Deadlines for Lifelines

Now that the holidays have wound down and we’re all embarking upon our new years, I thought I’d share another installment of Deadlines for Lifelines: notifications about exciting opportunities in the worlds of travel and letters…

First up, my friend Amanda Castleman, travel writer extraordinaire, is about to launch her dream workshop: a 12-week, online, travel-writing master class. It will include one-on-one feedback from a roster of rockstar travel writers, including David Farley, Charyn Pfeuffer, Thomas Swick, and Edward Readicker-Henderson. Assignments will range from Tweets to You-Tube videos to extended, magazine-style travel narratives. The party starts on Monday, January 10, but late enrollment will be accepted until the 19th. The cost is $445, but if you say the magic code – MC111FAX — you can receive a five percent discount.

Here are some amazing opportunities to help fund and/or publish your latest book idea:

* The Charles Pick Fellowship offers $15,000 and a six-month fellowship at the University of East Anglia in England to a fiction or creative nonfiction writer for a first book. Due January 31.

* Black Lawrence Press is offering $1,000 and publication for an unpublished novel, due January 31.

* Penguin is offering a $15,000 Breakthrough Novel Award plus publication for a first novel. Due February 5.

* The University of Wisconsin’s Institute for Creative Writing is offering $27,000 and an academic year-in-residence to poets and fiction writers. Due February 28.

And here is a writing contest:

* The Normal School is offering its second annual literary prize in all the genres. Fiction and nonfiction must be 10,087 words or less; poetry cannot exceed five pages or five

Deadlines for Lifelines

Summer literary contests and residencies are well underway. Here are a few that look especially promising:

The Artist-In-Residence Program at Sitka Center for Art and Ecology grants artists, ecologists, writers, and musicians the opportunity to delve deeply into their work in the unique environment of Cascade Head and the Salmon River estuary along the Oregon coast. Residents are on-site from two weeks to 3-1/2 months, October through mid-May. To apply, submit a resume, three references, 2-10 pages of a manuscript (or a CD of your music or artwork), and an essay on why you need to be there.

The Middlebury Fellowships in Environmental Journalism each year takes 10 journalists near the start of their careers and helps them work through an ambitious reporting project in print, Web-based, or radio journalism, from the beginning through publication or broadcast. Fellows meet together twice during the year, once in the fall on the Middlebury College campus in Vermont, and once in the spring at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, in California. At these meetings professional journalists help participants plan their reporting and shape their stories. Fellows each receive $10,000 to help with reporting and living expenses during the fellowship year. “Environment” is interpreted broadly here: reporting projects dealing with economics, culture, global issues, and the like should center in some way on the human relationship with the physical world. Click here for details; deadline is May 15.

Deadlines for Lifelines: Little Magazines

Little magazines — also known as literary journals or lit mags — have a long, illustrious history in U.S. publishing. They first appeared in the early nineteenth century, and today number in the hundreds if not thousands. Some feature a single genre, but most offer the full literary spectrum: fiction, poetry, essays, short memoirs, book reviews, interviews, even short-form comics/graphic novellas. Not only have individual writers been launched in little magazines but entire literary movements. Though their circulations are tiny (averaging about 1,500) their readership is highly influential: agents, editors, academics, and other writers. You’ll never get rich writing for little magazines (most pay in copies, subscriptions, or perhaps $100) but they remain a vital venue. Here are some upcoming deadlines:

One of the premier journals for creative nonfiction, Fourth Genre, is holding its annual Michael Steinberg Essay Prize. The word limit is 6,000 and the deadline is prontito: February 28. Send a check for $15 along with your submission. The winning essayist will win 1,000 bucks.