Rebecca Siegel

October 1, 2020

Calls for Submission, Deadlines, Events, Newsletter, Workshops, The Dipper

The Dipper - October 2020

Rebecca Siegel

October 1, 2020

Calls for Submission, Deadlines, Events, Newsletter, Workshops, The Dipper

"The Dipper" is our monthly newsletter, where we highlight readings, events, calls for submission, and other literary-related news for the coming month. If you have news or events to share, let us know!

October News

We are so pleased to bring you another great virtual author event in partnership with Hanover’s Still North Books. On October 14 at 7:30 pm, Sierra Crane Murdoch will be in conversation with Angela Evancie of VPR’s Brave Little State to discuss Sierra’s compelling nonfiction book, Yellow Bird.

Yellow Bird tells the story of Lissa Yellow Bird as she obsessively hunts for clues to the disappearance of Kristopher “KC” Clark, a young white oil worker who worked on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota. Drawing on eight years of immersive investigation, Sierra Crane Murdoch has produced a profound examination of the legacy of systematic violence inflicted on a tribal nation and a tale of extraordinary healing. Sierra and Angela’s conversation is bound to be riveting. Register today to attend!

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Alexandria Hall’s debut book of poetry, Field Music, will be published by Ecco on October 6. Alexandria is a poet and a musician from Vermont (and currently a PhD candidate in California). Publishers Weekly calls Field Music, “a striking debut…This atmospheric collection will transport readers to Hall’s layered landscapes.”

We are so fortunate that Alexandria agreed do to an interview with us, and we are equally fortunate that Rena J. Mosteirin enthusiastically agreed to pose the interview questions. The interview will be published on our site on Field Music’s publication day, October 6, so check our blog then.

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In Slow Club Book Club news, we recently announced the last book in our year of reading books by Canadian authors: Dionne Brand's 2018 hybrid poetry collection, The Blue Clerk. In this intriguing book—an Ars Poetica in 59 versos—Dionne Brand stages a conversation and an argument between the poet and the Blue Clerk, who is the keeper of the poet's pages.

A sampling of The Blue Clerk reveals its mesmerizing power. Listen to Dionne Brand read two of the prose poem versos on the Griffin Poetry Prize website (the book was shortlisted for the 2019 prize) and fall under its liquid language spell. We hope you decide to join us in reading The Blue Clerk beginning on October 15. If you do, please let us know; it's nice to know you're out there.

October’s Shooting Stars

A cool literary find from each of us to help light up your month!

First Wednesdays from Vermont Humanities are back, beginning October 7. This time around we are lucky to be able to listen to these lectures from our homes. I’m particularly excited to hear Jarvis Green’s lecture, “Atlantic Is a Sea of Bones” on November 7 We’ve posted the literary lectures from this series in our calendar of events. For the rest (including some really amazing topics from dance and Muhammad Ali to bird migration to food justice), please visit the Vermont Humanities website. —Shari
These days I often feel closed, tight, compressed into myself. I need reminders of expansiveness: drop the shoulders from my ears, breathe deeply. The other day I saw a link to a recording of Seamus Heaney reading “Postscript,” one of my favorites of his poems. Rereading it always blows me open, as the last line intends. Hearing Seamus’ own voice makes it even better.—Rebecca

October Highlights

Layli Long Soldier will read as part of the virtual Poetry at Bennington series on October 7 at 7:00 pm.

Samantha Kolber celebrates the release of her new chapbook, Birth of a Daughter, with a virtual event at Bear Pond Books on October 9 at 7:00 pm.

Sierra Crane Murdoch discusses her book Yellow Bird with Brave Little State’s Angela Evancie via Still North Books & Bar on October 14 at 7:30 pm.

The Brattleboro Literary Festival takes place virtually this year from October 16 to 18, featuring writers of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.

Jason Lutes appears as a part of Virtual Bookstock 2020 on October 15 at 7:00 pm.

Phil Klay will read and discuss his latest novel, Missionaries, on October 16 at 7:00 pm. This online event is presented by both The Norwich Bookstore and Still North Books & Bar.

603: The Writers’ Conferences is online this year on October 17 from 8:00 am to 5:30 pm, with featured speaker Brunonia Barry.

Charles Simic gives a virtual reading sponsored by the Poetry Society of New Hampshire and Gibson’s Bookstore on October 20 at 7:00 pm.

Visit our calendar for detailed information about these events and more!

Worth a Listen

Artwork by Sludge Thunder — *Artwork by* *Sludge Thunder*

Daniel Hornsby speaks about his debut, Via Negativa, on Marginalia. His new novel was recently recommended by Lauren Groff on Twitter.
On the Slow Stories podcast, Sanaë Lemoine discusses her writing process for her debut, The Margot Affair.
Middlebury grad Bianca Giaever has a wonderful new podcast for The Believer called Constellation Prize. Five episodes about strangers, religion, poetry, and art are available now.
Dustin Schell and Alexander Chee (curators of the Still Queer reading series) were featured on Christine Lee’s podcast, Front Yard Politics, talking about gardening during the pandemic.

We're Looking Forward to These October Releases

Mantel Pieces, by Hilary Mantel (Fourth Estate, October 1)
Leave the World Behind, by Rumaan Alam (Ecco, October 6)
The Hole, by Hiroko Oyamada, translated by David Boyd (New Directions, October 6)
The Superationals, by Stephanie La Cava (Semiotext(e)/Native Agents, October 13)
Kant’s Little Prussian Head and Other Reasons Why I write, by Claire Messud (W.W. Norton & Company, October 13)
The Century, by Éireann Lorung (Milkweed Editions, October 13)
The Silence, by Don DeLillo (Scribner, October 20)
Divorcing, by Susan Taubes (NYRB Classics, October 27)
Memorial, by Bryan Washington (Riverhead, October 27)

Calls For Submission and Upcoming Deadlines

Hunger Mountain Issue 25: Art Saves
Send your manifestos and rhetoric, your stories and poems, your essays and forays into justifying art as an answer to—and escape from?—these trying times: pandemics, forest fires, catastrophe, white-supremacy, murder, burning buildings as the only way to be heard, and fascism. Please submit prose of no more than 8,000 words, or up to three flash pieces all in one document; for poetry, 1 to 5 poems all in one file.
Deadline: October 15 | Details

Sundog Poetry Center’s First or Second Book Award Prize for a Vermont Poet
Sundog Poetry Center is pleased to announce the inaugural book award for a first or second poetry manuscript, in partnership with Green Writers Press, who will design, print and distribute the book nationwide. The final judge is Vermont Poet Laureate Mary Ruefle. A cash prize of $500 will be awarded along with 50 copies. Manuscripts should be between 48 and 64 pages. All submissions must be authored by a poet who resides in Vermont; proof of residency will be requested along with a $20 application fee.
Deadline: October 31 | Details

Sunken Garden Chapbook Prize for Poetry
Tupelo Press’ Sunken Garden Prize seeks submissions of previously unpublished, chapbook-length poetry manuscripts. The prize is open to anyone writing in the English language. This year’s judge is Mark Bibbins. The winner receives a $1000 cash prize, in addition to publication by Tupelo Press, 25 copies of the winning title, a book launch, and national distribution with energetic publicity and promotion.
Deadline: October 31 | Details

New England Review
New England Review is open for nonfiction submissions and for their digital “Confluences” series. For nonfiction, NER accepts a broad range, including dramatic works, essays in translation, interpretive and personal essays, critical reassessments, cultural criticism, travel writing, and environmental writing. The word limit is 20,000. For “Confluences,” they are seeking brief essays (500 to 100 words) in response to a book, play, poem, film, painting, sculpture, building, or other work of art.
Deadline: November 15 | Details

Bennington Unbound
October 15 to December 15
These four-week intensive online courses in fiction and nonfiction (October 15 to November 15, and November 15 to December 15) are geared toward current college and college-ready students considering an academic gap year or looking to supplement their current coursework. The courses are taught by Bennington’s award-winning graduate and undergraduate writing and literature faculty. Weekly live video class meetings foster an intimate seminar experience. Web-based discussion forums and unique multimedia resources extend the classroom community. All students will write both creatively and critically. Students earn one college credit per course.
Deadline: one week prior to the beginning of each course | Cost: $600/course | Details

Bloodroot Literary Magazine
Bloodroot is now accepting new, unpublished poetry, fiction, and essays for its spring 2021 issue. Send a Word document including 3 to 5 pages of poetry or 10 to 12 pages of fiction and nonfiction. For anything outside that scope, like an experimental form or digital project, please send a one-page proposal and they will be in touch if we want to see more.
Deadline: December 15 | Details

The Dorset Prize for Poetry
Tupelo Press’ Dorset Prize is seeking submissions of previously unpublished, full-length poetry manuscripts. The prize is open to anyone writing in the English language. This year’s judge is Tyehimba Jess. The winner receives at $3000 cash prize and a week-long residency at MASS MoCA, in addition to publication by Tupelo Press, 20 copies of the winning title, a book launch, and national distribution with energetic publicity and promotion.
Deadline: December 31 | Details

