SewaneeLetters.com

This one is a pretty big deal.  The Faulkner-Wisdom Competition, sponsored by The Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society of New Orleans, sponsors an annual competition that includes prizes for novel ($7,500 prize), novella ($2,500 prize), novel in progress ($2,000), short story ($1,500), Essay ($1,000), poetry ($750), and story by a high school student ($750).  The winners will accept their prizes in person at the “Faulkner for All” literary gala in New Orleans in November.  The deadline for an entry is May 1 (recently extended from April 1); rules and guidelines are so extensive that I’ll just refer you to the competition’s web site rather than attempt to summarize them. Some of us (actually all of us, given the range of genres represented) should think about entering this competition.  I believe Mary Ann O’Gorman was a semifinalist in the short story category a couple of years ago; this could be our year.

The poets among us should consider entering the Chapbook Contest sponsored each year by Split Oak Press, an independent press led by James Stafford of Ithaca College. The winner of the contest, judged by poet and novelist John Smelcer, will receive $500, publication, and 20 copies of the published chapbook.

To enter, send an unpublished manuscript, 26-30 ages, a short cover letter, and a check for $15 made out to Split Oak Press, to the press at PO Box 700, Vestal, NY 13851. Include an address, phone number, and email address in your cover letter, but do not identify yourself in any way on the manuscript itself. The deadline for submission is June 15, 2010 (postmark), and the winner will be announced August 5.

Congratulations are due to Kirsten, who has been invited to read from her fiction at a Manhattan bookstore. The time is Wednesday, March 24, at 7 p.m.; the store is Bluestockings, “a bookstore, fair-trade cafe, and activist center in the Lower East Side” according to its web site (http://bluestockings.com/).  The reading is sponsored by the journal Calyx (http://www.proaxis.com/~calyx/journal.html) and features three writers who have appeared in its pages.  Kirsten will be reading from her story “What to Do When Your Best Friend Commits Suicide.”

Kirsten informs me that though she owns some actual blue stockings, she will not be wearing them for this occasion (”that would be pandering”), and adds that “although as you know I am more comfortable than most with humiliating myself publicly,” she’s a little nervous about it.  What we actually know is that she’ll be great; we’re right proud of her, as my grandmother would have said.

Wow! Exciting news from Brendan Minihan…

I will be immodest for a moment and share some exciting news on my end: my non-fiction story, “The Will to Prepare,” which I work-shopped in John Sullivan’s class this past summer, was recently published in the April issue of Running Times Magazine, out on shelves now. A longer version of the story will be posted on their website, under the High school link, soon. I would love for my non-fiction classmates to hear that their collaborative work paid off.

Brendan’s finishing his thesis and planning to graduate in May. Let’s hope he brings the family to visit this summer so we can congratulate him in person!

REAL: Regarding Arts & Letters, a journal published at Stephen F. Austin University in Texas, announces a literary contest for students in creative writing programs.  The Larry D. Thomas Prize for Poetry and the William J. Stuckey Memorial Prize for Fiction both bring a $500 prize and publication.  For complete guidelines visit the magazine’s web site.

Andrew’s new book, American Rendering: New and Selected Poems, has been published by Houghton Mifflin. I heard him read some of the “New” poems a few months ago and found them stunning.  The “Selected” older poems will be familiar to many of us.

We’ve just received this request from the new Tomfoolery Review, a journal which sounds right down our alley:

Hello,

We are members of a literary journal course at the University of Mary Washington instructed by the 2006 Pulitzer Prize winner of poetry Claudia Emerson.  We are currently in the process of producing a professional online literary journal, and we have selected humor as our focus.  Inherent to the assignment is a need for submissions which at the moment is our most onerous task.   We discovered that your creative writing program holds prestige and attracts many talented writers.  We would greatly appreciate any and all assistance in our search for attaining submissions.

We’re invited to inspect the Tomfoolery web site, still under construction and possibly not as tomfoolish as it will be when complete, for more information.  Claudia Emerson is a frequent member of the Sewanee Writers’ Conference faculty, a good writer, a nice person.  Think about helping her and her students by sending your tomfoolery in her direction (but please save some for the S.O.L. blog!).

Submissions may be emailed to submissions@tomfooleryreview.com

Graham Osteen contacted me to share this review…

Where is Jenn Lewin?
Here’s a review of Robert Alter’s new book…..if you don’t know who Robert Alter is, you have not studied “The Bible As Literature” at the Sewanee School of Letters. But don’t worry. Jesus forgives you. He was a powerful rebel. Hope everyone is doing well

(T-shirt from Out of Print. found by Kristen.)

I have a growing stack of half-read books on my nightstand. Can anyone recommend a book I will actually finish? What are y’all reading these days?

April Alvarez just alerted me to the sad news that Barry Hannah has passed away at the age of 67. This photo comes from a great recent profile of Mr. Hannah in Garden & Gun magazine. Here’s a quote:

His departure from Dixie’s literary main is not accidental, Hannah said, but grows from a violent allergy to the antebellum banalities that can plague the Southern mode.

I have been working through the stories in “Airships” since I visited Oxford last fall. Reading them before bed stirs up the weirdest dreams. I’m sad that I didn’t have the chance to pay him that compliment in person.