News Around the Net

A mystery for everyone. Can you name this famous literary spot? Don't worry, you get hints. Although, they may not be terribly helpful.

Nicholas Rombes, who's serialized novella Nightmare Trails at Knifepoint we covered a while back, is on to a connected side project. A poster contest for the novella. Selected posters will then go on auction and the proceeds will go to charity. Check it out.

The finalists for the 2010 PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction have been announced. The "first among equals" (the winner) will be announced on March 23 and get a giant chunk of cash. Congrats to Sherman Alexie, Lorrie Moore and all the rest.

Rules for writing from Richard Ford, Neil Gaiman, Margaret Atwood and many, many others. Overwhelmingly the best rule for writing you'll find on this list: Write!

A conversation with Leevi Lehto, who recently translated Ulysses into Finnish, about the process. And why Ulysses was his easiest translation ever. Probably because it doesn't make sense to begin with, so it didn't matter which words he used or in what order he put them.

The Paris Review has posted a composite of four interviews with Kurt Vonnegut, which has been worked over extensively by Vonnegut himself. This is what has resulted. It's very long.

Recipients of the Writers for Writers Award have been announced, as well as the Los Angeles 2009 Book Prizes.

Joke's on you, Write or Die, I LIKE Rick Astley!

Step aside, Kindle, Write or Die has taken your spot on my list of coolest thing ever. Following through on their claim to put the "Prod in Productivity," they take the approach of ceaselessly annoying you to get you to keep writing.

Here's how it works: Go to the website. Enter your word count goal and how much time you want to spend writing. Then choose how hard you want the site to be on you (go all out, pick "evil!"). Then write. Write and don't stop because if you do, you will not enjoy the result. Unless you happen to like the lyrical poetry and harmonized vocals of the virtuistic 90's pop band Hanson. Some people do, and if you're one of those people, I'm not judging you. Hell, if you like them, check out this site anyway and don't write anything, just sit back and enjoy the ride.

If you don't like being steadily annoyed by the musical stylings of Ricky Astley or crying babies or the Banana Phone song (my personal favorite), you'll find a way to stay motivated. Perhaps worse, "Kamikaze mode" will start deleting your work word by word if you don't keep the keys moving. If this is all too stressful for you, you can downgrade to Easy mode. You'll be rather politely reminded that you've stopped writing and should continue please if it's not too much trouble. A progress bar keeps track of how quickly you're moving toward your goal.

There's an extra-special desktop edition for only $10 if you want to personalize your options: disable your backspace key, disable "save" until you reach your writing goal, program your own audio nightmare to play if you happen to stop. Dr. Wicked, the clever creator of Write or Die, seems to have thought of everything. You can even compete with a friend, someone you know or some other poor writer halfway around the world.

Thanks, Dr. Wicked!

Dora Malech Interview

There's a great interview with poet (and past HFR contributor) Dora Malech over at First Person Plural, the blog of The Writer's Center in Bethesda, MD. Not only does Dora give a shout out to HFR, she has great advice for writers:

...don’t blame poetry for the shortcomings of people/things/society. Keep poetry sacred. Don’t let a rejection slip, or an egomaniacal workshop leader (not at TWC, of course, but they’re out there!), or a snarky blog, or a careerist prize-winner, or a rude editor get between you and the page. The only thing between you and the page is a pen or a pencil. I hope this makes sense; I guess I’m trying to say that if “po-biz” or academia or interpersonal tzurrus or apathy or small-mindedness get you down, which they will, don’t let that poison your relationship with poetry. Easier said than done, I know. But we have to try.

Poetry Out Loud

The Arizona Commission on the Arts in partnership with ASU's Young Writers Program and the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing (the home of HFR) invite you to attend the 5th Annual Poetry Out Loud Arizona State Finals on March 5 from 7:00 to 9:00 at Burton Barr Central Library Auditorium in Phoenix. Admission is free and open to the public.

The Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation that encourages high school students to learn about great poetry through memorization, performance and competition. And it's a lot of fun to watch.

Website of the Week! - In Ekphrasis.

“Forget about brains, that’s my answer! The assault is not aimed at the anatomical, but towards the decorative; always trying to hug the art like little kid.”
(Claus Handberg Christensen, “Untitled”)

Christensen's contribution to “In Ekphrasis” explains it just right: he tells us to put our minds in the smoke, feel around blindly, turn perception into language. The website is a project in uninhibited literary representations. The prompt given to various artists, curators and writers was to find and interpret different pieces of art in unrestricted pieces of fiction or poetry. The result is a mosaic of ideas from a huge spectrum of different voices and styles, each representative of the chosen piece.

(And here's a little spoiler--we're really into ekphrastic lit in the upcoming HFR issue #46! So for all you suffering from a bout of writers' block...get movin' to those local museums to get those brain wheels turning. We'll have plenty for you to read when you return.)

HFR Translators in the top ten for Translated Book Award

Three Percent, the University of Rochester's fantastic resource for international literature, announced the winners for the Best Translated Book award this week. Among the finalists were Mahmoud Darwish's If I Were Another translated by Fady Joudah, and Hiromi Ito's Killing Kanoko translated by Jeffrey Angles. Both writer-translator pairs have appeared in past issues of HFR. We're very happy to see their work recognized.

Head on over to the HFR website to read Darwish's featured poems translated from the Arabic: “The Cypress Broke” and “As for Me, I Say to My Name” (.pdf) or Hiromi Ito's poems “Snow” (.pdf) and “Underground” (.pdf) translated from the Japanese.

