Have We Got a Feast for You: Fall 2012 Events

October 6th is Colloquium at Hamline during Homecoming/Alumni weekend.  You can hear some standout graduates from last year talk about process.  That evening, be sure to head over to the Co-Kisser Film Festival, which will be showing poetry films and having an open-mic from 5:30-6:30.  You are specially invited to come and read a poem or two and celebrate this marvelous melding of film and poetry!

October 13th we're having a Happy Hour to celebrate new faculty member John Brandon's reading on October 12th and the Rain Taxi Twin Cities Book Festival at the State Fairgrounds on the 13th.  Volunteers always wanted!  Meet us at Stout's (near the Fairgrounds on the NW part of the Snelling and Larpenteur intersection) at 6:30, and watch Facebook to help us get a head count to reserve a table.

October 20th is our Moveable Feast Launch Party (in belated honor of our name change) and Touch Football Game (and then bonfire at the lovely back yard of Sarah Hayes).  Players and spectators wanted!

November 2nd is the Faculty Appreciation Dinner at 5:30 and then the Water~Stone reading at 7.  It's our annual potluck style bash to celebrate and talk to our lovely faculty members and each other.  Watch Facebook for mouth-watering postings of who is bringing what delectable food this year.

November 14th is the long-awaited publishing panel (we sincerely hope).  A panel of publishers/editors will talk to alumni about the ins and outs of publishing in the Twin Cities and beyond.

All this on top of our monthly writers group and poetry club!  If you have an event or blog or website you would like us to post about, let us know.  And if you have an idea for something you would like to contribute to this blog to make it better for alumni (a monthly column or whatnot), get in touch with us.

Full slate this fall and full steam ahead.  Look for details here, on the Facebook page, and maybe in your actual mail box.  Hope to see you soon!

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Book Festival this Saturday 15 October!

This event is tons of fun, so if you've never been, give it a try this year.  They have panels and lectures and readings and a book sale and tables set up by local publishers and literary magazines (including Water~Stone).  Rain Taxi sponsors it, and they may still need some volunteers if you want to help out. See their website for all the fabulous details.  (There is a lot going on.)

Some GLS-related folks are making appearances this year!  If I missed anyone, let me know, so we can add them to the list.

Panel This Must Be The Place: Representing Minnesota 
12:30 pm Rain Room
Mary Rockcastle

Morning Mixer
10:00–10:30 am
Geoff Herbachfor  Stupid Fast
Lightsey Darst for Find the Girl

See you there!

Twin Cities Book Festival October 16th!

It's October and that means it's time for Rain Taxi's annual Twin Cities Book Festival.

Yes, it's that time already.  This free extravaganza showcasing all things literary is 

Saturday, October 16, 2010
10:00 am to 5:00 pm

at Minneapolis Community & Technical College

Have you seen the author list?!  There is seriously someone for everyone.  Good grief!  We're talking

• M.T. Anderson (co-sponsored by the Hamline University Creative Writing Program, no less!) at 3:30
• Mary Catherine Bateson
• Richard Paul Evans
• James Howard Kunstler
• Frederic Tuten
• Jean Valentine
• Jeffrey Zaslow 
• Bruce Lansky
• Alexander McCall Smith (10-11)
• and more, if you can believe it.

On top of that, there are panels on 

• Minnesota Debut Fiction
• The Changing World of Publishing: Getting Books to Readers
• The Great Midwest: Regional Writing
• Views From The Loft (featuring our own Barrie Jean Borich!)

I would be remiss as a comics fan not to mention the panel on Minnesota Comics at 1:30.  Bill Willingham of Fables (if you haven't read it, go read it now) will be there along with several other excellent panelists.


But wait!  There's more!  Seriously!

• A children's pavilion
• Book sales and signings
• Lit mag fair (be on the lookout for Water~Stone staff members and a huge variety of literary magazines)
• Publishers
• Literary organizations

How can there be so much literary goodness in one place?!  How can such an amazing thing occur?!  Find out for yourself!  (Volunteers are appreciated. :)  See you there . . .

If you have an event you'd like us to mention here on the GLaaS blog, just let us know.

Help keep yourself accountable for writing (and have fun doing it)

A friend in the writers' group I'm in recommended the site 750words.com.  If you want to get cracking on being disciplined and really make the writing habit part of your everyday life, there's nothing like signing yourself up to be on a Wall of Shame.  Just kidding. 

