Shalla ON: Writers Bizness

Getting Your MFA in creative writing

2006-10-01T11:24:00.000-07:00

Thinking of geting your MFA in creative writing?

Check out universities around you and find out their requirements--like this one from the University of Riverside

Check AWP Official Guide to Writing Programs

In California

Online

National University is the second-largest, accredited, private, nonprofit institution of higher learning in California.

Program Profile: MFA in Creative Writing

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Like to know what the top ten lit journals are?

Top 10 Lit Mags

Writers Group with Shalla de Guzman

2006-07-12T11:20:00.000-07:00

Check Shalla at Google

http://groups.google.com/group/ShalladeGuzman

http://groups.google.com/group/SHALLA-NEWS

http://groups.google.com/group/SHALLA

and of course, The ShalladeGuzman Writers Group

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ShalladeGuzman/

List of Literary Journals to Submit to

2006-02-24T10:59:00.000-08:00

AGNI Literary Founded in 1972, the print journal is published twice a year, and we archive a portion of each issue on this site.

Since its inception in 1915, the Best American series has become the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction and nonfiction. For each volume, a series editor reads pieces from hundreds of periodicals, then selects between fifty and a hundred outstanding works.

Harpers.org is the website of Harper's Magazine, an American journal of literature, politics, culture, and the arts published continuously from 1850.

Throughout the year, magazine editors submit their issues to The O. Henry Prize Stories series editor, Laura Furman. The stories must be published in Canada or the United States, and originally written in English. Novel excerpts and works in translation are not considered.

The American Library Association is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with more than 64,000 members. Its mission is to promote the highest quality library and information services and public access to information. ALA offers professional services and publications to members and nonmembers, including online news stories from American Libraries and analysis of crucial issues from the Washington Office. Be a part of it—library worker or advocate—join today!

Looking for book stores?

2006-02-13T06:03:00.000-08:00

Publishing a book is, in essence, launching a new product. So, to market your book, how about tracking down key booksellers?

Meet with buyers at book store chains and independents, big and small-- here's a growing list:

Barnes & Noble www.bn.com

Amazon

Borders teamed with Amazon

Waldenbooks teamed with Amazon

Books a Million

Wal Mart Books and Read of the Month

Costco Books, Movies, toys

Cheap Books PriceViewer helps you to quickly and easily compare the prices at 50+ online stores for used textbooks,used books,cheap books and cheap textbooks. Our price comparisons include: Shipping Cost, Shipping Time, Sales Tax, Availability and Condition(new or used). You can then go direct to that site with one click

Literary Journals

2006-02-11T07:25:00.000-08:00

The New Yorker

Publisher Directories

2006-02-09T06:38:00.000-08:00

Contests for Writers

2006-02-07T16:46:00.000-08:00

AIM Magazine Short Story Contest (America's Intercultural Magazine)

The Writer's Digest Contests for International Self-Published Book, Short Short Story, Popular Fiction and Poetry

PEN AMERICAN CENTER AWARDS FOR FICTION
The following awards are offered by PEN American Center for excellence in literary fiction.

Robert Bingham Fellowship for Writers
The PEN/Robert Bingham Fellowship for Writers ($35,000 a year for two consecutive years) will honor an exceptionally talented fiction writer whose debut work—a first novel or collection of short stories—represents distinguished literary achievement and suggests great promise.

Beyond Margins Award
PEN/Beyond Margins Awards invites submissions of booklength writings by authors of color, published in the United States during the current calendar year. The Beyond Margins Awards were created by PEN American Center's Open Book Committee, a group committed to racial and ethnic diversity within the literary and publishing communities. The awards confer five $1,000 prizes upon African, Arab, Asian, Caribbean, Latino, and Native American authors who have not received wide media coverage.

Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship
The PEN/Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship of $5,000 is offered annually to an author of children's or young-adult fiction. The Fellowship has been developed in recognition of the fact that many writers' work is of high literary caliber but has not yet attracted a broad readership. As a result, an author's book may not achieve the sales that would allow the writer to support him or herself solely from writing.

The PEN/Nabokov Award
Honors a living author whose body of work, published in the United States, either written in or translated into English, represents achievement in a variety of literary genres, and is ofenduring originality and consummate craftsmanship ($20,000 biennially in even-numbered years). By internal nomination only.

The Ernest Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for First Fiction
This award is now administered by PEN New England, a branch of PEN American Center. Click here for submission information or visit the PEN New England web site. All inquiries for this award should be directed to PEN New England: (617) 824-8820. Please do not send books for the Hemingway Award to PEN American Center in New York.