For more information on the award please visit the Best Translated Book Award Blog.

Dzanc Day: Tempe Edition

Dzanc Books, publishing conglomerate and champion of great writing, is hosting a national workshop day in 30 states across the country on March 20, and Tempe, Arizona is on the list. The details:

EXPLORING THE NOVEL AND THE SHORT STORY
This five-hour session on fiction writing will discuss both the short story and the novel (but mostly short stories), as well as the craft, the writing life, and the business of writing. There will be writing exercises and discussion, and a visit from Bhira Backhaus, author of the novel Under the Lemon Trees. 12:00pm to 05:00pm; $50.

INSTRUCTOR: JENNIFER SPIEGEL
Jennifer Spiegel has an MA in Politics from New York University, and an MFA in Creative Writing (Fiction) from Arizona State. Having taught composition, literature, and creative writing at the college level—including several fiction workshops for ASU’s Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing—she continues to teach a variety of on-line university courses. Her work has appeared in several anthologies and journals, ranging from THE GETTYSBURG REVIEW to NIMROD. Dzanc Books will publish her collection of short stories, THE FREAK CHRONICLES, in 2012. Additionally, her unpublished novel (LOVE SLAVE) was a finalist for the Peter Taylor Prize for the Novel in 2005.

FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO SIGN UP FOR THIS WORKSHOP PLEASE VISIT WWW.DZANCBOOKS.ORG/DZANCDAY/ OR CALL (734) 756-5701.

Contributor Spotlight: Clare Beams

On inspiration, and what I’m doing while the muses are talking to other people

You know those writers who talk about how their characters just speak to them and tell them the story? How they’re not in charge, they’re really just taking dictation? These people make me nervous. (When it comes to writing, many things make me nervous. The copious quantities of time I always manage to spend not writing. The copious clumsiness of so many of the things I produce when I do. Reading certain passages in wonderful books, which make me think both I am so overjoyed that someone did that and why do I even bother?) Listening to the dictation-takers’ dreamy-eyed accounts, my nervousness is mixed with envy. The experience they are describing just sounds so much easier than the way I go about things. My characters are, apparently, lacking in initiative. They usually just kind of sit there until I make them say and do things, and often it takes me a very long time to figure out what those things should be. If there are muses, they have chosen other people to talk to. I have been repeatedly stood up.

That being said, I’ve discovered something. It is a very good idea for me to leave a pen and some paper by the bed when I am falling asleep.

I don’t write on this paper very often. When I’m falling asleep, I’m usually not thinking up story ideas. I’m thinking about what I need to photocopy before I teach in the morning, or about how my ninth-graders may very well forget what they wrote their essays about by the time I actually manage to get them back, or about how tomorrow is trash day and we forgot to carry the recycling out again, or about how it’s probably pretty awful to need to be reminded about your mother’s birthday two years in a row. Or the falling-asleep process gives way quickly to, well, sleep.

But every so often, while I’m in that half-dreaming state where nothing makes much sense, I will reach for the paper and I will write something down. I don’t turn on the light to do this. Unsurprisingly, in the morning, this thing usually turns out to be totally incomprehensible. Sometimes I can’t even read the handwriting, which—done in the dark—never looks much like mine. Other times, the words are legible but might as well not be. “The itch began at the top of my head,” I will find. Or “peach suit.”

A couple of times, though, waiting for me there in the morning, in that not-so-recognizable handwriting, I’ve found a beginning. Or maybe just the beginning of a beginning. A word, a phrase, that makes me want to try to write another one. “We Show What We Have Learned” began that way.

When I think about it rationally, I know that these falling-asleep ideas aren’t much different from ideas I could have at any other time. The only difference, I think, is a certain voice that’s very loud in my wakeful life—the one that chimes in one short beat after the first glimmer of an idea to say Well that’s stupid or I’ll never be able to pull off—must go to sleep first, because it isn’t alert enough to prevent my hand from reaching for the pen. And though the better of these ideas can feel like unexpected gifts, they come with serious strings attached. The first seed may be planted without too much conscious effort on my part, but the story is no more likely to grow on its own than usual. If I want it to become anything, I have to do the work of hauling it out of the ground myself, and I inevitably blister my hands and crumple some leaves and come to doubt the value of the whole enterprise in the process, since the shape of the thing is never quite what I’d envisioned. My paper by the bed is no pipeline to the muses, in other words. I’m still not convinced the muses really exist, at least for me. My characters do not arrive and declaim their histories and set forth the plots of their stories in the dark. Those are still things I have to try to do for them when it’s light out again.

Even the less rational part of me nods its head in agreement with all of this. It can’t really argue with something so true. So it nods, and smiles, and then makes sure the paper by the bed is still in place.
*

Clare Beams was born in 1982 and earned her MFA from Columbia in 2006. Her fiction has appeared in Word Riot and Inkwell, where it was nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and is forthcoming from The Ledge, where it was a finalist for the 2009 Fiction Prize. She lives in Norwell, Massachusetts with her husband and is currently working on a novel and teaching 9th-grade English and Creative Writing on Cape Cod. She promises that “We Show What We Have Learned” does not reflect her non-fictional experiences with teaching, which she deeply loves. Her story, "We Show What We Have Learned," is forthcoming in HFR #46.

News Around the Net

Every day leading up to the announcement of the National Book Critics Circle Awards, they will be counting down the days with mini-reviews of all thirty nominees for their six awards.

