Reminder: Workshop this Friday

Just a reminder that Dr. Patrick Ryan will be offering the following workshop this Friday:
Teaching College Writing: Getting Your First Job(s).

Time & Place: 5-7 PM, HI 206

Email me (santamaria005@connect.wcsu.edu) if you want to go.

Thanks,
Kristin

Ten-Minute Play and Webisode Festival

WCSU is seeking entries for the a Ten-Minute Play & Webisode Festival being held on Saturday, April 14 from 1-4 pm in the Student Center Theater on Midtown Campus.

The deadline to submit is March 12. For information on the Festival and application rules go to:

www.wcsu.edu/tenminuteplay/

Roger Boylan in The Evergreen Review

Roger Boylan's Killoyle 3, since redubbed The Maladjusted Terrorist, is featured in part in The Evergreen Review:

http://www.evergreenreview.com/current/fic_maladjusted_terrorist.shtml

Dolled Up for Murder - a great review from PW!

From Publishers Weekly: Dolled Up for Murder


Jane K. Cleland. Minotaur, $24.99 (304p) ISBN 978-1-250-00184-9

In Cleland’s winning seventh Josie Prescott antiques mystery (after 2011’s Deadly Threads), someone guns down Josie’s friend and client, financial adviser Alice Michaels, outside Josie’s Rocky Point, N.H., shop, Prescott’s Antiques and Auctions, shortly after the two women examine a valuable collection of dolls that Josie just bought for resale. That Alice “was being investigated for running a mega-Ponzi scheme” may suggest a motive for murder. When Josie’s loyal shop assistant, Eric, disappears, kidnappers demand the prized dolls as ransom. Meanwhile, Josie finds rare Civil War currency inside a vintage Chatty Cathy doll with the miniphonograph removed. Working with Rocky Point’s limited police force (no FBI wanted for this homespun case) and amid eager reporters, Josie once again proves an adept sleuth. The action builds to a seamless and fitting conclusion. Author tour. Agent: Cristina Concepcion, Don Congdon Associates. (Mar.)

Reviewed on: 02/20/2012

My Essay, "Artmaking," in Writer's Digest

Hi friends,

Just an exciting note that my essay, "Artmaking," (about trying to finish an MFA thesis while very pregnant) is out in the March 2012 issue of Writer's Digest. It landed on the "5-Minute-Memoir" page. Special mention of Daniel Asa Rose, my mentor who kept kicking my butt into gear, and special thanks to Sonja Mongar, who helped me find the book that influenced me to keep going. You can read the essay on my blog at www.katemeadows.wordpress.com. Cheers! -Kate Meadows

Enter the Black Orchid Novella Award - $1,000 + publication in AHMM

Submissions are welcome for the Black Orchid Novella Award (BONA), a blind contest run by the Wolfe Pack in partnership with Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. The deadline is May 31, 2012. The winner receives $1,000 and publication in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine.

Full rules are here: http://www.nerowolfe.org/htm/neroaward/black_orchid_award/BO_award_proc.htm

Any questions? Please contact me directly. (I'm the Wolfe Pack's Literary Awards Chair.)

First Publication!

AH!!!!!  My first short story will be published in The MacGuffin literary magazine in an upcoming issue!!!!!!!  Probably spring/summer 2012 issue!  I can't breathe...
It's called SOME OF US.

Teaching College Writing: Getting Your First Job(s)

Hi All,

Dr. Ryan will be offering the following workshop on Friday, Feb. 24 in HI206 from 5-7 pm.

Teaching College Writing: Getting Your First Job(s)

In this seminar for graduate students who plan to teach college writing, I will provide an overview of writing programs and jobs for MFAs. Then, I will focus on strategies for finding a job, applying for it, and interviewing. Participants will be asked to share their experiences. Participants may bring their resumes, statements of teaching philosophy, and one or two versions of a letter of application, but it will not be necessary to bring any such documents.

If you’d like to attend please send me an email (santamaria005@connect.wcsu.edu) by Feb. 17.

Thanks,

Kristin

Anthology CFS

Thought this might appeal to a few of you (Kristin, Becca, maybe a few others...). This comes from the Creative Writers Opportunities List, to which I encourage you ALL to subscribe immediately. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CRWROPPS-B/

We are looking for YA short stories to include in our first ebook anthology, titled Timeless!
If your short story is between 3000 and 7500 words and fits into the genre of YA historical romance with some twists, we want to read it. The story can include steampunk, fantasy, or adventure, as long as it includes some historical elements then we are interested in reading it.
Submit the whole manuscript as a Word .doc file (no .docx) by March 30, 2012, with the subject heading: submission–YA anthology.

Please include a bio, publishing credits if any, and a synopsis.

Email:

(replace (at) with @ in sending email)

Writing Opportunity with hamlethub.com

Folks, I have been in touch with Ken Ducey from hamlethub.com. He is very interested in WestConn MFA students who might be interested in internships or simply in writing stories for hamlethub in your area. As we have discussed many times, you never know what such work will lead to or turn into. So if this interests you, I strongly urge you to look into it. Some text from Ken below with more info...

bc

HamletHub.com is a very exciting startup which could be a great opportunity for Westconn students to learn more about citizen journalism and the new media industry.


