Genre: Creative Nonfiction

Procrasti-what?

The Time Is Now
7.5.18

What do you do to put off important tasks? The social media hashtag #procrastibaking pulls up thousands of posts of goods baked while more pressing matters may have been at hand. Some procrastibakers claim that it’s part of the creative process and can help overcome writer’s block, that the sensory experience and rhythms of following a recipe’s steps can be conducive to warming up to a creative task. Write a personal essay about your own go-to procrastination method. How does your procrastination activity help or hinder your work? Does it do more than satisfy a desire to feel good and enjoy the present while postponing something else?

Breaking a Habit

The Time Is Now
6.28.18

Scientists published a study in Science magazine earlier this month observing that animals have been sleeping more during the day and increasing nocturnal habits in order to avoid interacting with humans who have steadily encroached upon their habitats and territories. Write a personal essay about a time when you felt the need to change a longstanding routine or habit. Was there a pivotal moment that motivated you to make the change or was it more gradual? How has your own flexibility or adaptability changed over the years? 

Thirii Myo Kyaw Myint Wins Graywolf Nonfiction Prize

G&A: The Contest Blog
6.27.18

Thirii Myo Kyaw Myint has won the 2018 Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize for her manuscript, Zat Lun. She will receive $12,000 and publication by Graywolf Press.

Of Zat Lun, Graywolf Press editor Steve Woodward said, “Myint’s hybrid approach and incorporation of myth and oral traditions overturn expectations around immigrant narratives, and add layers to her parallel investigations of both her family history and that of Myanmar. The whole team at Graywolf is delighted to see this truly original and bold manuscript join the ranks of the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize winners.”

Myint is the author of the lyric novel, The End of Peril, the End of Enmity, the End of Strive, A Haven (Noemi Press, 2018). She is completing a PhD in creative writing at the University of Denver.

The Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize is given biennially for a manuscript-in-progress by a writer not yet established in the genre. Esmé Weijun Wang won the 2016 award for her essay collection, The Collected Schizophrenias, which will be published in February 2019. Other previous winners include Leslie Jamison, Eula Biss, and Kevin Young. Visit the website for more information.

(Photo: Thirii Myo Kyaw Myint; Credit: Dennis Shyu)

Childhood Pleasures

The Time Is Now
6.21.18

What were your favorite books to read for pleasure as a child? In the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, Christine Ro reports on Alvin Irby’s nonprofit organization Barbershop Books, whose programming creates reading spaces in barbershops to encourage young children to engage with literature. Through the program, Irby hopes to focus on “building boys’ motivation to read and helping them form a self-image as readers.” Write a personal essay about your most treasured and favorite book to read from your youth. What elements of the book resonated with you and encouraged you to take pride in identifying as a reader?

Rachel Cusk

Caption: 

“I wanted writing to be something that involved relationships with other people.” Rachel Cusk talks about her experience teaching creative writing at Kingston University in London. Cusk’s novel Kudos (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018), which is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, is the third volume in the trilogy that began with Outline (Picador, 2016).

Genre: 
Fiction
Creative Nonfiction
Tags: 
Rachel Cusk
Kudos
2018
Outline
2016
Page One
July/August 2018
Kingston University
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Picador

Parenthood

The Time Is Now
6.14.18

Sheila Heti’s novel Motherhood (Henry Holt, 2018) follows an unnamed protagonist as she has conversations, internal and external, about whether to have children. The novel asks questions about what it means to be or not be a mother, and what it means for artists seeking to balance their creative lives with their personal lives. This week, write an essay based on conversations you’ve had with friends or family about parenthood. Reflect on your own, or someone else’s, thoughts and experiences with the struggle to balance the role of parent with the rest of one’s identity. Use the essay to explore what beliefs or attitudes these observations stir in you. 

First Book Prize for Women and Nonbinary Writers of Color

G&A: The Contest Blog
6.13.18

Submissions are currently open for the 2019 Louise Meriwether First Book Prize. An award of $5,000 and publication by the Feminist Press is given annually for a debut book of fiction or nonfiction by a woman or nonbinary writer of color. 

Submit a story collection, novel, memoir, biography, or manifesto of 30,000 to 80,000 words via e-mail by June 30. There is no entry fee. Visit the website for complete guidelines. The winner will be announced in February 2019, and the winning collection will be published in Spring 2020.

Established in 2016, the prize honors author Louise Meriwether, whose 1970 novel, Daddy Was a Number Runner, was one of the first contemporary American novels to feature a young black girl as its protagonist.

The inaugural prize was awarded to writer YZ Chin in 2017 for her story collection, Though I Get Home. The 2018 prize was awarded to Claudia D. Hernández for her nonfiction fusion of poetry and narrative essay, Knitting The Fog (April 2019).

Donald Hall

Caption: 

In an interview with Web of Stories, poet and memoirist Donald Hall recounts his first meeting with T. S. Eliot. Hall is the author of the memoir A Carnival of Losses: Notes Nearing Ninety (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018), which is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Genre: 
Poetry
Creative Nonfiction
Tags: 
Donald Hall
A Carnival of Losses
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
2018
memoir
Page One
July/August 2018
in memoriam

Pages

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