Who has the world's toughest writers? Russia makes a pretty good argument. Sure, America has Hemingway, but who else? Who's Dan Brown going to get into a fight with?

EGGERS! This man is everywhere. I cannot get away from him. The Millions argues why Dave Eggers should become the new editor of The Paris Review.

Eric Puchner tells us what makes a good title. Here's a hint, "Runaway Grandma" is not a good title. Or maybe it's brilliant.

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, I really liked Crime and Punishment and Macbeth and everything, but wouldn't they be even more awesome as graphic novels? Yes, yes they certainly would.

Nathan Bransford asks us what keeps us writing. Or what keeps us claiming to be writing. We all know how lazy we are.

Sure, magazines have been growing more disinterested in fiction lately, but NPR is here to help. Check out their short fiction contest.

Jobs!

Lecturer- Creative Writing (Fiction), Department of English & Philosophy, Murray State University. Full-time, non-tenure track position to begin August 2010. Qualifications: M.F.A. or Ph.D. in Creative Writing (Fiction) by appointment date is required. Evidence of teaching excellence and significant record of publication required. Ability to teach contemporary literature desirable. Responsibilities: Teach four courses per semester in fiction writing, courses covering one or more periods of literature with an emphasis in the short story and the novel, composition, and a sophomore-level Humanities course; engage in appropriate service. Application Deadline: Postmarked by March 5, 2010. To Apply: Send letter of application, curriculum vitae, and placement file with transcripts and three recent letters of recommendation addressing the above qualifications/responsibilities to: Creative Writing-Fiction Search, Department of English and Philosophy, Murray State University, 7C Faculty Hall, Murray, KY 42071-3341. Women and minorities are encouraged to apply. Murray State University is an equal education and employment opportunity, M/F/D, AA employer. Postal Address: Department of English & Philosophy/ Murray State University/ Chair, Creative Writing—Fiction Search/ 7C Faculty Hall/ Murray, KY 42071.

Quinnipiac University invites applications for an Assistant Professor position beginning in Fall 2010. This is a full-time, non-tenure track renewable term appointment. Applicants must have an MFA or appropriate terminal degree in hand by August 2010, with a specialization in creative writing, fiction writing preferred. We seek candidates with a demonstrated commitment to undergraduate teaching and an established publishing history. Qualified applicants should apply online at https://careers.quinnipiac.edu. Online application materials should include a letter of application and a current curriculum vita. In addition, three letters of recommendation, at least one of which directly addresses the candidate's teaching, should be sent to Creative Writing Search, c/o Danielle Pomponi, English Department Secretary, CL-AC1, Quinnipiac University, 275 Mount Carmel Avenue, Hamden, CT 06518. Applications must be received by February 28, 2010.

Assistant Professor, Creative Writing (Fiction) and Literature
JOB DUTIES: Teach 9 credits per semester (3/3 load). Departmental and University service as appropriate. Teaching responsibilities include fiction writing at the graduate and undergraduate level in a growing writing program; undergraduate courses in literature, including lower-level surveys; and composition. Provide academic advising to English majors. 3-credit scholarship course release per semester. REQUIREMENTS: Ph.D. in English or Creative Writing (Fiction) or M.F.A. in Creative Writing (Fiction). At least one book of fiction on a reputable press. Evidence of effective college-level teaching in a broad array of courses from general education literature and composition to graduate level creative writing. PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS: Secondary scholarly interest in an area of Anglophone literary study, including but not limited to non-western literatures. CLOSING DATE FOR APPLICATIONS: 02.28.2010 SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS TO APPLICANTS: Anticipated opening for the 2010-11 academic year. Tenure-track. Transcripts and three letters of recommendation may be sent directly to Hiring Committee, Department of English Monmouth University, West Long Branch, NJ 07764. Please do not send books or writing samples unless we contact you to request them. We cannot return unsolicited materials. Additional information about the English department can be found at: http://www.monmouth.edu/academics/english/default.asp

Creighton University. Assistant Professor of English/Creative Writing. Pending budgetary approval, Creighton University’s English department seeks to fill a tenure-track, entry-level Assistant Professor position in Creative Writing (area open). We welcome applicants with interest & involvement in the international writing community. Three-course load. MFA or PhD in creative writing required by August 2010, with evidence of excellent university-level teaching & significant publications. All faculty teach 100-level courses. Position begins August 2010. Candidates should familiarize themselves with our programs, department, university, & mission athttp://www.creightonenglish.org, Review of applications begins February 20 & continues until the position is filled. Preliminary interviews at AWP Conference. Apply online with three letters of recommendation, CV, statement of teaching philosophy, & graduate/undergraduate transcripts (photocopies acceptable initially) to http://careers.creighton.edu; select "Faculty" & follow directions. Send writing samples to: Dr. Brent Spencer, Chair, Search Committee, Department of English, Creighton University, Omaha, NE 68178. Include email address. All applications will be acknowledged. A Jesuit, Catholic institution, Creighton University encourages applications from qualified individuals of all backgrounds who believe they can contribute to the university’s distinctive educational traditions. http://mockingbird.creighton.edu/english

