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.
January 9th, 2012
"I am never indifferent, and never pretend to be, to what people say or think of my books. They are my children, and I like to have them liked."
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Welcome to the latest installment of the Grub Street Rag, a newsletter of the Boston literary scene brought to you every Monday from the route with the fewest stop lights on the way to 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.
Looking to polish your work before an agent or editor sees it at The Muse and the Marketplace? Want to get immediate, one-on-one feedback from a Grub instructor? Throughout the day on March 10th, various members of our creative writing faculty will be meeting individually for thirty minutes with writers who have submitted 25 pages of their work ahead of time. The 25-page writing sample -- usually long enough to include a complete short story, a novel chapter, a substantive personal essay, a short play, a series of poems, or a screenplay excerpt -- is often needed when applying to MFA programs, teaching positions, fellowships, residencies, etc. The session includes yummy coffee and doughnuts. Deadline for submissions is 12:00pm on February 15th. See all details, including the list of consultants, here: http://www.grubstreet.org/index.php?id=172.
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.
Grub Street is looking for high school English teachers in the greater Boston area who are interested in promoting our free Young Adult Writing Program to their students or are interested in having our instructors visit their school for free creative writing classes. Our Saturday YAWP creative writing classes are completely free for ages 14 – 18, and are a great supplement to any young writer’s English curriculum. Any interested teachers should contact sean@grubstreet.org for more information, and to be added to our YAWP mailing list.
Wow! Over two hundred people have donated to the campaign for our move to 162 Boylston Street. These heroic individuals have made donations or sponsored items for our new space, and we couldn't be happier to have their support.
Want to add your name to the list? If you'd like to sponsor an item in our new space, there are still plenty of great options (door knobs! The elevator button! The recycling center!) available on our website. Help us reach our goal of raising $50,000 by March, and more importantly, help us create a create a beautiful new home for writers.
Copious amounts of thanks to Allison Adair, Phyllis Alexander, Sherry Alpert, Anonymous, Scott Axelrod, Robert Baker, Lee Barton, Sarah Bazydola, Ronnie Beeson, Ronnie Beeson, Carlee Bell, Anita Bemis, Kate Bernhardt, Nichole Bernier, Susan Berseth, Andrew Biewener, Deborah Blicher, Deborah Boles, Gina Bolvin Bernarducci, Lisa Borders, Sari Boren, Marina Bornhorst, Mina Bourque, Jenn Brandel, Belle Brett, Richard Bridburg, Eve Bridburg, Claire Brislin, John Britten, Jenny Brown, Steven Brykman, Linda Button, Sarah Campbell, Christine Carron, Christopher Castellani, Ralph Chadis, Scott Challener, Tom Champoux, Celia Chetham, Linda Clark, Jaime Clarke, Priscilla Cobb, Mary Collins, Patricia Cotta, Serena Crystal, Kathryn Dahl, Kevin Daley, Stanley Dankoski, Susan Davidson, Melanie DeCarolis, Lilly Deng, Stephen Dorneman, Erika Dreifus, Paul Farquhar, Jacqueline Fein-Zachary, Victoria Fortune, Ramlose Foundation, Ronnie Friedland, Margaret Gallerani, C Robert Gielow, Thomas Gilchrist, Alison Goldberg, Andrew Goldstein, Mercedes Grandin, Carol Gray, Tracy Hahn-Burkett, Farrah Haidar, Mo Hanley, Laura Harrison, Alice Hawrilenko, Lee Ann Hoff, Elinor Horner, Tim Horvath, Maggie Huff-Rousselle, Julie Humphreys, Katherine Hunt, Christopher Irvin, Deborah Jackson Weiss, Libby Jacobs, Shirley Jones-Luke, Daphne Kalotay, Marjan Kamali, Loma Kathryn Kay, Carrie Kei Heim Binas, Tilia Klebenov Jacobs, Alexandra Kontes, Henriette Power, Clarence Lai, Sonya Larson, Judah Leblang, Heidi Legg, Robert Levine, Margot Livesey, Maria Lopez, C.J. Lothian, Vibeke Lou, Ron Maclean, Julie Mairano, Amy Marcott, Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich, Julie & Jim Matheson, Connie Mayo, Linda Mazurek, Kelly McEnaney, Melissa Menzone, Deborah Milstein, Saurabh Mittra, Jenny Moore, Nancy Morino, Kurt Morris, Margaret Nash Holmes, Margaret Newhouse, Arielle Norman, Maryanne O'Hara, Robert Oakes, Timothy Oliveri, Pamela Painter, Hank Phillippi Ryan, Charlotte Pogue, Mindy Pollack-Fussi, Lisa Dee Port White, Michael and Georgina Prager, Liz Prato, Mary Lou Quinlan, Octavia Randolph, Shirley Rayport, Robin Regensburg, Heather Remoff, Stacey Resnikoff, Hillary Rettig, Stephanie Robinson, Amy Rodriguez, Laura Roper, Lina Russo, Trish Ryan, Ray Salemi, Wendy Sanford, Whitney Scharer, Robin Schoenthaler, Harriet Segal, Veronica Shaffer, Sharon Shaloo, Melissa Skepko, Dell Smith, Ginni Spencer, Kim Storch, Daphne Strassmann, Cheryl Suchors, Dave Todaro, Susan Trausch, Jennifer Trynin, Claudia Turner, Sean Van Deuren, Lauren Vargas, Al Velella, Joan Vincent, Shannon Wagner, Bonnie Waltch, Daphne Webbe, James Whalen, Jan Whitted, Rudy Wilson Galdonik, Winona Winkler Wendth, Melanie Wold, Pam Wolfson, Burns Woodward, Frances Wright, Amy Yelin, Larry Yu, Gerald Zeitlin, and Peter Zimetbaum.
