The Literary Social Calendar
WLT Events
Workshops and Classes
How to Pick Your Publishing Pathway with Lana Castle 10/6
Lana Castle’s Guest Blog The Road to Publication
Poetic License: Using Poetic Language and Devices in your Poetry, Prose and Everyday Writing with Liz Garton Scanlon 9/15
Liz Garton Scanlon’s Guest Blog Poetic License & Language
Creating Effective Characters with Michael Druxman 9/22
Q & A with Michael Druxmanon featured on Scribe
More featured Guest Blogs coming soon! Visit our page for more upcoming WLT Classes and Workshops.
Attention Alpine Retreat Students:
Palooka is seeking new material for an upcoming issue, and would love to check out pieces by the Alpine Summer Retreat students! Palooka is a nonprofit literary magazine seeking fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, plays, graphic short stories, graphic essays, comic strips, artwork, photography, and multimedia for their next issue. They offer print and electronic versions of the magazine and offer samples of the published materials online. They’re determined to find those writers and artists who are hungry and relevant, flying under the radar, producing great works that are going unnoticed by other magazines. This is a magazine for everyone, especially for the up-and-coming underdog in the literary battle royale. Click here to submit!
AUSTIN BAT CAVE announces its
1st annual “Bat to School Bash,” presenting: Apocalypse: A Bill Callahan Tour Film and live performance by Bill Callahan!
Tickets are $17 and can be purchased in advance at austintheatre.org
The Austin Bat Cave proudly presents an evening with Bill Callahan—live and onscreen, Friday, September 14, at the Stateside Theater, 719 Congress Avenue, at 8 pm. The show will mark the first annual “Bat to School Bash” for the Austin Bat Cave (ABC), a nonprofit that teaches kids writing.
The enigmatic Callahan is a long-time critical darling who for years recorded and toured under the name Smog, releasing 10 albums. Callahan moved to Austin in 2004 and has released three albums under his own name. The latest, last year’s Apocalypse, is one of his best, an album that is both spooky and sweet, stripped down but also weirdly rollicking. Apocalypse got rave reviews in Rolling Stone, the New Yorker, and Pitchfork, which said Callahan is “making the best albums of his career.”
In 2011 Callahan toured the world to promote Apocalypse, and Austin filmmaker Hanly Banks went along with a camera. The result is “Apocalypse: A Bill Callahan Tour Film,” and ABC will offer its Texas premier on September 14. The night will feature the documentary, a performance by Callahan, a short video of an ABC song-writing workshop with kids and Callahan, followed by a reception with artist and filmmaker. Callahan hasn’t played in Austin since March, so this show will be a singular musical and cultural event.
This marks the first annual Bat to School Bash for ABC, which connects a diverse population of young writers with adult volunteers in Austin. ABC’s numerous workshops and programs are free. But in order to truly fulfill its mission, ABC needs a brick-and-mortar space where kids learn and volunteers teach. This future writing and tutoring center will offer free writing programs for kids. At the moment, the organization is very close to realizing this vision, with more details to come! This fundraiser will help pay for yearly operating costs for our center as well programming.
For more info call the Stateside Theater at (512) 474-1221 or contact Katie Angermeier kangermeier@austinbatcave.org
Beginning Creative Writing Workshops with Manuel Gonzales
Austin Bat Cave, a writing & tutoring center for kids, presents its series of creative writing workshops for adults!
Thursday, September 20 – Thursday, November 8th, 2012 6:30–9:00 pm (eight weekly sessions)
It is human nature to tell stories, to experience the world and repackage our experiences into different kinds of narrative. But writing these narratives out, developing them into a story, an essay, or a novel can sometimes be difficult or daunting. Writers of all stripes struggle with many of the same questions, no matter their experience, no matter how many stories or novels they’ve finished: does the story make sense, do the characters seem real, does anything actually happen? In this beginning creative writing workshop, we will focus on those basic elements of writing a good story—beginnings, endings, developing realistic and engaging characters, thorning out the thorny issues of plot— through a mixture of in-class lectures, outside reading, and in-class workshop critiques.