Goddard College Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Creative Writing Program
Part Time, Temporary, Faculty Positions Available. We seek faculty who are published writers committed to excellence in their craft and the development of individual voice. Our students work closely with their faculty advisors during each residency to plan the work of the semester. Our faculty continue this supportive and sustaining mentorship throughout the semester, and the students benefit from the experience, insights, and critical feedback of their advisors. BFA faculty members are cross-listed in the Individualized BA program at Goddard; applicants must, therefore, be prepared to respond to student work in at least two areas of liberal arts study in addition to creative writing. Interested applicants are urged to explore the Goddard BFA-CW and IBA programs on the Goddard web site before applying. Online App. Form: http://www.goddard.edu/employment_opportunities

Viterbo University invites applications for a full-time instructor (renewable, non-tenure track position) in the English Department beginning August 16, 2010. Primary teaching responsibilities will be in freshman composition courses, but may also include lower division creative writing or literature courses. The successful candidate will teach 15 credits per semester. Anticipated salary is in the low to mid $30s. Minimum qualifications: master's degree or MFA in English or related field and prior experience teaching freshman composition. Experience teaching either non-traditional populations or online courses preferred. Viterbo University is a Catholic, Franciscan, liberal arts institution located in southwest Wisconsin in the scenic upper Mississippi River Valley. To apply, please send your application to Dr. Glena Temple, Dean, School of Letters and Science, Viterbo University, 900 Viterbo Drive, La Crosse, WI 54601 (or electronically to ggtemple(at)viterbo.edu). Your application should include: a letter of application indicating qualifications; application form (www.viterbo.edu/employmentapplication.aspx); teaching philosophy; curriculum vitae; copies of undergraduate and graduate transcripts; and three letters of reference. Review begins March 10, 2010 and continues until position is filled.

Conferences, Residencies, Scholarships: Oh My!

Writers Conferences & Centers is conducting its annual competition to provide scholarships for writers who wish to attend a writers conference, center, retreat, or residency. The scholarships will be applied to fees to attend any of the over 100 members of WC&C, an association of outstanding conferences, centers, retreats, and festivals for writers. The deadline for the WC&C Competition is March 30, 2010. Two scholarships of $500 will be awarded. To enter the competition, please follow the guidelines listed on our web site.

The 16th Annual Southern Writers/Southern Writing Conference, a University of Mississippi Graduate Student event held in conjunction with the university’s Annual Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference, will take place July 15-17, 2010. In addition to critical abstracts exploring Southern literature and writers, conference directors invite creative writers CURRENTLY ENROLLED IN GRADUATE PROGRAMS to submit poetry, short stories, or novel excerpts that deal with Southern themes or settings. Accepted creative entries will be featured on several panels. There will also be a nighttime reading and reception at Off-Square Books in downtown Oxford. The conference reading limit is 15 minutes. Please send entire creative works to: swswgradconference(at)gmail.com. Please send your submissions as Word attachments and include your university affiliation, mailing address, and e-mail address. The deadline for submissions is 5:00pm on Monday, March 8, 2010. For more information, contact Corinna McClanahan Schroeder (Creative Chair) or William Boyle (Conference Chair) at swswgradconference(at)gmail.com (replace (at) with @)

THE NORMAN MAILER WRITERS COLONY
The Norman Mailer Writers Colony is pleased to announce its call for applications for the Second Annual Norman Mailer Writers Colony Fellowships at Provincetown, MA. The Mailer Fellows have been created to honor Norman Mailer’s contributions to American culture and letters and to nurture future generations of writers. In 2009 seven Fellows spent four weeks in Provincetown, Massachusetts where they wrote, discussed their work, and were visited by writers such as Don DeLillo; editors and writers from leading publications such as the New York Review of Books and Vanity Fair. In 2010 Gay Talese will visit the colony as well as other leading writers to be named. Fiction and non-fiction writers can apply for a 28-day residency in Provincetown, Massachusetts, near Mailer’s home beginning July 5, 2010. Once again, seven Fellows will be selected. In addition, as many as 66 applicants will be offered scholarships to one week writing workshops in Provincetown during May, June, August and September, 2010. Information about the Fellowships, including an application, can be found here. Applications must be received by March 13, 2009.

ART FACTORY BIALYSTOK WRITER’S RESIDENCE DEADLINE: MARCH 1,2010
Art Factory Bialystok is an international artist/writer’s residence program in the beautiful town of Białystok, located in the northeast of Poland. The Art Factory Białystok Writer’s Residence is open to all writers– published and beginning writers seriously committed to their craft – from any countries, writing in English. The residence will take place June 1-30, 2010. The aim of the residence is to provide the time to develop a body of work, hone that work during workshop-style meetings with the other participants, as well as public readings. Moreover, the program will be enriched by several inspiring day trips to nearby towns, showcasing the cultural and gastronomical diversity of the region. More information here.

Independent Day School seeks both visual and non-visual Artists in Residence. Enthusiastic working artists (authors, musicians, actors, directors,etc.) sought for creative position working with students half time andproducing own work half time during 5 week on-campus residency. Flexiblepersonality, able and willing to provide K-12 students access to his/her ownartistic thoughts and processes, as well as ability to help students with theirown artistic growth required. Stipend, housing, travel and public workspace provided. Application Deadline March 1, 2010. Send: letter of interest/intent, resume, list of references and phonenumbers, examples of one's own work (images, manuscripts, CD's,DVD's, etc.) andSASE for return of examples to: Todd Johnson, c/o WebbSchool, 9800 WebbSchool Drive, Knoxville, TN 37923 Further questions, e-mail Todd_Johnson(at)webbschool.org (replace (at) with @)

Wichita State University. Distinguished Writer-in-Residence for Fall 2010. Temporary one-month position for a writer of fiction to teach a tutorial course to approximately 15 graduate & advanced undergraduate fiction writing students. Appointment for the fall 2010 semester. Qualifications: extensive high quality publications in national or regional periodicals; high quality novels or collections of short stories; awards & fellowships. Salary $9000 for the month. Previous applicants must re-apply in order to be considered. Send letters of application, professional vita, & writing sample to: Donald Wineke, Chair, Department of English, Wichita State University, Wichita, KS 67260-0014. Telephone: (316) 978-6763. Deadline for receipt of applications is February 22, 2010. AA/EOE.

