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Described as “a lamentation aimed at providing clarity,” Bad Stories: What the Hell Just Happened to Our Country is Steve Almond's effort to make sense of our historical moment using literary voices, including Melville, Orwell, Bradbury, and Baldwin.
Dionisia Morales on five journals that published essays from her debut collection, Homing Instincts.
American Library Association announces winners of Newbery and Caldecott Medals; controversy over Francisco Cantú’s memoir; Washington Post launches best-seller list that accounts for Amazon data; and other news.
Romance audiobook actors on the challenges of the job; class politics of the U.K. publishing industry; original book jackets of fifty risqué literary texts; and other news.
Penguin Random House launches young adult imprint for diverse books; novelist Rumaan Alam joins New York Times Books desk; the poet behind the Coca-Cola Super Bowl commercial; and other news.
Avid Bookshop is a locally-owned, Athens, Georgia-based business. The shop regularly holds events such as readings and book signings, kids’ story times, poetry nights, workshops with authors, and more.
Avenue 50 Studio is a nonprofit arts presentation organization grounded in Chicano and Latino culture, visual arts, and the Northeast Los Angeles community that seeks to bridge cultures through artistic expression, using content-driven art to educate and stimulate intercultural understanding. Their programming includes art exhibitions, art workshops, lectures, poetry and readings, as well as hosting annual events such as Dia de los Muertos.
NEA announces $25 million in grants to nonprofit arts organizations; Jesmyn Ward signs a two-book deal with Simon & Schuster; Edmund White and Edna O’Brien win PEN awards in lifetime achievement; and other news.
In his memoir Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time (Random House, 2007), Rob Sheffield centers each chapter around a mix tape from his own life and uses the songs to narrate and explore the love and loss of his wife. This week, try assembling a mix tape of your own. Write down the names of songs that were important to you at a particular time in your life, and build outwards from there to begin an essay. Reflect on that moment when you first heard these songs: Was it on the radio in a car, or on your headphones, or did someone share them with you? Is it the music or the lyrics that stay with you?
Submissions are now open for the third annual Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant. Individual awards of $40,000 are given to up to eight writers in the process of completing a book of creative nonfiction.
Creative nonfiction writers currently under contract with a U.S. publisher and at least two years into their contract are eligible. Writers of color are particularly encouraged to apply. Accepted book categories include history, cultural or political reportage, biography, memoir, the sciences, philosophy, criticism, food writing, travel writing, and personal essays, among others.
Using the online submission system, submit up to three chapters of a manuscript-in-progress, the original book proposal, a signed and dated contract, a statement of progress, a résumé, a letter of reference from the publisher, and two additional letters of reference by May 2. A panel of four anonymous judges will select the winners from a list of fifteen finalists; the grantees will be announced in the fall.
Established in 2015, the Whiting Foundation Creative Nonfiction Grant provides support for multiyear book projects that require large amounts of research. The Whiting Foundation created the grant to “foster original, ambitious projects that bring writing to the highest possible standard.”
Previous recipients include Sarah M. Broom for The Yellow House, forthcoming from Grove Press; Pacifique Irankunda for The Times of Stories, forthcoming from Random House; and Julie Phillips for The Baby on the Fire Escape, forthcoming from W.W. Norton. Visit the website for a full list of previous grantees and complete application guidelines.
