Posts tagged ‘collection’
Recent March Publications: Two Must-Read Short Story Collections
For perhaps the last decade, readers and writers alike have worried that the short story form is slowly dying, and yet each year, publishers around the world continue to produce and distribute some marvelous collections of the best, most poignant contemporary fiction. So help us publishers and avid readers keep the short story form alive, and look into these two must-read collections for March.
Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned
By Tower Wells
Format: Hardcover
Price: $17.00 (Amazon)
Available Now
From Macmillan
Viking marauders descend on a much-plundered island, hoping some mayhem will shake off the winter blahs. A man is booted out of his home after his wife discovers that the print of a bare foot on the inside of his windshield doesn’t match her own. Teenage cousins, drugged by summer, meet with a reckoning in the woods. A boy runs off to the carnival after his stepfather bites him in a brawl.
PREVIEW EVERYTHING RAVAGED, EVERYTHING BURNED
In the stories of Wells Tower, families fall apart and messily try to reassemble themselves. His version of America is touched with the seamy splendor of the dropout, the misfit: failed inventors, boozy dreamers, hapless fathers, wayward sons. Combining electric prose with savage wit, Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned is a major debut, announcing a voice we have not heard before.
Read the rave review at EverythingRavaged.com>>
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Dear Husband
By Joyce Carol Oates
Format: Hardcover
Price: $19.00 (preorder)
Forthcoming March 30th
From Publishers Weekly
The family ties that bind (and choke) are the overarching theme of Oates’s grim but incisive collection. The title story takes the form of a rambling letter from an Andrea Yates-like mother after her infanticide is completed, detailing her belief that God has instructed her to drown her five little children who have “not turned out right.” “A Princeton Idyll” gives us a series of letters between a chipper children’s author, granddaughter of a famous physicist, now deceased, and his sometimes sentimental, sometimes-bitter former maid; the result, in true Oatesian fashion, is dark family secrets and a good deal of denial. In “Vigilante” a son, struggling with his recovery from substance abuse, helps his unknowing mom by exacting revenge on his estranged dad. “Special” is told from the perspective of an elementary-school girl who moves toward desperate action watching her autistic older sister strain her parents’ marriage and, worse, garner all their attention. Throughout the collection, Oates seamlessly enters the minds of disparate characters to find both the exalted and depraved aspects of real American families.
Read the HarperCollins review of Dear Husband>>
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Excited about a recent or forthcoming collection? Submit the title, author and any other relevant information, along with your personal thoughts on the book as a comment here, so everyone can buy copies and keep the short story form alive for years to come.
Runner-Up Winner of Wordclay Short Story Collection Contest Published: Growing Up Girl Now Available
Announcing the release of Anne Greenawalt’s Short Story Collection, Growing Up Girl, published by Wordclay. Greenawalt was selected as the Runner-Up in Wordclay’s previous Short Fiction Collection Contest, and as a result, her amazing book is finally able to reach millions of readers around the world.
Who is Anne Greenawalt?
Greenawalt is a writer, a feminist, a swimmer and a Buddhist (not always in that order). She was pleasantly surprised when she received notification that she’d won Runner-up Prize in the Short Story Collection contest.
“I can’t even describe how excited I was when I opened the e-mail,” said Greenawalt. “I had to read it about 10 times to make sure I wasn’t mistaken.”
Greenawalt was born and raised in Mechanicsburg, PA, where she currently lives. In 2006, she earned a Bachelor of Arts in creative writing and women’s studies from Hamilton College. Then, in 2007, she graduated with a Master of Arts in creative writing from the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England.
What is Growing Up Girl?
Underage tattoos. Pagan ceremonies. Electric blue underwear. Food fetishes. Skewed truths and compulsive liars. Statues of Artemis and shields of Medusa. Pancake parties and spaghetti dinners. Need we say more?
Title: Growing Up Girl
Author: Anne Greenawalt
ISBN: 9781604812336
Price: $12.50, plus shipping
Purchase Greenawalt’s winning collection Growing Up Girl>>
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Current ASI Contest:
Don’t forget, ASI’s new publishing imprint Words of Belief is now calling for submissions to its Holiday Story Writing Contest. Details include:
» SUBMIT STORIES ABOUT THANKSGIVING, CHRISTMAS OR HOLIDAYS
» E-MAIL UP TO THREE SUBMISSIONS WITH COVER LETTER
» CHANCE TO WIN $500.00
» FREE TO SUBMIT ENTRIES FOR CONSIDERATION BY JUDGES
» ACCEPTING FICTION, NONFICTION & OTHER STORIES
The Results Are Here: Wordclay Announces Short Story Contest Winners
After an extremely difficult selection process, our judges have convened, argued, read, reread, brewed coffee, read some more, and finally made their decisions.
Now, please join me in congratulating Wordclay’s Short Story Contest Winners!
…in the category of the Wordclay Single Short Story Contest
The Grand Prize goes to Samantha Weiss for the story, “Simulated in Black and White.”
The Runner-Up Prize goes to Benjamin Solomon for his story, “This Is Called Prowess.”
For a complete list of Finalists, you can now visit Wordclay’s Contest Connection or jump directly to the listed winners here.
