December 12th, 2011
"The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do."
—Thomas Jefferson
Welcome to the latest installment of the Grub Street Rag, a newsletter of the Boston literary scene brought to you every Monday from atop the blanket of pine needles at Grub Street's world headquarters. As always, if you are receiving this email in horror, please advance to the bottom of the page to unsubscribe yourself.
Last week, we launched our campaign to raise $50,000 to cover the costs of our move to 162 Boylston Street. The response has been thrilling: so far, 65 people have sponsored items for our new home, including chairs, staples, a new podium, toilets and toilet seats (very popular!) and hours of Jason the Carpenter's time, for a total of almost $10,000! To everyone who has donated, THANK YOU. We are so touched by your generosity.
We're especially inspired by the outpouring of support and enthusiasm you all feel about our community. We thought donor Tom Champoux summed it up perfectly when he included the following message with his sponsorship of a bookshelf: "I've played softball, I've taken classes, I've hit the Muse (many times), I've gone out drinking, I've met tons of fantastic people...now it's time to put my name on something. Great idea."
If you're a part of the Grub Street community, we need your help. Help us create an inspiring and innovative haven for
writers in our nation’s most literary city.
How can you help?
Sponsoring an item is a great way to show your support of Grub Street, and donations like these are crucial to the ongoing success of our small non-profit organization. Thank you for your support!
New to the 2012 Muse and the Marketplace conference, Grub Street is soliciting “Hour of Power” suggestions from presenters all over the country. We are looking for authors, editors, agents, publicists or literary industry professionals with a compelling topic they’d like to share with a group of up to 50 aspiring and emerging fiction and non-fiction writers. You can lead a lecture with Q&A, a discussion class, a panel, a series of writing exercises, or a combination of the above. Accepted presenters receive free tuition to the conference on the day of their presentation, breakfast and lunch, invitations to a private Kick-Off party. If you have books, we will sell those at the event. Travel and accommodations are not included. To apply: first, read some samples of previous Muse sessions here: http://www.grubstreet.org/index.php?id=687 . Then, fill out our online submission form: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HOP2012 by January 16th, 2012. Winners will be notified by January 23rd. This year’s conference will be held May 5-6, 2012 at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel.
We owe huge thanks to our fearless team of volunteers, who stamped, stuffed, and conquered our EOY mailing in less than four days last week. They are: Len Abram, Colin Adair, Nancy Barron, Katie Blair, Sally Bunch, Sara Ikerd, Daniel John, Rachel Koepke, Michael Marano, Keith Moore, Martha Paterson, Emma Pattee, Kate Potterfield, Lauren Rheaume, Jeff Schwefel, Tyrra Turner, Ian Villmore, Lynne Weiss, Frankie Wright, and our crew of fall interns. We definitely couldn't have done it without them!
Grub Street now offers twenty scholarships a year, for $200 each. Recipients may use their scholarship at any time in the year and toward any class they desire, though not for Muse and the Marketplace tuition or manuscript consulting. The next deadline is December 19th, so visit our scholarship page to apply now.
We’re very pleased to report that interest in our new Novel Incubator program continues to be strong. Last Thursday, a crowd of 45, including all ten current students and both instructors, met to discuss all aspects of this unique year-long program. If you missed the open house or have more questions about this exciting opportunity, please email chris@grubstreet.org. The application for the program will be posted on our website on January 2nd, with a final deadline of February 15th, 2012.
Git certificates, gift memberships, editorial consultations, sponsored items in our new space, passes to the Muse and the Marketplace conference: all this and more could be next to the yule log this year for the writer in your life. Visit our holiday guide online now, and give the gift of Grub this holiday season! Order by 12:00pm on Monday, December 19th to receive pre-Christmas delivery. Shipping is free to your house or theirs.
Cheers,
Whitney, Sonya, Eve, Chris, Rowan and Sean
The P.S.: We know it's a busy time of year, but don't miss out on some great Grub events happening this week. On Tuesday, we've got some fantastic seminars that still have a few seats available: Steve Almond's "Getting Beginnings Right! (Or Why Your Manuscript Was Rejected)" and Ethan Gilsdorf's "Crafting the Pitch Letter for Nonfiction Projects," among others. Trust us, you can't go wrong with either of these instructors! And on Wednesday night, come on out for our Fall Season Showcase, featuring Aviv Rubinstein, Judah Leblang, and student readers from our fall term. All are welcome to come and listen--details below (note new time). See you this week!
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, December 12th, 6:30-9:30pm, Dynamic Scene Writing
Instructor: Michelle Hoover
* SOLD OUT* Click here to join waiting list.
SEMINAR: Monday, December 12th, 6:30-9:30pm, How to Use Your Obsessions to Jumpstart Your Writing
Instructor: Steve Almond
* SOLD OUT* Click here to join waiting list.
SEMINAR: Monday, December 12th, 6:30-9:30pm, Creating Complex Characters
Instructor: Lisa Borders
* SOLD OUT* Click here to join waiting list.
SEMINAR: Monday, December 12th, 6:30-9:30pm, Grub Self Publishing Network (GSPN) Seminar: Successful Self Publishing
Instructor: Michelle Toth
* SOLD OUT* Click here to join waiting list.
SEMINAR: Monday, December 12th, 6:30-9:30pm, Time Management for Writers
Instructor: Ben H. Winters
* SOLD OUT* Click here to join waiting list.
SEMINAR: Tuesday, December 13th, 6:30-9:30pm, New Approaches to the Personal Essay
Instructor: Kim Adrian
*2 spots left* $65/$50 members, Grub Street HQ.
