Call for entries: Park County Library Foundation Flash Fiction Contest

Patricia Stuart in Powell announces this: Flash Fiction Contest! Do you have an original short story under 500 words or care to write one? $100 prize is the offer. This is part of the Park County Library Foundation's Winter Gathering Bookfair on Jan. 19, 2013. Get full contest details here. 

Saturday workshop at Laramie County Library outlines steps to getting your novel published

Local writers are staging a one-day conference "designed to help you navigate the next steps toward the publication of your novel." It will be held on Saturday, Nov. 10, 10:15 a.m.-5 p.m. at the Laramie County Public Library, 2200 Pioneer Ave., Cheyenne.

Presenters include Mary Gillgannon, who writes historical novels as well as Celtic and Regency romances; Liz Roadifer, mystery and sci-fi fantasy novelist; Amanda Cabot, author of Christian romances; teen novelist and library board member Tina Ann Forkner; "Saucy Lucy" series mystery novelist Cindy Keen Reynders; and memoirist and sci-fi writer Marjie Smith.

The workshop is free. The day includes a lunch-hour book signing, with a portion of the proceeds benefiting the Laramie County Library Foundation. You can brown-bag it, or get a delicious lunch at the library cafe. 

FMI: 307-634-3561.

Bring your songs, stories and poems to open mic night March 28 at Laramie County Public Library

C.J. Box will debut new Joe Pickett novel at French festival

Best-selling Cheyenne novelist C.J. Box has launched his novels in all kinds of exotic places: Cheyenne, Casper, Elk Mountain, Laramie.

This time, C.J. will travel overseas to debut “Force of Nature” at the Quais du Polar in Lyon, France. He’ll be talking about his work and reading from the new Joe Pickett novel at noon on Friday, March 30. The author will stick around the festival until April 1 to talk livres with conference attendees.

After France, C.J. will return to the West for gigs in California, Colorado, Wyoming and Arkansas. Keep up with C.J.’s travels at http://www.cjbox.net/appearances

New Joe Pickett novel from C.J. Box to be released March 20

New Joe Pickett novel from Cheyenne's C.J. Box. More info at www.cjbox.net

South Dakota novelist Kent Myers speaks at WWCC in Rock Springs Feb. 3

Call for entries: Open Window literary magazine, issue two

Lori Howe posted this on Facebook:


Open Window is now calling for submissions for Issue 2, which is due out in late April/early May. Our call for this issue is longer than on Issue 1, thankfully. Please send:
up to three poems, unless they are epic-length;
up to 10 pages of fiction or non-fiction;
attachments of original artwork and photography;
a complete bio (if you are uncertain how to structure your bio, please see the bios page on the first Issue of Open Window) with a photograph of yourself as an additional attachment. 

We charge NO reading or submissions fees at Open Window. We do not accept:
rhyming poetry;
children's literature;
erotica;
hate-related writing of any kind;
previously published work of any kind.

Please submit your work to openwindow.howe78@gmail.com by March 12, 2012. If you have any questions, please send a query email to Lori Howe, EIC, Open Window, at the same address. 

To get to GroVont, do I have to drive through Absaroka County?

The following items represent fictional places in a very real state, Wyoming. Name the very creative authors who have given us the sheriff of Absaroka County (No. 24 on state license plates) and the town of GroVont with its fictitious school calendar. There are no prizes for correct guesses. However, you will sleep better knowing that you are up-to-date on your knowledge of Wyoming writers. (P.S.: The books and accompanying paraphernalia make great Christmas presents!).

Call for entries: Open Window literary magazine

Lori Howe sends this call for submissions:

Open Window, the new on-line literary magazine of LCCC’s Albany County Campus, invites you to submit your creative work for publication in its inaugural issue. 

Open Window is a literary magazine that publishes three regular issues and one special topics issue each year. We publish new and established writers, and invite you to submit in one or more of the following categories:

*Fiction: up to 5 pages of fiction

*Non-fiction: up to 5 pages of non-fiction

*Poetry: up to three poems or one long poem

*Please submit your creative work via email as an attachment in Word document format; work submitted in any other form will not be considered for publication. Submit your work by NOVEMBER 25, 2011, to openwindow.howe78@gmail.com. 