Cheers,
Whitney, Sonya, Eve, Chris, Rowan and Sean
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, January 9th, 6:15-9:15pm, Social Media for Writers
Instructor: Lauren E. MacLeod
* SOLD OUT* Click here to join waiting list.
DAYTIME WORKSHOP: 10 Wednesdays from 3:00pm-6:00pm, begins January 11th, 10 Weeks, 10 Poems--Level I
Whether you're looking to experiment, produce new works for a collection, or work on revisions, this workshop offers the opportunity to broaden and deepen your knowledge of poetry. Each week, you will study the craft and vision of contemporary poets and write your own poems to be workshopped the following week. This class will allow you to break old habits, play with unconventional forms, and, most importantly, leave the course with both fresh and revised drafts of many poems. For the first class, please bring a poem by another author that is significant to you as a writer, a work in progress of your own, and at least one question about revision.
Instructor: Scott Challener
$455/$430 members, Grub Street HQ.
DAYTIME WORKSHOP: 10 Wednesdays from 11am-2pm, begins January 11th, Prose Studio
The idea of this class is that students sometimes need a guarded, reserved, supportive place and time to work on their projects. Here, we make you write. This class provides a time and space every week to work on a novel, short story, memoir, or essay-- anything that's prose. Each class will begin with a warm up exercise or exercises, and students can share any questions or problems/blocks. If a craft lesson seems necessary (e.g. on characterization, scene, flashbacks, tone, structure) then the instructor will offer a short lesson or lecture. Otherwise, students will simply write for the bulk of the class hours (the instructor included). There is an option for sharing what you've written towards the break, or end of the session, but this will be kept to a minimum. Come to the first class with a your goals for our 10 weeks together.
Instructor: Ethan Gilsdorf
$305/$280 members, Grub Street HQ.
DAYTIME WORKSHOP: 10 Wednesdays from 3:00pm-6:00pm, begins January 11th, Meditation and Writing
This class will give students space to cultivate mindfulness and offer inspiration to transform the distillations of contemplation into potent writing. We will spend time in class doing guided meditation and guided writing exercises. The aim is not to write about spirituality, but to allow the act of becoming centered bring about spirited, mindful writing on any topic in any genre. It will be a generative class, rather than a traditional workshop, with some time spent sharing work aloud and offering spontaneous feedback. Students are also welcome to bring in drafts in progress to work on during the in-class writing time. Students will be asked to find time during the week to meditate, and to revise one of the exercises they've start in class the previous week to share in the next class. The take away from this class is cultivating a meditation practice, cultivating a dedicated writing time in each week, generating new work, and generating a re-writing practice as well. Kathleen is a Tibetan Buddhist practitioner with over 22 years experience, and a Buddhist Chaplain Intern at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center regularly guiding patients and staff in meditation. She is the author of The Blue Poppy and the Mustard Seed: a Memoir of Loss and Hope, and has been anthologized in Best Buddhist Writing 2009.
Instructor: Kathleen Willis Morton
$305/$280 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: Sunday, January 15th, 2pm, Erin Morgenstern and Ryan Boudinot
Erin Morgenstern, author of The Night Circus , and Ryan Boudinot, author of Blueprints of the Afterlife.
FREE, Newtonville Books, 296 Walnut St., Newton, MA.
--FOR RENT: Clean, well-lit place to live and write
Grub's landlord has an open apartment at her home in Newton Corner. Conveniently located on Centre Street, 1/3 mile from the Mass Pike, this top floor unit includes 3 rooms, a large kitchen, a bathroom with a claw foot tub and shower, hardwoord floors and a private treetop-high tree-fort-like balcony porch with a stunning view that overlooks a lush Victorian garden backyard and the surrounding neighborhood. Rent is $1,200/month including all utilities. Parking for one car is included. A lovely quiet place for anyone seeking a reasonably priced apartment in Newton. Non-smokers only, please. Dogs are not allowed, but cats are welcome. Available January 15th, minimum 12-month lease preferred. Please contact Pat Bartevian at 617.423.0266 from 10am-6pm or at 617.527.2416 after 7pm.
--MOOLAH: MCC Artist Fellowship Deadline is January 30th
The MCC Artist Fellowships provide direct, unrestricted support to Massachusetts artists in recognition of exceptional original work, to foster the creation of new art in the Commonwealth. Artist Fellowships in a range of disciplines are awarded to primary creators of original works of art. The Artist Fellowships provide competitive grants of $7,500 and finalist awards of $500. Read full details on the MCC website: http://www.massculturalcouncil.org.
Welcome to the end of the e-mail, where like our new children's book character, Len The Incredible Cliff-Jumping Lemming, we offer you the chance to win a prize.Part of this author's writing ritual was to keep 500 pencils sharpened at all times. Email your answer to whitney@grubstreet.org. This week, the winner gets a special prize: tickets to see a sneak preview screening of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close this Thursday (Jan 12th) at the Boston Common Theater. If you can't use the tickets yourself, you could always give them to a friend!
Last week's trivia: Robert Frost was asked to compose a poem for a JFK's Presidential inauguration, but was unable to read it because of the sun's glare and recited "The Gift Outright" from memory instead. Winner: Mairead Small Staid.
