Welcome to the latest installment of the Grub Street Rag, a newsletter of the Boston literary scene brought to you every Monday from the duck in love with a Swan Boat outside Grub Street's brand new World Headquarters at 162 Boylston Street. As always, if you are receiving this email in horror, please advance to the bottom of the page to unsubscribe yourself.
Comfy chairs, elbow room, and a full slate of workshops lined up for Spring! Classes begin the week of April 2nd, so don't delay--reserve your spot today.
We are happy to report that over 350 writers have registered for the 2012 Muse and the Marketplace conference, which guarantees another successful event. There are still spots in many of the sessions, led by our amazing line-up of presenters, but the Manuscript Mart is nearly sold out. As of today, there are currently only 11 spots left with agents and 44 with editors from publishing houses and prominent literary journals. Once you register to meet with an agent or editor, you only have until Wednesday, April 11th to submit your manuscript. We expect that the Manuscript Mart will sell out completely in the next week or so, as it has in previous years. This year, 40 agents and editors are joining us from all over the country and represent the widest range of genres, publishers and agencies we’ve had in the twelve years of the conference.
Welcome, Lauren!
Quick quiz: Whose favorite childhood drink, coffee milk, has morphed in adulthood into White Russians? Who wants to have dinner with Oscar Wilde so that his wit will rub off on her? Who enjoyed both the book version and the film version of Atonement but thinks the book is still better? Lauren Rheaume, that's who! We are so pleased to welcome Lauren on board as our new Registrar. Lauren graduated from Bridgewater State University with a degree in English, concentration in writing, and minor in art. There she enjoyed co-editing the student fine arts journal The Bridge. Now she's splitting her time between two gigs: Grub Street and a post at The Review Review, where she does marketing and outreach. Lauren is at Grub's front desk Monday-Fridays from 10am-1:45pm, helping you with all your class registration and admin needs. If you'd like to welcome her, stop by and say hello or send her an email at lauren@grubstreet.org.
Pub & Grub (March Member Mixer)
Join us this Friday, March 16th for a members-only party from 7:00pm to 9:00pm at Grub Street's new headquarters. Kick-off your St. Patrick's Day weekend with wine, beer, soda, light snacks, Irish literary-themed trivia, and book prizes donated by Brookline Booksmith. This is a wonderful opportunity to relax with other Grubbies and connect outside of the classroom. You must be a current member of Grub Street to attend (or a Grubbie's +1). If you have any questions, please email sean@grubstreet.org.
Cheers,
Whitney, Sonya, Eve, Chris, Rowan, Sean and Lauren
The P.S.: Don't forget: the next installment of our Winter Term Open Houses takes place in our NEW location on Wednesday, March 14th, 5:30-6:3opm. Join us at 162 Boylston Street and check out our new digs. Hope you can make it!
Muse Spotlights
For the next two months, The Rag will be spotlighting sessions from our annual conference, The Muse and the Marketplace. We hope you’ll be able to enjoy these sessions in person the weekend of May 5th & 6th at the Park Plaza Hotel. For all details, including registration info, go to www.museandthemarketplace.com.
"Muse" Spotlight: One of the wittiest and most entertaining presenters we know, Thomas Mallon, returns to the Muse and the Marketplace conference in 2012 with a new novel of historical fiction, the best-selling Watergate, and a new craft session called “Never Happened: An Historical Novelist Looks at Alternate-History Fiction.” In this session, Tom will lead a discussion on the essential features of historical fiction, both the “regular” and “alternate” varieties. After a long period of critical scorn, historical fiction has in recent decades attracted a whole range of “literary” writers to its ranks: Susan Sontag, Russell Banks, John Updike, Jane Smiley, Philip Roth, and many others. With their aspirations toward accuracy and fear of anachronism, historical novelists are often dismissive of “alternate-history fiction,” where the past isn’t re-created but significantly changed. And yet, “alt-history,” usually seen as pulpy “genre fiction,” is itself now attracting a number of younger literary writers. Thomas Mallon eight books of fiction include Henry And Clara, Bandbox, Fellow Travelers and Watergate: A Novel. He has also written volumes of nonfiction about plagiarism (Stolen Words), diaries (A Book Of One's Own), letters (Yours Ever), and the Kennedy assassination (Mrs. Paine's Garage), as well as two books of essays (Rockets And Rodeos and In Fact). His work appears in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times Book Review and other publications. His honors include Guggenheim and Rockefeller fellowships, the National Book Critics Circle award for reviewing, and the Vursell prize of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, for distinguished prose style. He currently directs the Creative Writing program at The George Washington University in Washington, DC. Marketplace Spotlight: In evaluations of previous conferences, many participants asked for more sessions on writing query letters. To address this, we enlisted the beloved literary agent Sorche Fairbank, who designed a new session for the 2012 conference called “Query Lab.” In this session, Sorche, along with agent Stephen Barr, will give direct feedback on audience query letters and use them as examples to discuss both effective and ineffective strategies for getting an agent or editor interested in your work. The goal will be to make query letters as powerful as possible. If you want your query letter considered, please bring a ONE-PAGE hard copy to the session. Query letters will be chosen at random by a volunteer and put on an overhead projector. After your query letter is read by the agents and the audience, the agents will discuss it, troubleshoot, and offer advice that is both specific to your project and general enough for the rest of the audience to benefit. Given the volume of submissions, we can’t guarantee that your query letter will be read. The point is not to get through as many queries as possible, but to thoughtfully evaluate your ideas and offer concrete suggestions from which all will benefit.
