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WIWA NEWSLETTER
Vol. 4, No. 6 December 2004/January 2005**************************************************
CONTENTS
Connect with Writers at WIWC 2005
Early Bird Conference Registration Extended
Pre-Conference Retreats
Whidbey Writers Workshop Instructor Wins World Fantasy Award
MFA Faculty Announcements
Spirit of Writing Contest Winners
Student Celebrate Writing Contest Under Way
Create a Writing Presence on the Web
On the Island
Off the Island
Recent Releases
Cheers
Poetry in the Burns Dialect
by Dr. Richard Lederer
Contests and Market Requests
To Contact Us
To Subscribe or Unsubscribe
To read past issues of the newsletter visit http://www.writeonwhidbey.com/Publications/News_Pub_Home.htm
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CONNECT WITH WRITERS AT WIWC 2005
Renowned speakers and presenters will inspire writers at the 2005 Whidbey Island Writers Conference, Related to Writing. This celebration of writing connections is March 4-6.
Keynote speakers begin with Richard Lederer, who opens the conference. Lederer is the author of more than 3,000 books and articles about language and humor, including his famous Anguished English and his current book, A Man of My Words. His syndicated column, Looking at Language, appears in newspapers and magazines throughout the United States. He has been elected Punster of the Year and been profiled in magazines as diverse as The New Yorker, People and the National Enquirer. Read one of Lederer's charmingly literate columns below in this newsletter.
Kicking off the day Saturday morning will be journalist, attorney and now mystery/suspense author Steve Martini, who has created many a memorable character to surround attorney Paul Madriani. With multiple New York Times best sellers, Martini has a 15-year history of successful novel writing. Martini’s titles, Compelling Evidence, Undue Influence, The Jury, The Attorney and The Arraignment, have created an intriguing world for his characters to inhabit and for his readers to visit. Two of his novels have been made into TV miniseries, and foreign rights of his books have been sold to more than 20 countries. He is currently working on his next Paul Madriani mystery, Double Tap.
Award-winning cooking author and cooking teacher Lynne Rossetto Kasper will keynote Saturday evening's public event, when winners of WIWA's Spirit of Writing Contest will also be recognized. Kasper is an acclaimed broadcaster and lecturer on food and culture. She is also an inductee into Who's Who in American Food and Beverage. Her public radio show, The Splendid Table, has been named Best National Radio Show on Food by the James Beard Foundation and Best National Syndicated Talk Show by the Foundation of American Women in Radio and Television.
Closing the conference on Sunday will be Richard Krevolin, author, playwright, screenwriter and professor with credentials from Yale, UCLA and USC. Krevolin teaches undergraduate and graduate screenwriting classes at the USC Cinema/TV School. He is the author of Screenwriting From the Soul and How to Adapt Anything Into a Screenplay. He also edited the anthology, Not Lost In Translation. He was a writer of the documentary, Fiddler on the Roof: 30 Years of Tradition, and won the USC One-Act Play Festival for his comedy, Love is Like Velcro. Krevolin's one-man show, Yahrzeit, ran for five months at the Santa Monica Playhouse and then opened off-Broadway at Theater Four in New York City under the name Boychik. Actors Ed Asner, Mackenzie Phillips, Richard Kline, Ruth DeSosa and David Proval have performed in his plays.
Author Fireside Chats
The Friday Author Fireside Chats are the signature events of the Whidbey Island Writers Conference. They offer participants a unique opportunity to interact with various presenters at the conference in intimate settings on the island, with three presenters all speaking to a similar topic. This year's topics include children's literature and picturebook writing, poetry, emerging writers, nonfiction, fiction, mystery/suspense, memoir, poetry. Most chats accommodate 20 participants. Sign up for your Fireside Chats when you register for the conference.
