Friday Find: Slate's "Memoir Week"

There's a variety of material on "the state of the modern memoir" over at Slate this week. I haven't had a chance to read through it all yet, but it seems worth perusing (via Sarah Heidt at the Kenyon Review blog).

College Writing

As if we need further evidence of the decline of writing skills (and other academic skills) among America's youth, Inside Higher Ed this week offers up a piece titled "Fooling the College Board," with some dispiriting information on the essay portion of the SAT.

And sorry to darken your day even further at this early hour, but don't expect colleges to fix the situation. This week the same site also brings us "The Overflowing Composition Classroom." (And remember, bright-eyed MFA candidates, until and unless you publish a book of your "creative" work, composition is quite likely what you'll be teaching, if teaching is your goal.)

But it's not all gloom and doom on the higher education front. This week some students at The City University of New York (disclosure: my place of employment) received some wonderful and well-deserved news. And happily, The New York Sun took note and commented.

Columnist Sought

High Country News is looking for a freelance Washington columnist:

High Country News, a biweekly magazine that covers the politics, environment and culture of the American West, is looking for a Washington correspondent who thinks and reports deeply and opines with flair. This is a unique opportunity for a columnist to reach a growing audience in 11 Western states that will be battlegrounds for the 2008 presidential election. Column format and frequency are negotiable. Column brilliance is not.

Founded 37 years ago, High Country News is read by policymakers, agency officials, journalists and thousands of 'people who care about the West.' For its 2006 journalism, HCN won the George Polk Award for Political Reporting, the AAAS Science Journalism Award, and the Walter Sullivan Award for Science Journalism, among many honors. For more information, please visit our Web site: www.hcn.org.

For more information and application instructions, see the announcement at JournalismJobs.com.

Writing "Tools, Not Rules"

As if Roy Peter Clark weren't already impressive enough. Now he "stars" in Writing Tools: The Musical (thanks to practicing writer S. for bringing this to my attention). Remember, they're "tools, not rules." Have fun!

Monday Morning Market Listings

Good morning, everyone. Below, the latest collection of opportunities. More to come when our newsletter goes out to subscribers later this week.

Descant (Canada) invites general submissions, as well as work for three upcoming themed issues: "Hotels" (deadline: June 1, 2007), "Cats" (deadline: July 1, 2007), and "Dogs" (deadline also July 1, 2007." Considers poetry, short stories, novel excerpts, plays, essays, interviews, musical scores, and visual presentations. No simultaneous submissions. Pays: $100 (presumably in Canadian funds) on publication. Be sure to check the Web site for information on each themed issue and the names of the guest editors.

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A new issue of Contrary is now online; this Web-based publication is now open to submissions for its summer issue. Accepts fiction, poetry, and "commentary." Deadline: June 1. Paying market. Submission guidelines here.

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The Southern Review is looking for a new editor. Check the announcement here.

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Marietta College (Georgia) seeks applicants "for the position of Assistant Professor of English with pre-Civil War emphasis; preference will be given to candidates who have taught and published poetry." Position will be one-year or tenure-track, "depending on qualifications." Ph.D. required. Review begins April 1, 2007. More information at HigherEdJobs.com.

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Co-sponsored by Enterprise Community Partners and the Freedom Forum, the 2007 Excellence in Urban Journalism Award "is intended to encourage and recognize quality reporting on major issues facing the nation's urban areas, particularly inner cities. Two winners will be selected and each will receive an award and a check for $2,500." U.S. entries only. Work must have been published or broadcast during the 2006 calendar year. No entry fee. Required entry form (at the site). Deadline: May 31, 2007.

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Attention, writers in the UK/Republic of Ireland: GalleyCat reports on the Daily Mail First Novel Contest, with a deadline of July 2, 2007. It awards a publishing contract with Transworld Publishers (a division of The Random House Group Limited), and an advance of £30,000.

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Blue Cubicle Press seeks stories and poems for Tales from the Clinic, which will contain "stories from the healthcare worker's point of view. Your story can be set in a hospital, hospice, anywhere care is given (evan an ambulance)." Pays: $5-$50 "depending on the length and rights requested." Will consider previously published material. See the announcement here.

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Find specific editorial requests (fiction and nonfiction) from horror-focused Dark Recesses Press here (paying market).

Recent Reads: The Cincinnati Review, Winter 2007

Thought I'd post again about some of the excellent work I've been reading via the literary journals I picked up at the recent AWP conference in Atlanta. Today's selection is the Winter 2007 issue of The Cincinnati Review, a beautiful publication I'd love to see my own work in someday (believe me, I've tried). In the meantime, I'm happy enough that the new issue includes Susan Perabo's extraordinary short story, "The Payoff." And I'm happy to be able to point you to an excerpt online. Click here to get to the journal; then click "issues." If you click on Susan's name within the Winter 2007 listing (make sure pop-ups are enabled), you'll get the excerpt.

