Creative Mornings

 
Creative Mornings is a monthly morning gathering of creative types. Each event includes a 20 minute lecture, followed by a 20 minute group discussion. The gathering begins at 8:30am with the topic presentation starting at 9:00am and everyone taking off for work at 10am. CreativeMornings are free of charge!

Swiss designer Tina Roth Eisenberg first started the series in Zurich, followed by a second chapter in NYC. The LosAngeles/CreativeMornings chapter is kicking off October 8th, featuring the co-founder and editor-in-chief of GOOD Magazine Zach Frechette. But tickets are already sold out! So be sure to follow CM on Twitter for upcoming announcements:

Los Angeles/CreativeMornings
New York/CreativeMornings
Zurich/CreativeMornings

Call for Volunteers: Would you be interested in assisting Jon Setzen run the LosAngeles/CreativeMornings chapter? For the launch they're looking for folks who can help with taping and photographing the event. For future events they also need help finding sponsors, venues and speakers. Want to help? Email here

Writing and Wellness

Writing for better, physical,
mental, and spiritual health

As a long-time journal writer, I am a firm believer in the power of writing to heal, and so I'm always on the lookout for new resources and ways to approach this work. Recently, I have been introduced to Wellness & Writing Connections, an exciting organization and growing community founded by Dr. John Evans, described as:

"A community of professionals and lay people interested in exploring the connections between overall health and expressive writing as a therapeutic practice"

This October W&WC is hosting their annual conference in Atlanta, October 22-23. This two-day event will bring together a number of powerhouse leaders in the field of writing for health and healing. Breakout sessions include writing and healing in wartime, writing and compassion fatigue, and writing in integrative medicine, in addition to topics in journaling, memoir, psychological journaling, student writings, and more!

If your curiosity is piqued, but you can't make it to the Conference, then you might check out their book Wellness & Writing Connections: Writing for Better Physical, Mental, and Spiritual Health available for purchase through Amazon.

SOS ~ kg

The Contract With Your Audience

When you're performing in front of a live audience, you need to consider which kind of *performance style* is appropriate to your particular audience and venue.

For example, when we coach writers at Spark Off Rose (the spoken word series I help produce in Santa Monica), we often encourage our storytellers to be *less presentational* and *more conversational*. We have found that--when it comes to reading personal essays--the writers need to trust their words on the page and simply share them with the audience, as if we're in the intimacy of someone's living room. For this reason, we're less interested in the storytellers *performing* their pieces since this tends to impose an inauthentic quality to the reading. It feels like the author is commenting on the material, and as a result, this can often alienate and distance the audience. (Keep in mind... being on stage still requires stage presence!)

In this video, Beth Lapides explains the difference between doing stand-up comedy, performing a one-person show, and reading a personal essay. She underlines the importance of considering what your listeners, or readers in other cases, expect... in other words, it's about honoring the *contract* you have with the audience.

At Spark, the audience expects to be drawn into the raw vulnerability of a personal story that lives in the words... and in the person speaking them.

SOS ~ kg

One Picture A Day

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Perhaps for this reason, a picture is a great springboard for a writing prompt. Take this one, for example:

Credit: Posted on Wellness & Writing Connections

What stories could this tree tell? How might it be a metaphor for your own life?

Check out Creativity Portal for a daily image to inspire your writing.

SOS ~ kg

Opportunities to Submit Your Work

Hurry up, the time is now! Put that pen to the page... polish up a work-in-progress or write something new. Then send it off!  SOS ~ kg

Real Simple's Third Annual Life Lessons Contest

Finish this sentence: “I never thought I’d. . .” Have you ever taken a huge, surprising risk? Did you climb a mountain? Go back to school? Get married (again)? Write about it, and you could have your essay published in Real Simple; win round-trip tickets for two to New York City, hotel accommodations for two nights, tickets to a Broadway play, and a lunch with Real Simple editors; and receive a prize of $3,000. Deadline: September 24, 2010.

Memoir's Ink Yearly Contest
Memoirs Ink is looking for original, well-written personal essays, memoirs, or stories that are based on autobiographical experiences. The narrative must be in first person, other than that, the contest is open to any type, genre or style of story. First Prize: $1000. Second prize: $500. Third prize: $250. All winners are published are on Memoirsink.com. The entry fee is $15.

Deadline: August 14, 2010 (postmark) Late Deadline: August 31, 2010 (Postmark - Late entries require additional $5 entry fee per entry).


Own Your Story's "Cringe Story Contest"
Own Your Story is compiling *cringe* stories for a major new anthology. Think of that  moment in your life when, to recall it, even for an instant, electrifies you with a physical, cringing sensation. It could be cheating on a test, stealing from a friend, having an affair, slapping a child, or turning your back on someone in dire need. Submit your cringe story! Deadline: October 1, 2010.