Hands-on Programs
This year the Writers Conference is offering new opportunities for participants to turn a Fireside Chat into a more intense and focused afternoon workshop. Choose from:
Screenwriting – Master Class with Richard Krevolin
Songwriting – with Pete Huttlinger and Paul Marshall
Getting Ready to Publish – with Don McQuinn and Penny Sanseveiri
Agent/Editor Consults
One of the most valuable aspects of the Whidbey Island Writers Conference is the opportunity it provides for writers to meet literary agents, publishers, editors and publicists. In face-to-face conversations, writers can pitch story ideas and learn what's strong, what sounds right on track for market interests and where to refine their approach or their writing. More than a dozen agents, editors, publishers and publicists are coming for 2005. Take advantage of this chance to learn about the publishing world through their eyes.
We fill the appointment schedules of our consulting agents and editors on a first-come, first-served basis. This year you can request one or two appointments before you arrive at the conference. Submit the fee of $35 (non-member) and $30 (member) when you make your appointment request for each 15-minute appointment. To meet with more than two publishing professionals, sign up for additional appointments on Friday morning, March 4. Visit the Web site, http://www.writeonwhidbey.com, for further details about registering for agent/editor consults.
Workshops/Panels
Saturday and Sunday at the 2005 conference will be full of workshops and panels with experienced authors, agents and editors who will speak about their journeys in the world of writing and offer inspiration and practical knowledge in nearly every writing genre. On Saturday there will be special opportunities to explore with WIWA the experience of families who write. Fathers and daughters, mothers and daughters, sisters and brothers, husbands and wives a conjunction that celebrates writing and relationships, both in writing and in ways writing relates to today's world. Meet Richard Lederer and his daughter Katy; Ann and Susan Zwinger, a mother and daughter; siblings Sidney and Katherine Kirkpatrick; husband and wife Terry and Sarah Bain, and cousins Pete Huttlinger and Paul Marshall.
Especially for Whidbey Island Residents
This year the Whidbey Island Writers Conference is expanding north. There will be several events, including pre-conference retreats, fireside chats, and other conference activities as far north as Coupeville. It is the association's goal to make the conference accessible and applicable to as many Island residents as possible as well as to those who will be joining us from afar.
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EARLY BIRD CONFERENCE REGISTRATION EXTENDED
WIWA is extending the early bird deadline to give newsletter subscribers one last opportunity to take advantage of the discounted conference rate. Sign up by Dec. 15 with payment and save $35 to $40 off the regular rate. The Early Bird rate is $320 for members and $340 for non-members. After Dec. 15, the rate increases to $360 for members and $375 for non-members. To learn more about the conference and to register, visit the conference Web site, http://www.writeonwhidbey.com/. Or email writers@whidbey.com.
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PRE-CONFERENCE RETREATS
Our pre-conference writers' retreats are held Thursday, March 3, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at cozy and unique retreat centers here on Whidbey Island. They add an additional full day of opportunity to delve into writing. This year's retreat offerings are:
Poetry – Writing the World, with Anne Wilson and Susan Rich
Songwriting – Songwriting from the Heart (and other body parts), with Paul Marshall
Middle School/Young Adult Literature – Manuscript Critique, with Randy Powell
Perseverance – Making Rejection Work for You, with Steve Berry
Earning a Living – Choosing the Write Subject, with Sidney Kirkpatrick
Script/screen/playwriting – Successful Screenwriting 101, with Richard Krevolin
Mindmapping – Write Your Book in 20 Minutes, with Eva Shaw
Retreats are available only to those registered for the conference. Full retreats include accommodations for Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. Day only retreats are available according to space, but do not include accommodations. Cost for a full retreat is $265; for day retreats, $100.
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WHIDBEY WRITERS WORKSHOP INSTRUCTOR WINS WORLD FANTASY AWARD
Bruce Holland Rogers, who will be a fiction instructor in the Whidbey Writers Workshop low-residency MFA and has been a presenter at the Whidbey Island Writers Conference, has won the 2004 World Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction at the World Fantasy Convention in Tempe, Arizona. Rogers’ winning short story, Don Ysidro, was in competition with English-language fantasy from around the world.
