Writeful

a weblog for readers and writers

Friday, April 30, 2010

Have Children, Will Write

John Irving was a writer before he ever had children. But he admits that having a child at an early age changed his world view – as is the case for most parents. For Irving, this shift in perspective had an affect on his writing as well.

“Becoming a father at a young age — 22 — made the world a different place for me; a place I was afraid of. I didn’t want what happened to me as a child to happen to my children.”

So let that be a lesson to all writers: want a paradigm shift that will shake up your writing? Have a kid!

Learn about Irving’s latest novel, Last Night in Twisted River, at his website.

www.john-irving.com/Last_Night_In_Twisted_River.asp

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Get Lit & Art on April 25

You’re invited to join a group of local writers, poets, musicians, and artists for this Sunday’s Lit & Art at the Watermark.

Like all Lit & Art events, it is free and open to the public. Wine, food, and refreshments will be served—along with healthy helpings of lit, art, and music. An open mic session gives you the opportunity to share your work as well.

Featured authors this time include Kathy Cottle, Meg Adams, Barbara Friedland, Sonia Linebaugh, and yours truly. Nitin Jagdish emcees. The art of Manzar and music of Red Tractor Factory will fill out the afternoon.

The event takes place from 2 to 5 p.m. on Sunday, April 25 at The Watermark Gallery, located in the Bank of America Center Skywalk Level, right across from the Inner Harbor, at 100 S. Charles Street, Baltimore, Maryland. The phone number is (410) 547-0452.

Come experience what has been called “the best excuse to get lit in Baltimore on a Sunday afternoon.”

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Lit Blooms in Baltimore

You can tell spring is in the Baltimore air — because literary buds are blooming all over Baltimore. Here are some of the literary highlights in full bloom.


Apprentice House Hosts Author Showcase at Loyola University
(April 15)


The country’s only student-staffed, campus-based book publisher, Apprentice House of Loyola University, celebrates a selection of recently published books on Thursday, April 15, 2010, at Loyola University, 4501 N. Charles Street, Baltimore.

The lighter side of living a meat-free life. Political shenanigans around Baltimore and inside “The Beltway.” An exploration of what the unsolved murder of a Washington, D.C., boy says about the soul of a city. A suicidal woman fleeing her family. The softer side of a professional hit man. The authors of these and other works published by Apprentice House take center stage at a special event at Loyola University Maryland on Thursday, April 15, 2010.

The reading and reception takes place from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Student Center’s Fourth Floor Programming Room at Loyola’s Evergreen Campus.

The publisher has been featured in Publishers Weekly (twice), The Sun, City Paper, The Examiner, The Urbanite, and the newsletter of the Independent Book Publishers Association. Its annual chapbook contest draws more than fifty entries per year.

Recently published authors will share their work and answer questions about working with the unique Apprentice House staff. Featured authors include: journalist Michael Olesker, Tonight at Six: A Daily Show Masquerading as Local TV News; essayist Ben Shaberman, The Vegan Monologues; award-winning reporter Brian Wendell Morton, Political Animal: I Rather Have a Better Country; National Books Critics Circle member Diane Scharper, Reading Lips; inaugural poetry chapbook winner Katherine Cottle, My Father’s Speech; playwright Kimberley Lynne, A Dickens of a Carol; Sojourners Associate Editor Rose Berger, Who Killed Donte Manning?: The Story of an American Neighborhood; young author Quinn Cotter, Playing Time: What Kids really Think About Kids’ Sports; Freshly Squeezed: A“Write Here, Write Now” Anthology contributors Fernando Quijano, Eric D. Goodman, and Mare Cromwell; and a rare appearance by Seattle-based poet Paul Nelson (A Time Before Slaughter), founder of the nonprofit Global Voices Radio and past president of the Washington Poets Association.

Light refreshments will be served. Books will also be available for purchase.

Loyola University is located at 4501 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21210. The Student Center is adjacent to the athletic fields near the intersection on Millbrook Road and East Cold Spring Lane. The event is free and open to the public. For more information about Apprentice House, please visit www.ApprenticeHouse.com, or for directions and parking, please visit www.loyola.edu and enter search term “directions.”


Bestseller Elizabeth Kostova at CityLit Festival
(April 17)


Bestselling author Elizabeth Kostova comes to Baltimore on April 17 as part of the seventh annual CityLit Festival. Dubbed "a can't miss event on the city's cultural scene," the free, day-long festival is presented by CityLit Project and Enoch Pratt Free Library.