SEMINAR: Tuesday, December 13th, 6:30-9:30pm, Getting Beginnings Right! (Or Why Your Manuscript Was Rejected)
Writing's all fun and games, until the rejections start piling up. In this intensive (though informal!) workshop, we'll aim to make sure your stories, or essays, draw the reader in, rather than leaving them in the dark. We'll take a second look at your opening pages, as well as the opening pages of works by Lorrie Moore, Saul Bellow, and others, in an effort to understand how to create a strong, independent narrator. Note: participants should bring in the first 500 words of a manuscript — ideally a manuscript that's been rejected. In fact, it would be best to bring in two manuscripts. Please resist the urge to rewrite them. Bring two copies of excerpts (one for Steve to mark up as you read).
Instructor: Steve Almond
$65/$50 members, Grub Street HQ.
SEMINAR: Tuesday, December 13th, 6:30-9:30pm, Crafting the Pitch Letter for Nonfiction Projects
In this seminar, you will learn how to write killer pitch letters (AKA “query letters” or “cover letters”) for submitting essays, op-eds, articles and feature stories to editors of magazines, newspapers, literary magazines, and online publications, and for submitting nonfiction book proposals to agents. (Sorry, we won’t discuss how to pitch short fiction or novels.) We'll look at top mistakes that writers make and examine pitch letters that actually worked. We'll also see how to leverage your background and expertise to best present yourself, even if you don't have a lot of publishing experience. Optional: Bring 15 copies of a draft of any pitch letter (it’s OK if you’re not sure how to write one) for a piece you are currently working on and we’ll try to quickly workshop as many of them as we can.
Instructor: Ethan Gilsdorf
$65/$50 members, Grub Street HQ.
SEMINAR: Tuesday, December 13th, 6:30-9:30pm, Ask the Agent
In this Grub Street seminar, you will sit down with an accomplished literary agent to ask any question that's on your mind about the role of the agent and get an insider’s view on life inside a literary agency. You’ll learn how to pitch agents and how not to pitch them, how agents make decisions, how the business works, what happens once you have an agent, how nonfiction projects get developed and more. Come with questions. The agent will tell all.
Instructor: Joanne Wyckoff
Level: For Everyone
$65/$50 members, Grub Street HQ.
OPEN MIC: Wednesday, December 14th, 7:00-9:00pm, Fall Season Showcase
Join Grub students from the Fall 2011 term, plus two of our award-winning instructors, Aviv Rubinstein and Judah Leblang, as they read (for 5 minutes each) from recent work. You'll hear great fiction, non-fiction, poetry and maybe even a screenplay. Reading slots open only to students who've taken courses, seminars or weekend workshops in the fall of 2011, but anyone can come to listen. Limited to 15 readers. Everyone gets free snacks and drinks. Sign-ups begin at 6:30pm. A great event for current Grubbies and those who want to check us out.
FREE, Grub Street HQ.
LUNCHTIME WRITING: Wednesday, December 14th, 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 – a series recently profiled in the Boston Globe. For 45 minutes, you’ll meet fellow writers and get your creative juices flowing with some cool writing exercises. Led by one of our award-winning instructors or ambassadors. 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.
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.
--EVENT: Thursday, December 15th, 5:30 - 8:30 pm, Blogging While Brown Boston Meetup
The Blogging While Brown Boston Meetup provides an opportunity for local bloggers in the greater Boston area to meet, connect, and further the development of their respective blogs. Stop by for a drink, a bite and some casual networking!
Register: http://bwbbos3.eventbrite.com/
FREE, West End Johnnies, 138 Portland Street, Boston, MA
--AWARD: Beyond the Margin's 1st Annual Above and Beyond Award
Nominate a writer who has gone above and beyond the call of duty to help fellow writers. Extra editing, mentoring, putting writers in touch with each other, putting writers in touch with agents and editors, running classes for young people and seniors, organizing readings: If there’s someone you know who has done one or more or all of these things, we want to hear about it. Workshop leaders or class instructors are eligible, but no formal teaching position is required. Read full details on the BTM blog.
--CALL FOR SCRIPTS: Framingham State University: Communication Arts
Script Contest
FSU and Theatre906 are hosting their First Annual Theatre Script Festival at FSU, April 22-29.
They are seeking scripts to be produced as reader’s theatre, centered around the theme of gender identity.
We are soliciting both short (30-45 minutes maximum) and full-length pieces. Please no musicals.
This is a juried contest with 8 winners.
The grand prize winner will have a full production of their work at FSU, with members of the campus, community, and alumni participating.
For questions or to submit a script, please email:
Brian Boruta: brian@theater906.org or
Sarah Cole: scole@Framingham.edu The deadline for submission is December 30, 2011.
--CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Warpaint
Warpaint, a new Canadian anthology of works, seeks bold unusual and provocative short fiction for its first issue to be released internationally in early 2012. Visit www.zenfri.com/submissions for full details.
--WRITER'S AERIE: SUNNY FURNISHED SUBLET: Avail Jan 1st-April 30th, $1000/month, Dorchester.
Writer looking for a mature professional writer or couple to sublet her 1,000 square-foot sunny, quiet, one bedroom, 2nd floor condo while she's out of town this winter. Washer/dryer in unit, Wi-Fi, TV with DVD, and off-street parking. The house is located on Jones Hill, a ten-minute walk from the Red Line at Savin Hill. For details and photos, please email: neceeregis@gmail.com
Welcome to the end of the e-mail, where like the ambiance provided by a cellophane fire, we offer you the chance to win a prize. This author's science fiction descriptions were so prophetic that a real inventor was denied a patent for an item the author included in one of his books. Email your answer to whitney@grubstreet.org. The first correct respondent wins a Starbucks gift card for a coffee treat.
Last week's trivia: When asked what book he would want if trapped on a desert island, G.K. Chesterton famously said he wanted to have Thomas' Guide to Practical Ship Building. Winner: Peta Jinnath Andersen.