Dublin Literary Award

"The International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award is the largest and most international prize of its kind.

It involves libraries from all corners of the globe, and is open to books written in any language.

The Award, an initiative of Dublin City Council, is a partnership between Dublin City Council, the Municipal Government of Dublin City, and IMPAC, a productivity improvement company which operates in over 50 countries. .

The Award is administered by Dublin City Public Libraries."
Dublin Award

The complete list of books nominated for the 2010 award.
Nominations—from 163 libraries in 123 cities and 43 countries worldwide.
Nominated Books for 2010 Dublin Literary award

Love Arcane Words—

or even some that aren't unusual.

Check out this blog Wordnik

This post came about because Jan wrote about a nudnik on her blog: Through One Eye and reading her words made me think of a wordnik.

When I googled that word I came across the Wordnik blog. The word for the day was harl.

There's a definitions and a photo —as an aid to understanding, I expect.

I don't think I'd have an occasion to use many of these words in my writing, but the blog makes me aware of the delights of language.

Perhaps I'll write something and use the word terpsichorean.

Six Word Contests

Read All About It—

Six Word Story About a Significant Object

You will find a photo of the object and instructions on how to post your entry.

The contest closes November 6th! That does give you today and tomorrow— and it's only six words.

If that deadline is too close here's another six word contest:

Six-Words—Digital Life

"SMITH Magazine and PBS FRONTLINE/Digital Nation want to hear your stories about life in the digital age. In six words, tell us how the web and digital technology are changing how you think, work, live, or love. Has something you've posted online come back to haunt you? "
Frontline Digital Nation


The contest deadline has been extended to January

Frontline Blog
Frontline Digital Nation Blog

And: I encourage you to follow Word Collage. You can do so by signing up for email notification — whenever there is a new posting.Google translate will allow you to read the posts in your native language.

Something to Read

Sent in by Jan
"Assume you've seen this NPR book link and page?"
 
"Welcome to the first issue of What We're Reading."
NPR Books

So You Missed the start of Novel Writing Month...

You didn't plan early enough—
besides thirty days to write a 175 page novel seemed too arduous—
And there was a huge word count!

But there's still time to join something.

" Script Frenzy is an international writing event in which participants take on the challenge of writing 100 pages of scripted material in the month of April."

What: "100 pages of original scripted material in 30 days. (Screenplays, stage plays, TV shows, short films, and graphic novels are all welcome.)"

Check it out at—

Script Frenzy

Let us know if you're up to the challenge.

Writing in Coffee Houses

"I wrote one whole book at a specific Starbucks, and I started the next book and couldn't write there, so I found a different Starbucks."
— Allison Brennon


Where do you write? In bed, like Walker Percy, Edith Wharton, Collette, Proust, James Joyce, Mark Twain...and me (at African Rainbow Resort)? Check out this site—Riehl Life—and an interesting essay.

Listen to an interview with the the author of A Writer's Desk

I like to write in coffee houses—or on the third floor of one particular library. One place is noisy and the other quiet. One place I can indulge my coffee habit and the other I sneak sips of water from a bottle in my rucksack.

Point of View

Sometimes I think the most arduous task is deciding who will tell the story. I'm in the midst of writing a short story and opted, initially, for third person, but now I think it's really better as a first person story.

Not all first person stories are the same.

An interesting article from Literary Lab on the varieties of the first person story.

First person Point of View

When you are writing a memoir or creative non-fiction there are snares—pitfalls.

"Peering at Privacy in Creative Nonfiction" AWP
—Kaylene Johnson
Kaylene Johnson

Poets

Poet and the Poem Podcasts
"Ms. Cavalieri created the original "Poet and the Poem" series on public radio in 1977, and in 1997, "The Poet and the Poem from the Library of Congress" became an outgrowth of that show. Approximately ten episodes from the Library of Congress series are produced each season, and a number of these are being added to this site."

And continue on to Grace Cavalleri to read interviews with poets.

And then continue on to Poet Vision Webcasts to listen to more poets.

Enter a Literary Lab Contest

Literary Lab Contest Guidelines

1. E-mail your 1 to 2,000-word short story to LiteraryLab@gmail.com before December 1, 2009 at 11:59 p.m. PST. Paste the work in the body of the e-mail with breaks between paragraphs (hit return twice). We will be reading all submissions blind, thanks to a kind volunteer who will send us the entries with all names removed. No attachments will be opened.

2. In your e-mail subject line type GENRE WARS ENTRY. In the body of the email include your name, the title of your work, word count, and which genre category you'd like to compete in: 1. science fiction/fantasy, 2. horror/crime, 3. literary, 4. romance, 5. children's literature/middle grade/young adult, or 6. experimental--yes, you have to pick one.

3. Works must be previously unpublished, and we ask for the rights to post the winning stories online and/or in print in the anthology. Afterwards, you are free to include the story in your own collections or as a reprint in another anthology.

Poems and Process

Have you ever wanted to ask a poet how they wrote a particular poem—inspiration, a tickling need to explore a topic, a way of examining the world?

