Happenings

Five Points will be at AWP in New York City this year: January 30-February 2. Last year, the convention was in our hometown, Atlanta, and it was a blast. I, regretfully, am unable to make it this year. But be sure to come visit my colleagues at booth B68 at the book fair. We have new bear badges and great deals on subscriptions.

SUB-LIT is accepting submissions for the next issue and beyond. I need art, photography, high quality photos of original tattoo work. Check out the latest issue. Spread the word to artists and writers.

Edward Hirsch will read at Georgia State University on March 17, 4:00 in the Troy Moore Library. Why anything is scheduled on St. Patrick’s day, I don’t know. But you should go anyway.

January 19, 2008 0

Creative Loafing Fiction Contest

The 2008 Creative Loafing fiction contest is officially over, and so are my hopes and dreams. Just kidding, sort of. Two of my friends claimed first and second place. Right now that list of names is on the DL, but I’m told I can give away names as of Monday the 7th. So check back then. As usual, there will be a celebration. From an email I got from CL:

Regardless, we¹d still like to invite you to the Fiction Contest party on
Thursday, Jan. 10, at 7 p.m. at Eyedrum (Suite 8, 290 MLK Jr. Drive SE,
Atlanta, GA 30312; 404.522.0655, www.eyedrum.org).

The party, which is free to the public, is a great opportunity to meet other
writers in the community, listen to readings of the three winning entries,
and enjoy some live music and refreshments.We¹ll have beer on sale, with food and beverages provided by Café Intermezzo.

Aside from the readings, we¹ll have appearances and book
signings by our panel of judges (David Fulmer, Joshilyn Jackson and Fiona
Zedde). (Bound to Be Read Books will be on hand to supply copies of the
authors¹ works, but purchases are not necessary; bring your own copies if
you have ¹em.)We¹re also happy to welcome the ambient sounds of Duet for Theramin and Lap Steel. (Check out their music at http://duetonline.net.)

Please come help Creative Loafing (along with the Chattahoochee Review)
support Atlanta¹s burgeoning literary scene. We think you¹ll like what you
hear.

January 4, 2008 0

SAMLA This Weekend

The South Atlantic Modern Language Association (SAMLA) is hosting its annual convention this weekend in downtown Atlanta, at the Renaissance Hotel. Speakers include Lee Smith and Cynthia Tucker. I’m on a panel, Eudora Welty and Children, Saturday afternoon.

The South Atlantic Modern Language Association (SAMLA) is an organization of teachers, scholars, and graduate students dedicated to the advancement of teaching and literary and linguistic scholarship in the modern languages. SAMLA membership extends throughout the southeastern United States and includes members from across the country and around the world. South Atlantic Review, formerly the South Atlantic Bulletin, was established in 1935 as the official publication of SAMLA.

November 7, 2007 0

AWP Loot

AWP was a good time. Some panels were infinitely more interesting than others, but, what are you going to do. And I had no idea restaurant service was so horrid downtown. There are conferences all the time; aren’t they used to crowds? And why does a bottle of domestic beer cost $5.75? For the love of god. That’s what a flask is for. I paid $6 and some odd cents for a bottle of 420 at the bar at the Hilton and the darn thing wasn’t even cold. Anyway, the panel Friday about research and the novel was interesting–the best thing was learning how each author on the panel conducted research in a different way. There is no right way, you just have to figure out how to serve your particular story. I’m going to start thinking more about protagonists’ professions/jobs, because that is a significant part of life. The Five Points reception Friday was good, but I didn’t make it to the John Barth reading because I opted to continue partying instead (ooops!). It was definitely the right choice. One of the biggest benefits of a writing program has been building relationships with like-minded writers; the value of those relationships cannot be underestimated. Saturday I attended a panel on how to start a reading series. I found all the work Marc Fitten (editor of Chattahoochee Review) and Megan Sexton (editor of Five Points) do organizing readings and events in Atlanta particularly interesting. It’s wonderful when organizations (lit mags, newspapers, NPR, food vendors, etc) can all get together for mutual publicity and to host fun literary events for the public. Daren Wang (founder of Verb and organizer of The Decatur Book Festival) was also on the panel. I also saw a panel about crossing over into YA, which was really ispiring and got me brainstorming new book ideas.

At the bookfair I renewed my subscription (I’d let it lapse!) to the Chattahoochee Review. I bought a second copy of Stray at the MacAdam/Cage table, because it was such a steal. I picked up two chapbooks at the Small Beer Press table. Horse Blow Up Dog City & Other Stories, by Richard Butner, is really good. I especially like “Ash City Stomp,” (recommended by Kelly Link!) which you can read or listen to here.

I met Kelly Link and managed to act like a mute idiot for a significant period of time before summoning the courage to tell her how awesome she is. Because she is truly awesome. Magic for Beginners is an amazing, original work. If you feel the joy has been sucked out of reading (are you in academia perhaps?) then get thee a copy of Magic for Beginners and curl up on a stormy night and dig in. I cannot get over “The Hortlak,” “The Faery Handbag,” or “Stone Animals.” You can read “The Faery Handbag” here.

