Genre: Creative Nonfiction

Iowa Review Introduces Contest for Veterans

G&A: The Contest Blog
4.9.12

In partnership with the family of a Vietnam veteran known for his antiwar writing and activism, Iowa Review has launched a multigenre writing contest open to U.S. military veterans and active duty personnel. The Jeff Sharlet Memorial Award competition, which offers one thousand dollars and publication in Iowa Review, is accepting entries of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction on any subject.

Pulitzer Prize winner and Vietnam veteran Robert Olen Butler will select the winning work from a pool chosen by the journal's editors (all finalists will be considered for publication). Butler, much of whose work is informed by his experiences in the U.S. military, served in Vietnam as an intelligence agent and a translator. He is the author of twelve novels, most recently A Small Hotel (Grove Press, 2011), six short story collections, and a nonfiction book on craft, From Where You Dream: The Process of Writing Fiction (Grove Press, 2005).

Writers may submit their work with a fifteen-dollar entry fee via Submittable or postal mail (an extra ten dollars gets entrants a yearlong subscription to the magazine). The deadline is June 15. Visit the Iowa Review website for complete guidelines.

In the video below, Butler discusses how his time in the military led the former playwright to fiction, and how his experiences in Vietnam have shaped his work.

North Carolina Writers’ Network Spring Conference

The 2022 North Carolina Writers’ Network Spring Conference was held on April 23, both in person at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro and online. The conference featured classes in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction, as well as conversations on the craft and business of writing. The faculty included poets Charmaine Cadeau, Stuart Dischell, and Laura Mullen; fiction writers Caleb Johnson, Derek Palacio, and Maegan Poland; and creative nonfiction writers Belle Boggs, Rachel Priest, and Julia Ridley Smith.

Type: 
CONFERENCE
Ignore Event Date Field?: 
yes
Event Date: 
December 19, 2024
Rolling Admissions: 
ignore
Application Deadline: 
December 19, 2024
Financial Aid?: 
no
Financial Aid Application Deadline: 
December 19, 2024
Free Admission: 
no
Contact Information: 

North Carolina Writers’ Network Spring Conference, P.O. Box 21591, Winston-Salem, NC 27120. (336) 293-8844. Ed Southern, Executive Director.  

Ed Southern
Executive Director
Contact City: 
Greensboro
Contact State: 
NC
Country: 
US
Genre: 
Poetry
Fiction
Creative Nonfiction

Hierarchy of Regret

The Time Is Now
4.4.12

Think about big and small regrets you have in your life—things you wish you had done, people you wish you had treated better, directions you wish you'd gone. Draw a chart that represents a hierarchy of your regrets. It can be simple or decorative, straightforward or complex. Then write an essay that explores what you see when you look at it.

Find the Unfamiliar

The Time Is Now
4.3.12

Take a walk that you know well—through your neighborhood, around the block where you work, or your route to the train or bus. Study this familiar landscape carefully, and try to find a detail that you hadn’t noticed before—a piece of graffiti, a certain row of trees, the pattern in which the sidewalk is cracked. Write about this new observation, small as it may be, starting with physical description and then allowing your thoughts to wander.

Beyond Baroque Literary | Arts Center

Indie Bookstore, Reading Venue, Writing Center

Beyond Baroque is one of the United States’ leading independent literary arts centers and public spaces dedicated to expanding the public’s knowledge of poetry, literature, and art through cultural events and community interaction. Founded in 1968 as an experimental literary magazine, Beyond Baroque is based out of the original City Hall building in Venice, California. The Center offers a diverse variety of literary and arts programming including readings and workshops.

Memory and Place

The Time Is Now
3.28.12

Like fiction, good nonfiction narratives are often driven by description of place. Think of a place that you know well—your kitchen, your office, or a spot you often visit—and, from memory, write a passage that describes that place. Focus on the physical characteristics of the space, leaving out any emotion that may be connected to it, and be as descriptive and detailed as possible. The next time you’re there, read your description and see how accurately your memory served you. Take note of the details you may have missed. 

Blue Willow Bookshop

Indie Bookstore, Reading Venue

Opened in 1996, Blue Willow Bookshop is an independent bookseller and gift shop. The store offers a wide selection of books for adults and children, along with puzzles, games, and gifts. Blue Willow also hosts regular literary events, book club meetings, and story time readings for children.

Tags: 
bookstores

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