writing life

July 11-13, Amcrandale, NY:
Woodhull Institute Nonfiction Writing Intensive. It’s not too late! Join me–and Catherine Orenstein and Kristen Kemp–up in Ancramdale this weekend for some oped, magazine article, and book proposal writing good times! To register, email ecurtis@woodhull.org pronto and she’ll set you up.

August 11-13, NYC:
AFTER the honeymoon, I’ll be teaching a special three-day workshop this summer for the girls of Writopia Lab and am excited about the possibility of publishing some of the pieces that emerge from that workshop here on GWP. In the spring, I posted one by 14-year-old Writopia Writer, Sam French, on why she was supporting Hillary. In case you missed it, here tis.

Online seminar, 5 Tuesdays this fall:
Back with Version 2.0 of my Making It Pop: Translating Your Ideas for Trade bloginar! Have you successfully tackled the book proposal but are struggling to find the right structure for your book, themes for your chapters, or hooks and anecdotes to draw the reader in? With In Progress: Getting Your Book DONE, I’ll take you beyond the book proposal and into the process of writing your first book.

Are you writing a book but lacking an author’s community? A writers’ group and the advice of someone who has done it before can aid you to overcome writer’s block or plain old frustration with structure and content. This one’s a hands-on seminar and author-led writer’s group for those in the middle of writing their first books for the public.

The course will offer:

-Exchanges with professionals in the field and your chance to ask those questions that have been plaguing you.
-Strategies for getting unblocked in the middle of Chapter Four
-Tips for crafting introductions and conclusions for the popular reader
-Workshops on playing with structure, chapter titles, and format
-And more.

For more info or to register, please email kristen.loveland@gmail.com.

And lastly, a fall blogging bloginar (how’s that for meta) may very well be in the works. If interested, please let Kristen know and we will send a heads up when details are underway.

A quick heads up that author Claire Mysko will be reviewing the new anthology from Seal, About Face: Women Write about What They See When They Look in the Mirror, in this space soon! Meanwhile, read more about it at The Seal Press Women’s Interest blog.

A number of folks lately have asked me how to submit essays for these things. Calls for essays are often listed in the back of magazines like Poets & Writers, Writers Digest, and the like. But me? I hear about them mostly through word of mouth, and on listservs like WAM!, and I often post any that come through my Inbox here on GWP. So if you see them, please do send me these announcements and I promise to post them here, to share with all.

This week my authors’ group, the Invisible Institute, was treated to a private talk with James B. Stewart, a staff writer at The New Yorker and author of 8 books. We were eager to hear about the trajectory of Jim’s career, what sustains him, how he started, and how he’s made it all work. Stewart teaches journalism at Columbia University and I’m currently reading his how-to book, Follow the Story: How to Write Successful Nonfiction. I wanted to share this passage from it with you, because it applies to the work that so many of us do, whether that be writing or research:

“The essence of thinking like a writer is the recognition that what’s most interesting is what’s unknown, not what is known. Thinking like a writer prizes the question more than the answer. It celebrates paradox, mystery, and uncertainty, recognizing that all of them contain the seeds of a potential story.”

It’s so tricky when you’re writing a book proposal and you must state your argument often before you really know all the questions! But Stewart’s reminder is an important one, and also makes me think of my favorite quote from Rilke, in Letters to a Young Poet:

“Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books written in a foreign language. Do not now look for the answers. They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them. It is a question of experiencing everything. At present you need to live the question. Perhaps you will gradually, without even noticing it, find yourself experiencing the answer, some distant day.”

Ahhh.

We knew this before, but a new study from Rutgers proves it yet again, and the NYTimes reports it: “Study Finds Imbalance on 3 Newspapers’ Op-Ed Pages”. In the words of Helaine Olen, “I’m shocked! Gambling at Rick’s!”

The authors of the study, Bob Sommer (who teaches public policy communications and is president of Observer Media, publisher of The New York Observer) and John R. Maycroft, a graduate student in public policy, got their data by combing through 366 opinion articles written by college teachers or researchers and published by three newspapers: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Star-Ledger, the largest-circulation newspaper in New Jersey. Their study will be published in the journal Politics and Policy. Read more about it here.