Wichita State University. Distinguished Poet-in-Residence for Spring 2011. Temporary one-month position for a writer of poetry to teach a tutorial course to approximately 15 graduate & advanced undergraduate poetry writing students. Appointment for the spring 2011 semester. Qualifications: extensive high quality publications in national or regional periodicals; high quality collections of poems; awards & fellowships. Salary $9000 for the month. Previous applicants must re-apply in order to be considered. Send letters of application, professional vita, & writing sample to: Donald Wineke, Chair, Department of English, Wichita State University, Wichita, KS 67260-0014. Telephone: (316) 978-6763. Deadline for receipt of applications is February 22, 2010. AA/EOE.

News Around the Net

Need a gift for Valentine's day?  How about a Shakespeare sonnet read by Sir Ian McKellen? Or some Chaucer read by Jude Law? That's all you'll need.

McDonald's workers are more rich than novelists. Further proof that we're all crazy for doing this. Excuse me while I cry. And then turn in an application.

If you're still down for this writing thing after reading the previous post, then here are some common mistakes you should avoid in your first novel.

Is American literature dead? Or it is just serious American literature that's dead? I bet you can name more American thriller writers than European thriller writers!

Because maybe the first time the message didn't get all the way through. Writers, don't kill yourselves. It's totally lame.

Why aren't writers allowed to change careers like everyone else? Because we're greedy. We want more.

Here is why writers love Susan Boyle. But should we really? Maybe we should be writing instead of thinking about all those lame jobs other writers had before publishing or something.

A Cup of Ambition: The Hollywood Screenwriter

INT. Paradise Valley Mansion. Dinner Party. Night.
You’ve heard it from relatives, from your therapist… "Oh, you write. Does that mean you'll be a teacher?" Fine, fine. We can't make enough money to "eat" or "live" from our poetry. Every MFA graduate knows the horrible feeling that settles into her stomach as graduation approaches. You finished a whole book!, you keep telling people. And still, no prospective employers come a-calling. Here at HFR, we know how you feel. We thought it might be interesting to take a closer look at some jobs we writers and lovers of books might enjoy. Or do enjoy. Or have tried, and regret. This regular post, A Cup of Ambition, will talk to those in-the-know about what the working world is really like. (To see our previous interviewees, click here.)

Enter TREVOR MUNSON, late 30’s, stubble. He sits at his writing desk, and is quickly deep in thought before his typewriter, teeth stained red with cheap burgundy, wondering what to tell aspiring screenwriters. Dare he tell them the truth?
What the hell?

TREVOR

I am a freelance writer/producer for television and film. Along with various assignment work for Fox and Newline over the years, I have had a movie entitled Lone Star State of Mind made by Sony Screen Gems. More recently, I was co-creator and co-executive producer of the CBS vampire show Moonlight which was loosely based on my novel Angel of Vengeance.

My professional writing career got started after finishing grad school for literature. I wrote a script my last semester (Lone Star State of Mind) which I then entered in a handful of screenwriting contests. The script did well in both the Nicholl Fellowship and the Slamdance Screenwriting competition, and as result I got my first Hollywood agent and my start.

The Good…
What I love most about my job are the hours (when not on deadline), and the ability to make a living basically entertaining myself by telling stories. I'm a tough critic, so my basic rule of thumb is if I like what I've done (and I often don't), then others will too. It's an amazing thing to see how the words I fashion into stories and characters affect and impact others I've never met.

The Bad… The Ugly…
The most difficult thing about the job is... well, that it's an incredibly difficult job to do well. There are basically two kinds of people. Those who can write and those who can't. For those who can, the fact that we can do it doesn't make it any easier. Every day you sit down by yourself and wage a battle against mediocrity. In my experience, you often lose that battle. Which means a lot of days where you end up feeling like crap after completing your day's work. That's rough. Writing can be incredibly rewarding, but it's a process. It takes as long as it takes, and the reward can sometimes be a long time in coming...

Surprise Me
Something you might be surprised to know is that I didn't initially set out to write in Hollywood. If you'd asked me growing up I would have told you I was going to be a novelist. I intended to write horror or young adult novels. I didn't even know that you could make a living writing movies.

Spin a Yarn
One of the best moments I've had as a screenwriter was walking onto the set of my first movie and seeing my words come to life. In the script I had described one of the characters as wearing a very specific pair of shiny, black gold-toed boots. When I got there, the actor was wearing the exact pair of boots I had made up in my head while sitting at my computer as a broke grad student two years before. It was an amazing moment because I felt the power of being a writer in a very tangible way. I had made something up and now here it was in the real world created to my exact specifications. I felt like a magician.

Who makes a good screenwriter?
The personality traits that make a person good for this job are a thick skin and the ability to suffer fools. I wish I was kidding, and I hate to sound cynical, but Hollywood truly is the only place I know of where the people who can't actually do your job get to tell you how to do your job. It's a strange way to do things. If I was getting married, I wouldn't hire the caterer and then tell him how to make the food...

