Poem Drafts, NEH Announces 2017 Grants, and More
Tips for raising kids as good writers; Patti Smith remembers Sam Shepard; award news from both the Poetry Foundation and Restless Books; and other news.
Genre: Creative Nonfiction
Submissions Open for New Lyric Essay Book Prize
Submissions are currently open for Seneca Review’s inaugural Deborah Tall Lyric Essay Book Prize. An award of $2,000 and publication by Hobart and William Smith College Press will be given biennially for a lyric essay collection. The winner will also be invited to give a reading at Hobart and William Smith College in Geneva, New York. John D’Agata will serve as final judge.
The contest accepts “cross-genre and hybrid work, verse forms, text and image, connected or related pieces, and ‘beyond category’ projects.” Using the online submission manager, submit a manuscript of 48 to 120 pages with a $27 entry fee by August 15. The contest is open to both emerging and established writers.
Sponsored by Seneca Review in conjunction with the TRIAS residency program at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, the new biennial book series intends to “encourage and support innovative work in the essay.” Visit the website for complete guidelines.
For more upcoming prizes in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction, visit our Grants & Awards Database and Submission Calendar.
The Great American Read, Randolph College Launches New MFA, and More
Forty years of Sam Shepard reviews; the most anthologized essays; Astro Poets sign a book deal with Random House; and other news.
Sam Shepard Has Died, Age Discrimination Complaint at Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and More
An Illinois bookstore owner is running for Congress; how Rachel Cusk is reinventing the novel; the most anthologized essays of the past twenty-five years; and other news.
Michiko Kakutani Steps Down from New York Times, Clinton Memoir, and More
Lesley Nneka Arimah on short fiction and the writing workshop; how the Trump presidency is affecting book sales; a diamond-shaped library in Minsk, Belarus; and other news.
Man Booker Longlist Announced, the Writer’s Diary, and More
Tracy K. Smith and Carla Hayden on CBS This Morning; Octavia Butler’s Parable series as the dystopian novel of our times; poet Ocean Vuong on optimism; and other news.
Temples of Books
“To stand in this library again is a profound experience, a return to a wellspring of story and encouragement, here where many of the librarians knew me by name when I was a shy kid who’d walk home with a stack of seven books, one to devour each day before exchanging them for the next stack,” writes Rebecca Solnit in an essay about returning to her childhood public library, adapted for Literary Hub from a talk at Novato Public Library in California. Write an essay that reflects on your own experiences visiting libraries, whether long ago or more recently. Taking inspiration from Solnit’s essay, feel free to wander from metaphysical associations to books and reading, to personal memories tied to physical spaces, to the geographical and cultural history of the library’s locale.
Darling Days
Caption:
“It’s okay to be in flux and figure it out, and take your time to figure it out.” Follow iO Tillett Wright through the streets of New York City to Joshua Tree in California leading up to the launch of his debut memoir, Darling Days (Ecco, 2016).
Genre:
Poetic Memoirs, Writing Advice, and More
The TSA will not implement policy of checking books at airport security; two publishing veterans launch a marketing company; the blurring lines between literature and video games; and other news.
Roxane Gay on HBO’s Show Confederate, Most Anthologized Poems, and More
Ten ways to organize a bookshelf; Samantha Hunt on motherhood and adolescence; the history of samizdat in Russia; and other news.
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