Indholdsfortegnelse for February 2016 i The Writer

“A key element of creativity is that it relies strongly on your experiences. When looking back on childhood to draw inspiration, fi nd different ways to ask your memory new questions to bring out more vivid memories of what it was like to be a child. Look at old photos. Revisit a childhood home. Use your body as a cue to memory by getting down on the fl oor or adopting some other physical position you used commonly when you were younger. Eat foods you ate when you were young and don’t eat any more. The more different ways you ask your memory a question, the more different answers it will give you.” —Art Markman, executive editor of the journal Cognitive Science and author of Smart Change “What we remember…

BOOGIE NIGHTS Ever hear a song that immediately transports you back to a specific moment in time? Fill your writing room with the music of your youth to set the scene and provide cultural context for your work. This box set contains five CDs of top-10 hits from the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s, ’80s and ’90s. $64.98 brickmanmedia.com IT’S A MAD WORLD Relive your childhood by filling in the blanks Mad Libs style. Not only will these activity books help you think creatively, but if you’re focusing on a certain scene or period of time, pick up a book with that theme. Options include a sleepover party, camp, graduation and summer vacation. Research while having fun. $3.99 madlibs.com SAGE ESSENTIAL OIL The powers of sage have been linked to better metabolism…

When up-and-coming authors release new books, they usually want to donate copies to local libraries. This is a generous gesture for those who can afford to do it, but writers may not realize that they can market their books to local and regional libraries – and potentially to others throughout the country. Library systems regularly seek new books on diverse topics and are an ideal source of current and future readers. While selling to libraries poses some unique challenges, these tips can make the process more rewarding. Make your book database-friendly. “Libraries are government agencies, and that often means cumbersome purchasing procedures,” says Laura Lent, chief of collections and technical services at the San Francisco Public Library. If your book is available through a third-party distributor such as Ingram or…

I’m a chronicler of Negroland, a participant-observer, an elegist, dissenter and admirer; sometime expatriate, ongoing interlocutor. I call it Negroland because I still fi nd “Negro” a word of wonders, glorious and terrible. A word for runaway slave posters and civil rights proclamations; for social constructs and street corner fl aunts. A tonal-language word whose meaning shifts as setting and context shift, as history twists, lurches, advances, and stagnates. As capital letters appear to enhance its dignity; as other nomenclatures arise to challenge its primacy. I call it Negroland because “Negro” dominated our history for so long; because I lived with its meanings and intimations for so long; because they were essential to my fi rst discoveries of what race meant, or, as we now say, how race was constructed.…

November 4, 1936 (Harriet at zero) Here you come, Harriet Nathan, tiny face pinched, eyes squinting fiercely against the glare of surgical lamps, at a newly renovated Swedish hospital, high on Seattle’s First Hill. It’s an unseasonably chilly Wednesday in autumn, and the papers are calling for snow. Roosevelt by a landslide, they proclaim! Workers grumbling in Flint, Michigan! In Spain, a civil war rages. Meanwhile, out in the corridor, your father paces the floor, shirtsleeves rolled to the elbow. Clutching an unlit Cuban cigar, he checks his wristwatch. He’s got a three o’clock downtown. By the end of the week, Harriet, you’ll leave the hospital wrapped in a goosedown swaddler knit by your ailing grandmother. Your father will miss his three o’clock today. But let’s not get ahead of…

The Twitterverse is often ablaze with thoughts and advice on how to construct a compelling memoir. While many tweets curse the arduous process, others show satisfaction about exploring most personal stories. A selection of MTs follows. Henry Pickavet @Pickavet Last chance to first draft the #memoir I’ve been wanting to create since I was 12. It’s gonna be a long month. #NaNoWriMo #NaNoWriMo2015 Melissa Halstead @MeliHalstead Stop thinking about #writing your #memoir and take action. You might surprise yourself, so jump in and get started. Jennifer Stewart @jenny_stewart Some of the best moments in life are the ones you can’t tell anyone about…or can you? #memoir #personalhistory Lisa Dale Norton @LisaDaleNorton The act of making memoir is about transforming your life and giving others the tools to do the same.…

Perhaps the “published & experienced” writer had had success with this “Oh, waiter!” approach before. Among the benefits of being a semi-successful professional writer – translation: your parents no longer employ air quotes when they discuss your profession – is that, occasionally, other writers seek your help. I respond to every message because I am touched. Not too long ago, I was learning how to make Frappuccinos. Now people ask me for writing and career advice, instead of extra chocolate syrup and directions to the bathroom. I am also duty-bound. For years, I have asked smarter and far more talented colleagues for counsel on any number of subjects. Not once have I been ignored or rebuffed. Writers, I have learned, help writers. Over the summer, I chose not to heed…

Download the digital edition to read the teachers’ favorite student breakthrough moments. In Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, Anne Lamott writes, “Remember that you own what happened to you.” That sentiment drives many writers to memoir – to the point where the genre sometimes becomes the butt of a joke. We might find ourselves asking: Is memoir a fad, a self-indulgent ego boost? Or is it important? To Jake Wizner, memoirist and 8th grade English teacher, it is important. “Throughout middle school and high school, students are constantly inventing and reinventing themselves,” he says. “Memoir, more than any other genre, helps them answer the question, ‘Who am I?’” The craft of memoir is taught in schools across the U.S. – whether its identified as such or…

