Creative Writing Opportunities

Allison Joseph offers a fine service over at Yahoo Groups for those interested: she moderates a listserv devoted to announcing current creative writing opportunities, such as contests, calls for submission, fellowships, etc. The list is on hiatus at the moment and will restart in early January, but if you're interested, visit this link.

I've been a member for a month or two (thanks to Wade, who showed it to me). But local writer Cliff Garstang, posted a reminder to join over at his blog, so I figured I'd follow his lead. He also does an interesting analysis of the Pushcart Prize, which is worth a look here.

Friday

Some things to check out before we break for a week or two:

• Fiction alum Art Taylor has a series of mystery book reviews over at the Washington Post. Also, he let me know that the next MFA Alumni newsletter (the winter edition, I'm guessing) should have a plug for our blog, but he didn't reveal anything else about its contents. I imagine we can expect to get the newsletter soon though, and hopefully a few more readers will stop by as a result.
• This is an older article, but I just came across it recently. The Mason Gazette profiled fiction alumna Elyse Becker here.
• Non-fiction Mike is doing his best to grow a beard by the time he turns 30 in a few weeks. Visit him at his blog, Beard By 30, to read about it, and send him luck.
• I will not challenge this person to play Scrabbulous.
• MFA programs in the UK are catching on, it seems, but they're called MA programs, I guess.
• The New Yorker published Lethem's Fall for the Book story "The King of Sentences." The afternoon before he read it in Harris Theater, he emailed the file to me so I could print it out. Therefore, I am famous by association.
• A different kind of holiday-inspired, literature-related list: Author Suicides.
• New issue of the online journal The Quarterly Conversation is up.

Okay, that's all I've got.

More photos from the fiction dinner!

Lynnet (a Mason fiction alumni 2007) and Eliza were kind enough to host the Fiction Dinner earlier this month. Courtney Brkic read a selection of her own work and then answered our questions on writing, writing after graduation, and publishing. Thanks again!

Some New Journals

Just an alert for those interested in taking a look at some recent lit journals - over at the Phoebe and So To Speak office we've received the following:

• the latest issue of Gulf Coast, which features a special section of Donald Barthelme's collage art and such
• the Winter 2007 issue of Praire Schooner, out of the University of Nebraska
• the latest Mid-American Review
• and the recently redesigned magazine from the University of Memphis: The Pinch (formerly called River City)

Feel free to drop by the office if you'd like to "check out" one of these journals, or any other on our shelves for that matter - simply sign them out in the blue three ring binder.

Holiday Book Lists at The Happy Booker

Liam Callanan has joined a number of other authors in posting their holiday reading list suggestions as part of a series over at Wendi's blog, The Happy Booker.

Wendi explains the series here:

"Lists. We love 'em here at the Happy Booker. So when we asked a few authors to help us kick off the holiday season with a list of their favorite gift books—either to give or to recieve—we could not have been more pleased with the results.

For the next month, we will be running these wonderful book lists, all brimming with titles sure to please even the most difficult-to-buy-for people on your list."

Have a look.

Wednesday Reading - Kyoko and Susan

Two of our favorites (and faculty members to boot), Susan Richards Shreve and Kyoko Mori, will be reading at the George Washington University Visitor Center, at 22nd and H Streets NW. The reading begins at 5 PM, this Wednesday, Dec. 12. I haven't seen it publicized anywhere, so keep it quiet...shhhhh...

Now that the semester's over...

...you need something to read over the break, right? Alan presents his holiday reading list over at NPR. Put down the required reading and move away - the semester is over.