I always tell students in my class that there is no down time when you’re a writer: you can always be working, whether it’s observing people in line at the pharmacy and thinking about how you would describe them or imagining the main character of your novel at the dull party you’re currently trapped in. This quality can be a good thing, stretching your imagination in interesting ways…or a bad thing, when you just want to relax and “be.” Is there ever a break in the writing and creative life when one can escape the pressure of, well, writing and creating?
This pressure can seem especially daunting when one has just finished a major project. That Puritan background may make it hard to say to yourself, “You know, I need—and deserve—a break.” The clock is ticking for all of us, so isn’t time NOT writing wasted? But after three-four-five draining years writing a novel that wrung everything out of you, you may not feel like launching into another novel right away.
Here’s how novelist Katharine Davis handled that tricky period between writing projects. (You can read more about Katharine here, in her interesting piece about the intersection between visual art and writing as experienced in Maine.)
Betwixt and Between
Writers talk about knowing when they have come to the end of their novels. Maybe it’s been three drafts, maybe thirty, or maybe they are so completely sick of their story they can’t bear to write one more sentence. Or, perhaps bells go off in their heads, angels swoop down, and tears of joy stream down their cheeks. They know their novel is finished and it is time to begin something new.
After writing my first novel, CAPTURING PARIS (St, Martin’s 2006), and having sent it off to my agent and began the wait for the right editor to bite, I immediately started my second novel, EAST HOPE, a story set in Maine. The characters and story line kept interrupting my revisions at the end of the Paris book –possibly another sign that a book is completed is when another starts to overtake your head. At the time, I wanted to keep my mind off the waiting, and jumped right into the new story without a break.
However, when I sent EAST HOPE out into the world in early September I felt like I needed to pause for a bit. I had an idea for a third novel, set in Italy this time, (forget “write what you know,” I love writing where you want to be), but I didn’t feel the tickle of excitement to spur me on to this new project. Yet, if I were to claim myself a writer, I certainly had to write! How to fill the time before launching into the new novel?
Desk cleaning is a useful diversion when you feel like procrastinating and while attacking old files I came upon some short stories I had started in 2002. The previous summer I had enjoyed Ron Carlson’s wonderful small book, RON CARLSON WRITES A STORY (Graywolf Press 2007). His intimate account of how he brought one particular story to the page made me want to try writing stories again. I selected two stories from my early writing days that seemed worthy of revision and set to work.
I quickly discovered that writing short stories is daunting. What to add? What to cut? Every word made a difference. I was out of practice, and it felt like I was working an entirely new set of muscles.
At the same time, driven by the love of language, and wanting to push my creative brain, I signed up for an introduction to poetry class taught by Nan Fry at The Writers’ Center. Nan is an excellent teacher and my literary muscles felt wobblier than ever as I sought to write in the “highest” of art forms. It was exciting, and scary, too.
Every day during my writing time I tried to write poems and I revised my old stories. While I enjoyed these pursuits, I didn’t wake up longing to get back to my revisions, nor wanting to start a new poem.
I learned that I was a novelist at heart. Yet oddly, the Italian novel was not calling me. My folder with character sketches and idea notes remained alarmingly thin.
Later in the fall I met a woman with a disabling form of dementia that had struck in her early fifties. This rare disease was devastating both to her and her family. For the next few days this woman and her plight haunted me. I began to think about how this affected her family, her friends. All of a sudden I had a story, a story I couldn’t get out of my mind. My new novel was born.
I came away from this experience having learned that you never know where you’ll find an idea, but also that dipping into other genres, trying new things, and just being out in the world might be just what is needed to move you forward into new literary terrain. And, in the middle of these endeavors I received the good news that an editor wanted to buy EAST HOPE and that it will be published in the winter of 2009 by New American Library Accent. All kinds of good things can happen when you are a writer caught betwixt and between. ~~Katharine Davis
About: Katharine Davis began writing fiction in 1999. Capturing Paris (St. Martin’s Press, May 2006) is her first novel. Recommended in Real Simple Spring Travel 2007, the novel was also included in The New York Times (8-8-06) suggestions for fiction set in Paris. She is an Associate Editor at The Potomac Review. Katharine recently completed her second novel that takes place on the coast of Maine; it will be published in 2009. She can be reached through her web site.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Fiction Seminar on Saturday!
