The Professional Writing Organization for Writers in Missouri and Surrounding States
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GUILD/CHAPTER NEWS
The Hottest Flash Fiction Contest Deadline - September 15, 2008 $100 1st Prize Entry fee: $10 Word Limit 1,000 words. First Place: $100. Second Place Winner: $50. Third Place $25. What is Flash Fiction? It's fun. It's challenging. For writers, it is an exercise in rewriting and editing. It is a short short story. All flash fiction includes the classic story elements: protagonist, conflict, obstacles or complications, and resolution. The brevity of this genre often forces some of the story elements to be implied or unwritten in the storyline. This 6-word flash by Ernest Hemingway is an example of extreme flash fiction: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." ENTER TODAY mwgcontests.org The Hottest Flash Fiction Contest Questions? contact contest chairman Judith Stock. Email flashfiction@missouriwritersguild.org. Saturday Writers Presents Turn the Page (A full-day workshop) Date: Saturday, October 25, 2008 Time: 10:00 am—3:00 pm Location: St. Peters City Hall—Rm A Address: One St. Peters Centre Blvd. St. Peters, MO 63376 Early Bird Registration ends October 1st. Members: $50.00; Non-Members $60.00 After October 1st: Members: $60.00; Non-Members $70.00 For full details: download Saturday Writers Workshop Guidelines Agents Day with Juvenile Writers of Kansas City September 20, 2008 9 am to 4:30 pm Kansas City Public Library, 14 West 10th Street, Kansas City, MO 64105 Join us for Agents Day! We’ll welcome three agents to speak about the children’s book market, answer questions, and take individual appointments. Tina Dubois Wexler, from International Creative Management, will speak on “All About Agents.” In today’s marketplace, it has become increasingly difficult to find publishing houses that accept unsolicited material; most editors will ask that you secure representation first and then submit through your agent. But is an agent right for you? And how do you get one? Or, now that you have one, what happens next? Linda Pratt, from the Sheldon Fogelman Agency, will teach the basics of “Hopscotch: Making it Through the Course as a Children’s Book Author One Square at a Time.” You’ve landed on the first square by deciding to write for children. How do you keep your balance, avoid the lines, and keep moving forward to the next squares in your writing career? This session will address key questions that one agent asks in helping her authors create a career plan. It will touch upon writing in various genres, industry conditions, assessing one’s own goals and needs, among other things. Jennifer DeChiara of the Jennifer DeChiara Literary Agency, speaks regularly to writers about writing query letters, book proposals, and picture books. She will be on hand to share her expertise. The afternoon features two sessions. In the panel discussion “Building an Identity,” agents will discuss how writers can create a professional identity and use it as a marketing tool. And, back by popular demand, our “First Pages” critique session will let attendees have the first page of a manuscript read aloud and critiqued by the panel of agents. Find out more about our guest agents here
Early bird registration (by June 30): JWKC Member: $90. Non-member: $100. After June 30, member cost is $100; non-member is $110. Get a registration form here. Questions? Email DianeFrook@gmail.com 2008 Juked Fiction and Poetry Prizes. Submission Deadline: August 1st, 2008 Now accepting entries! Winner in each genre receives $500 and publication in our upcoming print issue, Juked #6. Final Judges: Mark Winegardner (fiction) and Angela Ball (poetry) Entry Fee: $10
Send all submissions to: Juked, 110 Westridge Drive, Tallahassee, FL 32304 Complete guidelines at: http://www.juked.com/prize/ About our judges: Mark Winegardner was born and raised in Bryan, Ohio. His books, which include The Godfather’s Revenge, The Godfather Returns, Crooked River Burning, That’s True of Everybody, and The Veracruz Blues, have been translated into more than 20 languages and sold almost 2 million copies worldwide. They have appeared on the New York Times Bestseller List and in best-of-the-year lists by The New York Times Book Review, the New York Public Library, The American Library Association, Entertainment Weekly, USA Today, The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer, The Los Angeles Times, and The Chicago Sun-Times. In 2004, Cleveland Magazine named Crooked River Burning the best book ever written about Cleveland. His work has appeared in such magazines as Doubletake, GQ, Men's Journal, The New York Times Magazine, The Oxford American, Playboy, Ploughshares, Story Quarterly, and TriQuarterly. He is the Burroway Professor of English and director of the creative writing program at Florida State University. Angela Ball is a prize-winning poet and author of numerous books, including Quartet, The Museum of the Revolution: 58 Exhibits, Kneeling Between Parked Cars, and Possession. Her most recent book, Night Clerk at the Hotel of Both Worlds (University of Pittsburg Press, 2007), was winner of the 2006 Donald Hall Prize in Poetry, awarded by the Association of Writers and Writing Programs. Her poetry has appeared in such publications as The New Yorker, Partisan Review, New Republic, Field, Denver Quarterly, Colorado