Juniper Summer Writing Institute

So, among many other things that have happened, I was accepted into the Juniper Summer Writing Insitute at UMass. I've applied to a good amount of summer workshops, and I've gotten into two (that one and the one at Indiana University). I'm definitely going to the Juniper Institute, because it seems to be highly lauded, and is at one of the *top-ten* schools in the country. The other one is at a school I absolutely adore from a paragraph I read about and visits to its website, but the program itself is for just about anyone. Which is fine, but that all depends on my summer job.

Currently I'm doing summer job stuff, and I've been meaning to see if anyone in the Hispanic Studies Department is interested in having someone do research over the summer, so I need to make sure I do that. That's not really writing-related, though. So sorry to get on that tangent, I'm just thinking about it lots lately.

As for how writing is going, I'm working on an expansion of the Los Angeles story, and then I'm working on some creative writing applications for next fall. I'm really busy, but I'll post something better soon.

--Me!

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This week:
Mon. March 16- Arts & Letters 2009 Prize Competition- al.gcsu.edu
Mon. March 16- Prairie Schooner Book Prize Series- http://prairieschooner.unl.edu/prizes/index.html
Thurs. March 19- Fish One Page Prize- www.fishpublishing.com

Turn of the month (because there's SO MUCH):
Mon. March 30- Glasgow Prize for Emerging Writers- shenandoah.wlu.edu
Mon. March 30- www.narrative.magazine.com/third-person-story-contest
Mon. March 30- www.shortstorycompetition.com
Tues. March 31- Eaton Literary Agency's Annual Awards Program- www.eatonliterary.com
Tues. March 31- Glimmer Train's Fiction Open- www.glimmertrain.org
Tues. March 31- Tom Howard/John H. Reid Short Story Contest- www.winningwriters.com/tomstory
Tues. March 31- Joseph Henry Jackson Award- www.theintersection.org
Tues. March 31- 2009 Raymond Carver Short Story Contest- www.carvezine.com/contest.htm
Wed. April 1- Sherwood Anderson Foundation Fiction Award- www.sherwoodandersonfoundation.org
Wed. April 1- Jack Dyer Fiction Prize- www.siu.edu/~crborchd
Wed. April 1- National Writers Association Novel Writing Contest- www.nationalwriters.com
Wed. April 1- Short Grain Writing Contest- www.grainmagazine.ca

'One, although he had made a point of showering and vigorously drying beforehand, dripped sweat off the tip of his nose and onto her face as ardently as he dripped his endearments, and seemed genuinely puzzled, even hurt, when she turned away from his kiss. Another, a huge, morose fellow with a gold Pisces chain on his fleshy chest, lay on his back and talked about how the most wonderful time in his life had been when he played football in high school; he was unable to figure out why everything had been so boring ever since. "I bet I know what you was like then," he said, rolling over. "You was one of them quiet types that never went out. And look at you now." There was no malice in his voice; it was a wonderless comment, which made its accuracy all the more depressing.'

--Mary Gaitskill, Trying to Be, from the short story collection Bad Behavior

Also, if it isn't obvious, the very-polished stories that I spoke about in my last post are all (in that order) a complete collection.

It's pretty short for a whole collection, so I plan on doing something that Luisa Valenzuela did, which was to have different sections in a short story collection, each one with a certain theme.

Clearly, these stories are pretty short, so I need to work on length.

A Long Overdue Update

Well, it's certainly been a while, that's for sure. I've got a completely legitimate explanation: I'm taking 17 credits this semester. Some of my friends are going through totally intense stuff. Really, the only reason that I'm posting something right now is because I'm feeling a little bit lonely, it's midterms, and I don't want to work on my Philosophy of Language paper just yet, even if Frege's a fabulous guy.

Writing's been going pretty well; I realized that if I write stories that are closer to the truth--such as the one I just wrote called Berkeley, California--I should try to write them in the third person. I should also try elongating them, as my story will be end up being carried more by plot than character. I turned an intense portfolio of work for a competition here at school for the Creative Writing department, so now a bunch of my works are in tip-top shape, which is GREAT! This includes the titles Red, Strange English, The Naked Diner, I'm Just Joking, and Sleeping with Scarlett. I was describing the stories to a friend of mine and I realized just how bizarre my stories can seem sometimes. Anyways, I had a friend look over a couple, and she asked, "Why aren't you a creative writing major?" That's always totally flattering. But, hey, philosophy and comparative literature make my writing more wonderful than creative writing classes, and that's about it.

I bought the 2008 Pushcart Prize on Amazon.com, as well as Mary Gaitskill's short story collection Bad Behavior (published by Vintage--I found out about her reading an article about her in Poets and Writers Magazine). Anyways, the collection of Puschart Prize stories was actually quite horrendous...the writers certainly had good ideas, but the stories felt ridiculously unpolished, messy, rushed...I was very shocked that they had won such prestigious awards. Perhaps I know too many amazing writers here, because I felt like they certainly could have written the prize-winning poems, and that they had some skills that the prize-winning stories were lacking. (To be fair, I've only read the first three stories and the first three poems.) Mary Gaitskill's short story collection, however, is absolutely amazing. She's wonderful. Her writing is clean and thoughtful, and intricately beautiful. It's also very disturbing. I'm a little bit over halfway through the collection, and I'm very grateful for the writing she's given to the world. As for the magazine I just mentioned, I bought a subscription because the one I bought randomly after a dinner out of town at the Barnes & Noble was totally fabulous.

I'm working a lot on philosophy, which certainly makes my writing far more organized and logical. I'm taking three classes, although one of them is a private reading. Plato's really great--I'm reading Republic and it's very beautiful, although it's got some contentious issues (just like any philosophy, but I would even say more than usual). So, that's my Ancient Philosophy class. I'm also taking a Philosophy of Language class, which is totally mindblowing, so it's great (although a little bit confusing). Aaand I'm taking a private reading in the Epistemology of Emotions with Professor D. Ganson, which is totally great. So I'm writing a bunch this weekend.

My Honors project is going fabulously, but anyways, I'm getting very distracted by a friend, so I'm going to go! And get dinner!

Adieu!

After Babel

So, while my writing is a little bit behind currently, I've been doing some work to get ahead on my Honors Project. I'm working on an introduction (which is proving very tricky!), and I'm reading a totally addictive book, called After Babel, by George Steiner. He's certainly a man to my heart. I'm only on page 18 and I'm certain I can finish it by this weekend.

Tomorrow, I should see what I'm submitting to where. Yes.

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This week:
None.

This month:
Fri. Jan 30- Ohio State University Prize in Short Fiction- ohiostatepress.org
Fri. Jan 30- Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing Fellowship- www.creativewriting.wisc.edu
Fri. Jan 30- Writers' Journal Annual Fiction Contest- www.writersjournal.com
Sat. Jan 31- Glimmer Train's Family Matters- www.glimmertrain.org
Sat. Jan 31- Just Deserts Short-Short Fiction Prize- http://myweb.num.edu/~passages
Sat. Jan 31- Walter Rumsey Marvin Grant- www.ohioana.org
Sat. Jan 31- Frank O'Conner International Short Story Award- www.munsterlit.ie
Sat. Jan 31- Prism International Annual Short Fiction Contest- prismmagazine.ca

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