Rogers has previously won two Nebula Awards for science fiction, the Bram Stoker Award for horror, and a Pushcart Prize for literary fiction His short fiction collections include Flaming Arrows, Wind Over Heaven and Thirteen Ways to Water. He is also the author of Word Work: Surviving and Thriving as a Writer. His stories have appeared in North American Review and Quarterly West and have won the Nebula award in addition to the Pushcart Prize. He holds an MA from Colorado University and a BA from Colorado State University.
Stephen King, a previous World Fantasy winner, and Gahan Wilson were presented with the Life Achievement Award. Other previous World Fantasy winners include Peter Straub, Louise Erdrich, Mark Helprin and Jonathan Lethem. Past Lifetime Achievement winners include Ray Bradbury, Jorge Luis Borges, Roald Dahl and Harlan Ellison.
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MFA FACULTY ANNOUNCEMENT
The Whidbey Writers Workshop low-residency MFA, which will hold its first residency in August 2005, will include the following faculty:
Christopher Howell, Poetry MFA, University of Massachusetts, 1973; MA, Portland State University, 1971; BS, Oregon State University, 1968. Howell’s eight collections of poetry include The Crime of Luck, Though Silence: The Ling Wei Poems and Light's Ladder, latest in the University of Washington Press Northwest Poets series. His poetry has won two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, a Washington State Governor's Award, and the Vachel Lindsay and Helen Bullis prizes, along with three Pushcart Prizes.
Kirby Larson, Children's Literature MA, University of Washington, 1980; BA, Western Washington University, 1976. Larson is the author of five books for children. Second Grade Pig Pals was named a Seattle Times Best Book for first- and second-graders; Cody and Quinn Sitting in a Tree was nominated for a Missouri Young Reader’s Choice Award; The Magic Kerchief has won numerous awards, including the Oppenheim Platinum Award, Banks Street Best Books and International Story Tellers Award. Larson is also the winner of an International Reading Association Excellence in Literacy Award.
Bruce Holland Rogers, Fiction -- MA, Colorado University, 1987; BA, Colorado State University, 1982. Bruce Holland Rogers' short fiction collections include Flaming Arrows, Wind Over Heaven, and Thirteen Ways to Water. He is also the author of Word Work: Surviving and Thriving as a Writer. His stories have appeared in North American Review and Quarterly West and have won Nebula and Pushcart awards.
Wayne Ude, Program Director and Fiction MFA, University of Massachusetts, 1974; BA, University of Montana, 1969. Ude’s books include Becoming Coyote, a novel; Buffalo and other stories, and Maybe I Will Do Something: Seven Tales of Coyote, for ages 10 and up. His stories have appeared in North American Review and Ploughshares.
Susan Zwinger, Nonfiction Ph.D., Pennsylvania State University, 1975; MFA, Iowa Writers Workshop, 1971; BA, Cornell College, 1969. Susan Zwinger’s books of nonfiction include 2004’s The Hanford Reach, The Last Wild Edge, Stalking the Ice Dragon and Still Wild, Always Wild. Her essays and nonfiction regularly appear in magazines and journals around the country. She also co-authored Women In Wilderness with her mother, Ann Haymond Zwinger.
Additional faculty will be added prior to the first residency, and visiting faculty will participate in residencies. Visit our Web site, http://www.writeonwhidbey.org/mfa , for additional information about the program.
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SPIRIT OF WRITING CONTEST WINNERS
The Whidbey Island Writers Association has announced the winners of the 2004 Spirit of Writing contest. They will be honored at a special presentation during the 2005 Writers Conference March 4-6. Winning entries are on display through December 31 at Whidbey Island Sno-Isle Library branches in Clinton, Langley, Freeland, Coupeville and Oak Harbor. The winners are:
Poetry:
1st Place: Natalie Olsen, Drying Laundry
2nd Place: Suzannah Dalzell, Pigs Advance
3rd Place: Brandon Henry, Flight
4th Place: Lois Parker Edstrom, Far Away Daughter
Fiction:
1st Place: Murray Anderson, Remembering Henry
2nd Place: Natalie Olsen, The Pearls
3rd Place: Ann Adams, The Note
4th Place: Martha Martin, The Tragedy of Hidden Village
Nonfiction:
1st Place: Lois Parker Edstrom, The Convention
2nd Place: Janice O_Mahony, Just Try to Do It...