Vermont Writers’ Prize
The Vermont Writers’ Prize is accepting essays, short stories, plays, or poems on the subject of Vermont: its people, its places, its history, or its values—the choice is yours! Entries must be unpublished and 1,500 words or less. The Writers' Prize is open to all Vermont residents and students except for employees of Green Mountain Power and Vermont Magazine. Please submit only one entry.
Deadline: January 1 | Details

The Frost Place Chapbook Competition
The competition is open to any poet writing in English. The selected winner’s chapbook will be published by Bull City Press in the summer following the competition. The winner receives 10 complimentary copies (from a print run of 300), a $250 prize, full scholarship to attend the Poetry Seminar at The Frost Place, including room and board, and gives a featured reading from the chapbook at the Seminar. $28 entry fee.
Deadline: January 5 | Details

Zig Zag Lit Mag Issue.10
Submissions are open for Issue.10 for those who live, labor, or loiter in Addison County, Vermont. Zig Zag accepts submissions in any genre and topic, including fiction, nonfiction, dramatic forms, and poetry. They also accept art. You can submit up to three pieces of writing and/or art.
Deadline: January 5 | Details

Crossroads Magazine
The independent, student-run magazine based out of Burlington, Vermont, accepts very short fiction and poetry, 300 words or fewer. Submissions should be in Word or typed directly into an email. No PDFs, please.
Deadline: rolling submissions | Details

Dartmouth Poet in Residence
The Frost Place’s Dartmouth Poet in Residence program is a six-to-eight-week residency in poet Robert Frost’s former farmhouse. The residency begins July 1 and ends August 15, and includes an award of $1,000 from The Frost Place and an award of $1,000 from Dartmouth College. The recipient of the Dartmouth Poet in Residence will have an opportunity to give a series of public readings across the region, including at Dartmouth College and The Frost Place.
Deadline: none given | Details

Green Mountains Review
GMR is accepting fiction and experimental and hybrid poems. The editors are open to a wide range of styles and subject matter. Please submit a cover letter and include up to 25 pages of prose or up to five poems. $3 submission fee.
Deadline: none given | Details

The Hopper
The environmental literary magazine from Green Writers Press, is accepting submissions of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. They are interested in work that offers new and different articulations of the human experience in nature, specifically nature writing that is psychologically honest about the environmental crisis and the impacts of mechanical modernity.
Deadline: none given | Details

Isele Magazine
Isele Magazine is seeking submissions of essays, fiction, poetry, art, and photography. You may submit up to 8,000 words of prose, six pages of poetry, or one long poem.
Deadline: rolling submissions | Details

Junction Magazine Editorial Board
If you're passionate about the vibrant community of the Upper Valley, and showcasing the myriad cultures that exist here, consider joining the Junction Magazine Editorial Board. Their areas of coverage are Arts and Culture, Food and Farm, People, and the Wild. Editors meet bi-weekly, and share pitching, writing, editing, and layout duties, as well as the (small) financial cost of the website and hosting.
Deadline: none given |

Mount Island digital magazine
To focus on their mission of supporting rural LGBTQ+ and POC voices, most of the submission categories are open only to folks who identify as LGBTQ+ and/or POC and who currently live in or hail from a rural area. They do welcome “allies” who do not identify as LGBTQ+/POC/rural to submit in certain categories, such as interviews, reviews, and blog articles. When such categories are open for “ally submissions,” they are labeled clearly as such.
Deadline: open year-round | Details

Nightingale Review
Nightingale accepts and celebrate all types of literary creative expression from queer authors, including poetry, plays, general fiction, nonfiction essays, and book/movie/music reviews. Both established and unpublished authors welcome.
Deadline: none given | Details

Six-Word Quarantine Stories
Do you have a six-word story about your quarantine to share? Tell yours on social media with the hashtag #quarantinesix, and tag @vtartscouncil so they can share your story, too.
Deadline: none given | Details

Three By Five
Share a small moment—anonymously—that has altered the path of your life. Record it on a 3" x 5" card and mail it to PO Box 308, Etna, NH, 03750. Or, take a photo of your card and email it to .
Deadline: none | Details

Listening in Place Sound Archive
The Vermont Folklife Center invites you to send in recorded interviews and sounds of daily life in an effort to open hundreds of small windows into the experiences of Vermonters during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Vermont Folklife Center will make these recordings available on their website and social media to foster connection and sharing, and will also archive the recordings for posterity.
Deadline: none | Details

Writing the Land
Writing the Land is a collaboration between local land trusts and poets to help raise awareness for the preservation of land, ecosystems, and biodiversity. Poets and land trusts are being enrolled on a rolling basis. They are especially seeking under-represented poetic and environmental voices, but welcome all poets at any stage of their career and would like everyone to contribute to this project. If you are an interested poet, please fill out the information in the contact form on their website or email Lis McLaughlin at . You will need to submit a 50- to 75-word third-person bio, three pieces of work, and list which locations or regions you are willing to travel to.
Deadline: rolling submissions | Details

Upcoming Workshops and Classes

Horace Greeley Writers’ Symposium
October 17, 10:00 am to 3:00 pm
Aspiring writers, published authors welcome. Writing workshops, networking, Q&A, and more. Location: United Baptist Church, East Poultney | Cost: $65 adults; $20 students | Details

Expressive Writing with Vivian Ladd and Joni B. Cole
November 5, 5:30 to 7:00 pm
This workshop fuses explorations of works of art with fun and meaningful expressive writing exercises. No writing experience required, just a willing pen and curious mind.
Location: online | Cost: free | Details

The Fluidity of Memory: Finding Strength in Your Story
November 14, 9:30 am to 12:00 pm
Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA Candidate Ruth Amara Okolo is offering a workshop that gives insights into the importance of creative nonfiction. Through an exploration of the elements of the genre, she presents an approach and technique to creating, writing memories that shows life in all its color, description, and realism.
Location: online | Cost: $25 to 65 | Details

Everyday Poetry: Accessing the Poetry Within
November 15, 9:30 am to 12:00 pm
Enjoy the art of poetry with Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA Candidate Sara Stancliffe as she unearths why poetry is a life force and examines poetry as an essence. Prepare to demystify poetry in this workshop by beginning with a low-key discussion on what we think poetry is, where it shows up in our everyday lives, and how we might access poetry to elevate our everyday existence. In this workshop, we’ll share music and collectively enjoy sounds of rhythm. This will be a “come as you are” workshop where no prior poetic experience or vocabulary or even passion is needed.
Location: online | Cost: $25 to 65 | Details

Inner & Outer Weather: Character in Fiction
December 12, 9:30 am to 12:00 pm
Join Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA Candidate Jonathan Calloway as he discusses how our stories’ characters, like ourselves, each carry a lifetime’s worth of experience, much of which the outer world is oblivious. Through generative writing exercises and close readings of excerpts from a wide range of fiction authors, you will investigate how perception can be used as a tool to shape evocative environments, sharpen focus, and redefine the boundary between the individual and the whole. You will have the opportunity to share and receive direct feedback from instructors and fellow participants, as well as acquire a set of tools to further your own unique explorations of the caverns of character development.
Location: online | Cost: $25 to 65 | Details

Rebecca Siegel

October 1, 2019

Calls for Submission, Deadlines, Events, Newsletter, Workshops, The Dipper

The Dipper - October 2019

Rebecca Siegel

October 1, 2019

Calls for Submission, Deadlines, Events, Newsletter, Workshops, The Dipper

October News

We both adored Sara London’s new poetry collection, Upkeep (out from Four Way Books), so naturally, we just had to ask Sara for an interview. Head on over to our blog to give it a read. You can catch Sara reading from her new collection on Thursday, October 10, at The Vermont Book Shop in Middlebury, Vermont, as part of the NER Vermont Reading Series.

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It’s October 1, which means we start our group read of Lucy Ellmann’s Ducks, Newburyport today! We’d love for you to read along with us. Although the book had to be reprinted, copies should be available now or will be in the near future. The comments section of our blog post is open and ready for discussion. We can’t wait to hear what you think of this Booker shortlisted title.

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We’ve started work on the second chapbook in our Little Dipper series, an essay by composer and musician Ben Cosgrove tentatively titled A Space Filled With Moving. We have a bit of editing to do, but we’re working on the design now! They will be available in a limited edition of 25.

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Because of the above projects plus an upcoming event in December that we’re excited to tell you about soon, our Slow Club Book Club is on hiatus until January 2020. Did you miss a title? Well, now you have plenty of time to play catch up. Finished everything? Then we’d love to have you join us for our group read along of Ducks, Newburyport. Would you like to help us plan for SCBC 2020? with your thoughts and suggestions.

