October 12th, 2010
"The end of all our exploring will be to arrive when we started and know the place for the first time."
— T.S. Eliot
Welcome to the latest installment of the Grub Street Rag, a newsletter of the Boston literary scene sent out every Monday from the staff's most flattering angle 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.
We are thrilled to announce that Chuck Hogan will be reading at A Taste of Grub with fellow authors Anita Shreve, Marianne Leone and Regie Gibson. Chuck is the author of Prince of Thieves, which was was recently adapted into the Ben Affleck movie, The Town. He's also the co-author, with Oscar-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, of The Strain trilogy. Want to spend the evening with these fabulous authors and support the literary arts at the same time? Click here for more info and to purchase tickets to A Taste of Grub.
Bid on fantastic items and support your favorite creative writing center while you're at it. Are you looking to publish your novel or memoir? This year, we're especially excited to be auctioning off Manuscript Feedback Sessions with some of the nation's top literary agents, including Mitchell Waters, Lane Zachary, Elisabeth Weed and many more. Writing short stories instead? Bid on Literary Magazine Feedback Sessions with editors of esteemed literary magazines like Ploughshares and preeminent publications like Best American Short Stories. The auction also includes one-of-a-kind postcards created by amazing authors. This week, it features original work from Robert Pinsky, Lorrie Moore, Steve Almond, Josh Weil and Maud Casey. Bid today to take home a frame-worthy piece of literary history. Each week more items will go up for bid, and some items will be available only at the Taste of Grub event on November 5th.
The second annual Boston Book Festival is taking place this Saturday, and it's shaping up to be a fantastic event (read a Globe article about it here). Grub is proud to be a partner organization at the event, and to be hosting most of the creative writing offerings for the day. We'll be leading nine workshops and events: Writer Idol, Guided Open Mic, 1 Hour, 1 Story: A Flash Fiction Workshop, Poem Generator, Secrets of the Prolific, Making Scenes from Real Life Come Alive, and Jumpstart Your Writing. For the entire schedule of events and presenter bios, be sure to visit the BBF website at http://www.bostonbookfest.org.
We are looking for two trumpet players for a top-secret (and fun) reason. If you have been dying to dust off your trumpet case--or if you play all the time--and want to volunteer your horn-blowing skills for a good cause, email whitney@grubstreet.org for details.
Cheers,
Whitney, Sonya, Chris, Chip, and Eve
The P.S. We've got some great weekend workshop happening on Sunday the 17th--be sure to check them out! Visiting from L.A. for one day only, Neil Landau leads a fantastic workshop on screenwriting called "Screenplay Suspense 101: Creating Dramatic Tension through Character Development" that will make your plot tighter and your characters more alive, and instructor Judah Leblang explores growing older (and more importantly, writing about it) in a session called "Life in the Middle Ages." Read more details below and sign up on our website.
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.
WEEKEND WORKSHOP: Sunday, October 17th, 9:00am-4:00pm, Art of the Scene
Scenes play important roles in fiction and nonfiction—an opportunity for the reader to experience the action as it unfolds in the real time of the story and for the writer to dramatize crucial encounters and key moments. But combining numerous narrative elements into a successful scene can be a challenge. This one-day class – an expanded version of the popular seminar -- will look at the way scenes work and strategies employed by various authors. We’ll focus on pacing, choreography, tension, details, subtext, and more and practice these with in-class writing exercises designed to inspire and elevate your own writing. We'll also workshop a short scene you bring (up to about five pages double spaced) in small groups. Bring 5 copies.
Instructor: Amy Marcott
$115/$95 members, Grub Street headquarters.
WEEKEND WORKSHOP: Sunday, October 17th, 9:00am-4:00pm, Our Lives in the Middle Ages
This is a workshop for writers of a certain (middle) age, according to their own definition. Based partly on James Atlas’ book My Life in the Middle Ages, and partly on the instructor’s own experience in facing ‘50’ and beyond, this session will explore how we can use the universal themes of aging—letting go, dealing with physical illness, the earning of hard-earned wisdom, and laughing at our own foibles—as the raw material for personal essays, memoir vignettes, radio commentaries, etc. In this day-long session, we will examine the work of writers such as Nora Ephron, David Sedaris and others, and then write on a series of prompts, which touch on themes of growing older and (hopefully) wiser. We will share ideas to strengthen and further develop these drafts. Finally, we’ll share ideas about getting our work ‘out there’ through publication in various media, including literary journals, newspapers, and on-line publications.
