Writing Salon Mistress Muses

More Student News: Wednesday After Lunch, by Will Walker

Longtime Writing Salon student Will Walker now has a Kindle version of his book of poetry, Wednesday after Lunch. Will has taken many classes at the Writing Salon and has published in local journals, online at WriterAdvice and Spillway Review, and has also appeared in Alimentum and Passager and the Haight Ashbury literary journal. His book won the 2009 Blue Light Press Award.

I think it would be so cool to have your book on Kindle as well as in print, don't you? Of course, you can't see the book cover on Kindle, and since Will used one of MY photos on the cover (I am tooting my own horn here, too -- what the heck), I suppose I should be urging everyone to buy the more visually pleasing print version. :-)

More important, though, is the fact that Will is a great poet. He really is. He's not a big PR/Marketing kind of a guy, so I am saying it for him because I have been getting to know him -- and his work -- since the first day of the Writing Salon's existence. Yes, Will was a member of our VERY FIRST CLASS, EVER...twelve years ago, in January of 1999.

Yay Will! Bravo! You are now on Kindle!

You can see, read reviews about, and buy his book HERE.

More Student Publication News: Love InshAllah in the NYTimes!

Our San Francisco memoir teacher, Kathleen McClung, is great about passing on news to me from her past students.

However, I suspect that I hear about only a tiny portion of all the "student writing/publishing news" that is floating around out there. So, people, if you are a current or former WS student, please send me your announcements about any good news related to your writing. I would love to give you some applause and/or PR in this blog!

Here's the latest news from Kathleen, a note from one of her ex-students:

Dear Kathleen,

Hope you are doing well! Ayesha and I wanted to let you know that our book, Love InshAllah, was featured in the New York Times yesterday! Here's THE LINK.

Thank you again for all your help with our stories!

We've having a book reading on Thurs Feb 9th at 7:30pm at the Booksmith in the Haight--we hope you can make it!

Best,
Nura
___

Nura Maznavi

Love, InshAllah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women
Valentine's Day 2012 -- available for pre-order on Amazon!
www.loveinshallah.com

"A beautiful collection" - Reza Aslan, bestselling author of No god but God

Student Publication News: Pre-Valentine's Day Erotica & More

This publication announcement (at the bottom) just came in from a from a former Writing Salon student, Unity Barry. After I got it, I wrote to Unity to ask her what classes she had taken with us (I knew it had been several years ago, back when our SF classroom was located in the downstairs of my Bernal Heights cottage). Her reply:

It's been a long, slow process. But it was your classes that got me onto the right track. As for which ones I took, it has been a while, so I don't remember all of them. I took a couple of Junse Kim's classes, Martha Alderson's plot workshop, several of Linda Watanabe-McFerrin's classes and workshops, and Bradley Charbonneau's workshop on websites, As I scratch my head trying to remember, I know there are many more, but they don't come back to me right at the moment. . .  They were all at your old address on the south side of Bernal Heights. I haven't taken any at your new locations yet, but I do go through the course descriptions avidly everytime them come out.

Unity's Announcement:

If you are in the mood for a little pre Valentine's Day erotica, check out the piece I wrote titled, Dark Green Waters that just posted on the website, Hot Flashes, Sexy Little Stories. The address is: http://www.hotflashessexystories.com/ It's a scene I adapted from my still in progress, historical novel, A Luscious Illumination about Berthe Morisot, an unsung 19th century Parisienne painter who was a founder of the Impressionist art movement. I hope you enjoy it. For those who don't already know, my book was named a short listed finalist in last year's Faulkner Wisdom Writing Competition in the works-in-progress category.

Unity Barry

Author of A Luscious Illumination,

an historical novel about Berthe Morisot

 www.unitybarry.com

(415)648-0704

P.S. from Jane: Speaking of erotica, we have a one-day "Hanky Panky" pre-Valentine's Day workshop coming up on Feb. 11th!

Kudos to Writing Salon Students & Teachers!

Writing Salon students and teachers won awards in a variety of categories in the 2011 Soul-Making Literary Competition, sponsored by the National League of American Pen Women. The free Awards Reading will be in the Koret Auditorium of the San Francisco Main Library on March 25. The winners list on the website at www.soulmakingcontest.us includes the name and city of each award winner as well as the title of each winning piece.

