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1 The Stonecoast Newsletter Mar. 19, 2012 Greetings Stonecoasters, Spring has officially sprung! It’s the season of sunshine and spontaneous rainit’s wonderful! There is another reason to get jazzed about spring. I have heard that it is the prime time to submit novel-length work to agents and publishers. I am in the process of getting my own submission materials ready. All writers young and seasoned have played the submission game. Whether acceptance comes easy or hard, we’ve all experienced the great equalizer, no not deathrejection. In the novel I am currently working on, Rejection is a disease in which your body rots and falls apart. There is no cure. It is so bad in fact that if you do catch it, the greatest service anyone can give you is to put a bullet in your head. Now, hopefully none of these things happen when you receive a rejection letter, even though at times a bullet in the brain may seem tempting. You put in all this work and someone else you’ve never met tells you your work isn’t good enough for them. So what do you do upon hearing this? Well, if you are like me and are fiercely competitive and hate losing, you get pissed off. When I got my most recent rejection letter from a big publisher, I cried off and on for 3 days. Now, you might call me a big baby and you’d be absolutely. But I don’t see a point in denying the fact that I get upset, everyone does. Even if you have been in the game for a while, it still rankles you on some level. But the focus here isn’t really the crying and self-deprecation. It’s what you do after your hissy fit that matters. Do you press on or give up? Even though I was still sobbing and snotting over myself, I still wrote. Picking yourself up again is the true test of a writer’s mettle. I’ve heard people say that you have to be a little crazy to be a writer. But I am certain that the “crazy” part doesn’t completely imply mental illness but rather being wild, frenzied, and passionate. Being a writer, to me, takes crazy courage and not having the good sense to let others tell you no. That’s all for now. Please email your updates to [email protected] by Friday, MARCH 30, NOON EST TIME. Send any feedback about the newsletter to Robin Talbot at [email protected]. Take care mates, Mariel

The Stonecoast Newsletter - University of Southern Maine · Palgrave Macmillan. He and co-editor John Kessel have turned in their reprint anthology Digital Rapture: the Singularity

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Page 1: The Stonecoast Newsletter - University of Southern Maine · Palgrave Macmillan. He and co-editor John Kessel have turned in their reprint anthology Digital Rapture: the Singularity

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The Stonecoast Newsletter

Mar. 19, 2012 Greetings Stonecoasters, Spring has officially sprung! It’s the season of sunshine and spontaneous rain—it’s wonderful! There is another reason to get jazzed about spring. I have heard that it is the prime time to submit novel-length work to agents and publishers. I am in the process of getting my own submission materials ready. All writers young and seasoned have played the submission game. Whether acceptance comes easy or hard, we’ve all experienced the great equalizer, no not death—rejection. In the novel I am currently working on, Rejection is a disease in which your body rots and falls apart. There is no cure. It is so bad in fact that if you do catch it, the greatest service anyone can give you is to put a bullet in your head. Now, hopefully none of these things happen when you receive a rejection letter, even though at times a bullet in the brain may seem tempting. You put in all this work and someone else you’ve never met tells you your work isn’t good enough for them. So what do you do upon hearing this? Well, if you are like me and are fiercely competitive and hate losing, you get pissed off. When I got my most recent rejection letter from a big publisher, I cried off and on for 3 days. Now, you might call me a big baby and you’d be absolutely. But I don’t see a point in denying the fact that I get upset, everyone does. Even if you have been in the game for a while, it still rankles you on some level. But the focus here isn’t really the crying and self-deprecation. It’s what you do after your hissy fit that matters. Do you press on or give up? Even though I was still sobbing and snotting over myself, I still wrote. Picking yourself up again is the true test of a writer’s mettle. I’ve heard people say that you have to be a little crazy to be a writer. But I am certain that the “crazy” part doesn’t completely imply mental illness but rather being wild, frenzied, and passionate. Being a writer, to me, takes crazy courage and not having the good sense to let others tell you no. That’s all for now. Please email your updates to [email protected] by Friday, MARCH 30, NOON EST TIME. Send any feedback about the newsletter to Robin Talbot at [email protected].

Take care mates, Mariel

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Upcoming Important Deadlines & Dates* DUE: March 22, 2012 (4th SEMESTER STUDENTS ONLY) Presentation Descriptions 1st draft Descriptions should be concise and no longer than one paragraph. The Mentor will review and may edit descriptions, reading lists and handouts.