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Those of you who attended JAGFest 2.0 back in February 2018 might remember a riveting staged reading of Nathan Yungerberg’s Esai’s Table. Back then, we volunteered at JAGFest and were able to do a brief interview with this remarkable, thoughtful playwright. This month, Esai’s Table is back as a full production at Briggs Opera House in White River Junction, Vermont, from October 10 to 27. It’s moving, beautiful, powerful, and very worth your time. Tickets are available now.

October Shooting Stars

A cool literary find from each of us to help light up your month!

Did you hear that The Yale Review has a new design and a new editor, Meghan O’Rourke, for their 200th anniversary issue? The lineup for the new issue includes Sheila Heti, Sarah Manguso, Dan Chiasson, Kevin Young, Shane McCrae, Idra Novey, Emily Bernard, and Aria Aber. I know I’ll be getting a copy.—Shari
Speaking of new designs and editors, Junction Magazine is back! Junction was founded by our friend James Napoli, a kindred spirit, a great photographer, and the center of so many excellent events and parties. When James moved to Minnesota earlier this year, he left Junction in the capable hands of a new band of editors. Welcome back, Junction! We missed you! —Rebecca

October Highlights

On Tuesday, October 1, Major Jackson introduces Didi Jackson, Vievee Francis, Camille Guthrie, and Jane Shore in celebration of The Best American Poetry 2019 at The Vermont Book Shop in Middlebury, Vermont, at 6:30 pm.

The Vermont Humanities 1st Wednesdays Lecture Series kicks things off again in October. The series, which goes through May 2020, features authors Alison Bechdel, Mark Dery, David Macaulay, Ilan Stevens, Richard Blanco, David Blight, Melanie Finn, Mitchell S. Jackson, and Annelise Orleck at various locations around Vermont. For more information and a complete schedule of events, please visit the Vermont Humanities website.

Ann Patchett will be in conversation with Peter Biello at the Capitol Center for the Arts in Concord, New Hampshire, on Wednesday, October 2, at 7:30 pm to talk about her newest novel, The Dutch House.

On Friday, October 4 at 7:00 pm, poets Janaka Stucky and Samuel Ace are reading at Antidote Books in Putney, Vermont.

Also on Friday, October 4, Jeff Sharlet (who was a part of our very first event, The Mud Season Salon) will be at MacDowell Downtown in Peterborough, New Hampshire, to share clips and talk about the making of the Netflix documentary series The Family, which is based on his books The Family and C Street. Not to be missed.

Join Open Fields School on Saturday, October 5 at the Newberry Market in White River Junction, Vermont, for their biennial fundraising extravaganza: The Great Goose Egg Auction. The auction features a slew of decorated and illustrated eggs, many by writers, book illustrators, and cartoonists. It’s always a fun afternoon and all proceeds go directly to this special school.

Ross Gay will be reading and signing books at UVM on Tuesday, October 8, at the Davis Center at 4 pm.

Reuben Jackson reads from his newest collection of poetry, Scattered Clouds, on Tuesday, October 8 at Bear Pond Books in Montpelier, Vermont. The reading begins at 7:00 pm.

On Thursday, October 10 at 7:00 pm, The Vermont Bookshop in Middlebury, Vermont, is hosting the NER Vermont Reading Series, featuring four extraordinary writers: Emily Arnason Casey, Rahat Huda, Sara London, and Sarah Wolfson.

*Shira Erlichman. Photo by Hieu Minh Nguyen*

Poets L.S. McKee, Jennifer Sperry Steinorth, and Shira Erlichman will be reading at The Word Barn in Exeter, New Hampshire, on Friday, October 11, at 7:00 pm.

On Saturday, October 12, Montana author and activist Rick Bass offers a public reading and talk at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center in Craftsbury, Vermont, from 7:00 to 8:00 pm.

David Sedaris returns to the Lebanon Opera House in Lebanon, New Hampshire, on Sunday, October 13, at 7:30 pm for an evening featuring all-new stories, an audience Q&A, and a book signing.

The winners of the Neukom Institute Literary Arts Awards will be announced at Filene Auditorium at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire on Wednesday, October 16, from 5:00 to 7:00 pm.

The Brattleboro Literary Festival has a particularly stellar lineup this year for their weekend-long festival October 17 to 20. The 2019 schedule is now live on their website (and our calendar). Here are just a few of the writers we’re looking forward to seeing: Casey Cep, Anna Maria Hong, Miciah Bay Gault, Edgar Kunz, Dorothea Lasky, T Kira Madden, Jess Row, Mary Ruefle, Pitchaya Sudbanthad and Philip B. Williams.

On Tuesday, October 22 at 7:00 pm, geographer, adventurer, explorer, and Green Writers Press author M Jackson will be giving talk at Landmark College in Putney, Vermont, about how an Icelandic community is dealing with the loss of their local glaciers.

Jericho Brown reads as part of the Poetry at Bennington series on Wednesday, October 23, at 7:00 pm. The reading takes place in Tishman Lecture Hall on Bennington College’s campus in Bennington, Vermont.

Catch Peter Orner reading from his latest book of short stories, Maggie Brown & Others, at Dartmouth College’s Sanborn Library in Hanover, New Hampshire, on Thursday, October 24, from 4:30 to 6:00 pm.

Visit our calendar for detailed information about these events and more!

Worth a Drive

If you’ll be in the Boston area the weekend of October 19 and 20, you should definitely pop over to The Boston Book Festival in Copley Square and Roxbury. Authors include Elizabeth Strout, Richard Blanco, Sarah Broom, Susan Choi, Akwaeke Emezi, Saeed Jones, Jamaica Kincaid, Sandra Newman, Morgan Parker, Kate Walbert, Chris Ware and so many more!
We can’t imagine a cooler event to attend than A Night of Poetry at Mount Holyoke College on Tuesday, October 8 at 7:00 pm to celebrate the release of Shira Erlichman’s newest collection, Odes to Lithium. Franny Choi and Ocean Vuong will be joining her to read and discuss. The event takes place at the Gamble Auditorium on Mount Holyoke’s campus in South Hadley, Massachusetts.

Worth a Listen

“Imagining a New America” with Ta-Nehisi Coates on the On Being podcast.
Give us all the Ruefle, all the time. Mary Ruefle is over at Bookworm and WMFA with two fabulous and very different interviews.

We're Looking Forward to These October Releases

The Topeka School, by Ben Lerner ( Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, October 1)
The Secret Commonwealth, by Philip Pullman (Knopf, October 3)
How We Fight For Our Lives, by Saeed Jones (Simon & Schuster, October 8)
Animal, by Dorothea Lasky (Wave Books, October 8)
The Summer Isles, by Philip Marsden (Granta Books, October 8)
Here Until August, by Josephine Rowe (Catapult, October 8)
Grand Union, by Zadie Smith (Penguin, October 8)
Erosion, by Terry Tempest Williams (Sarah Crichton Books, October 8)
The Man Who Saw Everything, by Deborah Levy (Bloomsbury, October 15)

Calls For Submission and Upcoming Deadlines

NHIA Storytelling Festival
This year’s Festival (November 2) calls for entries from artists based on ‘growing-up.’ Writers, storytellers, illustrators, graphic novelists, creatives working in a wide variety of other media (both professional or amateur), are invited to participate in this Moth Radio Hour-style event. The stories can be true or embellished and each presenter will be limited to five minutes.
Deadline: October 11 | Details

Hunger Mountain Issue 24: Patterns
General submissions are open in prose and poetry on the theme of patterns. Work must not have been published before, including online.
Deadline: October 15 | Details

Lifelines Magazine
Accepting submissions of original and unpublished short stories, nonfiction, poetry, and artwork for their 2020 issue. While they consider a broad spectrum of subject matter for publication, they are looking for pieces that speak to the experience of medicine in some way.
Deadline: October 31 | Details

Tupleo Press’s Sunken Garden Chapbook Poetry Prize
Now accepting submissions for the annual poetry prize for adult writers. This year’s prize is judged by Cornelius Eady. The Sunken Garden Chapbook Poetry Prize includes a cash award of $1,000 in addition to publication by Tupelo Press, 25 copies of the winning title, an introductory reading at the Sunken Garden Poetry Festival, a book launch, and national distribution with energetic publicity and promotion.
Deadline: October 31 | Details

Bloodroot Literary Magazine
Submissions are open for Bloodroot, Volume 12. Send three to five pages of poetry or 10 to 12 pages of fiction and nonfiction in Microsoft Word format. For other work, like an experimental form or digital project, please send a one-page proposal and they will be in touch if they want to see more. They are looking for new, unpublished work.
Deadline: December 31 | Details

Neukom Institute Literary Arts Awards
Submissions are open for the Neukom Institute Literary Arts Awards for Speculative Fiction, Debut Speculative Fiction, and Playwriting. For fiction, any work published or under contract to be published no earlier than January 1, 2019 and no later than December 31, 2019 is eligible. For plays they invite submissions of full-length plays addressing the question “What does it mean to be a human in a computerized world?” The fiction awards come with an honorarium of $5,000 to be received at an event at Dartmouth College. The playwriting award comes with a $5,000 honorarium as well as a support for a two-stage development process with table readings at local arts festivals.
Deadline: December 31 | Details