*Please observe the standard of numbering your pages and using 12-point font.

*Simultaneous submissions are acceptable with immediate notification of alternate publication.

*Please include a short cover page with bio, along with your work; in it should be your full name, some information about yourself, and a description of the work you are submitting for consideration, so that it will be read by the appropriate editor.

There are no reading or submission fees at Open Window. 

The first issue of Open Window will be published the third week of December, 2011. Acceptance/rejection notices will be sent via email before this date. 

Open Window Launch Party/Reading: A gala opening of Open Window, with a reading by the writers published in the first issue, will be held in the reading space above Night Heron Books in Downtown Laramie the week before Christmas, 2011. All of our writers are invited to participate and bring friends and family to help celebrate the occasion with appetizers and desserts by The Cakelady.

Postmark deadline Oct. 31 for 2012 Blanchan/Doubleday writing awards

Postmark deadline is Oct. 31 for the 2012 Neltje Blanchan and Frank Nelson Doubleday memorial writing awards.

These awards are designed to bring attention to writers in Wyoming who have not yet received wide recognition for their work, and to support emerging writers at crucial times in their careers. Poets, fiction writers, essayists, and script writers who have published no more than one book in each genre and who are not students or faculty members are invited to apply by submitting manuscripts and an entry form by the Oct. 31, 2011, deadline.

The Neltje Blanchan Award, $1,000, is given for the best poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, or script which is informed by a relationship with the natural world.

The Frank Nelson Doubleday Award, $1,000, is given for the best poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, or script written by a woman author.

POSTMARK DEADLINE IS OCTOBER 31, 2011

Printable applications are available on the WAC web site at http://www.wyomingartscouncil.org.

FMI: Michael Shay, 307-777-5234 or mike.shay@wyo.gov

Blanchan/Doubleday judge is Susan J. Tweit

Susan J. Tweit was trained as a field ecologist. But over the years, while she mapped grizzly bear habitat, wildfire patterns and sagebrush communities, she had a revelation: “I loved telling the stories behind the data more than collecting the data.”

Susan is the author of twelve books that explore the interrelationships that form what Aldo Leopold called the "community of the land." Barry Lopez had this to say about Susan’s 2009 book, Walking Nature Home: A life’s Journey: “It's a lovely, brave, inspiring book.... Sometimes I think the highest praise you can give a book is to say that it helped. This book does that.”

Her work has appeared in magazines and newspapers from Audubon and Popular Mechanics to High Country News and the Los Angeles Times -- and has been heard on the Martha Stewart Living Radio Network.

Susan has taught workshops at colleges, universities, and writing festivals from University of California-Riverside and Miami University of Ohio to Wofford College in South Carolina, as well as at home and online. Audiences as diverse as the International Xeriscape Conference, Collegiate Peaks Forum, Monte Vista Crane Festival, and the Walking Words Writing Festival have called her talks "inspiring" and "insightful." She coaches individual writers, reviews manuscripts for university presses, and contributes to “The Perch” blog of Audubon magazine and Story Circle Network's “Her Stories.” Her own blog is at http://susanjtweit.typepad.com/walkingnaturehome.

She belongs to an informal network of writers and artists who speak for the land, and to Story Circle Network, Women Writing the West and Colorado Author’s League.

She is a passionate gardener who grows her own vegetables, fruits and herbs, and also enjoys the challenge of native plant restoration and "wildscape" design. She lives with her husband, sculptor Richard Cabe, in a house heated and powered by the sun, on a reclaimed industrial parcel in a high-desert valley tucked in the shadow of the tallest stretch of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado.

Who needs football -- Wyoming fiction writers read from their work Saturday afternoon in Casper

Pam Houston

The Pokes are going to cream the Huskers anyway, so why not come out to a free reading of Wyoming Arts Council creative writing fellowship winners Saturday, Sept. 24 (tomorrow!) in the lobby of Casper College's Goodstein Foundation Library.

