NCF Tuesday: Literature Renewing Relationships, Short Story Prize with Jennifer Egan, Worst Chase Scene Ever

News

Erasure Poetry

Counter-protestors used pamphlets and other hate-spewing material published by Westboro Baptist Church February 26th to create erasure poetry in front of Living Arts Studio, which was showing “The Laramie Project”.

 Can poetry fight hate?

Renewed Relationships

Couples, through reading, can breathe new life into their relationships that are otherwise stressed out from children, working and other daily tasks.  "One of the joys is that you discover new aspects of each other, or you may rediscover a connection you had at the beginning but have lost as life gradually takes over," says Ella Berthoud, one of the bibliotherapists. "It can also help couples communicate and understand each other better, as well as show new ways to share leisure time."

Do you think a couple book club could renew a relationship?


World Book Night

Trafalgar Square is hosting an enormous free festival devoted to peoples’ favorite books to kick off the World Book Night on March 5.  WBN is considered the "the biggest book give-away ever.”  Famous authors will read from their favorite books, including Nick Cave, Margaret Attwood and Alan Bennett. 

What book would you give-away to someone?

Online E-book Lending

Open Library is lending out 80,000+ 20th Century e-book titles
 to customers.  The process of making books digital is infringing on copyrights, which is causing the project some backlash.  Library roles will change drastically as well.    

Do you think about making digital copies of books available for lending as e-books is a good idea?   

Contests

FICTION
Kupferberg Memorial Short Story Prize with guest judge Jennifer Egan
-       Unpublished Fiction: 750 words max.; Theme: Restaurants and Bars
-       First Place Prize: $1,000
-       Deadline: March 1, 2011
-       Details here 

New American Fiction Prize
-       Fiction: Approx. 100-500 pages of your best fiction
-       First Place Prize: $1,000, publication contract, 25 complimentary copies and 15% royalties
-       Deadline: May 15, 2011
-       Details here 


E.M Koeppel Short Fiction Award
-       Unpublished Fiction
-       First Place Prize: $1,100
-       Deadline: April 3, 2011
-       Details here 

Glimmer Train Literary Journal
-       Open Fiction
-       First Place Prize: $2,000
-       Deadline: March 31, 2011
-       Details here 

Narrative Magazine
-       Fiction and Nonfiction
-       First Place Prize: $3,250
-       Deadline: March 31, 2011
-       Details here 

Writer’s Digest Magazine
-       80th Annual Writing Competition
o   Fiction and Nonfiction
o   Grand Prize: $3,000
o   Deadline: May 2, 2011
o   Details here 
-       5-Minute Memoir, “Tales From the Writing Life”
o   Personal Essay (600 words or less)
o   Prize: Publication in Writer’s Digest magazine
o   Deadline: Rolling submissions
o   Details here 
POETRY
American Poetry Talent Search Contest
-       Poetry (100 lines or less)
-       First Prize: $250
-       Deadline: March 31, 2011
-       Details here 

Writecorner Press Annual Poetry Award
-       Poetry (40 lines max.)
-       First Prize: $500
-       Deadline: March 31, 2011
-       Details here 


Fun
Struggling to find humorous literary bits to throw onto this newsletter, so I’ve decided to branch out a bit.  Today, I bring you a video of the worst chase scene ever.  Enjoy!



Comments

Michael Offutt, Phantom Reader said…
The Westboro Baptist Church is an awful organization. It makes me happy that people are fighting their campaign of hatred. As far as ebooks being lent, it happens to regular books so why not? The problem with ebooks is that they can be reproduced and piracy does impact sales. I guess it really depends on whether the writer cares about making money or just figures that this is the price of advertising and maybe someone out there will like his/her work enough to buy a copy. Ebooks need to be made available to people that require them though (and I'm speaking of developmentally disabled and/or the blind). I plan on writing an article about this at some point in the future because I recently attended a conference in which this was a topic in at least three seminars. It's wonderful that developmentally disabled children and adults have access to ebooks now, where software like Read & Write Gold or Kurzweil can read aloud the book and they can follow the prompt on screen as it does so.

Oh, and Laura, you are one of the ten people that I picked for the "Stylish Blogger Award".
March 1, 2011 at 11:25 AM
Laura M. Campbell said…
You present some interesting points. It never occurred to me the other applications for e-books (slap my hand on my forehead). I think it's amazing.

Thank you very much, for the nomination. Is there something I need to do for the "Stylish Blogger Award"?
March 1, 2011 at 7:41 PM
Anna said…
Where did the guy get the rapier? I'm not sure reading would ignite my relationship because Husband doesn't read much :) But I think finding something in common goes a long way to keeping a relationship going.
March 1, 2011 at 8:32 PM
Laura M. Campbell said…
I thought all apartment building roofs came equipped with weapons for such occasions. No?
March 2, 2011 at 10:19 AM
Amie Kaufman said…
I love the idea behind the erasure poetry!

I think a couples book club would be fanastic! My husband and I read quite different books, but there's definitely middle ground there. Fun!
March 2, 2011 at 9:44 PM
Laura M. Campbell said…
I know you are a fan of YA, but what does your husband read?
March 4, 2011 at 10:55 AM
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