Advice for someone interested in becoming you?
For those writers interested in screenwriting, what I recommend is reading as many scripts as you can get your hands on. Read the scripts and then watch the movies to see what was done, what was kept, what was changed. I also recommend reading the underlying novels and then watching the movie to see how things were condensed, streamlined, or made more visual. Then, go write some scripts. If you're like me it will take two or three attempts before you get the hang of it. If you're a novelist, I suggest taking one of your own works and adapting it. Don't be too precious. Get rid of any characters and plot lines you don't need. Make it cinematic. Boiling down a larger work into a more cinematic form can be a great way to create a more layered and complex screenplay.

Once you have a solid script, I recommend entering screenwriting contests. Do a little research and make sure they're "legit". Isolate three or four and then get your script out there. If you do well in a major competition, representation and calls from producers often follow. (Which of course requires a whole new round of research to make sure they too are "legit").

Thoughts about this job for writers...
I like having the option to write both novels and scripts. They are two different writing experiences, and certain stories lend themselves more to one than the other. I realized a while back that it can be a great thing to start out with a novel and then work forward to a script. For one thing, it affords you a greater amount of material to distill into a script. For another, you can get paid several times for the same material. (I learned this lesson after selling my first spec script). You can sell it as a published book, then sell the movies rights, then get them to pay you to adapt it into a script. Also, for whatever reason, buyers in Hollywood will often take a published book a whole lot more seriously than they will a script. As result, novels, short stories, and even articles are easier to set up and sell. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, when Hollywood inevitably screws your story up in the movie-making process, you will still have the creative vision of your novel out in the world for people to enjoy.

Website of the Week - Poetry Daily

I realize that your Bookmarks tab must be filled to the brim with different "Poem-a-day!" poetry anthologies--but if you'd like, you can scrap most of them for this particular one-stop-shop: Poetry Daily.

What's neat about this anthology is its wide collection of contemporary poets. The website prides itself on fluctuating between well-known writers and those that haven't been exposed quite as frequently, and completes the featured poem with bios and sources that compliment each writer's work.

So if you find yourself tired of reading poems by miscellaneous dead guys (please don't throw things at me), head over and check out today's featured piece, "The Wolves of Illinois," by Lucia Perillo.

Dante's Makeover

      21st century Dante vs. 14th century Dante

It seems as though one of our favorite poets has received a makeover. Dante Alighieri - well-known poet and creator of The Divine Comedy - has been transformed into a scythe-wielding hero for the new Dante's Inferno video game released yesterday. As you can see from the photo above, it was quite an extensive transformation--I can't imagine Dante was much of a fighter in his day. The video game, which was released for both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, follows Dante as he traverses the nine rings of hell to save his lover Beatrice who was murdered and wrongfully dragged to hell while he was at war.

The nine circles of hell are depicted in great detail and coincide with Dante's graphic descriptions. For a better idea of how chillingly hellish the graphics are, check out the EA website where you can 'Explore Hell' for yourself.

Although the video game may stretch the truth about Dante's life, its creation is another step into the world of transmedia. As Inferno is recreated into other forms of media, more and more people will be exposed to Dante's writings--even if it isn't in its original form. To accompany the video game's release, a reprint of the Dante classic will be hitting the shelves--only the cover will depict Dante as he appears in the video game to appeal to a wider audience. The new cover is shown beside an illustration from the original Inferno.

Check out NPR's interview with a Dante scholar at UC Berkeley to see what he thought of the game.

We're Now Accepting Submissions Online!

That's right - we've finally entered the new millennium. You can now submit your work - prose, poetry, art and international - through our online submission manager here. Please make sure you read our submission guidelines first. We'll be accepting mailed submissions for the next few months to make this transition a little easier for those of you who like the mail, but we strongly encourage you to get to know our new process.

"Dredge" In Best American Mystery Stories 2010

Matt Bell's story "Dredge," from HFR #45, was just selected by Otto Penzler for inclusion in this year's BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES. We couldn't be happier for Matt and his wonderfully creepy story. If you haven't read it yet, email HFR@asu.edu to find out how to get your copy.

Tomorrow: Open Mic Featuring Kirk Nesset & David Chorlton

Free Association open mic poetry reading, featuring Kirk Nesset & David Chorlton. FREE and open to the public (but books will be available for purchase and/or signing) in the Student Union room 104E, Glendale Comunity College, 6000 W. Olive Ave., Glendale, AZ 85302. Open mic starts at 7pm. Hosted by Shawnte Orion.

Kirk Nesset is Professor of English at Allegheny College in Pennsylvania. He has published two books of stories, Mr. Agreeable and Paradise Road, as well as a nonfiction study, The Stories of Raymond Carver, a book of poems, Saint X (forthcoming), and a book of translations, Alphabet of the World: Selected Works of Eugenio Montejo (also forthcoming). He was awarded the Drue Heinz literature prize in 2007 and has received a Pushcart Prize and grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. His stories, poems, translations and essays have appeared in hundreds of journals, including The Paris Review, Ploughshares, The Kenyon Review, The Southern Review, American Poetry Review, Gettysburg Review, Iowa Review, Agni, The Sun, Fiction and Prairie Schooner, among others.