Noted fiction writer and fellowship judge Pam Houston gets things started at 2 p.m. with a reading and discussion of her own work.

At 3 p.m.., fellowship recipients Sam Western, Stefani Farris and Kathy Bjornestad take the stage to read their work.

Get details about the rest of Saturday's schedule (including reception and poetry slam) at http://wyomingarts.blogspot.com/p/fellowship-reading-set-for-sept-24-in.html

Susan J. Tweit named judge for 2012 WAC Blanchan & Doubleday writing awards

The Wyoming Arts Council is pleased to announce that Susan J. Tweit will serve as the judge for the 2012 Neltje Blanchan and Frank Nelson Doubleday memorial writing awards.

These awards are designed to bring attention to writers in Wyoming who have not yet received wide recognition for their work, and to support emerging writers at crucial times in their careers. Poets, fiction writers, essayists, and script writers who have published no more than one book in each genre and who are not students or faculty members are invited to apply by submitting manuscripts and an entry form by the Oct. 31, 2011, deadline.

The Neltje Blanchan Award, $1,000, is given for the best poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, or script which is informed by a relationship with the natural world.

The Frank Nelson Doubleday Award, $1,000, is given for the best poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, or script written by a woman author.

POSTMARK DEADLINE IS OCTOBER 31, 2011

Printable applications will be available on the WAC web site by Aug. 26. Applications will be sent next week to those on the WAC literary mailing list. 

FMI: Michael Shay, 307-777-5234 or mike.shay@wyo.gov

Blanchan/Doubleday judge Susan J. Tweit

Susan J. Tweit was trained as a field ecologist. But over the years, while she mapped grizzly bear habitat, wildfire patterns and sagebrush communities, she had a revelation: “I loved telling the stories behind the data more than collecting the data.”

Susan is the author of twelve books that explore the interrelationships that form what Aldo Leopold called the "community of the land." Barry Lopez had this to say about Susan’s 2009 book, Walking Nature Home: A life’s Journey: “It's a lovely, brave, inspiring book.... Sometimes I think the highest praise you can give a book is to say that it helped. This book does that.”

Her work has appeared in magazines and newspapers from Audubon and Popular Mechanics to High Country News and the Los Angeles Times -- and has been heard on the Martha Stewart Living Radio Network. 

Susan has taught workshops at colleges, universities, and writing festivals from University of California-Riverside and Miami University of Ohio to Wofford College in South Carolina, as well as at home and online. Audiences as diverse as the International Xeriscape Conference, Collegiate Peaks Forum, Monte Vista Crane Festival, and the Walking Words Writing Festival have called her talks "inspiring" and "insightful." She coaches individual writers, reviews manuscripts for university presses, and contributes to “The Perch” blog of Audubon magazine and Story Circle Network's “Her Stories.” Her own blog is at http://susanjtweit.typepad.com/walkingnaturehome.

She belongs to an informal network of writers and artists who speak for the land, and to Story Circle Network, Women Writing the West and Colorado Author’s League.

She is a passionate gardener who grows her own vegetables, fruits and herbs, and also enjoys the challenge of native plant restoration and "wildscape" design. She lives with her husband, sculptor Richard Cabe, in a house heated and powered by the sun, on a reclaimed industrial parcel in a high-desert valley tucked in the shadow of the tallest stretch of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado.

WAC announces winners of creative writing fellowships

The Wyoming Arts Council is pleased to announce the recipients of this year’s creative writing fellowships in fiction.

They are Kathy Bjornestad of Sundance, Samuel Western of Sheridan and Stefani Farris of Lander. They each will receive a $3,000 award plus a $500 stipend to travel to Casper to read their work at the annual fellowship Sept. 22-24 at the Casper College Literary Conference. They will be joined at the reading by fellowship judge Pam Houston, a fiction writer and essayist from Creede, Colo.

