News • Updates • Cool Clicks
TW's Spring 2013 Issue: "Deep Into Nature"
Launch Date: April 15, 2013
Talking Writing gives its own spin to that glorious perennial, writing and nature. TW authors explore the natural world and other endangered habitats. Highlights:
- Natural History: Creative nonfiction about petrels, praying mantises, summer camp
- The Last Bookstore on Earth: From Delhi to Mars to playing God with books
- Image Essays: Nature photographers Mary Dineen and Cynthia Staples
- Interviews: Terry Tempest Williams and J. Robert Lennon
Don't Miss These Winter 2013 Features
- TW 2012 Prizewinners: Agua Dulce and Glistening Scar
- Theme Essay: Barack Obama, Fictional Character
- Talking Poetry: The Big Bang of Prose Poetry
- Interview with Connie Willis: "History Is the Raw Data"
Enter TW's 2013 Contests
Attention all writers! Talking Writing's annual contests are now open. This year, the two prize categories are flash fiction on any subject and creative nonfiction about family life.
Deadline: October 1, 2013.
Judges: Joanne Avallon (fiction) and Lorraine Berry (CNF).
Prizes: The winner in each category will receive a prize of $250 and publication of the winning piece in Talking Writing.
For more information and guidelines, see the TW Contests page.
Submissions Update: TW's New Quarterly Schedule
Talking Writing has shifted to four issues a year rather than bimonthly editions. We'll still publish new material on the site every week, except during our summer hiatus.
We're currently soliciting theme essays for the following issues and filling TW's winter fiction slots.
Fall 2013: Distraction
How do you stay focused on your writing?
Modern life is a wonderfully seductive curse. TW seeks essays about the many ways writers get distracted. Topics include social media addiction, teaching vs. writing, and the benefits of multitasking. Feel free to query us first.
Submission Deadline: June 24, 2013
Holidays 2013: Writing and Faith
How do you tackle life's Big Questions?
During the holiday season, TW will examine why writing is such a powerful tool for soul searching, creating meaning, and defining one's spiritual beliefs. Feel free to query us first.
Submission Deadline: September 9, 2013
For more information, go to the TW Submissions page.
TW Internships Available
Talking Writing has several unpaid internship openings for student writers and others interested in learning about online literary magazines.
We're presently looking for fiction, social media, and journalism interns. Experience with tweeting and a knowledge of the current literary industry is helpful but not required. A passion for reading and words is.
To apply for a TW internship, please contact us by email and include a resume.
More Opportunities for Writers
Here are two outside submissions calls for TW writers and readers. The first is from the Bay Area-based website We Wanted to Be Writers. The second, a fellowship from the NYC-based nonprofit Pen Parentis, has a fast-approaching deadline.
"Books by the Bed" Series
Neatly shelved or a teetering stack? See "Books by Martha Nichols's Bed" and submit your own guest article:
"The fine folks at We Wanted to Be Writers invite avid readers to contribute to their popular weekly "Books by the Bed" series. Send a short bio and your submission to Cheryl at wewantedtobewriters.com."
Pen Parentis Writing Fellowship for New ParentsAre you a fiction writer? Don't miss this deadline:
"In addition to a full year of promotion, a $1,000 prize will be presented to the new Pen Parentis Writing Fellow at a public reading of the winning work in Manhattan on Tuesday, September 10, 2013. Entrants must be the parent of at least one child under 10 years of age."
Sarah Gerkensmeyer (pictured) is the 2012-2013 Pen Parentis Writing Fellow. Her story collection What You Are Now Enjoying (Autumn House Press) has been longlisted for the 2013 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award.
This year's fellowship submissions are due April 17, 2013. For details, click here.
AWP 2013 in Boston: Blizzards and Blissful Excess
Report by Martha Nichols, Editor in Chief of Talking Writing
In early March, the annual conference of the Association of Writers & Writing Programs settled in across the river from TW's hometown of Cambridge—a quick subway hop from Harvard Square. Except for the day it snowed, that is.
Despite that mini-blizzard, which trapped some well-known panelists in airports (Alison Bechdel, alas), AWP 2013 proceeded with a blissful excess of thought-provoking events and readings. Literary chat perked up even the monolithic halls of the Hynes Convention Center.
At the Talking Writing table at AWP's Bookfair, we really did talk writing with TW fans, new and old. Our dedicated table staffers and live tweeters discussed everything from submissions to this year's TW contests to "what's happening to literary memoirs, anyhow?"
David Meischen, winner of the 2012 Talking Writing Prize for Short Fiction, attended AWP as part of his award, attracting a cheerful group of Austin and New Orleans writers to the TW table. Talk about talking the talk!
I was delighted to meet so many of our authors in person, as well as editors of other literary magazines and presses. Kore Press was right behind the TW table; the Boston Review, Juked, and Solstice were also close at hand.
In my recent TW essay "Can Editors Change the World?," I describe several sessions in more detail, especially my very favorite: "A Centenary Celebration of Muriel Rukeyser." Although Galway Kinnell and Michael Harper couldn't make the panel because of ill health and weather problems, Olga Broumas, Sharon Olds, and moderator Jan Freeman from Paris Press were there to evoke the spirit of Rukeyser. Here's a sample from my piece:
Rukeyser, a supremely humane and political poet, valued her role as a mentor to young writers like Sharon Olds. So, the now white-haired Olds regaled the AWP audience with what Rukeyser was like as a workshop instructor: mischievous, blunt, inspiring.
The answer to my essay's title question? Oh, yes. There were plenty of world-changing editors at AWP. Hearty thanks to them and to the organizers of this year's conference for providing such a paean to literary living. And to everyone we met at the conference, please stay in touch with Talking Writing. We're already looking forward to AWP 2014 in Seattle.
This bookmark, which we distributed at AWP, was designed by Sheila Walsh. It includes a detail from "Physical Constants" by Susan Denniston, one of our featured artists. For more information about Susan's work, see her TW image essay: "At the Seawall."
