June 21st, 2010

Grub Street News

Welcome to the latest installment of the Grub Street Rag, a newsletter of the Boston literary scene sent out every Monday from the extraordinary chicken coop at Grub Street's world headquarters. As always, if you are receiving this e-mail in horror, please advance to the bottom of the page to unsubscribe yourself.

Summer classes begin this week

Many of Grub's summer courses begin this week, and lots of them are already filling up. We've got all your old favorites -- our core classes in fiction, poetry, non-fiction and screenwriting -- as well as new offerings in all genres and the "business of writing." Not able to commit to a multi-week class? Choose from over 30 one-day seminars, or try one of our new week-long daytime intensives. Start exploring by clicking here and then use the menu sidebar on the left side of the screen to check out all the great options.

Help us beautify our space

Do you like painting stuff? Can you wield a roller? We need you! In an effort to make Grub Street more beautiful, we're repainting our walls, and we need an army of volunteers to help us do it. We've already painted our two front rooms, but we need more help on on Friday, June 25th, between 11am - 6pm. The more the merrier, and the faster it will go! Of course, free pizza is involved -- to say nothing of great memories and new, writerly friendships. Who's game? If you can make it, email Sonya at sonya@grubstreet.org with your name and phone number. Help us! It'll be fun!

Announcing the winner of the 2010 Grub Street Book Prize in Poetry

Grub Street is proud to announce that the winner of our 2010 National Book Prize in Poetry is Debra Allbery for her collection, Fimbul-Winter, published by Four Way Books in 2010. Allbery is the author of one previous book of poems, Walking Distance (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1991) and the director of the MFA program at Warren Wilson College. Of Fimbul-Winter, final judge Jill McDonough wrote: “Debra Allbery's Fimbul-Winter is wide-ranging and densely populated.  F. Martens’ Voyage to Spitzbergen, Milan Kundera, Meng Hao-jan.  A housel dish, Cormac McCarthy, bonewort, The Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson.  Intelligence and empathy, ambition and appetite.  Precise, precisely felt descriptions of “the dim settled silence of a bookshop,/frayed bindings and familiar foxed must,” of dreams of winter coats, of “the slow scuff/of my own heart.” Inside these poems, waiting rooms and offices fill with as much wonder, tenderness, and specificity as Vermeers, Orion, a mine fire burning a hundred years under Ohio. Still burning.” In early 2011, Allbery will be visiting Grub Street from Asheville, NC for a reading, dinner reception and to lead a craft class for members; exact dates and times will be listed here and on our website by October 1st, 2010.

McDonough chose three finalists: Kelle Groom's Five Kingdoms (Anhinga Press), Chana Bloch's Blood Honey (Autumn House Press), and Michael Meyerhofer's Blue Collar Eulogies (Steel Toe Books). All of these books, including Fimbul-Winter, are available to borrow from our member library at 160 Boylston Street, 4th Floor.
Congratulations to Debra and to the finalists, and continued gratitude to the generous benefactor who makes the Grub Street National Book Prize possible!

Cheers,
Whitney, Sonya, Chris, Chip, Eve and Alexis

The P.S.: Need an idea for a cool event on a hot summer night? Check out the upcoming reading and musical extravaganza with Steve Almond and Dayna Kurtz on July 8th. It's going to be a blast! If you buy tickets through the link below in "Spreading the Love," Steve will give you a free CD from his personal collection. How cool is that? Details below.

Grub Events

In addition to our ongoing workshops, Grub Street offers numerous writing-related events around town. See our website for a long-term view of all we do. Ready to sign up? Call us at 617.695.0075 and we'll get you on the list.

DAYTIME INTENSIVE: Monday-Friday, June 28th-July 2nd, 10:00am-12:00pm, Luxurious Masks: The Liberating Potential of Persona Poetry
Instructor: Christopher Hennessy
The word "persona" originates for the Greek word for the masks actors wore, and it's the taking on of a mask that can inspire a poet to produce some of her most exciting work. Through a longstanding tradition that continues to thrive today, poets have found the dramatic possibilities of the persona poem to be rich and exciting ones. This form enables the poet to take on any voice she can imagine---historical figures, literary heroes, imagined people, alien beings, inanimate objects, pop culture icons, the list is endless. In this week-long intensive course, writers will craft poems that build on and reinvigorate the tradition of the persona poem. Writers will concentrate on developing original voices and fully inhabiting within the poem the authentic personae they create. The goal will be to write poems whose voices leap off the page. Writers will also be exposed to masters of the dramatic monologue and persona forms.
Level: All
$200/$185 members, Grub Street HQ, 160 Boylston Street, Boston, MA.

SEMINAR: Monday, June 28th, 7:00-10:00pm, Essays in a Flash
Instructor: Kathleen Willis Morton
We'll spend the night exploring the sub-genre of short-short nonfiction (700-900 words), which has opened up new creative and publishing opportunities for writers the past few years. We will look at examples of these itsy-bitsy essays, explore potential journals for submission, and do a few writing exercises.
Level: All
$65/$50 members, Grub Street HQ, 160 Boylston Street, Boston, MA.

SEMINAR: Monday, June 28th, 7:00-10:00pm, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me: Writing the Erotic Poem
Instructor: KL Pereira
From the positively carnal to the utterly debauched, the poetry of the erotic has permeated popular as well as literary writing. Whether you're looking to expand your writing palate or deepen your study of how to meaningfully access the sensual in shorter work, this one night seminar will explore how the poem (in its many forms) naturally lends itself to the expression of our hidden (and not so hidden) cravings. We'll discuss how and why certain writers are able to rouse our deepest desires (whatever they may be) and do plenty of in-class exercises that will whet your appetite for the sensual! All sexualities welcome and encouraged. Don't worry; by the end of the night, we'll find the place that makes you quiver!
Level: All
$65/$50 members, Grub Street HQ, 160 Boylston Street, Boston, MA.