We’ll also discuss finding the time to write, making a life as a writer, and the business of publication, from finding an agent to submitting work to magazines and publishing houses. Whether a novice to writing or someone who simply wants a refresher course and an introduction to the workshop process, this promises to be an excellent class. New workshops participants are asked to send a writing sample of two pages for consideration. Also, please include a few sentences about yourself and your writing and workshop experience, and what you hope to accomplish by the end of the class. Please email sample to workshop@austinbatcave.org. Write “beginning workshop” in the subject field.
Workshop Fee: $385
Location: Workshops are held at the Austin Bat Cave, 1807 West 11th Street, Austin, TX 78704
Manuel Gonzales is the author of The Miniature Wife and Other Stories, forthcoming from Riverhead Books, January 10, 2013. He has published fiction and nonfiction in McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, One Story Magazine, The Believer Magazine, The Mississippi Review, Open City Magazine, and Fence Magazine. He is the executive director of Austin Bat Cave, a writing & tutoring center for kids, and has taught online Fiction I and Fiction II courses for The Gotham Writer’s Workshop since 2006.
A portion of this fee will go toward supporting Austin Bat Cave, a writing & tutoring center for kids. For more information about Austin Bat Cave, please visit austinbatcave.org. You can also visit their facebook page.
Austin Poetry Society Events
The Fourth Thursday Open Mic will happen on August 23rd, 7:00-9:00 p.m., in the usual place, NeWorlDeli, 4101 Guadalupe. Featured will be Anyah Dishon, Samuel Kardec, Justin Wade Thompson, and Scott Vanya. The open mic follows. Host: Linda Marie Cossa. Come out and read for us. The APS Critique Group is taking a vacation this month, so Beth Kropf’s group will not meet again till the Second Saturday in September.
Resident Service Wildflower Events
Wednesday, Aug. 22 ~ 6:30 – 8pm
“Back to School” – Conversations with Children’s and Young Adult Authors
$5.00 for non-residents, with refreshments, book-signing and sales after presentations
Shana Burg, author of A Thousand Never Evers and Laugh with the Moon (for readers, 9 years and up) www.shanaburg.com
Bethany Hegedus, author of Grandfather Gandhi, Truth with a Capital T and Between Us Baxters www.bethanyhegedus.com
Cory Putnam Oakes, author of debut novel, The Veil (on the teen bestseller list at Book People) www.corypoakes@gmail.com
RSVP to residentservices.wildflower@dmacompanies.com
Wildflower Terrace Apartments 3801 Berkman Drive (Corner of Manor Road and Berkman) Austin 78723
Glimmer Train’s Short Story Award for New Writers – Deadline for entries: August 31, 2012
Prizes:
1st place wins $1,500 and, of course, publication in Glimmer Train Stories.
2nd place wins $500, or, if chosen for publication, $700.
3rd place wins $300, or, if published, $700.
For more information on submissions and guidelines, click here.
Fault Zone Contest
Fault Zone Short Story Contest Deadline extended!
The new deadline is August 31, 2012, so if you haven’t gotten to that short story moldering in your top drawer, you have an extra two weeks to polish it up!
Fault Zone: Over the Edge is an anthology of short stories and poems written by the members of the San Francisco/Peninsula Writers and published by Sand Hill Review Press.
Fault Zone isn’t only about earthquakes. It’s about personal faults, shortcomings and the foibles of being human. “In a way, all humankind lives on a fault zone,” said Editor-in-Chief Lisa Meltzer Penn.
The contest is open to writers who are not members of the San Francisco/Peninsula Writers, a division of California Writers Club. Selected members of San Francisco/Peninsula Writers will be the judges of this contest. Entries should relate to the anthology’s theme in some way.
“Write from the heart. Be edgy. Be wild,” Editor Penn said. “But make sure your story has an arc. Stories involving California are always appreciated. We can’t wait to see what comes our way!”
Fault Zone: Words from the Edge was the club’s first volume of short stories published in 2010 by Sand Hill Review Press. Fault Zone: Stepping Up to the Edge came next (2011). This year’s volume, Fault Zone: Over the Edge, will be out in late 2012.
First Prize is $300 and publication in the next Fault Zone anthology. Second Prize is $100. Third Prize is $50. Contest deadline has been moved back to August 31, 2012. Reading fee is $15. Judging should be completed by end of September. Prelaunch book party will be early December. The book will be on Amazon by January. Previously published work will be considered.
