writing life

Back by popular demand 🙂

MAKING IT POP: Translating Your Ideas for Trade, with Deborah Siegel (er, me)
Tuesdays 11/6, 11/13, 11/20, 11/27, 12/4, 12/11
8:00 – 9:15 pm ET
Format: Online forum + weekly conference call
Fee: $250 ($275 after Oct. 19)

Public debate lacks a sensitive discussion of the complex forces shaping the lives of women and girls. Researchers, nonprofit workers, and savvy writers everywhere have the opportunity to frame public debate about these issues. Too often, however, important work fails to reach an audience outside the academic and advocacy worlds. Writing a trade book is one way to join the debate. To sell a book in today’s competitive publishing climate, one must be able to write engaging, accessible prose that will appeal to a wide audience. These skills can be learned.

Participants will learn from exchanges with New York City-based agents and editors why it’s essential to think about audience and market in a different way, and why you need a book proposal. We’ll explore the differences between popular and academic writing, why a dissertation or a monograph is not a trade book, and how to write an effective book proposal-meaning one that has the best chance of being sold. We’ll also consider the latest aspects of book publicity, focusing in particular on new media. (See what past participants are saying about the course here.)

Space is limited. Please send a note describing your rough idea for a popular book in 1 paragraph to deborahsiege (at) gmail (dot) com, and I will be in touch with further details.

Read more about MAKING IT POP in Women’s eNews:
Women’s Studies Scholars Vie for More Media Turf

My bio is here.

I met Grace Paley–activist, teacher, former state poet, feminist extraordinaire, lover of life–when she spoke on a panel I had organized in the early 1990s. I was in my early twenties. She seemed ageless. Grace Paley was magnificent, humble, and real.

Robin Morgan wrote a beautiful tribute to Paley’s life, invoking Paley’s signature style, for the Women’s Media Center. The New York Times obituary is here. And, for those who have yet to have hear it and for those who already miss it, you can still listen to her voice here, on NPR.

Here are two of my favorites, from her New and Collected Poems:

1. My dissent is cheer / a thankless disposition / first as the morning star / my ambition: good luck / and why not a flight / over the wide dilemma / and then good night to sad forever.

2. A stranger calling a dog whistled / and I came running though I am not an afghan / or a highclass poodle and not much like a city boy’s dog with a happy wild tail and red eyes / The stranger said excuse me, I was calling my dog not you / Ah I replied to this courteous explanation / Sometimes I whistle too but mostly for fear of missing the world I am a dog to whistlers.

We’ll be whistling for you, Grace.

Fire-eating ladies? Contortionists? Huh?!

For those of you as yet unfamiliar with the concept of a blog carnival, do run over and check out the 44th Carnival of Feminists over at Reproductive Rights Blog. It’s one of the places I catch up on greatest hits, all wrapped up in an engaging, organized narrative. I’m all for aggregation.

For the newbies: The Carnival of Feminists is held (usually) on the first and third Wednesday of each month. Hosted by a different blogger for each edition, it aims to “showcase the finest feminist posts from around the blogsphere.” Explains the illustrious Natalie Bennett, a British blogger who blogs at Philobiblon and runs the Carnival of Feminists:

The Carnival aims to build the profile of feminist blogging, to direct extra traffic to all participating bloggers, but particularly newer bloggers, and to build networks among feminist bloggers around the world….Posts that celebrate women’s lives and contributions to society – either current-day or historical – are particularly welcome. Posts will usually have been made in the period since the last carnival. (Only one nomination per blog please.)

This week, Carnival host Cara focuses the current round-up on policy, economics and feminism. (Thank you, Cara, for all your hard work over there!)

Check out what The Guardian had to say about it all last year.

And for a big fat listing of other carnivals, go here.

Does the idea of self-marketing make you nauseous? Try to get over it! Harsh words, I know, but I have to say, for authors in our DIY culture, I tend to agree.

The Chronicle of Higher Ed has an interesting piece out on entrepreneurship and academe. Writes Philip L. Leopold, an associate professor of genetic medicine at the Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University:

The entrepreneurial topic that academics are least likely to embrace might be the most important concept in their career: marketing.