MacDowell Colony Summer 2020 Residency
Applications for the summer residencies (June 1 to September 30, 2020) open in mid October. The MacDowell Colony provides time, space, and an inspiring environment to artists of exceptional talent. A MacDowell Fellowship, or residency, consists of exclusive use of a studio, accommodations, and three prepared meals a day for up to eight weeks. There are no residency fees.
Deadline: January 15, 2020 | Details

Center for Cartoon Studies, MFA Degree and Certificate Programs
Now accepting applications for the MFA, one- and two-year certificate programs, and low-residency second-year option. Learn all you need to know about making comics and self-publishing in a prolific and dynamic environment and community. $50 application fee.
Deadline: rolling admissions until programs are filled | Details

Junction Magazine
Junction Magazine founder James Napoli has moved to Minneapolis. With his blessing, a local collective has decided to re-launch the magazine, and they invite you to contribute. Pitches and submissions should fit into one or several categories/subject areas: arts and culture, food and farm, people, wild, photo essays, and the calendar.
Deadline: rolling submissions | Details

Upcoming Workshops and Classes

Writing Personal Essays with Rebecca Jamieson
October 5, 9:00 am to 12:00 pm
How do we write a stirring essay from the raw materials of our own lives, desires and curiosities? In this class, we’ll delve into the rich realm of the personal essay, looking at work from other writers and deepening our own craft through guided exercises.
Location: Vermont College of Fine Arts, Montpelier, Vermont | Cost: sliding scale | Details

Read Like a Writer/Write Like a Reader with Riki Moss
Six-part series starting October 5, 10:30 am to 12:30 pm
In this six-part series, you’ll be reading contemporary, short fiction that suggests a craft strategy, a theme to explore with prompts. Fiction writers, and those writers interested in fiction, on all levels, are welcome. Open to Burlington Writers Workshop members.
Location: n/a | Cost: n/a | Details

Comics Workshop with Marek Bennett
October 5, 1:00 to 5:00 pm
Join New Hampshire teaching artist Marek Bennett for a hands-on comics creation lab, featuring basic techniques of cartooning, comics creation, and self-publishing. Learn to create and publish original comics based on primary sources of social justice activism in Vermont and elsewhere. No experience required.
Location: Billings Library at UVM, Burlington, Vermont | Cost: free | Details

In Change: Writing for Healing Workshop with Laurie McMillan
Saturday, October 5 and 12
There will be in-class exercises and sharing in a supportive lively environment. No writing experience necessary. You will gain insight, writing tools to keep focused, to let go and to process life's transitions.
Location: River Arts, Morrisville, Vermont | Cost: $55 | Details

Writing with Spirit with Nancy Kilgore
October 7, 6:30 to 8:30 pm
This is a group to practice spontaneous writing from-the-heart, creativity as play. To let it flow, not knowing what’s coming next, we just let ourselves write for 45 minutes, trusting the creativity that is within. This is a modification of the Amherst Method developed by Pat Schneider and is perfect for people just entering the writing life or for experienced writers needing to break out of a rut or block.
Location: The Burlington Writers Workshop, Burlington, Vermont | Cost: free | Details

Poetry Workshop with Kate Gibbel
Tuesdays October 8 to November 5, 6:15 to 8:15 pm
Are you having trouble making time and space to write poems? Are you new to poetry and want a structured environment where you can explore? Are you a seasoned poet looking for new approaches to writing? In this workshop we will experiment with new forms and techniques. Over the course of five weeks, we will strengthen our work and take risks in our writing. Through a combination of in-class writing exercises, workshops, and discussion of outside poems, we will develop reading and writing practices that will make us more attentive, generative, and generous poets. Participants will be expected to read three short poems and hand in one new poem each week.
Location: The Writer’s Center of White River Junction, Vermont | Cost: $100 | Details

Writer’s Workshop with Rick Bass
October 11 to October 13
Writer and activist Rick Bass leads an intensive weekend workshop for up to eight writers who seek to improve their craft. Hands-on group sessions, both mornings and afternoons, will include active workshopping of individual manuscripts and craft-focused discussion. Writers at all levels will find support and challenge for their work. To apply, e-mail up to 15 pages of a manuscript—fiction, poetry or non-fiction—to . Manuscripts will be reviewed and accepted on a rolling basis. A non-refundable deposit of $375 is due upon acceptance.
Location: Craftsbury Outdoor Center, Craftsbury Commons, Vermont | Cost: $1,250 |

Writing Intensive: Drafting, Developing, and Revising Your Work with Joni Cole
October 13, 9:30 am to 12:30 pm
Writers face a lot of very real challenges, from the intimidation of a blank page, to a sense of staleness during the drafting process, to a dearth of quality feedback. Fortunately, there are very real solutions to these challenges—which is the focus of this 3-hour intensive. During this interactive workshop, we’ll cover techniques of narrative craft essential to empowering your prose. You’ll find your muse (and likely not where you expected). And you’ll get instructive feedback to help you write forward productively. Bring 3-4ish double-spaced pages to read aloud. Open to new and seasoned writers serious about making progress.
Location: The Writers Center, White River Junction, Vermont | Cost: $115 | Details

Tiny Book Workshop
October 13, 2:00 to 4:00 pm
Make a tiny book in recognition of National Book Month. Wear it as a necklace or give to a book loving friend!
Location: The Howe Library, Hanover, New Hampshire | Cost: free | Details

One Story at a Time: A Writing Workshop with Joni Cole
October 15 and November 5, 6:30 to 8:00 pm
In appreciation for the Everyone is Reading selection Walking to Listen by Andrew Forsthoefel—and in appreciation of all our stories—please join us in this fun and meaningful workshop. You will be invited to write from a “prompt” as a means of mining material from your own life story. You also will have the opportunity to read aloud what you wrote and, equally powerful, listen as others share their voices, memories, and perspectives. Absolutely no writing experience is required, but aspiring authors in the workshop will pick up narrative techniques and tips on how to effectively craft memoirs or personal essays. Please bring a ready pen (or laptop) and an open mind.
Location: Howe Library, Hanover New Hampshire | Cost: free | Details

Aspects of Creative Writing with Beth Stickney
Tuesdays, October 15 to November 19, 12:30 to 2:30 pm
Over the course of six two-hour sessions, we will explore the elements of showing and telling, characterization, setting, point of view, plot, and theme. Each session will include both reading and writing. We will look at models from classic and contemporary works for inspiration. The format will encourage sharing and feedback.
Location: Village Square Booksellers, Bellows Falls, Vermont | Cost: $100 | Details

Poetry Workshop with Marie Harris and Deborah Brown
October 20, 2:00 to 3:00 pm
This workshop is designed to combine lessons and exercises on aspects of craft (image, diction, metaphor) with a small amount of critique and in-group writing. Open to the novice and to the published.
Location: MainStreet BookEnds & Gallery, Warner, New Hampshire | Cost: free | Details

Magic in the Kettle: Writing Magical Realism in Fiction with Bianca Viñas
November 2, 9:00 am to 12:00 pm
Transport yourself from the ordinary into the realm of the fantastic. In this workshop, writers develop an eye for the bewitching, secretly hidden world of magic. We start with the ordinary and make the leap into the extraordinary. Hone the senses, pinch the nerves. Prepare to be immersed with live audioscapes, videos, and, of course, writing exercises. Equal measures mediation and imagination, this workshop will give you the eye for magic in fiction.
Location: Vermont College of Fine Arts, Montpelier, Vermont | Cost: sliding scale | Details

Gentleheartedness: A writing and Yoga Retreat with Deb Heimann and Joni Cole
November 3, 12:30 pm to 8:30 pm
As we ready ourselves for the various end-of-year holidays and cold starkness of the coming winter, many of us feel anxious, overwhelmed, and even grumpy. In this 8-hour retreat we welcome all who wish to cultivate gentleheartedness as a means of dissipating fear and anger and channeling the potency of kindness toward peace within ourselves and the world. We will call on ceremony to support our hearts; write from prompts that explore our relationship to peacefulness, gratitude, and tenderness; breathe and move in ways that nurture us; and share ourselves, our writing, and a meal.
Location: Good Commons Retreat Center, Plymouth, Vermont | Cost: $110 | Details

Travel Blogging and Web Design with Virginia Booth
Sundays, November 3, 10, and 17, 2:00 to 3:30 pm
Join Virginia Booth as she delves into a three-week series exploring the ins and outs of the various marketing strategies that we are exposed to daily, step by step on how to build your own website and the depths of travel blogging.
Location: Vermont College of Fine Arts, Montpelier, Vermont | Cost: sliding scale | Details

Vermont Humanities Council Fall Conference
November 15 to 16
Registration is open for the 2019 Fall Conference, “Searching for Home: Journeys, Quests and Migrations.” The conference includes talks and breakout sessions on the topic of “the search for home.” This year’s plenary speakers include essayist and novelist Kiese Laymon, clarinetist Kina Azmeh, Dr. Hasia Diner from New York University, and professor Carol Dougherty from Wellesley College.
Location: University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont | Cost: $149; $99 for students | Details