• Sue Granzella: First Prize in Literary Nonfiction, Honorable Mention in Literary Nonfiction

• Frances Joe: Second Prize in Literary Nonfiction

• Kathleen McClung: Third Prize in Prose Poem, Honorable Mention in Literary Nonfiction

• Li Miao Lovett: Honorable Mentions in Flash Fiction and Literary Nonfiction

• Ellen Woods: Honorable Mention in Humor

• Theresa Lebeiko: Honorable Mention in Intercultural Essay

There might be other Writing Salon students or teachers among the prizewinners, but these are the ones we know about. Pretty impressive, don't you think?!

Oh, and btw, both Kathleen McClung (Intro to Memoir) and Li Miao Lovett (Moving from Nonfiction to Fiction) will be teaching in the upcoming session that starts Jan. 20th.

Poetry by WS Teachers David Rosenthal and Kathleen McClung

I'm pleased to announce that Writing Salon teachers David Rosenthal and Kathleen McClung both have work published in Issue 4.1 of Unsplendid, a beautiful online journal of poetry and art. You can visit www.unsplendid.com to savor their new poems and translations.

Essay Contest (deadline March 21st, 2012)

This just came in, so I'm passing it on to all of you:

Dear Jane,

I’m writing to tell you about an exciting Essay Contest which may interest the Writing Salons community.
 
I work with a great group of folks at Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland on the hospital's signature benefit called Notes & Words (www.notesandwords.org).  Notes & Words combines writers and musicians on stage together at The Fox Theater in Oakland for an evening of unique entertainment, and all proceeds benefit the hospital.  Last year Michael Lewis was our headliner, and you can see the highlight reel on our website.  The next concert will be held on April 28, 2012. 
 
Leading up to that date, Notes & Words is sponsoring an essay contest.  We are looking for short stories about the challenges of caring for a child (age 18 or younger), including medical issues (e.g., an accident, illness or diagnosis) or emotional crises (e.g., a death, divorce, breakdown) or one of any one of the more common parenting dramas (e.g., academic, social, athletic, epicurean).   We welcome both humorous and serious essays of up to 800 words.
 
The first prize winner will have one-on-one phone consultations with:

• A senior editor at Random House/Ballantine
• A top literary agent at ICM
• The Executive Editor of O Magazine

 
and introductions to:

• Michael Chabon, Pulitzer Prize winner
• Anne Lamott, New York Times bestselling author
• John Hodgman, The Daily Show and HBO’s Bored to Death
• Kelly Corrigan, New York Times bestselling author

           
Finalists will receive two tickets to Notes & Words performance and after-party on April 28, 2012 at The Fox Theater in Oakland.  The winner of the contest will be announced at the event.  All details and official rules are on our website: www.notesandwords.org

Journalist, Author Roger Rosenblatt Outlines His 4 Reasons to Write

Journalist, Author Roger Rosenblatt Outlines His 4 Reasons to Write | PBS NewsHour | Jan. 31, 2011 | PBS

I stumbled across a memoir written by this guy, Roger Rosenblatt, when I was looking for a good memoir to read in order to inspire (and teach) myself to write a memoir of my own.

I liked the snippet of his memoir that I read, which spurred me to google him, which led me to mentioning him to my writing partners (an informal group of five women, counting me, who share writing via email), which led to one of those writing partners sending me the link to this interview with Roger  (one of the benefits of cultivating relationships with other writers, btw).

Tell Your Story Walking (or Sitting or Lying Down!)

Every time I listen to this song, I feel re-inspired to tell my story, somehow, some way. Even if I don't yet know what my story is or how to go about telling it, "inspired" is a great way to feel. It helps!

Why kids (Me: people) need solitude - Salon.com

This Salon.com article may not seem, on the surface, to have anything to do with creative writing, but in my opinion it does. I often think and wonder about how our current high tech/social networking culture affects our ability to be creative. One of my recurring worries is that the generations raised from a young age on smart phones and iPads are sorely missing out on the part of life known as "solitude." I think that solitude is a crucial component of creativity (and of independent thinking, deep thinking, soul-searching and spiritual growth).

