The Literary Social Calendar
WLT EVENTS
Jump Start Your Novel with Sara Kocek
$49 members / $109 nonmembers
5/26/2012 From 1 PM to 4 PM
THE WRITERS’ LEAGUE OF TEXAS 2012 AGENTS CONFERENCE
June 22 – 24, 2012
Hyatt Regency Austin
The 2012 WLT Summer Writing Retreat will be held July 22-27 at Sul Ross State University in Alpine, the perfect summer escape.
Texas State’s Wittliff Collections present New York Times #1 best-selling author RICK RIORDAN
FRIDAY, MAY 11, 2012, 7:00 P.M. TALK BY CREATOR OF PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS SERIES
Upcoming Events at Barnes & Noble Arboretum
Saturday, May 12, 11:00 a.m. – Join us for a Mother’s Day Storytime as we read ‘Me and My Mom.’
Saturday, May 12, 2:00 p.m. – Join Imran Ahmad as he signs copies his new memoir, ‘The Perfect Gentleman: A Muslim Boy Meets the West.’
Tuesday, May 15, 7:00 p.m. – Join Marcus Luttrell as he signs copies of his new book ‘SERVICE: A Navy Seal at War.’
Saturday, May 19, 11:00 a.m. – Join us for ‘SPOT Goes to the Beach’ Storytime with special guest…SPOT!!
Saturday, May 19, 11:00 a.m. – Join us as we celebrate the Austin Council of the Blind with events to teach you about Braille awareness. Come have your name and a special message ‘typed’ in Braille; then use a “key” to read the message. A portion of all sales associated with the Bookfair will benefit the Austin Council of the Blind.
Harry Ransom Center Exhibit
‘The Kind James Bible; Its History and Influence’
Admission is free, exhibit running now until July 29.
HRC calendar www.hrc.utexas.edu/events
Fiction 500 Contest
www.Fiction500.com
* Submit an original work of fiction no longer than 500 words, based on a prompt.
* Entry Dates are May 1-14, 2012.
* We accept only the first 500 entries.
* Faculty from the country’s top MFA Creative Writing Programs judge the contest
* Prizes are $500, $200, and $100.
* We publish winning stories (and honorable mentions) on our website.
6th Annual Austin African American Book Festival
BRONZE MUSINGS: CONVERSATIONS ABOUT BLACK LIFE IN LITERATURE, George Washington Carver. Library & Museum Austin, Texas 78702. Saturday, June 23, 2012. Featured authors: Bernice McFadden (aka Geneva Holliday) & Elizabeth Nunez. More info to come.
www.aabookfest.com
THE SOUTHERN SIN ESSAY CONTEST
Deadline: July 31, 2012
Creative Nonfiction (CNF) and the Oxford Creative Nonfiction Writers Conference & Workshop are looking for essays that capture the South in all its steamy sinfulness–whether you’re skipping church to watch football, coveting your neighbor’s Real Housewife of Atlanta, or just drinking an unholy amount of sweet tea.
Your essay can channel William Faulkner or Flannery O’Connor, Alice Walker or Rick Bragg; it can be serious, humorous, or somewhere in between, but
all essays must tell true stories, and must incorporate both sin and the South in some way. The selected essays will be published in Creative Nonfiction #47, and CNF and Oxford will be awarding $5000 for Best Essay.
To submit, visit: www.creativenonfiction.org
Word Space Dallas Events
Dallas Poetry YOUTH Slam
When: Every 1st Saturday at 4-6 pm
Where: Half Price Books, 5803 E. NW Hwy, Program Room
Hosts: Alexandra Marie and RockBaby
Michael Lagocki
When: Friday May 18th, 8pm
Where: Heroes, 7402 Greenville Ave
Michael Lagocki is a professional artist, teacher, and poet. He is one of three founders of the Dallas based ArtLoveMagic, which seeks to unite artists and audiences in positive experiences. He frequently writes on issues that affect the lives and sanity of creative people at www.artlovemagic.wordpress.com.
WordSpace Critics Circle: Michael Helsem on Sylvia Plath
What: Plath and the Crisis of Our Time
When: Tuesday, May 22, 7 pm
Where: Residence, RSVP wordspace@wordspace.us or 214-838-3554
Admission: Members-FREE, Non Members, $5
Michael Helsem is a Dallas writer, intellectual, painter, and author with multi-disciplinary knowledge and intersections of philosophy and imagination in art. He has kindly agreed to share his rich talents in a focus on Sylvia Plath.