Writing Fiction with Ukamaka Olisakwe
November 16, 9:00 am to 12:00 pm
In this workshop, writers will pay attention to how they consciously or unconsciously shape their character’s interiority, or what is also referred to as a character’s mental process, and the reader’s access or lack of access to them. We will consider some short stories/novel excerpts by some of my favorite writers and how they pay attention to the characters’ mental processes, as well as doing some writing of our own. You’ll leave the workshop with more insight into how to create complex characters, as well as new tools to bring into your own writing. Bring something to write with.
Location: Vermont College of Fine Arts, Montpelier, Vermont | Cost: sliding scale | Details

NaNoWrMo Rally: An Expressive Writing Workshop
November 18, 6:30 to 8:00 pm
The pressure’s on if you’re participating in National Novel Writing Month, the creative writing project that challenges participants to write a 50,000 word manuscript in November. Let us take some of that pressure off, with this fun expressive writing workshop that invites you to write from a prompt to develop a character….add a plot twist…or discover a scene that’s just been waiting to burst onto the page. Facilitator, Joni B. Cole, founder of the Writer’s Center of White River Junction. (For more info, visit www.jonibcole.com) Bring a notebook or laptop, and leave all self doubts at the door.
Location: Norwich Public Library, Norwich, Vermont | Cost: free | Details

Poetry of Protest with Rebecca Jamieson
December 7, 9:00 am to 12:00 pm
What can poetry offer in times of political crisis? How have writers used their poetry as a form of resistance, and how might we follow their lead? In this class, we’ll explore these questions through discussion, writing prompts, and reading the diverse and powerful ways that other poets have approached these subjects in their work. You’ll leave the class with a better understanding of protest poetry, the beginnings of fresh poems of your own, and connection to a community of other writers. Bring something to write with.
Location: Vermont College of Fine Arts, Montpelier, Vermont | Cost: sliding scale | Details

Quiecence: A Yoga and Writing Workshop with Deb Heimann and Joni Cole
December 7, 9:00 am to noon
In this intimately-sized 3-hour “retreat” we welcome all who wish to revitalize their spirit through a combination of yoga and expressive writing. As part of the yoga practice, we will refresh through breathing exercises, poses to open channels of vitality, and heart-centered intention. We also will write from a “prompt” as a means of exploring our thoughts and feelings on the page, and sharing our journey forward. Absolutely no yoga or writing experience is required to attend this retreat.
Location: Central Street Yoga, Taftsville, Vermont | Cost: $55 | Details

Rebecca Siegel

October 1, 2018

Calls for Submission, Deadlines, Events, Newsletter, Workshops, The Dipper

The Dipper - October 2018

Rebecca Siegel

October 1, 2018

Calls for Submission, Deadlines, Events, Newsletter, Workshops, The Dipper

October News

We’re excited to announce our final event for 2018. Mark your calendars for Saturday, November 3, for our Writers’ Process Night, featuring Camille Guthrie and Peter Orner. We’ll be back in the beautiful Open Door Workshop in White River Junction, where we held our very first event, the Mud Season Salon. There will be live music by Laura Jean Brinkley to open up the evening, a “biscuit bar” (yes, you read that right!) with all of the fixings, and an in-depth conversation with two writers talking about their work and writing process. Books will be available from The Yankee Bookshop in Woodstock, Vermont. Tickets are $5 in advance and space is limited. If you’d like to join us, please get your tickets early! We can’t wait. For all of the details, please visit the Writers’ Process Night page .

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October means it’s time for our final Slow Club Book Club selection of the year—a memoir. If you want more details, visit our Slow Club Book Club page to see what we’ve read this year and to sign up for the SCBC newsletter. Read along with us at your own pace. It’s never too late to join us!

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Have you visited our blog lately? We have some exciting new content up for your reading pleasure. Ray Keifetz, who we interviewed earlier in the year, is back with a new poem and a book recommendation on video. And we’ve published our conversation with the wonderful Ivy Schweitzer about her project, “White Heat,” a blog that chronicles Emily Dickinson's creative life and poetry week by week for the crucial year 1862. Read part 1 here, and part 2 here.

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The Vermont Humanities Council’s 1st Wednesdays Lecture Series begins this month and will continue through late spring 2019. There will be lectures about E.B. White, Zorah Neale Hurston, Vincent Van Gogh and the books he read, Charles Dickens, Willa Cather, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Thoreau, Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes, Chaucer, Robert Penn Warren, Ta-Nehisi Coates, James Agee, and William Wordsworth. Plus talks/readings by authors such as Katherine Paterson, David Macaulay, Reeve Lindbergh, DeRay McKesson, Chris Bohjalian, and David Sanger. Visit the Vermont Humanities Council’s 1st Wednesdays page for the full schedule.

October's Shooting Stars

A cool literary find from each of us to help light up your month!

Two of our favorite poets, Ocean Vuong and Kaveh Akbar, have their poetry featured in the upcoming Netflix film, The Kindergarten Teacher, starring Maggie Gyllenhall. The film releases on October 12. —Shari
I’m a huge fan of found poetry, including erasure poetry. Writing found poetry introduces constraints that bring out unexpected connections and ideas, a creative jolt I often need to keep from repeating myself. Wave Books—which has published several books of erasure poetry—has a nifty Erasures tool on their website. Pick a text, then start clicking on words to erase them until you have a poem! —Rebecca

October Highlights

Dartmouth College’s Neukom Institute for Computational Science is presenting its inaugural Literary Arts Awards on Monday, October 1. The three winning authors will participate in a panel discussion hosted by the contest’s principal judge, Maria Dahvana Headley. The event will be held in Filene Auditiorium in Hanover, New Hampshire, from 4:00 to 6:00 pm.

As part of Manchester’s “One Book, One Manchester” citywide reading program, Mohsin Hamid will be at the New Hampshire Institute of Art in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Tuesday, October 2 from 7:00 to 9:00 pm for an onstage interview and audience Q&A. Hamid’s book, Exit West, is the book selected for this new annual event.

Matthew Olzmann and Justin Bigos will be reading at the Vermont College of Fine Art’s Cafe Anna in Montpelier, Vermont, on Friday, October 5 at 5:30 pm.

On Saturday, October at 4:00 pm, Chaya Bhuvaneswar will be at The Vermont Book Shop in Middlebury, Vermont, in conversation with Sue Halpern about Bhuvaneswar’s debut book of short stories, White Dancing Elephants.

Kathleen Alcott reads as a part of Bennington College’s Literature Evenings on Wednesday, October 10 at 7:00 pm in Franklin House on the Bennington campus. Her new novel is forthcoming from Ecco in May of 2019.

October is for the Bs! We have the Brattleboro Literary Festival (October 11 to 14) and, further afield, the Boston Book Festival (October 13). The Brattleboro Literary Festival features author readings by Stephen Greenblatt, Maria Hummel, Dorothea Lasky, Jenny Xie, and about 50 others; open readings; and other literary events in venues all around Brattleboro, Vermont. The Boston Book Festival, which takes place at locations around Copley Square in Boston, Massachusetts, features readings by Kate DiCamillo, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Tayari Jones, Michael Pollen, Adam Silvera, and many more.

On Sunday, October 13, at 7:00 pm, Micah Perks reads from her new book of short stories, True Love and Other Dreams of Miraculous Escape, at Water Street Bookstore in Exeter, New Hampshire. If you can’t make that date, you have another opportunity to hear Micah read at 7:00 pm Wednesday, October 17, at the Norwich Bookstore in Norwich, Vermont.

The fall Poetry at Bennington series begins on Wednesday, October 17, with a reading by Dawn Lundy Martin at 7:00 pm at the Tishman Lecture Hall on the Bennington campus. The second event in the series, featuring poets Daniel Borzutzky and Rachel Galvin, will be held on Wednesday, October 24 at 7:00 pm.

Howard Mansfield will present his new book, The Habit of Turning the World Upside Down, at Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord, New Hampshire, on Wednesday, October 24, at 5:30 pm.

Lesley Arimah and Diana Goetsch will read at the Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier, Vermont, on Friday, October 26, at 5:30 pm.

Andre Dubus III will be reading at The Music Hall Loft in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, as part of the Writers in the Loft series. The reading on Friday, October 26 at 7:00 pm is a ticketed event ($42 for members; $40 for non-members), which includes a reserved seat, a copy of his book (Gone So Long), a bar beverage, the presentation, Q&A, and book signing meet-and-greet.

Literary North favorite, Alexander Chee, will be at Baker-Berry Library at Dartmouth College in Hanover New Hampshire on Wednesday, October 28, at 4:00 pm. He’ll be reading from his fabulous book of essays, How to Write an Autobiographical Novel.

Visit our calendar for detailed information about these events and more!