3rd Place: Diane Adair, Saturday Night at the Movies
Memoir/Life History:
1st Place: JulianTaber, My Expensive Salvation
2nd Place: Janice O_Mahony, What It Was Like
3rd Place: Lois Parker Edstrom, The Reading Room
3rd Place: Catherine Magdalena, The Truck
4th Place: Theo Wells, Red-Blooded Woman
Children’s Literature:
1st Place: Heidi H. Hammer, Carolee Quigley’s Cabin
2nd Place: Raven Odion, Kiko’s Birthday Garden
3rd Place: Kris Baker, Red Boots
4th Place: Diane Adair, Henry and the Two Blue Persians
4th Place: Teresa Nordheim, The Christmas Porridge
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STUDENT CELEBRATE WRITING CONTEST UNDER WAY
Once again WIWA will sponsor the successful Celebrate Writing contest, anticipated each year by Whidbey Island students from kindergarten through high school. The contest is designed to motivate student writers to improve their skills and seek excellence in writing. The goal supports part of WIWA's mission statement: to enhance education of writers.
The contest is open to all Whidbey Island students in public schools, private schools and home schools. Only original submissions suitable for publication will be accepted, and the official submission form must accompany them. Students may enter one submission in each of three categories. Their work will be read, evaluated and awarded many prizes. Submission deadline is Feb. 5, 2005 (no exceptions!). Last year the contest attracted more than 500 entries and produced some exciting work at all levels.
Volunteers are needed. Job descriptions, contest details, schedules and evaluation criteria will be made available to each volunteer. As a team, we will read and evaluate fairly each entry and award prizes to the winners. Each student will receive a participant gift and a certificate of achievement.
If you are interested in supporting this effort by becoming a volunteer reader or coordinator, or have questions about the program, contact Jerry Mercer at lamont1040@earthlink.net or call him at 360-678-4813. If you know others who might be interested, please pass this bulletin to them. It is not necessary to be a member of WIWA, but we urge you to join.
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CREATE A WRITING PRESENCE ON THE WEB
Writers, WIWA wants to promote you and your writing by helping you develop a presence on the Web. If you have a personal Web site and you are a member of WIWA, we'll create an online link from the Resources section of our Web site, http://www.writeonwhidbey.org/Resources_Links/Resource_Home.htm, to your personal Web site about writing. This is your opportunity to showcase your writing, sell your books or advertise your writing services. All sites must be about writing and are subject to WIWA's approval. To set up a link, email the Webmaster at WebAdmin@WriteOnWhidbey.org with your full name and the link to your Web site. This service is free to WIWA members.
Need help creating a Web site? Contact the Webmaster at WebAdmin@WriteOnWhidbey.org about design and publishing services that are available for a reasonable fee. In addition, WIWA can host your writing site on its Web site for $50 a year. Let WIWA help you connect your writing to the Web.
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ON THE ISLAND
WIWA-Sponsored Writing Groups
The North Whidbey Writers' Group is regrouping, after a long summer hiatus. Writers will begin meeting again at Great Times Espresso in Coupeville on Wednesday, January 14th, 1 - 3 P.M. This critique group is informal, friendly, and helpful. Writers of all ages and levels of experience are welcome. Bobby Olszta and Dot Read will facilitate, with special guests who will drop in and share information on sending out work and publishing. For more information, contact the WIWA office at 360-331-6714 or wiwa@whidbey.com.