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.
LECTURE: Tuesday, March 13th, 6:30-8:30pm, Agents For Today's Author: Jason Allen Ashlock Since founding Movable Type in the spring of 2009, Jason has been a leading voice for change in the agenting community, advocating for "radical mediation," a more expansive and digitally responsible form of representation and creative management. Jason believes that with greater access to production, distribution and marketing tools, authors are poised to be more successful than ever before--but they are also at greater risk of choosing short-term gratification over long-term success. Jason will speak for 45 minutes about the value of literary agent as radical mediator, and then take questions.
Instructor: Jason Ashlock
FREE, Cambridge YMCA Theater.
SEMINAR: Monday, March 19th, 6:15-9:15pm, Writing the Big Moments In this seminar we will focus not only on the big moments but also on the smaller moments around them, looking with a fresh eye to create a context from which we can deliver our most powerful material.
Instructor: Rita Zoey Chin Sorry, this class is sold out. Join the waiting list.
MEMBER MIXER: Friday, March 16th, 7:00pm to 9:00pm, Pub & Grub Join us on Friday, March 16th for an exclusive member only party from 7:00pm to 9:00pm at Grub Street Headquarters. A wonderful way to kick-off your St. Patrick ’s Day weekend! This is a fun opportunity to meet other Grubbies and connect outside of the classroom. Wine, beer, soda, and light snacks will be provided as well as the company of your fellow Grubbies. And did we mention Irish literary themed trivia?
MUST BE A CURRENT GRUB STREET MEMBER TO ATTEND. MEMBERS MAY BRING FRIENDS.
For more information or to join the reading series mailing list, please email sean@grubstreet.org.
SEMINAR: Friday, March 16th, 11:00am-2:00pm, What Kind of Kids’ Writer Am I? For those who have ever wondered which level your story(ies) really fit in the world of children's literature, this seminar is just for you!
Instructor: Beth Raisner Glass Sorry, this class is sold out. Join the waiting list.
SEMINAR: Friday, March 16th, 11:00am-2:00pm, How to Write Riveting Scenes
In this workshop, we'll look at some of the best scenes ever written, and investigate what it takes to write a scene that keeps readers on the edge of their seats.
Instructor: Steve Almond
Sorry, this class is sold out. Join the waiting list.
TEEN WRITING: Saturday, March 17th, 11am-1pm OR 2-4pm, 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.
This Saturday, there will be three sessions to choose from in the morning and afternoon: Fiction, Poetry and Blog Writing. YOU MUST BE AGE 13-18 TO REGISTER-- NO EXCEPTIONS. See website for full details and to register. FREE, Grub Street HQ.
SEMINAR: Sunday, March 18th, 10:30am-5:30pm, Writing the Novella Whether it's Heart of Darkness or Breakfast at Tiffany's, some of our favorite books are novellas, even if they're not always defined as such. For some Goldilocks-channeling writers, the novella is the perfect fit: not too long, not too short. In this class, we will look at several classic and recent examples of the form in order to further understand the structures and patterns of literature's middle child. Through discussion, we will try to formulate a list of characteristics of the novella as well as some theories as to why this wonderful form is often maligned, and why it was described by Stephen King as "an ill-defined and disreputable literary banana republic." Exercises will focus on creating a framework and initial scenes for students' own novellas. Students should come to class having read Denis Johnson's Train Dreams.
Instructor: James Scott $115/$95 members, Grub Street HQ.
