Grind Writers
News
before Sunday December 2, 2012
and a printer Guttenburg, eat your heart out. These chapbooks are so easy to make and they are adorable. Make them in numerous colours – they stand up on the table in flocks. Here are the step by step instructions on how to make them in Word.
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Why I the
VPL’s Readers’ Café is a great place to keep up with the goings-on in the wider literary world, this sort of thing:
seasonal gifts
A New Kind of EBook with All the Bells & Whistles A new e-book, The Silent History, has gone where no ebook has gone before.
Me & the VPL: How much more responsive could my library be?
[It] just might be leading the way into the future according to the LA Times. One of the "co-author's" of The Silent History describes the digital book as, "an app that's a seriialized novel, as well as a literary treasure hunt."
When I was researching Canadian writing contests for an upcoming issue of Wordworks, I came across the Canadian Writers’ Contest Calendar, (which by the way is a book not a wall calendar) It was described as 80 pages of detailed information on Canadian writing contests, awards and prizes, organized month by month according to their deadline dates. Organized by deadline dates, yes! Naturally I wanted to see it right away. So I went online to the Vancouver Public library to place a hold. But it only showed a 1995 edition – and that this lone ranger was only available as a reference downtown. Now there’s a little-known place on the VPL website (tucked away under Contact Us) here you can ask them to acquire books, if you can make a case for it. I filled in the form (they like basic information – title, author, publisher and ISBN if you have it) to request the 2012 edition. I got an email back within 48 hours from Christopher Kevlahan the Assistant Division Head, Acquisitions. He explained that they did have the 2012 and why it was listed as only the 1995 and that there were 2 copies downtown in reference. I wrote back and asked, “Why can’t these come out on inter-branch loan though? They’re $15 about the same as a quality pb – can you get some circulating copies? Wouldn’t that be a bit more green than having people drive or use bus petrol to go downtown to the central branch? And Christopher, bless his heart, wrote back and said:
So now you can request it at your home brach. I love institutions that are resposive to their end-users.
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OODLES OF WRITING JOBS IN VANCOUVER here
WEATHER CANCELLATIONS - NOTE Please read your email the morning-of meeting dates from now on in case of last-minute cancellation due to inclement weather.
Can you imagine a Canada without
Grind Writers schedule
the CBC?
Sunday, Dec 2
It could happen. It’s under attack.
(last one for 2012)
2013| Saturday Jan 5 Sunday Jan 20
We need to pay attention. As artists, we need to act. Now.
Please take time to watch this video and listen to the presentations.
Grind Gallery Café 4124 Main Street at King Edward Ave. In the back room
Vancouver School of Writing? Who knew there was a
Leading personalities (including Gorden Pinset) from the worlds of Canadian business, literature, music and the arts spoke out about the importance of public broadcasting at a news conference in Toronto on Nov. 14th.
Well, there is and it offers classroom & online courses, workshops, coaching packages, retreats, online bookstore, etc. Examples – “Write & Publish Your
They talk about what the CBC has meant and means to them.** The event, sponsored by the broadcast watchdog group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, comes as Canada's broadcast regulator begins a review of CBC's licences for the first time this century. For more information, please visit the Friends’ website.
eBook in 21 Days” (only $10) “Creating a Book Trailer” “Writing Powerful Content for Websites” and dozens more.
Then: please give some thought to what you can do – whatever that might be – and do it, and keep on doing it, and try and get other artists to do whatever their “do” is.
Read all about the VSW – here.
** What does the CBC tv and radio mean to you? Write it up , send it to me and we’ll put it up on the GW blog.
If we don’t all do something, we’re going to lose it.
10am til 12:30pm
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The poetry of witness: a 3-month online course November 19, 2012 to February 19, 2013 Contact: Lorraine Gane: info@lorrainegane.com or www.lorrainegane.com
So much going on at Christianne’s Lyceum: thankfully, some of their fare is for grown-ups
In a state of poetic attention, we have eyes to see and ears to hear the deeper truths of our experiences, with all their joys, pains, triumphs, and losses. We become a witness to our lives expressing what we’ve gone through with greater insight and sensory nuance.
Authors’ Night Out™ Thursdays 7:30-10 pm Ages: Adult Writing Group Dates: 2012 - Dec 6. 2013: Jan 10, Feb 7, Mar 7, Apr 11, May 9, June 6.
This 3-month online course will help you cultivate this state through practices to open awareness and a flow of writing from buried memories, feelings, and images. Deep listening will help you attune to the most vivid writing and shape poetry into a completed form.