Kostova, best known for her smash debut The Historian, returns to the New York Times Bestsellers List with The Swan Thieves. Kostova was recently featured on NPR and in the current issue of Poets & Writers magazine, which highlights her fiction seminar in Bulgaria.

Also profiled in the latest P&W, novelist Sam Lipsyte. His newest release, The Ask, has garnered rave reviews including a starred review in Publishers Weekly. Lipsyte will appear as part of the 510 Reading Series program during the festival. Maryland Poet Laureate Stanley Plumly makes his first CityLit Festival appearance. Plumly's latest collection, Old Heart, was a finalist for the National Book Award. He'll be joined by Laura Shovan, winner of the first Harriss Poetry Prize for her chapbook Mountain, Log, Salt, and Stone. Actress, daytime Emmy Award nominee, and NAACP Image Award winner Victoria Rowell debuts her first novel, Secrets of a Soap Opera Diva.

The Baltimore Sages reading features local favorites Maud Casey, Michael Downs, Lia Purpura, Rosalia Scalia, Ron Tanner, and Rafael Alvarez.

Returning favorite features of the festival include Poet's Ink workshops, Poetry by Place readings, the Maryland Humanities Council's "Letters About Literature" ceremony, and the ever-popular busting Literary Marketplace. The Literary Marketplace features local authors, organizations, workshops, literary journals, and more.

I’ll be there at the Flightless Goose booth.

The free festival takes place from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Saturday, April 17, at the Enoch Pratt Central Library, 400 Cathedral Street, downtown Baltimore.

More details and a complete schedule can be found on the CityLit website.
www.citylitproject.org/index.cfm?page=news&newsid=49


Howard Norman at F. Scott Fitzgerald Spring Event
(April 20)


F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Conference Corporation presents “When Letters Mattered: Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Epistolary Friendship,” a talk by Howard Norman, novelist and professor at University of Maryland, College Park.

The annual meeting will begin at 7 p.m. and Board elections will be held.

The date is April 20th, and Mr. Norman’s presentation will begin at 7:30 p.m. The event’s location is the Glenview Mansion, Rockville, Maryland. Members of the Conference have free admission, the cost for students is $7.50 and non-members is $10.

Learn more by visiting the F.Scott Fitzgerald Conference website.
www.montgomerycollege.edu/potomacreview/fscott/


Maryland Writers’ Association 22nd Annual Conference
(April 24)


The annual writers’ conference features a keynote address by award-winning author Roxana Robinson (novelist, short story writer, and biographer whose stories have appeared in numerous prestigious magazines and newspapers), 20 distinguished speakers and panelists, plus one-on-one sessions with book editors and agents.

The event takes place Saturday, April 24 from 8 a.m. to 6:15 p.m. at the Baltimore Marriott Hunt Valley Inn, 245 Shawan Road, Hunt Valley, Maryland.

Breakfast, buffet lunch, snacks and complimentary tote bags included. MWA book store onsite.

Learn more about the speakers, the schedule, and register online at MWA’s w www.marylandwriters.org/conferences-2010list.htmlebsite


Lit & Art at the Watermark
(April 25)


The next Lit & Art event features readings from seven local writers, including the “cartographer of Baltimore,” Rafael Alvarez.

Joining Alvarez (also featured at the CityLit Festival) will be six other writers: Margaret Adams, Katherine Cottle (also featured at the Apprentice House event), Sonia Linebaugh (also featured at the MWA Conference), Barbara Friedland, Nitin Jagdish, and Eric D. Goodman (also at the Apprentice House event and CityLit Festival).

Music will be provided by the Lit & Art house band, Red Tractor Factory. The original works of resident artist Manzar will be on display and available for purchase. Complimentary wine and refreshments will be served, and audience members will have a chance to share their own work during the open mic session.

The event takes place from 2 to 5 p.m. on Sunday, April 25 at The Watermark Gallery, located in the Bank of America Center Skywalk Level, right across from the Inner Harbor, at 100 S. Charles Street, Baltimore, Maryland. The phone number is (410) 547-0452.

Come experience what has been called “the best excuse to get lit in Baltimore on a Sunday afternoon.”

Come back to www.Writeful.blogspot.com for more information on these and other literary events.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Apprentice House Showcases Authors at Loyola University

The country’s only student-staffed, campus-based book publisher, Apprentice House of Loyola University, celebrates a selection of recently published books on Thursday, April 15, 2010, at Loyola University, 4501 N. Charles Street, Baltimore.