David Chorlton was born in Austria and grew up in Manchester, England, home of rain and industry. His poems have appeared in hundreds of literary magazines, including Connecticut Review, The Bitter Oleander, Bloomsbury Review, Poet Lore, and Hawaii Pacific Review. He has had many individual collections of poetry published, including Return To Waking Life (Main Street Rag Press) and Fever Dreams (University of Arizona Press). Recent chapbooks have been awarded prizes from Slipstream Press (for The Age Of Miracles) and Rain Mountain Press (for The Lost River).

Campus map and other details can be found at www.myspace.com/rcpoets

News Around the Net

What could save fiction? Apparently, it's university presidents and writers not being terrible. Great piece here on 'the death of fiction' and the questionable future of literary journals.

The problems of creating an authentic young narrator. Compounding these problems is the fact that real teenagers swear and stuff. If a writer were to write in an 'authentic' young person's voice, he or she would have middle aged fathers after them about how he would never let his kids read it. (See last week's post)

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America angrily removes Amazon links from their website because of Amazon's removal of some of scifi writers from databases. Insert mother's basement joke here.

The problems at Harper's, as well as more on the death of small magazines.

The literature of the ten billion movies nominated for best picture at this year's Oscar's. Okay, so it's only ten, but four of them are based on recent novels.

The restoration of Raymond Carver's voice.

The New York Times recently held a panel to discuss whether Catcher in the Rye still resonated with young readers. Absent from said panel? Young Readers. They were able to show up in the comments section though.

Through all the doom and gloom, Nathan Bransford is staying positive about the future of books and authors. And that's why we love him.

Great literary addicts. This is not a suggestion for how to spend your weekend.

Website of the Week - One Word

Sour.
Outlet.
Yoga.
Birdhouse.

For those of us who need a little kick in the right direction early in the morning, oneword is a simple writing exercise to get those brain juices flowin'. The concept is extremely straightforward: you press go, and the page loads with a new word each day at the top of the page. You've got sixty seconds to write anything you want, whether it be a short paragraph of prose or even a haiku.


Spoiler alert! Here's mine (about pirates, naturally) on today's word:
man with the marble
face, sinking ship: learned he sold
his gods to the sea



Edit:
Check out a neat interview with the creator Brian Kessler. Thanks Aaron!

Unusual Calls for Submissions

Persona Poem Anthology Extends Deadline
Editors Stacey Lynn Brown and Oliver de la Paz are pleased to announce a call for submissions for A Face to Meet the Faces: An Anthology of Contemporary Persona Poetry. We are seeking poems that work within the literary tradition of persona poetry: poems written as dramatic monologues, whose speakers employ masks, or whose character and voice are different from the poet's own. Please submit up to 5 unpublished poems. We will also consider poems whose rights have reverted back to the author. All submissions will be accepted electronically. Please send an email to the editors at facesanthology(at)gmail.com (replace (at) with @) with the poet's name and "Submission for Persona Anthology" as the subject line, with the poems as an attachment. The submission deadline has been extended to February 15th. We look forward to reading your work!

Call for Submissions: The Whistling Fire
The seeds of what would become The Whistling Fire were first sown December 2008 when a group of MFA students crowded around a fire pit to drink “2 Buck Chuck” and share their work. Whistlingfire.com was born February 2009 when a group of these students decided to continue the spirit of those late night readings far beyond their little fire pit gatherings and share them with the world. The Whistling Fire provides a forum where fresh voices share creative works. We encourage writers with an eye toward publication to submit their work or work in progress, as we wish to showcase a diverse array of styles and voices. In celebration of our first anniversary, this February we will be posting work focused on birthdays, anniversaries, and auspicious events that have come full circle. Send your submissions of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction of 1500 words or less to whistlingfire(at)gmail.com (replace (at) with @).

Flashlight Memories
Silver Boomer Books seeks submissions for an anthology tentatively identified as Flashlight Memories. Submissions of prose and poetry should be submitted pursuant to these guidelines by March 15, 2010. The focus of the anthology is childhood reading. What events in your childhood led you to become a reader for life? Did you crawl between the sheets with a book and a flashlight? Did a friend or family member influence you? What books drew you into the world of literature? Send poetry or prose, and consider our earlier anthologies, Silver Boomers, Freckles to Wrinkles, and This Path for examples of style. More here.

Poetry Anthology Seeks Poems
ANTHOLOGY. Try this on for size. Take these six words—Anteros, crippled, spindles, stairwell, threshold, and whirligig—and incorporate them into a poem for possible inclusion in an exciting and daring anthology. Submit up to three poems by March 8. E-mail submissions and queries to: thelistanthology(at)gmail.com (replace (at) with @). More here.

Crab Creek Review Call for Submissions
Special Editor's Portfolio edited by Guest Editor, Susan Rich. Theme: Ekphrastic Poetry. We begin with the visual. Ekphrastic poetry is a response in words to a painting, photograph, dance, building, sculpture, Ikea catalogue, child’s drawing, or bumper sticker. An ekphrastic poem begins with inspiration from another piece of art and with the intuitive understanding that art begets art. In a sense, the art object becomes the rough draft of the poem. We are looking for the best ekphrastic poems, 30-lines (or less) to showcase in an upcoming issue of Crab Creek Review. For this project, we are accepting email submissions to the email address below. To submit to this special portfolio of ekphrastic poetry, write your name and title of the submission in the subject line and then send your previously unpublished poems in the body of an email to Editor, Susan Rich at: duende3417(at)yahoo.com (replace (at) with @). Please send 3-5 poems at the most. Also, include a short bio and contact info as well. Deadline is May 31, 2010. More here.

