A Reason to Keep Writing This Summer

Besides the fact that--face it--you can't stop yourself, Flatmancrooked, "a non-profit corporation dedicated to identifying, recording, and disseminating good stories," is giving you great reason to keep writing all summer long. The 2009 Flatmancrooked Prize for Excellent Writing Done During a Period of Great Fiscal Renewal offers the 1st place story (under 7,000 words) $1,000, print publication in the final anthology of the '08/'09 season, online featured publication, and a first edition of the Flatmancrooked anthology in which the story appears. The top ten finalists get basically everything the 1st place story gets, except the $1,000. On top of all that, Aimee Bender, author of The Girl in the Flammable Skirt, An Invisible Sign of My Own, and Willful Creatures, is judging--which, for me, is super exciting (if you've never read anything by Aimee Bender, click on her name above and immediately go read some of her stories). There is an entry fee of $15, but on the up side the deadline isn't until August 15th, so for those who haven't quite had time this year to finish a story, here's your chance.

FundForWriters features a few other fiction and poetry writing contests deadlining this summer or in the fall. Know of any other great contests taking place this summer? Email me or leave them in the comments!

Happy Father's Day

In celebration of father's day and in honor of my wonderful dad, without whom I would probably be boring and normal, I present you with some of my favorite poems about or involving fathers and fatherdom (don't worry, I left Plath's "Daddy" out of this):

Danse Russe by William Carlos Williams

my father moved through dooms of love by E. E. Cummings

Yesterday by W. S. Merwin

My Papa's Waltz by Theodore Roethke (audio clip)

Do not go gentle into that good night by Dylan Thomas

(And many thanks to the Academy of American Poets for making such poems available online.)

Internships for Emerging Writers, Editors, and Publishers

I've been working on a list of editorial internships since I was...oh...18 and thought I might try my hand at a summer internship. Somehow that never came to fruition, however I see no reason my list should go to waste. Below are some of my top picks with links to more information. If you're specifically interested in small presses, check out the small press database from Poets & Writers (also linked to on my left sidebar). Also, bookjobs.com has a great list of internships as well as a book jobs search engine, mostly in larger publishing houses (and dominantly in NYC). I think the best way to find an internship is by figuring out who publishes your favorite authors and researching from there. Here are four presses I think highly of and would recommend looking into their internships:

Copper Canyon Press

Graywolf Press

Red Hen Press

Seven Stories Press

Most publishing and editorial internships are unfortunately unpaid, especially if, like me, you're more interested in the small independent presses. Some will offer a stipend or housing, but be prepared to work "for free." The benefit to the small publishers, magazines, and presses is that you'll ultimately have more responsibility and a wider range of tasks; the downside is you'll probably be waiting tables at night (especially if you're opting for an internship in NYC). Here's one writer's take on the promise and peril of being an intern. I personally like to think of it as an old-fashioned apprenticeship: trading hard work for knowledge of a trade. 

Freelancing the Internet

The internet provides us with a seemingly limitless amount of information (obvious fact number one), all of which has to be written by someone somewhere. One would think this would create a boundless amount of work for all those writers out there. However, most of the content written online is done for free and often folks are reading more for the content or "facts" presented than the presentation itself. Without editors and page frames to help shape and restrain, writing can become aimless and wandering, and often, just plain bad. The payoff is shaky as well if you're looking for monetary gain--"monetizing" your site is only helpful if you get thousands of views per day and more so if people actually click on the advertisements. I don't know about you, but I don't think I've ever purposefully clicked on an ad blurb. In fact, I've even browsed away from sites where the ads were too intrusive to the writing.

However, for those writers of a journalist/essayist kind, there are some alternatives to going it alone: information sites Suite101 and About.com are currently looking for people to fill their freelancing gigs. As far as the writing side of this goes, you would have access to an editor and get to network with other writers. As for revenue, I'm undecided whether one would be better off starting their own website or submitting to the regulations (especially the copyright regulations) of these sites. Nicholas of writtenroad.com has a pretty helpful evaluation here of the two sites with some pros and cons for you (writtenroad is also a good resource for travel writers). 

Ham It Up, or My Plea to Reading Writers

"When audiences come to see us authors lecture, it is largely in the hope that we'll be funnier to look at than to read." --Sinclair Lewis

Amen, brother. Readings--I hate doing them, and typically, I hate going to them (I know, I know, I'm a sinner). Why? The same reason I hesitate before seeing one of my favorite bands play. Who wants to ruin a good thing? Oh, "you wuss," you say. But admit it, doesn't it make you cringe a little to hear the recording of a once-dearly-loved song after it's been butchered by the artist in live performance? It's like comparing "before" and "after" pictures of Michael Jackson--you just want to scream "take it back! take it back!"

What's the point here? Oh right, readings. I'll admit I've been to some great ones (Salman Rushdie and Aimee Bender to name two) aaaand I've been to some truly dig-your-nails-into-your-knees-to-keep-your-mind-off-how-awful-this-is readings (I shan't name names). Then again, I'm also someone who doesn't think you can appreciate a poem until you see it on the page, so maybe it's just me wishing I could bury my head in a book and hide.

Back to the point again: Only the most devout fans (cough, parents, cough) enjoy watching a writer stare down at the podium, drone out words, and shuffle their feet for an hour. Yes, most likely a love for literature or maybe even your specific words enticed the audience to come, but now you gotta give 'em more than what's on the page...so that they'll want to buy what's on the page (circular logic, I know, but it's true). Hey, the hard part was getting people to show, so play it up a bit--be wise, self-effacing, coy, drunk, naked!--and they might even come back, or at least buy your beautifully crafted chapbook.

Now, in that light, a link to Kim Addonizio "covering" a great short poem by Dorothy Parker. A nice segue into her reading I think. (I swear I'm not totally obsessed with DP, life just happens this way sometimes, it's like internet serendipity... interipity... I take that back.)

Experience

Some men break your heart in two, Some men fawn and flatter, Some men never look at you; And that cleans up the matter. Dorothy Parker