DUE: April 1, 2012 Genre Change Requests/Incompletes/Requests for Copies of Evaluations A student must mail to the program office, by U.S. mail, a written request including an explanation of the circumstances that make a deferment necessary. If a student wishes to work in another of the program’s main genres for one entire semester they must notify the MFA office. DUE: April 2, 2012 (4th SEMESTER STUDENTS ONLY) Presentation Descriptions final All final presentation descriptions, with reading lists and handouts are due. Descriptions not received by the deadline will not be included in the preliminary schedule. Handouts not received by this deadline will not be posted to Blackboard.

*Please remember that this is only a partial list of deadlines. A complete list can be found in your Stonecoast Community Handbook.

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Stonecoast News Current Student News SHEILA BONEHAM has teamed up with three organizations to raffle off (individually) three cameo appearances for dogs in the second book in her new mystery series, which debits this coming October with Drop Dead on Recall. Sheila writes, "Clearly I have the self-serving goal of promoting my books, but we're also hoping to publicize the work of the three groups and to raise money for canine health research, information dissemination, and aid for dogs in need." Although two of the groups are focused on specific breeds, any kind of dog is eligible for one of the prizes. Information is available under "Events" at www.facebook.com/sheilawrites. Alumni News LIBBY CUDMORE and MATTHEW QUINN MARTIN'S "Conference Commandments" (originally presented at the Winter 2011 Conference Roundtable) will appear in the July issue of The Writer magazine. HENRY GARFIELD’s (Fiction '04), new baseball/science fiction short story "Beanball" appears in a new anthology, Final Fenway Fiction, from Cornerstone Books, edited by Adam Emerson Pachter. The story is set in Boston in the Earth year 3004 BUNNY GOODJOHN’S (Poetry, Winter '07) poem "Hotel" is in the spring 2012 edition of Zone 3, the literary journal out of Austin Peay State University. LISSA KIERNAN's poem "Erratum, Last Line, Final Stanza" appears in the Winter/Spring 2012 issue of blossombones: http://www.blossombones.com/current.html ([email protected]) ED MCCOURT's manly poem "Porterhouse Words" is featured in Vol. 7, Issue 1 of the Red Booth Review. http://redboothreview.blogspot.com/2011_12_01_archive.html LISA C. TAYLOR just received notification that her full-length poetry manuscript, Necessary Silence (which in an earlier form was her creative thesis) has been accepted for publication by Arlen House/Syracuse University Press. It will be published both in Ireland and the United States. No publication date has been set at this time. GINA TROISI's essay, "Here on the Deck," will appear in the Spring 2012 issue of Truth About Fact: International Journal of Literary Nonfiction. [email protected] TAMRA WILSON's story, "December Bride," has won first place in the Children's Story Contest sponsored by Charlotte Writers Club. She wrote the memoir piece in her second semester at Stonecoast. This marks her third first-place win in the contest since 1999.

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Faculty News CAROLINA DE ROBERTIS has just returned from Norway, where her novel Perla was just published. It will be released in the United States on March 27. A review in the April issue of O, the Oprah Magazine calls it “mesmerizing...a moving, poetic novel.” For information on April book tour events in Oakland, Berkeley, Corte Madera, San Diego, Los Angeles, Houston, Seattle, Miami, and New York, please visit www.carolinaderobertis.com. JIM KELLY’s scholarly essay “Who Owns Cyberpunk?” was published last week in Strange Divisions and Alien Territories: The Sub-Genres of Science Fiction, edited by Keith Brooke from Palgrave Macmillan. He and co-editor John Kessel have turned in their reprint anthology Digital Rapture: the Singularity Anthology to Tachyon Publications. The book will be published in August. They have also co-edited Nebula Awards Showcase 2012 for Pyr, the science fiction imprint of Prometheus Books, which has just received a starred review in Publishers Weekly. This book is now available for pre-order with a publication date of May 1.