Review, Chelsea, Ploughshares, Boulevard, Poetry, and Grand Street. Her work was included in Best American Poetry 2001, and she has represented the U.S. at the Poetry International Festival, Rotterdam, and the Colombian International Poetry Festival, Bogotá. She has received grants from the Mississippi Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts. She is a mainstay on the faculty at the Center for Writers at the University of Southern Mississippi. Rain Farm Press--2008 Paradigm Novel Contest . Entry Deadline Postmark: July 31, 2008 Rain Farm Press announces The 2008 Paradigm Novel Contest. Our inaugural contest is dedicated to publishing and distributing a writer's novel manuscript and is open to submissions from any genre. The contest deadline is July 31, 2008. Finalists will be judged by bestselling novelist, Raymond Benson, author of Sweetie's Diamonds as well as books in the James Bond series. For additional information, visit www.rainfarmpress.com/contests.html
Volunteer Opportunities MWG is only as good as (its) members. Volunteering is an opportunity to get to know other professionals in the craft and meet featured authors, editors, publishers, and agents. Volunteering allows us to offer more programs and benefits to our members. Your help allows us to keep our membership costs reasonable. Volunteers don't get paid, not because they're worthless, but because they're priceless. Choose a position that is either a one-time event or project, serve a one-year term on the board of directors, or volunteer to help with the next conference. Plus, helping the MWG builds your contacts, and confidence, and it’s fun. Volunteers are always needed to welcome new members, shepherd guests and speakers, find sponsors, write media releases, serve as the photographer at events, facilitate groups, or start new chapters. Volunteer ideas:
Contact: President@missouriwritersguild.org to volunteer or contribute.
www.petbookstories.com **ATTENTION: ALL MWG MEMBERS!!** Patsy-Bell Hobson, our new president, is asking us to broaden our horizons and use technology to stay connected! Here is a message from her:
You do need to be a member in good standing of the Missouri Writers' Guild to join this Google group, to have a start page, and to build your own Web page as Patsy-Bell mentioned above. But remember, we do have tiered membership now, so all you need is ONE publication--paid or unpaid to be an associate member and sign up for the Google group and have your own Web page (2nd part of Patsy-Bell's message above). Also, if you are a student, meaning you are taking at least ONE 3-credit hour college class, you can join MWG at a special rate and have the same rights and benefits as an associate member. HOW EXCITING! So, please, join the Google group today. If you haven't joined MWG yet, please do that today. Here is the link for the membership application: Missouri Writers' Guild Online Membership Application Calling all Missouri Writers' Guild members! 2008 Missouri Writers’ Guild Membership Drive Free One Year Membership
The contest winner must recruit a minimum of six new paid memberships to qualify for a free one-year membership. The member with the highest number of new members wins the contest. If there is a tie, there will be a drawing to determine the winner.
The member who recruits the most new members will get reserve seating at the ‘09 Banquet.
MWG Announces New Board of Directors Officers and appointed members for the MWG 2008-2009 Board of Directors 1st VP: Emily Hendricks Treasurer: Maurice L. Hirsch, Jr. Secretary: Sarah A. Grim Publicity Chair: Barri Bumgarner Historian: Susan Jaeger Past President: Margo Dill-Balinski Past Secretary/Treasurer: Christine Taylor-Butler Member-at-large: Janet Sunderland Member-at-large: Mary-Lane Kamberg Missouri's First Poet Laureate: Walter Bargen 
Governor Matt Blunt has successfully launched the state's first Poet Laureate. In conjunction with Missouri Center for the Book and the Missouri Arts Council, the first honored poet is Walter Bargen, 59, from Ashland. Most recently, judges selected Walter Bargen's "The Feast" for this year’s William Rockhill Nelson Award for poetry. The honor recognizes literary excellence by Kansas and Missouri authors. His poetry and fiction have appeared in over 100 magazines, including American Literary Review, American Letters & Commentary, Beloit Poetry Journal, Denver Quarterly, Georgia Review, International Quarterly, Missouri Review, New Letters, New Novel Review, Pleiades, Poetry Northwest, River Styx, Seneca Review, Sycamore Review, and Witness. He is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts poetry fellowship (1991); winner of the Quarter After Eight Prose Prize (1996), the Hanks Prize (1996), and the Chester H. Jones Foundation poetry prize (1997). A longtime resident of Ashland, Bargen has published 11 books of poetry and holds the esteemed position for which he will be officially appointed on Feb. 13 in the Rotunda of the Capitol in Jefferson City. Bargen has agreed to make at least six public appearances a year during the two-year appointment. He will also write a poem in honor of Missouri and will perform the poem at an event. The Missouri Arts Council has generously agreed to sponsor the Poet Laureate with a stipend.
Read Walter's blogs as Poet Laureate! To read more of Bargen's poetry, visit his Web site: www.walterbargen.com. |
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