Just a quick reminder about this weekend’s fiction writing seminar. It looks like a great line-up!
Fiction Writing All-Day Seminar
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Sponsored jointly by American University’s Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program and Washington Independent Writers (WIW)
American University
The Atrium, First floor of Battelle Building
4400 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20016-8047
To register for the seminar online or for more information, click here.
My Panel: Writers’ Blogs, A New Literary Genre
Writers' Blogs: are they as necessary an appendage to a Web site as a Web site is to a book? Are they just a whiz-bang book PR tool, or a new literary genre with magnificent potential--or both? Who is doing what? What works, what doesn't?
Moderator: C.M. Mayo, blogging as "Madam Mayo," is the author of Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico (Milkweed Editions), and Sky Over El Nido (University of Georgia Press), which won the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction. Her blog is http://madammayo.blogspot.com and her website is www.cmmayo.com.
Deborah Ager, publisher of 32 Poems, has received the Tennessee Williams Scholarship in Poetry from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and fellowships and residencies from the MacDowell Colony, Casa Libre en la Solana, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Poems from her forthcoming collection, Midnight Voices, have appeared in Best New Poets 2006, Tigertail: A South Florida Anthology, The Georgia Review, New Letters, New England Review, and the Writing Poems textbook. Her blog is http://www.32poems.com/.
Wendi Kaufman is the creator and editor of The Happy Booker (thehappybooker.net) a Washington DC-based literary blog that covers readings and literary events (primarily in the Washington, D.C., area) with a smattering of book reviews, author visits, and literary interviews. Her fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Fiction, New York Stories and other literary journals.
Leslie Pietrzyk is the author of two novels: A Year and a Day (William Morrow) and Pears on a Willow Tree (Avon Books). Her short fiction has appeared in many journals, including The Iowa Review, TriQuarterly, Shenandoah, Gettysburg Review, The Sun, and The New England Review. She has received fellowships from the Bread Loaf and Sewanee Writers' Conferences as well as from the KHN Center for the Arts and the Virginia Center for Creative Arts. She teaches at Johns Hopkins University and the Writer's Center. She has been writing the blog Work in Progress since March 2007.
Shawn Westfall covers the local literary scene for DCist, http://dcist.com/, part of the Gothamist media network, which operates the most popular network of city blogs on the internet today with approximately 1.8 million unique visitors a month. His writing and book reviews have appeared in the pages of the Honolulu Weekly and The San Antonio Express-News. By day Shawn works as a copywriter for the Washington Speakers Bureau, and also teaches classes in improvisational comedy at the DC Improv.
Speakers include:
Susan Richards Shreve, who has published thirteen novels, most recently A Student of Living Things. She also recently published the memoir Warm Springs. She is a professor of English at George Mason University and formerly co-chair and president of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation.
Mary Kay Zuravleff is the author of The Bowl Is Already Broken and The Frequency of Souls, both published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Her first novel won the Rosenthal Award from the American Academy of the Arts and also the James Jones First Novel Award.
Renowned poet E. Ethelbert Miller interviews Edward P. Jones. Jones was born and raised in Washington, D.C. Winner of the Pen/Hemingway Award and recipient of the Lannan Foundation Grant and a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, Jones was educated at Holy Cross College and the University of Virginia. He has been a professor of fiction writing at a range of universities, including Princeton. His first book, Lost in the City, was short listed for the National Book Award. His novel The Known World was awarded the 2004 Pulitzer Price for Fiction.
Additional Panels:
“If Rodney Dangerfield Were an Author . . .” Genre writers may get readership, but they don't always get much respect from the critical community. Are these literary specialists able to transcend the "limitations" of their chosen forms? Or are those limitations a source of strength? Some of the Washington area's leading writers -- in genres ranging from chick lit to gay lit to fantasy to mystery -- argue the merits of their craft and discuss the best ways to make it in the genre market. With Louis Bayard, Christina Bartolomeo, Austin S. Camacho, Keith Donohue, and Alex MacLennan.
Fiction Under Forty
The panel will explore various issues related to craft and subject matter concerning the young fiction writer at work today. Why is it that more and more writers are finding their voices at an earlier age? Are their perspectives on place, identity, ethnicity, and other subjects different from those of older writers? What are the particular challenges the young fiction writer faces today? With Sudip Bose, Josh Emmons, Olga Grushin, and Alix Ohlin.
