March 21st, 2011

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 s'more assembly line 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.

Two Weeks Left to Register For a Spring Class

Registration for our spring schedule is underway! The spring is chock full of 6- and 10-week workshops, seminars, and weekend workshops, as well as some very cool daytime courses in all genres. Brand-new this spring are classes in writing for mobile devices, humor writing, and some great new offerings for poets. To see the complete list of spring offerings (and to search for the ideal class for you), go to http://www.grubstreet.org/index.php?id=402. The online registration process is very easy, but if you have questions or need help selecting a course, please call 617.695.0075 and we will be happy to assist you.

Join Now! Scholarships Available and Only Five Spots Left in Our First Multi-Week Teen Workshop, Fiction and Poetry For Teen Writers

Teens from all over Boston love our Young Adult Writing Program, a free program that takes place one Saturday a month and focuses on generative exercises in fiction, poetry and more. Over the years, many teens who have gone through the YAWP program have asked us for something more intensive, and now we have it: a multi-week writing worshop meeting on Friday afternoons. It's just like our workshops for adults, but it's specifically for teens aged 13-18. Each week students will read and discuss published short stories and poems, do writing exercises, talk about craft (the tools and techniques in poetry and fiction) and the writing process. During this course, they'll have the opportunity to workshop poems and stories in class. An inspiring and generative experience for young writers who are eager to develop their voice while helping others do the same. For writers age 13-18 ONLY.

SCHOLARSHIPS: Grub Street is happy to be able to offer a limited number of full scholarships for this course. You are eligible for one of these scholarships if you are in a household that receives benefits from Massachusetts SNAP or Massachusetts TANF, if you are a foster child, and/or if your household’s gross income is within the free limits on the Federal Income Guidelines.

To apply for a scholarship, please send an email of no more than 500 words to chris@grubstreet.org describing why you want to take this class and stating that you meet the requirements above. At the end of the email, list the name and email address or phone number of one teacher or other non-relative adult whom we could contact for a recommendation. Please put "Spring Teen Scholarship" in the Subject line of the email. Deadline is Friday, March 25 at 5pm.

What Does "Grubby" Mean To You?

A few weeks ago, we solicited your advice about updating our mission statement. The feedback was extremely helpful and sent us back to the drawing boards (we'll share the finalized mission with you soon). Now, we're back with a related question. As we work on our strategy for the next five years, we want to make sure that as Grub Street grows, it remains "grubby."  To us, grubbiness means being honest and rigorous in our teaching, welcoming to everyone, and having a spirit of fun permeate all of our work.  We'd love to hear your own thoughts on this.  What does "being grubby" or being "a Grubbie" mean to you?  Please share your thoughts directly with our Executive Director, Eve Bridburg by emailing her at eve@grubstreet.org. Thank you so much for your help!

Every Day, the Daily's There For You

On the Grub Street Daily this week:
~ The line between fabrication and lying in your memoir
~ Can you call yourself a writer if you don't write?
~ OMG: What to do when the agent says yes!
~ Writing exercise of the week: tell it one way and then tell it again
. . . and much more!

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

Muse Spotlight

For the next eight weeks, The Rag will be spotlighting a “Muse” (craft) session and a “Marketplace” (publishing) session that will be offered at our annual conference, The Muse and the Marketplace. We hope you’ll be able to enjoy these sessions in person the weekend of April 30-May 1st and the Park Plaza Hotel. For all details, including registration info, go to www.museandthemarketplace.com.

Muse Spotlight: Ben Winters' "Writing Funny for Young Readers" (Sunday Session 4)
Young-adult fiction is a bustling market, and editors love funny fiction for kids. But writing effortlessly hilarious prose for teen and pre-teen readers requires a lot of effort. In this session, led by Ben Winters, you will read and talk about a few excerpts, and then work through the secrets of creating honest, detailed, character-driven comic writing for young readers. (Secret #1: kids are a lot smarter than we think they are.) Ben H. Winters is the author of the middle-grade novel The Secret Life of Ms. Finkleman and its forthcoming sequel, The Mystery of the Missing Everything, as well as two much-talked-about novels: Android Karenina and the New York Times bestseller Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. He has written numerous titles in the bestselling Worst-Case Scenario Survival Guide series, and a bunch of journalism, for places like The Nation, The Chicago Tribune, and In These Times. Ben's work for the theater includes three plays for young audiences: The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, A (Tooth) Fairy Tale, and Uncle Pirate, all published by Samuel French, Inc. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and works at the Writers Room of Boston.

