Taos Summer Conference
The University of New Mexico will host this retreat from July 11-18. 2010 faculty include Dorothy Allison, Joy Harjo, Debra Monroe, and Mark Sundeen, with a keynote speech by Cristina Garcia. No registration deadline, but space may be limited.
Iowa Festival
The 24th annual gathering is now accepting registrations for week-long and weekend workshop classes in June and July. 145 non-credit writing workshops across the genres are available. Weekends sessions run $280 and the week sessions run $560 (housing not included).
Storyscape
This online literary journal wants your story, be it true, overheard, visual, poetic, found, or given. The journal, which aims to expand the notion of what stories are while shaking up the labels we use to define them, seeks unique modes of storytelling that fall outside conventional boundaries. The next issue will be publishes in the Spring of 2010.
I took Reading As a Writer at StoryStudio a few sessions ago, when we discussed Julia Alvarez’s In the Time of the Butterflies. For those who are unfamiliar with it, In the Time of the Butterflies is Alvarez’s fictionalized account of the role of the martyred Mirabal sisters in the rebellion against the Dominican dictator Trujillo. The novel walks a fine line between fact and fiction, combining historically documented events of the war with private conversations and occurrences no one was left alive to accurately document, which left the author to craft these elements on her own. Rather than attempt to leave these unknowable moments vague or skimmed over in the book, Alvarez made the decision to fictionalize many of them, in an effort to seek out the greater truths of the war through story and language as much as through a fully accurate retelling of events.
This book really set me to thinking about the relationship between the ideas of truth and story. Like a lot of people, my first introduction to these ideas was to think of them categorically; as little kids on our first trips to the library, most of us were taught that “non-fiction” means “true” and “fiction” means “story,” which was synonymous with “false.” Of course, these simplistic definitions do evolve over time, and thriving genres like personal essay and memoir remind us of the not-so-subtle gradient between the two camps – that even the truest events are best related through story, and even the most fictionalized stories are rooted in real truth. And some truths, a writer like Julia Alvarez might argue, are only reached through a combination of the two.
But that still left me, a die-hard fiction writer, wondering – exactly how “true” are my stories? And what is a “true story,” anyway? I don’t write personal essay or memoir (though I enjoy reading both), and put most of my energy into speculative and paranormal fiction. On the surface, these genres can seem as far from non-fiction as it is possible to be…and yet, what first drew me to the world of speculative fiction in the first place was its tendency for satire, a sub-genre based around the idea of fictionalizing elements of reality to capture truth. Does that make every piece of satire a “true story?”
As it turns out, I’m not the only one mulling over this issue. Storyscape is an online literary journal dedicated to exploring and expanding our idea of story and its relationship to truth. The journal is divided into three categories – Truth, Untruth, and We Don’t Know and They Won’t Tell Us – and is seeking submissions of “unique modes of storytelling that fall outside conventional boundaries while still maintaining the core essence of ‘story.’“ They are accepting submissions in all categories and the label is your choice, so before submitting you’ll have to ask yourself – is this a true story?
It might be a more complicated question than you think.
Does flash fiction feel too rambling to you? Do haikus feel like home? If so, then Four and Twenty might be the journal for you!
Four and Twenty is a new online literary magazine featuring some of the shortest poetry around: submissions are limited to four lines, with a maximum of twenty words. There is no theme for the content other than length – editors are interested in pieces that use their economy of language to evoke vivid imagery and emotion, rather than a specific subject or theme. (Further submission guidelines are available here.) The journal is released the third Tuesday of every month, and is available for free at their website in .pdf form.
Four and Twenty was also featured this month as part of Poets & Writers online database of literary magazines and journals. They were among 38 new journals to be added, so if short-form poetry isn’t your cup of tea, something else will be sure to strike your fancy. Check out the database here!