SEMINAR: Monday, March 19th, 6:15-9:15pm, Writing the Big Moments
In this seminar we will focus not only on the big moments but also on the smaller moments around them, looking with a fresh eye to create a context from which we can deliver our most powerful material.
Instructor: Rita Zoey Chin Sorry, this class is sold out. Join the waiting list.
SEMINAR: Monday, March 19th, 6:30-9:30pm, The Basics of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for Writers Every writer knows that they need an online presence to connect with readers, editors, and agents. But once you’ve spent time and money creating a website, how can you ensure people find you? SEO, or search engine optimization, is the art and science of ranking well in Google and other search engines for specific keyword searches. The Basics of SEO for Writers serves as a digestible introduction to SEO for non-techie authors. We look at why SEO matters, the basic components of a good SEO strategy, what authors can do today to improve rankings, DIY versus outsourced approaches, the fundamentals of defining and targeting keyword strategy, and where SEO fits into an overall online promotion plan. We’ll also take a look at affiliate marketing and optimizing video content such as book trailers. The workshop will be interactive and attendees are invited to submit websites ahead of time for review and discussion.
Instructor: Elizabeth Alton $65/$50 members, Grub Street HQ.
SEMINAR: Monday, March 19th, 6:30-9:30pm, Freelance Writing Essentials In this seminar we’ll discuss how to come up with ideas that editors want, where to get insider information on who edits what. We’ll also look at the do’s and don’ts of contacting editors and cover the basics of pitching stories and writing pitch letters.
Instructor: Ethan Gilsdorf Sorry, this class is sold out. Join the waiting list.
SEMINAR: Monday, March 19th, 6:15-9:15pm, Mastering Twitter: Beginning Course for Authors Do you have the Twitter jitters? Not sure where to start or how to use this valuable social media tool? This course will teach you all the basics ranging from getting up and running, profile optimization, tweeting, retweeting, lists, directories, hashtags, updating remotely, how to find followers and build your base of potential readers. Please bring your laptop and if desired, a phone with texting or app capabilities.
Instructor: Crystal King $65/$50 members, Grub Street HQ.
SEMINAR: Monday, March 19th, 6:00-9:00pm, Surviving the Slush Pile Ever wonder what happens after you click submit and your story is sent through cyberspace to a literary magazine? This course, led by a journal editor and author, will take you through the maze of the submissions process from submissions peccadilloes to editorial hallelujahs. We’ll take a close look at opening lines and final paragraphs through the lens of narrative; and we’ll also talk about cover letters, bios, and story format. Relying on exercises and prompts, our focus in the second half will be on stirring up our creative minds and sending you – and your work, into the world of publication.
Instructor: Catherine Parnell $65/$50 members, Grub Street HQ.
Saturday, March 24th, 10:30am-5:30pm, Fiction Writers’ Workout Spend the day with one of Grub Street’s most popular instructors generating new scenes, characters and descriptions.
Instructor: Lisa Borders
Sorry, this class is sold out. Join the waiting list.
WEEKEND WORKSHOP: Saturday, March 24th, 10:00am-5:00pm, Structure as Solution: Form and the Personal Essay Appropriate for both the experienced and aspiring essayist alike, the seminar will cover the wide array of structures established essayists like Didion, Lopate, and Ballantine use to, in the words of Aldous Huxley, “look at the world through the keyhole of anecdote and description."
Instructor: Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich
Sorry, this class is sold out. Join the waiting list.
WEEKEND WORKSHOP: Saturday, March 24th, 9:30am-4:30pm,Writers Breaking Rules: Playing with Form in Creative Nonfiction Are you bored with the traditional story line? Do you think a narrative arc is better left in the water? If you’re ready to take some risks as a creative nonfiction writer, you’re in good company. Many successful writers today push the boundaries of what we think of as conventional memoir or essay structure. We’ll spend time closely examining the brief essay, the lyric or braided essay, and excerpts from untraditional longer memoirs by authors such as Joan Wickersham, Abigail Thomas, Joann Beard and Amy Krouse Rosenthal. Then we’ll break some rules ourselves and try exercises where we play with our own writing. If you have a short piece that pushes boundaries, bring it along for workshopping.
Instructor: Amy Yelin *4 spots left* $115/$95 members, Grub Street HQ.
WEEKEND WORKSHOP: Saturday-Sunday, March 24-25th, 10:30am-5:30pm, 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 *4 spots left* $220/$195 members, Grub Street HQ.