Other News & Calls for Submission Meetings, Readings, and Other Interesting Offerings Calls for Submission Chocorua Review http://www.chocoruareview.com/ http://chocoruareview.submishmash.com/submit Chocorua Review is accepting submissions for their Fall 2012 edition. We publish short fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and visual art. We favor thoughtful writing and art; well-crafted work that gives the reader or viewer reason to pause and think. If your work can change the mood of the reader and give her or him something new to consider, you're in. Try us. Fifth Annual Fabri Literary Prize The fifth annual Fabri Literary Prize will close to entrants June 15, 2012. I am undertaking this outreach now to allow writing program directors time to get the word out to faculty, students, and alumni.

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About the Fabri Literary Prize: The Fabri Prize is awarded annually to a writer for her or his unpublished novel. In the past, the winning selection has been emotionally engaging and written for educated adults with broad interests. Excluded from consideration are books for children or young adults and books that focus on the religious market. This year's Fabri Prize winner will be selected by editors from Counterpoint Press and Boaz Publishing. The winner will receive a $7,500 advance, a marketing budget of at least $5,000, and a publishing contract with Counterpoint Press/Soft Skull Press, who are distributed by Publishers Group West. Manuscripts should be the first 50 to 100 pages of an unpublished novel. There is no fee to enter. For more information on how to submit a manuscript visit: www.boazpublishing.com/fabriprize We are grateful for the support shown by writing programs across the country. The last contest saw over 220 entries. Last Year's Fabri Prize winner was Amy Wachspress for her novel, Memories of Cherry Harvest. It will by published this summer by Soft Skull Press. Other past winners include: Chris Huntington for Mike Tyson Slept Here Eli Brown for The Great Days David Fuller Cook for Reservation Nation David Cook had this to say about the Fabri Literary Prize: "Entering the contest and being awarded the inaugural Fabri Literary Prize for Reservation Nation, came as an affirmation for the inexplicable light of confidence, that my writing is worth the reading. That the Los Angeles Times, and Chicago Tribune praised the book was valuable, but it touched me most deeply that Indian Country, the nation's largest Native American news source review, gave it a thumbs up. I thank Boaz Press for making this possible." For more information, go to: www.boazpublishing.com Fifth Wednesday Journal (www.Fifthwednesdayjournal.com) is an independent literary magazine featuring fiction, poetry, essays, photography, interviews, and book reviews. Fifth Wednesday Journal is a literary print journal published twice a year by Fifth Wednesday Books in Lisle, Illinois. We bring together readers and the best poets and storytellers we can find, both established writers and fresh new voices. We are committed to quality writing which is entertaining, intellectually stimulating, and emotionally meaningful for the reader. In short, we publish work that we enjoy and can

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enthusiastically recommend to our readers. We welcome prose and poetry in any style—traditional, realistic, modern, and experimental—you name it, as long as it meets our standards for high quality in content and form. We intend to offer a broad range of poems and stories with appeal for a wide range of quality readers. If you think we might like your work, but are in doubt, submit it and find out. The editors are accepting fee-free electronic submissions through their website for the fall issue until May 31, 2012. You will find guidelines and instructions on the website. Little Creek Books A division of Mountain Girl Press Tammy Robinson Smith, Publisher 2 Grandview Circle Bristol, VA 24201 (276) 644-3989 E-mail: [email protected] http://www.littlecreekbooks.com Friday, March 09, 2012 Catawba County writer featured in North Carolina Literary Review (Bristol, VA) -- Dining with Robert Redford & Other Stories by Tamra Wilson of Newton has received major billing in the 2012 issue of North Carolina Literary Review, an award-winning journal published by East Carolina University and the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association. The three-page treatment, “Celebrity Watchers,” by editorial assistant Amanda Stevens, spotlights the story collection in support of the Literature into Film theme of this year’s issue. “Tamra Wilson has created believable characters and placed them in familiar situations, and her tone is conversational and interesting—never patronizing,” Stevens notes. “A feature that sets Wilson’s collection apart is that while fulfilling a certain necessity for true-to-life appeal, she also—and often—juxtaposes the quintessential small-town American South against the ‘glitz’ of celebrity status.” The title story debuted in NCLR in 2002. The book version of Dining with Robert Redford includes, in addition to sighting of Redford at a North Carolina restaurant, mention of other stars such as Kevin Costner, Brad Pitt, Pamela Anderson and Alex Trebek, Stevens notes. The book review appears with those for new books by Clyde Edgerton, Ron Rash, Marjorie Hudson and others. North Carolina Literary Review is an award-winning annual journal produced by East Carolina University and the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association. The on-line version is viewable at http://www.nclr.ecu.edu/issues/nclr-online.html. The print version will be available through the NCLR website and bookstores throughout the state. Dining with Robert Redford was published by Little Creek Books of Bristol, VA and is available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble and selected independent book stores. Wilson was a Visiting Writer at Gaston College in October and was a 2011 finalist for both the Press 53 novella competition and the Rash Award in fiction at Gardner-Webb University. She will present at the Virginia Festival for the Book in Charlottesville and