SEMINAR: Monday, June 28th, 7:00-10:00pm, The Art of Column Writing
Instructor: Suzette Martinez Standring
We can’t offer this seminar enough! It always sells out, and always gets glowing evaluations. With the explosion of blogs and websites, everyone is a columnist with a memory, opinion or skill to be shared. But creating compelling prose in 500 words or less is a special art. Vivid and insightful columns written in a unique voice catch an editor’s eye or a syndicate’s attention. The skills required to craft a taut and memorable column improve all types of writing. Learn the tips and techniques used by award-winning newspaper columnists to stand out and fuel a faithful readership.
Level: All
$65/$50 members, Grub Street HQ, 160 Boylston Street, Boston, MA.

SEMINAR: Monday, June 28th, 7:00-10:00pm, Making Your Writing Richer
Instructor: Kate Flora
Do you want to expunge all clichés from your writing? Do you struggle to find interesting ways to disclose your characters to your reader or make your scenes more vivid? This seminar will use a series of exercises and discussion to open you up to new strategies to move beyond the ordinary and find the distinctive, individual voice that is yours. WARNING: There will be homework for those who sign up!
Level: All
$65/$50 members, Grub Street HQ, 160 Boylston Street, Boston, MA.

Be sure to check out our events calendar for a comprehensive view of upcoming events.

Spreading the Love

Grub Street wants to promote YOU! Please send events for consideration to whitney@grubstreet.org. Our apologies in advance if we cannot fit you in. Please note that we do the best we can to evaluate requests, and do privilege requests from members, but can not be held responsible for the quality of these events and programs or the legitimacy of contests. We expect that readers will do their own due diligence before sending their work or their money to any individual or organization.

--READING AND MUSIC: Thursday, July 8th, 8pm, Rock & Roll Will Save Your Life: The Musical
An evening of words, musics, drinks, dancing, and bad hair.
Steve Almond will read from his new book, AND bless the rains down in Africa. Billy Giraldi will spin the records. And the amazing Dayna Kurtz will sing beautiful songs. Anyone who clicks here (https://www.ovationtix.com/trs/pe/8226175) to buy tickets now will automatically receive a FREE CD from Steve's personal record collection. This offer brought to you by Steve's wife, Erin! Also, the Grub staff can vouch for the awesomeness of Dayna Kurtz as a lyricist and singer – we all saw her perform at Johnny D’s a couple years and immediately became rabid fans. If you want to spread the word, or see what other Grubbies will be there, check out the Facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=132390163439178&ref=mf.
$10, Club Oberon, Two Arrow Street, Harvard Square.

--WORKSHOPS: Audit Classes at Pine Manor College
Pine Manor College is pleased to announce that a select number of graduate-level creative writing courses will be open to the public for auditing during the July Residency of its Solstice MFA Program, scheduled from July 9–18, 2010. Classes are open to serious writers working at all levels; auditors are encouraged to complete the advance preparation requirements for any MFA class they wish to attend. The registration fee is $35 per course. July 2010 MFA classes that are open to the public include What Is Historical Fiction?, The Read-Aloud Novel, Rewriting From The Sentence To The Book, Act Your Age, Conducting and using interviews, Writing & Reading The Nonfiction Graphic Novel, I Love It, But....The Author/Editor Tango, Why Write For Magazines? and many more. The deadline for enrolling as an auditor for the summer 2010 residency is June 30, 2010. For course descriptions, audit policy, and a downloadable registration form, go to http://www.pmc.edu/mfa-class-audit-policy.

--SEEKING SUBMISSIONS: Salem Literary Festival short fiction contest
The Salem Literary Festival  (Salem, MA) committee is seeking submissions for its short fiction contest until August 15, 2010. The requested theme is New England History with a 3000 word limit.  All entries must be 12 point New Times Roman font, double spaced with page numbers.   The fee is $5 per story, the prize $200; contest judges include bestselling authors Brunonia Barry and Katherine Howe.  Winners will be invited to read their work at the festival the weekend of September 17-19, 2010, and published in e-magazine Art Throb, as well as on the Literary Festival website.  Please go to http://www.salemlitfest.com/writingcontest/ for complete guidelines.

--CONFERENCE: July 30th-August 6th, IWWG's "Remember the Magic" Women's Writing Conference
For the first time, Brown University will be hosting “Remember the Magic,” the International Women’s Writing Guild’s 34th Annual Summer Conference, July 30-August 6, 2010. The conference, which is open to all women, offers 50 workshops each day. Of the 50 workshops offered, 12 workshops express IWWG’s original reason for being—the Transformation of Self through Writing—which it has fostered long before publishers accepted memoirs and autobiographies from persons who were not celebrities. The remaining 38 daily writing workshops fall into six major headings: The Art & Craft of Writing, Marketing and Publishing, Transformation of Self, Non-Linear Knowledge, and The Arts, the Body & Health, plus daily critique sessions where the work of the conferees is read out loud and helpfully critiqued. Hilary Salk of Providence, who has attended “Remember the Magic” for the past ten years, says: “Unlike any other writing conference I have attended, I have written in the moment, stimulated by the workshop teacher and the atmosphere of support that is unique to this writing community.” Participants may come for the week, for 5 days, for the weekend, and commuters on a day-to-day basis are welcome as well. Please visit www.iwwg.org for further particulars.

Email Marketing by