Book Reviewing

If you're looking for some pointers on book reviewing, click on over to Critical Mass, the excellent (and still relatively new) blog from the National Book Critics Circle. As contributor John Freeman noted last week, John Updike's own six rules for reviewing, though now more than 30 years old, still offer an excellent guide to ethical reviewing practices.

Jim Lehrer at Harvard

It's Commencement time this week here in Cambridge. Which means it's Reunion time, too. Which means I'm going to spend the next couple days catching up with old friends and not spending very much time at the computer at all.

But if you want some writing-related material in the meantime, you might read the speech journalist Jim Lehrer delivered at Harvard's Commencement yesterday. His main point was more about politics than writing (consider that fair warning) but there are plenty of writing-related tidbits included. I especially like Lehrer's own guidelines on the practice of journalism (starting with "Do nothing I cannot defend" and "Cover, write and present every story with the care I would want if the story were about me").

Have a great weekend.

Editorial Update from Ascent

Ascent, a Canadian quarterly journal "of yoga and engaged spirituality," has updated its editorial calendar/themes. Note that "on average, we pay 10 to 20 cents per published word (Canadian funds), paid upon publication. We give a fee of $50 for book or CD reviews."

From My Bookshelf

The Inquest
by Jeffrey D. Marshall
Hardscrabble Books/University Press of New England, 2006
288 pp., $24.95

I admit that I'm biased a) toward historical fiction and b) toward historical fiction written by authors who, like me, have some professional training in history. So when I saw that UPNE was publishing this novel by Jeffrey D. Marshall, who is Special Collections Librarian and University Archivist at the University of Vermont and editor of A War of the People: Vermont's Civil War Letters, I was immediately intrigued.

Marshall's debut novel is inspired by the true story of a Vermont woman--Experience "Speedy" Goodrich--who died in 1830 after having an abortion. Marshall presents the story through three first-person accounts of individuals who played some role in the story, especially in the inquest that followed Speedy's death: Charles Daggett, a student at the University of Vermont medical school accused of procuring (and, in the eyes of many, performing) the abortion; Stephen Decatur Parker, another student who is asked to record the proceedings of the inquest because of his unusual shorthand skills; and Nancy Goodrich Proctor, Speedy's sister.

Only Parker is a wholly invented character. Marshall cleverly (if somewhat disappointingly) leaves out accounts from others involved in the case by opening the book with a note titled "About These Accounts." The narrator of this note is Charles Adams, a former prosecutor for the State of Vermont who explains that he was dissatisfied with the original inquest and had decided "to inquire of several persons most familiar with the facts of the case whether they would set down their recollections, in narrative style, for my edification." He then adds that of the individuals whose testimony he solicited, only Daggett, Decatur, and Proctor responded.

It was a very smart choice to open the book with Daggett's narrative. Daggett has the most knowledge of the case; he's central to everything else that occurs; the reader finds herself caring about what happens to him at least as much as--if not more than--what happens to Speedy herself. In some ways, it's not difficult to imagine his section of the book as a stand-alone novella, although the other two sections do round out the story.

Throughout, Marshall conveys a tremendous amount of historical information. Those interested in the history of science will learn a lot about medical education in the early 19th century; the history of New England comes alive here, too. And then, of course, there's the historical context of this particular story of an abortion.

Like many other works of historical fiction, this one appends an "Author's Statement" which throws light on how Marshall developed and researched his book. Somewhat atypically, at least in my reading experience, the statement appears as part of a Reading Group Guide which presents not only some questions for group (or class) discussion, but a Q&A with Marshall, too.

"In the end," Marshall says in his Author's Statement, "I am not sure that I have done justice to Speedy and the other real characters by presenting the story as historical fiction, but I hope I have suggested something closer to the truth about the times they lived in than I could otherwise do. I hope, as well, that the story will prove entertaining and thought-provoking." He has, and it does.

Changes at The Danforth Review

The Danforth Review, an online journal based in Canada, has revised its publication/submission policies. Beginning in September, they'll publish four new short stories every three months (September, December, March and June). They'll receive/review submissions in the month prior to publication (in other words, August, November, February, and May, respectively). For more information, check the new guidelines. Accepts simultaneous submissions (identify as such when submitting); looks for unpublished work only; pays $100 (CDN) for a short story. "International submissions are encouraged."

Another No-Cost Contest

Found out about this one first from the Writing-World.com newsletter; then I asked the Prize Administrator for details, which I've reprinted below. For more information, you can check with him, too:

Write for the BCSA 2006 prize

Fact or fiction – both are welcome in the writing competition run in 2006 by the British Czech and Slovak Association. A first prize of £300 and a second prize of £100 will be awarded to the best 1,500 to 2,000-word pieces of original writing in English on the links between Britain and the Czech/Slovak Republics, or describing society in transition in the Republics since 1989. Topics can include history, politics, the sciences, economics, the arts or literature.

The writer of this year's winning entry will be presented with the prize at the BCSA’s annual dinner in London in November 2006. The piece will be published in the December 2006 issue of the British Czech and Slovak Review.

Submissions are invited from individuals of any age, nationality or educational background.

Entry is free. Entries should be received by 30 June 2006. An author may submit any number of entries. The competition will be judged by a panel of experts. The writer of the prize-winning entry will be notified by 30 September 2006.

Entries should be submitted by post to the BCSA Prize Administrator, 24 Ferndale, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, TN2 3NS, England, or by e-mail to prize(at)bcsa(dot)co(dot)uk.


Submission guidelines

All entries must be in English, prose, typed with double-spacing and no more than 2,000 words in length.

To ensure objective and anonymous judging the writer's name must not appear anywhere on the piece itself.

The title must appear on the first page of the entry.

All entries must be accompanied by a cover sheet, which should include the following information:

* the writer's name, address, home telephone/fax number, e-mail address and date of birth;

* the title of the piece and the word count;

* a signed statement verifying that the submission is an original piece of writing by the writer and has not been previously published, and that any citations are complete, correct and acknowledged in due form;

* a note of how the entrant learned about the competition.

The BCSA’s decision on the winning entries will be final. Entries are subject to the rules of the competition, which are available free on request from the BCSA Prize Administrator at the addresses given above, or by phone on +44 (0) 1892 543206. Copies of this notice are also available free from the Prize Administrator.


www.bcsa.co.uk March 2006

Good luck!

Submission Materials Sought

Still have copies of your successful cover letters, query letters, synopses, or related materials? The Writers Institute is looking for such items to reprint in its annual market directories. Buys one-time print rights and unlimited electronic rights. Pays $25. See the announcement at FreelanceWriting.com.

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Woman

Among the many items in yesterday's New York Times that are likely to appeal especially to writers (it was tough for me to decide which front-page Arts section article to read first: the review of Neil Hanson's Unknown Soldiers: The Story of the Missing of the First World War, or the John Updike profile) you should have caught Michael Winerip's "On Education" piece, "It's a Tough Life, to Live It and to Write It, but It Just Got a Little Better." The article describes teenager Jessica Atkinson, a remarkable writer, and her remarkable teacher, Rene Miles. Prediction: Jessica Atkinson will have a book out one day, and probably one day in the not-too-distant future.