Subject: Call for creative writing submissions for Milk Money, a literary journal
Milk Money is accepting submissions for its latest edition, Volume Seven: Vile Pile. They are looking for exceptional works of literary and experimental fiction and poetry. Works should be no more than 5,000 words whether it's fiction or poetry. Please only submit one short story per issue, but feel free to submit several works of poetry. We accept submissions year round, but the deadline for our next issue is February 15th. More here.

Christmas Spirit Anthology Seeks Entries
The Christmas Spirit book project (St. Martin's Press) seeks true stories that emphasize the significance of the Christmas season. Stories may run from 900 to 1,300 words. You may send an original or a reprint. Writers retain rights and those accepted will receive a $50 honorarium plus a copy of the book. Deadline: May 1, 2010. More here.

Lovelace Scrambles Our Culture and Makes a Pleasing Dish

It's been raining in the desert. After softening us up with drizzle for days, the main event arrived last night: a storm front that rent trees, darkened houses and sent my cats freaking up and down the hallway all night, imploring me as their god to make it stop. Today the human population of the city, unused to not just rain but weather patterns of any kind, surveys with shocked faces the six inches of water in their backyards, the roof tiles on the ground, the tree sundered by lightning. Experiencing the storm was a brief, powerful experience (just ask my cats), but the effects will linger as we patch, drain, rebuild and try to find where the hell the lawn furniture got to.

Reading How Some People Like Their Eggs by Sean Lovelace leaves a similar feeling of wandering around your psyche afterwards looking at what has been changed, blown away, or revealed.

Pop culture in particular looks different after Lovelace has rained on it. In the title story, a recitation of egg preferences of famous people and notables, he uses bits of celebrity like Lego bricks, assembling a monument to our monuments. Like the bricks, each of these stories can stand on it’s own. The Howard Hughes and Cher entries hit like shot-gun blasts to your inner People magazine, and the Thelonious Monk entry that wraps the story at the end brings an honest query to what the currency of celebrity is among Americans.

Flash fiction uses white space on equal footing with the printed word. Implication can be a blunt instrument in the wrong hands, but Lovelace uses it like a rapier, all his cuts are deft and to the quick. The ending of “Meteorite,” a paragraph that is a single sentence, is a forward thrust that cauterizes as it cuts. “Wal-mart” is a short fable about a broken relationship that manages to indict American culture in two pages. Charlie Brown’s Diary: Excerpts contains single paragraphs that invokes vast bleak landscapes worthy of Beckett. I could go on, but a reviewer is on dangerous turf after reading Eggs. When you find out just how much Lovelace does with so little, you feel like a bad writer yourself if you go on too long. Let’s end with this thought: You could read the entirety of this book on the train on the way to work, but it will ride with you long after that.

How Some People Like Their Eggs
Sean Lovelace
Rose Metal Press

A Contest From Our Friends at the Sonora Review

Short Short Contest:

A prize of $1,000 and publication in Sonora Review is given annually for a short short story. Joe Wenderoth will judge. Submit a story of up to 1,000 words with a $15 entry fee, which includes a copy of the Summer 2010 issue of Sonora Review, by March 15. Include a cover page with your full name and current address. More here.

Send submissions to:
Sonora Review: Short Short Story Contest
Department of English, University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721

Piper Writer's Studio Classes Start February 15th!

The Piper Center for Creative Writing, the home of HFR, is once again offering their Piper Writer’s Studio classes. These courses are open to writers of all levels and give students an opportunity to learn from experienced writers and teachers. Here are just a few of the classes that will be offered this spring:

Poetry: “Ekphrasis: A Conversation Among the Arts”
Instructor: Mark Haunschild
Mondays, 6:30-8:30 February 15- April 5

Break out of the traditional workshop in this class where you’ll go to art museums to create poems in response to local artwork. The class will focus on generating and revising original poems, as well as a collaborative long poem in response to an exhibition. Mark Haunschild is a former HFR editor and a graduate of ASU’s MFA program.

If you’re interested in taking a class, but aren’t in the area, check out our online courses, like this one:

Poetry: “Four Poems in Four Weeks”
Instructor: Sarah Vap
February 15-March 8

Having trouble getting started or keeping at it? Often, the most difficult part of writing is putting that first word on the page. This course will focus on the art and craft of generating first drafts. Prompts, questions, exercises, and readings each week will work toward building new poems. Sarah Vap is a graduate of ASU’s MFA program and the co-editor of the online journal 42opus. Check out her poetry in HFR issue 44!

Interested in taking a course but don’t have the time to commit to weekly classes? Try a one-day workshop to get a full course in just one day! Here’s just one of the classes offered:

Nonfiction: “From Ordinary to Extraordinary”
Instructor: Tania Katan
Saturday, February 20, 9-3:30 PM

Learn how everyday incidents can be crafted into amazing personal narratives! Through writing exercises, group discussions and individualized encouragement, we’ll transform the ordinary into the extraordinary. There will be opportunities to read your writing aloud. No writing experience is necessary. Tania Katan is a local author whose memoir, My One Night Stand With Cancer, won the 2006 Judy Grahn Award in Nonfiction and was an honoree of the 2006 American Library Association’s. Check out our Cup of Ambition interview with Tania Katan here!

This is only a brief sampling of the classes Piper Writer’s Studio offers. To see the full range of classes offered, click here.