Fiction Writing All-Day Seminar
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Sponsored jointly by American University’s Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program and Washington Independent Writers (WIW)
American University
The Atrium, First floor of Battelle Building
4400 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20016-8047
To register for the seminar online or for more information, click here.
My Panel: Writers’ Blogs, A New Literary Genre
Writers' Blogs: are they as necessary an appendage to a Web site as a Web site is to a book? Are they just a whiz-bang book PR tool, or a new literary genre with magnificent potential--or both? Who is doing what? What works, what doesn't?
Moderator: C.M. Mayo, blogging as "Madam Mayo," is the author of Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico (Milkweed Editions), and Sky Over El Nido (University of Georgia Press), which won the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction. Her blog is http://madammayo.blogspot.com and her website is www.cmmayo.com.
Deborah Ager, publisher of 32 Poems, has received the Tennessee Williams Scholarship in Poetry from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and fellowships and residencies from the MacDowell Colony, Casa Libre en la Solana, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Poems from her forthcoming collection, Midnight Voices, have appeared in Best New Poets 2006, Tigertail: A South Florida Anthology, The Georgia Review, New Letters, New England Review, and the Writing Poems textbook. Her blog is http://www.32poems.com/.
Wendi Kaufman is the creator and editor of The Happy Booker (thehappybooker.net) a Washington DC-based literary blog that covers readings and literary events (primarily in the Washington, D.C., area) with a smattering of book reviews, author visits, and literary interviews. Her fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Fiction, New York Stories and other literary journals.
Leslie Pietrzyk is the author of two novels: A Year and a Day (William Morrow) and Pears on a Willow Tree (Avon Books). Her short fiction has appeared in many journals, including The Iowa Review, TriQuarterly, Shenandoah, Gettysburg Review, The Sun, and The New England Review. She has received fellowships from the Bread Loaf and Sewanee Writers' Conferences as well as from the KHN Center for the Arts and the Virginia Center for Creative Arts. She teaches at Johns Hopkins University and the Writer's Center. She has been writing the blog Work in Progress since March 2007.
Shawn Westfall covers the local literary scene for DCist, http://dcist.com/, part of the Gothamist media network, which operates the most popular network of city blogs on the internet today with approximately 1.8 million unique visitors a month. His writing and book reviews have appeared in the pages of the Honolulu Weekly and The San Antonio Express-News. By day Shawn works as a copywriter for the Washington Speakers Bureau, and also teaches classes in improvisational comedy at the DC Improv.
Speakers include:
Susan Richards Shreve, who has published thirteen novels, most recently A Student of Living Things. She also recently published the memoir Warm Springs. She is a professor of English at George Mason University and formerly co-chair and president of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation.
Mary Kay Zuravleff is the author of The Bowl Is Already Broken and The Frequency of Souls, both published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Her first novel won the Rosenthal Award from the American Academy of the Arts and also the James Jones First Novel Award.
Renowned poet E. Ethelbert Miller interviews Edward P. Jones. Jones was born and raised in Washington, D.C. Winner of the Pen/Hemingway Award and recipient of the Lannan Foundation Grant and a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, Jones was educated at Holy Cross College and the University of Virginia. He has been a professor of fiction writing at a range of universities, including Princeton. His first book, Lost in the City, was short listed for the National Book Award. His novel The Known World was awarded the 2004 Pulitzer Price for Fiction.
Additional Panels:
“If Rodney Dangerfield Were an Author . . .” Genre writers may get readership, but they don't always get much respect from the critical community. Are these literary specialists able to transcend the "limitations" of their chosen forms? Or are those limitations a source of strength? Some of the Washington area's leading writers -- in genres ranging from chick lit to gay lit to fantasy to mystery -- argue the merits of their craft and discuss the best ways to make it in the genre market. With Louis Bayard, Christina Bartolomeo, Austin S. Camacho, Keith Donohue, and Alex MacLennan.