Marketplace Spotlight: "Non-Fiction Idea Clinic” (Saturday Session 3 and Sunday Session 4)
NEW in 2011, this fantastic session is a great opportunity for non-fiction writers. In this session, you will get two minutes to share your idea for a non-fiction book for the audience and a panel of three or four experts. The experts are agents and/or editors with years of experience working with non-fiction writers to turn their book proposals into reality. After you read your idea, the agents and editors will ask you follow-up questions and troubleshoot your idea. You will discuss issues of platform, expertise, and other elements of the non-fiction market. Please note that presenters will be chosen at random from names submitted in a hat at the start of the session. This is a fun event that aims to be respectful of your idea and illuminate the process a writer goes through when she is developing an idea with an agent and/or editor. The point is not to get through as many writers as possible, but to thoughtfully evaluate your ideas and offer concrete suggestions from which all could benefit. Saturday Panelists: David Patterson (Literary Agent), Jill Kneerim (Literary Agent), Jeanette Perez (Editor), and Alan Rinzler (Editor). Sunday Panelists: Caroline Zimmerman (Literary Agent), Rakesh Satyal (Editor), Joanne Wyckoff (Literary Agent), and Alexis Washam (Editor).

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.

SEMINAR: Monday, March 21st, 6:30-9:30pm, Introducton to Writing for Young Adults
OMG! “Young Adults” are far more sophisticated readers than you might think. This micro class examines the complexities of writing for young adults by taking a look at excerpts from popular YA lit and defining the key elements of the genre.
Instructor: Wendy Wunder
We're sorry, this class is sold out. Join waiting list ($65/$50 members, Grub Street HQ)

SEMINAR: Monday, March 21st, 6:30-9:30pm, The Business of Writing for Children and Young Adults
While the market for publishing books for children and young adults bears many similarities to the adult trade market, there are some major differences you should know about before you send your work out into the world. Tuition includes editorial review of first pages of one of your manuscripts.
Instructor: Maribeth Sanabria
We're sorry, this class is sold out. Join waiting list ($65/$50 members, Grub Street HQ)

SEMINAR: Monday, March 21st, 6:30-9:30pm, Improv for Prose Writers
Improvised theatre promotes quick thinking, self-confidence, and cooperation-- all useful skills for life in general. But for writers, improv can be even more beneficial, as it's based largely on the same building blocks as good fiction-- strong characters, satisfying plot arcs, and realistic dialogue-- and it teaches you to create all of those on the spot and with minimal "inspiration", several times an hour. Students in this very hands-on workshop will learn basic exercises for idea generation and getting out of your usual thinking patterns, as well as the principles of good improvised "scenecraft", plot-shaping, and character work-- which will then be directly applied in a series of concluding writing exercises. By the end of the workshop you'll feel like your stories are writing themselves!
Instructor: Andrew Ladd
$65.00/$50.00 members, Grub Street HQ.

SEMINAR: Monday, March 21st, 6:30-9:30pm, How to Write H-O-T Sex Scenes Without Even Blushing!
An intensive seminar that will aim to make sure we're exciting the right parts (our, ahem, hearts) when we write sex scenes. Check your inhibitions -- if not your clothing -- at the door. Large-group seminar, limited to 20 students.
Instructor: Steve Almond
$65.00/$50.00 members, Grub Street HQ.

SEMINAR: Monday, March 21st, 6:30-9:30pm, Creating Your Writer Identity Online
What’s your online personality? Smart? Funny? Thoughtful? Shrill? Popular? Whiny? Comforting? A writer’s online presence requires more than computer skills and ‘keywords’ to build audience (especially those promoting current and future books) it’s about voice combined with skill, structure, impulse control, and patience. We’ll concentrate on crafting your web identity in a manner that meets your mission. (Note: not a technical computer skills class!) Enrollees should bring their most recent blog post, Facebook updates, website printouts, and/or tweets, if available.
Instructor: Randy Susan Meyers
$65.00/$50.00 members, Grub Street HQ.

TEEN WRITING: Saturday, March 26th, 10am - 12pm or 1pm - 3pm, Young Adult Writers Program (YAWP)
Do you like to write poems, lyrics, stories, novels or screenplays? Join Grub Street’s Young Adult Writers Program (YAWP), a FREE creative writing workshop for Boston-area high schoolers. Our students, age 13-18, come from a wide variety of schools in the Boston area, and enjoy cool writing exercises, mingling with fellow young writers, snacks, and an optional open mic. After four great years YAWP has already been recognized by the Boston Globe as Boston's hub for writing teenagers.
Morning and afternoon sessions focus on fiction and poetry. View all the sessions and reserve your FREE space in the class of your choice.
FREE, Grub Street HQ.

Be sure to check out our website 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. 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.