Worth a Drive

Akwaeke Emezi and Allison Janae Hamilton will be in conversation about Emezi's debut novel, Freshwater, at Mass MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts, on Thursday, October 11 at 6:00 pm. For more information, please visit the Mass MoCA website.

“Before You Became Improbable,” an immersive journey through the Dickinson-Higginson correspondence, is happening in Amherst, Massachusetts, from Wednesday October 3 through 6. “Before You Became Improbable” is a “walking theatrical journey throughout downtown Amherst, en route to the Dickinson Museum grounds. Tickets are $15 to 35. For more information, please visit the Emily Dickinson Museum website.

Worth a Listen

The new editor of The Paris Review, Emily Nemens, on the Think Again podcast, talks about her plans for the literary magazine.
We always enjoy listening to Literary Friction. The recent episodes with Olivia Laing and Ottessa Moshfegh are not to be missed.

We're Looking Forward to These October Releases

So Far So Good, by Ursula K. Le Guin (Copper Canyon Press, October 2)
Author, by Beowulf Sheehan (Black Dog & Leventhal, October 9)
The Library Book, by Susan Orlean (Simon & Schuster, October 16)
Chalk: The Art and Erasure of Cy Twombly, by Joshua Rivkin (Melville House, October 16)
Little, by Edward Carey (Riverhead Books, October 23)
The White Darkness, by David Grann (Doubleday, October 30)
Sara Berman's Closet, by Maira Kalman and Alex Kalman (Harper Design, October 30)

Calls For Submission and Upcoming Deadlines

Do you like to make comics? Do you want to hone your visual storytelling skills? What will your graphic novel look like? Find out at an ongoing Comic-Making workshop this fall. Learn the basics of sketching, story-boarding, paneling, shading, lettering, inking and more! Join Professor Michael Chaney for this weekly workshop. The workshop will run from 6:45 until about 7:30 pm, and will be held every Tuesday evening in Sanborn House on the Dartmouth College campus in Hanover, New Hamsphire, until the end of the Fall term. For more information, please visit the Workshop page.

The New Hampshire Institute of Art is accepting submissions from new and emerging writers for its 2018 Writing Award. They are looking for writing in any genre that successfully tells a story with innovation and purpose (a familiar story told with unexpected tools and techniques; a new story told in a traditional way). Pieces that speak to the theme “The Rest” (the space between things: “negative space” in a work of visual art; a narrative pause in literature, comedy, or drama; the literal rest in a musical composition) are encouraged, but not required. The deadline is October 31. For more information, please visit the NHIA 2018 Writing Award page.

The Vermont Writers Prize, sponsored by Green Mountain Power and Vermont Magazine, is a statewide contest honoring the legacy and passion of Vermont author Ralph Nading Hill, Jr. The contest is open to all Vermont residents, amateur or professional. Your piece may be an essay, a short story, a play, or a poem. It must, however, be about one central topic: Vermont. Entries must be unpublished and 1,500 words or less. The winner will be selected by an independent panel of judges, will receive a cash prize of $1,500, and have his or her piece published in Vermont Magazine. The deadline is November 1. For more information, please visit the Prize page.

Sundog Poetry Center is accepting registrations for the Fifth Annual Retreat at Fielder Farm in Huntington, Vermont, from November 2 to 4. Tuition is $100 to $350. A deposit of $100 is required to secure your place. For more information and to register, please visit the Retreat page.

Bloodroot Literary Magazine is now accepting submissions of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction through December 31. Guidelines are available on the Bloodroot website.

The Frost Place is now accepting submissions for their annual Chapbook Competition. The competition is open to any poet writing in English. The submission fee is $28. Submissions will be accepted through January 5, 2019. For more information, please visit the Chapbook Competition page.

Applications are now open for the Dartmouth Poet in Residence program at The Frost Place. This is a six-to-eight-week residency in poet Robert Frost’s former farmhouse in Franconia, New Hampshire. The residency begins July 1 and ends August 15, and includes an award of $1,000 from The Frost Place and an award of $1,000 from Dartmouth College. The recipient will have an opportunity to give a series of public readings across the region, including at Dartmouth College and The Frost Place. Applications will be accepted through January 5, 2019. For more information, please visit the Residency page.

Upcoming Workshops and Classes

Sundog Poetry Center is hosting the "Share Your Heart, Share the World" event in Burlington, Vermont, with a poetry workshop for adults on October 8, and a student intensive on October 9. The guest poet is Chard deNiord. For more information please visit the Event page.

Registration is open for the annual Northern Woodlands Conference, held October 12 to 14 at the Hulbert Outdoor Center in Fairlee, Vermont. This year’s conference features keynote speaker Bryan Pfeiffer, and plenary speakers Ben Cosgrove, Erica Heilman, and Jerry Jenkins. Registration is $240 to $425. For more information, please visit the Conference website.

In horror fiction, it’s the writer’s ability to craft suspense that keeps us turning the pages. But what exactly triggers a feeling of dread in life and entertainment? In this three-hour writing workshop, “A Sense of Dread,” horror author Douglas Wynne examines strategies for crafting suspenseful scenes. The workshop, sponsored by The New Hampshire Writers Project, will be held at the The Ford House on the campus of SNHU in Manchester, New Hampshire, on October 27, from 1:00 to 4:00 pm. $65 for NHWP members; $80 for non-members. For more information, please visit the NHWP Workshops page.

On October 28, The New Hampshire Writers’ Project is hosting a Critique Speed Match Up. This event, which works similar to a speed dating event, will help you meet many potential critique partners in one evening. The workshop will be held at the The Ford House on the campus of SNHU in Manchester, New Hampshire, on October 27, from 12:00 to 4:00 pm. All attendees must register in advance. For more information, please visit the NHWP Events page.

Join poet Karla Van Vliet for her online workshop, “Dreams as Source” for four weeks, beginning October 22. The fee is $160 for all four sessions. The enrollment is limited to eight participants. For more information, please visit the Workshop page.

NaNoWriMo too easy? Become a Centurion by earning 100 poetry, essay, or short-story rejections in twelve months. Lead by R. W. W. Greene, this two-hour workshop hosted by the New Hampshire Writers’ Project will “take you through the steps of submitting your work, the mystery of rejectomancy, and the best methods of recuperation from a ‘thanks but no thanks.’” The workshop will be held on November 17, from 1:00 to 3:00 pm at The Ford House on the campus of SNHU in Manchester, New Hampshire. $50 for NHWP members; $75 for non-members. For more information, please visit the NHWP Workshops page.

Rebecca Siegel

March 1, 2018

Calls for Submission, Deadlines, Events, Newsletter, Workshops, The Dipper, Shooting Stars

The Dipper - March 2018

Rebecca Siegel

March 1, 2018

Calls for Submission, Deadlines, Events, Newsletter, Workshops, The Dipper, Shooting Stars

"The Dipper" is our monthly newsletter, where we highlight readings, events, calls for submission, and other literary-related news for the coming month. If you have news or events to share, let us know!

March News

We hope many of you made it out to JAGFest 2.0 last month. Each of the staged readings was wonderful, but it was the accumulated power of the entire weekend—the writing, the performances, the emotions, the discussions, and the feeling of community—that really made the festival special. If you missed the festival this year, you'll get another chance next February!

Continuing our collaboration with JAG Productions, we're thrilled to announce the Lady Sings the Blues book group. This one-meeting book group will read and discuss Billie Holiday's autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues, in preparation for attending a performance of JAG Productions' presentation of Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill. We'll meet at Yankee Bookshop in Woodstock, Vermont, on Tuesday, May 15, at 7:00 pm. Local author and fantastic question-asker Julia Cooke will lead our discussion. Want to join us? Visit our event page to sign up.

We're kind of blown away by how many of you have already joined our Slow Club Book Club and we hope you enjoyed the first selection as much as we did. We've selected our Spring book and will announce it to members in early March. Not a member yet? It's never too late to join us!

In other big news, we've got most of the details worked out for Poetry & Pie II! Once again we'll be meeting at Sweetland Farm, in Norwich, Vermont, to listen to and read poems, eat pie, and enjoy a perfect summer afternoon. We'll reveal the fantastic lineup of poets soon. In the meantime, circle Saturday, July 21, 3:00 to 5:00 pm, on your calendar. You won't want to miss this.

Finally, we want to take a paragraph here to thank our community, near and far, for supporting Literary North. So many of you have said such kind things about our work, sent us your literary news, met with us to discuss events and venues, encouraged us, volunteered for us, cheered us on, donated to us, and helped make Literary North better. We truly couldn't do this work without you. Thank you!

March's Shooting Stars

A cool literary find from each of us to help light up your month!

