EWN Holiday Gift Email on the way

For those who stop by here on any sort of a regular basis, but have not joined the EWN (see above left corner for link to do so), perhaps the Holiday Gift Email will entice you.  This year, the email has 12 works of poetry, fiction and drama from 10 different authors.  It gets emailed to every member of the EWN (about 1/3 have been sent out at this point, damn yahoo mail doens't let me send much more than 300 per hour) each year between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

After the jump is the introduction to this year's 90 page effort, which will give you a peek at whose work is included:

Introduction

Dan Wickett

Hello and happy holidays to all you EWN members.  For those of you who have joined the Emerging Writers Network since last Thanksgiving, this is your first go-around with the Holiday Gift Email.  It’s something I’ve been doing, with the help of many authors, since 2002.  A not-too-longwinded (well, for me) history of the idea of the EWN Holiday Gift Email can be read at the EWN Blog here:

http://emergingwriters.typepad.com/emerging_writers_network/2006/11/holiday_gift_em.html

This year, I’ve had the pleasure of working with 10 great writers in all sorts of forms – flash fiction, short stories, poems, essays, novel excerpts, novella excerpts, memoir excerpts and even an excerpt from a play.

Beyond representing various forms of writing, these ten authors also come from various levels of publishing history.  Kawita Kandpal has published her poems widely, as well as a full collection.  Christi Clancy has only published a few of her stories but two of those were in Glimmer Train and Hobart!  Sandra Seaton’s plays have been performed widely, and one, The Bridge Party, has also been anthologized.  Roy Kesey has published over 50 stories in journals and anthologies alike, including Best American Short Stories 2007, as well as seeing both a novella, and a short story collection, published to date.  Laura van den Berg has seen her fiction published widely this past year in literary journals.  Rachael Perry has published a collection of short stories and seen her work anthologized as well.  Jason Lee Brown has been seeing both his stories and poetry accepted into literary journals.  Felicia Sullivan has a memoir coming early next year from Algonquin (we have the first chapter here), as well as numerous short pieces in both journals and anthologies.  Kyle Minor has an essay included in Random House’s Twentysomething Essays by Twentysomething Writers:  The Best New Voices of 2006, as well as seeing other essays and short fiction (well, long short fiction, if that makes sense) published in journals and win awards. 

The other great thing about these ten is how they are all about what the Emerging Writers Network is about.  In these ten individuals, we actually have ten examples of people who get involved with others – from Kawita teaching in schools for InsideOut in Detroit, or Rachael leading a writer’s workshop here in Michigan, or Felicia starting up and running a literary journal, to, well, you get the idea.  They have all also been very active in the EWN, responding to the occasional survey questions, commenting on the blog, suggesting authors and/or titles I might like.

This is also the closest year out of the six there have been Holiday Gift Emails, that I’ve come to actually having met all of the participants, with only Sandra Seaton, who I just had the pleasure of a nice phone call with, not having been met in person to date.

It’s my distinct pleasure to share their fine words with you now – and it is with great gratitude to you members of the EWN that I put together this gift each year.  Thanks to all of you, this stuff stays interesting year round, and also thanks to you all, the EWN has grown from its original 21 members to a little over 2250 at this time (which is over 800 more than at this time last year!).  As you know, there’s no advertising of the EWN anywhere, these new members find it thanks to your word of mouth, and it’s greatly appreciated on my end.

And, a quick thank you to Algonquin Books, The Gettysburg Review and Marick Press for allowing me to reprint or excerpt material from their books or journals.

Anyhow, I’ll quit rambling now and let you get to the real enjoyment – the work itself.

Comments

[sheri doyle]

i am a new member so i look forward to getting this in my email box! thanks.

[Katrina Denza]

Many thanks to Dan and all these generous authors! I'm going to enjoy my holiday reading.

[Cheryl Snell]

Just got it! Thanks so much, Dan.

[Jessica Handler]

This gift is wonderful reading, Dan - thanks for everything you do.

[Diana Joseph]

I look forward to this every year! Thanks, Dan!

[Alicia Gifford]

I was knocked out by Roy Kesey's "Flies". Look forward to reading more, and THANK YOU!

Alicia

[Virginia Pye]

Dear Dan and EWN:
Great Holiday Gift email. I was working on my novel when it arrived. Looking for something/anything to give me a boost, I let myself wander over just for a glance, but got caught up in a good way. Terrific short fiction pieces, poems, all of it. Mostly I like that you're doing this (we're doing this?) -- egging each other on. After such a happy distraction, I return to my own work renewed, thinking, "Hey, I can do this." That's a gift. Thanks.
Virginia Pye