The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction
This award is not administered by PEN American Center. For submission information, please visit PEN/Faulkner or write to:
PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction c/o The Folger Shakespeare Library 201 East Capitol Street, SE Washington, DC 20003

Syndicated Fiction Project
The former Syndicated Fiction Project (now known as The Sound of Writing) is not administered by PEN American Center. For submission information, please write to:
The Sound of Writing P.O. Box 15452 Washington, DC 20003

Directory of Contest for Writers

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SHALLA NEWS! Resources for writers

Check Out Shalla Directory

Resources for Writers

2006-02-07T16:37:00.000-08:00

WritersMarket.com

The Agents Directory
Rachel Vater

CLMP Directory of Literary Magazines and Presses
lists literary magazines and small publishers

Directory of Little Magazines & Small Presses
lists literary magazines and small publishers

The Forest for the Trees
editor's advice to writers

The Practical Writer
guide to the biz, with literary slant

The Writers Handbook
lists publishers and magazines

Freelance Editors

2006-02-07T16:29:00.000-08:00

2nd Draft from Writer's Digest

Courses for Writers

2006-02-07T16:27:00.000-08:00

WritersOnlineWorkshops.com presented by Writer's Digest

Join Writers Associations and Affiliations

2006-02-07T08:17:00.000-08:00

Whatever you write, there are national organizations for you...

Associated Writing Programs

Asian American Writers Workshop *

Association of American Publishers

Authors Guild

Novelists Inc

PEN American Center (2 literary books)

POETS AND WRITERS Links to National Organizations

Southern California Writers Association A nonprofit organization of diverse writers, our members are involved in a wide variety of areas including articles, essays, web content, children's writing, short stories, novels of all genres, plays, screenwriting, and poetry.

The Association of Authors Representatives AAR

The Women's Writing Guild *

Writers Voice

Writers Guild of America, West

There are magazines and periodicals for you too...

http://www.parisreview.com/

Hemingway Award for a First Novel

2006-02-07T08:16:00.000-08:00

Info on the Hemingway Award for a First Novel

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Did you know? Shalla is now at Tribe.Net