To a professor, the term might carry connotations of profit motives and deceptive practices. Insomuch as marketing represents the dissemination of the product, professors should realize that marketing is an essential responsibility of their profession.

So true, especially when it comes to book promotion; publishing houses can only do so much, then they move on. The article puts it all in a larger, and interesting, context for those on an academic track. Read more here.

I heard it at The F-Word, where Jess McCabe writes:

The Guardian is running a competition to edit the Women section of G2 for a week. The competition celebrates the women’s pages 50ths anniversary, and opened back in July (thanks Dollymix), but there are only a few short weeks to enter. If you’re interested, head over to the Guardian pronto to get the full story. You’ll need to pull together:

– Five ideas for articles that you would like to see featured on the women’s pages, outlining each of them in no more than two paragraphs
– 500 words explaining why you would like to be women’s editor and why you would be well suited to the role
– A one-page CV outlining any relevant experience

What an opportunity, huh?

A quick announcement on behalf of my friend Lori, who is leading a juicy sounding monthly discussion group at the Barnard Center for Research on Women Courses this Fall.

CONSUMING PASSIONS: Pleasure & Politics in Women’s Memoirs, with Lori Rotskoff
Wednesdays, 9/26, 10/24, 11/28, 12/19, 1/23, 2/27, 3/26, 4/30, 6/4, 7:00 – 8:30 pm
BCRW, 101 Barnard Hall
Fee: $315

Here’s the description:

What are the passions, pleasures, and political commitments that fuel women’s lives? In this class, we will discuss memoirs by American women who have embarked on journeys of personal fulfillment, intellectual growth, or political activism from the 1920s to the present day.

And here’s more Lori:

Lori Rotskoff is a cultural historian of American family life. She holds a Ph.D. in American Studies from Yale University, and has written articles and reviews for the Chicago Tribune, Reviews in American History, and The Women’s Review of Books. This is her third year teaching at the Barnard Center for Research on Women.

For more information call 212-854-2067 or visit www.barnard.edu/bcrw

I’ve had a number of responses to my offer the other week and am delighted to post this week from an English prof at the Naval Academy and perhaps, in addition, a Duke historian. Stay tuned! (And if you’d like to participate as a Guest Scholar-Blogger, please take a look at the guidelines and then email me at deborahsiege AT gmail DOTCOM.)

Welcome back from a deliciously long weekend!

While this author was busy blissing out in the country (thank you, Daph, Sacha, and Rena!), then in New Jersey (thanks, Schettinos!), then in Prospect Park, the New York Times ran two interesting articles on how industrious authors are using blogs and social networking to promote their books. Check out Kara Jasella’s informative article on the blog book tour (The Author Will Take Q’s Now) and Pagan Kennedy’s tongue-in-cheek back-page essay in yesterday’s Book Review on MySpace (A Space for Us). I’ve blog toured a bit and will be sharing more of what I’ve learned soon.

Oh – and Girl with Pen made the Chronicle of Higher Education last week, broadcasting (via Broadsheet of course) that study about the lack of women “Shouts and Murmur” authors in The New Yorker. (Thank you for alerting me, Steve!) Funny how people there all assumed that the scholar who did the count was female. He wasn’t.

Here it is, here. I’d like to note that the rest of the paragraph that ends with “shaving your legs” went like this, before it was cut AGAINST MY WISHES:

To Walker, “third wave” meant a feminism linked to her mother’s, but different. It meant continuing and improving upon the best that second-wave feminism had to offer – grassroots activism and critique of the media, for instance – but still shaving your legs. It meant embracing multiculturalism, contradiction, and, if that’s what grooved you, proudly sporting a thong. Soon after Walker’s rallying cry, author/activists Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards published their book, ManifestA, which provided analysis and strategy for the young women now poised to carry the torch. This was a propitious moment.

Just sayin. I did not want them to end with “shaving your legs” when there was so much more substance to the graf.

I just discovered this amazing blog, Jewesses with Attitude. Judith Rosenbaum, Director of Education at the Jewish Women’s Archive, is a Jewess this Jewess would love to meet. Ok, Judith posted a lovely review over there, but that’s not the only reason I want to meet her. I swear. She sounds pretty amazing. Definitely check out the blog.