Emerging Writers Network

Gillis, Gillis, everywhere Gillis

It seems like everywhere I look online these days I find Steven Gillis and his novel, Temporary People - a Fable, which, of course, I consider a great thing!

Yesterday, Jeff over at Syntax of Things, had nice things to say about Steve's writing and the novel, including calling TP, " ... a book that I'm sure will be a strong contender for my favorite book of the year."

Last night, John Zuarino over at Bookslut.com posted an interview he did with Steve as part of the Bookslut's Indie Heartthrob Interview Series.

And this morning, Steve's Temporary People playlist was posted by David over at Large Hearted Boy!

So, wander on about the net, get excited about this book, and type out an order for it!

Source of Lit - Jeff Bryant

Jeff Bryant's Syntax of Things is back up and running on a regular basis and that is always exciting news, be it a post of his lovely daughter's picture on Fridays (though we do note Jeff's been hogging a bit of that limelight lately!), full-on coverage of the Beat writers, or random video clips of some of my favorite bands (as Jeff and I are roughly the same age) such as the Replacements or REM.

Today Jeff has made it Steven Gillis day over at SoT.  He's already done a really nice post about Steven's new novel, Temporary People - a Fable, and has turned the reins over to Steven for the day.  A little bird has told me Steven has a good six posts covering a full gamut of literary and important non-literary (sports!) topics to be spread throughout the day, so, please, visit Jeff's site often today, and wander around, even go down below the Gillis postings - I'm pretty sure you'll find more than enough reason to continue visiting in the future.

Update:

Jeff has kindly extended SoT to Steve for another day as some technical difficulties caused issues with his last two or three posts.  So head on over!

Source of Lit - Denver Post

David Milofsky's regular book column in today's Denver Post is about book reviews and how and where online reviewing is helping the cause.  He was kind enough to include the EWN and a quote from me with those of Mark Sarvas (TEV) and Sarah Weinman (Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind) - that is, he's been kind enough to lump me in with some much loftier locales.

He was also kind enough to use the word indefatigable before my name and refer to the EWN as "... a favorite among writers of all sorts."

It's a very interesting column and worth your wandering over.

May - "National" Short Story Month

Short Story Month

A hearty thanks to Cliff Garstang for reminding me that I had declared May to be Short Story Month last year.  While this year's effort may not be quite as dedicated as last year's, I do plan on posting about stories found in collections and in journals and maybe even one or two from collections to come. 

I'd also heavily suggest visits to The Short Story Review and The Short Story Reading Challenge and Save the Short Story, and not just during May, but all year long!

More to come...

You'll Have to Decide on Your Own

As most who might be interested in it know, the Sunday New York Times Book Review is available for sneak peeks online by Friday night.  To be as upfront as possible, the author I'm about to write about is a friend.  I've had the pleasure of knowing him both online (emails, websites, etc.) and in-person (since BEA Chicago, so, 2003?).  He would be Mark Sarvas, and the topic would be his recently published novel, Harry, Revised.

The NYTBR takes a look at Mark's novel this week, and not very favorably.  There is a line in the review however, that which leads off the summary paragraph, that jumped out at me:

"That you are reading a review of this novel in these pages is a testament to the author’s success as a blogger."

Now, it's possible that Mr. Troy Patterson, the reviewer, read the novel, hated it as much as he seems to have based on his comments, and then looked into Mark Sarvas' background.  But, I don't think so.  Mr. Patterson follows it up with comments about a couple of other literary bloggers, detailed enough to suggest he's well enough aware of them that he knew of them prior to being given this novel to review.

It might just be my reading of the review, and it could certainly be that I have some bias as I a) consider Mark a friend, b) really liked the novel a lot, and c) am a literary blogger myself (supposedly), but I read the review thinking the whole time, 'Wow, this guy really hated this book, and he, ....  Oh, wait, he doesn't like the fact that a blogger is getting attention."

Again, possibly it's my biases leading me to that conclusion, but in any case, as there'll be a slightly more positive review of Harry, Revised here in the future, I can only remind those of you that have not read it, and that might pick up this week's NYTBR, that each review is just one person's opinion, and suggest next time you're in the store, you pick up Mark's novel and read the first few pages.  See whose opinion you fall in line with on your own.

Source of Lit: NewPages.com

NewPages has become a truly necessary place to visit at least every other day, if not every day.  For the past few months, their book review page has been one of the better you'll fine anywhere, online or print, taking excellent looks at books from independent publishers.  Kudos to the Hills for bringing Matt Bell aboard as their Book Reviews Editor (and please note, I point this out in a month that they do NOT review any Dzanc Books titles).

They've also long had one of the best, if not THE best, literary journal review sections.

And as Dzanc is always trying to keep up to date with what online journals are out there, the NewPages blog is a great tool as they always seem to be the first to be announcing the presence of new journals.

Apologies to National Poetry Month

Man, it's the 30th already and looking back, not one single post about poetry.  My sincerest apologies to the month in question.  Thing is, I just realized what month it is based on an email I received.  I've actually read a fair amount of poetry this month and look forward to writing rave reviews of Valzhyna Mort's Factory of Tears, of Beth Ann Fennelly's Unmentionables, and of John Struloeff's The Man I Was Supposed to Be. 

I know, that's only three collections, but, to be honest, for me, especially lately, that's truly a fair amount.  I heavily recommend all three of these titles, as well as Terry Blackhawk's most recent effort, The Dropped Hand.

Terry is the Princeton Poetry Blog poet of the day:  http://pplpoetpodcast2008.wordpress.com/, so you can wander over and get a flavor of her writing, and then head over to Marick Press and order her book!