WEEKEND WORKSHOP: Sunday, March 25th, 9:30am-4:30pm, Memoir: Making Smart Choices Behind the Scenes Capturing your story on paper requires dozens of choices, from the creative (Who are you as a character? How do you represent family & friends in a way that won't crush those relationships? How do you find the best narrative arc?) to the practical (What legal hurdles do you need to clear? How do you put together a winning proposal?) In this class we'll look at the "behind the scenes" aspects of writing memoir, and help you create a personalized strategy for for telling and selling your story. Class will include writing exercises, goal setting, and opportunities to share your work.
Instructor: Trish Ryan
*4 spots left* $115/$95 members, Grub Street HQ.
MEMBER EVENT: Sunday, March 25th 12:00pm to 2:00pm, Grub Street Book Club - March The Grub Book Club will offer a chance to read and discuss great books with a focus on reading from a writer's perspective. The book club's pick for the month of March is the novel Tinkers by Paul Harding.
MUST BE A CURRENT GRUB STREET MEMBER TO ATTEND. MEMBERS MAY BRING FRIENDS. FREE, Grub Street HQ.
SEMINAR: Monday, March 26th, 6:00-9:00pm, Polishing Your PR Skills: Press Release and Pitch-Crafting Workshop You know what a press release is and what it’s used for, but can you write one that works? How about a press pitch, a review request, an “about” blurb or your book’s jacket copy? Most authors need to hone these skills. This workshop will lay out the fundamentals of PR-writing and provide good examples as models. It’ll give everybody a chance to draft a few pieces in a workshop environment and have them critiqued by a pro.
Instructor: Sharon Bially $65/$50 members, Grub Street HQ.
SEMINAR: Monday, March 26th, 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.
Instructor: Ethan Gilsdorf
Sorry, this class is sold out. Join the waiting list.
SEMINAR: Monday, March 26th, 6:30-9:30pm,
Muse and the Marketplace 101: Hone Your Networking Skills Before the Big Conference
A veteran journalist, who’s also an experienced conference schmoozer and former public speaking instructor, will give tips on how to not only survive a huge writers’ conference but come away with contacts for a lifetime.
Instructor: Linda K. Wertheimer
Sorry, this class is sold out. Join the waiting list.
OPEN MIC: Wednesday, March 28th, 7:00-9:00pm,
Winter Season Showcase Join Grub students from the winter 2012 term, plus two of our very own Grub instructors, Catherine Parnell and Katrin Schumann, as they read (for 5 minutes each) from recent work. You'll hear great fiction, non-fiction, poetry and maybe even a screenplay. Open only to students who've taken courses, seminars or weekend workshops in the winter term. 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, March 28th, 12:30-1:15pm, Brown Bag Lunch Series - March 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: Shuchi Saraswat FREE, Grub Street HQ.
PARTY! PARTY! PARTY! Friday, March 30th from 6:00pm, Grub Goes...Up!
We've revised our address, and we want you to help us celebrate. The literary party of the year takes place at our brand-new headquarters on the 5th floor of 162 Boylston Street in Boston. There'll be celebrity author bartenders, music, literary-themed drinks and appetizers, tours of the new space, and word game throwdowns all night long.
Instructor: TBA $15/$10 members, 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.
--FUNDRAISER: Tuesday, May 8th, 6pm, Storytellers featuring a performance by Judy Collins
Save the Date for a fundraiser to benefit The Hoffman Breast Center at Mount Auburn Hospital. Presenting Judy Collins in concert with emcee Joyce Kulhawik. Readings by Alice Hoffman, Sue Miller and Tom Perrotta. For more information call Kelly McDade at 617-499-5656 or email kmcdade@mah.harvard.edu $250, Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
--Reading: Thursday, March 22nd, 7 pm, edna Reading Reading by the Boston-area writers featured in edna: A Literary Journal: Kathleen Aponick, Meg Campbell, Sandra Kohler, Cornelia Veenendaal, Jean Knox, Helena Minton, hosted by Sydney Chaffee and Karen Ann Chaffee. FREE, Savin Bar & Kitchen, 112 Savin Hill Avenue, Dorchester, MA 02123.
--PLAY: Saturday, March 24th, 7pm, 6th Annual Our Voices Festival: An Evening of Staged Readings of Boston Area Women Playwrights This annual SWAN DAY (Support Women Artists Now) celebration features plays or excerpts from works in progress by: Wendy Lement, Kelly DuMar, Ellen Davis Sullivan, M. Lynda Robinson, Barbara Blumenthal-Ehrlich, Geralyn Horton, Sarah Moon, Leslie Powell and Nina Louise Morrison. This event is FREE and open to the public. No advance reservations; seating is first come first served. There is a complimentary cheese & cracker reception in the lobby at 7:00 p.m. prior to the staged readings. There will be an audience discussion with the playwrights following the readings. For more info go to www.diarydoor.typepad.com/our_voices or e-mail kellydumar@gmail.com, founder and co-producer. FREE,
Black Box Theatre, Fine Arts Center, Regis College, 235 Wellesley Street, Weston, MA.