A Clean Well Lighted Place

Ernest Hemingway

It was late and every one had left the cafe except an old man who sat in the shadow the leaves of the tree made against the electric light. In the day time the street was dusty, but at night the dew settled the dust and the old man liked to sit late because he was deaf and now at night it was quiet and he felt the difference. The two waiters inside the cafe knew that the old man was a little drunk, and while he was a good client they knew that if he became too drunk he would leave without paying, so they kept watch on him.
"Last week he tried to commit suicide," one waiter said.
Why?"
"He was in despair."
"What about?"
"Nothing.
"How do you know it was nothing?"
"He has plenty of money."
They sat together at a table that was close against the wall near the door of the cafe and looked at the terrace where the tables were all empty except where the old man sat in the shadow of the leaves of the tree that moved slightly in the wind. A girl and a soldier went by in the street. The street light shone on the brass number on his collar. The girl wore no head covering and hurried be-side him.
"The guard will pick him up," one waiter said.
"What does it matter if he gets what he's after?"
"He had better get off the street now. The guard will get him. They went by five minutes ago."
The old man sitting in the shadow rapped on his saucer with his glass. The younger waiter went over to him.
"What do you want?"
The old man looked at him. "Another brandy," he said.
"You'll be drunk," the waiter said. The old man looked at him. The waiter went away.
"He'll stay all night," he said to his colleague. "I'm sleepy now. I never get into bed before three o'clock. He should have killed himself last week."
The waiter took the brandy bottle and another saucer from the counter in-side the cafe and marched out to the old man's table. He put down the saucer and poured the glass full of brandy.
"You should have killed yourself last week," he said to the deaf man. The old man motioned with his finger. "A little more," he said. The waiter poured on into the glass so that the brandy slopped over and ran down the stem into the top saucer of the pile. "Thank you," the old man said. The waiter took the bottle back inside the cafe. He sat down at the table with his colleague again.
"He's drunk now," he said.
"He's drunk every night..”
"What did he want to kill himself for?"
"How should I know?"
"How did he do it?"
"He hung himself with a rope."
"Who cut him down?"
"His niece."
"Why did they do it?"
"Fear for his soul."
"How much money has he got?"
"He's got plenty."
"He must be eighty years old."
"Anyway I should say he was eighty.'
"I wish he would go home. I never get to bed before three o'clock. What kind of hour is that to go to bed?"
"He stays up because he likes it."
"He's lonely. I'm not lonely. I have a wife waiting in bed for me." "He had a wife once too."
"A wife would be no good to him now."
"You can't tell. He might be better with a wife."
"His niece looks after him."
"I know. You said she cut him down."
"I wouldn't want to be that old. An old man is a nasty thing."
"Not always. This old man is clean. He drinks without spilling. Even now, drunk. Look at him."
"I don't want to look at him. I wish he would go home. He has no regard for those who must work.".
The old man looked from his glass across the square, then over at the waiters. "Another brandy," he said, pointing to his glass. The waiter who was in a hurry came over.
"Finished," he said, speaking with that omission of syntax stupid people em-ploy when talking to drunken people or foreigners. "No more tonight. Close now." "Another," said the old man.
"No. Finished." The waiter wiped the edge of the table with a towel and shook his head.
The old man stood up, slowly counted the saucers, took a leather coin purse
from his pocket and paid for the drinks, leaving half a peseta tip.
The waiter watched him go down the street, a very old man walking unstead‑
ily but with dignity.
"Why didn't you let him stay and drink?" the unhurried waiter asked. They were putting up the shutters. "It is not half-past two."
"I want to go home to bed."
"What is an hour?"
"More to me than to him."
"An hour is the same."
"You talk like an old man yourself. He can buy a bottle and drink at home." "It's not the same."
"No, it is not," agreed the waiter with a wife. He did not wish to be unjust. He was only in a hurry.
"And you? You have no fear of going home before the usual hour?" "Are you trying to insult me?"
"No, hombre, only to make a joke."
"No," the waiter who was in a hurry said, rising from pulling down the metal shutters. "I have confidence. I am all confidence."
"You have youth, confidence, and a job," the older waiter said. "You have everything."
"And what do you lack?"
"Everything but work."
"You have everything I have."
"No. I have never had confidence and I am not young."
"Come on. Stop talking nonsense and lock up."
"I am of those who like to stay late at the cafe," the older waiter said. "With all those who do not want to go to bed. With all those who need a light for the night."
"I want to go home and into bed."
"We are of two different kinds," the older waiter said. He was not dressed to go home. "It is not only a question of youth and confidence although those things are very beautiful. Each night I am reluctant to close up because there may be some one who needs the cafe."
"Hombre, there are bodegas° open all night long."
"You do not understand. This is a clean and pleasant cafe. It is well lighted. The light is very good and also, now, there are shadows of the leaves." "Good night," said the younger waiter.
"Good night," the other said. Turning off the electric light he continued the conversation with himself. It is the light of course but it is necessary that the place be clean and pleasant. You do not want music. Certainly you do not want music. Nor can you stand before a bar with dignity although that is all that is provided for these hours. What did he fear? It was not fear or dread. It was a nothing that he knew too well. It was all a nothing and a man was nothing too. It was only that and light was all it needed and a certain cleanness and order. Some lived in it and never felt it but he knew it all was nada y pues nada y nada y pues nada°. Our nada who are in nada, nada be thy name thy kingdom nada thy will be nada in nada as it is in nada. Give us this nada our daily nada and nada us our nada as we nada our nadas and nada us not into nada but deliver us from nada; pues nada. Hail nothing full of nothing, nothing is with thee. He smiled and stood before a bar with a shining steam pressure coffee machine.
"What's yours?" asked the barman.
"Nada."
"Otro loco mas," said the barman and turned away.
"A little cup," said the waiter.
The barman poured it for him.
"The light is very bright and pleasant but the bar is unpolished," the waiter said. The barman looked at him but did not answer. It was too late at night for conversation.
"You want another copita?°" the barman asked.
"No, thank you," said the waiter and went out. He disliked bars and bodegas. A clean, well-lighted cafe was a very different thing. Now, without thinking further, he would go home to his room. He would lie in the bed and finally, with daylight, he would go to sleep. After all, he said to himself, it is probably only insomnia. Many must have it.

QUESTIONS
1. What besides insomnia makes the older waiter reluctant to go to bed? Comment especially on his meditation with its rutda refrain. Why does he so well understand the old man's need for a cafe? What does the cafe represent for the two of them?
2. Compare the younger waiter and the older waiter in their attitudes toward the old man. Whose attitude do you take to be closer to that of the author? Even though Hemingway does not editorially state his own feelings, how does he make them clear to us?
3. Point to sentences that establish the style of the story. What is distinctive in them? What repetitions of words or phrases seem particularly effective? Does Hemingway seem to favor a simple or an erudite vocabulary?
4. What is the story's point of view? Discuss its appropriateness.