Instructor: Judah Leblang
$115/$95 members, Grub Street headquarters.
WEEKEND WORKSHOP: Sunday, October 17th, 9:00am-4:00pm, Screenplay Suspense 101: Creating Dramatic Tension through Character Development
Most scripts aren't terrible, just terribly mediocre. In this workshop, you will learn to intensify plot by creating complex, captivating, and enigmatic characters that audiences not only will care about, but will be haunted by for days afterward. The workshop -- which is geared to students of all levels -- will utilize lecture, interactive writing exercises, and clips from a number of great movies. Bring your informal pitches, screenplay ideas, or the first ten pages of a script in progress, and additional copies for the group. Neil, a Hollywood film and TV scriptwriter, will also discuss breaking into the entertainment business, and as a bonus, literary agent Sorche Fairbank will join him in the last half-hour of the class, to take student questions.
Instructor: Neil Landau
$115/$95 members, Grub Street headquarters.
SALON: Friday, October 22nd, 11am-1:30pm, Who Does She Think She Is?
Motherhood can make writing a challenge, and even a source of guilt. Is it possible to be a good mother and also pursue your artistic and literary passions? Is it harder for women with children to attain the same level of critical and commercial success as men with children? The documentary film Who Does She Think She Is? explores this question as it applies to four women in the visual and performing arts. We’ll watch the film (82 minutes) and use it as a jumping-off point for our own discussion of writing and motherhood. All are welcome-- not just mothers. A light lunch will be served. Hosted by Grub instructor Jane Roper, author of the forthcoming Baby Squared and writer of the popular blog of the same name.
$10 donation appreciated, Grub Street headquarters.
BOOK PARTY : Monday, October 25th, 7:00pm, Bruce Machart’s The Wake of Forgiveness
Many of you will remember longtime Grub instructor Bruce Machart, who taught with us in the early 2000s. Since that time, Bruce has gone on to publish one of this fall’s most buzzed-about novels, The Wake of Forgiveness. To congratulate Bruce, we will be attending his reading and inviting everyone who attends to an after-party at a location near the bookstore. Don’t miss this opportunity meet or see Bruce again and get your hands on a great book!
FREE, Porter Square Books.
DAYTIME INTENSIVE: Monday-Thursday, November 1-4th, 11:00am-1:00pm, Writing Your Legacy
Most of us take great pains to ensure that our loved ones will inherit our material wealth; few of us are as deliberate about ensuring that our stories and values will live on. An “ethical will” is a document that will guarantee just that. Often described as a “kind of love letter” to those we will leave behind—be they children, grandchildren, friends or colleagues, it is a way to create a spiritual legacy. Whether we are young or old, a serious writer or a complete beginner, we can create that legacy and, in the process, become more intimate with ourselves. In this four-session workshop we will write from prompts, i.e; This is the world I come from... or These are the causes I have fought for... or This is one of the experiences that had the most impact on who I became... Come with a laptop or notebook and a willingness to dig deep. Sharing is entirely optional.
Instructor: Leslie Lawrence
$140/$120 members, Grub Street headquarters.
Be sure to check out our website for a comprehensive view of upcoming events.
Grub Street wants to promote YOU! Please send events for consideration to whitney@grubstreet.org. Bonus points and undying gratitude for submitting your event info in the same format as the events below. 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 cannot 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.
--CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Rose Metal Press
The Fifth Annual Short Short Chapbook Contest submission period begins October 15 and ends December 1, 2010. The 2010 judge will be Kim Chinquee. During the submission period, please email your 25–40 page double-spaced manuscript of short short stories under 1,000 words each to rosemetalpress@gmail.com either as Word docs or rtf files. Individual stories may have appeared in journals or anthologies, but we ask that collections as a whole be previously unpublished. Please accompany your entry with the $10 reading fee, either via the payment button on our website or by check. We prefer the former, but the latter can be sent to PO Box 1956, Brookline, MA 02446. Writers of both fiction and nonfiction are encouraged to enter, and we are open to short shorts on all subjects and in all styles.
