Deb’s Historical Research Page has links to all sorts of resources for finding things out such as what card games were popular in the 19th century or the price of foods in the 17th century. I found this site through the site of a well-respected researcher, Lisa Gold. I suspect she’ll continue to feature more helpful stuff like this.
-marcia
Filed under: News | Comment (1)
Transfer Literary Magazine, distributed throughout Bay Area local bookstores, would love to receive your submissions of poetry, drama, fiction, creative nonfiction, exciting somethings… BY SEPTEMBER 5th–FRIDAY. You can pick up a cover letter and instructions outside 372 or 380 Submit up to three pieces–NO NAME ON MANUSCRIPTS Four copies double spaced, single sided, one inch margins cover letter (all contact info, grad or undergrad, titles of work) WE WELCOME YOUR STRONGEST STORIES POEMS PLAYS ETC.
~ Joy
Filed under: Writing Opportunities | Comment
The New York Times Book Review has a piece on “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” — the memoir of Lee Israel, a biographer who turned to forging letters from famous literary and entertainment figures when times got tough.
She bought a gaggle of vintage manual typewriters, had famous letterheads printed up on antique paper and used an old television as a light box on which she could trace signatures. Even so, while writing as Noël Coward, Dorothy Parker, Edna Ferber and, most convincingly, Louise Brooks, Israel remained more an enhancer than an outright fabricator. She would use some of her subjects’ best real lines (Brooks on the studio head Harry Cohn: “My cat has spit up hairballs more attractive than him”) and take care with the chronology of their lives. The seams rarely showed. Indeed, the editor of “The Letters of Noël Coward,” published only last year, included two Israel pastiches — “a big hoot and a terrific compliment,” thought the erstwhile forger.
It was her Coward forgeries that ultimately led to her downfall. A friend of Coward’s saw forged letters that were more open with his homosexuality than he ever would have been in correspondence. And so the Feds were alerted to Israel’s activities, and her forgery career was over.
I’m dubious about supporting someone profiting from their crimes. But damn if this all isn’t terribly fascinating.
-marcia
How come no one celebrates my alcoholism like John Cheever’s?
You know, seminal American author John Cheever and I have a lot in common. He needed to drink a fifth of scotch before he had the courage to utter a word to another human being, and so do I. Much like Cheever, I’m completely blotto by 10 a.m. because of a deep, withering fear that my family will eventually discover my bisexuality. And, to top it all off, we were both born in Wollaston, Massachusetts, if you can believe it! But just because he’s one of history’s finest short story writers, Cheever’s epic benders are considered delightful, whereas I’ve just got a “serious problem with alcohol.”
What a bunch of horseshit.
~ Joy
Narrative Magazine is looking for first-person fiction or nonfiction, 8,000 words or less. The magazine hopes “find the most necessary, most intimate, most personal stories made universal.”
Entries will be accepted through the end of July. Do it! I know you have a first-person story, so send it already. First prize is $3,000. All entrants get a six-month subscription.
Link
Filed under: Writing Opportunities | Comment
For the rest of 2008, our meeting schedule is:
July 15
August 5
August 19
September 9
September 23
October 7
October 21
November 4
November 18
December 2
December 16
We are going to be revamping this website. Stay tuned.
According to the Million Writers Awards nominations received in the last five years, the top 12 online literary journals are:
Check them out. (Via)
~ Joy
Filed under: Writing Opportunities | Comment
I do not think everyone should be a writer, but I do think that everyone should write… or paint, or craft, or build things, or bake. You can make a pretty strong argument that the point of life–or one of them anyway–is to create. Or maybe I just come from a family of artists/craftsmen, so life just looks that way to me.
Anyway, NPR has a good interview with Lynda Barry on the subject of creativity, which she wrote about in her new book What It Is. She talks about how it is strange that we can be so creative as children and then completely drop it when we reach adulthood.
“Something happens to us as we get a little older,” she says. “Adults would never consider [drawing] on a piece of paper and then just throwing it away afterwards. In fact, unless it’s valuable afterwards, most adults don’t think the experience was worth it. So that’s kind of what the book is about. It’s about what happens. What happens to that creative urge.”
It’s true, not everyone is creative–the world needs accountants, after all–but we can all create something. If nothing else, we can create life, which is pretty profound if you ask me, and points to the larger role of creativity in society. So why then have we become a society of observers and consumers? Screw that, America! There’s no joy in it. Break out the crayons.
~ Joy
February 5
February 19
March 4
March 18
April 1
April 15
May 6
May 20
June 3
June 17