WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE! My short, strong sentence can beat up your fancy long one
nwaonline.com – Monday August 10, 2020
This week I'm going full-bore on long phrases that can so easily be shorter. I hope going full-bore doesn't make the topic a complete bore.
I've been out of college for decades now, but I still have the end-of-semester nightmare where I have to write a 1,000-word paper by the next morning. I decline to comment on whether I padded out sentences in those days.
But when I'm awake and living in the present, I fully advocate writing concisely.
I'm not alone in this belief.
New Literary Agent Listing: Karen Brailsford
firstwriter.com – Monday August 10, 2020
Based in Los Angeles and is especially interested in arts and entertainment, memoir, biography, health and wellness, spirituality and works of non-fiction that inspire and shine a light on contemporary conditions.
New Literary Agent Listing: Georgia Frances King
firstwriter.com – Monday August 10, 2020
Interested in nonfiction books about emerging science and technology, futurism, design, culture, and the arts, and supporting underrepresented voices.
Three Indie Presses Make Moves in Nonfiction
publishersweekly.com – Sunday August 9, 2020
Three independent publishing houses best known for their fiction in translation are upping their nonfiction game. For two of those publishers, Transit Books of Oakland, Calif., and Dallas, Tex.–based Deep Vellum Books, the nonfiction programs are almost, if not entirely, new. For Europa Editions, which is less of a stranger to nonfiction but is without any dedicated program, an upcoming series marks something of a new direction.
Europa, headquartered in New York City and Rome, was founded by the owners of the Italian press Edizioni E/O, and while it specializes in the publication of European and other international literary fiction, primarily in translation, it is also known for its international nonfiction and crime fiction. Its new series, the Passenger, is unique for the press.
SFU English department launches creative writing minor
sfu.ca – Saturday August 8, 2020
This September, SFU students can minor in creative writing for the first time. They don’t have to be English majors; they just have to love writing.
“Many students, and not just English students, write—poetry, fiction, screenplays—and want to get better at it,” says professor Clint Burnham, the English department’s graduate chair and member of the creative writing faculty.
The creative writing minor gives students an opportunity to improve their writing because classes go beyond the traditional workshop approach, in which students discuss each other’s work and offer constructive criticism.
12 (Plus 1) Ways to Promote Safely at Home
By G. Miki Hayden
Instructor at Writer's Digest University online and private writing coach
firstwriter.com – Sunday August 2, 2020
When I first published a couple of books, of course I went to all the conferences in various cities to speak on panels and promote. I did readings in bookstores.
Those were the days.
Those days are gone.
Now, while we might deliver hometown bookstore readings in some locales, in other towns and cities, we might not be able to. We’d certainly have to think twice about the risks anywhere (if the stores are even open).
Publishers Play the Pandemic Waiting Game
publishersweekly.com – Sunday August 2, 2020
With Labor Day only five weeks away, it has become clear that a substantial number of publishers, both in New York City and elsewhere, will not be returning to their offices in anything resembling full force before 2021. Moreover, organizers of a few industry events set for early next year have already announced they will be moving them from in-person to online. PubWest, for one, announced that its annual conference, originally planned for February 4–6 in Denver, will be virtual.
Those developments follow decisions to hold many fall 2020 publishing events online. All of the fall regional bookselling shows, which some had speculated could mark the return of in-person meetings, have gone virtual. BISG canceled its annual meeting—which had originally been planned for spring but moved to September 11 in New York City—and replaced it with a series of online programs, which began July 28 and will conclude on September 11 with its awards ceremony and a keynote address by Barnes & Noble CEO James Daunt. Last week, the Brooklyn Book Festival said it will move its September 28–October 5 fair online. The National Book Awards will also be a virtual event, set for November 18. In the weeks ahead of the awards ceremony, the NBA will hold a series of digital programs, beginning October 20 with its 5 Under 35 event, which recognizes emerging fiction writers.
Why are women now dominating the literary landscape?
irishtimes.com – Thursday July 30, 2020
he past few years have been a boon for women novelists, often young and often literary debutantes. Sally Rooney is the standard bearer of this trend. And though we should resist comparisons between two successful female writers simply for the sake of it, snapping at Rooney’s ankles is Naoise Dolan (28) with her accomplished (if slightly naive) debut Exciting Times.
Dolan’s refreshingly sharp perspective on how women are perceived, coupled with Rooney’s stratospheric success, and Anna Burn’s Milkman winning the Man Booker Prize in 2018 all point to one thing: books by, and about, women are in vogue.
This upsurge in commercial success and critical acclaim is not just the preserve of Irish women, of course. In 2019 the Booker Prize was awarded to two women (that the award was split between Margaret Atwood and Bernardine Evaristo was a disappointingly lazy cop-out from the judges and no comment on the inimitable talents of either author). And so too this year the Booker Prize longlist contains just four men out of the total 13. Women’s domination of the literary landscape seems all but complete. But of course it raises the question: Why? And why now?
How These Writers Got a Literary Agent
thecut.com – Friday July 24, 2020
What do you do if you think the document you’ve been working on maybe, just maybe, might possibly be a book? There’s no one-size-fits-all answer, but for some writers, the next step is to look for a literary agent who will work to sell your manuscript to a publishing house and help guide your career from a business standpoint (typically for a fee of 15 percent). Below, eight writers explain how they connected with their literary agent.
New Literary Agent Listing: Kwaku Acheampong
firstwriter.com – Friday July 24, 2020
Looking for fiction and nonfiction across most genres, though he has a special passion for new adult.
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