American Short Fiction blog

Don’t buy into the myth of the lonely writer trapped in an attic struggling to communicate? Like to collaborate? Check out this residency.

“The Collaborative Retreat at the Cabin at Shotpouch Creek recognizes that writers are part of a dynamic system of writers, readers and wider communities.” It offers two-week residencies to two poets, fiction writers, or creative nonfiction writers who want to pursue a collaborative project from March 6 to March 19, 2011, and March 27 to April 9, 2011, in the Oregon Coast Range.

Living near enough to downtown San Marcos, Texas, this writer knows a little something about The Getaway, the drowsy yet sun-blasted spot that was, in 1924, the the bank that was robbed by the shoot-em-up Dalton Gang in their glycerine-aided, glass-flying heist. In 1972, Sam Peckinpah and Steve McQueen returned to the location to film their great celluloid heist, The Getaway. The place is now a restaurant/bar with free wifi where any writer can belly up to the bar and move from reality to fiction as quick as a drop of sweat to the scarred wood bar.

Funny to me how the place is the fulcrum for fellowship–from the Dalton family to the Peckinpaw-McQueen power duo to the current residents of still sun-blasted and sleepy San Marcos to me.

Because creators need their getaways. And fellowship makes it all the more memorable.

Find your spot. Reside there. Create something worth remembering:

Bronx Council on the Arts offers the Writers’ Center Fellowship and Residency: The Bronx Writers’ Center Fellowship annually awards two nine-month literary fellowships to writers who reside in the Bronx, regardless of age but who are not enrolled as full-time students. An award of $5,000 is given to each winner and a community service project at the Bronx Writers’ Center is required. More info here. Send questions to Lydia[at]bronxarts[dot]org. Deadline: September 4, 2010.

The National Association of Latino Arts and Culture Fund for the Arts awards a small number of fellowships ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 to support artists whose work demonstrates excellence and the potential for positive impact in the Latino arts field. Examples of acceptable expenses for NFA fellowships include but are not limited to the following: costs for the creation or completion of new work, travel, study, professional development, living expenses, equipment, hiring of assistants, costs for documentation, production expenses and maintenance. Projects must begin after January 1, 2011 and must end by December 31, 2011. All who submit must be members of NALAC; join today. Deadline: September 24, 2010.

Win yourself an American Academy in Berlin—Berlin Prize Fellowship. These Residential fellowships come with a stipend ranging from $3,500 to $5,000 per month, round-trip airfare, housing at the Academy, and partial board to emerging as well as established scholars, writers, and professionals who wish to engage in independent study in Berlin for an academic semester or in rare cases for an entire academic year. Fellows are expected to be in residence at the Academy during the entire term of the award. More info here. Deadline: October 1, 2010.

The M Literary Residency Program offers two residencies, one in Shanghai, China and one in Pondicherry, India. The residencies are each three months long and candidates should only apply for one. Both writing fellows receive a total of $1,000 to cover living costs. The program is open to writers of fiction, literary nonfiction, or poetry whose residence in India or China would benefit their work. The program is intended to help foster greater cultural and artistic connections across individuals and communities. For more info, email: mliteraryresidency[at]googlemail[dot]com or see the website. Deadline: October 31, 2010.

The International Retreat for Writers at Hawthornden Castle offers residencies of four weeks for five published creative writers (novelists, poets, playwrights) at a time. Residencies, which include room and board, are scheduled in spring, summer, and fall. Write for further information and application: International Retreat for Writers at Hawthornden Castle, Lasswade, Midlothian EH18 1EG, Scotland. Application deadline to be announced.

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Let us know if you get accepted.

Music has never let me down so maybe it’s the heat that has me talking silly. But this August and September, I say we throw the book at Lollapalooza 2010, Ozzfest UK, and Hungary’s Sziget Festival.

I say let’s thrash, head-bob, and chillax to those headlining bands on our trusty iPods while we spend our economy-squashed, ice cream-truck-driving summer job money on something novel. Like, say, hitting one of the world’s most amazing writing festivals.

There’s the Library of Congress National Book Festival, for example.

When? Saturday 25, September 2010

Where? on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., between 3rd and 7th

Cool come-on: Hear and hobnob with more than 70 headlining writers, including Isabel Allende, Brad Meltzer, Katherine Paterson, [Texas Book Festival 2009 Literary Death Match judge] Jane Smiley, Scott Turow, David Remnick and Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk. Plus, it’s free and open to the public.

More info: http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/

Not far enough out for you? Try the Brooklyn Book Festival.

When: Sunday, 12 September 2010 – with special events on September 10, 11, and 12

Where: Brooklyn Borough Hall, 209 Joralemon St., Brooklyn

What the Brooklyn Book Festival has to offer:  With nearly 100 emerging and already emerged sparkling and devastating authors BBF is a huge, premiere, free public event for book lovers.

