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NEA announces $25 million in grants to nonprofit arts organizations; Jesmyn Ward signs a two-book deal with Simon & Schuster; Edmund White and Edna O’Brien win PEN awards in lifetime achievement; and other news.
In his memoir Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time (Random House, 2007), Rob Sheffield centers each chapter around a mix tape from his own life and uses the songs to narrate and explore the love and loss of his wife. This week, try assembling a mix tape of your own. Write down the names of songs that were important to you at a particular time in your life, and build outwards from there to begin an essay. Reflect on that moment when you first heard these songs: Was it on the radio in a car, or on your headphones, or did someone share them with you? Is it the music or the lyrics that stay with you?
Submissions are now open for the third annual Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant. Individual awards of $40,000 are given to up to eight writers in the process of completing a book of creative nonfiction.
Creative nonfiction writers currently under contract with a U.S. publisher and at least two years into their contract are eligible. Writers of color are particularly encouraged to apply. Accepted book categories include history, cultural or political reportage, biography, memoir, the sciences, philosophy, criticism, food writing, travel writing, and personal essays, among others.
Using the online submission system, submit up to three chapters of a manuscript-in-progress, the original book proposal, a signed and dated contract, a statement of progress, a résumé, a letter of reference from the publisher, and two additional letters of reference by May 2. A panel of four anonymous judges will select the winners from a list of fifteen finalists; the grantees will be announced in the fall.
Established in 2015, the Whiting Foundation Creative Nonfiction Grant provides support for multiyear book projects that require large amounts of research. The Whiting Foundation created the grant to “foster original, ambitious projects that bring writing to the highest possible standard.”
Previous recipients include Sarah M. Broom for The Yellow House, forthcoming from Grove Press; Pacifique Irankunda for The Times of Stories, forthcoming from Random House; and Julie Phillips for The Baby on the Fire Escape, forthcoming from W.W. Norton. Visit the website for a full list of previous grantees and complete application guidelines.
Women editors discuss sexual discrimination in the literary world; a new biography of Madeleine L’Engle; poet Claribel Alegría has died; and other news.
Book sales are up in Puerto Rico; a screen adaptation of John Updike’s Rabbit, Run novels in the works; New York Society Library’s borrowing records of famous writers; and other news.
Writer’s Atelier is a place writers can visit to associate or network with other writers and improve their craft. They provide a variety of editing and consulting services for writers as well. The facility hosts literary group gatherings, writing workshops, book signings and readings, writing and reading groups and clubs, open mic events, and other small literary events.
The Writers House at Rutgers University-Camden cultivates and celebrates the writing arts. Programming goes year-round, and is always open to both students and the public: programs such as Writers in Camden, an NEA-supported reading series, the annual Summer Writers’ Conference, and the Cooper Street Writers Workshops, unite artists and scholars, students and citizens, around the power of the written word.
Writespace is a grassroots literary arts organization founded by writers, for writers. Writespace hosts its national literary festival, Writefest, in March of each year, and its local literary festival, Writers’ Family Reunion, in August of each year. In addition to offering regular weekly workshops, Writespace offers manuscript consultations, readings, write-ins, open mics, and classes and private lessons for young writers.
Sigrid Nunez on writing as religion; a history of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; fiction writers on how to write about sex; and other news.