March 4, 2007 1

AWP, Baby

What crappy weather for walking around downtown today! There are hundreds of panels, but I have my eye on a few. From the AWP Conference Schedule for today:

R143. Deviant Fictions by Women. (Kathryn Davis, Jaimy
Gordon, Kate Bernheimer, Kellie Wells)

In her introduction to Halldór Laxness’s novel Under the Glacier,
Susan Sontag says, “Narratives that deviate from [the] artificial
norm” of realist fiction “and tell other kinds of stories, or appear
not to tell much of a story at all…still, to this day, seem innovative
or ultraliterary or bizarre,” suggesting they “occupy the outlying
precincts of the novel’s main tradition,” and it is with some of
these deviant, Martian fictions that this panel will be concerned.
Panelists will read from and discuss their work.

R159. A Tribute to Leon Stokesbury. (John Holman, Leon
Stokesbury, Katie Chaple, Maudelle Driskell, Delisa Mulkey)

Three former students honor Leon Stokesbury on his 20th year as
a creative writing professor at Georgia State University. Stokesbury
is co-winner of the first Associated Writing Programs Poetry
Competition in 1975 for his book Often in Different Landscapes.
Speakers will discuss Stokesbury’s influence and read from their
work before Stokesbury shares his poetry.

R184. Publishing the ATL. (James Iredell, Dan Veach, Daren
Wang, Tania Rochelle, Megan Sexton, Christopher Bundy)

This panel, consisting of editors from Atlanta journals and magazines (Five
Points, the Atlanta Review, GSU Review, Verb, the Chattahoochee Review,
and Terminus), focuses on each publication’s mission to serve both its immediate
and greater literary community. Panel participants discuss their
editorial preferences in terms of their pub’s specific audience, be it international,
academic, student, audio, independent, and combinations of these.

R195. Robert Dana Tribute Reception: Sponsored by
Anhinga Press and the Chattahoochee Review.

March 1, 2007 0

The Eudora Welty Project

Check out the Eudora Welty Project at Georgia State University: January 15-–March 1, 2007

The Eudora Welty Project honors the late Southern author and observes the 10th anniversary of GSU’s literary journal Five Points with two simultaneous exhibitions organized by Welch School faculty member Teresa Bramlette Reeves and gallery director Cathy Byrd. Petrified Man displays our Welch School faculty’s artistic response to a Welty short story. One Writer’s Art presents photography and writing by Welty.

January 14, 2007 1

Annual Creative Loafing Fiction Contest

The annual Creative Loafing Fiction Contest has come to a close. This year the theme was ‘blood,’ and although I’ve entered the contest for the past few years, I missed the deadline on this one. However, a friend of mine won–the talented Brett Bender. So, if you are in the ATL, be sure to pick up a copy of the Loaf the first week in January to read the winning story. And here’s the ad copy from the current CL for the scheduled celebration:

We’re having a BLOODY PARYT!

Creative Loafing and The Chattahoochee Review present our annual Fiction Contest Party

BLOOD

Wednesday, January 3rd 7pm-9pm

Eyedrum Art & Music Gallery

290 MLK Jr. Drive SE, Suite 8 404.522.0655 www.eyedrum.org

Live music, Art, Book Sale, Readings by Fiction Contest Winners, Free Admission

December 30, 2006 2

Six Word Stories

Wired (a great magazine) gives us Very Short Stories: We’ll be brief: Hemingway once wrote a story in just six words (“For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”) and is said to have called it his best work. So we asked sci-fi, fantasy, and horror writers from the realms of books, TV, movies, and games to take a shot themselves.

A sampling:

Gown removed carelessly. Head, less so.
– Joss Whedon

Longed for him. Got him. Shit.
– Margaret Atwood

Lie detector eyeglasses perfected: Civilization collapses.
– Richard Powers

October 28, 2006 5

Hitting it Big with FanFiction

Some diligent writers of fanfiction have landed book deals. They’ve been self-publishing on the Web and have been discovered by the big boys:

She writes about a group of young wizards attending the Hogwarts School. She has legions of readers throughout the world. Her name is Hannah Jones, and she’s 19 years old. […]

There’s a librarian in Rathdrum, Idaho, who spent 10 years posting her writings about a character from Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” online; Simon & Schuster paid her a $150,000 advance to publish the works as a three-novel trilogy. In Brooklyn, N.Y., a free-lance copy editor has become one of the Web’s best-known “Lord of the Rings” and “Harry Potter” fan-fiction writers, and has landed a three-book publishing deal for a young-adult fantasy series. When a comic-book store manager in New Jersey decided to take his first stab at fan fiction this year, entering a contest sponsored by Showtime’s “The L Word,” he got the attention of a literary agent, who signed him last month. And Ms. Jones will soon have her first book published.

This is from “Rewriting the Rules of Fiction,” an article in The Wall Street Journal this past weekend. I’d written off fanfiction, having characterized it in my head as often simply being slash scenarios, Captain Kirk and Spock getting it on or whatever, but maybe it’s time to reassess the playing field.

September 19, 2006 0

Publishing and Personality

While the names James Frey, Nasdijj, and JT LeRoy will surely go down as catchphrases for fabrication in the memoir genre, my growing fear is that those writers may only exist as the extreme cases among a generation (admittedly, my own generation) of writers who are tempted to dangerously and falsely exoticize their identities for the purpose of promoting themselves to agents and editors.

Here’s a good article on publishing and personality in Poets & Writers.

August 24, 2006 0