I've been lucky enough to be in a classroom under Susan's direction, and even luckier that I believe I may call her a friend. But even without that bias, I'd recommend her work wholeheartedly. I first read her story collection, Who I Was Supposed to Be, about six years ago, and I'm still in awe of the ease (she makes it look easy, anyway) and skill with which Susan creates a true range of vivid characters and stories. (This particularly impresses me because I've often felt a little "caught" in work of my own that might most charitably be called slightly repetitive.) Fiction writers have a lot to learn from Susan's prose, and all readers will find plenty to enjoy.

(For more on this issue of The Cincinnati Review [and Susan's story in particular], see the review at NewPages.com)

Isle of Jura Retreat Programme Update

Galleycat has provided some interesting follow-up on another new literary prize, the Isle of Jura Writer's Retreat. This award will be familiar to our newsletter subscribers, since I listed it in our January 2007 issue, and to those who have purchased our guide to no-cost literary contests and competitions, where it's also included.

Sami Rohr Prize Update

I am delighted to offer an update on the Sami Rohr Prize, a new award I mentioned here in January. Here's the text of the press release I received yesterday. Special congratulations to Tamar Yellin and Amir Gutfreund, whose fiction I have already reviewed (and admire). I'll look forward to reading more of their work, as well as that of the third honoree, Michael Lavigne.

WRITER TAMAR YELLIN WINS $100,000 IN JEWISH BOOK COUNCIL’S INAUGURAL SAMI ROHR PRIZE FOR JEWISH LITERATURE

Winner and Two Runners Up Hail From Three Countries

New York, NY (March 21, 2007) –The Jewish Book Council, administrator of the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish literature, announced today that Tamar Yellin of England, author of The Genizah at the House of Shepher (Toby Press), is the first recipient of the $100,000 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, the largest-ever Jewish literary prize given, and one of the largest literary prizes in the nation.

The two runner-up awardees, who will receive the Choice Award and will each receive $7,500, are Amir Gutfreund, author of Our Holocaust (Toby Press, translated by Jessica Cohen), from Israel, and Michael Lavigne, author of Not Me (Random House), from San Francisco. All three winning authors will be celebrated at a gala event to be held May 21 in Manhattan.

“This was a tremendously difficult and rewarding process as all five finalists were extraordinarily talented, each with a compelling story to tell, and the talent to tell it well,” said Geri Gindea, director of the program, which operates as a department of the Jewish Book Council. In making the selections, the judges considered the book, the author and the writing’s contribution to Jewish literature.

Reflecting on the choice of Tamar Yellin, Rebecca Goldstein, novelist, professor of philosophy, a Fellow at Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute and one of the competition’s five judges, said, “Yellin combines formidable Jewish scholarship with soaring lyricism. And, if scholarship and lyricism aren’t enough, she also displays a wonderfully quirky sense of humor. This is a writer who can do it all, bring history lovingly into the present and conjure an art of beauty and light out of the ardors of scholarship.”

In addition to Goldstein, the judges, whose names were undisclosed until today, are Jeremy Dauber, associate professor of Yiddish language, literature & culture at Columbia University; Daisy Maryles, executive editor, Publishers Weekly; Jonathan Rosen, novelist and editorial director, Nextbook; and Ruth Wisse, professor of Yiddish and comparative literature at Harvard University.

The Prize was established by Sami Rohr’s children and grandchildren to celebrate Mr. Rohr’s 80th birthday--and to honor his lifelong love of Jewish writing. The annual award will recognize the unique role of contemporary writers in the transmission and examination of Jewish values, and is intended to encourage and promote outstanding writing of Jewish interest.

Each year, a prize of $100,000 will be presented to an emerging writer whose work, of exceptional literary merit, stimulates an interest in themes of Jewish concern.

In order to fully nurture quality Jewish writing, the Rohr family will also establish—in conjunction with the Sami Rohr Prize—the Sami Rohr Jewish Literary Institute, a forum devoted to the continuity of Jewish literature. The Institute, also run under the auspices of the Jewish Book Council, will convene a biennial gathering, creating an environment in which established and emerging writers can meet and exchange ideas and perspectives.

“Writers often express the desire to connect and share experiences with other writers and the Institute will be an ideal forum for that purpose,” Gindea said. “Through the Institute, we hope to create a literary community that will further inspire emerging writers to continue creating Jewish literature.”

Each year, an independent panel of judges will convene to select the winner of the Prize and two Institute Fellows. Fiction and non-fiction books will be considered in alternating years.

About Sami Rohr
After spending his early years in Europe after World War II, Sami Rohr moved to Bogota, Colombia, where he became a leading real estate developer for more than 30 years. He continues to be very active in various business endeavors internationally. His philanthropic commitment to Jewish education and community building throughout the world is renowned.