Cool come-on: Themed readings

More info: http://www.brooklynbookfestival.org/BrooklynBookFestival/festival.html

Still not far out enough for you? How about . . .

The Edinburgh International Book Festival

When? Saturday, August 14, through Monday, August 30

Where? Charlotte Square Gardens, Edinburgh, Scotland

What the Edinburgh International Book Festival has to offer: Edinburgh, UNESCO City of Literature, itself isn’t enough? How about 17 days, 750 events, 800 authors, over 40 different countries represented?

Cool come-on: It coincides with the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, as well as the other festivals which comprise the Edinburgh Festival.

Another cool come-on: As the press release goes, “We are the largest public celebration of books in the world.”

More info: http://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival

I’d stage-dive to all that. You?

There are few words we writers like to hear more than “Your submission has won!”  Though “Free” is a quick second, followed quickly by “A clean well-lighted space.” Put them all together and one hella time could be earned at the following residencies—but don’t wait to apply. September will be here before you can say I shoulda—

Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts

Your $25 application fee could net you two to eight weeks of free housing, studio space, and a $100 weekly stipend.

Application Deadline: September 1, 2010 [for]  two to eight weeks between from January 1 to June 15, 2011

The DL: Residencies of two to eight weeks go from January 1 to June 15 to poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers. Residents are provided with housing, studio space, and a $100 weekly stipend. Submit up to ten poems totaling no more than 30 pages, two stories or novel chapters totaling no more than 7,500 words, or two essays or chapters of a work of creative nonfiction totaling no more than 7,500 words, a writer’s statement, a project proposal, and a resumé with a $25 application fee.

**Emerging Artists News Flash**

The Kimmel Harding Nelson program gives special support to emerging artists by reserving a number of “transitional” residencies for recent masters degree graduates. The application process is the same for all applicants; however, applications from artists in transition following graduation from an accredited degree program are reviewed as a separate peer group.

More: Call ((402) 874-9600), email (pfriedli@khncenterforthearts.org), or check www.khncenterforthearts.org for an application and complete guidelines.

Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, 801 Third Corso, Nebraska City, NE 68410. (402) 874-9600. Pat Friedli, Assistant Director.

MacDowell Colony

Your $30 application fee could net you room and board for two to eight months.

Application Deadline: September 15, 2010 [for] two months from February to May 2011 (Financial Aid Deadline: September 15, 2010)

Location: Peterborough, New Hampshire

The DL: Residencies of up to two months from February through May go to poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers year-round on a 450-acre estate near Mt. Monadnock in Peterborough, New Hampshire. Writers are provided with room and board. For residencies in 2011, submit 6 to 10 poems or up to 25 pages of fiction or creative nonfiction and a description of a proposed project with a $30 application fee by September 15. Applications are accepted only via the online submission system. Travel aid and personal expense grants are available based on need.

More: Call ((603) 924-3886), e-mail (admissions@macdowellcolony.org), or visit www.macdowellcolony.org for an application and complete guidelines.

MacDowell Colony, 100 High Street, Peterborough, NH 03458.

New York Mills Regional Cultural Center

No application fee.

Stipend awarded: no cash, but living and studio space for two to four weeks from January to June

Application Deadline: October 1, 2010 [from] January – June, 2011

Location: New York Mills, Minnesota

The DL: Residencies of two to four weeks from January through June go to poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers in New York Mills, Minnesota. Writers are provided with living and studio space. For residencies in 2011, submit five copies of up to 12 pages of poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction, a resumé, a project description, a brief biography, and two letters of recommendation by October 1. There is no application fee. E-mail or visit the Web site for an application and complete guidelines.

More: Call ((218) 385-3339), email (nymills@kulcher.org), see www.kulcher.org for more info.

Find the Center on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/New-York-Mills-MN/New-York-Mills-Regional-Cultural-Center/95411244316?ref=ts

New York Mills Regional Cultural Center, 24 North Main Avenue, P.O. Box 246, New York Mills, MN 56567. Heather Cassidy, Retreat Coordinator.

Those clever people in Tin Houses.

According to GalleyCat, between August 1 and November 30, 2010, Tin House Books will accept unsolicited manuscripts if the submission includes a receipt that proves the author has purchased a book at a bookstore.

The same rule applies for unsolicited work submitted to its magazine between September 1 and December 30, 2010.

Remember: Tin House Books does not permit electronic submissions. Tin House magazine does. Read the rules.

A fun final note, as reported by GalleyCat: “Writers who cannot afford to buy a book or cannot get to an actual bookstore are encouraged to explain why in haiku or one sentence (100 words or fewer).”

Responses to this new submission policy here and here.

What are you doing this July 23-25?

Washing your hair with beer and avocado? Cleaning out your car?

