NCF Tuesday: Shakespeare’s Gettin’ High; Writing Contests; The Scariest Story


News

Turning Tweets into a Novel

Asmaa Elkeurti reports on the three-day (July 15-17) collaborative novel writing project to take place during Iowa City’s (1 of 4 cities worldwide designated as a City of Literature by UNESCO) July Book Festival. The project will collect entries on Twitter from anyone with a Twitter account and put them together to create a novel. Greg Prickman, a codirector of the Book Festival, says, “It’s not meant to be a random stream of tweets, it is meant to be a novel in some sense.”

Do you think a Twitter-collaborative writing project will be successful?

internationaloddities.com
Shakespeare Gettin’ High

Francis Thackeray, the director of the Institute for Human Evolution at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, is asking to examine Shakespeare’s remains to determine if the author’s genius was drug-induced. A discovery of “cannabis residue (along with cocaine) on clay pipe fragments found in Shakespeare's garden” sparked Thackeray’s interest in the bard’s extra-curricular activities.

Would it change anything for you if you knew Shakespeare used drugs while he wrote?

   

Fantagraphics Books
Lou Reed and Edgar Allan Poe

Jennifer Vineyard interviews Lou Reed for this month’s publication of The Raven, a graphic-novel adaptation of his Edgar Allan Poe-inspired album. He tried to make the famous poem more contemporary and accessible in his rewrite.

Do you think it's a good decision to rewrite classic literature to make it more accessible to contemporary audiences?


Contests

FICTION
Glimmer Train Literary Journal
-       Very Short Fiction Award; 3,000 words or less
-       First Place Prize: $1,200, publication in Glimmer Train Stories, and 20 copies of that issue
-       Deadline: July 30, 2011
-       Details here 

Narrative Magazine
-       Spring 2011 Story Contest: Fiction and Nonfiction of 15,000 words or less
-       First Place Prize: $3,250, considered for publication
-       Deadline: July 31, 2011
-       Details here 

Writer’s Digest Magazine
-       Short Short Writing Competition
o   Fiction: 1,500 words or less
o   First Place Prize: $3,000 and a trip to the Writer’s Digest Conference
o   Deadline: November 15, 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
Narrative Magazine
-       Third Annual Poetry Contest
-       Unpublished, all poetic forms and genres, except translations.
-       First Place Prize: $1,500 and publication
-       Deadline: July 16, 2011
-       Details here 

Writer’s Digest Magazine
-       7th Annual Poetry Awards Competition
o   Poetry: 32 lines or less
o   First Place Prize: $1,500 and a trip to the Writer’s Digest Conference
o   Deadline: December 1, 2011
o   Details here 


Fun
Today’s Hyperbole and a Half hits home. It reminds me of the awesome sisterly love I gave my sister, Kate, growing up. Enjoy!
Hyperbole and a Half

The Scariest Story 

Comments

Trisha said…
That tweet novel idea sounds...interesting. hehe
July 7, 2011 at 7:12 AM
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