The South Whidbey Writers' Group meets the first and third Wednesday of each month, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., at Trinity Lutheran Church in Freeland (Hwy 525 and Woodard Rd.) The meeting is in the small building closest to Highway 525. For more information, contact Natalie Olsen at thegnat@whidbey.com or call 360-331-7709.
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OFF THE ISLAND
Read-a-thon at Hugo House
There's free admission, free coffee and Red Bull energy drink, free doughnuts, bagels and other snacks at the 24-hour Read-a-thon at Richard Hugo House Dec. 4-5. (Of course, donations are always accepted.) Readers get a peaceful place to turn the pages upstairs, 10 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 4 to 10 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 5, while a lively rotation of readings, panel discussions, performances and surprises of all kinds happen in the Cabaret downstairs. Readers are encouraged to collect pledges to Hugo House based either on a flat rate or on pages read. More details at http://www.hugohouse.org/read-a-thon.html. Hugo House has a calendar of varied events, many of them free. Writers can hear poetry readings, take classes, join a writers group. For listings and other items of interest to writers, go to http://www.hugohouse.org/events/.
Check out these other sites for events of interest:
Seattle Mystery Bookshop; http://www.seattlemystery.com
Third Place Books, Seattle; http://www.thirdplacebooks.com
Song & Word, San Juan Islands, WA; http://www.songandword.com/
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RECENT RELEASES
The Hanford Reach: The Arid Lands of Washington State,
by Susan Zwinger, photographs by Skip Smith
University of Arizona Press
Whidbey Island Writers Conference presenter and noted nature writer Susan Zwinger of Langley just released her newest book, The Hanford Reach: The Arid Lands of Washington State, with photographs by South Whidbey photographer Skip Smith. A reach refers to a straight expanse of river or sea between two natural boundaries. Here, the Reach is the last free stretch of the Columbia River between the McNary and the Priest Rapids Dams. In 2000, Congress protected much of south central Washington as the Hanford Reach National Monument. The monument includes the Columbia River's last free-flowing, non-tidal stretch and eastern North America's largest remnant of shrub-steppe habitat. Ironically, the landscape owes its preservation to the Department of Energy, which claimed thousands of acres in the early 1940s to build the world’s first nuclear bombs. The Hanford Reach celebrates what was preserved in the buffer zones seized in 1942 to protect Hanford's secrecy: Rattlesnake Mountain, Saddle Mountain, and Wahluke wildlife preserves. Zwinger’s work evokes a land of contrasts, lush green orchards against bleached floodplains, voluminous water and wetlands juxtaposed to desert plants, and the wild ecosystem surrounding nuclear reactors and entrenched weaponry of Hanford Nuclear facility. Skip Smith's mysterious black and white images capture at once the beauty and the irony of this little known region.
Brushed by Feathers: A Year of Birdwatching in the West
by Frances Wood
Fulcrum Publishing
Frances Wood's new book is now available in local bookstores. Wood is a member of WIWA and is a local Whidbey Island writer. Wild birds flutter, swim, fly, feed call, hop, swoop, and sing all around us, but these activities often go unnoticed. Brushed by Feathers will help you tune in, whet your desire to notice birds, and expand your understanding and appreciation of what you see. “Be careful when you read this book -- your life could be forever changed. If you are not a birdwatcher now, you most assuredly will be after reading Brushed by Feathers.” (Bob Righter, author of Colorado Birds: A Reference to Their Distribution and Habitat.)
On Thin Ice
by Cherry Adair
Ballantine
This newest book in Cherry Adair’s series featuring the men of T-FLAC has adventurer Lily Munroe battling to win the Iditarod race across Alaska and the love of playboy and secret agent Derek Wright. Called one of the reigning queens of romantic adventure by Romantic Times, Adair will be a presenter at the Writers Conference in March.