Thanks to the Vermont Humanities Council, I'm finally reading Moby-Dick. And yes, I'm loving it. If you read it long ago and want a refresher, or if you're daunted by reading it at all, I highly recommend listening to Moby Dick Big Read, a project conceived by Plymouth University. Different voices—some famous, some not—read the book to us chapter by chapter. It's wonderful. For a taste, listen to Nigel Williams' terrific reading of Chapter 3: The Spouter-Inn. —Rebecca

Do you know about The Book Jam? Lisa Christie and Lisa Cadow, both of the Upper Valley, have a blog where they pass on book recommendations of all stripes. Their latest blog post features Norwich Bookstore bookseller, Carin Pratt. Carin's recommendations can't be beat. I always look forward to visiting Carin at the bookstore to hear which books she's raving about. —Shari

March Highlights

The Snapdragon Inn in Windsor, Vermont, is hosting author Ruth Porter, granddaughter of Maxwell Perkins, for their first Author's Book Club weekend on Saturday, March 3. Ruth will be leading a book discussion of her latest novel beginning at 3:00 pm. The discussion will be preceded by afternoon tea and followed by a book signing and a wine and cheese tasting.

On Thursday, March 1, Victor LaValle will be reading as part of the Cleopatra Mathis Poetry & Prose Series at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. The reading will be held at Sanborn Library and begins at 4:30 pm.

AVA Gallery's quarterly live storytelling event, The Mudroom, returns on Thursday, March 15 in Lebanon, New Hampshire. This quarter's theme is "The First Time." Food at 6:30 pm and the storytelling begins at 7.00. Purchase advance tickets online, $7.50 to $10. Ages 21 and over. Get your tickets soon as this event usually sells out!

On Sunday, March 11, Pam Houston will be giving a reading at the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, Vermont, at 7:00 pm.

Morgan Jerkins reads from her critically acclaimed book of essays, This Will Be My Undoing, on Wednesday, March 14, at 7:00 pm at Bennington College.

On Friday, March 16, Dartmouth Professor of History Annelise Orleck will read from and discuss her newest book, We Are All Fast-Food Workers Now, at Water Street Bookstore in Exeter, New Hampshire. The reading begins at 7:00 pm. If you miss this reading, you can also catch Annelise's reading at Phoenix Books in Burlington, Vermont, on Thursday, March 22, at 6:30 pm.

Robin Coste Lewis will be at Bennington College on Wednesday, March 21 as a part of the "Poetry at Bennington" series. Evie Shockley reads on Wednesday, March 28. Both of these readings start at 7:00 pm in Tishman Lecture Hall.

Multi-talented writer Rita Banerjee will read from her debut poetry collection, Echo in Four Beats, on Tuesday, March 27, at 5:30 pm at the New Hampshire Institute of Art in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Worth a Drive

Poet Ocean Vuong—recent winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize—will be reading at the Alumnae House Conference Hall at Smith College, in Northampton, Massachusetts, on Tuesday, March 27. The reading begins at 7:30 pm. Meet you there?!

Amherst College Lit Fest begins Thursday, March 1 and goes through Saturday, March 3. Writers include Carmen Maria Machado, Min Jin Lee, Junot Diaz, and Masha Gessen. Visit Amherst College's website for more information.

We're Looking Forward to These March Releases

Registers of Illuminated Villages, by Tarfia Faizullah (Graywolf Press, March 6)
Census, by Jesse Ball (Ecco, March 6)
Happiness, by Aminatta Forna (Atlantic Monthly Press, March 6)
Men and Apparitions, by Lynne Tillman (Soft Skull Press, March 11)
Pure Hollywood, by Christine Schutt (Grove, March 13)
The Chandelier, by Clarice Lispector (New Directions, March 27)

Calls For Submission and Upcoming Deadlines

The 2018 Frost Farm Prize for Metrical Poetry is open for entries through March 30. The winner receives $1,000 and an invitation, with honorarium, to read in June 2018 as part of The Hyla Brook Reading Series at the Robert Frost Farm. For more information and to enter, please visit the Frost Farm Prize page.

Applications are open until March 31 for two scholarships at The Frost Place:

The Gregory Pardlo Scholarship for Emerging African American Poets is open to African American Poets writing in English who have published up to one book of poetry. The winner will receive a full scholarship to attend the Poetry Seminar, including room and board, and will give a featured reading at the Seminar. For more information, please visit the Gregory Pardlo Scholarship page.
The Latin@ Scholarship is open to applicants that self-identify as Latin@, have a strong commitment to the Latin@ community, and are at least 21 years of age. The winner will receive tuition, room and board, and travel for The Frost Place Conference on Poetry. For more information and to apply, please visit the Latin@ Scholarship page.

The Fleming Museum of Art at UVM is seeking original poetry based on the art on view in the museum for their Ekphrastic Poetry Reading (on April 18, at 6:00 pm). Submissions must be received by March 16. For more information, please visit the Fleming Museum's event page.

Vermont Literary Review is taking submissions of creative work about New England until March 31. For more information, please visit Castleton University's website.

The Odyssey Writing Workshop (June 4 to July 13) is accepting applications until April 7. The Odyssey workshop, for writers of fantasy, science fiction, and horror, is held on the campus of Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire. Prospective students must include a 4,000-word writing sample with their application. For more information, please visit the Workshop page.

Registration is open for the VCFA Novel Retreat (May 15 to 21). Faculty includes Connie May Fowler, Jeff Kleinman, Richard McCann, and Crystal Wilkinson. A $200 non-refundable deposit is required. For more information, please visit the Novel Retreat page.

The Bennington Review is open for submissions through May 15 with no reading fee. For more information, please visit the Bennington Review Submissions page.

The New England Review is open for poetry and digital submissions through May 31. For more information, please visit the NER Submissions page.

Registration is open for the 3rd Annual Poetry Festival at the Fine Arts Work Center (August 5 to 10) in Provincetown, Massachusetts. The Festival includes poetry and songwriting workshops. Faculty includes Traci Brimhall, Cornelius Eady, Nick Flynn, Vievee Francis, Ross Gay, Rebecca Gayle Howell, Patty Larkin, and Patrick Rosal. For information on tuition, housing, and registration, please visit the FAWC Festival page.

Registration is open for 603: The Writers' Conference (April 14) on the SNHU campus in Manchester, New Hampshire. The keynote speaker is novelist Richard Russo. The conference includes master classes, workshops, panel discussions, lunch, and a reception. $85 to $135. For more information and to register, please visit the Conference page.

The Summer Writing Intensive at Marlboro College is accepting applications on a rolling basis through July 5. The intensive is open to anyone 18 years or older. Military veterans are particularly encouraged to apply. For more information, please visit the Summer Writing Intensive page.

March Workshops and Classes

Poet Karin Gottshall is leading three Master Classes: "Figuration Smorgasbord: Roll up Your Sleeves and Get Messy with Metaphor," Saturdays, March 3, 10, and 17, from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm at the Burlington Writers Workshop in Burlington, Vermont. Note: These workshops do not need to be taken as a series. For more information and to register, please visit the Workshop page.

On Saturday, March 10, from 12:30 pm to 4:30 pm, the League of Vermont Writers is offering "Sacred Marriage: The Writer and Their Critic," a workshop that will help you understand and explore the relationship between our writer-self and your inner critic. $60 for League members; $80 for non-members. To attend, you must register and pay in full by March 5. For more information and to register, please visit the Gatherings page.

Are you looking for quality feedback on a work-in-progress but have no time for a weekly class? Joni Cole's one-session "Fast Feedback" workshop on Saturday, March 10, provides writers of fiction and creative non-fiction with a quick fox of feedback, instruction, and collective inspiration. The workshop meets from 9:30 to 10:30 am at the Writer's Center in White River Junction, Vermont. The cost is $45. For more information and to register, please visit the Writer's Center Workshops page.

On Monday, March 12, from 7:00 to 8:00 pm, Catherine Deiley is offering an online workshop titled, "Online Tools to Track Your Submissions." Learn to use tools such as Submittable and Duotrope to stay organized and keep your submissions rolling. $10 for New Hampshire Writers' Project members; $25 for non-members. For more information and to register, please visit the NHWP Workshops page.

Also sponsored by the New Hampshire Writers' Project, Tracy Hahn-Burkett, writer and former DC public policy advocate, will be teaching a "Political Writing: Advocacy" workshop. The workshop will be held at The Ford House on the campus of SNHU, on Wednesday, March 14, from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. $50 for NHWP members; $75 for non-members. For more information and to register, please visit the NHWP Workshops page.

Join the Vermont Folklife Center for their "Storytelling for Social Change" workshop on Saturday, March 17, from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. This workshop is intended for anyone interested in developing collaborative documentary storytelling skills, including students, community members, and staff members of organizations doing cultural, community, and social-service work. The workshop will be held at the Helen Day Art Center in Stowe, Vermont. Tuition for the day is $95. For more information or to register, please visit the Workshop page.

On Friday, March 23 and Saturday, March 24, join the Vermont Folklife Center for a "Digital Storytelling for Community Engagement and Sustainability" workshop. This two-day workshop, held at Shelburne Farms in Shelburne, Vermont, is a deep dive into tools and techniques for digital storytelling to engage students and communities in sustainability. $250, includes meals and accommodations. A limited number of partial scholarships are available. For more information and to register, please visit the Workshop page.