--READING: Tuesday, Oct 12, 6:00pm, Jim Shepard
Ploughshares and Emerson College invite you to the Ploughshares Reading Series featuring celebrated author Jim Shepard, guest editor of the Fall 2010 issue of Ploughshares. Jim Shepard is the author of six novels and two short story collections. He was recently nominated for the National Book Award for his latest collection of short stories, Like You'd Understand Anyway, about which the New York Times Book Review said, "To praise Shepard's mastery of voice is to undersell what these stories are doing; it isn't the voice Shepard inhabits but the world. . . Shepard is an impressive writer, but I wasn't impressed until I finished the book: I was too busy being enthralled." Shepard is also a frequent contributor to The Believer and the New York Times Book Review; he teaches at Williams College. For more information: pshares@emerson.edu or 617-824-3757
FREE, The Paramount Theater, 555 Washington St., Boston
--BOOK FESTIVAL: October 16th, all day, Boston Book Festival
Time to charge up your eReader, bound to the bookstore, or locate your library card. The Boston Book Festival will take place on October 16th in and around Copley Square. Join BBF for a free all-day literary celebration and exciting street festival with food and vendors. Watch over 100 world-class novelists, thought leaders, children's authors and illustrators, poets, scientists, technologists, memoirists, and more share the stage in one exciting day. Featuring superstar authors Bill Bryson, Jeff Kinney, Joyce Carol Oates, Tyler Florence, Atul Gawande, and many more. Not to mention that there are NINE sessions being led by Grub Street instructors all aspects of creative craft. Bring the kids for fun events for the whole family! For more information, visit www.bostonbookfest.org.
--READING: Monday, October 18th, 7pm, Four Stories Boston
The evening’s theme: 'Til Death Do Us Part: Tales of love and expiration!" Featuring readings by: Alex Beinstein, former radio host for the interview-based show Tomorrow with Alex Beinstein; David Dickerson, author of House of Cards: Love, Faith, and Other Social Expressions; Daniel Gewertz, longtime journalist with work in the Boston Herald, Harvard Magazine, and The New York Times, and prize-winning storyteller from the "All-Star MassMouth Story Slam;” and Grub Street instructor Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich, recipient of a 2010 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award in Nonfiction and the 2009 Annie Dillard Award for Creative Nonfiction.
Plus mingling, eating, drinking, and the Four Stories style of literary investigation: ask the best question; win a free drink!
FREE, The Enormous Room, 567 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA.
--LITERARY DEATH MATCH: Tuesday October 19th, 7PM, LDM100: Boston
One of the all-time great lineups in Literary Death Match history takes center stage at Enormous Room in Cambridge. The megastar judging trio boasts PEN/Hemingway award-winning author Jennifer Haigh (Mrs. Kimble, The Condition), author/mastermind of fun Steve Almond (Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life) and comedian-for-the-people Steve Macone. They'll pass judgment on a truly brilliant quartet of scribes, including poet brillianteur Charles Coe (author of Picnic on the Moon), Hugo award-winner Kelly Link (Stranger Things Happen), Iowa Short Fiction Prize champ Elizabeth Searle(Celebrities in Disgrace) and star novellaist Tim Horvath (Circulation).
$7 pre-order, $5 for students with a valid student ID, $10 at the door, Enormous Room, 569 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge.
--READING AND TALK: Tuesday, October 19th, 9:45am, Coffee With the Authors
Buttonwood Books & Toys will host “Coffee with the Authors,” at the Atlantica Restaurant in Cohasset. Enjoy a continental breakfast while three contemporary authors, Lily King, Father of the Rain, Daphne Kalotay, Russian Winter and Eric Jay Dolin, Fur, Fortune and Empire discuss their latest works. Reservations and tickets ($16 per person) are required. Please call Buttonwood at 1-781-383-2665 to reserve or order a signed copy if unable to attend.
Welcome to the end of the e-mail, where like chewing gum and and dancing flamenco at the same time, we offer you the chance to win a prize. These two authors had such a strong friendship that when one of them found the other in bed with his wife, he didn't throw him out of the house. Instead, he allegedly said, "It's a cold night. Move over and make room for me." Name the two authors and the wife. Email your answer and your postal address to whitney@grubstreet.org. First correct respondent wins a J.P. Licks gift card.
Last week's answer: There are more than ten authors who have been knighted, but Arthur Conan Doyle,
Terry Pratchett,
Salman Rushdie,
Kingsley Amis, P.G. Wodehouse, Noel Coward,
Wilson Harris,
Francis Bacon,
Oscar Wilde,
and
Ernest Rutherford are some of them. Winner: Alex Foran.