First, Do No Harm
by Larry Karp
Poisoned Pen Press
Larry Karp has been a frequent and popular presenter at the Whidbey Island Writers Conference. Do No Harm is a stand-alone crime novel. It has earned excellent reviews, including one from Publishers Weekly and a starred review from Booklist. The book tells two stories. The first concerns Martin Firestone, whose artist father, Leo Firestone, is furious and demands a meeting when he finds out Martin plans to go to medical school. The second story is narrated by Leo over lunch as he describes a summer in New Jersey in 1943 when he assisted his father, a doctor, as his extern. The 1943 story is told in the first person, and as much as Leo admires his dad, he’s bothered by some of his behavior and decides to investigate, with frightening results. After Leo finishes his story, Martin isn’t satisfied and goes to Hobart to find out what Leo isn’t telling. A review from the bookstore Once Upon a Crime describes the book as “a triumph of storytelling. The juggling of the two narratives is flawless, holding the reader spellbound as a terrifying tale unfolds.”
A Patchwork of Comforts: Small Pleasures for Peace of Mind
by Carol Wiseman
Conari Press
New WIWA member Carol Wiseman’s first book came out in May, and she moved to Whidbey this summer. A Patchwork of Comforts is a small gift book that provides worlds of relief. It is a serious, and not so serious, look at how people all around us are feeling and the places they are going sometimes just in their own minds when the details of daily living get them down. Filled with ideas that take the sting out of even the worst day, Patchwork has a simple approach that will inspire new ideas for dealing with stress and getting more pleasure out of life.
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CHEERS
WIWA member Lorraine Healy has received news that a publishing house wants to publish her second chapbook, The Archipelago. “I am more than delighted,” Healy says. So are we. Cheers!
Sara Paretsky has been awarded the 2004 Gold Dagger from the Crime Writers of America for her novel Blacklist. The award calls the book “a powerful piece of Chicago gothic that engages with the important issues of our time. The author's empathy with the downtrodden and deprived is delivered through the medium of powerfully evoked characterization in a wide-ranging and ambitious plot. Sara Paretsky was a presenter at the 2004 Whidbey Island Writers Conference.
Congratulations to Fred Jessett, a new WIWA member from Sammamish, who reports that Forward Movement Publications has bought his proposal for a small inspirational paperback, Remembering Grace, a collection of 13 true short stories. The book is due out late next year.
The 2005 Writer's Market references a source by Eva Shaw, one of the favorite presenters at the Writers Conference. Shaw's new book, Ghostwriting For Fun & Profit, is the updated version of the book that’s mentioned on page 15.
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LEDERER COLUMN
Poetry In the Burns Dialect
by Dr. Richard Lederer
A little more than two centuries ago, the most famous poet in Scotland was untimely ripped from this mortal coil. When Robert Burns died in 1796, he was but 37 years of age.
The life of Robert Burns might have furnished the plot for a romantic novel. He was born on January 25, 1759, in a clay cottage of two rooms at Alloway, near the southwestern coast of Scotland. His father was an unsuccessful farmer, and young Robert was assigned heavy work in the fields when he was only 11. The strain resulted in a progressive heart disease that was to prove fatal at the age of 37.
In 1786, Burns's life reached its low point. In despair over his poverty and the rejection by the woman he had hoped to marry, Burns resolved to emigrate from Scotland to Jamaica. He gathered together some of his poems, hoping to sell them for a sum sufficient to pay the expenses of his journey. The result was a small volume of poetry titled Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, and its impact changed the course of English verse.
Burns bought his ticket to Jamaica from the 20 pounds he earned from the sale of his little book. The night before he was to sail he wrote Farewell to Scotland, which he intended to be his last song composed on Scottish soil. But in the morning he changed his mind, led partly by some dim foreshadowing of the result of his literary adventure.
In the late 18th century, with its emphasis on elegance, style and refined manners, the rustic, simple lyrics of Burns seemed incongruous. But Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect took all of Scotland by storm and was universally praised by critics. The newly famous author was dubbed "The Peasant Poet" and "The Plowman Poet," and he became instantly lionized as a natural singer and rustic philosopher. Ultimately Burns's work established him as the Scottish national poet and the primary bridge between the rational satire of the 18th century and the exuberant romanticism of the 19th.