Fiction Under Forty
The panel will explore various issues related to craft and subject matter concerning the young fiction writer at work today. Why is it that more and more writers are finding their voices at an earlier age? Are their perspectives on place, identity, ethnicity, and other subjects different from those of older writers? What are the particular challenges the young fiction writer faces today? With Sudip Bose, Josh Emmons, Olga Grushin, and Alix Ohlin.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
For Me, It's Always 4 AM
As someone who often wakes up in the night, abruptly unable to sleep, today’s poem from The Writer's Almanac hits home in the uncomfortable way poetry that should startle and unsettle:
Things
by Fleur Adcock, from Selected Poems © Oxford University Press, 1986.
There are worse things than having behaved foolishly in public.
There are worse things than these miniature betrayals,
committed or endured or suspected; there are worse things
than not being able to sleep for thinking about them.
It is 5 a.m. All the worse things come stalking in
and stand icily about the bed looking worse and worse
and worse.
Things
by Fleur Adcock, from Selected Poems © Oxford University Press, 1986.
There are worse things than having behaved foolishly in public.
There are worse things than these miniature betrayals,
committed or endured or suspected; there are worse things
than not being able to sleep for thinking about them.
It is 5 a.m. All the worse things come stalking in
and stand icily about the bed looking worse and worse
and worse.
The Man: Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman fans, take note of the following event and group. And if you’re not a Walt Whitman fan…well, honestly, you really should be! To quickly convince you of his mastery and passion, read my favorite part of “Song of Myself,” the glorious ending:
The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me, he complains of my gab and my loitering.
I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable,
I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.
The last scud of the day holds back for me,
It flings my likeness after the rest and true as any on the shadow’d wilds,
It coaxes me to the vapor and the dusk.
I depart as air, I shake my white locks at the runaway sun,
I effuse my flesh in eddies, and drift it in lacy jags.
I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,
If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.
You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,
But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
And filter and fibre your blood.
Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place search another,
I stop somewhere waiting for you.
And here’s the upcoming event:
Please join the Washington Friends of Walt Whitman for a special afternoon of poetry and painting on Sunday, February 10, from 2 pm to 4 pm. Richard Claude is hosting a private viewing for us of his collection of paintings of Georgetown, including a delightful depiction of Walt on Potomac's shores. We'll intersperse our appreciation of Richard's work with appropriate readings of Walt's poetry and prose.
We will meet at Richard's apartment in Georgetown. Paid parking is available at the Georgetown Park mall nearby. For specific location details, please email Martin Murray at calvertmartin@starpower.net.
Richard is a retired professor of Law and Politics at the University of Maryland, who took up painting to celebrate a return of his vision after an effective treatment for his macular degeneration was found. Later this winter, Richard will donate his collection to the Georgetown Library, which intends to auction it off to benefit its restoration project following last year’s tragic fire.
RSVP with Martin at calvertmartin@starpower.net.
NOTE: The next Washington Friends of Walt Whitman event will be a tour of the US Treasury Building on Saturday, March 1, at 11:15 am. To stay informed about Whitman-related events, please join the Yahoo list serve at CyberWalt: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cyberwalt/. The web site includes upcoming events, links, and photos.
The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me, he complains of my gab and my loitering.
I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable,
I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.
The last scud of the day holds back for me,
It flings my likeness after the rest and true as any on the shadow’d wilds,
It coaxes me to the vapor and the dusk.
I depart as air, I shake my white locks at the runaway sun,
I effuse my flesh in eddies, and drift it in lacy jags.
I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,
If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.
You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,
But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
And filter and fibre your blood.
Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place search another,
I stop somewhere waiting for you.
And here’s the upcoming event:
Please join the Washington Friends of Walt Whitman for a special afternoon of poetry and painting on Sunday, February 10, from 2 pm to 4 pm. Richard Claude is hosting a private viewing for us of his collection of paintings of Georgetown, including a delightful depiction of Walt on Potomac's shores. We'll intersperse our appreciation of Richard's work with appropriate readings of Walt's poetry and prose.
We will meet at Richard's apartment in Georgetown. Paid parking is available at the Georgetown Park mall nearby. For specific location details, please email Martin Murray at calvertmartin@starpower.net.
Richard is a retired professor of Law and Politics at the University of Maryland, who took up painting to celebrate a return of his vision after an effective treatment for his macular degeneration was found. Later this winter, Richard will donate his collection to the Georgetown Library, which intends to auction it off to benefit its restoration project following last year’s tragic fire.
RSVP with Martin at calvertmartin@starpower.net.