There are some great tools here to help you keep track of your goals.  You also get points and badges and some really interesting features, one of which is like a mood ring based on your writing. 

3 pages a day might be how you start getting back into the practice of writing if you've fallen out of it.  You can do 3 pages a day.  And everyone likes penguin badges, right?

Do you use this site?  Any tips or tricks for those who might be interested?

Scriptwriting opportunity

One of our alumni let us know about this opportunity.  Be sure to check it out if you're interested.

"Seeking someone who would be interested/have experience/capability in writing a script for a family entertainment film. Work with a scriptwriter and computer animator to develop The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister to develop the character into a 3D computer animation film. The story would appeal to 8 - 12 years old and family. They are pretty far along in the development process and are  looking for people who can write dialog. The bones of the story are somewhat worked out. Character must change quite a bit (grow up) to appeal to a more grown up audience. For more information send your contact information to Joan Stavely."

The new GLS Exchange has arrived!

If you didn't receive the new GLS Exchange through email on Thursday 24 June, you can check it out here.

I'd also recommend letting GLS know your preferred and current email address, as well, so you can be notified of future issues as they are published.

This new, turbo-charged version of the Exchange contains all the content you looked forward to in the paper version and more. Be sure to check out fun additions like The View from West Egg and the Alumni Corner for updates on how you can connect. I'm looking forward to the In the Classroom and the Beyond the Classroom features, myself. Maybe all this community news will inspire you to send us an alumni update or a reading list or book review of your own.

Just because you've graduated doesn't mean you can't still be part of the great GLS community. :)

Maya Washington '06 wants your creative writing

Dearest Friends and Creative Fam-

I am editing the White Space Poetry Anthology and I don't have any poems to edit! I sent out the following call for submissions a few weeks ago and have only received a few submissions. Please spread the word, submit your own work and forward this to colleagues. And for all my teaching artist friends, please encourage your star students to submit.

White Space Poetry Anthology
Deadline extended 6/15/10

The White Space Poetry Anthology is a collection of poetry, creative non-fiction, and art that use white space, literal or metaphorical to connect to thoughts and ideas.

We are also interested in voice as it pertains to the artist's point of view: be it regional, cultural or individual perspectives. There are no guidelines with regard to subject matter--we are mostly interested in how you use white space in your work and how it relates to your artistic point of view. Simultaneous and previously published work is welcome. If you are a multi-genre artist, please include pieces that include text and visual art.

Poetry: submit up to 6 poems.

Creative non-fiction: submit up to 6 short prose poems, or short creative non-fiction.

Art Work: submit up to 6 images.

Please send your electronic submission, along with your name, email, postal address, and a brief bio (60 words or less) to whitespacepoetry@gmail.com. Selected submissions will appear in print and online. There is no pay for contributors. If your work is selected you will receive a contributor copy of the anthology and recognition on our site.

- Maya Washington

Does anyone read reviews anymore?

Here's a great article about the state of reviewing I ran across in Publishers Weekly.  I've been reading a lot of reviews online lately, and this bit really resonated with me.

"When I read a scathing, thinly veiled ad hominem attack, or a prolonged act of self-aggrandizing cleverness at another's expense, or a condemnation of a single book for the bigger tendency--or tradition--that it would seem to represent, I tend to think negative reviews are ultimately embarrassing and ruinous for everyone, no matter how exciting they may be to read or gossip about.  But when a reviewer manages to point out a book's shortcomings even-handedly, with care and dignity, and with an eye to raising the bar a little higher for readers and for writers, too--that's another story.  I'd love to see more reviews like that."

Timothy Donnelly quoted in
Craig Teicher's "What Poetry Reviews Are For (and Up Against)"
in Publisher's Weekly March 29, 2010

Rain Taxi got mentioned, too, which was kind of thrilling.

The article as a whole is about whether book reviewing--specificially poetry book reviewing--matters in today's culture.  Be sure to check out the full article for several different perspectives on the issue. 

What do you think?  Do you read reviews?  What do you look for in them?  Do you write them?  What would make you want to read professional reviews?  Are there any reviewers or sites you really trust for consistently high quality reviews?

Read anything great online about writing or thinking?

If you stumble on a great website for writers, thinkers, artists, etc., please pass the wealth along.  Just email us a brief paragraph and a link to the content (website, blog post, online article, or whatever), and we'll pass it on to your fellow alumni.