Perhaps the most renowned of Burns's poems is To a Mouse, subtitled on turning her up in her nest with a plow, November 1785. Addressing the "wee beastie," the speaker apologizes for destroying the mouse's nest. Gradually, the parallels between man and mouse emerge:
But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
In proving foresight may be vain;
The best-laid schemes o’'mice an' men
Gang aft a-gley,
An lea'e us nought but grief an’ pain
For promised joy.
More than two centuries after they were composed, the power of Burns's statement about the human condition struck a Nobel Prize winning American novelist. John Steinbeck crafted a simple and luminous story about two itinerant agricultural workers, Lenny and George, whose dreams of owning their own farm are crushed. He turned to Burns's statement, "The best-laid schemes o' mice and men/Gang aft a-gley" (often go awry), and titled his novel Of Mice and Men.
Today, Robert Burns sings to us in another special way, for one of his lyrics is the first that many of us hear each year. On New Year’s Eve, when the clock strikes midnight, the song that many bands around the world often play consists of verses written by Bobby Burns:
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to min’?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne?
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.
In Scottish, "auld lang syne" (the last word should be sounded with a soft s, not a z) means literally old long since, or long ago, appropriate to the time when we review the joys and disappointments of the past year and hope for the best to come. Happy New Year, fellow M's. It’s good to have you near.
Dr. Richard Lederer and his daughter, Katy Lederer, author of Poker Face, are scheduled presenters for WIWC 2005. Richard is the author of more than 3,000 books and articles about language and humor, including his best-selling Anguished English series. His latest book, A Man of My Words: My Career-Capping Reflections on the English Language, was selected by the Book of the Month Club, Literary Guild and Quality Paperback Books. You can explore his Web site at http://pw1.netcom.com/~rlederer/
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CONTESTS AND MARKET REQUESTS
Washington Poets Association 2005 Contests
The WPA has announced its 2005 poetry contests, including competitions for adults, students and poets in performance. Open to all poets worldwide, the adult contest has over $1,000 in cash awards for poetry in four categories -- free verse, traditional verse, haiku and humor. The William Stafford Award recognizes the best poems in any form. There are also the Carlin Aden Award for poetry in traditional rhyme and form; the Charlie Proctor Award for humorous poems; and the Francine Porad Award for haiku. he contest is open to all poets 18 or older. Entry fee is $5, plus $1 a poem. The postmark deadline is Feb. 15, 2005. Fine print and entry form can be downloaded at http://www.washingtonpoets.org.
The 2005 Stafford judge will be Martha Silano, author of What the Truth Tastes Like. Her poems have appeared in venues including the Bellingham Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Green Mountains Review, Paris Review, and Prairie Schooner, and on the Poetry Daily Web site. Silano has also been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has received funding from the Seattle Arts Commission. She teaches English at Edmonds Community College.
WIWA member Marian Blue will judge the Aden Award. Blue’s essays, fiction, interviews and poetry have been appearing in newspapers, magazines and books for 30 years; her editorial work also includes book, magazine, online and newspaper experience. She currently lives and writes on Whidbey Island, where she is partner in Blue & Ude Writers Services. Blue also teaches for the Whidbey Island Writers Association, Skagit Valley College and Writers Digest.
Terry Martin, an English professor at Central Washington University, will judge the Proctor Award. Martin was named 2003 CASE/Carnegie Washington Professor of the Year for excellence in undergraduate teaching. Her writing has appeared in 80 publications, including Calyx, Rattle, English Journal, The Sun, Manzanita Quarterly and Sow’s Ear Review. Wishboats, her book of poems published by Blue Begonia Press, won the Judges’ Choice Award at Seattle’s 2000 Bumbershoot Bookfair.