The lighter side of living a meat-free life. Political shenanigans around Baltimore and inside “The Beltway.” An exploration of what the unsolved murder of a Washington, D.C., boy says about the soul of a city. A suicidal woman fleeing her family. The softer side of a professional hit man. The authors of these and other works published by Apprentice House take center stage at a special event at Loyola University Maryland on Thursday, April 15, 2010.


The reading and reception takes place from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Student Center’s Fourth Floor Programming Room at Loyola’s Evergreen Campus.


The publisher has been featured in Publishers Weekly (twice), The Sun, City Paper, The Examiner, The Urbanite, and the newsletter of the Independent Book Publishers Association. Its annual chapbook contest draws more than fifty entries per year.


Recently published authors will share their work and answer questions about working with the unique Apprentice House staff. Featured authors include: journalist Michael Olesker, Tonight at Six: A Daily Show Masquerading as Local TV News; essayist Ben Shaberman, The Vegan Monologues; award-winning reporter Brian Wendell Morton, Political Animal: I Rather Have a Better Country; National Books Critics Circle member Diane Scharper, Reading Lips; inaugural poetry chapbook winner Katherine Cottle, My Father’s Speech; playwright Kimberley Lynne, A Dickens of a Carol; Sojourners Associate Editor Rose Berger, Who Killed Donte Manning?: The Story of an American Neighborhood; young author Quinn Cotter, Playing Time: What Kids really Think About Kids’ Sports; Freshly Squeezed: A“Write Here, Write Now” Anthology contributors Fernando Quijano, Eric D. Goodman, and Mare Cromwell; and poet Paul Nelson, A Time Before Slaughter.


The event marks a rare area appearance for Seattle-based poet Paul Nelson, founder of the nonprofit Global Voices Radio and past president of the Washington Poets Association. In his epic poem, Nelson re-enacts the history of Auburn, Washington, originally known as the town of Slaughter. Written in the spirit of William Carlos Williams, Charles Olson, and Michael McClure, A Time Before Slaughter explores the history of this Northwestern place from the myths of Native people to the xenophobia toward Japanese-Americans, from the urge to control to the hunger for liberation.


Light refreshments will be served. Books will also be available for purchase.


Loyola University is located at 4501 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21210. The Student Center is adjacent to the athletic fields near the intersection on Millbrook Road and East Cold Spring Lane. The event is free and open to the public. For more information about Apprentice House, please visit www.ApprenticeHouse.com, or for directions and parking, please visit www.loyola.edu and enter search term “directions.”


Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Bestseller Elizabeth Kostova at CityLit Festival

Bestselling author Elizabeth Kostova comes to Baltimore on April 17 as part of the seventh annual CityLit Festival. Dubbed "a can't miss event on the city's cultural scene," the free, day-long festival is presented by CityLit Project and Enoch Pratt Free Library.

Kostova, best known for her smash debut The Historian, returns to the New York Times Bestsellers List with The Swan Thieves. Kostova was recently featured on NPR and in the current issue of Poets & Writers magazine, which highlights her fiction seminar in Bulgaria.

Also profiled in the latest P&W, novelist Sam Lipsyte. His newest release, The Ask, has garnered rave reviews including a starred review in Publishers Weekly. Lipsyte will appear as part of the 510 Reading Series program during the festival.

Maryland Poet Laureate Stanley Plumly makes his first CityLit Festival appearance. Plumly's latest collection, Old Heart, was a finalist for the National Book Award. He'll be joined by Laura Shovan, winner of the first Harriss Poetry Prize for her chapbook Mountain, Log, Salt, and Stone.

Actress, daytime Emmy Award nominee, and NAACP Image Award winner Victoria Rowell debuts her first novel, Secrets of a Soap Opera Diva.

The Baltimore Sages reading features local favorites Maud Casey, Michael Downs, Lia Purpura, Rosalia Scalia, Ron Tanner, and Rafael Alvarez.

(Note that Rafael Alvarez will also be appearing at the next Lit & Art event at the Watermark Gallery on April 25; more details to come soon!)

Returning favorite features of the festival include Poet's Ink workshops, Poetry by Place readings, the Maryland Humanities Council's "Letters About Literature" ceremony, and the ever-popular busting Literary Marketplace.

The Literary Marketplace features local authors, organizations, workshops, literary journals, and more. I’ll be there at the Flightless Goose booth.

The free festival takes place from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Saturday, April 17, at the Enoch Pratt Central Library, 400 Cathedral Street, downtown Baltimore.

More details and a complete schedule can be found on the CityLit website.
www.citylitproject.org/index.cfm?page=news&newsid=49

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