‘Read, read, read to stoke the furnace,’ and more writing advice from Luis Alberto Urrea
pbs.org – Friday July 12, 2019
When Luis Alberto Urrea was 21 years old, he received a pearl of wisdom from Rudolfo Anaya, considered one of the founding authors of contemporary Chicano literature. “If you can make your Mexican grandmother the grandmother of a reader in Iowa or Nebraska through your art,” Anaya said, “then you have accomplished the most powerful, moral and political act in the world.”
Since then, Urrea says, that advice has woven its way into everything he’s written. Urrea, who was born in Tijuana and whose father is Mexican and mother American, often writes about the Mexican-American experience in his novels, nonfiction, essays and poems. He is a 2005 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for “The Devil’s Highway,” his nonfiction account of a group of Mexican immigrants lost in the barren Arizona desert. His most recent book, “The House of Broken Angels,” is the June pick for PBS NewsHour-New York Times book club, “Now Read This.”
Below, Urrea shares more advice for writers and readers about establishing a routine (or not), starting anywhere with literature (you never know it will lead), and getting inspiration in unlikely places (even from the symphony).
New Publisher Listing
firstwriter.com – Friday July 12, 2019
Publishes: Fiction; Nonfiction;
Areas include: Erotic; How-to; New Age; Romance;
Markets: Adult
Publishes nonfiction, adult colouring books, how-to, new age, erotica (including erotic nonfiction and erotic romance), and exceptional fiction. No poetry, short story collections, books with colour interiors, or illegal material. Send submissions via form on website.
New Magazine Listing
firstwriter.com – Thursday July 11, 2019
Publishes: Fiction; Nonfiction; Poetry;
Markets: Adult;
Preferred styles: Literary
Publishes fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. Submissions must be sent both by post and by email. See website for full guidelines.
New Magazine Listing
firstwriter.com – Tuesday July 9, 2019
Publishes: Fiction; Nonfiction; Poetry;
Markets: Adult;
Preferred styles: Literary
Publishes previously unpublished poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, and art by undergraduate writers and artists. Submit via online submission system.
New Publisher Listing
firstwriter.com – Monday July 8, 2019
Publishes: Poetry;
Markets: Adult;
Preferred styles: Experimental; Literary
Publishes poetry chapbooks. Looks for experimental work and seeks to highlight voices that are underrepresented in literature. Accepts manuscripts up to 32 pages in length, by email. See website for full guidelines.
New Magazine Listing
firstwriter.com – Friday July 5, 2019
Publishes: Fiction; Nonfiction; Poetry;
Areas include: Photography; Short Stories;
Markets: Adult;
Preferred styles: Literary
An Alt.Lit Introspective.
A literary publication that features fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and photography for hard truths, long stares, and gritty lenses. We revel in the shadow-spaces that make up the human condition, and aim to find antitheses to that which defines us: light in darkness; beauty in ugliness; peace in disarray. We invite you to explore it with us.
What Does It Mean to Be a "Real" Writer?
newyorker.com – Thursday July 4, 2019
Talent is like obscenity: you know it when you see it. It’s something that can’t be defined, only recognized—an irreducible and unteachable entity, like charisma or humor, and its confirmation all the more coveted for being so. In his fundamental study, “The Program Era: Postwar Fiction and the Rise of Creative Writing,” Mark McGurl detailed how, in postwar America, anointing and cultivating literary talent became the purview of creative-writing programs and how, in turn, certain modes of writing came to be privileged above others. With this professionalization—indeed, institutionalization—of a nation’s art form, three injunctions popularized by the M.F.A. became holy writ. Write what you know; show, don’t tell; find your voice. Of this trinity, only the second speaks explicitly to craft and seems readily practicable. It’s the first and last dicta, however, that have proved the most influential, not through their utility but through their confounding simplicity. The question isn’t whether you should cultivate knowledge or voice. The question instead is a screamed “Yes, but how?”
New Magazine Listing
firstwriter.com – Thursday July 4, 2019
Publishes: Fiction; Nonfiction; Poetry; Reviews;
Markets: Adult;
Preferred styles: Literary
Quarterly online magazine. Submit one piece of fiction or creative nonfiction (or more than one if under 1,000 words) or 1-8 poems via online submission system. For reviews, send query by email.
Deep Vellum Acquires Two Publishers, Adds Imprints
publishersweekly.com – Wednesday July 3, 2019
Dallas-based translation publisher Deep Vellum has acquired the backlist of two separate independent publishing house-- Phoneme Media of Los Angeles and A Strange Object of Austin, Tex.--and is expanding into publishing works originally written in English.
Phoneme is a prominent publisher of poetry in translation with a backlist of more than 30 titles from 25 languages, including Rilke Shake by Angèlica Freitas of Brazil, which won both the National Translation Award and Three Percent's Best Translated Book Award for Poetry in 2016. A Strange Object focused on publishing experimental, debut works and has a backlist of seven titles, including Three Scenarios in Which Hana Sasaki Grows a Tail by Kelly Luce, which won the the Bill Fisher Award for Best First Book from Independent Book Publishers Association in 2013.
New Literary Agency Listing
firstwriter.com – Wednesday July 3, 2019
Handles: Fiction; Nonfiction
Markets: Adult; Children's; Youth
Treatments: Commercial; Literary
Handles literary and commercial fiction, crime fiction, powerful and quirky nonfiction, teen and childrenâs books. Send query by post with one-page synopsis, first 20 pages, and email address for response. See website for full guidelines.
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