To enter the contest, mail two copies of your submission plus $15 to the address below. Do not send registered mail. Please put your name, the name of the story, and your email address on each page. Use Times New Roman or similar font, 12 point, double space. Maximum word count is 2500. Must be postmarked by August 31, 2012. Please use a cover sheet and give us your contact information with your email, address and phone number. Even if you win there may still be edits and we will need to contact you right away. If the club cannot contact the winning entrant, they will be forced to move on. Mail two copies with information sheet, plus $15 entry fee to: SF/Peninsula CWC, P.O. Box 853, Belmont, CA 94002
Twig Book Shop Event – San Antonio
Special Event ~ Anthony Bourdain ~ at Laurie Auditorium
200 E Grayson, Ste. 124
at the Historic Pearl Brewery
San Antonio, TX 78215
twig@thetwig.com ~ thetwig.com
The Twig Book Shop has been invited to be the official bookseller for Anthony Bourdain on Nov. 8th. Fans of chef, food writer, and television host Bourdain will be happy to know that tickets for his show Guts and Gloryare now available.
Johnson City Events
Please join us Tuesday August 21, 9:30am
501 Nugent Ave
Johnson City, TX 78636
Norma Honeycutt will lead the discussion on this month’s book AVA’S MAN by Rick Bragg.
In less capable hands, this biography could have been mawkish and mundane. Instead, Bragg’s telling of his maternal grandfather’slife is eloquent and touching, and his spare prose is alive with fresh metaphors and memorable sentences. Bragg never knew Charlie Bundrum, who died prematurely at age 51 in 1958; the story of this proud, flawed, loving and much-loved hero of Depression-era Appalachia is derived from family and community oral history. Refreshments will be served.
You’re Invited to the DWJ – Dallas
Monday evening, August 27th, 2012 from 7-9pm
Where: Half Price Books (Reading Room) at 5803 E. NW Hwy near I75/NW Hwy
Agenda: 7:00pm Sign in guests and open readers, get refreshments.
Editor News: Exciting New Status of Dallas Writers Journal!
Special Presentation: How the Right Critique Group Can Benefit Your Writing with Sophia Saad
Open Readings: Non-critique format, max word count 1000 please, any theme.
DWJ Volunteer Reading Panel to rate new submissions for publication.
Q & A, Mix and Mingle to close meeting.
Indie Film Financing & Worldwide Distribution Seminar – Dallas
Film Financing and Foreign Distribution: New Trends and Successful Formulas in the 2012 Market Place with James Ordonez
James Ordonez is an Executive Producer, Distributor, Financier, President, and partner of the International production and distribution company Tayrona Entertainment group.
Ordonez is currently behind thirty films in all budget ranges. His successful strategy has greenlighted over $470 million in production budgets in 2012 and 2013 budgets, as well as over $100 million in Latin American and domestic releases.
Topics that will be covered in the seminar will include: making your movie a reality; how to see real profits and get backend participation; the reality of equity, tax credits and presales; and why the old &traditional film financing models don’t work anymore.
It is $195 for the first 100 advance registration and $249 on the day of the event. For more information, visit their website.
Saturday September 22nd, 11-4 pm
Magnolia Hotel 1402 Commerce St.
The Wittliff Collections ~ Fall 2012 Exhibitions + Events ~ San Marcos
FROM UNCERTAIN TO BLUE: Photographs by Keith Carter
Until August 29, 2012
In the 1980s, Keith Carter and his wife, Patricia, visited over 100 small Texas towns with intriguing names like Diddy Waw Diddy, Paradise, and Mount Calm. Keith’s method was simple and practical: one town, one photograph. Although he would take several rolls of film in each place, Keith selected only one representative image to print then titled the photographs with the names of the small towns. Thirteen images from this series—plus the road map the Carters used to chart their project — are on display from the Wittliff Collections’ major holding of Keith Carter’s work. Texas Monthly Press published From Uncertain to Blue in 1988, and 23 years later the University of Texas Press published a new version with field notes from Patricia Carter. Pat’s notes are included in this exhibition, which is installed on the first floor of Texas State’s Alkek Library.