The Rattling Wall
The Rattling Wall is a new journal accepting sophisticated short fiction, travel essays, and poetry; edited by Michelle Meyering and sponsored by PEN USA. The entry fee is $10. See submission guidelines. Deadline: November 1, 2010. 

She Writes Passion Project
The first ever She Writes Passion Project is a writing contest open to an emerging author and member of She Writes who has a non-fiction book project in the works.The winner will be selected on the basis of the merit of her entry, which consists of a cover letter and a 2,000-word excerpt. She will receive thorough and supportive consultations from a team of experts which are designed to help her prepare a complete proposal for submission to agents or publishers. Deadline: August 1, 2010.


Expressing Motherhood
Submissions for Expressing Motherhood will open up on August 1st for the next Los Angeles show, slated for January 2011. If you are a mom and interested in being considered, now is the time to get your creative juices flowing and put pen to paper what it is that you are thinking or feeling in regards to motherhood. See submission guidelines. Deadline: September 15, 2010.

PEN USA's "Emerging Voices"

PEN USA's "Emerging Voices" is a literary fellowship that aims to provide new writers, who lack access, with the tools they will need to launch a professional writing career. Over the course of the year, each Emerging Voices fellow participates in: a professional mentorship; hosted Q&A evenings with prominent local authors; a series of Master classes focused on genre; and two public readings. The fellowship includes a $1,000 stipend.

Download the application here. Deadline: August 31, 2010.

PEN Center USA strives to protect the rights of writers around the world, to stimulate interest in the written word, and to foster a vital literary community among the diverse writers living in the western United States.  PEN USA's membership of more than 800 writers includes poets, playwrights, essayists, novelists, as well as television and screenwriters, critics, historians, editors, journalists, and translators. Learn how you can become a member here.

Grants & Residencies

Here are a few grants and residencies applicable to a wide-range of visual artists, writers, composers, and other creative types:

VILCEK FOUNDATION PRIZE FOR CREATIVE PROMISE IN ARTS AND HUMANITIES
$25,000 awarded to a foreign-born writer who demonstrates outstanding early achievement. Accepts poets, novelists, short fiction writers and short creative nonfiction writers. The mission of the foundation is to recognize extraordinary achievements of immigrants to the US. Must be more than 38 years of age. Must be a naturalized citizen or permanent resident. In addition, four finalists will receive $5,000. Submit up to 30 pages of your best work. Deadline July 30, 2010.

MILLAY COLONY FELLOWSHIPS
The Millay Colony for the Arts offers one-month residencies to six visual artists, writers and composers each month between the months of April and November. It is located on a seven-acre campus with meadows and forest in Austerlitz, New York, adjacent to the former Millay home and gardens and the exquisite Harvey Mountain State Forest. Deadline October 1, 2010.

ELSEWHERE RESIDENCIES
Elsewhere residencies invite creatives of all kinds to experiment with context, process, and collaboration within a former thrift store turned living museum in Greensboro, North Carolina. Now accepting applications from artists, curators, writers, musicians, designers, gardeners, makers, builders, scholars, producers, and creatives across media for residencies in 2010. Deadline July 31 and September 30, 2010. 

The Debutante Literary Ball

Are you a female writer with a debut book being released between September 2010 and August 2011? If so, then you are eligible to apply to become a Deb at The Debutante Ball. This group blog (five debs total) is now in its fourth season. The ladies take one day to blog each week on "bookish and not-so-bookish" topics in the months leading up to their books' releases.

Act now... the applications are being accepted until June 30th. Click here for guidelines.

Profile of a Successful Writer

So what does it take to be a successful writer?

Jane Friedman--editor and media maven for Writer's Digest--posted a fantastic piece on Writer Unboxed (a blog about the craft and business of fiction) that outlines the defining characteristics of a writer who shows promise. Surprisingly, she often doesn't even need to read a word... for her it's more about attitude.

Read the full post here

You also may want to check out Jane's award-winning blog There Are No Rules, which covers all things writing and publishing as it is changing and evolving.

SOS ~ kg

The Rumpus Book Club

The author Stephen Elliott (The Adderall Diaries, Happy Baby) is launching a book club via his online literary magazine site "The Rumpus." It's a pretty interesting concept... The Rumpus Book Club will be distributing books pre-publication--either hard covers or advanced reader copies--allowing readers to engage in a fresh discussion about a book before the media world has put its spin on it.

First up: Josh Brandon's forthcoming book Citrus County, published by McSweeney's.