Honorable mentions in this category go to Diane Panozzo, Tie Siding, and RoseMarie London, Laramie.

This is the 26^th year for the creative writing fellowships sponsored by the Wyoming Arts Council. Next year’s category will be poetry. Applications will be available in spring 2012.

For more information, contact Michael Shay, WAC individual artist programs specialist, at 307-777-5234 or mike.shay@wyo.gov.

To see the full lists of WAC creative writing fellowship winners and Blanchan/Doubleday writing award winners, go to http://wyoarts.state.wy.us/Artists/Literature.aspx

Call for applications: Bard Fiction Prize

The Bard Fiction Prize, established in 2001 by Bard College, is given annually to an emerging writer who is an American citizen and under the age of 40 at the time of application. The prize includes a $30,000 cash award and appointment as writer-in-residence at the College for one semester, during which the winner is asked to give at least one public lecture and meet informally with students but is not expected to teach traditional courses. Eligible writers should apply with a cover letter explaining the project they plan to work on while at Bard, a CV, and three copies of the published book (manuscripts are not accepted) that they feel best represents their work. For more information, click here. 

One week and counting: Postmark deadline June 20 for creative writing fellowships

Postmark deadline for the 2012 creative writing fellowships in fiction is Monday, June 20.

Judge for this year's fellowships is fiction writer and essayist Pam Houston.

FMI: Mike Shay at the Wyoming Arts Council, 307-777-5234 or mike.shay@wyo.gov

Cheyenne author Josh Mitchell signs copies of his new book June 10 at City News

Cheyenne newspaper reporter and author Josh Mitchell will be signing copies of his new book, My Life in Executive Session, from 4-6 p.m. on Friday, June 10, at City News, 1722 Carey Ave., in downtown Cheyenne.

A blurb from the book's promo material:

When investigative journalist Warren Bradley goes to work for a newspaper in Jupiter, Arkansas, he wants to report the truth about the corrupt politicians in the small town. But his boss is part of the local good-ol'-boys system and censors the real news. Bradley uncovers too much and is fired in an attempt to make him leave town. Instead of hitting the road, Bradley starts an online newspaper and is finally able to report the truth. Set in the rural South, the novel has many colorful characters and unforgettable scenes.

Find out more from the publisher at www.westsouthpublishing.com

When fiction reflects real life

Richard Mansfield as Dr. Jekyll and
Mr. Hyde, ca. between 1885-
1900 (Library of Congress)

New insights into the story behind Robert Louis Stevenson's classic novel "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" will be the focus of the University of Wyoming's President's Speakers lecture, Thursday, April 14, at 4:10 p.m. in Room 129 of the UW Classroom Building.


Caroline McCracken-Flesher, a professor in the UW Department of English and a widely-published specialist in 19th century British literature, will explain how Stevenson's universally-popular work reflects his own sickly childhood and contemporary societal beliefs about medicine and drugs.

"The tale of the doctor and doubleness could well be titled ‘Mr. Jekyll and Dr. Hyde,' for Hyde reveals the dark side of 19th century doctors, linking medicine and murder, drugs and dreadful deeds," she says.

McCracken-Flesher researched the 19th century scandals in which scientists paid for corpses to use as research subjects, which often led to documented incidents of murder for profit and grave-robbing.

Stevenson, argues McCracken-Flesher, retells the stories of some of the era's infamous scandalous figures, including a murderous dentist, Horace Wells, and a notorious dissectionist, Scotland's Dr. Robert Knox. Their stories shaped how the public viewed medicine and science, and influenced popular perceptions about accomplished scientists who followed, such as Louis Pasteur and Joseph Lister.

Since its publication in 1886, Stevenson's novel has been made into dozens of movies, and McCracken-Flesher has published work showing how each generation changed Stevenson's text to reflect its own fears and desires. She contributed a chapter, "Cultural Projections: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde, and Cinematic Response," in "Narrative and Culture," (University of Georgia Press).