Get up-to-date information on markets at writermag.com WriterMag.com Subscribers to The Writer have online access to information on publishers, publications, conferences, contests and agents. Go to WriterMag.com and click on Writing Resources. Information in this section is provided to The Writer by the individual markets and events; for more information, contact those entities directly. F = Fiction N = Nonfiction P = Poetry C = Children’s Y = Young adult O = Other 1 What is it? A fellowship is a short-term opportunity to develop a work-in-progress while being provided a financial stipend and, typically, a workspace. 2 How long? Depending on the program, fellowships can last for a few weeks, a semester or an entire year. 3 How much? Relative to the duration of the fellowship, a stipend can…

Emma Brockes is an award-winning journalist and author of the memoirs What Would Barbra Do?: How Musicals Changed My Life and She Left Me the Gun, a portrait of her relationship with her mother and an investigation into the dark legacy of her maternal grandfather, a pedophile whom Brockes’ mother unsuccessfully tried to have convicted. In She Left Me the Gun, Brockes investigates her late mother’s childhood in South Africa and describes visiting that country after her mother’s death. She goes to unearth court records and speak with family members, to piece together the story that her mother had been unable to reveal fully to Brockes before she passed away. Brockes was born and raised in England, where she attended Oxford University, wrote plays and worked for The Guardian, before…

Yes, it’s certainly possible. Before you go forward, consider how the dual perspectives will function in the memoir. Will each of your perspectives offer something unique? Will a variety of perspectives inform one another? If so, then collaboration can be a good idea. There are many ways a collaborative effort could work well in a memoir. They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky is a memoir by Benjamin Ajak, Benson Deng and Alephonsion Deng. It documents their experiences as children during war in Sudan and their arrival in the U.S. as young men. Ajak, Deng and Deng are part of a group of nearly 4,000 Sudanese (dubbed the “Lost Boys of Sudan” by Western media) who fled their homes as children, survived the harrowing journey to refugee camps and…

Granted, writing wasn’t on my mind while I was grasping for anything solid enough to keep from sliding off one of Cinque Terre’s cliffs onto the rocky coastline hundreds of feet below. That came later, with the cliché but serious reflection neardeath experiences usually demand. What had been a beach outing with my boyfriend Chad quickly turned into a life-threatening hike. Coming from such a transformative adventure, I was struck by how important writing actually is to me and how I’ve been holding myself back. Here are my key takeaways. 1 Keep moving forward. At the beginning, there is gravel. A stranger suggested we follow an obscure path leading from the shoreline to the trail. But the pitch disappears into increasingly steep brush, until we find ourselves trapped on a…

Last fall, Margo Jefferson was sitting alone reading in the massive green room for authors at the Miami Book Fair. In that moment, it was easy to picture her as a girl – poised and elegant even then – in Chicago where she grew up in an upper-middle-class family. It was also easy to see the remove she might have had as a young black female positioned between her family’s so-called black aristocratic standing and the shadow of racism in the American landscape. Those are the intersections of Negroland: A Memoir, which combines Jefferson’s personal stories with cultural documentary in a mash-up style of prose, poetry, dialogue, confessional and historical essay. Best known as the Pulitzer Prize-winning theater critic for the New York Times and for the episodic biography On…

Most writers have heard about the so-called rule “show, don’t tell,” but putting it into practice when it comes to writing about your own life in a memoir can be a challenge. After all, you remember vividly how you strolled in the garden with your grandfather, and how his prize irises and roses bloomed. You can see and feel that moment, so you write: “I remember how Grandpa and I took lovely walks in his beautiful garden.” The problem with this sentence is that there are no sensual details to engage the reader, to make the reader feel your story. Sensual details deliver the power of the moment, and this is what moves readers. Sensual details of colors, taste, smell and texture evoke emotion and bring the reader into the…

Download the digital edition of The Writer to read an excerpt from Jonathan Evison's This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance! Novelist Jonathan Evison didn’t have an easy path to commercial and critical recognition. He wrote seven novels that were never published. He supported himself as a bartender, landscaper and car salesman. And he kept writing. All About Lulu (2008) was his breakthrough novel; it won the 2009 Washington State Book Award. Known for skilled character development and humor in unexpected storylines, Evison creates narratives that are both poignant and fun. His latest – This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance! – is about a 79-year-old woman who, during a cruise, reflects back on events and relationships in her life. Evison alternates between past and present and uses both second- and third-person…

WIZNER “One story that stands out comes from nearly two decades ago and involves a quiet Chinese girl who submitted a searing memoir of domestic abuse and her family’s struggle to rebuild their lives. Several years ago, this student found me on Facebook. Via email, I asked her what she remembered about writing her memoir in my class. Here is part of her response: I remember being excited about writing my memoir… I remember discussing it with my mom and having her read it over. She cried, but it was not crying over sadness. It was crying because she was relieved. She was proud that I was able to reflect on it. Before that writing assignment I never spoke to anyone in my family about any of it. I had…

Library conferences can be ideal places for authors to promote books and assess publishing trends. New writers may not know where to begin, especially when they lack the guidance (and funding) of a major publisher. Luckily, there are plenty of strategies for indie and selfpublished authors. Time and cost may seem prohibitive when it comes to attending a conference, but there are options for authors who live within commuting distance. At the American Library Association Annual Conference in San Francisco last June, I purchased a one-day admission pass for the exhibition floor. While I was sorry to miss the speeches and panels available to full registrants, publishers and librarians generously gave advice and encouragement in the exhibition hall. I made some sales and met a few of my literary idols…