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the Appalachian Studies Association conference at Indiana University in late March. More information about the author is available at http//:tamrawilson.com

MONSTROSITIES OF THE MIDWAY: Literary Contest Step right up! We want to see mysteries, anomalies, and clashing energies. Bring your giant rats, conjoined twins, Fiji mermaids, and bearded ladies. We invite any writing that complicates issues of performance and identity. Real and unreal. Exposed and concealed. Submit: March 5th - May 31st Fee: $15 per entry Prize: $1000 + publication in Midway Journal for a winning poem (or group of poems), story, or essay. Judges: Ana Božičević and Amy King More info here: http://www.midwayjournal.com/Contest.html

2012 Annual Pocataligo =POETRY CONTEST= We're still accepting submissions to our 2012 Pocataligo Poetry Contest, now through March 31. It's a small contest with a $500 prize, judged this year by Kate Daniels. Winner and two runners-up receive publication in issue 19.2. Entry fee is $10, which pays our processing fees, our winner, and buys you a copy of the prize issue. INSIDER INFO: We've only got around 30 entries so far, which gives you pretty good odds at that prize! [1]Submit Now [2]complete contest info at our site Official Release -Issue 19.1- Links: 1. http://yemasseejournalonline.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0afc4f61143e2b387c12a9851&id=4b6d3f07cd&e=1efbd62914 2. http://yemasseejournalonline.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0afc4f61143e2b387c12a9851&id=4c7279f7f7&e=1efbd62914

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We just picked up Issue 19.1 from the printers and couldn't be happier. This issue features the winner and runners-up of our 2011 William Richey Short Fiction Contest judged by George Singleton, along with an inteview with Junot Diaz, a strong showing of poetry from exciting new voices, nonfiction that's short and sweet or long and adventurous in the case of John Lane's outdoors excitement, and great artwork by internationally decorated artists. [3]Subscribe Now or [4]see the contents Our debut redesign -Double Issue 18.1&2- Links: 3. http://yemasseejournalonline.us1.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=0afc4f61143e2b387c12a9851&id=910f9a1de2&e=1efbd62914 4. http://yemasseejournalonline.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0afc4f61143e2b387c12a9851&id=f2f40a0fd8&e=1efbd62914 Featuring both winners of the 2010 Fiction Contest and the 2011 Poetry Contest, this is a great sample of the cream of our crop. Packed with other solid poetry and fiction, this was our first issue to debut artwork inside. A good introduction to the new Yemassee for those who haven't seen us in awhile. [5]Buy a Back Issue or [6]see the contents Links: 5. http://yemasseejournalonline.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=0afc4f61143e2b387c12a9851&id=4f6e81b3d6&e=1efbd62914 6. http://yemasseejournalonline.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=0afc4f61143e2b387c12a9851&id=f115561fc9&e=1efbd62914 [7]Forward this email to a friend [8]Update subscription preferences [9]Twitter [10]Facebook Copyright © 2012 Yemassee All rights reserved. Thank you for your help. If you'd like to stop getting these emails, you can [11]unsubscribe. Links: 7. http://us1.forward-to-friend1.com/forward?u=0afc4f61143e2b387c12a9851&id=790bf56358&e=1efbd62914 8. http://yemasseejournalonline.us1.list-manage.com/profile?u=0afc4f61143e2b387c12a9851&id=302a15113b&e=1efbd62914

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9. http://www.twitter.com/YemasseeJournal/ 10. # 11. http://yemasseejournalonline.us1.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=0afc4f61143e2b387c12a9851&id=302a15113b&e=1efbd62914&c=790bf56358 Yemassee Department of English University of South Carolina Columbia, South Carolina 29208