The President's Speaker Series encourages and honors individual faculty members who have been especially successful in balancing the research, educational, and service goals of the university. The series calls attention to some of the individuals who have made important, well-rounded contributions to the university's standing.

A committee comprising the speaker series' previous honorees nominates candidates for the series. Selection criteria include a long-term national recognition for research and/or creative activity and the ability to communicate with all members of the university community.

McCracken-Flesher has an M.A. degree from Edinburgh University, Scotland, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Brown University. She also spent two years at Oxford University as a graduate student.

She has received numerous awards for teaching and research, including two Extraordinary Merit in Research awards, two Mortar Board Top Prof awards, recognition for excellence in both advising and teaching, and UW's highest teaching honor, the John P. Ellbogen Meritorious Classroom Teaching Award.

UW Prof Brad Watson finalist for PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction

From a UW press release:

University of Wyoming English Associate Professor Brad Watson is a finalist for the prestigious 2011 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, America's largest peer juried prize for fiction.

Watson's collection, "Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives," 12 stories of family strife, personal loss, physical trauma and emotional reckoning, is among five books published in 2010 selected as finalists. The other nominees are Jennifer Egan for "A Visit From The Goon"; Deborah Eisenberg for "The Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg"; Jaimy Gordon for "Lord of Misrule"; and Eric Puchner for "Model Home."

"It's a surprise and a real honor to be among this distinguished group of finalists in fiction. I feel fortunate, lucky and happy just to be one of the five, whoever is named first," Watson says. He adds that he's also grateful to the UW Department of English for giving him some crucial time during the Fall 2008 semester to, "really pull the book together."

"I am lucky, also, to work every day among such a group of very smart, very talented and very pleasant-to-be-around colleagues and students in the MFA Program and the department as a whole," Watson says.

Beth Loffreda, UW MFA Program in Creative Writing director, says the nomination is a major recognition for Watson.

"The PEN/Faulkner Award is easily one of the most prestigious honors in American fiction, right up there with the National Book Award," she says. "To be named a finalist is to be recognized as one of the most important fiction writers working in the country today. It's marvelous to see one of our own, Brad Watson, receive that recognition."

Directors of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation say the winner, who will receive $15,000, will be announced March 15. The remaining four finalists will be awarded $5,000 each. In a ceremony that celebrates the winner as "first among equals," all five authors will be honored during the 31st Annual PEN/Faulkner Award ceremony Saturday, May 7, at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C.

Judges considered approximately 320 novels and short story collections by American authors published in the United States during 2010. Submissions came from more than 125 publishing houses, including small and academic presses. There is no fee for a publisher or writer to submit a book.

"Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives" is steeped in the Southern gothic tradition. Watson steps beyond the borders of the traditional south to inflect even southern California with the lush trauma of its influence and the absurdity of its humor. "His prose is sure enough to carry this mantle and his plots are brutal enough to earn it," the judges wrote.

One of "Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives" stories, the wrenching "Water Dog God," tells about a teenage girl in Alabama who was raped by her brothers and impregnated by her father. She flees their tortured company in the wake of a tornado to seek refuge in the house of her cousin and the company of a pack of stray dogs.

Stories such as this prompted the New York Times to identify Watson's "great gift to be his portrayal of the hardscrabble lives of odd but everyday people, their relationships to the surrounding land freighted with privately held histories and traumas."

Earlier this year, the Boston Globe named "Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives" among the year's best fiction books.

"And yet, Watson's real gift is the humor and restraint that accompany these portrayals. His characters come to their own slow terms with life, providing us a reading experience both searing and hilarious," the judges say.

Watson is the author of a previous short story collection that won the Sue Kauffman Award for First Fiction, as well as a novel, "The Heaven of Mercury," that was a finalist for the National Book Award.

Originally from Mississippi, Watson teaches in the MFA in Creative Writing Program at UW. He previously taught at the University of Alabama, Harvard University, University of California-Irvine and University of Mississippi, and has held fellowships through the National Endowment for the Arts and the Lannan Foundation.