Join Mimi Schwartz for "Beyond the I: When Memoir Meets History," a workshop that focuses on the ways that personal narrative is enriched by history—be it family legacies, neighborhood landmarks, or the social history that shapes us. Through readings, discussion, and in-class exercises, participants will discover new strategies for writing their life stories in ways that friends, family or strangers will want to read on. The workshop, held on Saturday, March 24, from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm, will take place at The Ford House on the campus of SNHU, in Manchester, New Hampshire. $50 for NHWP members; $75 for non-members. For more information and to register, please visit the NHWP Workshops page.

On Sunday, March 25, author and writing coach Annalisa Parent will walk workshop attendees through the elements of a publishable manuscript. Participants will have the opportunity to share their writing andget meaningful feedback. The workshop will be held at the Toadstool Bookshop in Keene, New Hampshire, from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm. For more information and to register, please visit the Event page.

Join poet Hannah Fries on Wednesday, March 28, at Court Street Arts in Haverhill, New Hampshire, for a joyful exploration of what makes a poem leap off the page and into our hearts. Participants will spend part of the day looking at their own favorite poems and other examples, and part of the day using loose, fun exercises to jump start their own writing. $60 for members; $65 for non-members. For more information and to register, please visit the Classes page.

Rebecca Siegel

September 1, 2017

Newsletter, The Dipper, Deadlines, Workshops, Calls for Submission

The Dipper - September 2017

Rebecca Siegel

September 1, 2017

Newsletter, The Dipper, Deadlines, Workshops, Calls for Submission

September News

A lovely time was had by all at Poetry & Pie. If you missed out on a custom pencil, you will get another chance to grab yours in 2018. We're already planning for Poetry & Pie II. Our friend EM Reynolds took photographs and wrote up a nice recap of the day if you'd like to read more about the afternoon. Also, in case you missed it, check out Mary Kane's poem, "The Gertrude Stein Cure," which she read at Poetry & Pie.

We'll be using the rest of 2017 to reflect on the year and work on new plans for 2018. We are very interested in collaborating with arts groups, bookstores, museums and other community organizations, so if you have an idea, please be in touch. You can write to us anytime at .

September Highlights

The Portsmouth Poet Laureate Program has announced the schedule of featured readers for the 2017-18 Hoot reading season. The Hoot, which features two readers and an open mic, takes place on the first Wednesday of each month, at 7:00 pm, at Cafe Espresso in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The first event of the season will be Wednesday, September 6, featuring Dennis Camire and Jim Thatcher.

The Burlington Book Festival is hosting their annual festival September 15 to 17, in Burlington, Vermont. Authors include Melissa Febos, Major Jackson, Tim Weed, David Tomas Martinez, and April Ossman. The complete Festival schedule will be available soon on their website.

Poetry at Bennington features readings by four poets this fall. Gabrielle Calvocoressi and Marie Howe will read in September. Kaveh Akbar (a Literary North fave) will read in October and Mai Der Vang will read in November. These readings will all take place in the Tishman Lecture Hall at Bennington College, in Bennington, Vermont.

Words Out Loud at the Kent Museum in Calais, Vermont, kicks off on Sunday, September 17, with Howard Norman and Jane Shore. The second event will be on Sunday, September 24, with Alison Prine and James Crews. The final event in the series is on Sunday, October 8, with Greg Delanty and Madeleine Kunin. A reception and book signing will follow the readings.

The annual New Hampshire Poetry Festival takes place on Saturday, September 23, at the New Hampshire Institute of Art, in Manchester, New Hampshire. The event features readings, panels, and workshops by poets from New Hampshire, across the country, and around the world, including Oliver de la Paz, Chard deNiord, Gregory Pardlo, Elizabeth Powell, and many others. Registration for the day is $55 to $120.

The 2017 Vermont Book Award Gala ceremony is on Saturday, September 23, starting at 6:00 pm, at the Vermont College of Fine Arts, in Montpelier, Vermont. The event will feature readings by the 2017 finalists, the announcement of the 2017 Vermont Book Award winner, music, cocktails, and hors d'oeuvres. Tickets are $45. We'll be in attendance and would love to meet some of you!

The Eagle Pond Author Series kicks off its 2017-18 season with poet Jenna Le, on Wednesday, September 27, at 7:00 pm. All readings in the series take place at the Silver Center for the Arts in Plymouth, New Hampshire. Other readers in the series include Jenny Johnson, Martin Espada, and Barbara Edelman. Call the Silver Center for free tickets.

Please visit our calendar for detailed information about each event and to see more event listings for September and beyond.

Worth a Drive

Patti Smith will be at the Back Bay Events Center in Boston, Massachusetts, on Thursday, September 28 at 7:30 pm. Doors open at 6:30 PM. This is a ticketed event. Tickets are $30 and include a copy of Smith's book, Devotion. Please note: this event does not include a book signing with Smith and copies will come unsigned.

The fifth annual Amherst Poetry Festival and Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon runs from September 14 to 17, in Amherst, Massachusetts. The Festival features a day-long Dickinson marathon, Poetry in the Planetarium with Dara Wier, a reading by Kaveh Akbar, art exhibits, workshops, and a full schedule of other events.

We're Looking Forward to these September Releases

Feverland, by Alex Lemon (September 5, Milkweed Editions)
Sing, Unburied, Sing, by Jesmyn Ward (September 5, Scribner)
Don't Call Us Dead, by Danez Smith (September 5, Graywolf Press)
Calling a Wolf a Wolf, by Kaveh Akbar (September 12, Alice James Books)
Forest Dark, by Nicole Krauss (September 12, Harper Collins)
Electric Arches, by Eve L. Ewing (September 12, Haymarket Books)

Calls for Submission and Upcoming Deadlines

The application deadline for the MacDowell Colony Winter/Spring 2018 residency is September 15. The application fee is $30. For more information, please visit the Application Guidelines page.

The editors of the anthology Birchsong: Poetry Centered in Vermont, vol. I (2012) are pleased to announce the forthcoming publication of a second volume in the spring of 2018. Poets living in Vermont and neighboring states (New Hampshire, New York, and Massachusetts), are invited to submit, by regular mail, one to three poems for consideration during the reading period, August 1 to October 31, 2017. Poems, no longer than 70 lines each, must be written since Tropical Storm Irene in August 2011, and sent to Editors, The Blueline Press, PO Box 706, East Dorset, Vermont 05253. Please email for complete submission guidelines or if you have questions.

Vital Communities is hosting a Watershed Quest Challenge, designed to encourage you to explore your favorite Upper Valley pond, stream, river, or swimming hole and write a Valley Quest. Watershed Quest submissions will have the chance to be featured in the 2018 Super Quest, and the author or the winning Quest will receive a grand prize. The deadline is December 15. For full details and to submit your Quest, please visit the Watershed Quest Challenge page.

September Workshops and Classes

Join Green Writers Press and The Hopper Magazine every Thursday evening from 6:00 to 8:00 pm in the Lounge at Duo Restaurant in Brattleboro, Vermont, for The Book Lounge. There were be special guests, prompts, and talks each week.

Poet James Crews is teaching a "Mindfulness and Writing" workshop on Saturday, September 9, from 10:00 am to noon at the the Marlboro College Graduate Center in Brattleboro, Vermont. For more information and to register, please see our Calendar.

Also on Saturday, September 9, YA author Jo Knowles is leading a workshop called "Cooking Up Great Stories." The workshop is from from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm and will be held at Shelburne Town Offices in Shelburne, Vermont. The fee is $150 and includes the workshop, morning snacks, cold refreshments, and hot tea and coffee. For more information and to register, please visit the the Event page.

Ina Anderson continues her series of poetry workshops on September 20, October 18, and November 15 at Seven Stars Art Center, in Sharon, Vermont. The workshops are for beginning through experienced poets, and provide feedback in a friendly, supportive setting. A $10 donation for each session is suggested. Pre-registration is not required. For more information, please see the Event page.

Burlington Writers Workshop in Burlington and Montpelier, Vermont, offers an ongoing series of free writing workshops. Upcoming workshops include creative writing (any genre), poetry, and creative nonfiction. For a complete list of upcoming workshops and to register, visit the workshop Meetup page.

The League of Vermont Writers is holding their fall program, "Wicked Wording This Way Comes," on Saturday, September 30, in Barre, Vermont, featuring J.W. Ocker, Laurie Forest, and more. Check out their website for more details.

Judith Hertog will be teaching a Teen Writing workshop at The Writer's Center in White River Junction, Vermont. Classes take place on Tuesdays from 6:00 to 7:30 pm, from September 19 to November 7. The cost is $160. To register and for more information, please contact .

Also at The Writer's Center, Elayne Clift is offering a workshop entitled "Time Travel: Real and Imagined Journeys" on Saturday, September 30, from 10 am to 1 pm. The cost is $40 and registration is required. Contact Elayne at .