Calling all ye women: SUBMIT YOUR OPEDS! To learn how, come to Woodhull’s next nonfiction writing retreat on July 11-13, where Katie Orenstein of The Oped Project will be teaching oped writing–and I’ll be teaching nonfiction book proposals! More info here.

(And thanks, Helaine, for the early morning heads up!)

Join me at the next Woodhull Nonfiction Writers Retreat, where I’ll be teaching a day on writing nonfiction book proposals. If you register now, there’s a Special Early Bird Rate. Here’s the scoop:

Women are underrepresented as nonfiction authors and opinion writers. In a long weekend of writing instruction and one-on-one critique from expert instructors Kristen Kemp, Catherine Orenstein, and Deborah Siegel, participants gain fundamental knowledge of Op-ed pieces, features, book proposals, and pitching ideas.

Substantial discounts are also available to alumnae and members. To register, click here. For more info, email Elizabeth at ecurtis@woodhull.org.

I’ve been going to lots of book parties lately. Lots and lots of book parties. And as a writer at someone else’s book party, one always take mental notes. Here are three of my latest:

1. Ask guests to please go home and write a 5-star review of your book on Amazon.com. You must ask in tongue and cheek tone, but, of course, you are deadly serious.

2. Have a gimmick related to your book. Best ever: heaps of ice cream and other bad-for-your-waist deliciousness offered at Abby Ellin’s book party for Teenage Waistland — oh, and the scale. Close second, even though it made me jumpy: the pink balloons at a party last week for The She Spot: Why Women Are the Market for Changing the World–And How to Reach Them (more on this new book soon!) which guests were asked to pop as a reminder that there’s more to marketing social change to women than making everything pink.

3. Wear a crazy fabulous dress because, really, when else do you get to.

What was the best/worst book party you’ve been to, those of you who frequent such things? (Note: I’m not looking for personal snipes here — just your thoughts about do’s and don’ts!)

Image cred

This month Seal Press offers up another new anthology, About Face: Women Write about What They See When They Look in the Mirror, edited by Anne Burt and Christina Baker Kline. In this one, 24 women of varying ages (23 to 75) and races brave a standoff with their reflections. From the book’s description:

From lines to wrinkles, dark circles to freckles, a woman’s face tells the unique story of her life. In many ways it’s a roadmap — with each singular characteristic, crease, and blemish serving as a milestone of having lived, loved, and endured….In the essay “On Reflection,” contributor Patricia Chao stares at herself and dares to ponder who she is when she is not being loved or desired by a man. In “My Celebrity Face,” Alice Elliott Dark must endure hearing her college crush tell her that she looks like the man on the Quaker Oats box. This leads her to a life filled contradictions — but ultimately ends in contentment with the woman she’s become….About Face dares women to look at themselves — no flinching or turning away; no poses, and no excuses. Both challenging and warm, About Face will inspire women to examine their faces, flaws and all, and to learn to love what they see.

And hey wow: celebrity makeup artist Bobbi Brown wrote the foreword. Essayists include Jennifer Baumgardner, Bobbi Brown, Kristin Buckley, Marina Budhos, Patricia Chao, Alice Elliott Dark, Susan Davis, Louise DeSalvo, Bonnie Friedman, Kathryn Harrison, Annaliese Jakimides, Dana Kinstler, Benilde Little, Meredith Maran, Manijeh Nasrabadi, Ellen Papazian, Kym Ragusa, Jade Sanchez-Ventura, Pamela Redmond Satran, Rory Satran, Alix Kates Shulman, Catherine Texier, S. Kirk Walsh, and Kamy Wicoff.

Had I been writing an essay for this one (ahem! kidding. sort of), I would have written about my nose and teeth and ears — all of which caused me great suffering as a teenager. Right through the eighth grade, a mean boy named Jeff Foy called me, alternatingly, Bugs Bunny, Dumbo, and The Beak. Didn’t seem to help me to know that everyone called him Jeff Foy the Toy Boy. Yep, Jeff suffered too.

