New Magazine Listing
firstwriter.com – Friday January 25, 2019
Publishes: Fiction; Nonfiction; Poetry;
Areas include: Short Stories;
Markets: Adult;
Preferred styles: Literary
Publishes short and long form fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. No academic essays or book reviews. Do not query or send samples - submit complete ms by post with SASE. If submitting from outside the US, submissions may be sent by email. See website for full guidelines.
If I Hate Violence So Much, Why Do I Love Writing About It?
vulture.com – Thursday January 24, 2019
If anyone asks how I came to be obsessed with wrongdoing in all its most perverse manifestations, I always blame Sunday school. I think back to those weekly lessons in murder, jealousy, lust, betrayal, and revenge that made up an integral part of my childhood. My all-time favorite pulp classic is the biblical tale of King David, who sent a romantic rival to certain death on the battlefield because he’d slept with and impregnated the guy’s wife after spotting her bathing on a rooftop. I like to imagine what the lurid paperback cover for that story might look like: God made him a king. Lust made him a killer.
I recall this upbringing when I consider how exactly I ended up writing crime novels. I am a pacifist by nature — hell, I’m Canadian, which is halfway to being a Quaker — and I favor strong gun control, criminal-justice reform, and turning the other cheek over an eye for an eye. I also spend part of my days willingly and even enthusiastically imagining the most creatively gruesome methods for killing people. I’ve written three crime novels, and they aren’t parlor-room mysteries: Two of them star a gleefully murderous hit man as the hero and one centers on a community of criminals so vile that they’ve had their most brutal memories erased.
I’m definitely interested, maybe unhealthily so, in humanity’s darkest proclivities. Yet I’m also reliably shaken by tragedies like Parkland or the horrific recent story of Jayme Closs, a 13-year-old girl abducted from her home after watching her parents get murdered. I struggle to reconcile my aversion to real-world violence with my willingness to conjure it on the page. My mother, a very supportive and loving person who taught Sunday school, had this reaction when she finished my first novel: “I just kept wondering what kind of person could think of such things.” Me, Mom — I’m that kind of person. And I wonder about that, too.
New Publisher Listing
firstwriter.com – Wednesday January 23, 2019
Publishes: Fiction; Nonfiction; Poetry;
Areas include: Arts; Culture; Current Affairs; Literature; Music; Philosophy; Politics;
Markets: Adult
Aims to publish in every sphere and genre, "combining vigorous dissent and a pragmatic willingness to succeed". Submit complete ms via online submission system.
A Canadian woman has launched a writing contest for her luxury home
bbc.co.uk – Tuesday January 22, 2019
A Canadian woman is holding a letter-writing contest for her three-bedroom home near the city of Calgary.
Interested parties must pay an entry fee of C$25 ($19; £15) and answer the question "Why would moving to this lakefront dream home change your life"?
Owner Alla Wagner is leaving the home she says she loves due to poor health.
Inspired by stories of similar contests, she decided to launch "write a letter, win a house" when the C$1.7m home failed to sell.
J.K. Rowling ‘can’t stand’ following rules—here’s what she says to do instead if you want to succeed
cnbc.com – Monday January 21, 2019
J.K. Rowling, author of the “Harry Potter” series and the Cormoran Strike mysteries, has sold over 500 million books. She was the second highest-paid author of 2018, managing to earn an astounding $54 million.
Famously, though, Rowling started out as a single mother surviving on state benefits. “I was jobless, a lone parent and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain without being homeless,” she said in her 2008 Harvard commencement speech.
Rowling, now 53, didn’t turn her life around and get where she is today by abiding by conventional wisdom.
WME Agent David Lubliner Moves to UTA
hollywoodreporter.com – Friday January 18, 2019
Literary agent David Lubliner has left WME and joined UTA, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.
A source also tells THR that Lubliner is bringing with him the following clients: About a Boy co-writers and brothers Chris and Paul Weitz, Beatriz at Dinnerdirector Miguel Arteta, Detective Pikachu director/co-writer Rob Letterman and Juliet, Naked co-writer Jim Taylor, among others.
New Literary Agency Listing
firstwriter.com – Thursday January 17, 2019
Handles: Fiction; Nonfiction
Areas: Autobiography; Cookery; Historical; Humour; Lifestyle; Sociology
Markets: Adult; Children's; Youth
Treatments: Commercial; Literary
No science fiction, academic books, scripts, or poetry. Submit online through form on website. No postal submissions. See website for full guidelines.
Kate Burke joins Blake Friedmann
thebookseller.com – Wednesday January 16, 2019
Kate Burke has joined The Blake Friedmann Literary Agency as a senior agent and will focus on commercial fiction.
Burke previously worked as an agent at Northbank Talent Management for six years, and before that spent 10 years as a fiction publisher, at Headline, HarperCollins and Penguin Random House.
Curtis Brown celebrates 120th birthday with novel-writing prize
thebookseller.com – Wednesday January 16, 2019
Curtis Brown is to celebrate its 120th birthday with a series of events spearheaded by a team of young agents, culminating in the Curtis Brown 120 Novel Writing Prize.
Founded in 1899 by Albert Curtis Brown, one of the UK’s longest running independent literary agencies. This year Curtis Brown plans to “celebrate its heritage and offer a unique opportunity to the future.” Agents including Lisa Babalis, Becky Brown, Catherine Cho, Lucy Morris and Norah Perkins will help lead the year's events.
The celebrations will culminate in the Curtis Brown 120 Novel Writing Prize, a mission to find the voices of the future, launched in partnership with the Curtis Brown Creative writing school. The prize will be open to novels both finished and unfinished, across all genres of adult fiction. Details of judging panels, process, prizes and submission dates will be revealed in April.
Robertson Murray Literary Agency launches
thebookseller.com – Tuesday January 15, 2019
Representing fiction, general non-fiction and children’s books, the agency, first announced last summer, is a division of Hilary Murray's talent agency Arlington Management Ltd and is being headed up by Robertson, who most recently was sales and marketing director and paperback publisher at Faber and Faber.
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