The other PEN/Faulkner Award finalists' and their work:

-- Egan's "A Visit From The Goon Squad" is a novel comprised of 13 interlocking chapters, each a self-contained story, which spans 40 years from 1979 into the scientifically futuristic 2020. She is a journalist from Brooklyn, N.Y.

-- "The Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg" brings together four volumes of Eisenberg's work -- "Transactions in a Foreign Currency"; "Under the 82nd Airborne"; "All Around Atlantis"; and "Twilight of the Superheroes." Eisenberg has taught at the University of Virginia since 1994.

-- Gordon's "Lord of Misrule" novel is set in the ramshackle world of a second-rate racetrack, Indian Mound Downs, downriver from Wheeling, W. Va. Saturated in racetrack idiom; the novel's world is ominously decrepit, peopled with con men, loan sharks, mystical grooms, trainers and jockeys. Gordon teaches at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo.

-- Puchner's debut novel "Model Home" tells the tragicomic story of the disintegrating Ziller family in 1980s southern California and their foray into a failed real estate development plan. The novel is also about family in a nutshell, a fusion of nuanced daily observation, pained hilarity, absurd circumstance and heartbreaking dislocation. Puchner lives in Los Angeles and teaches at Claremont McKenna College.

Celebrating the 31st year of the award, the PEN/Faulkner Foundation is committed to building audiences for exceptional literature and bringing writers together with their readers. This mission is accomplished through a reading series at the Folger Shakespeare Library by distinguished writers who have won the respect of readers and writers alike.

The PEN/Faulkner Foundation is an outgrowth of American novelist and short story writer William Faulkner's generosity in donating his 1949 Nobel Prize winnings, "to establish a fund to support and encourage new fiction writers."

Photo: University of Wyoming English Associate Professor Brad Watson is a finalist for the prestigious 2011 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for his collection of short stories, "Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives." The PEN/Faulkner Award is America's largest peer juried prize for fiction. (Photo courtesy of Nell Hanley)

Call for entries: Wyoming Writers, Inc., writing contest

Wyoming Writers, Inc., announces contest guidelines:

Hard copy entries much be postmarked by April 9, 2011.

Entry fee:  $10.00 for each entry from members of Wyoming Writers, Inc., $15.00 for non-members,

Member fee for poetry is $10.00 for 3 poems, non-members $15.00 for 3 poems. We encourage non-members to join the organization. Information and membership form are available on www.wyowriters.org. Contest entry forms are also available on the web site, and from flyers in libraries and bookstores, and in the WyoWriters newsletter.  You may photocopy an entry form.

No limit on the number of entries, but there is an entry fee for each manuscript and every 3 poems. Include one check for the total amount. No entry fees will be refunded. 

Eligibility: The contest is open to all writers. All works must be the unpublished and the original work of the   submitter. All works must be in English. Work accepted or under consideration for publication elsewhere, or entered in another contest simultaneously is not eligible. Work that has previously placed or received an honorable mention in a Wyoming Writers, Inc. contest is not eligible. Work may be submitted to other contests or for publication after the contest deadline.

Categories

Adult Fiction: (No horror or erotica) 3000 words maximum

Fiction for Children/Juveniles:  3000 words maximum

Non-fiction:  Personal experiences and Memoirs3000 words maximum

Non-fiction:  Articles and Essays., 3000 words maximum

Traditional Poetry:  28 lines maximum; up to 3 poems per submission.

Free Verse Poetry:  28 lines maximum;  up to 3 poems per submission

Prizes:   First place: $50, Second place: $30,  Third place $20. Each will get a certificate. There will be no Honorable Mentions.  Winners will be notified the latter part of May. Winners will be announced at the WWInc 2011 Conference to be held at the Ramada Plaza Riverside,Casper, WY June 3-5, 2011.

Online article: "How to Publish Your Own Kindle Book: Part I"

This looks like an easy tutorial for those writers in Wyoming interested in publishing a Kindle book. Go to How to Publish Your Own Kindle Book: Part I