GLOBAL ODYSSEY: From Texas to the World and Back
August 20, 2012 – May 10, 2013
Folklorist J. Frank Dobie wrote, “Great literature transcends its native land but none that I know of ignores its soil.” The challenge for many Texas writers is remaining true to their native roots while becoming part of the larger global community. This demand is not unique to writers—it affects nearly everyone in the world today. Global Odyssey: From Texas to the World and Back draws from the rich archival material at Texas State’s Wittliff Collections to examine how generations of Texas writers have journeyed across the world, encountering a variety of experiences that have inspired their creativity while at the same time underscoring their distinctive heritage as Texans. Using the works of Sarah Bird, William Broyles, Jr., J. Frank Dobie, Stephanie Elizondo Griest, Dagoberto Gilb, John Graves, Angela Shelf Medearis, Katherine Anne Porter, Carmen Tafolla, and many others, Global Odyssey is being staged in conjunction with Texas State’s 2012–2013 Common Experience theme, Global Odyssey: Exploring Our Connections to the Changing World.
LAS SOMBRAS | THE SHADOWS: Photograms by Kate Breakey
August 27, 2012 – April 11, 2013
This exhibition at Texas State’s Wittliff Collections features new work Australian native Kate Breakey created after moving to Arizona in 1999. Making pictures without a camera like William Henry Fox Talbot and Anna Atkins in the 19th century, Breakey also shares their affinity for recording the natural world in scientific detail as well as with artistic beauty. Her contact prints—known as photograms—have the sepia-toned look of Victorian images, yet their sensibility is distinctly modern. Luminous coyotes and whipsnakes, mice, rabbits, quail, cactus, moths and scorpions are imbued with her affection for the flora and fauna that inhabit the American Southwest, which is now her home. As she says, “The natural world is full of wondrous things to look at and to chronicle and catalogue. In my own way, I have devoted myself to that end.” Over 200 photograms, donated to the Wittliff Collections by the artist, are on display, along with 15 images from her “night vision” series. Las Sombras/The Shadows celebrates the new volume in the Wittliff’s Southwestern & Mexican Photography book series with the University of Texas Press, forthcoming in November.
On Permanent Display ~ The Lonesome Dove Collection
From hats to gun belts to boots, the complete outfits of Augustus “Gus” McCrae, Woodrow F. Call, and Lorena Wood (played by Robert Duvall, Tommy Lee Jones, and Diane Lane) are just a few of the many “making of” materials on permanent display from the beloved miniseries based on Larry McMurtry’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. This exhibition from the Wittliff’s major Lonesome Dove production archive takes visitors behind the scenes of the Emmy-winning show, with a look at props and principal costumes, set designs, costume sketches and production notes, Bill Wittliff’s screenplay drafts, script pages, and photographs,plus much, much more.
For more information on visiting The Wittliff Exhibits, visit their website. Admission is free!
From Nano Fiction:
I want to thank you for supporting NANO Fiction during our time of need last year. With your assistance we were able to re-apply for non-profit status while still continuing to publish the only print journal dedicated to flash fiction in the United States.
Our non-profit application is currently still under review by the IRS. The service has seen many budget cuts and with fewer than 700 agents servicing the non-profit sector, we hope to see a final resolution to our case in the next few months – almost two years since our original application date.
We are asking now, to not only join us in our wait but to assist us in publishing flash fiction again.
Operational costs for the journal are not covered by magazine sales alone. From basic office supplies, to printing costs, postage, and special programs, donations are the foundation of income for the magazine. These donations are just as important as ever as we continue to wait for a response on our application from the IRS.
As we work to finalize our eleventh issue, we ask that you take a moment from the lull of summer and review your charitable giving. I hope you will consider a gift to NANO Fiction, which will further ensure that this one-of-a-kind journal can continue to flourish.
The easiest way to support NANO Fiction is to make a gift online at nanofiction.org/donate. If you have questions or need further information, please feel free to contact me by phone at 785-713-6266, or email at kirbyjohnson3@gmail.com.
Thanks for reading the Friday Filler this week. Be sure to let us know how the events went on our Facebook. Have a great weekend!
-WLT