Million Writers Award Notable Stories

Jason Sanford and storySouth have once again set up the Million Writers Award this year, celebrating short fiction from online journals.  The list of notable stories is up and it's interesting from my vantage point of seeing what stories there are that are going to be in Best of the Web 2008 (July 15, Dzanc Books) and what journals are heavily represented in both, etc.

Congrats to the following EWN'ers (and I apologize if I missed your name as having a story up there, if I did, hit me with a comment letting me know - I'm at that point now where I don't quite remember every member):

Corey Mesler, Jeff VanderMeer, Carol Novack, Brian Evensen, Elizabeth Crane, Stevie Davis, Michael Martone, Alicia Gifford, Cliff Garstang, Gavin J. Grant, Paul Yoon, Jana Martin, Mary Miller, Amy Guth, Andrew Ervin, M.O. Walsh, Kelly Shriver, Ander Monson, Nathan Leslie, Matt Bell, Blake Butler, and Steven Gillis.  And many of my favorite online journals were included as well, and not to single one out as the favorite, but as it is part of the Dzanc family, congrats to Monkeybicycle's web editor, Eric Spitznagel, for seeing some of the work he published this past year selected as well.

Be sure to visit again a month from now to find the top ten stories and place your own vote as part of the process.

Guest Post - Tara Yellen on Mentors in the Writing World

Hey folks, it's rare around here to hear from anybody but myself unless it's an interview.  I think Jeff Parker's essay about George Saunders on Late Night with David Letterman just might be the only other occasion.  But, the following post, written by Unbridled Books' novelist, Tara Yellen, as suggested by Caitlin Hamilton Summie, seemed to fit right in with the thought process around here.  It's her take on mentoring in the writing world - something you don't always read about.  Hell, in many cases it doesn't even happen, which is a shame.  This was delivered to me a couple of weeks back, so the first two words should take that into consideration:

"Last week, at  New Dominion Bookstore in Charlottesville, when I stood up to give the first reading on my book tour, I didn’t have a planned opening speech.  Just a few things I wanted to say—thanks to John for the wonderful introduction, thanks to all who came out tonight.  Maybe a quick joke about tax day.

Mostly, I was hoping to avoid two things:

1. singing, which I’m always afraid I’ll do when faced with a microphone

and

2. spouting cliché.

I didn’t sing, which is good, because I can’t. 

But before I could filter it, there it was:

“I wouldn’t be standing here without you.”

Dzanc Prize 2008

This just in from Dzanc Books:

Dzanc Books is pleased to announce the opening for submissions to the 2008 Dzanc Prize.

The Dzanc Prize provides monetary aid in the sum of $5,000, to a writer of literary fiction.  All writers applying for the Dzanc Prize must have a work-in-progress they can submit for review, and present the judges with a Community Service Program they can facilitate.  Such programs may include anything deemed "educational"  in relation to writing.  Examples would include: working with HIV patients to help them write their stories; doing a series of workshops at a drop-in youth homeless center;  running writing programs in inner-city schools; or working with older citizens looking to write their memoirs.  All community programs under the Dzanc Prize must run for a full year.

Last year, Dzanc Books awarded the inaugural Dzanc Prize to Laura van den Berg. Laura is currently in the middle of a series of workshops she’s running in the New England prison system.  At the end of Laura's year, an anthology of work by the prisoners she is teaching will be compiled and published by Dzanc.  Laura's story collection, What the World Will Look Like When All of the Water is Gone, will also be published by Dzanc Books in fall 2009.

Eligibility:  The author must be working on literary fiction, and the community service must occur within the United States of America.  All applicants must demonstrate that they are able to do the community service they are suggesting, and are not otherwise offering would-be ideas for consideration. Judging shall give equal weight to the caliber of writing and the Community Service.  .

Timing: The Inaugural Dzanc Prize will be issued for the 2009 calendar year. We will accept submissions from authors from now through November 1, 2008. The announcement of the winning author will be made during the month of December 2008. The announcement will be made via email to the author, on the Dzanc website, as well as sent to trade (P&W, Publisher’s Weekly, Galleycat, etc.).

Submissions: Authors please send your current cv, a description of your Work in Progress, along with a ten page excerpt, and your planned Literary Community Service. These should be sent as MS Word Attachments in an email to prize@dzancbooks.org.

Dzanc Books will be selecting the author who will receive this $5,000 Prize based on a combination of the Work in Progress, and the intended Literary Community Service. It would probably benefit authors who are submitting to become familiar with Dzanc Books and the types of authors we publish, as well as the Educational Programs Dzanc Books sets up and runs.

The winner of the Dzanc Prize will receive a check for $2500 in the month of January 2009. The remaining $2500 will be paid once the Literary Community Service has been completed.

Dzanc Books will make no claims towards the winner and their Work in Progress. If at the time the author has completed the work, they wish to submit it to Dzanc Books, we will be delighted to have a look. Their manuscript will go through the same reading process every other submission goes through.

The submissions for the Dzanc Prize will be reviewed by, and the prize will be awarded by a panel of Steve Gillis, Dan Wickett, Steven Seighman, and Keith Taylor. All writers, including friends and associates of the panel, are eligible for the prize. The integrity and objectivity of Dzanc Books will not be compromised and, given our vast connections to so many great writers, exclusion of any kind would be impossible.

Any questions can be submitted to prize@dzancbooks.org.

The above information can also be found at:  http://www.dzancbooks.org/dzancprize.html