NOTE: The next Washington Friends of Walt Whitman event will be a tour of the US Treasury Building on Saturday, March 1, at 11:15 am. To stay informed about Whitman-related events, please join the Yahoo list serve at CyberWalt: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cyberwalt/. The web site includes upcoming events, links, and photos.
"Writing, Like, a Kid"
Apropos of Dan Elish’s wonderful essay about the differences between writing fiction for the children’s market and for adults, here’s an upcoming class at the Writer’s Center in Bethesda:
Writing, Like, a Kid: a workshop for writing for 8 to 12 year olds, with Erica Perl
It has never been a better time to write for young readers, and you don’t have to be J.K. Rowling to do it! In this workshop, we’ll explore the wide range of fiction being written for and read by "middle grade" audiences and work on advancing our own projects. Short lectures with discussion and in-class writing prompts will be followed by critiques of participants' work. Among topics to be discussed are those central to writing a novel (character development, setting, narrative structure, conflict) and those specific to writing a middle grade novel (importance of voice, vocabulary/slang, gender differences, pacing, use/avoidance of technology and "taboo" topics). We will also discuss publishing and marketing issues concerning middle grade books. 8 sessions. Workshop meets Wednesday evenings, 7:30 to 10 p.m. and starts on February 13.
Erica reports that, “Although the course is open to folks who are new to children’s book writing, several of the currently enrolled students seem to have book projects underway. So, I’m excited that we may have an enthusiastic group with a good range of experience (and lively discussions, as a result).”
For more information and/or to register, go here, or email Erica directly: Erica@ericaperl.com
Writing, Like, a Kid: a workshop for writing for 8 to 12 year olds, with Erica Perl
It has never been a better time to write for young readers, and you don’t have to be J.K. Rowling to do it! In this workshop, we’ll explore the wide range of fiction being written for and read by "middle grade" audiences and work on advancing our own projects. Short lectures with discussion and in-class writing prompts will be followed by critiques of participants' work. Among topics to be discussed are those central to writing a novel (character development, setting, narrative structure, conflict) and those specific to writing a middle grade novel (importance of voice, vocabulary/slang, gender differences, pacing, use/avoidance of technology and "taboo" topics). We will also discuss publishing and marketing issues concerning middle grade books. 8 sessions. Workshop meets Wednesday evenings, 7:30 to 10 p.m. and starts on February 13.
Erica reports that, “Although the course is open to folks who are new to children’s book writing, several of the currently enrolled students seem to have book projects underway. So, I’m excited that we may have an enthusiastic group with a good range of experience (and lively discussions, as a result).”
For more information and/or to register, go here, or email Erica directly: Erica@ericaperl.com
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
AWP Menu & Call for Embarrassing Writing Stories
I am still recovering from the AWP Conference and my long weekend in New York City…I feel as though I need at least a week to sort through all the interesting new literary journals I picked up and to absorb all the passionate conversations I had about writing. Spending three days with 7,500 writers makes for an intense experience.
Favorite oddball tidbit: the character of Elaine Bennes on Seinfeld was based on legendary writer Richard Yates’s daughter!!
As for the other important part of the trip: New York food highlights include scrambled eggs with smoked salmon, smoked sturgeon, and onions at Barney Greengrass (“The Sturgeon King”); about the best hamburger I’ve ever had at the burger joint in (of all places) a hole-in-the-wall hidden deep in the Le Parker Meridien hotel; and a Brazilian shrimp stew at Via Brasil. Oh, and I found a coal oven pizza place in midtown that was excellent (Angelo’s). Goodness…I almost forgot the fabulous Nantucket scallops at the Oyster Bar at Grand Central Station! And the corned beef sandwich at Carnegie Deli! There’s even more but I’ll seem like a pig if I keep going….
So, more substantial items as the week proceeds, but for now, this call for submissions from The Writer magazine looks fun:
Writing is serious business. But funny things do happen. We all make silly mistakes, some more humiliating than others. At the time, your blunder probably seemed unbearably embarrassing, but looking back on it ... it was pretty funny.
Here's a chance to show your sense of humor by sharing a favorite faux pas from your writing career. Send us your story in 50 to 250 words by May 31, 2008, and we'll publish the most entertaining entries in a future issue of The Writer and/or online at www.WriterMag.com.
We will read all submissions and notify you if your work is selected for publication. Selected works will be edited. If your piece is published, you will receive $50 and a year's subscription to The Writer.