O. Henry, A Short Story, on Exhibit @ Austin History Center
Pore over O. Henry: A Short Story, the current exhibit on display at the Austin History Center, 810 Guadalupe St., in the Holt Gallery from May 8 through October 21, 2012. The life of O. Henry (1862-1910,) aka William Sydney Porter, unravels chronologically in a selection of photographs, letters and other items that offer a glimpse into his life as a writer and as an Austinite at the turn of the century. O. Henry: A Short Story commemorates the 150th anniversary of the birth of the famous short story writer. The exhibit is free and open to the public. For more information please call 512-974-7480 or visit library.austintexas.gov.
POSTMARK DEADLINE FOR WILLIAM FAULKNER -WILLIAM WISDOM COMPETITION: MAY 15, 2012
The Faulkner Society reminds writers and friends of writers that the postmark deadline for the William Faulkner – William Wisdom, Creative Writing Competition is May 15, 1012. The competition is open to all writers anywhere working in English and offers significant cash prizes in seven categories of previously unpublished work:
Novel, $7,500; Novella, $2,500; Novel-in-progress, $2,000; Short Story, $1,500; Essay, $1,000; Poem, $750; Short Story by a High School Student, $750 and Sponsoring teacher, $250.
Winners are guests of the Faulkner Society at its annual arts festival, Words & Music, A Literary Feast in New Orleans, where they receive gold medals in the image of William Faulkner, and have their manuscripts critiqued by leading literary agents and editors during
Words & Music, a Literary Feast in New Orleans, November 28-December 2, 2012.
Lexicon Writers Conference
In a world filled with people who think they are writers, only a few will truly succeed. What separates them from the rest of the crowd? They take advantage of all the available venues and opportunities to promote their work and themselves. So, you have to ask yourself – Are you as well known as you should be? Are your books selling as well as they could? Don’t miss out on this fantastic networking, marketing, and promotional opportunity taking place in Denton, Texas on July 21-22, 2012. Go to http://Lexi-ConWritersConference.com for all the details.
The Consortium for Science, Policy, and Outcomes (CSPO)
at Arizona State University was recently awarded a generous grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) in order to conduct the second iteration of a first of its kind workshop, “To Think, To Write, To Publish,” founded on these very ideas. Writers of all kinds as well as science, innovation and policy scholars are invited to apply to this competitive program where they will learn sought after literary techniques and publish their work in a collection of creative nonfiction essays that makes science, innovation and policy scholarship accessible to a larger audience using creative nonfiction techniques. Completed essays will be published in various venues including a special book published by an imprint of the Creative Nonfiction Foundation. The Workshop is an all expenses paid, two-part event, offering participants an honorarium upon completion of the program. The first part of the workshop will take place in Washington, DC in early October 2012 and the second in Tempe, Arizona, mid-May 2013 (nice weather is expected!).The application deadline is June 15, 2012. More information is available at: www.thinkwritepublish.org or http://cspo.org/projects/think-write-publish/
Friday, May 11, 7 PM, Reading: Cyrus Cassells & Evan Cleveland
The Writer’s Garret
10809 Garland Road
Dallas, 75218
CYRUS CASSELLS is the author of four acclaimed books of poetry: The Mud Actor, Soul Make a Path through Shouting, Beautiful Signor, and More Than Peace and Cypresses. His fifth book, The Crossed-Out Swastika, and a translation manuscript, Still Life with Children: Selected Poems of Francesc Parcerisas, are forthcoming. He is a tenured Professor of English at Texas State University-San Marcos and has served on the faculty of Cave Canem, the African American Poets Workshop. “Cyrus Cassells… is considered one of the major voices of contemporary American poetry.”- Parade
“Cassells’ poems reiterate the need to experience romantic, erotic love as a gateway to spiritual love.”- American Bookseller
EVAN CLEVELAND leads youth programming for The Writer’s Garret, after nine years of teaching creative writing in Houston’s public and private schools, hospitals, and museums. He recently received his Master of Fine Arts in Fiction from Warren Wilson College, and his stories have appeared in Under Hwy 99, Pear Noir!, and Pilot Project 7.
