May 16th, 2011
"Use what talent you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best."
—Henry Van Dyke
Welcome to the latest installment of the Grub Street Rag, a newsletter of the Boston literary scene brought to you every Monday when we're not practicing our scales at Grub Street World Headquarters. As always, if you are receiving this e-mail in horror, please advance to the bottom of the page to unsubscribe yourself.
Each summer, Grub Street holds the Young Adult Writers Program Summer Fellowship, a rigorous practicum for teens who are truly passionate about writing. These kids come to Grub Street bursting with enthusiasm for stories and poetry. They write for hours each day while they're here, and when it's time to go, they don't want to leave. Every year, we find ourselves blown away by their excitement, their boundless dedication and their talent.
In years past, writers and readers like you have supported the program and made it possible. This year, we're increasing the program from two weeks to three, and we need your support more than ever. So far, we've raised $17,000, and we are actively fundraising to make sure we can hold this fantastic summer session again. In order to run the YAWP Summer Teen Fellowship this year, we must raise an additional $7,000 by July 1st.
For $300, you can sponsor a teen writer, and can give them an enriching experience like you have found at Grub Street: time to focus on their craft, to commune with other writers, and to take themselves seriously as emerging artists. $100 pays for one student's writing supplies and healthy lunches, $50 covers a student's field trip fees, and any amount helps. Support a teen writer today and make their literary dreams come true!
Donate to the YAWP Summer Fellowship Program now.
We are excited to announce that our Summer multi-week course schedule is now online. We have a wonderful lineup of 6- and 10-week workshops, as well as daytime classes in every genre. Weekend workshops and one-night seminars will be posted shortly. Commit to your writing this summer with classic Grub classes: Fiction I; 6 Weeks, 6 Essays; and more, or take a new classic like Erotic Romance or Blueprinting Your Book. To see the complete list of summer 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 any of our staff will be happy to assist you.
We launched our Director's Circle in April, and are excited to welcome our first members to the group. The Director's Circle is comprised of Grub Street's most loyal supporters and leaders, a group of individuals who care about the written word and want to make our city a destination for readers and writers. We are so thankful to have the support of such a fantastic group of people. Want to join them? Learn how on our website.
Patrons: Maureen Hanley, Glenn Morris, and Hillary and Jeffrey Rayport
Luminaries: Jeffrey Mayersohn and Linda Seamonson, Hank Phillippi Ryan and Jonathan Shapiro, and Anita Shreve and John Osborn
Benefactors: Christiane and Joseph Alsop, Michael and Nancy Antonietti, Richard and Helen Bridburg, Sondra and Norman Levenson, Tel McCormick and Jack Szostak, Mameve and Howard Medwed, Sue Miller, Sophie Powell and Christian Westra, and Len and Linda Rosen
Cheers,
Whitney, Sonya, Chris, Chip, and Eve
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.
LUNCHTIME WRITING: Wednesday, May 18th, 12:30-1:15pm, Brown Bag Lunch Series
Do you work downtown and want to fit some writing into your day? Or do you have a schedule that gives you free afternoons instead of evenings? Bring your lunch and come on over to Grub Street for a Brown Bag Writing Workshop. For 45 minutes, you’ll meet fellow writers and get your creative juices flowing with some cool writing exercises. Best of all, you’ll leave lunch with some new ideas to ponder for the rest of your day, and beyond. No need to RSVP-- just come!
Instructor: Javed Jahangir
FREE, Grub Street HQ.
TEEN WRITING: Saturday, May 21st, 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. 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.
WEEKEND WORKSHOP: Saturday, June 11th, 10:00am-5:00pm, The Time of Your Life
One of the keys to success in writing is using your time properly. That can be tough when you have a job, family, home or other major commitments – and when occupational hazards like procrastination and writer’s block rear their ugly heads. The good news is that all of these issues can be addressed once you’ve figured out the root causes of your time “issues” and applied some practical strategies to address them. (Hint: it’s not that you’re lazy or uncommitted—so stop blaming yourself! Another hint: it is not so difficult to create and stick to a time “budget” and schedule that will help you achieve your goals.) Author Hillary Rettig (The Lifelong Activist) will help you achieve these goals with two three-hour seminars offered on the same day: “Time Management” first, then a lunch break, then “Stop Procrastinating!” The best news of all is that once a writer actually starts solving his or her procrastination problems or blocks and starts managing his/her time better, change can happen amazingly fast!
Instructor: Hillary Rettig
Sorry, this class is sold out. Please click here to be put on a waiting list.
WEEKEND WORKSHOP: Saturday-Sunday, June 11-12th, 10:00am-5:00pm, Line-by-Line
John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men is the perfect novel. Each line is a model of economy, crafted with precision. On the first day of this class, we'll explore how Steinbeck structured his work to ensure each scene, every last line, had a purpose, and how it all came together to support one of the most memorable endings in literature. The following day, we'll apply the lessons learned from Steinbeck to the students' own work. Students should come to class with the novel, having read it beforehand, and email up to ten pages of their work-in-progress to be shared with the class.
Instructor: Amy MacKinnon
$220.00/$195.00 members, Grub Street HQ.