The Porad Award judge, Christopher Herold, is a lay Zen Buddhist monk who lives in Port Townsend, Washington. He has been writing haiku since 1968 and is widely published. Herold has twice won the Haiku Society of America’s Museum of Haiku Literature Award. A past president of the Haiku Poets of Northern California, he was a co-editor of their quarterly journal, Woodnotes. He is co-founder and managing editor of The Heron’s Nest, a highly regarded monthly journal of English language haiku since 1999.
The Washington Poets Association is a nonprofit organization dedicated to encouraging the creation and appreciation of poetry in Washington. In addition to the poetry contest, the group holds an annual poetry festival (Burning Word, April 30, 2005) highlighting Washington poets, and publishes a juried anthology of members’ poetry.
WPA Student Competition Begins
The Washington Poets Association offers cash prizes in poetry competitions for students in grades 6-12 in public, private, independent and home schools in the state of Washington. Winning students will also be recognized at the WPA Burning Word Festival, April 30 at Greenbank Farm on Whidbey Island. The top 10 poems from the contest will be entered in the national Mannignhan Trust Poetry Contest. Deadline for entries February 1, 2005. Winners will be notified by March 10. For complete details on how to enter, go to the WPA Web site at http://www.washingtonpoets.org/.
Poetry in Performance
The Washington Poets Association will sponsor the 8th Annual Bart Baxter Contest for Poetry in Performance on April 2, 2005, 7 p.m. at Richard Hugo House in Seattle. Admission is free, with donations suggested. Ten finalists will compete for $500 in cash awards in two rounds. Bart Baxter will emcee the performance competition. Poets are given three minutes to perform their poems and are judged slam-style immediately following their performance. The contest is open to all poets 16 and older. Deadline for entering is Feb. 15, 2005. Details on the competition can be downloaded at http://www.washingtonpoets.org. The contest is co-sponsored by Richard Hugo House, http://www.hugohouse.org/. Bart Baxter, a longtime supporter of the Washington Poets Association, placed first in the 1994 MTV Poetry Grand Slam and the 1998 Seattle Grand Slam. His most recent books of poetry include A Man, Ostensibly and The Man with St. Vitus’ Dance.
New Contest at Margin
In recognition of the fourth centenary of the first edition of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha (The Ingenious Nobleman Don Quixote de la Mancha), the publication Margin has announced a new special theme for 2005: Resurrecting Quixote: Magical Realism from the Iberian Peninsula. Margin: Exploring Modern Magical Realism appears tri-quarterly, seeking fiction, poetry, critical essays, articles, interviews, and academic writings. For submission guidelines go to http://www.magical-realism.com. Postmark deadline is February 28, 2004.
Margin is also looking for a few good kids’ books. Margin editor Tamara Kaye Sellman has launched a new kid-lit section of the anthology, introducing a special reading list of children’s magical realist literature. She asks readers to send in their favorite examples of children’s magical realism to help round out the reading list. Sellman doesn’t plan to publish any original children’s stories at the anthology for now, but she would like to see some articles written on the subject, as well as book reviews. Those who would like to submit recommendations for the children’s magical realist literature reading list are welcome to send them to Sellman at magicalrealismmaven@yahoo.com.
Glimmer Train Contest Open
Glimmer Train Stories is accepting submissions for its Fiction Open. All writers, all themes, subjects and lengths are eligible. First-place winner receives $2,000, publication in Glimmer Train Stories and 20 copies of the issue in which it is published. Second- and third-place winners receive $1,000 and $600, respectively, and acknowledgement in that issue. For contest guidelines and to submit stories, go to http://www.glimmertrainpress.com.
Hackney Literary Awards
Cash awards are given for short stories and poetry; deadline is Dec. 31. Go to http://www.bsc.edu/events/specialevents/hackneyguidelines.htm .
Talebones
This publication pays 1 to 2 cents a word for dark fantasy, humor/satire and science fiction, 1,000-6,000 words. For more information, email editors at info@talebones.com .
Boulevard Magazine
The magazine has a December deadline for poetry, essays and fiction for money prizes. Visit http://www.richardburgin.com .
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