Anyway, as I was explaining just yesterday to a beautiful and dear friend, when your physical appearance was made fun of as a kid, that feeling of ugliness gets internalized. It’s often very hard to wish away. Adolescence may be time-limited, but that sense that there is something wrong with you persists. Shout outs to college, college therapists, and college boyfriends — all of whom, in my case, helped me face that self-doubt and feel better about, well, my face.

I look forward to reading this book! Would any GWP reader like to offer up a guest review? Email me at girlwpen@gmail.com and we’ll arrange.

But just because I’m missing doesn’t mean you have to. Yes, if I weren’t getting married that week, I would be running off to BlogHer 2008 and the Iowa Summer Writing Festival. And at the latter, I’d be here: “Memoir: The Vertical Pronoun and the Who Cares? Question,” which happens July 13-18, and “Narrative Journalism: The Art of the Profile” on July 19-20, both taught by Sarah Saffian. For more info on these workshops, click here. For general registration, here.

And for the folks who have recently asked me for advice about MFA programs in creative nonfiction: While I know little about the difference between various programs, I do know that had I not maxed out my savings on a PhD I would be running to go get me one of those. Fellow writer and workshop teacher Elizabeth Merrick, however, knows a lot about these programs and offers counseling and coaching and the like. So I thought I’d point those wondering her way, since unfortunately I can be of little use in this particular respect.

The online Making It PoP: Translating Your Ideas for Trade workshop is back!

This fall, I’ll once again be offering a 5-week hands-on seminar for researchers and academics on writing book proposals. This teleconference features guests from the publishing industry and is paired with an ongoing online web forum in the form of a closed class blog.

The course is designed to help researchers, scholars, and policy “wonks” bridge the translation gap. I’ll encourage you to make bold observations, learn new tricks, and unlearn old ones—like hiding your voice behind footnotes or lit reviews, or subordinating yourself to your topic. You’ll learn why it’s essential to think about audience and market in a different way. We’ll explore the differences between popular and academic writing, why a dissertation is not a trade book, and how to write an effective book proposal–meaning one with the best chances of being sold.

In this course you will also learn:
• Techniques for de-jargonizing your prose
• Why “making it pop” does not mean “dumbing it down” or “selling out,” and how to deal with institutional scorn
• How to know whether your book idea has commercial potential
• The elements of a strong book proposal
• The importance of narrative, and what else editors look for
• The role of an agent
• The in’s and out’s of publshing in different popular media venues (online and print)

When: Five weeks, Tuesdays, October 7th – November 4th, 7:00pm – 8:15pm (via phone; ongoing online forum during the week)

Guest instructors from the publishing industry will share their expertise each week. Past instructors have included:

Alissa Quart, author of Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers and Hothouse Kids: The Dilemma of the Gifted Child, published by Penguin Press in 2006, and contributor to the New York Times Magazine, Mother Jones, The Atlantic Monthly

Laura Mazer, an editor and book consultant who has worked with publishers including Seal Press, Counterpoint Books, Soft Skull Press, Avalon Publishing Group, and Random House (see Laura’s Book Smarts column here and here and here on GWP)

Christine Kenneally, author of The First Word: The Search for the Origins of Language and a freelance journalist who has written for The New Yorker,The New York Times, Discover, Slate and Salon

Tracy Brown, President of the Tracy Brown Literary Agency

Amanda Moon, an editor at Basic Books and formerly an editor at Palgrave.

Jean Casella, a freelance book editor and formerly the publisher of The Feminist Press

For questions, pricing, and more, please contact girlwpen@gmail.com.

Two of my favorite 23-year-old bloggers, artist/photographer Emma Bernstein and writer Nona Willis-Aronowitz, have made some major changes to their blog of late, and I love what they’ve done with the place. Check it all out, over at GIRLdrive. Here’s what I like about this blog:

It’s a platform for their forthcoming book from Seal.

Their blog’s tagline, “roadtripping america, mapping out feminism,” is a great example of a tagline that nails it.

Their “Mid-Week Memo” feature covers timely topics and interesting projects they’re involved in around issues like women and the arts, mentoring teenage girls, intergenerational conversations, and other juicy tidbits from the feminist frontier.

The press their project has generated.

And, of course, the fact that they profiled my dear friend in Wyoming, Shelby.

Do visit them over at GIRLdrive and see for yourself.