--CONTEST: Monstrosities of the Midway
Have stories, poems, and essays about fire-eating bearded ladies at
the circus, man-eating paper flowers, or two headed penguins smoking
cigars in a Roman bath? Then we have the contest for you! Midway
Journal is now accepting submissions for its "Monstrosities of the
Midway Literary Contest." The submissions period is open until May
31st. The contest is open to all authors writing in all genres. All
entries should consider the theme, "Monstrosities of the Midway." The
entry fee is $15. The grand prize is $1000. Authors Amy King and Ana
Bozicevic will judge. Please follow the link provided for complete
contest details: http://www.midwayjournal.com/Contest.html
--READING: Monday, March 19th, 7pm, Jeanette Winterson Twenty-six years ago, with the publication of her Whitbread-award-winning first novel, Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, Jeanette Winterson (The Passion, Weight) established herself as one of the UK’s most distinctive literary voices. Now, in her memoir, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?, she recounts the events that have shaped her fiction: her abusive, religious childhood, coming out and leaving home at 16, and the escape into stories that saved her life.
FREE, Brookline Booksmith, Coolidge Corner, Brookline.
Welcome to the end of the e-mail, where like a battle royale between Segways and pogo sticks, we offer you the chance to win a prize. At the height of this author's fame, he earned about a dollar a word. When a fan tried to get his autograph, he wrote the author a letter and and asked for a sample with a dollar enclosed. What did the author respond with, and what is the author's name? Email your answer to whitney@grubstreet.org. The first correct respondent wins a Starbucks gift card for a coffee treat.
Last week's trivia: March 5th is the birthday of Leslie Marmon Silko, who writes about the disappearance of Native American culture. Winner: David Kingsbury
"Muse" Spotlight: One of the wittiest and most entertaining presenters we know, Thomas Mallon, returns to the Muse and the Marketplace conference in 2012 with a new novel of historical fiction, the best-selling Watergate, and a new craft session called “Never Happened: An Historical Novelist Looks at Alternate-History Fiction.” In this session, Tom will lead a discussion on the essential features of historical fiction, both the “regular” and “alternate” varieties. After a long period of critical scorn, historical fiction has in recent decades attracted a whole range of “literary” writers to its ranks: Susan Sontag, Russell Banks, John Updike, Jane Smiley, Philip Roth, and many others. With their aspirations toward accuracy and fear of anachronism, historical novelists are often dismissive of “alternate-history fiction,” where the past isn’t re-created but significantly changed. And yet, “alt-history,” usually seen as pulpy “genre fiction,” is itself now attracting a number of younger literary writers. Thomas Mallon eight books of fiction include Henry And Clara, Bandbox, Fellow Travelers and Watergate: A Novel. He has also written volumes of nonfiction about plagiarism (Stolen Words), diaries (A Book Of One's Own), letters (Yours Ever), and the Kennedy assassination (Mrs. Paine's Garage), as well as two books of essays (Rockets And Rodeos and In Fact). His work appears in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times Book Review and other publications. His honors include Guggenheim and Rockefeller fellowships, the National Book Critics Circle award for reviewing, and the Vursell prize of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, for distinguished prose style. He currently directs the Creative Writing program at The George Washington University in Washington, DC. 
Marketplace Spotlight: In evaluations of previous conferences, many participants asked for more sessions on writing query letters. To address this, we enlisted the beloved literary agent Sorche Fairbank, who designed a new session for the 2012 conference called “Query Lab.” In this session, Sorche, along with agent Stephen Barr, will give direct feedback on audience query letters and use them as examples to discuss both effective and ineffective strategies for getting an agent or editor interested in your work. The goal will be to make query letters as powerful as possible. If you want your query letter considered, please bring a ONE-PAGE hard copy to the session. Query letters will be chosen at random by a volunteer and put on an overhead projector. After your query letter is read by the agents and the audience, the agents will discuss it, troubleshoot, and offer advice that is both specific to your project and general enough for the rest of the audience to benefit. Given the volume of submissions, we can’t guarantee that your query letter will be read. The point is not to get through as many queries as possible, but to thoughtfully evaluate your ideas and offer concrete suggestions from which all will benefit. 