--BOOK CLUB: Thursday, Mar 24th, 7PM: Celebrity Bookclub meets to discuss Howard's End by E.M. Forster. Hosted by Grub's own Christopher Castellani.
Considered by many to be E. M. Forster’s greatest novel, Howards End is a beautifully subtle tale of two very different families brought together by an unusual event. The Schlegels are intellectuals, devotees of art and literature. The Wilcoxes are practical and materialistic, leading lives of “telegrams and anger.” When the elder Mrs. Wilcox dies and her family discovers she has left their country home—Howards End—to one of the Schlegel sisters, a crisis between the two families is precipitated that takes years to resolve. Written in 1910, Howards End is a symbolic exploration of the social, economic, and intellectual forces at work in England in the years preceding World War I, a time when vast social changes were occurring. In the Schlegels and the Wilcoxes, Forster perfectly embodies the competing idealism and materialism of the upper classes, while the conflict over the ownership of Howards End represents the struggle for possession of the country’s future. As critic Lionel Trilling once noted, the novel asks, “Who shall inherit England?” Forster refuses to take sides in this conflict. Instead he poses one of the book’s central questions: In a changing modern society, what should be the relation between the inner and outer life, between the world of the intellect and the world of business? Can they ever, as Forster urges, “only connect”?
FREE, Newtonville Books.

--READING: Tuesday, March 29, 7:30 p.m., Paul Harding: A Conversation about the Craft of Writing
Paul Harding won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for his first novel, Tinkers. He has an MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers' Workshop (2000) and was a 2000-2001 Fiction Fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center, in Provincetown. He taught Expos at Harvard for a number of years until 2008. Harding has published short stories in Shakepainter and Harvard Review.
Free and open to the public, Fong Auditorium, Boylston Hall, Harvard Yard.

--SOLSTICE: A MAGAZINE OF DIVERSE VOICES Announces Second Annual Contest
Deadline Approaching: April 5, 2011.
Winners get published in the Summer Awards Issue. Finalists offered publication also. Winners receive national exposure. All submissions read by published authors. Fiction/Nonfiction Prize fiction of $1,000. Final Judge: David Huddle, author of the novel, The Story of a Million Years, and many story and poetry collections. Poetry Prize of $500. Final Judge: A. Van Jordan. Author of Macnolia and Quantum Lyrics. Reading fee: $15. Open to published writers, up-and-coming writers and writers on the margins Visit www.solsticelitmag.org/contests to submit your entry.

--LITERARY BENEFIT: Tuesday, April 5th, 6:00 – 8:00 PM, Night of 1,000 Stories
Meet Diary of a Wimpy Kid creator Jeff Kinney and Mystic River author Dennis Lehane. Help 826 Boston students race against the clock to tell 1,000 stories! Enjoy cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, desserts and a dramatic backdrop of Boston harbor, all while supporting 826 Boston's free writing programs for Boston public school students and teachers city-wide. Individual tickets are $150. Table sponsorships start at $1,500. For reservations and information, visit www.826boston.org. For further information, contact Ryan Smith at 617-442-5400 or Ryan@826Boston.org. 
Tickets start at $150, John J. Moakley Courthouse, 1 Courthouse Way, Boston, MA 02210. 

--READING: Tuesday, April 5, 2011, 6:30 p.m. WNBA Presents "Different Cultures, Different Lands"
Women’s National Book Association/ Boston presents "Different Cultures, Different Lands," a reading by three prize-winning writers, Jina Ortiz, Grace Talusan, and Marilène Phipps-Kettlewell, inspired by their experiences in their native countries and cultures. For more on WNBA/Boston go to www.wnbaboston.org.
FREE, Coolidge Corner Branch Library, 31 Pleasant Street, Brookline, MA 02446. Street parking is available.

--RETREAT: Sunday, May 8th - Tuesday, May 10th, Writing Retreat: How to Write More, Write Better, and Be Happier
For writers of fiction and creative non-fiction.  Sunday, May 8  (starting at 5 p.m.) through Tuesday, May 10 (ending at 2 p.m.). Expect an intensive period to write, share your work for quality feedback, and make progress on a new or existing project. Participation is limited to six. Workshop facilitator Joni B. Cole is the author of the acclaimed book Toxic Feedback: Helping Writers Survive and Thrive (“strongly recommended” by Library Journal), and Water Cooler Diaries: Women across America Share Their Day at Work (“both fascinating and eye-opening,” Publisher’s Weekly). Her creative nonfiction has been nominated for The Pushcart Prize, and will be featured in her fall 2011 book Another Bad-Dog Story: Tales of Life, Love, and Neurotic Human Behavior. Joni is a frequent speaker and teacher at writing conferences across the country. Info: http://www.thewriterscenterwrj.com/retreat.htm or joni.cole@alum.dartmouth.org or (802) 295-5526.
$530 per person double occupancy, $705 per person single occupancy, all inclusive, Highland Lake Inn, Andover, NH.