Writing contest for study abroad

There's a new kind of writing prize at the University of New Orleans. Three contest winners will attend a writing program at the Ezra Pound Center for Literature in Dorf Tirol, Italy, or the Writing Workshops in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

Prizes are given annually to a poet, a fiction writer, and a creative nonfiction writer. The award includes full tuition and lodging, and the winning works are published in the Pinch. The editors of the Pinch will judge. Using the online submission system at the link above, submit your work with a $25 entry fee by January 31. Visit the Web site for complete guidelines.

The Walker Percy Project

Have you read any Walker Percy? I came across this website dedicated to the Alabama-born author, winner of the 1962 National Book Award for his first novel The Moviegoer. The site is a literary center with lots of information, free to the public. It's a little hard to navigate, but if you're like me and hadn't heard of Percy, it may pique your curiosity about the unusual writer. There's even an online discussion group.

Here's a quote from the website, answering the question, "Who is Walker Percy?"

"novelist of ideas

philosophical novelist

comedic satirist

cautionary moralist

diagnostician

prophetic essayist

post-modern thinker

'existentialist' Southern gentleman

ex-suicide wayfarer-pilgrim

Martian castaway [...]

None of the above/all of the above"

Going Away Shoes

Check out NC author Jill McCorkle's new book of short stories, Going Away Shoes, published by Algonquin Books. If you haven't yet read McCorkle, this is a great way to start -- her stories have weight to them and are addictive because the characters are so real, with dark senses of humor and real faults -- like a wife who invites her ex and his new girlfriend for Christmas Eve and then wonders why she ever did such a stupid thing. Then the septic tank goes bust. What could be a better story??

Seeing STARS!

If you haven't yet heard about STARS (Southern Traveling Authors Registration Service), you might want to check it out: http://www.authorsroundthesouth.com/STARS/author.php

Authors and readers will benefit from this new service, launched in January by SIBA. Basically, STARS is a listing of Southern authors -- their websites, press kits, upcoming readings they're doing ... Each time they enter a trip on STARS, an announcement is sent to nearby SIBA stores, telling booksellers that the author will be in the area and is available for events, speaking engagements, book club discussions, etc. Great idea!

Back again ...

... after a short hiatus! Will be updating the events and contests section soon, along with more literary news from the South.

Current and upcoming reading list:
King of Lies, John Hart
Serena, Ron Rash

I'm obviously more familiar with the NC authors, so please feel free to share any other Southern authors that you know of.

Adventures in Pen Land

Adventures in Pen Land: One Writer's Journey from Inklings to Ink is North Carolina writer Marianne Gingher's fifth book and tells of her uphill slog toward writing success. Written in first person, this is a smooth, easy read with humorous anecdotes from Gingher's life, starting at age 6, and illustrations by Daniel Wallace. There's an interesting chapter called "The Southern Writer Thing" where she describes a trip to New York City to meet her literary agent and reflects on what it means to write, sound, and look "Southern."

Here's the blurb from the back of the book, which describes it much better than I can!

She invites us along on a raucous tour of soul-sucking jobs, marriage, and a teaching career, with accompanying disquisitions on blasphemous reading preferences, ’60s pop culture, writing workshops, and other amusing detours and distractions on the way to publication. She also shares her keen insights into the role of a Southern writer in American literary culture, the experience of writing as a mother, and the process of novel-writing as compared to a lengthy family car trip.

New Stories from the South

Have you checked out this year's collection yet? Each year, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, NC, publishes an anthology of contemporary Southern short stories, selected by a guest editor. This year's editor was ZZ Packer, author of the collection of short stories, Drinking Coffee Elsewhere (2003).

Here's the table of contents to whet your appetite:

Table of Contents

Introduction by ZZ Packer
Holly Goddard Jones, Theory of Realty
Pinckney Benedict, Bridge of Sighs
Amina Gautier, The Ease of Living
Kevin Moffett, First Marriage
Robert Drummond, The Unnecessary Man
Stephanie Soileau, So This Is Permanence
Clyde Edgerton, The Great Speckled Bird
Ron Rash, Back of Beyond
Merritt Tierce, Suck It
R.T. Smith, Wretch Like Me
Karen E. Bender, Candidate
David James Poissant, Lizard Man
Daniel Wallace, The Girls
Jim Tomlinson, First Husband, First Wife
Bret Anthony Johnston, Republican
Mary Miller, Leak
Charlie Smith, Albemarle
Jennifer Moses, Child of God
Stephanie Dickinson, Lucky Seven & Dalloway
Kevin Brockmeier, Andrea Is Changing Her Name

Southern Festival of Books

Nashville, TN, hosts 250 authors at the 20th annual Southern Festival of Books this weekend. Visiting authors include Sherman Alexie, Richard Bausch, Madison Smartt Bell, Rick Bragg, Clyde Edgerton, Rheta Grimsley Johnson, Bobbie Ann Mason, and tons more nationally- and locally-known authors and presenters. Too many to mention here! Sounds like a great festival!

The Southern Festival of Books will be held at Nashville's War Memorial Plaza, and the hours are:
Friday, October 10 from Noon–6 pm;
Saturday, October 11 from 9 am–6 pm;
and Sunday, October 12 from Noon–5 pm.

Authors and Geography

I spotted this book, A Literary Guide to Flannery O'Connor's Georgia, and thought it looked interesting. From the UGA Press website:

"The guide describes such places as O'Connor's childhood home in Savannah; the Governor's Mansion, Cline House, and Central State Hospital in Milledgeville; and the family farm, Andalusia. Numerous facts about O'Connor and the people closest to her are woven into the site descriptions, as are critical observations about her Catholicism, her acute sense of character and place, and her fierce sense of humor."

I've recently noticed quite a few books that connect authors with geography. In NC, we had Literary Trails of the North Carolina Mountains by Georgann Eubanks, published last year. It's another interesting angle from which to study popular authors (and hopefully a boost to local tourism), and I expect we'll see more in the future. Feel free to share any related books you know of ...

Southeastern Writers...

I discovered this blog and website for the Southeastern Writers Association; they offer workshops, information on conferences and writing contests, and blurbs about regional authors. Although the focus seems to be more on Georgia, they also feature writers from NC, SC, and other Southeastern states. The membership fee is $35, and they offer services for members, like links to authors' sites and blogs and announcements about members' books being published. Worth checking out!