All the Finalists, along with Weiss and Solomon, will be featured in the upcoming Wordclay short story anthology, titled Best Modern Voices: Words for the New Millennium: A Short Fiction Anthology.
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…and in the category of the Wordclay Short Story Colection Contest
The Grand Prize goes to Patricia Coble for her collection titled Legogote: Tales from the Bottom Township.
The Runner Up Prize goes to Anne Greenawalt for her collection titled Growing Up Girl.
Both Coble and Greenawalt’s books should be available within the next few weeks, so keep an eye out for them at the Wordclay Bookstore.
Kudos to the winners and everyone who entered! If you weren’t selected this time around, you should definitely consider entering one of our upcoming contests (guidelines pending on Contest Connection).
This is Justin, blogcasting from Wordclay, signing off.
Short Story Contest Announcement Delay: Two Weeks & Counting Down
Due to the amount of submissions within both Wordclay’s Single Short Story and Short Story Collection contests, announcements of the winners will be delayed for approximately two weeks.
In order to ensure every entry is read carefully and given serious consideration, our judges need just a little more time. We know you’re waiting with bated breath, and we apologize for making all you participants wait longer, but unfortunately, it’s necessary.
Take it from me – reading more than 2,000 single submissions and a hundred complete story collections, written by authors all over the world, is no easy task. Our judges are definitely burning the midnight oil, and as soon as we have the winners and finalists selected, we’ll update our Web site and blog immediately. All those who entered should also receive an e-mail alert as soon as the winning spreadsheet arrives in my Inbox.
Check back in two weeks for a contest update and links to the complete list of finalists within Wordclay’s Contest Connection.
Thanks again for your patience, and feel free to ask questions (or simply vent) with comments below.
This is Justin, blogcasting from Wordclay, signing off.
Enjoy the Fruits of Wordclay’s Writing Contests: Grand Prize-Winning Poetry Collection Now Available
It’s official: Brenda Mirsky’s winning poetry collection, Spare Parts is now available. If you’re a reader of poetry, or maybe you’ve been meaning to start, here’s your chance to enjoy this superb collection.
Most of the poems are based on real incidents in Mirsky’s life. “Writing poetry helps me get things in perspective,” Mirsky says. “And it’s way less expensive than therapy!”
Here’s a description of Spare Parts from Wordclay’s Bookstore:
Brenda Mirsky’s Spare Parts opens logically with the poem, ‘On the Day I Was Born’ and follows in the earthy footsteps of Mary Oliver with the sharp narrative focus of Robert Wrigley or Billy Collins. In the title poem ‘Spare Parts,’ the story of losing a father is interwoven with the coming and going of the television repairman, reminding us how quickly life can change and how we can be reminded of this passing at the oddest times. Mirsky has written a personal, thought-provoking collection of poems.
After we posted an interview with Mirsky back in April, Mirsky’s husband, Stuart, provided a comment and excellent description of her writing talent: “Ginsberg and (more…)
Wordclay Interviews Poet Jamie Crawford, Grand Prize Winner of the Single Poem Contest
Calling all writers… Calling all writers…
Come in writers!
Jenn’s blog has been interrupted this afternoon to bring you some breaking news.
For the first time in history, Jamie Crawford, Grand Prize winner of Wordclay’s Single Poem Contest, has agreed to answer our Interview questions.
Blogger Justin Dimos is on the literary scene and reports:
Justin: How did you feel entering the contest?
Jamie: I felt a bit apprehensive because I’d never participated in a national writing competition before and realized this would mean a higher caliber of writing would be considered.
Justin: How did you react when you found out that you had won?
Jamie: I didn’t process it. I thought maybe a mistake had been made. Finally, though, I realized that I had legitimately won the single poem contest. It was an exhilarating and uplifting feeling to be recognized in this way.
Justin: What did you know about Wordclay before you entered the contest?
(more…)
What’s Happening with Wordclay? A Behind the Scenes Exposé of the Newest Online Self-Publishing Company
For those of you who haven’t been able to keep up with the seemingly organized chaos happening at Wordclay, you’re not alone. So, I thought that I would play devil’s advocate this afternoon, give our readers some casual notes and frank advice about the new Wordclay features and, hopefully, clear up any short circuits from which you may be suffering.
Up Next, This Sunday on Another 60 Minutes: What’s happening with Wordclay?
Investigative Wordclay reporter Justin Dimos give details:
Last Thursday, our judges chose the 100 Finalist and Winners of both the Single Poem and the Book of Poetry contests. Luckily, Angie and I were prepared to launch the Wordclay Writing Contest Connection, which is a place where visitors can read poetry by the winners, see the list of Finalists and (eventually) read about our new contest. Angie and I are still tweaking the Web site, but for the most part, it’s running smoothly. In the next few weeks, you should expect to see biographical information (and collection covers) from the winners as well as details on the upcoming Single Short Story and the Short Story Collection contests.
Our team also managed to launch the new Genre Lounge. “Genre what?” you may ask, and I may answer: The Genre Lounge is a place where writers and authors can frequent for genre-specific templates, marketing advice and publishing articles. We currently have Poetry, Christian and Short Stories available, but don’t worry, we constantly adding new genres. In fact, I’m currently writing Memoir for the next Genre Spot. You can make a suggestion for a new genre by e-mailing Wordclay’s customer support or by posting a comment on this blog.
