| SPARKS: News & Notes from
Tiny Lights: A Journal of Personal Narrative
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Greetings!,
Rain, hail, wind, natural and unnatural disasters. March has been more about lions than lambs. Does all this upheaval have you wondering where to step next and how you fit in? Writing has helped you find your way before. If you find yourself faltering, perhaps this short video will set you back on the path.  | | Be Infectious |
And while you're waiting for the results of the 16th annual Tiny Lights Personal Essay Contest, the latest Searchlights & Signal Flares may help you pass the time.
Take extra good care of yourself in these unsettling times,
Susan Bono, Editor
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Searchlights & Signal Flares
Tiny Lights' Online Writers' Exchange 
Cover letters are as common to writers as yellow mustard flowers blazing in wine country fields this time of year. But are they useful, meaningful, or just irritating conventions? Arlene L. Mandell, this month's featured writer and veteran cover letter writer, along with Claudia Larson, Becky Povich, Don Edgers, Pat Pomerleau-Chavez, Catherine Crawford, Sara Baker, and Susan Bono ponder the possibilities in the question,
"What's your idea of an effective cover letter?"
This Month's Featured Writer: Arlene L. Mandell  Arlene L. Mandell, a retired English professor, was formerly a writer/editor at Good Housekeeping magazine. She has published more than 500 poems, essays and short stories in newspapers and literary journals, including The New York Times, Tiny Lights and Wild Violet. Her newest venture is an echapbook, Scenes from My Life on Hemlock Street: A Brooklyn Memoir, set in the 1940s and 50s, available free at
www.echapbook.com/memoir/mandell
How do you deal with writer's envy?
(Deadline 3/28/11)
Send Searchlights submissions with bio (and title!) to editor@tiny-lights.com
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Tiny Lights' 16th Annual Essay Contest
Contest Closed
Tiny Lights Judges Patricia Volonakis Davis, Jamie Moore, Dan Coshnear, Jamey Genna, Lakin Khan & Kat Meads are deciding this year's winners! - First Place: $350
- Second Place: $250
- Third Place: $150
- Two Honorable Mention Prizes: $100 each.
- Three FLASHPOINT prizes of $100 each
Winners will be posted at www.tiny-lights.com by April 11th, 2011
All contestants will receive a hard copy of Tiny Lights' contest publication featuring the winning this summer.
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Flash in the Pan Online Quarterly
The 23rd Flash is here. #24 is coming.
What is a Flash in the Pan? It's life caught in the blaze of a match, a beam of moonlight, the glare of a home-made explosion. These pieces of first-person non-fiction prose (500 words or less) are like potato chips--you won't be able to stop with just one. Our gems are posted quarterly in January, April, July and October on the Tiny Lights website. A select few appear in the hard copy editions of the magazine. Send your jewels to editor@tiny-lights.com.
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Sheila Bender's
Writing it Real 2011 Writers Conference
April 28-30 Manresa Castle Port Townsend, WA
Join Sheila Bender, Jack Heffron and Meg Files for hands-on help with your writing. They are wise, experienced experts in poetry and essay.
Her website: Writing It Real
Hope to see you there!
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Grace: Selected Stories by Robert Moulthrop Read it here Quarterly online publications of fiction, memoir or poetry
each featuring one author. Read more at: www.echapbook.com Contact Publisher Jo-Anne Rosen: echaps@wordrunner.com
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A Unique Offer from Writer/Photographer
Tony Johnson
Tell Me A Story
Everyone has a story. Stories shape our lives and give them meaning. If you tell me a story, I will record it digitally, along with using photography to reveal what is important to you. This recording and these images will be a celebration of your life and provide a wonderful gift to those you love.
To see samples of my work and obtain further information, please go to http://tonyjohnson.zenfolio.com/ , then go to the Tell Me a Story link at the top of the page.
TonyJohnsonPhotography/InnerLandscapes e-mail: tonyjohnsonmail@yahoo.com
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Marlene Cullen hosts this series of writing workshops on the third Thursday of the month from 7-9 p.m. at the Petaluma Community Center.
April 21: Matt Stewart
Matt Stewart's debut novel, The French Revolution, has been called "wildly imaginative," "brilliant," and "an excellent achievement." Matt is mildly infamous for releasing the novel on Twitter first.
Grab his free French Rev iPhone app on matt-stewart.com.
Poets & Writers, July August 2010 issue, lists Matt's book as one of the "Ten More Notable Fiction Debuts."
Call 778-4380 (Petaluma Community Center) or visit www.thewritespot.usfor info. $15 at the door |
Life is fragmented enough. Restore some sanity and to the print edition of Tiny Lights.
Deborah Garber's illustration for
the Fall 2008 hard copy edition
of Tiny Lights.
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Iota Press Studio News Iota Press is a letterpress shop and literary studio in Sebastopol.
Along with the usual enchantment and shenanigans, Iota's Slow Print Cooperative has morphed into a quarterly offering of little books. "Almost a journal. Nearly a magazine. Kind of a trip." $30 per year for 4 chapbooks. $10 single copies. This current issue features Eric Johnson's "kaleidoglyphs," such as the one featured above.
Location: 925-c Gravenstein Hwy in South Sebastopol (next to "Beekind").
Contact: Eric Johnson....823-6152 Our latest works online at: www.iotapress.com
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Tiny Lights Recommends: Online Classes with Ken RodgersHis Upcoming Class: Line and Caesura - A Reappearance Elemental Structures of Poetry 5-Week On-line Class with Ken Rodgers, MFA April 2, 9, 16, 23 & 30, 2011
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For reservations, or more information call: OCA 707 874 9392. OCA is located in Harmony Village in downtown Occidental at 4008 Bohemian Hwy.
******************************** : Insights, activities and open-hearted inspiration for attracting the creative life by authors Rebecca Lawton and Jordan Rosenfeld. www.writefree.us****************************************
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Since 1995, Tiny Lights has been celebrating the power of personal voice with a biannual journal devoted to short essay. The annual essay contest, which offers $1500 in prizes, provides the material for the summer issue, while the winter issue is by invitation only.
The online component of Tiny Lights is designed to catch what can't be contained in the pages of the newsstand editions. Lights Online provides a venue for additional voices, information about Tiny Lights and resources for writers of personal essay. Sparks: Email News & Notes is our free monthly electronic newsletter.
Subscriptions to the print edition of Tiny Lights, which includes original art:
$10 per year (2 issues)
Current issue: $5 each
Back issues: $3 each Checks payable to Tiny Lights Publications, P.O. Box 928, Petaluma, CA 94953
Or take advatage of our new PayPal feature!
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 Susan Bono, Editor
Tiny Lights Publications
P.O. Box 928, Petaluma, CA 94953
(707) 762-3208
www.tiny-lights.com |
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