Five Alums Win storySouth Selection

The journal storySouth selected three four five stories by GMU MFA alumni for its Notable Stories of 2009 awards: Tara Laskowski, for “Like Everyone Else” in Fiction Weekly; Janet Freeman, for “The Ugliest Drowned Man in the World Washes Ashore Lake Michigan” in PANK; Benjamin Chadwick, for “The Power of Fiction” in Rough Copy; Rion Amilcar Scott, for “Rolling in My Six-Fo’—Daa Daa Daa—With All My Niggas Saying: Swing Down Sweet Chariot Stop and Let Me Riiiide. Hell Yeah.” in Bosphorus Art Project Quarterly; and Scott Garson, for “About Me and My Cousin,” in Matchbook. Congrats all!

Also named was the story “Stranger Things Have Happened,” by Alix Ohlin, one of our visiting writers in fiction this spring (the story appeared in failbetter.com).

Art Taylor’s Ellery Queen Mystery Tour

. . . is rolling; check out his story “Rearview Mirror” in the forthcoming March/April issue of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. And that’s an invitation.

Alyson Foster is Smoking!

Our very own MFAer Alyson Foster's story, "Cooped," is up on Smokelong Review's issue 26 (www.smokelong.com/flash/alysonfoster26.asp). The illustration for the story was custom made by my favorite artist, Matthew Curry. Visit his virtual playground: http://ninjacruise.com/

For a glimpse inside Alyson's head, check out her interview at: http://www.smokelong.com/interview/alysonfoster26.asp

Keep your eyes peeled for her forthcoming stories in The Iowa Review, Kenyon Review, and Glimmer Train.

Ally Armistead Gets Major Ink

Super Congrats to 3rd year Ally Armistead for having her "Girl in Red" chosen as the story of the week smack dab on the home page at Narrative Magazine. Ally's story was also a finalist in the magazine's 2009 Winter Story Contest.

And when you're done reading Ally's story, why not submit something of your own for their Fall 09 Story Contest?

AND if you're 30 or below, Narrative has a contest for that as well.

Note: to view the full story you have to register, which is quick and free and painless (barring some minor wrist pain after typing in your mailing address, fyi)

Dan Kois on Facing Future

Dan Kois, a 2001 GMU fiction MFA alum, contributing writer for New York magazine, and film critic for the Washington Post, has a book out November 2009, Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s Facing Future, a nonfiction account of Hawaii's all-time best-selling album (e.g.). It is part of publisher Continuum’s 33 1/3 series (see here or here).

Eugenia Tsutsumi in Caketrain!

Caketrain took GMU fiction MFAer Eugenia Tsutsumi’s short-short, “Trek,” for issue 7, tentatively slated for publication in late 2009. Nice work, Eugenia! (Et oui!) Purchase said issue here, when it’s ready.

Benjamin Chadwick in Words and Images

The 2009 issue of Words and Images, which includes GMU MFA alum Benjamin Chadwick’s story, “True Love and the Giraffe,” is out, available here. A bit belated, but congrats, Ben!

Rion Amilcar Scott Strikes Again

Rion Scott, MFA ’08, heard that the journal Dogmatika has accepted his story, “Razor Bumps,” and Unlikely 2.0 liked his story, “Whatever Happened to the Man With the Familiar Face?” Unlikely 2.0 is putting his story in a special July 4 edition. Check back with Rion’s blog for publication dates.

Submit Submit Part 2...

More places to submit this summer...

The Collagist, a new monthly online journal accepting fiction (flash, short stories, novel excerpts), non-fiction, poetry

Zoetrope All-Story's Fiction Contest opens July 1st

Glimmer Train's Fiction Open Contest, deadline June 30th

let us know about your publications...

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.

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.

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!

Big Congrats to Ally Armistead

Ally's fabulously daring and experimental story, Girl in Red, was just named a top ten finalist in Narrative magazine's 2009 Winter Contest. Publication details to follow, but for now you can check out the magazine here.



Congratulations, Ally! You're a rockstar!

& Art Taylor, yo

Also congratulations to Art Taylor, whose story "Here for You" appears in the latest Fiction Weekly.

Alyson Foster, yo

Congratulations to Alyson Foster, whose story "The Place of Holy" was just accepted by the editors of The Kenyon Review.

Alexis Santi nonfiction at Prick of the Spindle

Hi there.

Go read Alexis Santi's nonfiction piece up at Prick of the Spindle. It's called "One Pure Thing."

The essay features Richard Bausch, alcohol(ism), a dying raccoon, and those goddamned old office chairs that Mason seems to always give to their creative writing professors.

(Incidentally, you can read two poems by my sister and see some of her artwork in the same issue, though I'll leave that for you to click around and find on your own).

Good work, Alexis Santi.

(let us know if you have pubs, please)

Fiction in small doses

The weeks after spring break are always the hardest - with work piling up from multiple directions it's hard to find time to even read.

Ok, not really, but if you do prefer your fiction in smaller doses, check out Five Chapters, an online fiction mag that publishes stories in serials of - hey! - five chapters. Steve Amick is this week's pick.

Congrats to Roger Pincus

If Duotrope's Digest 'Recent News' page is correct, then congratulations are in order for Roger Pincus. South Carolina Review just took a story of his.