Send entries as Word attachments to exchange@writermag.com. Submissions must be e-mailed no later than May 31, 2008.
Sorry, we are unable to critique or return your work. Be sure your manuscript is clearly identified with your name, address, phone number and e-mail address.
We're all human. Don't be shy--share it with the rest of us!
Favorite oddball tidbit: the character of Elaine Bennes on Seinfeld was based on legendary writer Richard Yates’s daughter!!
As for the other important part of the trip: New York food highlights include scrambled eggs with smoked salmon, smoked sturgeon, and onions at Barney Greengrass (“The Sturgeon King”); about the best hamburger I’ve ever had at the burger joint in (of all places) a hole-in-the-wall hidden deep in the Le Parker Meridien hotel; and a Brazilian shrimp stew at Via Brasil. Oh, and I found a coal oven pizza place in midtown that was excellent (Angelo’s). Goodness…I almost forgot the fabulous Nantucket scallops at the Oyster Bar at Grand Central Station! And the corned beef sandwich at Carnegie Deli! There’s even more but I’ll seem like a pig if I keep going….
So, more substantial items as the week proceeds, but for now, this call for submissions from The Writer magazine looks fun:
Writing is serious business. But funny things do happen. We all make silly mistakes, some more humiliating than others. At the time, your blunder probably seemed unbearably embarrassing, but looking back on it ... it was pretty funny.
Here's a chance to show your sense of humor by sharing a favorite faux pas from your writing career. Send us your story in 50 to 250 words by May 31, 2008, and we'll publish the most entertaining entries in a future issue of The Writer and/or online at www.WriterMag.com.
We will read all submissions and notify you if your work is selected for publication. Selected works will be edited. If your piece is published, you will receive $50 and a year's subscription to The Writer.
Send entries as Word attachments to exchange@writermag.com. Submissions must be e-mailed no later than May 31, 2008.
Sorry, we are unable to critique or return your work. Be sure your manuscript is clearly identified with your name, address, phone number and e-mail address.
We're all human. Don't be shy--share it with the rest of us!
Contest for Under-30 Writers
This ship will sail without me, but if you're under 30 years old, The Kenyon Review has a contest just for you:
We are pleased and excited to announce the first annual Kenyon Review Short Fiction Contest, for writers under the age of thirty. Alice Hoffman will be the final judge. Submissions will be accepted February 1st-February 15th, with the winner announced in late spring. Submissions must be 1200 words or less. There is no entry fee. More info: http://www.kenyon-review.org/contest/
The Kenyon Review will publish the winning short story, and the author will be awarded a scholarship to attend the 2008 Writers Workshop, June 14th to the 21st, in beautiful Gambier, Ohio.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
--Writers must 30 years of age or younger at the time of submission.
--Stories must be no more 1200 words in length.
--Please do not simultaneously submit your contest entry to another magazine or contest.
--The submissions link will be active February 1st to February 15th. All work must be submitted through our electronic system. We cannot accept paper submissions. Go to http://www.kenyon-review.org/contest/ to enter your story.
--Winners will be announced in the late spring. You will receive an e-mail notifying you of any decisions regarding your work.
--The final judge will be Alice Hoffman, acclaimed author of The Skylight Confessions.
We are pleased and excited to announce the first annual Kenyon Review Short Fiction Contest, for writers under the age of thirty. Alice Hoffman will be the final judge. Submissions will be accepted February 1st-February 15th, with the winner announced in late spring. Submissions must be 1200 words or less. There is no entry fee. More info: http://www.kenyon-review.org/contest/
The Kenyon Review will publish the winning short story, and the author will be awarded a scholarship to attend the 2008 Writers Workshop, June 14th to the 21st, in beautiful Gambier, Ohio.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
--Writers must 30 years of age or younger at the time of submission.
--Stories must be no more 1200 words in length.
--Please do not simultaneously submit your contest entry to another magazine or contest.
--The submissions link will be active February 1st to February 15th. All work must be submitted through our electronic system. We cannot accept paper submissions. Go to http://www.kenyon-review.org/contest/ to enter your story.
--Winners will be announced in the late spring. You will receive an e-mail notifying you of any decisions regarding your work.
--The final judge will be Alice Hoffman, acclaimed author of The Skylight Confessions.
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