Regis University
MFA Program
Poetry, Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Cross-Genre
Denver, CO
Application Deadline:
Fri, 11/01/2024
Application Fee:
$50
Genre: Creative Nonfiction
WORD Jersey City
WORD has two bookstores, one in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and one in Jersey City. Established in 2013, the Jersey City location has an inventory of current and past favorites from all genres and categories as well as a café serving coffee and treats. They host a full calendar of events each month, from provocative and thoughtful to flat-out fun.
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Maggie O’Farrell
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“Everything you live through changes you, inevitably, and I think as you change, your writing changes.” Maggie O’Farrell speaks about receiving Specsavers Bestseller Awards for four of her novels, including The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2007), and how she has evolved as a writer. O’Farrell’s debut memoir, I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes With Death (Knopf, 2018), is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
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Search Among the Birds
Mary Ruefle’s essay “My Search Among the Birds” takes the form of short diary entries, all relating to birds. The entries each begin with a date and range from simple descriptions (“I saw a bird in the bushes near Dairy Queen. It looked thin to me.”) to more inward reflections (“Although all poets aspire to be birds, no bird aspires to be a poet.”). This week, try taking daily notes on a specific subject that will allow you to observe and be introspective. It could be anything: cellphones, airplanes, mice, socks. See where this act of sustained attention leads you, and craft your entries into an essay.
PEN Announces 2018 Award Winners
Last night PEN America announced the winners of its 2018 Literary Awards. The annual awards, which this year totaled more than $350,000, are given for books of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and translation published in the previous year. Below are the winners of a select few prizes.
Layli Long Soldier won the $75,000 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award for her debut poetry collection, WHEREAS (Graywolf Press). The award is given for a book of any genre for its “originality, merit, and impact.”
Jenny Zhang won the $25,000 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction for her story collection, Sour Heart (Lenny). The prize is given for a first novel or story collection. Mia Alvar, Rion Amilcar Scott, Justin Torres, and Claire Vaye Watkins judged.
Alexis Okeowo won the PEN Open Book Award for her nonfiction book, A Moonless, Starless Sky: Ordinary Women and Men Fighting Extremism in Africa (Hachette). The award is given for book of any genre by a writer of color. Eduardo C. Corral, Kaitlyn Greenidge, and Amy Quan Barry judged.
Len Rix won the PEN Translation Prize for his translation from the Hungarian of Magda Szabó’s novel Katalin Street (NYRB Classics). The prize is given for a book-length translation of prose from any language into English. Eric M. B. Becker, Lisa Hayden, Jenny Wang Medina, Denise Newman, and Lara Vergnaud judged.
The late Ursula K. Le Guin won the $10,000 Pen/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay for her essay collection No Time to Spare: Thinking About What Matters (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). Vinson Cunningham, James Fallows, and Gillian Tett judged.
Edmund White received the PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction, and Edna O’Brien received the PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature. Both awards are given for a body of work.
Visit the PEN website for a complete list of winners and finalists.
Photos: Layli Long Soldier, Jenny Zhang, Alexis Okeowo
Craft Capsule: Hundreds of Eyes
Dan Beachy-Quick imagines the poem as a peacock with tail outspread, and the phosphorescent circle on each feather an actual eye. The poem lets us see through every eye.
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Upcoming Prose Deadlines
Prose writers! There’s no time like the present to submit your best short stories, essay collections, and novel manuscripts to the following contests with deadlines of February 28 and March 1. The contests all offer publication and cash prizes ranging from $1,000 to $10,000. Good luck!
Deadline: February 28
Glimmer Train Press Short Story Award for New Writers: A prize of $2,500, publication in Glimmer Train Stories, and 20 author copies is given three times a year for a short story by a writer whose fiction has not appeared in a print publication with a circulation over 5,000. Entry fee: $18
Fish Publishing Flash Fiction Prize: A prize of €1,000 (approximately $1,240) and publication in the Fish Publishing anthology is given annually for a short short story. Sherrie Flick will judge. Entry fee: $17
Red Hen Press Women’s Prose Prize: A prize of $1,000 and publication by Red Hen Press is given annually for a book of fiction or nonfiction by a woman. Lidia Yuknavitch will judge. Entry fee: $25
Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing: A prize of $10,000 and publication by Restless Books is given in alternating years for a debut book of fiction or nonfiction by a first-generation immigrant. The 2018 prize will be given in fiction. Writers who have not published a book of fiction with a U.S. publisher are eligible. No entry fee.
Deadline: March 1
Mad Creek Books Journal Non/Fiction Collection Prize: A prize of $1,500 and publication by Mad Creek Books, the trade imprint of Ohio State University Press, is given annually for a collection of short prose. Michelle Herman will judge. Entry fee: $25
Selected Shorts Stella Kupferberg Memorial Short Story Prize: A prize of $1,000 and tuition for a 10-week writing class through New York City’s Gotham Writers Workshop is given annually for a short story. The winning work will be published in Electric Literature and recorded live at a Selected Shorts performance at Symphony Space in New York City in June. Jess Walter will judge. Entry fee: $25
Hidden River Arts Tuscarora Award in Historical Fiction: A prize of $1,000 and publication by Hidden River Press will be given annually for a book of historical fiction. Entry fee: $22
Visit the contest websites for complete guidelines, and check out our Grants & Awards database and Submission Calendar for more upcoming contests in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction.
A Place for Every Book
Adam Sternbergh’s essay “Transportive Reading for Underground Transportation” in the New York Times discusses the concept of the “subway read” as a book that seems especially suitable for reading on a subway train, in the vein of “beach reads,” “airplane reads,” or “cabin reads.” Write a personal essay about the ideal setting for your own writing to be read. Where do you want to take a reader emotionally or mentally, and what might be a desirable physical environment for that interplay? Perhaps it’s a space that aligns comfortably with elements of your writing, or one that provides striking contrasts.
Francisco Cantú
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In this video, Francisco Cantú reads from his debut memoir, The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches From the Border (Riverhead Books, 2018), which is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, for an event showcasing the 2017 Whiting Award winners.
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Literary Love, Knausgaard’s Road Trip Through Russia, and More
Children’s publishing industry reckons with sexual harassment; Audre Lorde’s poetry of self-care; a call to protect the National Endowment for the Arts; and other news.
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