Thomas McGuane Reading Tuesday June 2

Author, screenwriter, and film director Thomas McGuane will speak at the Campus Theater of the Woodbridge campus of Northern Virginia Community College on Tuesday June 2 at 7 pm. Here’s a map to get you there. (15200 Neabsco Mills Road, Woodbridge, VA, open parking available in B lots.) It’s free!

Lamination Colony’s Not Not a Contest

Lamination Colony, “online since 2003, publishing mainly oddball, surrealist, bizarre, and/or otherwise homeless dream sequence texts,” is holding a free contest with a list of donated mainly oddball, surrealist, bizarre, and/or otherwise homeless dream sequence prizes. They’ll pick a winner or two; winning will also mean publication. The deadline is in one week, Friday June 5. One to 2,000 words, any kind of words, 1 entry per person. (Fair warning, the above description is dead on.)

Ryan Call Gets Prime Ink in Sonora Review

Congrats to Ryan Call, whose story, “The Painful Noises of Children at Play,” appears in the 55/56 double issue of Sonora Review, now shipping from dry hot Tucson to a bookstore near you. But just in case, order it here. Really, get one. Ryan’s story (one of his best, in my opinion) appears alongside fiction by Aimee Bender, as well as a tribute to David Foster Wallace with contributions from Sven Birkerts, Dave Eggers, Jonathan Franzen, and Rick Moody.

Toe in the Water

Hi All,
With summer as an easy temptation to take a break from writing (which later turns into a months long hiatus - you know who you are), we could all use some reminders to get back in the chair and start up again.

The Creative Writing Opportunities Listserv will help you do just that. I've posted about this before - instructions follow for how to join - this is a listserv that sends an email digest once/a few times daily with links to everything from writing contests, fellowship and job opportunities, and journals looking for submissions. It's an invaluable resource for those who don't have time to dig up all the info on their own (ahem: me).

It takes a few seconds to sign up, but once you do so you'll have a guaranteed daily kick in the pants to remind you to keep writing, revising, submitting...

Instructions for joining the list:

Go to
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crwropps-b
and click on "Join This Group." Follow the on-screen prompts to join.

or
Send a blank e-mail to crwropps-b-subscribe@yahoogroups.com


You will be sent an e-mail message with further instructions on how to join
the list.

Rivka Galchen at the DC JCC this Tuesday

This Tuesday, May 19 at 7:30 pm, Rivka Galchen will talk about her debut novel, Atmospheric Disturbances, with Washington Post Book World deputy editor Ron Charles, at the DC Jewish Community Center (1529 16th St. NW). Tickets are $9 for the general public, $6 for JCC members. Go here to reserve a seat or call (202) 777-3251. (See also James Wood’s review of the book.)

Cheryl’s Gone This Thursday, with Danika Myers

The Cheryl’s Gone Reading Series will put on another reading this Thursday, May 21, at 8 pm at the award-winning^* Big Bear Cafe (1st and R NW Washington, DC). Featured artists include

GMU MFA poetry alum Danika Paige Myers
poet Deborah Ager
writer and media artist Marissa Plumb
and music by Marbayduk

And as always, it’s free!

David Michael Conner Interview with Jewel

Check out recent graduate David Conner’s interview with singer-songwriter Jewel at The Advocate. Congrats, David, not only for landing the interview but for bringing out a real and thoughtful conversation. See more great interviews with interesting people here.

Good news again...

It just keeps getting better - 1st year Pat Devlin's story "Piece Man" has just been named runner-up for the 5th annual Glass Woman Prize, story to be published soon on the website. Congratulations, Pat!

Mike Scalise has anthology, will write

Cordozo Senior High School students in Frazier O’Leary’s AP literature class have finished what Mike Scalise started: The Way We See It: Complete Coverage of the Nation’s Capital from the Inside Out, an anthology of fiction, poems, essays, and journalism due out May 28th. Here’s a preview at the Capitol Letters Writing Center site. A link to Mike’s announcement here.

And another champagne bottle opener: Bucknell University has named him the Philip Roth Resident in Creative Writing, which means—well, go read it. It’s more than very cool.

Congrats, Mike!

Laura Ellen Scott, and also to you

Congrats, Laura, for a great run of publications we hope will continue adding up faster than the speed of this blog. Her story “The Temple Dog” is up at Publishing Genius Press, and “Render, or to transmit to another,” in elimae, made Wigleaf’s top 50 list. And, coming up, her story “Moon Walk” will appear in the anthology Gravity Dancers: Even More Fiction by Washington Area Women (scroll down to see it) due out . . . this spring, says publisher Paycock Press’s website, but certainly by Sunday July 19 at 5 pm, the date  and time of its launch party at Politics & Prose.

Congrats, Angela Panayotopulos

Inscribed Magazine published Angela Panayotopulos’s story “Pelagia” in April, and Prick of the Spindle accepted her story “Bloodstained” for its summer issue, out in June. Congrats, Angela!

Graduate Reading this Friday

Come out and listen to all of our grads read before they become really famous and start charging for entry!

When: This Friday 5/15, 7pm
Where: Old Town Village in downtown Fairfax, next to the HSBC Bank

In addition, there will be an after-party at the Friendship House.

And congrats to the graduates!
Fiction:
Christina Campbell
Regan Douglass
Elizabeth Eshelman
David Conner
Nat Foster
Kate Hively
Maura Kelly
Patrick Martin
Caroline Zuschek

Nonfiction:
Sarah Klenakis
Rachael Lipsetts
Victoria Shelton
Casey Wiley
Tara Williams

Poetry:
Ed Davis
Rachael Lyon
Sheri Sorvillo
Jessica Rich
Corey Spaley
Robb St. Lawrence
Danika Stegeman

Submit Submit Submit (in a good way)

Summer's almost here, but in the words of one of our beloved faculty members, "Writers don't take vacations!"

In the spirit of that instruction here are a few journals/contests that are still accepting submissions (although the deadlines loom near for some). And yes, some of these are big names - but ALL of you are awesome writers! Send it out!

New Letters Deadline May 18
McSweeneys
Paris Review
North Dakota Quarterly
Glimmer Train
Alaska Quarterly Review (Deadline May 15)
CakeTrain
Virginia Quarterly Review (Fiction Only Deadline May 28)
Agni
Barrelhouse
Hobart
Fence Magazine

And one more!
The Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition for Emerging Writers - extended deadline May 15

Ok! That should be enough to get you started. Why are you still reading this? Go out and submit! Let us know about your publications! Go!

The Convalescent

Congratulations to Jess Anthony, whose novel The Convalescent received a starred review in this week's Publisher's Weekly. An early draft of the novel can be found in Theses section of the Fenwick library.