So many people say that their poems come about when they feel distressed, but poets write about the everyday events and places.

A poem captures my imagination in a few lines while a book strives for pages to create the connection between the reader and the story.

This is a fascinating blog of poetry and interviews with the poets.
How a Poem Happens

Galway Kinnel was asked: Do you believe in inspiration? How much of this poem was “received” and how much was the result of sweat and tears?

Yes. It was all received, but all soaked in sweat and tears.

There's even a blog that supplies poetry prompts.
Poetry Instigator

A New Michael Chabon book

Micahel Chabon's new book of personal essays is now out and has received some rave reviews. Chabon is a magician with words. I became an instant fan after reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

``Forget about what you are escaping from. Reserve your anxiety for what you are escaping to." - Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

Penguin's List

Ten Essential Classics

What Triggers Your Writing?

Poets and Writers asked that question —phrased a bit differently. They asked —what inspired you?
Writer's Recommend

Dedicated and Stray Neurons

by Elizabeth Milligan

Every evening before joining his family at the dinner table, the father descended into the cellar for a bottle of his self-prescribed barley beverage. Then - he, the mother, and the two children took their seats at the dinner table.

Both children looked at their plates. One ate most of the food, the other mostly played with it. The father nursed his barley beverage with great relish, ate a piece of the steak and half of a baby red potato. As usual, he did not touch the fresh vegetables and salad. The mother looked at all three of them, and picked at her food.

She visualized coloring in the spaces of the moment. She imagined their shapes to be dynamic, pulsating electric reds, oranges, greens, and yellows. She wondered: Wouldn’t it be cool to visualize moments like these through electron spectroscopy.

The only sounds in the room were: overplayed jazz from the 1960s and 70s on the CD player, the intermittent hum of the baseboard heater, and her questions and comments. Invariably, any of her words would hang over the dinner table as if in suspension - before falling with a thud. Sometimes, the father would talk – IF she asked him about himself. Then, he would tell her about his work at the office. At this dinner, he responded to her query about his day with:

Pretty much what I’ve been working on these past few weeks. You know, OCV and OCR, mostly in a 32-bit environment, some in a 64-bit environment. I was working on manually updating the edge-width parameter control which was unique amongst all the controls within this tool edit control in that it was not a property-provider-based parameter. And so this meant that I had to implement electric mode by hand as well as subject-delegate queuing. Just so.

The fact that she knew what he was talking about made her laugh – a genuine and kind laugh - and prompted him to smile. This time the tight thin lips turned up slightly at the corners. For just a nanosecond – a shimmering of lime green space, the four of them breathed together.

Elizabteh Milligan ©2009

Another 365 Day Goal

I do believe that good writers are also prolific readers—within reason.

The The New York Times published an article about Nina Sankovitch who is on "A Quest to Read a Book a Day" for 365 days.

The Times Highlights a Prolific Reader

Ah—she also posts a review each day on her blog

Read All Day

Her list of books read is impressive.

Ghost Stories

I've never tried to write a ghost story, nor am I sure what constitutes a good ghost story.

This list was compiled by a blogger (14theditch's Journal) requesting favorites from his readers.

Favorite Ghost Stories

Is The Turn of the Screw by Henry James a ghost story or something far more fascinating?

If anyone wants to try their hand at writing a ghost story please send it to me for posting—before Halloween.

Michaeline is Back from Washington

Good morning all,

I am so excited and I wanted to share my excitement with all of you...

I was invited to speak at the Women's Legislative Lobby Conference in Washington about my book Women at the Table and I've just returned. What a fabulous trip! I spoke alongside the former UN Ambassador Linda Tarr-Whalen and received rave reviews. I even managed to interview several women for my next book. Just wanted to share my news with all of you.

Michaeline Dela Fera

Who?

from The New York Times

"Swedish Academy’s announcement on Thursday that the 2009 prize had gone to the Romanian-born German novelist Herta Müller —"...

Herta Müller Wins Nobel Prize in Literature

Excerpts from her Books

A rather anti-intellectual review. Washington Post on Herta Miller's Nobel Prize

And the Guardian UK, once again, has a thoughtful piece:
Why Herta Müller matters

Mentors

Narrative Magazine recently published an essay by Joyce Carol Oates —
Essay

The essay appears in a new book: Mentors, Muses and Monsters:30 Writers on the People Who Changed Their Lives

The first sentence of this fascinating essay—"How solitary I’ve always felt, in my writing life. Unlike nearly all my writer friends..."

Secular Reading Day by Day

Secular Daily Devotional

"Each entry is drawn from a different field of knowledge: History, Literature, Visual Arts, Science, Music, Philosophy, and Religion. Read one passage a day and you will explore each subject once a week."

I love daily activities , but rarely keep up with them.

On Day One you learn that "Several letters in modern-day English are direct descendants of ancient Egyptian characters. For instance, the letter B derives from the Egyptian character for the word house."

I'm not certain of a daily activity, but I expect that many of the facts will trigger some rather interesting writing prompts.