We are currently growing from 11 towns in CT, and are seeking writers and reporters who can assist us in providing local news to the residents of various communities. The site currently covers many aspects of a town’s life that are not reported or under-reported by the local or national newspapers. This site has shown to have a strong impact on towns by providing information that is simply not readily available.


One example is politics. The Governor is proposing a number of new initiatives regarding education. How does that affect the residents of Danbury? Does it have a different effect if you live in New Fairfield?


Another area is simple recreational and charity events. Do you know all the parks that are open to the public in Danbury? How about the charity for dogs event this Friday? By providing a place for people to enter this information, and to read it, we can make communities better.


We are looking for people who would like to better understand new media, especially on a local level, to help us with this endeavor. Please have anyone interested call us at (203)431-6400, or email editors@hamlethub.com.


Please do not hesitate to call if you have any questions.

Future Student

Hello Everyone!

I just wanted to introduce myself.  My name is Jenn Powers and I will be attending WestConn in the fall.  I write fiction: short-shorts, short stories, novels, and novellas.  I am a previously unpublished writer but submit my work constantly.  As R.V. Cassill said, "A writer's apprenticeship isn't over until his first million words have been written."  I'm getting there...
I hope the program will be able to help pinpoint my strengths and weaknesses and possibly accelerate where I want to go. I'm excited to find my niche.  I love adventure, new experiences and challenges that help me grow as an individual and as an aspiring writer. 
I'm 34 years old and I am so excited to have this chance to attend WestConn.  I'm looking forward to meeting all of you at school and at the residencies.  Thank you, thank you, thank you for choosing me.  I bring maddening, inspiring, interesting life experiences and I believe professors and mentors and fellow writers have those experiences as well and we can all benefit from such symbiotic relationships.  It's about tapping into the human condition inside those experiences that interconnects all of us.  Those experiences can be turned into stories, the pain and joy injected into our characters, and we can all benefit from reading those stories that bleed onto the page.
Thank you. 

Truly,
Jenn Powers

Still Need an Internship??

Looking for someone to replace me as Barbara Probst Solomon's main intern. The position is unpaid and requires weekly trips to Manhattan. Her apartment is on the Upper East Side just a few stops north of Grand Central (or a few stops south of Harlem-125th) on the New Haven Live.

Barbara is a world-renowned author, essayist and journalist and a very interesting, kind person. Her project The Reading Room "Its Debatable" is still in the early stages. In short, it is an international literary blog. If you have an interest in very good writing and/or international affairs this might be a good fit for you. Experience with Word Press is also a plus, but not necessary.

I will still be involved in the project but will not be able to attend weekly meetings. Please email me if you are interested or if you have any questions. Carolyn31@gmail.com

Must love dogs.

New blog on the writing craft

Hey all - I've just launched Storycraft, a new blog focused mainly on storytelling and the writing craft (http://weedlit.blogspot.com/). It features the kind of pragmatic close reading that is so important for all of our continued development as writers - and yes, this is also true for those of us who already have MFA's and/or publishing success.

Stop by for a visit, comment if you like, and "follow by email." New postings will come out every two weeks - so it won't overwhelm your inbox, I promise! The focus is mostly fiction, but there will eventually be some nonfiction featured as well.

If you like the content, help me spread the word on Facebook and Twitter!

Hope everyone's semester is going well.

Tim Weed

Colson Whitehead

At the wrap-up meeting, someone expressed interest in having Colson Whitehead as a Visiting Writer. Can't remember who it was, so I thought I'd just post this here. Whitehead is reading at Yale, well... tomorrow...

Colson Whitehead
Reading: Monday, February 6, 2012 at 4:30 p.m.
Reception to follow. Free & open to the public
Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library
121 Wall Street


Colson Whitehead is the author of the novels The Intuitionist (1999), a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award; John Henry Days (2001), which won the Young Lions Fiction Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Prize, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; Apex Hides the Hurt (2006), which won the PEN/Oakland award; Sag Harbor (2009), a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner; and, most recently, Zone One (2011), a zombie novel set in Manhattan. He has also written a book of essays about his hometown, The Colossus of New York (2003), and his reviews, essays, and fiction have appeared in a number of publications, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, Harper's, and Grantland.com. A recipient of a Whiting Writers Award and a MacArthur Fellowship, Whitehead lives in Brooklyn, and teaches in the Creative Writing Program at Princeton.

A recent review of my book, "What We Sign Up For"

Thought I'd share. L

Please Vote For My Book

My memoir, Staying Alive: A Love Story, has been nominated for the 2012 Christian Small Publishers Association Book of the Year Award in the Non-Fiction - Christian Living category. Please support it  by clicking here to vote. You'll have to scroll past 3/4s of the way down  the page to find it on the bottom right !

Voting takes place during February and March.

The memoir, a series of essays that chronicles my and my children's struggle after my husband's death over ten years ago, has been described by one reviewer as a beautiful reminder of what really matters. Others have referred to it as a personal, humorous, and inspiring view into the grief process.

These reviews and other information about the memoir can be found on my website.

Thank you for your support,
Laura :)