For something far more extraordinary, head to the Open City Summer Writing Workshop, where you can dive more deeply into your love and craft of fiction, nonfiction or poetry. Here are some details:

Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House at New York University
58 West 10th Street, New York City (that’s Greenwich Village)
Friday, July 23 through Sunday, July 25, 2010
(Hours: Friday 6pm–8pm, Saturday 10am–8pm, Sunday 10am–8pm)

Faculty includes Thomas Beller, Jason Brown, Martha McPhee, and Saïd Sayrafiezadeh. Visiting Writers include David Berman, Mary Gaitskill, Rivka Galchen, David Goodwillie, James Lasdun, Sam Lipsyte, Phillip Lopate, Lara Vapnyar, and Edmund White.

The weekend is chock-full workshops, individual manuscript consultations, seminars, panels, and readings. Whew!

True love’s not exactly free: tuition is $750. Get your application. Ask your questions: editors@opencity.org or 212.625.9048.

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Know of other excellent retreats or workshops happening this summer? Let us know below.

Does Grammar Girl even need an intro?

I’ve taken a liking to Mignon Fogarty’s warm, funny podcasts on grammar and usage, and now I’m happy to discover her books as well.

Get the podcasts (iTunes or podcastpickle). So many choices. What are your favorite episode?

The new issue of PEN America looks incredible. PEN America 12: Correspondences presents email exchanges, letters, telegrams, epistolary fiction, and more. Sam Lipsyte writes to Barry Hannah (more on this after the jump), Siri Hustvedt writes to Scheherazade, and Paul LaFarge writes to Marcel Proust. Anne Carson searches letters from a lost brother, and Robert Walser writes behind the walls of a sanitarium. Plus comics from Iran and Lebanon; fiction by Alain Mabanckou and Donald Ray Pollock; poetry by Billy Collins; and much, much more.

PEN is also hosting an online forum dedicated to the same kind of correspondence. Sam Lipsyte and others contribute. Contributors are invited to “write the first paragraph of a letter [they'd] like to send either to another writer, living or dead, or to a fictional character,” or to “describe [their] experience with the new technology of correspondence: Twitter, email, Facebook, etc.”

Check out Lipsyte’s letter to Barry Hannah below.

(more…)

While the land still smokes from the mighty fire that’s consumed brick-and-mortar bookstores—the B. Daltons and the Waldenbooks, the mom-and-pop shops, so many shut, so many still closing—lo! a cry of new life:

Barnhill’s of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. A new brick-and-mortar bookstore.

Books, wines, art, gifts, coffee, chocolate, merch, hooray! The group of authors that put this baby together is looking raise it up as an independent thinker. It needs your help.

• Specifically, it needs books by independent publishers.
• More specifically, it wants quality titles to sell on consignment.

Interested? Contact mike [at] onlyatbarnhills.com.

I am hyperorganized when it comes to the techie aspects of editing and story-drafting. All potential ASF blog post topics get filed neatly in the hard drive in the folder labeled “ASF Blog” by date according to week. All my story drafts get filed in, you got it, “Stories” by date and further identified by version “a,” “b,” or “c,” depending on how the drafting goes.

There is one techie thing, however, I am terrible at. That I have to be reminded to do, and if I am not watched like a five year old who has been told to brush her teeth, I will skip the process, assuming I will never be caught. That thing: backing up my hard drive. Like the tooth-brushing, it doesn’t matter how good it is for me, I resist. I skip. I could go months and months without doing it. As long as there’s no pain, I’ll go without…

You know what’s coming next, don’t you?

About a week ago, yes, of course, my hard drive, she done died. Last backup: Christmas. Oh the pain.

All this to say what you already surmise:

(1) Back up your work regularly. And often.

(2) The slew of lovely notes and links and ideas slated to be this ASF post (and many, many others) are gone forever.

But I have a new hard drive, empty of all data. So.

Ironically, the post you won’t see was about technology tricks for writers. It, too, disappeared when I dropped my laptop on its head and gave the thing a total lobotomy. Bah.

Here’s something I stumbled upon that kinda makes up for the loss. It’s short and sweet and so helpful for writers. And it is a reminder that a disabled computer and freedom from technology are good.

The info came to me from Belle Boggs’ blog. She writes:

“I find the Internet really distracting, especially from the work of writing. It’s so tempting to check your email, read the news, or spy on people. Mac users can download a cool program called Freedom that allows you to disable the Internet for a set period of time, but I write on PC, so I generally just try to exert my willpower.”

Many of you may already know Belle Boggs’s beautifully quiet yet ferocious collection of short stories, Mattaponi Queen, which won the 2009 Bakeless Prize for Fiction (and is just out from Graywolf). I recommend this book. And I recommend freedom–the high-tech form you can click to achieve (looks like it’s available for Windows users, too) not the, ahem, low-tech kind you simply have to destroy your machine to get.

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Got any technology tips specifically for writers? Add your comments below. ASF blog readers, including me, will thank you.