So...I enjoyed this article, particularly the ending...which I have included in the excerpt below:

On Teaching & Creativity/Self-Expression

Some words (about teaching and also about creativity) from visual artist Sam Winston -- I like what he says:

“I have been teaching for close to 10 years and as time goes by I am realising what I can and cannot do.  I certainly can’t change people – I can’t give people things they have never had and I can’t make ‘things better’. My ambitions of help, are lost in a sea of complexity way beyond my control.  I often find teaching endeavours blossoming into both beautiful and stupid fruits. One of the more ironic harvests of this pursuit is that it’s changed me far more than it’s changed anyone else.

Best poetry & fiction books of 2011 - Books - The Boston Globe

Best poetry books of 2011 - Books - The Boston Globe

Best fiction books of 2011 - Books - The Boston Globe

 

Writing class from hell - Salon.com

I found this piece amusing and interesting, which of course makes sense since I run an entire school that offers nothing but creative writing classes. It made me muse, again, on the difficulty of trying to please everyone all of the time. . . an impossible goal, of course.

All the people who come to our classes have different expectations and ideas about what a writing class should offer, how it should be constructed, what the teacher should or should not do or say or emphasize or de-emphasize. They also have different ideas about what a class should cost, what they think it should be worth, in dollars.

All I can say is: We, the teachers (and I, the administrator as well as a teacher), do the best we can in the face of all these varied expectations.

So anyway, on to the article, which is about a play that is all about writing classes, of all things!

“Seminar,” a play starring Alan Rickman as a preening, acid-tongued teacher running roughshod over a group of tender aspiring writers, opened a few weeks ago on Broadway. Reviews have prompted all the usual observations about the difficulty of dramatizing both writing and reading, activities so internally momentous yet so physically inert. Why, then, do people keep doing it? And do the depictions of writing classes in stage, film and television — from “Wonder Boys” to “Bored to Death” — bear any relationship to real life?

Read entire article here:

via www.salon.com

No Choice? Really?

More words of wisdom from Seth Godin:

"I had no choice, I just couldn't get out of bed."

"I had no choice, it was the best program I could get into."

"I had no choice, he told me to do it..."

Really?

It's probably more accurate to say, "the short-term benefit/satisfaction/risk avoidance was a lot higher than anything else, so I chose to do what I did."

Remarkable work often comes from making choices when everyone else feels as though there is no choice. Difficult choices involve painful sacrifices, advance planning or just plain guts.

Saying you have no choice cuts off all options, absolves responsibility and is the dream killer.

via sethgodin.typepad.com

I would add to Seth's list:

"I had no choice, I just didn't have time to do my writing class assignment."

"I had no choice, it was either buckle down and earn a living, or become homeless while trying to be a poet."

"I had no choice, I had to watch the next episode of Breaking Bad, and the thought of trying to write anything made me sick."

"I had no choice, I spent every cent on those new shoes; no way could I afford that one-day writing workshop."

Etcetera, etcetera. You get my drift.

Essay Contest

This just came in over the transom from: http://www.bookwish.org

Message   Essay Contest for Aspiring Writers -- Feb. 1, 2012 deadline

______________________________

Win a literary agent or acclaimed author's feedback on your unpublished manuscript for young adult or middle grade readers. This rare opportunity is being offered to the six winners of an essay contest recently announced by the literacy charity Book Wish Foundation. See http://bookwish.org/contest for full details.

You could win a manuscript critique from:

Laura Langlie, literary agent for Meg Cabot

Nancy Gallt, literary agent for Jeanne DuPrau

Brenda Bowen, literary agent and editor of Karen Hesse's Newbery Medal winner Out of the Dust

Ann M. Martin, winner of the Newbery Honor for A Corner of the Universe

Francisco X. Stork, winner of the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award for The Last Summer of the Death Warriors

Cynthia Voigt, winner of the Newbery Medal for Dicey's Song and the Newbery Honor for A Solitary Blue

A Bit of Inspiration for our Memoir Writers

This just in from one of our Memoir Class students:

I am a memoir student at Writing Salon with Kathleen McClung. My memoir essay "The Deal We Made" about my relationship with my mother was included in an anthology titled Wisdom Has A Voice, Every Daughter's Memory of Mother.

The knowledge, encouragement and feedback that I received from Kathleen not only helped me shape my work but also gave me the support to submit my writing for publication.

If you like you can learn more about this publication by visiting the website http://wisdomhasavoice.com/anthology
 
Marilyn J. Curry


Thanks for sending this to us, Marilyn! We love getting the lastest success stories from our students.