In one of my undergraduate creative writing classes, a student turned in a poem that referred to tall buildings collapsing to the ground. His classmates interpreted this as reference to the events of September 11. Later that week, the student came to my office and confessed that he’d actually written the poem in 2000, [...]
Debut novelist Anna Solomon writes us:
For the past six months, I’ve been working on an unusual and exciting collaboration with singer-songwriter Clare Burson: a literary-musical performance interweaving story, song, and projected images inspired by my novel, THE LITTLE BRIDE.
We call it A Little Suite for The Little Bride, and we’ll be performing it at the [...]
This weekend, CLMP (The Council of Literary Magazines and Presses) is hosting its 12th annual Lit Mag Marathon Weekend. Here’s the scoop, courtesy of CLMP’s newsletter:
The Magathon: Saturday, June 11th, 4-6:30 PM
New York Public Library’s DeWitt Wallace Periodical Room, 5th Ave. at 42nd St.
In this “marathon” reading, editors of lit journals will present selections from [...]
Since launching in September, Fiction Writers Review’s “Book of the Week” promotion has shipped seventy-nine books to readers located in twenty-four states and three countries. Whether we’re giving away debut novels or acclaimed collections, the enthusiasm on Facebook has less to do with free, signed first editions than what these books do and how their [...]
Today, March 2, is Read Across America Day, in honor of Dr. Seuss’s birthday. (Really—here’s the official presidential proclamation.) Funded by the NEA Foundation for the Improvement of Education, the event’s goal is simple: to motivate children to read. Says the event’s website:
The First Lady and NEA President Dennis Van Roekel welcome a star-studded [...]
Each year the Elizabeth Kostova Foundation selects five native English speaking (NES) writers and five Bulgarian writers to participate in the Sozopol Fiction Seminar, which takes places in the tiny, historic town of Sozopol, Bulgaria, on the Black Sea. In 2009 I was lucky enough to be chosen as one of the NES fellows. Joining [...]
On Sunday, February 6th, join literary greats such as Mary Gaitskill, George Saunders, Rick Moody, Amy Hempel, Gary Shteyngart, Jonathan Safran Foer, and Hannah Tinti at PS 122 in New York’s East Village as they throw “The World’s Most Literary Rent Party Ever,” to raise money for Diana Colbert, wife of novelist Charles Bock (author [...]
Biblioball 2010 from Desk Set on Vimeo.
‘Tis the season, and that means New York’s annual Biblioball has arrived!
The event occurs on December 4th and those of you who have attended before know what to expect: not just a winter formal for the “well-read and well-attired,” but an incredible way to support Literacy for Incarcerated Teens. [...]
In keeping with the shorter nights of winter, and later retail hours of the holiday season, throughout December Anthropologie will offer Bedtime Stories Reading Hour for kids at locations across the country. Now, I’m normally wary of attempts to lure me into stores – but this hits home. I remember an infamous visit to the [...]
Big thanks to Anne for alerting me to what looks like a great conference in New York on November 12 – 13. The Literary Writers Conference bills itself as:
A two-day conference for fiction, poetry, and creative-nonfiction writers learning how to maneuver in the marketplace. Meet writers, editors, agents, publicists and publishers from Publishers Weekly, Oxford [...]