WEEKEND WORKSHOP: Saturday, June 11th, 10:00am-5:00pm, Characterization
The creation of compelling, vivid characters is the foundation of any successful work of fiction. Whether you’re an experienced author or just getting started, this one-day seminar on character-building techniques will help you move forward as a writer. Through a wide array of readings – from Raymond Carver to Junot Diaz, Virginia Woolf to Z.Z. Packer – we will examine the specific strategies authors use to bring their characters to life. But the primary focus of the seminar will be to practice these strategies in our own work. We will practice both “off the page” techniques used to achieve a nuanced understanding of our characters, as well as “on the page” techniques used to convey that complex humanity to our readers. By the end of the course, you will have a dramatically expanded toolbox for the creation of believable, engaging, and memorable characters in your fiction.
Instructor: Adam Stumacher
$115.00/$95.00 members, Grub Street HQ.
WEEKEND WORKSHOP: Saturday, June 11th, 10:00am-5:00pm, Jumpstart Your Writing-- Creative Nonfiction Focus
This one-day weekend version of one of our most popular courses has a very clear mission: spend the day writing. Through a series of fun directed writing exercises, we will explore the terrain of creative non-fiction (no five-paragraph essays here!) and some poetry: mining for material, constructing characters and settings, shaping vivid dialogue, understanding point of view, exploring the many forms of non-fiction today, and finding your voice. We will discuss the process of writing and the strengths and weaknesses of the work we produce in class. We will read and discuss some short published non-fiction pieces and poems in regards to craft, then write exercises inspired by the texts. A supportive and generative experience for both new and practicing writers.
Instructor: Jennifer De Leon
$115.00/$95.00 members, Grub Street HQ.
WEEKEND WORKSHOP: Sunday, June 12th, 10:00am-5:00pm, How to Plan, Write, and Develop a Book
Books often start with a simple yearning to explore new territory: fascinating topics, characters who won’t leave you alone, a good story. But manuscripts get unwieldy, fast. One out of ten writers never finish their manuscripts because most first-time book writers get lost without good structure and planning. Mary Carroll Moore, award-winning author of 13 books in three genres and a PEN/Faulkner nominee, will guide you through a simple and successful book-writing process that can take your book from idea to publication, a process using a three-act structure that eases organization and makes a manuscript vivid and engaging to readers. Find out why Aristotle believed that three acts formed a perfect structure for all stories, why humans lean toward beginning, middle, and end, and why we crave the emotional catharsis of that format in literature too. For all levels of writers working on nonfiction, memoir, or novels, at any stage from seed idea to draft. Learn why strong structuring is the key to selling a book in today's competitive publishing industry.
Instructor: Mary Carroll Moore
$115.00/$95.00 members, Grub Street HQ.
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.
--READING: Thursday, May 19th, 6-9PM, Launch Party for Post Road's No Near Exit
Join the editors of Post Road as they celebrate the publication of the anthology NO NEAR EXIT: WRITERS SELECT THEIR FAVORITE WORK FROM POST ROAD MAGAZINE. Performances by Amy Hempel, Tom Perrotta, and Elizabeth Searle. The anthology is comprised of work from the magazine's first sixteen issues.
FREE,
The Enormous Room, 569 Massachusetts Avenue.
--AUTHOR TALK: Thursday, May 19, 7:00 p.m., Daphne Kalotay
2011 Muse and the Marketplace presenter Daphne Kalotay will discuss her novel Russian Winter.
FREE (donations accepted), West Falmouth Library, 575 West Falmouth Highway, Route 28A, West Falmouth, MA.
--READING: Tuesday, May 24th, 7pm, Rooms Down the Hallway fiction series
Join Boston's hippest literati to enjoy yet another evening of local art and fiction in JP! Hosted by Grubbie Dawn Dorland Perry and sponsored by the hallway's Brent Refsland. Featuring in May the sizzling stories of SUZANNE RIVECCA and JIM GAVIN, two groovy young authors you probably didn't know were living in our midst. Suzanne will read from her debut story collection, Death Is Not an Option, which was a 2011 finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award, The Story Prize, and the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award. Jim will read from his forthcoming story collection, Middle Men, which features a story that debuted last December in The New Yorker. Chocolate, nips of wine, hand-picked music. See you there!
FREE, the hallway gallery, 66a South Street, Jamaica Plain // http://thehallwayjp.com
--READING: Tuesday, May 24th, 7pm, Jane Roper and Edith Pearlman
Join Newtonville Books for a great reading featuring Grub instructor Jane Roper reading with Edith Pearlman. Jane has been an instructor at Grub Street for many years, and we're all very proud to announce the publication of her debut novel, Eden Lake (which just came out last week--woo hoo!). Jane's reading with Edith Pearlman, who was a Muse and the Marketplace 2011 presenter and is an immensely talented short fiction and non-fiction writer. Edith will be reading from Binocular Vision, which came out in January.
FREE, Newtonville Books
Welcome to the end of the e-mail, where like a penguin at a black tie wedding, we offer you the chance to win a prize. Jonathan Swift wrote under fifteen different pseudonyms. Name them. Email your answer and your postal address to whitney@grubstreet.org. The first correct respondent wins a delicious ice cream treat certificate from J.P. Licks.
Last week's answer: Katherine Mansfield left her husband on their wedding day and ran off with her high school sweetheart.
Winner: Nancy Barron.