Cost:
$20 + HST/session
A warm, supportive and inspiring environment for new and established authors to workshop their material. Regular attendance is strongly encouraged so that we develop a group identity and build bonds of trust around what is typically a solitary and somewhat isolating activity. Material to be workshopped should be submitted to the Lyceum well in advance of the assigned. If the Writers' Workshop you are interested in has already started, please call us to see if there is still room. We will prorate the registration fee in this instance.
Open Mic at the Lyceum The first Friday of every month (usually) Doors at 8:00pm Mic at 8:30 pm Picture this: An open mic experience that is both intimate and communal. We start off the evening socializing. It’s this aspect that sets us apart. The intimacy factor. We gather in a comforting space with good food and drink (yes, that includes wine, cheese, and chocolate, among other things.) Listening to great music and just getting to know each other. Many great conversations happen. We then fire up the spotlight and perform for each other. It is like going to watch a really great variety show, except the performers are all your friends and you don’t need back stage passes to talk to them afterwords. :) Our stage is open to any art from. On any given night you can expect to hear poetry, music, storytelling, monologues, stand-up comedy or anything your mind can conceive. $6 Cover. $4 Beverages. The love, however, is always free. Check out the Open Mic's Youtube Channel!
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Submit. you know you want to.
Calls for submissions Briarpatch magazine 2nd annual Creative Writing Contest Deadline: December, 2012 Briarpatch wants original, unpublished writing – categories sshort fiction and creative nonfiction. Awardwinning writers Zoe Whittall and Carmen Aguirre judging. $750 in cash prizes. Read all the rules here.
Roundup of poetry contests here Geist Emerging Writer-of-the-Month Emerging writers are invited to submit short written works online. FAQ. The Quotable This online magazine wants writer-readers to submit stories based on their monthly prompts. Info here.
Newborn anthology Guidelines Deadline: January 13, 2013
Mental Health Inside/Out Deadline: January 31st, 2013 For issue 7 of Poetry Is Dead, we have 2 guest editors Nikki Reimer and Kevin Spenst working on a collaborative issue. To submit, please email your submissions to ***Lots more description about this contest. Please read it all before you submit here.
Poets Literary Salon
Ascent Aspirations Magazine (Nanaimo) Poetry & Flash Fiction Contest Deadline: March 9th, 2013 All info here.
Sunday December 16 – 7 to 9:30 pm The Cottage Bistro 4468 Main Street Vancouver Features Fiona Lam and Raoul Fernandes. This will be a special evening. No open mic that night. Suggested donation at the door: $5. All are welcome. In 2013 Twisted Poets will run the 2nd Wednesday and the 4th Thursday of every month. More information here.
Leaf Press is gathering poems for an anthology to, for, about or by newborn humans. We are interested in thresholds and liminal states; in moments that transcend global cultures.
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Call for applications
Canadian Women in the Literary Arts
You, go Mo! Controversial Chinese author, Mo Yan: 2012 Nobel prize for Literature.
Deadline: November 1, 2012 CWILA is seeking a female Canadian writer (poet, novelist, storyteller, scholar) as its resident critic for a calendar year. The aim of the residency is to foster vital criticism that promotes public awareness of women’s literary and critical presence in Canadian letters. Specifically, the critic-inresidence will work on critical essays and/or book reviews and submit them to one or more Canadian review venues (print or web).
“Born in 1955 into a farming family in Shandong province, Mo Yan survived the Cultural Revolution – no small achievement – and came of age during the 1980s thaw. “The 1987 film Red Sorghum, based on two of his early novels and directed by the great Zhang Yimou, re-introduced Chinese cinema after decades of communist-imposed silence,” The Globe & Mail article reported last month.
Applications can be sent to info@cwila.com Stipend: $2,000. Read all about it here.
JOAN BOXALL’s story “Straight Flush” was just published in the North Shore Writers’ Association anthology, A Pocketful of Posies volume 12, 2012... You will soon be able to order it off the NSWA website.
Do you write about gardening? The Garden Writers’ Association has a Facebook page (and over 2400 members) here.
Leave the dishes. Let the celery rot in the bottom drawer of the refrigerator is the first line of Louise Erdrich’s poem “Advice to Myself.” It drew me in immediately. Here’s the full poem on The Writer’s Almanac website.
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Free write picture prompt Free-writes
easy rule 1.
Write for 15 mins., without stopping –without lifting your pen off the paper, without thinking. Just let it flow ad write. Don’t edit, don’t go back, don’t rewrite (you can edit later). Write whatever comes to mind, doesn’t matter what: even if it’s, “This is a crappy prompt and…….” Just write that down and keep on going.
See where it takes you. Bring your output to the next Grind Writers and share. WHAT’S YOUR BEST CHRISTMAS MEMORY? WHAT’S YOUR WORST?
The Grind Writers News ©2012
Margo Lamont
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e: margolamont@gmail.com b: http://wildsynapticleaps.blogspot.com/